Good morning. My name is Michael Busby, and I am the Chairman of Felix Group Holdings Limited, and I will be chairing today's meeting. On behalf of the board of Felix Group Holdings, it's a pleasure to address you, our shareholders, at our 2025 Annual General Meeting. I wish to thank you for your ongoing support and for your attendance here today. In attendance here with me today are my fellow directors, Joycelyn Morton, Rob Phillpott, George Rolleston, Managing Director and CEO Mike Davis, and Company Secretary and CFO James Frayne. Nigel Batters, the company's auditor from BDO, is also in attendance. As set out in the notice of meeting dated the 13th of October 2025, this meeting is being conducted in person as well as virtually. The registration details for which were included in the notice of meeting.
Shareholders will be able to ask questions and vote in real time. I would point out that questions may only validly be asked in relation to the annual report and the resolutions to be put. Also, as time is limited, it's possible that not all questions will be able to be answered today. If there are unanswered questions on matters not substantially covered in today's meeting, please feel free to contact us directly. All resolutions today will be decided on a poll, and at the appropriate time, I will ask Computershare to collect the voting cards. As set out in the notice of meeting, the company endeavored to respond to all relevant questions submitted by email by shareholders before this meeting. I'm informed by the Company Secretary that the quorum requirements are satisfied, and I declare this meeting open.
I note valid proxies have been received from 20 shareholders representing approximately 41.76% of total shares on issue. As Chairman, I am holding open proxies. I confirm that it is my intention to vote open proxies in favor of the resolutions as stated in the notice of meeting. This meeting will proceed as follows. Mike Davis, our outgoing CEO, will present and hand over to interim CEO and CFO James Frayne. I will deal with the business of the meeting, which is to vote on the resolutions as they are set out in the company's notice of meeting. A brief background will be provided on some of the resolutions prior to voting, and I will consider any other business as may lawfully be put forward in accordance with the constitution of the company.
Attendees entitled to vote will be given the opportunity to ask questions in relation to each resolution and submit a vote on each resolution. If you wish to ask a question, select the Q&A icon, type your question into the text box. Once you've finished typing, please hit the send button. You may also ask a verbal question by following the instructions written below the broadcast. Please note that you can submit questions from now on. I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we'll answer them in due course via email or posting responses on our website.
If there are no objections, I'll take the notice of meeting as read. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions. Voting will close at the end of the meeting, and results will be announced to the ASX after the meeting. After discussion of each resolution, I will advise you of the proxy votes for that resolution. If you're eligible to vote at this meeting, once voting opens, press the voter icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. There is no need to hit the submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed.
I now declare voting open on all items of business, and I will give you a warning before I move to close voting. The first item on the agenda in the notice of meeting is to receive and consider the company's 2025 annual report, which comprises the reports of the directors and the auditor and of the annual financial statements and reports for the financial year ending 30th of June 2025 for the company and its controlled entities. The company's 2025 annual report has been made available to shareholders, and it accompanied the notice of meeting. The purpose of this agenda item is to provide an opportunity to shareholders to raise questions on the report and on the performance of the company generally. I now invite discussion and questions in relation to the company's 2025 annual report. Are there any questions that are relating to the annual report, James?
No questions on the annual report, Michael.
On the annual report, okay. Members were provided an opportunity to ask the company's auditor, BDO, questions relevant to the content of the auditor's report and the conduct of its audit of the financial report to be considered at this annual general meeting by submitting written questions to the auditor prior to this meeting by email. Nigel Batters from BDO is present today. I'll now pass over to Mr. Batters to respond to any written questions on these matters which were provided prior to the meeting.
No questions from the staff.
Thank you very much, Nigel.
Right, I've just had a question on the financial statements that's come through the portal, and it's a question saying, "When was the audit last tendered and when will it next be tendered out?" And my understanding was that the audit was last tendered two years ago in late 2023, and we don't have any immediate plans for the next tendering, but the board will consider and review that and announce that when appropriate.
Thank you. Any other questions that have come through?
No.
Okay. Any questions from the floor on the annual report? No? I will move to the next item of business, which is my Chairman's address. It's my privilege to address you today as Chairman as we reflect on an outstanding year for Felix, marked by significant growth, new milestones, and continued progress towards our long-term strategic goals. During financial year 2025, Felix continued to demonstrate operational and financial discipline while delivering strong revenue growth and strengthening our position as a leader in supply chain and procurement management for asset-intensive sectors. Our group revenue increased by 21% to AUD 8.6 million, underpinned by record sales for management in our enterprise procurement platform. We welcomed 13 new enterprise customers throughout the financial year, including major wins such as Karara Mining and Bellevue Gold, bringing our total enterprise customers to a record 75.
This strong growth in Felix's customer base highlights the rising demand for digital procurement solutions and underscores the critical value we deliver to contractors navigating increasingly complex supply chains. We also made significant strides in deepening our relationship with existing customers, evidenced by a record 23 expansion deals signed throughout financial year 2025. This was a 35% increase over the previous year. These expansions were achieved through increased usage of the platform, the uptake of additional modules, and penetration into new divisions within our customers' organizations. This focus on driving contract value expansion has resulted in consistently high net revenue retention of over 100%. It is demonstrating the ongoing trust our customers place in our platform and underpinning the strength of our recurring enterprise revenue base.
Additionally, in financial year 2025, Felix took major steps towards progressing its capital-light international growth strategy, which involves pursuing opportunities to upsell into the global parent organizations of our existing customers. Building on domestic momentum, we secured major new contract wins with overseas customers, including with DRA Projects in the mining sector and PCL Construction's solar division in North America. These cornerstone contracts validate the global relevance of Felix's platform and provide us with a foothold in key international markets. We further demonstrated our commitment to international expansion by deploying dedicated resources to Canada, and believe these early wins will set the stage for sustained growth beyond Australia. A particularly pleasing highlight of financial year 2025 was Felix reaching and sustaining positive operating cash flow for the full year, delivering a net inflow of AUD 418,000, a significant turnaround from the prior year.
Importantly, this achievement was realised while maintaining a stable cost base relative to previous years, demonstrating our ability to drive meaningful growth through prudent cost management and increasing operating leverage. This reflects our disciplined approach to building a sustainable and high-quality growth platform. Following the financial year-end, Felix made a significant step forward in our vendor monetisation strategy with the acquisition of Nexvia, a Brisbane-based SaaS platform for project-led small to medium enterprises in the construction sector. This acquisition enables Felix to accelerate the monetisation of our vendor marketplace, which now comprises well over 100,000 vendors. The acquisition will enable deeper integration and direct vendor monetisation opportunities. This will expand our addressable market and strengthen our product suite through cross-selling and complementary capabilities.
This acquisition was supported by a successful capital raise, which has further strengthened our balance sheet and provided us with financial flexibility to accelerate our strategic initiatives in financial year 2026 and beyond. Looking forward, our priorities for financial year 2026 will be continued investment in product innovation, deepened partnerships, and international expansion, while ensuring seamless integration of Nexvia to unlock synergies and realise significant opportunity that vendor monetisation presents. As always, our focus remains on maximising value for shareholders and executing our vision to be a trusted supply chain platform for the built environment. Finally, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to our CEO and co-founder, Mike Davis. Thank you, Mike, for his outstanding leadership and service to Felix over more than a decade.
Mike's vision and dedication have been instrumental in driving Felix's growth and success since its inception, and he leaves the company in a position of real strength as he steps down. With Mike stepping down, I will also wish to acknowledge James Frayne, who will serve as interim CEO while we undertake a formal search for a new high-calibre CEO to guide the next chapter of Felix's journey. On behalf of the board, I'm grateful for the continued commitment of our entire team, the insights of my fellow board members, and most importantly, the continued trust and support of our shareholders. As we enter another exciting year for Felix, I'm confident that we are well positioned to build upon our successes and continue delivering on our key strategic priorities.
Now move on to the CEO's address, and I'll call on Mike as one of his last duties to talk to the meeting.
Thanks, Michael. We actually might start on slide five if that's okay.
Am I in the way? We can go next slide. Next slide. Next slide. Next slide, thanks. Thanks. We'll start here. I've got a few slides to get through covering Felix 101, our growth strategy, and then I'll hand over to James to provide some commentary on FY26 outlook. As Michael has outlined, we're an enterprise software solution primarily for the asset-intensive industries. In terms of the operating environment, we're really seeing a right time and right place for Felix in terms of the criticality of supply chain governance, oversight, and visibility for medium to large enterprises to report on and manage their enterprises. As we pivoted into the enterprise opportunity for Felix, we've really seen those structural tailwinds providing momentum not only in the domestic market, but now as we broaden our vision into international markets as well. Next slide, thank you.
