RECKITT BENCKISER GROUP PLC (RKT)

On 3 May 2018, I attended the Annual General Meeting of Unilever in the Marriott Hotel, near Heathrow airport, which started at 11.15 AM. The previous day I had attended the Unilever AGM so it is interesting to compare these two companies Unilever Reckitt Market cap about £110bn £40bn Turnover Euro 54bn £11.5 bn Profit after tax of Euro 6.5 bn £3.4 bn Dividend increase 8% 7% Profit margins 17% 59.7% Return on capital 19% (ROIC) 10% (ROCE)     I was the proxy for DSW (the German equivalent of UKSA/ShareSoc) whose members held some 217,000 RB shares and wanted someone from either UKSA ...

I attended the AGM on 5 May. I was interviewed by the BBC TV beforehand who covered the Reckitt story in their 1pm News program. The BBC were also interviewing shareholders, who were willing to speak to them, as they entered the building where the AGM was held. There were also a group of demonstrators outside. There were about 200 to 300 present at the AGM. The Chairman opened the meeting and commented on the great results, noting the 23% total shareholder return ...