Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Richard Freudenstein, and it's my pleasure as Chair of Appen Limited to welcome everyone joining us today for our Annual General Meeting. I'd like to begin today by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands which you are joining us from and the First Nations people participating in our meeting. I pay my respects to elders, past and present. I wish to advise that today's AGM is being recorded and will be made available on our website after the meeting. It is now just past 10 A.M., the nominated time for the meeting, and I've been informed that a quorum is present. I note the meeting has been validly constituted and pleased to declare the meeting open.
I would like to begin by introducing my fellow directors that are present with us today: Robin Low, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, Stuart Davis, Non-Executive Director, and our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ryan Kolln. Our four other non-executive directors are attending by phone as they are based in the US: Steve Hasker, who is also Chair of our People and Culture Committee, Vanessa Liu, Lynn Mickleburgh, and Mini Peiris. We also have various Appen executives present, representative of the company's auditors, KPMG, and representatives from the company's share register, Link Market Services. There are four components to today's meeting. First, I will provide you with an update on Appen's business. This will be followed by a detailed overview from our CEO and Managing Director, Ryan. We will open the meeting for questions on general business after my address and Ryan's presentation.
Following the general business questions, we will then move to the formal business of the meeting, where the items set out in the notice of meeting will be put to shareholders. We will also allocate time for questions on each of the items of business when they are considered. Thank you to those shareholders who have submitted questions prior to the meeting. We have endeavored to answer those questions during the upcoming presentations. I want to acknowledge that 2023 was a disappointing year for our shareholders. While the rise of generative AI has created growth expectations, difficult macro conditions and a slowdown of tech spending has significantly impacted Appen's performance. I will start with a discussion of the key areas the board is focused on, including improving Appen's financial performance and resetting the company. I will then provide some commentary about the various items of business.
I will then ask Ryan, as the CEO, to focus on the performance of the business, strategy, and trading update in detail. Note that values referred to are US dollars, unless otherwise stated. Turning to the financials. The company recorded a statutory loss of $118.1 million, which included a non-cash impairment of $69.2 million related to its global services business. It's important to note that the impairment is a non-operating and non-cash item and in no way impacted Appen's liquidity. Total operating revenue declined 29.7% to $273 million, primarily due to the slowdown in spending by our largest customer and general slowdown in tech spending.
In turn, this led to a significant reduction in the company's profitability, as Appen recorded an Underlying EBITDA loss before foreign exchange of $20.4 million, compared to $13.6 million in the prior year. The board made a decision not to declare an interim or final dividend in 2023. This decision was considered appropriate due to Appen's financial performance and to ensure an appropriate allocation of capital. In response to the challenging external conditions, we committed to decisive action of resetting the business. The immediate focus was to refresh leadership, remove costs, and position Appen to participate in the generative AI services market. In support of our strategy reset, the company raised AUD 60 million of equity in June 2023, and further AUD 30 million of equity in December 2023.
We also implemented a $60 million cost reduction program, made operational improvements to the business, for example, in project delivery and crowd management. Generative AI was an important focus of the industry in 2023. While there were some early benefits from our generative AI initiatives, these were insufficient to offset the revenue and earnings decline in our core business. Earlier this year, Google advised us of its decision to end its global service contract, with all work ceasing on 19 March. In 2023, Appen's revenue from Google was approximately $83 million, or 30% of total revenue. In line with Google's decision, we have taken action to reduce our cost base by further $13.5 million. To date, approximately 80% has been implemented, with the remaining cost reductions expected to be achieved by 30 June 2024.
We are very focused on profitability. As such, we are committed to managing costs in line with revenue and will implement further cost reduction initiatives if required. As part of our reset, we refreshed our leadership and management team. On 5 February 2024, Ryan Kolln was appointed as our new CEO and Managing Director. Ryan joined Appen in 2018 and has made an extraordinary contribution during his time with the company. He has a deep understanding of Appen, coupled with strong technical understanding of the AI market and a proven strategy background. Ryan is the ideal leader to guide Appen through its next phase and navigate the evolving generative AI market. He is based in North America. We've also assembled a refreshed management team with deep operational experience and a clear structure to maximize opportunities going forward.
In addition to our financial metrics, we're also focused on good social and governance outcomes. Despite the challenges faced by our business, our commitment to the crowd and customers remains as strong as ever. In 2023, we invested in systems and processes to improve the crowd and customer experience. While we experienced a significant uplift in customer NPS, crowd NPS declined due to a variety of factors, including lower project availability. An integral part of our strategy is our commitment to responsible AI and to ensure that AI performs correctly. Fostering diversity among the crowd and continued high ethical treatment of the crowd is key to building responsible AI that reflects the real world. In support of our commitment, our team conducted further research programs to understand representation across the crowd and address any gaps.
Diversity across our organization also remains a priority, with female representation among our employees at 55% at the end of the year. An unintended consequence of our organizational change has seen a reduction in female representation of senior leadership team from 30%- 22%. Despite this, our target of 30% female representation in senior management positions remains. Our social impact work is an important priority. Last year, we established five partnerships with global nonprofits to foster diversity and offer work opportunities within our crowd to underrepresented individuals, including refugees. Maintaining a strong focus on governance is a key priority of the board. Our policies and practices remain consistent with the latest ASX corporate governance principles and recommendations. Last year, there were no changes to the board structure. The board comprises eight directors, including the managing director.
Appen has three non-executive directors based in Australia: Robin Low, Stuart Davis, and myself. The four remaining non-executive directors, Vanessa Liu, Steve Hasker, Mini Peiris, and Lynn Mickleburgh, are based in the US. The composition of Appen's board maintains the right mix of skills and includes relevant, diverse backgrounds. Board gender diversity also continues to meet our target, with female representation of non-executive directors at 50%. Today, Robin and Vanessa are standing for re-election and will address shareholders on their candidacies later in the meeting. I will now make some comments on remuneration, and in particular, item five on the agenda, the grant of long-term incentive performance rights to the CEO and managing director, and item eight on the agenda, the approval of Appen's long-term incentive plan terms and conditions, and the subsequent issue of securities under that plan.
