CSL Limited (CSL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to CSL's Annual General Meeting. I'd like to thank you for raising the weather and coming out to see us today. We're very excited to have all our shareholders together for the first time in a couple of years. I'm going to run you through the procedural aspects of the meeting. But before I do that, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of [ Narrm ], the Boon wurrung and Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung and people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and to elders of all First Nations communities that visit this conference center. We recognize the significance of the [ Boon wurrung ] to traditional owners as a life source and a meeting place and seek to honor a 40,000 year tradition of building community and exchanging ideas on these lands. We're excited to hold this meeting in person for the first time in a few years. We'd also like to acknowledge our shareholders, employees and guests who can't be here in person but who are watching it on the live webcast. For those in the room, I'd like to take a moment to ensure you are familiar with the evacuation procedures to be followed in the unlikely event of an emergency. If an alarm sounds, the venue's fire wardens will enter the room and direct us to the emergency evacuation points. Please follow their instructions. That was certainly something we didn't have to worry about in lockdown. Shareholders and proxy holders present in the room can ask questions during the meeting at one of the microphones located in the aisles. Please advise the Computershare representative of your name and show them your red or green voting card to indicate you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. If you are viewing on the webcast, and you're a shareholder, you can submit a written question by clicking the messaging icon on the screen. This will open a new screen. And at the top of that, there's a section for you to type your question. Once you have finished typing, please hit the arrow symbol to send. Written questions could be submitted at any time, and you don't need to wait for the relevant item of business to ask your question. In fact, we'd love it if you start now. If you experience any difficulties, there is an AGM help line number, which you can call and it's on your screen. We will hold all questions until the relevant time in the meeting. Questions may be moderated for inappropriate language. And finally, due to time constraints, it is possible we may run out of time to answer your questions. To ensure you all have a chance to ask your questions, we'll take 2 per resolution. I'll read the written questions out to the Chair, including those we have received from shareholders in advance of the meeting, and thank you to all shareholders that did send questions. Now moving on to the voting aspects of today's meeting. If there is anyone here who believes they are entitled to vote but has not registered, please raise your hand, and one of the Computershare team will come and see you. Subject to the voting exclusions specified in the Notice of Meeting, the persons entitled to vote today are all shareholders, representatives and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders who hold red admission cards. On the reverse of your red card is your voting paper, which details the motions being put to the meeting. Relevant instructions are also printed on the reverse of your admission card. I will now go through the procedures for filling in the voting papers. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy vote. It's like this, which details the voting instructions, if any, for business items on the appointment documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper, when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. In respect of any open votes, a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Shareholders and representatives and attorneys of shareholders also need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to vote. Please print your name where indicated and sign the paper. And then when you've voted, pop it in the ballot box to ensure that we can count your votes. Computershare staff will be around the venue and can collect your paper when you leave. You'll be given time at the end of each resolution to mark your voting paper, and then final voting will close 10 minutes after the meeting. Please put your hand up if you need assistance, and Computershare will come to see you. I'll now hand over to our Chair, Dr. Brian McNamee.

