We examine determinants and consequences of ‘virtual’ shareholder meetings (VSM). Using a pre-Covid sample of voluntary VSM adopters, we do not find that firms choose the virtual format to avoid shareholders’ scrutiny. VSM are more frequent among tech firms, and firms traditionally more...

We find that annual shareholder meetings conducted online can significantly increase the participation of shareholders, especially minority shareholders. This finding is more evident when the cost of physically attending the annual meeting is higher, and when the firm's ownership is more...

This paper studies voting in shareholders meetings. We focus on the informational efficiency of different voting mechanisms, taking into account that they affect both management's incentives before the meeting and shareholders' decisions at the meeting. We first focus on the case in which the...

We study the strategic scheduling of annual shareholder meetings. When companies move their annual meetings a great distance from headquarters, they tend to experience pronounced stock market underperformance in the six months after the meeting and announce earnings below expectations over the...

Since August 2009, German legislation allows for voluntary Say on Pay Votes (SoPV) during Annual General Meetings (AGMs). We examine 1,169 AGMs of all German listed firms with more than 10,000 agenda items over the period 2010-2013 to identify (1) determinants and approval rates of voluntary...

We study the location and timing of annual shareholder meetings. When companies move their annual meetings a great distance from headquarters, they tend to announce disappointing earnings results and experience pronounced stock market underperformance in the months after the meeting. Companies...

We study the location and timing of annual shareholder meetings. When companies move their annual meetings a great distance from headquarters, they tend to announce disappointing earnings results and experience pronounced stock market underperformance in the months after the meeting. Companies...

The law relating to shareholders' meetings is almost invariably built on the so-called “Efficient Market Hypothesis” (EMH) – i.e.: on the assumptions of rational operators (shareholders, directors etc.), perfect information and no transaction costs. Under EMH all operators select, within...

"Front Cover" -- "The Agm in Europe: Theory and Practice of Shareholder Behaviour" -- "Copyright Page" -- "Contents" -- "Acknowledgements" -- "List of Abbreviations and Legislation" -- "Part I: Introduction" -- "1 The Law & Economics of the AGM" -- "1. Introduction" -- "1.1. Outline of This...

Business, Economics and Legal scholars have all argued about the theoretical importance of annual general meetings in assessing business shareholder relations and wider issues of corporate governance, but often without knowing how the AGM functions in practice. Anne Lafarre combines wide ranging...

Shareholders' voting rights are supposed to be a fundamental asset, giving shareholders a say in the most important corporate decisions. However, institutional investors had seldom used theirs as they are rationally apathetic; it made more sense for them to sell their stocks when a company is...

Institutional shareholders around the world increasingly use active share-voting to protect their portfolio investments and improve corporate governance. However, exercising voting rights involves costly and often arcane country-specific legal rules. This report is one of a series examining the...