Good morning, everyone. My name is Patricia McKenzie, and I am your Chair. Welcome to AGL's 2024 Annual General Meeting. It is a pleasure for the AGL board to be present in Melbourne for today's meeting. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. Shareholders attending via our online platform may be doing so from other ancestral lands, and I also pay my respects to the traditional custodians of those lands and their elders, past and present. May I ask you to make sure that your mobile phones are switched to silent while the meeting is in progress? Filming of the meeting is not permitted, but please note that this meeting is being filmed on behalf of AGL for webcasting purposes.
I also ask that you note where your nearest exit is in the unlikely event it becomes necessary to evacuate the building. In the event of an emergency, please follow the instructions of the venue staff. The notice convening this meeting has been made available to all registered shareholders, and I will take it as read. I now confirm that the necessary quorum is present here today and formally declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being conducted as a hybrid meeting, and our shareholders have been given the opportunity to attend the meeting in person or via the online platform. Shareholders have also been given the opportunity to lodge a proxy or direct vote and ask questions in advance of the meeting. Shareholders and proxies attending using the online platform can submit written questions at any time.
To ask a question, select the Q&A icon and type your question in the text box. Once you have finished typing, please hit the send button. Although you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or, if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. We will give shareholders a reasonable opportunity to ask questions, but it is possible that not all questions will be answered today. To ask a verbal question through the online platform, please follow the instructions set out on the platform. If you are attending online and are eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the Vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options.
There's no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. For those attending in the meeting here in person, once we come to question time, you can ask the question by raising your hand and a microphone attendant will come to you. Please show your attendance card and provide your name. To be eligible to speak in person today, you must hold a yellow or blue attendance card. Voting in person today will be conducted on a poll using mobile devices. If you're eligible to vote, please scan the QR code on your attendance card with your mobile device at any time once I open the voting. This will take you to an online voting page.
To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. If you do not have a mobile device, you may complete the voting items on the reverse side of the attendance card, and Computershare staff will collect the cards at the conclusion of the meeting. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. I now declare voting open on all resolutions. I will now explain the running order for today's meeting. In a moment, I will make a few remarks about AGL's performance and strategy over the last twelve months.
Then Damien Nicks, AGL's Managing Director and CEO, will speak to our FY 2024 financial results and operational performance and will give further details on our progress in delivering our strategy. We will then attend to the formal business of the meeting. I would now like to introduce my fellow directors. They Graham Cockroft, Christine Holman, Vanessa Sullivan, Miles George, Kerry Schott, John Pollaers, Mark Bloom, and Mark Twidell, and of course, our Managing Director and CEO, Damien Nicks. Also attending this meeting today is our Company Secretary, Melinda Hunter, and our Chief Financial Officer, Gary Brown, as well as other members of the executive team. AGL's external auditors, Deloitte, are also attending this meeting.
The Senior Audit Partner, Harriet Fortescue, is available to answer any relevant questions in relation to the audit that you may wish to ask later in the meeting, and I thank her for attending today. I'm pleased to report that AGL has delivered a year of significant achievements, and the board and management team are excited about AGL's future. In addition to very strong financial and operational results, AGL demonstrated excellent progress against its two strategic priorities: to connect our customers to a sustainable future, where we have commenced a major Retail Transformation Program and electrification and decarbonization programs, and the transition of our energy portfolio, with the addition of substantial optionality to our development pipeline, which is needed to deliver our transition ambitions. Turning first to the transition of our energy portfolio. In 2022, shareholders endorsed our inaugural Climate Transition Action Plan, our CTAP.
In addition to setting out accelerated closure dates for our thermal assets, the CTAP outlined our ambition to supply 12 gigawatts of new renewable and firming capacity before 2035, with an interim target of 5 gigawatts by 2030. Since the release of our CTAP, our development pipeline has almost doubled to 6.2 gigawatts. AGL's development pipeline includes a diverse range of assets, including renewables, such as solar and wind, and firming assets, including batteries and pumped hydro, and we are pursuing a number of other options, including investing in innovation and technology. Some of the projects in our development pipeline include the 400 megawatt, 8-hour storage Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro Project in New South Wales, which we are developing with our joint venture partner, Idemitsu. We're targeting a final investment decision for this project in FY 2026.
The Pottinger Energy Park, being developed with our joint venture partner, Someva, which is expected to consist of a wind farm, solar farm, and a four-hour duration grid-scale battery. On the day of release of our FY 2024 results, we also announced that AGL had entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Firm Power and Terrain Solar, which has now completed. Firm Power is a battery energy storage system developer, and Terrain Solar is a solar project developer. The combined development pipeline of Firm Power and Terrain Solar is 8.1 gigawatts. AGL also has access to Tilt Renewables platform and a growing portfolio of distributed energy resource assets and external offtake options. In addition, we are pursuing a number of early-stage opportunities.
For example, in April 2024, Gippsland Skies Offshore Wind, a consortium in which AGL has a 20% interest, was awarded a feasibility license for a 2.5 gigawatts offshore wind project off the Gippsland region of Victoria. We anticipate that this will be one of the first offshore wind projects to reach commercial operation in Australia. We won't build all of the opportunities in our pipeline, but by increasing the size of our pipeline, we increase our optionality, which helps position AGL to take advantage of market conditions and prioritize developments that can generate the best long-term value, including to accelerate options to meet the needs of our customers, and the market. Excuse me.
Our development pipeline is in addition to the 7.4 gigawatts of flexible dispatchable capacity already in operation or under construction in AGL's fleet across a diverse set of assets, which provides significant portfolio flexibility. These assets include grid-scale batteries, such as Torrens Island Battery, Broken Hill Battery, which recently became operational. Virtual power plants, which are a network of distributed energy resources, including solar-powered homes and businesses that generate and store solar energy in batteries. AGL's fleet of hydro power stations, which provide fast start and load flex capability. Gas-powered generation units, which have the flexibility to respond quickly to market requirements. And AGL's coal-fired power stations, which we continue to invest in to increase their reliability, efficiency, and flexible capacity.
As Australia's largest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously, and we are cognizant of the material impact AGL's emissions profile has on Australia's decarbonization journey. We exceeded our target to reduce our annual operated Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 17% this year against an FY 2019 baseline, achieving a 23.3% reduction. During FY 2025, a key focus of the board will be the continuation of delivery against AGL's strategy to transition its energy portfolio, including overseeing AGL's 2025 CTAP, which will be released as part of AGL's 2025 results next August. I anticipate that the board will build on our ambitions in our 2022 CTAP as we seek options to accelerate the decarbonization pathway where possible.
The energy transition is one of the most significant transitions Australia has ever attempted and requires a coordinated effort between industry, communities, and all levels of government. We are committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to address the current challenges and to achieve this transition. But from AGL's perspective, we are on track to meet our objectives. I'd now like to address our customer markets business and our excitement for this business going forward. During FY 2024, we continued to grow our customer base, which increased to 4.5 million services, while at the same time driving value and improved customer experience. Our strategy is to connect our customers to a sustainable future, which involves supporting our customers to decarbonize the way they live, move, and work, and advancing their electrification journey.
AGL is actively considering new technologies and developing new products and business models with a view to meeting future customer demand and evolving customer expectations. These include opportunities to electrify our customers, including services such as electric vehicles and charging, hot water, heating and cooling, distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and residential battery storage systems, and asset monitoring and management. During FY 2024, we made significant investments to transform our customer operations to enhance customer and agent experience, reduce future operating costs, and improve speed to market as part of our Retail Transformation Program. A key part of this program is our strategic partnership with Kaluza, including a proposed 20% equity investment. Kaluza is a scalable, flexible, and proven technology platform that digitizes and simplifies energy billing, reduces cost to serve, and enables faster product innovation to facilitate the energy transition and customer electrification.
