Evoke plc (EVOK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 888 Holdings plc Annual General Meeting. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand over to Chairman, Jon Mendelsohn. Good morning.

Good morning. I am Jon Mendelsohn, Chairman of 888 Holdings. It is now 9:00 in the morning here in London, and I'm delighted to welcome you to the 2024 Annual General Meeting. I am also pleased to welcome shareholders to have chosen to follow today's proceedings over the online Investor Meet Company platform. Shareholders are invited to submit any questions over the online platform, and we will aim to respond to questions relevant to the business of the meeting and those which are being submitted in advance. Shareholders not able to attend in-person and wishing to vote at the meeting have been strongly encouraged to do so by completing a form of proxy or form of direction as appropriate. Shareholders are not able to vote over the online platform. In accordance with the company's articles of association, every shareholder shall have 1 vote for each share of which they are the registered holder. If shares are held in joint names, then only the first named shareholder may vote. Regarding shareholders who have sent a form of proxy to the company's registrars, appointing me to vote on their behalf, I will vote on each motion in the manner instructed on their forms of proxy or where the form is left blank, at my discretion. Votes cast will be verified against the register of members. And so with the necessary quorum being present, I declare the Annual General Meeting open. Resolutions 1 to 18 are set out and explained in the notice of meeting, which was made available to you, our shareholders, on the 18th of April. I propose the notice of meeting be taken as read. And I now give formal notice that voting on each of the resolutions, as set out in the notice of meeting, will be via a poll. I appoint our Company Secretary, Elizabeth Bisby, to act as scrutineer, and I now declare the poll open and request that all shareholders present complete their polling cards. I should also remind you that a vote withheld is not a vote in law and will not be counted in the calculation of the votes for or against a resolution. Only shareholders or their proxies may vote, and the meeting can only consider matters detailed in the notice of meeting. The poll will close at the conclusion of the meeting, and the final result will then be announced via the London Stock Exchange and posted on our company website as soon as practical after the meeting. Shareholders are invited to submit any questions over the online platform now whilst the poll is open. Whilst questions are submitted, I would like to give a very brief overview of your company's important and significant progress since last year's Annual General Meeting. At last year's meeting, I laid out 3 areas the Board was focused on to ensure the long-term success of the business: These were our team, ESG and execution. And I am pleased to say that the company has made strong progress against all these critical areas during the year. Firstly, on the team, I am delighted to welcome Per Widerstrom, the group's new Chief Executive Officer; and Sean Wilkins, our new Chief Financial Officer, to their first Annual General Meeting. They join me at today's meeting alongside our nonexecutive directors, Anne de Kerckhove, Limor Ganot, Andrea Gisle Joosen, Ori Shaked and Mark Summerfield. The Board is delighted to have appointed 2 leaders of Per's and Sean's caliber. Per is an exceptionally dynamic leader, with highly relevant industry experience and a very strong track record of creating shareholder value. Sean brings a wealth of relevant experience, gained in 2 financial officer roles at international businesses, where he, too, has demonstrated a strong track record of value creation. Since their arrivals in October 2023 and February 2024, respectively, Per and Sean have made a significant impact on the group, including establishing and communicating our new strategic framework and value creation plan to unlock significant shareholder value. The new value creation plan, which is wholeheartedly endorsed by the Board, will focus on delivering sustainable, profitable revenue growth, improved profitability and efficiency through operating leverage and deleveraging through disciplined capital allocation. To better reflect our business and strengthened one company ethos, today, we are proposing a new name for the company, evoke plc. We believe this change will help to create a stronger corporate identity that better reflects the combined group its mission and its values. To summarize, your company has a clear and focused plan to create value, a strengthened executive team to execute that plan and pending shareholder approval today, a fresh new identity to help unite our company together behind our value creation objectives. With all this in mind, as a Board, we are very positive about the prospects for the future.

I will now review if we've received any questions which are relevant to the business of the meeting. I have received some questions which I will overview, not all of which were relevant to the business of the meeting, but I will also take those into consideration. We've had a question about strategic activity, about a restoration of a dividend, about communications for [ R&S ] and about capital whether or not the capital raise, which took place in a previous year, not relevant to notice of this meeting and a general comment about consolidation. I would just reemphasize in answer to those questions that we are committed to a value creation plan that we always at the start of the transaction, talked about a mix of debt and equity, and that was what took place in previous years, not in this last year; and that whilst we are always live to what are strategic issues, we are committed to what has become a very important principle, a very well-established idea about what we should do and a very effective new value creation plan, which we will see through during the course of this year and which we'll anticipate, will unlock significant shareholder value in the long term. There being no more questions, I would just like you to thank you all for joining and for your continued support. That concludes matters, and the meeting is now closed.

Thank you very much indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today's Annual General Meeting. We'll shortly redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the Board can better understand your views and expectations. On part of the Board of 888 Holdings plc, I would like to thank you for attending today's Annual General Meeting. Good morning to you all.