Monadelphous Group Limited (8MP.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2023 Monadelphous Annual General Meeting. And as it is now 10:00 and we have a quorum, I declare the meeting open. My name is Phil Trueman. I'm the CFO and Company Secretary here at Monadelphous. And I'd like to commence today's proceedings by introducing Matt Macfarlane, one of our local content coordinators for an acknowledgment of country. In his role with Monadelphous, Matt is responsible for establishing, developing and maintaining relationships with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organizations. And he also plays a key role in retaining and attracting indigenous employees to our business. Welcome, Matt.

Thank you, Phil, and good morning. [Foreign Language] Hello, everyone. Welcome to Whadjuk Country and welcome from the Monadelphous family. It warms my heart to be speaking with you all today. My name is Matt Macfarlane. I am proud to open this AGM and present this acknowledgment of country today. We hold this meeting on the lands of the Whadjuk people, the traditional owners of Perth, members of the Noongar nation. Welcome to the Monadelphous Board, executive and shareholders to this place where my ancestors gathered to meet, embrace family and hold great ceremony. I would like to draw your attention to the photo on this slide, up there behind me, which was taken at our NAIDOC Week celebrations earlier this year where the Bindjareb Middars, they are from Pinjarra [indiscernible] shared a traditional dance with us to open our NAIDOC exhibition of indigenous outworks from Kalgoorlie. Seeking opportunities such as NAIDOC Week and beyond for recognition and reflection is foundational to our fourth Reconciliation Action Plan and second Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan. This plan outlines Monadelphous' pledge to take meaningful action to advance reconciliation with Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples. Finally, I would like to acknowledge our elders past, present and emerging. I pay my respect to other aboriginal people joining us and everyone here today. Thank you.

Thanks, Matt. Great job. So today's meeting is being held at the University of Western Australia as well as online to ensure that all of our shareholders, proxies, guests have the opportunity to attend either in person or virtually. For those of you in the room today, I'll quickly go through some important safety information. In the case of an emergency, you will hear an alarm and directions over the PA system telling you to evacuate the premises. Please do so immediately following the fire exit signs at the front of the auditorium. And the club's fire wardens will be on hand to assist and you will be directed to assemble at the far corner of Riley Oval near the Dolphin Theatre. And must remain on the Oval until instructed to return to the building. Now as we're also running the meeting virtually today, there is a chance that despite our preparation and backup plans, technical difficulties may arise during the meeting. And in the unlikely event that this does occur, our Chair has the discretion as to whether and how the meeting should proceed, having regard to the number of shareholders impacted and the extent to which participation in the business of the meeting is affected. And should there be any technical difficulties, we will publish a notification on our website as soon as possible. For those attending online, questions can be submitted by the online Computershare meeting platform at any time. And if you would like to ask a question, select the Q&A icon and type your question in the question box and once you finish typing, press the Send button. You will be able to submit questions on the platform throughout the meeting up until we commence question time. And any questions that have not been addressed in the presentation or have not been answered previously will be put to the Board at the end of the meeting. Please note that questions may be moderated. And if we receive questions on the same topic, we'll amalgamate them. And to ask a question verbally, you may please follow the instructions written below the broadcast. Now due to time constraints, it may not be possible to answer all questions, but if this does happen, we will answer them via e-mail or by posting responses on our website. As usual, voting today will be conducted by a way of a poll on all items of business, and there will be time later in the meeting for voting here in the room. However, in order to provide our online participants with enough time to vote, we will shortly open the online voting for all resolutions. So for our online attendees, if you are eligible to vote at this meeting, once voting opens, press the Vote icon and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options, and there's no need to hit a submit or enter button as your vote will be automatically recorded. And you receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. And you can change your vote up until the time, I declare the meeting closed or the voting closed rather. I now declare the online voting open on all items of business, and you can cast your votes at any time, and I will give you a warning before I move to close voting. So I'd now like to take the opportunity to introduce you to our Board of Directors and our executive management team who are here with us this morning. With us in the room, from your left to right, at the front, our Chair, Rob Velletri; our Managing Director, Zoran Bebic; our Deputy Chair and Lead Nonexecutive Director, Sue Murphy; and our Nonexecutive Directors, Dietmar Voss; Helen Gillies; and Ric Buratto. And we also have members of our EMG here today, including Adam Cook, Executive General Manager of our Engineering & Construction division; Alastair Reid, Executive General Manager of our Maintenance and Industrial Services division; Chris Tabrett, who's sitting at the front, our General Manager of Growth and Strategy; and Dean Brajevic, General Manager of Human Resources. And in addition, representing our auditors, Ernst & Young, joined in the room by Pierre Dreyer. Welcome Pierre, and thank you for joining us this morning. So our Chair of Rob Velletri will commence today's AGM with a brief overview of Monadelphous' journey and evolution through the years as well as providing an update on our strategic progress over the last 12 months. Rob will then hand over to our MD, Zoran Bebic, who will speak in more detail about the company's highlights and performance for the 2023 financial year as well as the outlook for the foreseeable future. And then the operational executive general managers, Adam and Alastair will also speak to some of our divisional highlights. I'll then take care of the formal business of the day before opening to shareholders for questions and conducting the poll. So I'll now hand over to our first speaker of this morning, Rob Velletri.

