Gentlemen, welcome to the 2025 AGM for Kelly Partners Group Holdings Limited. I am Brett Kelly, founder and CEO of KPG. It is now 9:02 A.M. Sydney time, and there being a quorum present, I declare the meeting open for business. I confirm that the meeting has been properly constituted. The company considers it appropriate to hold the 2025 AGM as a virtual meeting in a manner that is consistent with the Corporations Act 2001 and the Company's Constitution. In opening the 2025 AGM, I would like to introduce the board of Kelly Partners Group Holdings Limited and other individuals who are in attendance: Mr. Steven Rouvray, Non-Executive Director; Mr. Ryan McNamee, Non-Executive Director; Mr. Paul Kuchta, Executive Director; Ms. Ada Poon, Executive Director; Mr. Kenneth Ko, CFO; Mr. Jesshen Biller-Pillay, Partner of BDO; Mr. Ron Van Dryle, Director of BDO; and Mr. Tim Ammon, Partner of BDO.
There are no apologies for today's meeting. Being a virtual meeting, I would like to thank you for joining us via the Zoom Webinar Platform. You will see at the bottom of your screens that the Zoom webinar contains a Q&A function. The function can be used to submit questions or comments. When you submit a question or comment, please start with which resolution it relates to so that it can be addressed at the appropriate time. Questions which relate to the general business of the company will be collated and addressed after the close of the formal business of the meeting. The agenda for today's meeting will be as follows: Kenneth Ko and myself will provide a Corporate Presentation Update, after which we'll proceed to the formal matters to be considered at today's AGM, with opportunity for questions relating to the formal business.
There will be an opportunity for questions and discussions, including on the corporate presentation. Great to see everybody, and we have prepared a very quick update presentation that we are pleased to share with you this morning. The business continues to prosecute its mission, values, and vision, its strategy in a clear and settled structure with much vigor and energy, and I'm incredibly humbled by and pleased with our teams across all offices for their massive efforts in moving forward, clients, and making a positive impact in their communities. The business, again this year, has grown its revenue by 25%, as you can see on that front slide, which is consistent with an average revenue CAGR of approximately 30% over the 19-year history of the firm since 2006.
We're very pleased that the free cash flow per share and the return on invested capital continues to be very strong and in line with our long-standing approach to what we're doing. To slide two, we've shared with you for clarity why we exist, which is to help our people, private business owners, and the communities we work in be better off. Be better off means healthier, wealthier, and wiser. Our values: we want the best for others, we do what we say, and we work as one team looking for the best way to do what we do. In terms of vision, we want to be the first-choice employer for great talented people in the industry, and we want to be the first-choice firm that founders who built tremendous firms think of when they're thinking about the succession and the future of their business.
For our clients, we want to be their first-choice accountant to business owners, to private business owners in any market within which we operate. In terms of our strategy, we've shared consistently that in Australia we're looking to be a top 10 firm, and the 2024 results will be out soon enough, or 2025 results will be out soon enough in the Australian Financial Review that will indicate that we are close to or may well have achieved that target. We are not looking to pursue size for its own benefit or its own for its own sake, and we never have. What we are seeking to do is continue to grow the opportunities within the business for our best people, and it's that motivation that drives us to continue to grow the firm.
In terms of globally, we want to see our partner-owner driver system working across the U.S., U.K., and Ireland to deliver outcomes for young professionals and all professionals that want to be better off in those markets, and we are making some great progress towards that end as we speak. The advantages that the business really operates from is our group business model, our partner-owner driver system, and our central progress team. This is all a system that's been refined in a critical activity network over nearly 20 years, and I'm very pleased to see the growing strength and self-reinforcing in a flywheel sense of those advantages. Our structure is worth understanding. You know, any business may have a strategy to do things, but unless it's got a structure to capture those efforts, it really is not going to be as effective as it otherwise would be.
I'm often asked anywhere we go, you know, what's the difference between our partner-owner driver model and a traditional roll-up? I think we explain that very well in this slide, and I'll leave that to people to consider. In the middle of that is our progress pyramid, which is a way that we think through the core operations of an accounting group or accounting firm, local firm. In terms of locations, there are 35 businesses located across Australia, the United States, Philippines, Hong Kong, India, U.K., and Ireland. To think that our small four-person team started in June 2006 has been able to continue to grow in this way to a team of 700 people across these locations is gratifying, but we haven't finished yet, and we're not easily satisfied souls, so we're very excited about where we are and what lies ahead.
