Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the inaugural annual general meeting of Latitude Group Holdings Limited as a listed entity. It's now 12:00 P.M., and I'm joining you today from Melbourne. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, both past and present. Under Latitude's constitution, a quorum is required for this meeting. I've been advised that a quorum is present, therefore, I declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held in person and virtually via the Computershare platform, where attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting, and shareholders and proxies can ask questions and submit votes online.
To provide you with sufficient time to vote, I now declare voting open on all the items of business set out in the notice of meeting. A significant number of shareholders have already voted, appointed proxies, and submitted questions ahead of this meeting, and we thank them for doing so. I'll start today's meeting by walking you through a few procedural guidelines for voting and question submission for those in person and online. I'll deliver my address and then pass to Ahmed Fahour, our Managing Director and CEO, who will give his address and provide a presentation on Latitude's 2021 performance highlights, financial results, and our outlook. Finally, we'll turn to the formal business of the meeting. Before we begin, I would like to introduce my fellow directors who are also in person and online with us today.
From my left is Ahmed Fahour, who's Managing Director and CEO. Next to Ahmed is Mark Joiner, who's chair of our Audit Committee and our Risk Committee. Next to Mark is Alison Ledger, who's chair of our People and Remuneration Committee and our Technology Committee. Next to Alison is Scott Bookmyer. Next to Scott is Paul Burke, our company secretary. Joining us by video today are our other board members, James Corcoran, Beaux Pontak, and Andrew Hoshino. Paul Varro, our CFO, is sitting in the front row. Perhaps Paul stand up and say hello.
Hello.
Chris Wooden, who's our audit partner from KPMG, the lead engagement partner, are also in attendance, and Chris will be available to answer questions related to the accounts and the conduct of the audit and the auditor's report. Also present, who I'd like to introduce, are members of our executive committee, Andrew Walduck , Bob Belan, Chris Blake, Joe Mikolas, and Adrian Wong, who's our general counsel. The notice of the meeting, dated the 25th of March, 2022, has been distributed to all shareholders, and I'll take that as read. By joining our hybrid annual meeting today, you as a Latitude shareholder or your appointed proxy will have the opportunity to ask questions and submit votes if you haven't already done so. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. Computershare will act as the independent returning officer.
For those attending the meeting online who are eligible to vote, as the poll is open, a voting icon is available on your screen. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. For those voting online, you're free to submit your votes at any time during the meeting. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit Submit, as the vote is automatically recorded. Please ensure you cast a vote for all resolutions. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. To change or cancel your vote, click the link, Click here to change your vote, at any time until the poll is closed. Votes may be changed up to the time that I declare voting is closed.
For shareholders and proxies and corporate representatives in person, I'll ask you to vote once we've gone through all the items of business today by completing the blue voting card that was provided to you upon admission. White cards are for visitors, who cannot vote or ask questions today. Shareholders with a pink card are not entitled to vote on the items of business. I'll provide a warning before I move to close voting at the end of this meeting. Thank you to those shareholders who submitted questions in advance of the meeting today. It's my duty as chairman to ensure that shareholders have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the items of business during the meeting.
We ask that all questions and comments be concise. Be confined to the particular item being discussed and to matters relevant to shareholders as a whole, and that is in respect of Latitude, and be informative and respectful. Given this is a hybrid meeting, I'll first take questions from those physically present at the meeting, followed by audio questions from participants who have joined us online, and finally, written questions. If you're attending the meeting in person, only shareholders, validly appointed proxies, and corporate representatives who were given a blue or pink voting card upon entry are entitled to ask questions. When I call for questions, please raise your pink or blue card and state your name or the organization you represent before asking your question.
For those attending the meeting online who wish to submit a written question, you may do so at any time during the meeting via the speech bubble icon on your screen. Type your question in the chat box on the right of the screen and then select Send. Confirmation that your message has been received will appear above. Please note that while you can submit written questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. While time constraints may prevent us from answering all questions, we'll do our best to address all of your questions during the meeting. I'll now make my formal address. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to talk with you about the milestones achieved by your company since listing and the momentum towards higher shareholder returns in the years ahead.
