Digital and hybrid AGMs could provide additional access for shareholders, but there are drawbacks.
One of these is the extra cost, which large companies can bear but smaller companies can find it prohibitive.
Confusion about the legality of holding AGMs that are not purely in person has held back the use of virtual meetings in the UK. The UK is one of the few major OECD countries that does not have specific legislation on virtual meetings.
Hybrid meetings are defined as including the option for physical attendance and online attendance with live digital voting and the option to ask questions to the board. Virtual meetings are where no one attends physically and instead they join via an online platform and can vote and submit questions.
ITM Power gets UK government funds
Electrolyser technology developer ITM Power will receive £86.5m in UK government funding for projects.
There is a £40m subscription at 55.56p/share via the government's GB Energy entity. That is a lower issue price than previous fundraisings. This will give it a 10.4% stake. There will also be a £46.5m grant from the UK government, which will be received quarterly over three years.
This will help to fund the £120m of capital investment in the Chronos electrolyser stack manufacturing line. This is more efficient than the Trident stack. The facility's capacity will be 1GW/year. Cash should be £211m at the end of April 2026 and £157.9m at the end of April 2027.
Hargreaves cash boost
Hargreaves Services will benefit from the latest fundraising by Tungsten West.
The fundraising will accelerate payments for services at the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in southwest England. Hargreaves Services sold the mine to Tungsten West in 2019. There are three outstanding payments of £1m each and when mining commences Hargreaves Services would be paid for mining services. Tungsten West is buying out this mining services contract for £7m.
The £3m payment will be brought forward and recognised in the current financial year, while the £7m termination fee will be a one-off profit.
