Angry shareholders demand answers of Papyrus Australia

The company uses technology developed by its CEO, Ramy Azer, at the University of Adelaide to recycle banana trees, using the fibre to make panel boards, food containers, and even liquid fertiliser and mulch.

There are a lot of banana trees growing in developing countries around the world, and the potential for PPY to license its technology would seem to be substantial.

It has successfully demonstrated its process by building a factory in Egypt and recently signed a major agreement with the Egyptian government, under which it will supply equipment, know-how and training to enable government factories to recycle banana waste on a large scale.

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Last week the company held an extraordinary general meeting that was indeed extraordinary.

Dissident shareholders, led by investment group L39 Capital, forced the company to call the meeting with the aim of sacking the chairman, Adelaide barrister Ted Byrt, and company secretary, Vince Rigano.

Although L39 has its own director on the PPY board, it accused the company of a lack of transparency and proper governance.

After giving the L39 representative a chance to speak to the motion, the chair of the meeting went straight to a poll without inviting further discussion.

The company made no attempt to refute L39's accusations and tried to close the meeting immediately after the poll.

That provoked a storm of angry questions from shareholders, calling for financial details of the Egyptian government deal, but they were given no new information.

The company already had enough proxies to defeat the dissidents and did so, in the final count, by 56.5 per cent to 46.5pc.

With a sigh, the Punter has scrubbed PPY off his watchlist of possible buys.