On the next slide, we're emphasizing that we're becoming a Leading Prtnership Platform. It's not hard to be a leader in an exercise other people aren't pursuing. It's one thing to be a platform. It's another thing to be a platform that seeks to develop partnerships. We think the lost art of relationship building and partnership building is really where we're strong, and we know that our partner-owner driver model is particularly unique in aligning the interests of all stakeholders right through our organization. In terms of team members, office locations, partnerships, our great place to work score, all of these good numbers, ultimately they're numbers that we should feel very pleased with, but what I'm most pleased with is the quality of our people that drive these results. Specifically for our shareholders today, there's now 25,000 active client groups. We're 95% tax and accounting.
That's recurring income streams with strong, you know, 4.7. We're targeting 5% organic growth. Our historic average growth rate is 4.7% and a very strong NPS. For shareholders, there's been 29.8% revenue growth per annum since 2007. Parent return on equity is 30.5%, a strong five-year average. Cash conversion is nearly 100% at 99.8%, and a more than 1,000% TSR since IPO. On page seven, for your reading pleasure, when you get a moment, it's KPG in 10 seconds, and I think, again, lots of good information. On slide eight, what we're emphasizing is that the business is a business system that has a flywheel and knows how to grow. It's doubled. The business has doubled six times in a row on average every three years, and it's not a straight line, although we've used a straight line there.
That's what's available in PowerPoint, but really the business grows, and then it consolidates, and it grows again, and it consolidates, but there's a rhythm to the growth of the business that can only exist in the presence of a Business System, and so it's exciting to see where that goes from here. On slide nine, we've shown the progress over five-year periods. We early on showed people a startup phase, a foundation, a build phase, and an accelerate. We're really at the end of that five years, come June 2025, of that acceleration phase, and we're pushing into this next five years. Now, we haven't shared this slide before on slide five, and I emphasize that these are estimates. They're projections.
They're not a forecast or guidance, but they're the logical continuation of the growth of the business over the last 19 years, what will be 20 years in June. If we can continue to operate within the system that we've developed and with the rhythm that our flywheel has been pushing forward at, then certainly what I look forward to seeing happen is a continuing compounding of that growth. This slide is really as much for our teams internally and all our stakeholders to understand that if we just continue to prosecute the argument in a gentle but vigorous, energetic way, that we believe that we can build a Global Organization for Australian private business owners that want to go somewhere that we aspire to.
To be the type of business that we want to be, we're looking to grow to this type of size, which, if it is size that is giving great opportunities to our best people, then it's a legitimate activity to pursue. So long as we continue to prosecute our clear mission and values, then I'm very excited about what I think Kelly Partners can become, which is Australia's Global Accounting Firm. The best place to compete is a place where no one else is playing. There is no other Australian firm that's been grown since inception that can lay claim nor seeks to lay claim to being a Global Business. We're populated in an industry in Australia with firms that carry the labels of foreign-owned firms.
As somebody born in Australia, passionate about Australia and its future, I'm excited that our teams are building really key and core infrastructure for the future of Australia, our kids, and their kids. Australia needs a Global Accounting Firm. It needs a Global B ank, and it needs a Global Law Firm. We can't do anything about those other two things, but we can play where we play, and that is to build a Global Australian Accounting Firm, and that's pretty exciting. Anywhere I look in the U.S., there are Australians leading all sorts of institutions and organizations across every industry. That's the same in all parts of the world, and so I'm excited to see Kelly Partners take its place amongst those people that are pursuing things that I think really are in the national interest.
On page 11, performance again, a bunch of numbers, Revenue Growth, EBITDA Growth, successful programmatic acquisition strategy. You'll hear me, I get embarrassed talking about our own good stuff, but try to just quietly keep banging away doing it, but you can see that we have a Programmatic Acquisition Strategy, and more than a strategy. We have nearly 20 years of consistently delivering based on our systematic approach in that space. Strong return on equity, strong return on invested capital, and really great cash conversion, which speaks to the discipline and energy of our people. In terms of performance, you know, it is a secret goal of mine to have a compounded annual gain in book value of 35% for 20 years. We're at 35.4% after 19 years, and I'm confident that we'll get to June next year at more than 35%.
