6 written questions lodged at JB Hi Fi AGM
November 7, 2022
Here is the text of the 6 written questions lodged at JB Hi Fi 2022 hybrid AGM, held on October 27.
1. Did any of the 5 main proxy advisers - ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS and ASA - recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions? Thank you for disclosing the proxies early to the ASX. Were the director protests gender related? With 18% against LTI resolutions, are you prepared to adjust these?
2. Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, could the chair undertake to make an archived copy of the webcast plus a full transcript of proceedings available on the company's website? The likes of Nine, AGL, ASX, ANZ, CIMIC, Domino's, G8 Education and Lend Lease all produced their 1st AGM transcripts in 2021. Will you follow suit today?
3. When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, could you please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions and was a voluntary disclosure initiative adopted by the likes of Metcash, Altium and Dexus last year and Tabcorp agreed to do it after yesterday's AGM. You've got easy access to this data, so why not release the detail of how us retail shareholders voted?
4. Rather than dealing with Q&A as one job lot, could you next year please follow the agenda. There is no drop down box to select an individual resolution or general business when lodging online questions via the Computershare platform. GUD is also having a hybrid AGM at the RACV right now with Computershare and they have offered the drop down box so clearly this is a choice you've made to reduce the focus of today's discussion. It's a simple case of following the agenda. You don't discuss everything at once at board meetings so please don't do it at the AGM.
5. A few years ago at one of those poorly attended low cost JB Hi Fi AGMs held at the Computershare Conference Centre in Abbottsford, someone at the top table gloated that JB's rent bill was only 2% of sales, the lowest of any retailer in Australia. What is the figure today and have we been able to negotiate rent reductions from Westfield due to COVID. Also, why did we give up the free AGM conference facilities offered by Computershare? Please stick with RACV which is a great venue.
6. The Federal Government has introduced changes to industrial relations laws into the Federal Parliament this week, which business groups are criticising? Are we worried? What are our current enterprise agreement arrangements and what proportion of our staff are members of a union? How many unions do we deal with in Australia?
Answer: listen to response via this Twitter video.
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