Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tim Crommelin, and I chair the Eagers Automotive Limited Board. I'd like to welcome you to the company's 67th annual general meeting since Eagers listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1957. It is 10:00 A.M. here in Brisbane, and the Company Secretary, Denis Stark, has advised that a quorum is present, and I therefore declare this meeting open. This meeting is being held as a hybrid meeting, with shareholders attending in person and online. My fellow directors here with me in Brisbane today are Nick Politis, Dan Ryan, Marcus Birrell, Michelle Prater. Greg Duncan joins us from Sydney. Sophie Moore, our Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer, is here in Brisbane. It's also Sophie's birthday today, so happy birthday, Sophie. And Katie McNamara. A special welcome to Katie. She's three along on my left there.
Katie was recently appointed as an independent director, and this is her first AGM with us. Our Chief Executive Officer, Keith Thornton, is here with us in Brisbane, and as always, it's pleasing to see senior management. We're represented by Denis Stark, our Company Secretary, Edward Geschke, our Chief Operating Officer, Allison Reynolds, the Executive General Manager, People and Safety, Paul Warburton, Executive General Manager, Financial Services. Luke Derrick is our Chief Information Officer, Amanda Ellison, General Counsel, and James Cowper, our Chief Commercial Officer. Welcome also to a couple of former directors. I see up the back there, Tony Love, shareholder and former director. Hello, Tony, and welcome, and Martin Ward, of course, former managing director and shareholder. I'd also like to acknowledge Dr. Alan Porter, who's in the front row here, and a large shareholder and certainly a very long-time supporter of Eagers. Welcome to you all.
David Rodgers and Marinus Schoeman, representing our auditor, Deloitte, join us. David joins us online from Hong Kong. So hello, David. A bit earlier in the morning for you, while Marinus is here in Brisbane. David and Marinus will be available later in the meeting to answer any questions on audit matters. The secretary has advised that Robin Piper is an apology. Are there any other apologies that anyone would like to note? Any other apologies you have, Denis? No, we don't. Shareholders, as this is a hybrid meeting, I need to run through a few procedural matters, so please bear with me. Only shareholders and their representatives and attorneys and proxyholders attending in person and holding a blue admission card, and those attending online, are entitled to ask questions and vote today. For all attendees here in person, to ask a question, you need to raise your hand.
When I invite questions, wait for the microphone, state your name before asking the question. Online attendees can submit questions at any time by selecting the Q&A icon on your device. Select the relevant topic from the dropdown list, then type your question and press the Send button. Online attendees can also ask verbal questions by following the instructions below the broadcast window. Although online questions can be submitted at any time, I will address them at the relevant time during the meeting. If similar questions are received, we will try to group them together. I will ask James Cowper, our Chief Commercial Officer, Keith Thornton here, to introduce the online questions at an appropriate time. All voting today will be conducted by a poll, and I will open voting shortly. For attendees present in person, your blue admission card is your voting card.
You'll need to follow the instructions on the card, mark the appropriate boxes, and lodge the card in the ballot box before voting closes. Proxy holders who lodge voting cards will be deemed to have voted in accordance with the instructions attached to their card. Proxy holders entitled to cast open votes will need to mark a box beside the relevant motion to indicate how they wish to vote. For all attendees online, a voting icon will appear at the top of your screen when voting opens. Click on the icon, click on the icon, and we'll present your voting options for each motion. Simply select one of the options and follow the instructions to cast your vote. You may change your vote at any time until I declare voting has closed.
All attendees, whether online or in person, may submit votes at any time from when voting opens until I declare voting has closed. Finally, I appoint Lewis Superina of Computershare Investor Services. Lewis is somewhere, is he? There's Lewis in the back left-hand corner. Lewis is from Computershare Investor Services, and he will conduct the poll and be the returning officer. I now declare voting open on all items of business. Voting is now open. Before we proceed with today's formal business, I will present my report on 2023, and Keith will present his report, including comment on the current year. I now move to my report. Welcome once again to all shareholders. 2023 was another strong year for Eagers Automotive....
With the company's financial performance reaching record levels across a number of key metrics while continuing to execute on our Next100 Strategy. The company delivered against its growth ambitions with a record full year revenue of AUD 9.9 billion, representing significant revenue growth of 15.3%. That is AUD 1.3 billion above the year 2022. This revenue growth was achieved through a balanced contribution from organic growth, establishing greenfield businesses, and integrating scale acquisitions, whilst maintaining strong sales margins through disciplined cost management and genuine business transformation since pre-COVID period. Eagers Automotive delivered a statutory profit before tax of AUD 427.3 million, and a record underlying operating profit before tax of AUD 433.3 million, an increase of 6.9% on the previous year.
As a result of the strong returns, the board approved a record full-year dividend of AUD 0.74 versus AUD 0.71 per share for the year ending 2022. Sustainability and ESG. In 2023, we continued to make progress on sustainability or environmental, social, and governance initiatives, ESG. Our sustainability strategy acknowledges that we cannot thrive without focusing on people, our environmental footprint, and a resilient business model. In 2023, we moved forward in cementing awareness of our strategy across the group and identifying the actions needed to progress our sustainability goals. As this is a long-term trajectory, we have therefore established a Sustainability Steering Committee to oversee our progress. Before I hand over to Keith, let me give you a sense of our start to the new year.
We are a consumer-facing business, and therefore, we're not immune from the well-documented economic conditions, including inflation, interest rates, and cost of living pressures which impact consumer spending. We also continue to deal with government zero emissions policies, which have implications for many businesses across many industries. While the board and management remain conscious of the macro environment, it is vital that we continue to focus on what is within our control, so that we are able to deliver a sustainable business into the next decade and beyond. The strength of our balance sheet and our financial position, including our significant property holdings, form a strong platform for further disciplined investment in accordance with our Next100 Strategy. The company remains well-positioned to take advantage of industry opportunities as they present. Eagers Automotive track record of delivering consistently strong results does not happen by chance.
The financial performance achieved in 2023 is testament to the people who make Eagers such a unique, industry-leading company. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the entire Eagers team, the executives led by Keith Thornton, and all of our people for their dedication and unwavering commitment to the ongoing prosperity of Eagers Automotive and its shareholders. Thank you to my fellow directors for your ongoing support and counsel. And finally, to our shareholders, thank you for your continued support. We will continue to focus on delivering for all shareholders. I now invite Keith Thornton, our Chief Executive Officer, to provide his report, and, following, Keith's address, we'll move on to the formal business of the meeting.
