Angry Shareholders Grill Adm Brass Federal Probe, Anemic Stock Set Stage For Lively Exchange

Facing rebellious shareholders, embattled Archer Daniels Midland Co. executives tried to deflect blame Thursday for a federal price-fixing investigation and moved to boost sagging stock prices.

Despite announcements of a boost in the dividend and a buyback program, some shareholders left a fiery annual meeting angry that ADM provided few new details into the government’s antitrust probe of the nation’s largest grain processor.

Chairman Dwayne O. Andreas and the 17-member board of directors were re-elected as expected, despite some shareholders’ threats to vote against them. But, perhaps reflecting shareholder dissatisfaction, the board received about 80 percent of shares voted, lower than the usual 95 percent victory.

Dissident investors say ADM’s board, which includes 10 current or former company executives, is too cozy with management to review the matter.

At one point in the meeting, Ed Durkin, chairman of special projects for the Carpenters union, which holds 770,000 shares, sought to speak over Andreas and was ignored. “This is telling us a lot about how this board runs this company,” Durkin said.

Andreas shot back, “This meeting sir, runs according to my rules.”

Andreas’ reply met with applause, as did his announcement that the company had more than doubled its quarterly dividend, to 5 cents from 2.38 cents, and would buy back 25 million shares of its outstanding common stock.

Other shareholders who appeared angry were not given speaking time during the 25-minute question-and-answer session.

Andreas and other officials skirted the issue Thursday of the federal inquiry into allegations that ADM and several of its competitors agreed to fix prices on corn syrup, citric acid and lysine, a protein fed to livestock.

Adding to the company’s woes, ADM fired Mark Whitacre, the former head of its BioProducts Division, this summer after learning he was an FBI mole who secretly taped conversations of company officials during the price-fixing inquiry. The company said Whitacre stole millions of dollars, but Whitacre maintains secret payments are routinely given to ADM executives.

Andreas has said auditors found no evidence of improper payments to executives.