Morning, everybody. Okay, those of you in the room heard me. Hopefully, those online did also. Welcome to our annual ASM, and nice to see you all. Great to see some people in the flesh and some of our, we're not going to say long-suffering shareholders, but some of our loyal shareholders, including Artemis down the back. Nice to see you, and lovely to see a good contingent from the business here. Maybe for those of you in the room, you'll see Rod Hyde, who is new to the business, our new CFO, and great to have him here as well. I had a look through the minutes from last year's AGM last night, and gosh, a lot has changed in 12 months.
I think at that stage we were bemoaning the pretty incompetent Labour government and the muck that they had caused in immigration, opening the door and letting thousands and thousands of sort of semi-skilled or unskilled migrants in. And we were hoping for a new government to help us turn the corner. We certainly got the new government. So today was pretty much a meat and potatoes AGM, I think. We've got a couple of directors who are standing, myself, retiring by rotation, re-standing, and welcome Bella, who is also standing for the first time, having joined us earlier in the year. We will look for your support to reappoint the auditors, and nice to have Bryce and Bennie here today as well. So the formalities, if we can get there. The notice of meeting has been provided to shareholders and other stakeholders, and the agenda is in order.
Again, our results were published with our annual report same day, Well Done Team, May 30, and are available on our website. I can confirm that we've got a quorum as per the Constitution, and so yeah, we have plenty for that quorum. As at the close of proxy voting on Wednesday, 25.8 million shares have been voted, and as Chair, I intend to vote all discretionary proxies we have received in favor of the resolutions, as set out in the notice of meeting. As always, we'll be taking questions at the end of the meeting, so those of you here, just the old-fashioned method, put your hand up. For those of you online, you can start asking those questions whenever you fancy, and we will get to them at the end. If you're online and have any issues, there's the portal guide, or you can phone 0800-200-2020.
So most of the board, almost all of the board, will be familiar to you. You might notice there's no Simon Hull here. He has had an injury, unfortunately, busted his Achilles tendon, and so I think this is probably the first AGM that he has not attended in 20-odd years. But we did talk to Simon earlier, and the tech is working. If you've got a question for him later on, we can get him on the screen. He's put a collar on from the T-shirt he had on earlier, so he is good to go. To my left here, we've got Nick Simcock. Nick's been on the board here for, seems like a long time, what, year 2018? Nick came to us from Korn Ferry Futurestep, where he was CEO of the business in this part of the world, Australia, New Zealand, maybe Asia.
And he chairs our Rem committee , and beside him, Richie Stone, founder of JacksonStone, sort of a recruitment legend, I think, in New Zealand, although he doesn't see it that way. And beside him, Bella Takiari-Brame. And look, it's great to have Bella here. She will talk to you today as she's seeking your vote to stay on the board. She's got heaps of commercial experience, had some pretty gritty iwi boards, one that she chaired that needed a lot of capital, and she's passed our Good Human test, which is important for our board, and it's a great addition, so we're excited to have her. I guess I normally come to management at the end, but I really want to start today by acknowledging Jason and his team.
They're difficult times, and I think that management is really fronting the challenges we face head-on, and I'm really grateful for their resilience, perseverance, and the attitude they bring to us every day. We have a challenging economy, as is evident. The recruitment market is going backwards, and there's a significant reduction in spend by government. But I think they've charted what we believe is the best course for us to move ahead in this difficult time. I mean, I mentioned earlier, a year ago, the floodgates had opened in immigration, and at the time, we were cautious, and AWF has stood the test of time, really. We've seen a number of blue-collar labor-hire businesses have failed in the last 12 months, some with up to 1,000 workers on their books.
It was really important to us to protect our workers, protect the business, and really this cautious approach has rewarded us, and we remain first choice for our clients with our excellence and service delivery. In the white-collar space, things have been pretty tough. Probably JacksonStone, of all the businesses, found it the most difficult. Wellington-based, government-centric, and having a dominant position in Wellington, I think that we had a lot to lose. Hobson Leavy, probably the most resilient of the businesses, more corporate, private sector, tier one, and probably while some price pressure there, still a good amount of job flow. Absolute IT and Madison have found things pretty tough, but Madison's really starting to see some green shoots. Jason will talk to that.
