I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Doug Snell, Managing Director. Please go ahead. Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. My name is Doug Snell. I'm the MD and CEO of Auswide Bank. We also have Bill Schafer, our CFO and Company Secretary, with us today. Firstly, I wish to confirm that the numbers released last week, so the unaudited numbers, are accurate, including the half year dividend of AUD 0.11. Today, I'll begin by providing an insight into the market that we're working in, some high-level numbers of our results, a comment on our strategy, and then pass to Bill to discuss the financials. Firstly, the market. As you'd all be aware, there's a lot of uncertainty around interest rates and the future direction of interest rates in particular. Obviously, that flows through to larger numbers, such as the CPI and basically the underlying economy. This uncertainty has created a lot of competitive tension across the market, both for lending and for deposits. Coming into the end of the June, we had the remaining TFF running off, the NAB looking to pre-fund large business banking portfolio, and CBA's end of year. This all created much more demand for deposits than expected. However, since the latest unemployment and CPI data was printed, the market seems to have discounted the chances of further interest rate rises, albeit there's no consensus on when or where we may see future cuts. These dynamics continue to put pressure on margins for lenders. Where we believe we can win in this market, is to continue to grow our retail deposit base, reducing the cost of wholesale funding, and last year, we grew this by about 8%. As Bill will discuss, the fast pace that interest rates moved higher from mid-2022 to late 2023 impacted our book, both on the cost of capital and the hedging assumptions that we had applied. This, coupled with the changing behavior of depositors who moved their money from transactional and savings accounts into more expensive term deposits, impacted our NIM and our results. Bill will discuss how some of this impact will unwind over 2025 and the results in first half. Just a quick call out on some of the numbers. The full- year NPAT, AUD 11.2 million, reflects a 142 basis point NIM, and importantly, our arrears has been managed at 0.2. With Queensland, we've got a few strong tailwinds, both the immigration creating property demand, so LVRs are strong, and GDP growth continuing to support investment and employment. I'll touch on our, our strategy and the four key pillars. So the four key pillars of our strategy are, and continue to be, focus on third party and Private Bank for our client acquisition, roll out exceptional customer experience across all channels, invest to grow, and actively pursue inorganic growth. The first three pillars addressed throughout this year by critically assessing our delivery and our client outcomes, with the goal to streamline how we deliver mortgages and reduce the time to approval. We believe it's important to provide the broker network with timely and important information, which resulted in the delivery of a broker portal, providing them a channel to observe the progress of their applications without having to make phone calls. With that, we received a Net Promoter Score of + 40, up from + 31 in 2023. A pleasing result, and confirms our belief that once a client is onboarded, they enjoy the experience and tend to stay. We're continuing to look to invest in digital solutions to improve how our customers are serviced. In Private Bank, for example, it's a service offering supported by digital, and feedback from customers who are time poor but asset rich, appreciate that service. Last week, we made three key announcements. I'll touch on them briefly. There's been plenty of information provided and time for further discussion, or Q&A at the end. But supporting our strategic pillar of inorganic growth, we're pleased to announce last week the three key activities: the merger with MyState in Tasmania, the acquisition of Selfco, and the capital raise for the acquisition and further growth of Selfco. The merger is a key transitional bank activity on our behalf. It's a merger of equals, and what I mean by that is we have similar methodologies, similar cultures, and we're combining two strong banks with community support in their regions. The enhanced scale and value proposition with a combined asset book of AUD 12.5 billion and deposits of AUD 9.6 billion, approximately, will give us the ability to leverage both our wholesale funding, our customer deposit base, and our investment portfolio. We believe the strong cultural alignment is really important for the two banks, and with that, we have discussed and are making commitments to the regions, which I call our heartlands of Tasmania and Central Queensland, Bundaberg. There's real potential for shareholder value creation through cost synergies and leveraging the larger balance sheet. Secondly, we acquired Selfco, an asset financing company, with the intention to settle that transaction this week. Selfco is an equipment finance business with a long history and experience in the desired target sector. What I mean by that is they're a business-to-business lender in