All right, good morning all. Welcome to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of CAR Group Limited. My name is Pat O'Sullivan, and I'm chair of the company and chair of today's meeting. On behalf of the board and the company, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. Here in Melbourne, that is the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging. Today's meeting is a hybrid meeting, being held physically here in the CAR Group offices in Richmond, Victoria, and online via the Computershare meeting platform, which allows shareholders, proxies, and guests to attend the meeting virtually, ask questions, and vote. On behalf of the board, I warmly welcome all attendees, those here with us in person and those joining us over the live webcast.
We are pleased to be able to extend this meeting to you all. I've been advised that a quorum is present, and I now formally declare the meeting open. As the notice of meeting has been circulated to all shareholders, I propose that the notice convening the meeting be taken as read. Is that agreed? At each item of business in today's meeting, there will be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. Those in physical attendance may move to the microphone in the room and please wait to be called on. Please state your name and the shareholder you represent if you are a proxy before asking your question. Online attendees may submit questions at any time. To ask a question online, select the Q&A icon, type your question in the text box. Once you have finished typing, please hit the send button.
Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they will be amalgamated together. If due to time constraints, we run out of time to answer all questions, we will answer them in due course via email or posting responses on our website. To ask a verbal question, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions. If you're attending online and eligible to vote, once voting opens, please press the Vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options.
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'll receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. For those of you here in the room with us today, you will have received a physical voting card, which can be completed at any time. Shareholders need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your vote. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. When you've finished filling in your voting paper, please lodge it in a ballot box or with a member of the Computershare team to ensure your votes are counted.
Proxy, proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy votes, which details the voting instructions for business items on the appointment documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. In respect of any open votes a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, please mark the box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Proxy holders should refer to the summary of proxy votes form attached to the voting paper for further information. Scott Hudson, who's at the back of Computershare, will be the Returning Officer for today's meeting. Does anyone have any questions about the procedure I have just described?
As always, the results of all resolutions will be announced to the ASX following the meeting and placed on the CAR Group investor website. I now declare voting open on all items of business. I would now like to introduce my fellow directors. Cameron McIntyre is our Managing Director and CEO, appointed that position in March 2017. Cameron has been with the company for 17 years and will give a presentation on business performance shortly. Wal Pisciotta, at the end of the table, has been a member of the board since Carsales' inception and led the company as chair for 18 years. He is currently a non-executive director. Kim Anderson has been a member of the board since 2010, is the chair of the people and culture committee, and a member of the sustainability committee.
Edwina Gilbert was appointed as a director of the company in 2016. Edwina is the chair of the company's risk management committee and a member of the company's people and culture and audit committees. Kee Wong was appointed a director of the company in July 2018 and is the chair of the company's sustainability committee. He is also a member of the company's risk management committee. David Wiadrowski was appointed as a director of the company in 2019 and is the chair of the company's Audit Committee. He is also a member of the Risk Management Committee. Susan Massasso joined our board as a director in June 2023. Susan is a member of the company's people and culture and sustainability committees. Pip Marlow joined our board as a director in February 2024.
Pip is a member of the company's people and culture and audit committees. I would also like to introduce Nicole Kidman, who's sitting at the table, who is our company secretary and general counsel. And also in attendance today in the front row with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vidushee Deora, who is representing our lawyers, Arnold Bloch Leibler, and Scott Hudson, who I mentioned earlier, who is our returning officer, representing our share registry, Computershare. The formal business of this morning's meeting will be conducted in two parts. Firstly, Cameron will present to the meeting, and there will be an opportunity to ask Cameron questions about the performance of the business.... We will then move to the formal business of the meeting, where we have a number of resolutions to put to shareholders.
There will be further opportunities during this part of the meeting for shareholders to raise questions pertaining to each resolution. Before I invite Cameron to address the meeting, I would like to acknowledge the outstanding year the company has experienced. We've made significant progress in our strategic, operational, and financial objectives, as well as our evolution into a more global and diverse portfolio of businesses. In our first full year of majority ownership of Webmotors in Brazil, it is very pleasing to see outstanding performance with significant market share gains and a diversified revenue base. Our other major recent acquisition, Trader Interactive in the U.S., has also delivered excellent results, with improved technology, increased audience, and new products, delivering more value for our dealers. Our Korean business, Encar, continued its double-digit revenue and earnings growth, focusing on increased premium product penetration, including its fully digital retail home delivery service.
Chileautos also contributed excellent revenue growth following the implementation of the lead model in Chile, which has been such a success here in Australia and in Brazil. Our international expansion is not at the expense of our Australian business, which had an exceptional year. The business delivered double-digit revenue growth in each of our dealer, private, and media segments and solidified its market-leading position. We reached a significant milestone in FY 2024 by earning over AUD 1 billion in group revenue, and our financial results delivered double-digit growths in all three key financial metrics of pro-f orma revenue, pro- forma EBITDA, and adjusted NPAT. We continue to focus on building a sustainable company that future generations will be proud of, and I encourage you to review our 2024 sustainability report.