We're super excited that we now have talked about health for a long time, but now we have health offer inside of Madison, and Mandy Miller here, who is leading that, is here today, so we're pretty excited about that. The leadership team is stable. Client feedback is really strong. Look, we're grateful for the support of our bank. They're not like the auditors who turn up today, but we are grateful for the relationship with ASB. We're grateful for the support of our shareholders, and we realize that we weren't able to pay you a dividend, and yes, we take our job here seriously. Comfortable with the reduction in costs we've made. It's a difficult decision to take cost out, making sure that you don't depower the business.
I started in Madison, I think, 2010 or so, just out the end of the GFC, and we did really well by being not underpowered when we came out the other side. And certainly here, we want to make sure that we don't get too skinny, but obviously it's a fine balance for Jason and his team. The diversity of offering does give us a good amount of comfort and stability, so whilst it's a hard world out there, we feel as if we're in a good place. It's not my place really to cut across Jason anymore. He'll give you a decent overview of the businesses and how we're going and what our plans are, but I look forward to some questions at the end, and if we've missed anything, put some meat on the bones, possibly.
So we move to agenda item two, and I note the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. As I mentioned and as stated in the annual report, the directors resolved not to declare a final dividend for year-end 31 March. We did think long and hard about that. It certainly was the right decision. And yeah, I guess that's a bit tough, all of us, a lot of us in the room, management, shareholders, and yeah, we didn't take the decision lightly. So we will move now to agenda item three, and let's hear from our fearless CEO, Jason Cherrington. Thank you.
Thank you, Simon, and good morning, everyone. Simon noted we've been trading through really challenging market conditions for a while now, and I guess while we published our annual report some three months ago highlighting FY24 performance, I've got no doubt you'll be equally interested to hear what we're seeing so far this fiscal year. We are in an industry that I believe is a bellwether of the economy and therefore our scale, and our spread across sectors gives us a really interesting vantage point that I'll try and weave in over the next 15 minutes- 20 minutes. So I'll kick off with a summary of FY24 and talk through what's different about this economic cycle compared to maybe some others that we've experienced, outline what we've done in response, and then affirm our focus and our strategy as we push through the current challenges of this financial year.
So when I look back, clearly the cautious optimism that we had at the half year was unrealized, and instead of the market moving again post-election with more certainty, the converse occurred. Revenues dropped, and on a reported basis, we saw particularly subdued hiring demands that have continued over a protracted period of time. Hiring processes have dragged out, and while we have on the main held margins, there's certainly ongoing pressure on pricing, especially in the public sector. And as Simon mentioned, I'm in a reality driven by the pace, I think, upon which the national government has acted to reduce public spending. That said, we placed over 22,000 people in permanent contracts and temporary roles. We worked with over 1,600 organizations supporting their hiring needs, and we carried out over 27,000 health and safety engagements right across the country.
More specifically in our white-collar segments, once again, Simon mentioned, Madison had a pretty tough year with not only the downturn contributing to the decline in demand for what we would class as bread and butter work, but also the reality that part of that market appears unlikely to recover to previously seen levels. Entry-level support roles have seen a consistent decline due in part to advancements in technologies, and so Madison's focus has been one of evolving the level of role that they would typically recruit for, targeting growth in mid-senior specialists and senior managerial roles that typically sit below the level of role our executive businesses, Hobson Leavy and JacksonStone, would normally operate within. So between those brands, I guess it's kind of created an Accordant ecosystem of opportunity, and that's one thing we think our clients will benefit from, and of course we will also.
Absolute IT has been through considerable change, a necessary transition in response to declining demand for tech short-term after an incredibly heated job market a few years ago. Their year has probably been characterized by a recalibration to current demand while positioning to capitalize from pent-up demand that we know remains. As a nation, we still have a lot to do to transform organizations using digital as an enabler. For many, the necessity to pause such plans has created an issue, and that can only be resolved by investing in both the right senior leadership and building those tech teams to deliver it. Perhaps the beginning of OCR reductions not seen since 2020 will accelerate the confidence needed for both of those actions to take place.