Thank you, Fiona. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. There is a quorum present, and delighted to open the meeting. I would now like to introduce your Board of Directors and our Company Secretary. To my right, Ms. Fiona Mead, Company Secretary; Ms. Marie McDonald; Mr. Bruce Brook; and Ms. Carolyn Hewson. To my left, Paul Perreault, Chief Executive and Managing Director; Dr. Megan Clark; Professor Andrew Cuthbertson, Ms. Alison Watkins and Professor Duncan Maskell. Marie McDonald and Megan Clark will be standing for reelection at this meeting, and you will have an opportunity to hear from them later in the meeting. Before we move to the formal business of the meeting, I'll provide a short address followed by an address from our Chief Executive, Paul Perreault. CSL has been a listed entity in Australia for 28 years, and we have run physical AGMs for 26 of these years. While I'm grateful for technology that allowed us to connect during the height of the pandemic, I must say it is great to be back, addressing shareholders in person. Thank you for coming. For many, the pandemic has entered a new phase. Thankfully, remote learning for children is now a distant memory. International travel has well and truly returned. And here in Victoria, large events are back as evidenced by the 100,000-odd fans who packed the MCG for the AFL Grand Final a few weeks ago. I know when I speak to everyone when I say that these developments are very much welcome and it's our nature to look forward with optimism, but I'd like to take a few moments to look back and reflect on what has been accomplished by your company in financial year 2022. Although the worst of the pandemic appears to be over, the external environment continues to throw up challenges. The Omicron variant meant people were still falling ill, and we saw staff absentees reach new heights across the globe. At the same time, supply chain disruptions caused issues in sourcing the very elements that make our business run. And many of these items also came with significant cost inflation. Of course, we were not alone in encountering such problems, but I do believe we were exceptional in the way we responded. I do think what sets us apart is our commitment of our people to the purpose that guides our business. As a reminder, this is up on the screen now. That is a good reason to wake up every day and why I have been associated with CSL for more than 25 years. I can see it reflected back to me by the dedication shown by our people, the same people who have once again contributed to the resilient performance for the company in financial year '22. Our CEO and Managing Director, Paul Perreault, will go through our financial results in detail. But I also want to highlight how proud I was to see us deliver in line with our expectations and at the top end of the guidance to market. Against a difficult backdrop, we delivered over USD 10.5 billion of revenue and achieved our second highest profit ever of USD 2.25 billion. We also held our dividend at USD 2.22 per share which translated to AUD 3.18 per share. I would like to extend my thanks to Paul and his leadership team for once again steering our business through this challenging period. As I mentioned, it's human nature to look forward. And if you're like me, you like to look ahead with a sense of optimism. Unfortunately, the reality of our industry is that we exist because medical needs exist. And as long as that is the case, there will be an essential need for our industry and, in particular, purpose-driven companies like CSL. We are in a strong position where we have the people, the science and the strategy to grow. But what does growth mean for CSL? Growth means the ability to protect human health and save lives. There are several ways we do that, and I'd like to go through a few of these now. The first way is by investing in the infrastructure that we can bring more high-quality therapies and vaccines to more people in a more efficient way. Our capital expansion program offers excellent organic investment opportunities. Highlights in the financial year include expansion of our CSL Seqirus manufacturing facility in Holly Springs in the United States. Closer to home, our cell culture vaccine production facility is progressing well in Tullamarine. We will also soon open our new Plasma Fractionation Facility at our site in Broadmeadows. The investment ensures that Victoria continues to play an important role in the manufacturing and supply of life-saving medicines into Australia and other key markets as well as secures advanced manufacturing jobs in Australia. The second way we can underwrite our growth prospects is by making targeted and strategic investments into our research and development pipeline. The decisions we make in this regard today have the potential to transform people's lives down the track. People -- Paul will speak about this in more detail shortly, and we will be holding our usual R&D briefing on November 3. But the positive news regarding our pipeline continues to flow through, and we are excited for the future. Another way we can grow is by way of acquiring organizations that can benefit from being part of the CSL Group, and that open up new fronts for the company to help patients. We've done this in the past with acquisitions such as the ZLB from Swiss Red Cross, Aventis Behring in 2004 and the influenza business that became CSL Seqirus in 2015. These acquisitions have been carefully planned and thoughtfully integrated into CSL and have underpinned the growth of your company. In the financial year '22, we announced the acquisition of Vifor Pharma. And in August of this year, we formally welcomed that company to our group as CSL Vifor. Through this acquisition, our global reach, R&D capabilities and balance sheet will help accelerate opportunities to bring new and innovative products to the large and unserviced community of people suffering with kidney disease and iron deficiencies. The Board and myself look forward to seeing Paul and his team continue to have strong record of integration success, and I'd also like to extend my thanks to our shareholders who supported us for this transaction. So these factors, along with our proven 2030 strategy, provide a strong outlook for the future. But your Board and our leadership team are also cognizant that this growth must be sustainable. The responsible management and efficient use of natural resources is key to our ability to deliver efficient and reliable supply of life-saving medicines. Our sustainability strategy further evolved this year with the announcement of carbon reduction targets. Our Executive Sustainability Committee has done an excellent job in determining a road map to reach these goals that importantly align to our 2030 strategy. Transparency is an important element to the strategy, and I look forward to seeing the progress we make across our 3 pillars through financial year '23 and beyond. To conclude, I'd like to thank our shareholders for supporting our company. The external environment will continue to present challenges. But I assure you, we will meet these with the center of purpose and resilience that allowed us to perform strongly. I'll now hand over to Paul Perreault. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Brian. And good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us today at CSL's 2022 AGM. Brian said I was going to go into a lot of detail. What he meant is my presentation is a bit long, so settle in, get comfortable. As I mentioned last year, I was anxious to return to Australia to really support our patients, our people and our shareholders. And finally, in February of this year, I was able to actually return, and like so many others return to a more stable environment, both personally and professionally, post-pandemic. Although disease is still around, I think we're learning to live with the reality of our lives today. My role comes with a lot of responsibility, but one aspect that I find sometimes a challenge but greatly rewarding is the opportunity to share CSL's achievements and plans with the shareholders each and every year. And this is even better now that we can safely connect in person in such an important location for CSL Melbourne, Australia, where we seem to get lots of liquid sunshine this week. Excellent. I'd like to take this opportunity to also thank the people within CSL all over the world who have worked tirelessly to maintain our operations against a really difficult backdrop of the pandemic and subsequent pressures that we have faced and had challenges within our supply chain. The products that CSL produces are not discretionary. They are essential to keeping patients healthy and, in many instances, alive. This is the basis of our promise that Brian showed earlier on the slide. And I'm proud that we've been able to keep that promise to patients and many other stakeholders around the world, including you, our shareholders. We continue to invest in the business, and we remain focused on executing our 2030 Strategy, and I couldn't be prouder of the CSL team than I am today. So I'm now going to take you through the financial and operational highlights of what we've achieved over the 2022 financial year and also provide an outlook for 2023. This presentation does contain forward-looking statements, which I'm sure you've all read, which reflects CSL's expectations at the time of making this presentation. You can read more about our approach to these forward-looking statements on the inside cover of our annual report. So in financial year '22, CSL delivered a good result, as Brian said, at the top end of our guidance in a very challenging environment. Revenue was up 3% at constant currency, and net profit after tax came in at [ $2.25 billion ], and again, at the top end of the financial guidance that we provided at the half year results. In the CSL Behring business, our sales of immunoglobulin and albumin, the 2 major products that we extract from every liter of plasma, has been constrained by the volume of plasma collected in the previous year. And it's important to remember that plasma products have a long manufacturing cycle of up to 9 to 12 months from the time we collect until we actually are able to provide a patient with these products to put into their banks. A constant topic since the emergence of COVID has been the growth rate of plasma collections, but I'm very pleased to say that plasma collections have grown strongly, up 24% over the previous year, which we anticipate will underpin