Morning and welcome to the Liontrust Asset Management investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll, and I would now like to hand you over to CEO John Ions. Good morning to you. Good morning and welcome to Liontrust Company Update in conjunction with the half-year results for 2025. I'm John Ions, Chief Executive Officer of Liontrust, and with me are Vinay Abrol, Chief Financial Officer, Simon Hildrey, Chief Marketing Officer, and Stephen Corbett, Head of Investor Relations. At Liontrust, our purpose has always been clear: to deliver long-term value through disciplined, active investment management and exceptional client service. These beliefs have guided us through every market cycle, every challenge, and every opportunity. We believe in consistency of process because markets will always test conviction. We believe in transparency and integrity because trust is earned every day. We believe in service excellence because performance alone doesn't build enduring relationships; partnerships do. While it's been another challenging period for flows, there are more reasons for optimism looking forward. We see more demand coming through, particularly internationally and from institutional investors. It is just taking longer than expected for the potential pipeline to be realized. We have won two mandates, the other funding imminently, worth a combined GBP 250 million. As an illustration of how long flows are taking to be realized, the process for these institutional mandates started around March of this year. Several factors are expected to drive demand for active management: lower expected market returns compared to the past decade, making alpha generation more critical; valuation opportunities in the U.K. and European equities, particularly small- caps, and greater market volatility and dispersion, which favor stock selection over passive exposure and client need for diversification away from concentrated U.S. mega-cap positions. Liontrust believes these conditions will create a more favorable environment for active managers over the next few years. If we look at the headline of the results, adjusted profit just under GBP 16 million and still a strong capital position, which is reinforced by the up to GBP 10 million share buyback that we announced with our half-year results last Thursday. At this level, we do believe it's appropriate use of capital to buy shares back, given the confidence we have in the outlook of the business and the current valuation of the shares. Share buybacks do split opinions, and I always want to divide share buybacks from the question of whether we have cash to make acquisitions. However, at current market levels of share price, and if we find the right transactions to execute on, we'll be less worried about the finances, more about finding the right deal to do. The other development I want to highlight is the fact that it will generate further annual cost efficiencies of around GBP 1.5 million. Here is a list of the headwinds that we have talked about for the past year or so. The slide also shows some of the tailwinds that are emerging that add to our optimism and the outlook. Without dwelling on each of those, I will pick up on a few of the points. Go to the next slide, Stephen. For much of the post-global financial crisis period, quality was a dominant style, as you can see in this chart. It It is up there. Right, I mean, U.K. equities, lower interest rates, subdued economic growth, and persistent uncertainty meant investors rewarded companies with strong balance sheets, high returns on capital, and predictable cash flows and low leverage. That regime changed when inflation surged post-COVID, interest rates rose sharply, and the cost of capital increased. In that environment, growth also rolled over as long-duration cash flows were discounted more heavily. Meanwhile, value, particularly financials, energy, cyclicals, and commodity-linked companies benefited from rising interest rates and the recovery in global activity. The combination of higher discount rates and the cyclical upturn created one of the strongest periods for value leadership in over a decade. Quality has not collapsed. Its fundamentals remain robust, but the market cycle simply favored value. As we move to our next slide, there is now a strong case building for a meaningful rebound in quality. Peaking interest rates reduce the valuation headwinds for companies with long-term sustainable cash flows. Slower global growth increases the premium investors place on earnings visibility and resilience. Normalizing inflation favors businesses with strong margins and pricing power. Broadening market leadership after a value-dominated period historically supports quality as investors rebalance. Corporate balance sheet strength becomes a greater advantage as refining costs rise. Today's equity indices are more concentrated than ever. A handful of mega-cap stocks now dominate returns. Passive investors are forced to keep buying the winners of the last cycle, regardless of valuation or fundamentals. That concentration creates hidden risk. In just a few names, a falter, the whole index suffers. This is where active management can potentially shine. Active managers can diversify, avoid overvalued positions, and tilt towards sectors or stocks with better risk-reward. Goldman Sachs is forecasting lower annualized equity returns over the next 10 years compared to the last decade. In this environment, active management becomes even more important. Active managers can rotate across sectors, regions, and factors and exploit structural or thematic opportunities and manage concentration risks that passive investors cannot. Earlier this year, the Investment Association data showed a clear rotation out of U.S. equities following the tariff announcement. What really stands out is the renewed confidence in European equities. Investors are recognizing that Europe offers compelling valuations, broader sector diversity, and a strong base of high-quality global businesses that have been overlooked during the long U.S. bull market. At the same time, the move signals that investors are increasingly aware of the concentration risk in the U.S. market and are willing to relocate capital when the risk-return