Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Chairman of the Board of Directors, I welcome you to the Star Entertainment Annual General Meeting. To start, I'd like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the people of the Yugambeh people, language region of the Gold Coast, the traditional custodians in the land which we are gathered. Pay my respects to elders, past and present. I'd also like to acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. Today's meeting is held both in person as well as online via the Lumi platform, and this is to encourage as many people to participate as possible in engagement of shareholders. This meeting is being webcast live, and a recording will be made available on the Star Entertainment Group's website after the meeting.
So moving to the formalities of the day, as it's now 10:00 A.M., Queensland time, and a quorum is present to constitute the meeting, I formally declare the meeting open. Firstly, I'd like to begin by introducing my fellow boards of directors. Firstly, our CEO and Group Managing Director, Robbie Cooke. Also Michael Issenberg , Anne Ward, Deborah Page, Toni Thornton. Also with us today, Peter Hodgson, who's a board observer, who's proceeding through the regulatory process for approvals. Jennie Yuen , to my left, our Company Secretary. Christina Katsibouba, our Chief Financial Officer, at the end of the table, and also our company auditor from Ernst & Young, Scott Jarrett, is in the front row. Scott will be available for questions relating to the audit at the appropriate time.
In addition, other members of the executive management team are also in attendance today and will join us for refreshments after the meeting, so I encourage you to meet those. To kick off, I'd like to outline the procedural aspects of today's meetings. For those shareholders joining online, the online meeting guide, which is available on our website, explains how to participate in today's AGM, including how to vote and ask questions during the meeting. If we experience any technical difficulties today, a short recess or an adjournment may be required, depending upon the number of shareholders being affected. If this does occur, I will advise you accordingly. If there is a significant technological issue, and we need to adjourn the meeting to another time or date, we will lodge details with the ASX and provide updates on our website.
Only shareholders, their appointed proxies, or corporate representatives are entitled to make comments, ask questions, and vote at the meeting. All other attendees are welcome as observers. Your board and members of the management team will also be available after the meeting to speak with you. We gave shareholders the opportunity to submit questions before the meeting. Some of the more frequently raised questions and topics will be covered in my address or in the Group CEO and Managing Director's address. I'll also address other questions that relate to the same topics when we get to the relevant items of business. During today's meeting, shareholders will have the opportunity to comment on and ask questions in relation to each item of business. I will invite comments and questions after each item of business have been introduced.
To allow the greatest opportunity for all in attendance to participate, any comments or questions must be relevant to the business of the meeting. If you wish to make a comment or ask a question about a specific resolution, please make your way to the microphone when the resolution is being considered. If you're unable to go to the microphone, please raise your hand, and a microphone will be brought to you. If you have more than one question on an item of business, please ask your questions together. I will address each of them, of the questions in turn. Shareholders who wish to submit a comment or question online can do so at any time. I encourage shareholders who have questions to start sending them through now.
To ask a written question, select the Messaging tab at the top of the Lumi platform, type your question in the box towards the top of the page, and press the arrow symbol to send it. A copy of your submitted questions can be reviewed by selecting My Messages. To ask your questions verbally, click the Request to Speak button in the Broadcast window. The Audio Questions interface will now display. You'll be prompted to confirm your name and enter the topic of your question. Submit your details and select Join Queue to be connected. If prompted, select Allow in the pop-up to grant access to your microphone. Please note, while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Shortly, I will declare voting open on all items of business.
At that time, if you're attending the meeting online and eligible to vote at the meeting, a new voting tab will appear. Selecting the tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. Your vote will be automatically recorded, and there is no need to press a Submit button or Enter button. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. So we can answer as many questions as possible during the meeting, we ask that shareholders please ask a maximum of two questions for each item of business. To assist the efficient conduct of the meeting and to ensure that as many questions are answered as possible, we may aggregate similar questions based on the subject matter or summarize lengthy questions.
Please note, if you submit a question about an individual shareholder issue or a matter that isn't relevant to shareholders as a whole or is unrelated to the matters for consideration at today's meeting, a number of our staff will be in contact with you after the meeting to assist. Please be aware that we won't read out any defamatory, repetitive, or domineering questions, or questions that are not relevant to the company or the items of business being considered at today's meeting.... As stated in the notice of meeting, voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on items two to 12, as applicable.
In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I now declare the poll open for all resolutions, noting that item twelve is an additional resolution that would only be put to the meeting if at least 25% of votes validly cast on item six are against the adoption of the remuneration report. In-room attendees will be issued with a handset from Lumi upon registration that will display a list of today's resolutions on the screen. When voting opens, use the scroll wheel to highlight the resolution you wish to vote, and press the green square to confirm. The resolution text will appear on the screen. Once you read the resolution, bring up the voting options by pressing the green square.
Press one to vote for the item, two to vote against the item, or three to abstain from the voting on the item. To move on to the next resolution, please press this green square again, or to return to the full list of resolutions, press the red triangle. For online attendees, the voting tab will soon appear. Please submit your votes at any time. I will give you a reminder before I move to close voting at the end of the meeting. In relation to the items of business to be considered today, the resolutions in items two-10 are ordinary resolutions that require a simple majority of votes to be cast in favor of the resolution. The resolution in item 11 requires a special resolution, being 75% of the votes cast in favor of the resolution.
Item twelve is a conditional item of business and will only be put to the vote if a second strike is received on the company's 2023 remuneration report. For a second strike to be received, 25% or more of the votes validly cast on item six must be cast against the resolution to adopt the 2023 remuneration report. If item twelve is put to the vote of the meeting, it will be considered as an ordinary resolution that requires a simple majority of votes in favor of the resolution. Following discussion on each item of business, the total number of valid proxy votes and direct votes received at the time, and how those votes have been directed, will be displayed in respect of that item on the screen.
Where undirected proxies have been given to the Chairman, I intend to vote in favor of all resolutions other than in respect to item 12, in relation to which I intend to vote against that resolution if put to the meeting. Before we proceed to the formal items of business, I would like to provide my address, to be followed by the Group CEO and Managing Director, Robbie Cooke. Our addresses have already been loaded onto the ASX and are also available on the company's website. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to, as I said, the thirteenth Annual General Meeting of The Star Entertainment Group. Financial year 2023 certainly was a challenging time for The Star, a challenging time for you, our shareholders. What I can assure you of is that we're committed to fundamental change.
Resetting behaviors, ways of operation, were imperative for this new board and the management team over the last year. All the Non-Executive Directors here today, and our Group CEO and Managing Director, joined the Board during financial year 2023. Our latest board member, Tony Thornton, joined the Board last month after receiving all regulatory approvals. It is our responsibility to take this company forward. What has gone before cannot happen again. Society, our regulators, our governments, and you, our shareholders, demand it, but we also are demanding it of ourselves. The path to successful and a sustainable future is very clear. We need to restore our suitability, regain trust, and seek to ensure our Casino Licenses are retained and maintained. Those licenses are a privilege, not a right, and we understand the gravity of responsibility associated with holding them.
Constructive engagement with our regulators in Queensland and New South Wales has been prioritized. We want to repair and strengthen those relationships. A draft remediation plan is currently with regulators, and we await their approval. We are not sitting still in the meantime. Uplift in critical areas of the business, including financial crime, harm minimization, risk management, and our controls environment, continues. We are embedding greater accountability and governance in the business, and we are also committed to transforming The Star's culture. We have listened and learned, and Robbie will speak in more detail about our new purpose, values, and principles, but they have been shaped with what we want to be known for. Two of the four new values talk to leading with integrity and take good care.
They go to the heart of being honest and ethical and making sure that wellbeing and safety of our teams, guests, and communities are always at the forefront of our thinking. I do want to thank existing shareholders for their support during the two equity-raising processes this calendar year, and I welcome all new additions to our register. The refinancing and capital structure initiatives we undertook are key milestones for the renewal of The Star. We have strengthened the balance sheet and have additional flexibility to move forward and deliver on our strategic priorities and the Remediation Program. We continue to deal with external matters, including AUSTRAC, the remaining class action in the Victorian Supreme Court, and a dispute between Queen's Wharf Brisbane joint venture vehicle, DBC, and the contracted builder, which has led to legal proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court.
We were pleased to reach in-principle agreement in relation to the casino gaming tax in New South Wales in August this year, with manageable increases in the rebate play duty rates and table game duty rates, and a deferral until July 1, 2030 of the poker machine duty rate increases. Until that time, we will remain on the rates for the poker machines outlined in the gaming taxes agreement signed with the New South Wales government in June 2020. Resolving the casino gaming tax is an important milestone, not only for removing uncertainty for our Sydney operation, but the protection of thousands of New South Wales jobs.
We have Queen's Wharf set for a planned opening in the first half of 2024, and this will be a transformational development for Brisbane and for Queensland, as well as The Star. It was 2015, what was then Echo, and our ongoing JV partners, Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium, won the right to develop this riverside, riverside precinct and blend stunning contemporary architecture with magnificent heritage buildings. This will be a tourism beacon, hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, the sky deck, reinvigoration and beautification of the riverside, multimillion-dollar art installations across the vast public realm spaces, major event activations, and arts and culture opportunities. Queen's Wharf is a game changer. Here on the Gold Coast, Tower Two is also continuing to grace the skyline of the region at an ever-increasing height.
It is another joint venture development with Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium. It is also part of an overall AUD 2 billion master plan for Star Gold Coast, which has been approved by the state government of Queensland and has scope for further three towers here on the Broadbeach Island. Both the Queen's Wharf project and the Gold Coast Master plan are underpinned by a desire to further diversify the business. We are more than just a casino, we are firmly entrenched in entertainment, hospitality, and tourism industries, with some of the finest assets in the country. Reflecting briefly on the financial results for 2023, statutory EBITDA before significant items was AUD 317 million. That was up 34% on the prior corresponding period. Statutory loss, net loss after tax was AUD 2.4 billion.
That did include AUD 2.8 billion of significant items. Those significant items primarily reflected the non-cash impairment of The Star Sydney, The Star Gold Coast, and Treasury Brisbane, ongoing regulatory and legal costs, debt restructuring costs, and redundancy costs. So in closing, I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your support and for trusting this board with your company. I want to thank the millions of guests who visit our three properties each year, and I also want to voice my gratitude to the Board, our Group CEO, Robbie Cooke, and the management team for their ongoing commitment to transforming The Star. We will create a truly sustainable business, making positive community contributions, and I do consider it an honor to hold the position of Chairman as we undertake that journey. I'll now hand over to our Group CEO and Managing Director, Robbie Cooke.
Thanks, David, and good morning. Well, a lot has transpired since I last spoke to you at the AGM here on the Gold Coast last year. At that time, I'd been in the seat for about five weeks. It's fair to say our business has faced some quite extraordinary issues since that time, which I'll discuss shortly. Importantly, though, the events of last year reinforced the critical need for us to rethink, reshape, and reimagine the future for The Star. We are on a journey to restore our suitability to earn back trust, and that will take time, but we are committed to being a better company, operating with the highest levels of integrity in all that we do.
I will this morning talk about some of the issues we've had to address, the changes we've implemented in our business to date, the regulatory environment, our financial performance, and our priorities for FY 2024. So first up, reflecting on the challenges we've experienced. When I presented to you last year, I mentioned my enthusiasm for our business. In particular, I mentioned the fact that we have three casino and entertainment destinations in arguably the best locations: Sydney, the Gold Coast, and our Olympic City, Brisbane. Despite what we've gone through in the last 12 months, my belief in our business and our future opportunities has not waned. Against that backdrop, however, to say the year was challenging, completely understates the lived experience here at The Star over the last 12 months.
The damage to our social license, caused by the acts of the past, have been felt daily in our business on multiple levels. Our business has also had to address, among other things, in New South Wales, the suspension of our license, the appointment of a manager, and an AUD 100 million fine. The issuance of show cause notices in Queensland, followed by another AUD 100 million penalty, and the appointment of a special manager to The Star Gold Coast and also at Treasury Brisbane. Four class actions, now aggregated into one, have been launched against us. We also had AUSTRAC proceedings instituted. ASIC commenced civil proceedings against a number of our former directors and past executives. As David mentioned, we had a proposed increase in our New South Wales gaming duty by the former New South Wales Treasurer, which dramatically impacted our share price.
We had two equity raising, and we refinanced our complete debt stack. The Queensland Supreme Court actions were brought against us by, brought against the Destination Brisbane Consortium by our contracted builder for Queen's Wharf, and we also faced the need to retrench 500 of our colleagues following the rapid deterioration in our operating environment. As a team, we have, without reservation, acknowledged and accepted the failures of the past, as identified in the Bell and Gotterson reviews, and in response, our Remediation Program, above all else, is our key focus. Our remediation plan, when approved, will principally address the failings and root causes identified in the Gotterson and Bell reviews.
