AGM Information • Apr 3, 2023
AGM Information
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Incorporated and registered in England and Wales. Registered number 1072032.
If you are in any doubt about the contents of this notice and/or the action you should take, you should immediately consult your stockbroker, bank, solicitor, accountant, fund manager or other appropriate independent financial adviser authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 if you are resident in the United Kingdom or, if not, another appropriately authorised independent financial adviser in your own jurisdiction.
If you have sold or otherwise transferred all of your ordinary shares in Gresham Technologies plc (or will have sold or transferred all such shares prior to the AGM), please pass this document together with the accompanying documents to the purchaser or transferee, or to the person who arranged the sale or transfer, for onward transmission to the purchaser or transferee.
| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| Notice of Annual General Meeting | 2 |
| Explanatory notes to the resolutions | 5 |
| Shareholder notes | 7 |
| Key dates | |
| Date of Notice | 3 April 2023 |
| Latest time and date for receipt of proxy forms | 10.00 am on 19 May 2023 |
Annual General Meeting 10.00 am on 23 May 2023
Incorporated and registered in England and Wales. Registered number 1072032.
Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Gresham Technologies plc (the "Company") to be held at the offices of Blake Morgan LLP, 6 New Street Square, London EC4A 3DJ at 10.00 a.m. on Tuesday, 23 May 2023 (the "AGM").
The Board is keen to welcome shareholders in person to the Company's 2023 Annual General Meeting. However, shareholders who are either not able or who would prefer not to attend the meeting in person will be able to follow the meeting using the online Investor Meet Company ("IMC") platform. Shareholders who are not already registered to the IMC platform will need to register withIMC, for which there is no charge, and add "to meet" Gresham Technologies plc to register attendance, using the following link:
https://investormeetcompany.com/gresham-technologies-plc/register-investor.
Advance registration to attend the meeting in this manner is required. Shareholders who have already registered to the IMC platform will be able to add to meet the Company to register attendance at the AGM.
Questions relating to the business to be conducted at the AGM can be submitted ahead of the meeting via the IMC dashboard or at any time during the meeting via the "Ask a Question" function. Alternatively, questions may be submitted at least 48 hours in advance of the Annual General Meeting via an email sent to [email protected].
Although the Company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives, it will endeavour to address the most prominent within the confines of information already disclosed to the market. Responses to the Q&A will be published at the earliest opportunity on the IMC platform. Shareholder feedback can also be submitted directly after the meeting to ensure the Company is in a position to understand the views of all shareholders.
Votes will be taken at the AGM on a poll but the online IMC platform will not include a facility for attendees to vote live. Accordingly, whether or not you propose to attend the meeting in person, shareholders are encouraged to appoint the Chair of the meeting (or their own choice of person) as their proxy (either electronically or by post) with their voting instructions. This will ensure that your vote is counted on the poll vote to be taken at the meeting if you do not attend the meeting in person.
A proxy form for use in relation to the meeting is enclosed for this purpose. You are requested to complete, sign and return the proxy form in accordance with the instructions printed on it either, by post to Equiniti, Aspect House, Spencer Road, Lancing BN99 6DA or (as directed in the form) by authenticated email sent to [email protected] as soon as possible but, in any event, so as to be received by no later than 10.00 a.m. on Friday 19 May 2023. Shareholders are reminded that, if their ordinary shares are held in the name of a nominee, only that nominee may submit a proxy vote. Institutional investors are also able to appoint a proxy electronically via the Proxymity platform. For further information, please go to www.proxymity.io.
The completion and return of a proxy form will not prevent you from attending the Annual General Meeting and voting in person if you wish to do so.
Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of Gresham Technologies plc (the "Company") will be held at the offices of Blake Morgan LLP, 6 New Street Square, London EC4A 3DJ at 10.00 a.m. on Tuesday 23 May 2023 for the following purposes:
To consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions 1 to 12 (inclusive) as ordinary resolutions:
To consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions of which resolution 13 will be proposed as an ordinary resolution and resolutions 14 to 17 (inclusive) will be proposed as special resolutions:
Such authorities, unless previously renewed, extended, varied or revoked by the Company in general meeting, shall both expire on the earlier of the date falling 15 months after the passing of this resolution and the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2024, provided that the Company may, prior to the expiry of such period, make an offer or agreement which would or might require shares in the Company to be allotted or rights to be granted after such expiry and the directors may allot shares, or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert any security into shares, pursuant to such offer or agreement notwithstanding the expiry of the authority given by this resolution.
