Steadfast Group Limited (SDF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Frank O'Halloran. I'm fortunate enough to be the Chairman of Steadfast Group Limited. And on behalf of the Steadfast Board, I am pleased to welcome you to Steadfast's Second Virtual Annual General Meeting. As I'm in Steadfast office in Sydney, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I also welcome Vicki Allen to her first Steadfast AGM. Vicki was appointed as a Director in March this year. She will replace David Liddy as Chair of the Remuneration and Performance Committee after the 1st of November 2021. David will continue as Deputy Chairman of the group. Due to COVID-19, we are holding a virtual AGM to protect our shareholders, our staff and the broader community. If we experience any technical issues today, a short recess or an adjournment may be required, depending on the number of shareholders being affected. If this occurs, I shall advise you accordingly. As a quorum is present, I declare the meeting open. [Audio Gap] of the company, who are present with me today, the Managing Director and CEO, Robert Kelly; the Nonexecutive Directors, Vicki Allen; David Liddy, who was also Deputy Chairman and the current Chairman of the Remuneration Performance Committee; Gai McGrath, who is also Chair of the People, Culture and Governance Committee; Anne O'Driscoll, who is also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee; Philip Purcell; and Greg Rynenberg, attending remotely from Queensland and the Group Company Secretary and Corporate Counsel, Linda Ellis. Also with us certainly from Queensland is Scott Guse, relationship partner of KPMG, our auditor. Our amazing CFO, Stephen Humphrys has joined us in this room. Other directors and staff are joining us virtually. The meeting will proceed as follows. I will provide an opening address, and we'll then ask Robert Kelly to speak about the company's performance, strategy and outlook. I will then deal with the items of business in the order in which they appear in the AGM Notice of Meeting. Shareholders will be given the opportunity to ask questions in relation to items of business being considered at this meeting. The Chairman's address. Ladies and gentlemen, the COVID pandemic has caused us to adapt to new ways of doing things including the need to hold our 2021 AGM virtually rather than in a physical location. On behalf of the directors, I am pleased to report outstanding Steadfast Group earnings for FY '21, with our underlying net profit after tax at the top end of our upgraded guidance range advised to the ASX on the 28th of April 2021. The group produced a 17.6% increase in underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortization called EBITA to $262.7 million and a 20.2% increase in underlying net profit after tax called NPAT to $130.7 million. Pleasingly, we reported underlying earnings per share of $0.151, an uplift of 18.8% and an underlying after tax return on capital employed of 11.7%. Statutory net profit after tax, including positive nonrecurring items, was $143 million compared with a loss of $55.2 million for FY '20. Last year's statutory loss arose from the accounting treatment of the IBNA acquisition and the PSF rebate offer, which resulted in the cost of these earnings accretive acquisitions -- initiatives being expensed. The group's delivery of strong growth in shareholder value has been consistent since listing in 2013. Our total return for shareholders was 34.3% for FY '21 and since listing, it has been an outstanding 334%. The FY '21 performance and continued strong cash flow allowed the Board to pay a fully franked final dividend of $0.07 per share, up 16.7% from the final dividend for FY '20. This took the total dividend for the year to $0.114 fully franked, an increase of 18.8% on FY '20. The total dividend represented a payout ratio of 76%, consistent with our FY '20 payout ratio and our policy of balancing a healthy return for our shareholders with ongoing investment to continue our track record of growth in the business. We continue to be prudent with our capital as we assess potential acquisition opportunities against the disciplined criteria established. Steadfast has historically produced earnings growth from consistent annual acquisition activity. We made a number of acquisitions in FY '21 for a total investment of $172 million. In FY '21, we launched our Trapped Capital initiative, which involve Steadfast approaching a number of the Steadfast network brokers to see if they wish to realize some or all of the capital they have built up in their businesses over many years. The initiative will result in a number of acquisitions in FY '22 to be funded from the excellent response from our retail shareholders to the recent SPP offer and our unused debt facilities. Robert Kelly will provide an update on the progress of our Trapped Capital Project in his address. Since the 1st of July, Steadfast has invested $468 million. Steadfast Group's balance sheet remains well positioned for further growth. As at 30th of June 2021, our total gearing ratio was 22.0%, excluding the premium funding and is well within the Board mandated group maximum of 30%. After the completion of the Institutional Placement and Share Purchase Plan in August 2021, our total group gearing ratio at 30th September 2021 was 18.1% and at that date, Steadfast had unutilized facilities of $145 million for future expansion. Steadfast management are in the process of increasing our corporate debt facilities within the Board approved limits. Your Board acknowledges the responsibility to lead and support environmental, social and governance initiative called ESG within the Steadfast Group as being integral to the sustainability and continuing financial growth of our business. Steadfast Group continues to contribute to the communities in which it operates, mitigate the environmental impact on our business activities and ensure the fair treatment of our