The reason I think that's interesting is if you imagine that we, you know, that we over the next 20 years on a per annum basis, then the business will become a significant and institutionalized organization. Now, I have no intention of doing half as well. I'm hoping we can do even better, but you know, the efforts continue, and they continue in exactly the same ethos and practices they have since inception, which makes me confident that we can do okay over time. On the next slide, Kenny's whipped up the adjusted book value versus KPG, ASX, and ASX 300. This is kind of worth a read, but most importantly, you'll see the amount of shares we've bought back, the valuations at which we bought them back, and how well we've done from that exercise.
What we're trying to show here is that we've grown the business with AUD 18 million of external/internal capital. In US dollars, it's say $12 million. That's a microscopic amount of capital, and it shows a lot about the discipline with which that capital's been deployed and the effectiveness of our system to get a return on capital. On page 14, you'll note that since the IPO, where we had, I think, 45,400,000 shares, the total share count has decreased since the IPO, while we've grown revenue by four and a half times. That isn't always apparent to people, but I think is worth understanding. In terms of capital allocation, we share this slide to demonstrate that we understand what capital allocation is and how to do it and do it effectively, and we think that it's a scorecard for our shareholders to really understand and think through.
You'll see us act consistent with this understanding over the long term. What I would say is, you know, in 4B, where we've made an occasional large acquisition, and we've defined that as over $5 million in revenue, that number now is probably much larger than $5 million, and you will see us do more of these larger acquisitions, not because we seek to, but we are being approached by more and more larger firms, which is interesting in and of itself. On slide 16, just demonstrates this consistent pattern of programmatic acquisition. The value of those firms over that period of time, not only have we increased the number of deals we're doing on average each year, but the size of those deals is also dollar value of those deals is also increasing. On 17, 28% of our firms now qualify. That's seven out of our 25 firms.
are top 100 firms in their own right. The number 100 firm in Australia is AUD 7 million last year. Recently, we updated our annual brand study. We wanted to demonstrate the brand impact in Australia, how strong the brand is at this point. We are some 38 years on average younger than our top 20 competitive firms, but our brand is very materially stronger with our target client base, which is really helping the business in every sense. On slide 20, our return on invested capital remains very strong. On 21, we continue to make additional investments. Now, I am asked from time to time, "Hey, Brett, you know, how much more are you going to invest beyond the 9%?" We are really leaning into using our internal capital to grow the business.
It's the cheapest form of capital, and the returns on making additional acquisitions and growing the business are our highest source of return. We have more than AUD 300 million of potential partnership opportunities in our lead database currently, and we are doing everything we can to grow our team and to deploy our internal capital to take full advantage of the position that we find ourselves in. We're not squeamish on that at all. You've seen over time it's grown, and we've squeezed it back, but we are in a very, very large global market where we're very advantaged, and we're looking to take full advantage of our position at this time. I'm going to hand over now to our Chief Financial Officer, Kenneth Ko, who's been doing a great job running around Australia and the world, helping us move the business forward.
Over to you, Kenny, to share the financials.
Thanks, Brett. Just going through these slides, which were presented in the FY25 results presentation, I will really quickly just flick through them, and any shareholders can also refer to the results call for a more detailed version of these slides. These are the financial highlights for the FY25 results. As Brett indicated, revenue AUD 135 million for the year, increased 24.5% on the prior year. Our margins of the operating business at 28.3%, and our underlying NPATE for the parent at AUD 9.1 million, representing a 13% increase on the prior year. In terms of income statement, as I covered before, I just wanted to highlight there that our Australian businesses are generating operating EBITDA margins of 30.8%, and those other items I have covered previously.
This slide is very good in presenting the different EBITDA margins of the different cohorts in the established and growth and subscale accounting businesses, as well as our other complementary businesses and our global businesses, which we obviously just recently have partnered with those businesses in those global markets and are working with them to improve the margins of those businesses. In terms of our balance sheet, very strong, and again, our lockup is maintained at 58 days with a very low amount of WIP days of 7.7 as of 30 June 2025.
Yeah. Kenny, just on that, just to add some color, we're seeing in the US market competitor groups are geared on a net debt to underlying EBITDA at four and a half to six and a half times.
The business is very conservatively positioned from a balance sheet debt perspective, but we could do quite a lot more to dramatically grow the business from here. There is a lot of balance sheet firepower versus our peers.
