Reporters turned up at 10.30am yesterday to cover four consecutive annual meetings being held by the New World Group. But something exciting happened at the first meeting, the AGM of New World company Pacific Ports.
A minority shareholder, represented by someone from the stock clearing house Central Clearing and Settlement System (CCASS), tried to vote down several routine resolutions. One would authorise the board to fix their remuneration and another dealt with reappointing auditors - the kind of resolutions passed at every AGM.
The CCASS voter held just seven million shares. A big voter, representing the Cheng family's Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, was voting on behalf of 1.5 billion shares.
The result? Ninety-six per cent for the resolutions and just 4 per cent against.
We noticed a look of relief on the face of Alvin Wong Tak-wai, partner in New World auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers.
When the meeting ended, excited reporters quizzed the CCASS voter on the identity of the mystery minority, but this was confidential.