[Foreign language] To all our shareholders and guests, in person and online, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to Mercury's Annual Shareholders Meeting for 2025. I'm Howard Thomas. I'm Mercury's Company Secretary. We'd like to begin the meeting today with a Karakia, and I'm going to invite Stew Hamilton, Chief Executive, to lead. Stew.
[Foreign language] Firstly, I'd just like to acknowledge [Foreign language] and I'll start off with a Karakia. [Foreign language] .
Kia ora, Stew. I'll quickly run through some housekeeping before we get started. This is a non-smoking venue, so if you'd like to smoke, please exit the building and go to the car park. Toilets are located in the foyer area, past the computer shared desk where you came in earlier this afternoon. If there's an emergency, please follow the instructions of Eden Park and security staff. Your nearest safe exit is back down the entry stairs where you came in. That's Gate G. If Gate G is unavailable, use Gate F, which is to my right here, down at the eastern end. Please continue across the car park to the assembly point, which is on Reimers Avenue. If you have mobility issues, please seek assistance from the Eden Park staff.
Following today's meeting, I'm really hopeful you'll join our directors, management, and the rest of the wonderful Mercury team for tea, coffee, and biscuits, which will be in this room. For those of you here in person, feedback forms were placed on your seats. We do like that feedback, so please let us know what you think. Either place the form in the box near the exit on your way out, or just pass it to one of the wonderful Mercury employees. For those of you online, a survey link will appear underneath the broadcast box near the end of the meeting. For some quick procedural matters, for those of you here in person today, we have roving microphones. If you wish to ask a question during Q&A, please just raise your hand and we'll bring you the microphone.
I would really appreciate it if you could state your name and whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder when you ask a question. Thanks for that. After each resolution is presented, we're going to pause for questions on that resolution and that resolution only, and then we'll have time for general questions about the business and Mercury's business towards the end of the meeting at the appropriate time. We've got representatives from our customer service team here today in person, so if you've got any questions in your capacity as a customer, and I hope that you all are, then please speak to them after the meeting. Better that than asking the questions during the course of the meeting. You cannot miss the team. They're in yellow Mercury t-shirts, and they're also set up at a table by the doors where you came in today.
For those of you online with a question during the meeting, please use the Q&A tab. That's on the right-hand side of your screen there, see the yellow arrow, to submit your question. If you need help, you can type your query, and one of the good folk from Computershare will help you using the chat function on the platform there. Alternatively, you can call Computershare on 08000 650- 034. We have a moderator, Paul, who will do his best to represent all of those questions asked online. He's not going to change those questions unless we need to correct any obvious typos. However, if there are several questions of the same sort of type, he may group those together to put them into one representative question. We encourage you to submit questions throughout the meeting. However, these will not be addressed until the applicable Q&A section during the meeting.
We do ask that those questions be kept relevant to the proceedings today, and that they are succinct and clear. Turning to voting, the Chair will shortly open online voting for today's resolutions. That's going to provide enough time for online attendees to vote. If you're eligible to vote, you'll be able to cast your vote using the vote tab, and your vote will actually have been cast when the tick appears. Quite self-explanatory. You can change your vote at any time until we declare voting closed by selecting change your vote on the platform. Today we have four resolutions. Resolution one is the re-election of Susan Peterson as a Director. Resolution two is the re-election of Scott St John as a Director. Resolution three is the election of Rob Hamilton as a Director, and resolution four is the election of Rachel Taulelei as a Director.
The Chair will let you know before he moves to close the voting. Voting instructions for shareholders and proxies here today in person will be provided when we get to that part of the meeting. It now leaves me to invite your Chair, Scott St John, to open the 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting. Scott.
Thank you, Howard. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us at Mercury's 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting. As Howard said, my name is Scott St John, and I'm the Chair of Mercury NZ Limited. On behalf of your directors, our Chief Executive, Stew Hamilton, our leadership team, and all of Mercury, I extend to you a warm welcome. I'm pleased to confirm that we have a quorum represented here today, and therefore declare Mercury's 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting open. Voting is open on all items of business. Outlining our agenda today, first I will introduce you to your board. I will then comment briefly on our financials and the broader environment in which we're operating. Stew will then talk to Mercury's forward focus, and following Stew's address, we will hear from our Executive General Manager Wholesale, Tim Thompson, and Chief Financial Officer, Richard Hopkins, about key activities in their areas.
We will then move to resolutions. After the resolutions are presented and voting is closed, you will have the opportunity to ask general questions relating to the company. Now for the introductions, we have, starting on my right at the far end, James Miller, who chairs our Audit and Financial Risk Committee and also retires after today's meeting. I want to thank James for his outstanding service over the past 13 years. His extensive knowledge of utility economics, of capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions has been hugely valuable during the period of significant change and growth for the company.
Next to him is Rachel Taulelei, then Rob Hamilton, who after James' departure will chair our Audit and Financial Risk Committee, Susan Peterson, who chairs our People and Performance Committee, and on my left, from the far end, Mike Taitoko, who retires after today's meeting following 10 years' service on the board. I also want to thank Mike for his enormous contribution to Mercury, including his invaluable support in guiding and strengthening our connections into Maoridom over the past decade. Next is Adrian Littlewood and Hannah Hambling, who chairs our Safety and Enterprise Risk Committee. Finally, Mark Binns, who is unable to attend today because he has an important family engagement. We're also joined by Chief Executive, Stew Hamilton, Chief Financial Officer, Richard Hopkins, and Company Secretary, Howard Thomas.
Also present are representatives from EY, who undertake the audit of Mercury NZ Limited on behalf of the Auditor General, and Chapman Tripp solicitors and members of Mercury's Executive Leadership Team. The year ending 30 June was a challenging year, marked by tough generating conditions, but the team remained very focused on its commitment to delivering for New Zealanders. Net profit after tax was $1 million, down $280 million from the prior year, primarily due to lower earnings and changes in unrealized gains or losses on unhedged electricity derivatives. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and fair value adjustments were $786 million, down $91 million on the prior year. This was mostly driven by below-average renewable generation as a result of dry conditions. It just didn't rain as much as we would have liked it to.
Operating costs increased by $11 million on the prior year, primarily due to increases in generation maintenance and organization change costs to enable future cost savings. Stay in business capital expenditure was broadly consistent with the prior year, down $4 million at $138 million, with good progress made on our geothermal drilling campaign. Growth capital expenditure was up $193 million on the prior year to $347 million, with the second stage of Kaiwera Downs and Kaiwaikawe Wind Farms beginning construction. Your Board was pleased to declare a fully imputed final dividend of $0.144 per share. This brings the full year ordinary dividend to $0.24 per share, up 3% on last year and our 17th consecutive year of dividend growth. Our financial year 2026, EBITDAF guidance has been set at $1 billion.
This ambition reflects significant reinvestment of capital, with about $600 million of growth capital expenditure expected to be deployed on major infrastructural works. Ordinary dividend guidance for financial year 2026 is $0.25 per share, which represents a 4% increase on financial year 2026. This would be the 18th consecutive year of dividend growth. I spoke to you last year closely following the winter energy supply challenges, which had brought the electricity sector into the headlines. We acknowledge this, and ongoing challenges have negatively impacted confidence in the sector. We are working hard to rebuild that confidence through consistent and meaningful action. Alongside challenges, there are also significant opportunities which Mercury is well placed to pursue, and with a clear focus on long-term sustainable value for our owners, customers, people, communities, and New Zealand. This includes a focus on delivering reliable energy at least cost.
The shift to using more renewable energy electricity is key for economic growth and resilience, and will play a major role in achieving the country's climate change goals. New Zealand ranks in the top 10 of the World Energy Council's Trilemma Index, which measures how countries balance energy security, affordability, and sustainability. The sector is self-funding a major multi-billion dollar capital investment drive to help ensure the country retains its status as a global energy leader. In the past five years, the sector has invested $2.9 billion in generation, and between now and 2030, a further $5.5 billion is expected to be invested. Between now and 2027 alone, over 4 TWh of new renewables are expected to come online, and that is enough to power the equivalent of around half a million homes.
