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30
Mar
2022
Link Group, the UK’s leading registrar, has launched an innovative new mobile app to simplify how shareholders engage with the companies they invest in, giving them more control over their holdings, and easing the process by which their voice can be heard.
The app, LinkVote+, provides a new all-in-one suite of solutions for companies and their shareholders. Available on smartphones and tablets, shareholders can have more meaningful interactions with businesses and their shareholdings.
Via LinkVote+ they can more easily engage with their portfolio, download documents, access third-party content - including companies’ investor relations pages and live updates from the London Stock Exchange, appoint a proxy, register their votes and take part in hybrid or virtual shareholder meetings, where applicable.
For the listed companies themselves, the app will enable them to strengthen the two-way engagement with shareholders. LinkVote+ will also have ESG benefits for issuer companies by reducing reliance on paper documents and facilitating electronic voting, making the overall process of virtual or hybrid AGMs smoother.
AGM attendance and capital voted at each meeting have dipped in recent years. Average capital voted at each AGM was 73.9% in 2021, down from 75.9% in 2020, according to research from D.F. King Ltd, Link Group’s specialist proxy solicitation and shareholder engagement team.
Link Group aims to address this by onboarding all issuer clients to LinkVote+ by the end of 2022’s AGM season, making the app available to their shareholders to support their AGMs.
s Proposition and Development Director, where he played a key role in the digital leadership and development of the Master Trust and its member-led propositions.
Ian Stokes, Managing Director, Corporate Markets EMEA at Link Group said:“Disruption caused by the pandemic has in many ways challenged the relationship between boards and their shareholders as they’ve had to navigate to a more hybrid format. While UK corporates are held more accountable by their investors, overall participation and engagement levels are at risk of falling by the wayside. Our LinkVote+ app signals the start of an unrivalled new suite of solutions from Link Group which will pave the way for a new era in shareholder engagement, providing more paperless and digital journeys for shareholders and issuer companies.
“Our purpose is to connect people with their assets, and via our app we aim to provide an efficient and speedy experience for shareholders, giving them more control over their holdings and processes, while also providing issuer companies with industry-leading shareholder solutions.”