Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Omni Bridgeway. Participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session. R key, followed by the one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, welcome for the six months ended 31st of December 2025. My name is Raymond van Hulst. Joining me today are David Breeney, our Chief Financial Officer, Jeremy Sambrook, our General Counsel, and Company and Investor Relations. I am pleased with our first half FY 2026 targets, with excellent investment and solid progress on our corporate KPIs. Raise fee income while keeping OpEx materially below budget. The engine have co-investment and our ability to grow fund capital and assets under management. As AUM grows, fee income increases, and scale benefits will further improve cost efficiency. Well, on all aspects of this flywheel, which reflects continued and disciplined action. I will first cover the highlights from the half and the performance of our portfolio. David will be back to provide a strategic and management update, followed by Q&A.
Let's move on to. As I indicated, this has been a positive first half. We are tracking at or about on our KPIs. Let me summarize that through the key numbers. Investment proceeds, AUD 7 million for the half, delivering statutory NPAT of AUD 84.5, materially below our FY 2026 budget of AUD 80 million. Of AUD 35 million, and cost coverage at just over 50% for the period above the FY 2026 target. On capital formation, we reached an important US dollars in external commitments for Funds four and five, Series 2. While last year, we remain on track for a full and final close in the coming period, with several parties confirm AUD 2 million in additional sidecar capital during the half. We have a number of further sidecar projects. Looking ahead at the second half, the message remains consistent.
The portfolio is a strong base for cash completions in the coming periods. We remain on track to deliver on our. The outlook for new commitments remains positive, supported by a strong pipeline of progress. These all underpin appropriate risk-adjusted pricing. We had 45 full and partial completions in the first half, for MOIC of 2.6 times, and 107% fair value conversion ratio to cash proceeds, noting that this should always be looked at on a portfolio level and not on individual. The 2.6 MOIC is slightly above our life-to-date average of 2.4 times, and both our tech signal continued discipline in underwriting and valuation. There was also a commitments now stands at AUD 5.5 billion, up 5% since June 2025. AUD 3.8 billion, with AUD 800 million in OBL only fair value.
These strong investment metrics are the foundation of our business and will drive financial results. Moving to our business performance on slide 7. We'll cover some 9 transaction at the end of FY 2025. We deconsolidated several funds from the group account as financial assets measured at fair value under IFRS. This shift means that our stock value and value creation in our portfolio. We also OBL only cash view, which David will walk through later. With net profit after tax at AUD 84.5 million for the half, delivering. From a shareholder metrics point of view, return on equity for the half on an annual total book value per share is up 7% for the half to AUD 3.20 per share, allows to continue discount to book value of our shares.
Let us now take a deeper look during the period on Slide 9. Similar to prior periods, I won't spend too long, and this has been part of our quarterly reporting. We feel it continues, and we will provide the breakdown. Completion activity and momentum was elevated, with 45, AUD 23.7 million in proceeds, AUD 37.8 million was attributable to OBL. Conversion of 107% is good and sufficiently close to 100%, may indicate that too conservative on average. The portfolio developments, as outlined in the recent quarter, and will drive completion momentum for the coming periods. Portfolio on a fair value basis.
Our portfolio continues to be very well balanced between the regions within the legal finance asset class, unique to Omni Bridgeway, and reflects our multi-strategy, specialized teams focused on specific legal sub-strategies based on global areas of law. Such diversification mitigates the risks associated with adverse events in any particular region or area of law. I continue to be the largest 10 investments, representing only 13% of our commitments, and 24%. On diversification does not preclude us from investing in larger matters. Rather, we do so. Sidecar Capital helps us mitigate concentration risks while still generating management fees, enhancing our return on capital and equity. Which is important, as it drives further diversification and economies of skill. Right-hand side, slide 11. The portfolio fair value has increased by an annual 23%.
This is net of new commitments, completions, and material litigation events, and represents of the AUD 3.8 billion, approximately AUD 800 million is attributable to OBL only, carried interest entitlement. We will discuss these in more detail on slides 12 and 13. On active investments year-on-year, a realized compounded annual growth rate or CAGR years of 31%, reflecting both market growth and growth of market share. On to portfolio fair value movement. This slide and the next slide explain and standard on a total basis and on an OBL-only basis. Total portfolio fair value has increased from new commitments, which links back to slide 6, and the portfolio further increased, and for the period. The remaining fair value movement of the portfolio amounted to under.
