Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Perpetual's half year results briefing. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. You may register a question by pressing zero, followed by one on your telephone keypad. I must advise that this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, the twenty-fourth of February, 2022. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Susie Reinhardt, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Perpetual's first half 2022 results briefing. I'm Susie Reinhardt, Perpetual's Head of Investor Relations. Before we begin today, we would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we present today here in Sydney, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and recognize their continuing connection to land, waters, and community. We pay our respects to Australia's First Peoples and to their elders, past and present. We would also like to extend our respect and welcome to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who are listening in today, and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands on which you all work today. Presenting with us today are Rob Adams, Perpetual's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, as well as Chris Green, Perpetual's Chief Financial Officer.
There'll be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of today's presentation. Before I hand over to Rob, we would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two of the presentation. Rob, over to you.
Thank you, Susie, and good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us for today's first half 2022 results for Perpetual. We are very pleased to report our results today, which we think demonstrate strong outcomes and very positive momentum across all of our businesses, with all divisions delivering solid growth. In these results, you'll see that we are investing in new capabilities, new products, opening up new distribution channels, and investing in our trusted brand to drive future growth. At this half's results, as this half's results will evidence, these investments are now starting to deliver growth. Our balance sheet remains strong, providing us with confidence to continue to invest in both organic growth and further quality acquisitions.
We have confidence in positive momentum going into the remainder of the financial year, and today, we have reaffirmed our expense growth guidance for FY 2022. There has been much public discussion and market speculation regarding the potential emergence of an extended inflationary environment. Should that occur, Perpetual is very strongly placed to benefit with deep expertise in value investing across our asset management businesses, which typically outperform in inflationary periods. Further, our diverse and growing global portfolio, combined with our non-market-linked earnings from Perpetual Corporate Trust and parts of Perpetual Private, positions us well for such market conditions should they eventuate. Turning to the high-level numbers for the first half of FY 2022. Perpetual delivered total revenue of AUD 384.9 million, up 37% on the prior corresponding period. Underlying profit after tax was AUD 79.1 million, up 54%.
Our net profit after tax was AUD 59.3 million, up 113% on the prior year. Our return on equity rose to 17.3%, up from 13.2% in the first half of 2021. Key drivers of the result were a full six-month contribution from Barrow Hanley, additional earnings from both of our recent acquisitions, Jacaranda Financial Planning for Perpetual Private and Laminar Capital for Perpetual Corporate Trust. Contributing were, of course, higher average markets, and our stronger relative investment performance across both our domestic and international asset management businesses were also contributors, as was strong organic growth in both Perpetual Private and in Perpetual Corporate Trust.
This morning, the board has declared an interim fully franked ordinary dividend for the period of AUD 1.12 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 80%. Now turning to some of our operational highlights for the half. Our strategy to build a global asset management business, adding world-class investment and distribution capabilities, is well underway and is delivering results. We reported growth in assets under management of 15% versus the prior corresponding period, with 74% of our investment strategies outperforming their respective benchmarks over the last 12 months. In Perpetual Private, we continue to see our strong brand, our advice model, our industry-leading advisors, and their positive client relationships combine to lead to another half of positive net flows, making it a quite remarkable 17 consecutive half years or 8.5 full years of positive net flows.
In Perpetual Corporate Trust, which provides essential infrastructure for the financial services industry, with another strong half, PCT has now delivered an outstanding compound annual growth rate of underlying profit before tax of 15% per annum over the last 10 years. In Perpetual Asset Management Australia, we've seen a demonstrable and consistent improvement in our relative investment performance and in our net flows. Our strong investment performance over the half and the full calendar year was recognized by Zenith, who named Perpetual as their overall fund manager of the year for 2021.
In Perpetual Asset Management International, Trillium is building from strength to strength, with around 74% growth in assets under management in US dollar terms since we acquired the business just some 18 months ago back in June 2020. As you can see, across Perpetual, we are delivering some great outcomes, and I feel entirely confident that our positive momentum will continue into the second half and beyond. Turning to the next slide. Perpetual has a truly unique combination of businesses. We have one of Australia's strongest brands in asset management, and we now have a broad array of world-class, globally relevant investment capabilities ready for substantial growth. We have one of Australia's premier true high net worth advisory firms in Perpetual Private. We have a corporate trust business that is the clear industry leader across its core products and services.
You can see on this slide the significant progress that we've made in transforming our business since the launch of our new business strategy back in February of 2019. The acquisitions of Trillium and Barrow Hanley have provided us with a substantial global footprint, which we have already materially expanded since acquiring those businesses. We now have a truly global growth opportunity ahead of us, and we have invested very carefully in our distribution and in our product framework across key developed markets in order to realize that opportunity over time. Perpetual Asset Management International is now contributing 22% of group operating revenue and 27% of our underlying profit before tax. I expect that contribution to rise disproportionately over time. Our unique combination of businesses is one of our greatest strengths. We have market-linked revenues and material non-market-linked revenues.
