Z Energy
Special Meeting Report, March 25th 2022
Click here for NZSA Assessment and Voting intentions
The only time retail shareholders get courted ahead of a shareholder meeting is when there is a requirement to pass a resolution by a super majority of votes cast and/or shares on issue.
This was one of those occasions.
Shareholders were invited to contact the Chair or CEO prior to the meeting to with any questions they had and were also contacted by an Australian call centre urging them to get out and vote. It seems the strategy was successful. Of the 332 million votes cast, 327.5 million were cast by proxy ahead of the meeting.
In all, 98.7% of shares cast were in favour so the scheme of arrangement for an Ampol buyout now needs only Overseas Investment Office approval.
Chair, Abby Foote, spent some time providing a background and summary of the scheme. Her presentation and accompanying slides have been posted to the NZX. The slides include questions submitted prior to the meeting.
In summary, the price of Z shares is set by the market and should the scheme not proceed, The price is likely to drop to pre offer levels. There are no other suitors for Z. What happens to Z’s shares in NZ Refining (now Channel Infrastructure) will be for Ampol to decide. Citing commercial sensitivity, CEO, Mike Bennetts, declined to answer a question on what Z’s margin was on its ‘share tank’ product. He did say that his view of the business outlook, compared to July last year, was bearish.
Bruce Parkes