Pre-Annual General Meeting Information • Apr 2, 2014
Pre-Annual General Meeting Information
Open in ViewerOpens in native device viewer
THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND NEEDS YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any doubt as to the action you should take with regard to this document, you are recommended to seek your own personal financial advice from your stockbroker, solicitor, accountant or other professional independent adviser who, if you are taking advice in the United Kingdom, is duly authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or an appropriately authorised independent financial adviser if you are in a territory outside the United Kingdom. If you have sold or otherwise transferred all your shares in Morgan Advanced Materials plc, you should send this document to the purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom you made the sale or transfer for transmission to the purchaser or transferee.
A letter from the Chairman of Morgan Advanced Materials plc is set out on page 1 of this document.
Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Morgan Advanced Materials plc to be held at The Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED on Friday 9 May 2014 at 12 noon is set out on pages 2 and 3 of this document.
Whether or not you propose to attend the Annual General Meeting, please complete and submit a proxy appointment form in accordance with the Notes to the Notice of the Annual General Meeting set out on pages 6 and 7. To be valid, the proxy appointment form must be received at the address for delivery specified in the Notes by 12 noon on Wednesday 7 May 2014.
(Registered in England No. 286773)
Registered Office: Quadrant 55-57 High Street Windsor Berkshire SL4 1LP
2 April 2014
To holders of Ordinary shares of 25p each ('Ordinary shares') and for information only to holders of 5.5% Cumulative First Preference shares of £1 each ('First Preference shares') and 5.0% Cumulative Second Preference shares of £1 each ('Second Preference shares').
Dear Shareholder
I am pleased to be writing to you with details of our 2014 Annual General Meeting which we are holding at The Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED at 12 noon on Friday 9 May 2014.
Following the format of previous annual general meetings, our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Robertshaw, will give a presentation on the Group's business and performance over the last 12 months. Shareholders will then have the opportunity to ask questions before moving onto the formal business of the Annual General Meeting.
Notice of the Annual General Meeting can be found on pages 2 and 3 of this document and contains the resolutions dealing with the business of the meeting. The Explanatory notes for all business of the Annual General Meeting are given on pages 4 to 6 of this document.
Only holders of Ordinary shares or their proxies or duly authorised representatives may vote at the Annual General Meeting.
All your votes are important to us and, once again this year, you will be asked to vote on each of the resolutions on a poll, as permitted by the Articles of Association. This is in line with practice increasingly adopted by UK public companies, primarily as a result of the complexities of the law around voting on a show of hands. It also means that the voting results will be a more representative reflection of the views of our shareholder base.
You are requested (whether or not you intend to be present at the meeting) to complete and submit a proxy appointment form in accordance with the Notes to the Notice of the Annual General Meeting set out on pages 7 and 8. To be valid, the proxy appointment form must be received at the address for delivery specified in the Notes by 12 noon on Wednesday 7 May 2014. Completion and return of a proxy appointment form will not preclude a shareholder from attending and voting at the meeting.
Your Directors consider all the resolutions to be put to the meeting to be in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole, and accordingly, unanimously recommend you to vote in favour of them as they intend to do so in respect of their own beneficial shareholdings.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Shilston Chairman
(Registered in England No. 286773)
('the Company')
Notice is given that the eightieth Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at The Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED on Friday 9 May 2014 at 12 noon to transact the business set out below. Resolutions 1 to 17 and resolution 20 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions and resolutions 18 and 19 will be proposed as special resolutions.
up to an aggregate total amount of £100,000, with the amount authorised for each of paragraphs (a) to (c) above being limited to the same total.
Any such amounts may comprise sums paid or incurred in one or more currencies. Any sum paid or incurred in a currency other than sterling shall be converted into sterling at such rate as the Board may decide is appropriate.
