11 questions lodged at 2023 Endeavour Group AGM

October 31, 2023

Here is the text of the 11 written questions lodged at the 2023 Endeavour Group AGM held on October 31, along with a summary of the answers and some video grabs of the exchanges.

Q1. Well done for voluntarily getting ahead of the reduced operating hours in Victoria before the start date on July 1 next year, but why are you still advertising the old hours? I drove past The Plough in Mill Park on Saturday and it was still advertising 9am-5am and The Doncaster Hotel this morning still had big signs saying 8am to 4am. If 20 hours a day is gone, please change all the signs. Or is this just a temporary move as we lobby against reducing Australia's longest pokies operating hours?

Answer: the chair said the changes are permanent, we want to be responsible and we'll get onto this. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. Will the December investor day finally see Endeavour disclose the gross gambling revenue from our circa 12,500 poker machines, which is arguably the world's biggest poker machine fleet within a single corporate entity. Star, Crown, Tabcorp and Redcape all disclosed this figure. Could the auditor comment as to why he doesn't insist on this metric being disclosed as a pivotal metric for public investors. Is it true that gamblers are losing more than $1.5 billion a year at our 300+ pokies pubs?

Answer: they continue to duck and weave on this one but expect they'll relent at the December investor day - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. The Mathieson family's investment performance has been terrible lately. Father and son recklessly ploughed into our competitor Star Entertainment at $1.40 a share & have blown up almost $100m in less than a year with the stock at 55c. Could Bruce junior comment on whether the family have pledged their $1.35b worth of Endeavour shares to receive bank finance to buy Star shares & how much leverage the stake has. Could the chair & CEO comment as to whether the Mathiesons have been pushing deals between Endeavour & Star.

Answer: question was censored but Bruce junior said the two investments weren't connected - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q4. Boards require team work and Bruce Mathieson junior has been publicly attacking his colleagues and leaking to his churlish dad, undermining board confidentiality & collegiality. Of course he wasn't going to be invited to the board meeting to work up a response to his father's reckless declaration of war. In light of this irresponsible behaviour will Bruce junior agree to retire from the board if a suitable replacement such as Ross Blair-Holt is accepted by the other directors to represent the family's 15% stake in Endeavour.

Answer: Bruce junior just said "I'm too young to retire, Stephen" - watch video of edited question and response on Twitter.

Q5. Bruce Mathieson Junior has 2 sisters, Deborah & Jodi, who are both married to top 10 Victorian pokies hotel operators in Dave Tomsic & Gianni Grollo, respectively. Give that Bruce Mathieson senior also manages pokies venues in his own name, could Bruce Junior explain how conflicts are managed when both his dad & two sisters are competitors of Endeavour in the Victorian pokies market. Is Bruce senior funding his daughters into the Victorian pokies market competing against Endeavour? Can Bruce Junior explain what is going on?

Answer: Bruce junior said that his dad doesn't fund the pubs connected to his sisters - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q6. Could Bill Wavish please disclose his full financial history with the Bruce Mathieson Group. The Mathiesons have a long history of bringing well connected individuals into private hotel ownership syndicates. Has Bill ever participated in a Mathieson family hotel syndicate and how much have the Mathiesons invested in his current campaign to join the board? Also, would Bill describe his relationship as being closer to Bruce senior or Bruce junior and does he believe he can serve Endeavour independently of the Mathiesons?

Answer: Bill said no joint ventures with the Mathiesons and he hadn't seen Bruce senior for 12 years - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q7. On June 29 we announced that ALH CEO Mario Volpe was taking personal leave and that Paul Walton was acting CEO. Is there any update on this situation and is it correct that Paul Walton is now running the hotels business out of Sydney? In order to remove the ruthless and aggressive Mathieson culture from the hotels business, wouldn't it make sense to shut their old South Yarra ALH headquarters and instead run the hotels division from our Sydney head office where it can be more closely super-vised from an ESG point of view.

Answer: question wasn't asked.

Q8. New director Rod Van Onselen used to work for Sportsbet which is owned by Flutter Entertainment, which discloses its gross gaming revenue. As a new director of Endeavour, will he support Endeavour disclosing its gross gaming revenue to the market. If not, why not? Could Rod also please disclose his full history with the Mathiesons, senior and junior, and their fellow travellers, Roger Corbett and Bill Wavish?

Answer: not asked, probably because I only lodged briefly before the motion was deal with.

Q9. Thank you for offering an inclusive and well produced hybrid AGM today. Given the interesting discussions across a range of topics today, including this proportional takeover resolution, 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.

Answer: chair committed to retain the past practice of transcripts and a full webcast archive - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q10. Could the CEO summarise his past LTI grants as to whether they have vested or lapsed. Also, has he ever sold any ordinary shares in the company or bought any on market without relying on an incentive scheme to build his 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: Steve Donohue said he'd never bought or sold any shares on market - watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q11. When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, could you please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions and was a voluntary disclosure initiative adopted by the likes of Metcash, Altium, AUI, Dexus, Webjet, Tabcorp, ASX, AUI and Myer over the past two years. This is particularly important given the retail campaign run by Bruce Mathieson.

Answer: chair said no. It probably would have showed majority support for Mathieson's man Bill Wavish. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

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11 questions lodged at 2023 Endeavour Group AGM

October 31, 2023

Here is the text of the 11 written questions lodged at the 2023 Endeavour Group AGM held on October 31, along with a summary of the answers and some video grabs of the exchanges.