Ampol Limited (ALD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the 2021 Annual General Meeting of Ampol Limited. We'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay our respects to elders past and present. My name is Steven Gregg, and I have the honor of being your Chairman. As a result of the proxies I hold as Chairman, we have a quorum present, so I declare this meeting open. I will now outline the technology and procedural matters for the meeting. Today's meeting is being held online via the Lumi platform. This allows shareholders, proxyholders and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxyholders have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. Our AGM online guide for today's meeting is available on the AGM website. [Operator Instructions] The portal is now open to receive your questions, and they can be submitted at any time throughout the meeting. You do not need to wait until we get to the item of business to which your question relates to submit your question. Please keep each question short and to the point so that as many shareholders as possible can ask a question. Jeff Etherington, our Interim CFO, is here with me today and will read out the name of the shareholder and their question. We want to take best efforts to honor and address all questions. However, in the interest of the limited time we have, we may choose to merge some of the questions together where there is a duplication in the subject matter. If we do run out of time, we will look to provide the direct responses to outstanding questions and post these responses on our website for all shareholders. I would now like to briefly summarize the voting procedures, which will apply to this meeting. As we have asked you to participate online, each resolution will be conducted by poll. [Operator Instructions] You may do this at any time during the meeting once the poll has been opened. You can also change your vote at any point up until the poll is declared closed at the conclusion of the meeting. Let me start the meeting today with some introductions. With me on stage is our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Matt Halliday. Also at our Sydney head office are Non-Executive Directors Penny Winn, Melinda Conrad, Barbara Ward, Mark Chellew, Gary Smith and Mike Ihlein. Today, Mark Chellew is seeking reelection, and Mike Ihlein and Gary Smith are seeking election as Non-Executive Directors of Ampol. We also have our company Secretary, Mike Abbott, and representative of our external auditor, KPMG, in attendance. Today, we say farewell to Barbara, who will retire as a Director of Ampol after 6 years on the Board. Barbara has made a valuable contribution to Ampol and the Board over many years, including as Chair of the Human Resources Committee and as a valued member of the Audit Committee. We thank Barbara for her service and wish her all the best for the future. With Barbara departing, we have made good progress on our search for a new director who can make a positive contribution to the future of Ampol and who will bring complementary skills to the Board. I look forward to updating shareholders on these developments in the near future. All the members of the Ampol leadership team are also here today. I would like to specifically make mention of the recent appointments to the team, including Mike Abbott, who joined us as Chief Governance and Risk Officer in January. Mike is also our company's Secretary and brings a significant amount of experience both as a lawyer and a senior executive, including, most recently, as a Senior Vice President of Corporate and Legal at Woodside Energy. I'd also like to note the recent appointment of Mr. Greg Barnes as our Chief Financial Officer. Greg was appointed late last month and will bring to Ampol significant experience as a CFO and across key finance functions in ASX-listed companies in Australia and in relevant industries overseas. Greg will formally join Ampol on the 1st of July this year, and we look forward to him making a strong contribution to our future success. I'd also like to give a big thanks to our Interim CFO, Jeff Etherington, who has done a truly outstanding job leading our finance function over the last 12 months. Following Greg's appointment, Jeff will return to his role of Deputy CFO. Before we progress with today's agenda, I will provide my review of the 2020 performance and an update on the execution of our growth strategies, then hand over to our Managing Director and CEO, Matt Halliday. Matt will provide some of his own reflections on the 2020 highlights and provide a summary of the trading performance over the first 4 months of the year and our focus for the remainder of this year. I'll now provide my review of the 2020 performance. Ampol delivered a resilient financial result in 2020 in a very challenging operating environment. Ongoing government restrictions implemented in response to COVID-19 and the depth and breadth of challenges to the Australian economy