Leavy, I'm delighted to say completed its first full year as part of Accordant, and that executive retained search and board-level work that we knew would expand Accordant offering did exactly that, as expected. It was an overall successful year, despite that challenging final quarter where economic effects began to have an impact at the top end of town as well. Our approach to their fair value adjustments at year-end reflected that final quarter dip. And then finally, in our white-collar segment, JacksonStone & Partners, a leading operator in public sector space, especially historically in central government, were naturally heavily impacted in the second half of the year as a result of those government austerity measures. Some roles maintained a healthy level of demand, including growth in our Madison recruitment practice, while the decline elsewhere led to an increased diversification beyond central government in attempts to offset.
Turning now to our blue-collar segment in AWF, they were able to build momentum despite structural market uncertainty and decline, and fared very well against competitors, as Simon alluded. With revenues more than 7% up on prior year and growth accelerating at 16% in the final quarter of last year, our intent to focus on the infrastructure sectors, civil and road as an example, as well as specific manufacturing and high-value engineering clients, certainly yielded positive results. At a consolidated level, the group reported clearly a net loss, and it was clearly disappointing, materially impacted by the impairment and non-cash items of goodwill of NZD 6.5 million and NZD 4.5 million, respectively, for Madison and AWF. We took the right decision to reassess the carrying goodwill value in light of the current economic climate. It remains challenging, and we acted accordingly.
As you would hope and expect, we continue to focus on best practice in terms of debt and treasury management, and as a result, generated NZD 2.3 million operating cash flows in the FY24 year. Just taking a moment to move away from our cash-generating units, FY24 was notable also for our ESG journey. The Work Collective's unique model and mission to deliver social impact was further recognized across the industry. In fact, social impact was delivered to 162 individuals who faced challenges getting access into the employment market. Times are tough for job seekers, much tougher for those who already face barriers to employment. And then in regards to environmental impact, we're pleased to achieve certification as a Toitū carbon reduction organization, where measuring our emissions for the first time and tracking our carbon footprint has confirmed that our impact is relatively small.
Now, with New Zealand's climate standards coming into effect, Accordant is not considered a climate reporting entity. However, in FY24, we continue to advance our work and understand the implications of climate change for our businesses, and we'll continue to build our initiatives to both mitigate risk, leverage opportunity, and obviously reduce our footprint where we can. So, with the onslaught of media articles regarding this economic cycle, what's different from the perspective of New Zealand's largest recruiter? I think the fact that there is reduced demand during an economic downturn is no real surprise. The difference with this cycle, though, is how protracted it has been across both permanent and temporary recruitments. Economic impacts usually result in a swing from permanent hiring towards temporary and contingent hiring. However, that swing has not yet come.
In central government, for example, savings have been sought across the whole operational gamut, so not just from fixed salaries. I think the other notable difference is the future of work, which we talk about quite a lot across Accordant, where evolving roles have led to generally declining demand. AI continues to promise a lot, and while I don't pretend to be a futurist, I think it's pretty clear that ChatGPT has gained some momentum, certainly mainstream momentum of late. I think initial practical solutions naturally lead to office and administration tasks, but it's actually expected we're going to see a disproportionate impact on highly skilled employment, differing maybe from previous automation trends that primarily affected lower middle-skilled jobs. So think legal, think engineering, think sciences, more complexity than probably the greater impact of AI.
So, in response to both the expected as well as the unusual elements of the economic downturn, our teams have adapted and exercised the resourcefulness that I am truly grateful for. We've been proactive about reducing our exposure to certain industries. We've carefully thought through operational cost management. We've consolidated property where relevant. We've reviewed our suppliers, chosen where to hire and where to trim down, where to invest, and where to redirect our resources. There have been a number of small restructures, and while it's never easy for the individual and the teams, it has been out of need, but it's also meant better utilization of other delivery roles as well as using our group shared service resources to better effect.
