CSL Limited (CSL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to CSL's 2020 AGM. Before we commence with the formal proceedings of the meeting, we would like to play a short introductory video. [Presentation]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Fiona Mead, Company Secretary of CSL Limited. It is a pleasure to welcome you to CSL Limited's 2020 Annual General Meeting. Before I hand over to our Chairman, Dr. Brian McNamee, I'd like to take you through the procedural aspects of the meeting. Today's meeting is a little different to prior years and has been held online by the Lumi platform. This allows shareholders and proxy holders to attend the meeting virtually through a live webcast. In addition, shareholders and proxy holders have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. In the event we experience technical difficulty and our Chair, Dr. Brian McNamee, can no longer participate in the meeting, the Board has agreed that Mr. Bruce Brook, another CSL Director, will step in as Chair for the rest of the meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders questions will be dealt with through our online system. [Operator Instructions] Questions can be submitted at any time, and you do not need to wait for the relevant item of business to ask your questions. In fact, we encourage you to start now. If you experience any difficulties, please call the AGM health line number on 03-9415-4024, which is also listed in the AGM user guide posted on our website. We'll hold all questions until the relevant time in the meeting. Questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic combined together. Finally, due to time constraints, it is possible that we may run out of time to answer all questions. To ensure all shareholders have the opportunity to ask questions, we'll accept no more than 2 per resolution. Today, we have Mr. Patrick Castauro, our Director of Ethics and Sustainability to read out questions. We've also received a number of questions from shareholders in advance of the meeting, and we will endeavor to address the more frequently raised themes. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. Voting for all resolutions will open shortly, and the poll will remain open during the AGM so that you can vote on all items at any time during the meeting. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, a new polling icon will appear on your screen. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There's no need to hit Submit or Enter as the vote is automatically recorded. You also have the ability to change your vote up until the time the Chairman declares the voting closed. Voting is now open on all items of business. The polling icon will soon appear, please submit your votes at any time. A warning will be provided before we move to close voting. I will now hand over to our Chairman, Dr. Brian McNamee.

