First Property Group plc (FPO.L) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the First Property Group plc Annual General Meeting. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand over to the Chairman for today's meeting, Alasdair Locke, good morning, good afternoon.

Thank you very much, and welcome to everybody who's here and also anybody who is listening via the presentation online. My name is Alasdair Locke. I'm the Group's Chairman, and I'll be chairing this meeting, and I'm joined today by colleagues, Peter Moon, for those in the room on my right, my fellow non-Executive Director; and Ben Habib, on my left, the Chief Executive Officer and Laura James, who's our Finance Director. We also have sitting in the room Jill Aubrey, our Company Secretary; and Jeremy Barkes, our Business Development Director. So with the consent of all those shareholders who are present, I'd like to take the notice of the meeting as set out on Pages 73 to 75 of the annual report and accounts as read. Is everybody happy with that? Thank you. Everybody has been able to submit questions in advance and you also have the opportunity to submit or ask questions during the meeting via the Investor Meet company platform or in person for those who are here. And what I intend to do is to conduct the formal business of the meeting first, and then we will deal with question and answers at the end of that once the formal business has been concluded. Right. I declare that the quorum required by the articles of association of the company is present in the article, the meeting is, therefore, properly constituted. For those joining the meeting by the live presentation, you will apparently see on your screens the ordinary resolutions being proposed. And after there has been a show of hands on each resolution, I will advise in the proxy count. So the first resolution, I now propose that the report of the directors and the audited accounts for the year ended 31st of March '24, now submitted to this meeting be approved and adopted, and I'll ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

I put it to the meeting. Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

The proxy vote was 34,085,930 shares in favor, 28,747,852 shares against, no abstentions. So I declare the resolution carried. Resolution 2. I now propose Resolution #2, whereby the directors are authorized to reappoint Cooper Parry as auditors of the company to hold office from the conclusion of the meeting until the conclusion of the next general meeting of the company at which accounts are laid. And I will again ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in the seconding the proposal.

I put it to the meeting. Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. The proxy vote was 34,125,930 shares in favor, 28,707,852 shares against no abstentions. Resolution #3. I now propose Resolution #3, whereby the directors are authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors. I will ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

I put it to the meeting. Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. The proxy vote again was 34,125,930 in favor, 28,707,852 against no abstentions. I now propose Resolution #4 as set out in full on Page 73, which is an ordinary resolution and requires authority to authorize the directors to allot shares and/or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert any security into shares. I now propose that the directors be authorized to allot shares and/or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert securities in accordance with the terms of the resolution #4, and I would ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

I put it to the meeting. Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. And again, the proxy vote was 33,848,883 shares in favor, 28,983,065 against and 1,834 abstentions. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal part of the business. I've made a statement, which is on the RNS at the moment, which is also available for anybody to read. I can read it out if you wish or are you all happy for me to take it as read? Good because it's fairly tedious to have to read all that out, but it's on the screen. So we have no questions online as far as I can see, but I'm happy now to take any questions. We haven't had any submitted in advance. So does anybody in the meeting who want to ask any particular questions or online.

There are no questions online, sir.

Right.

I have some question. The related party transaction with the Phoenix is it's called Phoenix why didn't First Property Group acquired it or it seems to be a good investment since the CEO acquired it?

Just to answer that. Yes. So Phoenix is held in our books at nil value. Some of the shareholders in Phoenix wish to exit. Actually, the assessment that was made from a commercial perspective was that it had net -- negative liabilities. The shareholders who wish to exit are important to the group. I was prepared to pay a meaningful -- a small but meaningful sum, which would have been written off to nil if the group had bought the shares. So I bought the shares to keep the shareholders content.

Okay. And didn't First Property -- couldn't First Property have done the same thing?

It would have had to provide -- the company would value this.

I think as directors, we felt that it was inappropriate for us to invest our shareholders' funds is something that we would immediately have to write off as a loss. Any further questions? Well, if that's it, if there are no further questions or nothing online, thank you all very much for attending, and see you again next year.

That's great. For the Board of First Property, thank you very much indeed for updating attendees today. Could you please ask attendees not to close the session, we'll automatically redirect you the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the Board can really better understand your views and expectations. This may take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the Board of First Property Group plc, we'd like to thank you very much for attending today's Annual General Meeting and good afternoon to you, all.