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RHG will soon provide shareholders with details of the general meeting and voting materials. We will provide details on how to give your proxy to Steven Johnson once those materials have been produced.
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Changing the RHG board
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{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Guys,
Good luck and I hope you get a seat on the board.
You have my backing and I will vote for you.
Theo
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Hi Steve and Greg,
I have faith in you. You’ve definately got my vote. Best of luck.
Mick Argent
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Great stuff.
These guys (current RHG directors) are really going to struggle if they think 16% is “just over 5%” as per the company announcement to the ASX today.
I’ve copied it below
RHG has received a requisition for a General Meeting from a group of shareholders holding just
over 5% of the Company’s issued shares. Details are attached to this note
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Greg & Steve,
As a long term subscriber it is great to see you acting in this case.
You definitely have our votes.
George & Nicole
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Fully support this action. Small shareholders deserve better.
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Hi,
My family is definitely supporting your efforts, we can see why we are doing this and the value that’s already waiting for us shareholders. Since all we need to do is vote, we’ll do our part.
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+1 for my vote. Good to see somebody sticking up for the smaller shareholders and a move away from the traditional shareholder apathy that plagues Australia.
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I think that taking this on is really putting your money where your mouth is.
I have tried to understand the preliminary results and after the spin and counter spin I cannot truly understand what my investment is and what the directors are doing with it.
These Special Purpose vehicles well you dont control them by why when they were set up to provide you access to the profits now not be accessable. It needs more clarity how can auditors have signed off the $120million profit if there was so much risk in these funds not accruing to the company.
The bonds you are taking over dont appear to have got worse since the interim in fact they appear to improve why so gloomy?
The real issue seems to be something we cannot get to. A company in wind down – I think not your words seem, to imply that after the restraint is up you are going to re-enter the market surely that should be something we as shareholders are brought along with and informed about.
They basically are treating me like a mushroom and I dont like it and why should I bail given that I have owned some of my equity since 10c when everyone was heading for the exits. We need these new directors to act for us. You ahve my vote and I will be putting the word out to all I come into contact with to help you get elected.
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hi
good luck
our votes as well
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Good Luck Gentlemen,
You’ve got my vote(s), best wishes.
Trav
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i fully support this action. as a really annoyed shareholder you definitely have my votes. good luck gentlemen and may the force be with you!
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Good move. Hopefully this action will lead to some value being unlocked for RHG shareholders. You have my full support.
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You guys could have sat back and done nothing and i admire your integrity and i hope you succeed as the arrogance of the directors need to pulled in to line and if you succeed fantastic and if not it is better to have tried and failed than not tried at all, Im with you all the way.
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Good on ya boys, I whole heartly support you it’s about time to get things changed and look out for the interests of those whole own this company
the share holders!!. I have a friend in Darwin who brought RHG shares
I will get him to vote for you guys as well..
All I can say is well done for taking these directors on and go get em!!!
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The latest interview suggests that the other major shareholder, Australian Leaders Fund, is happy to sit back a year and do a wait-and-see for volatility to die down in the market. They didn’t defend the board’s strategy (what strategy?), it didn’t appear to me like AIF bothered maintaining due diligence on this holding. People invested in such investment funds should be, if they’re not already, aware of precisely such cavalier attitudes, which is why Intelligent Investor really helps us SMSFs and family investors better manage our investments – to treat our shares like our actual piece of a real business.
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Great to see you taking action. For too long retail shareholders have been ignored. You’ll have my vote for sure.
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Great work & you definitely have my vote!
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I am fully supportive of your action.
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I am a shareholder in RHG and subscribe to Intelligent Investor. I fully support this crusade for small shareholders!
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Hi Guys,
It seems to me that you are about to DO what Crikey has been talking about doing for a long time! Great ! You have got my vote. Get in there and sort them out. You also deserve what ever director fees are forthcoming.
This has changed my mind about the next renewal, you deserve suppport.
