Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On behalf of Magellan, I'd like to welcome you today to Magellan's half year results for the period ending 31 December 2021. I'm Sarah Thorne, and I manage the investor relations function here at Magellan. Today, Magellan's results will be presented by Hamish McLennan, Magellan's Chairman, Chris Mackay, Portfolio Manager, and Kirsten Morton, Magellan's Interim CEO. Craig Wright, Head of Magellan Capital and Advisory, will also join for Q&A at the end of the presentation. Please note that today's presentation is being recorded and a replay will be available on Magellan's website. We may also have media in attendance today. Thank you, and I would now like to welcome Hamish to take you through the presentation. Thanks, Hamish. Welcome, everyone, and I'm very honored to be here today presenting as Magellan Chairman. It's been a challenging period for the company, part of which has been Hamish Douglass's medical leave of absence, and we wish him all the very best and a speedy recovery, and also thank him for the great effort and work in helping us deliver these outstanding results today. What we wanna take you through today is where our focus lies looking ahead, and that is strengthen governance and accountability across the business, a reaffirmed focus on our core funds management business, and as part of this, avoiding complexity and further sharpening our investment process to improve investment performance. Let me remind you, we have a very robust business. We have a highly experienced, long-standing and proven investment team, a strong balance sheet with no debt, strong margins, and operating cash flow, which allows us to continue to support and invest in the business. Today, you'll hear from Chris Mackay, who oversees the portfolio management of Magellan's global equity strategies, who will provide an update on the funds management business and the investment strategy. Chris is the co-founder of Magellan, serving as Magellan's inaugural Chief Investment Officer from inception in 2006 - 2012, and he was Chairman until 2013. Since 2013, Chris has been serving as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of ASX-listed MFF Capital Investments and is a highly respected and experienced global equity Portfolio Manager. Welcome, Chris, and thank you for all your efforts. For those who may not be aware, Chris has always shared an office with us here at Magellan. As part of the services agreement we have with MFF, Chris has had access to Magellan's investment research and has had a consistent and active engagement with our investment team for a number of years. Magellan is very fortunate to have Chris step in in his role to work alongside Magellan's deeply experienced global equities portfolio management team and the broader investment team. Following Chris, our Interim CEO, Kirsten Morton, will take you through the group's financial results for the six months to 31st December 2021, and our key priorities for the business going forward. Before I hand over to Chris and Kirsten, I wanna take this opportunity to provide shareholders an update on what has been happening at Magellan at a board and management level, and also provide an update on the capital management initiatives we announced today. From a board perspective, we have strengthened our independence and governance. This has started with my appointment as independent non-executive chairman of the group. I previously served our shareholders as deputy chairman. Robert Fraser has now been appointed to this role and continues to serve as independent non-executive chairman of Magellan Asset Management, our core business. As a further step to strengthen our oversight, the board is looking to add an additional independent non-executive director. We will update shareholders once we've made this appointment. In regard to management, our interim CEO, Kirsten Morton, is doing an outstanding job. Kirsten stepped in as Interim CEO, having been with Magellan for over eight years in the role of Chief Financial Officer. Kirsten has a deep understanding of the business and has fostered excellent relationships and trust with staff during her time at Magellan. Importantly, our core business operations are stable and operating effectively and profitably. The addition of Chris to senior management adds further depth of experience and support to Kirsten as Interim CEO. The board will take the necessary time to make the right choice in appointing the next CEO, and we look forward to updating shareholders when this appointment is made. I've been a director of Magellan since 2016, and I have the greatest confidence in the team to take the business forward. Thank you to all Magellan staff, clients, and shareholders for your ongoing support of the business. Now turning to the capital management initiatives that we have announced today. We believe these proposed initiatives will be highly attractive to shareholders and balance capital efficiency, delivering solid dividends and attractive returns to shareholders. Today, we announced the intention to progress with a bonus issue of options to Magellan shareholders on a one for eight basis. It is intended the options will be issued at an exercise price of AUD 35 per option, exercisable at any time up until expiry over a five year term. It is intended the options will be listed on the ASX. A prospectus for these options will be available to shareholders in March 2022. In addition, we intend to progress with an issuance of approximately 10 million options to Magellan staff for the same exercise price and term. This intended issuance will be part of a broader staff retention and engagement project program that we're currently working through. The board is also considering an on-market share buyback program, and we will update shareholders on that in due course. Today, we confirm our dividend policy payout of 90%-95% of profit after tax from our funds management business. We are suspending the DRP in light of the new capital management initiatives. Kirsten will be in touch on Magellan Capital Partners later in the presentation. As part of our capital management initiatives, we don't have any plans to make further investments in Magellan Capital Partners business. We believe the combination of these capital management initiatives will be highly attractive to shareholders and reflect our focus on our core funds management business. With that, I'd like to hand over to Chris for him to take you through the fund management update. Thank you. Thank you, Hamish. That's got a ring to it. I've said that last time I was here. I'm Chris. I'm delighted to be working for and with Kirsten. Kirsten's superb, you'll get to know her well over the coming years. I'm delighted to be working with and for our simply amazing team, teams of professionals. Magellan craves excellence. Magellan truly develops deep relationships