DIRECTORS of the Graziers Investment Company have withdrawn a proposal for retirement benefits.
Prior to today's annual meeting in Sydney, GIC chairman Barry Walker withdrew the proposal, which if approved would have given GIC's four directors benefits on top of their board fees.The withdrawal of the proposal follows stiff criticism from WoolProducers and individual shareholders.
The retirement package if activated in June this year would have cost GIC $307,000 with GIC chairman eligible for $122,000.
"This really smacks of the snout in the trough mentality,'' said former stud Merino breeders chairman Will Roberts in a letter two weeks ago to Mr Walker.
At today's annual meeting retiring directors Barry Walker and Philip Attard were both elected.
The GIC was established in 2007 to administer and wind up Australian Wool Services assets and liabilities that weren't bought by Australian Wool Innovation.
While there were several valuable assets among the legacies, there were also liabilities including commitments to a UK pension fund, which serviced former employees of the International Wool Secretariat and the Woolmark Company.
Many of the problems and settlements have been addressed, although a wind-up might still be a year or two away.
GIC is reporting a total equity position of $17,928,000 for June 30, 2012.
In other GIC news it was revealed at Australian Wool Innovation's annual meeting that the Indian Reserve Bank is refusing to allow the former Woolmark subsidiary in India to pay a dividend or repatriate nearly $5m to GIC being the proceeds from Woolmark's Mumbai offices which were acquired by GIC in 2007 .
One option is for GIC to negotiate a payment from AWI in lieu of the Mumbai proceeds which would be retained in India to fund AWI activities.
Although this is option was not favoured by AWI because as chief executive Stuart McCullough told the AGM last week $5 million would run to about 18 years of AWI expenditure in India.