Steve Hasker, Chair of the Board's People and Culture Committee, will speak to the remuneration report in more detail. We devote significant time to strike a balance between setting remuneration for executives at levels that reflect company performance and shareholder expectations, while also being sufficient to attract and retain talent in the highly competitive technology markets in North America and Australia. In keeping with this approach, we made significant changes to our remuneration framework in FY 2022 and further updates in FY 2023. Steve will address these. I will keep my comments brief with respect to 2023 remuneration outcomes. As revenue and earnings performance targets were not met, there was no STI payable for the company's financial performance.
In terms of our non-financial performance, customer NPS was 140% of target, and the employee engagement was 91.9% of target, which was above the 90% payout threshold. In recognition of these results, a partial STI, which equates to 10.6% of the maximum amount payable, was paid. There was no STI paid to the former CEO. Turning to the CEO and managing director's remuneration arrangements and item five on the agenda. Ryan's package includes a base salary of $600,000. His STI is the equivalent of $600,000 per annum, with a maximum opportunity of 150% of fixed remuneration. The STI will be delivered 75% in cash and 25% in deferred equity, which vests twelve months...
after 12 months, subject to continued service. The LTI component of Ryan's remuneration is valued at $1.5 million. If at the end of a 3-year period, Appen's share price reaches $1.60, 50% of the LTI will vest. For 100% to vest, the share price needs to be over $2.30 to trigger full vesting.... These targets are aligned with the annual STI plan for other executives that participate in the plan. As you can see, for any vesting to occur, the share price must be significantly higher than it is today. Therefore, Ryan will only be rewarded for delivering significant shareholder value. The board considers his package to be fully aligned with shareholders' interests. Turning to Item 8 on the agenda, which seeks approval for Appen's long-term incentive plan and subsequent issue of securities under that plan.
Appen wishes to exclude issues of securities under the long-term incentive plan from the 15% limit in ASX Listing Rule 7.1. ASX Listing Rule 7.2 provides, Exception 13B, provides that ASX Listing Rule 7.1 does not apply in respect of the issue of securities by the company under an employee incentive plan if, within three years before the issue date of the relevant securities, the shareholders have approved the issue of securities under that employee incentive plan as an exception to ASX Listing Rule 7.1. Shareholder approval was last obtained on 18 May 2018 and was valid until 2021. Since 2021, the issue of securities under Appen's long-term incentive plan have been under ASX Listing Rule 7.1, and not as an exception under ASX Listing Rule 7.2.
The directors consider the securities issued under the incentive plan as a cost-effective, well-aligned, and efficient incentive to retain key employees when compared with other forms of incentive, such as cash bonuses or increased remuneration. The maximum number of securities proposed to be issued under Item eight, subject to shareholder approval date, is 33 million securities. Outside of remuneration-related items, we are also seeking to ratify the prior issue of shares under the equity raise completed in December 2023, as per Item six, and the prior issue of shares and warrants to vendors of Quadrant under Item seven. The issue of these shares effectively uses up part of the 15% limit under ASX Listing Rule 7.1. If approved, the issue of these shares related to Items six and seven will be excluded from calculating the company's 15% limit in ASX Listing Rule 7.1.
In closing, I would like to reiterate our commitment to improving Appen's performance and delivering better return for shareholders. While good progress has been made to reset the business, there remains much to be done. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Appen's shareholders for your ongoing support and patience. I also thank all Appen employees for their contribution and commitment. I now welcome Ryan to give his first AGM address as CEO and Managing Director.
Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to meet with you this morning and provide an update on the progress we've made to reset Appen's business. I'll start by providing an overview of Appen's FY 2023 performance and an update on Appen's strategy. I'll also share an update on our year-to-date trading performance and provide an updated outlook statement. Turning to our FY 2023 revenue performance. Revenue declined approximately 30% to $273 million in FY 2023. As Richard mentioned, this is a disappointing result for the business and for our shareholders. The reduction in revenue was driven by a reduced spending from a large customer, along with a general slowdown in tech spending and the uncertainty related to generative AI investments. In response to the revenue slowdown, we reduced our costs by $60 million throughout FY 2023.
These reductions focused on removing some of the direct costs related to revenue, streamlining existing operations, minimizing organizational layers, and optimizing our growth investments. Because of the cost-out timing, the first full-year benefit was only realized in FY 2024, and therefore negatively impacted FY 2023 profitability. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, we recorded an Underlying EBITDA loss of -$20.4 million, compared to $13.6 million in FY 2022. In December, we realized some of the benefit of our cost-out reduction measures and exited the year Cash EBITDA positive. While Appen's full year revenue declined, we did see some positive trends in Q4 FY 2023. China produced a record Q4 revenue as we gained significant traction across multiple Generative AI projects. Outside of China, the new markets business also experienced growth in Q4 when compared to Q3.
Our business typically experiences Q4 seasonality, especially in the global services business. While Q4 performance for global services was significantly down on the prior year, we did see improvement compared to Q3. In 2023, many customers were testing different approaches to building large language models, which led to a lot of pilot projects and some customers scaling their data needs. In turn, we saw a 410% half-on-half revenue increase from large language model-related work. These are very pleasing trends and have carried through to our year-to-date performance in FY 2024, which I will share with you in a moment. Appen has been supporting the development of AI since the company was founded in 1996. The industry has evolved significantly since then, and now with the introduction of generative AI, the potential for AI is at an all-time high.
As a proof point, Bloomberg and IDC forecast the generative AI market to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032, growing at a 42% compounded annual growth rate. We are very bullish on the impact of generative AI, and our strategy is strongly focused on capturing value from the market. The impact of generative AI has a significant impact on Appen's total addressable market, or TAM. Since inception, we have been providing data services to technology companies that build AI deep learning models. Analysts estimate this market to be between $12 billion and $17 billion by 2030. The introduction of generative AI expands our TAM in two areas. The first relates to generative AI model builders who are creating the foundation models. This group includes both very large technology companies and many well-funded startups.
We estimate that Appen is already working with approximately 80% of these companies, mostly providing data that is used to improve their models. The second opportunity to increase our TAM relates to the enterprises who adopt generative AI models into their product and services. We estimate that new generative AI opportunities will expand our TAM by $4 billion-$8 billion by 2030. Turning to our strategy, which is aligned to both the deep learning and generative AI opportunities, there are five pillars to our strategy. The first element of our strategy is to re-platform our core internal system for crowd and project management. We are using best-of-breed technology to embed AI as a core capability into our platform, which will add significant automation to our internal operations. This is well underway and on track to be implemented early in the second half of FY 2024.
Secondly, we're employing a greater focus on using automation in how we create data for our customers. We have recently launched a function in our data annotation platform, called ADAP, that enables large language models to be deeply integrated into the data annotation process for greater efficiency and quality controls. The third element is a SaaS platform offering to support enterprises who are customizing large language models for internal use. The focus is to provide a software suite that enables data science teams to connect with internal experts for model training and data feedback. This solution uses Appen's existing data annotation platform. The fourth pillar is a modernized approach to sales and marketing. We have strengthened the technical abilities of our go-to-market team, including the addition of a field CTO to support more technical discussions with our customers.
We also now have a dedicated account management program in place for our largest customers that oversee existing projects, new expansion areas, and overall account health. The final change I have made is to flatten our sales and marketing function, and as part of this change, the CRO and CMO have departed Appen. The final pillar is to implement tight financial controls. We remain laser-focused on managing costs, and as highlighted by the Chair, we're committed to proactively managing costs in line with business performance. Overall, our strategy seeks to deliver a higher quality data for our customers, a better experience for our crowd, and improved internal operational efficiencies. I'll now provide a trading update. Before I start, I would like to mention that we will continue to provide monthly financials as we get the business back to Cash EBITDA positive.
Also, the numbers on the slide are based on our unaudited management accounts. Starting with revenue, you will see that at a group level, our revenue has declined throughout 2024. This decline is driven by the termination of the Google contract, which ended on 19th of March. Revenue, excluding Google, shows a continuation of the stabilization that we saw in the second half of 2023. We are pleased to see the revenue levels in March and April that are well above the non-Google revenue in Q3 2023. Moving to EBITDA. As mentioned earlier, we achieved our commitment of exiting 2023 Cash EBITDA positive in December. However, the revenue loss from Google in Q1 has impacted our profitability. To offset the loss, we took swift action to reduce our cost base and have been able to largely control our losses. Now moving to our outlook statement.
As discussed earlier, revenue stabilization has continued through the first four months of the year when you account for the loss of Google revenue. We are seeing positive signals on large language model-related growth in 2024, including from our global customers. Tight cost controls remain in place, in keeping with the company's focus on managing costs in line with revenue. And in FY 2024, we will see the first full year benefit of our $60 million FY 2023 cost reduction program. Following the loss of the Google contract, we announced $13.5 million of cost out initiatives, which was incremental to the $16 million cost out in FY 2023. We have achieved 80% of this benefit in March this year and remain on track to be complete by the end of June, FY 2024.
Our cash balance at thirtieth of April, FY 2024, was $36.4 million, and we are confident in our cash position. We remain highly focused on ongoing cash positivity, and our target is to reach Cash EBITDA positive on a run rate basis in the early second half of FY 2024. In conclusion, I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support of Appen. Appen has played a major role in the development of industry-leading AI, and I strongly believe that this will continue as generative AI matures. It's a privilege to lead Appen, and I'm confident that we are well positioned to return to growth. I look forward to speaking with you after this meeting. I'll now hand back to Richard.
... Thanks, Ryan, and I think that last slide certainly starts to show some positive movement. I would now like to open the meeting to general business questions. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to each resolution when we get to the formal business of the meeting. Before we begin, visitors are reminded this is a shareholder meeting, and only shareholders, proxy holders, body corporate representatives, or attorneys are able to ask questions in this meeting. Visitors have been issued a red card. If shareholders holding a blue or yellow card wish to make comments or ask questions, you should raise your admission card. When called upon, please state your name, or if you're acting as a proxy, identify for whom you are appointed to represent prior to making a comment or asking a question.
In the interest of all shareholders, I would also ask you, you be concise in your question or comment, and we'll endeavor to respond in the same way. I will now take business, general business questions. Thanks. Peter?
Good morning. I'm Peter Gregory from the Australian Shareholders' Association. We're an organization that's largely volunteer-operated, independent, and not-for-profit, and we represent the interests of individual shareholders. Today I have proxies from 17 shareholders for 81,000 shares, which I note is considerably less than we've held in the past. I also note that 70% of the shareholders of Appen own less than 1,000 shares, and probably a large proportion of those now have unmarketable parcels. So that reflects on the very disappointing situation that has been in place last year. And I guess when you think back to last year's AGM, we heard a CEO who was extremely optimistic about the future of the organization, both at the AGM and the investor meeting that followed.
We now have, I guess, heard some good indications of the pathway going forward, but I'd like to understand from both a, a board level and also a management level, how the culture of the organization is changing to enable it to move from unbridled optimism to, to realism.
Thanks, Peter, let me be clear that the board and management also share the disappointment in where the share price has gone in particular. As I think Ryan mentioned, there were some big things happened last year. As generative AI starts to take off, there was a bit of a reduction in our spend from some of our customers in traditional AI, and that resulted in a reduced revenue. And I think the team did a very good job to put in $60 million of cost reductions, get back to EBITDA cash positive by December, and then unfortunately, we had the shock of Google surprise of terminating their contract.
I think Ryan and the team have taken very good steps to find further cost reductions, and we're targeting, as he said, cash positive in the second half of this year. I think the culture at Appen now is very much back to that mindset of entrepreneurial, no excess costs, really focused on driving operational excellence, really focused on our customers, building strong relations with our customers. We had built up quite a big cost base reflective of our revenue a few years ago, and now I think Ryan and the team have really cut that back. So Ryan is very close to the business in both the operational side and the sales and marketing side, and the people running those areas have been with the business for a while, know what they're doing.
So it's very much back to the tradition of Appen from many years ago: smart, hungry, entrepreneurial, and realistic, but also realistic. I think you won't hear from the board or from Ryan any overpromises. We know that the share price will start to improve when we deliver results, and that's what we're aiming to do.
Okay. Can I also ask-
Oh.
... about, Google?
Yeah.
