Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the McMillan Shakespeare Limited Full Year Results FY 2024. 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 may press star and one, followed by the hash key on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Rob De Luca, MD and CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the MMS Full Year Results Presentation for the 2024 Financial Year. My name is Rob De Luca, and I'm the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MMS. I'm joined this morning by Ashley Conn, our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet and pay my respect to their elders, past and present. The presentation will commence with an overview of group performance during FY 2024, including the progress we've made on our strategy and Simply Stronger program. We will then provide more detail on the performance of each of our segments before expanding on our cash flow and balance sheet. We will conclude with our outlook and focus for FY 2025.
This morning's presentation will refer to the slides that were released with our results earlier today, and at the conclusion, both Ashley and I will be happy to take any questions you have. Moving to slide two and our key messages. I'd like to touch on four highlights that stand out. Performance with growth... Supported by organic growth across all three of our segments. Secondly, our group remuneration services segment performed well during the period, with novated lease sales growing by 23%. We saw improvements in vehicle supply and continued strong demand for electric vehicles as more Australians looked to capitalize on the government's electric vehicle discount bill and transition to zero and low emission vehicles. The increasing availability of EVs in the market and the rising demand was reflected in EVs, comprising 43% of new novated orders for the period.
Thirdly, we made strong progress during the period on our strategy and Simply Stronger program. Our strategic vision aims to position the group as a trusted partner, providing solutions in making complex matters simple, with a clear focus on our three strategic priorities: excelling in customer experience, driving technology-enabled productivity, and broadening our competency-led solutions. Finally, we delivered returns for shareholders through an increased dividend and higher normalized return on capital employed, referred to as ROCE. We now move to slide three, highlighting the outcomes from executing on our strategy that delivered strong growth and returns for our shareholders in FY 2024. Between FY 2022 and FY 2024, we have delivered a compound annual growth rate of 19.4% for normalized EPS, increased normalized ROCE by 23.5 percentage points, and expanded normalized EBITDA margin by 11.4 percentage points.
During the same period, we have delivered returns to shareholders with dividends paid out of normalized UNPATA, reflecting the commitment to ensuring shareholders are not negatively impacted during the warehouse transition period. Moving now to slide four and our financial performance in FY 2024. As mentioned, it has been a strong year for MMS, and we are pleased to report growth across key metrics. In our continuing operations, we saw an 11.5% uplift in normalized revenue to AUD 525.8 million, with normalized EBITDA increasing by 34.8% to AUD 177 million, and normalized UNPATA of AUD 107.6 million, representing a 38.2% increase. We are pleased to announce a fully franked full-year dividend of AUD 1.54 per share, representing a 100% payout ratio of normalized UNPATA.
Moving now to slide five and some of the key highlights across our three segments. Group Remuneration Services, referred to as GRS, Asset Management Services, referred to as AMS, and Plan Support Services, referred to as PSS. All three segments achieved organic growth during the period. GRS normalized UNPATA was up 53.7%, AMS up 2%, and PSS up 6.4%, and pleasingly, customer numbers were up across all three segments. Our commitment to excelling in customer experience is reflected in the consistently high net promoter scores across all segments. These results affirm that we are progressing on our vision of being a trusted partner who provides solutions in making complex matters simple. I'll delve into each segment in more depth later in this presentation.
Slide six highlights some of the progress made on implementing our Simply Stronger program during the period across the three pillars. The first pillar of Simply Stronger is focused on excelling in customer experience. We know our customers are looking for more control over their interactions with our business, and we are investing in digital capabilities to create a more seamless experience and enable greater self-service capability. In our GRS segment, we launched our Employer Connect portal. This digital platform enables clients to easily track requests and securely access reporting, greatly simplifying what used to be a time-consuming process. At the end of FY 2024, 96% of our clients are utilizing our Employer Connect platform. We also implemented a digital signature solution called No Wet Ink, which reduces paperwork and has simplified and sped up the novated lease sales and settlement process.
The second pillar of Simply Stronger is to drive technology-enabled productivity through modernizing our IT infrastructure and implementing automation where suitable. During FY 2025, we completed phase 1 of automating the invoicing process for our PSS segment, which has resulted in a 26% increase in efficiency since implementation. The migration of PSS onto a common telephony platform also improves efficiency and enables us to better monitor and manage performance. The third Simply Stronger pillar is to broaden our competency-led solutions. On this front, we are pleased to introduce a new green funding product for zero and low emissions vehicles by AMS, to support the uptake of EVs among business buyers. We also soft launched a new brand, Oly, which we're very excited about and which I'll speak to on the next slide. Now moving to slide seven. In May of this year, we soft launched our Oly brand.
