Growthpoint Properties Australia (GOZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the combined Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of Growthpoint Properties Australia Limited and a meeting of the unitholders of Growthpoint Properties Australia Trust, which are being held virtually this year. I'm your Chairman, Geoff Tomlinson. We have a quorum for these meetings, and I'm pleased to declare the meeting officially open. On behalf of Growthpoint, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. I would like to start by outlining some of the procedural matters of this meeting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and our commitment to prioritizing the health and well-being of our security holders, employees and the broader community, once again, we are hosting the meeting virtually. The Board and I enjoy having the opportunities to meet with securityholders in person at our Annual General Meeting, and I hope to return to in-person meetings next year. Today's meeting is being held online via the Lumi platform. This allows securityholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, as outlined in the Notice of Meeting, securityholders can ask questions of the Board during the meeting by the Lumi AGM online platform and vote in real time. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. To ask a question, select the messaging tab at the top of the Lumi platform. At the top of that tab, there is a section for you to type in your question. Once you have finished typing, please hit the arrow symbol to send. The online platform is now open for questions. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Questions submitted on the online platform may be moderated to avoid repetition of similar questions or summarized in the interest of time. For those securityholders who wish to ask a verbal question, an audio questions facility is available during the meeting. To use this service, please pause the broadcast on the Lumi platform and then click on the link under Asking audio questions. A new page will open where you'll be prompted to enter of your name and the topic of your question before being connected. You will listen to the meeting on this page while waiting to ask your question. If you have any issues using this system, please return to the Lumi platform. Voting today will be conducted by a way of a poll on all items of business. In order to provide everyone with an opportunity to vote, and in case anyone cannot stay for the whole meeting, I will shortly open voting on all resolutions. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, a new polling icon will shortly appear for you on your screen. Selecting this tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. I now declare voting open on all items of business. I will give you a warning before I move to close voting, which will be after all questions from securityholders have been addressed. A webcast of the meeting and our presentation will be available on our website shortly after the meeting. The Notice of meeting was made available to all securityholders and I propose to take it as read. I will now introduce our directors. In attendance virtually today are Directors, Estienne de Klerk; Grant Jackson; Francois Marais; Deborah Page; Norbert Sasse; Josephine Sukkar; and our Managing Director, Tim Collyer. Also in attendance are Jacqueline Jovanovski, our company Secretary and Chief Operating Officer; Dion Andrews, our Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Green, our Chief Investment Officer. David Shewring, a representative of our auditors, EY, also joins us. At our 2020 Annual Meeting, we highlighted that a recruitment process to find a suitable replacement for Maxine Brenner, who resigned from the Board at the end of November last year, was underway. We noted that we were looking for an individual with a strong financial background, who had held either a senior position at a large accounting firm or an ASX-listed company or both. We are pleased that Deborah Page has joined the board and has already made a significant contribution, particularly as Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. Deborah is a very experienced director who met all of our search criteria, having been a partner at KPMG Peat Marwick and held senior finance and operational roles at a number of leading Australian companies, including Lendlease and Commonwealth Bank. In addition, Deborah has significant property expertise including having held the position of Chair of Investa Office Fund. With Deborah joining the Board, we have maintained our female representation on the Board at 25%. We remain focused on increasing the Board's gender diversity and achieving our target of a minimum of 30% of each gender represented on the Board by the 30th of June 2023. This will be considered as part of our overall Board succession planning. Turning to the agenda for today. We will commence with my address, which will be followed by a presentation by Tim Collyer that will provide an overview of the business, including its recent performance and outlook. We will then move to a consideration of the combined financial report for the company and the trust for the financial year '21. I will then explain the voting procedures and address each of the remaining items of business set out in the Notice of Meeting. As noted earlier in the meeting, questions can be submitted at any time. If you have a question already prepared, please submit it now on the online platform. We will answer questions on the group's recent performance at the end of the Managing Director's presentation and questions related to specific items of business at the end of the formal items of business. I would like to start my presentation by highlighting the group's consistent performance over the past 10 years and how this has translated into superior returns for our securityholders. Since the group's inception, the management team has been focused on maximizing the group's income. To do this, they have maintained high occupancy across the portfolio and a long weighted average lease expiry. The average portfolio occupancy over the last 10 years was 97.6%. Only once during this period has the portfolio occupancy dropped below 97% and this was last year when the group achieved practical completion of a new A-grade development in Richmond. It's called Botanicca 3. This building was completed ahead of schedule and just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the management team was able to secure Bunnings, arguably one of the best corporate tenants in Australia, as a key tenant of this development. Since then, Bunnings have leased an additional floor and we have welcomed a number of other tenants taking the building's occupancy to 93%. This achievement is testament to the quality of the development as well as the management team's expertise in leasing. Growthpoint's average WALE over the last 10 years was 6.3 years. Alongside high occupancy, this has helped protect the business from the short-term economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting the strength of our existing tenant base, we have continued to have high collections throughout the pandemic, around 99%, and have only granted a small amount of rent relief which was to help predominantly small retail operators at our office buildings. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a material impact on our financial results in FY '21. As a result of the leadership team's successful management of the business, the group has delivered higher returns than the S&P/ASX 200 REIT Accumulation Index over the last 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year periods. Over the last 2 years, Growthpoint's Board's focus has certainly broadened and we now spend a significant amount of time reviewing the group's ESG practices on a regular basis. This has further accelerated over the last year, reflecting the importance that we and our stakeholders based on this issue. In FY '21, at more than half of our Board meetings, we considered a key ESG issue for the group. Growthpoint has made great progress over the last 18 months. We significantly accelerated our net 0 target to 2025, 25 years earlier than our previous target, which we set in 2017 to align with the Paris Agreement. We will achieve net 0 across our operationally controlled office assets and corporate activities through energy efficiency measures, continuing to roll out solar installations and investing in off-site renewable energy for our residual energy needs. We will also use high-quality carbon offsets for emissions we cannot avoid or reduce. We also progressed our sustainability reporting, releasing our inaugural Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures Statement (sic) [ Climate-related Financial Disclosures Statement ]. With this report, we published the results of our high-level scenario analysis, which considers the likely impact of an increase in global temperature on our portfolio and stress tests our resilience to a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. The analysis did not identify any material downside financial risk under either scenario. Pleasingly, our efforts in this space continue to be rewarded in external benchmark surveys. Just over a month ago, GRESB announced the results of their 2021 Sustainability Benchmark. We were recognized as a Sector Leader, receiving a 4-star ranking with a score of 80 out of 100, our highest achievement to date. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Growthpoint's executive team and all employees for their contribution to Growthpoint. We are proud of how the group has navigated the challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic and what we have achieved, which would not have been possible without our team's ongoing dedication. I will now hand over to Tim Collyer, who will provide a more detailed update on the business.