We have domestic earnings and material international earnings. We have value-driven investment approaches and more growth-oriented investment approaches. We have a blend of revenue sources, management fees for service, and transaction-based fees. As you can see, today the source of our revenues by business line is balanced. I feel that this positions us extremely well for the future, particularly if we see a continuation of the market volatility that we have seen of late. I'll now move to the next slide for more detail on the results in each division. It's of course very pleasing to be able to report strong growth across all areas of our business. Perpetual Asset Management, which includes both our international and Australian asset management divisions, delivered total revenue of AUD 194.6 million, up 67% on the prior year.
As mentioned, it incorporates a full six-month contribution from Barrow Hanley, which, compared to the first half of 2021, only included six weeks of Barrow Hanley revenues. Total group AUM has now eclipsed the AUD 100 billion mark for the first time, with group assets under management growing by 15% to AUD 102.8 billion compared to the prior period. Perpetual Private, or PP, as we call it, delivered a total revenue of AUD 107 million, with funds under advice ending the period at a record AUD 19 billion, which is up 23% on the first half of 2021. This is driven by strong organic growth, plus the new contribution from Jacaranda Financial Planning, which we acquired during the period.
Perpetual Corporate Trust, or PCT, has, as I've mentioned already, delivered consistent year-on-year growth over the past decade, which continued in the last half, with total revenue up 17% to AUD 76.6 million. This increase was driven by organic growth in PCT's existing businesses and new contribution, of course, as mentioned, from the recently acquired Laminar Capital. Total funds under administration were AUD 990.4 billion, up 6%, with solid growth in both debt market services and managed fund services, funds under administration. While our financial scorecard is very encouraging, I would like to spend some time on the progress and future intentions of our growth strategy. It is the disciplined execution of our strategy that has driven these results and will continue to do so in the future. Our strategy remains unchanged.
You've seen this slide several times over the last three years. It describes our focus points to derive the future growth that we expect from each of our businesses. Our purpose is enduring prosperity for all of our stakeholders, and our vision is to be the most trusted in financial services. You'll recall that our three core pillars within our strategy are client first, where we wanna be heavily focused on contemporary delivery of contemporary products and outstanding service. Our future fit pillar is about the creation of an efficient, scalable platform that empowers our people to perform and deliver. Finally, our new horizons pillar is focused on extending our reach, investing in new capabilities and services, expanding in key markets, and delivering quality growth. I'm pleased to report that our progress on each of these pillars over the last half has been strong.
We remain fully focused on the positive execution of our strategy in order to drive sustained quality growth across Perpetual. At our FY 2021 results, we set out the priorities under each of the key pillars of our strategy. Over the last half, we have made great progress in all areas, with the majority of these priority points well underway, with significant progress made in terms of new product development, the build-out of our global distribution team and our global operating model, material steps forward in improving the efficiency and scalability of our operating platform.
Over the next few slides, I'll talk through some of the key developments across our businesses, all of which are strongly aligned to these strategic priorities, which will hopefully give you a sense of the progress that we're making. Of course, many of these initiatives require investment, both initial and ongoing, and we are committed to continuing the program of positive investment in growth initiatives, always with a clear focus on the expected return on each investment and on each investment made. On the next slide, I'll take you through some of those investments. Our investment for growth is focused on new markets and new channels, new products and services, building out our global distribution and our global operating model frameworks to support sustainable long-term growth. In the last six months, we've expanded both in new markets and channels. We've opened a European office.
We've appointed a head of Europe of distribution for Europe, Jan-Hein Alfrink, who has deep experience across key European markets. We've launched a U.S. mutual fund structure ahead of plan, providing Barrow Hanley with access to the U.S. retail market for the first time in its 40-year history. We have just this week received approval for a new UCITS fund structure, now opening access for both Trillium and Barrow Hanley to European and Asian investors. We are thrilled to have secured a seed client for this new platform, who will be initially investing around $500 million into a new Barrow Hanley global equity ESG strategy. This tier one Nordic institutional client has invested their initial tranche just overnight, and that's an exciting development with future cash flows expected from that client as well.
In Perpetual Private, our acquisition of Jacaranda Financial Planning has now added more than AUD 1 billion in funds under administration to our business, up from AUD 915 million when we acquired the business just in August of last year. As mentioned, we acquired Laminar Capital in October last year, and Laminar is now integrated into the newly created division of PCT called Perpetual Digital, which I'll comment on specifically in a moment. Like Jacaranda, Laminar is performing ahead of our initial expectations. In the section of new products and services, we have launched the Trillium ESG Global Conviction Strategy based in Edinburgh, led by a former colleague of mine, Ian Warmerdam, who has a superb career record, most recently at Janus Henderson.
We worked with the Barrow Hanley team to launch Barrow's first collateralized debt obligation offering, CLO, and we have secured equity commitments of $110 million to support our plans to build a portfolio of CLOs of over $1 billion over time. In Perpetual Asset Management Australia, we listed 2 active exchange managed funds on the ASX during the half, making it easier for investors to access our specialist capabilities in global innovation and in ESG. The new Multi Asset ESG Real Return Fund, launched in late June, has now raised well over AUD 1 billion, evidencing the high interest in contemporary ESG products.
