MA Financial Group Limited (MAF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

On behalf of MA Financial Group, I'd like to welcome everybody here today to our new offices and hope you enjoy the amenity, and we look forward to not only hearing from you during the meeting but enjoying some hospitality with you after the conclusion of the meeting. My name is Jeffrey Browne, and I'm the Chair of MA Financial Group Ltd. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the owners of the land on which we are formally conducting this meeting, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging and also I bid warm welcome to any First Australians that have access to the webcast today. I've been informed that a quorum is present, and that it is now the designated time for the meeting. I declare the meeting open. The Notice of Meeting has been distributed and will be taken as read. On behalf of my fellow directors, I welcome you to this meeting, our first meeting under our new company name, which you voted to approve last year. May I now introduce some of those in attendance today. Seated before you, we have joint Chief Executive Officers, Chris Wyke and Julian Biggins, Non-Executive Directors Alexandra Goodfellow and Simon Kelly; and Company Secretary and General Counsel, Rebecca Ong. Unfortunately, our Group Vice Chair, Andrew Pridham, is not with us today but joins us via webcast as he is required to isolate. Also joining us via webcast today are our U.S.-based directors, Ken Moelis and Kate Pilcher Ciafone. I would also like to welcome in the room our Chief Financial Officer, Graham Lello; Janna Robertson, our Chief Operating Officer and Joint Company Secretary; Nick Rosario, representing Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the company's auditors, and Rebecca Maslen-Stannage representing Herbert Smith Freehills, the company's lawyers. For health and safety reasons, please note the location of your nearest exit in the unlikely event that we need to evacuate the building, and would you kindly turn off your mobile phones to avoid any disruption to the meeting. In terms of the proposed order of business for today, Boardroom, the company's registry, will outline proceed voting and questions at today's meeting. I'll then make a short address and then invite Joint Chief Executive Officer, Chris Wyke, to address the meeting. Following this, I will proceed with the conduct of the formal business of the meeting. I'll now hand over to [indiscernible] from Boardroom, our share registry, to outline the question and voting procedure at this meeting. [ Nicole ]?

Thank you, Jeff. There are several matters [indiscernible] shareholders are entitled to [indiscernible]. Shareholders are entitled to [indiscernible] The Chairman asking [indiscernible]. That shareholders proxyholders or shareholder [indiscernible]. We ask our shareholders who wish to ask questions [indiscernible] to get to as many questions from our shareholders as we can. [indiscernible]. The total media shareholders are [indiscernible] shareholders, please also state your [indiscernible] if you are not just [indiscernible]. So on that note [indiscernible].

