Good morning, everyone. Glad to see the sun has come out today for Computershare's annual general meeting. I'm Paul Reynolds. I'm the Chair of Computershare, and I welcome you to our 2025 meeting. We're delighted to offer our shareholders and proxy holders the choice of participating in today's meeting in person here at our offices in Yarra Falls, or via the hybrid meeting platform. The AGM is an opportunity for shareholders, whether attending here in person or online. There is a co-president, and I therefore now declare the meeting open. Let me commence our business with some introductions. It's nice to be here. First in the line there is Computershare's President and CEO, Stuart Irving. Then we have the non-executive directors present today: Tiffany Fuller, John Nendick, Abby Cleland, and last but not least, Joe Velli at the end there.
Unfortunately, not able to be with us today is Gerrard Schmid, our Canadian-based director, who is undergoing a medical procedure. I also want to welcome to the meeting our Group CFO, Nick Oldfield. He's up front here. Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Dominic Horsley, at the side here. Up front, Marcus Laithwaite from PricewaterhouseCoopers, our External Auditor. Marcus is available to answer any questions you have about the conduct of the audit of Computershare's financial statements, the preparation of the content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by Computershare in the preparation of the financial statements, and the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit. Information on how to access the notice of meeting was distributed to all shareholders, and I'll take that notice of meeting as read.
For today's meeting, I will address questions together after all the items of business and proxy positions have been presented. Online attendees can submit questions at any time, and to ask a question, select the Q&A icon. Type your question into the text box, and once you've finished typing, please hit the send button. Online participants can also ask a question via the audio questions line, and instructions on how to do so are set out on the platform. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. I will shortly open voting for all resolutions. If you're eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options.
is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded at that point. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. For those attending the meeting here in person and who are eligible to vote, you can scan your QR code on your attendance card with your mobile device at any time after I open the voting. This will take you to an online voting page on your phone or your device. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options on the screen. Again, there is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded, and you will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen.
Finally, if you do not have a mobile device, you may complete the voting items the old-fashioned way on the reverse side of the attendance card. I now declare voting open on all items of business. I will give you a warning before I move to close voting, which will be towards the end of the meeting. May I also say I also appoint Michael Hutchison of Computershare Investor Services on the left here as the returning officer. To business. Computershare delivered a strong performance in financial year 2025. We have made good progress executing our strategies to deliver a higher quality, more straightforward Computershare, which is able to deliver stronger levels of earnings and return on invested capital through the ups and downs of the business cycle. As you may remember, we report our results in, and as seen here, in U.S. dollars and in constant currency.
Highlighting the results, earnings this year were slightly ahead of guidance. Management earnings per share increased by 15% to around AUD 1.35 per share. Across our business, we saw an increase in client fees, which are recurring. We also saw some emerging recovery in our more market-sensitive events and transaction revenues, which we had anticipated from the somewhat lower interest rate environment that we have seen. Margin income was also resilient, down 3% in the moderating interest rate environment, but I think that demonstrates our limited exposure to short-term interest rate movements. These things, combined with disciplined cost controls, were able to drive operating leverage and expand EBIT margins across the group, and we converted those earnings into over $780 million of free cash flow. This cash flow enables us to invest in products and technology, enables us to strengthen our balance sheet and increase rewards to shareholders.
On that point, the total dividend per share for financial year 2025 was a new high of AUD 0.93 per share, an increase of 13% over the prior year. Look, I'm very pleased to say that this performance, a strong performance by Computershare, is a direct result of our strategy that we've talked about over the past few years to simplify and focus our efforts on the core businesses of issuer services, of corporate trust, and of employee share plans. We've progressively disposed of non-core businesses. We've invested in technologies and deployed our capital very carefully, and we've kept a continued focus on managing our costs. All of that gives us the returns and the balance sheet capacity to supplement organic growth with selective acquisitions that can bolster those returns. The strategy is consistent, and that's the Computershare way.
