DISCOVER the Road to Financial FREEDOM!

I attended the Public Bank’s annual general meeting(AGM) yesterday at the Shangri-La Hotel ballroom in Kuala Lumpur.

This year AGM is very special because on 14th March 2011 is also  the  founding chairman Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow’s 81st  birthday. This AGM was the 45th AGM.

Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow founded Public Bank, Malaysia’s third largest lender by assets, on 1966 and have impressive track performance record.

Public Bank  was the country’s third largest bank by net profit and assets, and is ranked number one in terms of how well it manage shareholders’ money to generate more profit and value.

Over four thousand of grateful shareholders sang him  a spirited version of "Happy Birthday To You", followed by "May The Good Lord Bless You".

The whole AGM was full of applause and never a dull affair. This never happen with any other AGM and is very rare in corporate Malaysia.

The AGM was conducted by co-chairman Tan Sri Thong Yaw Hong and Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow was most of the time just kept silent for the most part of the hour-and-a-half AGM

Mr.Leong Kwok Nyem, Chief Operating Officer say Public Bank expects to maintain its dividend payout ratio at about 50% in the medium term and the bank doesn’t need to raise any capital to meet the requirements of the Basel III norms, and that all capital ratios were "healthy,"

Without failed, Public Bank  able to deliver consistently generous cash dividends for their shareholders.

Under Basel III, banks will face restrictions on dividend payments and executive pay if their capital falls below 7% of their assets, measured on a risk-weighted basis. Basel III will also require banks to keep more liquid assets, so they can meet daily funding needs for 30 days.

Last January, Public Bank declared a second interim cash dividend of 25 sen per share and a single-tier dividend of 8 sen, taking the total gross dividend for 2010 to 58 sen.

All shareholder get a special door gift and a nice pack lunch! 🙂

Special door gift

 

Nice pack lunch

It’s advisable to take a public transport when attending Public Bank’s annual general meeting even free car park is provided.

This is because the parking unit at the hotel is rather very limited with over 4,000 shareholders attending. I use KL Monorial which stop at Bukit Nenas station and just a short walk to the Shangri-La Hotel ballroom in Kuala Lumpur.

Interesting Fact:

Did you know that if you had purchased 1,000 Public Bank shares since 1967 and have held it over a period of 42 years, your initial investment would have grown to a value of over RM2.1M today!

Read more at How to Become a Multi Millionaire

The next question is can all this be sustain without any proper succession planning.

Public Bank closing stock price for 15th March 2011 was RM12.98 and Public Bank-01 was RM12.92