EBOS Group Limited (EBO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Liz Coutts, and I'm the Chair of EBOS Group Limited. On Monday, October 4, following the announcement by the New Zealand government regarding ongoing restrictions due to COVID-19 and having regard to the health and safety of our stakeholders, shareholders and employees, EBOS made the difficult decision that today's annual meeting would be a virtual meeting only. I therefore, formally welcome you to the 99th Annual Meeting of EBOS Group Limited and trusts this finds all of you joining us today safe and well during these most difficult of times. Today's meeting is being held by Computershare Online Meetings platform. This allows shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting and read the company documents associated with the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. [Operator Instructions] Please note that while you submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic amalgamated together. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we will answer them in due course by e-mail. Voting today will be conducted by web poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open the voting for all resolutions. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, you'll be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab. Once the voting is opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be submitted. To vote, simply select your voting direction from the options shown on screen. You can vote for all resolutions at once or by each resolution. Your vote has been cast when the [ check ] appears. To change your vote, simply select "change your vote". You have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. I am advised that a quorum is present. I, therefore, declare the meeting open. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The resolutions will now be open in the Vote tab. Please submit your votes at any time. I will give you a warning before I move to close voting. Now to the business of the meeting. My first duty today is to introduce the directors and executives. Today, we have our Board and executives located across New Zealand and Australia due to current travel restrictions. I am joining you from Auckland, as is our most recent appointment to the Board, Tracey Batten. In our South Island hub are Sarah Ottrey, Stuart McLauchlan and Peter Williams; and Chief Financial Officer, Leonard Hansen. Joining us from Melbourne are Stuart McGregor; and Chief Executive Officer, John Cullity. Joining us from Sydney is Nick Dowling. Peter and I are seeking reelection and Tracey is seeking to be elected as an EBOS Director, and we each will be addressing the meeting later. John will also be providing an outline of the group's activities in the past year. Today's meeting is comprised of 3 parts. Firstly, I will provide shareholders with a brief summary of the financial highlights from the past year and the strategic positioning of the group today. Then as I mentioned, John Cullity, your CEO, will provide you with further details on the group's activities over the last year, and that will be followed by the formal business. And we have 4 resolutions for shareholder approval. As I referred earlier, voting on all resolutions is now open. You owe no apologies. As the notice of meeting has been duly circulated to all shareholders, I will take the notice convening the meeting be taken as read. It gives me great pleasure to report on our results for the 2020 financial year and provide shareholders with an update on the latest activity occurring within EBOS. As we continue to navigate uncertain times, EBOS remains focused on our role as an essential services provider to communities across New Zealand and Australia. It is this ongoing commitment that has ensured we remain a valued partner for our customers, government and other stakeholders while continuing to deliver strong returns for our shareholders. The success we achieved as a business in the 2021 financial year is only possible thanks to the efforts of our more than 3,700 employees. For those of you who have taken the time to review our 2021 annual report, you will have read about the many examples of dedication and resilience shown by our employees throughout the year. From those in our health care and animal care distribution centers to our HPS pharmacists on the front line and to all of those employees across EBOS who support the provision of care and advice to customers. We have witnessed countless examples during the pandemic of our employees going above and beyond, and for this, we thank them more. As you will see throughout my presentation and that of our CEO, John Cullity, our continued success is underpinned by our adherence to a disciplined strategy of: firstly, continuing to protect, build or acquire leading market positions in a range of health care and animal care sectors so as to maximize revenue growth; secondly, focusing on generating strong operating cash flows to allow for further investment and improved returns to shareholders; and last, investing for growth, both organically and through complementary business acquisitions. John will talk in more detail about our last 12 months and our key strategic focus of investing for growth, which has enabled us to deliver another year of strong returns. While it has undoubtedly been another successful period to EBOS, it would be remiss of me not to mention the ongoing and unpredictable impacts of COVID-19 on our operations across New Zealand and Australia. The EBOS pandemic response team consisting of the CEO and his direct reports continues to oversee all COVID-19-related matters impacting our employees and businesses. Throughout the pandemic, the pandemic response team had overseen the implementation of thorough health protocols with the objective of keeping both our employees safe and our primary distribution facilities open to ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and services across the community. The impacts of lockdowns and other restrictions has placed extra demands on the business and our employees. We are very conscious of the well-being and safety of everyone at EBOS and have invested in extra resources to assist them through the pandemic. We've been focused on informing and supporting our employees by rapidly updating them on developments, issuing personal safety and protection messages and providing general well-being and advice and support for them and their families. For those employees in Victoria, New South Wales and Auckland, who have had to endure prolonged periods of lockdown, EBOS delivered to each of them a personal care package designed to lift their spirits and show our support for them. Over the last 12 months, EBOS has distributed over 2,200 care packs to our employees. Another important focus for us is encouraging all our employees to get vaccinated. We have introduced an incentive program that is available to all fully vaccinated employees, and we are also providing flexibility for staff to get vaccinated during work hours. As we have seen across New Zealand and Australia, high COVID-19 cases have continued to be experienced. EBOS will continue to take proactive measures to provide all employees the opportunity to get -- to be vaccinated. Recently in New South Wales, our business has worked with the Department of Health to hold pop-up vaccination clinics on-site to allow as many staff as possible to get their vaccine at their place of work. It has been reassuring to see so many of our employees committed to protecting themselves and their families, their colleagues and the wider community by getting vaccinated. As I