Thank you, Fiona, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. There is a quorum present, and I'm delighted to open the meeting. What a difference a year makes. This time last year, we held, for the first time in the history of our company, an AGM outside of Melbourne. And during that week, we recognized our 25th anniversary as a listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange. Clearly, there is a little less fanfare this year. But as we move through our 26th year as a listed entity, we could not possibly have imagined ourselves hosting an AGM that is entirely dependent on technology not failing. I do hope all of you, no matter where you are participating from, are staying safe and healthy as we continue to navigate through the disruption of COVID-19 pandemic. I would now like to introduce your Board of Directors and our company Secretary, who are all online today: Mr. Paul Perreault, Managing Director; Mr. Bruce Brook; Dr. Megan Clark; Professor Andrew Cuthbertson; Ms. Carolyn Hewson; Mr. Abbas Hussain; Ms. Marie McDonald; Ms. Christine O’Reilly; Mr. Pascal Soriot; Ms. Fiona Mead, our company's Secretary, who has already spoken. As always, one of the Board's priorities is to ensure it has the capabilities and domain expertise to govern our complex, global business effectively. This year, we welcomed Carolyn Hewson and Pascal Soriot to the Board. We are very pleased to have Carolyn and Pascal join us as they bring deep experience from their respective fields, and will further contribute to the right balance of attributes, skills and diversity to support us in the delivery of best practice governance befitting a multinational company such as ours. Not only do we take a structured and rigorous approach to Board composition and succession, we apply this level of review throughout the organization to ensure that we are agile, best-in-class and principal-based management team, reflecting our values of patient focus, innovation, integrity, collaboration and superior performance. We also farewell Christine O'Reilly, who will retire after 10 years of service to CSL. Christine has been a highly respected and trusted member of the Board and has made a strong contribution to the CSL Board in discussions, in strategic matters and in the Remuneration Committee and Audit and Risk Management Committee meetings. She was the founding Chair of the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee, which now forms a key plank of CSL's governance framework. In a few minutes, Paul Perreault, our CEO and Managing Director, will share with you some detail on the performance of our business units over the past year. While we were pleased to be able to deliver to our shareholders another strong year, including the payment of a dividend of USD 2.02 per share, I want to acknowledge the impact that COVID-19 has had on the communities and economies in which we live and work around the world. There's not one of us who hasn't experienced its effects in some ways. While this deeply challenging circumstance has added complexity to our business and operating environment, it has also demonstrated to us just how critical having a values-based culture as the bedrock of the organization is to sustain us through tough situations like this. I've been very pleased to see the steadfast commitment of our people to patients and protecting public health through this time. For this, I'd like to recognize and thank Paul and his management team for the strong leadership over the year. I would also like to thank my fellow directors for their guidance and commitment to excellence. Despite the challenges, we have continued to effectively cultivate our strategy and drive a culture of innovation, not only across the R&D organization, but across the enterprise. One of the ways CSL continues to stay focused is by using CSL's 2030 Strategy as our compass. With a global workforce in more than 35 countries and a strong baseline culture, we are committed to executing our company strategy, an approach that has held our company in good stead over time. The pandemic will have some short-term impacts to our plasma collection capabilities, and Paul will speak further to this. However, we see potential years ahead to create enhanced value and to better serve our patients through the use of data, connectivity and technologies that can improve our operations and increase our understanding of the patient experience. Today, we are taking necessary steps to enable digital transformation throughout the business. The sustainable growth of our business requires that the patients who will benefit most from our therapies have access and that we also capture the value that our product bring to patients. Global demand for our products is increasing, and we strive to maximize the value of our franchises. For our core therapeutic areas, we continually tailor our product portfolio of products to deliver unmet need to patients and value to stakeholders. We also continue to make significant investments in expanding infrastructure around the world to support future growth. Just this year, around $1.3 billion has been allocated to capital projects, and we expect to spend $1.6 billion in the coming year. These long-term investments are critical to sustaining future demand for our products. Some of our significant expansion activities include the construction of new base fractionation plants at our sites in Kankakee, U.S.; Broadmeadows, Australia; and Marburg, Germany; as well as extension of our immunoglobulin finishing capabilities in Bern, Switzerland. We're also expanding our R&D footprint with the development of a new R&D campus in Marburg. And this year, we opened our first laboratory in Philadelphia, not too far from our U.S. CSL Behring headquarters. The construction of our new 16-story global R&D hub facility and corporate headquarters in the heart of Melbourne's biomedical precinct is tracking along well, scheduled to open in 2023. Supporting this physical network are upgrades to the digitalization of our platforms and systems strengthening efficiency across our global network. CSL has long been a trusted partner in protecting public health and through our unique capabilities and expertise take this responsibility seriously. Along with our expertise in fighting influenza, both seasonally and through influenza pandemics, our response to COVID-19 has demonstrated how CSL can respond with flexibility and purpose to events that impact global health. As a business, we've needed to adapt to the evolving environment that is COVID-19. Very deliberately, we have focused our energies on matching our science with our technical capabilities and facilities around the world. We are currently working on a number of programs to both prevent and treat COVID-19, and you'll hear more about it in a few minutes. Before I turn it over to Paul, I'd like to offer my deep gratitude to all of our 27,000 employees for the steadfast commitment during this unprecedented year. Whether they are among our workforce supporting our manufacturing sites or plasma collection centers or are working remotely because of stay-at-home orders, the contributions of our people have been invaluable to ensuring our business continues to operate, and we've been able to continue delivering on our promise for helping patients and protecting public health. And to our shareholders, thank you for your continuing support of our company. With that, I now call on Paul to present a more detailed review of the company's operations. Thank you all, and I look forward to taking your questions later in the meeting.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning to all, and thank you for joining us today for CSL's 2020 AGM. I would like to take you through both the financial and operational highlights of what we have achieved over the 2020 financial year. Additionally, I will provide an overview of our expectations for 2021. But just before I go into the results, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the devastating impact of COVID-19 around the world. As the pandemic continues to spread across the globe, all of us are experiencing its impact both at work and at home. And without question, our daily life routines and those of our loved ones have been altered, and we are all adjusting rapidly. Whilst the pandemic is still an evolving situation, I want to assure you that the health and the safety of our employees, our patients and donors remain the top priority at CSL. As a business, we understand the need to be agile and adapt to the evolving environment that is COVID. So before moving to the highlights, I draw your attention to the legal statement in relation to forward-looking statements in my presentation. So beginning at Slide 3 of my presentation. I'm pleased to report that CSL delivered another strong year. Revenue was up 9% at constant currency and net profit after tax was up 17% at constant currency. This is an excellent performance given the strong result that we achieved in the previous financial year. The result is a reflection of our focus on the execution of our strategy and delivering on our promise to provide innovative medicines for patients and public health around the globe. Now more than ever, our patients and at-risk populations need a continuous and a reliable supply of medicines, and we will continue to work to support them in every way we can. Some of this year's highlights include our largest franchise, immunoglobulins, which has performed exceptionally well with PRIVIGEN up 20% and HIZENTRA up 34%. This is a testament to our ability to consistently deliver our therapies to meet the growing demand. The successful evolution of our hemophilia portfolio continues on track, with IDELVION up 25% and AFSTYLA sales up 21%. We also transitioned to our own distribution model in China. And Seqirus delivered on its product differentiation strategy with strong profit growth driven by influenza sales, which were up 21%. Turning to the next slide. CSL Behring recorded overall sales growth of 8% for fiscal year '20 at constant currency. Our immunoglobulins, our Ig portfolio continues as the standout performer and our largest franchise with over $4 billion in sales. Despite the challenges associated with COVID-19, demand remained strong, and we have achieved above-market growth for our Ig portfolio. In albumin, our sales grew in all our key markets with the exception of China, where we transition to our own distribution