Given the escalation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Taiwan, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced on May 20 that that all public companies suspend convening shareholders’ meetings as of May 24 and postpone holding their meetings until July and/or August. Since the epidemic alert level 3 remained in place, on June 29 the FSC announced that companies which fulfill certain criteria may hold a physical shareholder meeting with assistance of video conferencing from August 16th to the 31st through TDCC’s platform to provide live streaming of the meeting and comply with the operating guidelines of TDCC.

According to the FSC’s latest rules, public companies may convene a physical shareholder meeting with the assistance of video conferencing. Shareholders who choose to attend shareholders’ meetings via video conferencing will be considered as having attended in person. However, shareholders should register in advance with the company and forgo their right to propose and/or vote on extempore motions and the right to attend the physical meeting. Furthermore, shareholders who exercised their voting rights via e-voting may not attend the meeting via video conferencing.

TDCC President, Han-Chiang Chu, stated that physical meetings with assistance of video conferencing, which will be launched on August 16, is a brand new practice in Taiwan. Shareholders that have registered to attend the meeting online may sign in, watch the live streaming of the meeting, text questions, and vote online via TDCC’s platform which strives to provide user experience that is just the same as attending the meeting in person. The system will help reduce the number of people at the meeting venue, and hence lower the risk of a cluster infection. TDCC is working hard on building an AGM Supporting Video Conferencing Platform specifically for shareholder meetings as an additional option for public companies and will release more details soon.

For more information about physical shareholder meetings with the assistance of video conferencing, please contact the Issuer Services Department of TDCC at (02) 2719-5805 ext. 109, 222, 427, 341 and 188.