Thanks, Phil, and good morning, everyone. Before I commence, I wanted to take some time to acknowledge the passing early this year of our former Chair, mentor and friend, John Rubino. Many of you will have had the opportunity to meet John over the years, and I'm sure you would agree, he had a great charisma, and he is very missed by us all. John spent 3 decades dedicating himself to building the successful business we know -- we now know today as Monadelphous. His no airs and graces leadership style and his innate ability to forge long-term trusting and mutually rewarding relationships are the stuff of legend. Even though John is no longer with us, his memory will always be present in our corridors at Monadelphous and in the hearts and the stories of our people. The legacy of the business he has built is a great one, and we look forward to continuing to develop a business that he is proud of. So today, I'm delighted to address all of you in my new capacity as Chair of the Monadelphous Board. After serving as Managing Director and CEO for 19 years, it's an honor for me to step into the role that John so effectively carried out during his long tenure. During my time in the company, we've embarked on a significant and continuous journey of organic growth and development. Our story began as a modest and small-to-medium contractor in the iron ore and minerals sector. We earned a strong reputation for safe and reliable projects and service delivery. And through the growth years, we ventured into more substantial contracts with larger customers across a growing number of industries and played a crucial role in the massive growth of the Australian resources and energy sector during the 2000s. In recent times, the company has continued to diversify, pushing into new markets such as rail, power, renewable energy and battery metals and in other sectors that support the global energy transition. Simultaneously, we've expanded our reach to encompass broader geographical areas, expanded our service offerings and importantly, significantly grown our maintenance services and recurring revenue business. Today, we stand as a far more sustainable and robust business with a formidable competitive edge that positions us well for the continued growth and the delivery of solid returns to our valued shareholders. Moving now to 2023. Last year, the -- last year saw another solid performance by Monadelphous. We've seen buoyant conditions across the resources and energy sectors with our Maintenance and Industrial Services division recording record sales revenue for the second year in a row. In fact, the division has now reported record sales revenue in 6 out of the past 7 years, which has driven the long-term growth in our recurring revenues. While the level of activity in our Engineering and Construction division for the year was impacted by delays to major project awards, it's been good to see a strong series of contract awards late in the year and in the early months of the current year, positioning of the division for a return to growth. Pleasingly, we've secured around $2.6 billion in new contracts and extensions since the 1st of July 2022, including $1.1 billion since the start of this financial year alone. In line with our markets and growth strategy, we continued to expand our services and geographic footprint. And in support of our efforts to develop a presence in the East Coast energy generation market, we acquired Victorian-based BMC late in the financial year. And earlier in this financial year, we finalized the acquisition of Melchor Contracting to add major civil construction capability to our suite of service offerings. Our unrelenting focus on the safety and well-being of our people remains at the heart of how we work. We continue to work hard in this area to make sure that Monadelphous -- that at Monadelphous, the safe way is the only way. The industry forecast indicate a strong pipeline of opportunities for Monadelphous, both within our core sectors as well as within the fast-growing market segments, which support decarbonization. Armed with a loyal and dedicated workforce with a long-standing reputation for safe and dependable delivery and supported by a strong balance sheet, we are in a great position to capitalize on these opportunities. The shortage of skilled labor in Australia continues to be a challenge for us with activity high across multiple industries. As always, we'll continue to focus on our people and our culture to ensure that Monadelphous remains a great place to work. In November last year, at the conclusion of our 2022 Annual General Meeting, we saw several changes take effect to our Board in line with our succession plan. As I mentioned earlier, our long-serving Executive Chair, John Rubino, retired, and I took on the role. Zoran Bebic, a long-serving executive and a previous Executive General Manager of our Maintenance and Industrial Services division, was appointed to the role of Managing Director. In addition, Peter Dempsey, who served on the Board for almost 20 years, retired as a Nonexecutive Director. I'm pleased to say that the transition to these roles has gone very smoothly and has received strong support from the business and other stakeholders. In conclusion and on behalf of the Board, I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate Zoran on the fantastic job he's done in his first year as a Managing Director; and to Adam Cook and Alastair Reid, an excellent first year as executive general managers of our 2 key operating divisions. I'd also like to thank our very dedicated and hard-working team as well as our customers, our shareholders and all our friends in the communities where we work for their wonderful support. So thanks. I'll now hand you over to Zoran.

Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Monadelphous' performance in the 2023 financial year. The company delivered sales revenue of $1.83 billion for the year, including a record $1.3 billion from Maintenance and Industrial Services and $542 million from Engineering and Construction. The result reflects strong demand for our Maintenance Services across all sectors, particularly in energy. Construction activity was impacted by delays in the timing of award and commencement of new major projects. However, we continue to experience high levels of tendering, which resulted in a large number of contract awards post year-end. Our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was $109.1 million, delivering an improved EBITDA margin of almost 6%. The continued focus on driving improved productivity, maintaining operational discipline and increasing efficiency across our business was a significant factor in this margin improvement and mitigated the effects of heightened inflation and escalating cost environment. Net profit after tax, NPAT, increased slightly to $53.5 million, generating earnings per share of $0.558. The Board declared a final dividend of $0.25 per share, taking the total full year dividend to $0.49 per share fully franked yielding a payout ratio of approximately 88% of reported NPAT. We ended the year with a strong cash balance of $178.3 million, cash flow from operations of $93 million and a very pleasing cash flow conversion rate of 112%. Our discipline in maintaining a strong balance sheet continue to support our markets and growth strategy and enabled us to invest in opportunities including BMC and Melchor Contracting, as Rob mentioned earlier. As announced last month, UnityWater filed an amendment to the statement of claim served against Monadelphous in July, amending the value of the claim to approximately $200 million. Whilst the amount of the claim has increased, Monadelphous continues to deny the allegations and will vigorously defend the claims as well as pursuing available counterclaims. Strategically, we continue to target new work opportunities while ensuring the appropriate allocation of risk. As Rob said, since the beginning of last financial year, we have announced approximately $2.6 billion of new contracts and contract extensions, supporting a strong pipeline of work. This slide highlights the size and location of our new contracts secured since the beginning of the 2023 financial year. As you can see, we've secured new contracts and extensions across Australia as well as in Papua New Guinea and Mongolia, particularly in the resources and energy sectors. This includes a number of significant construction contracts in Western Australia secured after year-end. In iron ore, we have been awarded approximately $800 million of new work with long-term customers, including BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue. We have also secured around $600 million of work in the growing lithium sector, which includes a number of major construction and strategic long-term maintenance contract with Albemarle, Talison Lithium and Liontown Resources. We'll talk about some of these a little later. Overall, we are well placed moving forward. Now to people. We finished the year with a workforce, including subcontractors of around 5,700 people. In light of the competitive labor market, we continue to strengthen our approach to the recruitment and retention of people. Our focus included leveraging our new talent acquisition and performance management system, improving how we manage people data and enhancing the way we view our talent pipeline, recruit new talent and developing -- and develop and mobilize our workforce. To support the attraction and retention of people, we completed an employee survey during the year with feedback shaping our people and culture strategy. In addition, we continue to review the structure of our leadership reward and incentive programs to ensure they support retention and promote an owner's mindset. We launched our Respect@Monadelphous program, which aims to further embed respectful behaviors across our operations. The program includes acceptable workplace behavior and code of conduct training and is rolled out to all employees. Our leadership programs continue to support the development of current and future leaders, and we are very pleased to have been recognized as Australia's top Construction and Property Services Graduate Employer for 2023. Turning now to safety and well-being. Our unrelenting focus on improving safety and well-being through the identification, elimination and mitigation of fatal risks continued. We implemented a number of safety initiatives to ensure the sustained improvement in health and safety outcomes. This included improvements to infield risk management tools and the rollout of a series of fatal risk awareness campaigns. We also completed a number of technology-based safety improvements and trials relating to the use of mobile fleet. We also completed a number of -- apologies, -- pleasingly, our serious injury frequency rate remains at historically low levels. We continued to support the mental and physical health of our people through our health and well-being program, engaging our people in reliable, proactive, well-being strategies. Additionally, we were recognized for our efforts and contribution to safety innovation and were named the winner of a number of state and national work health and safety excellence awards. Most recently, the team took home a 2023 Work Well Award for safe -- from WorkSafe Queensland for the best demonstrated health and safe work design. Following the launch of our second Stretch RAP in July last year, we continued to collaborate with indigenous own businesses, along with offering career pathways and upskilling for indigenous people across our operations. Our Indigenous Pathways Program, which is run in partnership with Rio Tinto, is now entering its third year in operation, and we engage with Madalah to support indigenous students from regional communities with their tertiary studies. We also renewed our long-term partnership with Polly Farmer Foundation. We progressed the initiatives under our gender diversity and include strategy, which included establishing a buddy program to connect women new to our business in both our offices and on-site and participation in in-school engagements, supporting girls and young women to understand the STEM career pathways on offer at Monadelphous. In our local communities, we're involved in over 120 events and initiatives across 20 locations. And as always, our community investment focused on getting behind the grassroots clubs and groups that employees support. We formalized our energy and emissions reduction road map, which outlines a series of targets and actions to achieve our goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. We also established working groups focused on our transition to renewable power and to support the optimization of operational activities. Moving to our operational highlights. Our Engineering Construction division reported revenue of $541.9 million for the year. The division experienced high levels of tendering activity and was involved in a number of early contractor engagement assignments. We successfully completed several large resources projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia including packages at FMG's Iron Bridge Magnetite project and Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri iron ore project as well as a series of shutdowns at Rio Tinto's Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 project. We were also reappointed to the BHP Western Australian Iron Ore Projects Framework Agreement for a further 3 years. Overseas, we undertook a strategic review of our China-based fabrication business to ensure it remains aligned to customers' expectations and is appropriately structured to grow in its core markets, geographically diversified supply chain into Southeast Asia and delivering new and related sectors. We also rebranded the business to Inteforge to better align with its strategic direction. In Mongolia, we secured a contract for the construction of surface infrastructure at the Oyu Tolgoi Underground Project where we have previously completed construction works. Since the beginning of the 2023 financial year, the division has secured approximately $900 million of new contracts, predominantly in the lithium and iron ore sectors. I would now like to introduce Adam Cook, Executive General Manager of our Engineering and Construction division. Adam started with Monadelphous as the Head of Projects in Engineering and Construction in 2022 before transitioning into the role of Executive General Manager in December last year. Adam brings over 25 years of experience working in engineering and construction for both customers and contractors including Fortescue, BHP, Clough and Downer. I'll now hand over to Adam to talk through some more of the Engineering and Construction divisional highlights.