We're proud to be contributing a significant proportion of this, with $1 billion invested in three major builds simultaneously under construction at the moment. Building more renewables helps with keeping the lights on, but it is not enough alone. We need more generation that runs when weather-dependent renewables like wind and solar fall short to meet the country's energy needs. The market is working to address this, such as through the agreement to establish a strategic energy reserve at Huntly Power Station. It sounds odd, but having this coal at Huntly is key for ensuring that the sector can keep building renewables, which will help lower New Zealand's emissions overall. We believe more transparency of the gas market information to support decision-making and clear investment signals for new solutions like batteries would also help fill the gap.
The data tells us our electricity prices compare favorably with other countries, including Australia and the UK. New Zealand's electricity is sixth best for commercial and industry, and 10th best for household prices in the OECD. We recognize any price increase for households and businesses in the current environment has an impact. This year, the main driver of household electricity price increases was the regulated lines and transmission increases. We've engaged with the Commerce Commission on the need to balance investment and minimize price shocks, as well as promote investment in the smart system. Ultimately, the development of a smarter electricity system with greater use of things like batteries could mean less network investment is needed. Gas is a key energy system challenge. Natural gas reserves this year were down 27% on the year before.
As a purchaser and retailer of gas, we share the concerns of government, industry, and consumers, and are pleased to see a greater focus on the long-term gas outlook. We've begun providing information to our gas customers to make well-considered decisions about their energy futures. Gas supply challenges have highlighted the importance of taking a whole of energy system view to market and policy evolution. We're hoping to see this focus in the government's ministerial review of electricity markets, which is expected imminently. The Energy Competition Task Force set up last winter is also focused on solutions that could help further strengthen the performance of the electricity market. We continue to engage constructively on both fronts. Meanwhile, we're encouraged by the government's focus on making it easier for the private sector to keep delivering more renewables through resource management reform.
This is critical to ensuring we can deliver generation at the scale and pace needed. Before handing back to Stew to talk more about how we are delivering value for New Zealand, we're going to watch a short video about our financial year 2025. [Foreign language]
Our strong foundations, our deep partnerships, and our talented, dedicated team have given us the confidence to keep moving forward during a challenging year. We continue to make bold choices, not just for Mercury, but for Aotearoa. We're focused on being better today by using our strengths to improve performance. We're building tomorrow by preparing for future opportunities, especially in renewable energy. We're brighter together through collaboration with iwi and stakeholders, valuing trusted relationships. With this momentum, we're optimistic about the role Mercury will play in the energy transition and shaping a bright future for the country.
We all know that New Zealand needs more electricity, and Mercury is doing the heavy lifting when it comes to bringing new generation online. We currently have three major projects underway that represent a $1 billion investment to bring 1.1 TWh of new renewable electricity to New Zealanders. This year, we started construction on our Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm in Northland. We've also made significant progress on stage two of our Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm in Southland. We're also in the process of adding an additional unit to our Ngā Tamariki Geothermal Station, in Taupo. Here at Ngā Tamariki is the home of the OEC5 project. We started this project in construction in May 2024, and since then, we've done more than 200,000 hours. We'll be generating at the end of the year and fully up and running early 2026.
This will mean another 390 GWh for this station to a total of 1,120 GWh, which is the equivalent of powering all of Christchurch's residential homes.
I've recently completed the $90 million refurbishment of the Kerepehi generation units. Our focus now moves upstream to Maraetai 1, Ātiamuri, and [Arapuni], where we'll spend $550 million in the next 10 years. The project is to replace the 75-year-old generating units and add an extra 87 megawatts of capacity into the system.
We're providing our customers with smart platforms and solutions that help reduce energy costs and improve system efficiency. This includes things like time-of-use solutions, which have pricing that better reflects the underlying costs of electricity at particular times. We have begun the phased rollout of these, helping customers have greater control over their energy spend and encouraging them to shift energy use away from peak periods.
We support our households by offering tailored solutions, flexible plans, and tools to manage energy use and payment.
Our customer care team has successfully prevented disconnections due to hardship for the past 14 months and counting.
We are able to support our households through our connections with community organizations and social retailers, just as we're supported by our iwi partners and other key stakeholders.
By working together, we're able to achieve the best outcome for people across Aotearoa.
Thank you, Scott, for the introduction. [Foreign language] welcome everybody. [Foreign language] A year ago, I presented at my first Annual Shareholders Meeting as Mercury's Chief Executive, just as I was stepping into the role. The past year has been a year full of challenges and opportunities. It's highlighted the amazing foundations that we have, with the team continuing to advance major generation developments and delivering value and care for our customers while delivering dividends for you, our owners. We refreshed our strategy late last year. During the year, we've ensured we're focusing on the areas that matter most to Mercury's long-term value. Our strategy starts with our purpose. [Foreign language] Taking care of tomorrow, connecting people and place today.
It flows to our focus to be better today, build for value tomorrow, and be brighter together. This is through partnering and long-term success. Our immediate priorities are to deliver more generation, transform our earnings, capture energy transmission demand growth, rebuild sector confidence, and build a connected and inclusive culture. This new strategy was a natural opportunity to refresh our executive team structure to ensure we have clear accountability and strong alignment to our priorities. I'm really pleased to welcome several new executive team members, which bring a balance of fresh perspectives and deep industry and technical expertise. Most of the team are here today, over in the front row over there, and on this team here with Richard. I look forward to connecting with you afterwards alongside Mercury directors and many of the Mercury leaders who are dotted around the room in yellow t-shirts.
I believe that we have the most capable generation development team in New Zealand that spans wind, hydro, and geothermal development. We're in a really strong position to deliver on our ambition of delivering 3.5 TWh of generation by 2030. That's enough to power half of the Auckland homes. At the same time, we're advancing early-stage geothermal opportunities into post-2030 development opportunities. You've heard from Scott about the $1 billion investment that we've made in three major renewable builds that are underway. The Ngā Tamariki Geothermal Station expansion near Taupo, the Kaiwera Downs 2 expansion in Mataura, and the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm in the far north. They build in Southland and Northland and across New Zealand, and they're all on track to deliver on budget and to time.
We continue our long-term program to also upgrade our nine hydro stations up and down the Waikato River to deliver increased output, efficiency, reliability, and to also increase the lifespan of these already long-serving generating assets. This $550 million of upcoming upgrades at three of our hydro stations are believed to be the largest reinvestment in New Zealand's hydro history. These hydro assets have been the backbone of our electricity system for generations. Being able to enhance their contribution to the country is a testament to the critical role that they have to play and their longevity. We're also investing $175 million into geothermal drilling to support geothermal generation, which is the unsung hero of New Zealand's energy story. Unlike other forms of renewable energy like wind, solar, and hydro, geothermal is not dependent on the weather conditions.
We can harness the underground geothermal heat to generate energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of the weather. Our investment in generation not only delivers more renewable energy for New Zealand, but it also helps to improve reliability, or to put simply, keep the lights on and keep the heaters humming. Turning to our customers, we continue to focus on enhancing the value they receive with a range of smarter propositions, benefits, and service features. Our multi-product retail offerings across energy and telecommunications continue to be popular, with around 38% of our customers now on two or more products. A key focus is enabling customers to shift their electricity consumption and lower their costs. As you saw in the video, we're rolling out time-of-use solutions for all of our customers. Our smart hot water program is also being scaled following multiple successful trials.
