On 24 June 2020, MTS, Russia’s leading mobile, media, and digital services provider, conducted the Annual General Meeting of shareholders (AGM) with the use of E-Voting services provided by National Settlement Depository (NSD) and the Reyestr-Online electronic voting service rendered by Reyestr, a Russian registrar.
In accordance with the Bank of Russia’s recommendation on conducting general meetings of shareholder in 2020, the AGM was held in absentia. Shareholders were provided with convenient options to exercise their rights, including electronic voting.
More than 82% of MTS shareholders who attended the AGM used E-Voting and Reyestr-Online electronic services.
“An important task of MTS as a joint stock company is to improve corporate governance. Following the newest financial market trends, we expanded options for our investors and for the first time we proposed that they choose how to vote at the AGM: via NSD’s E-voting service or through Reyestr-Online. This is very important in the current situation of self-isolation, when general meetings of shareholders are carried out in absentia. A synergy of the two companies’ services provides shareholders with an expanded range of services, guaranteeing their safety and confidentiality,” said Maxim Kalinin, Director of the Corporate Governance Department, MTS.
“The demand for remote digital services has been growing not just due to the current situation but also due to market participants’ steady work on shareholders’ rights and interests protection. NSD’s experience in using the e-voting system will allow shareholders to exercise their rights successfully, and more importantly, to do it safely. We will see a higher involvement of shareholders, including retail investors, in taking corporate opportunities,” added Denis Buryakov, Managing Director for Depository Operations, NSD.
“Our experience as one of the leaders in remote technologies among registrars let us provide the maximum options for shareholders. The number of general meetings conducted using electronic voting, and the number of shareholders who voted electronically reflects the increasing demand of our customers for this voting method. The joint project of MTS, NSD, and Reyestr shows us that electronic voting is becoming more popular and allows minority shareholders to actively participate in a joint company’s corporate life in these challenging times,” pointed out Yulia Mogilenko, Director of the Issuer Service Center, Reyestr.