Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Bapcor Limited's 2025 annual general meeting. My name is Angus McKay, and I'm Bapcor's Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer. On behalf of the Board, I'd like to thank you for joining us today, both in person and online. I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. For those of us present in the room today, we are on Wurundjeri Country, home of the Kulin Nation, and I pay my respect to elders past and present. We recognize the continued connection of all First Nations people with Country across Australia and on all the land where Bapcor operates. I would like to also introduce my fellow Directors. To my immediate right, Mark Powell, who is our Lead Independent Director, and in alphabetical order, Annette Carey, Lachlan Edwards, Jackie Korhonen, Patria Mann , and Kate Spargo.
For the sake of completeness, I should note that I am an Executive Director and not considered to be independent. Also in the room today are Kim Kerr, Bapcor's Chief Financial Officer, and George Sakoufakis, Bapcor's Company Secretary, as well as other members of the executive team from Bapcor. I'd also like to welcome the company's auditors, PwC, represented by Alison Milner, as well as Chris Dietrich, the representative for the company's share registry, Computershare Investor Services. It is now time to start, and the Company Secretary advises me that we have a quorum present, so I will now declare the meeting open. The notice for this annual general meeting was circulated to shareholders within the required period. Accordingly, if there are no objections, I'd like to move that that notice is taken as read.
Today's meeting is being physically held at Bapcor's registered office, located at Tullamarine, Melbourne, and online via the Computershare Meetings platform. This format allows shareholders, proxy holders, and guests to attend the meeting physically and virtually, and to ask questions and submit votes online. All attendees can watch the live webcast of the meeting, which will also be recorded and available to view after the AGM on Bapcor's website. Before we move to the formal business of the meeting, I'd like to run through a few procedural and housekeeping matters so we can ensure that the meeting proceeds smoothly. I will then turn to the agenda. Before each resolution is put to shareholders, shareholders will be given the opportunity to ask questions on a specific resolution. To ensure an orderly meeting, the Chair will only be taking questions that relate directly to that resolution at hand.
Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, I will open the meeting to general and relevant questions. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. To ask a question, please select the Q&A icon, type your question into the text box. Once you have finished typing, please hit the send button. Although you can submit questions from now on, the Chair will not address them until the relevant time of the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on the same topic, we'll consolidate them into a single question or query. To ask a verbal question, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast. For those attending the meeting in person, when questions are invited, you can ask it by approaching the microphone, showing your blue or yellow card, and providing your name.
If you are eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the vote icon and all resolutions will be activated. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. If you'd like to change your vote, you can do so until the time when the Chair declares the voting is closed. If you're attending the meeting in person and are eligible to vote, you may complete the voting items on the reverse side of your blue voting card. These cards will then be collected at the end of the meeting by a Computershare representative. I now declare the voting is open on all items of business.
Please submit your votes at any time, and the Chair will give you a warning before moving to closing of votes. As well as those shareholders online today, the holders of approximately 251 million ordinary shares, or 74.13% of the company's issued share capital, have already sent in valid proxies. As each item of business is read out to today's meeting, the total number of valid proxies we receive for that item, and by way of those proxies that have been directed, will be shown on the screen. These figures will be as at the closing time of the receipt of proxies, which was 1:30 P.M. Tuesday, the 21st of October. In my power and my capacities as Chair during the meeting, we will be voting all available undirected proxies in favor of each item of business.
Before we move to the formal address of the meeting, I'd like to address shareholders in relation to the company's progress during 2025 and our objectives going forward. A copy of my address to shareholders and the presentation will be delivered and has been lodged to the Exchange and will be published on Bapcor's website. As Executive Chair and CEO, I'll give you an overview of our progress during the fiscal 2025 year and into fiscal year 2026 before the formal items of business are considered. I will chair the meeting for the first six items of business: consideration of the company's financial audit accounts and related reports for the year ended June 30, 2025, and for Resolutions 1A, B, C, D, and E, the re-election of Directors.
I'll then pass over to Mark Powell, our Lead Independent Director, for the remuneration-related resolutions, being Resolution 2, the adoption of the FY 2025 remuneration report, and Resolution 3, approval of the grant of the FY 2026 performance rights to the Executive Chair and CEO under the Long-Term Incentive Plan. Once these resolutions are complete, I'll resume the role of Chair and put Resolution 4 to the meeting, the renewal of the Proportional Takeover Bid provisions in Bapcor's Constitution. I will then address general questions at the end of the meeting. I started with Bapcor in late August 2024. When I began, I said I'd been drawn to the company's strong position in the resilient automotive aftermarket industry, its healthy balance sheet and robust operating cash flows, its position amongst the top three in the markets where it competes, and team members who are passionate about delivering for their customers.
After 14 months in the role, I remain of the belief I started with. There is clearly a positive future for Bapcor. It is a strong business with a committed team, loyal customers, and very robust suppliers. There is significant work to be done. The company is overcomplex, too internally focused, too reactive, and has not adjusted its operating model and rhythms. This internal focus means the company has lost elements of the connection to its customers. It is that connection to its customers that made the company great. Our roots have been built on acquiring businesses, not integrating them. Some of the practices that have been accepted in the wider organization do not meet acceptable operational standards, nor the required financial or commercial level of expectation.
In a trading update released last Monday on the 20th of October, we said that this work to methodically address these issues is progressing slowly, and the complexity involved in turning around the business means it's taking longer than expected. It will result in a stronger and more sustainable company. We remain committed to delivering on this turnaround and achieving the five-year indicative scorecard contained in our strategy. I'll speak more about Monday's trading update shortly, but before that, I'll detail Bapcor's fiscal 2025 performance and business results. As I said, the company has been progressing its structure and its capability, restoring customer confidence and building its performance over the past 14 months. I acknowledge that the continued discovery of historical poor operating practices is frustrating. However, we're committed to facing into these issues and correcting them as and when required.
Work undertaken at pace to begin the simplification of the business started in fiscal 25. These changes were necessary to drive simplification, create more customer-focused operations, eliminate waste, provide greater visibility to inventory, and to strengthen the company's core business for its future growth. I acknowledge that that speed of change has impacted our operations, but drawing out such urgent actions over multiple time horizons would have been even more damaging. The actions taken include the final unwinding of the Better-Than-Before Headcount, consolidating small warehouse sites, reigniting store or branch openings and closures, technology upgrades and consolidations, integrating Bapcor's wholesale truck and electrical businesses under a single executive leader, and the sale of a surplus business. It has also been challenging on our team members who have not experienced this level of change before.
I'd like to commend them for what is not only what they have achieved, but the way they've gone about doing it. In parallel to this work, we've set about delivering a clear strategy and communicating that to both team members, shareholders, and our stakeholders. From my earliest days in the business, the company's shareholders and team members have asked for clear direction. The five-year strategy was announced in April of 2025, articulating where and how the company will focus on building the business for long-term sustainable profitability. It leverages commonality across the group through strict strategic imperatives. Firstly, optimizing our network. Secondly, one supply chain. Thirdly, customer focus. Fourth, the digitization of our business. Fifth, making our stores fit. Finally, simplifying the business. In the six months since announcing the strategy, we've been busy bringing these plans to life.
While there is certainly complexity to this execution, the articulation is deliberately designed to be clear and simple. To align with this strategy, we've also defined our cultural aspiration, underpinned by a reset of our code of conduct. This might seem trivial, but ensuring all Bapcor employees have a common understanding of what is acceptable behavior and what behaviors are critical to the longevity of our business is fundamentally sensible. The executive team was reshaped to support the new plan with three key appointments. Simon Bromwell was appointed as the Executive General Manager of Trade on the 28th of April. Simon brings a background in delivering results in complex chain and supply chain environments, including Aurora, Fonterra, and Mars. Kim Kerr was appointed as Chief Financial Officer on 12th May.
Kim is an experienced CFO with 25 years working in ASX 100 listed companies in the mining, manufacturing, chemicals, and digital solutions area, and most recently, CFO at Oracle. Craig Magill was appointed to the expanded role of Executive General Manager of Networks, which has been combined with the CVG business, JAS, and our wholesale business units. This was effective on the 1st of June, bringing his 13 years of Bapcor experience into that role. Abdul Jaafar, George Sakoufakis, Martin Storey, Megan Foster, Morris Lieberman, and Merryl Dooley remained in their existing executive roles. As announced in both Bapcor's fiscal 2024 annual report and the fiscal 2024 annual general meeting, Margie Haseltine stepped down as the company chair on the 22nd of August and left the board on the 16th of October 2024. I was appointed as Executive Chair and CEO on the 22nd of August 2024.
With this, Mark Powell was appointed as our Lead Independent Director on the 22nd of August 2024. Mark's role ensures Bapcor continues to have clear separation between board and management, open communication in relation to the government's requirements, and that my performance in my dual role is overseen and managed directly by the board. Kate Spargo remains on the board in her capacity of Non-Executive Director, and Bapcor continues to benefit from the experience and insight Kate provides. Jackie Korhonen was appointed to the board as a Non-Executive Director on 1st of February , 2025, bringing extensive executive and non-executive experience in strategy development, risk management, governance, data, and technology. On July 2025, Mark Bernhard, Brad Soller, and James Todd resigned from their positions as Non-Executive Directors on the board.
The timing and the immediacy of those resignations was disappointing to all of us, but it has presented us with the opportunity to accelerate the refresh of the board that was already underway. On October 1st, 2026, three new Non-Executive Directors joined the board, providing a wealth of experience and highly complementary skill sets. These individuals will be invaluable to the Bapcor business. Annette Carey brings 35 years and more of legal and operational experience in logistics, supply chain, and the security sector in Australia and internationally. Lachlan Edwards brings 35+ years of hands-on experience in capital management, corporate, and debt advisory. Lachlan has an extensive turnaround background, including driving operational recovery, capital efficiency, and sustainable value for shareholders. These are, of course, crucial to Bapcor's strategy and to restore growth and returns.
Finally, Patria Mann joins with 20+ years of non-executive experience across ASX listed and financial services organizations and has deep experience in audit, risk, and governance. Patria has served as the Audit and Risk Committee Chair with multiple organizations and will lead Bapcor's Audit and Risk Committee. Annette, Lachlan, and Patria were recruited through an independent process managed by an external consultant. You'll have the opportunity to hear from them, plus also Mark and Jackie later in the meeting. To the financial results, I've been clear that these were not an acceptable level. Yes, the headline numbers reflect the disruption associated with simplifying the business, particularly in that specialist wholesale segment, the necessary clean-up of the balance sheet, and the change to our inventory valuation policy, but the underlying trading performance was not at an acceptable level. Statutory net profit after tax for the FY 2025 was $28.1 million.
Group revenue of $1.9 billion declined by 1.5% on the prior year. Importantly, revenue in that trade segment continued to grow. The New Zealand and retail segments continued to trade in ongoing challenging conditions and the conditions in the Australian retail environment in the wider New Zealand economy. We delivered on the forecast cost-saving measures. The company's final quarter was poor, particularly in trade, with both parts and equipment sales falling below our expected levels of delivery. The significant work undertaken to simplify the business also disrupted trading. That work included consolidating operations in 23 warehouses across Australia and relocating them to the existing distribution centers, closing or consolidating a further 34 branches or stores across our network, relocating 13 stores or branches, and opening 21 stores and branches.
Consolidating three auto electrical businesses into a specialist wholesale segment, previously known as A.E.G., into a single business unit called JAS, bringing together branch locations and ERP systems. Restructuring the specialist wholesale segment, including the centralization of product functions and establishing a single selling entity. Rebuilding the Autobarn business, including significant changes to both regional and store manager personnel, adjusting promotional cycles, enhancing our B2C capabilities, and the new investment in the Autobarn brand. Investing in IT systems that included fiber to stores, a pricing engine in the trade segment, commencing the implementation of a company-wide HR system, and enhancing our cybersecurity tools and processes. Finally, introducing a common email platform across the entire Bapcor group. Given the large volume and change introduced during that period of time, an extensive review of the balance sheet was undertaken, announced in the July trading update.
This review resulted in the recognition of significant items of $52.3 million after tax, including the statutory net profit of the FY 2025 year, of which 82% represented non-cash items. I am disappointed at the quantum and the nature of those significant items announced by, but the business needs to deal with the issues in a transparent manner. It is inevitable that as a company, reviews like this in its current state will confront issues that do relate to our past. Our commitment is to deal with these as and when they arise and to do so quite transparently. The required business turnaround was always going to be challenging. However, I'm clear that the review as completed places us in a superior position to deal with the required business and importantly operational change. Central to our strategy is safety.
Fiscal 2025 saw a 43.5% reduction in our total recordable injury frequency rate. The reduction was driven by an increased focus on the safety program and embedding the early intervention initiatives inside of our business, utilizing and improving the available data from right across the organization. We also revised the definition of total recordable injuries in November of 2024 to better align with both the industry and our internal practices. We are a safer business today than we were 12 months ago, but it cannot afford to be complacent. Absolute TRIFR will reduce year over year when excluding that definitional change, but we are continually improving the way we use Donesafe, our safety management system, lifting the accuracy of incident data and reporting it as and when it occurs, and focusing on health and safety as a reduction opportunity.
We continue to build a diverse workforce representing the communities in which we operate. It remains focused on creating an inclusive environment, particularly trying to improve our gender balance. The company has, however, made limited progress on a gender balance change, with the total number of females employed at Bapcor increasing from 28% - 29% over the last 12 months. The expectation for us to make greater progress will be through a diverse cohort of managers, setting the culture and making the right hiring decisions. A voluntary engagement survey was offered to all team members in March of 2025, with 85% of the organization participating. This participation demonstrates an engaged workforce who want to be part of the solution and importantly the turnaround.
Our engagement rating was 52%, and the company has been given a significant amount of feedback on how it can improve its culture and build on opportunities to create flexibility, inclusivity, and a sense of belonging for all our team members. We have responded to this feedback with actions that include the strategy roadshows that target our Australian and New Zealand personnel, career development conversations with every Bapcor employee, and direct engagement by the leadership team right across the two big countries we operate in. Our responses continue as we look to change the culture of the organization. In FY 2025, we launched a refreshed ESG strategy and strategic framework to ensure that our sustainability efforts remain focused, measurable, and aligned with stakeholder expectations, operational priorities, and regulatory change. This strategy is shaped across four single pillars: environment, team members, supply chain, and communities.
It was informed by the insights from Bapcor's FY 2024 double materiality assessment and considered the impact Bapcor has on the environment and society, as well as the influence of ESG factors on the company's long-term performance. FY 2025 also saw the development of a comprehensive decarbonization strategy and commenced preparation for the mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements under the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. This is due to commence in FY 2026. Earlier this week, we provided an update to the Stock Exchange of our Q1 performance and provided financial guidance for the first and second halves of the FY 2026 year. Details can be found on our website. Management has continued its execution of the strategy.
Operational reviews have been a feature of the first quarter of FY 2026, with the following key actions already undertaken: pricing reviews on key bursting categories to increase our competitiveness in the market, ranging reviews in trade and JAS to ensure the right stock is in the right location, utilizing key promotions to engage with new and lapsed customers with a particular focus on our key accounts, implementing a retail-specific demand and merchandising planning team, training for sales team members, particularly our new staff, utilizing NPS, Net Promoter Score feedback, to drive our focus on customers, the recruitment of staff to key positions with the focus on filling open customer-facing roles of priority, optimizing our store network, including opening new stores, closures as required, and refurbishments.
Finally, an in-depth review of the tools and equipment business within the trade segment is underway, and that has unfortunately identified unsatisfactory operational practices that have required our immediate attention. In half one of FY 2026, additional investment of some $16 million will be made: brand and product marketing activities to improve brand awareness in the sales and retail segments, and in our JAS business, technology of some $6 million, and in our supply chain to support the surety of supply as we now finalize the embedding of the warehouse rationalization that was completed at the end of last fiscal year. Cost savings and issues have also been launched in quarter one of FY 2026.
These include the optimization of our supply chain structures and associated costs, simplification of some of our support office structures in line with our new operating model, the reprioritizing of people and technology spend to prioritize customer-facing activities, and changes to the New Zealand distribution footprint to optimize site and distribution costs. We expect statutory net profit after tax for half one of FY 2026 to be in the range of $3 million - $7 million, excluding any potential impairments associated with the New Zealand segment. Underlying impact for half one of FY 2026 before one-offs and non-recurring items is expected to be in the range of $14 million - $18 million. Statutory impact for the full year FY 2026 is expected to be in the range of $40 million - $50 million, again excluding any potential half one impairment associated with the New Zealand segment.
Underlying impact for the fiscal year 2026 before any anticipated one-off or non-recurring items recognized in half one is expected to be in the range of $51 million - $61 million. Impact in that second half of fiscal 2026 is expected to significantly improve from the first half due to operational improvements, where we're focusing our attention on sales growth, the benefits of the pricing realignment measures already underway, realization of the benefits from cost-saving initiatives that are built into that half one, which are expected to generate $20 million in pre-tax savings in the half, and the non-recurrence of $16 million worth of pre-tax first half items. Our impact and our cash flow forecast remain and demonstrate Bapcor will remain within our debt covenants, and we have access to sufficient debt facilities to fund our ongoing operations.
We are privileged to have excellent lenders who support the turnaround that is underway. We're now firmly focused on delivering the strategy over the next four to five years. Growth in leadership in the Australian trade sector, expanding our store network, becoming a market leader in New Zealand, investing strategically in digital and e-commerce solutions, stabilizing and growing our retail organization, and maximizing shareholder value. This will be undertaken with a ruthless focus on operationalizing the six imperatives that I spoke to before, and we'll invest further in technology and people capabilities as we are required by discrete segment earnings growth. With the refreshed board and leadership in place, the investment underway to implement the business strategy, the board is confident the company is addressing its deficiencies, closing the performance gap, and is positioning itself to return to sustainable growth.
My first year at Bapcor has provided me with numerous insights into the huge contribution the team around me makes, and it is with great pride that that team members take on wearing the colors of our company. It is clear the team members are genuinely passionate about this business and the company, and they are here for customers and the communities in which the company serves. As leaders, our job is to provide direction and stability. It's a privilege to lead Bapcor, and I sincerely thank all our team members for what they do every single day. There is a great deal to accomplish. On behalf of the board and the group leadership team, thank you to our customers, suppliers, and shareholders for supporting the company as we drive these required changes. I look forward to delivering the strategy and beyond in the 12 months and plus to come.
We'll now move to the formal part of the meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders can vote on each item of business to be conducted at today's meeting in person or via the Computershare online platform. Instructions on how to vote and how to ask questions were provided at the start of the meeting. For those attending online, please refer to the Computershare online meeting guide for any further information. The phone lines are now open for verbal questions. The first item of business is the consideration of the company's audited financial statements and the related reports for the fiscal year ended 30 June 2025. The Corporations Act requires that the audited financial statements and related reports for the FY 2025 financial year be laid before the meeting.
I now declare that these reports, which were made available to shareholders on 29th of August 2025 by both the ASX and Bapcor's website, have been laid before this meeting. Although shareholders are not required to formally vote on the company's financial and related reports, I would welcome any discussion or questions on the reports. As I previously mentioned, the company's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Allison Miller, are in participation in this meeting and present. If you have any questions for the auditor, we can direct those directly to them. I will start by asking if there are any questions.
Thank you, Angus. This is [Donald Bridget]. I'm Steve Van Emmerik. I'm the representative of the Australian Shareholders Association. A couple of quick comments, then I'll get into questions. I've got a couple of quick questions for the auditors.
Firstly, thanks to Angus and Mark and Kate for getting together with the pre-AGM meeting with us and I think giving honest and, you know, useful responses. Sometimes we agree to disagree. Sometimes you have listened to us and we do appreciate when you've taken actions based on those concerns. To the new board of directors, good luck. I don't think it's going to be a cushy job. We wish you all the best. We hope you align yourself with shareholders and get out there and buy a few shares. I will have questions for you when it comes to the votes. I guess all the write-offs that have come to light this year, you've said you're cleaning up the balance sheet. You don't have to clean something up unless it's dirty to begin with. I guess my question is related to previous year's financial statements.
What was the problem really? I mean, is it incompetence? Is it fraud? Is it unreasonable optimism? That's the first question. What was going on? The second question is, why didn't the auditors find anything? I mean, there's been multiple times that you reviewed and found extra problems. Why didn't the auditors find any of those problems? Will they go back and review their past audits and see what they could do better so there's not a repeat of this problem in the future? Really, three questions for the auditors.
For the auditors. I might take the first one if I could. Then I'll...
Feel free.
I think the balance sheet review was designed to look at, after having consolidated such a significant amount of the organization, you know, what we needed to be aware of. Yes, we did find things that we, as a new management team, took a different judgment on, and we did take a different judgment on those. That represents the bulk of what is in that, you know, was raised as an expense in the $52 million. We, as a management team, also made a call and were backed by the board to change our accounting policy on the way in which we valued stock. Those are two things that we distinctly took a proactive approach to, Steve. I appreciate that the former had a very unpleasant consequence to the P&L. The final element around what we did note was a mistake around the intercompany balances.
That had been something that had clearly been present for a while. We had to steer into that and recognize that and deal with it. Why did it occur? The complexity of this business, the systems environment, and all those things contribute. Fundamentally, I'm going to say from a management perspective, that's on us to have got right before. I'm not going to look at the auditors and say it was their job to find that. We should have been on that first. Alison, I might hand to you.
Thank you for the question. Before addressing the specific question, if I can just highlight our role as auditors, management prepares the financial report, which the board approves. Our role is to give an independent audit opinion on the financial report as a whole, providing reasonable, not absolute, assurance that it's free from misstatement. We plan those procedures based on areas where we believe there's a higher likelihood of misstatement. We do acknowledge there was a prior year error. The prior year audit was performed in line with applicable accounting standards, using the information available at the time. The issue later identified was not evident at the time we prepared our prior period audit. Once identified, we did work with management to assess the impact of those errors and ensured it was corrected and disclosed appropriately, as you can see in note three of the financial statements.
We updated our risk assessment and our audit approach accordingly in the current year. We also outlined the question in terms of the question in respect to the significant items. In relation to our audit, we don't comment on specific matters. We do note, though, in respect to the audit work performed in those areas, we assessed those in line with Australian accounting standards, ensuring that they were appropriately treated and disclosed in respect to the financial report as a whole. Did that answer those questions?
I think I've got as much answer as I'm going to get.
I guess I have got a follow-up question. Maybe that's more to the CFO or to Angus, like, has the review of the balance sheet been completed? If so, does that mean you take ownership? Fair enough, mistakes were made in the past. Do you take ownership from this point forward as far as write-downs, et cetera, or is it something that's still ongoing? I know you may be looking at the New Zealand business to some extent.
The starting point is, make sure I'm clear. I take accountability and ownership for what we've just done. I'm not looking to blame the past. That's my responsibility now, and clearly, anything that happens in the future is without a doubt my responsibility. The balance sheet review that we conducted in July is complete. We continue to look through this business as we look to simplify it. I think the simplest stat is, prior to me joining, lots of good work beforehand. We went from 43 ERPs to 19 over my single-year tenure. Nineteen became 17, and our plan is for 17 to become 15 by the end of this year. That level of complexity probably tells you a story in its own right. I am not looking to find issues, nor is Kim, but when we do, we'll deal with them as and when they arise.
Our job is to make this business simpler to the comments I made earlier.
Thank you. Will you be putting the audit out for tender or not?
Not this year, no.
Thank you.
Let's see if there's any other questions in the room. Otherwise...
There's one for the library. We've got a session later on.
At the very end, there will be a general question. Okay, no, we'll come back to you then, certainly. Can I just check, are there any questions online?
There is one question from Steven Main in relation to when was the external audit last competitively tendered, and when will it next be competitively tendered?
Steven, I don't know the answer to the first part of your question, but I've said for this year we're not going to be changing away from PwC. With a newly constructed board and a newly constructed audit committee, we'll now look to what our plans are for the future. At this stage, for this fiscal year, there will be continuity. No other questions online?
No further questions.
Fantastic, thank you. I would now ask the Company Secretary to record that the audited financial statements and the related reports for the year ended 30 June 2025 have been received and they've been considered by shareholders. Moving to our next resolution, the next item of business, Resolution 1A, relates to the re-election of Jackie Korhonen as a director. Jackie was appointed to the Board on 1st of February 2025 as an Independent Non-Executive Director, and her qualifications, background, and experience are summarized in the notice of meeting. I'd now like to invite Jackie to briefly address the meeting.
Thanks, Angus. Can you hear me? Thanks, Angus, and good afternoon fellow shareholders. As Angus mentioned, I joined the Bapcor board as a Non-Executive Director in February this year, and I've written over 35 years' experience in the technology sector with a track record of leading large-scale transformation programs. I welcome this opportunity to continue to support Bapcor as we invest in technology to improve customer experience and to simplify our business. If re-elected, I'll bring practical hands-on experience in digital transformation, data and technology governance, and risk management to the board. My focus will be on helping to ensure Bapcor's technology investments deliver tangible improvements for customers and team members while strengthening our operational resilience and data-driven decision-making, all the while keeping our business and our customers safe.
As a member of Bapcor's Remuneration and ESG Committee, I will support remuneration and talent frameworks to attract and retain high-quality people while aligning risk and governance to drive sustainable performance and shareholder returns. In addition to my role at Bapcor, I sit on other boards in other industries. I feel this exposure assists me bring different perspectives and insights to our board decisions. If elected today, I'll work diligently with my fellow directors and management to drive growth and create shareholder value. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, Jackie. The resolution appears on the screen, and I'll take it as having been read. Also appearing on the screen are the details of the valid proxy votes on this resolution. I'll now turn to questions. Are there any questions in the room in relation to this resolution? One second, sir. Steve, why don't you jump first? Oh, you can go first. Okay, you can go first, and I'll then come to this gentleman.
