Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen. My name is John Gillam. I am the Chair of Nufarm. Welcome to all of you to our 2026 Annual General Meeting, whether you're in the room with us or participating online. Our company secretary has informed me that we have a quorum present, and I officially declare this AGM meeting open. I'm chairing the meeting from our corporate support center and manufacturing facility in Laverton, Melbourne, today, and I'm on the lands of the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation, and I wish to acknowledge them as traditional owners. I'd also like to pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and to other Aboriginal elders of other communities who may be joining us today. The notice of meeting, dated 12 December 2025, was made available to all shareholders. I propose to take the notice of meeting as read.
The online component of today's hybrid meeting is being facilitated by Computershare's online meeting platform. This allows shareholders, proxies, and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies can ask questions and submit votes. Before I turn to how to participate in this meeting, I'd like to welcome my fellow board members and other members of the wider Nufarm exec team and support group who are in attendance today. With me today on my right is Rico Christensen, our newly appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Also joining us in Melbourne are Alexandra Gartmann, Marie McDonald, Adrian Percy, Lynne Saint, and Federico Tripodi. Our other board member, David Jones, who's based in Europe, is an apology for this meeting. I'm sure you'll understand why. It's well after midnight for him.
In addition, Rico and I are joined in the room by our Chief Financial Officer, Brendan Ryan, our General Counsel and Company Secretary, Kate Hall, our General Manager, Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Grant Saligari, and Grant will be moderating the questions from shareholders during the meeting. We also have with us Vicky Carlson, welcome, representing our auditor, KPMG, who is available to answer any questions in relation to the FY 2025 audit during the meeting, and we have Michael Hutchinson from Computershare, who will act as our returning officer. Before we move to the formalities, there are several housekeeping matters regarding how to participate in this hybrid meeting, so just bear with me while I work through these. 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 questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting, when I will also take questions from those in the room. Your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, we might amalgamate them together. For those shareholders participating online who wish to ask a verbal question, an audio questions facility is available during this meeting. Instructions on how to use this facility are shown below the broadcast window on the online platform.
If you're asking a verbal question, please state your full name before asking your question, and please limit your questions to only one or two at a time and then rejoin the queue to allow others to ask questions. We expect that we will be able to answer all of your questions today. If we're not able to do so, we'll answer them in due course via email or posting responses on our website. Depending on the questions, I will make the decision whether I answer them myself or I ask a member of management, another board member, or the auditor to respond. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. To provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions.
If you are participating online and you're eligible to vote at this meeting, a voting tab is available. 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, and there is no need to hit a 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. For those of you in the room, your voting cards will be collected once voting is closed. I now declare voting open. Let me repeat that, I now declare voting open. Please submit your votes at any time from now until the end of question time. I will give you a warning before I move to close the voting.
As I noted earlier, Michael Hutchinson from Computershare will act as the returning officer for the purposes of conducting and determining the results of the poll, the results of which will be announced to the ASX later today, and we'll put the proxy vote totals up shortly. That deals with the administrative details of today's meeting, and I will now move to my formal address. So formally, welcome, shareholders and guests, to Nufarm's annual general meeting for the 2025 financial year. Today, we have shareholders present, both in person and online, allowing everyone to participate. Nufarm is a global crop protection and seed technologies company. We help farmers and businesses meet the global challenges of food, feed, fiber, and fuel production.
It's a great privilege to chair a company with a deep Australian heritage and a strong global presence, with the capability, agility, and partnerships to help customers in a rapidly changing world. Agricultural innovation plays a critical role in global food security, climate resilience, and farmer livelihoods. Nufarm's solutions across crop protection, human nutrition, biofuels, and aquaculture play an important role in global challenges like food security and climate change, as well as supporting farmer incomes around the world. Today, I'm gonna talk about our financial performance in 2025, the progress we have made on repositioning our seed technologies business, and also introduce you to our recently appointed CEO and Managing Director, Rico Christensen. I will also talk to you about our confidence in the future.
While our statutory result for the 2025 financial year was disappointing, we have made excellent progress on a number of fronts and are well-positioned for much improved performance in this financial year and for the future. For FY 2025, we reported a statutory loss of AUD 165 million, which included AUD 142 million of mainly non-cash material items relating to the outcome of our seed technology review and a broader performance improvement program. Within the statutory loss are large non-cash items associated with repositioning our seeds business for future value creation. Excluding these items, the underlying performance, particularly in crop protection, was strong. We were pleased with our crop protection business, which delivered an increase in underlying EBITDA of 18%, with growth in all regions.
In North America, we saw a record year for profitability in the turf and ornamental segment, and in APAC, a record year of profit in Asia. In Europe, underlying EBITDA grew 22%, reflecting the benefits from our performance improvement program, as well as better industry conditions. In seed technologies, we had a good year in our profitable hybrid seeds business. It was pleasing to see increased revenue and profitability in South America, which is a focus for future growth. In bioenergy, as market fundamentals have continued to strengthen, we increased the planted area in carinata. The market has evolved as expected, with a shortage of feedstock to supply demand created by the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive in Europe. The biggest challenges have occurred in our Omega-3 platform, which was severely impacted by a fall in fish oil prices.
We have taken actions to reduce costs and reposition Omega-3 production to achieve lower cost of goods. We expect a materially improved outcome from Omega-3 in FY 2026 and thereafter. During the year, we took decisive steps to reposition Europe for future growth, with a clear focus on generating cash from operations and increasing returns for shareholders. This included a review of seed technologies. The review considered a thorough assessment of our strategy, as well as testing the merits of a potential sale or bringing in a capital partner. After a considerable amount of work, the board determined that the highest value outcome for shareholders will come from continued ownership under a reprioritized strategy that reduces cash costs and capital demands, that prioritizes near-term growth in hybrid seeds and technology, and repositions our Omega-3 platform to achieve a stronger position over the medium term.
This work is now well progressed, and the seed technology business is well positioned for much improved outcomes this year and beyond. Our balance sheet has been an important area of focus in FY 2025. The company has a good level of funding available, with diversified and flexible debt facilities that are underpinned by a covenant-light financing structure and staggered maturity profile. The increase in net debt at the end of FY 2025 reflected a range of factors, including expenditure on key manufacturing assets and a significant increase in Omega-3 oil inventory. We are advancing on a clear path to reduce leverage by the end of FY 2026 through further improvements in working capital management, cash generative earnings growth, lower capital expenditure, and stronger cost discipline.
We did not declare any dividends to shareholders in FY 2025, and while we appreciate that, that this is disappointing for shareholders, the decision reflects our capital management principles and our objective to reduce leverage. In November, we announced the appointment of Rico Christensen, formerly our Group Executive of Portfolio Solutions, as CEO and Managing Director of Nufarm, succeeding Greg Hunt in that role. Rico's appointment is reflective of strong succession planning that has been in place over a number of years. This has seen key appointments made to the leadership team over the last five- years, ensuring that there were high-quality internal candidates with deep industry expertise. Rico brings more than two decades of global leadership in the agricultural chemical sector and a strong track record of delivering improved performance through operational excellence, capital discipline, and portfolio development.
He has extensive experiences across strategy, operations, sales and marketing, supply chain, P&L, cash flow management, and capital allocation. His commercial acumen, strategic clarity, and capacity to build high-performing teams made him the standout candidate for the role. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank Greg for his leadership and service to Nufarm for over 10 years as our CEO. Greg is a highly respected and admired leader, both in the Australian business community and amongst his peers in the global crop protection and seeds industry. His tenure as CEO and Managing Director saw Nufarm grow into a global company with valuable market positions and significant potential. In closing, we have finished the first quarter of FY 2026 with strong momentum, which Rico will elaborate on in his speech.
Our balance sheet is sound, our priorities are clear, and our teams engaged to deliver on the objectives we have set ourselves. The board is fully committed to delivering for our shareholders. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank all of our people for their unwavering dedication and commitment to make sure we meet our customers' needs. To our customers, suppliers, and shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support of, for Nufarm. I'll now invite your Managing Director and CEO, Rico Christensen, to address the meeting. Rico?
Thank you, John, and I have my welcome to everybody joining us today. First, let me start by thanking the board for the trust they have shown in appointing me CEO of Nufarm, and also to Greg for his support over my last four and a half years in the business and through the transition. It's an honor to be leading Nufarm, a great Australian company that I deeply respect. In agriculture, Nufarm is known and admired far beyond the borders of Australia. When I talk to farmers and channel partners in Brazil and Canada, in Spain and other countries, we have instant brand recognition and respect. We are known for our solutions and our dedication to be easy to do business with. We are a leader in key geographies, in core crops, and in key product segments.
We are known for our innovative mindset, thinking of new ways to support agriculture as it continues to evolve. I have more than two decades of experience across the agricultural industry, running businesses in Europe, South America, North America, and Australia. I've spent most of my career competing against Nufarm.... Taking that outsider's view, I cannot emphasize enough how valuable our brand is, how valuable our leading positions are, and how valuable our relationships are. The relationships we have built with farmers, channel partners, and technology partners for more than 100 years. I have regular conversations with partners about our innovations across crop protection and seeds. We are known and respected for our innovation and our partnership model. That means our R&D cost is many times lower than our peers. This is the Nufarm way, and our competitors envy us for it.
Above everything else, we have a team of dedicated, hardworking people who show up every day wanting to do better for Nufarm, for our customers, and for our shareholders. My job, with the help of all our people around the globe, is to translate that hard-fought position into strong financial performance and returns to our shareholders, and position Nufarm for improved performance through the cycle. One of the most important jobs for any CEO is to make sure we have a clear set of priorities, and that everyone across the business understands what they are. I'm now going to talk to you about our priorities for the current financial year. We are continuing our work to instill a strong cost and capital deployment discipline.
We are doing this with a focus on processes, accountability, and ways of working, which, combined, will result in positive free cash flow to support reduction in debt and leverage. We are embedding cost and capital discipline into our corporate culture by refining structure, delegations, and incentives. The aim is to ensure not just a one-time improvement in performance, but that cost and capital discipline is embedded in our culture and is reflected in our performance through the cycle. FY 2025 showed positive signs in the performance and profitability of our crop protection business. We plan to build on our leading positions across geographies and crops. A great example is our Phenoxy portfolio, which has growth potential that can be unlocked through partnerships and market presence. Similarly, we have high-quality businesses such as Turf and Ornamental, and our ANZ business that have strong potential.
Thinking about future drivers of growth, last year we announced an agreement with KingAgroot. The collaboration agreement is for the development and launch of a new Group 14 herbicide in Australia and New Zealand. It is a strong, standalone knockdown herbicide against hard-to-control weeds, such as resistant ryegrass. It is highly complementary to our existing portfolio, and we're currently targeting regulatory approval and launch by 2028. This is just one example of how our partnership model can be leveraged to innovate new products for our customers and earnings for our shareholders. In Seed Technologies, we are well progressed on repositioning the business to unlock value and deliver improved performance and returns over time. We have already taken action to reduce cash expenditure and capital requirements, and recently adopted a new leadership structure to support delivery of the new strategy.
We expect clear improvements this financial year as prior year actions take full effect. Our Hybrid Seeds is a high-quality, cash-generative business. It has unique and valuable IP that we are looking to scale in Southern Hemisphere markets. With the appropriate focus and attention, we see a clear runway for future growth, growth, and that will be a priority for this financial year. We are also committed to building our strategic partnerships in emerging platforms to improve future cash flow and earnings in that business. I am pleased to report that we have made a positive start to the year, with a good improvement in the first quarter. Today, we are reaffirming all elements of the guidance we provide at our FY 2025 result. FY 2026 promises to be a year of strong growth and profitability.
We are focused on free cash flow generation and delivering a significant reduction in leverage by the end of the financial year. I'm pleased to see the clarity of focus and the commitment of our teams across the globe that will support the delivery of improved earnings and a stronger balance sheet. In closing, I'd like to thank our people, customers, and suppliers for their ongoing support and loyalty. I'm grateful for the dedication shown by our people. Their determination and flexibility in an ever-changing environment are truly inspiring and reflected in our culture. On behalf of the management team, I would like to thank the board for their support and guidance. And to our shareholders, thank you for your support and your shared belief in the future value to be delivered from our business. So again, thank you, and I'll now hand back to John.
Thanks, Rico. I'll now move to the discussion on the formal items of business, as set out in the notice of meeting. I remind you that the poll is open for voting, and if you've not already done so, I encourage you to vote now. The notice of meeting contains all the material information in the board's possession to assist you in determining how you wish to vote. This includes the board's recommendations for shareholders to vote in favor of all resolutions. Alexandra Gartmann, Marie McDonald, and I are each standing for re-election at this meeting, with details of our skills and experience contained in the notice of meeting, and we will address the meeting in the order laid out in the notice of meeting, which means I go first.
For myself, it is a great privilege to chair the Nufarm board and to stand again at this year's AGM for re-election. As our FY 2025 full year results demonstrated Nufarm's crop protection business is performing well. We have reprioritized our seed business strategy and made good improvements in cost and working capital. As we progress deeper into FY 2026, we are well-placed to grow earnings, generate cash, and reduce leverage. Fresh energy and perspectives from our new CEO are assisting with these ambitions. The board's priority for FY 2026 is to ensure that we achieve our stated plans through constructive engagement with our new CEO and his team, which will support shareholder value creation. We have a highly credentialed and engaged board of directors with diverse and relevant experience.
I believe I have the experience and capacity to dedicate the time required as chair of the board to deliver for the company and for our shareholders. I'd now like to invite Alexandra and then Marie to address the meeting.
Great. Thanks, John. Very pleased to address you today and seek your support for my re-election to the Nufarm board as an independent non-executive director. I was first appointed to the board in September 2022, and I'm currently the Chair of the Sustainability and Environment Committee. I've been involved in the agricultural industry for about 30 years, and the opportunities and risks that it faces each and every season, the scale and complexity of both the internal and the external pressures, the things that you control, the things that you manage for, and the things that you respond to. And these are not diminishing, and decisions at both the farm business table but also the listed company table are multifaceted and shape and are shaped by both local and global conditions.
Three years ago, I told you how excited I was by the prospect of building on Nufarm's legacy of innovation to pioneer new technologies and develop new markets to accelerate the sustainable production of food, fiber, and fuel, and this energy remains. I also remain passionate about agricultural communities, so the farmers and the businesses at its core, the rural communities across the globe that it supports, and the people who choose to put their time, treasure, and talent into strengthening sustainability, profitability, and environmental and social impact. I acknowledge that we've had a disappointing statutory result, but the work that we have done and will continue to do to reprioritize capital allocation, reduce cost, and reduce risk, positions Nufarm well. As one member of a skilled and cohesive board, I can say we have challenged ourselves and management to be a better Nufarm.
From our results, and also highlighted by John and Rico today, we've seen areas with strong and improving performances, and I'd like to call out the sustainability, governance, and reporting for Nufarm, which has steadily improved. I'm committed to building a stronger, higher-performing, and more sustainable Nufarm, and I can confirm that I have both the time and the energy to commit to Nufarm as a non-executive director. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today and for your support.
Thanks, Alex. Marie?
Thank you, John and Alex. Like my colleagues, I'm pleased to be able to address you briefly this morning as I seek your support for re-election as a director. I was originally appointed to the board in 2017, and I'm currently the Chair of the People, Safety, and Remuneration Committee. It's been an honor to serve your company in these capacities. However, I have been on the board for nearly nine years, and this will be the last time that I've presented myself for re-election as a director. There's information about me in the notice of meeting, but in brief, my professional career was spent as a lawyer, specializing in corporate and commercial law, often working on cross-border international transactions.
Since then, I've been a non-executive director of a number of listed companies, having a life science focus and all global, complex operations. We have a diverse skill set on the Nufarm, Nufarm board, and I think my skills and experience help round out that mix. The Chair and Rico have both spoken about last year's performance and the actions we're taking to reposition the company for the future. I won't repeat their comments, except to say I'm highly supportive of them. Last year's statutory result wasn't what we wanted, of course, but with the actions we're taking, I'm confident that we're on a path to improved financial performance. Importantly, long-term growth potential is also being preserved.
There are a number of reasons I think, to feel positive about the future, including the fact that we have leading positions for a number of our crop protection and seeds products, and we have a highly engaged and talented workforce. And we also have a new CEO, Rico, and we're already benefiting from Rico's fresh vision, in framing company strategy. We have a task in front of us, but I can assure you that I have, both the energy and the time to commit to my role at Nufarm. If I'm re-elected, I will work with my board colleagues and management with a very clear goal of creating value for you, our shareholders, as well as for our customers, our suppliers, and our employees. Thank you.
Thanks, Marie. So now we'll move into the questions section of the meeting. I will shortly take questions on all items of business in the order they are submitted, or on any general questions relating to Nufarm that you may have. I encourage you to submit your questions via the online platform, if you've not already done so. And as I mentioned earlier, the poll is open on all items of business, and the proxy results for all items of business are now being displayed on the screen. You can see that proxy voting indicates that all items are likely to pass today with strong support. I'll start with a few questions we've received prior to the meeting or right at the commencement of the meeting.
Firstly, from a shareholder, Aurora Management Repurchase Limited, asking whether the board will endorse and support the activities of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to end krill fishery in Antarctica. Alex chairs our board's Sustainability Environment Committee, so I thought you might like to have a stab at answering that one, Alex.
Thanks, John. I'll firstly just say, thanks for the question. I'm not a krill expert. But I will say that not only do we recognize the importance of sustainable land and oceans, but our business is actually addressing these issues that face the world, these sustainability issues. And we actually, as many of you would know, have a sustainable Omega-3 alternative to wild fish and krill catch through our Omega-3 canola, and we're continuing to commercialize this. So in all issues, particularly around sustainability, we follow the science. And with respect to krill fishing in Antarctica, we strongly encourage the application of the stringent science-based policy to ensure sustainability of this ecologically sensitive part of the world. We also support the regular review of these policies to adapt to changing environments.
For our part, we will continue to focus on our important work to grow a sustainable alternative source of Omega-3, and our actions to address climate change, because both of those are really critical for sustainable krill populations. Thanks, John.
Thank you. As the meeting kicked off, we received four questions from the Australian Shareholders Association, so Grant, it might be just best to deal with these here, and then we'll go to the ones that are coming in live. And these are from Mike Robey. I hope I'm saying your surname correctly, Mike. The first question was a question about our executive incentive plan, and noting that the CEO is under that plan incentivized to achieve the 30% reduction in emissions from the company's manufacturing sites, and questioning what the timing for the starting of that is, noting that Rico is starting three- months into a financial year. Actually, Mike, the commencement time for the 30% is the FY 2020 year, which is the baseline. So, yeah, that hopefully answers your question.
His second question was about the geopolitical turmoil that is currently we're all facing, and the fossil fuel oil price volatility, and do our forecasts for carinata as an avgas substitute still hold? Rico, I thought you might like to answer that one.
Sure. Thanks, John. Yes, so we, as you all know, we have an agreement with BP on our carinata business. The information we get from BP is that they're quite satisfied with the agreement and also the potential for this type of business. And in fact, we have seen an uptick in DST premiums in the last few months. So since the end of financial year 2025, we've seen DST premiums go from $100 per tonne up to now more than $300 per tonne, which would indicate that there is plenty of future and potential in this market still.
Yeah. The European market regulatory environment is developing as we would hope-
Yes
... perhaps spurred on by developments on the other side of the Atlantic. The next question from the ASA was a question on fish oil, and the question is: We understand there is global oversupply of fish oil, which contributed to the AUD 101 million write-down in inventories in the seeds business. What are the near and long-term supply forecasts for these products? Again, perhaps, Rico, you-
Sure
- take that one.
So I think it's too early to say if there's oversupply. What we know and what we communicated previously is that we know there's, from a long-term perspective, a widening structural gap between supply and demand in fish oil. That continues to be the case. So within that long-term trend, there will obviously be volatility, depending on wild catch, fishing, and mainly driven by anchovies and brood. What we have seen in the last three months is that the fish oil prices have increased, so we've gone from around $2,600 per tonne to now $2,900 per tonne over the last three months, which again would indicate that there is more demand than supply, at least for the time being.
So we don't see any reason why that would change longer term. We continue to believe in the long-term gap between supply and demand in fish oils, and that's why we have invested in the three.
Thank you. The last question relates to disclosures in the annual report, and particularly what we would, old-timers would call the P&L, the consolidated P&L, and the way that the consolidated numbers show an increase in sales, marketing costs of AUD 111 million, and a AUD 50 million increase in admin costs. And the question is that these seem quite extraordinary increases for a business with roughly steady sales revenue. That's a good pickup, Mike, in terms of working through that particular statement. And if you move to note seven in the annual report, which is page 87, you'll see the detailed explanation for the majority of those increases, which are the material items relating to the seeds restructuring, and rationalization and other cost reduction initiatives that were expensed upfront.
So hopefully that explains it for you. Very happy to have a follow-up question from you if you need more. So now we move to questions online.
One more from me.
One more. A layman's guide as to why, which resolution?
Resolution.
Constitutional.
The constitutional change, and there's the-
Oh, the constitutional change. Okay. The constitutional change that we're putting forward to today's meeting relates to ensuring that this company will commit to a best practice on seeking shareholders' approval if it's moving to transact on a major asset within its business. This is in keeping with the furor regarding the James Hardie company and a transaction in last year that caused enormous amount of upset for major institutional and fund managers, and we're just responding to that by doing what other companies who have had AGMs have already done, and adopting this constitutional change in line with what the stock exchange's statement they're canvassing, changing the rules to pick it up anyway.
So we're just trying to get ahead of the curve and show that we understand the issue, and we respect shareholders' rights, and we'll enshrine that in our constitution. Okay, so let Grant take over.
Yeah.
Got some from Stephen Mayne?
We have several from Mr. Mayne. The first one concerns the disclosure on the headcount voting, so number of shareholders voting on the resolutions.
As we said last year, there's no change in the position, Stephen. We'll do what's required to be done and disclose what's required to be disclosed. We have adopted the early disclosure of the proxy numbers, and we think that's where best practice is.
These, there are two more from Mr. Mayne, and I'll read them. The second question asks the chair to speculate on geopolitical events, specifically comments from the Canadian Prime Minister. I think the more relevant part of the question is, given the geopolitical events that are occurring, what impacts does that have on Nufarm's business, and what actions are being taken?
Yeah, well, I'm not gonna comment on things that get said at Davos by whomever other than I did note the quote that if you're not on the table, you're on the menu. And that's very relevant for Nufarm. The global agricultural chemicals and global seeds production industries are facing some very interesting times with a number of restructurings going on, and there'll inevitably be more consolidations. And we're very actively positioning our business to be a beneficiary of the best elements of those that we can. I think our ability to now allow everyone to see how strong our hybrid seeds business is puts us in a better position for those changes. And when you line up our crop protection business with its peers globally, we have a top quintile performing business.
We've worked very hard to achieve that, and you can see year-on-year improvement, and we've got very strong plans to keep driving that. It's a volatile time. There's that wonderful Chinese saying about risk and opportunity, so we're focused on making sure that we're controlling everything we can control, and in the best spot to take opportunities that present themselves.
In the interest of some other shareholders, chair, so I'll come back to Mr. Mayne's other questions, but, we have a question here from Mr. Kevin Daly, asking us to comment on where, more specifically, where FY 2026 capital expenditure will be directed.
Well, we're through peak capital expenditure on our major manufacturing sites, which was one of the reasons for that level of cash outflow, creating an upwards push on leverage, and we expect ourselves to be-- we expect to be in a much stronger position on CapEx for operations. In terms of more broadly, what you want to say there, Rico, you wanna?
Well, as we said at the end of FY 2025, we are targeting less than AUD 200 million CapEx this year, and we are tracking towards that number, and as I said earlier, we are reaffirming all the guidance we gave at FY 2025. So as John said, some of that reduction will come from operations, but there are also CapEx reductions in other areas. But we will continue to support our operations to-
Mm
... supply chain to the extent we need to keep our people safe, and our sites continue to operate in a stable manner, as well as continue to support our portfolio in terms of registrations and the R&D activities we need to ensure future growth as well.