We'll also hear from Ahmed Fahour, your CEO, shortly, and he will outline your company's key financial and operational highlights in 2021 and the platform for growth in 2022 and 2023. Before that, I'd like to acknowledge the challenging and often difficult two years that so many people have endured during COVID-19, including the loss of friends and loved ones, and the disruption to just about every facet of our usual lives through restrictions, lockdowns, loss of employment opportunities, and the ability to travel for business or to catch up with friends and relatives. As we've learned to live with COVID, for our customers, business partners, shareholders, and employees, there is a renewed optimism as working and trading conditions revert to something approximating normal settings, notwithstanding the flow and effects of the awful events ongoing in Europe today.
Your company is seeing encouraging signs that the economy is in a strong and sustainable recovery, with historically low unemployment, the opening of state and international borders, supportive government settings, and the recent cost of living initiatives in the federal budget. Your company emerges from COVID in a strong position, having maintained profitability with the benefit of no government handouts, a strong balance sheet with materially improved loan loss experiences, and having had the opportunity to put in place a number of strategic initiatives which your board is confident will deliver returns to shareholders in the future.
These initiatives include the acquisition of Symple Loans in October 2021, delivering enhanced customer experiences at a lower cost of delivery, and the ability to service the variable rate personal loan segment, and the announced intention to acquire the installments business of Humm, which will, on completion, create a business with AUD 8 billion of receivables, 60,000 merchant partners, and 5 million customers in Australia and New Zealand. Your company has also launched its installment products in Singapore, working with long-term partner Harvey Norman, and has plans to expand into into other Southeast Asian countries in the near term.
These strategic investments will create a business with greater scale and capability and increased opportunities to grow in your company's chosen segments of installments and consumer lending, while delivering significant service improvements for consumers and merchant partners, and synergies enabling material cost reductions by consolidating five IT platforms into two. Your company is not just about making money in this year. Long-term financial success is dependent upon building and providing outstanding products and services for the Latitude community of 2.8 million customers today, growing to 5 million post-implementation of the Humm transaction. Our ambition must be to make a positive impact on the lives of every member of the Latitude community every day. Today, we provide lifestyle facilitation benefits to 2.3 million customers who have the benefit of an interest-free advance from your company.
That is AUD 1.93 billion of interest-free loans to enable our Latitude community to bring forward the timing of the purchase of a bed, a refrigerator, a television, a home improvement service, or medical and dental services. Our 160,000 personal loan and auto loan customers also rely on your company to facilitate the enhancement of their lifestyle options to acquire a car, a boat, to pay for an overseas holiday, home improvements, or to meet another need. Building an engaged community involves more than just providing products and services. Your board and management team recognize the need to build deeper engagement and to give back to our Latitude community by way of cash donations and donations of our time to causes selected by our Latitude community.
These activities include providing financial support for young and emerging indigenous artists, supporting vulnerable children with literacy and numeracy skills, supporting families facing cancer, and people towards better mental health and well-being, and tackling the many issues for individuals and families living with domestic and family violence. Great products, excellent service, and regular active value-adding engagement with our community are the way in which we seek to make a positive difference and grow shareholder value for the medium to long term. For your board, 2022 will be a busy year with the integration of both the Symple Loans and Humm businesses. It will also be an opportunity to bring to the board a majority of independent directors and to enhance diversity on the board. 2023 will provide an opportunity to begin the process of board renewal.
As part of the Humm transaction, your company will invite two independent directors from Humm to join the Latitude board. Following the annual general meeting of your company in April 2023, after serving for 8 years as chair, I shall lead the process of board renewal by retiring from the board. These are natural and orderly developments as your company matures as a listed entity. Now turning to the managing director and CEO's address and presentation on Latitude's 2021 performance and outlook, and I'll hand you over to Ahmed.
