Shareholders in leading New Zealand co-operative MG Marketing have voiced their concerns over the disclosure of a key board member’s resignation.
Francie Di Leva announced he would be stepping down from his role as deputy chairman with the firm on 30 September, 2014.
According to shareholder website, www.YourMG.com, MG Marketing waited the maximum 20 working days before filing Di Leva’s resignation with the New Zealand Companies Office. The YourMG group suggests this was a deliberate stalling ploy ahead of the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Napier later this month.
“They could have filed the resignation back on 30 September, but they didn’t. They kept it hidden,” a statement on the YourMG said.“Interestingly, it also means that it has been made public well after the main date for submitting shareholder remits to this AGM, so now this issue will be much harder for any shareholder to raise at the AGM.”
The YourMG website was launched earlier this year with the aim of outlining “concerns around the governance of the MG Board.”
The group has raised particular concerns over the transparency and rotation of MG’s board members. The YourMG website makes numerous calls for the removal of long-serving MG chairman, Brian Gargiulo, with the group suggesting his remuneration package (NZ$382,832) and his tenure on the board (21 years) were well above the averages outlined by New Zealand’s Institute of Directors.
“Our concern does not lie with the day to day management of MG and it’s staff, obviously it lies with the chairmanship and the lack of succession planning that has been demonstrated to date,” the website explained. “We also believe there should be regular appointment of new independent directors and possibly an independant chairman.
“We don’t say this lightly. Brian Gargiulo has no doubt contributed to the success of MG in the past, and should be commended for that, but that time has now well passed.”
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