AGMs

Record 70 AGMs attended in 2021


November 5, 2022

Below are the details of the record 70 online AGMs that Stephen Mayne asked questions at in 2021, thanks to the benefit of virtual AGMs.

70. NAB: Friday, December 17 - proxies were announced before the meeting began. See text of 6 questions asked and watch webcast archive. They rejected request for a transcript. See letter to chair before the meeting.

69. ANZ: Thursday, December 16 - declined all pre-AGM transparency requests. See text of 10 questions lodged. Watch webcast archive. Yet to deliver a transcript.

68. Westpac: December 15, 2021: declined some of these pre-AGM transparency requests but was very pleased they produced this 95 page transcript. See text of questions asked and watch webcast.

67. Soul Pattinson: December 10, noon - see text of questions lodged, not all of which were asked. Failed to produce an archive of the webcast or transcript.

66. Sandfire Resources:
November 26, 2pm - see text of 9 questions asked. No webcast archive provided.

65. Regional Express: November 24, 3pm - asked about 10 questions which were delayed until the end. Failed to produce an AGM webcast or transcript.

64. Prime Media: November 24, 11am - see text of questions asked. No archive of webcast available.

63. K&S Corporation: November 23, 2pm - asked about 12 questions, no other shareholder participated. No webcast archive, as you can see here.

62. Brickworks: November 23, noon - see text of questions asked and voting results. Failed to produce webcast archive or transcript.

61. Link Group: November 23, 11.30am - see text of questions asked. See archive of 1 hour 51 minute webcast. No transcript provided.

60. Kathmandu:
November 23, 11am - see text of questions asked. See full AGM transcript lodged with ASX, something you rarely see, but couldn't find video archive.

59. Lovissa: November 22, 4pm - see text of questions asked. No AGM webcast archive provided.

58. Betmakers: November 22, 11am - see text of questions asked. No webcast archive provided.

57. Monash IVF: November 19, 2pm - see text of questions asked. Failed to produce an AGM archive, even after publishing this audio file in 2020.

56. Next DC: November 19, 11am - asked about 10 questions, including about controversial 2020 capital raising. See 90 minute webcast.

55. PEXA: November 19, 10am - see text of questions. No webcast archive provided.

54. Accent Group: November 19, 10am - see text of questions asked. No webcast archive provided.

53. Northern Star: November 18, 5pm - see text of 13 questions asked. No webcast archive or transcript available. Old school chair Michael Chaney AO proved during the meeting he was certainly not a modern company leader, rejecting all requests for transparency and dismissing a JobKeeper question as "hopeless". He also conceded that this $12 billion gold mining giant which owns 100% of Kalgoorlie's super pit was not very diverse - 8 of the 9 directors live in Perth.

52. Humm Group:
November 18, 4pm - see text of 13 questions asked of the now rebranded Flexigroup directors, plus this 67 minute webcast. Was a thorough but fair grilling given the Andrew Abercrombie chaired outfit has performed poorly for investors of late.

51. AMA Group: November 18, 2.30pm - see text of 16 questions asked of the battling car repairs giant which tucked into $65 million of Jobkeeper, making the top 10 of ASX listed company recipients. The external candidate Peter Taylor polled less than 5%, mainly because he's currently suing the company. This 83 minute webcast is available and they didn't even name the challenging candidate in these voting results.

50. Mineral Resources: November 18, 12.30pm - see text of questions asked. Billionaire CEO Chris Ellison reminded me of former Oxiana boss Owen Hegarty in his hey day. A real evangelist prone to making overblown claims. Hence the importance of this full 26 page transcript which has been commendably produced. However, the transcript didn't include the text of the spruiking corporate videos. If you go to the end of this 1 hour and 45 minute webcast, you'll see the corporate video finishes with the following lines: "The future for Mineral Resources is unlimited, we are the gold at the end of the rainbow." Hmmm, should ASIC and the ASX be discouraging such boosterism?

49. Mirvac: November 18, 11am - as so often happens, the ASA representative and I were the only people asking questions. See this transcript and watch the webcast of the 64 minute meeting. There were 9% protest votes against chair John Mulcahy and James Millar given both have been on the board since 2009. Unlike with Dexus, Goodman and Charter Hall, there was no big remuneration protest related to excessively generous incentive grants to already wealthy CEOs. Might that be because Mirvac's CEO, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, is female and doesn't need a top-up given that she's already made about $20 million from her long term incentive scheme.

