The activities for preparing the annual general meetings of shareholders (AGM) are ongoing and after publishing the annual reports and financial statements, the management should prepare the update to be delivered during the AGM.
The presentation during the AGM
The presentation during AGM is usually an update on matters raised by stakeholder groups that are considered to materially affect the company’s strategy, performance, and culture of the company.
Usually, the presentation should have two parts:
- The speech of the chair of the board, summarizing the latest developments and announcing the plans for following year.
- The management presentation for the results of the year, and relevant matters that have been raised throughout the year, particularly by investors and other stakeholders. If there is a material shareholders vote against expressed during the previous year the board or the management should explain what are the next steps proposed.
The chair of board or the management should provide an update on investor and stakeholder engagement, and include details of material issues raised in order to offer additional context to those matters reported. For instance, if a change of legislation entered into force during the year, the presentation should include how management of the company interacted with the authority issuing the new regulations (in this case the stakeholder is the public authority).
Where actions have been, or are proposed to be taken as a result of stakeholder’s engagement, these should be highlighted at the AGM.
Who should attend the AGM?
During last year I was impressed when joining the AGM of a Romanian company and the CEO was in the room of the AGM one hour before the meeting started and discussed with each shareholder attending the meeting. This should be the rule.
On the other hand, for other companies, we observed cases when the CEO or the chair of the board unfortunately missed the AGM – this shows the fact that probably they are overboarded and do not allocate enough time to the company activities. They should be replaced: this is the action to be taken for the best interest of the company and their shareholders.
Chairs of the board and chairs of committees should attend AGM and be ready to respond to shareholders’ questions. CEO, shareholders’ / investor relation manager and the CFO need to join the meeting and be available for discussing with shareholders.
The AGM is the perfect opportunity to have a dialogue with shareholders and to explain how matters raised during the year have been taken into account or influenced decision-making.
Use of technology in the time of technology is essential and shareholders need to have access to broadcasted AGMs for listening the presentation and for addressing questions.
The presentation provided during the meeting and the list of questions and answers should be published on the web page of the company after the meeting, for giving all shareholders access to the information.