Yeah, thanks, Brett. That's right. As Brett said, our net debt to underlying EBITDA as of 30 June was 1.42 times, which increased slightly on the prior year due to the debt we used to complete the in-year acquisitions. As Brett indicated, strong return on equity measures there for the group of 38.8% and 31.9% for the parent. That's that. The debt and equity liquidity slide shows, as of 30 June 2025, we still hold significant headroom in terms of our debt facilities as well as cash on balance sheet.
On the right there, there's a table showing the movement of the debt across the period, and primarily, again, relates to us taking debt out to complete the six acquisitions that we completed during the year. In terms of cash flow, cash flow increased by 23.3%. Our free cash flow increased 7.2% because of an increase in the scheduled debt reductions. As I previously indicated, we're paying debts down at a five-year period from drawdown, so the debt repayments increase as we put on debt, but we like the accelerated debt repayments and it keeps us disciplined in managing our cash flows. Our cash flow conversion for the period 2025 is 99.8% and consistent with our 85-100% conversion ratio.
The last slide here is the Parent and NCI Waterfall, just showing the proportion of the NCI and Parent Net Profit before tax and how it reconciles to the Parent Net Profit after tax in the financials. I'll leave everyone to look at that. That's it for me, Brett. You're on mute, Brett. I think it might be the resolution slides next.
Great. Thank you, Ken. I really like this photo. It was from our shareholder briefing in Omaha two years ago, I think now. It's a fun photo of fun times. Now, moving on to, I think I now hand over to Stephen Rouvray, our Non-Executive Director, to move to the formal business as set out in the notice of meeting.
Thanks, Brett. Good morning, everyone.
The notice of meeting was distributed to all registered members on the 24th of October 2025 and is to be taken as read. Voting on all resolutions will be conducted by poll. For the purposes of the poll, I appoint Nigel Bulling of Computer Share Investor Services for the company's share register, who have examined and prepared the summaries of proxy forms received to act as returning officer and to conduct the poll. Shareholders in attendance via Zoom that have already submitted a vote by proxy should note that your votes will already be counted towards the poll. You do not need to lodge another vote unless you wish to change your proxy instructions.
Shareholders in attendance that have not submitted a vote by proxy and wish to vote on the resolutions being put to the meeting today can do so by following the instructions provided in the letter to shareholders. On your screen, there are instructions for how to log into Computer Share Online Voting Portal. Please note that the online voting portal is now open and will remain open until the poll is declared closed. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, a vote icon will appear on the voting platform. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There is no need to press a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. Your votes must be submitted prior to the poll being closed for them to count.
All undirected proxies or open votes that have nominated the chair of the meeting as their proxy will be cast in favor of each resolution in the notice of Annual General Meeting. Your board strongly recommends that you vote in favor of all resolutions. Are there any questions on the voting process? Okay, I don't think there are any questions. Proxies have been inspected, and all those validly lodged have been accepted. We will now proceed to the resolutions set out in the notice of Annual General Meeting. The first item of business is to receive the company's annual financial report for the year ended 30 June 2025. The financial report and the reports of the directors and the auditors are now laid before the meeting. There will be no vote on this item and it is a discussion item only.
The company's auditor for the 2025 financial year is BDO, represented by Jesshen Biller-Pillay and Tim Ammon of BDO. They are present to take questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the Auditor's Report. I'll ask if there are any questions or comments on the financial report or reports of the directors and auditors, or any questions or comments on the management of the company, or any questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the auditor's report to be put to the auditor. I don't believe we have any questions in relation to those things at present, we will move to resolution one, the adoption of the remuneration report.
Resolution one is as follows: to consider, and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, resolution one adoption of the Remuneration Report as an Ordinary Resolution. That for the purposes of section 250(a)(2) of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, approval is given for the adoption of the Remuneration Report as contained in the Company's Annual Financial Report for the financial year ended 30 June 2025. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. I now put the motion to vote. Shareholders can vote via the Computer Share Online Portal. I don't think we have any questions in relation to that. I will just hand back to Brett to put resolution two to the meeting. Brett, could you put resolution two to the meeting, please?
Yes, I'm just trying to see it. There it is. To consider, and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that for the purposes of clause 13.3 of the Constitution and for all other purposes, Mr. Steven Rouvray be re-elected as the Director of the Company.
Brett, if you could just put the resolution to a vote then.
I've got the long script. The shareholders in attendance that have not submitted a vote by proxy, have you done all of that already, Steph?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now we're on, yeah, resolution two.
