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Disease Prevention Operating Guideline for Shareholder Meetings 2.0 Released

2020/04/09

As TWSE-listed, TPEX-listed, and emerging stock companies are obliged to hold annual general meetings by the end of every June, and COVID-19 has been raging all through this year, Financial Supervisory Commission has mandated that TDCC should invite peripherals to work on related initiatives. Based on the principles of disease prevention and shareholders’ rights protection, Disease Prevention Operating Guideline for Shareholder Meetings has been stipulated for corporations’ reference when organizing shareholder meetings. The main preventive measures include taking temperatures of the shareholders who attend the meeting in person, asking them to wear masks when entering the venue, and setting up a quarantine area to protect their rights to attend and vote. Since the release and implementation of the guideline on March 16, corporations that have held shareholder meetings have been able to follow the guideline.

As the pandemic escalates, the number of locally confirmed cases has seen a gradual increase. Shareholders with fevers at the meeting may put other shareholders and staff at risk of infection and even cause cluster infection. To prevent such cases from happening, Financial Supervisory Commission has directed that TDCC conduct a rolling review of the operation guideline and incorporate CDC’s instruction of limiting the number of people indoors to under 100 into disease prevention measures so that corporations can apply these measures to the shareholder meeting procedure.

The revised Disease Prevention Operating Guideline for Shareholder Meetings 2.0 was released and went into effect on April 9; the additional measures include setting up a separate path for shareholder meeting souvenir collection. On the day of the meeting, some shareholders attend in person simply for the souvenirs, so the check-in and souvenir collection areas are located separately to disperse the crowds effectively. Also, corporations are advised to make appropriate adjustments to the work of the venue and to reduce the number of staff. Corporations shall meet the goal of keeping controlling the number of staff people indoors under 100 to reduce the risk of cluster infection. Besides, disease prevention measures are announced in the meeting notice, and adjustments are made based on the actual operation. The additional announcement states that corporations will ask shareholders with fevers to rest at home or seek immediate medical treatment. As shareholders are aware of the disease prevention measures in advance, the health of the shareholders themselves, and the other shareholders and staff at the venue can be ensured.

In response to the development of the Internet and digital technology, E-Voting for shareholder meetings has been in use for years. As the pandemic prevails, the authority again appeals that TWSE-listed, TPEX-listed, and emerging stock companies actively promote to shareholders the use of E-Voting for shareholder meeting participation. TDCC will also highly publicize E-Voting for meeting attendance to through the media. “With StockVote, national disease prevention is not a problem at all!”

Disease Prevention Operating Guideline for Shareholder Meetings

Disease Prevention