Monday 5th of November 2007

Geneva Finance’s special meeting today to decide the fate of the company is likely to have fireworks – but we won’t see them as the company is restricting entry. I assume the conclusion of the meeting is likely to be a fait au compli as Bank of Scotland will have sufficient votes to decide the outcome. Geneva, as I have said before, has done some good things in terms of preparing itself for the downturn (although they haven’t necessarily helped it). And its proposed moratorium is precedent setting too. Where it isn’t setting a good example is restricting entry to the meeting. Yes, I acknowledge it has a right to keep the meeting just for debenture holders. However, it is foolish and counterproductive to ban media, and organisations such as the Consumers’ Institute, researchers and other key industry players. Such a move will backfire and create ill-will with many of the influential, agenda setting people in this industry. As a business reporter of many years standing (decades actually) it is normal practice to let media and others attend things like company annual meetings, even when the company knows there will be fireworks. Good Returns has argued pretty strongly to the company’s representative that observers should attend today’s meeting. While the request was listened to favourably, no response has been forthcoming. udging by other reports in the media Geneva is facing a few challenges over its reluctance to release up-to-date financial statements. The SST had a useful story on this and Consumer has been active too. There are a lot of questions which people would like to see answered and many of these have implications beyond just Geneva. We are told the meeting will be “highly structured” which tends to imply that debenture holders may be stifled to some degree. Such a move is similar to restricting entry to the meeting. At a time when Geneva needs friends, it’s doing a good job at alienating itself.