Thank you, Emma, and welcome everyone to MFG 's 2025 full-year results briefing. It's a privilege to present my first full-year results to you as CEO and to share how we have built on our momentum over the past year, delivering on our strategy of providing diversified sources of revenue for our shareholders. With our refreshed corporate brand announced last week, I'm delighted that we're presenting to you today with updated MFG branding, honoring our history while better positioning ourselves for the future. I'll expand more on this shortly. We finished FY2025 with growth across most of our key metrics. These results show a business that's more diversified and therefore more resilient and well-positioned for the future. I'd like to emphasize a few key points.
Operating profit rose 5.4% to $159.7 million, with earnings contribution from our investment management business and our strategic partners, underpinned by disciplined cost management. FY2025 operating profit also benefited from an increase in distributions from our fund investments portfolio. In our investment management business, assets under management increased 8.2% to $39.6 billion, supported by strong double-digit investment returns across strategies. However, revenue was down 12% year-on-year, a result primarily due to reduction in average management fees across our AUM . Income from our strategic partners more than tripled to $31.1 million, representing 20% of total FY2025 operating profit. We're encouraged by our FY2025 performance and the strong position this creates as we continue executing our strategy. Dean will take you through the financial results in further detail shortly. As you can see from the previous slide, FY2025 is a year of building on stability and strategic renewal.
This result is a validation of our strategy to partner with high-quality, complementary businesses such as Barrenjoey and Vinva, providing diversification and support to our strong investment management earnings base. We saw improving investment performance for each of the three MFG investment teams delivered absolute returns in excess of 10%, with particularly pleasing improvements in global asset infrastructure in the second half of the year. For our strategic partners, there was a lot of focus on getting the building blocks in place to enable us in our role as distributor for Vinva, since announcing our strategic partnership in August, with funds launched for the retail market in Australia and focused institutional engagement through our global sales team. We also made significant operational strides.
Internally, we strengthened our executive team with experienced leaders who bring deep industry expertise and global perspectives, and we continued to embed a high-performance culture. The engagement of our people is critical to our success, and it was pleasing to see our employee engagement lift by 12 points compared with FY2024. This combination of financial strength, improved investment performance, extended capabilities, a high-quality team, and organizational momentum provides a strong platform from which to build a trusted financial group, one that seeks to deliver consistently for clients, adapts to changing markets, and pursues long-term value creation for shareholders. Today, MFG is an innovative financial services group headquartered in Australia and operating across key select markets. We are highly selective and focused, anchored by two core pillars: investment management and specialist financial services.
Last week, we announced the refresh of our brand to support that for MFG at the group level and introducing Magellan Investment Partners as our outward-facing distribution brand. This brand evolution for MFG provides clarity for clients, partners, and shareholders, and Magellan Investment Partners allows us to showcase the investment solutions we deliver to our clients under a distinct identity. A big part of that delivery comes from the institutional-grade platform that supports MFG and remains one of our competitive strengths. It's an asset we've been building over the past 18 years, unique in the market, critical to our business, and a key foundation for our future growth.
We will continue to leverage and invest in it for the benefit of both our clients and shareholders. With MFG 's investment teams, Magellan Global Equities, Magellan Global Listed Infrastructure and Airlie, and our strategic partners Vinva, Barrenjoey, and FinClear, we have a stable of complementary capabilities and strengthened earnings diversity. I will now hand over to Dean McGuire to walk us through the FY2025 financial results.
Thanks, Sophia, and good morning, everyone. Since commencing as CFO in March, I've focused primarily on an assessment of the financial outlook for the business and a review of the capital management strategy. I'm encouraged by the opportunity set I see for the business and believe we have the right ingredients in place to deliver for our stakeholders. The MFG business is highly cash-generative, operating at scale, has a strong balance sheet, and a disciplined approach to expense management. The growth in earnings from our strategic partnerships continues to be a driver of returns for the business and adds diversity and synergy to our core investment management capabilities. Our approach to capital management is based around utilizing our capital and distributing our profits in a manner which generates long-term value for shareholders. I'll talk to our capital management and dividend approach later in the presentation.
FY2025 delivered solid financial results with operating profit of 159 points. MFG has declared a fully franked final ordinary dividend of $0.259 per share, inclusive of a performance fee dividend, reflecting a payout ratio of 95% of investment management operating profit. MFG has also declared a fully franked special dividend of $0.21 per share, which reflects the increase in our non-investment management earnings alongside our strong capital position. The special dividend brings total dividends to $0.733 per share for the year, being 80% of operating profit. Over the year, our balance sheet position remains strong with over $560 million in liquid capital at 30th June, providing strategic optionality for the group. Turning now to slide nine, which shows more detail on the financial result for the year.
