Investors challenge two-for-one vote regime at France's Orange
PARIS (Reuters) - An investment management company is seeking to prevent French telecommunications company Orange shifting to a system where long-term investors get two votes per share rather than one, a move that has failed in other high-profile cases.
The firm, PhiTrust Active Investors, said it would put a resolution to Orange's May 27 annual shareholder meeting aimed at preventing the telecoms group conforming with a law designed by the government to encourage longer-term commitment to firms by investors.
PhiTrust said its opening shot had the backing of 8 investors representing 1 percent of Orange's capital.
To succeed, such a resolution would have to muster support on the day of two-thirds of votes cast at the annual meeting. Failure to do so would introduce double-voting rights by default.
The French government is the top shareholder in Orange with a stake of in the region of 25 percent - a holding which based on other such cases should be enough to prevent the rebels from winning.
Nobody was immediately available at Orange to comment.
In another high-profile case, the government has upped its stake in Renault to almost 20 percent from around 15 to make sure it can thwart the opt-out vote from the so-called Florange law at the upcoming April 30 shareholder meeting.
A similar attempt by investors who fear tighter state control failed earlier this month at water utility Veolia.
Veolia shareholders who wanted to keep a one share one vote governance structure lost a vote on April 22 despite the fact that a significant 50.2 percent of shareholders voted in favour of the resolution that would have kept the principle of one share one vote.
(Reporting By Brian Love; Editing by Andrew Callus)
