I hear you Siren, but, out of this (& every other company's) top...

I hear you Siren, but, out of this (& every other company's) top 20 shareholder list ... how many of them attend the AGM's every year? And, when they do attend, out of those who actually understand what is going on - how many bother to probe the Board by asking the "difficult" and "confronting" questions? I can tell you, not many!

I often flew from Wellington to Auckland, Dunedin, Sydney and Perth to attend multiple AGM's for not only Cellmid, but other companies where I was a top 20 holder and I can say with confidence - all bar about 3 or 4 meetings had less than 20 shareholders there (but never more than 40). And although questions were asked, most were either patsy questions or polite head nods when getting an answer - but bugger all follow ups or challenges. I remember going to a CDY meeting in Sydney some years ago and there were about 10 (max) shareholders there. Myself and another well known HC poster (sorry, can't remember his tag) were questioning Maria in quite a "direct" manner and she did not like it one bit. Actually I can remember her snapping back at the other guy which was interesting. That AGM proved to me that Maria was not as savvy as some may make out. David King frequently tried to come to her rescue by trying to shut down the questions.

But at least Cellmid (as it was then) held AGM's. One Perth based company I was involved in (on the top 20 list) (a lot bigger then CDY) had correctly advertised the details of their AGM. I turned up unannounced one year and it was clear they were not expecting any shareholders...let alone one that had quite a few quid invested! While they got me to "register" on a sheet of paper that had hurriedly been drawn up, they quickly arranged three or four chairs in a side office. After I had signed in they realised my company held the shares - not me personally - and their body language was very revealing. I sat in the room alone for about 10 mins and heard a lot of muffled discussion in another office before they were finally forced to tell me the truth. There were no Directors on site, the Secretary wasn't on site, there was no paperwork prepared and, in the end, an employee (who happened to be a fellow shareholder) sat in front of me and was very forthright in his comments about the company and the way it was being run. I had a page and a half of pre-prepared questions and to this guy's credit he listened intently and did his best to answer each one. I got to learn about a few things which I probably wouldn't have if it was a true AGM presentation (although no inside info was divulged). I was lucky enough to make some good decisions a bit later on and did very well when I exited the stock. I have no doubt the person/entity who bought my shares did not make a habit of going to AGM's and asking probing questions because if they had, they would not have lost 90% of their share value 3 weeks later!

I can also say no Board likes getting hard questions and they seem to have an attitude of "we are the experts here so don't try and grill us". Their body language generally confirms an air of superiority and defensiveness. The Chairman generally runs shotgun for the CEO whilst the other board members look everywhere but at the shareholders - hoping like hell they don't get questions.

The bottom line for me is I will never get involved with a small/micro cap company again.

Oooops.... a bit long this time. Apologies.