KSD: "Electronic Voting Usage by Companies Increased 17.1% Year-on-Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Due to the worsening environment surrounding regular shareholder meetings this year caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), a significant number of listed companies have actively utilized electronic voting and electronic proxy systems.

According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 2nd, 659 issuing companies used the electronic voting and electronic proxy service (K-eVote) at regular shareholder meetings held until March this year, an increase of 17.1% compared to the previous year (563 companies).

In the KOSPI market, the number increased by 36.1% from 180 companies last year to 245 companies this year, and in the KOSDAQ market, it increased by 4.5% from 375 companies to 392 companies.

The Depository explained, "Since the abolition of the shadow voting system, the number of users has been increasing every year, and the use of electronic voting systems is on the rise to enhance shareholder convenience in exercising voting rights and to secure quorum."

In particular, major domestic conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, and Hyundai Motor Group (including 9 affiliates such as Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors) have officially introduced and utilized the K-eVote service from this year, marking a full-scale expansion of the shareholder-friendly electronic voting system.

Among the 202 companies belonging to the 32 mutual shareholding restricted business groups, 92 companies used K-eVote at this year’s regular shareholder meetings.

Meanwhile, the number of shareholders who exercised voting rights through K-eVote this year reached 75,000. The shareholder electronic voting participation rate (based on the number of shares with voting rights) slightly decreased to 4.95% from 5.20% the previous year, but the number of shares exercised increased by 33.1% to 1.81 billion shares from 1.36 billion shares last year.

The Depository evaluated that the electronic voting system has firmly established itself as a "convenient method for exercising voting rights" among domestic stock investors.

A Depository official stated, "Based on the analysis of this year’s K-eVote usage results, we plan to actively explore various measures to promote electronic voting methods," adding, "Along with this, to encourage issuing companies facing ongoing difficulties in operating shareholder meetings due to the prolonged spread of COVID-19, we will extend the full waiver of electronic voting and electronic proxy fees for K-eVote users."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.