Our remediation plan will track and hold us accountable to a multi-year program that we've committed to delivering. As part of our commitment to embed real and meaningful change, we've commenced a significant uplift in our risk management, safer gambling, and AML capability, and we've started to embed greater accountability and more robust governance. We've enhanced our control environments and are operationalizing and embedding these controls. We've improved our financial crime management and overall approach to harm minimization. In terms of specific actions that we've taken, we've expanded our AML team from 26 to 121 full-time employees. We've more than quadrupled our safer gambling team with 83 full-time employees, up from 18. We engaged Deloitte to complete an independent root cause analysis of the failings identified in the Gotterson and Bell reviews.
The highly respected The Ethics Centre completed an intensive culture review, the recommendations of which are being fully implemented. We've created a new strategic vision, a new purpose statement, and a new set of values and principles with input from our team. As David mentioned, two of our values, leading with integrity and taking good care, are coupled with two new values, owning it and building memorable connections. On 30 June 2023, we replaced our Sydney internal controls, a project completed in eight months by around 150 team members, involving 546 unique controls. Alongside this, we've been working with the Queensland Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation to uplift our Queensland internal controls.
We've submitted to our regulators a detailed remediation plan, which now sets out a roadmap of about 640 remediation milestones across 15 work streams, which will be implemented over a multi-year horizon. In addition, I've had the pleasure of welcoming significant management expertise to the Star Group leadership team. We've undergone an organizational restructure designed to create a simpler framework with more decision-making power at a property level, while maintaining appropriate oversight from a group level. I believe this new structure, which includes CEOs for each of our three properties, who will report directly to me, will provide further guardrails to ensure that there will never be a repeat of the issues identified by the Bell and Gotterson reviews. The first of these new CEOs is Jess Mellor , here today, who's taken on the role at The Star Gold Coast.
We're advancing our recruitment process for our Sydney and Brisbane CEOs, and expect to announce to make announcements shortly. In regards to other roles, we've refreshed our senior leadership team, with new external hires being made, including myself, our Group Chief Risk Officer, our Group Chief Controls Officer, our Group Chief Legal Officer, our General Manager, Safer Gambling, our General Manager, Financial Crime, our Whistleblower Protection Officer, and our Company Secretary. In addition, we've appointed from the Star, new personnel, including our Group CFO, our Group Chief People Officer, our Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and our Group Transformation Officer. As David mentioned, our entire board has been replaced, with all current Non-Executive Directors appointed since the commencement of the 2023 financial year.
As a management team, we appreciate the experience residing on our board, with Michael Issenberg having served on as a former chair of the Reef Casino Trust, and Anne Ward was a Non-Executive Director on the Crown Resorts board before joining the Board of The Star. As we all know, the casino regulatory environment has changed following the findings of the Bell inquiry and the Bell and Gotterson reviews. In New South Wales, cashless and carded play has been legislated for implementation from August next year. We've started preparing for its introduction, and are in the process of commencing a trial involving 51 poker machines and eight table games at The Star Sydney. We're looking forward to important data being generated by this trial over the ensuing months, especially in terms of customer adoption and guest experience.
We're also engaging with the Queensland regulator about the prospect of a similar trial at the Treasury in Brisbane, prior to opening The Star at Brisbane. The New South Wales trials connected to the in-principle agreement in relation to casino duty regime, reached with the New South Wales Treasurer on the 11th of August last year, for this year. As I previously said, the in-principle agreement was the result of a formal and consultative process put in place by the new Labor government in New South Wales. It was a welcome change from the approach taken by the previous treasurer, who, prior to the 2023 March election, sought to arbitrarily increase our casino duty rates without any consultation. The outcome achieved with the current treasurer was designed to help protect the viability of The Star Sydney and the thousands of team member jobs associated with that property.
On the financial front, the group started the FY 2023 year positively after COVID-19 restrictions began easing in late FY 2022, and operating conditions returned to a more normal state. The first half of FY 2023 produced a number of strong revenue months, particularly on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, as those properties enjoyed strong domestic tourism from pent-up demand following the relaxation of COVID-enforced restrictions. However, conditions turned in Sydney and on the Gold Coast in the second half, particularly from March, with a number of factors impacting our operating performance. These included the impacts from the necessary implementation of uplifted controls, which resulted in increased guest exclusions, coupled with the costs of the required uplift in our risk and compliance resourcing, along with competition in the Sydney market.
and certain operating restrictions, which impacted our customer experience, and the impact of a weakening in consumer discretionary spending. We delivered an underlying EBITDA for the year of AUD 317 million, slightly above our previously announced guidance. We achieved an underlying net profit of AUD 41 million. This underlying result excluded AUD 2.8 billion in significant items, which included AUD 595 million in legal and regulatory costs, paid or provided, in the year for the New South Wales and Queensland fines, for the AUSTRAC civil proceedings, underpaid New South Wales Casino duty, Gotterson Review, and other legal and regulatory costs.
Also two point one seven billion dollars in non-cash impairment charges against goodwill and property assets in relation to The Star Sydney, The Star Gold Coast, Treasury Brisbane, which reflected, among other things, changes in our operating conditions, increased discount rates, along with proposed changes to our New South Wales casino duty rates. As David mentioned, our statutory net loss after tax was two point four billion dollars, which included those significant items. This result also included remediation costs, reflecting our continued investment in uplifting our compliance capabilities as we seek to return to license suitability, and also the significantly increased headcount, some of which comprised third-party costs used as surge resources, particularly in the first half of the year, to accelerate our compliance actions.
In terms of our year-to-date trading performance, our FY 2024 to date performance remains broadly consistent with the fourth quarter of FY 2023. Average monthly revenue for the period July to October, inclusive, is 2.5% up on the fourth quarter of FY 2023. Our operating expenses are 4% higher, reflecting expected increases in our EBA rates. Our margin is consistent, and monthly average EBITDA for the period July to October inclusive, is AUD 20.1 million, compared to the fourth quarter average of AUD 19.9 million. In terms of key strategic priorities for the group, remediation measures feature strongly, and our priorities are to continue our comprehensive and urgent focus on remediation actions, including Cultural Transformation Program .
Remaining focused on achieving our return to suitability and having our license suspensions removed, lifting our operational performance, and repairing and strengthening the group's relationship with our regulators and other stakeholders. Other strategic priorities include closely managing our Capital Expenditure programs that deliver value and return to shareholders. Identifying, retaining, developing, and engaging our highly talented team of employees across our properties and our group. More immediately, in FY 2024, management's focus will be on our operations, including preparing for cashless and carded play, and onboarding more management expertise on our major projects, and that includes preparing for the phased opening of Queen's Wharf Brisbane, and progressing to the construction of Tower Two on the Gold Coast. Also concluding our planned asset sales, primarily the Treasury Brisbane assets, which are currently on the market, and also addressing the various court proceedings in progress.
In closing, I'd like to thank the Board and my management team for their considerable support since my arrival. I would like to particularly thank our 8,000 team members, who continue to focus on our business and our guests, creating fun at our trusted destinations. I'd also like to offer my sincere thanks to you, our shareholders, through what have been difficult times. You have my assurance that we are doing all that we can to build a better and brighter future for The Star. Thank you very much.
Thanks very much, Robbie. So we will now move on to the formal part of the meeting and the business of the meeting. The notice of meeting was made publicly available on the ASX and the company's website on 5th October 2023, and was sent to those shareholders who required a printed copy. So I will take the notice of meeting as read. So I'll now turn to the individual items of business in the order set out in the notice of meeting. The first item on the agenda is to receive and consider the financial statements, the directors' report, and the auditors' report for the year ended 30 June 2023. The financial statements were approved by the directors and audited by Ernst & Young.
In accordance with the Corporations Act, there will be no voting on this item as it is a discussion item only. I will now invite any questions for the financial statements, the directors' report, or the auditors' report. There is an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions or make comments about the management of the company or the company's operations in the last financial year. If you are participating online, please send through your questions or comments, or join the queue to ask a question or provide a comment verbally. As mentioned earlier, Scott Jarrett, the Ernst & Young partner responsible for our audit, is available to answer any questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the auditors' report. Shareholders have the opportunity to submit questions to the auditor prior to the meeting.
However, I will note no questions to the auditor have been received to date. There was also a couple of questions pre-submitted, which by shareholders, and comments received in advance of the meeting. And where I haven't already addressed these in both mine and Robbie's reports, I'll address these now, and if not, at the relevant time in the agenda. So I will kick off with two questions that I have received prior to the meeting. The first being essentially is whether any provision has been made for a potential AUSTRAC penalty. So as we disclosed in our results, we did provide a provision, a general provision, for AUD 423 million relating to a broad range of regulatory and legal matters.
They included fines, AUSTRAC, underpaid casino duty, as well as various legal and, and other costs. So that, that's how we've covered, AUSTRAC and other related matters. But, there are discussions still ongoing with, with AUSTRAC, with the quantum of any penalty, yet to be finalized, and then obviously would need to be approved by the, by the federal court. So no specific provision on AUSTRAC, but, we have made a general provision in covering a broad range of items. The second item, I'll just cover briefly, is, we received a question about how the company intends to reduce costs and increase free cash flow whilst complying with government policy.
As both Robbie and I mentioned, our absolute priority at the moment is our path to suitability, and getting our licenses back, and implementing our Remediation Program, which is a very extensive program. And as you'll see reflected in the various remuneration resolutions, that has featured strongly in our thoughts around their design. As previously disclosed, we did do a significant cost reduction exercise, which we're very focused on continuing to see the AUD 100 million per annum run rate benefit delivered in coming years. And as Robbie just mentioned, we have stabilized revenue earnings over the last quarter of last financial year as we've started the new financial year.
A key part in undertaking the capital raising and refinancing activity were also to reduce our interest costs, which were quite large from a historic perspective, and that was achieved. And we do identify quite a number of opportunities operationally, as Robbie mentioned, is a key focus for us going forward, which we're aiming to deliver both the revenue and efficiency benefits. And clearly, as we discussed, we have a terrific and exciting opportunity in front of us with the opening of Queen's Wharf, as well as the continuing focus and development of our other two properties. So that concludes the two items pre-submitted. So I'll now turn to the floor, if there are any questions from the floor.
Dear Chairman, introducing Roman Kishenkov.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations again on your appointment as the Chairman. We come all the way from Sydney to inform you, your board, and other shareholders of what really happens in this once great company, and then ask couple of questions. What is horrible year was for this company? We, the loyal shareholders, lost more than 92% in last couple of years. Our share price fell from AUD 7 a couple years ago to AUD 0.51. AUD 0.51, Mr. Chairman. During the COVID, when company was shut down for a number of months, our share price was AUD 1.62. Your management, Mr. Chairman, succeed to destroy the value of our company. In my speech today, Mr. Chairman, I would like to concentrate on most important factor for any business: loyalty. Unfortunately, in this company, loyalty does not exist.
This is no loyalty to customers, there is no loyalty to company employees, there is no loyalty to our loyal shareholders. Mr. Chairman, can you please explain to us how many businesses can survive without good customers? I have been in business for over 30 years, and I never kicked out even 1 customer. I will concentrate loyalty to customers. Mr. Chairman, we had the best customer in the business. All the casinos around the world were envy to our customers. Your management, Mr. Chairman, kicked them out, many for no valid reason. Previous management spent a lot of money and effort to keep them in. I can provide many stories, but I will provide your board only with some of most absurd cases. One diamond member for 20 years, former business owner, who retired, enjoyed our facility, was kicked out for innocent comment to security guard.
No rude comment, no curse, innocent comment about appearance of security guard result in our customer was kicked out. I know this lady for over 20 years. She retired. She loved to spend time in our company, but you kicked her out. Another patron was disappointed by waiter's service. He also was kicked out. At least one of our VIPs and big shareholder passed away after he and his wife was kicked out. He and his wife were always sitting at the best table at gala events, as the best diamond members... This is ridiculous! As a result, our VIP afraid to come to us. Your management kicked the thousands of our best customers, many of whom, big shareholders. Your management cost us AUD billions a year, every year. This is a lot of money. Our company invested AUD millions to create the best VIP rooms in the world.