Beyond households, we're helping businesses to electrify where it makes sense and participate in demand management. In the past year, we began a long-term contract with the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter, making them now our single largest customer. We also signed long-term contracts with Fonterra and with Visy, who are a global leader in packaging, recycling, and logistics. We acknowledge it's challenging for those juggling multiple cost pressures in the current environment. Longer-term contracts are a key way to support our businesses in that respect. Our support for households, which includes providing improved clarity of bills and pricing and consumption with greater choice and care for those that need it most, is crucial. We are proud to have had zero post-pay disconnections for customers in hardship since June last year, making it over a year since we've delivered on that result.
This is a result of both changes to our internal processes, calibration with community partners, and also to deliver comprehensive wraparound support for those customers. Our work with community to deliver lasting customer care was recognized as being a finalist in the Community Initiative of the Year at the 2025 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards. We continue to provide care beyond our own customer base through supporting social retailers like Nau Mai Ra and Toast Electric, with wholesale contracting options and supporting industry-wide consumer care action. To conclude, yes, there are many challenges that we're facing, but we will face these with confidence and a clear set of actions. At the same time, we're pursuing opportunities that deliver value for our owners, for our customers, our people, communities, and New Zealand. Better today, building tomorrow, brighter together.
[Foreign language] , and I will now hand over to Tim Thompson, our Executive General Manager for Wholesale Markets. Tim is going to speak to us further about our generation portfolio and the prospects that we have ahead. Welcome, Tim.
Thank you, Stew. [Foreign language] As the Executive GM Wholesale, I'm responsible for managing our overall electricity portfolio. This includes responsibility for all wholesale markets activities and sales to large commercial and industrial customers. Now, we have an advantaged, resilient generation portfolio today. It is diversified, complementary, and low cost. For the large part, our generation is based in the North Island, close to main population centers, but we also have two wind farms in the central and the South Island and are expanding on one of these, as you've already heard. This is beneficial because there's often varying weather conditions between the North and South Islands. This is illustrated on the chart on the screen, which shows catchments and flows into the Waikato Hydro System, inverse the South Island inflows, and importantly correlated to peak demand, which occurs in winter.
We also balance our portfolio across generation types. For example, when it's windy, we might pull back on hydro generation, and when it's still, we can ramp up our hydro generators. Lake Taupo provides the primary storage for our Waikato Hydro System. We monitor and manage the lake level carefully to ensure there is water available to support generation during dry periods and to look after the river environment. We do this with the support of a decision management platform we've developed that leverages artificial intelligence to simulate, plan, and optimize critical decisions we make. We call this platform the Digital River. Today, we use it for everything from unit rehabilitation planning to stakeholder engagement and generation reviews. The Digital River was a finalist for the Innovation and Energy Awards at the 2025 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards.
Geothermal is another valuable feature of our portfolio and one we expect to grow in importance over the coming years. Learning from Digital River, we have been developing advanced tools and models using live data and machine learning to help us make decisions about how we operate our geothermal power stations. The goal is to generate more electricity more efficiently and more reliably. We're also focusing on maintaining and building our advantage in the future. About 35% of our ambition to deliver 3.5 TWh of generation by 2030 will be realized through projects currently under construction and our hydro refurbishment program. Beyond these, we have several generation development prospects which could be delivered by 2030. These include a battery energy storage system near our Whakamaru Hydro Station targeted for completion around FY28 and the Mahinerangi 2, Waikokowai , and Puketoi Wind Farms.
We may also pull forward potential geothermal developments and other development prospects currently targeted for after 2030. We will continue to consider a potential role for solar as well. [Foreign language] , thank you. I will now hand over to our Chief Financial Officer, Richard, to talk about how our capital structure enables our growth and our focus on shaping performance. Richard.
Thank you, Tim. [Foreign language] . As Chief Financial Officer, I'm responsible for our financial performance and the legal and risk functions. It's a real pleasure to attend my first Annual Shareholders Meeting at Mercury NZ Limited, having joined the company five months ago. It's great to be back in the world of energy, having specialized in power and utility sector transactions across the UK and Europe earlier in my career. One thing that stood out to me since I've joined Mercury NZ Limited is the great team that we have. This is a real asset when we think about how our energy system is transforming and the level of investment being made. Another is the history of value creation Mercury NZ Limited has because of the bold strategic choices it's made.
That includes the decision to invest in geothermal in the 2000s and more recently the acquisitions of Tilt Renewables and the Trustpower Retail Business, which have significantly increased the company's scale. These choices have delivered real shareholder value and supported our progressive dividend policy. Today, Mercury NZ Limited has established a leading position in wind development and has exciting geothermal prospects. We're investing in these technologies to catch the future growth in electricity demand. We're happy to stand out from the crowd in what we do if that's where the value is. This includes value we create with others like [Foreign language] I thought it was important to highlight how we make, how we invest the money that we make as well. Throughout FY25, just over half our earnings went straight back into building and maintaining the assets powering the country.
This supported continued growth investments, including our three major renewable builds underway. We paid out $256 million in dividends to you, our shareholders, for investing your hard-earned money with us. The remainder of the income we made went to paying our interest and tax bills, meaning overall our net debt increased by $230 million from June 2024 to $2.2 billion in June 2025. We're here to deliver long-term value and maintain the strong total shareholder return performance that's been built over time. On this slide, I wanted to talk about lowering our operating costs, which is a key priority for us. We know that we must be efficient and effective in everything we do. Our goal is to reduce our OpEx to $370 million and hold that level through to FY28.
Look, that's a tough target given the inflationary pressures and the additional costs associated with bringing Kaiwera Downs Stage 2 and Kaiwaikawe Wind Farms online. We're committed. Since November, we've been running a structured enterprise-wide cost reduction program with strong executive backing. This is not about cutting costs for their own sake, it's about ensuring that we're creating value and ensuring that we compare well against our peers. By FY28, we're targeting a 30% reduction in our operating costs per customer connection, driven by greater use of technology. We'll continue to keep you updated on our progress as we deliver to this commitment. To conclude, I'm really excited for the future and the credible pathway Mercury has. Better today, building tomorrow, brighter together. [Foreign language] thank you, and I'll hand back to Scott.
Right, now we move to the formal business of the day. As mentioned earlier, today we have four resolutions. After each resolution, we will pause for questions on that resolution. All voting at today's meeting will be by way of poll, and accordingly, in my capacity as Chair, I will require that a poll be held for each of the resolutions. For those here in person, shareholders who are entitled to vote and proxies who have discretion as to how they vote should have either the voting form that was sent with the notice of meeting or an alternative voting form given to them by Computershare when they registered upon arrival. If you completed a postal vote, you do not need to complete another voting form. If you have not received a voting form, please go to the Computershare desk located outside this room, where their representatives will be able to assist you.
I will invite you to vote after all resolutions have been introduced to the meeting. Voting will close at the conclusion of questions. Voting forms will be collected at the end of the resolution and voting section of the meeting by the Computershare team, who will act as scrutineers, and the results will be posted on NZX and ASX later this afternoon. Resolution 1 relates to the re-election of Susan Peterson as a Director. Susan was appointed a Director of Mercury in September 2022 and is the Chair of the People and Performance Committee and a member of the Audit and Financial Risk and Nominations and Corporate Governance Committees. She currently chairs Vista Group and is an Independent Director of Xero and Craigs Investment Partners. As a business leader, Susan has helped companies to drive growth through technology, innovative customer solutions, and organizational culture.
I invite Susan, being eligible for re-election, to address the meeting.
Thank you very much, Scott, and [Foreign language]. It's great to be here. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present my credentials for re-election as an Independent Director of Mercury. As Scott has said, I've been really a full-time Director, Advisor, and Investor for more than a decade now, and I currently chair ASX, NZX- listed company Vista Group, which is a global film distribution software company, and an ASX- listed global SaaS company, which is listed on the ASX called Xero. I'm also a Director on the Private Wealth Institutional Equities and Investment Banking firm, Craig's Investment Partners. Some of my past roles have included directorships on ASB Bank and NZX- listed Property for Industry and Arvida Group. I've also served on the Board for not-for-profit Global Women for the last six years, and I served nine years on the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal.