Two questions, same questions for all the directors up for. I'll just ask them once, so I don't take up your time. First question is related to corporate governance. Given having an Executive Chairman is completely contrary to the ASX and ASA governance guidelines, what will you do beyond your usual director duties to ensure that high corporate governance standards are upheld? That's the first question. Second question is, you know, we represent retail shareholders, and really, you know, you can't expect retail shareholders to put their money into Bapcor if directors aren't willing to. I know there's minimum standards. No one really achieved much in life aiming for the minimum. Will you commit to buying a significant number of shares compared to your own wealth, given that Bapcor's share price is where it is, and hopefully gets to somewhere a lot better? That's my two questions.
Thanks, Steve, for the question. As part of taking on the role at Bapcor in February, I did some due diligence, particularly with Mark , our Lead Independent Director, on the Executive Chair and CEO role and how it worked. Mark explained to me how the role worked, particularly whenever there's decisions to be made or any conflict, how that's handled. He gave me confidence that the board and the NEDs understand the clear separation and appropriate governance when it comes to the performance of the CEO, and that, you know, we provide opportunities for shareholders to talk to the Non-Executive Directors. I got myself very comfortable that at this point in Bapcor's journey, that this is the right thing to do for the company. I think all of us have gone through the same process.
There are times in meetings where Angus excuses himself, Mark takes the lead, and we have discussions that are appropriate without him being there. I became quite confident, and I think it's the right governance at this point in time. On the shareholding, we have a policy that I will adhere to. I've already commenced buying some shares to align with that policy, and yes, I'll absolutely comply.
Thanks, Jackie.
This is part of [mic], around to the gentleman, please.
Michael Barrett's my name. I'm just an ordinary S708 shareholder. I was very early in the float. I think I paid $2 for the shares when they came on market. The question I have for the directors putting themselves up today is, have you done a formal training course in corporate governance, either through the Institute of Directors as part of a degree program or something like that? I served on a board at one stage, and I found that it was a real hassle having fellow directors who hadn't done that sort of formal training and contemporary as well, because legislation is changing quite frequently.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Do you want each of us to go along?
That might be the simplest way to do it, please.
I did the AICD course as well. I also did the New Zealand Institute of Directors course. I also commit to keeping continuous learning. Three years ago, I did an ESG course through London Business School as well. The past year, I've done a program through INSEAD on executive coaching as well. I believe in continuous learning. That'll be my answer.
Thanks, Mike, and thank you for the question. Yes, I've also participated in the AICD course. I attend a lot of free seminars that you can attend through law firms and other professional services firms on matters that are particularly relevant and up to date and relevant for non-executive directors and for company boards in general. I'm a lawyer by background, and I was the Company Secretary and General Counsel of Linfox and a Lendlease subsidiary, so I'm very familiar with corporate governance requirements.
My name's Lachlan Edwards. I am one of the new directors. Thank you for the question. I guess part of my executive role is that I advise companies and boards, so I am keeping up to date on these matters every day as part of that. In addition, I chair a number of boards or am a non-exec director on them. In those capacities, I have to keep up with all of the requirements, and I do so. In my last public company board, I also was Chair of the Responsible Entity Compliance Committee for that company, which kind of takes you to a higher level of governance again. Yes, I'd like to think that I keep up to date, and I think your question is very pertinent and something we should do. Thank you.
Yes, thanks for the question again. Yes, I did the AICD company directors course quite a few years ago, and as part of being a member of the AICD, I commit to annual training. The AICD actually has a target for its members to attend courses throughout the year, so I make sure I keep up to date. I sit on a number of different boards, two other listed boards, one government board, and one non-listed board, two of them in the financial services sector. As part of my board responsibilities there, I get annual training from each of those boards, particularly on regulatory issues that are, as you mentioned, constantly changing.
I think part of the great thing about being a board director is that it is a job that gives you continuous learning, and that's part of the reason that I like being a director is because it is a role that I can continuously learn and develop in. As you'll hear when I give my presentation later, I've been a non-executive director for over 20 years, so I have obviously quite a lot of non-executive experience, which I can draw upon. I'm also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I'm a former partner of KPMG, and obviously all those roles and memberships, etc., require, and which I undertake, regular professional development, which is very, very regular, and there's lots of opportunities to do that.
Currently, the big one's obviously around AI, etc., but we certainly try to keep ourselves contemporary and up to date with what's going on. The experience, I think, also counts for an awful lot.
Thank you. Yes, I agree also that it's a really important question, and similarly to some of my colleagues or all of my colleagues, I attend a variety of programs every year around governance, as well as other topics relevant to non-executive directors. I hesitate to say I've been a non-executive director for around 25 years, so I guess that it's inevitable that you learn and you keep learning during that time. I was made a life fellow of the AICD two or three years ago in recognition, I think, of the governance areas that I cover. I've attended various AICD programs, but I taught the five-day program for around eight years back along. I think it is important that we keep up because you're right, the rules do keep changing, you know, but as Jackie Korhonen has said, it makes it interesting.
It keeps us motivated and interested in what we're doing. It would be a shame if it was static, so it's a really great part of the role to actually keep that learning.
Done. Thank you . Can I ask both Kate and Karen at the back any questions online?
No questions on this item of business.
Great, thank you. As such, I'd like to then formally put this resolution to the meeting. The next item of business is Resolution 1B. 2025 is an independent non-executive director, and her qualifications, background, and experience are summarized in the notice of meeting. I'd now like to invite Annette to briefly address the meeting.
Thank you, Angus, and good afternoon, everybody. This month, I joined the Bapcor board as a Non-Executive Director, bringing more than 35 years of executive legal operational experience in logistics, supply chain, and security sectors. Before commencing my non-executive career, I held CEO roles at Linfox Logistics and Linfox Armaguard, and was also the Executive General Manager International at Australia Post. I'll bring practical expertise and operational leadership, supply chain, and risk management to the board, with a focus on supporting Bapcor's extensive distribution network, strengthening supply chain resilience, and helping deliver improved outcomes for our customers, our team, and our shareholders. Some of you may know or may not know that Linfox has a very large network of mechanical workshops, so I also bring a customer lens to my role as a director here.
I welcome the opportunity to support Bapcor as it continues to implement a robust supply chain strategy to safeguard Bapcor's competitive supply chain and ensure products are in the right place at the right time for our customers. In addition to my role at Bapcor, I sit on the boards of Sigma Healthcare and Kinetic Group, and next month I'll be joining Downer EDI. These roles, along with my experience as an executive, allow me to support the board and my board colleagues and management team to deliver and implement Bapcor's strategy and to drive shareholder value. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, Annette. The resolution appears on the screen, and I'll take it as read. Also appearing on the screen are the details of the valid proxy votes on this resolution. I'll now turn to questions, and I'll see if there are any questions inside the room.
Steve, I know that you've asked us all the same two questions. Just following up on Jackie's comments, I went through a very similar process, obviously. I spoke to Mark in particular, the Lead Independent Director, about how the process of an Executive Chair and CEO worked, and I also spoke to the other non-executive directors on the board. I also indeed spoke to Angus about the role and how it was working. I was satisfied that there was sufficient framework around governance and separation when it needed to be separation and avoidance of any potential conflicts of interest. In terms of holding shares, yes, I plan to do that this month. Because of what has happened with the trading halt, etc., and the information that came to light, I was obviously cautious about buying shares till we got past the AGM, but it's certainly my intention to do so.
Thank you, Annette. Just checking the other questions from inside the room. Karen, can I ask if there are any questions online?
Yes, I've got a question from Steven Main. This situation at Bapcor is unusual. We had the mass resignation of three independent directors on July 23rd, and then their mass replacement with three new appointments effective October 1. As one of the new directors, could Annette Carey detail her experience with the recruitment process and whether she knew any of the existing directors before joining the board? Could the Chair detail whether any of our major shareholders, such as Australian Super with 16%, were consulted before the public announcement on the personnel being canvassed to repopulate the board in these trying circumstances? It's fine for this to happen, and I'll be voting in favor of all new directors today.
Okay, thanks, Steven. The process was I was approached by the executive recruitment firm that was engaged by the board to do the search. I had a discussion with them. I had a look at Bapcor. Obviously, I had been following Bapcor in the financial press, so I was aware of some of the issues. I went through a series of interviews, both with the executive recruitment firm, and I was able to ask questions, get answers to any concerns that I had. I spoke to each of the non-executive directors. I spent time with Angus. I then went through another round of interviews and a process of due diligence. I was provided with quite extensive information, which took some time to go through.
I came back with follow-up questions, and at the end of that process, I believe there were a number of people who were shortlisted, and I was offered the job, and I took it knowing that it was going to be a real challenge, but actually like a challenge. I led a cash business during COVID, so I'm not afraid of tricky times. Yes, in terms of my relationship with other directors, I have known Angus professionally as a customer and service provider in my role primarily at Linfox. We never met outside our professional relationship, but we would attend meetings to negotiate the rates, particularly for Pacific National, as we were one of their biggest customers. That was always fun. Kate Spargo, I met several years ago at Sigma.
