National Settlement Depository, Russia’s central securities depository (NSD), and Surgutinvestneft, a major Russian regional registrar, have signed an agreement for electronic voting services at general meetings of securities holders conducted via NSD’s E-Voting service.
Now, Surgutinvestneft clients can connect to the E-Voting service through their registrar and offer their shareholders the opportunity to vote remotely at annual and extraordinary general meetings of shareholders.
The E-Voting service has been used for some years at general meetings of Russian issuers, including for: Sberbank, Moscow Exchange, ALROSA, NLMK, Gazprom Neft, Rostelecom, and Rushydro. It has proven to be a convenient and reliable service allowing issuers to conduct electronic voting via the CSD website.
Using the E-Voting service at general meetings of shareholders allows issuers to comply with the Moscow Exchange’s Corporate Conduct Code and Listing Rules, increase shareholders’ involvement in the process of managing their companies, raise the corporate governance level, reduce paper document interchange, and provide convenient, quick, and reliable voting processes.
“Online voting at shareholders meetings has already become a general international practice, reflecting the maturity of the financial infrastructure and corporate governance channels. Presenting the E-Voting service to a large number of registrars, we facilitate client operations in Russia and provide shareholders with access to voting all across the world. This aligns with our strategy for implementing reliable infrastructure outsourcing services,” said Denis Buryakov, Managing Director for Depository Operations, NSD.
“NSD is a key supplier of financial services on the Russian market; the beginning of our cooperation in the electronic voting sphere let us offer our clients additional opportunities and advantages. Well-developed processes, a great cyber security level, and a high quality of services make E-Voting an optimum solution for companies that cannot develop technological processes in-house,” added Egor Shalamov, Deputy CEO, Surgutinvestneft.