Thank you, Nicole. That's all right. No problems, very easy to get lost in the turning of the pages. Well, shareholders, 2021 was a year of significant achievement for MA Financial Group. We delivered record earnings growth and several important strategic milestones as our business continues to expand and evolve. I spoke at last year's Annual General Meeting of the significant challenges the business faced from the COVID-19 pandemic and how the group successfully navigated these to lay the foundations for strong growth, and it is very gratifying to see our growth continue so strongly through 2021. I would sincerely like to thank all our staff for their hard work in delivering such a positive result in 2021, which was another challenging year for our whole community. In 2021, the group delivered record underlying earnings per share of $0.382. This was up 52% on the 2020 result as the business capitalized on improved market sentiment and increased business activity levels across all 3 of our operating divisions. Strong client flows into our asset management funds, increased lending activity and more corporate advisory revenue underpinned the record result. As a result of this strong growth and our well-capitalized balance sheet, the Board was able to declare a fully franked final dividend of $0.12 per share to add to our maiden interim dividend of $0.05 per share. The combined full year distribution of $0.17 per share was up 70% on 2020. Shortly, Chris Wyke will take you through the key group and divisional highlights. The company's transition from Moelis Australia to MA Financial in 2021 represented an important milestone, reflecting the growing diversification of the group's business activities and increasingly global footprint. The new name and corporate identity has been a great success, underlining the company's independence and broadness of the group's diverse set of capabilities outside of our core Corporate Advisory expertise. Importantly, the connection with our New York Stock Exchange-listed strategic partner Moelis & Company remains incredibly strong. It retains a 13.5% ownership interest in MA Financial Group and 2 Board seats, occupied by Ken Moelis and Kate Pilcher-Ciafone, extremely welcome and add incredible value to what we do as a business. Our Corporate Advisory and Equities business continues to trade under the name MA Moelis Australia. Our strong earnings growth has been the result of many years of ongoing investment in our platform. The group continued this investment over the past year as we added capability, both organically and through acquisition. We added to our real estate capabilities with the acquisition of RetPro, a leading operator and manager of retail shopping centers. We broadened our corporate advisory offering with selective managing director hires during the year and further strategic senior hires have been made as well. Perhaps most significantly, we added strategically important distribution infrastructure to our lending business, announcing in December that we would acquire mortgage aggregation business Finsure. The acquisition was completed in February, accelerating MA Financial's strategy to develop a scalable, technology-based lending platform in Australia's $2 trillion residential mortgage market. Our lending business reported as a stand-alone division for the first time in 2021 as its activities continue to grow and diversify. Its portfolio of loans increased by 44% over the year to $455 million, and looking ahead, the opportunity for growth remains very significant. Another core principle of our strategy is our focus on empowering our people. Our business is a diversified financial services group, which sees us operating and growing multiple business units in parallel. Our senior leadership team benefits from significant depth of experience and tenure working together. Exceptionally well-led by joint CEOs Julian Biggins and Christopher Wyke, our senior corporate leadership team spans 42 Managing Directors with significant experience in tenure at MA Financial Group. Importantly, this team is highly motivated with staff owning approximately 30% of our company and holding great pride in our history and delivering optimum service to our clients. They're a highly focused team balancing risk management with excellent shareholder returns. The output of this focus has seen us achieve total shareholder returns of approximately 26% per annum since listing in 2017. Many years of empowerment and training coupled with our history of high retention of key staff means that we can enjoy long-term stability and focus. We recently moved into our new office premises in Sydney and Melbourne, which provide absolute best-in-class amenity for our staff and our clients, creating a positive working environment for increased collaboration and engagement. We talk about the importance of our people, and this is an important investment in retaining and encouraging the best people to join MA Financial Group. With a continued focus on retention and incentive, the Board invested significant energy during the year in the development and implementation of an enhanced long-term incentive program that fits with our philosophy of creating long-term alignment between executives and shareholders. Having the appropriate incentives to drive performance is a key to the ongoing success of the business, and we believe that we have struck the appropriate balance to ensure that outcome. Our full approach is outlined in the 2021 remuneration report contained in the annual report. Reflecting on the ongoing growth of MA Financial and our aim of increasing Board independence, we welcomed Simon Kelly to the Board of Directors around the time of last year's Annual General Meeting. Simon joined the Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director and chairs the company's Audit and Risk Committee. Following Simon's appointment, both Board subcommittees are chaired by independent directors with Alexandra Goodfellow appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee in August 2020. Alex was indeed instrumental in leading the Board in the development of our enhanced remuneration incentive scheme in 2021. And for that very capable body of work, we thank you, Alex. Whilst I'm very happy with the functioning and effectiveness of the current board structure, we remain focused on increasing the board’s independence and diversity. Approval of Resolution 9 today will give us flexibility in this regard, amending the company constitution to remove the existing cap that limits the number of directors to 8. We've also set out gender targets for our broader workforce and senior executive in our inaugural sustainability report within the 2021 annual report. The inclusion of this report recognizes the increasing importance of sound environmental, social and governance practices in generating better outcomes for all of our stakeholders. MA Financial's ESG practices continue to evolve as the group increases in scale and broadens its business interests. The report highlights sustainability procedures and practices within the business and outlines important focus points for the future development as we continue to grow. So I'd like to thank our Board, our Senior Executives and staff for their continued hard work, dedication and skill through a period of significant business growth and evolution. Preserving our strong workplace culture based on sound values, innovation, cohesion and accountability will remain key to our continued success. Macroeconomic conditions are changing, and global financial markets are becoming more volatile. However, our business is diversified, and in a strong financial and operational position to continue to prosper in such a challenging environment. So on behalf of the board, I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for your ongoing support of our company, and to give you a little bit more detail of our operations through the year, I'd now like to call on our joint CEO, Chris Wyke, to address the meeting.