Now, as you can imagine, we keep a close eye on economic indicators, but we're also cognizant that we experience changes in business sentiment and job hunter confidence sometime before it's officially reported. So, by staying focused, I guess, on what's within our control, we've not reacted to it like it's a complete failure, and we've certainly not dropped our heads. We talk a lot about resilience around the group, which I think is now a modern-day superpower, and I'm really pleased that we've got a lot of that across the group. So, our focus on this current financial year clearly is not just one of operational cost management. I am incredibly mindful of not cutting into the muscle or capability within the business and the false economy that that can create long-term setbacks.
We actually believe a point of difference is being able to hold onto more talent than the rest of the market, while being an attractive business to join for those with the right determination to win. We will undoubtedly benefit from market rationalization of players in an industry where few barriers to entry have led to an oversubscribed and fragmented marketplace for some years now. So, with fewer, in some cases, weakened recruitment providers, it only goes to highlight our individual brand's reputation as stable and dependable, and Accordant as a robust and credible partner. We may be a listed business, certainly larger than our local competitors. However, we are focused on agility and adaptability, and I think that's a discipline that we draw from our entrepreneurial roots.
Our people understand that we're a relationship business, and in times when employers aren't hiring to the usual degree, it's a great time to understand key issues beyond just hiring and slowdowns, so understanding culture, fit, transformation, changing skill sets, changing markets for our clients, so our teams are actually spending more time with clients now than less, and I think this making hay while the sun is not shining is in town for preparing great talent pools, hugely critical for when this tap turns back on, and we believe that it will. It's about keeping us front of mind, and the more people we have in front of our customers, the more coverage of relationships, and of course, individuals within client organizations have also changed more frequently, so this high level of activity ensures we don't get blindsided by any of those key people changes.
Turning to health and safety, I think I said when I joined three years ago, quite quickly it was evident that we had best-in-class in New Zealand for our health and safety business, especially in the heightened risk environment of blue-collar. We continue to work hard to be the obvious provider of choice in that regard, but we also support the ongoing need for accredited migrant employers to be fully accountable for their actions.
I'm really proud of the work that Fleur and her team have done around our pastoral care and approach in that regard, which has seen our teams go above and beyond looking after people that come to this country to help to work, and the way in which we ensure our commitments to them are delivered upon, and the very human nature of our business is felt for them at every single stage of their journey. Something our clients also recognize as being super important. We didn't chase large volumes of migrant workers for short-term reward, and I'm actually really pleased that we made that decision. In some areas, we have strategically invested, such as using our existing infrastructure and personnel this year to build a health channel within the group.
In the same vein, I was excited about our Māori practice build two years ago that has shown really good growth. I'm generally excited about the opportunity to, I guess, crack the nut that has been an opportunity for us for some time, but one that we're now building ground up with close insight from those within the health industry. So, no big announcements, you know, today, no glitz or glamour, just a laser-focused approach and steady build to answer what I feel is missing in supplying the health industry with much-needed quality resourcing consistently and tied into immigration settings and reform that clearly is currently in play. Now, many of our clients clearly remain cautious. The unemployment rate of 4.6% for the June quarter is the highest level in more than three years. That's about 140,000 people, and it's most likely increased in the last three months.
But what I can tell you is that we are starting to see some opportunities arise and activity pick up, and actually towards the end of July, it started with the top end of town. So, Hobson Leavy are already starting to see a greater number of engagements in the last few months, proposals of conversions, perhaps an indicator of a growing economic confidence, too early to tell, but certainly good indications and good signs. In the annual report, I also referred to FY25 as the theme of amplifying our collective impact. In a rationalized market, we can pull together whole group offerings targeted to sectors that many simply cannot. Employers are grappling with reduced budgets, productivity, changing nature of roles, and we have great capacity to offer targeted solutions to meet those challenges end to end.
So, just as we reduced our exposure to certain sectors in FY24, we did the same in FY25 and closer aligning with industries that are resilient, that we think will rebound faster or experience growth faster. Infrastructure clearly remains a focus across blue and white collar, and this week's announcements around the National Infrastructure Agency is really encouraging and one that we back and support. Our clients have not been able to hold onto their staff, still have work in the pipeline to do, and so our ability to offer variable solutions through permanent and contractor models is helpful to those organizations, especially those that may be gun shy and hiring in the short term.
