Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Management Board, with the consent of the Supervisory Board, has decided to hold the General Meeting as a virtual General Meeting on the basis of the Act to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic under Civil, Insolvency and Criminal Procedure Law of 27 March 2020 (so-called COVID-19 Act).
This leads to modifications in the procedures of the General Meeting and in the rights of the shareholders. The entire General Meeting will be broadcast live in full (audio and video) on the Internet via the access-protected Shareholder Portal. Physical attendance of shareholders or their proxies (with the exception of the proxies nominated by the Company) is excluded. The voting rights of the shareholders or their proxies can be exercised exclusively by means of electronic absentee voting or by granting power of attorney and issuing instructions to the proxies nominated by the Company.
Shareholders will be given the opportunity to ask questions by electronic communication until Sunday, 14 February 2021, 24:00 CET. Shareholders who have exercised their voting rights may also declare their objection against the resolutions of the General Meeting to the minutes of the meeting via electronic communication. In view of the special circumstances of the virtual General Meeting, we ask you to note of the following information on using the Shareholder Portal. Further details can be found in the convening notice published in the Federal Gazette on 7 January 2021.
Note: Preference Shareholders are also entitled to vote at this General Meeting.
The Shareholder Portal is only available in German. Instructions for the use of the Shareholder Portal are set out below.
1. Availability of the Shareholder Portal on the Internet
The General Meeting will be held virtually on 17 February 2021 from 10:00 a.m. CET without the physical presence of the shareholders. For the purpose of holding the virtual General Meeting and exercising shareholders' rights, the Company will make available on its website at
www.ceconomy.de/general-meeting
as of
27 January 2021
an internet-based general meeting system (Shareholder Portal).
2. Registration for the General Meeting and confirmation of registration required
After proper and timely registration for the General Meeting, registered shareholders or their proxies will receive a confirmation of registration by mail, on which access data are printed that are required for registration in the Shareholder Portal. With these access data, the shareholders or their proxies can log into the Shareholder Portal and exercise their shareholder rights in connection with the virtual General Meeting in accordance with the following explanations. The exercise of shareholders' rights by other means - as also described in the convening notice - remains unaffected by this. If you have received more than one confirmation of registration with different access data, please carry out the registration described below separately for each of these confirmations of registration and exercise your shareholder rights in the Shareholder Portal separately in each case.
3. Access/Registration to the Shareholder Portal
On the registration page of the Shareholder Portal, which can be reached via the link above, please first enter the five-digit number of your confirmation of registration in the field provided and click on the "Weiter" (Continue) button. Then please transfer the contents of the fields “Anzahl der Aktien” (Number of Shares), “PLZ” (Postcode) and “Ort” (City) from your confirmation of registration into the fields provided for this purpose, as shown on the confirmation of registration, and enter the security code indicated on the bottom left of the website into the field provided for this purpose on the right. Then click on the "Prüfen" (Check) button.
You will then be asked to set an individual password for your access, containing at least one capital letter, one lower case letter, one number and one special character, and at least 8 characters long. Make a separate note of the password you have chosen and then enter it again in the "Passwort (Wiederholung)” (Password (Repeat)) field. Entering the password eliminates the need to enter the individual data from your confirmation of registration again when accessing the Shareholder Portal in the future. Nevertheless, please keep the confirmation of registration.
After clicking on the "Anmelden" (Register) button, the following page will display the terms of use for the Shareholder Portal. By clicking on the "Weiter" (Continue) button, you confirm that you have read and accepted these terms of use.
Please note that you will be automatically logged out of the Shareholder Portal after 15 minutes without activity. Then please log in again.
If you have forgotten your password after successfully logging in for the first time, you can reset your password by clicking on the "Passwort vergessen" (Forgot Password) button on the left-hand side and then log in again using the data from your confirmation of registration. After proper registration in the system, the Shareholder Portal offers them the following options
- Voting from 27 January 2021 until the end of voting at the General Meeting on 17 February 2021 through
- electronic absentee voting,
- granting power of attorney and issuing instructions to the proxies nominated by the Company, or
- granting power of attorney to a person of your choice;
- Download the confirmations of voting in the case of electronic absentee voting or proxy and instructions to the proxies nominated by the Company (German and English) immediately after voting;
- Submit questions until Sunday, 14 February 2021, 24:00 CET;
- Follow the video and audio broadcast of the entire General Meeting on 17 February 2021, starting at 10:00 a.m. CET;
- View the list of participants and the meeting-presence (including the number of electronic absentee votes) during the General Meeting;
- If applicable, submission of objections to the resolutions after voting until the end of the General Meeting, and
- Requesting confirmation of whether and how the votes you cast were counted (German and English) from the end of the General Meeting until 17 March 2021, 24:00 CET.
Please note the information texts on the individual options in the Shareholder Portal. If you have any questions or problems, please contact our system hotline at +49 (0)681 926290 or send an e-mail to ceconomy-hv2021_at_hvbest.de.
4. Technical requirements
To use the Shareholder Portal, your browser must support at least 128-bit SSL encryption. You can use the Shareholder Portal on desktop PCs or mobile devices. Common browsers with current security standards are supported.
The system will open in a separate window. If this does not work on your system, please make sure that your browser's pop-up blocker allows this access. Furthermore, the browser's security and data protection settings must allow the program to function properly. In particular, availability may not be possible or only possible to a limited extent when using tablet PCs, smartphones or similar mobile end devices due to device-specific features.
If you have any questions or problems, please contact our system hotline on +49 (0)681 926290 or send an e-mail to ceconomy-hv2021_at_hvbest.de.
5. Availability of the Shareholder Portal and Disclaimer
Please keep your confirmation of registration and your individually chosen password in a safe place to prevent unauthorized use. If you suspect misuse of your confirmation of registration, please inform our system hotline at +49 (0)681 926290 or ceconomy-hv2021_at_hvbest.de.
The technical and organizational measures taken by CECONOMY AG and its service providers to ensure the functionality of the Shareholder Portal and data security comply with the standard practice. CECONOMY AG shall not be liable for any defects and shall not assume any liability for the functionality and local availability as well as the permanent maintenance of the telecommunication network and the internet services. In all other respects, CECONOMY AG assumes responsibility within the framework of the mandatory provisions of the COVID-19 Act as well as stock corporation law.
The stability and availability of the services may be subject to fluctuations according to the current state of technology. Please use the services of the Shareholder Portal in good time so that, in the event of temporary unavailability, it is still possible to use the services again in good time.
6. Contact
For questions regarding the Shareholder Portal, please contact us by telephone: +49 (0)681 926290 or by e-mail to: ceconomy-hv2021_at_hvbest.de