AGL rejects three Grok board candidates forward of AGM showdown


A Grok spokesman stated it’s going to Grok will have interaction instantly with AGL’s 150,000 shareholders within the lead as much as the AGM to clarify the necessity for these candidates to “undertake the monumental quantity of labor required by the board”.

The endorsement of Tidwell for a board position just isn’t sufficient for the activist investor who says the incumbent administrators do not need the breadth of abilities required to execute on this transition.

“It is senseless to us – or a rising checklist of shareholders – that the board is rejecting extremely certified, impartial administrators who’re dedicated to serving to them make AGL the main inexperienced gentailer on the earth,” Grok stated.

McKenzie stated the AGL board respects the rights of shareholders to appoint candidates however repeated that it could be uncommon for a noncontrolling shareholder to appoint 4 candidates for the board.

Cannon-Brookes’ Grok, and like-minded business funds group – HESTA, UK investor outfit Martin Currie, Brookfield, Van Eck and a coalition of smaller activist traders – account for 19 per cent of AGL’s excellent shares.

This week, one other investor – high-profile fund supervisor Geoff Wilson – additionally referred to as for the board to help the Grok candidates and rejected ideas they’d not be impartial.

McKenzie stated the abilities of the rejected candidates weren’t wanted.

“Given the depth of vitality market and transition expertise already represented on the renewed AGL board, the board is of the view that appointing all 4 of the Grok candidates wouldn’t add to the general effectiveness of the board,” she stated in a separate letter to AGL shareholders.

She additionally stated the restrict of ten administrators for the board implies that appointing all of Grok’s candidates might restrict the board’s capacity to carry on extra administrators with different areas of experience. If the candidates supported by the AGL board are elected, it’s going to have 6 administrators.

McKenzie was appointed because the board’s chair final month. She changed Peter Botten who resigned after AGL’s long-held demerger plans to separate its coal-fired energy stations from its retail arm have been derailed by a marketing campaign led by Cannon-Brookes.

AGL additionally introduced on the time that the previous chair of the Clear Vitality Council, Miles George, would be part of the board. He is likely one of the new administrators standing for re-election on the AGM, together with Graham Cockroft and Vanessa Sullivan.

McKenzie additionally faces re-election on the assembly.

The AGL board has skilled a purge during the last 12 months with Botten, Graeme Hunt Jacqueline Hey and Diane Smith-Gander all departing after the failed demerger.

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