The loss in January, as we have all know, has had a pretty major impact on the results. Can I ask a bit more about why Google left? Was it because they no longer needed the services that Appen delivered? Was it because they decided they could do it better internally? Have they gone to a competitor? Has Google decided that the IP that's associated with their data is so important that they need to retain it in-house and can't trust an outside organization to be involved? And given the answer to those questions, can you comment on how the other big players, the Metas and Microsoft, whether they're sort of, kind of thinking down the same track, and whether there's a risk to those businesses leaving for the same reason, and how you're mitigating that?
That's a very good question. Thank you, Peter. The Google loss took us all completely by surprise, and the reason it took us by surprise was the working relationship with Google was very, very good. There'd been some hiccups in the past, but the working relationship for the previous 12 months had been very, very good, and we'd seen an increase in Google revenue coming back. And the people we work with day-to-day were as, I think, as surprised as we were with the change. We weren't given any reasons for the change other than it was a strategic review at a higher level. So we are unclear about why they did what they did. We believe the work has probably gone to some of our competitors. Potentially, there was a bigger deal done at a higher level within-...
Google with other large organizations, but it wasn't because of our working relationship with Google. That's but that does is one of the reasons why we think that customer Net Promoter Score is a very, very important thing for us to measure and to reflect in executives' STI. Our relationship with our customers is absolutely vital, and one of the things that Ryan has been particularly doing is building, rebuilding those relationships. And at an operational level, I think the relationships are very strong, and hopefully you're starting to see that as revenues are starting to increase. So, the reason our revenues dropped a couple of years ago was because one big customer reduced their spend. They were spending a lot of money with us. They still spend a lot of money with us, and that relationship is good.
Sitting here today, we can't see that happening with any other customers, but it's a very dynamic market.
Okay, thanks.
Okay.
Did you want to say something?
One more from you, Peter, and then... Yeah, sorry. Go on.
Or do you want other people to have a go?
One more from you then.
Okay. Appen has... I'm oversimplifying, I know here, but in my mind, Appen has two product categories and sources of revenue: the services provided by the crowd, and secondly, the software and technology-based business that is, is. They're the two categories of product, if you like. You also have broadly two groups of customers: the large global businesses and then the new markets, enterprise, government, Asia. You have in the annual report on page 97, what I would describe as a product-customer grid. As I look at that, it looks to me like there's no technology products sold to the global customers, and that there's low crowd involvement in the new, what do you call it? New markets customers.
Is that a reflection of the situation? And if it is, can you tell me why? And if it's not, can you look to make that table more meaningful in the future, so it gives a fairly simple understanding by shareholders of the product market segmentation that's in play?
Thanks, Peter. That... So that is-- That's the way, from an accounting perspective, our business is divided up. The, the global services is, services that we provide to the big global customers, where we do work, but it's done on their platforms. The new markets work is, work services and software we provide on our platforms. So the vast majority of that work is to enterprise customers, but you'll see from there that there was $9 million of work that was provided to the global customers on our platform, and that's sort of the difference. So, the new markets work is generally enterprise customers and work that we do on their, on our platform. Global services is work that's done, on other platforms.
I think, we'll certainly take on notice your perspective that maybe it could be a little bit clearer and more-
Can I just clarify? Does it mean that the crowd is not being used for in the new enterprise market?
No, the crowd's being used in both, in both of those.
Okay.
It's where how the crowd's managed and how the software works. Sometimes we do it on big customers' platforms, and often we do it on our platform.
Okay.
Brian Allison, shareholder. Listening to commentators when they talk about Appen, they say it's very labor-intensive, with data generated by hand, basically, and that sort of thing. And they, they're casting the aspersion that maybe this won't be necessary at all in the future. So I'd just like to have your comments on that and how you see it.
Yeah. Thank you. I mean, certainly one of the big advantages we have is our crowd, and we strongly believe that going forward, as generative AI obviously gets bigger and bigger and bigger, there's a real role for humans in the... what we call humans in the loop, making sure that the that's being generated, the data that's being generated, has someone checking it. I don't know, Ryan, did you want to maybe expand on that a little bit?
Yeah, sure, Richard. It is very important for the human alignment component to be to have in Generative AI. In deep learning, a lot of the historical work that we've done, it's been really bringing that human-generated data, which was critical to development of speech recognitions, search systems, and other systems that were replicating human-type behaviors. In Generative AI, because it's creating content that is human-like, it's very important to have the alignment between the output and what humans expect. So, we spend a lot of time with leading, you know, researchers and understanding where the market's headed, and there is a almost unanimous alignment that the human involvement in the future for Generative AI is going to be ongoing and significant.
Okay. Thank you.
Any other general business questions at this stage?
Thank you. Umit Subasi, shareholder. I wanna just give a little context to my question initially, and then ask two questions. I look to the performance of the business over the last five years, including pre-COVID period. We have seen the business being really successful in terms of its overall performance, its scale, market cap, share price and everything. And I personally believe we should have asked the difficult questions when the days were good. Unfortunately, this did not happen. And I think what I'm saying right now goes to everybody who has been on with the management for the last five years or with the board, so please take it personally. I'm not sparing punches here. I think lots of complacency crept in, and we didn't ask those questions. There has been,
I think there's a bit of falling asleep at the steering wheel and really watching a high-speed train crashing in slow motion. Now, this is a big statement because this is a public company that has been really, really successful, and we have to take these things really, really seriously. I think there has been remarkable incompetence in terms of managing revenues and costs responsibly. That did not happen, and there has been massive value destruction. So this is the background to my question: What-- And, and looking to Ryan's presentation, I see some slight hints of positivity going forward. I appreciate all these things. Obviously, we are sort of at the bottom right now. But we're looking at a business that is almost $300 million in size and still losing money. Just too fat in terms of P&L.
Cost saving initiatives are good. $73 million is not easy to deliver. That's easier said than done on an annualized basis, but we cannot cost save our future to prosperity. That's not gonna happen. So I think it becomes more about right-sizing the business. So my questions are: What else can you tell us in terms of revenue diversification going forward, especially for the global customers? I appreciate what's happening in the non-global customers and market expansion and so on, because we've seen through Ryan, the global total addressable market is increasing considerably. So under the light of this, and based on what happened in the past, you know, let's judge the business not on a quarter or on a year, but let's have a long-term perspective.
