Future Generation Australia Limited ($FGX)

Welcome to what's the 12th Annual General Meeting of Future Generation Australia. As you know, this is a hybrid meeting. It's being held both online and here in person at the Museum of Sydney. Before we begin though, 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 the custodians of the land on which we're meeting for tens of thousands of years. I would also like to display on the screen a disclaimer for you to read before we proceed. My name is Philip Lowe, and I'm the Chair of the Board of Directors of Future Generation Australia. And I'm delighted today to be joined by fellow Board Directors, Geoff Wilson, Kate Thorley, Stephanie Lai, Gabriel Radzyminski, David Leeton and David Paradice sends his apology because he couldn't be at the meeting today. We're also joined today by Lee Hopperton, who's the CIO of Future Generation Australia; and Bonnie Ashton is General Manager of Future Generation Australia. Acting in the capacity of moderator today will be Joe Camilleri, is Wilson Asset Management's Director of Finance, and he will assist with addressing any questions received during the meeting. Sandra McIntosh, the Joint Company Secretary from Acclime Australia; and Chris Chandran a representative from our auditors, Pitcher Partners are also with us, and Chris will be available to address questions relating to the company's financial statements. As it just passed 10:00 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 encourage you all to find the time to read the Chair's address, which was announced to the ASX this morning. Shareholders who have logged into the webcast with your user name and password, we'll have the opportunity to ask questions online and ask audio questions as well as vote on the resolutions. If you're joining us online, the questions can be submitted at any time during the course of the meeting. For those of you who are online and who wish to ask a verbal question and audio question facilities available during the meeting. And for those of you who are here with us at the Museum of Sydney, if you want to ask a question, simply raise your hand and wait for the microphone to be brought to you. Voting today will be conducted by the way of a poll on all items of business. And when I open the poll, the voting icon will appear on the navigation bar online, simply select one of the options to cast your vote. And if you change your mind, you can select another option. I now declare the voting open on all matters of business. You can vote at any time during the proceedings until I declare that the voting is closed. And I'll give you a clear prompt later in the meeting to warn you of the closure of voting. In 2025, Future Generation Australia continued to deliver really strong investment returns for our shareholders. Over the 12 months to December, the investment portfolio increased by 14.1%. That outperformed the ASX S&P All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 3.5 percentage points. Since inception, to the 31st of December last year. The investment portfolio has delivered an average return of 9.7%. That's outperformed the All Ordinaries Index by 1.2%, and that's with lower volatility and in finance, we like higher returns with less risk. That's what Future Generation Australia has delivered. This strong performance has enabled us to increase the fully franked dividend of $0.036 per share, and that's brought the fully franked full year dividend of $0.072 per share, delivering a grossed-up dividend yield of 7.9% to shareholders last year. The company also paid its 11th annual social investment of $5.7 million last year. The fees waived last year by our fund managers, the service providers, the Board of Directors and the investment committee was approximately $11.4 million. That's around 2% of the company's net assets, and that exceeds the annual donation to our social impact partners. So we're really deeply grateful for the commitment from our funds managers and the service providers, which have made our model both sustainable and scalable and it's helped both shareholders and our partners. We're also pleased to have seen a very significant narrowing in the share price discount to the Net Tangible Assets. In April 2026, the discount was down to 5.2%. In January 2025, it was 13%. So it's narrowed very significantly, and that's been to the benefit of shareholders. The strong investment portfolio performance against the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, inflation pressures, artificial intelligence driven volatility is really a testament to the quality and the expertise of our pro bono fund managers and to the expertise of our investment committee. Looking ahead, with a profit reserve of $0.419 per share, a dividend coverage of 5.8 years and dividend payment since inception of $0.607 per share, we remain really confident in the company's ability to continue providing shareholders with a sustainable stream of fully franked dividends while supporting the social impact partners who help Australia's most vulnerable children. We will now move to the formal part of the meeting. And you will have noticed that there are 5 items of business for today's AGM, and they've been set out in the Notice of Meeting. 4 items to be voted on. The Notice of Meeting and the explanatory memorandum was circulated to shareholders and in the absence of any objection, I'll be proceeding on the basis that these items are taken as read. Boardroom are the returning officers for today's meeting, and they will be conducting our poll. I note that Resolution 1 is subject to voting exclusions as outlined in the Notice of Meeting. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolutions 1 to 3 and against Resolution 4. As Chair, I intend to vote all open votes provided to me in favor of resolutions 1 to 3 and against Resolution 4, and we'll advise the ASX as soon as the results are determined, which will be a little later today. And you may submit any questions or comments you have on the financial statements and 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. Chris Chandran, a representative from our auditor Pitcher Partners is present to answer any questions if you have any. You will have noted no resolution on this matter is required, but we will pause now to allow any questions on the financial report. So do we have any questions in the room or online? There are no questions online and none in the room. So now we come to the items of business for which a vote is required. Resolution 1 relates to the adoption of the remuneration report. Again, you may submit any questions or comments you have on the resolution now. The remuneration report should be quite simple since the directors don't get paid. Unlike many other companies, this is a much easier one. But the proxies received will be on screen. For the open proxies that have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. So again, I'll pause now in case there are any questions either in the room or online. There being none, I now put the motion that the resolution be approved as set out in the Notice of Meeting. If you are a shareholder or a proxy holder ineligible to vote, could you please now complete your vote on Resolution 1. [Voting]

Well, thank you for voting. So we now move to resolution 2, which relates to the reelection of Director Gabriel Radzyminski. Gabriel, would you like to make a short statement regarding your reelection?

