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

Welcome to the Bell Financial Group 2025 Annual General Meeting. My name is Brian Wilson, and I'm your Chairman. We have a quorum, and I'm pleased to declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held 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. And in addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. Attending today are my fellow directors, Alastair Provan, Andrew Bell, Christine Feldmanis, who is standing for reelection today; and Graham Cubbin. In addition, attending today are Arnie Selvarajah and Dean Davenport, our co-CEOs; Cindy-Jane Lee, our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary; and Luke Sullivan, our auditor from KPMG. The Notice of Meeting and addendum have been made available to all shareholders and copies are also available online. I will take the Notice of Meeting and addendum as read. We will begin the meeting with a presentation, then go through the formal proceedings, which this year include 2 resolutions. Voting will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. Voting is now open. If you're eligible to vote, press the vote icon. The resolutions will appear on your screen, along with the 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 of the close in voting. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. [Operator Instructions] To ask a verbal 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. We may also limit the number of questions asked to 2 to 4 questions per shareholder or proxy to give adequate opportunity for all shareholders to ask questions during the meeting. If we are not able to answer all questions, we will endeavor to respond to your questions outside of the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, combined together. Before I hand over to our co-CEOs, I would like to acknowledge that Graham Cubbin will resign -- will retire as a director of Bell Financial Group at the conclusion of this year's AGM. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Graham for his valuable contribution to the Bell Financial Group, both as a Director and as Chairman of our Group Risk and Audit Committee. I will now ask our co-CEOs to present an overview of our results for 2024. First to Arnie Selvarajah.

Thanks, Brian. Following 2 consecutive years of challenging conditions, 2024 marked a change with improved market sentiment and return in investor confidence. We saw growth across all business divisions and are pleased to report a full year profit after tax of $30.7 million, a 26.4% increase on 2023. The result enabled us to increase the full year dividend to $0.08 per share fully franked for a gross yield of 8.5% based on the 31 December 2024 share price. Funds under advice closed the year at $85.8 billion, which was another record high. BFG is financially strong with $130 million in cash at the end of December. Revenues in the Technology & Platforms and the Products & Services businesses were up 7.8% to $85.8 million and profit after tax was up 15.9% to $21.5 million. This represents more than 10 consecutive years of growth. Collectively, these businesses contributed 31% of group revenue and 70% of group profit after tax. Both these divisions continue to have momentum. Throughout the year, we were focused on a number of initiatives, including an agreement with Macquarie Bank to transfer 75,000 Macquarie Online Trading accounts to Bell Direct, which were migrated in February of this year. Secondly, we launched our inaugural Graduate Program in 2024 with the first intake of 10 graduates who commenced their careers with us this February. We also are exploring several complementary acquisition opportunities and have done so during the year, including SelfWealth. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with the SelfWealth acquisition as we elected not to match a competing offer in the grounds of financial discipline. Our core strategy has not changed and has been to diversify earnings streams across the group. The value and the benefits of this strategy are clearly demonstrated in the growth and in the results we are seeing in our Technology & Platforms and Products & Services businesses. These divisions now provide a good foundation for ongoing growth for BFG. To elaborate a little further, our Technology & Platforms and Products & Services businesses have delivered record revenue and earnings for more than 10 consecutive years. Their combined contribution represented 31% of group revenue and 70% of group profit, demonstrating the operating leverage we derive from these businesses. These businesses are now at a scale where revenue growth contribute significantly to group earnings, and they provide relatively stable recurring revenues through the market cycle. Approximately 10% of group funds are under advice, around $9 billion, currently use our products and services. So there's still opportunity for further conversion. The ongoing development of people, technology and products is the key to unlocking value and growing our business. With respect to people, we continue to evaluate opportunities to grow our team through both internal and external channels, including developing our next generation of advisers and managers. During the year, we have added some key people to the business to increase focus on product and service development with a focus on creating new revenue streams as well as our continuing focus on improving operational efficiency. In terms of technology, our market-leading proprietary technologies provide opportunities for new revenue at lower marginal cost. The Technology & Platforms business is now at a scale where we can be price competitive without sacrificing margins. We also continue to add products and services to our suite with a number of initiatives planned for this year, the 2025 year. Expanding the distribution of our existing and new products and services through both internal and external channels will continue to be a focus for our business. I'll now hand over to Dean to provide more detail on the results.

