Tilts

Complete public company tilt record

By Stephen Mayne
January 9, 2024

Stephen Mayne has participated in 56 public company board elections over 23 years, which is more than anyone else, including the various professional directors. Here is a brief summary of his complete public company tilt record as it rolled out chronologically.

2000 - 10 tilts for the year

1. AMP (33.89% of vote), May 18, 2000
First ever board tilt and very pleased with the outcome. See Mayne Report package.

2. ASX (13.52% of vote), October 23, 2000
Second best of four ASX tilts. See Mayne Report package.

3. Commonwealth Bank (39.71% of vote), October 26, 2000
Did flyers out the front and polled well, with lots of support from industry funds. See Mayne Report package.

4. WA News (28.41% of vote) November 2, 2000
Best result when didn't turn up - see results.

5. Westfield Holdings (0.37% of vote), November 9, 2000
Hostile reception from Frank Lowy.
See Mayne Report package.

6. Telstra (14.65% of vote), November 17, 2000
The earliest and best of the three tilts at the telco when some shareholders still hadn't worked out how to vote against any resolution. See Mayne Report package.

7. Woolworths (54.75% of proxies), November 20, 2000
The best AGM yet as was almost elected but chairman John Dahlsen declared in lost on the show of hands, despite the clear majority of directed proxies in favour. See Mayne Report package.

8. NRMA Insurance (45.59% of vote), November 28, 2000
Shafted with the proxies by chairman Nick Whitlam who urged shareholders not to number every box and then unused un-marked boxes as open proxies against me. See Mayne Report package.

9. David Jones (11.46% of vote), December 11, 2000
Alan Kohler used this tilt as basis for this story on The 7.30 Report.
See Mayne Report package.

10. National Australia Bank (9.14% of vote), December 14, 2000
Was invited to speak to the meeting at the very start of proceedings, with no prior notice from the chair, but failed to make double figures.
See Mayne Report package.

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2001 - 8 for the year


11. AXA (1.1% of vote) February 15, 2001
Polled poorly given French parent had a majority stake but mounted a strong argument.
See Mayne Report package.

12. ASX (10.69% of vote) October 29, 2001
Slightly less than previous year - see results.

13. Southern Cross Broadcasting (3.85% of vote) November 1, 2001
Gave chairman John Dahlsen a spray as Steve Price defamation battle rolled on.
See Mayne Report package.

14. NRMA Insurance (9.4% in the poll) November 2, 2001
Less support than previous year - see results.

15. John Fairfax (20.58% of vote) November 7, 2001
Best of three tilts at the media company - see results.

16. Spotless (6.5% of vote) November 14, 2001
This was the toughest notice of meeting every produced against a board tilt.
See Mayne Report package.

17. Telstra (4.76% of vote) November 16, 2001
Slightly less than previous year - see results.

18. PMP (11.24% of vote) November 19, 2001
It was good to have some competition from another external candidate at PMP in 2001.
See Mayne Report package.

11 month gap

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2002 - 2 for year

19. News Corp (12.89% of vote), October 9, 2002
Round four with Rupert and almost elected from the floor.
See Mayne Report package.

20. ASX (18.7% of vote) October 29, 2002
Best of the four ASX tilts - see results.

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6 month gap


2003 - 1 for year

21. AMP (11.41% of vote) May 15, 2003
Disappointing result after $10 billion was lost in UK.
See Mayne Report package.

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2004 - no tilts

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2.5 year gap

2005 - 2 for year

22. Gunns (14.7% of vote) October 27, 2005
Disappointing vote but had a victory when executive chairman John Gay submitted himself for election in 2006. This was the basis of the 2005 campaign.
See Mayne Report package.

23. John Fairfax (8.2% of vote) November 18, 2005
Ran for the board and the lights went out.
See Mayne Report package.

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7 month gap


2006 - 3 for year

24. Macquarie Bank (15.53%) July 20, 2006
Failed in board tilt but polled very well with over 21 million votes in favour. With Macquarie shares now at $136, we're talking almost $3 billion worth of shares in favour in 2019 terms.
See Mayne Report package.

25. Telstra (2.25%) November 14, 2006
Crushed by the Howard Government again - see results.

26. Woolworths (2.8%) November 24, 2006
Dramatically less than the record high 2000 vote - see results.

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1 year gap


2007 - 1 for year

27. West Australian Newspapers (14% of the vote) November 9, 2007
Really stuck it to the board but lost election.
See Mayne Report package

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5 month gap

2008 - 5 for year


28. West Australian Newspapers
(14% of the vote) April 23, 2008
See Mayne Report package.

29. Alumina Ltd
(6.2% of the vote) May 1, 2008
Elected to Alumina board on show of hands but defeated in poll.
See Mayne Report package.

30. ASX (5.05% in favour but total protest 24.83% when include huge abstain vote.) September 24, 2008
See Mayne Report package.

