Ventia Services Group Limited (VNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are in the world. I'm David Moffatt, the Chairman of Ventia Services Group Limited, and I'd like to welcome you to our Annual General Meeting. Before we begin, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of country. We pay our respects to them, their cultures and to their elders past and present. I speak today from Ventia's office in Cremorne in the city of Yarra in Melbourne, which stands on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Woi wurrung language group. I also want to take the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the culture of New Zealand, where our teams respect and engage with local iwi and community across the country every day. I'd like to address some procedural items given that we are meeting in a virtual environment. I and your fellow directors and my fellow directors value the opportunity to engage with all of our shareholders, so at today's Annual General Meeting, we do encourage you to ask questions or provide feedback. Shareholders will be provided with the opportunity to vote and ask questions in real time via the Computershare online meeting platform. Step-by-step details on how to submit questions and attend the meeting have been provided via the online meeting guide on our website. The online question platform is now open, and shareholders can submit their questions at any point during the AGM. Questions can be submitted in writing online or asked verbally using the phone number which is displayed on the online meeting platform. If at any time you encounter technical difficulties, please contact Computershare on the number in the online meeting guide available on the Ventia website. I'm told we have a quorum, so I'd like to formally declare the meeting open. I'd like to start today by speaking to safety. Safety and health are Ventia's foremost priorities. Safety is our license to operate, and we consider it above all else in all decisions we make. I'm deeply saddened to report that a Ventia employee, [ Daniel ], was involved in a fatal incident on the 19th of March this year. [ Daniel ] was a valued member of our transport team in New Zealand and unfortunately died while undertaking roadwork duties in Dargaville, New Zealand. We extend our deepest sympathies to [ Daniel's ] family, friends and colleagues as they navigate this incredibly difficult period. We are determined to learn from this tragic incident and deepen our already relentless focus on safety. We immediately shared what we knew of the circumstances with our teams across our business in New Zealand and Australia; and immediately reviewed all of our safety, risks, protocols and training requirements. This incident is now under investigation. And once the investigation is complete, to the extent of any new insights, we will share those learnings and determine if any further changes need to be made to our comprehensive approach to safety. Around the clock, our workforce operates in many communities, delivering essential services to ensure that community infrastructure continues to operate efficiently. Every situation and condition we work in presents different and often very complex safety considerations, so we are constantly and cohesively working on training and upskilling our employees in this vital area. In 2023, our total recordable injury frequency rate improved by 11%, and our serious injury frequency rate improved by 62%. While our performance was strong and ahead of industry benchmarks, we are determined to continue to build on that safety culture and our capabilities to ensure that safety always remains our #1 priority. I will now introduce our directors who are either here with me at our Cremorne office in Melbourne or online, starting on my right: Anne Urlwin, who joined the Board in October 2021. Anne is a New Zealand-based director and a professional director with incredible experience in a range of sectors directly relevant to Ventia. Anne is Chair of the Safety and Sustainability Committee and a member of the nominations, audit, risk and compliance committee and the People and Remuneration Committee. On Anne's right, Jeff Forbes joined the Board in October '21. And Jeff is an experienced CFO, Chair and company director with over 30 years experience in mergers and acquisitions, equity and capital markets and project management. Jeff is the Chair of our Nominations Committee and the business development and digital committee and is a member our Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. To my immediate left is Sibylle Krieger, who also joined the Board in October 2021. Sibylle has over 40 years experience as a commercial lawyer, economic regulator and nonexecutive director across a broad range of companies. Sibylle is Chair of our People and Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Nominations Committee, Safety and Sustainability Committee and business development and digital committee. Lynne Saint is joining us today from Europe, and Lynne joined the Board in October 2021. Lynne has broad financial and commercial experience from a global career, including roles as the Chief Audit Executive and Chief Financial Officer. Lynne is Chair of our Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee, People and Remuneration Committee and the Safety and Sustainability Committee. On my far left is our newest director, Damon Rees, who joined the Board in July 2023. Damon is a Sydney-based business leader focused on customer centricity, culture and digital enablement, with a lot of innovation experience. He has more than 20 years experience driving transformational change, organizational performance and better customer outcomes. Damon is a member of our business development and digital committee and our People and Remuneration Committee. And of course, in addition to my fellow nonexecutive directors, we also have Dean Banks, our Managing Director and Group CEO. Dean joined Ventia as Group CEO in January 2021 and was appointed by the Board as Managing Director in June 2022. Dean will speak shortly on the company's financial performance and operational performance and outlook. Now to some formal remarks. The statements that I am about to make have been lodged on the ASX and the NZX platforms. Broadly speaking, your Board takes accountability for 5 areas and incredibly important focus areas: purpose, values [ and tone ]; secondly, Board effectiveness and governance; thirdly, Ventia's future; fourth, CEO and ELT, executive leadership team, development; and customer and external stakeholder engagement. And these broad areas will continue to be our focus into the future. 