AGM Information • Oct 4, 2017
AGM Information
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(a registered closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with limited liability and with registered number 56708)
P.O. Box 225, Heritage Hall, Le Marchant Street, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 4HY, Channel Islands
Tel: +44 (0) 1481 716000 Fax: +44 (0) 1481 730617
THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any doubt about the contents of this document, or the action you should take, you are recommended to seek your own financial advice immediately from your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial adviser who, if you are taking advice in the United Kingdom, is duly authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
If you have sold or otherwise transferred all of your Ordinary Shares in the Company, you should send this document, together with the accompanying proxy form, at once to the purchaser or transferee or to the bank, stockbroker or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was effected for delivery to the purchaser or transferee.
NOTICE is hereby given that the fourth Annual General Meeting of the Company is to be held at Lefebvre Place, Lefebvre Street, St Peter Port, Guernsey, at 11.00 am on Wednesday, 29 November 2017 for the transaction of the following business:
To be proposed as ordinary resolutions:
a. the maximum number of Ordinary Shares authorised to be purchased under this authority shall be a number equal to 14.99 per cent. of the aggregate number of Ordinary Shares in issue immediately following this Annual General Meeting (excluding treasury shares);
To be proposed as a special resolution:
By order of the Board Heritage International Fund Managers Limited Company Secretary
4 October 2017
Heritage Hall Le Marchant Street St Peter Port Guernsey
For each financial year the Directors are required to lay the audited accounts and the reports of the Directors and auditors to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting. Shareholders will be asked to receive and adopt the Annual Report and Audited Accounts of the Company for the year ended 30 June 2017, together with the Reports of the Directors and Auditors thereon.
Guernsey-registered companies are not obliged to prepare and publish a Directors' Remuneration Report. However, the Company has included details of its Directors' remuneration within the Annual Report and Accounts and an ordinary resolution will be put to shareholders seeking approval of the Directors' remuneration. The shareholder vote will be advisory only, but the Directors of the Company will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing and setting the Company's remuneration policy.
In relation to tenure, the Board has chosen to adopt the recommendation of Principle 3 of the AIC's Code of Corporate Governance relating to FTSE 350 companies whereby all Directors are submitted for re-election on an annual basis at the Company's Annual General Meeting. It should be noted that Mr Rennocks and Mr Scott are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and, as a result, are not permitted to participate in Board Meetings from the United Kingdom in accordance with the Article 29.2 of the Company's Articles of Incorporation. Mr Rennocks and Mr Scott have participated in all, or the majority, of Meetings at which they have been permitted to participate during the year as noted within the Annual Report. It should be noted that Mr Rennocks and Mr Scott actively communicate their views on any matters to be discussed at ad hoc Board Meetings to their fellow Directors, Mr Le Page and Mr McNairn, ahead of such meetings.
Shareholders will be asked to confirm the re-appointment of KPMG Channel Islands Limited as the Company's Auditors until the next Annual General Meeting to be held in 2018 and to grant authority to the Directors to determine their remuneration.
This resolution renews the authority that was given by the Company's shareholders at last year's Annual General Meeting to offer shareholders the right to elect to receive further Ordinary Shares, credited as fully paid, instead of cash in respect of all or any part of any dividend (a scrip dividend). The Board believes that the ability for shareholders to receive future dividends from the Company wholly or partly in the form of new Ordinary Shares in the Company will be advantageous for the Company as it will benefit from the ability to retain cash which would otherwise be paid as dividends. It may also benefit certain shareholders depending on their tax status.
Interim dividends do not require shareholder approval under the Law or the Company's Articles of Incorporation. However, in line with PIRC guidance, the Board wishes to afford the shareholders the ability to ratify and approve the interim dividends paid in respect of the financial year ended 30 June 2017. As the interim dividends referred to in this resolution have already been declared and have been, or will have been, paid prior to the Annual General Meeting, this is an advisory rather than a binding vote.
This resolution renews the share buy-back authority that was given by the Company's shareholders on 17 November 2016. As part of the Company's discount management arrangements resolution 11 gives the Directors authority to make market purchases of the Company's own shares, up to 14.99 per cent. of the Ordinary Shares (excluding treasury shares) in issue as at the time immediately following the passing of the resolution.
Whether the Company purchases any such Ordinary Shares, and the timing and the price paid on any such purchase, will be at the discretion of the Directors. The Directors will consider repurchasing Ordinary Shares in the market if they believe it to be in Shareholders' interests, in particular as a means of correcting any imbalance between supply of and demand for the Ordinary Shares. Any purchase of the Ordinary Shares will be in accordance with the Articles of Incorporation and the Listing Rules in force at the time. In any event, purchases of Ordinary Shares will only be made through the market for cash at prices below the last published Net Asset Value per Ordinary Share.
This resolution provides a partial disapplication of the pre-emption rights contained in the Company's articles to allow the Company to issue new Ordinary Shares for cash on a non pre-emptive basis. The authority conferred by this resolution will allow the Company to issue new Ordinary Shares representing up to 20 per cent of its issued Ordinary Share capital as at the date of the Annual General Meeting. No Ordinary Shares will be issued pursuant to this authority at a price which is less than the Net Asset Value per existing Ordinary Share at the time of their issue.
CREST members who wish to appoint a proxy or proxies by utilising the CREST electronic proxy appointment service may do so for the Annual General Meeting to be held on 29 November 2017 and any adjournment thereof by utilising the procedures described in the CREST Manual. CREST Personal Members or other CREST sponsored members, and those CREST members who have appointed a voting service provider(s), should refer to their CREST sponsor or voting service providers, who will be able to take the appropriate action on their behalf.
In order for a proxy appointment made by means of CREST to be valid, the appropriate CREST message (a CREST Proxy Instruction) must be properly authenticated in accordance with Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited's specifications and must contain the information required for such instructions, as described in the CREST Manual. The message must be transmitted so as to be received by the issuer's agent (RA10) by the latest time for receipt of proxy appointments specified in this notice of meeting. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the time (as determined by the timestamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which the issuer's agent is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST.
CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers should note that Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited does not make available special procedures in CREST for any particular messages. Normal system timings and limitations will therefore apply in relation to the input of CREST Proxy Instructions. It is the responsibility of the CREST member concerned to take (or, if the CREST member is a CREST personal member or sponsored member or has appointed a voting service provider(s), to procure that his CREST sponsor or voting service providers) take(s)) such action as shall be necessary to ensure that a message is transmitted by means of the CREST system by any particular time. In this connection, CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers are referred, in particular, to those sections of the CREST Manual concerning practical limitations of the CREST system and timings. The Company may treat as invalid a CREST Proxy Instruction in the circumstances set out in Regulation 34(1) of the Uncertificated Securities (Guernsey) Regulations, 2009.
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