balance shifts. For active managers, this rotation is a major opportunity. Clients are seeking thoughtful regional diversification and want exposure to markets like Europe, where fundamentals and valuations are working in their favor. That plays directly to our strengths across both equity and as well as our multi-asset strategies. If we go, where Liontrust are particularly well positioned in distribution and brand, if I hand over to Simon now to talk about the strength of the brand. Thank you, John. This slide is designed to show that the Liontrust brand has maintained its strength. The stats on this slide illustrate that Liontrust has strong awareness, familiarity, and engagement among both professional intermediaries and retail investors. This familiarity and engagement should mean that it is more likely that clients will both potentially invest in Liontrust funds and retain their holdings. As this slide shows, Liontrust scores well for investors, seeing and engaging with our videos and advertising, rating our client service and communications very highly, and are very familiar with our brand. This has been supported recently by direct feedback we have received from our clients. At a recent client dinner for our multi-asset team, for example, we asked all the clients what we could do better. The response was universally that our service and communications is excellent and is superior to other brands that they work with. We then held an investment conference with over 200 professional clients attending in Central London. The feedback was extremely positive, and there was wide recognition of the fact that we offer a much broader range than sustainable U.K. equities and some attractive offerings that Stephen will talk about shortly. Thank you, Simon. Let's try and say, despite the challenges over the last few years, they're still there and high, and engagement is good. On the distribution side, Liontrust has secured new institutional mandates and added strategies to other buylists across wealth managers domestically and internationally, areas including South America, Australia, South Africa, and the Middle East. The sales team has increased engagement with its tier-one clients globally, and the pipeline includes significant opportunities across regions. International distribution hires have further broadened this reach. These initiatives position Liontrust to deliver diversified solutions across equities, fixed income, and multi-assets and alternatives. You can see on the slide that we now have, of the seven teams, all are at a billion or above, and therefore that sort of critical mass and element to be able to engage on a broad range with a client base. If we hand over to Stephen for a little bit more detail on some of the strategies. Thanks, John. As John said, taking a closer look at some of the great things we see day to day at Liontrust, we have lifted out nine funds in focus, which, in addition to our sustainable and economic advantage funds, the sales team are taking out to investors. Our seven teams are laid out here, all with active funds offering investors distinctive solutions to their diversified portfolios. Notwithstanding the headwinds for sustainable and the U.K., the sales team have kept busy on the front foot with a raft of other funds at Liontrust. Looking at a few of them, the European Dynamic Fund continues to see inflows and has grown to GBP 2.4 billion in AUM from being GBP 1.6 billion a year ago. We have had a recent buy list and mandate wins for the fund from both international and U.K. clients. Managed by the team since launch in 2006, the cash flow solution investment process delivers a truly differentiated, high-conviction portfolio of equally weighted stocks. This is active management, high active share, delivering for investors. The European Long Short Equity Fund is one of our alternative funds, a flexible long short approach to European equities. It has delivered annualized returns of 7.9% with low volatility, again, high conviction, actively managed. Two actively managed bond funds have also been consistently delivering for investors. Surprise stars of the show at our investment conference a couple of weeks ago, the Monthly Income Bond Fund is a sterling corporate bond fund. It is actively managed with 69 holdings. That is compared to an average of 291 holdings for other funds in the sector, delivering an average income yield of 5.5% since launch versus its peer group average of 3.1%. Unlike the rest of our stable sustainable range of funds, it has the new SDR labeling. For the High Yield Bond Fund, it's all about the income. Actively managed, diversified portfolio of 77 issuers, consistently strong performance, yielding 7% currently. The team there are carefully selecting high-yielding bonds less sensitive to those exogenous forces. The fund is growing and attracting a lot of interest. The Global Innovation team have been delivering superb returns since we formed the team in 2019. The three funds have been growing in AUM, now over GBP 1 billion, and the team have been building on their reputation in the market through amazing client engagement and delivering their investment process. Crucially, they're not just investing in U.S. mega-cap companies, but instead finding those global innovators across the market caps. They're nimble, sensitive to valuations, and fully immersed in the world of innovators. Investors love meeting them, and it's great to be able to take them out. The global equity team was formed in May 2024 when Mark Hawtin and team joined Liontrust. Since then, the team have transferred across the Global Alpha Long Short Fund that you can see there and maintain Mark's long-term track record. They've also taken on the management of the Global Alpha Fund and now manage GBP 1.2 billion in AUM across their 10 funds. A hugely experienced team delivering superb returns for investors and gaining traction in the market. That gives you a flavor of nine funds at the top of their sectors, gaining that traction in the market and keeping our sales team very busy at the moment. We continue to strive to make the business more efficient, and efficiency improvements include the operating model overall, including outsourced trading and data services