2023 has been another successful year for Ventia. Ventia has incredible scale. On a daily basis, we mobilize up to 35,000 people on over 400 work sites across Australia and New Zealand. And more than 40% of our people work in regional or rural areas. We service over 100 clients. And 75% of our revenue comes from federal, state or local government clients. By adhering to our purpose of making infrastructure work for our communities and our strategy of redefining service excellence, we have achieved another year of strong financial performance. We service our clients with a sharp focus on providing service excellence and first-rate customer outcomes. In 2023, our client renewal rate reached 87%, an improvement on the previous year. We continue to broaden and strengthen our existing client relationships and enhance our customer account plans. In 2023, our focus on service excellence resulted in greater than 10% increase in spend from our 10 largest customers, well ahead of average market rates. We believe that, by listening to the voice of the customer and delivering a compelling value proposition with true differentiation, we can continue our strong renewal rate through 2024 and beyond. The spread of our workforce and resources provides diversity, stable growth and through-the-cycle resilience, while our scale ensures that we have the capacity to meet demand from our existing and new customers across Australia and New Zealand. Since inception, Ventia has demonstrated a steady and growing financial track record. This has been achieved regardless of market conditions, as the graphs on this slide illustrate. Our consistent top line growth of now 25% since 2021 demonstrates that we are growing well above market and that we continue to gain share. The important measure of EBITDA increased by 22% since financial year '21. And our margins have remained consistent, illustrating the stability and the predictability of our business and the value of diversity in our business. Our NPATA has grown by 38% since 2021, providing increasing earnings per share and dividends for our investors through leveraging our enterprise-wide systems, people and processes. This consistent performance has been achieved through a range of macroeconomic conditions, so notwithstanding the pandemic, higher inflationary pressures and a volatile labor market, Ventia's portfolio has demonstrated resilience. You may recall, those of you who have studied the company, that we have limited concentration to any one client, any one geography or any one core market within Australia or New Zealand. This, combined with the breadth and the depth of our client relationships, very long-term contracts and in-built contract escalation mechanisms, ensures that our portfolio is well protected against volatility and changing market conditions. Dean will elaborate on these comments and provide more detail on our financial performance shortly. Speaking to market growth opportunities. Ventia is in an enviable position to capitalize on strong and improving market trends. Some of these include growth in the very large asset base, including new and aging infrastructure. New infrastructure is a new asset for us to maintain, whereas old infrastructure requires our services to increase the -- due to an increasing amount of maintenance. Secondly, population growth means that more people are using that infrastructure. Both increasing urbanization; and the movement to regional areas, where we have over 40% of our workforce, create tailwinds. Thirdly, the increasing trend to partnering represents an annual increase in available tendered work opportunity from public and private sectors. And exposure to megatrends such as the energy transition presents opportunities for all 4 of our sectors, particularly Infrastructure Services, with the provision of both behind-the-meter and "in front of the meter" technologies. Over the next 5 years, BIS Oxford estimates the addressable market that we serve will grow at greater than 5.5% CAGR. That's rising from roughly $80 billion in 2024 to just under $100 billion in 2028. Our revenue for 2023 was $5.7 billion in a total addressable market of $73 billion. You can see that this clearly provides significant headroom for organic growth and, with that, sustainable returns to our shareholders. Enhancing our strategy and shaping our future. The company strategy is to redefine service excellence. Your Board and management team are totally aligned in digitization as a key enabler of that strategy and potentially as a source of differentiation and future value creation for Ventia. Over the last few years, we've accelerated the transition to a cloud-first model; and commenced investing in our digital infrastructure, skills and capabilities while modernizing and simplifying our systems and processes. We believe that this digital focus will enhance our strategy and further our differentiation with our clients. We have also invested in cybersecurity. In