model. That transition is now complete, and I'm proud to say there was no impact on supply of albumin to patients. Our hemophilia portfolio has continued to evolve with strong growth in the recombinant hemophilia products, which saw total sales up 8%. And in specialty, overall, the specialty product sales grew 10%. Perioperative bleeding was up 10%, primarily driven by strong demand in KCENTRA, and our fibrinogen concentrate products used for the treatment of acute bleeding. Other specialty products category grew 9% in HAEGARDA and BERINERT driving sales, moderated by a decline in our wound-healing portfolio. In terms of the geographic split, the pie chart on the right shows the broad global reach of CSL Behring sales with our 2 key markets, North America and Europe. All regions recorded strong double-digit growth, the exception being Asia Pacific, which was impacted by the change in our distribution model as I mentioned earlier. Now before I move to the next slide, I want to take this opportunity to announce that we recently received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for an expanded label indication for HAEGARDA to now include patients 6 years of age and older. This label expansion makes HAEGARDA, the first and only subcutaneous treatment option for the prevention of hereditary angioedema attacks in this younger patient population. Turning now to Slide 5 and plasma collections. At CSL, we operate one of the world's largest and most efficient plasma collection networks. In fiscal year '20, we opened another 40 centers in the U.S. with U.S. centers now totaling 261 as of the end of the fiscal year in June. We have 8 centers in Germany, 3 in Hungary and 5 in China, giving a grand total of global centers at 277. As well as opening new centers, we continually look at ways to do things better and more efficiently throughout the network that we operate. Moving on to Slide 6 and Seqirus. When we founded this business in 2015, we outlined the strategy of how we intended to turn this loss-making business around and set some long-range financial goals. We targeted $1 billion in revenue with an accompanying EBIT margin of 20%. These objectives were largely underpinned by manufacturing efficiencies and a suite of differentiated products to be launched by fiscal year '20. I am pleased to announce that Seqirus has exceeded these goals and performed exceptionally well with yet another impressive year. This year, Seqirus reported revenue in excess of $1.3 billion, which is 11% revenue growth on EBIT of over $260 million with a 20% margin. This reflects a 74% increase on fiscal year '19. Breaking it down even further, seasonal influenza vaccines grew 21%, with the continued shift towards high-value and differentiated products, like our quadrivalent vaccines and FLUAD, the adjuvanted vaccine for the elderly market. Whilst the U.S. is our major market, accounting for 62% of total revenue, there has been strong growth in other key geographic markets with governments seeking to secure manufacturing capacity to protect their populations against influenza in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Pandemic sales continue to perform well, with reservation fees up 11%, largely attributable to new contracts in Europe and Canada. That is influenza pandemic sales. Moving over to R&D on Slide 7. Innovation is the hallmark of CSL strategy. During the past 12 months, we have been extremely active in undertaking a range of research and development initiatives to bolster and deepen our pipeline, underpinning the company's future growth. There's an abundance of milestones to discuss, but in the interest of time, I'll only talk to a few of the highlights. Beginning with immunology. In June, we announced positive results for the Phase II trial for Garadacimab. Data release showed that the study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating reduced number of attacks compared to placebo in patients with hereditary angioedema. Cardiovascular, metabolic and CSL112, the first futility analysis completed recently by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee recommended that the CSL 112 trial should continue as planned. Now this doesn't mean that the trial will necessarily be successful, but only that it is worthwhile to continue the trial. For context, there are currently around 10,000 patients enrolled to date. And we are slightly ahead of the projected recruitment rates since the restart of the trial following the COVID-related trial pause. In hematology, we acquired a late-stage gene therapy candidate for the treatment of hemophilia B from uniQure. The program is currently in Phase-III and could be one of the first gene therapies to provide long-term benefits to patients with hemophilia B with a potential launch in 2022. In transplant, we acquired from Vitaeris, clazakizumab, an anti-interleukin 6 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of chronic antibody-mediated rejection, or AMR, in kidney transplant recipients. Clazakizumab joins our portfolio of other products in late-stage development to address significant unmet needs in the transplant area. And in influenza vaccines, the adjuvanted quadrivalent cell program in 2021 with Phase II studies to commence at the end of 2021. So that's moving along quite well. As you can see from the slide, I've only touched on a few of the highlights, but we will be providing more details of the other programs at our annual research and development briefing next week, details of which can be found on our company website. So on to Slide 8 and COVID. Whilst the pandemic is still an evolving situation, as a business, we understand the need to be agile and adapt to the changing environment. Safeguarding the health of our people continues to be our top priority. We need to keep our 27,000 staff working in more than 40 countries that we operate in, wherever possible, employees who have been able to perform their work remotely, having been doing so for quite some time. In innovation, many trials were paused as we needed to prioritize patient safety during the pandemic. However, given the multiyear nature of these trials, we expect an opportunity to make up for lost time as the COVID pandemic recedes. When it comes to COVID-19, whether it's preventative with a vaccine or preventing progression with a hyperimmune or using a monoclonal antibody like Garadacimab, we have taken on projects we think expense both scientifically and also that fit our capabilities. I recognize there is a great deal of community interest in the development of a vaccine. CSL is working closely and at pace with the Commonwealth Government of Australia, the University of Queensland and AstraZeneca to manufacture candidate vaccines should clinical trials prove successful. And demand remains strong right across our portfolio, especially for Ig and influenza. Despite the COVID challenges, there have been no interruptions in our supply chain. Our logistics team have done a terrific job in getting product to where it needs to go. Plasma collections have certainly been adversely impacted. However, the business is doing everything it possibly can to ensure patient access to the important medicines that are manufactured from the wonderful donors plasma that come into the CSL network. We are still some way away from the volume of plasma collected this time last year. However, over the first quarter of this financial year, as each week passes, our plasma collections have been growing. In terms of our financial position and the balance sheet, our liquidity levels, leverage ratios, credit ratings all remain strong. Our prudent balance sheet management affords us flexibility, irrespective of the state of the global economy. And earlier this year, we bolstered our capital position with a $750 million private placement. Turning now to Slide 9. As I mentioned at the beginning, I'd now like to make a few comments on the outlook for fiscal year '21. We expect strong demand for our plasma and recombinant therapies to continue. Seqirus is expected to continue to benefit from its differentiated products and strong demand for influenza vaccines, driven in part by governments wanting to protect their populations from contracting two viruses, that is COVID and influenza. Sales of albumin are expected to normalize following a successful transition to the new business model in China. And in relation to plasma, COVID restrictions are expected to restrain our ability to collect plasma and add to the overall cost of collection. However, we do have multiple initiatives underway to mitigate the impact. Our R&D response to COVID as well as our new R&D initiatives will put upward pressure on R&D expense, but we still plan to stay within the 10% to 11% of revenue envelope as previously guided to. In terms of the guidance for fiscal '21, we expect revenue growth in the range of 6% to 10% over fiscal '20. Net profit after tax is expected to be approximately $2.17 billion to $2.265 billion at constant currency, implying a growth of 3% to 8%, which is actually a slight tightening of the range that I advised at the company results announcement in August. The low end at that time was 0, and we've now raised the lower end of the range to 3%. That's because Seqirus has been performing quite strongly, and we have better visibility over the rest of the year. All of what I've spoken about today is aligned with the key pillars of our company's strategy and core values. Having the right people on the journey is an incredibly important element to success. So with that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to announce some key leadership movements. Joy Linton has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, and will join the company shortly; Dr. Paul McKenzie joined last year as Chief Operating Officer of the CSL Group; Stephen Marlow, General Manager of Seqirus, will be reporting to Dr. McKenzie; Andrew Nash was appointed Chief Scientific Officer; Karen Neave, our Chief Risk Officer; and Mark Hill recently joined the organization as our Chief Digital Officer. David Lamont, our outgoing CFO, will finish up with the company at the end of this month. I'd like to thank David for his valuable contributions and wish him every success in his new role. And to close, a thank you to all of our CSL shareholders. There are many of you who have been longstanding owners of the company, and we thank you for your loyalty. I'll now pass on back to the Chairman.