We're excited about this program for AGL and our customers as it delivers advanced retail automation, reduces costs, and enhances customer engagement by unlocking insights. We plan to deploy Kaluza into AGL's customer base and transfer our 4 million customer electricity and gas customer services onto this platform over the next three years. We are equally focused on our commercial and industrial customers and scaling this business. During FY 2024, we partnered with our C&I customers on innovative solutions to support their decarbonization goals. The completion of a microgrid at the Cadell Almond Farm in New South Wales, consisting of a solar farm and battery system, and our partnership with Australian Farming Services on three bespoke renewable energy projects for their farming enterprises in New South Wales, are examples of how we're working with our large customers.
We also remain acutely aware of the ongoing cost of living pressures affecting our customers, and our commitment to easing these pressures continues through our two-year customer support package, which we've increased by a further AUD 20 million to AUD 90 million. To date, we've delivered more than AUD 63 million to assist customers who need it most. Our customer support package is in addition and complementary to the government's National Energy Bill Relief Fund, which provides bill credits for our customers. Approximately AUD 460 million in government bill relief was provided to eligible AGL customers in FY 2024, with over AUD 1 billion projected to be delivered by the end of FY 2025. Turning now to our FY 2024 financial performance.
Damien will provide further details during his address, but in summary, we delivered strong financial results in line with our FY 2024 earnings guidance. Underlying net profit after tax, which excludes the movements in the fair value of financial instruments and significant items, was AUD 812 million, up 189% from FY 2023, and underlying EBITDA was AUD 2,216 million, up 63% on FY 2023. Our results reflect significantly improved fleet availability and portfolio flexibility, including a solid earnings contribution from the Torrens Island Battery in its first nine months of operation, as well as continued strong performance from our retail business. These results and the core fundamentals of our business provide a strong foundation for our ongoing investment in the energy transition, while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and providing appropriate shareholder returns.
The board declared a final FY 2024 dividend of AUD 0.35 per share, which was paid yesterday, resulting in a total dividend for FY 2024 of AUD 0.61 per share. From the FY 2025 interim dividend, AGL intends to begin paying partially franked dividends. Taking a longer term view, we continue to see growing demand for electricity, including from electrification products from customers, significant growth in electric vehicles, and demand for AI-led data center capacity. Overall, our portfolio and development pipeline are well positioned to capture this upside of any future energy demand growth. I would also like to discuss the board's focus on safety and broader ESG considerations. Our FY 2024 Total Injury Frequency Rate, or TRIFR, was 3.5 million per hour. Was 3.5 per million hours worked.
The elevated TRIFR is an area of concern for the board, and we are overseeing a number of initiatives to ensure the safety and well-being of our people continues to be prioritized, and this metric improves. This includes leadership training and site-specific awareness programs aimed at preventing injuries from occurring. The board is also focused on ensuring that broader ESG considerations are embedded into AGL's strategy and its decisions. During FY 2024, the board approved six focus areas to drive ESG performance, namely decarbonization and portfolio transition, affordability, safety, gender equality and representation, community acceptance, and social value and reconciliation. We are proud of the initiatives undertaken by AGL in FY 2024 to enhance our ESG performance, which has included improvements in gender equality and representation, and progress towards our Reconciliation Action Plan targets.
During FY 2024, we met our targets for the proportion of women in our senior leadership pipeline and the overall workforce, and we improved the median gender pay gap for total remuneration by 4 percentage points from FY 2023. We also procured over AUD 5.9 million of goods and services from First Nations-owned businesses. As part of our recent FY 2024 results announcement, I noted that I will be retiring from the AGL board after the release of AGL's FY 2025 half-year results in February. When I became Chair in September 2022, at a challenging period in AGL's history, my objective was to stabilize the company and set it on a path to take a leading role in the transition of the energy industry towards a more sustainable future.
Based on the results I've outlined today, I am confident that these objectives have been achieved, and it is the right time to hand over to a new Chair. Miles George has over thirty years' experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, with a focus on renewable energy, and importantly, he has the unanimous support of the board. I would like to thank shareholders for the honor of serving as a director and chair of AGL, and I will hand over the role knowing that AGL has a solid foundation for its continued success. It is now my pleasure to invite Damien Nicks, your Managing Director and CEO, to address you. Following Damien's address, we will move to the formal business of the meeting. Thank you.
Good morning. I'm Damien Nicks, AGL's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. I'd like to welcome those joining us online today and for those in Melbourne. It's great to be here together on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation for our annual general meeting. I'm very pleased to be addressing you today to provide an update on an extremely successful year for AGL, in which we delivered strong financial and operational performance and demonstrated significant progress against our strategy. This included an increase in our underlying net profit after tax of 189% from FY 2023, almost doubling our development pipeline since the release of our CTAP in 2022, and our partnership with Kaluza as part of our Retail Transformation Program to enable customer electrification, faster product innovation, improved customer experience, and reduced costs.
I'll talk further about the highlights of FY 2024 shortly, but firstly, I'd like to take some time to reflect on the year from a safety, people, financial, and operational perspective. Starting first with safety. As always, the safety and the well-being of our people, and the safe and the reliable operation of our assets is our utmost priority. This year, our Total Injury Frequency Rate, or TRIFR, increased to 3.5 per million hours worked, up from 2.8 per million hours in FY 2023. This is an area of concern for both management and the board, and we're focused on the continuous improvement in our safety performance, reducing TRIFR over the long term. We've put in place a range of initiatives to drive this improvement, including an enterprise stand for safety and additional training and controls for our key operational risks.
From a people perspective, we continue to see positive engagement and momentum across the business. Our employee engagement score increased by a further five percentage points to 72% during FY 2024. This outcome reflects increased employee confidence in AGL's strategy and our leadership team, plus our commitment to the development of our employees. Our customers are also top of mind for us, and we are cognizant of the ongoing cost of living pressures affecting our customers and communities more broadly. In addition to the recent increase of our two-year customer support program from AUD 70 million - AUD 90 million, we've implemented a range of initiatives throughout the year to support our customers who need it the most, including a proactive outreach program to contact customers eligible for support and engaging low-income households with offers of no-cost solar PV systems to reduce energy consumption at their property.
Furthermore, we are passionate about enhancing customer experience, and this is reflected in our customer performance from FY 2024. We finished the year with 4.5 million customer services, up 211,000 from FY 2023, and importantly, maintained strong customer advocacy with a positive Net Promoter Score of +4. From an operational perspective, I'm particularly proud of our FY 2024 total fleet Equivalent Availability Factor, or EAF, which was 85.8%, an increase of 9 percentage points, which reflects the prudent investment in our thermal generation fleet and continues to deliver benefits to AGL and the energy transition. We also continue to invest in the flexibility of our thermal assets to minimize risk and to capture value.
Following recent upgrades, we now have over 3.2 gigawatts of coal-fired flexibility across Bayswater and Loy Yang A, with both power stations now being able to flex down approximately 75% - 60% respectively on their nameplate capacity. This allows us to flex the units in periods of high renewable supply, and is a testament to the talent and the commitment of our team. The availability of our fleet and the flexibility of our portfolio was a key contributor to our strong financial performance in FY 2024, which I'll now address. Underlying net profit after tax in FY 2024 was AUD 812 million, up 189% from FY 2023. This improved result was driven by higher wholesale electricity pricing, along with more stable market conditions.
Together with improved thermal fleet availability and flexibility, we also delivered higher consumer electricity gross margin, and benefited from a solid earnings contribution from the new Torrens Island Battery in its first nine months of operation. Our statutory profit after tax was AUD 711 million. This included a pre-tax negative movement in the fair value of financial instruments of AUD 53 million, and significant items of AUD 103 million. A final ordinary dividend of AUD 0.35 per share was paid yesterday, bringing the total dividend for the 2024 financial year to AUD 0.61 per share, compared with AUD 0.31 in the prior year, an increase of 97%. These strong results not only provide solid returns to our shareholders, but also underpin our ongoing investment in the energy transition.
We provided guidance for FY 2025 underlying earnings as part of the FY 2024 results announcement, and I'm pleased to confirm today this has remained unchanged and is as follows: Underlying EBITDA of between AUD 1.87 billion and AUD 2.17 billion, and underlying net profit after tax of between AUD 530 million and AUD 730 million. In addition to strong financial and operational performance during FY 2024, I'm proud of the significant progress we've made in delivering our strategy.
