Bell Financial Group Limited (BFG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Bell Financial Group 2022 Annual General Meeting. My name is Alastair Provan, I'm your Chairman. We'll have a quorum, and I'm pleased to declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held via -- online via the Computershare meeting platform. This allows shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. Attending online today are my fellow directors, Graham Cubbin, who is standing for reelection; Brian Wilson, AO; and Christine Feldmanis. In addition, attending online are Cindy-Jane Lee, our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary; Dean Davenport, who is the group CFO; Brendan Goff, Group Head of Compliance, and Chris Wooden, our auditor from KPMG. The notice of meeting was made available to all shareholders, and copies are available from our ASX announcement on the 18th of February. I'll take the notice of meeting as read. We'll begin the meeting today with a presentation, then go through the formal proceedings, which this year include 3 resolutions. Voting will be conducted by a poll on all items of business, and voting is now open. If you're eligible to vote, press the Vote icon. The resolutions will appear on your screen along with For, Against, and Abstain voting options. Simply select one of these options to cast your vote. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can vote at any time throughout the proceedings, and you can change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. I will give you a clear prompt later in the meeting to warn you of the close of voting. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. To ask a question, select the Q&A icon, type your question into the text box. And once you finish typing, please hit the Send button. To ask a variable question, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the time for questions towards the end of the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on 1 topic combined together. We'll now run through the presentation. This first slide summarizes some of the key highlights achieved by the group throughout 2021. They are all the obvious metrics; revenue, profit after tax, EPS, dividends per share, gross dividend yield, return on equity, price earnings multiple, technology and platforms revenue and funds under advice, all of which I intend to expand on as we go through the presentation. I think it's worth noting that in many ways, 2021 was a repeat of 2022. We had ongoing uncertainty with rolling lockdowns, border closures, working from home, travel restrictions, record lower interest rates and ongoing fiscal stimulus. Against that backdrop, it's pleasing to report the group recorded another outstanding result, which was just shy of the record result we achieved in 2020. Revenue for 2021 was $292 million, which was down marginally on 2020. And that was due mainly to a reduction in year-on-year equity capital market revenue. We had a 5-year CAGR of 9.2%. 2021 EPS of 13.8% was slightly down. It was down 5.5% on 2020, and that produced a 5-year CAGR of 15.3%. And our profit after tax of $44.1 million was also down 5.5% on the previous year. The reduction resulted from marginally lower revenue and an increase in our overhead reflecting our ongoing investment in technology, 5-year CAGR of 20.9%. We paid $35.3 million in fully franked dividends in 2021, and that was up 4.8% on the 2020 dividend payout, and there's a 5-year CAGR of 15.4%. A 22.6% EBITDA margin in 2021 produced a 5-year CAGR of 8.9%. BFG has consistently outperformed the S&P ASX 200 Accumulation Index on total shareholder return over an extended period. A 26.4% return on equity in 2021 resulted in a 5-year CAGR of 15.5%. We have a strong cash bank balance sheet with no core operating debt. And I think it's important to understand and to know that the only debt that appears in the balance sheet relates to the funding of the Bell Potter Capital margin lending book, which is conservatively geared and secured against client-listed cash equities and managed funds. Based on the BFG closing price on the 31st of December 2021 of $1.865, we had a market capitalization of $598 million. We had an EV-to-EBITDA ratio of 7.1x, with a gross dividend yield of 8.4% and our price earnings ratio was 13.6x. The next slide, I think is a strong growth slide. In 2021, our funds under advice grew by 19% to 17.5 -- sorry, $75.9 billion. Our CHESS Sponsored Holdings increased by 20% to $69 billion. Sponsored assets in our Portfolio Administration Service, which we refer to as PAS, grew to $3.8 billion, which is up 6% year-on-year. Total cash at the end of the year, that's client's cash at the end of the year was $1.63 billion, $481 million of that was held by Bell Potter Capital, which is a 10% increase on 2020. The Bell Potter Capital loan book increased by 11% over the course of the year to $534 million. And we had superannuation solution assets of $952 million, and that was up 12% on the previous year. Our corporate structure remains very simple. We have 3 very distinct and complementary business units. They are all fully owned subsidiaries. Bell Potter Security is our retail and institutional broking business, and that encompasses retail equities, both domestic and international, institutional equities. Our equity research team, which is 17 -- we now have 17 in-house publishing analysts. We have a 24-hour Futures and Foreign Exchange desk. We have Fixed Income desk. Obviously, we're active in equity capital markets, and we have a Syndication desk. Third Party Platform, that's our Technology and Platforms business, and that has 6 distinct business units. Bell Direct, probably the best-known name, is our proprietary online retail broking platform. Over the years, it won many industry awards and in recent years and currently services more than 59,000 