Thank you, Paul. We will now move on to the formal part of the meeting. The items of business for consideration today are described in the notice of meeting, which I will take as read. In terms of running the virtual AGM efficiently, we'll read through all of the items of business set out in our notice of meetings first. Following which we'll address shareholder questions at one time. All resolutions to be put to the meeting will be determined by means of a poll. I can confirm that I am holding available undirected proxies in my capacity as Chair of the meeting and will vote all of these available proxies in favor of each resolution. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of each resolution with interested directors, of course, abstaining from making a recommendation in respect of their resolution. In order to conduct the poll, I appoint Mr. Michael Hutchison of Computershare Investor Services to act as returning Officer and Mr. Rodney Piltz and Ms. Kylie Bodenham of Ernst & Young to act as scrutineers. If you experience any difficulty with your participation via the online platform, please call the number on your screen. We will now come to Item 1 in the notice of meeting, which is to receive and consider the financial statements and reports of the directors and auditors for the year ended 30th of June 2020. The item of business does not require shareholder approval. However, shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions on the report and ask the management of the company, which we'll address in the allocated question period. As there is no resolution required to be put to the meeting in respect of Item 1, I move to the second item of business, which is the reelection and election of directors. The qualification and expertise of each of the candidates seeking election or reelection are outlined in the notice of meeting. Your Board has reviewed the candidates' performance and support their reelection or election. Item 2-A relates to the reelection of Mr. Bruce Brook, who is an existing Director submitting himself for the reelection, pursuant to clause 67(a) of CSL's constitution. Bruce retires at this meeting under this constitution and is eligible and willing to stand for reelection. Bruce has been a director of CSL since August 2011 and is Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee. Bruce is a Former Chief Financial Officer with over 30 years' experience in the finance and risk sectors. He has extensive breadth of experience in diverse industries, including mining, finance, manufacturing and chemicals. In particular, Bruce has valuable insights and experience in relation to risk, capital discipline, change management, corporate culture and creating shareholder value. Bruce is currently director of Guide Dogs Victoria, Incitec Pivot Limited and Newmont Corporation. The Board has determined that Bruce is an independent director. I will now ask Bruce to make a brief presentation to the meeting.

