Future Generation Australia Limited (FGX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. I'm Philip Lowe, and I'm Chair of the Board of Directors of Future Generation Australia. This is the 11th Annual General Meeting of Future Generation Australia. As you know, it's a hybrid meeting being held both online and here at the Museum of Sydney. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respects to their elders, past and present, who've been custodians of this land on which I stand have been custodians to those lands for tens of thousands of years. So thank you, and we acknowledge that. Before we begin, a disclaimer is going to be displayed on the screen, and I encourage you to read that. While you're reading that, I'm delighted to be joined by our fellow Board Directors, Stephanie Lai, David Leeton, Gabriel Radzyminski, Mike Baird, and Future Generation Founder, Geoff Wilson. Both Kate Thorley and David Paradice send their apologies to this meeting. Also joining us is Caroline Gurney. Caroline is the CEO of Future Generation Australia. And acting in capacity of moderator for this meeting is Jesse Hamilton. Jesse is the Joint Company Secretary and Wilson Asset Management, Chief Financial Officer. And he's going to assist us in addressing any questions that are received during the meeting. Sujani Goonatilleka from Acclime Australia; and Richard King, a representative from our auditor, Pitcher Partners, are also with us, and Richard will be available to address any questions relating to the company's financial accounts. As it's 10:02 and a quorum is present, I declare that this meeting is open. The notice of the meeting has been circulated to the shareholders. And in the absence of any objection, I'll be proceeding on the basis that the notice is taken as read. And I also encourage you to read the Chair's address, which was announced to the ASX this morning. The shareholders who have logged into the website using the user name and password will have the opportunity to submit questions online and also to ask questions as well as to vote on the various resolutions. If you are joining us online, questions can be submitted at any time during the course of the meeting and instructions are on the screen. Those shareholders joining us online are also able to ask verbal questions using the question facility available during the meeting. And for those shareholders joining us in person, thank you for coming in. Please raise your hand and wait for the microphone to be brought to you if you have a question. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all the items of business. And when open the poll, the voting icon will appear on the navigation bar and simply select one of the options to cast your vote. If you change your mind, you're able to select another option. I now declare that voting is open on all items of business. You can vote at any time during the proceedings until I declare the voting closed, and I'll give you a clear prompt later in the meeting to warrant the close of voting. 2024 marked my first year as the Chair of Future Generation Australia, and I'm proud to report that we've delivered strong returns to shareholders, both in terms of the finances and the social objectives. We achieved a better -- sorry, we achieved a total shareholding return of 20.6% for the last 12 months, and that's 23.5% when franking credits are included. The investment portfolio increased by 13% that outperformed both the S&P ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index and the S&P ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index. They increased by 11.4% and 8.4%, respectively, compared to our investment return of 13%. This strong performance enabled us to increase the fully franked dividend to $0.035 per share, bringing the fully franked full year dividend to $0.07 per share, that's delivered a grossed up dividend yield of 8% to shareholders over the past year. In 2024, we made our 10th annual social investment of $5.4 million. The fees waived during the year by our fund managers, service providers, Board of Directors and the Investment Committee were approximately $9.5 million. That's 1.7% of the company's net assets. This exceeds the annual investment in our social impact partners of 1%. So that meant there's been a saving of 0.7% of net assets to our shareholders. We're deeply grateful for the commitment from our fund managers and from our service providers. That commitment makes our model both sustainable and scalable. So thank you to all those who support the Future Generation Australia. As you know, this year has begun with considerable market volatility. Global uncertainty, including rising tariffs and renewed political risks have impacted investor sentiment and Australia has not been immune to this. I know that these periods of market turbulence can be unsettling for many people. However, our highly diversified portfolio positions us well to manage the risks here and volatile market conditions can favor active stock selection, particularly in the small and medium cap sector, which is really where our core strength is. Since inception in 2014, the investment portfolio has delivered an average return of 8.7%, outperforming the indices while maintaining lower volatility than the market, higher returns and less risk is typically a good combination in finance. At the end of April, with a profits reserve of $0.415 per share, a dividend coverage of 5.9 years and dividend payments since inception of $0.50 per share, we're confident of the sustainability of future dividends. We'll now conduct the formal part of the meeting, and there are five items of business for the AGM today, and they've been set out in the notice of the meeting. Four of these five items are to be voted on. The notice of meeting and the explanatory memorandum were circulated to shareholders. And in the absence of any objection, I will be proceeding on the basis that these items are taken as read. Boardroom are the returning officers for today's meeting, and they will conduct our poll. I further note that resolution 1 is the subject of voting exclusions as outlined in the notice of the meeting. The Board recommends approval of each resolution. And as Chair, I will be voting all open votes provided to me for each resolution. We'll advise the ASX as soon as the results are determined, which will be a little later today. You may submit any questions or comments you have on the financial statements and the reports now. The first item of business is to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report and the auditor's report for the year ended 31 December 2024. Richard King, a representative from our auditor, Pitcher Partners, is present to answer the questions. And no resolution on this matter is required. I will pause now for a moment to allow for any questions. And if you're joining online, please send them through the question function or request to speak. I'll just pause here to see whether there are any questions in the room or do we have any questions online, Jesse. There being no questions, we come to the items of business for which a vote is required. Resolution 1 relates to the adoption of the remuneration report, and you may submit any questions or comments you have on that resolution now. The proxies received are also on the screen. For the open proxies, which have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. And we'll pause now for any questions either online or in the room. Are there any questions, Jesse?

