B.P. Marsh & Partners PLC ($BPM)

Good morning, and welcome to the B.P. Marsh & Partners Plc Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I'll let submit the following poll. Now I'll hand you over to Dan Topping CEO. Good morning, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Dan Topping, the CEO of B.P. Marsh, and I'm joined today by Francesca Chappell, our CFO. Today, we'll be taking you through the group's annual results for the full year ended 31st January 2026. It's been another strong year for B.P. Marsh, one that demonstrates both the quality of our portfolio and the steady compounding that comes from doing the same thing well for a very long time. Turning to Slide 10. Just to remind everyone of who we are and how we operate. We're a specialist investor in small to medium financial services businesses, predominantly insurance brokers and managing general agencies at a scale in terms of start-up or early stages where alternative funding is difficult to obtain. We've invested in 70 companies since inception with 24 active investments in the portfolio, and we've been listed on AIM since 2006. Our edge is what we call bridging the gap. We invest at the enterprise value stage that sits between venture capital and mid-market private equity. Typically, that means initial investments of up to GBP 5 million for 20% to 40% minority stakes in businesses with an enterprise value of between GBP 0 million and GBP 25 million at entry. Again, the focus is predominantly at the 0 end as opposed to the GBP 25 million. Our team brings decades of sector knowledge and average holding period is about 6.4 years, which reflects a long-term patient approach that we think is genuinely differentiated. All of that is intended to produce ultimately is consistent growth in value over time and that brings us neatly to net asset value performance, which is in encapsulated in Slide 3. This slide tells a story of what patience look like in practice. Our NAV has grown from GBP 40.6 million in 2007 to GBP 360.2 million as of the 31st of January 2026. That's an 11% compound annual growth rate over nearly 20 years. Not every year has been perfectly smooth, but the trajectory is remarkably consistent. It really reflects the value of our model, minority stakes in growing businesses supported by patient capital and a partnership approach. These headline numbers are supported by another year of strong underlying financial performance. So I'll now hand over to Fran to take you through the detail of that financial performance.

Thank you, Dan. I'm pleased to present the annual results for the year ended January 31, 2026, with the group having had another strong year. NAV increased by GBP 33.8 million or 10.3% in the year and is now GBP 360.2 million. This is equivalent to GBP 10.9 per share or GBP 9.60 per share diluted. The growth in NAV is driven by the rise in investment valuations and realized gains on disposals, whilst accounting for dividends and share buybacks that have taken place throughout the year. Our XPT portfolio is now valued at GBP 273.8 million, an increase by GBP 48.2 million or 21.4% in the year after adjusting for realizations and additions. Dan will be covering the portfolio later in the presentation. Throughout the year, we completed 8 new investments and made 2 realizations. Total dividends of GBP 8 million were paid throughout the year, which have been added to the growth in NAV resulted in a total shareholder return of 12.8%. Profit for the year was GBP 49 million. Available capital at the year-end stood at GBP 49.5 million, providing the group with a strong platform for continued new investment activity. Slide 5 provides a great level of our NAV of GBP 360.2 million and portfolio composition as of 31 of January, 2026. At the year-end, our investment portfolio was valued at GBP 273.8 million, whilst cash and other assets amounted to GBP 86.4 million. Post year-end, the group has made 2 new investments into Nine Edge Wealth and Ventura Risk Partners. In addition to this, the group disposed of its investment in Amiga Specialty. Slide 6 reports the breakdown of our cash and other assets. On the left of the slide, you will find a breakdown of our loan book as of 31 January 2026, which stood at GBP 38.8 million. This is an increase of GBP 13.2 million on our loan book as at January 2025, reflecting the active deployment of loan capital during the year. The average interest rate received in our loan book during the year was 8.8%. Details of our individual loans can be found on Slide 29 of the appendices. Post year-end, the loan book has grown further and now stands at GBP 51.9 million as of the 26th of May. On the right of the slide, you will see that at the end of the year, we held GBP 49.5 million in cash and treasury funds, down from GBP 74.1 million in January 2025. The decrease in cash reflects the significant capital deployed into new and follow-on investments during the year, dividends paid and funds utilized for share buybacks. The group keeps its cash held with well-known institutions in a mixture of short-term and instant access deposit accounts with a maximum deposit period of 1 month maintained throughout the year. The average return on treasury funds for the year was 3.3%. Slide 7 presents our dividend distribution history and our intentions looking ahead. During the year ended 31st of January 2026, the group paid a total dividend of GBP 8 million, equating to GBP 21.64p per share. Looking ahead, by the end of our financial year ending January 2027, the company expects to have distributed a further GBP 13 million in dividends, which will bring the total dividends paid since rotation to GBP 37.7 million, equivalent to GBP 107.1p per share. To put that in context, the original flotation price was GBP 140p per share. So we will have returned 76.5% of the flotation price to shareholders through dividends alone. The Board intends to pay further dividends of GBP 7 million in our financial year end in January 2028. This slide also illustrates the clear link between portfolio realizations and dividends. Each of the major disposals in our history from Howden in 2013 to most recently SSRU in 2025 has contributed to our ability to make progressive dividends to shareholders. Slide 8 presents our total shareholder return and share price performance. For the year ended 31st of January 2026, the total shareholder return was 12.8%, comprising NAV growth and dividends paid during the year. Turning to the chart on the right of the slide, this shows the performance of the company's share price and NAV per share against the AIM all share and AIM financial indices rebased to January [ 2010 ]. This long-term outperformance reflects the strength and consistency of our investment model. I will now hand back to Dan to take you through the portfolio in more detail.