Thank you, Brian. I have served on the Board during a period of great activity at CSL as we've grown the business and extended our life-saving therapies to an expanding patient universe. My background is in accounting and finance, and this is the area in which I've been able to work with my colleagues to support this wonderful company's ongoing development as a biotechnology leader, which can fund its growth, serve its patient markets and reward its shareholders. I'm Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, working with my colleagues on the committee and the Board and with management to ensure that this company maintains the highest standards of financial probity at all times and manages risk to take full advantage of opportunity while always having the mitigants and controls in place to protect against unacceptable downsides. We have governance oversight of management strategy, which has seen considerable increases in R&D spend, organic capital expenditure growth and merger and acquisition activity. The company has returned billions of dollars to shareholders through appropriate capital management, including a rising dividend in line with earnings. It has been this capacity to keep focus on its purpose of patient care to deliver excellence in its core functions and operations and to grow shareholder value, which has made CSL the extraordinary success that it has been. I feel very humbled to be part of this great enterprise. Thank you, and I trust I will have your continued support.

[Audio Gap] the details to the proxy position for this resolution. As we are holding questions to the end, I will now move to item B. This year, there were 2 directors submitting themselves for election pursuant to clause 65(c) of CSL's constitution. Ms. Carolyn Hewson AO and Mr. Pascal Soriot will retire at this meeting under the company's constitution and are eligible and willing to stand for election. Carolyn was appointed a Director of CSL on 9th of December 2019 and is a member of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee and the Audit and Risk Management Committee. Appropriate background checks were completed before Carolyn was appointed to the Board. Carolyn is a former investment banker with over 35 years experience in the finance sector. She was previously an Executive Director of Schroders Australia Limited and has extensive financial markets, risk management and investment management expertise. She has a long-term, nonexecutive experience in a number of sectors bringing a breadth of experience and insight on strategy, capital management and portfolio optimization through cycles, financial and nonfinancial risk, social value, organizational culture and the changing external environment. In 2009, Carolyn was made an officer in the Order of Australia for her services to the broader community and to business. Carolyn is currently a Director of Infrastructure SA. The Board has determined that Carolyn is an independent director. I now ask Carolyn to make a brief presentation to the meeting.

