Brickworks Limited (BKW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, the time has come, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Brickworks Limited 2023 Annual General Meeting. My name is Rob Millner. I'm Chairman of the company. We have a quorum, and I'm pleased to declare the meeting open. I would like to start by introducing my fellow directors. On my left, Lindsay Partridge, Managing Director; Mr. Michael Millner; Malcolm Bundey; Ms. Deborah Page; Ms. Robyn Stubbs; down the end is Joel and sitting next to him is Grant Douglas, our financial guru. And on my immediate left here is Susan Leppinus, our CFO. We have Jodie Inglis, our auditor from EY. And also Richard Powell, at the back of the room there from Computershare Investor Services, will act as our returning officer for the purpose of conducting and determining the results of the poll. The Notice of Meeting was made available to all shareholders, and copies are also available on the ASX or on our website. I take the Notice of Meeting as read. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. I now declare the poll open and also for voting. The standing orders today will be. Questions will only be taken from shareholders and proxies or attorneys of shareholders. Only those who are registered or with the QR code are entitled to ask questions at today's meeting. Shareholders wishing to ask questions are asked to raise your hand and an attendant will pass you the microphone. Please state your name before asking a question. If you are eligible to vote, you can scan your QR code on your attendance card or with your mobile device at any time. This will take you to online voting. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote will automatically be recorded. You will receive a vote of confirmation on your screen. If you do not have a mobile device, you may complete the voting items on the reverse side of the attendance card and hand this to the Computershare staff who will be in the room at the end of the meeting. Please submit your online votes at any time via your QR code while voting is open, and I will give you a warning before I close voting at the end of the meeting. Proxy holders should vote undirected proxies in the same way by selecting one of the voting options in relation to each resolution. As set out in the Notice of Meeting, as Chairman of the meeting, I will be voting all undirected proxies in favor of each item of business to the extent permitted by applicable law in each case. I now formally vote on all undirected proxies in this manner and all directed proxies in accordance with directions provided by shareholders. And now you'll see the proxy results are all fairly clear cut. Now to the agenda for today's meeting. After I have completed my overview, Lindsay will give the Managing Director's address, including a review of last year and first quarter trading and the longer-term outlook of this year. Following Lindsay's address, Emily Antonio, our General Manager, Operations, will provide an overview on the progress we are making on sustainability. Shareholders will then have opportunities to ask questions, and that will take place after I've done the formal part of the meeting. Although earnings were lower than the recorded achieved in the prior year, full year '23 was another successful year with the company recording underlying profit of just over $500 million. A key focus for Brickworks is delivering long-term asset growth. Over the year, the value of the tangible assets held within our Property Trust increased by $520 million, and the market value of our shareholding in WHSP was up by $685 million. Within the Building Products, we are nearing completion of all our major capital investment program. This is headlined by the substantial completion of our new brick plant at Horsley Park, and Lindsay will show you some photos of that excellent facility in his address. Even after some significant investments over the previous 5 years, we have retained a conservative gearing level. A fully franked dividend of $0.42 per share is payable to shareholders tomorrow. This takes the full year dividend to $0.65 per share, up 2% on the previous year. We are proud of our long history of dividend growth and the stability this provides to our shareholders. As shown on the screen, this year represents the tenth year in a row of increased dividends, and we have now maintained or increased dividends for the past 47 years. Over the past 20 years, we have increased our dividend by a compound rate of 6.1% per annum. In addition to the dividend growth, Brickworks also has a strong history of total value creation for shareholders. Based on the share price at the end of the period, the company has delivered shareholder returns of 12.2% per annum for 25 years, incorporating both dividends and share price. And if you have a look at that, that's an outperformance of about 3.6%. This means that $1,000 invested in Brickworks in 1998 would be worth almost $17,000 at the end of our financial year '23. Performance over a range of periods is also shown on the slide, with Brickworks' performance exceeding the index overall frames. Brickworks has a strong and stable Board that is committed to acting in the best interest of all shareholders, and ensuring that Brickworks is well positioned for future growth. The Board regularly reviews its capabilities and composition to ensure the optimal mix of skills, knowledge and experience to safeguard the continued long-term success of this company. Following a comprehensive search process, we were pleased to announce the appointment of Joel, Fitzgibbon, as an independent Nonexecutive Director effective from January last year -- sorry, January this year. Joel brings to our Board considerable expertise in public policy, social and environmental issues and is an ideal appointment for Brickworks in managing its multiple stakeholders and regulatory expectations. As we announced last year, Michael Millner will retire following today's AGM. As such, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Michael, who has served on the Board for 25 years and made an invaluable contribution to the company over that period of time. Following the retirement of Michael, the Board will comprise 6 directors, including 4 independent nonexecutive directors. Now I will hand over to Lindsay for his presentation.

Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As the Chairman said, financial year '23 was another strong year for the company. As well as delivering strong earnings, we have also made significant progress in the implementation of a range of strategic initiatives to position the company for further growth. I will talk more about this in a moment. But firstly, I'm pleased to report that we continue to make steady progress in improving workplace safety. The total recordable injury rate decreased to 10 in financial year '23, down from a little over 12 in the prior year. And if you have that graph there, you can see it's been a long journey, and we've made steady progress over a long, long period of time. Unfortunately, the improvement in our overall injury statistics were overshadowed by a fatal accident that occurred in July when an employee of a contractor operating at our Austral Masonry plant in Cairns lost his life. As we look back on the year at Brickworks, our thoughts turn to his family. And this tragic accident reinforces our ultimate goal of 0 harm across all of our operations. We continue to strive towards this goal through disciplined implementation of safety management systems and procedures together with behavioral leadership and safety training programs. Moving now to our financial performance for financial year '23. Revenue was $1.182 billion, was up 8% on the prior year. It was driven by increases across Building Products in both Australia and North America. EBITDA from continuing operations was $784 million, was down 26% on the prior year. Although earnings were lower, this is the second highest earnings result we have ever recorded. And given the macroeconomic conditions, we are pleased with the performance across most parts of the group. It is also worth noting that the prior year's underlying earnings included a much higher profit -- revaluation profit and also the one-off benefits associated with the sale of operating -- operational properties into the Brickworks Manufacturing Trust. Excluding these impacts, EBITDA was down 8%. As the Chair mentioned, underlying net profit after tax was $508 million. This translates to an underlying earnings per share of $3.34. Including the impact of significant items and discontinued operations, statutory profit was down to $395 million. Last year's statutory profit included a significant one-off profit in relation to our holding in Washington H. Soul Pattinson. Brickworks has a strong portfolio of diversified businesses, consisting of a 26.1% interest in Washington H. Soul Pattinson, our strategic investment in Fastbrick, a substantial property division includes joint venture industrial and manufacturing Property Trusts with the Goodman Group and additionally wholly-owned land for development, Building Products business in Australia and Building Products business in North America. At the end of the financial year, the net inferred asset backing of these assets was around $5.7 billion, which equates to over $37 per share. The valuation includes the market value of our Washington H. Soul Pattinson shareholding, the net asset value of our Property Trusts, 3 parcels of land identified for development on a basis of as is where is value, and the net tangible assets held within our Building Products business, partially offset by net debt. I will now provide a brief overview of each business. Brickworks is the major shareholder in Washington H. Soul Pattinson with our initial investment dating back to 1968. Washington H. Soul Pattinson is now Australia's leading public listed investment house with a broad asset exposure, as shown by the chart on the right of the screen. The investment in Washington H. Soul Pattinson has delivered outstanding returns, steadily increasing dividends and diversification. In the financial year 2023, investments delivered an underlying earnings contribution of $159 million, down 12% on the prior year. During the year, cash dividends of $89 million were received that was up 46%. This includes a special dividend declared in September 2022. The market value of our investments, including the shareholding in FBR was $3.121 billion at the end of the financial year, and that was up 29%. Turning to property. An overview of our property division is shown on the screen. We hold a 50% share in a well-established Industrial JV Trust with Goodman. The trust was established in 2006 in order to maximize the long-term value of our surplus Building Products land, much of which is located on the urban fringes of our major cities. Today, this trust includes states in Sydney and Brisbane and is tenanted by blue chip customers such as Amazon, Woolworths, Coles, DHL and Telstra. In addition, we hold a 50.1% interest in the Brickworks Manufacturing Trust, which is also a joint venture with Goodman. This was established in 2022 and includes a portfolio of our Australian manufacturing plants. Brickworks also retains 100% interest in over 5,000 hectares of operational and surplus land. It is across Australia and North America, including a number of sites that are identified for potential development. Property delivered another outstanding result in financial year '23, generating an EBIT of $506 million. This includes rental income from our developed assets plus revaluation and development profits. In addition, a highlight for the year was