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I totally support the actions of Steve and Greg. When a board acts in such a diabolical way towards its shareholders I think these directors need to be named and shamed. There are clearly members of the board who should not be there. At least one has seen the demise of a high profile company just recently. I also applaud Steve and Greg for leading the action as it would have been easy to put it in the “too hard basket”.
II, you have my total support as it is in the best interests of ALL subscribers as it shows everyone we are willing to fight when necessary.
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You’ll definitely get my vote to remove Coe. In voting Steve and Greg onto the board I fear that we may be swapping one disfunctional board for another (for different reasons). That’s no slight on Steve or Greg I should add; the question I ask myself is – are the 3 residual board members professional enough to work together with Steve and Greg or not? And I fear not. What I hope happens is that another large shareholder can propose 2 alternate candidates that can represent the broader shareholder group without any of the potential baggage/hostility. Having said that I’d have to say that ALF’s behaviour so far is quite disappoining – they have the chance to remake this board but seem unwilling to do anything that might be interpreted as remotely activist. Shame it isn’t GPG on the register instead.
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Steve Johnson Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I agree that two unrelated independent directors would be a great outcome – that’s what I’ve been working towards for the past 8 months. But if we get the two of us on the board it will send a pretty clear message that we deserve to be listened to. If it turns out to be dysfunctional, we’ll have to have another meeting to resolve the issues.
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It appears that the companies strategy of a company in run-off and to return value in the form of dividends (including Franking Credits) to shareholders is different to what directors have suggested through recent communication, whereby re-entering the loan market when the restriction is lifted in 2010.
These actions against the company strategy has been to the detriment of shareholder value, the RHG shareprice and against the very reason a lot of investors invested in RHG.
I commend the staff at the Intelligent Investor for this action on behalf of RHG Shareholders.
I will be voting in favour of the 3 proposed resolutions and encourage other shareholders to do the same. If you know of any friends, relatives, colleagues who own RHG shares please make them aware of the proposed resolution and the benefits of voting in favour of such
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Hi Guys ……..very supportive of your move & you’ll have my proxy
Todays RHG News item on ComSec quotes the Australian (Scott Murdoch
Page: 21 ) saying RHG CEO Glenn Goddard has given his public backing to the entire current board. “He alleged the dissidents were secretive about who the replacement for Coe shouldbe ”
Apart from missing the main game of stating a strategy to return shareholders value, this did raise the question for me of new Board composition………..if Steve & Greg are elected they presumably then comprise 2/5 directors. How will this minority directorship help correct the lack of transparency now prevailing?
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Troy Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
What a load of croc .. the CEO is hired by the board, naturally the CEO will be a supporter of the board of directors.
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Hi there
great to see you taking this action – look forward to supporting with my vote.
Peter
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Did I read somewhere that one director – was it Coe? – attended 2 out of the 4 board meetings during the year, and was paid a fee of $80,000 for his presence? Nice work if you can get it. Go to it, fellers.You have my vote.
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Dear Steve and Greg.
Well done for taking the bull by the horns ! Too many directors with large shareholdings in listed entities think they can ride roughshod over the interests of minorities. I wonder how much time and effort David Coe put into earnings his directors fees and how much of that time and effort was spent looking after his own interests rather than those of all the shareholders?
A couple of questions. Are you canvassing institutional shareholder support ? Are you planning some media exposure to bring these issues into the public domain ?
I will be at the meeting to vote my support
David Bell
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As a shareholder you have 100% of my support. Self interested and incompetent directors should resign quickly.
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Guys
Well done so far. You can count on my proxy.
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Hi good you have my vote
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That person named in the press should not be on a public company board , or any board of directors, and should be removed. I commend your action to unseat him.
While on the board of Allco he operated a parallel private business; his paid executive time with Allco included pursuing those private interests, in particular when visiting the USA in the period before Nov 07, when he would have became aware of tightening in the credit market and the difficulty in replacing/funding his Rubicon and Allco maturing loan facilities; such tightening reputedly commenced August 2007; that information should have been used for the benefit of Allco; but instead of prioritising Allco’s interests, he did the opposite and focused on selling to Allco his Rubicon vehicle; Allco and its shareholders were then left with the funding problems. Coe was $300m better-off and Allco shareholders bore the Rubicon/Allco losses.
