Aussie Broadband Limited (ABB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. My name is Adrian Fitzpatrick, and I have the privilege of being the Chair of your company and will be your Chair for today's meeting. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Aussie Broadband. Now 10:30 here in Victoria and the appointed time of our meeting. And as we have a quorum, I declare the meeting open. Before proceedings begin, I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the country of the many lands we are meeting on from today throughout Australia, and recognize their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians and elders of this nation, both past and present and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I'd like to recognize in particular, the land that I'm standing on today, the traditional land of the Wurundjeri people of The Kulin Nation. Today's Annual General Meeting has been convened in accordance with the Corporations Act and the company's constitution. We are delighted to offer our shareholders the choice of participating in today's meeting in person or via our online webcast. If you're joining us online, you may cast your votes at any time during the meeting, and voting will remain open for 5 minutes after the close of today's meeting. Please ensure you cast your vote on time. The agenda today is on the screen with addresses from myself, our Group Managing Director and our Group Chief Financial Officer, followed by consideration of the financial statements and 10 resolutions. It is my duty as Chair to ensure the shareholders in attendance as a group have a reasonable opportunity to discuss the management of the company and the items of business before the meeting. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions during and towards the end of the meeting. Only shareholders, validly appointed proxies and corporate representatives are entitled to vote at today's meeting. Holders attending in person today need to have obtained a yellow voting card or blue nonvoting card when they registered. Please see the registration desk just outside, should you require a yellow or blue card. Those holders voting online, please refer to the instructions contained in the virtual online meeting guide available on the screen in front of you. Only shareholders, validly appointed proxies and corporate representatives are entitled to ask questions at today's meeting. If you are participating virtually and did not submit a question before the AGM, you will be able to submit questions at any time during the meeting by registering as a shareholder or proxy holder and selecting the Ask a Question tab, or by asking your question over the phone by pressing Star 1 on your keypad. I will request questions from the phone attendees first, followed by online questions and then invite questions from the floor. If you would like to ask a question in the room, please approach the microphone, which I think Cheryl here in front of me, at the appropriate time in display your yellow or blue attendance card. When I call for questions, please state your name and the organization you represent, if applicable, and please keep questions courteous and concise. Questions may be merged, if we receive multiple questions on the one topic. Please note there will be time for shareholders to ask general questions after we have dealt with the formal business of today's meeting. I would now like to introduce my fellow directors, Vicky Papachristos, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. She is always brightly dressed and on to my right, thank you. Sue Klose, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the People and Community Committee; Patrick Greene, at the end of the table, Non-Executive Director; Richard Dammery, Non-Executive Director; Phillip Britt, Group Managing Director; and Michael Omeros, Executive Director. The company Secretary, Cheryl Cai, is also present; as well as the company's auditor, KPMG, represented by Suzanne Bell. Suzanne at the front. The auditor -- Suzanne will be available to answer questions on the conduct of the audit and the audit report for the year ended 30 June 2024. I'd also like to welcome Julie Stokes from our share registry, Julie, Link Market Services, who will be the returning officer for the poll to be taken on the resolutions at today's meeting. Before we start the formal part of this year's meeting, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past 12 months of Aussie Broadband. In FY '24, Aussie celebrated its 20th year, a significant milestone for any business. This gave us an opportunity to look back on all that the team have achieved from growing our customer and broadband connections; acquiring business to expand our product range and service offering; and continue to develop our own infrastructure network, there is a lot to reflect on. Today, Aussie is a diversified telecommunications group with an earning mix spread across residential, business, enterprise and government and wholesale segments. When we listed in October 2020 -- just 4 years ago, almost to the day, residential revenue accounted for approximately 87% of total revenue. Today, that percentage is just 56%. The successful acquisition of Symbio this year further developed our future strategic plan and allowed for the evolution and expansion of the leadership team within the Aussie Broadband group in a way that underpins future success. In FY '24, Aussie Broadband experienced another year of strong financial results with 27% growth in revenue and an EBITDA result before one-off items of $120.5 million, up 34.5% on the previous year, which was at the top end of the range we advised at our half year update in February 2024. Importantly, Aussie declared its first dividend while still a strong -- in strong growth mode, this represents a maturing of the group, supported by strong quality cash flows generated by after-tax profits. Aussie Broadband Group's strength is bolstered by key points of competitive advantage, including Tier 1 voice networks, proprietary software and Aussie-owned fibre. We are continuing the expansion of the Aussie Fibre network, which will further improve our infrastructure and owner economics. This will allow us to operate more efficiently, stay competitive while maintaining margin, grow sustainably and remain attractive to investors who see the value in infrastructure assets. We believe Aussie Fibre is integral to our future success in the residential market and as we move further into the business, enterprise and government segments. The residential segment continues to evolve at Aussie. And in July, we launched our new challenger brand, Buddy Telco. Since launching on the 15th of July, we have grown to more than 4,500 connections, offering this digital-first service with a lower price point for the more price-conscious customer gives Aussie more opportunities to either retain customers that are planning to [ churn ] away from cost from us due to cost of living pressures, or capture a whole new customer base that would not previously have signed up for Aussie. For the fourth year in a row, Roy Morgan has recognized Aussie Broadband as Australia's most trusted telco for 2024 as well as Best of the Best for Customer Satisfaction across all industries for 2023. Customer experience and satisfaction have always been a great importance to Aussie and the foundations we have in place will help us continue to deliver excellence as we grow beyond a $1 billion revenue company. Through the maturing of our ESG framework, and to allow greater visibility and accessibility to shareholders in relation to our future ESG commitments, we will be releasing our first stand-alone sustainability report next year. We are well placed to adhere to the mandatory climate-related financial disclosures recently enacted through legislation to report annually on our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and provide further detail about our climate mitigation strategies. In line with this, the Aussie Broadband Board has made the commitment to transition 100% of our operating sites to renewable energy by FY '28. On a technical matter, I note that proposed resolution 7 and 8 of this meeting relate to the issue of options to Phillip Britt and Michael Omeros under Aussie's long-term incentive plan. Aussie also intends to issue zero exercise priced options, or ZEPOs, to Phillip and Michael that relate to FY '25 performance period. At the time of preparing the Notice of Meeting, Aussie was in the late stages of finalizing an aspect of the performance conditions to apply to the ZEPOs for Phillip Britt and Michael Omeros. Accordingly, at next year's AGM, Aussie will seek approval for the issue of ZEPOs to Phillip Britt and Michael Omeros in respect of both FY '25 and FY '26 performance periods. We also note some changes to the structure of the Board starting with Sue Klose, who joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 1 February this year. Sue brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience around the digital strategy, product development and technology transformation. So [ his ] deep experience with digital business operations and growth strategy will help Aussie Broadband develop and achieve its strategic objectives as well as oversee and drive improvements in our operational performance. We are delighted to introduce Sue who you will hear from later on in the meeting. We'd also like to acknowledge Dr. Richard Dammery as he steps down from the Aussie Broadband Board at the conclusion of today's meeting. Richard's expertise, passion and commitment over the last 4 years have been invaluable to the growth and evolution of the company from a privately owned business to a maturing publicly listed entity. Thank you so much, Richard. The Nominations Committee will be meeting in the coming weeks to develop a recommendation to assist in a finding a replacement for Richard. The committee is also charged with delivering a strategy to facilitate Board renewal, ensuring the appropriate skills and diversity are brought to the Board table, and there is a strong succession plan in place. I'm confident this process will see our Board and your Board up for success during the next stage of Aussie's evolution. And now a few words about John Reisinger, the gentleman at the back with the beard. Aussie Broadband's Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer is retiring. Hard to say those words, effective 31 October 2024. John's responsibilities have been transitioning across to Aussie's Chief Infrastructure Engineering Officer, Brad Parker, over the last 12 months. Brad will officially take over as Chief Technology Officer from the end of this month. John will be sorely missed at Aussie Broadband, not at least by Phil, who we founded the company with more than 20 years ago. John's contribution to Aussie over the 20 years has been incredible. From a start-up in a lounge room, to listing on the ASX in 2020 to becoming a billion-dollar revenue business with [ 1,300 ] employees. John, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done, and we wish you and your family all the best for the future. Aussie Broadband and the Board are committed to diversity throughout the business. Research consistently shows that organizations with diverse leadership and teams outperformed peers by having stronger talent attraction and retention, as well as leveraging more diverse opinions, capabilities and skills. This is why we are pleased to announce that the Board and leadership have made a commitment to put measures and resources in place to achieve a 40-40-20 gender mix, including within the leadership ranks. We are immensely proud of the culture we have built at Aussie, with our values at the forefront of everything we do. And even through some incredible growth, these values continue to be key to all decisions made at Aussie. I would like to acknowledge the ongoing commitment and dedication of all the teams at Aussie, including welcoming and acknowledging the Symbio team who have embraced and added to this culture since they've been with us at the end of February. From the Board and leadership team delivering the strategic direction of the group, to the exceptional customer service teams delivering the award with an experience for our customers have come to expect from us, I would like to say thank you for all that you do. I will now hand over to Phillip Britt, Aussie's Group Managing Director and Co-Founder, to provide an overview of our operational performance for FY '24 and the outlook for Aussie.

