Peace rules in new approach to Telecom's annual meeting

By ANDREW JANES AND PAUL BRISLEN


Telecom may have set something of a precedent with its new peaceful approach to its annual meeting.

Only three questions were asked from the floor this year, but more than 100 were received in writing before the meeting began.

Telecom's new approach, to ask for written questions beforehand, meant chairman Roderick Deane was able to address issues like CEO Theresa Gattung's controversial $2.4 million cash and shares pay package en masse.

Much of Gattung's pay is performance-based, and Deane pointed out Telecom's recent strong performance.

He said relative to international telcos, only Singapore's Singtel outperformed Telecom in returns to shareholders during the past three years. Gattung earned considerably less than other CEOs at similar-sized Australasian companies.

"We have to pay a remuneration that reflects the competition in the Australian marketplace," Deane said.

Other questions asked at the meeting included one on an esoteric tax matter which left the audience and most of the board looking bewildered, another asking how much the large and glossy annual report cost to produce, and a third from a Hunterville shareholder complaining about patchy cellphone reception. Telecom spokesman John Goulter said many of the written questions were in a similar customer-oriented vein.

Meanwhile, Gattung knocked back media reports from New York quoting chief financial officer Marko Bogoievski saying Telecom's payout could rise as high as 90 per cent of profit.

She said the target this year was 85 per cent and the company was sticking with that.

"As the performance of the business continues to accelerate, then we will be able to increase dividends to shareholders off the back of underlying performance. But we don't have any plans at the moment to go beyond the 85 per cent."

Analysts expect net profit for the year of $816 million.

Telecom shares closed unchanged on $5.98 today.


Shareholders Association board member Oliver Saint said his group had no problems with written questions so long as they were all answered. "We'll be all over them if we hear from a shareholder that their question went begging."