Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Prime Financial Group Limited's FY26 half one financial results. My name is Natalie Simmonds, and I am the Chief Operating Officer. Today I'm joined by Prime's Managing Director and Chairman, Simon Madder, and by Chief Financial Officer, Sharon Papworth. Before I hand over to Simon to start the formal presentation, just a reminder that this webinar is being recorded, and should you wish to ask any questions, please use the Q&A feature in the meeting, and we will endeavor to answer as many of the questions at the end of this presentation. Now I'd like to hand over to Simon.
Perfect. Thanks, Nat, and thank you to everyone who is in attendance today. I'll just start with some opening remarks before I hand over to Sharon to run through the hard numbers, but what has become pretty obvious here is it's a strong first half, and we have a great momentum off what was a strong second half last year, and in fact, a strong FY25. The momentum is continuing across the business as we continue to build our platform, that whole of client solution platform. And what's probably been most impressive is the combination of the revenue growth, the earnings growth, and importantly, also operating cash flow. All of that has given us the confidence to increase and pay our interim dividend, which is a fantastic result for shareholders as well.
What we're also seeing more broadly is a really strong M&A market, and strong by virtue of the fact that we've got a growing pipeline of opportunities. We're obviously pretty selective around what we look to transact on, but that is an increasing part of our growth profile, and we're trying to get the balance right between the organic and the inorganic growth. But the business is in a great position. It's a fantastic half that has been delivered by the team, and we're absolutely maintaining our guidance for the growth for this full year. I will just touch on a couple of things in terms of who we are, because there could be some people new to us in this call, but as a business, we are across advice, capital, and asset management.
We are very much differentiating around being that destination where clients can get everything looked after under the one roof, and that includes us being able to share insights, deliver the services, and really focus on our two key audiences, which are business owners and also high-net-worth investors as well. You've got some key metrics up there on screen at the moment, in terms of the team, where we're located, and the history of the business as well. Next slide, please. So I think this diagram, which we show each time that we present, really does describe quite well how we try to bring this all together.
As a very much a business focused in this mid-market, I think there's few businesses that are similar to us in financial services, that can deliver this comprehensive list of things under the one roof. So we are very focused on having a one connected team and service stack, so we can deliver more value through that one experience. I'm going to hand over to Sharon now, who'll touch on the financial results, and then I'll pop back in on some operational things after that.
Thanks, Simon, and a warm welcome to those joining us on the call. As Simon highlighted, thank you, Nat. Next slide. We delivered a really strong result for the half year, driven by acquisitions and organic growth, coupled with effective management of our operating cost base and also our cash flow. Our performance highlights include revenue, which was up 31% to AUD 30.1 million. 70% of that growth was driven via acquisitions aligned with our strategy. Revenue converted into underlying EBITDA to members of AUD 6.5 million, which was up 60% over the prior corresponding period. At the same time, we were also able to increase underlying EBITDA margin by 400 basis points to 22%. And I guess there were two key drivers of the margin uplift. The first was an increase in revenue per FTE.
Our revenue per FTE in FY 25 was AUD 220 thousand, and we closed the first half with revenue per FTE of AUD 249 thousand. That's a 13% uplift. In addition, we were also able to manage labor costs as a percentage of revenue. The bridge between reported EBITDA and underlying EBITDA reflects one-off costs, which are largely associated with acquisition due diligence. Those costs were AUD 200 thousand this half. Last half, the one-off costs were AUD 600 thousand. Next slide, please. Net operating profit after tax to members increased 182% to AUD 3.1 million. In addition, we have provided investors with a view of core operating profitability, and we are now reporting NPATA, which increased 112% to AUD 3.6 million.
Our strong earnings, coupled with working capital management, has increased our operating cash flow to AUD 3.2 million for the half, and that's almost triple what we achieved in the prior corresponding period. Our debt to underlying EBITDA ratio improved to 1.2x, again, driven by earnings growth. And you can see the impact of the earnings when we look at reported EPS, which increased to AUD 0.012 per share. And as announced today on the ASX, we have also declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.008 per share, which is up 4% and in line with guidance. So to summarize, Prime have delivered and performed strongly against all financial metrics. We've delivered against guidance, and we've provided a really strong foundation to continue to execute our growth strategy. I'll now turn to Simon. Thank you.
