AGL board digs in for new battle with Cannon-Brookes

Power giant AGL has declared it will stand behind its decision to reject all but one of the candidates for its board of directors put forward by billionaire investor Mike Cannon-Brookes, setting the scene for another clash over the future of Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.

Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software company Atlassian and one of the nation’s richest people, amassed an 11 per cent shareholding in AGL this year before launching a successful campaign to scuttle the board’s controversial proposal to spin out its carbon-intensive power stations into a new entity that would have continued burning coal until the mid-2040s.

The campaign ultimately forced the resignations of several AGL directors, including its chairman and chief executive, and triggered a strategic review into the company’s direction. This month, AGL said it would bring forward the closure of its last-remaining coal-fired power station to 2035, up to a decade earlier than previously planned.

However, the 185-year-old utilities giant is now bracing for a new stoush with Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures after refusing to endorse three of the four candidates it had nominated for AGL’s board of directors ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting next month.

AGL’s new chairman, Patricia McKenzie, said the board was preparing to defend its decisions in coming talks with shareholders and the professional advisory firms that guide institutional investors on how to vote.

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“They have announced they will run a campaign with our shareholders – we will also be talking to our shareholders,” McKenzie told The Australian Financial Review’s energy and climate summit on Monday.

“Ultimately, it’s a matter for shareholders to decide the composition of the board, but we feel that we have made a decision on recommendations in the best interests of the company, and we are quite prepared to stand behind that decision.”

Following an extensive search, Cannon-Brookes’ investment company, Grok Ventures, put forward four director nominees for AGL, including former Energy Security board chair Kerry Schott, Swinburne University chancellor John Pollaers, CSR director Christine Holman and former Tesla Energy director Mark Twidell.