Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Prime Financial Group Limited's FY 2026 financial results. My name is Natalie Simmons, the Chief Operating Officer of Prime, and I am joined today by Prime's Managing Director and Chairman, Simon Madder, and Chief Financial Officer, Sharon Papworth. Before I hand over to Simon and Sharon for the formal presentation, I just wanted to remind everybody that this webinar is being recorded, and there will be opportunities for Q&A at the end of the formal presentation. If you would like to submit some questions, you can do so via the Q&A tab at the bottom of your screen. I would like now to hand over to Simon. Great. Thanks, Nat. Much appreciated. Welcome, everyone. A really pleasing set of results again for FY 2026. Another significant step in our growth trajectory. I look forward to running you through all the key financial metrics and what is happening operationally. I want to jump onto the first slide if we can please, Nat. A few of you will not be necessarily aware as to what we do. But I think the best way to describe our business is as a market-leading integrated advice and investment firm, intentionally for ambitious clients. A lot of our clients operate their own business, or they have a particular wealth management need. And I think where we do our best work is when we combine those two things together through our one business, which is our one connected Prime philosophy. We currently have about AUD 1.9 billion of funds under management, 197 fantastic team members, and we have been in business for 28 years. Next slide, please, Nat. Let us touch on some of the key and most important financial highlights. A really impressive increase in our revenue, up 22%, AUD 60.5 million. That really does go to that growth mandate that we have got and that trajectory. Impressively, also, our team, from an FTE point of view, generated AUD 276,000 per FTE. That is up 25%, which again, is great. It is showing that we are driving that efficiency, that productivity consideration, and moving the business in the right direction. In terms of EBITDA margin, stable with the previous year, FY 2025. We are looking to increase that through 2027 and 2028. Underlying EBITDA, again, whether it is reported or underlying EBITDA, up between 17% and 18%. Again, really pleasing result there. Another mainstay of the consideration for us is operating cash flow. Again, we were happy to see our operating cash flow improve, up 47% to AUD 4.3 million for the year. So overall, really good set of numbers, in terms of that top line and that bottom line. I am going to hand over to Sharon, who is going to touch on a few other items for us. Thank you, Simon. Our profit measures require some context this year. The decline in reported earnings was primarily tax-related, while the underlying adjusted earnings trajectory continues to improve year-on-year. Excluding the effect of the tax rate change, which changed from 25% last year to 30% this year, NPAT would have increased 11% to AUD 5.1 million. NPATA would have increased 22% to AUD 6.6 million. Reported earnings per share would have increased 5% to AUD 0.0196 per share. This context provides a clearer view of the underlying operating performance of the business. Debt to underlying EBITDA was 1.5x compared with 1.3 x in FY 2025, reflecting acquisition payments and continued investment in growth. Finally, it's a pleasure to confirm that the board has declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.0092 per share, bringing the fully franked dividend for the full year to AUD 0.0172, an increase of 4% year-on-year. Fantastic. Thank you, Sharon. I'm now going to jump into some of the operational highlights, if we can jump onto the next page, please, Nat. Really think about our business operationally across these four key sleeves. So simplification, M&A and integration, growth, sales, and ideal clients, and technology as an enabler. Simplification has probably been the biggest theme that we've been working to over the last 12 months and will be a continuing theme into FY 2027. That is about having fewer services available with greater concentration. Let's do more of the things that we're really good at and continue to drive that part of our business and identify clients that really have a need for those services, where we are experts. We're also making sure that we have a very clear enterprise view of our customers through our enterprise CRM that has been deployed and the team are actively using now. We need to make sure that we've got complete visibility over our customer base and make sure that we're clear what they're buying from us, what they need, and what they might need for the future. Another key measure of simplification is reducing the transactional revenue in our business. I was super impressed to see an increase in our recurring revenue to 85% from what was previously 70%. That is a huge uptick. That's a 21% uptick over the course of the last 12 months and goes to the discipline of that simplification process. Another key consideration which kind of migrates between simplification and also some of the things that we have done from a divestiture point of view is, we did actually reduce our cost base because we have actually divested some clients that did not meet our ideal client profile. You will see when you receive the accounts, and you have a good read of them, that we divested about AUD 4 million worth of revenue. People ask, what is an ideal client look like for us, and why were those clients not ideal? They were typically clients where we could not generate the margin that we are seeking to achieve and where they do not necessarily need multiple services. Our ideal clients value what it is that we can do across the totality of our offering, and we are able to then deliver to them at a margin that is appropriate for our business. When we did reduce our customer base and sell some of those clients to colleagues within the industry, we were able to reduce our cost base, and that particularly occurred within Q4. Another key consideration for us has been on the recruitment front. We were rapt to bring into our team in the last 12 months two new leaders across both business and wealth, that were able to bring with them AUD 1.7 million in annualized revenue that contributed to FY 2026, and that will be more in FY 