4 questions lodged at 2025 Computershare hybrid AGM

Q1. I used to enjoy the videos getting stuck into Broadridge which fellow Templestowe boy turned letter writer Chris Morris (CEO Stuart Irvine read out a letter from "Chris Morris of Templestowe and now the Gold Coast" at the start of the meeting) played at Computershare AGMs more than a decade ago. These days, Broadridge is a public company valued at $US25.9 billion and we're doing fabulously well with a market cap of $20.3 billion. Is it right that we are the two biggest gorillas in the broader global securities transfer and management market? What regulatory protections do Broadridge still have which we regard as unfair and who has the power to fix this?

Answer: The CEO Stuart Irvine gave a good summary of the slightly archane issue around Broadridge's dominance of the so-called street name broker component of the US share registries business but was less combative against them than Chris Morris back in the day. Watch video of exchange via Twitter, plus these additional comments at the end.

Q2. When I buy a range of Computershare managed companies in quick succession to attend AGMs, you send me a separate "welcome to the company" notice in the snail mail for each company. When the same things happens with Automic managed companies, they often send a single envelope with welcome forms from multiple companies? From an environmental, efficiency and client cost point of view, shouldn't we be doing what Automic does or do our systems not allow for aggregated mailed communications across multiple companies?

Answer: The CEO Stuart Irvine talked about companies traditionally wanting personalised introductions to new shareholders but took the suggestion on board when it is a just a generic letter. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Thank you for disclosing the proxy position early to the ASX along with the formal addresses, allowing for a more fully informed AGM debate. The only material protest vote was 9.6% against the re-election of Tiffany Fuller. Was this driven by a proxy adviser against recommendation and, if so, what was the issue? Also, will you continue with the excellent practice you adopted after last year's AGM and disclose the headcount data with the poll results, so that retail voter shareholder sentiment is made public and we can better understand how much retail participation has fallen since the move away from paper after COVID. These best practice AGM disclosures are really helpful in terms of driving this practice across the market so well done and thank you for that?

Answer: The CEO Stuart Irvine explained that one of the proxy advisers went against Tiffany Fuller based on its concern that she'd done 9 years on the board as an independent director without changing the CEO. Tiffany was strongly backed by the all Scottish leadership team and they also promised to stick with the headcount data, which they did as you can see in these poll results. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q4. Our all Scottish leadership team at Computershare has been in place for the past 3 years and Stuart Irvine has been CEO since 2014. Well done for once again serving up a well structured LTI grant for Stuart that has been supported by more than 98% of the directed proxy votes. I'm just curious as to which of our Scottish leaders is likely to exit first and whether the LTI structure makes it very expensive for Stuart to retire, not that there is any rush for either Stuart of Paul to exit given that the company is performing so well and is genuinely one of 5 best Australian companies in terms of carving out a successful global business that the country can be proud of.

Answer: The chair Paul Reynolds liked the questions whilst noting it was a little mischievous and said there were no plans for either CEO Stuart Irvine of himself to depart. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Copyright © 2025 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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