Oly is a simple and digitized novated leasing solution that makes the benefits of a novated lease available to employees from small and medium-sized businesses. These businesses are the backbone of Australia's economy, and their employees make up approximately 67% of Australian workforce. To date, there has been no easy mechanism for these millions of working Australians to access a novated lease. We calculate the size of this today unaddressed, serviceable market to be approximately 160 million. A focus of Oly's brand proposition is to also make the EV discount accessible to a broader audience. We know the EV market has grown, and around 40% of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are financed by a novated lease.
Given this, the size of the small to medium-sized business market and the number of new brands and EV models due to hit the Australian market in the months ahead, we are very excited to bring this innovative offering to market. Since soft launching Oly in May, we've had over 100,000 visitors to the brand's website. This is encouraging, given we are still to roll out full marketing campaign for Oly. Of the novated lease orders placed through Oly since launch, approximately 68% were for EVs. We are pleased to be assisting Australia's transition to a low-carbon future through this new solution. We'll be rolling Oly out fully and promoting it throughout FY 2025. Supporting our customers' transition to a low-carbon future and making a social impact is central to the MMS business, as slide eight highlights.
We are committed to a low-carbon future and are working towards reducing the carbon footprint on our own operations, and educating and supporting our GRS and AMS customers in reducing theirs through the adoption of low and zero emissions vehicles. We are pleased to report that we are having an impact on both of those fronts, and can now further assist Australia's small and medium-sized businesses reduce their emissions. The average tailpipe emissions of our novated lease customers reduced by 10% over the period, while our fleet customers reduced their tailpipe emissions by 5%, thanks to the uptake of EVs and more efficient vehicles. We also reduced our group-
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Renewable electricity. On the social impact front, an area of focus is on enhancing accessibility and inclusion for people living with disabilities. We are now in the second year of our partnership with Jigsaw Australia, a non-profit social enterprise that trains and transitions people living with disability into mainstream employment. We also supported our PSS customers to build their independence, economic participation, and social inclusion, key objectives of the NDIS, facilitating some 62,000 hours of paid support coordination. The third pillar of our sustainability agenda is focused on our business practices. We are pleased to have been upgraded in MSCI ESG rating from A to AA in November 2023, reflecting our sustained commitment to, and progress being made on as a responsible business. We now move to the performance of our segments....
We start with group remuneration services on slide 10, which encompasses salary packaging and novated leasing. We know that working Australians are currently facing cost of living challenges. Our service offering has therefore taken on increased relevance for our customers as they look to meaningful ways to manage the cost of car ownership and increase their take-home pay. This is evidenced by the strong growth in our GRS segment, with normalized revenue increasing by 25.7% to AUD 292.5 million, which translated into normalized EBITDA growth of 46.2% and normalized UNPATA growth of 53.7% to AUD 80.7 million. Growth in GRS revenue was supported by a 10% increase in novated lease yield and the benefit of elevated interest rates on salary packaging flow.
The period saw improvements to vehicle supply following several periods of constraint. This, combined with strong novated lease sales, saw total novated leases increase by 7.9% to 79,200. The improvements in vehicle supply and delivery times resulted in a reduction in carryover, which was AUD 24.8 million as at 30 June 2024, down from AUD 32.3 million at the end of FY 2023. As announced during the period, Maxxia was unsuccessful in renewing its contract with the South Australian Government. While we are disappointed with this outcome, we maintain a broad client base and continue to take a number of appropriate actions to minimize the impact on future earnings. During the period, we were pleased to renew our long-standing Queensland Government Novated Lease Services contract.
Slide 11 provides an overview of the growth we have achieved in our novated portfolio and the continued interest we're seeing in EVs. The value proposition offered by novated leasing, particularly during this period of high cost of living, is clearly resonating with our customers. We saw a 7.6% increase in novated orders compared to FY 2023. We have previously spoken about the opportunity EVs present for the group, particularly following the introduction of the government's electric vehicle discount bill. FY 2024 saw demand for EVs continue to rise, with EVs accounting for 43.2% of our total new vehicle novated lease orders, which is more than double the percentage of the previous period. EVs, as a percentage of new novated sales, was 41% in the period, outperforming the 11.8% seen in the broader Australian passenger and SUV new sales market.
The higher average cost of EVs over their internal combustion engine equivalent contributed to an increase in novated net amount financed, which was up 13.5% on FY 2023. Capitalizing on the EV opportunity remains a key focus for the group. With the introduction of our Oly proposition and new brands and EV models expected to be introduced to the Australian market, we are well positioned to play a pivotal role in facilitating Australia's uptake of zero and low emission vehicles. Moving to Slide 12, which shows the progress on the implementation of our warehouse funding initiative, Onboard Finance. We launched Onboard Finance in FY 2022 with the clear objective of securing and diversifying our funding source, increasing annuity-based income, and capturing a greater share of the value of every transaction we complete.
