PolyNovo Limited Aktie

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the PolyNovo FY '26 Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Bruce Peatey, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Since joining PolyNovo last in December, I've spent some time with customers, clinicians, employees and shareholders around the world while also reviewing the business in detail. My confident assessment is that PolyNovo is developing into a stronger, more capable business with a sustainable runway of potential for us to capture.

Looking ahead, FY '27 is less about building capability and more about converting that capability into outcomes, reliable performance, broader adoption of the portfolio and milestone completion, leading to stronger returns and long-term shareholder value.

And with that context, I will be sharing some key highlights from FY '26, the opportunity ahead and our key priorities for FY '27 before handing over to Jan to review the FY '26 financial results.

If we go to the next slide. We have here the standard disclaimers. Move to the next slide. So the origins of PolyNovo are centered around large complex burns. The way NovoSorb BTM uniquely and specifically addresses the care needs of critically ill burns patients, providing surgeons with the time and control they need to address these complex cases has really truly redefined what is possible in this category.

Increasingly, we are seeing NovoSorb BTM and now MTX used across trauma, reconstruction, limb salvage and other complex wounds, reflecting the versatility of the NovoSorb portfolio. As more surgeons are seeing positive outcomes in new procedures using our products, the potential for growth strengthens. Combined, these markets have an estimated total available market in excess of $2 billion.

I want to be clear, BTM in large burns built PolyNovo's clinical credibility and will remain an important growth lever for the future. But the opportunity for NovoSorb is much broader. That matters because PolyNovo is fundamentally a platform company with a significant complex wounds business today and broader potential over time. It was important for me to include these images today.

The patients' lives from around the world that we positively impact through our technology is a source of daily inspiration and pride for our entire team.

So the next slide. During FY '26, we increased our focus on strengthening our foundations, while our commercial momentum continued with more cases covered than ever before in more types of procedures in more hospitals and countries around the world. The clinical study report for the U.S. pivotal RCT is now finalized, representing an important milestone for PolyNovo. We have successfully completed one of the largest and most rigorous burn studies conducted in decades. And we look forward to updating investors on the trial results as we progress through the next stages of regulatory review and commercialization. And we are pleased to share that BTM received regulatory clearance in 8 additional markets.

MTX continued its commercial rollout, achieving close to 90% year-on-year growth in FY '26. We expect the momentum to continue as clinical evidence and clinician experiences continue to grow. The new manufacturing facility construction has been completed with transition plans underway, and our leadership team was strengthened with proven capabilities spanning science, quality, IP and governance.

We also have invested in critical strategic marketing and market access capabilities to actively drive the next wave of growth. Each of these elements will make us more capable to scale the organization and power the financial growth trajectory.

Next slide. Sharing some of the financial highlights here. FY '26 continued to deliver growth with the group, the U.S. and the rest of the world sales all growing greater than 21% in constant currency. We've added constant currency detail in response to the volatile forex landscape over the previous year and to give a more accurate reflection of the local market momentum.

Importantly, EBITDA grew significantly versus prior year, while we continue to invest in the infrastructure and capabilities mentioned previously. We're very pleased with the improvement in operating cash flow in line with expectations communicated in the first half earnings update, generating $9.4 million in free cash flow for the year. Jan will take you through the financial performance and key drivers in more detail shortly.

So next slide. I recognize there may be some questions around the trajectory of growth in the United States during the second half of FY '26. So let's address that here. This chart depicts the sales growth trajectory over recent years in the U.S., comparing revenue from large burn procedures to all other procedures. Large burn cases are lumpy by nature. The presentation of large burn cases are infrequent and variable in magnitude, which can impact sales variances more than other typical market forces. A good example is that we saw strong growth in large burn cases in the first half of FY '26 after a period of lower growth. We saw less of those large cases presented in the second half of 2026.

Meanwhile, the deliberate expansion into procedures beyond large burns, including the introduction of MTX is paying off, with a 52.8% 3-year CAGR coming from an increasing number of complex wound applications. Now this is important because it demonstrates that complex wounds are not simply a future opportunity. They are already an increasingly important growth engine. Finishing FY '26 with a record sales month in June for the U.S. provides confidence that this is not a business that is running out of opportunity. It does suggest our growth drivers are rightly changing, broadening and maturing. And I'm pleased to share that we started FY '27 continuing the FY '26 momentum with a group sales record for July.

Next slide. MTX is a good example of our ability to leverage the NovoSorb platform into new clinical applications and generate meaningful commercial traction. In FY '26, sales increased to $12.6 million from $6.7 million in the previous year, with MTX now commercially available across 6 markets and the regulatory pathway is well underway for the U.K.

Most encouraging is what we are hearing from our clinicians about the positive outcomes they're experiencing using MTX either stand-alone or increasingly in combination with BTM. We just shared a few of the comments here on the right. MTX's versatility in combination with the NovoSorb credibility gained from BTM is enabling use across a broad range of reconstructive and complex wound challenges, supporting our confidence in the opportunity for further adoption.

Next slide. Now the body of evidence supporting broader adoption of NovoSorb's portfolio across a wider range of clinical applications continues to grow, validating the credibility of NovoSorb technology. While there is still a lot to focus on BTM and burns, we continue to see significant growth in evidence outside of burns applications in an array of complex wounds.

Another indicator of broadening clinical acceptance is the inclusion of NovoSorb BTM in academic textbooks, and this stat got me excited. BTM was included in 9 published textbook chapters in FY '26 alone compared to just 1 chapter across all of the earlier years.

Next slide. So moving to a geographic perspective. All regions continue to experience strong growth with Americas exceeding AUD 100 million for the first time. There's no single growth lever in which our outlook depends. We have different opportunities at different stages of maturity across each region.

In North America, the major opportunity includes PMA approval and the RCT clinical study report, entering outpatient care in FY '27 and deeper penetration of existing accounts and MTX. Outside of the U.S., there remains significant runway through new products and indications. In FY '27, we'll be about matching investment and commercial execution to the maturity of each market, deepening penetration where we're established while selectively building markets with a quantifiable opportunity for NovoSorb introduction.

Next slide. So let me start here by confirming that our ambition as a growth company remains high. The focus of the leadership team is now to translate that ambition into clear direction and accountable actions. Our strategy starts with the strength of what we already have, which is a differentiated complex wound portfolio, established clinical leadership and a significant opportunity for deeper penetration in existing markets. The next phase is about leveraging the portfolio more deliberately to maintain strong growth in BTM, MTX and soon to come SynPath by prioritizing application opportunities where clinical need and potential commercial return are the strongest.

By leveraging the platform, we commit to increase the velocity of our innovation engine. This includes next-generation products to fuel expansion in our core business and getting back to the science of our polymer technology to unlock potential new ways. Every company goes through evolutionary inflection points. PolyNovo has grown substantially over the several years. Our commercial teams are expanding. Our manufacturing output and capacity is increasing in a highly regulated market. So we plan to sharpen our focus on organizational capability and accountability during FY '27 to translate clinical leadership into sustainable long-term value.

Next slide. Our opportunity is broad. So one of the most important things we can do as a management team is be clear about where we focus our resources. For FY '27, that means 5 priorities: advancing PMA to approval and sharing the RCT results when appropriate, launching SynPath into the U.S. outpatient market, accelerating MTX, increasing our innovation velocity, including adding business development capabilities and improving operating leverage as we scale. The common thread is execution, converting the capabilities and investments we have made into commercial outcomes, sustainable growth and stronger returns.

So I'll hand you over to Jan now with these thoughts. The platform is proven and its full potential has not yet been realized. Burns remain an important foundation, while complex wounds, MTX, outpatient care and other applications substantially broaden the opportunity. This isn't simply an aspiration. Non-burn indications are already growing considerably faster. MTX is gaining traction, and there are multiple growth levers across geographies and care settings. The difference you should expect under the refreshed leadership team is focus and execution. Thank you. Over to you, Jan.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. Next slide, please. And thanks again, everyone, for joining the webcast today. I'll start with our commercial sales performance. NovoSorb product sales were $138.4 million for the year, up 16.7% on last year and in constant currency, up 21.3%, as Bruce just mentioned. In dollar terms, sales increased by $19.7 million. The year ended with a strong June result, including a record sales result in the U.S. This was backed up recently in July with group sales exceeding $13 million for the month, a new record. This is a good indicator of the momentum in the business as we progress into the new financial year.

We experienced continued growth in the U.S., achieving sales of $102.1 million, up 15.6% for the year. There were significant FX headwinds in FY '27 due to the stronger Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar. Taking this into account, U.S. sales in constant currency were actually up 21.1%. The growth was driven by strong account acquisition, adding 200 new hospital accounts during the year and continued penetration of existing accounts with total accounts now over 880 in the U.S.

In regards to the Rest of World result, we recorded sales of $36.3 million, up 20% on last year and up 21.9% in constant currency. This includes some exceptional results in a number of markets with growth rates well above 30%, which I'll highlight a bit later in the presentation. NovoSorb MTX sales for the group were $12.6 million, up 89.6%, recording sales not just in the U.S., but also Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Hong Kong.

Next slide, please. Moving on to additional highlights for the U.S. As just mentioned, the U.S. achieved 21.1% sales growth in constant currency for the year. NovoSorb MTX sales in the U.S. were $12.2 million, up 92.7% in constant currency. Surgeon adoption of NovoSorb MTX continues to grow and will accelerate across the customer base as more clinical evidence is generated and shared. NovoSorb MTX has now being used in over 330 accounts in the U.S., doubling from the same time last year.

We currently have 132 staff in the U.S., including 106 in the sales team. The average sales per sales team member continues to increase as we penetrate existing hospitals across a wider range of indications, also assisted by having additional product available being NovoSorb MTX. As a result, overall productivity of the U.S. team has increased, increasing operating leverage and profitability. Furthermore, the U.S. business continues to generate strong cash flows with debtor days well within our expectations.

Next slide, please. So moving on to the Rest of World results. As mentioned, sales were up 21.9% on the prior year in constant currency. We achieved some exceptional results, both in relatively new and well-established markets. In particular, Australia, our home market, we entered several years ago, grew by 33.9%, which is an excellent result. Ireland grew by 38.3% is one of our best-performing markets on a per capita basis. Results in long-standing markets such as Ireland and Australia, as an example, is a good indicator of the adoption by surgeons using NovoSorb BTM, not just in large burns, but across a range of indications.

Sales in Hong Kong continued at a strong rate, recording 49.9% sales growth for the year. Turkey's strong growth has also continued, up 79% for the year. India performed with a consistent growth rate, recording 52.8% sales growth for the year. Furthermore, following first sales in June last year in Malaysia, we have received monthly orders, each order increasing value, and we'll be investing in that market by hiring 2 sales reps this quarter. We have experienced similar growth in the Czech Republic following first sales late last fiscal year. Rest of World share of global sales now accounts for 26.2% of global sales, and we see significant opportunities for growth, particularly in Europe and the Middle East in the short term.

Next slide, please. Moving on to the P&L. I want to start off by highlighting the underlying EBITDA performance for the year. After adjusting EBITDA for significant items being the impact of the R&D lab fire and unrealized forex impact on translation of the balance sheet due to the strong Australian dollar, adjusted EBITDA was $13.4 million, up 50.4% on the prior year. There are a number of one-off items impacting the reported net profit after tax result, which I will now explain. BARDA revenue is down on the prior year as expected. The pivotal burns trial is complete, and we are finalizing the submission for premarket approval to the FDA. In connection with the BARDA pivotal trial completing, the trial costs have reduced, which now -- which explains the lower R&D expense for the period.

On to gross margin. You may recall in the first half of the year with inventory at comfortable levels after building them up during FY '25, we took the opportunity to bring forward attending to various tasks in our manufacturing facilities in preparation for the premarket approval submission and FDA audit that will follow in due course. To do so, we temporarily reduced manufacturing output in the first half, which in turn reduces the production recovery to cover manufacturing overhead costs.

Despite increasing manufacturing output in the second half to 3.8x the output of the first half, we recorded a modest improvement in gross margin in the second half of 89.2% compared to 88.7% in the first half. The margin for the full year was 89.0%. At year-end, a number of adjustments are recorded to account for the underutilization of the facilities that occurred during the first half. As such, the underlying gross margin in the second half was much higher than 90%.

Other income includes a $6.0 million insurance claim related to the R&D lab fire. This offsets the $4.7 million asset write-off recorded further below in the P&L. Employee-related costs were up 5.7% or 4.3%, excluding share-based payments, with employee headcount remaining steady at circa 300 employees at 30 June. Underlying corporate admin and overhead expenses were actually down on the prior year by 1.1% after excluding unrealized forex movement on translation of the balance sheet. This unrealized forex movement comes about due to the Australian dollar appreciating against the U.S. dollar during the period, resulting in an unrealized forex loss of $2.7 million for the year compared to $2.2 million unrealized gain for the year. And this particular expense gets recorded in the corporate admin and overhead line in the statutory P&L. So important to back it out and look at the underlying result there. In terms of operating leverage, it is increasing, and the bottom line is becoming more sensitive to sales growth, evident by the 50% increase to EBITDA after adjusting for significant items.

Next slide, please. Moving on to cash flow and the balance sheet. We ended the period with $35.4 million cash on hand, an increase of $1.9 million on last year's balance of $33.5 million. Cash flow from operations was $23.1 million and improved significantly compared to the prior year result of $3.1 million with strong debt collections in all markets. We completed construction of the new manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne with CapEx payments of $12.4 million for the period.

We also commenced reconstruction of the R&D lab and offices with progress payments of $1.4 million, which are fully covered by insurance. $1.5 million in CapEx remains outstanding for machinery for the new manufacturing facility, and this will be paid in the first half. Even after funding $13.8 million in CapEx, the business achieved free cash flow of $9.4 million, which is an important milestone achievement for the business. Finally, we ended the year with a strong balance sheet, free cash flow, which will enable us to focus on further investment, driving revenue growth and importantly, product innovation. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Bruce.

Thanks, Jan, and thank you all for joining us today and for your continued support of PolyNovo. As you've heard, we are entering the first half with strong momentum, a clear strategy and a deep commitment to execution. Our focus remains on delivering meaningful clinical impact, scaling globally and unlocking the full value of the NovoSorb platform. I'm incredibly proud of what the team has achieved and confident in the opportunities ahead. We look forward to updating you on our progress and appreciate your engagement today. So I'll now hand over to the operator to move to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first phone question comes from Lyanne Harrison from Bank of America.

Can I start with your Slide 11 in terms of your 2027 opportunities? In terms of the PMA for BTM, can you tell us whether or not the submission timetable for the end of this calendar year still holds? Also what needs to happen between now and submission? And then following submission, what are your expectations on the FDA review timeline?

Lyanne, thanks for the question. Yes, so as far as time line is concerned, as we communicated earlier in the year, so we made the deliberate decision to take an opportunity to look at the scope of the program with the updated guidelines from the FDA, we took the decision to make our -- to bring some of those activities that were post -- going to be post-submission to pre-submission in the intent to make a more complete and compelling submission all in one go. Also, it allowed us to line up the clinical report outcomes at the 18-month period, the follow-ups with the patients. So all tracking well there. After the submission, I've always said our goal is a PMA approval, more than racing to a PMA submission. And we feel like we're in good stead for that as we've gone through this review time line. So once that submission is in, we -- then it's more appropriate to talk about the outcomes for the clinical study. And then we're more in the hands of the FDA as they go through their process over several months, including an inspection of the facility we expect.

Okay. So effectively, in terms of the approval for the FDA, the expectation is perhaps middle of next calendar year. Is that right?

So it's definitely months. And again, we go to the FDA time line. So we're prepared to work with them from experience and our understanding, it's around that 12-month mark from submission.

Okay. But that hasn't -- is it sped up because of your additional submission activity?

It's difficult for us to say. But what I can say is that what we'll have is a very complete submission, the work being done prior to the submission rather than originally planned to do some work after submission. For me, I'm more confident in how we would proceed in this sense.

Okay. And then if I can move on to SynPath. Can you give us an update on where you're up to in terms of that outpatient opportunity, particularly on perhaps trying to secure reimbursement and where SynPath is up to in terms of the launch?

Yes. So we're in preparations for commercial launch as we move forward. As far as reimbursement is concerned, SynPath has HCPCS code already. So we don't have any concerns there. But as I think most people know as following this space is that it's been a market in a fair bit of turbulence over the start of the year, getting used to the new policies through CMS.

So we have added our market access capabilities to the organization to help us navigate through this very different space than the inpatient market that we currently are in every day. So not only is it about the product or the reimbursement, it's also about provider confidence and that they can get paid through this new system. And with all of the different movements, that turbulence has something that we've kept an eye on as we prepare for the launch into the market. So commercial readiness is underway. We're ready for our commercial launch. It's progressing well, I would say.

