According to data provided by Bucharest Stock Exchange there are over 133,000 investors present on Romanian capital market. From data provided by companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange it seems that there are general meetings (‘GM’) with maximum 50-60 shareholders joining in person (as a small wedding party in Romania). However, if you like weddings, don’t imagine a GM as a wedding, as there is no music, dance, and no food abundance.
The GM is usually split in several parts:
- Opening procedural activities: checking the documentation for shareholders attending the meeting in person or via proxy, documentation handling, voting process explained. It is a good time to meet other shareholders and to socialize.
- The presentation done by the management (usually the chair of the Board and the executive management) with updates on the activities of the company since last GM.
- Questions and answers session – you may address questions to board members and management, and you may hear interesting questions and detailed responses. This helps you to understand better the activity of the company and its strategy on short and long term.
- Voting – for shareholders joining in person the voting takes place in room. At the end of the voting process the management announces the result of voting, and you know what is decided. If you don’t join the GM in person, you may find out the results after several hours when the company published an announcement.
- Closing the meeting – usually at the end of each meeting companies are organising a buffet brunch / lunch. You may discuss with other shareholders, with management and the employees of the company. Usually such events should be pleasant, but exceptions were seen. In April 2016 Daimler (the company that makes Mercedes) had a fight between shareholders at the buffet table and Berlin police was asked to intervene. The entire scandal started when a woman shareholder noticed a man was helping himself to rather more sausages than she felt was reasonable.
Before the meeting
Before joining a GM, you need to have a check list:
- Be sure that you are a shareholder in the company – if you are a shareholder in other company and you confuse the names you may panic. In a GM that I joined in the past we needed an ambulance for a shareholder that was in such a confusion.
- Be sure that have the ID with you and additional documentation, especially if you are in an omnibus account.
- It would be good to read the documentation or at least the agenda of the meeting before GM.
During the meeting
Address questions if are related to the agenda or to the activity of the Company. Try to limit to few minutes for each question – there are other shareholders in the room too.
After the meeting
Enjoy the buffet offered by company (if there is such an offer). For sure you may meet other shareholders and the representatives of the Company. Their contacts may be useful in future.
Shareholders that are not happy with the resolutions approved may challenge them if there are procedural issues, and for this it would be better to join the meeting in person. About this we will dedicate a separate article on how to be a challenging activist shareholder.
We are wondering how many investors would join the meeting in person during this year annual GM season.