Thank fellow shareholders and colleagues, and welcome to CSL's 2023 AGM. We're very good at starting meetings right on time at CSL. Before we commence with the formal proceedings of the meetings, we'd like to play a short introductory video.
The people and science of CSL save lives. Our strategy helps us to create sustainable value. We leverage our strength for patients who rely on our medicines, whether it be plasma-derived therapies for those with rare disease or vaccines to protect public health. As our family grows, extending our focus to kidney disease and iron deficiency, we challenge norms, collaborate, and pioneer breakthroughs, like the first gene therapy for patients with Hemophilia B and investigating next-generation vaccines, as well as making improvements to manufacturing yields. As we see more demand for our therapies and vaccines, we are investing in our business, expanding our manufacturing at Broadmeadows in Australia to process nine times more plasma, and duplicating in Tullamarine, Australia, our expanded Holly Springs cell culture facility in the United States to make even more vaccines.
As we strive to do what's right for people and planet, we have announced targets to reduce our carbon footprint, and we're improving access to our medicines in developing countries for patients with bleeding disorders. Moving into the future, we will harness the power of data to enhance our operations and patient experiences. Together, we continue to deliver, driven by our promise to patients and fueled by the pursuit of a healthier world tomorrow.
For you who don't know me, my name is Fiona Mead, and I'm the Company Secretary of CSL Limited. It's a pleasure to welcome you all to our 2023 Annual General Meeting. I'm gonna run through the procedural aspects of the meeting shortly, but to start, as an organization with a purpose and promise to save and protect lives, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures whose deep connection to land and waters enabled innovation in the practice of healing and the protection of human health for millennia. I would also like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land that we are here on today, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
My colleagues and I pay our respects to the elders, past and present, and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures. This year, for the first time, we're holding our AGM in a hybrid format. Thank you to those of you that are here today, and we'd also like to welcome our shareholders, proxy holders, and guests who couldn't make it in person but who are participating in the meeting through the online platform. For those in the room, I'd like to take a moment to make sure that you're familiar with the evacuation procedures to be followed in the unlikely event of an emergency. If you do hear an alarm sound, the venue's fire wardens will enter the room, and they will tell us where to go to get to the emergency evacuation points. Please follow their instructions.
Shareholders and proxy holders present in the room can ask questions during the meeting by lining up at one of the microphones located in the aisles when the Chair invites questions. Please advise the Computershare representative of your name and show them your red or green voting card to indicate you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. If you are a shareholder or proxy holder participating in the meeting using the online forum, you can also submit a written question online by clicking the Messaging tab at the top of the Lumi platform. Just type your question in the box towards the top of the page and press the arrow symbol to send. A copy of your submitted questions, along with any written responses from our meeting team, can be viewed by selecting My Messages. Online written questions can be submitted at any time.
In fact, we do encourage you to start asking them now. If you are online and would like to ask a verbal question, please click on the Request to Speak button at the bottom of the broadcast window. You'll be prompted to confirm your name and enter the topic of your question. Submit your request, and follow the instructions to allow your access to the microphone and join the queue. I do note that while you can submit questions from now on, they will not be addressed until the relevant time of the meeting. If you have any troubles, just call our AGM helpline number, which you'll have on your screen now. And I will say that questions may be moderated for inappropriate language. Also, if we have a few questions that cover the same issues, we may answer them as one.
Also, if they're too lengthy, we may need to summarize them in the interest of time. To make sure that all shareholders in attendance have the opportunity to ask questions, we ask that you restrict yourselves to no more than two questions initially. Dr. McNamee will take questions from shareholders here in the room, followed by written questions through the online platform, and then finally, the verbal questions. Excuse me. Now, moving on to the voting aspect of today's meeting. If there's anyone here who believes they can vote, but they don't have a card or they haven't registered, please just see one of our very friendly Computershare staff, and they can help you.
Subject to the voting exclusions specified in the notice of meeting, the persons entitled to vote today are all our shareholders, representatives, and attorneys of shareholders, and proxy holders who have a red admission card. On the reverse of that card, you'll see your voting tape, paper, which details the motions being put today at the meeting. Relevant instructions are also printed on the reverse of your admission card. I'll now quickly run through the procedures for filing the voting papers. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy votes, which details the voting instructions, if any, for business items on the appointment documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions.
In respect of any open votes a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Shareholders and representatives and attorneys of shareholders also need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure that you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. When you have finished filling all of that out, please put it in one of the ballot boxes before you leave to make sure that we can count your votes, and Computershare staff will be at the exits with the boxes. There will be time at the end of each resolution to mark your red voting paper, and voting will close ten minutes after the close of the meeting.
You will have an opportunity to finalize your voting paper and lodge it. Please raise your hand if you need any assistance, and one of our Computershare staff will come and help you. For online shareholders, once we declare voting is open, and Dr. McNamee will do that, on all items of business, and you are eligible to vote, a new voting tab will appear on the screen. If you select this tab, it will bring up a list of resolutions, and it will present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. Your vote is automatically recorded, and there's no need to press submit or enter button. You do have the ability to change your vote up until the time we declare voting closed.
All right, that covers the logistics of the meeting, and I'll now hand over to our Chair, Dr. Brian McNamee.
Thank you, Fiona. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. There is a quorum present, and I'm delighted to open the meeting. I would now like to introduce your board of directors and our company secretary. To my right, Ms. Fiona Mead, our company secretary, whom you have already heard from. Ms. Marie McDonald, Mr. Bruce Brook, and Dr. Megan Clark. And to my left, Dr. Paul McKenzie, our Chief Executive, Ms. Carolyn Hewson, Professor Andrew Cuthbertson, Ms. Alison Watkins, and Professor Duncan Maskell. Ms. Hewson will be standing for re-election at this meeting, and you will have an opportunity to hear from her later in the meeting. Voting on the items of business will be conducted by a poll, and I'm declaring the poll open now, so the shareholders and proxy holders who cannot stay for the whole meeting can vote at any time.
The poll will close 10 minutes after I declare the business of the meeting to be closed. Before we move to the formal business of the meeting, I will first provide some observations about your company and the environment in which we operate. I'll then hand over to CSL's CEO and Managing Director, Dr. Paul McKenzie, who'll provide a review of the business and our financial performance in the year 2023. We'll then move on to the procedural matters of today's meeting. Finally, as Fiona mentioned, we will take questions from those in the room and online. Before I speak more broadly about your company, I'd like to inform you about a few board and management changes. There were no changes to CSL's non-executive board members this year. However, today, Bruce Brook will retire as a director.
On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank Bruce for his service over the last 12 years. His guidance has been of immense value to us and our shareholders. Thank you, Bruce. Alison Watkins will become Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee following Bruce's retirement. I'm also pleased to announce that Ms. Samantha Lewis will join our board of directors effective January 1, 2024.... Samantha is a diligent and experienced board member. She recently stepped down from her position as non-executive director at Aurizon Holdings after nearly 9 years of service. She currently holds two non-executive positions at leading Australian listed entities. These include Nine Entertainment Co Holdings, where she's Chair of Audit and Risk Management Committee, and Orora Limited , where she's Chair of Audit and Risk and Compliance Committee. Samantha's responsibilities are a reflection of her deep financial audit and risk management knowledge.
