Good morning.
Good morning.
I want to thank you all for joining us today. This is the annual general meeting of the holders of units and special voting units of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust. The meeting will now come to order. Before we begin, kindly turn off mobile devices and alarm devices. Ushers are at the entrance to guide you to the washroom facilities. My name is Mitchell Goldhar, and I am the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SmartCentres and a trustee. Before we start the formal portion of the meeting, I will introduce the other trustees and officers of SmartCentres. In addition to myself, our current trustees are Janet Bannister, Garry Foster, Gregory Howard, Sylvie Lachance, Jamie McVicar, Sharm Powell, and Michael Young. After more than 20 years of service to SmartCentres, Mr. Jamie McVicar has decided not to stand for reelection at this year's annual meeting.
On behalf of the board of trustees and the whole SmartCentres team, I would like to thank Mr. McVicar for his years of dedicated and valuable service. As noted in SmartCentres Management Information Circular for this meeting, Mr. Neil Cunningham has been proposed for election at the meeting. In addition to myself, our officers are Peter Slan, Chief Financial Officer; Rudy Gobin, Executive Vice President, Portfolio Management and Investments; Allan Scully, Executive Vice President, Development; Paula Bustard, Executive Vice President, Development; Dan Markou, Executive Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer. Michael Young is the lead independent trustee of SmartCentres and will be the chairman for this meeting. Michael.
Thank you, Mitch. As this meeting is being held in person and online via live webcast, I will first set out a few matters to facilitate the orderly conduct of the meeting. First, registered unit holders and proxy holders who wish to vote at the meeting and cast a ballot in person may do so. Ballots were provided when you signed in at the registration outside this room. Those registered unit holders and proxy holders who wish to vote at the meeting and cast a ballot online should have logged into the website by entering their 15-digit control number on their proxy form. Proxy holders, including beneficial owners who appointed themselves as proxy holders, should have logged into the webcast by entering the 15-digit control number they received after they appointed themselves as proxy holder and registered with Computershare.
If you have logged in or logged on properly, the electronic ballot will be displayed. You are encouraged to complete your voting as soon as practical since voting will close promptly after the conclusion of the formal business of the meeting. Be sure to stay connected to the internet at all times in order to vote when the balloting begins. If you have voted your units prior to the start of the meeting, your vote has been received by the scrutineer, and there is no need to vote during the meeting unless you wish to revoke or change your vote. Once the formal items of business are removed, we will take questions received from the floor and through the online messaging platform. The legal name of the submitting unit holder or proxy holder should be read aloud before the question is addressed.
Questions that are redundant or have inappropriate language or are otherwise unruly or disruptive to the orderly conduct of the meeting will not be addressed. General unitholder questions that do not directly relate to the meeting's items of business will not be addressed during the meeting but will be followed up on after the meeting. Given timing delays for our online participants, unitholders who are participating online are encouraged to submit their questions at the beginning of the meeting through the online messaging platform. These questions will be addressed during the meeting if they relate to a particular matter or will be addressed during the Q&A session immediately following the formal business of the meeting. If during the meeting we encounter any technical difficulties with the webcast, please remain logged on, and we will resume as soon as possible.
I would like to caution you by stating the following: Forward-looking statements may be made today, both during the formal portion of the meeting and during the Q&A session afterwards. Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in providing these statements, many of which are beyond our control. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. A summary of these underlying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties is contained in our various securities filings, including our Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31st, 2023, and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31st, 2024, all of which are available on SEDAR+ and on SmartCentres website. Forward-looking statements are made as of today's date and except as required by applicable securities laws.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements. Additionally, past performance is not indicative of future results given the risks and uncertainties described in our AIF and MD&As. We will now proceed with the formal portion of today's meeting. I call this meeting to order. With the consent of the meeting, I will appoint Chris Murray, legal counsel for SmartCentres as secretary of this meeting, and Computershare Trust Company of Canada, represented by Louise Waltenbury, as scrutineer for the meeting. A notice informing unit holders of the meeting, along with a Management Information Circular and a Form of Proxy , were mailed to the holders of record of units and special voting units as of April 5th, 2024. I will use the term unit holders to refer to both holders of units and holders of special voting units.
