For the 6th time this season, investors in a Hang Seng Index company, this time PCCW Ltd (PCCW, 0008) have voted against the general mandate, as we show below. For readers not familiar with it, Project Vampire (Vote Against Mandate for Placings, Issues by Rights Excepted) urges shareholders to vote against the general share issue mandate unless it complies with our recommendations, based on international best practice, which are:
PCCW is about 32.81% owned by Singapore-listed Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd (PCRD), which in turn is 75.25% owned by Richard Li Tzar-kai (Mr Li), Chairman of both. Another company controlled by PCRD, HK-listed Pacific Century Insurance Holdings Ltd, owns about 0.06% of PCCW, while Mr Li's private companies own about 3.82%. The executive directors of PCCW own about 0.09% between them. Together, we estimate that Mr Li's interests and the executive directors amount to 1,711,942,919 shares, or 36.79% of the company. Assuming they voted in favour of their board's proposal, and deducting that from the votes "in favour" in the official poll results, then the voting of independent investors on the issue mandate was as follows:
In other words, public investors voted by a margin of more than 3 to 1 against the general mandate. Total votes cast were 2.21% of the free float, perhaps showing how little interest this company now commands amongst investors. Indeed, even Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, controlled by the Chairman's dad, apparently did not vote the 36.73m PCCW shares (0.79%) it held at 31-Dec-02, if it still holds them. 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. |