Bunching up of AGMs in April getting worse, says report

[cyclone]

Bunching up of AGMs in April getting worse, says report
Nearly 100 held on each of the last two business days of April last year, worse than in 2015; this will worsen in 2017 as new requirements kick in

by MICHELLE QUAH

LISTED companies are continuing to cluster their annual general meetings (AGMs) around the same handful of days a year - in particular, the last two business days of April.

And the situation is very likely going to get worse going forward, with new requirements - which could involve more board deliberations pushing back the AGM dates - kicking in.

However, there have also been positive developments in the holding of shareholder meetings. Regulators seem to be getting stricter in granting companies waivers from holding their AGMs within the stipulated time, and there is evidence of growing shareholder activism.

These were among the key findings of "The Singapore Report on Shareholder Meetings: Dawn of Activism", authored by corporate-governance advocate Associate Professor Mak Yuen Teen of the National University of Singapore Business School and MBA graduate and active investor Chew Yi Hong.

More details in http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companie...ays-report

[weijian]

And RegCo CEO Tan Boon Gin speaks, and then ends with a threat.

SGX RegCo requires large issuers to take lead to reduce AGM crunch

Accordingly, SGX RegCo will require large issuers to take the lead, to ensure that their AGMs do not conflict with the AGM of another large issuer.

SGX RegCo will facilitate this by maintaining a calendar of AGMs of large issuers to facilitate shareholder participation. Large issuers will be requested to submit their proposed date and time period of their upcoming AGM to SGX RegCo.

SGX RegCo will separately reach out to identified issuers to provide more details on the arrangement. SGX RegCo expects all identified issuers, in particular their board chairpersons, to enable early preparations for their AGMs and work with us to address the issue of AGM clustering. The implementation of these arrangements will be reviewed periodically.

Should the AGM clustering of large issuers persist, more prescriptive requirements may have to be put in place.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/compani...agm-crunch

[Mushy]

I like AGMs, and attend 5-10 such meetings a year for the past 2 decades.
Over the years, i have grown to prefer attending AGMs (physical) of small caps as I find such meetings can provide real value adds. Value adds that I cannot get elsewhere.
At AGMs of big caps, there are always big crowds and it is hard to even get close or spend enough quality time with the people. Management of big caps are usually very careful with what they say and everything is just what you can read in the reports. Basically after a bigcap AGM, i rarely feel like I had gained something in terms of investing in that company.

Smallcaps may hold their AGMs in their company HQ premise. It is good to visit and get a vibe of the physical location, their operations, people, etc. Many small caps are family controlled, founder-type holding a controlling stake. Bosses of small caps are more likely and at ease to tell you more about how business/industry had been and what may be upcoming. Not in the generic form that are usually found in reports. I am not saying it is price-sensitive info but someone already experienced in the analysis of that company can form some conclusions.

E.g. I used to frequent the AGM of a particular smallcap. The founder/chairman will always sit with the shareholders at the table during the break or after the meeting and talk to us. The turnout is usually not big and I always enjoyed just sitting there and listening to him talk. He likes to talk and he is kind of the big brother in his particular industry locally.

Sometimes I get to directly ask the managment specific questions that directly impact my decision to invest. Some years ago, there was a proposed SOA for a local smallcap by a foreign party. The offer price was a good several times the market share price just before the event. Too good to be true. Problem was that the offerer was an unknown foreign party and shareholders were not too confident. The share price tripled but still at a good discount to the offer price up till the end.
At the EGM to vote, I was surprised that the turnout was even lower than the usual AGM of that company. I was not too confident the offerer had the means to pay. So I asked the CFO his opinion on this. Of course the CFO did not give us an official reply. But after the meeting I talked to him and manage to get his response. Just his opinion about the financial health of the offerer. I then had the confident to hold on my shares till the end and get paid the full offer price. 

I have so many AGMs stories to tell.
This company IPOed and made many positive annoucements shortly after that. --> MOUs, partnership to expand, etc. But covid came and all of these became silent. Performance was stagnant and share price slowly dipped to 20% of IPO. For me, I became very involved in my attention to this company and its industry. I think it has the potential to do really well once it gets its footing. During an e-AGM, I made some encouraging comments to the management. Most shareholders then were negative and not surprisingly so. Share price tanked and no dividends for years. Apparently, the CEO/founder/chairman (same person) took notice of my positive comments. He invited me to lunch at his office. We spent a few hours in his office chatting. I had already read up so much about this guy and the company he founded from media throught the years. But what I gained during those few hours spent with him cannot be valued.

Sometimes it is bad as well.
This I will reveal the name of the company. Jurong Hi tech.
Sometime in around 2005-2007 before the company went bust, I attended the AGM. I was not that experienced yet and I am saying all these in hindsight. The business was already not so good. Motorola was by far the main customer but their mobile phones were going out of fashion. So Jurong contracting business was going downhill and share price followed. They could not find replacement. At the AGM, so few people turned up. I think less than 10. We simply sat around the conference table in their meeting room at the company hq somewhere in Tuas. Management was entertaining us giving us samples of products that even at that time I felt were unpromising. The vibes were bad I remember. I should have sold all my shares that day but regretably I did not. What happened shortly after, you can google to find out. I ended up with some useless paper share certificates which I still keep today as a reminder.

