Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to the twenty-third Annual General Meeting of shareholders of Credit Corp Group Limited. Thank you for joining us today. I'd like to welcome those shareholders watching the meeting via online, live webcast. I'm Eric Dodd, Chair of the Board of Directors of Credit Corp Group Limited, and in accordance with the company's constitution, I'm the chair of this meeting. I'd like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I'm speaking to you from today. I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which each of you are working from today. I'd like to pay my respects to elders, past, present, and emerging. As we have a quorum present, I declare the meeting officially open. I'd ask the Company Secretary, Michael Eadie, to advise whether we have any apologies. Michael? No, we haven't had any, Chair. Really. Thank you. I'd like to introduce your company's directors, who are all here with me today. Just raise your hand, I think, rather than stand up. Thomas Beregi, our Managing Director and CEO. Mr. James Miller, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Ms. Trudy Vonhoff, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Remuneration and HR Committee. Ms. Leslie Martin, who is the Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit and Risk Committee. Mr. Phil Aris, Non-Executive Director and member of the Nomination Committee and Remuneration Committee and HR. And Mr. Brad Cooper, Non-Executive Director and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration and HR Committee. And Lyn McGrath, the Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Nomination Committee. Other members of Thomas's executive team are here today. Can I ask you to please stand and make yourselves known to the meeting as I introduce you? Mr. Matthew Angell, our Group Chief Operating Officer. Michael Eadie, Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. Mr. Mitch Symes is the Chief Operating Officer for Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Martin Wu. Is Martin with us? Martin, hi. Chief Analytics Officer. Ms. Stephanie Palmer, the Chief People Officer. Tim Cullen, Chief Information Officer. Mr. Chris Middlam, Head of Client Services, and David Brand. Is David with us? Yes, there, there you are, David. Head of Marketing. As well as being available for me to call on to assist in answering questions during the meeting, the executive team, as well as myself and the rest of the board, would welcome the opportunity to speak informally with any meeting attendees at the conclusion of this meeting. Also joining us today are the company's legal advisor, Mr. Guy Sanderson. Guy, from Hamilton Locke, and Mr. Drew Townsend, from Hall Chadwick, the company's auditor. No written questions were received in advance from shareholders for Hall Chadwick with respect to the conduct of the audit and the auditor's report, as per the process set out for this notice of annual general meeting. I will call upon Guy and Drew, Guy and Drew, to answer any relevant questions as required during the meeting. I'm going to commence with the chair's address, which will be followed by the CEO's quarterly update presentation. We will then proceed to the ordinary business of the meeting, which will include the opportunity to ask questions on each item of ordinary business. Following that, we'll open the meeting up to questions covering any aspect of the meeting, including my address, the CEO's quarterly update presentation, or any other relevant matter a shareholder wishes to raise. I'll now run through some instructions for asking questions and for voting in the room today. Please note that only those who are registered as shareholders or proxy holders for absent shareholders are entitled to ask questions today. That is people who have a yellow card or a blue voting card. To ask a question, please raise your voting card. When the microphone is brought to you, stand and give your name, the name of the shareholder you represent, if you're a company representative or proxy, and then ask your question. Where appropriate, I'll call upon specific directors, management, the auditor, or other advisors to respond to shareholder questions. However, I do ask that all questions be put through me as chairman of the meeting. If shareholders wish to ask multiple questions, please note that we will take one question at a time from each shareholder or proxy, and then return for further questions. Votes on each resolution that are the subject of this meeting will be taken by way of a poll. The poll will be taken on all resolutions at the end of the meeting, and I'll briefly explain prior to voting, how the polling process will be conducted. I'll now commence with my address. Creating opportunity encapsulates Credit Corp's approach to generating long-term value. It means having the strategies and flexibility to maintain performance while laying the foundations for new sources of growth, regardless of external conditions. It's about a relentless focus on providing customers with responsible pathways to resolve existing credit obligations and gain access to uniquely affordable personal finance. Despite adverse conditions, I'm pleased to report that Credit Corp continued to create opportunity in 2023. The backdrop of Credit Corp's 2023 performance was the strategic diversification of Credit Corp by the board and management over many, many years. Each year, the company's leadership has evaluated its strategic position, assessed the alternatives for growth, and made commitments to develop and expand new businesses. The acquisition of Collection House Limited during the year created one of the largest collection services businesses in Australia and New Zealand, bringing in some large and growing clients. Strategic resolve and the flexibility to respond to changing external conditions has combined with disciplined execution to create three businesses which are leaders in their respective markets. Each of Credit Corp's businesses confronted challenging conditions in 2023. Credit Corp navigated these conditions to post a solid earnings result while continuing to develop opportunities for growth into the future. Notwithstanding the challenges faced over 2023, the company continued to invest in creating opportunities for future growth. Investments were made in enhancing automation and digital collections within the debt buying businesses. An exciting digital credit card pilot was launched, adding to Credit Corp's suite of offerings and expanding its addressable market. At the same time as delivering on the earnings commitment made to shareholders at the start of the year and continuing to lay the foundations for future growth, Credit Corp maintained its focus on providing customers with responsible solutions. The company established over 261,000 affordable repayment plans with customers and continued to provide consumers with among the cheapest and most responsible cash loans available in the credit-impaired consumer finance market. Credit Corp again produced one of the lowest rates of external ombudsman and regulatory complaints in its segment of the market. Performing across a range of conditions requires a positive culture. The values of transparency, accountability, and discipline define the culture at Credit Corp. Transparency to honestly appraise business prospects, identify shortcomings, and set a plan of action while keeping stakeholders informed on a timely basis. Accountability to embrace challenging goals, and discipline to follow through with the right execution