Investors find their voice online

MORE than a third of shareholder votes at company meetings were cast electronically in 2004 as the City backed moves to improve poor voting records.

About 35% of all shareholder votes at annual and extraordinary general meetings were via an online service launched last year by CrestCo.

CrestCo is responsible mainly for settling share trades in the London stock market, ensuring that buyers and sellers end up with their respective shares and cash. It launched electronic voting in early 2003, but the past 12 months marks the first full year of operation.

According to CrestCo, 89 of the FTSE 100 companies now offer shareholders the electronic option. So do about half of all FTSE 250 companies.

On average, 35% of votes cast at annual general meetings and extraordinary general meetings in 2004 were electronic, though CrestCo said there were many cases in which more than half of all votes were cast through the system.

It has been touted as a way of improving the poor voting record among UK shareholders. Between 40% and 50% of FTSE shareholders, including both institutional and small private investors, habitually fail to vote at company meetings.

CrestCo chief executive Tim May said: 'With interest in corporate governance at an all-time high, it's fitting that we have been able to provide shareholders with a new method of voting that is both secure and efficient.

'In less than two years, the new service has become the voting conduit of choice for the majority of institutional shareholders in the UK.'