5 questions asked at 2024 Probiotec scheme meeting
May 29, 2024
Here is the text of the 5 questions lodged at the 2024 Probiotec hybrid scheme meeting held on May 29.
Q1. How many shareholders were eligible to vote on today's takeover and how many did so by proxy. What sort of solicitation campaign did you run to maximise retail shareholder participation in today's vote?
Q2. Our company was significantly more valuable than Pyridam when the takeover discussions took place. Did we consider buying them rather than agreeing to be bought by a smaller company which needed to do a $100 million+ capital raising to get the deal done.
Q3. Australia is currently in the midst of an unprecedented deluge of takeovers that has contributed to listed entities on the ASX falling by 145 to 2,172 since June 2022, including 15 straight months of declines. There have already been 7 major takeovers completed this year with another 18 deals announced and in the works. The ASX is losing long standing names such as CSR, Boral, Blackmores, Alumina, Coca Cola Amatil, the old Leighton Holdings, Sydney Airport, Invocare, OZ Minerals, Newcrest Mining, Crown Resorts and Ausnet, which have all disappeared over the past 3 years. There is a clear mis-pricing between public markets and private markets. Does the chair agree this is a problem for the nation, particularly with so few new floats replenishing the ASX ranks and why we didn't we fight harder to remain an independent ASX listed company?
Q4. Well done to the Stringer brothers for achieving what they have at Probiotec. Could one or both of them comment on what they regard as the 2 best decisions they made during their time running the company and do they have any regrets?
Q5. Given the interesting discussions at today's meeting and the fact that more than 2,000 retail shareholders did not attend live, could the chair undertake to make an archived copy of the webcast available on the company's website, at least until the transaction completes?
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