BlackRock Latin American Investment
Trust plc
(LEI: UK9OG5Q0CYUDFGRX4151)
AGM Resolution – votes 'against' in
excess of 20%
At the Company’s Annual General Meeting held in March,
resolution 5 relating to the re-election of Craig Cleland, the Chairman of the Audit
Committee, was passed but 3,309,708 votes (representing 20.63% of
the total votes cast) were cast against this resolution. As a
result, the Board is required by Provision 1.D.4 of the 2018 UK
Code of Corporate Governance and Provision 5.2.4 of the 2019 AIC
Code of Corporate Governance, to provide an update on the views
received from shareholders.
The Board, represented by its Broker (Cenkos Securities plc),
has discussed the reasons for the ‘against’ vote with the
Proxy/Voting advisors to the shareholders who had cast 2,218,142 of
these votes and also with the investment manager that cast an
additional 454,846 of these votes on behalf of managed funds
(in total 2,672,142 shares or approximately 81% of the votes
against resolution 5) and has been notified that these shares were
voted against because Mr Cleland’s attendance record as set out on
page 33 of the annual report for the year ended 31 December 2021 reflected the fact that he had
missed the Board, Management Engagement Committee and Nomination
Committee meetings held on 16 November 2021. The Broker has
explained to the relevant advisory and manager representatives that
Mr Cleland had missed the meeting due to illness. The
Broker also advised that Mr Cleland is now fully recovered, and
this issue is not expected to recur. In response to this
explanation, the advisory representatives and representatives of
the investment manager confirmed that had this information been
made publicly available at the time, they would have been fully
supportive of Mr Cleland’s re-election, and they had no other
issues to raise in this respect.
The Board notes that in future the Company’s annual report will
give additional detail in respect of the reason/justification for
non-attendance to the extent this ever recurs.
Contact:
Ms S Beynsberger
For and on behalf of BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited,
Company Secretary
Tel: 020 7743 2639
Date: 18 August 2022