Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 36th annual general meeting of Djerriwarrh Investments Limited. My name is Graham Goldsmith, the Chairman of your company. The company secretary has confirmed that a quorum is present, and I will now open the meeting. But first, let me say, for those in the room, thank you for braving the weather conditions here in Melbourne, and I think it is not the first year that we've managed to turn on showers on the day of our AGM. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians from all the lands on which we're gathered today and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. May I introduce the people on the stage with me? We have our Managing Director, Mark Freeman.
Good morning, everyone.
My fellow non-executive directors, Bruce Brook.
Morning.
Kathryn Fagg.
Morning.
Geoff Roberts.
Morning.
Alice Williams.
Good morning.
Karen Wood.
Good morning.
We also have our Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Porter.
Hello.
Our General Manager of Business Development and Investor Relations, Geoffrey Driver.
Good morning.
Company Secretary, Matthew Rowe.
Good morning.
In due course, we'll be hearing from Portfolio Manager, Brett McNeill, and Investment Analyst, Olga Kosciuczyk. We're also joined by other members of the investment team in the front row, two rows of the audience. I'll also take this opportunity to introduce Kate Logan, partner of the company's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, who is available to answer questions today on the audit and the preparation and content of the auditor's report at the end of the presentation. There has been considerable adverse publicity regarding PwC of recent times, and just prior to the Q&A session after our presentation, I will make some comments about the relationship so that they are fresh in your minds at that time. Today's meeting is being held as a hybrid meeting. Today's presentation has been released to the ASX and made available on the company's website.
I remind shareholders using the online platform that while questions can be submitted at any time, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. 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. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. I now declare voting open on all items of business, and I will give you a warning later in the meeting before I move to closed voting. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a Submit or Enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. Moving now on to the business of the meeting.
I will take the notice of meeting as read. With regard to the minutes of the 35th annual general meeting, they have been signed as a correct record and are available to shareholders for inspection today. The first item is the consideration of the financial statements and reports for the year ended 30th of June, 2023. We will do this via a presentation, after which I will ask shareholders to comment or raise any questions, either about the presentation or of the auditors if they have any questions about the audit. The investment team will run through the performance and the positioning of the portfolio and option activity for the year, including more recent activity.
In their presentation, you will see there has been a significant uptick in performance through the last three years, the start of which coincides with the strategic review that the board held with about the management of our business. In addition, we had, shortly before that, made a decision to reset the dividend policy to one that essentially pays out all operating earnings, rather than large amounts of realized capital gains. As a result of these changes, we have seen a substantial improvement in capital growth over this period in what has been a relatively strong market, as well as an uptick in the level of fully franked dividends paid, albeit from that reset position. In this context, it is pleasing that the dual objectives of Djerriwarrh have been achieved through this period.
That is, to provide an enhanced level of fully franked income that is higher than what is available from the S&P 200, and to provide shareholders with attractive investment returns through access to fully franked dividends and growth in capital invested. However, I do appreciate that some of you here today are longstanding shareholders, so I also want to acknowledge the investment experience for you may not have been as positive as it has been over the last period. The more recent performance is one that we want to build on and continue to deliver into the future for you. We are confident that we can. As the improved underlying performance continues, we are hopeful the share price, which is not in our control, will better reflect this performance, given it is currently trading at a 7% discount to the net asset backing per share.
We will discuss this further in the presentation, but the recent large increases in interest rates has seen a general switch from equities into cash-type assets by a number of retail investors.... This has meant that a significant number of closed-end funds, such as LICs, are now trading at discounts. We will, however, continue to do as much as we can to promote the attributes of investing in Djerriwarrh to the market. Finally, at this point, I would like to thank the investment team, particularly Brett and Olga, who are managing the day-to-day activities of Djerriwarrh Investments on behalf of all shareholders. I will now hand to Mark to start the investment presentation.
Okay, thanks, Graham, and welcome everyone to this AGM. It's great to see shareholders here. It's a great opportunity for you to hear from the company about what's happening, and obviously, with all the investment team here, there's plenty of opportunities to interact with the staff, so please take advantage of that opportunity. At the end of the meeting, introduce yourself and ask any questions you'd like. Just moving to the presentation, we start with a disclaimer, just to say we're here to talk about the company, and we're not giving any advice. Just to the agenda, I'll give a bit of an overview of Djerriwarrh. Andrew Porter, our CFO, will give an overview of the financial year, and as Graham pointed out, Brett and Olga will then talk through the activities of the portfolio.
So just to the overview, just to remind everyone, Djerriwarrh's one of the largest listed investment companies on the market. We've been listed on the ASX since 1989. Shareholders get the benefit of the transparency associated with being a listed investment company. The high governance standards that come from being an independent Board of Directors is also critical in the investment strategy of what we do. And importantly, the shareholders own the management rights to the company. There's no external fund manager that's taking fees or performance fees. So as shareholders, you own the company. And Djerriwarrh is part of a group of four investment companies the team manages, and with that focus across a range of different investment products, the investment team get exposure to pretty much the full breadth of the market in seeking out opportunities for the funds.
So just back to the investment objectives. As has been pointed out, Djerriwarrh is looking to produce an enhanced income yield higher than the market, and we include franking credits when we make that assessment. We do have a target. We're looking for at least 1%, and as you can see at the moment, when you look at the portfolio yield, it is sitting comfortably above what you would get from the market. However, in understanding Djerriwarrh, there's always a trade-off. So the trade-off with Djerriwarrh is to get a higher yield. What we give away to get a higher yield is what we call the blue sky. So when markets are particularly strong, we will always slightly underperform the index, and that's always been the case since the... I've been involved with Djerriwarrh now, which is getting towards 30 years.
Strong markets, we will do less than the index, and then we look to enhance the yield. So that's always the trade-off. So we've got the total returns here, and as you can see, despite having said that, over one year, the team have done an exceptional job, actually exceeding the index. That three-year number, the market's been strong. We're just sitting a bit below that. And then I had the numbers since we had that strategy reset, which is about three and a half years, and on that basis, the market's been up around 13.2% and Djerriwarrh's up 12.6%, so only slightly below. But at the same time, you've had a much better yield from the index.
So, I just want to reiterate Graham's comments that since we had that strategy reset three and a half years ago, Djerriwarrh is meeting all its objectives. It's been growing dividends, it's had a high yield, and it's getting performance numbers in total return basis. They are only slightly below the index in very strong markets, and in sideways markets, it's been doing a bit better. So really pleasing that we're hitting all our objectives that we've talked about. Onto the share price. Again, just reiterating the comments earlier, the share price, we don't control this, is trading at a discount. And you can see if you go back a few years, there was periods where the stock price was trading at a premium and at some points quite a substantial premium to NTAs.