Thanks, Fran. I'll pick things back up with a closer look at the portfolio itself, starting with an area that has been a long-term strength for the group managing general agencies as we call them MGAs which is Slide 9. Our 11 MGA investments are collectively valued at GBP 72.6 million built on a total cost of GBP 16.8 million, a 4.3x multiple on invested capital. These businesses are expected to underwrite aggregate gross written premium of over GBP 850 million in 2026, producing over GBP 90 million in commission income. The portfolio spans markets in Australia, the U.K., the U.S. and Europe, and ranges from more mature companies like ATC, our largest individual MGA holding at GBP 37.7 million to more recent entrants in the portfolio like Cameron and Volt. ATC has delivered an IRR of 36.2% over its holding period, and we'll discuss that later in the presentation. Fiducia, our longest-standing MGA, has delivered 32.4x the invested capital and Volt, a more recent investment at a nominal cost of GBP 26, is already valued at GBP 4.25 million. MGA is an area we know well and where our network and sector expertise gives us a genuine origination advantage. We like the model, specialist underwriting expertise, scalable companies, strong cash generation and a market environment where access to insurer capital remains tight. Turning to Slide 10, our broking investments, total value across the 6 broking investments is GBP 182 million built on a cost of GBP 59.2 million, a 2.1x multiple overall. Collectively, our broker investments are budgeting to place more than GBP 1.5 billion of gross written premium in 2026, generating over GBP 140 million of brokerage income. Pantheon remains a standout valued at GBP 107 million against the cost of GBP 27.3 million as at 31 January 2026 with an IRR of 150.4%. XPT, our U.S. wholesale platform is valued at GBP 64 million with an IRR of 26.6% since our investment in 2017. More recently, we've backed Oneglobal, a London headquartered international broker with 15 offices around the world, offering products over a number of business areas. And SRT, our U.K.-focused broking and asset finance company or broker also continues to build momentum. Turning to Slide 11. Alongside insurance, we selectively invest in adjacent U.K. financial services businesses where our expertise, network and patient capital can support distinctive opportunities. iO Finance is our buy and build platform in the alternative finance space bringing together specialist SME lenders to address the funding gap left by high street banks retreating from SME lending. We invested GBP 10 million for an 8% stake in April 2025, alongside Janus Henderson as a co-investor. Whilst a recent investment, we've got good hopes for this business, and it continues to deliver momentum and is assessing further acquisition opportunities. Nine Edge Wealth was an investment post year-end is its newly established independent financial advisory business founded by Derek Miles. He was a previous partner of B.P. Marsh. He grew Aspira, a previous B.P. Marsh investment to over GBP 4 billion of assets under advice and its sale to Titan. Nine Edge Wealth is an acquisition-led IFA consolidator, tech-enabled and already building scales, having made 2 acquisitions since our investment. One thing you'll see increasingly across the portfolio is that where we back strong management teams, opportunities often emerge beyond the original investment thesis. Moving on to Slide 12, which is the overview of the XPT related insurance vehicles. There is also in the portfolio 2 purpose-built vehicles linked to XPT strategic growth, Gambit Re and XPT Producer Co. Gambit Re is a collateralized reinsurance vehicle based out of Bermuda, providing risk capital to selective underwriting programs within XPT's underwriting our, platinum specialty underwriters, again, an early start-up investment for us. We provided up to GBP 5 million of risk capital into those management up to $15 million and an external private equity investor north of GBP 75 million to allow XPT's underwriting platform access to further capital, which we think further differentiates XPT and allows us to see meaningful returns from their underwriting portfolio. XPT Producer Co is a platform that we created to recruit and incubate experience on insurance producers solving a structural growth challenge within XPT that allow us to provide capital in an efficient way for them to grow. Both were established with B.P. Marsh backing in 2025 and illustrate very well how we can support our existing investments beyond the initial equity position. Of course, while much of today's presentation focused on portfolio growth, it's equally important to show how that value is ultimately realized, which takes into Slide 13, realizations over the past 5 years. Over the past 5 years, B.P. Marsh has realized 8 investments, generating total proceeds of GBP 178.9 million against an aggregate investment of just over GBP 20.6 million, a money multiple of 8.7x. Those realizations span underwriting agencies in Canada and Australia and the U.K. as well as the U.K. broker and insurance intermediary group. IRRs across the cohort range from 8.8% to 111.9%. This track record of realization matters, it demonstrates that the NAV isn't just a number on a page or in a black box created by us. It shows how we convert these investments into real cash, which moves on to disposals during the Stewart Specialty Risk Underwriting, SSRU, which demonstrates our model in terms of the smallest investment produce the most extraordinary outcomes. The most significant disposal in the financial year was our exit from SSRU in December 2025 when the business was acquired by Ryan Specialty LLC, a U.S.-based insurance distribution platform. We invested in January 2017, backing its founder, Stephen Stewart with a nominal equity investment just approaching GBP 19. There was a loan of about 500,000 but that was repaid within the first 18 to 24 months. So over the 8 years of our investment, SSRU group to become one of Canada's leading independent underwriting agencies, writing around CAD 100 million of gross written premium and delivering strong EBITDA growth through that hold. We received total proceeds when we exited of GBP 28.3 million, an IRR of 89.9%. And given the original investment was GBP 19, a realized profit figure that is for practical purposes almost identical to the sale proceeds. It's one of those investments that demonstrates the full power of our model, find exceptional management back them with long-term capital, support them without interference and exit at the right moment. The second disposal in the year was Sterling Insurance in May 2025 across portfolio transaction that neatly illustrates our network's value. Sterling was a rather different type of success story. That's dramatic perhaps, but strategically very valuable. We invested GBP 1.9 million in Sterling in June 2013 to just under 20%. And over 12 years, Sterling strengthened its core construction liability lines and grew gross written premium from just under AUD 40 million to just approaching AUD 55 million of premium exit. The exit was structured as a combination with ATC Insurance Solutions and other of our portfolio companies with the transaction valued at GBP 33.2 million funded through cash and ATC equity, including a management rollover proceeds to B.P. Marsh with GBP 3.1 million, which we received by ATC shares, a 63% uplift on our position. And crucially, for us, the combination -- the combined platform is stronger for it, which benefits us to a large stake in ATC. While we realize value from mature investments, we're equally active, redeploying capital back into new opportunities, which takes me to slide 16. New investments in the year and post year-end. Across the financial, we made 8 new investments totaling GBP 27.8 million of equity alongside 2 post year-end investments in Nine Edge Wealth and Ventura Risk Partners. The breadth and pace of new investment activity reflects both the strength of our deal flow and the debt of our available capital, which I suppose meeting new investments. We're often asked where our deal flow comes from and the short answer without trying to be overly simplistic, is relationships. We evaluated 61 new investment opportunities during the year, broadly in line with the prior year, 62% came through referrals or introduction from our existing network. And of those 43% were international in nature. By sector, 75% were insurance distribution and 25% with general financial services. The message is that our deal flow is really genuinely proprietary. We don't rely on auction processes or intermediaries to find opportunities because of our model and our unique investment approach. We've created a position where we feel we're the preferred partner for the entrepreneurial team is looking to maintain control of the access to financial institutional capital with a track record of delivering returns. Moving on from new investments to Slide 18, which details deferred consideration over one feature our model that can sometimes be overlooked is the long tail of value creation after an initial disposal. Two legacy investments continue to generate cash through deferred consideration mechanisms. On LEBC, which we sold to Titan Wealth, equity proceeds to date are GBP 5.7 million with an IRR of 6.5% on a GBP 13.5 investment. Clearly, there were challenges