Thanks very much, Adrian, and good morning. My name is Phillip Britt, and I'm the Aussie directors -- sorry, Aussie Broadband's Group Managing Director. I look forward to sharing with you the progress we've made over the past year. FY '24 was a strong year for Aussie with solid growth across all segments. Our EBITDA reached the top end of our guidance range of $120 million with Symbio exceeding expectations since the acquisition in February. As a group, we've continued to execute a diversification strategy and our investment in Aussie Fibre, our Tier 1 voice networks have bolstered scale, margins and our competitive advantage. Symbio contributed $12 million in EBITDA during our ownership in FY '24, including $600,000 in synergies. We've identified long-term synergies of $8 million to $12 million by FY '26 and expect further positive contributions from Symbio through the financial year. In August, we proudly declared a fully franked dividend of $0.04 per share, a first shareholder yield from Aussie enabled by our strong balance sheet. Looking at the results through a financial lens. The group produced an outstanding year with strong performance across all key metrics. On a statutory basis, our revenue increased by 27% reaching nearly $1 billion. This is an impressive accomplishment for the group and highlighted by ability to execute our strategy. Our gross margin improved by 0.7 percentage points, reaching 36.1% and maintaining our strong gross margin across all customer segments. The group's underlying EBITDA, which is important to note, includes share-based payments, reached $120.5 million. This result was at the upper end of our guidance range and demonstrates strong growth with an increase of 34.5% compared to FY '23. Since we listed on the ASX in October 2020, we've seen consistent and sustained growth year-on-year across all key metrics. Our revenue has grown by 51% CAGR and our underlying EBITDA has grown by 150% CAGR. Our track record speaks for itself, and we've met or exceeded our EBITDA guidance every year since listing and exceeded our prospectus forecast. Stepping back from the financial results and looking more broadly overall at the group. This slide highlights the growth drivers that will support the group's aspirations for coming years. Aussie continues to build on our reputation within the residential broadband market, and our overall status as most trusted telco in the Roy Morgan Rankings is a significant achievement to secure for all consecutive years. We continue to focus on diversification and investing in revenue streams outside of our residential core. This is demonstrated through the year with revenue growth of 27%, an improvement in gross margin. Buddy Telco continues to grow, and today, we released a trading update, which shows positive momentum with more than 4,500 services on that brand. Moving to our infrastructure pillar. Our Voice and Fibre networks continue to expand in scope and scale. Our Aussie Fibre Network covers over 1,700 kilometers and spans all major metropolitan areas, and we'll continue to expand into key growth corridors. Our investment into strategic infrastructure has been a key driver of Aussie's success in FY '24 and will continue to play a crucial role in driving further growth in future years. Finally, we declared our first dividend, which was a significant milestone. We're incredibly excited about the growth trajectory of the business and one of the few of companies in the sector that is delivering both growth and yield. Now I'd like to touch on a few key client wins across our enterprise and government, wholesale and Symbio segments that we've announced in this morning's trading update. Red Energy has entered into a partnership with Aussie Broadband, enabling Red Energy and its affiliated company, Direct Connect, to sell broadband together with their energy products to their customers for the first time. We're very excited by this new partnership, which will initially see Red Energy and Direct Connect offering residential nbn and Opticomm Broadband Services. We also announced a 5-year extension to -- of Symbio's partnership with MEDION Australia. This [indiscernible] is a significant accomplishment and validation of the quality of Symbio's industry-leading software stack and enablement capability. MEDION Australia is the largest mobile virtual network operator in Australia and the deal resecures Symbio as the largest mobile virtual network enabler in the region. Aussie has seen some significant new deals in the Enterprise and Government segment, including a 5-year 400-site deal with the Reject Shop. The deal will continue providing us enhanced -- the deal will see us providing enhanced security, 4G backup and simplified management across The Reject Shop's retail and corporate locations. There are also 2 other major 36-month deals highlighting this morning's trading update. One with auto in general, which will provide high-speed links between the Australian and South African sites, and the other to Ventura Group where we'll provide a fully managed SD-WAN network across a combination of Aussie Fibre and nbn Enterprise Ethernet Services. These deals further demonstrate Aussie's ability to win household name clients in the enterprise and government space. Going forward, this slide outlines our focus for FY '25. We plan to have an Investor Day in the second half, which will expand upon this and outline our ambitions over the coming years. Our focus is on continued infrastructure investment, including key assets such as Aussie Fibre, our Tier 1 voice Networks and Software platforms. We'll leverage our Aussie Fibre network advantage through a land and expand strategy. We'll continue with our multi-brand strategy with Aussie Broadband, Symbio, NetSIP and Buddy, all driving market share and growth. With Buddy, we'll continue to use the brand as a testing ground for automation, AI and innovation, which will be leveraged into our other brands. Our people and our award-winning customer service remains at the heart of growth. We continue to invest in this area to ensure our culture remains strong and attracts the right top talent. Underpinning this is an intensive drive to unlock productivity and operational efficiencies. All parts of our business are focused on improving operating cost, management and productivity. In our trading update today, we reaffirmed our FY '25 EBITDA guidance in the range of $125 million to $135 million including the impact of the investment in Buddy Telco. Our CapEx guidance for the year is between $55 million to $60 million, which includes capitalized software costs. I'll now hand over to our Group CFO, Andy Giles Knopp, who'll give you an overview of the financial performance for FY '24.

