3 questions lodged at 2026 Dexus (DXS) hybrid AGM

Q1. The KPMG issue is complex. Could the chair of the audit committee briefly explain where Dexus fits in the scandal, how the audit committee responded and whether it was the crime or the cover-up that caused the most amount of concern? Could the new KPMG audit signing partner also comment on how the handover was handled with the previous partner who signed the 2024-25 accounts? Were we given a choice of new partners as normally happens with partner rotation? Did the partners present to the full board or just the audit committee?

Answer: Dexus chair Warwick Negus is a bit of a dominator. He blocked others from answering questions last year and should have invited both the audit committee chair and the new KPMG signing partner, Julia Bilyanska, to contribute to this answer. That said, his answer did fully explain the process well. The partner handover only happened in June after the full board was given multiple KPMG partners to choose from and they are retaining a watching brief on their performance but felt an audit switch now was too big a process when they're grappling with so many other issues at the moment, especially considering KPMG only got the gig in 2024. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. Could the CEO summarise his past LTI grants as to whether they have vested or lapsed. Also, has he ever sold any ordinary shares in the company or bought any on market without relying on an incentive scheme to build his equity position in the company? Please don't say look it up in the annual report and through ASX announcements. It's complicated and the CEO could factually summarise the situation in 60 seconds.

Answer: Liked this joint response from the Dexus chair and CEO. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Could the two new directors, Varya Davidson and Jonathan Gidney, along with the chair, comment on the recruitment process that led to their appointment to the board since the last AGM. Which recruitment firm assisted with the process and did the full board interview any other candidates. Did either candidate know any of our directors or KMP before engaging with the recruitment process and what was the on-boarding process in terms of the APAC issue?

Answer: chair Warwick Negus, the Dexus Dominator, pushed aside the question wrangler and decided to both read this one out and answer it as well. No one else got a look in, including the 2 new directors this was directed at. He explained a good competitive process supported by a recruiter but did say the two new directors were known to multiple Dexus personnel. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Other video grabs from the Dexus AGM

Dexus chair Warwick Negus on the APAC SNAFU in his formal address. The appeal is scheduled for November 30 so they'll no doubt deploy the old “can't comment due to legal action” response when it comes to the AGM debate. Watch video of comments via Twitter.

Dexus chair Warwick Negus on the KPMG SNAFU in his formal address. KPMG remains in place but they've swapped out the signing partner. Watch video of comments via Twitter.

David Kingston exchanges

Once again, former investment banker turned professional investor David Kingston made this a very interesting AGM. It wasn't as brutal as last year but he got up on all resolutions and added half an hour to what would otherwise have been a boring meeting. There was only 3 of us asking questions: me online and David and one other shareholder in the room. That's amazing considering the issues at hand and that Dexus has 33,758 shareholders. Anyway, here are some video grabs of David's contributions:

David Kingston's excellent opening 2 minute contribution at today's Dexus AGM. Watch video of comments via Twitter, plus this interesting response from chair Warwick Negus.

After David Kingston estimated that Dexus will lose $200m-$300m developing the now topped out Atlassian Tower at Central in Sydney, this is what the CEO said in response. Watch video of comments via Twitter.

David Kingston telling the Dexus chair to consider putting themselves in play to address the value gap between what the market says they're worth ($6.2b) and what the directors claim ($10b). Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Copyright © 2026 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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