A FTSE250 Company Secretary writes...
I am trying to go ahead with my AGM in mid-May, subject to whatever “lockdown” looks like. I have added the following to my Notice of AGM. I am hoping that I can run the meeting with the FD elected as Chair of the meeting, and two other members – me plus 1. The registrar will be on the phone. I would very much welcome any comments/thoughts.
Coronavirus
As at the date of this Notice, we have taken the decision to proceed with the Annual General Meeting. However, the safety of our shareholders, colleagues and customers is of the utmost importance to us during these difficult times, and so we want to strongly encourage you to use your proxy vote this year, rather than attending in person. This is so particularly if you are self-isolating, for whatever reason, or are a person who is more susceptible than others to Covid 19.
We will not be holding our “normal” meeting, and we will not be providing any refreshments. The objective will be to table the resolutions before the meeting and then close it down as quickly as possible. We anticipate that it will last no more than around 10 minutes.
We hope that you understand our decision in the circumstances, and we will consider holding a shareholder event in the North East later in the year.
Should any arrangements for the AGM change, we will make an announcement via the Regulatory News Service. Please register to receive updates at: https://corporate.greggs.co.uk/investors/regulatory-news/email-signup.
Agree with comments, advice we are receiving is to ensure that meeting is simple and legally compliant. We are pressing on but will strip back to core elements to hold AGM.
Yes this is similar to our plans. Our AGM is also mid-May. Clearly the challenge is that shareholders have a right to attend but to minimise risk it will be best if as few as possible actually do so. In order that we have transparency and investor confidence that a “normal” meeting is being held we are planning to stream the AGM by live webcast so that anyone who cannot attend in person can see the process. We will be strongly encouraging proxy voting and also possibly having a mechanism whereby questions can be submitted before the AGM. Answers could then be given during the webcast (but the trick will be not to encourage too mnay questions!)
I see that Unilever published their AGM Notice yesterday together with advice on their website AGM page which is worth a read.
What you describe is in line with the recent guidance from ICSA, GC100 and other, which you will have seen, in that you are adapting your AGM to the current circumstances. From what I’ve been seeing/hearing many companies in your situation ae doing the same. Ours is not until July so we have a bit more time but I’m sure the challenges will be different.
That looks good – all you can do is hold the AGM in a minimal form, and advise your shareholders. It’s what my company is going to do.