Alliance Advisors Launches Strategic Closed-End Fund Defense Initiative

BLOOMFIELD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alliance Advisors, a proxy solicitation and corporate governance advisory firm founded in 2005, is pleased to announce the launch of a new offering to serve the needs of the closed-end fund community. Strategic Closed-End Fund Defense Initiative (SCDI) is a unique product that will support closed-end funds throughout the year through a combination of innovative services.

“Taking that intelligence and then designing a tangible communications strategy involving financial analysis, peer group benchmarking and fund-specific arguments to mitigate potential threats to the board and the fund’s investment advisor is the other 90%.”

SCDI will combine activist tracking and intelligence with customized outreach programs directed at institutional and retail investors as well as structured communications with the various proxy advisory firms such as Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass, Lewis & Co.

“Knowing whether a fund has an activist shareholder is only one tenth of the battle,” said Waheed Hassan, CFA, Managing Partner at Alliance Advisors. “Taking that intelligence and then designing a tangible communications strategy involving financial analysis, peer group benchmarking and fund-specific arguments to mitigate potential threats to the board and the fund’s investment advisor is the other 90%.” Most recently, Waheed led the M&A/Proxy Contest research team at ISS, a division of MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI). During his term at ISS, Waheed oversaw the analysis and recommendation process for numerous closed-end funds proxy contests, including those at large fund families such as DWS, Franklin, John Hancock, and Putnam funds.

Through the SCDI service, closed-end funds will benefit from having a trusted and experienced advisor on their team throughout the year. This service is designed not only for routine advice, but also for actively assisting closed-end funds in ongoing shareholder communications strategies that will increase overall investor dialog, mitigate potential issues from activists and garner a high positive vote outcome from all investors including institutional, foreign and even objecting beneficial owners.

“With the ability to translate existing intelligence into a positive communications program and more importantly deliver it effectively to all shareholders, closed-end funds can enter into the annual meeting confident of the outcome,” said Abe Borad, Executive Vice President Alliance Mutual Fund services.

The Alliance Advisors Closed End Fund Advisory Team

Abe Borad, Executive Vice President, Mutual Fund Services

Abe manages Alliance’s Mutual Fund Group, consisting of Proxy Solicitation, Printing, Mailing and Tabulation. Since 1995 Abe has commanded a thorough understanding of all aspects of mutual fund communications and solicitation programs through his direct management of hundreds of large and complex mutual fund campaigns. Abe has been at the vanguard in the industry when it comes to data security and privacy protection in the world of mutual fund shareholder solicitation.

With a strong and diverse background in shareholder communications technology, Abe continues to implement unique technologically driven strategies that drive solicitation costs down, reduce the intrusion to the shareholder household while maximizing the vote in an effective manner. He structures each solicitation campaign to fit the challenge at hand and with proper time, planning and effective management all proposals can be delivered to a successful outcome. As the solicitation industry continues to evolve, and the needs of investors and mutual funds change, Abe will continue to develop programs and systems that both enhance and streamline the proxy solicitation process.

Waheed Hassan, CFA, Managing Partner

Waheed has over ten years of institutional equity research, corporate governance, M&A valuation, and proxy advisory experience. He has interacted with C-level management and board of directors, having led over 200 in-person meetings with senior management of public companies, including many S&P500 firms.

Most recently, Waheed led the M&A/Proxy Contest research team at Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") - a division of MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI). At ISS, he provided advisory vote recommendations on 100+ contested M&A transactions and proxy contests with the combined market value of targeted companies in excess of $75 billion. During his term at ISS, Waheed oversaw ISS recommendation on numerous Closed-End funds proxy contests including those at large fund families such as DWS, Franklin, John Hancock, and Putnam funds.

Matthew Bolger, Vice President

Mr. Bolger employs his vast hands-on experience with complex mutual fund solicitation campaigns here at Alliance. Since 2006 Matt has been the lead on numerous mutual fund solicitations involving large scale “contact campaigns”. Matt’s forte has been to devise strategy which focuses resources on targeting key voting blocs early on in campaigns in order to secure the votes required for passage of the agenda. Matt is also a pioneer of the reverse Objecting Beneficial Owner (OBO) campaign as well as targeted mail campaigns that maximize positive votes. Matt believes many mutual funds can have success with strategic solicitations which focus on detailed shareholder segments rather than a costly and intrusive ‘shotgun’ solicitation campaign.