This, along with her cross-sector expertise, will be a great benefit to CSL's board of directors. We're looking forward to her joining us in January. Board composition is a constant priority for us, and we are focused on recruiting top-tier global pharmaceutical experience to add to the CSL board. As you all know, Dr. Paul McKenzie commenced in the role of CEO and Managing Director of CSL in March this year. Paul brought an exceptional track record of success at some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies when he joined CSL in 2019. Since then, he has demonstrated strong leadership in helping your company navigate the pandemic in his role as Chief Operating Officer. My fellow board members and I are impressed and completely unsurprised at how well Paul has adapted to the role of CEO. His extensive technical knowledge complements his personable leadership style well.
He has an obvious passion for problem-solving and bringing out the best in both our people and in our operations. The board is delighted that we have Paul and his global leadership group steering our company through this next phase of growth. As your chair, and as someone who's been involved with CSL for more than three decades, I'm in a good position to observe what has been a rapidly changing global environment. At the same time, I've been able to see how CSL's strategy allows it to continue to deliver for patients against this backdrop. I'd like to share a few observations on these topics with you, my fellow shareholders. The last four years have been disruptive in many ways. There have been several ongoing changes that have challenged us all in the post-pandemic world. One such area has been persistent cost inflation.
Fragmented supply chains have not yet recovered, and the result has been higher costs for many of the goods and services we rely on. We've also seen other challenges. Currency headwinds with the strengthening U.S. dollar have impacted our financial performance, and interest rates have risen substantially, and in doing so, have impacted consumers and the way in which businesses operate. With these factors in mind, I'd like to address CSL's recent share price performance, which is a topic close to everyone's heart. There are several reasons for the weaknesses we've seen. The macro factors I mentioned have impacted financial markets around the world, and CSL has not been immune. The cost of capital for companies like CSL has risen in line with interest rates, and equity valuations, particularly for growth companies, have been negatively impacted. As I mentioned, inflation has affected our cost base, temporarily reducing margins.
While our share price has been weaker than we would have liked, the underlying performance of our company is very strong, with operating profit growing some 21% last year, and we're expecting profit growth this year of 13% to 17%. Paul will talk more about this shortly. Your board of directors and management team have kept a laser-like focus on the things we can control. Our 2030 strategy was designed to be resilient and deliver sustainable, profitable growth over the long run. This has been, and will continue to be, the focus of our management team. Our strategy has allowed us to invest in operations to improve unit economics and ultimately increase our ability to deliver more therapies and vaccines.
A great example of this is our new cost base fractionation facility at Broadmeadows, which opened in December and represents a ninefold increase in capacity from the previous site. This investment we've made back into the company has set us up with world-class infrastructure to grow. The other half of the equation is the capability required to bring out the best in operations. This starts at the top, where Paul McKenzie's expertise in engineering has been clear. I speak regularly to Paul, and his passion for operational efficiency and realizing the full potential of CSL is clear. Paul and his team are the right leaders to bring out the best of our 32,000 people around the world. I know they're focused on executing on our growth path, regardless of economic challenges. A second observation I'd like to make relates to innovation. In short-...
I've never seen more potential for innovation in CSL and in our industry. There are several reasons for my optimism. The first is the technology that's available to us. Innovation is based on testing ideas. This can take many years and often decades, but with advances in technology, we've been able to slowly close the time taken from hypothesis, to experimentation, to conclusion. During the year, the board visited Marburg, Germany and Waltham, Massachusetts. Both locations are home to new R&D centers. We saw firsthand our scientists using new technology like robotics, automation, and new data analytics, tools that will undoubtedly help our people as they look to make the next scientific discoveries. Another signal that causes me optimism is our ability to collaborate. Traditional competitive lines have been redrawn as business, academia, and research institutions more readily come together to solve problems.
This is why we chose to locate our new significant headquarters in the heart of Parkville's Biomedical Precinct here in Melbourne. We're close to our key partners, such as the University of Melbourne, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Doherty Institute, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and many others. We've also allocated 2 levels in the facility to Jumar Bioincubator, which offers space for up to 40 Australian biotech startups to progress the commercialization of their research. The board toured these facilities in April, and we're excited to see the scientific and commercial developments that will no doubt come from this. My third and final observation relates to why companies like CSL exist and how we operate. There are many items for this, but for me, it comes down to purpose and performance.
As I meet with stakeholders around the world, it is clear that these two elements are increasingly important. Our purpose is on the slide now. Having these words in an annual report or on a slide is never enough. They must guide what we do every day, whether we are the board of directors or a manufacturing site or any of our sites around the world. We are lucky to have a purpose like this, and it gives us extra meaning in everyday work. This vital role we play in society does not make us exempt from doing it in the most responsible way we can. Sustainable growth is a key pillar of CSL's strategy, and again, both words matter equally to us and our stakeholders.
I'd like to take a moment to talk about our history of growth, because together, we should be proud of this journey. The CSL that listed on the stock exchange in 1994, seems a long time ago, was vastly different to our company today. The metrics you can see on the side partly tell this story. Through an intense and unrelenting focus on our strategy, we have grown from a small, domestic entity who was arguably irrelevant on the global stage, to a truly global biotech company that leads in the sectors in which we operate. The formula that led to this exceptional growth is no less relevant today. We still aim to be the industry leader in the markets in which we operate, disciplined capital allocators, and efficient operators.
With this front and center in our minds, I believe we will continue the superior performance that our shareholders have come to expect of CSL. Growth has been good for our scientists, our employees, and our shareholders. It has been good for society and allows us to achieve our purpose to serve more patients. If we aren't growing responsibly, though, we lose trust, and when we lose trust, our ability to serve those patients is severed. Your board has a key role to play in maintaining trust through governance and risk management. One step we've taken over the last few years to build greater trust with stakeholders is to launch a new sustainability strategy. Last year, we announced new carbon targets, and this year, our teams will also be focusing on advancing the social pillar of this strategy.
I look forward to sharing more with you on this next year. This morning, I've spoken about three observations that I believe are relevant to your company. The need for long-term and resilient strategy, and the focus on execution in a challenging macro environment. Compelling conditions in an era of innovation, and the ever-increasing importance of genuine purpose to go along with superior business performance. It is the role of the board to remain cognizant of such risks and opportunities. We aim to have the right skills and expertise to navigate our industry and the broader macro environment.... I'd like to reiterate that our strategy is our contract with you, our shareholders, to grow in a sustainable and profitable manner.
Your board has complete confidence in Paul McKenzie and his management team to execute on this strategy, and we look forward to continuing to share our progress with you. I would now like to hand over to Paul to give some more commentary on CSL's performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Brian.
Good luck.
All right. Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us at today's CSL's 2023 AGM. I am honored to be addressing you at my first AGM as CEO and Managing Director of CSL. This particular location is now close to my second home in South Melbourne. For those of you who are wondering, I have chosen my AFL team, and it is the St. Kilda Saints. Thank you. Thank you. And although the Saints did not come marching in to the Grand Final, I do look forward to bigger and better things next year. Before I go into detail about our strategy, financial, and operating performance for fiscal year 2023, I would like to add a few comments to what Brian said regarding our purpose. Many organizations talk about purpose, but at CSL we have a clear and tangible purpose.
For me, it all comes down to our patients. I travel a lot, but I always try to meet with patients and donate plasma whenever I can. I often draw on these experiences when I am in my daily work and feel lucky to be able to make that connection between donor and patient. Bringing people, science, and innovation together has been my passion since I was a student, and it is a great thing to be able to do this at an iconic company like CSL. Today, I'll speak briefly about our financial and operating performance for the 2023 financial year. As a reminder, our annual report is available and has a wealth of information about our financial and operating performance, strategy, and sustainability approach.