Okay. And what's your view then in terms of the ability to sort of penetrate that market, obviously, given the challenges the market currently has?

So very deliberate in how we're going to approach the market. We make sure that we have the right go-to-market strategy as well as -- which includes not just the sales team, but also what indications make the most clinical sense for us to be involved in and also has a significant commercial opportunity. So you're talking about procedures that are more single episode procedures rather than the repeat episodes that you might see in some of those chronic wounds. We see a lot of opportunity there and actually dovetails quite nicely with our current momentum in the inpatient space. Similar contact points, similar surgeons involved, just a different care setting.

Your next question comes from Shane Storey from Canaccord Genuity.

I think I might stay on the SynPath track just for a couple of more minutes, Bruce. Just thinking about the settings there, would I be right in anticipating that you'd probably look to the outpatient setting, more hospital outpatient department rather than going into, say, the broader private physician market at this point?

Yes, you got it, Shane. Thanks for the question. It's a logical first step for us. Like I say, there's that relationship that we already have with the surgeons in those hospitals. We've got over 100 reps now in more and more hospitals every day. I think over 800 was the last count and increasing -- so that makes the logical first step. The indications, if you look at some of the oncology repair type of reconstruction-type procedures, they can be further outside of the hospital. And we are looking at opportunities to address those markets over time as well. But you're right, logical first step in hospital outpatients.

And when you think about just where the evidence sort of stands right now, just your thoughts perhaps on what additional evidence development you think might be appropriate. And I know that's a bit of an open question to everyone in the category, but just interested in your thoughts on it.

Yes, it's true. And the evidence requirements also need to be established as we go forward. We are gaining more and more evidence across multiple indications. As I mentioned in the presentation, and so whether that's in the chronic wound space as well as the more acute setting, we're seeing that evidence that is applicable to this space. But we're also mindful if there needs to be more, I'd say, specific evidence generated that we're open for that. What I can say is that even the strategy to move into the procedures that are more applicable to our products' capabilities and advantages, I think we're well placed with the evidence that we have.

I've got one final question just for Jan. Jan, thanks for checking us -- talking us through the various moves in gross margin over the half. I suppose my question is really just around any of that sort of mechanics might reverse in FY '27, I suppose just with new facilities coming online, just how you expect that overhead to affect the margin over the next year or 2?

Yes, sure. The new facility isn't available for use at the moment. So it's not hitting margin. And we're not going to be transitioning to the new facility to around March next year, and we'll likely start with MTX moving across. We're in the middle of validating machines and so forth. So despite the facility being built. So we're not going to have that impact until sort of the fourth quarter. Before I talk about that, I'll touch on how margin is progressing, and we're sort of back to the normal levels now out of our existing facilities.

So July, gross margin was just under 95%, and that's kind of what we're used to. And that comes about by strong sales exceeding budget actually in July. We had $13 million sales for the group, which was a record, but we also hit budget or target for our production output in July. So when that happens, you get a 95% gross margin.

So with all that continuing as planned, and we hit our targets between now and, say, in December, our first half, our gross margins will be in that 90% to 95% range. The new facility comes on, that will have a 1% to 1.5% impact on gross margin once it's up and running, but our sales will be a lot higher than where they are now, too. So you've got to take that into account. But all in all, we're in a good spot in terms of being able to use that new facility and looking forward to sort of firing it up in the next calendar year.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Scott Power from Morgans Financial.

Just a quick question around some of the other research that you're doing. So you mentioned SynPath and the launch of that. But I'm just wondering if you could give a bit of commentary around hernia repair and some of the areas that you're looking at. And I guess the second question to that is with that R&D spend coming down in FY '26, what's the sort of anticipated percentage of sales that we can look forward to going forward?

Okay. Thanks, Scott. So just on the innovation pipeline in general, I think you'll recall at the half year, I spoke about the need of getting some velocity back into our innovation pipeline. And one of the first steps to do that is to bring in a Chief Scientific Officer, which we did. Wonderful to have Marthe D'Ombrain in the team now. And I can see really 2 months in, we can see that rigor and discipline to the pipeline visibility and approach is definitely improving. So we have that. In that mix, like you mentioned, we've got a number of products, hernia and breast recon, as we mentioned before, we've got products in that pipeline as well that are going through a very deliberate prioritization process.

So we'll have -- my focus is to making sure that we have that velocity come back into the innovation pipeline and to be able to make the tough decisions. Unless there's a clinical differentiator, unless there's a very strong commercial need for the product as well, we'll make those tough decisions whether they stay in the pipeline or not. And I'm looking forward to sharing that more as we have Marthe has a bit more time under her belt.

I think I am very happy also with her approach to start bringing in some voice of customer with clinician groups as well as she will be planning to establish more formal forums for scientific advisory over time as well starting in this calendar year. So I think for the most part, it's about making sure we have a disciplined process in place for our innovation pipeline to get that velocity back into our system. As far as the spend, I'll get Jan to speak about it. But I think as we shift away from the heavy lifting link to PMA preparation, we will see more of the investment going into R&D to help fuel this increase in velocity.

Absolutely -- just to add to that, in terms of R&D spend as a percentage of sales, will be sort of around 5% of sales next year, and that excludes the R&D costs, which have historically sat in that line in the statutory P&L. That's all come to an end now. So -- and to Bruce's point, though, Marthe, our new CSO, has only been in the role for a couple of months, and there -- she's getting a handle on things. And we do want to invest more in R&D. We do want new products to come out and line extensions. But so expect it to increase, but next year it will be close to sort of 5% of sales.

Right. Okay. And just a second question, if I can. You've called out a number of the regions in Rest of World that have done very well. Are there any regions that perhaps are underperforming and up for review?

So I think just to jump in on that one and the questions around rest of the world, I think it goes back to what we've learned, particularly around that evolution of the markets. And we talk about markets being at a different level of maturity. And again, as that mix between the large complex burns and the other complex wound applications, as that mix evolves until that evolves, we'll have some variability in those markets. So that's why I called out the deliberate approach for at least 2027, FY '27 is to go deeper in some of those high potential markets rather than more emphasis on going into more markets.

So definitely, we think we've got some potential in particularly some of the European markets to go a little deeper and build up that momentum that we've seen in some of our more established markets like Australia, performing extremely well one of our most mature markets, and you can see how that mix is changing in the U.S. I'd like to see that happen more in some of the European markets. And Jan, I don't know if you have anything to add?

Nothing really further to add, but we've had some really great performances. We know what good looks like, and we know how to get there in particular markets. [indiscernible] are a driving force in supporting distributors. So we'll continue to do that. And anyone that's sort of dropping off, we managed to pick them up again. But there's no shortage of opportunity. Also in the Middle East, we see opportunities because we've had product going into that region since the war also occurred and all the activities have been going. Unfortunate activities have occurred over there. So that's another opportunity as well we're going to be looking at.

Your next question comes from Andrew Paine from CLSA.

Look, in the trading update, you mentioned that you were seeing record sales in June. It would be good if you can just quantify those sales and maybe provide any insights on how sales were tracking at the start of FY '27.

I'm happy to jump in there, Bruce. Yes, July, as we've already mentioned, actually was a record result for the group. So we actually achieved sales over $13 million. The U.S. backed it up again, which is great. That's a really good sign of where we hope the quarter will end. So yes, it hasn't gone off a cliff. It's done the opposite, which is really good indication.

Might have missed that earlier. And then just looking at the OpEx that you're giving a bit of leverage through '26. Just kind of interested, especially in employee-related expenses, obviously, there's kind of FX movements there. Are you able to give any guidance around constant currency for employee-related expenses just looking forward in '27?

Right now, not at this point, haven't got in front of me. But in terms of the volatility, we certainly hope we don't see the volatility we've seen this year and the impact it's had on the P&L, particularly revenue. In terms of costs overall, I mean, the leverage is definitely coming through. I mean you look at corporate admin and overhead costs being 1% down on the prior year. We're getting a lot more productivity out of the entire group, particularly in all our sales and marketing subsidiaries. So the U.S. average sales per rep continuing to grow, increasing profitability. We're seeing the same in the U.K. and Australia and so forth.

And that will start to come through even more so this year. I think the EBITDA or the profitability line is highly sensitive now to growth in sales. And you can see that with the underlying EBITDA growing by 50%. We did have that impact, but we're off to a good start with record sales, gross margin of 95% in July, and we're going to work towards making sure that continues through this first half.

That's great. And just one last thing, just looking at your adjusted EBITDA number for significant items. Obviously, there's the write-off of the asset. Just looking at the insurance -- interim insurance claim, where is that coming through the P&L?

We're sitting in other income. And the net impact is $1.1 million gain to the bottom line, but we've added it back there, obviously, by adjusting for significant items. So the underlying result excludes any insurance impact and asset write-off impact.

There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand the conference back to your speakers to address your webcast questions.

Great. Thank you. Bruce, we've got a few questions that have come through here. The first one being India. What are the plans for India? And is it breaking even? Are we going to continue to invest in that market?

Yes, great question. So we're very happy with the performance in India. You can see strong growth again for that team. But I think more importantly, the underlying foundations of that business are very strong. The team there have built a solid, compliant, reliable business that is growing, particularly when I look at lead indicators like the work that is being done over several years in winning contracts within India. Takes some time, typically does. 2 years down the track, we're starting to win tenders that have only just come up. So a lot of work to get there. We've got that runway of tenders and contracts that are in the pipeline, and we're seeing those convert.

So we're in a lot more hospitals now, several of the major AIIMS hospitals in India as well as the largest burn center in Asia, which is based in Delhi. So very strong growth. As far as profitability is concerned, that's expected within this financial year, really aiming for the second quarter to make sure that's a profitable business. But again, continuing to grow, putting discipline in the expense side of the business to make sure that we are starting to see returns on that investment before we go to the next phase. But all signs are looking positive. I don't know, Jan, if you wanted to add anything there?

No, exactly right. So it's going to continue to organically grow and will break even this side of Christmas. And they are growing significantly. They do have a lot of cases that they continue to treat. And the growth has been exceptional really in terms of the number of patients, particularly compared to other markets, but we are making inroads into the bigger burns, and it will just take time.

Moving on, just another question now, Bruce, just on competition in the U.S., and there's a specific here around Avita and their synthetic products and other synthetic competitors that may be popping up. What are we seeing in the U.S. market? And how are we responding?

So yes, there's a little bit of noise in this space. And I think it actually relates back to also what we're seeing in that outpatient segment with a number of the players in the market having the turbulence that has occurred due to the policy changes. We are seeing a bit more activity in the inpatients. But I think it's important to ground ourselves in what BTM and MTX and the NovoSorb portfolio really does in the inpatient setting.

So those large complex cases where BTM was designed to improve patient outcomes. Those results are well documented now as we see more and more evidence and the experiences of the clinicians are quite compelling.

So we might see some activity in those lower burn spaces where faster graft and other length of stay criteria are being discussed. We have options in that space. But again, it's that larger wounds and more complex cases where we really shine through. In those other areas, again, there's some trialing going on, but we are seeing more and more that the clinicians can't forget the great outcomes that they've had with our products, and we're seeing that come back. And that's evident in June being a record sales for the U.S., backing it up in July. So we're definitely up for the fight, and we have the product that we believe that can stand up against any competition.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. Related to that, it's a question here from David at E&P, Evans & Partners. Acknowledging the impact of FX in the second half and also the burn seasonality just on the second half sales result, even though there was sequential growth of 5% in the U.S. But what gets the business back on track to close to a 20% growth rate? And what -- and how are we going with penetrating existing accounts and the 200 accounts added during the year. So really a question around how do we accelerate growth in the commercial markets.

So I think the priorities are clear. Like I laid out, we've got momentum in that large burn space, which up until recent times, the key focus was on winning more accounts. We're in a majority of the large burn accounts in the U.S., primarily if we talk about the U.S. as a driver. And we have penetration into those accounts.

But it's not just that. It's the credibility that we build from being in those accounts that you can see is driving adoption of the product, whether it's BTM, MTX or BTM and MTX in those complex wound cases. So that's where we see. And you can see the growth of the complex wound applications outside of those large accounts growing over 50% on a 3-year CAGR. I think that gives us a lot of confidence that we've got a runway for growth. And again, outside of the U.S. with some more focused activity around those larger markets where we can improve penetration, I think we can see that happening as well.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. Quite a few questions on R&D pipeline here. It's probably a good opportunity to acknowledge where we're at. And then just to reinforce, I guess, what you said earlier, Bruce, about how we're investing in that area and how the pipeline will evolve and anything you can share there just to reassure shareholders that we are working on it.

Yes, absolutely. As we mentioned, so more resources going into that program through the course of FY '27 now that we're starting to wind down some of the PMA activity. But we're bringing -- I got to say this, we're bringing greater discipline to our innovation and portfolio decisions. And that's going to be important so that we can make decisions whether it is to speed up or delay or even to kill projects so that we get the output that we are looking to achieve.

So there's a lot of talk about hernia and breast recon. They're definitely in consideration as we decide on the focus areas for our portfolio. We've also got products that are in the pipeline that very much speak to our strategic pillar of scaling the core business that we look to advance those and keep fueling the growth in our complex wound application business.

In addition to that, making sure that we've got work being done on the potential of the platform. Like I say and what I've learned, we have got this beautiful polymer, which is a gift to our business. And then over recent years, understandably, we've had a lot of focus on growing the U.S. and making sure we support BTM expansion, MTX coming into the market, now SynPath coming into the market. We are going to be assigning a portion of our innovation mindset and decision-making around what can we do with this platform to build the next growth engine for the business beyond the core business. I'm really excited about that, that we have now the opportunity and the capabilities in the business to be able to manage those well and keep the momentum in the core business.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. There's a question here talking about great to see the textbook publications referencing our products and so forth. What specific trials does PNV have underway? So new regulatory approval submissions can actually be made scientifically back new indications. So do we have any RCTs underway? Maybe there's also an opportunity for to talk about the IQVIA studies and the health economics and the free flap compared to BTM in the U.K. that we're doing, but any evidence.

It's a really good point. So there are a number of investigator-initiated studies underway in multiple applications that we're happy to support. I think going back to the RCT that's linked with the clinical study like the PMA application to me is going to be a real highlight and have far-reaching benefits beyond just the PMA application. Like I said, it's the largest of its kind, first for a synthetic and a study like this hasn't been done for decades in this space.

So making sure we maximize the awareness of those outcomes when they are able to be shared is going to be an important piece.

But you make an important point there, Jan. So health economics is such an important part of driving growth in medical technology. So it's not just about the clinical performance, but that clinical performance can be matched up with a willingness and ability to pay and showing the economic benefits to some of our key stakeholders.

So alongside this study, there's also a health economics work that's being done in partnership with IQVIA that will be able to show the economic benefit of using BTM versus the current standard of care. That's one. And then also, as Jan mentioned, a second health economics arm looking at that -- the economics of free flap, which is the current procedure for some of the larger oncology surgical reconstructions and looking at how our products line up against that standard of care.

So really important. And I'd say it's like the third arm to it. You have your innovation arm with R&D, you have your sales and marketing commercialization arm, but market access and bringing that skill and capability into our business really completes that flywheel of growth. And I'm looking forward to all of these elements coming to market.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. And on the back of that, a great question here. Can you please remind us of what the PMA approval could do for PolyNovo, both commercially and in terms of clinical evidence globally?

Yes. So number one, I think it's credibility. -- like it gives credibility to the platform of BTM going through what is really the highest level of clinical study and then having that approved by the PMA is a real advantage. Also, though, it helps us on the reimbursement side, then it gives you the ability to apply for reimbursement. And I want to remind everyone that like it's such an important point. The progress that we've made in the U.S. has been against an incumbent technology that has reimbursement, that has that approval.

We don't have the indication for deep burns until the PMA approval. So the team don't promote it. This is a clinician-led expansion. To me, that's the most powerful message you could ever tell about BTM.

The fact that this product through clinician and peer-to-peer education, sharing their experiences has grown to the point that it has is quite unique. And so that gives me confidence beyond the PMA approval that we can continue that good work, actively promote, actively defend the product.

And I think the third element is that beyond the scope of the U.S., that credibility then helps us enter markets like we've mentioned some of the markets in Asia like Japan, maybe down the track, China, that type of evidence helps. There's always going to be potentially local evidence requirements, but that is definitely going to help credibility from a registration perspective. And then outside into the European markets, for example, it really does give you the ability to have some swagger when it comes to our portfolio.

Thanks, Bruce. And you may have answered this in that question. I've been busy reading questions here. There's questions around Japan and China entry and a comment, I believe you had discussions with the PMDA in Japan. Can you provide the latest update?

