Kinds of Company Meetings

Kinds of Company Meetings

Under the Companies Act, 2013, Company meetings can be classified as under:

1. Meetings of Shareholders:

(a) Statutory Meeting

(b) Annual General Meetings (AGM)

(c) Extraordinary General Meetings (EGM)

2. Meetings of the Directors

(a) Board meetings

(b) Committees meetings

3. Special Meetings

(a) Class Meetings.

(b) Creditors and of Debenture/bond holders meetings

The following picture shows the different types of company meetings

01. Shareholders Meetings

The meeting held with the shareholders of the company is called shareholders meeting. The shareholders meeting can be classified as statutory meeting, annual general meeting and extra ordinary general meeting

a) Statutory Meeting

According to Companies Act, every public company, should hold a meeting of the shareholders within 6 months but not earlier than one month from the date of commencement of business of the company. This is the first general meeting of the public company is called the Statutory Meeting.

This meeting is conducted only once in the lifetime of the company. A private company or a public company having no share capital need not conduct a statutory meeting. The company gives the circular to shareholders before 21 days of the meeting.

b) Annual General Meeting [AGM]

Every year a meeting­ is held to transact the ordinary business of the company. Such meeting is called Annual General Meeting of the company (AGM). Company is bound to invite the first general meeting within eighteen months from the date of its registration. Then the general meeting will be held once in every year. The differences between two general meetings should not be more than fifteen months. Every Annual General meeting shall be held during business hours, on a day which is not a public  holiday, at the Registered­ Office of the company or at some other place within the town or village where the Registered Office is situated. AGM should be conducted by both private and public Ltd companies.

c) Extra-Ordinary General Meeting

Both Statutory meeting and annual general meetings are called as ordinary meetings of a company. All other general meetings other than statutory and annual general meetings are called extraordinary general meetings. If any meeting conducted in between two annual general meeting to deal with some urgent or special or extraordinary nature­ of business is called as extra-ordinary general meetings.

02. Meeting of the Directors

Since the administration of the company lies in the hands of the board of directors, they should meet frequently for the proper conduct of the business and to decide policy matters of the company.

a) Board Meetings

Meetings of directors are called Board Meetings. Meetings of the directors provide a platform to discuss the business and take formal decisions. First meeting of directors should be convened within 30 (Thirty) days from the date of incorporation of the company.

b) Committee Meetings

Every listed company and every other public company having paid up share capital of ₹10 crore is required to have audit committee. This committee should meet at least four times in a year. In case of other companies, the board of directors shall nominate a director to play the role of audit committee which is functioning as a vigil mechanism.

03. Special Meeting

a) Class Meeting (Meetings of Particular Share or Debenture Holders)

Meetings, which are held by a particular class of share or debenture holders e.g. preference shareholders or debenture holders is known as class meeting. The debenture holders of a particular class conduct these meetings. These meetings are held according to the rules and regulations laid by the Trust Deed or Debenture Bond, from time to time, where the interests of the debenture holders play vital role at the time of re-organisation, reconstruction, amalgamation or winding-up of the company.

b) Meetings of the Creditors

Strictly speaking, these are not meetings of a company. Unlike the meetings of a company, there arise situation in which a company may wish to arrive at a consensuses with the creditors to avoid any crisis or to evolve compromise or to introduce any new proposals.