The audited financial statements and related Management's Discussion and Analysis of SmartCentres for the year ended December 31st, 2023, have also been mailed to anyone who requested to receive those documents. Computershare has provided an affidavit of mailing of the notice calling the meeting, the Management Information Circular , and the Form of Proxy for the meeting. I request that a copy of the notice of the annual general meeting of unit holders, together with the affidavit attesting to the mailing of the notice, the Management Information Circular , and the Form of Proxy , be kept by the secretary with the records of the meeting. Unless someone objects, I propose to dispense with the reading of the notice of this meeting.
The declaration of trust of SmartCentres provides that a quorum of this meeting of at least two persons present and holding or representing by proxy no less than 25% of the units and special voting units. The scrutineer's report shows that there are 80 holders of units present at the meeting holding or representing approximately 45.53% of the issued units of SmartCentres. There are also 24 holders of special voting units present at the meeting holding or representing by proxy 98.54% of the issued special voting units of SmartCentres. The total representation of this meeting present in person or represented by proxy is 65,852,149 units and 42,640,238 special voting units, being 57.74% of the units and special voting units of SmartCentres in aggregate. I declare that the meeting has been regularly called and is properly constituted for the transaction of business.
The scrutineer's report will be provided to the secretary of the meeting and will be incorporated into the meeting's minutes. In order to expedite the formal part of the meeting, certain unit holders have been asked to propose and second various motions. While this procedure will assist with the handling of formal matters, it should not discourage any considered, and the scrutineer will tabulate the votes cast, and we will report on the results toward the end of the meeting. The first item of business is the presentation of the audited financial statements of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust for the year ended December 31st, 2023, and the auditor's report thereon. As stated earlier, the 2023 audited financial statements and related MD&A were mailed to all unit holders who requested to receive those documents.
I do not propose to read the financial statements to the meeting nor to ask unit holders to approve the financial statements, but they be taken as presented to the meeting. The next item of business is to fix the number of trustees to be elected or appointed at this meeting. May I please have a motion?
I move to fix the aggregate number of trustees to be elected or appointed at this meeting at no more than eight.
I second the motion.
Thank you. You've heard the motion. Are there any questions on this matter?
Mr. Chairman, we have not received any online questions or comments related to this item.
Good. Motion approved. The next item of business is the election of trustees. As stated in the Management Information Circular, the trustees of SmartCentres have adopted a policy that entitles unit holders to vote for each nominee on an individual basis. In addition, the trustees have adopted a policy stipulating that if the votes in favor of a nominee for the election of a trustee of SmartCentres represent less than a majority of the units voted and withheld, the nominee will submit his or her resignation after the meeting for consideration of the Corporate Governance and Compensation Committee. It is proposed that the six nominees set out in the Management Information Circular be elected as trustees to hold office until the next annual meeting or until their successors are elected or appointed.
The Penguin Group has confirmed that Gregory Howard and Mitchell Goldhar will be the Penguin Group nominees' appointees to the remaining two trustee positions on the board. I entertain motions for the nominations of persons to be elected to the six trustee positions to be determined by the unit holders of SmartCentres. The nominees for election for the six trustee positions to be determined by the unit holders of SmartCentres to hold office until the next annual meeting of unit holders or until their successors are elected or appointed are: Janet Bannister, Neil Cunningham, Garry Foster, Sylvie Lachance, Sharm Powell, and myself, Michael Young.
I nominate the nominees for trustee named in the Management Information Circular prepared for this meeting for election as trustees of the trust to hold office until the next annual meeting of unit holders or until their successors are elected or appointed.
Thank you, Rudy. As no notice of additional trustee nominations was received in accordance with SmartCentres' advance notice policy, I declare nominations closed. Are there any questions or comments submitted in connection with the election of trustees?
Mr. Chairman, we have not received any questions or comments related to this item.
Thank you. The next item of business is the appointment of the auditor of SmartCentres for the next year. Rudy.
I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants, be appointed the auditors of SmartCentres for the ensuing year and that trustees of SmartCentres be authorized to fix the remuneration of such auditor.
I second the motion.
Thank you. You have heard the motion. Are there any questions or comments submitted in connection with the appointment of the auditor?
Mr. Chairman, we have not received.
How long has this firm been the auditors of the trust?
I think it's been 19 years. As noted in our Management Information Circular, we did do a comprehensive review of the external auditors and concluded that they remain independent and that it was the audit committee's recommendation that they be reappointed for this year.
Thank you.
Okay.
I'm sorry? We have not received any online questions or comments related to this item.
