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Grateful shareholder leaves chairman speechless
If you think annual general meetings are all about griping shareholders,  think again.
A white-hair shareholder of China National Overseas Oil Corp yesterday interrupted a media question-and-answer session, offering her heartfelt thanks to chairman Fu Chengyu for his leadership.
Madam Choy (she gave only her surname) said she had no luck in subscribing to CNOOC shares at its initial public offering but was smart enough to buy the shares at about HK$6. She is sitting on investment gain that doubled in two years.
By contrast, her other oil stock holdings - in PetroChina, Sinopec Corp and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical - performed below par.
'Thank you, chairman, for your leadership and vision, in fighting for our interests from the north to the south,' she said.
For a moment, Mr  Fu, who did not understand Cantonese, did not quite know how to respond. He broke into a smile only after getting the message from his interpreter, who stressed that the compliment was not planted.
After the meeting, Mr Fu thanked Madam Choy, promising to do even better to make sure that she would not lose face. She, in turn, promised to buy more CNOOC shares today.
Any gift will do
Once in a while, even Prince Richard would be acknowledged by his company's shareholders.
Although PCCW soon will lose its blue-chip status, a shareholder publicly affirmed the telecommunications operator's strategy to award customer loyalty with electronic products.
But then there is a catch. The gift is a certain brand of DVD recorder that cannot perform instant recording; and it doesn't come with an operating manual.
Prince Richard, who almost burst out laughing on hearing this, offered his words of comfort.
'Thank you, Mr Shareholder. Our operating manager is here with us, and I shall expect his report [on the matter] in two weeks.'
Pleasing shareholders perhaps might not be that difficult after all. From what we saw at the venue, more shareholders lined up for a lunch box outside the conference room than those sitting down for the subsequent AGM.
Under the weather
Blame it on the heavy rain. The merged MTR Corp's first AGM went smoothly in a half-empty venue with no single shareholder raising any question.
As a result, all resolutions were duly passed using the company's arranged electronic voting system, which instantly showed the vote count on screen.
Used the second year in a row, MTR familiarised shareholders with the system by posing a demo resolution - Tomorrow's weather will be better.
The poll showed 99 per cent of shareholders voting 'aye.'
Chairman Raymond Chien Kuo-fung happily declared the resolution passed, concluding, 'You (his shareholders) are more optimistic than our Hong Kong Observatory.'
When Li did not sell
Most of the time, tycoon Li Ka-shing knows best how to buy low and sell high.
But perhaps that was not the case with his investment in Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings).
A Golden Harvest 'minority shareholder who feels screwed' wrote to Lai See promising a gift to anyone who could come up with a good answer to solve his puzzle.
Here is the scenario: Golden Harvest founder Raymond Chow Ting-hsing and Mr Li  are golf buddies. Mr Chow used to own 25 per cent of Golden Harvest while Mr Li owned 16 per cent.
Last October, Mr Chow sold his stake at HK$5 a share to Wu Kebo. Now, Mr Wu is offering to buy the rest of the shares at HK$3.70 a share.
Question: Why did Mr Li not sell his shares last year? Here are the multiple-choice answers:
A. Mr  Chow did not tell his golf buddy he was selling.
B. Mr Li did not want to undersell.
C. Mr Wu did not have enough money for a general offer.
D. Other reasons.
Answers by e-mail please. Winners will get a Golden Harvest-produced DVD of Big Boss (1971), Bruce Lee's first major film, courtesy of the puzzled minority shareholder.



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