Thank you, Kerry, and welcome to everyone joining the call this morning to discuss Navigator Global Investments Ltd's full-year results for the 2025 financial year. I'm Stephen Darke, Navigator 's CEO. I'm joined today by my colleagues, Ross Zachary, CIO and Head of NGI Strategic Investments, and Amber Stoney, Group CFO. Turning to slide four, the company's snapshot, Navigator is the only ASX company focused exclusively on partnering with leading alternative asset managers. Navigator provides growth capital and strategic engagement to a diverse portfolio of 12 managers. As of 30 January at the partner firm level, Navigator 's affiliates manage over $84 billion , up 12% during the year. This AUM is managed across 46 investment strategies and invested via 223 products, with 18 new product launches over the past 12 months.
These strategies have low correlation to global equity and fixed income markets and to one another. Turning to slide five, we are very pleased with the strong momentum across our business. Navigator generated record earnings and saw strong growth across all of our key financial metrics. Revenues were up 18%, adjusted EBITDA up 26%, and 5% higher than our upgraded guidance in May. Statutory NPAT up 80%, with earnings per share up 46%. We announced a dividend of $0.03 per share to be paid on 26 September. The Navigator Board is undertaking a review of the company's dividend policy as a part of proactively and continually assessing capital management, with a goal of maximizing shareholder returns. NGI's net asset value is now over AUD 1.2 billion , up 20%, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.6x, in line with last financial year.
Turning to a summary of Navigator 's FY financial results on slide six, we have seen continued top-line growth and strong earnings momentum continue. Our ownership adjusted AUM increased 6% during the period to $27.7 billion . Higher management fees, with stable fee rates, and strong risk-adjusted investment performance leading to higher performance fees drove Navigator 's revenue to $203.7 million , and the group's adjusted EBITDA was a record $113.6 million, a 26% increase from FY 2024. On slide seven, you can see Navigator 's ownership adjusted AUM growth over the last 12 months. During the year, we saw a 6% increase, or approximately $1.5 billion, in ownership-adjusted AUM, consistent with the approximately 7% compound annual growth rate over the past four to five years. NGI Strategic added $700 million of net inflows during the year, which was offset by outflows at Lighthouse.
Importantly, most of those outflows were from the very much lower fee-yielding managed account services platform, which can have a higher velocity of capital. The higher fee-yielding direct hedge fund business at Lighthouse pleasingly saw inflows in the June quarter, as outlined in our recent AUM update. Subject to market conditions, given the strong 2024 investment performance, recent and prospective new product launches across the portfolio, and more positive sentiment from some capital allocators, we should see higher net inflows across NGI's partner firms in FY 2026. Turning to slide eight, alternative asset managers who aim to generate benchmark-unaware returns for their investors across all market cycles have a strong alignment of interest to the economic performance of their strategies and the returns that they generate for their investors.
Here we show Navigator's underlying revenue composition, looking through the Navigator's share of the revenues of our partner firms, including Lighthouse, on a calendar year basis. It's these underlying revenues that ultimately drive increased earnings from our partner firms and higher distributions to Navigator from our NGI Strategic partner firms. This slide shows a total fee yield of 1.09% average over the past five-year period, comprising growing management fees and annual performance fees. NGI has the highest total fee yield compared to other ASX-listed GP staking and multi-affiliate managers, and a strong market-leading fee yield across our broader asset manager peers. Our partner firms have shown consistent growth in recurring management fee revenues, the dark blue bars, in line with the higher AUM over that period. The average management fee yield has been 73 basis points, and in a range of 71- 75 basis points over this five-year period.
Our partner firms have a strong and consistent track record of generating investment performance, and hence performance fees, across market cycles and over multiple years. Accordingly, NGI has generated resilient underlying performance fee revenues as evidenced by the light blue bars. The performance fee yield has averaged 36 basis points, and in a range of 23 - 47 basis points over that period. Unlike performance fees from strategies that are benchmarked to a market index, the absolute return nature of strategies managed by our partner firms and the structure of their performance fee mechanics can drive these outcomes. Moving forward, and based on the long-term performance you can see here, we think it's reasonable to expect that a portion of these performance fee revenues should be received every year, providing a resilient source of recurring income from Navigator.
Slide 37 in the appendix shows the diversification of the underlying performance fee revenues across our partner firms since 2021. This year, driven by the direct hedge fund business, there was a significant step up by Lighthouse and its contribution to performance revenues, generating $36 million, most of that in the first half. Importantly, Navigator continues to see stability in base management fee rates and performance fee rates across our partner firms, as investors are prepared to pay managers who can truly generate non-market investment returns across cycles. Turning to slide nine, you can see the earnings power of the diversified NGI portfolio. In FY 2025, we saw higher adjusted EBITDA across both business segments. In another strong year, NGI Strategic increased its earnings contribution by 13% to a record $74.5 million, driven by materially higher management fee and performance fee revenue of its partner firms.