Thanks, Arnie. Revenue grew 9.8% in 2024, with growth across all 3 business divisions, Retail & Institutional Broking, Products & Services and Technology & Platforms. Profit after tax was up 26.4%, which clearly demonstrates the leverage to revenue growth. And earnings in our Technology & Platforms and Products & Services business continue to grow strongly. The result enabled us to increase our full year dividend payout to $0.08 per share fully franked, representing an 8.5% gross yield. The group remains in a strong financial position. We are well capitalized with a solid cash back balance sheet. Net group cash at the end of December was $130 million. The only debt on balance sheet relates to funding of the Bell Potter Capital margin lending book, which continues to be conservatively managed and secured against client cash equities managed funds. Based on the BFG share price at 31 December of $1.34, we had an enterprise value of $300 million, a market capitalization of $430 million and EV over EBITDA multiple of 7.7x, a gross dividend yield of 8.5% and a price earnings ratio of 14x. Funds under advice, including portfolio administration, superannuation, CHESS sponsored holdings and our margin loan book all achieved record highs in 2024. At 31 December, total funds under advice were $85.8 billion, up 7.5% across the year. CHESS sponsored holdings finished the year at $82 billion, assets under administration in our Portfolio Administration Service were $5.8 billion, up 13.7% year-on-year. Total client funds at call were $1.9 billion, including $560 million held in the Bell Financial Trust and margin loan assets increased 5% to $606 million. Looking at our individual business divisions. Our Retail, Institutional and FX desks benefited from improved market sentiment and returning investor confidence. They generated $102.4 million in revenue, a 7.8% increase on 2023. Our Equity Capital Markets division had another excellent year, executing 106 transactions and raising $2.3 billion in new capital for our corporate clients. League tables released by LSEG ranked us among the top ECM firms in Australia, placing us second by number of deals executed and seventh by value of deals completed. Profit after the tax in the Broking division was $9.2 million, a material uplift on 2023. Products & Services revenue and earnings have grown consistently over an extended period. Across 2024, this business division generated $47.3 million in revenue, $13.3 million profit after tax, a 10.8% increase on 2023. The loan book ended the year at $588 million, an 8% increase on 2023. The Bell Financial Trust ended the year at $560 million and assets in our Portfolio Administration Service and superannuation product increased 14% to $5.8 billion. The Technology & Platforms business continues to deliver consistent growth in both revenue and earnings. We expect this growth to continue. Across 2024, this business generated $38.5 million in revenue, a 9.7% increase on 2023; $8.2 million profit, a 25% increase on 2023; and sponsored holdings grew 9.3% to $38.9 billion. Market update. It's been a challenging start to the year with Broking and Equity Capital Markets revenues adversely impacted by volatility across global markets. Group revenue for the 4 months ended 30th of April was $80 million, a 10.3% decrease on the previous corresponding period. Group profit before tax was $7.9 million, a 49% decrease on the previous corresponding period. Pleasingly, both revenue and earnings continue to grow in our Technology & Platforms and Products & Services businesses. Revenue in these businesses were up 12% to $30.4 million, and profit before tax was up 15% to $11.1 million. Funds under advice were $85.1 billion at 30th of April, relatively consistent with where they were at, at 31 December. I will now hand back to our Chairman for the formal business of the meeting.

Thank you, Dean. The first item of formal business is the tabling of the reports. I now lay before the meeting the financial report, directors' report and auditor's report for the company for the year ended 31 December 2024. Next, we have the resolutions. The first resolution relates to the adoption of the company's remuneration report for the year ended 31 December 2024. The remuneration report is contained in the director's report section of the annual report and sets out the policy for the remuneration of the key management personnel of the company. The Corporations 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 our Notice of Meeting. I move that the remuneration report for the ended 31 December 2024 be adopted. The summary of votes received before the meeting is now shown on the screen. We will now move to consider the second resolution, which relates to the reelection of Christine Feldmanis. Christine is due to retire from office and being eligible, offers herself for reelection. The Board, in the absence of Christine Feldmanis, unanimously supports her reelection. I move that Christine Feldmanis be reelected as a director of Bell Financial Group Limited. The summary of votes received before the meeting is now shown on the screen. We will now take questions from shareholders. Are there any questions?