first reported at last year's annual meeting, EBOS has invested in the development of our environmental, social and governance program, which was launched earlier this year. This program is a key initiative for the future of EBOS that will serve as a framework for responsible governance and organizational practices to ensure we continue to meet the expectations of our stakeholders and maintain our social license to operate. Importantly, we also seek to highlight areas where we can continue to improve before enabling more structured governance, evaluation and disclosure as part of our comprehensive approach to responsible corporate leadership. Through our ESG program, EBOS will embrace the full range of responsibilities that come with our role as a provider of essential health and animal care products and services. The program comprises 5 pillars being: health and animal care partners, consumers and patients, community and environment, our people and responsible business. Within these pillars are 20 material ESG topics that are significant for the sustainability of our business and the interest of our stakeholders. Of further note and the ESG activity is the publication of our inaugural sustainability report, which was released in tandem with this year's annual report. The sustainability report, which will be presented annually moving forward, reports on the progress of our ESG activity over the financial year. Moving forward, the material areas of focus for EBOS will be environmental stewardship, packaging waste, responsible supply chain and quality management. These are the areas we have identified which are most relevant to EBOS' day-to-day operations and where we believe we can make progress in the short to medium term. Concurrently, we will set targets and KPIs and essentially map out the plan to achieve these targets over the coming years. We have received positive feedback from the investment community on our first sustainability report, and I look forward to keeping you updated as we make further progress in this area. In 2021, EBOS was also proud to implement a series of new workplace policies which provide our employees with guidance on acceptable workplace behavior and outline our efforts to promote an inclusive and diverse workforce. The new policies cover diversity and inclusion, recruitment and selection as well as flexible working and form the foundation of EBOS' overarching diversity and inclusion strategy. The intention of these policies is to ensure that EBOS continues to build a diverse and inclusive culture and workforce that is reflective of our communities. With the workforce comprising nearly 60% female employees, we are already performing strongly in this area. However, we understand that we must continually strive to build a strong and diverse workforce by promoting equal opportunity for employees of all cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds and increasing diversity in our leadership teams. As part of our people strategy, we are committed to listening to our employees to ensure they are engaged and aligned to our purpose and objectives. Our annual employee survey is an important tool to facilitate a 2-way communication culture and forms a key part of our people strategy. This year, we saw participation from 80% of our employees in the survey, and it was pleasing to see that we delivered strong results across areas of action that came from last year's survey, including values development and deployment, diversity and inclusion, and company confidence. We were particularly pleased with the response to the safety, with 86% of employees believing that EBOS is committed to safety in the workplace. Last year, I reported that EBOS had invited employees to become shareholders and benefit from the success of our company. I am pleased to advise that almost 60% of employees are now currently listed as EBOS shareholders. In June, I was pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Tracey Batten as an Independent Director of EBOS Group. Tracey brings to the EBOS Board a wealth of health key sector experienced gained as both a medical practitioner and a nonexecutive in senior executive roles across more than 30 years. Tracey's appointment was effective 1st July 2021, and she is seeking election by shareholders today. With Tracey's appointment, the Board now consists of 43% female representation, including myself as Chair. With regard to the EBOS executive leadership team, the female representation will increase to more than 44% as of 1st November, following our most recent executive appointment. As previously mentioned, across the wider organization, females make up nearly 60% of total employees. The Board continued to hold virtual meetings during 2020 and into 2021 and was fortunately able to meet in person in Auckland and in Melbourne in April and May, respectively, before the next round of lockdowns and orders closed again. Over the year, when lockdowns were not in place, New Zealand-based directors visited many of our New Zealand sites across the country to observe operations and talk with staff. We were particularly interested in their safety and well-being, as we recognized it has been a difficult time for many people. When we were in Australia, some directors were able to visit our Keysborough site in Melbourne, Greystanes in Sydney and our new animal care manufacturing plant which was under construction in Parkes, New South Wales. Over the last 2 years, the Board has welcomed 3 new directors and the Board's size has been increased by 2 directors from 5 to 7 directors as part of our Board succession. The succession planning process remains a focus of the Board given there are directors with long tenures with EBOS, who have indicated an intention to retire over the next few years. Our long-serving directors have vital skills and significant institutional knowledge which will take time to replicate. A smooth transition process is essential to the effective governance of the company, and accordingly, additional directors may need to be appointed prior to current directors retiring. COVID-19 restrictions continue to impact the Board's deliberations with lockdowns in Auckland and Australia. As a result, succession planning is taking time as the Board is mindful of providing stability in a cohesive culture, which has underpinned EBOS' success to date. The directors announced a final dividend of $0.46 per share, which takes full year dividends to $0.885 per share, an increase of 14.2% on the prior year. There is little doubt that we will all face ongoing uncertainty in the foreseeable future, but I hope you share in the confidence we hold and the strength of our company, as shown by our performance during the last financial year. We will maintain our appetite for growth and continue to take calculated commercial risks in line with our stated strategies in order to deliver for shareholders. We again thank all of our shareholders for their ongoing support, and your trust in the Board, executive employees of EBOS. To every one of our employees on behalf of the Board, I would like to convey our sincere appreciation for your commitment and dedication that we witness on a daily basis. To John and his executive team, I would like to especially thank them for the solid and outstanding leadership they've shown to, not only the past 12 months, but since the commencement of this pandemic back in February 2020. It has been an extremely demanding time for all, and I could not be prouder of the way EBOS has handled itself through this period. I will now hand over to John for a more in-depth review of the operational performance of the business. Thank you. John?