the sale of the Oakdale East Stage 2 into the Industrial JV Trust for $301 million. I will now talk more about our progress at this development estate later. The chart on the screen shows the net asset value of our property trust assets. In the last few years, the value of the Industrial JV Trust has grown significantly with structural tailwinds fueling strong demand for prime industrial property such as ours. Our developments are increasingly sophisticated, incorporating features such as robotics, automation and multistory warehousing and provide critical supply chain and logistics solutions for our customers. As the Chairman mentioned, the net value of our Property Trust assets increased by $520 million during the year and now stands at almost $2.3 billion. Building Products Australia is a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products across all Australian states. Since 2000, the Building Products Australian division has grown from a 2-state brick manufacturer in New South Wales and Queensland to a diversified national business. In total, Building Products Australia comprises of 20 manufacturing sites operating at the end of financial year '23 and more than 45 design centers and studios across the country. The portfolio includes: Austral Bricks, Australia's largest clay brick manufacturer; Concrete Products, comprising of Austral Masonry and Southern Cross Cement; and Bristile Roofing. Building Products Australia is primarily exposed to the residential housing market with 87% of sales going into this segment. In financial year '23, revenue from Building Products Australia was $734 million, and underlying EBITDA was $100 million, down 13% on a like-for-like basis. Margins were adversely impacted by inflationary pressures across key cost categories such as raw materials, labor and electricity. These impacts were most severe in our Concrete Products and our Bristile Roofing businesses. And that is because we own all our clay. And of course, we don't have to face inflation on the clay deposits that we have. During the second half, we have made the difficult decision to cease the operations of Austral Bricks Western Australia following many years of sustained losses. With the last brick being produced at Cardup plant in April. The exit will be fully completed following the sell-down of inventory during the current financial year. Turning now to North America, where we have grown rapidly since our initial entry in 2018. Our Building Products North America business now has market leadership in key states across the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions: 934 employees, 8 manufacturing sites currently in operation with additional mothballed facilities and 26 company-owned distribution outlets, 3 design studios and a vast reseller network. On revenue of AUD 447 million, Building Products North America delivered EBITDA of AUD 40 million. Financial year -- so this result includes a $7 million contribution from the sale and leaseback of a retail outlet in the second half. Excluding the impact of land sales in both financial year '22 and '23, EBITDA was down 5% to $33 million. Turning now to a trading update for the first quarter of financial year '24 and the longer-term outlook for our business. Starting with Property. As I've mentioned a moment ago, Oakdale East Stage 2 was sold into the Industrial JV Trust during financial year '23. An aerial photo of the Oakdale East precinct taken recently is shown on the screen. As can be seen, work is well underway on the development of the site. In the foreground is the former Austral Bricks #3 plant, which is now partly demolished. This plant has been replaced by the new Horsley Park plant or Horsley Park #2 Plant. Work is also underway on the rehabilitation of the quarry area, which has a longer lead time than the other parts of the site. The master plan for the estate is shown on the screen. Oakdale East Stage 1 is shown at the bottom left shaded in blue and is already developed and held within the Industrial JV Trust. Highlighted by the bold red border is the balance of the site, which is what we call Stage 2. Last month, we were pleased to announce a lease precommitment for an initial 57,400 square meters distribution facility at the estate. This has been secured with an existing retail customer and is subject to regulatory approvals. This is shown as precinct 3 in the middle of the estate. Construction of this initial facility will commence once the final approvals are received with a target completion date of mid-2025. The rest of the estate is expected to be fully completed within 3 to 5 years. Driven by the strong demand, limited supply and escalating construction costs, there has been a 48% increase in market rent for prime industrial facilities in Western Sydney over the last 12 months. As such, we anticipate significant rental growth within the Industrial JV Trust in the coming years as new developments are completed and rent reviews are undertaken. Despite the strong rental growth in our markets, the property market more broadly is currently experiencing significant dislocation in response to economic volatility, rising interest rates and tighter credit conditions. And this is driving a change in external valuation methods. Based on the lease characteristics of our portfolio, we anticipate an increase in the average cap rate