A “virtual Annual General Meeting” is an annual general meeting held without the shareholders or their authorised representatives being physically present at the venue. The legislator provided us with this option by introducing the Act concerning Measures under the Law of Companies, Cooperative Societies, Associations, Foundations and Commonhold Property to Combat the Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (“COVID-19 Act”), the effects of which have been prolonged due to the Reconstruction Aid Law (Aufbauhilfegesetz) as of 10 September 2021 until 31 August 2022.
As holding an event requiring physical presence during the COVID-19 pandemic would expose participants to the risk of infection and would be impossible without violating applicable regulations, the legislator has introduced the option of holding a virtual Annual General Meeting, enabling our Annual General Meeting to be held in compliance with the law.
In view of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, with the approval of the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board of RWE Aktiengesellschaft decided to exercise this option for the Annual General Meeting on 28 April 2022.
The online options for following the virtual Annual General Meeting have been expanded in exchange for waiving the right of shareholders to physically attend the Annual General Meeting. Most importantly, there will be an audio-visual webcast of the entire virtual Annual General Meeting, and the shareholders will be able to exercise their voting rights electronically and submit questions in advance. In addition, this year we give our shareholders the possibility to submit follow-up questions to their questions they have submitted in advance of the Annual General Meeting. Like in 2021 shareholders will have the possibility to submit written statements prior to the virtual Annual General Meeting. All published statements can be found here on the website of RWE Aktiengesellschaft.