Thank you, Liz, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Although I'm again unable to join you in person today due to travel restrictions, I am extremely pleased to be able to report to you on the performance of our company for the 2021 financial year and take this opportunity to update you on current trading conditions. In reviewing the group's record result for FY '21, I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful contribution of all our employees who've made to the business over the last 12 months in what has been and continues to be an extremely challenging environment. Before continuing with my report, however, I'd like to share with you our latest corporate video that provides a visual overview of EBOS' key activities over the last 12 months. [Presentation]

The video you've just seen really does highlight the amount of activity that has taken place over the year, and I hope it provides you with an insight into the really broad scope of your company's operations. Turning our attention to the results for FY '21. EBOS delivered another record year with revenue exceeding $9 billion for the first time, which represents a 5% increase on the prior year. Pleasingly, this record result was driven by growth in both our Healthcare and Animal Care segments. Underlying earnings before net finance costs and tax or EBIT of $294.5 million grew by $31.4 million, representing an increase of 11.9%. Underlying net profit after tax increased by 15.5% to $188.2 million. As Liz has commented upon earlier, as a result of the strong earnings growth, we were able to increase dividend payments to shareholders to $0.885 and representing an increase of 14.2%. In looking at these strong financial metrics, you can see the pattern of consistent earnings growth that EBOS has delivered over the long term. Importantly, this earnings growth has been supported by a stable dividend payout ratio and disciplined focus on working capital management and cash flow generation. Pleasingly, our balance sheet is in a very strong position with inbuilt capacity for further investment and growth. Our business continues to benefit from the strength and diversity of our portfolio of businesses as both our Healthcare and Animal Care segments contributed strongly to the overall result. Our Healthcare segment continues to benefit from its leading market positions and our Animal Care segment continued its strong first half performance with each of our key brands and divisions, Black Hawk, Vitapet and Lyppard, recording robust sales growth. The group generated an excellent operating cash flow for the financial year of $298 million and reported a record return on capital employed of 18%. Turning to our Healthcare segment. The Healthcare segment reported revenue of $8.7 billion and underlying EBIT of $254.9 million, representing increases of 4.4% and 11.4%, respectively. In Australia, Healthcare revenue increased to $6.9 billion and underlying EBIT increased to $216 million, representing 3.7% and 12.4% growth, respectively. This was driven by strong performances from our community pharmacy, TWC, Institutional Healthcare and Contract Logistics divisions. In New Zealand, Healthcare revenue increased to $1.8 billion, and underlying EBIT increased to $38.9 million, representing 7.3% and 6% growth, respectively. These results were a function of the strong performances in our community pharmacy and contract logistics businesses. Throughout 2021, EBOS has been working closely with the New Zealand Ministry of Health to facilitate the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine across the country. It is testament to the professionalism of our health care operations that we were chosen to be a provider of the logistical services to the New Zealand Ministry of Health for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and we are proud to have played a very central role in this critical initiative. Our TerryWhite Chemmart franchise network continues its impressive growth with the network growing by a net 36 stores for the year. TWC is Australia's largest health services community pharmacy network, with over 465 trading stores, and we have a target of 500 trading stores by June 2022. TWC's network sales demonstrated above-market growth at 5.3%, and on a like-for-like basis, increased by 3.6%. This performance was driven by continued investment in media spend and ongoing industry-leading pharmacist education programs. Importantly, over 350 TWC pharmacies across Australia are now supporting their local communities and delivering in-store COVID-19 vaccinations. This essential community service flows on from TWC's leading position in administrating flu vaccinations. Turning now to our Animal Care segment. We were able to generate revenues of just under $500 million and EBIT of $62.9 million, representing increases on the prior year of 17% and 26.4%, respectively. The pet care market is supported by well-established trends which have been accelerated by COVID-19, including an increasing pet population, the humanization of pets, and consumers spending more time at home with their pets. Our leading brands continue to perform strongly. And both Black Hawk and Vitapet generated double-digit sales growth in FY '21 and have continued their strong performance in the first quarter of FY '22. As a result of the continued growth of our pet food business, and in particular, our Black Hawk brand, we have recently embarked upon the construction of a new state-of-the-art pet food manufacturing facility in Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. This new facility will allow EBOS to manufacture our market-leading products in-house for the first time and is expected to deliver significant benefits for the brand, including accelerating new product development opportunities, enhancing control of product quality and reducing third-party supply chain risk as well as delivering improved financial returns. Construction of the facility, which will cost approximately $80 million, is progressing in line with expectations. And we look forward to providing further updates with shareholders in due course. Consistent with our strategy of investing for growth and to expand and diversify our earnings, EBOS in the first half of FY '21 acquired 2 new businesses. Our Medical Devices segment was expanded with the acquisition of Cryomed, which markets and distributes devices and consumables used in aesthetic procedures in both Australia and New Zealand. And we also acquired the vet distribution business of CH2, which is now fully integrated within our Lyppard veterinary wholesale operations. Since closing the 2021 financial year, EBOS has completed 3 further acquisitions, each within our Institutional Healthcare division. We have previously advised the market of 2 of these acquisitions, Pioneer Medical and Century Medical, and I'm pleased to announce that we only recently completed on the 30th of September, our third acquisition, MD Solutions. Century Medical is an Australian designer, marketer and distributor of medical consumables, including its own brands and