McMillan Shakespeare Limited (MMS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the McMillan Shakespeare Limited Full Year Results FY '23. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Rob De Luca, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Zach. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the MMS full year results presentation for the 2023 financial year. My name is Rob De Luca and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of MMS. I'm joined this morning by Ashley Conn, our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet and pay my respect to their elders, past and present. This morning's presentation will largely be focused across 4 areas. I will firstly provide an overview of the financial year, including some highlights, we believe, show the underlying strength of our business, an update on our clear strategic priorities for delivering sustainable growth across the group and our Simply Stronger program, and touch on the progress we've made on our sustainability agenda. Secondly, Ashley will speak in more detail to our financial performance during FY '23. I will then expand on the financial and operational performance of our 3 segments, namely Group Remuneration Services, Asset Management Services, and Plan and Support Services. Finally, I will provide an overview of our FY '24 outlook and priorities. As I move through the presentation, we'll be referring to the slides that were released with our results this morning, and both Ashley and I will be happy to take questions at the conclusion of the presentation. Before I talk to the slide pack in detail, I would like to say that I'm pleased that we have been able to deliver growth in our normalized financial and operating performance in the FY '23 period as we increased our focus on, firstly, our customers and clients; secondly, our strategic priorities, which we announced during the year; and thirdly, our simplification of our portfolio of businesses. Importantly, this focus enabled the group to cement its market leadership position in both salary packaging and novated leasing during the period, whilst helping to position our more streamlined portfolio for future growth. And as we enter FY '24, we do so as a trusted partner with positions in large and growing markets, and our businesses that are well positioned to meet the challenges and capture the opportunities that lie ahead. Now turning to Slide 2, where I'd like to firstly draw your attention to what we see as the key highlights for the MMS Group for the FY '23 period. Firstly, our focus on the customer across the group, and in particular, the rapid uptake and interest in electric vehicles, have both helped to underpin growth in the business for the year. I'll expand on the thematic of EV shortly. However, I can say that EVs comprised just over 18% of all novated lease orders during the second half of FY '23 with that figure exemplifying the strong increase in demand we've seen and continue to achieve. This heightened activity around EVs together with customer growth were keys to an uplift of 13.3% achieved in novated lease sales across the year. In our Plan and Support Services business, our improvements in customer experience and continued scheme participant growth helped underpin strong growth in our customer numbers of 22.8%. Secondly, these achievements helped drive our financial and operating performance. MMS normalized UNPATA increased by 3% to $86.2 million. Normalized earnings per share rose by 10.5% to $1.196 and our normalized return on capital employed was up 1.4 percentage points to 40%. Thirdly, we introduced and progressed during the year our clear strategic priorities and Simply Stronger program aimed at achieving our vision of being the trusted partner providing solutions in making complex matters simple. This strategic ambition has clear intent to deliver increased productivity, whilst continuing to drive customer advocacy reflected in strong net promoter scores, whilst also generating high return on capital employed and EPS growth. Fourth, we progressed in simplifying and focusing our business portfolio. As we announced on the 9th of August, as a result of a strategic review, we have now divested our aggregation business. And on the 22nd of August 2023, we signed an agreement to sell our U.K. businesses for net proceeds of approximately $20 million, and we expect the sale to complete in the first half of FY '24. Finally, in line with our capital allocation framework, we've delivered ongoing returns for our shareholders by a successful completion of our off-market share buyback in October 2022, and full year dividend of $1.24 per share, representing a 100% payout ratio of normalized UNPATA. I'll now move to Slide 3, which presents our key financial metrics for the year and illustrates the uplift stemming from growth in our normalized operating performance. I'd firstly like to point out that given our aggregation business has been divested, and an agreement has been signed to divest the U.K. businesses, these assets have been classified as discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale. Therefore, these businesses are not included in our continuing operations results reporting shown for FY '23 and FY '22 and are no longer part of the AMS segment reporting. Hence, we have shown our FY '23 results and FY '22 comparable for our continuing operations only, namely our GRS, PSS, and the remaining AMS ANZ business, and separately shown the performance of our assets held for sale, as well as the results for our total operations, which includes both continuing assets and those assets held for sale. In terms of our continuing operations, we saw a strong 12.5% uplift in normalized revenue to $471 million -- $471.4 million, with normalized EBITDA increasing by 11.2% to $131.3 million, and normalized UNPATA of $77.9 million, increasing by 9%. In FY '23, the UNPATA contribution of these assets held for sale was $8.3 million, down 32%, due to the scheduled rundown of the Maxxia U.K. lease portfolio, and increased competition in the Australian aggregation business, whilst in part offset by some growth in Anglo Scottish U.K. You will note that we have taken an impairment charge of $42.5 million in relation to the discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale. For our total operations, normalized UNPATA was up 3% to $86.2 million for the full year. Turning now to Slide 4, where we provide an overview of our group strategy to deliver sustainable growth. Our group purpose is to make a difference to people's lives. In order to do that, we strive to be a trusted partner, providing solutions to our customers and making complex matters simple. We are focusing on the progression of 3 clear strategic priorities to deliver on our vision. Firstly, excelling in customer experience through digital and insights-led experiences to enhance our market position. During the year, we made progress through several initiatives, including delivering a data platform to enable more personalization and targeted opportunities in our GRS business. In our PSS business, we launched new digital dashboards and apps to better assist and help navigate our customers, support coordinators, and service providers and in AMS, the introduction of our fleet inspect online platform with centralized vehicle condition reporting for our clients. Our second strategic priority is to drive simplicity and technology enablement to increase productivity. Examples of this through FY '23 include the successful migration of our Plan Tracker business to a common PSS technology platform, which enables technology efficiencies, the implementation of application programming interfaces with our PSS segment to enable straight-through processing with NDIS, and enhancement to our AMS ANZ proprietary OneView system, facilitating greater automation of processes. Our third priority is leveraging our culture and competency-led solutions to extend and enhance value. This included new EV novated lease products brought to market during the year to enable customers to more readily benefit from the federal government's EV Bill. Furthermore, we launched an on-the-go charge card and driver charging app to support our AMS clients and driver EV needs. And as previously mentioned, we progressed the simplification of our portfolio. We believe this strategic focus enabled through our clear 3 clear priority areas will assist the group to ultimately deliver increased productivity, whilst continuing to earn customer advocacy through strong NPS, while further elevating the group as an employer of choice and generating high return on capital employed, and earnings per share growth. In terms of our FY '23 performance, our average Net Promoter Score was strong at 47. Our normalized EBITDA margin was 27.9%. Our return on capital employed was high at 40%, and our normalized EPS growth was 10.5%. And we maintain a high sustainable staff engagement score of 80%. Turning to Slide 5. Here we provide detail on our Simply Stronger program, which we initiated during the FY '23 year. The program focusing specifically on our strategic pillars has 3 key deliverables: firstly, to deliver superior digital experience and solutions for our customers; secondly, to modernize and simplify our technology to enable productivity; and thirdly, to support and enable greater growth across our businesses. Within our first pillar, our focus is on the development of new mobile apps and web portals and introducing enhanced digital functionality and client digital self-service. Under our second strategic priority, this sees investment in the modernization and simplification of our technology infrastructure and the digitization of a range of existing manual processes. And within our third strategic pillar, we are focusing on leveraging and extending our ecosystem of relationships and core capabilities to broaden our market and offering, particularly with regard to EVs, whilst also more effectively leveraging our data and existing relationships in the sectors we operate within. Our Simply Stronger program has an estimated commitment of $35 million in capital expenditure across the FY '23 to FY '25 period, with approximately $23 million of that CapEx to be spent in FY '24. We now move to our sustainability agenda on Slide 6 and the progress we have continued to make during the year. Now, in the second year of implementation, the MMS sustainability strategy focuses on 3 key pillars, with clear intent to manage relevant ESG risks and opportunities and progress our efforts in making a positive impact for our people, customers, and key stakeholders. The first pillar of our sustainability strategy is transitioning to a low-carbon future. That means working to reduce our own carbon footprint and as a leading provider of novated leasing and fleet management services, recognizing our responsibility to support our customers in their transition to a low-carbon future through promoting and facilitating the adoption of low and zero emissions vehicles. As already mentioned, given our focus in the federal government EV discount bill, we saw EVs comprise just over 18% of all novated lease orders during the second half of FY '23, representing a marked increase in both EV interest and demand. In addition, as part of our commitment to a low carbon future during the period, we transitioned 35% of MMS Australian and New Zealand fleet to battery electric, and providing us with learnings and insights to inform our future EV product service offerings. We also developed our climate change action plan which brings together our proposed actions to respond to climate-related risks and opportunities into a clear framework over the next 3 years. Our second pillar, customer wellbeing and social inclusion saw us, amongst other initiatives, commence a partnership with Jigsaw Australia in order to support those living with disability to gain meaningful employment. We launched our Reconciliation Action Plan over a year ago. The on-the-ground outcomes of our RAP include cultural education for our staff and Supply Nation membership which provides meaningful economic support for indigenous businesses and the community at large. The third pillar of our sustainability agenda is focused on business practices. We are pleased to have been upgraded in our Morgan Stanley Capital Index ESG rating from BBB to A in February 2023. On that note, I will now pass over to our CFO, Ashley Conn, who will speak to our financial performance over the past year.

Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. On Slide 8, we provide our UNPATA bridge that we have previously provided before. As Rob has outlined, our aggregation business has been divested and we have signed an agreement to divest our U.K. businesses. Both of these businesses have been classified as discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale. Hence what we're showing here is our FY '23 performance and movements from FY '22 comparables for our continuing operations only, as well as the performance relating to our total operations, which includes both continuing assets and those from discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale. And for the sake of clarity, our financial results are once again presented on a normalized basis. Normalized refers to adjustments made for the negative earnings impacts across the transition period for the implementation of our funding warehouse OnBoard Finance. It normalizes for the Warehouse's in-year operating and establishment expenses and provides an adjustment for commissions that would have otherwise been received in period had the sales been financed via a principal and agency funder rather than through the Warehouse. Normalized financials are currently expected to be stated up to and including FY '25. In FY '23, within our continuing operations, we had a 9% uplift in normalized UNPATA to $77.9 million, together with a 17% increase in normalized EPS to $1.081 generated primarily by $4.1 million improved contribution from our GRS segment. For the total operations for the group, normalized UNPATA was up 3% to $86.2 million, which includes an $8.3 million UNPATA contribution from the assets which we have deemed to be discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale, and a $11.5 million normalization adjustment relating to the transition period associated with the funding warehouse while normalized EPS was up 10.5% to $1.196 for the year. I'd also like to point out that a reconciliation of NPAT to UNPATA and normalized UNPATA is included in the appendix of the presentation. Turning to Slide 9. Our balance sheet remains the strength of the group with net debt to EBITDA now standing at 1.1x, reflecting the additional $60 million corporate debt facility that was taken on to support working capital requirements post the successful completion of the off-market buyback. In addition, group gearing, or net debt as we define it, is at 61% of our -- with our interest cover at 17.3x. All of these have significant headroom to our covenants. Our net cash position, which excludes fleet and warehouse funded debt, was reduced to $28.4 million at period end, again following the completion of our off-market buyback in particular. In asset management, our gearing ratio of 66% of written down value of fleet assets remained flat and materially below our 80% bank covenant. Turning to Slide 10. You can now see the strength of our balance sheet and ongoing cash conversion capability, which is in line with UNPATA. Through this, we have been able to return to shareholders $176.7 million. This consisted of $90.3 million from our off-market share buyback, where we purchased stock back at $11.66 per share, including a significant franked component as part of the buyback and an $0.58 per share interim dividend and we'll be paying a final dividend of $0.66, equating to a 100% payout ratio of normalized UNPATA and in line with our clear framework to optimally deploy our capital. I'll now hand back to Rob.