Thank you, Brian. For such a long time, I've looked at CSL from the outside. I have seen remarkable growth and success in a highly respected global biotech. It delivers life-saving medicines, acts in the interest of its shareholders, its employees and most especially its patients. It's a privilege to be considered for election. I come to this mindful of the responsibility that it requires to help guide Australia's largest company and leading global biotech. Appropriately, our directors bring a wide range of skills, experience and background, but they are all united in their focus on the CSL corporate objectives and building long-term value. My background, first, as an economist, and then 16 years as an investment banker with experience across capital markets, risk management and investment management, and more recently, 25 years as a nonexecutive director across a number of sectors, provides a helpful base from which to contribute to CSL. I currently serve on the Board of Infrastructure South Australia and a number of not-for-profits, and I would consider it an honor and a responsibility to be a director of CSL. It's a role I will take very seriously and I trust my background and experience will be valuable to the company. I have been asked a question by the Australian Shareholders' Association as to what my initial observations are of CSL Board and what could be improved. I want to say it's very early days for me. I'm listening and learning but CSL is an outstandingly successful and well-run company. It's not my way to immediately start making suggestions, but over time, I will find ways to add value. Thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn. I refer to the slide that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. I will now move to Item 2-C. Mr. Soriot was appointed a Director of CSL on 19th of August 2020. Appropriate background checks were completed before Pascal was appointed to the Board. Pascal brings a passion for science of medicine as well as significant experience in established and emerging markets, strength of strategic thinking, a successful track record of managing change and executing strategy, and the ability to lead a diverse organization. He's currently the Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca and held this position since 2012. Before this, he held executive roles in Roche Pharmaceuticals and Genentech Biologics. The Board has determined that Pascal is an independent director. I will now ask Pascal to make a brief presentation to the meeting.

Thank you, Brian. First of all, let me say how proud and excited I am to join the CSL Board. The company under Paul and Brian's leadership has done incredibly well for many years, and it's become a global leader in its field. I look forward to contributing to a successful Board, and I'm very energized by the opportunity to help a great Australian company to the best of my ability. The Australian roots of CSL mean a lot to me. My adult children and my grandson are Australian and they live in Sydney. And myself became a citizen 1 year ago after being a permanent resident for 30 years. I'm passionate about science and shaping the future of medicine. So being able to contribute to the development of CSL will be something I will do with great excitement. I've been asked how I will find the time to devote to CSL when I'm still the CEO of AstraZeneca. Let me assure you that this will not be a problem. I do indeed manage a large company, and for the last 7 years, I dedicated myself to AstraZeneca as we were going through a journey of rebuilding our pipeline and returning to growth, the company is, however, now in a different phase with a strong pipeline and a global presence. I have an extremely talented team and I can now dedicate time to being a Board member of another company. I'm officially based in Cambridge in the U.K., but I spend the majority of my time traveling around the world, at least this was the case before the COVID pandemic. Because my family are here in Australia flying to Melbourne for Board meetings is no issue, especially because I spend a lot of time in China and also in California. The flight from there is relatively short, at least it is for someone who's based in Europe. And we should remember that I will be a Board member, not an executive. I've also been asked as a new director to CSL with long experience in the global pharmaceutical industry what I see as the greatest potential future market or product for CSL. To this, I would like to say that CSL is a global, complex company with an outstanding management team that is better placed to comment on the potential of our product portfolio and future market, especially because I'm new to this company. I do look forward, however, as a director to being a steward for CSL as it continues to develop and grow those markets and products. Thank you.

