Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited (AFH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone. Happy to be here and deliver the half year results a week earlier than normal. So hopefully, everybody is not on leave yet, and we'll jump straight into it. We'll cover a few aspects as per normal, look at the operating performance. Bruce will cover some of the financial detail and look forward a little bit, but certainly, we'll have enough time for questions. So happy to take all your questions at the end. A few key messages as we start off, Obvious one that jumps out is the 18% increase in profit from operations, very proud of that combination of, obviously, quite a number of years of cumulative earnings growth and then good expense management. But also in the 6 months, a big contributor was the markets, and we understand that being a 50% plus driver of our revenue. And then I'm obviously pleased with almost ZAR 700 billion of closing assets contributed by the market performance, but also a very good new business, as you can see in the next line. One of the highlights of our results because it coincided with the market returns, but also continued new business growth, very important for us to ensure that we're in line with our expectation of what the market thinks of us, and we can only test that by new clients moving to us and good feedback. Certainly in the corporate space, ZAR 47 million of annualized revenue across the board. And in all areas, we'll discuss that a little bit later. Very good investment assets in the 6 months. Majority of that in platform, low margin, but definitely aligned with our strategy, very profitable, very good business and certainly making big inroads into boardrooms of funds of large funds with our investment administration. And then very pleasing as it's part of the core strategy for growth to have a 33% increase in new business in the 6 months, which in the previous year was already a record year. You can't achieve bottom line return, bottom line performance without managing expenses well. It's a difficult time for us to do that because we are in a good growth phase. We see a lot of opportunities, not even just in retail and in tech that we have to enhance it, but also in our core businesses. So we need investment in order to facilitate all that growth, but we understand that we have to manage the expenses as well. We think we've done that very well, mostly with the property, but also with the underlying personnel expenses and the efficiencies that we're getting through. It's always a long-term game, and we're managing that very well, and Bruce can explain a little bit on that later on in the presentation. A few more parts of the message in the 6 months, you'll see from the results in the way that we presented, it's in the form of our new operating model. We're very proud of this change. It's -- we had a stable period for 6 years with a model that worked very well for us and that was needed to embed the business and stabilize the business. But we realize now that we want more focus and we want more accountability in the businesses and also sort out the decentralization from the center to avoid possible bureaucracy and so into the future. And we were worried that when we implement this, it might come with a few hiccups, people warn you about eye off the ball and things might not go, you'll have a bit of a step back and people will fight internally and all of those things. This happened for Forbes without blinking, and I'm very proud of the team, everybody that integrated that from day 1, people, we took on the challenge, took on the ownership and certainly ran quite hard to achieve now these new targets and business focus that we've been -- we've set them. So this has been a real positive for us, and also in line with just in general execution in the business. When we say we want to do something, we actually do it. So that was really just a point in time to see that focus. So the other highlight is Alexforbes One in our umbrella with a few nuance changes certainly very excited about our offering now to the institutional market and the retail market because we believe that this umbrella embodies our view on how we must look after individuals in the fund as well as the trustees in the corporate and make sure that it's a complete offering. The other angle to it is now it's open and it's one contribution, one fund, one offering to intermediaries, independent IFAs and our own advisory force, which makes it very exciting for us as a growth area and certainly looking forward to become the #1 umbrella fund in the country. And then the retail strategy, our growth strategy, we'll talk about it a little bit more in detail later, but certainly embedded a few new technologies, which enables us quite a few more on the way to come, but certainly positioned very well where we have this, as I've talked about a lot, this employee benefits, corporate institutional space and marrying with the members and the outcome of members actually becoming more and more important in this space. So we feel we're very well positioned. And certainly from the numbers, you'll see a bit later on, also making inroads in that space and using that to our advantage. A few of the highlights, which Bruce will unpack a little bit later, but nice to have operating income growth of 9%. And this is despite a few one-offs in the previous year, which means that we had to grow quite a bit to achieve the 9% growth despite the one offs. Normalized profit up 18%, certainly a highlight for us coming off quite a good return in the previous year. And then a dividend of ZAR 0.24, which is up 9% interim dividend, which is up 9% year-on-year. I've mentioned the new business, but certainly those individual aspects of it culminating in another ZAR 89 million of annualized revenue added in the 6 months signed and delivered in