July 2023, we experienced our first significant cyber incident. The risk was quickly contained. And additional measures were taken to further protect our clients, our people and our investors. Strong alignment and coordination between our Board and leadership teams led to rapid and effective responses that, enhanced by a very strong stakeholder engagement, saw minimal impact on our operation and importantly no loss of data. Since then, we've worked cohesively to integrate the detailed learnings and to further strengthen our resilience to better safeguard against the inevitable future threats. Our digital core is the backbone of our company and continues to differentiate Ventia from our competitors given we have enterprise-wide reach in those capabilities. And we have enormous and growing individual talent that we're bringing to the table to use and integrate those systems and to enhance what we do for each and every client. Our digital journey is now one of Ventia's highest priorities. Having the right systems in place and a digitally advanced culture will make us more agile, more resilient, more competitive and adaptive to a fast-evolving digital world. Over the next 5 years, we are committed to creating a connected, secure enterprise that focuses on some very important areas: modernization to create standardization and simplified digital experience for our clients and our people that is cloud-first mobile, automated and scalable; secondly, rationalization of our applications portfolio, every company faces this, reducing the number of applications and systems that we have running; thirdly, innovation, leveraging the new and emerging technologies such as AI and data and analytics and connecting assets in the field to digital twins to transform the way that we deliver services; next, resilience, building a cyber capacity and capability that protects us and our clients' interests and is best in class; culture, investing in the digital skills of our entire workforce and shifting to leaner and hyper-automated processes to simplify our ways of working and making Ventia a more fulfilling place to work for all of our colleagues. To help shape our digital future and informed by our Board's skills matrix, I'm very pleased that we have added Damon Rees to our Board in -- since July last year. Damon comes to us with a long history of senior executive digital roles across the highest levels of government and the private sector. He provides an important set of skills for Ventia as we continue to invest in our digital capabilities. I'd now like to turn to sustainability. We have made some considerable progress. In 2023, we submitted our proposed targets to science-based target initiative (sic) [ Science Based Targets Initiative ], SBTi. We now have our short- and long-term goals in place to achieve net 0 emissions by 2050 across scope 1; 2; and very importantly, scope 3 emissions, where the bulk of our emissions are. Concurrently, we are working towards achieving these targets in harmony with our broader environment, social and governance objectives. In 2023, we achieved a 5.5% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions. This reduction was largely driven by the divestment of a small division and the increased use of renewable electricity across all of our sites, but as we work towards our goals of powering our electricity needs from renewables, we need to increase our solar generation in all of our workplaces and source more green power in our offices and depots. We continue to make progress towards our broader objective of 100% renewable electricity by 2030. We also introduced 154 hybrid and electric vehicles to our fleet in financial year '23, resulting in a 10% of our light fleet now being either hybrid or electric. Clearly we have a long way further to go. Gender diversity is a priority for the Board and the management team. As a signatory to the HESTA 40:40 Vision, Ventia has made a formal commitment to achieve gender balance in our executive leadership team. We hit this target in February, reaching 40% female participation of the executive leadership team; and as you've already calculated, I'm sure, 43% on our Board. While we have had gender pay equity across our business for some considerable time, there is a lot more that we need to do to address -- to create true gender equity as highlighted by WGEA. Our 2023 sustainability report provides an outline of our SBTi and ESG targets and more detailed commentary on the specific initiatives that we are undertaking to reach these targets. I encourage you to read and digest that document. And we will report consistently against those targets in the years ahead. So returns for shareholders. In 2023, another strong year for Ventia, our results reflect the focus, the risk discipline we have, reliability and stability of our business. Our balance sheet remains very strong and can comfortably support near- and longer-term growth opportunities. When combined the -- with the positive market trends and the strong track record of successful execution and risk management, Ventia has a meaningful platform from which we can continue to grow. The robust financial and operational performance of our business in 2023 facilitated a 12.5% dividend increase, resulting in a total dividend of $0.1772 per share or 75% payout ratio of our NPATA. This is consistent with previous years. Dividends are important to many of our investors, and we continue to commit to a sustainable and growing dividend profile. So on behalf of your Board, I want to thank our customers and the communities that we serve. I want to thank our shareholders; and the whole leadership team led by our incredibly competent CEO, Dean Banks. And with that, I'd like to invite Group CEO and Managing Director Dean Banks to the lectern. Thanks, Dean.

