The Annual General Meeting is recognised by the Board as an important opportunity to meet and communicate with shareholders, particularly private investors. The 2009 Annual General Meeting was chaired by the Chairman and attended by all of the Directors. The Chairman encouraged debate and questions at the formal meeting and informally during refreshments afterwards. Each substantially separate issue was put to the 2009 Annual General Meeting as an individual motion and the meeting was invited to adopt and approve the financial statements and the Directors’ Report for the year to 31 March 2009. A separate resolution for the approval of the Directors’ Remuneration Report was also put to the meeting. Notice of the 2009 Annual General Meeting was sent to shareholders more than twenty working days in advance of the meeting and the level of proxy votes lodged for and against each resolution, together with details of abstentions, were disclosed at the meeting. After the conclusion of each annual general meeting the results in respect of every resolution are published through a Regulatory Information Service and on the Company’s website. Full details are also available upon request from the Company Secretary. In addition to the Annual Report, the Company publishes an interim report which is sent to shareholders and issues interim management statements in the second and fourth quarters of its financial year. The Group’s website, www.umeco.com, includes copies of certain key presentations made by senior management, recent annual and interim reports, press releases and links to the websites of the Group’s businesses.
The Board as a whole seeks to maintain a thorough understanding of the issues and concerns of major shareholders. Dialogue is maintained with shareholders and the Executive Directors regularly meet with institutional investors. The Chief Executive and Finance Director have primary responsibility for investor relations and updates are provided to all Board meetings. In addition, copies of analyst research notes and regular reports from the Company’s corporate broking advisers are provided to the Board. The Chairman, Senior Independent
Non-executive Director and other Non-executive Directors will consider requests for meetings with shareholders.