Top tips for your next AGM

​​​When AGM season is fast approaching there is a lot to plan and execute and it can seem as though there is never enough time to get everything done.

Oversights might seem inevitable, but they don’t have to be. To ensure important items don’t get missed during your planning phase, use this article as a guide to plan a successful AGM.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to planning an AGM, so begin early and make sure to ask yourself these questions:

• Has the meeting date been set?
• Did you receive a strike last year?
• Do you have a shareholder communication strategy in place?
• Have you engaged with shareholder activists and proxy advisors yet?
• Have your management team voted?

Hold it later in the week

Have you ever been so eager to meet your regulatory requirements and your mailing deadlines that you've picked a date for your AGM without considering which day of the week will be most advantageous?

If you're planning to hold your AGM on a Monday or Tuesday, consider the fact that proxies will close off on a weekend which makes it difficult to contact relevant parties and resolve any instances of over-voting. Although over-voting is on the decline, we still witness cases of over-voting year on year.  So consider holding your meeting later on in the working week.

Gather intelligence and act

It is evident both retail and institutional shareholders are taking a stand on executive remuneration. If your company received a strike last year, it is important for you to learn who the shareholders are and why they voted against your report. For more information on executive remuneration and gaining investor support, visit our Meetings Resource Hub.

In preparation for this year's AGM, investigate who the key decision-makers are behind your top shareholders and gather the intelligence to determine how they will be voting this year.

Don't forget about management, including board members and trustees for employee share plans during voting. Not only is every vote important but when votes such as these are missing it is a highly visible error and may affect the outcome of the overall vote.

Be proactive in managing activism

Activism has become a prominent fixture at many AGMs, causing a number of ASX300 organisations to receive strikes. Shareholders are voicing their concerns on the remuneration of executives and demanding transparency around prominent ESG issues.

Make activists aware of the rules and code of conduct of the meeting and consider having someone from your business available prior to the meeting to speak with activists, allowing them to voice their concerns and potentially reach an understanding prior to the meeting.

Think digital

Shareholders are increasingly demonstrating preferences towards digital communications. So, what are you doing to meet these needs? Have you thought about offering online and mobile device voting? This can be a simple way to connect with your shareholders, enabling you to reach and garner votes from a much larger audience.

Hybrid meetings are a great way to increase attendance as they offer the advantages of online participation in addition to the traditional in-person shareholder meeting. Virtual meetings on the other hand are those conducted wholly online with no physical element. Unfortunately, the future of virtual meetings in Australia is still unclear. Perhaps soon we will see a shift and virtual meetings will become the norm. The future is full of possibilities.

Monitor

With key industry issues and events like the Royal Commission ruling, climate change and executive pay being constant fixtures in the media today, it is important you are regularly monitoring the press, social media and any industry commentators during, throughout and after your AGM. It is important to make this step a part of your communication strategy from the beginning.

On the day

The day of an AGM can be stressful, but we think our checklist below can help a great deal in ensuring it runs as smoothly as possible, so make sure you organise following:

• A designated contact to speak with activists/media personnel that may be present prior to the meeting commencing
• Meeting materials such as: annual reports, notices of meeting and any other materials that shareholders may request a copy of
• Your constitution
• Previous meeting minutes
• Chairman's script/agenda for the day
• A laptop at the ready with internet connection to upload ASX announcements at the meeting

 

 

We hope you found this article beneficial and that it will help you ensure your AGM goes off without a hitch.