Well, thank you very much, Chair, and welcome to all of our shareholders, both online, and present. It's a special privilege to be with you today at our first AGM as a listed company to be able to outline some of the highlights of our operational and financial performance of our company. Despite the obvious challenges created by COVID, 2021 was a strong year for Latitude as we maintained our high profitability while seizing on strategic opportunities which add to our scale and capability, create growth, and enhance shareholder value. In February, we announced our full year results for 2021, and we reported the statutory profit, the net profit after tax of AUD 160 million, which was up on 2020. Total volume rose 4.3% despite the significant impact of COVID.
A real highlight for us was personal and auto loan volumes performed particularly strongly, rising by 46% in Australia and 27% in New Zealand, while installments in New Zealand, without the disruption of the protracted lockdowns we felt in Australia, are up 10.1%. We're very excited about our ability to be a disruptor and to compete against many organizations in lending, especially as we fully integrate the user-friendly simple platform and while other organizations focus on other businesses such as mortgages. While we have invested in our future capability, cost reduction remains a key focus, resulting in a 4% reduction in operational costs in 2021 on 2020.
Our return on equity of 16.6% in 2021 is highly attractive, and our tangible equity ratio, TER, was at 8.7%, also very strong by industry standards. We are able to achieve a strong 2021 result while supporting our customers and our partners through the pandemic and improving the asset quality on our books. Our customers took advantage of the government initiatives and financial support during COVID to pay down their debts. This has had an obvious impact on our gross receivables, which were slightly down in the year. We also achieved our goal to better optimize and diversify Latitude's funding and capital sources to support growth initiatives. Our successful completion in September last year of AUD 150 million capital note issue illustrates the strong investor support for Latitude.
We had so many operational highlights in 2021, and it's almost a shame that I'm limited to the few that I will speak about in a minute. These included the launch of the installments business in Singapore. It has been an ambition of ours for a number of years, and we finally achieved that in November with the acquisition and the rebranding of installments provider OctiFi. We have broader plans to continue to expand into other Southeast Asian countries. Installments is a AUD 5.5 billion segment in Southeast Asia, and the high rate of growth in digital adoption combined with digital experience we can offer creates a great opportunity for Latitude and our merchants and our customers.
To all of our shareholders, I'd like to emphasize the importance of the past six months as we add scale through important strategic investments, as the Chair had outlined just a few minutes ago. The acquisition of Symple Loans late last year was a critical step in helping us achieve that. We are already Australia and New Zealand's leader in installments. We want to build on our position as the number two provider of new personal loans across both countries. I'm excited to say that next month, we begin offering variable rate personal loans to our customers on the new Symple Technology platform that we acquired. This is the beginning of a new chapter for us. Our lending performance in 2021 was outstanding, as I said, and what we're seeing is this continuing this year.
The transition of all of our lending operations to Symple state-of-the-art platform will add momentum that we've created. The proposed acquisition of Humm's consumer business this year is a major development. The ACCC has confirmed yesterday that they do not intend to conduct a public review of the proposed acquisition, in other words, that we've got so far the tick from the ACCC in Australia. It significantly adds to our scale while accelerating the deployment of buy now, pay later and installment solutions for our customers and merchant partners. Once the deal is completed, Latitude will have over AUD 8 billion of gross receivables, AUD 9.5 billion of transaction volumes, and over 5 million customers servicing 60,000+ merchants.
The Humm transaction will be highly accretive to our shareholders and is expected to realize combined synergies and cash earnings exceeding AUD 90 million pre-tax by the end of 2023. While we have seized on the opportunities to expand our capabilities through acquisition in the past year, we have kept our eye on our core installments and lending business. We are building a customer-led culture, and as we evolve our platform operating model, our customers and business partners remain at the core of everything that we do at Latitude. We will continue to invest in that digital experience that makes our customers and our partners' lives better while we consolidate our legacy operations and transition legacy technology to cloud-based platforms. Last year, I was delighted to welcome to our senior leadership team who you met earlier, Symple Loans CEO and Co-founder, Bob Belan as EGM of Money.
