Virtual and Hybrid AGMs

Accessing Virtual Shareholder Meetings

It is an unfortunate feature of Covid regulations that many companies have used the waivers contained in those regs to avoid meeting with their shareholders at AGMs. It is therefore gratifying to see that some companies are at least making some effort to provide a virtual forum to meet investors. Two companies that I follow which have offered such forums are the RIT Capital Partners investment trust (RCP) and AstraZeneca (AZN). Unfortunately, however, there is a snag. RCP say: You will be able to ...

FT, 17 Jan 2021, UK Companies Warned Against Shutting Investors Out of AGMs

https://www.ft.com/content/64717715-98aa-415b-84e9-83764ae83d6f Cliff Weight, a director of ShareSoc, a shareholder organisation, said the introduction of a so-called hybrid approach — with both a physical and virtual element — was “a huge step forward” during the pandemic, with many more people attending AGMs and pre-AGM webinars than in the past.

FRC new report on AGMs and best practices

A ShareSoc News article written by Cliff Weight, Director This is an excellent report. The FRC appear to have taken on board many of the points we raised. I particularly liked the recommendations that investors provide their email address to the company/registrar to facilitate communication; and the description of the purpose of the AGM- The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is an essential governance event for companies and their shareholders. It should provide transparency, accountability and integrity, to company governance and decision-making. It is ...

Electronic AGMs and Voting

Several companies in which I hold shares are proposing to adopt new Articles of Association at their Annual General Meetings. These typically are amended to enable the holding of “virtual”, i.e. electronic ones, or “hybrid” meetings where a physical venue (or multiple ones) are also used. They can do that legally at present under the emergency regulations put in place by the Government but they are clearly anticipating a more common use of such capabilities now that everyone is more practised ...

Learning Technologies and Ten Entertainment AGMs

I “attended” the on-line Annual General Meeting of Learning Technologies Group (LTG) today. Full members of ShareSoc can find my report on that meeting here: https://www.sharesoc.org/agm-reports/learning-technologies-agm-report-2020/ Another recent AGM of an AIM company was that of bowling alley operator Ten Entertainment (TEG) for which I hold all of 50 shares. I sold almost all my holding before they had to close all their venues. This was another company that did a placing recently but it is hardly surprising in this case that ...

Learning Technologies AGM Report 2020

I “attended” the on-line Annual General Meeting of Learning Technologies Group (LTG) today. This was run using the GoToWebinar software. There did not appear to be many people on the call as only one shareholder asked a question. Perhaps this was because you had to register for the event in advance using your Investor Code – which only those on the register would have, not those in nominee accounts. This is deeply unsatisfactory. The meeting was initially chaired by Andrew Brode who ...