Good afternoon, everyone, and on behalf of the Board of Directors of Charter Hall, it's my pleasure to welcome you to our annual general meeting, to the annual general meeting of your company. My name's David Clarke. I'm the Chair of the Charter Hall Group Board of Directors. It's 2:30 P.M. We've obviously got a quorum present, and therefore I declare this meeting properly constituted and open. I'd like to begin with an Acknowledgement of Country. So, Charter Hall acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work and gather, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. This afternoon, I will provide a brief overview of our business and achievements during financial year 2024.
Our Managing Director and Chief Executive, David Harrison, will then provide an update on our business and key results, as we, as well as reaffirming our outlook, for financial year 2025. We'll then move to the formal business of the meeting and resolutions for your consideration. There are seven items of business, today, seven resolutions for your consideration. The first two resolutions involve the election and re-election of directors, and when the time comes, I will ask each director, to provide, say, a few words and provide some personal background, and the reasons they believe that they should be elected. Three of the other resolutions relate to the approval of the remuneration report, and the issue of service and performance rights to the Managing Director and Group CEO, David Harrison.
One of the resolutions relates to the approval of an increase in the director's fee pool, and the final resolution relates to a capital reallocation between the two stapled entities that combine, to create, Charter Hall securities. Don't worry, I'll do my best to explain that when we get to it. There'll be an opportunity to ask questions of the directors on each resolution, and I will ensure that there's adequate time after the formal resolutions are dealt with to address any issues that security holders would like to raise. I'd now like to introduce my fellow non-executive, independent directors. There's David Ross, Jacqueline Chow, Karen Moses, Greg Paramor, Stephen Conry, and Karen Penrose. Finally, David Harrison, who I'm sure you all know from previous meetings, our Managing Director and Group CEO. Also today in the front row here is Mark, Mark Bryant, our Company Secretary.
Also, Ryan McMahon, excuse me, our auditor from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will be available to answer any questions in respect of the audit of the financial statements, questions from security holders. It's my pleasure to address this AGM, which is my 10th and final year as Chair of the Group. The financial year 2024 presented a number of economic challenges as interest rates remained at elevated levels in most countries, and property asset valuations generally fell in line with rising capitalization rates. For commercial real estate, this had the twin impacts of dampening earnings as higher debt costs increased interest expense, and while simultaneously leading to devaluations in property values. As cap rates have increased, and that as a consequence drove down the valuation of the real estate.
Further, while the interest rate environment remained uncertain, investors were reluctant to commit new capital for investment until evidence emerged that the valuations of real estate had stabilized. This meant in financial year 2024, it was a challenging year for the group as fund returns, asset valuations, transaction activity, and raising new equity capital proved more challenging than in previous years. We've been focused on understanding the challenges our investments and tenant customers are facing and the opportunities they're pursuing to ensure that we're positioned very well to partner with them in creating solutions that drive mutual success. Ultimately, the strength of our tenant and customer relationships is one of the keys to the resilience as a customer-centric business.
In financial year 2024, we delivered operating earnings of AUD 358 million, or AUD 0.758 per security, which was consistent with our guidance that we provided at the beginning of the year of AUD 0.75, approximately AUD 0.75 per security. This was down from the previous year, down by 18.7%, reflecting the high level of performance and transaction fees that we'd earned in the previous year. That was financial year 2023. The result still should be seen in our view as a strong one given the challenging environment for real estate and the corresponding subdued transactional activity. Our ability to deliver these earnings, consistent with our guidance, reflects very strong cost control and a real discipline across the whole Charter Hall platform. We also paid a distribution per stapled security of AUD 0.411 per security, which was up 6% on the previous year.
And I also had franking credits attached to it of AUD 0.1313 per security. Our funds under management during the course of the year were negatively impacted by those matters and conditions that I talked about previously. So that fell from AUD 87 billion- AUD 80 billion. And our property funds management fell from AUD 72 billion- AUD 65 billion. Notwithstanding this, we continue to hold the largest sector diverse property portfolio in Australia. FY 2025, financial year 2025, will not be without its challenges, and we will continue to manage the current headwinds. However, by leveraging our property expertise, scale, depth of talent, strong relationships with our customers, we'll look to capitalize on the opportunities for growth that we expect to emerge. And while this AGM is focused on the prior year's performance, that's financial year 2024, we see long-term performance as the true test of success.
So over the past 10 years, we've delivered to security holders 11.6% per annum post-tax per security compounded and delivered distribution growth of 7.3% per annum over that same 10-year period. We've also during that same 10-year period retained cumulated earnings of AUD 1.2 billion which supports the creation of new funds and partnerships, in other words, growth. So a balanced approach to retaining capital for future growth while also providing an in-growing income stream for distributions has been a measure we think of the group's success. Our balance sheet still remains modestly geared at 3% with investment capacity of AUD 700 million and we consider ourselves well placed to take advantage of the opportunities as they emerge in the marketplace. Our focus on partnership with our customers continues to be an approach which is a key focus for us.
The investment in customers and customer relationships has continued to deliver strong results with all of our sectors exceeding their financial year 2024 customer targets. And our overall Net Promoter Score, which is a measure of how your customers see you, was held stable at a positive 52. That is a number which is well in excess of the scores of our major competitors, and I think all of our competitors, from what I understand. This is a very strong result given the last 12 months' challenges, and this success is attributed to the performance of our people. Measures of professionalism, responsiveness, trust, and quality of communication all scored very highly in the makeup of that Net Promoter Score. It's the responsibility of the board and the leadership team to ensure that we foster a dynamic and rewarding workplace that attracts and retains top talent.