From January 1 this year, we elevated Paul Varro to the important role as CFO. Both are strong leaders who are making a significant difference and adding to the executive team. We also announced that Rebecca James, the CEO of Humm Group, will be invited to join us when the proposed acquisition of Humm's consumer business completes later this year. I also want to acknowledge that our previous CFO, Adrienne Duarte, left Latitude this year, and I thank her for her valuable service over many, many years. We have terrific employees here at Latitude, who during the second difficult year under COVID, continued to serve our customers and our merchant partners and support each other while they largely worked in the last couple of years from home. I'd like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for their efforts.
It was truly an outstanding outcome. While Latitude is in a strong position to benefit as the economy improves, so far in 2022, I would make the following observations. Our first quarter volume growth is 3% on 2021, with personal lending up 26%, while our installments and credit card business are down 2%. Installments remains impacted by COVID, with higher levels of cash purchases, plus the softening consumer sentiment due to increasing cost of living, floods, war, and housing. It is remarkable despite all of that, we've still had positive volume growth. This has resulted through these COVID-related items in elevated repayment rates and the slow recovery of sales finance volumes, which has reduced the group receivables by 2%. Yield curve steepening has seen some increases in borrowing costs.
However, Latitude is well-placed to manage this timing difference, with pricing initiatives taking place already in 2022. Asset quality remains strong, with sustained low rates of net charge-offs and continued strong cost disciplines across the business. We have the right strategy to become an even stronger company in the future versus 2021, where profitability and sustainable returns will benefit all of our shareholders. I'm excited about our growth prospects and confident we can achieve our goals, and I'll outline some of those in the slide presentation. I want to finish by thanking our chairman and the whole board for their support, their direction, and the drive to help our business and our staff to even greater heights. Thank you to our customers and business partners. Our total focus at Latitude is to serve your needs.
I'd like to provide now a very brief presentation on our performance and on our outlook. On the first slide that's there on your monitor now, I summarize in one slide, essentially our 2021 performance for the year. On the left-hand side, you can see some of the highlights that I've already spoken to and some of the successes of what we've had in 2021. On the right-hand side, I also outline those two really big challenges that has been on our doorsteps and behind us and continue in some shape or form to be challenges for the business. In terms of late last year and early this year, Omicron hit our nation and hit the world actually. Undoubtedly, many of you are aware that it affected businesses and people's lives.
We continued to feel that impact of Omicron, but it was certainly not at the same level of what Delta did in terms of lockdowns. There was some kind of self-imposed lockdown that emerged in late December and during January. The other big challenge that I outline on this page is this elevated debt repayments. Without question, the excess cash in the economy has led to people having more cash available to reduce their debt. In many ways, this has been a good thing for the average consumer. It really reflected the excess cash that was available. Unfortunately, that excess repayments has continued in early 2022. As a matter of fact, in the months of February and March 2022 were higher than 2021.
What we're now looking at is the all-important April information and May, and what we can see is that it's very clearly linked to availability of cash. If interest rates start to rise, that availability of cash will reduce and therefore debt repayments will reduce. It seems from all accounts, at some stage this year, interest rates will rise and therefore we would expect to see those elevated rates start to reduce. If we go to the next slide and turn our attention away from last year, looking in the rearview mirror and start to look forward and look to where the Latitude car is driving towards, and as I think about the year 2023 and beyond 2024, et cetera, I think about our company and where we are and where we're likely to be.