Thanks, Jeff, and shareholders, welcome. Fellow owners, this is our Annual General Meeting, and thank you for your attendance today. If you're following this online, thank you for continuing to support and follow the company. My name is Chris Wyke and with Julian Biggins, I'm one of the Joint Chief Executive Officers of MA Financial Group. Our Chairman, Jeffrey Browne, has already run through some of the group's FY '21 financial highlights and made comment on the overall business. I'll dig a bit deeper into some of the segments and operations with a bit more color. During FY '21, our journey as a diversified financial services company continued. We experienced really strong growth across all of our business units despite the global pandemic-related disruptions. Our consistent strategy of developing deep financial and operational expertise and scalable profitable businesses continue to be successful in FY '21, led to a record result. Notably, our underlying EBITDA was up 48% to $88.5 million. Underlying EPS, as Jeff mentioned, was up 52% to $0.382 per share, and the return on equity generated for the year stood at 21%. Asset management underlying revenue increased by 57% to just over $143 million. Our assets under management increased by $1.1 billion to close FY '21 at $6.9 billion, an increase of 28% on the prior year. Our Corporate Advisory & Equities underlying revenue increased 29% to $68.6 million. The Lending division grew its loan portfolio by 44% to $455 million and delivered $10.3 million in underlying EBITDA. A total of $0.17 in fully franked dividends were declared for the FY '21 year, comprising a maiden interim dividend of $0.05 per share and a final dividend of $0.12 per share. In aggregate, that represented a 70% increase on FY '20's dividend. And very important to us, a robust balance sheet was maintained with cash holdings averaging approximately $100 million during the year. The investment in our platform and operational capability continue throughout 2021. We completed the acquisition of property manager at RetPro in April. And we announced the acquisition of mortgage aggregator Finsure in December, and that was concurrent with an equity capital raising, which was significantly oversubscribed. These and other investments enhance the existing foundations for future growth. Additionally, the alignment between our shareholders and employees continues given the substantial investment that employees have in MA Financial shares and also, importantly, the funds that it manages. We continue to create broad equity ownership amongst our people, and the evolution of the remuneration plan in 2021 was an important strategic step in furthering this. Our culture is critical to our success, and embedding a founder and owner culture is part of what delivers success to our investors. And as Jeff mentioned, we're very proud of this since listing in 2017, we've generated approximately 26% per annum compound underlying EPS growth, which translates into strong shareholder returns. So stepping through some of the divisional highlights. In Asset Management, over FY '21, we grew AUM to that $6.9 billion, driven by strong net fund inflows that were up roughly 2.5x on the previous year. This growth was underpinned by a very significant increase in inflows from domestic clients, up almost 9x on 2020 as we deliver on our strategy of diversifying our distribution channels. Throughout FY '21, the ongoing impact to the global pandemic needed to be carefully managed. And despite these related disruptions, the scaling of our investment strategies continued. Our investment strategies continue to benefit from access to broader and deeper distribution relationships and strong asset performance with our increased asset management up 28% over the year. An important point to emphasize is that while we highlight our AUM to shareholders, we are more focused on delivering attractive returns and managing risk to our clients. We also carefully consider the profitability of our asset management initiatives and recognize that fee cards and terms vary materially between investor types and asset classes. Notably, during FY '21, our hospitality fund, Redcape Hotel Group, was delisted from the ASX and now operates as an open-ended unlisted retail fund. Pleasingly, since acquiring Redcape Hotel Group in 2017, investors in the funds have achieved a total return in excess of 16% per annum despite the material operational challenges of the global pandemic over the last couple of years. The strategy that we initiated approximately 5 years ago to diversify our distribution and refine our product offering continued to gain momentum in FY '21. Diversification of our investor base was driven by dedicated teams focusing on institutional, foreign and domestic high-net worth and retail investor clients. Notably, domestic distribution raised $450 million during FY '21. It was nearly a ninefold increase on FY '20. We also continue to diversify the geography of our client base and now