Meridian Energy Limited Annual Shareholder Meeting
1
MERIDIAN ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING: 17 OCTOBER 2019
SLIDE THREE: CHAIR’S ADDRESS
I will now move to my Chairman’s address.
Today we are gathered in the Balmerino Room at Riccarton Racecourse in
Christchurch.
Balmerino was a national champion racehorse with many international successes.
He started forty-six times, won twenty-two races and was placed a further thirteen
times.
He raced in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, England, Italy and France,
including being runner-up in the nineteen ninety-seven Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in
Paris, the richest horse race in the world at that time.
SLIDE FOUR: CLEAN ENERGY
Meridian also strives to be a national champion.
We pioneered and led renewable generation in this country, years before the current
Prime Minister declared quote “climate change is my generation’s nuclear-free
moment” unquote.
As a company, our stated purpose is to strive for clean energy for a fairer and
healthier world in ways that align with our social commitments, the needs of our
customers and the expectations of our shareholders.
2
This is why Meridian is a strong supporter of the Climate Change Response (Zero
Carbon) Amendment Bill introduced by the Government in May twenty-nineteen.
Once passed, the Bill will provide for a series of emissions budgets to act as stepping
stones towards New Zealand’s, twenty-fifty targets of net zero greenhouse gas
emissions and a reduction in methane emissions of between twenty-four and forty-
seven percent.
The Bill also establishes a new, independent Climate Change Commission to provide
expert advice and monitoring to help keep successive Governments on track.
Given Meridian’s one hundred percent renewable generation legacy in New Zealand,
we continue to lead environmental change.
Meridian is now net zero carbon across our operations and we have committed to
halve our gross emissions by twenty-thirty.
We have made real progress in Australia, growing renewable generation and
customers, including offering a carbon neutral alternative in a country that is
dominated by fossil fuel energy.
Similarly, in New Zealand Meridian has launched a renewable energy certification
that provides business customers with an assurance the Company has generated
enough renewable energy to cover their electricity usage.
The first customer was the Garage Project, a craft beer company that is passionate
about making its business as sustainable as it can, with Meridian’s help.
Renewable electricity is the solution to many of New Zealand’s carbon challenges.
3
Providing clean energy that will be transformative for many industries, particularly
transport, means it is an exciting time for our sector and the Meridian Board and
Management believe this will be positive for both our customers and shareholders.
Through the release of our Integrated Annual Report in August, we became the first
New Zealand company to publicly disclose the risks climate change poses to our
business.
We believe that this type of reporting to shareholders is equally, if not more
important, than historical financial results, which, rest assured, I will cover before
concluding my address.
SLIDE FIVE: FAIRER AND HEALTHIER WORLD
Two weeks ago, the Minister of Energy and Resources released the Government’s
response to the recommendations of the Electricity Price Review or the EPR as I will
refer to it in the balance of my speech.
We have always said that Meridian is broadly supportive of the suite of initiatives put
forward by the EPR and nothing has materially changed since the Government’s
announcements on the third of October.
The Minister’s press release says quote “the EPR found that while overall the market
is working well, it is not delivering for everyone. Too many people are paying higher
bills than they need to, and many people struggle with the cost of power” unquote.
This statement resonates with our view that the New Zealand market is delivering
reliable, affordable and largely renewable electricity consistent with our purpose that
“we strive for clean energy for a fairer and healthier world in ways that align with our
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social commitments, the needs of our customers and expectations of our
shareholders”.
Evidence of this are the numerous climate change initiatives I have referred to earlier
in my address and our decision to remove Prompt Payment Discounts and replace
them with simpler tariffs, in advance of any public recommendations on the subject
being made to the Minister by the EPR.
Indeed, it is pleasing to note that in her press release of third October the Minister
said quote “we will also be requiring retailers to follow Meridian’s lead and change
pricing structures to pass discount rates to all customers instead of relying on hidden
late payment penalties. When Meridian did this, it put five million dollars back into the
pockets of customers, and the EPR estimates that forty-five million dollars would be
saved when other companies follow suit” unquote.
In removing the Prompt Payment Discount, the Board was fully cognisant of the
potential cost to shareholders of five million dollars; however in the grander scheme
of things, it was obvious that the Prompt Payment Discount was patently unfair to
those facing hardship because they were the very people who were less able to pay
their bills by the due date and the discount they forfeited bore no relation to the cost
of collecting overdue debts.