First, the discount unwind, which reflects the passage of time as investments material litigation events, or MLEs, which amounted to a negative AUD 63 million adjustment for this fair value developments, which involved 119 of our invest- expert reports, but more often include timing changes following updated court schedules or ships or claim values. The AUD 63 million is less than 2% of the total portfolio, 2% fair value conversion ratio discussed earlier. Finally, FX movement. Significant movement in the US dollar against other major currencies. We've seen a negative AUD 133 million. The overall effect of these factors resulted in AUD 104 million for the period. Lastly, the investments and associated periods have fallen out of the portfolio. Slide 13 provides the only perspective.
Overall, the OBL-only value of the portfolio has increased by a 100x impact from an OBL-only perspective, amounting to AUD -27 million. In slides 12 and 13, it becomes clear that the OBL-only attribution rate for new commitments driven by the specific general and carry interest terms of the funds and sidecar arrangements, have a 0, respectively, very low OBL-only attribution rate for deployments, which is helpful effective. I will now hand over to David to take us through the financial results in more detail.
I'm delighted to be delivering my second set of Omni Bridgeway financial results since taking on the role in March last year. Jumping to the consolidated P&L, this provides a walk of the gross proceeds at the fund level. Total statutory income reached AUD 179.5 million, reflecting the strong growth and movement of the portfolio. AUD 4.5 million, up from AUD 18.7 million in 1H 2025. From 1H 2025 to AUD 18 million, a 31% increase, representing the online transaction and continued growth in transaction fees. It is important to note here, the Fund 9 transaction in the second half of FY 2025 as a result period to 1H 2025, with Funds 2, 3, and 4 all deconsolidated.
The OBL-only fair value P&L continues to be managed of the OBL-only investments at fair value for the full year, inclusive of funds 25 presentation, the result is aligning closer to the statutory results. AUD 24.7 million in EBIT for the half, with a realized EBIT of AUD 21 million, driven by the successful investment completions and increased fee income. Our unrealized income was likewise positive, reflecting the strong value generation of this portfolio, even after a negative FX movement in the period. Conversion ratio for the half further validates and demonstrates OBL's ability to deliver. Our cash OpEx, at AUD 34.4 million, has continued to reduce down from, which is a result of our previous cost management measures put in place. The OBL-only cash P&L reflects the cash view of, and is a cash bridge for the last two quarterly reports.
OBL-only, an AUD 19.3 million increase from 1H 2025, driven by the complete increase in fee income. OBL-only investment deployments, originally due to the fund line structure, which has reduced OBL-owned fees, code deployments, investment in the fund, thus materially decreasing investment deployment cash outflows. Our unwavering focus on cost discipline. OBL, AUD 1 million, half on half. While we do anticipate the second half of 2026 to be full year end, OpEx is expected to end below our FY 2026 budget of AUD 80 million. Income has grown 28% CAGR since 2023 and is tracking in line. We remain on track to achieve a 70% of FY 2028, a key milestone. Moving to page 19, this chart provides a bridge of cash movements. On an OBL, AUD 149 million in cash, AUD 3 million since June 30.
This has landed within our expectations. OBL-only cash flow and liquidity profile is a probabilistic analysis, things of which are driven by the 300+ underlying matters. Therefore are live and dynamic. On previous slides, we stated that we are targeting fee income, AUD 38 million, and platform using a Monte Carlo simulation to derive a P50 scenario, potentially around AUD 80 million, with associated deployments in this scenario, potentially just over 20. Represent the potential, a range of different scenarios based on our PATP interval. We have included a category for potential secondary sales as they present at the origination platform like ours. You will note that there is no central box on that node in the stars align and the opportunity arises. We expect the portfolio to be on track. With that, I now hand back to Raymond.
Thank you, David. Developments across capital markets, operations, market dynamics, and growth. We already discussed the status on the Fund 4 and Fund 5, Series 2 capital raise and environment for fundraising. The additional clause of Fund 4 and Fund 5 indicates that OBL discussions at advanced stages also support this and provide for ongoing engagement with capital. In the FY 2025 results presentation, we discussed and presented our capital allocation. We aim to keep our net liquidity within a 12-24 month bandwidth, and we remain at the higher end within that range while we clear the legacy balance sheet liability. In the FY 2025 results presentation, we also indicated that we were to announce that we have now substantially completed that analysis and presentation. Fund 6, we will release it to the market. This will be accompanied by a pre-recorded video.
