Power tools and electrical maker Techtronic Industries Co Ltd (Techtronic, 0669) is an increasingly rare Hong Kong success story. Its share price has risen from $1.27 at the end of 1999 to $12.30 at yesterday's close, shifting it from small-cap to blue-chip status, and it fittingly entered the MSCI Index last Friday night, when it was Hong Kong's 56th largest company by market value. Webb-site.com editor David Webb is a shareowner of Techtronic. However, this story is not about the investment merits or demerits of the stock, but about a first for Hong Kong, in which the general issue mandate was amended at the Annual General Meeting last week, to comply with the recommendations of Project Vampire (Vote Against Mandate for Placings, Issues by Rights Excepted), which are:
This shows that companies on the growth trail can be responsive to shareholder concerns, and recognise that addressing these concerns will add to the attraction of the stock. In the meeting, Techtronic also told shareholders that poll voting would be standard practice from now on, so shareholder votes will be properly counted. The poll results do show some votes against the issue mandate, but these are almost certainly votes sent by proxy when investors did not yet know that Techtronic would amend its proposal, so no doubt those voters are happy now. The footnote in the results shows the amendment to the issue mandate. Last Wednesday was a good day for corporate governance. After the morning AGM of Techtronic, we crossed the harbour for the afternoon AGM of Arts Optical, which as we wrote last month, was the first company to put the Vampire mandate in its notice of AGM. We hope that other listed companies, large and small, will follow the lead set by these two companies. Already this year, a majority of investors in 8 Hang Seng Index companies have voted against the general mandate. This message is beginning to filter through. 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. |