LARK Distilling Co. Ltd. (LRK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hi, good morning, everyone. My name is David Dearie and as Chair of Lark Distilling Co. Ltd, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the Annual General Meeting. I'd like to start by acknowledging and paying respect to the traditional custodians of the land, wherever those participating in this meeting are located. To ensure that shareholders and their representatives can attend the meeting safely, this meeting is being held virtually. Shareholders will be able to participate and view a live webinar of the meeting, ask questions and cast direct votes at the appropriate time whilst the meeting is in progress. The Company Secretary has advised that we have compiled with relevant requirements for convening this meeting and that a quorum is present. As the time is now 10 a.m., I formally declare the meeting opened. I'm joined through the webcast today by my fellow directors, Warren Randall, Laura McBain and our Managing Director and CEO, Geoff Bainbridge. Also in attendance is our CFO, Alex Aleksic; and Company Secretary, Melanie Leydin. In addition, we have the representatives of the company's external auditors, Deloitte, in attendance at this meeting. The notice of the meeting has been given in accordance with the company's constitution and copies are available for you on the company website, the share registry's online voting site or on the ASX market announcement platform. I will take the notice of the meeting and explanatory statements, as read. The format of today's meeting will be a presentation by our CEO, Geoff Bainbridge, followed by consideration of the formal business of today's agenda. Following our presentation by Geoff, we will provide an overview of the Q&A and voting procedure for today's meeting. You will then have the opportunity to ask questions on the company's business operations. Following this Q&A session on the business operation, we will move to the formal business for today's meeting. On conclusion of the formal business, there will be a further Q&A session held giving all shareholders the opportunity to ask questions in relation to the resolutions presented at today's meeting. As previously noted, this is a virtual meeting and shareholders will be able to ask questions and cast direct votes at the appropriate time whilst the meeting is in progress. Questions that are received during the meeting, which are of a similar nature, will be grouped and answered at the appropriate time. If you have any questions, which you feel were not addressed at today's meeting, we invite shareholders to contract -- to contact the company via phone or email. I now invite our Managing Director and CEO, Geoff Bainbridge, to provide an update on the company's operations. Over to you, Geoff.

Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone. I was hoping you can see my screen and not all panels of notes. Is that right?

Yes, that's right.

