Okay, the time is now 2:00 P.M., so I'd like to welcome everyone to our eighth annual general meeting of Duxton Water Limited. A very warm welcome to those who are in the room with us today, and to those who are dialed into the live stream. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Brendan Rinaldi, independent director of Duxton Water Limited, and it is my pleasure to be the standing chair for today's annual general meeting. For those who have attended our AGMs before, you would know that it is our company chairman, Ed Peter, who usually opens our meetings. Unfortunately, Ed is unable to be present today as he has business overseas. However, we are pleased that we have technology, so he can still join us today. So he's up on the screen. Ed, would you like to say a quick hello to everyone? Can you unmute, Ed, if you're on mute? My sincere apologies for not being able to be there with everybody there in Adelaide. I'm leaving you in the capable hands of Brendan, and I'm excited about the year coming up. While I couldn't be there in person, I wouldn't miss this for anything in the world. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Brendan. In addition to Ed, we also have Mr. Dirk Wiedmann, also an independent director for Duxton, who is dialing in from Switzerland. We've got Dirk up. Hi, Dirk. Would you like to say hello to everyone? Yeah. Hello, everyone. It's actually quite early on my time. It's 6:30, so I had to take a couple of coffees. I'm used to it, and we had a couple of difficult years in agricultural businesses. But one good thing is, we are very used to video conferencing, and I think the quality in the meantime is actually pretty good. So... And this is a very important meeting, so I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Dirk, and thanks to Ed and Dirk. It's great to see you both up there. Just a quick piece of housekeeping. If you haven't already, could I please ask you to put your mobile phones to silent? Our usual disclaimer up there. To commence proceedings, I would firstly like to introduce my fellow board members, Mr. Ed Peter and Mr. Dirk Wiedmann, who were just up on screen, Mr. Steve Duerden here, Dr. Vivienne Brand, and Mr. Dennis Mutton. We also have Katelyn Adams in the second row, who is our company secretary. So you can read more about our board members in the company's latest report or in the appendix section of the presentation, which was released to the ASX this morning. Over to the Duxton Water team, who is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of our business. In the front row, we have the Lachies, Lachie Campbell and Lockie Beech, who are the key operational members of the team. We also have Mercedes, Harry, and Carolyn, and our finance team, who's here today as well, Michael, James, Marcus, and Tanya, and Sam Venning as well. So thank you to the board and the management team for all your efforts over the last 12 months. You've contributed immensely to the operations of our company in what's been a very challenging year. I advise that in accordance with the company's constitution, a quorum is present today. In accordance with the Corporations Act, I advise that the notice of annual general meeting was was dispatched to all shareholders on the 29th of April, 2024. Accordingly, I declare the meeting properly constituted and open. Today, I'll be providing an overview of our performance in 2023. Lockie Beech will provide a portfolio update, and then Lachie Campbell will provide an outlook for FY 2024. We will then look to cover off the formal items of business and finish up with any shareholder questions. I would kindly ask you, please hold your questions until the relevant section of the meeting. When you registered for today's meeting, you should have been given either a blue, pink, or white attendee card. If you've not received this card, please go to the reception or the registration desk at the front of the room and collect one. Only those people holding a blue or pink attendee card are entitled to speak or ask questions at today's meeting. If you received a blue card, this will be used for voting in the polls, which will be opened at the end of the meeting. Where a proxy vote has been given to the chairman without voting instructions, I intend to vote, to vote in favor of the resolution. The Corporations Act and the company's constitution empowers the chair to call for a poll on a resolution put to the general meeting. Today, I call for a poll on each of the resolutions to be considered at this meeting. I refer to the chairman's report in the company's annual report for the year ended 31 December 2023, and provide the following overview: Over the last 12 months, we're pleased to have delivered on both of our dividend targets in what was a more challenging year for Australian agriculture generally. The industry continues to feel the effects from the 2022 and 2023 floods, the worst floods the Murray-Darling Basin has seen since 1956. Crop loss, damage to machinery, roads, irrigation, infrastructure, and the like, were just some of the operational challenges faced by many basin irrigators in 2023. Last year in September, the Bureau of Meteorology declared the presence of an El Niño and a positive IOD. Both of these weather events tend to cause much drier conditions over the Murray-Darling Basin. This was of particular importance, as these drivers have not been seen together since 2006, which was during the millennium drought. Fast-forward today, we know the dry conditions expected over the Murray-Darling Basin didn't eventuate. However, it is worth noting that parts of New South Wales and Southern Queensland did experience significant drought-like conditions into the spring of last year, and late summer into autumn has seen extremely dry conditions for WA, SA, Tasmania and Western Victoria. We were just talking before about how King Island has had the driest years in 142 years, so they're not sure how to cope with no water infrastructure there... With high decile rainfall over the Southern Murray-Darling Basin, particularly over December and January, it meant prices remained lower over the peak irrigation period. Dam storages remain relatively high, and with an average rainfall forecast over the next few months, we're expecting once again to receive strong allocations on our General Security assets into the upcoming water year. While the persistent wet conditions over the past 4 years continue to impact underlying operational performance of High Security water assets, our General Security assets have continued to perform well over the last few years, seeing annual cash yields of up to 8% and strong capital growth. Around 20% of our portfolio are allocated to General Security, which continues to provide us with natural hedge against wet weather due to increased allocation. We know that Australia has a volatile and at times, extreme climate, and given we've just had 4 wet years in a row, we anticipate more normal weather conditions aren't too far away. It's also worth mentioning here that towards the end of 2023, we saw the company's share price trade at a small premium to NAV for the first time since mid-2019, which was great to see. We'll touch on some of the other key metrics on the screen in front of you throughout this presentation. When we started this