Eagers Automotive Limited (APE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this General Meeting of Shareholders of Eagers Automotive Limited. My name is Tim Crommelin, and I'm the Chairman of your company. It is 10 a.m. here in Brisbane, and the company's Secretary, Denis Stark, has advised that a quorum is present. I therefore declare this meeting open. I would like to introduce my fellow directors, all of whom are in attendance today except for Michelle Prater from Perth, who has provided her apology. Marcus Birrell and David Blackhall join us from Melbourne. Nick Politis, a major shareholder, is in Sydney. And he's joined by Dan Ryan, David Cowper and Greg Duncan who are also in Sydney. With me here in Brisbane, our Directors, Sophie Moore; and Martin Ward, who, as you know, is our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. And also Denis Stark, our Company Secretary, is with us here in Brisbane. The Secretary has advised that there are no apologies other than Michelle Prater, who -- nothing else, Denis, we have?

No.

No other apologies, only Michelle. Thank you. Given the requirements and recommendations for social distancing and restrictions on travel as a result of COVID-19, today's meeting is being held online as a virtual meeting via the Lumi platform. Attendees can listen to this live webcast and watch our presentation. Of course, shareholders and proxyholders can also ask questions and submit votes online. Shareholders who wish to ask a question will need to have clicked onto the "I am a shareholder/proxy" bubble when they joined the meeting. Questions on today's item of business can be submitted at any time. [Operator Instructions] I will address any questions later in the meeting before voting closes. If we receive multiple similar questions, we may consolidate or group them together. Our Chief Operating Officer, Keith Thornton, will monitor questions as we receive them and assist us to moderate them in this way. Voting. Voting on the item of business today will be conducted by way of a poll. I will open the voting shortly. Voting will remain open until later in the meeting. If you are eligible to vote, a new polling icon will appear on your device when voting opens. Selecting this icon will bring up the resolution and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, you simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a Submit or Enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote at any time until I declare voting closed. I now declare voting open. The polling icon will soon appear on your device. Please submit your votes at any time. I will notify you before I move to close voting. We now move to the formal business of today's meeting. The Notice of General Meeting was made available to all shareholders on the 2nd of November 2020, and I propose to take it as read. The only item of business today relates to our acquisition of 3 properties in Perth. The purpose of this meeting is to approve payment of the purchase price to the 2 vendor entities as they are associated with our Director, Michelle Prater. Acquiring 2 of these 3 properties will allow Eagers to immediately exit 2 leases and cease paying rent for them. Purchasing the third property will enable us to exit a further 6 leases from landlords who are not associated with Michelle Prater. We estimate that the exiting of these 8 leases and consolidating business operations onto the 3 properties we are purchasing will allow Eagers to achieve occupation cost savings of $3.7 million per annum. An independent valuer has also opined that the purchase price for each property is equal to or less than its fair market value. If shareholders approve the resolution today, our purchase of the 3 properties will be scheduled for completion on the 15th of January 2021. Further information on the resolution can be found in the Notice of Meeting. Due to her personal interest in the transaction, Michelle Prater is not eligible to vote today. All other directors have voted all of their shares in favor of the resolution and recommend that all shareholders do likewise. I'd ask Keith, our moderator, if there are any questions from shareholders.

No questions, Chairman.

Nothing there? Thank you, Keith. As there are no questions, I note that the number of proxy and direct votes received prior to the meeting should now be showing on your screens. I reaffirm that these do not include any votes by Michelle Prater or associates of the vendor companies as they are not permitted to vote. You'd see that there's 98.9% in favor of the Board's recommendation. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've had a chance to view the proxy votes and have concluded and have placed your vote, there isn't any further business, and that concludes our discussion on today's business. I now give all shareholders a final opportunity to cast your vote. We will be closing the voting system in 2 minutes. So we'll pause for a couple of minutes to allow any shareholders to finalize their votes. [Voting]

Not sure shareholders again need the full 2 minutes, Denis. Right. Well, our Company Secretary has a clock ticking here, so you have 50 seconds to lodge your vote. Any questions coming through or issues?

Nothing at this stage here.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That's 2 minutes. I now declare voting closed. The results will be tallied immediately following the meeting and released to the stock exchange later today. That concludes today's formal business, and I thank you for your participation. And I declare now the meeting closed. Thank you very much.