The 5.4% growth in operating profit was driven by strong growth from our strategic partners and an increase in distributions from our fund investments, partially offset by revenue reductions in our investment management business. On a per share basis, operating profit is up 7.3%, inclusive of the accretive impact of the buyback throughout the year. Statutory profit is down 31% on the prior period, reflecting lower mark-to-market gains on investments and the one-off impact of the Magellan Global Fund options in the prior year. Moving now to slide 10, our investment management result. Management fees were down 8.6% as a result of a 13% reduction in the average fee rate, partially offset by a 4% increase in average assets under management. Base management fees averaged 61 basis points over the year, down 9 basis points on FY2024.
The reduction in the level of base management fees is a consequence of compositional changes in our AUM, with outflows in higher margin products, including the impact of redemptions following the closed class conversion in Magellan Global Fund earlier in the period. Our average run rate management fee at 30th June is 58 basis points. Crystallized performance fees were $11.1 million for the year, driven by the strong performance of our infrastructure strategy in the second half. As at 30th June, we now offer four funds managed by Vinva. Sub-advisory fees we pay to Vinva as part of our strategic partnership for managing those funds are now separately disclosed in the segment report, and total $1.6 million for the period. Turning now to slide 11 on our partnerships and fund investments result.
Our strategic partnerships delivered exceptional growth in FY2025, with invested capital doubling and profits tripling, contributing 20% of group operating profit. This result follows the $139 million investment we made in Vinva in August 2024. Our partnerships produced an average return on capital of 10% over the year, up 4% on FY2024, driven by a strong Barrenjoey result showing a 14% return on invested capital. Barrenjoey paid a $4 million dividend in the first half, and we expect to receive dividends from both Barrenjoey and Vinva over the coming months in relation to their FY2025 profits. Vinva contributed to our annual result for the first time with 11 months of earnings since investment, with financial results materially ahead of our base case, reinforcing the strategic fit and earnings potential of the partnership.
Our fund investments portfolio is valued at $395 million at 30th June and produced a 15% return over the year. Compared to the prior period, cash distributions received from the investment portfolio grew substantially. This is a result of higher taxable income in the underlying funds, which resulted in higher cash distributions to investors. This line will continue to be volatile as taxable income is driven by a number of factors, most notably realized capital gains on portfolio turnover. Moving to slide 12. During the second half, we concluded our capital management and dividend policy review. In relation to the dividend policy, for FY2026 onwards, we have broadened the earnings base on which we intend to pay dividends to include the operating profit of the entire group. Our intention is to pay out at least 80% of group operating profit each year.
This policy reflects the growth in earnings from our strategic partners and the current level of liquid capital available on the balance sheet. In relation to our capital management position, we view the on-market buyback as the most efficient mechanism to return capital to shareholders where appropriate, with 5.9 million shares remaining under our current buyback program. Over FY2024, we returned $74 million of capital via the on-market buyback, and we have the financial capacity to continue to repurchase our shares, subject to factors including the share price, market conditions, and other investment opportunities. We continue to carefully assess other uses of capital via strategic partnership opportunities to grow and diversify the business, consistent with our strategy and with the aim of creating long-term shareholder value. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Sophia.
Thank you, Dean. Turning now to our investment management business. Total assets under management grew 8.2% to $39.6 billion over the year, with strong absolute performance across all strategies and inflows into Australian equity and systematic equity strategies. In the case of funds managed by our strategic partner Vinva, we launched three systematic equity funds in the first three months following the announcement of our partnership and transitioned a fourth fund to MFG in April. These four funds amount to the $1.7 billion in global and Australian systematic equities shown on the slide. Net flows have continued to stabilize in our retail book, which accounted for 42% of total AUM at 30th June, and we remain well-diversified by client type and client location. While early in the period, AUM has continued to grow into FY2026, as I'll expand on in the following slide.
Looking at our AUM trajectory by asset class in more detail, Airlie continues to attract strong support from advisors and institutions. Momentum remains strong through FY2025, with approximately $2 billion in net flows. The Airlie Australian Share Fund was ranked number one by annual net flows for active Australian equity funds for the first 12 months to March 2025, according to NMG, and Airlie secured the largest mandate win across all MFG strategies during the year, a $900 million allocation from a new institutional client. We are already seeing positive momentum in FY2026, including a $700 million top-up from an existing client in July. In global listed infrastructure, there's been continued focus on investment performance, and pleasingly, we saw a meaningful turnaround in the second half. We've also seen improved client sentiment, with recognition of the asset class's resilience and income potential, particularly in more volatile times.