Well, thank you, Chairman, and good morning, all shareholders and guests, and thank you for your interest in today's Annual General Meeting for Eagers Automotive. I do note, I think this is our first full house, so we really do appreciate your interest today. Today, I'm gonna provide a brief review of Eagers' 2023 results, recap our outlook for 2024, and then provide an update on the trading conditions that we've seen through to April year to date this year. Before I do that today, you'll notice a slide that is a little bit different to what we'd usually start our meeting with. Now, this slide may well be familiar to a lot of you. It's appeared in our annual report since 2020, but it's not something we've spoken to in this forum before.
You'll see on it our values and our vision on where we would like to take Eagers over the next decade and beyond. Our ambition is to be the most admired automotive retailer group by optimizing outcomes for all our stakeholders over the long term. Now, you'll notice we don't talk about wanting to be the biggest or the best, whatever that means, because neither of those are ambitions of ours. However, we do believe that being the most admired, that is always operating in an admirable, admirable way, whether that's with our business partners, our customers, our staff, the communities in which we operate, or with the more than 11,000 shareholders that invest in our company, will ensure that we're the preferred company for these same stakeholders to grow with over the long term.
To some, aspiring to be the most admired may not be ambitious enough, but we think the power of constantly asking the business whether that's the most admirable way we could have done things, no matter what we're referring to, is very powerful... and it reinforces behaviors and underpins how we would like people to talk about Eagers from the outside looking in. That is, a company of good people doing good things. The values we highlight on the slide of agility, inclusiveness, owner's mindset, and integrity are not new at Eagers. In fact, these are the values that we chose to articulate after looking inside the company to see what matters most to our people and to see what had underpinned the culture of Eagers over the last century. These four values are fundamental to how we go about our business.
We hold our company accountable against them, and they will be the foundation to becoming the most admired automotive retail company. They're certainly more than just placeholders in an annual report, and for this reason, I thought it was worth outlining them at the start of today's meeting. Okay, moving on to 2023 results. As our chairman mentioned, we're proud to say that 2023 was another strong year for Eagers Automotive. At the beginning of the year, we set a clear goal to deliver more than AUD 1 billion in revenue growth while maintaining our strong return on sales margin. Simply put, if we grow the turnover of the business while maintaining our underlying net profit margin, we'll produce higher profits, and we'll be able to grow rewards for shareholders. It's really simple. I'm pleased to report that in 2023, we delivered on those goals.
You'll see on the screen eventually, I think now, you'll see on the screen the goals we set for the business in 2023, and they were highlighted by the significant revenue growth to be delivered on the foundations that we'd laid in 2022. At year-end, our ambition to deliver AUD 1 billion worth of revenue growth was actually exceeded, with us finalizing the year with AUD 1.3 billion of revenue growth, which was a 15.3% increase on the prior year. Now, as Tim said, this growth was achieved through a balanced contribution from organic growth, setting up greenfields with both new and existing OEM partners, and integrating the scale acquisitions that we made in the ACT and also in South Australia. South Australia, sorry. We're only in Australia at this stage. Apologies.
Now, the mix of this growth is interesting to note. 30% of it came from organic growth, 40% from greenfield, and 30% via acquisitions. So the reason this is worth highlighting is it represents a well-balanced and healthy growth profile for any company, and it outlines the many options that are available to Eagers to grow in the future. 2023 also marked a year of record profit from our independent used car business, which consists of easyauto123 and our Carlins Auction JV. While our retail joint venture, which is our BYD retail operations, produced a strong full-year performance. Overall, in 2023, we delivered on our ambition to maintain a strong return on sales margin, which is the key margin metric in the automotive retail industry.
For the full year, on an underlying basis, that return on sales was 4.4%, which is materially higher than the pre-pandemic average for the company. Now, this strong margin outcome was certainly benefited by the favorable environment that automotive retail operated in. But much more importantly to us, it was materially supported by the transformation of our cost base, resulting from the execution of our Next100 Strategy over multiple years. Now, this strategy leverages proprietary technology and property consolidation to drive productivity efficiencies across the business. Continued execution in the years to come will generate an economic return for our business that is both industry-leading and difficult to replicate.
So there's a lot of information on that slide you see there, but what it actually represents is the real transformation that has occurred since 2019 through to 2023 on a like-for-like basis. So in a true like-for-like comparison of the businesses from 2019 to 2023, we are operating with an 18% lower headcount, which is driving a 25% improvement in productivity, and on a property footprint that has 86 less leases. Now, this is real business transformation in a period of strong trading, which is the elusive good habits being developed in good times. And we think this is something that will set us apart from the industry as we move forward. But the story won't end in 2023.
The continued evolution of our Auto Mall property strategy and our proprietary technology rollout will continue to incrementally improve our operations every year, all things being equal. The disciplined execution of these operational and strategic initiatives in 2023 underwrote a number of records in our financial performance. The company delivered a record revenue result. The company delivered a record underlying operating profit before tax. The company delivered record underlying earnings per share, and ultimately, we were able to record a record full-year dividend, all while maintaining a very strong balance sheet. That's certainly a sentence I'd like to be able to repeat at every AGM. Turning now to our outlook for 2024. Eagers is well positioned, with unrivaled scale and valuable opportunities to grow.
We continue to strive to deliver our performance relative to the market, by focusing on what we can control, and strategically moving the business to where opportunities present themselves in our marketplace. Earlier this year, we again outlined a goal to deliver another AUD 1 billion in revenue growth in 2024, which would represent an increase of more than 10% on the AUD 9.9 billion of turnover we achieved last year. Now, whilst we're only four months into this year, so one third of the way there, revenue is already up by 18.3%, and we're well on track to deliver more than AUD 11 billion in total revenue for 2024. This growth will be driven by several factors.
It'll be driven by the organic growth resulting from the greenfield operations we set up, which was new OEM partnerships and our retail joint venture as they mature through 2024. It'll grow by leveraging the very strong market conditions. At the moment, the new car market in Australia is up by 14.4% year-on-year. It's running at unprecedented levels, actually. In the last 12 months, 10 months have been record monthly sales or deliveries in Australia for new vehicles. It will be driven by the contribution from the key acquisitions that have settled earlier this year, which was the large-scale multi-franchise business we acquired out of Victoria, as well as Alice Springs Toyota.
Now, these acquisitions and these greenfields will improve as we integrate into our business, and they're able to leverage our scale, our product, and our proprietary technology, which will drive industry-leading productivity out of those businesses. In addition, we continue to explore multiple growth opportunities across the franchise automotive retail market, as well as in adjacent segments that we can use to accelerate or support our core automotive business. Finally, before we move on to an update on our year-to-date trading, we must also highlight the continued work we're doing in our owned to leased property portfolio. So since 2019, we have invested over AUD 590 million into owning more property. AUD 590 million.