We've built Felix from the ground up to be fit for purpose for contractors and large asset-owning organizations, identifying a gap that traditional larger procurement platforms weren't as suitable or fit for purpose for their exacting needs as they build significant infrastructure projects and manage large asset portfolios. Our critical point of differentiation for these sectors is our specialty for their requirements and sector needs. Thank you. Next slide. Since our original inception, we've been building a dual-sided marketplace of the contractors and their supply chains and vendors. Our past number of years have obviously been focused on building out the robustness of our enterprise solution and the modules within that. Now, as we can see over on the right-hand side, the acquisition and the complementary nature of the Nexvia modules on our vendor side really provide Felix with a holistic platform ecosystem to service the dual-sided market.
Thank you. Next slide. Our logo board now spanning our target sectors, I think, is validation of the thesis for building Felix for the sectors we have, particularly in the domestic market, and now beginning to see the green shoots of some really recognized and trusted names coming through in international markets. For those who know our sort of industry well, these will be well-recognized and leading names who have all had significant diligence and selection processes to choose Felix as their trusted platform of choice for supply chain management and procurement. Thank you. Next slide. The key pillars of our growth strategy is something we've been communicating to the market for a couple of years, and we'll unpack these in a little more detail, starting with the next slide. Primarily, we're focused on continuing to drive domestic contractor uptake and growth in the local market.
The broadening focus and applicability of Felix into the adjacent sectors such as mining and resources, property and real estate services, energy, and power continue to increase the addressable market for us domestically, and we're focused on continuing uptake within the market for Felix. Thank you. Next slide. We deal with large, at times, cumbersome organizations who are geographically diverse. They're multidisciplinary and have a number of operating divisions. They're project-led and sort of disparate in nature. Full penetration and uptake of Felix across the enterprise can be a journey. I guess our strategy and enterprise sales motion is land and expand, and we've seen the continuing success of that over the last couple of years.
We will continue to maintain a strong focus on increasing the value proposition and value of Felix to our existing customer base and continue to see contract value expansion across the incumbent customer base. Thank you. Next slide. Michael spoke about the capital-light international strategy, and I think it is some of our secret sauce at Felix is that due to the blue-chip nature and size of our customer base, often they are parts of larger global groups or have significant international parent companies. As what we are doing with the domestic or APAC subsidiary is seen as best in class and really cutting-edge, we are starting to feel almost that pull-up into the international opportunities, and it really is akin to sort of expansion revenue in itself. We will be continuing to follow that somewhat organic international growth path for Felix. Thank you. Next slide. Okay.
We've got a little bit more meat in the bones in terms of vendor monetisation now, and it's an area that's long been keen interest not only to the business, but our investors and the market is the opportunity, just given the continued growth and scale of our vendor marketplace, to be able to provide real value and commensurate value to that side of the market and begin to commercialise. The somewhat serendipitous opportunity to acquire Nexvia, a local Brisbane SaaS platform only five minutes down the road from Felix, provides a really strong and cohesive and synergistic bolt-on that we can plug straight in and continue to build on the scale and momentum that the Nexvia team have over the past number of years. The subcontractors, increasing subcontractor segment of their target sectors provides a really strong overlap into Felix's vendor marketplace. Thank you. Next slide.
I've included the breadth of the Nexvia solution on there just to sort of reaffirm, I guess, how impressed we were with the breadth of the solution in terms of its modular nature and how comprehensive the platform is for SMEs in the construction industry. It gives us a lot to work with as we consider our go-to-market strategies and continuing the scale and traction and momentum of the business. Next slide. Thank you. Most critically for us, as we began to, I guess, form our view and strategies, was that Nexvia is not an adjacent solution that we just felt like we could sell into our vendor marketplace, but our vision to truly integrate and deeply integrate it with our existing enterprise solution would provide something that was an outcome that was greater than the sum of its parts.
As we now, our immediate focus is on the cultural and business integrations and moving the teams in together, we'll begin to then shift focus onto platform integrations and go-to-market strategies. This is to illustrate some high-level conceptual views of how that could look and how excited we are about it. Thank you. Next slide. I think this slide, aside from the lot of content that's on it, serves to illustrate the scale and momentum of growth that we've had through our contractor-led enterprise strategy. If we consider overlaying the Nexvia solution onto sort of the relevant segments of our vendor marketplace, the inherent scale and gravity of that opportunity, which is, I guess, already inherently captive within our platform ecosystem, which is obviously exciting.
Before I hand over to James to talk about outlook, and while I've got the floor for one last time, I'd just like to take the opportunity just to reflect quickly and say a couple of thank yous before I fade away. I think that concludes my last formal duty. I'm sure there are a couple more to come, Michael, as a Felix employee. I was reflecting earlier on my first, but somewhat less formal duties as an employee and back to why framing the original Plant Miner interface. The 13 years in between have certainly been an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling ride. More than anything, I'm incredibly pleased that I'm handing over the baton with Felix in such a strong position with the opportunities for growth now as great as they've ever been in my time in the business.
I'd like to thank Michael and the board, Joycelyn, Rob, and particularly George, and the Rolleston family who have been supporters of the business basically since inception for your support, particularly of me and the business over the past number of years. To my executive team who are back at the office getting the job done, all of the Felix and Nexvia teams and past Felix team members, and other Nexvia funding, including Rob Rowe, who was a great partner through the transaction and becomes an incredibly important part of the Felix team now. Thank you, Rob. To our customers, shareholders, and advisors, many of whom I've built great relationships with over the years, thank you, particularly Emma and the team at Thomson Geer for their incredible commitment over the last number of years.
My co-founder, Michael Trusler, who's probably sitting up at his ranch at Noosa somewhere, it was a hell of a ride and look forward to reflecting together in the coming weeks. Lastly, I look forward to supporting the board and the incoming CEO as we transition in the next chapter of Felix's journey. Thank you. Over to you, James.
Thanks, Mike. Might flip over to the next slide. Firstly, I'd just like to also acknowledge Mike and the impact that he's had on the company. There is no Felix, obviously, without Mike. The tremendous journey that he's been able to take the business from startup inception. I remember my first day was in a glorified shed, and here we are at an ASX-listed AGM. That shouldn't go unstated, and I appreciate everything you've done for myself and the other executives in the organization.
Next, I'd also like to thank the board for the trust that they placed in me for this interim period in leading the organization and managing through to finding the new CEO during that process. You'll see on the board there's obviously the four major strategic milestones that we're focusing on through FY 2026. These will be the majority of my focus throughout this time. I'll quickly spend a little bit of time on each one. The contractor growth, we have a considerable number of pipeline opportunities across Australia through a number of sectors. It's a very exciting time, and we look forward to adding to the impressive logo board that we have. Contract value expansion, more than 40% of the ARR that we've added in the last 12 months has been through expanding of the platform.
I have a long-held view that customers don't expand a software platform that they don't see value in, that they aren't loving, that they aren't utilising across their business. I see that as a really important metric. International markets is one that's very exciting. We've had over the last 12 months the green shoots starting to come through on the international journey that we've been going on with executing contracts in North America and in Africa. We're looking forward to continually progressing on that journey. Finally, the vendor monetisation strategy, we've just gone through the process of the acquisition with Nexvia and integrating that business will be very high on the agenda and ensuring that we can provide value to the large vendor base that we've curated through the contractor strategy and offering them the modules that we've brought into the business. Thank you.
Thanks very much, James, and thank you, Mike, for your contribution today, but also over the duration as well. We move on to the formal business in terms of the resolutions. The first resolution is the adoption of the remuneration report. In accordance with Section 250R(2) of the Corporations Act, the company must put the remuneration report to the vote of shareholders. The director's report contains the remuneration report, which sets out the remuneration policy for the company and the remuneration arrangements in place for executive directors, executive employees, and non-executive directors of the company. The first resolution to be considered is the adoption of the remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2025. Under the Corporations Act, voting on this resolution is advisory and not binding on the company or the directors.
The board will take into account any discussion on the resolution and outcome of the vote when considering future remuneration policies and practices for the company. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen. I would call for any questions from the floor. There are no questions from the floor. James, are there any questions online? I thought there was one which did mention that.
Y eah, there is a question online. There is a question that says, "Has there been any material proxy protest votes against any of today's resolution, including this remuneration report item?" We will display all the proxy votes on the screen. You can see that for this remuneration report, there has been very little voting against that one.
There is also a secondary follow-up question that, "Why wasn't the chair's address lodged with the ASX before the AGM commenced in compliance with the listing rules?" The chair's address was sent to the ASX at the start of the meeting, and it was uploaded very soon after the start of your address.
Thank you.
That is all on that question.
