ClearView Wealth Limited (CVW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ClearView Wealth Limited Full Year 2021 Results. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Simon Swanson, Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to ClearView's FY '21 Results Conference Call. Today, I'm joined by ClearView's Chief Financial Officer, Athol Chiert. In a moment, I'll provide an overview of ClearView's full year results and a business update. Athol will then go through the results in greater detail before I wrap up and we take questions. This morning, ClearView announced an operating earnings of $23.9 million, for the year ending the 30th of June 2021, up 83% and an underlying net profit after tax of $22.7 million, up 54%. This is a strong result amidst challenging market conditions and ongoing uncertainty due to COVID-19. At the same time as the release of our FY '21 results, we've also announced today, the sale of our Financial Advice businesses to Centrepoint Alliance. ClearView has entered into a share purchase agreement for the sale of our businesses in exchange for $15.2 million, made up of $3.2 million in cash and the acquisition of a strategic 25% stake in Centrepoint Alliance. This allows ClearView to indirectly participate in the financial advice industry consolidation. And at the same time, separate our product manufacturer and financial advice arms. FY '21 has been a transformational year, and the business has achieved a number of milestones during the year. Firstly, the implementation of line of business structure and improved capability and capacity, commencement of a multiyear life insurance transformation project and progress towards the launch of a new contemporary technology platform and income protection product called Clear Choice late this year. Agreement to separation of the dealer group and the Financial Advice business from the ClearView Group through a strategic transaction with Centrepoint Alliance, as I mentioned earlier. And we've processed of the migrating of the private label wrap platform from Colonial First State to HUB24 complete. The process of simplification of the wealth management business has commenced with a view to further digitization. Raising of $75 million of Tier 2 capital and completion of our other capital management initiatives in FY '21, a solid performance in FY '21 in obviously, a challenging environment and we've performed relatively well despite the challenges presented by COVID-19. We've also declared a fully franked dividend this year of $0.01 per share. We have a strong balance sheet and capital base backed by net cash and investments of $374 million or $0.56 per share as at the 30th of June 2021. Today, ClearView has proven resilient to the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, although we continue to monitor developments closely and prioritize the health and safety of our staff, customers and business partners. Our teams are currently working from home while maintaining day-to-day operations and minimizing disruption to our customers. The aim of our multiyear transformation program, which commenced in FY '20 and accelerated through FY '21 is to drive scale and efficiencies to ensure that ClearView remains easy to do business with. The business is on track to deliver key transformation milestones, starting with the first stage of our new life insurance platform. This platform will be central for advisers to engage with ClearView and access our new life insurance product series, ClearView's Clear Choice. The launch of Clear Choice on our new platform in October this year will be a major milestone in ClearView story to date. In response to changing consumer expectations and APRA's individual disability income insurance measures, Clear Choice is a competitive, flexible and more sustainable solution. It will replace ClearView Life Solutions as our flagship product. Since 2011, Life Solutions has performed strongly. It has been consistently rated highly by independent research houses, earning in a place on additional 185 approved product lists in FY '21. As a result, 777 dealer groups representing over 4,000 financial advisers are able to do business with ClearView. Clear Choice will build on that momentum. Overall, FY '21 has been a transitional year for ClearView. And I'll now hand over to Athol to walk you through the FY '21 financial results.

Thank you, Simon. As Simon mentioned, in FY '21, our group operating earnings increased 83% to $23.9 million. Group operating earnings as the group is the Board's key measure of profitability and the basis for dividend payment decisions, as it represents the underlying net profit after tax before investment income and the interest costs associated with the corporate debt and Tier 2 capital. The group's material improvement in profitability was driven by strong underlying claims and improved lapse performance relative to the assumptions as at 30 June 2020. ClearView's FY '21 result also highlights the group's strong balance sheet and recurring revenue base, which underpins our growth profile. We also completed the successful $75 million Tier 2 capital raising in November 2020. Life Insurance remains the group's key profit driver, contributing 98% of total operating earnings. In FY '21, Life Insurance operating earnings increased 166% to $23.5 million. Our in-force premiums increased 7% to $289.7 million. And similarly, gross life insurance premium income to $278.2 million. In Wealth Management, funds under management increased off the back of positive inflows and strong investment performance. The Board has also reinstated the dividend and announced a fully franked FY '21 cash dividend of $0.01 per share that reflects an element of conservatism due to recent uncertainties presented by COVID-19. The group has a net surplus capital position of $14.3 million as at 30 June. The surplus capital position and future capital generation is anticipated to fund the material investment in the new technology platform and multiyear transformation program in our Life Insurance business. The forecast capital generation allows for progressively increased new business generation and market share and stagger price increases on our LifeSolutions in-force portfolio over a period of time. The ultra-low interest rate environment continues to adversely impact earnings. We also have an embedded value of $0.96 per share at 30 June 2021, and reflects the discounted cash flows of our in-force portfolios. Today, we also announced the Centrepoint Alliance transaction. Much of the value of the transaction is in the strategic value and extraction of significant synergies and the creation of a platform and capability to further consolidate the market. The ClearView Financial Advice businesses are also expected to declare a circa $7 million pre-completion dividend prior to the sale to Centrepoint Alliance. Our net surplus capital position is then expected to increase by the amount that the net proceeds of the transaction and the pre-completion dividend exceeds the carrying value of our investment on our balance sheet in the Financial Advice businesses. ClearView shareholding at Centrepoint Alliance is expected to be earnings accretive to ClearView. And post-completion, we're expected to equity account the earnings of the combined business. Any costs incurred in relation to this transaction will be reported as a cost considered unusual to the ordinary activities and not formed part of underlying NPAT in FY '22. The deal is expected to be completed on or around 31 October 2021. I'll now hand back to Simon.

Thank you, Athol. This is an important time, both in ClearView's growth story and ClearView's history. We believe that Australians have a fundamental need for life insurance and wealth management products due to record levels of household debt, Australia's complex taxation, superannuation and social security system, and ongoing uncertainty amidst the global pandemic. ClearView 19 -- sorry, COVID-19 has led to increasing public awareness of the value and importance of life insurance and professional advice. After a period of transition, our attention is shifting to business simplification and sales and distribution, with clear targets set for FY '22. We continue to maintain a sharp focus on claims and lapse management. We have a focus on improving claims outcomes and supporting customers through their recovery. ClearView's performance will hinge on the successful launch of our Life Insurance technology platform and Clear Choice. Over the next few years, we'll continue to invest in technology as we roll out additional functionality and enhancements. I will now take questions. Over to you, Kevin.

[Operator Instructions] Our next telephone question in queue is from Philip Pepe from Blue Ocean Equities.

Well done on a good result. The industry data always comes out with a lag. So just wondering how your competitors' behaving in a post-Hayne regime. Has pricing become more rational, reflecting the risk in the portfolio, et cetera? Is the industry moving upwards? Or is there still some shenanigans going on?