(c) the allotment of equity securities or sale of treasury shares (otherwise than pursuant to paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) above) up to a maximum nominal amount equal to 20% of any allotment of equity securities or sale of treasury shares made from time to time under paragraph (b) above, such authority to be used only for the purposes of making a follow-on offer which the directors determine to be of a kind contemplated by paragraph 3 of Section 2B of the Statement of Principles on Disapplying Pre-Emption Rights most recently published by the Financial Reporting Council's Pre-Emption Group prior to the date of this notice.
The power conferred hereby shall, unless previously renewed, extended, varied or revoked by special resolution of the Company in general meeting, expire on the earlier of the date falling 15 months after the passing of this resolution and the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2024, provided that the Company may, prior to the expiry of such authority, make an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted, or treasury shares to be sold, after the expiry thereof and the directors may allot equity securities or sell treasury shares in pursuance of any such offer or agreement notwithstanding the expiry of the authority given by this resolution.
The power conferred hereby shall, unless previously renewed, extended, varied or revoked by special resolution of the Company in general meeting, expire on the earlier of the date falling 15 months after the passing of this resolution and the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2024, provided that the Company may, prior to the expiry of such authority, make an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted, or treasury shares to be sold, after the expiry thereof and the directors may allot equity securities or sell treasury shares in pursuance of any such offer or agreement notwithstanding the expiry of the authority given by this resolution.
By order of the Board,
Jonathan Cathie Company Secretary 3 April 2023
Gresham Technologies plc Registered office: Aldermary House 10-15 Queen Street London EC4N 1TX
The directors consider the passing of the resolutions to be proposed at the Annual General Meeting to be in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole and most likely to promote the success of the Company for the benefit of those shareholders. Accordingly, the directors unanimously recommend that you vote in favour of those resolutions as they intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings of ordinary shares representing, in aggregate, approximately 0.41% of the Company's issued share capital as at 24 March 2023.
The directors are required to lay the Company's annual accounts and reports before the Company in general meeting. The annual accounts and reports are contained within the Company's Annual Financial Report 2022.
A final dividend of 0.75 pence per ordinary share is proposed to be declared for the year ended 31 December 2022. If approved, the final dividend will be paid on 26 May 2023 to all shareholders on the register at close of business on 28 April 2023. The ex-dividend date will be 27 April 2023.
The directors' remuneration report is set out in the Company's Annual Financial Report 2022. In accordance with the Companies Act 2006 (the "Act"), this resolution is advisory only. The directors' remuneration policy is excluded from the resolution as it is itself the subject of resolution 4.
The directors' remuneration policy was last approved by shareholders at the Company's General Meeting held on 30 December 2020. Following a review of remuneration arrangements by the Company's remuneration committee in 2022, the Company is proposing certain changes to the directors' remuneration policy applicable for the period commencing 1 January 2023, details of which are set out in the directors' remuneration report which forms part of the Company's Annual Financial Report 2022.
The Company is required to appoint its auditor at each general meeting at which its annual accounts and reports are presented to shareholders. This resolution seeks the re-appointment of the Company's existing auditor, BDO LLP, to hold office until the next such meeting.
In accordance with normal practice, this resolution seeks to authorise the directors to agree the remuneration of the auditor of the Company.
All directors are standing for re-election in accordance with what the Board considers to be best corporate governance practice. The report of the nomination committee, contained within the Company's Annual Financial Report 2022, sets out the reasons why each director's contribution is and continues to be important to the Company's long-term sustainable success.
This resolution seeks to give the directors general authority, within the best practice limits set in February 2023 by The Investment Association, to issue new ordinary shares in the Company up to a maximum nominal value equal to (a) approximately one-third of the Company's issued share capital as at 24 March 2023 and (b) (only in the case of an allotment of shares made pursuant to a rights issue (pre-emptive offer)), approximately two-thirds of the current issued share capital. These authorities are being sought only for a period of up to 15 months or, if earlier, until the end of the Company's next Annual General Meeting.
Resolution 14, which is proposed as a special resolution will, if passed, disapply the statutory pre-emption provisions that otherwise restrict directors from issuing new shares other than pursuant to a rights issue. The relaxation of the statutory restriction proposed in this resolution would apply to (an increased) 10% of the Company's current issued share capital. Resolution 15, which is also proposed as a special resolution will, if passed, enable an additional 10% of the Company's current issued share capital to be issued without applying the statutory pre-emption requirements where that share issue is proposed in connection with an acquisition or capital investment.
