crikey's take on cph meeting

Courtesy Crikey news:

"3. JAMES PACKER UNDER THE PUMP

James Packer faced his first ever dissident shareholder meeting today when
135 unitholders in CPH Investments triggered this morning's gathering in
Sydney to vote on 7 resolutions demanding better disclosure and the
winding up of the investment vehicle.

Not surprisingly, the Packers defeated the push but a couple of the
resolution were supported by 21 per cent of shares voted.


Justin McMurray was there for Crikey and will have a more detailed account
of the meeting for tomorrow but it was interesting that the Packers
revealed that Chris Cuffe had been hired by the Packers personally, rather
than CPHI.

This is a bit like the way Rod Eddington was a News Corp employee when he
ran Ansett even though Rupert only had 50 per cent of the business.

James was pretty surly when facing questions from the Mann brothers who
were both polite and spoke on each of the resolutions.

James whinged about the cost of the meeting and stressed that the proposed
Challenger merger would give CPHI new life.

He kept on reading out the proxies and pointing out that he'd be voting
undirected proxies against each resolution even before the debate, which
Stephen Matthews from the ASA pointed out was inappropriate. James finally
changed his ways for the last resolution.

If Australia had the same rules as the US, shareholders could who own
$US2000 worth of shares could get resolutions up at AGMs. Instead, you
need 100 shareholders to sign the requisition.

Crikey thinks it should be made more difficult to call an EGM, but much
easier for shareholders to get resolutions on the notice of meeting for
AGMs."

Regards