The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Trio fail to get elected to iCapital.biz
- China Commerce Minister: pick-up in exports suggests economy stabilising
- Citigroup to pay former executives $15.5 million each
| Trio fail to get elected to iCapital.biz Posted: 10 Nov 2012 01:22 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR: Andrew Pegge, Low Nyap Heng and a shareholder Lo Kok Kee failed to get elected to the board of iCapital.biz Bhd at its packed AGM on Saturday. At the six-hour meeting, which started at 9am, shareholders overwhelmingly threw their support behind its fund manager and founder Tan Teng Boo. Some 87% of shareholders voted against the resolutions seeking board representations for Pegge, Low and Lo on Malaysia's only listed closed-end fund. Although voting was conducted by poll, the outcome was not a surprise as the chairman had earlier asked for a show of hands to gauge the level of support. At the AGM earlier, Colin Kingsnorth, a co-founder of European hedge fund Laxey Partners, requested for a poll. Kingsnorth was representing Pegge, also a co-founder and MD of Laxey, who could not attend for personal reasons. Shareholders who spoke to StarBiz said the mood in the room had clearly favoured Tan, with claps throughout whenever he spoke and even a request to give him a standing ovation. "Without Tan Teng Boo, iCapital.biz is nothing!" one shareholder proclaimed during the meeting. When asked by journalists whether Tan had anticipated the results, he replied: "We prayed very hard." Earlier, Kingsnorth told journalists outside the AGM at a hotel here that Laxey, which owns 6.9% of iCapital.biz, had accomplished what it set out to do. "The debate (about the discount between iCapital.biz's share price and net asset value) is good. The company is better for this. "We are still the largest shareholder and will continue to express our views," he said. Laxey, which has a track record of buying into funds that trade at a discount to their NAV, sent a letter to shareholders of iCapital.biz earlier this week urging them to vote against the appointment of the board save for Pegge, Lo and Low as it had "lost confidence" in the ability of the present board to narrow what it argued was a growing discount between its share price and NAV. Lo, who had stated he is not a nominee of Laxey Partners, had ealier pointed out he was acting as a "minority shareholder rights activist". He also refuted allegations that he was part of a hostile takeover of iCapital.biz. |
| China Commerce Minister: pick-up in exports suggests economy stabilising Posted: 09 Nov 2012 10:49 PM PST Published: Saturday November 10, 2012 MYT 2:50:00 PMBEIJING: The acceleration in growth of China's exports in the last two months shows the world's second-largest economy is starting to stabilise, Commerce Minister Chen Deming told reporters on Saturday. However, it will still be difficult for China to meet its target of full-year growth in exports of 10 percent, Chen said in a briefing on the sidelines of the Communist Party's five-yearly congress. Chinese trade data released on Saturday showed exports grew 11.6 percent in October from a year earlier, beating market expectations for a rise of 9 percent and stronger than the 9.9 percent increase recorded in September. That was significantly quicker than export growth in July and August, which came in at 1.0 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. - Reuters |
| Citigroup to pay former executives $15.5 million each Posted: 09 Nov 2012 10:46 PM PST NEW YORK: Citigroup said it will pay $15.5 million to Vikram Pandit, its former chief executive who resigned from company last month, as well as to his top deputy. The bank said on Friday the payments to Pandit and former Chief Operating Officer John Havens reflect the progress the bank made in 2012 and work they did in some earlier years. The statement came less than a month after board members led by Chairman Michael O'Neill told Pandit privately that his work was not satisfactory, sources said at the time. Michael Corbat, head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa for Citigroup, was named the new chief executive. The payments are the final chapter in the reign of Pandit, who was named chief executive just as the financial crisis started and shepherded the bank through three government rescues and a series of subsequent miscues. O'Neill lost confidence in Pandit after missteps that included the bank's failure to win regulatory approval to return capital to shareholders this year, sources had said. Payments to departing officers are a thorny matter for corporate boards because investors question the benefit the company gets from handing money over to executives that no longer work there. Citigroup said it was paying the men what it had to. "While Citi will also honor all past awards that they are legally entitled to, there are no severance payments. Awards to which they are not legally entitled have been forfeited," O'Neill said in the statement from the company. Before and during the financial crisis, outgoing executives often received much more money. In 2007, for example, Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Stan O'Neal left his company with a severance package of $161.5 million. Pandit initially agreed to take one dollar a year for being CEO. At the time the company was struggling to pay back government bailout money. Pandit and Havens had previously sold their hedge fund to Citigroup in a deal that ultimately paid each man $79.7 million. The company later adopted a new compensation plan and Pandit was paid $14.8 million in 2011. The pay plan raised the ire of investors and was denounced by a majority vote of shareholders in a referendum at Citigroup's annual meeting in April. The pay plan did not closely link executive compensation to performance, critics said. U.S. median household income was $50,054 in 2011. The plan was also criticized for granting large retention awards to keep executives from leaving. At that same meeting, O'Neill became chairman of the board, marking the beginning of the end for Pandit's career at Citigroup. Citigroup directors, after losing the advisory vote on pay, vowed to meet with shareholders. The company is expected to unveil a new executive compensation plan before the next annual meeting. In the meantime, Pandit and Havens by leaving are forfeiting some of their retention awards, according to the statement from the company. For Pandit, that means leaving behind $24.2 million and for Havens $18.9 million, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified. The final pay agreements were signed on Friday and set November 30 as the official termination dates for the two men, according to the bank's statement in a regulatory filing. - Reuters |
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