based on excellence. Magellan truly cares. Having said that, we will only be trusted if we deserve to be trusted. In some cases, we must deserve to be trusted to rebuild trust. Importantly, doors remain open. It's good news so far. Hamish appears to be recovering. We're already working on thoughtful structures for him to come back safely, to focus on investment, to reconnect with global clients, and deliver what investors need. The outpouring of feeling from professionals all around the world, and many others here and elsewhere, has simply been heartwarming. Time and again, over the past two weeks, as major professional investors around the world have kept their doors open to Magellan, or even where they've redeemed, they said, "Stay in touch." The professionals have re-recognized that Magellan and Hamish are globally unique as professional asset managers. I will touch on the why later. The most important word in teams and in adaptive processes is and. The Magellan global strategy, which has been led by Hamish, uniquely combines valuable macro, global and regional insights and perspectives with real-time updates, well ahead of economists and central banks, often, on what major companies are actually doing with inventories, supply chain, wage costs, and pricing power. Time and again, wonderful globally advantaged companies with demonstrable, sustained, profitable growth and unique concurrent focus on downside protection and focus on what is in the price. Until last week, I sincerely believed that every smart, sophisticated investor did this as part of their framework setting and processes. Simply amazing. That is not the case. Think Dunning-Kruger effect on my part. Thus, we have part of the answer. Why is Magellan's global investing unique and valuable? This continues in Hamish's absence and includes Arvid Streimann, one of the two other joint portfolio managers. He has world-class macro insights. He is softly spoken with wisdom, and so I strongly recommend you listen when he speaks. Magellan is also much more. Today's announcements materially reduce complexity, provide strategic clarity, increased focus and accountability, and are a crucial first step in trust for our investor clients, financial planners and intermediaries, as well as professional investor clients around the world, for our teams and for our shareholders. Shareholders are also Magellan partners, and we should never forget that. Partnerships matter. Frank and all of his teams have been firmly relationship-based from day one, and they are skilled and care deeply. All Magellan cares, but we will work to broaden and deepen partnerships for the long term based on trust. Our operations are already world-class, and Kirsten is professionalizing us further. Thank you, Kirsten. Magellan is typified by people like Dom Giuliano, leadership, judgment, ESG smarts. Gerald Stack leads our market-leading AUD 20 billion infrastructure business with a very strong team around him. John Sevior, Matt Williams, Emma Fisher lead Airlie, the best Australian fund manager, as they deliver results through cycles. Results driven, relationship-focused, understated, but the highest quality, each of them and many more right throughout our teams. Funds management is an important vital business in societies. Today is important for Magellan and for all of our stakeholders. It is one important day and not the day to spell out in full our longer-term vision in funds management. It is advanced from our original opportunities and vision. Inward inquiries are coming from some who understand Magellan's unique culture and potential. This is real, but let's deliver results and trust. If you look on the slide, there's obviously some key points being made here. The fundamental proven investment discipline works, and it's unchanged since inception. There's obviously modest moderation to some of the processes. It delivers strong, consistent investment results for clients, importantly, with downside protection. It minimizes the risk of permanent capital loss across market cycles. It helps clients maintain quality investments during volatility and noise. This leads to the second why. Why have a world-class targeted top-decile investment management group? First, is answered by the world around us. We have built and protected wealth, and we are uniquely placed to continue. Inflation erodes cash every day. Ben McVicker and Ofer love toll roads and infrastructure. They have pricing power. Pricing power matters to protect and enhance wealth. Government's stupid ideological decisions damage debt, and spending gets ever closer to real pressure points. Geopolitical pressures are the highest in decades. Magellan's clients need portfolio growth via the best sustainably advantaged companies in the world. Duration, downside protection and macroeconomic expertise built also from the real-time, real world activities from the biggest world companies everywhere. In the current environment, we have pushed on a Jeff Bezos open door and added tighter focus on what's in the price, as I mentioned. Performance and accountability are front and center, and that is bolded in this slide. This matters for our clients and advisors as going forward, index funds, cash, other investment firms likely will fail to provide the full package of answers. Academic underpinning of our processes and investment philosophy comes via groups like Santa Fe, Complex Systems, Professor West, Scale. Why do top-class Magellan-type companies continue to grow and succeed and not revert to the mean? Of course, I marvel at Alphabet's $91 billion U.S. after-tax operating cash flow. Think about that. It's a young company. It's a huge number. I'm even more excited that we were the first important international institution, via Nikki Thomas, our returning portfolio manager, to recognize the Yum! Brands systems and amazing consumer growth in China. Hamish, many years ago, was far ahead in spelling out the growth potential of the $30 or so Microsoft. Of course, it's $300 now. Both are still in our portfolios to this day. Markets have hardly started cleaning out the rubbish that floated up in recent years, and that accelerated post-COVID. That is a risk, but real opportunities for deep Magellan analysis and process. We have this huge team, as you know. I do wanna touch upon the potential of the MFG Core Series, ESG, sustainable, and FuturePay. We'll talk about that in coming months. I also recognize, of course, the MGF discount. That's an important issue. We are looking at it. Of course, we've increased the fund buyback to represent 30% of volumes. That, of course, is a benefit to existing and continuing unitholders. With that, I'll hand over. Kirsten, please. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Chris, and good morning. I'm very pleased to be able to address you directly today. Firstly, I'd like to take you through the results, and then I'll follow through with a business update. Today, Magellan has delivered a record half-year profit for the six months to 31 December 2021. Our statutory net profit after tax was up 24% to AUD 251.6 million compared to the prior half year, which is a great result. The increase was mainly due to a 12% increase in our average funds under management, which resulted in a 13% increase in our core revenue, being management and services fees. As we've mentioned in the past, performance fees by their nature are lumpy, and they do have the potential to fluctuate significantly period to period. That said, in the current half year, the group earned performance fees of AUD 11. 5 Million from the infrastructure fund's strong performance. Other revenue typically comprises distributions we earn on investments in our funds, realized and unrealized gains or losses on those investments, foreign exchange movements, and advisory income of our U.S. business, Frontier Partners Group. Our revenue has increased AUD 10.9 million, mainly due to FX gains and some realized gains on investments held in our fund investments portfolio. Our share of profit from Magellan's investments in Barrenjoey, Guzman y Gomez, and FinClear was a AUD 3 million profit for the six months to 31 December 2021. That was a pleasing result, especially as Barrenjoey has been operating for a mere 18 months. We have previously mentioned that our view is that adjusted net profit really provides much more meaningful performance information of our business and also some comparability of results half on half. If I turn to our adjusted net profit after tax for the half year, you can see it's AUD 248.1 million, up 16% compared to the last half. Just by way of a reminder, adjusted net profit is the group's statutory net profit, excluding certain items. Those items are shown on page nine of the slides, and for the current half year, they comprise of three adjustments. AUD 6.1 million relating to a one-off strategic transaction cost, and that relates mainly to revaluing the Magellan Global Fund option liability. There's a non-cash item of AUD 2.3, which relates to the amortization expense of intangibles from the Airlie and Frontier business that we bought a few years ago. Finally, an AUD 11.9 million unrealized capital gains in the shares and units in our unlisted investments portfolio. As we record the market movements of those equities directly in the P&L, it's meaningful to remove the unrealized market volatility from our revenue. That's whether it's a gain or a loss. Please just note all those adjustments I just ran through are after-tax amounts. Finally, diluted earnings per share increased 23% to AUD 1.363 per share compared to the last half, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was AUD 1.164 per share, which is up 15% and in line with the increase in adjusted net profit. Turning to page 10, given the conclusion of our relationship with SJP late last year, I thought you might be interested to see the impact of our earnings for the six months to December 2021, as if SJP was not a client for that six-month period. Please do note that this is just for information purposes only. As you can see on the slide, there's a third dashed column on the charts which shows FUM and earnings excluding SJP for the six months to 31 December 2021. As you can see, it shows the profit of our core business, funds management, would've been down by a modest 1% half-on-half. That is really that funds management earnings in the current half would've been largely flat at AUD 254.1 million, compared with AUD 256.2 million in the prior half. Now, if you look to the far right of that slide on statutory net profit, even without SJP, it would've still been higher by 7% at AUD 216 million. As expected, there'd be no change in adjusted net profit, given we don't adjust for management fee revenues. The key point is that we are not reliant on a single client. We have had some strong earnings from FUM growth, and it is important to remember that FUM growth comes from both market movements as well as flows from clients and FX. Now, let me step you through the financial strength of our business, which is shown on page 11. It's quite simple. We have a strong balance sheet and strong liquidity. Our cash, our liquid investments in equities and funds and equity accounted investments exceed AUD 1 billion, which is up 13% in the past six months. Now, of that AUD 1 billion, AUD 291 million comprises cash, and that's all free cash. We complement this by timely collection of management fees, and our current collection rate is around 20 days to realize our fee receivables into cash. That all results in our business having a very healthy cash flow from operating activities, being AUD 238.5 million for the six months to 31 December 2021. In addition, we have no debt, and we have access to unused facilities of around AUD 105 million, which just cements the strength of our liquidity. Now, once taking into account the group's liabilities, our net tangible assets are strong, at AUD 992.8 million, a 13% rise in the past six months. It is worthwhile to remind you that the largest liability on our balance sheet totals AUD 165.2 million, and it really relates to a conservative accounting treatment of the Magellan Global Fund options. It's conservative because it assumes all the options will be exercised, which may not be the case. What does that all mean for our interim dividend? The directors have declared an interim dividend for the half year ended 31 December 2021 of AUD 1.101 per share, 13% higher than last year. Now, the dividend announced today reflects Magellan's dividend policy, which is to pay out 90%-95% of the net profit after tax of the funds management business, excluding amortization expense, costs related to strategic initiatives, and any crystallized performance fees at the half year. We'll continue to frank the dividend at 75%, and we will also look to pay those dividends promptly. The dividend announced today will be paid to shareholders on the 8th of March. The directors have also decided to suspend the dividend reinvestment plan for the foreseeable future as the group has no requirement for capital, given it has no plans to make further investments in Magellan Capital Partners. On page 13 of the slides, there's just a couple of comments I'd like to make about expenses. Consistent with prior years, our main operating expense, aside from tax, is employee expenses. Our average number of employees at 31 December 2021 is 139, which remains quite stable. It was 135 at June 2021. Employee expenses account for approximately 65% of total expenses, which remains approximately stable. Now, our cost-to-income ratio for the half year is 17.4%. If at 31 December 2021, you adjusted the results for SJP to exclude SJP, it would've been 19.6%. This result is exceptionally low, and when compared to industry standards, it really just highlights that there is significant buffer in our business to continue to invest in our business for the future. Finally, our total funds management expenses for the 2021 and for 2022 financial year remains in line with our expense guidance of AUD 125 million-AUD 130 million, and that includes the employee retention initiatives which we are currently working through and have announced today to our staff. Now, let's turn to slide 15, and let's discuss a little bit about our core business, our funds management business, and the driver of our group's profitability and dividends. Funds management revenue is up 15% to AUD 367.1 million for the six months to 31 December 2021, and that relates mainly, as I've covered before, 13% increase in management fees, which is in line with the 12% growth in average FUM. Crystallized performance fees before tax of AUD 11.5 million. Now expenses in the half year increased AUD 10.7 million - AUD 62.3 million, and that was largely due to remuneration decisions we took due to COVID in the prior year. We've also seen a small increase in the average base management fee to 62 basis points due to the change in the mix of the retail and the institutional clients. Based on our most recent FUM announcement on the 9th of February, funds under management were AUD 87.1 billion, and our base management fee run rate is 64 basis points. Our business does remain well-balanced across both our retail and our institutional client bases. This slide on slide 16, if you're following, the slide is based on our latest FUM at 9 February. As you can see, FUM represents 33% of our total FUM, while institutional FUM represents 67%. Then, if you flip that, while on a FUM basis, the retail is 33% of our business, if you look at the contribution to management fees earned, our retail business actually contributes to 62% of our management fee revenue. We also remain well diversified across our institutional clients. Based on our FUM at 9 February, we have four clients representing more than 2% of management and services fees revenues. Therefore, we are not reliant on any single client. Of our largest thirty institutional clients, they represent 28% of our management and services fees. You can see that there's a very long tail in our institutional client base. Now just touching on Magellan Capital Partners before we wrap up. Magellan has made three financial investments, which are separate to our core funds management business, and they are not held for business synergies. These financial investments are independently managed. Magellan is not involved in their day-to-day business operations. We remain very supportive of all three of those financial investments, and we have no plans to make any further investments going forward. Barrenjoey's management has represented it is performing ahead of their expectations, and as previously mentioned, it was profitable for the half year ended 31 December 2021. Craig Wright, Head of Magellan's Capital and Advisory team, provides strong oversight of these financial investments, which includes being Magellan's board representative on the larger investments. I want to acknowledge the business has faced challenges in the last few months, and the culmination of those events may have impacted the trust you have in Magellan. I and all the team are focused and determined to return stability and simplicity to our business. If you know me, it will be done right, and it will be done as soon as possible. That is our future focus. With that, let me just step you through our immediate priorities. Firstly, we are looking to the future with a laser focus on our core funds management business. Magellan is a strong business, and we have a wonderful platform for the future. As Chris mentioned, sharpening investment processes to improve investment performance is the major priority of our investment team. Our business has always been, and continues to be, obviously, built on putting clients first, and this goes to investment performance, but also client engagement. Our distribution team, headed by Frank Casarotti, remains best-in-class and relationship-focused professionals through and through. Our team remains engaged with our client base and are focused on both our client and unitholder needs. Our institutional team has had significant engagement across our global insto client base and have scheduled face-to-face meetings with our clients across the U.K. and the U.S. next month. Over recent weeks, webinars and meetings have been held between research houses and our senior members of our investment team. Webinars have also been held between our financial advisor and broker network and our global equity portfolio managers. We've had a number of boardroom briefings organized with senior investment team members nationwide, and in March, we start a national advisor and broker roadshow. Over a number of years, we have been showcasing to our clients the breadth and depth of our investment team, and you'll see that through our video series, our Magellan Minutes, and our In the Know podcast. Finally, our 14-person client-facing distribution team maintain active outreach to our advisor and broker network, and we continue to have ongoing investor calls with direct clients. In addition to our clients, our staff are a key priority. We are a people business, and it's a key responsibility of mine, and also Chris' role, to nurture and retain our people, and especially at this important time. The caliber and dedication of each individual at Magellan just makes it my absolute pleasure to care for them. Not only are we maintaining an active engagement program with staff, employee retention is also a key focus which we will include amongst other initiatives, and a retention bonus plan and the issue of unlisted bonus options to staff have been announced today, as I mentioned earlier. Importantly, we are in a strong position and that allows us to continue to invest, support, and reward our staff. Now before heading to Q&A, couple of takeaways. Magellan has reported a record result for the half year and remains incredibly strong financial health, a robust balance sheet, and strong cash flows. Our focus is on our core funds management business. Fundamental to this is our deeply experienced investment team that has delivered strong, consistent investment performance for clients since inception via a disciplined, proven, and through the cycle investment process. For shareholders, we believe the capital management initiatives announced today enhance value and should be attractive. From Magellan, thank you for your ongoing support. Sarah, I'll hand back to you for Q&A. Well, thank you very much, Kirsten, Chris, and Hamish for that presentation. We will now move to Q&A. There's two ways to ask a question. If you've joined us by webinar, you may ask a question by typing it into the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. If you've dialed