Amec’s Award 2012

Valid wins 1st AMEC Corporate Events Award

 Identification systems and payment solutions company Valid was named the winner of the 1st AMEC Corporate Events Award for the quality of its General Shareholder Meetings. The award was presented during the 5th annual AMEC Seminar, which was held at the Hyatt Hotel in São Paulo on November 7, 2012. The award was established by AMEC as a means of encouraging good practices and recognizing companies that distinguish themselves by going above and beyond legal requirements when holding their corporate events.
“It was a great honor to receive the award,” stated Sidney Levy, Chairman of the Board of Valid. “It was an acknowledgment by the company and by AMEC, which represents the market, that we held a really great event,” he added, referring to the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings held during the first half of 2012.
One innovative change, recalled Levy, was Valid’s inquiry to its ten largest shareholders to see if they had any names to recommend to the Board of Directors, a practice which already differentiates the company from its peers in the market. Valid is a company with pulverized capital, meaning that 100% of its shares can be traded on the Stock Exchange – there is no controller. The largest shareholder, asset manager Aberdeen, owns 9.2% of its total capital, based on data as of September 30th.
Valid developed a Meeting Participation Manual for the events, which included all of the voting items. It was made available on Valid’s website and published alongside the notice 35 days prior to the meeting. Levy stated that one of the shareholders called for a vote to remove the “poison pill” clause from the company bylaws, which took place promptly thereafter. Another shareholder, asset manager Vinci Equities, requested the full shareholder list so that voting could take place by proxy, a process known as “proxy light”.
This pioneer initiative by the market shareholder was successful, and guaranteed the participation of 65.4% of the quorum at the first call to the meeting. However, the clause ultimately remained in the bylaws by a small margin of votes.