Bendigo Bank's Robert Johanson is battle ready

By Carolyn Cummins
Updated October 24 2016 - 4:18am, first published 12:15am
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chairman Robert Johanson. Photo: Glenn Daniels
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chairman Robert Johanson. Photo: Glenn Daniels

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chairman Robert Johanson will be on track to clock up more than three decades on the bank's board if he is re-elected at this week's annual meeting.
But those pesky proxy advisers, wouldn't you know it, are kicking up a stink.
ISS, the bane of many a chairman this annual meeting season, is advising investors to vote against Johanson's re-election, citing his "extremely long tenure" on the board, and his role as a director of Grant Samuel, which has provided advisory services to the bank.
"An additional term would mean a 31-year tenure on the board which is highly uncommon in the Australian market, particularly for non-founders," ISS writes.
It is also calling for a vote against Robert Hubbard's re-election as a non-executive director. It reckons he might be over-stretched as a chairman of lithium business Orocobre, and Central Petroleum, and a non-executive director of Primary Health Care.
Managing director Mike Hirst doesn't come out of the ISS report unscathed, either.
The proxy firm suggests a vote against the grant of long-term deferred shares and performance rights to Hirst, which it estimates could be worth about $3 million in total. It doesn't like the fact these grants are partly based on "qualitative" measures, rather than financial returns.
It could be an interesting meeting for the regional bank.

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