We have a question from Mr. Ronald Guy, shareholder, regional trading to rights group. With modern-day slavery being a growing concern within Australia internationally, how does Nufarm at least see possibilities of this occurring in the procurement supply chain?
It's a great question. It is a real challenge for the world. We are very active in making sure that our approach to modern slavery, which is disclosed in our annual statement, is proactive, and we have, we think about where modern slavery has been reported, and so we're thinking about where areas might impact on us, and we're also looking at where we know there are known risks. So it's a proactive response that continues to evolve in line with the best information we can get.
I'll now return a couple of questions from Mr. Mayne. The next question is for our Auditor. Mr. Mayne cites that the audited accounts show book value in equity of approximately AUD 2.11 million, company has market capitalization citing AUD 880 million. He's asking, in terms of process, how involved was the auditing committee and Chair, you in the KPMG's latest audit, and in the going out to the balance sheet claims and market assessment considered?
Thank you.
Yeah, please, Vicky.
Take that. Thank you. Well, guys, I would like to just make some opening comments on the conduct of the audit and in particular on that process, and then if the chair would like to say anything more in terms of the composition of the balance sheet.
... We do conduct an independent audit that is over the financial statements as a whole. That includes risk assessment procedures around where we think the areas of risk are, controls testing, and substantive testing of the individual balances. It is set out in Nufarm's annual report on page 136, that impairment testing and the recoverability of non-current assets and intangible assets on the balance sheet is a key audit matter. That means it is an area we spend a significant amount of focus, that we do apply additional professional skepticism and set out over two pages there is a list of the procedures that we performed.
What I would say is that at no time during, you know, any of our audit procedures of me or my team were we impeded in terms of making independent assessment around the recoverability of the balance sheet. I had full access to the board, the audit committee, as needed and as required, including full access to board papers and minutes as that related to the CEO strategic review and other things that were taking place. We also engaged specialists to look at available public information, reconciliations that the company undertook between the carrying value of the assets on the balance sheet and market capitalization, and implied multiples from other companies and transactions. And very satisfied that the carrying value on the balance sheet is not materially misstated as part of our audit. Happy to take any further questions that are-
Yeah, thanks for those comments, Vicky. I think in closing out the answer to the question Stephen posed, in both my formal remarks and Rico's formal remarks, and the comments from Alex and Marie, you can get a very strong sense for how focused the board is, and our management team are on restoring and building balance sheet strength. We're acutely aware that we want to have a much lower level of leverage and to build that into a much stronger position, so that we can take opportunities as they come to us and push hard to deliver on the inherent value that this company is able to produce. So it's a very strong area of focus.
Another question from Mr. Mayne, Director of the Chair. Asking the chair to comment on the 6% vote against the election, and specifically, was this caused by a proxy advisor recommendation relating to workload, or was it caused by an individual shareholder consternation, including on share price performance?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Stephen. I think the easiest way to answer that is that you’re asking whether it was one thing or the other. It’s the latter, the majority, and I’ve already met with that shareholder, and I understand their views. I understand my workload. I’ve committed, via discussions with proxy advisors and, and, and with my board colleagues, to ensuring that I have the available time. Two of my private board roles will step away across the next couple of months to make sure that I have the capacity to do what I need to do here and elsewhere, and I’m very comfortable that I will have that capacity.
Final question that we have at the moment, again from Mr. Mayne. This question was asked last year. He was asking the CEO to provide a summary of the Nufarm equity investments and incentive rates, since he joined the company as an executive.
I think the easiest way for that is that we provide that information to Stephen offline, rather than forcing Rico to try to think through what he's got. He, he's not, he's not carrying that around in his head, as I understand, and I wouldn't expect him to. So, yeah. But thanks for the question, Stephen. We'll get that answer to you, so you have it. If there's no further questions, and anything from the floor, please. Yes.
Chair, two questions. First one is, can you tell me what the Phenoxy market share in Australia is, the Nufarm current?
Phenoxy market share in Nufarm, a precise number?
Oh, just go general. Yeah, okay.
Okay.
Yeah, a general number.
Okay. It will, it'll be in the upper 60s% range.