impacted demand for our products throughout the year, while sustained weakness in refining margins negatively impacted the performance of our Lytton refinery. On historic cost-profit basis, Ampol's net profit after tax was a loss of $485 million, impacted by a $360 million inventory loss and a $337 million loss in significant items. Our replacement cost of sales operating profit EBIT result was $401 million, down 34% on 2019. Despite this, there were several highlights as we continue to execute our strategy and deliver on commitments made to shareholders. Significant capital is released through our convenience retail property transaction. We issued a $500 million hybrid bond as part of our capital management strategy and announced a $300 million off-market buyback, which has benefited all shareholders. We also completed our CEO transition process, made 2 appointments to the Ampol Board and began the execution of our exciting transition to Ampol. The business also responded quickly throughout the year to protect our balance sheet and cash flow and to manage the impact of the challenging conditions created by COVID-19. In just a few weeks from March 2020, we brought forward our extended Lytton refinery turnaround and inspection; reduced our capital expenditure for the year; and took strong action on costs, including reducing fees and salaries for our Board and executive team members. Unfortunately, many of our employees were also impacted with stand-downs, reduced working hours and other changes to employment required. However, I'm very proud of the efforts of all our employees in responding to the challenges of COVID-19. Despite the significant disruption to global hydrocarbon markets throughout the year, our supply chains remain resilient, and we continue to deliver safely and reliably for our customers and the broader community. We have continued to deliver for our shareholders throughout the execution of the strategy and dividend returns. In 2020, we made strong progress in the delivery of our growth strategies. In Fuels & Infrastructure International, we achieved an 18% earnings growth, and volumes increased by 36% in volatile market conditions. Milestones in the evolution of our international operations were also achieved with the extension of our international storage program and the opening of our Houston trading and shipping office. These milestones support opportunities for further expansion into new geographies, products and services over the medium to longer term. In Convenience Retail, we delivered a 7% increase in like-for-like sales and a $25 million increase in shop contribution margin, reflecting improvements in our operational performance and customer offer. We also reached practical completion of our transition from franchisee operations. As the Australian convenience market continues to grow, we will continue to execute our retail growth strategy to achieve our nonfuel earnings uplift target of $85 million by 2024. The safety of our people and customers is always a priority, and I'm extremely pleased with the strong improvement in our safety performance in 2020. The extended T&I at our Lytton refinery was completed incident-free, and we also recorded our best process safety result in the past 5 years. Fuels & Infrastructure benefited from targeted personnel safety improvement plans to reduce the frequency of injuries and accidents such as strains, slips, trips and falls. Convenience Retail safety also improved significantly due to our focus on behavioral safety and the execution of our safety road map, driving a reduction in the frequency of low-consequence injuries, especially around manual handling tasks. In June 2020, I was pleased to announce the completion of our CEO transition process, with Matt Halliday appointed as MD and CEO. Matt did an outstanding job as the Interim CEO, leading Ampol through a period of unprecedented disruption following potential M&A activity and the onset of COVID-19. His skills and knowledge of the business and his track record in 2020 gives the Board every confidence in Matt's ability to successfully deliver on our strategy. In June, I was also pleased to announce the appointment of Mike Ihlein and Gary Smith to the Ampol Board as Independent Non-Executive Directors. Mike and Gary bring a substantial experience as executives and as directors, which I'll speak to further before putting the resolutions for their appointment to the meeting, and they will be significant assets to the Board over the coming years. On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend our thanks to Matt, his leadership team and to all employees for their efforts to deliver for customers and shareholders in a very tough environment in 2020. I would like also to thank you, the shareholders, for your continued support of Ampol as we move forward to execute our strategy for the medium and longer term. I'll now hand over to our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Matt, to address the meeting.

Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, everyone. I'm honored to have been appointed last year to lead this great Australian company. Ampol has a rich history here in Australia, and our track record of delivering for shareholders, customers and communities remains at the heart of everything that we do. While it has been a difficult 12 months with myriad challenges impacting our financial performance, I'm optimistic about our future. I believe we can sustainably deliver value and growth for shareholders and customers while being a positive contributor in local communities as we execute our strategy in the years ahead. 2020 was a year of significant volatility and uncertainty with severe economic impact from bushfires, adverse weather and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, we made excellent progress in delivering on the initiatives outlined to shareholders in 2019, and I'm proud of how Ampol responded to the challenges that we faced. We successfully completed our retail property transaction with Charter Hall and GIC acquiring a 49% interest in 203 of our core freehold property sites and executed a $500 million hybrid bond issuance. Fuels & Infrastructure International EBIT grew by 18%, and strong momentum developed in our convenience retail shops, providing a platform from which we will continue to grow. We were also able to deliver on our commitment to release franking credits to our shareholders with a $300 million off-market buyback announced in November and completed in January 2021, which was supplemented by a $0.48 per share fully franked full year dividend. We made strong progress during the year on our rebrand to Ampol, and we are well positioned to leverage this iconic brand to engage and win new customers. I have no doubt that now is the right time to be rebranding to Ampol. We have a proud history as an Australian company, and this really sets us apart from our competitors as the only major Australian fuel brand in the market. In 2020, we delivered the rebrand of our first 26 Ampol retail sites. Importantly, site volumes for rebranded sites are performing in line with our surrounding network. We also launched our Amplify premium fuels and AmpolCard brands and engaged key B2B customers to further strengthen these very long-term relationships. Delivering for customers is one of the key reasons that we exist, and as CEO, I will ensure that we continue to have customers at the very heart of our decision-making. In 2020, we also finalized new partnerships with Red Bull Ampol Racing, the National Rugby League as the naming rights sponsor of the Ampol State of Origin, Surf Life Saving Australia and The Smith Family. Ampol has a deep history of giving back to communities across the country, and under my leadership as CEO, we will reignite our commitment to leveraging our employees, skills and infrastructure to make a positive impact wherever we operate. Late last month, Ampol updated the market on trading conditions and performance in the first quarter of 2021. On a replacement cost of sales basis, Ampol's earnings before interest and tax for the first quarter was a pleasing $150 million. That's up from $122 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 and above the result of $142 million delivered in the first quarter of 2020. In the first quarter, we continued to successfully execute our growth strategies in Fuel & Infrastructure International and in Convenience Retail. F&I International EBIT increased 11% versus the prior corresponding period, and Convenience Retail EBIT increased by 3% on the prior quarter, which is a strong result considering the increase in crude oil prices over that period. Fuel volumes remained weak during the quarter, given multiple snap COVID lockdowns. However, we expect to see a recovery in Australian fuel demand as the year progresses. Ampol maintains its Australian volume guidance of between 13.5 billion and 14 billion liters in 2021 with a volume run rate in March within this guidance range. Jet volumes were down 53% during the first quarter versus the prior period and were 16% lower than fourth quarter 2020 due to the continued impact of COVID-19, including international and domestic travel restrictions and supply chain optimization decisions that we made around some markets. Australian wholesale demand weakness arising from the temporary reinstatement of travel restrictions impacted both gasoline, down 21% versus prior period, and also diesel volumes, which were down 8% versus prior period with nonretail-linked diesel demand remaining more resilient. Ampol's Convenience Retail fuel volumes were down 7% during the first quarter on the prior period. However, shop performance remained very strong, with shop sales on a like-for-like basis up approximately 10% on the same period last year despite impacts from the snap COVID-19 lockdowns. Shop performance has been underpinned by continued focus on merchandise range, growth in the delivery channel and management of controllables, particularly around wastage and costs. Heading into 2021, we remain focused on cost and capital discipline and will continue to make decisions to improve returns and deliver growth for our shareholders. Ampol has a proud history and record of delivering through a range of market conditions, and I have no doubt we are well positioned as the economy continues to recover and international borders eventually reopen. We will continue to successfully execute on our rebrand to Ampol with the national rollout to achieve scale by the end of 2021. Our rollout has begun to gather some real momentum with 168 sites in the branded network transitioned as at the end of April, and we expect to be rebranding more than 100 sites per month going forward. The review of Lytton refinery to determine the best path forward to maximize value for shareholders is very well progressed and will complete by the end of the second quarter of 2021. Ampol continues to engage constructively with the government on a potential support package, and understanding the government support available is one of the final outstanding items to address prior to the conclusion of our review. Ampol will update the market once these discussions have concluded and a decision on the review outcome has been made. We will continue to build on our momentum towards delivery on our targeted $195 million EBIT uplift by 2024 from 2019 levels with earnings growth targeted through improvements right across our business. In retail, this includes the ongoing improvement of retail shop operations as well as growth through the addition of new, high-quality sites to our network. This includes the 4 high-volume New South Wales highway sites awarded in 2020 and the continued rollout of format upgrades with an additional 20 to 30 Metros planned across the network this year. The Ampol Metro at Kingsford won Store of the Year at the recent Australasian Association of Convenience Stores Annual Awards, which was a great recognition for our retail team and our partners at Woolworths. The combination of these opportunities gives us confidence in the delivery of our retail growth strategy going forward. In F&I International, we will continue to deliver on our strategy. This year, we'll see us roll out 9 new Gull sites in New Zealand, continued network growth in SEAOIL in the Philippines, and further growth in international third-party sales supported by new customer wins for 2021. In addition, we will continue to progress the delivery of a further $40 million of cost savings on a run rate basis by the end of 2022, and we remain committed to releasing our substantial franking credit balance to our shareholders. We will continue to actively allocate spare balance sheet capacity towards incremental returns and growth in accordance with our capital-allocation framework. Later this month, we will be releasing our future energy and decarbonization strategy, which recognizes that transport fuels industry will need to evolve to meet Paris Agreement goals, which we support, and will outline our commitment to playing an important role in the energy transition and preparing to meet our customers' future energy needs. Finally, I would like to echo the Chairman's comments in thanking my leadership team for their tireless efforts in delivering for Ampol during 2020. My thanks in particular to Jeff Etherington, who has done an excellent job as acting CFO over an extended period. And I would also like to acknowledge Jo Taylor, who, in addition to delivering strong momentum in our retail business and rebranding program, also assumed responsibility for Corporate Affairs and People over this period. I would also like to extend my thanks to all of our employees for their persistent efforts to deliver for customers, shareholders and communities during what was a very challenging 2020, but which has set up Ampol to successfully execute on its strategy in 2021 and in the years ahead. I'll now hand back to the Chairman.