Thanks, Zoran, and good morning, everyone. In the first half of the financial year, we were engaged in the Iron Bridge Magnetite Project, an unincorporated joint venture between FMG and Formosa Steel to provide multidisciplinary construction activities. Our work was later expanded to support the construction of 135-kilometer pipeline connecting the plant to the port of Port Hedland. At the height of activity, our workforce peaked at more than 380 people. We mobilized the site in just 3 days, and our delivery on the project played a critical role in the customer achieving first ore in March of this year. We secured a contract under our BHP with Western Australian Iron Ore Asset Projects Framework Agreement for the Car Dumper 3 Renewal Project in Nelson Point, valued at over $115 million. And employees mobilized in April this year, and we completed early works and planning, including early shutdown works. The focus ahead is on the structural, mechanical and piping works associated with Car Dumper 3 replacement as well as the electrical instrumentation package, which we have since secured on the project. These awards come on the back of our successful completion of various car dumper refurbishment projects in recent years, including the removal, refurbishment and reinstatement of car dumper cells in 2020 as pictured on the slide. Our renewable energy business, Zenviron, continues to enhance its reputation as a market leader in the delivery of balance of plant work of wind farms. During the year, Zenviron achieved substantial completion on its work at the Rye Park Wind Farm, the largest wind farm to ever be constructed in New South Wales, which will comprise of 66 wind turbines to produce enough clean energy to power 215,000 homes. In addition, Zenviron was engaged on early works packages for several other wind farm and battery storage projects on the East Coast of Australia. These markets are expected to provide an increasing pipeline of opportunities in the coming years as Australia continues to transition towards clean energy. As mentioned previously, we have secured a number of large resource construction contracts subsequent to year-end. Our most recently awarded contract for Liontown Resources at the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in Western Australia's Northern Goldfields is a multidisciplinary contract for the construction of a wet plan. Work is already underway with completion expected in mid-2024. We have secured a contract for the construction of the chemical grade Plant 3 at Talison's Lithium Greenbushes site in Western Australia. With the support of our growing specialist heavy lift business, this is a terrific opportunity for us to build on our strengths and deliver projects as an integrated team. On this slide, you can see Albemarle's Lithium Hydroxide Plant at Kemerton. Following a successful delivery of construction packages on trains 1 and 2 last year, we were awarded a significant multidisciplinary construction contract for the front-end pyromet works for 2 new lithium processing trains, trains 3 and 4. Importantly, delivering this project means that we are playing a key role in our customers' plans to double the capacity of their Kemerton operations. We've also secured a multidisciplinary contract with new customer, Lynas Rare Earth, for Stage 1 of the Mount Weld Expansion Project located near Laverton in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. The awards I've just mentioned demonstrate our growing presence in the burgeoning energy transition metals market. And finally, in iron ore, we have secured construction contracts with Fortescue for the supply and construction of an overland conveyor and transfer station at the Christmas Creek mine site. And the series of upgrades at the Anderson Point iron ore stockyard in Port Hedland, Western Australia. Now I'll hand back to Zoran to introduce our maintenance divisional highlights.

