*Mango Lover*

Friday, November 14, 2008

Meeting on Depository Receipts

It's definitely an eye-opener for me today. My first major meeting with external party - other bank which took up my entire morning. It was attended by all the big shots (mostly directors) from different departments. But it started off embarrassingly for me. We were doing the usual handshakes and intro. Custodian passed me her name card and I told her to hold on cos mine was in the pocket. Then, I proceeded to dig my pocket. How unglam! I think I seriously need a card holder.

Anyway, the meeting was really enriching. I have come across ADRs and GDRs back in sch. But lecturers merely went though 1 powerpoint slide (mind you, just 1 slide!) and that was it. End of ADR and GDR. Hence, I never thought that depository receipts are complex. To me, it's basically just a certificate which represents some underlying securities - mostly equities.

Boy, how wrong can I get! There are so many other issues to consider. Like tax, proxy voting, dividends and all other corporate actions. This goes to show that what we studied in sch is significantly insufficient. There's still so much to learn out there...

Also, I have always thought that it was rude to interrupt when someone is presenting. But the directors were all shooting questions while the poor ang moh guy was in between his slides. Luckily, he was able to handle all the questions pretty well. Wah you have to be really well-prepped and knowlegable to be giving a corporate presentation lor. That ang moh is a managing director himself. Oh well...

The questions that were thrown out are good questions too. Show that they are well-thought, concise and cover alot of areas. The ultimate questions that my director ask were "What happens if the bank goes under? Are we protected?". As we are managing the SWFs, this is most critical and of utmost importance amid the current financial turmoil.

Overall, I'm impressed. When can I ever reach that level of presenting a talk so fluently and confidently? When can I be so efficient to think of all aspects within few minutes? When can my brain ever work so fast and effective???

++ MarryMango at 8:26 PM.