The first box there or the second box there in the green that you see on your screen talks about the economy stabilizing and normalizing. What are the implications of that? Well, clearly, volume starts to restore. The really big benefits of a stabilizing economy is also people's ability to spend and to borrow, but also for debt repayments to normalize. If you think about 2023, if we had one year, one full year in 2023, for example, where debt repayments was at the same level as what we've experienced pre-COVID, which is roughly about 91%, that would imply 12% less debt repayments than what we're experiencing at the moment.
That alone, that change in action alone, which we would anticipate starting to emerge in the future, whether it's normalization, would see an additional in excess of AUD 50 million of profit before tax added to the P&L. That's the opportunity that's in front of us with reduced debt repayment. The next box is the synergies from the Symple acquisition that we completed late last year. We've outlined in our previous presentations that in the year 2023, that there's an additional AUD 32 million of profit before tax available to the Latitude shareholders when we complete that integration and that synergy. I'm really pleased, as I said earlier, that the first stage of that begins next month when we start to operate and offer variable rate loans off the Symple platform.
I'm very excited about the realization of that during this year and the full benefits in the year 2023. Then the next box, appropriately in orange to reflect Humm's colors, is the Humm acquisition. Again, there's plenty of information that we've put out about this. This acquisition and this opportunity in the year 2023 is expected to deliver AUD 55 million in profit before tax for our company. Then as we push out into 2024, that will produce AUD 90 million of profit before tax. There's a lot there in terms of profit opportunities, growth opportunities and really big improvements in the year 2023 and 2024. The last couple, there are our organic normal developments that you would expect our company to work on.
Digitization of the organization to improve the customer experience, but also helps us by reducing our cost structure. I mentioned earlier the Singapore opportunities in Southeast Asia and some of the big bank partnership opportunities that we are working with. We already do Kiwibank in New Zealand, and we're actively looking at opportunities in Australia to also add other banking opportunities. The Latitude of tomorrow, and I don't mean tomorrow, 2050, I mean tomorrow as in 2023, 2024 and beyond, in the very, very near term, is looking extremely exciting and highly accretive to all of you as shareholders. I'll close off by going to the last slide, which is the outlook statement. This really just summarizes some of the points that I've been making earlier. We are looking forward to it. Travel is back.
If any of you took any notice of airports in March and April, you would know that they're going very well. There's a lot of optimism. People are looking forward to doing that. We've got the famous 28 Degrees card, which is hugely benefiting from that. We're looking forward to this economy stabilizing and normalizing in the not too distant future. Thank you all very much.
Thank you, Ahmed. Before we move to the agenda items, I'd like to address any questions that there may be in relation to the presentations that we've just heard from myself and Ahmed, or any other business of the company, outside of the specific resolutions. Are there any questions from within the room? Is there an audio question? Okay, there is one written question that's come in that I'm aware of. The question is from Stephen Mayne, who may be well known to most of you, certainly well known to me. Stephen's question, which is in some parts, which I'll seek to address each as I read out.
He asked the question, "Chairman, I last saw you at the 2019 Harvey Norman EGM, where you were publicly pumping up the tires of billionaire chairman Gerry Harvey. Was this because Harvey Norman is an important client of Latitude or because you're friends with Gerry or a combination of the two? And how important is Harvey Norman to our business, and how far back does the relationship with Latitude go?" Just to let you all in to have equal information, I did attend the Harvey Norman annual general meeting in 2019. I've been a shareholder in Harvey Norman for probably 15 or 20 years, I'm guessing. I did speak at the meeting, but I didn't speak to pump up the tires of Gerry Harvey.
I don't think Gerry would let anyone do that. I did congratulate the CEO, Katie Page, on what was an excellent performance during the 2019 year. Was this because I'm a friend or because Harvey Norman is an important client? Both are true. I'm friends with both Katie and Gerry, and they are an important customer and merchant partner of Latitude. How important are they? Well, they're important, but if you went back and had a look at our prospectus where we're required to disclose if any one customer was material to the point that they posed a risk to the business, we didn't disclose that because they're not. They are an important customer, but they're one of many important customers.