Before I move on, I need to let you know that in this presentation, we have forward-looking statements which reflect CSL's expectations at the time of this presentation. You can read more about our approach to forward-looking statements inside the cover of our annual report. CSL delivered excellent results for fiscal year 23, driven by strong performance across all three of our businesses. In CSL Behring, our immunoglobulin, or IG franchise, grew very strongly. Plasma collections are now at a record level, and we dosed our first patients in the U.S. with our gene therapy product, HEMGENIX, a transformational treatment for those patients with hemophilia B. CSL Seqirus has continued to deliver strong sales growth driven by a differentiated portfolio and, in particular, FLUCELVAX. We announced an exciting license agreement with Arcturus Therapeutics to access their next-generation mRNA vaccine technology.
For CSL Vifor, we successfully closed the acquisition and approximately 11 months contribution to the fiscal year 2023. The integration of CSL Vifor is well advanced, and our cost synergy targets are on track. The headline financial figures reflect a great deal of passionate work delivered by our 32,000 dedicated colleagues around the world. Revenue was up 31% at constant currency. NPAT-A, which is the measure we focus on as it reflects the underlying performance of the business, was $2.6 billion, up 20% at constant currency. Net profit after tax was $2.2 billion, up 8% at constant currency, and this includes the one-off costs associated with the Vifor acquisition. As Brian said, we have had to navigate a difficult macroeconomic environment.
There has and remains significant volatility in the world currency markets, and CSL, being a global company, is not immune to this. For fiscal year 2023, the NPAT-A currency headwind of $245 million was largely driven by the stronger U.S. dollar. Margins have been impacted by donor fees as we look to attract our donors back post the pandemic. I'd now like to take a few minutes to talk about the steps we are taking to improve margins in our largest business unit, CSL Behring. We expect CSL Behring gross margin to return to pre-COVID levels in the medium term. The path to recovery, however, is different than the COVID-driven margin decline.... The key contributors to this margin recovery are depicted on the slide. Let's start with the largest contributor to gross margin recovery, improvement in reduction in our cost per liter.
The biggest components within the cost per liter are donor fees and direct labor cost. Some of the major initiatives we have implemented include optimizing the structure of our donor payments, testing of different fee schedules across the globe, improved labor planning and initiatives, driving increased center-level productivity, and the digitalization of our business, including the donor experience. Cost per liter is around 17% off its peak, so we are making genuine inroads, but there is more to do, and it's just going to take some time. New products. There are numerous exciting opportunities across CSL's R&D pipeline. We have a number of late-stage R&D programs that are approaching their final stages. These are potentially high-value medicines that drive the improvement in our margin. Moving to the next chevron, average selling price. This essentially means the geographic and product mix across our portfolio.
We have seen over the last several years, a geographic change in where we are selling our products and the price in each market. The difference between U.S. and ex-U.S. pricing has been declining for several reasons, and we expect this dynamic to continue. I don't want to over-index on this point, as we don't expect this gap to close completely given the nature of the various markets around the world. Another selling price dynamic is product presentation. There has been a gradual, long-term shift towards subcutaneous IG, a premium product with a higher price. We haven't seen this specifically in fiscal year 2023, but we do expect this trend to return over the medium term. As a leader in scale, increasing the amount of IG that we extract from every liter of plasma has been and will always be an area of high focus for CSL.
Theoretically, this means producing more products for patients from the same level of inputs. Today, we believe this is our competitive advantage, but we won't stop there. We have a yield maximization strategy that aims to extract even more IG from each liter of plasma collected. We will target a 5% improvement over the next 5 years, and then a further 10% improvement as we exit the decade. Finally, scale and efficiency measures. When compiling our long-range planning, we think of high single-digit IG demand growth. This is essentially why we've maintained our investment in our manufacturing capability, and we continue to have great confidence in this. Plasma collections now comfortably exceed pre-pandemic levels. Our manufacturing facilities are now operating at higher utilization rates, reducing the fixed cost per unit.
Bringing this all together and keeping in mind the 9 to 12‑month inventory cycle , we anticipate modest improvement in the gross margin in fiscal year 2024 and 2025, with a return to the pre-COVID margins in the 3 subsequent years. Our R&D portfolio underpins the future of CSL, and our pipeline has several exciting late-stage opportunities. These will now finish their clinical trials and be filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies. A few highlights. We've achieved a significant milestone in our CSL112 clinical trial, with the last patient enrolled in our phase 3 trial. This therapy seeks to reduce the risk of a reoccurring cardiac event that survivors experience in the first 90 days after their initial heart attack. We expect early results on CSL112 in early 2024.
Preparations are well underway for global regulatory submissions for Garadacimab, our homegrown in Australia, monoclonal antibody for the treatment of HAE. On the CSL Seqirus side, we have completed our aQIVc phase 2 dose-ranging studies and are on track to commence our phase 3 clinical trial in calendar year 2023. CSL Vifor received approvals for Injectafer in the US for heart failure. CSL is all about commercializing R&D, and I think you have a clear view of why we are so excited about our future. Now on to the outlook... The company continues to have a strong midterm outlook. Looking specifically at CSL Behring, the strong growth in IG is expected to continue following the record level of plasma collections. We look forward to introducing HEMGENIX to more patients in the US and Europe.
As I just outlined, we have numerous initiatives underway to improve our efficiencies from donor to patient, which will help us guarantee the recovery of CSL Behring's margin. For CSL Vifor, our focus is on unlocking the value and growth within the business. A business we are yet to fully leverage the full value of across the broader CSL network. The iron and nephrology markets are evolving and growing. Certainly, there will be challenges for CSL Vifor growth, but the unmet patient need within these markets is significant, and CSL is well-placed in an agile and purposeful way. One initiative that leverages both CSL Behring and CSL Vifor is our work in patient blood management. Our GM, Hervé Gisserot, will be talking more about this initiative at our forthcoming Capital Markets Day next week.
For CSL Seqirus, we expect another strong year, with continued growth driven by the demands for its differentiated portfolio of innovative products. CSL Seqirus is also progressing global registrations for a next-generation mRNA COVID vaccine. In terms of our guidance for fiscal year 2024, we expect revenue growth to be approximately 9%-11% over fiscal year 2023 at constant currency, with NPAT A expected to be in the range of approximately $2.9 billion-$3 billion at constant currency, a growth of between 13% and 17% year-over-year. This percentage growth rate excludes the one-off gain made on property sale in fiscal year 2023. Behind me, you will see our 2030 strategy. This is largely the same framework that has underpinned the long-term success of CSL that Brian mentioned earlier. The strategy is proven and resilient.
CSL will continue to follow this strategy under my leadership, with the aim of delivering sustainable, profitable growth well into the future. The world around us is complex and ever-changing, so we must balance our long-term path, our strategy guides us on, with our short-term tactical priorities. I see the following near-term priorities: leverage our scale and execute on our excellent commercial portfolios and exciting innovation agenda, evolve and differentiate our vaccine platform, unlock and grow the value of CSL Vifor, and drive further improvements in CSL Behring margins. And finally, and very importantly, be the employer of choice and a strategic partner of choice. The global leadership group and I are extremely optimistic on the prospects of our company moving forward. I look forward to keeping you, our shareholders, apprised of our progress. Finally, thank you for all of your support, and I will pass back to Brian.
Thank you. Well, thank you, Paul.Cost per liter is now about 17% below its peak.
Thank you, Brian.
