Guinness Peat Group has caved in to pressure from its New Zealand shareholders and is promising to hold a shareholder meeting here within the next 12 months.While it will be too late for the upcoming May 7 annual meeting held in London, GPG's New Zealand-
Guinness Peat Group has caved in to pressure from its New Zealand shareholders and is promising to hold a shareholder meeting here within the next 12 months.
While it will be too late for the upcoming May 7 annual meeting held in London, GPG’s New Zealand-based director Tony Gibbs has undertaken to set up an audio or video link for local shareholders to tap into.
The May 7 meeting is important for shareholders as a number of resolutions are to be voted on, including the remuneration report and re-appointment of directors.
The performance of the investment company is under attack while board promises to this year return value to shareholders appear to be getting slimmer.
GPG’s director remuneration has long attracted criticism but has garnished further vitriol following revelations Mr Gibbs has received total remuneration of $23.1 million since the end of 2004.
Fellow directors Blake Nikon and Gary Weiss have earned $17.7 million and $21.7 million respectively.
But over the same period GPG’s share price has underperformed the NZX50 Gross Index in four of the past five years, according to Milford fund manager and commentator Brian Gaynor.
GPG's loss for the year ending December 31 was £36 million - down from £50 million the previous year.
Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard has been lobbying New Zealand shareholders to send the GPG board a message by voting against a number of the resolutions.
He said there was considerable concern that the performance of GPG was sub optimal, partly because of poor governance, and also that the company lacks a succession plan in place for critical management.
Mr Sheppard is organising proxies for the annual meeting and said the best way for New Zealand shareholders to send a message to the company is by voting against the director remuneration resolution and reappointment of directors, other than Mr Gibbs.
In an email sent to NBR, Mr Sheppard said Mr Gibbs’ connection to New Zealand was crucial for the company’s restructuring issues and that he should stay.
Mr Sheppard said Mr Gibbs had called him from Sydney and obtained undertakings from the GPG board to set up an audio or visual audio link to the meeting.
The board also agreed to hold a full GPG meeting in New Zealand within the next 12 months.