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have a question from shareholder Stephen Mayne, who asks, "when a client does a nonrenounceable pro rata capital raising, what is our standard position in terms of allowing retail shareholders to apply for additional shortfall shares? Best practice in the past has been to apply no limit on overs, but in recent years, these have been capped at levels such as 50% of entitlement. Why don't we just advise companies to do unlimited overs to minimize the chances of a shortfall, which dilutes retail shareholders as a class?"

Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your view. Obviously, within Bell Financial Group, when there are capital raisings, we have both an Equity Capital Markets group and of course, we have our own stock broking business. And clearly, we have clear information barriers between those 2. Generally, we take the view that each particular listed company is best placed to decide on the capital raising structure for its circumstances at the time and our Equity Capital Markets Group acts in the interest of those companies.

Thank you. We have another question from shareholder Stephen Mayne, who asks, "the 5 most valuable U.S. big tech stocks, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and NVIDIA, are together worth more than $20 trillion, largely because they have enormous pricing power and are overcharging customers the world over. Could the CEO comment on which of the big global technology companies we are most reliant on? And what would we do if they suddenly put their prices up by 30%?"

I'll pass that question to Arnie to answer.

Thank you, Brian, and thank you for the question, Stephen. In our business, we predominantly use Microsoft technologies and to a lesser extent, Amazon for cloud services. Our in-house technology is built in a way to ensure that we're not tied to any one provider. So we would always have options if prices became unconventional to switch to alternate providers.

Thank you, Arnie.

We have another question from shareholder Stephen Mayne, who asks, "could Board candidate Christine Feldmanis comment on her personal attitude to the way retail shareholders are treated in capital raisings because we continue to be involved in a lot of deals which dilute retail? Does Christine have a view on when or if we are ever going to be involved in a PAITREO capital raising which is the best structure for preserving retail value and ownership? What is Christine's view on PAITREO raisings? And when we see, when we next see to raise capital ourselves, will she push for a PAITREO structure?"

Obviously, I'll hand that question over to Christine to answer.

Thank you. Thank you for the question. In relation to the retail shareholders being treated when we do capital raisings, at the end of the day, we facilitate capital raisings for and on behalf of our clients and it is for the client to determine the way in which that capital raising will be undertaken and the structure. In terms of when and if Bell Financial Group did a future capital raising, I think it is best to wait until such time and the structure of the markets and what Bell Financial Group is trying to achieve at a point in time rather than say there is a -- that I have a personal preference for one methodology over another. So I hope that fulfills and answers your question. Thank you.

Thank you, Christine. Further questions, Cindy?

Yes. We have a question from shareholder Stephen Mayne, who asks, "I know we make lots of money from selective placements, but has Bell Financial Group ever been involved in an SPP-only capital raising? Also, when advising companies to do institutional placements, is it our policy to always insist on a follow-on SPP so that retail shareholders are not diluted without compensation? How many placement-only capital raisings did we do in calendar 2024?"

Firstly, I'll deal with Bell Financial Group itself. The firm has not raised money via a share purchase plan. We last raised equity capital in June 2018 when we purchased the minority holding or the balance of the holding in third-party platform, and we raised that capital with a renounceable entitlement offer. In calendar year 2024, as part of our equity markets activities, we were the lead manager for 29 placements and 18 placements with share purchase plans. We were also the lead manager for 1 underwritten share purchase plan only. As I said earlier, it's really for each particular listed company to decide on the best capital raising structure for its circumstances at the time. And it's our role to facilitate that company's aims.

Thank you. We have no further questions.

I would like to advise that shortly then voting on the resolutions will close. We will take a few moments now to allow you to finish voting. Please complete your voting now. [Voting]

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