Reforms in the shareholder voting system are troubling businesses because it has become difficult to make a quorum at general
shareholders' meetings. The regulator is encouraging businesses to adopt electronic voting but only a few are doing so.
Reportedly, a total number of 2,737,740,593 voting rights were attached to the 2,503,262,274 underlying company shares (referred to as 'theoretical voting rights'), including 200,662,536 voting rights attached to the 100,331,268 company shares held by TOTAL's subsidiaries that cannot be exercised at
shareholders' meetings pursuant to the provisions of the Articles L.233-31 of the French Commercial Code, and 13,634,910 voting rights attached to the 13,634,910 company's shares held by TOTAL that also cannot be exercised at
shareholders' meetings pursuant to the provisions of the Articles L.225-111 and L.225-210 of the French Commercial Code
Pursuant to Clause 30 of the Articles of Associations and in compliance with current laws and regulations, the Board of Statutory Auditors shall be appointed on the basis of lists filed by Shareholders having the right thereto who represent, either individually or collectively, at least 0.5% of the share capital in the form of ordinary shares with voting rights at the Ordinary
Shareholders' Meetings.
and three other power companies held
shareholders' meetings on Tuesday and six more on Wednesday.
This year's
shareholders' meetings peaked Tuesday, focusing on how much top executives were paid in fiscal 2009 through March.
The revised law also advances the deadline for the publication of annual financial statements by listed firms by one month, to the end of March, to shorten the period without financial information and avoid concentration of
shareholders' meetings. In addition, it forbids postponement of
shareholders' meeting, in a bid to prevent it from becoming a tool of corporate power struggle.
It voted against 15 out of 150 management proposals at
shareholders' meetings last year and aims over the next couple of years to build a structure enabling it to screen out troubled firms with two yardsticks: earnings and corporate-governance standards.
Individual and institutional investors were assertive at
shareholders' meetings of many companies held late June, raising questions about low stock prices and directors' retirement allowances.
The NPA said a total of 55 sokaiya racketeers attended the day's
shareholders' meetings of 33 companies nationwide, but no major disruption was reported.
Seventy-seven percent of institutional investors want to have a say over management decisions by firms whose shares they own by exercising their voting rights at
shareholders' meetings, a Finance Ministry survey showed Friday.
Some 2,100 listed and unlisted companies across the country held their general
shareholders' meetings Thursday following the closing of books in March, making it the peak day for such gatherings, the National Police Agency (NPA) said.
Sokaiya are professional corporate blackmailers who typically threaten to disrupt
shareholders' meetings.
