EDITORIAL: MEETING TRANSPARENCY
December 14th 2007 06:25
Biotech Daily
Wednesday December 12, 2007
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
Wednesday December 12, 2007
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
* ASX, BIOTECHS DOWN: PEPLIN UP 10.5%, APOLLO DOWN 11%
* BIOTECH DAILY EDITORIAL: MEETING TRANSPARENCY
* PEPLIN ESTABLISHES PEP005 TOPICAL GEL SAFETY, DOSE RANGE
* CANADIAN PATENT FOR GIACONDA HELICOBACTER TREATMENT
* ADDITIONAL US PATENT FOR SUNSHINE HEART
* BRAINZ IMPROVES INFANT SEIZURE DETECTION
* CYTOPIA REQUESTS TRADING HALT
* ARANA DIRECTOR GREG BUNDY RESIGNS
THE MARKET
Nine of the Biotech Daily Top 40 stocks were up, 13 stocks fell, 14 traded unchanged and four were untraded.
Peplin was best, up 7.5 cents or 10.49 percent to 79 cents with 59,191 shares traded, followed by Proteome up two cents or 9.52 percent to 23 cents, Neuren up 9.09 percent to 24 cents and Novogen up 8.61 percent to $1.325.
Apollo led the falls, down 2.5 cents or 10.87 percent to 20.5 cents with 2,060 shares traded followed by Psivida falling 0.9 cents or 9.57 percent to 8.5 cents on moderate volumes and Phylogica down 1.5 cents or 6.67 percent to 21 cents.
subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above
BIOTECH DAILY EDITORIAL: MEETING TRANSPARENCY
In reporting annual general meetings Biotech Daily is aware that there can be significant differences between “a show of hands in the room”, the proxies received by the company and the true number of votes cast on a resolution.
This is an issue that the regulatory authorities need to address.
Yesterday Biotech Daily reported under the headline ‘Agenix investors oppose directors options’ that 2,513,217 votes (17.6%) opposed the issue of options to Mr Leggett with 7,679,948 (53.7%) in favor.
Biotech Daily has reported extensively on the work of Mr Leggett as the CEO of Agenix and does not take issue with Mr Leggett when he wrote “the tone of the meeting was very positive and was in stark contrast to the impression you have provided”.
“The votes on the option resolutions you refer to were approved unanimously on a show of hands and not a single negative comment was made by any shareholder present,” Mr Leggett said.
“Whilst the proxy votes were as you described, shareholders representing in excess of 120 million shares were present at the meeting and were part of the unanimous vote,” Mr Leggett said.
But most ordinary shareholders do not attend most annual general meetings and as companies are not generally required to count all votes, the published proxies are the only information available.
Biotech Daily believes this to be inadequate and contrary to the need for transparency in modern business.
A spokeswoman for the ASX told Biotech Daily that the Listing Rules (3.13.2) only require the outcome to be notified to the ASX immediately after the meeting and do not define how votes should be counted.
A public relations officer for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission referred Biotech Daily to the only section of the Corporations Act dealing with voting (S250E) which says: “(a) on a show of hands, each member has 1 vote; and (b) on a poll, each member has 1 vote for each share they hold” and is silent on any need to publish full voting results.
A second ASIC public relations officer referred to Section 251AA of the Corporations Act which relates to the disclosure of proxy votes.
Most resolutions are decided on a show of hands, but an investor representing 100 million shares has the same voting power as a shareholder with 15 shares. The chairman decides whether the meeting has been unfairly “stacked” by small shareholders.
The chairman has to believe there might be a different result if a poll is called, or shareholders in the room can call for a poll of all votes.
One leading executive said counting the votes could make annual general meetings arduous, but Biotech Daily believes that transparency is paramount.
Chartered Secretaries Australia www.csaust.com represents more than 8,000 governance professionals including directors, chief financial officers and company secretaries and has called for “direct voting” which would end this problem.
The organization says direct voting would allow shareholders to exercise their voting rights without the need to attend meetings.
With millions of small investors underpinning our listed companies, resolutions need to be accurately reported.
Frequently there are no issues involved, but when there is controversy over remuneration packages or the granting of directors and executives shares and options, every investor has the right to know the true vote count.
Given the advanced state of information technology, this should not be difficult.
Subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above
| 46 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog