Good morning,

The final week of AGM season has kicked off with a bang.

Healius chair Jenny Macdonald stepped down on Monday, sparing her the embarrassment of losing a re-election vote. It comes after a plunge in the stock price to a 24-year low following an emergency equity raising.

Healius’ AGM is set for later today, though not to be outdone by Ramsay Health Care and Link Administration – both today and both with share prices in the doldrums.

While we won’t know until the final numbers are tallied, this AGM season has felt spicier than normal. Perhaps it’s the tougher post-COVID/easy money conditions facing many ASX-listed companies, but it could also be the breadth of those suffering protest votes – Qantas, Fortescue, Treasury Wine, Woolworths, APA, Dexus, Lendlease etc, all in the ASX 100.

While it’s difficult to draw a link between all those with strikes against their remuneration reports – we counted 21 in the ASX 300 (plus a fair few who came within a whisker) – a couple of themes have emerged.

One, substantial share price falls, with names like Endeavour, Magellan Financial, Tabcorp and Tyro Payments all suffering declines of more than 30 per cent over the past year. This goes hand in hand with a burst in activist investors, rallying the troops and highlighting the lack of alignment between shareholder returns and inelastic management rewards in tough times. Activists got busy at Whitehaven Coal, Lendlease, Magellan and Endeavour - with mixed success.

Then there are those who suffered thanks to decisions to reward management rather than penalise it – Treasury Wine and Lovisa come to mind. And finally, there’s Qantas, where furious shareholders (and likely customers) relished the opportunity to vent their rage and hand the board an epic strike – the largest since the 88 per cent that voted against NAB’s remuneration report after the royal commission.

Beyond the hoopla of it all, it’s evident long-term investors are fed up, calling for scalps and taking the fight to companies failing to deliver.

Happy reading,

• Deutsche has recruited a new investment banking head from its rival.
• Jet Charge has joined the rush hour in EV dealmaking
• There are delays at AustralianSuper-backed Federation Mining’s NZ auction.
• BGH Capital is ready to bare its fangs at Healius over a 2020 deal.
• A King & Wood Mallesons private equity bigwig has taken a sabbatical.

• Adore Beauty’s shares jumped 20 per cent after itknocked back a takeover approach, writes Carrie LaFrenz.
• Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman said his firm is eyeing a bevy of buying opportunities in real estate across Europe, Bloomberg reports.
• Lendlease CEO Tony Lombardo signalled a strategic pivot in Europe, on the sidelines of a UK conference on foreign investment, reports Hans van Leeuwen.

There were 558 EV chargers in public locations across Australia at June 30 but nearly 130,000 EVs on Australian roads as of June 30, according to a report from the Electric Vehicle Council published in July.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.