The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday told publicly traded companies to postpone their annual shareholders’ meetings from Monday next week to the end of next month to curb public gatherings amid a surge in COVID-19 infections.
A total of 1,931 companies had planned to convene their shareholders’ meetings during the period, but the FSC has made it mandatory for them to delay the events to July or August, it said.
There are 923 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, 763 on the Taipei Exchange and 245 on the Emerging Stock Board, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) told reporters by videoconference in New Taipei City.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
Boards of directors should determine a new date for shareholders’ meetings and notify their shareholders 15 days in advance, and announce it on the Market Observation Post System, Tsai said.
It was the first time that the commission has imposed such a measure, as it did not do so even during the SARS outbreak in 2003, Tsai said.
After discussions with the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), the agencies agreed that a special regulation to combat COVID-19 would exempt listed companies from the Securities and Exchange Act’s (證交法) requirements that shareholders’ meetings be held by the end of June, Tsai said.
Several companies with management rights disputes would need to delay their annual meetings, such as Teco Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), which had a meeting slated for Tuesday next week; Yungtay Engineering Co (永大機電), with a meeting on June 21; and tire maker Federal Corp (泰豐輪胎), which had a meeting on June 17, companies’ data showed.
The FSC has taken measures to reduce the delay’s effects on stock-related affairs, Tsai said.
The 1,931 companies would not need to reschedule the book-closure dates nor adjust their shareholders’ roster, so the shareholders who are eligible to attend the meetings would not be changed, which would protect their interest, Tsai said.
Listed companies must still announce the results of matters that shareholders have voted on through the electronic voting platform provided by the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (台灣集保) a day prior to the previously planned date of their shareholders’ meeting, she said.
The deadline for the solicitation of proxies for attendance at shareholders’ meetings remains the same, she added.
However, companies’ dividend distributions would be delayed, as regulations require that proposals for distributions of cash and stock dividends be approved at shareholders’ meetings, she said.
“That would be the case for most public companies, except for companies whose bylaws explicitly say that the distribution does not require shareholders’ approval,” Tsai said.
So far, 57 public companies have convened their shareholders’ meetings and another seven are to hold their meetings today, commission data showed.
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