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ELDERS LIMITED — AGM Information 2012
Nov 19, 2012
64835_rns_2012-11-19_20f7deab-b2f6-4035-959b-d046492913e9.pdf
AGM Information
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20 November 2012
Notice of Annual General Meeting
Attached is notice of Elders Limited’s (ASX:ELD) annual general meeting of shareholders to be held at 10.00am (Adelaide time) on Thursday 20 December 2012 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Peter Hastings Company Secretary
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19 November 2012
Invitation to attend the 2012 Annual General Meeting
Dear Shareholder
On behalf of the Elders Board, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to attend the Company’s 58th Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) to be held at 10.00am on Thursday, 20 December 2012 at Hall A, Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia.
At the meeting, we will present to shareholders our review of the Company’s financial results for the 12 month period ended 30 September 2012. The Notice of Meeting details the business to be dealt with at the meeting.
The Notice of Meeting and Proxy Forms are included with this letter. The 2012 Annual Report will also be sent by post to those shareholders who have previously elected to receive a printed copy of annual reports. An electronic copy of the 2012 Annual Report can be found at the Company’s website at the following address: www.elderslimited.com.
If you are unable to attend the meeting I encourage you to appoint someone as your proxy to attend the meeting and vote on your behalf. Instructions on how to appoint a proxy are set out in the Explanatory Notes that form part of the Notice of Meeting and on the back of the Proxy Form.
An audio and slide presentation of the AGM will be available live on the Company’s website at www.elderslimited.com.
I encourage you to attend the AGM and look forward to seeing you there.
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John Ballard Chairman
Elders Limited ABN 34 004 336 636 Registered office: Level 3, 27 Currie Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000 Postal Address: GPO Box 551, Adelaide, South Australia 5001 Telephone: (08) 8425 4000 Facsimile: (08) 8410 1597
Notice is hereby given that the 58th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Elders Limited (“Company”) will be held at Hall A, Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia on Thursday, 20 December 2012 commencing at 10.00am (Adelaide time).
2012 AN N UAL GENERAL MEETING
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Ordinary Business
Explanatory Notes
1. Financial Statements and Reports
To receive and consider the Financial Report and the Reports of the Directors and the Auditor for the 12 month period ended 30 September 2012.
No vote is held in connection with this item.
2. Remuneration Report
To receive and adopt the Remuneration Report (which forms part of the Directors’ Report) for the 12 month period ended 30 September 2012. Note that the vote on this item is advisory only and does not bind the Directors or the Company.
3. Re-election of Director
To consider, and if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution:
3.1 Re-election of Mr Mark C. Allison
“That Mr Mark C. Allison, being a director of the Company who retires by rotation pursuant to Rule 8.1.5(b) of the Constitution of the Company, and being eligible, is re-elected as a director of the Company.”
Please refer to the accompanying Explanatory Notes, which form part of this Notice of Meeting, for more information on the proposed resolutions.
By Order of the Board
Peter Hastings Company Secretary 19 November 2012
The following notes have been prepared to assist shareholders to better understand the business to be considered by shareholders at the 2012 Annual General Meeting.
Item 1 To Receive and Consider the Financial Report and Reports of the Directors and Auditor
In accordance with the requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (“Corporations Act”) and the Constitution of the Company, the Financial Report and the reports of the Directors and the Auditor for the 12 month period ended 30 September 2012 will be laid before the meeting.
Shareholders will be given a reasonable opportunity at the meeting to ask questions, or make comments on the management of the Company. Shareholders will also be given a reasonable opportunity to ask the Auditor or its representatives questions relevant to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the Auditor’s Report, the accounting policies adopted by the Company in relation to the preparation of the financial statements and the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit.
A copy of the 2012 Annual Report (which includes the reports of the Directors and the Auditor) will be mailed to all shareholders who have elected to receive a printed copy of the Report. The 2012 Annual Report is located on the Company’s website at: http://www.elderslimited.com/investor-centre
The Corporations Act and the Constitution of the Company do not require shareholder approval of these Reports. Accordingly, no vote is held in connection with this item.
Item 2 To Adopt the Remuneration Report
Under the provisions of the Corporations Act the Company is required to propose a resolution to shareholders that the Remuneration Report be adopted. The Remuneration Report, which forms part of the Directors’ Report, can be found in the Company’s 2012 Annual Report.
The Remuneration Report includes:
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an explanation of the Company’s policy for determining the nature and amount of remuneration of Directors and senior executives;
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a discussion of the relationship between the remuneration policy and the Company’s performance; and
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a detailed summary of remuneration components for Directors and senior executives including relevant performance conditions.
The vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the Company or its Directors. However, the Board will take the outcome of the vote and the views of shareholders into consideration when reviewing remuneration policies and practices.
Under recent changes to the Corporations Act which came into effect on 1 July 2011, if 25% or more of votes that are cast are voted against the adoption of the Remuneration Report at two consecutive AGMs, shareholders will be required to vote at the second of those AGMs on a resolution (a “spill resolution”) that another meeting be held within 90 days at which all of the Company’s directors who were in office at the time that the Remuneration Report was approved by the Board (other than the Managing Director and CEO) will cease to hold office and, should they wish to continue as a director, may stand for re-election.
Voting Exclusion Statement (Corporations Act)
A vote on this resolution must not be cast by or on behalf of a member of the Key Management Personnel (KMP) of the Company, details of whose remuneration are included in the Remuneration Report, or by any of their closely related parties (such as certain of their family members, dependents and companies they control).
However, this does not prevent those KMPs or any of their closely related parties from voting as a proxy for a person who is not a member of the KMP or a closely related party if:
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the person specifies the way the proxy is to vote on this resolution in the proxy form; or
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the person voting as a proxy is the Chairman and the proxy form expressly authorises the Chairman to exercise the proxy even if the resolution is directly or indirectly connected with the remuneration of a member of the KMP for Elders Limited.