In PCT, off the back of creating Perpetual Digital, we've launched new treasury solutions with five new clients signed up before the launch and a strong pipeline of new client opportunities. These initiatives, many of which occurred late in the half-year period, are already delivering new business growth to our businesses. With over AUD 1 billion in new AUM added, over AUD 1 billion in funds under administration added, and over AUD 21 billion in assets under administration. We're also investing in the essential support structures that help us to drive growth from these initiatives. In global distribution, we continue to make great progress in building out our global team to drive the sales program of our investment capabilities across key markets. We have reappointed the Barrow Hanley distribution team to Chuck Thompson, our Head of Distribution in the Americas.
We've added further distribution support for Trillium to meet the high demand that we are seeing, while also opening up new channels for Trillium. Locally, we have activated a direct marketing campaign for our Australian equity strategies, promoting our value heritage through multiple cycles, which is driving strong interest. As our business has expanded beyond Australia's shores, so too has our operating model. We are investing in our technology and governance to ensure that we are fit for purpose as a global company and fit for growth. We are also identifying key areas of our business where we can be more efficient, including our strategic partnerships, ensuring we get the best out of our major service providers.
What you will see later in this presentation when Chris talks to our expense guidance is that the majority of our growth and expenses planned this year are growth initiatives, which are either directly revenue linked or we expect to have a meaningful impact on future revenue growth. We feel this is an important message to highlight. We are growing, and this requires investment, whether it be in organic initiatives, inorganic initiatives, or support structures. This investment in growth is delivering growth. On the next few slides, I'd like to take you through some examples to highlight the impact of the investment we are making across each division of our business.
First, turning to Perpetual Asset Management International, or PAMI, we have invested significantly in our distribution team, our product capability and our channel framework, and in adding new investment capabilities to both businesses. As you can see in the chart here, we are already seeing a return on this investment with strong growth in net flows for Trillium. We have continued that investment during the half, extending our reach in Europe, as mentioned, with a full expectation that our returns on those investments will maintain this growth trajectory. The chart on the right-hand side shows Barrow Hanley flows. While in total net outflow, when we look at flows by sector, we've been very pleased to see that our focus on promoting Barrow's exceptional global equity capabilities is leading to positive net flow outcomes.
While we've been disappointed by outflows from U.S. equities and fixed income, on acquiring Barrow, our expectation was that we would see total net flows turn positive in the third year post-acquisition. Just 13 months in, the opportunity for strong growth in all of Barrow's global equity capabilities and the significant improvement in relative performance across U.S. equity strategies combined to lead us to conclude we should reach that point earlier. Since acquiring both Trillium and Barrow Hanley, we have invested in brand, in product development, and distribution. Trillium now have a dedicated distribution team opening up new channels, including the critical untapped U.S. and global institutional channel. For Barrow, we've invested in product development, and we are building our distribution team to open up the massive U.S. retail market to them for the first time.
We've worked with both businesses to expand their investment capabilities, bring a new investment team into Trillium, as mentioned, to run the ESG Global Conviction strategy. We have been working with the Barrow team to launch a CLO capability. Both businesses will benefit greatly from the recent launches of both the U.S. mutual fund range for the U.S. retail market and the UCITS range structure for European and Asian markets. For Barrow to have secured a $500 million US seed client for their new global equity ESG capability as part of this new UCITS platform is a very exciting development. We believe that each of these initiatives represents multi-billion-dollar growth platforms for both businesses. As a result, we see Trillium and Barrow Hanley evolving into truly global asset management firms, with their core capabilities sold around the world to institutional and intermediary-led clients.
We will continue to help them build a strong presence in key markets as we expand our global distribution reach. We will seek to continue to add new investment capabilities by team lift-out or through bolt-on acquisitions, as we have already done with Trillium. I'm confident that the future of both Trillium and Barrow Hanley looks extremely bright in partnership with Perpetual. Turning now to PAMA, where we are also investing in product, in channels, and in distribution. You can see that it too is delivering results. PAMA has now reported three consecutive quarters of net inflows, positive net inflows. The first time the business has reported three consecutive quarters of net inflows since March 2015. We have a strong and trusted brand with a history of investment outperformance.
In the last 12 months, 82% of PAMA's funds have outperformed their respective indices. As mentioned, this performance was recognized by major research houses and the Fund Manager of the Year award. 91% of our investment strategies have at least one recommended rating or higher from a major research house. With this as the background, we have increased our investment in our already strong brand. You can see in the bottom right of the slide some of the images from our Perpetuity campaign for our Australian equity strategies, which has been very successful in generating new leads that over time we believe will deliver additional flows. While the flows for our Aussie equities team remain negative, our strong near-term performance, combined with a renewed distribution and marketing focus, has led to a material slowing of outflows and growth in new business opportunities.
Strong flows into our Australian credit and fixed income funds continue, and our multi-asset funds have seen a material uplift in flows this year. We've also been focused on making it easier for our investors to access our investment products. With that in mind, this half we launched the first of what will be a suite of active exchange-traded managed funds, with two active ETFs listed in December of last year, as I mentioned. This is a key initiative for us, these launches, and supports the delivery of contemporary products that meet the needs of our clients. We expect to launch more active ETFs in this financial year. In Perpetual Private, the integration of the newly acquired business Jacaranda Financial Planning is going to plan.