Thanks, Matt. I would now like to open up the meeting to general questions. There will be an opportunity to ask questions about each resolution later in the meeting before going to the voting outcomes of each resolution. [Operator Instructions] We'll now move to the formal items of business.

Okay. The first question comes from [ Warrick Clive ]. The question is, "Why is the 5-year comparative financial information table, see Page 126 of the 2019 Annual Report, missing from the 2020 Annual Report?"

Thanks for the question. The comparative financial information was provided previously on a voluntary basis. In the future, we'll consider whether we can provide that comparative information through our Investor Centre on our website.

Thanks, Matt. The next question comes from [ Ms. Natasha Michelle Lee ]. The question is, "While the partnership with Uber Eats provides convenience, Ampol should also work to ensure Uber workers are paid properly and work safely. What steps has Ampol taken to ensure Uber workers receive pay and benefits expected of all Australians?"

Thank you for your question. Ampol is committed to providing a safe and rewarding workplace for all our employees. Uber delivery drivers, however, are not employed by Ampol as such. And questions about their pay and benefits are best directed to Uber. However, we do ensure that all our suppliers are acting within the government guidelines and restrictions. So perhaps that question should be directed to Uber. Thank you.

The next question comes from the Australian Shareholders' Association. The question is, "We note your positivity over the growth in Convenience Retail. But as we have expressed before, we cannot see this business plugging the hole that will ultimately arise from the demise of fossil fuels. We understand that an internal, strategic review was [ entrained ] to consider the future of which possible fuels would play a diminishing part in the transport energy mix. Is there anything to report?"

