Contact Energy - CEN Chart

[Jaa]

Question about why otahuhu plant was closed.

It's older, high cost, surplus to requirements, and not very renewable

Sparky wasn't that old!

It was commissioned in January 2000, upgraded in 2005 from 385MW to 404MW and ceased generation at the end of September 2015. The typical lifespan of a combined cycle gas power station at 30 years is double that. What a debacle.

Contact's upgrade to SAP, which was forced (by Origin), expensive and ultimately customer value destroying also shows how relatively poorly the company was run by overseas management. Any update on that fiasco at the meeting?

The question is, have things changed?

PS: Thanks for the updates from the meeting Blendy, much appreciated.

[Blendy]

Question: prompt payment discount is too generous, how does it compare in the market. It's set competitively in the market.

Also, hardship programs: competitive products are offered with payment budgeting methods. WINZ resources, medical life support etc.

[Blendy]

Question about merging with Trustpower.

Not on the radar.

[Blendy]

Question about driving price of electricity down in the derivatives markets since we've had so many wet years.

Not really is the summary.

[Blendy]

Net Promotor Score is used as a tool to measure customer satisfaction. The Board sees this as a financial value tool.

[LAC]

Anything on Divies or sharebuybacks to continue?

[Blendy]

No further share buy backs planned.

Employee engagement went up from 44% to 56%. Surveys on how they feel in the organization, culture etc. - helps the Board to understand issues so that they can improve productivity and therefore financial return because staff want to go the extra mile and are motivated to do a great job.

(I could go on and on about organizational behavior benefits - I'm really impressed with the Board's approach to this).

[Blendy]

90% of the electricity is provided by the major players - Contact, Meridian, Mercury, Genesis, Trustpower. Contact holds about 21% of this market share.

[Blendy]

Overall, a very well run meeting, with generally positive feeling. The heavy focus on customer satisfaction and engagement, as well as employee engagement is great to see. The Board and staff present were very friendly and mingled with people at morning tea (very well catered by the way - scones, jam, cream, sandwiches, mini pies etc etc). There was much discussion from shareholders about how Contact would assist those in poverty, and sort of an expectation that they would provide something towards fixing a social problem. But then on the other hand there is the expectation of returning a profit to shareholders. A balance will no doubt be found.

[Blendy]

A pleasure. I realize most of the discussion focused on how they are running the company now and moving forward, and not on what amazing things are going to drive the share price dramatically or dividend increase. I feel the summary is that it's a sensible long term business operation. Slow and steady.

And no, no update on the SAP/Origin fiasco.