Not that clear on my script, my friends. But I've put that resolution two to a vote. Any questions via the Q&A?
I don't believe.
Any question on this resolution?
No.
Okay. We'll move on to resolution three then.
Resolution three is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without Amendment, Resolution Three, the Re-election of Mr. Paul Kuchta as Director as an Ordinary Resolution. For the purposes of that, for the purpose of clause 13.3 of the Constitution and for all other purposes, Mr. Paul Kuchta be Re-elected a director of the company. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via Q&A.
Steph, we do have a question from the shareholder on this resolution.
Okay. Yes, I did see that. Sorry, which? Oh, okay. Yes. It's the fourth question. Yes, I've got it now. It's from Steven Main. Thank you for disclosing the proxy position to the ASX along with the formal addresses. The only minor protest vote was 7.6% against the re-election of Paul Kuchta.
Do you know what caused this and why some shareholders voted against it? Is it an independence question? Did any of the proxy advisors issue a report ahead of this AGM, given that we are now capitalized at around AUD 400 million and are attracting more institutional investors to the register?
Brett, would you?
We have no insight into any of the voting. We have virtually no institutional shareholders, and we do not have any proxy advisors issuing a report. We find the voting, if you look back over the last seven years to various resolutions, completely mysterious. We would not be able to know who voted for what, let alone why. We do take the point that the business is growing and it may attract more institutional investors to the register, and they may advise us or others may advise us as to how they vote.
As for now, we have no insight into that matter. I also saw another question. Do we want to share that question around resolution four? I'll just come to that after the next resolution.
Right. We can come to that when we put the resolution three to a motion first. Perfect.
Right. Thanks, Brett. The proxies received to this resolution are listed on the screen. I now put this motion to vote. Shareholders can vote via the Computer Share Online Portal. Right. We'll move on to resolution four, which is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without amendment, resolution four, ratification of prior issue of placement shares under listing rule 7.4 as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders ratify the issue of 374,957 shares on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via Q&A. There is a question there, Brett, if you would like to address that. The shareholder asked a question. Why are you bothering to refresh the 15% placement capacity for such a small amount of shares? Please do not bring back similar resolutions in future years as it sends a message that you are planning a big selective placement when Pro Rata raisings are the fairest way to raise capital. What is our history in terms of doing selective placements, and do we always follow them up with a share purchase plan for retail investors to participate on the same terms? Got any thoughts on that, Ken?
We have not raised any capital since our IPO other than the most recent one we did in June, which was an internal capital raise with our partners for $4 million. We have refreshed that 15% placement capacity to allow us the maximum flexibility to pursue such raisings if we wish. It does not mean that we will or we will not. That is why we have refreshed the 15% placement capacity.
That makes sense. Just for clarity for that shareholder, if they are not aware of the history, we have raised $4 million since the IPO in 2017, and that was a placement to equity partners of firms that had joined us in the last sort of seven years that had not had a chance or could not get a decent sizing on market.
I think that any examination of the way that opportunities have been made available to all investors would make any shareholder very pleased with the conduct of the business.
Okay. Thanks, Brett. The proxies received on the resolution are shown on the screen. I now put this motion to a vote. Shareholders can vote via the Computer Share Online Portal. Now, that concludes the resolutions to be voted today. As noted, we are conducting a poll on all four resolutions using Computer Share's Online Voting Portal. Can all shareholders please now ensure that they have submitted their votes? I will allow another minute before the poll is closed. If you have any questions in relation to the submission of online votes, please send them through right now.
Shall we move to the Q&A, Steve?
Y eah, yeah. I don't believe that we have any questions.
I declare the poll closed and formally charge Nigel Bulling as a returning officer to count the votes for the poll. The results of the poll will be announced to the ASX and displayed on the Company's Website once they're available. We'll move to other business. Is there any other business that can lawfully be brought forward, bearing in mind that once we close the formal meeting, there'll be a chance for people to ask questions relating to the company and its business? If there's no further questions, I'd like to thank all shareholders for their attendance today. We'll now end the formal part of the meeting. I declare the formal meeting closed. As advised earlier, the results of the poll will be announced to the ASX once they are available. We will now ask if there are any other general questions that shareholders would like to ask.
If you wish to raise a question or make a comment, please submit your questions via the Q&A. Terrific. I think we have one question from a shareholder that has been lodged prior, Brett, and I'll address it to you. With the recent share price volatility, has the company brought back any shares, and if so, at what price?