agency brands supplying to wholesalers, hospitals, general practitioners, aged care facilities and pharmacies. Its acquisition will provide further strength to our growing medical consumable business which is an area we have targeted for further transactions. EBOS Group first entered the medical device distribution market in late 2019 with the acquisition of LMT and National Surgical. Our recent acquisitions of Pioneer Medical and MD Solutions, together with Cryomed, continue our investment in this market segment. Pioneer Medical Group is a New Zealand-based importer and distributor of spine and major joint implants and associated surgical technologies for orthopedic and neurosurgery. MD Solutions is an Australian distributor of a range of medical devices and consumables for interventional oncology, urology and gynecology, pathology and diagnostics, gastroenterology and ear, nose and throat procedures. Both medical device distribution and medical consumables will form important components to the group's future growth, and shareholders can expect to see us make further investments in these markets in the periods ahead. Further to the Chair's comments earlier regarding EBOS' ESG program, we continue to activate throughout the year a range of activities, sponsorships and partnerships focused on our employees, environment and community. Our ESG program provides EBOS the platform to consolidate these ongoing activities across our businesses and to report annually via our sustainability report. We have continued, where possible under COVID-19 restrictions, the activities under our ECHO, environment, community and helping others, program. Many of the activities, such as our Be Well at Work Day, were adapted to be presented virtually, allowing our employees working from home to participate programs included sessions on mental health and well-being, physical exercise and delivery of wellness packages to employees in prolonged lockdown. Our match funding program also continued throughout the year, with EBOS matching the donations and funds raised by employees for many charity-based events and activities. EBOS has continued its long association with Greenfleet. And in FY '21, we were again able to offset 100% of carbon emissions from transport associated with customer deliveries in the health care segment across both Australia and New Zealand. I'm also pleased that EBOS has completed the first year of its reconciliation action plan in Australia. Following approval from Reconciliation Australia, we have now launched our updated plan for the coming 12 months as we continue this important journey. Our strategy of pursuing both organic growth and investing for growth across our Healthcare and Animal Care businesses has been a key driver of sustained long-term performance. Over the last 20 years, EBOS has generated total shareholder returns of approximately 20% per annum. On a more recent basis, in the last year to 30 June 2021, EBOS generated total shareholder returns of approximately 55%. In closing, I would like to provide some brief commentary on our current trading performance. EBOS has had a pleasing start to the FY '22 financial year with strong revenue and earnings growth recorded across both our Healthcare and Animal Care segments. For the 3 months ended 30 September 2021, group revenue and earnings grew at just over 10% compared to the prior corresponding period. The group's portfolio of businesses has proven to be very resilient throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, lockdowns in New Zealand and Australia are evidence of the material uncertainties that exist and that may impact upon future trading performance. Finally, I would like to sincerely thank my executive team and all of our 3,700 employees who have shown incredible dedication, strength and resilience in managing all that has been put before them during these unprecedented times. I'd also like to thank our Chair and Directors for their guidance and support during the last 12 months. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention and ongoing support as shareholders. I'll now hand back to Liz to continue with the formal matters of the meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, John. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The first item of business is to consider and receive the annual report. The annual report contains the financial statements, director's report, the auditor's report for the year ended 30th of June 2021. A formal resolution is not required. We will then move on to the other matters to be put to a vote. We have 5 ordinary resolutions to deal with today. Resolution 1 is the election of Tracey Batten as a Director. Tracey was appointed as a Director with effect from 1st of July 2021 and is now required to be put forward for election by shareholders at the annual meeting. Resolution 2 is the reelection of myself as a director. I'm required to retire by rotation, and I'm now required to be put forward for election by shareholders at the annual meeting. Resolution 3 is the reelection of Peter Williams as a director. Peter is required to retire by rotation and is now required to be put forward for reelection by shareholders at the annual meeting. Resolution 4 is the increase -- is to increase the total remuneration for nonexecutives. Resolution 5 is to authorize the directors to fix the fees and expenses of the auditor. As required under NZX listing rules, voting will be conducted by poll in respect of each resolution. Shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions as each resolution is proposed. If you wish to ask a question or make a comment, I ask that you follow the directions previously advised by the Q&A tab on the Computershare site you are currently viewing. Your question will come through immediately, but may I ask your patience as the questions are sent through to me by the team online. I remind you that only shareholders permitted to vote will ask questions. I also advise that directors hold proxies representing 93,515,432 shares in respect of resolutions 1, 2, 3 and 5, where director holds an undirected or discretionary proxy they intend to vote those proxies in favor of the resolutions. In respect of Resolution 4, the director will only vote those proxies in accordance with the shareholders' express instructions. The annual report and financial statements were subject to audit by Deloitte, who gave an unqualified audit opinion. The annual report and financial statements are required to be audited and lodged prior to the annual meeting, and therefore, there is no formal resolution required to be put to the meeting. I will, however, take questions on the annual report and financial statements and any other aspects of the business you may want to discuss. The auditors, Deloitte, are represented today online by Mr. Mike Hawken, the signing audit partner. I now ask, are there any questions on the annual report? As you consider that, I have received -- some questions have been coming through, as John and I have been presenting, and I will work through those in front of me.

