Australian Finance Group Limited (AFG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the Board and management of AFG, I would like to welcome you to the 2022 Australian Finance Group Annual General Meeting. My name is Tony Gill, and I am the Chair of AFG. To begin, we would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to life of this city and this region. Today's AGM is a hybrid meeting. It is being held physically at the Perth offices of AFG, and I welcome shareholders and visitors who have attended in person. The meeting is also being conducted online via the Link Group virtual meeting platform to permit non-Perth-based shareholders and stakeholders to attend. This allows shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually and watch a live webcast of the meeting. I would like to extend my welcome to shareholders and visitors attending virtually. As a hybrid meeting, shareholders and proxies attending online have the ability to ask questions and submit votes during the meeting. Instructions on participating in the online meeting can be found in the Notice of Meeting available on the ASX platform. Please also refer to the online guide that is found in the virtual meeting platform. Note, you will need your holder number and registered post code to vote and/or ask a question. For those of you online who have a question that you would like to put to the meeting today, we suggest that you enter your questions now, and we will endeavor to address them at the appropriate time during the meeting. For those present, as a courtesy to others, please turn off or silence your mobile phone. It's past 9 a.m. We have a quorum present, and I declare the meeting open. For those of you here in Perth, please ensure you have registered, and even if you are not a shareholder, have obtained a registration card. The agenda for the meeting will be as follows: some introductions and housekeeping, then my address, then the CEOs address, formal business and close. In Perth, we are joined by Non-Executive Directors, Malcolm Watkins, Craig Carter, Melanie Kiely, Greg Medcraft, Annette King and Jane Muirsmith. I would also like to introduce David Bailey, our CEO; our Company Secretary, Lisa Bevan; and our CFO, Luca Pietropiccolo. And we also welcome Fiona from Ernst & Young, the company's auditors. They are in attendance and will be available to take questions from shareholders. Kate and Chris representing our share register -- registry Link Market Services, are also in attendance. And we have an apology from Non-Executive Director, Brett McKeon. There are no other apologies. Before moving on to the formal part of the meeting, I will now provide a brief address and then invite David Bailey, our CEO, to address the meeting. I am pleased to report that AFG delivered another excellent operating performance during the 2022 financial year with overall volumes and key strategic investments delivering growth in underlying earnings and dividends. This was achieved on the back of strong demand for our mortgage broking and lending services during the 2022 financial year and the company's ongoing diversification strategy across business lines and classes. This strategy has focused on building broker market share across a number of asset classes and growing margins through expansion into white label, direct and investment lending. Importantly, the level of activity in the business has remained resilient as the RBA commenced much anticipated interest rate rises. I will talk more about the changing market conditions shortly. But I first wanted to provide some key highlights for the year. These included record residential settlements of $59.4 billion, up 36% on financial year '21. AFG Securities book growth of 41% to $4.8 billion. 20% growth in normalized NPATA to $61.3 million. Our strategic investments have performed well, notwithstanding the disappointing market withdrawal of Volt earlier in the year. Earnings associated with our think tank investment continued to grow strongly and were up 16% to $6.1 million during the year with our Fintelligence and BrokerEngine acquisitions also performing above our initial expectations. AFG paid a full year dividend of $0.166 per share fully franked, up 25% on the $0.133 paid the prior year. This represented a dividend yield of 9%. We ended the 2022 financial year with a strong balance sheet of $217 million in net cash and other financial assets and a trail book with a net present value of $106 million. We run a capital-light business and our low capital requirements support very strong returns with an underlying ROE of 30%. The extraordinary growth of the past 2 years will, of course, be impacted by the changing macroeconomic environment globally. As governments across the world move to curb rapidly rising inflation, borrowers must now face increasing interest rates and additional price pressures on their household budgets. This changing environment poses both challenges and opportunities for AFG. Naturally, market sentiment has turned negative on the housing, discretionary spending and lending sectors. However, it is important to note the residential mortgage market has historically performed strongly during periods of rising interest rates and our strategy has us well positioned to weather this stage of the cycle. We have been very pleased with the support both onshore and internationally for our RMBS program. AFG issued $1.7 billion of paper in the market in financial year '22 and an additional $1 billion recently in September, an outstanding result that is testament to the fact that AFG Securities offers an exceptional lending alternative with industry-leading credit quality. It is recognized as providing a sound investment opportunity to the securitization market. On sustainability and Board matters, this year, the company became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and is reporting on progress across our activities in the Sustainability section of our annual report. From a business perspective, we are very proud to be a principal partner of Foyer Foundation. The Board continues to focus on sound governance and support to the AFG management team. This year we have been very fortunate to welcome Annette King to the Board of AFG. Annette is an accomplished company director with extensive experience across the financial sector. Annette joined the AFG Board as a Non-Executive Director in February, and I look forward to her appointment being ratified at today's meeting. I'm also pleased to inform our shareholders at Greg Medcraft has assumed the role of Deputy Chair. I look forward to their ongoing contributions to the Board. Melanie Kiely will step down at the end of this meeting, and I would like to acknowledge the contribution she has made to our business. Melanie has contributed positively over 2 full terms as a member of our Board and Chair of our Remuneration and Nomination Committee. I wish her well in her future roles. In closing, I again extend my thanks to those of you able to attend our meeting in person or online today, and for all shareholders who have taken the time to participate in today's meeting through the proxy voting process. I would also like to thank our brokers, AFG staff and my fellow board members for their support throughout another highly successful year for the company and we look forward to continuing to deliver choice and competition to Australian residential and commercial borrowers. I would now like to hand over to our CEO, David Bailey.