In order to do that, we continue to invest in learning and development opportunities through rotations, promotions, evolving roles across our organizational structure, while also ensuring our people feel safe, supported, and included in our workplaces. Our group engagement results demonstrate that this focus is working with our group engagement score, well-being, and belief that there is an opportunity for development and growth significantly exceeding the Australian company norm. As you would expect in a business like ours, sustainability is integrated into all of our business operations and activities. Our approach is designed to reduce our impact on the environment while creating really good commercial outcomes for the group and for our customers. With a focus on decarbonization and climate action, we continue to deliver measurable progress on our environmental goals this year.
We remain on track to meet our commitment to Net Zero Carbon in operations, that's Scope 1 and Scope 2, by the end of 2030, end of financial year 2025. We've achieved an absolute reduction of 70% in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions since 2017 for assets that are under our operational control. We are proud to maintain Australia's largest footprint of independently Green Star rated assets with over 7.1 million square meters with a Green Star performance ratings. We remain focused on building resilience in our assets to support our customers through the transitional risks and opportunities of changing climate, ensuring that we at the same time deliver long-term value. In a very similar way, our social partnerships and community investment continue to be focused where we believe we can make the most difference.
As the first Australian property company to align with Pledge 1%, we continue to partner with the community to have an enduring impact with AUD 1.4 million directly invested in two key areas over the last year. Firstly, unlocking employment and learning pathways for vulnerable young Australians, and then also delivering long-term support and capabilities to communities impacted by hardship. In financial year 2024, these partnerships drove 220 employment outcomes in the year for vulnerable Australians. We also see governance as a critical, very critical component of sustainability. Your board is comprised of a majority of independent directors whos e skills, talents provide the right mix with which to guide the strategy and provide a strong overall contribution to the success of the group.
Looking forward, the group will continue to carefully manage our cost base and strategically invest and deploy capital as we progress through this financial year, that is financial year 2025, all the time looking for growing opportunities to grow as they present themselves. We've got decades of experience in navigating property cycles and driving strategic growth. We'll continue to create value and generate superior returns for security holders using our combined expertise of accessing those opportunities, deploying our capital, managing the assets, and then investing in those assets and others, to complete the cycle.
As I step down as Chair, today at the end of this meeting, I'm proud of the growth and success of the Charter Hall business during my time and have every confidence that, under the chairmanship of Stephen Conry, the board and executive team will continue to create value and generate superior returns for you Charter Hall security holders. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank our tenant customers, investors, security holders for your ongoing support. I extend my gratitude to my fellow directors and the leadership team, for your dedication and to all our people for their efforts. The results are of a sustainable business that you can be very proud of. And now I'd like to introduce to you, and it's my great pleasure to introduce to you the Managing Director and Group CEO, David Harrison, for his operational update. Thank you very much.
Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everybody. Before I begin with my review of FY 2024 performance, I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank David Clarke for his service to the board and security holders of Charter Hall Group. David has chaired the board during a period of significant growth for the group with funds under management growing from AUD 11.5 billion in financial year 2014 to over AUD 80 billion today. Over this time, post-tax operating earnings per security has increased from approximately AUD 0.25 per share in FY 2014 to approximately AUD 0.79 per share as per our guidance for FY 2025. Most significantly, this period has seen a total return, dividends, and share price growth to security holders of over 350%. As one of the largest private shareholders in Charter Hall, what matters to me is the share price growth.
When David joined at the AGM in FY 2014, our shares traded at AUD 4.47. So now we're at AUD 15.50. That means there's no pressure on incoming Chair Stephen Conry to deliver the same over the next 10 years. So, unscripted, Stephen. I've valued, I've valued David's counsel and wise stewardship of the board over this period and would like to personally wish him all the very best in his future board roles and thank him for the great contribution to Charter Hall Group's customers, its people, and its culture. Thank you, David. Now turning to slide eight and our group highlights, FY 2024 was a year of persistent market challenges with a higher-for-longer interest rate environment and stubborn inflation having a lingering impact on the economy and property markets generally.
Charter Hall continued to navigate these challenges, remaining focused on curating our diversified portfolio, controlling our cost base, and staying close to our customers, both tenants and investors. Our focus has been on closely managing areas within our control, and this saw us deliver earnings of AUD 0.758 per security above our original guidance at the start of FY 2025, sorry, FY 2024 of AUD 0.75. Our group funds under management at the end of 2024 was AUD 80.9 billion, and our property funds under management was AUD 65.5 billion. And yes, that was a decrease of 9% over the year, primarily due to devaluations and selective divestment activity. This has partially been offset by our ongoing deployment of capital into pre-leased industrial and office development, producing attractive new investment opportunities for our investor customers, whilst also fulfilling our tenant customers' need for modern, functional, and efficient facilities.
