Dear Mayne Reporters,

tonight's edition lays out the interesting shareholder meetings we'll be fronting in the coming days and some of the issues that will arise, along with five other lively stories.

Make sure you click through for the full Mayne Report edition to check it out.

Do ya best, Stephen Mayne

* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.

Whilst we are certainly not in any form of AGM season at the moment, when you own shares in more than 700 companies there are always a few shareholder meetings coming up and the rest of July will be very lively.

The big one is Macquarie Group at Crown on July 23, which will be round seven with the Millionaire Factory but the first encounter in Melbourne and the first with new CEO Nicholas Moore.

I'll also probably be headed to Village Roadshow on July 17 for an EGM to approve the issue of 6 million options to overpaid CEO Graham Burke. Incurring the cost of an EGM just to give the CEO some options is never a good look as surely Village could have waited until the AGM in November. The Age's Ian McIlwraith took aim at the proposal in this recent column and I'll be following up if it proves logistically possible to hack across town to the Jam Factory in South Yarra for a cynical 9am start. Village usually hold their AGMs at Movie World on the Gold Coast to escape scrutiny so this will be the first encounter with one of the most governance-challenged companies on the market.

Last year's SP Ausnet AGM produced some interesting exchanges about Singapore Inc's huge investments in Australia and with the Singapore Power flick pass of those Alinta assets aborted last year, there will be plenty to discuss at this year's AGM late in the day on July 17.
Speaking of Singapore Inc, it would be great to find a proxy in Singapore to take on the SingTel board at their AGM on July 25. The idea of arguing with the son of Singapore's dictator Lee Kuan Yew is very appealing if anyone fancies taking it on.

Even more interesting will be the Oxiana Resources EGM on July 18, as I understand at least one of the powerful proxy advisers has recommended a vote against Owen Hegarty's ridiculous $10.7 million payout.

Hegarty is getting $5.4 milion in cash to compensate him for 6 million options that still haven't even been issued yet. The only other time this has happened was when Toll and Asciano separated last year and Toll CEO Paul Little received a huge termination payout that included an element for unissued options.

Oxiana should take note of the protest against Little's payout as you can see from the voting results here when there were 217.79 million proxies in favour and 128.39 million against. Check out the way it was discussed by Toll on pages 305 and 306 of the information memorandum for the demerger.

Finally, their are two upcoming EGMs to approve institutional placements by Karoon Gas and Mineral Deposits, both of which have failed to follow through with a share purchase plan for small investors so I'll be going along to both meetings to give them a blast. Read on to see the email I've sent to the Mineral Deposits managing director.

Finally, here's the chronological list of all upcoming shareholder meetings over the next four weeks:

Tamaya Resources Ltd EGM
July 11, 10:30am, NSW Leagues Club, Sydney

HeartWare Ltd EGM
July 11, 10am, Grant Thornton, Kent Street, Sydney

SunshineGas Ltd EGM
July 14, 10:30am, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane

Village Roadshow Ltd EGM
July 17, 9am, Jam Factory, Chapel Street, Melbourne

SP AusNet AGM
July 17, 11am, ANZ Pavillion, Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

The Jetset Travelworld Group EGM
July 17, 11am, The Westin, 205 Collins Street, Melbourne

Austock Group Ltd EGM
July 18, 9:30am, Level 1, 350 Collins Street, Melbourne

Zinifex/Oxiana EGM
July 18, 2:30pm, Convention Centre, Melbourne

Chemgenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd EGM
July 22, 11am, 71 Collins St, Melbourne

Namoi Cotton Ltd EGM
July 23, 1pm, Wee Waa Bowling Club, WA

Macquarie Group Ltd AGM
July 23, 10:30am, Palladium at Crown, Southbank, Melbourne

Norfolk Group Ltd AGM
July 24, 2008, 12 noon, Marriott Hotel, Sydney

Hunter Hall Global Value Ltd EGM
July 25, 2008, 9:30am, The American Club, Sydney

SingTel Ltd AGM
July 25, 2008, 3pm, Singapore

Amazing Loans EGM
July 28, 2008, 10am, 265A Macquarie Street, Sydney

Campbell Brothers Ltd AGM
August 5, 11am, South Bank, Brisbane

Mineral Deposits Ltd EGM
August 6, 10:30am, Level 7, 530 Little Collins Street, Melbourne

