Good morning, and welcome to the Capital Limited Annual General Meeting. Throughout this recorded meeting, attendees will be in listen-only mode. I'd now like to hand you over to Jamie Boyton, the Chairman. Good morning to you, sir.
Good morning. Thank you very much. Welcome to everyone that's dialed in today to Capital's annual general meeting. Thank you very much for dialing in. I will just give a brief overview of the agenda today and really what we're going to focus on is a quick run-through of some overview slides, which includes our outlook statement. We're then going to hand over to Catherine Apthorpe, our Company Secretary, and Catherine will go through the results of the voting, and we'll then hand over to a Q&A session. Just for your reference, you're likely to hear from, or obviously hear from myself today, Catherine. With me is Peter Stokes, our CEO, Rick Robson, our CFO, and Connor Rowley, our Corporate Development and Investor Relations.
It'll be a combination of us depending on the questions that we field today. A brief introduction to Capital for those that aren't familiar with us. Obviously we are an integrated multi-disciplined service provider to mineral exploration, development, and mining companies across Africa, the Middle East, with a growing presence in Canada. The service verticals, the main three service verticals are the drilling business, which is the foundation of Capital, where we operate around 125 rigs in Africa and the Middle East, making us the largest service or drilling company in the region. Mining, a newer business initiative for us, and we've operated two projects both in Africa and Ivory Coast and Egypt. That's an earthmoving business.
MSALABS, which is our very rapid growth geochem testing business, that is focused global in nature with a very strong presence in Africa and Canada and going through a very rapid growth phase, 75% revenue growth year-on-year. Very strong growth there. Our investment portfolio, which is focused exclusively at this stage on investments and exploration of mining companies that are focused in Africa. The fifth pillar of our business is our newly created innovation division. It's been established since Peter came on board, which is in October of last year, it's really been designed to put some structure around how we're approaching new technologies and how we can bring them into our business.
The genesis of that was obviously what we did with the Chrysos technology, which has been very successful for our laboratory business. WellForce, our downhole survey business. More recently, Minepower Solutions, remote power solutions business, which we're looking at getting off the ground. They're the five key pillars to the business. We provide services across the mining cycle, all the way from exploration, into production and processing. We're an end-to-end service provider. We have a focus on tier one projects, meaning long life assets with low cost of production, growth prospects, and owned by top-tier customers. We have a business model to establish infrastructure at our customers' operations and grow our service offering, leveraging that infrastructure.
The focus on long-term contracts and about 90% of the group's revenue is derived from the services and activities that we provide at the mine sites. The most recent update that we provided to the market was obviously the Q1 trading update, where we showed very strong growth in our Q1 revenue, 16% higher than Q1 of last year. That growth has come predominantly from continued performance of our drilling business. Particularly pleasing to see an increase in the ARPU of the drilling business as we rationalize the portfolio in the H2 of last year and have seen an improved performance on the remaining core portfolio and then continued rapid growth in our laboratory business.
The mining business, which is the contract we're currently operating at Sukari, continues to perform very well, providing a very good platform across all three of the operating businesses. Reiterating our outlook and guidance. We're guiding this year the revenue of $320 million-$340 million, which is, as you can see, a very strong increase in that bottom right chart from $115 million in 2019 when we were predominantly almost exclusively a drilling business. The revenue contribution from our non-drilling activities or from our mining and laboratory activities moving in the high 20%, so we're very pleased with the growth there. Within that revenue guidance, we're guiding the laboratory business to contribute $40 million-$50 million this year with CapEx guidance of $50 million-$60 million.
These guidance numbers are consistent with the previous guidance numbers that we've given the market. We are continuing to operate in extremely buoyant and supportive conditions. The portfolio of contracts on which we're working is as robust and strong as I've seen it in the company's history, providing a lot of growth opportunities, not only within the existing platform and of projects, but also new tendering opportunities. A very brief introduction. On that note, I'll hand over to Catherine to run through the resolutions, please.
Thank you. The meeting has been convened to consider 12 resolutions. Resolutions 13 and 14 are special resolutions, which require 75% or more of the votes cast for the motion to be carried. All other resolutions are ordinary resolutions and will be passed if more than 50% of the votes cast are in favor. The business of the meeting is confined to the consideration of the resolutions contained in the notice of the meeting dated 13th of April, 2023. If there are no objections, I propose taking the notices read. It is intended that voting on all resolutions at this meeting will be conducted on a poll rather than a show of hands. A poll reflects the number of voting rights exercisable by each shareholder, the board considers it to be a more democratic method of voting.