Thank you, Geoff, and good afternoon, everyone. While I am also disappointed that once again we cannot meet face-to-face, I'm hopeful that next year, we'll be able to do so. Today, I'll provide an overview of our business, a snapshot of the financial year '21 financial results, including our key operational highlights and outlook for the year ahead. I will start my presentation with providing a brief overview of the group as it stands today. Growthpoint is the tenth largest REIT in Australia and a member of the S&P/ASX 200 Index. We own and manage 56 properties valued at approximately $4.6 billion. Around 1/3 of our assets are industrial. These assets are primarily used for logistics and warehousing. The other 2/3 of our portfolio are offices which are located on the fringe of CBDs or in metro locations. This subset of the office sector has continued to perform strongly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a strong tenant base and have highlighted some of our top tenants on this slide. Approximately 23% of our tenants are governments, 60% are listed organizations and 14% are private companies. The remaining 3% are small or medium-sized businesses, primarily cafes or small retailers at our office assets. The group's overarching goal is to provide securityholders with sustainable growing income returns and long-term capital appreciation. On this slide, we've provided an overview of our 4 strategic pillars. The first 3 have been key priorities for the group for a number of years. Firstly, we invest in high-quality modern assets with good green credentials that are well located. Secondly, we maximize the value of our existing assets through leasing, refurbishment, expansion, development or divestment. Thirdly, we are focused on maintaining high occupancy, which, as Geoff mentioned, has averaged 97.6% over the last 10 years. The fourth pillar, which is relatively new, is to enter into funds management. We believe that by diversifying our business and having exposure to funds management will enable us to generate higher returns on capital employed for our securityholders. Reflecting on the strength of our strategy and defensive characteristics of our portfolio, the group has continued to deliver a robust performance throughout this challenging period. Our financial results in financial year '21 exceeded our expectations. Our funds from operation, the primary earnings measure for the group, was $0.257 per security, which was at the upper end of our upgraded guidance and 0.4% above last year. Pleasingly, as Geoff mentioned, the COVID-19 pandemic had no direct impact on our financial results, and the company did not receive any JobKeeper payments or government subsidies. Despite delivering higher FFO than initially expected, the Board decided to maintain our financial year '21 distribution at the level we guided to at the outset of the year, being $0.20 per security. This represents a payout ratio of 78%, which is within our new target payout ratio of between 75% and 85% of FFO. The value of the group's portfolio increased by 10.2% or $416.8 million over the year on a like-for-like basis. This was the largest 12-month like-for-like valuation uplift in the group's history. Our gearing and distribution payout ratios are both at historic lows, and we're in a strong position to pursue growth opportunities. We've also made good progress on our strategic objectives in financial year '21. Our occupancy significantly increased over the year to 97% from 93%, and we maintained our long weighted average lease expiry of 6.2 years. We signed 33 leases representing 12.4% of the portfolio's income. Pleasingly, our tenants continue to seek long leases, with the average lease term of all leases negotiated being 8.2 years. Securing Bunnings as the key tenet of our new A-grade development in Richmond, Botanicca 3, was a great result as Geoff has mentioned. They have recently increased their tenancy, leasing the last remaining full floor at Botanicca 3, taking their occupancy to 82% of the building. We also signed a new 10.5-year lease with Australia Post in February at Adelaide Airport. In addition to agreeing new leases, we achieved strong tenant retention with key tenants such as the South Australian government, Monash University and Laminex, amongst others, all renewing their leases. At Growthpoint, we regularly review our property portfolio to ensure our assets continue to fit within our strategy. During financial year '21, we successfully disposed of 3 assets. Firstly, we sold a vacant industrial property as we decided that starting a lengthy development project during the COVID-19 pandemic was outside the group's risk/return appetite. There were also costs associated with holding this non-income-producing asset. We also sold 2 assets located in Sydney Olympic Park as the quality of these assets was below the remainder of the portfolio. We are seeing a flight to quality in office markets around Australia and keeping these assets, which were principally tenanted by smaller businesses, presented a significant near-term leasing risk for the group. Whilst we divested these office assets, we remain confident in the long-term outlook for Sydney Olympic Park, and we were pleased that we were able to reinvest quickly the sale proceeds into an A-grade, modern office asset located nearby. The property situated at 11 Murray Rose Avenue opposite the train station is fully let to high-quality tenants. As we look ahead, we are confident that Growthpoint is in a strong position to continue delivering attractive returns to our securityholders. Reflecting our confidence in the group's position, we have provided financial year '22 FFO guidance of at least $0.263 per security, which represents, at a minimum, 2.3% growth on financial year '21. We have also provided distribution guidance of $0.206 per security, up 3% on financial year '21. The group's gearing is at a record low and well below our target range of 35% to 45%. We are actively looking for opportunities to deploy undrawn debt to grow the business, including acquiring high-quality properties and entering funds management. If successful, this would be accretive to the group's current guidance. I will now hand you back to Geoff.