I would be happy in my role as chairman of Latitude to attend the annual general meeting of all of our customers, and praise them on having done a good job if I thought it would give us another dollar of business. Do we have any other questions? There's two more. Okay. Can we bring them up? Oh, okay. This is a question from Stephen Mayne. "Did any of the main proxy advisors, ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS, and ASA recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions?" No. Which of the proxy advisors are covering us? Well, we wouldn't necessarily know that because not all of them would let us know, but we are aware that one of those groups did cover us, CGI Glass Lewis.
Has there been a material proxy protest vote against any of today's resolutions? Well, Stephen, if you'd been watching earlier, you would have seen when we put the voting numbers up that there are not many votes against any of the resolutions. Something about other companies that are nothing to do with Latitude. The next question. Stephen Mayne again. When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, including the share grant to Humm, could we advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against? I've already written to you, Stephen, yesterday to say that we won't be doing that. That's not a requirement of the Corporations Law. It's an expensive process to work that out. It actually doesn't change the outcome. Each vote is worth one vote, not each shareholder.
That is not a way in which we choose to disclose voting at our meetings unless we're doing a scheme of arrangement. Are there any other questions? Yes, Stephen Mayne again. Do we know the identity of the two Humm directors joining the board? The answer to that is we have not made a decision on that. We've not extended an invitation. We would like all of the Humm directors to be free to provide independent advice to the Humm shareholders on the transaction. This board will meet individual Humm directors post the Humm shareholder vote and make a decision about who to extend invitations to join this board.
I'm not gonna comment about individual directors on the Humm board. The second part of the question is, could Mr. Hoshino comment on whether we have veto powers as to who they nominate? I can answer that, and the answer is no, we do not. But obviously, if any of our shareholders were to seek to nominate someone who we didn't feel had the requisite experience or the appropriate governance history, then we would raise that, and I'm sure that would be seriously considered by the shareholders and taken into account. I don't think that's an issue. It's not about who has what power or demands what. It's about working constructively to add value for the company. Now, Mr. Mayne's had three questions. That's the end. Okay. Now we'll turn-
There's one more.
There's one more question? Oh, this is offensive. Both, the CEO and I have big personalities, according to Mr. Mayne. I don't think it's necessary for him to make those sorts of comments. He says, "We're not known for taking a backward step. Could we both comment on how the relationship is going and who on the board steps in as a mediator when there's a disagreement? And could Ahmed please comment on just how hands-on I am as a chairman, as he tries to run the business?" Well, as I'm sure the board can attest, Ahmed as well, neither of us have ever had a disagreement. We don't have that sort of relationship. I can assure everybody that, I'm not hands-on, in the business.
I'm sure Ahmed will give the appropriate nod if he feels that's true.
All good.
Thanks for the question anyway. Is that the last? That's the last one that's come up. No? Oh, my God, here we go again. Okay. "Buy now, pay later sector is suffering from a serious bursting of its bubble and way too much capital was thrown at the sector globally, led by other companies," I'm not gonna mention their names, "suffering from a blowout in bad debts under the ownership of another company. Have we looked at potentially buying some diamonds in the rubble after the likes of other companies who've seen their share prices crash? Could the Chair and CEO both comment on the buy now, pay later sector, including whether any of the players are serious competitors to us? Does Harvey Norman accept Afterpay?
If not, is this a future risk to our relationship and profits from Harvey Norman customers?" Look, I think I will deal with that. Look, we're looking all the time at opportunities, but we don't see right at this point in time that shareholder value is enhanced by buying loss-making businesses in the buy now, pay later sector. We have always been incredibly disciplined in the way in which we allocate capital. We're not about being big for the sake of being big. Profitless prosperity is a great way to go bankrupt. You know, we're not about to jump and do any of the things that Mr. Mayne has suggested. I can confidently say that Harvey Norman does not accept Afterpay. One more question. Oh, it's the last from him.