Yes. Thanks for that question. Look, as I mentioned in my comments earlier, the Convenience Retail Shop business does have significant momentum, and that is an important element of our growth strategy. However, we do have a future energy and decarbonization strategy that is being finalized and will be released to the market, as I said, in the coming weeks. We certainly recognize that the transport fuels industry is going to need to evolve to meet Paris Agreement goals, which we certainly support. And we'll see, through the scenario analysis that we've done and that will be contained in our strategy how we're positioning the strategy of the business to evolve and develop going forward. I think it's actually quite exciting when you look at the opportunities to meet our customers' future energy needs and you look at the asset base of the company, the customer base of the company and the capabilities of the company and look at the role that we will play in meeting our customers' future energy needs. So look forward to that strategy being released in the coming weeks.

The next question also comes from the Australian Shareholders' Association. The question is, "Can you update the meeting on the ongoing legal cases involving the EG Group and the Chevron Group, respectively?"

Certainly. As stated, they are legal cases for both the Chevron and EG Groups. As a result, we're not really in a position to comment on that progress, except to say that we are confident of our position, and we would hope for a quick resolution there. Thank you.

The next question, also from the Australian Shareholders' Association. "Is there an update on the future of the Lytton refinery?"

As stated in Matt's address to this AGM, we are currently undertaking a review. We have been in contact with the government who is keen that we consider keeping Lytton open. Fuel security is very important for them, as is employment, and we recognize that. We need to take into account all of that and in the context of what has been a very volatile earnings stream from Lytton over many years. If, and it's a big if, we can come to an arrangement with the government on a support package that gives us a chance to reduce the volatility of Lytton and provide more certainty of earnings and, therefore, more certainty of employment and fuel security, then we will look favorably upon that. But that has yet to be concluded. When it is, we'll come back to the market with an answer. That should be within the next 1 or 2 weeks.

Next, we have a statement from the Australian Shareholders' Association, which I'll read out. "We are pleased to see changes to the remuneration structure from the 2020 -- or from 2021, including a reduction in the short-term incentive opportunity with a 2-year deferral in the form of equity and the deferral of the long-term incentive for a year after vesting. These changes have resulted in the Australian Shareholders' Association changing its vote to one in favor of this resolution, although we believe that there are more positive changes that could be made, including a minimum 4-year LTI term."

Thank you for your observation.

At this stage, there are -- one more question just arrived. The question is from [ Jan McNicholl ]. "The sustainability report heralded the upcoming release of Ampol's future energy and decarbonization strategy this month. Can the Board confirm when that will be released and whether it will include short-, medium- and long-term targets to reduce emissions across Ampol's entire value chain, consistent with the Paris climate goals?"

Thanks very much for your question. So I can confirm that the future energy and decarbonization strategy will be released in the coming weeks, and that strategy will outline how we see Ampol playing a leading role in addressing the energy transition. And it will include setting targets around decarbonizing our own operations as well as the role we will play in shaping our customers' future energy needs.

The next question comes from [ Will Vanderpol ]. "The 2020 Investor Day presentation includes Australian energy forecasts sourced from McKinsey Energy Insights Global Energy Perspective [ A1 ] case and uses these forecasts to discuss impacts on Ampol's strategy. Given Ampol's climate change position statement recognizes the importance of limiting global warming in line with the Paris Agreement's climate goals, can the Board confirm that the McKinsey scenario used when discussing Ampol's strategy is consistent with the Paris goals? If not, how can the Board explain the apparent inconsistency between its climate change position statement and its strategic planning?"

Thank you very much for your question. I can confirm that in our future energy and decarbonization strategy, we have undertaken a range of scenarios to consider how the business is positioned. So that's across a range of climate scenarios. And that work has very much helped to inform our strategy. We will be looking in that strategy then to outline our commitments for decarbonizing our own operations and also setting in place a series of actions for how we will meet our customers' future energy needs. That's across a range of different climate scenarios.