Thanks, Tim. We will now be happy to answer any questions you may have about the business.

Securityholders and their appointed attorneys, proxies and corporate representatives are permitted to ask questions. If you have a question, please visit now on the Lumi platform or follow the instructions to ask it verbally. Written questions will be read out to me in the first instance. I may direct them to the relevant person to answer as appropriate. We have also received 2 questions in advance of the meeting, which I'll address now. The first question is from [ Mr. Warren Davey ]. [ Mr. Davey ] has asked whether the Board intends to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for all employees and subcontractors. And if so, whether we will consider any exemptions in the instance of medically approved noncompliance? Thank you, [ Mr. Davey ] for submitting your question. At the moment, we are doing exactly what the government has asked you to do and basically only allowing vaccinated employees and subcontractors and those with medical exemptions to access our offices. We haven't adopted a mandatory vaccination policy, and we continue to encourage our team to get vaccinated. Pleasingly, most employees are vaccinated. We have also received the following question from [ Chris Logst ], who is representing the Australian Shareholders Association. [ Mr. Logst ] comments that the advent of the COVID pandemic has caused severe disruption in the commercial office market and asks whether the Board anticipates any changes to its capital allocation to the sector as a result. Thank you, [ Mr. Logst ] for your question. I'd also like to thank the ASA for their engagement in the lead up to Growthpoint's Annual General Meeting. I think, Tim, it's best if you answer this question.