Thanks, Phil. Good morning, all. My name is Andy Giles Knopp and I'm the Group Chief Financial Officer of Aussie Broadband. I'm pleased to present this overview of the financial results for the year ended at 30 June 2024. FY '24 was another year of impressive growth across all segments. Residential revenue grew 23%, Business by 9%, and E&G by 2% and Wholesale by 59%. Our diversification strategy continues to yield benefit with the residential segment now representing 56% of the group's revenue on a pro forma basis, including Symbio. The group continued the trend of year-on-year improvements in gross margin, which increased 0.7 percentage points to 36.1%. Our gross margin has benefited from the nbn-SAU changes, but also from the continued investment in our own fibre network. We announced in August that we saw approximately $20 million of margin benefit from the Aussie Fibre Network, and we expect these benefits to continue an increase in future years. Employee expenses grew by 33% to $165 million. Marketing costs grew by 27.3% to $42 million, and that was broadly in line with our revenue growth. Administration costs represented 3.4% of the group's revenue, a reduction compared to FY '23, where they were 4.1%. Our underlying EBITDA came in at $120.5 million, recording an impressive growth of 34.5%, which was at the upper end of our guidance range. Depreciation and amortization climbed by 23.9%, reflecting the continued investment in our infrastructure, network and software platforms. Net profit after tax before intangible amortization rose to $45 million, an increase of 20.3% from FY '23. Now looking at the group's balance sheet. Aussie continued to maintain a solid financial foundation, which supports the group's ambition. At the 30th of June 2024, we held a cash balance of $213.5 million, which was an increase of $138.4 million. This cash balance offsets the group's net debt position, which includes borrowings of $298 million plus the total lease liabilities of $54 million. Our operating cash flow before interest and tax was $128.2 million, which was up 54.1% from FY '23. It's important to note in that the FY '23 benefited from a change in the nbn billing has been normalized for that change. The group delivered strong cash conversion at 106.5%. The combination of our strong balance sheet and ongoing cash conversion gives the group financial flexibility to continue to invest in our strategic ambitions and deploy capital on organic expansion and M&A opportunities that maximize our returns or shareholder returns, should they arise. At our full year results, we announced a high-level framework for capital management going forward. The goal was -- from this brainwork is to maximize shareholder value, maintain financial flexibility and foster business growth. The framework, which is summarized by 5 guiding principles. First, we remain committed to the leverage ratio of between 1.75x and 2.5x to sustain a prudent balance sheet. Second, capital will be allocated towards funding our ongoing business operations and capital expenditure. Third, we will use capital for growth opportunities, both through organic expansion and strategic M&A should the opportunity arise. Fourth, returning capital to shareholders through dividends will then be considered. Fifth, if we anticipate surplus capital over the next 12 to 18 months, the group will explore additional avenues for returning this excess to shareholders. FY '24 was another outstanding result for the business. and I would like to thank the shareholders for their continued support. I'll now hand over to Adrian to address the formal items of the meeting.