in by phone, you can ask a question by pressing star nine on your keyboard. If you're asked to ask your question, you will need to unmute yourself by pressing star six before proceeding with your question. We will start with some questions that have come through on the webinar. Hamish, firstly on the capital management initiatives. This question comes from Ed Henning. Can you explain how we will be pursuing the buyback if we proceed, raising debt or selling assets given we've got a 90%-95% payout ratio? Kirsten, could you answer that one? Sure. In terms of how we'll be arranging the buyback, obviously we'll be having the capital in the business. Chris, I don't know if you want to say anything. Yeah, I'm going. We're very cash accretive, so there'll be cash available, and to the buyback. The buyback plans are about to be undertaken. Yeah. Okay. Perhaps a follow-up question for that, the rationale for doing the intention to undertake the one for eight bonus issue at the same time as undertaking potentially a buyback. You want me to lead? Yeah, go for that. Yeah. It's clearly a benefit to shareholders. We've previously had success with similar structures. Shareholders, which I guess I'm one, haven't done the best in the recent past. We thought that the strike, the exercise price of AUD 35 was an appropriate balance. If the share price is back at AUD 35, the board and management will have done a very decent job in some restoration of value. We hope that the options are of ongoing value to shareholders. The strike at 1 for 8 is relatively non-dilutive for those who don't take up at that time. If we're in the money, obviously expect a high take-up. Equally as important is the approximately 10 million options to staff on a one for eight basis, that's intended to demonstrate confidence. There are particular features. Obviously, they're unlisted, whereas the one for eight shareholder bonus issue is, they will be listed. There'll also be the capacity down the track for staff members who at that time don't want to put their hand in their pocket for currently employed staff to have their options bought back. Overall, a very interesting and attractive package. The buyback, obviously if we're buying back shares at a lower price than the strike price, that's obviously accretive. Let's not go into it further. Let's see where we get to with the review of capital management for the buyback. Thank you, Chris. Thank you. We'll move on to the next question that's been raised by a couple of different people. We obviously put out a FUM announcement last Friday with some outflows. Can you touch on how client conversations have been going over the past few weeks and what we're doing to address any future outflows? I'll start. Chris and I and Kirsten have had numerous conversations. Generally speaking, most have been supportive, very interested to see how Hamish is going, want to understand how the team is performing and holding up. You know, I've been very encouraged by, you know, the outreaches that we've had. In terms of FUM outflows, we expect there'll be some FUM outflows, just to be realistic. I think the most important thing from a lot of the conversations that we've had been around Chris's attitude towards the portfolio as it stands. No major issues. If you listen to the webinar last week with Chris and Nikki Thomas, it's steady as she goes. We're managing our clients' money over the long term. There might be some tweaks in the future, but we're certainly gonna stay the course. Chris, you might wanna add to that question as well. Yeah. Not a lot. I covered it in absolute detail, probably excruciating detail in my intro commentary. I'll reiterate that the most sophisticated global professional investors regard Magellan as unique, and they have very keen appreciation for Hamish Douglass' specific abilities and talents and have a strong level of caring. Even in cases where, because of mandate terms they're being forced to redeem, they want the door to remain open. I covered in detail the rationale behind why Magellan is such a strong component of portfolios around the world. Retail, we can deal with separately. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Again, another question that's come up by multiple people. Just on our cost-income ratio and margins moving forward, how do we expect to manage this if we continue to see outflows? Kirsten? Yeah, sure. Look, it's a world-leading cost-income ratio. I think that we will have sufficient headroom to be able to invest in our business. Certainly we need to invest, and it can't come at the cost of our future, so. Yeah, look, just adding to that too. Just Kirsten. We are strongly profitable. We have a very robust balance sheet, so we will obviously be managing our costs appropriately as time goes on. But a lot of our businesses are ring-fenced, like Airlie, and you look at infrastructure with Gerald. The reality is, we feel very confident in the ongoing nature of the business and we will focus on staff retention and just making sure that everyone is catered for in that regard. Thank you, Hamish and Kirsten. This question comes from Julian Braganza at JP Morgan. In terms of future margin pressure, are we expecting to cut fees, or are we expecting to have any further pressure on our margins? Yeah. Sorry, Kirsten. No, no on fees. We offer a world-class product. As I mentioned in my comments, the Core Series is an attractive product for people who are fee sensitive. If the major financial professionals around the world recognize the quality of the product, we have to communicate and then perform so that people more generally understand it. If you're in crappy products and index funds when the market downturns, as it will inevitably in time, or if you are in cash when there is a lot of inflation, you will not be helping your retirement savings. Magellan offers a mix of factors which help address both issues. We also have a Magellan Core Series. Core Series. Sorry, I meant, I did try to mention that. Which is a solution for clients that are more fee sensitive. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to a different topic. This question comes from Andrei Stadnik from Morgan Stanley. We mentioned to continue to support and invest in the business, but we've made no further investments in Magellan Capital Partners. What investments for future growth are we considering making? Look, we love the asset management business. As we've said today, we're refocusing on the core. MCP, those investments we're very happy with, we're just not gonna add to those at all. This is all about refocusing on what we do best, which is asset management. Thank you, Hamish. I'll just ask a follow-up question from Jacob Blackwell. Is the pause of Magellan Capital Partners investing indefinite, or will we return after funds management has been settled? No, no. It's indefinite, certainly for now. As I just said, the overriding theme here is that we're focusing on asset management, and that is our priority. Yeah. Asset management is a wonderful business. If we do it right, if we have trust, if we have partnerships, if we have highest quality people, it really works. We've got opportunities that we would never have dreamt to have been able to come our way. You just have to look at infrastructure. It started from nothing. It grew beneath a huge oak, obviously, but it's a AUD 20 billion funds under management business itself, and Airlie is the number one Australian fund manager. Thank you both, Kirsten and Hamish. Again, we'll move on to a slightly different topic. Your question comes from Bruce Bennett. Can we provide an update on FuturePay and how we see this progressing over the coming years? Kirsten, care to? Look, with FuturePay, we're very pleased with the development of it. Paddy McCrudden is, you know, rolling out and speaking with clients, and, you know, doing steps of one of the sort of strategy sessions. Yeah. with various clients. It was always going to be take time to develop that product. We continue to support it and look forward to actually seeing that grow in the coming years. Yeah, it's clearly also, Kirsten, a product that meets important needs, and I expect that we'll get even further behind it. It works, it is doing its job really well, and there's a lot of professional interest again. It takes time for something. Even though it's relatively simple, it has a degree of complexity. It takes time for brokers, financial planners, and investors to understand that it meets their needs. Thank you. I suppose just, again, the follow-up questions we've seen from multiple people about our other products. The Core Series, are you able to touch on how that's progressing? That we've got specific projects already underway to consider what additional investing and efforts we need to put behind Core Series. Again, they meet important needs, are attractive products, and I won't go into full detail, it's competitively sensitive, but there's stuff we can do there and will do. Okay, thank you. We'll now move to a question that's come through on the line. May the person with the number ending in 822, please press star six to unmute yourself and go ahead and ask your question. Hi, it's James Cordukes here from Credit Suisse. Look, maybe just circling back to the buyback, you know, looking for a bit more clarity around that. I mean, can you talk about how you think about the quantum of that? Maybe also to the question earlier around funding. I mean, I appreciate you're a cash generative business, but your payout ratio is at 90%-95%. I presume you're gonna maintain that, so it has to be funded through, you know, debt or maybe some asset sales. You've got AUD 400 million of fund investments. So, you know, would you sell some of those down, and would you add more leverage, and what's the right, you know, type of leverage ratios would you consider? Yeah, thank you for the question. It's early. We do generate a lot of cash. Obviously, there is a difference between 90-95 and 100. I've made a promise to go down to Barrenjoey when they pay us a dividend, so I do wanna go down there. Barrenjoey obviously, we had a good update today on that. So maybe we get money from there. The MCP businesses themselves are extremely attractive. As you say, we've got over 400 or roughly 400 of balance sheet investments, so there's lots of room. We'll do a proper plan. It needs to be seen in the context of our ongoing profitability and where the business is at. We'll come back to you. We just wanted to make very clear to shareholders that was one of the considerations, a key consideration, that we have in mind and to put it in front of you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Maybe just a question on the options. I mean, maybe a bit more detail on how you set that AUD 35 strike price. You know, was it just an arbitrary number because it was well above current share price? And, you know, how do you. Would that be adjusted for the buyback, and how did you think about the buyback when you were setting- Okay. setting that strike price? No, it was not arbitrary. There was detailed modeling done. It is an incentive or a benefit, I'm sorry, is the right word, benefit to shareholders. We believe that given volatility, people do these models, it should trade at a value. Secondly, it will not be adjusted for the buyback. The buyback is a separate capital management exercise, so strike prices are not adjusted for buybacks. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Look. Oh, I think we lost him. We've lost him. We'll go to another question via the line. Again, with the dial-in ending in 112, please press star six to unmute yourself and go ahead and ask your question. If you could announce yourself ahead of your question as well. Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Sean Lo from Nomura. Just got a couple of questions, please. Firstly, on your institutional client portfolio, can you perhaps break down some of the characteristics of those mandates? For example, how many of those are low vol quality mandates? How many are absolute return mandates? How much are relative return mandates? Any color there would be greatly appreciated. No. There's a mix of mandates. There's no. You see the figures. The figures are straightforward in aggregate. That's what's important for shareholders. Some of this is obviously client and confidential sensitive, so no. All right. Thanks for that. My second question pertains to your retail strategy. I'm just curious, is there a view of Magellan putting up more, I guess, advice or client-friendly investment vehicles in the future, you know, such as performance fees-based products or perhaps some managed accounts? With the refocus on investment management, there will be considerable opportunities both for current products, possibly extensions. What we don't want to do, Kirsten made it very clear, we don't wanna add complexity. We will not do a restructure or any addition that is not clearly in the interest of investment clients. All right. Thanks. My last question is just about the sustainable strategies. You spoke about the sustainable strategies passing their five-year anniversaries, total FUM now over AUD 500 million. Just curious, some of your comps have been able to get similar amounts of money in less than a year. Just curious, what do you see as the reason over here? Is this a performance issue? Is it a fee issue, or is this a distribution issue? I guess more importantly, what does this mean for future flows? No, it's not a performance issue. Again, unsurprisingly, we're undertaking a detailed review with a focus on this area. My view from the outside is that we may not have been ambitious enough across that area. It is a huge and growing area of considerable importance. If we need additional resourcing for that area via