In the appendix at slide 38, for the first time, we show the aggregated ownership adjusted P&L of NGI's strategic partner firms, highlighting NGI's consolidated share of the AUM revenue and earnings across those businesses and their aggregated operating margins since 2021. Those results drive cash distributions to Navigator. Lighthouse stepped up 58% from FY 2024 to generate $39.1 million EBITDA, driven by higher management fees and a standout performance fee year, with that business now operating at an increased 33% margin. We are very pleased with the ongoing consistent investment performance, management, and earnings generation by our partner firms. They continue to be some of the leading alternative asset managers globally in their respective area of specialty.
There has been, and should continue to be, material long-term value accruing to Navigator's shareholders from one, the acquisition of the additional distributions from the NGI Strategic portfolio from Blue Owl that closed last fiscal year, two, the incremental impact from the private market manager investments Navigator made in 2022, and then again this year with 1315 Capital, and three, the continued organic growth of our partner firms who are launching new strategies and products. Now I'll hand over to Ross to provide the NGI business update for fiscal year 2025.
Thank you, Stephen. I'll start the business update on slide 11 and spend a few minutes highlighting why we are so excited about the long-term prospects of the NGI business. First, on slide 11, we have provided an overview of the underlying alternative investment firms, which NGI provides shareholders exposure to. Lighthouse and our partner firms are all scaled institutional businesses, time-tested and proven through prior market cycles. In today's alternative asset management industry, a firm's market presence, track record, substantial financial resources, and deep existing client relationships are more crucial than ever to attract and retain the talent required to generate strong investment results. Lighthouse and our partner firms all benefit from these attributes. In addition, NGI has a clear competitive edge in our ability to access the unmatched insights and strategic advice from the leading strategic minority partner to alternative asset management firms globally.
Through our partnership with Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital, NGI receives support on growth initiatives and access to its business services platform. The industry perspective, relationships, and guidance shared from Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital's 55+ person business services platform continues to benefit NGI as we and our partner firms work hard to capitalize on an ever-evolving set of growth opportunities in front of us. Please flip to slide 12, and we'll cover a snapshot of NGI's business. We are proud of the breadth and diversification of NGI today. NGI's earnings are driven by businesses that are diversified by alternative asset class, alternative investment strategy, as well as product structure and the duration of their client capital.
Today, an estimated 30% of ownership adjusted AUM in the NGI Strategic segment, or 17% across the entire NGI business, are in long-duration products with highly visible revenues, and we expect this percentage will increase over time. It is also important to note that Lighthouse and our partner firms and investors are predominantly institutional investors, such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, and large family offices. Although this means that it can lead to longer sales cycles and potentially lumpy net flows, these are large, often sticky relationships that have the potential to grow over time. We cannot emphasize enough that the diversification available to us by partnering with global, independent firms has and will continue to benefit the company as we execute on further growth initiatives. Please flip to slide 13, and we'll provide a few select highlights of recent activity across the business.
In March, we were proud to announce a new partnership with 1315 Capital, a healthcare-focused private investment firm, broadening NGI's business specifically into direct private equity and further expanding the company's exposure to private markets. Another private markets firm, Marble Capital, continued to illustrate their leadership position in the large, highly fragmented asset class and unique strategy they specialize in, providing capital solutions to high-quality real estate sponsors in the regions of the U.S. that are experiencing strong economic growth with an undersupply of housing. They recently announced that they are on track to deploy $500 million of new investments in 2025, illustrating their impressive ability to execute in dynamic market conditions. CFM, one of the partner firms acquired in the NGI Strategic portfolio, has continued to demonstrate their clear leadership position in the global hedge fund industry.
With $20 billion of firm level AUM today, their investment results have remained exceptionally strong, which you can see here has led to winning several industry awards over the past year. Subsequent to the close of the 2025 fiscal year, we were pleased to support our partner firms at Barton Hill as they reached an agreement to join Man Group, a global alternative investment firm with $190 billion of AUM. Although we do not expect this transaction to have a material impact on NGI when it closes later this year, it will be a good outcome for NGI shareholders and clearly illustrates the high quality of the partner firms that we have, and we are excited to follow Barton Hill's success as they join Man Group.
NGI provides a unique value proposition to shareholders as they can gain access to these dynamic and leading global firms as part of a highly diversified platform. Please flip to slide 14, and we can review the overall growth of the business over this past year. On slide 14, you will see the NGI Strategic segment has generated positive organic growth in fiscal 2025, and Lighthouse continues to increase its overall AUM. We are pleased to report that the 13.5% year-over-year increase in ownership adjusted AUM in the NGI Strategic segment benefited from growth initiatives across the portfolio. For example, our private market partner firms are in the process of raising capital for their flagship vintage funds, and we are very proud of their success to date in the face of an extremely challenging fundraising environment.
We remain incredibly impressed by the new products and solutions our partner firms are consistently bringing to the market. This includes Lighthouse. Lighthouse is a scaled and diverse business in its own right that continues to demonstrate their long-term proven track record of innovation by creating and offering new hedge fund products, which leverage the breadth and sophistication of their platform to meet client demand. We are excited about these initiatives and the potential they have to drive substantial growth in the years to come. It is important to remember that the underlying returns of Lighthouse, our partner firms, and the public markets show little correlation to one another. Due to the absolute return focus on a large portfolio of NGI's underlying AUM, we believe that investment performance will continue to contribute to our growth over time.
Please flip to slide 15, and we can spend a couple of minutes on our growth strategy and how we got here. We remain intensely focused on identifying and capitalizing on additional growth opportunities and are pleased with the results of the acquisitions we have made to date. NGI's previous acquisitions shown on slide 15 scaled the company, diversified our earnings, and continue to generate cash flow to support future investments. The left-hand side of slide 16, excuse me, slide 15, provides a high-level overview of our acquisition of the NGI Strategic portfolio. This transaction not only provided our shareholders access to market-leading franchises who have performed very well since the transaction, but this also brought Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital on as an aligned and strategic shareholder.
On the right-hand side, we have summarized our investments in Marble and Invictus, our dedicated effort to partnering with established, growing, and differentiated private market alternative asset managers. Shortly after the NGI Strategic portfolio transaction, these opportunities presented themselves to diversify and strengthen our broader business, with the potential of not only improving our quality of earnings through locked-up capital and further diversification, but also contribute to an improved growth profile. When reviewing the over 120% AUM growth to date of these two firms, we are excited about this increased exposure and their contribution to NGI in the years to come. Please flip to slide 16, and we can provide a quick overview of our latest partnership. Slide 16 provides an overview of the acquisition of a strategic minority stake in 1315 Capital, a leading U.S. healthcare private investment firm.
Our partnership with 1315 Capital represented an attractive opportunity to add an established and leading private equity firm that presented many of the same characteristics as our other private market firms, and we believe is on a similar growth trajectory. Similar to those partnerships, this transaction consideration was structured in a bespoke manner, considering their business plan. We believe that established, scaled, and well-resourced private equity firms, like 1315 Capital, that have already developed and benefited from a deep domain expertise, are well-positioned to grow their client relationships and generate strong, sustained investment results over time. Please flip to slide 17, and we can quickly review a bit more about what we're looking for as we continue to seek to add additional partner firms over time.
The criteria you see on slide 17 is informed by our deep expertise and experience in partnering with, investing in, and operating alternative investment management firms. Our objective is to find partners who are specifically well-positioned for long-term success and where we can establish strong and lasting alignment of interests. As part of this effort, we currently intend to continue to further diversify NGI's business and increase exposure into areas of the alternative asset management industry experiencing secular growth, such as private equity, certain areas of private credit, and the highly fragmented real assets sector. We are working through an active pipeline of new growth opportunities.
Although we increasingly realize a trend of larger alternative asset managers broadly capturing market share, we are focused on a universe of specialized, proven businesses who are adding tangible value and delivering unique and consistent investment results to their clients, therefore also growing at an attractive rate. We are spending time with firms who specialize in U.S. and European private credit, certain areas of real estate investing that we believe have a strong opportunity set and will be valued by their investors in years to come, as well as more sector-focused or other specialized private equity firms. When identifying new potential partner firms, our goal is to continue to increase the stability, durability, and growth profile of NGI's earnings. With that, Amber, I'll turn it back to you.
Thank you, Ross. I'll start with slide 19. As Stephen outlined earlier, the 2025 financial year delivered an exceptional result with an adjusted EBITDA of $113.6 million. The result reflects positive investment performance across our partner firms, particularly over calendar year 2024, and has delivered a result that demonstrates the earnings potential of the diversified business that has been built out over the last few years. Of the 18% growth in revenue year- on- year, the highlight is the strong performance fee revenue of $35.7 million delivered by Lighthouse. This performance fee revenue was up $23.8 million on the prior year. We did see some increase overall in the expense base of the business. However, the largest driver of this increase is the Lighthouse annual bonus pool. A significant proportion of this pool is determined based on performance fee income earned by that business.