Our team of experienced operators, our infrastructure, our internal shared resources, our systems, all of these things that we've invested in over the last so many years will help us organize well and ensure that we're faster to deliver as things turn. We've been through cycles before and know well that there will be pent-up demand. Some clients are saying it will be a slow return. Other clients are saying pent-up demand will force a faster return. The fact remains New Zealand has to solve its productivity issues, as we know all of these things help our organization. We have a broad base with diversity across our business that ensures we're not overexposed or over-reliance on any one industry for a long period of time. We don't just supply to the government sector, which of course we've talked a lot about today.
We serve the financial and insurance industries, the health sector, social assistance sectors, professional, scientific, technical services, primary sector, education, IT, utilities, construction, logistics. The list goes on and on. From entry-level roles to specialist skill sets, middle management to C-suite and governance roles, and of course, we're not just a labor hire or temporary staffing business. We have revenue from permanent recruitment services and revenue from the provision of independent personnel contractors. You contrast that with those who have seen greater financial impact this year or indeed closure, and it's clear we're not only better placed to ride out the cycle, but I think actually capitalizing on it on the upswing, so in closing, I wanted to thank all of our shareholders for their support at a time like this.
The market remains tough, and for those of you who have been long-term shareholders, you've come to know Accordant as a reliable dividend stock. Our share price can be affected by small trading volumes, as you know, but our first priority is to get back to more sustainable underlying earnings and return to a dividend normality. It has only been in very unusual times that a dividend has been suspended. These are unusual times, but what's usual is the growth that normally follows recessionary times, as Simon who reminds me constantly, we have a history of making good on the upside, and I believe that to be true. You can be sure that we have been and still are taking action to better position ourselves for growth. The sentiment out there is that organizations are in the worst of the downturn at present.
However, with OCR cuts predicted to continue, consumer confidence, client confidence, starts to build. Whether that's October, November, February next year, it is optimism. In our industry, optimism has a huge knock-on effect and builds momentum for hiring intentions. So, it may not quite be a hockey stick of growth this year, but we are positioning for increasing demand at some stage. To the board and Simon, specifically, thank you for your unwavering support. A vast majority of you have been through economic cycles before. You've also been through them in this industry. And so, your perspective and encouragement is really appreciated by both myself and the team. You know, it's great to be backed by a board that is so willing to not only govern and challenge, and they do, but also stand shoulder to shoulder when needed in the trench on occasion.
To my executive team, who most of them are here today, those with considerable tenure as well as those who've just joined, thank you. I'd like to recognize Rod, our new CFO and company secretary who's recently joined and come on the journey, who tells me he's thoroughly enjoying the challenge already three months in. There's been no, you know, return to normal for some years, and so leading in a people-based industry has meant an incredible amount of energy and focus and resilience, adaptability, and of course rowing furiously against the tide to get some momentum. And that resilience, while supporting your own teams to keep their energy up through the worst of this, is incredible and frankly crucial and hugely appreciated. So, thank you.
And then to the wider team, the wider Accordant team, we are going to get through this, I truly believe, better than most in our industry. Thank you for your passion and determination as we navigate, still navigate extraordinary times. Your stamina against these headwinds, I know, will be rewarded. So, thank you to all of you too. And with that, I'll pass back to Simon.
Great. I don't think we've had applause in AGM before, but we'll take it. Thanks, Jason. So now we move to the resolutions, just some of the stuff around that. If you're joining remotely, you can cast your vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. To vote, you need to click "Get Voting Card" within the platform.
You'll be asked your shareholder or proxy number to validate, and then, you know, pretty straightforward, for, against, or abstain on the card. Once you've made your selection, click "Submit Vote" on the bottom of the card, and again, refer to the portal guide if there's any problems. For shareholders in the room, it was much easier to say "Link Market Services" will help, but it's now, I'm told, "MUFG Corporate Markets," not "MUFG" or any other analogy. Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting, and results of the vote will be announced via the NZX. Each of these resolutions set out in the notice of meeting is considered an ordinary resolution and hence is approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote. The outcome of proxy votes will be displayed for your information on all the resolutions.