Of course, although having a clear strategy is very important, the really tough thing is delivering against the strategy, delivering consistently. The board has been really pleased to witness Computershare's consistent ability to deliver its goals, whether they be new product introductions, efficiency plans, new acquisitions, or integrations. We tend to hit the plan, and that's the key thing. Our strong results really are founded on the determination, the hard work, and the professionalism of Computershare's people right across the globe. Now, in our annual report, we lay out, as we see here, what ESG means for Computershare. Put simply, we understand and we really respect our social obligations.
We aim as a company to do the right thing and support our employees, our clients, and the communities in which we operate, and we are committed to using less carbon, to having greater diversity across our organization, and contributing to communities. We regularly assess our work against externally measured metrics. I would like today to highlight one partnership where we think we are making a difference: the World Youth International School in Nepal. We supported this project for several years with the aim of delivering improved education standards for 750 children each year. We have built boarding houses to facilitate attendance. We have provided new school buses to transport students to school and supplied computer and network infrastructure for the school. Next year, we are opening an IT college that will enable 50 students to enroll in a Bachelor of IT program, which will fund the school's operating costs going forward.
We also support several local charities across the communities in which Computershare is active in. We are proud of that progress. We are proud of the commitments we make and the participation of our people. As always, there is more we can do here. Finally, let me close by reiterating how proud we are of this special company. I would like to thank Stuart Irving for his leadership, my board, the fellow directors, the management team, and colleagues right across the group for your hard work and commitment. Thank you for your contribution to Computershare's culture and performance. Thank you, our customers, our shareholders, for your trust and your support. On that, I will hand over to Stuart.
Thank you, Paul. It's always a great day to be here at our AGM, and I'd like to add my welcome to all our shareholders and guests. As I said, it's always a very special day in the calendar for me. Now, we do have some shareholders who are unable to attend today, but they've sent a couple of nice notes in. If you please indulge me, I'll read one out. This one is from Mr. Chris Morris from Gold Coast. It reads, "Keep going, Irv. P.S., work harder, bigger dividends, please." Nice. Then we have another one here from Mr. Simon Jones from Elwood. "Miss you, guys. Do you think the proxy advisors would classify me as independent now?" I'm not sure about that one. Anyway, lovely notes and appreciate it. Thank you.
Now, as Paul touched on, FY2025 was another impressive year of growth and profitability for Computershare. After a sustained period of performance and the execution of our key strategies, let me talk a little bit about Computershare as it is today. Now, Computershare today is really focused on a high-quality capital-light business anchored around three core divisions: issuer services, corporate trust, and employee share plans. Now, these businesses enjoy long-term customer engagements. They generate high-quality recurring fee revenues and are underpinned by positive industry growth trends. Now, these are the majority of Computershare's revenues. Now, some of our businesses also have event and transaction-based revenues, such as corporate actions. And whilst less predictable, they occur on a regular basis and enhance our earnings.
Now, margin income, which is really the bank interest we receive as we distribute or hold client cash, also increases our revenues and is a consistent feature of our business model. Margin income also gives us that important flexibility in how we can price a service that better suits the client and delivers our required returns. Almost all of our businesses have some form of margin income element. Importantly, these businesses can deliver strong returns through multiple economic cycles. They are built to endure. They are built on the same foundations, which is our world-class capabilities as a trusted, market-leading, technology-driven servicer of financial assets. They are built to scale across major global markets. This page moving on to really outlines what I would say is our key long-term value creation strategies at Computershare.
Now, our goal is really to deliver earnings growth through the cycles. Now, many have commented on whether we can grow earnings in a declining interest rate environment. FY2025 was proof that we can do that, and FY2026 will be more of the same. The growth in recurring fees, as well as our transactional revenues and balance hedging strategy, really underpin that growth despite the reductions in interest rates. Now, another key strategy is really to improve the quality of our businesses, therefore the consistency of earnings. Now, one of the things that I really love is that there is a portfolio effect in Computershare. Having many clients in many sectors and many markets provides an element of protection in a fast-moving and at times uncertain business climate. Now, we're also deepening our moats at Computershare.
We're investing in new technologies and innovations to drive both growth and efficiencies across all parts of our businesses. Now, as you would know, we are and will remain a technology-focused company at heart. Another key value driver is our world-class capability in executing large and complex integrations and technology projects. That skill will continue to be critical going forward. These teams are really the unsung heroes of the group, and I really want to thank them for their long hours and commitment to completing these projects as planned. We have a very enviable track record in that area, and that execution strength has really become a key competency across Computershare. I think that it gives the board great confidence as we consider new acquisitions and growth opportunities. Our capital strength is also an advantage. We have a capital-light model.
