Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the board, I welcome you all to the GUD AGM for the year 2022. My name is Graeme Billings. I'm Chairman of your board of directors. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boonw urrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin, and pay our respect to their elders past, present, and emerging. I declare a quorum is present and open the 65th AGM of GUD Holdings Limited. The notice of meeting was distributed to all shareholders in excess of 28 days ago, along with the company's annual report for the year ended 30 June 2022. With your consent, I'll take it as read. Ladies and gentlemen, we meet in a manner that will likely become the norm.
Our meeting today is a hybrid meeting that shareholders may participate either by being present in person at this venue or virtually online through the technologies we've used in the last two years. While we are not entirely free of the COVID-19 virus, we are moderating our lifestyles and learning to live with it. I acknowledge it continues to have a considerable and distressing impact on many lives. It is, however, pleasing for me to be able to address you personally, and I look forward to taking the opportunity to join those of you present in the room in conversation after this meeting. A significant number of shareholders have already voted, appointed proxies, and submitted questions ahead of this meeting, and we thank them for doing so. Allow me to introduce your directors, all of whom are able to be present in person for this meeting.
On my immediate left is our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Graeme Whickman. Graeme joined the board on 1st of October 2018 following his appointment as Managing Director and CEO. He will address us later in the meeting. Next to Graeme is Jennifer Douglas. Jen was appointed Non-Executive Director on the first of March 2020. Jen is an independent director and Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee. Next to Jen is David Robinson. David was appointed Non-Executive Director on 20th of December 2011. He's also an independent director and is Chair of the Remuneration, People, and Culture Committee. On my immediate right is Carole Campbell. Carole was appointed Non-Executive Director on the sixteenth of March 2021. She is an independent director. Carole was appointed Chair of the Audit Committee of the board on the 16th of March 2021.
Next to Carole is Professor John Pollaers, who was appointed Non-Executive Director on the 23rd of June 2021. John is an independent director. Next to John is Martin Fraser, our Chief Financial Officer of GUD since the 1st of January 2012. Not on stage, but present in the room is our Company Secretary, Malcolm Tyler, over there in the corner. We also have present at this meeting Maritza Arandeta of KPMG, the company's auditors. KPMG have been our audit firm since the 2007 financial year and are in their 16th year as GUD's audit firm. That said, there's a rotation of audit partner every five years. Maritza took over as audit partner from the close of the annual general meeting last year. I welcome Maritza.
Before we begin with the formal business of the meeting, I would like to make you aware of some housekeeping matters. For your safety, I draw your attention to the emergency exits located at the rear of the auditorium. Should an emergency arise that requires evacuation, staff will be on hand to assist you. If you have a mobile phone or pager, could you please ensure that it is on silent mode or turned off for the duration of the meeting. I also ask that you do not use cameras, video, or sound recorders during the meeting. This meeting is being webcast live today to shareholders, staff, and other stakeholders in GUD Holdings. Soon after the conclusion of this meeting, an on-demand version will be available on the company's website for playback to interested parties who could not be available for the live stream.
We look forward to taking your questions. Given this is a hybrid meeting, I'll first take questions from those physically present at the meeting, followed by audio questions from participants who have joined us online, and finally, any written questions. If you're attending the meeting in person, only shareholders, validly appointed proxies, and corporate representatives who were given a blue or yellow voting card upon entry are entitled to ask questions. When I call for questions, please raise your blue or yellow card. When acknowledged, please walk up to the microphone and state your name or the organization you represent before asking your question. For those attending the meeting online who wish to submit a written question, you may do so at any time during the meeting via the speech bubble icon on your screen.
Type your question in the chat box on the right of the screen and then select Send. Confirmation that your message has been received will appear on your screen. Please note that while you can submit written questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. While time constraints may prevent us from answering all questions, we'll do our best to address all questions during the meeting. Only shareholders and proxy holders have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. If you choose to ask your question by phone, please phone the number shown on the slide and follow the prompts. Instructions are also shown below the broadcast window on the online platform. If you're asking a verbal question, please state your full name before asking your question.
While you're on the phone waiting to speak, you will be able to hear the live meeting audio while you are on hold, therefore, won't miss any of the meeting during your call. I will provide more specific advice on the Q&A as we get to it, but you can ask your written question any time from now on. If you're asking verbal questions, whether in person or by telephone, in the interest of all shareholders present, I ask that you ask only one question at a time, keep your questions and comments to no more than two minutes to allow as many shareholders as possible to speak, and thirdly, confine your questions to the particular item of business and matters relevant to shareholders as a whole.
If your question or comment relates to another item on the agenda, please wait and raise it when we come to that item of business later in the meeting. In accordance with current practice, voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. I will call for a poll on each resolution. I will hold voting on every resolution over until the end of the meeting. However, in order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions. At that time, if you're eligible to vote at this meeting, for those present in the room and entitled to vote, holding a blue entrance card, the card. That card also serves as the voting paper for the poll. If you're attending through the online platform and entitled to vote, a new polling icon will appear.
Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you 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 have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. In the unlikely event that we experience loss of signal with the webcast, please do not log out of the online platform. We have a backup webcast stream running, which will automatically appear in the platform within about 30 seconds of the initial loss of the signal. This will restore your video, audio, and slides of the meeting. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The polling icon will soon appear. Please submit your votes at any time.
I will give you a warning before I move to close the voting. Prior to commencement of today's meeting, valid votes have been received representing approximately 60% of GUD's issued capital. The status of proxies on each item of business will be shown on the screen behind me and on the online platform as we address each item in turn. To the extent that there are open proxies available to be voted by me as chairman of the meeting on any item, I advise the meeting that I will vote them for each of those items on the agenda. There are voting restrictions for some resolutions as outlined in the notice of meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties or associates. The board unanimously recommends that you vote in favor of all resolutions.
Today's proceedings will commence with my address to shareholders. Copies of my address will be available following the meeting on the company's website. Following my address, I will ask our Managing Director and CEO, Graeme Whickman, to address you on key operational and financial highlights and provide commentary on the business. In about 30 minutes after myself and Graeme have addressed the meeting, we will turn to the formal business of the meeting.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, my address to you today covers a number of topics. I will firstly speak about the importance of safety at GUD. I will next speak to our most important stakeholder group, our people. I do wanna spend some time discussing our approach to sustainability. I would then like to address the strategy, the positioning of the portfolio of the group, the efforts that are being made to ensure sustainability of the business.
I'll then briefly touch on the financial performance of GUD in the 2021/2022 financial year, an outstanding performance in difficult and variable trading conditions. For me, it demonstrates the resilience of our portfolio of businesses. I will then turn to risk. I also want to talk about remuneration of our executives as that has attracted some criticism this year. I will briefly address board developments. Finally, following a review of aspects of the operations and financial position of the company from Graeme, I will provide commentary on the outlook for the current financial year. First, safety is a key priority for GUD. Throughout the year, the directors and management continued monitoring and enhancing our safety practices and actions across the group. As ever, we remain vigilant on matters impacting the safety of our employees.
As a board, we encourage management efforts to maintain the physical and mental welfare of our employees, recognizing transition from COVID-19 lockdown to a return to workplaces impacts people differently. We maintain a strong safety focus and continue to develop and implement initiatives intended to drive a strong level of engagement, ownership, and accountability for health and safety among all of our staff. With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, your board can now return to visiting the operational facilities of our businesses and conduct safety walks. This is important because these visits also include the holding of town hall meetings with all available staff. These opportunities allow board members to understand the operations better and the fundamental key drivers of operational performance, of which safety is key.
These visits also allow board members to understand the cultural aspects of each site and hear from staff members on a range of matters and views held in the workplace. We continue to invest heavily in upskilling and retraining personnel in all GUD businesses, looking to instill safety engagement as well as reducing the risk of complacency. Next, people. The board lays the foundations for the culture at GUD and is committed to a diverse and inclusive organization which treats all people equitably and fairly. Our leaders set and hold themselves and our people to a high standard, where not only is no one discriminated against, but where people are physically and psychologically safe and well.
We have refreshed and reinforced our core values in FY 2022 as our employee numbers have grown and new businesses have been integrated into GUD. These values are as follows. One, people are at the heart of everything we do. We care deeply about our team, customers and suppliers, our communities and partners. Two to who we are, we always act with integrity. Thirdly, we give our all. We are entrepreneurial, curious, driven, and commercially strong. In a year where much has been written about the great resignation, we have worked hard to engage and retain our people. In our sustainability report, we set out how we invest in people to develop a high performance, highly engaged and diverse workforce. Leadership development is one way of the key foundational pillars that we set about focusing on three years ago.
The strategic framework in place for our leadership program sees a focus on established, emerging and future leaders within the businesses. Several of our established leaders have undertaken internationally recognized development programs during 2022. During 2022, the third cohort of our Emerging Leaders program leaders commenced the two-year, 12-month module. It is not only what we have put in place so far, your board is excited by the prospect of the introduction of a graduate program at GUD, and in time hope to see a program for industrial trainee apprenticeships as well. I must thank our Chief People Officer, Barb Harrison, for all her leadership, guidance and efforts in all matters to do with our people. Sustainability.
As part of the GUD's strategic aspirations, we have set clear ESG targets and defined the key impact areas in which GUD seeks to make a real difference, make a positive impact on the environment, and strengthen the communities we operate in. GUD acknowledges its role in our stakeholders' lives and will continue to strive to be a good partner through these challenging and turbulent times to our employees, suppliers, customers, and shareholders. Knowing we have a dual responsibility, of course, to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of the company. In this year's sustainability report, we have highlighted the six key impact areas of our ESG strategy. These were developed in 2022 after earlier identifying those ESG issues most relevant to our stakeholders.
