Minority share-holders of Cable & Wireless recently took an unusual voting action at the August, 2016 annual general meeting that is inconsistent with the customary docility of most minority share-holders at such meetings in Jamaica. As a concerned group, they demanded answers to questions on the final resolution. Since this information was not forthcoming from the board of directors, they defied the board of directors by voting against the resolution to retain KPMG as auditors of the company and to fix their fee. This type of reaction from minority share-holders has been long awaited since it now demonstrates to other minority shareholders in Jamaica that they, too, have a unified voice in the decision making process of a company. A couple years ago, one minority share-holder of Cable & Wireless's stocks bravely stood up at the annual general meeting to make known his dissatisfaction with that same resolution - retainment and re-numeration for the auditing firm. He was disappointed when no other minority share-holder spoke out verbally or use their voting powers against this resolution of the then Chris Dehring led board of directors. His frustration with the outcome resulted in his decision to no longer attend the annual meetings. However, he should now be pleased to see that the minority share-holders of Cable & Wireless have become more pro-active by coming together and using their knowledge and voting power. Hopefully, other Jamaican minority shareholders will take a page out of the book of those at Cable & Wireless and not simply agree to resolutions but educate themselves on them and use their voting rights to engage in the critical decision making process of the organization.
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