Sure. Yes, yes. I was -- in Japan, I've met with our distribution partner there. So commercial readiness is progressing as much as you can before registration. Understanding, I was able to go to a burns conference in Tokyo all in Japanese, I had to use the translations, but I was able to follow along. And the enthusiasm is there for sure. Now the other piece of the puzzle is not only registration, of which the clinical study will help with that, but also reimbursement. So putting all of those pieces together to make sure that this is a market that is going to provide us additional sustainable growth for the long term, putting those pieces together. But I think the gating piece now is getting to the other side of that PMA approval and sharing that clinical study.

Thanks, Bruce. I'll give you a break for a second. There's a question here, and I can answer this one. Can you please expand on the comment, augment the manufacturing footprint. Really, what we mean about that is make that transition to our new facility, which we're going to look to do in March next year. And then it will be a phased approach as we exit out of the other 2 facilities that we currently got in place. And one of those older facilities will be kept as a redundant facility or backup, if you like, which is a good thing to have. But that's really what that comment means.

Just scrolling through, just give me a moment. A question again about the DFU outpatient market in the U.S. Any trials are we going to be conducting? And what evidence have we got that we could use to submit to the CMS right now?

Yes. So the CMS opened a window to send in more evidence, and we are going to take that opportunity to send evidence from around the world. We have some evidence locally that is very strong for BTM in chronic wounds. So making sure we can share the details when appropriate, but that will form part of the pack. It's not ideal in a sense for U.S. local data is probably preferred like most countries, but this is such a compelling piece of evidence. We want to make sure that, that could be included. So that's an important piece. What was the rest of the question, Jan?

Yes, I think it was really just around what other -- what can we submit to the CMS? And do we have any specific RCT trial for DFU planned?

Yes. I suppose the main point I want to get across with DFU and VLU as well, those chronic wounds is that while we're gaining some very compelling real-world evidence along the way, it's important to realize that this outside of the inpatient setting, there are a number of factors, including the reimbursement factor, but also physician -- sorry, provider economics, those sort of things as well. And the one thing with those chronic wounds that it's geared towards repeat application of which our product is not designed to do.

We are more around a high acuity, there's a surgical procedure, you put the product on and it does its work. So we're making sure that all of those factors line up as we look at that part of the market. That's the part of the market and our patients that is in the most amount of flux. And so we've got opportunities in areas that are very aligned with our customer base, very aligned with that our product can do and a significant market potential that we can go after looking at those single episodic cases. So that's where we'll start.

Thanks, Bruce. This will be our last question. We're coming up to the hour, and we pretty much got through all of them actually. Any that do remain, we'll send an e-mail after the call. Important question. It's opportunity to talk about how we mitigate risks really too as well. So we've got here, what are the biggest risks you see to achieving your plan over the next couple of years?

Like I said, we've got a proven platform that we know that, that works. I'm not worried about the product. I'm not worried about competition, to be honest. Our key focus is execution. And we're building that discipline into the organization to make sure that we have the operating mechanisms from the leadership all the way through the organization to ensure that we do what we say we're going to do. And that's key for me. And it always has been and it always will be.

So setting up those -- the forums, the operating mechanism to make sure that we execute. I'm very pleased with how we progressed as an organization since I joined in December. I think we've got a leadership now where we've added capabilities in, combine that with some great institutional knowledge for leaders that have been in the organization for some time. This is a powerful team. We're going to get stronger as well, and having that rhythm that we've got in place now to make sure we're focused on the priorities and we're delivering what we say we're going to do. I look forward to the year ahead as we update more of these milestones being completed.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. I think we'll leave it there in the hour. And I guess thank you, everyone, for dialing in, and I'll hand it back to you, Bruce, just for closing remarks.

Yes, just to close up, I say thanks, everyone, for joining. Thanks for your time. I hope this has been valuable information for you. We do intend to continue our communication to the market as appropriate when we have significant updates and keep watching for those. I think we've turned the corner as far as starting the year very well, finishing the year well, starting the year well in July. I would look to bring that momentum into the rest of FY '27 as we kick off these important milestones, an exciting year ahead.

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the PolyNovo First Half FY '26 Results Webcast. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Leon Hoare, Chairman. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone, to PolyNovo's half 1 results update for the 2026 financial year. My name is Leon Hoare, and I'm the Chair of PolyNovo. I'll provide a brief introduction before I then hand over to our CEO, Bruce Peatey, for his overview, and we will then have our CFO, Jan Gielen, provide the financial update for the half year, and then we'll take questions.

I'm very pleased to introduce our new CEO. Bruce joined us in December, so it was about 10 weeks into the role. He joins us with a highly impressive background in med tech executive leadership roles across Australia, APAC and the U.S.A. And he has now engaged with the PolyNovo team around the world, including a U.S.A. visit and has met with key clinicians and customers. Impressively, Bruce has rapidly built a strong understanding of the business and has identified several areas to enhance and many opportunities to pursue. The Board are delighted to have Bruce leading the business.

PolyNovo is a company already generating strong results. You will see the financial results. Suffice to say, our momentum is very positive. We've completed our new factory and expanded our R&D capability, and we have a highly talented group of professionals driving our growth.

PolyNovo is focused on growth. We're broadening our global reach. We are adding to our clinical indications. We have a highly innovative NovoSorb platform technology that we've only begun to leverage. We have a pipeline of opportunities. And importantly, our products and technology in clinicians' hands provide excellent clinical outcomes. PolyNovo is at an exciting point in its journey and well positioned for strong growth going forward.

I now have pleasure introducing our CEO, Bruce, over to you.

Thanks, Leon. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our first half results, my first as CEO, and I'm extremely proud to be leading this great Australian company.

Over the past few months, I've been impressed by the resilience and professionalism of the PolyNovo team during the leadership transition, and I want to acknowledge their efforts as well as the continued support of our shareholders. As PolyNovo moves into this next phase, you should expect to hear greater clarity, more consistent communication and decisive execution, things that ultimately shape long-term value.

I'll start with an update on the executive leadership team. I'm genuinely impressed by the depth of experience across our management team. The balanced mix of tenure and fresh perspective gives me great confidence in our collective strength. We are delighted to welcome Amy Demediuk as our new Company Secretary and General Counsel. She joins PolyNovo this week after a stellar career at CSL, including a recent experience in Philadelphia U.S.A., but is now returning to her hometown of Melbourne.

Reinforcing PolyNovo's commitment to quality, I would like to highlight that Allison Myers was recently promoted to the role of Chief Quality and Regulatory Affairs Officer. Allison joined PolyNovo last year after nearly 30 years with GSK, both in Australia and the U.K.

Finally, we are progressing the recruitment of a Chief Scientific Officer for the organization. It's a critical role for PolyNovo's future to accelerate the pace of our core business expansion, pipeline productivity and strategic partnerships to fully unlock the value of the NovoSorb platform. To that end, we are building a global slate of candidates with the technical capabilities and leadership experience required to drive this next phase of growth.

In the first half, group sales grew strongly to $68.2 million, up 26% year-on-year. The U.S. continues to be our key growth engine, delivering $51.7 million, an increase of 25.4%, reflecting strong execution and continued market penetration. The rest of the world delivered 28% growth. This is a good result and shows clear momentum across several markets, but I believe we have room to accelerate further. We see opportunities to strengthen execution to expand adoption and to better leverage our distribution footprint.

Jan will walk through our profitability results shortly, including some timing-related and one-off items that we expect to normalize over the full year.

Providing more color to the regional performance, APAC delivered an excellent first half with Australia executing well as we broadened adoption beyond traditional burn applications with both NovoSorb BTM and MTX.

In India, while the team have faced a complex and slow-moving tender environment, the groundwork they've put in is beginning to pay off. We are seeing increased tender success and growing clinician adoption as more surgeons gain experience with NovoSorb products and share their results with their peers.

Across North America, the U.S. continues to perform strongly, and Canada is contributing with solid growth, too. EMEA grew a respectable 22.9% with the U.K. demonstrating the versatility of our portfolio across multiple specialties. With MTX launching later this year, we are well positioned to build on this momentum.

Outside the U.K., we've expanded our geographic footprint with several new distribution partners, and our focus is now on accelerating adoption in these newer markets. I'm pleased to report that we are now in the final stages of our PMA submission for an on-label indication for NovoSorb BTM in full-thickness burns. This has been a significant undertaking in partnership with BARDA, enabled by strong cross-functional collaboration across the organizations. Securing PMA approval will strengthen our position in the U.S. burns market and unlock access to other major markets such as Japan and China. The team remains on track to finalize the submission by financial year-end, and we are working diligently to ensure we deliver a robust submission.

So I'd like to provide a brief update on the CMS policy changes in the U.S. outpatient market and what they mean for PolyNovo. First to note, the inpatient hospital market remains a strong growth engine for us, and it is unaffected by these policy changes. It's important to clarify that we are committed to maintaining current momentum as we build a disciplined strategic entry into the outpatient setting. Considering the reimbursement changes, we are prioritizing specific outpatient procedures where the provider economics align naturally with the NovoSorb portfolio.

In anticipation of the need, we developed a NovoSorb bilayer SynPath brand, specifically for the outpatient environment. SynPath already has an existing HCPCS code, giving us the fastest pathway into the market, closely followed by NovoSorb SynPath monolayer matrix once the code is received later this year. We are currently building inventory in new product sizes appropriate for these procedures with availability expected within this half. And our U.S. commercial team is well positioned to execute across both inpatient and outpatient settings. Often the same surgeons operate in both environments, which gives us strong continuity and leverage with the existing relationships.

We are also progressing discussions with office-based distributors and building the go-to-market model to accelerate entry into physician office settings as appropriate. To drive the strategy, we are strengthening market access capabilities. Already supported by an experienced consultant, recruitment is well advanced for a Market Access Director and a Senior Product Manager in the U.S., roles that will significantly enhance our competitiveness in the outpatient market.

From a clinical evidence perspective, our evidence base is robust. We now have 348 peer-reviewed real-world evidence studies supporting the NovoSorb platform, giving us a high level of confidence in its clinical performance across a wide range of applications.

Importantly, 65 of these studies directly translate into outpatient use, reinforcing the platform suitability across care settings. This includes 5 published studies in the diabetic limb salvage, an area where SynPath has strong potential. And we're expecting data from a randomized controlled trial in diabetic limb salvage out of Adelaide over the next 6 to 12 months, which will further strengthen our evidence base.

Looking ahead, we do anticipate the need for a dedicated RCT to support CMS reimbursement in the office setting, particularly for diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers. We have a robust protocol developed to execute as the clinical evidence requirements become clearer.

Our growth priorities are clear. We are focused on maximizing the value of the NovoSorb platform and accelerating the momentum already visible in our core business. NovoSorb BTM and MTX continue to deliver strong performance, and we see substantial runway ahead, both in the U.S. and internationally. In the U.S., our footprint now spans more than 800 hospitals, supported by a highly capable commercial team of over 80 representatives. Importantly, adoption is expanding well beyond burns with clinicians increasingly using our products across a range of reconstructive applications.

At the same time, we are progressing the key catalysts that will underpin the next phase of growth. Disciplined execution in the outpatient opportunity, advancing the PMA submission, strengthening our presence in priority global markets and adding velocity to our pipeline through the appointment of a Chief Scientific Officer. Together, these initiatives will give us clear visibility into sustained growth, both in the second half and over the medium term as we fully leverage the versatility of the NovoSorb platform.

Today, we're launching our upgraded online investor platform designed to give shareholders clear visibility of our strategy, performance and key milestones. This new hub centralizes all ASX announcements, reports, video content and insights in one place with the ability for investors to subscribe for regular updates. The platform enhances transparency and improves the cadence of communication, making it easier for investors to follow our progress and engage directly with PolyNovo.

Over time, this will help us build stronger investor relationships, broaden reach and ensure the market better understands our growth trajectory. You can scan the QR code on the screen or visit investors.polynovo.com to sign up.

I will now hand over to Jan to present the financial results. Thanks, Jan.

Great. Thanks, Bruce, and thanks again, everyone, for joining the webcast today. I'll start with our commercial sales performance. NovoSorb product sales were $68.2 million for the period, up 26%, which is an increase of $14.1 million. You can see from the graph presented in dollar terms, $14.1 million of growth achieved this half was greater than what was achieved at the same time last year being $11.9 million. This is a good indicator of the momentum in the business as we head into the second half.

We experienced continued strong growth in the U.S., achieving sales of $51.7 million, up 25.3% on the prior period. This growth was driven by strong account acquisition, adding 95 new hospital accounts during the period and continued penetration of existing accounts. In regard to the rest of world results, we reported sales of $16.5 million, up 28.3%. This includes some exceptional results in a number of markets, some with growth rates of 50%, which I will highlight a bit later in the presentation. NovoSorb sales for the group was $6.2 million, up 195.2% with the majority of sales being in the U.S.

Moving on to additional highlights for the U.S. As mentioned, the U.S. achieved 25.3% sales growth for the period. NovoSorb MTX sales in the U.S. were $6 million, up 193%. Surgeon adoption of NovoSorb MTX continues to grow and will accelerate across the customer base as more clinical evidence is generated and shared. NovoSorb MTX is now being used in over 240 accounts in the U.S. We recorded strong sales growth in our contracted U.S. networks with GPO sales up 37.8%, IDM sales up 34.1% and federal account sales up 87.2%.

Contracted accounts represent 39.9% of total sales in the U.S., and these growth rates are an important indicator of the momentum in the U.S. business. The U.S. business is profitable and growing, generating strong cash flows, and we ended the period with over 800 customer accounts.

Moving on to rest of world results. As mentioned, sales were up 28.3% on the prior period. We achieved some exceptional results with -- both in relatively new and well-established markets. In particular, Australia, our home market that we entered several years ago, grew by 52%, which is an excellent result. Other well-established markets such as Canada and Germany grew by 50.8% and 28.3%, respectively. These results are a good indicator of the adoption by surgeons using NovoSorb BTM, not just in large burns, but across a range of indications.

Turkey's strong growth continued, up 91.3% for the period. In Turkey, they have reimbursement for NovoSorb BTM for the treatment of burns, but BTM is being increasingly used outside of burns without government reimbursement. This demonstrates the rapid seeding of BTM when we start with reimbursement in a market.

India performed well, recording 49.1% growth in what was always going to be a challenging market to develop, but we are making progress. rest of world share of global sales now stands at 24%. We see significant opportunities for growth, particularly in Europe and the Middle East in the short term and new market entries such as Japan and China in the medium term.

Moving on to cash flow and the balance sheet. We ended the period with $29.2 million cash on hand. Cash flow from operations of $9 million improved significantly compared to the prior period where a $12.5 million cash outflow from operations was recorded. We turned around the [ aging ] debtor days issue in the U.S. from over 90 days outstanding down to 56 days currently, which is a great result.

The impact on cash flow is evident. We completed construction of the new manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne, with CapEx payments of $10.8 million for the period. $2.2 million in CapEx remains outstanding for the new facility and will be paid during the second half. It's obvious from the graph presented, aside from the one-off CapEx spend, the business would have generated free cash flow for the period. With only $2.2 million in CapEx remaining to be paid for the new manufacturing facility, we will be generating free cash flow in the second half, which will be an important milestone achievement for the business.

We ended the half period with a strong balance sheet and cash flow, which will enable us to focus further investment on driving revenue growth.

Moving on to the P&L. I want to start off by highlighting the underlying EBITDA performance for the period. After adjusting EBITDA for significant items being the impact of the R&D lab fire and unrealized ForEx impact on translation of the balance sheet due to the strong Australian dollar, adjusted EBITDA was $4.7 million, up 82% on the prior period.

There are a number of one-off items impacting the reported net profit after tax result, which I'll now explain. BARDA revenue is down on the prior period as expected. The pivotal trial -- pivotal burns trial is near completion as we move closer to submission for premarket approval with the FDA. In connection with the BARDA pivotal trial nearing completion, the trial costs have reduced, which explains the lower R&D expense for the period.

Other income includes a $4.6 million interim insurance claim related to the R&D lab fire. This offsets the $4.4 million asset write-off recorded further below in the P&L. Employee-related costs were up 12.2%, which includes $700,000 for restructuring costs in Australia. Employee headcount at the same time last year was 254, which then increased to 301 in June 2025. Since then, headcount has remained steady. Currently, we have 302 employees.

Corporate admin and overhead expenses were up only 4.7% after excluding the unrealized ForEx movement on translation of the balance sheet. Due to the Australian dollar appreciating during the period, an unrealized ForEx loss of $761,000 was recorded for the period compared to a $4.6 million unrealized gain in the prior period.

During the period, with inventory at comfortable levels after building them up during FY '25, we took the opportunity to bring forward attending to various tasks in our manufacturing facilities in preparation for the premarket approval submission and FDA audit that will follow later this year. To do so, we temporarily reduced manufacturing output, which in turn reduces production recovery to cover manufacturing overhead costs, resulting in an unfavorable manufacturing variance for the period of $3.7 million and gross margin of 88.8% for the half.

With these activities now complete, manufacturing output in January has already ramped up without interruption and will improve our production recovery result in the second half. This will increase our gross margin back up to above 90-plus percent for the full year FY '26. And looking forward, we expect to achieve a much improved profit result in the second half.

Now we're going to turn to questions. We've got covering analysts dialing in to ask questions, and then we'll move to the web platform for written questions from all our shareholders. So Operator, if you could please connect through the first caller. Thanks.

[Operator Instructions] First question today comes from Shane Storey from Canaccord Genuity.

I'm going to start with Jan, please. Jan, when I back calculate and look at U.S. BTM sales over the period, you see that there's quite a bit of a reversion between after a very strong Q1 and it looked a little bit softer in Q2. And I suppose surgeons are telling us that November was quiet. So the first question was, was that just your general observation? And then I guess, looking ahead, how are you looking at sort of growth rates for BTM specifically over the next couple of years, please?

Sure. Thanks, Shane. Good to hear from you. So look, the second quarter this year was a little bit softer in the U.S. in November itself across a large number of accounts. We just didn't have as many large burn cases come through as we would on average. And also Thanksgiving. So generally, we see lower activity in that month. It bounced back though in December, and we had a solid result for the half, as you can see.

Looking forward, I think BTM growth will continue. We still have a lot of growth left in large burns in the U.S. And when we get the PMA approval, that will assist further with penetrating that market and grabbing more market share. And with that, NovoSorb MTX, the release of that is actually assisting sales. It's not cannibalizing sales of BTM. It's enabling them to a large extent. So we've got surgeons now using BTM with MTX where before they wouldn't have used either because MTX wasn't available and the type of wound that they need to heal that needed some packing like 2 or 3 layers of MTX, they couldn't do that with BTM because it's got the temporizing film on it. So it's actually assisting our sales of BTM. So we're still bullish on sales of BTM in burn to an extent, but then we've seen great traction outside of burn.

And Bruce will talk a couple of examples of that where we've got some reps are doing some outstanding sales results outside of burn in their territories. But hopefully, that answers your question, Shane.

Yes. I mean we were aware of that sort of adjunctive use of the 2 products together. I guess I'm pretty interested though, outside of that, maybe early observations as to what use cases or indications do you think it's winning, [indiscernible]?

Sure. And Bruce, just as with regards to MTX, you might want to jump in as well and add some color to that, but just where the product is being used. So we are seeing it being used in cases where there are large deficits and you need to stack the device. The idea of MTX as well without the temporizing film is it opens up wounds that can be treated in one step. So with BTM with the temporizing film, you need to go back into surgery after it's been applied to have the film removed. And that's why it's generally used in large burns because it temporizes the wound to the patient and gives the surgeons time to deal with other issues that the patient might have.

With MTX, it opens up the opportunity to any type of wound. We know the product can heal a wound where you're missing a dermis. So now from skin cancer excisions to you falling off a motorcycle or whatever it may be, where a surgeon just wants to treat the patient and get them in and out in 1 day or overnight and not have to go back into surgery to have the film removed like with BTM. You don't have to do that with MTX. So it opens up a whole wide range of indications and basically anywhere where you've lost your dermis. We know our product works. MTX can be used.

And I'll add a couple of a words -- and I'll add a couple of words to that, Shane. The BTM in that burn space is already doing very well in terms of share and growing. But the opportunity to Jan's point, is that plastic and reconstruction space. And we're broadening into that and the trauma space as well. We're broadening into that, but that will -- that's a much bigger lateral journey for the team. And clearly, it's not as significant in individual patient experiences because you get smaller square centimeter areas of repair required, but there's a much higher volume of patients versus an acute burn. So the team is broadening into that and doing that gradually to put adjunct into our growth rate over and above major burns. If that answers your question.

It does. That's very clear. My last question, just if you could please remind us where the new manufacturing facility takes the business to in terms of the annual revenue demand that it could service.

You dropped out there a little bit, Shane. Is that something about manual processes or...

Yes, the new manufacturing facility, once that's embedded and operational, where does the whole business sort of get to in terms of the...

I think it gives us somewhere around 5x our previous capacity. Hopefully, Shane, we're using that over a journey at growing capacity. But it certainly allows us to scale our volume. That's correct, isn't it, Jan, about that sort of ratio?

Absolutely. And it just helps with the complexity as we bring in release different types of devices, different sizes, different SKUs. The modular setup of the new facility gives us a lot of flexibility in how we run shifts and how we make product. So there's that added benefit as well.

And we should have that operational in a building mode in the second half of this calendar year.

It's actually -- yes, it's complete, built. We're just going through validation and qualification activities. And July onwards is when we're looking to start firing up the facility.

Your next question comes from Lyanne Harrison from Bank of America.

Bruce, I might start with you. I know you've only been in the seat for 2 and a bit months now. But can you comment on where your 3 key focus areas might be for the next 12 months?

Okay. Yes. Thanks, Lyanne. Great to be here. I think like you say, just new in the role, clearly, working with the key stakeholders in the business, like I mentioned already or Leon mentioned, going to the U.S. was an important part of understanding the business with the majority of the revenue coming from there, but also making sure that we're getting -- building a high-performing executive leadership team is probably another focus area for me.

I think there's definitely opportunity to sharpen our strategy. The strategy is working well. But as I mentioned previously, is that my focus really is on disciplined execution of the strategy and making sure that we've got a very clear path forward for the team. So really early days, very positive signs for me and what I'm seeing in the organization, but definitely some areas that we can tighten up and look forward to doing that.

Okay. And with, I guess, the strategy outside of the United States, are you comfortable with the markets that PolyNovo is in and growing? Or is there any chance you might change or tweak that a little bit over the next few -- over the next 12 to 24 months?

Well, I think the team have done a good job expanding into markets. I think we're over 46 countries around the world now. Clearly, through my experience in Asia, I'm interested in what we can do in Asia, particularly the discussions around Japan and even China, moving forward. I think exploring that opportunity is important for me. But again, for me, it's not really a measure of how many countries we're in. It's how we're performing in those countries. So particularly the work that we've done in EMEA to expand the footprint, it's about making sure we're executing in those markets and supporting our third-party partners to help them grow the business like we've done successfully in our direct markets.

And Jan, you talked about, I guess, some of the softness in November of last year. But can you comment on trading to date in this half, in particular, January and what you're seeing in February?

It's in line with the year-to-date result at the half. So we're trailing well, but we're only early into the second half, as you know. But I guess that should give you a good indication.

And then if I could comment on just some of the rest of the world growth there. Australia, in particular, we saw some quite significant growth there. And you've been in Australia for a number of years now. So what's really changed to get that sort of momentum? And can we expect that to continue in the future?

I'll take that one. I think looking into the results in Australia, yes, very positive, and I'm very say, encouraged by what's possible in a market that we've been in for some time. Part of it is, it's a fluctuating type of business when you're in the burn space, of course, and that's, I think, well known. But clearly, I'm very impressed with what the team have been able to do expanding the footprint outside of burns, so into new indications, whether it's BTM or MTX, they've done an excellent job in that space.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Andrew Paine from CLSA.

Just coming back to the growth you're seeing in new markets outside the U.S. that you've listed in the presentation. Can you work through the outlook for some of these regions that you see as the key drivers of medium-term growth and really wanting to understand what the investment is or the required investment to ramp up these opportunities?

Bruce, do you want to take that?

Yes, I'll start with you, Jan, and I'll come in.

Yes, no problem. Yes. So Andrew, thanks for your question. Good to hear from you. Look, I think as I sort of outlined in one of the slides in the deck when we're covering rest of world. But in the short term, we still see a lot of opportunity in Europe, Middle East, to be quite honest. That's an area where I know Bruce, the chats we've been having since you've arrived that we really want to dig into and focus on. There's a lot of opportunity left in that region. In the regions we're already in and like the U.S. and markets like Australia, but particularly the U.S., and we've seen what we've done in the U.K. and Australia, there's so much more we can do outside of burn, and we're already doing it.

And I'm going to steal Bruce's thunder, but we've got one rep in the U.S. who sold last year over $2 million worth of product outside of burn. He doesn't have a burn center in his territory. So that's an example of real success, expanding into indications outside of burns. So there's a lot more depth in left in the U.S. to go, enormous amount. There's -- in Europe, Middle East, there's a lot of that opportunity as well that we need to dig into with our distributor networks. And they're doing well, but there's more we can do.

And then in the medium term, Japan, followed by China will be the 2 next big markets, but Japan particularly being one of the most advanced markets in terms of med tech, that's going to be really important for us.

But Bruce, you want to add any color to that.

Thanks. The one thing I'd add to that is the example of the U.K., a majority of the revenue in the U.K. is outside of burns and the team has done a great job there as well. And it gives us really a best practice or a benchmark that we can work towards in the other markets. So for me, that gives us a lot of -- not just potential, but examples of where it's a reality in markets that we're already in.

And just, I guess, progressing that a little bit in terms of the investment required for those opportunities. Is that -- is there any insights you can give us there? Just trying to understand the profile going forward?

Sorry, so early days. As we've leaned on distribution partners in the majority of the markets in Europe, now it's the time to look at how do we support them with maybe some direct presence, not to necessarily go direct in the market, but to make sure we've got the right support for those -- our distribution partners to help grow into these other areas with a specific level of expertise. So early days, but that's the initial thoughts. I'll be in Europe for the first time with this team next month, and that's when we start shaping the way forward.

And Andrew, and in the medium term, as Bruce mentioned -- that's right. And Jan mentioned, we'll be looking at our investment requirements for our pathway to market in major countries like Japan. We await our PMA submission because that will be an important adjunct to how we sort of plan that journey, and that will require significant investment working out how we're going to actually enter that market. And longer term, that will be China as well.

And just one other on FX. Can you just give us any insights of how that's moving at the moment and how that will affect the coming, let's say, 12 months?

Obviously, not helping us and a lot of other Australian, how I can I say, export. So if I had a crystal ball, I could tell you, Andrew. But at this point, with our forecast, we factored in a conservative approach. We allocate resources based on that to make sure we optimize our results, particularly for the full year coming up. So we'll see how things pan out, but we certainly keep it obviously front of mind because we do have a result we need to manage, and that's what we're focusing on.

Your next question comes from [ David Naygan from AMP ].

if you could please just follow up a little bit on some of the questions around the manufacturing variance that you talked about. I believe you said that inventory fell 14.5% to 11.9% in the result. Are you comfortable with the current stock levels to support H2 demand, particularly given the growth trajectory? And is there any risk of a supply constraint whilst this new facility is being validated?

Thanks, David, for your question. So look, no risk of any supply constraint, and it's all really well managed, and we plan everything with the intent of how it ends up coming out the numbers. So what happened for the half is we slowed down manufacturing after building up inventory levels last year, you would have noticed inventory levels got to a higher level than not where we'd normally keep them. But that was purposeful. We had to pause manufacturing and slow it down. We chose to do so in this half just to attend to some activities in preparation for the PMA submission and the FDA will follow later in the year. So we decided to bring that forward.

So what that means is we just have less output than planned for the half. And when you have less output, you have less production recovery and less cost -- manufacturing overhead costs getting capitalized into inventory. So we ended up with this $3.6 million unfavorable manufacturing variance for the half. But what happens in the second half, we've ramped up production again. So already in January, it's fired up again, and the result is going to look a lot different for the full year. So for the half, gross margin was 88.8% as a result of that. But for the full year, we'll be up over 90% in line with our budget plan.

So it was all premeditated but it is just, I guess, a timing issue. If we weren't reporting at the half, you would just be looking at the year-end number and gross margin will be well over 90%. So hopefully, that answers your question.

I might ask a couple more if it's all right. On the CMS output -- outpatient opportunity, -- so I know you've submitted your clinical evidence package already and waiting a response. Just curious if any feedback from the FDA on the timing -- sorry, from the CMS on the timing for the decision. And if there's any revenue contribution that you might have already assumed for your outpatient opportunity in your internal planning for, say, H2 or for FY '27?

Yes. So just on the response from the CMS, we're still waiting on that response. However, as I mentioned, we're moving forward quickly with the SynPath brand into the outpatient space. And that's going to be -- that's something that we have ready to go as far as the code is concerned. So now we're ramping up production of those specific sizes that you need for those smaller procedures that are linked to that outpatient setting.

Jan, you can speak to potentially the forecasting.

Sure. With forecasting for outpatient, it's all upside to what we currently got in our plans. So there's a lot of opportunities, not just in DFU and so forth. There's a lot of opportunity for our product outside of the hospital arena and even outpatient within the hospital.

But right now, we're sort of working through the sales team and the marketing team to sort of shore up our plans and then what that means in terms of sales and production, but it's definitely an upside to our current forecast.

Okay. We're treating as upside for now. Yes. Got it. And then last one for me is just on the PMA submission. Do you have any expectations for the FDA review? Is it standard review cycle, PMA review cycle? Or is there any indication that this could be expedited given BARDA's involvement?

We haven't had any indication that it had been expedited. We're anticipating a standard review process.

Your next question comes from John Hester from Bell Potter.

So gents, obviously, the stock has significantly underperformed in the last 12 months or so, it's underperformed the ASX 200, and you've just recorded the weakest period of revenue growth in recent history. So my question is, you spent the last 20 minutes talking about the growth story, but it really hasn't delivered. And I'm just thinking, what are you actually going to do to get that growth rate back above 30%, which sort of is required to justify the premium that this stock has historically been rated at.

John, thanks for the question. Just from my perspective, you're right, we're talking about the growth potential in the U.S. looking into new indications, whether it's within BTM or MTX. We've spoken about the outpatient opportunity as well. And then most importantly, the rest of world, as I mentioned, even though growing at 28% is good. We think that there is opportunity to grow more in that space through that focused execution and partnership with our distribution partners.

So whether it is in those new indications and then expanding MTX into the market as well in other markets outside of Australia and the U.S., that's where we see the potential. But ultimately, it's about execution, and that's what we'll focus on.

And John, I'd add to that, in the medium term, we see opportunities outside of purely BTM, MTX, SynPath that may or may not be in our hands. So we still see lots of platform and pipeline product development opportunities that will add to what Bruce has just described.

And I might add, Leon, to that. For the half, we added $14.1 million in sales and growth in dollar terms. I'm sure we're going off a lower base. But at the same time last year, it was $11.9 million. So there is a lot of momentum there. And last year was a challenging year. We've got a lot of focus in the business moving forward this year, particularly. And there's some real good examples of success. And like we talked about that rep before that selling product outside of burn $2 million worth a year one rep.

So think about that and do the math. So the potential is there. We know what success looks like, and we're just going to -- with Bruce's help, make sure that we're all executing as we should be to make sure that happens.

There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand back for any webcast questions to be addressed.

Great. Thank you. We've got quite a few, and of that a few is complete. We've answered quite a few questions during the discussion so far. But bear with me while I scroll up. Some questions around India and just the prospects and how we've gone to date and what the future looks like there in terms of performance.

Yes. So look, as mentioned, with India, yes, we show a significant growth rate off a low base from what I've seen so far working with the India team or connecting with the leadership there. I say they're putting the building blocks in place. More than likely, it's taken longer than anticipated originally to get through that complex tender process. I'm very familiar with the Indian market, have been for many years and not that surprised that it's taking time to get through.

The good news is we are starting to see more and more frequent approvals coming through from these tenders. So as I mentioned, the groundwork has been done. It's a very solid and experienced leader that we've got in place there that's built a team ready to execute. We've actually got the largest burn conference that's occurring next week. We've got, I think, what is it, the 33rd Annual Conference of the National Burns Academy. We were there last year with more and more, you could say, evidence being generated and shared on BTM last year. We're very enthusiastic to see how that has progressed over the course of the year. From what we know anecdotally and working with the team, we're seeing more and more cases where surgeons are working with BTM and sharing those results with their peers. So we're quite confident.

On top of that, we've got one of our KOLs out of Australia is there in the week leading up to the [ Navacom ] meeting. And Associate Professor Marcus Wagstaff is there. Also, we have [ MJ Panderwal ] from the U.S., actually touring around the U.S. and sharing their experiences with key surgeons around the country.

So it's like early days. We expect good things out of India, but in my experience, that will build over time. And from what I see, the building blocks are in place.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. I've got another question here just from -- regarding Beta Cell and just the progress of our relationship with Beta Cell.

Yes. So we -- again, we mentioned before, we're very supportive of the work that's being done at Beta Cell. [indiscernible] I met the leaders of Beta Cell last week in Adelaide and again, reiterate that support as we have done in the past, supplying product to help with the development of that really novel technology. So we intend to continue that partnership as we have in the past.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. We've got a question here around operating leverage, and I can take that one.

If we look at the numbers themselves for the half, sales growth up 26%, corporate and admin costs, underlying up 4.7%. We removed that unrealized ForEx movement, which gets lumped in that category in the stat accounts and employees up only 12%. We did have some redundancy payouts and various things in the half, but headcount was steady at 302 employees. We had 301 employees at 30 June.

So the leverage is there, and it hasn't come through, I guess, in the net profit after tax result because of that manufacturing recovery. But the adjusted EBITDA was $4.7 million for the half and was up 82%. So if you take that $4.7 million and if we didn't purposefully slow down manufacturing that we had to, to attempt certain things, you add on that $3.6 million and all of a sudden, it's over $8 million EBITDA for the half. So the second half is looking a lot more positive because of these one-offs that we don't have to deal with. But the operating leverage is there. And I think we'll see that coming through in the second half and next year as well as well as free cash flow, which would be an important achievement for the business.

Just moving on. There's a question around the fire, and we probably should address that just on what caused the fire and if we can comment and if we can't, I think we can't. But maybe, Bruce, if you or Leon want to address that one.

Yes. So I think at this stage, investigations are ongoing. We are not in a position to comment on the actual cause of the fire at this point. But I think that's all we've got to say on that topic unless you want to add some more, Leon?

Well, I mean, we're unhappy that it occurred. Clearly, the team and our insurers have done a thorough investigation. The teams are working through the rebuild project of what was the new R&D lab. The actual technical elements. We know where the focus was, but there are some technical investigations still ongoing by our insurers.

On the other side, just to reinforce the point, we haven't compromised our R&D capability. All our projects are ongoing. We had our old lab that we hadn't done anything differently with. And so our team has been highly productive in the journey. We're a little frustrated that our brand-new R&D lab is now awaiting a minor rebuild, but that's where we're at. The good news is we're completely covered for those rebuild costs.

Great. Thanks, Leon. Some questions just around the R&D pipeline and what we've got planned, what's sort of on the horizon?

Yes. So it's early days. As I mentioned, I think there's a potential to accelerate our output from the R&D function. And clearly, the search for the Chief Scientific Officer and putting that critical role in place is going to help to that end. We've got a significant -- I think we've shared it before. The output from that R&D pipeline is there. We just need to get it -- say, get some more velocity into that pipeline and get that out into the market, whether it is through our commercial execution ourselves or through strategic partnerships. And that's another key decision to make to make sure that we're really maximizing the value we can extract from this wonderful NovoSorb platform.

Great. Thanks, Bruce. Some questions here around the outpatient market in the U.S. and the requirement for an RCT, whether that's needed for DFU or not? And is that only just for DFU or can we sell the product SynPath for other indications right now?

Yes. So we can sell SynPath for other indications right now. Actually, this year, we can sell it for DFU as well. The need for an RCT, we say, is anticipated, although we're still working to clarify the exact clinical evidence requirements with the CMS. So at this stage, we're anticipating it. Like I said, we've got a protocol that we've worked on to make that possible. And as we move forward, looking at how we could accelerate that as well, -- but right now, we can sell SynPath because we have the code into all of those care settings in the outpatient piece.

Important, just if I can add to that before we close on that point. As Bruce mentioned in his presentation, we're working through the hospital outpatient element of that market opportunity, if you like. And that likely would be in our team's hands, but Bruce and the U.S. team are working through that. And the outside of hospital element where in probably the easiest description would be investigation mode. We're likely looking at partnerships to get SynPath to market there.

CMS is still very much in flux in terms of the industry's understanding of all the outcomes, and we're learning that as we do more discovery.

Great. Thanks. Just 2 more questions. We're coming up on the hour. So let's run to the next one here.

So a question on BARDA and just our relationship with BARDA and how that's going in light of the trial coming to an end and the support that we're getting from BARDA.

Well, excellent support from BARDA. I appreciated meeting the leadership there as well. We're on regular meetings with them as we go through the process to finalize the submission. They've been a wonderful partner and they continue to be. So yes, it's all very positive.

Cf Thanks, Bruce. We'll make our last question given the timing. Just a question on guidance. This comes up quite often, but we're happy to answer it again. We don't provide guidance in the past, but do we intend to in the near future?

I'll take that. I mean, at this stage, we're still very much a company on a rapid growth phase. As Bruce has said, we've got many opportunities in our growth going forward. We see very strong growth momentum. We see strong pipeline opportunities. We see strong market sector opportunities like CMS as one example.

Medium term, we see other geographies like Japan. But near term, we're still also heavily exposed to the burn segment. and that's highly variable. So as we build a more predictable longer-term growth rate, and we'll consider guidance. But in the nearer term, we're not going to formally provide guidance for the period going forward.

Thanks, Leon. And before I hand back to Bruce, just to call out to Rachel Harwood from Macquarie. He's based in Dallas and it's quite late. But 4 questions I've got, we've answered quite well, but I appreciate you sending the questions Rachel.

So with that, I'll hand back to Bruce to close.

Thanks, Jan, and thank you all for joining us today and for your continued support of PolyNovo. As you've heard, we are entering the second half with strong momentum, a clear strategy and a deep commitment to execution. Our focus remains on delivering meaningful clinical impact while scaling globally and unlocking the full value of the NovoSorb platform.

I'm incredibly, incredibly proud of what the team has achieved and confident in the opportunities ahead. We look forward to updating you on our progress and appreciate your engagement today.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[Presentation]

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome, shareholders. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the PolyNovo Annual General Meeting for the financial year 2025. My name is Leon Hoare, and whilst I've been a nonexecutive director of PolyNovo for some years, I am privileged to be the Nonexecutive Chair of the company very recently.

We have a quorum present, so I declare the 2025 Annual General Meeting of PolyNovo open.

I'm delighted to extend a warm welcome to our shareholders joining us today and those online. And please, hopefully, the online forum are working effectively.

I'd like to introduce our directors, a fairly small table today. Dr. Robyn Elliott, who was appointed to the position of acting CEO on 11 March 2025. Welcome Robyn. Ms. Christine Emmanuel-Donnelly, who also is the Chair of our Remuneration and Nominations Committee. Missing is Mr. Andrew Lumsden, who's, unfortunately, this morning sustained a back injury and now in off to hospital receiving care. So Andy is very apologetic, but in immense amount of pain. And Mr. Rob Douglas, who was appointed to the Board of Directors 14 October 2025 and who is joining us online. We've had a Board meeting this morning. It was terrific to welcome Rob to his first Board meeting. He will be a great addition to the Board. I'd also like to introduce our Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer, Jan Gielen. We -- I should add, too, Ed's sitting here, I wasn't expecting Ed to be sitting here, Ed Graubart who's our President of our U.S.A business. Welcome, Ed. We also have in attendance, Ashley Butler, Matt Bennett, Rick Murthy from our auditors, E&Y. Welcome. And Bart Overlink from our lawyers, MinterEllison. Welcome, Bart. I'd also like to especially welcome Bruce Peatey, our incoming CEO, who's joining us online from the U.S.A. He's in North Carolina at the moment. We'll speak to him later in the meeting.

So we published the Chairman and CEO address earlier today, so let me just walk you through that. It's a privilege to present an overview of the company's previous financial year. Despite substantial change and instability across the broader macro environment, PolyNovo is very healthy with demand for our products continuing to grow strongly. We've achieved record regulatory clearances this financial year, increased our commercial sales by just under 29%, and expanded our commercial footprint to a cumulative total of 46 markets.

Several projects aimed at supporting competitiveness and growth have been completed, such as our R&D innovation center, and you just had a fly-through of some of that on the video. While others, including the third and largest manufacturing facility at our Melbourne site, you also saw that on the video, are quickly approaching operational status.

Our team now numbering close to 300 is excited for the next phase of growth. And as we seek to rapidly commercialize NovoSorb products, cementing our places as the surgeon product partner of choice for complex wound management.

Our pipeline of new products is exciting. And additionally, we appreciate the many surgeons who continue to lead us to new applications for NovoSorb technology. A number of opportunities have emerged in the outpatient setting in the U.S., and we are reviewing our approach in this sector. Anticipated pricing reforms in calendar year '26 are expected to enhance the existing price competitiveness of our products within that CMS space. And with Bruce joining the organization, we are well positioned to maximize benefits from this market expansion.

While continuing to invest for growth, our financial and cash position remains strong. We closed the financial year with $33.5 million in cash. And after repaying debt -- after repaying debt and making major capital investments, both those facilities on the video have been new builds. Cash flow from operations is positive, so we expect our cash balance to grow into the financial year.

Before I hand over to Robyn, Dr. Robyn Elliott for her comments, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr. Robert Douglas to the Board of Directors. Again, we'll hear from Rob a little bit later during his resolution. Rob brings a great wealth of experience commercializing medical devices to the Board, serving in senior leadership positions at ResMed from 2001 to 2023. I look forward to his contributions as we lead PolyNovo through to the next stage of growth.

I'd also like to thank Mr. David Williams for his service to the company. David was Chairman of the Board from 2015 to 2025 and steered the company from literally a start-up in its commercial infancy to the successful and profitable business it is today. He has consistently championed NovoSorb technology, supporting both surgeons and their patients, and I'm confident he will continue to champion PolyNovo and NovoSorb technology into the future.

Finally, I'd like to acknowledge Dr. Robyn Elliott for her very effective -- for very effectively fulfilling the role of acting CEO. It's gone a little longer than Robyn was expecting for the past 8 months, and officially welcome Mr. Bruce Peatey, who takes on the role of permanent CEO from December 1 this year.

Thank you to the PolyNovo team for their efforts over what has been a remarkable 12 months. And if the results of the first quarter are anything to go by, the growth story continues to deliver.

I also thank my colleagues on the Board for their continued support, and to our shareholders for your endorsement and faith in our vision to redefine complex wound management as a category within the category and to fully leverage the opportunities provided by the NovoSorb technology platform.

I now hand over and introduce our acting CEO, Robyn Elliott. Thank you, Robyn.

Thanks, Leon. And thank you for coming today, for you those in the room, making the effort. We really appreciate having our shareholders available, and we really appreciate the support that we received.

It's been over 10 years since we received FDA clearance saw NovoSorb BTM. And in that time, the product has really revolutionized the way that we treat complex wounds. Since then, PolyNovo has benefited the lives of over 80,000 patients across many areas of the world. We've grown revenues to over $129 million, achieved market leadership in complex burns in major markets and generated both profits and positive cash flow from operations.

In any words, this is a true Australian success story. Before I reflect on the year that's passed, I really want to take a moment to thank the PolyNovo team. They've been incredibly welcoming to me as I joined the team as acting CEO. I've learned that the team is incredibly passionate, incredibly hard working, and they truly understand their responsibility to bringing the NovoSorb technology into the lives of patients and benefit both the patients and their families. I'm grateful for their support as, together, we have refocused the organization on driving superior and sustainable growth through a disciplined data-driven approach to delivering on our promises. The commitment demonstrated by our team and the significant potential of our amazing NovoSorb technology is what underpins the position of the NovoSorb platform as the dermal regeneration solution of choice today.

In the 2025 financial year, we continued our strategy for investing for growth, and I'm very pleased to confirm the results of that market expansion. Group sales increased by just under 29%, with strong performances in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. The U.S. continues to go from strength to strength with around 95 experienced members of our direct sales force, servicing over 700 customer accounts. 243 of these were required -- acquired in FY '25 alone. We continue to hire strategically in the U.S. And as Leon said, Ed is here, our President of the U.S. sales team. And he's done an amazing job of ensuring that we have the right team with the right skills and talents in place, the right strategy to continue to grow into the U.S. and to enable that growth to be sustainable in the future. So I'm very grateful for Ed and very grateful for the support that he's provided me in the last 8 months.

As we mentioned previously, PolyNovo is a profitable organization. Net profit after tax increasing by 151%. We have a disciplined approach to capital expenditure. It's crucial for the ongoing growth of the organization, but we ensure it's fully funded. We do not need to raise capital to either fund further capital expansion or to fund operations. And if I could say that sentence again, I will. We do not need to raise capital to fund capital expansion or operations, and our policy of that is not changing. The capital expenditure that we saw in FY '25 will taper off in FY '26 as several of the projects come to completion. And as you can see, what we've delivered in Port Melbourne is really world class. We've done it in a way that's incredibly cost effective. And it will bring an amazing value to our organization going forward.

At the start of the meeting, the video also showed our new state-of-the-art laboratory where our research and development program will continue. It is a dynamic time for our staff as we upgrade facilities, bring in new equipment, upgrade our processes, all in line with the commitment to be world class, to be a global medical device organization.

Our excitement in the NovoSorb technology is validated by real-world dividends. We can continue to affirm that NovoSorb BTM and MTX are safe, effective, versatile and importantly, simple for a surgeon to use. By the end of 2025, a cumulative total of 402 articles and abstracts have been published, significantly advancing our understanding of a surgeon-to-surgeon engagement and our ability to provide educational efforts across the world.

The clinical evidence related to the NovoSorb technology demonstrates its utility across a whole range of applications. And for those of you that are longtime shareholders, when you look at this, you'll see that of all articles, only approximately 25% today are related to complex burns, the initial clinical focus of our technology. So over 230 of articles relate to other diverse and emerging clinical indications such as chronic wounds in diabetic foot ulcers, cancer interventions and soft tissue reconstruction. And these create a runway for further expansion. So for those shareholders that are really interested to understand where our future growth comes from, this pie chart really provides you with that answer. This was the Board look of where our product is going into the future. And it validates and is a testament to our strategy to go deeper in hospitals. Our commercial teams are working incredibly hard to ensure that we go deeper. And as we go deeper, we expand out into these new indications.

Furthermore, the team has grown the market potential in FY '25 due to the new regulatory clearances that we had across 4 markets in a range of our thicker versions of NovoSorb MTX. And this is really important as we look to go forward. The concept of line extensions is incredibly valuable for our organization. They're cost-effective. They deliver value quickly, relatively easy to get up from a regulatory perspective, minimal preclinical, minimal clinical data needed. So it's a way of continuing to grow our markets in a very, very cost effective and value-creative manner.

But if we think about our company, we know that the PolyNovo product saves lives, and that's something that we're, as a team, incredibly proud of. However, our efforts to create positive impact extend beyond just commercial outcomes. For the shareholders that have been following the company for some time, you'll be aware that we have a long tradition of supporting humanitarian causes. It's an obligation and it's a privilege to make our product available to those who need it most. And we've done that across this financial year with BTM being donated to use in Ukraine, in Israel, and in Gaza, and closer to home in Malaysia, where there was a huge gas pipeline fire which injured 149 people, including 3 children. We're very proud to have helped. But on the back of that, we've also been able to extend our markets into Malaysia, and we've seen some promising sales today.

We also understand that we have a very important role in preserving the environment for future generations. And our manufacturing process has a very, very low manufacturing footprint. We certainly take all the steps we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chain, and we've designed our new facilities to be specifically environmentally low impacting, something that's important to us and particularly important to the younger members of our team.

If I think about where we're going, we have started the new financial year strongly, and I'm very proud of the team and the work that's gone to make that happen. With commercial sales have grown by over 33% at the same time last year, both in the rest of the world and in the U.S. Additionally, the demand for NovoSorb MTX continues to grow given its application across complex wound management, we're seeing sales growth by over 174% year-on-year.

We've worked really hard as a team to position ourselves for a successful 2026. We do have some several near-term catalysts for growth. We are going to go and launch NovoSorb MTX 6-millimeter thick record to use in deep wounds within this financial year. And as we've announced, we're looking to submit our premarket approval submission for the U.S. for our pivotal clinical trial for on-label claim for full thickness burns.

The PMA approval will bring us -- the U.S. in line with our other major markets and provides an opportunity to apply for reimbursement in this particular indication. Our new product development pipeline remains a strong focus, looking at both internal and external opportunities. It's being prioritized and being progressed. PolyNovo is driving investment in growth levers, including preclinical studies, economic modeling, reimbursement opportunities and development of further clinical evidence to enable us to gain more indications. Additionally, we are looking to progress platforms' expansion, such as using NovoSorb BTM in cell delivery as demonstrated by the recently reported beta-cell technologies, proof-of-concept clinical study in diabetes.

