It seems that the single class shareholding was adopted 9 months ago... so what has happened???
This is the latest I could find from ABB: "For ABB, a most significant event in 2007 was the vote by the company’s A-Class shareholders on July 31 to redeem their nontradeable shares, resulting in ABB adopting a single class of ‘ordinary’ shareholdings and new constitution. The current five A-Class directors were then elected to the board as ordinary shareholder directors. In the newly deregulated barley market, this new structure is essential for ABB to compete on equal footing with other traders who operate under fully commercial ownership structures.
A single class share structure enables ABB to more readily access capital, offer more competitive cash prices within a deregulated market and deliver more innovative services to growers, who remain an important stakeholder of ABB’s business.
Nationally, the Federal Coalition government’s decision to give the grains industry until March 1, 2008 to establish a growerowned entity to run wheat exports, or face deregulation, came in the wake of the Cole Commission into the Iraqi wheat exports scandal, and after the Ralph committee’s nationwide survey of public opinion. Since late 2006 the Coalition government has granted special bulk wheat export licences when considered to be “in the public interest”. The deregulation of export wheat in containers and bags from August 2007 enabled new entrants into the wheat export market – previously controlled by the wheat single desk. ABB has already received considerable interest for wheat in containers from many customers."
ABB Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
