SHAREHOLDERS MUST TRUST their board of directors to make important decisions for them.

That is the message from Cave Shepherd & Co. Ltd chief executive officer John Williams to small shareholders and investors who believe that board decisions were not being made in their best interest and want more say in the decision-making process.

"The whole nature and rationale of a board of directors is that it is a small manageable group elected by the shareholders . . . . Other than very, very major events such as making a huge on change in the direction of the company or issuing a large chunk of new shares, it would be impractical to consult with shareholders on an ongoing basis," he said.

He told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY after the launch of the company's new website, which has a major section dedicated to shareholder and investor information: "There is no company that I know of where decisions are not made by the senior management and the board . . . I have not been involved in a company where those decisions are taken at odds with the shareholders."

Although the voice of shareholders may not be weighed by a single voting block of shares, their eventual acceptance of an offer, in the case of a takeover bid, comes from hundreds of shareholders who determine it to be the best, Williams reasoned.

He said the onus was on directors to maintain a high level of trust with shareholders and potential investors by providing adequate information.

"Whether investing in a very large international company or a public company in Barbados, [shareholders must be able to] judge how management performs, the information they provide, level of capital appreciation of share price, as well as dividend," he suggested.

Cave Shepherd's CEO believes that shareholder meetings are the appropriate fora for testing shareholder confidence.