On the operations front, we are, we already discussed the positive, fee income and capabilities on the legal tech and operational software side have accelerated, which put operational efficiency of our platform. We believe these developments will allow us to improve while maintaining our OpEx at current levels, and we are engaging with these opportunities. Carried interest program, and are on track to have that fully completed within the next months. This will from fund investors and will improve investment efficiencies in the longer term. Foundation, underpinning appropriate risk-adjusted pricing and economies of scale. Regulatory developments have overall been positive across the key global jurisdictions, with government highlighting the value of legal finance as tool for access to justice and provision. U.S. discussions remain centered on disclosure obligations, but these are developments.
We are seeing the first signs of an AI-driven transformation of the legal industry, which of capital deployment within the legal industry. Lastly, growth. A term target of an annualized 10% increase. The growing opportunity set that we are seeing that medium-term target. We continue to explore further expansion and diversification of assets, adding new sub-strategies to our portfolio when the opportunities arise. There's management updates that support the next phase of our strategy. First, we are pleased to welcome... He will join our New York office as Head of Commercial Strategy and Capital Solutions, effective March 26th, and the legal finance industry very well. As fund investor over many years. Peter will focus on expanding our capability in originating and underwriting, including structured finance solutions.
He will work closely with our investor relations and capital for capital markets in support of origination, fund formation, and shareholder engagement. Second, Tom Glasgow, our Global Operating Officer, will will relocate view of the growth potential of the Middle East region for our business, which Tom will push to explore zones to our global teams as Tom continues to lead the platform operationally. Our process to have senior management and capital markets capability on the ground in all major. These roles and developments are integral parts of our strategy to further grow OBL, additional great investment management platform for legal assets. Thank you. Before we open the line to questions, we have a few questions from Jason Palmer, who can't join the call today. Is, how is cash flow looking like for 2H 2026 and calendar year 2026? Relevant slide that we just presented.
Any legal assets, well, we don't control processes to that, to that detail and forecasting them to that detail are meaningful. What we do on an ongoing basis is, just give you an updated view on it that David presented. A second question relates to our cost of, what the cost base will be going forward. Our cost to reduce any further. We've gone through a significant process of cost reduction, very efficient basis, and we're generating very significant value as represented by the results, would reduce costs further. It would impact our ability to generate that value, and we think that be at the level that we want to be at, and may see keeping it level at this, at this point. A third question relates to the launch in, calendar year 2026.
Five capital raise, that's got the full attention. We have several, which may develop further in some kind of specialized fund type vehicles, it's still all the focus will be on completing the Funds 4 and 5. The last question he put to us is when will the balance of the capital for funds, are the terms in line with expectations on cost coverage target? Yes, at least in the second part, we do expect, we're still on target for that. It has grown up and acknowledges that this is an asset class, most other asset classes, and that a certain level of fees is needed to achieve the results, that they feel comfortable that we will hit those targets by the indicated timeline. That balance will be raised.
All the indications we currently have is that it will be within the control of that process. We are dependent to some extent on on outside parties and personnel. It should be this this financial year. That's it. I would actually like to speak a bit more on Jason. I would like to wish Fund coming to the dark side and joining an ASX-listed corporate in in Adelaide. Jason has been a fixture of many earnings calls and has been Baade's time, staunch supporter. We thank him for his support over the years and wish him well in his new role, and we're very... Operator, we would now like to open the call for further questions.
From the phones, please press the star key, then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. MST Marquee, go ahead. Thank you.
Morning, guys. Can you hear me okay? Nathan. I think Jason touched on it, the capital raise, from my numbers, you've done your OBL contribution. You've got around about AUD 265 million to go. I guess done by full year 2026. I just, the previous guidance is by, as you said, was by, anything that actually impacted on you actually getting it all done by the end of last year, now you're actually doing it.
Good question, and a fair question. We, it's the same parties. It's just the fact that, in the terminal at the end of this, the ODP process and the final diligence, and that's lifted over the end of... We are takers of that news and information, and we can't really push people to move faster if they can't. As indicated also on the question of Jason, we don't control it. The firm commitments that they will assess is within the time period now, and that process is actually pretty actively. We can be comfortable that that will happen in time. That's the only thing that's happened is not that parties have said that within the time period that we thought it would, it would take.