The transition of the team's leadership in the second half of FY2025 was well received by clients, with no institutional client loss as a result of the changes. There were institutional flows in July, with $200 million in top-ups from existing clients, and momentum has continued in August with some small mandate wins in the U.S. and Japan. In global equities, we experienced net outflows over the year, including the $1.2 billion impact of redemptions following the MFG closed class conversion. This was partly offset by strong investment performance, which continues to meet or exceed our long-term objectives. Our focus in global equities remains on reducing outflows in the Magellan Global Fund and capturing new opportunities in the Magellan Global Opportunities Fund, where performance has been excellent. With systematic equities, we are still at the start of our journey with Vinva.
However, the early momentum, client engagement, and investment team performance are very encouraging. Net inflows have steadily grown since the fund transition and will continue into FY2026, with Vinva Global Alpha Extension ranked 10th in global equity funds, active and passive, by annual net flows for the 12 months to March 2025, according to NMG. With the strongest growth being generated in our lower margin strategies, Australian equities, and systematic equities, this naturally affected our average management fee rate over the year. Investment performance remains a key focus for all of our MFG teams. Our focus remains on long-term performance, and in this respect, each key fund has continued to outperform its benchmarks since inception. That said, we know that over shorter timeframes, our investment performance has not been where it needs to be.
While too early to claim a turnaround, we've been encouraged by the improving investment performance, and we will seek to continue this throughout FY2026. We've made senior hires in each of the Magellan Global Equities and Magellan Global Listed Infrastructure teams who commenced during the year, and new hires for Airlie were announced earlier this month. We are committed to resourcing our investment teams to enable them to deliver the results for our clients, and we are delighted with the high caliber of individuals that have joined us, a testament to the strength of the business and our existing team. I've said before that our distribution platform is a real competitive strength for MFG, and it's worth highlighting just how important that is in today's market. With the changes in the environment in which we operate, having great investment teams is only part of the equation.
You also need the reach, relationships, and capability to bring those strategies to the right clients in the right way. MFG's distribution team, which now operates in the market as Magellan Investment Partners, is deep and experienced, with the majority of the team focused on the Australian retail and wholesale markets, where we have longstanding advisor, research, consultant, broker, and client relationships. Over the past year, we've extended that capability globally in selective ways, focusing our business in North America and more recently adding a senior hire in the U.K. to cover the U.K. and EMEA. We're also increasing our focus in Asia from our Australian-based team. These markets are a longer-term opportunity for us, a three to five-year play. That said, the combination of our global reach and our proven domestic expertise gives us a real edge.
We are already seeing a momentum build given the stability of the business and expanded capability set. Evidence of this are the U.S. flows I mentioned earlier and the early but strong meetings we are having with prospects for Vinva and MFG 's global and global infrastructure strategies. We will continue to invest in this platform in pursuing our aim of delivering better outcomes for clients and shareholders. I'll turn now to our strategic partnerships, whose combined earnings grew across the year to make up 20% of operating profit. Barrenjoey has grown from inception to a high-performing specialist financial services firm in just five years. In FY2025, Barrenjoey continued to achieve growth across each business line, and impact rose 73%, with revenue up 24%.
Fixed income was a standout in Barrenjoey's result, supported by its expanding international presence and, in particular, the opening of the Abu Dhabi Global Market office. MFG received its maiden dividend during the year, and we are pleased to remain a supportive strategic partner to Barrenjoey. Vinva has also had a strong year, with investment performance above benchmarks in each strategy they manage and growth across key business metrics. With a strategic partnership now just one year old, it's still early days. However, we continue to see this as an outstanding business with plenty of opportunity, particularly given its scalability. There have been some early proof points for our distribution partnership, including the $985 million mandate, which was a result of both Vinva's exceptional reputation and investment returns and our distribution strength.
We've only just started on what will be a multi-year build, and we are pleased to report that the strategic partnership is already delivering mutual benefits. Turning to FinClear, revenue grew 8% this year, and the business continued to strengthen its offering. Two notable developments were the launch of the multi-currency cash hub, allowing clients to hold and transact in multiple currencies, and the introduction of FCX, a regulated marketplace for private company equity transactions, the first of its kind in Australia. These initiatives reflect FinClear's focus on enhancing market infrastructure and broadening its service set, and we see real potential for these new business lines to contribute to FinClear's long-term growth. As discussed in February, when we think about what makes MFG a good strategic partner, it comes down to a few core principles.