Why didn't we buy the whole of Humm rather than just the majority of the business? As one of the 18,000 Humm shareholders, I'm going to receive a very small parcel of Latitude shares as part of this unusual transaction. Are we going to offer a facility to mop up thousands of new shareholders who may not have marketable parcels? Also, as Humm founder Andrew Abercrombie promised to keep his shares, and how big a stake in Latitude will he emerge with?" We only bought the installments business of Humm because we are not in the commercial leasing business. We're not interested in the commercial leasing business. Humm will maintain what has been for it a successful commercial leasing business, and we wish them well with that.
I understand that as part of their scheme, Humm will be putting in place an arrangement which will enable unmarketable parcels of Latitude shares to be sold for cash. That's a matter for them to deal with. I don't know what Andrew Abercrombie's going to do, and it's really not our business to be making those inquiries. Thank you, Mr. Mayne. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we're now gonna turn to the formal business of the meeting and proxy votes received prior to the meeting. Prior to the commencement of today's meeting, valid votes have been received representing approximately 81% of the issued capital. I'll now show the proxy votes received prior to the meeting for each of our resolution.
Where the chair of the meeting has been nominated as the shareholder's proxy or open and available proxies will be voted in favor of all resolutions. There are voting restrictions for some resolutions, as outlined in the notice of meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties or associates. The first item of business is to receive and consider the annual financial report, together with the directors' and auditors' reports for the year ended 31 December 2021. A copy of which has been previously provided to shareholders. There is no requirement for shareholders to vote on these reports. However, we would open discussion of the reports up to questions. Do we have any questions on the first item of business, the consideration of the financial statements and reports? From within the room? On audio online, an audio question?
Do we have a written question submitted? No. So there being no questions, we'll come to the items of business for which voting is required. First is the remuneration report. Item 2 relates to the adoption of the remuneration report. The resolution, which is shown on the screen, is formally put to the meeting in the form that it's displayed in the notice of meeting and on the screen. Please note that a vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the remuneration report? None from within the room. Any on audio? Are there any written questions submitted? There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. The next item of business, Item 3A, relates to the election of Mr. Andrew Hoshino as a director.
Details of Andrew's qualifications, career experience, and other interests are set out in the notice of meeting and in the director's report. I'll now invite Andrew to speak to you about what he brings to the collective capability of the Latitude board. Andrew.
Thank you, Chair, and greetings to everybody. My name is Andrew Hoshino, and I am currently a Director and CEO of EasyLend Finance Company Limited, a Hong Kong-based online personal loan company. Prior to taking my current role, I had served in various leadership roles for the Shinsei Bank Group, including general manager to the consumer finance business unit there in Japan. I have over 30 years work experience in consumer finance business in Japan, United States, and Hong Kong with companies such as GE Capital. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Delaware. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew. I would like to just add that since Andrew joined the board, he's made an incredibly valuable contribution. He has a long history of experience with GE consumer finance lending businesses, which obviously is part of Latitude's heritage. He's brought a great deal of knowledge and expertise, and will be incredibly important in our efforts to expand into Asia in the installments business. The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen and well set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? From within the room? On the audio? In writing? There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. The next item of meeting, item 3B, relates to the reelection of Mr.
Mark Joiner as a director. Details of Mark's qualifications, career experience, and other interests are set out in the notice of meeting and in the director's report. I'll now invite Mark to speak to you about what he brings to the collective capability of the board at Latitude.
Thanks, Mark. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Mark Joiner. I was the Executive Director of Finance for National Australia Bank from 2008 to 2013, having previously worked for Citigroup in the United States and as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group in Australia and the United States. I'm currently a director of a number of Insignia Financial Limited's asset management subsidiaries. I'm chairman of QBE Group Australia and New Zealand subsidiaries. I'm chairman of ASX-listed company, PEXA. I'm a chartered accountant and hold an MBA from the University of Melbourne Business School. I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue to serve the company and the shareholders as a director. Thank you.