Yes. Thank you, Chair. I was wondering -- sorry about that. Look, thank you, Chair. Look, I'm very pleased to have an opportunity to come before shareholders to be considered for election this year. I've been on the Board since its foundation. It's both a privilege and a pleasure. It's not every day that you get to sit around the table with the directors of the caliber that we have, but also the fund managers, the charities that we support. It's probably one of the highlights of my business career and life generally, but it's not about me. I do contribute hopefully, to the governance of the company both in my role as a member of the Board. Even though I'm not technically independent, I think there's a good balance across the Board and also as a member of the investment committee, which is separate to that. But the fact that the directors endorsed my nomination, I think probably speaks more to anything that I could say about myself.

Thanks Gabriel. You may now submit any questions or comments you have on this resolution. The proxies received are on the screen. The open proxies that have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. Now I'll pause to see if there are any questions either online or in the room. Joe, there's a question?

We have one question online from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Does Gabriel, agree that best practice is to have a majority of independent directors and an independent Chair. Does he advocate for this on other Boards he sits on.

We do a -- sorry, we do advocate where we think it's appropriate. We don't think that there are blanket rules that should apply to all different businesses. But for most companies, I think that's appropriate, and we do a campaign for that where we think it's appropriate.

Thank you. If there are no further questions or comments, I now put the motion that Mr. Radzyminski be reelected as set out in the Notice of Meeting. For those of you who are online or in person and eligible to vote, could you now please vote on Resolution 2, and I'll just pause for 30 seconds while you do that. [Voting]

Thank you. Resolution 3 relates to the reelection of Director, Kate Thorley. Kate, would you like to make a short statement.

Thank you, Phil. So my name is Kate Thorley and standing for reelection today, and hopefully, we'll get the support of shareholders. For those of you who I don't know, and I've probably spoken to a lot of you over the years, I have been at Wilson Asset Management now over 20 years and as CEO for a bit over a decade. I am a qualified accountant and my skill set that I think I bring to the Board is financial accounting background and corporate governance. I've often said probably one of my biggest career highlights has been the work we do with Future Generation. And when Geoff launched FGX in 2014, it was the traveling around Australia, meeting potential investors and raising money for a model that I feel very passionate about because I still remember the stories of the -- some of the charity partners such as Mirabel and as a mother of twins, those stories do stay with you. And so I'm really pleased that I can contribute to Future Gen at a board level and on the Audit and Risk Committee. So I hope to continue to do that. I'm very, very passionate about the model. I'm passionate about listed investment companies as a long-term investment vehicle. And I also absolutely love engaging and speaking with retail investors and shareholders, which is a huge part of our DNA, both at Wilson Asset Management and with the Future Gen team. So I'll leave it there, but thank you.

Thanks, Kate. Shareholders may now submit any questions or comments you have on this resolution. Joe?

We have an online question from Mr. Stephen Mayne to Kate, why does the WAM CEO need to sit on this Board as well as various other Wilson execs. Does she also agree that best practice is to have a majority of independent directors and an independent Chair rather than other nonindependent directors.

Thank you. As I just outlined. I think I bring my experience that I bring to the Board of Future Gen, both at the Board level and on the Audit and Risk Committee, hopefully speaks for itself. And I think when you look at a Board, I think Gabriel said, I don't think it's a one size fits all. And I think you need to look at the balance of having independent to nonindependents, but also have a look at skill sets and make sure you've got nice diversity across different skills on various boards. So I think a listed investment company is slightly different to an operating company. But I think that probably answers it.

Thank you. Are there any further questions? The proxies received are on the screen and for the open proxies that have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting in favor of the resolution. So now I pause and just make sure there are no further questions. So I now put the motion that Ms. Thorley be reelected as set out in the Notice of Meeting. For those of you who are online or here in person and eligible to vote, could you please now vote on Resolution 3. And again, I'll wait 30 seconds for you to do that. [Voting]

Thank you for voting. Resolution 4 relates to the self nomination of Stephen Mayne. Stephen, you've been asking questions. So you're with us. So just to see whether you'd like to make a short statement. Joe?

Can Lumi please activate Mr. Stephen Mayne, online participant.

Have we got Stephen wishing to make a statement? Okay. So his statement was circulated in the Notice of Meeting. So people had a chance to read that. Just a chance for people to ask any questions or make any comments about this resolution? Joe, no further interaction from Stephen? No. So the proxies received are on the screen. For the open proxies, which have been granted to me as Chair, I'll be voting against this resolution. As there are no questions or comments, I now put the motion for Mr. Mayne's self nomination to the Board as set out in the Notice of Meeting. For those of you who are online or in person, and eligible to vote. Could you please now vote on Resolution 4 and we're going to wait a short period of time for you to do that. [Voting]

Thank you. We've now addressed all 4 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 a little later today. Before concluding the meeting, I'll just pause again to see if there are any further questions about the company. Having no further questions, I declare this AGM closed. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who's contributed and continues to contribute to the success of future generation Australia. I want to thank our incredible fund managers and the service providers who waive their usual fees. I want to thank my fellow directors, who give up their time and expertise, and I want to thank the investment committee for the work that they do. I'm proud of what we do at Future Generation Australia. We provide a great investment vehicle for people, and we help Australia's most vulnerable kids. So thank you to our shareholders for being part of that. I want to thank you for your ongoing support. You're critical to proving that we can achieve strong investment returns and help the kids for Australia's future. Thank you very much for your support.