FY 2024 was also a year of reduced transaction activity with AUD 4.1 billion of gross transactions reflecting subdued equity flows compared to prior years. While transaction markets were challenged, recent activity in all sectors, and particularly in office, provides evidence of liquidity emerging and, in many cases, a troughing of asset valuations. We divested AUD 2.4 billion of assets and acquired AUD 1.7 billion during FY 2024 across the platform, with sale and lease-back transactions continuing to be a feature of our industrial and retail activity. While the 31-year WALE, 52 Martin Place acquisition, which you can actually see out the back window, is further evidence of our portfolio curation, where we've bought a Sydney core CBD asset on Martin Place with a 31-year average lease term predominantly leased to the New South Wales Government.
We expect as the interest rate cycle peaks, appetite for long WALE assets across all sectors will emerge as a more appropriate assessment of the low risk profile, low CapEx drag, and high long-term rent growth profile these assets provide becomes far better appreciated by the general market. As the impact of high interest rates has washed through the real estate industry, we've also been able to offset some of these effects through a strong cost discipline. Our group EBITDA margin for the year was 79.3%, up from FY 2019 at 74.4%, driven by tight cost control. Net operating expenses were down 5.2% year- on- year as we look to selectively take out costs and focus on operational performance. The benefits of this will also flow into future periods and demonstrate our ability to adjust our cost base to reflect the challenging market conditions.
Just on slide nine, strong relationships with our tenant customers continue to be an essential strategic focus. Our success with our tenants is reflected in the high level of repeat business, with 70% of our tenant customers holding leases in more than one Charter Hall property. We also regularly ask our tenant customers for feedback, including through annual independent surveys. This year, as David mentioned, our overall net promoter score held strong at + 52, despite a challenging environment for us all and our customers, demonstrating the strength of our relationships throughout the cycles. Turning to slide 10, our industrial business continues to focus on modernization, delivering AUD 836 million of new facilities completed during the period. We've also had significant leasing success, leasing over 689,000 square meters across 61 transactions.
We enjoy a 99.3% occupancy across our entire industrial and logistics portfolio, which compares to a national average of 98% with a WALE of 9.3 years. Slide 11 shows that our office development activity also remains robust. FY 2024 saw us deliver a brand new AUD 400 million Australia Post head office in Melbourne's fringe at 480 Swan Street, while continuing work on our AUD 2.8 billion committed pipeline, predominantly focused on our iconic Chifley Square South Tower in Sydney and completing a premium grade tower in Brisbane CBD called 360 Queen. Similar to industrial and logistics, we continue to enjoy strong leasing success in office projects, having leased over 320,000 square meters across 237 leasing transactions.
Notably, our office portfolio has maintained a strong 96% occupancy versus a national average of 84%, demonstrating the strength and depth of our relationships with our tenant customers and our ability to deliver on our tenant customers' evolving needs. Slide 12, we talk through retail. In retail, our non-discretionary convenience retail portfolio continues to provide resilient income returns. Our AUD 4 billion convenience shopping center portfolio has seen occupancy improve, strong releasing spreads, improved footfall, and record sales densities, demonstrating its resilience and defensive nature, and I note our flagship CQR shopping center REIT has experienced over nearly 25 years no negative leasing spreads in that period, something that I have not seen anywhere globally. This has been complemented by our net lease convenience retail platform, which now exceeds AUD 6.5 billion, enjoying strong rental growth from its CPI-linked annual rent escalations and very CapEx-efficient lease structures, which are generally triple net.
Similarly, the essential service thematic embedded in our social infrastructure portfolio and the importance of these assets to the community and the economy means such assets have delivered resilience and liquidity during the challenging market conditions. Also, the low correlation of these assets, in terms of their correlation to the broader economic cycle continues to have, or make this sector an appealing investment option for us. Slide 13 and our equity inflows. Our strategy of accessing multiple sources of capital continues to deliver growth in equity flows through the cycle. We indicated last August that we expected, I'm talking about August 2023, that we expected wholesale partnerships would be the most active area of new allotments in 2024. And that was certainly the case with AUD 1.1 billion of new partnership inflows allotted.
We also raised AUD 305 million of new equity in our pooled funds as we secured liquidity for investors looking to trade secondaries. We expect the same trend to continue in 2025. Our direct funds had a quiet year as investors and advisors took advantage of higher interest rates, higher cash rates, higher term deposit rates to deploy into alternatives. However, we're starting to see the first sign of term deposit rates coming down from the banks, and we expect that to turn around, particularly as the distribution yields available from listed property are much higher than term deposit rates now. Notwithstanding this, flows did improve in the second half, and we expect these flows will continue to improve once the interest rate cycle changes.
Importantly, based on rebased higher cap rate, asset values, higher cap rate, lower asset values, the denominator effect, and the evidence of central banks potentially having finished their rate tightening cycle, and many of them have actually started dropping rates, are all combining to make wholesale capital and retail and high net worth capital far more constructive on deploying new equity into property. We've already seen new wholesale capital deployed this year across the sectors and will continue to offer opportunities across the diverse range of sectors and asset types that we've always offered to all segments of our investor distribution channels: retail, high net worth, wholesale, super funds, global pension funds, and of course, through the listed markets, the three REITs that we manage.
