Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC
UK ENGAGE PROVIDES AGM VOTING SERVICES FOR CHELSEA PITCH OWNERS PLC
The national independent scrutineer oversees voting before and at the AGM.
Client:
Chelsea Pitch Owners is a company with over 21,000 shares owned by the fans and holds the freehold of Stamford Bridge stadium.
Set up in 1993, CPO regained control of the stadium for the football club and supporters were subsequently encouraged to buy shares.
The structure of CPO is such that no one person can unduly influence the company, and in the event of the club wishing to move, they either have to surrender the name Chelsea FC or obtain permission to do so.
Democratic Project:
CPO allows shareholders to have a say in the operation of the organisation. Its Annual General Meeting gives the shareholders the opportunity to voice their opinions on key issues through a democratic voting process.
The 2019 AGM provided an opportunity to vote on some very important issues and so it was important that all shareholders were given the opportunity to vote for the directors they wanted on the board and for several important ordinary and special resolutions. The 2019 AGM was the first time UK Engage and CPO had worked together. After learning about the organisation’s objectives, UK Engage set about creating a suitable voting solution for the shareholders’.
Solution:
UK Engage implemented various AGM services to help shareholders understand the voting process, including exploratory notes, Notice of AGM and ballot papers, which were sent to members worldwide. To help the CPO’s budget go further, an online voting system was also developed so that shareholders could cast their votes electronically. On the day of the AGM, UK Engage had four representatives to implement its AGM services. The team registered attendees, issued ballot papers to shareholders who hadn’t voted by post or email (by checking against a marked register) and generally helped shareholders with any voting queries.
Results
CPO was happy with the final results, which saw 11% of shareholders vote overall. The new design of the ballot paper ensured the information was clearly presented to help shareholders easily understand how to vote for directors and resolutions. The online voting site was liked for its security, simplicity and aesthetics. The solution also improved savings on the reply postage of the ballot paper.
Voter Turnout
Saved on Return Postage
Client Testimonial
“Our interaction with the UK Engage team was professional, friendly and efficient. They were easy to deal with and, in particular, were a great support on the day of the AGM.”