The first question is, 4 years ago, EBOS purchased a controlling share of MedAdvisor, ASX shares to use the company as a vehicle for future growth. Is this still long -- is it still your long-term plan? And if so, how? My response is, we invested in MedAdvisor in 2017 with about a 14% stake now sitting at around 10%. While we value our MedAdvisor investment, there are no further plans to invest at this stage. The next question is, what carbon-reducing or other environmental initiatives have you taken with the construction of the new Black Hawk plant in Australia? And I'll hand that question over to John to answer.

Thank you, Liz. So there's a number of initiatives on the recent investment at Parkes, and I'll just go through a few of those. Firstly, the plant at Parkes will be at least 20% to 30% more efficient than traditional pet food manufacturing facilities in respect of energy usage. In terms of waste then all packaging from raw ingredients will be recycled. Extruder waste will also be used by the local farming community. And the facility as a whole will result in very minimal general waste to landfill. In respect of water, then trade wastewater is captured on-site at the facility,and is treated. There are 2 holding dams on the facility that are used to store water and used for irrigation. And where we have situated the facility is very close to about approximately 50% of the ingredients that will be used in the production of pet food, and therefore, that will reduce, in effect, what we call food miles or the carbon emission footprint in order to deliver the raw ingredients to the facility. So we've been very mindful in building the Parkes facility of ensuring that it is built on our sustainability platform.