The next question from [ Ms. Natasha Michelle Lee ]. "Given the structural shift to electric cars, although slow in Australia, what is your strategy to address this risk, apart from growing the convenience side of the business?"

So I think electric vehicles, clearly, over time, will play an important role in transport needs in Australia. Clearly, Australia has some unique characteristics around its geography, and that means that range anxiety is one challenge that we need to help our customers overcome in meeting those needs. But our network of sites, our strategic network positioned right across the country, especially along Australia's major highways, will play a critical role in the future in meeting our customers' charging requirements, and we'll be looking to leverage that network, as we are already with 7 sites, offering a charging service across our network. We're learning from those 7 sites and we'll continue to build that network in the years ahead.

At this stage, there are no more questions.

Thank you, Jeff, and thank you, shareholders, for your questions. On that basis, we will now move to the formal items of business. As notified to the ASX, all resolutions will be decided today via poll, and I thank all shareholders for their efforts to submit proxies in advance of the meeting. A number of the shareholders have appointed the Chairman as proxy for today's meeting. Where these proxies are open, I intend to cast votes in favor of each resolution. I now declare the poll open. The first item of business relates to the 2020 financial reports. Ampol's 2020 annual report has been released to the ASX and is available on our website. For the purpose of today's meeting, the financial report, the director's report and the independent audit report for the year ended 31st of December 2020 are put before for the meeting. I'd like to now open the meeting to questions on the financial reports.

No questions, Chairman.

Thank you, Jeff. There will be the opportunity to ask questions later. As there are no further questions, we'll move to the next items of business of the meeting. The notice of the meeting contains the following matters to be voted on by the shareholders: firstly, the adoption of the 2020 remuneration report; the reelection of Mark Chellew as a Director and the election of Directors of Mike Ihlein and Gary Smith; and lastly, the grant of performance rights to the MD and CEO. The proxy results of each resolution will be displayed on the screen before we move to the next item of business. The final number of votes will be advised to the ASX and will also be available on our website after the meeting. The next item of business is the 2020 remuneration report. The vote on this is resolution is advisory only and does not bind the Directors or the company. I will now answer questions on these item of business.

There are no questions, Steven.

Thank you, Jeff. As there are no further questions, the proxy results of the voting, thank you very much, an overwhelming support for the organization and the remuneration report. The next item of business of the meeting is the reelection of Mark Chellew. Mark. Mark brings to the Board valuable experience and knowledge gained as an executive and a Director of a number of organizations involving transport, manufacturing, mining and processing, and continues to make a valuable contribution to the Ampol Board. The Board unanimously supports Marks's reelection as an Independent Nonexecutive Director. I will now ask Mark to speak to his reelection. Thank you.

First of all, let me say, it has been an absolute privilege to be have been on the Board over the last 3 years. I bring to the Board over 20 years of public company experience as a former CEO and MD of a public company and as a Nonexecutive Director on a number of public companies. I have operated across geographies around the world, including diverse industries, including energy, transport and construction materials. If reelected, I intend to serve diligently the shareholders of Ampol.

Thank you, Mark. I'll now answer questions on this item of business. [Operator Instructions]

Chairman, there are no questions.

Thank you, Jeff. As there are no further questions, the proxy results for the voting are shown on your screen. Thank you for that, and an overwhelming support, Mark. And although the poll closes later on, it's clear that you have received a very, very strong vote from the shareholders. So congratulations.

Thank you.