to deliver long-term outcomes. And it's the day-to-day application of these values by Credit Corp's people that underpins the actions and outcomes that we are creating opportunity. In the context of culture and values, I want to briefly touch on last week's announcement of an impairment and earnings downgrade for the company's U.S. business. While the substance of the announcement was disappointing, it's pleasing to recognize the transparency and accountability shown in the way the issue is being managed. Evidence of a potential deterioration in collection conditions was communicated to shareholders in the market in August, and when the issue persisted and began to produce a variance to collection expectations, the impact on the company's accounts and outlook was quantified and communicated to all stakeholders. Having dealt with the matter transparently, Credit Corp can now move forward with initiatives to manage the underlying issue. As part of maintaining a positive culture, Credit Corp has undertaken a carefully managed process of board renewal over recent years. During 2023, two proven leaders in financial services, Lyn McGrath and Brad Cooper, were appointed as non-executive directors. Both bring to the board particular expertise in the consumer finance sector, an area becoming increasingly important to Credit Corp's growth. As part of this process, Richard Thomas retired from the board after more than 16 years of exemplary service to the company. Richard held the role of acting chair during a critical inflection point for Credit Corp and laid the foundations for the company's success over subsequent years.... Richard oversaw a period of extraordinary growth during his tenure, and his strategic acumen and practical insights from having led consumer finance businesses in both Australia and the U.S., played a critical role in the organic development of the consumer lending and U.S. debt buying businesses over the last decade. I thank Richard for his important contribution. We also say farewell to Leslie Martin, who retires from the board today after more than nine years of service to the company. Leslie's international and domestic banking experience and strategic leadership have been invaluable to the development of Credit Corp. During this time, the consumer lending and US debt buying activities have significantly grown to now comprise the majority of Credit Corp's earnings. It's been a pleasure serving on the board alongside Leslie. On behalf of my fellow directors, I'd like to thank her for her significant contribution and wish her all the best in retirement and other endeavors post Credit Corp. Probably more the latter. I also thank my fellow directors, our CEO, Thomas Beregi, and his management team. In truly embodying our values, transparency, accountability and discipline, their leadership is instrumental in shaping the culture, which continues to underpin the company's success. On behalf of the board and shareholders, I thank all employees for their ongoing commitment, effort, and dedication to Credit Corp. Thank you. Thomas will now provide an update on the company's performance so far this financial year, and he'll also give an assessment of the outlook for the balance of the year. I'm pleased to hand over to our CEO, Thomas Beregi. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, Eric, and welcome to everybody. Great to see you here, and great to have those people listening and looking in online at the live webcast. Look, moving right along. So our objective is leadership of what we call the credit-impaired consumer segment. We define our market as people who've had trouble with credit, most having defaulted on a previous credit obligation. We operate in competitive businesses, and there are three competencies which are critical to our ongoing success. We must have superior analytics and discipline because our business is all about pricing and managing risk. Our operations must be strong to compete, and we must be responsible and compliant to deliver on the promise we make to our debt sale clients, other stakeholders, and the community. This ensures that our business can continue. Applying these competencies, we target to deliver strong earnings growth into the future while producing acceptable returns, and we define those returns as an ROE, or return on equity, of 16%-18%. We attempt to achieve that with a relatively conservative financial structure for an organization in our industry. We've got strong approaches and metrics for each of these competencies across our businesses, and they're shown on the chart. But we have to acknowledge from the outset that we have been operating in a challenging environment. Eric mentioned that, and that has continued into the current year. In the U.S., there has been a sustained deterioration in collection conditions. In our lending business, we've needed to actively manage credit settings, how much we lend to people, and who we lend to, to accommodate strong consumer demand while taking account of the prospect of a deteriorating economy. So there is some risk in the environment that we must take into account as we conduct our day-to-day business of lending to consumers. In our Australian and New Zealand debt buying business, we remain in runoff, as we continue to suffer from very low market sale volumes. And so we're looking at market sale volumes that are less than half what they were pre-COVID. So the market has contracted significantly. And so moving along, in particular, challenges in the U.S. have affected expectations of the company's current year performance. We've had elevated repayment plan delinquency on our ongoing payment arrangements, which is where we source the bulk of our collections, and this first emerged in the last quarter of the financial year, and we mentioned that in our announcement in August, and it's persisted. And that has made it necessary to revise our collection forecasts over the next three years, and we've made the assumption that existing conditions persist over the next three years. And as a consequence of that, we expect to write down the starting value of our U.S. purchased debt ledger book by 14%, and that will give rise to a one-off impact on earnings of AUD 45 million in net profit after tax. For similar reasons, our underlying U.S. earnings will fall short of previous expectations that we provided in August by $10 million in net profit after tax. So those are the implications of poorer conditions, a poorer environment, in the U.S. for our business. But look, notwithstanding adverse conditions, underlying all of that, the U.S. business is improving and operational performance has been very solid, with both productivity and collections improving over the last four quarters. In our lending business, volumes have been strong over recent months. We're on track to grow the loan book and segment earnings, and we're achieving this growth despite tighter credit settings. Arrears have fallen over recent months, and our losses remain within pro forma, within our expectations that create strong economic returns for the company. In our Australia and New Zealand debt buying business, the task there is to manage costs down while maximizing collections, and we're doing this successfully. So our asset turnover, which is the rate we effectively convert our Purchased Debt Ledger asset into cash, into cash collections, is being maintained at a market-leading 1x. And the cost of achieving those collections, is up by only 4 percentage points, despite a 16% runoff in collections over the same period in the prior year. So we're managing our costs down effectively. There's a lot of fixed costs in our business, and we need to endeavor to reduce those, as well as our variable costs, in line with the runoff in collections, if we are to preserve our profitability to the greatest extent from this part of our business. We're doing so whilst also maintaining the ability to regrow as conditions improve. The positive aspect of more difficult conditions, particularly in the U.S., is that it has produced improved pricing. So in the U.S., we're now buying purchased debt ledgers at prices which are among the lowest we've seen during our 10 years in that market. So these are historically good levels to be buying debts. Sure, conditions are not as great, but with a bit of good fortune over the longer term, there will be a recovery, and these will prove to be very strong assets that we're purchasing at the moment. So despite all the uncertainty, it is a good time for us to be investing and laying the foundations for further growth, and we are doing exactly that. and, we have the capital and capacity to continue to do that. At the end of last year, we extended our banking facilities to June 2026, and during the course of this year, we'll have strong cash flow generation, which will ensure we have all the capacity we need to seize attractive purchasing opportunities as they arise. So I just want to conclude with our outlook statement, with our revised guidance for 2024. So we're looking at statutory net profit after tax of AUD 35 million-AUD 45 million. If we exclude the one-off, impairment, we're looking at net profit after tax, which is around 7% lower than the prior year, falling within the range of AUD 80 million-AUD 90 million. so that's it in terms of my update. Thank you for your attention, and I'll hand back to Eric. Thank you, Thomas. We'll now move to the formal business of the meeting, including questions in respect of each of the items of business, and then open the meeting up to general questions after the formal resolutions have been put. The only items of business to come before the meeting today will be those specified in the notice of meeting. We have four items of ordinary business that you've had the opportunity to review and consider through the circulated notice of meeting, and I will take that notice of meeting as read. Votes on each resolution that are the subject of this meeting will be taken by way of a poll at the end of the meeting. Rishad Vachha of Boardroom Pty Limited, our share registry, will act as the Returning Officer in relation to the poll. I'll briefly explain how the polling process will be conducted prior to the voting at the end of the meeting. There have been proxies given in respect of today's resolutions, which I intend to disclose when each resolution is considered. As mentioned in the notice of meeting, it is intended that any undirected proxies given to the Chair will be voted in favor of the relevant resolution. Item one on the agenda is to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report, and the auditors' report of Credit Corp for the year ended 30th of June, 2023. There will not be a formal vote on this item, but I now invite questions in respect of this item. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand... Please raise your voting card.... When the microphone is brought to you, stand up and give your name, the name of the shareholder you represent if you're a company representative or proxy, and then ask your questions. Are there any questions on this first item of business? Okay, if there are no questions, we'll move to the next item of business. Item 2 on the agenda being the re-election of directors. Item 2A concerns the re-election of Ms. Lyn McGrath as a director of the company, and I'd like to now invite Lyn to say a few words. Thank you, Eric, and good morning, shareholders. It is a privilege to be speaking to you today in support of my re-election as director of Credit Corp. As my bio in the AGM explanatory notes states, my background is mainly in the financial services sector, leading large retail banking businesses. I was the Group Executive Retail Banking at BOQ and the Executive General Manager, Retail, at CBA. I've held various senior management roles at other banks in my career, as well as management roles in other sectors. These roles equip me with deep technical experience in banking, particularly consumer finance and digital transformations, honed by more than 25 years' experience in financial services leadership. Over the past year, I've been appointed to Auswide Bank Limited and Challenger Bank Limited as a non-executive director, and most recently, been appointed to the Chair of the Australian Digital Health Agency. I believe I have the skill set and deep experience in business to complement the skills and experience of other board members. I see my role as one where I contribute to the board's oversight of Credit Corp's diverse operations across multiple jurisdictions and support its ongoing success. As a director of Credit Corp, I am confident I will have sufficient time and commitment to serve you, the company, and all the shareholders. Thank you for your support. Thank you, Lyn. The resolution reads: Ms. McGrath retires, and being eligible, offers herself for re-election in accordance with Clause 19.5 of the company's constitution. Proxy votes received in respect of this resolution are shown on the slide, and as already noted, voting is by way of a poll, which will be conducted at the end of the meeting. But I now invite any questions in respect of this particular resolution. There's a microphone being brought. Good morning, Jeff Rogers. Thanks. Representing G&J Rogers Investments Super Fund. Also to invest, I guess. Yeah, Lyn, thanks very much for your short talk there. I'd just like to better understand how you'll manage your workload. I guess it's gonna be the same as before, but do you think this business's needs are gonna be the same as before, or will they be more arduous, perhaps, in terms of time over the next couple of years? Thank you, Jeff. I believe I've got four directorships. I believe I do have the time and experience to, to devote. I think I've been in this position since January this year, and I think I've been able to prove that to my fellow directors and also to management, that I do have the time to read the board papers and make sure I answer the appropriate questions and challenge them. Thank you. Are there any other questions in relation to this resolution? If there are no further questions, we'll move to the next item of business. Item two B concerns the re-election of Mr. Brad Cooper as director of the company. I'd like to invite Mr. Cooper to say a few words. Brad? Well, thank you, Eric, and good morning, everybody. I have the privilege of having my nomination as a non-executive director put before you this morning. I've been attracted to Credit Corp Group because of its aspiration for growth through diversification in new product areas and geographies. These aspirations have been enabled due to the experienced management team and board, who have built a successful business through their expertise, discipline, culture, values, and authentic focus on the customers they support. I joined the board in April of this year. I come to Credit Corp after an extensive 40-year executive career in financial services, spanning consumer finance, insurance, investments, and banking. I started my career in consumer finance as a customer service representative, taking, approving applications, and collecting the loans that we made. During that phase of my career, I moved through all operational roles, including branch and regional management and running substantial centralized centers and collection centers. Moving through various roles, eventually being appointed to CEO and Managing Director of GE Consumer Finance. I worked periodically in the U.S. and ran complex businesses in Australia, the U.K., and in New Zealand.... If confirmed by you today, I intend to work with my fellow directors and the management team of Credit Corp to realize the growth aspirations and strategies of the group. I'll work within the board and on the Risk and Audit and HR and Remuneration Committees, to which I've been appointed, to leverage my product and geographic experience to assess- assist in the execution of those strategies. I thank you for your time and for your support. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. The resolution reads: Mr. Cooper retires, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election in accordance with Clause 19.5 of the company's constitution. Proxy votes received in respect of this resolution are shown on the slide. I now invite any questions in respect of this resolution. We have a question here. Thanks, Brad. I'm also a GE alumni, but not in the financial side. So I know that burning midnight oil is part of the culture there, and I hope that is not too arduous for your ongoing health. But, I didn't quite catch your current other... if there are any other directorships. I'm sorry, I may have missed that when you said it, but would you be able to outline that for me, please? No, I finished my executive career about two years ago, and I'm now just starting to put a portfolio together. This is my first appointment into a non-executive position. I see. And what would you envisage you could cope with in terms of- Oh, I think you pointed out I had a decade with GE, and I've had fairly complex senior executive and CEO roles for the last 20 years. So I've got a lot of energy, a lot of passion for these types of businesses. And so I don't think workload is going to be a problem for me, and I'm looking forward to putting a portfolio together. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions in relation to this resolution? If not, we'll move to the next item of business. Item three on the agenda being the adoption of the Remuneration Report for the year ended 30th of June 2023. The text of the resolution is on the slide now. The resolution to adopt the Remuneration Report is a non-binding resolution, and there's a voting restriction which applies to it. The company will disregard any votes cast in any capacity on this resolution by, or on behalf of, any key management personnel, who are all the directors and members of management whose remuneration is detailed in the annual report and their closely related parties, such as their families. However, those persons can vote as proxies of other eligible shareholders, where they have been directed how to vote, and the chairman can vote undirected proxies on behalf of eligible shareholders. Under the Corporations Act, the resolution of shareholders that the Remuneration Report be adopted, or any failure to pass this, that resolution, is advisory only and does not bind the company or its directors. Proxy votes received in respect of this resolution are shown on the slide displayed. I now invite questions in respect of this resolution. Are there any questions? My name is Ashkan. I'm representing myself as an individual shareholder. So, in the Remuneration Report, in terms of, the hurdles at which the incentives kick in. So firstly, I'd like to question why the board chose to use net profit after tax instead of earnings per share as a hurdle? Because at the end of the day, like, what matters to shareholders is earnings per... Sorry, what matters to shareholders is earnings per share. So I think that, the net profit after tax is, it's something that is being done because it's a professional management team. If it was- Okay. If it was a company owned by an owner-operator, they would not be looking at it that way. I also would point out in terms of the net profit after tax growth hurdles, that from memory, I think the highest hurdle is 9%, which puts in the full value of the incentives in respect of that hurdle. Now, if you look at what the company has said of a long-term target ROE of 16%-18% with low gearing, and historically, the company has paid around half of its earnings on average as dividends, even though there's no formal dividend payout policy. Now, assuming that were to continue, on a 16%-18% target return on equity, if that's achieved, the implied growth rate on a 50% payout ratio of dividends is 8%-9%. So unless you're assuming that you're not hitting your target or there's a material increase in the dividend payout ratio, you're essentially just awarding them for doing what they're expected to do. Okay. So instead of going above and beyond, the highest hurdle is just really what they should be. Okay. Thank you, Ashkan. I might ask Trudy, who is well-versed, because this is a feedback we've received from a number of our shareholders and proxy advisors, and so on. So Trudy, as Chair of the HR and Remuneration Committee, I think is best off to respond to that. Trudy, can you? I'll certainly give it my best shot, Eric. So Ashkan, I think two great questions, so thank you for that. Addressing the first one around why not EPS? So I'm just gonna wind back a little bit first, so we've got everyone in the audience with us. So what Ashkan is referring to is the long-term incentive program. And with the long-term incentive program, the way it operates, or the framework, is that we have a return on equity hurdle, which is the first hurdle that needs to be met before what we call a gate opener is open. So, there's nothing on the table until we get past the return on equity hurdle. And that hurdle is currently set at 16%, which, I think by most of the feedback I've received to date on that, that's still a fairly challenging target to open up the gate. And then, once that gate is opened, which means that we're in play, we have two hurdles. The first hurdle is a compound annual growth rate of our NPAT, as Ashkan has spoken to. And the other 50% weighting, once that gate is open, is on a relative TSR measure, which is the external, I guess, measure. And we think quite a lot about whether we've chosen the right measure, and, I think most people relate to the EPS target as a target to have. I think from our perspective, we feel that for our business, particularly with the opportunistic nature of Credit Corp, particularly in the debt buying sector, we need to be a bit toppy on capital so that we can act quickly when the time arises. So, we do keep some capital in reserve. And because generally the time to buy, and Thomas can probably speak to this better than me, because he's had more experience in this space in terms of buying, but that's generally when the prices are best, when the market's a bit distressed. And I think to be a rational debt buyer, you can maximize your returns and get favorable returns by getting rid of your capital, and we wanna hold on to a bit. So in general terms, we feel that we've got the right balance of measures. The compound annual growth rate for NPAT over three years, coupled with the return on equity measure, that's the right fit for our business to make sure that these measures are both stretching as well as achievable for management. So that would be my answer. Thank you, Trudy. To the first question. There is another one, I think, and this is around the actual target that we've put in place for that compound annual growth rate for NPAT. Mm-hmm. So that target, I think, is quite a stretching target, the one that was there previously, and we did dial that back this year. And I think really in a, my one-sentence response would be, that would be the market expectation that we have for the three-year growth rate. I think for management to achieve that particular target, they're going to have to have some fair winds in their sails for them to actually make it. But, you know, times will change, and I guess whether we set that target at the right level, whether it is still meets our criteria of being stretching for management as well as being achievable, we'll probably know in the next three years. But, on our current assessment, in terms of our alignment to our strategic plan, we think that's about right. Okay. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Trudy. I think it's a pretty comprehensive answer to that question. As I said, it's a question that has arisen a number of times. Pierre, do you have a question? Yes, sir. Yes, I do. Pierre Prentice from Team Invest. Probably, you know this because we, I discussed it with you. Our issue in Team Invest is actually the use of TSR. Simply because the market determines share price based on what it perceives the future is going to be, and we're rewarding for past performance. So we see that this is out of kilter. Okay. In a way that we believe earnings per share is what actually drives the value of the company, which then drives the share price as such. So our view is, and we'll keep on harping on this, that maybe EPS should be considered. Thank you. Okay. Trudy, I don't know if you want to respond again to that. Again, an issue that's arisen a number of times. It's a difficult balance. I noticed the previous chairman had a smile on his face when you asked that question, Pierre, because, he had the same view, if I remember correctly. I think, in terms of, a measure being acceptable to the majority of our shareholders, relative TSR is probably the most accepted form. From our perspective, it's certainly better than an absolute TSR measure, because the difficulty in setting a target around absolute TSR is even more of a lottery, I would suggest. I do agree that the share price on any given day is really how shareholders respond to the future of the company rather than the past, and I know that it's a measure on past performance that we're measuring, so I understand that. I think for us, in terms of the majority of our shareholders and their advisors, particularly the proxy advisors, the general consensus is that relative TSR is, and I think the term that's used more broadly, is the least worst measure in terms of satisfying that external measure that we need. It's good to have a very easy answer. Mm. Yeah. Okay. Ash, there's a question up the back. I'll come back to you, Ashkan. My name is Chris Lloyd, from, also from Team Invest. I want to return to the LTI gateway. You indicated that the 16% you felt was a bit of a stretch objective. I would note that prior to 2019, the Credit Corp had a return on equity above 20% pretty much every year. Do you see the ROE getting back to that level, or are you planning on lowering the target in the future? Before I ask Trudy to respond to that again, because, again, it's an issue that has arisen. Thomas, do you want to... I guess the short answer is the changes to market conditions, as well, in terms of, markets are returning less now than they were back then. Thomas, do you want to make a comment, or should I throw it to Trudy? I'm happy to just make a comment briefly. I'm not sure we're necessarily saying that ROE is a stretch. It's the gate opener, so it's kind of the ticket to play, so it's not necessarily a stretch. It's our required rate of return. It's the return at which we price all our investments and our lending business cases, so it's what we expect to earn, and we expect to earn that with only with a relatively modest layer of debt. So only gearing our assets to 30%, so 70% equity, which makes us a bit of a unique organization within financial services and within debt buying, where debt levels are generally a lot higher. So that equity hurdle is, we think, commensurate with the risk in our business, and it's the day-to-day rate of return at which we, you know, set all the decisions that we make around who we lend to and what assets we purchase. So it's not necessarily a stretch, and there are no plans to lower that. Possibly the stretch I think that Trudy was referring to in current conditions was more the earnings growth. Thank you, Thomas. Are there any other questions, Ashkan? Yeah. Yeah. So just in relation to the hurdles, so I feel that the combination of having an NPAT hurdle and a return on equity hurdle is actually leaving a gaping loophole in terms of incremental return on equity. So if the company is at a stage in the cycle where, let's say, it's earning a 20% return on equity, and then you have the incremental investment of that year only generating a 13% or 14% return, the average return may still be above that 18% hurdle. So I feel like there should either be some kind of EPS constraint, or additionally, there should be an incremental return on equity hurdle, where the earnings growth is compared to the increase in equity, so, because I feel that that is a bit of a gap that's not addressed. Trudy, do you want to respond to that? I'm not sure I can say too much more. No. But what I would like to say is thank you for your feedback, because each year, when we get questions from shareholders, we do then reflect on how we will take that on board and how we can possibly incorporate it into our remuneration framework. So I've taken some notes, and I'll be pleased to talk with you afterwards in terms of getting any additional feedback. But it is all very useful to us in terms of how our shareholders are thinking and how we can incorporate that into our future thinking. So thank you. Yeah, as a, as a general comment on that, we have spent a lot of time with, with shareholders this year, working through our remuneration report and the changes that have been put in place. I think, as Trudy said, the response to that has been very good in terms of us taking on board. Doesn't mean we take on board everything. Obviously, there's still disagreements and, and difference in views, but I think it's been a very positively received report, as you'll see from the proxies to the, the changes that we have put in place, and we'll continue with that process. We don't believe we have all knowledge sitting here. We'll continue to examine and understand what it is that our shareholders are looking for in this and, and, respond accordingly. Okay, are there any other questions? Yes, we've got one more question here. Yeah, it's Jeff Rogers still. I guess, sorry, you mentioned that the feedback was from your shareholders, that TSR was a popular or more popular measure. I wondered how... Two questions, really, I suppose. One is, how do you actually arrive at that conclusion? And second, if it's not the best, why would you support it? I mean, would you, would you go against what the majority of shareholders expressed to you or perceive they've expressed to you, even if it's the wrong thing? Trudy, I think you're probably best off to respond to that. I think, in terms of it, it's, when I say it's the most common, it's the most common market-accepted measure. So. And that is, one, it's used by all the proxy advisors as well as the shareholders. So, we've spoken to, you know, a number of shareholders, and we do comparisons with, you know, all our competitors, where we compete for capital, what measures they're using. So, and I, I wasn't meaning to be flippant about the words least worst, but, in terms of measures and looking for external measures, I think that is the best one that's there, notwithstanding its shortcomings. I think that would be- Yeah. Is that- I think it's fair- Comprehensive? Fair response. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We do put a lot of work and research into this and spend a lot of time looking at what the market generally, looking at benchmarking our... and not just overall levels of remuneration, but structure. It is a balancing act. We don't necessarily do everything that everyone would like us to do, but it is a balancing act, and our view is that we have that balance pretty well in hand now. Okay, are there any other questions anyone has? Thank you. If there are no further questions, we'll move to the next item of business. Excuse me. Item four on the agenda. Excuse me. Item four on the agenda being the issue of performance rights under the long-term incentive plan in respect of the FY 2024-2026 performance period to the Managing Director and CEO, Thomas Beregi. The text of this resolution is on the slide now. Is it? There are voting restrictions which apply to this resolution. The company will disregard any votes cast in any capacity on this resolution by or on behalf of Mr. Beregi or any of his associates. Similarly, it will disregard any votes cast as a proxy on this resolution by any key management personnel, who are all the directors and members of management whose remuneration is detailed in the annual report and their closely related parties, such as their families. However, those persons can vote as proxies of other eligible shareholders, where they've been directed how to vote, and the chairman can vote undirected proxies on behalf of eligible shareholders. Proxy votes received in respect to this resolution are shown on the slide displayed. So I now invite any questions in respect of this resolution. Are there any questions? Sure. So just in terms of the long-term incentive scheme, so, if you look back at the schemes that were in place going back over many years, like, you would have to say, in aggregate, the performance hurdles have been lowered over time. And, like, yes, we are operating in a more difficult environment, but. So it is harder to produce the same level of performance. That is true. So I understand the reason for that. But at the same time, like, ultimately, shareholders live on performance. So if you're having, you know, the shareholders doing less well because of a more difficult environment, I feel that it's only fair that management should do less well as well, not to be letting them off the hook and saying, "Well, it's more difficult now, so we're not expecting you to perform as well. Okay. Okay. I think... In relation to that, there is a combination of both STI and LTI that apply here. And I think as an organization, we've been very disciplined in the way we've applied those hurdles, notwithstanding the fact that the board has discretion at any point in time. And there have been a number of instances where the STI, for instance, has been, has not been paid at all, even though, in our view, management had performed very well during those periods. Because of the discipline we apply to the way we structure our incentive components, if you like, of remuneration. In terms of LTI, again, we've benchmarked those, not just in terms of quantum, but in terms of the level, in terms of measure of those particular measures that are applied. Trudy, do you want to add anything to that? I would just say, I just got out the history on LTI payouts for the CEO, and I think since 2017, the gate's been open, and they've been awarded four times and not awarded three times. So, you know, in terms of an LTI program, we, you know, you don't expect it to pay out 100% every year, just as, you know, shareholders don't get maximum returns every year. So I think that's about right in terms of us getting the balance right between making sure that the objective is stretching but also achievable. I think in terms of, you know, just general quantum and LTI schemes, we wanna make sure that we're competitive in the market, not only just for our CEO, but also for our executive team, to make sure that we attract the right people to Credit Corp and likewise retain them, because the long-term incentive plan is our retention plan in terms of, if the targets are achievable and stretching, then we will keep good people simply because they will stay for the three years in terms of the term of the performance rights to stay with Credit Corp and give it their best effort. I can't add anything to that. Thank you, Trudy. Any other questions in relation to Item four? If there are no further questions, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. I'll now invite any remaining questions from shareholders and proxies related to my address, to the CEO's presentation, and any other relevant matter shareholder or proxy wishes to raise. Are there any other questions? Don. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Don McLay. I was former chairman and director of this company for a little while. We have a new innovation this time, which is Welcome to Country. Would you like to confirm how much money the company has paid to either side of the recent Yes, No vote? Was there any money paid to any side of that debate? Short answer is no, Don. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any other questions? Yes, we have a question there. Hi, David Badham, representing David Badham. Forgive me, I missed the beginning of the meeting today, so you may have addressed this already, but there's this impairment of, I think, AUD 45 million for the current financial year, which was indicated, you know, there were issues in America, indicated, I think, in around August, I gather. What have we learned from this so that we can avoid this happening next time? You know, what lessons have we learned, if any lessons could be learned? You know, was it predictable? Did we miss something? And how can we address it going forward so that we don't have a surprise in the future? Thank you. Thank you. Good, good, good question. Thomas, I think you're best placed to respond to that. Yeah, look, it's, it's a risk that's inherent in our business, that, you know, we buy these assets, and we collect them over periods of six to eight years. And, we have to make assumptions about the future when we purchase these assets, about what conditions will be, the extent to which they'll be the same as the conditions we've encountered in the past. And, in general, yes, there's, you know, our return criteria that, that delivers, 16%-18%, ROE, sort of allows us to, I guess, weather periods of downturn without imperiling, imperiling the company's solvency. But from time to time, yeah, there will be, there will be things that change and, and, that affect our performance. It is inherent in the nature of the business we're in that there may be impairments or provisions in the same way as, you know, a bank going through a downturn might take up extra impairments on its loan book. It's an inherent risk. Look, having said all of that, what we try to do is purchase assets where we have great familiarity, so there's less likely to be volatility in terms of the returns we achieve. We try to look at, you know, the general amount of uncertainty in the environment. Now, through probably calendar 2022, so straddling the FY 2022 and FY 2023 year, it was our intention to purchase less than we actually ended up purchasing. However, we started the year having undertaken a number of what we call forward flow agreements, where we contract to buy into the future from our clients. We have monthly volume ranges, minimums, and maximums that we'll agree to buy at a fixed price. What occurred through the year, and we would generally expect to be buying at or around the midpoint, probably a bit lower than the midpoint. What occurred during the year was many of our clients experienced increasing levels of charge-offs, and they sent us through more volume than we expected. We were contractually obliged to purchase, so we met our contractual obligations and then didn't renew those agreements. That led to a situation where we purchased about 40% more than we had intended to during that period. So, you know, had we, had we purchased in accordance with our intentions, or our expectations, this write-down that we've talked about, the AUD 45 million in NPAT, would have been close to half what it is, would have been closer to AUD 22-AUD 23 million. So what have we learnt about that? Well, we've learnt that we probably need to be a bit more aggressive in our contracting. We have always tried to introduce cumulative caps in our contracting, so once we hit the expectation, notwithstanding the monthly variations and the minimum maximum, once we hit our sort of max, our cumulative maximum, then the contract comes to an end. And so we have that in our purchasing arrangements now. So I guess that's what we've learnt there. Thankfully, the market is a bit softer now, and we have a bit more bargaining power with the sellers. And so it's enabled us to achieve those contractual terms. But, yeah, hopefully that helps answer your question. So there, there certainly have been some learnings. But at the end of the day, there are inherent risks in our business, as there would be in any, any business. Thank you, Thomas. Thanks for the question. Yes, another question down here. Oh, sorry. Okay. Good morning, Mr. Chair. My name is Patricia Beale. I'm representing both my own shares and other Australian Shareholders' Association people who have given us our proxies. Following up from Thomas's last answer, I have always found it difficult to bring into my assessment exactly how much of your profits are actually related to the performance over one year, given that there is a fair runoff, and now you've confirmed that the runoff seems to take 6-8 years. Would that not be an indication that perhaps the long-term incentives should go for maybe five or six years to, encompass all, all the decisions that a, a CEO and other people involved in the running of the company have taken over the previous, perhaps six years, to, to make a fairer representation of how long, the, the decisions they took affected future results? Thank you. Yeah. You want to respond to that, Trudy? I mean, a six-year long-term incentive is not something which I think is practiced anywhere in the markets that we're aware of. There is a sort of an ongoing component of what you're talking about, though, that impacts back on each year and gets brought into the performance measures there. Mm-hmm. I think it is covered, but- Things are extending, put it that way. Yeah. 3-4 and over 4 years. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So I think, while we're not quite in the realms of a major bank in terms of putting in long-term deferments and the like, we have a 3-year strategic planning cycle, and that's generally why our performance rights are hinged on our 3-year cycle, which is where we get management to demonstrate to us what are the 3-year plans, because we think that's a reasonable outlook to have. But I think in terms of likewise, the earnings, the way our business is comprised, it's also got the consumer lending segment as well, which is a lot, lot shorter in terms of its impact on profitability. Having said that, we do look at what our competitors are doing from time to time, whether we should extend that LTI program to 4 years or to 3 years with a 1-year deferment, for example. you know, that is always on the table and something we reflect on every year. Yeah. Thanks, Patricia. We'll continue. Just one. Thanks. Jeff Still. The question I've got is in relation to, did you get any feedback when you make a bid for particular companies' debt? I don't know how this really works. I'm a new shareholder here, but, do you get feedback as to relatively where you stood in relation to other, people who might have bid for the same ledger? In terms of purchasing? Yeah. Yeah. Do you get, like, informal or any sort of formal feedback from the vendor or his advisors or whoever? Maybe you can't say, but I'd be interested to know. Thomas, do you want to respond to that? Sure. Oh, look, sometimes you get feedback. You don't always know whether the feedback has credibility. Obviously, a seller wants you to turn up next time and pay the highest price you can, so that if you miss out, you know, the feedback might overstate the position in the hope that you'll follow that and pay more next time. So it's, yeah, it's not always clear. These are not, or very rarely will these be sort of open auction situations where you can see what others are really interested in. ... I've got one more question. You want it, you want it now, or what? While you're on your feet, I think. Okay, thanks. Just in relation to, I think the, just this year, the U.S. president increased or extended the student loan forgiveness program, which was a bit of a shock to many people, I'm sure. Do you think that will potentially cause, like, a ripple effect through the lower end of the credit market or demographic or whatever, that would be attracted to that sort of thing, and create a precedent for expectations of forgiveness of all sorts of other debt? Look, I think US consumers have different attitudes towards repayments of debt, in any case. And, in terms of whether you know, recent governments and government announcements will change those attitudes, hard to say. I mean, the through COVID and a lot of the stimulus in the US was quite extraordinary for a country that doesn't have the sort of welfare safety net that we would experience in Australia. It really did change things significantly. And you can see it's a very different situation in the US to Australia. The US consumer has relevered, you know, and is now you know, total sort of unsecured indebtedness in the US is something like 15%-20% higher than it was pre-COVID. U.S. consumers have continued to spend as though they were still receiving stimulus, and they're just doing so on borrowed money. So yeah, I guess these things are signals, and they, they could change people's, you know, attitudes towards their, their credit obligations. That's, that's true. Thank you, Thomas. Pia, did you have another question? Sorry, I'll come back to you. Yes. Thank you. I want to commend the board for adopting the policy of share ownership over a period of time. I think that's fantastic from the point of view of us as shareholders. It actually shows that you have a lot of confidence in the company and in the management team. I also want to thank the board, and I want to thank Thomas and his team, particularly, 'cause this has been a very difficult year, an absolutely difficult year, and yet you maintained the discipline and focus. So from a shareholder point of view, individually, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Pia. Any other question? Hi, Banjo Bond, representing myself. My question is in regard to competitors in the U.S. Are you aware of how they're faring? I'm assuming they're experiencing similar impairments, and do you think there'll be opportunities similar to the, Collection House here in Australia going forward? Yeah, so, Uh- Oh, sorry, Eric. No, take it. I'll jump in. Thanks for the question. Yeah, look, there are two listed competitors, PRA Group and Encore Capital Group. And I think they will cover the like listed companies in the US, they'll have their quarterly announcements over the next couple of weeks, so we'll see what that brings. I think PRA Group took an impairment in the first quarter, so after the March quarter of this year, on their assets and actually PRA Group, I think, is presently operating at a loss on its global operations, of which the US is the largest part. So look, it'll be interesting to see. I don't... I think both PRA and Encore are relatively secure from a balance sheet perspective, so I don't, I don't see any trouble for those players. However, there are a number of other smaller debt buyers around about our size, probably six or seven, and then a number smaller than that again, who have bought heavily over the years. They'll be experiencing increased cost of funding now with a rapid increase in the rate they're paying for their capital. They tend to be highly levered, so there may well be opportunities in the secondary market. At the moment, what we've seen is a lot of those smaller players have had trouble funding themselves, and so they haven't been bidding aggressively, and that has contributed to price falls. So at the immediate sort of impact is we can buy assets direct from the issuer more cheaply than we have historically. Whether that then flows through into some distressed sales of secondary sales of portfolios, we'll just have to wait and see. It hasn't appeared as yet. We should know in the next few weeks. Okay, are there any other questions? All right, Ashkan. Given where the share price is currently at, since the recent impairment announcement came out, I would note that the lowest price it traded at, I think, was AUD 11.45, which coincidentally is also the last audited NTA per share figure, according to the last annual report. Is... Would the board consider, if the share price were to stay below AUD 12 for a period of time, would they consider an off-market share buyback? I say off-market for the reason that, if you look at, like, firstly, in terms of the franking credit reserve that the company has, it is quite substantial. Given that, historically, on average, they've paid around half their earnings as a dividend, so you would assume, if that were to continue for the foreseeable future, that franking credit balance would continue to grow over time. Now, a lot of companies, it's common practice, when they do an off-market share buyback, they'll do a large franked dividend component. This allows them to conduct the off-market buyback at a discount to the market price. According to what I've seen in academic papers, it appears to be something around an average 12% discount is what they happen on, on average. For reason being that, you know, that gets taken up by people on low tax rates, typically self-managed super fund retirees, et cetera. They get the franking credits, so it's still worthwhile for them to take up that offer. So if you look at, if the share price were to trade below AUD 12 for a period of time, and for example, you could conduct a buyback by 10% of your capital, for example, at AUD 11 in an off-market share buyback, that would be accretive to shareholders because it would happen below NTA. Okay. It would be, I feel that buying back your shares, if you can get the same return, is less risky than expanding your operations. Because the answer to that is all of those issues are certainly contemplated by the board and discussed by the board. Trudy talked a little about the capital issue. There have been questions, for instance, on the impact on dividend and so on, this being a non-cash item. All of those issues and the purchasing or alternative use of capital, if you like, opportunities that persist at the time will be taken into account by the board. But we certainly have no plans at the moment to go forward with anything like that, in terms of a buyback I'm talking about. Right. But it's all... it's part of the consideration constantly. Capital management is the way we run this business, essentially. Okay, if there are no other questions... Thank you. Thank you for your questions. We'll now move to conduct the poll, and I'll go through voting instructions. The persons entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, corporate representatives, attorneys of members, and proxyholders who hold yellow voting cards. If you're attending the meeting in more than one of these capacities, for example, as a shareholder and also as a proxyholder, you would have been issued with multiple voting cards. Detailed on the reverse of your yellow voting card is the resolution or resolutions being put to this poll. Relevant instructions are also printed on the reverse of your admission card. The procedures for filling the voting cards are as follows: For proxyholders, you have only directed votes for or against, as shown on the summary of votes attached to your voting card. All you need to do is print your name and sign the yellow voting card and lodge it in the ballot box. By completing the yellow voting card when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. If you're a proxyholder with open votes, as shown on the summary of votes, you need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. It's important for proxyholders to note that, for their votes to be counted in this poll, you must submit your voting card. For shareholders on the yellow voting card, shareholders also need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your vote. Either a tick or a cross is acceptable. Please ensure that you print your name where indicated and sign the voting card. Please note that unsigned voting cards will be invalid. If you require any assistance, please raise your hand. Rishad Vachha of Boardroom Pty Limited, our share registry, is on hand to assist back of the room. When you've finished filling in your voting card, please place them in one of the poll boxes provided by Boardroom. I'll now pause to allow you time to finalize your vote. Could the shareholders raise your hand if you require more time to complete and lodge your voting cards? We're all okay? So there being no request for further time, I hereby declare that voting is now closed. Please submit the voting forms as instructed, and ask the returning officers, once collected, to count the votes. The results of the poll will be released to the stock exchange later today. Anyone other than, other than the board members? I'll just wait till they're all collected. Okay, I believe so. Thomas, you're it. We've got a couple here. And Thomas here. Okay, no more outstanding ballot papers? Okay, as I say, they'll be posted and released to the stock exchange, the results of that poll, later today. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this meeting. There being no further business, I declare the meeting closed, and on, on behalf of the Board of Directors of Credit Corp, thank you for your participation in today's meeting, and I wish you all a good day. Thank you.