Thanks, Adam. As mentioned earlier, our Maintenance and Industrial Services division had another fantastic year, achieving a record annual revenue of $1.3 billion, which was up 11.4% on the prior year. A significant volume of maintenance, shutdown and project work was performed in the energy and iron ore sectors, as customers continue to maintain high levels of production and capitalize on favorable commodity prices. On the back of the successful delivery of construction packages and the strong relationship developed with Albemarle, we were awarded 2 strategic 5-year contracts for maintenance and sustaining capital projects at Albemarle's Kemerton operations. These contracts, which include 2-year extension options, position us well to continue to expand in the Southwest region of Western Australia. In total, our Maintenance division secured more than $1.25 billion in new contracts and contract extensions during the year with an additional $470 million since 30th of June. In November of 2022, I was pleased to hand over the reins to Alastair Reid, as he was promoted to Executive General Manager of our Maintenance and Industrial Services division. Al joined Monadelphous in January of 2015 as General Manager, Strategy and Innovation within our Maintenance division and has played a key role in the development of the division's growth and diversification strategy and our new business portfolio over a period of 7 years. Al has over 25 years of experience in the delivery of engineering and construction projects and the management of maintenance and construction businesses in the energy, resources and infrastructure sectors throughout Australia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia for Clough, UGL, Ventia and Worley. I'll now invite Al to take you through some further maintenance highlights for the year.

Thanks, Zoran, and good morning, everyone. In the energy sector, we were awarded both available 2-year extensions to our long-term offshore maintenance services contract with INPEX, supporting the Ichthys LNG project. The scope of work includes operational campaign and shutdown maintenance services and brownfield projects implementation. We've also recently secured a variation to this contract to provide similar services at the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG onshore processing facilities at Bladin Point in Darwin. This is a testament to the strength of our relationship with INPEX and the delivery of quality outcomes at Ichthys LNG over the past 10 years, dating back to when we played a significant role during the construction phase of the project. We continue to grow our relationship with Fortescue during the year and awarded a number of significant new contracts, including a 5-year contract to provide maintenance, general shutdown services and minor project works across their Pilbara operations. We're also appointed to a panel for nonprocess infrastructure services for a term of 3 years, which has already brought significant scope -- many scopes of work our way, including the refurbishment of about 350 rooms at Solomon Castle accommodation camp. Strategically, nonprocess infrastructure presents a big opportunity in an area of growth for Monadelphous as our customers continue to invest in new and expanded mine sites and associated facilities. As Rob mentioned, in June of this year, we acquired Victorian-based specialist electrical and maintenance service provider, BMC. BMC provides services to major industry and key utilities throughout Australia, employees around 180 people and generates approximately $60 million of revenue per annum. This strategic acquisition enabled us to develop a presence in the east coast energy generation, transmission and storage market and expand our footprint in the growing offshore oil and gas decommissioning sector, particularly into the Bass Strait. Among a number of contracts secured with Rio Tinto's iron ore operations in Western Australia's Pilbara region, earlier this year was a scope of work associated with the replacement of an overland conveyor belt at the Western Turner Syncline mine. On the screen, you'll see a video of the project where we hear from the team. [Presentation]

As you heard, the Western Turner Syncline circuit was built by Monadelphous in 2014. And 13 kilometers long is Rio Tinto's longest single-flight conveyor. The belt replacement was the first of its kind for our maintenance team and despite tight turnarounds, the overall performance was very strong. I'll now pass it back to Zoran to present our industry outlook.

Thanks, Al. This slide shows relevant current and forecast Australian market conditions for our business. As you can see, the sectors in which we operate have a positive outlook, capital investment and operating expenditure over the next few years. Now to the outlook slide. Longer-term demand forecast remained strong across commodity markets despite some global economic uncertainty. The resources and energy sectors are providing a significant pipeline of prospects across a broad range of commodities with expenditure related to decarbonization, representing an increasingly larger proportion of investment activity. Production across most commodities is forecast to remain at current levels or higher, supporting continued sustaining capital and maintenance spend. Levels of mining and mineral processing development in the energy transition metals sector are high. And investment to sustain iron ore production levels will continue over the coming years. In the energy sector, there are several new gas construction projects currently in the development pipeline, and strong demand for maintenance services remains with decommissioning prospects expected to grow over the coming years. The development of the hydrogen market will also provide opportunities. Maintenance activity levels in the resources sector are forecast to remain high with new mining developments and expansions moving into the operating phase. Accelerating decarbonization efforts in Australia's power sector are driving an expanding pipeline of renewable energy projects including a large number of new wind farms and battery energy storage projects. Zenviron remains well placed to capitalize on the growth expected in this sector over the coming years and is currently engaged on early works packages for several new wind and battery energy storage projects. The shortage of skilled labor in Australia continues to be a challenge, and we remain focused on our employee attraction, training and development initiatives to ensure Monadelphous remains a great place to work. With the new wave of major construction activity underway, we have secured over $600 million of new projects, bringing the total of contracts awarded post year-end to approximately $1.1 billion. At this stage, we are anticipating an increasing group revenue for the first half of around 5% compared to the prior corresponding period. Full year revenue for the group will be dependent on the ramp-up of new construction projects, and at this stage, group revenue for the second half is expected to be similar to the first half. With capacity constrained, we will continue to leverage our strong position and take a strategic and targeted approach to new work, engaging and collaborating early with customers, maintaining an appropriate approach to the allocation of risk and focusing on earnings quality. Supported by a strong balance sheet, we will continue to assess potential acquisition opportunities to facilitate service expansion, market diversification and long-term sustainable growth. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our fantastic employees for another solid year. We have a very loyal and talented team at Monadelphous who are committed to helping the company continue to grow and prosper. I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to our shareholders, customers and other stakeholders for their ongoing support. Finally, [Foreign Language]. We miss you John. Your legacy will live long. I'll now hand back to Phil to complete the formal proceedings for the day.

