Can a company hold a virtual AGM?

The short answer is not yet. Last Friday BEIS and the FRC issued some guidance in a Q&A format on this topic. This made it clear that virtual meetings are uncommon and largely untested in the UK. This is for a number of reasons, including the limited number of service providers and the sheer number of different companies that will need to hold meetings within a short timescale. However companies should soon be able to hold “closed” meetings with a minimum number of people by way of telephone or other equivalent means of communication. In some cases, companies will have the ability to over-ride their articles for a short period. When these changes are introduced they will change the current lock-down practice for company meetings which requires two people to be present in person at a physical meeting. Written by Nick Graves.