More than half, or 63 percent, of all annual general meetings (AGMs) conducted by companies listed on the Singapore Exchange are held in April, with 47 percent taking place in the last five business days of the month.

A report jointly released by ACCA and KPMG reveals that 62 percent of listed companies in Singapore which disclosed information on their investor relations (IR) function have just one person handling this function. The most common voluntary mode (91 percent) for communication with shareholders is the company website.

"How companies communicate with investors and other stakeholders is one of the key pillars of corporate governance. Our study reveals that companies need to understand their investor profile well to improve the effectiveness of their stakeholder communications," says Tan Wah Yeow, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Markets KPMG in Singapore.

Tan notes that having so many AGMs clustered into the last five working days of April may pose challenges for shareholders and directors with interests in multiple companies.

"Companies should be encouraged to adopt principles of fair communication. It is therefore important to choose the appropriate communication methods and channels which suit the pattern of their company's shareholdings," says Tan.

The report notes that as the market capitalisation of a company increased, the proportion of its small shareholders and the percentage of shares they collectively held increased. Among the companies studied, 70 percent of the companies had a public float of 50 percent and less.

On average, small shareholders comprise 56 percent of all shareholders but only hold about 2 percent of shares.

Large shareholders make up 2 percent of shareholders on average but hold about 81 percent of shares.

A six-element stakeholder communications framework was used to analyse stakeholder communications: Communication resources, modes, content, frequency, timeliness and quality.