As shareholders know, our strategy is to connect our customers to a sustainable future, helping them to decarbonize the way they live, move, and work, as well as to transition our energy portfolio, which includes our ambition to add 12 gigawatts of new generation and firming capacity by the end of 2035, and to seek options to accelerate our decarbonization pathway where possible. Our strategy is supported by our foundational pillars to embrace ESG, ensure a future-fit people and culture, and to place technology at the core. Of course, our overall strategy is to deliver long-term value for shareholders through the energy transition. Our team has been focused on delivering this strategy over the last 12 months, and I'll now highlight some of the key milestones during FY 2024. I'll start with the steps we've taken to transition our portfolio.
During FY 2024, we continued to build optionality into our development pipeline, which has now almost doubled to 6.2 gigawatts, so that AGL is well-positioned to take advantage of future market conditions and prioritize projects accordingly. Key examples of projects in our development pipeline include a joint venture with Someva Renewables to develop the Pottinger Energy Park, which is expected to include a 1.2-gigawatt wind farm, 300-megawatt solar farm, and 500-megawatt four-hour grid duration battery. Together with our joint venture partner, Idemitsu Australia, our development of the 400-megawatt, eight-hour storage Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro Project. In July this year, this project received critical State Significant Infrastructure status by the New South Wales Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, qualifying the project for rapid development assessment.
Two gas peakers, namely Barker Inlet Power Station Two in South Australia and Kwinana Swift Two in Western Australia, which are in markets where they're required for firming renewables. We believe gas peakers have a critical role to play in the energy transition, providing backup power within minutes when the grid needs it. We're also excited to announce, as part of the FY 2024 results, the acquisition of Firm Power and Terrain Solar, which adds further optionality to our development plans, particularly in terms of firming capacity, such as batteries with total additional pipeline optionality of 8.1 gigawatts and over 21 different projects. Importantly, not only are we adding and broadening our development pipeline, but we're also seeking to accelerate the transition of our energy portfolio where possible, targeting earlier financial investment decision dates for a number of our projects.
During FY 2024, we also made great progress with our integrated energy hubs, including entering into three memorandums of understanding for the Hunter Energy Hub. This includes our partnership with SunDrive, announced in March, to explore the development of solar PV manufacturing, our MOU with Elecsome for the recycling of solar panels, and our MOU with Renewable Metals to develop a pre-feasibility study into establishing a lithium battery recycling facility. I'm also pleased to see substantial progress in our battery portfolio. We have an ambition to build and operate a leading battery portfolio in the national electricity market. Over the last year, our 250 megawatt Torrens Island Battery and Broken Hill Battery became operational.
We also announced that we made a final investment decision, and have since commenced the construction of the 500-megawatt Liddell Battery, which is estimated to cost approximately AUD 750 million. I'll now discuss our customer market strategy to connect our customers to a sustainable future through electrification. This strategy is predicated on our existing strong core retail business, which will continue to grow, including in new value pools. In summary, and as outlined on the screen, during FY 2024, we significantly grew our number of customer services by 211,000 to 4.5 million. Materially grew decentralized assets under orchestration by 10% to 1.25 gigawatts, continued to expand our electric vehicle electricity plans.
We saw excellent growth in the orchestration of flexible loads, such as hot water orchestration, which has more than doubled this year, and continued to drive commercial decarbonization at scale, with material increases recorded in our contracted C&I power purchase agreements and commercial assets under monitoring and management. During FY 2024, we also entered into exclusive partnerships with Netflix and Virgin Australia Frequent Flyer program to provide further benefits for our customers. These partnerships complement our existing energy and telecommunications offerings and are already delivering improved customer satisfaction and retention results. We also expanded the Electrify Now platform to Australians across the national electricity market.
Electrify Now helps customers to understand the potential energy bill and carbon savings if their home switched to solar, battery, heat pump hot water, an electric vehicle, and/or other induction cooktops, with users able to choose which upgrades suit their budget and their lifestyle. We are proud to be the first Australian energy retailer to offer this solution and help our customers electrify. In the near and the medium term, we're focused on continuing to grow customer value and unlocking further efficiency through our Retail Transformation Program, which Patricia touched on earlier. This program, including our strategic partnership with Kaluza, will allow us to innovate and deliver new products to customers at speed, and enable AGL to leverage interconnected global technology platforms to improve how we operate, the data we leverage, and our overall efficiency as a business.
The platform will also provide effortless experiences for our customers, including providing more insights to help manage their energy consumptions and drive further electrification. Our Retail Transformation Program is not just a technology program, it's a business transformation program that will simplify our business and our operating model and further enhance our focus on customer experience. This next phase of our partnership will see AGL deploy Kaluza as our core retail platform, including the migration of our customer base to Kaluza over the coming years. Importantly, the Retail Transformation Program is expected to deliver efficiencies and unlock material financial benefits. AGL is expected to realize net benefits from FY 2028 and reach sustainable pre-tax savings of AUD 70 million-AUD 90 million per annum from FY 2029.
In summary, we are well placed to deliver on our ambition to be the partner of choice for our customers as they electrify and decarbonize the way they live, move, and work, and we continue to provide integrated end-to-end solutions for our customers. Last year, we set strategic targets for FY 2027 to allow shareholders to track our performance against our strategy. Set out on the slide on the screen is a summary of our progress to date, which is a great start, and I will continue to drive AGL towards delivery of these targets. I'm incredibly happy with what we've achieved this year, but this is only the beginning, and I look forward to further delivery of our strategy during FY 2025 and other opportunities in front of AGL through the energy transition.
Finally, I'd like to thank our people for their amazing contribution over FY 2024, including their passion for the success of our business and their support for our customers. Thank you.
Thank you, Damien. It's now time to address the formal business of the meeting. The notice of meeting sets out four items of business. Resolutions in relation to items two to four will be voted on today and are supported by your board. A poll will be conducted on each resolution. We will display details of the direct and proxy voting for each item of business after the discussion on that item. Votes will be counted immediately following the closure of the meeting, and the results will be notified to the ASX before the end of the day of today and posted on the company's website. Turning now to the first item of business. AGL published its 2024 annual report in August, which contains full information about the company's financial and operating performance during the year.
Under the company's constitution and the Corporations Act, there is no requirement to ask shareholders to vote to adopt the accounts. However, you may ask questions or make comments on the 2024 annual report and the management and performance of AGL. As I mentioned earlier, Harriet Fortescue from Deloitte is available to answer questions relevant to the audit. I'd now like to invite questions on the 2024 annual report and the management and performance of AGL. I will first take questions from the floor of the meeting, then written questions from the online platform, and verbal questions from online. When I call for questions from the floor of the meeting, I ask that you please announce your name, and if relevant, the name of your organization. For shareholders asking questions via the online platform, please submit your questions now.
If you have not already done so, please follow the instructions to join the queue to ask a verbal question. We'll now open questions to the floor first. If anyone holding a yellow or blue card has a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you.
My name is Don Walker. I'm a shareholder. I noticed you're gonna have unfranked dividends. Please tell me, how much would it cost the company to have a fully franked dividend? Why I ask that, I do my own tax return, I've been doing it for years. You have a franked dividend, an unfranked dividend. The unfranked dividend still gets added on to your income tax. How much would it cost the AGL to make it a fully franked dividend? Thank you.
Thanks for your question, Mr. Walker. We are considering a partially franked dividend for FY 2025. The amount of the franking depends entirely on the amount of tax payable and what is then available for a franked dividend for our shareholders, and so we will make that decision when we have received the results for the year.
Good morning, Peter Aird from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Today I've got proxies for 321 shareholders and representing 1.1 million shares. The ASA would like to extend thanks to the chair for her very effective leadership of the board during the period of significant difficulty and uncertainty in 2023. With regard to future performance, and I note that you forecast an impact of between AUD 530 and 730 million, how do you see the ability of the company to continue to achieve returns that have been achieved in the last year?