We've got some general questions for the end of the meeting, but no questions on this resolution.

Okay. As there are no questions, I'll put the motion that the resolution be approved as set out in the notice of the meeting. And if you're a shareholder or proxy holder and eligible to vote, could you please now complete your vote for resolution 1. [Voting]

Resolution 2 relates to the reelection of Director, Geoff Wilson. Geoff, would you like to make a small -- sorry, a short statement as to your reelection as a Director of Future Generation Australia.

Perfect. Look, thanks very much, Phil. And look, thank you, shareholders. Obviously, I'd very much like to be reelected to Future Gen. My experience in terms of time in the funds management industry, I think, adds value. Also being one of the founding directors, there's a degree of consistency that I think various other founding directors can bring to the company. And I'll put my -- actually, I'm not sure I was going to say maybe not put my hat in the ring, but I'll let shareholders decide. Thank you.

Thanks very much, Geoff. And you may now submit any questions or comments you have on this resolution now. The proxies received, I think are on the screen now. For the open proxies, which have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of this resolution. Pause for any questions. No questions. Thank you. As there are no questions or comments, I now put the motion that Mr. Wilson be reelected as set out in the notice of the meeting. For those of you who are online or in person and eligible to vote, could you please now vote for resolution 2. [Voting]

Resolution 3 relates to the reelection of Director, David Leeton. David, would you like to make a short statement as to your reelection as a director?

Thanks, Phil. Look, similar to Geoff, been here 10 years, and hopefully, I get reelected. It's been a great privilege serving Future Gen Australia. It's a privilege to serve beside this Board and our committed team. I reflect on 10 years. It's been 10 years since we've been in existence. And I think the win for shareholders has been something to be proud of getting access to Australia's best fund managers, cost-effective and risk-weighted well- portfolio, a win for charities $40 million plus and a win for the fund managers, allowing them to use their expertise in an efficient manner. Hopefully, your reelection of me will allow us to renew my responsibility. I take this very seriously, and I hope that we will be able to continue to strengthen our governance, foster efficient philanthropy and also ensure sustained growth for our shareholders. So to my fellow directors, thank you for your partnership and wisdom to our leadership team and Wilson Asset Management staff. Thank you for your relentless dedication and to all our stakeholders. Thank you for your engagement. Thank you.

Thank you very much, David. You may now submit any questions or comments that you have on this resolution. The proxies received are on the screen. For the open proxies, which have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. Pause now wait for any questions. Thanks, Jesse. There being no questions or comments, I now put the motion that Mr. Leeton be reelected as set out in the notice of the meeting. For those of you online or in person and eligible to vote, could you please now vote on Resolution 3. [Voting]

