Buffett Backs SEC Proxy Proposal

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett endorsed Sunday a Securities and Exchange Commission plan that would make it easier for shareholders to nominate directors.

The proposed rule would let large shareholders nominate candidates on corporate proxy ballots if 35% of the votes for a director had been withheld the previous year.

“I like the idea that somehow you can throw out managements that are self-serving and overreaching,” Buffett said at a news conference in Omaha, where his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. held its annual meeting over the weekend.

“Shareholders have been incredibly ineffective in correcting bad management,” he said. “What the SEC has proposed, on balance, I would go along with.”

On Saturday, Buffett, 73, said he planned to remain on Coca-Cola Co.’s audit committee amid demands from some shareholders that he step down.