The Annual General Meeting of the Company (“AGM”) was held at 2.00 p.m. today at its Harwell offices at Quad One, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Becquerel Avenue, Harwell, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0RA.
All of the resolutions put to members were duly passed.
The number of votes lodged by proxy for and against each of the resolutions proposed, and the number of votes withheld, were as follows:
| Resolution | Votes for | % | Votes against | % | Votes withheld |
| 1. To receive the Company’s audited annual accounts for the financial year ended 30 June 2019 | 76,310,435 | 100.00 | 0 | 0 | 36,268 |
| 2. To elect, as a director of the Company, Mark Chapman | 76,243,673 | 99.98 | 16,762 | 0.02 | 86,268 |
| 3. To re-elect, as a Director of the Company, David Banks. | 48,485,064 | 99.95 | 22,583 | 0.05 | 27,839,056 |
| 4. To re-elect, as a director of the Company, Roger Humm | 48,485,064 | 63.58 | 27,775,371 | 36.42 | 86,268 |
| 5. To re-appoint BDO LLP as auditors to the Company. | 76,278,230 | 99.92 | 62,205 | 0.08 | 6,268 |
| 6. To authorise the Directors to allot shares in the Company up to the limits specified in the resolution. | 76,238,072 | 99.93 | 54,950 | 0.07 | 53,681 |
| 7. To authorise the Directors to disapply pre-emption rights up to the limits specified in the resolution* | 76,197,072 | 99.91 | 70,950 | 0.09 | 78,681 |
* Passed as a special resolution
As at 19 December 2019, there were 340,223,848 ordinary shares in issue. Shareholders are entitled to one vote per share. Votes withheld are not votes in law and so have not been included in the calculation of the proportion of votes for and against a resolution.
The Board is again pleased that the majority of resolutions have been passed with a high level of support from shareholders. The Board has considered the votes against resolution 4, the re-election of Roger Humm (36.4%), at the AGM. In order to better understand the reasons for these votes against, the Board has engaged with the majority of those shareholders that voted against this resolution, considered their views and received feedback from the Company’s advisers and the Company Secretary. The Board will continue to engage with shareholders to understand their views on this and any other significant matter of the Company at future AGMs and at presentations of the Company’s interim and annual results.