Silver-haired Macquarie shareholders were greeted by drum-beating climate activists as they streamed into the investment bank’s new Minion-shaped headquarters in Sydney’s Martin Place for Thursday’s annual general meeting.
They were there to confront the board over the company’s uncharacteristically soft performance in the past year — a period marked by regulatory controversies — on a day when Macquarie’s leadership and succession plans suffered an unexpected twist.
For many shareholders, however, the premium morning tea spread was the main attraction. Around half the packed auditorium emptied out during an intermission as attendees made for the lamingtons and croissants and didn’t return.
Those who remained bombarded the board for nearly two hours with curly questions ranging from economic theory and climate change to nuclear submarines, personal banking complaints, director Stephen Coffey’s recent trip to France, chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake’s visit to China with Albo, and the threat of global depopulation.
