Pre-Annual General Meeting Information • Sep 5, 2023
Pre-Annual General Meeting Information
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If you are in any doubt as to the action you should take, you are recommended to seek your own financial advice from your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent adviser authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
If you have recently sold or transferred all of your ordinary shares of £0.01 each in the issued share capital of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc ('Ordinary Shares') please send this notice and the accompanying documents as soon as possible to the purchaser or transferee or to the person who arranged the sale or transfer, so they can pass these documents to the person who now holds the Ordinary Shares.
Incorporated in England and Wales under the Companies Act 2006 with registered number 13179529
Notice of the Annual General Meeting ('Notice of AGM') to be held on Thursday 28 September 2023 at 11.00 a.m. at the offices of Pennington Manches Cooper LLP, 125 Wood Street, EC2V 7AW is set out on pages 4 to 6 of this document.
Whether or not you propose to attend the Annual General Meeting ('AGM'), please complete and submit the enclosed form of proxy or electronic proxy appointment instruction in accordance with the notes to the Notice of AGM set out on page 7 of this document. To be valid, the form of proxy or must be electronic proxy appointment instruction must be received at the address for delivery specified in the notes by 11.00 a.m. on 26 September 2023.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc Prama House 267 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7HT
5 September 2023
Dear Shareholder,
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The following document gives notice that the Annual General Meeting of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc (the 'Company') will be held on Thursday 28 September 2023 at 11.00 a.m. at the offices of Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP, 125 Wood Street, EC2V 7AW. The purpose of this letter is to explain the business to be considered at the AGM and to set out how the AGM will be conducted.
We do strongly encourage shareholders to submit a proxy vote in advance of the AGM and to appoint the Chairman of the meeting as their proxy, rather than a named person who, if circumstances change, may not be able to attend the meeting. Further details on how to do this are set out on page 7 of this document.
We know that some attendees appreciate the opportunity to ask Board members questions. If you have any questions that you would like to ask, we would encourage you to email them to [email protected] with 'AGM 2023' in the heading. We will then collate the answers to the questions received and upload them to our website following the AGM or, if more appropriate, reply to the questioner directly.
The business to be considered at the AGM is set out on pages 4 to 6 of this Notice of AGM. Explanatory notes on each resolution to be considered at the AGM are set out on pages 7 to 13 of this Notice of AGM.
Resolutions 1 to 10 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions and will be passed if more than 50 per cent. of the votes cast (not counting votes withheld) are in favour. Resolutions 11 to 13 will be proposed as special resolutions and will be passed if at least 75 per cent. of the vote cast (not counting votes withheld) are in favour.
Voting at the AGM will be conducted by way of a poll. The results of voting on the resolutions will be posted on the Company's corporate website as soon as practicable after the AGM, and through a Regulatory News Service announcement.
As mentioned above, we do strongly encourage shareholders to submit a proxy vote in advance of the AGM and to appoint the Chairman of the meeting as their proxy, rather than a named person who, if circumstances change, may not be able to attend the meeting. Further details on how to do this are set out on page 7 of this document.
Please note that, to be valid, all proxy forms and appointments must be received by 11.00 a.m. on Tuesday 26 September 2023, or, in the event of an adjournment of the meeting, 48 hours before the adjourned meeting.
The completion of a proxy does not preclude you from attending and voting in person at the AGM should you decide to do so.
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Our corporate website https://www.oxcantech.com/investors, provides more information about the Company including:
The Directors consider that all the proposals to be considered at the AGM are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole. The Directors unanimously recommend that you vote in favour of all the proposed resolutions as they intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings.
The results of the voting on all resolutions will be announced via the Regulatory News Service and published on our website as soon as practicable following the conclusion of the AGM.
Yours faithfully
Julie Pomeroy Non-Executive Chair
5 September 2023
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc ('Company') will be held at the offices of Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP, 125 Wood Street, EC2V 7AW on Thursday 28 September 2023 at 11.00 a.m.
You will be asked to consider and vote on the resolutions below. Resolutions 1 to 10 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions. For an ordinary resolution to be passed, a simple majority of the vote cast must be in favour of the resolution. Resolutions 11 to 13 will be proposed as special resolutions. For a special resolution to be passed, at least 75 per cent. of the votes cast must be in favour of the resolution.
