Company: CI
Filing Date: 2025-03-14
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001739940-25-000015
Chunk: 108

Company: Cigna Group
Filing Date: 2025-03-14
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 108
---

| The Board of Directors unanimously recommends that shareholders voteAGAINSTProposal 4 – Support Special Shareholder Meeting Improvement. |

Earning, building and maintaining the trust of our many stakeholders—including investors, customers, clients, employees, business partners and regulators—is critical to the success and sustainability of our business. We strive to meet consistent standards of integrity in everything that we do. Our Board remains deeply committed to strong governance practices and ethical and resilient business practices and understands the importance of long-term shareholders having the ability to call special shareholder meetings.

Following extensive shareholder outreach concerning the ability to call special shareholder meetings, and in direct response to shareholder feedback, our Board amended The Cigna Group By-Laws in February 2020 to permit long-term shareholders (i.e., those who have held our common stock for at least one year) with net long ownership of 25% or more of our outstanding common stock to call special meetings. The proponent has presented our shareholders with the opportunity to modify this special meeting right four other times since 2020, including by both reducing the ownership threshold and removing the one-year holding period requirement, which our shareholders have rejected each time. Our Board has carefully considered this shareholder proposal, which is focused solely on eliminating the one-year holding period requirement and, for the reasons set forth below, unanimously recommends a vote AGAINST this proposal .

Our existing special meeting right is intended to primarily protect the interests of our long-term shareholders while avoiding the frivolous use of our valuable time and corporate resources.

Our By-Laws currently provide that, to qualify for the right to request a special meeting, the shareholder’s required net long ownership interest must have been held continuously for at least one year prior to the date of the special meeting request, which the Board considers an integral component of this right. This requirement aligns with the Board’s belief that shareholders who have held shares for at least one year demonstrate a commitment to the long-term success of The Cigna Group and our efforts to create sustainable, long-term value.

Given the size of The Cigna Group and our shareholder base, a special meeting is a significant undertaking that requires not only substantial company expense but also a significant diversion of Board and management resources, regardless of whether the meeting is held virtually or in person. Accordingly, the Board continues to believe that special meetings should only be reserved for extraordinary company business where the matter to be addressed cannot wait until the next annual meeting and where a reasonably large representation of our long-term shareholders request the special meeting. Conversely, the Board believes that a