February 20, 2023
Voting recommendations: Use your influence
You have decided to invest in companies that operate sustainably. In doing so, you also want to take responsibility with your money and help shape the economy and society for the future. However, it is not only your assets that make a valuable contribution to this, you can also contribute to the sustainable transformation of companies with your vote. At general meetings, companies put important decisions to the shareholders for a vote. Forma Futura supports you with dedicated voting recommendations for the Swiss companies in your portfolio.
As a shareholder, you are much more than just a silent partner in a company. By exercising your voting rights, you can directly influence its sustainable development. In addition to direct dialogue with companies, exercising shareholder rights is the second way to act as an active shareholder. At general meetings, companies put important decisions to the vote of their shareholders. With your vote, you can contribute to the sustainable transformation of companies.
Forma Futura offers you support and provides you with sound decision-making criteria so that you can exercise your rights as a shareholder responsibly. You will receive voting recommendations for the general meetings of all Swiss companies in your portfolio. Since 2020, we have been working with Ethos, the Swiss Foundation for Sustainable Development. Ethos analyzes over 200 general meetings of Swiss companies based on its own principles of corporate governance and guidelines for exercising voting rights. Combined with our own analyses and guidelines, this information forms the basis for the recommendations we provide to our clients.
In 2025, we developed voting recommendations for 20 Swiss companies (previous year: 19 companies). In 2024, our rejection rates for agenda items relating to remuneration, sustainability reports, and board members were at their highest level in five years, at 40%, 58%, and 21%, respectively. The high rejection rate for sustainability reporting can be explained in part by the fact that some companies only allowed a consultative – i.e., non-binding – vote on the agenda item. This contradicts Art. 964 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, which came into force for the 2023 reporting period and was therefore applied for the first time at the 2024 general meetings. Forma Futura continues to reject any sustainability report that is not binding but merely put to a consultative vote.
This year, several companies changed the vote on the sustainability report from consultative to binding, which explains our higher acceptance rate for agenda items relating to the sustainability report compared to last year. Our rejection rates for agenda items relating to remuneration and members of the Board of Directors have also fallen compared to last year and are now back in line with the long-term average.
Shareholders have a say: Annual General Meeting at a glance
- Invitation and announcement of the items on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting
The invitation to the General Meeting of Shareholders must be sent to the shareholder at least 20 days before the date of the meeting or published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. The items on the agenda and the proposals of the Board of Directors and the shareholders are announced in the invitation. - Participation in the Annual General Meeting
Every shareholder is entitled to attend the Annual General Meeting or to be represented by another person who can vote on their behalf. This entitles them to express their opinion on the items on the agenda at the General Meeting.
sustainability report Under the Swiss Code of Obligations (Art. 964a–c CO), Swiss companies must report on non-financial matters such as the environment, social issues, employee matters, human rights, and anti-corruption, and submit this report to the general meeting for approval. In 2025, 137 companies were required to do so. The proportion of binding votes rose from 55.6% (2024) to 67.4% (2025).
