Good morning, shareholders. My name is Mark Joiner, Chairman of the board and of the meeting today. It's my great pleasure to welcome you to our third annual general meeting. The land we're on today has rich history and is a place of culture, kinship, and knowledge. I respectfully acknowledge and honor the traditional custodians of this land, wherever you are. I pay my respects to elders past and present and recognize the continued and enduring connection of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have to this land and to country.
We are hosting today's annual general meeting from Collins Square in the Docklands region of Melbourne, where the Yarra River and the Maribyrnong River meet the sea. For thousands of years, these waterways have sustained life and hold a spiritual and cultural significance to the Aboriginal peoples.
I've been advised by the company secretary that we have a quorum, and I therefore declare the meeting open. I now formally open the poll on all resolutions. It's my pleasure to introduce to you the members of the PEXA Group Board.
First, on my right, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Glenn King; Mr. Scott Butterworth, the Chief Financial and Growth Officer; Independent Non-Executive Director, Ms. Helen Silver AO; Independent Non-Executive Director, Ms. Melanie Willis; Non-Executive Director and CBA Nominee Director, Mr. Paul Rickard; Independent Non-Executive Director, Ms. Kirstin Ferguson; Independent Non-Executive Director, Mr. Vivek Bhatia; and Independent Non-Executive Director, Mr. Geoff Smith. Also in attendance are Ms. Naomi Dawson, our Company Secretary; Ms. Alice Morrison, Chief Risk and Governance Officer and Company Secretary; and Mr. Hany Messieh, General Manager, Investor Relations and moderator for today's event. Mr. Chris Reed, the audit partner representing the company's auditor, Ernst & Young.
Chris Reed is available to answer questions in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the independent external auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of the financial statements, and the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit. Representatives from PEXA's share registry, Link Market Services, are also in attendance. I'll now pass to our moderator, Hany Messieh, who will take you through the procedural matters.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, shareholders. The notice of meeting, dated 23rd of October, 2023, has been made available to all shareholders on the company's website and on the ASX announcements platform. For each item of business, the Chair will first ask whether there are any questions in the room of shareholders, then proceed. Please approach the microphone and proceed to ask your question. I will then read out any written questions received via the online platform, followed by any questions received by phone.
The shareholders who are joining the meeting virtually are encouraged to submit questions by clicking the Ask a Question button located at the top of your screen. You'll need to select whether your, your question relates to business, general business, sorry, or a specific resolution, and then type your question in the space provided.
If you would like to ask a question via the telephone, you must quote the unique PIN number provided by Link Market Services. The telephone operator will introduce you at the relevant time. I'll ask you to mute your computer while you ask your question. Voting on all resolutions is by way of a poll. For those attending the meeting in person, you can cast your vote by completing the yellow voting card received from the registration desk. If you have any questions, please see a Link Market Services team member at the registration desk outside of this room.
For shareholders joining virtually, to cast your vote, click on Get a Voting Card, which appears at the top of your screen. You will need to enter your SRN or HIN or proxy number and postcode and click Submit Details and Vote. Please complete the vote.
Complete the online voting card for each item of business, and then click Submit Vote. The Chair will vote undirected proxies in favor of all resolutions, and during the meeting, we will display the number of votes already received for each resolution. The final results of the voting by way of poll will be released to the ASX as soon as they are available and will be displayed on the company's investor website. I'll now pass back to the Chair to deliver the chairman's address.
Thank you, Hany. Shareholders, a lot has happened in the last 12 months, much of which we will touch on upon today. But perhaps the most significant from an ownership perspective was the in-specie distribution of PEXA shares by Link to its shareholder base. That move substantially enlarged the number of owners of our stock and markedly improved its liquidity, with approximately 75% of our shares now freely traded. I'd like to extend a special welcome to our new PEXA shareholders.
As I reflect upon the year just past, it strikes me as being one of further steady and deliberate progress on the implementation of all aspects of our strategy. First and foremost, the exchange continued its establishment as an indispensable part of the Australian property value chain. There were market share gains, most notably in WA and the ACT.
We have also commenced the planning and development for the extension of our PEXA Exchange platform to Tasmania, as well as supporting Northern Territory in the development of their plans, which together will give us comprehensive coverage of the domestic market. We have also continued to invest in the customer experience and making it easier to use our platform through API development and integration into practitioner platforms.
On the regulatory side, interactions with ARNECC continued around the proposal for interoperability as currently defined, and deadlines for New South Wales and Queensland for the end of 2025 have been put forward. We have informed all parties that we do not see these dates as feasible. Other stakeholders have also started to express concerns about interoperability and the potential adverse impact on the customer experience, performance, and security of e-conveyancing.
Notwithstanding all of this, we've continued to be active and constructive in our engagement with all parties. At the same time, we're increasing our focus on the productivity and efficiency of the PEXA Exchange, reflecting the maturity of the platform, but mindful of the need for continued investment in customer experience. This is reflected in our guidance around margins and sustainable productivity and efficiency gains will be an ongoing emphasis.
With respect to our insights business, now called Digital Growth, it is becoming clearer where we see commercial potential, both in terms of economic returns and relevance to our core exchange customers. We play in the value-added segment of the digital insights market, where we expect to grow fivefold over the remainder of this decade to over AUD 1 billion. That would yield an AUD 600 million addressable market in value-added land information services, which no one dominates today.
Three of the franchises we substantially own are showing decent potential to play a role in positioning PEXA to capture some of that growth. What's more, our future deployment of capital into this sector is expected to be much less, and we have targeted operating EBITDA breakeven for the portfolio for the month of June 2024. Finally, let me comment on our entry into the U.K. market. Setting up in a foreign market is always going to be a complex and financially demanding exercise, and so the U.K. entry has proven. We've had to pivot a couple of times, adjusting our strategy to the realities on the ground.
That said, we are increasingly comfortable with where we stand. We have, hopefully, two small acquisitions that have existing relationships with major industry players, being both financial institutions and practitioners. We've consolidated our business. We have appointed a new CEO with deep industry experience and an established network that will build upon our progress. We still see the market as being in dire need of the types of innovation that PEXA is uniquely positioned to bring.
We always planned for the first meaningful revenues to come out of that market in FY 2027, after our sale and purchase platform is launched, and we continue to see that as the case. All that being said, the U.K. has been a learning experience for PEXA. We are often torn between focusing solely on the U.K. until we're ready to declare victory, and moving to capture other markets while our abilities are unique.
The fact is, we are unlikely to deploy meaningful capital to other opportunities while the U.K. is playing out, but that won't stop us finding more capital-light options for other markets, be that through established players, financial investors, or other parties in those markets. Turning now to PEXA Group governance, there have been three important developments around board memberships. Firstly, the retirement of John Hawkins. Second, Kirstin Ferguson's decision, announced this morning, to stand down.
And finally, the appointment to the board of Geoff Smith. First, let me acknowledge the huge contribution to PEXA made by retiring Link-appointed director, John Hawkins. As the ex-CFO of Link, John had the skills and experience to probe management proposals very effectively, and enough history with PEXA to quickly grasp strategic developments. We thank him for his valuable service over many years.
Second, let me acknowledge the substantial contribution Kirstin Ferguson has made since her appointment over two years ago. She has some unique skills that have benefited. We have benefited materially from, not least through her chairing of our Remuneration, Nomination, and People Committee. With the increasing demands on her time, she has decided to step back from board roles and focus on other job opportunities, and we will miss her. On a brighter note, let me say how delighted we are that Geoff Smith has agreed to join the PEXA board, bringing, as he does, deep technology expertise.
Geoff will introduce himself to you in a little later. As a technology company, we have decided to increase our focus on our tech agenda through the formation of a Technology Committee, which Geoff Smith has kindly agreed to chair.
We anticipate that this will contribute to a step up in our efficiency, effectiveness, and overall system security. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude, both to our loyal customers and dedicated staff. Measures of customer satisfaction and staff engagement remain impressively high, and while we don't take either of those for granted and are constantly striving to improve, both make us very proud. Finally, my thanks again to our shareholders for your interest and support for PEXA, and I look forward to realizing our potential and rewarding your patience. I now pass to our Group Managing Director and CEO, Glenn King, to present the highlights of FY 2023 and the period since.
Right. Thank you, Mark. I'm pleased to join you all today. Now, buying a home or property is one of the most important purchases most people will make in their lifetime, and it is our role at PEXA to make that experience as efficient, safe, and reliable as possible. Our world-leading digital property exchange platform has facilitated more than 16 million property settlements to date, worth more than AUD 3 trillion to the Australian economy. We are more than a technology company. e-Conveyancing is only part of our story, and in fact, our purpose of connecting people to place, which underpins our clear strategy, which I'll talk about further, drives us to improve the effectiveness of the property markets we operate.
Now, PEXA is in a unique position to connect the dots for communities right across the property value chain, unlocking the potential for industry, government, and not-for-profits through our national property data insights to enable more informed local planning, infrastructure, and investment decisions. In addition to that, we're partnering with all sectors to drive better housing solutions that can make a real difference to the communities we serve.
In just 10 years, we have grown from operating Australia's first property exchange that transformed the way property was purchased and sold in a handful of states to what we are today, a multi-brand, multi-jurisdiction group of innovative digital and tech services, creating value across the wider property ecosystem, serving a strong customer need, and delivering results for our shareholders, our people, and the community as a whole. Now, let me talk a little bit about FY 2023.
FY 2023 was characterized as a year of resilience and growth. PEXA has produced a solid result for the year, dealing with market headwinds, while also investing for future growth, diversifying our revenue streams, and increasing our reach in Australia and the U.K. Some of the key highlights for the year included: Group business revenue for FY 2023 rose 1% to AUD 283 million, reflecting growth from new revenue streams such as PEXA International and our digital growth business, including Informed Decisions, backed by the resilience, resilient performance of the PEXA Exchange.
Now, while ex-exchange revenues decreased 6% to AUD 263 million due to the challenging property market conditions in Australia, importantly, second-half margins improved from 52.2% to 55.1% for the year. We extended the reach of the PEXA Exchange, which achieved an average market share of 88%, which was up two percentage points on last year, and we continued with a strong customer score of +81. Our digital growth business delivered revenue of AUD 12 million, which was a combination of organic and inorganic sources, and that was a ninefold increase year-on-year.
And our PEXA U.K. business has also progressed well, with our PEXA platform going live in the U.K. and the acquisition of Optima Legal in the U.K., delivering initial business revenues of AUD 9 million. Pleasingly for the year, the group's cash flow generation remained strong at AUD 89 million before CapEx, financing, and tax.
Let me say it was a challenging year for property markets across the globe, and we saw with the exchange seeing a 10% drop in property transactions following the significant increase in cash rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Now, we faced these challenges by taking several actions to execute, including CPI-linked price increases. We lifted market share, and we also implemented efficiency initiatives to reduce cost. This enabled the group to continue to invest for growth and diversify our revenue.
Underpinning our year of solid growth has been the evolution of the PEXA Group operating model, which has seen a new landscape of technical skills, capabilities, insights, and exciting new businesses, complementing the secure and reliable enhancement of Australia's leading property exchange. Our progress for the year is a testament to the resilience and focus of our talented team of highly engaged employees.
I'm honored to be leading and being part of such a wonderful and passionate group of people who live our values every day, working together to innovate and grow our business in line with our strategy. Now, I'm pleased with the considerable momentum and progress we have made against each of the four strategic pillars, which are: enhance our exchange service, extend into product adjacencies, expand into international markets, and evolve our business. So looking at each of these pillars more closely, we are enhancing and leveraging our highly effective property exchange know-how to deliver sustainable, profitable growth in Australia.
And in FY 2023, we demonstrated the resilience and growth of the PEXA Exchange business, including growth in Queensland and the ICT, and with half-on-half improvements in margin. Over the course of the year, we served more than 10,000 practitioners, 20 government agencies, approximately 160 financial institutions, and 70 property developers. Through them, we supported 900,000 consumers undertaking 3.7 million PEXA transactions, with a property settlement value of more than AUD 814 billion.
And as you can see from the slide, the key revenue drivers for the exchange are the volume and mix of transactions. Now, transaction volumes hit the low point in the March quarter of FY 2023, with quarterly volumes now improving around then 15%. Transaction volumes are currently comparable to the first half of 2023. And as you can also see from the slide, we've been seeing an elevated volume of refinances, which is reflected in the proportion of refinances increasing to 27% and 28% over the past three quarters.
Yet October has seen a significant reduction in refinance volumes, providing us with a more favorable transaction mix as transfers a higher margin for the PEXA Exchange. Now back to FY 2023. We delivered over 250 innovations to improve and expand the PEXA Exchange platform capability. We maintained 100% platform availability across our business hours through our ongoing investment in the exchange resilience and security, with new APIs made available to our customers, allowing them to more effectively integrate with the exchange.
We also continue to constructively contribute to regulatory reform to ensure the reliability and security of the exchange is maintained. In our second pillar, we are extending the range of services and solutions available in Australia to our customers, practitioners, financial institutions, property developers, and government. Our customer needs are rapidly evolving with the digitalization of the property market.
We established our digital growth business to build and acquire a range of innovative solutions that can service our customer needs. In FY 2023, we grew business revenue through both organic and inorganic means by nine times in PEXA Digital Growth, while improving margin by around 400 basis points as the business has started to scale. We also unlocked workflow efficiencies, data, and insight solutions for our financial institution customers.
For example, PEXA Tracker. We continue to grow its user base with over 12,000 financial institution frontline staff, who now have access to high-level summaries of PEXA's property transactions. We are now focused on piloting the use of PEXA Tracker in adjacent markets. Secondly, our PEXA Allocations product module transitioned from pilot to rollout, securing further software-as-a-service revenue for FY 2024.
We uplifted the tech resilience, stability, and efficiency of our PEXA Planner product this year, rebuilding the platform to improve the UX and UI for our banking customers and industrializing the product from proof of concept to support increased industry usage moving forward. Now, other key digital growth developments during the year included acquiring 100% of the leading Australian data and insights company, .id known as Informed Decisions, which provides demographic and economic forecasting data, including around housing, at the micro geographic level to more than 300 local councils and a variety of state government agencies across Australia.
We acquired a 70% stake in Value Australia, with a view to commercializing its award-winning technology to innovate the AUD 710 million valuation services industry in Australia. Value Australia's technology applies state-of-the-art analytics and artificial intelligence to enrich property data assets, delivering highly accurate and consistent results in real time. It is state-of-the-art, and our momentum continued into the first half of FY 2024, following the recent acquisition of Land Insight, leaders in environmental risk, data insights, and analytics.
Land Insight presents an exciting prospect for PEXA, opening new growth opportunities and markets in the climate resilience market and helping our customers prepare for the increasing impacts of climate change on land use. Our focus now turns to embedding each of these leading businesses into the PEXA Group to generate sustainable profit growth while continuing to improve the digital customer experience for our customers. Now we're expanding our proposition into the UK. I'm pleased to welcome our newly appointed U.K. Country Head, Joe Pepper, to lead the team across our U.K. businesses.
Now, just as the PEXA Exchange has already achieved it in Australia, we are seeking to transform the U.K. property market and improve a fragmented refinancing and settlement process that currently delivers poor outcomes for home buyers, sellers, and the institutions that serve them. Let me say, it's not without risk that we enter the U.K., and we have continually reviewed our progress, adjusted accordingly, and are cautiously pleased with our steady progress and momentum. And in the year, our PEXA platform went live.
We onboarded new customers onto the platform, and we acquired and integrated specialist remortgaging conveyancing firm, Optima Legal. The addition of Optima Legal has allowed us to scale our business with an established customer base, with direct relationships with six of the top eight lenders, and an ordinary U.K. remortgage business processing market share of approximately 20%.
We have progressed the integration of Optima Legal into the PEXA Group and are now working on the technical integration of the PEXA tech platform into Optima Legal. The UK market remains PEXA International's highest priority, and in June, we reaffirmed this by announcing our intent to establish our U.K. head office in Leeds. In October, we announced our plans to acquire Smoove, a U.K.-based conveyancing technology provider.
Smoove's primary product is eConveyancer. It's a panel management service which brings together conveyancers and introducers, such as mortgage brokers and lenders and their customers, to offer a two-sided conveyancer marketplace, connecting consumers with quality conveyancers. This presents a step forward as Smoove will allow us to build additional scale and depth in the U.K. market, enabling the PEXA product and tech suite to reach more customers while streamlining and improving the U.K. property transaction experience.
For example, with Smoove, we will gain access to Smoove's network of over 2,100 conveyancer firms, opportunities to cross-sell the PEXA platform to panel firms of Smoove, remortgage flows equivalent to 7% of the U.K. market, a sale and purchase flows across the Smoove platform equivalent to 3% of the U.K.'s sale and purchase market, and important relationships with key Smoove customers, such as the Lloyds Banking Group, which Smoove has been supporting since 2007.
Now, the deal is subject to U.K. takeover laws, and we will have more information to share on expected synergies once the deal closes, which is expected towards the end of this year. Now to our fourth pillar, which is Evolve. To support our business strategic priorities, we are evolving our business to ensure we deliver for our customers, people, shareholders, and the community.
We have provided our people with a best-in-class employee value proposition, achieving industry recognition as an employer of choice. We are championing an environment that fosters diversity, equality, and inclusion for all, with a particular focus on attracting more women into technology roles at PEXA. We are uplifting our productivity, risk, compliance, and control activities while ensuring we meet our ESG corporate governance obligations.
Now onto guidance for FY 2024. While property market activity has been mixed in FY 2024, demand is still being supported by strong economic fundamentals, including robust household savings buffers, low levels of unemployment, low rates of mortgages in arrears, strengthening property listings, and record high net migration. Refinancing volumes, which were elevated in the first quarter of FY 2024, as mortgage holders continued to adjust to new interest rate settings, now appear to me to be moderating.
Reflecting these drivers, PEXA Exchange volumes have held up well, with 169,000 property settlement transactions undertaken during the first quarter of FY 2024, down just 3% from the first quarter of FY 2023. Based on what we can see ahead and our view of expected property market activity, we expect first half FY 2024 volumes for PEXA of circa 1.9 million. Given this and other factors, we have today reaffirmed our FY 2024 outlook previously provided. Nonetheless, we will remain aware of the downside risks in the economic environment and the potential impacts on property and on volumes.
So specifically, what have we done? We've got inflation-linked fee increases, we've got customer-focused product enhancements, and we're rolling out tight cost management. All these factors will help us to maintain the exchange EBITDA margin in the 50%-55% range. We expect the PEXA Exchange to continue to show its resilience in these volatile market conditions, with refinancing and transfer volumes supported by growth in newer states and territories. As flagged, we have a path to launch in the Tasmanian market in FY 2025.
At the same time, our non-exchange investments will gain momentum as we continue to scale the digital growth business. We expect to use the beachhead established in the U.K. market through the Optima Legal acquisition to support our growth in that market, while harnessing the revenues and cross-company applications of our suite of digital growth investments and partnerships. While we're pleased with our momentum, we know we're only at the early stages of our growth journey as a leading global prop tech, and there is no shortage of opportunity in front of us.
Now, in closing, I'd like to leave you with some key observations. We continue to build and leverage our people, capability, and capital. Operationally and financially, we delivered a solid outcome across the group in FY 2023, aligned to our strategy. We remain very focused on executing and delivering on our strategy, and we remain laser focused to deliver shareholder value over the longer term. I just want to say thank you to all shareholders. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions, and will now hand back to Mark. Thank you.
Thank you, Glenn. We'll now take any questions in relation to the chair or CEO presentations. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Do we have a microphone? Yeah. Good.
Brett Morris. Is it working?
I don't know.
Try again.
Brett Morris from the Australian Shareholders Association. Australian Shareholders Association, as you know, is the voice of retail shareholders. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your result this year. I'm also a lawyer. When I'm not working, doing some work for the ASA, I'm a user of PEXA, among other products. And I've found during your implementation, certainly the early years, to be really fantastic. I was one of the nervous practitioners out there wondering about how it was going to go, and then you took us from paper to digital, and I thought that was really fantastic.
And then that leads into my question ultimately. We seem to have gotten to a point where there's a sort of a segment of transactions which PEXA, I don't know if they're ever intending on touching them. It might be adverse possession, or it might be old law title systems, which are not on the Torrens system, which would obviously benefit from that. So there's a segment that PEXA, at this stage, just doesn't appear intent on touching, and I don't know what the why the reason for that is, and whether they intend on doing something like that.
And then, and then also in relation to the area that they have been in, that is just what we'll call a standard transaction. Certainly during the first two years or thereabout, to use a coding expression, PEXA was very agile. It was each time you were doing a transaction, you were doing a transaction in January, for example, and I don't do huge volume of transactions, but you'd do a transaction in January, the system would look like this, and by February, it'd look a fraction different.
You guys were working really hard to make the system work like this, so it's not a complaint, but it would change in response to the needs of customers, and you'd be changing March, it'd be a little bit different. Ultimately, you've got to a point where I think the system is very good, but you seem to have stopped innovating on some points.
And the point that I'm just picking on ever so gently is just the issue of, just for example, you've identified all of the councils in Victoria, just so you produce a notice of acquisition or a notice of selling the place. But I would think with very little coding skill, you could change that from automatically sending that document to the relevant water authority, automatically sending that document to the council, because they're set up. You just have to send it to that address.
And yet, PEXA requires practitioners like myself, who are interested in efficiency within our own business, interested in just having it so that now we've got to print it out, I've got to scan it, resend it and send it out. That's sort of a 15-minute task that with PEXA's skill, it's doing all of that, and yet you sit there and you say to yourselves: "Come on, guys, you can do this. It's not hard." So that's sort of my first question. And then that leads into the issue of PEXA is obviously a monopolist as of today, and as I said, I've got a lot of positive commentary to make about PEXA.
I was really nervous. I was one of the practitioners, like all of us, nervous about how they were going to get it done, and by and large, they've done a great job. On the horizon, of course, there's interoperability, and some are questions really about the interoperability provisions which are coming. So there's interoperability provisions that require PEXA to facilitate entry by competitors.
I was wondering if you could advise what PEXA is required to do, and if PEXA will meet the Model Operating Requirements that's been required of them. So as I understand it, they've got to meet a series of schedules which opens that up, and I just want you to comment on that, 'cause I think that's sort of a, it's an issue on the horizon for PEXA and the industry, just more generally.
Okay. All right. Well, I might ask Glenn to comment on both of those, actually, the unaddressable market and value-added services, and then on interoperability.
Yeah. Good. Well, first, I was just going to share those on. Firstly, just, really appreciate both questions and also your advocacy as a customer as well from the long-term point of view. So maybe if I firstly talk on the first. I think the aspect in terms of further digitalization of transaction types, if I just use it on that lens, we do have a dedicated program to do further digitalization of transaction types, and that's not just in a state, it's across the whole jurisdiction.
And on that element, you know, we really have to prioritize which ones we're gonna do, how it fits within the relevant regulator, land titles office, state revenue offices, and also conscious of customer feedback, as well as just priorities and the capacity of people to do things. So I'll just give you two very short examples. We spent the past period upgrading the number of transactions that can be digitalized in WA, which required the State Revenue Office and the Land Title Office to be part of that. So they had to be ready for that. So a key focus on that area.
We've also worked pretty clearly with the Land Titles Office on areas such as the residual documents in Victoria and New South Wales, to ensure that the available transactions that can be digitalized as close to, say, 99% rather than, say, 92%. And we're also now working on jurisdictions such as Tasmania to get them digitalized.
And the reason why I just flag all those aspects as essential infrastructure to the property sector. Now, we have to work through all those various aspects with a broad customer base in there. In saying that, one of the things I think, PEXA has done particularly well is staying focused with the customer. So even though we're the, the market leader, let's say number one by a clear shot, we have a number of things in terms of getting customer feedback and engagement, including our customer advisory councils, as other forms of mechanisms to help prioritize what should we do next that's gonna make a difference for the customer.
So my second part is, while we're essential infrastructure, while the technology is embedded across 160 financial institutions, as an example, we're still gonna work to continually improve the customer touch points and remove frictions, because there's considerable opportunity to remove those frictions, as you said, from local councils, among others. So there's a dedicated program to keep doing that.
The one thing that, I think we could, even do better, coming back to what you just articulate, is ensuring that we're even more transparent about what's coming up over the next 12 months and make that publicly available to our customers, so they can say, "Okay, I can see what's coming up in the next 12 months." And our customers can continually say: When will this be coming forward? So we're really clear about it.
So I think we can take that forward as an improvement. The second thing in terms of agile, if I just come on the agile, is that, that's related. We do follow an agile process, and there's two parts of that. Firstly, we have agile in terms of the core exchange and the technology in there, so we're really diligent on keeping that process in place.
Secondly, though, what we've also done is we've used the opportunity with what we're doing, say, international, which is using new tech and new services such as microservices, combined with some of the things we've done in digital growth, to continually reinvent how we go around technology and how we go and use modern, modern processes and bring those back appropriately to the Australian market as well.
Because our view is we can always do more and always do better and adopt best practices, and so we're quite keen to do that. So yes, we still follow agile, and yes, we still apply it, but we can always get better at the way we apply it as well. So it's a very considered process. And that one there fits clearly in evolving our organization, whereas the former fitted in enhancing the exchange service. So let me just come on to interoperability, because I think that that's the important part of the step. I think the first thing I would add in there, interoperability as a concept is very complex, and I think that that is being proven from a factual basis with the continued time frames and move out of those time frames.
If we go back from about 2018, here we are now sitting around 2023. It's a complex policy reform, which I could talk to any shareholder for a long time, but I won't. It's a very complex policy reform that is easy to say, but very hard to implement. There's a reason why it hasn't been implemented of any note in this type of industry around the globe.
Now, ARNECC, as the core regulator in this case, as you said, Brent, have come in there and said, "Okay, we want interoperability, and we want to have it in place by certain timelines, starting with New South Wales and Queensland." And the first refi transaction between ourselves and the other player, that's a much smaller player, led by the ASX and others, with two financial institutions, was around September timeframe this year. And it was a, I'd call it a white glove transaction. You know, really held just to see whether it works. That's not a scalable transaction.
The next key is to do refi around July 2025, which is a considerable time away. And then, Queensland, New South Wales, the plan, I wouldn't say the plan, a target would be more appropriate, is or aspiration. I'd say that would be even a more appropriate statement, is to do sale and purchase in Queensland and New South Wales for the four majors, December 2025. You can see that's a very short window. I think that's a pretty ambitious timeframe because there's a number of things to go. So my view, it's gonna be an evolving circumstance in the market.
The one thing I can add for all shareholders is we will always be constructive with the regulators. We'll always make sure we put the right point across. We'll always work to ensure we're protecting shareholders' investments and our customers, but we'll also make sure we're helping the regulators in their thinking around policy reform. So I think it's still a very complex area to go. That's probably my last point to add.
Thank you. Any other questions in the room? Okay, moderator, have we received any written questions?
Chair, we have. The first question comes from Thomas Letang Ling, and his question is: "Traction in the U.K. has been slower than anticipated. When will PEXA be able to provide a forecast of the U.K. growth and the timeline to positive cash flow?
I think the U.K. timeline has pretty much stayed according to the original projections, because it's always been gated by the development of technology. And so the mortgage refi technology, which was completed in the last 12 months, is now available. The way in which we deploy that into the market has changed, and Glenn mentioned the acquisitions and the opportunity to embed that technology in those acquisitions.
And we anticipate it'll take another 12 months or so to develop the sale and purchase technology, which is when the biggest, the more material revenue opportunity presents. And so I think according to the original projections and still our view now, the substantial revenue will start to come through FY 2027.
The next question comes from Stephen Lane: "What impact has the privatization of various state government land title offices had on PEXA? And how extensive are our dealings with Aware Super, which is a major investor in both New South Wales and Victorian privatized land titles offices?
Did you hear that?
Yeah.
Do you want to answer?
Right. Thank you, Stephen. A couple of things, again, for shareholders. So a number of the land titles offices in the various states, inclusive of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, went through various privatization regimes, and there's various agreements in place, so they're all slightly different in each jurisdiction. And different organizations acquired the land registries under those regimes. So the first point that I would add on it, that's not in every land registry, and some of those land registries are currently privatized, were privatized a few years ago. In contrast, registries such as Tasmania, ICT, are not privatized, so it's a blended bottle.
What I would add, though, to Stephen's point, whether it's privatized or not, if I just use those broad generalizations, what has happened is all states and citizens of those states have required improvement in the customer service experience throughout, and that includes from the land registries to move to greater digitalization. And the reason for that is it leads to a better service, more efficient, and also reduction of cost.
The privatization of the Victorian and New South Wales ones, as an example, has certainly been a contributor and an enabler of getting the PEXA Exchange up and running, because it actually helps with some of the improved customer services and efficiencies of privatized land registries. But also, as I've said before, if you think of Tasmania, we're working with the Tasmanians now because they want to get the exchange into that market, because it leads to a better customer experience and better outcomes for the land registries as well. So the privatization certainly helps, but I wouldn't say it's the only thing, Stephen.
The next question comes from Kevin Charles Daley: "Does the expansion of digital growth put PEXA in competition with REA and Domain?
Okay. That's a great question. So it's a couple of things that firstly, it doesn't put PEXA in direct competition with Domain and REA. Because the organizations also do some fundamental different things. So if you think of the PEXA Exchange, which is our core business, it's an exchange that facilitates the sale and purchase and the refi on behalf of multi organizations. The other two organizations are more around listing as their core aspect of their platform for real estate agents. Where PEXA and REA and Domain do have some common aspects in the provision of insight services to broad customer groups.
In our case, our provision of insight services are to financial institutions, are to practitioners, are to property developers, and to government, whereas the other two organizations, without commenting on those organizations, have some different services, but also some different customer segments, such as real estate agents. So it's not purely a direct competition aspect.
The final question under general business is also from Stephen Lane: "Link ceased being a controlling shareholder in January. How long have we contracted to Link for them to be the share registry provider, or are we able to tender that contract? This is not to suggest Link provided a poor service, just to establish whether they're contractually bound to PEXA.
I'll get Alice, on behalf of the company secretarial, to comment on that.
Yeah, thanks, Mark. The Link engagement for registry services is on standard terms. We did not enter in any special arrangements to lock up our registry services with Link before the distribution or at any time, and as with any of our third-party service providers. Management regularly consider the available options to determine what is in the best interest of the company and shareholders.
