MTRC Voting Recommendations
5 May 2003
| Company: | MTR Corporation Limited (MTRC) |
| Stock code: | 0066 |
| Meeting type: | Annual |
| Date of meeting: | 15-May-03 |
| Time of meeting: | 11:30 |
| Advice date: | 05-May-03 |
| CCASS voting cut-off | 12-May-03 VOTE NOW |
| Notice of Meeting: | Click here |
| Voting method: | Webb-site.com will require a poll, all proxies will be counted |
Note to journalists:
We have up to 4 proxy seats available inside this AGM. Please contact
us if you want one.
Special Note
MTRC has a unique position has the only listed company in which the Hong Kong Government has a controlling shareholding (although HKEx is de facto controlled, but by law rather than share ownership). When the MTRC was floated, Government set up a classic loyalty scheme whereby retail investors were rewarded for hanging on to their shares by the allocation of "bonus shares" from the Government shareholding in two tranches, both of which have now been transferred. As a result, at year-end, MTRC had over 440,000 registered public shareholders - which is about 1,000 times more than the typical listed company, where most of the public holds their shares via HKSCC Nominees Ltd. So every year, guessing the turnout at the AGM is a complete stab in the dark. We strongly advise the company against offering dim sum, because that could result in crowds of a size not seen since Jun-89.
| Item | Description | Vote |
| 1 | Adopt the accounts | FOR |
| 2 | Declare a final dividend | FOR |
| 3.a | Re-elect Thomas Brian Stevenson | FOR |
| 3.b | Re-elect Frederick Ma Si Hang | FOR |
| 3.c | Re-elect Cheung Yau Kai | FOR |
| 3.d | Re-elect Edward Ho Sing Tin | FOR |
| 4 | Re-appoint KPMG | FOR |
| 5 | Mandate the directors to issue additional shares | AGAINST |
| 6 | Mandate the directors to repurchase shares | FOR |
| 7 | Mandate the directors to issue repurchased shares | AGAINST |
Reasons AGAINST
Items 5 and 7
Webb-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.
© Webb-site.com, 2003
Organisations in this story
Sign up for our free newsletter
Recommend Webb-site to a friend
Copyright & disclaimer, Privacy policy