Thank you, David. Good morning and welcome to everybody attending our AGM today. My name is Dean Banks. I'm proud and privileged to be the Group CEO of Ventia. Full year '23 was an outstanding year for Ventia. In 2023, our revenue grew by 9.8% to $5.7 billion. EBITDA was up 10.8% to $465 million, and our margin increased to 8.2%. NPATA of $202 million increased by 12.5%, exceeding the top end of our guidance range. Each sector positively contributed to delivering increased revenue and EBITDA year-on-year, and as a group, our earnings outpaced market growth. Cash flow will always be a key focus for Ventia. It's the lifeblood of our business. Pleasingly, our cash conversion continues to be high at 88.8%. Our work in hand remained stable at $18.1 billion, and our client renewal rate continued to be strong at 87%. Key wins and renewals in 2023 include contracts with the department of defense, Auckland Council, NBN Co, Telstra and Transurban. Our strategic client relationships also supported us in increasing our cross-sell revenue by 48% year-on-year to $93 million. These financial results reflects the continuous demand for the essential services we perform. Now let's look briefly at each of our sectors' performance. Defence and Social Infrastructure, D&SI, is our largest sector, accounting for 41.6% of group revenue in 2023. Revenue growth in D&SI increased by 2.4% to $2.4 billion. While this growth was slightly low in 2023, it is important to consider over the 2-year period the 25% total revenue growth across this sector. In full year '23, there were some key renewals and extensions for D&SI, including the Defence maintenance contract and a 12-month extension of our Base Services contract with the department of defense. Infrastructure Services accounted for 23% of our group revenue in 2023; and achieved year-on-year revenue growth of 7.8%, moving to $1.3 billion of revenue. This growth was mainly driven by strong performance in our Energy, Water and Renewables businesses, along with rigs and well services. Telecommunications contributed to 24.2% of total group revenue and increase by 21.3% year-on-year to $1.4 billion. This result was primarily driven by higher contract volumes with existing customers such as Telstra and NBN Co, alongside the contribution from new contracts such as the Square Kilometre Array Observatory project in Western Australia. Connectivity is more important than ever, and demand for data and digital infrastructure is driving network investment. Our Transport business contributed to 11.2% of our group revenue and increased year-on-year by 22.7% to $637 million through a combination of new contract wins and contract growth. Overall, we have a diversified business operating in a market with a number of positive demand drivers. Turning to our strategy. Throughout 2023, we further embedded our strategy to redefine service excellence by being client focused, innovative and sustainable. Our strategy has continued to build momentum across our business and provides a solid road map for our future success. I'm really pleased that our strategy has translated into great results not only in our financial performance but also through industry recognition. In 2023, we received the Dr. Dean Jarrett award from Supply Nation for outstanding impact, recognizing our work on social procurement. Also in 2023, our Ventia Operations Centre, VOC, was recognized as customer service team of the year by the Customer Service Institute of Australia. Our VOC sits in the heart of our operations and provides 24/7 support to more than 50 Ventia contracts. To demonstrate the scale of our operations: The VOC managed 1.2 million calls in 2023. These examples are a few of many accolades that Ventia received which recognize our leadership, collective success and impact of our business on the communities we serve. Now I want to drill down into each of the strategy pillars. A good example of our client-focused strategy at work is securing a renewed and expanded Defence maintenance contract with the department of defense valued at approximately $393 million for the next 5 years. This contract involves the provision of essential maintenance and support services to the army, navy and air force on 17 bases across Australia. Ventia is responsible for repairing and maintaining some of Australia's newest and most advanced equipment. Last year, Ventia's employees took part in the Talisman Sabre military exercise conducted in Darwin to work side by side with Australian military personnel to provide maintenance support services. This exercise included the participation of 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations. This demonstrates our strategic partnership with Defence and the importance of our work as a trusted adviser. This contract was competitively tendered and its award is testament to our long-term strategic partnership with Defence. Now moving to innovation. Innovation of Ventia is an important component of our strategy. An innovative culture encourages our workforce to continuously explore better ways of working. At a recent in-house pizza and pitch innovation event, a member of Ventia's incident response team pitched the idea to install a battery-operated air-conditioning unit on a Ventia truck. This keeps the air conditioning running without the need to have the engine on. Ventia's incident response team are often required to wait for long periods and need to keep the air conditioning idling. These results in high fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and associated wear and tear to the truck. Through collaboration with external partners, a functional solution was developed and then installed via a pilot program. The pilot has proven to be technically