Clearly, within PolyNovo, we're excited by the future. And we hope that our shareholders are also excited by the future. But it's one thing to hear from us, and it's another thing to hear it from surgeons, surgeons that honestly spend their lives caring about their patients. And they're not commercially focused. They care about outcomes. And now I'd really like you to hear directly from our surgeons because it's their enthusiasm, it's their belief that energizes us every day.

[Presentation]

It makes me feel proud just listening, I'm sorry, it does. Earlier this month, it was announced that Bruce Peatey would be the next CEO of PolyNovo. And I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome him into the business. I'm very confident that the technology is in very strong hands, and that our remarkable growth story will continue, and it will be continued on the back of the thoughts or comments that you've heard here today. So thank you. And with that, I'll hand back to Leon.

Thanks, Robyn. I enjoyed the surgeon references. What was interesting is -- this is off topic for a moment. That pie graph that Robyn showed lots of different sectors of where our product is used, and that very brief foray into various surgeons showed you those different disciplines, a surgical podiatrist, an orthopod, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, et cetera. So it's very encouraging that it's broadening from its original base.

Okay. We have now, and I'm excited to say a brief interlude to have Bruce Peatey join. So it's my absolute pleasure to introduce the shareholders present to Mr. Bruce Peatey. I spoke to Bruce earlier and I said that shareholders would enjoy an opportunity for him to introduce himself and perhaps to outline a few words around what motivated him to join PolyNovo. Bruce, I'm hoping you can give us an overview and a brief introduction. That would be wonderful. Thank you.

Right. Hi, Leon. Nice to meet everyone, and great to be joining you from North Carolina. So just a few words that Leon asked me to give a brief introduction. So just briefly, you might have seen the announcement. But essentially, I'm a Queenslander, I'm raised in Queensland, Australia, although I did move to Melbourne 25 years ago, and we had -- our youngest daughter was born in Melbourne. So very excited to be returning to the city after some time.

I started my career as a scientist. I spent several years working at a lab and enjoyed the time, but now I'm reflecting, it's been over 30 years that I've been in commercial roles, particularly in the medical space. I've worked in -- I like to say I worked in the smallest and a small ASX-listed company in biotech. I worked in large med tech companies that are listed on the NASDAQ. I've worked in sales, marketing, general management, with direct businesses, dealers work -- businesses working with dealers. I've worked in countries, regions, global organizations, in medical devices, in chronic therapies and medical diagnostics.

So through that time as well, I've been able to move around to different regions. I've lived in Asia, about 10 years all up, and now in the U.S. than I've been here once before. All of that to say is that I feel I have now the experience to understand or have an understanding of where PolyNovo is now, and I definitely have the vision of where we can take the company in the future with the amazing team and technology that's in place.

Leon, I think the question is, what is it I'm feeling about joining PolyNovo. And I've got to say that I'm incredibly honored and genuinely excited about the opportunity to lead this company into the next chapter. And the 2 things, I would say, really have reinforced the decision and great to hear Robyn go through those topics again. If you think about the foundations of novel innovation. This is a product that makes a meaningful difference in patients' lives. It's supported by clinical evidence and also the support of doctors that have -- are using the products. And also, as Robyn mentioned, a dedicated and talented team across the world. So extremely positive. And then when I think about the opportunities ahead, clearly, the results are heading in the right direction, and that's wonderful. But there's still so much more opportunity to grow and to accelerate, whether it's geographic expansion or if it's in the new applications that are backed by the evidence as appropriate, so opportunities to grow there as well. And I'm most excited, we've got a new manufacturing facility that our job is to try and bring it to capacity as soon as possible. So that's exciting, too. Thanks, Leon.

Great. Bruce -- Sorry. Thank you. And maybe just to finish, Bruce, your timing is to relocate to Oz from memory later in November and then be in the office 1st of December.

That's true. I'm glad no one can see the actual background that I have here because I'm now in the midst of packing up. We have a flight booked for the 16th of November, and we can't wait to get back to Australia and start -- official day is December 1, but I'm trying to get a bit to get into it.

Great. Terrific. Thank you. Lovely to meet you for -- on behalf of the shareholders, and we're excited to have you on board as well. Thanks, Bruce.

Thanks.

Okay. We'll move on. Now we've got an opportunity to have questions. So let me just read through this. Online attendees, can submit questions at any time. [Operator Instructions] Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time of the meeting. Questions may be moderated or amalgamated if we receive multiple questions on one topic. If we run out of time to answer all your questions, we'll answer them in due course via e-mail. To ask a verbal question, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast on your screen. And when we have the individual resolutions, there's opportunity there as well. Jan, are there any questions online?

Just a couple of questions. First question, have you had any discussions with other companies for collaboration on product development?

So the question is around collaboration opportunities. Answer is yes. Clearly confidential. But we are in some interesting discoveries with a number of companies, and a couple in particular have us very interested. So we're having a deeper dive into some other technologies. That's one area. And then the other area that we're probably going to investigate more rather than already in play will be collaboration in market. An easy example will be when and if we choose to enter some of the chronic wound non-hospital space, say, in the U.S.A., we'd have a choice of would we do that with a PolyNovo direct enterprise or would we do that with a partner. So that's one that will come down the track. And the third would be, we're always looking at distributor partners depending on geography.

Thanks, Leon. Can we give us -- give the audience; an update on hernia and the breast product?

Okay. We've got a long R&D pipeline. We've got a focus at the moment -- and I might ask Robyn to jump in with anything additional. But we've got a real focus at the moment on development of MTX, and we've been very heavily focused on that. We're looking at a lot of proof of concept. We're looking at a number of regulatory linked R&D and some manufacturing-linked R&D activities as well. Hernia is ongoing, revised a lot of closer, and breast is further down our priority list at the moment. Robyn, anything to add to that?

No, I think that's the summary. I mean earlier, we do have quite a nice prototype at the moment, I think -- sorry. Sorry, but we're still doing some additional testing of that. And obviously, then to register that product, we have to go through a range of preclinical testing to ensure that we understand the reabsorption criteria of that product.

And from a breast perspective, we have some quite interesting opportunities that we're looking at. We have progressed the concepts of that to a point where it's really quite exciting. But for both of those, we really need -- we're progressing both the development side, but we also have to progress the commercialization side. Who will we work with to take these products forward and who will we work with to help us to commercialize those into these new areas.

Something like breast or hernia, it does take time. We have to understand that it takes longer than it does for a line extension. There's a lot of data that needs to be obtained. The data needs to support that the product is safe and effective going forward. And then there's the registration process itself, which can be quite lengthy. So we're working through that as we go forward, and we'll continue to keep shareholders updated as we look for appropriate commercialization partners.

Thanks, Robyn. I'd add to that, too. Some of our earlier prototypes were probably not ideal, and so we've moved to further prototyping.

Jan, any other question?

A couple of questions on India, the performance today and [indiscernible].

For...

[indiscernible]

Robyn shared that and we shared recently in our -- an update for the first quarter FY '26, a strong performance, just under 29% growth. We are roughly on plan. And our profitability is roughly on plan. We're confident in the course of the calendar year '26 that we will be solidly profitable and that we will be cash generating.

That's it for general questions.

Okay. Sorry, there were -- and then questions from the floor. This gentleman here.

Chair, it says Stephen Mayne. So it's been a good 40 bps on product and a few issues, but managing today, obviously, is the governance, and there's been a lot going on. So my first question is to you. I was going to direct to you as a member of the Rem and Nom Committee.

Sorry. Is that microphone on? Sorry, is that...

I was going to direct this to you as a director seeking election as a member of the Rem and Nom Committee, but now you're the Chair. So since the last AGM, the following senior managers have left the company. The CEO, the Head of HR, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Chief Science and Technology Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, the Quality Assurance Manager and the VP of Sales, Asia Pacific.

On this basis, do you agree with the contention that the committee you're on, which does have in its mandate to motivate and retain the senior management, hasn't performed very well? What has happened in the last 12 months with all of the senior executives leaving the company?

Okay. Thank you for the question. It's a challenge. We have been working towards generating very strong sales growth, and we think we've done that fairly effectively. We have a team of 300. So we will have change, and we do. We probably have -- I don't know the percentage, but we have a significant number of staff coming and going in each year. We certainly have had a number of staff in the Australian team leave over the last 8 or so months. And we're confident that we will be building a business going forward. We're recruiting for a number of those staff at the moment. In fact, we're just commencing for a number of those, and we've paused on a few of them to allow Bruce to come on board and to be involved in that recruitment process, particularly where we're focused on some of the more senior execs.

My second question is to Christine as the Chair of Rem and Nom Committee. According to the charter, which is on our website, one of the roles of the committee is to "establish and review processes and criteria for evaluation of the Board as a whole, committees of the Board and the individual directors." And over the last year, our former Chair David Williams has been accused of bullying the CFO, racially vilifying a sitting member of staff during a team dinner. Neither these allegations have been denied, and David himself gave an interview to the AFR, where he said that he "would not have changed a thing" about his behavior. David has also overseen an approximate 50% of the company's share price since the last AGM. Based on the criteria that your committee would have set, how did you evaluate the former Chair's performance as a director over the last 12 months?

Okay. So all of the matters that were raised to us were taken very seriously. I don't think anyone can argue with the steps that we've taken. They've been quite public. And those matters which concerns some of the interactions between the Chair and management were reengaged council to investigate those, et cetera. We then made a decision as to how to progress. And I guess, ultimately, David has chosen to step down. So we took all steps we could in order to assess performance through the year. And I guess the outcome is here.

Thanks, Christine. I'll add to that, too. We take governance very seriously, and we invested heavily as a Board to review and improve. And we took a lot on board as a result.

Okay. And Christine just said that David chose to resign. The proxy voting closed 48 hours before the meeting. And after the proxies were in, you would have had the formal report from Computershare, showing what the proxies were David chose to resign. Are you going to disclose how the 19,000 shareholders voted by proxy? Are you going to make that public? And is it correct that the proxy position showed that the Chairman was about to voted off the Board?

Well, I think one way to answer that, Stephen, would be there was a helpful article in the Fin Review yesterday where David was happy to share that he had solid support amongst -- as a number of shareholders, a majority of shareholders, but mixed support amongst institutional shareholders. And the proxies in that Fin Review article were referenced as 2 to for and 2 against. And then on the summary of voting, David chose to resign.

Are we making it public? No, we're not.

Well, you've said just now that you're not. The Board, at the end of this meeting, all 3 of you but David's not here, will have an opportunity to reflect on that declaration. So that's actually respectful to the thousands of shareholders who took the trouble to vote. And I'd cite you a number of precedents such as virtually every single contingent resolution that's put up by climate activists and every single conditional spill resolution, which isn't put, standard practice is to disclose the proxy position that your shareholders responding to the document you put out chose to register with Computershare. It would be an outrage in light of all that has happened if you allow the narrative to be driven by the former Chair talking to the Fin Review with a, on the headcount, I think I was pretty popular, but the [indiscernible] voting is against -- the [indiscernible] dominating the vote, if he's lost 70-30 or whatever it is, even though we've got 3%, make the data public.

You haven't released the proxy position for all the other resolutions today, which is good practice with the formal addresses. So my next question is, could you please do that now on all the resolutions, preferably including the former Chairman's resolution, so we can then have an informed debate about what the materiality of the protest votes are? Is there a risk of other directors being voted off? Has there been a ramp strike? Don't leave us debating in the dark at this AGM about the votes of the proxy advisers because we all know that 99% of all votes at AGM are done by proxy beforehand. And the AGM is really just an election outcome announcement event. And if you don't announce the proxies, we're debating in the dark. If you like having a political election analysis panel 2 hours before the polling is closed and the election. Give us the data, and then let's have a discussion about what we [indiscernible].

Proxy results will be put up just before voting begins. But not on the withdrawn resolution.

Put them up now. All resolutions.

So we'll take that on board. I appreciate the feedback. And so as Jan was just saying, Jan, repeat?

Yes, it will be up on the screen and online as voting reopens shortly. So that's probably 2 or 3 slides in.

Okay. Well, I've got a couple more, but I'll give someone else a go.

Steve really have to take over the meeting. So do you have any shares at happen yourself.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry, this gentleman in the front.

I've been a really long time shareholder.

What is your name, sir?

Mark Hopkins.

Thanks, Mark.

This is addressed again to Christine about remuneration. I've been incredibly concerned at the departure of all the senior executives. It's been disappointing to you see you guys brush it off as a turnover. We typically -- it's typical in a growth company to be really concerned about your executive team. So to just brush it off as a number of a execs disappearing as if it was a very meaningful as a bit disappointing.

Second question is, in terms of the key management personnel, of which there are basically none left, one of the questions that [indiscernible] President of the U.S. has driven half the sales of the company, not actually be a KPN. He was a Remuneration Committee, I would have thought that's an incredibly bad oversight.

Okay. The -- I can take that. The turnover element is not meant to be a glib reference to turnover. Executives choose to come or go. And clearly, in review, choose to come or go. Where...

Excuse me, Leon. But that would indicate that your remuneration package is inadequate? It could happen both ways.

You're right.

Remuneration is great. The environment created by David is really toxic or your remuneration isn't adequate, which means were there you guys on the committee are not actually pulling your weight, but which one is it?

Do you want to stop and we'll give that answer. So people don't come or go just for rem. There are lots of other circumstances that they may or may not choose to. I'm not going to drill into individuals. Of course, we provide a very competitive remuneration position that you're always going to have staff come and go. There is always that element.

In terms of...

It was an entire executive team.

Well, it's not the entire executive team.

Too much.

We've got many of the executives that are ongoing and becoming longer term. And we are recruiting. And as I mentioned, we've had a little bit of a gap as we've waited for Bruce to join us, so he could be involved in a lot of that recruitment. So we're very comfortable with where we are with both our executive team. We'd like to have a few of those positions filled. We're in that process at the moment.

In the 2024 report, you had 11 people in the senior management team from the 2024 report. The 2025 report it's glaring in absolutely nothing there apart from Swamy and Yama. So it seems a little bit of a smoke and mirrors.

Well, if we were to put that numbers with you. We've certainly got quite a few of the executives in place. We've lost a couple. Absolutely. But we've replaced. You've mentioned -- as someone mentioned earlier, HR replaced; manufacturing ongoing; quality replaced. So all of those, I could realize, but I don't want to bore shareholders with positions, but I appreciate your questions.

So second question is why is for example?

On KMP? On KMP, we make a decision within rem report as to who will identify. It's a long list that you could. We try and make that a manageable list. But I appreciate the feedback because that's something we can take on board as well. Thank you.

The gentleman behind you.

Thank you, Chairman. My name is Gilbert Fry. I'm a volunteer from the Australian Shareholders' Association. And today, I'm substituting for Christine Haven as being a proxy. Firstly, I wanted to actually congratulate the Board for an appointment of a new CEO. I'm sure Dr. Robyn was doing a really good job, and I actually contacted the Chairman and suggested with her qualifications while we need to look for another one.

A couple of other points. Where shareholders appreciate the efforts of trying to get our shareholders to cast their vote for the election. I have one question about Resolution 3 and the other 2 questions are concerning the annual report.

Would you can please consider putting the location of each of the directors in the annual report? And we had some difficulty in finding the Board's matrix. Could you please explain where it's located? Thank you.

Thank you for the questions. Resolution 3 locations. We can take that on board. You mean geographic locations? Yes. Sure. Thank you.

Sorry. You're other question?

The matrix.

Matrix. Sorry. Christine, yes.

Look, that was a slight oversight and that is now published. So you should be able to find it now. It's on the website, on the website.

Yes. That's -- my apologies for that. It was published very recently, I think yesterday, because we had made an oversight on that. We've actually updated it to reflect David and the change in the board structure that include Rob Douglas as well. So thank you for the question. Gentleman in the middle?

My name is Mark Till. I'm probably at the dumbest person in the room, but I'm trying to understand why the market [indiscernible] totally whilst the story looks pretty good. So is it just a start turmoil? Is it David leaving? What's your take on why the market share price has come down dramatically after the fund that you've had at the Board?

Yes. Good question, Malcolm. I don't know the answer to that. I'd love to give you some sort of comprehensive answer. What I can say, and you already recognize, is the financial fundamentals are strong. Our growth globally, U.S. and Rest of World in the first quarter was about 29 -- sorry, 33%. Last year, it was about 29%. So we're solid. We're profitable, we're growing well. We're investing heavily we're reinvesting a lot of that because clearly, we don't drop lots to profit. We're reinvesting building a new R&D facility, building a new factory, building new capacity, building R&D pipeline, investing in a lot more people. I can't recall the number of people we added last year, but it's about 30 or 40. So thereabouts.

So I would argue share price should follow. But it's a speculative answer to give you that. I think if we continue to deliver strong fundamentals, I think, share price should follow. But I would be the first to agree that it depends on how you look at performance. But in recent times, it's been negative, I agree. And I don't have a magic and support -- so I'll give you my best answer, but not a perfect answer.