Thank you, Mr. Aird, and thank you very much for your kind comments. In relation to the performance of the organization, we've demonstrated over the last year our ability to increase our performance and our returns for our shareholders. We have a very strong strategy moving forward. It's well understood in the marketplace, and we are focusing now on delivery of that strategy now that we have in place the optionality in relation to our development pipeline. And we are working in relation to the Retail Transformation Program and increasing those efforts in for electrification for our customers. We believe that the implementation of our strategy, supported by a very strong capital management, will allow us to continue to provide appropriate returns to our shareholders in the coming years.
Peter Aird again. I just wondered what the effect of the increasing delays in the rollout of renewable infrastructure would be on AGL's plans to decommission its two major coal-fired stations?
We committed to the closure dates for our coal-fired power stations in our CTAP in 2022. We remain committed to close those coal-fired base power stations at that time. It's certainly a challenging time for the transition, and there are many delays that we need to overcome, but this will require a concerted effort between government, regulators, the energy industry, and the community. And that concerted effort is one that we continue to advocate. We are quite confident that we are on target to meet our 5 and 12 gigawatt ambitions and to retire our coal-fired generation at the times at which we have announced.
Thank you, and thank you to the board. My name is Jane Carnegie. I'm the President of Save Westernport. Some of you may remember our organization from the failed attempt by AGL to have a gas import terminal in Westernport Bay, but I'm here today to say I also note and support the speeches by the Chair and the CEO, and the material in your annual general report in terms of the transformation of this company, and I congratulate you in regard to those commitments. Your two primary strategic objectives, as you have pointed out today, are for a sustainable future for your customers and transitioning your energy portfolio, and you have outlined how you are currently doing that.
I also note that you have made a commitment to close Loy Yang A in 2035, that you have informed AEMO of that decision, and that you will repurpose Loy Yang A as a carbon energy hub, focusing on renewable energy. But also in your annual general report, I note that you will continue to explore other redevelopment opportunities for Loy Yang A, including the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project, which is a current project of AGL. In light of your commitments under climate disclosure, can the CEO and the board categorically confirm to shareholders the following: Has AGL entered a current contract to supply coal for the commercial demonstration phase of HESC up until 2030, or are there negotiations underway for such a contract?
And if yes, do you think, or have you notified shareholders of this particular project, and do you think that is the project which is in line with your other commitments, given that at full commercial production, this would involve digging up a quarter of a million tons of coal from Loy Yang A every year, and that this is the most emissions-intensive form of hydrogen possible, and is not in line with the new national strategy of the federal government? Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question, Ms. Carnegie. I'm gonna hand this over to Damien to give you an update on those projects.
Thank you, Ms. Carnegie, and thank you for your comments. Clearly, as part of our strategy, as you said, we are here to, you know, transform this organization, which we're well and truly underway. We ran a pilot, which was the HESC pilot, as you're probably well aware. That pilot has now finished. We did supply coal into that pilot. That pilot is being run by a Japanese organization. We continue to work with them, but at this point, there's been no further arrangements in place.
Thank you, Damien. I think behind.
Good morning. My name is Thomas Vita. I'm here representing ACCR. Sorry, over here. Fine. I have a question about AGL's role in improving the long-term policy settings that are needed to drive the energy transition across the whole of the NEM. I think we can all agree that current policies are not gonna get us where we need to be, and I note in the Chair's opening remarks the importance of a coordinated effort. I'd like to probe a little bit further into that, if I may.
And to set that in context, I'd just draw the Board's attention to a new paper about corporate sustainability, which was published actually just last week in the University of Cambridge, authored by Lindsay Hooper and Paul Gilding, which calls for a step change in the approach to corporate sustainability because of the failure to keep pace with the climate and nature crises. The paper states, "Business resources should be focused on shifting whole markets and sectors so that business can profit from the transition.
Accordingly, the leadership agenda for business must go beyond setting targets and making commitments for an individual company change, and instead focus on a whole-of-economy transition with a strategy to compete and win within that transition." This statement seems highly relevant to AGL, since the successful transition of our company and the successful transition of the national electricity market are so completely intertwined. So, there's a sort of two-part question here. Firstly, how is AGL leading from the front and using its influence to advocate for a swift and credible whole of NEM transition? And secondly, where does the company see the biggest opportunities for policy enhancement in the NEM? Thank you.
Thank you very much for that question. I think one of the things I'm most proud of in AGL's last couple of years has been the resumption of a leadership position, in particularly in relation to policy. We interact and work strongly with governments, with regulators within the industry to advocate what we consider to be the best policies to ensure that we can meet the transition needs, and to ensure that our customers and also our shareholders are considered appropriately in whatever policy governments adopt. We are leading from the front. We have, as we just discussed today, put in place a very significant development pipeline, which will allow us to meet the needs of our customers. We need to have 12 gigawatts of renewable energy and firming assets available by 2035.
We're on track to do that, and we believe that in showing the way forward in doing that, we are assisting in leading. We are putting in place, in particular, firming assets, which we believe will underpin the renewable transition, allow that, enable it to occur, and we will continue to move down that route.
Thank you. My name is Tracey Anton, and I'm a member of Friends of Latrobe Water and one of the stakeholders in the coal rehabilitation. I'm also on the community reference group with Loy Yang. Have a excellent relation with them, so I really do commend their transparency and openness to deal with us. Now, in two thousand and twenty-one, Australia ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and that's the international treaty to protect human health and environment from toxic pollution of mercury. So this does have implications for any new infrastructure using coal, 'cause there will be extra cost burdens on capturing mercury and as well as that, disposing of. Now, substances like mercury are significant, accumulative, and irreversible effects on the environment and human health.
According to your ESG data report, AGL's Loy Yang A operations in Loy Yang, in Latrobe Valley, released 242 kilograms of mercury to the air in 2024 financial year, which although less than the year before, I suspect given the, the extra energy used in twenty twenty-four, you know, it will be greater again next year. So, so the Loy Yang A do not have any mercury-capturing technology for pollution control devices. Now, with social responsibility in mind, will the board consider installing mercury capture technologies to their coal-generating plants, given that we still have a significant time ahead and potentially with the new data, the energy-intensive with data centers, there's talk of extending the life of coal in Latrobe Valley.
And so this is a dispersing of mercury emissions to the air we breathe and the water we drink when it deposits to land. As a follow-up, has any modeling been carried out on the cost of post-closure cleanup of mercury versus the cost of reducing mercury emissions at a time of discharge? I ask that question because we never know where the environmental regulations and obligations are going to go with that ratification of the Minamata Convention. Thank you.
Firstly, let me address your statement there, that we may continue to operate our coal-fired generation beyond 2035. We are committed to the closure of Loy Yang A by 2035. And we, at this point, are looking to ensure that we have in place sufficient renewables and firming capacity to be able to replace that coal-fired generation at that time. Now, in relation to mercury emissions, I think that that's an operational question, and I'll ask Damien to address it.
Thank you, Chair, and thanks for the question. So we're always constantly looking at ways we can reduce our emissions more broadly from our power stations, not just in Loy Yang, but also up in the Hunter Valley as well. We'll continue to look at technologies available to us. When we think about broader rehabilitation, we have a broad rehabilitation plan for the whole of the station and the site. So anything we can do to reduce the rehabilitation costs now for the future is also beneficial for us. So we'll continue to look at those technologies on a basis of both emissions and the cost, the economics of what it costs to deliver that, and also the ability for the power stations to take on that new technology as well.
Not all power stations, Loy Yang's forty years of age as of couple of weeks ago, so we also need to look at the age of the power stations as to what technologies you can apply to them.
Thank you. My name is Michael Steindl. I'm here as a proxy for my wife, Kay Wennagel. First of all, thank you for the efforts you're making towards addressing the, I'm just a private investor, towards the global and ecological and climate crisis, and to that end very much welcome you, Mr. George. I can only ask that you go harder and faster along the lines of this gentleman over here. Sorry. I do have a question. In spite of the massive investment over many years in carbon capture and storage, it has failed as an emissions reduction technology. Research from The Australia Institute shows that the carbon capture and storage projects in operation across the entire planet is equal to the emissions from just three power stations in Australia, our companies, Loy Yang A, B, and Yallourn.
Given this global track record of CCS failure, does management rule out engagement with the CarbonNet CCS project? Thank you.