Jacaranda is a strong player in the pre-retirement segment of the market and opens up new growth opportunities for us as we work with the Jacaranda team to expand their operations along the East Coast, leveraging PP's existing infrastructure in Melbourne and Brisbane. Despite the impacts of COVID, Jacaranda has performed ahead of our expectations since the acquisition, and we are excited about its future growth. More broadly, Perpetual Private's advisor growth strategy, which we first announced back in February 2019, has now delivered over AUD 1 billion in additional funds under advice. We will still seek out selective opportunities to drive further growth from this strategy as the advice industry continues to go through significant change in a post-Royal Commission world. Turning now to PCT.
We are really excited about the launch of Perpetual Digital, which brings together the recently acquired Laminar Capital business with PCT's existing digital capabilities. You can see here on the left the services that we are offering, targeting PCT's existing strong network of clients, as well as new clients, covering our unique data services, our Roundtables business, and Perpetual Intelligence tools, now joined by the Laminar offerings. On the right-hand side of the slide, you will see that we are wasting no time in bringing to market a range of new intelligence solutions, from treasury solutions to automated trust reporting solutions.
Early interest has been strong. In summary, I trust that you can see that across Perpetual it's clear there is a significant level of activity within each of our businesses, all focused on meeting client needs, growing our client base, and driving Perpetual's growth into the future. We have positive momentum in all areas, and we feel confident about our future delivery. Finally now turning to a couple of key themes that we're seeing in the market and how we're positioned in each. Firstly, we expect the ESG thematic to continue to be the dominant global mega trend in years to come. The core of our strategy is ensuring that we are well-positioned for sustained growth. A key driver of our future growth globally will be our ESG capabilities.
Across the board, we are thinking about ESG, about how we manage client assets, taking ESG elements into account. As the chart on the left-hand side of this slide highlights, we apply integrated ESG analysis across 82% of our total assets under management. The chart in the middle of this slide shows how our dedicated ESG capabilities have grown in recent times, with our investment in Trillium being transformative. Today, nearly 17% of our total AUM is in dedicated specialist ESG funds, and I expect to see that rise disproportionately into the future. Integrating ESG factors more deeply into our investment process and adding more specialist products and capabilities is a key strategic focus for us. Importantly, third-party recognition of our ESG focus is clear, with very strong UN PRI ratings across Trillium, Barrow Hanley, and Perpetual Asset Management Australia.
We feel that across our asset management businesses, Perpetual is extremely well-positioned to benefit from the inexorable focus on ESG investing as the dominant global mega trend influencing the asset management industry. The next thematic that has been emerging over recent times, as briefly touched on, is that the current market conditions appear to be creating an environment that is tailor-made for value-style investing, an area of significant strength for Perpetual for both our Australian equities business and internationally for Barrow Hanley. As the charts in this slide evidence, inflation is elevating and bond yields are rising. Markets are pricing in multiple increases in bond rates this year. Supply chain and labor market pressures are impacting prices across industries. Extreme valuations of certain listed sectors and stocks are re-rating downwards. It's in this environment where value investment strategies typically outperform the market.
Historically, that has absolutely been the case for both Perpetual and for Barrow Hanley, with both firms having a storied history of adding value during such periods over several decades. You can see on the right the huge divergence in valuations between growth companies and value company PEs, another telling indication that the market for growth investments is turning. The key point here is that a period of sustained inflation, which we appear to be entering, is a strong tailwind for Perpetual. Turning now to the next slide, which sets out our growth in AUM and the capacity we have for growth across our asset management businesses. We presented a version of this slide at our Investor Day late last year. Back in FY 2019, two and a half years ago, our capacity was constrained to our domestic capabilities only.
With the Trillium and Barrow Hanley acquisitions, we have seen a substantial increase in the capacity of our investment capabilities. Of the current AUD 430 billion in total capacity we have, there's more than AUD 75 billion in remaining capacity for our ESG capabilities alone. We now have more capacity in ESG strategies than we did across Perpetual's entire asset management business just three years ago. Today, we have the capacity to manage an additional AUD 330 billion across our existing strategies without taking into account any new strategies that we will develop. So as you can see, our growth runway is very long, and we now have the global distribution and product framework required to drive that growth. We will continue to invest in that framework as we see the opportunities emerge.
As we look forward into FY 2022 and beyond, with our strong balance sheet, our desire to add more investment capability in relevant areas, that capacity will increase well beyond AUD 430 billion over time. Building on the last slide, you can see our investment capabilities position as well across the key thematics of ESG and value. If we turn to the next slide. Our high-performing credit and fixed income capabilities also enable us to capture further flows in a higher interest rate environment. The lower risk and lower sensitivity to volatility demonstrated by our award-winning multi-asset capabilities are well suited to the expected future market conditions. Okay, with that, I'll now hand over to Chris to take you through a more detailed review of our financials.
Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everybody. As Rob's already talked to, our results reflect growth across all of our divisions. The six-month period to the 31st of December, 2021 continued to be very active for our business, with two acquisitions, a number of new product and strategy launches, and ongoing focus on growing our business offshore. Later, I'll talk to the specific highlights in each division, but firstly to the numbers. Operating revenues of AUD 384.9 million were just over AUD 100 million or 37% higher than the prior corresponding period, driven primarily by PAMI and a full six-month contribution from Barrow Hanley. Also, stronger performance in PAMA, solid growth in PP, and continued strong performance in PCT contributed, along with additional revenue from the recently acquired businesses of Laminar Capital and Jacaranda Financial Planning.