across our portfolio for around 5.2% in the first half of this financial year. After factoring in the strong market rental growth and new development completions, this would result in a reduction in total net asset value of our Property Trust assets of approximately 10%. It's important to note that any revaluations will result in an adjustment to book value and this will be a noncash earnings item. Longer term, we believe the valuation of our assets will be supported by the increasing market rent and the structural tailwinds driving demand for our prime industrial property. Turning now to Building Products. Current conditions within Building Products Australia remain resilient despite a decline in residential approvals. For the first quarter in financial year '24, sales revenue was broadly flat compared to the prior corresponding period with an increase in prices compensating for a decline in sales volume. Margins have improved as a result of the higher prices and general easing of cost pressures. We are also benefiting from a more focused portfolio following the exit of underperforming business units in recent years. Despite the positive start to the year, order intake is softening, and we expect conditions to become more challenging for the remainder of this financial year as the existing pipeline of work is progressively built out. Looking beyond the short-term weakness, Australia appears to be on the cusp of a significant building boom with record immigration levels and population growth exacerbating an already chronic housing undersupply issue. This has emerged as a key government priority, driving ambitious building targets and long overdue reforms to facilitate increased housing supply. The federal government's target of 1.2 million new dwellings over the period 2024 to 2028 equates to 240,000 per year, well above historical levels. Although supply chain constraints may impact the ability to achieve this forecast, we are expecting strong demand for our building products over the next decade. In North America, the first quarter of financial year '24 has seen a slightly stronger sales revenue compared to the prior corresponding period. Margins have improved driven by the efficiency benefits from the extensive plant rationalization activities completed in recent years. I'll talk more about this in a moment. The medium-term outlook is also positive. Following a period of low activity, we are now seeing significant increases in housing starts across the major homebuilders. This appears to be due in part to the low turnover existing homes as a result of the higher interest rates, which is stimulating demand for new homes. 70% of Americans who have a mortgage, have a 30-year loan that is less than 4%. So they're not selling their existing homes. So if you want a home, the only way you can get one is just to build one. We are now well placed to meet this increasing demand across both countries, having completed significant investment, business simplification and rationalization over the past 5 years. In Australia, we have made significant new plant investments over a number of years, and this program is now largely complete. We now have a modern brick plant fleet across all key markets with our new plant in Western Sydney currently in commissioning. This follows prior investment and consolidation in Victoria and major upgrades to our plants in Queensland and South Australia. Looking ahead, we will require limited new investment in our brick plants over the medium term. We have also simplified our business with the exit of underperforming operations in recent years. This has resulted in a more focused portfolio of high-returning assets. Since 2018, there has been a reduction in operating sites from 33 to 20, and a reduction of around 400 employees, equating to approximately 26% of our workforce. In North America, one of our most important initiative has been an extensive plant rationalization program including the closure of 8 plants as we have integrated new bolt-on acquisitions. While disruptive to the business in the short term, the end result of this process is a more efficient plant network, and a more focused capital investment program. As shown on the screen, the program has resulted in a reduction in operating plants to 8 from 16 prior, an increase in plant utilization to 75% from 46%, a significant reduction in average age of kilns and a 27% head count reduction across the business. Before I move on, I'll provide a brief update on our 2 major capital projects in Western Sydney. A number of photos of our new brick plant are shown on the screen. This plant located at Horsley Park is now substantially complete, with final commissioning now well underway. As the most advanced plant in the country with industry-leading fuel efficiency and increased automation, this investment will offset the impact of rising operating costs, improve environmental performance and will significantly strengthen our competitive position. Once commissioning is complete, we expect this plant to be operating at design capacity of 130 million bricks per year. During the first half of financial year '23, we completed commissioning of our new masonry plant at Oakdale East. A number of photos of this facility are shown on the screen. This plant incorporates the latest block-making technology and includes an associated