Under each of the six impact areas, we state our ambition and objective targets for midterm 2025 and the longer term out to 2030, which form an aspirational vision to inspire the performance of our businesses and our people and will form a core element of our employee value proposition. Two of the six impact areas directly affect our major stakeholder group, our employees. I've already spoken about the priorities that are safety and our people. A third major focus has been our ethical sourcing program, designed to meet and exceed the requirements of the modern slavery legislation. In respect of ethical sourcing, GUD has this year adopted the Sedex platform, a globally recognized platform for supplier verification, as well as an audit which will create an absolute transparency in being able to identify, remediate, and report on modern slavery risks.
The importance placed upon this impact area is clear in our sustainability report. For more detail, you should turn to our annual Modern Slavery Statement, the next of which will be published in December. The last three impact areas of energy and emissions, electric vehicle transition, and waste reflect our response to climate change. While we do not have a significant direct impact on those elements that drive climate change, but we do recognize that we must all contribute. In pursuit of that, we have identified energy consumption and emissions and waste as areas that we need to measure, monitor, and of course, seek to reduce. The impact of climate change is before our eyes daily. At GUD, we recognize the community's need to reduce carbon emissions and transition to electric vehicles.
In our sustainability report, we set our objective to actively manage our portfolio in line with car park trends and be an early mover in the EV market. Recent acquisitions and product development have shifted our underlying portfolio weighting further towards non-ICE products, and a number of our businesses are exploring and consummating opportunities in the EV aftermarket. You will hear more of this from Graeme and of course, down the track. The board has set a net carbon neutral target for GUD's distribution businesses by 2025 and GUD's manufacturing businesses by 2030. We recognize there is further work to be completed on our ESG strategy and have committed the human and financial resources needed to achieve the group's ESG aspirations. Turning now to strategy.
During the year, GUD released its portfolio vision, GUD 2025, which sets out the direction and articulation of success for the company through to 2025, and in some instances, sets objectives for 2030, which Graeme will elaborate during his address. Our portfolio vision includes our commitment to the environmental, social, and governance aspects of the corporate, a recognition that we all need to contribute to a better world. In that respect, I refer you to our sustainability report. Much of GUD's automotive aftermarket portfolio is centered around keeping the vast majority of vehicles on the road in peak running order and efficiency, although it's acknowledged that the internal combustion engine's days are definitely numbered.
Nevertheless, we are excited by the developments and opportunities available to us in those parts of the automotive aftermarket that do not necessarily rely on an internal combustion engine, and even more so in the nascent industries arising out of the move to electric vehicles. GUD made two significant acquisitions during the year. The first being Vision X, our first foray into an offshore acquisition, strengthened our investment in the automotive and specialty lighting business and represents an important pillar in one of GUD's longer term portfolio aspirations of becoming a global niche leader in automotive lighting. The acquisition of AutoPacific Group increased our exposure to the four-wheel drive SUV towing and trailering market.
The acquisition took us into a new but aligned area of activity and gave us a solid manufacturing and marketing platform upon which to allow the businesses bought in the previous financial year to flourish. It also expanded the capital base of GUD by 50% and the potential earnings by more than 60%, meaning GUD is now a much bigger company overall and less reliant on the three major automotive aftermarket retailers. Graeme will speak further to these acquisitions in his address. I welcome the employees of APG and Vision X to the GUD team. The focus on strategic planning continues. While the board expects management to drive the operational delivery in the short term, over the last three years, there has been increasing emphasis on implementing clear individual business unit strategies for the medium to long term.
We are evolving our corporate strategy, identifying the drivers of our portfolio vision, and ensuring this is understood at board level and within management as a cohesive, rational prescription for the growth of GUD's portfolio. This work is essential to ensure that we are deliberate and strategic in capital allocation decisions. The board firmly believes GUD remains well-positioned in the medium to long term. Financial performance. FY 2022 was another year of record financial performance driven by our automotive aftermarket businesses. Trading has been strong in the segment, exhibiting resilience throughout the latter stages of various government-imposed lockdowns and the impact of the Omicron COVID-19 wave, but more importantly, stepping up when supply chain and microchip shortages curtailed new vehicle supply.
However, this latter point impacted our newly acquired AutoPacific Group in the fourth quarter. Vehicle deliveries from major vehicle manufacturers in the SUV and four-wheel drive categories, in particular, stalled making production planning difficult and constraining revenue opportunity. It was this fact which caused the board's release of profit guidance in June 2022. Due credit to our management and our people, having adapted to the vagaries we are living through, they have shown resilience, care, and compassion, and yet have delivered for all of our stakeholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and of course, shareholders. During the year, we had a significant capital raising associated with the acquisition of the AutoPacific Group. The capital raising was a combination of a placement to institutions and a share entitlement offer to existing shareholders. In addition, the vendors of APG agreed to take up 10% of the purchase price in GUD shares.
As noted earlier, the acquisition and related capital raising expanded the capital base of GUD by 50% and the potential earnings by more than 60%. The acquisition came at a stretch to our borrowing capacity and leverage, so we decided to lower both the interim and final dividends to conserve cash. With strong cash conversion of the newly acquired businesses at appropriate dividend levels, the company is focused on reducing leverage in FY 2023 to a target of net debt of approximately 2x EBITDA as its main priority. We hope in future, as we achieve our targeted leverage ratio, we will resume paying a full dividend. Risk.
This year's risk reviews conducted by the Risk and Compliance Committee continue to build on, mature, and respond to evolving industry and global risks, including, but not limited to climate change, customer risks, supply chain risks, and of course, cyber risks. The global risk landscape has been challenging across multiple fronts, especially the escalating cyber threat landscape, which is constantly evolving. We continue to invest in bolstering and modernizing our cyber threat prevention and protection capabilities across the group as part of our overall approach to cyber resilience. Some of the key aspects to our cyber protection approach involves educating our people. We train all of our staff, including executives and directors, regularly on a monthly basis on their cyber awareness to ensure it is top of mind. Our critical systems are monitored.
We regularly test the resilience of our incident response processes and independently test for vulnerabilities in our perimeter systems. Earlier this year, we onboarded a dedicated head of cybersecurity who's helping to drive the ongoing improvement program. We also engage with third-party security experts and consulting groups, for example, White Box Exercise, to ensure our approach to cybersecurity is modern and effective. The board remains fully engaged throughout these types of engagements. Earlier this year, we also conducted a simulated security attack to our board. In summary, GUD remains focused on proactive and reactive risk mitigation initiatives. Just a word on remuneration. The board is aware that as at the close of proxy voting on Tuesday, the resolution in support of the Remuneration Report this year will not be passed with the requisite majority to avoid a strike.
In fact, the vote against the Rem report is in the order of 42%. The board is disappointed with this outcome, but clearly it reflects that a number of shareholders are disappointed with elements of the Remuneration Report. Your board will reflect on this feedback in the coming year. The Board Remuneration, People and Culture Committee has been engaged over the last few years reviewing and modernizing our remuneration structures, especially the variable pay, in order to attract and retain a team of talented and experienced executives to lead GUD into the future. For many years, the sole measure in our short-term incentive was CVA, which is cash value added. There are clear performance hurdles adopted and applied rigorously by the board, including requiring a 3% EBIT growth as a threshold, and that CVA growth must be positive.
The target is a confidential CVA dollar outcome, which derives from a combination of achieving EBIT growth and managing net working capital. To achieve the desired growth in CVA dollars may require an EBIT outcome significantly more than the stated 3% growth. In FY 2022, the board broadened the short-term STI structure, introducing non-financial metric targets, encouraging and rewarding executives for effort focused on our ESG priorities of employee safety, employee engagement, and ethical sourcing. We are monitoring the success of these incentives closely, but for now, we believe it represents a good start.
This year, we have introduced additional tranches to the LTI plan, one aligned with the strategic imperative to reduce GUD's dependence on revenue from products dependent upon the internal combustion engine. We also amended the long-term incentive plan in order to de-emphasize total shareholder return as a sole measure because of the vagaries of the share market, among other things, and introduced another financial performance measure, that of EPS, earnings per share growth. The performance target we have chosen in EPS growth is 4% compound growth over the three-year measurement period that equates to greater than 12% growth over the three years.
Put alongside the long-term system growth in our addressable market, which has benchmarked our car park growth and new vehicle sales, which averaged 2.1% and 0.5% annual growth respectively over the last 10 years, and less over the last five years. Your board believes this EPS growth is therefore very challenging. Indeed, your board closely reviews the targets it sets for the executives to achieve incentive payments, and believes these settings have historically been stretching. By way of example, in the last four years, the STI has been achieved in only two of those years, 2021 and 2022, and the LTI has been achieved in only two of those years, 2019 and 2022.
In response to feedback we have received recently from proxy advisors and shareholders, and of course the negative vote, your board will be reviewing the format and content of its remuneration report. In particular, considering further disclosures around the exercise of board discretion on remuneration matters in the long-term interests of the company and of course shareholders. We will consult with advisors and shareholders in the reshaping of our rem report. Just on the matter of exercise of discretion, the board did exercise discretion this year in respect of the STI outcome by deferring the release of that part of the STI outcome, which was due to be settled in deferred equity for KMPs beyond the original plan rules date of 1st July 2023.