So now I will introduce the resolutions for director elections. Okay, I think we've got the wrong photo on the screen there. Looks like some young, happy guy, but. So yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I stand down by rotation. I am putting myself up for re-election. I think most of you know me. I've obviously been around the business for a good amount of time. It's been nice to have a change in role over the years and to know the business sort of intimately and then move to a different role on the board. I guess that Shareholders Association said to me how you can't be involved in the business and then become a director and then chair, but, you know, nice to see Shareholders Association represented here, and they gave us a thorough report, which we're grateful for, and recognize the way that we've done that.
You know, I think I will be independent soon enough, but look, grateful to be here. I don't take my role lightly at all. You know, I suppose that, you know, in these times, Jason alluded to it really like, we're just not sitting around drinking cups of tea and as a board and thinking about governance 101. You know, we think hard about the business, the decisions that Jason makes. We are passionate about the business, and look, we really do test management and think about the market hard. Being on a number of boards, it's, you know, I think that at times boards can sit there and drink the Kool-Aid you get out of a board pack. We're certainly not that board. We are in the market.
We're happy to pass on referrals, leads, wonder why we didn't get pieces of work, think about pieces of work that we could get, and really challenge the models within the business. So yeah, I enjoy my role. I, you know, I'm grateful for your support. I see that we've had a lot of votes cast already. 94.46% are in favor of this resolution. Two people voted against me. I hope it was just because of the sandwiches last year. Look, if it was something else, I'm open to discuss it with you. So onto the vote. If you've got any questions of me, we can talk after the meeting. Please vote for, against, or abstain on the voting card. If you've got any questions concerning the motion, you can submit those online also. But yeah, cast your vote now, please, for, against, or abstain.
Pause so that the last votes get put in. 4.2, so the election of Bella. We drank our own medicine this time around. I mean, we used Hobson Leavy to find us a suitable director. It's tough to get someone that wants to be chair of audit and risk, and that's got the horsepower to do that. I think that we started early last year, probably first chats, and it was a bit of a marathon. Hobson Leavy were good to deal with on our side, I think on Bella's side as well. Look, we're super, super excited when she accepted our offer, and she's been a really nice addition to the board. Started chairing the audit and risk just more recently, having joined it as a member earlier in the year.
And yeah, we're super excited to have her here, and she will now give you an address and let you know why she should give that extra vote. She's also just slightly behind the ball, I should tell you. 94.77%, same as me. So maybe same two shareholders.
Good morning, everybody. One day, I aspired to sit before you with no notes, like my chair. My name is Bella Takiari-Brame, and I primarily affiliate to the iwi of Ngāti Maniapoto and Waikato Tainui, which is the Waikato and King Country regions. I also reside in Hamilton. Don't hold that against me, please. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to address you, our shareholders, today for the first time.
It is an honor to be considered for the election to the Accordant Board and to have a few moments to talk to you. I have been a member of the Accordant Board since the beginning of this calendar year. I hold many governance positions in Crown, Commercial, and iwi organizations. These include chair of The Lines Company, recipient of the Community Initiative and the Deloitte Energy Awards last year. I'm also deputy chair of my iwi of Ngāti Maniapoto, which is a post-settlement entity to Te Nehenehenui, and board member of ACC and director of Crown Infrastructure Partners, soon to be repurposed as a national infrastructure agency. I'm also a director of Moana New Zealand. I am a chartered member of the Institute of Directors, and I am a fellow of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
I was a former member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK. My sector experience has been in oil and gas when I resided in the UK for 10 years, and on my return in 2013, I moved into the electricity sector. I have been a full-time professional director since 2021 and serve as chair of audit and risk on the majority of my boards. I have accumulated deep experience in financial reporting, treasury, audit, risk management, which has equipped me to contribute strongly to the existing skill set of the board and to chair the Accordant Audit Committee. The Audit and Risk Committee provides assurance and assistance to the board and CEO on the company's risk control and compliance frameworks and its external financial reporting and accountability responsibilities.