It is no surprise that cybersecurity and protecting customer data remain critical focus areas for the CAR Group, and we continue to invest in these areas as well as in our broader risk management framework. But at the heart of CAR Group's success is our people. I am personally very proud of our history of nurturing and developing talent within our company. This practice is evident from the number of our global leaders who've been with the company for over a decade, who were given the opportunity to grow with the company and have delivered outstanding results. And no one is a better example of this than Cameron. The board and I feel that it's important that we continue to develop Cameron so he can continue to lead CAR Group to further success.
Many of you would have seen the recent announcement that Cameron has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Brambles Group. The CAR Board, the CAR Group board is very supportive of this appointment, and it is a conversation we've been having for some time. This is an excellent opportunity for Cameron to be exposed to another successful multinational company and brings insights back into his role as CEO and MD of CAR Group. Brambles operates a successful global group, and Cameron and his leadership team are doing the same at CAR Group. Cameron will be able to see firsthand another global company and model from the outside, from the inside, which will only help him make better decisions in his role at the CAR Group. We see no conflict between the companies, which operate in entirely different industries.
And most importantly, Cameron remains wholly committed to his role at CAR Group, and this board and Cameron are both confident that he will maintain his focus on CAR Group while expanding his experience and knowledge through this opportunity. On behalf of myself and my fellow directors, I thank you for your support of CAR Group and assure you that we remain committed to continue delivering long-term shareholder value. I would now like to invite Cameron up to address the meeting.
Morning, everyone, and welcome. Look, I mean, it's great to be standing here before you today with another hugely eventful year under our belt and lots of transformative things going on across the company. So look, we've, as a business, continued to evolve nicely across many different fronts over the last 12 months, from bedding down our acquisition of our controlling stake in our Brazilian business, Webmotors, evolving our company in the United States in Trader Interactive, and developing new products both here in Australia and across our global markets. Through all this, the company's performed exceptionally well, and I look forward to taking you through the presentation of our FY 2024 performance.
But, before I do that, I just wanna keep in tradition and play a short video for you, which reflects the year that we've just had. There you go. Quite a busy year for us. So let's start on the presentation that I wanted to deliver to you today. So we'll start with slide four, if we can. So look, as the Managing Director of the company, and a shareholder, of course, I mean, this is a place I always like to start the presentation. And it's certainly one of my favorite slides, as it really reflects just how hard we've continued to work in delivering strong total shareholder returns over a long period of time, for you, our shareholders.
Now, on the chart there, you can see the gap between the performance of the company, being the dark blue line, and the broader market, has once again continued to widen over the last 12 months, which is very pleasing to see. And clearly, anyone that's invested in the company since our IPO back in September 2009, has outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 by around about four and a half times. Look, so just starting with a summary of our financial performance, it's, as I said to you earlier, it's been another great year for the group. Excellent progress from a financial and operating and strategic perspective.
This year's result really builds on a consistent growth that we've delivered over many years now, and it reflects the strength of our global marketplaces in engaging consumers and the value that we're delivering for them. Our most recent acquisitions in Brazil and the U.S. are performing really well, and we're confident these businesses will continue to drive significant long-term value for all shareholders. The pro- forma results on this page are the best reflection of our underlying performance as a company, as they rebase our FY 2023 to fully include Trader Interactive and Webmotors. In constant currency, the group delivered a 15% revenue growth and 16% growth in EBITDA, which was an excellent outcome. We've delivered strong margin performance of 53%, which is slightly up on last year.
Adjusted net profit after tax was up 24%, which is also a strong result. We also reached, as Pat mentioned before, a significant milestone of AUD 1.1 billion in revenue, and we've delivered double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth across each of our Australian, North American, LATAM, and Asian operations once again. We've also had an excellent year when it comes to our operational performance, especially given the ongoing high interest rate environment that we're all in at the moment, and weaker consumer sentiment, particularly in Australia and the United States, which demonstrates the strength of our market positions and the resilience of our business model. Look, just looking at our portfolio and this slide here really demonstrates the breadth of our retail brands.
We operate across multiple jurisdictions, combined with a large AUD 15 billion dollar total addressable market that we operate across the world, which you can see if you add up the numbers at the bottom of the slide there. These large markets have attractive attributes, and, yeah, our current penetration is still around 10%, if you divide the revenue into the total available market, and that provides us with really significant long-term growth opportunity as a business. So let's start with Webmotors, and you know, this is our first year of majority ownership, and we've made some really strong progress here with the business, which has resulted in excellent financial outcomes that you'll see more in a moment. But some of the highlights are on this page here.
So on the left-hand side of the slide there, you'll see that we've extended our leadership position through our national expansion program. In terms of finance, down the bottom on the left-hand side there, we're seeing strong momentum in our new finance integration that we have with Santander, our partner, delivering 35% uplift in auto finance contracts written in the second half, which has been supported by improving macro and credit environment in Brazil. And finally, we've had great momentum across the Webmotors business through FY 2025, that you can see there on the right-hand side. This slide here really captures the revenue and EBITDA performances of the business. You know, we own on a pro- forma basis back since 2007.
As you can see here, the group's consistently delivered growth through multiple economic cycles. If you think about the cycles that we've gone through between then and now, and despite interest rates remaining relatively high, we're seeing good growth in both our operational and financial performance metrics, which gives us confidence in our long-term growth potential and positive outlook for FY 2025. Just turning to that outlook on FY 2025 , and we are nearly four months into the new financial year. We're very pleased with how the company continues to perform, which gives us confidence in the reiteration of our outlook statement that we delivered in mid-August, which was on a constant currency basis. We expect to deliver good growth in revenue and EBITDA once again in FY 2025.
In terms of margin, you know, with some reinvestment into the business and the significant growth we expect from businesses that have lower margin, we expect to see similar group EBITDA margin in FY 2025. Just turning to our financial performance now, and the group's delivered another great result in FY 2024, driven by strong operational execution across the company. On this slide here, you'll see consistent growth that we've delivered across four of our key financial metrics, which reflect our sustained investment in improving consumer experience and growing our audience. We're confident that we're in our ability to continue to deliver great outcomes, given the significant size of the markets that we operate in, and the multiple growth levers that we've got across each of our businesses around the world.
So what you're seeing here is a summary of our profit and loss and the large percentage increases in revenue, operating expenses, and EBITDA, and D&A reflect the full year impact of consolidating Trader Interactive and Webmotors. I'll talk you through the pro- forma revenue and EBITDA performance on the next slide, which normalizes both those acquisitions. If you normalize for recent acquisitions, depreciation, amortization is in line with revenue and EBITDA, reflecting our continued investment in software development. Increases in financial costs, you see there, are impacted by increases in base interest rates over recent times. On tax, the group's effective tax rate in FY 2024 is similar to last year, which is circa 19%, and this reflects the corporate tax rates in each of our markets.
In the U.S., where we pay minimal tax, which is due to the utilization of some tax deductions for amortization of purchase price, intangible assets, and prior period tax losses that we inherited when we acquired Trader Interactive a couple of years back. Adjusted net profit was AUD 344 million, and that was up 24%, which benefited from the full-year consolidation of the Webmotors and TI acquisition. Adjusted earnings per share growth, it's a better reflection of the underlying performance of the company, and that includes increases in shares on issue from capital raises that we've done. On that basis, we've delivered an impressive 17% growth on prior comparative period.
And this growth, combined with the strong free cash flows that we have, supported the board's decision to pay a final dividend of AUD 0.385, which was up 18% on last year, and all shareholders would have received that last week. Just looking at our summary of our segment performance, which shows the business on a pro forma basis that I was mentioning a minute ago, and consolidates Trader Interactive and Webmotors, both in current and comparative periods for the full 12 months. As I mentioned earlier, you can see here, it's been great to be delivering double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth across each of our core regions. The results we've delivered really showcase the resilience of our diversified business model in a high interest rate environment.
As you can see here, looking at our cash flow and balance sheet, that yeah, we've got great cash conversion. Our working capital profile has continued to remain pretty constant, but our cash conversion's been excellent at close to 100%. Our balance sheet's also in a really good spot, and it's nice to see leverage continue to come down to 1.7x debt to EBITDA, and finally, on the right-hand side of that slide, you can see CapEx, as a percentage of revenues, remained consistent over the last 12 months as well, so I'll just jump into some of the financial performance now around each of our segments, and we'll start with our Australian operating segment.
And it's been another great year for our Australian business, with revenue and EBITDA growth of 13%, supported by continued strength of our marketplace and audience metrics. We delivered double-digit revenue growth, as you can see on that slide, in all of our Australian segments. Just starting with the top segment there, our dealer segment, growth of 12% was driven by good demand for used cars, yield and increased penetration of our depth product. It's also pleasing to see depth penetration continue to increase as inventory levels and time to sell also both increased.
Just looking at the next one down, which is private seller, and we also continue to deliver... Good growth outcomes in private sellers, and we've seen over the last 12 months, we've also continued to grow our overall private yield through further optimizing our dynamic pricing and continue to increase the scale of our Instant Offer product, and that's resulted in good revenue growth of 10% on the prior comparative period. Our media business revenue grew by 20%, and that's indicative of a healthy new car market with strong production and new car model launches over the last 12 months, and this has been supported by significant investment that we've made in our media business to deliver more innovative and personalized advertising solutions.
And finally, on the bottom of the slide there, looking at our data research and services, up 10% on prior comparative period, and that was a good performance, and that's really a reflection of our RedBook data business's performance over the last 12 months as well. Turning to North America now, and it's been an excellent year for Trader Interactive with double-digit revenue and earnings growth, which is a great outcome given the more challenging macro conditions, particularly in the recreational vehicle segment in the United States. Growth continues to come from multiple sources. This includes higher customer numbers over the last 12 months. RV Trader customer numbers were stable, which is a great outcome given the demand for RVs or recreational vehicles has been a bit subdued.
Other key growth drivers in the U.S. have been the significant uplift in Premium Select transactions, yield increases, dynamic pricing, and growth in media revenue as well. Looking at Latin America now, and that segment's performance includes both Webmotors and Chileautos. Latin America's had an outstanding 12 months with revenue growth of 25% and EBITDA growth of 34% on a constant currency basis, which largely reflects the performance of Webmotors. The national expansion strategy that I mentioned a minute ago has continued to deliver really excellent results. And we're adding new dealers, growing our audience, and increasing private seller volumes. The implementation of dynamic pricing delivered significant growth as well for private seller segment, and finance volumes also grew strongly, as I mentioned earlier.
Media also starting to become a more of a key growth driver for that business, too, over time. The results here also include the contribution of Webmotors' adjacent market subsidiaries in Car10 and Loop, and both businesses have demonstrated excellent growth in revenue and earnings over the last 12 months, too. Chileautos, our Chilean business, has also had a productive year with the successful implementation of the dealer lead model. Looking at Asia now, and Encar's had a good year, as Pat mentioned before, too, with revenue and EBITDA growth of 15% and 11% respectively on a constant currency basis. Market conditions in South Korea have improved over the last 12 months, which is supporting that growth.
We added, as you would have seen in the video, eight new branches over the past 12 months, which was an excellent result, and this supported another significant increase in the penetration of our Guarantee Inspection product. Revenue growth was supported by a 10% price rise that we did on standard ads, and that was introduced in the middle of the first half of last year. Encar also continues to make strong progress in its mission to facilitate online car transactions, which is reflected in the growth of its Encar Home digital retailing service. Dealer Direct is another product that's also continued to improve as the macro credit cycle challenges that we faced and, like, in the prior year, have continued to alleviate. Some of you might recognize this slide.
This is our strategic priorities here, and the ones that are highlighted on the slide. I'll jump into and talk a little bit more in detail about those key focus areas as we look towards them to help grow the business over the course of the next 12 to 24 months. So starting with depth, and many of you that have followed the company over the last, well, for a long time now, will know that depth products are an excellent way for us to engage potential buyers and deliver real value for our sellers.
In Brazil, Webmotors, in partnership with Santander, have launched an incentive program called Wallet, where participating dealers can redeem Webmotors products through Cockpit, which is our CRM platform that we have there. Santander can add credits to the dealers' Webmotors wallets and incentivize them to take on Webmotors' product. And this is an exciting development for us, and it will drive increased revenue, but also enables dealers to trial depth product and value-added services that we have. In South Korea, we're evolving our guarantee inspection offering, where we're adding inspection centers in regional areas now. We're extending opening hours to service more customers and introducing new guarantee inspection products.
In July, Encar communicated another price rise in their guarantee product of 10%, and that will be implemented gradually from the first of August this year as well. On the right-hand side there, in North America, just following the launch of our Premium Select in FY 2023, we launched, we've launched a new reporting module for dealers to get the full view of their ROI from depth utilization, which should improve customer acquisition and retention. And these are just some of the examples of depth products that we're launching to help dealers reduce time to sell and achieve better gross margins over time. Turning to private seller now, and just some of the changes that we're making here.
In Australia, consistent innovation in our user experience has delivered a private ad yield CAGR of 11% since implementation of dynamic pricing in FY 2016. As a percentage of average value of a car that's sold on carsales, it represents approximately 0.5%, which is good value given the amount of money that a private seller can save versus accepting a wholesale price. From an IO perspective, we're looking to expand our instant offer eligibility criteria to address a greater proportion of the market, particularly at the upper end and the lower end of the market. This will be achieved through third-party partnerships and better use of data and pricing models.
We're also consistently enhancing our trust and safety and removing friction points in the private seller buying and selling process, which will be critical in our ability to continue to grow yield over time. Some of the key focus areas you can see on the right-hand side there, we're launching a Photo Assist using generative AI to offer suggestions on how best to present photos of your car online to attract more buyers to that car. We're also verifying ID documents to highlight and instill greater confidence in verified sellers. We're introducing new messaging, a new messaging platform to keep people in the carsales environment, which reduces the potential for fraud and the need for private seller phone numbers to be revealed.
We're also adding private test drive booking platform to enable bookings that best suit sellers' timelines or schedules. And finally, we've just launched our C2C or consumer-to-consumer payments beta. We think that could be a real game changer in safely and securely helping people facilitate cars privately online, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And then, from a synergy perspective, it's been great for us to see our private seller IP and technology transfer from Australia into businesses like Trader Interactive and Webmotors. Our initial focus was on deploying dynamic pricing, but which we'll continue to optimize over time.
But we're also now focusing on enhancing the private seller ad creation process in the U.S. and Brazil, and simplifying the process and reducing the number of steps it takes to create an ad online. So look, I think we've talked about this over a couple of AGMs now, but in Australia, we made an important decision to progress our media strategy a couple of years back now, and that was to diversify more heavily into non-automotive customer segments and to introduce more innovative audience and programmatic and native advertising product solutions. So it's been really great to see the excellent growth being driven out of our media business across the last 12 months.
Media was an area of potential or is an area of potential significant growth that we identified in Webmotors and Trader Interactive, when we did those acquisitions, as those businesses had limited offerings in the media space at the time. Media TAMs in North America and Brazil are huge, as you can possibly imagine, and we're very well placed to capture some of that share in those large markets, given the strong market leadership positions that we have in each of those businesses. And we've got a clear strategy to help us achieve that goal, and it's pleasing that we're starting to execute on that strategy.