with our investment in LEBC, but the way we were able to work with Derek Miles to take the business forward to exit and structure the exit with Titan that we received proceeds on exit and then deferred consideration on attaching to performance criteria that improves our return materially post sale. The first tranche of deferred consideration received in September 2025, a meaningful amount. The second will follow over the course of this month and the third and final payment in 2027. We therefore expect to receive significantly more than our amount invested. And we feel it was a positive outcome to an investment that was wasn't without its challenges, but ultimately, it was a positive return to the company. On CBC U.K., except Paladin, we sold this Specialist Risk Group in March 2024. The story is now substantially complete. We received all deferred consideration due totaling GBP 18.7 million, giving us total proceeds of GBP 62.7 million and an IRR of 48.7%. To our mind, a remarkable outcome given the initial equity stake was GBP 3,500. Together, these examples reinforce an important point, our realizations don't end at completion. Often, we're able to come up with deferred structures, which continue to deliver return and value to B.P. Marsh quietly, but meaningfully materially. Turning now to some of the individual portfolio highlights. It's difficult not to start with Pantheon, Slide 19. Pantheon remains our largest single holding and the most striking example of what early-stage backing in the right management team can achieve. Founded in 2023, Pantheon now has over 45 employees operating across 6 product lines and generating GBP 24.8 million of revenue and GBP 18 million of adjusted EBITDA in 2025. As at the year-end, we held a 39% holding in Pantheon for a cost of GBP 27.3 million, which we valued at GBP 107 million. Post year-end, we acquired a further 2% in Pantheon with our shareholding now being 41%. Pantheon began its life in global casualty as its specialism, but it's now moved into professional lines, property, innovation and technology, delegated authority insurance premium and has also just added marine. We continue to expect Pantheon to develop into other adjacent lines of insurance brokerage. It's got a strong track record now. It's very profitable. It's got a unique capital base within the market, and we see it becoming more and more appealing to individuals or teams that like the ethos of the management team and like the nature of the private equity investment in terms of it is a long-term play without any exit pressures because of the nature of how B.P. Marsh is structured to make investments. The trajectory from 0 to GBP 107 million of value in under 3 years is obviously exceptional and the financial year '26 budget continues to project strong growth. It's the investment that, frankly, we'd all hope to find once a decade, and we're delighted to have found it in this one. I think we've talked about SSRU previously with Pantheon. And I think this really illustrates B.P. Marsh's niche in terms of what we're able to do, deploying our level of capital, which provides the opportunity for outsized returns. Where Pantheon Rapid represents rapid early-stage growth, XPT reflects long-term platform compounding at scale. Moving to Slide 20, XPT slide. XPT is our major U.S. platform, a specialty lines insurance distribution group that's built a wholesale broking and underwriting agency across the U.S. specialty sector. We first invested in June 2017. And today, we hold a 30.5% stake valued at GBP 64 million against the cost of GBP 20.2 million in equity and just under GBP 9 million in loan funding. IRR to date is just over 26%. XPT now manages over USD 1 billion of gross written premium, employs more than 450 people across over 30 U.S. offices and has completed 19 acquisitions since formation. And GWP has grown at a compound annual growth rate of about 45%. And that shows where it is now. Back in 2017, it was 3 very credible individuals with a business plan that we were able to test, support. And again, it evidences our ability to find the right management team and grow it. They focus on the production, and we focus on the -- working with them on the systems and controls, cash flow management and governance to provide the right support structure for very fast-growing businesses. 