Welcome and good morning, everyone. It is now just after 11:00 A.M., and it's a pleasure to welcome you to the Allied Farmers 2024 annual meeting. My name is Shelley Ruha, and I will chair today's meeting. We are very pleased to welcome you online through our virtual meeting platform provided by our share registrar, MUFG. We are holding a virtual meeting which provides the opportunity for a larger number of shareholders from throughout the country to participate and engage with us on a cost-effective basis. You can vote and ask questions online. I'll provide you with further instructions as we progress through the meeting. If you encounter any issues, please refer to the Virtual Annual Meeting Online Portal Guide, or you can find the helpline on 0800 200 220. I would encourage you to send through your questions as soon as you can.
This will allow us to answer these questions at the appropriate time of the meeting. With us today are my fellow director, Philip Luscombe. Our Managing Director, Richard Milsom. Richard is on audio only for today's meeting. Our Chief Financial Officer, Brian Li, and our Company Secretary, Ross O'Neill. I'd also like to acknowledge the presence of the company's auditor, Nigel de Frere, from RSM Hayes Audit. I confirm there is a quorum present, and we have with us at least five shareholders present in person or by proxy. Accordingly, I declare the meeting open. The notice of meeting and explanatory notes were dispatched to shareholders on the 16th of October 2024, in compliance with the company's constitution and NZX listing rules, and I propose to take them as read.
Immediately prior to the meeting, we had received valid proxies in respect of 11,031,251 shares, representing 38.29% of total issued shares.
We would, of course, expect some shareholders who have not lodged proxies to vote on the platform during the meeting. Where discretionary proxies have been provided to my fellow directors and me. We intend to vote them in favor of the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting. I also confirm that the minutes of the company's 2023 annual meeting are available on Allied Farmers' website. The 2024 financial statements are set out in the 2024 annual report that was sent to shareholders in August and is also available on our website. Before the formal business of the meeting, I will provide a brief introduction followed by a more detailed presentation from Richard Milsom. We will take questions from shareholders via the online platform after these addresses, and then we will move to the resolutions. The meeting ended 30 June 2024.
We reported an Allied Group net profit before tax of NZD 7.315 million, compared to NZD 4.071 million for 2023. This consolidated group result includes profit attributable to NZ Farmers Livestock's minority shareholders. For Allied shareholders, it is more relevant to highlight the profit attributable to just our shareholders. For financial year 2024, this was NZD 5.206 million, which was a pleasing increase of 56% from the previous year's NZD 3.338 million. Richard will provide more detail in his presentation, but the increased 2024 profit was driven by a one-off NZD 4.2 million gain on the book value of the sale and leaseback by NZ Farmers Livestock Limited of its interest in a livestock sale yard, of which NZD 2.85 million was attributable to Allied Farmers shareholders.
NZ Rural Land Management's earnings were higher than FY 2023 on the back of management, performance, and transaction fees generated from a number of NZ Rural Land Company activities that were successfully executed by NZ Rural Land Management. However, this was largely offset by lower earnings from NZ Farmers Livestock Limited, once its one-off gain is excluded. Allied Farmers FY 2024 profitability was also impacted by this being the first time we have had a full-year amortization of the NZRLM management contract acquired in March 2023, a non-cash impact, together with interest on the Heartland loan used to fund its acquisition, suspension of dividends from NZ Rural Land Company, and costs associated with strategic initiatives such as the amendment to Allied Farmers Constitution.
Allied's ability to utilize its tax losses is dependent on meeting shareholder continuity requirements, and we are acutely aware of maintaining shareholder continuity to preserve this valuable asset for shareholders. Accordingly, in July 2024, we obtained shareholder approval to amend our constitution to significantly strengthen our ability to restrict share transfers that would cause a breach of shareholder continuity. Consistent with recent years, the board has decided to not pay a dividend for the FY 2024 financial year. We continue to utilize tax losses, and therefore paying unimputed dividends is not the best use of your funds. The board strongly believes that in the short term, retaining and redeploying earnings is in your best interests. The board continues to focus on delivering earnings per share growth for shareholders and exploring growth opportunities that leverage its core strengths in the rural and asset management sectors.
