Companies launch charm offensive to avoid trouble at AGMs.

PositionNews Round-Up - Annual general meetings, corporate social responsibility - Brief Article

The combined effects of the "rewards for failure" controversy and the rise in shareholder activism have had a significant impact on the way that firms communicate with investors at AGMs.

According to Robert Blanks, deputy director of the policy unit at the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), firms are avoiding trouble by being more proactive. "To a certain extent they are turning the tables on investors by insisting on dialogue to head off problems," he told FM. "Institutional shareholders are now even facing difficulties because they don't have enough staff to deal with the volume of companies wanting to talk to them."

The new requirement for companies to submit a separate directors' remuneration report so that investors can clearly assess pay against performance has also had an effect on AGMs, according to the ICSA's annual survey. Twice as many firms spent time on the subject of pay in 2003 than in 2002. "Bearing in mind the regulations took...

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