Joseph Bonyo
5 October 2009
Nairobi — Marshalls East Africa last week postponed its Annual General Meeting (AGM) throwing shareholders into confusion.
The motor vehicle dealer cancelled the meeting prior to the AGM according to a letter issued to the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
"The board of directors has cancelled the Annual General Meeting scheduled for September 30, 2009 due to a technical error in the notice," read part of the one paragraph letter.
While the Nation could not establish immediately what the nature of the error was, it can confirm that the firm has had intrigues in all its past three AGM's.
The controversies around the meetings can be traced back to 2006.
This followed the introduction of businessman Ketan Somaia as a director of the listed firm.
This was bitterly opposed by a group of shareholders linked to Mr Kamlesh Pattni.
The warring of the two groups has been portrayed bitterly in all the AGMs.
A group of directors and shareholders allied to Mr Pattni claimed that they had been unfairly locked out of the meeting, blaming Mr Somaia and his allies for their tribulations.
Last year, the same scenario played out when the two groups held parallel meetings.
The Somaia led group held their meeting at the firms headquarters in industrial area whereas the Pattni axis were at the governments registrar offices.
Issues relating to the conduct and proceeding of the meetings have also had their fair share of confrontation in the judicial process.
The infighting at the company's boardroom has led to poor performance of its business and shares at the NSE.
Over the last six weeks, statistics from the bourse indicate that the firms' shares have not traded.
Its share price has remained stagnated at Sh24 since March this year.
The firms' profitability has also continued to nose dive as it faces stiff competition from local firms.
This has also been compounded by the influx of cheap second hand cars from the Far and Middle East countries on Kenyan roads.
Earlier in the year, the firm noted that the effects of the global down turn would affect their initial plans to achieve full profitability by the end of 2009.
The firm still sells its old stock of Peugeots, and Korean brand Kia, however the Tata brands it signed up in late 2007 accounts for 90 per cent of its unit sales today.