주주총회 분산 개최 및 그에 따른 실무상 과제에 관한 검토 - 4월 정기주주총회 개최를 염두에 두고 -

Shareholder Meeting is the chief decision-making body of a corporation that resolves matters set forth in law and articles of association. As many shareholders as possible are required to attend such a genereal shareholders’ meeting. It is desirable in view of the fact that it prevents arbitrary control of the management or controlling shareholders and enables universal interests of the company or shareholders. However, the general meeting of shareholders in Korea has been formalized by institutional aspects, the structure of inducing shareholders, and indifference of management and shareholders to the general meeting of shareholders. In addition, the general meeting of shareholders in Korea has been reduced to a form of ratification that gives legal justification to the basic policies of management or controlling shareholders. However, the shadow voting system was recently abolished. As a result, interest in increasing shareholder participation among shareholders (especially minority shareholders) has increased significantly. Against this backdrop, the regulatory authorities announced measures to induce minority shareholders to spread corporation’s shareholders meetings in order to improve their participation in the general meeting of shareholders. This paper examined the measures to induce listed companies to spread their shareholders meetings, particularly those for general shareholders meetings in April, which are set as mid - to long-term tasks. In this paper, first of all, it analyzed the current state of holding a general shareholders’ meeting of listed companies. And then, based on such an analysis, it clarified the need for holding a general shareholders’ meeting in April through the establishment of an appropriate record date. And it explained the positive effects(increase shareholders’ participation in the general shareholders’ meeting, improving the feasibility of general shareholders’ meeting, reflecting shareholders’ universal opinions, etc) of holding a general shareholders’ meeting in April. However, in Korea, which has a long-standing practice of using the settlement date as the record date, practical problems may arise when the record date is set to a day different from the settlement date for holding the general shareholders’ meeting in April. Considering this, this paper reviewed the practical tasks of holding a general shareholders’ meeting in April.