48. Freedom Foods: November 18, 10am: see text of 6 questions asked. Listen to 58 minute webcast or read transcript. I'm down 90% on my $500 investment and this has been an absolute shocker steered by the Perich family, which is a related party milk supplier.

47. Bluescope Steel: November 18, 10am: see text of 7 questions asked. Watch webcast. Chairman John Bevan was Dr No as he rejected the transcript request, rejected disclosing the voting result by shares and shareholders and wouldn't even say what the proxy advisers were recommending. However, investors are happy because all resolutions passed with more than 97% of the voted shares in favour.

46. Altium: November 18, 9.30am: see text of 6 questions asked. Watch webcast of 2 hour and 19 minute meeting which was very much a show-case for this fabulous global player in the software for electric circuit boards. The Q&A didn't start until 90 minutes in but at least we got all the proxies first and there were big protest with 30% against the NED fees rise thanks to an ISS recommendation which was followed by the offshore index fund donkey vote (Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street). There was an 8% against vote chairman Sam Weiss and 40% against the constitutional tweak to allow for virtual meetings, meaning that it was defeated. See voting results. Also, big kudos to chairman Weiss for disclosing the for and against votes by shareholder on key resolutions during the meeting This was done on the fly after a written question, plus in the formal results.

45. Seek: November 17, 4pm - see text of 11 questions asked. See voting results where there were 3 Ian Narev rem protests ranging between 14-17%. See webcast.

44. Cromwell Property Group: November 17, 2pm - hybrid AGM with shareholders in Brisbane, top brass on video in Sydney. See list of 12 questions asked. Only small protest was 10.7% against Jialie Tang. No archive of webcast provided.

43. Liberty Financial: November 17, 12.30pm - see text of 13 questions asked. Listen to archive of 46 minute meeting.

42. Praemium (PPS): November 17, 11am - see text of 7 questions asked. No AGM archive provided.

41. Platinum Asset Management: November 17, 10am - see text of 10 questions asked. See video of 101 minute meeting.

40. Adore Beauty: November 11, 1pm:
see list of 8 questions submitted. No material protest votes. Promise webcast archive but it goes to a dead link.

39. Lendlease: November 11, 10pm: see list of 19 questions submitted. Watch webcast and read transcript.

38. BHP: November 11, 4pm: see list of 9 questions submitted which were all asked in full. BHP still isn't publishing a full archive of the webcast or a transcript, presumably because they don't want to promote the climate activists who were giving them stick.

37. Charter Hall: November 11, 2.30pm:
see list of 14 questions lodged, 12 of which were asked. See voting results with 22% against rem report and 38.7% against retention bonus for the CEO. See 72 minute webcast archive.

36. Estia Health: November 11, 1pm:
See list of 18 questions asked and voting results where constitutional amendment to move to online AGMs was defeated. This AGM history suggests they've never published a webcast archive.

35. Nine Entertainment: November 11, 10am: see full transcript of proceedings which was published on the same day as the AGM.

34. REA Group: November 11, 9am: see list of 17 questions submitted, all but 2 of which were asked. See voting results given the big protest votes on pay, the chair's election and the constitutional amendment. Watch 66 minute video archive.

33. Myer Holdings: November 4, 11am: see list of questions submitted. See voting results. Watch website archive of 2 hour 14 minute meeting, which included aggressive questions from Michael Kroger's son, presumably on behalf of Solomon Lew.

32. Domain Holdings: November 4, 10am: see list of questions submitted, which generated this coverage in The Age/SMH. No AGM archive provided, in contrast to what parent company Nine does.

31. Domino's Pizza: November 3, 4pm: see list of questions submitted and coverage in The Australian. See video archive 30. of 72 minute AGM, plus this first ever AGM transcript.

29. Cobram Estate Olives: October 29, 11am: see list of questions submitted and watch 1 hour and 55 minute AGM webcast.

28. Huon Aquaculture: October 29, 10am: see list of questions submitted at scheme meeting, not all of which were asked.

27. Blackmores: October 27, 11am:
see list of questions asked.

26. Transurban: October 21, 11am: see list of questions asked, watch 2hr and 11 minute AGM webcast. Still yet to do an AGM transcript as this history shows.

