A spotlight on New Zealand
Over the 2025 year, there were 94 meetings where our New Zealand team provided meeting services.
Meeting Format
Hybrid meetings remain the preferred format for nearly half of our issuer clients, with boards and executives using this option to meet investor and market expectations. Larger issuers routinely adopt hybrid meetings, aligning with NZ Shareholders Association guidance; particularly valuable for contentious matters, geographically dispersed shareholders, or directors joining from multiple locations. Smaller issuers, or those with financial constraints, more commonly choose either physical or fully virtual formats.
Over the past year, physical only meetings dropped from 31% in 2024 to 23% in 2025, reflecting a clear decline in preference for in-person attendance.
Virtual meetings held steady at around 27% of all meetings. Across all formats, however, investors showed a strong preference for attending online; around 75% joined virtually, compared with just 25% who attended in-person (either by choice or due to issuer set meeting formats).
The number of shareholder meetings being facilitated in our purpose-built meeting venue has increased from 20% in 2024 to over 25% in 2025. Our issuers like the ease of use and “one-stop shop” nature of our offering and increasingly it is being used by our clients for off-site strategy days, results calls, and board meetings.
Some issuers use their unique facilities to showcase their business as part of the meeting experience. Facility tours, product demonstrations, and promotional packs are often incorporated to help strengthen the connection with investors.
DIY hybrid meetings
Across the year, our team attended 78% of client meetings. A small number of issuers, often smaller or unlisted companies, though not exclusively, chose a ‘DIY’ approach, running their own shareholder meetings and using external platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams to manage voting.
This approach may be adequate when attendance is low and there are no contentious matters requiring auditable scrutiny. However, in 2025 one listed issuer processed its own proxies and overlooked a major institutional vote, forcing them to reissue their voting results and causing the investor to lose confidence in the process.
In another situation, Company B carried out their own meeting and tallied the results, however, the voting percentages released to the NZX were incorrect. We have also seen situations where Company C engaged its auditors to manage the polling process; however, without the necessary procedural expertise, the meeting was poorly executed, resulting in a suboptimal investor experience and unfavourable media coverage the following day.
Our recommendation is to use the capability and accurate expertise of our annual meeting services, your client partnership manager can help you in this area.
Shareholder Activism
Shareholder activism was abundant in 2025 with key themes being poor results (sometimes over a number of years), disenchantment with the strategy of the board and executives, objection to the terms of a scheme of arrangement, or some external relationship that the company had (either by product or service) that some in the community objected to. Boards and Executives need to be aware of potential “flashpoints” and ensure they are on the front-foot, identifying potential activism. Our advice is to outline any restrictions on attendance (e.g.: shareholders only) in the Notice of Meeting or in a communication prior to the meeting.
Shareholder Engagement
As more investors hold shares through custodial platforms and micro investing apps (such as Sharesies, Hatch and similar services), increasing numbers do not appear on the issuer register and can only vote if they notify their custodian within the custodian’s required timeframe. In some cases, the voting window may be as short as 24 hours, and in others custodians may not offer voting access at all. As a result, in meetings where only registered shareholders may vote, particularly those involving contentious matters, some investors holding through custodial arrangements may be unable to participate in the voting process
Presentation of proxy voting results
There has been some variation in the way companies present the proxy voting results at the time resolutions are being voted on. The New Zealand Shareholder Association recommends not showing the results at the meeting prior to the resolution, and also not including them in the presentation being released to the NZX / ASX just before the meeting. However, companies may choose to display the proxy voting results after the resolution has been voted on, or at the conclusion of the voting process.
