Social distancing to be eased for shareholder meetings

Social distancing measures will be eased for shareholder meetings in February and March.

A KT worker checks participants' temperatures before entering a shareholder meeting held last year. [KT]

Social distancing measures will be eased for shareholder meetings in February and March.

The announcement was made Thursday by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the Ministry of Justice and related institutions along with guidelines for annual general meetings.

Currently 50 or more people cannot gather together for a meeting in the greater Seoul area under the Level 2.5 social distancing scheme. This means major listed companies with thousands of shareholders cannot hold offline shareholder meetings.

Last year, annual general meetings were held with fewer participants than usual. Only about 300 shareholders participated in the Samsung Electronics shareholder meeting last year, while roughly 1,000 shareholders usually take part, the FSC said.

As the annual general meeting should be held once a year at a set time, usually in March following the corporate charter, the FSC and related institutions said easing social distancing measures for shareholder meetings is unavoidable.

To support safe shareholder meetings, the government will deliver checklists to companies this month so they can better prepare for the meeting and complete the suggested level of disinfection.

To minimize offline participation of shareholders, the government will also waive commissions for digital voting. Companies will actively promote digital voting so shareholders are well informed of the system prior to the shareholder meeting.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]