Meridian also has a number of other ways of helping low-income households,
including tailored payment plans and a LevelPay product that keeps bills the same
throughout the year, with options to pay for power weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
In addition, we employ a Hardship Consultant to help customers in difficulty and we
also support a pilot programme called EnergyMate.
5
This free in-home coaching service is run by the Electricity Retailers’ Association of
New Zealand (otherwise known as ERANZ) and brings together electricity retailers
like us, lines companies, community organisations and the Government.
The coaches support families at highest risk of energy hardship by helping them talk
to their retailers about payment plans, doing high-level assessments of how warm
and healthy their homes are and working with them to access services like curtain
banks or talk to their landlords about insulation.
SLIDE 6: TRANSMISSION PRICING METHODOLOGY
While I am on the subject of unfairness, the Electricity Authority has concluded that
the Transmission Pricing charging regime is unfair to the South Island generators
and results in inefficient outcomes as it imposes a tax on further investment in South
Island generation.
This because an element of the current Transmission Pricing Methodology, or TPM
as it is often referred to, is that the costs of the HVDC link across Cook Strait, are
levied in totality on the South Island generators even though electricity flows through
the cable in both directions: that is from the North Island to the South Island as well
as from the South Island to the North Island.
As a company we are highly frustrated by the inter-decadal delay in resolving the
lack of fairness and economic inefficiency the current regime creates.
Accordingly, we support the Electricity Authority’s plan to deliver the reform package
they have proposed as quickly as possible.
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SLIDE SEVEN: SHAREHOLDER RESULTS
Turning now to the year in review.
The Board and the Executive are proud of the record result achieved this year.
Group EBITDAF increased by twenty-six percent to eight hundred and thirty-eight
million dollars, which resulted in a net profit after tax of three hundred and thirty-nine
million dollars, an increase of sixty-nine percent on the previous year.
Contemporaneously our share price increased by fifty-two percent over the year,
which culminated in Meridian becoming New Zealand’s largest company on the
stock exchange as measured by value or commonly referred to as the Company’s
market capitalisation.
At the risk of being accused of profiteering, I think this is a simply stunning result.
Wholesale market prices significantly exceeded the prior year, as a result of
unplanned outages at the Pohokura gas field, whilst smart and prudent use of our
hydro storage allowed us to generate and sell record hydro volumes at those very
high prices.
The share price was also underpinned by declining interest rates in New Zealand and
around the world.
SLIDE EIGHT: YOUR BOARD
Looking to the future, the composition of your Board is changing in the most
significant manner since the Company was listed in October twenty-thirteen.
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Later in the meeting today, you will be asked to re-elect Jan Dawson to the Board
and elect three other women, Julia Hoare, Michelle Henderson and Nagaja
Sanatkumar, as Directors of the Company for the first time.
The biographies of each of the four candidates are set out in the Notice of Meeting
and they will all address you at the time the appropriate resolution is considered by
meeting.
The three new Directors standing for election were selected following a
comprehensive external independent search based solely on merit and if elected
today, together with Jan Dawson, will result in the Board having a fifty/fifty gender
mix.
I stand to be corrected but I am not aware of any other significant listed company in
New Zealand that can lay claim to an equal Board composition of females and males.
The three new Directors replace Steve Reindler, Mary Devine and myself.
Steve stepped down prior to last year’s Annual Shareholder Meeting due to a conflict
of interest that arose when Z Energy, of which he was also a Director, purchased a
controlling interest in energy retailer and competitor, Flick.
Accordingly, I thanked Steve for his service to the Company in Auckland last year.
Mary Devine, who resides in Christchurch, so some of you will no doubt know her,
retires at the conclusion of today’s meeting having served as a Director since twenty-
ten.6
Unfortunately, Mary is an apology for today, but she did attend yesterday’s Board
meeting and we paid tribute to her last night.
8
In March this year, Mary was appointed Managing Director of Hallenstein Glassons
and advised the Company of her intention to stand down from her governance
positions.
Mary made a significant contribution to Meridian as Chair of the Remuneration and
People Committee and as the Board’s retail expert having formerly served as
Managing Director of renowned Christchurch institution Ballantynes, Chief Executive
of Ezibuy and as a Director of Briscoes Group, Foodstuffs South Insurer, IAG and
Top Retail.