We're deliberate about where and how we invest, targeting high quality, scalable businesses with strong leadership, proven capabilities, and both strategic and cultural alignment. We focus on fewer, deeper partnerships, providing capital, access to other elements of our institutional-grade platform as required, including distribution, and importantly, on a long-term basis, always with a clear view of how both parties can benefit from the alignment. It is critical that we also respect the autonomy of the business in which we invest. We preserve their ability to operate independently while finding ways to create mutual benefit. This model means we can support our partners to grow without deleting what makes them successful in the first place, and in doing so, we strengthen our business. FY2025 has been a year of progress strategically and operationally.
Our renewed strategy is built around five clear priorities, and as we've covered already in this presentation, in FY2025, we made meaningful progress on each of them. One point I'd like to focus on is enabling a high-performance culture. We want an environment that people want to join and stay, and during the year, that's meant adopting performance-focused remuneration structures and having greater alignment with our clients and shareholders through those structures. We are also continuing to invest in resources to support all our people, including access to AI tools to enhance productivity and innovation. We intend to do more on this in FY2026. Our employee engagement score improved significantly, though we know there is more to do, and embedding the right culture remains a key priority for me and the executive team.
As we look to the coming year, delivering consistently against these same five strategic priorities remains the focus for the group. We will leverage our distribution strength to deepen client relationships and capture new opportunities. Maintaining our focus on improving long-term investment performance for our MFG strategies is critical, and this means maintaining discipline in our investment process and supporting our teams. Expanding client solutions, both organically and through our strategic partners, will provide a broader range of high-quality, relevant strategies to meet evolving client needs.
During FY2025, we reviewed and rationalized our global equities product set to meet those evolving needs, and last week, we concluded this review and announced the transition of the high conviction strategy to the global opportunity strategy, seeking to broaden client access to this high-performing strategy and reducing fees for the relevant funds, providing what we believe to be a very compelling proposition for new and existing clients. We will continue to pursue selective growth opportunities, staying true to our model of targeted, high-quality partnerships. At the heart of everything we do are our people, and with the right culture, leadership, and enablement, we're well positioned to continue delivering growth for our shareholders. Before I hand over to Emma, I'd like to personally recognize the exceptional contribution from all of our teams to delivering these results. Thank you. I'm excited about what we can achieve together in FY2026 and beyond.
Thank you, Sophia and Dean. We'll now open the floor to questions. There have been no pre-term questions, so we'll turn first to the teleconference line. Operator, Chris, over to you.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask questions, please press star, one on your telephone and wait for your names to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star, two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your headset before asking your question. We will now call on the room to assemble and allow up. The first question comes from Elizabeth O'Leary with Macquarie. Please proceed.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. I was just the first one just around our infrastructure fund, and I recognize that you guys have seen a decent improvement on a relative basis over the last six months. If you could give us an update on how your institutional clients are feeling now that Gerard's officially left just last month, and also how you're feeling around upcoming fund rating reviews. I think there's a few coming in the next month or so, so just an update that would be great. Thank you.
Thanks, Liz. I'm happy to answer that question. As I said in the presentation, we've seen no institutional client outflows in our infrastructure business as a result of Gerard's departure. As we said, our institutional clients were probably more prepared for this than the market was given what we would call the textbook succession plan that was put into place with Gerard and the team. Ben and Offer have well stepped into those shoes. Our clients have responded very positively to that. I think the discussions with our researchers are also supportive of that, and as you say, we'll see that hopefully come through in the research reports that will be issued later in this year.
Flows have been positive, particularly in the first few weeks of FY2026, which I hope we can attribute to the stability in the team, the really exceptional leadership that Ben and Offer have shown through this period, as well as with people having weakening views on medium-term growth outlook. Infrastructure, listed infrastructure particularly, becomes a strong asset class, and we're seeing increased client attention to the asset class. We are optimistic about the future for that team.
Okay, awesome. Just around Barrenjoey, I know that you guys don't provide guidance, but obviously we've seen year-on-year improvements for a number of years now. Would you characterize that business as close to maturity or mature, or do you still see the next one, two, three years still seeing some pretty strong growth from a profit perspective?