It's a significant investment, and it's lifted our owned to leased ratio from a low point, post the merger with AHG of 10%, up to 25% of the total portfolio today. In 2024, so far this year, we've settled on another AUD 115 million worth of property, and our total holding now stands at AUD 716 million, as you can see up there, which is the highest it's ever been in the company, the company's history, and we continue to be active in this space. This high-value property portfolio is a valuable part of the Eagers business model. It provides security to our business and our OEM partners. It gives us greater flexibility to evolve our physical retail footprints.
It gives us optionality in funding and capital management, and ultimately, it will deliver long-term rewards to shareholders as it has done over the last century. So turning now to an update on 2024 year-to-date trading. As a company, Eagers Automotive continues to be focused on what we can control, that's what I wanted to say, sorry, rather than obsessing over external, economic or market conditions. As a 110-year-old company, we are acutely aware we'll experience economic cycles, both good and challenging. But we must not be distracted by near-term conditions, and we must continue to focus on the execution of operational excellence and the rollout of our strategic priorities. As Tim pointed out, despite this, we are not immune from what is going on in the macro environment, which is currently characterized by several key themes.
Cost of living pressure is moderating retail consumer spending across multiple categories. Inflationary conditions is driving up the cost to do business in the whole economy, including Eagers. There is a current expectation that we are top cycle in the interest rate environment, and it is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace as supply normalizes in automotive retail, and inventory returns for numerous OEMs in the marketplace. These external factors have combined with some short-term internal business challenges in the first half. We've experienced some geographic weakness, particularly in New Zealand, which is still down 10.4%, even with the end of the Clean Car Scheme over there. In addition, Sydney and Newcastle particularly are cycling at a softer rate than they were last year, perhaps responsive to mortgage pressure in Sydney.
We've had to deal with an excess inventory clearance at our retail joint venture that materially reduced profits, relative to the prior year. And we are cycling a high-cost first half this year compared to the first half of last year, which primarily relates to interest rates, which hadn't started to rise until the second half of last year. So we've got a low interest rate in the early part of last year compared to a higher one now, and higher inventory.
What is very pleasingly, pleasing to note is that our first half cost base on a monthly basis is actually down fractionally on the second half of 2023 on a like-for-like basis, on a like-for-like basis, which shows that we are maintaining our discipline and cost control, and our business transformation is sustainable. The combination of macro conditions and the business issues which have characterized the first half have resulted in the following trading outcomes. Firstly, overall, as I've mentioned, revenue growth is strong, up 18.3% year to date, April. Like-for-like performance from our franchised automotive businesses remain resilient, which has been assisted greatly by the quality of our brand portfolio. We've had limited contribution in the first two months of our recent acquisitions, which is not unusual in the early stages of integration.
But I would note, we've had the turnover with limited profit contribution, which, particularly for the analysts in the room, will understand what that means. We have had a material reduction in the returns from our retail joint venture for the first half of this year, as we've cleared that excess inventory, but we do expect that we'll recover strongly in the second half. And we've had exceptionally strong performance, as we foreshadowed in our outlook from our independent used car business, which is up 93% on this time last year. While we're also seeing green shoots, again, as we foreshadowed in our finance and insurance penetration results after a number of challenging years.
Given the current market and business dynamics, with a cautious lens on consumer sentiment, and also noting that May and June last year were exceptionally strong months for the year, we expect that the half year will see a result approximately 85% of what we achieved in 2023. We remain disciplined in our focus across operations, and we're optimistic regarding the outlook for the remainder of 2024, despite any existing or emerging macro headwinds. It is important to note, the new car market remains on track for our record year this year, and it may be a considerable record. Our order bank, which is still material, continues to be delivered, supporting both our revenue and our margins. In addition to this, the underlying order right remains solid.
In addition, the recently announced extension to the instant asset write-off in the 2024 budget, and the implementation of the new vehicle emission standards, which comes into effect from the 1st of January 2025, may provide further catalyst to second half trading. So we remain on track to exceed our revenue growth guidance for 2024, and we'll be relentless in the execution of our business transformation strategy, while continuing to use discipline on reviewing increasing opportunities for accretive M&A businesses. So in closing, I would like to finish with a thank you to all our stakeholders, which you can see up on the slide. First and foremost, to our customers, many of whom are also loyal shareholders. It's a privilege to be able to provide products and services to each and every customer we serve.
Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated, and we never take your custom for granted. To our great team members across Australia and New Zealand, and I know a number of them dial into this, this AGM every year, thank you for your relentless commitment and focus that allowed us to deliver a record again in 2023. Your commitment to our customers and our OEM partners inspire the leaders of Eagers to work harder to support you every day. To every one of our OEM partners, we're proud to represent your brand. Our position as your retail partner is both a privilege and a responsibility we take very seriously. We continue to focus on being a preferred and trusted partner for your business, acting in the most admirable way, and delivering great outcomes for the customers we share.
To all our other business partners, including financiers, landlords, and suppliers, your ongoing support and partnership are fundamental to our business. Finally, thank you to each of our shareholders, large and small, for your ongoing support, confidence, and commitment to Eagers Automotive. I can assure you all are ably represented by a board of directors at Eagers Automotive that engage with the company daily. They're providing great advice, direction, and oversight for the benefit of all shareholders. Personally, I'm very fortunate to have the board we have, and to be able to access the collective knowledge, experience, and deep industry connections, which I'll note, is something that is materially and uniquely more valuable in our industry than others. And I think it's something that's a defining part of the company's consistent history of performance. So thank you to all our directors. Thank you to our chairman.
Welcome, Katie, looking forward to working with you over, in the future. So in closing, and as always, we remain very positive about what the future holds for your company. Thank you again for your interest today.
Thank you, Keith. Shareholders, we now move to today's formal business. Shareholders, details of all proxy and direct votes received prior to this meeting on each item of business should now be showing on the screen. Our 2023 annual report and notice of annual general meeting were made available to all shareholders on the 19th of April 2024, and will be taken as read. I remind shareholders that questions on agenda items will be addressed during discussion on the relevant item of business and before voting closes. General questions will be addressed later in the meeting. The first item of business is to receive our financial reports for 2023, which were included in the annual report, starting on page 61. The Corporations Act requires the financial reports to be put to the meeting each year.