We have strong cash generation, and we will maintain a robust balance sheet to support our business strength, but also to reward shareholders. In conclusion, we have a clear plan to drive long-term value creation at Computershare. Now, moving on, let's just turn to the performance of the three core businesses: issuer services, corporate trust, and employee share plans. As Paul said earlier, pleasingly, each delivered revenue growth and higher earnings in FY2025. Issuer services, and Fiona Chalmers, who runs our issuer services globally, is in the room here today. Registered maintenance, which is one of our largest businesses within issuer services, grew revenue by over 3%. EBIT increased to over $450 million, and EBIT margins were broadly stable at 36%. We also saw increased activity across both issuer and shareholder-paid fees.
Corporate action revenues also increased nicely with higher average fees per deal, and that really helped drive the growth. At Computershare, we are starting to see the green shoots of increased IPO activity, particularly in Hong Kong, which has always been an important and attractive market for us as far as IPOs are concerned. Now, moving to corporate trust, I think that business really continues to strengthen. Last year, revenues increased by over 4%. EBIT was up over 7%, and margins expanded by 140 basis points to almost 53%. We see a 10-year-plus growth runway here. Whilst we remain patient for acquisition opportunities, we continue to make great progress building out our credentials and expanding our regulatory footprint to be ready for when the time arises. Employee share plans delivered another impressive result.
Francis Catterall, who runs our employee share plans business globally, is also sitting. Nice to see you sitting next to issuer services and having the love in there. Fantastic. Our employee share plans business, as I said, impressive result: 9% growth in revenues, 15% growth in EBIT, and 25% growth in EBIT XMI. It is a real success story when I reflect on that business. The success of the business is much more to do with our ability to execute the plan that Francis and I put in place five, six years ago. That is nothing to do with current equity market levels. We set out to enhance our technology, improve our customer offering, and build scale. Our initial plans were actually to deliver over $100 million of EBIT. I am delighted to say that we have outperformed on every measure. We are from here.
Now, we see long-term growth in equity being used in remuneration. We have some of the best tech in the market. Our assets under management are increasing, and we're winning market share. I think they're great lead indicators of future growth. Now, moving on to the slide, let's see how our FY2025 and our performance really translates into shareholders' returns. Over the past three years, Computershare has generated over $2 billion of cash flow. That's U.S dollars , not Australian dollars. The capital expenditure costs to maintain our IT hardware and office fits out are exceptionally low, particularly for a group of our size. It is important to differentiate our CapEx spend from our technology investments and our innovation. These technology investments are serious commitments at Computershare. We have close to 1,700 IT colleagues in the team.
Now, just quietly, we're one of the larger technology companies in Australia. And at Computershare, we've always respected the importance of dividends as well for our shareholders. Now, two years ago, in FY 2023, we distributed some $ 244 million to shareholders. In FY 2024, that number increased to $ 312 million. Now, including the buyback, we returned $ 523 million to shareholders in FY 2024. And in FY 2025, the dividend increased to $ 334 million. And total returns, including the buyback, were $ 613 million, a rise of 17% on the PCP. Now, our AUD 750 million buyback program to enhance returns is also now complete. And I would just say that under current Australian tax legislation, any future share buyback programs would not be a tax-efficient way to reward shareholders and therefore unlikely in the short term.
As a result, the board will review our dividend payout as we prepare for the February half-year results. Let's move now to this new financial year, FY2026. It would be fair to say that we've had a pleasing start to the new financial year. We're affirming full-year earnings guidance. Now, back in August, we said that management earnings per share is expected to be around $ 1.40 per share for the year, a lift of around 4% versus the PCP, despite the lower interest rate environments. With four months trading under our belts, we have increased confidence in this guidance. We expect around 47% of earnings in the first half and the remainder in the second half. To date, what we are seeing is revenue XMI is slightly up against our initial expectations. Corporate action activity is beginning to strengthen.
Debt issuance volumes and corporate trust are improving, and employee share plan trading is holding up. Now, importantly, the increase in activity levels is generating higher cash balances. Our average cash balances have increased to $30.6 billion, with most of that increase taking place in corporate trust. Although interest rates and therefore yields are lower than we anticipated due to the timing of interest rate cuts, our guidance on margin income is still intact at around $720 million. There is a lot of detail on yields and balances in the slide pack that we put out today. We will not go through it here in the room. I will also remind you that it is very early in the financial year, and Nick and I will be providing further updates in February at our half-year results.
Let's move beyond short-term earnings guidance and really focus on some of the topics that will shape Computershare's next chapter of growth. Now, these are topics that we're evaluating and considering as we put in place foundations for enduring performance through cycles. I'm pleased to share this longer-term perspective. Recently, we have been working with the Crypto Task Force within the SEC, securities regulator in the U.S. This regulator has been charged with the mandate to provide practical policies and clear rules of the road for the issuance of custody and trading of crypto assets and also continuing to discourage some of the bad actors from violating the laws in this space. As a market leader in the security space in the U.S., Computershare does have a seat at that table when discussing important issues such as the tokenization of equity.
Computershare supports these promising advancements, but we prioritize the need to protect the corporate issuer stability, preserve investor choice, and most importantly, maintain the integrity, confidence, trust, and predictability in U.S. financial markets. Working on behalf of our issuer clients, we do support issuer-sponsored tokens as a secure form of ownership for shareholders. Now, these tokens would have complete rights and benefits of registered ownerships, and we would like to see tokenized derivative securities issued by third parties over a custody holding in the listed issuers of securities really be distinguished from the listed issuer themselves and their securities with clearly different ISINs and stock codes and include very specific disclosures for investors against the nature of their ownership rights and also security terms. As you can see, we are deeply involved in policy shaping, and we believe that there will be long-term positive opportunities here for Computershare.
There is a super long way to go on this, and these issues are complex because financial markets are complex. As of our Computershare, we intend to stay at the forefront of this innovation. Another area of focus for the group is around quality of earnings. As we near the end of our acquisition integrations and large-scale cost-out programs, you will see that group management adjustments to earnings will decline sharply. These adjustments should drop in FY 2026 versus the prior comparable period and reduce again the year after, and they will be largely eliminated by the end of FY 2027. Just as we focus on growth and the consistency of our earnings, shareholders will begin to see the quality will continue to improve too.
Now, a question that I get asked quite a lot, "Let's discuss your acquisition pipeline." Now, at Computershare, we have a clear list of the assets that we would like to acquire, and we're proactively in dialogue with vendors. I will promise you that as a company, we will remain disciplined to make sure we buy the right assets at the right price. Any other course of action is likely to destroy shareholder value. Now, at Computershare, we have a very strong track record of acquisitions, and we take that commitment very, very seriously. I say to all shareholders, "Please be patient, and good things will come." Last year, on the 30th anniversary of our listings on the ASX, I talked about the next 30 years of growth and the opportunity for our group. That's not just idle talk.
Within the group, we are reviewing our technologies. We're looking at our regulatory approvals and structures as well as our organizational capabilities from the top down to really deliver the next chapter of growth at Computershare. What does that actually include? It's going to be the safe deployment of AI across the organization and a refresh of back-office platforms to drive scale and efficiencies. We're establishing new regulated entities across multiple jurisdictions to improve our positioning as an acquirer of assets in these locations. We're also assessing our capabilities and our capacity across the group to deliver that next chapter of growth. They truly, truly are exciting times here at Computershare. In conclusion, we will continue to build a high-quality Computershare that endures. As I said, a business that can perform and deliver superior returns across multiple cycles.
A business built on trust, technology, long-standing client relationships, and execution capability. How do we measure this? Through the cycle, this capital-like Computershare should be able to deliver 30% EBIT margins and 25% return on invested capital, excluding M&A. We generate positive cash flow and will maintain a strong balance sheet and will continue to invest in our businesses and reward shareholders. Now, it just remains for me to say a huge thank you to all the Computershare team for all their contributions and also to our customers and our shareholders for your trust and your support. With that, I'll hand back to Paul. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Stuart. It's a great run-through. As I said at the start of the meeting, we'll answer all questions at the same time once all of the items of business and proxy positions have been presented.