Operating revenues included performance fees in PAMA and PP, which totaled approximately AUD 8 million. Total expenses of AUD 275.3 million was AUD 64.9 million or 31% higher, with a full period contribution from Barrow Hanley, the addition of expenses relating to Jacaranda and Laminar, and investment in global distribution and technology, as well as higher variable REM. Underlying profit before tax of AUD 109.6 million was 56% higher, and significant items totaled AUD 19.8 million, including transaction and integration costs associated with Trillium and Barrow Hanley acquisitions and the non-cash amortization of acquired intangibles, also included unrealized losses on financial assets and accrued incentive compensation liability. Earnings per share on UPAT were 48% higher, and return on equity on UPAT was 17.3% or 410 basis points higher than PCP.
Looking at our segment UPAT performance in detail, PAMI PBT of AUD 31.9 million was driven by contributions from Barrow Hanley and Trillium, stronger investment performance, higher average equity markets, partially offset by net outflows. In PAMA, PBT was AUD 26.4 million, an increase of AUD 7.9 million on PCP, driven by stronger investment performance and higher average markets, lower variable REM, and some offset from distributions and product repricing, which we flagged last year. In PP, PBT increased by AUD 8.6 million or 56%, driven by increased funds on our advice from the advisor growth strategy as well as the acquisition of Jacaranda. Strong investment performance again, and good improvement in non-market revenue, particularly from Fordham.
In Perpetual Corporate Trust, we saw continued PBT growth of AUD 5.9 million or 19%, with strong contributions from both DMS and MFS, as well as Laminar Capital, which we acquired in October 2021, contributing since the acquisition. In group support services, we saw higher expenses of AUD 4.4 million, predominantly related to distributions on the 25% employee-owned units in Barrow Hanley, as well as lower income received from unit trust investments in seed funds. The tax impact on the above resulted in a year-on-year movement of AUD 11.5 million and UPAT for the first half of AUD 79.1 million. We continued to take a disciplined approach to expenses while balancing the need to invest in the business for growth.
During the half, there was a 5% increase in underlying expenses, which included short-term incentives and growth initiatives such as the acquisitions I mentioned. PAMI added 26% to total expenses, including the operating expenses associated with the full 6 months of Barrow Hanley. In addition, the build-out of global distribution, distributions on employee-owned interests and interest charges also contributed. Together, underlying expense growth and PAMI expenses added 31% to our expense base. NPAT has been adjusted for four types of significant items. Those that are material in nature and, in our view, do not reflect normal operating activities. For this period, that was AUD 1.6 million and include transaction and integration costs related to Trillium and Barrow Hanley, and the costs associated with the more recent acquisitions of Laminar and Jacaranda.
It also included the non-cash tax-affected amortization of our acquired intangibles, representing AUD 9.5 million. The tax-affected unrealized losses on our financial assets of AUD 700,000, and the tax-affected fair value movements on the 25% employee-owned units in Barrow Hanley, which represented AUD 7 million. Turning to the cash flow. Cash decreased over the six-month period, mainly as a result of additional cash required to acquire Jacaranda and Laminar, as well as payment of deferred consideration for Barrow Hanley. Free cash flow was AUD 30 million, a reduction from the full year, mainly due to spending on growing our offshore business, as well as tax and interest payments.
After paying dividends totaling AUD 51.7 million and purchasing AUD 14.8 million worth of stock on market to satisfy our long-term incentive schemes, resulting in net cash generated prior to acquisitions and seed funds was AUD 110 million. Total cash was AUD 130.9 million as at the 31st of December. The balance sheet remains strong with our debt to capital ratio of 21.5%. The increase in liquid investments reflected an increase in seed fund investments relating to the ETFs in PAMA and mutual funds in PAMI. The increase in goodwill and other intangibles was predominantly due to the acquisitions of Jacaranda and Laminar. The increase in borrowings reflects the drawdown of AUD 75 million in debt to fund those growth initiatives. Turning to dividends. With the strong financial results delivered, both EPS and dividends have increased substantially.
The board has declared an interim dividend of AUD 1.12 to be paid in April 2022, and the dividend reflects a payout ratio of 80% within our target range of 60%-90% of UPAT. Our expense growth guidance remains unchanged. We expect total expense growth of between 18% and 22%. Excluding PAMI, we expect expense growth of 3%-5% on FY 2021 total expenses, and this includes the costs associated with the recently acquired Jacaranda and Laminar businesses. We expect PAMI expense growth in the region of 15%-17%. This includes the annualized impact of Barrow Hanley and the costs associated with the product expansion and the continued build-out of our global distribution team. As Rob mentioned, the majority of the expense growth relates to initiatives that have or will contribute to top-line revenue growth.
