Penrice Soda shareholders re-elect chair and deputy

Penrice Soda shareholders were angry with the board of Penrice Soda. Now, it seems, they are not.

Having voted  against the board’s remuneration report for two years in a row, shareholders forced the board to an extraordinary general meeting to face a spill. The EGM was held in Adelaide today.

However, the shareholders decided to re-elect the chair, David Treback, and his deputy, Andrew Fletcher, to the board. 

It is a strange outcome.

It is the first time a board has faced its shareholders under the “two-strikes” rule intended allow greater shareholder control of remuneration.

It is widely believed that shareholders are not upset about the remuneration of the company’s leadership, but about the company’s poor financial performance. Indeed, Trebeck has said as much, and apologised again for the company’s problems at the meeting today.

Use of the two-strike rule to admonish boards for poor performance is seen by many in the corporate community as an abuse of the rule because it is outside its remit of remuneration.