We will be starting those questions shortly. Let's now run through the formal items of business. The first item of business relates to the tabling of the company's financial reports for the year ended 30th of June 2025. If you have any questions concerning the financial statements of the company or have a question for the company's auditor, we will address them during the Q&A session, which will commence shortly. I'll now proceed with the resolutions to be considered. Any undirected proxy votes given to the Chairman on resolutions three and four will be voted in favor of the relevant resolutions. Voting will remain open, as I said, during the resolutions, and I'll provide you with a notice when the polls are about to close. We will move to consider the second item of business now, being the re-election of our director, Tiffany Fuller.
Tiffany is due to retire from office, and being eligible presents herself for re-election. The board, in the absence of Tiffany Fuller, unanimously supports her re-election. Before we move this resolution, Tiffany will say a few words in support of her election. Tiffany.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, everyone. It's been a privilege to serve as the director of Computershare and I seek your re-election today. I bring over a decade of top 50 public and private board experience across financial services, technology and transformation, funds management, property, and consumer, underpinned by deep financial stewardship, strategy, governance, and risk management expertise. I've chaired the audit and audit risk committees on all boards. This background has enabled me to contribute a disciplined, analytical, and independent perspective to board discussion. I've had a multidisciplinary executive career with developed skills across accounting and corporate finance, banking and treasury, M&A, consulting, and investment disciplines. I'm a qualified chartered accountant and a fellow of the Institute of Company Directors.
As many of you will know, I recently chaired the Group Risk and Audit Committee for a number of years, which has given me broad and deep insight into the global business through a period of material change and growth. This role is now in the very capable hands of John Nendick as part of orderly board succession planning. As Irv said, Computershare is emerging from a high-change agenda driven by a number of material acquisitions in plans and corporate finance and major transformation programs across technology, finance, and treasury, which I have been close to through my committee role. With a strong balance sheet and strategic optionality, together with opportunities for advancement in product and operational efficiency, the company has a positive outlook for ongoing growth, which I believe my deep corporate knowledge and skills can continue to contribute to.
I remain deeply passionate about Computershare as an outstanding Australian success story and one that has delivered over the long term for shareholders by staying disciplined about strategy and expertly leveraging its core competencies and technology capabilities globally. I will continue to bring my experience, integrity, and energy in supporting what is an extremely high-quality management team and a company with an enviable corporate culture, one I'm proud to be associated with. Thank you for your time today.
Thanks, Tiffany. I now move the re-election of Tiffany Fuller as a director of the company. The resolution and a summary of the votes received before the meeting now appears on the screen. The next resolution relates to the adoption of the company's remuneration report. The Corporations Act requires that a resolution to adopt the remuneration report is put to the vote at the AGM. The vote is advisory only and will not bind the company or the directors. The report sets out the policy for the remuneration of the directors, the CEO, and other designated senior executives. It includes information on how remuneration is structured as well as the quantum for the period ended 30th of June 2025. Noting that each director has a personal interest in their own remuneration from the company, the directors recommend that shareholders vote in favor of adopting the remuneration report.
I move the adoption of the remuneration report. The resolution and a summary of the votes received before the meeting now appears on the screen. Okay. The next resolution is to approve a grant of performance rights to the CEO, Stuart Irving, under the terms of the company's long-term incentive plan. Approval is requested from shareholders under the ASX listing rules to authorize the company to grant equity securities to the CEO under an employee incentive scheme, and details of the terms of issue of the equity securities are set out in the notice of the meeting. The board, in the absence of Stuart Irving, unanimously supports the grant of performance rights to the CEO. I now move the grant of performance rights to the CEO. The resolution and a summary of the votes received before the meeting now appears on the screen. Okay. That concludes.
Now, I have tabled all the items of business to be considered at the meeting. We'll open the meeting up to questions. I think Dominic will receive some questions from shareholders in advance of the meeting, which I'll address first.