We've provided some more detail of that on this slide. We provided an update to our significant items guidance in our Q1 statement, taking into account the IFRIC adjustments. Significant items for the full year in relation to transaction and integration costs and amortization of acquired intangibles will range between AUD 45 million-AUD 47 million after tax. Note that this excludes gains or losses on financial assets and the fair value movements associated with the Barrow Hanley accrued incentive compensation liability. Before handing back to Rob, I'll step through some of the key highlights in each division, noting there are more detailed financials in the appendix. In PAMI, we now have a world-class investment and distribution capability, with strong contributions coming to our results from both Trillium and Barrow Hanley. Assets under management across both institutional and intermediate channels increased during the half year.
While at an asset class level, we saw strong growth in global equities and outflows from U.S. equities and fixed income. During the half, Trillium continued to be recognized as a leader in ESG investing. Again, being designated a Real Leaders top impact company in 2022. We are seeing early interest in the recently launched Trillium ESG Global Conviction strategy with the new team in Edinburgh settling in very well. As Rob mentioned earlier, we are making good progress in rolling out a range of mutual funds with Barrow Hanley, with two launched in December and more to follow later this year. As Rob discussed earlier, again, we are building our distribution capability to help drive flows in all of those capabilities.
Turning to PAMA, we're seeing strong momentum across all asset classes, with 82% of funds outperforming over the year and assets under management up 3.6% to AUD 25.6 billion. We're seeing strong growth in our specialist credit capabilities, in particular, with these strategies delivering strong performance over all periods and over half a billion AUD in flows during the half. Cash and fixed income strategies now have total AUM approaching AUD 10 billion, up from AUD 8.3 billion at 30 June. In our multi-asset funds, we're also seeing good growth, with over AUD 300 million in flows for the half. Yesterday, you may have seen Perpetual Equity Investment Company results, where it reported very strong investment performance, outperforming its benchmark by close to 6% over the past 12 months.
Overall, PAMA had its third consecutive quarter of net inflows, and we've also renewed our investment in brand and marketing campaigns for Australian equities and credit in particular, and we are pleased with the interest we've received to this point. In PCT, we have a high-quality business that continues to deliver strong earnings growth across all of its segments. MFS funds under administration are up 5%, and saw a really solid contribution from its responsible entity services business, up 43% on PCP. The debt market services business benefited from an increased level of activity in the securitization market, with RMBS non-bank FUA, which is higher margin than the bank FUA, up 23% on prior corresponding period. The recently acquired Laminar Capital has added extra capabilities for PCT, with the new Perpetual Digital segment set to become a more material part of the business going forward.
Finally, to PP, Perpetual Private, we are seeing continued net inflows. As we've mentioned, 17 halves in a row of net inflows and over AUD half a million this half. Assets under management of AUD 8.1 billion came from growth across both our opportunities and our implemented strategies. Funds under advice also experienced strong growth, with the high net wealth segment a highlight, up 14%, and the new family office capabilities added last year attracting good early interest. As Rob mentioned earlier, Jacaranda, which we acquired in August 2021, is being integrated according to plan, and we're expecting to expand that business nationally later this year. With that, I'll hand back to Rob before we go to Q&A.
Thanks, Chris. I'll now comment on each of our divisions, focusing on key priorities for the remainder of this financial year. For our international asset management business, as highlighted, we are well-positioned to benefit from the permanent global ESG mega trend with Trillium, as well as the shift to value via Barrow Hanley. We have world-class globally relevant investment strategies managed by world-class investment teams with significant capacity for future growth. Our growing world-class distribution team is now driving that growth, opening up new channels across key geographies. Our Australian asset management business now has had three quarters of consecutive positive flows, which is movement in the right direction. The exceptional performance profile across all sectors bodes well for the future, as do our recent product launches, our revitalized marketing, and future product launch plans.
In PCT, our leadership role and our consistent growth in debt market services and managed fund services is being augmented by our truly unique position to provide unmatched digital solutions across our client base. In Perpetual Private, we will continue to exploit the changing shape of the advice industry in Australia and demonstrate the operating leverage that our competitive advantages can provide us with. Our segment focus, our advice model, and brand strength combine to make us the leading choice for the industry's best advisors and their clients. Across all of our businesses, we will continue to seek to utilize our balance sheet strength to find new opportunities that expand our offerings and broaden our growth potential.
Our successful executions of six transactions in the last three years provides us with a high level of confidence regarding our ability to find, to assess, and to implement the right transactions for Perpetual. In today's heightened M&A environment, to have that proven ability is critical. In closing, we enter the second half of the financial year with positive momentum across our unique combination of businesses, which we are confident will continue. We are investing in our business in a disciplined way and delivering growth. Our expense guideline for FY 2022 is reaffirmed. We have best-in-class teams across our businesses focused on growth and a strong balance sheet to support organic and inorganic opportunities as we continue to execute on our clear strategy to deliver sustained quality growth. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Susie, who will oversee our Q&A session.
Thanks, Rob. I can see we've got a question from Ed Henning at CLSA. Do you wanna go ahead, Ed?
Yeah, that's great. Thank you for taking my questions. I got a couple of questions. On slide 13, you highlight the positive flows that have been coming from global equities. Today, you highlight another $500 million mandate, which is great. Can you just touch on, of the flows that came in, were a lot of those from the Global Value Fund? Now, performance has slightly dipped. Has that started to bounce back in the last two months since the update of December 31?