The company hasn't bought back any shares recently. We are quite constrained currently with the capital that we have available to take on the opportunities to bring firms into the group that want to join us. Our first and best use of our very limited capital is to buy into firms and partner with them where that opportunity exists. We are, frankly, overwhelmed with opportunity at the moment, so we haven't undertaken any buybacks.
If we were to do that, these are the sorts of the company is trading at a share price today, that if we had excess capital, we would certainly be buying our shares back, and we would do that with a great deal of enthusiasm and at large scale. Unfortunately, we're not in the position to do both at the moment, and so that's an opportunity for someone else.
Thanks, Brett. There are some other questions in the Q&A there.
Yeah, I can take those. So there's a question. Best practice governance is to have an independent, non-executive chair. Have we given this consideration in order to improve our governance ratings and attract more institutional shareholders to the register? Also, because Brett Kelly is executive chair, it is not good practice for him to use the exemption from election for CEO's under Australian Law.
Has Brett ever been elected to this board, and will he agree to subject himself for election at the 2026 AGM? Have I ever been elected to this board? No. And will I subject myself to election in 2026 AGM? No. Best practice non-executive chair, it is true. At IPO, we were told we must have an independent non-executive chair, but we chose to ignore that, and I expect to continue to do that. Attract more institutional shareholders? We frankly think institutional shareholders have not taken up the opportunity that KPG presented to their clients. We've, I think, performed well and given an excellent return to our high-quality shareholders. Whether those shareholders are individuals, family offices, institutions, we're happy to provide an excellent return to whoever is interested in availing themselves of that.
There was another question from the same shareholder, which was, how many full-time equivalent staff do we currently have? Approximately 700. Is this likely to fall over the coming 12 months with the rapid rollout of AI? Definitely not. Over the last decade, there has been about a 50% decrease in the number of people studying accounting. It is very, very difficult to find high-quality people who have studied accounting and want to be accountants in public practice. The supply of accountants is very, very restricted and has been for many years now. We would hire every high-quality person we could, frankly, get our hands on. Are we rapidly rolling out AI? Yes, we are.
Right across the business, we have five people internally as software developers, and we are strongly and very energetically bringing technology to bear across every part of our client-facing businesses as well as our internal services operations. I would struggle to think that an organization of our nature could be more energetic in that pursuit while doing it in a way that's profitable. Another question here. Can you please speak to the rationale behind the shared services acquisition in terms of how it fits the core strategic intent and what benefits it offers incumbent business and whether this type of operation will continue to be an acquisition focus? The recent organization WorkPod that joined us in the Philippines. The Philippines is a great hub for high-quality, talented people that can work in Kelly Partners businesses globally as well as inclined businesses.
There's about 1,150 people within that business at the moment. We think that we can grow that number over the next five years to 10,000 people and that that business has tremendous opportunity to help us grow our core business at Kelly Partners and also to assist our clients. It is another thing that we can do for clients that others will struggle to do. In and of itself, the terms that we have invested at and the nature of that partnership on a 51-49 Partner and a Driver-style Model, we're very confident will add a huge amount of value to the group. On that earlier question about AI, it's still very difficult to get high-quality people.
Our view is that the future is a Global Workforce and whether they're located in the Philippines, the U.S., Australia, we're just looking for people that share our values and have the skills and energy to want to be part of what we're doing. We're very, very excited about that opportunity. Will it continue to be an acquisition focus? That organization was a client of the firm. We knew the principals and we knew the numbers and we knew the values and mentality of the people involved. When they brought that opportunity to us to ask us to get involved, we were very, very excited about that. The same shareholders asked, can you speak to the people, capital opportunities, deal flow, and broader resources that are required to reach $500 million of run rate by 2031?
We need to grow our team, our internal team, in particular in the M&A space. In the partnership space, we do need help in that area. We've recently appointed and looked to appoint another senior person in the people team, in the legal M&A space, and in the IT space around data and AI. Yes, it will take a growing services team to build that business. Today, we've got about 42 people in that team. If the business is three times the size, I'd expect we'll have three times as many people in the internal team. On capital, we are looking at the moment to close a large debt capital raising on terms that we think are very, very favorable to the group. We continue to pursue that with energy to try and bring that to a conclusion.
