Belligerent shareholders take up arms

ANNUAL general meetings of public companies are generally staid affairs of short duration, not infrequently with mores board members than shareholders present to observe the stultifying rituals. Statements are intoned, the formality of a show of hands to approve the agenda and within minutes the mandatory get together between the company and its capital providers has been passionlessly consummated. Occasionally shareholders get steamed up enough to confront the board on the stewardship of their investment, sometimes producing healthy confrontation and a more pithy exchange of views.

You would think shareholders of Allied Irish Banks would have been in conciliatory mood at the bank's a.g.m. this week, given the growth in profits, dividends and share price. While the majority were prepared to remain customarily inert there were dark murmurings from a small group of malcontents who, for reasons not entirely clear, were baying for the head of chief executive Tom Mulcahy. AIB chairman Jim Culliton was robust in defence of his chief executive, describing a motion to have him removed from the board as "ludicrous " and "without merit". Not surprisingly the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected.

But the sabre rattling over Mr Mulcahy set the tone of a peevish three hour encounter between AIB and its argumentative cluster of investors. The Irish Permanent was next in the firing line when shareholders at yesterday's a.g.m. took the board to task over its sponsorship of the national rugby team, among other issues. A full report of the proceedings appears on this page.

Although hard pressed, the chairmen at AIB and Irish Permanent at least did not preside over a punch up. The a.g.m. of British defence manufacturer British Aerospace (BAe), this week broke up amid chaotic scenes as arms trade protesters holding the nominal one share which allowed them access to the meeting mounted the directors' platform and tried to make a citizen's arrest of the board. Eggs and verbal abuse were hurled, other shareholders became embroiled in scuffles between the interlopers and security guards. By comparison, the AIB and Irish Permanent encounters were all sweetness and light.