Thanks, Mark. Again, Mark is chairman of our audit committee, and also our risk committee, which are obviously in a financial services business, extraordinarily important roles within the organization. It's been a great pleasure to work with Mark.
Since 2017.
Yes, almost six years. He's played an enormous contribution in the development of the business. The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen and was set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? If there are no questions in the room, are there any on the audio? There are none on the audio. Are there any in writing? There being no further questions, would you please record your vote now if you've not already voted. I'll now hand over to the Chair of the Audit Committee, Mark Joiner, recently reelected as Acting Chair for the next resolution.
Thank you, Mike. Item 3C relates to the re-election of Mr. Michael Tilley as a director. Details of Mike's qualification, career, experience, and other interests are set out in the notice of meeting and in the director's report. I'll now hand over to Mike to speak to you about what he brings to the collective capability.
Thank you, Mark. Let me begin by saying it's a great privilege to be chairman of the Latitude board, and I'm incredibly appreciative of the opportunity to be continued to ask to serve the company and its shareholders. I've served in the past as CEO of Challenger Financial Services Group from 2004 to 2008. Having prior to that, being Deputy Chairman at Challenger. Prior to Challenger, I was Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch Australasia, and Chairman of the Mergers and Acquisitions division of Merrill Lynch for the Asia Pacific region. I was a non-executive director of ASX-listed company Orica from 2003 to 2013, and was also Chairman of ASX-listed Hotel Property Investments and Chubb Limited.
I hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from Swinburne University, and I'm a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. You know, I've enjoyed my time at Latitude, and as I mentioned earlier in my speech, I will lead off after the AGM next April the process of renewal of the board, which I think is always a healthy sign that a board is working towards renewal and to introduce new blood into its board process.
The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? Are there any questions in the room or online? There is one. This is for Mike to answer. Do you want me to read it? You can read it.
Let me read the question. This is, I guess, from Stephen Mayne. I said I'd be retiring at next year's EGM, which I did. That would be at the end of the meeting, so I will chair the meeting. I promise to read out all of his questions in full. I'm accused of cutting a couple short and censoring the odd corporate name. Well, can I say that we're not here to put down other organizations or corporations. That's just a matter of simple courtesy.
Are there any further questions? No. Okay, there being no further questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted, and I'll hand back the chair to Michael Tilley.
Thank you, Mark. Item 4 on the agenda relates to the approval of the issue of performance rights to Mr. Ahmed Fahour, Managing Director and CEO. The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen, and it was set out formally in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? From within the room? Any audio? No. Any written questions? There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. Item 5A on the notice of meeting relates to the ratification of shares issued in association with the Symple Loans acquisition. The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen and was set out in the notice of meeting.
Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? Within the room? On the audio? In writing? There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. Item 5B relates to the ratification of the issue of the Latitude capital notes. The resolution being put to the meeting is displayed on the screen and was set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution? Within the room? On the audio? In writing? No. There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. The final resolution, item 6, relates to the approval of the share issue to Humm Group as part of the Humm transaction.
Are there any questions or comments in relation to this resolution, which is now on the screen and was put as part of the notice of meeting? Are there any questions in the room? On the audio? In writing? There being no questions, please record your vote now if you've not already voted. Ladies and gentlemen, that now concludes our discussion on the items of business. In a couple of minutes, I will close the voting system, so please ensure that you've cast your vote on all resolutions you wish to vote on. I'll pause for a moment to allow you to finalize your votes. Thank you, everybody. Voting is now closed. The voting results from this meeting will be released to the ASX and posted in the investor relations section on www.latitudefinancial.com later today. That concludes our meeting.
Thank you for taking the time to join the directors, myself, and the management team today. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to sharing the next exciting phase of Latitude's journey with you. Please stay safe and well. Thank you.