I'm Chairman of Hearts and Minds Investments Limited, which I'll refer to as HM1, or the company. My name is Chris Cuffe, and I'm Chair of the company. Although we are holding our AGM in person, it's also great to see that as many of our shareholders have joined us via the online Lumi platform. This hybrid meeting allows as many shareholders as possible to participate in the meeting.
Shareholders who are online can listen to the live webcast of the meeting, ask questions, and submit votes. As it's bang on three, one minute past, I have been informed that there is a quorum present, and I declare the meeting open. I'm joined today by my fellow directors. We have Lorraine Berends, who's also Chair of the Investment Committee. We have Matthew Grounds, Michael Traill. I want to try and point everyone, I'll get confused, Guy Fowler.
We have Geoff Wilson, Paul Rayson, our Chief Executive Officer. We've got Maggie O'Neill up at the end there, our head of marketing, Charlie Lanchester, our Chief Investment Officer, and our company secretary is, somewhere there she is, Eryl Baron. David Wright, who's a director and also chair of our Conference Fund Manager Selection Committee, is not here in the room, but he is attending online. I'll be checking that later, David. Richard King from our auditors, Pitcher Partners, is also present and will be available to address any questions relating to the audit of the company's financial statements. I also welcome representatives of the company's share registry Boardroom who will act as returning officers. So, on behalf of the board management, I would like to thank you for your support of HM1.
I will address the company's financial result and charitable donations for the year ended 30th of June 2024 and touch on recent investment performance. As the notice of meeting has been circulated to all shareholders, I propose that it be taken as read. So, for those attending in person, you here, you will be given the opportunity to ask questions during the meeting. For those attending online, on your screen, you will see a slide explaining how to submit a question to the meeting.
Questions can be submitted at any time. To ask a question, select the messaging tab and type your name. Please note that while 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 amalgamated together if we receive multiple questions on the one topic.
Finally, due to time constraints, if we run out of time to answer all your questions, we will answer them as soon as possible after the meeting via email or posting responses on our website. So, in accordance with ASX Listing Rules, all resolutions at this AGM will be decided by poll. As chairman, I have called that poll. Only HM1 shareholders or their duly appointed proxies are eligible to vote at this meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders attending in person, you here today, would have received on registration a purple voting card that provides for the holding of a poll on resolutions put to shareholders.
You will need to complete this card for your vote to be counted. If you wish to vote in favor of a resolution, you'll mark the for box. If you wish to vote against, you'll mark the against box. If you wish to abstain, you'll mark the abstain box. And if you have any questions about voting, then please speak to a representative of the company or share registry before lodging your completed poll card. The purple poll voting cards will be collected at the end of the meeting and counted by the share registry.
And for those of you attending online, so that we provide you with enough time to vote, polling on resolutions is open now. On your screen, you will see the voting process. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, select the voting tab. Selecting this tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. 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 do have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting close, and if you're a proxy holder, you must comply with the direction of the shareholder. If a shareholder or its proxy holder votes today in relation to a shareholding for which a proxy has already been lodged, the earlier proxy will be revoked in favor of the new vote. You'll see a disclaimer coming on the screen. There's the disclaimer. We all have them these days. Please take a moment to read it. It won't take you long. Okay. I'll now make some general comments about the year under review. Charlie Lanchester will then present his Chief Investment Officer's report. We will then consider the financial statements and resolutions to be voted on, followed by questions.
A copy of my address and the CIO's presentation have been lodged with the ASX and will be published on the company's website. So, hopefully, as you know, HM1 is a listed investment company that was established in 2018 with the combined objective of providing a concentrated securities portfolio of the highest conviction ideas from respected fund managers, while also supporting Australian medical research organizations.
It was born out of the investment and philanthropic vision of the Sohn Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders Conference. I'm pleased to report that following changes we made to the management of our portfolio some 18 months ago, HM1's investment performance has improved. The portfolio increased by 11.7% for the year ending 30th of June 2024, building on gains made in the prior year.
