News wire — Hess shareholders cast 157.6 million ‘yes’ votes in favor of its sale to Chevron, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday showed, more than 3 million more than required to pass.
Tuesday’s vote cleared one hurdle for the $53 billion deal, which is still under review by U.S. regulators and embroiled in an arbitration battle with Exxon and CNOOC Hess’ partners in a lucrative Guyana oil-production joint venture.
Shareholder approval required a yes vote by a majority of Hess’s 308 million shares outstanding, or about 154 million shares. The victory for Hess came despite a campaign by some shareholders to urge abstention votes to give more time for the outcome of the Exxon-CNOOC arbitration to be decided.
The company did not disclose any votes cast to abstain, saying the proposal was not put forth because there were sufficient votes in favor of the deal.
Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had recommended shareholders vote to to abstain . ISS also called on Hess to offer its owners a financial incentive given the delay meant they would be without the higher dividend available to Chevron shareholders.
Friday’s securities filing was the first time the number of votes cast was disclosed.
Some 19.7 million shares were cast against the deal and another 72.8 million abstained.
Hess shareholders also approved in a non-binding vote on executive compensation under the merger by a similar 3 million vote margin. They cast 112.9 million shares in favor of the pay plan and 109.9 million voted against it. Some 27 million shares abstained from the pay proposal.
Reporting by Gary McWilliams – Reuters