If there are any questions on the financial reports, we will address them now. Now is also the time for our auditor to answer any questions on the audit, the auditor's report, our accounting policies, and auditor independence. I ask shareholders present here and in person if you have any questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand, wait for the microphone, state your name, and ask your question. There are no questions in relation to the first item of business? Chris, I'm receiving the financial reports. I therefore ask James, are there any questions online on this item of business?
There's one question, Chair, from Mr. Stephen Mayne. His question is: Well done on putting together a property portfolio worth AUD 500 million. How often do we get the individual properties independently valued? And are we at risk of facing increases in rate and land tax charges, given the valuation of the property portfolio has increased? Have you considered doing a sale and leaseback transaction that could free up capital or return to shareholders, special dividends or buybacks that could utilize some of the franking credits available?
A lot of questions in that question from Stephen. I might address a couple of them. Yes, we do face rates and land taxes everyone else has, and that has severely impacted on costs for all businesses. How often do we get them valued? I think the portfolio gets valued-
Formally valued every three years, but we do review the entire portfolio each reporting period.
Yes, and the auditors review the portfolio. Okay. Sale and leaseback, often talked about, but if you sell your properties, you're then dealing with a landlord, who's... And they're pretty good, from past experience in putting up the rent. And, that's always a challenge, and I think there's been a long history of Eagers taking the view that, if we can own our properties, we have more control over them. Keith may talk about that, particularly in moving particular brands in or out.
Well, I think it's worth noting that I made the comment in our speech, 25% of our property portfolio, which is significant. When I say property portfolio, the total land and buildings that the company use, 25% we own. That means 75% is subject to, in most cases, a CPI increase in rent every year. CPI was fairly large last year, for instance. That means 75% of our leased property is subject to CPI increases, which more than offsets any increases in land tax or other costs of holding property. In addition to that, we were very fortunate, our Martin, in his role as consulting to the business, led some fantastic negotiations with our captive financiers.
We have the funding for that property on ten-year money, probably, probably 65% of our property is around on ten-year money, on very low fixed interest rates. This is a significantly valuable outcome for the company. So, I think it's, it's compelling. And the last comment I'll add to Tim's comment there for Mr. Main, is that owning such a valuable asset that is growing in value over time does give us capacity. I made the comment, it gives us funding and capital management optionality by owning this property. So sale and leasebacks is not something that's on the table at the moment, but should that become compelling for shareholders.
I'll then move to the next item of business, which is agenda item two, for the re-election of Nick Politis as a director. Nick was last re-elected to the board at our AGM three years ago. He's the company's largest shareholder. Nick enjoys a successful and distinguished career in the retail, automotive, and property industries, with vast experience in Australia and overseas. Further information on Nick can be found in the notice of meeting and on your screens now. His fellow directors and their company derive enormous benefit from Nick's experience and expertise. In accordance with our constitution, Nick retires by rotation at this meeting, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election. Our directors fully support and recommend Nick's re-election today. Details of the votes received prior to the meeting should now be showing on your screen.
97.444% in favor. I invite any question on, questions on Nick's re-election from shareholders here in person. If you have a question, please raise your hand. No questions here. Are there any questions, James, anything online on this item?
One question online, Chair, from Stephen Mayne. In the past three years, there have been a number of related party transactions with Mr. Politis in the ACT and Melbourne, totaling around AUD 450 million. Are any more related party transaction proposals under consideration?
Thank you, Stephen. The so-called related party transactions, as you refer to them, have been very positive acquisitions for Eagers... and our company. And the short answer is: there are none planned at this point in time.
Further questions, Chair?
Nick, did you want to say? No, you're all right?
No, I'm good.
Okay. No further questions. Thank you. With that, then we will move to item three, which is Katie McNamara's election as a director. Katie was appointed to the board as an independent, non-executive director on the twenty-first of March this year. Katie brings more than 25 years experience in strategy, marketing, and technology, having previously held senior positions at Super Retail Group, IBM, Foster's, and Treasury Wine Estates. She also worked in strategy and marketing at McKinsey & Company. Katie's a non-executive director of Motorcycle Holdings Limited and is the managing director of Mighty Craft Limited, having been appointed on a part-time basis to lead a strategic review. Further information can be found in the notice of meeting and on your screens. Katie, being eligible, offers herself for election today in accordance with our constitution, and our directors recommend that shareholders support her election.
Details of the votes received prior to the meeting should now be showing on your screens. I invite questions on Katie's election from shareholder here in person. Anyone in the room got a question? If not, James, any online questions or written questions?
One online question, Chair, from Stephen Mayne: "Could the Chair or Katie McNamara please comment on the recruitment process that led to her appointment to the board? Was a headhunter involved? Did the board, full board interview Katie? And did they interview any other candidates? And did Katie know any of our directors before engaging in the recruitment process?
Okay. Thank you, Stephen. You're very thorough today. No, we are—we do have a remuneration committee and a nominations committee at Eagers. We did not engage a headhunter. Did we speak to anyone else? We spoke to a lot of people about the opportunity and as to who may join the board of Eagers, and, and we took advice in all sorts of areas, from people in the professions who knew certain people or knew Katie or whatever, all of which was positive. Did we speak to anyone else? Over the last couple of years, yes, we have spoken to a couple of people who may or may not have been available to join the board of Eagers, and I guess constantly with board renewal, that's the sort of thing that you would undertake. Did...
I think part of the question was, "Did Katie meet all directors?" Yes, and had thorough interviews and meetings with all directors prior to her appointment. She even traveled to various points interstate, where our directors come from, to meet with them. So, is that pretty much it? And, Katie, is there anything you wanted to add?
Just to say that I didn't know any of the directors.
Oh, didn't know any one of the directors?
Uh-huh.
Well, I'm happy to answer that, yes. We got a very good reference from our former Managing Director, Martin Ward, as to Katie's ability, and we certainly got the opportunity to meet Katie via that, firstly, Martin Ward's suggestion and introduction. Mm-hmm. If there's nothing further, then any questions on that item, we'll move to item 4. Item 4 seeks shareholder approval of our remuneration report, and that's set out in the annual report starting on page 42. Although this vote is advisory only, this is an important agenda item, and the board is always keen for shareholder support in this area. Support has been very positive, as you can see from the votes lodged, and that is now on your screens, 98.58%.
I should point out, as many of you would know, that none of those votes are by directors or key management. None of it, no director or key management personnel are allowed to vote on that matter. I invite any questions on this agenda item from any shareholder in the room. Nothing? Thank you. James, any online, written, or verbal questions?
No questions on this agenda item, Chair.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'll close voting on all items of business shortly. But first, I'll briefly pause the meeting to allow shareholders final opportunity to submit your votes if you haven't already done so. At this point, Lewis, is that when we collect-
Yes.
