Voting recommendations
Note to journalists:
Reasons AGAINSTItems 4 and 6Webb-site.com urges all investors to vote against the general issue mandate for all listed companies, for the reasons explained in Project Vampire, unless they comply with the recommendations set out in that article. The non-pre-emptive issue mandate allows management to choose the shareowners by allotment of shares. This corrupts the governance mechanism. Shareowners should govern management, not the other way around. If a company wishes to raise cash by issuing shares, then it should do so by rights issue. If your company offers new shares to other investors at a discount, but not to you, then your company is transferring value from your shares to the new investors. Their gain is your loss. That's why we believe an issue for cash should be done by rights issue, failing which it should be limited to 5% of existing issued shares and a maximum discount of 5%. CommentThis resolution only relates to the remuneration of individuals as directors and not as employees, so for executive directors, it does not relate to their salary, bonus and other benefits, which are not subject to shareholder approval. Other companies, including Hong Kong and China Gas and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, have been more progressive in this area by specifying a dollar amount of director's fee to be approved by shareholders. We urge PCCW to follow this example next year. Copyright Webb-site.com, 2003 Sign up for our free newsletter Recommend Webb-site.com to a friend Important notice: All material on this site, except where otherwise accredited, is copyright to Webb-site.com. Media and researchers are welcome to quote from articles on this site, provided that such quotation is attributed to Webb-site.com. The information in this site should not be relied upon by any person in making any investment decision. No responsibility or liability is accepted by Webb-site.com or any person related to it for any loss arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this site. Persons who are in any doubt about an investment or potential investment should take professional investment advice. From time to time parties associated with Webb-site.com may own long or short positions in securities issued by or related to companies or governments on which we comment. |