2027. That is part of our acqui-hire growth model, which I will talk to in a little bit more detail later on. Another key consideration for us around M&A and integration and deep integration has been around the Lincoln Indicators business that we acquired back in May 2025. That was our largest acquisition that we have done in the last six, and I am pleased to say that it is deeply sitting in the middle of our wealth segment, and we are actively delivering additional value and services to that customer base. In terms of growing our business, sales, account management, the thing that we are really rapt about in terms of this year that has just gone is in three core growth areas across wealth, SMSF, and accounting. These are impressive numbers. Those areas grew somewhere between 14% and 44% for the year. That includes acquisitions, but importantly, it shows that when we do focus on those key things that our clients need and where we can grow, we can deliver some fantastic outcomes. That bodes really well for FY 2027, FY 2028 and through to 2030, and our goal of getting to AUD 100 million of revenue by FY 2028 to 2030. We are very much obsessed with making sure that we do deal with what we consider those ideal client profiles. When we are focused on that, it means that our sales, account management, and servicing procedures are better, more defined, and we can deliver more value for our customers. Part of that customer journey is making sure that we do enable technology. I have said this before, we are not first off the bench to launch into technology, but we are making steps forward. We do have a fantastic team internally that are partnering up with external providers in partnership to make sure that we are enabling and simplifying our business so that we can scale and deliver better customer service. A key component of our technology strategy is making sure that we have got our data consolidated. Data is king in terms of what we do and being able to manage our business efficiently and to be able to achieve that roadmap of growth that we desire. Data consolidation is important to make sure that we can manage our workflows, we can introduce AI in a very acceptable and risk-governed manner. We have a lot of work that is going on around data consolidation. Thanks, Nat. What are the key themes that continue to drive our business forward? Firstly, M&A and business succession, whether it is occurring in our own industry, and our industry is very active at the moment across professional and financial services. Almost a month does not go by without seeing some sort of M&A, whether it is in accounting, whether it is in wealth or asset management. It is a very active space where private equity are playing an increasingly large role. One thing I would just highlight is that, in the U.S. recently, Grant Thornton, one of the larger accounting firms, actually spent over AUD 5 billion buying what was the largest listed accounting firm in the U.S. Things are active. We are in the right space at the right time, and we think we have a really important role to play in what takes place over the next three to five years. M&A and business succession in our own industry and for our clients is super important. That plays to part of that intergenerational wealth transfer conversation. It is increasingly on the radar for our clients, and we are lucky that we can deliver more value under the one roof for a lot of our clients, whether that is passing on portfolios or other assets and making sure that it is structured correctly and that there is a trusted advisor that can support, or whether or not it is selling a business and what that succession might look like. Where we are positioning ourselves and our ideal client profile and brand is in that mid-market opportunity. That is why we are precise about ideal clients, about the clients that we might otherwise divest, that we respect, but to other participants in the industry. A really key thing that we have seen play out post-budget is the need for advice. Clients have needed advice all the way through, but probably even more so in the next 12 months than ever before. Across accounting, structuring, wealth management, there are a lot of conversations and a great deal of need that we look forward to supporting our clients with over the next 12, 24 and 36 months. There are some of the key themes driving our growth. I am now just going to touch on a few of the things in relation to our financials, so we might just jump onto the next slide if we can. I am not going to dive into detail that either myself or Sharon have already covered. I would just highlight probably the two top points, the revenue of the wealth segment and the revenue of the business segment. Yes, impressive that see the wealth segment up 37%, but we are probably doing the business segment a bit of a disservice there by suggesting it is only up 2%. The business segment combines both what we do in accounting and also in capital or corporate finance. That is what we are de-emphasizing, the capital and the corporate finance part of what we do. So that was down. It is not a focus for us. We will do that for particular instances for clients. That is probably muted some of the fantastic results of that business segment, which has included our accounting operations being up 25%, which was a really impressive outcome. We might jump onto the next slide, and I can dive into a little bit more detail if we can. Total revenue for the year, as suggested, AUD 16.5 million, up 22%. In terms of our contracts with customers, up 20%. I am going to keep restating this. Have a look at that bottom left-hand corner of this slide. Wealth up 44%, and a really positive trajectory that seems pretty consistent. SMSF up 14%, and accounting up 25%. We are going to do more of this. This will be a focus for our M&A, for our acqui-hire. An acqui-hire is simply M&A by a different term. It is when someone or a group of people join you with a client base, but not the legacy of the structure that might otherwise come through an acquisition. We will focus our attention in those three key areas. As I said, capital is important, but it is transactional revenue and not an area that we want to focus. Our focus is on recurring revenue, and as I said before, that is up 21% for the year to 85% of our total revenue. We will continue to hone in on that target