Right, we'll be collecting votes in the room here. Shareholders who are external, please, we have a minute for you to finalize your voting. Thank you. I'll come back to you in a minute.
Thank you....
Okay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. All voting is now closed. Votes will be tallied and released to the stock exchange as soon as possible after the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's formal business. However, before we close the meeting, I invite any general questions from shareholders. Are there any questions from shareholders who are attending here in person? George. We'll get a microphone to you, George.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. George Blomberg, director of Faircase, shareholder. Just wondering what the development process is going on around the Brisbane Airport and the project, if you invested, that was going there, how that was progressing and time frame, if it was progressing.
I might just let Keith quickly answer that.
Yes. Fair enough. Thank you for the question. George, we did, actually, I can't remember the exact date. When was it, James?
July last year.
July last year, we did inform the market that due to circumstances outside our control, basically relating to Brisbane Airport Corporation or BAC, who control the property out there, they weren't going ahead with their development. So the Brisbane Airport development, the auto mall at the Brisbane Airport, was actually communicated to the market that wouldn't be proceeding back in July last year. So there's no progress and there's no timeframe. So that is a project that's not continuing.
Last time it was in the hands of the, the airport was out, but I hadn't heard-
No, we did confirm that.
Thank you.
A number of conditions led to that in terms of COVID. Not from our point of view, but from Airport Corporation's point of view. Their costs had blown out through the roof, and we had a fixed price deal with them. There were going to be complications. They also had to deliver the site by a certain date. They were going to be unable to achieve that date, and there was no logic in our proceeding on that basis.
Did you get any compensation from them?
Uh...
I would say everything's subject to confidentiality.
But it was satisfactory to us.
We're okay. There was no. If we had any concern or any impairment, it would have been disclosed in the reports.
Yeah.
There's nothing disclosed.
Any other questions?
Greg Hoffman, proxy holder. The entities I represent are a relatively new shareholder, so I don't have extensive background in the industry. But just in doing the research on the company and to pick up on a theme from earlier, it is a very admirable track record that the company has over a long period of time. And as we look forward, are there any... In particular with greenfield sites and acquisitions, what are the hurdles to basically the future being similar to the past in terms of maybe OEM restrictions or competition concerns in terms of further acquisitions? What are the hurdles that you'd like shareholders to be aware of?
Thank you.
Very good question. It's a fantastic question, actually. We're a 110-year-old company, as you would know, and as we quite often talk about. Over that time, the company has grown fairly consistently, but probably since 2005, we've considerably grown. We were prior to the merger, about 2%-3% of the market. We're about 10% or 11% of the market now. All things being equal, there was a perception that our ability to grow beyond maybe 10%-15% of the market might have been more constrained, but things aren't equal anymore in the motor industry. All OEMs are going through significant challenges in terms of how they respond to this lower emission challenge of the future, whether it's all EV, whether it's gonna be hydrogen, hybrid is the emerging tech at the moment, move away from ICE technology.
If you think about it, I quite often talk when I'm talking to OEM partners, that the hardest job, almost in the world at the moment, would to be a CEO of an OEM and decide where to lay your bets. Do I still keep spending money on, combustion engine technology? Do I bet on hydrogen? Do I go hybrid, or do I bet the house on EV? And a number have bet the house on EV. And there's a move a little bit back from this sort of, perception that it was gonna be a totally electric future sooner rather than later.... Now, the reason I say all that, is that those challenges are driving the way OEMs are doing business, and there's implications for us because we're part of their model.
They do R&D, they manufacture, they then export from their local markets, they import it through their companies generally or through a distributor, and then we retail. So there is no doubt that the challenges they have around technology development, R&D, manufacturing capability, all of the geopolitical issues, because we're probably seeing more protectionism because of what we're talking about now. And Biden just announced a 100% tariff in the U.S. on, on Chinese product. I think Trump said he'd make it 200%. So you've got geopolitical issues that are starting to become more prevalent. All of this uncertainty and these challenges mean that OEMs in general are moving towards bigger, stronger, more relevant partners.
So the model of 100 years ago, which was to keep it highly fragmented, and they probably preferred having 100 different dealers owned by 100 different, people, dealers, fighting each other, making it ultra-competitive, letting the dealers do their discounting for them, is moving towards a much more consolidated, bigger partner future. So where we sit at the moment, two weeks ago, I was in Seoul, with one of the Korean brands. The theme of the meeting was, bigger, better, stronger. So it's grown with those partnerships. There's been a number of new entrants into the market in Australia over the last couple of years from, that hadn't, sold here before.
On a clean sheet of paper approach, they don't go and say, "We need to have 100 dealers with 100 different dealer partners," and then set up a head office to manage that. They want to deal with much more, you know, B2B, sophisticated partners who have the wherewithal to invest in both facilities but also in technology. So we think there's great opportunity going forward. And again, we've talked a lot about revenue, and we understand as a company, and it's been beaten into me through my whole career, revenue doesn't pay the bills.
However, your question is one of the reasons why we continually talk about us as a growing company, because there is a real opportunity, organic growth, doing what we do better, through greenfields, new partners, new partners to the country or consolidation with existing partners, and also investment in adjacents. So we generally have taken the view that Eagers want to be famous for one thing, and that's selling cars. But there are adjacent industries. Last year, we made a material investment in McMillan Shakespeare. That's an adjacent business that is actually an enabler and accelerator, if done properly, for our business. So, you know, the biggest issue we've got at the moment is going through the list of opportunities and working out what's the most accretive, what's the priority, where should we spend shareholders' money? So we're not too concerned about growth opportunities at the moment.
We're just worried about navigating it in the best possible way.
Hi, David Goff, the chair, shareholder. I'll just add one comment and one question. The comment is just to thank Mr Politis, for your service as a shareholder for the last 24 years, and director. We're very lucky to have you as a shareholder director, so thank you.
Thank you.
Just a quick question for Keith, provide an update on BYD, please.
No problem, David, and I do point out that we represent 50 brands. We represent them equally, and we really do. Unfortunately, we get a BYD is such a prominent brand globally in terms of what they've done in China particularly, but also taking the EV fight, if you like, to Tesla globally. So there's a lot of focus on BYD, so I've got to be careful that they are just one of 50 brands that we represent. I did talk about our joint venture partnership. We have had a challenge in this first half, where effectively we haven't had an economic return at all from our BYD operations. So, but that is a point in time.