Now, those rooms are empty 99% of the time. Can I invite you, Mr. Chairman, and your board, to visit our VIP rooms on Friday or Saturday nights? Normally, it was full, but now it's a ghost town. I never seen so empty VIP rooms, ever. Your board and your management failed this great company, company employee of the company, the patrons, the government that still hold our license, and other shareholders who get our hard-earned money to see how our share price slip lower and lower. Loyalty to employees. You got rid of 500 positions. This is over 500 families who lost their income. Those people have very specific skills that you can't find easily. Even during lockdown, the company was paying the salaries, so when we're open, we'll have the skills. Loyalty to shareholders. We loyal shareholders always come to rescue when you need us.
This year, we gave you over AUD 1.5 billion. This is more than our company capitalization. And what we get back is that company share price continue sliding down, and we continue losing money. Shareholders lost faith in you. Before I finish my speech, I would like to ask you, Mr. Chairman, you come from Suncorp Bank. The bank is famous for keeping loyal customers. I'm keeping couple of insurance policies, a number of banking product on top of my shareholdings, only because the bank are looking after their customers. Why, Mr. Chairman, you can't create similar culture in this company, where loyalty customer are kicked out? Thank you. Questions. Number one, how many VIPs members do we have currently? And I'm talking about active members, not the members who is holding VIP membership, but afraid to come to get excluded from all gaming facilities.
I also would like to know how many VIPs we had last year and year before. Question number two, for last 20 years, our VIP were eligible for free upgrades on their comp nights and priority on their birthdays and anniversary. This upgrade cost nothing to our company, and still, your management canceled this upgrade. I would like to know why. Those people contributed AUD millions to our revenue, and you can't give them free upgrade? Question number three, your management canceled all sport events in mid-season, even this event was paid for in full through our sponsorship. Why? Question number four, in June, our system were shut down for 8 hours. This has happened every year, and normally, VIP premium guest department take care of our VIPs. Not this year. During last shutdown, no one could get any drinks or food or even enter VIP rooms.
After waiting for couple hours, our VIPs left for Crown Casino, and Crown had the best day since they opened it. I would like to know why VIP premium guest department did nothing to keep our VIPs in our casinos. The last question to you, Mr. Chairman, and your board: What are you going to do to remove the fear from our VIPs, to improve service and our share price? Thank you.
Thank you for your comments and for your questions. I'll make some general comments, which will cover a number of items. I'm not going to go into specific numbers around other customers and so forth, but I might ask Robbie just to add a couple of comments around point 3 and 4 in relation to the June item and so forth. But you know, your point around loyalty, whether it be customers, shareholders, and staff, is something that is very important to us. But I would make clear that there is no... We're completely supportive of the current agenda in terms of our remediation and compliance efforts.
And it is fair to say that, it's quite likely, at the conclusion of that, that Australia will have the highest standards in terms of any money laundering in the casino sector and also safer gaming. That is a journey, driven by changes in regulation compliance, but also important for us to look after our, our customers, and do that in a responsible, responsible way. The other factors that have sort of featured this year in our particular performance, obviously, as you mentioned, we have had a competitor opened up, in Crown in Sydney.
That has changed the landscape there in terms of having a competitive partner in a market that, given the various, proper compliance standards applied, as well as additional regulations, certain segments of the market no longer exist, particularly junkets and high-end offshore people. The other factor is something that we're very focused on in our engagement with government, given some of the reforms occurring, is making sure over time that there is a level playing field in the sector at the moment. And understandably so, a lot of the focus is around casinos as opposed to large clubs and pubs who currently operate in a different regime. So that's certainly something that we're very focused on.
Obviously, we saw earlier this week a further interest rate increase in the market, so broader economic conditions are weaker. But our focus unapologetically is focused on our remediation efforts, compliance, and following the regulation that we have, and that will continue. That acknowledge that that has had an impact in some cases with customers, and that's unfortunate, but we don't shy away from our responsibility there. And as Robbie outlined, our focus going forward is to continue to focus on our Remediation Programs, but also on redeveloping the business and continuing to strengthen and improve the operational performance in our business.
But Robbie, those last couple of items, I'm not sure if there's anything you wanted to add, specifically on the June event and the other?
Yes, thanks, David, and thanks, Roman, for the comments and also the questions. Look, probably just touching on the system outage which you pointed to. As you pointed out, that's a process we do every year. It involves an upgrade of our casino management platform. We actually have to take all three properties offline when we do that upgrade. Normally, that upgrade takes around about four hours. We normally schedule it very early in the morning, so it has minimal interruption and disruption for our guests. Unfortunately, this year, there were some issues with that upgrade, and it took six hours longer than programmed. So that's why we had the issue and why we were shut down longer.
You probably also know, Roman, we have issues currently in our private gaming rooms in New South Wales, where we are not allowed to provide complimentary alcohol, hence our inability to do what we have done in past years. So that's the reason why we were unable to provide the incentives perhaps that were provided in past years. So that's one issue. And look, the other one you mentioned was just the fear with our VIP customers and some of the new processes and procedures.
You and I have talked about that in the past, and we are working hard to actually take away some of the friction with those processes and trying to explain better to our customers why we have to collect the information that we do, which is a consequence of the uplift in our regulatory regime that we have to comply with in the new world that we live in. Unfortunately, that is part of the go forward. The world has changed from where it was 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago, and we're adapting and changing and dealing with those changes.
And look, Roman, we haven't got it right from day one, but we're doing all we can to make those processes less impactful and explain them better to our guests so they understand why the information's being asked for and what we, what we do with it, which is only for our fin crime activities. It doesn't go beyond that. So that'll be all I'd add, David.
Thanks, Robbie. Any further questions from the floor?
Dear Chairman, we have David Kingston, a shareholder.
Thank you. David Kingston, K Capital. It really has been a nightmare of a year. I appreciate the new board is brand new, albeit Robbie has been in charge for the whole year. I just want to make a couple of macro comments on the year. I won't get into the micros. I've been in finance for quite a few years. The self-destruction of Star ranks as one of the worst in the history of substantial Australian-listed stocks. It is extraordinary. Six years ago, Star traded around AUD 5. At its current price of AUD 0.56, 90% of shareholder value has been destroyed. That makes a mockery of the saying, "The casino bank always wins." On this occasion, the banker has lost a lot of money.
It's also extraordinary that in June 2022, only eighteen months ago, Crown, with three casinos, was purchased by Blackstone for a value of near AUD 9 billion. Looks like a great sale by Jamie Packer. Well done! In contrast, Star currently has a derisorily low market cap of AUD 1.65 billion. I think it was the chair or Robbie who said that three of the best casinos in Australia. Sure, Sydney is a great city, not sure it's a great casino in that location. I don't really think Crown has taken anything much away. Crown is failing miserably in Sydney, which is where I live. So I don't think that's an excuse. It's got no pokies. It's already closed half of the gaming room floors. It's very disappointing.
Blackstone are already applying for concessions from the government, so I don't think that's an excuse. But yeah, Brisbane looks like a fantastic casino. I'll come to that a bit later, but I think it's been overcapitalized massively. But it will be a fantastic world-class casino, but probably a financial failure. It's great to be up here, staying here at the Star. It's a very nice casino. What a fantastic auditorium! World-class. You know, I know you don't own the new buildings, so you're selling them off as units, but it's a nice complex, and the Gold Coast is great. So, you do have three nice casinos all on the East Coast. But the extraordinary thing is, the market is saying your value is AUD 1.65 billion.
Now, the most bizarre thing, and I use that word carefully, I'm not prone to embellishment, is that that is marginally in excess, Robbie, of what you have raised from the market in the last 9 months. You've raised AUD 1.55 billion. Now, it seems pretty clear, without those 2 raises, none of us would be here today because the company would be bankrupt. Market's saying value AUD 165 million, AUD 1.55 billion raised. Unbelievable. It really is beyond comprehension that The Star has been. And I appreciate this is a new board. The Star has been run that disastrously that it needed AUD 1.55 billion of emergency capital raising to survive. Extraordinary. The entire board gets a leave pass, an alibi. Robbie, you're the only one here who has got any culpability, because you've been on board for a while.
You joined in October 2022, Robbie. Share price was comfortably above AUD 2. Wow! Under your governance, the company's lost 70% of its value. Must need a higher wage, Robbie, because something's going wrong. It's been a huge value destruction. I'd say to the Board that the shareholders, understandably, are getting no dividend. Totally understandable. But the only thing that matters to shareholders at the moment is the share price, because there's no dividend. So their economic benefit or loss from the company is solely determined by the share price, and at the moment, it's going down. It's friendless. It's even below the most recent rights issue price of AUD 0.60.
So my question to Robbie, and I do have a second question as well: Given the calamitous value destruction over recent years and since your arrival, is the stock in a death spiral, or will you personally be able to get the stock off the canvas? Are management being proactive and assertive, or are they hiding behind the alibi of the debacles of the past management? Surely, I put to you, Robbie, you must be hugely embarrassed, hugely embarrassed. And the Chairman, you're obviously a very capable guy, and there's plenty of very capable directors, but it is embarrassing that the market is saying the entire worth of Star is marginally above what the market has given you, the AUD 1.55 billion in the last nine months. So that's my question, Robbie. It looks horrible, but can you give us some comfort?
That's my first question.
I might kick off with that, Robbie, and then feel free to add. I mean, I would say it's been an unprecedented 12 months for the company, and we have, as part of that, reflected deeply on what has gone wrong in the past so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. And as I mentioned, our key focus at the moment is remediation and heading towards suitability. And in our view, which is why we have a number of the resolutions in today's meeting, return of our license is the biggest driver of value over the medium term for our shareholders.
And to acknowledge that there are a number of uncertainties still, which the market recognizes, whether that be around AUSTRAC outcomes and obviously our opening next year of Queen's Wharf, which is a fantastic destination and a game changer. Gaming, you mentioned, but in footprint terms, it's only a relatively small part of the development there, so there's a number of fantastic entertainment tourism facilities beyond that. And so diversification of the business is key. And all of our properties, the Gold Coast is obviously a bit further along the journey, and Jess, who's our CEO, is doing a great job in delivering strong performance, and it is a property that's very, very popular.
We have got more work to do in Sydney in terms of developing the proposition there and developing that over time, and obviously opening the new property. But I just did want to talk a little bit about the strategic review that we undertook, which sort of goes a little bit to the heart of the business. The business was overleveraged historically, and we did need to confront a looming refinancing of the large debt stack that we had, and at the same time top-line pressures. So we did look at a broad range of alternatives over a broad range of options, including full debt solutions, which we felt from an earnings perspective were not sustainable.
We looked at debt, lease and saleback options around property, but felt that would be very short term in terms of giving away strategic value in the long term, and didn't really deliver any real financial benefit from an ongoing earnings point of view. And then we landed with the combined equity and debt combination, which was intertwined in terms of getting confidence of large shareholders as well as senior debt providers to get that combination. So we certainly acknowledge we've really had to lean on our shareholders this year, and we sincerely appreciate their support, which we have received, and our clear focus is on improving the business going forward. But from the Board's perspective, Robbie's started at a very challenging time.
The challenges put in front of him, the management team, and the Board, are unprecedented and were not, in many cases, known at the time, and unfolded, as well as deteriorating economic conditions and application of appropriate regulation, and so forth. So, we acknowledge that that's been a painful process for our shareholders, but we do feel that we've had the best interest of the company at heart, and we do see a future that has a number of opportunities and prospects in front of us, and that will be our focus. But Robbie, anything you want to add?
Yeah, look, I'm happy to just give some comment back. Look, so number one, just the suggestion, I'm hugely embarrassed about what's happened in the 12 months, in the limited 12 months I've been in the business. I took this role knowing the company was in a very difficult place, and eyes wide open, stepped into the role knowing the challenges we were facing. My first day on the job, we incurred a AUD 100 million fine in New South Wales, and as I pointed out, that was quickly followed by a AUD 100 million fine in Queensland.
Followed by very significant operating restrictions placed on the business to remedy the acts in the past, in those years, where the share price was AUD 6, AUD 5, where the share price was being fueled by unlawful behaviors and criminals on the property and junket operations. So the world has changed, and we are operating this business in a way which is complying with the law and complying with the regimes that apply to casino operations. So I'm not embarrassed, but I absolutely know it's challenging. I feel the pain of shareholders every day. I am working seven days a week, 18 hours a day, to resolve it. But this is not a quick fix, and this is not a business where what you're experiencing today is a result of anything the management team's done in the last 12 months.
