Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2025 Annual General Meeting of QBE Insurance Group Limited. For those of you I haven't met, my name is Mike Wilkins. I'm the Chairman of QBE Insurance Group, and on behalf of your board, it's my pleasure to welcome you to this hybrid AGM. We also welcome those joining us via the web and via teleconference. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I stand today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and recognize their continuing connection to land, waters, and culture, and I pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to any First Nations peoples joining us today. There being a quorum present, I declare the meeting open.
The notice of meeting, which was made available to shareholders on the 2nd of April of this year, will be taken as read. The minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting, being in order, were signed, and copies are available for shareholders upon request via Computershare. Every effort's been made to ensure that this meeting runs smoothly. However, if any technological issues do arise and it becomes necessary to provide any procedural information in respect of this meeting, updates will be provided on our website. A recording of the meeting will also be available on our website. If you're watching via the live webcast whilst also listening through the teleconference, you may notice a slight delay with the webcast. There are a number of procedural matters to which I must draw your attention. Firstly, how to vote at today's meeting.
All resolutions at today's meeting will be decided by a poll which recognises the votes of those shareholders present today and those who have voted by proxy, and gives all shareholders an equal voice in determining the matters before the meeting. Each share in QBE carries one vote. Once I've opened the polls, shareholders who are attending in person can vote on their devices in the room via the Computershare platform. Do this by scanning the QR code on your blue attendance card with your smart mobile device. This will take you to an online voting page. To cast your vote, select one of the options. There's no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You'll receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time that I declare the voting is closed.
For those shareholders without a mobile device, you may complete and sign the back of the blue attendance card. A Computershare representative will collect your voting card at the end of the meeting. Non-voting shareholders will receive a yellow card and will not have the ability to vote online. Shareholders attending online should refer to the instructional slide now on your screen for voting instructions. If you're eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, select one of the options. Once again, there's no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You can change your vote up until the time that I declare voting closed.
Consistent with how we've conducted our meetings in recent years, I'll open the poll for all resolutions requiring a vote at the same time. And for those that are eligible to vote, you may vote on all resolutions at any time during the meeting whilst the polls are open. The items of business that we're considering at today's meeting are set out in the notice of meeting. For those of you attending in person, copies of the notice of meeting are available in the foyer. And for those of you attending online, the resolutions can be viewed in the platform. Proxy holders should note that all directed proxies have been accumulated and recorded. Only proxy holders with open votes are asked to record a vote in favour or against a resolution, or for an abstention. Secondly, the protocol for asking questions at today's meeting.
This is a shareholders' meeting, and therefore only shareholders, their attorneys, proxies, and authorized corporate representatives are entitled to vote and ask questions. Questions relating to a shareholder's personal or business affairs, including as a customer, aren't appropriate for the AGM, but they can be addressed outside of the meeting. Arrangements have been made for shareholders to ask questions online or over the phone, and we'll open the lines later in the meeting. We'll take all questions on all items of business at the same time. Shareholders who are participating online may submit a question at any time. You may start to lodge your questions now. They'll be answered at the appropriate time of the meeting, and I refer you to the instructional slide now on your screen.
To ask a question, select the Q&A icon, select the topic that your question relates to from the drop-down list, type your question in the text box, and press the send button. If you're having any difficulties in asking a question, please refer to the user guide, which can be accessed through the platform. Shareholders who are attending in person will have an opportunity to ask questions when we've reached the relevant part of the meeting. We'd ask shareholders to use the microphones that are placed throughout the auditorium so that we can all hear you clearly. Please show your voting attendance card to the microphone attendant. Please introduce yourself to the meeting when it's your turn to speak by giving your name and any organisation which you represent. I'll nominate the microphone from which I'll take the next question.
For those of you who'd like to ask a question by telephone, you may do so by calling the telephone numbers set out on page one of your notice of meeting and quoting QBE. To ask a question via telephone, press the star key followed by the number one on your phone keypad, and you'll be connected to an operator once we've reached that part of the meeting. To cancel your request, press star two on your phone. All questions should be addressed to me as Chairman and should start with the item of business to which it relates. We ask that you keep your questions short and to the point, and avoid any lengthy preambles or extended remarks so that as many shareholders as possible have the chance to participate in today's meeting.
Please note that as our time is limited, it's possible that not all questions will be able to be answered today, and if we receive multiple questions on any one topic, they may be amalgamated together. We also ask that you choose one platform to ask your question rather than submitting the same question through multiple platforms, and for those attending in Sydney, at the conclusion of this meeting, light refreshments will be served outside in the foyer. Having now outlined the procedural requirements of the meeting, we'd like to play a video which showcases our new brand proposition. At the Heart of It.
What does it take to get to the heart of a problem? It takes more than just good business sense and a bit of hard work. For us, it's an insatiable curiosity and passion for what we do. From keeping London's tubes and buses running to commercial fleets on the road, from creating the policy to handling the claim, we thrive on the complexities. We dive into every project headfirst, and we look further than others to operate from a profound level of understanding. We're more than risk analyzers and policy writers. Every decision goes beyond business. It's as personal to us as it is to you. Whether keeping Australia's flying doctors in the sky or helping to reduce risks in hospitals, when we dig down, past the paperwork, past the obvious and the first thoughts, we can get to something special. That's where the gold is.
From roads and bridges to the school around the corner, whatever your challenge is, we will be right at the heart of it. QBE, at the heart of it.
Joining me here today is our Group Chief Executive, Andrew Horton. My fellow directors, Yasmin Allen and Steve Ferguson, are also here with me. Our other directors are joining via teleconference: Penny James, Tan Le, Kathy Lisson, Neil Maidment, Rolf Tolle, and Peter Wilson. Our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Carolyn Scobie, is also here with me. Barry Azarpadi, of Computershare Investor Services, will act as returning officer for the purposes of conducting and determining the results of the poll. Partners from our external auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Scott Hadfield, and Jessica Lane are also here, and they're available to answer questions on the accounts or the conduct of the audit. As I mentioned earlier, voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business that require a vote.
The items of business to be considered at today's meeting are shown on the screen now and are set out in the notice of meeting. I now put each resolution to the meeting and declare voting open on all items of business other than item one, given no votes required to be held on this item. The voting icon will soon appear, so please submit your votes at any time whilst voting is open. I'll give you a warning before I move to close voting at the end of the meeting. As set out in the notice of meeting, as the Chairman of this meeting, I will be voting all undirected proxies in favour of each item of business that requires a vote today, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
I now formally vote all undirected proxies in this manner and all directed proxies in accordance with the directions provided by shareholders. The proxy results for each item will now appear on the screen. This year, we again ask shareholders to submit questions prior to the meeting. The key themes within the questions have been answered through my address, and we thank shareholders for taking the time to submit questions as we value your views. We'd now like to make a few comments on 2024 and on QBE. QBE delivered another strong year in 2024, reflecting the solid progress that we're making across the business. I'm pleased with the consistent execution of our strategic priorities and our improved performance, delivering for our customers and for shareholders.
We remain guided by our purpose of enabling a more resilient future, and I'm very proud of the role insurance plays in supporting people, businesses, and communities around the world. Insurance is not only an enabler of economic activity, but also a vital shock absorber for society, and we're here for the long term. The importance of insurance has never been more apparent than it is today, as we navigate the growing frequency and severity of weather-related events and heightened geopolitical risks. It's important to take a moment to reflect on the broader role of our industry. Insurance facilitates business, protects homes, sustains communities, and helps people rebuild their lives after adversity. Without it, critical activity from infrastructure and investment to small business growth simply wouldn't be possible.
Insurance is also a major employer and contributor to the economy, including here in Australia, where 46,000 people are employed directly in the industry. While we acknowledge that we don't always get it right, it's important to recognize that in the vast majority of cases, we do. At QBE alone, we paid out $12.8 billion in claims globally in 2024. As an industry, we must defend and build on the essential role that we play. We need a vibrant, sustainable insurance sector, one that's fit for the future, able to adapt to emerging risks while continuing to support communities for decades to come. We acknowledge the rising cost of premiums and the strain that this can place on households and businesses. Insurance premiums are a reflection of risk, and the only sustainable way to improve affordability is to reduce the underlying risk.
We continue to advocate for a whole-of-community approach to mitigation, where governments, insurers, and communities work together. Right now in Australia, we spend 97% of disaster funding on recovery and only 3% on mitigation. That balance must shift. It's simply not sustainable, economically or socially, to continue down this path. I recall giving a speech over 15 years ago calling for greater investment in resilience. Back then, the modelling already showed that the risk was rising, and today we're living that reality. We're encouraged by steps in the right direction, including the Hazard Insurance Partnership in Australia, and we welcome the New South Wales government's recent commitment to review the emergency services levy, an outdated tax that only adds to affordability pressures. Taxes add 20%-40% of the price a customer pays for a premium, and state governments are the biggest beneficiaries.
In 2023-2024, state governments collected nearly AUD 8.6 billion in stamp duty and other levies from insurance customers. That's AUD 3.5 billion more than the entire insurance industry made in profit that year. Reducing taxes on insurance is one of the few immediate levers that can provide relief while we pursue longer-term reform through mitigation and planning policy. We also need to address the issue of underinsurance, particularly for small businesses, where tax and affordability pressures are impacting uptake and increasing exposures to risk. The insurance industry is highly regulated, and while we support the need for strong oversight, it's essential that regulation is balanced and forward-looking. Regulatory settings should continue to support a sustainable and resilient sector, one that can adapt to emerging risks and continue to deliver value over the longer term. In 2024, the global insurance industry once again faced significant catastrophe events.
QBE provided support to affected communities, including responding to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States, severe European storms and flooding in Spain, and localized extreme weather events across Australia. In January this year, we witnessed the devastating destruction of the wildfires in Southern California, resulting in profound and tragic losses of life. And closer to home, we've experienced Cyclone Alfred, a number of severe flood events in Queensland and northern New South Wales, and a cyclone in Western Australia. In addition to the increasing natural hazard risk, the global geopolitical environment remains deeply uncertain. Ongoing conflicts, including in Ukraine and the Middle East, alongside escalating global trade tensions, present significant humanitarian, political, and economic challenges. As a global organization, these factors remain top of mind as we navigate their implications for our business and for our stakeholders.
The financial results for 2024 reflect the strength of QBE's strategy, particularly during a challenging year of global catastrophes. We built on the progress made in prior years to drive performance improvements across the business, including in North America, where the turnaround efforts are delivering early signs of success. QBE delivered a statutory net profit after tax of AUD 1.779 billion in 2024. This was a 31% improvement over our 2023 result, reflecting the steady progress that QBE continues to make. Our capital position and balance sheet remain strong. Reflecting our confidence in the outlook, the board declared a final dividend of AUD 0.63 per share, compared to AUD 0.48 per share in 2023. That brings our total dividends in respect of the 2024 year to AUD 0.87 per share, easily the highest dividend amount paid during my time on the QBE board.
This reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering value to shareholders while maintaining a strong capital position to support future growth. Sustainability remains important to our purpose of enabling resilience. In 2024, we continued to deliver on our sustainability strategy and our Sustainability Scorecard commitments, while we are also progressing work on developing our Climate Transition Plan. QBE is preparing for the new mandatory climate reporting requirements, which will apply to our 2025 annual report. Work is underway to support future reporting in accordance with the newly issued Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. The QBE Foundation continues to play a vital role in delivering on our purpose.
In October 2024, the QBE Foundation won Program of the Year at the Australian Workplace Giving Awards and was listed among the top 20 companies in Australia at the GoodCompany Awards, reflecting the collective efforts of our people through payroll giving, volunteering community partnerships, and matched donations. In 2023, we successfully met our target of 40% women in leadership, fully two years ahead of our target date of 2025. In 2024, women represented 40.8% of our leadership cohort. QBE also continued to meet our 2025 goal of 40% women on the Group Board, with women representing 44.4% of our board composition. In 2022, we pledged support for the industry-led 40:40 Vision, with a goal to meet the principle of 40% women, 40% men, and 20% any gender on the Group Executive Committee by 2025, a target we currently meet with women representing 58.3% of our Group Executive Committee.
This year, QBE ranked fourth globally for gender equality in Equileap's Top 100, an international benchmark assessing corporate performance on gender equality worldwide. We're very proud to be among the four Australian companies to be recognized in the top 10 as we continue to focus our efforts building an inclusive workplace for all. This is a tremendous recognition of our efforts for gender equality at QBE. I'm very proud of our culture at QBE. The board remains committed to continually investing in this important pillar of the organization, and I thank all of our people for creating the QBE culture that we have today. In February, we published our 2024 Sustainability Report, which outlines the many initiatives we're undertaking to build a more sustainable business, and I recommend this report to you as a clear and comprehensive update on our sustainability agenda.
This year, we say farewell to Rolf Tolle, who will retire from the QBE board at the conclusion of this meeting. On behalf of the board and you, our shareholders, I extend my sincere thanks to Rolf for his years of service, his wise counsel, and valuable contributions to QBE, and we wish him continued success, good health, and happiness into the future. This year, I'm also pleased to welcome Neil Maidment to the QBE board. Neil brings extensive experience across the global insurance and reinsurance industry, and his appointment will further strengthen our board in our role of guiding the company. These changes are part of our ongoing commitment to board renewal and ensuring we have the right mix of skills, perspectives, and experience to oversee QBE's future.
QBE delivered a strong performance in 2024, and I'm confident that we're making the right decisions to support future growth and delivery. Under the leadership of Andrew Horton and the Group Executive Committee, and supported by more than 13,000 people who are united by our purpose and vision, QBE has executed well against its strategic priorities. I'm proud of what QBE stands for, and especially proud of all of our people around the world who play an essential role in helping our customers prepare, protect, and recover from risk. On behalf of the board and on behalf of you, our shareholders, I extend my sincere thanks to them for their dedication and contribution. And finally, to you, our shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support. QBE is a strong and resilient organization, and I'm confident that we'll continue to deliver long-term value for you.
I'll now ask Andrew to address the meeting.
Thank you, Mike, and good morning to everyone here today. I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands from where we are joining today and pay my respects to elders past and present. It's a privilege to be here today to update you on QBE and reflect on our continued progress. I'm very proud of our people all over the world, more than 13,000 colleagues across 26 countries who demonstrate their commitment to our purpose of enabling a more resilient future every day. 2024 was a strong year for QBE, and I'm pleased with the momentum and consistency we've brought into this year. We delivered a Group Combined Operating Ratio of 93.1%, outperforming our original target of 93.5%, despite it being a high catastrophe year globally.
This result reflects a business that's becoming more resilient, more balanced, and more consistent. We delivered good growth, solid underwriting margins, and a strong balance sheet, a combination that continues to support excellent returns and more predictable outcomes. These are important indicators that our business is working for customers, for shareholders, and for our people. We launched our purpose, vision, and strategic priorities just over three years ago, and our financial performance of the period speaks to the considerable progress we've made. The strategic priorities continue to resonate with our people, and they're engaged in delivering against these important initiatives. I'm pleased our people continue to enjoy working at QBE. We've seen strong leadership stability across our divisions, and we've also attracted many talented individuals to the organization, particularly in areas aligned to our growth ambitions. We're building a culture defined by performance, innovation, and exceptional customer service.
I'm proud of the culture we have at QBE. Through our regular employee surveys, I'm heartened to see that our engagement remains consistent at 65%, which is above the Global Financial Services benchmark of 45% based on organizations using the same employee survey tool and methodology. During 2024, I was pleased to welcome Julie Main to the Group Executive Committee as Group Head of Distribution. She will drive our customer and partner engagement strategy. I also announced late last year the appointment of Ian Fantozzi as Group Executive Technology and Operations, and I'm delighted Ian joined us earlier in the year. It is an exciting time for QBE, and we're focused on building and growing our business. Our underwriting portfolio is in great balance, in great health and balance, and the majority of our businesses are performing well, which is equally rewarding for our people.
Today, we released an update on our first quarter performance and reiterated our full-year outlook for the year. In summary, we've had a good start to the year. Strong premium growth has continued as market conditions generally remain supportive, while underwriting performance has remained resilient in light of a challenging quarter for catastrophes. Gross Written Premium growth in the first quarter of this year was 8% on a constant currency basis, driven by supportive premium rate increases and further targeted organic growth. We continue to expect Group Gross Written Premium growth in the mid-single digits on a constant currency basis for the year, which is inclusive of a $250 million drag from our non-core portfolio exits in North America. Our underwriting performance remains resilient.
The net cost of catastrophe claims for the four months to April 2025 totaled approximately $420 million, relative to our first half catastrophe allowance around $550 million. Catastrophe activity was driven by the LA wildfires, flooding in Queensland, Cyclone Alfred, and a series of convective storm events in North America. Developments in global trade have been a key focus through the period. At present, we expect any underwriting risks associated with initial trade disruption should be limited. Over the near term, the proactive management of any emerging inflationary pressures will be our primary focus. Today, we've reiterated our Group Combined Operating Ratio outlook for 2025 and continue to expect a result of around 92.5%. Finally, to investment performance, we recorded net investment income of around $350 million in the first quarter, supported by favorable interest rates and strong risk asset performance.
While volatility in financial markets increased markedly throughout April, our portfolio has exhibited pleasing resilience through this period and remains conservatively positioned. In all, we're making good progress against both our financial plan for the year and our strategic agenda. We look forward to sharing more detail with you at our half-year results on August 8th. We've executed well against our strategic priorities, and we're making meaningful progress while building greater consistency and resilience across the business. Together, these six priorities are helping us transform QBE into a more unified, agile, and customer-led organization, one that's built on stronger foundations and positioned for long-term success. As part of our ongoing strategic evolution, we've transitioned culture to business as usual, and we've introduced a new customer strategic priority: a deliberate shift toward a more customer-centric approach to how we design products, deliver services, and shape our distribution strategy.
Too often in our industry, the voice of the customer hasn't been front and center. We see this as a real opportunity and a positive change for QBE to work more closely with our broker partners to better understand, engage with, and serve our customers. A significant proportion of our business is written through intermediaries, and these relationships remain fundamental to how we operate. Together, our ambition is simple: to build stronger, deeper connections and to consistently delight our customers. Our portfolio optimization work has delivered meaningful change over the last few years, including a number of portfolio exits and reserve transactions. We've also simplified and reshaped our property portfolios, helping reduce earnings volatility and position the business for more sustainable returns. Our catastrophe costs came in below allowance in 2024, highlighting how our strategic portfolio management and risk mitigation efforts are resulting in greater resilience.
Already in 2025, we've witnessed global catastrophe activity, including the recent LA wildfires, and our thoughts are with the people and communities still recovering from this devastating event. A reminder that beyond the numbers, these events have profound human consequences. In North America, while crop didn't have its best year, we've taken a series of actions to support stronger performance, including strengthening the crop team with the appointment of a new CFO and a Chief Marketing Officer. At the same time, we are pleased to see strong results in North America commercial and specialty lines. This business is better positioned than ever, and we're firmly focused on driving growth. We made important progress on our modernization journey in 2024. We have better aligned future investment to our priority businesses, and our aim is to make it easier for our customers and partners to do business with us.
Our AusPac business continues to progress, and modernization work has commenced for the international business, where learnings can be shared across the enterprise. We're advancing our responsible use of AI and implementing several use cases designed to drive greater efficiency. During 2024, we continue to enjoy positive outcomes from the progressive rollout of our underwriting AI Copilots, and this will continue throughout 2025. Bringing the enterprise together continues to be an important priority for me. We've refreshed our brand proposition with At the Heart of It, a clear expression of our focus on what matters most to our customers and our people. This initiative has been led globally and reflects the unity and modernity of QBE today, and it's a great example of collaboration across the enterprise. A glimpse of this was shown in our video earlier.
Our 2024 annual report provides a detailed update on progress across each of our six strategic priorities. Our people are at the heart of QBE. We continue to evolve as a more open and connected organization, working collaboratively across geographies and functions to serve our customers. Across 26 countries, QBE has been there for families, businesses, and communities who've been impacted by a wide range of unexpected events. In 2024, we paid out over $12 billion in claims globally, helping customers recover and rebuild. Already this year, Australia has experienced a series of extreme weather events, from ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred to widespread flooding across north and western Queensland. These events have had a profound impact on many communities, particularly in Queensland. Our QBE claims team remains focused on supporting affected customers. We're working closely with our supply chain, including builders, restorers, and loss adjusters.
We've also increased resourcing to manage the volume and complexity of claims, helping us to deliver the support our customers need. We're particularly mindful of vulnerable customers. These cases are prioritized, and we're taking deliberate steps to better identify and support individuals who may require additional care. In North America, QBE was proud to launch our new healthcare liability practice, inclusive of our flagship miscellaneous medical liability product, to further deepen relationships with our brokers and provide tailored solutions that meet the needs of our clients. In the UK, last year, we opened our new GBP 3.6 million Leeds office and central claims hub. This is our largest European site outside of London, with over 450 employees across claims, finance, operations, people, and technology. It houses our claims innovation and automation activities, including robotic process automation and intelligent workflow solutions, which automate over 30,000 customer claims to us each week.
Through the QBE Foundation, we want to help improve the resilience of communities. In January this year, we were pleased to announce the launch of Catalysing Impact, a new initiative in partnership with Social Impact Hub, designed to help purpose-driven businesses to grow and scale their impact faster. Through a combination of funding, mentoring, and access to expert networks, the aim is to help build a pipeline of investment-ready enterprises that are working to help address climate resilience and inclusion. I'm incredibly proud of what we do at QBE and the vital role insurance plays in supporting our customers around the world. We remain focused on delivering for all our stakeholders, supporting our customers and partners, investing in resilience of our communities, and delivering consistent, sustainable value for our shareholders. Our purpose is resonating more than ever as we focus on delighting our customers and growing our business.
I'm excited about where we're heading and proud of the progress we've made. I want to thank my colleagues on the Group Executive Committee and all our people across QBE for their continued efforts, commitment, and passion for our business. I also want to extend my sincere thanks to our customers for their trust and partnership. It's a privilege to support them. And finally, to you, our shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support and confidence in QBE. I will now hand back to Mike.
Thanks, Andrew. Before we open the meeting to questions, I'll now ask Yasmin Allen to speak to her re-election as outlined in Resolution 4A of the Notice of Meeting. Yasmin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to address your meeting today. I am very pleased to submit myself for re-election to the QBE Board.
I joined your board in July 2022. I'm a member of the QBE Audit and Risk and the People and Remuneration Committees. My background and experience is set out in the Notice of Meeting before you and highlights the contribution that I bring to your board and company. I have more than 20 years' experience as a company director and chair, serving organizations across a wide range of industry sectors and public, private, and government boards as well. I have a long track record in highly regulated sectors such as natural resources, healthcare, and financial services, and in industries facing disruption from technology and market changes. My executive career was spent working in the global banking sector, advising investors and corporations. I therefore bring extensive experience of finance and strategy and an in-depth understanding of shareholder priorities.
My broad range of experiences drives my awareness of both the challenges and opportunities facing your company. Business performance is increasingly driven by the evolution of technology, in particular AI. My roles as chair of the Federal Government's Digital Skills Organisation and as chair at AI FinTech, Tiimely, help me bring external insights to these developments. I am aligned with our company strategy and our purpose of building resilient communities. I am excited about our future as we build on the strong foundations put in place by your high-calibre management team during the past three years. QBE has considerable opportunity ahead of us, as already outlined in Andrew's address to you. In particular, the impact of AI and digitisation will create new opportunities to serve our customers. My commercial experience, both here and overseas, gives me a global perspective and understanding as market structures and regulation continue to evolve.
I am focused on shareholder returns, and I will ensure that QBE remains at the forefront in transparency and accountability. I have the time to fulfill my duties as a non-executive director of QBE. I would be honored to continue to serve on your board, working with our Chair, Mike Wilkins, and my board colleagues, as we support our CEO, Andrew Horton, and his executive team to grow QBE and serve the interests of our customers and their communities, our shareholders, and our people. Thank you.
Thanks, Yasmin. I'll now present a video of your director, Neil Maidment, speaking to his election as outlined in Resolution 4B of the Notice of Meeting. This has been pre-recorded due to the time zone differences as Neil is currently overseas.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to submit myself for election to the Board of QBE. I joined your board in February of this year, and I'm based in the United Kingdom. I'm a member of the Audit and Risk and Capital Committees. I've worked in the insurance industry for over 40 years, and I have over 30 years' experience as both an executive and non-executive company director. I held various executive roles at Beazley plc, including Chief Underwriting Officer and Head of Reinsurance Operations. More recently, I was a non-executive member of the Council of Lloyd's of London, where I chaired the Risk Committee and the Capacity Transfer Panel. I was also a non-executive director of Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc and Benefact Group plc, where I also chaired the Risk Committee.
It's a privilege to have this opportunity to serve on your board, and I look forward to working with our chairman, Mike Wilkins, my colleagues on the board, our CEO, Andrew Horton, and the wider management group to help QBE maximize its potential and to serve the interests of our shareholders, our customers, our people, and the community. I would greatly appreciate your support for me to serve on your board. Thank you.
Thank you, Neil. For the purposes of Resolution 5, the adoption of an amended constitution, as noted in the Notice of Meeting, I can confirm that I've signed a copy of the proposed amended constitution consistent with the form made available on our website, and I formally submit it to you at the meeting now. A copy is available for shareholders upon request via Computershare. I'm now opening up the meeting to questions from all shareholders.
I refer you again to the instructional slides on how to ask questions on your screen and behind me. We'll start firstly with questions from the room here in Sydney before we go to those questions that are online and those then via the teleconference. Could I have the first question? Microphone two.
Good morning, Natasha Lee, shareholder. Pleased to see you again, Mike.
Good morning, Ms. Lee.
A few questions. Firstly, I'd like to congratulate the board on their excellent results for this year. Just looking at particularly, you've made some comment about the North American business, and obviously that was the poorest performing sector, and particularly taking the $100 million loss we're hit from the middle market business. And you mentioned, I noted that you mentioned that you're kind of like re-energized with reviewing the crop business. How are you taking the business forward?
What areas are you looking at to ensure that the results are improved in that sector? And I suppose part of it has the effect of the Trump administration re-elected will cause a rethink about how you view that market.
Yeah, thank you. I think there's a few questions in there, but I'll attempt to answer those. Thank you firstly for your comments on the results and the performance of QBE. We're very proud of that performance, and I'm pleased that shareholders recognize that as well because there has been a lot of effort by our management team in getting to that. North America has presented some issues for QBE over the past few years, but I think some of the key decisions that we've taken over the last 12 to 18 months really do put that business on a path to better performance over time.
You mentioned that we have exited the mid-market in North America. It was an area that we simply couldn't compete in. It is about $500 million worth of premium that we will be reducing progressively over time, although most of that will be gone during 2025, which we'll see an improvement in there. Andrew mentioned in his presentation some of the new business areas that we're looking to concentrate on. They are more specialized in North America, as well as building on some of the good positions that we already have in areas such as accident and health. On crop, the results were not as strong as we had initially anticipated during 2024. Nevertheless, they were still a strong-ish performance. We continue to believe that crop is a good place for us to be.
We have a significant market position in crop, and over the longer term, it has performed very well for us. So essentially, what we are doing is we're looking to be more focused and more specialized in our North American businesses, which I think plays to the strength that QBE has as opposed to, say, in the mid-market business where we really didn't have a differentiation skill. In terms of the question about the current U.S. administration, QBE's operated in a number of countries over many years, including in the U.S., and we've dealt with a number of administrations over time. We aren't seeing any significant disruption to our business in North America, and Andrew highlighted that, I think, during his comments as well. But we look to have a constructive conversation with all administrations, not just in North America, but in all the countries in which we deal.
Okay, thanks. I just clarify, I take it that crop means agricultural products?
Yes. It's a federally mandated scheme where we operate within that, but pricing is somewhat controlled by commodity prices and by the U.S. government as well. Yeah, that was my assumption. I didn't see any acronyms or anything in your glossary. In terms of your investment performance, it was fairly good. I noted that last year you had the core fixed yield of 4.3%. Andrew just noted that it's decreased to 4.1% for the first quarter, where things can change.
I suppose my question is, given the expectation of interest rate decreases and the need for you to hold a large proportion of your investments in these fixed income, how are you managing that risk to maintain both the high return in terms of percentage return as well as quantum in terms of the dollars on your balance sheet?
Well, thank you. Andrew mentioned during his presentation that we do invest conservatively. So the majority of our investment portfolio is invested in cash and fixed interest. We do have a window of around 15% that we invest in growth assets, and we tend to look at that over the longer term rather than reacting to immediate market circumstances.
Obviously, in a declining rate environment, there is some improvement from a capital or notional capital gain point of view, but I think, and our Chief Investment Officer is here, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I think for each 1% reduction in interest rates, that's about AUD 370 million in earnings that falls off our investment performance. So obviously, if rates come down, it stands to reason that that performance is going to be affected. However, in speaking to him only yesterday about this, he confirmed to me that we are conservatively positioned. He's comfortable with the structure of the portfolio, and at the moment, we don't see any significant deterioration in that performance.
Although I've got to say, we had a strong performance in the first quarter, tempered during the month of April, and I think as rates come down, that will be further tempered, but it will still be a positive and strong performance.
Okay, yeah, that was part of my concern, is that interest rates are coming down. The next one concerns your risks. You've listed, although not necessarily in numerical order, you're starting off with geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Climate change is down way down at number 11, if you're counting. I suppose in terms of the perception is, looking at that list, is that climate seems to be low, although as we know, climate change, and I know that there's a limit to what you can do as a company on that, but the business is severely impacted by matters such as climate change.
So, there's a perception issue that on your list of risks that climate is fairly low on that list. And did you have any comments or explanation?
Yeah, I don't think it is low on our list. We look at all of those risks in total. I guess we've got a list of them in some way, so it's not necessarily a representation of where we see climate change. We have spoken about climate change and the potential impact with that. We've also set out in our Environmental and Social Risk Framework what we're looking to do, as well as in terms of our Sustainability Report, our progress on our broader sustainability agenda, which does include climate.
But where it sits is not necessarily a representation of the importance because we need to look at all of those risks as a grouping to essentially be able to then make the necessary decisions that we have to make. Yeah, that's sort of what I assumed, but like I said, looking at perception-wise, when you run your eye down the list, it was towards the end. I suppose the final comment concerns sort of remuneration. Your long-term incentive is over three years, which is sort of saying that some companies do four years. I suppose my preference is four years for the board, and I'll just make that point and ask that the board consider extending that. Yeah, thank you. We think three years is an appropriate timing. It runs with a number of cycles that we look at.
Given the changes that have occurred, particularly in CPS 511 as required by APRA, even after that three years, there is then a further deferral before those long-term incentives actually vest in Andrew and his colleagues, which does give us the longer-term perspective, and we do have malus and clawback provisions that are available in the event that we find that something wasn't quite right at the time.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you. Microphone one.
Chair, my name is Richard Sadus. In the CEO's report, in the annual report, and in his address today, mention was made of the responsible use of AI. There have been media reports in the past 18 months that insurance companies in North America have used AI and other computing software to target policyholders for premiums.
Now, the egregious aspect of this is that the software was used not to target or to set the premiums based on the insurance risk, but it was used to identify individuals who were unlikely to object to an increase in their premium compared to other people with the same insurance risk. So my question is a very simple one. Can you give an assurance that our company would not engage in this practice, which I think you will agree is unethical?
Y eah, thank you for that question. Yes, I can, is the short answer. In our code of ethics and conduct, we do talk about the responsible use of AI, and we have, as a board and as a management team, worked on a set of minimum standards and guardrails around where we will and will not use AI.
You can find those on our website, but it's something that we're very conscious of and that I believe we saw the potential misuse that you were speaking of earlier, and we've looked to address that. I think there was a question from microphone two.
Thank you. Amanda Richman from Australian Ethical Investment. Just to clarify, I've got questions in relation to a few of the items on the agenda. Should I ask them all?
We're taking questions on all items of the agenda.
Thank you for confirming. I want to start by asking about the portfolio exits. So recent portfolio exits reduced 2024 gross written premiums by AUD 600 million. Has QBE undertaken any assessment to understand how much of current gross written premiums is at risk of further portfolio exits due to physical climate risk?
No, we haven't. We looked at the mid-market portfolio, which is the predominant one that you're speaking about in Global, and found that QBE and our skill set didn't match with the risks that were being presented. We couldn't compete with that, so we chose to exit as what we thought was a sensible decision.
So to clarify, I think in the annual report, it did refer to, perhaps it was the 2023 annual report, it did refer to some property exits to manage catastrophe volatility. We understand that you've modelled climate events over the next 30-plus year period. That modelling is regularly updated to reflect the latest science, and you've looked at the impact on net claims costs. So I'm asking, has the assessment been done by QBE to work out how much of current gross written premiums is at risk of further portfolio exits due to physical climate risk?
Yeah, so we have done that modeling. What you were referring to was the broader portfolio optimization that Andrew was speaking about, and the exits of some parts of that were just, we were over-concentrated in some areas. Insurance is all about diversification and spreading your risk around, and we were over-concentrated in some of those risks. As we look at some of the climate modeling that we have done, and we will be reporting this in terms of the mandatory climate reporting that we will do in respect of the 2025 year when our financial reports come out, the key exposures that we have are in property and agriculture, and that represents somewhere in the 40% of the overall premium pool that we have as QBE today.
Clearly, there are mitigation opportunities that are available, which we are looking to take as well, but that's the broad base of the modeling that you've asked. Yes, I think it was 48% based on the most recent reporting.
So to clarify, you will be providing additional information under the mandatory reporting requirements that give an indication of how much current gross written premium is at risk from portfolio exits?
Well, my understanding of the requirements that we have there is that we've got to discuss the risks and opportunities that come from climate change, and we are preparing to do that, and we'll be doing that in the 2025 report.
Thank you. Chair, at the 2021 QBE AGM, when we asked about oil and gas underwriting, you said we are not underwriting significant new oil and gas projects.
You said that QBE does not have great appetite for new customers in this space or new projects, and that premiums that QBE earns from renewables is a multiple of what we might earn from new oil and gas. Were those statements true at the time that you said them?
Oh, I said them, so yes, they were true.
And has that position changed at any point in the last four years?
If you're asking, is QBE continuing to underwrite oil and gas? Yes, yes, we are. We think that what we are doing and the way in which we're engaging with our key oil and gas customers is a sensible approach to the way in which they and we approach transition. We have set out in our Environmental and Social Risk Framework.
We've also talked about the target dates that we have in terms of how we engage with those customers. The suggestion, and I'm perhaps going to where you want to go, the suggestion that we go cold turkey and stop underwriting oil and gas, frankly, is not a sensible suggestion. We believe that gas in particular is an essential transition fuel, and what we need to do is sensibly support those customers who are looking to get to a greener future, and we need to understand what their approach is so that we can make a long-term decision about that. Our position has not changed. Our Sustainable Energies unit continues to underwrite a number of alternative energy sources and systems, including hydrogen, ammonia, solar, fixed and floating wind power, and carbon capture and sequestration, so we are continuing to do what we said we were going to do in 2021.
I appreciate there's a distinction between going cold turkey on gas now and new gas, oil and gas developments, which both the IEA, the International Energy Agency, and the IPCC have said are not needed and are inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. So is it the unanimous view of everyone on the board that it is appropriate to continue to underwrite new oil and gas projects? We believe that the approach that we're taking and the policy that we have over the long term is a sensible approach. So I don't know that I can be any plainer than that. Thank you. I did notice that in your opening address, you did mention in reference to concerns about rising premiums and the impacts that has that the only way to reduce this is to reduce the underlying risk.
So how do you reconcile the continued underwriting of new oil and gas projects with that stated position that we need to reduce the underlying risk?
Well, I think you are very narrowly interpreting the comments that I made there. I was speaking about a whole-of-community approach that needs to be taken, including governments, insurers, planning authorities, and others. It's simply unsustainable to continue to allow development on known floodplains or to rebuild in areas that are prone to flood without any mitigation activities being undertaken and to expect a different outcome. So I think that it's a narrow approach that you are taking.
Clearly, what we are looking to do over the longer term in terms of helping our customers to transition to a greener future for our oil and gas customers, we believe is a sensible approach and one that isn't at odds with what we're saying about the need to mitigate.
Yes, to clarify, we agree with the need to adapt to climate risk. I guess we also believe that there needs to be climate mitigation. I wanted to ask about the new sustainability KPIs. The QBE's new sustainability KPIs. I understand that they're linked to QBE's Sustainability Scorecard. Emissions attributed to QBE's underwriting is by far the largest source of emissions across QBE's Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Yet the only initiatives in the scorecard related to aligning QBE's underwriting portfolio are set interim targets and formal engagement with priority customers.
QBE has said, and you've said today, that engagement is a key component of your climate strategy. Yet the engagement requirement does not stipulate how many or what percentage of clients, oil and gas clients, will be engaged, what that engagement looks like in terms of how clients are engaged and how often. And not only is there no requirement to see progress in that engagement, there isn't even an objective for progress to be assessed against until 2030 for customers with over 60% revenue from oil and gas, 2040 for customers with above 30% revenue, and no objective for customers with below 30% threshold. So will QBE amend these KPIs so that they actually link remuneration with credible action to align QBE's underwriting with its net zero commitment?
Well, we have said that sustainability is one of the two non-financial measures that we have in our remuneration component.
It will consider sustainability in its broader sense, but obviously we'll look at that as well. In terms of where we are going, I've said a few times our Environmental and Social Risk Framework sets out what we are doing, particularly including in terms of our oil and gas customers. We continue to engage with those. Reading through some of our other material, you would see that it's key to engage, we believe, with our top 50 highest risk customers, which we continue to do to understand how they are progressing and what we can do to help them to progress. We've set 2030 as a target date to say, "Here is a hard decision that we need to make on that." We hope that a lot of our customers actually get to that, but if they don't, then we will have a different decision to make.
We don't see that we need to change what we're doing there. I think we've been very clear since 2020 about what our oil and gas policy in particular is. But as I said, from a remuneration point of view, we look at the broader sustainability piece, and that scorecard is set out in our sustainability report.
T hank you. Do any QBE staff receive incentives to underwrite new or expansionary fossil fuel projects or clients undertaking these projects?
Well, we have our short-term incentive arrangements, which does look at the performance of individuals. However, there are no revenue targets that are set for those individuals. It is performance.
The important issue, and I suspect it goes to part of your question, is everybody is aligned to a greater or lesser extent with the overall performance of QBE, meaning that if we have a bad catastrophe year, then everyone feels that so that the underwriters are conscious about the risks that they are undertaking as well.
I just wanted to go back then to potential reputational risk. Has the board management and QBE's Global Reputational Council considered the reputational and consequent risks that may arise when everyday people are paying higher premiums, are unable to insure their property or businesses when people are facing personal and financial hardship from climate events in circumstances where at the same time QBE has been profiting from underwriting new and expansionary oil and gas projects that exacerbated those risks and helped put people in those positions? Has that reputational risk been assessed?
QBE considers the reputational risk it's called out as one of our key risks, and we look at it in total. Your suggestion, and I'm saying this with respect, your suggestion that oil and gas underwriting by QBE is leading to climate risk as the only cause, I think, and is leading to higher premiums as the only cause is not a sensible suggestion. Can I ask, please, that you make this the last question? I think we've heard plenty from you on this. There are other shareholders who would like to ask questions as well. So could you please make this the last question?
Sure. I did have some questions for Yasmin, also for Neil. I'm not sure how to navigate that. Is it possible to ask direct questions to Yasmin about re-election? Sure. Thank you.
Yasmin, you're on the board of Santos as well as QBE, which puts you in an interesting position. Santos's new oil and gas projects are not aligned with 1.5. In fact, MSCI assesses Santos's implied temperature rise to be 3.2 degrees. QBE, however, supports a transition in line with limiting warming to 1.5. And QBE is also in a position to either provide or refuse financial support to companies engaging in activities incompatible with that commitment. So how are you managing this conflict? Are you, for example, recusing yourself from board discussions about QBE's policies on oil and gas?
Well, I will ask Yasmin to comment, but let me say Yasmin makes a significant contribution to QBE, and some of the experience that she brings from other companies is very useful in terms of the conversations that we have.
All directors are aware of their responsibilities where there is a conflict of interest, and we adhere to that. However, it's always a balance in terms of bringing the experience from other places to the discussions that we're having. Yasmin, I don't know whether there's anything further you would like to add.
Individual underwriting decisions are not brought to the board, so there is no conflict. I'm proud of the work that Santos is doing around decarbonization and helping industrial companies support their customers and the staff that work for them, and I think we need to work with all companies to continue our decarbonization transition.
Sorry, just to clarify, I was asking whether you recuse yourself from board discussions about QBE's policies on oil and gas and not with respect to individual customers. No, I don't. You referred to accountability in your address.
You are a member of the audit committee whose role is to oversee the effectiveness and the integrity of QBE's group financial and sustainability reporting. QBE says engagement is a component of its management strategy. Are you asking management to provide the committee and the board any evidence of the effectiveness of its engagements with clients or with policymakers?
I'll answer that question. QBE regularly gets updates in terms of the broad engagement that we have with our 50 priority customers. That is in the whole. We don't go customer by customer because that's not the role of a board. I really think that you have had quite a go. So I would please now ask you if you want to come back for further questions. You're welcome to do that as we get to the end of the meeting. I think you've had a fair go.
There is a question from microphone one.
Thank you. So short go.
My name is Terry Lee, shareholder. A few questions I'd like to ask the board. At the moment, the Labor government on the election, one of their policies, one of the key policies is to give the first home buyer a 5% deposit on buying a home without LMI. And QBE had a substantial amount of lenders mortgage insurance. With 5% deposit without LMI, how would that affect the revenue that we're getting? I noticed that your LMI insurance premiums represent about 12% of your income. I just want to know what is the effect with this policy coming into being and how much revenue we're going to lose and whether the board has any strategy to handle this matter.
Thank you for your question. LMI is an important component of the business that we operate.
We've done some modeling on this. We do believe that depending on the uptake, although there's got to be availability of housing first for that to be uptaken, we do think that depending on the uptake, there could be some loss of revenue, but if you look at the way in which some of the lending criteria of the banks that we insure has changed over time, that revenue has come down anyway. We still think that LMI is a good long-term product. It does enable customers that have a slightly reduced risk profile to be able to continue to get a home loan, and we will continue to support that. We don't see in the short to medium term that there's going to be a significant effect on that, but obviously we are watching and we'll update our modeling as we need to.
The second question is similar to the same division, your Crop division. As you know, the trade war between China and the United States is going on. A pretty large section of your income from the United States is for your Crop protection and whatever. Now, China at the moment is turning back all the ships that are carrying the agricultural product from the United States. Obviously, your next year's revenue is also going to be dropped. And more importantly, I would like to ask, is there any of your insurance policies in the United States cover return of goods? Just turn around the ship. I know that you'll cover under marine policy, if the ship goes down, you'll cover that, obviously. But what about, do you got any cover that, say, the forced return of your ship that they're not going to take your product?
Do you cover any of those?
Not to my knowledge. I'm looking at Andrew, but I don't think so. Going a little broader, we do have a small trade credit business where we do insure some receivables and other things, but I don't think that falls into the category of what you're speaking about.
Yeah. And I've just got one more question. You have a very good result. Congratulations for the 2024. Now, the catastrophe claims and things are quite manageable at the moment, and you are having a reasonable good balance sheet. Would you be interested in, or any interest in paying capital management, like share buybacks and things like that this year or next year going forward for long-term supply shareholder that we've been living through all those tough years that we've been a lot of return in the past?
Yes, the board, the director, they all get pay raise for good return. But what about shareholder? Are we expecting some sort of capital management in the not too distant future? Yeah. Thank you. Probably this year.
Yeah. Thank you. I did mention during my presentation the fact that our final dividend, I think, was certainly the largest that I can recall in terms of my time on the QBE board. Also, as one of the slides that went up when I mentioned that our capital position was strong, showed that we were slightly above our long-term target capital position, although when we paid the dividend, that took us back inside our target. We're very conscious that if we continue to perform well, we will accumulate further capital. There's no incentive for us to hold on to that capital, so we will consider all deployments of it.
First use should be, and I'd hope shareholders would agree with this, first choice should be to pursue profitable business where we can sensibly grow. And Andrew talked about that during his presentation. But if we find we can't deploy the capital, we're not going to hold on to it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Can we take one last question here? And we'll take it from microphone two, and then we might go to those questions that have come online. We will come back.
Thank you. Sue Howes, I'm representing the Australian Shareholders' Association this morning, and I hold proxies for 88 people and totaling just under 6.9 million of shares. I've got three questions, but tell me if you get bored. QCyber is a, well, firstly, actually, congratulations on the result and also on putting such a clear and concise strategy together and publishing it. It's really appreciated.
Cyber is a new and growing line of business for QBE. Could you comment on the strategic outlook, expected growth, and marketing position for QBE in this new area?
Yeah. Thank you. And thanks for the engagement that we had with the Australian Shareholders' Association. As I mentioned to you, yes, QCyber is a new product. It's one that we think we have the skills to be able to play in. It's the first product that we are looking at on a global basis. So we have a global team that is looking at that. Cyber, unfortunately, is a continuing issue that all individuals and organizations are facing. So we think the demand for ongoing cyber product is going to continue to be there.
So we obviously aren't talking about what our growth aspirations are, but we wouldn't be going into an area if we didn't believe that we could grow and that we could actually help our customers in terms of the protections that we can offer to them. We're excited by it. We think it does present a significant opportunity. But the key to it was making sure that we actually were able to recruit people into our organization that understood the risks and were able to price those risks. Excellent. Thank you. How dependent is QBE on legacy systems, and how is this being addressed in the company? Yeah. I guess you could describe our systems as good, bad, and indifferent. We have talked about our modernization agenda, which is important to us.
The key place that that is occurring is in our AusPac business, but we are also rolling out modernization across our international business as well. Andrew referred to those during his presentation. We think that it's important that we remain contemporary in terms of the systems that we've got, not bleeding edge, but also not necessarily living in the dark ages.
Thank you. With regard to QBE Ventures and company culture, how has bringing Ms. Le as a director benefited QBE?
Well, thank you. Yeah. We were very pleased to recruit Tan Le in 2020 as a director. She brings a very different experience and a very different skill set, including deep understanding of data and the organization and use of data. Her background is not in financial services. It's in a number of other areas.
We just find that the quality of discussion that she is able to bring, together with the fact that she is an experienced entrepreneur, and you mentioned QBE Ventures, she does sit on our investment committee for QBE Ventures, which I think just adds to the discussion that we have around the board table. But she also deploys that skill to the opportunities that come to ventures.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you. Could we please go to those questions that have come through online?
Thank you, Chairman. Our first question is from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Could re-election candidate and long-serving director Yasmin Allen please comment on why she continues to support a ban on online participation at the Santos AGM, where she is a long-serving director?
Also, given that even Santos follow the agenda at its recent physical AGM in Adelaide, why does she allow our chair to ignore the agenda and treat the debate as one big job lot, despite repeated requests not to do this because it reduces the focus on important individual items of business, such as Yasmin's proposed re-election today? Yasmin's response to this question will determine how I vote on her re-election today.
Well, Mr. Mayne, thank you for your question. Firstly, this is a meeting of QBE shareholders, so I don't think it's appropriate to have any discussion around the AGM decisions of another company. And in terms of the way in which we conduct the AGM, I have set that out. You and I have discussed this in previous discussions.
I think that given that we are conducting a hybrid meeting, actually doing this and opening questions up on all items actually facilitates a better discussion and enables those who are attending online to have a better representation and to ask questions than laboriously going through an agenda one by one, which I think doesn't serve any purpose. So I don't know that it's actually down to Yasmin. If you want to continue to debate that, I'm happy to debate that with you, as I have done in the past. Can we have the next question, please?
Our next question comes from shareholder Mr. Kevin Daly. Congratulations, QBE. Your share price has finally recovered from the GFC after 16 years. The ASX 200 bottomed in March 2009 when QBE was at AUD 19. The ASX 200 then increased with a CAGR of about 6.5%.
However, QBE declined to a low of $7 after the pandemic plunge. Thereafter, it has recovered to $21, at least greater than $19. My question is, why has it taken so long for QBE to recover from the GFC?
Well, thank you. I don't know that I can answer that question in any great detail, but thank you for the recognition of the improvement that we have had. Over the last several years, QBE has been concentrated on its consistency of delivery. And with Andrew joining us and the strategic objectives that we have set for ourselves, including portfolio optimization, I think we have seen a significant improvement here. As part of that portfolio optimization, we rebalanced a number of the exposures that we had in our portfolio, and I referred to that in answer to a previous question as well.
And I think that all of that has actually led to a better basis for performance for the medium and long term, and we're confident that we will continue to perform for our shareholders. Apart from that, I don't know that I can make any further comments going back to 2009. I certainly wasn't here, and I don't think there was too many of the management team or the board. Could we have the next question, please?
Our next question comes from Mr. Stephen Mayne. When it comes to rejecting AGM transparency requests, my lived experience is that Mike Wilkins is the biggest Dr. No in the ASX 100 share club. Please disclose the proxies early. No. Please follow the agenda. No. Please disclose how many of our 72,000 retail shareholders voted. No.
Does Mike agree that his approach of we follow the law and do nothing more reflects his long career in the insurance industry, where the starting position when a claim is made is to say no? Has Mike or his board colleagues ever reflected on whether it is appropriate to be so resistant to simple transparency and governance requests when the market is clearly moving on all of these issues? You are way out of line with standard practice in refusing to follow the AGM agenda and would never do this at a board meeting. If the ASX itself and even our own share registry provider Computershare now happily disclose scheme-like headcount data in their AGM poll results, why can't we? Please get with the transparency pro gram, Mr. Wilkins, or hand over to someone who will.
Thanks for your comment, Mr. Mayne. Noted. My comments are noted.
I believe that the way in which we conduct this fully complies with all of our requirements, including the ASX corporate governance principles.
You and I will agree to disagree. Our next question again is from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Whose idea was it to try and do away with the physical component of QBE AGMs with a constitutional amendment permitting virtual-only meetings? You abandoned the proposed change after just eight days, but should have known that companies such as Brambles, Bendigo Bank, Dexus, Flight Centre, Qantas, National Storage, Fleet Partners, Kogan, and National Storage all tried and failed to do the same thing over the last four years. Can you read the - can't you read the room?
All the proxy advisors and major investors are united about the importance of maintaining a physical component to AGMs so that investors can see the whites of the eyes of directors and not avoid scrutiny in the way that often happens at fully virtual AGMs. Which law firm advised you to attempt this embarrassing move, and did you refuse to pay their fees for the time wasted on this proposal?
Mr. Mayne, I do acknowledge that we withdrew one component of our change to the constitution. We went through an exercise because we had not looked at the currency of our constitution for a number of years, and we felt it was appropriate to do so. With ASIC actually now legislating to allow virtual AGMs, our advisors suggested that it would be sensible to include all capacity options in terms of our constitution.
We also said, in terms of the notice of meeting, that our intention was always to, where possible, continue to hold a hybrid meeting, which I think has been for the benefit of shareholders. We did get some feedback from shareholders and some other advisors that they didn't agree with where we were going with the constitution. And to protect the other changes that we felt were necessary in the constitution, particularly given that we had no intention of having a totally online meeting, we withdrew that component of the request.
We have one final remaining question online from Mr. Stephen Mayne. It is disappointing that so few QBE directors turn up in person for the AGM in Sydney. Why don't you combine the AGM with an in-person board meeting, as most major companies do?
At last year's AGM, our domineering chair rejected a request for two retiring directors to provide some final reflections, claiming it was unfair, so I'll try again. Thank you to Rolf Tolle for his nine years of service on the board, including his important work as chair of the risk committee, which ends at the conclusion of today's AGM. It is always helpful for investors to have access to some exit perspectives from retiring independent directors. In his final contribution as a QBE director, could Rolf please comment on what he believes were the two best board decisions QBE made during his time on the board, and is he prepared to honestly acknowledge any mistakes? No other ASX 100 chair has blocked a retiring director from answering this question, so please don't repeat last year's effort, Mr. Wilkins, and instead invite Rolf to respond to this perfectly reasonable question.
Mr. Mayne, firstly, dealing with your comment around QBE directors turning up in person, I mentioned they are all on the telephone line and some at very ungodly hours in terms of wanting to be here. Put simply, we felt that it was sensible to ask them to do that rather than flying, in some cases, for over 24 hours to be present here for an AGM, not to mention the carbon footprint that QBE would put out in terms of the flights, which I believe are unnecessary for all of this. Rolf is on the line. I think it is unfair to try to characterize issues around the best two board decisions that were made, nor for mistakes, because I guess we've made good decisions and we've made some not-so-good decisions.
But Rolf, if you are on the line, if you would like to make some comments, I'm happy to have you do that
about issues around the best two board decisions that were made or for mistakes, because I guess we've made good decisions and we've made some not-so-good decisions. Well, my decisions around the best two board decisions that were made or for mistakes, because I guess we've made good decisions and we've made some not-so-good decisions.
Well, I think we've lost Rolf. No, I apologize, Mr. Mayne, but he is there. Trust me.
But it looks like technology's beaten us on this one. Are there any further questions online? No? Doesn't look like. I've returned to the room here in Sydney, so microphone two.
Thank you. And I promised to only ask one question this time. This question's directed to Mr. Neil Maidment. Is he able to answer questions? Is he on the line?
So far as I know, but please put your question.
Thank you. The board's skill matrix doesn't include anything related to physical climate risk. Transition, yes, but not physical. My question to Mr. Neil Maidment is, is that a skill gap that you will be able to fill? And do you share the rest of the board's position on disagreeing with the advice of the International Energy Agency and the IPCC that new LNG gas developments are inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement?
I think the board skills matrix covers all of the skills that were there at the time that we put the directors' report out. Neil was not a member of the board at that stage, but we do believe that it's collective skills as opposed to individuals that are important with all of that. Neil, as he said during his presentation, has over 40 years' experience, including significant underwriting experience, so his understanding of risk in the broader sense is well known. I think that we are aligned in terms of the view that we need to get to Net Zero by 2050. QBE has committed to that. Neil has agreed as part of that commitment as well. We are aligned with all of that.
As I said earlier, we think that gas, in particular, is an important transition fuel, and we need to actually support those organisations that are transitioning, but some need to produce gas, and I did note in some press reports here today that Australia is facing a shortage of gas because of some of the restrictions that state governments have placed on it. Neil, I don't know whether you're there and whether we're going to have any success with this, but I don't know whether you'd like to comment. I've got silence. We will investigate what's happened with that. I apologize for that.
Mike, can you hear me?
Oh, we can. Neil, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the question. Obviously, a recent joiner of the board since February.
I support what Mike has just said in the sense that I support QBE's commitments to its targets to achieve net zero. I think just one observation, which Mike alluded to earlier in the meeting, which is reporting on progress against sustainability will be enhanced in next year's report. And so I look forward to seeing that develop during the course of this year.
Thanks, Neil. Are there any further questions? Yes, microphone one.
Good morning. Yes, my name's Parbury, Piers Parbury. I'm a shareholder. Firstly, yes, well done on the performance. It was a very pleasant surprise to get a larger-than-usual dividend. I'd just like to make more of a comment than a question. An insurance company and indeed other individual public companies only have a very narrow or indeed a limited influence on issues that affect things like climate change.
There are those who I'm sure would love to see the end of oil and gas. We definitely need them for a fair while yet. We haven't got enough horses to take over from the cars. But I think the important point I really want to make is that individual companies are not the arbiters of activity. So people like QBE or indeed banks, where they are criticized for writing business that may support things that certain people disagree with, I feel it's an unfair criticism. As I say, they only have a limited access to all the information and are going to have a very limited influence on the outcomes. So yes, as I say, it's more of a comment, but I just think it's an unfair criticism and expecting them to be the arbiters when that has to come from a much larger source. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment and for your support of QBE. I agree with your comment, although we do actually set out what our objectives are. We are working in partnership with the insurance industry and, obviously, as I've said a few times today, working in partnership with our customers to try to get to a better outcome so far as we're able to influence it. But you're right. This is a whole-of-community issue, and the whole of the community needs to be engaged. Thank you. I'm not seeing any other questions in the room. There's no further business. I'll shortly be closing the poll for all items of business. I ask any shareholders who haven't submitted their votes yet to do so now. I refer you again to the instructional slides on how to vote now on your screen and behind me.
And I'll allow some time for people to complete their votes. I now close the poll and declare the meeting closed. Thank you for voting. The results of each item will be announced on the ASX shortly. Thank you to shareholders for attending the meeting today. And as previously mentioned, light refreshments will now be served for those who are present with us here in Sydney, and they'll be in the foyer. So I thank everyone again for your attendance and wish you all a good day.