value-added facility to create products such as polished pavers and split-face retaining walls. In order to take full advantage of the new plants capabilities, product development efforts have been ramped up with a number of existing new products expected to be launched in the coming years. Now to briefly summarize the outlook. Although the macroeconomic conditions may cause some short-term challenges across the portfolio, each of our businesses have a strong longer-term outlook. Within Property, structural trends towards e-commerce and the digital economy will continue to drive demand for our prime industrial facilities for many years to come. Having completed a major investment program and rationalized our operations over the past 5 years, our Building Products business is well placed to meet the demands of the expected building boom over the next decade. Meanwhile, Washington H. Soul Pattinson is expected to continue to deliver a stable and growing stream of earnings and dividends over the longer term. With our diversified portfolio of high-quality assets, Brickworks is well placed to meet any future challenges and continue to deliver good performance for shareholders. Before I finish, I'd like to acknowledge all staff at Brickworks. We now have 2,000 employees, and it is their energy and dedication that will continue to drive our success. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Directors for their guidance and support during the year. In particular, I'd like to echo the Chairman's comments in acknowledging Michael Millner's contribution to the company, and I wish him well following his retirement from the Board. Finally, I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for your continued support of Brickworks Limited. I'll now hand over to Emily, who will provide an overview of the great progress we are making in the area of sustainability. Thank you.

Thank you, Lindsay. At Brickworks, we understand our long-term responsibilities and the impact and influence we have on the environment, our customers, employees, community and shareholders. We take great pride in manufacturing our products in a sustainable way, integrating sustainability and innovation in product design, resulting in greater energy and resource efficiency over the lifetime of a building. We recognize that our manufacturing process is emissions intensive and as such, have focused on leading our industry in reducing carbon emissions. In Australia, carbon emissions have followed a general downward trend of a 46% decrease compared to a base year of 2006. And as an industry leader, using 11% bioenergy in manufacturing in Australia, we understand the critical role that bioenergy has in producing low-carbon products. And Brickworks North America operations have achieved an 18% energy efficiency improvement since acquisition in 2019. Also, we're continuing our focus on inclusion and diversity. Gender diversity has significantly improved, with 31% of the executive leadership team in Australia is female compared to 7% in 2015. Brickwork is also active in the community, having completed 100 community engagement activities during the year. And we also have a long-standing partnership with the Children's Cancer Institute having contributed over $4.8 million directly and indirectly since 2002. This year, we completed rehabilitation activities across 218,000 square meters of our sites in Australia and North America, including revegetation and transition of our sites to industrial property estates. As you can see, we've made significant progress in this area of sustainability and we're keen to achieve more. So we're proud to announce a new carbon target for a further 15% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from a base year of 2022 across our combined Australian and North American operations. And this is complemented by ongoing investment into renewable biomethane and our sustainable product innovation strategies. And we have integrated these new commitments into our Build for Living sustainability strategy incorporated in our sustainability report. Our goal is to transition to the low-carbon economy while providing high thermal mass products, which minimize the energy consumption in the operational phase of a home. Clay bricks are a naturally energy-efficient material. They store heat energy. They preserve it and then release it later into the environment. And this reduces the demand for artificial heating and cooling in the home over the operational phase with up to 40% reduction when combined with installation compared to lightweight construction alternatives. Bricks are also low maintenance, fire resistant, nontoxic, recyclable, have a good long service life and a guarantee for over 100 years. At Brickworks, we're also focused on reducing embodied carbon through the manufacturing process. Brickworks has over 10 years experience in generating carbon mutual products from our Longford Tasmanian facility, which uses 74% bioenergy in the energy mix. And we're keen to replicate this success across our sites through the Brickworks Bioenergy Transformation strategy, which focuses on 4 key areas: increasing renewable energy with a focus on bioenergy, such as the well-developed feasibility study into a 210 terajoule biomethane facility co-located at our Horsley Park Plant 2 site; and best practice manufacturing