We enjoy strong partnerships with over 100 wholesale capital partners and expect these investor customers will continue to be active in the period ahead, particularly as we craft new strategies that meet their risk appetite from core through to opportunistic strategies. Slide 14 and our operating earnings guidance. Turning to the outlook, I'd like to reiterate that based on no material adverse change in current market conditions, including a new election of a president in the U.S., FY 2025 guidance is for post-tax operating earnings per security of approximately AUD 0.79. FY 2025 distribution per security guidance is for the continued annual 6% growth over FY 2024 distributions, which we have provided to our shareholders for many years now. In closing, I'd like to thank our people around Australia for their continued hard work and dedication to delivering for our customers throughout the property cycle.
Also, I'd like to thank the group board for their continued strategic guidance, along with the independent directors of all of our fund boards. We're proud of what we've achieved over nearly two decades as an ASX-listed property group and continue to look beyond the horizon as we set the foundation for the next growth phase. Finally, I'd like to thank you, our security holders, for your continued trust and belief in us. I'll now hand back to David to conduct the formal business of the meeting.
Well, thank you, David, and thank you for those kind words at the beginning of your address. It's very much appreciated. Thank you. Before we start the formal resolutions of the meeting, I'll now throw the meeting open to any general questions.
If there are questions around the particular resolutions, we'll deal with those at the appropriate time when we're discussing the general resolution. But if there are general questions that someone would like to ask, if security holders would like to ask at this stage, please feel free. Now's the time to do that. Yes. Yes.
My name is Partha Sarathy, I represent the Australian Shareholders' Association. My first question is in relation to the growth prospects that the business is generally that you'll seek looking forward to. Obviously, Charter Hall has done remarkably well since listing, and your funds under management has gone up by about AUD 30 billion in the last five years.
As you look ahead in the world of higher for longer interest rates, which typically act as headwinds for interest rate sensitive sectors such as property, where do you expect growth to come from, both in terms of funds under management and opportunities to invest? Obviously, you did mention that you're well placed to do it, which is true, but where specifically do we see those opportunities emerging?
Look, thank you for the question. I'll give you a very general answer, and then I might ask David Harrison just to add his comments to it. He obviously lives and breathes it every day. So I think there's a general feeling we've seen peak interest rates. It's debatable when they may come down.
And we feel as though that within, as a broad statement across real estate sectors, we've seen the price adjust to those higher interest rates. So we're feeling as though there is a period of price stability coming. Now, it's quite dangerous to make general sweeping statements when the real estate sector is made up of many different components, all of which are subject to their own supply and demand characteristics. So I might stop there and ask David just to talk about how we see some of the aspects of the future.
So first of all, I'll just say, just like any Charter Hall shareholder, they look at a total return being their dividends plus share price growth.
When people invest in property, whether it's listed, unlisted, pension funds, super funds, or mum and dad retail or high net worth investors, they're looking for a dividend yield plus share price, or sorry, asset value growth. Because cap rates have risen, the prospective total return you can get from a property yield plus asset value growth is much higher than it was two years ago, and therefore, what we call the spread between a forecast total return, asset value growth plus the yield, is probably at one of the widest spreads to bond yields or cash rates I've seen in 37 years in this sector, so when you think about if that spread is attractive, is that going to see capital come back into property? Yes, I think it will.
I think notwithstanding the challenges of the last couple of years where I think no one really expected the sort of velocity and steep rise in interest rates we've seen, as the chair mentioned, there's a general perception that the interest rate cycle has peaked globally. You've got central banks dropping rates already in New Zealand, the U.S., parts of Europe, and there's an expectation that the Reserve Bank will do the same sometime in calendar 2025. I think the appetite to invest in real estate is going to emerge and accelerate during the course of calendar 2025. That's good for us because people will want to invest in real estate. We're the biggest property owner in the country. We provide the most diverse range of assets to invest in, from convenience retail to industrial or social infrastructure to office and all levels of risk.
That's why we are constructive on the outlook going forward. One last thing I'd say, there's a thing called the denominator effect. So if a super fund has 50% of their total assets in listed shares, international, domestic, you know, maybe 10% in infrastructure, 10% in property, when the listed market rises like it has globally, property as a percentage of their total portfolio comes down quite a lot. Most of our capital, both offshore and Australian super funds, are now below where they would like their strategic weighting to be in property. So that combined with the potential returns going forward is going to make things far more constructive. And therefore, we think there'll be quite a pickup in investment in property. And we think we're well placed to be part of that recovery. Okay. Sorry.
In terms of your office portfolio, the values have reduced by about 12% during FY 2024. You got what, AUD 1.2 billion investment in that sector. Do you think the asset values have kind of bottomed or are you getting a sense that they have bottomed and where they are in that sector? Yeah.
Look, it's a good question. I think across all of our sectors, I'm very comfortable that industrial, social infrastructure, industrial values have troughed or bottomed, as you said. Most of office has, there are going to be isolated examples, older assets, assets that might have higher vacancy leasing risk that may not have quite hit the bottom. But generally, across our platform, we're pretty comfortable that we've hit, you know, trough assets.
And the beauty of diversification is even if you've got some sectors where it's pretty flat and others going up, you have the benefit of a diversified model. So from a platform point of view, I'm pretty comfortable about the words that I used in August around trough pricing.
And I would just add to that, the evidence of what David's talking about in terms of quality assets versus the average asset is reflected in the percentage of our building or square meterage that is leased, which is 96% against an average across the country of, I think, David, 84%. So we've been, our office team, our office leasing team, have worked very, very hard to make sure those buildings are 96% full.
But that's been aided by the fact that the assets are attractive assets for tenants, most of which we've built ourselves. Yeah. Well.