I've worked with a wide variety of firms, both big and small, and public as well as private, and as Scott said, I have a particular passion for helping companies to drive growth and productivity through tech, innovation, and great culture. Also relevant to this Mercury role is that I was a Director on the Board of Trustpower for seven years, and the year following the sale of the Trustpower retail business to Mercury, I was approached by the then Chair of Mercury to consider joining the Mercury Board to support the company to maximize the opportunity with what we have here, which is Aotearoa's largest bundled utility retail business. It's been an absolute privilege to serve and be a Director of Mercury for the past three years, enduring such a challenging time for the energy sector in Aotearoa.
As a Director, I am passionate about finding ways to carefully and successfully balance the need to ensure that our country has reliable and affordable renewable energy to support our collective success. It is very much not easy to achieve this balance. In addition to serving as a Non-Executive Director, as Scott said, I also chair Mercury's People and Performance Committee. I'm also a member of both our Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee and our Audit and Financial Performance Committee. I've had the privilege to chair our People and Performance Committee through what has been another important period for Mercury. Highlights over this last year have included the international market search that resulted in the appointment of our CEO, Stew Hamilton, and the appointment of Richard Hopkins as our new CFO. It's fantastic to have their talent on board.
It's also been terrific to see our internal succession processes enabling the promotions of Tim Thompson as Executive General Manager of Wholesale and Matt Tolcher as Executive General Manager of Generation Development, and also to welcome Catherine Thompson as Chief Sustainability Officer and Kevin Taylor as our Chief Operating Officer for Generation. An important part of this has been the evolution of our people and remuneration structures to attract, motivate, and retain the leadership talent we need to successfully execute on this growth strategy. I'm a very strong advocate for creating an environment that fosters attracting and retaining high-caliber talent at Mercury and supporting our purpose-driven, high-performance, and very much inclusive culture. Another key aspect has been the implementation of a new performance management framework that embeds simple and clear results, focus targets, and to strengthen our link between pay and performance.
I'm really excited about continuing to work with the Mercury team to realize the opportunities ahead and to navigate the inevitable challenges we face. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve on the board and to assist the team in supporting Mercury's ongoing success. Thank you, and [Foreign language].
Thank you, Susan. Are there any questions on this resolution? I just want to make sure that I can see. Okay, there being no questions, I move as an ordinary resolution that Susan Peterson be re-elected as a Director.
Scott, there is one question online. Okay. Susan, what do you consider being your most valuable contribution to Mercury?
Generally, here I live. I think as a Director, you don't really have the ability to, or the right to, express and demand your own views on things. I think a really terrific Director and something that I try to focus on is unblocking the power and capability of the people that sit in the room, and collectively we solve problems together. I try to create an environment where people feel psychologically safe so that that can occur effectively.
I would also add to that that there's been material work undertaken in the people function and the talent function of the enterprise over the last 12 months, and Susan has been the tip of the spear in terms of the Board's efforts in that regard. There being no further questions, as I mentioned, I move that as an ordinary resolution, Susan Peterson be re-elected as a Director. Resolution 2 relates to my re-election, so I'm going to pass to James Miller, who is Chair of the Audit and Financial Risk Committee, to present this resolution.
Hey, Scott. Scott was appointed a Director of Mercury in September 2017 and became the Board Chair in January 2024. Scott is the Chair of the Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee, a member of our People and Performance Committee, Audit and Financial Risk Committee, and Safety Enterprise and Risk Committee by virtue of his position as Board Chair. Scott is also Chair of ANZ New Zealand and a Director of ANZ Group and the NEXT Foundation. He has extensive background in investment advisory and capital markets. I now invite Scott, being eligible for a re-election, to address the meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, I offer myself for re-election. My background is in financial services. I started life as a financial analyst and completed that leg of my career circa 30 years later as the CEO of a firm now known as Jarden. Towards the end of that time, I served on the Council of the University of Auckland, ultimately becoming the Chancellor, and that was a springboard into a governance career that saw me move on to the board of Fonterra and becoming Chair of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare. My current major roles, as James mentioned, are as Chair of ANZ New Zealand and as a Director of ANZ Group and my Mercury role. I've been in the role of Chair for around a year and a half.
During that time, the board and I have overseen a lot of change, most particularly the CEO succession and the process and the consequent changes to the management team. In the context of being able to plan ahead, I am offering myself for re-election for a final three-year term. I am a shareholder, and I'm very committed to the business and ask for your support for my candidacy. Are there any questions?
I don't do this, but right.
Got a tight charge here, guys. Okay, thank you, Scott, and are there any questions on the resolutions? Oh, yep, straight away.
Are we allowed to ask about AI, what we think of it, and how you're going to use it, what you know about it?
Yeah, we would normally do that in general business as you want, but I must certainly bring it up then.
Yeah, if he's kind of like introducing it in...
When Tim was presenting just a little bit earlier about what we're doing on the river to try and optimize the water that we have, one of the most important initiatives that we've had over the last couple of years is what we call this Digital River, and that's utilizing AI to optimize every drop of water to deliver stronger earnings to the business. Have we disclosed what that's been worth to the business? Can you remind?
$10 million a year.
Yeah, so we've managed to get about $10 million out of that. I won't stop there. Obviously, there is a whole lot of other stuff that we're looking at. We're looking at a kind of an equivalent situation in the geothermal space to see how we can optimize there. There are so many applications in terms of how we interact with stakeholders, most particularly our customers, and there's a lot of investment going on into that space. Hopefully that helps.
Okay, further questions? Okay, online?
There are no further questions online.
Okay, on with the resolution. I now move an ordinary resolution that Scott St John be re-elected as a Director. Is there any comments on that?
You have fulfilled your role, James.
I've done it.
Thank you, James. Resolution 3 relates to the election of Rob Hamilton as a Director. Rob is an experienced business leader and Director and an experienced Chair of Audit and Risk Committees. He's currently a Director of Westpac New Zealand, Oceania Healthcare, Tourism Holdings, and Cyprus Enterprises. Rob has more than three decades' experience in finance and capital markets, including as a Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking at Jarden, and Chief Financial Officer at SkyCity Entertainment Group. He has also advised several major New Zealand energy companies. I invite Rob, being eligible for re-election, to address the meeting.
[Foreign language] , good afternoon everyone. I'm Rob Hamilton, and I was appointed as a Director of Mercury in April this year. Today, I'm seeking shareholder support for election as a Director. As Scott said, my background spans over 30 years in New Zealand's capital markets and finance sector, including executive roles as CFO at Sky City and Head of Investment Banking at Jarden. For the past five years, I've pursued a career in corporate governance and also undertaken various consulting roles. I'm currently a Director on the boards of Tourism Holdings, Westpac New Zealand, Oceania Healthcare, and Cyprus Enterprises. I also chair the Auckland Grammar School Foundation Trust, having had a long association with the school. From my time at Jarden, I have significant advisory experience in the New Zealand energy sector.
I led the Jarden teams advising the government on the IPOs of Mercury, or Mighty River Power, as it was then, and Genesis Energy. I have also advised a range of other major energy companies in the New Zealand sector, including Meridian, Contact, Vector, and WEL Networks. At Mercury, I'm a member of the Audit and Financial Risk Committee, and subject to being elected, have been nominated to replace James as Chair of that committee. I have significant experience in all audit, financial, and risk matters from my past executive experience and current governance roles. Mercury is a great New Zealand company and a leader in the New Zealand energy sector. As a major generator and retailer of electricity, Mercury performs a critical role in supplying essential energy needs for homes and businesses throughout the country.
