AGMs

6 question asked at 2023 Stockland AGM


October 21, 2023

Here is the text of the 6 Stockland AGM questions lobbed at their hybrid gathering on October 16, 2023, along with a summary of some of the answers and some video links via Twitter.

1. The Victorian Government has proposed a massive overhaul of Victoria's planning system. Could the CEO comment on what planning reform he'd like to see and which state has the best system. Does local government have too much power on major planning applications, such as those submitted by Stockland.

Answer: CEO said governments should push hard for more density around infrastructure investments - watch video of exchange via Twitter, plus this final observation.

2. Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, could the chair undertake to make an archived copy of the webcast plus a full transcript of proceedings available on the company's website? The likes of Nine, AGL, ASX, ANZ, Domino's and Lend Lease all produced their 1st AGM transcripts in 2021. Will you follow suit today? This is something IAG has been doing since 2003. Whilst we have been publishing webcast archives since 2020, we've never produced a transcript. Judges and politicians aren't told to watch a video archive, they get access to court transcripts and hansard. Why don't you do the same for retail shareholders and investors more generally?

3. Could the auditor, Jane Reilly from PwC, please comment on why Stockland hasn't take more property write-downs when the market cap is $9.16 billion and yet we have audited net assets of $10.2 billion. If the share price doesn't recover, will the directors and auditor take a different approach to property valuations when preparing the first half results next February. Could the CEO or CFO address the question of how much our debt covenants are influenced by book value vs market value. If we took a $1 billion write-down would this have covenant implications?


Answer: response said there was plenty of headroom in the book value covenants - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

4. In 2019, Treasury Wine Estates voluntarily moved to annual elections for directors in line with best practice that occurs in both the US and the UK. Dual listed companies like News Corp and Rio Tinto all do this due to the laws in the US and UK and BHP has continued doing it even after its UK DLC ended in 2021. Can the chair and acting chair on this item both comment on whether our company will follow this TWE lead and move to annual elections of directors at the 2023 AGM? Could the other directors up for election today also express an opinion on this suggestion.

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


Answer: a model informative answer from the CEO - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

6. Did any of the 5 main proxy advisers - ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS and ASA - recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions? If so, what reasons did they give? Which of the proxy advisers are covering us and please described the engagement we had with them before today's AGM? Will you disclose the proxy votes before the debate on each resolution so shareholders can ask questions about the reasons if there have been any protest votes? In future years, why not disclose the proxy position to the ASX with the formal addresses to offer more timely disclosure to the market? Many other companies do this.