Virtual AGMs now allowed in most countries

Singapore

COUNTRIES across the globe have scrambled to find alternative ways to conduct shareholders' meetings when the Covid-19 pandemic made face-to-face interactions challenging.

The Singapore Report on Shareholder Meetings: The Rise of Virtual Meetings found that most markets now allow listed companies to hold virtual shareholder meetings; some had already permitted them before the onset of the pandemic, while others decided to keep them as a permanent feature.

This was one of the findings from a segment of the report, which consisted of a desktop study of 18 other markets - Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), the United Kingdom and the United States (Delaware). This was supplemented by inputs from experts in certain markets.

It reported that, despite the ongoing pandemic, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are still not allowing companies to hold fully virtual meetings, but will permit them to hold hybrid ones.

In contrast, markets such as Brazil, Canada and the US (Delaware) have allowed their companies to conduct purely virtual annual general meetings (AGMs), not just during the pandemic, but permanently.

As to how shareholders can vote on resolutions, nearly all markets have permitted online voting, either in advance of, during, or both in advance of and during, the AGM. In China, India and Taiwan, electronic online voting must be made available.

Associate professor of accounting at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, Mak Yuen Teen, who authored the report, said: "Singapore regulators should strongly encourage issuers to introduce online voting before and during shareholder meetings, and explore the possibility of making it mandatory in the near future.

"This will bring us in line with many other overseas markets, where the availability of online voting is common practice and, in some cases, mandatory.

"Traditional methods of voting in person or by proxy may be impediments to promoting interest in share investing among the younger, more technology-savvy generations. Online voting can also improve shareholder engagement and promote greater accountability, which can in turn lead to better corporate governance."

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