Bunching of AGMs unfortunate but alternatives impractical

I REFER to recent commentary published in The Business Times on annual general meetings (AGMs).

AGMs are a good opportunity for shareholders to put questions to the board and management and understand more about their companies. The bunching of AGMs in the last 10 days of April is therefore unfortunate, and is largely because most listed companies have a Dec 31 financial year-end and therefore an April 30 deadline for AGMs. Shareholders would have to prioritise which AGMs to attend while appointing proxies for others.

Requiring companies to queue up for two-hour slots to hold their AGMs would be impractical. Some 430 primary-listed companies end their financial year on Dec 31. If only five companies are allowed, as suggested, to hold AGMs in any one weekday, AGMs would take place from the third week of January to end-April. Some companies could end up holding AGMs less than one month after their year-ends.