We're establishing dedicated sales teams in those markets to engage directly with OEMs and agencies, and we're looking to diversify our advertiser bases in those countries. We've deployed sophisticated programmatic technology in both Webmotors and Trader Interactive, which is driving a material increase in metrics like ad viewability and yields. We continue to deploy new technology that's going to benefit each individual advertising market, and we're really at the start of that journey, and these are significant international media markets. So we're looking forward to seeing the benefits there, and there's plenty of runway ahead of us.
Just thinking about future horizons, and I mentioned that we're on the cusp of rolling out our C2C payment solution that provides a more secure payment option for buyers and sellers, and to help them facilitate the transfer of funds from one party to another instantly. Also, that's gonna instill buyer confidence that sellers of vehicles have also been checked had their ID documentation checked. Look, it's just another great example of carsales trying to differentiate itself when it comes to the private seller market. Looking at some sustainability highlights now, and our mission here as a business is to operate a sustainable business that future generations will be proud of.
As you can see here, there's plenty for us to be proud of over the last 12 months, including that Great Place to Work certification you saw in the slide, or in the video a minute ago, that has us now with Great Place to Work certification in all of our major offshore markets, with the exception of South Korea. 86% of our people around the world recommend CAR Group as a great place to work. 44% of our board is now represented by females, and 42% representation of senior management roles are now also females as well, which is a few of the great achievements that we've delivered on. This is the last slide.
So just to summarize, we've had an excellent year as a company. We've got great momentum going into FY 2025. We continue to build on our market leadership positions, building competitive advantage, and delivering long-term shareholder growth in that's sustainable for all of our shareholders. We remain focused on removing friction points in buying and selling, which is creating new monetization opportunities for us. We know we've got great opportunity in our international markets with fantastic new products, and we're focused on growing customer acquisition, take rates over time, here as well.
We're very happy with the rate of IP transfer between our businesses across the world, and they're starting to reflect results and, you know, helping us deliver more to come over the coming months and years. Finally, we're a great generator of cash with a very strong balance sheet. As you've seen, we continue to see that being a feature of the business, while also investing for future growth and paying attractive dividends to shareholders as well. With that, I'll open up to questions, Pat.
My name's Henry Stephens, and I'm from the Australian Shareholders' Association. I'd like to congratulate the CEO and the board for the excellent 2024 results and the successful purchase of Trader Interactive, which has turned out to be such an outstanding acquisition. There have been many acquisitions by Australian companies in the U.S. that have not been successful, so the CEO is to be commended. So, well done. I've got a couple of questions. The first one is, Cameron: do you propose to take up any other board seats? Second question is on dynamic pricing. I'm just wondering, what's the reaction in each of the marketplaces to dynamic pricing? Because in Australia, there's been a real pushback against dynamic pricing in terms of young people buying concert tickets.
And there was a Four Corners program the other day, which talked about dynamic pricing, and it's really upsetting a lot of people. So I'm just wondering what's happening there. And then I've got a question on generative AI. I'm just wondering how it's affecting or what's happening with the operations of the company, if you are using it a lot? So they're my questions. Thank you.
Thanks, Henry. So the answer to your first question is no. I won't be taking on any other board roles. The answer to the second question was, I'm just trying to remember what the second question was again.
Dynamic pricing. Thank you. So, look, I mean, dynamic pricing is something we've had in play, I think I mentioned in my presentation, since 2016. And we've gradually rolled it out through Australia and through other countries around the world. And, as I mentioned, you know, the cost of an ad relative to the price of a car is very, very low. So if you think about the average yield or the average price of an ad in Australia, we charge around about AUD 160. The average value of a car on carsales is about AUD 35,000. So that's a very small percentage that we take. So when we think about dynamic pricing, we think about things like the value of the car.
We also think about the state that the car exists in. We think about the time of year. We think about a bunch of different factors that may impact supply and demand for that particular vehicle, and that'll... Those sorts of things feed into our dynamic pricing model, and that dynamic pricing model changes over time. But no, we haven't seen any pushback as a result of having that in play. So, and then your third question was?
Generative AI.
Yeah, thank you. So look, generative AI, I mean, AI is, to us as a business, is not a new concept. We've been working with AI for probably eight years, and we're working with AI in the context of things like image recognition, things like supporting private sellers, creating ads, and making sure that those ads were clean and without being interfered with in terms of trust and safety type issues. When we think of generative AI now, we think about it in the context of things like search. We think about it in the context of editorial and content generation, those sorts of areas.
But it's an evolving space, as you'd know, and it's a space that, you know, we stay very, very close to. And over time, you'll see more product coming out that has AI featuring in it in one shape or form.
Hello, Peter Collier. I've been a shareholder for a decade now. So as you can probably imagine, I'm very happy with the way this company is going. Just a couple of comments before I ask my question. I couldn't attend last year because when the meeting was on, I was in hospital, but I did catch up a week later when I got out of hospital because it was online. I just want to thank the company for providing that service so that even though I missed the AGM, I could catch up later.
... So thank you for that. Nicole, I hope you don't mind, being compared to a very talented actress. Yeah, look, my question is, the collection of data from, the private market. One, I know that you mentioned that you collect ID. One of the issues where a lot of companies have got themselves into trouble is when they've been hacked, is because they've continued to hold ID years after the events occurred and also continued to hold ID information from people who are no longer customers. After the transaction's all done, how long do you keep the ID information, and do you destroy it if it's no longer necessary?
