Corporate issuers rate satisfaction with proxy solicitor services - Morrow, D. F. King, and Alliance Advisors receive highest ratings

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Jan 30, 2013, 04:00 ET

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Group Five today announced the results of its annual study of corporate opinions of services provided by proxy solicitors. The annual study, which has been measuring issuer satisfaction for over 22 years, is based on completed surveys from 860 corporations. Of these responses, 365 respondents rated the services of their proxy solicitor.

For the third year in a row Morrow & Co. received the highest client satisfaction ratings with a favorable rating of 98%, which is unchanged from 2011. Alliance Advisors and D. F. King received the second highest overall satisfaction rating at 97% favorable.

Jack Sunday, CEO, Group Five pointed out, "Corporate issuer satisfaction with proxy solicitor services continues to be relatively high. The primary reason for this is that proxy solicitors know that they have to win their clients' business every day. Many proxy solicitors are engaged on an annual basis or for a specific project. If clients are not happy they will not be back for next proxy season or for the next corporate action."

"Once again we wish to thank our clients for taking the time to participate in your study. A large percentage of our clients have been with us for more than half of Morrow's existence and have worked closely with our staff whose experience covers 15 to 35 years each," commented Joe Morrow, CEO.

Sunday cautioned that despite attaining the highest ratings over the last three years, "Morrow needs to stay on top of industry changes to maintain its leadership position." Joe Morrow added, "While the environment and issues confronting corporations change from year to year, we remain steadfast in our commitment of having the best possible people to service our clients. We continue to hire and train bright, motivated people, who are able to assist our clients in achieving successful outcomes. Our class of 2009 has finished three seasons in proxy solicitation and they are now fully integrated in all three services: Proxy Solicitation, Corporate Governance, and Stock Surveillance/Shareholder Identification. The class of 2012 has completed five months of training and they have been assigned to our clients' regular proxy solicitation team. For the past 40 years we believed success in the future requires investment in the present."

Group Five will continue to monitor developments in the proxy solicitor space as the demand and need for these services continues to grow. Jack Sunday concluded, "Issuers should strongly consider directly engaging a proxy solicitor to ensure that issues created by the changing landscape are anticipated and effectively addressed before problems occur."

Group Five is a consulting and market research firm. The company is best known for its consulting and research expertise in shareholder services and stock plan administration services.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release or Group Five survey results without the express prior written consent of Group Five, Inc.

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SOURCE Group Five