Pioneer Credit Limited (PNC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Keith, you touched upon a little bit of this. But with the challenges we're seeing in both corporate and consumer markets at present, what market opportunities are you seeing in credit?

Yes. I think, look, there's a range of things. I mean, clearly, there are groups within our sector that have -- that are having some challenges, and that's been played out in the press well. So there are some opportunities that exist within those groups. There's certainly opportunities that exist in the sort of the fintech new-to-business sort of market that's existed -- sort of grown dramatically over the last few years. And then within the big banks, not all of the big banks are selling as yet. One of them, in particular, hasn't sold since pre-COVID. So there's a lot of opportunity that exists as those guys come back to market -- and really, we're in a duopoly now. There's us and one other. The top end of towns really split down the middle. We share those opportunities. And it's a very big opportunity for Pioneer. And then at the fintech layer. That's really where we come in on our own. We don't compete with our clients. And that's a big thing for those guys. They're growing their businesses. They're growing brands. They don't want to be selling their portfolios and the management of their impaired credits or someone that competes with them. And that's a very strong part of the Pioneer offering. We're completely aligned. It's important we're aligned to shareholders and point consumers, but you also need to be aligned to your vendors. You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you and certainly, we work very closely with them, and we think there's a big opportunity. We know there's a big opportunity over the coming sort of 12, 24 months for those guys.

And without pre-empting your full year results, were you happy with how FY '24 ended in Pioneer Credit?

Yes. Look, I mean, you'd always like to close things out like refinancings earlier. There's a lot of party involved. And of course, $270-odd million is a lot of money. So these things take a little bit of time. We had a great year operationally. Really, really pleased with the way we executed within the business. The way that we manage cost, I mean cost of living is a very big part of every business now and certainly wage inflation is a part of that. We manage that really well and we manage that world because our people are committed. They're focused on finding solutions. They get there quickly, which means it's good for the customers and good for us as well. So that's gone really, really well. And of course, we closed out the refi. So we couldn't be happier with the way '24 finished, but it's the 2nd of July today Finola, and we're ready for '25. We've got a lot of ground to make up. We've got a target of $18 million after tax. Next financial year, it's only 12 months away we expect to deliver on that and well deliver on that, and that means we need to hit the ground running, which my team has and we're very excited about what '25 has for us.

Well, thank you, Keith, for taking the time be with me today. I'm looking forward to catching up with you over the course of the next few months to check them Pioneer Credits progress.

Thanks so much, Finola.