That investment performance was mainly driven by technology holdings in our core portfolio and a solid return from the 2023 conference portfolio. Pleasingly, over the last four months since the end of the financial year, HM1's investment performance has continued to improve. The one-year investment performance to the 31st of October 2024 was 32%, bringing the annualized investment return since inception to 10.7%.
Charlie will provide further details in his presentation. HM1's share price increased from $2.26 on 30th of June 2023 to $2.58 on 30th of June 2024, and the share price discount to NTA per share narrowed. The improvement in the share price and the payment of $0.14 in fully franked dividends resulted in total shareholder returns for FY24 of 20%. Since 30th of June 2024, the NTA and the share prices continue to improve, with pre-tax NTA increasing to AUD 3.47 and the share price increasing to AUD 3.07. This is as of last Friday.
And at that point in time, the share price discount has further narrowed and is now 12%. The board remains very focused on sustaining our investment performance and maintaining an attractive fully franked dividend. Together with our deepening of shareholder engagement, we're confident these actions will continue to narrow the share price discount to HM1's pre-tax NTA per share. During the financial year ended 30th of June 2024, HM1 paid fully franked dividends amounting to AUD 0.14 per share. You may recall from last year, we modified the dividend policy to increase the frequency of dividends, so payments are now twice yearly.
We're pleased to report that we declared an increased half-yearly fully franked dividend of AUD 0.075 per share, which was paid in October 2024. Based on the current share price, the increased annualized dividend represents a fully franked dividend yield of 5.1%. The board aims to maintain a policy of paying fully franked dividends to shareholders subject to sufficient cash reserves, available franking credits, and prudent business practice. And as of 30th of June 2024, we had a realized profit reserve equating to AUD 0.58 per share and franking account balance equating to AUD 0.42 per share, both of which are very healthy. So, subject to the usual caveats, the board is confident it can maintain its dividend policy for the foreseeable future.
In line with our philanthropic objective, Hearts and Minds provided financial contributions equivalent to 1.5% of NTA per annum to leading Australian medical research organizations to fund the development of new medicines and treatments and drive a new generation of medical research in Australia. This is effectively funded by HM1's participating fund managers and its board of directors and committees and many of our service providers, all of which work on a pro bono basis.
We sincerely thank everyone for their ongoing involvement and generosity. During the year ended 30th of June 2024, HM1 paid AUD 9.4 million to its designated medical research organizations and made provision for a further AUD 6.4 million. These donated monies will be used by the medical research organizations to fund their important research into the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases and mental health disorders.
Including donations made by our Sohn Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders Conference, Hearts and Minds has now donated over AUD 70 million to medical research in Australia. This is a very significant contribution to the advancement of medical research in Australia. So, your shareholding in HM1 not only delivers investment returns and dividends, but is also making a meaningful difference to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases for your fellow Australians.
For details on the impact of your contribution to medical research, you can look up the impact section of the HM1 website. In conclusion, we believe that HM1 offers a compelling investment in a concentrated portfolio of global equities, underpinned by a fully franked dividend that is paid twice yearly to shareholders. All investment fees are waived, as I said, and instead an equivalent amount is contributed to fund medical research in Australia, thus delivering meaningful social returns. I'll now call upon Charlie Lanchester, our Chief Investment Officer, to present his report.
Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon. I'm delighted to attend my second AGM as the CIO for Hearts and Minds Investments. I'm really enjoying the role and have developed some strong relationships with our core fund managers who have been extremely generous with their time and thoughtful advice. Overall, I think we have managed the portfolio in a more active manner over the last 18 months, and this has led to improved performance across the fund. I've also been impressed with the conference managers from last year. Overall, this part of the portfolio returned 20% over the year. Again, as promised, we took a more active approach in our communication and portfolio management.