Thank you. For resolution two is the re-election of director and George Rolleston. Clause 64.1 of the Constitution and the ASX listing rule 14.5 provide that the company must hold an election of directors each year. If there would not otherwise be a vacancy on the board and no director is required to retire, then the director who has been longest in office since the last election must retire. George Rolleston is a non-executive director of the company and was first appointed as a director in 2014. Accordingly, Mr.
Rolleston retires at this meeting and, being eligible and offering himself for election, seeks re-election pursuant to resolution two. George is the founder and managing director of Asset Growth Fund Ltd and Waimak Asset Management, based in Melbourne, and has two decades of experience in the global financial markets, working in mergers and acquisitions and in the financial advisory sector. Mr. Rolleston is a director of a number of private businesses operating globally in the automation, tourism, finance, and security industries. He was previously a director of New Zealand-listed MHM Automation Limited from 2019 to 2024, before it was acquired by Fortifi Food Processing Solutions. If elected, Mr. Rolleston is considered by the board, with Mr. Rolleston abstaining, to be a non-independent director. Mr. Rolleston has acknowledged to the company that he will have sufficient time to fulfill his responsibilities as a director. On the basis of Mr.
Rolleston's skills, qualifications, and experience, and his contributions to the board's activities, the board, other than Mr. Rolleston, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the re-election of Mr. Rolleston. Mr. Rolleston's appointment is to be approved by a resolution of the members in accordance with clause 64.1 of the Constitution and ASX listing rule 14.5. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions from the floor in relation to this resolution? No. James, are there any questions online relating to this item?
Yeah, there's a question. Is George planning to serve a full three-year term, and is he likely to recontest again into 2028?
Yes, to the three-year term, and we'll reassess that in 2028.
Thanks very much, George. We'll now move on to the next resolution.
That is the approval of the issue of shares on exercise of the Briarwood Placement Options held by Briarwood and the acquisition of a relevant interest in those shares by Briarwood under Section 611, item 7 of the Corporations Act. On the 19th of August 2025, the company announced that it had received firm commitments for new fully paid ordinary shares in the company under an underwritten placement to sophisticated professional and institutional investors at an issue price of AUD 0.22 per share to raise approximately AUD 16 million before costs. As part of this placement, Briarwood Chase Management LLC was issued shares and options.
Approval is being sought under item 7 of Section 11 of the Corporations Act because Briarwood's acquisition of the shares on exercise of the options could result in an increase in voting power in the company up to a maximum of 23.66%, which is prohibited under Section 606(1) of the Corporations Act. Resolution three seeks shareholder approval by way of an ordinary resolution to provide the company the ability to issue shares on exercise of options to Briarwood if such shares could result in an increase in voting power of Briarwood up to a maximum of 23.66%. Attention should be given to the voting exclusion statement in the notice of meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions from the floor in relation to this resolution? No. James, are there any questions online in relation to this resolution?
No questions online.
Thank you. We will now move on to the next resolution. You'll note that resolution four has been withdrawn as it related to Mike Davis, and that has been superseded. Resolution five is the approval of an additional 10% placement facility under ASX listing rule 7.1A. ASX listing rule 7.1 limits the amount of equity securities that a listed company can issue without the approval of shareholders over any 12-month period to 15% of the fully paid ordinary securities it had on issue at the start of that period. ASX listing rule 7.1A provides that an eligible entity may seek shareholder approval at its annual general meeting to increase this 15% limit by an extra 10% - 25%.
Resolution five seeks shareholder approval by way of a special resolution to provide the company the ability to issue equity shares under this additional 10% placement facility during the 12-month period after the date of this annual general meeting. Attention should be given to the voting exclusion statement in the notice of meeting. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions from the floor in relation to this resolution? No. James, are there any questions online in relation to this resolution?
The question states, "The only protest vote at the 2024 AGM was 17.8% against the request for an extra 10% placement capacity. Why has this resolution come back again, and why are you asking for this authority?
The next time that you raise capital, will you consider doing a pro-rata issue which treats all shareholders equally as opposed to potentially diluting existing shareholders?
In relation to the first part of that question, I think the board has taken a view that it is prudent to be able to be flexible and agile in its ability to be able to respond to emerging opportunities throughout the year. This is not the first time that we have asked this. Several years in succession, we have asked for this authority. It is really about being able to be in a position to be able to respond in an agile way, flexibly, to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they emerge. In that sense, yes, we are putting it forward again, but it is with that intention.