Until such time as the GUD share price recovered to AUD 10.40, which was the price at which shareholders participated in the entitlement offer to fund the APG acquisition. This action results in approximately 25% of the total eligible STI, being a similar percentage impact seen in the share price adjustment at the time of the June earnings downgrade, being indefinitely deferred until the share price recovers to that price of AUD 10.40. Just a word on board developments. I would now like to just talk about developments in the board. In 2019, we undertook an externally facilitated board performance review, which enabled the then board to identify a number of areas where it was considered board skills and experience could be enhanced.
This led to the appointment of a well-recognized executive and board recruitment firm with whom I have worked with over the past years to bring to the board the excellent candidates we have recently appointed. Jennifer Douglas in March 2020, and Carole Campbell and John Pollaers in early 2021. Our board with these relatively new members has now worked together with management for a further 12 months. Respect and understanding continues to grow among us, as does the passion and drive to make GUD a worthy company in which employees are proud to work and shareholders are rewarded for their commitment. Early in the financial year, Anne Templeman-Jones retired from her role as non-executive director with GUD to enable her to devote more time to her other board commitments.
On behalf of your directors, I thank all staff for their effort and contribution and achievements over the last year, which has been very difficult. Our highly engaged employees enable us to deliver positive outcomes to our stakeholders. We also believe that diversity and inclusion is seen as a key driver of innovation and company performance. Our focus over many years has been to ensure that our culture fosters a high-performing and engaged workforce within each of our businesses. Naturally, I also thank shareholders for your ongoing support. Now before addressing our outlook, I invite Graeme Whickman to provide you with some more perspectives on financial, people, and operational performance of the business. Just before we do that, I'd like to share this brief video that showcases our recently acquired Vision X business. Let's take a look at the video right now.
Founded in 1997, Vision X Lighting has grown to become an industry-leading lighting manufacturer, serving over 121 countries around the globe. Originally specializing in halogen and HID products, Vision X revolutionized the lighting industry with an LED light bar for NASA's Back to the Moon mission project. Since then, it has spread its technology from off-road racing to commercial mining markets and beyond.
We spend a lot of time in the field. We spend a ton of time on research and development. We really look at ourselves as an engineering company at heart.
I mean, I think it's simple. We're always looking for the competitive advantage in any product we build. It's pretty broad, all the stuff that we do. Everywhere from motorcycles to the fire market to the marine market, mining, off-road, industrial, structural.
It's really important to us that we understand our customers' applications 100%, so then we can manufacture solutions that actually solve problems.
From 2006- 2012, Ian, the company doubled every year for those number of years. It was like, you know, what was that next catalyst?
As far as the growth from then to now, it's actually has to do with more of the demand because technology is evolving so quickly.
LED technology in general is exciting because, you know, every six months they're gaining 6% efficiency. You know, we kinda take that into the constraints when we're developing a product because it allows us to kinda move that product with the technology.
With unmatched engineering and manufacturing capabilities, Vision X continues to set the benchmark in the lighting industry. Companies who rely on their lighting for their employees' safety, health, and equipment uptime in harsh environments continue to standardize on Vision X products.
August of this year, the Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department was alerted for a child stuck in a well. We arrived on the scene, and we were able to position our squads with the high-vis lights. It lit up the entire scene, and we were able to set up all of our equipment and effect a rescue within under 10 minutes of us arriving on the scene.
Although we're a big company, we still have the same passion and the same ambition to be leaders and not followers.
Trust us to continue to light the way.
Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to address you here today. I'm pleased today to be able to provide commentary on the operating and financial performance of GUD Holdings. I'll also discuss the significant transformation our business portfolio has gone through 2022. Let me start with safety though, as per Graeme, and you've got Graeme part two here. Our ESG efforts are centered on the safety of our stakeholders at GUD, whether that's our suppliers and our customers, but primarily on our employees. The safety of the team is a key enduring focus, and one I always wish to start with our internal meetings, our board meetings, and here today at the AGM.
Now, in 2022, we'd hoped to see the many varying COVID impacts abate, and yet they intensified through late 2021 and early 2022. Therefore, the operational fitness and consequent safety focus needed the same heightened level of attention as in the previous eighteen months. Our commitment then and now is to maintain a safe working environment with a zero-harm ambition. No high consequent work-related injuries were sustained in FY 2022. The overall lost time injury frequency rate, the LTIFR, was below the Safe Work Australia industry average benchmark. Overall, however, the GUD LTIFR was 8.0, and that's higher than the previous year and simply higher than what we'd want it to be. Albeit still lower than the Safe Work Australia benchmark of 9.2.
Now, in part, this was due to the incidence of sprains and strains across the year. The concerted effort placed on the manual handling activities over the last 12 months will be increased into FY 2023 as a part of our goal to reduce the musculoskeletal injuries, which are the leading cause of these incidence rates. Now positively, our employees again rated our strong commitment to safety as the highest attribute, in fact, top quartile for the sixth year running with a score of 93% versus the international average benchmark of only 86%. Now beyond our safety focus, the health and the well-being of our people in the faces of the challenges of prolonged COVID impacts has remained the utmost priority over the year.
The peer-to-peer network support established in the early stages of COVID has been strengthened, and our recently acquired businesses are now all participating in this initiative. Broader measures of employee engagement remain strong at 76% on an annual basis above the global average of 73%, but just short of the group's top quartile ambition of 79%. I pay tribute to those people, all of them who worked incredibly hard over the past year, given the challenging environment which all our businesses employees found themselves operating within. Of course, as Graeme said, our people and our values are a source of strength for GUD. Before I start to review the operational and financial performance of GUD, it would be remiss of me not to detail the size of the portfolio transformation we've undertaken in 2022.
In fact, it was the most exciting in recent history as we started to enact the portfolio vision architected in FY 2021 and endorsed by the board in early FY 2022. At a group level, our actions and decisions are now guided by that portfolio vision. Our team are committed to making a positive impact and creating value for all stakeholders. We drive to top quartile performance in key impact areas from employee engagement all the way through to the electric vehicle transition, and we invest in people, sustainable supply chain, and smart ways to manage our footprint. At the end of the day, we want to deliver strong shareholder returns. Now our GUD 2025 plan is to double the size of our FY 2021 portfolio and position ourselves for continued growth without compromising the quality of how we deliver those results.
Now, in pursuit of the portfolio vision, there are seven strategic imperatives, and they're guiding our organic growth and acquisition planning. We see a great balance and a good balance of consistent and higher growth pathways in these imperatives. In addition, a set of 12 metrics help us keep track of our progress in that GUD 2025 plan. These metrics represents a mix of financial, strategic, and ESG key impact areas. Now, key amongst those impact areas is our environmental, social, and governance strategy, on which substantial progress has been made over the course of the year. Now the inputs gained through the structured materiality assessment which we carried out, has resulted in a high degree of clarity as to what ESG means to and for our stakeholders.
Now this information has enabled us the setting of clear targets and the definition of the key impact areas in which GUD seeks to make a real difference. These are all identified in six of our key metrics referred to in respect to that plan, which is on screen now. Now on one metric notably, the strategic acquisitions over FY 2022 have grown the non-ICE share of GUD's automotive revenue from 60% in FY 2021 to 69% in FY 2022. Our automotive businesses are really exploring and drilling down on the early mover opportunities in electric vehicles. In addition, each of the GUD businesses has conducted an emission study for the FY 2022 year to establish a new scope one and two emissions baseline.
As a first step, GUD is implementing the annual tracking of energy consumption and emissions, including our most recent acquisitions. Now, sitting alongside, the portfolio transformation has been the need to sort of upgrade, upweight, our organizational model, one that better supports the group's portfolio vision. FY 2022 has seen a progressive move towards a category structure, enabling a strong collaboration but and leverage between the businesses, the brands, all within those categories. These changes will ensure sharp management focus, and that structurally GUD is organized for success. Across the portfolio, there are three operating segments, Auto Aftermarket, APG, and Water. Within that six categories, so Four-Wheel Drive Accessories and Trailering, Lighting and Power Management, Electric Vehicles, Powertrain, Undercar, and then Davey with Water. Each of those categories is led by a highly experienced leader.
Now during FY 2022, GUD made significant progress on its strategic imperatives and metrics. You know, in reflection, the acquisition of Vision X supports the imperative to grow that leadership position in specialist lighting, and diversifies the group's geographic footprint with that beachhead in the U.S.. The acquisition of the AutoPacific Group is establishing GUD as the number two in four-wheel drive accessories and trailering in ANZ. It diversifies our product portfolio beyond the sort of wear and tear and into that growing four-wheel drive category. We acquired 19.9% of our biggest filtration supplier, including a new factory in Vietnam as part of our supplier assurance program. We increased supplier diversification. In fact, China obviously remains the largest country of product origin, but its share of total purchases is reducing, with South Korea and Thailand growing rapidly for us.
In FY 2022, we increased our automotive and APG revenue from products that don't rely on internal combustion engines from that aforementioned 60%- 69%, and that's before the full year impact of those acquisitions. We also reduced our customer concentration through a mix of organic and acquisition activities, lowering the top three share of our group revenue from 35%- 31%, and that will lower again through the full year impact. We will see more impact on the benefit of the 6,000 or so new automotive SKUs that we launched in FY 22. Now I wanna touch just a tiny bit more detail on the acquisition. The first in FY 2022 was Vision X. As Graeme mentioned, it's an offshore operation. It's a compelling business.
It's supplying harsh environment lighting solutions to automotive, to industrial, to commercial customers across the world. Even if you just took the U.S., its TAM, so its total addressable market, is sitting over AUD 3 billion. It's just opening up to us. Its high product complementation to the existing BWI operation was really one of the most attractive elements of the purchase. The first 11 months have been excellent in terms of both the integration and the performance. The acquisition of APG it was announced at the end of the first half, and when combined with GUD's existing businesses, it creates the second-largest four-wheel drive accessory and trailering business. It's a clearly differentiated number two. The TAM there, the addressable market for parts, is growing.