I am very conscious that I have big shoes to follow, and I look forward to building on the strong foundation the former Chair of Audit and Risk, Laurissa Cooney , has established. I am grateful also to the board for enabling a handover and transition from Larissa, and was such a privilege and honor to work with. I am passionate about empowering communities through infrastructure, well-being, and workforce development at regional levels, and I know strongly aligns with Accordant's purpose and values, with a clear focus on the future of our country and its workforce. I have enjoyed getting to know my fellow directors and senior leadership team and learning more about the Accordant business. Although we are in uncertain times, I know Accordant is well placed with a depth of experience around the board table to make the most of the opportunities.
I am committed to working on your behalf to achieve the best possible outcomes for your company and my fellow directors. With your support, I would like to continue in this role and continue to build on the strong foundations of the audit, compliance, and risk framework alongside embedding my expertise in treasury management and control and system standardization. Before I finish, I do want to acknowledge in English the passing of our King, King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII. I had the pleasure of his support throughout leading the transition of my iwi from NZD 40 million entity to a NZD 250 million entity in the last few years. I also had the pleasure of the support of his mother during my university education, who also was a school friend of my mother. [Foreign language] . Thank you for your time, Kia ora. Mr.
Chairman, is it possible to ask Bella a question at this point, or do you want to?
Yeah, if you want to, we can run with that.
Bella. Hi, my name's Alan Best. I'm a shareholder, and it's really good to see you on board. Our CEO did mention that there's been some development in what he called Māori practice build. Have you had time to have a look at that, and are you happy that the company is moving well in that area? And could you give us an example of some area of practice build that has actually occurred? Because I'm a little woolly on that. CEO, happy to have the CEO to answer too, if you like.
Oh, Tēnā koe, thank you for your question. It's a very good question. I had a lot to do with the team that actually is leading that particular connection to Te Ao Māori and to enabling recruitment within our Māori organization. So I actually personally, throughout my organizations, used them before I even knew about Accordant. So their reputation is very good and continues to be very strong. And I see throughout the sector and throughout my networks that Jackson Stone is definitely top of the list in terms of recruitment for Māori executives.
Thanks, Bella. Thanks, Al. So Bella was appointed January 1, 2024, as per listing rules as required to offer herself for election by the shareholders, this being her first annual meeting. Of the proxy votes received, as I said before, 94.77% are in favor. We will address any questions, but nice to answer one now. In order to vote for Bella, for, against, or abstain on the voting card.
And now we move to the auditor's remuneration. It's nice to see Bryce and Benny here. We might, well, I think we've still got one last bit of the arm wrestle around the fee for next year. So we want to authorize the directors to fix the auditor's fees and expenses. Of the proxy votes received, 94.77% are in favor of this resolution. And again, same drill, for, against, or abstain on the voting card. Agenda item five. Not much to note here. The senior employee share incentive scheme is still in place. Look, the members can receive dividends, which obviously they're not receiving at the moment, and benefit from raising share price. The scheme is still worthwhile. I mean, it's up to us to continue to drive the business forward and get some dividends back and see the share price come forward.
But it's not a problem with the scheme. It's a problem with what we're achieving at the moment. So we need to fix that for everybody. Agenda item six, general business. So I can now give everybody the opportunity to ask questions, whether related to anything that was said or financial statements or anything else you've seen out there in the media. People online can keep asking questions. We'll keep going until we get to the end of them. But if we do run short of time and people are desperate for that cup of tea and scone, then we can come back to you in due course. So we will go to questions in the room first, I think. I've got that mic sitting there. If you could just, when you stand up, just give us your name, please. It would be helpful. Thank you.
Melvyn Wade . Just more of a comment, perhaps a suggestion that I would like to see in the annual report more comparisons of year on year and say perhaps over the last five years. It gives a very good picture of where things have been and where they're going, particularly earnings per share, whether positive or negative. Because they're a measure that, a particular measure that, of course, reflects performance as opposed to increased capital and increased profit. The other question I have is, has there been an outcome from the stock exchange inquiry into the share fluctuations recently?
