OCBC 80th Annual General Meeting

穷小子 not intending to blog about this initially, but there is something he must share. Attended the AGM yesterday, and OCBC's CEO shook hands with 穷小子. Wahaha!! Not that 穷小子 is some kind of VIP, but the shaking of hands is because Mr Tsien is courtesy and polite, and greeted us with a Good Afternoon. Is a simple gesture, but is the effort which he had made counts. Feels so appreciated when he says Good Afternoon and Thanks us for coming. He don't have to do so, but he did. Applause!!
He walked from the front row and to the walkway column, where 穷小子 is sitted, to shake hands with each of us. By the way, all of these were happened very early, 10 mins before the financial performance presentation starts, and very much before the AGM.

With the presentation of the financial performance start..

穷小子 had to admit that he got lost when CEO is presenting the annual financial performance, so wouldn't share much of that in details. 穷小子 is non-financial background after all. Lol.

CEO shared with us that oil price at $70 will be required for the Oil and Gas industry to break even, and $60 for the lenders to break even. To further supplement, CEO also mentioned that OCBC can't confirm if the worst for O&G is over, but pointing out that 2017 will be a better year than the year before.

A shareholder question about the status of the divestment of United Engineers, and will there be any special dividends after the divestment?
- CEO answered that it is premature to discuss on the divestment status right now.

Another shareholder pointed out that continuation of this news will demoralized the shareholders and the public. Is there any ways or methods which OCBC's management can assist or expedite on the progress?
- Although OCBC is a stakeholder of UE Limited, UE works as an individual entity and will leave the decisions to UE's management.

China is second largest contributor to the profits after Singapore.

and so the AGM begins...

Management commented that higher interest rates is good for banks generally.

Chairman commented that OCBC CEO's remuneration had the most reduction among the 3 banks' CEO.

Why is there no Scrip dividend? Another shareholder commented that it is disturbing that some years have and some do not, which resulted with odd shares remains.
- Chairman answered that OCBC is in a strong capital position. This decision allows them to deploy the cash productively, and secondly, scrip will caused the diluting of share prices.
Ironically, most of us want scrip. Hmm, does this means the company has many money lying around? If dividend payout without scrip options means that OCBC have many cash, so does that means OCBC have less cash if with scrip options, and which means bad for the company? Guess there is no one plus one kind of direct answer. Management had to review the company's capital position at the right time to decide whether to payout in scrip or not.
Can see that most of the shareholders are chanting, "We want Scrip! We want Scrip!" Very unlikely that there will be any scrip dividends for 2017 after hearing from Chairman and CEO.

A shareholder asked why isn't there any 80th anniversary special dividends? The same question was raised during the last AGM.
- Same answer. The management will review its capital at the right time and decide accordingly. Guess that means they had decided not to give.
On a second thought to this, if the capital review on the scrip dividend decided to pay out dividends in cash, then it is contradicting to the above as in why not use the capital to give special dividends? Hmm. Or at least increase the dividends, which 穷小子 is expecting an increase in dividend. This link to another question, but Chairman stated that we should be looking at the payout ratio. Is like egg first or chicken first. Haha. But anyway, the trust is still with the OCBC's directors and CEO, and believe their decisions are made based on the company's best interest.

There is no "hungry ghosts" in this year's AGM. The doors are open and all the "hungry ghosts" are allow to get their snacks sets before the AGM started. This prevented the ugly scene which was experience last year. The whole AGM is enjoyable until Resolution 4(b). A lady keep pressing questions on the diversity the director, e.g. gender, race, nationalities, etc. Chairman had answered them, but she keep pressing on. The lady is completely wasting everyone's time. What is the point of asking these questions? Are you planning to enter the Board of Directors?

As 穷小子 is leaving the AGM, he had decided that OCBC is safe with the management's hands, especially with CEO's spearheading the businesses' operations. Until then, see you in 2018.

穷小子