Viva Energy Group Limited (VEA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, good afternoon, and welcome to Viva Energy's 2021 Annual General Meeting. I'm Robert Hill, and I'm honored to serve as the Chairman of Viva Energy. It's now just after 3:00 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time. We have a quorum present, and I declare this Annual General Meeting of Viva Energy Group Limited open. Thank you for joining us today from various locations across the country and the rest of the world. We're holding our Annual General Meeting today as a virtual meeting conducted entirely online in light of the continued threat of the current COVID-19 pandemic. We are disappointed that we cannot be with you in person, and we look forward to being able to do so when it's safe. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia, and I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present. Before we begin the business of the meeting, I will hand over to our company's Secretary, Julia Kagan, to run through some procedural matters. Julia?

Thank you, Chairman, and welcome to everyone joining us today. Voting on all items of business today will be carried out by way of a poll. Shareholders had the option of casting their vote before the meeting or appointing a proxy to do so on their behalf. If you haven't done so, you can vote at today's meeting online. You can do so at any time during the meeting starting from now as the polls are now open, and they will close shortly after the end of the meeting today. If you would like to ask a question at today's meeting, you can do so by typing and submitting your question online. There may be a slight delay in transmission of up to 20 seconds, so we do encourage you to start submitting your questions now, and we will address those later today. Now if we do experience any technical issues today, which result in a number of our shareholders being unable to participate, the meeting will be adjourned and reconvened at a later time. If this does happen, we will provide the relevant details by way of an ASX announcement. Thank you. I'll now hand back to the Chairman.

Thank you, Julia. I'm coming to you today from Melbourne, and joining me in person at the studio are 2 of our directors, Scott Wyatt, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director; and Sarah Ryan, an independent nonexecutive director and Chair of our Audit and Risk Committee. Jane McAloon, an independent nonexecutive director and Chair of our Sustainability Committee, is joining us today online. We also have joining us from Singapore, Arnoud De Meyer, independent nonexecutive director and Chair of the Investment Committee; and Michael Muller, nonexecutive director. Michael is President and CEO of Vitol Asia. And joining the meeting from London is Dat Duong, nonexecutive director. Dat is Head of Investments at Vitol in Asia Pacific. Jevan Bouzo, our Chief Operating and Financial Officer; and Julia Kagan are also present in our Melbourne studio today. And joining us by telephone are Chris Dodd, the lead engagement partner and [ Neema Hussy ], partner representing our auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Chris and [ Neema ] will be available to answer questions on the auditor's report later in the meeting. I'll now move on to my remarks on the business. 2020 was defined by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Here in Australia and around the world, health society and economy suffered, and the pandemic continues to cause loss of life and economic change, damage in many parts of the world today. Our immediate focus as the pandemic unfolded was the health and safety of our employees and contractors. We put in place highly effective measures around our operational sites and functional centers and successfully protected our people from the threat of COVID-19 infection in the workplace. We did this while achieving improved safety outcomes, and I congratulate the leadership for the way they managed the company and led their people through these very challenging times. The closure of borders and stay-at-home restrictions that were put in place by governments to respond to the pandemic had a material effect on demand for the products we sell and, in particular, jet fuel and petrol, which were down 56% and 12%, respectively, on year 2019. Operations at the Geelong refinery were heavily constrained by this reduced demand, and as a result, the company made the decision to bring forward major maintenance activity and shut down some processing units. Management also took swift action to reduce operating costs, capital expenditure and reoptimize the business to minimize the financial impacts from these significant reductions in demand. On a replacement cost basis, our 2020 nonrefining EBITDA grew by 16% on 2019 performance due to sustained diesel sales demand, improved retail fuel margins and solid contributions from our broader commercial specialty businesses. This was a remarkable result under the circumstances. Unfortunately, however, our group results were heavily impacted by the performance of our refining business. Production constraints, coupled with weak regional refining margins from a sustained decline in global oil demand, led to an EBITDA loss of $95 million in this part of our business with a group EBITDA on a replacement cost basis of $519.4 million, down 19.4% on 2019. Facing a continued challenging outlook in the refining part of our business, the company worked closely with the federal government on a long-term fuel security package, which was announced last week. The package has been designed to provide long-term support when regional refining margins are low and co-investments to upgrade the refinery to meet new ultra-low sulfur fuel standards are necessary. This materially improves the outlook for refining, which, in turn, gives us confidence to commit to continued refining operations for at least the next 6 years. This is an important reform, which protects the nation's energy security while providing the refining sector the level of long-term certainty necessary to retain operations and make ongoing investments to improve fuel standards and operating performance. We welcome the announcement, and I want to take this opportunity to thank Minister Taylor and the Morrison government for the way they engaged with the sector during extremely challenging times to develop this outcome. The federal opposition has also been supportive of the sector, which I would like to acknowledge with thanks. We have committed to participate in this package, subject to final terms and ultimate approval of the legislative package. This outcome also supports our broader vision to transform the Geelong site into a modern energy hub or energy gateway to Victoria. During 2020, we progressed plans to establish a gas terminal at Geelong to meet a growing shortfall in Victorian gas supply predicted from 2024. And more recently, we announced an alliance with HYZON Motors to develop a turnkey hydrogen-powered solution to customers with buses and truck fleets. This will potentially involve manufacturing hydrogen and providing refueling facilities at our site in Geelong with longer-term plans to extend this along key freight route to provide on-road refueling solutions for customers. We're excited about the opportunities to leverage our capabilities to participate in new entities and the broader energy transition. Whilst demand for our traditional products is likely to remain solid for some years, our sector must carry its weight in the global challenge to reduce carbon emissions. Our Board accepts that Viva Energy must be part of that transformation. While we're in the early stages of implementation of that commitment with many uncertainties ahead, it is nevertheless a challenge, which we approach positively. Turning now to capital management. Last year, the Board undertook a strategic review of our investment in Waypoint REIT and determined it would be in the best interest of our shareholders to sell down our interest and return the proceeds to shareholders. We realized after-tax proceeds of $680 million in February 2020 and, since that time, have returned $580 million of the proceeds to shareholders through a combination of a capital return, a special dividend and an on-market buyback. The Board also declared a dividend of $0.008 per share in the first half of 2020. We did not pay a final dividend in 2020 due to the company reporting a distributable loss for the year. However, it is a priority of your Board to return to paying dividends, commencing with the 2021 interim dividend, and to return the remaining $100 million from the divestment of the stake in Waypoint REIT. Before I hand over to Scott, I'd like to say a few words on the changes to our Board and the executive leadership team since we last -- we met at our last AGM. Michael Muller joined us as a director in October of 2020. He brings significant experience in our sector, and we've been pleased to welcome him. And of course, Hui Meng Kho retired from the Board in September after leading the company through the acquisition from Shell and the listing on the Australian Stock Exchange. I previously acknowledged, not repeat, our gratitude to Hui Meng for his vision and commitment. And to our leadership team, Thys Heyns retired from our company in March this year after more than 6 years, initially leading the refining business and more recently in the role of Chief Operating Officer. The Board extends its appreciation to Thys for his significant contribution to the business and wishes him well in his next endeavors. Jevan Bouzo has been appointed to the expanded role of Chief Operating and Financial Officer, assuming responsibility for supply chain operations in addition to his existing accountabilities. In 2020, we also welcomed Dale Cooper as EGM Refining. Dale brings over 30 years' experience in the refining sector and has made a significant contribution since joining our business. I would like both personally and on behalf of the Board to extend a special thank you to all employees of Viva Energy for their significant contribution in 2020 to maintain critical operations through the pandemic and continue to serve our customers and the community. We are a company that is driven by our people, and we're both thankful and proud of our team's efforts over the last year. I'd also like to thank my colleagues on the Board for their significant work and commitment over this last year as we adapted to the COVID-19 environment. Finally, I'd like to thank you, our investors, for your continued support of the company. We have enjoyed much in the last year as much as the world, and it has been with substantial challenges to our operations and financial performance. We appreciate that this has been particularly difficult for our investors. However, we believe that we've come out of this strong and with a solid platform to grow our business into the future. I will now ask Scott to take us through his presentation. Scott?

Thank you, Robert. I want to start by echoing Robert's comments on the significant contribution from our people to keep our business safe and maintain operations through some very challenging times. I'm particularly proud of our strong health and safety performance, which involves swift emergency and crisis management response during the convergent events of the bushfires early in 2020, followed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. We protected our people from exposure to COVID-19 by putting in place effective health risk measures, and this was especially critical in our most populous operational site at Geelong, which was impacted by the pressures of community outbreaks, lockdowns and restrictions in Victoria. Across the principal organization, we achieved a 20% reduction in recordable injuries and more than 30% reduction in loss of containment events, reducing the potential for process safety events and environmental impacts across our operations. The shift of large tranches of our workforce to remote or homeworking last year prompted a particular focus on managing the mental health and well-being impacts of our people, and this continues to be a focus in 2021 as we support more flexible ways of working in the COVID-normal world. We also continue to receive very positive feedback related to our safety in our engagement survey results in 2020 with 90% of our people expressing commitment to always operating safely. Turning now to our business performance, which is presented on a replacement case basis, consistent with our normal practice. In 2020, our retail business was heavily impacted by the necessary stay-at-home measures put in place by the governments in response to the pandemic with total retail petrol sales volumes down approximately 12% on 2019. Retail fuel sales have progressively recovered as restrictions have eased around the country with the alliance volumes reaching 21 million liters per week in March 2021. Improved retail margins in 2020 offset the volume decline, and the business delivered an EBITDA of $670.8 million, an improvement of 18.9% on 2019. Our commercial business delivered an EBITDA of $238.3 million in 2020, a decline of 19.6% on 2019. This result reflects a decline in aviation sales volumes of 57.3% on 2019 and an otherwise resilient commercial business with nonaviation commercial volumes down just 4% on the prior year. As Robert said, our refining business sustained significant losses in 2020, delivering an EBITDA loss of $95.1 million. Refinery operations were heavily impacted by an unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on both global and local fuel demand. As a result, we took the decision to bring forward major maintenance and operate the refinery in a hydroskimming mode with the residual catalytic cracking unit shut down between May and November 2020. The revised scope and timing of maintenance works helped reduce capital spend and manage COVID-19 infection risk on-site by reducing the number of contractors required to complete the works. The refinery successfully returned to full production in November 2020 following the completion of the major -- of the maintenance works and the relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions in Victoria. Refining margins have since returned to breakeven levels, and the government has delivered both interim and long-term support package to the refining sector, which materially improves the outlook for this part of the business. I will talk more about this package shortly. At the group level, the company delivered an EBITDA of $519.4 million, down 19.4% on 2019, and a net loss after tax of $35.9 million. Despite these operation challenges, the company was able to return $580 million from the divestment of our stake in Waypoint REIT and maintains a low level of net debt, which was $104.2 million at the 31st of December 2020. We retain a strong balance sheet and are well positioned to recover and grow in the year ahead. In this regard, our retail business continues to perform well this year with the alliance reaching above 60 million liters per week in March, and together with network additions and other channels, the group delivered an overall strong sales performance in the first quarter despite continued impacts from lockdowns and flooding in some parts of some markets earlier in the year. Growth in our nonaviation commercial sectors has contributed to strong diesel sales, and we are beginning to see a recovery in domestic aviation as domestic travel resumes. Now turning -- turning now to the recently announced fuel security package, which gives much needed support and confidence in the years ahead for this part of the business. We have spent last year working closely with the federal government to establish a framework that addresses the headwinds faced by the refining sector and improves long-term confidence to underpin continued operations and investment and, in turn, protect Australia's energy security. This was delivered initially through a short-term industry grant to provide immediate relief during the first 6 months of this year. The fuel security package announced last week will provide long-term support to the sector and is expected to commence from the 1st of July 2021. It is designed to provide material support during periods of low refining margins, effectively reducing the company's breakeven margin while preserving the opportunity for the company to achieve a return on investment as refining margins recover. The package also includes a significant contribution to upgrade the refinery to improve fuel standards and reduce vehicle emissions. It also includes an option for the company to extend the arrangements for an additional 3 years beyond the initial 6 years of the program. This provides sufficient, long-term certainty, which is necessary to maintain these investments, which will need to be completed by the end of 2024. Although the refining business has been heavily impacted by the pandemic, it remains a fundamentally solid business with prospects to make a material earning contributions to Viva Energy as oil demand recovers in the period ahead. I believe that continued refining is a great outcome for our people, our shareholders and the broader Geelong community, and we appreciate the patience and support that we have received through this last year as this package was developed. Like Robert, I'm also particularly pleased with the progress we're making on the transformation of our site at Geelong into a broader energy hub. Since announcing the proposal to establish a gas terminal project, the company has made significant progress to prove the viability of the project, bringing on 2 highly respected consortium partners, progressing a regulatory and engineering schedule and establishing the project as the leading project in Victoria. We expect to be in a position to take final investment decision on this project during the first half of 2022 with first gas onstream in 2024. The projects underway and contemplated in the Geelong Energy Hub represent our first steps towards our company's energy transition. While the hydrocarbon-derived products we sell are expected to be with us well beyond this decade, we have a responsibility to support the introduction and development of renewable transport energies and see many opportunities to leverage our capabilities to integrate these with our existing operations. The commercialization of hydrogen for heavy vehicle applications is a great example, and we are excited about working with HYZON Motors and our customers in Geelong to progress this particular opportunity. 2020 was one of the most challenging years in our company's history, but I'm proud of the way we have navigated these and emerged well placed to recover and grow. The certainty established in our refining operations, the underlying strength of our retail and commercial marketing businesses and the opportunities to participate in new energies will underpin our growth in the years ahead, and we look forward to delivering results for our shareholders. We thank you for our continued support -- for your continued support. I'll now hand over to Robert to take us through the formal business of the meeting.

Thank you, Scott. We haven't received written questions prior to the AGM, but I gather we are starting to receive questions now, and I remind all shareholders that you can submit written questions during the course of this meeting via our online platform, and I encourage you to do so now. I will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The notice of meeting sets out the following matters for consideration by shareholders today: one, to consider the financial statements and reports; two, to adopt the remuneration report; three, to reelect Sarah Ryan and elect Michael Muller as directors of the company; and four, to grant performance rights to Scott Wyatt under the company's Long-term Incentive Plan. During the meeting, we will display the proxy votes and the direct votes received in advance of the meeting. Where I, as Chairman of the meeting, have been nominated as a shareholder's proxy, I intend to vote all undirected and available proxies in favor of each resolution. There are also voting restrictions for some resolutions, as outlined in the notice of the meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties or associates. I remind you that the polls are now open for voting. The outcome of today's meeting, including the final vote numbers, will be released on the ASX after the conclusion of today's meeting. I turn to the first item of business, consideration of the financial statements and reports. The Corporations Act requires the directors to lay before the Annual General Meeting the financial report, the directors' report and the auditor's report for the last financial year. There are no resolutions put to shareholders for this item, but there will be an opportunity to ask questions on the matters contained in the reports. So I'll ask Julia Kagan, our company Secretary, to read out the questions we have received on this item of business. Thank you, Julia.

Thank you, Chairman. We have received a question from John Whittington. "Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is John Whittington, and I'm a volunteer company monitor for the Australian Shareholders' Association. We would like first to thank all Viva employees and management for their contribution in what was a very difficult year. I do have to ask about the elephant in the room, though, JobKeeper. Is Viva going to pay this back like many ASX companies have seen fit to do, given that 2020 wasn't as bad financially as had been feared this time last year?" Thank you.

So I'm not sure about the elephant in the room, but thank you, John. We appreciated the support we received from the public through government to help us retain employment levels during the pandemic. We made the decision early on that if at all possible, we wished that to be the outcome, and the support of the community helped us to achieve it and, in particular, to achieve the maintaining of the 700-odd jobs and all the supporting jobs in Geelong at the refinery whilst it was losing considerable sums of money. So the money was spent to help us in that regard. With great respect to John, it may have been a.. better outcome than what it could have been, but it was still an outcome that has caused considerable discomfort to our investors. In such circumstances, the view of the Board is that the money has been expanded for the purposes for which it was provided, and there isn't an argument by which the company should now make a payment back of an equivalent sum. Got any other questions?

No, Chairman. There's no other questions on this item.

With no -- a bit disappointed. I thought we'd have more than that. If there are no other questions, I declare that the financial statements and reports have been received and considered at the meeting. The next item of business is the remuneration report. The vote on this item is advisory only. However, the Board will consider and take into account the outcomes of the vote and feedback from shareholders on the remuneration report. I'll say a few words on the outcome for our executives under the short-term and long-term incentive scheme for 2020. In 2020, we awarded to the executives 26.25% of their maximum opportunities under the STI. Despite achieving at target level of group normalized underlying EBITDA (RC) and a stretched level of underlying supply chain EBITDA (RC), the Board exercised discretion to reduce the financial component of the STI scorecard to 0. The financial component comprised 60% of the STI opportunity. There are a number of factors which contributed to this decision, including the fall in regional refining margins, which led the company to receiving JobKeeper payments, as we've just discussed, and recording substantial losses in our refining business, which, in turn, impacted dividends paid to shareholders in 2020. Our executives also achieved stretched targets against the STI strategic measures and between threshold and target outcomes in relation to safety, environment and people performance. The Board considers the adjusted outcome to be a fair outcome, which reflects the experience of our shareholders in 2020 and the broader societal expectations during this global pandemic while also appropriately rewarding the management team for delivering a strong underlying result in the circumstances and making significant progress on major initiatives in 2020. Our 2018 Long-term Incentive Plan reached the end of its 3-year performance period at the end of 2020. While the performance conditions relating to relative total shareholder return and return of capital employed were not met, the company's free cash flow performance over the 3-year period was above stretch, resulting in a final approved outcome of 25% of the maximum LTI opportunity. So I turn now to questions on the remuneration report, Julia?

Thank you, Chairman. There is a question from John Whittington. "Mr. Chairman, it's John Whittington from ASA. Congratulations on a significantly improved report, which addresses a number of our concerns from past years. However, it still lacks the table of actual remuneration, putting you in a minority of ASX 100 companies, and needs more transparency of how metrics are calculated. Balancing the improvements made and our ongoing concerns, our view of the report has moved from negative to borderline. Can we expect that these 2 concerns will be addressed in the next year's report?" Thank you.

So thank you, John. It's an improvement, I guess, from negative to borderline. If I might say, I actually reread the report this morning and was reminded how comprehensive it was. It really does set out in great detail, not only the principles as applying to the potential benefits for employees, but also how they were applied in practice. There is always something that someone will say is missing, and what clearly does remain missing is prospective targets because, as we have said and many other companies say, we don't believe it's in the best interest of the company to disclose those targets in advance, prospectively being one thing, retrospectively being different at the end of each year, we are providing those figures, which I would have hoped would achieve the transparency that John is seeking, albeit maybe 1 year later than he would prefer in each instance. Now I've undertaken to continue talking with John about this particular issue. I think when he would have read the notice of meeting, he would have seen in relation to this year's LTI, there was actually quite a lot of the underlying philosophy in the benefits that we offered to executives, which I thought was taking another step in the direction that he was seeking. So whilst I can't satisfy all of his demands today, what I will commit to is what I did last year and which he has graciously acknowledged, and that is to continue to listen to his views and see if we can take them into account to the maximum extent that is in the best interest of the company. Any other questions?

Yes, Chairman. Another question from John Whittington. "What progress is the Remuneration and Nomination Committee making at better aligning the length of long-term incentives with the long-term planning horizon of the company? Particularly with the advent of the Geelong Energy Hub project, we see 3 years is far too short and would encourage long-term incentives to be at risk for at least 5 or more years even if that means post employment." Thank you.

So again, this is a discussion we've had in the last few years and continue to have. I have to confess, and the -- our Remuneration Committee in discussion also has some sympathy with the idea of longer-term horizons. And it is true, as John said, that we are now investing for a much longer future. This company is in transition, and its business structure in the years ahead is going to be significantly different to what it is now. And there is merit in arguing for that to be better incorporated within a long-term incentive scheme. In the end, however, we decided that in this year, it would be better not to make a substantial change to the structure of either the STI or the LTI. So chopping and changing is also not necessarily a healthy way to incentivize executives in our view. So we continue to wrestle -- we wrestle with the issue of how we can incorporate John's sentiment into our structures in the future at an appropriate time because, as I said, we do have some sympathy with what he is arguing. Any other questions?

Yes, Chairman. Another one from John Whittington. "We appreciate the increase, in many cases significant, in director shareholdings over the past year, but note that all NEDs still have some way to go to achieve what the ASA would consider adequate skin in the game. Would all NEDs assure us that they will continue to increase their holdings in the coming year?" Thank you.

Well, we have a self-imposed guidance of achieving the equivalent of the nonexecutive -- 1-year nonexecutive directors' remuneration in terms of the purchase of shares over a 5-year period. And all nonexecutive directors are committed to achieving that goal. Some are further advanced than others. I look at Arnoud in Singapore, I think someone's who's leading the pack at the moment, but Sarah mightn't be far behind, but within the period of 5 years, we will meet that commitment. Any other questions?

No other questions at this time. Thank you.

Right. Well, thank you, Julia. A summary of the voting instructions received in advance of the meeting in relation to this item now appears on the screen. As there are no further questions on this item of business, I formally put the motion on item 2 that the remuneration report for the year ended 31st of December 2020 be adopted. Please record your vote now if you haven't already done so. [Voting]

Item 3a. This item relates to the reelection of Sarah Ryan as a director. Sarah retires at this meeting in accordance with the company's constitution and, being eligible, offers herself for reelection. The Board has considered Sarah's performance and contribution and supports Sarah's reelection. Details of Sarah's qualifications, career and experience are set out in the notice of meeting and in the annual report. As I said earlier, Sarah is with us in Melbourne today, and I will ask her to speak to you about her reelection and the skills and experience she brings to the collective capability of the Board. Sarah?

Thank you, Chairman. So I was delighted when I was invited to join the Board of Viva Energy back in 2018 as the company prepared to go public, and I'm very happy to be with you here today. I'm a member of the Board's Sustainability Committee, and as Robert mentioned earlier, I chair the Audit and Risk Board Committee. My background is in the energy industry broadly with 30 years experience worldwide, mostly around oilfield operations, engineering and developing and commercializing research and innovation in energy technology. I also have substantial experience as a Chief Operating Officer and in executive management, particularly around key aspects such as strategy, people management, risk management and delivery of business priorities. I've also spent 10 years in investment management and private equity, mostly based in the United States as an analyst, investment director and portfolio manager, where I focused on global energy and natural resources. Many of the issues I've had to deal with over that time are very relevant to Viva Energy's business today, for example, high-risk operations, the emphasis on safety and the challenges and perspective required of a Board and the management team working together to ensuring the company can not only survive but thrive in the changing world as the world decarbonizes its energy and transport systems. I'm currently a nonexecutive director on the Board of 3 other ASX-listed companies, being Woodside Petroleum, Horizon and OZ Minerals, where, for all of them, I'm a member of their audit and risk committees and their sustainability board committees. I believe my background and experience leave me well placed to contribute to the company's future, and I'll be delighted to be reelected as a director by shareholders today. Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Sarah. Turning to questions. Julia, have we received any questions on this item of business?

No, Chairman. We have no questions.

Thank you. A summary of the voting instructions received in advance of the meeting in relation to this item appears on the screen now. I formally put the motion that Sarah Ryan be reelected as a Director of the company, and I will pause to let you record your vote. [Voting]

Item 3b. This item relates to the election of Michael Muller as a director. Michael retires at this meeting in accordance with the company's constitution and, being eligible, offers himself for election. The Board has considered Michael's performance and contribution and supports Michael's election. Details of Michael's qualifications, career and experience are set out in the notice of meeting and in the annual report. Michael joins us today from Singapore. I will ask Michael to say a few words about his election. Michael, over to you.

Dear shareholders, I'm better known as Mike, and I'm honored to be up for election to the Board of Viva Energy Australia. As this is my first AGM, allow me please to take a few minutes longer than Sarah to present my credentials, starting with a few things perhaps not printed in this annual report. I'm 54. I'm ethically half Greek, half German, but I also held British nationality as I was born in what was then the crown colony of Hong Kong. I was raised over there in Melbourne in the '70s and thereafter in Athens before going to university in the U.K. And I then joined Shell in their London headquarters. And why Shell? International company. After 5 years, I'd earned the right to a broadening assignment overseas, and I was shown jobs in Houston, the Bahamas and Melbourne. Of course, I returned to Australia for that Melbourne job, and I came in there as supply and trading manager for what is now Viva in the mid-'90s. My job back then, and this is of relevance, I believe, was to maximize refinery profitability, to market oil and gas produced in the region and to get the necessary shipping in place. And these logistics are more or less of the same relevance today as they were then. I sat on joint venture operating committees ranging from the North West Shelf project to engaging with the guys planning how to supply depots across the country and indeed New Zealand. And I came to appreciate the culture and priorities of the BHPs and the Woodsides of this world, relationships I continued to foster in my next 2 assignments after Melbourne, which were in Singapore. Into my 40s, I ended up running Shell's global trading and supply business for crude oil from London, a business with huge turnover, hundreds of billions, the biggest of its kind, in fact. Running that chunk of Shell saw me spend most of my time on planes. I went into the business in over 100 countries in the end and boardrooms, of course. And that was excellent grounding in governance, be it credit, compliance, M&A, regulatory affairs, safety, investor relations, labor relations. And Shell, I must say, teachers and does these things meticulously well. After 29 years at Shell, I moved to Vitol in 2018, initially in London and now here in Asia. Today, I'm a board member of Vitol, and my role is oversight to the company's affairs here in the Eastern Hemisphere. I can assure you, this Viva Board position will be my most important nonexecutive directorship compared to the others I hold, which are not ASX-listed companies. I've already had the pleasure of interacting with Viva's Board, as Rob said, for the past 6 months after I was nominated to take Kho Hui Meng's place when he retired in September. And since then, I've served as a member of both the Investment Committee and the Sustainability Committee of Viva. I think, and I hope you agree, the experience I bring is a good fit with the strengths of the incumbent on the board already. And let me, therefore, close by asking you to endorse my nomination with a yes vote. And for my part, I will promise to energetically support Scott Wyatt and his excellent team at Viva in their mission to keep delivering shareholder value. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael, Mike. Any questions, Julia?

No, Chairman. No questions.

There being no questions. A summary of the voting instructions received in advance of the meeting in relation to this item now appears on the screen. I'll formally put the motion that Michael Muller be elected as a director of the company. Please take a minute to record your vote now. The voting lines will close after the next item of business. [Voting]

The next item of business is item 4, grant of performance rights to Scott Wyatt. It's proposed to issue 905,501 performance rights under the 2021 Long-term Incentive Plan to Scott Wyatt, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Each performance right will entitle Scott to acquire 1 ordinary share in the company for new consideration at the end of the performance period, subject to satisfaction of the performance conditions. The performance period is 3 years and will run from the 1st of January 2021 to the 31st of December 2023. The notice of meeting sets out all the relevant details in relation to the performance rights, including performance conditions. Do we have any questions on this item, Julia?

No, Chairman. We don't.

If there are no questions, a summary of the voting instructions received in advance of the meeting in relation to this item appears on the screen now. I formally put the motion for item 4, that 905,501 performance rights be granted to Scott Wyatt under the company's Long-term Incentive Plan. Please now record your vote alongside item 4 on the voting card. [Voting]

That now covers all of the business before the Annual General Meeting today. Before we finish, I'll check with Julia to make sure there are no further questions that have come in.

We do have one question, Chairman, that has come in. It is from John Whittington. "Could Scott please update us on progress in getting retail fuel volumes through Coles Express back to targeted levels and how Viva's performance is related to global crude price, i.e., if crude goes up, down, how does that affect Viva's performance?" Thank you.

Okay, Scott?

Sure. Thanks, John. Thanks very much for the question. I think in terms of retail, I guess since last year, we've seen a steady recovery of retail volumes right around the country as stay-at-home restrictions have been relaxed. And whilst retail volumes haven't yet fully recovered to pre-COVID levels, we've seen that follow through in our major channels in retail as well, obviously, which Coles Express is one of those. In the first quarter, when we published our first quarter results, we indicated that Coles Express sales had returned to 61 million liters per week in March, which reflects a recovery over last year. So we continue to look forward to a full recovery of retail sales over time and obviously remain focused on growing, not just the Coles Express channel, but our other major retail channels as well, which includes the Liberty business. In terms of crude pricing, in terms of the effect on our business, because we pass through changes in both crude price and foreign exchange rates on a very regular basis in terms of our retail markets, we make a number of changes every week to reflect the current market prices for both crude and foreign exchange rates. And our commercial contracts are typically on a lagged monthly basis or weekly basis, so again, follows through right -- very quickly to customer pricing. So we run quite a resilient business and reflect the changes in international prices. It does, of course, affect stock values, which is reported on a historical cost basis. But we focus very hard on maintaining stock levels at a relatively consistent level throughout the year so that any changes in valuation of stocks is minimized in terms of the impact that it has on long-term value for the company. So whilst you might see changes in inventory value and how is total cost reporting, it will obviously go up and down in relation to crude price, and the main focus is to hold inventory levels relatively stable.

Thank you, Scott. No further questions?

Nothing further. Thanks, Chairman.

Okay. If there are no further questions, I remind you that voting will close shortly after the conclusion of the AGM, and a countdown timer will appear at the top of your screen advising the remaining voting time. If you've not already cast your vote, please do so now. [Voting]

Voting results will be released to the ASX and will be displayed on the company's website after the conclusion of this meeting. Thank you again for participating today in this virtual format meeting. I declare the Annual General Meeting now closed.