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such authority to expire (unless previously varied as to duration, revoked or renewed by the Company in general meeting) at the end of the next annual general meeting of the Company or, if earlier, at the close of business on 28 March 2025, except that the Company may during the relevant period make any offer or agreement which would or might require Redenominated Ordinary Shares to be allotted or rights to subscribe for or convert securities into Redenominated Ordinary Shares to be granted after the authority ends, and the Directors may allot Redenominated Ordinary Shares or grant such rights in pursuance of such offer or agreement as if the authority had not ended.
and shall expire when the authority conferred on the Directors by resolution 10 in the notice of this meeting expires or is revoked, 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.
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""Deferred Shares" means deferred shares of 0.9 pence each in the capital of the company having the rights and being subject to the restrictions set out in Article 144;"
13.2 the insertion of a new article 144 into the Articles of Association as follows:
By order of the Board
Company Secretary
5 September 2023
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc Registered office: Prama House 267 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7HT
Registered Number: 13179529
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shall be entitled to attend, speak and vote at the meeting. Changes to the register of members after the relevant deadline shall be disregarded in determining the rights of any person to attend and vote at the meeting.
All resolutions at the AGM will be decided by poll and not by a show of hands. The Board also believes a vote by way of poll to be more representative of shareholders' voting intentions so that the votes are counted according to the number of Ordinary Shares held.
proxy appointment instructions. It is the responsibility of the CREST member concerned to take (or, if the CREST member is a CREST personal member or a CREST sponsored member or has appointed any voting service provider(s), to procure that his CREST sponsor or voting service provider(s) take(s)) such action as is necessary to ensure that a message is transmitted by means of the CREST system by any particular time. CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers should take into account the provisions of the CREST Manual concerning timings as well as its section on 'Practical limitations of the system'. In certain circumstances the Company may, in accordance with the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001 or the CREST Manual, treat a CREST proxy appointment instruction as invalid.
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Where you have appointed a proxy using the hard-copy proxy form and would like to change the instructions using another hard-copy proxy form, please contact Computershare Investor Services plc at The Pavilions, Bridgwater Road, Bristol, BS99 6ZY.
If you submit more than one valid proxy appointment, the appointment received last before the latest time for the receipt of proxies will take precedence.
In either case, the revocation notice must be received by Computershare Investor Services plc no later than 11.00 a.m. on the 26 September 2023.
If you attempt to revoke your proxy appointment but the revocation is received after the time specified, your original proxy appointment will remain valid unless you attend the meeting and vote in person.
Appointment of a proxy does not preclude you from attending the meeting and voting in person. If you have appointed a proxy and attend the meeting in person or electronically, your proxy appointment will automatically be terminated.
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It is proposed that all votes on the Resolutions at the AGM will be taken by way of a poll. On a vote by poll, every ordinary shareholder has one vote for every Ordinary Share held.
The Company's website will include information on the number of Ordinary Shares and voting rights.
Any shareholder attending the meeting has the right to ask questions. If multiple questions on the same topic are received in advance, the Chair may choose to provide a single answer to address shareholder queries on the same topic.
The Company must answer any question you ask relating to the business being dealt with at the meeting unless:
If you attend the meeting in person, you may be included in the recording of the meeting. Please note that this recording is solely for the purposes of creating a transcript of the meeting and will not be publicly available.
The conditions are that:
l The request:
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The conditions are that:
Where the Company is required to publish such a statement on its website:
such request must be made by sending:
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As soon as practicable following the meeting, the results of the voting will be announced via a regulatory information service and posted on the Company's website.
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You may not use any electronic address provided either:
to communicate with the Company for any purposes other than those expressly stated.
An explanation of each of the proposed resolutions is set out below.
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The Directors are required to present to shareholders at the AGM the reports of the Directors and auditors and the audited accounts of the Company for the year ended 30 April 2023.
Shareholders are requested to approve the Directors' remuneration report, in accordance with section 439 of the Companies Act 2006 (the CA 2006). The Directors' remuneration report is set out on pages 103 to 107 of the Company's annual accounts and reports for the year ended 30 April 2023, available on the Company's website at https://www.oxcantech.com/investor-financial-results-centre. The vote is advisory and the Directors' entitlement to remuneration is not conditional on it.
At each annual general meeting of the Company, the Company's articles of association (the Articles) require one-third, or if their number is not three or a multiple of three, the number nearest to but not exceeding one-third of Directors to retire. The Articles also require that any Director shall retire at the first annual general meeting of the Company following his appointment. As such, each of Paul Smalley, Cheryl Dhillon and Indraneil Mahapatra is retiring and seeks re-appointment at the AGM. Biographical information for all the Directors standing for re-election is included on pages 67 to 68 of the Company's annual accounts and reports and on the Company's website at https://www.oxcantech.com/investor-board.
Having considered the performance of and contribution made by each of the Directors, the Board remains satisfied that, and the Chair confirms that, the performance of each Director continues to be effective and to demonstrate commitment to the role and, as such, the Board recommends their re-election.
The Companies Act 2006 requires that auditors be appointed at each general meeting at which accounts are laid to hold office until the next such meeting. The appointment of Moore Kingston Smith LLP as auditors of the Company terminates at the conclusion of the AGM. They have indicated their willingness to stand for reappointment as auditors of the Company until the conclusion of the annual general meeting in 2024. The Company's audit committee keeps under review the independence and objectivity of the external auditors and further information can be found in the annual report and accounts on page 131. After considering the relevant information, the Audit Committee has recommended to the Board that Moore Kingston Smith LLP be re-appointed as auditors.
It is normal practice for shareholders to resolve at the annual general meeting that the Directors decide on the level of remuneration of the auditors for the audit work to be carried out by them in the next financial year. The amount of the remuneration paid to the auditors for the next financial year will be disclosed in the next audited accounts of the Company.
The Company currently has in issue 960,415,644 Ordinary Shares with a nominal value of 1p each. Over the past few months the Company's share price has fluctuated around current nominal value per Ordinary Share. The Company is not permitted by law to issue shares below their nominal value. Therefore, the Directors propose to reorganise the Company's share capital so as to provide the Company with flexibility to issue new Ordinary Shares pursuant to the general authorities proposed at the AGM at a price which is required by law, that is no less than the nominal value of such new Ordinary Shares.
The proposed capital reorganisation will consist of the following steps:
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The Company will need to amend its Articles to set out the rights and restrictions attaching to the Deferred Shares.
The Deferred Shares will not be admitted to the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority or to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange Group plc (or any other investment exchange). The Deferred Shares will have limited rights and will be subject to the restrictions, as set out in the Company's Articles, as amended by special resolution at the Annual General Meeting and as summarised below.
The Deferred Shares will not be transferable. The holders of the Deferred Shares shall not, by virtue or in respect of their holdings of Deferred Shares, have the right to receive notice of any general meeting of the Company or the right to attend, speak or vote at any such general meeting.
The Deferred Shares will not entitle their holders to receive any dividend or other distribution. The Deferred Shares will on a return of assets in a winding up entitle the holders only to the repayment of £1.00 for the entire class of Deferred Shares.
The Company will have irrevocable authority at any time to appoint any person to execute on behalf of the holders of the Deferred Shares a transfer thereof and/or an agreement to the transfer of the same to such persons as the Company may determine or as the Company determines as custodian thereof, without making any payment to the holders thereof, and/or consent to cancel the same (in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act) without making any payment to or obtaining the sanction of the holders thereof.
The Company may, at its option at any time, purchase all or any of the Deferred Shares then in issue, at a price not exceeding £1.00 for each aggregate holding of Deferred Shares so purchased.
The Directors consider the Deferred Shares, so created, to be of no economic value.
The Directors may only allot Ordinary Shares or grant rights over Ordinary Shares if authorised to do so by shareholders. Any authority granted at the last annual general meeting to allot Ordinary Shares or grant rights to subscribe for, or convert any security into, Ordinary Shares is due to expire at the conclusion of this year's AGM.
The Investment Association ('IA') guidelines on authority to allot shares state that IA members will permit, and treat as routine, resolutions seeking authority to allot shares representing up to one-third of a company's issued share capital. In addition, they will treat as routine a request for authority to allot shares representing an additional one third of a company's issued share capital provided that it is only used to allot shares for the purpose of a fully pre-emptive rights issue.
Accordingly, resolution 10, if passed, would authorise the Directors under section 551 of the CA 2006 to allot new Ordinary Shares or grant rights to subscribe for, or convert any security into, new Ordinary Shares (subject to shareholders' pre-emption rights) up to a maximum nominal amount of £640,277.10 representing the IA guideline limit of approximately 66 per cent. of the Company's issued ordinary share capital (excluding Ordinary Shares held in treasury) as at 4 September 2023 (being the latest practicable date prior to the publication of this document).