I think that's a question for management, so I'll ask Damien to respond.
Thank you. Thanks, Chair. And again, look, I think the key here is for us to continue to deliver on the development and the transition of our portfolio as quickly as we can, as you've also articulated. Carbon capture continues to be a challenge from an economics point of view and a technology point of view. Again, it gets to also the age of the power stations as to what technology is available to be able to put onto those power stations as well. So again, for us, our focus is all about how we transition our portfolio, how we have the optionality around our portfolio to build the assets.
As the chair also talked to, that was a big basis behind why we did the acquisition of Firm Power, to give us more optionality around batteries, to also assist with more renewables coming into the market. So it's a broad plan. It's something that we are working on broadly, picking up on the rest of the sectoral plans that are also needed across the economy. That is also very important as well. The energy market, should I say, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. So we also need some of the other sectoral plans across the economy to help us through this process. Thank you.
Thank you. Linda Pickering, Save Westernport. As you've previously mentioned, that you're still talking about the HESC project with the partners, I'm just curious about that answer that you've just given, because the HESC project can't go ahead without carbon capture and storage. And you're still continuing a relationship with them.
So again, this project is being run by a Japanese consortium.
We ran a pilot with them, as we talked to previously. We'll continue to assess that project, and that project will ultimately be run by the Japanese company. It would require us to have coal into that project, but it would also require it to have the, you know, the appropriate carbon capture in that project as well.
So you would be prepared to sell our coal to a project that couldn't guarantee that it could capture it?
No. Again, that individual project will require its own planning approvals by the Japanese and to the Victorian government, of which we would be a body providing both, you know, land, if it was to proceed. So again, that is a project that doesn't sit with us directly. It sits indirectly with us, so it would need to meet all the environmental approvals processes.
But strategically, you've announced that you're transitioning away from fossil fuels, although you still keep mentioning gas quietly. How does the HESC project, where you supply coal, meet with your goals to transition to a sustainable company?
Yeah, as I said, this was a pilot that was run by another body.
I understand that.
Yes
But it's progressed past the pilot. You've said you're still involved in a relationship.
That relationship existed through the pilot stage at this point in time. I think just picking up your comments on why we also just talked to gas as well, gas is there to help firm renewables so we can get more renewables into the market to ensure that we bring them on as quickly as we can, and such that in the event that there is no wind or solar, we have backup into the market. I think that's really important, but also importantly, gas, a peaker, will run at 5%-10% of the time, as opposed to running thermal power stations, which run all the time. So I think it is a mechanism to help bring in renewables into this market.
Fair enough. Could you put your foot on the pedal and do it a bit faster?
Thank you. We are going, and the board is pushing as hard as we can to go as quickly as we can in this manner.
Hi there. It's Thomas Vita from ACCR. Again, just building on that question, in the 2024 annual report, you state: "We anticipate that we will build on the ambitions of our 2022 CTAP in our next CTAP," which we're eagerly looking forward to next year. I'd like to ask about the 12-gigawatt ambition, and whether that will increase. So, AGL's anticipates approximately 6.3 gigawatts would comprise wind and solar generation. ACCR estimates that in order to replace the generation output of Liddell, Bayswater, and Loy Yang A, this generation target would need to be around 16 gigawatts rather than 6.3 gigawatts. And so how is the board thinking about making a material increase in the generation target for the next CTAP?
So we are at the as we have, as you've correctly mentioned, we will be presenting a new CTAP to shareholders at the 2025 annual general meeting. We're currently considering a variety of possible options in relation to that CTAP, and we will explore what is possible and what is needed. We will consult with stakeholders as we develop that plan, and we will put that plan back to our shareholders for approval. So I can't, at this point, determine exactly where that ambition might lie, but obviously, we need to be sure that we can deliver against any such ambition. So we will carefully consider the various scenarios, and as I said, we'll consult and we'll present it at the next AGM.
Okay, that seems to end the questions from the floor. James, could you please let me know if there are any online, written, or verbal questions relevant to this item?
Yes, Chair. We have six questions online, and there are no questions on the phone. The first question online comes from Mr. Malcolm McKelvey and Mrs. Janine McKelvey: I'm pleased to be a part-owner of this iconic company. I would feel even better and proud if AGL was moving with urgency to transition from using brown coal in the Latrobe Valley to being a leader in renewable generation and storage to protect the health of my local community. As a medical professional working in Gippsland, I'm very aware of the health impacts the power industry has had and continues to have on the community, from the mine fire, asbestos-related disease, air pollution effects on asthma, heart attacks and strokes, low birth weights, and more, as well as the mental health impacts that flow from this period of uncertainty of employment.
Why is AGL still planning on using brown coal for many years to come, when safer alternatives are evident around us: solar, wind, and energy storage?
Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. McKelvey . AGL has committed to transition its energy portfolio. It is one of the key strategies that we have adopted, and we are always seeking opportunities to move as quickly as we can in relation to doing that. However, it is necessary, in the current circumstances, to continue to use our coal-fired generators in order to ensure the reliability and sustainability of the system, the security, I should say, of the system, and affordability to our customers. And we will continue to do that as we build out, together with the energy industry and with the government, the necessary renewable platform to be able to replace coal.
In the meantime, we ensure that we meet, as a minimum, all of our license and environmental conditions, to try and ensure the health and safety of our employees and our local communities.
The next question comes from Ms. Julianne Mills: Congratulations on your decarbonization progress, along with significant improvement in financial and operational results. How do you think Australia as a whole is progressing with its decarbonization plans? What can be done to improve the progress for Australia and AGL? Does the discussion around nuclear have any benefit or distract from the focus, current plan, and funding going forward?
We're at a crucial point in the transition for in Australia, away from our fossil fuels, and it will require, as I said earlier, a concerted effort of the energy industry, together with government and regulators and the community, for us to be able to achieve our ambition of Net Zero by 2025. AGL is the owner of two of the sites that have been suggested as possible sites for nuclear transmitters moving forward. We are currently ensuring that we can transform those sites into energy hubs. We're entering into contracts in respect to those. We've commenced the building of the 500-megawatt battery at Liddell, and we do not have nuclear as part of that plan moving forward.
We consider that there's no regulatory timeframe for the introduction of nuclear, and the cost and the time delays involved in nuclear assets are such that we simply cannot wait. We need to move ahead with the renewable program that we've outlined to you today, and we will do that.
The next question comes from Mr. Chin Lai: Why is AGL paying a dividend when it has an accumulated loss?
AGL is paying a dividend as determined by the board, based on the results for the year. It complies with our dividend policy, as we announced it, being a 50%-75% policy for the dividend payment. We consider that dividend each year when we have the results in front of us, and we ensure that we have sufficient funds to make that payment.
The next three questions are from Mr. Stephen Mayne. The first of these is: Australia is currently in the midst of an unprecedented deluge of takeovers that has contributed to listed entities on the ASX falling by 7% since June 2022 to a ten-year low, including 19 straight months of declines. There have already been 24 major takeovers above AUD 200 million approved by shareholders so far this calendar year, with another dozen deals announced and in the works. The ASX is losing long-standing names such as CSR, Boral, Blackmores, Alumina, Coca-Cola Amatil, Sydney Airport, InvoCare, OZ Minerals, Newcrest Mining, Crown Resorts, and AusNet, which have all disappeared over the past three years. Origin Energy only just survived a takeover bid last year. There is a clear mispricing between public markets and private markets.
Why are public markets not valuing ASX-listed companies like ours more highly, and what are we doing to avoid being gobbled up like so many other companies? Does the Chair agree this is a problem for the nation, particularly with so few new floats replenishing the ASX ranks?
Obviously, every company on the ASX, if presented with a takeover offer, must consider the best interests of the company and its shareholders, and it is for each board to make that determination. In respect to AGL and the question as to whether we're being adequately valued, we believe that the strategy that AGL has outlined is now well understood and well accepted in the marketplace. We're starting to see greater value attributed to such things as the flexibility of our assets, the value which can be added by our batteries, particularly based on the Torrens Island Battery contribution over the last nine months, and on our customer book, where we've sometimes failed to gain traction in the marketplace as to the value, but it's now starting to be seen as a very valuable asset for this organization.
