Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to ClearView's FY 2021 results conference call. Today, I'm joined by ClearView's Chief Financial Officer, Athol Chiert. In a moment, I'll provide an overview of ClearView's full-year result and a business update. Athol will go through the results in greater detail before I will wrap up, and we take questions. This morning, ClearView announced an operating earnings of AUD 23.9 million for the year ending the 30th of June 2021, up 83%, and an underlying net profit after tax of AUD 22.7 million, up 54%. This is a strong result amidst challenging market conditions and ongoing uncertainty due to COVID-19. At the same time as the release of our FY 2021 results, we've also announced today the sale of our financial advice businesses to Centrepoint Alliance. ClearView has entered into a share purchase agreement for the sale of our businesses in exchange for AUD 15.2 million, made up of AUD 3.2 million in cash, and the acquisition of a strategic 25% stake in Centrepoint Alliance. This allows ClearView to indirectly participate in the financial advice industry consolidation and at the same time separate our product manufacturer and financial advice arms. FY 2021 has been a transformational year, and the business has achieved a number of milestones during the year. Firstly, the implementation of line of business structure and improved capability and capacity, commencement of a multi-year life insurance transformation project, and progress towards the launch of a new contemporary technology platform and income protection product called ClearChoice late this year. Agreement to separation of a dealer group and the financial advice business from the ClearView Group through a strategic transaction with Centrepoint Alliance, as I mentioned earlier. With process of the migrating of the private label wrap platform from Colonial First State to HUB24 complete, the process of simplification of the wealth management business is commenced with a view to further digitization. Raising of AUD 75 million of Tier 2 capital and completion of other capital management initiatives in FY 2021. A solid performance in FY 2021 in obviously a challenging environment, and we've performed relatively well despite the challenges presented by COVID-19. We've also declared a fully franked dividend this year of AUD 0.01 per share. We have a strong balance sheet and capital base backed by net cash and investments of AUD 374 million or AUD 0.56 per share as at the 30th of June 2021. To date, ClearView has proven resilient to the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. Although we continue to monitor developments closely and prioritize the health and safety of our staff, customers, and business partners. Our teams are currently working from home while maintaining day-to-day operations and minimizing disruption to our customers. The aim of our multi-year transformation program, which commenced in FY 2020 and accelerated through FY 2021, is to drive scale and efficiencies, ensure that ClearView remains easy to do business with. The business is on track to deliver key transformation milestones, starting with the first stage of our new life insurance platform. This platform will be central for advisors to engage with ClearView and access our new life insurance product series, ClearView's ClearChoice. The launch of ClearChoice on our new platform in October this year will be a major milestone in ClearView's story to date. In response to changing consumer expectations and APRA's individual disability income insurance measures, ClearChoice is a competitive, flexible, and more sustainable solution. It will replace ClearView LifeSolutions as our flagship product. Since 2011, LifeSolutions has performed strongly. It has been consistently rated highly by independent research houses, earning it a place on additional 185 approved product lists in FY 2021. As a result, 777 dealer groups representing over 4,000 financial advisors are able to do business with ClearView. ClearChoice will build on that momentum. Overall, FY 2021 has been a transitional year for ClearView, and I'll now hand over to Athol to walk you through the FY 2021 financial results. Thank you, Simon. As Simon mentioned, in FY 2021, our group operating earnings increased 83% to AUD 23.9 million. Group operating earnings is the board's key measure of profitability and the basis for dividend payment decisions as it represents the underlying net profit after tax before investment income and the interest costs associated with the corporate debt and Tier 2 capital. The group's material improvement in profitability was driven by strong underlying claims and improved lapse performance relative to the assumptions as at 30 June 2020. ClearView's FY 2021 result also highlights the group's strong balance sheet and recurring revenue base, which underpins our growth profile. We also completed the successful AUD 75 million Tier 2 capital raising in November 2020. Life insurance remains the group's key profit