Thanks for the question, and thanks for the compliment, too, Peter. So look, I mean, as a business, if we're talking about individual sellers, there's not a whole lot of information that we actually keep. So if you think about the information that would be most sensitive to a consumer, like credit card details, we don't keep credit card details. We'll keep a name, an email address, and a telephone number, and so that's basically it. If consumers don't want us to store that information, they can request us to remove it, and we'll remove it. Have I answered that bit appropriately?
[audio distortion] can't remove it, just maintenance of business records. But we don't keep copies of people's licenses as rule or anything like that.
No other questions?
Yeah, there's a question online.
Okay.
So this comes from Paul Middleton, and the question is: Is the company satisfied with the organic growth runway for all of the businesses as per the presentation, such that acquisitions are not being contemplated in the short or medium term? Thank you.
I mean, as a business, when we think about growth, we think about growth from multiple sources. We think about growth in terms of optimization of the businesses that we currently have now, whether that be through improving site performance, you know, looking at pricing models. You know, we talked about dynamic pricing a moment ago. We talk about growth through internal innovation when it comes to, you know, developing new products, when it comes to developing new verticals or adjacent market opportunities. We think about growth in the context of M& A, where there's opportunities for us to expand inorganically, and we're also looking at what we call early-stage ventures, which are businesses that could potentially be disruptive to us, down the track.
So as a business, we're thinking about all those things all the time, and we're not just thinking about one thing over another. So M& A is a part of, you know, our growth strategy and has been ever since I've been in the business and will continue to be, but there are plenty of organic growth opportunities for us as well.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you, Cameron, for the presentation and the business update. And Peter, thank you for picking up on my deliberate faux pas. It's always, can be a bit boring at AGM, so I'll throw two or three in and just see how many are actually grabbed. So, take the compliment, Nikki, and I move on. So there being no further business at this time, I will now proceed to discussion and question and answers around the formal business of the meeting, where we have a number of resolutions to put to shareholders. As I mentioned earlier, voting for all resolutions is open, and you may submit your votes at any time. The proxy votes received for each resolution will be visible on screen. I will also give you a warning before I move to close voting.
We'll now move to the first item of business, the first item of business being the financial report. I now table the June 2024 annual report containing the financial report, which includes the directors' declaration, the related directors' report, and auditors' report. Copies of the 2024 Annual Report were made available on the company's website, or if you're elected to receive a hard copy, a hard copy has been sent to you, so I don't intend to read out the directors' report to the meeting. The Corporations Act requires the financial report to be laid before the meeting. There is no requirement in the Corporations Act or the company's constitution for shareholders to vote on, approve, or adopt these reports. To date, the company has not received any questions for our auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, so the matter is now open for discussion by shareholders.
Are there any questions in the room? Nikki, are there any questions? Thank you. I'll move to the resolutions now to be put to shareholders. Item two, the remuneration report. I now table the remuneration report of the company as contained in the 2024 annual report. As I've already noted, copies of the annual report are made available on the company's website or sent to you if required. So again, I do not intend to read out the remuneration report to the meeting. Section 250R(2) of the Corporations Act requires the remuneration report to be put to the vote. The Corporations Act also provides that no votes may be cast on this resolution by key management personnel whose remuneration amounts are included in the report, nor by their closely related parties. I will only be voting proxies for unrelated parties. The matter is now open for discussion by shareholders.
Do any shareholders wish to comment or ask any questions on Item two? I'll firstly take any questions in the room. Nikki, are there any questions online? I now put the motion to the remuneration report for the financial year end of 30 June 2024 be adopted. If you haven't already done so, please vote on the resolution to adopt the remuneration report, and the numbers are on the board for the proxies. The next item of business, being items three A, three B, and three C, relate to the re-election and election of directors. Item three A relates to the re-election of Edwina Gilbert as a director. As is custom, each director up for election will make a brief address. I now invite Edwina to address the meeting.
Thanks, Pat. Leave it on? Okay, don't touch. Thanks, Pat. Good morning. I'd like to thank our company stakeholders, including our shareholders, some of who are here today and online, employees, led by our ELT and CLT teams globally, my fellow board members, and our customers for your support as a non-executive director of the CAR Group. I joined the board in two thousand and sixteen, and we were largely a domestic-focused classifieds business, and pleasingly, we've evolved operations to expand to multiple international jurisdictions successfully in conjunction with continued domestic growth. My background is in law, with a twenty-year executive career in the automotive industry, running a large family business. I believe I bring to the board an owner's mindset and relevant insights as a customer and participant in the franchised automotive industry, as well as a strong governance background and a people and culture focus.
I'm extremely proud of the CAR Group. The culture of innovation is admirable and ever-present in driving our strategic discussions and ensuring we are strong stewards of this business. Thank you again to our shareholders for your support, and I look forward to the next stage of the CAR Group journey. It's a privilege to serve in this role. Thank you.
Thank you, Edwina. Are there any questions in the room for Edwina?