Yeah. Thanks, Ed. Yeah, for Barrow, it's probably simplest to think of three different global equity capabilities. There's the broad-based core Global Value Fund. There is a Global Emerging Markets Value Fund run by Rand Wrighton. We also have, from a U.S. investor's perspective, what's called international equities. It's ex-U.S., which is a huge segment in the U.S. Yeah, they're the three components that make up the whole, and each of them are growing. Each of them is performing well, and investor interest is growing, and consultant ratings are improving. Yeah, we're pretty bullish about the expectations, particularly given, you know, some of our closest competitors are struggling from a performance perspective.
Global Value Fund, has performance turned there more recently because of the updates as at December?
Yeah. It had a strong January. February to date, you know, last time I looked, it looks pretty good. Yeah, performance is, yeah, it's exceeding the value indices as well as the core indices.
Right. Kinda wrapping that up, you know, with the momentum in all those funds, you hope to see continued inflows coming in from the global equity side in Barrow?
Yeah, I would phrase it as being quite bullish.
Yeah. Okay. No, that's great. Thank you for that clarification. Just secondly, on fees and the mix of the funds coming in. If you look at both separately, PAMI, and then PAMA. If you look at the Australian business, the fee mix was down. Can you just talk about the outlook for fees, just given the mix of where you think the flows are gonna come in, both in the Aussie business and the international business flows?
I mean, I'd like to briefly comment. Maybe Chris might comment as well. Yeah. I think it's for PAMA, it is a mixed story. You know, Chris mentioned the strong flows into our credit fixed income team. Yeah, that business is doing terrifically well. Strong performance across the board. Yeah, very solid growth. You know, as Chris said, you know, we'll be touching, you know, punching through AUD 10 billion in assets in that team pretty soon. So yeah. Whereas Aussie equities, whilst, you know, we've had you know a material improvement in the flow profile, yeah, we're still in outflow, and some of it's high margin.
Yeah. I think we've been seeing a month-on-month improvement in the retail flow profile for the equities business, so that will have a positive impact over time. To this point, the growth in credit and fixed has outweighed that. I think internationally as well, we are seeing the growth coming in global strategies which are higher margin. To this point, though, we've also seen outflows out of U.S. equities, which isn't bad margin. You know, if we can do both stabilize U.S. equities and continue to grow or increase the growth in global equities, including the mutual funds as it starts to come online, which will be higher margin again for the Barrow Hanley transactions. Our expectation in the medium term would be that the Barrow Hanley average margin will improve.
Okay. That's great. I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Thanks, Ed.
Thanks, Ed. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, to press 01. Can't see that there's any more questions on the line. Oh, there's a couple coming through. Okay. I'll take the next question from Liz. Thanks, Liz. Do you wanna go ahead?
You're welcome.
Thanks for taking my question. My first one, if I can, is just on the market-related margins within the Perpetual Private business. It's stepped up quite materially this half to 85 basis points versus the last half, second half that is from 81. What's really driving that? I assume Jacaranda has helped. Just curious on some color there. Thank you.
Thanks. I couldn't completely hear that, Liz, but I think it was about the margin and the growth in non-market revenues in PP. Yes, a big driver of the turnaround in non-market revenues in PP was the turnaround in Fordham. We've talked in the past a little bit about the fact that Fordham benefits from the ability to meet with its clients face-to-face. You know, it just hasn't had the ability to do that. We were hopeful last half where we had windows that we'd see an uptick, and we have seen that in Fordham. Going forward this half, this is the time of year that Fordham gets or doesn't get consulting fees through the door.
Given we're reopening, I hope I'm not jinxing this now, you know, we're hopeful that we see an uptick, you know, versus last period on that consulting revenue as well. We definitely saw it in that more compliance-oriented tax return style work that Fordham does in the first half. We're hopeful to see the same sort of dynamic coming through in the consulting revenue that will come through.
Great. Thank you. Sorry, actually, my question was in relation to the market-related revenue. Sorry, the line is a little crackly. I'm not sure if that's me or you. Yeah, just focusing more on the market-related margin, if that's okay.
Look, there were some performance fees for PP of approximately, I think, AUD 3 million. That would've assisted the margin in PP.
Okay. Got it. Also just looking at the general and administrative expenses in total, I'm a little just confused in terms of the trajectory of that. So I think it came in at around AUD 71 million for the first half. In the second half 2021, it was around AUD 73.5 million. Obviously, I assume there's a bit of seasonality within that, but also that software adjustment that we've had to make for IFRIC. Is the first half 2022 number, I suppose, the right base going forward, or is there some seasonality with that? Because it just seems to be a fair bit lower once you adjust for that staff adjustment.
There is some seasonality in there, and you're right that IFRIC hasn't helped with the adjustments we've made there, which has, you know, thrown another spanner into it. I think it's probably somewhere in the middle, to be honest, Liz, that I wouldn't take the run rate for the first half through to the second. There'd be. Look as much at the second half 2021.
Okay, great. Got it. If I can squeeze in one final one. The franking rate was 100%, which I expected it to be a bit lower, in line with commentary once you made the acquisition of Barrow Hanley. Just wondering going forward, will it be at that, you know, elevated rate, or how should we think about that going forward?
