The Grand Parade shareholders have spoken

Moneyweb

Former Cape High Court judge Alex Abercrombie has been a Grand Parade Investments non-executive director for 21 years and tackled efforts to remove him head-on.

At the GPI special general shareholder’s meeting, originally held on October 31 and adjourned until December 5, he defended the board.

He reminded the few shareholders present that their shares had effectively cost them 17c/ share, and they’d benefitted from dividends worth R184/share, thus the founding investors effectively “own shares you have paid nothing for”.

Yes, the share price has declined and some poor decisions have been made. “Look at Woolworths, MTN, Pick n Pay and Spur. All of these companies have declining share prices. I do not deny the decision to roll out Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins was not a good one as they came too soon after Burger King.

“But look at other corporate decisions; Woolworths’ decision to invest in Australia has cost it billions. I don’t see shareholders lining up there to remove the board.”

A group of shareholders, who collectively hold 12% of GPI shares, requested the general meeting. They flagged a number of concerns and proposed four non-executive directors to replace the board incumbents.

Abercrombie survived the vote by a slim margin, with 52.8% support. Walter Geach and lead independent director Norman Maharaj, survived by a similar margin. Not so lucky were Rasheed Hargey and Nombeko Mlambo.

Of the four directors proposed two were appointed as non-executive directors: former SAB Africa head Mark Bowman and former Spur Corporation CFO Ronel van Dijk.