customers, employees and suppliers. This year, we established our People, Culture & Governance Board Committee. This committee, together with management, will focus on our ESG objectives with particular emphasis on climate change, culture, employee development, succession planning, diversity and inclusion. As part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility, in March this year, Steadfast conducted its annual employee engagement survey measuring the emotional connection people have with the group. This year, the participation rate was 92%. The group-wide engagement score was 73%, up from 71% in 2020. This result continues to place Steadfast in the performing or highly engaged zone and is 11% above the Australian industry norm, our credit to management. Given that people are our greatest asset, this is a pleasing result and sets the group up for continued success. During the year, Steadfast competed an ESG assessment of its network brokers, which resulted in Steadfast implementing its Nine Positions, an initiative by management that requires further commitments from our broker network to ensure the network is meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers and the broader community. Steadfast Group continues to adhere to the Corporate Governance principles and recommendations as set out by the ASX Corporate Governance Council. Our governance and risk management framework is set out in more detail on Page 39 of our 2021 annual report. I note another year in which there were no material departures from our risk framework. Steadfast will continue to enhance our contribution to our communities and minimize its impact on the environment while remaining focused on the fair treatment of our network brokers, our customers, employees and suppliers. Steadfast has committed to achieve carbon neutrality by FY '24 within group head office, Steadfast Business Solutions and Steadfast Technologies, increase our aspirational target of women in leadership to 45% by 2024, up from the current 40%; implement the Steadfast's Nine Positions embedding cultural behaviors to ensure brokers conduct is meeting and exceeding the expectations of the customers and the broader community. Our 2021 annual report further details our commitment and approach to corporate governance And social responsibility. Shortly, shareholders will have the opportunity to ask questions and vote on the remuneration report. As a people-centric business, with global operations, Steadfast success relies on our ability to attract, motivate and retain world-class talent and drive a collective focus on agreed strategy through to execution. Ensuring that the Steadfast Group has the right leadership team in place is critical to the ongoing success of the group and to build sustainable long-term shareholder value. During the past 12 months, the Steadfast Group has continued to perform strongly against the background of significant economic uncertainty caused by the global pandemic and achieve full year underlying results well in excess of the initial guidance announced on August 26, 2020. Steadfast Group is committed to ensuring that the remuneration framework rewards decision making by employees that is aligned with the long-term interest of our shareholders. This is achieved through the group's short- and long-term incentive schemes. Following feedback from our shareholders and other interested parties last year, the Board enlisted the assistance of an independent remuneration consultancy firm to undertake a review of our remuneration framework. In undertaking that review, the Board was cognizant that there have not been any significant structural changes to our framework since the group's listing in 2013, and the Board was seeking to update its approach towards remuneration. A number of the changes as a result of the independent report and shareholder feedback have been adopted for FY '22 and are outlined in detail in the remuneration report. These include clear delineation of the structure and hurdles of the short term and long-term incentive plans. Essentially, for FY '21 and prior years, earnings per share has been used as a core financial measure for determining both STI and LTI awards for the executive team. From FY '22, the Board has elected to use the after-tax return on capital employed for the STI awards. For LTI awards, the Board has retained EPS growth and total shareholder return calculated over 3 years. However, the weighting of EPS and TSR will change from 75-25 mix to 50-50 mix when calculating LTI entitlements. Robert Kelly will provide more detail on our strong start to FY '22 with the first quarter trading update and the outlook for the full year. In closing, on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our people, including our highly experienced and hardworking CEO and Managing Director, Robert Kelly, for their significant contribution in the difficult environment to deliver consistent excellent results for our shareholders and market-leading services to our network brokers and other stakeholders. These services include the unique in-house developed Steadfast Client Trading Platform, which provides the network with automated quotes for certain products from a number of insurers to ensure the policyholders get the best terms and price available. Your Board and management acknowledge that the consistent strong performance would not have been possible without the outstanding contribution from Steadfast brokers, Steadfast underwriting agencies, Steadfast complementary businesses and the loyalty of our clients as well as continued strong support from our shareholders to enable us to grow the business. Finally, I would also like to extend my gratitude to my fellow Board directors who continue to be focused on driving increased shareholder value, supporting the Steadfast team and continually improving our already strong performance. I will now hand over to Robert to address the meeting, and thank you.