Good morning, everyone. So the slides [ felt to me ] -- to my style, I'll just chuck through them. But where we started, our people and culture and really it's probably 2 years into this journey, we -- or just over 2.5 years into it, our first kind of urgency was around strategy and business model and that first 12 months, the Board were really rescuing and dissecting and correcting and restructuring. Last 12 months have really been an emphasis on people and culture and brand and I'll talk to the brand impact. But we're having real good wins in people and culture. Bottom right-hand corner is an image of a commemorate bottle that was given to our staff last weekend at the Pontville opening or the Pontville introductory barbecue so those images that are on the screen are our team at Pontville. And on that label, difficult to see that every employee's name is actually captured on that label that worked with the business in the last 12 months and you might be able to read it, but it says thank you from the bottom of our hearts and it's just a tribute to what they did and how we worked. We're very much focused on diversity across gender, nationality and thought leadership. 40% of our team is female. It's the general rule and it fluctuates from time to time, but the majority of our distill is a female. We develop our people by creating pathways and opportunities. So 21% of our team were promoted last year into new roles and we very much live by values of language, anticipation, results and karma. If there was a shortcoming and it's a black eye against me, I didn't realize until very recently we didn't have a paid maternity leave policy in place and that's now being corrected. So under my leadership, there's been 3 maternity absences and all 3 of those are -- one is about to occur, one has occurred and one is coming back to work; but all 3 are going to be eligible for the new policy, which is 16 weeks paid leave fully paid by the company. Another big one that we think a lot about and I think it's important in the context of very relevant political messages coming out of COP26 is our impact and contribution to sustainability and in our case, it's very real. So, we're Australia's first certified carbon neutral distillery. That's for us right now, it -- would seem to be a point of difference. I think within the next 2 years, it will become mandatory for every -- for many organizations to be able to demonstrate this. So we're ahead. Is it a -- as Moffett would say or Buffett would say is it part of our moat. It is part of our moat right now, but it certainly will not be, it will just be a play to play, but it's something that we targeted and we worked very hard for a couple of years to achieve. So I thought the best way to always start this is to recap on where we've been, what we've done and the progress. So, you can see that we're staying with the same plan and we're not changing the plan to suit the environment or suit the results. So we understand the whisky landscape domestic and abroad, which we did in 2022. We cleaned up the mess. We reset the foundations under David and myself and particularly Warren and completed in F '20 and then Laura came on board. We define and articulate a proven strategy that maximizes shareholder value. Well, share price is up 5x in 2 years so I think that's fairly evident and speaks for itself and that strategy we continue to pursue today. Part of that strategy is to build Lark into a power brand with broad appeal and Asian relevance. 2x Worldwide Whisky Producer of the Year 2020 and 2021. We don't sell whisky overseas yet, but I'll talk a bit about that later. Rebooted Forty Spotted Gin in into its own Tasmanian Gin -- to own Tasmanian Gin, which we completed in F '21. Innovate the product and tell meaningful stories. We clearly have done that and we've achieved that in F '21. Establish a footprint in key export markets with a proven sell-through. That has been on hold due to availability of liquid. That changes for us in F '22 with the acquisition of Shene. Build and stockpile inventory to meet future demand and that is part of the possible acquisition criteria. So, we'll close F '22 at 2 million liters under bond. To put that in perspective, when we arrived, I think we have 411,000 liters under bond. So, it's a 5 fold increase in just under 2.5 years. Execute the plan while maximizing revenue, costs and achieving profit, which we did in 2021. Leverage the balance sheet to fund the journey where we now have a National Australian Bank debt facility in place that sits outside of what we've just done with the capital raise. And improve liquidity and move to institutional shareholders. And so we did a further opportunity to do that with the recent Shene announcement or the Shene capital raise and we did that at 0% discount. So some headline numbers, net sales per liter. These reporting periods are, as you know, financial year-end so this is F '20 versus F '21, up 55% from $139 to $216. Market cap has increased to circa $390 million or our share price up by over 5x. And we announced the acquisition of Shene Estate and Distillery, which will close in Feb '22. So our vision is to become a global icon in single malt whiskey, renowned for being the most world's -- the world's most innovative distiller. Our starting point, as everyone knows, we have first-mover advantage where we build Lark's scale, credibility, quality and authenticity. By the end of '22, we'll have 2 million liters under maturation with a market value of circa $430 million to us in terms of net sales revenue