AGL Energy has just over five weeks to persuade shareholders to back the energy giant’s controversial demerger over the plan of its largest shareholder, tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, to keep the group whole and expedite its exit from coal power.

Chairman Peter Botten on Friday appealed to shareholders not to be distracted by the fiction” and “arm waving” of Mr Cannon-Brookes and other advocates of a faster exit from coal as they decide how to vote on the demerger next month.