manage investor capital from over 28 countries around the world. A pleasing part of our foreign distribution channel is that non-SIV investors grew by nearly 40% over the year, outpacing SIV growth for the first time, and that momentum continues to build. As further evidence of our diversification strategy working, in FY '19, our net inflows were split approximately 80% foreign and 20% domestic. Now today, that split is approximately 50% foreign and 50% domestic. And this should all be considered in the context of the overall group net inflows over that period of time themselves increasing almost 4x over the last 2 years to December 2021. Further, diversification of our product offering itself was enhanced during 2021. In April '21, we secured our retail product license and launched our first 2 retail credit investment fund offerings. They are the MA Priority Income Fund and the MA Secured Real Estate Income Fund. These products have received positive ratings from key research houses and are gaining significant traction with independent financial advisers. Over FY '21, the assets under management in the Priority Income Fund and our real estate credit funds increased from $515 million to $1 billion. And we continue to experience significant demand for these strategies. In November 2021, we soft launched a U.S. dollar series of our MA Priority Income Fund with the aim of offering our foreign investors a credit-backed U.S. dollar product based on the same construct as Australian dollar MA Priority Income Fund. For us, this is an important entry for the business into the U.S. credit market, arguably the largest credit market globally. More broadly, our asset management business is well positioned to perform through a period of higher inflation and rising interest rates. We have a diversified product offering, which we believe offers options in different markets. For example, in the current negative real interest rate environment, we have experienced increased inflows into our higher-yielding and defensive credit investing products as investors have become more concerned with volatile equity markets. This is what the product was designed for. Our hospitality assets have continued to perform very strongly as trading conditions return closer to normal and our ability to achieve higher prices for our products should provide some inflation hedge. In real estate, our largest exposure is to retail shopping centers, where we have significant yield premiums compared to long-term averages. We believe our assets are generally well-placed in the current market conditions. Although clearly, our equity strategy is facing into a volatile equity market. In relation to the Lending division. Lending division, the focus in FY '21 was continuing to build a scalable platform to position MA Financial to capitalize on positive tailwinds in the growth of nonbank lending and target either large addressable markets, such as the $2 trillion residential mortgage market, or target more profitable specialty finance markets, such as legal disbursement funding. Throughout FY '21, our loan portfolio increased 44% to $455 million, and invested capital increased to $92 million. While our revenue increased 30% in FY '21, the net interest margin generated was 5.3%. This compares to 8.8% in FY '20. As we flagged, this decrease in NIM reflects the strategy of pursuing more rapid growth in our residential mortgage-lending activities, which is lower net interest margin but highly scalable compared to the relative growth that we can achieve in specialty finance, which is higher net interest margin but typically not as scalable. The significant investments we made in operational capabilities did lower our return on invested capital, which was 12.2% for the year as we digested those costs of building that platform to position ourselves for growth. And this was below our target level of 15% as we were making those investments in the platform. In December 2021, we announced the acquisition of Finsure for $145 million. This strategic acquisition further enhances the deep operational expertise that we seek to build in our lending division. Finsure is a leading Australian mortgage aggregation business focused on that $2 trillion residential market in Australia. The loan book on platform in FY '21 that Finsure has closed the year at $60 billion. Finsure adds powerful technology-enabled distribution infrastructure for loan products at scale to our Lending business. Finsure generates ongoing platform fees, activity fees and other revenues, such as white label commission. In terms of our Corporate Advisory & Equities division. Our Corporate Advisory & Equities division experienced its strongest year on record, generating $68.6 million in revenue. The record performance was driven by merger and acquisition activity, which benefited from a number of transactions closing early in the year, delivering our highest first half on record within that division. And the continued activity experienced in the