Thanks, Ashley. Now turning to Slide 12 and our segment performance, starting with Group Remuneration Services, which encompasses salary packaging and novated leasing. Normalized revenue grew by 12.7% to $232.8 million, which translated into normalized EBITDA growth of 9.7% and normalized UNPATA growth of 8.5%. GRS revenue growth was driven by a 13.3% increase in novated lease sales, growth of 6.3% in total salary packages, and an uplift in interest received from funds administered. Novated lease sales momentum benefit from the ongoing customer and client focus with total novated lease units rising by 3.6% to a record 73,400. Reflecting our normalized EBITDA result, increased GRS revenues were offset by wage increases as well as personnel costs to support customer growth and service levels, higher order levels, and elevated carryover, which will benefit future periods. In relation to our carryover, while some stabilization in vehicle supply occurred, ongoing constraints and elevated order levels resulted in a continued growth of novated lease orders carried over. Total carryover revenue to benefit future periods as at 30, June, 2023 was $32.3 million, up 26%. Turning to Slide 13. We focus here on the growth we are seeing in our novated portfolio and the changing landscape with regards to EVs, which has been positive off the back of the federal government's EV Discount Bill legislated in December 2022. Increased demand for EVs across the period and the novated value proposition assisted to drive a 12.3% jump in novated orders compared with the FY '22 period. As previously mentioned, our novated lease sales were up 13.3% on FY '22, outstripping the strong growth witnessed in the broader Australian new car market, which rose by 10.3% over the same period. The segment also benefits from the higher average cost of EVs over their internal combustion engine equivalent, ultimately contributing to an increase of 6.2% in novated NAF in FY '23. The EV legislation's focus specifically on employer-provided low and zero emissions vehicles, aims to remove one of the key barriers for Australians when considering switching to an EV. They're traditionally higher priced over similar vehicles with an internal combustion engine. Since the bill was legislated on the 12th of December 2022 and supported by our increased focus on the transition to EVs, we gained significant momentum throughout the second half of FY '23 with orders for EVs comprising 18.2% of our total novated lease orders across the second half of FY '23, up from just 1.7% in the second half of FY '22. Our interest is that the largest number of EV novated lease orders in FY '23 was achieved in June at 21.4% of all lease orders. Likewise, in June some 20.3% of our total novated lease sales in the month were EV, well in advance of the broader Australian car market, which saw EVs generating 9.4% of all new car sales. Clearly, this outperformance reflects the strong value proposition associated with an EV novated lease. We are excited by this opportunity and work to support our clients and customers looking to transition to EVs. While some challenges remain, particularly around vehicle availability and charging infrastructure, we are working actively with our partners and clients to help address the decarbonization of their transport-related emissions. Turning to Slide 14, you'll see that during FY '23, we continued to progress the implementation of OnBoard Finance, our warehouse funding initiative launched in FY '22. In FY '23, we experienced slower volume ramp-up than anticipated and higher operational costs with onboarding new clients. However, our 20% target of volume finance was achieved in June 2023 and we have now funded $100 million worth of leases, resulting in a normalized UNPATA impact of $11.5 million for FY '23. Notably, in FY '23, a higher NAF per transaction funded through the Warehouse increased the adjustments for commissions that would have otherwise been received in the period, which is expected to provide additional financial benefit in future periods. The strategic rationale for the Warehouse remains unchanged and relevant. It secures and diversifies our funding source. It increases annuity-based income, which is also a new source of income, and will capture a greater share of the value of every transaction we complete. Importantly, our target of 20% of volume funded through OnBoard Finance is aimed at balancing scale for the warehouse and maintaining diversity of funding via P&A. On Slide 15 and looking forward to the current period, we are currently estimating the FY '24 UNPATA normalization impact of OnBoard Finance to be in the vicinity of $12 million. This estimated adjustment for FY '24 is forecast to be a higher proportion of UNPATA versus the original estimate as a result of the slower ramp-up to the targeted 20% volume in FY '23, and the experience of higher volumes and net amount financed since the Warehouse was established, which is in part offset by higher interest rates and higher net interest margin. We will continue to exclude the OnBoard impact on a normalized basis, which we continue to forecast with the conclusion of FY '25. Turning to Slide 16, and the performance of our AMS segment, which refers specifically to our AMS Australia and New Zealand continuing operations. The AMS business benefited from a 4.1% increase in NAF, continued elevated remarketing yields, which indexed FY '21 levels, stood at 130.1%, consistent with FY '22 at 130.6%, and an increase in the volume of remarketing units, which index to FY '21 were 109.6% compared with FY '22 at a 103.5%. Revenue was up 9.9% at $187.4 million, resulting in EBITDA growth of 3.3% and UNPATA growth of 4%. Asset written down value of $320.8 million, including fleet assets funded utilizing principal and agency arrangements, was up 1% on FY '22, reflecting the impact of ongoing vehicle supply constraints. Now turning to our Plan and Support Services business on Slide 17. Importantly, our PSS business remains fully committed to providing value for money for participants and the wider NDIS. We do this through the provision of optimal systems, innovative support, technology solutions, and professional person-centered help to our customers in order to best support NDIS participant outcomes and help ensure the financial integrity and sustainability of the scheme. Growth in PSS segment revenue of 17.7% for FY '23 was attributable to a 22.8% increase in plan management and support coordination customers, and a 21.5% increase in support coordination billable hours. This growth was underpinned in part by continued participant growth in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which was up 14.2% for the period, and take up of plan managers which increased from 56% to 60% over the period. The business achieved strong customer growth and margin expansion through the continued investment in building a scalable platform and digital tools to enhance the customer experience with EBITDA of $12.3 million, up 21% and UNPATA of $8 million, up 21.3%, respectively. The Plan Tracker business, which we acquired in FY '22 was successfully migrated to a common technology platform during the period. The significant milestone enables the business to focus on delivering future efficiencies for the segment, whilst driving growth opportunities as the scheme participants are projected to grow to over 1 million by 2032. During FY '23, there were no structural adjustments in the form of indexation to NDIS pricing arrangements for plan management and support. The NDIS has also experienced a general shift towards participants receiving NDIS plan extensions rather than renewals as the scheme focuses on longer plan durations. Turning now to Slide 18, which details the in-year financial performance of our assets held for sale. As mentioned earlier, we have worked to simplify the MMS portfolio of businesses with the sale of our aggregation business and the signed agreement to divest the U.K. businesses. These businesses are classified as discontinued operations relating to assets held for sale in the financial statements. In FY '23, the UNPATA contribution of these assets held for sale was $8.3 million, down 32%. The asset finance aggregation business formed a small part of our AMS segment and has been impacted by increased competition. The sale of the business was completed on 31, July 2023. In relation to the U.K., as mentioned on the 22nd of August 2023, we signed an agreement to sell the U.K. businesses with expected net proceeds of approximately $20 million. The transaction is expected to complete in the first half of FY '24. During the year, the Maxxia U.K. lease portfolio continued to run off, which was in part offset by some growth in the Anglo Scottish business. As previously stated, an impairment of $42.5 million is recognized in relation to the aggregation and U.K. businesses in the FY '23 financial statements. Lastly, I would like to turn to our FY '24 outlook and priorities on Slide 20. Overall, with our streamlined portfolio of businesses, we are well positioned to deliver sustainable growth. This includes continuing to execute on our strategic priorities and Simply Stronger program, including the capital expenditure investment of $23 million in FY '24. We entered FY '24 with $32.3 million in carryover revenue and remain optimistic about the continued opportunity with regard to EVs, together with the fundamental elements underpinning growth in our PSS and AMS segments. In addition, our focus for FY '24 will be on contract renewals with key clients whilst pursuing new tender opportunities, driving our 20% funding target for our warehouse, which is expected to result in the $12 million normalization adjustment and continue to examine appropriate non-organic growth options in the PSS segment. I'll note, however, that economic and industry conditions do remain challenging, inflationary pressures and the impact of our cost base from a labor market perspective remains issues we are alert to and while we have begun to see some stabilization, we expect vehicle supply to remain challenging. We will also await the outcomes of the NDIS independent review, which are expected to be announced in October this year. Finally, as we enter the early phase of FY '24, we do so as a trusted partner with positions in large and growing markets, and businesses that are well positioned to meet the challenges and capture the opportunities that lie ahead. I would like to thank our people for their dedication to supporting our customers and embodying our purpose of making a difference to people's lives. We also thank our clients, customers, and shareholders for their ongoing support. Ashley and I will be pleased to answer any questions you may have. I will now hand back to Zach to conveying the questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Tim Lawson from Macquarie.

