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CRH puts its hands up over shortcomings on investor dividends

After months of frustration for small shareholders, company accepts at annual general meeting that there were problems in transfer to US

For CRH, moving its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange has been a wonderful success, but not so for some of its long-time shareholders. Photograph: NYSE

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Tue Apr 30 2024 - 05:30

* I am sure I am not the only one fulminating at the ineptitude of Computershare.

Having spent hours navigating the online registration process to ensure that dividends would be paid in euro direct to my bank account (for an extra fee), the most recent dividend was received more than two weeks after the due date and in a US dollar cheque.

I didn’t see much point in calling Providence, Rhode Island, to complain. Have you been able to get any sense from them?

It is good to see the share price rising but it would be better if they could sort out the dividend mess. — Mr J.P.

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Sorry to say, a bit like you, I had more or less thrown in the towel on expecting CRH to accept there were problems here.

And then chairman Richie Boucher upped and publicly apologised over issues with the management of the group’s share register in the United States after it moved its main listing to New York last year.

At the group’s annual meeting in Dublin last week, he said the company was aware of “issues and frustration” felt by certain shareholders.

“We are very disappointed to hear your frustration. We are very sorry this has happened,” said Mr Boucher. He added that CRH has had “an extremely active engagement” with its US share registrar, Computershare, and that it continues to challenge the firm to resolve issues for affected investors, according to our report of the meeting.

Speaking after that same meeting, CRH chief executive Albert Manifold accepted that “regrettably there were a small number of shareholders who had difficulties and problems and, as the chairman said, we’re sorry about that”.

The company accepts the “issues” meant a “small number” of investors being affected by US tax deductions on dividends and receipt of payments in dollars. The continuing insistence of the company in downplaying the problem comes across as insensitive but, at its heart, it is probably simply a matter of perspective.

CRH chose to move to New York for its own reasons — perfectly valid ones. It hopes access to the biggest and most flexible markets will boost liquidity and valuation for its shares. And it certainly will do the group no harm in bidding for US projects either.

It was a big undertaking at a corporate and practical level. And undoubtedly a complex and cumbersome one for the group’s investor relations team to transfer the interests of thousands of shareholders to a new regulatory regime within a short time.

I’m not sure to what degree they expected some problems would arise. They should have done.

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I can understand how, in the context of many thousands of shareholders, the numbers who have complained are “small” in absolute terms. However, even just counting those who got in touch with this column, it is certainly more than the handful you might be led to believe by CRH’s characterisation.

And from their perspective, not only were the issues not “small” but many of those who got in touch with me felt they were simply being fobbed off — by the company and by Computershare.

As one correspondent noted, they tried the Dublin number given to me by Computershare but were told by message that it was not available. A second was told by the person who answered their call on that same number that it was nothing to do with them and was all being handled in America. Not helpful.

The first person then contacted Computershare investor chatline only to be told the operator had no access to information on CRH shares, so the chat option was of no use for CRH investors. His biggest beef ― and that of most people who contacted me ― was CRH’s refusal to engage with shareholders, insisting instead that they deal personally with Computershare.

As one said at the time: “CRH has employed Computershare to handle their shares. If their agents are not doing a good job they should be held accountable. CRH has failed to deal with this issue capably.”

I have no doubt that some people did make errors in their forms but I equally have no doubt that the bulk of people who have been in touch with me on the dividend issue have simply been victims of the inability of Computershare to manage the transfer of all the Irish retail shareholders efficiently and comprehensively. The same goes for others who had separate problems trying to register with Computershare in the US to manage their investments issue despite following the instructions provided to the letter.

CRH absolutely has the corporate muscle to ensure Computershare focuses on the task it was hired to do. Mr Manifold says they are working through things “as best we can to resolve the issues”.

We’ll see. Apologies are easy. What will be more telling is if I receive no complaints about CRH dividend cheques next time around.

* This story was edited on Thursday, May 2nd

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