strong sales growth for the current financial year, and we aim to continue this momentum well into the future. Supply chain challenges, inflationary pressures, higher plasma collection costs have all contributed to some margin compression throughout financial year '22. But over the last few years, I have commended CSL Seqirus on also delivering impressive results. And as Brian said, these acquisitions that we do over time all add value in different ways. And financial year '22 is very much the same. We continue to execute in CSL Seqirus on innovation and strategy, and we will continue to drive sustainable growth across the enterprise in financial year '23 and beyond. R&D is also a major component of that. And as such, we continue to invest in programs that will deliver mid- to long-term growth because these are long programs. And we formally welcome Vifor Pharma, now CSL Vifor, to the CSL Group. And as I mentioned at the full year results in August, the CSL Vifor market briefing will be held on Monday, the 17th of October when investors will have an opportunity to hear from CSL Vifor management as well as CSL executives as we discuss CSL Vifor's growth strategy, insights into the product portfolio and also the key value drivers that we believe CSL Vifor will contribute. What I would like to say this morning is that since the closing of the deal in early August, the team has been working expediently to understand the more detailed workings of CSL Vifor operations. We have also not discovered any material issues to alter our view on the positive strategic advantages, the financial attractiveness or the growth opportunities that underpinned our assumptions in the Board and management when we decided to pursue the deal in December of 2021. We're also pleased to have Hervé Gisserot, previously the Chief Commercial Officer for Vifor Pharma, leading the CSL Vifor business. I think it's important that we have continuity with our Vifor colleagues as well with some leadership from the former Vifor Pharma company, and Hervé brings decades of industry experience to the role. We're confident in Hervé and his team to deliver profitable and sustainable growth. So let me now present some highlights for the results for CSL Behring and CSL Seqirus businesses. For CSL Behring, a very strong performance from IDELVION. This is our market-leading hemophilia B product, which was up 20% and remains the standard of care in all major markets where we've launched to treat hemophilia B. Our major specialty products continue to experience growth. with KCENTRA up 18% and HAEGARDA up 5%. HPV or Gardasil royalty revenue exceeded pre pandemic levels and was up 55% year-on-year. Our core franchise, immunoglobulins, declined 3%, but this was a reflection, as I mentioned, of the lower plasma collection volumes from the previous financial year because of those long [ lead time ]. But continued investment in plasma collections had to occur and it was supported by digital enhancements, marketing initiatives, and we saw that collection grow, as I mentioned earlier. Our new plasmapheresis platform was approved during the year and is being rolled out in financial year '23. These are the machines and the platform that's used to actually collect plasma from our wonderful donors. And for CSL Seqirus, our influenza vaccines business, CSL Seqirus delivered another exceptional performance this year. U.S. sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time with seasonal influenza vaccine sales up 16%, and this was primarily driven by exceptional growth in FLUAD, which is a highly differentiated product, which was up 41%. CSL Seqirus distributed a record number of 135 million doses of influenza vaccine during the year. And to support this growth, we continue to invest in process innovation with our manufacturing facilities, especially in the fill and finish area, where we actually have to get the product out the door that we completed both at our Holly Springs, North Carolina facility as well as our Liverpool facility in the U.K. On this slide, we'll see the CSL Behring sales by therapeutic area, so the areas of medicine that they treat. Overall, CSL Behring revenue was up 2% at constant currency. And Ig, immunoglobulin, which is our core franchise, declined 3%, as I mentioned, Core albumin was down 1%, and hemophilia was up 8%. Specialty products were up 3%, including strong performances by KCENTRA and HAEGARDA. The 37% growth in other products largely reflects the HPV royalties that I mentioned and contribution from COVID vaccine. Of note, we have now completed the manufacture of 50 million COVID vaccine doses for the Australian government and the Australian population as well as areas in Asia, and this contribution will not repeat again in this financial year. In terms of the geographic split for CSL Behring revenue, North America continues to be our largest market, contributing 49% of the total Behring revenue. Our next biggest area is Europe, which declined 5% in revenue, and this is where we really felt the impact of the immunoglobulin supply tightness. Asia Pacific was up 21%, primarily as a result of the strong albumin demand that still continues in China. As has been well documented, COVID presented the plasma industry with many challenges, and plasma collections is one such area of the business that was greatly impacted by the pandemic. Also, I noted earlier that immunoglobulin sales have been constrained by plasma collected last year, which is supply has limited that core business. A return to growth just doesn't happen via one response or one effort. It requires the whole team to be in sync, driving, executing multiple innovative measures to correct the course. The CSL Plasma team has worked tirelessly and have implemented a number of targeted initiatives with a core focus on growing plasma collections. The team's resilience and dedication has been outstanding, and we have seen a volume improvement in plasma collections of 24% from financial year 2021 to financial year 2020. The donors per week graphic that you see on this slide illustrates that performance. The red line is calendar year 2022, the gray is 2021 and the black is 2020. You can clearly see the improvement on the prior period, which has put 24% overall, as I mentioned before, and the plasma team has left no stone unturned when evaluating and executing initiatives to really grow the plasma volumes. The growth has been extremely positive and gives us confidence about the sales growth in the financial year 2023. I'd like now to bring the key elements underlying our outlook for CSL Behring together. Fundamentally, your business is well positioned for growth post-COVID with more collection capacity, more manufacturing capacity and good demand indicators. With respect to increasing collection volumes through continued investments, CSL Plasma has opened 73 new plasma collection centers since the beginning of the pandemic, which was no small feat, and that's more than a 30% increase in the centers that we look to collect volume from. As some state and local county executive orders were rescinded in mid-2021, plasma collection centers progressively returned to pre pandemic operational design. We did have to take some beds out of the centers during the pandemic, about 10% of our beds. And those beds that were removed because of social distancing requirements have now started to return to the centers. We still have about 5% of those beds that need to be returned into the centers. Our new plasmapheresis platform brings with it a number of benefits, including a more than 30% reduction in average donation time, which is extremely important for our donors. That means faster turns in the beds, lower staff to donor ratio, fewer new centers that need to be opened in order to be more efficient in the business. And only a few weeks ago, we received a positive ruling from the judges on the Mexican border issue, which now allows Mexican nationals to enter the U.S. on a B1/B2 visa to donate plasma. This decision recognizes the critical importance of the need of plasma in the manufacturing of life-saving therapies for hundreds of thousands of people. With regards to manufacturing capacity, as you know, CSL is improving immunoglobulin yield, which is always a core focus, and we continue to invest in our pursuit of yield through maximizing the data that we have and utilizing data analytics. Collecting plasma, albeit an important part of the process, is only one part of this jigsaw puzzle that we have to push together. And we recently completed modules 5 and 6 in Bern, Switzerland. These are big manufacturing facilities that have added 8 million liters of capacity, additional to what we had for the manufacturing of immunoglobulins. Investment in these types of projects are costly but absolutely necessary if we want to continue to grow with demand, and demand has and will continue to remain robust. It's the only reason why we continue to invest in our facilities, is to supply that demand of these life-saving products. So some of the driving forces that we can see that are supporting this growth for immunoglobulins is about the leading indicators of the diagnosis and identification of disease, and we see these returning post-COVID. These include people being able to access their physicians in hospitals and are seeing more diagnosis of the leading indicators like bronchitis infection, respiratory infections that are underlying aspects of a primary infection. Many patients even in Tier 1 markets today remain undiagnosed. Patients in the U.S. have run awareness campaigns as multiple primary immunodeficient patients are unaware that they even have this underlying disease, and they continue to live unnecessarily day-to-day with ongoing infections. Ongoing preference for convenience of home treatment will continue to drive demand for HIZENTRA, and we saw that through the pandemic. HIZENTRA is our subcutaneous form of immunoglobulin that patients could administer on their own. Approximately 3/4 of our targeted positions that we call on are now using HIZENTRA to treat patients with chronic diseases such as CIDP. These patients not only come from PRIVIGEN but also from other intravenous therapies. Demand for the treatment of secondary immunodeficiency continues to grow. Secondary immunodeficiency are immunodeficiencies that occur because the immune system has to be altered. And that is with many new cancer treatments, it requires the suppression of the immune system prior to treatment. The patients then need to rebuild