Blue Power looking for more diversity on its board
Published:Friday | April 22, 2022 | 12:07 AM
Shareholders of soapmaker Blue Power Group Limited will vote in two weeks on whether to expand the company’s board.
It currently has eight seats filled by Kenneth Benjamin, Felice Campbell, Major Noel Dawes, Catherine Goodall, Jeffrey Hall, Peter Millingen, Chairman Dr Dhiru Tanna and Dr Laura Tanna.
The company is not disclosing the number of seats to be added nor its medium- to long-term plan ahead of the extraordinary meeting on May 2 to discuss changes to the company’s organisational structure.
“We want to amend the article to allow for the addition of directors in the future. Right now we are at our maximum,” said General Manager Lisa Kong-Lee.
“I would not be able to disclose anything else at this time, just that we are looking for more diversity on our board,” she said.
The number of females holding board seats among companies listed on the stock market is around 26 per cent of the total directorships, based on Financial Gleaner compilations. Blue Power’s ratio is above that, at 37.5 per cent, with three of its eight directors being women.
Blue Power Group’s last restructured in 2019 when it spun off its hardware business, Lumber Depot Limited, and listed it on the stock exchange.
Its core soap operation remains, but it also earns other income from the rental of property and the provision of management services to Lumber Depot Limited, in which it remains a primary shareholder.
The spun-off company earns revenue of around $1.4 billion, whereas Blue Power’s annual sales were last recorded at $534 million.
Over nine months ending January 2022, the soapmaker reported a fall-off in sales from $435 million to $346 million, but made two to three times more profit. The improvement to its bottom line, from $83 million of profit to $204 million, was due to a one-off gain of $145 million from the disposal of property.
Within the same period, Lumber Depot grew sales marginally from $1.05 billion to $1.16 billion, and profit from $101 million to $143 million.