The second question I've got is relating to long-term performance. If we go back to 2017, the share price was AUD 9. If we look at the share price of June 2025, it's AUD 2. If we look at June 2024, it was AUD 4. I suppose one good thing is hopefully it can't go lower, but the board and management has overseen the loss of shareholder value of somewhere around AUD 2.6 billion in seven- years, of which AUD 800 million was in the last 12 months. I've been coming and listening to the AGMs for many years, and every year there's excuses made for why last year's numbers weren't achieved.
Promises made that everything's going to be better next year, and that next year's AGM, the excuses are made that, we weren't able to achieve the results we needed last year. Given all of that, how can any shareholder have confidence that the board and management are actually going to be able to turn this company around? The lost shareholder value has been catastrophic, and most of that time there's been no dividends paid or a significant dividend?
So we have some very, very long-term unhappy shareholders, and I'm quite frankly surprised that the five or six private equity firms that own the majority of the shares have not been more active in changing the composition of both the board and executive management.
I've been a shareholder of this company now for a very, very long time, and quite frankly, I'll listen again today, and nothing that's been said gives me any confidence that you can move the dial on both profitability in the long term and shareholder value at any time going forward. That's a general statement I think a lot of shareholders, and I'd be interested in your comments.
Well, thanks for your remarks. I'll take the majority of them as a general statement, and I'll just make some remarks to close out and reply. I am, the board is, and senior management are bitterly disappointed with where our share price is, and we have a steely determination to fix it. We've made changes. The changes are six, seven, eight- months in already. You can see, if you break up the underlying performance of the business, there is genuine, strong, enhanced, improved performance in crop protection year-on-year over the last three years, and our hybrid seeds business likewise continues to be high performing, and we've increased the level of disclosure in that area so that people can better understand seed, seeds in its entirety.
I think, the other elements of our seeds business, Carinata, is more slowly developing than we like, but there are really positive signs now for all of the promise that we hoped for being able to be delivered in the medium to long term. And we are left with a challenge to get the value that we've all been hopeful of achieving out of the Omega-3 investments. And there is considerable work being done to reposition production so that we can have a profitable production base from which to grow the product that we have scientifically produced and now we need to effectively commercialize, and there's a very strong determination to achieve that.
So, supplementary question: so you're saying the future of Nufarm is going to be based on the seed business, the capital-
No. No, no. Crop protection is high performing by any measure versus its peers, and, the hybrid seeds business is high performing, and by increasing the disclosure in seeds, we are now able to, we are able to show to investors that ability. The global agricultural chemicals sector is in a very difficult position. We can't out-compete that. There is an element of that suppression in our share price. But we had a very difficult year with our Omega-3 because of the plunge in fish oil pricing and the fact that we were producing it with a high cost of goods. We had to change that cost of goods production. We are deep into the process of repositioning to do that, and we've taken the costs cuts and the write-offs to achieve that. So I, I...
It's not about believing that that's the future, it's about believing that our crop protection business is high performing, and that's clearly year-on-year laid out, and that we have a hybrid seeds business that is strong and has high margins and has real growth in it. And, we're looking forward to putting numbers on the table at the half year and at the full year and moving this time next year, that actually give people the confidence to invest and get the share price moving back in the right direction.
Wonderful to-
We all are looking forward to it. It's what we've made a lot of change and had a lot of work to achieve, so, yeah. But I thank you for your question, and I'm, we're not here celebrating where we are. There's a steely determination to get back to healthier positions, so we're, we're looking forward to delivering on that. If there's no further questions from the floor, and there's nothing further from online, I'll look to our returning officer, who's not going to tear us apart. There's the... For the INXS fans, I get the, you know, never tear us apart. Jacob, see, it didn't work, did it?
I've heard it a lot of times.
You've heard it a lot of times, yeah, yeah. So we'll close, this concludes the discussion on items of business and all the matters that we need to cover formally. So I'll now formally close the poll for this meeting, and the final poll results will be released to the ASX and posted on the website, Nufarm's website, later today. On behalf of the board and on behalf of Rico and the management team, I'd like to thank you for participating in today's AGM, and we look forward to delivering better news in a, in a year's time. The meeting is now formally closed, so thank you.