Okay, good. Okay, so if there are no more written questions, can I ask the phone operator, do we have any questions by telephone?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
Okay, thank you. So if there are no further questions, we'll move to formal items of business. First item of business is to receive and consider the financial report of the company and its controlled entities for the financial year ended thirtieth of June 2023, and the related directors' report and auditors' report. Please note that there is no requirement for shareholders to approve these reports. We'll now turn to questions on item one. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room in relation to the financial report? Moderator, have we received any written questions in relation to the financial report?
No questions.
Telephone operator, have we received any questions by phone in relation to the financial report?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
Okay. We will now move to the resolutions. Resolution one is the re-election of Jeffrey Smith as a director. Resolution one is an ordinary resolution. I'll now invite Jeff to address the meeting.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning to everyone. My name is Jeff Smith. I'm a non-executive director and company advisor who brings over 35 years of experience in the COO roles, leading technology and shared service organizations such as Suncorp Business Services and World Fuel Services. My roles have given me opportunities to gain global expertise in cloud, cybersecurity, digital transformations, and back office automations.
Currently, I sit as a non-exec director on the ANZ Group Bank Board, as well as the Sonrai Cloud Security Board. On a personal note, I'm a proud dual Australian and U.S. citizen with long-term experience and relationships here in Australia. I'm extremely excited about the future of PEXA's Australian business, as well as its global opportunities to leverage and extend the success here in Australia to other jurisdictions, starting with our current focus in the U.K.
I look forward to assisting my board colleagues, as well as Glenn and his leadership team, to drive a global business strategy and realize successful commercial outcomes. I would be pleased and privileged to receive your support today for my election as a non-exec director of PEXA. Thank you.
Thank you, Jeff. We'll now turn to questions on resolution one. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Moderator, are there any written questions we've received?
There are no written questions.
Telephone operator, have we received any questions by phone?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
Okay. So as Chair, I will be voting undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. All directors, with Jeff Smith abstaining, recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution, and I now put the motion to shareholders and request that you vote using the online voting platform or by completing your yellow voting card. Resolution two is an ordinary resolution to approve the re-election of Melanie Willis as a director of the company. I will now invite Melanie to address the meeting.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning to everyone. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve you on the board of PEXA since June 2021. I'm fully committed to continuing to work together with the board and the leadership team in the service of our purpose of connecting people to place. I'm currently Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and a Non-Executive Director who brings a depth of non-executive and executive experiences to the board.
I've served as a non-executive director and Audit and Risk Committee Chair of ASX-listed companies for over 15 years in a broad range of sectors, including financial services, property, media, and tourism, and with companies at different stages in their life cycles. I've also served as a senior executive with experience in investments, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and leadership.
I bring a range of skills and expertise to the PEXA board, including expertise in chairing and service on risk committees, including Challenger Group Limited, QBE AusPac, and PayPal Australia. A deep understanding of strategy and innovation, particularly digital ecosystems and platform players, where technology is helping to transform customer experience. An investor and owner mindset from my time as a chief investment officer and CEO of a financial services startup, and a long career in corporate finance. As a values-based leader, I recognize the commercial imperative for diversity and inclusion and how considering the perspectives of all stakeholders drives sustainable decision-making.
I'm looking forward to continuing to work with the PEXA team to deliver on our purpose of growing our presence in e-Conveyancing overseas, starting with the United Kingdom, continuing to deepen our relationships with our existing PEXA Exchange customers, and leveraging the great insights of our PEXA Digital Growth business. Thank you for considering my re-election to the PEXA board. I'll now hand back to the Chair.
Thank you, Melanie. We'll now turn to questions on resolution . Are there any questions from shareholders in the room in relation to this resolution? Moderator, do we have any written questions?
We've got one written question from Stephen Lane. PEXA has around 30,000 retail shareholders, including director Melanie Willis. Did you, did we invite any of our retail shareholders to attend this week's Investor Day, and did any turn up? Could Melanie comment on whether any of our non-executive directors were there? Also, this is the second question. I'll pick it up later.
Well, Melanie can comment if she likes. I'm not sure it's necessarily one to Director Melanie.
I'm happy to comment. We all actually had a lot of input into the Investor Day presentation, had a good discussion on it, and we got great feedback from Hany and the team on how that Investor Day went, and we understand the absolute importance of that to our institutional and our retail investors.
Yep.
And we were pleased to see how it went.
Yeah, but there is a question. There was certainly high attendance by institutions in person and online, and I think Stephen's question is: were retail shareholders able to view it online as well?
We announced that there would be an Investor Day well before the event. It was actually lodged on the ASX Exchange, and there was a link in that for all shareholders to register and attend that session.
Okay. And to my knowledge, directors didn't attend because it was a management session with, with investors. But as Melanie said, the directors were across the materials. Okay. Are there any other written questions? No. Okay. So, phone operator, do we have any questions on the telephone?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
No questions. Okay. So the votes received are shown on your screen. As chair, I'll be voting undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. The directors, with Melanie abstaining, recommend shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. And I now put the motion to shareholders and request that you vote using the online voting platform or by completing your yellow voting card. Resolution three is an ordinary resolution to approve the re-election of Paul Rickard as a director of the company. I now invite Paul to address the meeting.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning. My name is, Paul Rickard. I've had the privilege of being a non-executive director of PEXA for two terms. Firstly, in the start-up phase, when I joined the board in 2011 and stayed until it was privatized in 2018, and then coming back when it went into public ownership and IPO'd in 2021. Since, June of 2021, I've been the nominee director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
I've seen PEXA grow from its early days, and it wasn't expected to succeed, to become an absolutely integral part of the nation's infrastructure and a global leader in the settlement of property and land transactions. Expertise, talent, and experience that is now being applied to the U.K. property market. I hope that I've had a, have played a role in PEXA's success, bringing my experience in managing large and complex organizations, building dynamic new businesses, and domain expertise in distribution, digitalization, payments, banking, risk management, and governance to the board of PEXA.