We believe that those factors will continue to flow through into the valuation that the market places on AGL, and we will continue to deliver on our strategy to ensure that it is understood, and it is properly valued in the marketplace.
The next question from Mr. Mayne: Did any of the five main proxy advisors, ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS, and ASA, recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions, including the remuneration report? If so, what reasons did they give? Also, why are you holding back proxy disclosure? Best practice is now to disclose the proxy position to the ASX, along with the formal addresses, to offer more timely disclosure to the market. The likes of Origin Energy, NAB, Carsales, Viva Energy, Webjet, Xero, Myer, Brambles, and JB Hi-Fi all do this. Will you adopt this practice at next year's AGM?
I'm pleased to advise that all proxy advisors supported all resolutions that have been put before today's AGM. In relation to the disclosure of proxy, we believe that discussion at the AGM is best carried out in the absence of influence from knowing what the proxy advisors' proxy votes have come in prior to the meeting, so that a full and open discussion can be held. Given that there is no legal obligation to disclose proxies, we will continue to advise the overall vote to the ASX as we have to date.
The final question from Mr. Mayne, and the final question for this section: When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, including the reelections of directors Graham Cockroft, could you please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions, and was a voluntary disclosure initiative adopted by the likes of Metcash, Altium, Dexus, Webjet, Tabcorp, Myer, ASX, and Qantas over the past three years. This is particularly important for AGL, given that we have around 150,000 retail shareholders, which leads to an overall turnout of less than 50% of issued capital when it comes to voting at AGMs.
Such poor turnout effectively doubles the voting power of bigger shareholders, such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, who owned only 11% of the company, but had around 22% of the votes at the 2022 AGM, when all four of his candidates were elected to the board, despite the directors recommending against three of them. There is a crisis when it comes to low retail shareholder participation at AGMs, and we'll better understand this if you tell us how many shareholders voted today. Was it even 2% or 3,000 of our 150,000 shareholders? You've got the data, so why not let the sun shine in by embracing scheme-like disclosure?
Similarly to the last answer I've given, there is no legal obligation to disclose the number of shareholders voting or the, and we have chosen to date and continue to do so as a board, to only disclose the outcomes of the resolutions. Thank you. Okay, I think we can now move on. The second item of business concerns the adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended thirtieth of June, twenty twenty-four. The People and Performance Committee assists the board with AGL's oversight of remuneration Graham Cockroft is the chair of that committee. Before inviting questions on the remuneration report, I would like to invite Graham to speak to you about AGL's remuneration policy during FY 2024.
Thank you, Patricia. Good morning, everyone. My name Graham Cockroft, and I am Chair of AGL's People and Performance Committee. This morning, I will give an overview of the key remuneration decisions made by the board during FY 2024, as set out in AGL's FY 2024 remuneration report. As Patricia and Damien outlined earlier, FY 2024 was a year of strong operational and financial performance for AGL, with demonstrable progress against the AGL strategy. When determining the FY 2024 remuneration outcomes for executives, the board was mindful to strike the right balance between rewarding executives for our performance and outcomes aligned with shareholder experience. This year, all major proxy advisors recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the twenty twenty-four remuneration report, and no material concerns were raised. I will now summarize the FY 2024 remuneration outcomes for our executives.
The fixed remuneration of AGL's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Damien Nicks, and AGL's Chief Financial Officer, Gary Brown, did not change during FY 2024, recognizing their relatively recent appointments in January 2023. Following a thorough benchmarking exercise, increases were provided during FY 2024 to AGL's Chief Operating Officer, Markus Brokhof, and to AGL's Chief Customer Officer, Jo Egan, by 5% and 12.9%, respectively. AGL's approach is to set executives' fixed remuneration initially at a level reflecting their skill and experience that allows progressive increases to apply as the executive performs and becomes more experienced in their role. Generally, for internal promotions, fixed remuneration levels will be set towards the lower end of market comparators to allow them room to grow into the role.
This was the approach taken from Ms. Egan when she was appointed into the role in June 2022, and her 12.9% increase reflects her experience and performance in the role since this time. Effective from the first of September 2024, Damien Nicks's fixed remuneration increased from AUD 1.4 million to AUD 1.5 million, in line with market benchmarks. The short-term incentive, or STI outcomes for executives, continue to be measured against scorecards containing group and individual strategic objectives, which are established at the commencement of the financial year and comprise financial and non-financial measures. The non-financial measures in the group scorecard relate to safety, customer, and employee engagement. STI rewards for FY 2024 were in the range of 83.8% to 86.3% of the maximum opportunity.
When considering the STI outcomes for executives, the board took into account the scorecard results, how these outcomes were achieved, and the experience of shareholders over the period. Given AGL's Total Injury Frequency Rate was below target, and is an area of concern for the board, a zero outcome was applied to the safety metric. Otherwise, the board considered that the STI outcomes appropriately rewarded executives for delivering above performance outcomes. I'll now move to AGL's long-term incentive, or LTI plan, which is designed to align executive reward with long-term AGL performance and shareholder experience. The performance conditions for the FY 2021 LTI grant were tested on FY 2024, which was the first grant to include carbon transition metrics.
The relative total shareholder return outcome was below the threshold vesting level, and therefore little vesting against this metric was applied, reflective of the shareholder experience over that four-year period. The return on equity measure achieved above target, and the carbon transition metrics were broadly met, which resulted in overall vesting of 53.2%. This is the first time that the LTI plan has resulted in vesting in four years. Although retention awards have been awarded to executives over the last few years to retain executives during periods of uncertainty, no new re-retention awards were made to executives during FY 2024, reflecting the stability that has been achieved over the last two years, including the resetting of market and stakeholder confidence in AGL. Finally, non-executive director fees were not increased during FY 2024.
The last fee change was in January 2020. No material changes are proposed to the remuneration structure in FY 2025. However, two changes have been made to the STI measures and the group scorecard: the addition of an inclusion index measure as part of the people metric, and the replacement of Net Promoter Score with a customer satisfaction metric. These changes are designed to drive focus on our diversity and inclusion strategy, and to ensure high customer service is maintained during AGL's Retail Transformation Program. The board, assisted by the People and Performance Committee, will continue to review and monitor the remuneration structures and performance metrics for executives to ensure alignment with the AGL's strategic objectives.
In particular, during FY 2025, a key focus of the board will be AGL's 2025 Climate Transition Action Plan, which is scheduled to be released in August 2025 and will be considered at the 2025 AGM. Alongside this review, the board will also consider... Oh, sorry, will continue to consider opportunities to align future remuneration frameworks with AGL strategy as it continues to evolve. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Thank you.
Now, let's turn to questions on item two. Thank you, Graham, and the 2024 Remuneration Report. We'll start with questions from shareholders and proxies in the room today. Please raise your hand if you have a question, and a microphone will be brought to you.
Good morning again. Peter Aird, a Volunteer with the Australian Shareholders' Association. I'd like to compliment you on the clarity of your remuneration report, but I'm a little disappointed that you did not include a simple table of executives' actual remuneration for both financial year 2023 and 2024. I note that you have tabulated the outcome of incentive payments, but shareholders appreciate the clarity of a single table, with all payments identified, especially compared to the somewhat confusing statutory table. Would you clarify the reason for this omission and indicate whether you intend to include it in future reports?
Thank you very much for the question. What you can see in the remuneration report is the statutory reporting that we are clearly obliged to provide. We are giving consideration to adding to this report, the table that you're describing. We'll consider that over the next six months, at the board.
Hello, my name is Heather. I'm just an ordinary person off the street. I inherited these shares, so this is all relatively sort of new to me. I'm not overly happy with the share price, and I was just looking at it a few minutes ago. It was about AUD 11.88. Four years ago, it was nearly double that. It doesn't seem to be moving all that much, so that's one of the reasons I'm not overly happy. Considering when my father bought the shares, it was doing quite well at the time. I tried to read in the remuneration report about how your long incentive programs and everything are worked out on. I'm afraid I got lost. It was just ugh. My question is, is the share price-
part of the way you calculate whether you get paid extra or not?