and operationally successful, achieving a cost saving of up to $12,800 and emission savings of 15 tonnes per annum from this single vehicle. We will start scaling this across similar vehicles in our New South Wales fleet, of which we have about 200 [ missed ] this year. Accounting for vehicle differences and usage, our estimates indicate that this innovative idea could deliver more than $250,000 in savings annually, in addition to significant reduction in diesel and associated emissions. This is a great example of the type of efficiencies we can achieve via employee engagement and implementation of new innovative ideas across our business. Moving now to our last strategy pillar, I'm proud to report that, in February, Ventia was the first to market with an industry-leading social value measure. In Australia, we are now starting to measure the value of nonfinancial impacts we have on society via our leading Themes, Outcomes and Measures methodology or TOMs. Inspired by the preeminent model in the U.K. which has significantly improved the way social value is measured, TOMs will help Ventia demonstrate the value of our initiatives. It will provide a benchmark under which clients can compare and evaluate chosen partners' performance. Quantifying social value demonstrates the socioeconomic impact across 4 key areas. Community demonstrates social impact on individuals and communities, such as health or education. Work, the social value generated from our employees; economy, the overall economic benefit of a project such as a job creation or enhanced local business profitability. Environment measures our environmental impact and resource efficiency. Ventia is leading a task force alongside the Social Value Portal to develop a framework for Australia and New Zealand. To date, 35 organizations from across the private and public sectors have joined the task force, including some of our customers and indeed suppliers. We are proud to be at the forefront of this social sustainability initiative, and we hope it will help shape the industry and deliver a positive impact on society. People are at the heart of our success. And it's important that we create a cohesive culture which is flexible, diverse and inclusive. We have over 15,000 full-time employees and over 20,000 subcontractors. David spoke about safety, and I want to reiterate that safety is our license to operate. As David discussed, the sad passing of our employee [ Daniel ] earlier this year was a huge loss for Ventia. [ Daniel ] was a dedicated employee of Ventia for over 10 years and was a devoted father of 2 young children. He was a valued member of the Ventia family. I personally visited the family in New Zealand. And we continue to extend our support and deepest sympathies to [ Daniel's ] family, friends and colleagues. Any workplace facility -- fatality, sorry, has a profound effect on us all; and I just want to pause for a moment to honor [ Daniel ]. I hope you'll join me in doing so. This event serves as a reminder of the challenges of the work we do. It reminds us that, no matter how strong our commitment is to safety, there is always more work to do. We are committed to learning lessons from this incident and striving to improve our safety culture. In addition to safety, we're also building a strong culture of diversity and inclusion at Ventia. I'm pleased to report that, in 2023, we received the diversity and inclusion award for Ventia's Disability Employment Program from the Banksia Foundation. We also received reaccreditation of New Zealand's Rainbow Tick, which recognizes Ventia as a workplace that understands and embraces gender diversity. We continue to take deliberate action to recruit women across our workforce. Within our wider senior leadership team, we saw an impressive 6% (sic) [ 6 percentage points ] increase in women in senior management, progressing from 20% to 26%. This is a step in the right direction towards our target of 40%. We take deliberate action to address gender diversity at Ventia, including the development of our new Women's Participation Action Plan. The plan is focused on developing opportunities for women to advance their career and move into managerial or other senior roles in our organization. One tool we use to measure engagement and employee feedback is a Have Your Say survey. In 2023, our engagement score remained consistently high at 78%. Another encouraging metric from the survey was the 86% of our employees who feel well connected to their teams and can openly communicate with their leaders. In October 2023, Ventia also proudly reaffirmed our commitment to aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by launching our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan. Our RAP sets our targets and actions for the next 3 years to August 2026, such as strengthening education and employment outcomes for aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people. Finally, I'd like to turn to our outlook. The future of our business is exciting. We have a positive outlook for full year '24 driven by a high-quality and diversified portfolio, solid pipeline of opportunities, strong demand drivers and long-term strategic partnerships. Given this scenario, I'm pleased to be able to reaffirm our full year '24 guidance range of 7% to 10% NPATA growth compared to full year '23. In conclusion. We continue to differentiate ourselves as we build on the success of our strategy to redefine service excellence, supporting high levels of customer service and sustainable value to shareholders. I'd like to personally thank everybody connected to the work we do at Ventia; and the Board, for their continued stewardship, support and guidance. I'll now hand you back to David.