2025 adjusted EBITDA was just under $25 million and the full year '26 budget projects continued growth across revenue and profitability. And again, as sort of detailed earlier, this has been supported by new initiatives, including Gambit Re and XPT Producer Co. Moving to Australia on Slide 21. ATC is now Australia's largest independent Lloyd's cover holder and a long-standing co holding for us. We first invested in July 2018 for about 20%, and we now hold 27% valued at GBP 37.7 million against a combined cost of just over GBP 5 million once we factor in the investment in ATC, the rollover of MB Prestige and Sterling and IRR currently stands at just over 36%. ATC writes over AUD 200 million of GWP, which has delivered a 20% CAGR since our investment and 2025 EBITDA was just tad north of GBP 17.3 million. Its key product lines span construction, accident and health, sports and leisure, cyber and other specialty lines, which we feel is a very well-diversified book. ATC has completed 3 acquisitions during our hold and including the absorption of Sterling Insurance this year. The recent addition of Frontier Global, which actually wasn't a B.P. Marsh portfolio company so shows how ATC is developing, further expands ATC's reach into financial lines in London market distribution with Frontier having a London underwriting operation, while still remaining consistent with the disciplined acquisition strategy we've seen from management over a number of years. So I think ATC has reached a scale that it can deploy capital with our support or with bank debt to continue to deliver this sort of outsized growth trajectory. And it's a business that's grown consistently, maintained underwriting discipline and expanded its reach, and we expect that to continue. Moving away from the portfolio on Slide 22. Alongside portfolio growth, we remain very focused on the question of capital allocation, specifically balancing reinvestment with meaningful shareholder returns. Over the year, we paid GBP 8 million in dividends and for the year ending 31st January 2027, we will pay total dividends of GBP 13 million, GBP 10.5 million, which is already paid and a further GBP 2.5 million will be paid in July. Lastly, shareholders can expect, subject to final Board approval, a minimum of GBP 7 million for the year ending 31st January 2028. This would see dividends of totaling GBP 44.7 million having been distributed to shareholders by the year ending -- by our January 2028 year-end. On share buybacks, during the year, we repurchased just over 1 million shares for GBP 6.9 million at an average price of 659p under the program we launched in April 2025. For the year, total shareholder returns stand at just under 13%, and we think that's a fair reflection of a year of genuine progress. We think the balance between growth, liquidity and shareholder returns remains one of the defining strengths of the group. Moving away from that on to Slide 23. Given what's being discussed before we conclude, I think it's worth touching briefly on a topic that inevitably comes up in almost every investor conversation at the moment, artificial intelligence. For what it's worth, our view is that AI acts as an enabler, not a disruptor in the sectors that where we focus. We tend to be skeptical at the moment of grand claims where we are in this area, but practical workflow improvements are already becoming very real. The insurance and financial advisory industries will continue to need skilled brokers, underwriters and advisers. What AI changes is, we believe, the workflow behind them, automating administrative bottlenecks, accelerating data processing and freeing professionals to focus on the work that requires judgment and relationships. Three of our portfolio companies, XPT, Nine Edge Wealth and Volt have built or are building their own AI tools that augment their teams in meaningful ways. Critically, all 3 maintain a clear principle. Humans check and verify every output. AI is applied selectively to tasks that previously demanded larger teams or extensive manual work. We'll be watching how this theme evolves across the wider portfolio, and we'd rather be invested in businesses that are deploying AI thoughtfully than those ignoring it entirely. So to close, it's been a strong year, not defined by a single exceptional event, but by consistent progress across the portfolio and disciplined deployment of capital. Net asset value of GBP 360.2 million, total shareholder return of 12.8%, portfolio value up 21.4%, 8 new investments, 2 realizations, GBP 8 million in dividends and over GBP 30 million of available capital to continue. Strategically, our priorities remain unchanged, identifying back strong management teams in specialist markets, compound value over the long term and maintain a disciplined balance between investment, liquidity and shareholder returns. The company has now been doing this for over 30 years. The principles haven't changed. And if anything, the opportunity set continues to grow. Thank you very much for your time, and we'll now be very happy to take questions.

