Fairfax Media board members faced shareholders today at the company’s AGM. As radioinfo reported in August, Fairfax Media’s revenue dropped by 6% to $2.3 billion, and the company made a loss of $2.7 billion after significant ‘impairment’ charges.
The major business of the AGM was to considered the company’s results, to approve remuneration and to elect board members. The remunerations report was accepted and the following board members were re-elected: Michael Anderson, Sam Morgan, Jack Cowin and James Millar.
Chairman Roger Corbett and CEO Greg Hywood gave speeches that were longer than usual at an AGM, adressing some of the criticism of the company’s falling share price and its restructure. After their presentations, there were many questions and statements from shareholders on the floor of the meeting before matters were put to a vote.
Stephen Mayne was the first questioner. He raised various issues suggesting that the Fairfax board, and specifically Chairman Corbett, had not acted fast enough to changing media distribution platforms ten years ago when the structural changes began.
In a second series of questions Mayne pressed Corbett to admit that various board decisions had not added shareholder value. Corbett did not agree with Mayne on those questions, but did agree to a proposal that if the chairman cut his annual fee to $400,000, Mayne would direct the votes of the Australian Shareholders Association in favor of the remuneration package.
Other shareholders, including former Senator Chris Schatt raised the question of Gina Rinehart’s role now that she has become the company’s biggest single shareholder.
Rinehart voted against the remuneration report, but her votes were not enough to block Hywood’s $800,000 performance pay. She also suported media analyst Peter Cox for a board position, but again her votes were not enough to get him elected.
In new company laws, a vote of 25% against a remuneration report triggers a first strike. If the same happens again at next year’s AGM, the second strike could result in a board spill.
Roger Corbett, in his formal address said:
Click here to see his full speech.
CEO Greg Hywood outlined the strategies being taken to address structural change in the media industry and told shareholders that Fairfax considered a break-up of its assets, but, after detailed evaluation, decided it was not an appropriate strategy to return shareholder value.
See his full speech here.