We now move to the Managing Director's address. Over to you, Richard.
Thank you very much, Shelley. Are we able to move on to the next slide, please? Thanks. So probably the four key events in FY 2024 were earnings per share were up materially from FY 2023. They were up just under 60% per share. The sale of our Frankton Saley ards occurred at a material premium to our book value. NZRLM, which is the manager of New Zealand Rural Land Company, executed a sale of 25% of New Zealand Rural Land Company's portfolio to Roc Partners, which in turn then grew the amount of portfolio and assets that New Zealand Rural Land Management is managing. And then subsequent to balance date, nearly 100% of shareholders voted in favor of a constitutional change.
The rationale behind this is to preserve our very valuable tax losses of approximately NZD 180 million that have a substantial cash benefit to the group when and if we can utilize them. Moving on to the next slide, please. So I'm not going to labor the same points that Shelley's already been over, but there are some key metrics that are worth touching on. So New Zealand Farmers Livestock, which is alongside New Zealand Rural Land Management, is the other trading business that Allied Farmers owns. The EBITDA has grown 73% in FY 2024 versus FY 2023, and New Zealand Rural Land Management's EBITDA has grown 61%. So both of these are satisfactory growth trajectories, which we hope to be able to continue, maybe not at this clip, but continue to grow them nonetheless. Can we move on to the next slide, please?
So I'll talk a little bit about just Allied Farmers in general and the go-forward strategy as it exists at the moment, but I think you can expect to see a little bit more strategy from the group as we continue to go through our journey and particularly into sort of the middle half towards the end of next year. Next slide, please. So currently, Allied Farmers has two operating businesses, being New Zealand Farmers Livestock and New Zealand Rural Land Management. New Zealand Farmers Livestock is a stock and station business. It owns some sale yards. It's got a meat processing element to the business. It's got its finance book, and it owns 52% of Hawke's Bay-based Redshaw Livestock Limited. It's got a national footprint.
New Zealand Rural Land Management now manages rural portfolios for Roc Partners in New Zealand and New Zealand Rural Land Company, who jointly own an LP. Next slide, please. In terms of the strategy, Allied would like to provide shareholders with exposure to attractive investments, leaving us quite a wide remit to deploy funds into the highest-generating investments that we deem appropriate, deliver earnings per share for shareholders by providing strategic guidance and support to its investments, and exploring growth opportunities and hopefully leverage some of our large tax losses that will further exacerbate free cash flow and earnings per share. As I've touched on this year, New Zealand Rural Land Management sold 25% of New Zealand Rural Land Company's portfolio to Roc Partners. In July, shareholders approved the constitutional amendments to Allied Farmers, which will preserve our tax losses.
And then consistent with our focus on an efficient allocation of assets, we sold our interest in the Frankton sale yard for well above book value. Next slide, please. So in terms of an investment summary, New Zealand Farmers Livestock EBITDA grew 74%. New Zealand Rural Land Management EBITDA grew 61%. I won't labor the other detailed minutia of each of these businesses, but both have performed in a satisfactory manner and continue to. We'll continue to look for opportunities to maximize value in both of these operating businesses, plus continue to look for opportunities to leverage our substantial cash from our tax losses. Sorry. Next slide, please. In terms of our FY 2024 financial result, next slide, please. So there was a 2% growth in group revenue. There was a 72% growth in group EBITDA.
There was a 62% growth in group net profit after tax, and there was a 56% growth in Allied earnings per share. And you will see a continued focus on earnings per share growth from the Allied group alongside a focus on NTA growth per share as well. And we saw a 90% growth in Allied NTA per share last year. Next slide, please. So the profit and loss saw NZD 27.63 million of group revenue. It saw earnings per share of NZD 18.07. Next slide, please. I won't labor through the balance sheet, but there's total equity of NZD 24.59 million, and that's where we get NTA per share of NZD 0.40 from. Next slide, please. And then next slide, please. In terms of our financial result and investment performance, we give further detail on New Zealand Farmers Livestock. Next slide, please.