Accordingly, I would ask that the Company formally records its thanks to Mary
accompanied by a round of acclamation.
The other person, who will retire at the close of this meeting, is myself.
Consequently, Mark Verbiest will assume the role of Chair of the Company later this
morning.
He is a highly experienced chairman, being the current Chair of the very successful
Freightways and the former Chair of both Transpower, which manages New
Zealand’s electricity transmission network, and Spark.
SLIDE NINE: REFLECTIONS
As I reflect on my time as a Director and Chair of Meridian, one very special thing
stands out – the Initial Public Offering on the twenty-ninth of October twenty thirteen,
which is the biggest IPO in New Zealand’s history.
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But it wasn’t the IPO itself that merits attention because it was a hard slog, twenty-
four months in the gestation, complex because of the instalment receipts and not
without controversy.
Thankfully the Board at the time took the decision not to push to be first to market so
that we had time to recruit a top-class Chief Executive, clean up a somewhat untidy
balance sheet and learn from the listing experience of Mighty River Power (now
Mercury), which the Government in the end selected to be the first cab off the rank.
Instead the special thing that stands out for me is the massive transformation and
legacy that the IPO brought about by revolutionising the culture of the company and
its performance.
The Mixed Ownership Model was politically unpopular at the time of its inception, but
it has delivered in spades for Meridian, just like Air New Zealand and Port of
Tauranga, and without the nay-sayers predicted loss of New Zealand control and
significant retail price increases.
We secured the services of Mark Binns from Fletchers, who simply would not have
joined the Company had we remained as a State-Owned Enterprise.
Given investment market scrutiny, the Board also knew it had to put in place a capital
management programme, initially for five, and subsequently extended to seven
years, to address the Company’s lazy balance sheet, with the result that, whilst all
shareholders have benefited, the Crown has received more in dividends each year
for its fifty-one percent shareholding in Meridian, the listed company, than it did for
its previous one hundred percent shareholding in Meridian, the State Owned
Enterprise.
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Overall, since listing, the total shareholder return is three hundred and forty-eight
percent.
This means that if you subscribed for the minimum shareholding of one thousand
dollars at the time of listing in two thousand and thirteen and paid the required
further five hundred dollars in May twenty-fifteen for the instalment receipts, your
investment as at last Friday, was worth five thousand three hundred and ten dollars,
giving an unrealised profit of three thousand eight hundred and ten dollars, or two
and half times your original investment.
In addition, since listing you will have received one thousand, three hundred and
seventy dollars in gross dividends.
SLIDE TEN: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Finally, as I depart I would like to acknowledge a number of people from a personal
perspective.
Firstly, the Honourable Simon Power, who as Minister of State-Owned Enterprises
appointed me as the Chair of Meridian prior to the Company being listed.
Secondly the Treasury staff that were involved during the IPO and subsequently, in
particular Chris White and Juston Anderson.
Thirdly Peter Wilson, our Deputy Chairman, who has been on most of the journey
with me.
Fourthly the Directors, especially those who joined the Board before the IPO – Jan
Dawson, Anake Goodall and Mark Cairns, who are all still here today and former
Directors, John Bongard, Steve Reindler and Mary Devine.
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Fifthly, the two Chief Executives, who have led Meridian as a listed company, Mark
Binns and Neal Barclay.
Sixthly the Executive Team, in particular those that have served the Company
though-out my tenure on the Board, namely Jason Stein, Guy Waipara and Mike
Roan.
Seventhly, my thanks to all of the staff throughout New Zealand, Australia and the
United Kingdom.
You do a magnificent job and I am very grateful to you.
Finally, I wish the new Board, under Mark Verbiest’s leadership, the very best for the
future.
I now invite our Chief Executive to address you.
SLIDE 11 – CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REVIEW
Thank you, Chris.
I’d like to do a quick introduction to the Executive team present today. They are all
sitting in the front row so can I introduce:
Guy Waipara, our General Manager of Generation and Natural Resources
Tania Palmer, Chief People Officer
Mike Roan, Chief Financial Officer
Nic Kennedy, Chief Executive of Flux Federation
Chris Ewers, General Manager Wholesale
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Claire Shaw – Acting General Manager of Office of the Chief Executive
Jason Stein – noted on the stage as company Secretary, Jason is currently our
Acting Chief Customer Officer.
