David Zwartz hit the headlines when he challenged a fee increase for Contact Energy's directors at their annual meeting in January.
It was one small shareholder against the directors backed by big investors.
Mr Zwartz won on a technicality.
Since then, shareholders big and small have been flexing their muscles over directors' remuneration.
Tower's board had to resort to proxy votes to pass a 50 per cent pay rise for its directors after the resolution was voted down by a show of hands at the March annual meeting.
The same chairman, Colin Beyer, again came under fire at the annual meeting for Capital Properties in Wellington this week.
To save face, Mr Beyer withdrew a motion at the start of the meeting to raise directors' fees 25 per cent to $150,000 after an "overwhelming majority" of small shareholders said they would vote against it.
Also this week, appliance and healthcare group Fisher & Paykel dropped a proposed discounted issue of 110,000 shares to four executive directors after institutional shareholders said they did not like it.
Institutional shareholders have also indicated they will not support issuing discounted shares under a similar scheme at transport firm Mainfreight today.
A shareholder revolt? At least, it is a wake-up call to directors and management.
Independent analyst Brian Gaynor said it was rare to see two such situations in one week where shareholders were able to force a board to back down.
Small shareholders all too often find their voice carries scant weight, even when raised in the public forum of an annual meeting, compared with the influence the larger institutions wield.
The Capital Properties case is unusual in that the 40 largest shareholders own just 14.9 per cent of the company, the lowest percentage of any New Zealand-listed company. This wide shareholder spread without a big shareholder means the company has to sit up and listen when small shareholders bark.
Managing director Nick Wevers said most shareholders were happy to see directors' fees go up - when share prices go up. In Capital Properties' case, the share price has dropped from 110c to 85c since last July.
Directors justified the fee rise on the basis of the increase of over 100 per cent in the value of the assets under management (after the Shortland Properties acquisition) and the resulting increase in workload.
The trouble is, shareholders said the increased workload was not matched by increased performance and therefore should not be rewarded.
The latest survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Institute of Directors showed New Zealand directors' fees rose more than 9 per cent in the last year, for the second consecutive year.
If you believe the institute, New Zealand directors are still underpaid compared with their overseas counterparts.
Employees could say the same thing. So could shareholders.
<i>Between the lines:</i> Wake-up call for the big boards
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