trading retail clients. Bell Direct Advantage is a newer service and that provides general advice to high net worth clients. Desktop Broker provides execution and clearing services to the financial planning industry and currently has agreements with over 3,700 financial planners, servicing more than 47,000 trading clients. We provide a white label online broking service, that's a turnkey online broking solution, and the current clients include Bell Potter Online, Macquarie and HSBC. Third Party Clearing, TPP is an ASX general participant that provides Third Party Clearing services to Bell Potter Securities Limited and has commenced providing clearing services for Macquarie Equities Limited. We have a continuous development program of proprietary platforms and software applications for our dedicated TPP and BPS development teams -- from our TPP and BPS development teams, both in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Kuala Lumpur. Most recently, we appointed a new Technology Officer -- a Chief Technology Officer. We did this in November. This is a key -- the new and key appointment for us. Our CTO is assisting with the implementation of our technology strategy and roadmap and is in the process of consolidating and integrating our various technology teams into a single cohesive unit. Across the TPP and BPS, across the group, we have a dedicated team of 102 IT systems and software development specialists. And they are located in four offices in Australia and Malaysia. Bell Potter Capital has a number of products and services, which include our Portfolio Administration Service, which we refer to as PAS; Bell Potter Superannuation Solutions. We have the Bell Financial Trust, which is client funds at call with the Bell Potter portfolio margin lending. We have Bell Geared Equities Investments, which is a structured loan product, and we have the Bell Equity Lever product, which is another structured loan product. Bell Potter is essential our retail institutional equity capital markets business. Brokerage from our institutional and retail desk was $104.4 million for the year, consistent with 2020. Coincidentally, business of brokerage or fee income from our equity capital markets debt was also $104.4 million, which was down slightly, 4.2% on the PCP basis. $28.8 million after tax was down 13% on a PCP basis, but it also retains a 27.9% 5-year compound annual growth rate. During the course of the year, we executed successfully 101 transactions, equity capital market transactions. We raised in excess of $2.6 billion in new equity capital, and our ECM team continues to be a market leader in the small and mid-cap segment in the Australian market. The next 3 slides are simply examples of some of the corporate transactions that were successfully completed in 2001, and you can view them at your leisure. Technology and Platforms as a Third Party Platform, we've had consistent growth in revenue, profit, sponsored holdings and client accounts over an extended period with strong revenue growth across 2021, which continues to validate our ongoing investment in this space. Revenue of $27.8 million was up 14% on the previous year and produced a 5-year CAGR of 18.2% with -- sorry, $4.8 million profit after tax and a $32.4 billion in sponsored holdings. We have 234,000 client accounts, and that's up 13% on the previous year. TPP is now clearing 1/3 of Bell Potter Securities trades with the remainder expected to be cleared from mid-2022. The result will be a $2 million-plus release in cost synergies. In 2021, we also signed our first external Third Party Clearing client, which is Macquarie Equities Limited. We ran a successful pilot program in the third quarter of 2021 and migrated and commenced clearing for first tranche of clients in late November. The remainder of the clients, which we will anticipate doubling the volume are expected to transfer by the 30th of June this year. Third Party Clearing will obviously continue to be a key business strategy for TPP. Bell Potter Capital, which is our Products and Service business, number of products, which we've mentioned briefly, margin lending, structured products, client funds at call and PAS and super solutions. We remain the only nonmargin -- nonbank-margin lender in the Australian marketplace. $39.9 million in revenue, $10.5 million in profit after tax, where have a $535 million loan book at December 31. $481 million client funds at call, and we have $4.5 billion in client funds under our portfolio -- $4.4 billion of client funds under our Portfolio Administration and Superannuation platforms. Our strategy remains simple. Our business strategy is one for growth and as growth through our full-service broking business is augmented by continued investment in leading-edge proprietary technology. Our systems and platforms include FUSION, which is an in-house desktop application covering all aspects, all the advisers' day-to-day function; IQ, which is a price discovery and trade execution platform; and Third Party Platform, which I've also recently mentioned leading integrated online trading platform. Our Products and Services, which I've just also mentioned include Bell Potter Portfolio Administration; our Personal Superannuation Solution; the Bell Financial Trust; Bell Potter Portfolio Lending, which is our margin lending business; Bell Potter Super Lending, and our 2 Structured Loan products. Third Party Platform and Bell Potter Capital, this is our strategy, which is our investment in proprietary technology platforms and our Products and Services business. It's key to our ongoing business development. The result is more efficient -- the result is more efficient and better outcomes for our staff and for our clients. Combined revenues in 2021 of $67.7 million was a 10.1% increase on the previous year, representing 23% of total group revenue as a current 