Thanks, Sharon. So just some of the operational highlights that are worthwhile touching on. So people and culture, our team, obviously our biggest asset in terms of driving the business forward, but we've had steady numbers in our group over the course of this period. We are spending a lot of time making sure that our team are empowered through education, leadership training, and also increasingly, AI, which I know will be an over talked about item in lots of presentations over this half year. But the reality is, it is going to impact how we go about doing business and how we empower our team. But we will continue to be a people-led organization, and our clients appreciate having that being the face of the organization.
In terms of M&A and integration, it's fantastic to now have Lincoln Indicators, the business we acquired back in May 2025, completely integrated into our core operations, which is fantastic. We've got the opportunity to deliver services to another 3,300 important clients of the firm. And on top of that, we've been able to bring in some other teams across both wealth and business, and AUD 1.7 million of annualized revenue, and that's actually integrating really well, and actually growing at the right level, which we would expect. In terms of funding and finance, we slightly upsized our Westpac facility by a couple of million dollars, and the way we do transactions hasn't actually changed. But just as a reminder, we will typically issue between 20%-50% of the consideration as shares in Prime.
More typically, at the moment, it's closer to 20%, and the remainder will be via cash and typically over a three-year earn-out period. Next slide, please. In terms of growth and technology, I mentioned in my opening remarks, but M&A will be a feature of what we're doing over the course of the next few years and has been, obviously, over the last three-four years. Making sure that we select the right businesses that are going to fit into our family portrait, that will be additive in terms of our client value proposition and bring the right type of client to our organization, that is the absolute imperative.
The selection criteria is very specific, and we want to make sure that everyone that we go into business with has that business owner mindset and that philosophy of delivering more services and value to their clients. In terms of a dedicated sales and account management process, we're absolutely consolidating around that and ensuring that we are effective in delivering the full capability of the firm to our clients. That will only be aided by the rollout of our group-wide CRM, and that will commence phase one in May of this year. We have previously had isolated CRMs, but nothing that's been completely connected, so we're quite excited about the prospect of being able to serve our clients better and also being more articulate about our growth profile and the numbers of, number of products and services that our clients are consuming across our offering.
In terms of marketing and events, we'll make sure, or we will make sure that we are continuing to be pushing the Prime brand forward in all the areas where we can differentiate for our ideal clients, as both digital and physical. And what I mean by that is we, we ran last year, as an example, around about 60 events. We want to keep making sure that we do that and do that well, and we're adding value for our customers, and they know exactly what we can do at those key points in their business or personal wealth journey. So the service offering continues to be very much focused around ensuring that people know what we can do, when we can do it, and having a really consistent go-to-market strategy that supports our brand positioning. Next slide, please.
So the key themes driving our business that have enabled us to, to continue to grow, and, and Sharon will touch on this in a second. You'll see some pretty impressive revenue growth over the last five years. This is happening because we're clear about who we are and who we want to serve. So these five themes here are things that we'll continue to perpetuate as part of our strategy. That intergenerational wealth and business transfer is a massive theme, but making sure that you're tapping into it in the right way and getting that right combination of advising businesses, and then helping to ensure that anything that might occur from a transaction point of view, you can manage the wealth and the proceeds from that, and you're dealing with the next generation wherever possible. Private markets, alternative assets, that will continue to be a theme.
M&A, for ourselves, and in fact, just generally in the business community, will continue to play out. That is somewhat connected to point number one. Technology and AI will be an overmentioned item, as I said before, in lots of presentations. I wouldn't suggest that we're early adopters in this space at the moment. We're being cautious about how we approach it, but this will all be enabled even better by virtue of the CRM rollout that we're undertaking and the way we are leading our people into dealing with this in a safe way that is good for our clients and also good for our team.
