AGL Energy’s largest shareholder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, has told company directors that “AGL is one of the most toxic companies on the planet” and it would be easy to fix its problems.
But AGL chairman Patricia McKenzie was also re-elected and AGL’s climate transition action plan – which outlines the closure of all coal-fired power stations by 2035 and 12 gigawatts of new renewable investments – was also endorsed at the AGM. “These three countries are smaller than one single company we have here, and it’s eminently fixable. It’s one of the most toxic companies on the planet, so it’s a good place to start to prove that decarbonisation can be done and be done profitably,” he said.
“AGL has some amazing assets. It has millions of customers, it has some of the best grid connections in the world, it has some fantastic opportunities to lean in and invest and benefit from the transition.” But shares in AGL have soared about 60 per cent since mid-March. A 3.1 per cent decline on Thursday to $11.22 still left a paper profit of about 30 per cent for Mr Cannon-Brookes fromHe sold about one-tenth of his original holding in April for $8.20-$8.28, according to a June filing.
Mr Cannon-Brookes said Australia more broadly was “starting to catch up” but “we are still not doing very well”, despite enormous opportunities.“The last eight years are the hottest eight on record, we’ve seen no shortage of bushfires, floods etcetera, we’ve experienced them all here and July last month, if you want a mind-blowing stat, was the hottest month ever recorded in 120,000 years,” he said.