We were dealing with a specific issue where there was too much stock ordered by the importer, and we've effectively had to clear that. Edward's done all the heavy lifting there, and he deserves a round of applause, but don't do that. Edward, I think we're down to our last 400 or 500 of that particular model that was overstocked. Once we are through that, we are very, very positive about what the second half holds for that particular part of our business. Very positive. We will literally go from a no return to springing back to better returns than last year, and last year it was a material return. The way BYD is tracking inside our business this year, it will deliver about AUD 1 billion of our turnover.
Certainly, the models they've released recently, they are a genuine, incredible competitor to the rest of our portfolio. And we always talk about at Eagers that we like to partner with, you know, the major players. We talk about our quality portfolio, and we think BYD will be a big part of that quality portfolio. So hasn't been great for the last six months. It was a really, really strong 2023, but the second half of this year, we expect to see quite a bounce.
400 or 500 in the context of the original size of the problem?
Yeah, so there, that's a good point. The chairman just pointed out those 400 cars that we talk about being the last 400 that we have to deal with. We have to work through more than 5,000 cars. These are what cars? And if those cars are effectively being sold at heavily discounted prices that we, I won't go into the details of why. It's, it's quite a complex sort of arrangement in terms of how they're discounted, but we wore those discounts, and it was a challenging period, so we're down to the last 400 out of a 5,000 car inventory position. So we're close. 400 should be gone inside 30 days.
I have a question, Chair.
Hi, shareholder.
Can I ask a question on the consignment agency model adopted by Honda and Mercedes? I understand it's been negative for both those OEMs. Is there any chance they might reverse that? Or worse, is there any likelihood that other OEMs might adopt it, please?
No, very-
How bad is it for you?
No, it's a good question. I think this also covers a question we had online from Stephen as well. It has been a challenge. The agency model hasn't been something that has been rolled out, and as you rightly point out, the agency is being run in Australia at the moment by Honda and Mercedes-Benz. We are a big agent partner for both those brands. Just to be clear, I think Stephen, in his comments, said that Tesla is also an agency. It's not. Tesla is direct to consumer, so Tesla sells the cars. An agent model is still got what was traditionally us, dealers, as agents. It's a different way of. It changes the economics without going into it. We have seen the trend.
There was a general theme that the trend would be towards agency, maybe two years ago. A number of brands had flagged that they were considering agency. They were looking at it. Now, it coincided with a time during the pandemic when supply dropped materially, demand went up, and some of these OEMs were sitting there saying, "We can sell cars quite easily," and the dealers... The value the dealers have provided for 100 years starts to diminish. Those dynamics have changed. Supply has moved up globally. Semiconductors are no longer short in supply, and in some markets, demand is less than supply. Suddenly, the value of dealers is very, very acute again. So what we're seeing is, there's a number of brands that actually were operating as agencies.
Interestingly, Polestar, which was a direct to consumer, they replicated Tesla, have just said they're going to a full dealer model. They're not even going to an agency model. They're going to a dealer model. We've had some brands who brought specific models in under an agency, Hyundai is one of them, have said, "No more Hyundai. We're going back—no more agency, we're going back to dealer model." So the trend is very much towards the dealer model, which makes sense, because at the moment, the way this plays out as an agency is that high supply and low demand globally, that was the dynamic that's at play. Those OEMs, rather than selling every car the moment it comes off the factory floor, which is the dealer model, they literally produce it, and they send it somewhere, and they get paid, and they book the profit.
As it sits at the moment, they produce it, and they send it off to whatever country, and it sits on their account, costing them interest, and then they have to work out how to discount the car and get rid of it. So we're not really concerned about the agency, a momentum towards agency. It's back the other way. Whether Honda and Mercedes-Benz would change their model, who knows?
Polestar, Volvo.
Polestar is part of Volvo.
Yeah.
Well, it's part of Geely Group, actually. It's...
Another question.
Yeah, David, just one last question. I'll just for a second second question, but in the presentation, you made a good point that return on sales for 2023 were 4.4%, which is above the 10-year average of 3%. Then obviously, the first six months of this calendar year, that revenue's up 18%, but profit's down 15%, which implies, obviously, return on sales has come down. But sort of more... I know you've got an investor day coming up in June, so I don't want to pre-empt that, but just for the medium to long-term, so like ourselves, just so six months is sort of a blip, but just focusing on for the medium to longer term, do you still see return on sales going forward being elevated compared to COVID on a go-forward basis?
Absolutely. Absolutely. We, we do think that there is a over time, there has been both the industry and what we're doing structurally, so there's always a cycle that we're, we're going to be... We, we're not immune. We can't defy gravity.
Yeah.
There's a cycle. We will be subject to the cycle. What we have to do is transform the business structurally, so we have got a step better than everyone. Now, we think the cycle is certainly probably going to a more challenging cycle. We still think the industry is going to perform. All businesses, forget Eagers, the industry will be better than what it was pre-2019. You add on that the increment that Eagers is able to do by leveraging our scale and our technology, we do see that. This first half the guidance that we communicated in my speech, it's very Eagers guidance. It's conservative. We don't give guidance and miss it. So I do want to say that, you know, we've got a blip at the moment.
We have had to deal with BYD for six months, that has produced nothing, but will contribute the best part of AUD 500 million worth of turnover in six months. We, we've just come off an April that was very challenging, so we're probably a little bit scarred on a very tough month, but May's already become a little bit better. But, you know, we want to be cautious, and May and June last year were exceptional. We made AUD 96 million-- AUD 95 million in May and June last year. So again, we're saying, for us to cycle year-on-year at the same rate, we've got to repeat that. So again, we're being cautious. We don't want to. We want to give complete disclosure at a point in time.
So, so David, the short answer is, we do believe the long-term return on sales will be better than what it was previously, and to be quite frank, we should be able to produce that, given our scale now, compared to what we were before. I'll just add one comment. Martin's at the back of the room. Martin and I obviously worked together for a very long time, and when we used to buy dealerships in the past, we'd talk about, do we add, you know, genuine scale, economies of scale when we bought a dealership? If you thought about it, we were big in Queensland. We go and buy a dealership in Adelaide or Melbourne. It was a standalone dealership. Other than maybe some better buying power, there wasn't that much we could add to it because we weren't plugging it into an existing business.
We were fortunate to acquire the Victorian business off Nick earlier this year. That's a business with AUD 1 billion in turnover. We already had AUD 1.3 billion in turnover. So suddenly we've got this business that's got turnover in Victoria, the size of the Peter Warren Group. And we plug it into the infrastructure that we've already got, and that's when you start to drive real, genuine economies of scale before you start overlaying our technology benefits, et cetera. So yeah, we've been pretty confident over the long term. It's always an interesting one, David. If you ask us how confident we are in the next three years, I'm supremely confident. How confident are we in the next three months? Who knows?
