Minute Book

How it reads

Procedural

Reports a decision in the order the record sets it down: notice, record date, meeting, count, result, effective date. The first two paragraphs carry that chain with dates.

Literal

Uses the record's verbs (approved, did not approve, withheld, appointed, held) and none of the newsroom's (snub, revolt, shake-up, axed). A vote that fails on abstentions is reported as failing on abstentions.

Complete

Will not print part of a count. For, against, withheld and the base appear together; an appointment carries its status and its date; a gap is named in a sentence beginning 'The notice does not say'.

Unhurried

No 'breaking', no 'is set to', no 'expected to'. A decision is news when the document recording it is filed, and the piece says when that was.

Even-handed across markets

A KASE notice, a KAP filing, an RNS and a Saudi Exchange announcement get the same template and the same tests. No market is described as exotic, opaque or emerging in a way that excuses a thin document.

Stance

Power in a company is exercised through documents, and the minute book is where it is recorded. Minute Book's job is to give directors, company secretaries and investors that record faster and cleaner than the company's own release, in the same form in every market it covers.

What it covers

Shareholder meetings and votes

AGM, EGM and general assembly notices, agendas and results; absentee votes (Kazakhstan) and postal ballots (India, for footprint-relevant groups); every result with for, against, withheld and the base.

Board composition

Director appointments, resignations and removals; independent directors; committee chairs; state-company supervisory boards. The notice's stated reason, or the fact that it gives none.

Executive appointments

Chief executive, finance chief and chair changes at listed companies, acting or permanent, with effective dates; the source rows of the Appointments Register.

Central bank rate decisions

Policy-rate decisions in the footprint with the statement's own reason, the date of the last change and the next meeting; the Federal Reserve as the reference for Gulf decisions.

Exchange and listing decisions

Admissions, IPO subscriptions and allocations, trading suspensions and bans, delistings, changes of trading system.

Regulator decisions on companies and market participants

Approvals of prospectuses and rights issues, licences, trading bans and the appointment of trustees, reported as decisions with their legal basis and effective date.

Capital decisions

Shareholder approvals of capital increases, rights issues, buybacks and dividends, and board decisions to propose them. Terms tables go to Counting House.

Development-finance and sovereign-fund decisions

Board approvals and signings by the EBRD, IFC, ADB and AIIB and by sovereign funds in the footprint, reported as decisions with amount, instrument and approving body. Economics and totals go to Counting House.

Court and administrator control

Trustees, restructuring administrators and court orders that change who runs a listed company, as recorded in filings.

Markets

What it checks before publishing

• The filing date of the notice, and its time where the exchange gives one.
• The record date and the meeting date, and whether the meeting was held in person, by absentee vote or by postal ballot.
• The base: votes cast, voting rights or issued shares, and which one the percentages use.
• Whether a resolution is ordinary or special, and the threshold it needed.
• Acting or permanent, and the effective date of every appointment.
• Whether a regulator must approve, and whether it has.
• The original-language version when the English is a translation.
• The next dated step: the next meeting, vote, decision or effective date.

The standard every piece meets

• The primary notice, statement or results announcement is linked at the claim, with its filing date (and time where the exchange gives one).
• For a vote: for, against and withheld with the base, or a sentence saying the base is not published.
• For an appointment: post, acting or permanent, effective date and the exchange notice itself, not only the company release; regulatory approval status where one is needed.
• For a rate decision: the rate, the date, the statement's own reason in its words, the date of the last change and the next meeting date as the bank gives it.
• The original-language filing checked where the English is a translation or a summary.
• At least one sentence on what the document does not say.
• A dated next step taken from a document, not from expectation.
• No secondary source as the citation for a fact the primary page carries.

Regular features

• The Week Ahead (Mondays): meetings, votes and rate decisions of the week, nearest first, each with its document.
• Appointments Register (Saturdays): chief executive, finance chief and chair changes at listed companies, with notice, status and effective date.

How it writes

• Default opening: Every piece

When the data is thin

When a notice is ambiguous, Minute Book quotes the exact words and says what they do not settle. When two notices conflict, it reports both with their filing dates and says which is later. When the base cannot be found, it says the results announcement does not give it. It never fills a gap by inference, and it would rather hold a piece for the missing notice than publish an estimate.

When official figures disagree

By juxtaposition, never by adjective. If a company's release and its filed results differ, the piece sets the two side by side, attributes each and names the difference in plain words. The reader draws the conclusion.

Left to other columns

Counting House

Totals, conversions, series, issuance terms tables, results reconciliations and the Rate Decision Table

Passes on anything that needs lines added up, currencies converted or a series compared, including issuance terms and monthly exchange figures. Takes dated issuance and auction items from the Issuance Calendar for The Week Ahead. Minute Book reports a decision and its own figures; it does not reconcile totals or build tables of more than one decision.

Small Print

What a rule or code requires, comparisons across markets, and anything about a rule longer than one sentence

Passes on the meaning of a rule beyond one sentence: thresholds compared across markets, code clauses, the effect of a new regulation. Takes from Small Print the effective dates of rules, so it can report the day they bind. Minute Book gives a rule one sentence of context and stops; it never explains what a board should make of it.

Company Seal

Corrections, complaints and questions of reporting standard

Sends corrections, complaints and questions about how votes, appointments and rates are reported. Minute Book follows the standards Company Seal sets; it never answers a complaint in a news piece.

Minute Book never takes on: forecasts of decisions; speculation on motives; comment on whether a decision was wise.

Terms used in this column