Thank you, Tony. I would also like to extend my thanks to our shareholders, both here and online, for your participation in today's meeting. As Tony noted, 2022 represented another very pleasing performance for the financial year. The business delivered strong underlying earnings growth and continued to improve earnings quality through leveraging our scale and diversifying across business lines and into higher-margin products. Normalized profit before acquisition amortization increased by 20% to $61.3 million, and EPS grew by 17% on the prior year. Some of the key operational highlights in the 2022 financial year that were drivers of this performance included: continued growth in the AFG broker base. AFG finished the financial year with 3,700 brokers. Across the past 12 months, mortgage brokers have continued to dominate the residential mortgage market. They are now responsible for almost 70% of all lending flows. 1 in 10 home loans in Australia is written by an AFG broker. Residential settlements of $59.4 billion, an increase of 36% for the year. AFG Securities lodgements and settlements strong growth trajectory continued. Asset Finance and Commercial also grew and delivered on the role of their earnings -- the role of earnings diversification. Tony has outlined that we faced significantly different market conditions today compared to last year, where the focus across the market has now shifted from growth to risk. In particular, the risks surrounding the lower general levels of lending activity, margin pressure and loan book quality linked to underlying property prices and capacity to service increasing mortgage repayments. In response to the pandemic, significant financial stimulus was injected into the Australian economy to support economic activity. This economic activity has had an inflationary effect when combined with external factors. It is now time to slow down this activity. The actions initiated by the RBA commencing in May were the first of many rate rises are beginning to take effect. We saw residential lending volumes decline in the last quarter of the 2022 financial year, and the AFG mortgage index data for the first quarter of FY '23 indicated that this trend has continued. Quarter 1 FY '23 volumes are 52% above FY '19 -- quarter 1 FY '19 being pre stimulus, but activity has been impacted with AFG residential lodgments in October, 24% below the prior year at $7 billion. AFG Home Loan lodgements were down 42% including AFG Securities, which was down 60%. This was driven by fierce competition from the major lenders underpinned by unprecedented levels of cash back offers. November trading is performing better, but still 16% below the equivalent period in November 2021. Our strategic investments are performing above expectations, and this diversification strategy is helping offset the softening in the residential arm of our business. Our long-standing partnership with Thinktank continues to deliver strongly through its alignment with all major aggregators. The acquisitions made last financial year have grown significantly with Broker Engine subscribers up 68% and Fintelligence total broker numbers also increasing by 41%. Remembering that we are cycling some very strong numbers in the first half of FY '22, the level of activity remains solid, extracting the impact of the stimulus in FY '21 and '22 sees that the business continues to build with growth on prepandemic levels of 32% for the period to October 2022. Growth in both residential and commercial lending is attributable to strong recruitment and importantly, the growing acceptance of broker by both consumers and business. The importance of a competitive environment for all major lenders cannot be -- for all nonmajor lenders cannot be underestimated. And even playing field is vital to drive innovation and competitive pricing for consumers. The country's major lenders enjoyed a funding free kick due to the government's term funding facility introduced during the pandemic. Fiercely competitive offers from the major lenders have taken their market share to the highest level since 2018. In FY '23, RBA rate increases have been quickly passed on by the major lenders. However, they have been slow to pass on deposit rate increases, driving a funding advantage that smaller lenders relied on the RMBS market have been unable to match. The recent acquisitions of 86400 and Citibank by NAB and Suncorp's banking arm heading to ANZ will further erode competition. In this environment, AFG and brokers will continue to provide a vital source of competition into the market. As we enter a period of uncertainty surrounding rising interest rates, house prices and ongoing home loan affordability, we believe AFG Securities robust lending and proactive management of its portfolio stand us in good stead. The performance of our lending book is historically strong, underpinned by a book where nearly 90% is under 80% LVR at the time of settlement and an arrears performance impressively lower than other lenders on the AFG panel. We intend to maintain a risk-averse approach to our book as we navigate this challenging period. Our strategic investments have been strong contributors to growth and provide a key competitive advantage for AFG and our brokers. Thinktank is an important component of our diversified securitization strategy. It continues to see growth in loan settlements and contributed earnings of $6.1 million last financial year. The investment had a carrying value of $28 million at the end of the financial year. 12 months ago, we acquired a 75% stake in lending finance aggregator, Fintelligence, and have an exclusive opportunity to grow up -- to acquire the remaining 25% over the next 2.5 years. This acquisition provides a significant opportunity for AFG to grow asset finance volumes and market share in this channel. The combined group -- combined group is now delivering asset finance settlements of more than $1.7 billion per annum, and we are working on additional programs of collaboration to extend the opportunity for further diversification in this key product lending line -- lending product line for our residential brokers. Our investments in Fintelligence and Broker Engine are also an important element of our technology platform going forward. The changing market environment has provided challenges. The impacts of interest rate rises are still flowing through the market and the effects of the flooding on the East Coast and international conflict will continue to place pressure on households. However, our business remains resilient, and there are opportunities for our brokers and for AFG. Our strategy remains unchanged. Grow distribution, build our capacity to grow our book, expand our product range and provide choice to those underserved in the lending market. AFG's home ground advantage of product development and established credit processes will ensure the quality of our book. We see an increased likelihood of a positive step change in broker penetration of the commercial market. We will continue to invest in this part of our business to capitalize on this change. Diversification. Support for our broker network and access to additional income streams is a key plank of our strategy for shared success. We will continue to embed our acquisitions and expand upstream into direct and white label funding. Continue to strengthen our core. Helping our brokers grow their revenue with better business processes, technology and diversification opportunities. We will ensure our brokers and our staff are supported and enabled to succeed. Capital management. We will maintain a strong balance sheet and a capital-light business model. Our strategy aims to deliver long-term growth across the interest rate cycles and market conditions. We will continue to execute carefully and take advantage of market opportunities as they arise. I just want to spend a bit of time just talking about the outlook. So Australian homeowners and as such, our brokers are heading into a challenging period as customers navigate rising interest rates and higher costs. Increasing rates have impacted new settlements, however, while volumes are down more than expected, overall volumes are still above pre-pandemic levels. We do know that in changing times, our brokers' customers value the support their brokers provide. We expect refinancing activity to rise as the majority of the [ $500 billion ] in low fixed rate loans in the Australian market roll off over the next 18 months. These customers will be seeking affordable alternatives. Our brokers are well positioned to help their customers with this transition. In addition, net migration is increasing, which will fuel further activity. Our strategy of diversification ensures AFG is well placed to continue to deliver returns to shareholders as the market moves. In the prime lending market, extremely competitive pricing and cash-back lures by the major lenders means our AFG Securities business will look to conserve margin and target growth in our white label investor and near prime product lines. We remain excited about the performance of our material strategic investments. They are playing an increasingly important role in the diversification of our earnings. Further, the expanding acceptance of broker within the commercial sector, points to another avenue of further growth and we'll be focused on capitalizing on this opportunity. As we come out of 2 years of extraordinary activity in the lending market, AFG's quality of earnings and balance sheet positions the company well. With more than 70 lenders on our panel providing a comprehensive suite of lending solutions across asset classes and 3,700 brokers in our network, we have the scale to continue to drive positive returns for our shareholders, and competitive products and services to our customers. We were once again very pleased to be awarded the MFAA aggregator of the year for 2022. I would like to thank AFG staff for their continued commitment to the company and, of course, to the support of our brokers and customers across Australia. I'll now hand back to Tony to conduct the formal business of the meeting.

Thank you, David. Before I open the floor to questions, I would like to outline the question and voting procedures. Each person who signed in today will have received either a yellow voting card, a blue card or a red card. If you're holding a yellow voting card, you may vote and ask questions. Those holding a blue card may ask questions but cannot vote. Red cards are for visitors who may neither ask questions nor vote. Shareholders and proxy holders attending the meeting online, who wish to ask a question through the virtual meeting platform, please click the Ask Question button, type your questions and click submit. Due to time constraints, we may not be able to get to every question. If this happens, we will be in touch as soon as possible to answer your question after the meeting. I propose that the order of taking questions will be as follows. Firstly, questions from the floor. Please make your way to the microphone, state your name and whether you are a shareholder in your own right or an attorney, proxy or corporate representative of a shareholder. You will be invited to ask questions now or as we discuss each of the resolutions. Secondly, I will take questions from any holders who have asked a question online. With regard to voting and further to the information for shareholders in the Notice of Meeting, in the interest of equitably representing the views of shareholders and in accordance with the ASX Corporate Governance Council's corporate governance principles and recommendations, we intend to call a poll in relation to each of the resolutions considered at this meeting. I will outline the poll procedures prior to conducting the poll. The results of the poll will be released to the ASX after the votes are being counted. We refer you to the Notice of Meeting for details of voting exclusions. Copies of the notice are available here. The proxy results for each resolution will be shown on the screen behind me. For those online, you will see the results for each resolution presented in the virtual meeting platform. To the extent that open proxy votes are held by the chair of the meeting, those proxies will be cast in favor of the resolution. I will now open the floor to questions. Please make your way to the microphone and begin by clearly stating your name. If there are no questions from the floor, our moderator will now read any questions from shareholders or proxy holders participating online or which were submitted prior to the meeting.

No questions at this time.

No questions online at this stage. As there are no further questions, I shall move on to the formal proceedings of the meeting. I have been advised by the Company Secretary that the notice of meeting has been properly circulated. And if there are no objections, I will take the Notice of Meeting as read. I have received confirmation that the presentation materials for today's Annual General Meeting have been lodged with the ASX in accordance with the listing rules. All directed proxies will be voted as directed. Any undirected proxies that default to the chair of the meeting will be voted in favor of the resolutions, including where the resolutions are connected directly or indirectly with the remuneration of key management personnel. A copy of the minutes of last AGM of the company held on 26th November 2021, are available at this meeting if any shareholders wish to inspect them. The first item on today's agenda relates to the financial report of the company for the financial year ended 30 June 2022, together with the director's report and the auditor's report. It is not necessarily to formally pass the 2022 financial reports. However, as shareholders have gathered here today, it is a convenient time to ask shareholders whether they wish to raise any matters in those documents. I now invite shareholders to comment or ask questions on the reports. Questions may also be asked of the auditors in relation to the conduct of the audit, the content of the audit report, accounting policies adopted by the company and the independence of the auditor in carrying out the audit. If any shareholders on the floor have a question or comment, please raise your yellow or blue card. Again, please move to the microphone and begin by clearly stating your name. Have any questions being submitted online or prior to the meeting?

No questions.

As there are no questions, we will move on to the next item of business. As advised earlier, we will conduct a poll in relation to each of the resolutions considered at this meeting. For those physically attending, the persons entitled to vote on this poll are holding yellow voting cards. Mark either for or against each resolution on your voting card for your vote to count. Once you have finished marking your card, please place it in one of the ballot boxes circulating the room after all resolutions have been read. If there are any aspects regarding the voting on which you are uncertain, please do not hesitate to ask the Link staff who will be circulating the ballot boxes after the reading of all resolutions. For those attending virtually, click on the get a voting card, enter your shareholder credentials for the instructions and click on either the "for or against" button for your vote to count, and then select submit. We now move to Item 2 on the items of business, the adoption of the remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2022. Under the Corporations Act 2001, listed companies are required to include as part of their directors' report, a remuneration report, which includes specified information. The directors have prepared a remuneration report for the period ending 30 June 2022, and it is included on Pages 27 to 41 of the 2022 annual report, which has been made available to shareholders. The Corporations Act also requires companies to put to shareholders a nonbinding vote to enable shareholders to voice their opinion on matters included in the remuneration report. And I remind key management personnel and their associated parties that voting exclusions apply to this resolution under the Corporations Act, and excluded parties should not vote. I move the following resolution. That the remuneration report for the company for the year ended 30 June 2022 be adopted. The proxies received for Item 2 are displayed on the screen and show a majority in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments from the floor? Have any questions being submitted online or prior to the meeting?