we gave three or four years ago, which was to get to AUD 100 million. I think when we gave that target, we were at circa AUD 25 million of revenue. Our business is very much growth minded, but we are focused for the majority of the time, not just on the revenue, but the quality of the earnings that comes from that revenue and the margin that we can actually achieve from it. Overall, you are seeing there some focus areas, some de-emphasis, and if you look at the top part of that graph, you can see a real consistency on how we have grown our business, and we believe we can continue to scale and to do that increasingly at better margins with improving operating cash flow. On that note, I am going to hand over to Sharon, who is going to touch on some of the margin-related issues. Thanks, Simon. Our underlying EBITDA to members increased from AUD 7.8 million in FY 2022 to AUD 13.9 million in FY 2026 and includes year-on-year growth of 18%. The growth has been achieved while reducing reliance on transactional revenue, as Simon discussed. The FY 2026 underlying EBITDA margin, while it remained at 24% and consistent with last year, was really driven through acquisition integration activity, investment in technology and systems, and organizational changes undertaken during the year. During the Q4, Prime accelerated its focus on operational efficiency and cost base reduction. Those actions, together with workflow improvement, automation, and data consolidation, are expected to support future margin improvement and operating leverage. The strategic priority for us in FY 2027 is to convert the additional scale already achieved into ongoing top-line growth and improved earnings conversion. Thank you, Nat. Our balance sheet remains positioned to support Prime's growth strategy. Net assets increased to AUD 61.2 million at June. Acquisition payments largely contributed to the increase in net debt of AUD 20.6 million, which is up from AUD 14.9 million last year. This was also reflected in an increase in net debt to underlying EBITDA to members, which increased to 1.5 x, however, continues to be well below our banking covenant requirements. Pleasingly, our operating cash flow increased 47% to AUD 4.3 million. This improvement is really important because it does demonstrate stronger conversion of earnings into cash flow. Prime also has access to Westpac facilities of approximately AUD 42.6 million, of which AUD 21.6 million was drawn down at year-end. This provides us with the capacity to support working capital, existing commitments, and disciplined strategic growth. Our approach remains to balance investment and shareholder returns with prudent leverage and active cash management. Thank you, Nat. As mentioned earlier, the board has declared a fully franked final dividend of 0.92 cents per share. Together with the interim dividend of 0.8 cents per share, this brings the FY 2026 full year fully franked dividend to 0.0172 cents per share, an increase of 4% over last year and a substantial increase from 0.011 cents per share in FY 2022. The final dividend record date is the 3rd of September, with payment scheduled on the 28th of September. I can also confirm that the dividend reinvestment plan is available for the final dividend. The dividend increase reflects the board's confidence in Prime's underlying business while maintaining an appropriate balance between shareholder distributions, debt management, and reinvestment in growth. Thank you, Nat. Thanks, Nat. We will jump into strategy and the focus for FY 2027. Intentionally simple. From a growth point of view, organic growth across those three key areas I have already touched on, that 14%- 44% growth component across wealth, accounting, SMSF. We are going to do more of it. We believe we can scale it and scale that efficiently. That cross-sell program for value for our customers will continue through our one connected mindset, and that will absolutely complement what we are doing in our core growth areas. Acqui-hire, I have touched on. I think we can accelerate that. We are in market, talking to lots of people, to make sure we find those people that want to be part of that multiple service journey for their clients, but also to have an equity interest in our business. Just as a reminder, 44% of Prime is actually owned by the team. That is a really important alignment consideration for us to marry up between external shareholders and internal shareholders to drive the right behaviors and the right level of continuity. So finding people, whether it is through acqui-hire, internal promotion, and also selective acquisition, will all form part of what we would do for the future. That is that bridge between AUD 60 million of revenue to around about AUD 100 million of revenue. That is how we continue to grow our business. By not doing anything outstandingly different, but to continue to do it better. Part of that better process for us is around productivity and technology. That is a core focus for us into FY 2027. Those efficiency improvements that Sharon spoke to, whether it is workflow, automation, AI, making sure that you are developing your team internally, are all really important to allow us to achieve our objectives, but most importantly, also for our clients. Those ideal clients will remain a focus for us, and we will continue to consolidate our existing capabilities and keep on simplifying our business. One final word would simply be really proud of the team and what they have developed over the course of the last 12 months in terms of our business model, our target operating model, and the results that have been achieved. We have got a wonderful team that works really hard to deliver value for customers, but also for shareholders. I absolutely want to thank them, as I do want to thank shareholders for their continued support. But for now, that is probably enough from myself and Sharon, and we will probably hand back to you, Nat. Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Sharon. Probably just a few questions. Firstly, Prime recently exited an NBIO that was in place. Can you share what was the reasoning behind the exit? Absolutely. Thanks, Nat. If you are happy for me to take this, Sharon. Firstly, a non-binding indicative offer is exactly that. It is an intention to do something together. We have obviously done some due diligence. And we are keen to see whether or not the businesses can fit together. Firstly, we have the utmost respect for anyone that is willing to entertain a conversation about what the future of their business might look like, particularly in that partnership model that we have worked to. So the respect remains, even though we did not proceed with this particular transaction. But things changed. The business looked different. There was a different risk profile, and we could not justify the valuation on that business based on the circumstances that were presenting to us. So unfortunately, we could not proceed with it. It was a long journey. We spent many months and almost a year in discussions, so we didn't make any decision lightly. I believe we've made the right decision. We are very protective of investor capital, and we want to make sure that we deploy that to the best possible opportunities. We thank the founder of that business, who we really do respect, for taking the time to spend it with us. It just wasn't going to work out for the future. Thank you, Simon. Another question is, you spoke about the divestiture of some clients. Can you just explain a little bit more about what makes an ideal or a non-ideal client? Yeah. Firstly, on the ideal client front, we have been really explicit that our model and probably our key point of difference is the ability to work with clients over an extended period of time across both business and wealth. Within that business and wealth, those two core segments, there's multiple different service lines that we can actually deliver to clients. Our most ideal clients are ones that typically are pretty ambitious, that want to do things, that want to actually head in the right direction, and they need support to achieve their goals and objectives. It's usually a multiple service provision that they're looking for. Clearly, they're more often than not larger clients, and that's why we're focused on that mid-market. Where there are clients that probably have an isolated need or a one-off need, they're probably less appropriate for us unless there is a pathway to doing more for them. Without sounding too mercenary about it, we've got to be able to make money on the service that we deliver to clients. In some cases, the equation just doesn't work out. When there are those occasions, and it will come up from time to time, we will respectfully work out scenarios to pass those clients on to other industry participants, people that we trust, and provide them the opportunity to service the clients and do it the right way. That's where we will divest, we will realize capital, and then we will reinvest that capital into activities that fit the profile of our strategy. Thank you. You also spoke about some cost savings in the last quarter of FY 2026. Can you explain how that will play into FY 2027? Yeah. I think probably that key item I cover around the operational highlights of simplification. Firstly, we have de-emphasized what we do in capital. That has meant that we've reshaped our headcount in the capital division and our requirements for the future. That obviously has an impact in terms of reducing the cost base as it relates to that, because that service line is not a focus for us. But operationally, with a simpler business, you're very much more careful about where you spend your money, the types of team members that you recruit, where you do the work, whether it's in Australia, offshore, and what you actually get in terms of technology enablement and the steps that you're taking to be more productive. With a simpler and clearer vision about how we can execute to that growth milestone of AUD 100 million at an increasingly higher margin, we're pretty picky about what we do, how we resource, and where we spend our capital and our time and our efforts. That will mean that when we're not looking after certain clients that might consume too many resources, then we're more focused on doing the things that more of our customers, our ideal customers, might value. Perfect. The next question is really around the You speak about targeting between FY 2028 and FY 2030 up to AUD 100 million, and it's a bit of a double header of a question. What are the drivers of that, and will you also be providing a guidance for FY 2027? The simplicity of our strategy of what we've been able to do well and that we think that we can do increasingly well, is in those areas that have driven our business from AUD 25 million turnover to AUD 60 million. But for that small caveat around a small amount of divested clients. We think we've got this right. We think that we are accelerating with a simplified model, and that model includes organic growth, appropriate prices for the work that you do. It includes finding more people that believe in the vision and the journey, the multiple service journey for customers, and acquiring businesses that fill out the family portrait in key locations where we can do more of the good work that we want to do. It is an absolute repeat of scaling more of what we've already got as opposed to starting new journeys in particular. It's consolidation, it's a focus. When you do consolidate and you simplify and you reduce that surface area, all the work that you do around workflow, AI technology, et cetera, becomes simpler because you are just getting more leverage off the back of the work that you're doing. You get a better return on investment. In terms of that focus, that's what we'll do. We'll keep doing what we do well. In terms of guidance, we never really give guidance until we sort of get to the AGM. But at the moment, the best guidance I can give is we're a group of people that are very growth-minded. We own part of the business that all of you co-own. We want to create shareholder value. We know what is the more precise way to do that, and we are targeting that FY 2028 to 2030 goal of AUD 100 million. Each one of the goals we've set in the last three years, we have achieved. So we feel confident that on a trajectory to 2028 to 2030, we've got the right moving parts, and we'll continue to focus on that. Perfect. That brings us to the end of today's presentation. Thank you to everybody that's joined us. Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Sharon. And we wish you all a great rest of the day. All right. Thanks, Nat.
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