The future of AGMs: physical or virtual?

THE year 2020 was a watershed year - one in which work, meetings and business in general went digital. The Covid-19 pandemic even forced annual general meetings (AGMs) online.

The Asian Corporate Governance Association concluded in a recent study that the number of virtual meetings increased significantly in Asia, including in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Australia. In Canada, over 160 listed issuers adopted virtual technology for their 2020 AGMs. In Japan, 111 companies implemented virtual shareholder meetings.

Regulatory authorities in Singapore fast-tracked legislation in April 2020 to allow listed companies to hold their AGMs virtually. Across the region, the adoption of remote meeting formats has played out, with physical meetings discouraged in most jurisdictions.