16 - Shareholder Engagement and Voting in Greece

Summary

All SAs (whether listed or not) have basically the same structure comprising a General Meeting, a Board of Directors (BoD), and auditors, whereas the GM is the supreme organ of a SA, tasked (explicitly or implicitly) with deciding on any matter related to the Company. The GM is called mainly by the BoD, minority shareholders or specific other authorized persons. The ownership structure of Greek listed companies is highly concentrated and a high number of listed companies are family owned. Although the Greek Company Act (GCA) provides for modern forms of GM based on electronic participation or remote voting methods as well as proxy voting, listed companies stick to the traditional methods without a real market for stewardship services. Under the one-share-one vote principle and the application of specific quorum and majority rules (with no general “Majority of Minority rule”) the controlling shareholders have a broad field of action, whereas minority shareholders are restricted to specific minority or individual shareholder rights. Under these circumstances, controversial resolutions, proxy fights and the need to access the Shareholders’ Register are a rather rare phenomenon. The introduction of shareholders’ associations has not altered the situation so far.