Just a couple. It's good you've called out the EV on the novated sort of activity, but can you say what's happening in ICE as well? Is that also growing or are you seeing some cannibalization there?

Yes. Thanks, Tim. No, we're pleased with the overall performance of our novated portfolio, as we've thought about the business and monitored the performance over the last 12 months. We've had obviously really good growth across the portfolio, both from our existing client base as well as new clients that we onboarded in the previous year and during the year. When we look at the differences between the ICE and EVs, there are some notable differences in terms of the type of customers from an employee perspective that are attracted to the EVs and have taken that up. That's generally higher income brackets from a -- what we've seen from a segmentation perspective, those are about over income of $160,000 per annum. We've seen -- in terms of our segmentation growth, we've seen a little bit more uptick in our private sector, noting that it's a small part of our portfolio. We've also seen some strong growth in our health sector. If you strip out the EVs, there's been growth in the ICE as well. So, we think what we're seeing at the moment is, whilst there'll be some migration from ICE to EV, there is also incremental growth in the portfolio as a result of the EV Bill.

Okay. So, I just didn't quite catch you. Did you say ICE was still growing. Is that correct?

Yes, yes it is. Our ICE portfolio has grown as well as our EVs. But obviously as you can see in the proportion EV is at a much higher pace of a small base.

Yes, yes. And just, you've called out the 6.2% increase in novated lease now. Could you just maybe give us a feel for what the average price of an ICE versus EV is on that new business?

Yes. Tim, we generally don't disclose the net amount financed as an individual basis as a portfolio base across the different -- but as you would have seen probably from a market perspective, the current pricing position for EVs generally is at a higher than the average of ICE in our portfolio. Tesla still remains the largest contributor to ICE -- sorry, EV take-up, as we've seen over the past 6 months certainly. Starting to see some increasing take-up with new vehicles like BYD. Our second largest is MG at the moment, which is at a lower price point than the Tesla is. So overall, it's a slight increase as you can see in our results. But we would expect over time as more EV vehicles coming to the market, different makes and models, the average point -- price point for some of those EVs may come off a little bit from where it is at the moment, but still Tesla is the highest proportion.

Yes. Okay. And just 2 other quick questions, if I could. In terms of -- I mean, obviously, you're disclosing on a normalized basis, and you're talking about FY '25. Are you saying that you won't revert back to an underlying disclosure sort of basis until FY '25?

Tim, it's Ashley here. That's correct. So, FY '24 and FY '25, as we've previously flagged, will be normalized years and then the Warehouse will be making a positive contribution to earnings after that going forward, so that we will drop the concept of normalization at that time.

Yes. And just on the U.K. sale, that approximate sort of AUD 20 million -- I think that's million Aussie dollars actually of proceeds, just what the capital -- whether you would take any of the capital out ahead of that transaction or effectively that's the proceeds and there's no other sort of capital adjustment?

There's no other capital adjustment. There is some cash that we're entitled to, that's already sitting on the balance sheet. But that's about it.

Your next question comes from Phillip Chippindale from Ord Minnett.

Appreciate the time. First question, just on the trajectory of EV orders. You've helpfully given us the June figure. Can you confirm whether you're seeing that percentage continue to increase for the start of FY '24?

Yes. Thanks, Phil. As we outlined in the presentation, the highest proportion was in the month of June. So, we've seen that growth continue during the second half of last year. I mean, the month of July was still pleasing. We probably would see and expect to see some stabilization at some point in time of that growth. It's a little bit high until so far and the orders are strong. And at some point in time, we'll see some stabilization. When that is a bit early to call.

So, just to come back to that, so was July higher than June? I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but [indiscernible] you were seeing month-on-month increase over the 6 months to June. Just wondering if that's continued.

Yes. July was more stabilized and consistent with June. Probably a couple of factors with that is obviously end of financial year-end marketing activities from a lot of dealers kind of reignited this year, which we hadn't seen for a couple of years through COVID and supply constraint issues. So we think June was a really strong month, maybe in part inflated a little bit by financial year-end activity.

Okay. That's useful. Just turning to the Warehouse. You called out the $12 million of the adjustments for FY '24 which is notably higher than I previously expected. You referenced a few reasons for that. One is, the ramp-up being a bit slower, but you reached the 20% of volumes in June. So perhaps you could just unpack for us a little bit more what's happening on the cost side of things that caused that number to go up?

Sure. Phil, it's Ashley here. There were 3 -- there were 3 key contributors really to the adjustments to FY '24. As you've already highlighted, there were some timing differences in relation to the ramp-up to the 20%. So we achieved the 20% in June this year. But it was a little bit slower than we had originally forecast. So, that's more of a timing issue so that the benefit -- that we benefit in -- yes, we'll obviously make that up in future years. We'll get to the 20% now and we'll continue. So that had a small timing -- a small timing benefit -- a small timing difference. The second was in relation to -- we're doing higher NAFs and higher yields now, and we're doing more volume. So, the 20% on a unit basis is going to be higher in FY '24. So that was an upward adjustment to the estimate. And then the third element is, there has been some increase in costs. That's probably the third largest element of it. And there has been some offsets as well with some benefits from higher interest rates and higher NIM than we had originally budgeted.

