The results of the Annual General Meeting of BHP Group (BHP) have been announced. The most significant item was the rejection of an amendment to the constitution by 90% of voters. This was a resolution requisitioned by Members and would have enabled shareholders to dictate operational policies on such matters as environmental issues to the directors. It was rightly rejected as removing powers from directors to manage the company in the best interests of the company is unwise.
You can read the speeches given at the AGM here: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/BHP/bhp-group-2022-agm-speeches-and-presentation/15709454 . There is a big focus on changing the culture of the organisation.
I also received the Annual Report and a proxy voting form for the AGM of AIM listed Bioventix (BVXP) today. Thankfully their share registrar, Share Registrars Ltd, have now implemented a simple and easy to use electronic proxy voting system.
I only voted against the share buy-back resolution as I can see no good reason to use surplus cash in that way rather than paying a special dividend. Share buy-backs are rarely justified and depend on the directors’ view of the value of shares which is often wrong.
I am glad to see that the cryptocurrency markets are suffering a severe bout of financial indigestion with exchange FTX in financial difficulties and Bitcoin prices back down to where they were in 2020. Mining company Argo Blockchain (ARB) listed on AIM also appears to be in difficulty.
I’ll repeat what I said in January 2021 on why I won’t be investing in Bitcoins: “There is no intrinsic value in a Bitcoin. With company shares the intrinsic value may be somewhat uncertain and share prices subject to the emotions of investors but there is at least a way to determine the value by looking at the discounted cash flows generated by a company. The future cash flows help you to determine the current value. But with cryptocurrencies there are no associated cash flows. No dividends paid out and no profits generated directly from the assets as with company shares.
If you buy cryptocurrencies you are simply buying a “pig in a poke”.
Roger Lawson
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And sometimes the “pig in the poke” requires vast amounts of energy to “mine” the BTC etc (mining for ethereum until recently was using up energy equivalent to that of the Netherlands). And I suspect that some of the miners weren’t paying for the energy either.