Switch to online AGMs gains pace despite concerns: Report

A mass corporate switch in Europe to holding virtual annual shareholder meetings or AGMs has picked up pace this year, raising concern among investors that some companies will try to ditch the physical version permanently.

The pandemic prompted an overhaul of the way companies meet investors, with those in Britain relying on emergency laws to allow them to hold online AGMs in the 2020 season.

But in the second year of the pandemic, there are concerns that permanently virtual meetings could limit investors’ ability to hold executives to account.

From January through July, 40% of AGMs globally were fully virtual, compared with 27% in the whole of 2020, data from Computershare showed.