Thank you for waiting, and welcome to the Bravura Solutions H1 2021 Financial Results. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Tony Klim, CEO and MD.
Thank you, Zoe, and good morning. My name is Tony Klim. I'm the Chief Executive Officer at Bravura, and I'm joined here by Martin Deda, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you all for joining the presentation of our half-year financial results. In line with earlier guidance, Bravura financial results for the half were down. The COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns have impacted our largest markets in the U.K. There has been significant market uncertainty that has affected business confidence, and in particular, the workplace restrictions have impaired the ability of our clients and prospects to engage and collaborate on major projects. The result of this environment is evident in our first half results. Having said that, the business has pushed forward and experienced a number of impressive achievements.
We have signed Australia's second-largest superannuation fund by assets under management, Aware Super, as our maiden client for our game-changing new digital-first proposition, Sonata Alta. With Delta Financial, we have acquired a market-leading software business in the U.K. to broaden our coverage of the pensions markets. We have extended our market leadership through a targeted R&D program that provides clients with the solutions that they're looking for. Now while markets are tough, our business is resilient. As the COVID-19 vaccines roll out and confidence improves, the business continues to position itself and take advantage of the subsequent release of pent-up client demand. I'm convinced that Bravura will emerge stronger as the pandemic eases. The pandemic has highlighted the greater need for robust technology and automation in a digital-first world. The long-term drivers of our growth are as strong as they've ever been.
With those opening comments, if I can take you now to the summary on slide four. While lower project work in the U.K. arising from the impact of COVID-19 has underpinned our first half results, Bravura's first half NPAT of AUD 9 million is broadly in line with guidance provided at Bravura's AGM in November. The lower U.K. project work also underpins our lower revenue and earnings results. Recurring revenue now stands at 86% of group revenue, with contracted recurring revenue up 8%. The Aware Super contract is a landmark deal for Bravura and for the Australian superannuation market. It has generated significant interest from other superannuation funds, and we expect to see other wins as a result. In prudence, we've adjusted our workforce and cost base in the current environment.
Having said that, we've retained key talent to ensure that Bravura is well positioned to take advantage of the confidence that is slowly returning. We've made excellent progress on our R&D initiatives, spending AUD 26 million on the development of a suite of microservices, Australian wrap functionality, Sonata Alta, GTAS enhancements, and the extension of our digital advice capability. This continued targeted investment directly meets the needs of our clients and provides Bravura with a significant and sustainable competitive advantage. We welcomed Delta Financial into the group during the period, expanding our U.K. market offering into complex self-invested pensions. The acquisition complements Bravura's core Sonata offering and broadens Bravura's growing ecosystem of products and services. On slide six, we discuss the impact that COVID-19 has had on the group. As the pandemic has unfolded, different countries have been impacted in different ways.
Despite that, I'm proud to say that our collaboration technology has accommodated the transition to remote working seamlessly, and our people have been able to take it in their stride. That most importantly, client operations have been supported without disruption. Our sales pipeline overall has remained strong. COVID-19 has made it even more apparent that modern technology with strong digital capabilities is a must. At the same time, the challenges of a world still adjusting to remote working has seen a lengthening of the sales cycle. In the U.K. specifically, a general lack of confidence, excuse me, and workplace restrictions have led to a reluctance amongst clients to embark on major new programs. However, while decisions are taking longer, they're still taking the time to evaluate our products so that they can move more quickly when business confidence returns.
In Australia and New Zealand, whilst the sales cycle has become longer, we continue to progress a number of potentially significant opportunities. In South Africa, COVID has had a significant impact. Despite that, client activities continue to progress, and we continue to discuss new opportunities. Coming now to Slide seven. Excuse me. We outline our changes here. Firstly, there are a number of developments taking place in the markets. Individual fund managers are increasingly moving towards providing digital wealth management capability as an alternative to retail platforms, opening up additional sales opportunities. Secondly, we've seen a reduced interest in big bang, large-scale implementations and much more interest in modular implementations. Thirdly, we're observing a middle tier of clients that are underserved relative to the top tier of clients.
Fourthly, the need for clients to reduce their administration costs is heightened as financial services value chains are squeezed. Finally, and importantly, in a digital-first world, an optimal customer experience for our end customers is becoming more paramount. Now, coinciding with these market developments, we've accelerated the rollout of our technical strategy. As well as developing and acquiring new modular products, we're transforming our existing products into smaller, individually salable, and deployable components or microservices. All of our products are or will be cloud-enabled. We're increasing the degree of automation that our technology provides and also ensuring a world-class digital experience. Hand-in-hand with our technology strategy, we're also modifying our commercial approach. Going forward, we anticipate having more client contracts underpinned by a subscription and consumption-based approach.
In doing so, the structure of our client contracts will allow clients to smooth their client fees over the term of the contract. We see our strategy supporting the outcomes that our clients are asking for, as well as delivering enhanced longer-term value to shareholders. Coming now to Slide eight. The developments in our strategy also sees an expansion in our total addressable market. Bravura's market opportunity in our two biggest markets, the U.K. and Australia, is significant. In the U.K., we estimate a total addressable market of more than GBP 1 billion of revenue per year for our products and services. The market comprises retail and institutional fund administration, retail investment and life insurance platforms, discretionary fund managers, corporate defined contribution pension schemes, self-invested personal pensions, and small self-administered pensions. In Australia, we estimate the total addressable market to be about AUD 1 billion of revenue per year.
The market here comprises superannuation platforms, advice, life insurance, investment management, and asset management. I'll now ask Martin to take us through the financial implications in more detail.
Thank you, Tony. Let's now turn to Slide nine. As Tony described, we're moving our commercial strategy to a more subscription, consumption-based model. This will result in five key changes. More of our client contracts will be subscription and consumption-based. This is already the case to some extent in our funds administration contracts, and some of our newer deals in wealth management, notably the Aware deal, are also largely consumption-based, as is our Midwinter advice offerings, which is a SaaS-based offering. The result of these changes, we expect to see contracted recurring revenue rise from about 50% of total group revenues to about 70%. Upfront license fees will be a smaller contribution to revenue and earnings, but upfront license fees will still occur. The revenue and margin profile of each contract, and therefore in aggregate, will be more consistent over time.
As Bravura's total addressable market expands, our products and services will cover more of the value chain and overall client contract value is expected to increase. If I turn now to Slide 11, this sets out our H1 2021 financial results. As discussed earlier, group and segment revenue and earnings were down, reflecting the impact of COVID-19, particularly in our U.K. business, which constitutes approximately 75% of total group revenues. Corporate costs came in at 2% lower, benefiting from tight cost control and lower acquisition costs in H1 compared to the prior corresponding period. We also undertook measures to right-size our consulting and development workforce as a consequence of the reduced professional services work. We reduced our overall headcount by about 5%, this will deliver an annual benefit of approximately AUD 11.5 million. Relative to the first half, the second half will see a benefit of about AUD 5.5 million.
Turning to slide 12. This shows Delta's contribution to the first half results. The Delta acquisition closed at the end of October, resulting in a two-month contribution to the period. Delta contributed AUD 2 million in revenue. Its earnings contribution was immaterial. We've included Delta within the Wealth Management segment. That's where it will continue to be reported going forward. Delta, as Midwinter and FinoComp have, has a high proportion of recurring revenue. In the case of Delta, it's around 80%. Going forward, we expect Delta to deliver revenue growth in the range of 20%-30% per annum. Slide 13. This slide shows our revenue by geography. It highlights our revenue performance in the half by the geographic location of our clients.
As you can see in the chart, the decline is very much concentrated in the U.K. across both wealth management and funds administration, as the U.K. market has been significantly impacted by COVID-19. All of our other regions, particularly Australia and New Zealand, delivered revenue growth. I'll turn to slide 14, showing our long-term revenue and earnings. Notwithstanding the most recent half and the extraordinary circumstances caused by the pandemic we found ourselves in, Bravura has consistently delivered revenue growth and margin expansion over the last six years. As the vaccine rolls out, business confidence returns, and the operating environment improves, we expect Bravura in the U.K. to return to growth as well. Slide 15 sets out our recurring revenue. You'll see here that we have added to our disclosure to aid investors in understanding the components of our revenues.
Contracted recurring revenue was up 8% during the half compared to the prior corresponding period. Contracted recurring revenue comprises those revenues contracted for the total contract term, which includes, typically, maintenance, support, managed services, hosting, cloud, SaaS revenues. As discussed earlier, COVID-19 has impacted attached recurring revenue, where we've seen some project work being reprioritized. It's important to highlight that this work has not gone away, and the attached recurring revenue, those professional services revenues, be it consulting or development revenues, that clients undertake post having gone live on our core systems. The decline in non-recurring revenue is almost all in the U.K. The lack of new significant deal wins has seen a decline in implementation work, as implementation work from earlier deal wins have been completed. Turning to slide 16, sets out our funding position.
Bravura is in a healthy financial position with cash of AUD 56 million and no debt. During the period, we completed the acquisition of Delta. The maximum possible purchase price of AUD 23 million. Our balance sheet is well-positioned to continue our program of R&D investment across our product ecosystem to meet anticipated client needs. Operating cash flow, excluding taxes paid, was AUD 9.6 million in the half, representing cash conversion of 61%. Cash conversion of operating cash flows, or EBITDA, that is, compared to 21% in the first half of 2020. As you can see in the chart, our cash conversion metric appears lumpy on a six-month view but sits at around 94% over time. Tony will now take us through the performance of each segment and the outlook.
Thank you, Martin. If I can now take you to slide 18, which sets out the performance in our Wealth Management segment. This segment saw revenue and earnings decline during the period. Most of this decline came through as COVID-19 impacted professional services work in the U.K. Pleasingly, contracted revenue rose 17% during the period. Along with the Aware Super contract win, a further six new or renewed contracts were signed in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Approximately AUD 21 million of R&D was incurred in the Wealth segment, of which 37% is capitalized. The spend related predominantly to developing additional microservices, wrap functionality in Australia, and extending our digital advice capability. Now let's turn to slide 19, which sets out performance in our Funds Administration segment. This segment also saw revenue and earnings decline during the period.
As with the wealth segment, much of this decline came through as COVID-19 impacted professional services work in the U.K., although to a lesser extent. Contracted revenue or contracted recurring revenue remained broadly stable during the period. Bravura signed a contract renewal with an existing client, a large U.K. financial institution. Excluding license fees, which are less consistent in nature, segment EBITDA margin is in line with our first half. R&D spend in the segment was all expensed and focused on enhancing Bravura's GTAS product. Let's now turn to slide 21, which sets out our outlook. The industry structural drivers for our strategy are strengthening. COVID-19 has emphasized the importance of digital first. We're increasing our total addressable market through a more flexible and modular deployment model, as discussed.
We are seeing an increase in market confidence in the U.K. with the rollout of the vaccines, and we anticipate a resumption of demand in U.K. and South Africa in FY 2022 as a result of postponed activity. Now the impact of COVID in the U.K. and South Africa is expected to continue to affect the business in the second half. However, the sales pipeline is strong. Accordingly, Bravura anticipates delivering revenue growth from H1 to H2 in excess of 10% and achieving full-year NPAT between AUD 32 million and AUD 35 million. Martin and I will now be very happy to take your questions.
Thank you. If you do 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. And if you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Michael Peet with Goldman Sachs.
Morning, Tony and Martin. Just on the guidance, could you give us a little bit more color around the 10% revenue growth? Just interested in how much of that's going to be generated, obviously, through new contract wins and just the mix of those, if we can, between Sonata Alta, microservices.
Martin, would you like to take that?
The revenue growth will predominantly be driven by the Sonata Alta revenues as we ramp up in the Aware program, as well as microservices, particularly in the U.K. There are a range of opportunities in microservices in the U.K. We also have, in the fund administration segment, a contract renewal coming up as well, which will also contribute to that revenue growth.