So if you'd actually bought stock, going back to the start of that time period, you've probably seen poor performance in the share price, because you've gone from a premium to NTA to a discount, despite the underlying performance of the portfolio. And that's why it's always important that we show you what we've been doing, investing the money, but we don't control the share price. But clearly, for those that have been coming to these meetings on a regular basis, we always point out where the share price is to make it very clear, are you paying too much for the stock, or is it trading at a discount? And then the market will decide what to do.
I guess, just on that slide again, though, we do get some questions around, "Well, if you're trading at a discount, why don't you buy back stock?" That's a legitimate question, and we do have a facility available to us. The way we look at it at the moment is that it is something we would think about acting on. My personal view is you'd want to see a bigger discount than that, because otherwise it doesn't add a lot of value. Because if you start heavily buying back stock, all you're doing is shrinking the company... which will increase the MER or the expense ratio, and in most cases that I've seen, it doesn't actually get rid of the discount, so it doesn't actually achieve the purpose that you want it to do.
My view, watching these things for a long period of time, the thing that closes the gap is our performance and communication to the market. However, there are still cycles within the market where products like listed investment companies trade at a discount and at a premium, and that's been the case again for the nearly 30 years I've been watching these things. There's a cycle in it. And I think it goes to Graham's point about there's periods where retail investors, in particular, want to be in equities, and that's often when you can get large flows of money in, and you can start to trade at a premium. Then there are periods where retail investors are looking elsewhere, which is certainly what we're hearing at the moment, and that can create a discount.
But, as a long-term investor, these things tend to balance out over time, but it's important to watch. So with that, I'll be happy to take questions at the end, and I'll pass over to Andrew Porter, our CFO, to talk through the results.
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, both to you who are here and to those of you who are online. Now, I've been through most of these figures before in the results meeting that we had in July, so many of you will have heard them before. I will try and be quick, and of course, very happy, as Mark said, to take questions after the main business of the meeting, or indeed, for those of you who are here, over coffee afterwards. The profit for the year, the statutory profit of the year, AUD 39.1 million, was actually down 12.3% against last year. But last year's figure included AUD 6.5 million worth of a demerger dividend or a merger dividend, between BHP Petroleum and Woodside.
If one was to exclude that, the statutory profit was up 3%. We normally do. This is not something unusual. When we're explaining figures, we do strip out these one-offs. It, although it had franking credits, there was no cash involved. The net operating profit... Oh, by the way, the main components of that option income was up. We'll come on to the components of the, of the result later. Option income was up. Dividends were up about 16%, excluding that AUD 6.5 million, and that included the banks. Macquarie, Transurban were all some of the major providers of that increased distribution yield. The net operating result, the reason why we focus on that, is this strips out the open option positions we have at the end of the year. Open option positions have a market value at the 30th of June.
The difference between what we receive for them and that market value goes through the profit and loss. We don't know what will happen to those options. They could expire, they could be closed out, they could be exercised. Therefore, because that's a big unknown, we strip that out. The results of those options are only known and included in net operating result when either of those three things happen. Again, the net operating result is what we tend to look at as our core profit measure. As I said, that was up 15% on that adjusted measure, and that was equivalent to 15.2 cents per share, up from 14.3 cents the previous year. Brett will come on to that later.
As Graham and Mark have pointed out, the dividend was increased to AUD 0.15 for the year, and Mark's already spoken about the enhanced yield that that dividend produces. We're often asked the question, "What are your reserves like? What are your franking credit reserves like?" At the end of the year, after paying out that final dividend, Djerriwarrh still had 21, just over AUD 0.21 worth of franked dividend that it could pay. So although we tend to pay out the dividend, as Graham said, based on the operating result, and particularly on what the yield is on the market, Djerriwarrh is, we would say, adequately reserved to cover future contingencies.
The final figure there is the management expense ratio, which is a measure of how much it costs to run the company, and that's equivalent to 0.4% is equivalent to AUD 0.40 for every AUD 100 invested. How it's calculated is the expenses over the average portfolio value. So both of those measures have an impact on the MER. Djerriwarrh has a 25% share in AICS, so it gets 25% share of any profit that the company that employs the executives and the investment team makes. That profit was up considerably this year due to two things. First of all, incentives did not vest, and therefore, effectively, AICS and the LICs get a credit note for the incentives that did not vest. Some did, some didn't. And secondly, there was a change in the remuneration mix.
The LTI scheme that was there was abolished, and those costs were written back, and that will then be effectively costed over the next three years. This is a long-winded way of saying, all things being equal, you'd expect that MER, therefore, to slightly increase over the next couple of years. It went down this year. You would expect it, all things being equal, to go up. But of course, the other component of the MER is actually the average portfolio value, and that we can't control. So that really is a very large determinant of what the MER is for the year. I think that covers it for me. As I said, very happy to take any questions now or after the meeting, but otherwise, I will hand over to Brett.
I've got a question for you, Mr. Porter. With the MER-
Excuse me.
Oh, I'm sorry. I've got a loud enough voice, probably.
Not the camera.
I was just wondering, with the calculation of MER, you said total expenses are-
Yes, we don't include debt in those, or interest costs in those expenses.
Okay, so I do, and it increases it very substantially.
... have you got any idea as to what it actually is, including the interest expenses?
No, because we haven't looked at those. I could do the calculation quickly.
Which is ratcheted up on, because you're at the top of the range, and the debt's costing us a lot of money.
Djerriwarrh is a geared portfolio, so those costs are of course included in the portfolio returns. We would believe and argue that the cost of debt, which is included in the portfolio returns, is the right place for it to be-
Yeah.
in the portfolio returns, not the management expense ratio, which is the cost of the management, not the cost of the interest.
The index you compare it against is not geared.
Yes.
The portfolio-
That's why the portfolio return will include that, and therefore you have to make the decision, looking as an investor, whether it's right to go in a geared portfolio, including the interest cost, against the market that is there.
My view is management take a view on whether they feel that... Well, according to your records, because I read it all, it says, you know, if there's advantage in borrowing, drawing the commercial facilities, you do.
Yeah.
You know, over 10, three, five, and 10 years, we haven't seen much advantage, to be frank. So yeah, but I, I-
Over the years, as Mark has said, that's-
Go on.
We'd say we are actually doing that. But sorry, Graham?
Sorry. Appreciate your views on that, but can we pick that up during question time, the degree to which you'd like to take us further?
Oh, that's a question, so I thought I-
Sorry, I didn't mean questions at the-
Oh, I'm-
Apologies. I misunderstood.