Thank you, John. The next question is, your annual report shows that your retail experience in Australia looks to be quite significant with Chemist Warehouse, et cetera. Apart from Chemist Warehouse, is EBOS looking to emulate its Australian retail exposure in New Zealand and elsewhere with the same dominance. John?

I missed the first part of that question, please, chair. Could you just...

Your annual report shows that your retail experience in Australia looks to be quite significant with Chemist Warehouse, et cetera. Apart from Chemist Warehouse, is EBOS looking to emulate its Australian retail exposure in New Zealand and elsewhere with the same dominance?

Thank you, Chair. In respect of the answer to that question, our retail footprint really in the Australian marketplace is by virtue of the ownership of our TerryWhite Chemmart franchise or business, and the Chemist Warehouse business is a business that we service as a wholesale/distributor. And therefore, while it provides sufficient and significant volumes for the distribution business, it's not part of our -- call it, our retail footprint per se. Just like in New Zealand, we have a large share in distributing and wholesaling medicines and consumables to retail pharmacies in the New Zealand marketplace. But in terms of what we would call a retail footprint, it's largely the TerryWhite Chemmart network in Australia, and we have no plans to introduce that footprint into the New Zealand market.

Thank you, John. Next question. What was the cost of the Pioneer Medical, Century Medical and MD Solutions acquisitions? And how much of that cost will be booked to goodwill on the balance sheet?

Leonard, are you able to answer those questions, our CFO?

Yes, sure. So in aggregate, approximately $100 million was invested in those investments during the year, John.

Thank you. And I think probably fair to say at least $80 million would go to goodwill once it's done. They are largely cash flow businesses. So what we find is a significant portion of the purchase price does end up in goodwill, but that will be determined once we perform the acquisition accounting, and therefore, recorded in the first half financial statements of FY '22.

Okay. Thank you, John. Next question is, both the Chairperson and the CEO's addresses covered EBOS' response to COVID and vaccination efforts and were very positive. But both omitted any reference to the episode in early August, where Red Seal was found to be porting out anti-vax messaging, both in packaging and in the subsequent social media response. What was the outcome of this and what steps have been taken to ensure that no more irresponsible messaging will be coming out of EBOS-related entities? John?

Thank you, Chair. And first, everyone should really be aware that EBOS and Red Seal support the New Zealand government's program to fight COVID-19, including the vaccination program. EBOS has, for a long period of time now, been encouraging its employees to get vaccinated, and in fact, we have announced a vaccination incentive program for all our staff to further reinforce this objective. In relation to that particular event and that media article I believe you are referring to, this relates to a message between an individual Red Seal employee and a customer, where an employee had made a comment that was subsequently misinterpreted. So it was not an action on behalf of a group company per se.

