NAB Courier Mail articles
December 21, 2009
These articles appeared in Brisbane's Courier Mail following the 2009 NAB AGM
Press Coverage from the meeting
Courier Mail
December 18, 2009
City Beat
By James McCullough
Mayne
wants in YOUR diarist thought former journalist, onetime owner of
Crikey and now shareholder activist Stephen Mayne was about to say he
was at the historic NAB AGM in Brisbane yesterday to ``keep the
bastards honest''. But no, that particular line did not come from
Mayne's mouth. Rather he said he was standing for election as a
director of the bank because he vehemently objected to the bank's
recent capital raisings, which he said severely disadvantaged retail
investors and benefited institutional investors.
Mayne, who City Beat reckons got more airtime at the AGM than the
NAB chairman, Michael Chaney, told shareholders that his standing for
the board position was a ``last resort'' because his crusade to promote
what he considered to be unfairness in the recent capital raisings fell
on deaf ears.
Mayne confided that he had applied to sit on the board of 40
companies recently, and last week obtained 1 per cent of the total vote
to try and get elected to the board of Ten. ``I am hoping I get a
slightly larger margin here,'' he told shareholders.
Lack of ATMs - a few syllables into his question to the NAB board
yesterday there was no mistaking that shareholder Andrew Gray hailed
from the home of Robbie the Bruce, Scotland. Gray, aged 76, had driven
several hundred kilometres to front the board for a very simple reason:
``I want an ATM in my town.'' Gray has perhaps appropriately retired to
the sleepy NSW town of MacLean, population 4000, and there is nary an
ATM in sight. ``I have phoned and written and I got this letter back
from the bank which was arguably the silliest letter I have ever
received from anyone,'' Gray said, with just that hint of Billy
Connolly.
He was not alone. Another shareholder wanted to know why the town of
Dubbo, population 40,000, did not have an NAB automatic teller machine.
Chairman Chaney said the bank had increased its ATM coverage and he was
sure Dubbo now had one or two ATMs, and that he would get the relevant
people to look at the situation in the town of MacLean.
Re-elections
set ONE of the more interesting facets of the NAB AGM yesterday was a
bit of a spiel directors gave to convince shareholders they should be
re-elected. It is, of course, nonsense, given the institutions have
already elected the directors and the retail investors have little say
on balance whether they get there or not.
Nonetheless we heard Paul Rizzo give a rousing ``brief'' chat about
his curriculum vitae and why he should be elected to the board,
informing us that he had started with the bank in 1966. Director
Michael Ullmer confided that, as a Pom, he came to Australia in 1979,
was now chairman of JB Were and gave his Foster's directors fees to
charity.
The best line came from the Kiwi among the bunch (of course). John
Waller, who chairs BNZ and other Kiwi companies, also just happens to
be the head of the Eden Park Redevelopment group, the home of rugger.
He is preparing Eden Park for the next World Cup, and volunteered that,
``I cannot guarantee that the All Blacks and the Wallabies will be in
the final but I will do my best''.
He and the other directors were of course re-elected.
A nice earner AND the last word on the AGM that your diarist had
the privilege of attending for over four hours yesterday, including the
pre-AGM shareholder briefing . .
NAB executives decided it would be appropriate this year to have
two journalists, Nine's Ross Greenwood and the ABC's Peter Thompson,
ask questions of the chairman and the chief executive before the
commencement of the annual meeting. This, according to Chairman Chaney,
allowed more shareholders to ask more questions and was tremendously
innovative. Greenwood and Thompson, neither of whom bothered staying
for the AGM, clearly thought so as they jetted back down south with
some interesting Christmas spending money.
Anyway, Greenwood and Thommo condensed 900 questions into about
100, asked a few hard questions and left. The thing was that despite
the early morning questioning session the AGM still ran for nearly 2
1/2 hours.
Courier Mail
December 18, 2009
Opportunity knocks for our largest bank
By James McCullough
NATIONAL
Australia Bank, the country's largest, is investigating mergers and
acquisitions, or even offloading its British operations in the troubled
UK market. NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne told shareholders at the
company's annual general meeting in Brisbane yesterday that the UK and
New Zealand markets had not performed well for the bank.
However, he said the Clydesale and Yorkshire banks had remained
profitable and had not required British Government bailout packages.
Mr Clyne said there had been significant consolidation in Britain, and there was more to come.
``We
have been approached by a number of players in the UK to see how we
could participate,'' he said. ``These approaches indicate that in our
Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, we have a high-quality asset that is an
attractive platform for participation in UK market developments.''
Mr Clyne said the group was exploring and assessing how these
approaches could benefit the bank and its shareholders. He did not say
NAB was considering selling its British operations, but rather would
consider all offers and opportunities moving forward.
It was the first time NAB has held its AGM in Brisbane, as part of
its decision to offer shareholders around the country greater access to
the bank, although NAB was very shy on its Queensland aspirations.
Asked whether NAB had been talking to Suncorp about the Queensland
group's banking or insurance operations, Mr Clyne offered a blunt ``no
comment''. ``That is market-sensitive,'' he said.
NAB chairman Michael Chaney said the bank's future direction was
dependent on increased presence in business banking and wealth
management, hence the proposed $4.61 billion acquisition of AXA's
Australasian operations. He said AXA would likely be consolidated under
the MLC NAB brand and offer a valuable base for the wealth management
business. MLC and AXA were among the most trusted brands in the
country, and on the heels of NAB's Aviva acquisition AXA was a good fit
for the bank.
During the 2 1/2-hour AGM, the bank board came under heavy criticism
from shareholders for its remuneration for executives and NAB's recent
capital raisings. Some shareholders argued the raisings had favoured
institutional, rather than retail, investors.
Stephen Mayne, a shareholder activist who unsuccessfully stood for
election to the bank's board, said NAB raised $3.2 billion through an
institutional placement in December and another $2 billion via a
placement in July, and retail investors were severely cut back.
Mr
Chaney said at the time the bank needed $3.2 billion and the
institutions had committed to the bulk of the raising. ``Your comments
indicate a lack of understanding about how the bank runs,'' Mr Chaney
said.
``I cannot accept your comments or inference that there was some sort of neglect toward retail investors by the board.''
Mr Chaney, along with directors Paul Rizzo, Michael Ullmer, Mark Joiner and John Waller, were all re-elected to the bank board.
After the AXA Asia Pacific bid yesterday NAB shares closed down $1.30 at $26.65.
Copyright © 2024 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved
