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Annual General Meeting - 28 April 2009

On this page:

Report of the AGM
Election results
Read / listen to sections of the meeting
Documents from the meeting

On Tuesday 28 April over 150 shareholders and community members gathered at the Daylesford Town Hall for the inaugural Annual General Meeting of Hepburn Wind, to show their support, to hear updates on progress and to elect new members to the Board.

At the very positive gathering, attendees heard Chairman Simon Holmes à Court report on the project’s progress since the public share offer closed in December.

Despite the economic crisis, $4m was raised last year from over 700 local and interstate investors on top of the $975,000 previously committed by the State Government.
Bendigo Bank has recently agreed to provide debt finance of $2.75m. This leaves the project with around two thirds of its capital secured.
Discussions with a turbine supplier have indicated that, provided the remaining funding is available soon, the project could be completed by mid 2010 — or possibly earlier.
Positive negotiations have been held with large private investors.

After a member raised the possibility of increasing their investment, a show of hands confirmed that at least half of those present were considering further investment in the project.

Simon outlined the next three significant milestones following the capital raising:

signing a power purchase agreement with an energy retailer,
completing a grid connection agreement, and
signing a turbine supply and install contract.

"These are all much simpler to say than to do but I can assure you that none of them are more difficult than what we’ve achieved so far" he said.

Treasurer Phil Hanson spoke to the financial reports tabled for the meeting. He emphasised that expenses had been small and that all the shareholders funds were being held in government guaranteed accounts. All project expenses to date have been met from a Sustainability Victoria grant and some of the interest accrued.

Following a lively question and answer session on the reports, formal motions were put on acceptance of reports. The meeting re-affirmed the policy that the Director's would not be paid, and voted that no dividend would be paid to members until income is being received from the sale of electricity.

An election was held to fill three vacancies on the Board. The following were elected:

Brett Dutton (re-elected)
Vicki Horrigan
Martin May.

Secretary Mim Dineen thanked retiring Board member and project founder Per Bernard as well as David Shapero, MD of project partner Future Energy, for their vision and commitment to the project. Mim spoke about how Per had inspired her to get involved in the project. She described the qualities Per brought to the project including "an incredible ability to see the big picture and to never lose sight of what we’re aiming for".

In his response Per spoke about the early vision of the project, "One of our biggest dreams and hopes was that our little project would succeed, but more than that, that we would be an inspiration to many other communities about what can a single person, a single community do for our nation, for our communities."

Following the formal business, the meeting adjourned for supper during the counting of the votes for directors, before reconvening to hear the results.

The Board following the election (left to right): Scott Kinnear, Phil Hanson (Treasurer), Vicki Horrigan, Mim Dineen (Secretary), Koos Hulst (Deputy Chairman), Martin May, Brett Dutton, Simon Holmes à Court (Chairman), David Wait. view enlargement

For more information on Board members see our Directors page.

Read or listen to sections of the meeting

Board Report, Simon Holmes à Court, Chairman
transcript (PDF 75 KB) audio (MP3 4.2 MB)
Treasurer's Report, Phil Hanson, Treasurer
transcript (PDF 64 KB) audio (MP3 1.6 MB)
Presentation to retiring Director Per Bernard by Mim Dineen and Per's response
transcript (PDF 68 KB) audio (MP3 3.6 MB)

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Documents from the meeting

Agenda (PDF 69 KB)
Financial Report to 30 June 2008 (PDF 881 KB)
Financial Report to 28 February 2009 (PDF 965 KB)
Statements by people standing for election as directors (PDF 280 KB)
Media Release of 1 May (PDF 92 KB)
Minutes of the AGM (coming soon)