their immune system, and the only way to really do that is with immunoglobulins. Even though incidences of diseases are similar across geographies, the rates of Ig consumption are not. Immunoglobulin in the U.S. has consumed at 3x the rate per head of population when compared to Europe, and we are currently seeing strong growth opportunities outside the United States. The world needs immunoglobulin. Before I leave CSL Behring and move to CSL Seqirus, I just want to say this. At CSL Behring, we have the leading plasma collection capabilities, and we continue to innovate to be the industry's largest and most efficient company. Operationally, we could not be better placed for capacity, both on collections and manufacturing, and we're doing everything possible to ensure that patient demand for our products will be satisfied. We're now changing gears and moving on to our influenza vaccines business, CSL Seqirus. As I said from the outset, CSL Seqirus has delivered another year of exceptional performance in 2022. Total revenue was just short of $2 billion, up 13% at constant currency, with seasonal influenza vaccines up 16%. This increase reflects ongoing shift from -- to CSL Seqirus' differentiated products from other influenza products, particularly FLUAD, our adjuvanted product, which was up 41%. The Northern Hemisphere continues to dominate the market for CSL Seqirus with the EU and the U.K. now also delivering strong growth up 42%. Continuing with CSL Seqirus and the operational highlights. CSL Seqirus continues to achieve significant growth in seasonal influenza vaccines, as I mentioned earlier. Saw a record volume, as I mentioned, 135 million doses distributed across the globe. And in the U.S., CSL Seqirus delivered vaccine revenue in excess of $1 billion for the first time. But also, we were awarded a new pandemic contract by the U.S. government, BARDA, for the development of 2 influenza A virus vaccine candidates using both our cell-based adjuvanted combination technology and our self-amplifying mRNA technology. We've achieved pandemic-ready designation from the U.S. government for Holly Springs. And in Europe and the U.K., CSL Seqirus continued to achieve a heightened recognition of the benefits of our differentiated product portfolio, namely from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization in the United Kingdom. We successfully launched FLUAD in Ireland, and we continue to work with regulatory bodies and are pleased that the CDC adopted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for FLUAD, one of the preferentially-recommended seasonal vaccines for adults aged 65 and older. Finally, I'd just like to mention that CSL Seqirus and our cross-functional expertise within CSL delivered these outstanding results last year, let's not forget, all while retooling, reprioritizing, working endless hours to deliver 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine for people of Australia and parts of Asia. I'll never forget the work, dedication, the urgency that our people maintained through this effort, and I thank them again. Look, there are exciting opportunities for CSL Seqirus going forward and a great, great job by the team. Moving over to R&D and a further reminder, as Brian mentioned, that the CSL R&D Day will be held virtually on November 3. So with that in mind, I'll only provide some high-level comments through some of the exciting developments that we have in the pipeline. Beginning with immunology. We're excited to announce positive top line data for garadacimab for hereditary angioedema. The study met its primary and secondary endpoints and also demonstrated safety and tolerability in patients. These results underscore our belief that garadacimab has the potential to become a transformative, first-in-class therapy for people living with HAE, a patient group that CSL has been serving for many, many years. CSL aims to be the -- aims to start filing with global health authorities for garadacimab by the end of the financial year for approval in the United States. So those filings are being submitted to the agency now. In hematology, the primary endpoint was achieved for etranacogene, also known as EtranaDez with submissions now made to the European and U.S. regulators. Notably, it has been fast tracked in the United States, and if approved, will be launched in 2023. This is the gene therapy for the treatment of hemophilia A -- sorry, hemophilia B. In cardiovascular and metabolic, the Phase III trial for CSL112 continues to progress with well over 80% enrollment, and we hope to achieve the last patient in the trial by the end of this calendar year with primary completion date 12 months thereafter because it's going to take a while for all of these patients to be followed up for a year post enrollment. The top line results will be released once the study has been completed and the data analyzed. In our respiratory area. Garadacimab for treating HAE, we have initiated a Phase II study for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Garadacimab has the potential to be another flagship molecule for CSL. As you can see, we're utilizing it potentially in multiple disease states. And of course, it's a home-grown monoclonal antibody that has been developed at CSL. In influenza vaccines, FLUCELVAX, with the most notable development, was achieving 6 months of age and older designation in an indication in the U.S. and Argentina. FLUAD Quadrivalent for adults 50 to 64 years old, the Phase III study is enrolled and is now complete. As Brian alluded to earlier, we recognize that we have a responsible job. We have to be responsible as management with the efficient use of our key natural resources, and this is key to our company's sustainable growth and our ability to deliver on our promise to patients. As many of you will know, we communicated our sustainability strategy 12 months ago, which is focused on 3 key pillars of environment, social and sustainable workforce. In August, we announced our new carbon emissions reduction targets, which will serve as a transparent road map to decarbonize our global operations by cutting both direct and indirect carbon emissions. As a reminder, they were as follows. By 2030, CSL is targeting a reduction of 40% of absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions against the baseline of the average annual emissions across fiscal year '19 and '21. And we intend to ensure that suppliers who contribute 2/3 of Scope 3 emissions will set Scope 1 and Scope 2 reduction targets aligned with the science-based targets initiative. CSL looks forward to achieving Scope 1 and 2 emission reductions through key initiatives such as increased energy efficiency, pushing towards more renewable power, switching fuels to less carbon-intensive energy sources and, over time, redesigning some of our manufacturing sites. While we made this announcement in August, much of this work was already well underway. For example, our facilities in Liverpool in the U.K., in Bern in Switzerland already source renewable energy, which has actually insulated us from price shocks associated with the European gas crisis. And as we grow our business, we aim to do so without expanding our environmental footprint. Remember, we talked about the investments we're making in manufacturing. These are big manufacturing sites. So as we add capacity, we're still going to be reducing our target. So there are additional things that we have to add while we're reducing targets. So a really big challenge for us at this particular point. Our new R&D complex in Marburg, Germany, our new cell culture facility in Tullamarine will feature state-of-the-art sustainable design features as well. Many of you would have seen our impressive, new global headquarters, expanding just up the road here at Elizabeth North, and I'm pleased to report that we have been awarded a 5-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. As we continue to grow in a sustainable way, we'll undertake additional measures and analysis to ensure that we continue to set and meet the right targets for the road ahead that are aligned with our sustainable strategy. At the most senior levels, our Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee of the Board will have oversight of these goals. And with the Executive Sustainable Committee is creating a culture of accountability across the CSL enterprise. Finally, let's move our attention to the outlook for your business. Looking specifically at CSL Behring, we see a continued improvement in plasma collections that is expected to underpin strong future sales growth for our marginal leader products of immunoglobulins and albumin. The higher cost of plasma is still evident, and it's expected to prevail throughout the fiscal year financials. We are looking to replenish inventory that gives us more confidence in our ability to meet patient need and in a more cost-effective way. Instead of airfreighting things around the world, we can now use more, I would say, efficient use of our transportation with more inventory. For CSL Seqirus, products differentiation will continue to drive strong demand for our influenza vaccines, particularly FLUCELVAX. And across the enterprise, we expect to continue to be faced with challenges in the external cost environment. We all see it, whether that be inflationary pressures, whether it be pressures on staffing constraints or the logistics that I mentioned of supply chain challenges. But in terms of guidance for financial year '23, I'm pleased to reaffirm that revenue growth will be in the range of 7% to 11% over financial year '22 at constant currency. With net profit after tax expected to be approximately in the range of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion at constant currency. On a like-for-like basis, this represents growth of between 10% to 14%. This excludes CSL Vifor earnings and costs associated with the acquisition as well as nonrecurred COVID vaccine contributions. Updated financial year '23 guidance, including CSL Vifor, will be provided at the CSL Vifor market briefing on the 17th of this month. As always, the forward-looking statements are subject to the usual disclaimers, as I mentioned at the start of the presentation. But to close, I'm absolutely certain that the fundamentals of your business are strong and the diversity of our people and our pipeline is rich. This really sets up CSL to build on our track record of sustainable growth for many, many years to come. With that, I'm going to pass back to the Chair. Brian?

