FIRSTGROUP PLC - Result of AGM

FIRSTGROUP PLC - Result of AGM

PR Newswire

London, September 15

FirstGroup plc

Result of 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM)

FirstGroup plc (the 'Company') announces that, at the AGM held earlier today, all resolutions were passed by the Company's shareholders on a poll. The results of the poll are shown in the table below and will also be available on the Company's website.

		FOR		AGAINST		TOTAL	WITHHELD
		Number of Votes	% of Vote	Number of Votes	% of Vote	Number of Votes	Number of Votes
1	To receive the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2020	982,886,516	99.99	131,056	0.01	983,017,572	840,073
2	To approve the Directors' Annual Report on Remuneration	976,349,874	99.25	7,379,537	0.75	983,729,411	128,233
3	To elect David Martin as a Director	811,701,238	94.30	49,076,934	5.70	860,778,172	123,079,473
4	To elect Sally Cabrini as a Director	811,867,247	94.32	48,871,743	5.68	860,738,990	123,118,655
5	To re-elect Warwick Brady as a Director	802,680,264	93.26	58,050,937	6.74	860,731,201	123,126,444
6	To re-elect Steve Gunning as a Director	792,022,899	80.52	191,651,845	19.48	983,674,744	182,901
7	To re-elect Mathew Gregory as a Director	691,308,920	70.28	292,361,546	29.72	983,670,466	187,179
8	To re-elect Ryan Mangold as a Director	810,847,451	94.20	49,883,944	5.80	860,731,395	123,126,250
9	To re-elect Martha Poulter as a Director	800,780,150	81.41	182,897,941	18.59	983,678,091	179,554
10	To re-elect David Robbie as a Director	811,486,059	82.50	172,173,404	17.50	983,659,463	198,182
11	To re-elect Julia Steyn as a Director	817,346,973	94.96	43,395,647	5.04	860,742,620	123,115,025
12	To approve the appointment of PrincewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors	978,323,661	99.45	5,420,824	0.55	983,744,485	113,160
13	To authorise the Directors to determine the remuneration of the auditors	837,349,353	99.96	307,505	0.04	837,656,858	146,200,787
14	To authorise the Directors to allot shares	810,543,908	98.77	10,078,005	1.23	820,621,913	163,235,732
15	To authorise the Directors to disapply pre-emption rights	814,386,118	82.79	169,267,021	17.21	983,653,139	204,506
16	To disapply pre-emption rights for acquisitions or other capital investments	813,479,929	82.70	170,165,945	17.30	983,645,874	211,770
17	To authorise the Directors to make market purchases of the Company's shares	973,997,468	99.06	9,265,059	0.94	983,262,527	595,117
18	To authorise the Company to make political donations and incur political expenditure	748,497,944	91.21	72,132,509	8.79	820,630,453	163,227,192
19	To adopt new Articles of Association	983,312,195	99.97	304,696	0.03	983,616,891	240,754
20	To authorise the calling of general meetings on 14 clear days' notice	962,795,298	97.86	21,019,105	2.14	983,814,403	43,242

Votes 'For' and 'Against' are expressed as a percentage of votes received. A 'Vote withheld' is not a vote in law and is not counted in the calculation of the votes 'For' and 'Against' a resolution. Votes were cast for a total of 983,857,645 ordinary shares of 5 pence per share, representing 80.60% of the total number of votes capable of being cast at the AGM. The Company's issued share capital as at today's date is 1,220,859,462 ordinary shares and the number of votes per share is one. The Company held 157,229 shares in Treasury, which do not carry any voting rights. Resolutions 1 to 14, and 18 were proposed as Ordinary Resolutions and resolutions 15 to 17, 19 and 20 as Special Resolutions.

Commenting on the voting results, FirstGroup Chairman David Martin said:

"We welcome the support shown by the majority of our shareholders today. I am confident that the Board has the necessary mix of skills, experience and knowledge to unlock material value through the sale of our North American businesses, and we are intent on achieving this as expediently as possible and in the best interests of all shareholders.

"As noted in the trading statement issued this morning, the Group has delivered a stronger than expected financial performance so far this year, has increased its available liquidity and continues to take all necessary action to protect the business for the longer term.

"The Board takes seriously its responsibility to understand the views and perspectives of shareholders, and as part of this ongoing commitment, we engaged widely ahead of this AGM. We are disappointed but aware of the views of certain investors who represent more than 20% of the issued share capital, who voted against resolution 7 today. We are committed to continuing a constructive and open dialogue on this and all other matters with our shareholders."

Contacts at FirstGroup:

Faisal Tabbah, Head of Investor Relations

Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Communications

Silvana Glibota-Vigo, Deputy Company Secretary

Tel: [phone]

Contacts at Brunswick PR:

Andrew Porter / Simone Selzer, Tel: [phone]

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): 549300DEJZCPWA4HKM93. Classification as per DTR 6 Annex 1R: 3.1.

About FirstGroup

FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L)is a leading provider of transport services in the UK and North America. With £7.8 billion in revenue in 2020 and around 100,000 employees, we transported 2.1 billion passengers. Whether for business, education, health, social or recreation - we get our customers where they want to be, when they want to be there. We create solutions that reduce complexity, making travel smoother and life easier. We provide easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities. Each of our five divisions is a leader in its field: in North America, First Student is the largest provider of home-to-school student transportation with a fleet of 43,000 yellow school buses, First Transit is one of the largest providers of outsourced transit management and contracting services, while Greyhound is the only nationwide operator of scheduled intercity coaches. In the UK, First Bus is one of Britain's largest bus companies with 1.4 million passengers a day in 2020, and First Rail is one of the country's most experienced rail operators, carrying 340 million passengers in the year. Visit our website at www.firstgroupplc.com and follow us @firstgroupplc on Twitter.