Which is, a lot of our member base is focused on dividend, as we know. Now your payout ratio for FY 2024 is 59% and it was 46% in 2023. You're projecting a 6% growth, which will take your payout ratio to about 61%, which is a 15% increase in a matter of two years. Do you have a target payout ratio for the group? I'm not sure it's been disclosed. And you think, do you think the dividend growth is sustainable because you are getting to about 60% payout ratio already?
So, the guidance we give on dividend is the fact that not as a payout ratio, but the fact that it will grow by 6% per annum.
So whatever it is this year, goal is then our guidance is that it'll be 6% next year. That there are periods in our profit performance which are impacted by performance fees and transaction fees. So sticking to, if you like, a payout ratio of profitability could create variability. Feedback from shareholders, security holders is actually we would like a consistency. We want to know that it's going up, and so that's why we have ended up with this steady. I think since 2017, we've been saying growth by 16, 6% per annum of our dividend. Can we sustain it?
We certainly believe that we can, on a through-the-cycle basis. We look at things on a through-the-cycle basis, and it gives us a balance between saying, okay, security holders, you've got certainty, but we are also, during those periods, also retaining appropriate amounts of capital in the business to be able to grow the business. And again, feedback from the security holders is that's what they would like us to do. While we're maintaining the sorts of returns we can maintain at the moment, they're very happy for us to actually have the capital or the retained earnings in the business. So we've sought to strike a balance between, you know, various different groups of shareholders and what they want and what their various needs are. So I hope that answers the question. Yes, down the back here.
Clinton Squires, I'm a longtime shareholder and congratulations, David, on a great period with Charter Hall. Thank you. I'm interested in tenant demand, particularly in the office sector, and there's been some good discussion around cap rates and the like, but I'm looking for some background, I guess, on are you seeing the level of incentives starting to come off yet or are you achieving great leasing results in effect by having to meet tenants' increasing demands for incentives and the like. How's the net rental coming through?
Well, I think if you just look, and again, I'll give a brief answer and then hand to David, but you can see from what's in the media that increasing number of companies are actually saying to the employees you need to be back to the office.
Now that may not be five days a week, it could be, you know, four, three, but there is a strong, strong move to have people present for a whole lot of reasons. At the same time, just prior to the pandemic, we saw a contraction in the amount of square meters allocated per person in an employee base in an office. So it was getting down to smaller and smaller allocations of space, you know, the hot desking, all that's allowing for people that are away traveling away, allowing for people who are on business. What we've seen, as people have returned to the office is an expansion of the peri meters per that employees want to have around them. So that's led to an expansion as well. So those are all very positive trends in the, if you like, in the macro environment.
I could go on, but I think David's got a much deeper knowledge in this than I do. So.
Oh, I look, I don't yet. Absolutely. We see very little tenants actually contracting their space needs. It's very helpful when Amazon come out and mandate globally, you need to be back in the office. The NSW government mandated the same thing for New South Wales government employees. So generally, we haven't seen the reduction in demand that everyone thought. Melbourne is still a laggard in terms of governments and corporates encouraging their people back into the office through mandates or what I call, you know, David Harrison encouragement. It's very different by market. Sydney and Brisbane are getting very close back to pre-COVID type density levels. Melbourne's lagging. Perth never really had the big negative impact.
So, you know, actual physical occupancy is still not too bad over there. And the only other thing I'd say, and we've mentioned it a few times, there is a bifurcation of tenant demand between modern assets and therefore you're going to see higher vacancies emerge in older buildings that are not up to ESG standards and lower vacancies and hence higher rental growth. And to your last question, yes, there's no doubt that incentives are still elevated, but I think the good news is we've peaked and incentives are definitely coming down in many markets. So both face rental and effective rental growth, I think, will be positive going forward. There's always going to be a few pockets, but we're pretty comfortable that, you know, the thing both face and net effective rental growth is going to rise.
In fact, I would argue effective rental growth will be much stronger than the face rental growth as incentives come down. So that's the way the math works.
We did have one question that came in prior to the meeting from a security holder who couldn't be present, which was, why is Charter Hall performing so poorly when compared to other funds in the same sector? I think the security holder may have been referring to potentially listed the listed REITs that Charter Hall manages rather than the Charter Hall stock. The Charter Hall stock over the last 12 months, to the middle of this month has returned something just under 50% in terms of share price growth, along with a dividend as well. And that compares to the index, which is more like 34%.
In respect of our listed investment real estate investment trusts, the three that were mentioned, David briefly mentioned before, look, there's a series of actions they've all tended to lift over the last 12 months. There's been a series of actions to sell assets, eliminate, not eliminate, reduce debt, in those vehicles. And also one of them is conducting a buyback. So there's a number of actions going on, to close, if you like, the discount from their net tangible assets. From our perspective, we see it as we manage, our goal is to have a combination of good earnings, i.e., distributions coming out of those trusts, plus long-term growth in net tangible asset. The share market goes up and down every day. People buy and sell. There'll be periods of discount and there are periods of premium.
So, that's the way I would answer that question. And yes.
Good afternoon, Dariusz Paczek. If I could have one more, I'm sure we kind of talked about that in between of other numbers. And I know the general trend that our income went down from 2023 to 2024 financial year. But looking at the balance sheet, could you elaborate on these numbers that our accumulated profit went down from AUD 650 million to AUD 210 million?