It is, yes. So the long-term incentive plan has a weighting of 70% on total shareholder return or relative total shareholder return, and 30% on the carbon transition metrics. That 70%, the total shareholder return, over a four-year period, so from the first of July, say 2024 until the end of June 2028. That four-year period will measure the performance of the share. So the opening price, the closing price, and what dividends are paid during that time is the total shareholder return, the absolute total shareholder return. We then compare that against the absolute total shareholder return of every other company in the ASX 100, and then we see where do we sit relative to everybody else. That becomes, that's the relative total shareholder return.
So the executives are only remunerated if the outcome of that process leaves AGL sitting in the top 50% of relative total shareholder return across the ASX 100.
So total shareholder return includes the share price?
Correct.
Right. So don't you think it stinks?
I think, Damien-
Four years ago, it was nearly double the price.
Yep. So, we can't control the past, but we can control the future, and I think Patricia and Damien have both outlined today our plans for the future, and we believe we're taking the company in the right direction that will ultimately lead to improved shareholder value.
What are you hoping that the share price will get to, in say, in the next couple of years? I'm sorry, this is what I live on, this sort of thing. I mean, physically live on, is the dividends, and that encompasses the, the share price increase as well. I'm looking for not just the dividends to money, so I can go out and buy my bread and milk, but, growth in the share price. And because, as I said, it's half from what it was only four years ago, what do you anticipate it being, or what would you like it to be in another four years? AUD 20, AUD 30, or AUD 5?
So we'll leave others to make that judgment. But we've laid out our plan for how we intend to improve shareholder value.
So you don't have a guess?
I think ultimately, it's your call.
What do you mean, my call? I'm asking you. You're the board, what do you... Are you, do you have an aim for a share price in, say, four years' time of AUD 15?
We don't have a single price as a forecast outcome, no. But we are doing everything that we can to improve shareholder value, which takes the form of shareholder improvement in the share price and the dividends.
All right. I'll go home and see how much I can afford to buy more bread and milk.
Just following on from one of your comments in that answer there is, if I understood correctly, you said 30% is based on the decarbonization performance and 70% on the shareholder return. It seems to me there might be some tension between those two, in that the shareholder return might be more easily, in the short term, more easily achieved with cashing in on your fossil fuels. Can I ask that you move very quickly to reverse those percentages so that there is much more emphasis on the decarbonization?
So just to acknowledge the fact that there are shareholders who would wish us to do that, and there are also other shareholders who wish us to go in the other direction. So it's, we are, as a board, we are trying to strike a balance that represents, as many shareholders as we can, and where we've landed, we think, represents that, sort of a 70-30 balance.
All right. Thank you. That appears to complete the questions from the floor. James, could you please let me know if there are any online, written, or verbal questions relevant to this item?
There are no questions online or on the phone.
Thank you. Thank you, Graham. I think we may now move on.
Thank you.
Details of the proxy and direct votes that have already been cast on this item are shown on the screen. Please place your vote for this item now, if you have not already done so. I'll now turn to the third item of business, which is the re-election of directors. In accordance with Clause fifty-eight of the company's constitution Graham Cockroft, Christine Holman, and Vanessa Sullivan will retire from the board with effect from the close of the meeting and now stand for re-election as directors. Each of Graham, Christine, and Vanessa will speak to you briefly about why they are seeking your approval to continue as a director of your company. I'll then open the meeting to questions before inviting shareholders to vote on each resolution. Graham, Christine, and Vanessa each bring a range of complementary skills and experience to the board.
The board has considered the performance and contribution that each of these directors make and is supportive of their re-election to the board. Each of Graham, Christine, and Vanessa is considered an independent director. The board, excluding each director in relation to their own re-election, recommends shareholders vote in favor of each Graham Cockroft will now speak to you on his re-election.
Thank you, Patricia, and good morning again, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us today, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you. I joined the AGL board at the beginning of 2022, and I think it's fair to say that we've come a long way since then. Our company now has a clear purpose and strategy, a stable and high-performing executive team, and a much-improved share price. However, I believe we're still only at the beginning of the journey, and there's a long way to go and a lot to do. Much of our activity over the next five to ten years will be about executing on that strategy.
The energy transition offers many opportunities, and we are well-placed with our existing asset position, our development portfolio, and very talented teams across our business to achieve our strategic targets. We are also very aware that there are risks to achieving those targets, including varying degrees of operational, political, and regulatory risks. I believe I can continue to contribute to the AGL board, helping the team to execute on our strategy and achieve our targets while navigating the risks and opportunities. I have over thirty years' experience in the energy industry across different locations, political systems, and regulations. Half of those years were spent in senior executive roles, leading teams through the delivery of a range of energy projects, often in challenging conditions.
Since 2022, I've also served on the board of Meridian Energy, New Zealand's largest energy company, listed on the NZX and ASX, with a market cap of over AUD 15 billion. The energy transition in Australia will also inevitably face challenging conditions, and I believe my international experience and perspectives will be useful at the board table as we execute on our strategy. Ladies and gentlemen, I would be honored to continue to serve this board and company and accordingly offer myself for re-election. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, Graham. Christine Holman will now speak to you on her re-election.
Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us here in the room today, and also all of our shareholders who have joined us online, and Chair, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. It seems like only yesterday that I was before you for the first time, seeking your endorsement as a director of AGL. It was a privilege then, and more so now, as I put myself forward for election to the board. For the past two years, it has been an honor to be part of a board that has collectively and cooperatively worked to help AGL, first and foremost, transition to a new CEO in Damien and supporting him to strengthen up his management team.
To be part of a board that has presented an enhanced strategy that supports an accelerated plan to help our customers electrify and decarbonize, ensuring that renewables is the key pillar to how energy is delivered in the future. A board that has continued to focus on rigorous and disciplined capital allocation decisions, has had an uncompromising commitment to safety and sustainability, and finally, supporting Damien and the management team to focus on execution of the strategy, execution of the operating plans, execution on delivering the pipeline to ensure that AGL will thrive and be one of the leading clean, renewable energy solution providers.
In delivering what we have to date, but more importantly, what's ahead of us, I hope that my skills and experiences in digital transformation as we look to deliver one of the most important technologies in retail transformation through the implementation of Kaluza, of embedding emerging technologies such as AI and ML, machine learning that is, aligned with strategy and sustainability principles, but always ensuring that they deliver what they promise. Ensuring that our operations and our networks are building cyber resilience, a continued disciplined approach to mergers and acquisitions, and of course, as custodians of your capital, always a keen eye on how we allocate that capital. All of it anchored in strong ASX and corporate governance experience, which no doubt holds greater relevance than ever. I am conscious that our work is not done, though.
As we look to go faster, wherever and whenever possible, I give you a commitment to dedicate as much time and effort that's needed to ensure that we deliver on our plans for emissions reduction, electrification, and decarbonization. I thank you, our shareholders, for your support and my fellow directors for the faith that you have shown in me.
...and finally, to our people, our staff, including those on the frontline managing our generation assets, you continue to inspire me every time I have the opportunity to spend time with you. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Christine. Vanessa Sullivan will now speak to you on her re-election.
Thanks, Patricia. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today as you consider re-electing me to the AGL board. My background is deeply in ESG, energy market transition, and energy market fundamentals, and importantly, bringing these to life through a commercial and implementation lens. Since being appointed to the AGL board, I'm proud to say that I co-chaired this, the Review of Strategic Direction, which AGL announced in September 2022. This led to one of the largest decarbonization initiatives in the Australian market and was positively received by investors. I also chair AGL's Safety and Sustainability Committee. We're focusing on improving AGL's safety performance, engaging directly with our teams, both at sites and in the offices, and establishing ESG priorities to provide clarity on our areas of focus, and to embed strong environmental and social outcomes within our commercial framework.
