Directors of Contact Energy will become shareholders in the company through a less complex scheme, the chairman, Grant King, told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting today, in Rotorua.
“The board firmly believes that directors should own shares in Contact on their own account to help align interests with shareholders but we found our existing director share scheme cumbersome and costly to operate,” he said.
“Recently we have adopted a new board policy that requires directors to hold at least 20,000 shares in Contact within three years of appointment, rather than take a proportion of their fees in shares via a three-year trust arrangement,” he said
The policy was similar to the approach followed by companies such as Telecom, Fletcher Building and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and consistent with the NZX’s Corporate Governance Best Practice Code, King said.
The company recapped events of the last year, including commissioning the Ahuroa gas storage unit and new peaker plant at Stratford, and its progress on new geothermal generation, but gave no guidance on earnings.
Shares of Contact rose 1.4 percent to $5.71 and have declined 6.6 percent this year.
(BusinessDesk)
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