Voting preference
Statement of voting preference
Within the corporate governance framework, investors are increasingly encouraged to exercise their voting rights on Swiss equities. Since the Avadis Investment Foundation is not an employee benefits institution as defined by Art. 22 VegüV (Ordinance against Excessive Compensation in Listed Stock Corporations), it is exempt from the voting and disclosure obligations applicable to employee benefits institutions. However, the Foundation also offers all investors in the Swiss Equities investment group the option to state their voting preference in the case of collective investment schemes. This pertains to the agenda items of the general meetings (GM) of the stock corporations listed on the UBS 100 Index. The Swiss Equities investment group of the Avadis Investment Foundation is managed as an underlying collective investment in the form of a fund pursuant to the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (KAG). The final voting power therefore rests with the management responsible for the fund. In compliance with its duty of loyalty (Art. 20 (1) KAG), the fund management exercises the voting rights in the interest of its investors.
Voting preferences can be stated for all stock corporations on the UBS 100 Index.
As a basic requirement, the respective stock corporations must permit vote splitting (vote splitting = the stock corporation allows all legal entities invested in a collective investment vehicle to exercise their voting rights on an individual basis).
Investors state their voting preference for the share in the Swiss Equities investment group to which they are entitled. Their percentage share is calculated according to the ratio of their currently invested assets (as shown in the investor’s balance statement) to the total assets of the Swiss Equities investment group.
The Avadis Investment Foundation acts as coordination point, records the preferences of the investors and transfers this information to the fund management.
In the absence of any instructions from the investors, voting will follow the recommendations of the Board of Directors.
The dates of the general meetings, including the respective notification deadlines, and information on the procedure is available here:
Please request the voting exercise form and send your instructions / applications via stimmrecht@avadis.ch.