When it is finalized, we'll be able to share more details. We would be open to raising equity capital at the right price on the right terms, but not urgent and not critical. It is our view that along the same way that Constellation Capital or Constellation Software has used these debentures and bond-style long-term debt arrangements, that the nature of the businesses that we are partners in is best suited to long-term, long-dated debt facilities. I think we can attract the right debt capital at the right price to facilitate that. In terms of opportunities and deal flow, I mentioned earlier, there's more than AUD 300 million of revenue in the pipeline. We are not, we're moderately active in terms of building that deal flow.
We could do a lot more to be a lot more active, and we could close a lot more situations. If we thought that the organization itself could handle and integrate in an intelligent way more than 25% annual growth, we do not want to see years where we do dramatic levels of growth that we do not very professionally integrate. We are here for a long time, not a short time, and we want to see a compound situation for a very long time from here. I think the final part of that was the broader resources that are required. We all need to get more intelligent and more thoughtful and to know more about what we are doing, which we work on every day. Hopefully, by 2031, we will be a bit more of all of those things. With good health and continued blessing, we will be okay.
What is the impact of AI likely to be on KPG? How are you positioning yourself? We think AI is essentially, I think, as Steve Jobs described a computer as a bicycle for the mind. AI will be like a bicycle for accountants. It is fantastic technology that is helping us enormously. There are 82 things that an accountant should do as a minimum for a private business owning complex family group. Our study demonstrates that on average, an accountant in Sydney does about eight of those things. Accountants do about 10% of really what the client would want. That means that there is a huge amount of additional service that clients would take on happily if they were offered it. AI is going to allow us to do that. I am very excited about the technology and feel very good about how well-positioned we are.
Frankly, smaller businesses, I don't know how they would equip themselves or equip or acquit themselves with the AI situation. It takes real organization and your software stack and your team, your software stack, how your data goes in such that you can get it out, and then some real thinking about how to actually use these tools in an intelligent way, not to just make things faster, but to actually create value and an economically positive impact on the business. For firms doing under $10 million, I don't know how they're going to deal with it.
Certainly, what's coming through our deal pipeline is firms saying, "We think that looking at these types of issues with you together is going to be much easier and much better, and we're going to be much better resourced than if we tried to handle this ourselves." If they go and join very large mega organizations, they're worried they just get swamped and they're not going to create value. I feel like we're very nicely placed to deal with AI in the context of the firms that we're experts in, firms $2 million-$10 million, increasingly $5 million-$15 million. I think ultimately it's going to push a lot of people towards the group, which is cool. A lot of talk about group EBITDA being 30%, but the relevant EBITDA for the shareholder group is closer to 7% if business achieves a 5% shareholder profit of 8%.
Partnerships are over 51. Why the large discrepancy? Am I missing something? Yes, Benjamin, you probably are. If you email our CFO, Kenneth Ko, he'll give you a detailed explanation of what you're missing and can take you through those numbers. Kenny, if you've got a screen that you want to share.
I do.
Do you want to take this shareholder? I can see his name here.
Yes. In this question. Yeah, very quickly. We published these quality shareholders letters on our kellypartnersgroup.com.au website. Approximately a year and a half ago, we published quality shareholder letter number 13, how we think about earnings.
Now, within this shareholder letter, you will see the reconciliation essentially between for a dollar of earnings, how that flows through our operating business into the parent entity and reconciles to that percentage of revenue that you're looking for. I recommend you to have a look at this shareholder letter, which will give you an explanation on that question you asked.
Beautiful. Thank you, Kenny. Do we have share performance based on what our consolidation has for their employees and management? The answer is no, but we will do something about that. Also, are you planning on increasing the size of your acquisitions team apart from just you and Ken? The answer to that is yes.
We are planning to, in a significant way, grow the team in that space to take the load off Kenny and I and to dramatically increase the amount of work that we can do with the opportunities that are in that pipeline to try and better understand those opportunities and more swiftly bring them into the group. Can you please speak to the geographic spread of acquisition opportunities, what this means for acquired investment into acquisition, integration, shared services, resources on a global basis? Yes, we are most advantaged in Australia and will continue to focus on opportunities in Australia. That said, there are obviously huge opportunities in the U.S. We now have more than 8% of McDonald's franchised stores as clients in our US firms. In fact, we've got more McDonald's stores than exist in Australia, which is really exciting.
