UK share depository CrestCo is reporting "dramatic" growth in the use of electronic proxy voting at company meetings.
According to figures released today, electronic voting levels in 2004 were more than 30 times greater than in 2003, when the Crest proxy voting service was first launched.
Details of the improvements coincides with calls by former Gartmore chairman for all institutional votes at company meetings to be cast electronically. In a progress report to the Shareholder Voting Working Group, Myners says: "Whereas it may have been possible to argue earlier in 2004 that the levels of electronic voting experienced in 2003 were insufficient to justify changing existing systems, this is no longer the case."
CrestCo says that in 2004, 88% of FTSE100 and 41% of FTSE250 issuers announced a total of 273 meetings for which electronic voting was offered. In 2003, by contrast, only 47% of FTSE100 and 10% of FTSE250 companies offered electronic voting to their UK institutional shareholders and just 80 meetings were announced via CRESTCo’s service.
Tim May, chief executive of CrestCo comments: "With the 2005 voting season upon us, we are actively targeting FTSE350 issuers, as well as those FTSE250 companies that have not yet taken up the service, in the hope that they too will embrace change and join the electronic revolution."
In all, around 85% of UK issued capital is held in secure dematerialised form within the Crest system. According to corporate-governance consultants, PIRC (Pensions Investment Research Consultants), average voting rates for FTSE350 companies across all media is approximately 57%.