It's about AUD 2.5 billion. Quite an exciting, high growth oriented part of the market. APG commands a strong market share in towing, from original equipment supply, and aftermarket channels. It's got three other pillars to its business. It's got functional accessories, trailering, and cargo management, and those three also offer exciting growth opportunities for both the mid and also the long term. The integration has been progressing well, ahead of schedule actually. However, the business results have been constrained and therefore disappointing during our first 10 months of ownership. At the time of the acquisition, the already fragile supply chains weren't yet impacted by the Ukraine conflict and then the China zero-COVID approach, and of course, then therefore the accompanying lockdowns that impacted the revenue at APG.
Now, those macro events have resulted in unprecedented supply constraints of new vehicles and unmet demand and back orders at levels never seen in ANZ. Now we expect those supply constraints to unwind over the next 12-18 months and believe that that structural unmet demand will not meaningfully dissipate even in an inflationary environment, even in a lower growth environment. Strong structural demand sitting there waiting to come back on stream. Now turning to the operational review. FY 2022 was another year of operational challenge due to the ongoing COVID-19-related impacts felt here and across the globe. These challenges were met with strong operational discipline, and we're able...
We were able to sort of navigate through floods, Australian state lockdowns, Omicron waves, Ukraine conflict, China zero-COVID, such that many of our automotive aftermarket business units achieved actually record levels in terms of their performance and actually delivered a group record financial operating performance. The first half growth experienced in the aftermarket businesses was actually largely from new products, new channels and new customers, more so than typical wear and tear in consumables business. The decisions we made in the prior year to hold strong inventory levels really continued throughout FY 2022, and this allowed us to capitalize on the strong end user growth, particularly in H2, when the workshop demand from the wear-and-tear businesses started to rebound.
Now I'd like to quickly run through the aforementioned three segments to give our shareholders a little bit more color to the results and the performance. You start with the automotive aftermarket. The aftermarket is driven by the size of the car park, and also the average age. The addressable car park in Australia grew to 19.1 million units, up from 18.8 the prior year. Equally, the average vehicle age continued to support our wear-and-tear businesses. The age went up. It went from, you know, 10.5- 9 years. Therefore overall, more vehicles that on average are older are expanding the total addressable market for GUD's automotive businesses. The car park size, the age, the proliferation remain a compelling positive attribute for our automotive.
Importantly, GUD serves that car park with approximately 90,000 SKUs, of which management estimate that revenue to be about circa 80% in terms of the nondiscretionary profile of those products and services. Automotive Electrical Lighting and Power Management, or Brown & Watson International, primarily through the Narva and Projecta products in Australia, delivered strong revenue growth in FY 2022. It came from a mix of existing and new customers, and I mentioned some products and channels. We're also proud that BWI placed third in the top 10 of the manufacturing consumer goods section of the AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies, and that was a recognition of their full jump starter program using Projecta’s world patented rapid recharge technology. As an aside, something we're launching at the SEMA Show in about six or seven days.
In the powertrain category, Ryco again delivered a strong revenue growth in FY 2022. In the second half, the lockdown impact felt in the H1 started to abate, and the workshop demand was strong and vibrant. The team at Ryco were equally and especially proud, and we have our leader in the audience now of the second place they achieved in the AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies with their N99 MicroShield medical-grade air filter product. That's two of the GUD companies sitting in the top 10 AFR BOSS Innovation Company Awards. Wesfil had a tough start to the year, but managed to rebound the rebound in the workshop demand in the second half very confidently to record strong revenue growth for the full year.
They also expanded their DC network with a new Victorian warehouse to tap into the growing western Melbourne independent marketplace. IM Group experienced strong revenue growth across all the engine-related segments, and particularly the repair and remanufacturing services, including the really strong, quite exceptional growth in the heavy duty vehicle electronic repair services. We were able to continue, regardless of the COVID situation, on their planned rollout, the geographic expansion of the mechatronics repair network into Sydney, into NZ, and we're about to head into WA to follow shortly. Just moving on, but keeping IM Group in scope in terms of electric vehicles. IM Group received significant exposure and industry press on their hybrid EV battery remanufacturing program moving into commercialization stage.
This new business segment is targeting the circular economy for hybrid and EV batteries. To this end, IM Group made a small acquisition of a company called Hybrid Battery Rebuild Australia in H2 to consolidate Australia's largest hybrid EV battery remanufacturing program. From around the car point of view, well, Disc Brakes Australia had a great year. Delivered strong revenue growth. DBA's new product launch cadence continued from the Street Series disc pad program, complemented with the Street Series caliper program. Fantastic. It's around the wheel end strategy. In Australian Clutch Services delivered solid revenue growth. The business is continuing to perform very strongly, more than 18 months after acquisition. Now I turn to the APG segment. Well, the unprecedented macro impacts of the Ukrainian conflict and the China COVID compounded that already fragile supply chain.
Our OEM customers really struggling to get the supply into the ANZ markets. The first three months of the calendar year have been trending at sort of acceptable levels despite a tough January. What transpired in the June quarter was a massive supply constraint dictating the size of the new vehicle market, which in turn constrained our revenue opportunity. This constraint is reflected in the average number of days people were waiting for vehicles. It's at historic highs and remains that way. Looking ahead, we do expect to see a steady flow of sales over a number of years as those supply constraints unwind. Since acquisition, APG have encouraged and secured 68 new business awards, representing now circa AUD 18 million plus in revenue, which AUD 15 million, actually 83% of it, is incremental.
For some of us who follow us will recognize that's grown even since August. APG have delivered a defect-free on-time Ranger launch. It's increased its tow bar penetration, supports a new range of sports derivative, which is Thailand fitted. Moreover, APG have also won the Land Cruiser 300 series Nudge Bar, which is on sale now. They have a second functional accessory with Toyota to start in FY 2022. In addition to Toyota, we've also been able to win another existing OEM towing customer with a further APG functional accessory for the first time starting in calendar year 2023, which is great news. APG's largest Australian OE towing competitor announced their exit from the market and their facility closure, with all those customers resourcing their business to us, to APG.
Finally, APG have managed to step in and win new trailering contracts from Caravan and RV OEMs, which supports APG's aspirations for future growth in this category. You sort of put aside the transitional supply constraints issues. We remain excited about the future prospects for APG and its ability to capture new business. The third segment, Davey. The Davey strategic process is nearing completion under the new CEO, Val Tripp, who was appointed last year in 2021. The changes to date have involved a refresh of the senior leadership roles, an overhaul of the sales and operational planning, and a new logistics fulfillment model. Many of those activities have driven change costs that's been absorbed within the underlying result.
In particular, a profound change was required on what finished goods inventory Davey holds and where in order to address unsatisfactory customer service levels. Consequently, a substantial increase in safety inventory was taken to lift the delivery full on time, so DIFOT performance in the near term and demonstrate profound change to our resellers. The higher inventory levels enabled Davey to grow sales by just under 12% over FY 2022, although costs absorbed and much of those costs were absorbed in the additional gross margin. The impacts of the change program underway at Davey, an uncertain operating environment, and a high discount rate have been considered in our forward projections. As a consequence, in FY 2022 result, we fully impaired Davey's intangible asset carrying value, which was standing at AUD 37.5 million.
We believe this action will assist the business in resetting to achieve the midterm outcomes. Now turning quickly to the financial overview. Following two substantial acquisitions made during the financial year and the associated equity capital raising and debt funding, the financial profile of the group has changed substantially. I'd like to comment on the financial results of the group. The total group revenue increased 50% on prior year to AUD 835 million, inclusive of the part-year contributions of Vision X and APG, about AUD 35 million and AUD 133 million respectively. Excluding the year-on-year influences of acquisitions, the company achieved just under 8% organic growth from existing businesses, which included Davey. The automotive businesses reported organic growth of 6.5%, a pretty impressive feat.
The underlying earnings before interest tax and amortization increased 47% to AUD 150 million, a record performance. Underlying NPAT rose by close to 40% to nearly AUD 90 million, AUD 89 million. Reported net cash flow from operating activities was AUD 92 million, up AUD 17.6 million from the AUD 75-ish million from the prior year. Cash conversion was 79-ish% compared to the 86.5% in the prior year, and was broadly consistent with our internal expectations. During the year, the company completed an equity raise of about AUD 480 million in support of the APG acquisition. The acquisition resulted in issuance of about 45.5 million additional shares, a capital base increase of about 50%, as Graeme mentioned.
At year-end, the net debt was about AUD 467.5 million, an increase of AUD 320 million or so over the prior year, representing the funds used to acquire both Vision X and part fund APG. Now, we have unused borrowing facilities of about AUD 105.45 million as at the year-end. I should note that we are pleased with the tenor and the tranches of our external financing, with approximately 50% of it being due in 2028 or beyond, and the mix of the fixed and variable interest rates. The net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio stands at 2.36 times on a pre-lease basis. If we include the deferred vendor payment for Vision X at about 2.46.
We've stated on a number of occasions, I'll state it again, that our intention is to reduce our gearing levels in FY 2023 to a target of approximately 2.0 times. That's our financial and capital management priority in FY 2023, more so than acquisitions or indeed share buybacks. With strong cash conversion and appropriate dividend levels, the company's just focused on achieving that target. Okay, well, let's carry on. Let me touch on dividends. A final fully franked dividend of AUD 0.22 per share was paid to our shareholders and bringing the full year total to AUD 0.39, and a full year payout ratio of about 61%, call it 62% of operating NPAT.