the 6 months. And you can now see we've been talking about ZAR 130 million, ZAR 140 million in the last 3 or 4 years already plus this ZAR 89 million annualized revenue in the 6 months. Certainly contributing to the revenue growth into the future and sustaining the growth profile that we want to be on. The retail business, the new business for the 6 months growing 33% on the previous. And that is phenomenal as that new business of the previous year was a record. So really exciting for us that the strategy is coming together and things are falling into place. And assets under management with market growth, as I said, but also the new business growth, specifically in platform leading up to ZAR 700 billion. It feels like just yesterday when we celebrated the ZAR 500 billion, which is a massive milestone for us and now just more than a year later, we have ZAR 700 billion. Very excited about that, gives us lots of opportunities. Also starting to tell the story of being the place where people want their assets managed and invested. A big point of notice for us is normally the members under administration. That is the core business, that is the business that enables us to do retail advice, it enables us to be in the boardroom and it shows the growth of not only our business if that increases, but also of employment in South Africa in general. So a part of that 12% growth up to 1.2 million members is new business and a part of that is new members in existing funds which we haven't seen for quite a long time. But then also the third element is more preservation. So people leaving their funds with us as they move around as a result of two-pot and as a result of more awareness. So some good signs in the active members under administration. If we look at the individual businesses, as we've categorized them now into the new operating model, first corporate, which is the institutional, if you want to call it that advice and administration solutions business, there a very pleasing growth of 5%. Now 5%, you would say, immediately, sounds low, but that's two-pots, one-offs that we had in September and March the previous year or September than the previous year if we compare 6 months. So without that, the retirement business would have grown 11% instead of 7%, which would have lifted the total corporate business as well. So a very pleasing result. I mean I think when we looked at the business a year ago, we knew about this one-off, we would have hoped for a flat type of return and we would have had to get a lot of new business as we did to reach this point. So really pleased with this business. The one concern is the health business, as you can see, 2% down as a result of 2 big client losses and it puts the health management revenue and profitability under pressure. But certainly, that pressure hopefully relates to a focus into more new business retention and even maybe some better outcomes. So that is the one thing on the total revenue growth. Excited, as I said, about Alexforbes One in umbrella really trying to capture the space not only for the IFAs, but the other element of it is really geared for larger clients and the service model and the solutions to larger clients. So a total revamp of the umbrella and hopefully, that will be very well accepted by the market. On the operational efficiency, quite interesting, after two-pot, in 6 the months, after two-pot received or the 12 months after two-pot received 3x more claims and processed 3x more claims per year than in the past. Now that is without almost any additional expenses and through tech, through efficiencies and it's actually enabled us to get more efficient into the future. Not only are there more claims, but all of those claims are more complex as well because any death claim, any retrenchment has now got 3 components, 3 parts, different tax and more options to the members. So very complex, but we've done all of that on our big book without a lot of extra expenses as you've seen. So very proud of what's happened in the retirement space and our corporate business. Highlighting the investment business is obviously the underlying growth at 16% closing assets of almost ZAR 700 billion, 23% up as a result of the markets, but also then as we said about the new business. New business has been in the form of platform assets, a vast part of that directly related to the strategy we, in the boardroom of large funds where we were not in the past. That's a win in itself. But also we're really showcasing our capabilities in that space and that will lead to more new business. And even though it's at a lower margin, a lot of that profit falls down to the bottom line because of the scalability of the solution. And where we are now and the inroads that we've made in the last year, very, very scalable business and also investing in that to make it even better. So that strategy has worked. It has led to the blended margin dropping from 27.6% to 26%. But as I said, a very profitable business that we've added and part of the strategy, certainly part of the strategy. There's other areas we must work on to improve the margin again, and we are working on that. The other thing to highlight here is the appointment of dedicated retail and institutional CIOs. That certainly worked for us. There's a lot more focus on the institutional portfolios on itself and on the retail, developing new solutions, engaging with the market, explaining to the market from an investment point of view, what they're investing, which is a totally different focus to the institutional focus. That's really worked well for us and also embedded well in the underlying teams in order to get the right results. And last word on the infrastructure fund of funds, very -- still passionate about this. We've made good progress, ZAR 1.6 billion committed. and another ZAR 750 million in the pipeline to invest. And the fundraising and more