Thanks very much, Phil and Andy. I'll now turn to the business of today's meeting. Notice of this meeting and explanatory information has been sent to all shareholders, and I propose that the Notice of Meeting be taken as read. There are 10 items that require a shareholder vote and to ensure the views of shareholders are considered, I advise that I will be calling a poll on all resolutions. If you are present in person, you will have a yellow voting card, which you will be asked to complete and hand to the registry staff at the appropriate time. I will advise you when it is time to complete your voting card. If you need assistance, please ask one of the registry staff. If you have a yellow voting card and need to leave early, you may, if you wish, and hand your completed voting card to the staff at the registration desk as you leave. To cast your vote using the online platform, please click the Get a Voting Card button and follow the prompts. You may cast your vote, live vote, at any time during the meeting. I will give you a 5-minute warning before we close the online voting platform. You will see a red bar appear along the top of the online platform with a countdown timer of how long you have remaining to cast your vote. I can confirm that I propose to vote those proxies left to my discretion as the Chair in favor of all resolutions. Proxy votes received prior to the meeting will be shown on the screen for each item of business to be voted on today. Please note that Resolutions 1, 4,5,6, 7, 8 and 9 are subject to voting exclusions as outlined in the Notice of Meeting. The first item of ordinary business is the consideration of the financial report, director's report and auditor's report thereon for the year ended 30 June 2024. These were circulated as part of the annual report, which members received via printed hard copy if they so elected or able to access on our website. There is no requirement for shareholders to vote on these reports. However, you now have the opportunity to ask questions about the financial statements and reports for the year ended 30 June 2024. Please state your name or organization you represent before doing so. As a reminder, I'll request questions from the phone attendees first, followed by online questions and then questions from the floor. Phone operator, are there any questions on the financial statements?