The profit number you're talking about also includes rises in valuations or falls in valuations. So if your valuations come down, it flows through the statutory earnings, and that's the differential.
I'd also say that, part of the reason why, you know, 2024 is lower than 2023, we had elevated earnings where in 2022 our earnings per share went up 50% to AUD 1.15 after tax, and obviously, came down to AUD 0.93 in 2023 and then obviously, AUD 0.758 in 2024. So the retained earnings that David is talking about, obviously was a lot higher in FY 2022, but that's the actual reason for the differential.
Sure. Thank you. Okay.
Thank you, Dariusz. If there are no further questions, I'll proceed with the formal business of the meeting. So to begin, I table the notice of meeting, which was dated the 18th of October, 2024, and that contains the resolutions up for consideration today.
As is normal, I'll take the notice of meeting as read, and copies of that notice and the annual report would have been made available to you by post or email or available to view on the webpage, and also there were copies at the registration desk. There are seven items of business and seven resolutions today for your consideration. And all the resolutions will be put to the meeting today will be decided by poll. The only those with the yellow voting card are eligible to vote. And, in order to give you as much time as possible, I would declare the poll are now open. The first item to approve is the annual report, and the item is now displayed on the screen.
Please note, there's no requirement for security holders to approve these reports, but it's put forward to see if there are any questions from security holders in relation to this item. Ryan McMahon, as I mentioned earlier, from our auditors, PwC is here to take any questions relating to the preparation of the accounts and the contents of the auditor's report and the conduct of the audit.
Any questions for the auditor or any questions in respect of the report?
All right. Thank you. I'll now proceed to the formal resolutions set out in the notice of meeting. Item two is for the election and reelection of directors. These resolutions are ordinary resolutions, as you can see and are displayed on the screen.
And I'd like to ask each of the directors up for reelection, up for election and reelection to say a few words detailing their background and experience, for the benefit of security holders. The first director I'd call to address you is Karen Penrose. Karen.
Thank you, Chairman. And good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for the opportunity to say a few words regarding my election. It is truly a privilege to have the opportunity to serve on the board of Charter Hall. In preparing for this AGM, I realized that over my working career, some 20 years in executive roles in banking, eight years as a listed company CFO, and the recent 11 years as a full-time non-executive director, that there are some recurring themes that underpin my skills, my approach, and my curiousness to learn and contribute.
Those things are the importance of robust financial and risk management frameworks and controls, strong customer relationships and partnerships, strategic decision making through the cycle for long-term outperformance, and the value of investment in technology, digital and data platforms to drive and support growth and improve efficiency. Those themes and the underlying skills and approach that have driven my career to date provide the foundation for skills that I bring to your company. In serving Charter Hall, I also reflected on the thread of property experience throughout my career. I drew on my executive time with HSBC and CBA, building customer relationships and structuring and arranging financing for property transactions, and as a CFO with each of Keybridge Capital through the global financial crisis some time ago now, and with Wilson HTM, who owned Pinnacle Funds Management before its listing.
I also draw on my non-executive director experience in the property sector, which has been built through serving for eight years on the board of Vicinity Centres through Novion's merger with Federation Centres, which brought together some of Australia's leading retail assets, on the New South Wales Government Board of Landcom, and with the private company Marshall Investments. I also currently serve on the board of Cochlear, Ramsay Health Care, and Bank of Queensland, and also Waratahs Rugby. I chair their audit or their audit and risk committees, which brings and gives me different insights, especially for audit risk and ESG matters to inform the conversation that I hope to bring to the Charter Hall board. I would welcome your support to be elected to Charter Hall and serve on its board. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
Thanks, Karen. Now I'll call upon our existing director, who's up for reelection, Jacqueline Chow, to say a few words.
Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, security holders and guests. Like you, I am a security holder of Charter Hall Group, as well as a resident of one of our iconic Sydney office properties, Chifley Tower. I'm honored to be standing for reelection to the board of Charter Hall Group, and it's a responsibility that I take very seriously. For over 20 years of my working life, I have been preoccupied with understanding the customer, using data analytics and insights to learn what are their unmet needs, what are their pain points, and then creating innovation and technology solutions to build customer loyalty. Charter Hall's competitive advantage, of course, is built on a culture of mutual rewards and nurturing close relationships with customers.
With my experience as an independent board director of Coles Group, which is one of our largest tenant customers, as well as my executive experience of previously actually running some of our tenant customer businesses like Arnott's, I can bring that deep customer expertise. One of our lasting trends of the devastating pandemic, which was closely followed by this cost of living challenge we're living in today, has been the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence and digital technology across all facets of business. I can contribute my AI and digital tech experience in creating commercial value for Charter Hall Group, from yielding, for example, productivity and efficiencies through robotic process automation, right through to harnessing, personalized data of our tenant customers so we can co-create living, working precincts and communities that dynamically meet their changing needs.
Finally, I've led several large-scale businesses end to end with my last executive role leading a team of 11,000 people. Having the recency of hands-on operational experience can be helpful context for what it truly takes to deliver to our investors and our promises to our investors, but to do it sustainably with a diverse array of constituencies, be they communities, business partners, government, or regulators. I understand the trust placed in Charter Hall by you, our investors, and I see the preservation of that trust as a primary responsibility. I would be honored to receive your support to serve as a director. Thank you.
