Tributes flow during NZX annual meeting

NZX directors to have resigned were Llyod Morrison (third from left) and Tim Saunders (right). Picture / Brett Phibbs

"King Mark the First of Weldonia", lord of the NZX, won the praise of board antagonist Bruce Shepherd at the company's annual shareholder's meeting in Auckland yesterday.

The Shareholders Association chairman was unable to resist bursting into amateur dramatics at times as he, in a faux-Shakespearean style, paid exaggerated homage to the NZX chief executive.

Shepherd said this king ruled his monarchy as a monopoly, setting the rules and also enforcing them.

But it was back to business as the NZX, the listed company that operates the New Zealand Stock Exchange, told shareholders of Lloyd Morrison and Tim Saunders' board resignations, citing time pressures as their reasons.

Weldon paid tribute to both, saying Morrison had - in a one-hour 15-minute monologue - been instrumental in convincing him to return to New Zealand and the NZX post.

The board held 23 meetings last year, with regulatory issues and expansion into the registry and fund management sectors taking up a lot of its time.

Saunders is also chairman of troubled carpet-maker Feltex and Solid Energy and a director of Contact Energy, Pyne Gould Corp, Calan Healthcare, Capital Properties and Marac Finance.

The NZX was challenged over an alteration to its constitution that would allow it to incorporate provisions of the NZSX listing rules by "reference" - rather than restating them in the constitution.

This means it does not need to update its constitution every time a change is made to listing rules.

Many companies have already done this but, as NZX is in charge of the listing rules, this change has not been without controversy.

One shareholder referred to the change as "an outlandish conflict of interest". While the resolution appeared to be voted down on a show of hands from the 80-odd people at the meeting, a poll, which included proxies, showed a 99.2 per cent vote in support.