Resolution 4 relates to the reelection of Director, Stephanie Lai. Stephanie, would you like to make a short statement? Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. I've served on the Board now for the past 6 years, and it's been privilege. I won't go through my CV today because it is summarized in the notice of meeting, but I will say that I am an experienced listed company Chair of Audit and Risk Committees. I'm the chartered accountant. And I hope that shareholders support my reelection today because I would very much like to continue to work with the Board and the management of FGX to continue to achieve solid investment returns for our shareholders and also meaningful social impact for our shareholders, fund managers and other stakeholders. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Stephanie. You may now submit any questions or comments you have regarding this resolution. Proxies again that I've received are on the screen for the open proxies, which have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. And I'll pause now in case there are any questions. Jesse tells me that there are not. So as there are no questions or comments, I now put the motion that Ms. Lai be reelected as set out in the notice of the meeting. For those of you online or in person and eligible to vote, could you please now vote for resolution 4. Thank you. [Voting]

We've now addressed all four resolutions. I now declare the poll closed and formally charge Boardroom to count the votes. The results of today's AGM will be released to the market as soon as they are determined, which will be later today. Before I close the AGM, I'll just pause here in case there are any further questions that have been submitted either online or in the room.

Thanks, Phil. We've got some questions online. So the first question from Stephen Mayne. Why hasn't our Chair, Philip Lowe, taken on any other public company chairing Gigs? Is it a lack of offers? Or is he not interested? How does he find being a Nonexecutive Chair of Future Generation compared with being the Executive Chair of the Reserve Bank? Is it difficult to not roll up the sleeves and get super involved like an Executive Chair?

Very good questions. Future Generation Australia is the only listed company that I've chosen to be a director of. And I've done that for two reasons because I'm -- the first is that I'm incredibly passionate about the model of giving shareholders access to a curated portfolio of boutique fund managers. I think that's kind of a great thing to be able to do, and they can do that at low cost. The second element that I find incredibly attractive is the 1% of the assets that goes to kids charities. Now for too often when I was the governor of the bank, I would get frustrated that the media and the political class would talk about people in finance as evil money hungry people. That was the way that too often it was -- that was not the world that I saw. I saw many people in the finance sector who really wanted to make a positive difference to the society in which we live to go up their time and their financial resources to do that. And in Future Generation, I'm surrounded by people of that mindset. People in the finance sector giving their time, their fees, and they're doing that because they care about kids. They care about Aussie kids. So bringing together a great financial product for people that's generated a higher return on the ASX 200 with less variance. So I said in the opening remarks, higher return, less risk, that's good and surrounded by people who want to do what they can for Aussie kids. So that's why I chose Future Generation Australia to be the one listed company that I'm a director. And no, it's not difficult to leave the management to the management. We have an excellent CEO and team, and I'm delighted to be surrounded by people who want to give great investment returns to regular investors and to help Aussie kids.

Thanks, Phil. One more question from Stephen Mayne. It is a bit disrespectful to the shareholders of our company to schedule this AGM for 10 a.m., but then impose an effective guillotine on the debate by scheduling our sibling company, Future Generation Global, to hold its AGM at 11:15. It's not as bad as the Wilson stable holding 8 AGMs on 1 day, but could Independent Chair, Phil Lowe, undertake to adopt the AFIC stable model next year, where [ Onelink ] holds its AGM in the morning and another holds its AGM in the afternoon so that if debate does drag on, shareholders won't feel pressured to sit down and shut up. This is just about respecting the AGM as an important governance event, not some boring compliance process to be rushed through for the convenience of management and the Board.

Well, we've got plenty of time for questions. The next meeting isn't until 11:00, so we have 40 minutes. If people want to ask questions, and that in my experience is quite a long time. So we've got time. And if it turns out that we need more time in the future, then we'll allocate it, but the experience has been that the time we've allocated is perfectly sufficient.

No more questions.

There are no more questions. Well, it would appear that the time we have allocated is perfectly sufficient. As there are no more questions and no other formal business for this meeting, I declare the AGM closed. In closing, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed and continues to contribute to Future Generation Australia's success. Thank you to our incredible fund managers and the service providers who waive all their usual fees and to my fellow directors and the investment committee members who give up their time and their expertise, and they do so generously. I would also like to thank our CEO, Caroline Gurney, for her outstanding leadership. Caroline does a really wonderful job, and she's really passionate about delivering strong shareholder returns and delivering positive outcomes for Australian kids, and I'm proud to be associated with Future Generation Australia and Caroline. Finally, I would like to thank you, the shareholders, for your ongoing support. You're critical to proving that we can together achieve outstanding investment returns and help Australian kids. So thank you for your support. Good morning.