And we break out New Zealand Rural Land Management to give investors a bit of granularity on how each of your investments is performing. Next slide, please. And included in the appendices for those that may be interested. Next slide, please. And we'll continue to include these charts as we go forward. It's a good way for people to track company performance. This is our annual growth rate of our revenue, which has grown at 7% per annum from 2015 to 2024. And net profit after tax growth per share has grown at 78% per annum from 2015 to 2024. If we move on to the next slide, we see similarly attractive growth rates if we look from FY 2020 to FY 2024 for revenue and net profit after tax. Next slide, please.
And then we'll include a summary of growth and share price since FY 2015 and what we're seeing as a 5% per annum growth in share price of Allied Farmers shares per share. I think that brings us to the end of the presentation.
Thanks, Richard.
Thanks, Shelley.
Before we move to the formal business of the meeting, we'll take questions from shareholders via the Link online platform on today's address and presentation and the 2024 annual report. We have also received three questions prior to the meeting from shareholders, so I'll answer those questions first. The first question is, is there a plan on how to sustainably grow earnings for the medium term? If it exists, could the relevant details be made public? I think we have covered this during the presentation to date, but I will also say that we have publicly stated that our plan is to grow shareholder value by retaining earnings and reinvesting into opportunities that meet the objectives and constantly reviewing our capital allocation to ensure it is efficiently deployed. One example is our acquisition of New Zealand Rural Land Management in March 2023.
This has been a very successful investment for Allied, and Richard in his presentation touched on how that has positively impacted and diversified our earnings and share price growth. Another example is the recent sale and lease back of the New Zealand Farmers Livestock interest in a livestock sale yard, generating for our shareholders a NZD 2.85 million increase over book value. The second question is, is this company ever going to repay the Hanover investors that lost all their money? Look, the answer to this question is that 15 years ago, in satisfaction of the obligations for Hanover to repay them, Hanover's debenture holders voted to convert their investments into Allied Farmers shares. Given that Allied is an equity issuer and not a debt issuer, Allied does not have and has never had the right nor the ability to repay previous Hanover investors.
The third question is, when will Allied Farmers start paying a dividend? I do not want to hear about the losses being carried forward. Unimputed dividends are welcome. As I mentioned earlier, Allied has no intention in the short term to pay a dividend. With unused tax losses, it's not in Allied's or its shareholders' interest to do so. Are there any further questions?
There's one question at this stage. The question is, are we looking at any acquisition opportunities right now?
As we've talked about.
I'll speak.
Sure, go ahead, Richard.
We're always assessing opportunities at different levels of endeavor and diligence. At the moment, we're not deep in diligence on anything, but I can comfortably say we're always looking at things.
Thanks, Richard. Ross, are there any further questions online?
Not at this stage, Shelley.
Okay. We'll provide an opportunity at the end of the meeting for any questions that come in subsequently, and we'll now move to the formal business of the meeting, which is the resolutions. Today, we'll put four resolutions to the meeting. The first relates to auditors' remuneration, and the following three relate to the issue of performance rights to Richard Milsom. As I mentioned, shareholders will be able to cast their vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. To vote within the online voting platform, you will need to follow these four steps. Number one, click "Get Voting Card." Number two, enter your shareholder or proxy number to validate. Number three, mark your voting card by clicking "For", "Against" or "Abstain." And number four, then click "Submit Vote" at the bottom of the card.
Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. Both resolutions are ordinary resolutions and therefore must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. We will now show the proxies received for the resolutions. Moving to the resolutions. Resolution number one, reappointment of auditor and auditor's fees. Resolution one relates to the requirement to authorize the auditor's remuneration for the ensuing year and reads as follows, that the reappointment of RSM Hayes Audit as the auditor of the company be recorded and the directors be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration for the ensuing year. Ross, have we received any questions online regarding this resolution?
No questions, Shelley.