Conflict of interest and preferring his personal interest to the disadvantage of his employer company was disgraceful to say the least, and I hope that eventually the regulators will take appropriate action. I wish you well.
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Thanks for standing up for the small investors. You have my vote.
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Keep up the good work team…Yu’ve got my proxy
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I hope that this campaign succeeds. Many of the institutions are “in bed” with the directors club but it is the small shareholders who are getting “Scr$$$$ed”.
You have our full support.
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Are you an ALF shareholder? Write to Justin Braitling at braitling@braitlinginvestments.com.au and encourage him to give ALF’s support to the II efforts.
Go for it!
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The last two years have been bad for me on the investing front. I am losing faith in sharemarket investing, not so much due to the decline in sharemarket prices, but more due to the poor treatment of small shareholders, the lack of accountability of boards and the lack of nexis between sharemarket performance and executive pay. It is great to see some action to bring a board to account. You have my full support, and good luck with your action. I will be voting for you.
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One could easily get the impression that the RHG Directors plan to continue to hold all the capital within the company “sine die” as the legal boys would say.
There appears to be no palpable plan for us shareholders to gain the benefits of our capital.
If there is a grand plan, they had better hurry up and tell us about it.
Even the tone of the 9 Sep letter is begrudging. “Just over 5%” is quite enough.
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Go for it guys -you will have my proxy.
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You have my vote…and thank you for having a go and representing the little guys
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Hi
I have a small investment in RHG and I have been a subscriber to TII for a few years now and I say go for it you have my support and vote.
Best of luck.
Regards David
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Good to see you taking action… you have my vote
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You have my full support and somehow I feel closer to being a shareholder and what you guys are doing, go aussie.
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Hi Guys,
Good luck and I hope you get the 2 seats on the board.
You have my total backing and I will vote for you.
Mike Russell
Tokyo
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A big THANKS for what you are doing for us
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Hi fellow owners just to let you all know this concept has my vote too. My main reason is that the company has changed its path midstream without offering valid reason or financial justification as to why and what the potential outcome may be.
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I will definitely be giving you guys my shares to vote!
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great initiative Steve/Greg – you have my vote.
best of luck!
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Good Luck guys ! You have our support as we have been less comfortable with this investment since David Coe became involved after the collapse of Allco.
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Hi Steve and Greg,
I totally support you in this endeavour. You are taking the right course of action and will have my proxy.
Peter A
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Hello Steve / Greg,
You have my support too.
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You have my vote.
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I have shares in several other companies that spurned terrific takeover offers and are now languishing at the bottom of the heap. I am glad that this action is taking place as it infuriates me to see the way shareholders are treated by these companies and their boards not to mention the large loss of of my investment portfolio. You have my vote !
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This quote posted by SJ on the TII site from seminal investment text, ‘The Intelligent Investor’ bears reposting here;
‘‘(D)ividends are sometimes held down by relatively unprosperous companies for the declared purpose of expanding the business. We feel that such a policy is illogical on its face, and should require both a complete explanation and a convincing defense before the shareholders should accept it. In terms of past record there is no reason a priori to believe that the owners will benefit from expansion moves undertaken with their money by a business showing mediocre results and continuing its old management.’ Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor.”
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$400k for 4 meetings and not all directors could be bothered attending, you have my vote.
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r Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
“The directors consider it to be in the best interests of shareholders that these resolutions be voted upon at the next annual general meeting rather than a specially requisitioned meeting. Amongst other things, this will avoid the expense and loss of management time involved in having two meetings.”
Excerpted fromRHG ASX announcement 18/09/09
Controlling expenses for meetings is offered as a reason to not meet – if the outcome includes potentially an upset to the current status quo of the current club of boardmembers. Coe needs to go.
Greg and Steve, you have my vote.
