By SIMON HENDERY
If nothing else, yesterday's first outing of the new Shareholders' Association played its part in raising the tone of annual meetings.
The four-week-old association chose CDL Hotels as its first target in a war for a better deal for small sharemarket investors.
And after a long grilling of directors
and executives at CDL's Logan Park Quality Hotel in Greenlane, Auckland, yesterday afternoon, led by association founder Bruce Sheppard, both sides had nothing but nice things to say about each other.
By the end of the two-hour meeting, CDL's London-based chairman, John Wilson, was addressing Mr Sheppard by his first name "since we've got to know each other so well."
Mr Sheppard's response: "Thank you, John."
But behind the civility there were serious questions. A complex $2.1 million subvention payment was the focus of the association's queries.
Where was the evidence that this payment had been turned into a $5 million tax advantage?
Neither Mr Wilson, nor chief financial officer Anthony Lee nor the KPMG tax advisers flanking Mr Lee could explain the details to Mr Sheppard's satisfaction.
In the end it was agreed that Mr Lee would provide a written explanation to Mr Sheppard, and if those answers were not acceptable, the matter would be taken to the Stock Exchange.
Then it was time to move on to three shareholder proposals - covering the company's constitution, directors' fees and a profit improvement programme - all placed on the agenda by Mr Sheppard.
Continuing the spirit of frankness that had developed during the course of the afternoon, one shareholder, concerned that the meeting was well into its second hour, asked how significant that debating the motions would be, given that the company held proxies for 74 per cent of the votes.
"There's one thing I like about coming to New Zealand for annual general meetings," Mr Wilson beamed. "They are frank.
"My frank response is that it [a debate] will make little difference."
He then invited Mr Sheppard to withdraw the last of the proposals, but Mr Sheppard replied that because he had come so far, he was determined to see his proposal defeated.
Boxes were ceremoniously checked on voting papers, and before the meeting broke up Mr Sheppard asked the 80 other shareholders present to join him in offering a round of applause for the board to acknowledge their frankness throughout the meeting.