That's correct. The first question we received was from shareholders William and Robin Moxie. They said, "I am a New Zealand shareholder, and note you have a New Zealand subsidiary. Why do you not pass on New Zealand imputation credits to dividends paid to New Zealand shareholders? New Zealand imputation credits are similar to franking credits in Australia.
Yeah. Thanks for the question, William and Robin. We do indeed have a New Zealand subsidiary, and we do have the capacity to accumulate New Zealand imputation credits. It is, however, a really small part of our global footprint, so our credit balance is negligible at this stage when considered against our shareholder register. However, we will continue to monitor this, and if we accumulate sufficient credits, we'll take a further look.
Thank you. We've then got two questions from shareholder Natasha Lee. The first of these is, "First, I would like to congratulate the board and the team for outstanding results. While the business is highly reliant on the U.S. operations, which generates 56% of revenues and 57% of EBITDA, the outlook is dependent on U.S. interest rate cuts that first happened in October. Apart from interest rate cuts, the political situation in the U.S. is becoming increasingly concerning. How is the company managing these risks, and to what extent has this been factored into the outlook?
Thanks, Natasha. I mean, firstly, thanks for the congratulations. I mean, the board clearly agrees with you on the performance that we've set out today. Your question's about looking forward. Stuart set out the outlook, and we've reaffirmed our guidance for financial year 2026 of management EPS of around $ 1.40 per share. That guidance takes into account the interest rate cuts that we've already seen, as well as further cuts that we anticipate and have been forecast over the rest of the year. We anticipate those cuts as we make the plan and make the guidance, so already taken into account. As for the broader outlook, the U.S. is a major market for us, obviously, and we pay an awful lot of attention. The good news, and again, Stuart talked about it, is that corporate activity is beginning to strengthen in the States.
Debt issuance and Corporate Trust is improving, and that's all helping contribute to a positive outlook. Guidance affirmed. Question noted. Guidance affirmed. We take into account we're very, very careful about all the market signals that we can bank on and factoring those into our forecasts.
Thank you. The next question from Natasha Lee is, "With only two female non-executive directors, this represents around 28% of the board, which is below best practice of 40%. Will the board commit to achieving at least 40% female representation? In addition, the board lacks diversity in other areas, and I ask the board to commit to improving other forms of diversity on the board.
Look, it's a good question, Natasha. Thank you. You may have spotted that one of our directors, Lisa Gay, unexpectedly resigned for personal reasons earlier this year. When that happens, your ratios go up and down just overnight. We moved our female representation from just under 40% to just under 30%. Our stated board commitment is to have female representation of at least 30%, as we've confirmed in our corporate governance statement, and we certainly expect to be back in excess of that point by the end of this financial year. In diversity more broadly, we aim to recruit the very best from all the talent pools available, the widest talent pool possible. We utilize a recruitment process that's structured to provide a level playing field from whatever gender, sex, race is present.
We think we have a very fair approach to doing the right thing in recruitment and getting the right balance. Tom, any more?
That's it from questions before the meeting. We have had a few online.
Should we do that or in the room first?
We can do the room first.
Anyone attending here in person who wishes to ask a question? Stuart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With the sale of the U.K. mortgage services business, does this mean that Computershare will completely remove themselves from that area, or are there some other business components in that sphere that need to be addressed?
Okay. I think maybe we should hear from Stuart, the other Stuart. Do you want to answer that one?
Thanks for the question. Yes, we sold our U.S. mortgage services business last year, and we recently announced the sale of our U.K. mortgage business. That has not closed yet. Anticipate that to close sometime in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. At that stage, as far as mortgage servicing is concerned, we are completely out of it. Not a core business, and it is gone.
Any other questions in the room? You have the microphone.
Yes, I have Stuart Burn from the OSA again. Sorry, I can't see with my glasses on. Can you please comment on the role communication services and utilities operations will play into the future, or is it seen as an overall business unit for growth, or is it seen as a service-type industry?
Stuart.
It's probably good to know a little bit about the history of Computershare Communication Services, and a big part of that history is sitting two seats along to you on the left with Mr. Dick Kirby, who is Computershare bought the business that Dick was CFO at in the 1990s. The reason being is Computershare obviously distributes a lot of shareholder communications, and we were using third-party companies to do the mailing and the distribution of that. We were having quality issues. In the 1990s, we acquired a portion of a business called Chelsea Images, and Dick worked there along with another couple of partners. We subsequently acquired all of that, and that became essentially our print mail and digital communication platform for Computershare all around the world. As Computershare expanded around the world, our communication services operation did.
It's one of the businesses that I love because it still has sort of big factories and warehouses with complicated machinery and envelope insertion thing. That's fantastic. It's worth a visit. It is core because 50% of the revenues roughly is work that it does for the rest of the Computershare group. We also provide services to commercial customers. We run it as its own business unit internally, but it does not have its own segment reporting due to the size compared to Issuer Services Corporate Trust. I have always been a big supporter because it gives us a significant competitive advantage because shareholder employee data does not leave Computershare to a third party. It is all maintained securely within there. Another shout-out, Mark McDougall is sitting at the back of the room, one of my technologists, actually runs the entire division.
After the meeting, if you want to know more about that business, go noise up Mark. Thank you.
I have a question. Is [Arbitrum], the dual risk analysis, as factored in the implications of artificial intelligence on the future actions of the company, can you give shareholders an idea of the future of AI and Computershare?
Stuart again.
Yeah. Look, I touched on AI a little bit in the opening preamble for the meeting there. It is a very interesting technology. I think there are brilliant marketing people behind it because that is all you read about. Like many other technologies that have come, it will present an opportunity to build new products, enhance services for our customers, reduce the cost to serve, automate things. Again, it has to be rolled out because there is lots of fear around AI and lots of sort of misunderstood things around AI. Computershare, we have always been a fast adopter of technology. We will do it in a very measured approach across the entire group and look for ways to use the tech to become sort of more efficient, but just as importantly, to drive revenues and create new products.
Look, I don't think you'll find 50% of the heads are out because AI's come in, like you might read about in the press, but it'll certainly be a very useful tool for our business leads to create new products, drive new revenues, as well as do things more efficiently. That's how we view AI. Obviously, there's concerns around the governance and data, etc., and we take that governance of our clients' data very, very seriously as well. We'll not be shooting that all out into the wonderful world of the cloud and allowing everyone access to it. I'm not going to assure you. Yeah, it's a very interesting tech. We've already got some AI deployments in Computershare Live, and we'll continue to do so over the coming years as it progresses.
Any more questions, Stuart? Any more questions in the room? Anybody? No? Dom? Online?
We've got four questions from shareholder Stephen Mayne. I'll start with the first one. When I buy a range of Computershare-managed companies in quick succession to attend AGMs, you send me a separate welcome-to-the-company notice in the snail mail for each company. When the same thing happens with Automic managed companies, they often send a single envelope with welcome forms from multiple companies. From an environmental efficiency and client cost point of view, shouldn't we be doing what Automic does, or do our systems not allow for aggregated mailed communications across multiple companies?
That's one for you, Stuart.
Great question, Stephen. I hope you're listening online. At Computershare, we have a number of clients who are very, very engaged with their retail shareholders, and they want to send customized deliveries out when people become new shareholders. They do not want just a generic welcome to update your email across multiple companies. They want to create a very personalized experience for that particular issuer. As a result, we tend to keep them separate because these packs, it is not a Computershare-driven thing. It is basically at the behest of the client about what they want to do. Look, I take your point. I mean, obviously, fewer mailings would be better, although our communications division might argue about that. I'm just going to make my doodle at the back there.
I take your point about those that are doing the generic one, but that's how typically and historically why it's been a little bit separated out at Computershare.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question from Stephen Mayne is, "I used to enjoy the videos getting stuck into Broadridge, which fellow Temple Stowe boy turned letter writer Chris Morris played at Computershare AGMs more than a decade ago. These days, Broadridge is a public company valued at $25.9 billion, and we're doing fabulously well with a market cap of $20.3 billion. Is it right that we are the two biggest gorillas in the broader global securities transfer and management market? What regulatory protections do Broadridge still have, which we regard as unfair, and who has the power to fix this?
Go on, Stuart.
Look, Broadridge and Computershare do very, very different things. If you had a Venn diagram, there's a little bit of overlap as far as U.S. transfer agency services. Look, Broadridge is an incredibly impressive organization. They provide a lot of back-office technology to the brokerage and custodian community, an area or a business line that we're just not in at all. One of the things that they still do and have a strong market share is that the structure of shareholder ownership in the U.S. means what they call these street names, so individuals who hold shares at brokerage firms, so to speak. Broadridge provides meeting services for these shareholders, where we don't. We only provide meeting services for the registered shareholders or voting services.
Yeah, we've kind of bucked up against them over time because they have a very sort of strong market share in that street name there. I think with new regulations and technologies, and I was seeing just watching CNBC when I woke up this morning and arguments about transparency and voting and proxy advisors and all that type of stuff. Look, they're a strong competitor. As far as legislation that would have to change, there's something very technical about objecting beneficial owners, which means the companies can't see who the underlying shareholders are. It's all sort of deeply embedded in U.S. market structure. You never know. Maybe some of this tokenization of equities will shake some of that out.
Thanks, Stuart.
Thank you. The next question is, "Thank you for disclosing the proxy position early to the ASX along with the formal addresses allowing for a more fully informed AGM debate. The only material protest vote was 9.6% against the re-election of Tiffany Fuller. Was this driven by a proxy advisor against recommendation, and if so, what was the issue? Also, will you continue with the excellent practice you adopted after last year's AGM and disclose the headcount data with the poll results so that retail voter shareholder sentiment is made public, and we can better understand how much retail participation has fallen since the move away from paper after COVID? These best practices AGM disclosures are really helpful in terms of driving this practice across the market. So well done, and thank you for that.
Was that a question at the end?
I mean, I can answer the second part.
Why don't you do that?
We will be disclosing the headcount results after the meeting, so we will continue with that practice. The first question was around the proxy advisor positions against the re-election of Tiffany Fuller.
Okay. Look, what just relates to Tiffany, we got a qualification from one of the advisors due to Tiffany servicing more than nine years on the board along with the same CEO. Look, from a Computershare perspective, Paul and the rest of the board assess Tiffany's independence and are very satisfied with her independence. That was really why there was that qualification. I do not think there is anything to worry about from that regard. It is just a qualification. I would agree that Tiffany is very much an independent and one of our hardest working board members. You have got to have a view about whether you agree with all this tenure stuff. I think Tiffany has been a fabulous director for Computershare over the years. That is my observation.
That's certainly the view of the board emphatically. Tiffany's been a fabulous director and continues to deliver in all ways. I think anyone who's listening to that CV couldn't help but be impressed. Thanks, Tiffany.
Thank you.
Tom, any more?
One final question from Stephen. Our all-Scottish leadership team at Computershare has been in place for the past three years, and Stuart Irving has been CEO since 2014. Well done for once again serving up a well-structured LTI grant for Stuart that has been supported by more than 98% of the directed proxy votes. I'm just curious as to which of our Scottish leaders is likely to exit first and whether the LTI structure makes it very expensive for Stuart to retire. Not that there is any rush for either Stuart or Paul to exit given the company is performing so well and is genuinely one of the five best Australian companies in terms of carving out a successful global business that the country can be proud of.
Thank you, Stephen. I think a complimentary and mischievous question all in one. Yeah, we have worked well together, Stuart and I, Scotsman, for a few years now. Hopefully, the results of the business, as we announced today, speak for themselves. We do very earnestly engage in board evolution planning, and we have been over this week. In due course, we all move on, but no immediate plans there. We certainly take the subject and the planning thereof very seriously, indeed. Dom, any more?
That concludes, I think, all questions.
Yeah. Okay. As there are no further questions, that concludes the questions section of the meeting. I would like to advise that voting on all resolutions will close shortly, and I'll provide you with a few moments to allow you to finish voting. I see some cards being filled in in the room. Let's wait for all the cards to be collected. Okay. If you're in the room, these are going to be collected and now done. Thank you. Can we move on? Please. Voting is now closed. The final results will be advised to the ASX and also made available on Computershare's website after the meeting. Thanks all for your attendance. As the business of the meeting is now completed, I declare the meeting closed. Thank you very much.