Abby Foote: Z Energy Chair of the Board Kia Ora Everyone. Welcome
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Abby Foote: Z Energy Chair of the Board Kia Ora everyone. Welcome to the 2020 Z Energy Annual Shareholder Meeting. My name is Abby Foote, and I'm Chair of the Board for Z Energy. It's my pleasure to welcome everyone who's joining us virtually over the Internet for this shareholder meeting. A virtual-only shareholder meeting is a first for Z and is just one example of how COVID-19 has impacted our world and Z's business since the beginning of the year. I can see from the laptop in front of me the participation numbers of the virtual meeting. I'm really pleased to have so many shareholders join us today online. While we've tested and retested the technology used to deliver this virtual annual shareholder meeting, please bear with us as we use this technology for the first time. I'm pleased to say that the meeting has been properly called, and there is a quorum present. We'll be using some slides during the meeting. For those of you online, you'll be able to see these and follow along. They'll also be posted to the NZX and ASX and available on Z's investor website. It's my pleasure to introduce my colleagues on the Board. As I introduce them, we should be able to see them in the meeting window. I'm joined today by Blair O'Keeffe, Julia Raue, Mark Cross, Mark Malpass and Steve Reindler. We're also joined by Mike Bennetts, our CEO; members of the Z leadership team; our legal advisers and our auditors here in the Z Wellington office. I'll begin this shareholder meeting by making some remarks on what we, as a Board, have been most focused on throughout the year. I'll focus particularly on the last five months and the effects of the COVID pandemic on our business along with the actions we took to mitigate those impacts. I'll then hand over to Mike for his review of the year and ask him to provide an update on current trading conditions and Z's strategy in action. After Mike has addressed the meeting, we will be happy to take your questions. There will be instructions posted online on how to address your questions to the meeting, and some questions have been submitted in advance that we will answer. I then intend to move us on to the formal part of the meeting. We have two resolutions to consider today. First, the authority to approve remuneration for the auditors, KPMG; and second, the election of Mark Malpass who joined the Board of Z during the year. I'm pleased to say that Mark has the unanimous support of his Board colleagues. Mark brings to Z his extensive experience in the fuels industry, having been a director of Mobil Oil New Zealand, Refining New Zealand and Waitomo Group Limited. When the time comes, I'll ask Mark to address the meeting, and you're welcome to address any questions to him directly. If you've not already voted, your notice of meeting contains instructions on how to cast your vote. We've received a large number of postal and online votes, and the results of these will be displayed via the virtual meeting website at the appropriate time. I and other Z directors hold over 300 million votes which we'll cast during the meeting. The final results of the voting will be posted on both the NZX and ASX stock exchanges later today. Again, there will be an opportunity for questions from our virtual participants before I put each resolution to the meeting. Before I hand over to Mike, I'd like to make a few remarks. I'd like to start with some thankyous. For Z, this year presented a number of challenges for the Board to work through, including revisions to earnings guidance, government oversight of our industry through the Commerce Commission Market study, a challenging refining environment, intense competition in the retail market and finally, COVID-19. Each of these events would have tested the resilience of any company. Having them all show up in one year presented a big ask, and our response speaks to the world-class operational capability inside Z. I'd like to thank my fellow directors for their engagement and focus over the last year and for their support during my first year as Chair. I'd also like to acknowledge the significant contribution made by Al Dunn, who left the Board at the end of April, following over 10 years with Z. Responding to the challenges of 2020 was undoubtedly a team effort, and I'd like to acknowledge Mike and the executive team for their leadership of the organisation. I also want to thank all of Z's employees and those in our wider funnel for their hard work and commitment throughout the last year and most markedly over the last five months as we responded to the COVID crisis. At the last shareholder meeting, I suggested that our 2019 financial year was one of the most difficult on record for Z., but this year, managed to surpass that. Finally, the Board also recognises that the challenges we have faced have tested the support we rely on from you, our owners, throughout the year. We thank you for your continued support. And we do not take it for granted. I'd like to look back on our 2020 financial year and some of those challenges we confronted in a bit more detail. I would like to acknowledge upfront that our results for the year were disappointing. We did not meet our earnings commitments to you, our owners, or the targets that we had set ourselves. While many of the reasons that we did not achieve those goals were as a result of significant factors outside our control, we know that we need to do better. Prior to the COVID crisis, we completed a thorough review of our strategy and operations to ensure that we start this next decade in Z's journey as a leaner, more agile and focused company. The 2020 financial year was also marked by clear evidence of the increasing challenge we face in managing the competing demands of our different stakeholder groups. And we will not shy away from that challenge. Z continues to operate in a highly competitive and challenging environment, which in terms of Z's history as a listed company, peaked in the middle of last year. The exit of Caltex from the AA Smartfuel program and the launch of our Pumped! loyalty program sparked a period of fierce competition, which significantly impacted retail prices, with new-to- industry and unmanned sites competing aggressively for volume at the expense of margin for a sustained period. We saw price competition reduce towards the end of the financial year and retail margins stabilise, although they continue to track at levels beneath those seen in 2017 and 2018. We're beginning to see signs of change in the retail market with early signals that the appetite for additional investment has diminished and that firms are delaying expansion plans or shelving them altogether. We've seen this from our own experiences through the Caltex and Challenge networks where economically marginal sites have closed or are in the process of closing. While we're not forecasting a decline in retail intensity over the short term, as an industry, we must also acknowledge the long-term demand headwinds that we face. It is important Z finds a suitable and sustainable level of supply, which optimises our investment in the supply chain infrastructure and New Zealand's future demands for transport fuels. In the midst of one of the most intensely competitive periods we have experienced, in December 2019, the Commerce Commission delivered its final report into the New Zealand retail fuel market. Z has previously stated that it disagrees with the Commerce Commission's profitability analysis. However, we have been quick to enact the recommendations proposed by the commission, including displaying premium prices on price boards and moving towards greater pricing transparency at the terminal gate. The Board understands that as shareholders, you expect a reasonable return on the capital you invest with us, and that return should reward shareholders for the operational risk we take to supply New Zealand. The Board and management will continue to engage with government and regulators to advocate for a fair reward for Z's shareholders. As we all know, the last quarter of the year saw unprecedented disruption to the global economy from the COVID-19 pandemic, Z was quick to react to the early signs, standing up its crisis management team in late January to evaluate the potential risks we saw around our supply chain and ensure continuity of supply for New Zealand. The speed of our response and the performance of our supply chain over the last five months highlights the excellence of our ongoing operational resilience. We reviewed our business continuity plans over those early months, and the company was ready to respond quickly to the escalation to Level 4 shutdown in March. Our retail service stations were moved to a closed-door policy a few hours before the midnight decree from government. Our operational and terminal staff altered the way they worked to reduce COVID-19-related risks and Z started social distancing in its offices in March before the Level 4 lockdown and supported our office-based workers with technology to allow for remote working. The Board and I are very proud of the way in which the whole Z team and our business partners have responded to these incredibly trying circumstances.