Hamish Champ: Punch Taverns AGM showdown? Damp squib, more like

There was much anticipation surrounding Punch Taverns' annual general meeting (AGM), held in Central London today. Well, at least among hacks like me there was.

Instead the AGM turned out to be about as feisty as a cheese and wine event at the local WI.

The get-together twixt the pubco's board and its shareholders was being billed as a showdown, with investors said to be lining up to ask some seriously tough questions of chief executive Ian Dyson and his team.

But in the end anyone, like me, hoping for fireworks was to be disappointed.

The handful of shareholders that did show up found themselves outnumbered by Punch's team of executives, advisers and public relations types.

I thought I detected a look of slight anxiety on the faces of the top table, but they needn't have worried. Morning TV host Lorraine Kelly could have given Punch executives a harder time.

To chuckles from the floor and the board one elderly gentleman investor said he wasn't sure why he'd come to the meeting, since the state of the company seemed no different to that of the previous year.

He enquired of Dyson, who joined Punch from Marks & Spencer in September, whether he would be bringing from the retailer its practice of serving shareholders lunch after the meeting "so my wife doesn't have to cook for me in the afternoon".

Dyson politely replied that he would look into whether hosting a lunch for investors was practicable.

The same chap then went further, gently probing the board on the group's debt mountain and asking when investors might see a dividend.

Punch chairman Peter Cawdron said the group was not in a position to provide an update on the groups' financial and operational strategy, beyond saying it would likely be in the first three months of next year.

There were then some questions about what cask ales Punch might put into its pubs and whether it could confirm it no longer place restrictive covenants on sold pubs.

Punch Partnerships' managing director Roger Whiteside confirmed the latter was now company policy, and said the group was doing a lot to help its licensees stock beers from small producers.

And that, more or less, was it. I looked at the small group of people facing the board and waited. Some killer questions would emanate from the floor. Surely.

I was particularly waiting for a rather stern-looking bloke in a suit sitting in the second row to launch into the management team, demanding to know what was being done about the 'A' and 'B' bonds. But nothing came forth. It turned out he was a Punch sort.

I wondered where were the Fair Pint types and their enquiring minds? I wondered where the hordes of angry investors were, all demanding an explanation regarding the slump in the group's share price? But as Monty Python would say: "Nothing. Not a sausage. Bugger all."

Meanwhile Punch's shares rose nine per cent after announcing 'in line' figures for its first quarter.

As Great Escapes go, today was a doozy.