Thank you very much, Frank, for your kind words, and good morning to everybody, and thank you for joining us in this again unusual way of presenting an AGM. Once again, I'm pleased to report that our FY '21 results continue our year-on-year growth since our August 2013 IPO when we turned the unlisted company into a publicly traded entity. When Steadfast listed, we outlined our growth will be driven by the acquisition of quality businesses in our sector, mainly from our existing network. The result has been shareholders have received sustainable compound annual growth on all of our underlying measures. Our underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortization over the past 8 years have grown by 20.9% per annum compounded, split evenly between both organic and acquisition growth and in accordance with our long-term strategy. By using our balance sheet strength as our assets have grown, I'm pleased to say our dividends to shareholders have also grown by a compounding annual growth of 14.2% since the float. Our underlying EBITA of $262.7 million and our NPAT of $130.7 million are as a result of the diligence in the execution of our enduring business model, driven by the skills and stability of our executive team and the strong performance of the businesses we acquired and the powerful growth of the network. The group's broking and underwriting agency businesses experienced strong organic growth during FY '21. Continued moderate price increases from our strategic partners, combined with market share gains from our underwriting agencies, and modest volume increases from the broking network. This year, our organic growth also benefited from expense savings delivered by our equity holdings, among other things, as a result of some COVID restrictions in expenditure. Stephen Humphrys, our CFO, in anticipation of the return of some of these expense savings in FY '22 has reflected these expense increases in our budget. In FY '21, we grew the Steadfast Broking Network a gross written premium by 18.3% to an amazing $9.8 billion. Broking also continued to benefit from the rate cycles as our strategic partners continue to implement moderate price increases. Expense savings and increased sales have driven our excellent underlying EBITA growth of 21.5%. Contained within this growth is an 8.5% contribution from the acquisition of equity brokers. As at the 30th of June 2021, we had 457 brokerages in the network with 386 in Australia and internationally, 52 in New Zealand and 19 in Singapore. Steadfast Group has equity holdings in 59 of the 457 brokerages in the Steadfast Network. Strategically, we increased our holding in unisonSteadfast to a majority interest of 60%. Further, the unisonSteadfast network encompasses another 264 brokerages across 140 countries with billings in excess of USD 35 billion. This figure, however, excludes the Steadfast Asia Pac Network gross written premium. Steadfast underwriting agencies continue to outperform with sustained organic growth, generating an incredible $1.48 billion of gross written premium, an 11.5% uplift over FY '20. This strong performance was due to the diligent underwriting expertise of our team and their ability to provide sustainable profits for our insurance partners. Market share continues to grow to our expertise -- due to our expertise in the various niche products of our agencies. This combined with the further moderate price increase by insurers led to underlying EBIT (sic) [ EBITA ] growth of 13%. As at the 30th of June 2021, we had 24 specialized agencies offering over 100 niche products into the market. Our Steadfast Technologies had an outstanding year, $793 million of gross written premium was transmitted on our market-leading Steadfast Client Trading Platform as brokers take advantage of the full efficiency and wide market access the platform delivers for their clients. Steadfast continues to refine and improve our technology platforms to drive growth and improve market-leading customer experience. With the additional auto-rating capabilities for insurers for liability, professional indemnity and our commercial motor products, we see an addition of another 4 insurers participating on the platform in the first half of FY '22. Steadfast Technology remained focused on continued improvement of the Client Trading Platform with more product lines, new insurers and continued expansion of our auto-rating capabilities to drive increased SCTP client trading platform usage. An interesting move has been Steadfast Accelerate. It is a joint venture created to take our robotic interactions to a higher level. We're improving the operating structure of the businesses by removing mundane processing tasks and allowing our frontline staff more time to be able to service their clients as best as possible through the clever use of robotics. The Steadfast team will continue the migration of INSIGHT, our market-leading back-office software platform for the exclusive use of the Steadfast Network. With 181 brokers live on the platform as at the 30th of June 2021, the Steadfast team continues the migration of brokers onto INSIGHT with an additional 30 brokers program to migrate and discussions with a further 95 brokers to join the system. FY '21 was a great year for Steadfast to implement a number of strategic initiatives including the launch of -- and implementation of our Trapped Capital Project, which I intend to give for further details on shortly. Our Risk Management division launched a competitive suite of risk management tools that delineates our service offerings from the rest of the market. We have expanded our alternative risk transfer section with the formation of Xenia Mutual, established to operate a discretionary mutual for the prediction of hospitality industry particularly in the difficult property sector. This is the first in a range of alternative risk transfer opportunities that will roll out during FY '22 to complement our existing product offering for the brokers and ultimately, their clients. Thus, broadening the opportunities that our network can offer their client base in times of restricted markets created by the traditional insurers and their lack of product offering. Steadfast brokers pride themselves on being there for the client at the time of claim. We've now built our claims system to improve customer interaction with our brokers, insurers, loss adjusters and service providers, thereby improving the customer experience when a claim is made. This is being rolled out to our underwriting agencies and our insurers partners that works hand-in-hand with the Golds Seal customer experience team. Since