Expanding Aristocrat mulls adding non-executive directors

Dec 27, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World  

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Casino slot machine maker and digital games provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd, says its board will ask at the next annual general meeting (AGM) to increase the money available for non-executive directors’ fees.

That was in order to have “sufficient flexibility to attract and appoint global directors (including up to two new non-executive directors for the board), and facilitate orderly board succession planning,” stated the company in its latest annual report. Aristocrat has currently an aggregate of six non-executive directors.

The slot-machine maker said its board would be seeking approval to increase the “non-executive director fee pool” to AUD4 million (US$2.9 million) per year, from the current AUD3.2 million. It said the review also took into consideration the issue of the “competitiveness of its fees” in the current market environment.

According to Aristocrat’s latest report, the last increase in such budget had been approved at the AGM for financial year 2018, when the company “was approximately half the size it is now (by market capitalisation).”

“Aristocrat’s strong growth across core and adjacent markets since the 2018 AGM has resulted in the increased workload and responsibilities of the board and its committees,” stated the report.

It added that the company’s board expected its volume of work “to continue to increase over the coming years as Aristocrat accelerates and executes on its growth strategy through acquisitions,” such as its AUD3.9-billion bid for London-listed Playtech Plc, a leading gaming content provider for the online and land-based casino industries.

In November, Aristocrat reported its normalised net profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles for the 12-months to September 30 was AUD864.7 million, an increase of 81.4 percent year-on-year.

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