and that assumes no change in dollar per liters and I'll talk to that later. By the end of '22, a 100% net revenue growth year-on-year again. By the end of '23, brand credibility in selected global export markets. So, it's still a fairly exciting time for us. That might be obvious to shareholders who are domestic-based. That may not be so obvious to anyone who's overseas, but we're really going to start pushing hard on this point. So, Lark is now considered the leading Tasmanian and the leading Australian single malt whisky. I think for a period of time that Lark was considered that originally by the nature of being its pioneer. I think it's fair to say Sullivans Cove would have taken that position maybe 8 years ago when it went worldwide with the best whisky. And my view is we now firmly hold that in Australia and certainly in Tasmania and unashamedly so. What you can see across sitting in that screen is a reflection of the products that we've released in the last 12 months. So, you can see tiering products that are right in the center of the Lark LEGACY HHF Series. That's a $2,000 bottle. We see to the right-hand side to that Mizunara, Brokenwood, PARA50 and PARA100. And there's a whole series of expressions here that are really ultimately designed to address the addressable market. And the addressable market for us is growing at about 9% per annum and that's being driven by whiskey bars, new consumers, new occasions, new environments, new promiscuity. And I think if you gain some insights from our e-commerce, which direct-to-consumer for us is now approximately 43% of our business so that's our own hospitality venues plus our e-commerce. So, e-commerce is tracking about 26% of our business. So 1 in 4 doors we sell into e-commerce. When we look at that consumer profile, 52% of the consumers on e-commerce platform are female and the primary age group that we sell to is 25 to 35. So we don't consider Lark as trying to be a Scottish whisky. We very much are proud that we're a Tasmanian whisky. We're doing it in a very different way and we're doing it through innovation and we're doing it by bringing people into [Technical Difficulty] or talking to people who are in the category that are looking for further expressions of opportunity to explore whisky. And I've talked about some of these awards a bit earlier, but it's fair to say we're now actually being recognized with what we're doing as well. So 2021 was the execution of new and since proven strategies. So Rare Cask Series, the award-winning limited release program, the unique collaborations with the whole rafter of things, including the Wolf Release and the recent Christmas Release; a diverse hospitality offer and grew that at additional 2 venues and are about to open another venue in F '22 or 2022; and increased social media and new website. So that sales graph there sort of gives you an indication where we were tracking. This is a pretty fair assessment as to our objective, which we keep stating is to grow at or around 100%. We might be 90%. We might be 95%. We might be 100% or 105% or 110%, but we just broadly say that we're looking to grow albeit in a COVID environment and it's been -- COVID has been very challenging for us. Our current growth rate still reflects these numbers that we're sharing, but in a COVID environment still managing to achieve those growth figures. So moving into 2022. That little billboard, it's not -- literally it's not up on the wall, but you will start to see some of that. That left-hand side of that, they are the 30 years of bottles of Lark. So each one of those bottles were released in 1 -- year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5. So that's the history of the Lark and how it sort of came to be and how it still and will do. Key projects and measurement for success in 2022. So we're working through people planning issues and in particular CEO, COO succession by the end of the calendar year. It's something that market is aware of and it's just something that the Board has started that process so to ensure it's seamless. We acquired the Pontville Estate and I'll talk about that, but we need to integrate that acquisition and drop in a new ERP system. And anyone who's been involved in system changeover knows that that's an unpleasant experience. So we will be fairly advanced by the end of 2022 on the 1 million greenfield distillery project. It will open in early '23, certainly first half calendar '23, but we're already well on our way in that project. The export planning and infrastructure, including appropriate people at the right levels of experience and leadership. So you will see in the next 12 months this business expanding into international markets on a selected basis. You are going to see the roll-out of our 30-year brand anniversary and I'll have some more slides on that. You will also see an increase in our net sales per liter above $216. That's what we reported last year. We don't give guidance on that figure, but we can say that internally our targets are to grow that year-on-year and you will see a growth in that. And then we are still mitigating and managing around COVID impact and it is impacting on our revenues and it's impacting on our supply chain. If it's having the greatest impact, it's the movement of high margin revenue to lower margin revenue. So it's going from say hospitality-owned venues where you would typically come out with a more expensive expression of Lark whisky and it's going more to your Dan Murphy's or your Coles, where you will probably more or less coming out