31. Centro Retail November 27, 2008
435 million votes in favour which was 71% of the independent vote after strip out 1.1 billion shares controlled by Centro. However, formal poll outcome shows 26.7% in favour.
See Mayne Report package.

32. BHP Billiton (12.38% of the vote) November 27, 2008
See Mayne Report package.

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7 month gap

2009 - 5 for year

33. Oz Minerals (7% of the vote) June 11, 2009
See Mayne Report package.

34. Fairfax Media (3% of the vote) November 10 2009
See Mayne Report package.

35. Ten Network Holdings (0.9% of vote) December 10, 2009
Second worst vote ever as board censored the platform, which was mainly around the lack of an SPP after an institutional placement, and the directors also used the no vacancy rort.

36. National Australia Bank
(5.6% of proxies) December 17, 2009
Chairman Michael Chaney didn't suffer any voting backlash for SPP shafting of retail investors but was happy with my vote given two previous flops. And the board did well to publish the platform in full in the notice of meeting.

37. AWB December 23, 2009 Results of meeting - 8.6% of vote
See Mayne Report package.

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5 month gap

2010 - 2 for year


38. MAP (4.88% of the vote) May 27, 2010
See Mayne Report package.

39. Woolworths AGM (6.6% of the vote) November 18, 2010
See Mayne Report package

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6 month gap

2011 - two for year

40. Santos: (May 5, 2011), ran for Santos board on a capital raising platform after placement with no SPP. Won the show of hands but only received 4.8% in the poll.

41. Rio Tinto: (May 5, 2011), ran for Rio Tinto board and polled only 3.04% in the poll after AGMs in London and Perth.

2.5 year gap.

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2012 - no tilts

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2013 - one for year

42. AFIC: October 9, 2013: ran for the board of Australia's biggest listed investment company, AFIC, and polled a respectable 16.4%, which included support from ASA. See this explanation.

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13 month gap

2014 - 5 for year

43. Fairfax Media: (November 6, 2014): received a miserable 0.92% support in the poll. Gina Rinehart opposed and clearly no institutional support at all. See package of links. However, was supported by a clear majority of the shareholders (902 in favour, 495 against) who voted, as is explained here.

44. Commonwealth Bank: (November 12, 2014): Ran on a platform of board accountability after the financial advice scandals. Scored 3.15%. See results.

45. Cabcharge: (November 26, 2014). Scored 2.25% on a change the governance platform. See results and notice of meeting.

46. Woolworths: (November 27, 2014) Quite pleased to get 4.05% in the poll. See results and notice of meeting.

47. Ten Network Holdings: (November 28, 2014) See notice of meeting. See Mayne Report edition detailing 1.48% support.

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2015 - one for year

48. Macquarie Group: (July 23, 2015). See notice of meeting, Mayne Report preview piece, results detailing 1.55% support and Crikey piece after AGM.

4 year gap

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2016, 2017, 2018 - no tilts

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2019 - two for year

49. AFIC: (October 8, 2019). See notice of meeting, Mayne Report preview piece and results detailing 18.26% support.

50. Harvey Norman: (November 27, 2019). See notice of meeting, package of media, compilation of tilt material and results detailing 8.24% support.

8 month gap

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2020 - 4 for year

51. Macquarie Group: (July 30, 2020). See notice of meeting, Mayne Report wrap of the issues and results detailing 2.31% support.

52. Milton (October 20, 2020). See letter of nomination. See voting results where only attracted 3.99% in support.

53. Cochlear (October 20, 2020). See notice of meeting, transcript of the AGM debate and voting results detailing 5.85% support from 2.7 million shares worth around $600 million.

54. Kogan.com (November 20, 2020). See notice of meeting, ran on a platform opposing the SPP scale back from $115m to $20m, an excessive options issue to the founders after earlier sell-downs and the lack of independent directors. Pleased with 14.04% voting support.

27 month gap
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2021, 2022 - no tilts

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2023 - 2 for the year

55. Aristocrat Leisure (February 24, 2023). See notice of meeting, ran on a 3 point platform calling for the company to embrace cashless gaming, disassociate from the clubs and pubs peak bodies and publish copies of their AGM webcasts online. Polled a miserable 0.33%, the lowest vote in 55 tilts and even worse than the previous lowest of 0.37% at Westfield Holdings way back in November 2000. Watch AGM webcast archive and see Mayne Report package.

56. National Australia Bank: (December 15, 2023). See notice of meeting, ran on a platform calling for NAB to move its AGM to late January to coincide with the Australian Open and end the practice of closing board nominations before even releasing their full year results. In the end I pretty much ran dead and received a miserable 1.25% support in the poll after none of the proxy advisers supported the tilt. The proxies were disclosed early on the day and I was at Phillip Island rather than Sydney, so just dialled into the meeting to answer any questions after the bank agreed to run an audio recording in support of the tilt. All of the other director candidates received more than 97% support so it was a very lopsided voting outcome.