That's quite all right. I got to sneak one in early.
You snuck one in early. Okay.
Sorry.
Brett?
Okay, thanks for the introduction. Good morning, everyone, and again, thank you very much for coming out to our presentation this morning. So in this section, Olga and I are going to talk about the portfolio, some market observations, and give an outlook on how we're seeing things, particularly from a dividend income and option income perspective. But we thought to start the portfolio section, we'd step back a little bit and do a five-year recap of a couple of Djerriwarrh's key metrics and objectives, particularly our enhanced yield and our dividends paid, both of which have been talked about in the introduction this morning.
So the slide here on at the front shows our enhanced yield, which is effectively the difference between Djerriwarrh's grossed up dividend yield, which are the dark blue bars, and the dividend yield grossed up of the ASX 200, the index, which are the orange bars. And we've listed it here for the last five financial years. So overall, in its recent history, Djerriwarrh has delivered a good level of enhanced yield. And we'd point particularly to the last financial year, so 2023, as being a reasonable guide to the level of enhanced yield that we're targeting with this strategy from here. So we look our, our dividend yield for the period, for the financial year 2023 of 6.8% gross up, versus the market of 5.6% gross up.
One point two percent enhanced yield for financial year 2023, we'd point out as being a reasonable guide to the target enhanced yield from here. If we look now at our dividends paid over the same timeframe, the last five financial years, we show Djerriwarrh's dividend per share being the dark blue bars and our operating earnings per share being the orange bars. We can see the fall in Djerriwarrh's dividend from 20 cents in 2019, down to 11 cents in 2021, was a painful but necessary decision that we took to cut the dividend policy back to largely in line with operating earnings per share. Pleasingly, though, since then, the dividend has grown from that base up to 13.75 cents in 2022, and again grew in 2023 to 15 cents.
So importantly, we're very confident that the revised dividend policy and our level is sustainable. So the key being here, the dividends per share are more than covered by operating earnings per share, and we think this sets the dividend on a much more sustainable trajectory from here. So looking now at the key drivers of Djerriwarrh's earnings, operating earnings and dividends. And the key drivers for us are the dividend income that we receive from the companies we hold in the investment portfolio, alongside the option income that we receive from our option writing activities. So I'll start by covering dividend income, and then Olga will talk to the option income. What we show on the slide here is our dividend income over the same time period, the last five financial years.
As we see, the drop in our dividend income received from AUD 38 million in 2019, down to AUD 22 million in 2021, was largely a result of the dividend cuts that occurred in the market during this time, as a lot of companies, especially the banks, cut dividends during COVID. There was also the impact of us reshaping the investment portfolio. Pleasingly from this point in 2021, so far, it's turned out to be the low because our dividend income has recovered strongly from here, back to the level of AUD 36 million in the most recent financial year, 2023. Our focus continues to be on generating a good level of dividend income in the short term, but just as importantly, generating dividend income that can grow over the long term.
And it's this focus, being the dividend yield in the short term and dividend growth over the long term, that explains a lot of our portfolio positioning today and some of the recent activity. If we look at that now, the slide shows Djerriwarrh's eight largest stock purchases, net of any sales, including option exercises, during the calendar year. So we list the amount of the net purchases alongside our estimate for the grossed up dividend yield based on our purchase prices. And as you can see, NAB's been the biggest purchase in the portfolio this calendar year. So when the banks sold off, particularly around March and April of this year, we saw a real opportunity to put a significant amount of capital in the sector, particularly National Australia Bank.
We think the quality is very strong, and we saw a very attractive dividend yield of just under 9% on a grossed up estimated basis. So we also put money alongside NAB into other financial companies, including Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank, ASX, and Westpac. We've selectively increased our holdings from lower levels in resource stocks such as BHP and Woodside Energy, also at very attractive grossed up dividend yields. And most recently, we've been buying Telstra, which is the first time in a number of years we've increased the portfolio's holding in Telstra. We thought the result was really good. The stock sold off and has been AUD 4 and below, but we think the dividend yield is very attractive, especially on an estimated grossed up basis, so 6.1% on our purchasing so far.
We are confident that the dividend for Telstra can grow over the medium term. Hopefully that gives you a flavor on dividend income, and I'll now pass over to Olga.
Thank you, Brett, and good morning, everyone. Option income is the key driver of Djerriwarrh's enhanced yield. On this slide, we show that the option income we generated has grown strongly and consistently over the past five financial years, particularly since we reset our strategy in 2021. This is thanks to more active management of the option book. We know that higher option income we achieved did not equate to higher risk. The balance between option income in the short term and capital growth in the long term remains our key focus. On this slide, we give insights as to how we generate option income throughout the year. The chart shows the performance of the market as defined by our benchmark, the S&P/ASX 200 Index, overlaid with a top-down view of our portfolio's call option coverage.
As the market was rising in the beginning of the calendar year, we increased our option coverage to 38%. This coverage then fell sharply as we used the market sell-off to close our positions early to lock in profit. We also used that March sell-off to write put options in high quality financial companies like Macquarie Group, NAB, and Westpac, with expiry dates before their ex-dividend dates. We finished financial year 2023 with an option coverage of 32%, which is on the lower end of our target of 30%-40%. And in the past three months, we first increased this option coverage to 39% and then decreased it back to 30% as the market sold off, as bond yields increased.
Despite being only three months into the new financial year, we already generated good option income in line with our expectations, and we are confident that our current option book positions us well to deliver on our investment objectives.
We now turn to the market update and outlook section, and in this, we'll highlight some of what we think were our key observations and insights, particularly during the recent company reporting season. Starting with dividends, which of course are particularly important to Djerriwarrh. On this slide, we list the top 10 ASX companies to report their profit results for the period to 30th of June, 2023, and we show the % change in the dividend that they declared for the financial year, for those who reported full year or half year in the case of Woodside and Rio Tinto. As we can see, industrial company dividends were generally up, with resource company dividends down. At an overall level, dividend levels largely matched our expectations and also those of the market.
So heading into a reporting season where there was quite a lot of concern about consumer health and the economy, overall, we think dividends, the dividend performance was pretty good. And if we look here, Transurban led the way. Their yearly dividend was up 42% versus the prior year, as the company recovered very well from the COVID lockdowns. But it was also some very good dividend performance from companies like Commonwealth Bank, whose dividend was up 17%, and Woolworths dividend being up 13%.... In fact, all of the industrial companies in the top 10 of the ASX that reported had growth in dividends, with the exception of Goodman Group, whose dividend was flat versus the prior year. Resources, though, were clearly a different story, and dividends there were generally down, particularly for the large resource stocks.
