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Climate activist investors accuse Exxon Mobil (New York Stock Exchange:XOM) of using “intimidation” tactics and put shareholders' rights “under attack” by suing them even after the groups withdrew a resolution calling on the company to set more ambitious emissions cuts. Financial times reported on Tuesday.
Follow This and activist group Arjuna Capital made the allegation when they filed a motion to dismiss Exxon's (XOM) legal action, saying there is no case against the pair because they had withdrawn the shareholder resolution and agreed not to refile it.
Exxon's (XOM) lawsuit “amounts to intimidation and harassment tactics to silence our righteous call to address the climate crisis,” said Follow This founder Mark van Baal. FOOT.
Exxon (XOM) said the current process for excluding proposals from annual meetings allows activists with minimal shares to “submit an increasing number of boilerplate proposals that do nothing to increase long-term shareholder value.”
The company's lawsuit filed in a U.S. district court in Texas alleges that Follow This and Arjuna Capital are violating SEC rules for these types of investor solicitations and are “driven by an extreme agenda.”
“We want clarity on a process that has become ripe for abuse,” Exxon (XOM) said. “We hope that our lawsuit will motivate the SEC to reapply the proxy rules as they were written, not as they have interpreted them in recent years.”
Exxon (XOM) has faced criticism, even from the Norwegian oil fundfor its decision to sue activist shareholders.