client engagements will start in January. We've appointed a new Head of Private Markets to report to [ Gyongyi ] as CIO there, and we'll certainly make hopefully huge headway with that focus. It is still a very high priority for us as a business to make the impact, to launch those funds and also get the returns for the clients. So really, really excited about that prospect. We've got a little bit more on the investments, our normal slide on the buildup of assets. As you can see, the market depreciation accounting for most of it. The platform assets of almost ZAR 25 billion of new assets, massive. But also in the product space, a very commendable ZAR 4 billion and the net -- a net gain in the product space as well. And as the umbrella picks up and hopefully against the wins that we think it should, that product assets will gain even more. Something to highlight is the uncontrollable flows, the net in versus out to out versus in has been much bigger in the past. And it will still be volatile into the future because it's not under our control, all of it. But certainly, some of the strategies to retain, some of the assets in the fund and some of the preservation efforts that the team has done has led to less outflows than what we have seen in the past and a net smaller amount. So all of those adding up to a nice almost ZAR 700 billion investment. And as part of our drive to become really aware in the market, the market is aware of us as a place to invest, as an asset manager, as a place where solutions can be bought and invested in. We also want to highlight our underlying returns. The pro forma portfolio speaks for itself over time versus a peer group benchmark, not a benchmark that is easy to beat and that we would want to just be in line with because a smooth peer group benchmark means you're never first and never last. But even with that outperforming over the long run and certainly for many periods of time in the top quartile and a superior product for us. We've highlighted some of our other products as well with their investments since inception, all exceptional returns, really good focus on underlying portfolio management, adding value, putting the right managers together, the right solutions together for the clients to get a really nice outperformance, but also a risk-adjusted return over time. These are just 2 more of the portfolios that we use in different parts of our solutions, more conservative versus some of the other portfolios. But the market understands these portfolios, and it's important for us to continue to be the benchmark. We've also shown very transparently, obviously, where we outperform benchmarks over different periods. The Unit trusts portfolio showing more the retail size and even though we're outperforming the benchmark, a lot of efforts have happened in those portfolios to make it more retail like. We've always come at those portfolios with an institutional mindset. A lot of changes happening in those portfolios to make it more accessible, more attractive to the retail clients. There's a few portfolios that are behind their benchmark on a 3-year basis in the life range, not by much. So it's still in the median space, but we're certainly working hard to make some changes on even those portfolios to outperform their benchmark over a 3-year period as well. And lastly from the investment side is just we're very proud of this transformation policy that we launched 3 years ago and the effect that it has had in the market. And it's not only the policy, the market itself has transformed. And you can see the stats on the right-hand side, some of the metrics that we look at rather than just the BEE level, we also look at black representation, black female representation specifically in the investment teams. So all of those measures showing real transformation and transformation of the funds that we invest in. So it's not just new managers or boutique managers. It's also in the funds that we invest in across the board that is transforming. So we're not changing and swapping to transform managers to increase the stats. This is like-for-like managers under our watch that have increased. And that is a great outcome for the market. We believe that this diversity will add value into the future. It is the first measurement period of our transformation policy at 30th June. And I can tell you that as I said, the stat is good. But secondly, there are a few managers that does not want to transform and is not part of the transformation journey in South Africa. And they will obviously have consequences in some assets, and we will have to talk to them, and that is in progress. And certainly, some others that are doing very well that will be highlighted in our portfolio. So the outcome is great, and we're happy with the engagement with managers as it's been going on, on this policy. So certainly something to be proud of, not just as part of the policy, but as an industry, asset management industry, which has been under scrutiny, but certainly good progress being made, and I think we can talk about that. On the retail side, 10% growth in income growth, in assets under advice and assets under management on an average basis, new business flows, certainly, the highlight being the 33% up. And we've even split that advised flows is the flows of the 300 advisers in our space and the non-advised are when people -- whether they get advised or not, but they leave the money in the funds. So those are the extra business and where we actually see our sweet spot. We actually see our sweet spot in the place where the institutional and the retail marry and the more people that can leave their money in the fund and get their annuities paid out of the fund with a lower cost, bigger impact and good solutions, the better for us as Forbes, the better for the members. So we'll try and build that part of the business as we continue.

That is built also on the managed education services. So the fact that we are advising that as part of advisers, there's still advice coming through from us.

Yes. And even through the trustee meetings at the businesses that we help them on, on a corporate basis, we have advisers there helping them. So that really is coming through and is part of -- as we see it of our retail for sure. And then a few things. We know it's a big strategy of ours. So time to spend a little bit of -- the right thing to spend a little bit of time on the retail business and project as we see it. Still a massive goal for us to get advice to as many clients and as many individuals, certainly in the 1.2 million, but even wider in South Africa. And we can achieve that now through the tech that we've implemented and certainly busy rolling that out quite quickly. And as Bruce has said, we go to employers on wellness days. We talk to many, many people, even though they just want to understand their pension fund savings better. And that is an engagement with individuals that will stand and very good in the long step. And they now have to make a lot of calls with two-pot, they're much more engaged. So that improving member outcomes is critical for us. because it's great for South Africa, great for our business. And in the long run, we know we'll win if we get that right. So the digital transformation, adviser platform client portal, a lot happening there and advisers already seeing the benefit and individual clients are already seeing the benefit. And with the ultimate migration onto the Glacier platform with our links being built to that, that will be the combination of a really good outcome for all advisers and clients in our space. Already up to 300 advisers, as I've mentioned, which we're very proud of. It feels like just again, the other day where we were still saying how many should we be and how many should we hire and can we train and can we fit into the scheme. So 300 is a very good number, and we'll continue to grow that we have the recipe now, and we'll continue to grow those into very active members of our advised flows. The other part of our advisory now, both on the institutional and the retail side, but this is for the retail side is to actually build these relationships with IFAs, selected IFAs that understands our advised model, that understands our solutions and that want to partner with us for more substance in order to deliver a better advice and a better outcome for their members. And certainly, through the DFM, through the UT manco, through leveraging our research capabilities, that is really going well, and we've got quite a strong pipeline of IFAs that want to join us and join our manco. So we're very excited about that part suddenly coming to fruition. We've entered into a partnership with Capital Legacy for wills and fiduciary services for all our members, very smooth transition, very smooth leads process and seamless for every client that we will put on there, and they will kick off in the first quarter of '26. And we're very excited about that, getting that holistic solution to the clients and certainly capital legacy providing that for us. And then new solutions, new offshore solutions being launched early next year, which is in the first quarter, Unit trusts portfolio is being changed for more retail understanding, retail solutions. And then lastly, launching 4 ETFs also in the first quarter of -- second quarter of next year. Also just showcasing that members can invest with us not only the pension fund money, not only retirements, but also discretionary money and a wider range of advice can now be given to members and solutions. So we're very proud of the very quick impact that we're going to make in the retail space. And then the last one for me is the growth markets, commendable growth of 6%. And as Bruce will -- might explain, it's in the numbers, a bit of a change in methodology, but the underlying growth in certainly those businesses, really good, but more excited about the opportunities. We've cleaned those businesses as well as we have in SA, a real focus on investments and advisory and independent advisory and a lot of interest in both of those countries, Botswana and Namibia for that advice. And hopefully, we'll see some good flows into the new year. And then the exciting extra bit is this partnership in the Kenyan market with Octagon and they're busy with very extensive retirement reforms, which means that there's a massive opportunity for Octagon, but they need our help. And together, I think we can capture a big portion of that retirement for reform flows, and we're very excited about that. That's been signed and hopefully, will start off in the new year. And then I'll hand over to Bruce to cover the financials in a bit more detail.

Thanks, Dawie. And as I go through this, I will highlight some anomalies or some things that are in our results, which ultimately do cause a little confusion. The 3 main items. One is our IFRS 16 lease adjustment where we normalize for that adjustment and have done consistently for many years. The other one is that we've moved or we went to a cash settlement offer for our short -- our long-term incentive plan for the current year, which had an impact on our income statement. And the third is the ETV settlement that we had with an insurer -- international insurer, and we recovered certain monies there. As I go through the results, I'll reflect on how those have impacted each part of the results and why the numbers are being disclosed and where they are. As Dawie said, we are fairly pleased with our underlying operating performance of the business, which ultimately is the 18% growth in profit, which is normalized. What you will see on our income statement is a profit from operations, which is 1% down, and that is largely as a result of the IFRS lease adjustment in last year's numbers, where we renegotiated and signed up on a new lease for the next couple of years. Our lease for the next few years will not have as much of an impact in terms of the variability that, that lease brings from an IFRS lease adjustment perspective. So essentially, this year should be the last year that we see a material impact from that adjustment. Then our headline earnings per share from total operations includes our discontinued operations, which ultimately is where we disclose the earnings that we made from the settlement of the insurance claim. And ultimately, that is what gives rise to a 17% increase in our headline earnings for total operations. Cash flow from operations is fairly strong and up from last year. Again, that includes an amount received on the insurance claim for the first phase of that recovery. So there is a little bit of noise in that number as well. Our return on equity, again, also very strong, 34.5%, but includes the ETV recoveries. If you exclude those ETV recoveries, it's 18.9%, still a very strong result in terms of our return on equity, and that's largely as a result of our very reduced equity or net tangible assets as well as we have gone on our capital-light journey over the last couple of years. So a strong set of results, but unfortunately, some anomalies in the results that need to be explained. Top line operating income, as Dawie has taken you through most of these. I won't repeat what he said. What's important is we are disclosing in our new operational model, and we do provide that -- those numbers with comparatives in our segmental results. We also provided at the back of the results announcement and annexure with the old segmental results for those of you who have got numbers in the model already and want a comparison on the prior view. An important item on our current operating income is under other, where our EPS business, which ultimately leases technology licenses is still held at the center and therefore, does not fall into any of the underlying businesses. We reflect that as other under that central segment going forward. On the expense line, as Dawie explained, our underlying business as usual expenses have increased by 3%. That's largely as a result of the property cost savings, and that's the cash cost of our property lease, which we had from September of 2024 and therefore, impacts year or a period-on-period comparative with last year. Other cost increases in the personnel cost line would be a little bit of headcount in that plus inflation as well as an increase in our incentive provisions based on the underlying performance of the business. We continue to invest in our information technology. It is going to be a constant pressure as we try to develop and continue to improve our technology and drive efficiencies through that. There were also some increased license fees from our U.S.-based systems through the course of this period. So that drove that increase. And then I think fairly good expense management for the rest of the income statement getting to the 3%. The 2 large items which have taken our expense growth on the face of the income statement to 10% includes the IFRS lease adjustment for prior year, which I've explained already as well as the fact that we offered in the current year a cash settlement to our employees for their long-term incentive plans. And that obviously gave rise to a change in the way that, that is disclosed in our income statement. It's an equity settled scheme. And we also want to highlight here that as disclosed in our integrated annual report, our long-term incentive plan going forward will be converting into a cash settled scheme. The main difference between the 2 schemes will be the way that the fair value is expensed in the income statement as opposed to in equity going forward. And that will put our expense and our cost-to-income ratio under a little bit of pressure just in terms of the way that it's presented in our income statement. That takes our total operating expenses, if you take the impact of all of those items to 10% for the period. Just some of the other items on the income statement, which I think are worth noting. In other income, we have historically notified the decrease that would be happening there as a result of the change in our lease agreement. Other income had certain sublet lease arrangements in it, where we were obtaining income for subletting to participants in our building. The other change on nontrading capital items is an increase in the loss within our cell captive arrangement