News Corp: 8
Complete record of News Corp AGM battles

Macquarie Group: 6
Second favourite after Rupert

Alumina: 5
Five of the last six Alumina AGMs

Axa: 5
Five AXA AGMs so far this century

Fairfax Media: 5
Fast and furious five face-offs with Fairfax

National Australia Bank: 5
Five rounds with the National Australia bank

Westfield: 5
Five of the best with Cranky Franky

Babcock & Brown: 4
Four years battling Babcock & Brown

BHP: 4
Four BHP battles with Don "Don't Argue" Argus

Mayne/Symbion: 4
Mayne Nickless and then Symbion

PBL: 4
Four lively rounds with the Packers

Rio Tinto: 4
Four run-ins with the unhelpful Rio Tinto

Tabcorp: 4
Tangling with Tabcorp

Austar: 3
Three rounds this century with Austar

Computershare: 3
Cranky Chris Morris and Computershare

Foster's: 3

Gunns: 3
Never a dull moment in three Gunns meetings

Oxiana: 3
The last three Oxiana AGMs

Seven Network: 3
Three Seven AGMs but it's been too long

Spotless: 3
The three Spotless AGM encounters

Brockman Resources: made a big iron ore discovery which potentially could push mineralisation to at least 100 million tonnes - up from the predicted 44 million tonnes. The announcement in March 2008 pushed the share price $1.87 or 165% higher in a single day.

Allco: after the embattled fund manager announced it would cut outstanding debt by selling its Californian wind farm for a $346 million, the share price surged 86% on June 17, 2008, albeit from a very low base.

Origin: following an announcement of the BG Group's plans to acquire Origin Energy, the share price surged by almost 40% in April 2008.

Adelaide Bank: on the announcement of Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank planning a merger in August 2007, Adelaide's share price rocketed over 17% in a day.

AED Oil: with no explanation for the market behavior, the shares jumped almost 35 % over two days in May 2008. Send through any other suggestions to stephen@maynereport.com.

Hi Jeff,

I'm a small shareholder in 700 Australian companies (including yours) and track those which do placements with insiders without following through with a share purchase plan on the same terms for small investors.

It appears that Mineral Deposits Ltd has done precisely that (see announcement) with its recent placement to institutions that you are now asking us small shareholders to approve at an EGM.

The vast majority of big companies do the right thing (Macquarie, Nufarm, Ausenco, Bendigo Bank, Origin etc) in this situation. See the full list here.

You can see the shame file, now including Mineral Deposits, listing those companies that don't do SPPs following placements here.

And here is a video I made after attending the Skilled Engineering EGM last year when they did the wrong thing too.

Could you please raise this issue with the board and then explain why there was no SPP because it is patently unfair that small shareholders get treated differently from the big insiders.

There are no time constraints with an SPP, so it is never too late to make it up to your small shareholders.

Perhaps you could announce it at the forthcoming EGM, which I'll be attending.

I look forward to your reply.

Regards,
Stephen Mayne
Mineral Deposits shareholder

Andrew Andrejewskis: managing director and geologist of SA-based Sapex petroleum, he recently pocketed around $5 million in cash and shares from the sell-out to Linc Energy.

Otto Buttula: he owned about 6% of Findlay Securities, and recently has increased his stake to 20% through a capital raising after making his pile building up Webcentral until the Commonwealth Bank takeover.

Steven Eckowitz: an investor in Everest Babcock & Brown, he recently sold his home in the ritzy eastern suburbs of Sydney for a reported $20 million.

Patrick Elliott: non-executive director of SA-based Sapex petroleum, he recently pocketed around $5 million in cash and shares from the sell-out to Linc Energy.

Kennard family: from humble beginnings, patriarch Walter built Kennards Hire into one of Australia's largest and most respected hire companies, with over 60 branches across Australia. As reported by Matthew Cranston from the AFR, in 1994 Kennards teamed up with the Valad Property Group in a deal worth $215 million, acquiring 24 properties under the Miller's Self Storage brand. Recently an agreement was reached between Kennards and Valad to sell it's entire interest in the Miller's portfolio back to the Kennards, so they're clearly not short of a quid.

David King: founding director and geophysicist of SA-based Sapex petroleum, he recently pocketed around $5 million in cash and shares from the sell-out to Linc Energy.

Adrian MacKenzie: head of PBL Media, he recently purchased a substantial parcel of land in the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney for a reported $5 million.

Lou Menniti: he arrived in Australia from Italy at the age of five, and following a building apprenticeship he heads Menniti Holdings In Brisbane. Still involved in Development and Construction in Brisbane and Italy, his wealth is north of $50 million.

Andrew Rettig: the R Corp chief executive said the company and Crane Corp continued to focus on their project pipelines and "will be very active in looking for unique sites to develop".

Roger Wilson: non-executive chairman of SA-based Sapex petroleum, he recently pocketed around $5 million in cash and shares from the sell-out to Linc Energy.

Paul Young: non-executive director of SA-based Sapex petroleum, he recently pocketed around $5 million in cash and shares from the sell-out to Linc Energy.