Thank you. Now, please select either "For", against, or abstain for resolution one on the voting card. Thank you. Before we move to resolutions two, three, and four relating to the issue of performance rights, I would like to provide some brief background. Allied already operates a long-term incentive plan under which it grants performance rights. In general, each performance right entitles the participant to receive one Allied share if applicable vesting conditions are satisfied. The board has considered the long-term incentive arrangements for Richard Milsom with a view to putting in place arrangements for the three financial years ending 30 June 2025, 2026, and 2027. To protect Allied's tax losses, Allied's constitution restricts anyone from owning more than 5% of Allied shares except in certain circumstances. One exception is where the shares are issued under an employee incentive scheme approved by shareholders.
Because Richard Milsom has a relevant interest in 15.8% of Allied's shares and 144,032 performance rights, the issue of more performance rights requires shareholder approval. Resolution two, the issue of FY 2025 performance rights to Richard Milsom, our Managing Director. Resolution two reads as follows, that approval be given for the issue of 144,032 performance rights during the financial year ended 30 June 2025, and the issue of ordinary shares on the vesting and exercise of those performance rights to Richard Milsom under the rules of the company's long-term incentive plan. Ross, have we received any questions online regarding this resolution?
No. No questions, Shelley.
Thank you. Please now select either "For" against or abstain for resolution two on the voting card, and we will move to resolution number three, which is the issue of FY 2026 performance rights to Richard Milsom. Resolution three reads as follows, that approval be given for the issue of such number of performance rights during the financial year ended 30 June 2026, equivalent to 0.5% of the company's total number of ordinary shares on issue at 1 July 2025. And the issue of ordinary shares on the vesting and exercise of those performance rights to Richard Milsom under the rules of the company's long-term incentive plan. Any questions on this resolution?
No questions.
Thank you. Please select "For" against or abstain for resolution three on the voting card. And we will now move to our final resolution, resolution four, the issue of FY 2027 performance rights to Richard Milsom, our managing director. Resolution four reads as follows, that approval be given for the issue of such number of performance rights during the financial year ended 30 June 2027, equivalent to 0.5% of the company's total number of ordinary shares on issue at 1 July 2026. And the issue of ordinary shares on the vesting and exercise of those performance rights to Richard Milsom under the rules of the company's long-term incentive plan. Are there any questions for this resolution?
No questions, Shelley.
Thank you. Now, please select "For", against or abstain for resolution four on the voting card, and that concludes the formal part of the meeting. You should now submit your votes if you have not done so already. Results of the poll will be announced on the NZX website after the conclusion of the meeting. We will now give shareholders one more opportunity to ask further questions online, whether related to the presentations, the annual report, or the management of the company. If we run short of time and are unable to answer your question online today, we will endeavor to respond to you after the meeting. Ross, have we received any further questions from shareholders online?
Yes, there's one question, and the question is, are we planning to sell any more yard interests?
Richard, would you like to?
Unlikely. Never say never. Everything's for sale at the right price. But in our near-term horizon, we don't plan to sell anymore. There is another question just popped up. With the resumption of dividends from New Zealand Rural Land Company, have you considered offering a larger discount for reinvestment of dividends that are subsidized by Allied or NZLM, I think probably means New Zealand Rural Land Management, to encourage capital retention within the New Zealand Rural Land Company structure for greater fees long-term? So what I think that question may be is, have we considered using a steeper discount for our DRP, our dividend, sorry, reinvestment program at New Zealand Rural Land Company? Because the more people that reinvest their dividends mean greater assets at New Zealand Rural Land Company and greater assets that New Zealand Rural Land Management manages.
We set the discount for the DRP based on a number of factors. The board of NZL, curiously enough, doesn't really factor in us getting more fees as part of that. And so our capital allocation management and the discount with which we offer investors the chance to reinvest and also dilute other shareholders is priced about right. And if it's any indication of appetite, there was a 50% take-up this year, which was much, much higher than we've had in the past. So we think we got it about right, but yeah.
Thanks, Richard. Ross, any further questions?
No. That's it.
Thank you. If there are no further questions from shareholders, I now declare the meeting closed and thank you for your participation.