as a result of increased provisions for this period. That is a volatile line, and it is where we change our estimates for potential losses going forward. It should over time and has over time, essentially trended towards 0. So we've just moved into the negative side of that cycle for this period. Our income tax expense continues to be well managed with the effective tax rate of just above 28%. There are some loss-making entities, which put pressure on that number. But ultimately, our target continues to be the corporate tax rate of 27%. And then as indicated, we're recognizing ZAR 89 million on our profit from discontinued operations as a result of the settlement that we have now closed out with the insurer in terms of the recovery of the insurance that we have had to pay out historically on the ETV claim. So that recovery because we expensed and wrote off that claim historically, the recovery that we've got against the insurer obviously comes into our profits for the period. This is the final closeout of that claim. So no anticipated additional amounts coming in the future. As a result of all of that, we have had a slight increase in our shares in issue through the period, and our headline earnings is shown under 3 different circumstances. One is the headline earnings for continuing operations, which is 9% down. That obviously includes the IFRS lease adjustment and excludes the ETV. Our headline earnings per share for total operations includes the ETV recovery and then our normalized headline earnings per share for total operations up 41%, which excludes the IFRS lease adjustment as well as including the ETV settlement. So a little bit confusing there. As I said, the number that we are really focusing on as the underlying performance of the business ultimately is the normalized profit from operations, which is up 18%. And it's quite important to understand that that's the basis, upon which we think our results and our performance measure is improved. With regards to capital and cash, we have had a decrease in our solvency capital requirement for the year -- for the period. That's largely as a result of the AF Life entity, which was a previous insurance company, which ultimately is now discontinued and we will be going into liquidation fairly shortly. And as a result of that, we've taken the capital requirement of that business out of our underlying solvency capital requirement. And as a result, there is a reduction there and an increase in our surplus. Our available cash sits at ZAR 466 million. This is the -- at the end of the first half is generally the bottom of our working capital cycle. So that's the most constrained position that we're in. through the year and the ZAR 466 million is a good result as a result of cash recovered from the ETV process as well as good underlying cash generated within our business. The 24% return on equity is obviously stated with ETV in it, as I said, without that 18.9% is the more -- is the measure that will be used continuously going into the future without the [indiscernible]. So relatively strong balance sheet and capital position from our side. And that's it from me. I'll hand back to Dawie.

Almost time for questions, but just looking a little bit at the future. And I think we have to always contextualize what we do as an SA Inc. company, and we've talked about employment growth, and we've talked about macroeconomics and the actual environment in South Africa, we're 100% dependent on that environment, and we have to understand that environment. Now a big thing that's coming into the future is obviously the 3% inflation targeting. And we believe that, that holds a lot of positives for SA Inc. and certainly for us as a business and our clients in terms of returns, low borrowing cost, improved valuations. You all understand that, enhanced currency stability should lead to longer-term good returns for our clients and certainly will make our job a little bit easier in terms of delivering service to them. It does also bring risk with how it's executed, whether the underlying inflation numbers can be there. We'll have to think about how we advise our pensioners, lower nominal returns, lower interest rates, lower salary increases. So we'll have to think about those risks for the business as well and certainly are busy unpacking that both from an advisory point of view, but also the impact on us as a business. And it certainly will set the tone as this unfolds into the future. And then the business itself and what we're doing as we prepared this, I thought of more of the same and boring and all of those things, but we're excited. We're excited because you will see consistency. You will see the same themes coming through, but also the delivery on those themes, as I've said. So certainly, the aim is for each of our 1.2 million clients and hopefully, the rest of South Africa to say, why am I not invested? Why don't I have a solution or even advice with Alexforbes as an investment manager because of the great returns, the great service, the engagement. So certainly, that investment destination will gain momentum as we go forward, investment destination theme. Very excited about our retail progress. It's already accelerated, as we've said. But into the future, within the first quarter, as I said, new products, new solutions, enhanced solutions and certainly enhanced engagement with individuals and for our brokers. We're talking our brokers using a fraction of the time to do a quote, to do an engagement and to certainly write new business. So all of that will free up time, will make us more competitive, and we're really excited about