Thank you. Look, Barrenjoey's had a fantastic year. Profits up 70% year-on-year, a strong contribution to our result, as you've seen today. I think given they're five years into the journey, I would certainly not expect that they're at a mature state. They're just building into that. They're seeing growth across multiple business lines, and again, we're delighted to continue to work with them and, from an MFG perspective, look at more ways to work for them, work with them to support their future growth.
Okay, thank you. If I could just speak one more in just around net flows, what have you seen? I think you made a couple of comments through the presentation, but you know for the first seven weeks, is it much of the same as what we saw in the final few months of full year 2025, or has there been material changes, either positive or negative?
I would say no material changes. Just what it feels like, and again, it's obviously very, very early in FY2026, is that we had some good momentum building through FY2025, and we're seeing that continue through FY2026. Again, it's very early in the year. As we know, volatile times in markets. Our team continues from an investment perspective and a distribution perspective to work on returns and relationships with our clients. But yeah.
Okay, thank you so much.
Again, if you do have an audio question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. At this time, there are no further audio questions, and I would like to turn the conference back over to Emma to address webcast questions.
Thank you, Chris. The first question that we have coming through the webcast relates to our margins. It's been noted that we had a 58 bps base fee exit rate. The question is, what is the impact to the base fee with the transition to High Conviction Trust and the impact from the 150 bps- 75 bps that we're seeing with the changes there?
Thank you for the question. The exit rate is 58 bps. That's correct. The transition of the fee rate on High Conviction will take effect from September, but the AUM is only about $600 million. Against a book of $40 billion, the impact will be relatively small, we expect.
Our next question online relates to our assets under management. The question is, Magellan's funds under management have been falling for several years, with FY2025 showing an uptick. Do you see this to start a sustained stabilisation, or is it further pressure, including from super fund internalisation and geopolitical instability inevitable?
Thanks, Emma. Look, Magellan, as we know, have had some more challenging years, but it's been really pleasing to see growth for the last couple of years in our assets under management. FY2025 did show an uptick, as you can see through the numbers. We've got some of our investment teams in growth. Some of them continue to be in slight outflow, and it was well supported by investment performance overall. I think, from a client perspective, we can see the stabilisation message coming through.
It's really pleasing to actually hear the stabilisation message being played back to us by clients, and frankly, some of our institutional clients wanting to spend less time on the corporate side and cut straight through into the investment teams and what our portfolio managers are doing and thinking of markets, which in my experience is always a really good sign that clients are wanting to talk to us about what we want to talk about as well. We are continuing to see that stability come through. There continues to be super fund internalisation, as you say, and political instability. What we do see is, so long as we can continue to provide alpha in a very good, strong position for our clients, we'll continue to see client opportunities and partnerships where we can with key clients.
Operator, we might just jump back onto the teleconference line. I believe there's been another question come through on the phone lines.
Yes, that is correct. The next audio question is from Siddharth Paramaswaran with JP Morgan. Please proceed.
Good morning. A couple of questions, if I can, please. One is just some of the revenue margins, the fee margins on the fund management business. I just wanted to check whether there had been any actual changes in any of the fees. I know you mentioned that MIX was a big contributor, but I just wanted to make sure or check if there had been any actual fee reductions made.
Thanks for the question. There's been no change in the advertised rates of the products. There has been a slight increase in rebates throughout the year, predominantly the reduction in fee rates is compositional, as we mentioned. There is a small move from rebates, about one basis point.
Okay, thank you. One basis point half on half or over the year?
T he whole year.
Okay, thank you. Just the second question that I have is just around Vinva. I was just keen to get an understanding of the profit contribution and how much of it was actually made from different performance fees. I suppose just to understand if there's any component of that contribution which is perhaps not sustainable.
The profit from Vinva specifically, we don't call out in our materials. What I will say is we are very pleased with the first year of financial performance against our expectations. Vinva's revenue does have a mix of both base and performance fees, which will have some volatility over time. We're not in a position to disclose at this point the specific composition of that, but we do expect Vinva to continue to grow as a business. Its performance has been very strong, and we are positive on the outlook there.
Okay, great. Okay. Just one final question. In terms of strategy, I think we've had different views from you on how you're going to use your surplus capital. I think, maybe six months ago, there was an expectation that there'd be a lot more investment in new associates, and it seems like there's been a focus, perhaps a shift towards capital management. I'm just keen to get a flavor on whether you've come to a view on exactly what you're going to do with the capital and why.
