Q1. Could our founder Murray Leahy please confirm that his controlling 47% stake in the company is never lent to short sellers and hasn't been pledged to any financiers. As a relatively new shareholder, could Murray summarise his share trading history since he took the business public and also indicate if the size of his shareholding is likely to remain unchanged over the next 12 months. What are his long term plans in terms of remaining the controlling founder CEO of MLG OZ?
Answer: The chair Anna Neuling said the share trading was publicly available and then happily handed over to Murray who said he has never sold shares since the 2021 listing, he owns about 50% now and has no plans to change that going forward as he is very committed to the business, such that "MLG has me whether they like me or not". Watch video of exchange via Twitter, plus this final comment where Murray happily said he has not debt on his 50% stake in the MLG Oz, which he started in Kalgoorlie back in 2002.
Q2. What is Simon Price's history with the founder? Is he independent and capable of disagreeing with him on issues and rolling him in the boardroom?
Answer: The independent chair Anna Neuling said it was a comprehensive process to find Simon who then reiterated that he didn't know Murray at all before being recruited and was fully independent. Excellent. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. Why do you keep asking for an extra 10% placement capacity and are you aware that resolutions like this have been defeated at many AGMS this season. Shareholders generally don't like this. Next time you raise capital, will you consider doing a pro-rata issue which treats all shareholders equally, rather than issuing as much as 25% of the company's shares to whoever you like, potentially diluting existing shareholders without compensation. Please don't put this up again next year.
Answer: The chair Anna Neuling said it was just a flexibility thing whilst also pointing out they haven't raised capital once since listing. Suspect they'll ditch it next year. Don't ask for something you don't need. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q4. What's with the 70% of votes being open on most resolutions? Has Murray given the chair an undirected proxy?
Answer: The chair Anna Neuling explained that founder Murray Leahy had given her an open proxy for the meeting as he was attending online.
Q5. Many thanks for offering shareholders a best practice hybrid AGM today and for following the agenda, calling for questions on all items of business. The final cherry on top for a best practice AGMs would be disclosing the headcount data with the poll results, revealing how many shareholders voted for and against. Our own share register providers Computershare does this at its AGM. How about it? I've voted against this proportional takeovers resolution.
Answer: The chair Anna Neuling was very nimble as the questions came in and was even open to delivering head count data. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q6. How many employees do we have and what proportion of them are members of a relevant trade union. Do we have any certified enterprise agreements across our business and, if so, which unions have they been negotiated with? Are any due to expire in the coming 12 months?
Answer: The chair handed this one to the operations boss who said they do have a range of union members and enterprise agreements, one of which is expiring in the next year and will be renegotiated in the normal way. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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