Good job. Okay, we'll now move forward to, to the formal part of the meeting. The items of business for consideration today are described in the notice of meeting, which I will take as read. In terms of running the AGM efficiently, we'll read through all of the items of business set out in our notice of meeting first, following which we'll address all shareholder questions at one time. All resolutions to be put to the meeting will be determined by means of a poll. I confirm that I'm holding available undirected proxies in my capacity as chair of the meeting and will vote all of these available proxies in favor of each resolution. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of each resolution, with interested directors, of course, abstaining from making a recommendation in respect of a resolution that they have an interest in.
In order to conduct the poll, I appoint Mr. Michael Hutchinson of Computershare Investor Services to act as Returning Officer, and Ms. Kylie Bodenham and Mr. Vincent Lim of Ernst & Young to act as scrutineers. We will now come to item one of... in the notice of meeting, which is to receive and consider the financial statements and the reports of directors and auditors for the year 30th June 2023. This item of business does not require shareholder approval.... However, shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions on the reports and about the management of the company. Ms.
Kylie Bodenham of the company's retiring auditor from Ernst & Young is also present today, and is available to answer questions in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of the financial statements, and the auditor's independence in relation to the conduct of the audit. Representatives of Deloitte Touche are also present at the meeting. As there is no resolution required to be put to the meeting in respect of item one, I will move to the second item of business, which is the re-election of directors. Moving to item two of the notice of meeting, I'd like to consider, and if thought fit, to pass a resolution to appoint Deloitte Touche as the auditor of CSL Limited.
To help me, if nothing else, from this point forward, I will refer to the new auditor as Deloitte. The law in Australia requires shareholders to approve the appointment of a new auditor. As previously disclosed, following a tender process and a subsequent recommendation from the Audit and Risk Committee, the board selected Deloitte to be the auditor to be appointed as CSL's auditor from the conclusion of the 2023 AGM, subject to shareholder approval. As stated in the notice of meeting, the board considered it good corporate governance to rotate the audit appointment and sought proposals from leading audit service providers. As the company's incumbent auditor at the time of the tender process, Ernst & Young did not participate in the tender process.
The period between the conclusion of the tender process and the planned commencement date has provided adequate time for Deloitte to meet all relevant independence criteria before the appointment commences. In accordance with Section 328B of the Corporations Act, CSL Limited has received notice from a shareholder, the company secretary, nominating Deloitte as the new auditor of the company, and a copy of the notice is contained in Appendix 1 to the notice of meeting. Deloitte has given its written consent to act as auditor, subject to shareholder approval and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's consent to Ernst & Young's resignation. I'm pleased to share with you that ASIC has provided its consent to the resignation of Ernst & Young. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of appointing Deloitte.
I refer to the screen behind me that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. Voting on this item of business is open, and you may vote using the paper voting or the online platform. On behalf of CSL, I'd like to extend my personal thanks to Kylie Bodenham and Vincent Lim, and the wider Ernst & Young team for the pivotal role they played for CSL as our auditors. Thank you. We now move on to item 3, which relates to the re-election of Ms. Carolyn Hewson, who is an existing director of the board and is submitting herself for re-election pursuant to Clause 67A of the CSL Constitution. Carolyn retires at this meeting under the Company's Constitution and is eligible and willing to stand for re-election. Ms.
Hewson has been a director of CSL since December 2019, and is the Chair of the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee, a member of the Audit and Risk Committee, and the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee. Ms. Hewson's experience and biographical details are contained in the notice of AGM. The board has determined that Ms. Hewson is an independent director, and Ms. Hewson's skills and experience to date supports her re-election. I will now ask Carolyn to make a brief presentation to the meeting.
Thanks very much, Chair. Good morning, everyone, shareholders and colleagues. Today, I stand for re-election as a director of CSL. Brian's already said that I've been on the board for 4 years, but it's probably for at least 30 years that I have followed CSL, respected its outstanding growth, and admired its culture and management. During my 4 years of service, you've already been told the committees that I'm on, but quickly, the member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, and I've chaired the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee. Being part of this company has confirmed to me that CSL is a values-driven organization with a very strong sense of purpose. It's an organization that deeply understands and manages the complexities of research and development, manufacturing, and ultimately delivering life-saving medicines to patients globally.
Importantly, in all that it does, CSL acts with integrity and in the interests of patients, its employees, and shareholders. It is an absolute honor to be considered for re-election to the CSL board. I come to this most mindful of the responsibility that it requires to help guide one of Australia's largest companies and leading global biotech in a very dynamic and highly competitive industry. Appropriately, all our directors bring a wide range of skills, experience, and backgrounds, and we are absolutely united in our focus on the CSL corporate objectives and building long-term value. My background is first as an economist, a long time ago, and then 16 years as an investment banker with experience in capital markets, investment management, risk management, and more recently, I've spent nearly 30 years as a non-executive director, working across a number of different sectors.
This provides a helpful base from which to contribute to CSL in the areas of overall governance, audit and risk management, ESG, and human resources. These are important matters as we grow and aim to appropriately allocate capital and add value, attract and retain talented employees, and deliver profitable and sustainable growth while providing life-saving medicines. I consider it an honor and a responsibility to be a director of CSL. It's a role I take very seriously, and if re-elected, I will work diligently with my fellow board members to advance CSL's outstanding record of making a meaningful contribution to our patients, our employees, and shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you, Carolyn. The board, with Ms. Hewson abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the re-election of her. I refer to the screen behind me that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. Voting in this item of business is open, and you may vote using the paper voting form or the online platform. Quite a good result, I would have thought there, so that's fine. To deliver on our promise to patients and to protect public health, we rely on our people and the need to ensure a strong global talent supply. You're allowed to answer it. Our executive remuneration framework enables us to attract, engage, and retain talent, provides us with the flexibility to address talent challenges in various markets, and allows us to compete with larger global pharmaceutical companies.
The board is committed to an executive remuneration framework that is focused on driving a performance culture and linking pay to the achievement of CSL's long-term business objectives. This, in turn, drives long-term shareholder value. Item four of the notice of meeting is an advisory vote on the remuneration report. Under the Corporations Act, the company is required to include in the directors' report, a detailed remuneration report setting out certain prescribed information relating to director and executive remuneration. The company is also required to submit this for adoption by resolution of shareholders at the annual general meeting today. The vote on this resolution in this item is advisory and will not bind the directors of CSL. However, the board will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing remuneration, practices, and policies of the company. The screen below...
The screen behind me displays details of the proxy positions for this resolution. As I've mentioned, talent is a critical factor in driving company performance, and remuneration is a key component of this. We have just met the requisite 75% support for remuneration report this year. I want to be clear: the company, the board, takes the views of shareholders very seriously, and we are disappointed that we didn't achieve higher support. We'll continue to listen and respond to feedback in relation to our remuneration approach. The board unanimously recommends that the shareholder vote in favor of the adoption of the remuneration report. Voting on this item of business is open, and you may vote again using the paper voting form or the online platform.
We now come to item five, which seeks approval for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and other purposes, for the grant of 44,095 performance share units under the company's Executive Performance and Alignment Plan to Dr. Paul McKenzie, the Chief Executive and Managing Director of the company. The board believes it is in the shareholders' interest to provide Dr. McKenzie with an equity-based incentive to ensure there's alignment between satisfactory returns for shareholders and Dr. McKenzie's reward. It also considers it important to obtain shareholder consent to the grant of these performance share units. The board, with Dr. McKenzie abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the grant of performance share units to Dr. McKenzie. I refer to the screen behind me that has the details of the proxy positions for this resolution.