with a Symphony. So it is -- if we're getting hit anywhere at the moment, we're getting hit on the margin line. So our margin expectations are currently we're not achieving them internally and it's -- and it is almost singularly related to the channel mix and the SKU mix associated with COVID. So the acquisition of the Pontville Distillery and Cooperage. We did quite extensive presentations on this one for you. We did that Lark will acquire the Pontville Distillery and Cooperage and associated land in Feb '22 with a total consideration of $40 million, which comprises $38.5 million in cash and $1.5 million in Lark. We will then, over the next 12 months through 18 months spend a further $12 million, $13 million, $14 million, $15 million on a distillery upgrade. So that will be a brand new 1 million to 1.5 million liter greenfield. So what did we buy? Well, we bought 483,000 liters under maturation, which increases our overall whisky bank to just over 2 million at the end of F '22. And as I indicated before, with a market value or value-add maturity of about $430 million. We also acquired a working distillery, 40 acres of land and buildings. So it was 193,000-liter distillery, this one. It's a small one. That's pretty comparable to our current ones and I'll take you through a profile of those. But really what this does is Cambridge was landlocked with the inability to grow, Bothwell was in the wrong location with the ability to grow. This is both in the right location with the right land to actually genuinely put forward a distillery upgrade, which the team are understandably excited about and we started to work on. This also comes with 8 onsite bond stores and bond stores is where we store the liquid over that 5-year to 6-year, 7-year, 8-year journey. The challenge that we have also is always insurance and fire so this gives us a new site and location to disperse that risk. And critically it brings us an onsite cooperage, which establishes Lark as the only distiller with an onsite cooperage in Tasmania and in my understanding the only distiller in Australia. But as this industry is experiencing explosive growth, supply chain issues are going to be more challenging and one of the most critical ones is bond stores. So this really puts us ahead on that conversation -- sorry, barrels. So a celebration of all things Lark. Given it's our 30th anniversary on May 28th so we have a fairly extensive campaign and it's been worked on for well over 12 months now; lot of events, activations, collaborations, PR, there's very specific product releases. So there's 2 specific releases in the Rare Cask Series. We'll see a Glenfiddich 1992 Series release and you're going to see what we're calling Something in the Water, which is actually taking the water from where Bill conceived the idea where he did fly fishing and we'll be cutting the whisky with that water. There's activations in Sydney and Melbourne and also in Tasmania and then there's unique collaborations with non-whisky brands such as Bellroy and Blundstone. So where is that sort of starting to lead us and how should you think about the brand of the company and the difference between our distilleries. We're very much in territory as we're moving towards The House of Lark. What does The House of Lark look like and what does it feel like? Well, the distilling entity is called Lake Distilling Co. The external reference that we say in conversation is The House of Lark. The brand is Lark and we will only carry Lark as our brand. Product Lark will only ever be created with Tasmanian whisky. And Lark represents or presents whiskies from different distilleries within The House of Lark and at times we create whisky supported by third-party distillers. So we now have 3 distilleries. We have Coal Valley, which is Cambridge; we have Bothwell, which is the old Nant; and we have Pontville, which is the old Shene. You can get a sense looking at the numbers across there, they are all of a similar size by world standards and now by our standards, they're sub-size. They lack for automation and they certainly lack for consistency of training, consistency of environment, consistency of outcome. So the positive is that we have 3 unique spirits. In the case of Cambridge, we get that kind of heaviness, the oiliness, the viscosity that you expect to see in the peat from Classic Cask. Up at Bothwell, we're getting the florals and the lighter, which gives us more topicals. And then down at Pontville we get the similar lightness, but we're getting more orchard fruit style. So what that means is Chris has got much more variety to create magic. And the expectation is the new distillery, the new 1 million liter distillery, will replace the current Pontville one. So think more about like an incremental 800,000 on an incremental 1 million. And certainly, one of the other 2 would be considered redundant to our need at that point in time and that's still a 1.5 year away and we would look at our options at that stage. House of Lark from a hospitality point of view. We've got the Original Cellar Door, which we continue to maintain and we'll always do. That's Bill's first commercial distillery. The Lark Whisky Kiosk at Brooke Street Pier, that's the image there. The Forty Spotted Gin bar. We've got The Still, which is one of our venues opening on the 8th of December. And we're about to then take over a working Cellar Door out of Pontville, which would be our first time to really in due course bring people out to the Home of Lark. I've just got one short video, which I'll play. [Presentation]