Well, thanks very much, Dean. And I'd now like to turn to the formal items of business for this meeting. The items of business have been set out in the notice of meeting, which is available on the online meeting platform, the ASX and NZX platforms and the Ventia website. In the interest of time and to ensure that we spend as much time on questions as necessary, I'm going to deal with each of the items of business at once and then take questions at the end. Shareholders are encouraged to ask questions. This slide shows the proxies that have been received to date on each resolution. I'll just pause for a moment while people can consider those. Resolution 1 is the 2023 annual report. I will take the notice of meeting as read. And I note that, in summary, the matters to be dealt with are -- include, firstly, to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report and the auditor's report for the financial year ended 31st of December 2023. There is no vote on this item. A copy of these reports was published in the 2023 annual report and sent to those shareholders who requested a copy. Shareholders have also had the opportunity to review the port -- the reports on the company's website. I'd like to advise that our independent auditor, Ms. Harriet Fortescue, a partner at Deloitte, is here today and is available to respond to any specific questions that you'd like to ask. Resolution 2, the adoption of the 2023 remuneration report. Next, we have the vote on the remuneration report for the year ended 31st of December 2023. The remuneration report is found on Page 74 of our annual report. In presenting the remuneration report, we've endeavored to provide shareholders with clear and comprehensive information on the terms of and rationale behind our remuneration framework and to ensure that it aligns totally with shareholder interests. And we genuinely believe it to be one of the more aligned remuneration structures in the market. The vote on this matter is advisory only, and the outcome will not be binding on the Board or the company. However, it gives us a great opportunity to take into account shareholder feedback. We welcome questions on the remuneration report and our approach to remuneration generally. Resolution 3, the election of directors. I now move to the next item of business, which is the election of 3 directors, being Lynne Saint, Anne Urlwin and Damon Rees. In support of the elections, Lynne and Damon will -- each like to say a few words and address the shareholder group. As Lynne is joining us virtually today from Europe, she prerecorded her speech to prevent any technical issues, which I would now relay to you.

Good morning, Chairman and ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today to seek support for my reelection as an independent nonexecutive director. Firstly, I'd like to thank the entire Ventia team, for the opportunity to work alongside you; and to my fellow directors for supporting my reelection today. I joined the Ventia Board in October 2021, just prior to Ventia's ASX and NZX listings in November of '21. Your Board and management team have worked hard to build a solid risk management and governance framework, which has provided a strong foundation to deliver service excellence, consistent and stable growth; and meet its commitments to employees, customers, partners and shareholders. I have over 35 years experience working in financial management, corporate governance, enterprise risk, ethics and compliance and project management, including with the Bechtel group where I served as Chief Financial Officer of the Mining and Metals Global Business Unit and as Group Chief Audit Executive. Earlier in my career, I held financial and commercial roles in mining, engineering, construction services and audit and assurance roles with [indiscernible] firms of PwC and KPMG. I currently serve as a nonexecutive director of Nufarm Limited and Iluka Resources Limited. I confirm I have the capacity, the drive and passion to serve Ventia. And subject to your vote, I look forward to continuing to make a significant contribution to the company. Thank you again for your support.

Thank you, Lynne. And thank you for your continuing contribution. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Lynne's election as a director. I would now like to welcome Anne Urlwin to say a few words in support of her election as a director. Anne?

Thank you, Chairman. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today to seek your support for my election as a nonexecutive director on the Board of your company, Ventia Services Group Limited. It was a privilege to be appointed to the Board just prior to Ventia's listing on the ASX and NZX in November 2021 and to bring a New Zealand business perspective. I chair the Safety and Sustainability Committee. And I'm also a member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and the People and Remuneration Committee. Having commenced my career in finance with KPMG and then the corporate sector, I have been a full-time professional director for about 15 years. My Australian experience has included being a director of Tilt Renewables Limited up until its takeover in August 2021. And I am currently a director of dual-listed Infratil Limited, whose global activities include renewable energy, digital and health infrastructure investments here in Australia. I chair NZX-listed Precinct Properties New Zealand Limited, and I am also a director of NZX-listed electricity lines distribution company Vector. My prior governance roles have included government-owned entities, private companies and other NZX-listed entities, including Chorus Limited, to whom Broadspectrum was a key supplier; and retirement village operator Summerset Group Holdings Limited, which also operates here in Victoria. I am also a former Chair of New Zealand's largest privately owned national commercial construction company, Naylor Love construction. I believe my governance and business experience has assisted me to appreciate Ventia's key value drivers. I am passionate about safety and health, Ventia's #1 promise. And I have a particular interest in sustainability and the integration of ESG principles to drive sustainable growth and long-term value. Ventia operates in diverse markets across so many regions in both Australia and New Zealand and needs to ensure both its people and communities thrive as the company responds to the increasing demand for essential services. Being a director of your company is both a responsibility and a privilege. I hope the brief details I've provided here demonstrate my experience and focus on effective governance and commercial performance. I confirm I have the time, energy and commitment needed to support Ventia and to represent shareholders' interests into the future. I seek your support for my election as a nonexecutive director of Ventia. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Anne. And thank you for your continuing contribution to the company. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Anne's election as a director. Finally, we have the election of Damon Rees, who was appointed by the directors to the Board in July 2023. Damon, I welcome you to say a few words in support of your election as a director.

Thank you, Chairman. And good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today to seek your support in my election as a nonexecutive director of the Board of your company. I was first appointed to the Board in July 2023. In addition to being a director, I'm a member of the People and Remuneration Committee and the business development and digital committees. I've had 30 years experience across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, in leadership and governance. Throughout my career, I've really focused on growing value and sustaining organizational performance through culture and technology. I'm also currently the Chair of eHealth in New South Wales; and involved in 2 digital start-ups, as Co-founder of and director of ServiceGen and Managing Principal of better as usual. Before commencing as a nonexecutive director with Ventia, I was the Chief Executive Officer of Service New South Wales for 5 years. I previously served as the government Chief Information and Digital Officer for the New South Wales government and the Chief Digital Officer for Macquarie Group and Chief Technology Officer for Woolworths. I transitioned from executive leadership at the end of 2022 to focus on contributing as a nonexecutive director, adviser and founder. It's been a privilege to serve on the Board of Ventia over the last year. I'm very passionate about the role that we play in essential services that touch the lives of people across Australia and New Zealand every day. I'm excited by the opportunity we have to continue building upon the strong platform and culture that Ventia currently enjoys and the potential we have to leverage our data and digital capabilities to enable and strengthen our success into the future. I believe my recent enterprise leadership experience and my career focused on culture and digital enablement will really help me and enable me to support the Board and our executive leadership team on that journey. I have the time and the energy needed to support Ventia and represent the shareholders' interests into the future. For these reasons, I seek your support for my election as a nonexecutive director of Ventia. Thank you.

Thanks very much, Damon. And thank you for your contribution thus far and in anticipation of that continuing contribution. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Damon's election as a director. Turning to Resolution 4. The next item of business is to seek shareholder approval for the issue of securities, being share appreciation rights and dividend equivalent rights, for Dean Banks under Ventia's long-term incentive plan. Details of Dean's performance hurdles and the other key terms are set out in the notice of meeting. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Resolution 5, the final item of business, is to seek shareholder approval to renew the proportional takeover provisions in Rule 6 of the company's constitution. Further details are contained in the notice of meeting. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Before we move to questions, I confirm that there are a number of voting restrictions that apply to the matters before the meeting today. These are set out in the detail of the notice of meeting. As Chairman, I will vote all undirected proxies in favor of all resolutions before the meeting today. I confirm that the poll remains open and that you can vote at any time until the polls close towards the end of the meeting. And I will be sure to give you ample time to tell you that the polls are closing. The final results of the polls will be provided to the ASX and NZX today and will be placed on the company's website. I would now like to move to taking questions. And I reiterate that you can ask questions about any item before the meeting today, so please feel free to do so. And I will also take verbal questions from the phone line. Where written questions have been submitted, I'll ask Em Hogan, our Group Executive, Strategy and Corporate Affairs, to read them first to the meeting. And then as Chairman, I'll determine whether I'll answer the question or whether I'll seek Dean's support as Group CEO; or one of my Board colleagues; or indeed our lead audit partner, Harriet Fortescue, if the question is more appropriate for her. I will now open the meeting to questions. And Em, do we have any questions from the platform, please?

Thank you, Chair. Yes, we do. Our first question is from [ Mr. Stephen Mayne ], who says, "The Chair referenced the WGEA data in his formal address, saying there is more that needs to be done. What did the data say about Ventia? And what impact did that have internally?? Were there a lot of water cooler conversations about the data? And how did management respond in terms of communicating with the workforce?"

Thank you, [ Mr. Mayne ]. The -- as I said in my address, Ventia has focused on gender pay equity for some time. That is equal job pay between all of the different roles that we have for males and for females. WGEA's published median gap between males and females for us is around 39%. And really where this stems from is from the nature of our workforce and the fact that we have a large workforce and that many of our lower-paid jobs, which would include things like catering et cetera, are filled by our female workforce. And we have a higher proportion of males in our more skilled or more -- higher-paid technical roles, so clearly this is something that we're working on. And it's a trend where we do have a commitment to gender balance, but there is quite a lot of work to be done across really structured programs to address this, not just from Ventia but actually across the industry. To your point about water cooler conversations: As with all matters, Ventia's transparency is at the fore. And with this one, we spoke immediately, published what had been published in the WGEA report. We explained what we are doing and what we would like to do to improve that situation into the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. The next question also comes from [ Mr. Mayne ], who says, "Thanks again for disclosing the proxies early to the ASX, with the formal addresses. This assists with question preparation. The biggest protest vote was 15% against the LTI grant to CEO Dean Banks. Which of the proxy advisers recommended against? What concerns did they raise? And will you be changing anything for next year?

Yes, thank you, [ Mr. Mayne ], for that question. I don't regard it as a proxy -- as a vote against the overall remuneration framework, but it was some specific aspects that were highlighted by [ ISS ], who specifically voted against resolution 4. So 1/3 -- and to be specific, around 1/3 of our performance grant is in a 2-year period; and in their judgment, that was too short. And they also disagreed with the grant of dividend equivalent rights. And that's -- again that's a matter of structure with our particular plan. Your Board believes that our overall remuneration framework is entirely aligned to shareholder outcomes; and that the benefit to executives who participate in the plan, including our CEO, only accrue after they've gone through a number of gates to be granted those, and that's an annual test of the vesting, and also if the share price goes up, i.e., our value, our shareholder value, total shareholder value, increases. And that's an absolute thing. We believe the dividend equivalent rights are very important because they represent the cash that investors want in the form of dividends. If we were to exclude those, it almost creates a mis-incentive for management to manage a little differently the outcome, so we feel that our structure is really completely aligned with shareholder outcomes. And as a result, putting it around the other way, [ Mr. Mayne ], 85% of people voted in favor of the resolution.

Thank you, Chair. [ Mr. Mayne ] again says, "Well done for setting a target of 6% indigenous employment. The CEO said at last year's AGM that we had reached 4.8%. What are we currently [ at ]? And how did we handle the Voice debate? I hope we supported it. Did we make a donation to the YES campaign? And was there any impact when the proposal was defeated?"

So I'm going to invite Dean to speak more to some specific initiatives here, but 3.7% is the specific answer to the first part of your question. And it's a big job to continue to boost our indigenous employment, but Dean, perhaps you could add a little bit as to some of the specifics that we're working on. Thank you.

Thanks, David. Thank you, [ Stephen ], for the question. In terms of the 4.8% to 3.7%, our business is also -- always going to see some change in statistics given the nature of starting and stopping contracts. And we had a couple of contracts that were high indigenous content of labor involved that didn't progress into 2024, so from our perspective, look. We are at 3.7%. This is still above the population in the country and, I think, therefore illustrates that we make every endeavor to embrace diversity and particularly people from indigenous and Torres Strait Island people. We do have a dedicated recruitment team called TRECCA who not only recruit people from that indigenous background but also make sure they're managed through their tenure in the business to make sure we understand their needs and try and accommodate for their needs moving forward. We clearly are very, very privileged last year to have achieved an award from Supply Nation for our efforts around social procurement with indigenous groups. And we look forward to continuing to having very good relationships there. And as per my presentation, we renewed our RAP application in terms of a stretch through to 2026. And we have really key commitments built into that stretch that I'm sure we're going to meet, if not exceed, over the tenure.