I've more than 30 years' experience in financial services, having held senior leadership positions at the Commonwealth Bank and other institutions. I was the founding managing director of CommSec, and in 2005 was named Australian Stockbroker of the Year. As well as the PEXA board, I'm a non-executive director of two other ASX-listed companies, Tyro Payments Limited and WCM Global Growth. At APRA-regulated Tyro, I chair the audit committee and the risk committee.
I'm very excited about the opportunities for PEXA, both in Australia and overseas, and look forward to contributing to help making this a reality, and in doing so, delivering strong commercial outcomes for our shareholders. Thank you in advance for your support.
Thank you, Paul. We'll now turn to questions on resolution three. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room in relation to this resolution? Moderator? Moderator.
I have one question, and that question is from Stephen Lane. Could Paul Rickard please comment on how and who he reports back to within the Commonwealth Bank around its 23.9% stake in PEXA, and whether he takes instructions on positions to be taken within the boardroom? Also, is there any written agreement between PEXA and CBA, stating CBA is allowed to nominate a director? And finally, does CBA only have one nominee director on our eight-person board? Shouldn't it be two out of nine if they are to be proportionally represented?
Maybe I can take those questions in reverse order. Yes, there is an agreement between a shareholder agreement between the Commonwealth Bank and PEXA, and that provides a situation where CBA can nominate one, and in certain circumstances, nominate a second director. And certainly, in doing that, my primary obligation as a, is to all shareholders, and I take that very seriously. The, I work as needed with the Commonwealth Bank, but, as I said, I represent all shareholders and, am just the nominee of the, of the CBA.
There is one more question from Stephen Lane. When Morgan Stanley bought 55% of Link in 2018, the existing shareholders were the Big Four Australian banks, Macquarie Bank, Link, 4 state governments, and billionaire Paul Little. Five years later, could Paul Rickard comment on why the Commonwealth Bank is the only one of the 11 players that retains an interest in the company? And could Paul comment also on why CBA sees as its point of its ongoing investment in PEXA, which none of the other major competitors can see?
Look, I don't think I can comment on behalf of the other major investors at the time. And I'm not sure I'm authorized to comment on behalf of the Commonwealth Bank, but I think they've made no secret that they are strategically committed to PEXA, and they are an integral part of the setup of PEXA. And wanted to see the digitization of Australia's property market, and are a believer in maintaining that. So I think in terms of why they continue to be a strong shareholder of PEXA is a question best directed to the Commonwealth Bank.
From PEXA's perspective, they're our largest individual customer, and, and so we take engagement with them extremely seriously. Any other written questions?
There are no further questions.
Okay. So, phone operator, have we received any questions by telephone?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
Okay. So the votes received are shown on your screen. As chair, I'll be voting undirected proxies in favor of the resolution, and the directors, with Paul Rickard abstaining, recommend shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. So I'll now put the motion to shareholders and request that you vote using the online voting platform or by completing the yellow voting card.
Resolution four is to consider the remuneration report for the financial year ended June 2023, and if thought fit, to pass a non-binding resolution to adopt the remuneration report in accordance with Section 250R of the Corporations Act 2001. We'll now turn to questions on resolution four. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room in relation to this resolution? Moderator?
I have one question from Bruce Alexander Gibson, and the question is: "Should the managing director get bonuses if he's not achieving his budgets?
First of all, we don't publish our budget. Secondly, short-term incentives are a function of a balanced scorecard, and the Chief Executive did achieve many of the items on his balanced scorecard, including some important financial objectives. And all of those items were weighed in forming short-term incentive decisions. And, as such, I believe we paid out about 43% of potential bonus, recognizing the positives and some of the misses in terms of that balanced scorecard.
There are no further questions.
Okay, thank you. Phone operator, have we received any questions via telephone?
Chair, there are no phone questions.
Okay. The votes received are shown on your screen. As Chair, I will be voting undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Noting that each director has a personal interest in their own remuneration from the company, the board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of adoption of the remuneration report. I now put the motion to shareholders and request that you vote using the online voting platform or by completing your yellow voting card. Resolution five is an ordinary resolution to approve the grant of performance rights to Glenn King. So we'll now turn to questions on resolution five. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Moderator?
No questions.
Telephone operator, do we have any questions?
No phone questions.
Thank you. The votes received are shown on the screen. As Chair, I will be voting the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. All directors recommend shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I now put the motion to shareholders and request that you vote using the online voting platform or by completing your yellow voting card.
That concludes the formal part of the meeting. I declare that the poll will close in five minutes and allow time for those in the room and online to vote. The final results, as Hany said, will be released to the ASX as soon as they're available and will be displayed on the PEXA Investor Center website. I'd like to thank you for your attendance today and ongoing support of PEXA Group Limited. Good morning.