Delphi
  December 10, 2010 - Sweden

Amendments to Swedish Companies Act finally enacted – cheaper notices to attend general meetings now open to all public companies
  by Anders Björk

On 1 December, the Swedish Parliament resolved on the delayed legislative amendments to the Swedish Companies Act which, among other things, concern the mode of convening general meetings, on which we reported in previous newsletters (October 2009 and June 2010). The new rules take effect on 1 January 2011. The amendments are brought about by directive 2007/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the exercise of certain rights of shareholders in listed companies, which should have been implemented no later than 3 August 2009.

Convening general meetings

Mode of convening general meetings

The amendment means that Listed Companies no longer need to convene general

meetings by advertising in a national daily newspaper. Under the new rules, general

meetings in Listed Companies will be convened by advertisement in Post- och Inrikes

Tidningar and by making the notice to attend available on the company’s website.

Listed Companies must also provide notification that the notice to attend has been

issued using a national daily newspaper specified in their articles of association and

provide certain information to the shareholders regarding the coming general meeting,

inter alia how they may access the complete notice to attend on the company’s

website.

However, the entire notice to attend does not have to be published in the

newspaper. Finally, Listed Companies are obliged to send the notice to attend to

every shareholder who so requires at no cost to the shareholder.

In the committee’s proposal, only Listed Companies were subject to the new rules

on convening general meetings on the company’s website. After several commenting

bodies had aired criticism, the scope of application was expanded, so that all public

companies are now afforded the opportunity to convene general meetings in

accordance with the rules which apply to Listed Companies.



To access the complete article, please use the link below.

http://www.delphi.se/filearchive/4/4986/NB-Dec10-bjork_eng_2.pdf?seed=1259753396




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