The management team is actually focused on getting the business back on solid ground, getting our licenses back, getting through AUSTRAC proceedings, which are also a significant matter the business has to face, and the market is considering as it considers our business. So look, I, I'm not embarrassed, but I am dedicated, I am committed. I believe in the business, I believe in the assets, and believe what we can do with the assets. But this is not an easy job. This is the hardest job I've done. I've run 4 listed companies in my career. This is the hardest job I have experienced, but I'm committed to it, and I know my executive team's committed to it, and I know the Board's committed to it. We are here to try and clean up what has happened over the last five, seven, 10 years.
So that's, that's what I'd say.
Thanks, Robbie.
Chairman and Robbie, thanks for those comments. My second question, Robbie, you may be embarrassed about this, because I would be if I were in your shoes. In my opinion, the capital raising done in two tranches is woefully handled. You joined in October 2022. In late February 2023, you and Star shocked the market by announcing a heavily discounted rights issue at AUD 1.20. Massive discount. That did surprise the market. Also, the market was expecting around about AUD 400 million. You shocked the market by raising AUD 800 million, went for the jugular. Everyone was very surprised. Indeed, Robbie, you were quoted in the press saying, "Don't worry, the AUD 800 million, it's a very conservative amount." So you seemed to be very comfortable that that was a great cushion.
A few months later, you actually got a really positive surprise, which, to be honest, I expected. I think the previous Liberal government had done a bad job, knee-jerk reacted. I think it was unfair, and I think you did a good job, Robbie, in getting a much improved taxation regime from the new New South Wales government. So well done on that. So we've got the AUD 800 million raised at AUD 1.20, then a good effort, a very positive surprise, which financially had a very positive impact on Star.
But what I would be huge, hugely embarrassed about, Robbie, if I were in your shoes, is that a mere six months after the AUD 800 million raise, which puts you, you know, according to your own comments, in a, in a pretty conservative position, you had to go again to the market for another emergency raising, another punitive AUD 750 million. Guys, we just under raised by AUD 750 million, just a rounding error. And also, to absolutely punish the, the suffering shareholders, flog them again by halving the price. What tends to happen in these things, particularly when they're a heavy share issue, is the price just moves down, down, down to the rights issue. You know, a couple of weeks before that second rights issue, the stock was trading at AUD 0.90. Sure enough, it comes down to the AUD 0.60.
I was also, and I am in the industry, and I am professional, and I am experienced. I was appalled to see that with all the magnificent freehold property and leasehold property you've got, Chairman and Robbie, huge real estate, prime real estate. I was appalled to see that you went to Westpac and Barclays, presumably advised by Barrenjoey. Is anyone here from Barrenjoey, by the way? No one's turned up. Fee's all paid, so we'll leave it alone.
Sorry, have you got a question, Mr. Kingston?
Yes, I do. But let me just finish that second point. I was quite shocked to see that 450 of senior ranking debt, with a charge over all the assets of the company, you had to pay 650 points over BBSW, which is over 10% interest rate. So it seems the capital providers regard Star as a bit of a punching bag, with little ability to negotiate decent commercial terms, just a lame price taker. My question, Mr. Chairman, to either you or to Robbie, who was responsible for the woefully inaccurate assumption that the initial AUD 800 million raise was adequate? Should that party be terminated? Are you relying too much on Barrenjoey? Are you abrogating your responsibility to them?
Because for the reasons I've said, in my opinion, the double-barreled equity raise hurt the shareholders, hurt the company, and the debt raise, in my, in my opinion, is on extremely usurious terms. Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. I did answer some of these issues, and most of them are have previously stated disclosures by the company. But as I mentioned, the company was in a position being over-leveraged, and we had some very expensive debt on foot at that time. In addition to that, as previously disclosed, we had a significant and rapid deterioration in earnings, driven by economic conditions, the flow-through of both new as well as properly implemented compliance and risk measures within the business, as well as a number of competitive pressures. Not notwithstanding your commentary, we do completely understand the impact that we've seen with Crown. And as Robbie mentioned before, we had been operating on an uneven playing field with complimentary drinks for that period also.
So, those impacts were new ones that came to surface post that, and we reacted rapidly to that. As I mentioned before, we have been through a very significant strategic review. We did look at real estate assets. Most of those, other than the Gold Coast, are not freehold assets, so not relevant from that perspective. We did look at the trade-off between strategic optionality in the future versus an expedient sale, sale today. We received significant work done by the management team. These decisions that were taken were taken by the Board and the management team, obviously with support from a number of advisors, but these are our decisions and our choices.
In terms of the refinancing, as I mentioned before, it was a bit of a balancing act between attracting senior debt. I think we approached something like 40 financiers across a range of providers. And the interest rate spectrum ranged from where we landed, and I'll talk a little bit more about that, to AMEX-type interest rates. So, on the balance of what was available, not the best of rate, but quite a strong outcome. And certainly, on the secondary markets, which we won't disclose, we have received significant interest and appetite to subordinate that debt as well. But, Robbie, anything you wanted to add?
Well, the probably only other comment I would make, I would make is when we did our capital raise in February, the AUD 800 million, which was necessitated by reason of the fact that the New South Wales government at the time announced a AUD 100 million dollar extra impost to the business on an annualized basis with the proposed tax. We, we needed to do the equity raise to deal with that outflow and to bring our debt within levels which would, accommodate that. So that was the timing. Appreciate the comments that we got a, a positive outcome in relation to that, that, New South Wales duty arrangements. That was in August. So it was quite a period of time after we did the refinancing.
When we did do that refinance in February, we made it very clear that the next stage was, post the equity raise, was to actually refinance our bank debt and our USPP notes. That was always within the anticipation of the company, that that second round of fundraising would have to be done.
Thanks, Robbie. If there's no further questions in the room... There is one? Yep. I can't hear you, so.
Dear Chairman, I have Roger Prentice.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I had a specific question on an item in the financial report, and that was the quantum of the legal fees and associated costs. If, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I understood you correctly, AUD 559 million was the total cost, and of this, AUD 423 million was for, let's say, fines. So that still leaves AUD 136 million for legal costs. I appreciate there are a number of actions afoot, but AUD 136 million really sounds a very, very large amount.
Thank you for your question, and I'll have a stab at it. But, you want-
Look, just, just in relation to the differential between the 554 and the 423, the balance there is actually the payments which were made in the financial year. So in that number, you call out the 130, that includes AUD 120 million, which was paid to New South Wales Government, Queensland Government, as part payment of the AUD 100 million fines in each jurisdiction. So, that delta represents the amounts actually paid. They're not, that's just not legal fees, it's fines.
What is the total amount for legal fees alone?
Couldn't tell you off the top of my head. It's not a number I have.
Given the complexity of items we have, we obviously have a reasonable amount of legal support required to work them through. The significance of fines and other factors, so thank you. Any further questions in the room?
I have, I'm introducing a shareholder, Ian Timmons.
We meet again. Let me start by saying that we're all aware that many of the company's actions this past year have been dictated by onerous restrictions imposed by both the New South Wales and Queensland governments in response to actions by previous boards and management. A board that I called to be completely replaced at the 2019 AGM, only to be scoffed at. It's a pity that nobody listened... But this current board has presided over the virtual destruction of shareholder investment during the past year. At last year's AGM on the 22nd of November, the share price was AUD 2.65. Under this board's watch, the shares collapsed to AUD 0.517 just over a week ago. Almost penny dreadful status. Not all their fault, but are they the value for the considerable money they're paid?
Rather than being called an investment, Star is now seen simply as a tax loss by most shareholders. What a reward. Shame, shame, shame. However, I'd like to compliment the CEO, Robbie Cooke, who took over the reins at a time of devastation and has had to deal with the fallout of earlier management decisions. He's far more visible and receptive than any prior CEO in recent history, and I, and I support him. When the proposed New South Wales tax increase to over 60% on poker machines turnover was announced, I contacted Mr. Cooke with a radical, though not necessarily practical suggestion, that Star take the initiative and immediately hand back the New South Wales license to the government and tell them to find the jobs for the 1,000 employees and that would face termination, plus all of the businesses supplying the casino.
The company name, after all, is Star Entertainment. Consider turning the New South Wales operation into a premium investment-entertainment business. By this time, we had little to lose. One major problem with bowing to the New South Wales government demands is that it sends a signal to other state governments who may follow suit. No business can operate with a single tax of over 60%, plus payroll and income taxes. It becomes simply an agent to generate taxes for government, not income for shareholders. Perhaps time to tell New South Wales what to do with their license without warning. Governments can't run their own businesses successfully without affecting, without effectively nationalizing Star. Just look at Australia Post, for example.
They control the operation of our company now, now, and they are screwing it up, killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for them. Since... Now, the AGM notice of 29th August advised nominations for directors closed on 6th of September. That's eight days notice to lodge nominations, but the company's made no efforts to change the constitution, which requires nominees to have had their probity checks be completed before the nomination can be accepted, despite me revealing at last year's AGM that Queensland and New South Wales bodies that conduct the probity checks will not conduct them until after the person has been appointed. The anomaly leaves the directors alone to simply control who's appointed.
In fact, the annual report states, in the annual report, the Chairman states, "Tony Thornton and Peter Hodgson were board observers at the time of writing this, with their appointments as Non-Executive Directors, pending necessary regulatory approvals." In other words, the Board can simply appoint new directors they choose and then wait for regulatory approval, whilst anybody else trying to join the Board must first get regulatory approval, and in eight days, before their nomination will be accepted, even though the government agencies will not do them. It's the Board which controls who sits on it, not the shareholders. All of us in this room can vote against any proposal, but unless at least one of the three shareholders who own more than 50% of the company agree, it is meaningless.
To their shame, the appropriate government agencies, which can investigate possible abuse of shareholder right, refuse to process a complaint from an individual. I tried. The media release states that the Queensland property start of FY 2023, strongly post-COVID. Gold Coast softened in the second half, reflecting a general weakening in domestic tourism to the region. What about the effect of paid parking at the Gold Coast? While I don't know the solution to that very serious parking problem, it has been virtually free the entire 30+ years life of the casino. Incredibly, paid parking commenced the day of the last AGM, and at a time when visitor numbers were being impacted by interest rate rises and the hangover of COVID restrictions, plus government controls.
I know former patrons who abandoned the casino that day and have now established social lives at some of the many clubs that have been on the Coast. Most have no intentions of returning to the casino, particularly those who play the pokies. Now, I don't have the benefit of access to the figures to tell me if paid parking has adversely affected revenue. Instead, I have the benefit of my eyes to tell me. It cannot be denied. Many a day I've come in and seen, and been the only patron on the main gaming floor, greatly outnumbered by the bored, idle dealers and security staff. Compounding the downturn in the demand for... is the demand for big gamblers to provide detailed, private financial details, such as assets and income, a request that many have rightly refused, and so have been banned from the casino.
Star is being forced by government to turn gamblers away, and big ones at that, and more is to come. Quite some time back, the casino introduced a double zero, that is 38 rather than 37 numbers, roulette table, and that had a lower minimum bet to entice players. I was shocked and ashamed recently, subsequently, when a triple zero wheel was introduced. That is 39 numbers instead of the usual 39, particularly when it transpired that they're paying the same odds as a single zero, 37 machine. Do we have to stoop to that level to make some money? How many more zeros will we add to the roulette tables? I'm holding up the 2023-2024 local phone book for the Gold Coast. Star Casino is not even in it.
The casino name was changed to Star in 2017. Jupiters Hotel & Casino is in there, despite me having alerted the company to this omission three phone books back. We can spend AUD millions providing, promoting events, but we can't simply make a phone call to fix the problem. Great marketing! ... I propose that each casino create a small group of shareholders and patrons that aren't afraid to speak their mind, and meet with them on a regular basis, such as every quarter, to get feedback from the people who make or break the company, the patrons, and if justified and possible, act on the feedback. I was going to comment on the patchy performance of marketing, particularly on the Gold Coast, where many errors and questionable decisions have been made.
However, given the time I've already taken, I shan't elaborate any further at this point. However, I'm not finished on that issue. Unfortunately, when they make a mistake, the bulk of patrons' frustration and anger has to be absorbed by the restaurant staff and customer service, with no apparent blame going back to marketing. But I cannot ignore their latest effort. Two days ago, on Cup Day, there were parties and celebrations everywhere. So what was done to entice players into Oasis for the race itself? There was a big plastic horse with plastic flowers around its neck. That's all. How many were drawn to celebrate the race in the company of a plastic horse? Hold up your hand if you were. Apparently, a few nibbles were handed out later in the day after many people had left.