increasing our equity holdings in unisonSteadfast from 40% to 60%, which is controlling, we are now in a position to add value and further develop unisonSteadfast worldwide. We recently launched our trade credit solution and risk mitigation tools to the worldwide unison network and strong initial interest has accommodated out of that move. This is our pathway to developing the strategic asset of unisonSteadfast over the medium term and increase our international footprint. Our London interactions with the Howden Group have commenced, and we expect to see benefits rolled out in the course of financial year 2022. The acquisition of Gold Seal elevates customer experience and compliance performance across our network, including the formation of Steadfast's Nine Positions, which articulates the level of service and customer expectation that a client can expect to receive from the Steadfast broker. We have worked closely with the network to ensure our brokers are on board and implement the Nine Positions. Overall, the first quarter EBITA is 13.6% ahead of the same period last year. This is a tremendous start to FY '22. Steadfast has historically produced earnings growth from persistent annual acquisition activity and sustainable organic growth. Our network brokers provide Steadfast with an internal pipeline of acquisition opportunities. And since the first of July 2021, Steadfast has invested $468 million in EPS accretive acquisitions, including the outstanding acquisition of Coverforce for $411.5 million. Coverforce is an aligned business of scale with multiple revenue streams and a track record of high growth and provided us with the opportunity to strengthen Steadfast's position as a leading general insurance broker network in Australia. In February 2021, we announced and implemented our Trapped Capital Project, where the group is seeking to increase our equity positions in network brokers that are not part of our equity holding suite, thus providing the opportunity to unlock the network broker's trapped capital, contained within their business, by partial or wholesale to the Steadfast Group. We have progressed on this initiative and have implemented the following as of today. We've completed 8 acquisitions representing $4.1 million in EBITA. We have 10 signed term sheets, with due diligence commenced representing a further $6.1 million in EBITA. There are 11 further term sheets issued awaiting diligent representation and that's equivalent to $4.3 million EBITA. And 18 further valuations have been provided, representing another $11.5 million in EBITA. We have 40 expressions of interest in exploring Trapped Capital participation within the group. And lastly, there are a further 112 discussions underway to establish their interest in the remaining network brokers in releasing their trapped capital, again, either in partial or full. Since we reported our FY '21 results, insurers have continued to increase premium rates. Our volumes have increased slightly. Steadfast underwriting agencies continue to outperform with strong organic growth. For the balance of FY '22, we expect further moderate price increases by the strategic partners across all the markets and continue to see -- as we continue to see insurers try to regain the profitability they've lost over the last few years. In August 21, Steadfast has completed the acquisition of Coverforce funded via scrip to the vendors and an equity capital raising. The results from this significant acquisition to date are in line with all expectations. Given the above, I am pleased to reaffirm the group's FY '22 guidance of underlying EBITA of $320 million and $330 million, underlying NPAT of between $159 million and $166 million and undiluted (sic) [ underlying diluted ] EPS NPAT growth of 10% to 15%. The guidance remains subject to the trading assumptions and key risks noted in the slide pack of our -- in our annual report. Thank you. I'd like to thank all of the amazing employees that make up this group. The tremendous support a unified Board that we have behind this group, the network brokers who enjoy what we put out for them, the underwriting agencies who fill the gap in the Australian market, our complementary businesses, our clients, our strategic partners for contributing to our record performance, particularly given the significant disruptions COVID has caused. I'd also like to thank all our shareholders for their ongoing continued support. I look forward to working with the stakeholders for many years to come, and I'll conclude now and hand you back to Frank. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you, Robert. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. I propose to take the Notice of Annual General Meeting as read. Also, I will dispense with the formality of moving or seconding resolution as all matters are properly before the meeting. Voting on the resolutions will be conducted by way of poll. Please note that only shareholders, proxyholders or shareholder company representatives may vote. Shareholders attending the meeting online will be able to cast their vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. If you have any difficulties, please refer to the guide available in the AGM tab in the online Steadfast Investor Centre. There is also an AGM help line provided. Shareholders participating online through the virtual meeting website have the opportunity to ask questions on each matter being put to shareholders. [Operator Instructions]. I encourage shareholders attending online and who have questions to send their questions through as soon as possible. Following the voting, general business questions will be taken. Shareholder questions received prior to the meeting will be addressed after the formal business of the meeting. Each resolution set out in the Notice of the Meeting is an ordinary resolution and as such, must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. Results of the poll will be announced to the ASX as soon as practicable following the conclusion of the meeting. Shareholders should note the voting exclusion set out in the AGM Notice of Meeting. Please note that I intend to vote in favor of each resolution for those proxies that are open for the Chairman's discretion. The first item on the agenda is to consider and receive the financial report for the company and its controlled entities, the directors' report and the auditor's report for the financial year ended 30th of June 2021 as set out in the company's 2021 annual report. These documents have been made available to shareholders. There is no vote on this item of business. Are there any questions online?

