The actual meeting was tamer by far, but still there was an undercurrent of an unfamiliar element that needed to be dealt with, not out of ignorance or stubbornness, but out of pride and loyalty.
(Click here for CSP Daily News exclusive trade media onsite coverage of Casey's annual shareholder meeting, as well as ongoing Casey's and Couche-Tard coverage.)
"I've known Casey's people for 35 years," said former Casey's franchisee and current shareholder Bob Garnett during the meeting. "I've watched Casey's management and seen them do great things. I don't believe that an outside, hostile takeover group can do as well as the management Casey's has today."
Alimentation Couche-Tard vice president and CFO Raymond Pare tried to assuage that "outsider" impression when he outlined Couche-Tard's history and presence in the United States, even summing up by stating, "We are, in fact, almost a U.S. company." But the words lost some of their impact through his heavy French-Canadian accent, even as he stated that the company's chief operating officer, Brian Hannasch, is in fact a Midwestern boy.
One wonders why, then, Hannasch wasn't sent to deliver Couche-Tard's statement to Casey's shareholders, to put a familiar face (and vocal inflection) on an otherwise foreign company. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered, as most shareholders had already voted via mailed proxy.
To Garnett, the whole issue came down to one simple criterion: a history of results.
"We've watched shareholder value increase over all these years.... I don't see any reason we won't continue to see [that]," he said to healthy applause from the other 170 or so shareholders in attendance.
Garnett, like many of the shareholders I spoke with after the meeting, sees Casey's as a shining example of the right way to do business in the United States and is proud that the company calls Iowa home.
"Iowa is really proud of Casey's," agreed Bill Brown, another former Casey's franchisee and current stock holder. He says it's a sense of loyalty that kept him from tendering his shares to a company of "outsiders," despite the allure of an immediate financial windfall.
But is there an amount of money that would sway the Perry, Iowa, resident?
"I'll leave that in the hands of our board of directors. It's just business," he said, before his wife Judy Brown added, "We'd like to see it stay as an Iowa company."
Earl Marks, a shareholder from Wilton, Iowa, also cringes at the thought of Casey's being sold. Still, a price tag "up around $50" per share would get him thinking.
Shareholder Jan Crall of Albia, Iowa, put a much higher price on her loyalty: $1,000 per share! "I like Casey's," she said. "I like that it's grown up in Iowa. I like that they use Iowa products. I like that they give back to our communities."
These were mostly "small-time shareholders," as some of them called themselves, not big-time investors or representatives of mutual-fund bankers.
But that doesn't mean they aren't concerned about the bottom line. During the question-and-answer session of the meeting, Danny Brum of Britt, Iowa, asked if the Couche-Tard and subsequent 7-Eleven bids are keeping Casey's stock price artificially high. And if those offers dissipate, will the price drop back to the $30 range? (The stock was selling for $42.80/share Friday.)
"I have no idea where that stock might settle in," president and CEO Robert Myers said honestly.
Still other shareholders just wanted to know that their best interests were being considered.
"If you sell," asked a shareholder, "do you plan on getting top dollar?"
"That is a responsibility that weighs heavily on our board members," said Myers. "It is not our intent to sell, but we would not be exercising our fiduciary responsibility if we did not consider each and every offer that comes in."
So no bloodshed, per se, but I could sense the blood, sweat and tears that went into raising the funds each of these shareholders earned, thus making it possible for them to own a piece of a company they respect and expect to be around for a longtime to come.
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