Stock-Holder Meeting

I spent the morning at stock-holder meeting.....over at the Frankfurt Jahrhunderhalle (a four-star arena).  The company?  FRAPORT, the Frankfurt Airport company.

FRAPORT is one of those companies which has generally made a yearly profit every single year for at least a decade.  They've continually expanded and bought more airports.....have almost 20,000 employees.....and have an equity of $2.7 billion.  They own percentages of ten additional airports around the world and generally show a profit at all of these.  They pay a decent dividend....roughly three-percent a year, and rarely decease on stock prices.

The meeting?  Well.....it went Ok.  I admit.....the food (as you entered, and later at lunch).....was two-star at best.  Lunch was two weiners, some potato salad that was almost soupy, and a brotchen.  As you walked in.....they had small sandwich and apples to eat.

What you tend to notice while standing there in the lobby....well over ninety-percent of the crowd (three thousand was my guess on attendees) was over the age of 55.  Maybe they buy up the stock for the free lunch.

As for complaints?  Well....about two hours into the episode, they opened up the floor and allowed comments from stock-holders.  One of the political players in Frankfurt (a Green Party guy) was fairly negative over Terminal Three (the next big construction project).

There was a significant fight put around the region to prevent Terminal Three.  It's to say who is right.  The airport folks have numbers to say business is booming and they have only a small window to build and prepare for the decade ahead.  The anti-airport crowd said the numbers were not reliable and the construction wasn't necessary.  Oddly.....the property was already part of the airport's control and just sitting there.  It wasn't like the airport was asking them to give free property to make this happen.

I looked at the argument and ask why anyone would want to limit the airport at any junction.....every penny of profit relates to some tax revenue that feeds into the city and regional spending plan.  Why limit them?  Corruption somewhere in the mix?  Maybe, but political parties are getting money from various players, so it's hard to say the opposition is purely ethical in nature.