'Electronic Shareholders' Meeting Voting' with 160,000 Shareholders... Impact of Non-Face-to-Face General Meeting Due to COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] The number of shareholders exercising their voting rights using the electronic voting system (K-VOTE) at this year's regular general meetings of shareholders nearly doubled, increasing by 110% in one year to reach approximately 160,000. This rise is attributed to the increased use of electronic voting as non-face-to-face shareholder meetings expanded due to COVID-19.

According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 13th, the total number of shareholders who exercised their voting rights through the electronic voting system at general meetings held until the end of last month was 158,000. This represents a 110.3% (83,000) surge compared to 75,000 during the same period last year.

During the same period, the number of shares voted electronically was approximately 2.24 billion, up 23.7% (430 million shares) from 1.81 billion shares in the previous year. Additionally, among the companies that held general meetings, 843 companies utilized the electronic voting and electronic proxy systems, marking a 27.9% increase from 659 companies in the previous year.

The improvement in electronic voting usage this year is attributed to the expansion of non-face-to-face voting rights at shareholder meetings due to COVID-19 and institutional support such as the relaxation of auditor (committee member) appointment requirements for companies using electronic voting, following amendments to the Commercial Act.

In fact, 121 KOSPI 200 companies, including major conglomerates such as LG Group, Lotte Group, and Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, which introduced electronic voting for the first time this year, utilized this system. Among companies included in the KOSDAQ 150 index, 64 companies adopted the electronic voting system.

To promote electronic voting, the Korea Securities Depository implemented measures last year including ▲ complete system reconstruction and launch ▲ improved accessibility to electronic voting ▲ fee exemptions. Furthermore, a new system was introduced allowing shareholders to conveniently exercise voting rights by accessing the electronic voting site included in shareholder meeting information after viewing notification documents through simple authentication using KakaoPay.

A representative from the Korea Securities Depository stated, "As the operating environment for shareholder meetings deteriorated due to COVID-19, the use of electronic voting and electronic proxies increased," adding, "We plan to identify areas for improvement through future surveys and provide customer-friendly electronic voting services."

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