6 questions lodged at 2023 Praemium AGM
December 29, 2023
The following 6 written questions were lodged at the 2023 Praemium hybrid AGM held in Melbourne on November 22. Proxies were disclosed early with these formal addresses, allowing for the first two questions below. No sign of an archive of webcast. Biggest protest vote 19% against rem report.
Q1. Thank you for disclosing the proxy position to the ASX along with the formal addresses. Could the chair share what he knows about why there was an 18% protest vote against the remuneration report. Do any of the proxy advisers cover us and did they recommend an against vote? How extensive were a consultations with major institutional shareholders to encourage them to support all resolutions and do you know who voted against and why? In response, are we contemplating making changes?
Answer: chair Barry Lewin promised to improve disclosure. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. Could Daniel and the chair share what they know about why there was a 11% proxy protest vote against Daniel's re-election today. Is it an independence question and do we need to add another 1 or 2 genuinely independent directors to ensure we have a super majority of independent directors?
Q3. Netwealth shares were at around $18 2 years ago when they proposed a merger which valued our company at $1.50 per share or $775 million as an enterprise. Since then our shares have tumbled to 46c, including a 20% drop this morning, and Netwealth shares have only fallen to $14.29. In hindsight, shouldn't we have engaged more positively with Netwealth and attempted to seal an agreed merger deal? What is the current status of relations with the Heine family and Netwealth?
Answer: chair Lewin called this a good question and said he remained good relations with old man Heine who he believed had now passed management control to his son.
Q4. At last year's AGM there was a 46% protest vote against some changes to the CEO's LTI arrangements and a proposed constitutional amendment was voted down. There are are more protest votes today. What are we doing to improve relations with our major shareholders so they stop lodging protest votes. How well resourced is our investor relations function?
Answer: the chair said engagement and more disclosure were important going forward.
Q5. Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, including this team member benefits item, could the chair undertake to make an archived copy of the full webcast available on the company's website? Even better, why not produce a full transcript? The likes of Nine, AGL, ASX, ANZ, Domino's and Lend Lease all produced their 1st AGM transcripts in 2021. Will you follow suit today? This is something IAG has been doing since 2003. There is no record of past AGM debate on your website so please be more transparent.
Q6. As of 11.45am, the shares are down 25% at 43c. Are we surprised by this? Do we regret spending $14.3m buying back our shares at an average price of 69c.
Answer: chair Barry Lewin said he doesn't understand share prices but was disappointed. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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