transport, wheels, and construction, particularly. They have a strong presence in the broker market, and by joining the merged co, or Auswide Bank, will provide them the ability to fund larger value and at more competitive prices. The opportunity also gives us the chance to enter into the business banking space, should we so desire. As a result of the acquisition, we entered into the market for a capital raise. So we completed a AUD 12 million placement last week at AUD 4 a share, and we're following that with a share purchase plan, which is launching this week at AUD 4 for our existing shareholders. I'll now pass to Bill for a financial overview. Thank you, Doug, and good morning, everyone. I'm referring to page four of the investor presentation released to the market earlier this morning. The bank has faced unprecedented competition for mortgages and deposits during the financial year, coupled with high refinancing activity. This has placed pressure on our net interest margin. There was also pressure from retention activity as a significant volume of fixed rate loans matured. Escalating costs relating to inflationary pressures and regulatory demands included wage inflation, risk and compliance costs, and technology costs, including cybersecurity and fraud prevention. The financial overview is contained on page seven of that investor pack. The net profit after tax was impacted by margin pressure in the highly competitive loan and funding markets, with financial year 2024 statutory NPAT down 55% on financial year 2023 to AUD 11.231 million. The net interest margin of 142 basis points was down 46 basis points on the prior financial year. The bank underestimated both the level and rate of increase in the RBA cash rate leading into financial year 2024. In addition, there was an unexpectedly high rate of migration of customer deposits from the lower cost savings and transaction accounts to higher rate term deposits. The combined effects of these issues was a balance sheet, which was some way from being perfectly hedged. The subdued loan book growth was a result of a conservative approach in the first half of the financial year, as retail banks felt the pressure of NIM impacts on their portfolios. Growth was AUD 26 million, or 0.6%, lifting the balance to AUD 4.429 billion. However, the strength of the loan book is demonstrated by the credit quality and low arrears, with arrears at just 20 basis points of total loans. Customer deposits were up 8% to AUD 3.686 billion, comprising 75.3% of total funding. The balance sheet remains strong, with a capital adequacy ratio of 14.78%, well in excess of the Board target. Statutory return on equity was 3.9%, down from 8.7% in financial year 2023. The final dividend has been declared at AUD 0.11 per share, reflecting a payout of 96%, subject to completion of the acquisition and the share offer Doug referred to. The dividend reinvestment plan for the final dividend has been retained with a discount of 2.5%. The net profit reconciliation on page eight discloses the effects of the decline in revenue as a result of the NIM compression. Net interest revenue declined 20.1% on the back of increased competition and a rise in cost of funds. Operating expenses were tightly controlled, with a 1% increase on the prior corresponding period, excluding expected credit losses. There was ongoing investment in technology, data and cybersecurity, as well as resources and skills in IT and risk-based functions. In the first half of financial year 2024, there was a gain on sale of the equity accounted investment in financial planning business, FAM, of AUD 1.1 million. The loan book arrears on page 10 demonstrates the credit quality and low arrears for the bank. The arrears levels reflect the rigorous credit assessment and the early and proactive approach to collections. Advanced payments on loans of AUD 256 million, or 5.8% of the loan book, enhances the credit quality. The arrears of 20 basis points of the book compare favorably with the SPIN indexes for other banks at 81 basis points and regional banks of 122 basis points. Importantly, the 90 days past due arrears are just 7 basis points of the book. The provisions and coverage ratio is set out on page 11. Arrears remain industry leading and at historic lows. Auswide applies a maximum debt-to-income ratio of six times in its lending processes, which has contributed to this arrears position. The total provisions and general reserve for credit losses remain at AUD 6.7 million, or 40 basis points of the credit risk-weighted assets. There are no mortgagees in possession, and the bank's hardship numbers remain static. Now, referring to page 13. During financial year 2025, the maturity of fixed rate loans will continue to contribute to the net interest margin improvement. AUD 672 million of fixed rate loans will mature in the first half, and AUD 371 million will mature in the second half of financial year 2025. The average rate of fixed loans maturing in the first half is 3.73%, and in the second half, 4.19%. These loans will roll to current market rates of between 6% and 6.5%, delivering a material uplift in interest revenue for the bank. Strong retention rates for fixed to variable rate loans will support the