What do we do in revenue diversification, global business, and do you see any more opportunities in terms of right-sizing the business? Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Mehmet. And look, I do appreciate how disappointing our share price performance has been. I would just maybe just disagree with you slightly in terms of your analogy of a crash happening in slow motion. When I joined this board three years ago, the company had just grown its revenue by 20%, and that was off the back of many, many years of rapid growth. What happened wasn't in slow motion; it happened very, very quickly. Tech downturn in the U.S., one big customer cut their spend significantly, very quickly. So, arguably, management should have been thinking further ahead, but at the time, they were doing everything they could to manage the rapid growth they were having.
When that happened, I think management moved relatively quickly and comprehensively to cut the cost base to what it should be. So I would slightly disagree with you in saying that it all happened in slow motion, we and the management team sat there watching it. I don't think that was the case. Maybe I'll just ask Ryan to comment on your questions about the business.
Yeah. Thank you. We are very focused on revenue diversification. We are also very focused on, having a longer-term view of where the market is headed and what new opportunity created. The reality is that the market is moving very, very quickly. Our customers are exploring, different approaches. They're investing, very rapidly in different areas. So, our focus is, serving our large customers and continuing to serve them very well, and we want to be the, the best vendor that we can for their data needs, but also breaking into new areas in existing customers, that aren't as large, because we're seeing the signals that they're going to be investing a lot in AI. That is, that is public.
There is a huge amount of investment from large technology companies, and we think a good component of that will be on data, and we want to make sure that we are very well placed to capture revenue from a more diverse set of customers, which includes global and many large technology companies that sit within our enterprise segment.
The only other comment I'd make is that the cost base is large because a lot of the work we do is variable cost, so you've actually got to pay crowd people to do the work. It's not as though our overheads are particularly large now. Any other general questions? Yes.
I am a shareholder, but I think they gave me a card, which is as a visitor because they couldn't find my name. I come from Singapore, and I have been an investor in Appen, and as he rightly pointed out, I have seen the share price fall from AUD 35. Now, today, we are at 2%. 2%, I repeat, less than 2% of the value in 2020. So we cannot attribute our problems to only a loss of business in Google. Something has drastically gone wrong somewhere in terms of perception of the company, because the revenues are not as bad as they turn out to be. Yes, EBITDA is bad, but the perception somewhere is lacking, and market is all about perception. In the end, all the effort that you're making is for a market cap.
If you cannot achieve a good market cap, all these efforts are in vain. In my opinion, and sitting in Singapore, the perception of the company is bad.
... I don't know where it is lacking, but some effort has to be definitely put in to improve the perception of the company. Now, for example, as you earlier pointed out, could be a regular monthly communication in terms of new businesses achieved, in terms of new developments in the company. See, we report our results every six months, so as a shareholder, I cannot wait for six months waiting for your results. So you have to do, because you have already lost it. You have come to 1.7% of the value of 2020. I give a benefit, okay, 2020 was not the right price. Okay, it was an exceptional price. Still, 1.7% is a pathetic performance in the marketplace, and it is not as bad in reality.
Something is wrong somewhere, where the CEO has to regularly now meet the investors, meet investment bankers, talk to them, make presentations, and sell the company. Effort has to be made on that front also, apart from what businesses or the effort that you're making on the business front. In the end, it is all about market cap.
Look, I would, I would, in response to that, I again repeat that we're all incredibly disappointed with the share price. I clearly there has been a huge change in... There's been a change. To your point, there's been a change in the performance of the business, but there has been a huge change in how the market perceives the business. I think, as I said earlier, Ryan does meet with investment bankers, he meets with investors, he spends a lot of time, more time investing, meeting with customers, which I think is very important. Where we are now, the way we'll change perception of this business is to deliver results, and that is what the team is incredibly focused on, delivering results.
And I'm hoping that as you see results start to go the right way, that will be reflected in the share price over time. Oh, here and then back to there.
My name is Chris, and I am a shareholder. I'm almost holding 150,000 shares with Appen. I've been witnessing all the highs and downs. First of all, I would like to thank to the entire team members or of our team, like, congratulations and doing good. Like, I know it has been being hard, going all the way down and coming up, and I have big faith on you guys, which we will be doing absolutely good, and especially Ryan and team, like, congratulations, I would say. My question is just to give a bit of two, like, one is, like, are we going back, like, try and convince Google and maybe see some possibility to kick them back in and, sell our products? One. Secondly is regarding telco.
I think there has been lots of rumors and gossips going on. If you can just please tell a little bit about the telco, would be appreciated. Once again, thank you very much for everything-
Sorry, about...
About the telco news that we've been talking in February, that we will be coming up with the contract.
Oh, you can handle on? Okay. Thank you for the question. Just, just on Google, we, we do communicate with Google, you know, periodically now, still. I think because the decision, as I said, was made at a high level within Google, the, the people that deal with the operational side of things, the people we deal with day-to-day, don't have the authority to change that. I'm optimistic that over time, given the quality of work we did for Google, they may decide at some stage to come back, but there's nothing immediate in that, in that regard.
Regarding the, the customer, we're still engaging with them, along with many other enterprise customers, around, the product that to install the SaaS platform to enable large language models. That, that market is a very interesting one because there's huge interest from enterprises to adopt LLMs into their operations, but they're taking a very cautious approach because, you know, they need to get them right for the operation. So that, that market, we're still very bullish on. The timing is the big uncertain factor, around that element of the market.
Thanks. Just to, I guess, to build a little on the last couple of questions. Appen's revenue has declined materially, and this, of course, concerned shareholders because of the outcome in results. But I think if what we hear about the expansion of the AI market generally, it also means a significant reduction in the presence and perhaps credibility that Appen has across the market as a whole. Can you comment on the extent to which there's been a change in the competitive landscape? Are there new competitors, competitors with new technologies? What's happening in the market overall, and how is Appen going to combat that, any trends that are happening in competition?
I might give that one to Ryan.
