5 questions lodged at 2025 Cedar Woods hybrid AGM
November 5, 2025
Below is the text of the 5 written questions submitted at the 51 minute Cedar Woods (CWP) hybrid AGM held at 10am in Perth on November 5, 2025. You needed to register here in advance via Open Briefing platform to ask live online questions which was strange given that Computershare runs the share registry. There was no online voting, only online written questions. Market cap up to $750m after strong recent performance. See notice of meeting and voting results. The proxies were disclosed early in the formal addresses with the only opposition being 16.9% against long serving director and co-founder Robert Brown. There was only 1 other question from a shareholder in the room. Asked two questions at 2024 AGM. This is a good company which flies below the radar and keeps delivering.
Q1. When was the external audit last competitively tendered and when will it next be competitively tendered? How long have Ernst & Young had the gig for and how many tenders have they won during their tenure, besides the first one?
Answer: A stupid badly researched question which CEO Nathan Blackburne politely addressed saying EY had only been auditor for a year after winning a competitive tender last year. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. How many full time equivalent staff do we currently have and is this likely to fall over the coming 12 months with the rapid roll out of AI? Which parts of our business and operations are the most prospective for AI productivity gains and how energetically are we embracing those opportunities?
Answer: The CEO Nathan Blackburne said they only have around 100 staff but they are leaning in heavily on AI opportunities to drive productivity. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. I'm sick of hearing journalistic experts like Alan Kohler (actually, love Alan and not at all sick of his expertise but just wanted to goad these lads into sticking their neck out in the public debate for a change) dominating the public debate on the "housing crisis", soaring house prices, record levels of immigration, falling construction productivity and the like. Our leadership are real industry experts. What would the CEO and chair do on housing policy if they were Federal housing minister for a day or suddenly in charge of planning policy in all states and territories? What do you believe is causing house prices to keep rising to new record levels and is this even a problem?
Answer: The chair William Hames gave a lengthy considered response, including that politicians won't do anything to bring down house prices because home owners vote and like high prices. But his key point was that governments should get back into the business of building social housing. Totally agree. Watch video of exchange via Twitter, plus second two minutes of his response and the conclusion highlighting the need for more government funded social housing.
Q4. Thank you for disclosing the proxy votes early with the formal addresses. There was a 16.86% protest vote against the re-election of Robert Brown. Did one of the proxy advisers recommend against and did our largest institutional shareholder, Australian Super with 11.4%, vote against his re-election? Was it an independence or tenure question? From my point of view Cedar Woods is performing well so Robert should stay on the board but perhaps add one more independent director or move to an independent chair model.
Answer: The CEO Nathan Blackburne explained that they are covered by two proxy advisers and one recommended against co-founder Robert Brown's re-election on tenure and independence grounds. He also said that Australian Super had dumped its entire 11.4% stake. Cripes, what happened there? Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q5. Thank you for again offering a best practice hybrid AGM, unlike so many Perth-based companies, particularly in the resources sector. Would it be possible to introduce live online voting next year, not just written questions? Also, when disclosing the poll results to the ASX, could you please disclose how many shareholders voted for and against, like with a scheme of arrangement. This will make public retail shareholder sentiment and encourage future voting participation at a company where voting outcomes are dominated by the 3 largest shareholders - Mr Hames, Mr Brown and Australian Super - which together own about one third of this excellent strongly performing $750m market cap company which has 4000 shareholders. Keep up the great work and see you next year."
Answer: The question wrangler handled this one explaining that there had been very low take up of online voting previously so they saved money by withdrawing the offer but might bring it back if demand is strong. She also batted away head count voting disclosing saying it wasn't required (and they didn't deliver in these numbers) but was open to looking at it and took the governance high road on early voting disclosure saying they do it to embrace transparency and good governance. I like this company. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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