Chairman, we have 3 questions. The first question is from Fiona Chan at Buena Vista. Is the first quarter trading update of 13.8% EBITA growth inclusive of Coverforce or not? And when will the Coverforce acquisition have kicked in?

Thank you, Linda. Coverforce, as you know, was acquired in late August, and our first quarter numbers do include the Coverforce for the period from acquisition to the end of the first quarter. And obviously, for the rest of the year, if Robert's expectation and the team's expectation is achieved, though, we will meet the expectations that we set ourselves when we acquired Coverforce.

Thank you, Chairman. The second question is, how is Steadfast proceeding with the Steadfast Client Trading Platform?

I'll hand that one over to Robert, who lives and breathes it every day.

Thanks, Frank. And I think the question is with its global trading platform, and I think the reference probably means as to we explained earlier in the year that we were doing a full evaluation of not only the Client Trading Platform in terms of what it does for us, but in terms of what it might do for other people because it was built as a bespoke solution for us, and it's worked beautifully from that point of view. We're about 3 months into that evaluation. And that's a complete pulling the system apart, looking at its application in Australia, looking at its application environment and having competing systems that may be out there. So I had hoped by this AGM, we'd be able to give you a more fuller answer to that, but the reality is it's a big project. We don't want to rush it. I think that we'd be fairly well assured that we'll be able to at the half year, give you a complete analysis of our position on terms of what it looks like. So thank you. I'll hand back to you.

Yes, Linda.

The final question in this section of the AGM, Chairman, is what is Steadfast's attitude to providing insurance services to any company associated with the fossil fuel industry?

I think that one is definitely for Robert.

I think the -- there's got to be some rationale coming into this, and I thought that John Neal recently, I participated in the Lloyd's view on this. I think that his team, and it wasn't just only what John said, is probably one of the most logical answers that I've heard. I propel whether you support the fossil fuel industry and ensuring it. And what he said was that we should support ensuring fossil fuel providers at the moment if they show a pathway to over a period of time reducing their carbon footprint and getting it back to what everybody is trying to achieve for 2050, which is net zero emissions. And I think if you start to apply yourself to the logic of that and you take away the emotion of it, if we were tomorrow to turn off all of our power generation that's done by coal in Australia, it would be a very hot summer and a very, very, very cold winter and you'd get used to eating very, very cold food and you wouldn't be boiling your water. So somewhere along, the emotion has to be taken out of this and the pragmatism has to be put forward about keep ensuring them as long as they're showing a pathway to reduce their carbon footprint and agreed to a periods of time when they'll do that. And I think the insurance industry both from an advice point of view and from insurers doing it has to have some logic in that way.