Rather than this being a result of very poor profitability or performance, we saw it much more as a normalization in profit levels and dividends, because they'd all had a bumper financial year 2022. We think dividends for this period for the resource stocks have returned to more normal levels. We saw they were down, they were down significantly for Woodside, Rio Tinto and BHP the most, with their full year dividend down 48% versus the prior year. One of the other features that we noted during reporting season was how quickly high-quality infrastructure stocks have rebounded from the COVID lows. We show here volume data for Auckland Airport and Transurban, both of which are companies held in the Djerriwarrh portfolio.
So in the case of Auckland Airport, which is shown on the left-hand side of the chart, the data we've got here is their monthly international passenger numbers as a percentage of the pre-COVID levels. And what this shows is that international passenger numbers on a monthly basis have already recovered to a bit more than 80% of pre-COVID volumes. So the recovery in aviation has been quite strong and pretty quick, especially given not all markets have fully reopened, like the Chinese tourism market during this period. And in the case of Transurban, which is on the right-hand side of the chart, we show quarterly traffic volumes for three of their key roads, being the Logan Motorway in Brisbane, the M7 in Sydney, and CityLink in Melbourne.
Both the M7 and the Logan Motorway have already recovered or are above pre-COVID traffic levels, and even CityLink is at 95% of its pre-COVID volumes. So overall, we think this operating performance of these two companies highlights the quality of the assets owned by these stocks, Auckland Airport and Transurban. It also, we think, shows why we were prepared to keep holding these companies in the portfolio even during the worst of the COVID lockdowns, when revenues plummeted. Turning now to the banks. Overall, we've got a positive view of the banks at the moment, being Australia's major banks. We use NAB as an example here of balance sheet and funding strength. But the concept and the conclusion applies equally to the other major banks, being Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, and Westpac.
So overall, we think the banks, the Australia's major banks are in a much stronger position today versus when they were heading into the Global Financial Crisis in 2007. And the way we show this is by comparing a couple of key metrics for those two time periods. The first is the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio. So in the case of NAB, Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, which is a measure of balance sheet strength, so the higher the number is, the better, was 12.1% in their most recent reported accounts for first half financial year 2023. And that's a lot higher than what it was heading into the GFC, when in 2007, the corresponding number was 6.7%.
So overall, today, we think the balance sheet of NAB and the other major banks is in a much stronger position than the last major crisis. And then also looking at their funding position. So we look at the amount of their total loan book that is funded by customer deposits, and for NAB, it was 82% in the most recent result. Heading into the GFC, that number was lower at 65%. So again, we think NAB and its major bank peers have a much stronger funding position today. And overall, these are two key metrics that we look at that lead us to form a view that the banks are in a much stronger position versus previously. But it also applies to a number of other factors.
They've got more sustainable dividend payout ratios, much simpler business models, and the sector here is very well-regulated, which of course, was highlighted in March this year, when the U.S. banks had a lot of problems. So this quality and strength is a big reason why we've been big buyers of the sector this calendar year.
On this slide, we show the sales performance of some of the key retailers in Australia, which we also hold in our portfolio. The sales growth reported by all was robust, and the key takeaway is that consumer spending is holding up much better than expected. We put it down to a few factors. Employment is strong, with the unemployment rate near a 50-year low. Population growth is strong, with over 500,000 people moving to Australia in the last financial year. And household savings, while decreasing, are still at robust levels. We see some signs of consumer slowing, as evident in the trading updates the companies provided in August. For example, Kmart grew their sales 22% in financial year 2023, and although sales growth continued this financial year, it has moderated.
Despite this, we are confident that our consumer companies in our portfolio are very well positioned to navigate through any challenges that may arise, given their strong brands, their very strong market positions, and their price leadership. Their balance sheets are also very strong, and their cash flows are healthy. On this slide, we show that the net dividend yield of the ASX 200 index is now lower than the yield from the 10-year government bonds in Australia for the first time in over 10 years. This is significant, especially in the context of the market not being expensive if we look at other traditional valuation metrics, like price to earnings or price to sales. We believe that ability to enhance our yield with option income is especially crucial now to deliver on our investment objectives.
Thanks, Olga. Finishing with an outlook and a snapshot of our portfolio. Our outlook focuses on the two key items for Djerriwarrh being our dividend income and our option income. In respect of our dividend income received, we think the adjustments, the portfolio purchasing that we've done sets the portfolio up quite well for this financial year, with particular regards to the large purchases that I mentioned we made in stocks like NAB, Macquarie Group, BHP, and Telstra. At the same time, company dividends that were declared during the recent reporting season were broadly in line with our expectations and those of the markets. As we saw, typically, industrial companies' dividends were up and resource company dividends down. We'll see how that plays out for the rest of this financial year.
But as we sit here today, we're quite comfortable with the outlook for our dividend income received. In terms of our option income, as Olga mentioned, we've already banked a good amount of option income for this financial year, and with the call option coverage sitting at 30% at the end of September, that gives us plenty of scope to write further call options to generate more income from options during the financial year. Overall, though, at the portfolio level, the focus continues to be on maintaining a diversified portfolio of quality companies. We need to get the mix right between income and growth in order to generate that income and growth over the long term. We think that, combined with the portfolio settings that we've got, give us the confidence that we can achieve objectives over the long term.
Finishing the presentation with a portfolio summary. We give you here a snapshot of the portfolio as at the end of September. Some of the key portfolio metrics are on the left-hand side. The portfolio value at the end of September was AUD 901 million. We own 47 stocks in the portfolio. Call option coverage sat at 30%. We also have some put option positions. They're always a lot smaller than the call option book, and so they equate to approximately 2% of the portfolio. It all adds up to a net tangible asset backing at the end of September of AUD 3.06 per share. We show the top 20 holdings on the right-hand side of this slide, and as you'd expect, a focus on quality, mix of income and growth, and diversification across stocks and sectors.
So hopefully, in this part of the presentation, we've provided some insights as to how Djerriwarrh's performed and our, and our outlook. So particularly that five-year context of our key objectives. And while the enhanced yield has been consistent, the dividend per share has recovered quite well in the last two years. Most importantly, it's on a sustainable footing now. We see some good value in a lot of the key sectors. We're concentrating our buying activity in what we think are high quality, strong companies like NAB, Telstra, and the like. And this purchasing sets the portfolio up well for dividend income for this financial year. And alongside that, the option book's in good shape. So with that, thanks for your attention, and I'll pass back to our Chairman, Graham.
