(Tuesday 20th January) Reacting to the Government’s announcement today to progress plans to allow virtual annual general meetings (AGMs), Luke Hildyard, Head of UK Policy at ShareAction, said:
“Allowing shareholders to attend AGMs virtually is a sensible step that can enhance corporate scrutiny and improve decision-making. For many investors the time and cost of attending an AGM in person may be prohibitive, so an option to attend remotely is a clear benefit but this isn’t the whole picture.
“We should be extremely wary of AGMs that are conducted exclusively online with no in-person element. This makes it much easier for boards to manipulate the agenda, ignore questions and avoid scrutiny to the ultimate detriment of good governance.
“ShareAction has already documented multiple examples of abuses of this kind at companies in the UK and overseas that have held virtual-only AGMs since the pandemic. We urge the Government to ensure robust safeguards that guarantee shareholders’ unfiltered right to hold the companies they invest in to account.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
More information on the Government’s announcement can be found here.
ShareAction published a ‘Future of the AGM’ paper which called for the revitalisation of AGM practices for good governance.
