Shareholder's only hope at AGM, page-35

Beston Global Food Company rejects calls from Chinese shareholder for fast-tracked AGM
Beston Global Food Company, which cut short its annual meeting last week, has rejected a call from a significant shareholder to bring a new meeting on quickly.
Cameron England @CameronEngland
December 2, 2020 - 4:06PM
The Advertiser
The Chinese shareholder angling for a seat on the Beston Global Food Company board has called for proxy votes to be revealed and last week’s adjourned annual meeting to be brought on straight away.Beston was facing a possible second strike vote on its remuneration report at its annual meeting last Thursday, but chairman Roger Sexton adjourned the meeting after just more than a minute, citing the need to get legal advice.“As chairman I’m adjourning today’s annual general meeting to a date and time to be advised,’’ he said at the time.“We are concerned about possible voting associations in the proxies which have been received by the company for this meeting.’’But Kunteng Pte Ltd, which owns 10.6 per cent of the South Australian cheese and meat company and wanted its delegate, Yuan Ma, to get a board seat, says Dr Sexton and the board should bring the meeting on immediately.“Beston was facing a second strike against the remuneration report at the AGM and a potential spill meeting where each of the current directors of Beston would be required to face re-election,’’ a statement from Kunteng says.A spokesman said it was “Kunteng’s view that the failure to disclose the proxy position in respect of the 2020 AGM, means Beston’s securities quoted on ASX are trading on an uninformed basis’’.“Dr Sexton must reconvene the meeting and allow shareholders to vote on the resolutions as listed in the Notice of Meeting released to the ASX on 26 October, 2020, or explain himself fully to the ASX and shareholders.”The statement from the company says “ Kunteng made its original investment in BFC in 2016 and intends to become a more active investor in the company, with a view to restoring shareholder wealth and growth’’.Beston, through its lawyers, said in a letter that “the board, in making its decisions, takes into account the interests of all shareholders, not just a vocal minority’’.“We do not propose to address each of the statements and assertions in the letter other than to note in the strongest possible terms that our clients reject any assertion that they in any way acted improperly in adjourning the AGM, or in relation to the subsequent announcement to the ASX,’’ the letter from Beston says.“Further, BFC and its board are fully aware of their legal obligations and will, as they have in the past, act in accordance with those obligations including making announcements to the ASX as and when required.’’At Beston’s annual meeting last year, the board received a “first strike” against its remuneration report, with 64.9 per cent of votes cast going against adoption.A 25 per cent vote is considered a “strike” under the Corporations Act.Beston did not make an ASX announcement regarding Kunteng’s letter.Its shares closed 2.4 per cent lower at 8.1c