FRC White Paper on AGMs
Technical Briefing
Of interest to all involved in the management of meetings
On 6 October, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published a review of the different ways companies held AGMs during the first half of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and whether the approaches taken best served the interests of shareholders.
The review recognised the difficult circumstances with which companies were faced but found some significant differences between the way in which they responded to these challenges, where ‘the best organised and executed virtual and hybrid meetings enabled increased participation from shareholders.’
The FRC reviewed a sample of 202 FTSE 350 AGMs and found that although 80.7% of companies held closed meetings, requiring voting in advance via proxy, 81.6% of those made some arrangements to allow for shareholder Q&As with the board. The FRC is critical of the 30 companies that they believe made no such arrangements.
The full review can be found at:
