We believe that regular two-way dialogue is essential to sustaining strong, transparent, and long-term relationships with stakeholders. Through these engagements across multiple channels, we ensure that investors, analysts and the media are furnished with prompt and accurate information on the Group’s financial performance, strategic direction and business developments to assist them in making sound and informed investment decisions.
VIRTUAL STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT EFFORTS
As the Covid-19 situation continued to evolve, we remained flexible in our stakeholder engagement strategies. In 2021, Wilmar’s management and IR team connected with more than 130 investors via one-on-one conference calls, group video and teleconferences, virtual investor conferences, analyst meetings and results briefings. These virtual events provide stakeholders access to Senior Management to have in-depth discussions about the Group’s strategic direction, industry trends, sustainability topics and financial performance. With the restriction of physical interactions amidst the pandemic, video conferences allow global investors to meet with the management team online. Any additional queries are also addressed via e-mails or phone calls in a timely and accurate manner.
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held virtually on 15 April 2021 as we continually seek to improve the quality of the meeting through the latest digital platforms and technologies. An update by our Chief Financial Officer provided insights into the Group’s business operations, progress and financial highlights in the past year. The Board of Directors as well as Senior Management were also present at the AGM to address any queries and concerns raised by shareholders. Shareholders were given the opportunity to ask their questions “live” during the AGM.
Our efforts to reach out to the retail investing community also include a long-term sponsorship of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore) (SIAS). This sponsorship helps to support a wide variety of programmes such as investor education, corporate actions and membership drive.
We continue to build on the relationships with sell-side research analysts and have 14 analysts providing regular coverage on Wilmar.
IR Resources
The IR website is a key resource for corporate and stock information, financial data, policies, financial results, annual reports and significant business developments. All disclosures submitted to the Singapore Exchange (SGX) are uploaded to the Investors & Media section of the Group’s corporate website in a timely and consistent manner. Members of the investment community can also subscribe to our e-mail alerts and request for information through the website.
FOCUS ON ESG INVESTING
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have increasingly been incorporated into investment mandates and over the past year, we have seen a growing interest coming from the Asia Pacific region. The IR team works closely with the Group’s Sustainability team to keep relevant stakeholders updated on our sustainability progress through proactive e-mails and ESG-focused meetings. Resource materials such as sustainability briefs on various programmes, the annual sustainability report as well as important updates on sustainability-related matters are made available on the Group’s Sustainability Dashboard. We also regularly engage with proxy advisory service providers and ESG rating agencies to understand their voting requirements and ensure timeliness and accuracy of ESG data reported.
In August 2021, we hosted our annual sustainability webinar during which we provided key updates on our sustainability initiatives, including updates on the Sustainability Report 2020; Covid-19 interventions and contributions; carbon and climate change journey; progress on human rights initiatives as well as Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification. A question-and-answer session at the end of the webinar allowed participants to interact with the sustainability team directly. The session was well-received by close to 40 analysts and portfolio managers based in Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands with follow-up questions from some participants post-webinar too.
We remain committed to driving the transformation of our industry to be more sustainable. During the year, our efforts were recognised by our inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and attaining the top ranking in the 2021 assessment by the Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit (SPOTT).
ENHANCING SHAREHOLDER VALUE
Our investment in key areas such as central kitchens, consumer products, rice and flour businesses will continue to enhance long-term shareholder value. The Group’s resilient integrated business model has proven to be effective amidst macroeconomic uncertainty and fluctuations in commodity prices in recent years as we posted record net profit of US$1.89 billion for FY2021.
In FY2021, we bought back about S$130 million of Wilmar shares, the third highest buyback consideration on the Singapore Exchange during the year. We are proposing a total cash dividend of 15.5 Singapore cents per share for the year, representing around 38% of the Group’s net profit in 2021 and the highest cash dividend since the Group’s listing on SGX in 2006.
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