In relation to the method of doing the capital raise and how that is done, at the time that the board makes a decision on how we go about structuring a capital raise, we are looking at a range of different aspects as to what is going to be in the best interests of the company to be able to reflect the capital raise in a way that is going to position us for the future. Certainly, the concept that is put forward in that question is one option that we consider in making those decisions. In the future, we would continue to consider that as an option and act accordingly if it was appropriate. Okay. I'm down to resolution six, which is the renewal of the proportional takeover provision.
Rule 108 of the company's constitution contains proportional takeover approval provisions that prohibit the company from registering a transfer of shares under a proportional takeover bid unless the bid is approved by resolution passed by shareholders in a general meeting. Under the Corporations Act, the proportional takeover approval provisions in a company's constitution must be renewed every three years, or they will cease to have effect. If this resolution is approved by shareholders, the proportional takeover provisions will be renewed and have effect in terms set out in the constitution until the 12th of November 2028. Resolution six seeks shareholder approval by way of a special resolution to refresh such provisions in accordance with the Corporations Act. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now displayed on the screen. Are there any questions from the floor in relation to this resolution? No.
James, are there any questions online in relation to resolution six?
No questions online, Michael.
Thank you. In terms of other questions that are provided for, are there any other relevant questions that we need to address?
There's a series of general questions. Is it towards the end of the meeting, or are we at now?
I will close the poll at this point. I'm giving notice at this point that the poll will close shortly. Please finalize your votes, and Computershare will come and collect your voting cards in the room. Have all the polling cards been received? Thank you. In that case, I will now declare the poll closed. The formal results of the polls conducted at this meeting will be released to the ASX later today.
With the formal part of the meeting concluded, I'd like to open the floor to any other business. I invite questions to be directed to the board. Please use the general meeting Computershare facilities to submit your questions. James, it's now an appropriate time to address those general questions. Just refer those to us, please.
Yeah. There's a few different questions on the CEO resignation, and there's a grouping of them which all have a similar theme around the extra information or reasoning that can be provided around that.
I'm happy to make an opening comment, and Mike, I might get you just to add to that.
The timing of, sorry, the announcement that Mike was leaving as CEO was one that is always a difficult or an action that is likely to come as a surprise, but it also needs to be addressed in terms of the timing and the impact that's going to happen. Given that the capital raise and the acquisition have been completed and we are in a position that it is an appropriate time to make sure that we are focusing on that integration and the growth going forward, I think that the discussion with Mike around the timing has been one that allows us as a board to now look to put in place a CEO to go forward that will be able to build on that strength that both myself and Mike described earlier.
In terms of the CEO change, I'll let Mike talk about his reasons for that, but it is one which we respect his wishes in that sense.
Thanks, Michael. Yeah, I'm happy to share that the decision that I came to, I think, was really a challenging one. I guess just given the journey as a co-founder and through 13 years I was characterizing in my conversations with board members, it becomes such a core part of your identity being synonymous with Felix that it was a really difficult decision. One that I think, as I looked forward to the next chapter of Felix in the next three to five years, just the practical challenges in me being able to give the role the level of commitment that I believe it needed for the next chapter was something that I just needed to make a business-first decision on.
For those that know me and have been, I guess, involved with the story for a while, I've been remotely based from Sydney and Melbourne now for the entirety of the business journey, Felix's journey, and always travelled up. That's been, I guess, a quirk or a nuance that we've always managed and made work, but something that had probably been increasingly challenging as an ASX-listed CEO, being remote from the rest of the team. I think once the dust settled on the acquisition and beginning to bring the businesses together, moving both businesses into an office together now, I saw it as probably the catalyst moment where the level of time spent in Brisbane just needed to really take a step up and really be the CEO to be hands-on and leading the transformation and integration from the front.
Something just in terms of our family circumstance, my wife has a very demanding career as well. We've got a family of two young girls. I just had, within myself, just an increasing level of conviction that the right thing would be to do, this was the right time to hand over the baton to someone who was able to have that level of commitment and in-Brisbane presence moving forward.
Thanks, Mike. I think, as I said, the board has listened to Mike's desire and concurred in terms of the Brisbane focus and the timing for the change. While it might have been a surprise, it is something that is being well managed.
There are a few follow-up questions on this particular point.
A couple of them are asking what is now happening with the strategy of the business, and is there an anticipated strategy change with Mike going?