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Hi Steve and Greg,
Thanks for standing up for our rights. I’m giving you my undivided support.
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Gentlemen,
Great work, you definitely have my support.
Cheers,
Jeff
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As a member of TII its great to see them supporting their client base and smaller shareholders. Its fantastic to see that a group of minority shareholders can work together to make a difference. Steve has my proxy.
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Didn’t this board take any notice of Community & Government reaction to Executive rorts which contributed to the GFC. You have my support.
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Just noticed this announcement
“ASX Announcement Thursday 17 September, 2009.
RHG Limited – Requisition of a General Meeting
Reference is made to the announcement by RHG on 8 September 2009 concerning the requisition it had received for a general meeting from a group of shareholders holding just over 5% of the Company’s issued shares. The requisition requested that a general meeting of RHG be held to consider resolutions for the removal of Mr David Coe as a director of RHG and the appointment of Messrs Steven Johnson and Gregory Hoffman as directors of RHG.
Having taken legal advice, the Board is of the opinion that the requisition is invalid.
The Company’s solicitors have today written to the solicitors acting for the requisitioning shareholders regarding the deficiencies in the requisition and offering a compromise for their consideration. If accepted, the compromise will see resolutions put to RHG’s next annual general meeting on 12 November 2009 for the shareholders to consider appointing Messrs Johnson and Hoffman as additional directors of the Company.
The directors consider it to be in the best interests of shareholders that these resolutions be voted upon at the next annual general meeting rather than a specially requisitioned meeting. Amongst other things, this will avoid the expense and loss of management time involved in having two meetings.
A further announcement will be made, if necessary, once the Company receives a response to the compromise it has offered.”
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Unfortunately they do not appear interested in the ordinary shareholders.
You now have my votes.
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I am all for the action you are taking and you have my full support. My only concern is that I am not that computer literate to be able to follow this issue on a website such as this one. Probably I am not the only one with such a concern, Maybe you should have an alternate method of communicating in a timely manner to enable a computer ignoramus like me to act on your recommendations on time. Perhaps an email would alert us.
It is time these Boards stopped taking Shareholders for granted. Let us make them realise that we are scrutinising their actions very very closely.
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I have 40,000 RHG shares and am happy for you to have my proxy
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I have just read the release of 18th Sept from RHG. If the notice is deficient, i suggest fix the deficiency and still call the meeting. Don’t be ambushed by the suggestion of you two going on Bd as additional. You will be 2 out of 6 and Coe will still be there. No good. press on with the original suggestion, as you now have them running scared.
PS I love the crocodile tears of reducing the expense of a special meeting. The best way of reducing expense is to sack Coe.
All the best.
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You have my full support in your actions. 140,000 share involved!
Good luck.
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I have only 2000 shares. but you have definitely got my vote!
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Hi guys. I have a query in relation to voting entitlements. I notice a substantial increase in the volume of RHG shares being traded recently. My query is – at what stage does the share register close to determine voting entitlements? I appreciate that the share price is rising and some holders will be taking profits but I wonder who is buying.
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Greg Hoffman (TII) Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
My understanding is that once you’re the legal owner (ie after settlement date), you’re able to vote. So those buying the shares at the moment will be well and truly able to vote at the meeting.
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I don’t think this should be viewed as something that is being done for the sole benefit of RHG shareholders – it is an extremely interesting and educational process for shareholders of any company. Well done guys for having the guts and drive to go out on a limb.
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Greg & Steve – I recall you mentioning mailing infomation to all RHG holders (based on the shareholder register), is this still happening? I haven’t seen anything in my mailbox. You wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to get your side of the story out to the voters before they start returning their proxies.
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We have a proxy form which we intend to allocate to you. Should we return the proxy form to computershare or direct to you.
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Totally on board with you guys here. I have been appalled at the constant request for shareholders to approve huge board salaries etc despite the value of our investments plummeting.
And I’d rather the cash to re-invest myself rather than leave it with the likes of Coe, with his stellar investment performance lately………
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