A poll also ensures that the votes of shareholders who have appointed proxies are taken into account in the final voting results. I hereby call a poll in respect of all the resolutions. As it will take some time to complete the co-poll procedure, the final results of the voting, including the proxy votes on the resolutions, will be announced through our Regulatory News Service and published on our website as soon as reasonably practicable. Shareholders are presented with three options for each resolution. You can vote for the proposed resolution, against the proposed resolution, or you may withhold your vote. A vote withheld is not a vote in law, which means that the vote will not be counted in the calculation of votes for or against the resolution. If no voting indication is given, your proxy will vote or abstain from voting at his or her discretion.
Your proxy will vote or abstain from voting as he or she thinks fit in relation to any other matter which is put before the meeting. We will now proceed to vote on resolutions which were formally proposed at the meeting. The full text of the resolutions is set out in the notice. Resolution one. 1st resolution is an ordinary resolution to receive and adopt the director's report and accounts and the auditor's report for the year ended 31st of December, 2022. Prior to putting the 1st resolution to the meeting, I would draw your attention to the following proxies received by the company in relation to the resolution. Total votes, 151,450,846, which is 78.6% of the current issued share capital.
For 151,450,846, which is 100% of the votes cast. Against, 0. Votes withheld, 1,467,153. I now propose that the director's report and accounts, auditor's report be received and adopted. Will you please vote now. I declare the poll closed. As mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, it will take some time to complete the poll procedure. Therefore, the results of the poll will be announced through our Regulatory News Service and posted on the company's website as soon as practicable. Second resolution, ordinary resolution to receive and approve the directors' remuneration report for the year ended 31st of December, 2022. I'd like to draw your attention to the following proxies received by the company in relation to the resolution.
The total votes was 151,417,999, which is 78.2% of the current issued share capital. Votes in favor, 149,242,899, which was 98.56% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, 2,175,100, which was 1.44% of the votes cast by proxy. Votes withheld, 1,500,000. I propose that the directors' remuneration report be received and approved. Will you please vote now. I declare the poll closed. The results of the poll will be announced through our Regulatory News Service after the meeting.
Resolutions three to nine are ordinary resolutions to re-elect all directors of the company, being Alex Davidson, David Avery, Michael Rawlinson, Jamie Boyton, Peter Stokes, Brian Rudd, and Kathy Fox. Prior to putting resolutions three to nine to the meeting, I would like to draw your attention to the following proxies received by the company in relation to each resolution. Resolution three, Alex Davidson. Total votes, 139,675,610, which is 72% of the current issued share capital. Votes in favor, 99,200,912, which is 71.03% of the votes cast. Against, 40,464,698, which is 28.9% of the votes cast by proxy.
Withheld, 13,242,300. Resolution four, David Avery. Total votes, 151,417,999. That's 78.7% of the current issued share capital. Votes in favor were 130,708,429, which is 86.32% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, 20,709,570, which is 13.68% of the votes cast. Votes withheld, 1,500,000. Resolution five, Michael Rawlinson. Total votes were 152,917,999, which is 78.9% of the current issued share capital.
Votes in favor were 145,879,275. That's 95.6% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, 7,038,724, which is 4.6% of the votes cast by proxy. No votes withheld. Next resolution, Jamie Boyton. Total votes were 152,917,999, which was 78.9% of the current issued share capital. Votes in favor were 145,042,253, which is 94.85% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, 7,875,736, which was 5.15% of the votes cast by proxy, with no votes withheld. Next resolution, Peter Stokes.
152,917,999, which is 78.9% of the issued share capital. That's for the total vote. Votes in favor, 152,764,979, which is 99.9% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, it was 153,020, which is 0.1% of the votes cast by proxy, and no votes withheld. Next resolution, Brian Rudd. Total votes, 151,417,999, which is 78.17% of the current issued share capital.
Votes in favor, 151,216,847, which is 99.87% of the votes cast by proxy. Against, 201,152, which is 0.13% of the votes cast by proxy. 1,500,000 votes withheld. Resolution nine, Catherine Fox. Total votes, 151,642,999, which is 78.29% of the issued share capital. Votes in favor, 147,210,052, which is 97.08% of the votes cast by proxy.