Okay. You haven't made a comment as to the impact to FY '25, presumably the increase to the '24 adjustments likely to see an increase to the '25 as well?

Yes. FY '25 will be the last year of the normalizations and we have given an estimate on Slide 15 of the percentage that we anticipate that to be. It's about -- it's going to be about 4%.

Your next question comes from Chenny Wang from Morgan Stanley.

I've got a few. Maybe just first, just to clarify the Warehouse impact. Just to be clear, I mean, I think you outlined some of the moving parts, but that 20% Warehouse -- 80% P&A, that mix isn't changing, but the higher Warehouse impact in '24 is essentially higher orders and costs and some of the other stuff you mentioned?

That's right. Those 3 elements. So there was a bit of timing, because we got to the 20% at the end of the year and we thought it would be earlier. So we didn't write quite as many leases during FY '23. So we don't have their contribution into '24, so the benefit. The second element is, as I've said, yes, we're doing higher NAFs and so high yields effectively and we're doing -- volumes are higher than originally estimated. And then the third element is, there are some increased costs as well, as I said, offset by some benefits that we are seeing because of the higher rate environment from NIM.

Yes. Got it. And then just secondly, on the EV penetration and that trajectory. I may have missed it in the past, but I'm interested to get your thoughts on where you're seeing EV lead. I mean, it is interesting that you made the comment around your customer base and I think some people will appreciate the difference between public versus corporate and novated. But how are people inquiring from a lead perspective, that maybe don't want a Tesla given that price point? Obviously, I think over the course of, well, later this year and probably into next year as well, there is going to be increased EV choice and I guess lower- priced EVs coming in. Yes, just kind of interested to get some color there on that top of funnel.

Yes. So, certainly interest and opportunities continue to increase and we've seen that pre the legislation in terms of inquiries and then since then, obviously, the quite rapid uptake in orders and sales. To your point, obviously, there is opportunity as more vehicles come into the market, obviously with the Dolphin recently coming in from a BYD perspective, its price point. I think you'll start to see a broader audience be attracted to the product. We'd say through our own insights to date, I think the awareness and understanding of the government legislation around the FBT exemption is still not as well known as we would hope. So working with employers to help educate their employee base as well as our own marketing activities and marketing activity more broadly from the sector. So, I think with more awareness and education, we'll see that opportunity continue to support growth.

Got it. And then just one last one for me. On the Simply Stronger investment, I was wondering if you can share any thoughts on the ROI and when you start realizing some of those benefits? I mean, I can kind of see in your LTIs that return on capital employed is 36% to 40%. Is that a good guide in the absence of anything else? Yes, any thoughts there would be appreciated.

In terms of the returns, we think there are going to be appropriate returns as we work through them, a combination of both customer benefits in terms of experience for them and their ability to self-serve, which will have [ flown ] impacts to us in terms of productivity and then deliver efficiency gains. Second of all, also efficiency from our technology investments to simplify our stack, as well as enable greater productivity through automation. And then really from a growth perspective under our third pillar, looking to really ramp up broadening the market opportunity in novated leases, broader segment attracted to EVs. So, from a return perspective, I think we feel there is going to be attractive returns to the business and we'll give updates as we progress through the program.

Your next question comes from Richard Amland from CLSA.

I'm going to leave all the tough questions for later because I'm having trouble reconciling all the differences in accounting. But I've got 1 question -- is what was the interest earned on client monies held in trust that's previously been disclosed? It doesn't seem to be disclosed this time. Can you give us a bit of guidance on that?

Yes. Richard, yes, approximately $10 million, just over $10 million for the FY '23 period.

And does that compare against the [ $1.8 million ] in the prior?

Yes, Richard, it's in the -- if you have a look in the segment -- in the segment note in the annual report into GRS, there's an interest received line, which -- a large amount of that is the number that you're talking about.

Right. I'll have to poke around for that, I guess. I've got in my prior period about $1.8 million. So, is it $10 million versus [ $1.8-ish-million ] about that the right year-on-year?

That's probably right. Yes, Richard.

[Operator Instructions]

Thanks, Zach.

There are no further questions at this time. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Thank you.

Thank you.