The lower dividends per share in part reflect the expanded capital base following the equity raise and our stated desire to reduce our net debt and gearing levels in the midterm. I'll turn now to a trading update. The sales from our automotive aftermarket segment for the first quarter started positively. Across our legacy aftermarket businesses, we've seen good wear and tear repair parts demand, resulting in top-line sales being up just under double-digit percentages versus prior year. GUD's strategically higher inventory position allows our brands to capitalize on this demand, and independent workshops continue to have strong bookings and are confident about their demand. Although they remained concerned about their staffing, that same operational dynamic remains relevant to our BUs as well.
The blocking and tackling of operations continues to consume a disproportionate amount of our leaders' time. The APG segment played out as expected. Q1 OEM orders remained muted due to the component supply constraints. That said, we expected and did experience Q1 FY 2023 improve slightly versus Q4 FY 2022. The actual industry size, so the Q1 industry volumes, were actually lower than Q4 if you actually look at them. However, the new Ranger launch helped offset that supply constraint in Q1 outcome. APG rolled out their pricing as per plan across OEM and AM channels, so aftermarket channels, to offset the cost increases seen in Q4. Whilst we wait for the new vehicle supply constraints to abate, we are still firmly convinced that the deferred demand represents a strong forward revenue opportunity.
Equally, APG were delighted to fulfill their first two customer orders for modular trailer and caravan chassis, something we had previously targeted. Pleasingly, the off-road trailering business is seeing strong demand for Cruisemaster suspension products, which we're now working on further bottleneck improvement for Q3. On to Water segment. The Water segment started strongly, but actually slowed down through the final part of the quarter. This is a result of much lower European demand and domestic demand coming off a little bit in the pool segment. Cost inflation is prompting further price rises for Davey, which we are rolling out in Q2 FY 2023. If I look from an overall group point of view, and we're watching the macro environment very closely, we have year-end inventory positions and very specific targets there.
We're watching carefully as the FX moves to recent historic lows, and we will be reviewing our H2 price rises, all in the pursuit of maintaining our margin. Drawing a line under the financial results, I just wanna come back and finally say thank you to the hard work and dedication shown in the first quarter by our employees. I've mentioned the operational fitness hurdles that continue, and yet the team just keeps jumping over them. Thank you to them, and I'll hand now back to the chairman.
Why not a round of applause for Gr aeme part two?
Thanks, Graeme.
Okay, prior to addressing the various items in the business of the meeting, I'm going to provide the customary outlook for the current financial year. Graeme spoke to the trading update just before. Despite the recent changes in economic outlook, we believe the automotive aftermarket will remain robust and that the GUD portfolio is in a strong position to leverage any domestic momentum and capitalize on opportunities presented by prospective offshore markets. The automotive segment has a portfolio of strong brands selling products and services that people count on every day. 80% of our products are non-discretionary in nature. The car park continues to steadily expand in numbers and proliferation, creating a defensible position for GUD. As the average vehicle age climbs, the addressable market for wear-and-tear service and repair parts grows.
Investment in product development has long been a focus of GUD and is proving beneficial to both short and long-term outcomes. Today, multiple brands enjoy high single-digit revenue contribution from products launched in the past 12 months. Strong new product development pipelines are in place to support sales through FY 2023 and beyond. Several brands experienced early signs of success in international markets, on which we plan to build in FY 2023. Our portfolio vision and ESG strategy call for GUD to become a leader in the aftermarket for electric vehicles. This year witnessed our first forays into EV, which laid the foundation for our planning for future years. The outlook for APG is as strong as sales in the towing and trailering markets are projected to normalize in FY 2023 and 2024 to long-term trend.
During the first quarter of FY 2023, new vehicle sales have remained subdued because of constrained supply, but OEM sales backlogs remain at record levels. This deferred demand is set to be realized as the anticipated recovery to long-term trend takes hold. GUD believes that APG is in a strong position to capture this demand as the market leader in both Australia and New Zealand, and as competitors struggle with operational challenges, such as supply constraints unwind and deferred demand volumes hit the market, in addition to strong ongoing demand for new vehicles. We expect Warde will continue to consolidate their organizational changes through FY 2023. At group level, margin management will remain a key focus area. Recent acquisition contribution, some organic volume growth, and focus margin management are expected to be the key profit drivers in FY 2023.
Incremental investment is to be applied in FY 2023 to key product development, channel, and geographic efforts to support future growth. GUD anticipate inventory to remain at elevated levels to buffer against supply chain disruptions and to strategically capture share from lower stock competitors. However, we are planning for some moderation of inventory levels towards the end of FY 2023, although note that a weaker Australian dollar may impact inventory levels. Our capital management efforts are focused on reducing the net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio to circa 2x by June 2023. In terms of acquisitions, we maintain our prior view. We have clear integration plans and resources in place for Vision X as well as APG, which were the two acquisitions we made in FY 2022. The opportunities, desire, and capacity after achieving our deleveraging objective for automotive aftermarket acquisitions are unchanged.
Given the level of economic uncertainty, including currency and input price volatilities and ambiguity on when new vehicle registrations will start to return to pre-disrupted levels, it is appropriate or inappropriate to provide the market with specific earnings guidance at this time. In the meantime, management will continue to take actions to mitigate impacts from the changing conditions, including appropriate supplier cost downs and price rises to address any currency movements. Okay, now turning to the business of the meeting. There are five items of ordinary business and one item of special business to be put to the meeting. The company has received some written questions from shareholders in advance of the meeting. I trust that the presentations today contain responses adequately addressing those questions. I thank shareholders for their questions and their interest. I also invite questions on each of the items of business.
You may ask your questions from now through the online platform. They will be addressed at the relevant item during the business of the meeting or at the end of the business of the meeting. I ask that you select which particular item of business your question relates to, the dropdown list. Our company secretary, Malcolm Tyler, will be receiving your written questions lodged through the online platform. When I ask, he will read out your questions, and we get to each item of business. Alternatively, you can use our dedicated phone line to call us and ask your question live on the webcast. The number to call appears here on the screen. For those of you in the room attending this meeting in person, I ask that you come up to the microphone and, when invited, give your name and ask your question.
If your question or comment relates to another item on the agenda, please wait and raise it when we come to that item of business later in the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, in accordance with current practice, I will call for a poll on each resolution. I will hold voting on every resolution over until the end of the meeting. The status of proxies on each item of business will be shown on the screen behind me and on the screen in the online platform as we address each item in turn. To the extent that there are open proxies available to be voted by me on any item, I advise the meeting that I will vote them for each of those items on the agenda. I advise that only shareholders and proxy holders can ask questions and vote on any of the agenda items.
Item one is to receive and consider the financial report of the company and the reports of the directors and auditor for the year ended 30 June 2022. No vote is required on this item of business. However, it provides shareholders an opportunity to ask questions relating to the financial statements and reports, as well as more general questions about the management and operations of the company. You may also ask questions in relation to the conduct of the audit, the contents of the auditor's report, the company's accounting policies, and the auditor's independence. The company's auditor is here today, as I said earlier, to help answer your questions. If you have a question for the auditor, please initially address it to me as chairman of the meeting.
The company did not receive any written questions addressed to the auditor submitted by shareholders prior to the meeting. I'll now ask, do we have any questions?
Morning, Chairman. Good morning to the board. My name is Claudio Esposito. I'm from the Australian Shareholders' Association.
Good morning, Claudio. Nice to see you.
Thank you very much, Chairman. Firstly, congratulations on your financial performance for this year and also particularly with the acquisition of APG and Vision X. I do have a question on Vision X. The company had been reported to perform quite well, at 15% every year for the last three years, and I thought, given the economic circumstances we're in, I just wondered why Vision X performed so well.
Thanks, Claudio. I'll ask Graeme to respond to that.
Thank you. Thank you for the question. I'll wait for the microphone to get on. Just a second. Are we on? Nope.
No.
Try again. one, two, three.
No.
Sorry, Claudio. Just bear with us. There we go.
Yeah.
Thanks for the question. The business had seen historic growth, which was referred to in the video. That was historic in nature. Although we have come forward and shown that we've seen some decent growth year over year since continuing growth through ownership. The business is unique in that it doesn't just serve the automotive segment, it does also commercial and industrial. Where the supply constraints exist in the U.S. as an example, or even in Australia in terms of new vehicles, they're also supplying into, say, mining, which is a very strong revenue stream at the moment.
And other commercial applications. What I said earlier on about it being a really unique business supplying harsh environment lighting, it's actually got a very interesting balance of customer and channel sets, which allows us to flex depending on where the strength of the economy is. That, that's the basis of why it's seen good growth.
It invests heavily in its product, and so it's got not just that going for it as an addressable market, but also some of the products it's launched in recent times.
It's very flexible, I might add, Graeme, because, you know, given COVID and all the supply chain issues, I was very surprised that you had 15% year-on-year. Then just an acknowledgement, Chairman, if I may. So your capital raising efforts were very good. We felt you used like the pro-rata model to raise capital, which is, we think, the best and fairest way of doing that. I just might add, if I may, Chairman, perhaps we would love if you would give the shareholders an opportunity to sell their rights for those non-participating shareholders. It's just a way of not allowing those shareholders to be diluted when you do raise capital. Otherwise, it's
Yeah.
We appreciate that. Thank you.
Thanks, Claudio. Moderator, are there any questions?
Mr. Chairman, we have a question from shareholders, Mr. Leslie Fenech and Mrs. Stella Fenech. The question they ask is: What is the gearing ratio as a percentage, please?
