Listed companies should relook AGM and annual report practices
In today’s internet age, company's annual reports can be found on the Singapore Exchange website, and already some companies do not send out these CD-ROMs, writes the author.
Every year, around this time when listed companies have to hold their Annual General Meetings (AGMs), we see a proliferation of such notices being advertised in the mainstream media.
I wonder whether this is a legal requirement under the Companies Act or the Securities and Futures Act.
Such notices cost these listed companies a lot of money which eat into their bottom lines. Registered shareholders will already have received their hard copy notices of upcoming AGMs and there is no necessity to inform them in the papers.
Many trees can also be saved if these notices need not be advertised.
Besides, who reads these advertised notices of AGMs?
Also, some companies attach CD-ROMs of annual reports with these mailers.
Again, this is an unnecessary waste of shareholders’ funds.
How many shareholders will bother to insert these into their computers and read?
I always throw them away. In today’s internet age, these annual reports can be found on the Singapore Exchange website, and already some companies do not send out these CD-ROMs.
This is also a small step towards a greener earth.
