coincident agm' a big success!

AAP

The State Library of NSW was again the venue for the paired Annual General Meetings of developing CSM giant Eastern Star Gas and their associated shareholder think-tank The Baseless Rampers (BR's)




The general business of the day (ESG' AGM) has already been covered in detail for HotCopper by the attending BR's, and readers are directed to excellent posts by; Hardmano, Yaqona, Bundalee, Djjp and Acorn on the ESG AGM thread.

The BR's social secretary has confirmed attendance was up on previous years with welcome inclusion of a new South Australian chapter.

Proof that the Rampers and ESG are twined for growth was evident in the number of younger members in attendance. Unfortunately foundation members ALH and SF were absent but the minutes duly noted their apologies. In keeping with tradition chairs were set aside and drinks ordered in their absence.

The social secretary apologised for his late arrival and has committed to make a more timely appearance at future meetings - even if it means a seat on Tiger Air.

This year's meetings were marred by the presence outside of a large and noisy contingent of disgruntled landholders and misguided conservationist who bussed in for the event. A strong police presence saw to it that they remained outside although a single shareholder activist did manage to slip past security and attempted to press the Board with spurious questions, misguided comments and unsubstantiated interjections .

Fortunately, the attempts to highjack and intimidate the AGM's fell flat ... and if anything they provided a vehicle by which the ESG board (with support from the BR's) were able to effectively counterpoint the companies unique position and competitive advantages to other CSG players !

The benefit to ESG from its affiliation with the mercurial and talented BR's was evident on many occasions before, during and after the meetings.

It must be noted that the BR's are no simple cheer squad and are see it as their responsibility to take the board to task on issues of company probity, strategy and communications.

That said the BR's, proved invaluable allies in defending ESG' public and market profile. For example, while the Chairman (Mr Anderson) was very effective and ably supported by his Managing Director (Mr Casey) on a number of occasions they did seem to loose focus and appeared rattled by some of the questioning and implied criticisms that came from the floor.

Here the unique twined AGM format worked seamlessly, and the BR's Hardmano, and Yaqona, were able to provide supporting commentary and insightful clarifying statements that restored focus and continuity to the wider meeting. These contributions were duly noted by the board at the conclusion of the meeting proper.

If any doubts lingered as to the inevitable emergence of ESG as the dominant market player in NSW - the shear number and volume of demonstrators outside all but removes them.

Market anaylsts today confirm the juggernaut is not for turning and loyal shareholders will be greatly rewarded !

Finally, the real impact of the BR's on ESG' rise has not escaped the notice of one of canny demonstrator who choose to target their AGM specifically!



The identity of this very vocal and irate protestor is as yet unknown and when pressed he vanished into the crowd .. a suspicious backpack with the monogram DB Lvs Buddy was later handed into police.


;-)


PS I owe someone a beer!