distribution or otherwise, we will certainly look at it. Our performance is fantastic. The methodology is fantastic. No issues there. All right. Thanks for that. Okay, we'll move on to another caller from the line with the dial-in with the number ending in 549. Please press star six to unmute yourself and announce yourself before asking your question. Hi. Good morning. It's Brendan Carrig from Macquarie here. Just a couple of questions. Could I just start on fees, please? The fee rate obviously went up in the half, which I assume is mixed from St. James's Place. In your discussions with clients, can you please just give some background as to how the comments about fees are going? In both the retail space as well, have you had to make any adjustments to your fee proposals from a platform perspective as well? Brendan, I'll speak with you. Yes. Look, you know, we always have conversations about fees. We do find that our conversations in relation with our institutional clients, we're very much in line with market rates on those. In terms of fees for our retail products, again, as we mentioned before, you know, it's a. We have conviction in our long-term strategy. As Prue said, we've got an outstanding track record, and it's no change in the retail fees. Brendan, late in any market cycle, the birds chirp, and so the crap has risen to the top of the water. Of course, people have issues. The people who were with us in the global strategies through the GFC know the massive outperformance and protection of capital that we achieved. In the current environment, in my view, and I'm only one, I guess I don't even have a vote yet, it would be really dumb to cut fees. Yeah, I guess it might maybe another way to ask from an institutional perspective, if people are coming, asking for a five basis point cut, are you gonna say, "No, we're just happy to take the outflow as opposed to reducing our fees? No, no. That's not the nature of the discussion. The importance of the various strategies to the institutions is amazing. Now, I mentioned that in the outset and gave some detail around that. Whether we're five basis points more or five basis points below is very different to major institutions for whom what we are offering is important and others do not do it. Again, fees are not the issue. Okay. Just on Barrenjoey, obviously the positive contribution there. Can you just confirm that the bonus accruals for that business, kinda happened during the year, and there's not gonna be sort of a catch-up in the fourth quarter, if and when their bonuses get determined? Do you wanna take that, Craig? Yeah, I'll take that. Thanks, Brendan. Craig here. Yeah, that is correct. I mean, the profit that we've announced today, which is our share of that, includes their accruals for those types of adjustments, sign-ons, et cetera. So, yeah. Okay. Then the last one I had just on costs. Funds management expenses doubling those, you'd be at the bottom end of the range. As you've highlighted today, there's a lot more overseas travel that looks like it's on the way, a lot more contact with the advisor base, and other such initiatives. Can you just sort of confirm the expectations in a bit more detail about how those costs might transpire in the next half? In terms of the options, the share-based payment expense that would be recognized, is that factored into the funds management expense guidance, or is that separate? Sure, Brendan. Yeah. You're right. If you doubled the first half, it would look like we're at the low end. In taking into account the employee retention bonus plan announced, I would guide you to being midway through that expense guidance range. You are spot on as well. We are looking to do more travel, and there's a little bit of seasonality in some of the other expense lines as well, with a couple of licenses, et cetera, that kick into the second half of the year. Yeah. Hopefully that clarifies your question. I think your second question was sort of in terms of options and the share-based payments. They won't be treated as a share-based payment, but the retention bonus plan would come at a cost to the business and that's been factored in our expense guidance range. Okay. That's clear. I might jump back in the queue and leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. We'll just go to one more caller on the line with the number ending in 685. Please press star six to unmute yourself and go ahead and ask your question. Good morning. Firstly, my question would start on maybe just the conversations with institutional clients. I assume you've been speaking with them intensely, particularly post Hamish's leave of absence announcement. What kinds of concerns are they raising with you? You know, what's the key concern? Is it performance? Is it Hamish's departure? Potentially, other institutional clients? It doesn't seem that fees are a key issue, but what are the key concerns there, and what are you doing to address those? Yeah, look, I'll start with that. Chris might wanna chip in. You know, Hamish is a unique individual, but there's a strong team that supports him, and a lot of our key clients know that too. There's been a lot of discussion around how they're all faring. You know, I sort of reiterate that we do hope there's a speedy return for Hamish 'cause he's an important part of the team, as Chris, Kirsten, and all of our portfolio managers are. You know, obviously, performance does come up and we discuss it. I think what's important is Chris has superbly been addressing his view. You know, what's interesting is that he's very much a part of the team, but he certainly has some views on whether we make any adjustments. On the whole, he's stated publicly on numerous occasions, we're gonna stay the course. He will have a view on whether any adjustments need to be made, but we're not looking at any wholesale changes. I think that's fair, don't you think? That's absolutely fair. A combined portfolio manager group in global being Nikki Thomas, Arvid Streimann, and myself is very well received by the institutional clients. Similarly in High Conviction, Chris Wheldon is excellent and I'm alongside. That side of it's fine. Sometimes the clients have clear terms in their mandates, which require redemption when the lead portfolio manager steps away, even if it's only temporary, and that's triggered a bit. Some others, frankly, there's a bit of sheep-like behavior, particularly from consultants. Consultants are quality, but we always get asked what are other people doing? In terms of the impact on remaining institutions, remaining retail clients, there is none. Certainly at this stage, we're ahead of the curve with increased liquidity. We're in massively liquid companies all around the world. We've taken some early action at the bottom of the portfolio to just assist at the margin in additional liquidity. There aren't any of the ongoing issues, but it's a fair and repeated