For example, we locked in Dan Loeb's pick of Bath & Body Works in March 2024 for a 55% gain, and then asked him for another stock, International Flavors & Fragrances, which delivered another 7% gain over the following seven months. We also executed a stop loss in Lamb Weston for a small loss of around 13% as the thesis did not play out as expected. This was fortuitous as the stock continued to fall rapidly. Congratulations to Rikki Bannan of IFM Investors who picked Telix Pharmaceuticals. This stock is up around 140% since our purchase. We have taken some profit in the name, but continue to hold a position as we move into 2025, as there are some significant catalysts coming up in the near term that Ricky is confident will lead to further appreciation.
This is an example of actively managing the portfolio for the very best returns and having some flexibility around when we get in and out of the conference names. I also very much enjoyed our Sohn Hearts and Minds Conference, which was held in Adelaide the week before last. I hope that many of you here were able to attend. I thought it was a fascinating mix of presentations, and I would like to thank Gary Reaves, David Wright, and Michael Walsh, who joined me on the Conference Fund Manager Selection Committee. We were able to secure an interesting and diverse group of bright minds from around the world to pitch a fascinating and compelling group of stocks. These stocks are now all in the portfolio, and I'm excited to see how they perform in the coming 12 months.
Again, I will take an active approach with these managers that I have got to know through the process. I will now run through how the process works in a bit more detail for those of you that are perhaps newer to HM1. This page shows just what a wonderful model HM1 really is. We have access to some of the brightest minds in the industry, both here in Australia and increasingly from all around the world, with our conference fund managers. The core fund managers are at the heart of the process. Their highest conviction positions, when combined, make up roughly two-thirds of the portfolio. Our core fund managers can direct part of the donation pool to medical research organizations of their choice, and for all of them, this is an important part of their philanthropic mission.
They are highly engaged and play an active role, helping me as the CIO to drive performance. The better the performance, the larger the asset base, and in turn, the greater the donations to medical research. As I just mentioned, the core fund managers make up two-thirds of the portfolio with their three highest conviction picks, which ideally will be held in our portfolio for three to five years. I work closely with these managers to actively manage these positions.
The other third of the portfolio is provided by our conference fund managers. At this year's conference, on the 15th of November, we had 11 great stock picks, all of which have now been incorporated in the portfolio. I've really enjoyed working with the Conference Fund Manager Selection Committee to carefully select an interesting, talented, and most importantly, balanced group of fund managers.
When I say balanced, I mean in terms of investment styles, geographies, and process. What they all have in common, however, is an excellent track record, and I'm confident that this year's conference portfolio will perform well. The combination of the core fund managers and the conference portfolio stock picks leads to a concentrated, idiosyncratic portfolio of high conviction names.
This portfolio, by design, will be very different to any other investment in your portfolio. Now turning to performance. The HM1 investment portfolio increased on a pre-tax basis by 11.7% for the year ended 30 June 2024, building on the strong performance of the prior year. The investment performance to 30 June 2024 was primarily driven by the technology holdings in our core portfolio and an improved performance in the 2023 conference portfolio.
The core portfolio performed well in 2024, driven by large share price gains in several of our core holdings, namely NVIDIA, TSMC, Microsoft, Amazon, NextDC, Brookfield Corporation, and ICE. The addition of Munro Partners as a new core fund manager has had a significant positive impact on our portfolio. The material detractors to performance in the core portfolio were Just Eat Takeaway, Aptiv, and Eurofins. The relevant core fund managers continue to see upside in these holdings. I'm also pleased to note that Guzman y Gomez listed on the ASX on the 20th of June 2024. On the 31st of October 2024, recently, the share price of Guzman y Gomez was AUD 37.59. HM1 invested in GYG in January 2023 prior to its initial public offering at a price equivalent to AUD 16 per share, providing a very attractive return so far of 134%.
We continue to hold our other remaining pre-IPO position, Rokt at cost. Now turning to our most recent performance update, this slide shows our performance over various time periods since inception up to the 31st of October 2024. The table shows our pre-tax investment performance compared to our investment benchmark. Our pre-tax performance is measured as the movement in the pre-tax net asset value of the company after all expenses, including donations, have been met.