In FY 2024, we achieved our target of 20% of monthly novated lease volumes, financed through Onboard Finance. Supported by growth in novated sales and yields, it finished the period with receivables of AUD 325.6 million, a significant increase on the AUD 97.6 million at the end of FY 2023. The normalized UNPATA impact in FY 2024 was AUD 17.2 million, which was higher than the estimated AUD 15 million, based primarily on higher novated volumes and yields. FY 2025 will be the last year of normalization, with an increased UNPATA impact of approximately AUD 9 million, which is subject to market conditions. Slide 13 shows the highlights from our Asset Management Services segment, reflecting a 5.1% decline compared to the previous period.
Despite the contraction in revenue in FY 2024, the segment demonstrated sufficiency, with EBITDA increasing by 2.7%. Noting that FY 2023 included approximately AUD 1.6 million EBITDA from one-off financial benefit from the expiration of larger customer contracts. Excluding this impact, EBITDA growth in FY 2024 would have been 8.8%. The AMS segment benefits from the improved auto supply, with delivery of vehicles to the business buyer returning to pre-pandemic levels. This, combined with new business, contributed to a 16.2% increase in the net amount financed... which rose to AUD 168.1 million, a 4.9% growth in managed assets. Additionally, asset Written Down Value increased by 13.2% to AUD 363.2 million.
Remarketing yields saw some contraction, however, remained at elevated levels as the market continued to demand high-quality used vehicles. Now moving to slide 14. Our PSS segment, which provides quality plan management and support coordination services to participants of the NDIS, performed well during the period. A 4.3% improvement in PSS revenue was supported by organic customer growth, with plan management and support coordination customers increasing by 10.3% to 35,030. This growth faced some headwinds from the rollout of the NDIS's new PACE system, which affected the volume of plan assessments and reviews. Our continued investment in technology and creating a scalable platform enabled the segment to deliver a 6.7% increase in EBITDA to AUD 13.1 million in FY 2024.
We continue to support the integrity and sustainability of the scheme, with a focus on preventing fraud and conflicts of interest and ensuring the NDIS delivers value for money. In FY 2024, PSS helped deliver AUD 88.9 million in scheme savings, with services received by PSS customers being under the price guide limit. Additionally, through PSS integrity payment checks, AUD 53.3 million of invoices were withheld for further investigation. We note that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment, Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1 Bill 2024, passed Parliament on the 22nd of August, 2024, and is due to gain royal assent in September 2024. This is the first tranche of reforms that the Commonwealth Government is proposing and aims to clarify the existing legislation to improve the delivery of the scheme.
It introduces a new planning framework on how the NDIS will operate, including lists of what are included and excluded in the scheme. It also makes changes to how people can access the NDIS, how their needs are assessed, and introduces flexible budgets. While there are currently no specific impacts to PSS from these changes, we will continue to engage with government and the NDIA. I will now pass to Ashley, who will provide an update on our cash flow and balance sheet.
Thank you, Rob. Turning to slide 16, provides the detailed summary of our cash flow. During the year, our cash conversion stood at 136% of group UNPATA. We are pleased with this strong cash flow, which was bolstered by capital released from our renegotiation of our terms with capital providers in the funding warehouse, with our equity holding moving from approximately 5% to approximately 2%. Effective working capital management, benefits of timing tax benefits associated with the accelerated asset write-off, and net proceeds from the sale of our U.K. and Australian businesses. These transactions have now fully closed. In keeping with our capital allocation model, this surplus cash flow has meant that we're able to pay a fully franked dividend based on a payout ratio of 100% of normalized UNPATA.
Dividends are paid out of normalized UNPATA, reflecting the commitment to ensuring shareholders are not negatively impacted by the warehouse during the transition period. Turning to our balance sheet on slide 17. The strong cash flow generation is also reflected in the strength of our balance sheet. Total cash is at AUD 153 million, with net cash of AUD 86.7 million. Debt to EBITDA stands at 0.5 times, and our interest coverage stands at 11.7 times. All of these metrics are well positioned against our covenant levels. I will now hand back to Rob. However, I'll be happy to take any questions relating to our financials at the conclusion of today's presentation.
Thank you, Ashley. Now moving to slide 19. We expect many of the market conditions experienced in FY 2024 to carry into FY 2025, including inflation and cost of living pressures. While we note that the FBT benefit on plug-in hybrids is scheduled to expire on 1 April 2025, the FBT discount on battery electric vehicles continues, with the government committed to review by mid-2027. We expect an increase in brands and EV models across wider price points to enter the Australian market in FY 2025, as well as continued increases in auto supply and increased price competition. We expect updates from the government on the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment, Getting the NDIS Back on Track, Bill 2024, as it is implemented.
We will continue to engage with the NDIA government and the sector on this matter, while continuing to support our customers to achieve their plan goals, while also supporting the integrity and sustainability of the scheme. We will pursue organic growth across all segments, with the full rollout and promotion of Oly also helping us broaden our novated lease market and partnership reach. Our warehouse Onboard Finance will continue to target approximately 20% of our novated lease volume, excluding Oly, through FY 2025, with an expected normalization adjustment of AUD 9 million, subject to market conditions. FY 2025 will be the last year of the normalization adjustment, with the warehouse that contributed incremental earnings post the normalization period. We'll focus on completing our FY 2025 Simply Stronger program deliverables, with approximately AUD 11 million capital expenditure allocated over the course of the financial year.
The program will deliver new digital solutions for our customers, providing superior experience and greater self-service capability. We will also progress the modernization of our technology with the implementation of a digital enablement layer, improving consistency of experience across channels. Finally, we will continue to invest in and focus on our strategic priorities of excelling in customer experience, driving technology-enabled productivity, and broadening our competency-led solutions. I would like to thank our people for their dedication in supporting our customers and embodying our purpose of making a difference to people's lives. I'd also like to thank our clients, customers, and shareholders for their ongoing support. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Ashley for his service to MMS over the past four years, and look forward to introducing Paul Varro to you when he joins.
Ashley and I would now be pleased to answer any questions you may have, and I will now hand back to Sagar to convene questions.
Thank you. If you 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. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Phil Chippindale from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, gents. Thanks for your time. First question, Rob, maybe you can just make a comment as to, sort of the first seven or eight weeks of the year. How is business performing, especially in the novated segment? Just noting that in your outlook commentary, you know, you've referred to, you know, sort of the macro challenges of the consumer, et cetera.
Yeah. Hi, Phil. Thanks for that. Yeah, look, I think the start of the new financial year has been pretty consistent with what we saw in June. So as alluded to, obviously, yeah, we think the economic conditions, macro conditions remain similar. We certainly saw during the period, towards the latter part of the financial year, more pricing competition for cars, with reduction in some of the pricing of ... You know, we saw Tesla reduce their price to market seen, obviously, in May and June, and then we also saw some, you know, heightened competition across a number of OEMs and dealers from a vehicle perspective. So in part, that's, you know, supports consumers on one hand, but on the flip side, obviously reduces our net amount financed. So that's something we just continue to monitor.
Okay, thanks. Just in terms of the transition for the South Australian contract, can you just talk us through the details of that and, yeah, how that sort of expects it to play out over the first quarter or so?
Yeah. So that transition's completed. So, you know, effective date for us was 30 June. So from 1 July, we're no longer the provider. In terms of the transition, you know, obviously a very large client, which is always, you know, challenging for all parties involved, but I think the transition. We'll continue to, you know, obviously focus our business on our existing clients and new opportunities.
Okay, thanks. Last question from me, just on the new Oly brand. What does the full rollout look like for that business? And just given the smaller client size, do you need to increase your headcount, you know, for your business? And what does that sort of look like from a contribution or impact to the FY 2025, please?
Yeah. So, we're really excited about Oly. We're able to get that to market in May, which is a great achievement in a fairly short period of time. You know, our full rollout, we obviously wanted to see how that tested first in the market, get some feedback and experience so that we continue to enhance the offering from a digital experience. So it's great to be able to get, you know, feedback real time from customers around that. The rollout, in terms of, you know, complete rollout is, you know, a couple of our elements to it. Firstly is there is more work to be done to continue to enhance the digital solution and experience, you know, no, not different to any other platform. So it doesn't kind of stop and forget.
You just continue to evolve that based on, you know, feedback from both the employers and the employees. The second is wrapping up our marketing and social marketing for, you know, this is much more of a retail proposition than our historical Maxxia and RemServ brands and businesses, and then thirdly, as we work through the process with employers, you know, because it is a different integration to their platforms and systems, we will continue to work with other intermediary platforms, accounting softwares, HR software solutions as well, so we'll continue to work and work through that to make that as efficient as possible for employers and SMEs. From a workforce perspective, you know, the beauty of this solution being digital is, it's much more of a self-service solution for customers.
We will continue to invest in more salespeople to help originate new opportunities across the platform, and that may be in terms of how that integrates with other platforms in the marketplace and partnerships. But from an operations perspective, a digital solution, so we shouldn't be adding any headcount from an operations perspective.
Okay, thanks. I'll jump back in the queue.
Thanks, Phil.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jack Dunn from Citi. Please go ahead.
Morning, Rob. Morning, Ashley. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, just on the order growth in the second half, it does look to have slowed a bit. Would you be able to give us a sense of what were the orders in the second half versus first half? And then, are you seeing a slowing in demand from any of your industries in particular?
Yeah, I mean, certainly you can see, when you look at our results of 7.6% for the full year, when we announced our first half results, that first half was 15.5%, and the second half was 4.3%. So yeah, there has certainly been a slowdown in the second half, as I alluded to. In part, you know, that reflects the second half of FY 2023 also being a very strong period. I think when I presented results, you know, our May and June were record months back then. And the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023, a high growth, the first half of 2023 wasn't as strong.
So in part, it reflects, I think, the growth that we saw in the latter part of 2023 and in the first half of 2024. Continuing that, you know, high growth on top of strong growth is probably the reflection in the second half results. As I alluded to in the earlier question, you know, our month of July has been pretty consistent with June. May was a much higher month, so it just does depend on day counts in months and different periods of the year, but that's just a reflection of where we're seeing the market at the moment.
Okay, perfect. Just maybe a quick follow-up there. So would you have growth in the second half in orders versus the first half?
Yes. So our second half was up on our first half.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then just on the yield, I know you commented about Tesla reducing prices and also competition in the industry. But was there any impact from the Order Bank unwind in there, given they're probably a lower price point versus some of your EVs?
So you can certainly see the carryover value reduced during the period, and that's a reflection of improved delivery times that we saw in the market. So in terms of, you know, the second half, the average delivery times for us was 69 days versus the first half of 85 days. We've continued to see that reduction occur in the month of July, which is a bit lower than that as well. So in part, the reduction in the carryover is a reflection of the carryover and the reflection of the delivery days reducing and also the order growth being a little bit lower than it was in the first half.
Okay, perfect. And just last one for me, just on the SA Government contract, I know you call that the FY 2023 contribution, but what would be the 2024 contribution to GRS revenue and EBITDA?
So pretty, pretty similar to 2023 in terms of, contribution at a revenue line and units line.
Perfect. Thank you. I'll jump back in the queue.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Buys from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Morning, Rob and Ashley. First question, just around GRS margins, which obviously improved a lot over FY 2024. My question is just on how you're seeing FY 2025 in terms of margins. Obviously, you've got the South Australian Government contract coming out of the business. You did mention some appropriate actions to mitigate the impact, presumably, obviously, a net negative overall, the Oly rollout as well, and then you've also got the Simply Stronger program completing. So you've kind of got negatives and positives in terms of margin impact. I guess I just wanted to hear your view on how you see those playing out and if you think you can hold GRS margins on current levels or not.
Yeah. Thanks, Paul. I mean, a couple of things probably just worth noting when you think about the revenue performance and the profit performance of FY 2024. I think the first one is, as reflected in the slides, you know, yields were up 10% during the period of 2024 to 2023. So that had a really strong positive contribution straight to the bottom line. But when you look at, you know, if you're thinking about forward, you're looking in the second half of 2024 yields were down 3.7%. That's the first half, up 14.9%.
So we saw the impact of, firstly, more competition of price points for vehicles and the reduction in those vehicles on our NAF playing straight through to yield, as we saw the flip side in the prior period going upwards. And the second part, there was a slight change in, re-leases versus new in the second half versus the first half, which had a little bit of an impact as well on the yield. So moving from 21% to 23% .... So there was a little bit of change there. Both of those have a bit of an impact on yield. I think the second thing to note is that, we earn interest on our salary packaging float, and so during the period back in November, there was a rate rise.
There was about a 50% increase in what we generated on our interest income in FY 2024 versus 2023. Now, at the moment, we're taking a view that, you know, rates are holding in FY 2024, at some point in time, probably gonna come back a bit. So the yield and interest benefit in 2024, that growth that we saw versus 2023 is unlikely to come through in, you know, 2025, given what we're currently seeing. The rest of the performance in the business was very much driven by, you know, volume growth, that, you know, driven through novated lease performance. And then, as you alluded to, you know, some pluses and minuses as we think about 2025 over and above that. So, you know, we'll complete the deliverables for Simply Stronger.
The benefits of that really don't hit until right at the end of 2025, more at 2026. But obviously we have the reduction in volume from SA government in 2024. With Oly, we're very excited about it. You know, outlined in the presentation, you know, we see the market size opportunity being, you know, about a 30% increase on the current novated lease serviceable market that we compete in. But it will take time to, you know, obviously get that growth happening to the levels that are a significant contribution to our business. Because, obviously, when you're winning employees of small and medium-sized businesses, you're winning, you know, small number at the time versus a big B2B client contract. Hopefully, that helps your question, Paul?
Yeah, that does. Thanks, Rob. That's useful. Thank you. And then, just a kind of a quick follow-up on the yields. So I understood the impact of pricing, competition, et cetera. Has the diversity of EV brands and models on offering helped any other ancillary revenue streams? Because I know when kind of Tesla really dominated, that was a bit harder in terms of some of those sort of other ancillary revenue streams. Has that helped at all or not made much of a difference?
Not a material, no. I mean, obviously each OEM, each dealer that we deal with, is slightly different in terms of the car. I think, you know, certainly, you know, wind the clock back 12 months, 18 months ago, we talked a lot about Tesla being, you know, the main vehicle with a little bit of MG. Now, we've got obviously BYD, probably at the same levels for us as Tesla. More cars coming into the market with battery electric and plug-in hybrids. Obviously, the Outlander, the Mitsubishi's had some really good take-up in a short period of time. You know, so each of these different types of vehicles will have different opportunities from an ancillary, like insurance and other add-ons. But in terms of material difference to our ICE, or at Tesla itself, no.
Okay, got it. Thank you, and the last one from me, just on AMS. Obviously, a performance where you got EBITDA up, despite revenue down, as you alluded to. I guess my question is, how do you see the outlook for that division into FY 2025 and noting that used car prices are high, but still probably in the process of normalizing? Just wanted to kind of get your thought on those various drivers.
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things I'd say. You know, we're really pleased with the underlying business growth in this segment and this business, and reflected both in our, you know, new client wins, our growth in net amount financed and written down value, and getting more units out to our customers. Expecting that to continue, as you know, the supply of auto continues to increase and therefore access to the business buyer market, which historically, you know, the last 18 months prior to this, was much more to the consumer segment, given where the profit was made. So we think the ability to actually have access to more cars is positive for this business. We think the take-up of electric vehicles in this business will take a longer time to work through. We're seeing, you know, a bit of growth.
We're certainly, you know, up from around 3% the prior year to, you know, close to 6% this year. So that will take longer, but obviously, more opportunities in hybrids in this business. From a secondhand price point and remarketing yields, you know, it held well during the year. Again, you know, I think I've been here a couple of times now saying better than we probably expected. We do expect pressure on that over time, but at the moment, it's holding, you know, well.
Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Paul.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Scott Hudson, from MST. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, gentlemen. Sorry, I may have missed this earlier, but, Rob, could you just expand on, I guess, efforts you're taking to mitigate the cost impact from the South Australian Government?
Yeah, sure, Scott. Look, you know, I think it's shared previously, there are some actions that we've been able to take which are around direct costs. So example of that is direct workforce in the Adelaide office that only supported the SA government that we no longer needed. We have retained some of our workforce in the Adelaide office to be able to support other clients across the country, so that who have got the knowledge and training and understanding of our systems, so we don't need to recruit additional people. So there's been some opportunity to drive some efficiencies from a people perspective and headcount perspective, and our footprint in Adelaide from a property perspective. Outside of that, there have been some other areas that we've looked at some efficiency opportunities.
Flip side of it is obviously the launch of our Oly brand, looking at trying to pick up share in the novated leasing market to address some of the reduction in novated volumes.
Thanks. And I guess just in relation to Oly, how does the, I guess, yield or margin from an Oly sale compare to a traditional GRS sale?
Yeah. So, you know, the way we've certainly looked at this and experienced so far is there's slightly higher proportion to electric vehicles and a higher proportion to new. So in terms of a relative portfolio, compared to our Maxxia and RemServ, you've got a high skew towards EVs and a high skew towards new. So that's a more favorable yield impact for us. Flip side is depending on, you know, our distribution points and relationships, there is some outflow to our partners who get converted revenue opportunities from sales. So at net-net, the overall margin yield should be higher in this business relative to the Maxxia RemServ from a yield perspective, but obviously a very small number to start with.
Thanks. In relation to the, I guess, the strong growth in EV sales, are you able to share sort of what proportion of that would be, plug-in hybrid?
Yeah, I mean, plug-in hybrid for us, you know, if we think about the proportion of EVs in sales during the year, you know, battery electric in the second half was just shy of 40%, and plug-in hybrids was around 7%. So plug-in hybrid is a little bit higher in the second half versus the first half. And in the first half, I think, yeah, the plug-in hybrids was about 6%, and the battery electric was about 31%. So slight increase in plug-in hybrids during the second half versus the first half, but largely that came in the last couple of months of the financial year. That's continued in the month of July, Scott, so a bit like what the VFACTS data is showing, our plug-in hybrids in the month of July, again, were higher than where they were in June.
BYD and Mitsubishi played a big part of that with their offerings.
Are you aware of any moves by government to extend the plug-in hybrid exemptions on the EV?
Look, at this stage, we're working on the basis that it's scheduled to conclude 1 April 2027. You know, to now, as far as our industry association continued to have conversations with, you know, all parties of government around that. So, you know, if that changes, obviously the market will become aware of it, but at the moment it concludes 1 April 2025.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Amland from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, gents. A couple of just detailed questions. Discontinued business adjustments, are we done with those? Should we expect any more next year?
It's actually, they're done. Those businesses have now completed and been sold, so there'll be no discontinued operations in FY 2025.
Okay. Looking at slide ten, where you've got the SA numbers included in your salary packaging and novated lease numbers for FY 2024, just, you know, not trying to get, you know, the absolute numbers, but I mean, the FY 2023 numbers that are presented there, do those also include the SA contracts? We should be normalizing them out for both periods just to, you know, and that will show organic growth. Is that correct?
Yes, yes. The 2023 and 2024 both include the SA government numbers, as the contract concluded on the 30th of June in 2024. You can refer to our ASX announcement for the 2023 numbers, but broadly, the percentages is pretty similar across revenue, salary packages, and novated leases.
Okay, and just tidying up on the previous question regarding the hybrid, the plug-in hybrids. So when that. You know, based upon the VFACTS numbers and what you've just said, you know, it sounds that the roll-off will not be particularly material to the volumes going through the GRS business in terms of new novated leasing.
No, in terms of our current numbers, in total numbers to novated lease, yeah, the plug-in hybrid is still a very small proportion. Obviously, as we've seen in the last couple of months, that growth is increased. We would expect, though, leading up to the end of the FBT benefit, through to 31 March next year, good demand for that so people take advantage of it, and certainly our business has continued to, you know, educate our clients about that opportunity while it exists, and then we'll wait to see in terms of the follow-on impact, if people continue to take on hybrids without that benefit or they start to shift behavior towards battery electric vehicles.
... Okay, thank you, and one last question, moving over to PSS. So our understanding is that as a plan manager, you guys get a, you know, basically make a fixed fee per client, on an annual basis, and then there's an upfront upon a new sign-up, but that you're not exposed to overall payment volumes going through any particular account or through the system. Is that accurate?
Yeah. Yes.
Or is there, is there a variable component?
No. So, so basically, the fee structure is you get a broadly AUD 200 for a setup. So when a client has their plan approved and chooses us as a plan manager, we set that up, and we get approximately AUD 200. We then generate, on average about AUD 100 per month. It varies between metro and regional and remote areas, but broadly about AUD 100 a month per customer, irrespective of the value of what sits in the plan and how much is utilized in the plan.
Okay. So that's very helpful clarity. Thank you. And I guess, you know, the conclusion that we draw from that is, you know, regardless of what happened. Yeah, I guess not regardless, but the fact that, you know, there may be changes to NDIS and the services covered and all the rest of it, the likelihood of, you know, the plan being withdrawn is effectively nil. So you guys should be relatively ambivalent to, you know, changes to payment, service payments or anything like that, as long as the customers themselves stay in the system. Is that the conclusion?
That's a broad set of comments there, Richard. I think, look, on the current legislation that was passed in Parliament last week, and the intent of the legislation, which is to try and provide the Agency with some greater control over what services and supports are included in plans, or what they call the black and white list, firstly, and then the size of the packages that are provided to eligible participants based on their impairment, no changes to how plan managers earn their fees and income. On the current legislation, as it's been approved, now there are expected to be two more reforms as part of the legislation.
We haven't seen those yet or can't comment on whether that has any implications on pricing, but at the moment, with the legislation that's been proposed and approved, there is no change into the fee structure for plan managers.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Chenny Wang from MS. Please go ahead.
Hey, morning, guys. Just two questions from me. Apologies if this has already been answered, but just firstly on the SA contract roll-off, I just want to touch on your comment that the percentage revenues are similar to what you guys disclosed towards the end of last year, being kind of that 7% of GRS revenues. Sorry, 7% of FY 2023 GRS revenues, just because I guess firstly, obviously FY 2024 GRS revenues have grown at a, you know, north of 20%, but also within FY 2024, you've had the contribution or more of a contribution from the DET contract as well.