Voting on this item of business is open, and you may vote using the paper voting platform or the online platform. That completes the items of business, and we'll now move to shareholder questions. Please remember to cast your votes on each resolution. To allow shareholders extra time to submit their questions, we'll move to address questions from shareholders here at the venue. Next, we'll address written questions received from the online platform, noting that written questions may be moderated for appropriate language, et cetera, as I mentioned, as Fiona mentioned earlier. Following this, we'll hear from shareholders with verbal questions from the online platform. So with that, we're open for questions. Okay. Need pen and paper, I think.
Chairman, introducing Michael Muntisov of Australian Shareholders Association.
Good morning. My name is Mike Muntisov. I'm a volunteer representing the Australian Shareholders Association. Today, I hold proxies from 742 shareholders, accounting for approximately 1.3 million votes, which in aggregate, is equivalent to the 15th largest shareholder in CSL. If it's in order, Mr. Chairman, I have a question for the new CEO, who's had the chance to cast his eyes deeper into the business over the last six months. As this new CEO, what does he see as the single biggest opportunity and the single biggest risk for CSL right now?
Well, thank you, Michael, very much for your question, and I appreciate it very much. In terms of our biggest opportunity, it's the continued journey of our sustainable growth. Across all three businesses, as I've shared, we are in a great position to continue to grow and continue the great history of CSL to deliver back to our shareholders. Our gross margin recovery has been a challenge, and we need to solve that over the next couple of years, particularly in the Behring business.
Risk?
Biggest risk, you know, I would say we found during COVID, the fragility of the supply chain, and particularly in the businesses we're in, and we need to respond and be well-protected for the world events that are unfortunately occurring all around us.
I have another question, but I'll let others speak.
I'm sorry. You're allowed a second question, Michael. It's okay.
Yeah. Well, it's on remuneration, so I don't wanna... I'll, I'll get back to that. I'll let others ask their questions.
Yeah, okay. Chairman, introducing Ray Tollefson.
Good morning, Board. I'm also a member of Team Invest, which, quite a lot of members hold. In fact, virtually every member, I think, holds, shares in CSL. Paul spoke about, maximizing the, extraction of products that can be used from plasma. I picked up an article a while ago, and you can't believe everything you read in the media, but, a company called Aegros, I think it is, describes itself as Australia's newest plasma fractionator. It says that its HaemaFrac offering can disrupt the market by halving the cost, reducing the environmental impact, and enhancing product safety. Are you able to comment on that technology or, or make any other comments about that media report or Paul?
Ray, do you have any other questions just in case?
Yes, just one other.
Yeah, one more. Let's get on a roll.
CSL's made a number of large... Well, two very large acquisitions over reasonably recent times in Seqirus and Vifor. Can it be expected that CSL will make similarly large acquisitions to diversify product range within the medium to long term? Thanks.
Look, thanks, Ray. I mean, to some degree, I mean, it's not our business to comment on other companies, to be honest. I mean, what we do know is we are and will remain best-in-class from a scale, capability, yield, and performance in plasma. Others may say things, we know the reality. That's all we'll say. And the other comment would be on, from a M&A perspective. Look, I think we have a history of buying companies that take an effort to transform to durable, high-value, high-quality businesses. If you look back at the journey of CSL, we've really. It took us years to transform the plasma business, and we're still reinventing it in many ways. The Seqirus team have done a fabulous job, but we're not finished.
There's so much more to do in reinventing their business, and I think Vifor, what we see that, is a business that has potential in areas that we think significant unmet medical need is there. There's an ability to create a sort of competitive, strong competitive capability, but it takes time, and it takes investment. You, you never buy something that's perfect, I can assure you. And so that's the reality. So we take our time. We only do things, I think, very carefully. So my view would be, and by the way, we think the partnering arrangements we've done, whether it be with uniQure on, on, HEMGENIX or with Arcturus in the in the respiratory vaccine areas, is also an extremely good model for highly complementary product portfolios.
So I would say our job is not done still on plasma, on vaccines, on what we want to do with the iron franchise in the renal area, and similarly, we see lots of adjacencies to those things beyond what we can do. So we're not a company that sets out to want to doing, you know, continual large acquisitions. I think that's not likely to be seen for a number of years while we digest and improve what we have.
Chairman, introducing Chris Maxworthy, shareholder and ASA member.
Sorry, ASA member.
ASA.
Okay, great. Thank you. First of all, Mr. Brook, thank you very much for your 12 years of service. It's a great company. We're all very proud of CSL, and I've been there from the beginning as well, and I'm thankful for the work of the board and the staff, but we're not always perfect. So, in the last 12 months, we've seen foreign exchange difficulties that I think has blemished the record of CSL as a high-achieving company, and we've suffered as a result because it also introduces the question about what are the other things that might not be out there? So, Mr. Chair, firstly, at the dividend statement, it's now 10 years since we moved to US-denominated currency for dividend statements.
As an Australian retail shareholder, I'd be grateful if the dividend statement that I received last week could also include the franked and unfranked amounts in Australian dollars. At the moment, all I'm getting is the amount, and given that it's declared to the ATO, I believe that it's not a difficult process for that to happen, and that would be a small request on my part. I think if you were to ask people here, your call on whether you want to do a show of hands, most people would say they'd like to see the full amount. Ten years ago—okay. Ten years ago, I raised the topic at this AGM that the move to US-denominated currency shouldn't take away from us, our Australian culture and style of doing things. Therefore, if we could do that, I'd be grateful.
Is that your only question? I'll come back to that.
No, no, no. That was the second part.
Yeah, second part. Good.
Okay. The second part of it is, congratulations to the new CEO, now six months into his job. Looking at the, what do we call it? The PSU, the performance share units. I'm looking at it and going, "That's over a three-year period." So the rate, as I calculate it, was about 4.2%, for improvements in Return on Invested Capital and also the earnings per share. I'd suggest... Oh, look, I'm not against performance pay. You are a beneficiary of that, and it does motivate. I just wonder if the threshold might be set a little low.
I know you might say that Vifor is the reason, but given that we did the acquisition and given that we had a business case as to why we were doing it, I just think that, I'd like to see something a little bit more of a stretch. Okay.
Well, thank you. Thank you. I think they're all valid points. If I go to the USD denomination thing, I mean, I think you make an interesting and the company secretary to me whispered, "Noted." Yes, that was interesting. So I can understand that from a tax perspective, that may be very useful for us to ensure that you—it's crystal clear what your franking credit is in AUD from the ATO perspective. So I think that's noted, and we'll see, and, I'm sure we'll come back to you on that. I mean, I think currency is complex. Wow! We're in 100 countries now. We have operations in 40.
The macroeconomic environment, I mean, I'm no economist, but the US seems to be running huge deficits, and at one level, you think, "Why is their currency going, strengthening?" Well, there's a whole of other complex macro environments. Interest rates are very high now in the US because really it's been a... You know, they've been arguably stimulating their economy, and doing it very well. So to some degree, we're having to think long and hard. But remember, 50% of our revenues are in North America. I think we've done a good job keeping our Australian DNA, by the way. So merely reporting in US dollars doesn't mean we're an Americanized company. We have phenomenal international people, including a lot of Americans.
We have, I think, a great culture as a company that we try to... We also don't try and Australianize the rest of the world, heaven forbid, but we do try to have a consistent CSL culture. So I think we've done a good job keeping our DNA. Currency is a vagary of life that's proved quite difficult, and yes, it did compress our margins last year. I'm not a currency trader, by the way, but I'm not sure the currency traders got it right either, predicting where the U.S. dollar would go. And look, so I think that's fine. With regard to Paul and the performance rights, I think if you look at what's the embedded growth that sits behind that, we're forecasting as a growth company. I'm happy for you to meet, possibly after the meeting, with-...
