CalPERS Seeks GE Investors’ Support

CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, urged fellow shareholders of General Electric Co. to approve a resolution calling on the company to base the stock options it gives to executives on performance targets.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which manages $131 billion, wrote to the top 500 General Electric shareholders soliciting votes for the resolution. The retirement fund said the standard stock options granted by GE provide windfalls to executives in good economic times and penalize them in bad times.

The resolution identifies three types of performance-based options: those whose exercise price is linked to an industry index, those whose exercise price when granted is above the market price, and those that vest when the market price of the stock exceeds a specific target.