5-year CAGR of 11.8%. Our profit after tax of $15.3 million was a 12% increase on the previous year, and that's now representing 34.7% of total group profit and has a 5-year CAGR of 13.6%. We now have approximately 9% of our funds under advice, i.e., $7 billion, currently using our various products and service, and that number is growing. And I'll give you a very early update on where we are in the first quarter. It's fair to say we've had a quite a start to 2022 than we've had in recent years. Investors have taken a more cautious approach to the markets while analyzing the impact of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and the Chinese position. And that's against a backdrop of ongoing supply chain issues, rising interest rates, inflation concerns and increased energy prices. We estimate group revenue of approximately $57 million for the first quarter and that's a 13% decrease on the previous corresponding period, and we estimate group profit before tax of about $8.3 million, and that is actually a 30% decrease on the previous corresponding period. Interestingly enough, both January and March numbers for this year were broadly in line with the previous year. While February was a particularly strong year -- a strong month in 2021 and that accounts for most of the difference. Predictably, ECM has experienced a downturn in revenue over the first quarter. However, we have an extremely strong pipeline of work in progress, which we'll look to execute successfully over the coming months. Our funds under advice at $77 billion were up 1.4% from the 31st of December. Our share prices come under pressure recently, which is obviously disappointing, I think, given our performance over a long period in our growth strategy, which is based on our ongoing investment in proprietary technology. And I think the success of which can be measured by its increasingly meaningful contribution to our numbers and one which we remain committed to. Revenue in this area was up 5% to $17.4 million for the quarter, and profit before tax was up 6% to $5.7 million. I also think it's important that while we've had a quite a start to the year, all our business units remain profitable for the first quarter. As you'd be aware, 3 entities in the BFG Group were issued notices by AUSTRAC on the 16th of February 2022, requiring the appointment of an external auditor to examine and report on certain aspects of their compliance with the AML/CFT Act -- CTF Act, sorry, one way around. An external auditor has not yet been engaged, and once they are engaged, they will have 180 days to prepare and finalize their report. There is no requirement that AUSTRAC take further action at the end of that audit process, and it's too early to speculate on what the audit findings might be. We will obviously work constructively with AUSTRAC and the external auditor to ensure our AML/CTF compliance is both robust and appropriate. Just to finish up on that presentation. On a sad note, our founder Colin Bell passed away after a long and debilitating illness on the 14th of February this year. Colin was an extraordinary larger-than-life character whose drive and enthusiasm has been fundamental to the growth and success of our company, since he started what was then Option Investments in 1970. Colin is greatly missed by everyone at Bell, and we send our condolences to his family. I'll now move to the formal business of the meeting. The first item of the formal business is the tabling of the report. I now lay before the meeting the Financial Report, Directors' Report and Auditor's Report for the company for the year ending December 31, 2021. Next, we have the resolutions. The first resolution relates to the reelection of Graham Cubbin. Graham is due to retire from office and being eligible offers himself for reelection. The Board, in the absence of Graham Cubbin, unanimously supports his reelection, and I move that Graham be reelected as a Director of the Bell Financial Group Limited. The summary of votes received before the meeting is now shown on the screen. We'll now move to consider the second resolution, which is the adoption of the company remuneration report for the year ended December 31, 2021. The remuneration report is contained in the Directors' Report section of the annual report and sets out the policy for the remuneration of key management personnel of the company. The Corporation Act requires that a resolution be put to the vote at the AGM, that the remuneration report be adopted. The resolution is advisory only and will not bind the company or the directors. There are restrictions on voting on this item by members of the company's key management personnel and their closely related parties. Details of these restrictions are set out in the notice of meeting. I move that the remuneration report be adopted, and the summary of votes received before the meeting is now shown on the screen. We'll now move to consider third resolution, which is the Amendment to the Company's Constitution. The proposed amendment is the addition of a new Article 8.2A, which is now shown on the screen. The purpose of this amendment is to provide greater flexibility and clarity around the company holding general meetings, including AGMs using technology, including virtual meeting technology only. Under the Corporations Act, the company may amend its constitution if the amendments are approved by a special resolution. This means that the resolution must be passed by at least 75% of the votes cast by shareholders. The Board unanimously supports this special resolution. And I move that the constitution of the company is amended with immediate effect by adding the proposed new article 8.2A. The summary of votes received before the meeting is now shown on the screen. And we will now take questions from shareholders if we have any questions. Are there any questions?

