UK govt extends AGM leeway to end of 2020

The UK government has extended flexibility over AGM rules, meaning companies will be able to hold such meetings in Covid-safe fashion until the end of the year.

This temporary adjustment to the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 was initially introduced to allow greater flexibility for companies until 30 September 2020.

However, after successful lobbying by the Chartered Governance Institute, this is now being extended until 30 December 2020.

As a result, during the pandemic British companies have had greater flexibility to either postpone their AGMs or to hold them in a socially-distant way for the safety of both boards and shareholders.

While the CGI has welcomed this news, further extensions are being sought as policy and research director Peter Swabey explained: “Given the approach of the main AGM season in Spring 2021 and the lengthy planning involved in these events, we hope that the government will give early consideration to a further extension.”