I'll ask our CFO, Martin Fraser, to respond to that question.
Good morning, Leslie and Stella. Thank you for your question. It's a very insightful one. We do have three covenants that we adhere to as part of our banking covenant. Your question speaks to one.
Spot on.
...which is debt to net debt plus equity. At the end of FY 2021, that ratio was 30%. As a result of the capital raise and the business purchases and a conscious decision to push the level up because of the very strong cash generative nature of Vision X and APG, that 30% rose to 36% at the end of FY 2022, and if you include the deferred vendor payment for Vision X, that would be 37%, and that's pretty much in line with what we expected we would achieve in June 2022. There is a considerable headroom between that 36% or 37% and the banking covenant we have. There are two other banking covenants, and I'm not gonna quote them and quote the percentages because the banks might get upset if we've got more favorable conditions than the rest of the customers.
Just to say we do have considerable headroom on all three measures. You know, the shareholders should take comfort that we are in good shape in respect of our gearing and our capacity to go forward to borrow more money, should we need to, for short or long-term purposes in the near term, Chairman.
Thanks for that, Martin. Any further questions, moderator?
Mr. Chairman, I have a question here from Mr. Stephen Mayne. He asks in relation to the capital raise last year, you limited the ability to apply for additional shares to just 15% of entitlement in last year's AUD 405 million capital raising. This should have been a renounceable offer to treat shareholders equally. Having decided to make it non-renounceable, the unfair limit on applying for additional shares just guaranteed a big retail shortfall for the underwriters, which ended up being AUD 55.8 million.
Good morning, Stephen. Thanks for your question. I will ask our CFO, Martin Fraser, to respond.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, Chairman. As the issue went ahead, we purposely reserved a significant amount of shares for retail shareholders, including an ability to subscribe more. As it occurred, a number did. Very, very few shareholders sought to achieve more than they got. It's literally a handful of shareholders. We did not fully use that retail allotment, and we didn't anticipate we would. We over-reserved in case there was demand that exceeded our perception of what it would be, and we were very happy with the way that played out. I think broadly speaking, that's been the feedback I've taken from shareholders who've spoken to me. Thank you, Chairman.
Thanks, Martin.
Mr. Chairman, I have one more question from Mr. Stephen Mayne. How much was Macquarie Group paid as an advisory fee on the APG acquisition, in addition to the minimum 2% fee or AUD 8.1 million that it shared with Citi to underwrite and manage the AUD 405 million capital raising? The board had discretion to pay an additional 0.25% or AUD 1 million fee at the end of the capital raising. Was this fee paid? If so, why was it paid, given that the retail offer finished AUD 55.8 million short?
There's a lot of information in that question, Stephen. I will ask Martin to respond, but part of that is probably classified information. Martin?
Yes. We're not gonna go into absolute numbers because that element is classified, and I don't necessarily nor do I think the investment bankers want others to know what they're paid for at that level of detail. I want to leave myself wiggle room to negotiate tightly with our investment bankers in the future if need be. It's also in the company's best interest not to be so granular with the detail. I think I can make a qualitative assessment, and some comments. Yes, there was a discretionary fee paid. Yes, it was a modest sum.
Yes, we had qualitative benchmarks we defined prior that would guide that decision, and they were around things like making a large amount available to the retail shareholders, which we did, and we were very happy with the way that played out, as well as qualitative objectives for the new shareholder, new institutional shareholders that came to the register. Also not being in a position where shares were just sent off to an underwriter with a shareholder coming in who might have a short-term perspective towards that shareholding. We really wanted to bring in shareholders that were going to endure with GUD for a significant period of time, and we're exceptionally happy with the quality of those additional shareholders.
I would say a number of institutional shareholders either didn't get shares or didn't get the quantity of shares they wanted to, which is evidence of that qualitative outcome, Chairman.
Thanks, Martin.
Mr. Chairman, I have no further questions on this item of business.
Thanks, Malcolm. Okay, I remind you all that if you have questions you wanna put to the company, you may submit them now. To ask a question, press on the speech bubble icon in the online platform app. This will open a new screen. At the bottom of that screen, there is a section for you to type your question. Please select the item of business relevant to your question from the dropdown list. This will assist in responding to the question. Once you have finished typing, please hit the arrow symbol to send. Please note that you can submit questions at any time on any item of business. I will try and address them when we come to the relevant item of business and towards the end of the meeting when we will have more time for questions. Alternatively, you may wish to ask a question verbally.
The number to call appears here on the screen. Are there any further questions?
David Dracott's my name.
Morning, David.
Hi, Graeme.
Nice to see you.
You had a matrix of objectives in your GUD 2025 slide, and I was just wondering if you're gonna report on each of those individually each year in terms of your progress against those objectives.
It's a good question, David. Graeme, can I ask you to respond, please?
Thanks. Thanks for the question, David. The short answer is yes. We put those targets there as our aspiration at the time when we architected the FY 2021 period for what we saw as GUD 2025. Some of them you'd argue are a bit more qualitative than quantitative, but we would fully intend because that's what I said earlier on, our aspiration around the size and the shape, but also the quality of the operation. Simple answer, yes.
Thanks, Graeme. Claudio, another question.
Thank you, Chair. Just a question on cybersecurity, if I may. Just in light of the incidents that have occurred with Optus and Medibank, sorry. I know I'm not sure what the security risks are for GUD in terms of cybersecurity, but just in light of what happened, have you felt that you needed to make some changes to your cybersecurity at all or?
Look, perhaps I can say some opening comments. What I can tell you, Claudio, is it's been an absolute priority for us. We continue to work in the area. We have used external consultants. I think I said earlier on in my address that executives as well as directors have been through training on a pretty regular basis. We continue to shore up the company, if you like. You know, in the future, if we do experience a cyberattack, it won't be for want of trying to shore up the security. A lot of work. The short answer is a lot of work has been done in the area and continues to be done.
Sure. Okay. Thanks very much, Chair.
Okay. Thanks, Claudio. Okay. If there are no further questions or comments, we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the election of directors. For this item, which relates to the resolution for my re-election as a director, I will pass the conduct of the meeting to Mr. David Robinson, Chairman of the Remuneration, People and Culture Committee. Over to you, Dave.
Thank you, Graeme. In accordance with Rule 34C of the company's constitution, Mr. Graeme Billings retires by rotation and being eligible to do so, offers himself for re-election. No other nomination has been received, and consequently, no other person is eligible for election as director. Details of Mr. Billings' experience and qualifications are set out in the notice of meeting. I invite Mr. Billings to address the meeting in respect of the motion for his re-election.
Thanks, David. I've written some notes here, so I don't wanna miss anything. Firstly, I just feel really excited to put myself up for re-election to the board of GUD. As I sit here before you, I reflect on the recent years and the progress the company has made during that time. The group has changed. It has transitioned into a very strong and robust automotive aftermarket company with a view to the future. Recognition of climate change and the role that we play as a board and as a company in shaping the future of the environment will continue to be a priority for us. Water usage and how we use it, as well as the emergence of EV, will play a major role in the safety of our environment. It's exciting times.
Our company is well-placed to pursue real progress in these areas. Our board plays a major role in this pursuit. I'm proud to say that the board of GUD is a high-performing board made up of astute directors who continue to challenge the status quo. It's no coincidence that the strong organic growth, along with recent acquisitions, have literally changed the company's DNA. This, together with our portfolio vision being executed in a compelling and responsible manner, speaks volumes about our board and of course, our senior management team. Our board continues to work well together as we guide management and challenge management to be the best version of themselves that they can be. On a personal note, I continue to bring leadership and balance to the board and the company.
I also bring finance skills, governance skills, business and commercial acumen, M&A experience, as well as good old common sense. In honoring my commitment I made last year, I stepped off two public company boards to free up some time. This has provided me with even more time to spend on GUD and my other commitments. Finally, I continue to be highly motivated to help ensure GUD provides outstanding shareholder returns to all of our stakeholders. I remain independent at all times and continue to make decisions objectively without fear or favor. I seek your support to be re-elected to the board of GUD. Thank you.
Well done, Graeme. Thank you very much. The resolution for item two is set out on the screen behind me and appears online. Ladies and gentlemen, the details of the proxies received in relation to this item are now displayed on the screen behind me and online. I remind shareholders attending online that you may submit questions at any time by pressing on the speech bubble icon in the online platform app. To assist on the app, please select the item of business relevant to your question from the dropdown list. Additionally, you may verbally ask questions through the telephone line. Those shareholders present personally and wishing to ask a question should stand and proceed to the microphone. Are there any questions of myself or Mr. Billings?
Mr. Chairman, we have received a question from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Having served on the board since 2011, could Graeme please clarify if this will be his final three-year term on the board? Does he have a successor in mind?
Thanks for your question, Stephen. Let me take the second part of that question first. Succession planning is something that the board regularly reviews. We look at the future, we look at the current terms of the current directors. We look when we see directors are coming up for re-election. We put plans in place. Those plans are not for public admission today. As is my intentions going forward, this would be a three-year term. That would mean that I've probably been on the board for something like 14 years. Time, I think, would be marching on, Stephen. Let me leave it open at this point, but certainly I would seriously consider reviewing the situation.
Thank you, Chairman. We have no further questions.
Okay. Are there any other questions? Well, ladies and gentlemen, if there are no further questions, we will proceed with the resolution. Your directors, other than Mr. Billings, of course, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution to elect Mr. Graeme Billings as a director of the company. I will now put the resolution to the meeting. In accordance with current practice, I call for a poll on this motion and hold voting on this resolution over until the end of the meeting. We will proceed to the next item on the agenda. To do so, I now hand you back to our chairman, Mr. Billings. Thank you.
