Communication With Shareholders

The Company considers effective communication with shareholders essential to enable them to have a clear assessment of the enterprise performance as well as to ensure the board of directors is accountable. Major means of communication with shareholders of the Company are as follows:

Information disclosure at corporate website

The Company endeavours to disclose all material information about the Group to all interested parties as widely and in as timely a manner as possible. The Company maintains a corporate website at https://www.citic.com/en/, where important information about the Company’s activities and corporate matters such as annual reports and half-year reports to shareholders, announcements, business development and operations, corporate governance practices and other information are available for review by shareholders and other stakeholders.

When announcements are made through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the same information will be made available on the Company’s website.

During the year under review, the Company has issued announcements in respect of notifiable transactions, connected transactions and overseas regulatory announcements, which can be viewed on the Company’s website.

General meetings with shareholders

The Company’s annual general meeting provides a useful platform for direct communication between the board and shareholders. Separate resolutions are proposed on each substantial separate issue at the general meetings.

Voting by poll

Resolutions put to vote at the general meetings of the Company (other than on procedural matters) are taken by poll. Procedures regarding the conduct of the poll are explained to the shareholders at the commencement of each general meeting, and questions from shareholders regarding the voting procedures are answered. The poll results are posted on the websites of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Company respectively on the same day as the poll.

Investor relations

The Company aims to generate sustainable shareholder value. We recognise that effective management of stakeholder relationships, including those with investors, is key to realising that value. We believe that our objectives and shareholder objectives should be aligned for long-term value creation and hope that our shareholders agree with our conviction that sustainable long-term growth is more important than short-term gains.

The Company acknowledges its responsibility to engage with shareholders and respond respectfully to their questions. We aspire to transparent and open communications and are committed to timely disclosure of relevant and material information. We meet with investors regularly to update them on our business progress and strategy. In addition, we respond promptly to questions received from the media and individual shareholders. We endeavour to share financial and non-financial information that is relevant and material, and clearly communicate our business strategy through biannual and other timely communications. In all cases, great care is taken to ensure that price sensitive information is not disclosed selectively. When announcements are made through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the same information will be made available on the Company’s website.

Shareholders’ Rights

Set out below is a summary of certain rights of the shareholders of the Company as required to be disclosed pursuant to the mandatory disclosure requirement under the CG Code:

Convening of extraordinary general meeting on requisition by shareholders

In accordance with Sections 566 to 568 of the Companies Ordinance (Chapter 622 of the laws of Hong Kong), shareholder(s) of the Company representing at least 5% of the total voting rights of all the shareholders having a right to vote at general meetings of the Company, may require the directors of the Company to convene an extraordinary general meeting (“EGM”). The written requisition must state the general nature of the business to be dealt with at the EGM and must be signed by the shareholder(s) concerned and deposited at the registered office of the Company at 32nd Floor, CITIC Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue, Central, Hong Kong for the attention of the joint company secretaries in hard copy form or sent to the Company in electronic form. The requisition may consist of several documents in like form, each signed by one or more of the shareholders concerned.

If the directors of the Company do not within 21 days after the date on which the written requisition is received by the Company proceed duly to convene an EGM for a day not more than 28 days after the date on which the notice convening the EGM is given, the shareholder(s) concerned, or any of them representing more than onehalf of the total voting rights of all of them, may themselves convene an EGM, provided that the EGM so convened shall not be held after the expiration of 3 months from the date of the original requisition.

The EGM convened by shareholders shall be convened in the same manner, as nearly as possible, as that in which general meetings are to be convened by the directors of the Company.

Procedures for directing shareholders’ enquiries to the board

Shareholders may at any time send their enquiries and concerns to the board of directors of the Company in writing through the joint company secretaries whose contact details are as follows:

The Joint Company Secretaries
CITIC Limited
32nd Floor, CITIC Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue, Central, Hong Kong
Email: contact@citic.com
Tel No.: +852 2820 2184
Fax No.: +852 2918 4838

The joint company secretaries will forward the shareholders’ enquiries and concerns to the board of directors and/ or relevant board committees of the Company, where appropriate, to answer the shareholders’ questions.

Procedures for putting forward proposals at general meetings by shareholders

Shareholders are requested to follow Sections 615 and 616 of the Companies Ordinance (Chapter 622 of the laws of Hong Kong) for including a resolution at an annual general meeting of the Company (“AGM”). The requirements and procedures are set out below:

• Any number of shareholders representing at least 2.5% of the total voting rights of all shareholders having a right to vote on the resolution at an AGM to which the requisition relates, or at least 50 shareholders having a right to vote on the resolution at an AGM to which the requisition relates, may submit a requisition in writing to put forward a resolution which may properly be moved at an AGM.
• The Company shall not be bound by the Companies Ordinance to give notice of the proposed resolution or to circulate a statement of not more than 1,000 words with respect to the matter referred to in the proposed resolution to shareholders of the Company entitled to receive notice of an AGM unless a copy of the requisition specifying the resolution of which notice is to be given and signed by the shareholders concerned (or 2 or more copies which between them contain the signatures of all the shareholders concerned) is deposited at the registered office of the Company at 32nd Floor, CITIC Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue, Central, Hong Kong for the attention of the joint company secretaries in hard copy form or is sent to the Company in electronic form not less than (i) 6 weeks before an AGM to which the requisition relates; or (ii) if later, the time at which notice is given of that AGM.

Pursuant to Article 108 of the Company’s articles of association, no person, other than a retiring director, shall, unless recommended by the board for election, be eligible for election to the office of director at any general meeting, unless notice in writing by a shareholder of his intention to propose that person for election as a director and notice in writing by that person of his willingness to be elected shall have been given to the Company in the period commencing no earlier than the day after the despatch of the notice of the meeting appointed for such election and ending no later than seven days prior to the date of such meeting, provided that such period shall be at least seven days. The written notice must state that person’s biographical details as required by Rule 13.51(2) of the Listing Rules.