An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.
[1] The term is usually used where the group would ordinarily hold an annual general meeting (AGM) but where an issue arises that requires the input of the entire membership and is too serious or urgent to wait until the next AGM.
Members and/or shareholders must be informed of the purpose of the EGM so that they may attend in a position where they can discuss and exercise intelligent judgment, or else any resolutions passed are invalid.
The theory is that the board has a better knowledge of the situation, and the resolution is in effect their ideal solution, but it may not be in the interests of individual shareholders.
In the United Kingdom, the directors of a public company must convene an EGM if the net assets fall to half or less of the amount of its called-up share capital (section 656 of the Companies Act 2006).