Oh, I forgot to conclude my post. As I am focus on small caps, the uncluttering of AGMs only for big caps is not going to help me. I often have a problem of deciding which physical AGM to attend.

[weijian]

Hi Mushy,

Thanks for sharing. I do concur that at most times, 1 minute spent talking with a person who is much better than you, is worth 10-20x more in terms of learning/understanding from reading/analyzing.

From Tan Boon Gin's post, I think the intention is to start the declutter, starting from big caps as highest priority since they have "bigger investor base" and hence higher chance of conflicts. You have to start somewhere. So it is not just for big caps but for every cap.

[Choon]

"E.g. I used to frequent the AGM of a particular smallcap. The founder/chairman will always sit with the shareholders at the table during the break or after the meeting and talk to us. The turnout is usually not big and I always enjoyed just sitting there and listening to him talk. He likes to talk and he is kind of the big brother in his particular industry locally.

Sometimes I get to directly ask the managment specific questions that directly impact my decision to invest. Some years ago, there was a proposed SOA for a local smallcap by a foreign party. The offer price was a good several times the market share price just before the event. Too good to be true. Problem was that the offerer was an unknown foreign party and shareholders were not too confident. The share price tripled but still at a good discount to the offer price up till the end.
At the EGM to vote, I was surprised that the turnout was even lower than the usual AGM of that company. I was not too confident the offerer had the means to pay. So I asked the CFO his opinion on this. Of course the CFO did not give us an official reply. But after the meeting I talked to him and manage to get his response. Just his opinion about the financial health of the offerer. I then had the confident to hold on my shares till the end and get paid the full offer price.


Do you mind sharing the identity of this company? It will be good knowledge for fellow valuebuddies. I do not see anything sensitive in the above writeup that would prejudice yourself or the company.

[Mushy]

That company is HTL. I shared the same comments in the thread before.

[Big Toe]

Speaking of HTL. I had some indirect dealings with them, often spoke to one of the key management. From personal experience, reliable and honest in their dealings. I did ask what happened to their core furniture biz? They are in the process of rebuilding and even though covid probably played a part, it was due to *ahem*...the other party not having good intentions. I will leave it as that.

I have all the confidence that the Phuas will be successful again.

[Mushy]

Related to bunching, it would be good if companies have hybrid AGMs; both physical and virtual means. So I could at least tune in digitally to AGM B while physically at AGM A. And of course, able to attend digitally gives the shareholder more options. AGMs are usually held during working time and most shareholders have their own full time jobs.

Over the Covid 19 years I believe all almost companies had the experience of conducting their AGM electronically. I use "almost" cos I know of at least 1 STI component blue chip which did not.
This year 2024, I think all the SGX listed companies have fully transit back to physical AGMs. All the ones I am eyeing this year only allow physical attendence. How many are still enabling hybrid AGMs this year. I remember Comfordelgro last year.

To my surprise, I saw Don Agro International limited holding its AGM this year both physically (in Singapore Carlton hotel) and virtually. I own no shares and offer no comments on the investibility of this company. Today it has an ultra small market cap of around 21 million sgd. But the management are coming all the way from Russia to hold their AGM here, and also enabling shareholders to attend digitally as well.

On the other hand, that STI blue chip company whom never had a virtual agm (not even during lockdown 2020) and I doubt even any Singaporean shareholders had ever attended its physicaly AGM, at least in the last 5 years. You guess?
Ok, it only has a secondary listing in SGX and primary listing is in London. But which OPMI living anywhere in the world (sg or london) will go all the way to the island of Bermuda in the middle of the Atlantic to attend the AGM?

[ghchua]

Hi Mushy,

Having virtual AGMs doesn't solve the problem of AGM bunching. For example, if there are 40 AGMs held in one day, how would virtual AGMs help? You can toggle so many virtual AGMs in one day?

In fact, AGM bunching help those shareholders who are holding full-time jobs. For example, during this round of AGMs, most were held in 25,26,29 and 30 April. Most could just take leave for these days and you can cover most AGMs held during this round. The problem is how to attend so many AGMs in one day. It doesn't help full-time investors at all, while those holding a full-time job can actually narrow the gap by just taking leave on these 4 days.

[Mushy]

Actually, the intention of my last post is on why companies cannot continue to enable the virtual AGM while they transit back to physical. I just find it appropriate to post in this recent thread. I am not sure if there have ever been as much as 40 SGX listed companies conducting AGMs at the same time. Personally, it is at most 2 or max 3 for me to choose from. Last year, I attended 3 AGMs virtually at the same time at home. Maybe a fund manager need to attend more but they have a team.

Physical is always the best but very often shareholder cannot physically attend due to various reasons like bunching or cannot be there. They still like to be engaged by watching it live online. Why do they have to remove the virtual AGMs now.

Just to be clear, I am not complaining about bunching. I have no solution and I think it is not an easy solution and not every party will be happy. Can only strike a balance at most.

Well, just to share another new AGM problem I face this year. I have been looking forward to attending this company's AGM and it would be the first physical one since 2019. So they recently announced that due to certain audit issue, they are seeking a 1 mth extension to hold their AGM. This stretches the possible new date to the first week of June holidays where I had already booked family travel plans. And I think there will not be a virtual option. This happen to be the AGM that is at the very top of my to-attend list.