NEW YORK - ExxonMobil shareholders overwhelmingly reelected the oil giant's board Wednesday, the company said, endorsing its hardball tactics in confronting climate activist investors.
The company's 12 nominees won an average of 95 percent of votes cast, ranging from 87 percent to 98 percent, ExxonMobil said in an email to AFP.
The vote followed criticism of the American multinational's lawsuit against two activist groups that had sought to direct the company to accelerate emissions reductions.
The bullying tactics had drawn sharply-worded rebukes from Norway's sovereign wealth funds and California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), which voted against all 12 ExxonMobil board nominees.
However, the company's approach won applause from the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which accused the groups of misusing the shareholder resolution process.
"Far from protecting shareholder rights, these agitators want to punish Exxon and its investors for refusing to surrender," the editorial said.
In a win for the company, shareholders not only backed the entire board, but decisively voted down four other measures on issues such as reducing single-use plastics and releasing a study of gender pay.
These were brought by shareholders whom ExxonMobil Chief Executive Darren Woods referred to derisively as "serial proponents."
None of the measures received more than 20 percent, according to preliminary results.
"Today our investors sent a powerful message that rules and value-creation matter," said ExxonMobil, which reported more than $36-billion in profits in 2023.
"Their vote signals a belief that we are on the right track by overwhelmingly re-electing our directors and soundly defeating all four proposals that would have hampered our ability to create long-term value," it added.
"We expect the activist crowd will try and claim victory on today's vote, but common sense should tell you otherwise in light of the large margin of the loss."