Our clarity on ESG priorities has also been well received by investors. My other current roles include being a board member for Port of Townsville, including chairing their Audit Committee. Now, the Port is a significant infrastructure business with around AUD 8 billion in annual trade and sits within the footprint of the Great Barrier Reef. I'm also the pro bono Chair of Centacare, which is a large social services provider, and delivers services that include disability support, aged care support, and support for victims of domestic family violence. Previously, I've worked in senior roles in government, implementing energy and water reforms, with experience across all aspects of the energy supply chain. I've also led EY's sustainability team and EY's utilities team in Queensland. I had a particular focus on delivering sustainable returns for investors. I also have experience in grassroots development in renewable energy projects.
As you know, AGL has a very proud history in the Australian energy market and has exciting plans to be a leader in the energy transition. I'd be honored to continue to contribute to this future, and so offer myself for re-election to the AGL board. Thank you for your time today.
Thank you, Vanessa. I'll now take questions on the re-election Graham Cockroft, christine Holman, and Vanessa Sullivan.
Thank you. Peter Aird from the Australian Shareholders' Association. I just have a general question. The board skills matrix that you publish in the annual report is an impressive account of the directors' skills. Would you clarify how this was developed and whether it has been reviewed by independent authorities?
Yes, thank you for that question. The board skills matrix was developed within the board over many years. We have, this year, carried out an independent review with an external service provider to look through that matrix to determine that it remains relevant, and that has been approved or endorsed, I should say, by that external service provider.
Yeah, me again. I like everybody who's on the board with your various ranges of previous experience, but I'm afraid to Christine Holman, I won't be voting for you. The reason being, I feel that you have your finger in too many pies. I just don't see how you can possibly do justice to all these organizations that you're involved with already, plus AGL. This is... How much time do you devote a month to each of these companies that you're on? Sorry, but I just think you've got too much on your plate.
Thank you for that question. Let me confirm that, Christine, devotes a very large amount of time to AGL, as much as is needed, and that the board, in considering endorsing these candidates for re-election, considered the, their ability to contribute and the time needed to do so, and we confirm, as a board, and unanimously, that Christine is supported for re-election. Seems to be no other questions on the floor. James, could you please let me know if there are any online, written, or verbal questions relevant to this resolution?
Yes, Chair. There are two online questions, and there are no questions on the phone. Both questions are from Mr. Stephen Mayne. The first question: Thank you to Patricia McKenzie for her five years of service on the AGL board, the last two years as chair. It is always helpful for investors to have access to some exit perspectives from retiring independent directors. In her final contribution as an AGL director and chair, could Patricia please comment on what she regards as the best decisions AGL made during her time on the board, and does she have any regrets? Also, does she agree that Australia should move to annual elections of directors, as now occurs in the U.S. and the U.K., to provide more accountability and flexibility for shareholders when it comes to director selection?
Well, shouldn't have looked at Leanne, I suppose. I think that if I look back over the last five and a half years, the major decisions that AGL has made, which I think are the right ones, are the decision to enhance and move towards a transition of our energy portfolio to renewable energy and firming energy. That was a major change in the approach of AGL and the energy industry in general to climate change, and I think absolutely the right one, and we have since then, as we've outlined today, put together a really excellent portfolio of options to allow us to deliver against that strategy, as well as to move to a much more customer-focused entity.
The Retail Transformation Program that we have in place, the business transformation program, which supports that, they're going to lead to our ability to work with our customers as they interact very differently with the energy industry moving forward, and I think they're really exciting opportunities. One of the best decisions we made was appointing Damien Nicks as our Managing Director. Damien's done a wonderful job, has always had my support and the support of the board, and he's put together a fantastic leadership team who are really, in, in my opinion, delivering for our shareholders and for our customers. So they're the two major areas where I'd say, they were the best things that we've done. Annual elections, no, I don't support annual elections for directors. I really believe that we need some continuity on the, on our board of directors.
We need to have some time to implement our strategies. They're not one-year strategies, they're long-term strategies, and so we need that consistency of thought and contribution on our boards. Three-year terms allow us to do that, but are also reasonable amounts of time for shareholders to then reconsider. Is this the right board for us moving forward? For me, the three-year term makes sense, and I think we should continue with it.
The final question from Mr. Mayne, and this is specific to the re-election of Ms. Christine Holman. Well done to Christine for being Australia's best-credentialed director when it comes to resigning over a matter of principle at companies such as WiseTech, Blackmores, and most recently, Metcash. The Directors' Club needs more boat rockers, straight talkers who challenge groupthink and who are prepared to push hard for change and resign if necessary. Kudos to Christine for also being prepared to put herself forward for election at the 2022 AGL AGM and succeeding against the recommendation of the then board. As someone who has failed in all fifty-six public company board tilts over the past twenty-four years, I'm jealous of Christine's AGL success.
What was it like bursting into a major board uninvited, and has she come close yet to resigning over a matter of principle at AGL, as has occurred at other boards? Could Christine please summarize her history of principle resignations and the overall unusual approach she takes to being a professional, independent public company director?
That's quite an endorsement, Christine. I think you can put your hand up and accept that one. When the election in 2022 introduced four new directors onto the board, the board took the view that shareholders are entitled to determine who they wish to sit on their board of directors, and therefore, it was up to us to make that board work, and we did so. We worked very hard to form a collegiate group to ensure that all of the directors had sufficient knowledge to be able to contribute well to the determination of strategy and the forward movement of AGL, and I can assure directors that our board works efficiently and effectively together, and to my knowledge, no one has come close to resigning. Thank you. I think we can move on.
Details of the proxy and direct votes that have been cast on item three are shown on the screen. Please place your vote for item three A, B, and C now if you have not already done so. I'll now turn to the fourth item of business, which is the grant of performance rights under the Long Term Incentive Plan in the 2025 financial year to the Managing Director and CEO, Damien Nicks. The number of performance rights to be granted to Damien is 185,661, with a four-year performance period. The number of performance rights that ultimately vest for Damien will depend upon the extent to which the performance conditions have been satisfied over the relevant performance period. The plan has two conditions.
The first measure relates to AGL's relative total shareholder return, and the second measure relates to the carbon transition. The ASX listing rules require that shareholders approve the granting of performance rights to any director, including the managing director. The board, excluding Mr. Nicks, recommends shareholders vote in favor of this resolution, and I'll now take questions on the grant of the performance rights to Damien Nicks. Let's start with any questions from shareholders and proxies in the room. Please raise your hand if you have a question, and the microphone will be brought to you. Can't see any questions in the room. James, could you please let me know if there are any online, written, or verbal questions?
Yes, Chair, we have one question online, and there are no questions on the phone. The one question we have is from Mr. Stephen Mayne: Well done to the CEO so far. He's an impressive performer in one of the most complicated roles anyone could take on, and I support the appointment. Could the CEO please summarize his past LTI grants as to whether they have vested or lapsed? Also, has he ever sold any ordinary shares in the company or bought any on market without relying on an incentive scheme to build his equity position in the company? Please don't say, "Look it up in the annual report and through ASX announcements." It's complicated, and the CEO should factually summarize the situation in sixty seconds.
Yeah. Well, firstly, let me say that the LTI has not vested, for the three years before this last vesting, and that really is reflective of shareholder experience. So, our management team accepted and understood that that was an appropriate outcome for those LTIs. We did vest this year to a small percentage. I think moving forward, we can hopefully look to further vestings of LTI because that means, all of us as shareholders are benefiting. I'll ask Damien to talk about, purchase and sale of shares.
Thank you, Chair. I purchased twenty-seven thousand shares about two years ago now, or eighteen months ago. I have not sold any shares in that time as CEO.
Thank you. Thank you. I think we can now move on. Details of the proxy and direct votes that have been cast on Item four are as shown on the screen. Please place your vote for this item now, if you have not already done so. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal items of business for today's meeting. A summary of the direct votes and proxy votes, I hold as proxy for shareholders in relation to each resolution are shown on the screen. The polls will remain open for another 10 minutes. Results of the poll on each resolution put to the meeting will be provided to the ASX as soon as possible today and posted on the company's website. On behalf of the board, thank you for attending and demonstrating your interest in AGL by taking part in this meeting.
I now declare the meeting closed, subject to conclusion of the poll. Thank you.