Given the predominance of virtual shareholder meetings this year due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, virtual meeting-related benchmarking opportunities are much more plentiful than has been the case historically. Bass Berry & Sims' review of the shareholder Q&A policies disclosed in the 47 Fortune 100 public company proxies filed after March 1 revealed these noteworthy results:
- 6% permit shareholders to submit questions only in advance. Of these, one company is requiring shareholders to submit their questions up to three days in advance and the other is requiring submittal in advance via a portal on their IR webpage.
- 58% permit shareholders to submit questions only at the meeting.
- 32% permit shareholders to submit questions both in advance and at the meeting.
- 4% can't be determined based on the proxy materials.
One company reportedly proposed a novel approach of having named financial journalists select and present at the meeting questions from among those submitted by shareholders via email. This post first appeared in this week's Society Alert!
Public company members: Looking for more practical nuts & bolts information about virtual shareholder meetings? Register here for Friday's webinar: "Virtual Annual Shareholder Meetings - Here's How!"