4 questions lodged at 2025 Quickstep Holdings virtual scheme meeting

Q1. Did we send paper voting forms with a reply paid envelope to those shareholders which hadn't provided an email address and what sort of solicitation campaign did we run to encourage our circa 4,200 retail shareholders to participate by voting on today's deal. Were you pleased that 430 of them voted by proxy. Also, thank you for disclosing the proxies to the ASX along with the formal addresses before today's meeting commenced?

Answer: Missed the answer as had to take a call from someone in the Jim Chalmers media team ahead of tomorrow's Money Cafe podcast.

Q2. What were the material adverse clauses in our sale agreement which would have allowed ADSAM to walk away and was the chair nervously watching the recent tariff-related wild market plunges with this in mind? Does today's vote end the possibility of an MAC event or if Wall Street tumbled 30% before the scheduled April 16 Victorian Supreme Court scheme approval hearing, could ADSAM still walk away without completing the takeover? In other words, when does this deal become completely unconditional?

Answer: The chair said they were all clear and it would become unconditional on the morning of the second court meeting, which is on April 16. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Given the interesting discussions at today's scheme meeting and the fact that more than 4,000 of our 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? It was disappointing that the company never published a full archive of previous AGM webcasts and it would have been better it today's meeting was a hybrid with a physical component. Why didn't you do that?

Answer: The chair said they'd follow the law and convention, which was basically a no on the webcast archive question. He pointed out that most previous AGMs had been virtual. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q4. Australia is currently in the midst of an unprecedented deluge of takeovers that has contributed to listed entities on the ASX dropping in 25 of the past 26 months for a net reduction since January 2023 of 202 listed entities or 8.8% to a 15 year low of 2,092. There were a record 29 major takeovers above $200m completed in calendar 2024 and the ASX is losing many long standing names. Now Quickstep is gone, Australia's largest independent aerospace engineering and manufacturing company, providing the highest accreditation and global standards in Defence, UAV, Space, GWEO and Clean-Tech and advanced composite solutions to make aerospace products lighter, safer, stronger, cost-efficient and sustainable​. There is a clear mis-pricing between public markets and private markets. Why didn't public market investors value ASX listed companies like ours more highly and does the chair agree that this takeover is adding to an emerging problem and this hollowing out of the ASX is a real worry for the nation and the overall health of our public capital markets.

Answer: The chair didn't bite, saying they were only responsible for shareholders but impressed the full essay was read out without any editing. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

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