Only four companies on the Spanish stock exchange have held their meetings exclusively by telematic means this year. And the major Spanish listed companies agree on the need to reform the current regulations in Spain to facilitate this procedure and allow each company to freely choose how to hold its General Shareholders’ Meeting. The experts point out that in Spain the regulation of general meetings lacks the necessary flexibility to hold fully telematic meetings, which are already common in other European countries and in the United States (75% of the meetings), as well as being the preferred method for many shareholders and institutional investors, who in most cases reside in other countries.
This is one of the main conclusions of the conference “Shareholders’ Meetings in the 21st Century: Model of permanent and telematic meeting”, organized by BME at the Palacio de la Bolsa de Madrid, which was attended by representatives of listed companies such as Santander, Telefónica and Iberdrola, the Better Finance investors’ federation, the Georgeson consultancy firm and experts from law firms such as A&O Shearman, Cuatrecasas and Garrigues, as well as magistrates, professors and members of the General Codification Commission.
During the conference, they discussed the measures needed to advance in the active involvement of shareholders, current and future trends in the organization of general meetings and proposals for reforming the current regulations in Spain. Shareholders’ preferences on the format of the meetings (face-to-face, hybrid or telematic) and the legal limitations that hinder the holding of fully telematic meetings were evaluated.
The proposals for improving Spanish regulations and bringing them into line with the main European countries discussed at the conference are in line with the White Paper on the competitiveness of Spanish financial markets, published by BME, which includes 56 specific proposals. It is a work that had the contributions of some thirty entities and a good number of participants and players in the Spanish capital market.
