Grzegorz Wojnar | In Principle

Shareholders of a public company can take part in the general meeting of shareholders personally at the location where the meeting is held, via electronic communications, or by mail balloting. What is mail balloting, and why is this method of voting at general meetings so rarely used in public companies?

The Central Register of Beneficial Owners went into operation in Poland at the end of 2019. Since then, obligated entities defined in Art. 58 of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act have had to verify whether there is an individual in their structure who can be considered an ultimate beneficial owner, and report this information to the Central Register of Beneficial Owners.

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) allow a select group of employees (usually management) to take an equity stake in the employer by purchasing shares at a nominal value or a value determined in the programme. These plans are implemented over a period of several years, and a condition for offering shares is the company’s achievement of certain financial targets specified in the plan.

New obligations to provide information to the financial regulator, mandatory internal control systems, and new administrative fines against agents and members of their authorities—the “vegetable patch” introduced quite a few changes.