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 AGM efficiently, we'll read through all of the items of business set out in the notice of meeting first. Following which, we will address all shareholder questions at one time. All resolutions to be put to the meeting will be determined by means of a poll. I confirm that I'm holding available undirected proxies in my capacity as Chair of the meeting and will vote all these available proxies in favor of each resolution. Board recommends the shareholders vote in favor of each resolution with interested directors, of course, abstaining from making a recommendation in respect of their own resolution. In order to conduct the poll, I appoint Mr. Michael Hutchison of Computershare Investor Services to act as Returning Officer and Ms. Kylie Bodenham and Mr. Vincent Lim of Ernst & Young to act as scrutineers. We now come to Item 1 in the notice of meeting, which is to receive and consider the financial statements and the reports of the directors and the auditors for the year ended 30 June 2022. This item of business does not require shareholder approval. However, shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions on the report and the management of the company, which we will address in the allocated question period. Ms. Kylie Bodenham, the company's auditor, Ernst Young, is also present today and is available to answer questions in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the auditor's report, accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to preparation of the financial statements and the auditors' independence in relation to the conduct of the audit. 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 of directors. The qualification and expertise of each of the candidates seeking reelection are outlined in the notice of meeting. Your Board has reviewed the candidates' performance and supports their reelection. I can also confirm that as the Board is not currently aware of any significant foreign shareholder, the voting restrictions as outlined in the exploratory notes do not apply and there is no need for the directors to be designated as A or O class. Item 2A relates to the reelection of Ms. Marie McDonald, who is an existing Director of the Board and is submitting herself for reelection pursuant to clause 67(a) of CSL's constitution. Marie retires at this meeting under the company's constitution and is eligible and willing to stand for reelection. Ms. McDonald has been a director of CSL since August 2013 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee and the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee. The Board has determined that Ms. McDonald is an independent director. I will now ask Marie to make a brief presentation to the meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Like Brian and Paul, I'm delighted to be back here in-person again after the limitations of the last few years. I first have the opportunity to briefly address you this morning as I seek your support for reelection as a director of your company. I was originally appointed to the Board in 2013. And as Brian noted, I'm currently a member of the Audit and Risk Committee -- Audit and Risk Management Committee and the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee. It's been an honor to be able to serve the company in its capacities in the last few years. I'll just say a few words about my background. My professional career was spent as a lawyer, specializing in corporate and commercial law and in particular mergers and acquisitions of the cross-border element to it. This gave me a significant experience in public markets matters, regulatory policy and compliance. After leaving legal practice, I became a director of several companies, which all have a science focus to them, and a number of them have significant international operations. This has given me insights into the management of risk and people in diverse locations. I believe that the combination of these skills and experiences have been a value to CSL in the past, and I hope that they will continue to do so in the future as CSL is poised for growth and makes decisions about the range of opportunities in front of it. I can assure you that I have both the time and the energy to devote to my role. It is a privilege to have been a director of CSL for the last 9 years. And if reelected, this will be my last term. I've seen the company evolve significantly over the period since I joined the company. There's one feature that has not changed, and that is the commitment to our patients, the people who depend upon us. And I can say from my personal observation and experience that, that commitment runs truly deeply through the company. But in order to fulfill our promise to our patients, it's essential that we have a strong business and the one that is growing both profitably and sustainably. That's something we are all very much focused upon. If reelected, I look forward to working alongside my Board colleagues and management in order to create long-term value for you, our shareholders; as well as through our patients; our employees; and the communities in which CSL operates. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Marie. The Board, excluding Marie, recommends the shareholders vote in favor of the reelection of Ms. McDonald. I refer to the screen behind me that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. Please complete your voting paper for this resolution. [Voting]