efficiency, including investment into the latest kiln technology, such as our recently commissioning plant to Horsley Park. Innovation into raw materials and product design is another key focus area, increasing brick voids, bringing onboard fuels, having raw material optimization and product innovation as well as potentially generating and purchasing credible carbon credits. Central to our sustainability strategy is the development of building products that have clear social and environmental benefits such as lower embodied carbon, the use of renewable energy, our recycled content and health and well-being benefits. And Brickworks will use these product strengths to generate the next generation of clay brick and concrete block wall systems. By 2030, Brickworks and our partners will invest over $20 million into the research and development in our sustainable product innovation focus areas. And this will enhance the sustainable attributes of our products as well as reducing embodied carbon. So these innovation focus areas include thermal mass benefit of bricks light-weighting, cement substitution, increased recycled content, raw material optimization and product innovation. We've also set an updated sustainable product target to increase the volume of verified sustainable products to 25% by 2025 across our combined Australian and North American operations. In FY '23, 19% of our product volume were already verified. And this enables our customers to qualify for credits under sustainable building design and construction certifications. These products include the Climate Active Carbon Neutral products, our blocks and pavers from Oakdale and Rochedale facilities using accredited and is using 10% to 20% solar power, and the health and well-being benefits of our products accredited by the Declare label. And we've identified a range of additional products that will be -- go through the verification process, such as lower carbon masonry blocks and low carbon bricks, part fired by renewable bioenergy. We're also targeting a range of products across our North American operations. Together with our partners, our joint venture partner, Goodman, we aim to be world leaders in sustainable industrial property design and development. For example, our latest development, Oakdale West, all building sustainable design attributes such as drought-resistant landscaping, rainwater harvesting, electric vehicle charging stations, saving 5% of parking spots for electric vehicles, LED lighting and recycling facilities. Approximately 5.8 megawatts of solar PV has been installed across the existing estate with another megawatt committed to be installed over the upcoming months. We also have focused on the social aspects of our property developments with estates such as Oakdale Central incorporating an on-site cafe, providing convenient food and beverage options for staff and visitors. FY '23 also saw the successful relinquishment of Horsley Park Plant 3 quarry in New South Wales to facilitate the Oakdale East Stage 2 development within the industrial joint venture trust. I'll now hand back to the Chairman to take any questions.

Thanks, Emily, a good presentation. Before we move to the formal part, I'll take all questions from shareholders after we have done the formal part of the meeting. The Corporation Act requires the annual financial report, the director's report and auditor's report to be considered at the Annual General Meeting. There is no vote of shareholders on these reports, but you will be given an opportunity to ask questions and comment on them. As I mentioned before, Jodie Inglis from EY, our auditor is also available to answer questions. Resolution 2. Item 2 of the business is to consider the remuneration report for the company for the year. This report is contained on Pages 104 to 125 of the 2023 Brickworks Annual Report. In accordance with this section 250R(3) of the Corporations Act, the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors of the company. Resolution 2 is to adopt the remuneration report for the financial year ended 31st of July 2023. The complete 2023 remuneration report can be found in the annual report forming part of the annual report. I refer members to the screen with the proxy details. As I mentioned before, fairly solid voting. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 2. As Chairman of the meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies that I hold in favor of resolution 2. Our voting exclusion applies to this item of business as set out in the notice of Meeting. I now put resolution 2 to the vote. Please enter your vote now by using your QR code and selecting one of the options on the voting page or complete the resolution on the reverse side of the attendance card. By marking for, against or abstain on resolution 2. I'll now move to resolution 3. Item 3 of the business seeks shareholder approval for the Managing Director to participate in the 2023 plan and for the grant of performance rights to Mr. Partridge under the plan to be allocated following the 2023 AGM. Resolution 3 is to approve the grant of performance rights to the Managing Director. Further information regarding this resolution can be found in the explanatory Notice of Meeting. Again, I refer members to the proxies. Again, not a very solid for vote. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution 3. As Chairman of the meeting, I will intend to vote all undirected proxies that I hold in favor of resolution 3. A voting exclusion applies to this item of business as set out in the Notice of Meeting. I now put resolution 3 to the vote. Please enter your vote by using your QR code and selecting one of the options on the voting page or complete the resolution on the reverse side of the attendance card by marking for, against or abstain in the boxes for resolution 3. Resolution 4A. The meeting now needs to consider the reelection of directors in accordance with ASX Listing Rules, the Corporations Act and the company's constitution. Resolution 4A is that Mrs. Debbie Page, who retires as a director in accordance with Section 6.3(b) of the company's constitution and being eligible for reelection, be reappointed as a director. Details of Mrs. Page's relevant skills and experience is contained in the explanatory Notice of Meeting. Again, I'll refer members to the screen. The directors with Mrs. Page abstaining, support the reelection and unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution 4A. As Chairman of the meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies that I hold in favor of Resolution 4A. I now put resolution 4A to the vote. Please enter your vote now by using your QR code or selecting one of the options on the voting page. Now we move on to resolution 4B, that Mrs. Robyn Stubbs retires as directly in accordance with Section 6.3(b) of the company's constitution and being eligible for reelection, be reappointed as a director. Details of Mrs. Stubbs relevant skills and experiences contained in the explanatory statement of Notice of Meeting. Again, I refer shareholders votes. The directors, with Mrs. Stubbs, abstaining, support the reelection and unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution 4B. As Chairman of the meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies that I hold in favor of resolution B. I now put resolution 4B to the vote. Please enter your vote now by using your QR code or voting on your attendance card. Now we come to resolution 4C. 4C is Mr. Joel Fitzgibbon, he retires as a director in accordance with the Listing Rule 14.4 and being eligible for reelection, be reappointed as a director. Details of Mr. Fitzgibbon's relevant skills and experience is contained in the explanatory statement to the Notice of Meeting. Again, shareholders look at the voting for is all there. The directors with Mr. Fitzgibbon's abstaining, support the reelection and unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution 4C. As Chairman of the meeting, I intend to vote all undirected proxies that I hold in favor of resolution 4C. I now put resolution 4C to the vote. Again, please enter using your QR code or by using the reverse side of your attendance card. Now that concludes the formal part of the meeting.

We do have one question that was sent in online. I'll read that out if I find it. But the question was, why does Brickworks just keep electing directors? Surely, good governance is to find someone new every 3 to 5 years. The answer, Brickworks has been undertaking a substantive Board renewal process over the past 5 years. In November 2018, David Gilham retired and was replaced by Malcolm Bundey in October 2019. In January 2023, Robyn Stubbs was appointed and replaced Brendan Crotty, who retired in November 2020. In November 2022, Robert Webster retired and was replaced by Joel Fitzgibbon in January 2023, and Michael Millner will retire at today's AGM. Excluding myself, your other nonexecutive directors now have an average tenure of 4.5 years. In our view, the Board contains the appropriate mix of corporate history, experience and tenure. Now I'll now open up the floor for questions. We have 2 fills up the back there with microphones. So does anyone have any questions? Short and sweet. All right, if that's the case...

I'm [ Robert Rex ] is my name, from Tasmania. I just -- the asset backing of the company is about $37, and we're earning about $3.30 a share, which is terrific. But we're only paying out 20% of what is earned. Now the big 4 banks pay 60% to 70%. I'm not suggesting an extraordinary amount like that. But it seems to me it's a very, very and perhaps too conservative distribution to shareholders.

Thank you for your question. But I might add, we're not a bank. And as Lindsay explained in his presentation to you, we have spent an extensive amount of CapEx over the period of time, particularly on new plants here. Plus we've gone into America, and that's cost us a lot of money. So we've been able to increase our dividend. As I mentioned there for a long period of time and one of the only few companies that have lessened their dividend over that period of time. So I think shareholders -- we all like more dividend, there's no doubt about that. But I think we're living within our means as far as our dividends are concerned. All right. We'll move on. Representatives from Computershare will now walk around to collect your attendance card. If anyone requires more time to complete your attendance card, please raise your hand. So I now declare the poll closed. The results of the poll will be announced at the ASX later today. And I thank you all for your attendance, and there's some light refreshments available over there on the left. So thank you very much.