question just to make sure that their interest in, if it's a pooled vehicle, are being also cared for. For mandates, it's obviously not an issue. Yep. Got it. Just a couple of follow-on questions on that. Firstly, you mentioned some clients do have a requirement where there is a change in CIO or PM. They'd be required to redeem. Is there any further headwind on the rest of the institutional book from that? And then separately, obviously, you know, you've got a great team sort of replacing Hamish temporarily, but is there any foreseeability as to when he'll actually be back? Okay. I'll deal with the first one, if you like. For the ones for whom it's mandated, they may already have given notification, and you'll note that the release included notifications as well as redemptions. Of course, there will be people who will come through over time on that regard. For others, of course, we've got a variety of factors, as we answered in your previous question. Hamish is still CIO. Obviously, he's on temporary leave of absence. Hamish McLennan, do you want to- Yeah. Look, it's premature to just say when he'll be back. Fully expect for that to happen, and you know, we want a speedy recovery from him. We're messaging each other. When we're in a position to talk about you know, that with more information, we'll do that. Accepting that, you know, it's a private matter for Hamish. You know, all I can say is that you know, we wish him the very best, expect a speedy recovery, and he'll be back with us soon. I just want to reiterate, you know, Magellan has always had a very deep bench. A lot of our clients and investors may not have seen it 'cause Hamish was such a high-profile front person. As Chris and Kirsten have stated, you know, we've got Nikki Thomas, Dom Giuliano, the guys in the infrastructure team, Airlie. We've got fantastic people here, too. All the bases are covered from our side, and we're really grateful and thankful that Chris Mackay has also stepped into the spotlight as well. Well, not in the spotlight. You'll see in the retail roadshow that we're intending, either at every roadshow event or very close to it, to allow some of the amazingly skilled younger members to speak as well as, and we'll be showcasing, obviously, Arvid. Arvid, I mentioned, is just extraordinary. Nikki is a well-known quantity. I'll talk less, and then listen more. Thank you. I might also just ask an extra question on cost, and I appreciate the comments earlier. I mean, firstly, just focusing on the St. James's Place contribution and trying to sort of back solve that, it looked like that was pretty much, you know, very high margin, 100% or roughly thereabout. You know, you did mention earlier that you do expect some continued outflows, at least in the short term. I'm conscious that you'd wanna keep, you know, all your staff and have all the systems in place, and therefore, the cost might remain elevated in the short term. If you do continue to see, you know, sizable outflows, at what point in time will you start to sort of reconsider those costs? You know, how should we really think about the cost income ratio, perhaps in a couple of years or, you know, in the outer years? Yeah, I might jump in there. You're spot on. Our funds obviously have a higher cost base than our mandates. Yes, SJP do have a high margin, spot on. In terms of our costs, we have to make any forward projections about the future earnings and then the related costs that may be affected or the cost base of the business. There will be some moderate reduction, obviously, in fund admin expenses. Going forward, in terms of trying to work out where the cost base will be, I'd actually look back, you know, in the past if you want. You know, five or so years ago, if you look at our cost income ratio, that might provide you a little bit of a guide and look back over the trends, and that could give you some indication as to the costs that we'll continue to invest for our future in the business. I think it is, you know, hopefully that's somewhat indicative. Okay. Exactly. I know you've all got to model the cost ratios, but please go back to what we said at the outset. If we get the systems, the process, structures, culture, trust, all those things right, we won't be talking about cost ratios. I'd just like to add to that, too. We're a very profitable, robust business. So, you know, the board and management are not looking at massive reductions in costs, certainly at this point in time. We're managing it for the long term. We're protecting the assets that we've got. Our assets are the people, and we've got very good people in the business. In fact, we're investing. Yeah. in people, so there's no reductions. Proven in terms of being prudent on cost as well. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's fantastic color. We'll now move back to some final questions that have come through the webinar. Again, back on capital management from Scott Ferguson, can you touch on why the DRP was suspended? Yeah, because it was crap. Sorry, I'm not allowed to say that. It wasn't serving a proper purpose. There's no point retaining the capital, no point annoying people, and no point issuing at what the then share price was. The idea of going on-market and buying, you can do zero-cost brokerage, so people want cash, like cash, they can determine when they do it. Okay. Thank you, Hamish. The next question comes from Shreyas Patel at UBS. Have we seen any resignations across our distribution team over the last few months? No. Yeah. Great. One more from Tim Bingham. Can you touch on the feedback that we've had from conversations with research agencies recently? The engagement is high. We'll leave it for the research agencies to speak for themselves. They've been very detailed conversations. Okay. Two are still under review. Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Clark. We've seen our core global activities offering become a bit more complex over the last few years with closed-ended vehicles and options. Is there plans to simplify the core offering? We prefer simple. We dislike complexity. Down the track, maybe that's something to look at, but it's not a priority. If we do any sort of action like that, it will be because it's in the interests of unitholders in the respective funds. Okay. Thank you. We might move on to one final question from Piers Bolgar. Can you outline what type of role Hamish might return to? I did that in the outset. Okay. Global world-class global investment manager has world-class relationships with major institutions, so it's temporary, you know, but that's something that's important. Let's see, hopefully he's happy and well very soon. Okay. Well, thank you all to the panel, and we really appreciate everyone on the line for joining us. We will look to reach out to any shareholders if you have any further follow-up questions, and we look to see you soon. Thank you so much.