Shareholder appreciation

Jun 05, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The shareholders of both ExxonMobil and Chevron have voted overwhelmingly to return most of the directors on the boards of the two oil giants. If the percentage of votes some of them received were for political office in a Third World country, there would be howls about fraud and rigging. But when shareholders vote for a board of directors in an advanced country like America, the process is more than tightly managed and carefully monitored.

It is clean and sanitized as a medical operating theater. Percentages of votes for reelected directors ranging in the high 90s to lows of just below the 80s have a powerful ring of endorsement about them. Said differently, the shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron have the highest appreciation for the efforts and results of Darren Woods and Michael Wirth, the head honchos of ExxonMobil and Chevron respectively. And, the greatest confidence in their visions and priorities to make their companies even more profitable in their next term.

Shareholders, with a handful of exceptions, do not want their CEOs and boards to waste time with human rights concerns. Nor do they have much interest, beyond the old lip service, to push them to get serious about climate change. Nor do they have much patience, outside of proper political correctness publicly, with their boards being too concerned about country rights and what is a fair deal for those who own the resources, (with both oil companies it is oil). The only country rights that most of the shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron care about are that the countries are there, they have the oil assets, and that the two companies have a right to exploit them for the richest possible returns. It is the right to soaring profits.

Climate change concerns, human rights anxieties, and tax transparency issues, all have a cost attached for them to be put into effect. Each of those areas are expensive to the bottom line, a drain on profits. Shareholders want their fat dividends, and anything that is a charge to income, impacts the amount of the dividend declared and paid. Why try to be the heroes to change the world and neglect to care for number one (themselves) first? Corporate leaders like Woods and Wirth have their fingers on the pulse of their shareholders, and they know how to live up to their expectations. There is nothing that speaks a more inspiring and exciting language than money. The bigger the profits, with less encumbrances (subtractions for what some dissenting shareholders want), the sweeter the payout to shareholders. Give the shareholders what they want and there is peace in the corporate house, with everybody happier than puppies with a big bone.

It is with a sense of reluctant admiration that we look at how the likes of Woods and Wirth cater to the wishes of their shareholders and take care of them. In contrast, it is with a sense of shame and regret that we think of our own political leaders. It is about how they cannot even speak in the most unambiguous terms that the priorities and expectations of Guyanese are their primary interest. Further, there is this new norm, where they do very little that is to the benefit of Guyanese or do everything thing in their power to make the aspirations of a struggling people a reality. The people who voted for the PPPC Government that is in power do not count for anything, are delivered one deception after another, if not total falsehoods on how this oil is being managed. ExxonMobil’s and Chevron’s leaders move mountains to present their shareholders with handsome returns. Ruling Guyanese politicians walk all over their own voters and others with distractions and endless deviousness, and they call that oil management, fighting for Guyanese. Guyanese are the true owners of this nation’s oil wealth. Most of the time, their leaders do not treat them like owners, but as strangers, nuisances to get rid of in the quickest, most ruthless, manner. Those with the biggest share in Guyana’s oil wealth are seen as the biggest blocks. Guyanese have a decision on their hands. Vote and keep them in office or do something that gives hope.

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Chevron, Editorial, ExxonMobil, shareholder

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