that. The Alexforbes One, we've talked about, but I could not put it in here because it is such a big part of what we do and of the future. And we certainly believe that this solution will bring the market not only our market that we used to operate in, but also because of the enhancements of the product, but also the market that we, in the past have not tapped into through IFAs that will bring that to us as well. So we're really excited about the changes in our umbrella. And certainly believe the future of ESG sustainability is here to stay. It's a complex environment. It's uncharted territory, which makes the concept of advice on it just so much more palatable. And certainly, for us, with the acquisition of Paragon gives us substance in order to talk about that and where funds should think, how funds should think, how corporates, we mentioned, unpack it for themselves and our Boards of trustees and Boards of companies should think about it. And we're ideally positioned now to help clients navigate through this and even just understand it and navigate their own plans through it. So really something of note for the future. And then lastly, it's about efficiencies. And we've currently got 3 main administration systems in just our South African environment, 2 more in the offshore environment in Botswana and Namibia. So to put all of our clients onto one system within the next 2 years, and decommissioning those old systems onto a system that we use for the bulk of our business that works, that we understand and that we have a lot of control over is something very exciting. We've planned it for a long time. It's now in action. And the first phase is done by the end of this year and then we'll continue over the next period. So this is very exciting from an efficiency point of view, but also a delivery point of view because then every rand that we spend will be on the system to the benefit of all our clients across the board. So very excited about that. And hopefully, we'll unpack that more as we go along. But we also have to look at the future in terms of what the risks are, what's lying ahead for us, where we could see troubled waters in the sense of our Cape2Rio analogy. But certainly, the markets have had a very good run and a lot of our revenue dependent on market values and asset values. So that could impact the market if there's a pullback or a correction. And even though we're very positive about the SA environment and the SA Inc. stocks and with the lower interest rates coming that we're very -- but still the risk environment in the emerging market, the U.S. and Europe could contaminate our market. So we look out for that on behalf of our clients and certainly for our own bottom line. And our portfolios are quite well diversified. Our strategies are quite well diversified, but certainly something to look out for on the horizon. And then it's very easy to just talk about compliance in general and risk and governance in general. But it is becoming a very complex environment. The demands on compliance and regulatory complexity on a business like ours in all areas from investments to admin is becoming retail. Every client that we engage is becoming very hard. And we believe we're on top of it, but it's costing a lot of money, and we have to make sure that we mitigate all those risks. And the big thing now is cybersecurity with the advent of AI, fraud, all of those things could impact the business very negatively from a reputation point of view and a loss point of view. So a lot of effort and money being spent to mitigate those risks, but it's certainly a risk on the horizon. And then general economic pressures, we still need growth in South Africa. We still need foreign investment. We need employment to increase. And those risks still persist, and we haven't seen the end of that low growth environment for SA Inc. So those things really top of mind for us. But we are excited about the changing in the volatility and the changes in the environment also gives us the opportunity to give advice and to help our clients navigate through it. So it's not all doom and gloom. And certainly, our strategy is there with the right people and the stability to navigate through it. So also leading us to positive outcomes into the future. And then I'm going to end on a feel good story. For those of you that don't know, we launched -- and we say it's for our 90th birthday gift to South Africa, to parents, to teachers, to grandparents, to kids all across the country, a book for savings. So we all -- we started it by saying financial literacy and how young can we start and somebody in the business came up with a great idea to make something for kids and really for the youth, but young kids, and it's landed tremendously. We can't stay ahead. It's all for free, you just download it or you go into the link and you read it. And it's such a good story. We've had -- in the first few weeks, we had 2,500 clicks on it and over 90% of those clicks read the whole book. So it's not a question of linking it and then putting it down and saying, yes, it's nice. Actually, kids and grandparents, whether the kids themselves or the grandparents or the parents or the siblings read through the books 90% of the time. And we've had people from Vietnam, from Singapore, from the U.S., quite a lot from the U.S., also entering the book. So people now want the hard copies, and it's quite a nice story. And we're just starting younger to get clients on to the Alexforbes platform. So very exciting and a nice way to end the year. And that's it from us. Very happy to take any questions through the platform or live.