Thank you, Robert. Are there any further questions?

No.

As there are no further questions for this item, we will move on to the next item of business. The next item on the agenda is to adopt the remuneration report for the financial year ended 30th of June 2021. Noting the personal interest of the directors in this resolution, the Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

As there are no questions, we'll proceed to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

The next item on the agenda is to approve the grant of equity to the Managing Director and CEO in relation to his FY '21 remuneration. Robert was co-founder of Steadfast some 25 years ago. His passion for the business and his extraordinary ability to create and drive new initiatives to enhance and grow Steadfast has resulted in significant value creation for Steadfast's shareholders and the Steadfast Network consistently over many years. Against this background and the outstanding performance for FY '21, the Board, with Robert abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

As there are no questions, we will proceed to voting -- to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

The next item on the agenda is to approve the Steadfast placement capacity. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

As there are no questions, we will proceed to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

The next item on the agenda is to approve an increase in the maximum aggregate fees payable to nonexecutive directors. The Managing Director and CEO recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

As there are no further questions, we will proceed to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

The next item on the agenda is the election of Vicki Allen as a director of the company. Vicki was appointed to the Steadfast Board in March this year as part of our renewal program. In accordance with the constitution and ASX listing rules, she may not hold office past the first AGM following her appointment and is, therefore, offering herself for reelection -- for election. Vicki serves on the Audit & Risk, Nomination and Remuneration & Performance Management Committees. Vicki has over 30 years' experience across the financial services and property sectors. She held senior executive roles at a number of organizations, including Trust Company, MLC Limited and Lend Lease Corporation. Vicki is currently the Chair of BT Funds Board and a Non-Executive Director of Bennelong Funds Management and until recently, the Chair of Mortgage Choice Limited. She is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. The Board has concluded that Vicki is independent, and I can assure to you she is. I now invite Vicki to address the meeting. Thanks, Vicki.

Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, fellow shareholders. I believe I have the right experience and credentials to positively contribute to the Board and to serve on your behalf. As Frank mentioned, I have over 30 years' experience as a senior executive and as an Executive Director in the financial services and property sectors. Over recent years, I have developed a career as a nonexec director. I have had the opportunity to sit on listed, private company and subsidiary Boards and have been Chairman of the Board and the Board Committees. Most recently, I was Chairman of Mortgage Choice, and that business has many similarities to our own Steadfast broking. The skills I have developed over that time, finance, strategy, governance and broad commercial expertise, are highly relevant to the continued growth and success of this excellent company. In addition, I will bring by independent thought to decision making in the boardroom in order to drive shareholder returns and enhanced client broker and community outcomes. I can see that the Steadfast businesses provide an important service to brokers by enabling the efficiency and effectiveness of their own businesses. This, in turn, provides positive outcomes for clients, their families, their businesses by sourcing the best policies to meet their needs. I have enjoyed my time as a director so far, and I look forward to continue to work along my committed fellow directors and our high-performing executive team. I welcome the opportunity to contribute my skills and serve the company, and I would be honored to have your support.

Thank you, Vicki. The Board, with Vicki abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No.

Thank you, Linda. As there are no further questions, we will proceed to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

The next item on the agenda is the reelection of David Liddy AM as a Director of the company. David was appointed to the Steadfast Board in January 2013. He is Deputy Chairman, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee & Performance Committee -- sorry, Remuneration & Performance Committee since 2013 and serves on the Nomination Committee. David has been an outstanding contributor to the Board and management over the past 8-plus years. We have all benefited from his significant experience, particularly in the areas of distribution, banking and people management. David has over 45 years' experience in banking, including postings in London and Hong Kong. He was Managing Director of Bank of Queensland from 2001 to 2011. David is a Director of EML Payments Limited. He is a fellow of the Institute of Company Directors. He received his AM for services to the banking and finance sectors and the community of Queensland. The only problem that David has he doesn't a response , but that's another subject for another day. David?