Chair, there are no phone questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any written questions on the financial statements?

There are no written questions.

Thank you, Cheryl. Are there any questions from the floor? John, welcome.

Surprise, surprise. Good morning. Mr. Chairman. My name is John Whittington and I'm a voluntary company monitor for the Australian Shareholders' Association, and a happy broadband customer. So I hold proxies from ASA members and nonmembers for over 0.25 million Aussie Broadband shares. Our thanks go to you, the Board and all Aussie Broadband employees for producing another strong result. Mr. Chairman, the attempted takeover of Superloop could be considered a [ failure ] since it hit a rather basic regulatory hurdle and did not take place or a success, since Aussie made a lot of money on. What has the Board and company learned from what happened?

Thanks, John. I thought that question may have been coming from you today. Look, M&A activity. Clearly, we saw industrial logic in the transaction and we saw value in the transaction, which has since been well and truly have indicated. The constitution wasn't read, and that's clear and well publicized at the time, and the Directors of Superloop rejected our [ NBR ] at the time. What did we learn? M&A, it's -- can be a tumultuous time. If you had more time to do these things, you might well have picked up something like as basic as that. I think it is what it is. That's what happens in the M&A space. If we could take more time, we would at the time, that wasn't available, and we've moved on. We're clearly focusing on our existing business. Fortunately, there was a successful outcome financially. We still see the industrial logic much harder now to do transaction where it would be more like a merger of equals. So we focus on our business and move on. Thank you for the question, though.

Okay. Thank you. I've got other questions, but if other people want to go.