Thank you very much, Brett and Olga, Mark, and Andrew. As I foreshadowed, I will now make some comments about the company's relationship with PwC. The discussions in the public arena about PwC focused foremost on the tax advisory practice and the reputation of PwC in its entirety. PwC are our auditors and are not our tax advisors. Secondly, as is mandated, our audit partner at PwC changes every five years, and alongside that, there are changes in the underlying team conducting the audit. The change in audit partner last occurred in May 2022. As regards putting our audit out to tender, we last did this in 2017, requesting proposals from all major accounting firms, with PwC being selected. At the time of change of audit partner in 2022, we did not go to tender, but asked PwC to refresh their proposition to us.
We believe our PwC audit team has met our requirements and expectations, and we gained some assurance and comfort from the comment in the Switkowski Report, where Dr. Switkowski states that PwC's assurance, which is their audit business, appears to substantially model best practice. We will continue to follow the issues that have been reported. We've discussed them internally, and we've discussed it with PwC. We've sought and received assurances from them about how they are dealing with the situation, and at this stage, we are satisfied with that. I would now like to invite questions from shareholders. For those in the room, we have microphones available, and if shareholders could please state their name when addressing the meeting and ask all questions through the chair, that would be appreciated. I'm going to take questions from the floor first, and then turn to questions online. So are there any questions?
Just grab a microphone.
Just a few different questions.
Sure.
In the marketing material that you distribute, I think it's each month, that says, you know, shareholders need to consider a five, 10, or longer timeframe. The shares that I own weren't bought at a premium to asset backing. They may have been perhaps bought at a slight premium when the shares fell. So I'm not really affected by the unwinding of any premium over time. Some of the original clients would have bought them in the float, I would say.
Sure.
So, I hold 1.1 million shares, approximately, in my proxies, according to the registry people. We've obviously had a very lousy experience, and I'm just a little concerned that we don't compare apples with apples.
Mm-hmm.
The company gears to approximately 10%, or it can, and that's the target gearing. The index we compare to doesn't have that advantage. I'm wondering, with the expense costs of the interest, which ratcheted up by a few million—
Mm-hmm
... you know, if it doesn't go in MER, where does it go? So, you know, and if it's not an expense, what is it? So I think that, that's my question at the minute. I've got a couple more follow on from that-
Sure.
But perhaps, would you want me to get through them all, and-
Perhaps go through them all, and I'll come back, and I'll pick them up.
Yeah. I noticed the word ESG in the report, and I noticed the word carbon footprint, and I'm just wondering, perhaps if Mr Freeman could articulate on what the overlay is, and I... Apparently, the company's calculated its carbon footprint. I didn't know I'd signed up for an ESG investment-
Mm-hmm.
But I'd like to know how that's determining selection, stock selection.
Sure.
Because I noticed from your report, the strongest sectors last year, from memory, were information technology, I think up 30% or so, which was substantially higher than the index. Materials, energy, and I think infrastructure was the third, if my memory serves me correctly.
Mm-hmm.
They're all up substantially higher than the market. I'd like to know from Mr. Freeman whether we were overweight or underweight each of those sectors last year. Discount to asset backing, I'm a bit surprised that, I think, in the report it says the company was trading at a 3% discount to net tangible asset backing last financial year, and now it's trading at a 10% discount at 30 of June, and the company refreshed its on-market buyback with a stock exchange, saying it intended to, you know, have a facility to buy back shares. I'm just very surprised we haven't bought back a single share. That sort of dovetails into another question on capital management.
We keep a DRP active, where we're printing fresh stock and issuing it at a discount, and I can't see how that enhances shareholder value at all. And I would have thought that the company, with its share buyback, if it feels obliged to continue to offer a, you know, a DRP to shareholders as a service, at least consider buying back, at the appropriate discount, the number of shares you're issuing, to sort of neutralize it. And you could certainly do that through the on-market buyback. I think, yeah, I'm just very concerned about the MER, 'cause when I sort of started to calculate the figures, I was fully expecting the interest cost to be embedded into it, and it isn't.
Mm-hmm.
I think the MER effectively doubles if you do include it, from my calculations, from memory. I mightn't be precisely on that-
Sure
... but I'm not too far from-
Yep
-from that. So, that concerns me. The other thing, Mr. Chairman, I understand you sit, and you're the company's representative for its minority interest on AICS. I think that's what you call it?
Yes.
Hopefully, I've got it right. I think last year I perhaps got that wrong, but I've learned from my mistakes. I'm just wondering, is it prudent, from a governance point of view, to have our chairman-
Mm-hmm
-on that board when there's a whole lot of other people that could be? Because I think you can't serve two masters, particularly when you're chairman, and you've obviously-
Yep
got obligations. I'm not having a go. You're a great guy, right?
Yeah.
But I don't think you can have two masters.
Yep.
If it were me, I'd feel uncomfortable about it, because you've got obligations to that company you're serving on, as well as obligations to us, and I think the bigger obligation is to us. So perhaps you could consider stepping down and appointing one of your other cohort to represent our minority interest in the, in the company. And the question is, we've got 25% interest, are we entitled to two directors on it? That was the other thought that came to mind. The AUD 625,000, I think that's the number, I might be wrong, or thereabouts, that was, I think, Mr. Porter said it was sort of a recredit or something. I didn't quite understand the treatment of that. And is the recredit involved in calculating the MER at 0.4%, or?
Yes.
Probably-
Yes.
Probably not. Probably not.
No, it is.
It's probably not that great, really, you know, because it reflects a prior year, so-
Correct.
So, you know, I'd just... You know, I just think transparency is really important, and it's really important to get these things crystal clear and paint the worst case scenario. So when we read the annual reports, and I read AFIC's, and I read Djerriwarrh's to understand the full scene, yeah. So that's the extent of my questions, Mr. Chairman, unless something else pops up, which I think it will.
Well, thanks, thanks very much, Mr. Ellingworth. And let me address a couple of those myself, and I will have colleagues address a couple of the others. So first, in relation to the MER, yes, I mean, in the P&L, we've got finance costs at AUD 3.5 million, and administration costs at AUD 4 million. We have had debt for 30 years, and we have reported the same way and been clear on this. I'm advised that we report the same way as other geared products. But it's very easy if one wants to take that approach to make the calculation oneself, and draw conclusions from that.
I think what really matters is the yield and total return that we achieve, and the interest costs are obviously all captured in that, because they go out before we're in a position to pay a dividend. To your point, we use gearing with a policy of around 10% as a maximum, and it's really there for where the team are seeing opportunities to earn over and above the interest costs, which has clearly, in this environment, become a little more challenging. Yet, through stock selection and intelligent use of the options market, they've managed to achieve that through this year. So, I think we'll have to beg to differ in terms of the way we approach that.