In my view, Mercury is playing a positive and active role in New Zealand's energy transition and providing confidence in our energy sector. As Stew and Scott have outlined, Mercury has a significant pipeline of new renewable generation projects, is being proactive in ensuring security of supply, and is looking out for our vulnerable customers experiencing hardship. If elected, I hope to bring valuable strategic, financial, and capital markets perspectives to the board. I also look forward to contributing at a governance level to Mercury's continued growth and ongoing leadership in the sector. Thank you for considering my election. I look forward to your support and ask for your vote. [Foreign language]
Thank you, Rob. Are there any questions? Anything online?
Yes, we have one question online. Rob, what do you see as a major macro risk for Mercury Energy ?
There are a few major macro risks for Mercury. An obvious one is the regulatory environment that we exist in, and how that might change going forward. Another would be essentially relating to the energy transition, how Mercury responds in terms of both continuing to build further renewable generation, but also responding in terms of providing firming or peaking plant. Both of those risks relate not only to Mercury, but also to the entire sector.
Are there any other questions? Anything more online?
No further questions online.
Okay, thank you. I now move as an ordinary resolution that Rob Hamilton be elected as a Director. The next resolution relates to the election of Rachel Taulelei as a Director. Rachel is an experienced business leader and a Director and advocate for the Māori economy and values-based business models. She currently chairs Moana New Zealand and is a Director of Sealord, The Warehouse Group, Wellington International Airport, and ANZCO Foods. She is a co-founder of Oho, a business design and brand strategy agency, and was formerly CEO of Kono, a Māori-based food and beverage company. Rachel was also the North American Trade Commissioner. I invite Rachel, being eligible for election, to address the meeting.
[Foreign language] Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Rachel Taulelei, and I've just acknowledged our Chair, Scott St John [Foreign language] and all of you in your respective capacities. I've also acknowledged my own [Foreign language] or place of home, [Foreign langage]
It is an absolute pleasure and a privilege to be here with you today seeking election as a new potential appointment to the Mercury NZ Limited Board, and also to meet some of you on our way in this morning, some very long-standing shareholders of Mercury NZ Limited and some new members and attendees to the annual shareholders' meeting. A pleasure to meet you all this morning. Very briefly, I hail from the mighty metropolis of Otaki. Some of you may have been there, but I have lived most of my life in Wellington, just a small period of that living in the United States and Los Angeles for eight or nine years with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
My husband's name is Walter, and we have one daughter, Lily, who is currently on a basketball scholarship and earning a business degree at Iowa State University in the Midwest of America. My professional life is occupied with my brand strategy company, as Scott has said, Oho, and a number of directorships, which you have heard of already, but it's the Wee House Group largely, ANZCO Foods, Wellington Airport, and Sky Stadium. In fact, being here today is actually a little bit difficult for me because in Wellington we have almost a terrible record with the All Blacks, and to be in these hallowed halls, which obviously have all of the right conditions for a win a couple of weeks ago as opposed to the game we host, is a little bit of a tough one for me, team.
It's great to be here, and of course I digress because in addition to the roles that I've spoken of, I also chair the New Zealand Rugby Appointments and Remuneration Panel and the Sustainability Panel for Fonterra. Within the boards that I sit on, I chair a number of subcommittees, including Environmental and Social Sustainability, People and Remuneration, and also Health and Safety. For fun, because I'm an active relaxer, I am the owner of a pro women's basketball team, and I chair our Iwi Lands Trust. I'm a law graduate of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Stanford University, and I'm a member of the Institute of Directors. My professional life, as you may have garnered from that, is one characterized by a varied number of lived experiences.
I've spent the vast majority of my career working in trade in the primary industry and advancing the interests of and opportunities within the Māori economy. I have formed and divested my own businesses over those years and hope to bring a couple of complementary views and experiences to the board of Mercury. The first of those is that I bring a very entrepreneurial mindset, having been in business my own and others for the times that I have done. I also have a very deep commitment, as Scott alluded to, to values-based businesses, which is something that attracted me to the board of Mercury. Finally, while I am wholeheartedly commercial, I also bring a demonstrable relativity, connectivity, and a way of communicating with shareholders that I think has served me well in my professional life thus far.
The Mercury Board really represents to me an opportunity to contribute to the conversation around critical infrastructure of Aotearoa, and in this vein, Mercury is leading the way. It is about ensuring basic access to affordable and renewable energy. My professional practice has always been to jump into challenging environments, to jump into companies and industries which from the outside, if you look at fishing, dairy, and farming, might suggest that there are some headwinds in and around sustainability, but my MO or my way of working is to jump right into the heart of those and try to have a positive influence from the inside. I look forward to doing that at the Mercury table along such a strong executive and also governance team. To conclude, as I said, it's my absolute honor to be seeking election as a Director on the board of Mercury.
I would very much appreciate your support. [Foreign language].
Are there any questions? Anything online?
There are no further questions online, Scott.
Okay, I now move as an ordinary resolution that Rachel Taulelei be elected as a Director. For those in the room who wish to vote on these motions, please tick one box to select for, against, or abstain alongside each of the resolutions in the section marked on your voting form. If you hold a proxy on behalf of a shareholder, you will need to cast that shareholder's votes in order for them to be counted. Where there are undirected votes, proxy holders may vote these as they see fit by ticking the appropriate box. It's worth clarifying that all directed votes are treated as postal votes, and proxies need not complete a voting form in respect of directed votes. Finally, in all cases, please ensure that the voting form is signed.
After voting, please place your form in one of the ballot boxes, which will be passed around the room. If anyone is unsure how to complete the voting form or hasn't got a form, please go to the registration desk where someone will be able to help you. Once all votes have been cast, they will be counted by Computershare. The results of today's meeting will be released to the NZX and the ASX on completion of the verification of voting. Please prepare your forms and cast your votes now. In a minute, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. I am just going to pause for a little while to allow you to finalize those votes. Has everyone managed to get their documents into a box? Are we all right out the back? Are we all right over here?
We just have one more to come in. Perfect. Well done. Voting is closed. Computershare, please collect the papers. We will now open the meeting to questions on general business from the floor, which have been submitted during the course of the meeting. I will take questions from the floor first. Any questions?
Mr. Chair?
Got a question over here. Oh, sorry, you've got them.
My name is [Roy Towers], and I've been a long-time customer in Mercury, but I recently changed my address. The power continued unobstructed, so that was great. After six weeks, I hadn't received an account, so I thought, I'll just check what's going on. I rang the customer services, and the answering phone automatic system said, "The call will be answered in 61 minutes.
I got a bit more to do than sit around for 61 minutes. I hung up and I thought I'll do it again tomorrow. I rang the next day, same thing, and I was told it would be 63 minutes of delay. I took the option of taking that delay. Lo and behold, in 60-odd minutes, the call came through. The operator discussed the matter and said, "Look, I'll just check with the billing department." "Oh, it's 4:30 P.M. They're closed now. I'll have to check that tomorrow and get back to you." I never heard anything the next day. After two days, I rang again. I think it was a 59-minute wait time on the customer services. Is it customer services or is it some other service? When I went through, the girl said, "Oh yes, that was checked and it was validated.
Your account is coming out." No one had come back and told me that, even though customer services said they would. I think you need to just put a little bit more resources into customer services. Anything up to an hour is just ridiculous.
I think what I need to do is apologize to you because that level of service is below the standard that we would hold ourselves to. My apologies, sir. I think perhaps Stew is at the right thing. Can one of our team have a chat to this gentleman after the meeting?
Yeah, absolutely.
One of our team will find you, sir, after the meeting is closed. Other questions?
Here, [Grant Plummer], shareholder. Funny enough, my phone just told me it was time for me to stand.
That's a clever phone.
On the board, we have some of the greatest financial wholesale minds in New Zealand. We have this situation where we make quite a good net profit, but then we have unrealized losses on unhedged derivatives and hedge ineffectiveness through the income statement. That's quite a mighty amount, $340 million. When suddenly down, we've got $1 million profit instead of being a good profit. Overall, Mercury, it seems, is traveling along very, very well. It was a hard year because of obviously the water situation in the Waikato and the prospects of renewable energy look fantastic. When the bottom line is wiped out with a derivatives loss, I'm just wondering what's going wrong with the derivatives? What are the derivatives contributing to the profit and the earnings of the business? What can be done so we don't see these losses again?