And I thank you and leave it open to any questions you might have before we do formal voting.

Yes. Thanks, Geoff. What I might do is just go through the voting and poll procedure and questions, procedure first, and then we'll open it up for the questions.

Sure.

So as mentioned earlier, shareholders will be able to comment, ask questions and cast votes at the appropriate time for each item of business. Visitors and media are reminded that whilst we welcome you at this meeting, it is a shareholders' meeting and you may not comment or ask questions. We may experience some time lag and this may cause some delay in your text questions or comments coming to our attention and we encourage you to lodge them as early as you can. Shareholders wishing to ask questions via text, please take note of the following instructions. Please select the Q&A icon located at the bottom of your screen, type your questions in the ask a question box and press the send arrow, and your questions will be answered at the appropriate time. Shareholders wishing to speak and ask questions, an audio questions facility is available during this meeting and please follow this process. Please select the raise a hand icon located at the bottom of your screen. You'll be placed in a queue and authorized to speak when we reach the Q&A session. Prior to asking your questions, please state your full name and who you are representing. Regarding voting on today's resolutions, all shareholders, proxy holders and authorized corporate representatives and attorneys of shareholders, who are entitled to vote will be able to do so via the webinar poll. It is important to note that if you have lodged a proxy form and voted prior to the meeting, you do not need to vote again at this meeting unless you wish to change your voting instruction. For those proxy holders, shareholders and authorized corporate representatives who have not yet voted prior to the meeting, please cast your votes on each of the resolutions when the poll is opened. For proxy holders, you will have a summary of proxy votes which will detail the voting instructions, if any, for the items of business. By completing the voting via the webinar poll when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. With the Chair who has been appointed proxy on behalf of the shareholder, David Dearie, is the Chair of the Meeting, intends to be voting these in favor of all resolutions. And with regard to the poll procedure, we will open the voting shortly, so that your votes can be cast during the formal part of the business. When the poll is declared open, a poll window will appear. To vote, simply select the direction in which you would like to cast your vote. The selected option will then be marked. To submit your vote, simply click on the submit button, and you'll have the ability to change your vote up until that the time the voting is closed. So I hand back to David just to sort of open the question part of the meeting.

Thank you, Melanie. We now address any shareholder questions, which are submitted prior to today's meeting, and any received in relation to the business operations.

Thanks, David. I think, yes, they're coming through on the Q&A box at the moment. I might hand over to Geoff to start going through those.

No problems. Alex has asked us about the -- would you mind to share more detail about the succession of the CEO and COO? So Alex, how are you? I hope you're well. And -- but essentially, we -- I think anyone who's been following the company knows that when we came to -- David and I sort of came to this in what we had understood to be non-executive roles that we quickly knew were required to become executive roles. And those roles out of necessity sort of dictated that it required a lot more of our time than we thought. We went through a recruitment process at that stage. And we're really struggling because we were -- if you think -- if you run your mind back to it, we took the company over in June '19, we spent 3 months looking on the bond and we found we were confronted with more challenges than what we thought it to be. So we lost our CEO and CFO on the day that we took the business over. So it was a bit of sort of all hands on deck. We then started through the recruitment process and were really struggling because at that stage we had a market cap of about $55 million. We had a fairly public staff that has just occurred at the boardroom. And so -- and there was clearly -- wasn't really clear what we are able to say given what we understood to be the case with Nant and what we were discovering what we were finding in Nant and the associated issues with that and generally in the business. So we stretched that out till about December and then I was doing it in an acting role and then both January and February, COVID had hit and so then the chances of recruiting, that plan -- I think everyone would recall COVID was life and death at that stage and so no one was changing jobs or packing up lives and building bunkers. So we're pretty much stable with this pathway and I think everyone has been really successful. The Board's asked me -- I committed to 2 years, Board asked me to extend that for a further year, which I did. So that's this time next year. But we just feel that the next phase of growth for us as a business is really through bringing in matured season sales, sort of sales orientated, marketing orientated internationally exposed kind of candidate. And that's -- there's different individuals do different things at different times in the business and my role has been triage, fix, strategy, reset, get the brand right, get the positioning right, certainly set us up structurally for this future that we've got. And I think the next $300 million of market cap is going to come through the sales side of the business and prudent sales success and that sales success almost exclusively has to be international. Now that's a different -- that's not my skill set and I think so that's why we're moving through CEO or COO replacement and we'll rather be very firm on what it is and when it is. We're taking in more mature processes, let's get down to it early rather than get to it late and let's build it out in a way that if it requires a 6-month transition, that's fine; if it doesn't at all, that's fine. So that's the process we're undertaking. I hope that makes sense to you. Would you remind us about the drivers of the new -- the drivers that you're seeing, what are the drivers of the net sales value increase in the future. So we went from $139 to $216. There was -- and I think in fairness, our share price has gone from sort of $0.90 to $5. And I'd say that our share price was never $0.90 and our NSV should never have been $139. I think that was a reflection of Warren and Paul's leadership and that's why the change happened. So I'm going to -- I'm going to be as humble to say, our share price should have been $2.50 and [indiscernible] that we often $0.90 to $2.50 was just doing the competent things competently where we've added values in the second half. And likewise, I'm sure $139 was probably not our real number. So again, confident -- doing the confident things confidently. What we did there, Alex, is we -- the limited release program allowed us to test scale price points and so we did actually start our limited release program in a price point too low. I think we were at [ 249 ]. We went up to [ 299 ]. We're generally around [ 399 ] and that seems to be our sweet spot so we've explored what that looks like. This year we've done the gifting program. The gifting program really changes the dynamic around sort of that substitutable dollar per liter of the 100 ml gifting versus a 500 ml gifting and what do you do? What should you pay for 3 100 ml that are being canned and so on and so forth. So we're seeing sort of dollar per liter rates north of $400. Our e-commerce channel and our hospitality channel are both able to sell our limited release and highest-priced products. So next year, I think we're getting to the end of the easy wins. So packaging price configuration and now we get to the harder wins, which is about really execution in e-commerce and execution in hospitality and then channel allocation. The key for us is that we've decided that we're not entering to the $100 whisky market. That's a threshold that we don't believe we need to play in. And we'll sort of sit at the Symphony at the lowest point so that's the $139, $149. And if anything, with an inflationary environment that we're seeing at the moment, we'll probably be ahead on inflation moves. So it is going to be -- the easy wins in net sales per liter have been had. Now we're down to the hard ones, if I could say it that way.

