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In 2017, KAMAZ PTC, one of the world's top 20 heavy duty truck producers, plans to provide its shareholders with the option of e-voting based on the platform developed by National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository. The memorandum of cooperation between NSD and KAMAZ was signed on 1 June 2017 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, said: “The opportunity to take part in Russian issuers’ corporate actions remotely, by using new technologies, will significantly increase investors’ interest in Russian shares. For issuers, this opportunity means a step towards a greater transparency and stronger interactions with investors and shareholders. In its turn, it contributes to increased capitalization, expansion and diversification of the investor base. Switching to whole new corporate governance standards is important for Russia as a specific measure to improve the country’s investment climate.”
KAMAZ shareholders will be able to vote remotely at general meetings of the company’s shareholders. Access to the new platform will be granted to shareholders registered on the State Services Portal. The platform is accessible online anywhere in the world; no special technological tools are required to vote. The new service is available for all categories of shareholders regardless of where their securities are held – in the register or with a securities depository. The platform is bilingual: the interface, AGM materials, and agenda items to be put to the vote will be available both in Russian and English.
About the e-voting platform
Implementing the e-voting service in the Russian market became possible once Federal Law No. 210-FZ was adopted; it established the right of shareholders to use this type of voting at shareholders meetings as of 1 July 2016. Issuers (such as Sberbank) which added the e-voting option for their shareholders to their charters are entitled to propose such service.
The e-voting platform provides shareholders with free access to the e-voting website.
The service has the following functionality:
- An opportunity to register and vote electronically1 (by filling out an electronic ballot at www.e-vote.ru);
- An opportunity to connect to the video or text broadcasting (depending on the issuer’s choice);
- An access to agenda items and materials of the meeting;
- Online communications with the issuers during the meeting.
The platform is accessible anywhere in the world; no special technical means are required to vote. The new service is available for all categories of shareholders regardless of where their securities are held – in the register or with a depository. If an investor owns shares of a few companies, he/she may vote via the platform’s services without bearing additional costs. The e-voting platform is a turnkey solution which can be integrated into issuers’ and registrars’ computer systems.
When using the e-voting platform, an issuer and its audit committee can receive data about shareholders’ votes in the online mode. To calculate votes and adopt resolutions, the issuer can timely register the votes of shareholders who attended the meeting and the votes submitted via the e-voting system. The document interchange between issuers, registrars, and the CSD will be carried out on the basis of ISO international formats implemented by NSD as part of corporate action reform. It provides for a straight through process of automation across all stages of meetings.
This platform will be convenient for different issuers: from major companies with tens and hundreds of thousands of shareholders to small issuers.
The use of the e-voting service by issuers becomes very important if shareholders live in different Russian regions and abroad.