Megan Clark, our Chair of HR, she's very across all these details. I think you—I'm not sure I'd agree with your math, the way you've described it for the audience. I don't think that's correct, but I'm not sure we need to go into technical detail. But we are a pay-for-performance culture, and I think that... And we want to be competitive in the marketplace, which we have to be, to retain and, you know, recruit and retain staff. So I think we've got the balance right, but we need to do a better job of possibly explaining the targets and how they've been set and what they represent. And I really would suggest catching up with Megan at the end, and she's-
Thank you.
Fine. Thank you.
Chairman, introducing Rex McKenzie.
I also am a member of the ASA, but that's incidental. My question is about clarity. I've always enjoyed coming to CSL annual general meeting for 20 years odd, and it's always been the clearest AGM I go to. I appreciate the honesty of these meetings. Today is no exception. But there is one thing... Now, I know 86-year-olds don't have as good of eyesight as 20-year-olds—or 40 or, well, 60-year-olds. But I think mine's reasonable, but I struggle to read the print in the annual report. Now, it maybe looks better to have more space on the page, but if it were a little clearer, I could read the small print.
I was pleased that for a few seconds, the small print on the screen went up, and I could read it. I won't comment further. I'll leave it with you.
Rex-
Thank you.
Rex, we're all, we're all wanting to be an 86-year-old like you, I'll be honest. So thank you for coming. Thank you for having an interest in the company. I wish the annual report was a little simpler, between you and me. It has a lot of stuff that is necessary, is a legal requirement, it's part of the accounts. You got the footnotes, you know, you could, you could read... You could go to sleep reading it all half the time, really. So I think, but we have to do it. We have to do it. So but I. It's a good point. It's a good point. We've got to make things life simpl-, you know, simpler for people. So thank you.
Thank you.
Mike Matisoff again. Just, as a prelude to this comment, the ASA is supporting the remuneration report, CSL's remuneration report. But we do notice that in your scheme, your long-term incentive payment measures performance over three years. You yourself, Mr. Chair, are quoted in the annual report as saying, quote, "The nature of our business is that we have to look decades ahead." And the CEO says, quote, "We unashamedly operate with long-term success in mind." The ASA advocates for a measurement period of not less than four years, and right now in the ASX, we have, long-term developer Transurban using four years. And another very successful company you've all heard of, Macquarie Group, also uses four years. In the past, you've argued that a three-year performance period is typical in the global market. However, we see CSL as a leader, not a follower.
We ask that you reconsider aligning long-term performance measures to something other than typical and move to a four-year or even longer measurement period.
Look, look, thank you, Mike. I'd say your comments are heard. And we're not unaware of the evolving trend. We just try to get the balance right in the environment in which we operate, where we have to explain to when we're trying to retain or recruit staff and, et cetera, why our scheme is competitive with what they see across the road. The problem is, none of our staff are ever gonna work for Transurban. I don't think. They might. Not many, anyhow. And I think if we look at Macquarie, I think the banks are really an interesting question. I mean, I was on the financial inquiry, the Murray Financial Inquiry, where, you know, banks are very complicated beasts, and often many of the things that happen in banks, you don't see for a number of years.
And so I know, I know the CommBank is also looking at extending those things, which probably are quite reasonable. But I think we hear you, and if we can do it in such a way that it's fair to our executives, competitive in the market we operate, we're open to considering these matters, but we don't want to rush them. We're in a listing mode. We sort of get it, but we're also not in a stage of saying, "Well, we want to merely impose something that really is uncompetitive in the market in which we operate." So we're trying to get the balance right.
Can I follow up? I mean, you've had, as you've mentioned, you had quite a fair against vote for the remuneration report, which I presume means that one or more of the proxy advisors has recommended against the remuneration report. I wonder whether you're aware of what was the basis of their recommendation?
Look, I think we, you know, well, if we look at some of the proxy advisors and some of the larger shareholders, I think we had a number of changes the way we changed the LTI. I'm not sure we explained that well enough, certainly. And similarly, how we were handling the Vifor acquisition in the equities that we-- in flight was not explained as well as it should have been. That clearly the board were taking into account the performance of Vifor, and that if it didn't perform to our expectations, that would have had a material impact on the level of vesting that would have occurred. We all knew that, but we didn't explain that very well. We just sort of said, "No, that it's not included," because it, we would have had to change the targets.
We didn't want to change the targets, but clearly, we took it into consideration. With the benefit of hindsight, I don't think we explained that very well. So there were a number of factors, but there were a couple, I think, that were most material. And we're in the listing mode. Yeah, we're not thrilled with that percentage. You know, next year we certainly intend to do better. But we also don't want to jump at every suggestion we get, whether it be from the floor or elsewhere. So that's we're in the listing mode and gonna get a look at that. Thank you.
Chairman introducing Brendan Wilkinson.
Yes. So I, I've got a question regarding the, the auditors. What criteria does CSL use to evaluate the performance of its auditor, and what is that frequency? Is that done every year or only at the end of a four- or five-year term?
You know, I think that's a really interesting question, and I'm not sure we've had the retiring chair of our audit committee get up and talk about this thing. So I thought, given this is his last AGM, I'd love to hear Bruce respond to that question. So thank you for the question. Bruce, to you.
Thank you, Chair, and I'm delighted to be able to respond. Excellent question. It is always audit quality. That is the, that is the criterion that we focus on. The quality of the auditor, their international reach, their ability to understand our business and to understand the accounting standards that they need, we need to report under. So it's always been audit quality. We've reviewed every five years. We've had consideration as to the ongoing tenure. A couple of years ago, we took the view that there'd been a very long tenure by Ernst & Young, excellent auditors, but there's a, there's an issue with, you know, when, when does 20 years become 30 years, become 40 years? And that was the reason we undertook the review, and our criterion for appointing Deloitte was quality. Always audit quality. Thank you.
When you talk about audit quality, is it... Is there some sort of performance criteria that you use for form, for audit quality?
Audit, audit quality, so there's regulators, undertake reviews. We feed that in as part of the, the overall process, but we look to the understanding the auditors have, the people that the auditors put forward, the quality of the partners, the quality of their teams, the processes that they go through. It is-- Look, we could run a tutorial on this. It is, it's something that, you know, you require in an audit committee, a depth of experience, and I've had wonderful colleagues on the audit committee. We're all widely experienced in commerce and accounting. So we've gone through process to review all of those issues, and that's really the... It comes down to that audit quality perspective. So happy to engage with you further on this, but that's the criterion we use.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. Bring on the mic.
Chairman introducing Su Fong Chong.
Hi, good morning. I have a question. May I ask why the newly appointed CEO has doubled the pay for, pay of the previous CEO?
I think when we announced the pay of Paul McKenzie, my recollection was when we put out a statement to the ASX on it, and my recollection is Paul's pay was 85% of the incumbent, or 90%, I can't remember, but-
Yeah, just to, just to sort of clarify there, the overall pay mix for our new CEO was 10% less than our previous CEO. The target rem is $11.68 billion. So, so certainly, no, it was not, it more than the previous CEO. And we felt that that was. So when we were thinking about that, we absolutely want to reward our extraordinary CEO, and as, as our chairman said, we're delighted but not surprised at his wonderful transition into, into CEO. But it's also important to recognize that, this is a first appointment, so we, we felt it was appropriate. In terms of how you look at that relative, you know, we also looked at relative to the, several markets.