4,077,350, which is 2.2% of the votes cast by proxy, and 1,275,000 votes withheld. I now propose that each of the directors stated above be re-elected as a director of the company. Will you please vote on each resolution now? I declare the poll closed. The results of the poll will be announced through our Regulatory News Service and posted on the company's website as soon as practical. Resolution 10. Tenth resolution is an ordinary resolution to re-appoint BDO as auditor. Prior to this resolution, I would like to draw your attention to the following proxies. Total votes, 152,917,999, which is 78.9% of the current issued share capital.
Votes in favor, 151,308,629, which is 98.95% votes cast. Against, 1,609,370, which is 1.05% of the votes cast, and 0 votes withheld. I now propose that BDO be reappointed as auditor of the company. Will you please vote now? I declare the poll closed. The results of the poll will be announced through our Regulatory News Service and posted on the company's website as soon as practical. Eleventh resolution is an ordinary resolution to authorize the directors to agree the auditor's remuneration. Following proxies received, our total votes, 152,917,299, which is 78.9% of the issued share capital.
Votes in favor, 151,308,629, which is 98.95% of the votes cast. Against, 1,609,370, which is 1.05% of the votes cast, with no votes withheld. I now propose that directors to agree the auditor's remuneration. Will you please vote now? I declare the poll closed. The results of the poll will be announced through our Regulatory News Service. Resolution 12 is seeking to grant authority to allot and issue common shares up to 30% of the issued share capital. Votes to be 52,096,799.
We might have lost you there.
Yeah, Catherine, if we could just ask you to continue via the dial-in, that'd be great.
$68,100 [inaudible].
Hi, Catherine. If we could just get you to continue speaking through the speaker phone, that'd be great.
The results of the poll will be announced afterwards. Resolution 13. Special resolution relating to authorizing the board of directors to issue shares for cash without shares first being offered to existing shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings. The full wording of this resolution is set out in the notice. Vote in from the proxy. Total votes, 152,960,999, which is 78.95% of the issued share capital. Votes for, 150,452,729, which is 98.39% of the votes. Against, 2,464,270, which is 1.61% of the votes cast. Votes withheld, 1,000. I now propose that the resolution is passed.
Will you please vote now? I declare the poll closed. Results of the poll will be announced afterward. Final resolution. Resolution 14. Special resolution to authorize the directors of the company to make market purchases of the common shares of the company. Full details are set out in the AGM notice. Proxy votes in, 152,047,543, which is 78.5% of the issued share capital. Votes in favor, 150,772,543, which is 99.16 votes. Against, 1,275,000, which is 0.84% of the votes cast. Votes withheld, 870,456. I now propose this resolution be passed. Will you please vote now? I declare the poll closed.
We will make a further announcement of all final results of the meeting to the market through our regulatory information service and posted on our website as soon as practical. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the voting. That is it from me. I will now pass you over to Peter Stokes, our CEO.
Thanks, Cat. Now I think we're ready to take questions. I think there are a couple posted already. I'll just give people opportunity to post any questions they might have, on the chat.
Peter, do you want me to kick off answering some of the ones that have come in?
There's one.
Well, there were a few questions that came in prior to the meeting, so I'll just tackle those if you like, before while the other ones appear on this platform. The first one was a question that we have had before, specifically focusing on buybacks and the company's stance on buybacks, looking at reference to our share price versus our NAV. Our response to that would be that obviously, we first off that we did engage in a buyback early 2022. A limited buyback, I might add. While we see and will continue to consider all options, naturally it's about. It's a capital allocation model that really has got to look at a number of factors, and that is not just the obviously accretiveness of a short-term buyback.
Where you've seen in the last couple of years is the company has significantly increased the breadth and depth of its portfolio of customers that we are working with. We've had. Really, our primary focus is capital allocation toward building that portfolio. Noting some of our contracts, the likes of Sukari and Geita, we've been on those sites approaching 20 years. The projects that we have been allocating capital to in recent years, the lab business itself, but also projects like Reko Diq and Belinga Iron Ore, these have the potential to turn into 20-year type of contracts. Really, it's a balancing for us. Obviously, the short-term impact of a buyback versus the long-term impact of allocating capital to projects that are going to give us those long duration assets. That's. Hopefully, that covers that topic.