No questions.

There being no questions, I will now put the resolution to a poll. Please complete your voting card or submit your online vote for the resolution. Item 3. I will now hand over to Deputy Chair, Greg Medcraft, to conduct this item of business.

Thanks, Tony. So I now refer to Item 3 of the agenda, the reelection of Anthony (Tony) Gill as Director. As stated in the Notice of Meeting, in accordance with the company's constitution, a director must retire from office no later than the longer of the third Annual General Meeting and 3 years following that director's last election or appointment. Retiring directors are eligible for reelection. Tony Gill was elected last, as a director at the 2019 Annual General Meeting. Mr. Gill, therefore, retires and, being eligible, offers himself for reelection to the Board of the company. All directors' details are set out in the directors' report on Pages 19 and 20 of the 2022 Annual Report and at Pages 8, 9 and 10 of the Notice of Meeting. So I will not repeat those details. Therefore, I will move the following resolution that Anthony Gill, who retires as a director of the company in accordance with Rule 8.1(e) of the company's constitution and being eligible, be reelected as a Director of the company. The proxies received for Item 3 are displayed on the screen and show a majority in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions -- sorry, are there any questions or comments from the floor? No. So -- and please move to the microphone and begin by clearly stating your name. Have any questions been submitted online or prior to the meeting?

No questions.

If there are no further questions, I'll now put the resolution to a poll. Please complete your voting card or submit your online vote for this resolution. And I'll now hand back to Tony Gill, Chair.

Thank you, Greg. I now refer to Item 4 of the agenda, the reelection of Jane Muirsmith as a director. As stated in the Notice of Meeting, in accordance with the company's constitution, a director must retire from office no longer than the longer of the third Annual General Meeting and the 3 years following that director's last election or appointment. Retiring directors are eligible for reelection. Jane was last elected as director at the 2019 Annual General Meeting. Jane, therefore, retires and, being eligible, offers herself for reelection to the Board of the company. All directors' details are set out in the directors' report on Pages 19 and 20 in the 2022 Annual Report and at Pages 8 and 9 and 10 of the Notice of Meeting, so I will not repeat those either. I now move the following resolution that Jane Muirsmith, who retires as a Director of the company in accordance with Rule 8.1 (e) of the company's constitution and being eligible, be reelected as a director of the company. The proxies received for Item 4 are displayed on the screen and show a majority in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions from the floor? Have any questions been submitted online?

No questions.

If there are no questions, I will now put the resolution to a poll. Please complete your voting card or submit your online vote for this resolution. I now refer to Item 5 of the agenda, the election of Annette King as a director. Annette King was appointed as a director by the Board on 1 February 2022 to fill a casual vacancy. In accordance with the company's constitution and that will hold office until the conclusion of the AGM and being eligible, offer herself for election to the Board. All directors' details are as set out in the director's report on Pages 19 and 20 of the 2022 Annual Report and at Pages 8, 9 and 10 at the Notice of Meeting. So again, I will not repeat those details. I now move the following resolution, that Annette King, who retires as a Director of the company in accordance with Rule 8.1 (d) of the company's constitution and being eligible, be elected as a director of the company. The proxies received for Item 5 are displayed on the screen and show a majority in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments from the floor? Have any questions been submitted online or prior to the meeting?

No questions.

There being no questions, I will now put the resolution to a poll. Please complete your voting card or submit your online vote for this resolution. Now that all resolutions have been read, please ensure you have properly completed your voting card and kindly lodge your voting cards in the ballot boxes circulating the room. If you have not already done so, shareholders and proxy holders participating via the virtual meeting platform should now submit their votes. The poll will close in 5 minutes. [Voting]

Rather than adjourn the meeting, I will ask the share registry and our Company Secretary to calculate the poll results and to announce them to the ASX when that is completed. That concludes the formal business of the AGM. Thank you all for your attendance and interest, and we look forward to your continued support in the coming year. I now declare the meeting closed. For those online, thank you for your participation. For those with us today, thank you also for your participation. We have some refreshments available to the site. Thank you once again.