When we set that relative to the pharmaceutical markets, we look at the global markets, we look at global companies as well, and we see that that is a reasonable but not excessive remuneration for a CEO in our business. I would also share just the delightful attitude that our CEO takes, as I think many of the directors do, that it's actually a privilege to work with CSL and certainly not a focus on the last dollar. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Well, thank you, shareholders, for those great questions. That concludes the questions from the floor. I'll now check with our company secretary, Ms. Fiona Mead, whether we have received any online questions.
The answer to that is yes.
Excellent.
I will start the questions with a question from Mr. Guthrie John Williamson : If the primary endpoint for CSL 112 is at 90 days, why can't you release results for the 90-day endpoint, given all trial participants would have passed this timeline?
Look, thank you for the question. I mean, the CSL112 trial has been an extraordinary effort for the, for the company and, AEGIS II has been very demanding to complete, certainly through COVID. It's really just a matter of ensuring we don't avoid any bias when we look at the data. We have to clean the data up. We have to make sure it's accurate, and the regulators are very clear on that. So it's really just a matter of making sure when we unblind the data, that it's complete. And once we have that data, once we've understood that data, then that's a time where at least the top-line data, we hopefully understand and we'll be able to communicate, but it does take a bit of time.
We have another question from Mr. Williamson: When does CSL expect garadacimab will be approved in the U.S.?
Paul, do you want to answer that one?
Sure. We're in the process right now of filing around the globe, including the FDA and EMEA, and that typical process takes around 12 months post, depending on their questions. So we'll file in this upcoming quarter, and then you should expect, assuming things go as planned, about 12 months post that.
Okay, our next question comes from Mr. Steven Mayne. In 2019, Treasury Wine Estates voluntarily moved to annual elections for directors in line with best practice that occurs in both the U.S. and the U.K. Dual-listed companies like News Corp and Rio all do this due to the laws in the U.S. and U.K., and BHP has continued to do it. Can the Chair today comment on whether our company will investigate following this lead and move to annual elections of directors at the 2024 AGM? Steven says, "We're best practice on many issues, so why not follow best practice on annual director elections as well?
Thank you, Steven, wherever you are. We've really, at detail, considered this issue of moving to annual directors, but our challenge is that we have certain requirements under the CSL Act and our own constitution that really makes it quite complex. To some degree, we want to ensure that annual elections don't—but has the potential risk of harm for this, for this company, if we're not careful. We've been very thoughtful about it, and I think that, because of the particular complexity of CSL, we've elected not to do it, even though we understand at one level, shareholders got every right to vote for directors every year on the assumption it doesn't cause disruption. It's particularly our constitution and the act that makes it more complex.
I have another question from Mr. Mayne.
Oh .
He's asking whether we had any impact on the construction of our new headquarters from union action, and how are industrial relations going with our construction projects in Broadmeadows?
Well, look, I think that we've generally have a history of trying to, you know, run our plan, our construction projects well. I think the one at Elizabeth Street went really well at Broadmeadows. My understanding is, generally speaking, all things have gone well there. I mean, Paul, do you want to comment?
I think our contractors that have the frontline relationships with the union have done an outstanding job, both in Broadmeadows, the Elizabeth Street, as well as our new facility in Tullamarine. So we have a good track record, and we really welcome that track record.
Right. Our next question comes from Mr. Alexander Short: Based on market commentary, the Vifor purchase has also been a negative for the share price, as it is dilutive to ROIC and introduces considerable execution risk. The purchase has the hallmarks of M&A that historically destroys shareholder value, such as being outside of the core competency of CSL. Why did the company need to introduce this risk to the business and expose shareholders to the dilution in returns, as opposed to furthering organic efforts in areas the company has considerable experience in?
Look, thank you, Mr. Short, for the question. I mean, I'd just like to reinforce that the Vifor acquisition is meeting our targets from the M&A perspective. It's returning, it's above our cost of capital. So in that sense, it's not dilutive. Yes, it's affected our return on group invested capital because it was a large acquisition. And I'd have to say that, look, CSL has a history of doing deals that not everyone was a fan of. I remember when I did the Aventis Behring transaction. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an article saying: "Why on earth would anyone, I mean, we can't be that smart to buy an asset from, you know, Sanofi that cheaply. There must be something terrible." Yeah, it was terrible for them and good for us.
So I think that it takes time for people. It's gonna take time for us to get the acquisition to really work to where we want to take it. It takes, all these things take a number of years. So yes, it's somewhat new. It's not that new to us. We are in the plasma sector. They're in the iron sector. It's very significant adjacency, and really, we have a lot of coagulation factors that work in patient blood management, as does iron. So we have a lot of overlap in this adjacency, and we've always seen the renal market. We've, for a number of years, have been articulating that transplantation and the protection of kidneys has been a significant therapeutic area of interest for us, and Vifor accelerated that. It's gonna take time.
I mean, I accept it's completely appropriate that people worry about corporate M&A. I mean, it's true. It's kryptonite. It's got a significant chance to weaken you as well as strengthen you. We have a lot of work to do. I accept that. But you know, we are confident that we can - we will - this will be seen in a number of years' time as another significant growth corridor for the company.
Our next question comes from Miss Athena Pazzolli: When collecting blood plasma, do you keep the blood plasma collected from mRNA-vaccinated persons separated from those that are unvaccinated with mRNA?
No. I mean, no. I mean, remember, when you have a vaccine, it's relatively quickly, you can't even detect it. So, people can be vaccinated or unvaccinated. They're both good donors to us. And, you know, we look forward to collecting as much plasma as we can from either people post-COVID or who are vaccinated. Their antibodies are of value to us and the patients we serve.
All right, we have another question from Mr. Guthrie Williamson: With the completion of a number of capital expansion projects, and therefore less capital required for these, is there any chance of an on-market share repurchase recommencing?
Look, thank you for the question again, Mr. Williamson. Capital management's always been an important lever for this company, and I'm a great believer that all corporates need multiple levers for growth and for shareholder returns. You've got organic growth of your business, adjacencies, M&A, new products, but sure, you've got the lever of capital returns as well. Now, we've just conducted a significant acquisition. We have higher gearing than we would plan for over the medium term, and so we are likely to repay some debt, I think, over the next couple of years. But as our balance sheet returns back to where we're comfortable, we will then have to decide if and when we can achieve the excess capital we hope for, then whether or not...
how we use that, either for further investment internally in the company, doing transactions or return to shareholders. That's a good problem to have, and we've always understood capital return is valuable to shareholders.
All right, we have one more question from Mr. Williamson: Given the entry of generic ferric carboxymaltose competition, will Vifor margins for Ferinject and Injectafer decline?
Price competition always affects margin, and, certainly, we are aware of the price competition, which is gonna happen market by market over time. Our challenge will be to do other things in new markets, new customers, to try and deal with that competition. And, and I think we, you know, we have a plan to do that. Yes, there will be some price erosion in, Ferinject, but we have strategies to try and stabilize the business and, of course, then grow, which is our-- which was consistent with our, acquisition model.
We have another question from Steven Mayne. He's keeping us busy today. Did any of the five main proxy advisors recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions? If so, what reasons did they give? He goes on.
Well-
Which of the proxy advisors are covering us, and please describe the engagement we've had with them? Will you disclose the proxy votes before the debate on each resolution, so shareholders can ask questions about the reasons if there's been a protest vote? And finally, why not disclose the proxy position to the ASX at the start of the meeting with formal addresses?
I mean, they're all good points, and we'll note them. I mean, we've tried different models, to be honest. We used to have questions on each resolution. We changed the model. I mean, I think it's, we're open to having a look at that. But in essence, going back to the proxy advisors, yes, we have... I think all proxy advisors were engaged. Most of them voted for, some voted against. I don't know whether it's public domain. I'm not sure it's our job to announce what they do, is it? Fiona, help me.