potential uplift in the margin across the coming financial year. The funding mix slide on page 14 notes the ongoing focus on utilizing lower cost retail funding to manage rising funding costs. During financial year 2024, there was an 8% growth in customer deposits to reach 75.3% of total funding. However, securitization remains an important source of funding and capital relief for the bank. The capital slide on page 15 discloses the capital at 14.78%, as I said, well in excess of the Board's target. The Tier 1 ratio is 12.12%. The securitization trust, ABA Trust 2023, settled in December of last year, providing capital relief for the bank. This capital strength has positioned the bank to target above system loan book growth across financial year 2025. Looking forward to this financial year, the bank is targeting improved growth and in profitability. On page 16, we set out the key drivers for the budget and projections for the financial year. A couple of those key outlook items include home loan growth, anticipated to exceed AUD 300 million, and a material uplift in projected interest revenue following the maturity of the fixed loan portfolio, resulting in low fixed rates converting to higher market rates, as I explained earlier. In addition, the bank will pursue quality lending, underpinned by prudent loan underwriting standards, strong governance, and robust internal control. This will be accompanied by the identification of new opportunities to target partnerships to build our deposit base. Thank you, and I'll pass it back to Doug. Great. Thanks, Bill. As discussed and illustrated by Bill, it was a tough year for Auswide. However, we targeted on conservative loan growth, which was evidenced in the pack at a time where we revisited our processes. Our goal is obviously to improve our delivery, both in terms of speed and performance for our customers. We also concentrated on growing cheaper deposits, as Bill mentioned, 8% growth for the year, and also spent a fair bit of time and effort to grow our partnerships. This is a key avenue, excuse me, for growth, where we leverage our partners' footprint. As Bill touched on, we have ambitions of AUD 300 million worth of growth in the loan book this year, and we've evidenced in the past we can do that. We are targeting the partnerships that it's touched on, reinvigorating the processes and evaluating our products, effectively managing costs. And as Bill touched on, really key is the quality of our lending, the way that we underwrite the loans to ensure that we don't have an issue. In summary, 2024 was a challenging year for Auswide Bank in financial terms. However, we're confident that the fundamentals within the group, being balance sheet, customer focus, future diversification, provide us with a strong base to return to previous levels of performance. With that, I'll pass to operator. Can you please open the line for questions? Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on speaker phone, please pick up your handset to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of David Fraser with MST Financial. Please go ahead. Morning, Doug. This is David Fraser from MST. Can you hear me all right? Yes, David. Okay. Just to, I guess, some commentary, obviously, funding costs, as Bill talked about, were up materially over the back of 2022 and 2023. Have we seen, I guess, the complete migration of what you expect to see people moving from, just cash rates to term deposits? And obviously, as you say, the balance of 2024 and 2025 will see the rolling off of the, fixed term, mortgages that we've, Bill talked about as well. So we'll get, obviously, the interest rate, earned on that increase. Could you give some sort of commentary on, whether that migration of your cost of funding is completed, and whether we're gonna see some sort of, material increase in net interest margin? Yeah, thanks, David. You never know when it's totally complete, but in terms of the actual value that has moved across from the low interest rate environment, i.e., savings and transactions or term deposit, we feel it is a large percentage of our book. I think more importantly for us is actually the new markets that we'll be targeting to both gain further retail deposits, but also replace those transactional style deposits. So historically, our book hasn't had a large transactional or savings nature to it, and the reason we had such a high percentage of low deposits in that short-term, low-rate environment was obviously the. During COVID, with interest rates being at 0.2%, 0.3%, people weren't fixing. I think now that the rates are at what could be their peak and they start to come off, then people will change their behavior back. But yeah, so in short, I don't think we'll see a massive migration further from our book because the majority of it's been done. So there will be a little bit of NIM back, but certainly not as much as I think we will cover with other partnerships and activities we're undertaking to raise further deposits. Okay. And just, thank you. And my second one, follow-up one, is, I guess, the big picture, and what you're seeing in the Queensland economy. You spoke of the uncertainty around interest rates and probably the unlikelihood of an interest