By: University of Edinburgh Business School
September 4, 2020
The accelerated move to virtual shareholder meetings, due to Covid-19, has caused quite a kerfuffle. The temporary provisions of the UK’s Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 relaxed a number of statutory requirements. This enabled meetings to take place virtually under lockdown conditions and were critical for the 2020 AGM season.
The vast majority appeared to proceed smoothly. But the reality is that they weren’t meetings in which shareholders could interact with each other and the board, and hold it effectively to account.