Terms used in this resolution have, where applicable, the meanings that they have in Part 14 of the Companies Act 2006 on 'Control of political donations and expenditure'.
but subject to such exclusions or other arrangements as the Directors may deem necessary or expedient in relation to treasury shares, fractional entitlements, record dates or any legal or practical problems under the laws of any territory or the requirements of any regulatory body or stock exchange, provided that (unless previously revoked, varied or renewed), this authority shall expire on 30 June 2015 or, if earlier, at the conclusion of the Company's next annual general meeting, save that the Company may make any offer or agreement before such expiry which would or might require shares to be allotted or rights to be granted after such expiry. All authorities vested in the Directors on the date of the notice of this meeting to allot shares or to grant rights that remain unexercised at the commencement of this meeting are revoked.
and shall expire when the authority conferred on the Directors by resolution 17 in the notice of this meeting expires, save that, before the expiry of this power, the Company may make any offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry.
be hereby approved and adopted and the Board be hereby authorised to do all acts and things which it considers necessary or desirable to carry the same into effect.
Registered office: Quadrant Windsor Paul Boulton
55-57 High Street By Order of the Board Berkshire SL4 1LP Company Secretary 2 April 2014
The Companies Act 2006 requires the Directors of a public company to lay before the Company in general meeting copies of the Directors' reports, the independent auditor's report and the audited accounts of the Company in respect of each financial year. In accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code, the Company proposes, as an ordinary resolution, a resolution on its Annual Report and Accounts.
Resolutions 2 and 3 deal with the statutory requirements that apply to the Company for the financial year ended 31 December 2013 in relation to the content and approval of the Directors' remuneration report, following changes made to the Companies Act 2006.
The Company will propose at the Annual General Meeting an ordinary resolution (resolution 3) to seek shareholder approval of the Directors' remuneration report for the financial year ended 31 December 2013 (other than the part containing the Directors' remuneration policy which will be covered by resolution 2). The Directors' remuneration report can be found on pages 59 to 80 of the 2013 Annual Report and Accounts. The vote on resolution 3 is advisory in nature and the Directors' entitlement to remuneration is not conditional on its being passed.
For the first time this year, the Company will also propose at the Annual General Meeting an ordinary resolution (resolution 2) to seek shareholder approval of the Directors' remuneration policy set out on pages 60 to 67 of the Directors' remuneration report for the financial year ended 31 December 2013.
The Companies Act 2006 requires the remuneration policy to be put to shareholders for approval annually unless the approved policy remains unchanged, in which case it need only be put to shareholders for approval at least every three years. The remuneration policy sets out how the Company proposes to pay the Directors and includes details of the Company's approach to recruitment remuneration and loss of office payments.
The vote on resolution 2 is binding and, if passed, will mean that the Directors can only make remuneration payments in accordance with the approved policy unless such payments have been approved by a separate shareholder resolution.
The Directors are recommending the payment of a final dividend of 6.7 pence per share on the Ordinary shares in respect of the year ended 31 December 2013 which, if approved by ordinary resolution of the shareholders, will be payable on 30 May 2014 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 16 May 2014. The Company is not offering a scrip alternative to the cash dividend.
In accordance with the Company's Articles of Association and the provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code, Andrew Reynolds Smith, Douglas Caster and Rob Rowley, each of whom were appointed as Directors by the Board since the last Annual General Meeting, will retire from office at the 2014 Annual General Meeting and will seek election by shareholders for the first time.
In accordance with the provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code and as permitted by the Company's Articles of Association, the Board has decided that all other Directors will retire from office at the 2014 Annual General Meeting and each of them (with the exception of Martin Flower) will seek re-election by shareholders. Each of resolutions 5 to13 shall be proposed as an ordinary resolution.
The Chairman confirms that, following a performance evaluation, each Director continues to be effective, demonstrating significant commitment to their roles. The Board believes that the considerable and wide-ranging experience of these Directors will continue to be invaluable to the Company, and recommends their election/re-election.
Biographies of all Directors, apart from those of Douglas Caster and of Rob Rowley, are set out on pages 46 to 47 of the 2013 Annual Report and Accounts.
The biographies of Douglas Caster and Rob Rowley are set out below.
Douglas Caster, Non-executive Director (aged 60)
Career history: Douglas started his career as an electronics design engineer with the Racal Electronics Group in 1975, before moving to Schlumberger in 1986 and then to Dowty as Engineering Director of Sonar & Communication Systems in 1988. In 1992, he became Managing Director of that business and, after participating in the management buy-out that formed Ultra Electronics, joined the Board in October 1993. In April 2000, he was promoted to the position of Managing Director of Ultra's Information & Power Systems division. In April 2004, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer and became Chief Executive in April 2005. He was appointed deputy Chairman in April 2010 and became Chairman of Ultra in April 2011.