second half resulted in the posting of our second-highest second half on record within the division. What was really good to see a number of these mandates were global and really did showcase the strength of the MA Financial and Moelis & Company relationship and working together. During the year, we continued to invest in our people. We averaged 51 executives for FY '21 compared to 45 in FY '20, and the current number of executives in the division stands at 58. In FY '21, the revenue -- divisional revenue per executive was $1.2 million, which is in the middle of our target range of $1.1 million, $1.3 million per executive. In relation to capital management, our consistent strategy to maintain a prudent and dynamic operating balance sheet continued with our cash balance averaging approximately $100 million over FY '21. During the year, we recycled $80 million of prior investments back into cash and reinvested $60 million to support new growth initiatives, demonstrating how our balance sheet strength is utilized to help drive growth. In December 2021, we undertook a $100 million institutional placement to fund the $145 million acquisition of Finsure, which was significantly oversubscribed. In conjunction with the institutional placement, we raised a further $20 million via a share purchase plan, which was made available to existing retail investors, which was also oversubscribed. As Finsure settled in February 2022, the amount of cash on our balance sheet as at December '21 being $241 million, included approximately $100 million reserve for this acquisition. Our core borrowings remained unchanged during the year. Given the profitability of the business and asset backing, we view our current level of borrowings as conservative. Our balance sheet is positioned for continued growth. In relation to continued growth in terms of the FY '22 outlook and guidance. Despite the volatile markets and uncertain macro environment, the year has started well, and we reiterate our guidance for FY '22 underlying earnings per share growth of between 10% and 20%. Of course, this is subject to market conditions and the other previously disclosed assumptions. Over the current year-to-date now, we have received approximately $340 million of net inflows into our Asset Management products. Strong inflows from domestic and non-SIV foreign clients has offset a slowdown from SIV investors caused by disruption to the SIV application process due to lockdowns in Hong Kong and China. We see this as a temporary impact, and the pipeline of foreign SIV clients remains strong. Flows into our credit strategy have continued to build reflecting the current equity market volatility and an investor preference for defensive yield-based credit funds, noting that the vast majority of our credit funds hold floating rate loan assets, they are well positioned to remain attractive to investors in a period of rising interest rates. Our credit funds have received $230 million of our total net inflows in 2022 to-date. As at 30 April, assets under management had grown to $7.2 billion from $6.9 billion as at 31 December 2021 with strong net inflows offsetting negative market impacts on the equity funds that we manage. Corporate advisory activity remains strong, largely focused on M&A activity, and we remain confident in achieving our revenue per executive target of between $1.1 million and $1.3 million. We have successfully integrated Finsure into our Lending business and have executed on the acquisition of 100% of the MKM residential lending business that we had a prior 47.5% ownership interest in. Our people remain our most important asset, however. While continuing a long-held focus on staff development and retention, we now employ approximately 535 people. And supporting that, the development of the MA Academy aimed at providing, leading training for our people continues its evolution. So in summary, it's been a challenging few years managing the disruption of the global pandemic, no doubt. It's disrupted the operations of our business and those of our assets under management. The record result for the FY '21 year is a testament to the hard work of all our people executing a well-considered and consistent strategy in difficult conditions. As confirmed today, we remain confident about the positioning of our business and significant growth opportunities across all our divisions. We will continue to execute a consistent strategy of building profitable businesses in large scalable markets where we have operating expertise and edge. We continue to make investment decisions that underpin future sustainable growth and generate the best risk-adjusted returns for our fund investors and our shareholders. So we thank our clients and our shareholders for the ongoing support and the confidence shown in our Board and management. As always, we would like to thank our people and their families for their ongoing commitment in what has been a record-breaking year. Thank you and over to you, Jeff, to continue.