Kate and I served on the board of Sigma Healthcare together for about two years, but I had never met Kate prior to that. They are the only relationships that I have with members of the board.
Thanks, Annette. Steven, to your second part of the question, maybe I'll come back, Karen, then. To the second part of the question in regard to the way the directors were selected, if you like. We did use an executive recruitment firm who went to the market and looked for people. There were clearly lots of names that got thrown our way. They were all put into that executive recruiter for them to do the initial parsing over that. I can absolutely say no shareholders were consulted. We did not go to our shareholder base asking for them to make nominations. Karen, any other questions?
I have another question from Steven Main. Many thanks for embracing best practice transparency and releasing the proxy votes to the ASX along with the formal addresses before trading commenced this morning. The 90+% support for all resolutions, including Annette's 93% support, is relevant given the media campaign activist investor John Wiley has been running against the board leading into the AGM. It was great to also get the headcount data showing that only 365 of our 14,521 shareholders engaged with the Computershare proxy voting system. We know now that only 2.5% of the shareholders voted, but those who did collectively own 74.1% of issued capital. Showing how corporate voting in Australia is a big investor game with retail shareholders barely participating. What sort of engagement leading into the AGM did the board have with the seven substantial shareholders disclosed in the annual report, including Mr. Wiley?
The second part, I think, Angus, you've answered, did one of them suggest Annette Carey to the board?
Mark, I'm wondering whether between you and Kim, you led the pre-AGM engagements.
Look, going right back to 2020, when we had Australia against the Rem report, we've realized we have to engage pre-AGM actively with our shareholders. That hadn't happened by the Chair previously. The Chair and the Chair of Rome had always engaged with major shareholders and proxies. Obviously, now, as we've moved into a situation with an Executive Chair, what we've done last year and this year is we've met with major shareholders and all the proxies, including the ASA, the Australian Shareholders Association. Angus has joined for the first 10 minutes or so to answer any questions. He's dropped off the call, and then it's been left to us, myself and Kate, as independents to cover governance matters, to cover Rem report, to cover ESG. That's what we did this year. We think that's good practice, and we answered the questions they had leading into this AGM.
I think just for completeness, those major shareholder engagements included Tanarra .
Oh, yes.
It did include Tanarra. Sorry, I should have said that.
Karen, anything else online?
No further questions.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'm going to put this resolution formally to the meeting. I might need to offer a toilet stop along the way here. Although I will jinx myself and say that no planes have landed. That's a good start from noise. The next item of business is Resolution 1C. This relates to the re-election of Patria Mann as a director. Patria was appointed to the board on October 2025 as an independent non-executive director, and her qualifications, background, and experience are summarized in the notice of meeting. I'll now pass over to Patria and invite her to briefly address the meeting.
Thank you, Angus, and good afternoon, shareholders. I also joined the Bapcor board as a Non-Executive Director this month. I have more than 20 years of non-executive experience across ASX listed and financial services organizations, and I will draw on that experience to support the implementation of Bapcor's strategy aimed at improving shareholder value. As an experienced Audit Committee Chair across multiple organizations, I've been appointed as the Chair of Bapcor's Audit and Risk Committee. I will apply my deep expertise in audit, risk, and governance to focus on the strengthening of financial discipline, controls, oversight, and governance alongside Bapcor's CFO, Kim Kerr. In addition to my role at Bapcor, I sit on the boards of Bega Cheese, GWA Limited, and GDI Property Group. From these, there are a number of relevant and overlapping experiences that I can bring to the board.
I've considered my workload and confirmed that I have the capacity to commit the time required to the Bapcor board. I also believe my past and current roles provide me with relevant perspectives and insights to support well-rounded board discussion and decision-making. If elected today, I look forward to being part of Bapcor's journey through its next chapter. Thank you. While I'm here, I'll answer Steve, your two questions. On the Executive Chair role, I actually have that on another board. Despite knowing it's not considered best governance, I know it can work if done properly. I also did my same due diligence because that was one of my first questions when approached about the board.
I do believe after my diligence and discussing with all, and now attending the odd meeting and having exposure to them all, that it is the right thing to do and the right place for this company right now, just to lead us through this period, particularly with the focus that Angus has got on turning every rock and sorting this place out for shareholders. On the shares, absolutely, I always invest in the companies I'm on the board of, but with the timing of when we were appointed, it was all at the very last minute, and the trading window has been closed. I believe it opens sometime after this meeting, so then we'll have the first opportunity to actually invest. Thank you.
Let me turn to the room again and see if there are any other questions from the floor. No, Karen?
No questions on this item.
Fantastic, thank you. With that, there are no other questions. I'll now formally put this resolution to the meeting. Behind me is the screen that indicates the position. I'll take that as read. Also, printed on the screen are the details of the ballot proxy votes on this specific resolution. Thank you. The next item of business is Resolution 1D, and this relates to the reelection of Lachlan Edwards as a Director. Together with Patria and Annette , Lachlan was appointed on the 1st of October 2025 as an Independent Non-Executive Director, and his qualifications, background, and experience are summarized in the notice of meeting. I now invite Lachlan to briefly address the meeting.
Thank you, Angus. Good afternoon, fellow shareholders, and I say that partly to answer one of the two questions that I know I have to answer. In that I am already a shareholder of Bapcor. I think I own about 14,000 shares. Let's take that as an approximate number. It is my intention to acquire more shares. I came off the board of HPI in February, I think it was, of this year when we completed a hostile takeover from Charter Hall. If you go back and look at the shareholding I had in that, you'll see, yes, I do more than the minimum. I intend to do so here. Once the window opens in the next day or so, as long as Angus gives me permission, or Mark, whatever the process is, I will make sure that I start doing so.
I bring extensive corporate advisory, capital markets, and turnaround experience to complement the skills of my board colleagues. I will apply that hands-on experience in capital management, corporate and debt advisory, and turnaround to support our management team, and perhaps particularly Kim, as they ensure that Bapcor is in the best possible position to restore growth, defend value, and improve returns for all of us who are shareholders and stakeholders in this business. Over 35 years, I've held a number of senior roles in major corporate advisory firms, including Lazard Australia, Goldman Sachs, both in Asia and Europe, and then Rothschild & Sons, again in Asia and in London. In those roles, I've provided advice to the boards of many public companies in some of the world's most complex situations across a range of industries.
Turnarounds are difficult, and they require all stakeholders to come together to get through difficult times and create value on the other side. At the center of that is the board and the management team. I've had extensive experience in these particular situations. While I'm at that point, I will answer the other of Steve's questions, or the ASA 's questions, which is the question about the Executive Chair. It was my second question. My first question as a board director was always about health and safety. The second question was, what is the reasoning behind this? I heard the reasoning behind it, and the ability to judge how that works, I think, will come with the fullness of time.
What I would say is this: when you're in a restructuring and turnaround of a business, and particularly one that's as large and complex as this, communication and understanding between board and management is incredibly important. I actually think there's great value in this situation for shareholders and stakeholders to actually combine the two roles. In that way, I would say while the general corporate governance principles are right, you do have to look at their applicability in each situation. My judgment is that this is a situation where it is warranted. I look forward to seeing it play out, and I look forward to hopefully seeing that turn into benefit for shareholders over time. In addition to my role at Bapcor, I'm the Managing Director of Faraday Associates, which is an independent corporate advisory boutique, which I founded.
I serve as the Chair of a private hospital, Matilda Nepean Private Hospital in Sydney. I'm the Deputy Chair of the Bell Shakespeare Company. Until recently, I was on the board of HPI. Have I run out of it?
Maybe that's a sign that I'm talking too long. If reelected today, and I ask for your vote, I will partner with my fellow directors to provide the governance appropriate to support the management team as they drive operational recovery, capital efficiency, and sustain value for all of us as shareholders and uphold the Bapcor brands as great places for our staff and our customers to come together. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Lachlan. The resolution appears on the screen, and I'll take that as read. Also appearing on the screen are the details of the ballot proxy votes on this specific resolution. With that, I'll turn to see whether there are questions in the room. Steve, if you want to go again, you're more than welcome. Anyone else inside of the room? No? Karen, can I turn to you?
No online questions have been received on this resolution.
Thank you. I'll now formally put this resolution to the meeting. The next item of business is Resolution 1E, and that relates to the reelection of Mark Powell as a Director. Mark was appointed to the board on the 1st of September 2020 as an Independent Non-Executive Director and was appointed as Bapcor's Lead Independent Director on the 22nd of August 2024. Mark's qualifications, background, and experience are summarized in the notice of meeting, and I'll now invite Mark to briefly address the meeting.
Thank you, Angus. Good afternoon, everyone, both here and online. As outlined in the notice of meeting, I was originally appointed to the board on September 2020. Following Angus's appointment last year, I was also appointed as the Lead Independent Director. I've got over 30 years, it's probably 35 years now, of CEO and executive experience. I started out in mining, underground coal mining, but most of that experience in the last 30 years has been in retail, wholesale, and logistics in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. In my executive career, I was a Divisional Director for Booker Wholesale in the U.K., Logistics Operations Director for the U.K. retailer Tesco, Managing Director of a third-party logistics provider in Spain. I ran Walmart's logistics operations in Canada before emigrating to this side of the world.
Since being in this side of the world, I've been CEO of the retail operation Warehouse Australia. I've been CEO of Warehouse Stationery in New Zealand, which is like Officeworks. My last executive role between 2011 and 2016 was Group CEO of the Warehouse Group, the retail group in New Zealand, before transitioning to non-executive director roles. In addition to my role at Bapcor, I serve on the boards of JB Hi-Fi, [ASX] listed My Food Bag, and still famous for making power, chainsaws, etc. I was formerly on the boards of 7-Eleven and Kiwi Property Group. These roles have given me a broad commercial viewpoint to contribute to boardroom debate, and I can assure you there is debate in the boardroom, and help the management team focus on simplification and driving evidence-based decision-making. The last five years on the Bapcor board have, without doubt, been a challenging journey.
That's perhaps an understatement. If reelected today, my focus will be to help ensure a smooth board transition with the recent significant board refresh, and as Lead Independent Director to continue to support and provide appropriate challenge to Angus and the executive team to help deliver operational improvement and value for our shareholders. If reelected today, I will continue to work closely with the board of management to drive the turnaround of this business. I'd probably like to comment on the Executive Chair and CEO role. Obviously, my perspective is slightly different to some of the newer directors. I was here when it was put in place. There was a context to why we put it in place. It was shared very clearly at the time and with all our shareholders, and they supported that.
It was put in place because we were in a difficult situation without a Chair, without a CEO, and subject to outside bid as well. I think it was the right thing to do then, and I think it's the right thing to do now. Without wanting to embarrass Angus, I think we've got an Executive Chair and CEO, I think a three Ts and three Cs. We've got a, and not just CEO, CFO as well, I think I mentioned Kim. We've got a CEO and CFO, Executive Chair, who is completely committed to the truth, completely committed to transparency on that truth, and I trust them that they'll keep on turning over stones to get to that. The three Cs are, I think they've got the character, competence, and courage to drive that for the long-term sustainable benefits of shareholders, not just short-term as well.
I completely support that. I think they're doing that. It's hard, it's painful, I get that, but we've had to face into these things, and I think it's important as well. I think you can tell I support the role, the combined role at the present time, Steven. We've talked about it, Steven, and I know the questions, as others have said, but I think it is appropriate for this time, for this turnaround.
Thank you, Mark, and I will say I'm embarrassed. Thank you. The resolution appears on the screen, and I'll take that as read. Also printed on the screen are the details of the ballot proxy votes for this specific resolution, and I'll now turn to the room to see if there are any questions. Steve.
Thank you. Thanks, Mark. I think we understand each other. I understand ASA has general guidelines, and then we have to have guidelines across all companies. We're volunteers, so if you had everyone just making their own choices, it'd be chaos. We understand that every business is different. I think those guidelines still make good sense overall. You've got to make your own judgment. Just as a preamble to this question, I'd say I voted against every resolution at this company for the previous two years, and I think with good reason. I think the share price would tend to bear out that there's been a lot of red flags. I'm voting for everything today for the reason I think you deserve the chance to turn things around. Most of you are new, the same with a lot of key management people. I think there's a lot of new people.
Good luck. My question is about the past, I guess. Why did the three directors resign? And yeah.
Yeah, I'm probably the only person who can speak largely to the past. That question has been asked. They gave no reason. That is the official answer. That's the true answer. I recognize that leaves people going, "Hey, what happened?" That leaves it to inference. I think people have made inference. They're probably not far off on some. It would be my guess. They line up with my inferences. We don't know. Anything beyond that goes to speculation. I recognize that feels unsatisfactory. It feels unsatisfactory to me. The whole way it happened is unsatisfactory.
Thanks, Mark. Let me check if there are any other questions in the room. Karen, anything online?
Yes, Mr. Steven Main has a question. It is not good practice for an Executive Chair to use the CEO voting exemption available under Australian law and not put himself up for election to the board. Why didn't Angus McKay put himself up for election this year after I requested this last year? Will he commit to do it next year? Can Angus cite any other ASX 300 company which has had an Executive Chair who has never been elected by shareholders? Given all the tumult and board turnover at the company, it is reasonable for shareholders to be given an opportunity to reflect on the highly unusual situation of Bapcor opting for an Executive Chair.
As Chair of the Nomination Committee and Lead Independent Director, will Mark Powell, who is facing reelection today, ensure this happens at next year's Annual General Meeting, or are we intending to make it three straight AGMs where our new Executive Chairman is continuing to hold down the most powerful position at the company without receiving a mandate from shareholders?
We're not going to make that commitment. We'll take it on note. We've got a number of new members on the board. We'll discuss that, I'll take it on note, but I'm not going to make that commitment.
Karen, any other questions online?
No further questions.
Thank you. If there are no more questions, I'll now formally put this resolution to the meeting. As previously advised, I intend to hand over to Mark Powell for resolutions number two and three.
Okay, thank you, Angus. We've got the slide up there on resolution two, which is the adoption of the remuneration report. Good afternoon again to everyone in the room and online. Resolution two is a non-binding resolution to adopt Bapcor's remuneration report, which was set out in the company's 2025 annual report. The resolution appears on the screen, and I will take it as read. Also appearing on the screen are the details of the ballot proxy votes received on this resolution. Are there any questions in the room related to this resolution? No questions in the room. Any online?
No, no questions online.
There are no questions received. I'll now formally put this resolution to the meeting. Now moving to resolution three. This is the approval of the grant of the FY 2026 performance rights to the Executive Chair and CEO under the LTIP. Resolution three seeks shareholder approval for the grant of the FY 2026 performance rights to Angus McKay, the company's Executive Chair and CEO under the Long-Term Incentive Plan. The resolution again appears on the screen, and I will take it as being read. Also appearing on the screen again are the details of the ballot proxy votes received on the resolution. Are there any questions in the room regarding this resolution? There are no questions in the room. Karen, are there any questions online?
No questions online.
Okay, there's no questions online. I'll now formally put this resolution to the meeting. I'll now hand back to Angus.
Again, thank you, Mark. I'll now turn to resolution four. Resolution four seeks shareholder approval to renew the Proportional Takeover Bid provisions in the Constitution for a further three years from the date of the meeting, which will ensure that in the event of a Proportional Takeover Bid being made, a general meeting of the company will be convened in order for shareholders to vote on the Proportional Takeover Bid. The resolution appears on the screen, and I'll take it as having been read. Also appearing on the screen are the details of the ballot proxy votes received on this specific resolution. I'll now turn to the room to see if there are any questions within the room. There we go.
We did have an approach going back about nine months ago, is it?
Longer, I think it was.
How long ago was it?
15 months ago.
15, 16 months ago.
What was the process that the board went through in evaluating that takeover bid? Because it's one of those things that we might be looking after our own little pile, but it might be better to give the shareholders their money back or do something different, like open up the company for joint ventures or other types of strategies of ownership.
I appreciate that. Mark, can I ask you to address it? Because I think between yourself and Kate, you were there.
Look, firstly, I don't think the job of a board is just to reject any bid. We're here to do the best thing for shareholders. If a bid is of a sufficient value that it exceeds the value that's seen in the company by that board, they should look to recommend that bid. You're not here to just defend for the sake of it. Back then, we attempted to engage with Bain at the time. It was painful. We had disagreements on the standstill process and some of the process. They were very slow, actually. We found that. At the same time, we were proceeding to search for CEO and Chair at that time, and it just was very slow progress. We also had comments from shareholders who expressed the view that they felt the bid wasn't sufficient either. They expressed that quite loudly in the media as well.
When we appointed Angus to the role of Executive Chair and CEO, we closed that and moved on. They didn't come back, and we've moved on since then.
Anything more? Any other questions inside the room? Steve.
It was a good question. Just following on from that, I guess I think it was $5.40 they were offering. Given where the share price is, you know, with the benefit of hindsight, what do you think about the decision that was made at that time? Secondly, has there been any other further approaches, whispers, et cetera, since then?
I’ll refer to the time and then I’ll hand to Angus, perhaps. It was a non-binding indicative offer. It wasn’t a firm offer, and we didn’t get into any due diligence, et cetera, either. I think we made the right decision at that time. You know, this business is a good, strong core business, and with the information at the time, I think we made the right decision. You know, because we didn’t actually reject it. We just didn’t even really get into a process, to be honest, and so there wasn’t something to really reject in that sense. It wasn’t like they went through due diligence and we were recommending the shareholders to not accept a bid that was binding. It didn’t get beyond a headline non-binding indicative offer. It didn’t get into anything further.
To say no, there have been no other approaches. I just would reiterate, I mean, as much as it perhaps is difficult to believe with people that are vested in the business and dare I say their jobs, you know, with an appropriate offer, we will consider that and what is in the best interests of our owners. That's the only commitment I can make to you and to you, Michael. If there's no other questions in the room, Karen, can I jump to online?
No online questions.
Great. No further questions. I will now formally put that resolution to the meeting. I now confirm that all resolutions at this meeting have been put to shareholders. Before I close the polling, I'd like to now address any questions in relation to Bapcor generally. I'll start with questions that may be in the room.
This was the open questioning?
Correct.
Now, I'm looking forward. I've been with this little company that's got bigger for a long time. My background is in marketing, and I've been an academic for a period of time in product management in most multinational corporations. I have an MBA, a grad diploma in marketing, and an economics degree. That's my space. For the last 20 years, I've been an S708 investor. I raised it last time about where the company was going and whether you had a clear strategy. I actually wrote to Angus when I got home, and thank you very much because you actually replied about two days later. I really appreciate that. It's also a test of my due diligence of whether you got the right stuff and you knew liaise with shareholders. Thanks very much for that.
The thing is that I still see a lot of change taking place in this auto space. I do hold a lot of investment in the auto space. I have Eggers, I have Bapcor, and I've got a couple of others related to it. In addition to that, I invest in the mining industry. In the mining industry, there's huge change taking place with lithium, cobalt, manganese, also graphite. I've got a big holding in graphite. One that I came across yesterday was scandium. Scandium was used to strengthen aluminium used in the bodies of motor vehicles in the future to replace high-tensile steel because of the weight of an EV. I can't see in what I've read in the last couple of days that you're really not looking into this change as seriously as I would like you to do that.
It is of concern because the other thing that I noticed is that there's a lot of proprietary technology in all of this. Therefore, a lot of mechanics will lose their little practices, and a lot of business will be taken back to the dealers. In addition to that, there's change taking place with the dealers because they're going to become agents of the motor vehicle producers where they don't have to carry stock of cars because the best time to get a car is three days from the end of the month. That's one thing. For my wife's little Hyundai, she got an absolute screamer of a price because of that. That's an area that I believe that you need to be looking at a lot closer.
I'm not thinking next year or the year after, but what all this building's going to be holding because you might not have the same sort of spare parts sitting in this building. That's my first little point. The other thing too is that you probably do realize that 4WD systems, what do they call themselves?
BYD.
Started as a battery company, not as a motor vehicle producer. They've got proprietary technology, and they're going to change the world quite rapidly. Now the cost of development is being recovered or has been recovered, same with Tesla. The battery cars are going to become a lot cheaper. The thing that I'm starting to see is that I get a bulletin every day out of Germany. Battery charging stations are starting to appear all over Europe. The Americans are doing exactly the same thing. What are we doing about that?
If you allow me, I'll take a pass through some of those.
Charging stations. There are fewer spare parts. There's 1,100 parts in approximately an ICE, internal combustion engine. All you've got is just a layer of batteries. Even the drivetrains are different. A Tesla is driven through the wheels, not through a transfer of power. Now the other thing too is that we're looking at a new divide in the world. There's the Russian-Chinese side and there's the old-fashioned Western alliance.
I don't know whether we can go into geopolitical tensions in this room.
It's changing the game because of all Trump's tariffs. It's changing where products are going to be made. In fact, Hyundai have got factories both for Kia and Hyundai in Czech only to leap the walls around the EU. That's another thing.
If I may, I'm really just throwing a few propositions at you. I've got no answers here, but I felt that your strategic plan didn't go far enough. Okay.
If I could, maybe I can address some of the questions that you've put to us.
Now, the next point.
Certainly.
You talk about customer service here. My son is an electrician. He's an industrial electrician and he's working on a data center in the western suburbs of Melbourne at the moment. It's running on a 24-hour basis. They haven't finished it yet, but they're eager to get it up. I actually paid for it. He's paying me back at $500 a month. He bought a Subaru Outback, and the battery's gone flat. It's a Panasonic battery, which is quite a good quality battery. He shopped around. The dealers charge outrageous prices. He rang up Autobarn, and the guy said, "I can do one in three weeks." That's not what I call customer service. He lives in Templestowe. That was Doncaster, and I think there's one in Eltham. I ended up on a two-hour round trip driving him out to the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
The battery he got was the model where the terminals were the wrong way. We could have gone back to Epping to swap it over, but he, being an electrician, just changed the terminals in the car, which is really not smart. He needed to get to work that night. Angus, the customer service is still not there, mate, and it really needs to be looked after. The other thing is the observation I have from Autobarn stores, because I do shop at Autobarn for a bit of soap for washing the car, is that there's not much traffic in those stores. I just don't think they're being properly utilized, and foot traffic is the main thing of stores. That's really my soapbox questions, and I'd be happy for you just to respond as a gentleman.
I think you've asked, you've made a number of very valid observations. Let me start with that. Maybe if I start with the bigger picture. We do spend a lot of time trying to observe what is going on with, you know, call it the automobile industry globally, and then specifically how that's being applied here in Australia. I will not profess that we know enough about that yet. There's more work to be done there. If I go to the world of just the car park that we play in, we are blessed with a car park in this country that is in excess of 12 years of age. It's one of the oldest car parks on the planet. New Zealand is one further. We are conscious of that. We don't play in the world of cars that are inside of warranty. We wait for them to move out.
We're very conscious of what I describe as, from an OEM perspective, the extension of warranties that go in there. We observe and make sure we're playing appropriately. To your question around EVs and just the dynamic change in effectively the propulsion portion of the motor vehicle, we watch like a hawk because here in Australia, it is progressing at a much slower rate than other markets. You named Europe, and I would agree with you. The second thing is the actual form of propulsion is also changing. The form of energy is changing. If I go back eight years, and I'd be happy to talk a little more one-on-one rather than taking up your time. Eight years ago, the Australian car park was forecast by some highly paid consultants that we would be by now 2025 with over 35% of the car park being EVs. That's what they said.
That changed dialogues. Lots of people started to invest behind charging points and all those kinds of things. Today, we're not even yet at the mid-single-digit point. The driver, I would argue for you, is EVs work perfectly well. I will come back to where we play in an EV. The single biggest issue is it's range anxiety, yes, the battery. The bigger issue is where can I charge the vehicle? There just are not enough charging points in Australia. With a prior life at my disposal, the cost of investing in charging facilities is just exorbitant. You can't make money. That's why it is not occurring. The other thing that's occurring is you're now seeing a move from EVs. Hybrids are now the dominant form of alternative engine vehicles being imported in the market. There's even, again, talk around hydrogen. That's probably a lot longer out there.
The marketplace could watch like a hawk because it is changing. To the vehicle itself, you're quite right. The motor of an electric vehicle is not something that our warehouses and suppliers cater for. We're very focused on the things that go under the car, and that includes all the sensor technology, whether it be braking, steering, and suspension. Those things we do play in today. Where EVs are at, they're still Teslas only just beginning to come out of their warranties. We're focused on where we can future-proof the business that we have today responsibly. That's what we want to do. We do look at that. I won't get into the geopolitical, but yes, the European versus American versus Chinese is going on. My understanding is that's been going on in this industry for quite a while. We've got to watch that like a hawk.
Equally, we have to watch the manufacturers as they bring new vehicles to the country. We are trying to make sure we're abreast of what's going on in that space. I've talked about charging tariffs. I think we're all experiencing the world of dynamic news. If I go back to the end of December with President Trump about to become elected, we all were looking at what that meant for our supply chains, how that would impact us. We did a piece of work that we got comfortable that wouldn't hurt us. Every week, with the rattle of a new tariff, financial markets move. We are very conscious of the production points of the parts that we ultimately sell to our customer base. To your customer service piece, I wish I had a better answer other than that sounds awful. What you just described, that is not customer service.
I will after that just make sure I get a few details. I won't. There will be no sort of... No, no, there won't be, but I will make sure that I understand what has occurred there. That is just simply not good enough. I can't say anymore.
I have another question for you, a supplementary question.
If I could, maybe just one more, and I'll then open it up to the room. By all means, one more, and then I'll open it up to the rest of the room.
Now, I noticed that you've got New Zealand up and running. Okay. And you've got Thailand. I’ve spent a little bit of time in Thailand. The thing is that to me, that seems like an international division, not one that is a part of the domestic business and one that is a part of an international operation. Yet, you're treating them as two different... One is the Thai one is treated as a domestic operation. Thais are not like Australians. I can tell you that. The New Zealand one, that's much closer to Australia. The buyer behavior, the industry dynamics, all those sorts of things. I realize it's a joint venture in Thailand. I can't understand the rationale for that. That's all.
Obviously, Simon has just recently joined our business, and those businesses, the Asian-based businesses, point into our trade segment. Simon and I are beginning the conversation now that he's got his feet under a desk around how we think about those businesses. In all honesty, they are so small. Our priority is what's going on here in Australia, which I think you can completely get that, as obviously with Martin in New Zealand. We will get to what we want to do in Asia, but the focus for us has to be Australia.
Thank you very much for your time.
You're welcome. Other questions?
Hi, Angus. Michael Millard's my name. I'm representing Tanarra Capital, whose CEO is currently overseas traveling. We're the second largest shareholder in Bapcor, with 11.1% of shareholding. We have a question for the Lead Independent Director, Mr. Mark Powell. It is whether and why he and the board believe it is appropriate and in the best interest of the company to continue to combine the roles of the Chair and the CEO in the individual of Executive Chair, contrary to established good corporate governance practices and ASX listing rule guidelines. In posting this question, we note that we believe Mr. McKay is a company executive, what is to believe a successful track record, his prior role as CEO of 7-Eleven. We believe he is doing his best to improve the good fortunes of Bapcor.
However, we believe he should not be both the Chair and the CEO of Bapcor at this time, given the deterioration in trading performance of the business on many fronts. The company now needs to separate the roles of Chair and CEO by appointing a new independent non-executive Chair who has the relevant experience and skills. Mr. McKay, sorry, excuse me, role would become solely a CEO. We believe this because the company faces a very substantial turnaround challenge, evidenced by the halving of the share price, the continued run of fresh bad news, and the lack of clarity from the Executive Chair as to whether a bottom has been found. To turn around this business, Mr. McKay needs to focus 100% of his time as CEO without having the responsibilities of the Board Chair as well.
The lack of separation of roles of Chair and CEO makes it more difficult for directors to hold the CEO accountable, especially when all of the proposed new directors, the majority of the board, have been invited to join the board with Mr. McKay holding both roles, blurring the accountability. There is no obvious reason why Bapcor should deviate from the accepted good corporate governance practices and ASX listing rules, principle 2.4, which recommends separation of the Chair and CEO roles, a recommendation which is almost universally adopted by corporate Australia. If the answer to this question, sorry, excuse me, if the answer is the company does not propose to comply with the established good governance practices, can you please explain why not and under what circumstances it would change that position? Thank you.
The question was for me. The simple answer is execution. The simple answer is, and we communicated this when we put the role in place at the start, which was supported by the shareholders. We were very clear. We saw it as a two to three-year time horizon as well. It's about execution, speed of execution. The clear question then people rightly ask, which was in your question, is the checks and balances for governance. We're comfortable that that's in place. We have extensive processes, which I've shared with John directly as well. All the processes you would normally see in a listed company. We have non-executive director alone time before meeting without Angus. We had it again this morning before the start. I've just completed his 360 review. I spoke with every single man of his direct reports, who are all here today, plus the board.
That's been shared with Angus, will be discussed as well. The question of independence and challenge is there. As I shared with John as well, to be honest and frank, I think we have more check and balance than I saw when we had the last two previous MDs in this business. We have more robust debate and more challenge. As I said at the beginning, I think we have a, for my first time on this board, and this will sound quite strong, for the first time on this board, which has been an interesting journey, shall I say, in the sense of the word interesting. I feel we have a CEO and CFO who is committed to finding the truth, is committed to the transparency of that. I totally trust in that as the character, the competence, and the courage to address that.
That isn't about whether it is an MD, CEO, or Chair. That's about the person. It's about the board working together. We need speedy execution and speedy decision-making. Whilst I get checks and balances to power, and why I appreciate that asking questions today is asking truth to power, and that's good. We need it. We actually believe it's working well. Nothing would have been any different with a two-tier structure other than we might not have gone as fast as we've gone overall. That's where we're at. We do agree to disagree on the governance question. If there's other things that are concerned, we're happy to listen and engage, as we'd always engage with major shareholders. We respect you as a major shareholder.
We'd be happy to engage post-AGM again to understand evidence-based issues around the role, rather than just general statements on corporate governance because we addressed those last year when we made the appointment, and there wasn't any issue then in that context at the time. We were very clear of the timeline on it. We're happy to discuss. We respect the role of Tanarra Capital as one of our major shareholders. We will listen and want to understand each other. Sometimes we'll agree to disagree because our duty is to represent all our shareholders and the company and the good of the company. Sometimes we may agree to disagree with individual shareholders, but we're always willing to listen and talk. We will want to do that again post-AGM.
Let's see. Other questions, Steve?
I think I've got a shorter question. It's about basically inventory control and distribution systems that I understand you're looking at everything. I guess by way of background, I used to work for Caterpillar in that area. I know it's maybe not as straightforward as people might think, value inventory, moving it around, et cetera, et cetera. The process you're going through, are you just looking to find out what's actually in the inventory and what it's worth, or are you looking at an inventory reduction program and looking, I guess, beyond that?
Fair question. Thanks, Steve. I think the short answer is beyond that. I said in my opening address that consolidation of those warehousing facilities actually achieved one fundamental thing, which sometimes gets lost. We actually regained visibility to all the stock dynamically that was out in those remote locations, incredibly important. It gave us visibility to where there was duplicated stock. It gave us the opportunity now to slow down what's coming into the country or coming from domestic suppliers. That allows you to control the supply chain. We still have disparate processes and systems. The one supply chain notion under our strategy is around that commonality of approach. That doesn't necessarily mean you need the same system, but it means you need a common approach to it. We have a view, which I've shared quite publicly, we have too much inventory.
By value, by volume, equally, it's in the wrong places. We need to make sure that product is moved to the places where it might stand a chance of being sold, that we can do that quite dynamically and where we can actually have inventory that is relevant to the cars that it serves. I'm happy to go into a lot more detail around what that might look like, but the reality is we have too much inventory by value, too much inventory by volume. That is, we think our ranges are too wide, and in some cases, too deep. We need parts that are relevant to the cars that we provide for today. Where those cars are much older, we need to have those available, but they don't need to be replicated over hundreds of sites around the country. My final comment is I'm glad you said it's complex.
It is very complex. Little changes can mean some big issues. This literally is the big cog, little cog syndrome. One tweak here that slows down X, and before you know it, we'll be out of stock, and that costs a sale. We're trying to do this in a very methodical way, looking at the inventory from a lifecycle perspective. Other questions in the room? Done. Karen, I'll dive to anything online.
Yes, I have a question from Mr. Steven Main . Thanks for running a near-perfect AGM from a process and disclosure point of view. Very few companies do this. You offered a full hybrid with both voting and online questions. The ASX didn't offer online voting at its hybrid AGM today. You revealed the proxies early, allowing for a fully informed debate, something NET will know Sigma didn't do yesterday. You followed the agenda, inviting questions and all resolutions, something the likes of Macquarie and Cleanaway don't do, instead going for the single-job lot approach to questions, which dilutes the focus on individual items and shortens the overall debate. You even gave us headcount voting data, meaning we can see retail shareholders' sentiment and better understand the chronic lack of voting participation by retail shareholders at AGMs.
Wouldn't you include the headcount data in the poll results announced later today and continue your good practice of publishing the full AGM webcast on your website? Apart from all that praise, you just need to put the Executive Chair up for election next year and get the share price up. Good luck and see you in 12 months.
Thank you, Steven. I was almost going to give you a complete thank you, except for the but. I would agree, particularly on the performance of the organization. We get that right. I'm very optimistic all things follow from there. In terms of polling numbers in its unique shareholders, yes, that will come out once we've actually done the final tally. That's clear. Steven, I will just simply take, I'll take that as a yes and maybe an attaboy for the team that's put this together. Thank you for that. One last thing, if there's any other questions. With that, there are no other questions. That concludes the discussion on general business. In one minute, and I will just make it the one minute, I won't shorten it or lengthen it, I'd ask that we close the voting system down. Please ensure that you cast your votes to all resolutions.
I'll now pause to allow you the time to do that. If you're in the room, your polling cards can be collected. There we go. Thank you so much on this end. We'll wait one more minute before I close the meeting down. Thank you. Another sort of 20 seconds before we close the online process down. I think we're done on the minute. With that, I'm now going to declare that our voting is closed. Rather than waiting to keep you for the result, I propose that we'll close the meeting at this point. The results of the poll will be notified to the ASX and will be published on our website following the meeting. As this concludes the meeting, I'd like to thank everybody for their attendance, both online and in the room. I now will declare the meeting is closed.