Bow Street LLC, together with its affiliates (collectively, “Bow Street”), has filed a definitive proxy statement and accompanying GOLD proxy card with the Securities and Exchange Commission to be used to solicit proxies for the election of its slate of director nominees at the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, a Maryland corporation.
On June 1, 2020, Bow Street issued the following press release:
LEADING PROXY ADVISORY FIRMS ISS AND GLASS LEWIS RECOMMEND MACK-CALI SHAREHOLDERS VOTE “GOLD” TO ELECT BOW STREET’S NOMINEES
ISS Recommends Mack-Cali Shareholders ElectALL EIGHT Bow Street Nominees
ISS and Glass Lewis Detail the Mack-Cali Board’s Pervasive Culture of
Broken Corporate Governance and Misaligned Incentives
Bow Street Urges Mack-Cali Shareholders to Follow ISS’s Recommendation by VotingGOLD
“FOR ALL” of its Highly Qualified, Independent Nominees
NEW YORK – June 1, 2020 – Bow Street LLC (“Bow Street”) today announced that Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) and Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC (“Glass Lewis”), the nation’s leading independent proxy advisory firms,have recommended that Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (“Mack-Cali” or the “Company”) (NYSE: CLI) shareholders vote theGOLD proxy card“FOR” Bow Street’s highly qualified, independent director nominees in connection with the Company’s Annual Meeting on June 10, 2020. Notably, ISS recommended that Mack-Cali shareholders electALL EIGHT of Bow Street’s nominees to the Mack-Cali Board of Directors (the “Board”).
Akiva Katz and Howard Shainker, Managing Partners of Bow Street, said, “We are gratified that both ISS and Glass Lewis recognize that Mack-Cali shareholders deserve better, including a meaningful refreshment of the Board comprised of truly independent directors who will provide robust oversight of management, reestablish accountability, and deliver value to shareholders. We strongly encourage all Mack-Cali stakeholders to review ISS’s and Glass Lewis’s independent, third-party reports, which detail a systemic pattern of governance abuses that is amongst the worst we have witnessed throughout our careers as investors and fiduciaries.
“ISS and Glass Lewis, for a second year in a row, have confirmed our long-held belief that ending Mack-Cali’s underperformance and governance woes is only achievable by resetting the broken culture in the Mack-Cali Boardroom. We urge shareholders to follow ISS’s recommendation and vote theGOLD proxy card today to electALL EIGHTof Bow Street’s nominees, who, as directors, will be fierce shareholder advocates and execute a plan to permanently usher in a new era of corporate responsibility, operational oversight, credibility and value creation at Mack-Cali.”
In making its recommendation that Mack-Cali shareholders vote theGOLD proxy card“FOR ALL” of Bow Street’s nominees, ISS* noted:
| • | | “[T]he current strategy has not produced the promised improvement in operating results and company valuation, and thatas long as legacy directors continue to exercise controlling influence, the board is unlikely to be open to a change in strategic direction. As a result, a majority reconstitution of the board appears necessary to ensure that the board properly evaluates the company strategy and oversees its execution. As such, shareholders are recommended tovote FOR dissident nominees Batkin, Cumenal, Gilmartin, Jones, Katz, Gerardo Lietz, Nia, and Stern on the dissident’s GOLD proxy card.” |
| • | | “[T]he board’s actions over the past year have revealed a coordinated and concerted effort to maintain its chosen course while paying lip service to shareholder concerns raised by the dissident last year and clearly shared by the majority of the shareholder base, as evidenced by strong support for the dissident’s slate last year.” |