Very impressive report card. And may I also say in relation to the commentary on inflows in our asset management business and acknowledge the outstanding leadership in relation to asset management of Andrew Martin, who's also with us here today. And you can see the wonderful contribution that, that division makes to funding our various products in our business. I now turn to the first item of business on today's agenda, which is to receive and consider the financial reports of the company and its controlled entities and the reports of directors and the auditor for the year ended 31st December 2021. These reports were released on the ASX as part of our annual report on the 17th of February 2022. They were also published on the company's website. The text of the first item of business is shown on the screen. Neither the Corporations Act nor the company's constitution requires a vote of shareholders on these reports, but it does provide an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions relating to the reports. Please note that any questions on remuneration -- on the remuneration report will be dealt with later when we reach that relevant agenda item. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business or general questions about the management of the company. As mentioned by Nicole, in order to enable all shareholders a reasonable opportunity to be heard, the speakers are asked to please limit themselves to no more than 2 questions or comments at any time. Are there any questions?

[indiscernible] shareholders [indiscernible] over the last 6 months we have been [indiscernible] on the [indiscernible] interest rate and the market expects multiple [ breakdowns ] over the next year. [indiscernible] you and [indiscernible]?

Well, obviously, we operate in an environment where rates can change. We have various defensive practices. Our assets are well positioned to withstand any rate rises, and we don't believe that those rate rises will have a significant effect on the outcomes of our business.

[indiscernible] and that was [indiscernible] the [indiscernible].

Well, I guess we live in an uncertain world. We've all learned that over the last 2 years. But pleasingly, and as Chris mentioned, almost 50% of our inflows now into our asset-managed business are from domestic sources. And those that traditionally were sourced out of China had been diverted through other various countries in Asia and extending into as far as South America -- South Africa. So we are diversified, and diversification provides protection against those events. Any other questions? No. well, thank you for those questions. I'll now turn to Item 2a on today's agenda, which is the election of Julian Biggins as a director of the company. The text of the resolution is shown on the screen. Julian Biggins is offering himself for election at this meeting. Julian, as mentioned earlier, is the Joint Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the company. He was appointed to the Board on the 2nd of February 2017. Julian has served as an executive of the company since its formation in 2009 and is currently a member of the company's Audit and Risk Committee. Further information about Julian is set out in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, with Julian abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Item 2A. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business. Thank you. As there are no questions, we've now finalized discussion on this item. The details of the votes received in relation to this item are displayed on the screen. Could you please now complete your voting cards for Item 2A? [Voting]

Item 2B on today's agenda is the election of Andrew Pridham as a director of the company. The text of the resolution is now shown on the screen. In accordance with the listing rules, Andrew is submitting himself for reelection at this meeting. Andrew is an Executive Director of the Board, having served as Chief Executive Officer of the company since its formation. He was appointed to the Board on the 25th of May 2010. Further information about Andrew is contained in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, with Andrew abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in front of Item 2B. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business. Thank you. As there are no questions, we've now finalized discussion on this item. Details of the voting received in relation to this are displayed on the screen. Could you now complete your voting cards for item 2b? [Voting]

Item 3 on today's agenda relates to the adoption of the company's remuneration report for the year ended 31st December 2021. The text of the resolution is now shown on the screen. The remuneration report sets out the remuneration policies of the company and reports on the remuneration arrangements in place for the company's key management personnel during the year. As prescribed by the Corporations Act, the vote of the adoption -- on the adoption of the remuneration report is advisory only and does not bind the directors of the company. However, the Board will take the outcome of the vote and discussion at this meeting into account in setting remuneration policy in future years. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Item 3. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business. Thank you. As there are no questions, we have now finalized discussion on this item. Details of the proxies received in relation to this item displayed on the screen. Could you now complete your voting cards for item 3? [Voting]

