Barita Investments Limited has applied to the Supreme Court for an order to host its 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually, slated for Friday April 23.

This is being done pursuant to section 130 (2) of the Companies Act. The application seeking permission to host the AGM virtually was made on March 1, 2021.

The need for hosting the AGM virtually is in compliance with the government COVID-19 restrictions, which limits public gathering and calls for social distancing.

Barita has advised that ahead of the substantive claim, the Supreme Court on March 18, 2021, granted permission for the investment and equity firm to give notice to its shareholders regarding the filing of certain court documents pertaining to its application before the court.

These documents include Barita’s fixed date claim form, affidavit of a director of the company, Jason Chambers, in support of the fixed date claim form as well as the formal order, dated March 18 giving permission to shareholders to being notified of these court documents.

In addition, the March 18 court order mandates Barita to publish the court documents on its website and/or the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s (JSE) website as well as publishing a notice on two occasions in one of the national newspapers, advising its members that the court documents can be found on the aforementioned websites.

Barita is the latest publicly listed company to seek the court’s approval to host its AGM virtually with several others having already gone this route and gotten permission to host their AGM virtually. Among the companies, which have hosted their AGM virtually having gotten approval from the court includes Salada Foods, Carib Cement and Wigton Windfarm.

Last year, the JSE went to the Supreme Court on two occasions on behalf of listed companies and on both occasions got the court to sanction them hosting their Annual General Meetings (AGMs) virtually. The last time this was done was in October 2020.