There are a few benefits awarded to shareholders, certainly not by way of dividends. Would it be possible to allow them limited access to the Gold Level rooms, particularly as it will be a very long time, if ever, before they will ever see any return on their holdings, not investments? Finally, given the performance of the Board over the past year, I know many shareholders would like each board member to nominate just one positive contribution they have made to the operation of the company, or have they been simply content to simply sit and vote at board meetings and collect a handsome remuneration for doing just that? We need board members with positive views and actions to help dig us out of this mire that we are in.
I think shareholders are entitled to have each board member detail just one positive initiative they have proposed to the Board in the past year, though I know this won't happen. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Timmins. You've sort of made quite a few comments, but I'll just maybe make a couple of comments, and then Robbie, if you wanna add anything. But we will take on notice your various operational suggestions, and discuss that, and filter that through to the management team as appropriate. We certainly acknowledge this-
Excuse me for interrupting on that point. I've had that said to me on multiple, multiple AGMs, and I never hear a thing.
Yeah.
Nobody comes near me, but anyhow.
Look, look, I note that, but you haven't told me before, so thank you. Shareholder destruction is obviously, I've mentioned that before, and we completely acknowledge that, over the course of this year and over the course of a number of years. But I think that's, we've covered, whilst not a great experience, it is something that we've covered. I did wanna mention, and I guess correct, and Robbie did touch on this, we did receive some very good engagement with the current New South Wales government in terms of solving the tax problem. So I didn't want to let any confusion rest that, that was a very constructive engagement.
They, as we did, inherit some challenging circumstances, but we were very happy with the practical, pragmatic, and respectful outcome that we received there. Just on the Board issue, and you will hear from all bar two of the directors today, I think, who are going for re-election. We do focus at this particular phase of the journey on people with turnaround experience, highly regulated industry experience, risk and compliance as key focus areas. We will look into the future at supplementing both, particularly the skills of Michael and Anne, who have got gaming and entertainment venue experience on the Board in the future.
But, we believe the right priorities and the right skills, if you read the number of meetings that the Board has had, and we've had very high attendance in that over the course of the year, that probably only reflects somewhere between a half and a third of the actual meetings and engagements that we've had to have to deal with the large volume of challenges and issues that we've had. We're not looking for sympathy for that, but you have directors and a board that, A, have the right skills and are very focused and committed to doing what needs to be done to turn this company around. Robbie, is there anything that...
I'm sorry, just on the election issue, again, you'll note today, we have two directors, Tony Thornton, who has recently received Probity Approval, and up until that time, was an observer, not an appointed member to the Board. And secondly, Peter Hodgson, who's in the front row. Peter has received approval from one of the regulators, but not quite the second yet, and therefore, he's not up for election, but will continue as an observer only on the Board. But, Robbie, anything you want to add?
Yeah, Ian, a couple of things. Thanks for the comments. Appreciate it. Look, just reiterating the comment in relation to the Board engagement here, and I can definitely give you some insight, having worked, as I said, this is the fourth listed company I've worked on. The level of board involvement in this business is like nothing any listed company would go through. the Board has met more than 30 times formally, and much more than that, and there are no companies I've worked in where boards have been that engaged with the business. So everybody is hands on the wheel, trying to reposition the business. So I can assure you, there's a lot of commitment by the Board, the Non-Executive Directors on stage today.
The other one, just in relation to the nomination for board positions, I did have that looked at, Ian, after you raised it last year, and there is the capacity to nominate irrespective without the benefit of actually having gone through the probity process, before. So that's something, again, very happy to talk to you about and very happy to provide you with some insights as to the advice we've had in that regards. And finally, appreciate the comment on the focus group. I think that's a really good idea, Ian, and we'll take you up on that and have a think about how we can actually have focus groups for each property. I think that's a really useful concept, so thank you.
T hank you. I'll just check any further comments or questions from the floor?
Hello, just microphone one. I'd just like to introduce Steve McCann from the Australian Shareholders Association.
Thank you, David, and just want to acknowledge the proactive engagement we had with yourself, Jenny, and Michael before the meeting. It was very beneficial. We're representing 124 shareholders today. I wanna acknowledge that all of you up there, other than Robbie, have joined the business in the last 12 months, and my assumption is it would've been easier to turn the role down potentially. So we thank you at ASA for actually putting your hands up and taking on this remediation project on behalf of shareholders. I just wondered if, David, you could comment quickly. For those of us that are asked to vote on directors each year, we get to look at bios, and we get to look at track records. What we don't get to see is what happens inside the Boardroom.
So maybe if you could just give shareholders a sense of, you know, how would you sum up the culture at the moment? What's the culture of the current board, and what do you want it to be going forward?
Well, I think, as Robbie sort of described it, it has been a focus on immediate and short-term issues, as well as setting us up for the future. And our focus, as I mentioned, is very much so on retaining licenses or getting our licenses back, returning to suitability, remediation, as well as, you know, a number of the challenges that have confronted the company. I could easily say it's the most capable and experienced board that I've been on. We have got some fantastic contributors with great and relevant experience. As I said, we have prioritized experience, turnaround, governance, risk and compliance, and heavily regulated industries.
We have that together with a couple of directors who have got relevant experience in the gaming and entertainment industry in different contexts. We will look at supplementing skills around operational gaming experience, probably in the next calendar year. But certainly, as chair, I couldn't have hoped for a better group of people, and as Robbie mentioned, hardworking or diligent. And again, not looking for any platitudes for that, but that's the reality we... And Michael may tell you a funny story after that, he did have the option to opt out at a particular crucial moment.
He's our longest-standing director, but for the same reasons as the rest of us, we see a strong future for the company and wanted to be part of the solution. So, you can ask him at sausage roll time. But, thank you, Steven. Any other questions from the floor?
Mr. Chairman, we have a question on microphone two. Introducing our shareholder, Charlie Kingston.
Hi there, Charlie Kingston. Just a question around the company's remaining level of debt. Obviously, the term used today, there's been plenty of shareholder disruption, primarily a result of those excessive debt levels of the past. Now, there's been two emergency capital raisings, which has paid down, I believe, most, if not all, of the head company's level of debt. However, there are obviously significant potential fines that you provisioned for. There's the AUSTRAC issue, which we don't know what the outcome's gonna be. So there potentially is still a lot of debt left at the company level. But more importantly, there's significant liabilities held within the joint venture of QWB. AUD 1.3 billion of liabilities held within that JV, of which Star owns 50% of.
And please correct me if I'm wrong with any of the figures that I quote, but obviously that project's not finished today. It's not generating any income, so there's still a lot to be spent there. So round numbers, if we just assume that by the time that project is complete, call it AUD 1.5 billion of debt within that structure, Star's share would be AUD 750 million against our market cap today at just over AUD 1.6 billion. That's personally a bit of a concern. We don't actually know what the earnings are gonna be from that asset. I don't believe you've ever provided guidance. I've seen a lot of forecasts.
It's been sort of AUD 200 million-AUD 300 million of EBITDA thrown around, but again, that's all pure speculation. So apologies if you have provided guidance, but if that is the figure, that's still roughly five times the potential debt within that joint venture, which again, seems very high. Again, it's all guesswork, but just given how much of an issue debt has been previously and caused all that shareholder equity destruction, I was just hoping for more clarity from the Board today on how much debt the company still does have when you included the potential provisions, the joint venture debt. How are you gonna refinance that debt? Robbie, you mentioned you knew a refinancing was coming, but when does that come up for refinancing? Is that AUD 1.5 billion a fair figure?
I suppose more importantly, how will you service that debt? Will earnings alone be enough? Again, we don't know what a AUD 2.9 billion project is gonna generate, but is earnings alone enough to service that debt, let alone repay that debt? And I suppose finally, can you categorically guarantee shareholders that you will not need to tap further equity from shareholders to be able to repay that debt going forward, given how destructive it has been in the past? Thank you.
Thank you. I might just kick off with that one. So thanks for the question. Obviously, the Queen's Wharf project is owned in consortium with two of our partners. Certainly in the context of the current capital raising, we did have an eye to that refinancing or maturity, which is due in 2025, of which we have a share. So we have taken some consideration of the likely needs at that particular time in our current raising. We haven't provided guidance on earnings, but one, I guess, unique feature of that, we are transferring a going concern from the Treasury operation straight into the new premises. But obviously then with a lot, lot more facilities, restaurants, space, hotels, et cetera, beyond the current trading. So clearly, as that opens and opens progressively over time, we will see improved earnings in that over time. But, Robbie, anything you wanted to add?
No, I think you've covered it, David.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you.
Just, just, a second question. The company often guides to EBITDA as the sort of metric that you follow, and clearly for a casino, there's obviously a lot that comes below EBITDA. There's a lot of CapEx that was raised before. There's some very expensive debt costing over 10%. So there's a lot that comes below the EBITDA line, and that's just maintenance CapEx. I think the figure was AUD 110 million that you guided to. But looking back, there was a slide, and I appreciate this wasn't under your management, but there's been nearly AUD 2 billion spent on growth CapEx, not maintenance. And for that growth CapEx, earnings have gone backwards. So arguably, that hasn't been growth.
That's clearly been maintenance, if anything, but clearly it hasn't delivered a good result. But I was just hoping to understand, rather than EBITDA, if the Board thinks that's actually a fair figure for this company, or if free cash flow is of focus, because EBITDA, you can't pay dividends from EBITDA, you can't pay down debt from EBITDA. So I just hoping to get some guidance, if free cash flow is a focus for this business, what is the free cash flow potential that you think it can deliver? And if you can report on those type of metrics rather than EBITDA going forward, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. I mean, I think at this point in time, EBITDA, in terms of the operations of the business, is relevant, given the significant change in the operating environment that we've seen, and I think I've covered that in a fair bit of detail earlier in terms of the various impacts there. Free cash flow certainly is a relevant metric that we do monitor and will continue to monitor, going forward. So we'll continue to think about what the right metrics are, for disclosure. But certainly, other than what we've guided to already in terms of the stabilization of earnings in the Q4 of last financial year and the start of this financial year, that's probably as much guidance we're gonna provide in the near term.
Thank you for your question. Any further questions from the room?
Chairman, introducing shareholder, Clyde Ashton.
Mr. Chairman, in view that we've observed that governments don't mind heavily taxing you, how much assistance have been provided by them to help you regain the license, which helps support their budget? And the second part is, will shareholders be invited to the opening of the new casino?
I'll leave that to Robbie to answer the first one, but we'd love to see you there, would be my comment. But in terms of government support, particularly Robbie and the team and members of the Board do have a lot of engagement with government. Obviously, the regulatory arrangements between New South Wales and Queensland are a little bit different, with an independent authority in place in New South Wales. But we do have constructive engagement with the government in the right way. But their focus, as is ours, and they have the remediation plan that we have developed are in their hands for approval now, either the NICC in Sydney or the government in Queensland.
So that's certainly the short-term focus. And then obviously, opening of Queen's Wharf in Brisbane, and the Pyrmont Precinct and the broader area where Star Sydney is located, is a priority development area for the New South Wales government. And so we do look forward to engaging with the government there on an ongoing basis in terms of our contribution to that. Thank you for your question.
Thank you.
We have a question on microphone two. I'm introducing a shareholder, Mr. Spiro Alcozas.
Hello. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and congratulations on your appointment earlier this year, from 2022. Hello, board. I'd like to ask a straight question. I hear all the pain and everything in the audience and online and, and also the institutional investors as well. We'd like to draw a line in the sand so that we are very clear that there is not gonna be any more further actions, either from ASIC, AUSTRAC or APRA. Can you and the Board answer that definitively now, so that there's no surprises that come down in a week, a month, three months down the track? Back to you, David, on that one.
Thank you, and I can categorically say that we shouldn't have action from APRA, but given that we're not regulated by APRA. But certainly, in the case of the others, on a serious note, it is impossible for us to predict the future. We have had an avalanche from various regulators and so forth in the last year, in particular, driven out of the various inquiries. We do have very good engagement, particularly with the gaming regulators in both states, and that will continue. But we are in the process of rebuilding, so that's certainly an important process.
But we certainly have no knowledge of anything else pre-existing at the moment, having done some deep analysis around root cause and cultural reviews and obviously engagement with regulators. But as much as I would love to, it's impossible for us to predict that. But we certainly don't have anything on the horizon that we can see.
Well, that's wonderful at this point. My next question, I hear you praising the shareholders for stepping up and putting in more money to help keep this together. If that's the case, and the shareholders are that important, would you consider to somehow reward your shareholders when they come and stay at any of the three Star Casino facilities with some sort of benefit to bring them back as part of your greater model?
It's not something that the current board's actively considered, but I'll take it on notice for us to discuss with the management team, so appreciate the suggestion.
And you would consider it? Would the Board consider something like that?
