I took time off this week to attend AGMs and see for myself how these things are conducted. I must confess that much as I have been an investor for the last 15 years,I only attended a couple of AGMs in my first year of investing. And things have changed quite dramatically. I attended the Pan Africa Insurance,SCB,NMG and Scangroup AGMs,and will be attending TPS next week.

My comments on the AGMs:

Pan Africa at the Hilton. Small,beautiful. Less than 300 and it had a very nice feeling. The Chairman Mr Simba seemed to know his company well and guided the meeting very professionally. The bitings were quite nice and the sweat shirt giveaway was of the best quality of the ones I received.

SCB at the KICC. Second largest crowd of the ones I attended. The giveaways,like Pan Africa were given as one walked in,the t-shirt was nice,reminded me of the Marathon. The Chairman,Mr Njoroge was a letdown in that he appeared to have no energy and just droned on and on – no wonder he retired as Chairman. Mr. Etemesi didn’t help matters as his speech also droned on and on. The lunch was a box one received when walking into the hall,it had a piece of chicken,a banana,water,sandwich and a packet of juice. Balanced diet,but the chicken was cold. Under the circumstances and the numbers,it was a good effort.

NMG at the KICC. It was held at the amphitheatre,which turned out to be a small venue given the numbers. The Chairman,Dr Aliker seemed not to have a good grasp of the company and Mr Gitahi did most of the talking. One also wonders how NMG do their business when a newspaper vendor attends the meeting to complain about how he is being mistreated. In short,the AGM was in my opinion a disaster. The freebies were not given on entry,but at the end of the meeting. But we were given newspapers on entry. The import of this was that shareholders (who have NO interest in the meeting) had to sit through the meeting to get the giveaway. And your guess is as good as mine – there was a near stampede as my grandfathers and grandmothers jostled for the giveaways. I never got mine – is it possible to get it still? I hear it was a shirt and a bag. I overheard a shareholder say that when they gave giveaways before the meeting the previous year,some shareholders used their bags to cart away plates and silverware....

Scangroup at the KICC. Shortest AGM of the four. The Chairman,Mr Hutchinson knew what he was talking about and conducted the meeting very professionally. However,since the meeting was conducted exclusively in English,there were hardly any questions. At the end of the meeting,the number of people outside waiting to get in seemed to be much larger than the ones who had attended the meeting. There was NO giveaway – a major disappointment. The lunch was uncunningly similar to the SCB one.

I missed the DTB one as it was running at the same time as Scangroup,but I suspect it must have been nice and small.

I hope TPS will take on board the above comments and make amendments as necessary. But given as they annual report is the poorest quality of the ones I have received,I will not hold my breath.

At the end of it,I concluded that AGMs add no value to the minority investor. They are a waste of time and I think listed companies should devise other approaches. Though a member has a right to be invited to the meeting,speak and vote,the reality is that this counts for nothing. They will never influence these companys’ policies as long as they are minority. And company directors know this – they simply call for poll voting when they feel one man one vote can interfere with their interests,as KQ cruelly showed us some time back.

I noticed that a vast majority of those who attend are elderly folk,who it seems are not from the city – and they are largely from Central. This raises an interesting issue that should be taken up by an MBA student. Is it that they are the majority (of the minority),is it because they live within the environments of the city hence transportation is not a major cost to them,is it that they are genuinely interested in the performance of their company??

One thing I learnt is that it seems that the giveaways form a large part of the expectations of the shareholders. I dare say that many,probably in the realisation that they can’t influence their companies,attend just to get the freebies – the disappointment of Scangroup was clearly discernible. If this is the case,can’t these companies have two halls – one for these members where they are given freebies and lunch and the other hall for the so called serious investors and directors?