The annual general meeting used to be a highlight for thousands of ordinary shareholders.
It was a chance to mingle with directors, ask awkward questions and hold the board to account. There was even the occasional bun fight to liven up the proceedings.
But now the death knell may be sounding for the traditional AGM. It is being replaced by virtual events with in-person meetings now very much in the minority.
An analysis of AGMs held in the first half of this year shows three-quarters were ‘hybrid’ – a mix of online and physical. Just one in ten were in-person only.
‘Hybrid meetings are becoming the norm,’ said Pete Fowler, chief operating officer of Lumi, which provides technology for most FTSE 350 AGMs and conducted the research. ‘We are at a real turning point in shareholder democracy,’ he added.
Going out of fashion: The AGM is being replaced by virtual events with in-person meetings now very much in the minority
The figures come hard on the heels of the recent controversy over Marks & Spencer’s AGM.
Chairman Archie Norman is leading a campaign called Share Your Voice to give investors more say in how their companies are run.
But he incurred the wrath of shareholders when it emerged that their annual meeting would be online only and filmed in a small TV studio.
‘M&S did allow a couple of us into the studio,’ said Danny Wallace of The Engagement Appeal, a shareholder rights group. ‘But this was only due to the pressure from the Press.
‘Without that, we would have been in separate rooms watching a screen. M&S were keen to keep us apart.’
The Mail on Sunday also revealed that under-fire water supplier United Utilities moved its AGM from central Manchester to a business park in Warrington and made the meeting in-person only.
That prompted claims from environmentalists that it was ‘retreating to its bunker’.
Fowler said: ‘For real shareholder democracy, all meetings must allow virtual participation and be more accessible for nominee shareholders.’ Nominees do not hold shares in their own name, but in a pooled account at a stock- broker. Companies cannot communicate with them directly.
M&S, Interactive Investor and Lumi recently teamed up to give nominee holders a chance to vote at AGMs. But the number of votes cast so far this year is down 16 per cent at 1.6 million, according to Interactive Investor.
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