Okay. could you give us a rough guide on license fees in the second half? also just on R&D, what sort of level of R&D will be expensed and capitalized?
We expect to capitalize a similar amount of R&D in the second half as we did in the first half. As per our full-year guidance, we're still trending and anticipate doing about AUD 18 million of capitalized R&D across the whole year. In terms of license fees, we anticipate license fees in the second half to be approximately what they were in the first half.
Okay. Tony, you mentioned that there's a sort of a decline in the appetite for big bang implementations. I guess that says Sonata might face a headwind on that. Does that also mean Sonata Alta, obviously, as a cloud-based opportunity, is a little bit easier to implement, or am I assuming that incorrectly? Just you say there's a strong pipeline. Could you quantify that? Is the value of work that's sitting in that pipeline, maybe how significantly greater is that than previous periods?
I think if we look at the U.K. and Australia, there is a slight difference at the moment, which may be down to just the confidence factor in COVID, but I think it just reflects the difference in the markets. We're not seeing such a drop-off in Australia in terms of those larger deals. The Aware Super, I think, as you know, is a large deal, and I think we're seeing some strong interest as a result of that. I think in the U.K. at the moment, we're seeing more interest in the modular solutions.
There's still a big market opportunity for Sonata, but I think it's partly reflecting this lack of confidence, which, as I say, I think will change as we go into the next financial year. In general, part of the reason to move to the microservices model is it opens up and expands the market, as we've discussed. I've always said on previous calls that we haven't really been addressing the next tier down, of which there are many more opportunities. At the moment, I think that the U.K. market is, if we look at the pipeline, it's very strong on the microservices. These tend to be smaller sales, but more of them. Actually now we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, particularly on existing clients.
we've had a number of large projects or programs with existing clients that were effectively put on hold or postponed. We're seeing those come back to life. I think that's just reflecting the vaccine rollout and increase in confidence. Some of those will start to take effect in the second half, and then I expect a much stronger move into FY 2022. The pipeline is really across the board. It's actually strong in all areas.
Are you able to quantify that at all in terms of total contract value versus maybe another period?
I would say in terms of total contract value, I think we've got more opportunities than previous periods. As I say, some of those are at lower value. Adding sums, I would say very similar. Martin, would you comment on that to other periods?
Yes, that is the case. As Tony explained, we're seeing the pipeline for projects with existing clients is larger than it has been in previous periods. That's partly to do with it being pent up, projects being prioritized forward. The overall pipeline is a greater number of opportunities. The absolute value of the pipeline is similar to what it was previously. It's just that there are more opportunities in the componentization microservices sort of sphere, as well as coming with the Delta products, which we anticipate, particularly in FY22, strong growth out of those products as well.
Great. Thank you very much for taking the questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Scott Hudson with MST. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning, Tony. Morning, Martin. Just in terms of the evolution in the strategy, is the technology already componentized, or do you still need more work to do in terms of getting all those components available to sell to the cloud base?
A large part of it is componentized. Certainly the acquisition of FinoComp and Delta have effectively brought in those microservice components. Sonata, we have for the last year or two been looking at further componentizing aspects of Sonata. For instance, those of you who've seen Sonata, one of the strongest aspects of it is the orchestrator, the process that effectively coordinates everything, and that we have componentized, and that can now be deployed as a separate product module. In addition to FinoComp, we're also building and deploying new products which are complementary to Sonata. A product called Stanza, for instance, a machine learning product that's getting a lot of interest in the market at the moment. Our product strategy, and we'll be talking further about this, I think, at the full year.
I think we'd like to do an investor day and take you through this in a bit more detail. Sonata was already evolving in that direction. The model now that we're following is very much the one of DevOps, continuous deployment, and so on, which is really where the market is moving. It's a mixture of. Certainly the acquisitions have accelerated that microservice and componentized process. Over the next two, three years, Sonata will be fully modularized and deployable in individual components. We're already somewhere along the line.
