The small shareholder who grilled big companies at AGMs: Narayana Narayanan dies at 95

SINGAPORE — In the eyes of many minority shareholders in Singapore, Mr Narayana Iyer Narayanan was an outspoken fighter for the rights of these retail investors, many of whom did not have deep financial knowledge of the companies they had invested in.  

To the boards of directors of Singapore blue-chip companies, Mr AGM, as he was sometimes called, was the dreaded "pain in the butt" or "nuisance" whom they had to deal with at annual general meetings (AGMs). 

Mr Narayanan died peacefully last Friday (July 28) after suffering a heart attack on June 23. He was 95.

His daughter Rema told The Straits Times: "Even at 95, Dad was still very keen on financial news. He would check the Dow Jones index, the stock price of Sats, the British pound and Malaysian ringgit daily."

Her sister Radhika added: "He was a champion of small shareholders. He believed they have the right to understand what's happening in companies they invested in." 

Armed with a degree in mathematics, Mr Narayanan started his career as a stockbroker in the 1950s. In 1968, he became the first Indian director of a stockbroker, Ong & Co. Later, he joined Alliance Securities as a director. He retired in 1999 at the age of 72. 

The active retail investor was often seen at AGMs and extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) of major Singapore banks and companies such as soft drink manufacturer and property group Frasers & Neave (F&N) and telco Singtel. 

Unlike some retail investors who disrupt meetings and doggy-bag the AGM/EGM buffet leftovers, he would take the rare meetings to grill management on their strategic decisions as well as costs and expenses that would impact shareholders. He questioned issues related to corporate governance even before it became a key investment screening tool.   

Together with Mr Denis Distant, who was also active at the F&N meetings in the past, Mr Narayanan questioned the late Dr Michael Fam, then executive chairman of F&N, on the decision to pay non-executive directors who had served on the board for at least 10 years handsome retirement bonuses. 

Dr Fam had argued: "Unlike our non-executive directors who are currently paid a fee each year and no retirement benefits, they (contract officers in the private and public sectors) are eligible for gratuities and pensions after the job is done."

Mr Narayanan countered that the service of non-executive directors should not be compared with that of MPs: "It simply needs to be pointed out that MPs are elected to serve the public. Directors are appointed to service private interests." A resulting furore ended with F&N shareholders voting down the planned payoffs at an EGM in February 2001.

As this journalist was covering listed companies in the early 2000s, when the media had to beg, borrow or steal a proxy from shareholders to gain entry into AGMs or EGMs, Mr Narayanan was a great help. Often, he held court with a group of journalists after the meetings, kindly summing up the key issues brought up to management, their responses and minority shareholders' concerns.

He was also a frequent letter writer to the press on wide-ranging matters from capital restructuring, odd share lots and regulatory issues to collective property sales and the appointments and remuneration of directors. 

A former Business Times journalist, Mr R. Sivanithy, recalled: "Although I met him only once, we spoke over the phone dozens of times. He would ring me with story ideas or whenever he saw something occurring in the market that needed addressing." 

Mr Sivanithy added: "He had vast institutional knowledge that stretched back to the 1960s so he could always place things in their proper historical perspective. He will be remembered for always championing the interests of the small shareholder. He will be missed." 

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.