25. Crown Resorts: October 21, 10am: See list of questions asked. Watch 123 minute webcast, plus read 21 page transcript. See The Australian, plus ABC TV's The Business. See The New Daily.

24. Endeavour Group: October 21, 9am: see list of questions asked. No AGM archive of transcript provided.

23. Brambles: October 19, 4pm: see list of 9 questions asked and watch 66 minute webcast. No transcript this year even though they produced this transcript of the 2020 AGM.

22. Dexus: October 19, 2021, 1.30pm: see list of questions asked, Crikey coverage and watch 74 minute webcast.

21. Bapcor: October 19, 1.30pm: see list of questions asked plus voting results as 50.61% went against the constitutional amendment seeking to lock in online only AGMs.

20. Tabcorp: October 19, 2021, 10am: watch webcast and see questions that were lodged online.

19. IDP Education: October 19, 10am:
see list of questions asked, Crikey coverage and watch 56 minute AGM webcast.

18. Treasury Wine Estates: October 15, 2021: see list of 16 questions asked plus brief summary of answers. See notice of meeting for example of excellent annual election of directors policy in action. No transcript but watch archive of the 1 hour and 57 minute meeting here on Youtube.

17. CBA: October 13, 2021: see list of questions asked and watch the webcast. No transcript provided.

16. Southern Cross Media: Wednesday, October 13, 11am: See notice of meeting. See list of 8 questions asked. Watch 64 minute webcast, no transcript provided.

15. Viva Energy: October 11, 3pm: EGM on capital return. Chance to grill chair and former environment minister Robert Hill. See text of 9 written questions that were read out. See notice of meeting.

14. Amcil, October 7, 2021: see list of questions read out. No webcast archive provided.

13. Pointsbet, October 5, 2021: See list of 21 questions asked and see results with 13% against 2 rem items and 14% against the constitutional amendment for online AGMs. Watch 72 minute video archive on Youtube.

12. ASX, September 29, 2021: lobbed these 21 questions at the board, most of which were asked at a meeting which lasted two hours and 7 minutes. See full webcast and transcript.

11. Suncorp, September 23, 2021: lobbed these 14 questions at the board, most of which were asked at a meeting which lasted two and a half hours. See full webcast. No transcript provided.

10. AGL, September 22, 2021: lobbed these 13 questions at the board, most of which were asked at a meeting which lasted almost 3 hours given the presence of climate activists. Watch webcast and see full transcript.

9. Milton, September 13, 2021: scheme meeting for Soul Patts takeover. Lobbed these seven questions at the board which were read out by the CEO but chairman Robert Millner was nowhere to be seen. See Eureka Report.

8. Metcash, September 1, 2021: lobbed these 7 questions at the board which were answered in full. Watch full webcast.

7. Macquarie Group, July 29, 2021: lobbed 21 written questions which were all answered in full. See Crikey story plus this Eureka Report wrap. Watch webcast and see transcript.

6. Ausnet: July 15, 2021: lodged 4 questions before the AGM and a further 8 during the meeting. See all 12 questions asked, plus this Eureka Report wrap. Listen to 92 minute audio archive.

5. Woolworths Endeavour Group demerger EGM: June 18, 2021: shut down after asking these 10 questions. Watch the webcast archive and here is the transcript. See Eureka Report wrap plus coverage in The AFR.

4. Moelis Australia (MA Financial), May 28: lodged 22 written question of which 17 were asked. See debate transcript plus Eureka Report story. The company refused to post an archive of the webcast. Here is an analysis of how they handled or censored all of my questions.

3. Rio Tinto, May 6, 2021: Only 2 of these 11 submitted online questions were asked. See Eureka Report article, plus Crikey story and full transcript.

2. AMP, April 30, 2021: impressed that they read out about 20 of these 26 questions. See Crikey AGM preview. Watch webcast and read 46 page transcript.

1. CIMIC, April 14, 2021: See Eureka Report write-up. Watch AGM webcast, see text of 10 questions asked and see transcript.