Thanks, Geoff. David, there's no further questions that have come through the Q&A box or audio. So happy for you to move on to the formal business.

[indiscernible] is online and [indiscernible] asked me a question every single time. So I'm disappointed, Pat, that you don't have any question. So -- but I'm sure in the fullness of the time you'll find one for me.

There's another opportunity at the back end of the meeting.

Well, we'll move on to the more formal business of today's meeting. And firstly, if you do have a question on any of the items of business, please follow the question process, which has previously been outlined. Company Secretary will address your questions after the last resolution. Before opening the poll, I wish to remind shareholders that the poll will remain open for an additional period after we have considered all resolutions. I now declare the poll open. I refer you to the first item of business, as set out in the Notice of Meeting, which is to receive and consider the financial report of the company, together with the Directors' report and the auditors' report for the financial year ended 30th of June 2021. These items are contained in Annual Report, so I ask that they be taken as read. The Annual Report is available on the ASX platform or on the company's website. The Corporations Act requires the accounts and our reports to be put before the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting. However, except as set out in Resolution 1 to be considered later, there are no requirements for a vote or members to be taken on them. The auditing question to the auditor were received by the cutoff day, 5 business days before the meeting. Questions, however, may be directed through myself to the auditors in relation to the conduct of the audit, the audit report, the company's accounting policies or the independence of the auditor. As this matter does not require a vote, we will now move to the first resolution. And I would refer you to Resolution 1, which is to consider the adoption of the remuneration report following part of the Directors' report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. The remuneration report is set out in the directors' report and the company's 2021 Annual Report. The remuneration report sets out the company's remuneration arrangements for the Directors' and key management personnel of the company. The vote in this resolution is advisory only and is not [ binding ] to Directors or the company. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 1 and are outlined in the presentation, in favor, 95.14%, against 0.55% and open 4.31%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. As the next resolution is a matter concerning myself, I will now hand the meeting over to Melanie Leydin to conduct this resolution.