So I just wanted to kind of check that 7% number, and how we should be thinking about that into FY 2025 when trying to normalize the roll-off.
Yeah. So as covered earlier, Chenny, yeah, the FY 2024 impact from SA government on revenue, salary packages, and novated leases isn't materially different to that of FY 2023. To your point, FY 2023 DET came in in December during that period, and so we had about seven months of income versus twelve. So that had a marginal difference because as you would know, that novated lease benefit really comes as you write new leases versus transitioning across from the administration of those novated leases. So the early stages of that weren't really significant from novated lease impact. So overall, broadly not too different from 2023.
Got it. So, so just to be super clear, broadly not too different in terms of that 7%?
That's correct.
Got it. Okay, cool. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jack Dunn from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thanks, guys. Sorry. Thanks, guys. A couple of follow-ups. Just on that PSS and the regulatory change, you mentioned there's still two more reforms to come in, but have you heard anything more on the industry's outlook for the role of the plan manager and the impacts from the new role of the navigator?
No. So, at this stage, Jack, you know, the government's been silent on the Independent Review recommendations and, you know, what we've been hearing and, you know, obviously seeing is that they're just pushing forward obviously with reforms that many of were incorporated within the review recommendations. So, you know, one of those is the foundational supports that they're rolling out. In terms of specifics around navigator, nothing is yet to be shared with the community in terms of the specifics. There is, you know, ongoing consultation around that. And with specifics to plan manager, no, at this stage, you know, the focus very much is with the upcoming reforms, firstly, increasing regulation requirements so that, you know, all support coordinators, plan managers, navigators, you know, if they come into play, will be registered.
Second of all, obviously within that, trying to increase the focus on fraud and the role that plan managers play within that. So within the current reform, what they refer to as auto top-ups, removing those. So some customers and plan managers will just try to utilize the full amount of the plan, whereas, you know, the objective scheme is using what's necessary to achieve the goals and outcomes, and therefore not necessarily worth 100% of the dollars. So the way we've, you know, been continuing to progress our business is on the basis that there isn't material change at the moment. Obviously, lifting the bar from a compliance perspective, which is positive. Lifting the bar in terms of registration of players in the market, which I think will then start to remove some participants in the market.
And then continuing to, you know, force processing of digital payments, on a timely basis, so providers get that from a cash flow perspective.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And just last one, just on the novated lease volumes outlook, are you still confident you can offset the volume lost in the SA government contract from the growing market and Oly?
Look, Jack, at this stage, I mean, we don't obviously provide guidance in terms of volumes. As I alluded to, our July numbers are pretty consistent with our June numbers. And as I mentioned earlier, obviously, the FY 2024 second half was slower than the first half, reflective of a strong period of late 2023 and early 2024. So, you know, our goal is to continue to grow, and where possible, as I alluded to earlier, use Oly as a lever for us to broaden the market opportunity and pick up some of the lost volume that we get from loss of South Australian Government. So that's certainly our intent and focus. I can't comment on what, you know, the market outlook looks like in the second half of FY 2025 in terms of economy, though.
Okay, perfect. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Hayden Nicholson from Bell Potter. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Just two quick questions from me. Firstly, is Oly included in that CapEx guidance for FY 2025, or is that more sort of just incremental OpEx?
No, no, it is. We certainly do have some OpEx for the business, in running the business, but the development costs certainly are included in the AUD 19 million that we spent in FY 2024 and the AUD 11 million expected to spend in FY 2025.
Yep, sure. And then just secondly, to close up, you know, spoken a lot about EVs and just looking at the market and some of your comments around the macro being a little bit soft. What are you seeing in terms of combustion engines, you know, maybe petrol, if we could split out some of the growth that you've been seeing in the book, compared to, you know, the plug-ins and electric vehicles? Is that being cannibalized or are you still seeing growth there?
Yeah, I mean, certainly when we been looking at the overall portfolio in our business, slightly different to the market, you know, obviously the last 18 months for us has been really strong novated performance growth, which we think really reflects that actually the pie has grown off the back of the EV legislation. And we've seen in part, you know, more customers and clients attracted to novated leases that we previously didn't have, and that's reflected certainly in our private and corporate growth. So that, you know, growth was about 12% in novated for private over the last 12 months. And that portfolio really demonstrates that more people are, who previously were thinking about novated lease salary packages, are taking it up. When we look at our ICE, it's down marginally on where it was the previous year.
So, there's been a little bit of movement and shift from ICE into electric vehicles, but we also think that the total pie is growing.
Sure. Thanks for that.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. De Luca for closing remarks.
Thanks, Sagar. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Appreciate your time. Have a great day.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.