Thank you, Chairman. It's the nicest things he's ever said about me. Look, I'm very fortunate to be a longstanding member of world-class and outstanding Board that has overseen equally an outstanding company in its performance ably led by Robert Kelly and an equally outstanding executive team. I consider myself very fortunate to be in that position. And if I have your support for reelection, I can assure you that I will perform my Director's duties with due diligence and in the interest of all of our shareholders. Thank you.

Thank you, David. The Board, with David abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

As there are no questions, we will proceed to the voting, Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

Congratulations, David. It looks like you got over the line. The next item on the agenda is the reelection of Gai McGrath as a Director of the company. Gai was appointed to the Steadfast Board in June 2018. She is Chair of the People, Culture and Governance Committee and a member of the Audit & Risk Committee. Over the past 3 years, Gai has been a very valuable contributor to the Board, particularly in the areas of strategy, governance, social responsibility and challenging the status quo to improve the organization. Gai has over 35 years' experience in the financial services and legal industries, including 12 years with Westpac Group as General Manager of Westpac's retail banking businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Gai is a Director of Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited and also chairs the Risk Committee. She's a Director of Toyota Finance Australia Limited and HBF Health Limited. She is Chair of BT Superannuation Trustees and Humanitix Limited. Gai Holds a BA, LLB (Hons), LLM (Distinction) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I now invite Gai to address the meeting. Gai?

All these tall man, I have to lower the mics. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning to my fellow shareholders. I've been very privileged to have had the opportunity to serve on the Board of Steadfast for the past 3 years. During that time, the company has grown in so many important ways. Not only has the group continued to deliver strong financial results for our shareholders, it has continued to strengthen the foundations that have enabled that growth. These foundations include the Steadfast Client Trading Platform, which when I joined the Board in 2018, had $231 million of GWP on the platform, and we just signed off on a year where it had grown to $793 million. I've also seen a strengthening of the risk management and compliance capabilities of the group that have enabled an even stronger focus in these critical areas, especially as the insurance and broking industries continue to see higher levels of regulatory scrutiny. When I joined the Board in 2018, I said that one of my key focus areas as a Director would be on ensuring that there is an alignment between the interests of shareholders, customers and staff. And that this alignment exists at every level of the company. I believe that shareholders are well served if companies pay close attention to understanding their customers and anticipating their needs. And to do this successfully, you must have highly talented management and staff. In my time on the Steadfast Board, I continue to see how closely Robert and his team work with brokers to understand the opportunities and challenges they face in supporting their clients. These clients largely consist of small- and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of our economy. The Steadfast Network plays a vital role in helping these businesses effectively manage their risks. Never has the role of our brokers been more important than in the past 18 months when so many of Australia's businesses have had to deal with challenges that they had never even contemplated, let alone had to face before. The fact that Steadfast was able to continue to grow throughout these challenging times is due to the dedication and focus of our brokers and of all of the Steadfast teams who support them. It is a testament to the alignment of people, clients and shareholders that is the cornerstone of the group's success. As Chair of the Board's newly formed People, Culture & Governance Committee, I am passionate about supporting the group to continue to develop its capabilities in these vital areas. The culture of Steadfast is unique and will continue to evolve. We must preserve the very best of Steadfast as we continue to grow and deliver for our brokers, people, shareholders and the community. I am very much looking forward to working with the Board and the management team to continue to make a strong and positive contribution to the group as it builds on its success to date and executes a robust and ambitious strategy. I seek your support to enable me to do so. Thank you.

Thank you, Gai, and well said. The Board, with Gai abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?

No, Chairman.

Thank you, Linda. As there are no questions, we'll proceed to the voting. Please now select either for, against or abstain for this resolution. [Voting]

Congratulations, Gai, on your reelection. We have received some general questions from the shareholders, which we would like to be able to share with you. Linda, can you please read out the questions, and Robert or I or the appropriate person will respond.

Chairman, the first question is, could you please give us an update on the integration of Coverforce and the likely synergies?

Over to you, Robert.

