Shareholders engagement and annual general meetings of Australian listed companies: An empirical analysis of corporate governance

The shareholders use their voting rights to voice their corporate concerns at annual general meetings (AGMs) (Hewitt, 2011) and shareholders’ meaningful engagement at AGMs is important (Australian Securities and Investments Commission [ASIC], 2018a, 2019). This study aims to empirically analyse shareholders’ engagement in corporate decision-making at AGMs of Australian listed companies. This study addresses the question of the magnitude of shareholders’ engagement in the corporate decision-making process by exercising their voting rights within Australian listed companies. Shareholders’ voting behaviour was empirically analysed from hand-collected data for 610 AGMs from a sample of 122 Australian listed companies from 2014 to 2018’s AGMs seasons. The findings of this study show that companies preferred to decide on resolutions in a poll instead of a show of hands, voting through proxies increased by an average of 4.75 percent, shareholders physical presence at AGMs decreased by an average of 0.69 percent and on average, 33.98 percent shareholders have not participated in the decision-making process. The issues with shareholder engagement at AGMs need to be re-examined to understand the factors shareholders consider while voting. Company decision-makers need to reconsider the role of shareholders at AGMs.