Item 3 Re-election of Director
In accordance with Rule 8.1.5(b) of the Constitution of the Company, Mr Mark Allison will retire by rotation at the AGM. Mr Allison offers himself for re-election.
Profile of the Director offering himself for re-election is set out below.
Item 3.1 Re-election of Mr Mark C Allison
Mr Allison – age 51 – Non-executive director of the Board since November 2009. He is a member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, the Nomination and Prudential Committee and the Occupational Health and Safety Committee. He has extensive experience spanning over 28 years in the agribusiness sector and is currently CEO of Graingrowers Limited and a director of Grain & Legumes Nutrition Council. He is a former Managing Director of Wesfarmers Landmark Limited and Wesfarmers CSBP Limited and former chairman of Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. Prior to his appointment at Wesfarmers in 2001, Mr Allison held senior positions with Orica Limited as General Manager of Crop Care Australasia and with Incitec Limited as General Manager – Fertilisers. Between 1982 and 1996 Mr Allison performed a series of senior sales, marketing and technical roles in the Crop Protection, Animal Health and Fertiliser industries. Mr Allison was the Managing Director of Makhteshim Agan Australasia Pty Ltd from 2005 to 2007 and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jeminex Limited from 2007 to 2008. Mr Allison is a resident of New South Wales.
Recommendation
Your Directors have reviewed the necessary and desirable competencies of Board members, the composition of the Board and the candidate’s contribution to the Board and unanimously recommend the re-election of the Director.
Important Note: The Chairman of the meeting intends to vote all available proxies in favour of this item.
Recommendation
Noting that each Director has a personal interest in their own remuneration from the Company as set out in the Remuneration Report, the Board unanimously
recommends that shareholders vote in favour of adopting the Remuneration Report.
Voting
Entitlement to vote
In accordance with Regulation 7.11.37 of the Corporations Regulations, the Directors have determined that the persons eligible to vote at the AGM will be those persons who are registered shareholders at 7pm (Adelaide Time), Tuesday, 18 December 2012. Accordingly, share transfers registered after that time will be disregarded in determining entitlements to attend and vote at the meeting.
Proxies
Each shareholder is entitled to appoint a proxy. The proxy does not need to be a member of the Company. A shareholder that is entitled to cast 2 or more votes may appoint 2 proxies and may specify the proportion or number of votes each proxy is appointed to exercise. If a shareholder appoints 2 proxies, each proxy may exercise half of the shareholder’s votes if no proportion or number of votes is specified.
A Proxy Form accompanies this Notice and to be effective must be completed and received at either the Company’s registered office or its share registry, Computershare Investor Services Pty Ltd:
Registered Office Share Registry The Company Secretary Elders Limited Elders Limited c/- Computershare Investor Level 3, 27 Currie Street Services Pty Ltd Adelaide SA 5000 GPO Box 242 Melbourne VIC 3001
or by facsimile on: 1800 783 447 (within Australia) +61 3 9473 2555 (outside Australia)
or by electronic lodgement*: www.investorvote.com.au
By no later than 10am (Adelaide Time), Tuesday, 18 December 2012.
*Shareholders can lodge their votes electronically at www.investorvote.com.au and follow the prompts. To use this facility, you will need your Shareholder Reference Number (SRN) or Holder Identification Number (HIN) and postcode as shown on the proxy form. You will have taken to have signed the proxy form if you lodge it in accordance with the instructions on the website.
Custodian voting - For Intermediary Online subscribers only (custodians) please visit www.intermediaryonline.com to submit your voting intentions.
Attorneys
A shareholder may appoint an attorney to vote on his or her behalf. For an appointment to be effective for the AGM, the instrument effecting the appointment (or a certified copy of it) must be received by the Company at its registered office or one of the addresses listed above for the receipt of proxy appointments by no later than 10am (Adelaide time) on Tuesday, 18 December 2012.
Corporate Representatives
Any corporate shareholder wishing to appoint a person to act as its representative at the meeting may do so by providing that person with:
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(a) a letter or certificate, executed in accordance with the corporate shareholder’s constitution, authorising that person as the corporate shareholder’s representative at the meeting; or
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(b) a copy of the resolution appointing the person as the corporate shareholder’s representative at the meeting, certified by a secretary or director of the corporate shareholder.
Transfer of non-Chair proxy to Chair in certain circumstances
If:
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a poll is duly demanded at the AGM in relation to a proposed resolution; and
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a member has appointed a proxy (other than the Chairman) and the appointment of the proxy specifies the way the proxy is to vote on the resolution; and
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that member’s proxy is either not recorded as attending the meeting or does not vote on the resolution,
the Chairman of the meeting will, before voting on the resolution closes, be taken to have been appointed as the proxy for the member for the purposes of voting on that resolution and must vote in accordance with the written direction of that member.
Conduct of Annual General Meeting
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The Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer will generally answer relevant questions on behalf of the Board and the management team, respectively. If questions cannot be answered at the meeting, the Company will seek to provide a response to the shareholder as soon as possible after the AGM.
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At the AGM, the Company will inform shareholders of the proxy position with respect to the resolutions to be considered by the AGM, and how the Chairman intends to vote undirected proxies.
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We ask that shareholders:
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(a) are courteous and respectful to all attendees at the AGM, including not photographing, videotaping or recording the AGM;
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(b) keep their questions to a reasonable length to allow as many shareholders as possible to participate; and
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(c) confine their questions to matters being considered at the AGM and matters relevant to shareholders as a whole.
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Questions relating to the shareholder’s personal circumstances can be raised with the Company or Computershare representatives who will be available at the AGM.
ELDERS LIMITED ACN 004 336 636