As you've picked up, we're very transparent in our reporting, and if you want to think about it on that basis, there is clearly an ability to make that calculation. If I could turn to your question around the use of ESG and carbon footprint, and I'll turn to Mark-
Yeah.
Thanks, to address that.
Okay, thanks for that. It's a, I mean, it's a good question because it's a very topical issue. We are not an ESG fund. We don't put ourselves out as an ESG fund. However, what matters to us, you know, we have a framework for assessing companies, and there are a number of factors that we focus on, and one of them is sustainability of the business model. We are primarily a long-term investor, so we want to be in companies that can sustain their business model and grow their profits over the long term. If we assess a company is gonna struggle because of commitments around environmental issues, that comes into our assessment of the long-term prospects of the company. We don't call it out as an individual item.
But we're, but we're also strongly aware that companies have to have a social license to operate as well, and that's a very important part of what we want our companies that are running to be responsible citizens, treat staff well, do the right things by the environment. So there are expectations on what our companies do. However, we are looking at the long-term prospects of a business and the ability to grow. So what we talk about is that the factors that make up ESG are actually embedded in that process, and they have been forever. We've always considered governance an important part of assessing a company. Social issues have always been important. We don't invest in pure play gambling stocks, for example.
As I said, environmental issues can impact the competitive position, the sustainability of the business, the ability to grow. They are all part of what we do. In terms of what we report, there is a standard that's going to be coming out in the next six months that may put some requirements on it in terms of what we say about these matters. One of them, I think there's probably one number we will have to come up with, is the carbon intensity of the portfolio. That will probably be a requirement. We do get that number from a couple of sources that are where we can give our portfolio, and ISS, one of the proxy advisors, they can do that. You can give them your portfolio.
They'll tell them what your carbon footprint is compared to the index. We don't have that number today to give you, but I can tell you, just due to the nature of the companies we hold, that our footprint is substantially below what you would get from the index. But I said it's not the key driver, but we are looking for our companies to keep improving what they're doing. So we do invest in oil and gas stocks. We don't say we won't invest in them, but we do want them to improve their carbon footprint, and that's part of the social license to operate. So I think, hopefully, that covers off on your question there.
It's just a question of four top performing sectors.
Yeah, sorry. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's the next one. Yeah. Chris, I was gonna pass that over to, to Brett and Olga.
Yeah. So, I mean, the carbon footprint question is obviously different versus our company itself versus the portfolio. Looking at it on the portfolio, which is Mark's referring to, the data's still all developing. I don't think it's perfect yet. And then, of course, there's the question between scope one, scope two, and scope three. So for instance, not all companies in the market report those numbers. It's getting a lot better, which is something that we're monitoring, but this whole framework and movement's definitely developing. But I think the importance is only going one way. So to pick out one example, so for instance, Transurban's early stage scope of their emissions, it doesn't include the vehicles driving on the roads. They're a later scope emission.
We wouldn't think about it as in, we don't want to own a company like that because there's carbon emissions. It's not that we wouldn't exclude an investment like that. Similarly, with IT services, I mean, the gig sectors are constructed differently than how we might think about sectors across the market. The information technology sector is quite small, and we only own one pure information technology stock, which is Macquarie Technology, company, which runs some data centers.
Sorry, just giving a few others. There's the information technology, according to your report on page seven, was up 38.1%. I accept your explanation. Then materials were up 22%, utilities were up 20.3%, and energy was up 17.3%. And my question was, were you under or overweight each of those elements that were the top performing sectors last year?
Yeah, sure. No, we're, we're generally underweight, so we've... And that, that's been some of the driver for why we were selectively buying stocks like BHP and Woodside. So we've been, on average, we've been underweight materials and energy over the last three years.
Just to make it clear, we're longer term investors, and in any one year, you'll have certain sectors that are up, and there's probably every chance those same sectors will probably be down the next year. We're not trying to chase one year performance. We don't go into any one year saying, "What is gonna be the best sector this year?" To be frank, I find that very difficult to do. There's always gonna be some sectors that are doing better than the others, but what we're looking for is longer term performance, and we're not trying to pick the next sector that's gonna be an outperformer.
Can I turn to your next question, or perhaps the two of them together? First of all, the discount to NTA and the buyback, which Mark actually addressed a fair amount in his comments, in the presentation. I think, you know, one of my core assessments in looking at whether one does a buyback is the alternate fund use. And as I noted in my comments, the investment team have done a very good job at finding opportunities to improve our performance. Having said that, the board, as they did during this last year, will continue to assess whether or not a buyback should actually be implemented.
The reason that we continue to renew and effectively have on the shelf the ability to do it is that if you don't do that and make a decision, you have to put in a notice, and you can't act for a minimum of two weeks. It makes it better to have it on the shelf. In relation to DRP, the DRP was reintroduced in 2017, and six of the last seven DRPs have actually been at no discount. There's been no discount to market. We're cognizant each time we look at it. As a service to shareholders, we find that people do want to participate, so we don't want to turn it on and off all the time.
We're very conscious of not issuing at a discount if the shares are also trading at a discount, because to your point, that does add dilution. I'd like to take under advisement your comment around, well, potentially one could buy back those shares to neutralize the impact. Your final point was on AICS. I think I should make it clear that AICS is not there to make a profit at the expense of the LIC shareholders. It's there as the administrative organization that employs, that manages internal audit for the group, and administers the group. I think from a remuneration perspective, I actually want to have visibility in terms of the degree to which Djerri's performance influences remuneration. We'll again take that under advisement, but I appreciate the questions.
I'd also note, Chairman, that AICS has three non-executive directors, and Djerriwarrh has one of those. So Djerriwarrh -
Yeah.
-has 33% of the directors.
Okay. Can I ask if there are other questions from the floor of the meeting? Yes, sir.
Geoff Thomas.
Yeah.
Representing two investment companies. First of all, the DRP, I appreciate the DRP. I think it's excellent. And when you start talking about dilution, actually, when you start looking at the percentage of shareholders who participate, it's very, very small dilution. The idea that we can buy back on the market, I think, is an excellent one as well. But I do sometimes feel that if you really analyze statistically what impact it actually has, the DRP, you... Can you give me off the top of your head, how many people participate percentage-wise?
Yeah. It's around 18% of our shareholders, representing about 12% of the capital, and the dilution is 0.6% in the last year.
Great. Yeah.
I think the other thing, Geoff, is we tend to find that, it's often the same shareholders that are going in it. And when you look over a longer term period, you have some periods where you're at a premium, and you're paying too much, and you have some periods where you're paying at a discount, and you're getting a better deal. But net, net, over time, it sort of all evens out because it tends to be, as I said, it's a lot of the same shareholders that are in it. There's not a lot of movement of people turning off and on. So you win sometimes, you lose sometimes, but it all balances out.