We would say, we won't mention individual proxy advisor names. One of them did recommend a vote against the remuneration report, and they were mainly due to the concerns that have been raised here today. I should also say that we engage with all proxy advisors ahead of the AGM, as well as a number of our very large shareholders and with our friends at the ASA. Actually, Megan and I enjoy that meeting the most. I should also say, we put the proxy positions up here at the meeting.... We have one more question from Steven Mayne.
He's broken the rule.
He is breaking the rule. In 2022, CSL raised $6.3 billion in institutional placement and then announced a share purchase plan for retail holders. Only fifty-six thousand of our circa two hundred and fifty thousand shareholders participated in the SPP, and yet we did not accept a hundred and ninety-two million in applications after we did not lift the cap. Chair, do you regret doing this, and will you promise not to cap any future SPPs, given the long and sad history of retail shareholders getting diluted without compensation in Australia? Will you use a PAITREO structure next time?
Look, thank you. Thank you, Steven. I mean, at one level, they're all good questions. My recollection was, at the time, timing was a significant matter. We had to have certainty of proceeds. Under the Swiss law, we had to have the proceeds essentially assured before we could make the transaction. So the PAITREO, my recollection, just took too long. Without going into the detail for all the shareholders here, it's quite a protracted process. We have no interest whatsoever of being mean or difficult to smaller shareholders. It's sort of like a... Why on earth would we want to do that? It's this, I think, great myth of the big end of town and small shareholders. I think that's just all made up. Everyone here just tries to do a good job. We're trying to raise the money.
We had to raise the money, and that was the most efficient way for us to do that, is how I'd answer it.
Okay, that's the last of the questions online. We do, I believe, have one question coming through on the telephone line from Dr. JG Taylor in his retirement fund. Now this is our new technology. I'm going to say, go ahead, Dr. Taylor.
Thank you very much. It's fantastic to be able to participate in this meeting from the other side of the country, here in Busselton. I'm full of praise for the performance of CSL. I've been a shareholder for over 25 years, and I've always been thrilled with the performance of the company. However, many of us who invested in the company in the last 25 years are now retired and looking at our returns from our, from our investments, and some might say that CSL Limited is no longer looking after its shareholders. In spite of excellent profits, the company returns to shareholders have been relatively paltry compared with many other companies, and the company's share price has fallen 26% in the last 3 years. Dividends are usually in the range of 1%-1.5%.
It is quite evident that Australian shareholders feel that the share price is unlikely to grow. Hence, CSL can no longer claim to be a growth share or a good dividend-paying share. In 2007, when CSL reached AUD 100 per share, the company did a 3-to-1 split of shares. Why is the company not considering doing a share split again to bring the price down to something attractive to investors? I would suggest a 5-to-1 split. That is my first question, and the second is: really, is CSL happy to continue with only paying investors a 1% dividend?
Look, thank you, Dr. Taylor. May I ask what your doctorate is in?
I've been a rural general practitioner-
Okay, okay, good, good.
for over 40 years.
Okay, no, I wasn't sure you were an economist. I wasn't quite sure. But in any event. You're allowed to be a grumpy shareholder. I get that. I get that. You know, none of us like the share price dropping. I mean, no, so fine. That's. You're allowed to be grumpy. But I think, you know, you're mixing some mathematics here. I mean, I think first of all, I'd say we remain and our entire purpose is to be a growth company and to invest for our growth and for our patients. We cannot control the share price. The reality is interest rates have grown much faster internationally than any of us anticipated, and that affects cost of capital, and it really affects, essentially, your terminal value.
When investors look at their valuations, they discount, essentially, revenue and perpetuity more quickly and come up with a lower valuation. The healthcare sector globally has had, and many growth sectors, have had a contraction in valuation. We're in good company. I can't fix the macroeconomic challenges. All we can do is run a good business. That's our entire intention here, is to run a good business. And I accept, by the way, we're never gonna be a dividend stock. If you want to clip the ticket and be a dividend investor, I can tell you there may be better, better investments for you. Our intention is to and remain a growth company, and we believe over time, that growth will be rewarded in the growth in the share price. As I said, you've got every reason to be grumpy. No one likes valuations going down.
I get that. But in essence, we're not setting out to do something, and we're not setting out to rob you of dividends and other things. We're just trying to, quite simply and clearly, grow the business, perform, and in our view, that will be reflected in time in the share price.
... All right, we have one final question, Chair, from Miss Athena Pizzolli. In what way is CSL's second-stage mRNA different from the existing mRNA?
Look, thank you, Miss Pizzoli. I mean, I'd have to say, first of all, clearly, the mRNA vaccines were very valuable during COVID. They were developed quickly. They worked reasonably well, but it—over time, we began to understand they were sub-optimal vaccines from a traditional vaccinology perspective. If you look at the level of antibodies you were attaining, they weren't that high, and they didn't stay high long enough, and so we all had to have repeat doses that people are sick of, fundamentally. We have vaccine fatigue now as a reality internationally, partly in my view, because of the traditional, these newer mRNA vaccines. They didn't have good durability, at least for twelve months. So what are we trying to do with our partners, with the COVID vaccine?
We see a significant opportunity for a better vaccine that lasts longer. It's really quite simple. That's our intention.
That is it for questions.
Excellent. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. While we wait for those of you in the room to finalize your voting, we will share with you a patient video. Please ensure you have cast your vote on all resolutions. The video features Tim Grams, who is a hemophilia patient of ours. Thankfully, Tim and many other hemophilia patients can manage their treatment with CSL's great products. You can read more about our purpose, including how people and science of CSL save lives, in our annual report or on our website. Go, video. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Tim. I live in Littleton, Colorado. I'm married and have four kids. Hemophilia is a clotting disorder where one of the clotting factors is missing. Practically, what that means is my blood doesn't clot at all. I can have a surface bleed where I would cut myself, either shaving or small cuts just from living life, but it also affects the soft tissue and the joints. Growing up with hemophilia A, my parents tried to get me involved at a very early age in swimming, later on in hiking and outdoor activities. Across the bleeding disorder community, 40 years ago, there were not many people who were involved in athletics or outdoor activities. So as I was growing up, my doctors and parents were getting me involved in swimming and outdoor activities.
Part of how I stay active in this stage of life is by road biking and mountain biking, and I'm able to go out, get a good cardio workout in an hour, then come down, get a little bit of adrenaline rush coming down. Make sure I always take my product prophylactically, so cognizant of staying safe with a bleeding disorder, but also getting out there and working out my body and my mind as well. CSL has been an excellent partner in helping me manage my bleeding disorder. I have been working with CSL for 20 and a half years now. They have encouraged my life, and it truly is a partnership. I feel that we both are helping each other succeed, and I can't imagine a better partner.
The last number of years, I've had the privilege of helping out with the Junior National Championship, and it's been this amazing experience to share my background of swimming with others in the bleeding disorder community. It's amazing to see the kids get so excited about the sports, get excited to be out there and compete, be around their peers who have a bleeding disorder, and to see their parents be out there as well. If I could say one thing to everybody at CSL, I would say, "Keep going. Keep doing what you're doing. You're impacting many people that you'll never meet or hear from. I might be one of those voices, but you're impacting and improving lives, not just for them, but for many generations.
So keep up what you're doing, keep innovating, keep pursuing excellence, and know you're making a huge multi-generational impact in people's lives.