Additional appointments: Chairman of Ultra Electronics Holdings plc.
Committees: Audit, Nomination and Remuneration
Rob Rowley, Non-executive Director (aged 64)
Career history: Rob joined Reuters in 1978 where he held various senior management positions, including Finance Director from 1999 to 2000. He retired as a director of Reuters Group plc in December 2001. Rob was previously Deputy Chairman of Cable & Wireless plc, and a non-executive Director of Intu Properties plc from 2004 to 2013, Prudential plc and Taylor Nelson Sofres plc.
Additional appointments: Non-executive Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee and Senior Independent Director of Taylor Wimpey plc; non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC.
Committees: Audit, Nomination and Remuneration
At each meeting at which the Annual Report and Accounts are laid, the Company is required to appoint an auditor to serve until the next such meeting. Following their intention to restructure their business and gradually wind down the activity in their registered firm, KPMG Audit Plc, KPMG have proposed an alternative entity, KPMG LLP, to become the Company's auditor in the future. Accordingly, KPMG have notified the Company that KPMG Audit Plc are not seeking reappointment as the Company's auditor at the Annual General Meeting.
In their place, KPMG have proposed that KPMG LLP be appointed as the Company's auditor to hold office from the conclusion of the 2014 Annual General Meeting until the conclusion of the next general meeting at which accounts are laid before the Company.
In accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, KPMG Audit Plc have provided the Company with a 'statement of circumstances' confirming that they are ceasing to hold office. A copy of the statement is set out as an appendix to this document. Special notice of this resolution has been given to the Company in accordance with sections 312 and 515 of the Companies Act 2006.
Resolution 15 is an ordinary resolution giving the Directors the discretion to determine the auditor's remuneration.
This renews a similar authority given at last year's annual general meeting, which is due to lapse at the 2014 Annual General Meeting. This ordinary resolution seeks approval from shareholders to enable the Company, and all companies which are, or which become, subsidiaries of the Company, to make donations or incur expenditure which it would otherwise be prohibited from making or incurring by the Companies Act 2006. The Company's policy is not to make donations to political parties and there is no intention to change that policy. However, the Companies Act 2006 defines political expenditure, political donations and political organisations very widely, such that normal business activities, which might not be thought to be political expenditure or a political donation to a political organisation in the usual sense, may be included. For example, sponsorship of industry forums, funding of seminars and other functions to which politicians are invited, matching employees' donations to certain charities, expenditure on organisations concerned with matters of public policy, law reform and representation of the business community and communicating with the Government and political parties at local, national and European level, may fall under the terms of the Companies Act 2006.
Accordingly, the Company, in common with many other companies, seeks an authority to incur a level of political donations to political parties, independent election candidates and political organisations as well as political expenditure, to cover these kinds of activities on a precautionary basis, in order to avoid possible inadvertent contravention of the Companies Act 2006. The authority does not purport to authorise any particular donation or expenditure but is expressed in general terms, as required by the Companies Act 2006. Furthermore, as permitted under that Act, the authority has been extended to cover any political donations made or political expenditure incurred by any subsidiaries of the Company. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, you will be asked to give the Company and each of its subsidiaries authority to make political donations to political parties or independent election candidates, to make political donations to political organisations (other than political parties) and to incur political expenditure. These authorities are limited to a maximum aggregate amount of £100,000.
If given, this authority will expire at the conclusion of the Company's next annual general meeting or on 30 June 2015 (whichever is earlier). It is the Directors' intention to renew this authority each year.
The Directors currently have an authority to allot shares in the Company and to grant rights to subscribe for or convert any securities into shares in the Company. This authority is due to lapse at the 2014 Annual General Meeting. The Board is seeking, by ordinary resolution, to renew that authority over Ordinary shares having an aggregate nominal amount of £23,780,832, representing one third of the issued Ordinary share capital of the Company as at 25 March 2014 and also to give the Directors authority to allot Ordinary shares having an aggregate nominal amount of £47,561,664, representing two thirds of the issued Ordinary share capital of the Company as at 25 March 2014 by way of a rights issue. For the avoidance of doubt, the authority sought pursuant to this resolution will give the Directors the ability to allot shares (or grant rights to shares) up to a maximum aggregate nominal amount of £47,561,664. The authority will lapse on 30 June 2015 or at the next annual general meeting, whichever shall first occur. The authority sought under this resolution is standard for most UK companies. The Directors have no present intention to issue any shares under the authority being sought. The Company holds no treasury shares.
