Proxy Answer


To respond to Bruce Manford's letter on proxy appointments under section 327 of the Companies Act 2006: this is not an error (see [2007] Gazette, 13 April, 11).



The effect of section 327 (and its predecessors) is to make void any requirement in a company's articles that a proxy appointment be delivered earlier than 48 hours before a shareholder meeting.



It is not otherwise prescriptive of when a proxy may be delivered - hence the current Table A requirement that a proxy be delivered not less than 48 hours before a meeting. That does not prevent a proxy being validly delivered earlier than 48 hours before.



If a company's articles are silent on when a proxy must be received, or if they prescribe a longer period than 48 hours before the meeting, then no prior lodgement is necessary.



The section does, however, ensure that a company's articles may not effectively disenfranchise shareholders by requiring proxy appointments to be delivered, say, a week or more before the meeting is scheduled to take place.



Antoinette Jucker, Pinsent Masons, London