Thank you, John. The next question is, what factor or factors determine where the DRP is implemented as opposed to cash dividend? I can answer that. Look, we take into account a number of factors, including our operating performance, our cash flow and the state of our balance sheet. They are all considered by the Board. Now I'm just going to wait a few minute or so because while the questions do come through immediately, they can just take a minute or so to get to me. But it looks like -- I just had it confirmed to me that there's no more questions on this item being sent to me. So with that, we will now move to the resolutions. Tracey Batten. As Tracey was appointed as a director by the Board since the last annual meeting, Tracey Batten is required to be put forward for election by shareholders at the annual meeting. The resolution is, it is hereby resolved that Tracey Batten be elected as a Director of the company. I now invite Tracey to make a statement to the meeting. Tracey?

Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon, everybody. I'm Tracey Batten, and I'm pleased to be standing for election today, having been appointed by the Board as a Nonexecutive Director on the 1st of July of this year. I have 30 years' experience of working in the health care sector, primarily in Australia, but also in New Zealand, and internationally. My initial training was as a medical practitioner. And I worked for several years as a doctor in Australia and in the United Kingdom. I then progressed relatively early in my career into health care management, supplementing my clinical training with a number of management qualifications, including a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. During my executive career, I spent over 15 years working as a Chief Executive of a number of large hospital groups, both public and private in Australia and the United Kingdom. The largest of these hospital groups had revenues of approximately $1.9 billion, employed over 16,000 staff and operated from 27 different locations. These roles gave me significant strategic and commercial experience, extensive operational and health and safety expertise, and considerable skills developing a strong organization culture focused on delivering quality patient care and an engaged workforce. It was during my executive career that I first became acquainted with EBOS through Symbion and its supply contracts for the hospital groups I ran in Australia. The pharma, surgicals and medical consumables supplied by Symbion were crucial to the efficient and effective operation of my hospitals. For the past 4 years, I've developed my governance portfolio in both New Zealand and Australia. I currently serve on 3 other boards, including Medibank Private, an ASX top 50 listed company, which is Australia's largest private health insurer; the Accident Compensation Corporation, Crown entity that manages and delivers New Zealand's universal no-fault accident insurance scheme; and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, which is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute, conducting preeminent climate, freshwater and ocean scientific research. Previous boards that I've served on include Abano Healthcare Group, when it was an NZX-listed company, and various other health care and health research organizations. I'm a chartered member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and I have a fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I'm a permanent resident in New Zealand, residing in Auckland and also an Australian citizen. I believe my industry knowledge, my skills gained as the senior executive and my governance experience equip me to effectively fulfill my role as an EBOS Director. EBOS is a great New Zealand company with a strong reputation, proven business strategy and considerable financial strength. It would be a privilege to serve on the board, and I appreciate your support for my election as an EBOS Director today. Thank you.

Thank you, Tracey. Are there any questions on this resolution? I say, to date, I have not received any, but I will just take a moment to check that there's no questions. Now I will now move the adoption of resolution 1. Thank you. The next item of business relates to my reelection as a director. Accordingly, I will now hand over to Stuart McLauchlan to chair this part of the meeting. Stuart, who's down in Queenstown. Stuart?

Thank you, Liz. As a member of the Board, Ms. Coutts is required to retire by rotation. She is eligible and offers herself for reelection. The resolution is that Elizabeth Coutts, who retires by rotation, be reelected as a director of the company. I now invite Liz to make a statement to the meeting.

Thank you, Stuart. Fellow Board members, shareholders, thank you for this opportunity to offer myself for reelection. It is a pleasure and privilege to serve on the Board and to have contributed to EBOS' performance, growth and success. I have over 20 years of professional governance experience and a breadth and depth of industry and company experience, which I believe has and will be of value to EBOS. I wish to assure shareholders that I have the dedication and time to continue to support EBOS and their growth plans. As both the Chair and a long-serving director, I also have an important role to assist with the onboarding of new directors for our Board succession. I have been a shareholder and Director of EBOS for 18 years, and for the last 2 years as Chair of EBOS. When I joined the Board, EBOS had a market capitalization of $95 million. Since then, it has increased to $5.6 billion. I believe EBOS has more growth ahead, and I would like to be part of that growth. On that basis, I ask for your support and endorsement. Thank you. Back to you, Stuart. You all right, stuart?

It was still muted -- or there we go. Are there any questions from the floor on this resolution? No questions? Okay. I move the following ordinary resolution that Elizabeth Coutts, who retires by rotation, be reelected as a Director of the company. Thank you. I will now hand back to Liz.