I hear you and I understand your frustration with that matter. We are bound by the accounting rules in terms of what we put through the profit and loss and what we don't. As you would imagine, we have quite a bit of hedging or financial insurance, if you like, right across the portfolio. As prices move, we have to mark to market. At the end of the year, sometimes those contracts are in the positive and sometimes they'll be in the negative. Over time, it all washes through. What it does do is move the P&L around a little bit like a hose without a hand on it sometimes. That is why most of the analysts look at a measure of profitability at the earnings before and at the EBITDAF level. Richard, do you want to add anything to that? I know you enjoy the hedging contracts.
Yeah, you look, you've covered it really well, Scott. There are actually, when you look at that negative, two big components. There was one which is the Manawa hedge, which became less positive than it was. That's actually the Manawa hedge running down in time. The other one was the long-term contract that we've put in place for 20 years with the NZ Aluminium Smelter. With electricity prices high, it's negative, but we think we've got a good price in the long term. You're absolutely right. Look at EBITDAF first. That's the real measure of the cash that we're generating, not the accounting.
In the future, I can't, what we're looking to do is grow our earnings progressively over time if you sort of even out hydrology. What I can't guarantee is what these hedging contracts impact on the P&L will be, other than to say there will be pluses and minuses. If you draw a line sort of through that, we're very confident in the financial prospects of the company and our aspiration is to continue growing.
I watch Sky News and I notice big debates about power and that there. It seems the government plays a major role in that issue and it's argued by the opposition. I just wonder how things work in New Zealand. The government's got a 51% share. Do they get involved too much telling you how to do things?
No, look, the government is a very supportive partner of ours. In spite of them being a 50% shareholder, they're not involved in the operations of the enterprise. We maintain healthy levels of communication with the New Zealand Treasury, which ultimately works its way through to ministers. The government is not involved in sort of pulling levers inside the business. Rob referred to this a little earlier, but there is obviously a regulatory sort of overarching framework in which we operate. The government's obviously responsible for that. Putting that to the side, the sort of connections that we have with government are really limited to ensuring Treasury is up to date on what we're doing and occasionally meeting with ministers just to ensure that they understand what we're up to as well.
Hello.
Hi.
My name is [Shabir], a shareholder. First thing, I would like to compliment the board for the excellent performance. You have given a good performance financially and you deserve some praise for that. Apart from that, I've got some three other issues which I will discuss one by one. The first one is about the gas. As you say, the gas is going to dwindle over the years. We don't generate gas over here. Mercury doesn't generate any gas. The government wants to generate gas, but I don't know, the political atmosphere doesn't allow it to generate gas. I want to know whether I have been using Mercury. I am a customer of Mercury. I'm using gas for even heating my hot water cylinder. Why don't you offer me any alternative so that I switch to electricity?
The gas cost, as I analyzed over the period of time, it is skyrocketing and nobody is able to offer me an explanation of how the gas is converted again into energy, this thing. Then it is charged as an energy variable only. I have been actually, I support that first customer that I'm trying to contact this customer service, but it is very difficult to contact and I'm not getting any proper answer from the customer service. I will also speak to him with my detailed analysis of how the customer service is coming to me. It is not at all, I mean, at the level of which Mercury is there. I like a little bit of improvement in the customer service level also.
Sir, is your question how can we help you transition from gas to electricity?
That's right. That's right.
Stew, do you want to take that?
Yeah, firstly.
Shall I finish all my questions, or do you want me to go?
Okay, you are here if you do that quickly, and we'll deal with them one at a time.
This was the one. Now, secondly, the third, the gentleman who said about the government interfering with the profitability. I would like to say because the government is getting such a high dividend, they will definitely not interfere with Mercury 's performance because they are very happy with Mercury 's performance. They are getting a $0.25 dividend also. That is my observation of that. Thank you very much.
Right. Thank you very much, Stew.
Thank you.
First on gas, I definitely acknowledge that the price of gas has been going up over the last couple of years, and that's not just for households, that's across New Zealand and especially into businesses as well. It's definitely a thing we're seeing, primarily being driven by the lack of gas coming out of the fields in New Zealand. Actually, the gas supply in New Zealand has dropped off by nearly a half over the last four or five years. Mercury, as you mentioned, is a buyer of gas. We largely buy gas and then we pass that through to our customers, and that results in prices going up. In terms of electrification, it's basically the best way to move from gas, whether that's hot water heating or space heating. Electrification is the best way to move away from gas consumption and gas usage.
We have a number of initiatives inside Mercury that are looking and exploring, and not just inside Mercury, actually across industry, looking at how we actually support customers, whether that's households or businesses, from transitioning from gas to electricity. That will be something which will grow over time. At this stage, really, there's no specific mechanism to support customers to transition from gas to electricity, but it's something that we are working strongly to assist. I appreciate your feedback, and it's something which we're doing work on.
Questions? Sir?
Thank you. Ray Williams, shareholder. Two years ago, the buzzword was hydrogen. Is there any room for hydrogen in our energy usage?
In a global sense, I'm sure there'll be hydrogen applications, but at the moment, it's not at the top of our list of things that we're considering. Stu, do you want to just elaborate on that?
Yeah, Ray. You might have seen that there was actually a project down the deep south to look at hydrogen coming on stream, and that was dropped off by, I think it was Meridian and Contact who were looking at it at the time. Fundamentally, the cost is significant. The main reason you're looking at hydrogen is for two things. Firstly, you're looking at hydrogen as an alternative gas form or energy form, as per the previous shareholder. Secondly, it's potentially an export value for New Zealand as well. Primarily, both of those things will be cut off by the fact that hydrogen is very expensive at the moment. If we're looking at other forms of energy to enable us to move away from fossil fuel and fossil gases, at the moment, electricity is still cheaper than going to something like hydrogen.
Thank you. Can I ask just one more?
Sure.
Chairman, you say this is your last term. What provisions are you making for your successor?
We have an active process right throughout the organization. We do succession planning, whether it's on the Board or in the Senior Management Team. For each of those roles, we have a list of folk that might be eligible in time. We sort of think about it, you know, whether somebody's ready now, whether we need to develop them a bit further or whatever. It's something that we actively work on. That's certainly the case for my replacement. We have a number of people who could very comfortably step in to the bridge. Yep, yep. That planning extends to sort of big red bus scenarios. If I was to connect with a bus, we have mechanisms to tidy that up.
Yes, good afternoon, everybody. I have a question for Mercury. I would like to see the option of shareholders given the option of a cheaper power plan than getting a dividend.
Right. Okay.
I have been with Mercury shares since they floated from the very beginning.
Okay.
I know you can compile your dividends to more shares, but I'd also like to see the option of a better power plan.
Right. I'm not sure what the mechanics of that might be, but I understand where you're coming from. I'll need to just take that away and think about it with the CEO. Other questions? Sir?
I was just wondering why the votes for the three new directors haven't been shown on the screen, but not the people in the room, but the bigger shareholders. Thank you.
There is reasonably considered discussion around what the right way to go about this is, but one of the ways we think about this is that we don't want to influence the room by showing what, you know, the running tally is. We want people to kind of make their own mind up. Our sense is if we were to show that number up before the voting occurred, that might have the potential to sway folks in terms of the way they vote. That's really the thinking about it.
Hello everyone. My name is Vincent Riego. I've got two questions. One will be, the first question is for the Chief Financial Officer, please. I think there's going to be a substantial increase in the debt. Am I right? Going forward, a substantial increase in the debt?
As we continue to invest in new generation assets, yes, our debt will increase. In terms of, is it substantial? Yes, it's a significant amount, but it's still going to be well within our current credit rating. It's not something I'm concerned about.
We are investing with a view to increasing our earnings, so our ability to service that debt is increasing materially as we go.
Since there is so much pressure on the bottom line with the $1 million net profit, how are you going to service this increased debt? That is my first question. The second one.
That $1 million is after servicing the debt.
After servicing the debt, with this increase in the debt and pressure on profits, I presume you have a well-thought-of plan to service it.
We have a bunch of disciplines in terms of the way we think about our debt, our forward planning, our operational expenditure, our capital expenditure. We are operating well within the bounds of the limits that we set for ourselves. In fact, looking forward, there are some analysts that are suggesting we look a little bit on the conservative side. We look very, very closely at it. You're on the right track in that regard, but we are very comfortable with where we're sitting in that regard.
Going forward, I'm going to complain. Considering raising debt from retail lenders?
Yes. We fund ourselves. We've got about $2.2 billion worth of debt at the moment, and we do have some retail bonds there. As the different funding comes up, some of it is renewal of existing debt, and some of it will be new debt. We'll look at what sources make the most sense, which might include retail debt. Yes.
Thank you. The second question will be for People and Culture. What do you mean? Because more than one director has made a mention of inclusive culture. What actually do you mean by that?
I'll have a crack at that first. New Zealand is a very diverse population. We have a bunch of demographic changes that are taking place, including aging. We need to ensure that we are attracting the best possible talent to execute on our strategic plans. We don't want to be hiring just out of one segment of New Zealand's population. We want to ensure that we are hiring out of the entire population to ensure we get the best talent. Susan, do you want to add anything to that?
Look, I think you've summed it up really rather well. I mean, we're planning for the workforce of the future. We need to be relevant for all of that talent, and they come all shapes, sizes, ages, ethnicities, genders, and works. If you look at what the composition of our big cities are going to be like and the rest of the country, you quickly get into big structural shifts that we need to make sure we're attractive to the people that are actually going to be in our communities during that time. That requires us to adapt, not force our community to change themselves. That's what we think about in terms of inclusion.
Sir.
You already sound like JS Oliver. Hello everybody. In several countries in the world, they've started to plan or build next-gen nuclear power stations. Also in the Commonwealth. As I've heard in Wellington, a discussion of that being applicable for New Zealand has initiated as well. If that comes through, politicians have made a decision on that. Would Mercury in general be thinking of being part of a consortium to build a nuclear power plant in New Zealand? As your debt levels are moving towards 2.5 to 3 times with the projects on board already, is there actually the option of doing so?
Nuclear is not something that we're contemplating at the moment. I would imagine that if government started to ask questions around that and start consulting, we would be part of that consultation process. I would imagine that we would be involved to that extent. That said, we have a really, really strong pipeline out over the next 10 years in terms of expanding our generating capacity, whether it's with regard to wind assets that we're developing, complementing them with batteries, the possibility of solar perhaps that would please James down the end there measurably. We're very, very, very excited about what we might be able to do in geothermal. There's a lot of change in the science of geothermal occurring.
We are very optimistic that that's going to expand the prospectivity of the acreage that we control and allow us to go further into that acreage, drill more holes, and make geothermal a more substantial part of our energy generation stack. If we can do that, it is quite transformational for New Zealand because it really balances up the variability that we have around some of the other assets that we have.
Hi. Cameron Stewart, IPO shareholder, bondholder, and customer. My question is regarding domestic solar. New Zealand is at the bottom of the world, 2% uptake, 2-3%. The rest of the world is 30-40%. Okay. Now, my first question is, what is Mercury doing as far as trying to get some subsidies from the government to initiate more uptake? That's my first question. My second question is, I have two properties. One is a holiday home and I live in Auckland. All right. I'm putting solar on my holiday home. Okay. You're going to buy back my electricity at $0.08, and then when I use it in Auckland, you're going to charge me $0.30. Point taken. Second question. Could all those people on the Board of Directors put your hand up that are electrical engineers? Says State of Affairs. End. Thank you.
Right. We are not in discussion with the government around subsidizing solar. That's something that the government will decide, I'm sure, if it believes it is a sensible thing. Stew, do you want to make any comment in terms of sort of solar coming back into the grid?
Yeah, sure. It's one of the, certainly acknowledge that rooftop solar will have an increasing role to play in New Zealand over the coming years. New Zealand will start to move towards some of the other places like Australia and particularly South Australia. There are, to your point, around buying rooftop solar power at $0.08 and then selling it back at $0.30. The big issue with solar is that solar is produced between sort of 8:00 A.M. in the morning and 5:00 P.M. in the morning when there's actually not a huge demand for solar. Most people actually use a lot of the power in the mornings and the evenings when there is quite a lot of demand. What you'll see is the price of power moves quite significantly throughout the day.
It's not that companies are buying solar at a different price and then giving it back to you at a higher price. It's actually moving power around the days from cheaper periods through to more expensive periods based on the demand, which largely matches things like peaks and troughs during the day.
When people get up in the morning, demand goes up a lot. When people get home, it drops off. When people get home at night from work, demand goes up a lot. Other questions? At the back.
Yeah, hi, Rankin shareholder. In relation to geothermal, there's a current trend to reinject the CO2 back into the ground, which is great for the environment. I just wonder how many steps have been taken to make sure that it's not affecting the environment subsurface?
Yeah, just for those to understand, geothermal largely is pulling up fluid from under the ground up to the surface to extract the energy, and then we reinject it back into the ground or back into the reservoir. There is an amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in that liquid, that brine, when you pull it out of the ground, and some of that is released into the atmosphere. Even though geothermal is a renewable form of energy, it does actually emit some small amount of carbon dioxide. Over the last few years, actually, Mercury has been a bit of a pioneer in looking at how we capture that CO2 and then reinject it back into the ground. It's a little bit like a soda stream bottle when you kind of push the button and you reinject the CO2 back into the liquid.
We have an enormous team of highly capable geophysicists and geologists that actually do a lot of monitoring of the reservoir. They actually look at, for the reservoir we're doing that on, a place called Ngā Tamariki . They look at a lot of data to understand, is that CO2 still staying dissolved inside the reservoir or is it being emitted elsewhere? We have a lot of data, and it's one of the reasons why we have been taking it relatively slowly to make sure we test 25%, look at what's happening in the reservoir, look at a lot of data to understand it, then we go further. All the time we've got teams inside Kevin's team actually monitoring that reservoir very, very closely.
Other questions from the floor? Madam.
Okay. Barbara O'Connor from the New Zealand Shareholders Association.
Hi Barbara.
I have two questions, and they really arise from comments that were made at the AGM last year. The first one is in relation to how Transpower was going to bring future benefits to the company. You've been silent on that this year, and I wonder, are you actually achieving the benefits that you anticipated from that merger? The second question is in relation to the international trip that was taken about two years ago or slightly more, looking at new projects. I wonder what has happened in the last 12 months and what projects are coming out of that international trip?
Just dealing with that first. With the international trip, essentially that was focused on, well, there were several legs of it. There was a bit of AI, but a lot of it was around new technologies. None of those we have deployed as yet in New Zealand, but we are deploying new technologies in New Zealand. With regard to your first question, I think, did you perhaps mean Trustpower rather than Transpower? Okay. We are well through that process of integration. We're very happy with how that process has gone. We are getting synergistic benefits out of that merger. Stu, do you want to add anything to that?
Yeah. The synergy benefits, I think $36 million, have been achieved out of that integration. That's now, they've been delivered, and we showed those at our full-year results recently and also talked to them at our Investor Day back in June. We covered that pretty extensively in terms of the benefit. The other really key benefit that flows on into the future is the ability for us to bundle products. Trustpower had an amazing product suite of telco options, and particularly broadband. Mercury now is the fourth largest provider of broadband into New Zealand households. We have 38% of our customers that have two products or more. Taking on that capability from Trustpower has been brought into Mercury, and our match is much, much stronger in that space.