How far along are you in terms of the cloud, all products being cloud-based?
Yeah. Sonata is completely cloud deployable at the moment. All of the microservices are cloud deployable. Delta is cloud deployable. That's already there. One of the transition models we have a number of, certainly in the U.K., our big strategic clients that are currently deployed in the Vodafone data centers that we operate out of. We do see that as a major move over the next two to three years. Not just new clients, but all new deployments are cloud based, and we're talking to all of our clients. Some of them are moving faster than others in terms of moving to that cloud model. That presents efficiencies for ourselves. I don't want to make too much of it, but there's revenue opportunity, obviously, in moving in that direction, which clients want to do. That in effect is an opportunity in its own right.
we do see all of our products being cloud deployable. The major strategic ones are at the moment, and all of the microservice models are cloud deployed.
Thanks. In terms of the license fees in terms of the second half, you said similar to the first half, is that purely related to the funds admin contract renewal or are there additional license fees?
It's additional. The funds admin one is of a reasonable size. That's probably the major one, but there's a number of microservice licenses in that pipeline and Delta licenses as well.
Microservices and Delta also have a license fee component attached to them?
They do.
They do. There are also, sorry, Tony. There are also other wealth management licenses included in that.
Thanks. In terms of the corporate cost reductions, is that captured in that AUD 5.5 million savings that you talked about in sort of second half versus first half or-
Yes.
Is it cost? Okay.
Yeah.
Is that a sustainable cost savings or is it just the benefits of no travel and entertainment, et cetera?
No. The headcount reductions that we did were predominantly in consulting and development. There were also some corporate headcount reductions as well.
Yeah. In terms of the guided uplift in the margin in the second half versus the first half, is that purely driven by that AUD 5.5 million cost savings and the uplift in the revenue, given the guidance?
Yes. They are the main factors that drive the improvement.
Thanks. Lastly, just in terms of the evolution of the markets and moving into that sort of second tier of the market and also sort of the wealth management space, what's the competitive landscape, particularly in the wealth management markets and who you're sort of coming up against mostly in that environment?
Well, it's interesting. As I think I've spoken to a number of you in the past to say that it's not well-served. I think that the big retail platforms, that's where the focus has been in recent years. The next tier down, if you take the U.K. market, there's probably 60 or 70, what we would call private client asset managers with asset bases, say, up to GBP 10 billion, anything from 2- 10, say. The technology in that sector is actually quite primitive. The reason why that sector hasn't been able to really take up the technology like Sonata, which is very applicable, is because we've been pricing it and selling it obviously to the higher end of the market. What microservices have allowed us to do is to deploy similar functionality at a lower cost base.
There is not the same level that we believe is the competition in that next tier down. In fact, many organizations have been using quite primitive technology in that space. We do think we have a market-leading position.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Naveen Patney with Evans & Partners. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, guys. First question I had was just another clarification on the revenue growth of sort of 10% half on half. Just doing a bit of math here, so it roughly implies AUD 12 million revenue growth. If this math's right, then about AUD 4 million delta, 4 million- 5 million Aware coming on. Netting that out, it's about 2%-3% organic growth half on half. Is that math in the ballpark or is it not right?
Hi, Naveen. That's not quite right. A portion of it is from Delta coming up to speed. The Aware, as well as other contracts in APAC add to that. There is work out of fund administration, which would be the other factor that adds into that. As Tony pointed out, we're anticipating that the U.K. market and wealth management will continue to be slow in the second half. It'll take a while in the second half for it to ramp back up.
Okay, great. On the corporate costs, they've gone down a little bit on PCP, but half on half, they went up AUD 2 million. I don't know, is there some seasonality element to it on corporate costs, or is there a reason why it did increase half on half?
There is a little bit of seasonality in some costs that we have in some halves rather than others. There were costs for the Delta acquisition, so M&A costs in this half. We had acquisition costs in the same half previously as well. It's one-off items rather than anything systematic in those two halves.
Okay, great. Awesome. On the R&D capitalization, obviously there's some significant investment going into your platforms this year. I mean, how should we think about the level of R&D capitalization into 2022 and 2023 versus this year?
We're working through our budget at the moment. As Tony described, there will continue to be work on the componentization microservices, which is a prime part of the work in this year. There will continue to be some of that going into FY 2022. I don't anticipate that continuing into 2023 at that sort of rate. At this stage, the capitalization will continue as our program continues through into 2022, and then towards the end of 2022, it will be easing off to lower levels that we had in sort of 2018, 2019, sort of levels again.
Okay. Right. FY 2022, it's sort of towards the back end of that, it starts to ease off relative to this year, and then 2023 gets to more normalized levels.
Yes. That would be our current view.
Yeah. Okay.
Bit of a way out at this stage, but that's our view.
All right. Sure. In terms of the Aware Super contract win last half was clearly very significant and well done on getting that contract last half. Just interested in your views on the pipeline you see in that segment at the moment. Just noticing that Link have renewed a number of its key clients towards the end of last year. I was just interested in your views on whether you're still as optimistic on that opportunity, given some of those renewals, as you've been previously.
Yeah, I think we're very optimistic, certainly, in the discussions we're having with some of the other major funds. Certainly, Alta's been quite an eye-opener. I think it presents a tremendous middle road, if you like, between the fully outsourced Link type proposition. It's fully cloud deployed, lots of automation, standard operating model. Gives the organization far more control of the proposition, than an administered opportunity. Actually, importantly, we believe it's hugely competitive in terms of cost per policy. It's generating a huge amount of interest, and our sales team in Australia are certainly on the road. Well, talking to a lot of organizations about what it's all about. We do definitely see some follow-on opportunities of Alta in the Australian market.
Okay. Great. The last question I had was, there's obviously been a few press reports around Nucleus looking to re-platform its technology to FNZ. I understand you've signed a long-term agreement in any case with Nucleus in 2018. I was just interested in how we should think about the profile of that client for you guys over the next few years in terms of rolling off or just how you think that'll evolve over time, that project.
Yeah, an interesting question. I think, as you said, we've got a long-term contract with Nucleus. We have a brilliant relationship with them. They've been very committed to technology. We believe we've developed a superb system for them, and the team feel the same way. I don't see any short- or midterm impact, and that's the messaging we're getting. I think if they do anything with FNZ, it will focus on the James Hay book for the first few years. That's quite a messy book to try and migrate over to FNZ. I think they'll have their hands tied in that area for a while. I think let's just watch this space. I think this has got a way to play out. No short- to medium-term impact would be my view.
If I could add to that, Tony. We also renewed the contract with Nucleus in December together with arrangements to move further into the cloud with the Nucleus opportunity, so that contract restarted in December last year, as opposed to 2018.
Okay.
The acquirers announced, I think, in their announcement that they're following the acquisition, which if it gets regulatory approval, which will probably take place in about six months' time. They want to conduct a three-month review of technology options after that point anyway. As I say, let's just see how this plays out. We're not anticipating any impact in the next couple of years at least.
Thanks for the color there, guys. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Johnson with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Tony. Good morning, Martin. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay. Maybe just the first one from me on the transition to subscription-based contracts. I'm just trying to get a view of your sense around what the client feedback is on that, both existing and prospective. Does that mean that we've sort of seen peak license fees sort of our FY 2020 as we move forward?
I'll say the first bit, I think very positively received by most clients. I think everyone sees this as a trend, and as an enterprise software provider, as I'm sure you know, we're not unique in moving through this transition to SaaS and subscription-based models. Certainly where all clients in terms of new client opportunities are seeking that sort of model. Obviously, where we have contracts that have some time to run, it's really up to the client. All of our clients are asking for us to tell them about cloud deployments and how we're going to do it. In many cases, we're sitting down and planning that with them. On the second part, Martin, about the market licensing?
Yes, thanks, Tony. I think consumption-based is more of the concept that you should be thinking about. Not wanting to get overly technical, but under the IFRS 15, the accounting, if software is provided to a client as an individual instance for that client, regardless as to how they take that, whether they take that through the cloud or whether it's on-premise or through a third-party data center, there is still a component you have to recognize upfront, being the value of that license. As opposed to if it is a SaaS, where the client is a tenant in a multi-tenanted service where it's purely annual ongoing fees. At the moment, the only service that we offer as a multi-tenanted SaaS is our AdviceOS offering in Midwinter.
The wealth management solutions and the fund administration solutions, even when they're offered through the cloud, we offer as an individual instance for that client. There will continue to be a license element of those deals. The consumption or subscription-based is where clients are asking for a volume component. They're wanting to be able to flex what they pay with how much they use of the software, as opposed to the traditional enterprise software model, where there's essentially just a flat fee, sometimes with staged levels of increased usage. It is a direction that we're going, which the market is asking for, and we're able to deliver through, as Tony said, our Sonata has always been cloud deployable. We're able to come up with financial models that enable our clients to phase the way the costs are incurred on their behalf.
We're able to structure that so that it fits in with usage of our systems and solutions. That's coming together of both parties.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
Yeah. As to whether FY 2020 would be a peak. Potentially, yes. It really depends. As we grow, I think the takeaway is that as we grow, upfront licenses will become a smaller percentage of our total revenues. I think that's the way to look at it. They won't go away completely, but they'll become a smaller percentage.
Yeah. Okay, that's clear. Just on the reduced headcount, is that a sustainable reduction in the cost base? Or if you see pent-up demand come back, will you have to rightsize the cost base again to meet that demand?
Yes, we will. I think, obviously, through this exercise, we’ve created some efficiencies, operational efficiencies. I think, well, I know that with the pent-up demand and just the work that’s coming through from existing clients as we go through this half and into FY 2022, we will have to recruit again.
Okay, great. Then just on the cash flow, obviously, that receivable balance has maintained half on half. I do realize that does get lumpy. I can recall, I think there was about AUD 23 million-AUD 24 million benefit that got cash collection in July. I'm just trying to understand, should we expect the cash conversion to improve in the second half?
Martin, are you on mute?
Apologies. Yes. I think the cash collection in the second half will improve slightly.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Yep.
Okay. Just finally, obviously, we talked around COVID a lot. Maybe just some comments around Brexit. Obviously, there was a trade deal. My understanding is that there's still some question marks around the financial services arrangements. Would that also be a headwind for business decision-making in the U.K.?
To a degree, yes. I think if you look at the organizations overall, Brexit has added to the lack of confidence in financial services. The rules of equivalence and passporting still to be agreed. The EU and the U.K. governments are agreeing on a supposedly memorandum of understanding in March, which really just establishes a framework for cooperation. As I’ve said before, whilst it creates sentiment in the market, most of what we do is domestic in terms of wealth management and in the funds space where our big clients tend to be the big U.S. players, Citi, JP Morgan, Bank of New York, and so on. We’re providing those funds completely internationally. Right across Asia, Europe, and so on, in terms of what our products are supporting. I think Bravura’s exposure to any fallout from Brexit is limited.
The main impact, as I said, has just been some of those organizations, obviously, again, it's just hit their confidence levels over the last year. I think now we're through the main part of it. I'm detecting just an increase in confidence. There's been a lot in the press today about various markets, derivatives, and so on, moving to Europe, but that doesn't really impact us. Long answer to your question, no real impact.
Okay. Thanks, guys. That's helpful.
I think we're probably almost out of time now, aren't we, guys? How are we doing?
That is all the time we have for questions, unfortunately. I will just hand back to Mr. Klim for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, thanks, Zoe, and thank you all for your questions. If I can just conclude, despite a one-off impact of COVID-19 on Bravura's U.K. business, the drivers for our upgrades remain stronger than ever. In addition, we've evolved our strategy to put Bravura on the best possible footing, and I'm confident that Bravura will emerge stronger from the pandemic. I'd just like to thank you all for dialing in today, and obviously, thank you for continuing interest in our business.