The Hunter and Company Extra-ordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Tuesday ended on a sour note with the shareholders showing acute dissent with the directors. This meeting followed the June 23rd EGM where the board decided to convene a second EGM to clarify accounting issues and agreed to request the auditors (Ernst and Young --who had resigned earlier) to be present.

But for the second time the auditors, were absent at the EGM. When the shareholders asked as to why they had not showed up, Hunter's Chairman M. Dossa said the auditors had declined to come. Instead the new auditors were present. When a shareholder asked whether they were familiar with the subject the audit representative admitted that he was not.

Mr. Dossa, a Pakistani national who some shareholders allege conducted the meeting in a “dictatorial manner”, wanted the shareholders to continue with the meeting irrespective of the auditors being absent.
"I called for the EGM for the directors to explain to us why the company's auditors resigned without reference to the shareholders in the first place. But Mr. Dossa insisted the meeting should be continued," Talib Al-Nakib, a shareholder with 18.5 percent at Hunter's, told The Sunday Times FT on the sidelines of the meeting.

Mr. Dossa demanded the shareholders raise hands (as a gesture of approval) on his version of the auditors being unavailable in a bid to acknowledge approval, but the shareholders refused. The drama-filled meeting saw Mr. Dossa, along with his wife, L.R.P. Dossa (former Finance Minister, Ronnie de Mel's daughter), behave in a most unbecoming manner. The husband and wife duo repeatedly shouted at Mr. Nakib demanding him to sit down and 'shut up'. Mr. Dossa went so far as to demand that Mr. Nakib 'get out' of the EGM. "Get out, we don't need you," he said.

Mr. Nakib said the Hunter's Chairman’s behaviour was uncouth and abusive. Most shareholders present at the EGM also agreed that the language of the husband and wife duo was abusive with the intention of provocating Mr. Nakib. The entire EGM was being video graphed.

At one point, Mr. Dossa resorted to a vulgar gesture with his hand at Mr. Nakib at which the shareholders were utterly shocked. At this juncture, K.C. Vignarajah, a shareholder, promptly rose asking the cameras to be turned on Mr. Dossa – to record his indisciplined behaviour.

When Mr. Nakib was insisting that the EGM cannot proceed unless the shareholders hear both sides of the story (the board's and the auditors') and that the meeting was incomplete since the auditors being absent, Mr. Dossa started attacking Mr. Nakib's personal life. Out of the blue he asked, "What happened between you and your wife?" He also asked why Mr. Nakib was separated from his wife.

Mr. Nakib wanted to know what that has got to do with anything at the EGM. At one point, Mr. Dossa sarcastically said he is worried about Mr. Nakib's blood pressure. Mr. Nakib who was rather disappointed told some shareholders, "I never thought corporate governance is so low in this country. It is the rule of the jungle which prevails in corporate Sri Lanka."

The EGM was over when the shareholders and the directors agreed to let Mr. Vignarajah try to induce Ernst and Young to discuss why they resigned and on other matters in Hunter's accounts which the shareholders wanted to be clarified.