to The Bank of New York and implementing Aladdin for risk management and portfolio management. If I hand over now to Vinay to talk a bit further about the operating platform. Thanks, John. Over the last 2 years, we've overhauled our operating model, partnering with BlackRock, implementing their enterprise portfolio management system in our front office, further expanded our relationship with BNY across front office and middle office support, and a new data ecosystem using BNY's data vault product. We've also outsourced fact sheets and regulatory reporting to Broadgate, thereby reducing our headcount. More recently, in the first half of this year, we outsourced our trading to BNY's buy-side trading solutions team, giving us much greater capability and 24/6 trading in global equity and fixed income. Looking forward, our focus is on embedding the enhancements that we've made to our operating model to make sure that we make maximum benefit from them. I'll now move on to the financial results for the half-year ended, half-year ended 30 September 2025. I'll take you through. Average AUM over the period was GBP 22.4 billion, which is down 17% half-year on half-year, with a revenue margin, excluding performance fee revenues, of 0.56%, reducing by 7% half-year on half-year, mostly as a result of a margin mix. This resulted in gross profit of GBP 63.3 million, down 22% from last year, and includes GBP 0.2 million of performance fees. Administration expenses are also down 14%, reflecting reduced compensation costs, which are down 22%, and other admin costs, including depreciation, which is down 1%. Additional cost efficiencies of circa GBP 1.5 million on an annualized basis have been identified, which will be implemented by the end of June 2026 at a cost of GBP 1 million. Our adjusted operating margin is 23.8%, which reflects that most performance. Ladies and gentlemen, please do bear with me as I reconnect the room. Pleasure, and please do bear with us. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. The past 5 years have been extraordinary. Value investing has enjoyed a resurgence, passive strategies have grown exponentially, and fee compression has reshaped the competitive landscape. At the same time, quality growth and mid and small-cap stocks have faced significant challenges. Cycles turn. History tells us that periods of underperformance create opportunities for active management. Inefficiencies or anticipate change. It simply follows. Active management, when done well, adds value by identifying mispriced assets and positioning for the future. We also believe sustainability and responsible investing will remain central to long-term success. These are not trends; they are imperatives. Liontrust is prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. We'll continue to invest in technology, talent, and global distribution. We will advocate for reforms that strengthen markets and support growth. Above all, we will remain true to our core beliefs: consistency, integrity, and excellence. Thank you for your trust, your partnership, and your confidence in Liontrust. Any questions? A few straight questions then. The first one, do you intend to make use of share buybacks in the company while the share price is at depressed levels, adding shareholder value and supporting the share price? Vinay, I think one for you. Yeah, no, yeah, I think, as I mentioned earlier, we've announced a share buyback program up to GBP 10 million, which will phase over the period to the end of June. I think that is part of our capital allocation policy. It will be starting soon. We'll make a further announcement in due course. Okay, thanks, Vinay. We've been asked a couple of questions here about the share price and about it underperforming some of the peer group. I could probably pick up on that. I mean, in terms of the brokers that cover us, we have eight analysts covering Liontrust. We have four buys, three holds, and one underperform. In our consensus across those brokers that cover us, the target price is GBP 3.83. Some of the traditional asset managers are beginning to turn, and that's a good sign. I mean, we won't all turn in unison, that's for sure. Flows are the focus of the market, but we are focused on those inputs, and we're focused on doing all the right things, and flows will follow, and hopefully the price will follow with that too. It's worth adding just more recently, for U.K. mid-cap, the run-up to the budget, we've certainly seen quite erratic trading in mid and small-caps. I think a bit of it is confidence. Confidence is very much on flows. You can see where groups which have had products in areas where flows began to come in have started to move certainly into better flow profiles, and that is quite quickly reflected in share prices. I think earlier I touched on one of the slides showing that transition out of the U.S. If you've been investing globally and you were happy with a 45% weight in the U.S., now that it's closer to north of 70% concentration in global portfolios, what's happened since the beginning of the year is you start to see people say, "Where can I invest my money outside of the U.S.?" That follow-through to us has been very much with the cash flow team in the European product suite. It's been led initially with our institutional inquiries, and we've had mandate or peer requests from Asia, Korea, Japan, the Middle East. The two latest wins are both in Europe and from European investors. That pipeline has taken longer to come through. On the other side of that, our biggest asset pools have historically been in sustainable and U.K. equities. Stephen said that U.K. equity market, mid small-cap position has been more challenged. Certainly, you can see the lack of activity in the market this week ahead of the budget, so we all wait to see tomorrow where we get to with that confidence and that outlook. I think it's achieved, but if I was looking at, when I'm looking at the pipeline, it's a lot stronger than it has been and continues to be stronger. is both the engagement we have through the distribution team we have, but also incoming where international investors are looking and in areas like European equities where the team scores really highly. We have those inquiries