That's what investing's about, isn't it? Just, just one other point on the buyback you have. Mark mentioned in his presentation a heavy buyback, but a soft buyback, whereby you just indicate to the market a small amount that we support. We think it's good value at this price. So I'd ask you to consider that as well.
Mm-hmm.
I don't want you going in heavily buying back.
Yeah.
-without-
Yeah, sure.
-substantial discounts. So, just a thought on that one. I have one question about... Yeah, but before I do that, I just want to make a comment on the Goodman Group.
Mm-hmm.
Because this stock is a flavor of the month. Every broker everywhere I hear, it's a fantastic company. Greg Goodman's done a fantastic job, and we know that, but it's expensive. And why, why I say this, you do have an alternative, and that's through Brickworks. Now, before people get on my back about this, Brickworks, part of the Soul's Group, it's 10% bricks, the rest of it's an investment company. And a predominant part of that now is property, both here in Australia and also in the U.S. So I would ask you to consider this company, because it's got a better yield than, than the Goodman, than the Goodman Group. Also, it's got an NTA of AUD 37.
It's been trading in the last couple of weeks as low as AUD 24, and you've got the backing there of the most sensible people in the investment world, the Milner family. So I wondered if we might just consider that as a better yield than Goodman. I'll pass it on to your investor.
We're very happy to take stock picks, so we use multiple sources to get ideas, and we get some good ideas from investors, too. So, we have looked at that one in the past. We've owned it in some of our portfolios, but sort of just, I'll handball it across. We'll definitely have a look at it again, so.
Like Mark said, we're happy to take the feedback. I mean, you're not wrong with Goodman Group. It's, it's definitely a popular company, but deservedly so. The performance has been stunning the last 10 years. The thing that's always left an impression on us is that it's the same team, basically, that was running the business during the Global Financial Crisis, and they really learned their lessons, which I think is priceless. And that's how they've managed the business for the last 10 years. And value is definitely one thing at the moment, but they keep delivering fantastic results, and that translates into total shareholder return, which has been far superior from this company over the last 10, 15 years to whether it be Brickworks or other companies. It's in the portfolio for growth, because it's a low-yielding stock.
So again, with Djerriwarrh , the mix of income and growth, Goodman's in there for growth. But all these things need to be continually assessed, and despite it still being a great company and having a wonderful outlook, things can change. We might not hold it forever. We'll see, but for now, it's a core holding in the portfolio.
Yeah, and also, you understand that with Brickworks, their partnership is with the Goodman Group, and they. So you're picking up that management, and they're doing a fantastic job with the relocation of, well, the quarries that are being turned into industrial developments, but Goodman's behind that. And also, in the U.S., Goodman's also picked up some points that Brickworks didn't realize in some of their purchases. The final question to you is just on with Telstra, and yesterday, they purchased or are taking over a new company, I think it's Versent? And I just wondered if you might be able to give a bit of background as, or color as to this particular takeover.
Yeah, sure. We haven't spoken to the company since the announcement. It was only yesterday, but it's a small acquisition, I think, so put a bit of context to it. Very, very small as a percentage of Telstra's profit. We don't know what the profit of the new acquisition is. They gave a revenue number. So they're trying to fix and improve the enterprise part of Telstra's business, which has been an underperformer the last couple of years, so serving businesses. We see the real value, though, for Telstra, the main game is in the mobiles business and in retaining the infrastructure assets. The performance was terrific in the most recent result. I think the operating profit of the mobiles business was up about 15%. The market leader, getting volume growth, getting price growth, and we don't think that's reflected in the price.
The infrastructure assets, retaining them, we think is the right move, because there's probably long-term opportunities in that business and value that the market hasn't recognized. So they're definitely the two main gains. Some small acquisitions will obviously follow over time, but it's mobiles and infrastructure that's the main driver.
Thanks.
Thanks very much, Mr. Thomas. Are there other questions from the floor at the minute, Mr. Ellingworth? Yeah.
I didn't see inflation at all on any of the slides. I might have missed it, but I think it's the investors' biggest foe.
Mm-hmm.
I think with the terrible conflict that's occurring in the Middle East and the tragedy that's occurred there, the oil price and energy price is gonna remain very high. In fact, the world's smartest investor, Warren Buffett, bought 30% of Oxy Petroleum, and also gone in very hard into the Japanese trading houses, which have big mining interests. He's obviously very interested in hedging his insurance company, inflation. So I think it's really important in your charts, in your think, because-
Yeah.
You've got shareholders here that rely on... They're all experiencing inflation.
Yes.
It's wonderful that you've got-
Yeah.
-the enhanced income. I forgot to congratulate the board on the increase in the dividend. But, you know, that was very pleasing, franked dividend. But, you know, I think having bank bills is not much use to people in charts, because I don't know anyone that invests in them.
Mm-hmm.
But I think CPI is something that would be right in the engine room of your self-managed super funds and companies and the like that are ultimately financing retirees, including my folks. So-
Yeah.
Yeah, just thought of perhaps I'd mention that.
Thanks. I appreciate that comment. And in fact, at the investment committee last week, we actually considered a paper from the investment team, which was looking at if inflation is around for longer, what implications might that have for the portfolio? So a well-made comment. Other questions in the room? So I might perhaps turn to any questions from online.
I've got an online one here, Chairman, and I think Mark's already covered this off, but he might want to make some additional comments. I've got a question here from Steve van Emmerik, from the Australian Shareholders Association. Just again, noting the fact that the shares are trading at a premium some period between 2013 and 2016. Now, they've traded at a discount for the last three years. Just to, again, what, what's sort of—why has this occurred? And has—does the company intend to take any action to improve this situation? Mark, you might actually just comment on some of the things we've been doing promoting the company post the results as well.
Yeah. So we've certainly been out and about a bit more, speaking to financial planners and brokers about Djerriwarrh. We've had some pretty good interest in, so that sort of performance over three and a half years and seeing the dividends grow. But I guess as we've done these presentations, we keep getting feedback that's been pretty consistent, which is retail investors, more broadly, are shying away from investing in share markets. And as to... As Graham pointed out earlier, that, you know, there's been a lot of money over the last 10 years that essentially was forced into equities because you couldn't get income from being in the bank or term deposits. That's obviously changed substantially.
And given all the issues that have been pointed out in the world, I think people feel comfortable getting, you can get 4.5% in the bank now, and they're comfortable sitting in there. So we're seeing across the entire market, all listed investment companies, the share prices have dropped, so it's not a feature that's particular to this company, it's the whole market. And certainly, some of the listed fund managers we speak to, again, they're really struggling with inflows. So retail investors, as a group, are shying away from putting money into markets. But, you know, we've seen this enough that that's a cycle that will change at some point.