Thanks, Jacqueline. I'll now pause and ask if security holders have any questions they'd like to ask of either Karen or Jacqueline. Okay, well, I've already opened the poll, and so ask all security holders to start casting their votes.
So, for or against the resolutions by actually marking the yellow card that you have alongside the respective resolutions. I'll now display the respective proxy votes received on the screen for the two directors who were standing for election and reelection. And while the final results of the resolutions won't be known until after this meeting, it's clear from the proxies received that both Karen will be elected and Jacqueline will be reelected. So congratulations to both of you. Resolution three is an ordinary resolution of Charter Hall Limited and relates to the adoption of the Remuneration Report included in the Annual Report for the year, including 30 June 2024. This is not a binding, but a binding vote. Instead, it's characterized as an advisory in nature. However, it provides important feedback for directors on how security holders feel about a range of matters, including remuneration.
I'll now pause to allow any questions on the remuneration report. Yes. Now, just for the broadcast, can you say who you are?
Sorry. I'm Partha Sarathy. I represent Australian Shareholders' Association. Thank you. Thank you. I speak on behalf of about 113 votes. In relation to the remuneration report, my question is, the group allows for a cash portion of STI to be deferred for up to 10 years on a voluntary basis in the form of a right to acquire securities. What is the benefit to the group of such deferral? Isn't 10 years too long? And does this arrangement expose CHC to any risk, particularly if the security prices go up?
Right. Okay. I have to confess, I've never had the question before that said, is the deferral for too long? But normally it's for, it's the deferral too short.
But the compulsory part is deferred for over two years, and this is 10 years.
Which is so the benefit, t here's a benefit to the company. And the benefit is that the executive has shown a great deal of faith in the business. They've deferred. They could have taken it in cash, but they have deferred it. And I think in the most recent example is this, our Managing Director and Chief Executive has deferred his for a period of time. I don't think it's 10 years, but for a period of time, which again is a great sign of the commitment and confidence. I think the second part of your question was, does that expose us to any risk in terms of we've. I assume you're thinking we've got to then go and buy the shares to give to them.
Is that the yes, correct? Yes. That is any risk? Yes. Look, we buy the shares over a period of time. We, sorry, that sounds systematic. We can buy the shares at any point, but we would typically make a provision and allow for buying them and probably do it reasonably soon after the deferral. So and then in a material sense, the difference over the deferred period in the context of a business that makes AUD 370 million a year is not that big. So we are very mindful of the risk and look to eliminate it as much as we can. Okay. Any further questions on the remuneration report? As there are no questions, I will now display the proxy votes in respect to the remuneration report. You can see those now on the screen.
The fourth item is proposed as an ordinary resolution of Charter Hall Limited and the Charter Hall Property Trust, and it relates to the issue of service rights to our CEO and group managing director, David Harrison. And this is really on the, on a similar point to the one, the question that's just been asked. Each year, 1/3 of Mr. Harrison's short-term incentive is deferred into service rights for a period of one to two years. The question related to the bit that's not deferred, there can be a voluntary deferment of that for a period of time as well into service rights, which are effectively shares in Charter Hall. As a director of Charter Hall, an issue of securities to David Harrison generally requires shareholder approval, which is why we're having this resolution now.
Accordingly, this resolution relates to that deferral of the incentive into equity in Charter Hall. The text of the resolution is on the screen. I'll now pause and allow for there to be any questions in respect of this matter. As there are no questions, I'll now display the proxies. The proxy votes for the results are now displayed on the screen, and we'll move to the next resolution, which is again an ordinary resolution of Charter Hall Limited and the Charter Hall Property Trust, and it relates to the performance rights for David Harrison. These are the long-term incentive rights. Each year, David is awarded performance rights in Charter Hall as part of his annual remuneration package. These rights vest at the end of four years, but only if certain performance hurdles are met during that four-year period.
Again, this scheme involves the issue of securities to David Harrison, and therefore security holder approval is required. The text of the resolution is on the screen, and as I've done previously, I'll now pause and allow security holders to ask any questions that they have in respect of this resolution. If we could display the proxy results on the screen. Thank you. Okay. If there's no questions, then I'll move on to item number six. The sixth resolution for today's meeting is an ordinary resolution of Charter Hall Limited and relates to an increase in the remuneration pool for non-executive directors. I would add that the role of a director has become more demanding, more complex over years, and it's also anticipated that there may be some expansion of the board as we deal with our succession planning over the next few years.
The last increase to the pool was 2021. So this doesn't mean that directors automatically get all of this. This is the pool from which they can be paid. And whether they get an increase or not is not part of this resolution. It's an increase. I just wanna be clear, it's an increase in the pool. The text of the resolution is on the screen. Are there any questions in respect of this matter? If there's no questions, I'll display the proxies. Now the final resolution is the one I referred to at the beginning, which may be seen as a bit complex. So I'll do my very best to explain it. I won't read out the full text of the resolution because it's rather long, but I would refer you to the notice of meeting, if you'd like to read it.