So, Keith, while you're there, could you just elaborate on the technology? Before we plug it into our technology, can you just talk a little bit more about-
Yeah. Well, It's a, it's a very, very long answer, and we are, so we're here holding an investor day on the eleventh of June in Sydney. And the reason for that is there's a couple of analysts in the room that cover us and cover us for a long time and know our business well. But when you ask that question, usually we give a two-minute answer or a five-minute answer if I waffle, but you need an hour to explain it. We've got tech now. We've got, Luke Derrick, our CIO, is behind us. So we've built proprietary tech. We've built... I'll give you an example, a 10-minute sales app. So I'll just give you this one example, but there's others.
When Luke's team came, he said, "Okay," all of them are from outside the motor industry, and they came and said, "Let's have a look at the business as a clean set of eyes and look at the customer pain points and the business pain points." What are the customer pain points? It takes two hours to buy a car. It's too long, too many people involved. What are the business pain points? Well, it's disjointed. There's lots of people. The motor industry has never had a gross profit issue. It may have a productivity issue over time if you don't start to get high productivity, because when you buy a car, you might meet five or six people on the journey from walking in to walking out. You can't do that. You shouldn't have to do that. We can't afford it going forward.
So a 10-minute sales app was developed by Luke and his team, where they came in and said, "We want a customer to walk in, get a value on their trade-in, pick a new car out of stock, put accessories on it, put car care on it, apply online for finance, get approved online for finance, get money transferred into our bank account, sign on glass, and get the invoice sent on the app." 10 minutes, top to bottom, using AI, using machine learning on valuations. We want to be able to train someone who's never sold a car to use that app in 10 minutes. Now, that's revolutionary for the motor industry. No one does that. It's developed. We use that in Easy Auto. We've rolled it out across our BYD operations because we had a clean sheet of paper.
It's a little bit hard to retrofit because we run all of our businesses as silos with each franchise, and each franchise has requirements on how they want us to do business. But over time, that's the type of tech we will roll out. We've also got SAM, which is our service automated management system, which is basically all of the service transactions happening online. We've got Darcy, all our tech has a name. Darcy, what's Darcy again? Oh, that's our - sorry, that's our accounts payable and wholesale deal processing, which creates massive economies. So, this is effectively using how many robots have we got now working for us? 37 robots. They work 24/7. They never make a mistake, and they don't feel-
All internally generated software?
100% proprietary. 100% proprietary. 100% proprietary, yeah. It's, and it is really something... It's why we're having a genuine, a dedicated investor day. We'll do videos to show how it works. The investment community, it's, it's impossible to try and show how this works in a, in a soundbite or a quick answer at a, at an analyst day. So we need to actually show people how this works. But it's also not as easy as, because a lot of people say, "Well, you've got this tech rolled out this year." It's not that easy because you've got OEMs, we've got 50 brands we work with, and they say, "Hang on, hang on, we want to use this system. We've got an API. We don't want your tech plugged into API." So we've got to go on a journey with our partners.
Any further questions from the room? Thank you. James, any questions online?
We have a number of online questions, yeah. The first question is from Dr. Porter.
Mm-hmm.
The New Zealand business, inherited from AHG, does not share the same scale benefits that Eagers has been able to establish in the Australian market. The new car market in New Zealand has been very challenging in recent times, and while there are some tailwinds from the rollback of the so-called Clean Car Scheme, I suspect the performance of the New Zealand business is lower than the rest of the Eagers Group. Given the success Eagers has demonstrated in building scale to drive higher returns, have you considered consolidation opportunities with other New Zealand businesses to create a larger scale operation and drive higher returns in the New Zealand market?
Thanks, James. Thank you, Dr. Porter. It's a really good question. You know, the foresight to ask that question, considering I highlighted that New Zealand has been challenging for us. The New Zealand market is down 10.4% even this year. The thinking behind that question around building scale is consistent with the way we look at the business.... But just to give you some context, we weren't in New Zealand until we did the merger with AHG in 2019. The first impressions when we went over to New Zealand and looked at the business we bought, were very positive. We had this great portfolio of brands. We had Ford, Mazda, they're very strong brands over there, particularly. We liked the geography.
It was focused on Auckland, and we liked the fact that it was just in one city, so we weren't spread all across the North Island and South Island. We liked the fact that even, even with gray imports over in New Zealand, the used car market and the F&I market are good, so they were important. And of course, we picked up a business over there that was full of great people. So we were really positive when we first went to New Zealand. We thought, and you're right to point out, even though the returns of that business were below Australia, we were very confident we were going to lift it to Australia to start with, and if we could get those returns in line with Australia, then we'd look to build scale on top of it.
Now, early 2020, just after we took over, COVID hit. Auckland is, you know, I think it was one of the top three most locked down cities for the next two years globally. That seriously distorted our view on our business over there because COVID materially altered our operations. As COVID started to lift and Auckland to trade more freely, the Clean Car Scheme came into place, which totally distorted sales in New Zealand. For those that don't know, effectively, the way the government in New Zealand implemented the Clean Car Scheme was they taxed high-emitting vehicles up to NZD 8,000-NZD 9,000, and they used that tax to subsidize EVs. We had effectively no EVs in our portfolio to respond to.
So our brands, which were strong utes, like Ford Rangers, et cetera, the Mazda brands weren't responsive to this clean car, just got decimated. So to be fair, the last few years, we've looked at the business and said, "COVID, Clean Car Scheme," the whole New Zealand business hasn't really had a break, so we haven't had a chance to look and see whether it's a good business or not. We did expect January 1 this year, when that Clean Car Scheme came off, we thought the ICE product, the brands that we had, would bounce on January 1. They haven't. We think that's more to do with, you know, some fragility in the New Zealand economy more than anything. So as we sit here today, you're exactly right.
We wish that business over there was, you know, 3% return on sales to our 4.4. It's not. It's, it's almost a break-even business at the moment. Now, what Eagers won't do is try and buy our way out of trouble. We won't, we won't merge in a business that's not performing to try and fix it, or in a market that we're not, you know, one- totally convinced is going to produce the right returns. At the moment, we're pretty convinced New Zealand is a good market to be in. We've got to fix our business, and then we've got to build scale. The last comment I'll say is New Zealand, just for context, is two-thirds the size of Queensland in terms of scale in the new car market. So it's a pretty small market.
Having said that, we make AUD 100 million in Queensland last year. So, you know, there's still opportunity in New Zealand done right. The way that question was asked and the thinking behind it is our thinking, but we've got to get our business onto a stable platform first.