Yeah.
Because I think that you'd get your shareholders' attention and also their further support if you look after them in that way to show your appreciation for the input of money that they've put in to Star.
I understand the point and have been involved in companies that do that for shareholders with customer benefits historically, so we'll take it on notice and discuss it. It's not something we've actively pursued to date, so.
Okay, thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any last questions from the room? All right. Thank, thank you very much. We might just check if there's any online questions.
Chairman, we do have a number of questions online. The first is from Sabrin Yong, who asked: Do you have a definite date of when Queen's Wharf will be opening in 2024?
Thank you, Sabrin, for the question. Obviously, the Queen's Wharf project is a project owned in the joint venture, the Destination Brisbane Consortium. They obviously are, which we are a shareholder of, working with the builder, Multiplex, on arrangements, but to date, we have talked about, we have disclosed the opening of Queen's Wharf is targeting the first half of next calendar year. So we have no update to that, but work on the project as well as discussions with Multiplex continue. Any further questions online?
Chairman, we do have a couple of questions from Mr Ethan Marlowe. He's asked: Good morning to the Board and other, others present at the AGM. I have a few comments, questions to the Board on the general management of the company, i.e., for the purposes of Section 250S of the Corporations Act. The questions are, number one, shareholders have been seriously diluted in the previous year, with the previous equity raising resulting in an over 70% dilution of shareholders in the second raising alone. This notably followed the Board declaring after the first equity raising in February that the company's balance sheet was sufficient.
Can the Board please explain what alternate financing options were explored before deciding to settle upon the second capital raising, given the debt was not imminently due, but due, including the attempt to sell Treasury Brisbane, given the second equity raising occurred approximately only six weeks after the New South Wales government gave the company relief from the planned hike in the casino duty rates, which the Board stated in previous ASX announcements, was a barrier to refinancing?
Thank you, Mr. Marlowe, for your question. I think I've covered most of this on an earlier question, so I won't repeat in full. It's two comments I would make, though. One is the Treasury Brisbane sale, as you're aware, the purchaser withdrew a little while ago, but that process continues with good interest as that process continues, so still on the process. And the second one, just to be very clear about, the casino duty tax, as originally proposed, would have had significant impacts on the sustainability of the business in New South Wales and the employment of our 4,000 staff.
So the options available to us after the agreement obviously allowed us then to pursue the refinancing, and I did cover earlier the extensive strategic review process that we covered a range of alternatives that both delevered the business, but also provided sustainable interest costs for the business going forward. Any further questions? Online-
Chairman, the second question from Mr. Marlowe is: The Star Sydney, while being a valuable asset in Pyrmont, is seriously underperforming, with foot traffic relatively low, especially during daytime, for one of the largest casinos in the country. Several key attractions to the Star Sydney are temporarily or permanently closed, including the Marquee Nightclub. Meanwhile, the Marina Bay Sands Casino in Singapore still has a Marquee Nightclub, the Rooftop Bar, and the Cherry Bar, among others. Throughout the day, several restaurants, bars at the Star Sydney, outside the gaming area are open but completely vacant and not even a single customer. How will the Star Sydney provide attractions in the short term to increase the amount of foot traffic to the property? And does the company have any long-term plans for upgrading the Star Sydney, including the master plan?
Thank you again for the question. I would say that the property at Pyrmont has been one that has not received the due attention, probably for the last five-plus years. We have, though, a significant amount of space and a number of opportunities to refresh and reinvent that property, and that does include a number of the types of offers that you're talking about here. The market has changed significantly, though, as we've discussed earlier, so there is a little bit of a repositioning of that property that is likely to occur over the next period of time. But we do see some good opportunities, both the property alone, but also in conjunction with the broader precinct. But Robbie, anything you want to add?
Other than to repeat, David, I think the opportunity in Sydney is to improve the non-gaming proposition so that, you know, we've got more restaurants, more accessible restaurants in the space we've got available, designed to attract more foot traffic during the day-by-day hours.
Thank you... Any further questions online?
Chairman, the third question from Mr. Marlow is: legislation in both New South Wales and Queensland for AML purposes to track transactions is currently mandatory, requiring mandatory carded play in both properties, with the trial imminently commencing at The Star Sydney. Can the Board explain how the mandatory carded play will specifically work? For example, how will customers load money onto their membership card? What will payment methods be? Will payment methods be accepted, and will they be loaded at the terminal and or the Star app or the Star Club website? And how will customers withdraw funds, and will there be a mechanism to allow non-members to receive temporary cards to use for gaming?
Thanks, Mr. Marlow, for the question. I would just kick off before I hand to Robbie. It's not just for any money laundering purposes, but it also allows us to support customers from a safer gaming perspective going forward. The critical issue for us, which I'll let Robbie sort of talk through, is making sure that over time there is a level playing field in both Queensland and New South Wales. We're very supportive of the cashless and carded initiative, and are happy to participate in trials, but do have an eye on the impact across the broader sector that that'll be relevant in the long term. But Robbie?
Yeah, look, look, David, I'd, I'd reiterate, you know, this is a change that's happening across all markets in the gambling space and casino space. We are in the process of implementing a trial in New South Wales, which will be on 51 machines and 8 tables, as we've mentioned earlier today. That we're working with the regulator in New South Wales on that currently. The way that will work is to answer the question on loading value, so there will be a wallet. The wallet will be able to be funded from EFTPOS transactions, and PayID accounts, and BSB transfers. It'll be able to be done on the app. It'll be able to be done at a kiosk, and other areas as well.
The idea and the reason for the trial is to actually get feedback, live feedback from customers, make sure we've got the customer experience right, and make sure we've got the technology right. So that's why the trial's happening. To David's point, you know, we believe this is the right solution for the market. It does deal with Harm Minimization, it does deal with AML issues, but we are very strong proponents of the fact that this is being driven. If this is genuinely being driven by governments to address those problems, it needs to be driven across the market, not just at the casinos.
Thanks, Robbie. Any further questions online?
Chairman, we have two questions from Mr. Gavin Lostia. The first question is: Is action going to be taken against previous board or staff members that acted in an unconscionable and/or illegal manner that have damaged, to a massive degree, the reputation and value of the company?
Thanks for the question. There is, obviously, a disclosed action undertaken by ASIC against the entire former board and a number of the senior executives, which is an ongoing legal matter, which we can't and won't comment on. Any further questions online?
Chairman, the second question from Gavin Lostia is, and this is supplementary: Will the action involve recouping of pecuniary bonuses and/or performance rights?
Thanks again for the question. Certainly all relevant management, et cetera, are no longer with the company, and all of the relevant short-term and long-term incentives have been lapsed with the performance of the company over a period of time. Any previous payments were done prior to the existence of this board and the decisions taken by this board. So, there's no further levers available to this board for prior management and so forth. Thank you for your question. Is there any further online questions?
Chairman, there are no further questions for this item of business.
Okay, I'll just check, are there any audio questions?
No audio questions.
All right. Terrific. Thank you, and thanks to shareholders for... Sorry?
The question on microphone two, reintroducing Mr. Alcozas.
Sorry, thank you.
We have one more question.
Okay, thank you.
I won't take up too much of your time, Chairman, but I think these points are important. If Sydney has been underperforming, I'd like to ask, how long has the marketing director been on the Board and working on the job? I can understand if it's a short period of time, can be forgiven, but if it's been for one, two, three years, I think that there has to be a resolution that you find some other way and get in a, a new marketing director to improve the numbers coming in to the various facilities. Now, you know, no offense to, to that person, but I think if we've got concerns with revenues and cash flows, you have to make changes. Likewise, in relation to your staff, more training and giving exceptional customer service when people come in to get an exceptional experience.
Word of mouth is the best form of marketing. Doesn't matter how many millions that you decide to spend on television and internet, when people say they've had a great experience with your casinos, with the Star brand, they will come back. Parking, I don't think that that's a greater issue when you have great service. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you again for your, your question. A lot of the issues caused, including, you know, the, decisions made around the Sydney property are, not marketing related. They are, they are decisions made on Capital Expenditure, prioritization, and obviously more recently, the impacts of, of the, proper implementation of regulatory requirements and, and additional regulatory requirements in, in place. But to your point, and absolutely agree, there is a great opportunity to reinvent, the Sydney property and a number of the supporting mechanisms around it. We have made significant changes and, and, initiatives to strengthen the capabilities, within all of our teams, and so we look forward to, to focusing on that, going forward. So appreciate the question.
Well, one last point, Mr. Chairman. I think that Brisbane will be your flagship... and it will be a gateway, not only for Australia, but the rest of the world to see what we've got. And when you have your staff operating on the front foot with that great attitude, you're gonna win. And I think that Robbie, David, I think you guys can do a great job. You've got to hit the floor hard, get together, and make this happen, because it's not an easy job, I get that. Over the next 12 months, two years, you guys can make an incredible change, and I think that the, the share price and your shareholders will see that, but you've got to keep consistent and keep working hard to make that happen. Thank you.
Thank you, and, we're with you on that one, so. So if no further questions from the floor, I'll move on. So items two, three, four, and five relate to the election of directors. As noted in the notice of meeting under the company's constitution, any director who is appointed by the Board may hold office until the end of the next Annual General Meeting following their appointment and is eligible for election at that meeting. This requirement doesn't apply to the Group CEO and Managing Director. There were four directors under consideration for election at this meeting, whose appointment was announced after the last Annual General Meeting. Item 5, which relates to the election of Peter Hodgson as a director, has been withdrawn, as I mentioned earlier, from the business to be considered at this meeting.
This is purely a timing issue, as the required regulatory approvals for Peter's appointment have not fully been received. Peter's election will therefore be put to shareholders at the next AGM. The three directors standing for election at this meeting are myself, Deborah Page, and Tony Thornton. The resolutions relating to the director elections are ordinary resolutions, which require a majority of votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote on the resolution or by their appointed proxy or authorized representatives. Each of the directors, other than the relevant director standing for election, recommends the election of each of the other directors. I turn now to individual directors. At this time of business relates to my election as a director. I'll now hand to my fellow director, Michael Issenberg , to chair this aspect of the meeting.
Good morning. Item two of the agenda relates to the election of David Foster as a director of the company. David joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 15th December 2022, following the receipt of the required regulatory approvals. He is currently the Chairman of the Board, the interim Chairman of the Risk and Compliance Committee, and a member of the Audit Committee, the Remuneration Committee, People Committee, and the Safer Gambling, Governance, and Ethics Committee. Details of David's experience are included in the directors' report section of the annual report. As is customary for directors seeking election, I welcome David to address the shareholders in attendance with a few words.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you regarding my election as a director. I was appointed to the Board on the 15th of December, as Michael said, last year, and then appointed as Chairman on the 31st of March this year. It's been a very challenging year, and there is plenty still to do, involving significant work and involvement from all of your board directors. As a director of The Star, it's not a role for the faint-hearted or those afraid of a challenge and hard work. You deserve and need experienced, highly skilled, hardworking, and committed directors on your board. A little bit about my background. I've spent about 25 years in financial services and have been a Chairman and director for about the last 9 years across a range of industries, including financial services, retail, education, and government.
The experience and skills that I've gained in my prior roles are very relevant in the context of our current job ahead at, here at The Star. These experiences includes turnarounds and transformations, risk and compliance in highly regulated industries, operational improvement and performance, and strategic and financial expertise. With your support, I look forward to continuing to rebuild the company, for all our stakeholders. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Before moving the election of David Foster as director, I now invite shareholders' questions, starting with questions from the floor. I will then respond to any questions received online. For shareholders participating online, please submit your questions or join the queue if you've not done so already. Any questions regarding David's election?
Yes, we have a question on microphone two. Reintroducing Mr. Kingston.
Thank you. David Kingston, Kay Capital. Look, congratulations, Chairman, I think you're doing a good job in difficult circumstances, so certainly support your re-election. I'd just appreciate your personal insights and views on what I believe is a critical issue for Star. There's just no doubt in the past, leave aside regulatory issues, there's no doubt that Star has wasted huge amounts of AUD on excessive refurbishment, ill-thought-through refurbishment, overcapitalization, particularly in Sydney, which is where I live. It's a very poorly run, poorly presented, poorly utilized property. Brisbane's a fantastic site. It will be a world-class facility, something that Australia can be proud of, but it's probably gonna be overcapitalized. It's probably gonna provide a pretty poor return on investment.