Thank you for updating investors today. [Operator Instructions] For your reference, a recording of today's presentation will be available on the Investor Meet Company platform shortly after the meeting has ended. As you can see, we received a number of questions during today's presentation. Katie, if I could just hand back to you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.

Thanks, Charlie. Thanks, Da. To begin with, there's been a question around the insurance market. And as parts of the insurance market are beginning to soften, how insulated is B.P. Marsh's portfolio given the focus on specialty risk classes?

Thanks, Katie. I think broadly speaking, insurance is a relatively defensive area as a generalization when risks start moving in and out of it and prices start hardening or softening as an overarching comment. But I would say the market is tending to soften as a general observation. That's a fundamental result of hardening prices for about 24 to 36 months. And it will continue. I suspect that being said and specific to the question, because we focus on start-ups or very early-stage investments, and we're long-term holders. It's -- we're somewhat even further insulated from that because clearly, if you're a startup, if a premium was, for example, GBP 100 the year before you started and it was reduced to GBP 80 the next year, it's still new business. So we look at it from portfolio -- not portfolio, actual accounts won versus the aggregate premium being placed because as long as that's growing, we see our portfolio companies growing.

Thank you, Dan. There's been a couple of questions around the discount to NAV. I'll just try and read a few out. So with the 30% discount of NAV, why wasn't a more aggressive share buyback implemented? And would you be open to selling the assets and return cash to shareholders if the discount doesn't reduce? And then carrying on a little bit more, someone's asked, it would be useful to hear something about how the valuation of the -- for the top 3 investments arrived at and the buybacks have been released reasonably small -- seemed reasonably small to date. And have they management considered significantly increasing the scale of the buybacks help to address the share price discount?

I think dealing with the discount, clearly, that's something that we've focused on over a long-term period. And I think you can see the long-term trend is clear. It's a key focus of the management team to reduce the discount. I think there's always a theoretical market applied discount against our NAV because of the fact that we hold private company liquid holdings. But that being said, my view for what it's worth is the discount should be probably between 15% to 5%, and it has fluctuated at that. There was a material disposal by Ardonagh last year at a price that they were prepared to do that, that caused the NAV to widen. It's starting to reduce. And I think that's the focus of the management team to continue reducing that discount. I mean on the, sell all the assets and return cash to shareholders, I mean that's not the strategy of B.P. Marsh. Certainly, over the last 5 to 10 years, as meaningful shareholder from a personal standpoint in B.P. Marsh, I'm happy with the direction of travel in terms of the share price performance and the dividend yield. And I think so long as we can continue the share price performance trajectory and when appropriate, maintain a good dividend yield, I think as a shareholder myself, that presents better long-term returns for the shareholders and all stakeholders as opposed to a more short-term approach of realizing the assets immediately to return cash to shareholders. I think that in some respects, that could exacerbate the discount to NAV. In terms of the top 3, and I think there's another point about concentration risk, which I'll sort of touch on first and then come back to the top 3. I think actually, if you look at the portfolio from where it was 10 or 15 years ago of 9 to 10 portfolio investments, a bit longer than that when we had Hyperion. At one stage, I think Hyperion equated to almost 60%, if not more than 60%, of the NAV. We were comfortable with that then. Ultimately, we realized Hyperion is a very successful investment, redeployed the proceeds. And you can see from that sale and redeployment of the proceeds, we kicked on and the company kicked on and did very well. So concentration risk in performing assets isn't something that we're concerned by, but it's something that we monitor, especially in line with the performance and look forward projections, which I hope sort of deals with that concentration risk question. I think we've got 3 big ones, but that's -- they're almost a victim of their own success. Pantheon is a very recent investment that's grown tremendously well. So I would hope -- more than expect, I would hope we'd have more Pantheons in the portfolio. And I think with the more recent start-up investments that you can see they're starting to grow significantly. And I would imagine that the directional travel of that would be similar such that we'll have 24 portfolio companies all with meaningful growth horizons. On valuation methodologies, we've never released methodologies. We don't plan to start. I appreciate you can say that it leads to visibility being reduced on how we arrive at these valuations. But I'd make the counterpoint over the last 5 years, we've got a very decent track record of realizing at or above our valuation. There is greater visibility on market comparison transactions, which people can benchmark us against if they want. And I'd say that demonstrates our conservative approach to valuations, but also a sort of wider commercial point is that often if we release the methodology when it comes to a disposal, it can be used against us in that kind of transactional nature on a sale, and we'd rather not have our valuation methodology in the public and then used against us to the detriment of our underlying returns.

