Following the Temporary Act COVID-19 Justice and Safety (the “Emergency-Act”), Avantium decided to make further changes to the organisation of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) as stated in this agenda and other meeting documents, published on April 2 2020.
The AGM will only be electronically accessible for shareholders via a live webcast, made available on Avantium’s website http://www.avantium.com.
This means that the shareholders can interactively attend but will not be granted physical access to the meeting.
With the organisation of the live webcasted AGM, Avantium provides its shareholders the opportunity to interactively participate in the AGM and to exercise their shareholders’ rights in line with the Emergency Act.
The link to the live webcast of the AGM 2020 will be available on the homepage of the website of Avantium: http://www.avantium.com.
Shareholders can ask questions by sending questions prior to the AGM to Avantium (as per the below instructions).
Record Date
Persons will be entitled to attend and vote at the AGM, provided they are registered as a shareholder of Avantium on Thursday 16 April 2020, after processing of all settlements of that date (the “Record Date”) in one of the sub-registers designated by the Management Board.
The sub-registers designated for holders of book-entry shares are the registers administered by the intermediaries, as referred to in the Securities Giro Act (Wet giraal effectenverkeer), indicating who is entitled to such shares on the Record Date and were registered, as described below.
The register designated for holders of registered shares is Avantium’s register of shareholders (as referred to in article 5 of Avantium’s articles of association) on the Record Date.
Voting
Due to the orders imposed by the Dutch government in light of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) and Avantium’s decision not to grant physical access for its shareholders, the only way shareholders can exercise their voting rights at the AGM is via (i) proxy, by using the physical form of power of attorney which can be found on Avantium’s website or (ii) by giving voting instructions electronically via the ING EVO platform:
https://ing.evo-platform.com/avantium.
We have extended the deadline for submitting voting instructions and submitting written proxies until Monday 11 May 2020, 17.30 CEST.
Both ways of voting are further described in the convocation notice of the AGM, as published on the website of Avantium https://www.avantium.com/corporate-governance/#shareholders-meeting.
Registration for electronic attendance
Shareholders who wish to electronically and interactively attend, must register via the ING EVO Platform:
https://ing.evo-platform.com/avantium.
This platform is available from Thursday 16 April 2020, after 18.00 CEST, until Monday 11 May 2020, 17.30 CEST, or via their intermediary where their shares are administered.
The intermediaries must provide ING Bank N.V. no later than Monday 11 May 2020, 17.30 CEST with an electronic statement that includes the number of shares held by the relevant Shareholder on the Record Date and the number of shares which have been applied for registration.
Upon registration, ING will issue a registration certificate for each Shareholder via the relevant intermediaries that serves as electronic attendance ticket for the AGM.
Questions
We want to encourage our shareholders to submit their questions regarding the various agenda items prior to the meeting.
This is possible by sending an email to investorrelations@avantium.com or a letter to Avantium N.V., att. of Investor Relations, Zekeringstraat 29, 1014 BV Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The deadline for shareholders to submit questions prior to the AGM is Monday 11 May 2020 before 14.00 hours CET. Shareholders can ask additional follow-up questions during the live webcast, provided that the shareholder is registered in the EVO-platform, which registration must be done ultimately on Monday 11 May 2020, 17.30 CEST.
Avantium may bundle questions and will endeavour to answer all questions during the AGM.
The answers to the questions will be published on the company’s website after the meeting.