The HM1 portfolio returned 32% for the year to October 2024, compared to the MSCI World Index, which rose 27% in Australian dollars. Since the inception of the company in November 2018, HM1 has generated a compound annual pre-tax investment return of 10.7%. As Chris mentioned, investment performance has significantly improved over the last year, both in our core portfolio and the 2023 conference portfolio.
We believe the changes we have made will better balance the risks in the portfolio but retain the essence of a high conviction growth mandate. November has pleasingly continued the strong performance, with our latest NTA disclosure showing the portfolio up approximately 5% so far this month. This is the current lineup of our core managers. Overall, they have had an exceptional 12 months, and I'm excited to continue to work closely with them going forward. It is a privilege to meet and discuss markets and stocks with this talented group.
This slide shows HM1's largest 10 holdings in our core portfolio, and we're comfortable with this current portfolio. Here is the list of the managers who presented at this year's conference alongside the stocks that they picked. The new conference portfolio reflects the changes we've made regarding the diversification of fund manager styles and risk overlay.
I have full confidence in the current lineup of managers who are committed to working with me to get the very best results possible. HM1 has a concentrated portfolio, and it will by design vary at times from the major indices. Please come and talk to me in person after the meeting if you would like to discuss any of these comments further. Thank you, and I will now pass back to Chris.
Thanks, Charlie, and now for the formalities of the meeting, item one is the financial statements and reports. So the first item on the agenda is to receive and consider the financial statements, the director's report, and the auditor's report for the year ended 30 June 2024. The financial statements were subject to audit by Pitcher Partners Sydney, who gave an unqualified audit opinion.
The financial statements are required to be audited and lodged prior to the AGM, and therefore there is no formal resolution to be put to the meeting. So I, or Paul Rayson now CEO, will, however, take questions on the financial statements or financial performance of the company. Shareholders may also ask the auditor questions regarding the conduct of the audit, the preparation of the accounts, or accounting policies applied. So are there any questions about the accounts? None from the audience? Any online, Paul?
None online.
Auditors get off free again.
How much is our fee? I now declare the financial statements and director's report as duly received and considered at the meeting. Now turning to the resolutions to be considered today. Just going over a little what I said before for the voting procedures, as I mentioned earlier, voting on all resolutions will be decided on a poll. That means that each shareholder or their proxy has one vote for each HM1 share they hold.
The poll will be taken at the end of the meeting, and the results announced to the ASX shortly after the close of the meeting. I've been advised by our share registry that all proxies received have been checked, and I declare them valid for voting at this meeting. I will disclose proxy votes after putting the resolutions to the meeting, but prior to the vote being taken for each item. Any proxies left open for me as chair will be cast by me in favor of the resolutions.
The four resolutions being put to shareholders today are ordinary resolutions, meaning that to pass, they require more than 50% of votes cast by shareholders to be in favor of the resolution. If sufficient votes in favor of the resolutions are received, they will come into effect. We will respond to questions regarding resolutions after all resolutions have been presented. So resolution one is the adoption of the remuneration report.
The first resolution is the adoption of the remuneration report that is set out on Pages 24-26 of the director's report in the annual report, which has been sent to all shareholders. The resolution and proxy votes are displayed on your screen, and I'll take them as being read. The remuneration report explains the board's policies in relation to the nature and level of remuneration paid to directors and specified executives of the company.
The company's remuneration policy reflects the charitable objective of the company. All the directors of the company, including myself as chair, have agreed to waive their director's fees on an ongoing basis. For the year ended 30 June 2024, that means no director's fees were paid by the company. The company has only four paid employees. The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer are employed under standard employment contracts with a three-month notice period.
The remuneration of the CEO and CIO is salary-based and does not include shares or options in the company, and no element of the remuneration is tied to company performance. The CEO and CIO are not provided with retirement benefits apart from statutory superannuation. The board considers that the company's remuneration structure, which is explained in detail in the remuneration report, is fair and aligns with HM1's corporate objective and the interests of shareholders.