Yes. Thank you, Geoff, and thank you for the question. So the Board does monitor its capital allocation and market investments on a continual basis. And it is pleased to invest further into the office and industrial markets. More specifically, on the commercial office sector, over the financial year '21, we have seen that our commercial assets have risen in value and there's been strong demand for well-leased office buildings from both domestic investors and offshore investors. So we have actually seen during the pandemic period, our office buildings go up by about 7.6% or about $215 million. We have also seen within our portfolio strong demand, and we've just talked about our vacancy level moving from 93% to 97% and also our weighted average lease expiry for the office portfolio moving from 6.7 after to 7 years. So we've done a lot of leasing in our portfolio over the 12 months, and we've noted in our previous discussions that tenants are still taking long-term leases. So whilst the vacancy rates in Australia have ticked up a bit, I think most investors are looking through that to the longer term. And we are seeing that leasing activity as the economy moves up and the major states, in particular around COVID lockdown, that there is positive demand in the office market, positive net absorption. And whilst there will be flexibility for employees and working from home, we're confident about the prospects for the office market in the long term.

Thanks, Tim. Jacquee, have we received any further questions?

Chairman, we have received no questions.

Thank you. I'll now move to the official items of business of the combined meetings. The first official item of business is to receive and consider the financial reports and the reports of the directors and the auditors in respect of Growthpoint Properties Australia for the financial year ended 30 June 2021. Our combined annual report for the company and the trust was mailed to those securityholders who elected to receive it and it is also available on the website of the ASX and the group. In addition to the Board and management, the company's current auditor, Ernst & Young, is in attendance to answer any questions securityholders may have in relation to the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted and the independence of the auditor. Securityholders were invited to submit any questions in advance of the meeting regarding the audit or the account, and I can confirm none were received. If there are any questions, we'll respond to those at the end with the formal items of business. There are 6 remaining items of business on today's agenda set out in the Notice of Meeting, which require a vote. The proposed resolutions comprising agenda items 2, 3 and 6 in the Notice of Meeting relate to the company only. The proposed resolutions comprising agenda items 4 and 5 relate to the company and the trust and item 7 relates to the trust only. The proposed resolutions relating to agenda items 2 to 5 are ordinary resolutions, which require a majority of votes cast in favor to be carried. Proposed Resolutions 6 and 7 are special resolutions and require more than 75% of the total votes cast in favor to be carried. As mentioned earlier, all resolutions will be determined by poll. Both may be cast online through the Lumi platform at any time until I close voting at the end of the meeting. Christina Piccolo from Computershare will act as Returning Officer for the conduct of the poll. Eligible securityholders, their attorneys, proxies and representatives can vote on all resolutions. Details of proxies received on each item business will be shown on your screen. I am holding open proxies in my capacity as Chairman, and it is my intention to vote all available proxies in favor of each resolution. The next item of business asks securityholders to adopt the company's remuneration report. This is a nonbinding advisory vote of securityholders. Although this resolution is not binding, the Board will give due regard to the outcome of the vote when considering future remuneration. The proposed resolution is on your screen. Directors recommend that securityholders vote in favor of the resolution. Details of the proxies received are now on the screen. As set out in the Notice of Meeting, a voting exclusion applies to this item of business. The next item of business relates to the election and reelection of directors. Deborah Page is standing for election having been appointed to the Board with effect from the 1st of March 2021 and Estienne de Klerk and myself are standing for reelection. Details of the qualifications and experience of each director standing are set out in the Notice of Meeting. Deborah has prerecorded a short message for securityholders. I will now play Deborah's message.

Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, everyone. I was appointed to the Board in March of this year and stand today for election by shareholders. I have nearly 25 years' experience as a Non-Executive Director, which followed an executive career as a partner in audit and advisory work with Touche Ross and KPMG and subsequently, in senior finance executive roles at Lendlease and the Commonwealth Bank. I bring to my appointment at Growthpoint a background of finance, risk and audit expertise, together with governance leadership across a range of sectors, including property and funds management. In particular, my experience relevant to Growthpoint includes property sector audit specialization, 7 years on the Board and its Audit and Risk Chair of the then ASX-listed Investa Property Group prior to its takeover by Morgan Stanley, 4 years as ARC Chair of 2 responsible entities in the property sector and 5 years as Chair of the Board of the ASX-listed externally managed Investa Office Fund. If elected, I look forward to playing my part in executing the group's strategy to enter into funds management and ensuring as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee that we have a robust risk management framework and a sound system of internal control. I will also continue to offer my insight and constructive leadership to the executive team. I thank my fellow directors for nominating me as a Director and consider it a great privilege to serve on this Board and I hope you will support my election. Thank you.

Proposed resolution is on your screen. The directors, in the absence of Deborah, unanimously recommend her election. Details of the proxies received are now on the screen. The next item of business relates to myself, and I am pleased to stand for reelection today. I joined the Board in September 2013 and took the position of Chairman the following year. Since then, the group has undergone a substantial transformation, growing significantly in size and diversifying across property sectors. While growing the business has undoubtedly been important to the group, I am proud of how we have achieved it, maintaining our disciplined approach and ensuring that we have acquired the right assets for our portfolio, which continue to be attractive to preeminent tenants. As I highlighted earlier, this has put the business in a strong position to absorb the economic headwinds we have witnessed over the past 18 months. I have more than 48 years of experience in the financial services industry, including 6 years as Group Managing Director of National Mutual Holdings. I'm an experienced company director with experience gained at a number of large Australian companies, including National Australia Bank, Amcor and Suncorp. If reelected, I intend this to be my last term on the Board. As part of our succession planning, the Board expects to begin looking for 2 new directors next year: one to replace Grant Jackson, who does not plan to stand for reelection when his term ends in 2 years; and the other to replace me. As part of this process, we'll also take into consideration our target to increase female representation on the Board to at least 30%. Depending on how this recruitment process unfolds and when the new directors join the Board, I may decide to serve less than a full term. This will be a decision that is made in conjunction with my fellow Board of Directors. I will now hand over to Grant to oversee this item of business.

Thank you, Geoff. The proposed resolution is on your screen. The directors, in the absence of Geoff, unanimously recommend his election. Details of the proxies received are now on the screen. I will now hand back to Geoff.

Thank you, Grant. Estienne has also prerecorded a short message for securityholders. I will now play Estienne's message.

Good afternoon, fellow GOZ securityholders. Apologies for me not being able to attend this meeting in person, but unfortunately, the Qanta's flights from Johannesburg to Sydney haven't resumed yet. I've been privileged to be a GOZ director for the past 12 years and have seen the wonderful growth that the company has offered securityholders. I am a chartered accountant and have an honors degree in accounting and in marketing. I've also been involved in banking and property over the past 25 years. I'm currently the Chief Executive Officer for South Africa for Growthpoint Properties Limited, South Africa, which is the holding company of GOZ in Australia. We are a very supportive shareholder and GOZ is one of our key investments. Growthpoint has supported GOZ's growth over the past 12 years. And we continue to see this investment as a strategic investment and look forward to the growth over the next coming years. It's a privilege for me to offer myself up as a director for the following period. Thank you very much.