The mid-market opportunity, which is that space we want to occupy for those SME businesses and those high-net-worth individuals and families, that's the space we want to own and the space that we want to make sure that Prime's brand is most attached to. Those themes will all continue to play out. That's what we're focused on, and that leads us to our strategy, which I'll talk about later on. Next slide, please.
Thank you.
Sharon.
Thanks, Simon. Revenue increased 31% and was driven by contributions from both the wealth and the business segment. The largest contributor was the wealth segment, which increased 50%, 57%, apologies, year-on-year. This includes Lincoln Indicators, which was acquired in May 2025, and also the divestment of non-core assets. The business segment increased 3%, which was in line with our expectations, as we take steps to reduce transactional revenue and increase recurring income. During the period, our transactional revenue within the business segment reduced 25%, while recurring income grew 18%, largely from our accounting and business advisory division. Organic growth for the group from continuing contracts was up 6% year-on-year. Our target is between 5% and 10%, and although in range, we will focus efforts to increase organic growth over the coming time.
Expenses as a proportion of revenue reduced 400 basis points and signals early-stage benefits of us being able to leverage the Prime platform to grow both earnings and income. We intend to continue to invest in core platforms such as the CRM as we build scale and also capacity for growth. Significant income, coupled with optimization of our cost base, has improved EBITDA margin to 22%. I think one of the key metrics here is our earnings per share, which will be a KPI which we continue to focus on to ensure ongoing return to shareholders. We are delivering on this goal, with EPS increasing to AUD 0.012 from AUD 0.0046 in the prior period. Next slide, please. Our strategy is yielding robust revenue growth.
Revenue performance for the half reconfirms our guidance for financial year 2026, and we remain committed to delivering AUD 100 million in revenue by financial year 2028-2030. We are delivering on our goal to increase recurring income. Recurring income increased to 78%, which was up 11% compared to the prior period. Next slide, please. Underlying EBITDA margin has improved materially over prior periods and reaffirms our capability to grow both the top line and earnings. We continue to target an EBITDA margin of 30% by financial year 2028-2030, and you can see that the margin generated in the first half, we are moving further towards this goal. Next slide, please.
Just probably worthwhile touching on there, Sharon, just, if I can interject for a second, that the, the full year last year we had, an EBITDA margin of 26%, and what you see is the second half is typically, stronger than the first half, because we've been more weighted to the second half. But it's really encouraging to see, the way the business is starting to level up between H1 and H2 a little bit more closely.
Thank you. And just to call out, Prime has got substantial balance sheet flexibility. Our group debt to underlying EBITDA ratio has improved from 1.3 x in June to 1.2 x at December. We have also improved our operating cash flow, as I highlighted earlier, which has tripled or almost tripled since the same time last year to AUD 3.2 million. And in addition, we've got access to AUD 43 million of funding via Westpac, and that will be used to help support our growth strategy. Next slide, please. Dividends continue to increase over the prior years, and our interim dividend of AUD 0.008 per share reflects a 67% earnings payout ratio, which is aligned to prior guidance. Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks, Sharon. Just now, just touching on some of the strategy items which are consistent with the past, so I will zoom through this reasonably quickly. Organic growth, as mentioned by Sharon, is around about 6% versus, say, 7%, last year. We want to push that forward, more efficiently, closer to our 10% benchmark at the higher end of that range. That will occur by virtue of us focusing on those core services, within the business that we know we can already grow, and that cross-selling process, where the profile will actually improve by virtue of some of the things that we've done within the platform and will do in this half for the platform, including the CRM. Delivering accretive acquisitions, we think that we have actually acquired really well over the course of the last three-four years.
We continue to be in discussions with an MBO that is signed at the moment, that is ongoing. And we feel really confident about our ability to continue to grow this business and push our margins through to 30%. Scale and technology efficiencies, they're a bit of a given. We've made the right investments, we think, at the right time. We're not early adopters, but we believe that we're prudent in our approach, here, and look forward to seeing some of the efficiencies it can drive from some of the newer technologies that are obviously available. With respects to our outlook for FY26, and this is the guidance that was provided at the AGM, which we hold firm on, we think that revenue will be at least 15%-20% up, on the prior year. Underlying EBITDA up 20%-25%.