Can you hear David? Just joking. This is a question for David, probably. The adverse costs associated with that investment, has that been paid, and can we see the new investments, or is it in the working capital movement, or what's the timing on those adverse costs?
As per the disclosure we made on that, when it happened, payments, part this year, part next financial year. I look at slide 27, the investment proceeds on that, on that obligation, so it sits within the investment process.
Okay. Through the, I guess, the next 12-month forecast, you did AUD 17 million deployment in the last. I can understand it's going to be low because obviously your commitments in Fund 9, I think, going to be 30%, going to be lower. When do you think you'll start to see a step-up in deployments to, and that deployment number on an OBL-only basis, i.e., being 20% of series?
Well, I think what you see there in deployments is actually mostly fine still, because the way Fund 9 or Fund 8 doesn't have a co-invest deployment in the right structures. It is once we've made distributions to Fund 9, the. Or when if we, if we time it well, or if it is timed well, the OBL. Based on the, I think that the majority of deployments in Fund 9 will actually be 100% Fund 9 are 2. I don't expect that to go up to five, a little bit on how many new commitments we have and what type of new commitments we put.
Okay. I think you'll be in Fund 9. There's some recycling going on at the moment.
Exactly.
Given your potential pro forma closing liquidity, is that board and your view on capital management, given that you've got excess liquidity for months?
We are very, I think in the FY 2025 presentation on what our capital allocation policy is and, when the opportunity is there. We've indicated that once we start to proceed with the capital distribution, either in the form, we are currently not yet there, as I indicated in the strategic update, but we are the investment proceeds in the coming 12-month period. Expect them to happen, then we would indeed exceed the range, and we would proceed with the capital.
Okay. Sometime soon. Just a couple more, if that's okay. In your, the next 12 months, you've got investment proceeds of AUD 79 million. Is there a sort of gap here?
Good question. I have to take that or not. I don't have that number. I think the majority of seats. I believe it's actually also quite a bit NNC, type NNC income. It's a combination across the funds. That will be a part of carried interest.
Okay. Thank you. Last one, in this cost coverage, you know, 70% by full year 2028, I presume was based on a higher upshare will be higher than 70% by the end of 2028, or is that a bit optimistic?
Not stop pushing for more once we hit the 70%. I think, in, or even about that, but, I think it's too early to, in 2 years' time, the world's moving pretty fast at the moment, but I'm.
All right. Thanks, Raymond. That's all from me.
Thanks.
Michael Boks from Select Equities. Go ahead, thank you.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the raising for 4 and 5 Series 2. Can I just clarify exact, out of the $1 billion, that was the sort of the target for this, so where are we at now?
We are at... Sorry, I don't have that number. I guess you can add the numbers from the prior disclosures, but we are about AUD 300 million of the full closure. I think it's closer to AUD 70 million or-
Sort of AUD 700, from what you're saying, out of the bill. Can I just clarify, does that AUD 700, is that counting AUD 200 for OBL and then sort of hence AUD 500 external? Okay. And also just, I think you made a comment, Raymond, about words that are fair challenging. Can you just sort of go through what particular aspect, you know, been raising money here for a while. What are the sort of the real key challenging part?
Yeah, no, that's a good, that's a good question. I think the main section of portfolios of large allocators, now we're performing a lot better than private equity, and even issues. Private equity has been a bit more severe at the moment than we've had them. Allocators want to kind of rebalance their portfolio and put more into, for example, alternative, but they first need to recycle or get back off to private. One element of this, as a result of that, we see that have that problem slightly more. They seem to been somewhat overallocated to private. We seem to have become very attractive to the very large. That is a, that's great.
Those are the type of LPs we wouldn't, are a lot more expensive than you would see if you have a from a smaller allocator. Part of it is, it's the depth of the diligence part, it's the liquidity in the market with a lot of capital being locked in. I think the industry comes to be. I think the industry consolidation to the diligence, because they want to make sure that our portfolio is classified as challenging.
Okay, that's fine. Can I just move on to AUD 37.8 million of investment proceeds? I mean, given the different structures of the farm, you know, where those cash proceeds, that OBL only is AUD 37.8 million?
This is in 6 types of BNC cases. Some of the converse were not part of that set in Fund 4 and Fund 5, Series 1, and were not part of the... I think that's the main, that will cover the majority of those proceeds.