Item 2B relates to the reelection of Dr. Megan Clark, who is an existing director submitting herself for reelection pursuant to clause 67(a)of CSL's constitution. Megan retires at this meeting under the company's constitution and is eligible and willing to stand for reelection. Dr. Clark has been a director of CSL since February 2016 and is the Chair of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee and a member of the Innovation and Development Committee. The Board has determined that Dr. Clark is an independent director. I will now ask Dr. Clark to make a brief presentation to the meeting. Thank you, Megan.

Thank you, Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a privilege to be a Director of CSL and to stand before you and seek your support for reelection. CSL stands out globally for the quality of our people, the strength of our core business, our outstanding research and as our Chair and Marie and CEO, have confirmed an unwavering focus on the patient. These attributes have allowed CSL to consistently develop a very strong pipeline of growth options for your company. Our products more importantly have been able to improve the lives of people around the world. I'm pleased to be able to bring my skills and my experience together with the skills and experience of my colleagues under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Brian McNamee to serve you, the shareholders and the company. My background is a scientist, and my career has been dedicated to using excellent science to create shareholder value and commercial outcomes. This creates value for the nations in which we operate, and it improves the lives of people around the world. It's why I'm particularly proud but also humble to be a part of CSL. While CSL has its proud roots in Australia, it is a global company. And I bring to your company global experience in research and development, in operations, in finance as well as a dedication to safe and respectful workplaces. If elected, I will play my part, along with my colleagues, to ensure that CSL is a respected and leading global company that continues to deliver value to our patients; to our people; and to you, our shareholders. Thank you.

