23 Jan 2018 13:57
23 January 2018
Connect Group PLC
Result of 2018 Annual General Meeting
Connect Group PLC is pleased to announce that at its AGM held at 11.30am today, all resolutions put to the meeting were duly passed. All resolutions were voted on by way of a poll and the results of the poll for each resolution are shown below:
Resolution | For | Against | Withheld | |||
No. of votes | % | No. of votes | % | No. of votes | ||
1 | To receive the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2017 | 167,115,903 | 99.99% | 1,609 | 0.01% | 4,491 |
2 | To approve the directors' remuneration report for the year ended 31 August 2017 | 159,516,228 | 95.79% | 7,009,953 | 4.21% | 595,822 |
3 | To declare a final dividend of 6.7p per share | 167,116,555 | 100.00% | 860 | 0.00% | 4,588 |
4 | To elect Mark Whiteling | 166,824,178 | 99.84% | 267,959 | 0.16% | 29,866 |
5 | To re-elect Gary Kennedy | 166,742,901 | 99.79% | 357,252 | 0.21% | 21,849 |
6 | To re-elect Mark Cashmore | 166,802,634 | 99.82% | 297,062 | 0.18% | 22,307 |
7 | To re-elect David Bauernfeind | 166,788,637 | 99.81% | 311,059 | 0.19% | 22,307 |
8 | To re-elect Jonathan Bunting | 166,804,074 | 99.82% | 296,109 | 0.18% | 21,820 |
9 | To re-elect Denise Collis | 165,299,613 | 98.92% | 1,804,399 | 1.08% | 17,991 |
10 | To re-appoint the auditor | 166,797,854 | 99.82% | 296,330 | 0.18% | 27,818 |
11 | To authorise the Audit Committee to determine the auditor's remuneration | 167,037,955 | 99.96% | 67,885 | 0.04% | 16,163 |
12 | Authority to make political donations | 164,600,052 | 98.53% | 2,463,977 | 1.47% | 57,974 |
13 | Authority to allot shares | 141,811,737 | 84.87% | 25,286,144 | 15.13% | 24,122 |
14 | Authority to partially disapply pre-emption rights* | 139,963,935 | 83.79% | 27,079,158 | 16.21% | 78,910 |
15 | Authority to disapply pre-emption rights in connection with an acquisition or specified capital investment* | 141,405,092 | 84.65% | 25,637,028 | 15.35% | 79,882 |
16 | Authority to make market purchases of ordinary shares* | 166,729,420 | 99.77% | 379,981 | 0.23% | 12,601 |
17 | Authority to call general meetings (other than the AGM) on 14 clear days' notice* | 163,648,150 | 97.96% | 3,413,037 | 2.04% | 60,816 |
* Special resolution
Recognising proposed changes to the Corporate Governance Code (announced after the publication of the Annual Report and Accounts), developing market practice and following feedback from one of our major institutional shareholders, the Board has determined that future LTIP awards for Executive Directors will have a two year post-vesting holding period (of the net of tax number of shares). The resultant five-year timeframe between the grant of an LTIP award and the first opportunity to sell the vested shares will better align the long term interests of shareholders with the interests of the Executive Directors and provide a focus on longer-term outcomes.
Notes:
1. Where shareholders appointed the Chairman as their proxy with discretion as to voting, their votes were cast in favour of the resolutions and have been included in the "For" total.
2. A "vote withheld" is not a vote in law and is not counted in the calculation of the percentages of the votes cast for and against a resolution.
3. The total number of shares in issue at 6.30pm on 19 January 2018 was 247,659,200. Votes were cast in respect of 67% of the issued share capital.
In accordance with the UK Listing Authority's Listing Rule 9.6.2, a copy of the special business passed at the AGM, being resolutions 12 to 17, has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.
Adele Duff
Deputy Company Secretary