Not living in ‘the big smoke’ has many benefits, but as a journalist it does mean missing out on lots of company meeting and presentations.

Now and then, however, a locally-based firm will host an event, and so it was I found myself last Thursday morning heading to Midsomer Norton, just south of Bath on the A367, for the AGM and open day at SRT Marine Systems (SRT:AIM).

As a shareholder, I was keen to hear first-hand how business had progressed over the past year or so – as a journalist, I was curious as to what a typical SRT shareholder looked like.

A GLOBAL LEADER

For those who aren’t familiar, SRT is a world leader in digitising data for the marine domain, and every day national coastguards, security agencies, fishery regulators and hundreds of thousands of boat users rely on its products and its technology to safely go about their business.

Maritime domain awareness, as it is known, is still in its early stages, but through years of investment, development and testing, SRT is now maximising the huge market opportunity in front of it.

With confirmed system orders of over £300 million and a validated sales pipeline of £1.2 billion – a quarter of which is accounted for by tenders from existing customers, and more than a third of which is from new customers in countries where SRT has already supplied kit to another government agency – the firm has tremendous visibility over the next few years.

OPEN DOOR POLICY

On 23 January, the company threw open the doors of its headquarters to anyone who was interested in visiting, whether they were shareholders or not, with the opportunity to mingle and speak with the directors and several senior employees, view the facilities and see its products demonstrated.

As I was already familiar with the business and the products, I was keen to meet other shareholders and find out what had attracted them to the company.

To my surprise, many had owned the shares for more than a decade, in other words well before the firm grew into what it is today, making me the ‘newbie’.

It was also clear many of those present had significant shareholdings, and the day was not just an opportunity to meet the company but to meet each other and share their thoughts as stakeholders.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Following the open morning, we decamped to a nearby hotel for the AGM and to vote on the resolutions, which as with most AGMs was fairly straightforward.

Shareholders were asked to vote on approving the last set of annual accounts, on retaining the current auditors, on re-electing the directors, on electing a new director, and on giving the company the right to issue new shares should the need or opportunity arise.

The chair asked for a show of hands for or against, then read out the proxy votes, which unsurprisingly were more numerous, and each resolution was carried by a substantial margin.

With the voting concluded, the floor was opened to chief executive Simon Tucker – who was as energetic as ever, despite spending most of his time flying to and from the Middle East or the Far East to pitch for and sign multi-million-pound contracts – to present the most recent set of results.

Barring a bulb blowing in the projector – luckily a second projector was on hand – the presentation ran smoothly, followed by a lengthy Q&A session and a further opportunity to mingle over lunch.

I came away wishing more companies would encourage those interested, shareholders or not, to see the business for themselves and get a greater understanding of what makes them ‘tick’, while vowing to attend again next year.

DISCLAIMER: Ian Conway owns shares in SRT Marine Systems.

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