It was revealed on the 2nd that 7 out of 10 listed companies in the country held regular shareholders' meetings at the end of March this year. The phenomenon of 'concentration of general meetings' that occurs every year is still prevalent.
On this day, the Korea Securities Depository announced in a press release that among 2,687 listed companies with a settlement of account in December 2024, 1,761 companies (66%) held their regular shareholders' meetings in the fourth week of March (March 23-29).
In the market for listed securities, 542 companies, including Lotte Shopping and LG Innotek, held their general meetings during this period. In the KOSDAQ market, 1,163 companies, including NICE Information & Telecommunication, and in the KONEX market, 56 companies, including GENOTECH, held their meetings.
This aggregate is based on companies that notified their meeting schedules to the Korea Securities Depository's 'e-SAFE system.'
Since 2018, the Korea Listed Companies Association has implemented a 'general meeting dispersion voluntary compliance program' to preemptively identify dates when the regular shareholders' meetings of listed companies are likely to concentrate, encouraging meetings to be held on days excluding those dates. This is intended to improve the participation rate of minority shareholders by dispersing the general meeting dates in accordance with the value-up initiative.
The dates predicted to have concentrated general meetings, as announced by the association this year, were March 21, March 27, and March 28. It was found that on the 27th and 28th of the fourth week of March, 219 companies and 601 companies, respectively, had their meetings concentrated.
According to the commercial law, regular general meetings must be held within three months of the end of the settlement of account period, which means that for companies with a December-end settlement of account, March is the last month they can hold their meetings, leading to the phenomenon of concentration. There are calls to prevent this concentration phenomenon to enhance the rights of minority shareholders and improve participation rates.