With a significant increase in these fees this year, there was a corresponding increase in employee costs by this variable bonus expense. Turning to slide 20, this demonstrates that not only did adjusted EBITDA increase, but statutory EBITDA and NPAT showed even stronger growth at 54% and 80% respectively. Whilst the prior year's statutory results were impacted by the accounting for the settlement of the redemption liability on January 3, 2024, this year benefited from strong fair value gains on our investments in our partner firms. With increases in underlying AUM driving steadily growing financial performance, the value of partner firms increased by $68.2 million for the year based on valuation ranges provided by an external valuer. $31.8 million of this is recognized in the P&L.
A key focus of management, however, is our adjusted EBITDA results, which excludes these unrealized gains and instead provides a cash-focused measure of profitability, which demonstrates the group's ability to harness its operating profits towards additional growth to further expand and diversify our business. The next slide, slide 21, shows the strength of both our minority stake business in NGI Strategic and our wholly owned operating subsidiary Lighthouse. This year, NGI Strategic delivered an adjusted EBITDA of $76.2 million, a $7.6 million increase on the prior year. Higher distributions from both the six partner firms in the NGI Strategic portfolio and our private market firms accounted for the majority of this increase. NGI Strategic portfolio distributions were $65.7 million, up $4.2 million or 7% on the prior year, whilst the private markets distributions were $14.4 million, up $2.9 million or 25%.
Roughly 65% of private market distribution related to management and other fee-related earnings. Margins on this business remain strong, with adjusted EBITDA representing 95% of revenue this year. This margin expansion has largely resulted from the additional distributions from the acquisition of the remaining interests in the NGI Strategic portfolio in FY 2024, as well as strong financial performance and increased contribution from private market partner firms acquired in 2022 and 2023. We expect some growth in resourcing for this segment to continue monitoring and supporting existing and new partner firms. Lighthouse showed a 61% year-on-year adjusted EBITDA growth. The increase in performance fees is offset by a corresponding staff bonus expense, as outlined previously. The remuneration report, published in our 2025 annual report, sets out this policy where 50% of performance fees is allocated to the Lighthouse staff bonus pool.
It was largely this increase that drove higher employee costs for Lighthouse. In addition, there was a $1.9 million increase in other expenses, which were attributable to higher third-party distribution expenses associated with certain Lighthouse products, as well as higher information technology costs. Information technology remains a key focus to ensure systems continue to evolve both in functionality and security. Overall, with significantly higher performance fee revenue, Lighthouse delivered a 33% adjusted EBITDA margin for this year. Net corporate costs have remained relatively steady over the past two years and represent head office employee, director, and other associated listing costs. Slide 23 sets out the key financial metrics of our business across both NGI Strategic and Lighthouse. In relation to NGI Strategic, the average management fee rate remains relatively steady at 1.18% per annum. As AUM increases in this business, this steady fee rate supports growing management fee earnings.
In terms of performance fee earnings, the metrics on our aggregated partner firms continue to show an average performance fee rate of 17%, with an estimated 80% of AUM able to earn performance fees. Another metric which has also remained steady is that our partner firms continue to distribute approximately 90% - 95% of their profits. We've provided an indicative margin on total revenue of 34% - 44%, which is based on average historical data. I do note that all these metrics are based on aggregation of data across our NGI Strategic partner firms, so there'll naturally be variations to actual results as the partner firms will perform and contribute differently to NGI's results from year to year. Metrics are also resilient in the Lighthouse business.
The average management fee rate has held steady at 54 basis points, supporting the consistent growth in Lighthouse management fees over the past few years. In relation to performance fee potential, the proportion of AUM which can earn performance fees is 23%, and currently 98% of this AUM is at or above high watermark. With an average performance fee rate of 13%, the potential that these financial metrics create is demonstrated in Lighthouse's earnings for this year. Turning to slide 23, this shows that we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with funding flexibility to pursue our growth strategy. We expect our strong cash generation from operating results will continue to be the solid foundation for capital deployment. With our existing $100 million credit facility that matures in 2029, we're targeting new partner firm investments that can be funded from existing cash flow and debt sources.
The board has determined a $0.03 per share dividend payable on 26th of September, 2025. The company's dividend policy is to pay an annual unfranked dividend of $0.03 - $0.04 per share. However, as Stephen noted earlier, the board is currently reviewing that policy to determine whether the continuation of the policy is the best use of capital during NGI's current growth phase. The review of dividend policy is consistent with NGI's approach to managing its capital, as outlined on slide 24. NGI's capital management principles are to prioritize maintaining a strong balance sheet as that forms a solid foundation for continued growth. Acquiring interest in new high-quality alternative asset manager partner firms embeds the catalyst for meaningful revenue and profit growth in the future, delivering long-term value for shareholders.
The acquisition timeframe is unique for every potential new partner firm, and we're conscious that there may be times in the future when it's in the best interest of shareholders to return some excess capital. Any such decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all the relevant factors at that time. With that, I hand it back to Stephen.
Thank you, Amber. Before focusing on Navigator's business model and the outlook, I think it's worthwhile reflecting on the transformational growth that the business has undergone since 2020. If you look at slide 26, not all investment management firms are created equally or grow in a linear way. Navigator has an established track record of identifying and partnering with scalable alternative asset management firms that have a strong growth trajectory and generate material, resilient, and growing cash flows over time. Over the last five years, Navigator AUM and revenues have more than doubled. More importantly, as a result of successful investment in partner firms, sustained investment performance through market cycles, and the generation of high fee-yielding AUM and margin expansion, EBITDA has grown over 400% through the period.
Now, from initially owning Lighthouse Investment Partners in 2020, Navigator is a partner to 12 diversified alternative asset managers, including Lighthouse, with a total of over $84 billion AUM at the partner firm level, managing 46 strategies and 223 products. A transformational change in the scale, growth trajectory, earnings profile, and the risk return of the platform. During this period, Navigator has strengthened the balance sheet, partnered with the global leader in GP staking, Blue Owl, and focused on inorganic growth through the addition of successful and growing private market firms. On slide 27, there is a snapshot of Navigator's business model illustrating how we strive to deliver value to our stakeholders, including our partner firms and shareholders. Our vision is to be the preferred partner or to be a preferred partner to alternative asset managers globally and the leading alternative asset management company on the ASX.
Our mandate is to identify and partner with management teams who operate institutional quality alternative asset management businesses globally. We help facilitate partner firms by their growth by provision of capital and strategic support from both Navigator and our partner, Blue Owl, which helps scale their business. In terms of shareholder value, by building a portfolio of aligned ownership interests in leading alternative firms, Navigator aims to deliver diversified and growing earnings to our shareholders, not by focusing on top-line AUM aggregation, but by partnering with asset managers who generate strong risk-adjusted returns, have high fee-yielding AUM, and compelling growth trajectories. Turning to slide 28, Navigator's future growth will be driven by a number of key factors. One, growth in the broader alternatives industry, increasing demand for our partner firm strategies. The secular tailwinds driving the growth of the industry globally are set out in the appendix at slide 44.
They are significant, with Preqin estimating that the historical growth trajectory of approximately 10% compound annual growth rate will continue over the medium and longer term, with most of that alternative AUM continuing to be in North America. Those tailwinds include recent accelerated momentum from retail and wealth management investors globally, including here in Australia. This is likely to reshape the asset management industry and is supplemented with the adoption of alternatives by global retirement capital pools, which is underway, led by the United States 401(k) retirement plan, seeking to be able to invest in alternatives for the first time. There is also the need for traditional asset managers to adapt their business models and either partner or acquire private markets' capabilities, given the challenges, risks, and time required to build such expertise organically.
Two, continued organic growth of scale at our partner firms, and that's generated by strong investment performance, increased net inflows, new product launches, and strategic initiatives, and/or increasing the operating margins at the partner firm level. Three, such growth is supplemented opportunistically by value creation from Navigator and Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital's business services platform, which aims to accelerate partner firm trajectory, including the provision of services like capital introduction, corporate strategy, M&A, AI and data science, human capital, and private wealth advisory. An outline of their leading platform is included at slide 43. Finally, the addition of new partner firms to expand the portfolio, or indeed if the opportunity arises to invest additional capital into our existing partner firms to support their growth. During the year, we partner with 1315 Capital.
We have a high-quality pipeline of new opportunities, but we remain prudently focused on further investments that meet our sustainable criteria. We also acquired additional equity rights in Invictus Capital Partners and provided capital to support other partner firms. In terms of the outlook for Navigator for FY 2026 on slide 29, firstly, core growth. We expect our portfolio of partner firms to continue to perform across market cycles over the long term at both management company and investment strategy level. In particular, the Lighthouse platform is performing well and is well placed to benefit from greater net inflows and the launch of new strategic initiatives. The calendar year-to-date returns across our partner firms are overall at a more subdued level than the same time in calendar year 2024, although it's dependent by strategy.
It's too early in this financial year to provide any guidance or clear outlook on NGI partner firm performance and growth. Subject to market conditions, we would expect NGI's diversified portfolio of partner firms to again generate investment performance broadly in line with their long-term averages. However, unlike other listed asset managers that may benefit from a sustained risk-on period for equity and bond markets, NGI's public markets focused partner firms show resilience in more difficult time periods, which can provide diversification. NGI management is focused on measured acquisitive growth, targeting one to two partner firm investments per year that meet our criteria. We are generating strong operating cash flows and have a flexible credit facility, only currently 50% drawn, having paid the remaining deferred consideration on Marble Capital and Invictus Capital Partners this month post the end of the financial year.
We will look to deploy our capital to fund compelling partner firm investments. Finally, capital management. Navigator is deploying capital towards investments that generate high risk-adjusted intermediate and long-term returns on capital. We are focusing on preserving a strong balance sheet and executing on attractive growth opportunities. We will proactively and continually assess capital management opportunities when we have excess capital. The board is undertaking a review of the dividend policy with a goal of maximizing shareholder returns. Before I conclude and open to questions today, I want to revisit on slide 30 why we think Navigator is a unique and compelling investment proposition. We are the only pure-play diversified alternatives firm on the ASX.
Each of Navigator, our portfolio of global partner firms, and our strategic partner Blue Owl have deep expertise across diverse sectors of the alternative industry, all with established track records. Our resilient global portfolio is very well positioned to benefit from the significant structural tailwinds driving the alternative asset management industry, and over the medium and long term, to continue to deliver superior performance for its shareholders. Thank you for your time, everyone. I would now like to open the call to questions. Kerry?
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please limit yourself to two questions. 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. Our first question comes from Tim Lawson with Macquarie.
Hi guys, thanks for taking my questions. Just to start with, in terms of the historical distributions from NGI Strategic, obviously history's a guide, but do you think that's now becoming less useful given the sort of growth in the firms? Maybe you could talk to that place first.
Tim, when you say sort of less useful, I mean obviously the distributions from NGI Strategic do end up contributing to a majority of our adjusted EBITDA. Just maybe want to clarify.
If you look at, I mean maybe the more recent years are more relevant, but if you look back on a deeper history of average, it's sort of not necessarily what you'd expect now. Maybe talk to the underlying sort of growth in the firms rather than the historical distributions.
Yeah, that's a good question. Amber, do you want to take that?
Yeah, I mean I think we, you know, to try and provide some kind of guidance, we used to provide a three and five-year average. I think what we really look at now is probably more the metrics, which we put out on slide 22. Following along from those metrics, if you make your own assumption on AUM growth and where you think investment performance will come out, you can really then have an estimate of where you think the NGI Strategic distributions might land in any given year. We think that's a bit more useful because it's a more dynamic way of estimating the future distributions.
Could you just clarify what average performance fee rate means?
That 1.18% is the average rate across all of the partner firms, including the private market firms. It's kind of like a yield. It's been taking the underlying revenue provided by the average AUM from a weighted basis.
That's quite clear, but the 17%—what does average performance fee rate mean?
That's the weighted average performance fee that the aggregated partner firms would charge where they're able to on assets that they can generate.
Yeah, that's fine. Stephen, just on cost control, you alluded to it in the slides or in the release that you've put cost controls in place. Can you just talk more about how that's different from history and what you've got in now?
I'm not sure if there's any sort of deliberate cost control plan, Tim, but it is true that we've been working on a refinement to the compensation plan in relation to Lighthouse, which has clarified and provides certainty to Sean and his team around share of pre-bonus EBITDA and a base fee and also a performance fee side. That's certainly something that I think you can see in terms of when you look at the segment reporting, you can see the impact of the performance fees and then the flow-through of the increased performance fees across the Lighthouse business, and Amber's probably better placed to know, but we saw a reduction in the fixed compensation and also the headcount across that business. That was a reference.
Also at the central level, Tim, our negative EBITDA at the corporate level was -$3.6 million, which was really in line with last year's $3.5 million. Happy with the operating scale of the business that we've been able to achieve to date. I would say there was a call out, though, we may have to add additional resources, not necessarily at the senior level, to actually help with the overall monitoring and management of the portfolio as we scale further. We're not considering that that's going to have a material impact on the cost of the business. Amber, do you want to add anything?
No, I think that's pretty fair. We do set out for Lighthouse, obviously employees is the biggest cost driver. Setting some of that clarity around the bonus pool, I think, will help. If you look at REM reports in previous years, there was often an element of discretionary bonus added on top. The new policy is set out to get rid of that discretion. As Stephen said, provide some certainty for both Lighthouse employees and, you know, shareholders and external stakeholders as well.
Okay, thanks. I'll jump back in the queue.
Our next question comes from Phil Chippendale with Ord Minnett.
Good morning, Tim. Thanks for your time. First question is just for Ross. I'm just thinking about the inflow outlook for NGI Strategic. Is this going to be a function, do you think, of new product launches and raisings for private market firms in particular? Do you think that there's going to be a potential for inflows across your other partner firms as well? Could you sort of unpack your expectations here, please?
Sure. Hey Phil, thanks so much for the question. I would say it's both categories. We are fortunate that the two existing private market firms, Marble and Invictus , are in the middle of their next vintage raise. We saw a partial impact in that in this fiscal year, and we expect to have more of that come into next fiscal year. We are seeing a lot of interest in the NGI Strategic portfolio products, both existing products as well as their ability to launch new firms. There's contribution from both this fiscal year, and we expect it coming from both next year as well. Obviously, in the back end of next year, as we alluded to when we announced the partnership in March, we're really excited that 1315 Capital will go to market with their next fund.
It may not hit fiscal 2026, but we hope it will.
Okay, great. Maybe just a question for Stephen, just on the capital management side of things. You've made mention of the board reviewing the dividend policy. Is this a function of how confident you are in the acquisition pipeline at the moment? Is that a fair statement, do you think?
No, I'm not sure it is, Phil, although I certainly appreciate the question. I think it's a function of the Board wanting to digest what's in the best interests of shareholders and considering whether the payment of an unfranked dividend actually, that is the best step. I think certainly we would look, you know, in terms of our pipeline for those transactions that meet the criteria that Ross set out, including quite high IRRs and risk-adjusted returns, that yes, in fact, maybe a better use of that $16 million- $17 million is to go towards those sort of opportunities. There might be another more effective way to get the capital back to shareholders, but only when we have excess capital.
Our focus is on the balance sheet and on growth, but we're just not sure whether the payment of an unfranked dividend at the yield we're doing when we're effectively a growth stock is the best approach. We won't have time to review that and to digest that. I'll hand over to Ross to talk perhaps about the pipeline, but what we're not saying, Phil, is that we've got sort of three transactions that are immediately executable and we need the $17 million to immediately deploy. It's more a reflection on what is in the best interests of shareholders. Ross, did you want to add anything on that in terms of the pipeline, which I think you might have been sort of indirectly getting at there, Phil?
Yeah, no, absolutely. Just jumping on top of what Stephen said, I obviously agree. The pipeline, you know, Phil, as we always say, and as you probably remember, is a pretty consistent effort. Some of the discussions with partner firms, like we announced with 1315 Capital, can be quite efficient and quick, depending on what the process is like and what the objectives are and what some of the milestones our prospective partner firms are looking to hit. Other discussions can be in the years. We do have a very active pipeline. I think, as Stephen said, at our scale, with our line of credit and with the cash flow coming off the business, we're really happy with where we are. Having a little bit more flexibility to allocate that capital to growth initiatives is what we're after.
Okay, great. Thanks for the really full answer, and congratulations on a great result. We'll jump back in the queue.
Our next question comes from Nick McGarrigle with Barrenjoey .
Hi, thanks for taking some questions. Just on the performance that we've seen in June half year to date versus where we were June last year, what does that kind of tell us around performance fee potential in the Lighthouse fund and then the strategic partner side as well?
Yeah, thanks, Nick. Why don't I take sort of the Lighthouse side and then, you know, certainly Ross can discuss the NGI Strategic side. I think on the NorthRock or on our equity long-short manager, it's about 400 basis points behind, you know, prior corresponding period. Then you've got Mission Crest, our macro manager at Lighthouse, about 500 basis points above a prior corresponding period. Some of the other strategies are within range, maybe a little bit lagging. I think in terms of how you think about it, yes, I think there's a need to sort of normalize the performance fee expectations based on those returns. I think it's important that where we sit right now is we still have multiple months left in the year. It's an interesting investment climate, a lot of volatility, a lot of uncertainty.
If you have a look at slide 34 with the medium and long-term performances of our portfolio, they tend to perform well across market climate and cycles. I still feel confident that they'll return to their long-term averages. It's something we're looking at. I think if you were trying to extrapolate out the Lighthouse returns to go from a $39 million EBITDA into a $45 million EBITDA, I think that would be, as you and I have discussed before, a mistake. You've got to look at the 4% increase on management fees and increasing AUM at Lighthouse and management fee revenues and actually normalize performance fees around more of the long-term performance of these strategies rather than calendar year 2024 when NorthRock did a net 13% for its strategy. In terms of Lighthouse, that would be my commentary, recognizing that these numbers are as of June.
Ross, do you want to comment on the NGI Strategic side perhaps to answer Nick's question?
Yeah, no, I'm happy to. Hey Nick, and thank you very much for the question. I think it's a good call out. I mean, if you think about where you see in the appendix we are year to date, that compares to, you know, over 6% for the NGI Strategic composite last year at this time. As Stephen said, though, we are very cautious about tracking that and making an assumption about where we'll be, you know, four plus months from now because a lot can happen in these products. They're not necessarily the highest volatility products, but they certainly have the ability to generate, you know, 100, 200, 300 basis points of return in a month when they work across the portfolio. It is tracking to be a lower performance fee revenue year in the NGI Strategic portfolio.
We remain really excited when we talk to them and we hear, well, number one, as Stephen also highlighted, when we think about what the recent history has been and what the opportunity set is, because I do think on the institutional side, that's really what most of their clients are looking at. I think one slightly lower year doesn't necessarily lead to net outflows, but it could lead to lower performance fee revenues. We're looking at it closely and really feel good about the opportunity set for the next, you know, to close out this calendar year when most of those fees crystallize. It's just tracking, you know, lower today.
Great, thanks.
We have a follow-up question from Tim Lawson with Macquarie.
It's a good question. It's just in terms of, could you talk about the partner opportunities? Obviously, you touched a little bit on it when we talked about the dividend, but just how you're seeing the opportunities on the M&I side.
Ross, do you want to take that?
Sure. It's pretty active, Tim. What we continue to look for are these established, mostly private market firms that have a strong team in place, both senior and junior investment professionals, a strong operating team in place, and they're facing kind of a wall of both investment opportunity and client demand, really causing them to look for a strategic partner. They're looking for the capital and the strategic support over time that we can provide. That really ranges across areas of credit, both in the U.S. and Europe, areas of real estate, and a couple more private equity firms that we think are really delivering impressive results and we think will add value over time.
I wouldn't say they all look exactly like 1315 Capital and Marble, Invictus, but we're generally finding $1 billion - $5 billion AUM private market firms who are looking for a value-add strategic partner like us. For the most part, the pipeline remains a similar size to the transactions we've done in that space to date, really because that's just where the criteria leads us, but not necessarily the only things that we're looking at. It's a very, in terms of if you had to think about where we were last year versus this year, I would say the demand continues to be really healthy, if not higher today than last year for a minority partner.
I think people, obviously there's been a lot of volatility and uncertainty over the last year, but I think people have a little bit more comfort as to where their individual sectors or asset classes are going and what they want to do to capitalize on those opportunities yet. They're kind of coming up for air and saying, who can we partner with to execute on this? Really active, and I think, obviously the statement that Stephen made that we continue to feel high conviction in of adding one to two a year remains our focus.
Okay, thanks. Just on the deferred consideration and contingent consideration pipeline, I'm not sure I caught the comments correctly on the deferred consideration. Is that $57, has that been paid and was that the final amount? Just on the contingent, the timing of that given it's currently listed in current.
Yes, so as at 30 June, we still had about $80 million of deferred consideration, which was Invictus. The final payments for Invictus, which was, I think, $45 million or is that another $5 million? So about $50 million for Invictus. The remaining amount of that was the deferred consideration, or sorry, the contingent consideration, should call it, for 1315 Capital, which is the transaction we did in March. Marble is fully paid out, so Marble is 100% paid off. We paid the last amount during this second half. We have actually paid the remaining amount on Invictus because it was due in August. Since year-end, we've fully paid out Invictus. It's 100% on this growth.
Was that the amount that's at $57,241 as the current deferred consideration in the annual report? Is that what was actually paid out?
Yes, so that was 45 on the original, plus another 5 on the, yeah. There was a little bit on 1315 Capital as well, sorry, but the majority of it, yeah, is the Invictus.
Just the contingent 23, just the timing of that?
It's based around some performance metrics which we're expecting will be achieved by sort of mid-next year. When Ross was saying he expects that we, you know, should start to see some impact of that in the financials if that's fully raised, targeted sometime between before the end of mid-next year. That's when we would have to pay the earned out amount as well, whatever that was.
Right, so it's about 12 odd months, so it just falls in current.
Yeah, it is in the current, to that point, part of the current deferred on the balance sheet.
Yeah, okay. They're the only two. That title of AUM is the only amount.
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand it back to Mr. Darke for closing remarks.
Oh, Kerry, nothing more from me. Thanks everyone for their time.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now.