The Polish Parliament has adopted the following changes to the legislation mentioned in the title:
– official announcement of General Meeting (GM) will be posted on the Company’s website at least 26 days before GM (currently, only printed version in Justice and Law Bulletin are officially available);- registration for the GM will be based on the record date (in case of traded companies); record date is scheduled at least 16 days prior to the GM date (currently, blocking of shares and is- suance of the certificate of deposit at least 7 days prior to the GM date are required);- possibility of voting by electronic access or e-mail must be regulated by the company’s statute (currently, only physical attendance is permitted);- companies will be obliged to enable the investors to submit their proxies by electronic means (currently, only the written form of a PoA is accepted).
The amendments to the Acts was inspired by market participants as well as investors to establish common market practices for the new rules relating to shareholders meetings and proxy voting.
On February 3rd , 2009 the Custodian Banks Board (CBB) representatives discussed with the management of the Polish Association of Stock Exchange Issuers to schedule the necessary actions for implementing. It has been agreed that a special working group will be created to focus on setting market practices for:
– issuing of PoA for GM in electronic form,- standard of GM announcements,- standard of official reports after GM,- on-line meeting transmission in the internet to enable participation and voting in GM,- different methods of voting by shareholders (voting by physical attendance, sending votes byregistered mail, electronic access),- common practice of identification of shareholders accessing GM (possible use of PIN and Personal Access Code),- communication with foreign investors (agenda of GMS also available in English).
The working group will consist of representatives of custodian banks, the Polish Association of Stock Exchange Issuers, National Depository for Securities (NDS) and the Individual Investors Association.
D.C.