But as I said, I'll, I'll try and briefly explain it. I won't try, I will briefly explain it. Charter Hall Group trades on the stock exchange as a stapled security, with one unit being the Charter Hall Property Trust and one share in the company being Charter Hall Limited. So they both can't be traded separately. They are stapled together. When you buy a security, you buy both. The group's capital base is split between these two entities, with approximately 38% of the group's capital sitting in the company and approximately 62% of the capital sitting in the trust. So the company undertakes its groups, the fund management activity, in the, in the company. And that business has grown, as we've mentioned earlier today, very, very strongly over the last decade, and it's generated significant retained earnings, which have remained in the company.
So it's increased that capital base relative to the trust. The majority of the group's investment activity is undertaken in the property trust. And so we'd like to move some of the capital from the company to the trust where it can be used for its investment activities. And this can be achieved either through a special distribution from the company or from a capital reduction of the company. In either form that takes, there's no change to securityholders' holdings. And Charter Hall's, there's no change to Charter Hall's earnings or distribution guidance, nor is there any physical payment of cash to or from security holders. It's worth noting that if we do pursue this reallocation through a special distribution, it's possible we may be able to distribute some of the franking credits from the company to security holders. That's not an undertaking. It's just a possibility.
The form and size of this capital reallocation and whether it's actually implemented or not through a special distribution or a capital reduction is subject to discussions with the tax office. So nothing can happen until we get a sign-off on all of this from the tax office. But getting your approval of a special resolution is the first part of this process. If we don't get that, there's not much point in talking to the tax office. So we're asking security holders today to approve the resolution, which allows the constitution of the company, Charter Hall Limited, and the trust, Charter Hall Property Trust, to be amended to allow the proportion of capital allocated between the two to be rebalanced to what we feel is a more optimal structure for the future.
10 years ago, I said it was about 38, sorry, today it's about 38% of the company, 62% in the trust. 10 years ago, it was more like 25% of the capital was in the comp, it was in the holding in Charter Hall Holdings and 75% in the trust. And we think that's a reasonable balance. It's just that the success of the business and the funds management business has meant there's been an accumulation of capital in Charter Hall Holdings. I realize it's a complicated matter. So I'll pause now and ask if there are any questions on it. Yes.
One question. I'm Partha Sarathy representing Australian Shareholders' Association. The question is in relation to the dividend component of the capital reallocation.
We think that it is likely to result in cash top-up of tax payment for anyone with a marginal tax of over 30%, which is, which could be a fair view of our member base. I'm saying 30% because franking credits will cover up to that level. The notice of meeting and the explanatory memorandum that accompanies it seems to have inadvertently possibly missed this particular point that there could be potentially a top-up tax payment by individuals out of their pocket. The question is if the arrangement goes ahead, will there be a clarification sent to the shareholders after tax advice is received?
Look, we've kept the explanation as a general comment because it really is up to the tax office.
Firstly, as to whether it can go ahead at all, and then how much it will be and how it will be structured, so it would be an assumption too far for us to start saying this might happen or that might happen, so we really need to wait until we've got an understanding of the tax office's view of this. We did some years ago put AUD 200 million from the trust into the company, for a start. I think it was maybe 10 years ago, David, 12 years ago, something like that, so in many respects, the simplest thing is just a reversal of that transaction, but I'm reluctant to comment on scenarios which I'm not sure whether they will occur or not occur.
And as to you, you can be assured that as a board, we will take into account all of the shareholder interests and seek to balance the best outcome for a whole range of security holders that we have. So that's the only, I think that's the only undertaking we can give at this stage. Mark, as our legal counsel, is there anything else you think should be added to the answer? Okay. All right. Thank you. I understand the uncertainty. Are there any other questions in respect to this resolution? You see the proxies? We'll display those. Thank you for your support on that one. If you haven't done so also, I now invite you to mark your yellow voting card. And as I said, the results will be made available to the ASX and put up on our website later today.
And would you take the time to add, certainly pass your voting cards to the Link Market representatives in the far corner of the room, and they will collate the results. I'm conscious that we've been through, we had some general questions at the beginning of the meeting, but now if there's some, some questions that you've thought of during the course of the meeting, would like to ask now, general questions, very happy to receive those if, if there are any. All right. Well, I look forward to speaking to you, possibly at the con, at just after the conclusion of the meeting. Thank you all for your attendance today and your ongoing support. And, as my last act as chair of Charter Hall, I thank you all for your support and support of the company.
It's been a great pleasure for me to serve you, and I wish the company and its security holders all the very best in the future. Thank you very much.
Continuing the great work that you've done for 10 years or 10 and 1/2 years on the board, and 10 years as chairman, and we are very, very grateful indeed for all that you have done. So thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, might I just also take the opportunity to thank the board and indeed security holders for your confidence in me, to succeed David, and to fill his very big shoes. I'm very conscious that it's a great honor. It's a great responsibility, and I'll take both very, very seriously. Charter Hall is in great shape, and we intend to keep it that way.
We will remain very laser-focused on the financial performance of the business. We are conscious that there are challenges ahead. There always will be, but there are opportunities ahead, and we'll be working very, very hard to deal with both, always with the interests of the security holders at top of mind. We'll also keep top of mind our partners in various parts of our business, our customers, and also our great team. Charter Hall is extremely well led by David Harrison, extremely well led by a fantastic leadership team, and I take this opportunity to thank them for their leadership and for the hard work again this year in delivering the results that they've done, and to offer the full support of me and the board for the hard work ahead, to ensure those results are maintained. Thank you very much. Thank you, David.