We've already had lengthy delays, cost blowouts, and, no doubt, brilliant facility, but probably a bad investment. But I'd just appreciate your insights into a couple of things, Chairman. Your attitude to return on investment. You know, what's the hurdle that you and the company are imposing? Your belief about Sydney. You know, it's concerning to hear today that more work has to be done, repositioning. It's just been an incessant amount of almost gambling on particular refurbs that is happening down there, and, hiding a very poor management in Sydney. We just appreciate your insights into that. Bearing in mind that, as has been said today, these are not just casinos. You've got 2,800 hotel rooms. They're integrated entertainment complexes. Got a huge amount of restaurants, bars, huge land footprints.
And really, it's so disappointing to see that the market cap today is a mere AUD 100 million higher than what has been raised in the last year. two questions to you, Chairman-elect. What is the ROI hurdle that you're satisfied with, having been entrusted with shareholders' money, and a lot of it? But secondly, Star does seem to me to be a company that would better rehabilitated under private ownership. Would you have an open mind if private equity or another casino operator approached Star to buy it out? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. Thank you for your questions and comments. I just would reiterate one point again, that I've made a few times. It is a different operating environment that we exist today, both from a type of customer, economic conditions, and the regulatory environment, obviously, which, as I said, is in two parts. One, appropriate application of existing standards and rules, and thirdly, a number of additional enhancements that have been, which will position Australia as a leading AML and safer gaming regulatory overlay globally, we believe. I certainly can't make too much comment, as I mentioned before, on some of the decisions made historically around New South Wales, but again, we do think it is a good location.
It has plenty of capacity in terms of space and a number of opportunities to continue to enhance and reinvent that proposition over time. And as you rightly point out, Queensland is an incredibly exciting development here in Brisbane. It's something that globally probably hasn't been done before in terms of such a fantastic venue. The range of food and beverage, hotels, entertainment, conferencing, and of course, the gaming, which is, as I mentioned earlier, a smaller part of the footprint.
There is a lot of demand there, whether it be, perhaps you don't know Brisbane as well, but Eagle Street is completely floored, so there's a shortage of premium restaurants and a range of restaurants in Brisbane, and shortages for hotel rooms and quality hotel rooms that will be delivered to market, and it'll be the second-largest conferencing venue in Queensland. So, we are excited about the prospect of that. Obviously, we get the start from the Treasury transfer, but that's a business that we are confident we can build over time to be very successful.
On your last two points, certainly return on capital and return on investment are certainly key metrics that all of your board and your CEO are ultimately focused on. Our priority is very clearly, at the moment, focused on remediation and returning to suitability, which from a shareholder return point of view, we believe will drive the biggest uplift in the near term. But our design of particularly the long-term incentive program does focus on that in the near term, but I think you will see in upcoming board meeting, AGM meetings in the next year or two, we will evolve that into more traditional metrics, which will certainly prioritize areas such as return on capital.
So your point's well made, and certainly, I'm not here to guesstimate or speculate on any inorganic activity for the company. Our focus is clearly focused on operationally improving and returning our licenses to suitability, which will drive significant value for the shareholders. So I'm not gonna speculate about that. We're very focused on the job at hand.
As I see, no further questions on the floor. I will now take questions from shareholders who have sent in written questions online. Moderator, do we have any questions online?
Director, there are no questions online.
Since there are no more questions online, I will now take online audio questions. Moderator, do we have any questions online?
No audio questions.
Thank you. As there appear to be no more questions, I now put the motion to approve Item two, that David Foster be elected director of the company. I confirm that the Board is fully supportive of the election of David Foster as a director. Details of valid proxies and direct votes in respect of this item of business are set out on the screen or will be shortly. Yep, there they are. If you've not already done so, please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset. I will now hand back to the Chairman. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. I'll now turn to item three, which is the election of Deborah Page as a director. Details of Deborah's experience are also included in the directors' report section of the annual report. Deborah is currently Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee, as well as the Safer Gaming, Governance, and Ethics Committee. So I'd like to welcome Deborah to say a few words.
Thank you, Chairman. And welcome, everyone, for coming today and being with us at this AGM. I've been on the Board for only around seven months, and during that time, as David mentioned, I've chaired the Audit Committee. Mr. Timmons, you asked us to make a comment about a significant contribution that we're bringing to the Board. One of the things I'm particularly focused on is achieving a significant uplift in our internal audit and assurance capabilities here in the business. But most importantly, linking the outcomes of those internal audit and assurance activities to executive accountability. So that is something that I'm very focused on. Many people have asked me why I would join the Board of a company at such a difficult and challenging time.
The answer is simple: because the shareholders and staff of The Star deserve some experienced directors to step up and take on the challenge of stabilizing the company, striving to right the wrongs of the past, and establishing a company that unerringly complies with the law and provides safe and enjoyable entertainment experiences. The details of my executive career and subsequent more than 20 years as a Non-Executive Director are outlined in the notice of meeting, so I won't repeat them, other than to say, the role I play on this board is founded on a background of senior management, finance, and audit expertise, together with extensive governance leadership across a range of industry sectors.
I thank my fellow directors for nominating me as a director, and consider it a privilege to serve on this board with a group of courageous people, all focused on restoring The Star to a suitable and sustainable business. I hope you will support my election. Thank you.
So, just moving before the election of Deborah Page as a director, I'd now invite any questions, starting with questions from the floor.
Mr. Chairman, we have a question. Reintroducing Mr. Kingston.
Thank you. Hi, Deborah. We met,
Hi
At the Pendal extraordinary meeting to approve a merger. Deborah did a great job there of shareholder value. She negotiated an excellent deal with, Perpetual taking over Pendal, at a fantastic price for the Pendal shareholders. Terrible price for Perpetual, which has suffered, but, great negotiations. So Deborah has two qualifications which I would endorse. Number one, she's had the preparedness to negotiate an exit transaction, which necessarily meant her own job as chair of Pendal ceased after the merger, but brilliant effort in optimizing shareholder value at Pendal. Well done. Secondly, having run a, been chairwoman of major funds management operation, you would be well aware that shareholders, institutional, are focused heavily, heavily, heavily on shareholder value. Now, I appreciate there is a remediation task, Mr. Chairman, because clearly, if the licenses were lost, value would be lost.
But I'd, I really do ask the Board to not be hamstrung on that. You have to be proactive. You have to be positive on the magnificent assets you control. You have to breed a sense of confidence in the team that we can do it. I'm really concerned that you're becoming hamstrung on a paranoia about compliance and, and, and all those things, which I appreciate are important, but I think we can, as the saying goes, walk and chew gum at the same time. So I, I do ask Deborah and the Board to please be proactive and, don't be hamstrung by the, the legislative compliance constraints. But Deborah, I think you're an excellent choice because you've demonstrated, unlike a lot of management, sometimes are reluctant to sell a company because they lose their jobs, but you did a great job.
Well done. But secondly, being a funds manager, I think you can well endorse at board level the critical importance for shareholders of getting that share price up, 'cause there's only two returns to shareholders. Number one, a dividend, that's canceled for the long run. And secondly, share price. Now, at the moment, shareholders are getting loss after loss. But as an ex-funds manager, I hope you can drive home to the Board and the management team that the share price has to rise. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, David.
Any further questions from the floor?
Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have another question. Reintroducing Mr. Alcozas.
Mr. Chairman, after the AGM concludes, will you and the entire board meet the shareholders in the foyer for conversation over a coffee and a sandwich?
Yes, I've mentioned that at the start, that both us and the broader management team, and I'll certainly be looking forward to a coffee when I get there.
Well, that's wonderful.
Yeah.
Because I'm reasking the question because that was posed at an ANZ board meeting and recently at Qantas, and we said... They said yes, positively, and then they scurried and cowardly left without a word to anybody or the shareholders. So thank you for confirming.
Thank you. Any further questions from the floor?
We have one final question, Mr. Chairman. Reintroducing Mr. Timmons.
Lo ok, I have no question for Mrs. Page. The only thing I have question is: how the hell do I use this voting device? I'm an old man, and the buttons are all flashing at me.
I'm sure someone on the staff will-
I know that my vote won't make any difference-
Yeah.
To the final result, but please, let's go back to the red and green tickets at pass. Thank you.
Thank you. Someone will be there to help you now. So, any further questions from the floor? All right, we'll go online. Any questions online?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Audio?
No audio questions.
All right, great. Thank you. As there appear to be no further comments or questions, I now put the motion to approve item 3, that Deborah Page be elected as a director of the company. I do confirm that the Board fully supports the election of Deborah as a director. Details of valid proxies and direct votes in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. If you have not already done so, please place your vote either online or via your Lumi handset. Hopefully it works. I'll just give you a moment to do that. I'll now turn to item 4, which is the election of Toni Thornton as a director. Details of Toni's experience are also included, in this case, in the notice of meeting.
Toni is currently a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee, the People and Remuneration Committee, as well as the Safer Gaming, Governance, and Ethics Committee. I'd like to welcome Toni to say a few words.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, everyone. My proposed appointment to the Board was announced on the first of November in twenty twenty-two. I've been an observer since then until my regulatory approvals came through, which was the seventeenth of October in twenty twenty-three. As David mentioned, I'm a member of a number of the committees, and I'm chair of the Compliance Committee for each of our casino properties. Property-based compliance being one of the key pillars of the Remediation Program. I have 15 years of corporate finance and strategic advisory experience, previously with JBWere, Goldman Sachs, National Australia Bank. From these previous roles, I've gained deep experience with regulated industries, including energy, financial services, and education. I also have a strong financial background and diverse enterprise risk management experience, including a Masters of Law in Enterprise Governance.
I have 13 years' experience in audit at board level and board experience in ASX-listed companies. The Star is currently facing a very difficult set of challenges, and I'm committed to the business and the Star team. Mr. Shareholder, you asked what we're all most proud of as our contribution to the Board, and I'm incredibly encouraged by the quality of the people around the table contributing to the business turnaround and regaining the trust and confidence of stakeholders. Our appointment of this team and our support of them would be what I'm most proud of, because they're the ones that are putting on the work boots each day to face what has been very challenging conditions. I thank my fellow directors for supporting me as a director and consider it a privilege alongside Deb. I echo her words to be part of this dedicated group of directors.
With your support, I look forward to continuing to play a role in the transformation of your company. Thank you.
Before moving to the election of Toni Thornton as a director, I now invite shareholder questions, starting with any questions from the floor.
Mr. Chairman, we have a question. I'm reintroducing Mr. Kingston, a shareholder.
Mr. Kingston, I just ask, in the interest of time, that if you have a specific question, that would be appreciated, and happy to have some discussion offline with discussions around broader issues. But, if you could keep it to the matter of business at hand, please.
That's fine, Chairman. Look, you've obviously got excellent experience, and I'm sure you can make a major contribution to the Board in terms of compliance, governance, and all those things. My question, Chairman, to the director up for election is: I'd just like to hear, on the positive front, what your ideas are to improve the revenue of Star? Because part of the problem is revenue, and we've talked a lot today about compliance and preserving the license, which is critical. But what's the Board, and particularly yourself up for election, what are your ideas about revenue enhancement? Thank you.
Before Toni makes any comment that she may like to, I think I did cover this broadly earlier, that, unashamedly and importantly, our focus is on returning to suitability and getting our licenses back. That will drive maximum shareholder value. We certainly identify a number of opportunities across the various properties, and we'll look again, as I mentioned before, potentially supplementing the skills on the Board in the coming year or so to balance that. But, having done a number of the things to ensure the sustainability of the business going forward, that's certainly a key focus for our attention going forward. But, is there anything specific you want to add, Toni?
Thank you, Chair. I think, as David mentioned, the key pillars of business have been an absolute focus and priority of the Board. On a go-forward basis, it is our absolute intent to spend inordinate amounts of time on the integration of the entertainment precincts that we preside over. It's an incredibly important part of why we sit here. And certainly, the assets that we look after have enormous potential to help drive through some very p ositive, hospitality venues for everyone to enjoy. So, I'm very keen to focus on that at board level.
Thanks, Toni. Any further questions from the floor?
Mr. Chairman, reintroducing Mr. Alcozas.
Okay.
I promise this is the last point. I'd like to congratulate you, Chairman, and the Board. The balance that we see up on the Board. You have five magnificent women to three fine gentlemen. I'd like to congratulate you on that point nationally. I think that Australia will be very proud of you. Congratulations.
Thanks for your comment. We are fortunate to have been able to attract highly skilled and experienced directors, and I must, Michael, essentially, was the only director currently engaged who was part of and responsible for that process. So, I'll pass your thanks to Michael. But, any other questions from the room? If not, any questions online?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
Okay, great. As there appears to be no further questions, I now put the motion to approve item four, that Toni Thornton be elected as a director of the company. I confirm that the Board fully supports the election of Toni as the director, and details of valid proxies and direct votes in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. If you've not already done so, please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset. So I'll now move to item five, which, as I mentioned earlier, item five, which relates to the election of Peter Hodgson, has been withdrawn. Items six to eight relate to the remuneration report and grant of equity incentives to the group CEO and Managing Director.