Thanks, David. I now refer to Resolution 2, which relates to the reelection of Mr. David Dearie, as a Director of the company. Mr. Dearie's profile has been provided on Page 8 of the Notice of Meeting. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 2 and are outlined in the presentation, in favor, 96.05%, against 0.26% and open 3.69%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. Thank you. I will now pass back to David.

Thanks, Melanie. I now refer to Resolution 3, which relates to the approval to grant 75,000 performance rights to Mr. Geoff Bainbridge or his nominee. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 3, and are -- as outlined in the presentation, in favor, 95.1%, against 0.58%, open 4.32%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. I now refer to Resolution 4, which relates to the approval to grant 90,000 performance rights to Ms. Laura McBain or her nominee. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 4 and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 65.42%, against 30.33%, open 4.25%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. I now refer to Resolution 5, which relates to the ratification of the prior issue of 9.3 million fully paid ordinary shares. The shares were issued under a share placement to professional and sophisticated investors at an issue price of $5 on 22nd of October 2021. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 5 and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 94.32%, against 0.32%, open 5.36%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. I now refer to Resolution 6(a), which relates to the proposed participation of Mr. Geoff Bainbridge in the company's share placement. If approved, Mr. Bainbridge or his nominee will be issued 572,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the company at a issue price of $5. The following percentage of proxies have received for Resolution 6(a) and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 95.69%, against 0.31%, open 4%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. As the next resolution is a matter concerning myself, I now hand the meeting over to Melanie Leydin to conduct the resolution.

Thank you. Resolution 6(b) relates to the proposed participation of Mr. David Dearie in the company's share placement. If approved, Mr. Dearie or his nominee will be issued 150,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the company at an issue price of $5. The following percentage of proxies have been received with -- for Resolution 6(b) and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 96.01%, against 0.29%, and open 3.7%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. Thank you, David.

Thanks, Melanie. And I would refer to Resolution 6(c), which relates to the proposed participation of Mr. Warren Randall in the company's share placement. If approved, Mr. Randall or his nominee will be issued 500,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the company at an issue price of $5. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 6(c) and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 95.79%, against 0.31%, open 3.9%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. I now refer to Resolution 6(d), which relates to the proposed participation of Ms. Laura McBain in the company's share placement. If approved, Ms. McBain or her nominee will be issued 50,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the company at an issue price of $5. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 6(d) and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 96.02%, against 0.29%, open 3.69%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. I now refer to the final item of business, Resolution 7, which relate to the approval to issue 306,360 shares to vendors and Shene Estate, as part consideration under the company's acquisition has announced on 18th of October 2021. The following percentage of proxies have been received for Resolution 7 and are outlined in the presentation, in favor 9.95% against 0.28%, open 3.77%. I move that shareholders consider, and if thought fit, pass the ordinary resolution. We will now go to shareholders' questions. Please note, during this time, the poll will remain open to enable you to complete your voting. [indiscernible] we don't receive any questions on any of the resolution, but as the shareholders -- any of the shareholders wish to speak on any of these resolutions.

There's nothing on the formal business, but I'll just hand over to Geoff. There is one sitting in the Q&A box there for you.

Yes. Hi, Pat, how are you? Thank you for your question. Geoff, if there is a CEO change after all your good surgery triage by the end of '23, do you intend to stay on as a Director? Yes. The short answer is subject to the Board's grant, yes, my intention is to stay on as a Director.

Thanks, Geoff. David, we've got no further questions through Q&A or audio. So just a little moment more for the poll.

Mel, you're getting very efficient at these Zoom things, aren't you? Look at you.

Yes.

I remember our first one of these [indiscernible].

I know. I know. So David, that's time. I think everyone has voted now. You may close the poll.

Great. We will now -- well, we've [ provided ] the shareholders, so additional time, that time is up. I now declare the poll closed. The company has not received notice of any other business as such concludes the formal business of today's meeting, and I declare the meeting closed. After the votes have been counted, the results of the poll will be released to the ASX later today. And I'd like to thank everyone for the attendance and look forward to the continued support of our shareholders. [Technical Difficulty]

Thanks, David. Thanks all. We'll now close the webinar.