Fighting for the little guy

Max Gunn was also a keen tennis player. Photo / NZ Herald

Alexander Maxwell Gunn, accountant, trust manager. Died aged 94.

In the tumultuous commercial times of the 1980s Max Gunn became known as a man who championed the interests of minority shareholders.

It was not a title he sought. And as a man retired from accountancy work, it took some courage to stand up and challenge company leaders inclined to be dismissive and to roll their eyes.

As well, shareholder audiences were inclined to jeer at someone asking unwelcome questions in the days before the 1987 crash.

Max Gunn had a principled approach throughout his long life and above all a sense of fairness. He got most upset about minority shareholders being treated shabbily.

Gunn recalled to Herald writer Graham Skellern that in the Lion Corporation-LD Nathan merger Fay, Richwhite received 925c a share and ordinary shareholders 425c.

Lion director John Fernyhough countered there was no foundation for the suggestion that there must be an equal price for all shares.

Gunn was also upset by the dealings over New Zealand Forest Products, (then a trusted investment for many small shareholders) and Rada.

But the accountant born in Timaru and schooled in Auckland at King's School and College was no red-neck stirrer.

A tall thin man and eloquent speaker with five years of New Zealand Army war service in Greece, Crete and the Middle East, he had the independence of his own accountancy firm started with his brother - initially Gunn and Gunn.

He described the notion that he led an uprising of small investors was "just because I have spoken up at meetings and I do think somebody has to speak up for the shareholder.

"I suppose I am a thorn in the side of directors, but it is never done capriciously - only when I think something is outstandingly wrong."

He was a man inclined to a patriotic view that New Zealand assets should not be sold off to overseas owners. But he admitted one unpatriotic manoeuvre.

He told Michael Brett of the Auckland Star that he became sceptical of the Roger Douglas-inspired South Sea bubble (as he called the sharemarket boom) and distrustful of the "hype companies" it helped spawn.

Before the 1987 crash he sold everything he had and put the money in a Sydney bank. When the crash came, New Zealand's market was hit hard, falling about 60 per cent from its 1987 peak.

Gunn bought at low prices into companies such as Westpac, Broken Hill Proprietary, Colonial Sugar, Burns Philp - companies managed by solid boards in the old New Zealand style. "I made more money out of the crash than I'd ever made in my life," he said.

Max Gunn had interests beyond accountancy, not least a love of Auckland's West Coast beaches.

And an enduring dedication to tennis extended to travelling to Palm Springs, California, in 2005 to play in the Lurie World Cup, an event for players 90 years and over.

But most will remember a man pushing for better disclosure of salaries and perks by secretive companies.

One indicative incident occurred in 1990 when companies were saying unless they paid extravagant salaries there would be a brain drain. Gunn said he thought it would not do the slightest harm if 90 per cent of those involved left the country.

Max Gunn is survived by Chisne, his wife of 54 years, daughters Alex and Liz and family.