Eagers Automotive Limited (APE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tim Crommelin, and I chair Eagers Automotive Limited. Welcome to today's general meeting. It's 10 a.m., just gone 10:00 a.m. here in Brisbane and the company's Secretary, Denis Stark, has advised a quorum is present. I, therefore, declare this meeting open. This meeting is being held as a hybrid meeting with shareholders attending either in person or online. Shareholders online are able to watch our live webcast, ask questions and vote. I'd like to now introduce my fellow directors in attendance today either here, in Brisbane, or online. Nick Politis, Dan Ryan and Greg Duncan join us from Sydney. Marcus Birrell and David Blackhall join us from Melbourne; and Michelle Prater joins from Perth. Our Chief Executive, Keith Thornton, and our Director and CFO, Sophie Moore, are both here with me this morning and also available to answer questions, if you have any. And it's also pleasing to see a number of our senior management represented here and online including Edward Geschke, our Chief Operating Officer, Paul Warburton, James Couper and Amanda Ellison. The Secretary has advised that there are no apologies, that we've received no apologies, but I would like to acknowledge a number of shareholders that are present that have had a long association with Eagers. Robin Partner is a large shareholder in Eagers. Welcome, Robin. Tony Love, former Director of Eagers and shareholder. And of course, Martin Ward, he joins us as well. Martin is long time Managing Director of Eagers and certainly part of the fabric of the company. Thank you for joining us, and let me now just address the matters that relate to the meeting. Just some comments around this is a hybrid meeting. I need to run through a few procedural matters. So please bear with me. Only shareholders and their representatives and attorneys and proxy holders attending in person and holding blue admission cards and those attending online are entitled to ask questions and vote today. For attendees here in person to ask a question, you'll need to raise your hand when I invite questions, wait for the microphone and state your name before asking the question. [Operator Instructions] Although online questions can be submitted at any time, I will address them only at the relevant time during the meeting. If multiple similar questions are received, we will try to group them together. And I will ask James Couper, our Chief Commercial Officer, to introduce the online questions at the appropriate time. All voting today will be conducted by a poll, and I'll open voting shortly. For attendees present in-person, your blue admission card is your voting card. You will need to follow the instructions on the card, mark the appropriate boxes and lodge the card in the ballot box before voting closes. Proxy holders who lodge voting cards will be deemed to have voted in accordance with the instructions attached to their card. Proxy holders entitled to cast open votes will need to mark a box beside the relevant motion to indicate how they wish to vote. For attendees online, a voting icon will appear on your device when voting opens. Clicking on the icon will give you your voting options for the motion. Simply select one of the options to cast your vote. You may change your vote at any time until I declare that voting has closed. All attendees, whether online or in-person, may submit votes at any time from when voting opens until I declare voting closed. Finally, I appoint Lewis Brimelow of Computershare Investor Services to conduct the poll and be the returning officer for this meeting. I now declare voting open. We now move to the formal business for today. The notice of meeting was made available to all shareholders on the 14th of December 2023 and will be taken as read. There is only 1 formal business item today, and that is to ask for shareholder approval in relation to our acquisition in Victoria from entities associated with Mr. Nick Politis. Details of all proxy and direct votes received prior to the meeting should be now showing on your screen. These votes, as you can see, are in favor, 98.9% and they do not include any votes from Nick Politis or Dan Ryan, as they are not permitted to vote due to their interest in this transaction. All other directors have voted their shares in favor of the resolution, and I recommend that all shareholders do the same. An independent expert, PwC, has examined the transaction to assist shareholders assess its merits. PwC has concluded that the transaction is both fair and reasonable to shareholders that are not associated with the vendors. Further information on the motion can be found in the Notice of Meeting. We're now happy to take any questions on this item of business. I'd just ask shareholders present here in-person, if you do have a question, please raise your hand, wait for the microphone, state your name and ask your question. If there are no further questions from shareholders, is there anything, any questions? No? If there are no further questions from shareholders in person, I'd ask James Couper if there are any questions online from shareholders on today's business.

No questions received yet.

Nothing from you, James. And no verbal questions online, I don't think. No written questions online. Thank you. As there are no further questions, I will now close voting shortly. But firstly, I will briefly pause the meeting just to give shareholders a final opportunity to submit your votes if you haven't already done so. We'll just pause for 30 seconds while we get the chance to finalize your votes. [Voting]

Thank you, shareholders. That's 30 seconds. And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's business. And I thank all shareholders for their participation and support today. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you.