Thank you, Pascal. I refer to the slide that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. I have previously mentioned, Christine O'Reilly retire at the conclusion of today's meeting, and we thank Christine for her service to CSL. We now come to item 3 on the notice of meeting, which is an advisory vote on the remuneration report. Under the Corporations Act, the company is required to include in the Director's report a detailed remuneration report setting out certain prescribed information relating to director and executive remuneration. The company is also required to submit this for adoption by resolution of shareholders at the Annual General Meeting. The vote on the resolution is advisory and will not bind directors of CSL. However, the Board will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing remuneration practices and policies of the company. I refer to the slide that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. As a leading global biotechnology company, our international footprint requires global leadership, and with executives based in different countries, we need to ensure our framework is fair, equitable and market competitive in the countries and industry in which we operate in order to attract and retain highly talented people. The Board is committed to an executive remuneration framework that is focused on driving a performance culture and linking pay to the achievement of CSL's long-term strategy and business objectives. These, in turn, drive long-term shareholder value. The remuneration outcomes for 2020 reflect delivery on our strategy across CSL's operational and development activities. There will be some changes to our remuneration framework in coming years, and we'll provide you with further information regarding these changes once we have determined a framework and set of measures that will operate to align the best interest of you, our shareholders and our executives. We now come to item 4, which seeks approval for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and all other purposes for the grant of performance share units under the company's executive performance and alignment plan to Paul Perreault, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company. It is proposed that Paul will be granted 32,752 performance share units. The explanatory notes to resolution 4 in the notice of meeting will provide details on the terms and conditions, including the performance period and performance measures for the proposed grant of the performance share units. The performance share units are hurdled, which ensures shareholder alignment, and which we have again chosen a 7-year rolling average return on invested capital, or ROIC, to focus Paul on achieving CSL's long-term objectives. We've had a number of shareholders questions regarding the CSL's ROIC performance in the current year and targets that have been set in the years to come. As mentioned in my opening remarks, our company always takes a long-term view to our planning. In order to meet the strong and ongoing demand for our products, we must invest in expansion programs. Given the complexity in size and scale of some of our new facilities and the technologies we are investing in, in some cases, it can take a number of years before the investments come to fruition. With this in mind, the proposed ROIC hurdle is tested against market consensus for reasonableness and against our peer group's ROIC outcomes to monitor the performance levels we are targeting. Our aim is always to remain a high performance. Given the mix of investments underway, we anticipate that ROIC will see a slight decline over the next few years, but will come back as the multiyear growth projects start to deliver returns. I'll refer to the slide that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. We now move to shareholder questions, some of which we received in writing prior to today's meetings and others which we have received during the meeting. To allow shareholders extra time to submit their questions, we will first address the questions we received prior to the meeting in relevant themes. I do not propose to read individual questions, but will address the more frequently raised themes. We will then move to address questions we have received during the meeting, noting that your questions may be moderated or, as I mentioned earlier.

A number of shareholders have asked us whether we have plans for a share split. As I said last year, when asked this, we do review this periodically, and we have no current plans to do a share split. This action would not contribute in any way to the value of the company and would be an expensive exercise for the company to undertake. We now have more than 200,000 shareholders, a market increase on prior years. So clearly, the strong share price in and of itself has not deterred new investors. We also received a number of questions regarding CSL's work to develop and manufacture a COVID vaccine, and I believe Paul has addressed these questions in his remarks. Another question sought clarification on what protocols and arrangements we have in place for the collection of plasma. I would like to emphasize that CSL takes the health and safety of donors and its patients very seriously. There are many highly regulated processes in place to ensure that donors are healthy and the plasma collected from them is safe. We would encourage shareholders to read the extensive information available on our website related to plasma safety. We will now move to the questions submitted in this meeting. I encourage you to submit a question by the online platform, if you haven't done so already. Our auditors, Ernst & Young, are online with us today and are prepared to answer questions put to them by shareholders on the conduct of the audit and the auditor's report. I'm now going to ask Patrick to read me the questions and I'll decide whether to respond myself or ask one of my colleagues or the others to respond. Patrick?

Thank you, Chairman. Before we go to questions, a reminder to shareholders that this AGM is being audiocast only. We are not providing video proceedings to reduce bandwidth demand and ensure the best experience for shareholders. However slides and speeches presented today are available on our website, CSL.com. Chairman, the first question is from [ Alex Martin ]. May I ask to clarify whether or not CSL holds any perspective to undertake manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine or the company is planning to joint venture with Australian pharma manufacturing companies in the next year?

Thank you for your question. Certainly, it's our intention to manufacture both vaccines, if they are successful, both the Astrazeneca vaccine and the UQ vaccine in our Australian Melbourne-based plant. To increase capacity, we are also evaluating other sites, one in Australia to expand our capacity, particularly for the UQ vaccine. So we have a strong intention to both manufacture locally for our local and regional markets and also collaborate where it makes sense for us to expand capacity.

Chairman, the next question has come from a number of shareholders. We received a couple of questions in relation to the nature of CSL's business in China.

Thank you, Patrick. I might ask Paul to comment on our business in China and other matters.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you for the question. China is a very good market for CSL. We have a strong brand in China. We've been in China for over 15 years and are the largest suppliers of albumin in China. This is a much needed product in China, and we are about 30% -- over 30% of the market in China. So the operations there in terms of what we've shored up, I mentioned in my remarks that we went to our own distribution license in China this past year. And that is to make sure that we have the right processes in place as well as direct contact with the customers and the local authorities. We also do manufacture in China, and as I mentioned, have 5 plasma collection centers in China. It's a very small business at this point, but we are working very closely, and I'd say very collaboratively with all of the local governments, the hospitals and medical community because it takes everyone in this industry to work together to be successful for patients, whether they're in China or elsewhere around the globe. So there's always things to pay attention to in every country we do business in and China is no different, and we have a very good business and a strong support system there.