Sure. Strategically, the view hasn't changed in the sense that we are still looking at different opportunities for deployment of that capital into further strategic partnerships. What we do say, though, is we are conscious of the need to balance that with the returns of shareholders, and with the buyback still active, we'll continue to look at that as a viable avenue for utilization of that capital. Strategically and overall, the view hasn't changed, and we do continue to want to grow the strategic partnerships component of the business.
Even just for the opportunities that are not there?
If I can jump in, we continue to consider a range of opportunities. I think it's balancing, yes, the strategic imperative that we do want to add new specialist financial services to our business with the power around the businesses that we're seeking and the partnerships we want to form. At this point in time, we have not made further acquisitions post-Vinva, but we definitely are having a number of live discussions.
Okay, great. Thank you.
At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Emma .
Thank you, Chris. Staying on Vinva, we've had another question come through on the web questions, which is of the $1.7 billion in your AUM that is managed by Vinva, what is that other percentage of Vinva's total AUM?
Rather than do the percentage, I guess I can confirm that, you know, Vinva's AUM is currently around $29 billion. That's obviously outside of our relationship with them through funds that we have issued to the market in this last year. Yes, our current AUM is $1.7 billion. Vinva's standalone AUM as a business, as I said, is $29 billion.
Thank you. Another question on Vinva. Can you explain a bit more on how Vinva is accounted for in the fee stream? Does it contribute to gross-based fees of the $234.6?
Thank you. Yes, it does contribute to that gross fee stream. We earn those fees at a gross level on those funds, and then we pay a sub-advisory fee to Vinva as part of the net result.
We've had another question through on the expected growth trajectory of the affiliates.
Sure. Thank you for the question. Look, Barrenjoey continues to perform strongly. As we said already, you know, they're just five years into their business. Profits for this year are up 70% year on year. Its contribution to earnings this year has been very positive from an MFG perspective. We do expect continued growth over the next few years. From the Vinva team, they've had an exceptional year delivering outstanding results, both performance and financially. As you can see in the uplift in the carrying value of our investment, and again, as we can, you know, we're early in our relationship with Vinva, just one year in, we do see continued growth in that partnership.
The next question relates to our fund investments. You have $411 million invested in your funds, including $200 million in the global fund. What are the long-term plans for this investment?
Thank you. That's correct. The liquid capital is primarily made up of our investments in those funds. In the medium term, we do expect to redeploy the majority of that capital into strategic partnerships, and that's our strategic goal. We're very pleased over the year to have received a return of 15% on that investment, so it continues to add value to the group in the short term. Over the long term, the plan will be to redeploy those investments.
Next question is, is the Barrenjoey investment considered core, or would you consider divesting this if an appropriate offer was received?
Thank you for the question. We do consider Barrenjoey a core part of our MFG diversified sources of growth. We're delighted to be a 36% investor and have them as a strategic partner today.
There's a question on the cost guidance from here and how we should think about growth from this point, given that this year there's no cost guidance being provided.
Thank you. That's correct. We haven't provided specific dollar cost guidance this period. What I can say is we expect to continue to be very disciplined on the cost side, and broadly, I would expect our costs to grow at or about the level of inflation.
The final question that we have through at this point in time is on the cost outlook, which is, can you provide some more information on the cost outlook given some of the investments in distribution?
We have continued to look at ways to make our cost base more efficient to be able to open up those investment opportunities. When I talk about the cost outlook, that's in totality, but in the component parts, we have advanced on ways to make savings in certain areas to open up our ability to invest in those growth areas.
Staying on the expense guidance, there's been another question through, which is asking similarly, why isn't there expense guidance? With headcount up 11 heads half and half, should we be thinking about costs also going up?
The headcount going up is more of a timing issue. We had some vacancies at the end of the final period last year that have been filled now. As Sophia's mentioned, the executive team's now in place, and we have filled those vacancies with new hires in this half. I wouldn't expect headcount to be increasing materially from here, but that is included in my prior comments on cost increases into the future.
Thank you. We have another question on Vinva, which is based on the $148.5 million carrying value, sorry, $148.5 million carrying value for Vinva, versus the $130 million investment. Does this imply $9.5 million of profit from them in 10.5 months of ownership?
Thank you for that. I think that's a very reasonable calculation you've made there. That's a sensible way to look at the profit contribution from Vinva for the year.
Thank you, Dean. There are no more questions coming through online, and I don't believe there are any more on the teleconference. Thank you for joining us all today. That's the end of our FY2025 market update.