Turning now to Item 4 on today's agenda, which relates to the ratification of the prior issue of shares under placement. Item 4 seeks ratification under Listing Rule 7.4 of the issue of 12,903,226 shares on 21st December 2021. The effect of ratification under this Item 4 is to restore the company's maximum discretionary power to issue further shares up to 15% of the issued capital of the company without requiring shareholder approval during the next 12 months. The text of the resolution is now shown on the screen. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of item 4. I invite any questions you may have in relation to this item. Thank you. As there are no questions, details of the voting received in relation to this item are now displayed on the screen. Could you please now complete your voting cards for Item 4? Thank you. [Voting]

I now turn to Item 5 on today's agenda, which relates to the ratification of prior issue of shares under the loan funded share plan as described in the Notice of Meeting. The text of the resolution is shown on the screen. The Board recommends holders vote in favor of Item 5. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business. Thank you. As there are no questions, we've now finalized a cash and on this item. The details of the voting received in relation to this are displayed on the screen. Could you please now complete your voting cards for item 5? [Voting]

Moving now to Item 6 and Item 7, which seeks approval in respect of the proposed issue of shares to the executive directors as part of the long-term incentive arrangements for FY 2021 and 2022 as set out in the Notice of Meeting. The text of these resolutions are shown in turn on the screen. The Board, other than Christopher Wyke, Julian Biggins and Andrew Pridham, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of item Bracket A to C and Item 7, Bracket A to C. Are there any questions that shareholders have in relation to this item of business? Thank you. As there are no questions, we've now finalized discussion on this item. The details adding received in relation to these items are displayed on the screen. Could you please now complete your voting cards for Item 6 and 7? [Voting]

Turning now to Item 8, which relates to the proposed amendment to the terms of the options, which have been issued under the company's equity incentive plan as set out in the Notice of Meeting. The text of the resolution is shown on the screen. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Item 8. I now invite any questions that you may have on this item of business. Thank you. As there are no questions, we've now finalized discussion on this item. Details of the voting received in relation to this are now displayed on the screen. Could you please now complete your voting cards for Item 8? [Voting]

Moving now to Item 9, which relates to the proposed amendments to the company's constitution to remove the upper limit on the number of directors who can sit on the company's Board are set out in the Notice of Meeting. The text of the resolution is shown on the screen. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Item 9. I now invite any questions you may have on this item of the business.

Chair, there are 2 presubmitted questions on this item. The first comes from shareholder [ Jackie Moore ]. The question asks, you have 8 Board members already, which appears a lot for the size of the company. Do you really need more?

Well, we're seeking to remove the cap on directors so that we can continue to assess questions of independence and diversity, which are very important in any Board. We have joint CEOs, which is 2 positions on the Board, and we have our representatives from Moelis & Company, again, for the 2 positions on the Board. We would like the flexibility to be able to increase independence and diversity as we move forward.

Thank you. And the final presubmitted question comes from shareholder, [ Stephen Aboud ]. And the question asked, I see that Moelis & Company is now below 15% shareholding. How engaged are they at the Board level?

Well, thank you for the question, Stephen. I mentioned earlier in my address the importance of the relationship between MA Financial Group and Moelis & Company. It's never been stronger. The contribution of Ken and Kate at board level is outstanding, gives us depth, breadth, flexibility, challenging our thinking and contributes to a very healthy environment around the Board table. Any further questions? No. Okay. As there are no further questions, details of the voting received in relation to this item are displayed on the screen. And could you please now complete your voting cards for item 9? [Voting]

So now the conclusion of business. Please ensure that you place your completed voting card in the ballot boxes next to the exit to the room, and that will now conclude the business of this meeting. The results of the poll will be announced later today on the ASX and will be published on our website. Thank you very much for your attention and for your continued support of our company. I now declare the meeting closed subject to the finalization of the poll. As I mentioned earlier, please stay behind and join us for some refreshments and some further discussion with the executives present in the room today. Thank you again for your attendance.