Shaping the Future of Shareholder Meetings: A Tug of War Between Political Parties (2024)

FAQs

What is the purpose of the shareholder meeting? ›

A company organizes a general meeting of shareholders to debate and resolve important business matters. Here are some key facts about general meetings. The general meeting is essential to a company's governance. It is the most important corporate event of the year for shareholders.

The company must send notice to every member of the company. In the case of AGM, at least 21 days' notice is required. In the case of other meetings, at least 14 days' notice is required (for other than unlimited companies), or at least seven days' notice is required (for unlimited companies).

There are three types of shareholders' meetings: an ordinary meeting, an extraordinary meeting and a special meeting.

The Shareholders' Meeting represents the body, which voices corporate interest by decisions taken in compliance with the law and the Articles of Association. More specifically, the Shareholders' Meeting nominates the Board of Directors for a period not exceeding 3 financial years.

Either way, managing stakeholder expectations can help increase levels of trust, improve satisfaction among internal and external parties, build better relationships, develop a social license to operate, add value to those relationships and result in smoother operations for your project or organization.

Shareholder engagement covers a host of strategies investors use to influence the policies and practices of their portfolio companies on questions of environmental and social risk.

The corporation will plan and manage an annual meeting at its convenience, subject to much of the same reporting conditions. Once the meeting is scheduled, the organization schedules a voting date for the meeting, which usually lasts around 30 to 90 days.

Two of the primary types of stock are common shares, representing the majority of shares available across the market, and preferred stock, which typically guarantees a fixed dividend but does not have voting rights.

The law around shareholder meetings has changed with the legal requirement to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) gone, unless they are required by a company's articles, and the old term 'Extraordinary General Meeting' (EGM) being replaced with the term 'General Meeting'.

Generally, only shareholders who own shares in the company are allowed to physically attend a shareholder meeting. However, other people may be invited to attend, such as members of the board of directors, auditors, and legal representatives.

Can shareholders tell directors what to do? ›

Shareholders can have some power over directors' actions by the exercise of their voting rights in a shareholder's meeting. To dictate the direction of the company, shareholders (jointly, or a majority shareholder) with more that 50% of the voting powers must vote in favour of taking action at a general meeting.

Companies may need to call special meetings from time to time to vote on specific issues. For example, they could call a special meeting to decide on proposed changes to a company's constitution or to alter shareholders' rights. Shareholders and directors can attend these meetings.

Shareholder engagement can encompass activities such as annual general meetings, investor relations, sustainability reporting, and direct dialogue between shareholders and company management.

An annual general meeting (AGM) is a mandatory annual assembly of a company's executives, directors, and interested shareholders. An information circular is a document for a company's shareholders, outlining important agenda topics for the annual or special shareholders' meeting.