Absent today is Catherine Anderson, our Acting Chief Executive of Meridian Energy
Australia and Powershop Australia.
SLIDE 12: PEOPLE
I’m going to start with our people and move to our performance. It has certainly been
a year of change.
Jacqui Cleland, Paul Chambers, Julian Smith and Ed McManus have all made
personal decisions to leave the Meridian Executive Team and move onto their next
career steps.
We’ve introduced Tania Palmer and Nic Kennedy from outside the Company, Mike
Roan has changed roles on the Executive Team and Chris Ewers has stepped up to
join the Executive team as GM Wholesale.
We are progressing with further new appointments for our Chief Customer Officer
and Australian CEO and are looking at internal and external candidates for both of
those roles.
Despite the change at the top table, I’ve been delighted that the business has lost no
momentum at all, demonstrated by the result we have produced. To me that shows
the talent runs deep through our business and across our teams.
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Meridian continues to build a more diverse, more inclusive, more engaged
workforce. Our gender balance, pay parity, diversity and inclusion measures all
continue to move in the right direction.
SLIDE 13: SAFETY
Certainly, the most sobering aspect of our performance in the last year has been
safety.
Our total injury rate has spiked and in FY19 two of those incidents resulted in serious
hand injuries.
While I remain confident that our safety culture and processes are strong, we can’t
take that for granted. So, we have sought specialist external advice to help us ensure
our worksite environments and the safety behaviour of our people are at the highest
level.
SLIDE 14: OUR CUSTOMERS
I am delighted with how our New Zealand retail brands are performing and total
customer numbers in New Zealand grew by 4%.
Price dynamics have been interesting. The competitive acquisition pressures in
residential and small business have seen average price fall, while the higher
wholesale prices observed in the ASX futures market have flowed into corporate,
industrial and spot exposed pricing.
I’d also call out our growing commercial solar book, we have completed significant
new solar builds with both Kiwi Property and Mainfreight during the last year and the
pipeline for new developments is expanding rapidly. Most recently we have begun
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working with Lincoln University as it takes its first step towards harnessing renewable
energy, with the installation of a solar array.
SLIDE 15: DRIVERS OF RETAIL VALUE
Beyond volume and price, the underlying drivers of retail value are trending well.
Powershop leads the industry and Meridian leads the large retailers in Brand
Preference, which we measure as Net Promotor Scores. Both brands were
recognised as finalists as Retailer of the Year at the Deloitte Energy Awards in
August and Powershop won.
Customer retention rates are improving and our cost to serve on a per customer
basis have declined by 6%.
As Chris mentioned we made a values-based decision to stop clawing back Prompt
Payment Discounts and we introduced simpler tariffs this year. This resonated
strongly with customers and is part of our plan to build the value of our business in
the long run.
A big project we have underway is the migration of the Meridian customer base to
the Flux platform. Flux Federation is our in-house software business that developed
the technology that allows us to serve and bill our Powershop customers. By moving
the Meridian customers onto the same platform, we expect to reduce costs and
improve the agility of our Meridian customer offerings. Progress is slightly slower
than expected, but costs remain under control.
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All up, the increased size of our New Zealand customer base accompanied by
improved brand preference and customer retention rates are contributing toward a
stronger more profitable retail business.
SLIDE 16: GENERATION
I’m particularly proud of the performance of our wholesale and generation teams this
year. Sure, Wholesale prices spiked significantly over the prior year, but in the
context of average rain and water inflows into our hydro catchments and some
significant planned plant outages, the Teams delivered a record amount of
generation to take advantage of the high wholesale prices.
Meridian owns the largest, most reliable and efficient fleet of electricity generation
assets in New Zealand. Our philosophy is that we are caretakers of those assets for
future generations of New Zealanders and we ensure they are well maintained. They
will continue to underpin the strong financial performance of our Company for
decades to come (if not centuries).
SLIDE 17: AUSTRALIA
We’ve had stellar success in growing the scale of our Australian business and by
year end our customer numbers were up 36% on prior year.
Australia is obviously a significantly larger market than New Zealand and we believe
the potential reach of our Powershop customer proposition, which is strongly centred
on our Green credentials, is several times the size of our customer base today.
In recent months, the regulators in Australia have introduced Default Offer Prices that
retailers must offer to all customers. These default prices are a form of retail price
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cap. Price caps often have the perverse effect of reducing service levels and
ultimately increasing costs to consumers. But we think at the level that the default
prices have been introduced, Powershop can continue to compete at an acceptable
margin.