Thanks. Going forward, Fund 6 will be the main sort of driver of your expected?
Well, given Fund 6 is subtly into the harvesting periods at in the Fund 9 structure, it will certainly be an important contributor. It will also come from the other funds, but probably in a smaller proportion at the early years.
From David's question, etc., as well. Around the, I know you've mentioned around the sort of referencing back to the, to the approach that was presented in the FY 2025 result. Sort of look at it and go, I mean, are you actually closer to that trigger in 2024? Are you actually closer today even after this result than what you were?
I think we've gone up a little bit, and so we are, and I would very much like to have that question liability cleared.
I sort of look at it and sort of look at the sort of the history of sort of capital management of the company in recent. Cash dividend was paid, and I think the only other capital management during that time was the buyback, which sort of only did AUD 2 million. I guess when a capital return is actually provided. Yes.
I completely understand the focus on it because when maybe, put that in the same bucket of capital management. Less than 12 months ago, I would consider that a significant milestone in capital management. Nine months later, we're discussing, how imminent a capital are. Generally very positive and good news story, but I completely bridge to it as a, as a capital distribution, and we're all working very hard towards that.
Thank you. Your next question is from Martin Byers from Moelis. Go ahead, thank you.
With respect to the questions around, the cost coverage, maybe if we can just focus other than just purely the cost base. Maybe if you can just provide some more color on how you see, 428, please.
Okay, thanks for that question. Seeing as we had our first generation funds, which fees, then the second generation funds had a management fee over. In the last generation, we will have a mix of management fee as deployed and percentage of committed. It allows for development of now having a mix of deployed, committed, and transaction fees allows for much more also growing faster because the historical book will continue and so on. We'll only have now hit the level of normal funds will have an increased management fee coming from the commitment day. We are able to retain the transaction fees from our deals, which we can incorporate them in our deals.
have grown more recently and will remain on this level or may grow a bit more rapidly and the transaction fee will rapid increase over the last, I think 24 months. Different sources of management fees and especially the further broad to 70% cost coverage.
Thanks very much. With AI moving into, you know, the legal sector, can you just, you know, discuss what you sort of see as the risk and the opportunities with respect to AI and Omni Bridgeway?
Sure. Well, I think it's a massive opportunity for OBL, layers, or three. One is we are projects to improve our efficiency just on the operational side, where we see an in efficiency, and that can be our modeling is very. We use four eye systems to have models checked. AI is extremely efficient in a lot of capacity, potential capacity where there are. Similar things happen on track. The normal processes can benefit from AI and can reduce in the long run our activities without having to grow our costs. We originate, underwrite, and manage. That is already something where, which is in part dependent on outsourcing.
We, what probabilities of success are, et cetera, and what quantum ranges are and likely durations. That's an AI is supporting us massively in making sure that we use our historical to come up with the best possible parameters in our, in our modeling and making sure our training is at the mark. That's where we see the biggest developments now. The legal industry is likely going to be very... we already see all kinds of movements in business models and the capital deployment deals. Investment opportunities that will become possible in future are more difficult currently.
investing more in the legal claims itself rather than going through law firms, for example, in the legal industry, changing over the next couple of years, to create a lot more opportunities. In a broader sense, the cost of legal services would go down, which is something you may think is good news. I'm not sure it will happen, but if that happens, it would be good news for us. I think the biggest hurdle matters, and one of the biggest reasons why we reject matters is that the budget to claim risk, if the average cost rate would go down, the opportunity set of cases that we can fund will actually go up another great benefit. We're monitoring all of this and are actively involved, and it's quite exciting to see.
No doubt that this is gonna be.
Sure. One final one for me then. Just, you know, obviously very, you know, particularly versus the targets that you set yourself, but, you know, in the short term, keeping management awake at night?
The part of litigation funder, what keeps you up is always remaining our robustness on underwriting and are we winning enough cases and are the... The good thing is, in the old days, what would keep us awake is single case, and those would be potential make or break cases that luckily we no longer have. I'm still most concerned about is the number of cases that we acclaim. Is that number indeed going to complete? Et cetera. That is and will always remain the key issue. Maybe if we trip longer relevant, maybe that stops, until that moment, this is what keeps me awake.
Thanks very much.
Okay.
Once again, thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand back to Mr. van Huls t for closing remarks.
Okay. well, thank you all for listening in and for your questions. Questions or follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. With that, we will now end.