EQT Proxy Voting Policy

It has been determined that Equity Trustees Limited ('EQT'), in accordance with IFSA best-practice requirements, will vote stock held in its EQT Flagship Fund. Voting outcomes will seek to maximise shareholders' economic interests. EQT will publish both its Proxy Voting Policy ('the Policy') and the results of its voting ('Summary') on this page of our website. The summary is to be updated quarterly.

EQT Flagship Fund - Proxy Voting at meetings held by ASX-Listed Companies

  

June quarter 2010

	Meetings	Resolutions	Voted for	Voted against	Abstained	No action
Number	4	23	23	0	0	0
Percentage %			100	0	0	0
Complete history
Percentage %			100	0	0	0

General policy objectives

As an institutional investor, EQT encourages the companies that it invests in to adopt a high standard of corporate governance. When the proxy voting decisions may have a material effect on the economic value of the underlying investment EQT will, in general, make proxy voting decisions to maximise investor value.

As an IFSA member, EQT endorses the principles behind the IFSA Guidance Note 2.00 (Corporate Governance: A guide for Fund Managers and Corporations). On a periodic basis the EQT Investment Management Committee will review changes in corporate governance guidelines and standards. Independent expert corporate governance advice may be sought to improve the EQT Proxy Voting Policy.

EQT also recognises that corporate governance issues are subjective in nature, and prescriptive rules cannot cover every situation. As such EQT will try to act in the best interests of its clients and unit holders at all times.

Board, Directors, Committees and Auditors

EQT will generally, but not in all cases, vote in accordance with the following principles:

• The Board of Directors should be formed with a majority of Independent Directors, subject to their skill and experience for the role.
• The audit, corporate governance, nomination and remuneration committees should be formed with a majority of Independent Directors.
• The chairman of the board should be an Independent Director.
• Directors will be held accountable for the decisions they make on committees. EQT will withhold nominee votes for directors who make decisions which are not in the best interests of the investors, e.g. approving excessive remuneration packages.
• EQT supports auditor independence, any relationship between the auditor and the company should be limited to mainly auditing services. e.g. audit services should make up greater than 50% of the fees that the audit company earns from the company.

Remuneration

EQT will generally, but not in all cases, vote in accordance with the following principles:

• EQT supports aligning the interests of Directors and Executives with investors through stock ownership. A balance must be achieved where such incentive schemes are not excessive and work against the interests of the investor.
• Remuneration performance hurdles should be set to provide a reasonable incentive, they should not be set at a level where they can be considered a gift.
• There should be full public disclosure of the level remuneration of Directors and Executives.
• The remuneration of Directors and Executives should be reasonable and justifiable.

Corporate Structure and Investors' Rights

EQT will generally, but not in all cases, vote in accordance with the following principles:

• EQT believes that investors should have voting rights in proportion to their equity. Therefore, EQT is against separate classes of securities with different voting rights.
• EQT does not support 'poison pill' or other anti-takeover provisions which seek to deter appropriate tender offers.

Disclosure

EQT supports a high level of disclosure and communication between the company and investors.

Social policy issues

EQT will generally, but not in all cases, abstain from voting on social policy issues. We do recognise that in some cases social issues may impact on the economic performance of the investment. In such cases EQT may decide to participate in the proxy voting process.