This is a special resolution which renews a similar authority given at last year's annual general meeting and, if approved, would enable the Board to allot Ordinary shares for cash other than to existing shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings. Otherwise than in connection with a rights or similar issue or scrip dividend (where difficulties arise in offering shares to certain overseas shareholders and in relation to fractional entitlements), the authority contained in this resolution will be limited to new Ordinary shares having an aggregate nominal amount of £3,567,124, representing just less than 5% of the Company's issued Ordinary share capital as at 25 March 2014.
The authority sought under this resolution is standard for most UK companies. In accordance with the recommendations of the Association of British Insurers, the Directors confirm their intention that no more than 7.5% of the Company's issued Ordinary share capital will be issued for cash on a non pre-emptive basis during any three-year period without appropriate consultation. The Directors have no present intention to exercise this authority. The authority will lapse on 30 June 2015 or at the next annual general meeting, whichever shall first occur.
This is a special resolution which renews an authority given at last year's annual general meeting and is required as a result of section 307A of the Companies Act 2006. The Company currently has power under its Articles of Association to call general meetings (other than an annual general meeting) on at least 14 clear days' notice and would like to preserve this ability. In order to be able to do so, shareholders must first approve the calling of meetings on at least 14 days' notice. This resolution seeks such approval. The approval will be effective until the Company's next annual general meeting, when it is intended that a similar resolution will be proposed. The shorter notice period would not be used as a matter of routine for general meetings, but only where the flexibility is merited by the business of the meeting and is thought to be to the advantage of the shareholders as a whole.
The Company currently operates the Morgan Advanced Materials plc Sharesave Scheme (the 'Sharesave Scheme'). The Sharesave Scheme is an all-employee tax-approved share ownership plan, which enables the Board to provide Ordinary shares to UK employees in a tax-efficient manner.
It will not be possible to grant further options under the Sharesave Scheme after 17 June 2014. Shareholder approval is being sought to extend the life of the Sharesave Scheme for a further ten years until 17 June 2024 to enable the Company to continue to operate the Sharesave Scheme.
Resolution 20 seeks approval, as an ordinary resolution, for the renewal and amendment of the Sharesave Scheme.
The following changes are proposed to the Sharesave Scheme:
The Remuneration Committee has also taken the opportunity to update the rules of the Sharesave Scheme (i) to reflect the legislative changes brought in by the Finance Act 2013, and (ii) taking into account modern practice.
The existing and amended rules of the Sharesave Scheme will be available for inspection during normal business hours on Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) at the Company's registered office at Quadrant, 55-57 High Street, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1LP and at the offices of Slaughter and May at One Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8YY from the date of this document until the close of the Annual General Meeting and at the place of the Annual General Meeting for at least 15 minutes before and during the meeting.
Alternatively, you may return the proxy form in an envelope to FREEPOST RSBH-UXKS-LRBC, PXS, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TU (no stamp required).
KPMG Audit Plc London Sectors Audit 15 Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5GL United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0) 20 7694 3323
DX 157460 Canary Wharf 5
Morgan Advanced Materials plc Quadrant 55-57 High Street Our ref tjs/te/1449 Windsor Berkshire SL4 1LP
26 March 2014
Dear Sirs,
The circumstances connected with our ceasing to hold office are that our company, KPMG Audit Plc, has instigated an orderly wind down of business. KPMG LLP, an intermediate parent, will immediately be seeking appointment as statutory auditor.
We request that any correspondence in relation to this statement be sent to our registered office 15 Canada Square, London E14 5GL marked for the Audit Regulation Department.
Yours faithfully,
KPMG Audit Plc
Quadrant, 55-57 High Street, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1LP Tel: +44 (0)1753 837000 Fax: +44 (0)1753 850872
www.morganadvancedmaterials.com
Building tools?
Free accounts include 100 API calls/year for testing.
Have a question? We'll get back to you promptly.