Yeah. Thank you. It's a good question. The—as I said before, the market is changing very quickly, so the capabilities required are moving quite fast. However, the competitor set, there hasn't been a huge change in the nature or the type of competitors that we've seen in the last 18, 24 months. What we are really focused on is the value that we bring to our customers is bringing high-quality data. It's the number one focus from what our customers. So our focus internally is around the fundamentals of our business, making sure that we're delivering high-quality data at scale for our customers. And from, you know, all of the competitor intelligence that we have, there is no one that is doing that significantly different to Appen.
We feel that our, you know, track record in the business and our experience that we've got from doing this for over 20 years, is what enables us to differentiate, and I've got the team exceptionally focused on the fundamentals of delivering high-quality data, and I strongly believe that's what's gonna be the difference for us.
Thanks, Ryan. If there are no more questions, we might move on. So thank you very much for your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now progress to the formal business of the meeting. The notice of meeting was made available to all registered shareholders within the notice period required. With your consent, I will take that document as read. During the course of the meeting, I will present various resolutions to the meeting. We will strive to ensure that all shareholders who wish to speak have a reasonable opportunity to do so. I've been advised that all proxies received for the meeting have been checked, and I declare them valid for voting. I will disclose proxy votes on your screen prior to the vote being taken for each item.
These figures include the results as recorded at the closing time for receipt of proxies, which was 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 22 May. There are a number of voting exclusions that apply to the resolutions being presented at today's meeting. These were outlined in the notice of meeting. Voting on all resolutions will be decided via a poll, which I now declare open. The poll will be taken at the end of the meeting, and results announced to the ASX shortly after the close of the meeting. As chair of the meeting, and as detailed in the notice of meeting, I will vote, where authorized, all undirected proxies in favor of each resolution. The first item of notified business is to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report, and the auditors' report for the year ended 31 December 2023.
There is no formal resolution required for this item, but I invite shareholders to ask questions or make a comment on the financial report or the reports of the directors and auditors. Ask questions or make a comment on the management of the company. Or ask any questions of the auditor relevant to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and the content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in preparation of the financial statements, or the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit. I will now take questions on the company's financial statements, the performance of the company over the last year, the directors' report, or the auditors' report. Probably covered a lot of those questions in the previous session, but are there any other questions at this stage? Okay.
I will now move to the next item of notified business, the remuneration report. Before we move to questions and a vote on the remuneration report, I would like to hand over to Steve Hasker, Chair of the People and Culture Committee, for his report. Steve?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, everyone. My name is Steve Hasker, and I'm Chair of the Board's People and Culture Committee. On behalf of the committee, it's my pleasure to provide an overview of the 2023 remuneration report, which is item number two on the agenda today. To tell you more about Appen's 2023 remuneration report and our executive remuneration framework, I'll cover the following agenda items, including, first, updates to Appen's remuneration framework, second, FY 2023 remuneration outcomes, third, changes in key management personnel, or KMP, and fourth, fees payable to non-executive directors and our minimum shareholding policy. First, turning to updates made to the company's remuneration framework. Shareholders might recall that in 2022, Appen introduced a new remuneration framework where substantive changes were made.
Before the start of FY 2023, the board concluded a further review of the effectiveness of Appen's remuneration framework, with a specific focus on the short-term and long-term incentive plans, with the aim of ensuring a simple and transparent design and continued alignment with the company's strategic objectives. The board concluded that the short-term incentive plan, or STI, remained fit for purpose, providing a sound alignment of management against sustainable long-term success of Appen's strategic objectives. Appen will always regard its financial performance as paramount, and as a reflection of this, and starting from FY 2024, the STI weighting of financial performance will increase from 70%-80%, and as a result, the non-financial metrics will receive a weighting of 20%, down from 30%.
The board also noted that a more appropriate long-term incentive, or LTI hurdle, would provide greater alignment to Appen's business strategy and shareholder outcomes. In addition, a scheme with a more simple and transparent design would help executives focus and be more accountable to shareholders. Therefore, in FY 2023, the LTI hurdle was updated to a single metric hurdle. With shareholder alignment and simplicity in mind, the updated single metric hurdle is now absolute total shareholder return and is measured over a three-year vesting period. In shifting to an absolute total shareholder return metric, executives are incentivized to drive revenue and earnings and to holistically contribute to long-term sustainable value creation, which is better aligned to shareholder interests. This ensures that awards will only vest when Appen's share price performance has been strong over the long term.
Other than the updated performance hurdle, there were no other changes to Appen's LTI plans. The malus and clawback policies and shareholder ownership guidelines adopted in 2022 remain in place. So moving to FY 2023 remuneration outcomes. As noted by the chair, FY 2023 was a challenging year for Appen. Although there were notable achievements for some, for some of the non-financial metrics, including customer NPS and employee engagement, Appen's financial performance did not meet the required threshold. With respect to the 70% financial metric component... FY 2023 revenue target was approximately 17% higher than the 2022 actuals. Revenue diversification target was 60% higher, and underlying EBITDA, 679% higher than the 2022 actuals.
The achievement percentage outcomes for each of the financial metrics was well below the minimum payout threshold of 90%, and as a result, no STI was paid in relation to these metrics. With respect to the 30% non-financial metric component, customer NPS was set at 36% higher than FY 2022, and crowd NPS, 37% higher, and employee engagement was increased by a modest amount, given the targets places Appen in the upper quartile range of technology companies. The customer NPS metric achieved was 140% of the target, and the employee engagement achieved was 91.9% of the target, which is above the 90% payout threshold. The crowd NPS metric was below the minimum payout threshold.
Each metric was weighted at 10%, with and a partial STI was paid in recognition of above-threshold performance of customer NPS and employee engagement. In FY 2023, two KMP, being the interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, each received an STI of 10.6% of maximum, which reflected exceeding the threshold targets for the two non-financial metrics. In relation to the LTI awards, and with respect to the 2020 executive award tranche 3, the relevant performance condition of 20% UB EPS growth was not met in FY 2023, and no performance rights vested for any executive KMP. In relation to the 2021 executive retention award tranche 1, and the 2022 executive award tranche 1, the relevant service condition was met in FY 2023, and performance rights vested for each eligible executive KMP.