The second question that has been raised is just whether we would, with the investment portfolio, questioning whether we get value for that within the business and whether we'd look at distributing it. The answer to that is no, we wouldn't consider distributing it. Two reasons for that. Primarily, number one is that many of these stakes are strategic in nature, and therefore obviously distributed in the hands of individual shareholders. The strategic value of that stake wouldn't remain. Secondly, the most of the positions we hold are in ASX companies, and most of our register is UK funds that can't hold with ASX equities. So obviously, that would negate the logic of doing that. What we will continue to do, however, is to look to recycle capital, and to maximize the performance of that portfolio.
The third question we're being asked about is more specific. We made a release recently about the pending potential IPO of Allied Gold. We're getting rather direct questions on what our intentions are, which look, we wouldn't flag to the market in any of our holdings what our intentions are ahead of time. I think the most pertinent thing to do is probably just to reiterate what our investment strategy is. We are investors in early stage companies in respect to the development of those companies. Now, early stage is a broad definition. It can
To give you some live examples, we have, in one instance, used our network of geologists to actually source properties, package them up and put them, vend them into an ASX company, so very early stage. That example is WIA Gold, who just this week announced a maiden resource of 1.3 million ounces in Namibia. We're also early stage in that we'll look and assess companies' portfolios where we think there's a lot of potential. The most successful example of that has been Predictive Discovery, where we looked at their Ghanaian assets and thought they had a lot of potential, and that is now a 4.3 million ounce ore body. Golden Rim Resources is another where we've had that type of success. Early stage can also mean corporate early stage.
In the case of Mali Lithium, we provided a bridging facility and that company has gone through iterations and now the majority of that value now resides in Leo Lithium. Allied, the case in point, where we provided bridge financing for them to purchase their first gold mine, and they've since subsequently grown the business very successfully. The criteria in which we make the investments is early stages, as I said, where we can add value as both an investor and as a service provider. Needless to say, whilst we think they're a fantastic company, you're not gonna see us appear on the registers of the Barrick and B2Gold of the world, 'cause we're not gonna add value as an investor. We can only add value there as a service provider.
In terms of the Allied stakes specifically, given the focus on it, The deal is yet to be concluded, first off. Second off, we'll obviously always assess based on should it successfully come to market, where it is trading on the market. The way they're pricing the transaction based on the literature that we've reviewed, it's still very attractive discount to market peers. There's also a question asking specifically the number we valued on at our December year-end. Connor, I don't have that in front of me. The question is $7.7 million. If you could just answer that, please.
That's broadly correct. 7.7 or 7.8.
Thank you. Peter, I will hand back to you.
The last one's on Geodrill. Question about staying there, increasingly focusing on margins versus bid-win ratio. Is that a positive for drill margins for, and wins for Capital? I think maybe just to go back one step on that one is, you know, we're, we are very focused on significant potential ore bodies and blue chip miners. We're very focused on near mine drilling operations when we're doing drilling, so whether that's grade control, blast hole, ore body definition, within the vicinity of current operations, and we do less exploration drilling. We continue, and you'll see it in our results, we continue to drive for strong margins in our business, and we do that by ensuring we have longevity at the sites we go to.
We're seeing as we build a portfolio or build our portfolio towards larger, longer term contracts, we're able to continue to drive strong margins across our business. I think that the question here is, you know, around the focusing on margins versus bid-win ratio. I think, you know, we really only bid on the contracts that we want to win, as opposed to putting a lot of contracts in, and we're very focused on winning those contracts, and making sure that they drive a strong margin building out on either nearby operations for us or countries where we've got a strong presence already. Jamie, that was the last question that we had through. I'm not sure whether you wanted to make any other comments, otherwise I'll close the AGM for today.
No, Peter. That's fine. Thank you. Just thanks again for everyone for dialing in and asking questions. No, back to you.
Thank you. Thank you on from me as well. Really appreciate people taking the time to join us for our AGM. I know some parts of this is, are somewhat, you know, administrative, but it's always good to have people join the call, ask questions. We do encourage our investors to engage with us where it makes sense. On these things, we're happy to talk and engage with people and meet, as we've done over the last while. We actually, during this week, have met a number of investors in the business and are happy to continue to do that more broadly. Thank you very much. Appreciate the support and enjoying my first six or seven months now in the business and the first AGM. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you to the board for updating attendees today. Could I please ask attendees not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the board of Capital Limited, we'd like to thank you for attending today's annual general meeting, and good morning to you all.