Investor Presentaiton
Shareholder (investment) risk
Companies like to diversify their shareholder base. But is the board.
aware of how rapidly the expectations and behaviour of
institutional and retail shareholders is changing?
➤ Proxy voting: Investors need the earlier release of final AGM agendas
if they are to vote in an informed way (28 days). They want their votes
properly counted ("voting by poll") and the results published.
"Pre-emption rights": Large and dilutive private placements to a
select group of investors increases risk to other shareholders.
➤ Privatisations/delistings: Protection for minority shareholders (eg,
approval processes) are weak in much of Asia. Better in Hong Kong,
but the PCCW case highlights a legal problem.
➤ Related-party transactions: Large transactions that benefit the
controlling shareholder also increase investment risk and will devalue
the company over time. For this reason, one notorious Hong Kong
company has a PE of 0.53 and a PBR of 0.05.
An open dialogue with shareholders is good preventative medicine.
ACGA Presentation
HKCCA, May 6, 2009
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