Dan, thanks for covering those concentration risk questions. Moving on, there's been a question whether independent brokers are becoming stronger or weaker competitively.

Well, no. My confirmation bias on this in so far as obviously, I think they're becoming stronger. I think it's cyclical. I think with where the market is in terms of consolidation, we've seen over a decade of brokers being consolidated into wider financial conglomerates. I think it's been successful for the consolidators, but it has led to people being disenfranchised by the consolidation, and that is a ready supply of new business opportunities. And certainly, as at today and what I think going forward to the future for the next 12 to 36 months, I think we'll see a steady stream of new star brokers approaching us. And if we get the right terms and the right business, I think we'll continue to support them. And I think the way brokers are established from a capital standpoint remains capital-light, which appeals to us. But also with technological advances and AI and all that stuff, it allows the smaller brokers to punch above their weight with access to data and management to data when it comes to winning clients. So I say from the beginning that there is a level of unbias from my opinion, but I think they're very well positioned for new start brokers at smaller end. And there's a ready supply of acquirers when they grow up to scale. So if you look at Lilley Plummer Risk, which was in the portfolio, that was a team of disenfranchised brokers that got tired of being bought and sold. They established, we provided them with the working capital governance oversight and focusing on the dull stuff like financial reporting and cash flow. And within 5 years, which is inside of our sort of preferred hold period, we were able to realize that a significant profit to a Goldman Sachs backed consolidator. And that still remains the optionality for us with the portfolio because there's a ready supply of investment at the bigger end looking to get into insurance distribution.

Thank you, Dan. Another question a bit more generally on how active is the pipeline for new investments today?

Yes. I think it's a continuation. We're seeing a good inflow of new business. And I think it's all well and good having an active pipeline, but not that great if you can't do the deal. So we can have 1,000 of inquiries and not do one transaction where our approach over there to sort of refine the process to sort of -- sort the wheat from the chaff in terms of our investment appetite. I think we've been successful at that. And so I think we've got a very good pipeline of transactions that we'd like to pursue subject to getting the right terms for B.P. Marsh and its shareholders. So I think we'll continue to see a good flow of doable new business deals.

Thank you, Dan. There's been a question around what has caused Asian reinsurers drop in value?

I think we've written it down by GBP 150,000 or so. So it's not materially impacting the overall NAV. But I suppose it speaks to our rigorous focus on valuations that we do care about the smaller ones just as much as the big ones. And if the performance is adversely affected in the short term, we'll go after the valuation from a conservative standpoint, notwithstanding some people might consider it immaterial in the overall. We looked at it if performance was slightly down. We do have expectations that it will correct and in the long run, be a good investment, but we actively monitor the portfolio and aggressively go after valuations if we think there needs to be a reduction in terms of our conservative approach.

