Halliburton Joins Fray Over Ballot Access (For Shareholders)

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- Entering the fray over investor access to the corporate ballot, Halliburton Co. is seeking to block an annual meeting resolution aimed at giving shareholders a bigger voice in board elections.

Halliburton, a Houston-based provider of oilfield services, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to let it exclude the resolution from its 2005 shareholder proxy. The request comes less than a week after SEC staff attorneys rejected a similar attempt by Walt Disney Co.

Similar to the contested Disney resolution, the proposal submitted to Halliburton calls upon the company to essentially become subject to a nonbinding version of a currently stalled SEC rule proposal.

Under the proposed SEC rule, if a proxy access shareholder resolution wins a majority of the votes cast, a company would be required to allow a shareholder or group of shareholders owning 5 percent to nominate directors on the corporate ballot the following year.

http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-halliburton-shareholders,0,1996519.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines