AGMs are wasted opportunities
Company annual general meetings last on average of just 30 minutes and are not being used to communicate and encourage participation with private investors, as set out in the Corporate Governance Code.
Link: Singled out: Non-executive directors
Just 29% of AGMs addressed the issue of corporate social responsibility, received a presentation of any kind or considered a trading statement, a survey of 135 company secretaries of listed companies undertaken by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators found.
Rather, AGMs were used to table a remuneration policy for approval (39%), while a quarter of company boards spent up to 20 minutes debating the issue of political donations.
The issue of directors’ long term incentive plans was discussed for 26 minutes on average.
Hardly any companies took a shareholders’ poll on any issue.
The average time for an AGM was 48 minutes, with 30 minutes being the most frequently encountered time. The longest meeting clocked in at a massive three hours, while the shortest was just five minutes.