Thank you, Megan. The Board, excluding Megan, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the reelection of Dr. Clark. I refer to the screen behind me that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. 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 directors' 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 this resolution in this item is advisory and will not bind the directors of CSL. However, the Board will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing remuneration practices and policies of the company. The screen behind will now display details of the proxy position for this resolution. Please complete your voting paper for resolution 3. [Voting]

To deliver our promise to patients and to protect public health, we rely on our people and need to ensure a strong global talent supply. Our executive remuneration framework enables us to attract, engage and retain talent, provides us with the flexibility to address talent challenges in various markets. It allows us to compete with larger pharmaceutical companies. The Board is committed to an executive remuneration framework that is focused on driving a performance of 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 reported reflects the strong delivery of our strategy across CSL operational and development activities. We now come to Item 4, which seeks approval for the purpose of ASX Listing 10.14 and all other purposes for the grant of 41,483 performance share units under the company's executive performance and alignment plan to Paul Perreault, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. CSL considers it important to obtain shareholder consent for the grant of performance share units to Paul. I refer to the screen behind me that has details of the proxy position for this resolution. Please complete your voting paper for Resolution 4. [Voting]

That completes the item of business, and we'll now move to shareholder questions. Please remember to cast your votes on each resolution. To allow shareholders extra time to submit their questions, we will first address questions we received prior to the meeting in relevant themes. Fiona Mead, our company secretary, will read these questions to me and I will answer them. We'll then move to address questions from shareholders here at the meeting. And then time permitting, we will hear questions received during the meeting from shareholders watching the webcast, noting that your questions may be moderated for appropriate language and etiquette as mentioned earlier. I'm now going to ask Fiona to read me the questions, and then I will decide whether to respond myself or ask one of my colleagues or the auditors to respond. Fiona, those questions.

Thank you, Chair. We've received 2 questions prior to the meeting. The first question comes from Mr. [ Stephen McMahon ], who has asked, can we get an update and outlook on the CSL acquisition of Vifor Pharma? Can we also get an outlook on CSL overall reforecast EPS, DPS and free cash flows?

Well, first, I'd like to say thank you, [ Mr. McMahon ], for the question. We're really excited to have Vifor Pharma join CSL, and we're confident that the acquisition of Vifor Pharma accelerates our 2030 strategy. In fact, we really believe it will deepen our existing therapeutic areas of focus in hematology, cardiovascular metabolic and transplant and also new adjacencies, particularly in nephrology. The nephrology franchise is competitive positioned through its partnership with Fresenius, given its access to dialysis expertise and infrastructure in addition to 4 near-term commercial products Vifor Pharma has a deep mid- to late-stage clinical pipeline. Having said that, we do have a day on Monday for Vifor. And really, that's where we will share more information on that Investor Day. We hope you can join us and hear more about their platforms and how it feeds into our strategy.

Thank you, Chair. The second question comes from Mr. [ Peter Chen Hun ], who has asked, will there be a share buyback similar to those in the past, in the near future? Or will the share be split to enhance small investors buying opportunity?

Thank you, [ Mr. Hun ], for your question. First, I'll answer your question on whether there will be a buyback in the near future. The Board considers this each year and takes into account the company's balance sheet, our gearing levels and the funding required to invest in the business. This financial year, CSL made significant investments in capital expenditure to expand our facilities. We've also spent an excess of $1 billion in R&D programs. At this current time, CSL is investing back in the business instead of understanding -- undertaking a buyback. As it relates to your second question, the Board is aware of shareholder interest in splitting shares. And this is something, again, periodically, we review, but we do not have any current plans for share split. Our view is that the share split does not change the value of the company. And interestingly, over the last past 5 years, CSL shareholders have doubled in fact to 240,000. So we believe that investors are not deterred from investing in the company despite an increase in CSL share price. I'll now move to take questions from the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Introducing Mr. Michael Muntisov from the Australian Shareholders Association.