The next item of business of the meeting is the election of Mike Ihlein. Mike brings to the Board valuable experience and knowledge gained as an Executive and a Director, including roles as the CEO and CFO of Brambles Limited following a long and stellar career at Coke Amatil, and as a Director of Scentre Group, CSR Limited, Inghams Group and the not-for-profit mentoring organization, Kilfinan Australia Limited. The Board unanimously supports Mike's election as an Independent Nonexecutive Director. I'll ask now Mike to speak to his reelection. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, fellow shareholders. I'm very pleased to present myself to you today for election to the Board of Ampol Limited. Since joining the Board in June last year, it has already been, for me, a very rewarding experience, including Chair of Audit Committee, contributing to the continuing development of Ampol. It is actually very pleasing to see how our company has adapted to the challenges of the last year. My background, as many of you may know, is originally in finance. But I have also had extensive experience as a senior executive of major Australian-listed companies, including roles as Chief Financial Officer as well as CEO. I also serve on other ASX-listed boards and the not-for-profit Board, which all provide me with additional perspectives that assist my insights for my contribution to your Board. I'm committed to Ampol, and I believe that I have the energy, I have the time and the passion to devote to our company. I present myself today election, and it would be a great honor to have your support for my ongoing role as a Director. Thank you very much for the opportunity today to address you.

Thanks, Mike. Appreciate that. I want to answer questions on this item of business, please.

Chairman, there are no questions.

Thank you, Jeff. If there are no questions, the proxy results for the voting are shown on your screen. And again, Mike, clearly, an overwhelming level of support from the shareholders for your election to the Board. Congratulations.

Thank you very much, Chairman. I appreciate it. Thank you.

The next item of business is the election of Gary Smith. Gary brings to the Board valuable experience and knowledge as an executive and a consultant in the oil and gas sector, including 20 years working with Shell, CEO of NASDAQ-listed Golar LNG and is a former General Manager of refining, supply and distribution here at Ampol. The Board unanimously supports Gary's election as an Independent Nonexecutive Director. I will now ask Gary to speak to his election. Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm seeking your support for election to the Ampol Board as an Independent Nonexecutive Director. It's been an honor to serve the Ampol Board as a Director since June 1, 2020, and I'm proud to have been able to contribute to the delivery of the Ampol strategy, including through my work on the Human Resources and the Safety and Sustainability Committees. I bring to the Board considerable and relevant experience as a company executive in the oil and gas sector, both in Australia and overseas. My experience in executive appointments include 20 years with Shell, again in Australia and in the U.K; as CEO of NASDAQ-listed Golar LNG; and here on the Ampol executive team as the former General Manager of refining, supply and distribution. Today, I also work as a senior adviser with the New York-based Poten & Partners, working with the commercial LNG team. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to seek your support for the election.

Thanks, Gary. And I'll now ask questions for this item of business, please.

Chairman, there are no questions.

Thank you, Jeff, and thank you, Gary. As there are no questions, the proxy results for the voting are shown on your screen. And again, it's clear from these numbers, Gary, that you'll be elected. Overwhelmingly support by the shareholders. Congratulations. The next item of business is the grant of performance rights to the MD and CEO. Ampol is seeing shareholder approval for the grant of performance rights to Matt Halliday, Ampol's MD and CEO under the Ampol equity incentive plan, as his long-term incentive award for 2021. It is the current intention that if the performance rights awarded to Matt vest, that it will be satisfied with the shares purchased on market, which does not require shareholder approval under the ASX listing rules. However, the Board considers it appropriate to seel shareholder approval as a matter of best practice. The key terms relating to the grant of performance rights are set out in the notice of the meeting. I'll now answer questions on this item of business, please.

Chairman, there are no questions.

Thank you, Jeff. As there are no questions, the proxy results for the voting are shown on your screen. Matt should be pleased to know that it's been passed. This completes the formal business of the 2021 Annual General Meeting. Please note, the polls will remain open for further 10 minutes. And as indicated earlier, the final results of the polls will be provided to the ASX later today and will be placed on the company's website. On behalf of Ampol Limited Board and management, I sincerely thank you, our employees, customers, partners, and particularly our shareholders for your continued support of our great company. We look forward to updating you as we continue to execute our strategy. To close the meeting, we would like to share with you a video update on our relaunch of the iconic Australian Ampol brand. including snippets from our new marketing campaign, which was launched late last month. This campaign will reach a national audience and brings to life for the first time our purpose, powering better journeys today and tomorrow. Thank you. I now declare the meeting closed.