Thanks, David. We'll now move to the next item on the agenda, item number three, which is the adoption of the company's 2022 remuneration report. Please note that the vote on this item is advisory only. However, the board takes the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing the remuneration practices and policies of the company. The remuneration report is set out on pages 40- 55 of the 2022 annual report. Additional statutory information in relation to the remuneration of key management personnel is included in note 32 to the financial statements. The remuneration of the non-executive directors, as recommended in the ASX corporate guidance guidelines, is by way of fixed remuneration and has no incentive element.
On the other hand, remuneration of the company's senior executives has a fixed element and variable elements comprising a short-term incentive based on achieving predetermined financial and non-financial performance criteria, and a long-term incentive related to the total shareholder return on the company's shares. Both the short-term and long-term performance incentives have considerable at-risk benefits. Your board reviews the remuneration policy and the incentive elements annually. While we believe that our remuneration policy and outcomes are appropriate, taking into consideration the feedback we received over time when speaking with major shareholders and proxy advisors, your board regularly reviews the remuneration policy with a view to ensuring the most appropriate outcome for shareholders, including alignment of executive interests with those of shareholders. The most recent review concluded that the fixed element of remuneration was market competitive and that the variable components were, if anything, slightly below market benchmarks.
We introduced for the 2022 financial year an additional incremental element to the STI plan. This element allows executives to potentially earn an additional 20% of fixed remuneration in the form of deferred equity for meeting certain objectively measurable non-financial criteria. While these non-financial criteria may change at the discretion of the board, the three criteria selected to apply for the FY 2022 year and repeated again for the FY 2023 year were broadly safety, employee engagement, and ethical sourcing. This year, we have reviewed the long-term incentive structure. As you will have noted later in the meeting, we will seek approval of the grant of long-term performance share rights to the managing director.
That resolution reflects the adoption of three tranches of the grant, two with financial performance criteria, TSR and EPS, and one with non-financial performance criteria, which is the reduction in reliance within the group on revenue from products. These measures and the achievement or otherwise of them will be described in more detail in next year's remuneration report. We will continue to look for innovative ways to attract and retain talented executives to your company, including from time to time, reviewing the remuneration structure, all the while with the interests of shareholders in mind. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that the proxy voting on this resolution to approve the remuneration report this year will result in a strike. Your board is disappointed with this outcome and thanks those shareholders who did support the board on this resolution.
I've already spoken that we will consult with advisors and shareholders in reviewing the format and content of the REM report for next year. The resolution on item three appears now on the screen behind me and online. The details of the proxies received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen behind me and online. I remind shareholders online that you may submit questions at any time by pressing on the speech bubble icon in the online app. To assist on the online app, please select the item of business relevant to your question from the dropdown list. Additionally, you may verbally ask questions through the telephone line. Those shareholders present personally and wishing to ask a question should stand and proceed to the microphone. Are there any questions? Claudio.
Chairman, we're aware that GUD had sort of taken steps to modernize their remuneration this year, and we were a little bit surprised at the change within the STI and the LTI, the increase in the quantum, but we understand that it's within the benchmark. Now I don't know why the increase, because I thought it was a little bit significant and I don't know if you hadn't kept up with benchmarks in the past or if it's some other reason. But yeah, that's just one sort of area that we sort of felt was a little bit of a surprise to us. The other thing I wanted to say was with regards to the REM, you've the LTI portion in particular.
You've got the RTSR, which sort of measures your performance against your peers, and you've added an ESG component, which is great. You've got that EPS. I just wondered how you guys come up with a suitable EPS, something that's challenging or do you compare it to previous year's performance? How do you think about that EPS target?
A great deal of thought has gone into it, Claudio. We've looked at our performance over the years in terms of EPS. We look at the market conditions. We look at the current businesses. There is a lot of thought that goes into it. We think the numbers where we landed this year were a stretch, a challenge. You know, you're looking at 4% compound, maximum 8%. That translates into quite stretched targets in terms of share price.
4% compound is?
Yes.
Okay.
We think it's appropriate, and so based on all of that thought, talking to others, that's where we landed.
I might have missed it. Was it in the annual report?
Yes.
Where you mentioned the 4% compounding? Okay.
Yeah.
All right. No worries. We also wanted to acknowledge that you've put an ESG component. You've attached it to the STI and the LTI, which we think is good. It just shows that you're thinking of.
Good. Thank you.
You're incentivizing your executives.
Yeah.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Claudio. Moderator, are there any other questions?
Mr. Chairman, we have one question on this item from shareholders. This question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. He says, "The likes of SEEK, Dexus, Brambles, Afterpay, AusNet, and other companies have disclosed the proxy votes to the ASX before the AGM starts, along with the formal addresses. Will the board agree to do this next year so that interested shareholders and other stakeholders have an early insight into the proxy position before the AGM debate commences?
We do. We show those results as we move through the meeting. I'm happy to take that on board. I don't see any real reason to change that, but more than happy to take it on board. No further questions. Thank you. We will now proceed with the resolution on item three. I advise that any votes by directors and other Key Management Personnel or any of their closely related parties will be disregarded except in relation to votes available to be cast as a proxy for another person who is entitled to vote. As your directors are not eligible to vote on this item of business, they make no recommendation on it. I will now put the resolution to the meeting.
In accordance with current practice, I call for a poll on this motion and hold voting on this resolution over until the end of the meeting. We will proceed to the next item on the agenda. We now move to item four of the business of the meeting. Item four on the agenda is an ordinary resolution regarding the approval of an LTI equity grant to the Managing Director, Graeme Whickman, under the terms of the company's long-term incentive equity plan. A detailed explanation of this resolution was set out in the explanatory notes accompanying the notice of meeting. Under this structure, Graeme Whickman has a maximum long-term incentive set at 80% of his FY 2023 fixed remuneration, which, subject to meeting the performance hurdles, will be delivered in equity in three years' time.
The maximum incentive grant for FY 2023 is 92,336 performance share rights, calculated as 80% of his FY 2023 fixed remuneration, divided by the volume-weighted average price of GUD's shares in the month of June 2022, which equates to AUD 9.4276. Such an incentive of the managing director and other senior executives is common in publicly listed companies, necessary to attract and retain the executive talent considered by the board as crucial to the delivery of sustainable long-term shareholder wealth. Typically, these incentives are designed to align the interests of executives, in this case, the managing director, with the interests of shareholders. That is, the benefit of this incentive will only vest for Graeme if the performance criteria are met.
In reviewing the structure of the LTI plan, this year, your board introduced three tranches of the grant and two additional performance criteria. The first tranche, accounting for 40% of the total grant or a maximum of 36,934 shares, has the familiar performance criteria, that is, that total shareholder return of GUD, that is, the share price increase of GUD plus dividends paid over the next three years equals or exceeds the median total shareholder return of a comparator group. At equal to the median, 45% of the shares represented by that tranche, that is 16,620, will vest. When the GUD total shareholder return significantly outperforms, Graeme Whickman receives an increasing amount of those shares up to the maximum amount of 36,934 shares at the 75th percentile.
That is, the company has outperformed over three years 75% of the other stocks in the comparator group. The second tranche, again counting for 40% of the total grant or a maximum of 36,934 shares, has a new performance criterion requiring the managing director to drive to achieve earnings per share cumulative annual growth over the three-year performance measurement period. 16,626 shares, which represents 45% of the tranche will vest if GUD achieves a compound annual growth rate of 4% per annum, and the maximum 36,934 shares will vest if the compound annual growth rate equals or exceeds 8% per annum. Earnings per share used for the calculation is the underlying basic earnings per share, which is reported to the ASX when our financial statements are released.
There was an error in the notice of meeting, which I should point out, the base point of underlying basic earnings per share for FY 2022 is AUD 0.749 per share. That is the correct amount. To give some clarity for shareholders, the underlying basic earnings per share would need to grow to AUD 0.8425 per share in FY 2025 for the threshold vesting to result. It would need to grow to AUD 0.9435 per share in FY 2025 for the maximum vesting under this tranche. The third tranche reflects, in part, GUD's sustainability challenge and target to acknowledge and gradually wean itself off of reliance upon revenue from internal combustion engines dependent sources.
To understand the situation better, our sustainability report on page 31 of our annual report discloses the target of for GUD to have 75%+ of its automotive revenue from non-ICE by June 2025 and 85%+ by 2030. Under this tranche of the long-term incentive, accounting for 20% of the total grant or a maximum of 18,468 shares, the board has set management a challenge to get not to 75%+ by 2025, but to get to 79% by 2025, which is the threshold to achieve partial vesting of shares, in brackets, 45% of the tranche or 8,310 shares under this grant.
To achieve maximum vesting of 18,468 shares under this tranche, the board has set the target at 81% of automotive revenue from non-ICE by June 2025. It's clear that Graeme only benefits when he delivers significant sustainable value to shareholders, and that is the way it should be. I hope you made notes of all of that. Consequently, your directors, other than the managing director, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. The resolution for item four is set out on the screen behind me and online. Ladies and gentlemen, the details of the proxies received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen behind me and online.
I remind shareholders that you may submit questions at any time by pressing on the speech bubble icon in the online app, or verbally on the telephone line, or for those present in the room, at the microphone. Are there any questions?
Mr. Chairman, I have no question from shareholders on this item.