Thank you, Zoran and well done. So as mentioned previously, if you're online and have a question, please select the Q&A icon and type your question in the question box. If you're online and want to ask a question verbally, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast on the online platform. And for those of you in the room, I ask that all questions be held until the Q&A section after all resolutions have been introduced. Now today's resolutions will be voted on via a poll, which will be conducted after all the items of business have been tabled and discussed. I'll provide some guidance to the people in the room about the poll prior to commencing, and there will be assistance available to shareholders who have queries. And then we'll tell you the results of the meeting and announce them on the ASX later today. So as at the proxy close date, we received valid proxies representing around 61 million shares or 63% of the issued share capital of about 97 million shares. And we'll show the manner in which the proxies are to vote on the screen before each resolution is voted on. Where a proxy has been directed to the Chair without a specific voting instruction, the Chair will vote in favor of each resolution except where a voting exclusion applies. Now the minutes of last year's AGM have been signed, and a copy is available for inspection. And if you'd like to view the minutes, please speak to me after we finish the meeting. So we've got 5 items of business to consider at today's meeting, and they're set out in the notice of AGM and accompanying explanatory memorandum, which were released to the ASX and is available to shareholders on our website. And unless anyone objects, I will take that notice as read. The 2023 annual report contains the financial statements of the company and the reports director and the auditor for the financial year ended 30 June 2023. Now no resolution is required. However, if shareholders would like to raise any questions or comments with either Pierre Dreyer from Ernst & Young or with the Board regarding the financial statements and reports, for those online, please type in your questions now and for those in the room, we will address questions during the Q&A. So we'll now consider the formal items of business. And the first item of business is Resolution 1 to reelect a Director, Mr. Rob Velletri, who retires by rotation in accordance with the company's constitution and being eligible offers himself for reelection. Now Rob was appointed to the Board in August 1992 and commenced as Managing Director in 2003, holding the role for 19 years before being appointed as Chair in November last year. He is a mechanical engineer with 44 years of experience in the construction and engineering services industry. And the Board, with the exception of Mr. Velletri, who abstained, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of his reelection, having taken into account Rob's skills, experience and knowledge of the industry and the company, his past performance, commitment and dedication and a significant and valuable contribution he has made and continues to make to Monadelphous. The proxies received in relation to Resolution 1 are displayed on the screen. And as previously mentioned, we'll conduct the poll after all resolutions have been discussed. The second item of business is Resolution 2 to reelect the Director, Ms. Helen Gillies, who retires by rotation and in accordance with the company's constitution and being eligible offers herself for reelection. Now Helen was appointed to the Board in September 2016 and has been Chair of the Audit Committee since September 2020. She is a solicitor with a strong background in law, risk, governance and finance as well as extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions. She has 27 years of experience in the construction and engineering services industry. Now the Board, with the exception of Ms. Gillies who abstained, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of her reelection, noting the valuable contribution Helen makes to the mix of skills required by the Board, her past performance, her commitment and dedication and the current and future needs of the company. And the proxies received in relation to Resolution 2 are displayed. The third item of business is Resolution 3 to reelect the Director, Mr. Zoran Bebic, who retires in accordance with the company's constitution and being eligible offers himself for reelection. Now Zoran was appointed to the Board in November last year. He has held a broad range of operational, financial and management roles at Monadelphous over a 30-year career with the company, including Chief Financial Officer; and as Rob mentioned, Executive General Manager of the company Maintenance Division, and he is a fellow of CPA Australia. And the Board, with the exception of Mr. Bebic abstained, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of his reelection, having taken into account Zoran's skills, experience and knowledge of both the industry and of Monadelphous, his unwavering commitment and dedication to the company and the significant and valuable contribution he has made and continues to make to monodelphous. And the proxies received in relation to this resolution are displayed on the screen. The fourth item of business is resolution 4, granting of performance rights to the company's Managing Director, Zoran Bebic. And it's proposed that Mr. Bebic or his nominee be issued with 17,885 performance rights under the Monadelphous Group Limited Combined Reward Plan. And the key terms of the performance rights are contained in the Notice of Meeting. Now voting exclusions apply to this resolution and the details thereof are set out in the Notice of the Meeting. And the Board again with the exception of Mr. Bebic abstained, acknowledges the outstanding contribution that Zoran has made and will continue to make to the company and therefore, unanimously recommends shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. And the proxies received in relation to this resolution are again displayed behind me here on the screen. And the last item of business for today is Resolution 5, which is the adoption of the remuneration report, which is contained in the directors' report to shareholders. Now the vote on this resolution is advisory only and will not bind the directors or the company. However, the Board will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing remuneration practices and policies. Voting exclusions again apply to this resolution, and these are set out in the Notice of Meeting, and the Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the Adoption of the Remuneration Report. And the proxies received in relation to this resolution -- Resolution 5 are displayed behind me. Before we move to the poll, as mentioned, we'll now open the floor for questions. If you have something you wish to ask, please raise your hand and one of our attendants will bring you a microphone. For the benefit of those listening online, please speak into the microphone so that everyone can hear your questions clearly. As mentioned previously, if you are online and have a question, please select the Q&A icon and type your question. And once you finish typing, please hit the send button. So I'll open the floor to questions.

We'll start with Mr. [ Carrick ] from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Welcome, Jeff.

Thank you, Phil. Yes, my name is [ Jeff Carrick ]. I am the proxy holder on behalf of 85 members and supporters of the Australian Shareholders' Association. I thank the Executive Chairman, Rob Velletri, and the Joint Company Secretary, Kristy Glasgow, for making time to meet me a few weeks ago to discuss some of the issues of concern to retail shareholders. One of these matters was the skills that Board members bring to the Board and that the Board has suitable expertise across all the required skills. In the 3 explanatory memorandum section supporting reelection of directors. And again, from Phil, we had reference made to the Board's skills matrix and the reelected directors will contribute to the mix of skills required without saying which skills each will contribute to. The association has asked that the company consider attaching the name of each director to the particular skills on this matrix. This would give shareholders the added confidence that all the skills are covered and it would also save shareholders from trying to solve the logic puzzle of matching candidate skills to the matrix. A few other top listed companies are doing this and I urge Monadelphous to do the same. The association will vote our undirected proxies in favor of all the resolutions for the incoming directors as well as the last 2 on the agenda. So I don't need to speak again, I don't think.

All right. Thank you, Jeff. We will note that suggestion. Any other questions from anybody present in the room this morning? No. Okay. So now what we will do is move to the questions from our shareholders listening online. And Chris Tabrett, our General Manager of Growth and Strategy is sitting at the front with us here, will introduce the online questions. Good morning, Chris.

Thanks very much, Phil. Our first question is from [ Ms. Julie McGuire ] inquiring about the level of staff turnover throughout the company, possibly directed to the Managing Director.

I'd answer that by saying that -- it's obviously a metric that we track. And if I look at our turnover rates, and we benchmark those against peers and competitors across the industry in the resources sector more broadly. And what we have seen that our turnover rates whilst high, sit beneath or below what the resources sector and our peers and competitors would see. The other comment I'd make is, in the last 9 months, we have seen a consistent reduction in our turnover rates. The turnover rates themselves -- and it's a complex discussion because we segregate between staff, blue collar, by location. But my broader comments would be our turnover rates continue to be below that of what we see across the resources sector. And we certainly have seen a downward trend over the last 9 to 12 months.

Thanks, Zoran. Possibly another question directed to yourself from Mr. Peter [ Stora ] and Mrs. Andrea [ Stora ]. Will the recent federal government cuts to infrastructure have any detrimental effect to Monadelphous?

If you look at the markets we operate in, I'd suggest no. One of the challenges that we've seen in terms of capacity constrained market in terms of access to labor, arguably, we would expect that -- that potentially frees up some labor -- core labor to -- for us to attract back into the resources sector. So no, I don't see that.

Thank you. And final question we've received online from Mr. Stephen Mayne, questioning why the Managing Director is up for election today as most CEOs access the exemption under the Corporations Act. And further questioning, will the Executive Chair utilize this exemption in future years, perhaps Rob might respond to that.

I'll take that. I'll take that one. Under the Corporations Act, it is required for a Director to be approved at his -- at the first Annual General Meeting. Zoran, in his role as Managing Director, will not require to be approved or renewed or reelected rather every 3 years as all other Directors are. And the second question was around the Executive Chairman. Yes, the Executive Chairman will retire on a 3-year basis and will be required to be reelected. Again, this is Mr. Velletri's first AGM as not the Managing Director, and that is the reason he is being elected today.

Wonderful. Thank you, Phil. No further questions posted and no verbal questions have been submitted.

Okay. Thanks, Chris. Okay. So now we will conduct the poll. For those shareholders, representatives of shareholders and proxy holders attending online, please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions using the online voting button. And we will now conduct the poll for the shareholders in the room. At the time of registration when you arrived at the meeting this morning, those entitled to vote being shareholders, representatives of shareholders and proxy holders were given green admission cards. Each shareholder present, either in person or by proxy, has 1 vote per resolution for every share owned. And Rod Somes from Computershare has agreed to act as Returning Officer for the poll. If you have any questions during the polling process, please raise your hand and a Computershare representative will come over and assist you. If there's anyone who believes they're entitled to vote but is not registered to vote, can you please raise your hand? And if you hear in more than 1 capacity, for example, on your own and as a proxy for another shareholder, you will have been issued with as many green admission cards as you have separate capacities. On the reverse side of your green admission card is your voting paper and instructions. If you're a proxy holder and have only directed votes, as shown on the summary of votes attached to your admission card, all you need to do is print your name and sign the voting paper then lodge it in the ballot box. In respect of any open votes a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. And shareholders also need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. And when you have finished filling in your voting paper, please lodge it in one of the ballot boxes being circulated to ensure your votes are counted. If you need any help, please raise your hand. And I will close the voting system in a couple of minutes. Please ensure you have cast your vote on all resolutions, and I will now pause for a couple of moments to allow you time to finalize your votes. [Voting]

Does anyone in the room need any more time to complete and lodge their voting paper? Or have we got them all? Okay. All good. So I now declare the poll closed, and the results of the poll will be tallied and published on the ASX later today.

Is there any other business today that can be probably brought to the meeting about the management of the company? Mr. Carrick from the ASA.

Yes, a question about risk. I've done not much research, but I think that it's getting much hotter in the Pilbara, in particular. We've had 40-degree days in October and in November already this year, which is much above the long-term average. And I wonder -- I know that you've talked about risk in your corporate government statement. And one of those is looking after people. And I wonder if you're worried that you're not going to be able to work some days because of the heat, it would be a good question.

Can you hear me? You're quite right, a lot of work here in Western Australia is in the Pilbara area and exposed to extreme conditions and temperatures. I mean we have heat stress plans in place and fatigue management plans. And we're also -- we also need to ensure we fall in line with our client requirements. So I'm confident that we have embedded in the way we work and our clients' expectations and processes and procedures cater for those requirements to ensure that we can continue to operate safely and look after the health and well-being of our people.

Okay. Thank you. So if there's no other business, I declare the meeting close. On behalf of the Chair, the Board and everyone at Monadelphous thank you all, including our very special guests, for your attendance today and for your continued support of our company. And that ends today's formalities. For those online, thank you for joining us. And for those in the room, please join us for some light refreshments in the foyer. Thank you.