In relation to changes in KMP and remuneration arrangements, the chair has already addressed the meeting on matters relating to remuneration arrangements of our new CEO and managing director. Therefore, I will limit my comments on remuneration arrangements to previous KMP, including the former CEO and CFOs. As announced on the 15th of December 2022, Mr. Ahmad was appointed as CEO, president, and managing director, commencing on the 9th of January 2023. His LTI and sign-on bonus were approved by shareholders at last year's meeting. Mr. Ahmad stepped down from his role as CEO, president, and managing director on the 5th of February 2024. He received his statutory entitlements and payment in lieu of notice of 12 months' salary. His LTI grant was forfeited upon his termination. The board also exercised its discretion, and no STI was awarded to Mr. Ahmad. Mr.
Ahmad's sign-on bonus remains on foot and continues to vest. The bonus is payable in shares over a 24-month period from the 9th of January 2023, in accordance with the terms of his contract. Appen's CFO, Kevin Levine, stepped down from his position on the 1st of May 2023. He remained with the company on the same fixed remuneration as an advisor to the incoming CFO until the 1st of September 2023, to ensure a smooth transition. On termination, all performance rights granted to Mr. Levine under the LTI plans received the default treatment of the plan terms. For all outstanding equity grants from 2022, all shares lapsed. For the outstanding 2023 grant, the default treatment provided that a pro rata number of participants' unvested plan interest would continue under the plan and may vest at the end of the relevant performance period. Mr.
Levine was subject to competitive restraints and non-solicitation clauses for 12 months from the date of cessation of his employment with Appen. In addition to his contractual entitlement to payment in lieu of six months of notice, the board determined another two months' fixed remuneration to be paid to enforce the restraints. In total, this represented AUD 381,333, or 8/12 of his fixed remuneration, and was paid on the first of September 2023. Mr. Levine did not receive any other termination or severance payments, other than his statutory annual and long service leave entitlements. Ms. Johnson, having commenced and resigned from Appen within after 3 months of service, had all outstanding LTI lapse upon termination. No other payments other than fixed remuneration through to her last day of employment were paid to Ms. Johnson. Mr.
Levine and Ms. Johnson did not receive an STI. Turning now to non-executive director fees and Appen's minimum shareholder policy. This year, non-executive director fees totaled AUD 988,678, an increase of 15.4% on FY 2022. The increase reflects three directors serving a full year term in 2023, compared to serving a part year term in FY 2022. Shareholders should note that non-executive fees remain below the Australian dollar amount of AUD 1.4 million, approved at the 2021 AGM. No change to non-executive director fees is proposed for FY 2024. The minimum shareholder policy continues to operate and assists in aligning the interests of all directors with your interests as shareholders.
This policy requires non-executive directors to hold Appen shares to the value of at least 100% of the annual non-executive director pre-tax base fee within three years of their appointment, using the base fee at the time of the appointment, and excludes any committee fees. Currently, all non-executive directors have served on the board for at least three years and are compliant with the minimum shareholding policy. In closing, I would like to reiterate that the board is committed to good governance and remuneration practices that reflect Appen's business strategy and shareholder outcomes. Appen remains firmly focused on its long-term growth strategy, and we believe our remuneration framework remains fit for purpose. We aim to align our remuneration structure, our framework, and our outcomes with sustainable shareholder value creation, while also attracting and retaining talent in the highly competitive North American and Australian technology markets.
We are committed to the ongoing review of our remuneration practices and welcome feedback on all aspects of our approach. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Thank you, and I'll now hand back to the chair.
Thank you, Steve. I now put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Peter.
Thanks. Am I addressing you, Chair, or, or Steve?
Start with me, and if I can't answer it, I'll throw to Steve.
Firstly, a comment. Australian Shareholders' Association likes to see companies having a hurdle, a financial hurdle on the STI payments. And secondly, we like to see an LTI with a four-year timeframe, whereas Appen has a three-year timeframe. So, as I said, a comment, we'd like you to ask you to consider those in the future as being in the best interest of individual shareholders. Secondly, I think it was said early on in the presentation that the LTI was based on minimum was based on a share price of AUD 1.60 and maximum of AUD 2.30. Could you share with us how you arrived at those numbers? Because for many shareholders, that's, while it's an improvement in the current situation, it just represents a reduction in their loss.
Sure, and I understand, I understand that. When Ryan took the job, the share price was 32 cents. So to hit that $1.60 number, the share price would have to have fivefold increase from that number, which I acknowledge is nowhere near where the share price used to be, but is a significant increase from where it was when he took the job. That's to get to the 50% payout. To get to the $2.30 number, it would be over seven times where it was when he took the job. We tried to come up with a number that would show significant share growth from where the share price was when Ryan took the job. There was no particular magic to that number. It just seemed like a reasonable increase to get to in that period.
In response to your comments earlier, as Steve mentioned, we've changed the financial side of the STI to 80%, with the non-financial being 20%. We think those non-financial metrics are important, as ways of ensuring long-term growth in the company. You know, customer Net Promoter Score, crowd Net Promoter Score, and employee engagement. If we get those right, it will lead to longer term growth. So it is important to have non-financial metrics in the STI. And the 3 years versus 4 years, which is something we talk about quite a lot, given that we are on an absolute return basis, we think shareholders need to see a return in 3 years, not 4 years, so it's a slightly different situation than you might see sometimes. Any other questions? Okay.
The next item of notified business concerns the re-election of Robin Low as non-executive director. I put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. Before opening this item for discussion, Robin Low will say a few words about her election.
Thank you, Richard, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Robin Low, and as I was appointed as a non-executive director of Appen on the 30th of October 2014. I also serve as Chair of the board's Audit and Risk Management Committee, a position I've held since the IPO in 2015. I was last re-elected by shareholders at the AGM in 2021, and as Richard has said, I'm standing for re-election today. My background includes a 28-year career at PwC, where I was a partner specializing in risk and assurance. I have significant finance, risk, and business experience, which I've applied during my years as a non-executive director. I'm currently a non-executive director of Articore Group Limited, where I also serve as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
I'm also on the boards of Guide Dogs New South Wales, The Sax Institute, and I'm a member of the University of New South Wales Audit Committee. I'm a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand, and a fellow of the Institute of Company Directors. Until recently, I was a non-executive director and audit, and risk committee chair on a number of ASX-listed companies, including AUB Group Limited, IPH Limited, and Marley Spoon SE. I'm also a former deputy chair of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. As a long-standing member of the board, I've shared Appen's journey with many of you here today…. In recent times, as we've said, Appen's performance has been disappointing. But I can assure shareholders that I remain committed to my role at Appen, and focused on working with my fellow directors and supporting management to reset Appen's business.