Thanks, Stew. I'm going to switch to online because we've got a few questions starting to bank up there. The first question from Mr. Grant is, what are the risks of Mercury not achieving $1 billion EBITDAF for the 2026 year? When we set these targets, what we're trying to do is be aspirational, but not to be reckless. We tie this stuff back into our management rewards and incentives system. There is nothing in particular that we are facing that would knock us off the rails other than the kind of obvious commercial risks that sit in the world that we sit in. The most obvious of those is hydrology. To what extent does it rain? That affects how much water we've got to use in the lake and subsequently down the Waikato. We've had a good start to the year. No surprises there.
July was pretty wet and we're going well. It remains to be seen what the rest of the year will bring. Got another question from Mr. Bush. It relates to data centers existing and proposed and the energy requirements they might have. Can we comment on the impact on the current network and what these are likely to have on consumer pricing? Stew, do you want to have a crack at this? We are actively involved. It won't surprise you we're talking to folk who are thinking about data centers. One of the ways we think about this is that if there is a proposition, what we might do is try and tie one of our developments to that proposition to match the energy with the demand. Stew, do you want to add to that?
Absolutely. Yeah. Data centers definitely have a future to play, probably quite a big future to play even in New Zealand. We've actually been part of supporting a study which has been conducted over the last few months and was presented last week in Wellington. It outlines the future of what data centers look like in New Zealand. We believe it's got a huge role to play and we have a key role to play in providing electricity to that. Really good examples of what had already been done in New Zealand. Our Turitea Wind Farm, our Turitea South Wind Farm, actually half of the output of that wind farm goes to Amazon Web Services. We're already significantly involved in providing power to data centers.
The really good thing that Scott alluded to is that having large loads like data centers gives us the confidence to build more and bigger generation development projects. What that does ultimately is it creates more load in the system, which creates more stability and will over time improve affordability as well. It's a really important factor that it creates the confidence for us to keep building new renewable generation, which will support all New Zealand.
Mr. Grant has asked a question with regard to Q1 earnings and how we're tracking. I think I mentioned we had a good start in July. We have continuous disclosure obligations to the exchanges that we trade on, and we have indicated the $1 billion as the target, and we're still on track. We're still on track for that. Other questions from the floor, from the online. We have another question from Mr. Grant. All major generators are ramping up electricity production. It seems to me we'll have surplus generation capacity by 2032. This will have a significant negative EBITDAF effect. Is this not a likely outcome given all of the proposed production increases? I guess that's one scenario. We work very, very hard on forecasting both demand and supply. We put an enormous amount of resource into it.
When we are looking at the various projects that we bring online, critical to that is the price that we believe that we can get that energy away at. The biggest determinant of that is the supply-demand balance. We think we're in reasonably good shape there, but it is an industry that from time to time might see a little bit of overbuild. A little bit of overbuild will send price signals to the market that will slow that build down. Most of our energy contracts are very long-term, so they tend not to sway around intramonth like the spot market.
Jump in.
Yeah, you want to add?
Yeah, you can cover it. Scott, the other thing I'd say is that the board do keep management very on top of us in terms of making sure that when we put forward projects, we are putting forward projects in a way that carefully shows different scenarios for price rises in the future and make sure that we're allocating capital very efficiently. We make sure, so my job and our job as executives is to put forward these projects that are ready to go. We put forward scenarios in terms of what the price is going to be, and that's when we make the decision. The other really key thing is that when we put forward projects and the role that Tim Thompson talked about in terms of his team is to look at what the offtake agreement is.
For example, the Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm, which Kaiwera Downs II Wind Farm, which is currently in construction in Southland, that project went ahead because we've entered into a 20-year PPA or power purchase agreement with NZ Aluminium Smelter, which largely matches the two. We entered into a 20-year agreement, which gives us more confidence over the revenue, and that gives us the confidence to build and invest that capital into a new wind farm.
Thanks, Stew. We've got a question from Mrs. Bailey, and she's shocked, actually. She's shocked to find out that she could no longer download her half-hour electricity data to a spreadsheet that she obviously uses. She's expressing that that's not a good thing, and she would like that change reversed so she has access to that data. Now, I don't, is that something we can answer here?
Yeah, we can share that. We were paying an American company quite a large sum of money for a product that wasn't really fit for future. Our team have built their own, and the first iteration to that, that was one of the features that we didn't put live. We have a roadmap, and we're going to continue to develop that product. We'll deliver better services to our customers through time. Watch that space. We'll drop her a note separately to this.
There'll be an email from Mrs. Bailey in the system there somewhere. If you could get in touch and give her a bit of an idea of when that might be coming down the pipe. Right. Have we got anything more online?
One further question online, Scott.
Thank you. Okay. The investment pipeline, this is from Oliver and Hildegard Krollmann. The investment pipeline showed solar generation and battery storage development from 2028. Please provide some more information on what locations are being considered and what capacity these projects might be. I will answer that. We have projects being built at the moment and in our potential pipeline from the top of the North Island right to the bottom of the South. We have quite a diverse lineup of prospective projects. One of the things that we need to do as we're assessing whether we're going to invest your capital in those projects is to assess which are the most attractive and prioritize which ones we're going to bring to market and when. I say that as an overarching comment, but Stew, do you want to add anything to that?
Yes, the grid scale solar keeps growing in New Zealand. There are two ways for Mercury to, I guess, interact and be a part of that growth in terms of grid scale solar. One is for us to build solar farms ourselves, and that's certainly something we're considering. Typically, those projects will be in the areas which have the greatest sun. Typically, that will make them in the North Island or in an area which is pretty warm. They're definitely on our list. At the moment, we believe that our wind farms have a much more beneficial and a much more positive business case to be building than some of those solar farms. That's why we are on that chart that was shown before, actually pushing on ahead into onshore wind and geothermal because we believe that is better, more beneficial for our shareholders than solar at the moment.
The other area which we can actually help New Zealand in grid scale solar is through contracting. We don't necessarily have to build the solar farm ourselves. We can go to a developer and a developer can build a solar farm, and we can provide them a fixed price for taking the power from their solar farm, which gives them the confidence to build that solar farm. Tim and our team are also working very closely with a number of independent solar farm developers to look at putting in place these contracts called PPA or power purchase agreements that then enable them to build solar farms of that size.
Paul, is there anything else online?
No further questions online, Scott.
Okay. We're getting to the end. I'll just cast my cross. Is there anything else from the floor that you don't think we've covered? It appears to be that there's no further questions or matters for discussion. Thank you all for your engagement and your attention. That brings us to the end of Mercury's 2025 annual shareholders meeting. For those of you who are here in person, we hope that you will stay for tea, coffee, and biscuits. Before I cross to Mike, I just want to make the comment that James Miller, who was there but has disappeared, reminded us yesterday just what an important industry that we're involved in. This company is a New Zealand champion. It is a critical facilitator of economic growth in New Zealand through the investments that we are making in our generation capacity.
It's a company I believe you can all be very proud to be involved in. Welcome.
[Foreign language] , Scott. Look, I've just been asked to close our meeting today with a quick Karakia. Before I do, I just want to take this opportunity to personally thank you, the owners, for supporting me over the last 10 years. I walk out of the door here today for the last time feeling incredibly proud of being part of this business, this organization. I truly believe that it's one of the most important businesses in this economy. We have a big role to do to make sure that we can support our industries and our households to prosper. I think Mercury's got a key role to play in it.
I can tell you now because I'm unconflicted and I'll be sitting in those seats looking back here next time, that the corporate DNA from inside this business is so strong and so powerful because its duty of care to people and the natural resources we rely on for our fuel are immense. That's going to get us through this difficult transition because that compass is holding us steady on a course of uncertainty in the future. I feel proud of being part of it. I'm going to feel proud of watching the success into the future. Thank you again for your support over the last 10 years and now into the future. I'm just going to close with a quick Karakia.