THE Minority Shareholders Watch Group (MSWG) wants Genting Malaysia Bhd (GenM) to justify at its forthcoming annual general meeting (AGM) as to how three of its directors are still able to enjoy ‘mouthwatering’ remuneration package despite the group’s deteriorating financial performance in recent times.
Towards this end, the shareholder activism group highlighted that GenM’s group revenue had declined by 56% from its FY2019 to FY2020 while a net profit of RM1.33 bil in FY2019 had turned into a net loss of RM2.36 bil in FY2020 (a sharp drop of 277.3%).
Amid such poor financial performance, three executive directors namely deputy chairman and chief executive Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, deputy chief executive and executive director Lim Keong Hui (Kok Thay’s son) and president/chief operating officer and executive director Datuk Seri Lee Choong Yan still received substantial remuneration in FY2020 though there was a decrease in Kok Thay’s case.
“The percentage of decrease was, however, far much lower than the deterioration in the group revenue and net profit,” observed MSWG.
In FY2020, Kok Thay received a pay package amounting to RM49.57 mil (or 26.8% lesser than RM67.72 mil in FY2019) while Keong Hui earned RM9.2 mi in FY 2020 (FY2019: RM9.12 mil). Lee who was only appointed to the GenM board on Jan 1, 2020 took home RM10.32 mil.
GenM will stage its virtual 41st AGM on Sept 22 (Wednesday) at 10am from its head office in Wisma Genting, Kuala Lumpur.
Elsewhere, MSWG is also querying GenM’s parent company, Genting Bhd, as to why there is an independent director with tenure exceeding nine years while no resolution was proposed to seek shareholders’ approval to retain him as an independent director beyond nine years.
“The company departs from Practice 4.2 of Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) by proposing a nine-year time frame to apply the Practice,” the shareholder activism group pointed out. “The timeframe of nine years is unreasonably long and the application of the Practice should be expedited to, say, three years or below.”
Practice 4.2 of the MCCG stipulates that the tenure of an independent director must not exceed a cumulative term limit of nine years. Upon completion of the nine years, an independent director may continue to serve on the board as a non-independent director.
If the board intends to retain an independent director beyond nine years, it should justify and seek annual shareholders’ approval. But if the board continues to retain the independent director after the 12th year, it should seek annual shareholders’ approval through a two-tier voting process.
Genting will stage its 53rd virtual AGM on Sept 23 (Thursday) at 10am from its head office in Wisma Genting, Kuala Lumpur. – Sept 19, 2021