The electricity wholesale market in Australia is also very volatile so we must focus on
managing the cost of supplying our growing number retail customers.
We have expanded our portfolio of generation assets from two wind farms to now
include three small hydro stations and two off-take agreements for new wind farms.
We currently have enough generation capacity to support a customer base close to
twice what it is today.
Shareholders can expect Australia to continue to play a significant part in growing
Meridian’s bottom line performance.
SLIDE 18: NZAS
New Zealand’s Aluminium smelter at Bluff jointly owned by Rio Tinto and Sumitomo
Chemicals remains Meridian’s most significant customer. The smelter produces
some of the lowest carbon aluminium in the world powered by electricity that is
mostly renewable. NZAS also produces the purest aluminium largely due to the
smart kiwis who operate the plant in Southland. If you own a smart phone, chances
are it has aluminium in it that was smelted in NZ.
NZAS owners are clear that operating costs are high compared to other aluminium
smelters across the globe. Also, over the last 12 months, aluminium prices have
fallen by upwards of US$300 per tonnes, so given its significance we remain
17
regularly engaged with the smelter owners to help support their continued operation
in New Zealand.
It is also well understood that given how transmission costs are allocated in New
Zealand, the smelter effectively subsidises consumers of electricity outside of
Southland and those consumers are mostly in the upper North Island. The
Transmission Pricing Methodology reform currently being proposed by the Electricity
Authority, that Chris referred to earlier, will resolve some of this issue, but it may be
several years before that reform package is implemented. To help support the long-
term viability of the smelter we support adoption of the TPM reform package as soon
as possible.
SLIDE 19: LOOKING FORWARD
In the near term, we have started the new financial year in good fashion. The storage
in New Zealand’s hydro lakes is below average for this time of year and wholesale
prices for electricity are significantly higher than normal. This is not in itself unusual
because we rarely get average weather conditions in this country. Like we did last
financial last year, we have demonstrated prudent use of the hydro storage that we
manage and as of today Meridian’s hydro lakes are at about average levels. As such
we have been able to maintain a strong market share of electricity generation and
benefit from high wholesale prices.
However, coming up in the first quarter next year, Transpower is planning a partial
outage on the Cook Strait cable. This outage will limit Meridian and other South
Island generators’ ability to transmit our generation to the North Island. As a result,
our generation market share will reduce during that outage and so too our
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generation revenues. Whilst we have planned for that, the reduction in generation
revenues over the upcoming summer will make it tough to match the great bottom
line result from last financial year.
Looking further ahead, the outlook for the electricity sector is strong in both New
Zealand and Australia. We are seeing organic demand growth on the back of
continued growth in GDP and migration. That, in itself, will require some new
renewable generation to be built in New Zealand over the next few years. And as a
result, we are looking to make an investment decision on our best new wind farm
within the next six months.
There is also a much bigger opportunity on the horizon. Our ability, as a country, to
reduce our dependence on fossil fuels is closely linked to our ability to cost
effectively build more renewable electricity. Every electric car we introduce to the
country removes 4tonnes of CO2 emissions each year and whilst we can’t go fully
electric overnight, the economic vs carbon trade-off makes electrifying much of New
Zealand’s transport fleet a no brainer.
Also, the cost of new renewable electricity generation is coming down. So, despite
what you may read or hear from time to time, on shore wind is highly profitable in
New Zealand. The machines are getting bigger, costs are coming down and
undoubtedly the bulk of new generation in this country will be wind. Meridian is New
Zealand’s most successful and experienced wind farm developer. We also have a
strong balance sheet and are therefore particularly well placed strategically to grow
our dividends on the back of new renewable investments.
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From where I am standing, the future looks pretty darn exciting for our industry and
for this company.
SLIDE 20: TRIBUTE TO OUR CHAIR
And lastly, our incoming Chair, Mark Verbiest, outlined some of the many
achievements of the company under Chris’s time as Chairman.
I’d also like to thank you Chris on behalf of all past and present members of the
Meridian Team who have worked with you.
You’ve challenged us to be the best we can be. You’ve set the bar very high for the
standard for our interactions, our discussions and our decision making as a Board
and Management.