coming in. I think expecting everybody all to move at the same time, given the sensitivity of flows in share prices, probably is not there, but we are optimistic that the follow-through from recent wins and the future pipeline will help us move forward. Thanks, John. Another question here. Where are recent outflows focused, and do you see any inflection in these areas? I think, as I touched on this answer, U.K. equities remain challenged. Small mid-cap stocks do as well. With the sustainable side, if you've been away from energy or carbon emitting as a Mag 7 from that sort of restriction from a sustainable mandate, it's led to an underperformance there. Across from that, I'd say four of our teams now are either in inflows or pretty much marginally flat with the business. Our two big growth engines of the past have been more challenging there. As I said, this sort of remarkable period of 5 years of value investing doesn't mean that quality small and mid-cap is broken, but it very much needs some stimulus and concentration. The underlying companies, I think one of the earlier charts I showed shows you where their relative valuations are and the discount to historic trading ranges sit where that sits. Sustainability, it's still very much that long-term theme. I think strong performance in the fixed interest area. We put the fixed interest team into part of our multi-asset side, and we've bolstered the size of the funds there, and that has already enabled us to get broader engagement, certainly in the institutional marketplace where funds that historically had good performance but were not of a large enough size now meet that size criteria, and engagement is good with institutional investors going forward. Some of the wealth managers in the U.K. are now looking to add those funds to their lists. I think the frustration is just the time and the caution, and hence it is there. Things are moving more slowly. If you can see what I see every day in the business and drive the determination of the people that are there, that's what helps fuel the optimism. Thank you. Are you considering new product launches to capture the shift towards active diversification from U.S. mega- caps? We always look at new products and pipelines. I mean, Mark Hawtin's team came on board. We recently looked with a long-short global alpha fund. We're looking at an international version of that product. As I said, we've made enhancements with the fixed interest team as well. I think the old adage, though, of launching products to gain flows is much more challenged. There are an awful lot of products out there. In fact, if anything, there were too many products in the marketplace. Really where our concentration is, is to make sure that the products we have, they will be the engine of future growth and to make sure they are as robust and well-positioned as possible to capture new fund flows. Thanks, John. Got a question here about distribution. It's a long question. I'll try and summarize it. Thank you for sending that in. International distribution and our efforts there and broadening out, how's that process going? As I said a bit earlier, we've had inquiries from Australian superannuation, seven or eight inquiries internationally from Japan and in the Middle East where we've got good traction there. In Latin America, we've got good action with the South American pension fund market, specifically in Chile, and are looking into broadening out the range of products, specifically on the fixed interest side that are available to the Chilean pension fund industry. It's taken a while, but again, through the big change or the big upstage has been that international investors have started to ask that question. If I'm not going to invest or have as much concentration in the U.S., where are the next opportunities? It is Europe, ex-U.K., I may add, that we're seeing those inquiries and putting in the extra resource internationally has enabled us to service and to do with those inquiries better and to promote products. You can see that in the short term with the two awarded yet to be funded mandates that we've mentioned, but a strong pipeline that follows through. Thank you, John. Question here. Hopefully, you feel we've answered a chunk of this question through the presentation, but despite the general growth in markets this year, the share price is down. How does management intend to address the slide? Given everything we've said, I mean, John, do you have anything to add to that? The slide in the share price is pointing for management as it is for shareholders, Vinay, all of us here are significant shareholders in Liontrust. You can see from the promotion of the share buyback. I said earlier, share buybacks draw opinion. If you're buying back your shares, does that mean you don't have other things that you can augment the business with rather than just buying your own shares in? I think that's a commitment or sign for much that we believe that price is wrong. It is undervalued. It offers great opportunities. What we can do, though, to make that is to execute on the strategy that we have in place and to turn the flows from the negative position they are in gradually into positive flows. That will aid and boost the share price, and I should think significantly. Thank you, John. There was a question on AUM, which I think we've covered. If anyone has any further questions, please email me directly, and we can come back to you. If you feel that you need some more color on anything we said, please let us know. Perfect. That's great. Thank you all once again for updating. Concludes the presentation. Thank you very much for your support, engagement. It has been a difficult, challenging period, but we believe that by sticking to the core of Liontrust, we have reasons to be optimistic going forward. Thank you. That's great. Thank you very much indeed to the team presenting from Liontrust. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't close the session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the company can better understand your views and expectations. This may take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at Liontrust, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. Good morning to you all.