business in September 2016, our aim was to partner with farmers, both large and small, to offer choice and flexibility when it comes to water usage. We're proud to say that over the last seven years, we've helped and supported hundreds of Australian farming businesses with their annual water requirements, and we will continue to do so for years to come. While our industry has seen some challenges over the last 1-2 years, we would like to thank all of our shareholders for their support and investment in our company since inception. Since forming seven years ago, we are proud to have generated total shareholder returns of approximately 90%, consisting of both dividends and share price appreciation. To ensure the company is able to generate enough earnings to meet our dividend targets, one of our key focus areas has been to maintain a stable leasing revenue stream. While we don't want to overextend our lease position in the middle of a wet cycle, we have been cautious to maintain a relatively healthy lease percentage. Our lease percentage was 60% at the end of December, and has provided a stable revenue stream and a great hedge against the persistent lower allocation prices that have been seen over the last few years. In doing so, we've also strengthened our WALE out to 3.1 years, which is up from 1.4 years in the 12 months prior. Other key events worth mentioning include the AUD 39 million acquisition and leaseback of water entitlements from Treasury Wine Estates that occurred in July last year. This was one of the largest transactions for Australian water entitlements the market has seen in recent years. This type of transaction is a great example of what the company can achieve, and we see material upside in partnering with corporate farming businesses to provide long-term water security at scale. To fund this transaction, we completed our first capital raise since 2019. We successfully raised AUD 51.5 million from both new and existing shareholders, which was a fantastic result in what was such a challenging market. We would like to sincerely thank everyone who was involved in helping us with this raise. Finally, we also issued existing eligible shareholders with a bonus option. The options were issued to shareholders at no cost on a 1-for-4 basis, and they have an exercise price of AUD 1.92 per share, with an expiry date of the tenth of May, 2026. The options were issued to reward our shareholders for their investment in the company and potentially provide an additional source of capital that can be used to expand the company's portfolio in a cost-effective manner. I'll now move through some of the key points in relation to the company's 2023 financial statements. As we look to the P&L, the company generated a net profit after tax of AUD 6.3 million for FY 2023. This was down from AUD 10 million in the prior year. This difference is largely, largely attributed to a timing difference with respect to the company selling down its unleased water allocations when compared to the prior year. This is illustrated by comparing the fair market value of the company's water allocations on hand at 31 December 2022 of only 100,000, versus 31 December 2023, where the company still held 4.2 million of water allocation. The lower P&L result is mainly attributable to the higher interest rate environment and the non-cash impairment on the company's water portfolio of almost AUD 1 million. Attainable yields on the company's High Security water assets continue to be suppressed by the continued wet weather conditions for the fourth consecutive year. I would also like to make mention that over the last couple of years, we have recorded material statutory profits on the turnover of our water entitlement portfolio. Each year, we aim to turn over around 5%-10% of the portfolio when we see opportunities to generate value for our shareholders. Rebalancing part of the water entitlement portfolio not only results in overall cash benefits to the company from buying assets at below market value and selling them at above market value, but because we have significant lower cost bases of some of these assets, we book significant accounting profits. This has enabled us to continue to meet our dividend guidance in an environment where attainable yields on the company's High Security water assets remain below average. Going forward, more normal weather conditions and in a slightly different economic environment, we expect to have much less reliance on trading profits over the course of the year, as we will be able to rely on our operating profits. To cover some of the lease portfolio metrics quickly, our lease revenue remained relatively stable at around AUD 8 million in 2023. We closed the year at 60% leased, which is up from 54% in the prior year. During the year, we increased our WALE from 1.4 years out to 3.1 years as of December 2023. We look forward to building our lease portfolio back to a percentage of our long-term target of 70, 70%-80%. The normalizing of weather conditions and an increased demand for leases will be the driving forces behind us once again achieving this target... Over to the balance sheet. In July 2023, our total portfolio valuation exceeded AUD 400 million for the first time since inception. While it has since dropped below this valuation, it is considered a key milestone for the company. The company's NAV, from a fair market value perspective at 31 December, was AUD 1.62 per share. This represents a 28% decrease when compared with the prior year. The recent reduction in NAV can largely be attributed to the following: AUD 0.07 paid out as a fully franked dividend, AUD 0.07 of dilution from the company's recent capital-raising activities, and approximately AUD 0.14 coming from the softening of water entitlement values during the year. In 2023, the Aither Entitlement Index, which is an index that tracks the prices of major groups of Southern Murray-Darling Basin water entitlements, fell by approximately 9%. This is the largest single decrease the index has seen in over a decade. It is not uncommon in wetter years with full storages and high allocations to see water entitlement values decline. The recent softening has likely been further exacerbated by the need for working capital for farmers, as operating costs and interest rates have sharply increased against a backdrop of low water allocation prices, lower commodity prices, and knock-on effects from the 2023 floods, which are still being felt by many. Water licenses, as a homogenous, tradable, and liquid asset, become an increasingly popular source of liquidity for irrigators looking to generate cash to get through the next farming season. Even more so when conditions are wet, allocation prices are low, and irrigators can access super cheap water on the spot market. Over to capital management. Our loan-to-value ratio remained relatively stable during the year, ending at 29%. This remains well below the company's maximum LVR limit of 40%. The company's effective cost of borrowings has, however, increased in line with the cash rate rises seen over the last 12-18 months. For the year ending December 31, 2023, the company had an effective cost of borrowings of 5.2%, which is up from 3% in the prior year. We also reduced our drawn-out position during the year from AUD 125 million at the end of 2022 