Forum Archive Index - March 2004

["David & Jill Stevenson" <djstevo@quicksilver.net.nz>]

 Did anyone else attend the near last shareholders meeting a couple of years ago when Fletcher Forests was spun off from the Fletcher Challenge group . Stunned shareholders who still sought adequate answer for witnessing appalling devastation of shareholder wealth  had only to look at certain Directors appearing to hold back yawns to speculate upon an answer  . What founding Directors would say if now alive we can only imagine.

     Except for Max Gunn , Brian Gaynor and now Bruce Sheppard we are ill served for financial watchdogs acting in shareholders interests. It is my opinion that shareholders in general are a pack of weak-kneed individuals and deserve in the main to be taken for the ride they bluster about when the horse has bolted.. How sad that Max Gunn who has served us so well is aging after years of service . Who else appears at shareholders meetings and asks all the well directed questions , the silence of the other shareholders impatient for a refreshment break is deafening. a man who quite rightly five minutes into the swan song Brierley Investments ltd  Annual Meeting in New Zealand moves that the entire Board resign. Totally ineffectual but  oh so appropriately symbolic that riveted the meeting right from the outset. I sense the move almost prompted the Chairman to redraft his well prepared address. What would Max Gunn have said from the floor to those sleepy overpaid Directors  I mentioned at the Fletcher Challenge Meeting.

     I think I quote Bruce Sheppard correctly speaking at a Rubicon Meeting viz. when he spoke in a mock Chairman`s address "As you can see, we have been very busy to do all this work ( manage five investments, of which 80% is our 20% in Fletcher Forests ) we have seven people on the payroll earning more than $100K . They cost you collectively $1.851 K . We have a CEO running all those people who earns $ 430 K base, and by the way he did such a good job we paid him an incentive of $ 184K . Over the top of these well paid people we have NINE (my emphasis ) directors from all over the Globe , including 3 Fletcher guys and you all know their track record . They collectively get paid $ 550 k .So you acn see we have eight full time senior staff and nine part time Directors managing five equity investments , who committed to investing only $ 4 million of new money this year ( my guess Genesis Research ) This Company is a retirement farm for too amny well paid executives and Directors and is a gravy train of excess. The Company should be liquidated and the assets or cash returned to shareholders . Rubicon is not a business - It`s a bucket "

     UNQUOTE  How is that for a Max Gunn protege.?  What can we learn ? Look at GPG as an investment company for unnecessarily stated comparison . No wonder they feel so frustrated at antics even the Courts seem intent on protecting including the Privy Council .You can`t pocket moral victories !

 

        David Stevenson