In both cases, up to a further 2% of shares could be issued in relation to a follow-on offer in order to facilitate opportunities for the Company's wider shareholder community to participate in non-pre-emptive share issues.
Whilst the directors have no current intention to exercise the authorities proposed to be conferred by resolutions 14 and 15, it is considered prudent to continue to maintain the flexibility that these now increased authorities would provide. The powers conferred by resolutions 14 and 15 are consistent with the guidance contained in the Statement of Principles on Disapplying Pre-Emption Rights published by the Financial Reporting Council's Pre-Emption Group in November 2022, also supported by The Investment Association, and the powers conferred by those resolutions will be utilised in accordance with that guidance.
The Board is again seeking approval for the Company to make market purchases of its own ordinary shares (subject to the limitations set out in this resolution). If approved, the Company may either cancel any shares it purchases under this authority or transfer them into treasury (and subsequently sell or transfer them out of treasury or cancel them). The directors have no present intention to exercise this authority but, if any shares are purchased under it, the directors currently intend to hold them in treasury. No dividend or voting rights would attach to shares held in treasury. The authority will only be exercised if the directors consider that it is in the best interests of shareholders generally and, where the shares are to be cancelled, normally only if it would result in an increase in earnings per share. In accordance with institutional voting guidelines, the authority sought will expire after 15 months or, if earlier, on the conclusion of the Company's next Annual General Meeting, and is limited to up to 8,344,945 ordinary shares, which represents approximately 10% of the Company's issued share capital as at 24 March 2023.
The Company does not presently hold any treasury shares and does not have any outstanding share warrants. As at 24 March 2023, a total of 5,164,932 ordinary shares were the subject of outstanding share options, representing approximately 6.19% of the current issued share capital of the Company. If the Board exercised the authority sought by this resolution in full, those options would represent approximately 6.88% of the Company's resulting issued share capital (excluding any shares then held in treasury).
The Act, as amended by the Companies (Shareholders' Rights) Regulations 2009, provides that a company may call a general meeting (other than an Annual General Meeting) on not less than 14 clear days' notice provided the Company has first obtained shareholder approval, which this resolution seeks, and meets the requirements for electronic voting imposed by those regulations. If this resolution is passed, the Company will need to meet the requirements for electronic voting before a meeting is called on less than 21 clear days' notice. In accordance with institutional voting guidelines, the shorter notice would not be used as a matter of routine for such meetings, but would only be used in limited and time-sensitive circumstances where the additional flexibility afforded is merited by the business of the meeting and is to the advantage of shareholders as a whole. The approval will only be effective until the conclusion of the Company's next Annual General Meeting, when it is currently intended that a similar resolution would be proposed in order to renew this authority.
Equiniti (ID RA19) by 10.00 a.m. on 19 May 2023. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the time (as determined by the time stamp applied to the message by the CREST Application Host) from which the issuer's agent is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST. After this time any change of instruction to proxies appointed through CREST should be communicated to the appointee through other means.
(n) Under section 319A of the Act, the Company must answer any question you ask relating to the business being dealt with at the meeting unless: answering the question would interfere unduly with the preparation for the meeting or involve the disclosure of confidential information; the answer has already been given on a website in the form of an answer to a question; or it is undesirable in the interests of the Company or the good order of the meeting that the question be answered.
(o) Pursuant to sections 527 to 531 of the Act, where requested by a member or members meeting the threshold requirements set out in note (p) below, the Company must publish on its website a statement setting out any matter that such member(s) propose to raise at the meeting relating to the audit of the Company's accounts (including the auditor's report and the conduct of the audit) that are to be laid before the meeting. Where the Company is required to publish such a statement on its website, it may not require the member(s) making the request to pay any expenses incurred by the Company in complying with the request; it must forward the statement to the Company's auditor no later than the time the statement is made available on the Company's website; and the statement may be dealt with as part of the business of the meeting. The request may be in hard copy form or in electronic form and sent in accordance with note (q) below; must either set out the statement in full or, if supporting a statement sent by another member, clearly identify the statement which is being supported; must be authenticated by the person or persons making it; and must be received by the Company at least one week before the meeting.
Aldermary House 10-15 Queen Street London EC4N 1TX
[email protected] www.greshamtech.com
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