You’ve also shown immense support and encouragement for management that has
set the tone and allowed the people in our business to flourish. As a first time Chief
Executive I’ve truly valued the guidance and counsel you have given me over the last
two years, and I will be a better much CEO as a result.
So, we thank you Chris for your challenge, your commitment, your encouragement,
which I believe, is based upon your belief in this company and its people.
ENDS
---
2019 Annual Shareholder
Meeting
17 OCTOBER 2019
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
2
Order of business
Chief Executive’s review
Resolutions and voting
Chair’s address
Shareholder questions
3
Chair’s address
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
4
Clean energy
Clean energy for a fairer and
healthier world
Net zero carbon across our
operations
First to launch renewable energy
certificates
First to report on climate change
risks
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
5
Fairer and healthier world
Electricity Price Review
Removal of prompt payment discount
Initiatives to assist low income
households
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
6
Transmission pricing methodology (TPM)
Electricity Authority believes current
charging regime is unfair and results
in inefficient outcomes
Meridian supports the Electricity
Authority’s plan to deliver reforms
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
7
Shareholder results
A record result
26% increase in EBITDAF
1
69% increase in net profit after tax
New Zealand’s largest listed
company
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
618
650
657
666
838
500
600
700
800
900
20152016201720182019
$M
Financial Year ended 30 June
EBITDAF
1
1
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, changes in fair value of hedges and other significant items
Source: Meridian
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
8
Your Board
Standing for election
Julia Hoare
Michelle Henderson
Nagaja Sanatkumar
Standing for re-election
Jan Dawson
Resigning
Steve Reindler(Aug 2018)
Mary Devine (today)
Chris Moller (today)
New Chair
Mark Verbiest (today)
Reflections
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
9
Acknowledgments
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
10
11
Chief Executive’s review
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
12
People
Changes in the Executive
98% gender pay equity
YWCA equal pay award
Gender Tick accreditation
Targeting 40% of women in
leadership and senior specialist
positions by 2020
Diversity and inclusion award at the
2019 NZ HR Awards
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
45%
35%
77%
98%
42%
33%
78%
98%
0%
30%
60%
90%
120%
Women in the
business
Women in
senior roles
EngagementGender pay
equity
Workforce measures
FY19FY18
Source: Meridian
13
Safety
8 LTI injuries in FY19, highest in 10
years
Specialist external advice to ensure
our safety is at the highest level
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
1
calculated per 200,000 hours and includes all lost time, medical treatment and restricted work injuries
Source: Meridian
1.2
1.7
0.2
0.7
1.3
2.7
3.1
3.6
1.8
4.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
FY15FY16FY17FY18FY19
Total recordable injury frequency rate
1
Meridian employees
Meridian on-site contractors
Source: Meridian
220
219
218
225
228
56
56
59
66
74
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Jun-15Jun-16Jun-17Jun-18Jun-19
ICP (000)
Financial Year ended 30 June
New Zealand customer connections
MeridianPowershop
14
Our customers
Customer number and sales volume
growth across all segments (except
Agri sales)
Headlined by 4% sales growth in
both residential and small medium
business
Competitive pressure in those
segments reflected in a 3% average
price decrease
Higher wholesale forward prices lifted
average corporate sales price by 7%
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
Total
276
275
277
291
302
Source: Meridian
+2
+6
+33
+41
+43
0
25
50
201720182019
Financial Year ended 30 June
NPS -difference to industry average
MeridianPowershop
15
Drivers of retail value
Increasing NPS
1
, declining churn
rates
6% lower cost to serve per customer
34k Meridian customers migrated to
the Flux platform, expecting 60k by
December 2019
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
higher
Source: Meridian
1
net promoter score
Consumer NZ Energy Retailer of the Year
Low Carbon Future Award
not measured
68
57
51
83
123
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
20152016201720182019
$/MWh
Financial Year ended 30 June
NZ average generation price
16
Generation
Record hydro generation year
despite only 104% of average inflows
and plant refurbishment
High wholesale electricity prices from
gas supply issues
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
Source: Meridian
17
Australia
Strong customer acquisition in FY19
following acquisition of further
generation
State and Federal default offers
came into effect in July 2019
Wholesale electricity prices are
volatile
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
-500
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
Jul-18Sep-18Nov-18Jan-19Mar-19May-19
Powershop Australia net customer
changes
electricitygas
Source: Meridian
18
New Zealand’s AluminiumSmelter
Tiwaismelter is 12% of national
demand
Financial contract with Meridian on
NZAS perpetual 12-month
termination right
Additional 50MW contract signed in