Chairman, the next question is from [ Mary Parrett ]. Are new gene therapies the greatest technical risks to CSL's businesses?

Thank you, [ Mrs. Parrett ], for the question. As a general statement, of course, I would say, research and development is inherently a risky business and yet gene therapy presents tremendous opportunities for new life-saving therapies, which we do appreciate, and we understand which is why gene therapies is one of the development platforms underpinning our therapeutic activities as a company, and that's highlighted in Page 18 of our annual report. So gene therapies, in my view, complement in many ways what we do as a company. And in some other areas, it's a strategic direction that we think can create great value for the company. So I would say it was an opportunity and that's why we have dealt it -- included as an important platform activity for ourselves.

The next question is from [ K Subarte, Proprietary Limited. ] How do you establish and control the sensitive Chinese wall between AstraZeneca and CSL through Mr. Soriot?

Look, thank you for the question. We -- I mean, first of all, I'd say I and the company is delighted to have someone of Pascal's extraordinary experience and capability joining our company. We look very carefully at the question of overlap between CSL and AstraZeneca, and they're really very, very minor, and we're all mindful if there is any areas of sensitivity, then Pascal certainly recused it himself, but that would be, in our view, a very rare exception, given the fact that we operate and compete in very different markets. And certainly, with regard to the vaccine that Astra is working globally and very diligently with Oxford University's original work, where they're regional partner, we work very closely with AstraZeneca to try and provide this vaccine to the Australian market. And really, that's not a competitive, that's a collaborative situation. So I said the major issue for us is how delighted we are to be able to attract someone now an Australian citizen in Pascal to join us on the Board.

Chairman, next question is from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Can you provide an update on how many new plasma centers have been opened so far this financial year in the U.S. compared to the 20 to 30 target?

Thank you. And definitely one for you, Paul.

Thank you, Brian. So we have already opened 20 centers in the U.S. since the end of June. So we're very much on track, and we're monitoring when and where we may open the additional centers. As I said, we had lowered our target to 30 this year because of the uncertainty of COVID but we always have an opportunity should we see an increase in the donors returning to maybe target a few more. So we'll keep an eye on that.

Chairman, next question is from [ Don Wang ]. Is CSL going to expand its immunoglobulin products into China market soon?

Paul, I might hand this one back to you again.

Thank you, Brian. Yes, and thank you for the question, [ Mr. Wang ]. I think China has laws in place, one called Article-49 that prohibits the import of plasma products with the exception of albumin into China. So this is by regulation, and that's why albumin is a large imported product that is -- stands the regulation. Immunoglobulin is different. That would have to be an exception to the regulation, and I don't see that happening anytime soon. We do, however, and are in the process of restarting manufacturing at the Ruide facility and the Ruide company that we purchased a number of years ago has their own immunoglobulin that they manufacture in Wuhan. And so we expect to begin to manufacture that shortly as well.

Another question from the Australian Shareholders' Association. We understand that the remuneration plan is being redesigned this year. Can you confirm that there will be at least 2 performance measures under the long-term incentive plan?

Look, thank you for the question from the Australian Shareholder's Association. We -- I think we communicated in the remuneration report that we are reviewing the design and the redesign has not been finalized, but there's no doubt the introduction of a second measure full LTI is being considered as it is an element that investors have raised and asked us to review. So I think it's something we're evaluating. We are trying to make sure that whatever measures we select will be fully fit-for-purpose for CSL and will ensure alignment with shareholder interest. Thank you.

Chairman, we have no remaining questions for you.

Look, thank you, Patrick. So ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussions on the item of business. While we wait for you to finalize your voting, we will share with you a video featuring Stacy Ahearn. Stacy is a patient of ours that was diagnosed with a common variable immune deficiency. As the video finishes, I will close the meeting -- I'll close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. [Presentation]

Well, what an inspirational note to finish on. I now declare the business of the meeting closed, and the voting is closed. The votes will be counted and the results of the poll will be announced on the ASX as soon as practicable following the close of the meeting. I thank you for your attendance and for your support. I know that CSL looks forward to your continuing support in the coming year.