Korea Securities Depository to launch electronic shareholder meeting platform in October

Korea Securities Depository is set to launch an electronic shareholder meeting platform in October, enabling shareholders to attend general meetings from anywhere. The move is expected to eliminate the inconvenience of minority shareholders having to travel to distant meeting venues, while allowing listed companies to communicate more broadly with their shareholders beyond physical constraints.

According to the depository, the platform will open in October after user testing and a final review of its functions. A pilot operation targeting select users will follow, with full support for listed companies holding electronic shareholder meetings set to begin in January next year.

Before the full service launch, the depository plans to hold a trial electronic shareholder meeting in the fourth quarter of this year together with the Ministry of Justice and the Korea Listed Companies Association, conducting a full dress rehearsal in a real-world environment. It also plans to run practical training courses for staff at listed companies in cooperation with the association, with the aim of ensuring smooth meeting operations.

The platform was developed in response to a revised commercial law that will make it mandatory for large listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more to hold electronic shareholder meetings starting in January next year.

The platform is equipped with seven key functions: expanding electronic voting, accommodating foreign shareholders, providing video streaming, introducing an advance reservation system, supporting voice participation, supporting in-person shareholder meetings and enhancing accessibility.

Specifically, advance electronic voting — previously available through K-Vote until the day before a shareholder meeting — has been extended to allow online voting on the day of the meeting, both at electronic and in-person venues. Foreign shareholders will also be able to attend electronic shareholder meetings and exercise voting rights on the same basis as domestic shareholders, using a shareholder identification number and password.

Listed companies will also be able to stream live footage from their in-person meeting venues to all shareholders through the platform at no additional cost. An advance reservation system for scheduling regular and extraordinary shareholder meetings during the concentrated March season will be introduced to encourage large listed companies to spread out their meeting dates.

To replicate the experience of an in-person meeting, shareholders will be able to participate — asking questions and making statements — by voice, with support also provided for mobile device-based online voting and vote tallying at in-person venues, as well as a range of authentication methods.

Shareholders who complete identity verification and registration by the day before a meeting will be able to join and exercise their voting rights from anywhere via mobile phone, tablet or PC. Foreign shareholders will be able to vote under the same conditions as domestic shareholders and will have additional time to review agenda items. Listed companies are also expected to find it easier to secure the quorum needed for resolutions as shareholder participation grows.

"The inconvenience faced by minority shareholders who had to take time off work and travel to meeting venues in person will be resolved," a depository official said. "Listed companies will be able to respond directly to shareholders' advance and same-day questions submitted through the platform — by voice or in writing — allowing for far more communication with shareholders than is possible at in-person meetings, where time constraints are significant."