Thank you for considering my nomination, and with your support, I look forward to serving shareholders and working hard to improve the company's performance and deliver better returns. I'll now hand you back to Richard. Thank you.
Thanks, Robin. And can I just say what an incredible contribution Robin has made and continues to make as chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, and I think you'll see from her background why she's so qualified for that role. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions?
Robin, could you share with us what makes you feel confident about the future of Appen, and how you'll contribute to making this happen?
Thank you. Look, we've talked a lot this morning, or Ryan and Richard have in particular, about the strategy. Where I see it now is that, we've seen amazing execution over a short period under Ryan's leadership in a couple of areas. The cost out is a really big job and has been done very, very well. But of course, the revenue has to come as well, and what we're seeing is really with the strategy's been set well, but we're also seeing the revenue coming in, in the generative AI area that we're wanting to see. So we're feeling we're getting reinforcement of the strategy. Of course, the numbers have to come through, but what we're seeing is giving me confidence in both the setting of the strategy and also the team to deliver it.
Thank you.
Thanks, Robin. Any other questions? Thank you. The next item of notified business concerns the re-election of Ms. Vanessa Liu as a director of the... a non-executive director. I put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. Before opening this item for discussion, Vanessa will say a few words about her election. Vanessa?
Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. My name is Vanessa Liu, and I appreciate the opportunity to present myself for re-election to the Appen board. I'm also a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee. I was appointed as an independent non-executive director on the 27th of March, 2019, and was last re-elected at the AGM held on the 27th of May, 2022. With more than 26 years of experience working in technology and startup companies and advising clients in media and high tech, I have a deep understanding of emerging technology trends and the uptake of artificial intelligence, especially in the US market. I am the founder and CEO of Sugarwork, a SaaS technology platform enabling enterprise companies to capture, own, and maintain the tacit knowledge, skills, and relationships that drive their businesses using generative AI.
Prior to joining the Appen board, I was most recently the Vice President of SAP.iO, the early-stage venture arm of SAP, which invests in and accelerates startups in enterprise technology. In that role, I oversaw SAP.iO's North American foundries in New York and San Francisco, and accelerated a portfolio of 87 enterprise tech startups. Before SAP, I was the Chief Operating Officer of Trigger Media Group, a digital media incubator, and prior to that, I was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company's Media and Entertainment practice based in Amsterdam, London, and New York. I served clients in a variety of media and high-tech sectors, including online advertising, magazine and newspaper publishing, television, video content production, and information services, particularly on issues of digital media strategy, emerging market strategy, growth, and innovation.
I'm currently serving on the board of Goodman Group as a non-executive director and member of the Sustainability and Innovation Committee. While Appen has faced challenging external market conditions adversely impacting its revenue and profitability, I remain excited about our company's leadership role in the AI space. Appen is a global market leader in providing high-quality data for deep learning and generative AI. If re-elected to serve on the Appen board, I will continue to share my expertise and help Appen to capture the full potential of generative AI. I will now hand you back to the chair. Thank you.
Thanks, Vanessa. I would say again, how lucky we are to have someone with Vanessa's deep technology background, startup, understanding of startup, understanding of the U.S. market, who also serves on two ASX boards, so also understands the ASX governance side of things very well. So I think that shows the good mix of U.S. and Australian executives that we have. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions?
Vanessa, can I ask you also what makes you feel confident about the future of Appen and how you'll contribute to making that happen?
Vanessa, did you hear that question?
She's disconnected.
Oh, unfortunately, she's disconnected. I'd hope, answering on her behalf, that what she said in her re-election speech sort of covered her thoughts on that matter. But, hopefully, that's covered by what we've talked about generally, Peter. Thank you. Any other questions?... The next item of business is in relation to the grant of long-term incentive performance rights to our CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Ryan Kolln. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? No? Good. The next item of business concerns the ratification of prior issue of shares under the placement. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen.
The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions on this item?
Richard, can you share with us whether you're confident that the company has sufficient cash runway to not need any further fundraising activities? And also, if there are, if you can, involve individual shareholders in the opportunity to purchase at what might be a discounted amount.
So Peter, I think Ryan talked about our cash balance at the end of April at $36 million. He also talked about our ambition to get back to profitability early in the second half of this year. So based on those plans, we think we will not have a cash problem at all. Cash will go down because there's various ways payments work and things like that, but based on all forecasts that we can see at the moment, we feel we're in a position where we will not need to raise capital again. You never know what... As I said, it's a very dynamic market, you never know what's going to happen, but we feel that where we are today, we won't need to raise any more capital.
I think the last two times we have raised capital, we have given existing shareholders the right to, to buy into those capital raisings at that discounted price, and that, you know, without pre-judging anything, if we did need to raise capital in the future, we always want to make sure shareholders have the right to participate. Any other questions? Next item of business concerns the ratification of prior issue of shares and warrants to the vendors of Quadrant. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? No questions on that one. Thank you.
The next item of business concerns the approval of the Appen Long-Term Incentive Plan terms and conditions, and the subsequent issue of securities under that plan. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. The direct and proxy votes received for this item prior to the meeting are now shown on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the formalities of the meeting. I now ask shareholders to complete their voting card. To cast your vote for, against, or abstain, place a mark in the corresponding box for each item on your voting card. If you place a mark in more than one box in relation to a resolution, your vote for that resolution will be invalid. Link will now collect your voting card.
I think they're all collected, so I now declare the poll closed. As I mentioned earlier, the results of this meeting will be announced to the ASX as soon as they have been counted and verified. I now declare the meeting closed. I would like to take this chance to thank my fellow directors and Ryan for his management and his management team for their diligence and commitment to the business. I would also like to thank shareholders for your support and your participation today. We look forward to meeting you again at next year's annual general meeting. Thank you very much.