Just, Keith, I want to say, those businesses, actually, we inherited those from AHG, my holdings within BYD.
That's right.
And secondly, now, the change of government, the new government, that they dropped the subsidies on electric cars. In fact, they've put a road tax if you buy an electric car, so it's very negative on electric cars. So we're hoping that I'll, I'll make some money on electric cars this year.
Martin?
The other thing, Keith, is, General Motors also called out Australia and New Zealand in March 2020, and that business in New Zealand was quite heavy on General Motors. So, business suffered immediately in March of COVID when General Motors pulled out as well. So it had absolutely nothing positive showing because of things like that.
The one thing it has had positive is it still has a great team over there that are working hard. It's been tough for them, and I do feel for our New Zealand team. So, our New Zealand team, we do appreciate how tough it is, if any of them are listening. But the thinking around getting it right in New Zealand, as Nick said, "The economy's right, we get the business right, then there's an opportunity to grow.
New Zealanders like cars.
Absolutely.
The guy took away BMW. He wouldn't leave his right arm instead of it.
Absolutely. They do. It's a real car culture over there. You're right.
Questions? Keep going, James.
We have two more online questions, Chair. Both from Stephen Mayne. The first question is: Could the Chair please comment on why CFO Sophie Moore is on the board, when the CEO, Keith Thornton, is not? Does this extra responsibility for Sophie influence how much she is paid? And will you put Sophie up for election next year so that shareholders can endorse this approach to governance?
Okay. Thank you, Stephen. At least you're all consistent. I think you may well have asked this question in previous AGMs. Can I just make the point that Sophie's contribution to the company is obvious, and it's extensive. Her contribution at board level is very significant. I think it should be understood that Sophie joined the board before Keith, even though Keith has been a long time and been with Eagers some 20-
Two years.
22 years, and made an amazing contribution. Sophie's appointment to the board came at a time when Martin Ward was the managing director and before Keith was appointed the Chief Executive Officer. So, I think the other part of the question. Is the remuneration? No, not that I'm aware of anyway, that, and so I'd probably so I think you could take that as an answer. There's no extra pay for hard work on the board. And nor does it impact on what she is paid on an annual basis, which obviously her Rem committee and the board look at market-related remuneration packages. There's another point. Oh, we were. Look, from recollection, I think Sophie, you were up for re-election at last year's...
Yep, and that is for a three-year term. If my memory serves me correctly, it was very soundly supported by fund managers, shareholders, and all the shareholders of size. So the answer to that is, I think you're up for re-election again in 2026, and that would be, I'm sure, the board's first time that there would be any consideration of that. So the answer, Stephen, is no, it won't be put up next year. And could I just make one other point, too? We are constantly under the pump as a board, fund managers, proxy houses, they all want the perfect model, and one of the areas that they spend an awful amount of time giving board members grief is around independence.
And what they really like is the maximum independence that you can get on a board, even at times if it comes to, impacting on competence. I'd choose competence every time for ahead of independence. But given independence is something that fund managers and proxy houses look at, and is a serious issue, we'd love to add Keith to the board tomorrow. And I think he should be a director of the company. We all do, but we don't necessarily need a larger board. But secondly, it would impact severely on our independence. We would then have to explain to all the fund managers and the proxy houses as to why we're not delivering maximum independence in accordance with their rules. So, that's a bit of a punishment or penalty for poor old Keith at the moment-
Well-
But I'm sure, like everything, time will sort all that out. But thanks for your question, Stephen.
Sorry, Chair. It would also muck up our gender diversity goals as well.
Yes, well, we're very conscious of that. Thank you.
Final question from Stephen Mayne.
Mm-hmm.
The market reaction to the earnings update this morning for the first half has been a little unexpected. Can you please explain the systems and processes around continuous disclosure obligations to ensure that the market was appropriately updated at the right point in time?
Well, I think while we commented on guidance, I think it's fair to say, and Keith said it a number of times, we're four months into what is a 12-month year for Eagers, and I know we report every half year, so we're four months into the first six months. And Keith outlined a number of issues that economic issues, as I did in my address, I commented on them, and I think Keith also said April was a pretty dodgy month. And I think if you look across a large number of companies, the Super Retails of the world, the JB Hi-Fis, many of them have commented that there was a difficult month in April, spending and other reasons. And we're four months into the six months.
I guess caution about what will the next two months bring, as Keith pointed out, two months last year, May and June, were very strong. Are the May and June gonna be as equally strong this year? I guess we don't know. There's a fair chance, given you pick up any newspaper and all they talk about is interest rates or cost of living or consumer spending or whatever, they may not be. So as Keith said, we're being, I believe, appropriately cautious. The board took the view that that was the correct approach, and whilst we haven't settled on a number, and we won't be settling on a number till the end of June, it may well be, if trends continue as they are, we'll be in that range comfortably, that Keith referred to.
Anything else in the question that I've missed?
Uh-
But I think you mentioned process or whatever the board considered, the comments that Keith was to make and I was to make, at the board meeting as to being entirely appropriate and appropriate with proper governance. Denis, you may have some view of that. None? None.
Absolutely none. Considered by the board, late yesterday.
Okay. Thank you. Anything else?
I would just add that it was only approximately two months ago that Sophie and I were, you know, reporting to all the investment community and fund managers directly, and large shareholders, physical shareholders, on our 2023 results and our outlook for 2024. We are a company that has a lot of interest in us now, a lot of interest. We are covered by an extraordinary, extraordinarily large number of stockbrokers, and we are talking to the market consistently. So our disclosure, Sophie and I are very careful with disclosure. It's consistent. It's fairly transparent. We learned that from our previous CEO. But it is something that we take very seriously, and we're talking to the market consistently. But equally, we're always cautious, and we've given a cautious guidance today.
Thank you. Last chance for questions from the room and/or online.
Yeah, we have one further question online from Phil Chisholm. Phil's question is: Is there a comment from any of the directors on the board as to why the market has responded in the way it has this morning?
I haven't seen how the market's responded, but I can take that, I can take that it's probably responded negatively, which may create an opportunity for all of us as shareholders. If there's no further questions, I'd like to thank all shareholders for your participation, and particularly your-
AUD 700 thousand.
Oh, have you? Oh. Well, we should announce, we should announce that.
Oh, there you go.
Good on you, Nick. I'm pleased to see, Nick, you're good on all that online. That's very good, huh? Well, there's an endorsement for you. Maybe the market might take some notice of that, too. Thanks very much, Nick, and thank you very much, shareholders.
Yeah, you know, we got, we got enough money.