When board-shareholder engagement fails to inspire

WHEN corporate boards pull up defensive walls in the face of activist shareholders, they not only display scant boardroom smarts but also miss a practical roadmap for better shareholder engagement.

And so, when S i2i Ltd - a mainboard-listed firm on the Singapore Exchange - recently rebuffed (not in so many words) a letter by a group of malcontent shareholders who were lobbying for a cogent plan to maximise shareholder value, it showed up its lack of 'board cred'.

The plea by this group of shareholders may not be altogether misplaced. After all, the firm has been stuck on the stock exchange's watch-list for two years and has been given a breather of one more year to snap out of the funk or slip into the dark hole of being suspended or delisted - the forebodings of watch-list firms that fail to meet the listing rules by stated deadline.