Resolution 10.1 would give the Directors authority to allot new Ordinary Shares or grant rights to subscribe for, or convert any security into, new Ordinary Shares, up to an aggregate nominal value of £320,138.55, representing approximately one third of the Company's existing issued share capital (excluding Ordinary Shares held in treasury) in connection with a rights issue in favour of ordinary shareholders.
Resolution 10.2, if passed, would give the Directors general authority to allot new Ordinary Shares or grant rights to subscribe for, or convert any security into, new Ordinary Shares, up to an aggregate nominal value of £320,138.55, representing approximately one third of the Company's existing issued share capital (excluding Ordinary Shares held in treasury). As resolution 10.2 imposes no restrictions on the way the authority may be exercised, it could be used in conjunction with resolution 10.1 so as to enable the whole two-thirds to be used in connection with a rights issue. Where the usage of this authority exceeds one-third of the issued share capital, the Directors intend to follow best practice as regards its use.
The authority will expire at the earlier of the conclusion of the next annual general meeting of the Company and 28 March 2025.
Passing this resolution will ensure that the Directors continue to have the flexibility to act in the best interests of shareholders, when opportunities arise, by issuing new Ordinary Shares. There are no current plans to issue new Ordinary Shares except in connection with any employee share schemes.
The Company does not at present hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. The passing of this resolution is conditional on the passing of resolutions 8, 9 and 13.
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The CA 2006 requires that if the Company issues new Ordinary Shares or grants rights to subscribe for or to convert any security into Ordinary Shares for cash, or sells any treasury shares, it must first offer them to existing shareholders in proportion to their current holdings. In certain circumstances, it may be in the best interests of the Company to allot Ordinary Shares (or to grant rights over Ordinary Shares) for cash without first offering them proportionately to existing shareholders. This cannot be done under the CA 2006 unless the shareholders have first waived their pre-emption rights. In accordance with investor guidelines, therefore, approval is sought by the Directors to issue a limited number of Ordinary Shares for cash without first offering them to existing shareholders.
Resolution 11 contains a two-part disapplication of pre-emption rights which seeks to renew the Directors' authority to issue equity securities of the Company for cash without application of pre-emption rights pursuant to section 561 of the CA 2006.
Other than in connection with a rights or other pre-emptive issue, scrip dividend or other similar issue, the authority contained in resolution 11 would be limited to a maximum nominal amount of £192,083.10 (which would equate to 192,083,128 ordinary shares of 0.1 penny each), representing approximately 20 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital as at 4 September 2023, being the latest practicable date prior to the publication of this Notice of AGM.
Resolution 11 also seeks a disapplication of the pre-emption rights on a rights issue or other pre-emptive offer so as to allow the Directors to make exclusions or such other arrangements as may be appropriate to resolve legal or practical problems which might arise, for example, with overseas shareholders.
If passed, the authority will expire at the same time as the authority to allot Ordinary Shares given pursuant to resolution 10 (Authority to allot Ordinary Shares).
Save for share issues in respect of employee share schemes and any share dividend alternatives, the Directors have no current plans to utilise either of the authorities sought by resolutions 10 (Authority to allot Ordinary Shares) or 11 (Disapplication of pre-emption rights), although they consider their renewal appropriate in order to retain maximum flexibility to take advantage of business opportunities as they arise.
Under the Companies Act 2006 all listed company general meetings must be held on at least 21 days' notice, but companies may reduce this period to 14 days (other than for annual general meetings) if shareholders agree to a shorter notice period and the Company has met certain requirements for electronic voting. Resolution 12 is therefore being proposed as a special resolution to grant the authority which permits the Company to call general meetings, other than AGMs, on 14 clear days' notice. If the resolution is passed, the authority conferred would be effective until the Company's next annual general meeting, when it is intended that the approval be renewed.
The Directors confirm that the shorter notice period would not be used as a matter of routine. The Directors will consider on a case-by-case basis whether the use of the flexibility offered by the shorter notice period is merited taking into account all the circumstances, including whether the business of the meeting is time sensitive. An electronic voting facility will be made available to all shareholders for any meeting held on 14 clear days' notice.
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