Good morning, everyone, and nice to see you all in person. My name is Mike Muntisov from the Australian Shareholders Association. Today, I represent 783 shareholders with an aggregate of 1.3 million shares, which in aggregate is the equivalent of the [ 15th ] largest shareholder in CSL. My question or a comment on the question. Most economists are predicting a recession in many parts of the world, especially in CSL's key markets. Can you comment on how this might affect CSL and how you would expect CSL businesses to perform during the recession?

Thank you, Michael, and we always greatly respect and enjoy our engagement with the ASA, so thank you for coming and representing that interest. Look, I'd have to say the great strength of CSL historically is our ability to really operate through the cycle, almost irrespective of whether it's an economic cycle, a disease cycle, other cycles because we have a resilient business model that we try and build, and we do really make life-saving medicines to a degree. And to some degree, recession or no recession, in the market in which we generally operate, these products are still essential, and we do -- and we find that we can service our customers with those products. So in general, I'd say we're mindful that we try and create a resilient business model. But nevertheless, talk of recession tends to occur, and it's certainly something that's being discussed currently. I would say that we're mindful of it. It's something we're aware of. It's something that we think about with regard to the company. But I think first and foremost, we're concerned about our patients and our ability to service those and creating life-saving medicines that are differentiated and preferred, and so I think our view would we have a business model that can work through the cycle. Thank you.

I have a second question. The ASA welcomes the use of a second performance measure in the long-term incentive plan, and the earnings per share growth targets that you've set look appropriately. However, we note that the effective measurement period for the performance measures in the LTI is only a forward look of 3 years. Would you consider a longer performance period in your next review, given the time between research and investment and return in CSL's businesses is usually much longer than 3 years? The ASA recommends at least 4 years and notes that the majority of ASX 20 companies have 4 years plus.

Look, thank you for your question, again, on this, Michael. And I know Dr. Clark has spent a lot of time canvassing shareholders and getting feedback on a number of things that we do -- with regard to the work we do with regard to the committee and remuneration. I guess, where I stand, of course, we -- I know we operate in a global environment. And it's so vital that we can attract, retain and motivate executives in a very competitive world where we have a lot of talented people inside the company and people are aware of that. There are competitors globally who have less onerous, long-term incentives than we do, and some of our staff has certainly remain targets of those companies, whether they be biotech companies or large pharma companies. So we try to get the balance right. We hear and appreciate and understand the local environment here and some of the expectations from the local environment perspective. But we also know we operate in a global world in which we have to retain great talent. And our reality is the majority of our executives, of course, reside in North America and/or Europe. So we try to get the balance right there. I know Dr. Clark listens to our shareholders. We try to modify things to ensure, and I think bringing in the second measurement, something I was very supportive of as well. So I think that's a good thing to bring, and we'll take that on Board, but we try to get the balance right. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, [indiscernible].

Mr. Chairman [indiscernible]. As a shareholder over the last -- sorry, next month will be my 28th year of being a CSL shareholder, and there are stocks that I'm going to part with. In fact, I'm looking forward to passing them down to my great grandkids and my great, great grandkids. I just want to make a few points. So first of all, as an ASA member, I attended an ASA facility [indiscernible] visited Broadmeadows' facility on 20th of July this year. It was an outstanding visit, and I'd like to commend the Board and the staff of CSL for such a magnificent facility that will soon enter into production, and its partner facility in Germany at Marburg. That fractionation facility, as I understand, will increase some capacity by about 8x the processing of plasma. So that here in Australia, we'll move from [ toll ] plasma to the ability to process and export. And that gives us, I think, diversity to the ability of CSL to produce outstanding products like PRIVIGEN and so on. I also accord with Michael's comments from the ASA and the mentoring team for CSL, that I'm very pleased and fulfilled the work that CSL does. And I even met a few people during the visit. An old lady, probably in her 90s, who the big complaint was that she feels that capital gains tax should she have a part with her shares that she held for almost 30 years. That's a good problem to have. All right. Having commented on the staff and the outstanding facility, what I would like to ask of the Board or yourself is that CSL is very dependent on large-scale plasma fractionation products account for about 75% of revenues. And Paul with his heritage from CSL Behring is well aware of how fantastic we've progressed the company but how, I believe, those are also exposed. And if I could draw an analogy, I'm reminded of Kodak that back in the period from post-World War II to around the turn of the century was an outstanding company, large, profitable but very dependent upon a style of process. I noticed in the Fin Review just a couple of weeks ago, there is a start-up business that's trying to pitch itself as the mini CSL, and that company is going for a distributed model where the product and processing, much like we're doing with plasmapheresis, is distributed and small and agile enable then for smaller businesses, other countries to enter the market in a way that removes the monopoly nature of CSL, Grifols and the others. Okay. So my question is, from a strategic point of view, how might the company looking 20 years down the track cope or address this issue, particularly as more and more we're looking for not single points of failure or issues? And I think COVID has demonstrated to us supply chains that have traditionally been robust and significant things can send them a ride, and we need to be adaptable. And using the modern management terminology, we need to be agile. That's the first part of the question.

I'm struggling to keep up.

If you want to answer that one first.

It could take it half an hour as well.

But I don't think the question is a long one, I think.

What's the second one?