And I think I'll just add one thing to that, just to clarify, the reason that we can be successful, we've been successful for the last certainly 8 months that I've been in the company. We've continued to grow. We haven't drop the ball at all. In fact, we've continued to increase that growth, and that's what you're seeing going forward. We've finished the manufacturing facilities, the R&D facilities. Everything is on track as it should be. That does not happen unless your staff are working well together.

So the concept that the staff in turmoil, we don't have the right staff in the right place or there's issues, I'm sorry, the data doesn't support that. And we want to be a data-driven company. That doesn't support that.

There's a question -- sorry, up front.

Is this on?

Yes, it is. Introduce yourself, please, sir.

I'm Dave Robinson. I'm my super fund as a shareholder. [indiscernible] has been for a long time. I won't [indiscernible] What is the market irrational? What is performance connected to the share price? But could give some insight into market rents. For instance, on the 19th of September, the volume of trades was $30 million where it's normally for the [indiscernible], normally about 2.5. And shortly after that, we had an announcement that JPMorgan that up stakes and so the ship over shifts. Can you give us any perspective insights as to what that -- what prompted that trading? And what was -- why did JPMorgan decided to pull the plug.

I would be speculating to give you answers in honesty, I think that -- it's always challenging to know how funds are moving, interpreting results making a sector or allocation decisions. I'll come back to my earlier answer, which is our financial fundamentals are strong. And what the funds do is purely for them to speculate upon. I'd be speculating in a response. So I don't have a better response other than Rob and myself, Bruce soon to come. The team had in particular, have a very strong commitment to building, investing, growing, and we're doing all 3. So I would hope that, that's attractive to the funds, and they'll work that out.

Okay. Thank you. Don't have a better answer.

Yes. So gentleman down the back.

Thank you. My name is Andrew Walsh, I'm a shareholder. And I want to pick up on what the last half now has been talking about, but give it a little bit more of a positive view. Clearly, there is -- the company itself is doing really well. All the numbers are looking great. I picked up on what Robyn has talked about in terms of each of the different fundamentals are growing. The customer base who are using the product are obviously behind it. That's great. The share market, as we know, is totally tanked. So there's a complete disassociation there.

My question would be, double that comes to me is it's all about people, and it's all about the people in the business. And so my question would be, does Bruce come in as the CEO with eyes wide open and aware of what he's got to deal with.

And secondly, beyond the broader words of the Board in terms of what support you're going to give, how are they actually going to really get into supporting the CEO and taking what is a really good company and making it great?

Yes, good questions. Thank you. Bruce is very much eyes wide open. He's online. So I'm sure he's reflecting well on that at the moment. But we've had multiple layers of review and discussion and dialogue. And we've been very transparent with Bruce right through the journey. And there's some challenges and there's lots and lots of opportunity and lots of already really good shape. We've shared a lot of that today.

We are a very strong, successful growth story. We're a great Australian investment story. We're a great taking Australian technology to the world story. But we have our challenges, and we always will. We're, at the moment, thinking about how do we scale, how do we expand? Has Bruce got insights into those? Certainly through all the dialogue we had with him so far, absolutely. And he's very excited by the prospect.

Support? Well, we were having that conversation today in a Board meeting. Robyn is building a runway for Bruce so that when he comes in, and Bruce has already verbalized that he's keen to kick off even before he start that to his great credit, but there'll be long handover, there will be detailed review. Robyn set up a lot of activity that's already in place for Bruce to inherit, and we've also left a lot of opportunity, which is for Bruce to be able to enable, put a stamp on it. And I mentioned that a little early with a couple of the executive roles. We want Bruce to be fully bought into the selections that he can be involved in more so than inherit.

So we're excited by Bruce joining. I don't want to overplay that either. And the preparation that will be set up through Bruce will be strong. But thank you for the question.

Yes, sir, in the middle.

Andrew Menlo, retail investor. Maybe a question for Ed about impacts of PMA approval on revenues following the BARDA trial. And maybe a comment about the outpatient opportunity with the changes or potential changes in the U.S.

Did you want to speak to the outpatient?

Well, let's do PMA first. Yes. Sorry.

So just from a PMA perspective, the benefit of getting PMA approval is a number. We've been working with our partner, that BARDA, who has helped fund the clinical trial we're doing. The reason they've done that is they want this product available to them in case there is an emergency situation in the U.S. where they have to be able to use the ATM to help U.S. citizens, and they will look at some point to look at stockpiling our products, but it needs to have FDA approval for them to do that.

So the reason that they're supporting that is to get that FDA approval for the product and then we can discuss with BARDA what that stock planning opportunity might look like. Additionally, from Ed's perspective, he can talk to this. Once we get that indication for deep dermal burns, it's a lot easier for Ed and his sales team in that they can go out and actively promote that indication. At the moment, they're not able to actively promote that indication. So it takes off the shackles a little bit. They've been amazingly successful. Thank you to the team and the skills and particularly for Ed in oversighting that situation he has where he doesn't have registration in that deep dermal burn. But it will certainly allow him to promote more broadly, and that will help from increasing our market share perspective.

And then thirdly, of course, is the opportunity for reimbursement. And again, that just encourages the surgeons. It gives them a further opportunity to use our product, which is already quite cost effective, but it provides that for them. From a CMS perspective, this is...

I'll tap in if you want?

Yes.

From a CMS perspective, that's probably, I would say, discovery. I don't know that the industry really is clear. I don't think the U.S. federal government is clear yet on what the new rules will be from next year. We're not in that space today in the sense of that community-type application in things like diabetic foot ulcer and the like. We're very focused on inpatient surgical application. And much of the dialogue going on in the change of reimbursement and the products and the wound types are not where we operate today literally and figuratively. But we are very engaged and very interested, and we will be reviewing how to enter that space. But we're watching it and trying to better understand it.

We probably will be resourcing into that space as well. And we've got product development that we will align to that space. So that's an exciting space because it's a very large volume of patients who have long-term chronic wounds in the main. And the traditional system in the U.S. has been multiple visits, multiple applications of products. And our product isn't that. So we need to go, how do we marry together and how do we exploit that opportunity. That's a very exciting opportunity. So we're deep in review and examine the market space.

And I think the thing that excites me about it, Leon, is the fact that when I talk to surgeons, they are absolutely excited about the ability, particularly of MTX to be successful in this product wound area, like they really see the benefit of our product, and they've seen some amazing results in terms of wound closure. And so I think the pouch is going to be excellent in the area. We just need now to make sure that we've got the right clinical data and the right commercialization strategy to support that.

That was my follow-up question on the clinical data

Sorry, if you'd like, Ed can just add a...

Yes. So I didn't want to completely avoid your question. I wasn't just pushing it off, but I knew there was some other comments to be made on this. So right now, best indication is that we leave the thermal substitute market in the burn space. And that is, as Robyn said, unmarketed. We do not have an FDA indication for burn. The surgeons have really led the way in that space. And we control because of the way reimbursement works under the DRG, meaning inpatient, they just get one fee for the entire surgery, not bit by bit and what they use and don't use. We believe that when we get the breakthrough designation, number one, we'll have level 1 evidence, which is the top. When you look at the scale of the evidence that we have, it will be level 1 evidence, and only 1 other company has it. So it's that. That will be absolutely fantastic for us to leverage off of.

The second part is, because we have FDA breakthrough designation for the burn product, we'll be able to apply from NTAP, which is a new technology add-on payment, which will be paid on top of the DRG. So they can not only use the product, but they can get reimbursed extra because they used our product under the DRG. I believe what that does is it allows us to treat a greater number of patients. So if somebody were, as an example, using us for only 30% TBSA and above because it was not cost effective for them to use it under, we -- I believe there's an opportunity for us to stretch down into lower percentage TBSA where more cases are.

As far as -- so from a revenue standpoint, I think that's an opportunity that we will have that the surgeons will have then to offer more options for those patients with smaller TBSAs. And certainly, there's a competitive advantage there, just again, with having that level 1 evidence that we're able to then actively promote for burn, which is something we've never been able to do and actively defend against what others might be saying, about which we have not been allowed to do in the U.S. since I've been here. So I hope that helps.

Thanks, Ed. I love the passion. I'm glad that was the brief version. I get to be really a very, very informative, very, very good. TBSA, total burn surface area, if people are worried about the acronyms.

Any other questions? I'm conscious of time now. So I'm just wanting to move on to the online questions as well. Let's take 2 more. Thank you.

Just briefly. You mentioned in the slide that material has been donated into Malaysia, Israel, Gaza. And so I'm thinking of Gaza must be some of the most challenging conditions for surgeons or medical staff to work in. So have we had feedback as to how effective or not that the product is being used with challenging circumstances? Any experienced staff the amongst trying conditions?

Yes. No, no. Good question. It's a lovely thing to be Well, it's very sad in to be part of, but it's a lovely thing to be able to provide product philanthropically through to some of the aid organizations and in some cases, directly into the teams.

I'm a bit tempted to ask one of our clinical experts in the audience here, Dr. Marcus Wagstaff, who gets involved with maybe -- pass the microphone to Marcus, please -- who gets involved with training some of the surgeons that are involved in some of these areas of conflict as to how that's impacted. And then what is any legacy, if anything, from those surgeons exposure. Marcus, without notice, if you could, please?

That's quite all right. Okay. It's important to say that in any area of conflict or any area of unsterile environment, the data collection is really poor. And we've tried, and it's -- that's not the priority at the time. So to get good quantitative data from a, as I say, conflict arena is very difficult. So what I did in a year ago was to actually go and approach the certainties that ask me the qualitative comments and whether they felt it was useful in the scenario and so on, and overwhelmingly, the comments were good. I've seen -- I've talked about a surgeon through using BTM, in particular in burns and traumatic wounds, and I've seen the experiences that they've had both, in particular, in Gaza, Ukraine and after the pipe fire in Malaysia. The -- in particular, in some of the most sterile environments, particularly a hospital in Gaza, is a very difficult place to work. The use of BTM to reconstruct the crushed feet, for example, of children where cement are falling on feet has preserved limb and in Ukraine has certainly been preserving life.

So I've seen some very -- I can't share the photos. That will be inappropriate. But I've seen some very moving stories. And yes, the feedback has been positive.

Thank you, Markus. Let's just take one more, and then we're going to finish, please, because otherwise, we'll be here all afternoon. I'd love to, but I'm conscious of everyone's time commitments as well.

Chair, online.

I'm going to go to online in a moment. We've got -- thank you, Stephen. We've got opportunity to have Q&A amongst the resolutions as well. Thank you.

My name is Barry Telfer. I would just hope that the role David Williams has played in getting the company to where it is now is not going to be forgotten because what I've seen over the years, and I -- one of the things I look back on is a few years ago when biotechs were getting smacked, he was putting his money in. And if anybody can show me where directors supported a company more than needed at the time, I would like to have it pointed out to me. But irrespective of the hoo-ha that's gone on, I really would be disappointed if everything is done has been forgotten. So hope that's not going to be the case.

No, thank you. And truly not. 11 years with the company, joined the company when it was a shell with products looking to find a way to market, commercialized, restructured. I think -- don't quote me on this, that took the share price from $0.07 -- and a very strong driver of all of that development. So very, very strong legacy. Thank you for the question.

Okay. Jan, questions online?

No questions.

Sorry. Okay. All right. So...

[indiscernible]

Okay. Thanks, Stephen.

No, there's no question online for the resolutions to come. So general Q&A, there's nothing left online.

And I agree with the David Williams contribution. It has been substantial in getting the company growing and performing very well. There were press reports that Lindsay Maxstead was involved in the company during the year. He was going to be the next Chair, he did the Board review, et cetera. There obviously is a big, big hitter. He was the Chair of Transurban share at Westpac, direct to the BHP. What role was he gave? Was it paid? Was it voluntary? And what did he say? Because I haven't said anything from the company explaining what this heavy hitter was. If you did become the next year, that would be that have got, right? Yes, what was the wrong?

Got it. He was one of a number of people that we engage to review, give advice, provide comment. And we took that on board. His counsel was terrific, and it was part of a process to improve our ways of working and our governance. Thanks, Stephen.

Just a final one on general business. [indiscernible] the margin call columns in the Australian has been [indiscernible] over a number of months against us revealing a whole bunch of things that investors weren't receiving through the ASX announcements platform or from the company. Obviously, it's looked like, from my reading of it, that [indiscernible] discount work management for leaking in things, and there was an enormous amount of damaging disclosures. Could you just give us an overview as to whether there was anything that was reported which you would contest at this meeting to sort of correct the record? Or should shareholders read those articles and believe them to be factually correct because I haven't seen any sort of denunciation or...

Got it, got it.

No. So is there anything you'd like to correct on the record about that extensive reporting by [indiscernible] in the Australian.

Well, it's one-way commentary to your point. I'll give you what might say like a tagline. We take governance extremely seriously. We work very effectively as a Board. We, on behalf of the company and its shareholders, run with a great deal of diligence and commitment to making us a better company. And commentators commentate. We're very comfortable with the direction of the company.

So anything more, one more, and then we'll move on, otherwise, we will not get to voting.

To follow up on Stephen's question, both myself and my wife had an email earlier in the year, asking given the evidence from the papers about David's behavior that he'd be removed from the Board. In require those e-mails, Christine and Robyn had a telecom with my wife and assured her that David was a really good bloke, maybe a little bit old fashioned, but nothing else. So the big question is 2 ladies and yourself Leon. If David's behavior was not appropriate, then technically, you are [indiscernible] because you were happy for his behavior to continue. So it's a significant -- and obviously, the share price, I would suggest possibly reflects the perception of bad governance. And the last question is, given you threw a part of that potential approach to less than adequate dominance, what's to say that you will not continue in that vein?

The comments around David's behavior are speculative. Without doubt, he was -- I mentioned earlier, in the Fin Review article, chose to resign. The -- arguably, the institutional voting would be such that they were swayed by advice.

In terms of -- and I'm pleased that Robyn and Christine responded to your wife. We've been very comfortable that our level of governance level of operation has been professional. We and we all take governance and our way of working very seriously. We've had a change of Chair. I recognize that. We've added Rob Douglas into the Board. We are delighted to have him on board. We're actively recruiting for some -- a new, possibly 2 new directors, part of the reason for one of the resolutions, and we're looking forward to driving the company to growth. Thank you.

Okay. Questions online, Jan?

Not. No general questions.

Okay. I'm going to move on Notice of meeting. The notice of meeting was dispatched to shareholders in compliance with the company's constitution and the Corporations Act and is also available from our ASX announcement. I take notice of meeting as read.

Today's meeting is being held online via the Computershare meeting platform. This allows shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes.

Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll of all items of business. I'll shortly open voting for all resolutions. If you're eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the voting icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your votes, simply select one of the options. There's no need to hit a Submit or an Enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirming notification on your screen.

I now declare voting open on all items of business.

I appoint Angela Lapis of Computershare Investor Services as the returning officer. Results will be compiled and released by the -- to the ASX after the conclusion of the meeting. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed.

So we are then on to financial statements and reports. Item 1 of the notice of meeting is to receive and consider the annual financial statements for the 12 months ended June 2025 for the company and its controlled entities together with the reports of directors and auditors. Are there any questions with respect to the financial report of the company's auditors from the audience here today? Yes, Stephen?

Just a question for the auditor [indiscernible] partner from EY. As the -- did your audit in any way, get affected or influenced by the media coverage in The Australian was extensive on a range of issues? So did -- as the auditor, did you -- was there any -- I read in the paper, therefore, I would like to look into this? Or was it just a -- had absolutely no influence on the audit process whatsoever.

Thanks for the question, Stephen. It'd probably be no surprise to you that media speculation and commentary doesn't really drive an audit approach or the approaches in accordance with audit standards, Corps Act and accounting standards and the conduct of the audits obviously explained in your audit opinion and media commentary would have no impact.

Thanks, Ash. Jan, any questions online?

None on financial statements.

Okay. If there are no questions or further discussion on this matter, I'll consider the financial report and directors and auditors reports achieved and adopted.

If you've already voted -- if you've already voted on the resolutions prior to the AGM and do not wish to change your vote, no action is required from you today. However, if you have already voted and want to change your vote, voting on the resolutions is currently open, and you can vote at any time until I declare the voting closed.

The results will not be updated on the screen, but we release, as I mentioned earlier, at the conclusion of the meeting and released to the ASX. Please note that only shareholders, proxy voters and authorized shareholder representatives may vote. Any directed proxies given to you by a shareholder will automatically be cast as directed when the poll is closed. The voting tab is available with the navigation bar. Press the vote icon and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. And as I mentioned earlier, there's no need to hit a Submit or Enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation on your screen. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote up until the time that I declare the voting closed. When voting closed, your voting selection will be recorded. For the people attending in the room, please mark the back of your voting cards as you see fit. And once the poll is declared closed, Computershare staff will collect these from you. If you have any queries, call Computershare hotline.

