Nahl Group (LSE:NAH) — Annual General Meeting

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the NAHL GROUP PLC Annual General Meeting. Throughout this recorded meeting, attendees will be in listen only mode. I'd now like to hand over to Tim Aspinall, nonexecutive chair. Good morning. Good morning, and welcome to the twenty twenty three annual general meeting of NAHL GROUP PLC. I'm Tim Aspinall, chair of the board. And with me today are James Strallis, our CEO Chris Hyatt, our CFO Sally Tillery, chair of the remuner audit and risk committee and Brian Phillips, chair of the remuneration committee. A quorum is present, and therefore, I declare the meeting formally open. Anyone joining via the investor meet company platform, is reminded that, they're able to observe proceedings only and are not able to vote, ask questions, or otherwise participate in the meeting.

0:56 The notice calling this meeting was dispatched to all members on the 04/28/2023, and accordingly, the requisite notice has been given. I'll take the notice as read. You may wish to follow the proceedings of this meeting by referring to the notice. Now before we turn to the formal business set out in the notice, I'd like to draw your attention to the trading update that the company issued this morning as an RNS on the London Stock Exchange and also on our website. Website. James is going to read out

1:27 the update for the meeting. Thank you, Tim. Since the publication of our 2022 final results on the 03/22/2023, the group has continued to make progress in scaling both of its divisions. In consumer legal services, the number of personal injury inquiries generated in the first four months of the year period was consistent with last year, excluding terraphony road traffic accident claims, which we ceased processing in February 2022. And the group's market leading brand, NAHL GROUP delivered a good performance in organic search. The business saw higher than expected supply of RTA inquiries in the period, which may be due to recent consolidation in the industry, which has resulted in the division placing increased levels of RTA work into its wholly owned law firm, National Accident Law or NAHL.

2:17 The group will continue to utilize its agile placement model to manage volumes. The group continues to make progress in scaling NAHL and placed 8% more inquiries into NAHL in the period. Cash received from settled claims in NAHL increased by a 108%. In critical care, Bush and Co has grown both case management and expert witness services and issued 25% more expert witness reports in the period than the same period last year. As a result of its marketing and business development activities, the pipeline of work for Bush and Co remains strong for the remainder of the year. Finally, in April, and as previously announced, the group completed the sale of its conveyancing business, Homewood Legal. The subsidiary was considered noncore to the group's principal focus in consumer legal services and critical care, and its sale will allow us to further focus on delivering value in these key areas.

3:13 The board's expectations for the full year remain unchanged, and we look forward to providing a trading update later in the year on the half year results. Thank you, James. So we'll move on now to the formal business of the meeting. An explanatory note on each of the 10 resolutions we voted on today is given in the notice, so I don't propose explaining all the resolutions in detail. The first seven resolutions are proposed as ordinary resolutions requiring majority of votes cast in favor to be cast. Resolutions eight to 10 are proposed as special resolutions requiring majority of 75% of votes cast in favor in order to be passed.

4:00 As set out in the notice, it was strongly recommended that shareholders submitted their proxy voting instructions electronically or appointed the chairman meeting as their proxy using a forward proxy to vote on their behalf For the information of those watching online, I've been informed by Link Asset Services that over 99 of voting instructions received prior to the meeting were in favor of the resolutions. Voting today will be done by a show of hands of those in attendance. In line with the law and the company's constitution, as I attend today as a proxy for a member of shareholders, where I've been appointed by different shareholders to vote in different ways on resolution, I will have one vote for and one vote against that resolution.

4:51 So we're now going to proceed to vote on the resolutions, which I will formally propose to the meetings. I now propose resolution one, which is to receive the annual report and accounts of the company and the auditors report of those reports and accounts for the year ended 12/31/2022. Please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor? Those against? Thank you, and I declare that resolution carried. And I propose resolution two, which is to approve the director's remuneration report, which will be found on page 67 to 72 in the annual report and counts. Please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor? Those against?

5:40 Thank you. I declare the resolution carried. I now propose resolution three to reelect Chris Hyne as director of the company. Please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor? And those against? Thank you. I declare that resolution carried. I now propose resolution four to reelect Sally Titterin as the director of the company. Again, please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor and those against, I declare the resolution carried. I have proposed resolution five to reappoint our external auditors, Lazar's LLP, to hold office from the conclusion of this meeting until the conclusion of the next annual general meeting.

6:25 Please raise your hands to vote those in favor and those against. Thank you. I declare that resolution carried. I now prefer resolution six, which is to authorize the directors to determine the remuneration of the auditors of the company. Please, again, raise your hands to vote those in favor and those against. I declare the resolution carried. I now propose resolution seven dealing with the renewal of the director's authority to allot shares in line with institutional shareholder guidance. Please write your hands to vote those in favor and those against. I declare that resolution carried. I now propose resolution eight to renew the director's annual authority to allot shares in the company for cash without making it an offer to shareholders.

7:17 Please raise your hands to vote those in favor and those against. Thank you. I declare that resolution carried. I now propose resolution nine, which relates to further disapplication of statutory preemption rights in addition to that proposed to be granted by resolution eight to be used only for the purposes of financing or refinancing transactions, which the directors determine in each case to be an acquisition or specified capital investment. Please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor and those against. I declare the resolution carried. And I propose a final resolution 10 to renew the authority of the company to purchase its own shares. Please raise your hands to vote. Those in favor?

8:05 Those against? Thank you very much. I declare the resolution carried. So So that concludes the formal business of the annual general meeting. The final results of the voting will be published by RNS later today, and we'll also publish the results on our website. We, now move on to questions that have been submitted by our shareholders prior to the meeting, but, today, there have been no such questions. So that concludes the NAHL GROUP PLC twenty twenty three annual general meeting. Shareholders, on behalf of the board, I'd like to thank you for your continued support. And that ends the meeting. That's great. Thank you very much indeed. Could I please ask investors on the call not to close this session as we're now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide feedback in order the board can better understand your views and expectations?

8:58 This may take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of board of NAHL, I'd like to thank you very much indeed for attending today's AGM. Thank you.