News about the Meetings
04.06.18
Alrosa Shareholders to Use E-Voting Services Provided by NSD and VTB Registrar for the Second Time in Company History
National Settlement Depository (NSD) and VTB Registrar will provide Alrosa, Russia’s diamond mining leader, with e-voting services at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM). This will be the second general meeting of the company at which the two services will be used simultaneously.
E-voting carried out via NSD’s E-voting system and VTB Registrar’s Meeting Portal service (the online version and the mobile application) will allow Alrosa to increase the coverage of its shareholders, to raise the representativeness of voting results, and to upgrade the level of the process’s fault tolerance.
The e-voting option is available for use during the preliminary voting period (until 23 June 2018), and again on 26 June when the meeting will be held.
To use the service, shareholders may complete the electronic ballot on NSD’s website (www.e-vote.ru) or VTB Registrar’s website (in their Shareholders’ Personal Accounts at www.vtbreg.ru, or via the mobile application, Quorum). All services are provided free-of-charge.
The e-voting option (via the two systems) was initially provided to Alrosa shareholders who took part in the extraordinary general meeting; they were able to vote from 19 December 2017 to 11 January 2018. More than 92% of shareholders who took part in the EGM selected the paperless voting method; the number of shareholders who used paper ballots was reduced fivefold, compared with the 2017 AGM.
The Code of Corporate Conduct recommends that companies use electronic services to conduct general meetings of shareholders; it upgrades the corporate governance level and increases the attractiveness of corporate securities; moreover, it decreases the circulation of paper documents, and expands investors’ options for exercising their rights to manage the company. Finally, it increases the representativeness of voting results.
The synergy of NSD’s and VTB Registrar’s e-voting services is convenient for investors in different situations, depending on their needs and capabilities.
Investors may leave voting instructions via the VTB Registrar service, if information about securities holders has not been disclosed yet by their depository. Their votes will be taken into account once relevant data is received from the depository. For investors who hold the securities of a few issuers in their portfolios, it will be convenient to use NSD’s service, allowing them to vote via the unified platform.
If an investor (a legal entity) has to vote remotely, and if the company’s CEO has a personal account on the State Services Portal, it makes sense to use NSD’s service. If the individual does not have an account with the State Services Portal, there is an option to vote via VTB Registrar’s system.
VTB Registrar and NSD will continue to develop services together to satisfy the needs of a wide circle of investors.