First comment noted, and I think that's Rod's nodding at me, saying he will take that. I'm not asking you about the share price. I'm just making a comment around the reporting. I'm sure that you can look into that. I think it's good. If shareholders want to send reporting, we can cough up with that. That's fine. Look, the stock exchange query came back and they gave us a please explain and we explained and there was no issue. I mean, some days we're 10% up. Yesterday we were 10% down. There's not necessarily a lot of, well, there's nothing around performance which is driving that or anything. I did note, though, that our CEO was buying some shares, which was announced to market. So good to see him backing the business still.
Have we got any online questions? So we do. Sorry, was there one more from the floor?
Yeah. Yeah. Alan. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, as a rank outsider to the recruitment business, when I look at the report, there are quite a range of brand names in the business. I know from experience in public companies, of which I was an employee for a while, that people inside a brand name cluster, if you like, have quite strong allegiances to a brand name. But looking at it dispassionately, there's probably a very strong argument for combining one or two of those and making the thrust more permanent in one particular segment so that there's not so much overlap. I wonder if the board considers that as a marketing proposition, whether there's scope for that in the future.
Yeah, I mean, good question. I mean, we do think about that and talk about that. I mean, I think that there's kind of cost and not necessarily value in our group name. But Accordant was born from the time when we had two businesses represented in the name, AWF and Madison.
And then we acquired Absolute IT and we thought that it was better to have a topco name. We like the name Accordant. Probably we feel that it hasn't necessarily got strong enough linkages to the brands. And it is a focus for our marketing team. We obviously don't see with most of our marketing resources put to the brand's revenue generation or candidate generation to make us some money. So we're probably in these times about lean on marketing spend in that regard. But the brands themselves, I mean, you heard Bella talk about knowing JSP and maybe that led to the question more than she knew JacksonStone, that is more than Accordant. There's a lot of heart in these businesses and the people in Madison identify with the brand. I get that maybe from the outsider, they don't know the brand as much as the offer.
But it's certainly with Hobson Leavy and JacksonStone, at times they are offering a similar service for the same piece of work. And I mean, what that means is someone asks us to pitch for a piece of work and both parties tender for that. We kind of like that. And if it's only two of us, then we're happier. And if one wins, then we're really happy. It's a different fee structure, probably a slightly different service. So we think we'd lose something if we were to push JacksonStone and Hobson Leavy together. But possibly Absolute IT and Madison, Christian who's here, Christian Brown runs both those businesses. Maybe those two could be the same. But we certainly think that the Hobson Leavy business is quite a different proposition and say AWF stands to the side. So a bit of a ramble.
The answer is yes, we think about it. In these times, any change would cost money. So we're certainly not, it's not front of mind for us. It's like elevator music. Any other questions from the floor?
Okay, thank you. We've got one question that came in on the 31st. So for the chair, and I'll read the question specifically and verbatim, and then we can respond. So at 31st the 3rd, 2024, the company's revolving credit facility was maxed out at NZD 180 million, leaving a headroom of NZD 3 million of trade facilities available to support the business. Since trade facilities are up for renewal every 30 days, what restrictions has ASB required of Accordant? Shall I?
Oh, I mean, I know that you've already said that that's maybe NZD 18 million, not NZD 180 million. But I know that we have a revolving credit facility, so we draw down what we need rather than what we can. So the revolving, what we're drawn is not what the facility is, and there's headroom in that facility. So this could bring Rod up on the stage, but if he had a tie-on, I would, but we'll save him for next time. I think you answered that really well. There are no other questions.
Okay, well, there we have it. Thanks, Bella, Richard, Nick, Jason. Good to see the team here. I'm reiterating, thanks for the guys from Deloitte. I mean, it was a bit of a tough year-end, as it turned out. But we really respect the relationship, and I think we got to a good end point with the carrying values.
Sad to see Bryce retiring after his 5-year stint, but Benny seems good so far. Again, reiterate, thanks to Shareholders Association. We appreciate the relationship. We respect the reporting, and we do strive towards best practice, but understanding that we've got a business to run as well and can't gold plate everything. Thanks, shareholders. For those of you that attended in person, really nice to see you. For those of you online, I hope that the tech work.