John, I think while you are on a roll, keep going.

Okay. Mr. Chairman, we're quite concerned about the recent equity raising in November. Your September 2021 equity raising could have been satisfied mostly from existing shareholders but was not, and 85% of the benefits went to non-shareholders. And yet the recent November equity raising was structured the same way with 86% of the benefits going to non-shareholders. This is not a fair or reasonable approach to take with your loyal retail shareholder base. We ask that future equity raisings be by pro rata renounceable entitlement offers, which are fair to all shareholders.

Thanks, John. We know where you're coming from on that. I think you raised the last question after the last raising and certainly take that into consideration.

I've also got a question. Aussie currently has significantly higher cash balance than in past years. The proposed dividend will use up less than 6% of this. What's intended to be done with this cash? More dividends?

Well, I think Andy perhaps touched on that during -- when you work through our capital management policy, certainly since year-end, some of that cash has been used to reduce debt. And we'll just be monitoring where we go from here as to what we do with the balance of the funds. Yes. Andy, did you want to add to that?

No, that's perfectly covered.

We keep working on those 5 key principles, John.

We're always nervous of companies with big cash balances because sometimes, they tend to misuse them.

There's no chance to that happening, John. Thank you. Thanks very much, John. I should say that Sue and I met with John a couple of weeks ago, really appreciate what the work that he does and on behalf of retail shareholders, of which we have many, customers and employees, and I really do thank you for your input. And there are those items we've taken on Board and will continually seek to improve the presentation of our annual report going forward. So thank you. Are there any other questions in relation to the financial statements? Okay. If there are no further questions or comments in relation to the financial reports, I declare them as considered and received. We'll now move to the resolutions on which shareholders, representatives and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders are being asked to vote. Resolution 1 is a nonbinding ordinary resolution and relates to the adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2024. As set out in the notice of meeting and displayed on the screen, which is as follows: that, for the purposes of Section 250R Subsection 2 of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, the remuneration report as contained in the director's report for the year ended 30 June 2024, be adopted. The results of the proxies received prior to the meeting are displayed on the screen. Phone operator, are there any questions on resolution 1?

Chair, there are no questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any written questions, Cheryl?

Chair, there are no written questions.

Thank you. Are there any questions from the floor? We have some.

We can't have an AGM without questions, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chairman, for those online, John Whittington from the Australian Shareholders' Association again. We have a number of concerns about your remuneration report. First, the Table 4 in Section 19.6 is somewhat confusing regarding the outcome, and it's not obvious to someone reading the table cold. Secondly, we expect the actual targets and outcomes to be disclosed, preferably in advance but certainly in arrears. Thirdly, we can find no disclosure of how the value of the long-term incentive is determined. This is essential information for a remuneration report. Indeed, much of what is in Schedule 2 of the Notice of Meeting should be in the remuneration report. And finally, we would encourage you to include a history of short-term and long-term incentive payout percentages as is done by other companies. This is an excellent way of demonstrating the fairness of the targets set by the Board. You can see whether you're easy markets or hard markets.

Thanks, John. You did raise those points with us when we met a couple of weeks ago, and we took them down and we'll be working to implement most, if not all, of those suggestions, which were well founded. Again, thank you. Any other questions in relation to the remuneration report? If not, I'll now formally put the resolution to the meeting. Moving on to Resolution 2, which relates to the reelection of Patrick Greene as a Director as set out in the Notice of Meeting and displayed on the screen, which is as follows: that Patrick Greene, who retires in accordance with Clause 14.3 of the Constitution and Listing Rule 14.4 and being eligible, offers himself for reelection, be reelected as a Director of the company. The results of the proxies received prior to the meeting are displayed on the screen. I now invite Pat to address the meeting in relation to his reelection.