And, you know, we think if we're very clear to the market about how we've been performing more recently, when money does start to come back in the market, you know, we're hopeful that Djerriwarrh will get some of that attention. But in the meantime, the stock is trading at a discount to NTA for those interested in buying. So, all we can do is continue to run the portfolio and try and meet our objectives.
Thanks, Mark. So question, Graham, for you: could Djerriwarrh raise with large invested companies such as Woolworths and BHP, the ethics of their note donation for the Yes case in the Voice referendum? Is it ethical to donate shareholder funds to what is this issue within the Australian community?
Thank you very much for the question. We don't, as you would know, make any donations of that, and we've not felt it appropriate to take a position on the Voice, as we're conscious we have a broad range of views in our shareholder base. I think it's for the boards of other companies to make the decision themselves. And I'm not here to comment on the ethics of those companies, but obviously, I'd suggest that that's something, if one is interested, that be taken up in the AGM season, which we're really just starting.
Final pre-submitted question, Chair. Just, a bit along similar lines we had before. So why don't we buy out the small unmarketable parcels of shares at no cost to shareholders?
Unmarketable parcels are something that we've looked into in the past. But we found actually, when one goes out with a request, that most people with them don't take any action. They actually prefer to keep their holdings, notwithstanding they might be small. But it's certainly something we can look into again to see whether or not there's a view that conditions have changed.
Thanks. I've got no other online questions. I'll just check there's no questions from the phone at all.
Thank you, Chair. There are no phone questions.
I have no other questions.
Okay. Thanks very much, Geoff. So we now move to the formal resolutions of the meeting. Your directors' recommendations are set out in the notice of meeting. I can confirm that where undirected proxies have been given to me as chairman, I will vote them in line with the board's recommendations on each agenda item. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. Representatives of Computershare will oversee the conduct of the poll. Firstly, if there is any person in the room who believes they are entitled to vote but have not yet registered to do so, could you please seek assistance from representatives of our share registry, Computershare, who are at the back of the room.
For those in the room, on the reverse of your green admission card is your voting paper and instructions, and I will now go through the procedures for filling in the voting papers. In respect of any open votes a proxyholder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside each resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Shareholders also need to mark a box beside each resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. When you have finished filling in the voting paper, please lodge it in the ballot boxes that will be available at the end of the meeting. The second agenda item is the resolution to adopt the remuneration report.
This is required by the Corporations Act to be considered by shareholders annually and is an advisory resolution only. As detailed in the report, Djerriwarrh has no employees and has a relationship with Australian Investment Company Services Limited, an associated entity of Djerriwarrh that we were talking about a little earlier, which provides the company with administration and investment services. The financial details of that relationship are set out in the accounts. As such, the remuneration report concentrates on non-executive director fees. Non-executive directors do not receive any performance-based incentives and just receive a flat fee for service as a director. If you have any questions on this item, please submit them now if you are online, if you've not already done so. But first, I'll turn to any questions on this matter from the floor of the meeting. Mr. Thomas?
I'd just like to congratulate all the board members for having an interest in the company. I'm of the view that that's a very good thing because they're aligned with my interests. I noticed that this director is also a shareholder as well. I commend her and also thank the board for being so engaged with the company.
Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for your comments. If there are no other questions from the floor, I'll ask, are there any questions online?
No questions online, Graham, on this particular resolution. I'll just check there's no questions from the phone either.
Thanks, C hair. There are no phone questions.
Thank you. The third agenda item is the resolution to re-elect Kathryn Fagg as a Non-Executive Director. Kathryn was re-elected by directors at the 2020 AGM, and so is standing for re-election by shareholders today. In accordance with Rule 46 of the company's constitution, she retires from the Board of Directors and, being eligible, offers herself for re-election. Before I ask for any questions, I'd like to invite Kathryn to say a few words.
Thank you, Graham. It is a real privilege to put myself forward for re-election to the board of Djerriwarrh. Djerriwarrh has a very clear sense of purpose, and I hope that is very palpable to everyone here today. It is certainly the case at board meetings and investment committee meetings. And the other reason it's a great privilege to put myself forward is because of the caliber and quality of people that serve you, the company, either as board members, and thank you for the comments just previously on acknowledging the board members', commitment to the organization, which is very deep, but also to the caliber of people who work for Djerriwarrh. And you've heard from Mark, Brett, and Olga today, and they are exemplary professionals and representative of all the people involved with Djerriwarrh. Oh, Andrew, you spoke, too. Thank you. That's quite all right.
And made sure we got the numbers right, so I appreciate that. Just to tell you a little about my, what I bring to the board of Djerriwarrh Investments. First of all, I have a strong analytical background, having originally been an engineer, and I now chair CSIRO, which gives me good insight as to what is happening in terms of innovation and technology, and certainly dealing with the big themes that underpin economic change, which are, of course, digitalization and decarbonization. Although interestingly enough, the report that we've received the most interest from in the last 12 months is on the eating habits of Australians. And guess what? There's a long way for us to get a lot better there. The other thing that I bring is really broad and diverse experiences across a range of sectors.
I started as a chemical engineer, worked in the oil and gas industry, have done strategy consulting with McKinsey, have worked in banking with ANZ Logistics, with Linfox. Then in my board career, I've had a breadth of experience across different sectors. I'm now on the board of NAB, as well as Medibank Private, and I also have a deep interest in the not-for-profit sector, whether it is chairing Breast Cancer Network Australia or in philanthropy with the Myer Foundation, through to policy with the Grattan Institute, just as examples of what I'm involved with. It is a privilege to be on the board of Djerriwarrh Investments, and I thank you for your support.
Thank you very much, Kathryn. I will now show the proxies received in respect to this resolution, which is shown on the screen. There were no questions asked prior to the meeting. Are there any questions from the floor of the meeting in relation to this resolution? Do we have any questions online, Jim?
No questions online. I'd again, just check if we've got any phone questions.
Thank you. No phone questions.
Thanks. Nothing.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. In a couple of minutes, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your votes on all resolutions. For those in the room, I now ask that you complete your voting card, and Computershare staff will collect your voting card at the end of the meeting. I would like to thank shareholders for your continued support and for the interest you've shown in the affairs of the company by your attendance here today in person or virtually. Shareholders are reminded that the investment team will be holding shareholder meetings in Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, and Sydney during March 2024. Thank you very much indeed. Online voting is now closed. The results of the votes will be released as soon as practicable to the ASX later today.
I now formally close the meeting, and for those in the room, refreshments are available. Thank you.