Live Voting in Annual General Meetings: What You Need to Know

In annual general meetings, apart from presenting annual reports and interacting with shareholders, voting is one of the most sought activities. This includes voting on electing the next board of directors, approving resolutions, and settling motions. However, as meetings are now held virtually or in a hybrid format, regulating authorities are requiring an efficient and transparent live voting technology.

Aside from the need to conduct real-time electronic voting, issuers are concerned about meeting the quorum. Some virtual attendees cannot vote or even attend the general meeting because of the lack of sufficient capabilities in electronic meetings. Moreover, the changing regulating landscape also influences how companies implement voting in general meetings.

As issuers, investing in real-time electronic voting technology can support reliable, quick, and transparent voting processes and results. ConveneAGM is a virtual AGM platform equipped with a live voting feature intended to uphold convenience and compliance in AGMs.

SGX RegCo on Live Engagement and Voting

As of May 23, 2022, SGX RegCo issued in their column that companies will have to provide live engagement and voting during annual general meetings regardless of the meeting format — physical, virtual, or hybrid.

SGX RegCo Chief Executive Tan Boon Gin noted that several SGX-listed companies have successfully conducted interactive general meetings before, despite holding them virtually. As safety measures are getting more lenient, companies may choose to bring back physical AGMs or stick to virtual or hybrid formats, depending on their situations. What’s important is to deliver viable methods to let shareholders freely exercise their rights.

The increased regard for shareholder interests in meetings is mandating companies to prioritise the shareholders’ interaction and voting capabilities in annual meetings — expecting companies to adopt technology that can cater to real-time communication and voting.

With these guidelines, SGX RegCo is looking to develop stronger relationships between the issuers and their shareholders. The key is to balance the power during AGMs by letting shareholders join the discussions and cast their votes.

ConveneAGM: Your Real-Time Voting Technology for AGMs

With the recent mandate, companies need to adopt a technology that can help in providing real-time engagement and voting capabilities for shareholders and board members. Several applications are available that cater to video conferencing and electronic polls separately. However, those are only band-aid solutions that may compromise the security and convenience of the shareholders.

Dedicated virtual AGM platforms not only provide short-term solutions to conquer the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also future-proof companies in holding general meetings in the ever-evolving regulation landscape. ConveneAGM is the end-to-end AGM platform that supports real-time webcast and live voting for companies in Singapore and worldwide.

Read: Your Guide to Conducting Live Q&As with ConveneAGM

Is ConveneAGM compliant with the Updated SGX RegCo Guidelines?

Alongside the announcement of mandatory live engagement and voting, SGX has also added its requirement when employing electronic voting systems in general meetings. “The electronic voting systems have to accurately count all votes cast in the meeting. They also have to be capable of providing records that can be used to verify the recording and counting of votes.”

Moreover, the voting technology must be able to audit and verify all votes from shareholders and proxies. Results must also be tabulated and declared via the same electronic voting system during the meeting.

ConveneAGM has been developed to empower real-time electronic voting for virtual and hybrid AGMs to replicate the same experience with physical meetings. Accordingly, the live voting feature digitalises the AGM voting procedures by automating the casting of votes, verification, tallying, and presentation of results.

In addition, ConveneAGM’s live voting continuously upholds corporate governance. By providing an efficient method for shareholders to cast their votes in a well-informed manner, companies can ensure transparency and accountability throughout the general meeting. ConveneAGM is also fortified with advanced security features that verify users when they register their votes. Apart from the multi-factor user authentication, attendees can access the platform using Singpass.

How does the live voting feature work?

Taking pride in upholding efficiency, compliance, transparency, accountability, and security, ConveneAGM has been used by various listed companies and associations worldwide and in Singapore to conduct real-time weighted voting in their virtual and hybrid general meetings.

Users have experienced zero problems in casting votes and presenting results, as they can conveniently do everything on their screens. Consequently, ConveneAGM allows shareholders to change their votes on resolutions and elections after considering the discussions.

At ConveneAGM, the governance and convenience of shareholders are our top priorities. The team of specialists provides world-class support from start to finish to ensure a seamless, secure, and satisfying experience for all users. Product support specialists offer customer support 24/7 wherever your board and shareholders are.

Experience Seamless General Meetings and Live Voting with ConveneAGM

Transform the way you conduct virtual or hybrid annual general meetings with an electronic AGM platform. Designed to equip meetings with real-time electronic voting, ConveneAGM allows simpler and secure voting processes from verification of users to recording of votes.

SGTech, the premier trade association in Singapore, has turned to ConveneAGM to address their voting needs. With the platform’s fine-grain controls and technology, SGTech was able to configure the voting rights of each user, conduct real-time voting with instant tallying of results, and securely record all voting activities through an audit trail.

Adopt ConveneAGM for your next AGM and start future-proofing your general meetings while strengthening shareholder relationships. Contact us for a demo!