So they are our proxy voting results. As you can see, I now move to the consideration of the formal resolutions set out in the meeting of the notice of meeting. As required under the Corporations Act, all voting on the resolutions will be by way of a poll. As stated in the notice of meeting, I intend to vote any undirected proxy votes given to the Chair in favor of all resolutions. We will now move to consider the first resolution. I'm going to hand over to Christine because it's me.

So the first resolution is on the reelection of Leon Hoare. So Mr. Leon Hoare retires by rotation and, being eligible, offers himself for reelection. I put the following resolution to the meeting. To consider, and if thought fit, to pass with or without modification, the following resolution that pursuant to and in accordance with Listing Rule 14.4.64 of the constitution and for all other purposes, Leon Hoare, Director, retires and being eligible is reelected as a director on the terms and conditions in the explanatory notes.

I'd like to invite Leon to say a few words about himself and his experience so far on the Board.

Okay. I probably talked enough, but let me give you -- and some of you will notice from my bio or the background in the annual report, but very briefly, I've led commercial operations across multiple life science sectors, both in medical devices and pharmaceuticals. I serve at the moment as MD of privately owned European medical devices company, Loan and Rauscher. Although for note, I will be finishing that role at the end of the year. I announced this at the middle of this year. I previously held senior leadership roles with Smith & Nephew and Bristol-Myers Squibb. My experience has spanned all facets of commercial leadership across general management, across regional leadership including serving as President of Smith & Nephew's Asia Pacific business and as Smith & Nephew -- and on Smith & Nephew's Advanced Wound Management, global executive and as Vice Chair of the Medical Technology Association of Australia.

In particular, I understand the sectors PolyNovo operates in. I'm focused on supporting and driving the product and sales growth momentum. As a Director of PolyNovo and a member of both the Remuneration and the Audit and Risk Committee and now as Chair, I work closely with both the Board and the management team to support our strategic direction, our performance and our governance. I believe the Board and the management team have set a clear direction for the business. I'm focused on PolyNovo to supporting PolyNovo to deliver for patients, for partners and importantly, in this forum for shareholders. Thank you.

Thanks, Leon. Are there any questions from the audience here today? And Jan, do you have any online questions for Leon.

I have 2 online and then we can go to the audience.

Leon, you've been a director since 2016. How will you be approaching the role as Chair? And how will you be different in style and approach to David Williams? How will you place you're -- who will replace the David's director position.

Okay. Good question. Sorry. well, you probably tell from today that if David Williams was driving this meeting, there would be a little more colorful. I worked in the industry for a long time. I've seen lots, done lots; led a lot of very successful businesses; led a lot of of small and large; led a lot of geographies; led a lot of market leadership, business mix. I like to think I'm involved and understand. I like to think I'm supportive and driven. I like to think that I can provide guidance and support, and I value governance in that journey. So it will be different, but hopefully, it's ultimately rewarding for shareholders. And I take very effectively and essentially important for our staff, important for our clinicians and important for our patients as well.

Who will replace David? We are currently actively recruiting for nonexec directors, and we actually just addressed that today again. We're changing that mix, as Christine mentioned earlier. We've shared Board skills matrix. We're very conscious of what does that look like and where do we have areas that we could add more skill, and we're reviewing that at the moment. So we will be actively thinking of, as an example, medical and clinical and legal are all areas that we're interested in. And some of those areas we will fill out as we add a replacement for David as a Nonexecutive Director.

Other question. Just a question on your view of providing quarterly results and outlook.

Yes. Well, in ASX guidelines, we'll be providing half yearlies. We are taking that on board, and we're actively having to think about how to provide regular performance updates and whether that then constitutes formal guidance. We certainly have a lot of dialogue with analysts and fund holders to give them insights into what we see the world as being. We're actively looking at the 12 months ahead, and we're actually looking at many years ahead, but the 12 months ahead and trying to make sure we rightsize our business for the challenges and opportunities that arise. But to come back to the question, we're a half yearly reporting company at the moment.

Great. Thanks, Leon. No further questions online.

Okay. Christine? Do we have a question? Sorry, Stephen. Apologies.

First one, what's happened to your pay overnight?

I'm unsure, but I'm assuming eventually, it will increase slightly.

All right. So that you're not automatically stepping into David's fee? So that hasn't been determined yet?

I haven't had that conversation yet.

Right. As of today, you're still being paid as a director, not as a normal higher pay as Chair?

I expect that, that will happen.

Right. Okay, right. Now thanks for the slot in the proxy. So 20% of the directed proxies against you turn out overall just below 50% of the total shares in issue. Did one of the 3 big proxy advisers, ISS, Ownership Matters or Glass Lewis recommend against you? And if so, what were their grounds?

No.

So that's an organic protest vote by the shareholders not direct or not taken on their advice by any external advisers. Have you had any communications from people articulating why they voted against you in material numbers?

Not that I'm aware of. No.

Okay. Now are you -- with just briefly, given to the headhunters. Is the brief looking for directors or including possibly a new Chair? Like is yesterday's position for keeps and you're the long-term Chair?

Yes, yes.

Had you had a previous discussion with the former chair about succeeding him at some point.

We have regularly had conversations around Board structure.

Were you the Chair or apparent to the Chair when David was going to go to [ 72, 73. ] Was that an understanding within the Board that you were going to step up at some point?

We were having conversations. And they are confidential. But we are having conversations regularly around Board structure.

All right. Okay. Because I just -- just final point is. I just counsel you to actually reflect on that position. And I'd actually likely to undertake to put your sort nomination next year as well as an act of good faith in such a fluid situation, like quite a few boards, Treasury Wine Estates, BHP, do the annual election of directors. So it would be good for you to do that. Because personally, I think we need a new Chair, not in any way associated with all that has gone on of late, if only to assist with reaching out to many of those who have left and trying to encourage them to come back. If there's a perception that the Board is still controlled by people sympathetic to David, then I think that will inhibit that approach.

Is this question, Stephen, or this is a statement?

Well, it's a question.

I'm sorry. I'm losing the thread.

Will you broaden the search and be open to the idea of bringing in a new clean skin chair of the company? If that is what institutional investors is that sort of feedback you get, if that's in the best interest of the company to try and reach out to some of the people who've left to get them to come back because that would be a problem that you've been the long-term chair given your long term in...

So the statement really, but I understand your question.

Could I just...

Go, Christine.

Yes, there has been no reaching out to us by institutional shareholders saying that they need a clean skin director as Chair. We are, all of us, quite unanimous in our agreement that Leon has the requisite experience and is independent completely of the issues that you are expressing. So he has every confidence of us in his leading as Chair.

So 20% against vote gives you no cause at all...

Thank you, thank you.

Gives you now a with people who vote against you.

Thank you. I mean, we will always be talking to shareholders, to fund holders. Christine, thank you. I appreciate it. Yes, so go for it.

This is going to be the same. [indiscernible] I've been attending your AGMs for quite a while now.

Excuse me, sir, there's a microphone coming to you.

I have been impressed personally with your integrity g and how you conducted yourself on the Board, how you stood in when Dave was up for reelection and Chaired the meeting. So I've got every confidence in you, and I just would like to express that.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Christine, sorry, I think you're finishing voting?

Yes. We're done. We've done voting, yes. So do we?

Yes. No more questions on.

Can we move on?

Yes, we move on [indiscernible]

Okay. Apologies. No, you're right.

Resolution 1B, reelection of David Williams as announced to the market yesterday Resolution 1 relating to the reelection of the former chair David Williams has been withdrawn and will not be put to the meeting.

Resolution 2, approval of the remuneration. Corporations Act requires a remuneration report to be included in the annual report. Shareholders will be asked to vote to approve this report. Please note that this vote is not binding on the company, but the result will be taken into account by the Remuneration Committee when reviewing director and executive packages, executive packages. A voting exclusion statement applies to the resolution as outlined in the Notice of Annual General Meeting. However, the directors recommend the shareholders vote in favor of this resolution.

I put the following -- I put the following resolution to the meeting: To consider and if thought fit, to pass with or without modification, the following resolution that the remuneration report as contained in the directors' report for the year ending 30 June 2025 is adopted.

Are there any questions? Any online, Jan? Thank you.

Voting is open and will remain open during the discussions on the resolutions.

Resolution 3, nonexecutive directors fees. Resolution -- resolution 3 deals with the aggregate maximum of remuneration that may be paid to the directors of the company. I put the following resolution to the meeting. To consider, and if thought fit, to pass, with or without modification, the following resolution to increase the aggregate maximum of remuneration that may be paid to directors of the company as a whole other than executive directors be increased by $150,000 per annum from $850,000 per annum to $1 million per annum. And as I mentioned earlier, part of that is to accommodate additional directors. Are there any questions from the audience today? Yes. Down front?

So for existing directors, is there going to be increase in the salary in share prices [indiscernible]?

Yes. That's not a discussion we've had at the Remuneration Committee, and it's not an active discussion.

No. And most of the comparisons with companies our size shows that we are less than the median.

Other questions? Yes, sir?

Sorry, I read the remuneration report, but is the sum [indiscernible] between the share price -- it seems like KPIs. Is there -- do you want it to get $3 or is there some kind of target there? Or is it purely focused on the excellent work you're doing in getting [indiscernible] and being able to invest in the business without going for a loan and [indiscernible]. Is the rem linked to the share price, could you describe it in [indiscernible]?

Sure, sure. I guess the simplest way to answer that is the sort of twofold. The executive leadership have short- and longer-term targets and measurements and rewards, and they're all based on performance. We have got a mechanism that we're going to add over time around long-term incentives that will have some metrics involved and some of those will be share price. And we've also had in CEO long-term incentives, share price linkage. In the nonexecutive directors, we don't. But then we also don't have short-term incentives in any of their world either. They are not incentivized by share price. They are clearly incentivized by share price as shareholders, but not as a short-term incentive.

Any other questions? Stephen?

So this is the largest protest of the day, excluding David. Again, did any of the proxy advisers recommend against?

I don't think so, but I would have to check that. I don't think so.

No, they didn't.

No, no.

I have voted in favor of this. I think the comment is correct that for our size, asking to go to $1 million is fine. I personally would like to see you add maybe 3 directors. So the extra headroom to have that as an option, I think, is good.

And just a final disclosure question. So we've got 19,000 shareholders. Less than 3% will have voted today because retail participation has crashed to record lows post COVID. So 48% of the stock has been voted, but I'm saying 2% or 3% of the 19,000 will have voted. One way to address this is -- and also to respect the sentiment of retail shareholders is to disclose the headcount data in the poll. Computershare does that at their own AGM, the ASX now does that, range of companies do it. So we'll see that there were 560 shareholders in favor and 420 guests. Could you do that when you release the poll results to date? And also please reinstate the proxy figures for David Williams because you won't be filing with the ASX the full Computershare proxy report. You're proposing to delete some of our data. It's our data. We voted. Please let us know how we voted. to the ASX.

Thanks. Thanks, Stephen. And I appreciate your comments around rem report and sorry, rem recommendation. I'm taking those on board.

Okay. I'm going to move forward. Resolution 1c. I hope this is right. Election of Mr. Robert Douglas, Mr. Robert Douglas, being eligible, offers himself for election. I put the following resolution to the meeting. To consider, and if thought fit, to pass with or without modification, the following resolution, that pursuant to and in accordance with Listing Rule 14.4 clause 63 of the constitution and for all other purposes, Robert Douglas, Director, appointed to the Board of Directors on 14 October 2025, is elected as a director on the terms and conditions in the explanatory notes.

Rob is online. So I look forward to inviting Rob to say a few words. We got him on camera. We do. Okay. Rob, over to you.

Yes. Thanks, Leon. I've been on the meeting, the whole way through, but not on the video. Yes, my name is Rob Douglas. I'm actually privileged to be speaking to you today. A little bit of background. I'm actually bought in the west of Australia, and I grew up and spent most of my working life in Sydney until 2012 when I moved with my family and young teenagers to San Diego. The teenager bit is a very tough thing to do, and was not well recommended, but we got through that. We're all now dual citizens and have a good life here, but I still have a lot of family-owned connections back in Australia, and I'm frequently in Australia.

I was an executive with ResMed from 2001 to 2023. For the more than 10 years, I was President and Chief Operating Officer of ResMed across the entire organization. And prior to 2012, amongst other things, I ran our global supply chain as we change that from being an Aussie exporter to a global supply footprint and also led our Asia Pac commercial, which included Japan, China, India, Australia and most of the other Asian countries.

I'm also, since 2019, on the Board of Directors of Globus Medical. Globus Medical is a really good musculoskeletal solutions company. We do spinal implants, very good, very sophisticated surgical robots and also trauma solutions and a number of other solutions in that space. Globus has a market cap of about USD 8.5 billion and sales about $2.8 billion plus.

I'm also a member of the ANACD, the American National Association of Corporate Directors, and I'm a certified director for them. And education-wise, I have an MBA from Macquarie University. And I'm proud to still be an electrical engineer and computer science graduate from University of New South Wales.

Now what I bring to the PolyNovo Board is really experience in all aspects of the global medical device business. I've really got to focus on global growth business. I have significant governance experience. I would consider myself a systems thinker, and I like to think end-to-end around issues. And personally, I find it asking the hard questions, and we've seen a lot of those today as well, but it improves the quality of discussions and on the subsequent decisions.

I was really attractive to PolyNovo. I think you've got fantastic an interesting technology underpinned or underpinning a really solid commercial base. And I think the team has made incredible progress in that area over the past few years. And I think we're well positioned for future growth. I think this is an incredible opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to being part of helping build on that opportunity. Thanks, Leon.

Thanks, Rob. We're delighted to have Rob join the Board. His first Board meeting was this morning. We had a terrific runway into engaging Rob, finding Rob has an opportunity to join; delighted that he has the track record that he does. He comes from different angles, from different therapy areas and from different technology areas and has a very rich engagement with data as well as engineering as he self-described and will bring a lot of different perspectives. But on top of all of that, brings a really rich U.S.A. knowledge base and familiarity. So we're -- it's terrific to have Rob on board. Any questions for Rob?

One online. Would you consider taking the Chairman role, Rob, in the future if you once you're more familiar with the company down the track?

Did you get that, Rob?

Yes, I heard that. I never say never, but it's certainly not something that I have actually bandwidth for just at the moment.

Thank you. Any questions? Stephen?

Yes. So [indiscernible] there's a fabulous high, and no wonder, it's 98% on the proxy. I was just curious to understand because we put out the agenda to the notice of meeting 10 days ago. So the turn out on Bruce's was only about 43% of the registered versus about 49%. So clearly, a few shareholders got to disenfranchised by the fact that his appointment or his election wasn't in the original notice of meeting. What did happen in terms of it's very unusual to add a director halfway through the voting period.

And just one specific question. Which headhunting team are we using to source our new directors at the same term that sourced Bruce that will be sourcing the other 2 directors that we're looking for because we've obviously done a great job getting Bruce.

So yes, so the appointment of Rob actually came through connections and of colleagues, et cetera, but his experience obviously speaks for itself and his suitability for the role. And the timing is just -- the timing, really, it took a little while to find him and get through the due diligence process, et cetera. And as soon as Rob was ready to sign up, we obviously announced the fact that it aligned 15 days before the AGM, it's just how it happened. Really, there's nothing contrived about that at all. Yes.

And on the headhunting firm, Stephen, we are using the same firm at this stage. We may change that, but we're not disclosing who that is because we're always -- that's a very challenging space when you're dealing with private and confidential dialogue, particularly with aspirants. But they are excellent at a broad range search as you've already acknowledged with Bruce.

Okay. Other questions? Good.

That's it.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Rob. That was the final resolution of the meeting. Voting is open and will remain open during any final discussions on resolutions. But certainly, that's a conclusion of voting I know Computershare is just walking in the room here for those online to collect any proxies -- sorry, any voting. Shortly, I'll close. Please ensure that you've cast your vote on all resolutions. I'll now pause just for a moment to allow you time to finalize any votes.

[Voting]

Okay. Thank you, Angela. Voting is now closed. For shareholders in the room, please submit your voting cards. I think we've already done that to the boxes, Anyone else? No? Good. All done. Now that the poll is closed, the results will be compiled and announced to the Australian Stock Exchange soon after the conclusion of the meeting.

I will now close today's meeting. I'd certainly like to thank all the shareholders for their attendance, both online and in person and for their continued support. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Thanks very much.