Voting in advance and voting during the meeting
A virtual general meeting is an efficient and clear way for a company to conduct its annual general meetings. Thanks to advance voting the company has the information on the support or opposition of the agenda topics have received, already before the meeting begins. Shareholders, even if unable to attend the meeting in person, can still make their voices heard. Additionally, voting during the meeting is quick and secure.
“We also implemented advance voting. In this process, shareholders didn’t need to participate in the actual meeting; they could cast their votes ahead of time on various agenda items. Offering shareholders the opportunity to vote in advance has become our practice,” explains Valtteri Piri.
Attention to International Shareholders
Virtual meetings allow easy participation regardless of location, making it convenient for international shareholders to join. When selecting the partner, Citycon also considered how foreign shareholders could participate via nominee registered accounts. Given Citycon's diverse ownership base, Euroclear’s expertise in handling these accounts and ownership matters was crucial.
Safe Partner Choice
Citycon has organized three virtual general meetings in collaboration with Euroclear Finland. The service package included conducting the meeting remotely from Euroclear’s studio, advance voting, direct voice questions, and interpretation during the meeting. The experiences with meeting proceedings have been extremely positive.
“Everything has worked excellently, and the meetings have also run very smoothly from a technical perspective. Virtual meetings utilize the internationally acclaimed Lumi general meeting platform. Lumi has extensive experience in organizing thousands of virtual general meetings, and their platform allows Citycon’s brand to be showcased as desired. Before the meetings, we even presented our brand video, and the platform was customised to match our brand identity,” explains Piri.
“The only aspect we’ve pondered is the limited participation by shareholders. For example, in the last meeting, we received only one question from the participants. To encourage more active engagement, we’re considering options such as implementing a chat feature, as many find writing more comfortable than speaking aloud during meetings.”
Who benefits from a virtual general meeting?
According to Piri, virtual general meetings are particularly well-suited for smaller companies. While larger corporations may hesitate to forgo physical meetings, a hybrid model could work for them. However, virtual meetings are an excellent solution for smaller companies. They offer broader reach, not only internationally but also for shareholders residing outside the Helsinki metropolitan area. With the option to participate from their own location and cast advance votes, virtual meetings foster inclusivity.
More than a mandatory investor relations event
Nowadays annual general meetings are one of the most significant corporate events in a company. Mandated by law the annual general meeting brings together company’s management and shareholders to review the results of past fiscal year and to use their power to decide on the company matters. Alternatives to traditional physical meeting are a hybrid meeting that combines elements of both traditional in-person face-to-face meetings and remote meetings conducted over a conference call platform, or a virtual meeting that is held solely online.
