Bursa Malaysia has become the first company in the country to successfully hold a fully virtual annual general meeting (AGM), signalling a momentous achievement in the Malaysian corporate world.

The exchange operator’s 43^rd AGM was broadcasted from the Conference Room, Bursa Malaysia building in Bukit Kewangan. Shareholders, on the other hand, made use of available remote participation and voting (RPV) facilities to contribute to the meeting.

The historic meeting was conducted online due to the ongoing movement control order (MCO), and also serves as a form of safety precaution for shareholders due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The move also obeyed directives from the Securities Commission (SC), which requested for companies to conduct fully virtual general meetings during the MCO period.

The SC had previously issued an extensive guideline on the conduct of such general meetings for listed issuers, hoping that companies can continue to uphold their obligations amidst the current restrictions. It specified that there should only be a maximum of eight essential individuals physically present at the broadcast venue. These include the chairperson of the meeting, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, company secretary, auditor, and audio-visual support personnel.

“We also encourage companies to continue leveraging on technology even beyond the MCO period, to conduct meetings in a manner that will encourage and enable full shareholder participation, even from remote locations,” said the chairman of the SC, Datuk Syed Zaid Albar, in an earlier statement.

The guideline also explicitly forbade hybrid general meetings during the MCO period. Hybrid general meetings are essentially sessions that allow shareholders the option to either attend physically or participate remotely through audio/video facilities.

Bursa Malaysia had also previously made history with its 42^nd AGM by being the first company in the country to conduct an AGM in the form of a hybrid meeting.

(Source: Bernama)

• TAGS:
• AGMs
• Bursa Malaysia
• Covid-19
• MCO
• Movement Control Order
• Securities Commission
• Virtual AGMs
• Virtual Annual General Meetings