Good. Thank you. As noted on pages 72 and 73 of the Management Information Circular prepared for this meeting, unit holders are asked to consider an annual non-binding advisory resolution respecting to our approach to executive compensation. As this is an advisory vote, the results will not be binding on the board of trustees of SmartCentres. However, the board of trustees will take the results of the vote into account as appropriate when considering future compensation policies, programs, and decisions. May I please have a motion?
I move that on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the board of trustees of SmartCentres, the approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the Management Information Circular of SmartCentres dated April 5th, 2024, be accepted.
I second the motion.
Thank you. Were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with this matter?
Mr. Chairman, we have not received any questions or comments related to this item.
Thank you. As this is the last item of business, we will provide registered unit holders and duly appointed proxy holders a few more moments to complete ballots in person or to complete electronic ballots online before closing the polls. I now declare the polls closed on each of the items of business. Thank you. The scrutineer will now tabulate the results, and we will disclose the official voting results shortly after this meeting. However, we have been advised that based on proxies received prior to the meeting, the preliminary results are as follows. With respect to the motion to fix the aggregate number of trustees to be elected or appointed to the meeting at no more than eight, a majority of the votes cast by proxy were in favor of the motion. Therefore, the motion has been carried.
With respect to the motion to elect trustees, each of the six nominees listed in the Management Information Circular have received a majority of the votes cast by proxy in favor of his or her election. Therefore, I confirm they are elected trustees. With respect to the motion to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the auditor of SmartCentres for the ensuing year, a majority of the votes cast by proxy were in favor of the motion. Therefore, the motion has been carried. With respect to the motion that on an advisory basis, the approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the Management Information Circular be accepted, a majority of the votes cast by proxy were in favor of the motion. Therefore, the motion has been carried. I direct that the results of the poll be included with the minutes of the meeting.
The results of the meeting will be announced in a press release in accordance with the policies of the TSX and filed on SEDAR+. Now that we have completed the formal items of business for this meeting, I propose that we terminate the meeting.
I move that the meeting be concluded.
I second the motion.
Thank you. Thank you all for attending the meeting. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the SmartCentres unit holders for your support. We will now have a short process of question and answer. Any questions from the floor or online? No questions online. No questions from the floor.
Hold on.
Go ahead. Sure.
Since 19, I mean, 2021, we served for 45. Now that I'm with them, in your type C, you're still giving all types of incentives for these executives and everything, RSUs and everything else. How do you justify this when your shares are doing terribly?
I couldn't hear you. Maybe repeat the question.
Mitch, the question in the room was asked about given the share price being low and looking at the various executive compensation components that have been paid, what's the rationale for paying the executives in light of the performance of the unit price?
Well, we do a survey, I believe it is annually, to make sure that our compensation is in line with the industry and the market. So we have done that, and it is in line with the market. It's important to have the best in the industry running the company, and we have to be of course, we have to be competitive. There are incentives and/or additional or not compensation related to various metrics, measures of performance. So the staff is united in their interests are all aligned with the unit holders on basis of performance. So stock price is the one thing that the market ultimately, the outside market has huge influence on, but many, many other metrics are used to determine compensation for the SmartCentres. So in every respect, this is market. This is fair, and this is normal.
We are all aligned, and we are most all of us unit holders and are incentivized to get the unit price up where it should be.
Any other questions? Okay. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
I'll make a comment on what you answered. It's like Nortel. Nortel looks to me like I was an indigent They finally went broke. They were still giving them compensation, paying high wages, and finally had been broke. The shareholders were left with nothing. That's what I'm saying. There should be something more than just to say that they pay you more money and compensation. I'm not saying this company's going to fold. I'm just saying that Nortel was doing the same, and finally in the end, they went broke. Just a comment.
Yeah. Thank you.
I've never seen them raise their dividend or raise unit prices and give the shareholders a fighting chance to realize it . And not go for every company. If you do go bankrupt, at least you got something as a shareholder. And nobody can tell me this company or any other company can't go bankrupt, not General Motors, Nortel. Chrysler all went under, and these are big boards. Thank you.
Good. Thank you. Thanks for the comment. Okay. Thank you all for attending. Appreciate your support, sponsorship, questions. We look forward to seeing you again next year. I move that the meeting be concluded.
Thank you, sir.
That's it. Thank you.
You have to second that. Michael Young has to second it.
I second it.
Okay. There we go. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, everybody.