Thanks, Malcolm. Okay. If there are no questions, I will now put the resolution to the meeting. In accordance with current practice, I call for a poll on this motion and hold voting on this resolution over until the end of the meeting. We will proceed to the next item on the agenda. Item 5 on the agenda is an ordinary resolution regarding the approval of an award of deferred equity to the managing director under the terms of the short-term incentive plan. Under the short-term incentive plan, the board determined to introduce for the 2022 financial year an additional incremental element to the STI plan. This element allows the managing director to potentially earn an additional 30% of fixed remuneration in the form of deferred equity for meeting certain objectively measurable non-financial criteria.
For any deferred equity to be awarded, the financial metric target for the CVA cash component must have first been met. The three non-financial performance criteria selected by the board to apply for the 2022 financial year were broadly safety, employee engagement, and ethical sourcing. Threshold performance was achieved or exceeded on two of these metrics. Accordingly, 16.2% of TFR being 54% of the maximum potential award of the deferred equity component of Graeme Whickman's FY 2022 STI opportunity is eligible to be awarded in restricted shares.
This equates to 18,047 shares to be registered in the name of the managing director, subject to the holding lock noted in the explanatory notes, until the latter of 1st of July 2023 and Graeme Whickman must remain employed in the GUD group and the date the GUD share price recovers to AUD 10.40. I should mention again that the board exercised discretion in this matter, inserting the additional condition for release that the GUD share price recovered at AUD 10.40, being the price that shareholders paid in the equity raise last December. The board considers that deferral aligning with shareholder experience is most appropriate. In conclusion, Mr. Whickman has earned this benefit under the short-term incentive scheme, but must wait before he realizes the benefit in full.
Consequently, your directors, other than the managing director, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. The resolution for item five is set out on the screen behind me and online. Ladies and gentlemen, the details of the proxies received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen behind me and online. I remind shareholders that you may submit questions at any time by pressing on the speech bubble icon in the online app and verbally on the telephone line or for those present in the room, at the microphone. Are there any questions? Malcolm, are there any questions?
Mr. Chairman, I have one question from shareholders on this item. This question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. When disclosing the outcome of voting on resolutions, including this STI grant, 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.
Number of shareholders that was. Yes. Look, thanks for your question, Stephen. It's probably. I don't think it's actually relevant in the circumstances. However, we will take that on board and review that scenario. Thank you. Okay. If there are no further questions, I'll now put the resolution to the meeting. In accordance with current practice, I call for a poll on this motion and hold voting on this resolution until the end of the meeting. We will proceed to the next item on the agenda. We will now move to item six, which is a special resolution regarding the approval by shareholders of the giving of financial assistance by AutoPacific Group. AutoPacific Group Topco Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries are wholly owned subsidiaries of the company following the acquisition earlier this year.
This resolution and the giving of financial assistance by the AutoPacific Group is necessary in support of the company's obligations under its banking facilities. On the fourth of January 2022, the company acquired all of the shares in AutoPacific Group Topco Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries. AutoPacific Group Topco Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries are to become guarantors under the company's banking facilities. The banks are concerned that in doing so, the company may be in breach of the financial assistance provisions of the Corporations Act and hence request the company submit this resolution to shareholders to approve that financial assistance. The explanatory notes to the meeting have gone into some detail on the resolution, but I do invite shareholders to ask any questions that may still remain. Your directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution.
The resolution for item six is now set out on the screen behind me and online. Ladies and gentlemen, the details of the proxies received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen behind me and online. I remind shareholders that you may submit questions at any time by pressing on the speech bubble icon in the online app or verbally on the telephone line, or for those present in the room, at the microphone. Are there any questions?
Mr. Chairman, I have no questions from shareholders on this item.
Thanks, Malcolm. Okay, if there's no further or if there are no questions, I'll now put the resolution to the meeting. In accordance with current practice, I call for a poll on this motion and hold voting on this resolution over until the end of the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the resolutions to be put to the meeting. I will now proceed with the poll on all resolutions. I now call a poll on items two, three, four, five, and six. First, I will take you through the polling procedures for those present in the room. For those online, please follow the instructions online to record your votes. If there is any person present who believes they are entitled to vote but has not yet registered to vote, would you please raise your hand for assistance?
The persons entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, representatives, and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders who hold blue admission cards. On the reverse of your blue admission card is your voting paper and instructions. Today, we will be conducting a poll in relation to item number two, the re-election of myself, the Chair. Item three, the remuneration report. Item four, the grant of LTI grant to Managing Director, Graeme Whickman. Item five, the award of STI deferred equity to the Managing Director. Item six, financial assistance, banking facilities, and AutoPacific Group acquisition. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a submission of the voting instructions of their appointer. If you are a proxy holder and have received instructions on how to vote, by completing the voting card, you will be deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions.
In respect of any open votes a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Proxy holders should refer to the summary of proxy votes form attached to your voting paper for further information. Shareholders also need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. When you have finished filling in your voting paper, please retain it until the end of the meeting, at which time it will be collected by the share representative and lodged in a ballot box to ensure your votes are counted.
Ladies and gentlemen, the counting of the votes will take a little time, so I'll give the meeting ample warning of the close of the polls. In the meantime, we've got further time now to devote to hearing and responding to any further questions. Please? None on.
Mr. Chairman, I have four questions from shareholders that may be of relevance to this meeting. The first question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, could the Chair undertake to make an archived copy of the webcast plus a full transcript of proceedings available on the company's website? Thank you for past access to webcasts, but will you commit to also publishing a full transcript?
Yeah. Thanks for your question, Stephen. Certainly, the webcast is put onto the company website. Everyone has access to that, along with the chairman's address and managing director's address as well.
Mr. Chairman, I have another question. This question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Private equity firm PEP was issued AUD 75 million worth of GUD shares at a nominal price of AUD 11.56 as part of the AUD 744 million AutoPacific acquisition in December last year and was required to keep the stock until late August this year. The stock is now at AUD 7.65. Has PEP still retained this holding or has it been sold?
Well, thanks, Stephen, for another question. I will ask our CFO, Martin Fraser, to respond.
Yeah, thank you very much, Chairman. I won't talk to the absolute numbers because PEP can talk to their absolute numbers. As a come-public company, if you went to their register, you would see they have sold a relatively minor amount, and they kept the vast majority. That move does not in any way surprise me because PEP was not investing as one party. They were managing funds on behalf of a number of investors. It's natural that not all of their investors will have exactly the same view after the lock-up period has ended.
Thanks, Martin.
Mr. Chairman, I have a further question from Mr. Stephen Mayne. The federal government has recently introduced some new industrial relations legislation which peak business bodies are objecting to. What is the GUD situation with industrial relations? Do we have any or many certified enterprise agreements? And which unions do we mainly deal with?
This is a question, I think, for the managing director. This is far above my pay grade. Over to you, Graeme.
Thank you for that question, Stephen. Given we have upwards of 20 different businesses with very different operating profiles, suffice to say that we do have a mix of labor that work to different enterprise agreements. We have a number of EBAs, not at all prolific across the workforce. We are in many cases year two into the EBA. Most of the EBAs that are in place actually have been in place for about a year or so. The major unions we deal with are the manufacturing related unions, frankly. We don't actually have a significant unionized workforce across the majority of our businesses. We are watching currently some of the IR work. We have independent experts who assist us with our point of view.
We're watching to see how that unfolds.
Thanks, Graeme.
Mr. Chairman, I have one final question from shareholders online. This question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. GUD is quite a strange name for a company and not very attractive. It's also not a product brand. Given our big push into automotive parts, have we given consideration to a rename that is relevant to our evolving business?
That's a really interesting question. It wasn't that long ago that I think all the board having conversation about what does actually GUD mean. What do those three letters mean? No one seemed to know. Granted, it is, it seems to be a trend in recent years to change names and to reflect more clearly what the products are. I'd be interested to hear from Graeme on this one. It's a good question.
Again, just thank you. Look, I've got a philosophical response to that. Actions speak louder than words and names don't necessarily define outcomes. That, that's my philosophical perspective. Having said that, though, it isn't lost on the board at the moment that perhaps a more intuitively understood nomenclature or name might be more reasonable path, but it's not the highest priority. Right now, the priority, as we've stated, is the blocking and tackling of managing the macro de-leveraging and prosecuting our portfolio vision. Perhaps watch this space, Stephen.
They are absolutely our priorities. That's it, Malcolm?
No further questions, Chairman.
Thank you. Thank you. As there are no further questions, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. Shortly, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. I will now pause for a minute to allow you to finalize those votes. While we give those shareholders time, I've got a short video here from our recent acquisition, AutoPacific Group.
I've been running from 95. Been biting my tongue for all this time. Won't let anyone cut me short. I was thinking this was the way to go. You put up your comfort zone. When the kid is too loud. No, I'll be no good, man. Just leave me alone. I'm learning your show. I'm telling you, it's my time to rise up. Live the life I'm proud of. No, you better go. I'm telling you, it's my time to rise up. Live the life I'm proud of. I woke up, sun in my eyes. Forgot all about what I did last night. What I do remember is that it was real loud. Talks about me are never good. I don't live life the way that I should. Oh, well. I'm in for some fun tonight. Just leave me alone. I'm learning your show.
I'm telling you, it's my time to rise up. Live the life I'm proud of. No, you better go. I'm telling you, it's my time to rise up. Live the life I'm proud of.
Okay, I hope you enjoyed that video. I think it's a great video. It tells you a lot about the APG. Voting is now closed. The results of the poll will be announced via the ASX later today. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you on behalf of the board for your attendance today. I now declare this meeting closed. A copy of this webcast will be available or viewing on the company's website later today, as I said. Please enjoy the rest of your day. For those of you in this room, please join us for a coffee outside and a further conversation. Thank you very much.