A good question. And I guess when you spent $411 million on something, that it should be answered with great diligence and appropriateness. I must say that we've done over 110 acquisitions, and some of them are incredibly fulfilling, and some of them are frustrating, and sometimes they take a long time for you to get a cultural alignment with the people that you acquire. That's been the complete reversal with Coverforce. From the very day that we acquired that business, the cooperation that we've seen about integrating into what we do, taking advantage of synergies and how we could work to do has been an amazingly powerful and strong and robust operating structure that has emanated directly from Coverforce into our offices here. And last week, Stephen spent a very worthwhile evening -- afternoon with them just ticking off the synergies that we think we can produce out of the 2 businesses and the things that made us look at the reason why the acquisition will be so good to us. So yes, it's only been a very short period of time, but it's been outstanding in the way it's going forward. And the simplicity of getting it into the business is quite amazing. So we're very excited. The synergies, well, I don't think we're going to see much of that for the next 90 days, but certainly towards the end of the first quarter of calendar year '22, I think we'll start to see them pull through. But at the moment and on the numbers that we're getting, it's absolutely perfectly aligned with what we were expected to do.

Thank you, Robert. One of the matters that came to our attention during the Coverforce acquisition, and it does come with other acquisitions that we get to learn and get to see new ways of doing things. And one of the things that really impressed us about Coverforce is their diversity, their systems, their people and the way they manage their profit margins. So Robert, it was an outstanding acquisition. Obviously, the Board is extremely pleased with it in the way it's progressing. Linda?

The second question, Chairman is, how is the Board addressing CEO succession planning?

Well, we all hope that Robert could go forever, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen. But Robert is still extremely passionate about the business as busy as ever as you can see from his presentation to our shareholders. We, as a Board, have plans in place for emergency, which we do not want to happen, of course. And we do have a very, very strong executive team. And with Gai's committee, we have executive development, and we are looking forward to the progress with that executive development because, as I said, we do have an outstanding team. Hopefully, Robert, you'll keep on going for a few more years because I know the shareholders love you and love the way you go about building the business carefully year-on-year.

Chairman, we have 2 more questions. The second last is are we likely to see high growth in expenses now that lockdown is finished?

That's a real pressure one for the CEO.

Look, I think that the COVID experience has been a bit of an epiphany for the business generally. I -- we're very well connected around our network and also, as a result of that, really connected with a lot of small -- as Gai alluded before, small to medium enterprise businesses. I think it's been a bit of a wake-up call that some of the expenses that we've had in the past won't come back. But in terms of entertainment and travel and the socialization that businesses have with one another, that's going to start to filter back. Travel will certainly start to impact again. So we've taken that into account. And I know Stephen did some great -- Stephen Humphrys, our CFO, did some great modeling along with his team to actually filter those back into how we think that will occur. So yes, it's well and truly into our expense budgets upcoming this year. And so far, I think we've been well aligned to Stephen's thinking. And I think the normal way he goes about expensing the company is in a conservative manner. And I think we've -- we haven't disappointed them in that way. So yes, there will be some come back, but I don't think there'll be a landslide. And I think there is a realignment of do we need to spend some money in some particular areas. So I hope -- sit Chair, for you.

Thank you, Robert. Linda?

And the final question, Chairman. We note that a number of directors have been on the Board since the IPO in 2013. Are there plans for renewal in addition to Vicki Allen's appointment.

Thank you, Linda. First, let me say that I'm a great believer, and I know every member of the Board is a great believer that you need to refresh your team on a regular basis. You get fixed in your ideas, and that's why we need additional directors. We also have a number of directors coming up to 10 years, including myself. And we need to find people that can come into this organization that will carry on a great work of the -- my fellow directors and obviously full support of management. We do have a comprehensive renewal program of directors. And in the next few months, you will hear more about that as we bring on another director, but the renewal program for all the directors will take at least 3 years to complete. The total objective of this is to make sure that any new director comes on board has the opportunity to not only contribute to the organization, but also learn from the other directors and gain a full understanding of what Steadfast is all about.

Thank you, Chairman. That's the end of questions.

All right. Shareholders are reminded that they can submit their vote online for a further 5 minutes. Results of the poll will be announced to ASX as soon as practicable, following the conclusion of the meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, the business of this meeting has been completed. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our shareholders for attending today's meeting. and I now declare the meeting closed.