4 questions lodged at 2026 Qualitas (QAL) hybrid AGM

Q1. It was interesting to hear the chair say that we've made 400 investments worth $44 billion over the journey. Could CEO Andrew Schwartz please reflect on some of his favourite and most successful transactions during his time with the company? Looking back, what were our best company making deals?

Answer: Qualitas founder and CEO Andrew Schwartz has built a great private credit property lender over 20 years. This a a very humble response saying all deals are just ordinary loans which they hope are repaid. Like the guy. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. KPMG has been external auditor to the group for as long as AI can look into history, which is about 8 years. When was the last Qualitas competitive audit tender which KPMG won? How many different audit signing partners have we had since the 2021 IPO and could the current KPMG signing partner, Maria Trinci, please comment on whether the audit committee or management had any influence over her selection of this year's Key Audit Matters. If she wanted to add an additional Key Audit Matter, what topic would she have chosen?

Answer: After delivering a wonderfully informative response to this multi-pronged audit question, Qualitas chair Andrew Fairley concluded by declaring it was “bordering on impudent” to ask out going KPMG signing partner Maria Trinci to opine on Key Audit Matter selection. Multiple other auditors have engaged on this topic this AGM season. The chair earlier said KPMG had audited Qualitas since 2008 with two partners and then retained the gig after a competitive tender in 2018 ahead of its IPO. He said the decision to go to tender in 2028 was based exclusively on tenure concerns. The trick to getting such detailed responses was lodging this question 20 minute before kick off, giving them time to gather the information. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Many thanks for running a best practice hybrid AGM and also for disclosing the proxies early to the ASX along with the formal addresses. Well done for achieving strong voting support on all resolutions. Which proxy advisers issued reports covering this meeting and could you please advise how many of our 1,309 shareholders directed a proxy vote for or against on this remuneration report resolution?

Answer: Qualitas chair Andrew Fairley explained that two proxy advisers covered them this year and were in favour of all resolutions but he wasn't able to serve up head count data. Watch video of exchange via Twitter, plus this additional video capturing the fact they did include the head count data in the slides displayed at the AGM, which the chair appeared to not be aware of.

Q4. You're running a near perfect hybrid meeting, including opening the online questions and voting function half an hour before kick-off to maximise the opportunity for participation. If you publish a full copy of the webcast archive and disclose the head count data in the poll results (like at a scheme meeting), you'll be in the top 10 ASX listed companies for AGM practice. The lawyerly chair knocked me back in 2024. How about going with head count data this year? If ASX, Qantas, Myer, Tabcorp & many others do it, why not Qualitas?

Answer: Chair Fairley rather unfairly knocked me back again on this one, saying he would need to speak to his board. Why didn't he do that two years ago when asked for the same thing? Besides, he'd already displayed the data on the proxies slide at the meeting, although he didn't realise this. There was no head count data included in these poll results meaning they remain one measure away from securing a coveted place on this AGM best practice list. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Copyright © 2026 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

• share
  Share
  • 
    Facebook
  • 
    Twitter
  • email
    Email
  • print
    Print
  • link
    Copy Link
  • cancel
    Cancel