rate rise now, but probably not interest rate cut till early next calendar year, depending on who you're listening to. Obviously, interest rates won't go back to where we saw them during COVID, but do you think, obviously they'll come off a wee bit, but do you think banking sector in general are gonna have to think about moving up their cost of mortgages, et cetera, to actually grow that NIM across the whole base? Yeah. It's an interesting one because it's as touched on earlier in the piece, the amount of competition in the market is probably unprecedented. With 74%-75% of all new home loans introduced by brokers over the last month or so, which I think is an all-time high, they bring new business at a competitive rate, but they also start to look after three years, whether the customer should start looking for other opportunities. So the competition, in particular on that lending side, will be higher. So it's about really the other side of the ledger. As I touched on, it's the deposits, what rates you can get those at, and then what future opportunities you can enter into to reduce your cost of funding. I think the majors are probably looking at their books and seeing the amount of contraction they had over the last two years and wondering whether they need to be as competitive. And if they do make the decision, then that'd be a great reprieve for the market. My personal view is that the shape of the curve at the moment, there's opportunities to actually fix at below what a variable rate would be, but the psyche of the customer has been. They've gone from a fixed rate at 3% to a variable rate at 6%. They can't think, can't see themselves locking back in at the moment. So I don't know if I answered your question, David, but in short, yeah, the squeeze that occurred isn't going to reverse in a hurry. The other thing a lot of people probably forget is pre-COVID, the economists were saying that three and a quarter to three and a half was what they call a neutral interest rate, and so that's probably a direction where we think the cash rate will go in the next couple of years. Yeah. Okay. And last one from me, if that's okay. Obviously, the merger with MyState is gonna take, well, will consummate by the end of the year, hopefully. That will keep the new group entity busy for a while, but depending on whether you continue to stay with the combined merger or not, but do you think going forward, the new MyState, Auswide merged entity will be active in M&A in this space? Yeah, I think, as mentioned earlier, one of our strategic imperatives is inorganic growth. We believe that there's a size that you sort of need to be a long-term player in the Australian banking sector, just the cost to deliver with fraud, cyber, even some of the regulatory impacts going forward. So haven't had this conversation with Brett in detail from MyState or MyState Board, but yeah, the expectation is if an opportunity presents, we're set to look. Great. Thanks for that, Doug. Thank you. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Alastair Hunter with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead. Good morning, Doug and Bill. Thanks for taking the questions. Just wondering if we can just focus on the net interest margin. I'm just interested in a couple of angles. Firstly, just in second half, the 1.34 average for the period as to where you sort of ended up with NIM at sort of 30 June, and in terms of, you know, we had, I think, around AUD 439 million of fixed rate loans in that second half of the year refinancing, as to whether you actually did see a positive contribution to that second half NIM, as those loans rolled in to, you know, variable rates in the second half. Hi, Alastair. How you going? Bill here. Yeah, the average for the year is, as you would have seen, was 142. It started from a much, much higher level, and the exit NIM was in the low 130s. But what we were seeing, as you correctly noted, was the benefit of those fixed rate loans maturing and the uplift as we were coming out of the financial year. And as we've stated in our presentation, we've got, like, over AUD 100 million of those fixed rate loans maturing on a monthly basis. And almost two months, of course, into the new financial year, we're continuing to see, as we had predicted, the contribution to the NIM moving upwards, and that will continue across this financial year. So the benefit is being realized really on the back of the conversion of those fixed rate loans to the current market rates as expected. Thank you. And in terms of the funding mix, looking forward for the sort of growth you've projected of that AUD 300 million or exceeding AUD 300 million loan growth for financial 2025, how do you see the funding side of that and particularly the need to sort of tap securitization to help get some capital relief as well as funding? Sure. Do you want me to address that, Doug? Yeah, if you could. Sure. Thank you. Sure. I think we've both touched on our deposit partnerships, so we'll continue our sort of focus on our lower cost deposit funding. And we'll do that both from our customers, as you know, we have 16 branches throughout Queensland, and they're an excellent source from our customer base of deposits, and we'll