Alastair, this is Cindy-Jane Lee, the General Counsel and Company Secretary. We have received a couple of questions about the AUSTRAC requirement to appoint an external auditor. Do you have any further update, please?

Thanks, Cindy. I don't really have any further update. All I can do is reiterate what I said earlier in our report. And I'm just unable to add anything, as the stage is set to reiterate as I see. Once the external auditor has been engaged well over 180 days to prepare and finalize the report, there is no requirement that AUSTRAC takes further action at the end of the audit process, but it's obviously too early to speculate on what the audit findings might be. Clearly, we will work constructively with AUSTRAC and the external auditor to ensure our AML/CTF compliance is both robust and appropriate.

Alastair, we've received a question for the auditor, Chris Wooden of KPMG from shareholder [Robert Flanagan]. And the question is, does KPMG offer any services in KYC AML/CTF compliance? And does the KPMG-BFG audit services agreement include any KYC AML compliance services? Chris, would you please respond?

Thank you, Cindy, and thank you, Robert, for your question. Robert, as a firm, KPMG do provide a range of AML and KYC services, such as advisory internal audit and investigation services as examples. However, it is important to note that our work with Bell Financial Group is governed by independence requirements, which would restrict a number of those services. Our audit currently is on the financial statements as a whole. As part of our order for the financial statements, Robert, I can confirm there are no specific AML or CTF compliance obligations on our role as auditor.

Do you have any further questions, Cindy?

We have no further questions, Alastair.

Okay. Okay, we'll move on. So I'd like to advise that shortly the voting on the resolutions will close, and we'll take a few moments to allow you to finish voting. Please complete your voting now. [Voting]

Okay. Thank you. Voting is now closed. Please note that the final results will be advised at ASX and also made available on Bell Financial Group's website after the meeting. Thank you for your attendance today. As the business of the meeting is now completed, I declare the meeting closed. Thank you very much, everyone.