5 questions lodged at 2025 Sonic Healthcare hybrid AGM
November 21, 2025
Below is the text of the 5 written questions submitted at the 135 minute Sonic Healthcare (SHL) 10am hybrid in Sydney and via Computershare platform on November 20, 2025, plus a summary of the answers and some video grabs via Twitter. See notice of meeting and voting results. Market cap was $10.6 billion on AGM day. The proxies were disclosed early in the formal addresses. See 5 questions asked at 2024 AGM. Biggest protest 11.5% against CFO Chris Wilks incentive grant.
Q1. Thank you to Colin for his incredible performance building Sonic Healthcare over the past 32 years. Whilst the score board does show that the stock has more than halved from the $46 COVID assisted peak in 2022 and was near a 6 year low before today's 4% jump, overall, the shareholders have still done incredibly well and Sonic is a rare global corporate success story. What does Colin believe are the 3 best decisions he made during his time with the company and what is his biggest regret?
Answer: The chair Prof Mark Compton said it was hiring Colin, getting him to stay for 32 years and then the great people he appointed along the way whilst CEO Colin Goldschmidt mentioned the acquisitions they said no to which have never been made public. A very interesting point. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. Now that CEO succession has been sorted, where are things at with chair succession? Professor Mark Compton has been chair for a decade. Is he intending to seek another 3 year term when his current term expires at the 2026 AGM. Also, did you ever get to the bottom of why there was a 13% vote against Kate Spargo's re-election last year as that was never properly explained and no proxy adviser recommended against Kate.
Answer: The chair Prof Mark Compton played a straight bat, giving nothing away. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q4. Well done coming out with the proxy summary as the first slide in the formal addresses lodged with the ASX at 8.59am. This allows for a better informed AGM discussion. There was a modest 9% vote against the remuneration report and 11% against CFO Chris Wilks' LTI grant. Which proxy adviser recommended against and what was the issue?
Answer: The company secretary and question wrangler said only ASA was against which makes the protest votes puzzling given ASA can't deliver those sorts of protest. Suspect it was a policy of one of the 3 big global index funds. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q5. Having disclosed the proxies early today, run a hybrid AGM and followed the agenda calling for questions on each item, you are getting very close to reaching AGM best practice. All you need to add is publishing a full copy of the AGM webcast on your website and including the head count data in the poll results, so we can see how many shareholders voted for and against. I've asked for this multiple times in the past. Given that even our own share registry provider Computershare now does this at its AGM, will you make public how many shareholders voted for and against this LTI grant proposal as it is always interesting to see where retail shareholder sentiment sits on remuneration items. If you deliver on these last two requests, I'll give you a 2 year pass and not come to a Sonic AGM again before 2028.
Answer: The compnay secretary chair Prof Mark Compton and CEO Colin Goldschmidt... Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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