COVID 19 AGM - Rules Extended

Covid 19 AGM Rules extended to 31 December 2022

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Covid 19 AGM Rules extended to 31 December 2022 -

The hastily adopted Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Covid-19) Act 2020 (the "Covid-19 Act") was one of the many pro-business measures that the Irish Government took in order to sustain positive corporate governance delivery in the face of the issues posed by the rapid onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March in 2020.

The Covid-19 Act established a critical facility that allows companies, industrial and provident societies, and other organisations to hold their annual general meetings (AGM) and extraordinary general meetings (EGM) of shareholders entirely or partially online, without the need for a physical location.

Many organisations have benefited from these methods, and remote AGMs and EGMs have become a common aspect of corporate life for many companies, as well as industrial and provident societies.

These statutory measures, which overrule a company's written constitution, were only implemented for a limited time

The Government has EXTENDED the measures to 31st December 2022

All AGMs and EGMs after that date must be held in a physical location.

Companies that want to keep using this service will have to change their constitutions to include a provision for holding shareholder meetings remotely.

Organisation should evaluate whether they want to include appropriate mechanisms in their written constitutions to enable virtual/ hybrid AGMs and EGMs to continue, subject to the design of reasonable safeguards along the lines of the Covid-19 Act.

The extension of the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020 allows for:

🟡 Continuation of virtual annual general meetings and EGM’s
🟡 Threshold at which a company is deemed unable to pay its debts remains at €50,000
🟡 Extension of examinership to 150 days remains in place

See more HERE