The season for the annual general meetings of shareholders, one of the biggest events in the corporate world, kicked off this week with Nexen Tire’s AGM.

Attention is being paid to the “super” corporate voting day on March 13 when many big-name companies, including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, will host their annual shareholders’ meetings.

Market analysts said one of highlights for this year’s shareholder voting season will be the growing power of institutional and individual minor investors who have less than 5 percent stakes.

Regulatory changes are pushing firms toward e-voting systems, giving minor shareholders greater access to voting rights. Meanwhile institutional investors are taking a more proactive approach, hiring proxy advisers to analyze corporate proposals and advise them on how to vote.

“Requests by institutional investors to analyze corporate proposals to be submitted during 2015 shareholders’ meetings have hit a record high,” said an official from Korea Corporate Governance Service, a local proxy advisory.

Growing demand for electric voting, which was introduced in Korea in 2010, will encourage voting on corporate proposals by individual shareholders, who were often unable to vote in person.

According to the Korea Securities Depository, 147 listed firms have adopted the e-voting system.

E-voting is not mandatory, but more Korean firms are expected to introduce the system as an alternative to “shadow voting,” also known as mirror voting, which will be abolished from 2018.

A shadow voting system prevents votes from failing due to a missed quorum. It counts unused votes as being for and against a motion in proportion to the ratio of votes that were cast.

Pressed by the rising influence of minority shareholders in corporate voting, companies have increased their shareholder-friendly policies in the past few years, including a rise in dividend payments.

In its meeting, Samsung Electronics will propose the reappointment of vice chairman Kwon Oh-hyun as a standing board member.

The vote for the upper limit on management paychecks will also gain investors’ attention. The global tech giant decided to reduce the pay ceiling for the firm’s standing board members to 39 billion won ($35 million) this year from 48 billion won. Executive pay at Samsung is composed of basic income and incentives.

Shareholders of Hyundai Motor will vote on the reappointment of CEO Yoon Gap-han as a standing board member with a three-year term.

Market analysts predict Hyundai Motor will face opposition from activist shareholders against the firm’s extravagant land purchase deal, which was sealed last September.

Shares of Hyundai Motor have continued their losing streak since the automaker signed a deal to buy a plot of land to build its new headquarters in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district for 10.55 trillion won ($10.1 billion).

Money-losing conglomerates such as refineries and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the nation’s top shipbuilder, are expected to present new strategies to turn the company around in order to woo investors.

In the tech sector, market analysts will pay keen attention to the voting showdown at the shareholders’ meeting of NCSoft on March 28. The nation’s second-largest game developer is battling with Nexon for company control.

Nexon, the largest shareholder of NCSoft with a 15 percent stake, declared it would seek to correct management misconduct at the end of last month.

More minority shareholders are likely to vote on the group’s corporate proposals, as NCSoft decided to adopt an e-voting system, as requested by Nexon.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)