There's a question around the doubling of the new investments during the year compared to full year '25. Do you see this new level as the norm? Or do you even expect to continue to increase this?

I think probably somewhere in the middle. I would say we're unique in our offering. There is no one out there that structures transactions as long-term investors with minority positions. That's certainly becoming, to our mind, more popular, and we're seeing lots of people buying into that approach. Clearly, the proof of the pudding is the strength of the portfolio and the realizations, which again increases visibility. So I think we'll continue to be active. We've got a good pipeline, as I said earlier. So yes, I'd say somewhere in the middle.

Having a quick look at balancing liquidity, investment deployments and shareholder return, just a little bit more around the balancing of that.

Well, we think we balance it quite well in terms of -- we've got -- we flagged dividends, and we always try and give long-term visibility on dividends, germane to realizations, investment deployments. Obviously, we talked about new business, and we continue to see an active new business pipeline and liquidity on the balance sheet, we detailed in the presentation. I think, look, there is no hard and fast rule, but that's what we like. We like flexibility to try and deliver shareholder returns. It's what we expect from our portfolio companies. And I think it is a balancing act, but certainly, we feel we've struck the right balance so far.

Thank you very much, Dan. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities and risks for the group over the next 12 to 14 months?

Slightly boring answer, but I think the greatest opportunities is sticking to our knitting. I think we've created a niche for ourselves. We are a unique proposition and it continues to resonate within the market. So I sort of think whilst it's not revolutionary, I think what we present speaks for itself in terms of returns, and that's where the opportunity remains, certainly over the short to midterm, I wouldn't give long-term projections. Risks, I mean, we're insurance focused as an investor. We have financial services mandate, but it is predominantly insurance. Insurance by its very nature is focused on risk. So the general macroeconomic issues that pop up that have popped up, and I won't dwell on them too much. But we've come through the global financial crisis at B.P. Marsh. We've come through COVID. It's shown the resilience of the portfolio in the sector. And therefore, there'll always be risks, economic, societal. But I think as long as we proactively manage them and maintain our focus, and I suppose the opportunity by sticking to our knitting and what we've been successful at. And so long as there continues to be an active pipeline of new business, which there is, we manage the risk on that basis. Clearly, I certainly -- if it appeared that the further that we plow ceases to be doable, present active returns, then clearly, we would then say we've done -- we're very pleased with the job we've done, but we'll start realizing investments and returning to the portfolio because the unique proposition that we have isn't appealing anymore, but I don't see that in the short to medium term.

Great. Thank you so much, Dan. And just before we shortly conclude the presentation, it'd be great if you could just recap on the presentation, provide any final comments.

Yes. Hopefully, it detailed how we performed over the year. Clearly, we're tremendously happy with what we've achieved and how the portfolio is set for the future. I think there's huge potential upside in there, and we've got an active new business pipeline. So I think that's the summary on in finalizing -- I've got to pass on the thanks to the team who've done the work and the portfolio have delivered the results to allow us to present these results. So I want to note that it's a huge team effort at B.P. Marsh and the portfolio in delivering this. So thanks to the team. Clearly, there's been, as of today, a few Board changes at the Plc level with Brian Marsh coming down off the Board, but remaining as President. And I just think it's worth noting the thanks of the team and myself personally for Brian for what -- B.P. Marsh is the house that Brian built over a 30-year period. He's then brought in a team around and -- him to support and take the business forward. I've worked with Brian for nearly 2 decades. He's been a tremendous resource for me in building my contact, building my experience and understanding the market we operate in. And what he's done has allowed the business to kick on in increments. And I think as a team and as shareholders, Brian has created something that has been tremendously successful. And I just want to say get it on record that we're thankful for that. But also it's not goodbye to Brian. He still will remain in the business in an advisory capacity and ambassadorial role because he's a tremendous resource.

Thank you, Dan, for your presentation this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team of B.P. Marsh & Partners Plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation.