RBS General Meeting Report

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

98.7% of shareholders voted for the proposal, with 1.3% against. A very strong majority. UKGI did not vote their shares.

I watched the General Meeting on the webcast. Attendance looked pretty thin. Three people asked questions. Neil Mitchell questioned the prudence of using company funds to buy back shares when there was £15bn of GR legacy issues claims outstanding. He also questioned why there had to be so much haste (why not wait until the AGM and after the annual results were announced) and said he thought it was driven by the political wish to get ownership below 50% ASAP, with Labour’s Corbynistas threatening to nationalise the whole of RBS. He quoted the history of most buy backs being made at too high a price and asked why BEIS were investigating the efficacy of buybacks whilst at the same time HM Treasury were promoting the buy back of the UKGI shares.

It was good that management had these points put to them and were held to account.

I was also pleased to hear that coffee and chocolate brownies were to be served to attendees after the meeting and this was a further chance for shareholders to mingle and talk to directors. I mention this as I went to one RBS AGM and there were no refreshments after the AGM. It is good that RBS are listening.

You can access the recording of the Meeting via the RBS website or with this link http://streamstudio.world-television.com/CCUIv3/frameset.aspx?ticket=852-1112-20906&target=en-default-&status=ondemand&browser=ns-0-1-0-0-0&stream=html5-video-500

 

Cliff Weight, RBS Shareholder Committee Shareholder Resolution Coordinator and ShareSoc Director

6 Feb 2019

I hold shares in RBS. The share price is up to £2.496 today, from a low of £2.03 in December 2018

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