Unilever 2015 Annual Report Download - page 57

REQUIRED MAJORITIES
Resolutons are usually adopted at NV and PL eneral
Meetngs by an absolute maorty of votes cast, unless there are
other requrements under the applcable laws or NV’s or PL’s
Artcles of Assocaton For example, there are specal
requrements for resolutons relatng to the alteraton of the
Artcles of Assocaton, the lqudaton of NV or PL and the
alteraton of the Equalsaton Agreement
A proposal to alter the Artcles of Assocaton of NV can only
be made by the NV Board A proposal to alter the Artcles of
Assocaton of PL can be made ether by the PL Board or by
requston of shareholders n accordance wth the UK ompanes
Act 2006 Unless expressly specfed to the contrary n PL’s
Artcles of Assocaton, PL’s Artcles of Assocaton may be
amended by a specal resoluton Proposals to alter the provsons
n the Artcles of Assocaton of NV and PL respectvely relatng to
the unty of management requre the pror approval of meetngs of
the holders of the NV specal ordnary shares and the PL deferred
stock The Artcles of Assocaton of both NV and PL can be found
on our webste
wwwunlevercom/corporategovernance
RIHT TO HOLD SHARES
Unlever’s consttutonal documents place no lmtatons on the
rght to hold NV and PL shares There are no lmtatons on the
rght to hold or exercse votng rghts on the ordnary shares of
NV and PL mposed by Dutch or Englsh law
ORPORATE OVERNANE OMPLIANE
ENERAL
We conduct our operatons n accordance wth nternatonally
accepted prncples of good governance and best practce, whlst
ensurng complance wth the corporate governance requrements
applcable n the countres n whch we operate Unlever s subect
to corporate governance requrements (legslaton, codes and/or
standards) n the Netherlands, the UK and the US and n ths
secton we report on our complance aganst these
MATERIAL ONTRATS
Under the European Takeover Drectve as mplemented n the
Netherlands and the UK, the UK ompanes Act 2006 and rules of
the US Securtes and Exchange ommsson, Unlever s requred
to provde nformaton on contracts and other arrangements
essental or materal to the busness of the roup Other than the
Foundaton Agreements referred to on page 45, we beleve we do
not have any such contracts or arrangements
THE NETHERLANDS
NV comples wth almost all of the prncples and best practce
provsons of the Dutch orporate overnance ode (Dutch ode),
whch s avalable on the ommsse orporate overnance’s
webste
wwwcommssecorporategovernancenl
ertan large Dutch companes wth a two-ter board are requred
to strve for a balanced composton of ther management and
supervsory boards, to the effect that at least 30% of the postons
on the management and supervsory boards are held by women
and 30% by men The rule does not acknowledge one-ter boards,
but NV confrms that over 30% of ts Drectors were female and
over 30% of ts Drectors were male n 2015
Statements requred by the Dutch ode and explanatons of the NV
complance poston are set out below
Non-Fnancal Performance Indcator In determnng the level
and structure of the remuneraton of the Executve Drectors,
among other thngs, the results, the share prce performance
and non-fnancal ndcators relevant to the long-term obectves
of the ompany, wth due regard for the rsks to whch varable
remuneraton may expose the enterprse, shall be taken nto
account (bpp II23)
Unlever places a great deal of mportance on corporate
responsblty and sustanablty and s keen to ensure focus on key
fnancal performance measures whch we beleve to be the drvers
of shareholder value creaton and relatve total shareholder return
Unlever therefore beleves that the nterests of the busness and
shareholders are best served by lnkng our long-term share plans
to such measures as descrbed above, whch are further set out n
the Drectors’ Remuneraton Report (pages 66 to 83), and has
therefore not ncluded a non-fnancal performance ndcator
Rsk Management and ontrol Wth regard to fnancal reportng
rsks, as advsed by the Audt ommttee (as descrbed n ts
report on pages 60 and 61, the NV Board beleves that the rsk
management and control systems provde reasonable assurance
that the fnancal statements do not contan any errors of materal
mportance and the rsk management and control systems have
worked properly n 2015 (bpp II15) The statements n ths
paragraph are not statements n accordance wth the requrements
of Secton 404 of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Retenton Perod of Shares The Dutch ode recommends that
shares granted to the Executve Drectors wthout fnancal
consderaton shall be retaned for a perod of at least fve years
or untl at least the end of the employment, f ths perod s shorter
(bpp II25)
Our Remuneraton Polcy requres Executve Drectors to buld and
retan a personal shareholdng n Unlever In addton, Executve
Drectors are requred to hold 100% of the shares needed to
mantan ther mnmum shareholdng requrement untl 12 months
after they leave Unlever and 50% of these shares for 24 months
after they leave Unlever
Severance Pay It s our polcy to set the level of severance
payments for Drectors at no more than one year’s salary,
unless the Boards, on the recommendaton of the ompensaton
ommttee, fnd ths manfestly unreasonable gven crcumstances
or unless otherwse dctated by applcable law (bpp II 28)
Fnancng Preference Shares The votng rghts of the 6% and
7% cumulatve preference shares ssued by NV are based on
ther nomnal value, as prescrbed by Dutch law NV agrees
wth the prncple n the Dutch ode that the votng rghts of any
newly ssued preference shares should be based on ther
economc value rather than on ther nomnal value (bpp IV12),
but cannot unlaterally reduce votng rghts of ts outstandng
preference shares
orporate overnance Statement NV s requred to make a
statement concernng corporate governance as referred to n
artcle 2a of the decree on addtonal requrements for annual
reports (Vaststellngsbeslut nadere voorschrften nhoud
aarverslag) wth effect from 1 January 2010 (the Decree) The
nformaton requred to be ncluded n ths corporate governance
statement as descrbed n artcles 3, 3a and 3b of the Decree can
be found on our webste
wwwunlevercom/corporategovernance
50 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2015Governance
ORPORATE OVERNANE ONTINUED