Can A Retail Investor Attend an Annual Stockholders’ Meeting?

Before we answer the question, let us go back first to the Stockholders’ Rights and Protection of Minority Stockholders’ Interests section of the SEC’s Code of Corporate Governance.

What Are Your Rights as a Minority Stockholder?

1) As a shareholder, you have the right to elect, remove and replace directors and vote on certain corporate acts in accordance with the Corporation Code.

2. You have the right to subscribe to the capital stock of the corporation (pre-emptive rights).

3. You have the right to inspect corporate books and records including minutes of Board meetings and stock registries in accordance with the Corporation Code and to provide them an annual report, including financial statements, without cost or restrictions.

4. You shall be provided, upon request, with periodic reports which disclose personal and professional information about the directors and officers and certain other matters such as their holdings of the company’s shares, dealings with the company, relationships among directors and key officers, and the aggregate compensation of directors and officers. The Information Statement/Proxy Statement where these are found must be provided to you before annual general meetings and in the Registration Statement and Prospectus in case of registration of shares for public offering with the Commission.

You should be granted the right to propose the holding of a meeting, and the right to propose items in the agenda of the meeting, provided the items are for legitimate business purposes.

You should have access to any and all information relating to matters for which the management is accountable for and to those relating to matters for which the management should include such information and, if not included, then the minority shareholders can propose to include such matters in the agenda of stockholders’ meeting, being within the definition of “legitimate purposes”.

5. You have the right to receive dividends subject to the discretion of the Board.

6. You have the right to exercise your appraisal rights in certain circumstances.

Can I Attend The Annual Stockholders’ Meeting as a Minority Investor?

YES. You are eligible to participate in these Meetings provided that you own shares of these companies before Ex-date (usually 4 days before the Record Date).

In order to attend the meeting, you will have to request for a certification letter from your stockbroker to attend the stockholders meeting of that stock you own. On the meeting date just need to present this Certification to prove that you own shares of that company to be able to attend.

Here are some of the upcoming Annual Stockholders’ Meetings (of mostly from Ayala group) that you can attend in for this year:

1) Bank of the Philippine Islands
Record Date: March 11, 2014
Meeting Date: April 10, 2014
Time: 9:00 AM
Venue: Fairmont Makati, 1 Raffles Drive,  Makati Avenue, Makati City, Philippines

2) Globe Telecom, Inc.
Record Date: February 12, 2014
Meeting Date: April 8, 2014
Time: 9:00 AM
Venue: Ballroom 2, Fairmont Makati, 1 Raffles Drive,  Makati Avenue, Makati City, Philippines

3) Ayala Land, Inc.
Record Date: February 11, 2014
Meeting Date: April 7, 2014
Time: 9:00 AM
Venue: Ballroom 2, Fairmont Makati, 1 Raffles Drive,  Makati Avenue, Makati City, Philippines

4) Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc.
Record Date: February 17, 2014
Meeting Date: April 4, 2014
Time: 3:00PM
Venue: Fairmont Makati, 1 Raffles Drive,  Makati Avenue, Makati City, Philippines

5) Metro Alliance Holdings & Equities Corp.
Record Date: April 28, 2014
Meeting Date: May 30, 2014
Time: 2:00 PM
Venue: ONE CAFÉ, 6th Floor One Corporate Center, Julia Vargas Ave., cor. Meralco Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City

Check out the rest of the list of upcoming annual stockholders’ meetings at the PSEi website. Just select ‘Annual/Special Stockholders’ Meeting’ from the dropdown menu of Disclosure Type to generate the list.

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