ACRA/MAS/MOF Seek Comments On Legislative Amendments to Allow Virtual Meetings for Companies, VCCs and BTs

On 9 February 2023, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Finance and Monetary Authority of Singapore jointly announced that they are conducting a public consultation to seek feedback on proposed changes to the Companies Act 1967, Variable Capital Companies Act 2018 and the Business Trusts Act 2004 (collectively, the “Acts“). The public consultation exercise will run from 9 to 20 February 2023.

The key proposed changes to the Acts primarily aim to expressly clarify in the Acts that companies, variable capital companies (“VCCs“) and business trusts (“BTs“) have the option to conduct fully virtual or hybrid general meetings, and to ensure that the rights of the members of the companies and VCCs and unitholders of BTs to attend and participate in such general meetings are safeguarded. The proposed changes to the Acts are set out in the draft Companies, Business Trusts and Other Bodies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2023 (“draft Bill“). The proposed draft Bill is stated to come into effect on 1 July 2023.

This Update provides a summary of these key proposed changes.