to AUD 116.5 million at December 31, 2023. This gives the company balance sheet flexibility to capitalize on well-priced water entitlements as they come to market. The cash received from the company's recent sale of water entitlements to Treasury Wine Estates is expected to be offset against the company's debt in the interim, further reducing the company's interest costs. The company doesn't currently have any fixed-rate swaps in place. However, as a board, we are actively reviewing our hedging strategies and closely monitoring interest rate markets for further opportunities. During the 2023 year, the company delivered on both its dividend targets, paying fully franked dividends of AUD 0.069 per share during the year. This is up from AUD 0.065, fully franked, in 2022. Including the most recent dividend, the company has now paid out total dividends of AUD 0.413 per share since November 2017, with each dividend increasing over time. The last 11 company dividends have also been fully franked. We have provided shareholders with a stable and consistent income stream from investing in Duxton Water since inception. This consistent growth in dividends paid has resulted in shareholders benefiting from a 6% annual growth rate in dividends since inception. Since the end of the '23 financial year, in keeping with our previously stated dividend targets, the company has paid its fourteenth consecutive and increasing dividend of AUD 0.036 per share, fully franked, on 26th of April, 2024. We are pleased to reaffirm our dividend guidance for the remainder of 2024, and we are targeting a AUD 0.037 per share, fully franked dividend, to be paid to shareholders in the second half of this year. The company anticipates it will provide a further update in relation to its dividend guidance for FY 2025 in the second half of this year. I'll now hand over to Lachie Beech, who will provide a portfolio update. So over to you. Thanks, Lachie. Thanks, Brendan. Firstly, I'd like to thank everybody for coming today. Your interest and support is much appreciated. For those of you who haven't attended one of our AGMs before, my name is Lachlan Beech. Today, I'm going to catch up on the portfolio performance, portfolio diversification, and provide you with an update on our lease portfolio. Following this, I'll hand over to my colleague, Lachlan Campbell, who will provide you with an update on the business going forward. During the year, our portfolio exceeded AUD 400 million for the first time since inception. This is a major milestone for the company as it looks to position itself as a go-to partner of choice for Australian farming businesses looking for water security. During the year, we increased the size of the portfolio by 6,700 megalitres, or 8%, primarily through the acquisition of premium High Security water licenses, not only as part of the TWE deal, but also by acquiring some additional licenses in other zones. Our general security entitlements have continually performed very well in wet conditions. We've seen a double-digit value appreciation on most general security assets over the last couple of years. These assets have also generated mid- to high single-digit yields at the same time. High Security assets have continued to trade at the bottom end of their cycle, at the bottom end of their cycle, in both valuations and yields. However, we see significant upside in these assets in both the short and long term as, as the macro demand and supply remains very strong. We expect cash yields to influence, to be influenced by the normalization of weather conditions and dam storage levels, whereas valuations will be influenced by more so the macro factors, such as the cost of capital, increased permanent plantings, and improving commodity prices. The government buyback program may be something that impacts the value of water entitlements. However, Lachie will work through this shortly in the business outlook. We'll continue to seek well-priced trade opportunities and actively manage our portfolio to work within the climatic cycle. The Duxton Water portfolio has been assembled in a strategic and targeted manner. The composition allows for a dynamic approach when it comes to delivering our lease obligations, as well as being able to maximize our return from our deployed capital. Our portfolio composition of owning both high and general security assets means the portfolio will continue to generate returns across all parts of the climatic cycle. High Security assets tend to generate higher yields in dry parts of the climatic cycle, and general security assets generally yield much higher in the wetter parts of the climatic cycle. When deploying capital, we look at where future demand is likely to come from and what areas of the river system gives us the most flexibility when delivering our water supply products to the market. We continue to monitor the markets outside of the southern Murray-Darling Basin. However, we believe there is still significant value within this region, as the market remains somewhat fragmented, and there continues to be permanent crops put in the ground. To finish off this slide, the key takeaways in terms of diversification for our strategy is: diversification is paramount, scale is key, and having strong relationships with our lessees, customers, and other market intermediaries, such as brokers, is critical to our strategy going forward. One of the main key focus areas for 2023 was to continue building out our relationships with irrigators and to expand our lease book. Due to the extremely wet conditions, demand for appropriately priced leases has reduced. This is because irrigators can continue to take advantage of the well below average spot prices that have been seen over the last 3-4 years. During the year, our lease revenue of AUD 8 million remained relatively consistent when compared to last year. We had a number of existing leases roll off at 30 June. However, these were largely replaced by the TWE leases that commenced at 1 July 2023. The company's lease percentage was 60% at 31 December 2023. This is below the company's long-term average of 70%-80%. However, that was strategic, as the company did not want to lock a material percentage of its portfolio into long-term leases at cyclically low lease rates. Further to this, our lease portfolio continues to act as a strong hedge against persistent lower allocation prices. Moving forward, we'll continue to engage with existing and new customers in order to lock in further, further long-term leasing arrangements, which will continue to support our weighted average lease expiry and our leasing revenue stream as varying leases roll off annually. The company maintains its view of building back up to having 70%-80% of the portfolio locked into long-term leases as weather conditions normalize. I'll now hand over to Lachie Campbell. Thank you, Lachie, and hello to those who are sitting in front of me and listening in to our live stream this afternoon. My name is Lachie Campbell, and it is my absolute pleasure to be standing before you again, well, once again, I should say, at Duxton Water's eighth Annual General Meeting. Today, I'm going to provide you with a little bit of an overview with regards to some of the key points in relation to the outlook for our business. So the weather remains an interesting topic of conversation this year, because if we start to go back and look at what's transpired in late 2022 and early 2023, the Murray-Darling Basin saw some of the worst flooding events since 1956. We then saw El Niño and positive IOD declared in September of 2023, which suggested we may be moving back to drier conditions. However, those expectations were short-lived as we continued to see above average rainfall across most of the southern Murray-Darling Basin during summer. So where do we sit now? We've seen lots of rainfall across northern and coastal New South Wales over the last few months. However, we've seen much drier conditions and below average subsoil moistures in across various regions of Australia, including WA, SA, Tasmania and western parts of Victoria. From a dam storages point of view, Dartmouth and Hume are currently sitting at 94% and 60% capacity, respectively, which is well down on this time last year when they were sitting at 96% and 91%, respectively. This, to us, indicates that there is less water available in the system today when compared to this time last year. So building on from this quickly, on the 14th of May, 2024, a couple of weeks ago, the Bureau of Meteorology declared a La Niña watch. History tells us that La Niña events tend to form around 50% of the time from when a La Niña watch is declared. And as we know, La Niña events tend to cause above average rainfall over the eastern half of Australia. And if this was to eventuate, this would be Australia's fourth La Niña in as many years, something that has never occurred in our history before. Complicating things further, the Bureau of Meteorology, along with many of the other global major weather agencies, are forecasting a positive IOD event to occur in the coming months. As we know, a positive IOD event tends to cause drier conditions over the eastern half of Australia, and this was what was actually the driving force behind the drought that we did see in Australia throughout 2018, 2019. Now, weather conditions influence rainfall. This impacts dam storage levels, which dictates water allocation percentages. Therefore, available water supply then flows through to impact the spot price for water, which then in turn impacts yields that we can achieve on our water entitlements. So given the uncertainty in weather at the moment, we're remaining relatively conservative in our approach to the upcoming water year. We have contingencies and strategies in place to accommodate for all weather scenarios, including wet, average, or dry, whichever, whichever way the weather may be. So obviously, government water buybacks, this is a very topical area for discussion at the moment. So as a quick reminder, the Australian government has, over time, been acquiring back water licenses from the market through voluntary water purchases. These licenses are then redirected away from agricultural use, and the government holds onto them, where they are used for environmental purposes. So what this practice does is it actually reduces the total supply of water available to agriculture. And over the last 15 years or so, the Australian government has recovered about 25% of the water entitlements that are on issue. Now, in the last year, so December last year, legislation was changed that allows the government to conduct further large-scale voluntary water buybacks from the market over the next 4 years. So that was late last year. Early this year, the government released a draft framework that outlines exactly how they plan to recover up to 450,000 megaliters of water licenses from the market. This volume of water is equal to approximately 6%-7% of the total free float of licenses on issue in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin. Now, when I say free float, I mean all of the water licenses that are on issue, less what the government already holds, which is, as we know, about 25%. Now, while this doesn't seem like an overly exaggerated number, that's six, in the context of market depth, what the government is looking to buy back represents a significant percentage of what is traded in our water markets every single year. The federal budget that was, that came out a couple of weeks ago, indicated that the government plans to recover 100,000 megaliters of licenses from the market between 1 July of this year and 30 June next year, and they've allocated AUD 613 million from what's called the WESA account, to do this. The budget also discloses that the government anticipates recovering a further 100,000 megaliters the year after, a further 100,000 megaliters the year after, and up to 150,000 megaliters the year after that. You then overlay this with the fact that it's the entitlement sellers who are the ones that actually dictate the price that the government pays to acquire these licenses. We believe the size and the scale of these buybacks may have an influence on entitlement values in the coming years. So to summarize very quickly, we maintain that water is well-positioned to outperform traditional asset classes going forward. While the trading conditions over the last 12 months have presented some challenges, we have adapted and actively managed our portfolio to work within both the economic and climate conditions currently facing us. We plan to continue targeting biannual annual dividends, franked to the greatest extent possible. We will continue to build long-term strategic partnerships with Australian farming businesses of all sizes, and we will continue to seek opportunities to scale and grow our portfolio. This will ultimately lead to improved market liquidity and greater flexibility when it comes to how we manage our portfolio. And we will continue to monitor investment opportunities outside of the Murray-Darling Basin to add further diversification to the portfolio. That being said, we still believe there is significant value to be unlocked from within the Murray-Darling Basin. So, finally, we remain confident in our strategy to continue to deliver the most prudent returns possible to our shareholders. I'll hand back now to Brendan to close out the informal part of today's meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you to both of our Lachies. You can see for quite a simple business, there's a lot going on and a lot coming down the chain as well. So a big thank you, and I'd like to thank everyone for the opportunity today. And to those online, we actually have a full house. We actually have people standing in the back, so it's great to see the support here today. While this year hasn't been without its challenges, I'm proud to say we've navigated our way through with a great result being delivered to shareholders. As a board, we have a great confidence in the outlook and the future of our business. Our objective is to ensure we can continue to deliver value to both our customers and our shareholders on a consistent basis. I now table the notice of meeting, which was made available to all shareholders on 29th of April, 2024, and if there is no objection, I propose that the notice of meeting be taken as read. I advise that no notice of any other items for today's agenda have been received, and therefore, declare the only matters for our meeting today that can be dealt with are those set out in the notice of meeting. We will open the poll after all items in the notice have been introduced and discussed. I will then ask all shareholders holding a blue card to vote on their attendee cards, which will be collected once the poll closes. I will conduct the meeting by referring to the resolutions in the PowerPoint presentation behind me. Should any member have a question with regard to any of the motions being considered, there'll be an opportunity to ask prior to the voting on each resolution. I now refer to those matters set out in the notice of meeting. I should also note, I'm going to read the first one in full from my script, and we'll then move through the others in short form. The first item of business today is to receive and consider the financial report, directors' report, and independent auditors' report for the financial period ended 31 December 2023. I wish to advise that a copy of the company's annual report for the period ended 31 December 2023, was lodged with the ASX on 29 February 2024, and sent to those shareholders who requested a hard copy. A copy of the company's FY 2023 annual report is also available for download on the company's website, and we also have copies here today. Please note that Mr. Neil Jegaraj from KPMG, the company's auditors, is also present today, if you have any questions for him. You can put your hand up. Here he is, in the front here. We're not required to formally adopt these reports. However, I invite any discussion or questions in relation to the company's annual financial statements. Are there any discussions on this matter that anyone would like to raise? Yes. Thank you. My name is Greg O'Connell, and I represent the Australian Shareholders Association. So, today I represent, sorry, we have ten proxies that I'm representing, and I'll be voting 244,941 open shares. Just for the record, I'd like to let you know that at this stage, we expect to be voting those shares in favor of all of the motions. I don't have a particular question to ask. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Greg. Is there any other further discussion points? If not, I'll now move on to the next item. The remuneration report. I inform the meeting that explanatory notes accompanying the notice of meeting and the company's financial statements provides the background and details of the remuneration report. I now move the motion to consider, and if thought fit to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution as shown on the screen as an ordinary resolution. Please note the key management personnel of the company, including directors and their closely related parties, are excluded from voting on this resolution, as set out in the notice of general meeting. Also, in accordance with Section 250R(3) of the Corporations Act, this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors of the company. The slide behind me shows the details of votes received by proxy. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of adopting the remuneration report. I now invite discussion of that motion. If there's any questions, please advise. Voting on this resolution will be held over until the conclusion of the final item of business to allow the poll to be conducted. I'll move over to item three, which is the election of Dr. Vivienne Brand. More background can be found in the explanatory notes, and I now move the motion and to consider, if thought fit to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution as an ordinary resolution, that Vivienne Brand, having retired as director in accordance with Clause 17.3 of the Constitution, and for all other purposes, be re-elected as a director of the company. The slide behind me shows the details of votes received by proxy. Each of the directors, other than Vivienne, who abstains, recommend shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I would now like to invite any discussion of this motion. Voting on this resolution will be held over until the conclusion of the final item of business to allow a poll to be conducted. I now move to item four, re-election of Director Mr. Stephen Duerden. Again, more background can be found in the explanatory notes. I now move the motion to consider, and if thought fit, to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution as shown on the screen as an ordinary resolution. That Stephen Duerden, having retired as Director in accordance with Clause 17.3 of the Constitution, and for all other purposes, be re-elected as a director of the company. The slide behind me shows the details of the votes received by proxy. Each of the directors, other than Stephen, who abstains, recommend shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I would now like to invite discussion or questions of this motion. Voting on this resolution will be held over until the conclusion of the final item of business to allow the poll to be conducted. I'll then now like to move to item five, approval of the previous issue of shares. Again, more background can be found in the explanatory notes. I now move the motion to consider, and if thought fit, to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution shown on the screen as an ordinary resolution. Please note, the company will disregard any votes cast in favor of this resolution by or on behalf of persons who participated in the issue of shares and/or associates of those persons. The screen is showing those votes received by proxy. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution, and I now invite any discussion or questions on this motion. Voting on this resolution will be held over until conclusion of the final item of business to allow the poll to be conducted. I now move to item number 6, appointment of the auditor. Again, more background can be found in the explanatory notes. The company appointed KPMG as its auditor when it listed in 2016. While the board has been very pleased with the services provided by KPMG over the last seven years, the company has now elected to appoint Grant Thornton as its auditor from FY 2024. I now move the motion to consider, and if thought fit, to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution shown on the screen as an ordinary resolution... The screen is showing these votes received by proxy. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution, and I would now like to invite discussions or any questions on this motion. Voting on this resolution will be held over until the conclusion of the final item of business to allow the poll to be conducted. I now move to Item 5: Approval of the 10% placement capacity. Again, more background can be found in the explanatory notes, and as the approval of 10% placement is a special resolution, I note that in order to pass, it requires the approval of 75% of the votes cast by shareholders on this resolution. I now move the motion to consider, and if thought fit to pass, with or without amendment, the resolution as shown on the screen as a special resolution. The screen is showing those votes received by proxy, and the directors believe that this resolution is in the best interest of the company and unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor. In particular, the ability of the company to issue new shares under the 10% placement capacity will enable the company to issue shares in circumstances where it might otherwise be subjected to the cost, delay, and uncertainty of having to go back to shareholders for approval. The additional flexibility and speed to conduct capital raising will better position the company to pursue its interest in the prevailing market conditions. I should mention here that should this resolution be passed, it doesn't necessarily mean the company will raise capital in line with the resolution. The screen is showing those votes received by proxy. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution, and I now invite any discussion or questions on this motion. Okay, we will now vote on all the resolutions included in the notice of meeting. I appoint the Computershare representative, Ms. Gemma Kroschel, to be the Returning Officer and to conduct the poll. Gemma has power to co-opt as her agents, members of her staff and staff of the company. Over to you, Gemma. Good afternoon. Firstly, if there is any person present who believes they are entitled to vote but has not registered to vote, would you please raise your hand for assistance? The persons entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, representatives, and attorneys of shareholders and proxyholders who hold blue admission cards. On the reverse of your blue admission card is your voting paper and instructions. I will now go through the procedures for filling in the voting papers. Proxyholders who have, attached to their admission card, a summary of proxy votes, which details the voting instructions for business items on the appointment documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper, when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. In respect of any open votes a proxyholder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Proxyholders should refer to the summary of proxy vote form attached to your voting paper for further information. Shareholders also need to mark a box beside the resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated, and sign the voting paper. When you have finished filling in your voting paper, please lodge it in a ballot box, which will be circulated to ensure your votes are counted. If you require any assistance, please raise your hand. Would you please indicate by raising your hand if you require more time to complete and lodge your voting paper? Oops. Okay, back to you, Brendan. Thank you, Gemma. Can I just reconfirm that all the votes have been cast? If anyone's still got their voting card, please let us know. Doesn't look like it. Okay, I now declare the poll closed and formally charge Gemma Kosher as Returning Officer to count the votes. The votes will be tallied, and the results will be placed, and available on the ASX announcements platform following this meeting... Okay, so we'll now look to take some questions from the floor. Can we please ask that you state your name prior to asking the questions, and our team members are walking around with a microphone. So we'll move over to any questions. My name is Colin Pilcher, and this is just a personal view of mine, and the dividend reinvestment plan is somewhat generous, okay? Which I take advantage of to its fullest extent. The only question I'm asking is: the money you collect, I'm hopeful that you're using it to the best interest of the shareholders and actually furthering the, what do you call it? The usefulness and the strength of the company. That's what I'm on about, that you don't just collect the money and do nothing with it. Do something positive with it to improve the shareholders' value. Thank you. Yeah, it's a good question. Thank you, Colin, for asking. Lachie Campbell, would you like to respond to that one? Is it working or you come up here? Yep. Thank you for the question. So we sort of ask ourselves, we have a dollar, where are we best placed to spend it? So we can do several things with that dollar. We can retire debt, we can buy more water entitlements, or we could buy back our own shares, for example. So the example that you've given with regards to the DRP, what are we doing with the cash? Well, at the moment, we utilize that cash to offset against our debt facility, which saves us around about 5.75% as an interest rate, but it also provides us with greater flexibility, in terms of building out more capability within our balance sheet, so that we have more ability to buy well-priced water entitlements, when we believe the time is right for the right asset in the right zone. Thank you. Just go to one at the back, and then we'll come to Peter. Yep, thanks. My name is David Hall. Recently, I read a newspaper article that says Israeli scientists have perfected a way of extracting water from air. Putting the current situation to one side, my question is this: given that Israel is a world leader in water use, do you have any links at an academic level with any of the leading people in the universities over there? I'll throw this one again to you, Lachie, from an operational side of things. Not specifically, to answer that question in short. I'd be happy for any of the other directors, if they have any viewpoints on that topic, to share their thoughts. Is this working? Yep. It's a really good question. So I think one of the jobs of the board is to keep an eye on the long horizon as well as the short horizon, and research in relation to efficient water use is a topic close to all of our hearts, and it's something the company cares about a lot. So I think those are the kinds of things we've got in the back of our minds at all times, but no formal links at this stage. Thank you. Okay. Peter's got a question here, Lachie. Oh, is it on? Thank you, David. Thank you. My name is Peter Mitchell, shareholder. Well done, first, for navigating this last year. I think it's been an interesting time. You talked about both the Dartmouth and the Hume are holding quite high levels of water still, but dropping from this time last year. I'm interested. You used the word that, as it moves back to normal volumes, I don't actually have a problem as a shareholder with the decline in value because I see it going up again in the future. I'm interested in your supply-demand views on when is that normal again? What is the weather pattern or what is the storage? I've always seen not really the weather pattern that matters, it's actually how much is in the system, and then that gives it... I mean, if it doesn't rain, then you can't sell it next year anyway. So I'm interested if you can sort of guide, without trying to promise where the weather's gonna go or what the volume is, what is that balance that then turns the value of water back to where we've seen it and potentially higher again? Thanks for the question, Peter. So you're exactly right. It's one thing to talk about rainfall over the Murray-Darling Basin, but what really impacts available water is that rainfall being captured in dam storages, as you've rightly said. So the comparison I gave when we're looking at last year, both of the Dartmouth and the Hume dams, I just suppose for reference, are the two major dam storages along the Murray River, where most of the water is held, and it's the regulators that control the flow of water up and down the river. Last year, they were both nearly at 100% at this time. As it currently stands, as I said earlier on, they're at 90% and 60%. So that would indicate that there is quite a lot of capacity still left in dam storages. But you need to think about where we are in terms of, the year. We're about to head into winter. With that, we know that over winter, those dam storages could quite easily get back to 100%. Therefore, if that happens, then we're expecting really strong water allocations next year, lots of water availability, which therefore will lead to lower spot prices, as we've seen over the last couple of years. When we talk about normalization, we talk about, one, is normalization of rainfall patterns, but also, if we take a look at where we currently are, under more normal conditions for this time of year, we would see those dam storages be below where they currently are sitting. So from here, we sort of see things go one of two ways. We get a lot of winter rainfall, which is captured into dam storages-... in which point, we're expecting really strong water availability next year, or we don't see as much, right, we don't see as much water be captured in dam storages, and then prices start to move up on us, as spot prices move up, we then see lease prices increase, and we see more demand for leases, in particular for our High Security water assets. So that's. Have I answered your question then? Yep. So I saw up on one of your charts, you talked about above average rainfall, but dry down in the south a bit. You also talked about above average temperatures, so my expectation would be that the irrigators will need more to fix that. So it's not just supply of water, it's also the demand side. Could you make a comment about what it would look like to be normal again versus an oversupply of water? Yep, it's a good point, and Brendan, you might be able to add something to this in due course. But when we're talking about an average or two or a wetter year, what we see is a lot of farmers planting annual crops. So when we talk about the two types of crops that we see that are most common in the basin, is annual crops, which are things like rice, cotton, wheat, cereals, where you plant something and you harvest it a few months later. Versus perennial crops or permanent crops, trees, almonds, vineyards, walnuts, et cetera, where you need to water those crops every single year. So supply is one thing that we've discussed, but on the demand side, there is an equilibrium point in there, whereas things become drier, the annual croppers stop planting because it doesn't make economic sense, because water is a key input into those businesses, becomes too expensive, and there's not an economic yield on those crops on the other side. So where we are at the moment, we're expecting a really strong year of annual crop plantings because water prices are still relative or very low relative to the long-term averages. And again, even with average to dry-ish conditions over the next sort of 3-4 months, we're expecting water allocations may still have a 1 in front of them in terms of pricing, which means all of those annual croppers, it still makes economic sense for them to be producing over the next few months. Brendan, do you have anything to sort of add on to that? Yeah, I was just looking up some of the data that we captured. So the Hume, which is the major storage dam that you mentioned. So since 1962, Peter, the Hume Dam being over 70% is usually. It's not very often. It's 1-2 years at best, similar to the fourth year in a row going into La Niña. We're looking at a fourth year in a row, where at the end of June, the storage capacity could be over 70% again. So we've already been given roughly 30% general security allocation for next year, which is likely to be probably 100% again. But I guess that tells you, like, even between 2002 and 2010, the highest the Hume got was 28% capacity. During that period, there was not the permanent plantings that we know of today. So back in, was it around 2015-2017, was when we saw a lot of almond crops, for example, go in. Now, they take anywhere from 5-7 years to reach peak maturity and can take 6, you know, 12-16 megalitres per hectare. So the next dry period where we see storage levels are low, yeah, could really shake this market right up in terms of pricing for both temporary and permanent entitlements. So to give you an example, in 2019, when we saw water prices go to AUD 1,000 a megalitre, the Hume was at 24%. So, we are in a bit of an abnormal period where, like I said, since 1962, there hasn't been a period where it's been more than two years in a row at 70%. We're going into the fourth year in a row. So at some stage, it will go dry, and not only will that happen, but there's going to be a lot more demand for water. We were also talking yesterday about. It was introduced in 2021, there was AUD 1 billion set aside by the, by the federal government, to fund up to AUD 1 million of loans to farmers over 20 years to, to put irrigation infrastructure on their farms, and a lot of that was annual cropping, not permanent cropping. But once you've spent money on that infrastructure, you've got to repay it, so you're more likely to then use it for your crops. So the next time we go into severe, you know, drought and water shortages, will really be interesting to test the market. And I think that's where, I guess, we're preparing ourselves for that. We're also preparing ourselves for the next 12 months, which could see lower prices and lower allocations. But given the cycles we've seen in the past, I say history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme, that the company is in great position to capitalize on, on that, so. If I can just add one other comment to that as well, on the basis of what Brendan just said, we've been proactively trying to work with our customers and trying to encourage them to actually think about the next five years in terms of building out a water strategy to help them sort of hedge against these conditions, should they actually come to fruition. Yeah. We compare it to the interest rate rises of, you know, when interest rates were 2%, no one wanted to hedge a fixed rate at 2.5, because they didn't want to pay forward. At the moment, we're seeing really cheap water, and we're trying to sell leases to the market, but they don't want to pay the premium at the moment. But then all of a sudden, we'll see a sharp increase, and then we expect that to turn around pretty quickly. Any further questions? Thanks, Peter. I don't know if I'm being picked up here, but, Peter, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. Yeah. Everything that's been planted, all the infrastructure that Brendan was just talking about, all of that is going to give us one heck- of a tight spot. So, the team has been asked to very aggressively go out to the client base, to our farmers, and talk them through what's gonna come. Going back to what Brendan just said, and Lachie just said, people don't hedge until it's too late, and this is the perfect time to get out in front of the problem. This is the perfect time to lock in leases, because when it moves, it's gonna move so fast, and so quickly, and so aggressively, it's not funny. We don't have a lot of spare capacity. The almond plantings, the permanent crops that have gone in, in the last 5-7 years during this wet period, are changed the dial. And this four years in a row that Lachie is just talking about, and Brendan were just talking about, it is giving people a very big, false sense of security. Which, quite frankly, frightens me. And, I think that, as good social citizens and good, good players in the industry, it, it's incumbent on us to make sure that people do get themselves hedged and do get themselves covered. 'Cause when it runs next time, I believe that we will see all-time new highs again. And, we've seen in the wine industry, when China came back into the market, we went from bulk red wine at AUD 0.35, and in eight days, that price moved 40%. Over the next month, it doubled. So the... All of a sudden, we go from having, "Oh, it looks okay, it's wet," to, "Oh, my gosh, it's dry!" And everybody tries to move at once. That little funnel to get yourself set is very narrow. Sorry. Thanks, Ed. Some good points. Actually, Lachie Beech, do you want to talk about just even the movements in entitlement prices last year, just when the BOM declared El Niño and positive IOD? We saw, like, the fluctuation in temporary prices over the last 12 months is probably something we haven't seen before, but just demonstrates the volatility in the market and how quickly it can move. Yeah. Yeah, totally. In terms of when it was declared, we saw prices open the year quite low, and all of a sudden, they're up around AUD 250 a meg. You know, which is five times where they opened. And then, as this didn't sort of come to fruition, these dry conditions, they came right back down to AUD 20 a meg, where they sit today. So there's been quite a bit of fluctuation and people not knowing where they're going, in such a short period. Thanks, Lachie. Yeah, it's just indicative of what can happen pretty quickly in this market. Any more questions? Yeah, there's... I think Colin's got another question. Or David, was it? Brendan? Yeah, My name hasn't changed. Sorry. The question I'm asking refers to the government's voluntary acquisition of the water license. As more water licenses presumably get taken out of availability on a commercial basis, is this likely to put the price of water up? Well, I would think so, but is that thinking right, or am I wrong? That's a good question, David. Yeah, we add what, exactly what we've just said, and then take out 450 gigaliters of water or 6%-7% of the market today. So, Lachie, you want to touch a bit further on this? Yeah, for sure. So I think it just comes back to simple economics of demand and supply. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that a government buyback is gonna send the value of water skyrocketing. But fundamentally, when you strip back and look at how much permanent plantings are in the ground, combine that with going back to a drier part of the cycle, and then you take out further supply, perpetual supply from that market, it does point to water prices moving one way. I think another key thing to overlay that answer with is how the government buybacks are actually conducted. So anyone who owns a water license can submit a tender to the government and say that they wish to sell their licenses to the government, but they nominate the price. The seller nominates the price. So for that reason, you do see from time to time, people offering their water licenses up to the government at above-market valuations. For the government to accept one of those tenders, they have to demonstrate what... The definition is value for money, so it's quite a broad definition. So if you look back at history, and you look back at some of the water registers with regards to the government being active in this space, there is evidence to suggest that over time, the government has purchased back water, at some sort of premium to current market value. Thank you, Colin. Thanks, Lachie. Are there any more questions from the floor? We had a couple of questions sent in to us, which I'm happy to move to, if there's no more questions. Okay, so Lachie, while you're there, the question is similar to the lines we've just been discussing. It says: "Looking forward, if it turns out to be dry, temporary prices will likely increase, so how will we benefit? It comes back to the portfolio mix that we have. So, we have High Security assets, which are more sought after, more premium water licenses, which trade at a premium to what we know as general security assets. So the difference between the two is that we get higher yields on High Security when it's drier, and we have higher yields on general security when it's wetter. So what we've seen over the last few years is that our general security water licenses have performed exceptionally well, from both a cash yield point of view as well as a capital gain point of view. So what we're expecting to see is, when we move back to drier conditions, we're expecting to see the attainable yields on our high-security portfolio increase, as well as our attainable yields on our general security portfolio decrease. So, moving back to that drier part of the cycle, you also see an increase in demand for leases, which adds to the yields that we can get on our high security. So to summarize that, moving back to a drier part of the cycle, we'll see the large part of our portfolio should perform better, and then we'll see the general security portfolio drop off, mostly from a yield point of view. Thanks, Lachie, and just acknowledging that it's about an 80/20 split of high security to general security. So, the other question one of our shareholders has asked, who couldn't make it today, they'd like to get a sense of how many people in the room are water users or irrigators. So if you could please put your hand up if you're a water user or irrigator. Looks like I might be the only one, Lachie. Okay, I'll just make a call for any further questions. Yep, there's one more at the back. James, thank you. Hi. Hi, my name's Aaron. I'm just wondering how much of the leasing and licensing is to related businesses? Yep. So over time, that number has reduced significantly. I'll explain the history really quickly. So when we listed the business within the IPO prospectus, there were a number of leasing contracts that were put in play from day one with related parties to Duxton or the asset manager. Now, all of those contracts that were negotiated were at commercial arm's length terms and approved by the independent board members of each of those respective companies. Over time, those leases have rolled off. So I think as it currently stands, we have roughly 7% of our leasing revenue is in contracts with related parties, noting that those contracts were legacy contracts that were put in place some time ago. The expectation going forward is that we try not to deal with related parties where possible. We operate in the water market, where there's thousands of customers out there, so, and certainly the intention is for us to utilize customers outside of our network, if you like. Thank you, Aaron. Any further questions? Okay, thank you, everyone. Thanks again to the team, thank you again to the directors, and thank you to all the members in the room for their attendance today. As there is no further business, I declare the meeting closed. Please feel free to stay for the afternoon tea, and once again, thank you for your interest and support in Duxton Water Limited. Thank you. Thank you all. Be good, and have a really great afternoon.