Proposed resolution is on your screen. The directors, in the absence of Estienne, unanimously recommend his reelection. Details of the proxies received are now on the screen. The next 2 items of business relate to the Managing Director's remuneration for the financial year 2022. Item 4 relates to the grant of 215,461 performance rights to the Managing Director as the maximum opportunity of his FY '22 long-term incentive opportunity. These performance rights will vest after a 3-year performance period, subject to the achievement of performance conditions outlined in the Notice of Meeting. The proposed resolution is on your screen. The directors, in the absence of the Managing Director, recommend that securityholders vote in favor of the resolution. Details of the proxies received are now displayed on your screen. Item 5 relates to the grant of 105,475 performance rights to the Managing Director as the maximum deferred component of his FY '22 short-term incentive opportunity. While we are seeking approval of the maximum deferred equity component of the Managing Director's short-term incentive opportunity, the process to approve the Managing Director's award for FY '22 will be no different to any other year. His actual short-term incentive award will reflect achievement against pre-agreed KPI criteria and measures which will be assessed by the Remuneration Committee and approved by the Board and disclosed in the FY '22 remuneration report, with performance rights lapsing to the extent that performance conditions are not met. The proposed resolution is on the screen in front of you. The directors, in the absence of the Managing Director, recommend that securityholders vote in favor of the resolution. Details of the proxies received are now displayed on your screen. The next 2 items, Items 6 and 7, relate to the reinsertion of proportional takeover provisions. These items seek renewal and reinsertion of the proportional takeover provisions previously contained in the company's constitution and the insertion of the same provisions into the trust constitution. The reasons for the renewal and inclusion of these provisions are set out in the Notice of Meeting. Each of these resolutions is a special resolution and, if passed, the proportional takeover provisions will operate for a 3-year period commencing from the date of this combined meeting. The renewal of these provisions in the company's constitution was last voted on at the 2018 Annual General Meeting with a vote of 99.98% in favor. The proposed resolutions are on your screen. The directors recommend that securityholders vote in favor of the resolutions. Details of the proxies received are displayed on your screen. This now brings us to the end of the items of business. We would now be happy to ask any questions you may have.

If you have a question, please submit it on the Lumi platform or follow the instructions to ask it verbally. We have received 2 further questions ahead of the meeting from [ Chris Logst ] from the Australian Shareholders' Association. [ Mr. Logst's ] first question relates to Item 2, the remuneration report. He asked if we can outline the justification for a weighted average increase of 9.1% awarded to the executive management team's total fixed remuneration for FY '22. Firstly, [ Mr. Logst ], thank you for your question. Basically, the Nomination and Remuneration HR Committee has, over recent times, engaged PwC to give us formal advice in relation to executive remuneration movements in Australia. We want to ensure that the total package is in line with the target. And the target range we've set for our executives is between 25 and 50 percentile of the industry benchmark. By the industry benchmark, I mean really the REIT industry, but we do also look at basically an industry peer group, which is non-REITs, which are on the ASX and actually have a similar ranking as growth points on the stock exchange, similar ranking, I mean, similar size. We also use basically a fixed regression analysis to actually attempt to further put rigor into our analysis. And basically, we did on this occasion, find that the current level of remuneration for our 4 key executives was below our target. And basically, that was justification for increasing the average remuneration of our executive team by 9.1%. I have to say that setting executive review ratios is not an easy job. It's not a precise job. But we actually have now got a process, which will be consistently applied each year with the assistance of PwC. And I think in actual fact, that will provide us with more comfort that in actual fact we are offering remuneration packages which are consistent with the market to ensure that we attract and retain the very best people amongst our executive team. [ Mr. Logst's ] second question relates to the reelection of myself, and he really asks me to provide some basically background and information about succession planning for the role of the Chairman. I think I've outlined it fairly well by way of the previous answers. But the Board is going to start looking for a succession planning. There's really 4 things in our mind. There is actually, firstly, finding a replacement for Grant Jackson, which is not easy bearing in mind his specialist knowledge of property valuation. Secondly is basically define a replacement for me, which should come internally or externally from the outside market. The other issues which we need to address is really the one of our independents. We have a Board of 8 people at the moment. We believe in actual fact, we have 4 independent directors and 4 non-independent directors. Some people disagree with us and independence is a key issue. Although I have to say, as Chairman, I believe all of our directors act in an independent fashion all of the time. And the fourth issue is basically the issue of female participation on the Board. We are 25%, and we have a commitment to get to a minimum of 30% by the end of June 2023. So those are the context we're looking around when we actually look for succession, not only for myself, but for Grant Jackson during calendar year 2022. Jacquee, have we got any further questions?

Chairman, we've received no further questions.

That being the case, that brings us to the end of the items of business. I ask that those of you who have not completed your voting on all resolutions to do so now. The poll and the voting system will close shortly. I will now pause for one minute to allow you to complete your voting. [Voting]

Voting is now closed, and the results of the votes for each poll will be released to the ASX later today. Thank you all for your attendance and participation at the virtual meeting today. I declare the meeting closed. Thank you.