Henry Stephens from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Edwina, you've been running the company's risk committee since it was established in two thousand and nineteen. I'm just interested in, if you look back over the last five years, how risk management has changed, and what are some of the major changes in managing risk that you and your committee have brought to the company?
Thanks, Henry. We've seen a huge evolution of our risk framework and journey. Certainly, when we invoked the risk committee some years ago, it was sort of an audit committee with a component of risk, and we saw the need to divest those two so that we spent a lot more time on risk management as a board. And clearly, the nature of the business and the global jurisdictions has meant that we've had to heighten our, you know, what was a largely domestic-focused business. You know, from a control perspective, it was locally based, you know, line of sight, and with the global jurisdiction growth and our, I guess, our decentralized management of our countries, we had to have a much more robust framework that we're rolling out.
So I think particularly in the last eighteen months, we've seen a huge evolution. We've recently appointed an EGM for risk globally to support Nikki, because the risk committee sits with Nikki's jurisdiction as well, and I think we continue to grow and enhance our maturity there. Obviously, there's a huge amount of controls and actions in place and in play. Peter referenced data and data governance as a particular area of interest, cyber and cybersecurity. This is an ever-moving element, and we're definitely not set and forget, but we have a much more mature framework, which will continue to evolve moving forward. Okay, thank you.
Nikki, any questions online? There'll be no further questions. Nikki will now show us. She's got the slide up there in terms of the votes for Edwina's appointment. So I now put the motion of the meeting that Ms. Edwina Gilbert, being a director of the company, who retires by rotation in accordance with Rule 17.1 of the company's constitution, and being eligible, offers herself for re-election, be re-elected as a director of the company. If you haven't already done so, please vote on this resolution now. Item 3B relates to the re-election of Kee Wong as a director. I now invite Kee to address the meeting.
Thank you, Pat. Thank you for the opportunity to nominate myself again for another term on the board of CAR Group. With the approval of shareholders, I'll be delighted to continue to serve the CAR Group board. When I started on the carsales board then, back in 2018, it was an ASX 100 company with a market cap just over AUD 3 billion. Most of the revenue are Australian-based. Today, it's a global business with over 50% of its revenue and profits overseas and a market cap close to AUD 14 billion on any given day. When I joined the board in 2018, I said it was a dream board for me to be part of.
As an entrepreneur, a technologist, a car lover, and one who enjoys working with a global business, it certainly ticked all the boxes for me, and it still remains so, that it is a dream board that I'm proud to be part of. CAR Group continues to be entrepreneurial business with a start-up DNA, despite the size and the global presence. I'm very privileged to be part of this business that continues to strive to make buying and selling of mobility and transportation vehicles a great experience and continues to innovate the whole ecosystem around mobility and transportation. The board has a good blend of skills and diversity, and well led by our chairman, Pat, complemented by a great executive team led by Cameron McIntyre. Today, the business is much more complex. It's global, larger in scale and size.
In addition, the rising challenge and opportunities in digital technologies, particularly AI and cyber, and a growing significance around sustainability matters provided the context that I do believe that I can continue to bring my skills, experience, and knowledge to add value to the CAR Group board. My experience in strategy, change and transformation, innovation, and technology is a good complement to the other board members of CAR Group. I also chair the Sustainability Committee, which I believe will be increasingly important to the CAR Group's business globally. I enjoy the experience and the growth I get from being part of my role on the board of CAR Group, and I'll be delighted to serve the CAR Group board again for another term. Thank you.
Thank you, Kee. Are there any questions of Kee? Nothing online? If there'll be no further questions, I now ask you to inform the meeting. The votes are on the board. I put the motion to the meeting that Mr. Kee Wong, being a director of the company, who retires by rotation in accordance with Rule 17.1 of the company's constitution, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election, be re-elected as a director of the company. If you haven't already done so, please vote on this resolution now. Item three C relates to the election of Philippa Marlow as director. Pip is a highly skilled and experienced leader in global technology. Most recently, Pip was Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce across its Australia, New Zealand, and ASEAN operation.
Pip was previously CEO of Customer Marketplace at Suncorp, where she was responsible for go-to-market strategy, customer satisfaction, and the digital transformation program. And prior to that, she enjoyed a 21-year career at Microsoft, where she held a number of local and global roles, culminating in her appointment as Managing Director of Microsoft Australia for six years. I now invite Pip to address the meeting.
Good morning, everyone. It's a privilege to be here in front of you and offer myself as a new director for the CAR Group. I wanted to begin by acknowledging the weight of the responsibility that comes with this role. As a director, I understand my primary responsibility is to act in the best interests of our shareholders and customers. That means making sure that every decision that I contribute to puts your interest and their interest there at the start of that. I take this responsibility seriously, and you have my full commitment to keeping your interests at the forefront of our strategy and actions. Throughout my career, I have been driven by a passion for digital businesses, having spent the majority of my professional life in this space.
It's been an incredible journey witnessing how technology can reshape industries, open new opportunities, and strengthen customer relations. I've also had the privilege of gaining global experience, which has given me a well-rounded perspective on how businesses can succeed and thrive internationally. As CAR Group continues to expand its international footprint and drive innovation, my goal is to bring my experience to support our growth in new and diverse markets and products. At the heart of this company is a passion and a focus on our customer. I care deeply about the customer experience and believe that companies that prioritize that customer experience in good times and bad, are the companies that thrive and are successful. I look to bring my experience to help CAR Group continue to focus on that long-term success.