continue to focus on that. But we're also building partnerships, and as we build those partnerships, it often offers a variety of deposits, not just the higher cost term deposits, but controlled monies, transaction and savings accounts, and also, you know, online accounts and cash management, which have a variety of interests. So that's really our target going to customer deposits, partnership deposits, et cetera. But of course, we do have securitization, and securitization is always important in the event that we, you know, our growth accelerates, of course, or we don't get the deposit targets in a particular month. So we'll continue to have that securitization, both for funding of the loan book growth, but also, at any time we need that funding, we can top up with securitization. And you've also touched on the capital relief. We got that AUD 400 million trust in December of last year, and that offered substantial capital relief. So as we continue to grow the book, we will, from time to time, continue to make ourselves known in the securitization markets and look to those fundings through securitization, both to top up the fundings available for growth and also offer capital relief, so we can continue to grow the book. So we intend to make ourselves a little bit more vocal and well known in those markets. So when we require both funding and capital relief, the investors know who we are, and we can go to the market as needed. So, Bill, is it a case of the within the 300 million growth that there wouldn't be a need for securitization, and it's really excess of, you know, market stronger, you outperform better than expected, then you might tap securitization? Yeah, I think that's a pretty good assessment. We're pretty confident with our ability to grow the book by mainly through deposits, as I said, through our customer base and our partnerships. We have portfolios of FRNs and NCDs there as well. But securitization will be a fallback situation if our growth accelerates, or for in some particular months, we don't hit our deposit target. So it's the fallback situation, and we will tap it as required to make sure that funding is available. But to answer your question, Alastair, just to add there, the analysis we've done and forecasting effectively says we can get through to June 2025 without requiring securitization. Thanks, Doug. Thank you. Just if I can ask on costs, your strong performance of only a 1% increase in the year. Two questions, if I may, on costs. Firstly, in the historic year, the fees and commission line was up about a million year-on-year. It is probably the only line that sort of had a bit of momentum and growth. Just interested in drivers as to what contributed to that, given net lending growth wasn't overly strong. And then secondly, just looking into the 2025 year as to, you know, how do you sort of view your ability to, again, control costs and whether the merger with MyState gives you a little bit of flexibility on some of those medium, longer term, technology, core investment spends, just to hold back on those until the merger concludes, and then you can attack them as part of the synergy and growth strategy. Doug, do you wanna jump in on there, and I'll round out some detail? Yeah, I was probably gonna start from the back, or the last question, Alastair, in terms of the. Yeah. The synergies in particular. So through the conversations and workshops we've had, the two institutions have identified quite a number of, like, products, so IT expenses. So there's quite a large number of aggregations we can undertake that will free up expenses or free up investment to other areas. There have been a few little things across our book in terms of fees and expenses. So we have a package loan that charges an annual fee, and then we have a simple or a basic loan that doesn't. So we saw a bit of migration into the basic loan, which didn't attract the origination fee or the same level of fee that was part of this year's story. And also, as you saw, our book growth was actually quite subdued, so we didn't get a whole bunch of new clients and new fees on that basis. I think the behavior of the market will change a little bit, and we're also working on our product to streamline particularly the package product, to make it more attractive to some of the other sectors we'll be looking at. So the fees in those areas will certainly uplift. Was there anything you wanted to add on cost savings, Bill, or expense? Yeah. I think the first part of Alastair's question was about the fees and commissions. And it was really a carryover from the prior financial year there, because if you look back into financial year 2023, we had substantial growth. My recollection was, it was like 14% growth in the book. And what we really saw was the effects of those broker commissions and deposit commissions really go full freight into financial year 2024. Although the growth wasn't as substantial, the trail commissions and so forth did carry over. So that's one of the reasons why we had that growth in that line for the year. But as you say, Alastair, we are watching expenses very carefully. You know, just the merger aside, we are looking internally at areas where there's duplication, where there's