Operating cash flow, you'll see it's been substantially better than this in the first half, but at least 125%-150% improved on the prior year. And dividends, again, we've given a range of 3%-5%. We've hit the midpoint of that for the interim. So we fully expect that we'll continue to be able to grow the business. We're excited about where we're at. We've got a fantastic team that are working really hard for our clients, and we think the opportunity in the space that we're in, which is starting to consolidate, is pretty material. And we think that we're really well positioned for those often founder-led financial services businesses that often have 3-6 partners.
We think we're a really good destination for them to join, so they can deliver more value and still have that business owner mindset. So we're excited about that and where we're taking the business. A big thank you to all of the team and our shareholders for your ongoing support. We don't get to this position with this sort of result without that support. I'll throw it back to you, Nat, because I think we might have a few questions. We usually do.
We do. Thank you both, Simon and Sharon. I might kick off with the first question. So the reported EBITDA was up strongly. What was the main driver for that?
Yeah, so look, obviously, the revenue has been helpful, and we've been able to control our cost base as well, and that's been giving us the ability to grow. When you're growing revenue at 31% and you can maintain that cost control, and in fact, actually reduce your labor costs as a percentage of turnover, then that equation, that, I guess, that positive jaws that people talk about, works in your favor. So it's been a healthy combination of both revenue growth through organic and acquisition, and also cost control within the business.
Thank you. And I guess off the back of that, a good question, that's come up is: How confident are you in achieving AUD 100 million by that FY 28-FY30 guidance?
To give a bit of a feel for that, the pipeline of businesses that we're talking to, the revenue, and I think I spoke about this last time, it was probably around about AUD 150 million of prospective revenue that's sat in there. Now, you obviously don't do every deal that you come across, but we've got a really clear filtering process that we work through. But that pipeline's actually doubled in size in the course of the last six months. So you got to get that balance right between right businesses, right time, the right service stack, the culture piece, but we are confident we're in discussions with the right people that would like to go on that journey with us in building a bigger and better business.
Very confident would be the short answer.
Great. And I think that answers probably another question. You said the M&A landscape has doubled. There was a question on, you know, do you have good visibility, and what does it look like? But obviously, it's growing.
Yeah. Yeah, look, it's growing, and we have good visibility, and we have a dedicated team that are very focused on it, and that team has been with us for a good period of time. So I think we're getting quicker and better at filtering those opportunities. But, you know, M&A is not easy, and we're all in people businesses, although they're enabled by technology. There's a really human element, and we're really respectful of the decision people need to make or want to make to join a group like ours, so we take our time. It's not unusual for us to be talking to a group for 18 months before a transaction may or may not materialize.
So, it's fine to have the visibility, but a lot's got to go right to find the right people for the right reasons.
Thank you. Another question has just popped up: What CRM are you adopting?
Yeah, so we've gone after a very diligent process where we engaged our consultants, our group technology consultants that support our business, a group called Finura. We had a really good look at lots of different systems. We looked at Dynamics, we looked at Salesforce and various other alternatives, and we've selected Salesforce. We already had a Salesforce instance within the business, part of our business. But in terms of what we were seeking to achieve, that CRM met our needs because it's more out of the box. We're not looking to customize too much around the CRM. We think that's a dangerous process to go through. So that Financial Services Cloud instance of Salesforce will suit us very well, and we intentionally are using the best practices within that to adopt within our business rather than the other way around.
So I think that's gonna allow us to deploy this reasonably quickly, and hopefully for not an exorbitant amount of money, which has been a previous concern.
Okay. Thank you. Obviously, some significant margin improvement. Is that just related to cost cutting, or were there any other factors?