driver, contributing 98% of total operating earnings. In FY 2021, life insurance operating earnings increased 166% to AUD 23.5 million. Our in-force premiums increased 7% to AUD 289.7 million. Similarly, gross life insurance premium income to AUD 278.2 million. In wealth management, funds under management increased off the back of positive inflows and strong investment performance. The board has also reinstated the dividend and announced a fully franked FY 2021 cash dividend of AUD 0.01 per share that reflects an element of conservatism due to recent uncertainties presented by COVID-19. The group has a net surplus capital position of AUD 14.3 million as at 30 June. The surplus capital position and future capital generation is anticipated to fund the material investment in the new technology platform and multi-year transformation program in our life insurance business. The forecast capital generation allows for progressively increased new business generation and market share, and staggered price increases on our LifeSolutions in-force portfolio over a period of time. The ultra-low interest rate environment continues to adversely impact earnings. We also have an embedded value of AUD 0.96 per share at 30 June 2021 and reflects the discounted cash flows of our in-force portfolios. Today, we also announced the Centrepoint Alliance transaction. Much of the value of the transaction is in the strategic value and extraction of significant synergies and the creation of a platform and capability to further consolidate the market. The ClearView Financial Advice businesses are also expected to declare a circa AUD 7 million pre-completion dividend prior to their sale to Centrepoint Alliance. Our net surplus capital position is expected to increase by the amount that the net proceeds of the transaction and the pre-completion dividend exceeds the carrying value of our investment on our balance sheet in the Financial Advice businesses. ClearView's shareholding in Centrepoint Alliance is expected to be earnings accretive to ClearView, and post-completion, we're expected to equity account the earnings of the combined business. Any costs incurred in relation to this transaction will be reported as a cost considered unusual to the ordinary activities and not form part of underlying NPAT in FY 2022. The deal is expected to be completed on or around 31 October 2021. I'll now hand back to Simon. Thank you, Athol. This is an important time both in ClearView's growth story and ClearView's history. We believe that Australians have a fundamental need for life insurance and wealth management products due to record levels of household debt, Australia's complex taxation, superannuation, and social security system, and ongoing uncertainty amidst the global pandemic. COVID-19 has led to increasing public awareness of the value and importance of life insurance and professional advice. After a period of transition, our attention is shifting to business simplification and sales and distribution with clear targets set for FY 2022. We continue to maintain a sharp focus on claims and lapse management, with a focus on improving claims outcomes and supporting customers through their recovery. ClearView's performance will hinge on the successful launch of our life insurance technology platform and ClearChoice. Over the next few years, we'll continue to invest in technology as we roll out additional functionality and enhancements. I will now take questions. Over to you, Kevin. Thank you very much. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press the pound hash key. Please stand by while the questions queue. Once again, it is star one. Thank you. Once again, it is star one. Our next telephone question in queue is from Philip Pepe from Blue Ocean Equities. Please ask your question, Philip. Hi, guys. Well done on a good result, and thanks for taking the question. The industry data always comes out with a lag, so just wondering how are your competitors behaving in a post-Hayne regime? Has pricing become more rational, reflecting the risks in the portfolio, et cetera? Is the industry moving upwards, or is there still some shenanigans going on? Look, Philip, I think things are starting to improve. We've seen a number of competitors, as late as last week, change their pricing. There are green shoots coming through the system right now, and we expect post-October, when the new products come out for individual disability insurance or income protection insurance, we expect both the pricing and the terms and conditions of those products to be far more sustainable. That will lead, I think, to more increases coming through on the in-force portfolios. Excellent. Secondly, you sometimes give a financial outlook statement. Are you able to do that at this stage, or you consider one at the AGM? Look, Philip, we've said solid underlying NPAT growth in FY 2022 and further increases in FY 2023 expected. Now, obviously, there's some uncertainty due to COVID-19, but we remain optimistic. Excellent. Thank you.
Loading workspace