Thank you, Stuart. As a member of the Board, Peter Williams is required to retire by rotation. He is eligible and offers himself for reelection. The resolution is, it is hereby resolved that Peter Williams be reelected as a director of the company. I now invite Peter to make a statement to the meeting. Back to Queenstown.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is somewhat of a disconcerting experience. I'm customed on these occasions to stand before you and have you eyeball me. I'm currently looking at a large TV screen of myself. Not the most pleasant. I thought I would -- you all know me by now, and I thought I would dispense with attempting to convince you of my skills and expertise and experience. But suffice it to say that I'm privileged to be a cohort of an extremely talented, industrious, hard-working group of directors and management. And I can assure you that if I wasn't pulling my weight, I'd have received a tap on the shoulders long before today. So on that note, I hope you concur, and look forward to your support.

Thank you, Peter. Are there any questions on this resolution? I haven't seen any come through. So on that note, I now move the adoption of resolution 3. Thank you. We now move to Resolution 4 relating to nonexecutive directors' remuneration. The resolution is it is hereby resolved that pursuant to NZX listing rule 2.11.1 and ASX listing rule 10.17, the total remuneration for nonexecutive directors be increased by $155,000 from $1,410,000 per annum to $1,565,000 per annum, with effect of 1st of July 2021. Are there any questions on this resolution? I will wait to see if any come through. I have, in the meantime, received questions -- more general questions, which I will attend to after the formal resolutions. No, there's no questions come through. So I now move the adoption of Resolution 4. The next resolution. Deloitte is the current auditor of the company and is automatically reappointed in accordance with the Companies Act. It is proposed that directors be authorized to fix the fees and expenses of the auditor. The resolution is, it is hereby resolved that the directors of the company be authorized to fix the fees and expenses of Deloitte as auditor of the company. Are there any questions on the resolution, please? I will just wait if there's any... Nothing appears to have come through. So I now move the adoption of resolution 5. Thank you. Before we move on to the voting, I now ask, does anyone viewing have any other business. And as I just said, I have received some other questions, which we will now -- I will now read out for you. The first question is, which I'll ask John to answer, what is the company's policy regarding animal testing, John?

The company doesn't have -- doesn't condone any animal testing at all in our business, and we have basically nothing to do in terms of any of our products are subject to animal testing.

Okay. Thank you, John. Next question. It is great that EBOS is reducing their carbon footprint. Well done to the Board. How do you engage with suppliers to ensure that they have the same ethos as EBOS Group? John?

As part of implementing our ESG strategy, we are very much focused on reducing our carbon footprint. And in doing that and in formulating our ESG strategy, we have a direct engagement with our suppliers who are supporting us in this particular initiative and working with us in respect of that. That's a form of direct action. In addition, we have a form of indirect action to reduce our carbon footprint, and that's working with organizations like Greenfleet, where we offset the carbon footprint within our health care operations of the carbon emissions. So we basically have 100% offset of all carbon emissions generated by our health care business. So there's 2 areas there that we actively work with in reducing our carbon footprint.

Thank you, John. I would just wait just a little while just to see -- check that there's no other questions coming through because that's -- I have one more question here for John. How is EBOS Group progressing with ensuring that all packaging used is reusable, recyclable in line with government targets?

A number of areas, Liz, in respect of that. So the group supports the vision of Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and -- which is tasked with leading the way towards developing a circular economy for packaging. So we're very supportive of their vision, and we work in New Zealand. We're supporting similar initiatives there. In respect of our consumer brand business, whether it's our Endeavour business or whether it's our animal care Masterpet business, then we are working on developing and implementing a sustainable packaging strategy. So this includes the elimination of nonrecyclable plastics and also reducing and removing complex combinations of packaging materials. And we're working on that with a focus of not compromising the safety and integrity of our finished products. So they are the key areas that we're working on.

Thank you, John. It doesn't appear to be any further questions. I will now move to conduct -- move on to the conduct of the poll. As I advised earlier, today's vote is conducted online by the Computershare portal. Please cast your votes by clicking the Vote tab on the screen. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. In a minute, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you cast your vote on all resolutions. I will now pause to allow you time to finalize those votes. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. After the votes have been counted and confirmed, the results of the poll will be released to the NZX and the ASX and will be displayed on the company's website. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you for your online attendance and your patience with the new technology. Thank you so much for joining.