No, not cost cutting. I think being prudent and getting some better efficiency and productivity across the team. And look, obviously, that margin growth has been driven also by the revenue growth. I think when we've bought business as well that have got the right dynamics in place, you can get your revenue synergies and also your cost synergies as well. We have a really clear template about how we go about doing it. So if you were to break that down and you were to say that 30% of our growth will come organically and 70% by acquisition or thereabouts, we have to buy well, we have to integrate well, and make sure that we're really clear about how we can get the value.
Something we talked about, which we rightly got probably a little bit of criticism for in the past, was that the EBITDA margin had come down, but we're also really explicit with people that you can't take a business that was turning over AUD 13 million or AUD 15 million four-five years ago to AUD 100 million without investing in the core infrastructure, systems and processes that you need to do that. And we made that investment ahead of the curve around about three-four years ago. So that's why you saw that margin fall down to, on a comparative basis, from 28% down to 18%, and now it's starting to pop back up to 22%.
So what you'll see is, ultimately some benefit that we can drive, and it should be accelerated, making sure that we buy the right businesses for the right reasons. So it's been an intentional strategy that, we're really comfortable that we've executed on, pretty well so far.
Thank you. You touched on it briefly, but there's been a question on the half one versus half two and whether you
Yeah
What's the split looking like for those half two halves?
Yeah, we were in the past, and this is not exact, and please don't take this as explicit guidance, this is a high-level discussion around this. In the past, we were probably more a 1/3, 2/3 in terms of our weightings from an EBITDA perspective. I think we're probably closer to a 45/55 or 40/60% now. What really helps the predictability of our earnings is that recurring income profile. We have spoken openly about wanting to increase that from 70%, which it was, to closer to 85%. What you see is us playing a very clear role in making sure we've got clients that want recurring services from us, or multiple services from us, so that we can get closer to that 85% recurring income within a reasonable timeframe.
It's a pretty significant step up to go from 70%-78% over the course of the last 12 months. So we want predictable revenue that is cash generative. That means that we can reinvest in the business and also pay a healthy dividend to our shareholders.
Thank you. Just a couple of final questions that we have time for today. How many clients came across with Lincoln Indicators?
Yeah, so approximately 3,300 fantastic clients. I've had the privilege of meeting a lot of them through some of the events that we've run over the course of the last, circa nine months. It's a great team, and it's a great group of clients that are so loyal and have really appreciated that, in particular, that Stock Doctor piece of research. And it's a great membership base that have also supported the build-out of the managed solutions as well. And so it's a great customer base that we think can offer, we can offer a lot more services and value, too. And it's been fascinating to see how many have taken up our SMSF admin service, and then have started to look at other parts of what we can offer around alternative assets, property as well.
So that's really exciting, and, and to be able to have a broader conversation with that group, I think is a great way to explain how we think about future transactions as well. We don't want to go and do a transaction where we can't add value and we can't help, both parties grow and, and deliver more value for the customer. So, yeah, it's been a great addition to the team, and, we really respect the tenure of those 3,300 clients, and what we can hopefully do for them over the coming years.
Thank you. Just one final question. Will the DRP apply for the latest dividend?
Yeah, absolutely, it will. It'll be a 2.5% discount to the VWAP at the time. But we think it's important that the shareholders get the opportunity to continue to reinvest in that growth. So we'll continue to make that available as we move forward. So yes, absolutely, that will continue to be part of the program.
Great, and probably the last half of that question, Simon, was just: are there any further capital raisings anticipated?
Look, none at the moment. As Sharon rightly highlighted, we've got significant capacity within our existing Westpac facility, but what we're trying to do is get the balance right. We are typically focusing on making sure that we don't end up with our debt to underlying EBITDA ratio of more than 1 to 1.5, 1 to 1.5x . So we're at 1.2 now. If a more material acquisition came along, we would balance the risk of that with the opportunity for existing shareholders and potentially new shareholders to participate in that. But as we stand now, with the current program we've got in place, there's not a requirement to raise capital.
Thank you. Thank you both again, and thank you everybody, online, for joining us today. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and see you soon.
Thanks. Appreciate it, Nat.