The Exchange has responded to DTI's consultation on the Proposal for a Directive on the Exercise of Rights by Shareholders.
We are strongly supportive of initiatives to promote shareholder rights. However, we recognise that a careful balance needs to be struck between ensuring shareholders are able to exercise their rights and imposing costs on companies – after all this is ultimately not in the shareholders interests.
In particular:
- We are strongly against a 30 day notice period for Extraordinary General Meetings (although it is acceptable for Annual General Meetings). Even the 21 days ‘compromise’ is unacceptable due to the additional costs it would impose on issuers. We believe the notice period for EGMs should be 14 calendar days.
- We strongly agree with removing "share blocking" and replacing it with a record date system.
- We strongly support the use of proxy voting and electronic voting.