The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering easing punishments for companies that fail to hold shareholders’ meeting by the end of June due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as health authorities suggest that people cancel or avoid public gatherings of more than 1,000 people, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday.
Publicly listed companies must hold their annual general meetings by the end of June or face a fine of NT$240,000 to NT$4.8 million (US$7,990 to US$159,798), according to the Securities and Exchange Act (證交法).
The commission would also encourage companies to use an electronic voting system operated by Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集中保管結算所) to reduce the possibility of infection, Koo said.
Listed companies with paid-in capital of more than NT$10 billion and more than 10,000 shareholders have been asked to offer the e-voting tool, dubbed “Stockvote,” to their shareholders, the commission said.
Last year, shareholders who used the system accounted for 52.54 percent of the total, TDCC data showed.
“Big companies might find themselves in an awkward situation if they have more than 1,000 shareholders to attend the meetings,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Sheng Fa-hui (沈發惠) said at the meeting.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the biggest assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, for example, drew more than 3,000 people to its shareholders’ meeting last year, about 1,000 more than the number of attendees in the previous two years, Sheng said.
While most listed companies are to convene their shareholders’ meetings in June, some that usually have the meetings in April or May might decide to postpone them to June because of the virus fears, he said.
Shareholders who have respiratory symptoms or a fever should be allowed to attend the meetings to exercise their rights, but companies need to take extra measures to prevent infection, Koo said.
The commission is expected to make public its relaxed rules later next month at the earliest, he said.
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