A huge swathe of investors are tipped to start taking their company mailings, annual reports and notices of shareholders’ meetings in electronic form. This is expected to be the first year new legislation introduced with the Companies Act 2006 is widely adopted.

Many companies already send out annual reports and notices of meetings electronically but, until recently this has required express permission from the individual investor. However, the new legislation, phased in earlier this year, means shareholders can be sent electronic mailings unless they specifically opt out.

Speaking last week at the annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) Peter Swabey from registrar Equiniti, said: ‘It is possible that companies will only print 20% of the annual reports they have in previous years.’

Before a company can make use of the new regulation it has to change its articles of association. Alliance & Leicester (AL.) and ITV (ITV) have already done so. Many FTSE 100 companies, which have most to save from reduced print runs, are tipped to follow ahead of next year’s AGM season.

A company has to write to you first and ask if you agree to be communicated with electronically. Those who opt for soft copies will probably get a further choice of receiving documents via email or through the company’s website. In the latter case investors will still receive letters in the post saying when the information is up on the website. To continue receiving hard copies, investors will have 28 days to write back and inform the company.

by: Simon Keane