Mortgage Choice director Peter Higgins was re-elected to the board at yesterday’s annual general meeting but not before a sizeable group of shareholders registered a protest vote against the long-serving director, with a 31.3 per cent vote against his re-election.
Higgins and his brother Rod are the company’s co-founders. Peter has been a director since 1989 and Rod since 1986.
Peter owns 254,2543 shares and Rod 15.4 million shares. The company has around 123 million shares on issue, which are currently trading around A$1.10.
Only Spheria Asset Management (which holds 24.7 million shares) and Commonwealth Bank (21.8 million shares) own more of the company than Rod.
Based on those numbers, just about every shareholder except the Higgins brothers, Spheria and CBA voted against Higgins’ re-election.
The company’s chair, Vicki Allen, was re-elected with a 99.1 per cent vote in favour, and there was a vote of 97.8 per cent in favour of the remuneration report, which has been a problem area for the company in recent years.