double ups, and you know, our departments can work more effectively together to save some costs. So we're looking at that. But also, with our investment, which must continue with our technology and our security, that's not something that we will pull back on, but it's good to know that we can compare you know, what the two merger partners are doing and direct our efforts and expenses in the same direction. So there'll be a lot of cooperation there, I'm sure. Thanks, Bill. Any guidance as to what sort of growth rate in that sort of AUD 66 million cost base to 2025 would be reasonable? Yeah, look, we have got a growth rate of around 6%-7%. But that will obviously change now that we're bringing on Selfco. That might have a little bit of an impact, but there'll be synergies there as well, as we move forward and that grows, particularly funding synergies. And we will examine them fairly carefully, all of the expenses as we move forward. So but our base budget started with that growth figure of around 6%-7% across the Board. Thanks, Bill. Doug, I'll pause there. Thank you. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Russell Smith, Private Investor. Please go ahead. Good morning, gentlemen. Firstly, I've got four quick points to invite comment, questions, or answers to. Line quality of this presentation is substandard for such an organization, and I'd urge the Board to get on with a proper Zoom or other video conference for next year. Many of the points that Doug made in his presentation, I missed. The microphone was funny or something, but it's not clear, and so it wasn't transparent. Second point is that the earnings per share fell by 55%. Gentlemen, that's not a challenging year, that's an appalling year. That is the worst year ever. You've really got no strategy for doing anything about it. Your strategy is running the Auswide, like a Ponzi scheme, paying equal or more dividends per share, but doing nothing about the earnings. All these little tinkering things. For example, and this is my third point. A year ago, you were 96% concentrated on the home mortgage market. It's your business, ignoring small business, ignoring other types of loans and members' needs, which are broader than just housing. You've done nothing about it. What is the percentage this year? You're 99% focused on home mortgage? Now, I've been a member since Metropolitan Permanent, so there's been numerous mergers along the way, and there have been some good things come out of those mergers, and we're facing another one. But in the last two years, being an interstate member has been extremely difficult because member services have been constrained, phone numbers have been cut off, direct communications, and it's not always possible to use the latest technology. Some of the older members, like myself, find it very difficult to get a phone call through to someone. The days of ringing Bill and Doug, both of you, and getting a return phone call are over. I've proven that in the last week, because I didn't want to raise these points at a meeting when I could have discussed them privately with you, but I've had no callbacks. So what are you actually doing about making, you know, about achieving the stated goals of Auswide, which is to be a members' organization competing against the big banks? I'd say you're doing nothing. I think you just aspire to be a big bank, and that's the direction you're heading in. And the mergers to you mean getting bigger, more salary, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't mean better member services. There's no evidence of that. Any comments? Yes. So, well, firstly, Russell, I apologize about the line. We'll certainly take that on Board. You are correct about the EPS, and it follows through on with the other financial metrics we've talked about. Can I call you personally so we can have a conversation? Certainly. Do you mind sharing your number? Although other people will hear it. Is that okay? Not sure who's on the line, but I can cope with that. 040 2 0 7 0 80 3. 04 0 2 0 7 0 8 0 3. I will call you within five minutes of the presentation completing, if that's okay? Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star one to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back Mr. Snell for closing remarks. Great. Thank you very much. Yes, thanks everybody for joining the call. We appreciate your time and the questions. As we've talked about, the opportunities for the group going forward look really exciting. We've got a lot of work to do to close the merger pre-Christmas. And we'll be all hands to the deck with our advisors and other parties. And we look forward to a stronger outcome in 2025 from our base clients and our base portfolio. But as we touched on the diversification through the Selfco acquisition, probably touches on one of Russell's comments about not looking at other business. So Selfco will be a great opportunity for us to talk to our clients about their equipment finance needs, and hopefully give us a footprint into the business banking space in the future. Again, thank you very much for joining. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to success in the future. Thank you. Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.