I look forward to looking, working inside my talented colleagues here on the board, the exceptional leadership team at CAR Group, and all of you as we guide this business to the next chapter. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you, our shareholders and customers, in this exciting journey ahead.
Thank you, Pip. Are there any questions of Pip from the floor? Any online?
No.
The votes for Pip are on the screen. I now put the motion to the meeting that Ms. Philippa, I'm not used to calling her Philippa, so Ms. Philippa Marlow, who was appointed as a director of the company effective on the first of January 2024, and being eligible under the company's constitution, be approved as a director of the company. If you haven't already done so, please vote on this resolution now. Items four A and four B. The next items of business, items four A and four B, deal with the grant of rights to the Managing Director and CEO, Cameron McIntyre. Listing rule 10.14 requires shareholder approval for the grant of securities to Cameron McIntyre, the Managing Director and CEO of the company.
As a board, we continue to be very pleased with Cameron's performance as CEO, and the results he has delivered for shareholders has been excellent. The board believes that the grant of these rights, as set out in the notice of meeting, is consistent with the company's remuneration policies and objectives, reflects good market practice and remuneration, and effectively aligns the interests of Cameron with those of the company. Per the notice of meeting, there are two items that will be put to shareholders separately. Item four A pertains to the grant of rights in respect of the deferred component of the FY 2024 short-term incentive, and item four B pertains to the grant of performance rights in the form of a long-term incentive for FY 2025 to FY 2027.
The key terms of the rights and details of both plans are as set out in the notice of meeting. Item four A, relating to the grant of rights in respect of the deferred components of the FY 2024 short-term incentive, is now open for discussion by shareholders. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Are there any questions online? There'll be no further questions. The meeting is now informed on the board of the votes. I now put the motion that approval be given to the grant of up to seventeen thousand three hundred and eighteen rights over shares in the company to Mr. Cameron McIntyre in respect of the FY 2024 short-term incentive award, in accordance with the terms of the CAR Group Equity Plan and as set out in item four A of the notice of meeting.
If you haven't already done so, please vote on this item now. Item 4B, pertaining to the grant of performance rights in the form of a long-term incentive for FY 2025 to FY 2027, is now open for discussion by shareholders. Are there any questions on this item from the floor? Are there any questions online? The votes are on the board. Item 4B, pertaining to the grant of performance rights in the form of a long-term incentive for FY 2025 to FY 2027, I've just said that, is now open for discussion by shareholders.
So I will now put the motion that approval be given to the grant of up to 106,899 performance rights over shares in the company to Mr. Cameron McIntyre in respect of the FY 2025 to FY 2027 long-term incentive award, in accordance with the terms of the CAR Group Equity Plan and as set out in item 4B of the notice of meeting. If you haven't already done so, please vote on this item. The next item, and the last item of business, being item 5, seeks shareholder approval for increase in the fee pool for non-executive directors to AUD 2.5 million. The current AUD 2 million fee pool was approved by shareholders in 2021. As set out in the notice of meeting, since that time, the company has significantly increased in size and complexity.
The company's reported revenue, as you heard Cameron discuss earlier, its reported EBITDA and its market capitalization have all more than doubled between FY 2021 and FY 2024, and it is vital that we remain in a position to pay market competitive fees to non-executive directors to continue to attract and retain directors of the requisite caliber for this board. We have conducted a benchmarking exercise and believe that the proposal is appropriate. The matter is now open for discussions by shareholders. Are there any questions from people in the room?
Peter Collier again. In November, I'm about to go to another AGM where they've increased the pool two years in a row. So this is why I'm asking this question: Is the major reason your increase in the pool to help pay for the increase in the board size? And B, if this is approved, is it going to be a while before we have to either increase the board or increase the pool again?
Yep. Thank you, Peter. So at the moment, there are eight non-executive directors, which is more than we normally have on the board. So the expectation today, and things can change, is that there will be no more than eight directors on the board going forward. So the pool is really just to give us a little bit of headroom, and there's no plans to increase the pool anytime soon. But thank you for the question. Any other questions from the floor? Any questions online?
No. I had Peter's from online, but he's shared it. He shared it by investor vote, so well done.
Excellent. The proxies are shown on the board. I now put the motion to the meeting that approval be given to increase the maximum aggregate remuneration payable to non-executive directors of the company by AUD 500,000, from AUD 2 million to AUD 2.5 million per annum. If you haven't already done so, please vote on this item now. In a couple of moments, I will close the meeting. For those in the room, please lodge your voting cards. The online voting system will remain open for a few moments to allow you to finish voting. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. Are there any other questions in the room that anybody wants to ask, that they haven't had a chance to ask? Are there any other more questions online, Nikki, that we haven't addressed? I now declare the poll closed.
The results of all resolutions will be announced to the ASX later today. I would like to thank all shareholders for your ongoing support and for your attendance and attention today. It is much appreciated. Thank you. I now formally close the meeting.