PNM

Life is grim around the Public Service Company of New Mexico a long-time staffer on the technical side commented yesterday, though some things do seem to be looking up including the stock price which is back to around $15 as this is written from $9 a couple of months ago. However, PNM's annual report, which is from PNM Resources Inc., parent of the new utility and of Texas-New Mexico Power Company of Irving, Texas, makes some design choices that don't reflect grim reality. The choices could reflect habit or the designers getting carried away and management not asking questions. Annual reports from public companies of size such as PNM have three parts: the marketing part with pictures and soothing words, form 10-K, and the notice of the annual meeting. The latter two are boring with lots of numbers. Some very large companies have dumped the marketing part, even in good years. Other have gone further, sending shareholders an annual meeting ballot/proxy card card and putting everything else online. 

For the 2007 annual report, PNM seems to have compromised. The report is 6" x 9" while the 10-K and meeting notice are 8.25" x 10.75". However, the only color pictures inside the report are of the management team and the board of directors. This may just reflect habit. Even so, black and white photos would have been better. The odd and expensive choices are with the 10-K. One solves a problem that didn't exist. The cover of the 10-K has a slit into which the annual report is inserted. Making the slit would be expensive and the insertion most likely was done by hand. Someone apparently thought the shareholders somehow couldn't hold the two in one hand and needed help keeping them together. When inserted, the annual report actually goes into a pocket in the front cover of the 10-K, which is a heavy stock printed in politically correct green and folded to be double thick front and back. The major corporate 10-Ks I see these days are self cover as is PNMs annual meeting notice. 

The expensive cuteness with the 10-K seems out of place.