However, there were small protest votes against Smyth (with 7% opposing her re-election) and fellow executive director (and chief executive) Jolie Hodson (5%).

Board member Warwick Bray, while acting as temporary chairman, noted that all proxy advisers voted for Smyth.

Among them was the New Zealand Shareholders Association (NZSA).

Chief executive Oliver Mander said the NZSA’s proxy votes for Smyth were not as an endorsement of the telco’s performance but to support a transition plan that “gives the board a sensible amount of breathing room”.

“We supported the resolution knowing she had a shelf-life as chair and the succession plan was under way,” Mander told the Herald.

Following Spark’s FY2025 profit drop and share price fall (its stock is down 21% for the year), many of the investor questions from the floor were variations on “What will Spark do to turn around its performance?”

Smyth and Hodson replied with variations on “stick to our new five-year plan”.

“They’ve done a huge refresh around their strategy. They’ve stripped the data centre element out; they’re focusing on their knitting as a communications company around broadband and mobile,” Mander said.

One shareholder questioned why the company had sold 75% of its data centre business given “the whole world’s really hot on data centres”.

“We’re one of the biggest data centre operators in New Zealand,” Smyth replied.

“But the investment required to grow those sites and put in new capacity is probably about $2 billion over the next five to 10 years. By selling 75%, that growth will be funded by the partnership [with PEP] and we won’t be taking money away from our core connectivity business, which is where we make 80% of our margins.”

Smyth added, “We realised a very attractive multiple on the transaction.”

Within Spark, its data centres were worth eight times their operating earnings. The PEP deal was done at a multiple of more than 30x, she said.

“That’s a significant value uplift for shareholders.”

The chairwoman did not address dividends in her reply, but analysts had seen a potential multibillion-dollar data centre construction capex bulge, undermining the telco’s already under-pressure profit payout.

“How will Elon Musk’s Starlink affect Spark in the long term, and what’s the strategy for that?” another shareholder asked.

“Starlink has a role to play in New Zealand in terms of rural connectivity where fibre or copper or sometimes even mobile is unavailable,” Smyth replied.

“If you think about the progress it’s made in [New Zealand] over the last three years with broadband, it’s about 53,000 connections, in the context of maybe 1.7 million households; we have around 660,000. Starlink has a complementary role.”

Spark, One NZ and 2degrees are all resellers of Starlink’s business-grade product, which delivers broadband by satellite via a high-gain, usually rooftop-mounted dish.

All three telcos position it as a rural solution, which is the sector where the latest Commerce Commission market monitoring report says Starlink is generating the overwhelming majority of its sales.

But Starlink’s direct sales campaign and general advertising have also targeted urban areas.

Another shareholder said, “You previously mentioned satellite capability for mobile-phone users. Compared with your key competitors, you seem to have a bit of a product gap there. How is the company addressing this gap?”

“We are testing a satellite proposition and that will be in the market at the beginning of next year,” Hodson replied.

Spark has previously said it will launch a service in the new year, through an unnamed American-based partner, that will allow texting – and later voice calls and data – via satellite, using a standard mobile phone, providing coverage anywhere in New Zealand with line-of-sight to the sky.

Market scuttlebutt holds that Spark will join One NZ as a Starlink Direct to Cell partner.

Hodson offered no further details on that front, but did say she expected all players to have a satellite-to-mobile offering by the end of next year (2degrees recently announced a tie-up with Starlink rival AST Space Mobile, without giving a launch date).

Spark shares were flat in late trading.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.