Attending General Meetings of Listed Companies and Exercising Voting Rights: Practice, Problems Encountered and Suggested Solutions Following the Removal of Share Blockage

The aim of this study is to assess the practice following the removal of share blockage to attend the general meeting and to exercise voting rights under Turkish Commercial Code numbered 6102 and Capital Markets Law numbered 6362, from the point of Borsa Istanbul listed companies. In this regard, it is examined in details at which point the ownership of the shares and share ownership rights are transferred to the transferee after the shares are traded at the stock exchange as well as process for shareowners to attend the general meeting and to exercise their voting rights in the light of electronic general meeting and the state of the shares that are dematerialized and registered in the books of Central Registry Agency (MKK). It is also explained that although removing share blockage is a big step for exercising rights such as attending the general meeting and voting, present practice is not flawless at all. Main problems are the risk of shareowner list provided to the issuers being outdated since the records are kept by MKK members; the fact that some shareowners can’t attend the general meeting despite the removal of share blockage while the possibility of unauthorized persons to attend the general meeting. Suggested solutions to the said problems are also stated in this article.