We're now at a core size in the U.S. where the business has its own flywheel and can start to grow on itself and compound. We're larger in the U.S. today than we were when we IPO the business in 2017. That said, we're more advantaged in Australia than we are in the U.S. We're into Ireland and we're seeking to be in the U.K. We own 51% of Kudos Network, which has 60 firms in 48 countries. We believe we're the preferred partner for many of those firms, one of which I met with this morning again. We are just working through those 60 firms to see who wants to become a Kelly Partners firm. As I've always said, I don't really care where a firm is located. If they share our values and we believe we can really help them, then I'm excited about that.
We are working with our Australian team and our US services team to do the integration and shared services on a global basis. We'll continue to invest our 9% a little bit more to do that. We do not expect that that's too burdensome. We're building it up in those geographies in the way that we built up Australia, which is kind of a step at a time. Another question there. Is there a concentration risk on McDonald's? No, there's a narrow market entry strategy, which was to partner with firms where we had real expertise and they did too that was shared. McDonald's is part of that. If McDonald's struggles to do well, McDonald's is a pretty good business. It's a risk I'm prepared to take at this point.
Again, the business will grow and that concentration, like it has in Australia at different times where we've had a concentration, will be mitigated over time. Just looking at the questions to see if there are any more. Is the US listing still a priority? Under US securities law, we can't say much about any intention or otherwise that we may have to list on a US exchange, be that New York or NASDAQ, or in fact in Canada. It remains a priority to maximize the long-term value per share of our shareholders. If we think that a listing in a different market would assist that priority and that clear objective, then we'll definitely pursue that. Like everything we do, we'll pursue it with a lot of gusto and effort, having done the requisite diligence.
We continue to consider everything that would advantage shareholders on a per-share value for the long term every day. That's certainly one of those things that has been and continues to be considered. How are we in control for potential dilution of discipline when we have dedicated M&A staff along with the potential for more difficult integration as lower terms? Yeah, great question, Brendan. We're not intending to allow M&A to be sort of distributed to numerous people to do deals that make no sense. If you look at the growth curve that we think is achievable and the historic growth rate of the group, it implies a number of deals that we can certainly manage. If we wanted to grow 25% a year, 5% organic, 20% by acquisition on $150 million, that's $30 million. 20% of that's $30 million. At $5 million, the deal at 6.
Six deals, a little bit less, it's ten deals. These are not numbers that, as a CEO and as a CFO, we can't top up and ensure that all of the elements that are critical to the successful application of our partner under driver model are present to maximize the chance of success. There shouldn't be anyone sitting there thinking, "We're going to be doing 100 deals a year next year and we're going to lose control and we just won't be able to understand what we're doing." To prosecute the sort of trajectory that we hope to deliver is not, it's not a huge number. If we had $400 million of revenue today and we wanted to grow 20% by acquisition, it'd be $80 million. And at $5 million a deal, it'd be sixteen deals.
If it was a little bit less, it might be 20 deals. I might have lost my hair and I might be getting older, but I can still manage to convince myself to get excited enough about what we're doing to look carefully at whether on 20 deals, the things that are essential are present. I would not be concerned about that at all. Now, if deals get larger and materially larger, and we are being shown deals that are materially larger, some gigantic and some just a bit larger, so AUD 10 million, AUD 15 million, AUD 20 million, yes, they are not going to be done five steps removed from me or Ken or our board or anyone else that is senior and significant in the business that has for a long time looked at these deals.
While I will publicly mention that Ken and I work on these things, there's a bunch of our senior people, including our board and our senior partners, who've got involved and assisted in these things for many years. I am confident that we've got the discipline and the smarts within the group to do a good job of what we've been doing and some larger deals.
Thank you, Brett and Kenny and board. Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Cheers. Thank you.
Now, we might have exhausted everyone by droning on about our wonderful adventure at Kelly Partners. To all our quality shareholders, thank you for your long-term partnering in the business. We are excited to partner with our people, clients, communities, and shareholders. We are very excited to deliver day in and day out for all of you.
I want to thank our team, our clients, our board, and our shareholders for another tremendous year. I've frankly never been more excited about the business, more pleased with the development of our people, and more excited about the future. Thank you. As I love to say, have a great day. I think in more formal speak, we should conclude the question part. Thank you for no further questions. I'd like to thank all shareholders and happy Christmas. Thanks again.
Thank you, board. Thank you, Kenny. Thank you, Lindsley.
A good day was had by all. Thanks, Ada. Thanks, Ryan. Thanks.