May 2018, bringing contract volume
to 622MW
Aluminium remains a commodity
exposed to cycles and Chinese supply
decisions
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
19
Looking forward
Customer growth in all geographies
is continuing
Wholesale electricity prices remain
higher than normal as storage is
falling
Gas markets remain tight, further gas
field outages are planned
Major HVDC outage planned
between January and April 2020
New renewable generation is planned
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
01-Jul01-Sep01-Nov01-Jan01-Mar01-May
GWh
Meridian's Waitaki storage
FY2019FY2018
FY202085 year average
Source: Meridian
Tribute to our Chair
20
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
21
Shareholder questions
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
22
Resolutions and voting
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
23
Resolution 1
Re-election of Jan Dawson
That Jan Dawson, who retires by
rotation and is eligible for re-election, be
re-elected as a Director of the Company
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
24
Resolution 2
Election of Julia Hoare
That Julia Hoare (appointed as a
Director of the Company by the Board
with effect from 26 September 2019),
who retires and is eligible for election,
be elected as a Director of the
Company
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
25
Resolution 3
Election of Michelle Henderson
That Michelle Henderson (appointed as
a Director of the Company by the Board
with effect from 16 October 2019) who
retires and is eligible for election, be
elected as a Director of the Company
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
26
Resolution 4
Election of Nagaja Sanatkumar
That Nagaja Sanatkumar(appointed as
a Director of the Company by the Board
with effect from 1 January 2020) be
elected as a Director of the Company
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
27
Resolution 5
Amendments to the Company’s constitution
That the Company’s constitution be revoked and a new constitution, in the form
presented at the 2019 ASM, be adopted, with effect from the close of the ASM
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
Re-election of
Jan Dawson
Election of
Julia Hoare
Election of
Michelle
Henderson
Election of
Nagaja
Sanatkumar
Amendments
to the
Company’s
constitution
Postal and online votes already cast
For603,224,289579,171,322606,339,810606,157,720605,948,087
Against3,309,13627,045,360544,749798,746564,866
Abstain2,555,7322,822,1852,128,5082,074,5012,382,924
Votes appointed to proxies not yet cast
1
1,316,630,1841,316,680,4741,316,706,2741,316,688,3741,316,823,464
Total1,925,719,3411,925,719,3411,925,719,3411,925,719,3411,925,719,341
Proxy totals
1
Votes held by the Chair, Directors and other proxies
28
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
29
Closing
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
30
Disclaimer
The information in this presentation was prepared by Meridian Energy
with due care and attention. However, the information is supplied in
summary form and is therefore not necessarily complete, and no
representation is made as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability
of the information. In addition, neither the company nor any of its
directors, employees, shareholders nor any other person shall have
liability whatsoever to any person for any loss (including, without
limitation, arising from any fault or negligence) arising from this
presentation or any information supplied in connection with it.
This presentation may contain forward-looking statements and
projections. These reflect Meridian’s current expectations, based on
what it thinks are reasonable assumptions. Meridian gives no warranty
or representation as to its future financial performance or any future
matter. Except as required by law or NZX or ASX listing rules, Meridian
is not obliged to update this presentation after its release, even if things
change materially.
This presentation does not constitute financial advice. Further, this
presentation is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or a
solicitation of an offer to buy Meridian Energy securities and may not
be relied upon in connection with any purchase of Meridian Energy
securities.
This presentation contains a number of non-GAAP financial measures,
including Energy Margin, EBITDAF, Underlying NPAT and gearing.
Because they are not defined by GAAP or IFRS, Meridian's calculation
of these measures may differ from similarly titled measures presented
by other companies and they should not be considered in isolation
from, or construed as an alternative to, other financial measures
determined in accordance with GAAP. Although Meridian believes they
provide useful information in measuring the financial performance and
condition of Meridian's business, readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these non-GAAP financial measures.
The information contained in this presentation should be considered in
conjunction with the company’s financial statements, which are
included in Meridian’s integrated report for the year ended 30 June
2019 and is available at:
www.meridianenergy.co.nz/investors
All currency amounts are in New Zealand dollars unless stated
otherwise.
17 OCTOBER 20192019 ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETING
Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.
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