Recently on another forum the shareholders of another company got together in an underground meeting forum and proposed to draft a letter to the management due to their lack of general communication and poor asx worded documents the shareholders informed the management of their intent to call a EGM through the 249d rule of the right of shareholders to force a underperfoming company to call a meeting and within 2 weeks of the company being informed of their intention all shareholders received an email regarding a new website an indepedent report on the company was released and the share price tripled within days SO if people here want to call an EGM to AEX lets get the 100 shareholders together and inform management of our plans and do it otherwise stop complaining .......................
How Many Shareholders Should it Take to Call a Meeting? Mark Tapley Law and Bills Digest Group 12 February 2002
Shareholders have rights not only to share in the profits of an enterprise but also to influence the management of the company and hold directors accountable. This note discusses one feature of the corporate governance framework: the ability of shareholders in listed public companies to requisition company meetings.
The Existing Law Under section 249D of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth) directors of a company must arrange and hold a meeting within 2 months(1) of being requested to do so by:
members with at least 5 per cent of the votes that may be cast at a general meeting(2) (the share capital test), or
at least 100 members(3) who are entitled to vote at a general meeting (the numerical test).(4)
The company bears the cost of calling a requestioned meeting. Directors have the right to refuse to call a meeting if it is not for a proper purpose. For example members cannot, by resolution, make decisions on management matters that are exclusively vested in the directors by the company constitution. A meeting may also be refused if its purpose is to harass the company or its directors or to consider matters outside the competence of the company. In practice however, these grounds provide directors with little scope to avoid calling a meeting.(5)
Concerns Under section 249D a relatively small number of shareholders can requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to raise questions of corporate responsibility in relation to a broad range of issues including labour practices, executive remuneration and environmental standards. No other country employs a numerical test for calling company meetings.(6) The Government and business groups have argued that the provision is open to abuse by 'vigilante' groups with political agendas.(7) Large companies can be forced to incur considerable costs in notifying members of an EGM. It is also argued that such meetings distract management from its core responsibilities
AEX Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held