Mike as CEO has led the organization, but the strategy is owned jointly with the board and the senior management, and there is no reason for the strategy to change merely because Mike has resigned as CEO.
There is a question in terms of what is the board targeting in terms of experience and traits in the next CEO, and what is the mandate for the next CEO?
It is a very good question, but it is a very difficult one to give a succinct answer to.
We're certainly looking for somebody with appropriate experience, somebody who's going to be able to fit in with the culture of the organization, but the characteristics to really be able to bring the Nexvia integration in and take us to the next level.
The question on the length of Mike's advisor period and what his level of involvement will be over that time.
Mike as an advisor will be available to the business. Clearly, that needs to span the period as James as interim CEO, but we would expect that Mike will be providing input to an incoming CEO to help them familiarize themselves as they take on the role.
Thank you. The next sort of theme of questions regard the Nexvia acquisition. The question is, how is the Nexvia integration progressing, and what have you found out about Nexvia since taking ownership?
In terms of the Nexvia integration, it's nice to have been able to visit the office and actually see the teams co-located to start with and the interactions that are beginning to happen at a staff level in terms of the formal planning for the integration that is progressing and will be occurring as we go forward. Mike or James, I'd be happy for you to add to that, but I think it's one where we're seeing very promising early-stage results.
I think so. I think that the first signs, what we've communicated to the teams as the ultimate foundations for success are our ability to integrate the cultures and the two businesses together. Certainly, the synergy we've seen in that respect has been really encouraging, and the attitude and desire of both teams to come together and create something great has been really encouraging.
Excellent.
The next one on the Nexvia acquisition is, what are the vendors telling you they want and are willing to pay for, and how is that guiding your go-to-market approach?
Yeah, you take it.
Yeah. I think at the heart, and I'll speak on behalf of the Nexvia founder who's in the room, I think that what we've identified as the core sort of benefits and value proposition of the platform is its project management tooling for project-based businesses. Everyone who is in a project-based business in construction is looking to increase their margins on the bottom line. I think Nexvia's tooling across financial management and budget to actuals really helps streamline and digitize those processes for vendor-based businesses and anyone. Everyone will be able to resonate with input cost pressures and margin pressures, not only in construction but all industries at the moment.
The ability to make an extra couple of percent off the bottom line, if that's what we can go there and be pitching, that's what everyone is receptive to and wanting to understand how they can improve their businesses through software to deliver.
A question that mentions both Felix and Nexvia constrain their growth a little in FY 2025 to get operating cash flow positive. Following the recent capital raise, is this expected to re-accelerate the growth rate?
Look, certainly Felix was very much controlling expenditures and looking to grow while having to pay close attention to cash flow. That's been well discussed in the past. In terms of the ability to invest for growth going forward, I think that was included in the announcements around the capital raise and the acquisition, and I think we've been fairly clear that that is our intention.
Mike, I do not know whether you would like to add to that.
No, I think, yeah, that has been the thesis, and what we have communicated is that the acquisition and the funding provides us the opportunity to invest for growth, and the outcomes and the intent of the acquisition is to provide greater growth opportunities.
Procore Helix is shaping up to be a direct competitor. Is this on your radar? How are you thinking about this and the potential of other agentic AI threats and opportunities?
First, this is Mike. Do you want to have a go at that?
Yeah, sure.
No, certainly something that's at the forefront of our thinking now and very topical is we've built an incredibly, I think, in terms of the modular nature of Felix and how it spans across organizations, the workflows touch many parts of the business, and the dataset that we've built up over many years provides us, I guess, incredibly rich and fertile ground to leverage AI in platform and begin to transform the value case for customers. We will be looking to accelerate those strategies from a Felix perspective and ensure that the ways that which we use and deploy AI to customers through the platform are really compelling.
Okay, thank you. Final question. David Williams is the second largest shareholder with 10.1%. Mr. Williams was recently voted out as Chair of PolyNovo after a series of controversies. What is our history with Mr.
Williams in terms of his shareholding in the company? If he asked for a seat on the Felix board, what would be said? Is he a supportive shareholder?
Look, I do not think we should go into any detail in relation to the shareholders of the organization other than to say that Mr. Williams has been a shareholder for a considerable period. He has supported the business over a long period and remains a supportive shareholder on our register.
That is all the questions, Michael. Thank you.
Okay. In that case, ladies and gentlemen, that being the end of the business of this meeting, I declare the annual general meeting closed at 11:58 A.M. Brisbane time. Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.