As set out in the notice of meeting, there are voting restrictions applicable to these items. Votes cast by relevant key management personnel or those closely related parties will be disregarded unless they are holding directed proxies. As indicated in the notice of meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of items six, seven, and eight. Turning to item six, this item of business is the advisory resolution to adopt the company remuneration report in respect to the year ended 30 June 2023. The shareholder vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. However, I will now take questions regarding the remuneration report, starting with any questions in the room.
Dear Chairman, we'd like to introduce Steve McCann.
Just want to acknowledge that you didn't pay any short-term or long-term incentives in FY 2023, so appreciate the Board not using any discretion there. Question going forward for the long-term incentives. So, in FY 2024, I know you're planning to revise LTI so that it's awarded based on shareholder return, and then I think 30% based on retaining the license. Historically, you had earnings per share growth and return on invested capital as measures that were tied to the long-term incentive, which are, you know, normally aligned with shareholders. Just like to ask you, Michael, you know, any intentions to revisit that measure beyond FY 2024, something that's really aligned with shareholders and might help see an increase in the value of the company?
Yes. I mean, these are extraordinary times, and we felt that it was important that the key focus, as David has mentioned a number of times, is on returning to suitability, and that's why we set out the LTI the way we have. We certainly... I would suggest next year and the year after, that we'll continue to reexamine the LTI, and we'll have to adapt as the circumstances change. But can't predict that, but that's certainly the intention.
Thank you. Any further questions in the room?
Mr. Chairman, reintroducing Mr. Alcozas.
Promise this is the last one.
I think I've heard that before.
I'm so sorry. My apologies. Mr. Chairman, would you and the Board consider potentially having a customer committee and having Roman, myself, and others be invited to any of those discussions?
Well, I think Robbie made comment before that he thought the suggestion around property-based customer committees was a good idea, and we'll take that on board to consider. So thank you again for raising it.
Oh, I'm happy to pass on my details. No problem.
Thank you. Any other questions from the floor?
Yeah, I'm still going crazy with this, so ignore my votes.
I'm sure we'll try... Oops, excuse me. Try again to help you with that. Thank you. Any online questions?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
All right, thank you. It appears as if there's no more questions, so I now move that the remuneration report in respect to the financial year ended 30 June 2023 be adopted. the Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of adopting the remuneration report in respect to the year ended 30 June 2023. Details of the valid proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. So if you haven't already voted, please do so. Please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset. I will make mention that while the final results will be determined by the poll at the end of the meeting, based on votes received to date, it does appear that less than 25% of votes validly cast against the resolution to adopt the remuneration report.
This, therefore, means the company will not receive a second strike on the remuneration report. So I'll now move on to item 7, which is the one-off retention equity grant of service rights to Mr. Robbie Cooke. The notice of meeting contains significant detail about the one-off grant of 1,506,276 service rights, which equates into value of AUD 1.44 million, with vesting to occur over a three-year period commencing on 1 July 2024. We do acknowledge that this is a little unusual and certainly not typical, but as Robbie and Michael mentioned, it is unusual times that the company is in.
So after careful consideration, your board concluded that the engagement and retention of the Group CEO and Managing Director was key to the stability of the Star's leadership, as the new board and leadership team address the commercial and regulatory challenges ahead. Leadership and team stability are absolutely critical. I'll now take questions on this proposal, from the floor.
Dear Chairman, I just want to reintroduce Steve McCann.
Thank you.
Yeah, look, I understand the comments, David. Generally, ASA is opposed to one-off retention grants without any hurdles in particular. From our assessment, Robbie stands to earn AUD 4.1 million this year for on-track performance, or AUD 4.6 million for outperformance between STI and LTI. I understand you got a lot going on, and you're not sure about that, and that you want to retain him. But, is there any reason why we wouldn't attach any hurdles to the retention grant if you think that that's an important factor to keep him in the business?
Yeah, thank you for your question, and as I made comment, it was something that we did discuss and debate quite broadly. But you know, the overarching decision was the criticality of retaining the stability and the team that is put in place to deliver the turnaround for the company. From a little bit of history point of view, and again, it is just factual rather than a view, that there has not been STI and LTA payments for some years, which is valid.
And in the case of Robbie, as with other shareholders, his sign-on grant that was provided, which was a make-good for previous entitlements from his previous employer, certainly have, at this point in time, relatively low prospects of doing so. The aggregate remuneration opportunity is quite different today than it was 12 months ago or so. But as I said, the main reason, and again, it is something very unusual, it's not something the Board would normally entertain, but the criticality for this period of stability, cohesion, and focus for that leadership team is critical. And hence, with the indulgence of the shareholders, we have put it forward.
But, again, it's not something that we would typically do, but circumstances are quite unique, so appreciate your comment. Any further questions on the floor? Any questions online?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Okay, any questions, audio questions?
No audio questions.
All right. Great. Thank you. As there appear to be no more questions, I put that resolution that approval be given to the grant of 1,506,276 service rights under a one-off retention equity grant, equivalent in value to AUD 1.44 million to the Group CEO and Managing Director, Robbie Cooke, on the basis described in the notice of meeting. The directors, other than Mr. Cooke, recommend the shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Details of valid proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. So if you have not already done so, please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset. So I'll now move to item 8, which is the FY 2024 long-term incentive award to Mr.
Robbie Cooke under the company's long-term incentive plan. It's proposed that shareholders approve the grant of to Robbie Cooke of a long-term incentive award equivalent to AUD 1.6 million in the form of performance rights, equivalent to the value of AUD 1.20 million, and premium exercise price options equivalent to AUD 480,000. The notice of meeting contains significant detail about the performance rights and the premium exercise priced options proposed to be granted to Robbie Cooke under the company's long-term incentive plan. The performance hurdle for the performance rights has been simplified to a single metric, being total shareholder return, measured against the constituents of the S&P/ASX 200 index , excluding companies which have unique sector characteristics, such as technology and resource companies.
The grant of the premium exercise options of 30% of the LTI further reinforces our focus on incentivizing management based on delivery of growth in the shareholder value. The premium exercise price, set at 150% of the share price at grant, is designed that unless the share price exceeds premium option price by the fourth anniversary of the grant, no incentive will be paid. But critically, we must regain our licenses in both New South Wales and Queensland for the options to vest. And as I've mentioned a few times, return of licenses is probably the biggest driver of shareholder value in the short to medium term and removes significant risk and uncertainty for the company. So I will now take some questions from the floor, if anyone has anything in respect to this resolution.
All right, doesn't look like we have any from the floor. Is there any online?
Chairman, there are no online questions.
Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
All right. Thank you. As there appears to be no more questions, I now put the resolution and approval be given to the grant of long-term incentive award, equivalent to the value of AUD 1.6 million, to the Group CEO and Managing Director, Robbie Cooke, under the long-term performance plan and on the basis described in the notice of meeting. The directors, other than Mr. Cooke, recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution.... Details of the valid proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item business are set out on the screen. If you haven't already done so, please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset. Moving on to Item nine.
The next item of business relates to the proposed ratification of the issue of 95,458,141 newly paid ordinary shares in the capital of the company that were issued under a placement announced on the twenty-third of February, 2023, for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and all other purposes. The notice of meeting contains significant detail in relation to the relevant placement and the ratification of the shares issued pursuant to it for purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and all other purposes. I'll certainly now take questions from the floor relating to this resolution. Just no questions? Any questions online?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
All right. Thank you. So if there's no further questions, I now put the resolution that approval be given for ratification of shares issued as part of the placement announced by the company February 23, for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and all other purposes. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution, and details of valid proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item are now set out on the screen. And again, if you haven't already done so, please place your vote online or via the Lumi handset. So moving to Item 10.
The next item of business, which relates to the proposed ratification of the issue of 268,981,286 new fully paid shares in the capital of the company, that were issued under a placement announced on the 25th of September 2023, for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes. Again, the notice of meeting contains significant detail in relation to this relevant placement and the ratification of shares issued pursuant to it, for the purposes of Listing Rule 2.4 and all other purposes. So I'll now take any questions relating to this resolution from the floor.
Chairman, this gives you the ability, if it's passed, to yet again go to the trough yet again tap shareholders for more money. I just think every shareholder here would like to have the assurance of the Chairman and Robbie, that under no circumstances will you be going back to the market to raise further equity capital and to further dilute the shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you for your question, and I think we did cover a little bit further. We obviously did a large exercise to determine the right mix for this and did take into account all known and a number of unknown things into the calculation. But, I would be a... Well, I could probably be a very wealthy person if I could predict the future, but, I can't guarantee that, but it's certainly not in our horizon, and, and we have no intention at this point to need to raise capital based on what we know today. Thank you. Any other questions from the floor? Any questions online?
Chairman, there are no questions online.
Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
Thank you. So as there appears to be no more questions, I now put the resolution that approval be given to the ratification of shares issued as a part of the placement announced by company in September 2023, for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and all other purposes. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. So details of the proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. So if you have not already done so, please place your vote either online or using the Lumi handset. Thank you.
So I'll now move to Item 11, which is seeking approval for the reinstatement of proportional takeover provisions, contained in the constitution of the company, on the same terms as previously contained in Clause 79 of the Constitution of the Company. The reasons for the reinstatement of the proportional takeover provisions in the constitution are set out in detail in the notice of meeting. I note that the renewal of these provisions contained in the company's constitution was last voted upon at the 2020 AGM, with a vote of 98.74% in favor. So I'll now open the floor to questions. Are there any questions from the floor? It doesn't appear any questions on the floor, so any online questions?
Chairman, no questions online.
Thank you. Any audio questions?
No audio questions.
Looks like there might be one now on the floor.
Introducing Mr. Timmons.
Yeah, just a minor point. This, where we're voting now, it shows how we've voted. Does anybody have access to our, what we've actually voted?
Well, well-
This is, this is recorded electronically, but how I voted. Can anybody access how I voted? You know, can I access the records?
I mean, certainly the outcome of your votes will be, votes will be aggregated, but, I've-
No, no, but my individual vote.
No, I understand. Do you know the answer to that, Jenny, at all? Or, we'll find out in time and circle back with you, but I honestly don't know.
Because if they do, it's an invasion of our privacy, you know. So that's all I'm saying is, you know, we don't want other people knowing exactly how we've voted necessarily, so-
Yeah, look, it's certainly not something we disclose in terms of individual voting outcomes.
We'll follow up the technical question for you.
Okay.
Thank you. Any other questions? If not, given that there's no more questions, I now put the resolution to approve item 11, that rule 79 of the company's constitution is reinstated in accordance with Part 6.5 of the Corporations Act for a period of 3 years, commencing on the date that this resolution is passed. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. So details of valid proxies and direct votes received in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. So if you haven't already done so, please place your vote either online or via the Lumi handset.
So with that, I will just give you a couple of minutes, but now we'll close the poll items from items two to 11, and results will be displayed on the screen imminently. The last item of business... So I'll just pause for a moment. How long do we need to do that? All right. If you can just bear with us, a couple of minutes, until we tally those. Thank you. And Mr. Timmons, just while we're waiting, I have got confirmation that no one will be able to see your individual vote. You can see the summary outcomes of the aggregate voting position, including the polls on the screen. And as you will note, the last item 12 in the notice of meeting related to the conditional Spill Resolution.
As mentioned earlier, based on the number of valid proxies and direct votes received, it appears that less than 25% of the votes validly cast on item 6 were cast against the resolution to adopt the remuneration report, which means the company will not receive a second strike, as I mentioned earlier. Given that the company did not receive a second strike, the conditional spill resolution in item 12 will not be put to the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have dealt with all of the items of business in the notice of meeting, and so I certainly appreciate you joining us today, and for your constructive and useful questions and comments and engagement with us during the course of the meetings.
For shareholders who are online, you can continue to submit your votes for a period of time after the meeting is closed. On behalf of the Board and management, thank you for everyone who attended this meeting in person or online. Thank you also for those that engaged with us, as I mentioned, by submitting questions in advance and during the meeting. For all attendees in the theater, I do invite you to stay and join me, my fellow directors and members of the executive management team for refreshments in the foyer of the Event Centre . There will be staff members also available to assist you with directions. I now declare the 2023 AGM closed. Thank you for your attendance.