We have decided to hold the AGM in Manchester as BP is a major UK-based company with a large and widespread UK shareholder base, many of whom are based outside of London and south east England. Whilst the company has held its AGM in London for over 100 years, we hope that holding the meeting elsewhere in the UK will encourage interaction with shareholders who may not normally have attended our meeting. We will keep the future location of the AGM under review.
At the AGM, we will be discussing our performance in 2017 and our strategy. Full details of the year in review are set out in the BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2017 which can be found at bp.com/annualreport.
The business we will discuss is made up of resolutions that we regularly bring to shareholders.
As set out in last year’s notice of meeting and the BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2016, we will be proposing Deloitte LLP for appointment as BP’s new external auditor for the financial year ending 31 December 2018. Following a tender process and on the audit committee’s recommendation, the board selected Deloitte LLP as the company’s auditors to replace Ernst & Young LLP. Ernst & Young LLP have accordingly resigned as auditors of the company upon completion of the audit of the BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2017. Their resignation letter can be found on page 23.
We ask for shareholder authority each year to allot shares. As with last year, we again have to put two separate resolutions to you to seek this authority.
We are seeking authority to adopt a new set of Articles of Association. The company’s Articles of Association were last amended in 2015. The amendments proposed bring them into line with best practice and provide additional flexibility and are largely administrative in nature.
We will also be seeking approval to renew the Scrip Dividend Programme for a further three-year period. This programme was first approved by shareholders in 2010 and its renewal was approved in 2015. The programme was first offered in March 2011 and has been in operation since then.
Your board recommends that shareholders support all 24 resolutions before the meeting.
We regularly review ways to improve communication with you and make it more efficient. For some years now we have been using web communication for the majority of shareholders to invite you to view our corporate materials online.
Since last year, we no longer send proxy cards to our ordinary shareholders by default, and are no longer doing so for our ADS holders this year. You can still request a paper form of proxy card if you prefer. However, online voting is quicker and more secure than paper voting, and saves BP time and resources in processing the votes.
If you have not already done so, I encourage you to visit the BP Share Centre at mybpshares.com or adr.com/bp and provide an email address for future communications.
Your votes do matter. Information about how to vote and attend the meeting is given on pages 16-21 of this notice. If you cannot attend the meeting, please vote your shares by appointing a proxy.
I look forward to seeing you at Manchester Central.