Shareholders should note that as specified by Section 250R of the Corporations Act, the vote on resolution one is advisory only and is not binding on the board or the company. Next resolutions are concerning the resolution of directors. Resolution two is the re-election of Michael Traill as a director who retires in accordance with the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible to be re-elected as director of the company. Similarly, resolution three is the re-election of Matthew Grounds as a director who retires in accordance with clause 6.2B of the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible to be re-elected as a director of the company.
Resolution four is the re-election of Mr. Geoff Wilson as a director who retires in accordance with clause 6.2B of the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible to be re-elected as a director of the company. Information on Michael, Matthew, and Geoff, including their experience and other directorships and interests in the company, can be found in the director's report of the annual report. A summary of this information is also included in the explanatory memorandum.
The resolutions are displayed on your screen, and I will take them as being read. Shareholders attending in person may ask questions on any resolution now, and if there are any shareholders online who wish to ask a question regarding these resolutions, again, please click the question icon, compose your question, and click the send icon. You will receive confirmation that your question has been received. I will now put all four resolutions formally to the meeting. The slide on your screen shows the votes on these resolutions at the date of proxy close on Monday, the 25th of November.
Not yet.
Not yet? Click. Maggie? [Crosstalk] .
Sorry, I was asking you a question.
Maggie is the most perfect person in this room, I can tell you. And she's never going to forget this. I got the other reason.
Needs to know Chris is chair.
So I now appoint and request representatives of the company share registry Boardroom Pty Limited who have examined and prepared summaries of the proxy forms received to act as returning officer and to conduct the poll. So again, for those attending online, the resolutions and voting options will appear on your screen. Press the option corresponding with the way in which you wish to vote. Once the option has been selected, the vote will appear in blue.
If you change your mind and wish to change your vote, you can simply press the new vote or cancel your vote at any time before I close the poll. For those attending in person, once you have completed your poll voting card, please place your card in the poll box, which will be brought around by staff of Boardroom. If you have any questions, please speak to a representative of the company or the share registry before lodging your completed poll card. So I think we're passing a box around now. Box of goodies. Just put your hand up a bit so we can see.
I think that is it. Okay. So I now declare the poll closed. As I mentioned before, the results of the poll will be announced to the ASX following the close of the meeting. I now invite shareholders to submit any questions they may have for the directors and executives of HM1. We use the remaining time to respond to questions submitted prior to the meeting also. For those shareholders attending in person, if you wish to ask a question, please now raise your hand.
Yes, sir. My name is John. I'm a shareholder. I've got two questions. First one is very minor. I was just wondering whether it's possible on the Monday's NTA announcements to put on that announcement the figure that was previous week's figure and the previous year's figure. It just helps people when they're reviewing it, makes it quicker. And the second question I'm asking, because I know it's in a proxy for a very large vote against. Now I'm presuming that's coming from the Weiss organization. A, is that true? And B, what do you think the questions about are?
Well, on the first, we'll take that on notice. Sounds like a pretty reasonable suggestion to show comparative numbers. On the resolutions, for privacy reasons, we can't say which shareholders voted against, but we can say most of it was a single shareholder, and we encourage all shareholders to vote, so they're free to do so. We think the three directors who are up for re-election have added a lot of value to the company. We've seen considerable uplift, I think, in performance in the last couple of years in particular, of which those three directors have played an important part, and the board unanimously recommended they be re-elected.
So that's yeah, I'm sure. Sorry, I wasn't allowed to speak. I was going to say I just want to thank the board for the time and the expertise and communication in this company. I think that's been first class. Thank you.
Now, in case those online didn't hear it, that was a thank you to the board. Which was always appreciated. But we do actually like to tell you, we all enjoy doing this because it's really hitting home what we set out to do. When you think of a number like 70 million given today to medical research, it makes it all worth it. Other questions? Paul, do we have any or Maggie, do we have any online?
Not online. Not online.
I think that means an early mark. I don't know if you get to see any screens here. Coffee's in the car. Okay. So I'm now going to that concludes the business of the meeting.
I now declare the meeting closed, and thank you all for your attendance today.