Thanks, Adrian. Good morning, all. My name is Patrick Greene. And I offer myself for reelection as a Director of Aussie Broadband. For the past 7 years, I've been a Director of Aussie Broadband, including a highly successful IPO in October 2020. I was one of the original 5 founding directors of Westvic Broadband in 2003 and played an important role with emerging of Westvic Broadband and Wideband Networks in 2008 to create Aussie Broadband. The merger allowed us to fill resources, expand our service offerings and strengthen our presence -- sorry, strengthen our presence in the competitive ISP market, growing to the fifth largest provider and Australia's most trusted telco. To date, I've been a member of the Board, which in the past 4 years, has overseen the completion of 2 major highly successful acquisitions being Over The Wire and Symbio. These acquisitions have allowed us to expand our ENG strategy and enter the next-generation voice market. Today, our customer connections exceed 700,000 and not forgetting that our investment in fibre continues to provide margin benefit and sets the foundation for further growth. This growth is staggering when you consider the company only had 20,000 customers 7 years ago. I have a firm understanding of telecommunications industry, combined with experience in sales, marketing, finance and management gained over the last 40 years. I'm also a member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and the People and Community Committee. I look forward to continuing to serve the shareholders of Aussie Broadband. Thank you all.

Thank you very much, Pat. We'll deal with questions. Phone operator, any questions on the phone?

Chair, there are no phone questions at this time.

Thank you. Cheryl, any written questions?

Chair, there are no written questions.

Thank you. Any questions from the floor? John?

Surely, someone else can ask a question. I'm not the only one who thinks things to ask. Anyway, Mr. Chairman, this is John Whittington from the Australian Shareholders Association. It seems that post the AGM, Aussie's directors will be yourself, Sue Klose and Vicky Papachristos, all of whom we consider independent, plus Phil Britt, Michael Omeros and Patrick Greene, all of which we consider very capable and competent, but non independent. Is this so. If so, what plans are in place to ensure a majority of independent directors?

John, you're absolutely correct. As at the end of today, that will be the position. And as I mentioned in my address, the Nominations Committee will be meeting, in fact, as early as next week, next Wednesday, where we'll be looking to replace Richard with an independent director. And then look to succession another diversity issues within the Board to really create a Board to take Aussie to the next phase of its development. So it's work in progress and will be attended to over the coming months.

Okay. And that partly answers my second question, which was -- you indicated in your comments before you're going for 40/40/20. And for those who don't necessarily know, that's 40% female, 40% male, or 20% -- that doesn't matter. And -- but again -- post-AGM, you'll have 2 females on the Board of 6. So I'm assuming that your discussions in the months ahead will include the probability that the appointment as a female.

Diversity will be an important part of those considerations and brief in discussions for sure. Thank you. Any other questions in relation to Pat's reappointment? If not, I now formally put this resolution to the meeting and move to resolution three. Resolution 3 relates to the election of Sue Klose as Director as set out in the notice of meeting and displayed on the screen and which is as follows: that Sue Klose, a director appointed as an additional director and holding office until the next Annual General Meeting of the company after her appointment, in accordance with Clause 14.1 Subsection D of the Constitution and Listing Rule 14.4 be elected as a director of the company. The results of the proxies received prior to the meeting are displayed on the screen. I now invite Sue to address the meeting in relation to her election.

Thank you, Adrian. Over the past 8 months, I have served as a director on the Aussie Broadband Board and I've been very honored to do so, and I'm very pleased to put myself forward today for formal election by all of you. During the 8 months that I've been on the Board I have seen that this Board is a very good fit for my skills and my experience. After about 25 years in operating role as primarily COO and CMO in the digital and media space, I moved to a career of company directorships about 7 years ago. And during that time, I've served on a number of listed and private technology boards, including NearMap, Envirosuite, Acusensus and several others. And during those 7 years, I have found that there's a certain type of technology Board that suits my experience very well. It's sort of my sweet spot in the Board world. And that is working with high-growth companies that have technology at their very core, it's technology products that they produce and technology customers that they serve. But there's other criteria that I also look for. Right at the top of the list is that I'd like to look with strong -- work with smart, capable executive teams who are not afraid to take risks and they're looking to change the way things are done. And there are also groups of people that really prioritize culture and values, and I found all of that at Aussie Broadband. Moving forward, I'm hoping to continue in this role. On the Aussie Broadband board, I'm very grateful for the support I've received in the past 8 months from my fellow directors from the executives and now many of you and I look forward to continuing this capacity with Aussie Broadband. Thank you.

Thanks very much, Sue. A great appointment as you can tell. I'm dealing with questions. Phone operator, any questions in relation to this resolution?

Chair, there are no phone questions.