At this stage, we're comfortable that we'll have fully franked dividends for FY 2022, and all things being equal, FY 2023. You know, we've got some franking credits in the account and the way the earnings are being generated, that's the way it's looking at the moment. Beyond that, it'll depend on the proportion of earnings that are coming from offshore versus locally, obviously, and that's probably a little bit too far out to look ahead at. We're pretty comfortable we continue to pay fully franked dividends this year and next.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Liz. The next person on my list is Andrei from Morgan Stanley. Andrei, go ahead.
Good morning. I wanted to ask my first question around that real return multi-asset ESG strategy, which has raised over AUD 1 billion within three months of launch. Can you explain a little bit more about the strategy? Like which clients has it been, you know, marketed to, and what is it about this strategy that allows it to raise so much money before having a you know, performance track record?
Maybe second question first, Andrei. We had specific interest from an Australian institutional investor that makes up the bulk of that support. They were very closely involved with the product construct. You know, the fund is run by Michael O'Dea and our multi-asset team. You know, it provides proven downside protection, low volatility, but still sufficient upside exposure with ESG allocations. Some of those allocations are through to Trillium, to our ESG Australian Share Fund run by Nathan Hughes, and other exposures. You know, our distribution team is marketing that through both retail and institutional channels.
I wanna talk around the increase in the borrowings to fund strategies. Can you explain a little bit more about that? Is that mainly for seed capital or any other opportunities you're seeing?
In that half, it was partly helping to fund seed capital into the mutual fund strategies in the U.S. and the ETMFs locally here. We also had to, you know, pay for Jacaranda and for Laminar. We also paid some deferred consideration for Barrow Hanley. All of that combined to where we've got some headroom there. We've got some capacity. I think we've probably got somewhere between AUD 180 million and AUD 190 million of free cash available to us. If you're trying to think about capacity going forward, that's probably the number to think about.
Thank you.
Thanks, Andrei. We'll take the next question. Nigel from Citi. Go ahead, Nigel.
Good morning, guys, or good afternoon there. I just wanted to tie up, Rob, your comments, first of all, on, you're quite bullish on global equity flows and your comment that you now feel that your initial base case of three years to bring Barrow into positive net flow is now much shorter. I mean, yeah, are you flagging there that you could see a positive turn, say, within 12 months? I mean, do you think there's a reasonable chance of that?
I think there's a good way of phrasing it, Nigel. I think there's a reasonable chance of it.
Right.
Thinking about what could that flow mix look like. I mean, the way the pipeline's looking, the way performance is sitting, feedback from our distribution teams globally, I would say it'd be a combination of, yeah, a moderation in the outflows in U.S. equities, a moderation in the outflows from fixed and continued growth. I'm actually expecting substantial growth from our global capabilities.
Great. That's helpful. Thank you. Just secondly, on the cost front, there was a bit of sort of commentary around that, you know, some of the reason why costs might be just a little bit lighter first half was difficulty in recruitment. Is that in fact a factor? You know, is it possible? If it is it possible that that goes into second half as well?
Yeah, Nigel, it certainly was a factor in the first half. We didn't hire as many people as we had hoped to, given the difficult labor markets. Those markets aren't getting any easier, I have to say, but probably offsetting that is that when we do hire, they're tending to be a little bit more expensive than we had originally thought, too. So I can't really give you an answer, except that the dynamics in the labor market that existed in the first half are still there for us. We still have a number of initiatives, not just here in Australia, but overseas, that are looking to add capacity. It's taking us, you know, a little longer than we thought to add that capacity.
The impact is sort of across all businesses as well. Is that fair to say? Or
Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, all businesses are growing. The labor market issue is not specific to any one of our businesses. You know, Rob also talked about the fact we're building out our global operating model to provide the infrastructure to keep supporting this growth. You know, we've turned from a domestic business to an international business in 18 months or two years. You know, there you're talking about risk professionals, finance professionals, and yet they are amongst the most tricky markets at the moment to get people into.
Okay. Thank you for that. Maybe just finally, I mean, I just wanted to get a feel for sort of what flexibility you feel you have in the cost base if, you know, markets do end up being down for the half and, you know, how quickly that you can actually apply that flexibility?
Yeah. I think, Nigel, the best way to think about it is what you saw when we had a downturn, what was it? 12 or 18 months ago, where we took a number of measures to adjust our cost base at the time. You know, the board exec took pay raises, variable rem was hit, we slowed down recruitment, et cetera. There were, you know, pay cuts. I think we've evidenced the fact that we can move. We will balance that, though, with we are investing in some long-term initiatives that we believe are gonna drive long-term growth. We will be balancing that.
You know, if markets turn, we'll obviously have to adjust, but we'll be balancing that against the fact that we're midstream on investing in building out capabilities that we will need when we come out the other side.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Nigel. I'm conscious of time. We've got two more people that are looking to ask questions. Hand over to you, Matt, from Bank of America.
Thank you very much, gentlemen. Just wondering if I could ask on Corporate Trust, the Perpetual Digital, how much of that growth was driven by Laminar and what's the outlook? Are we expecting double-digit growth to continue in that line?
Laminar came on. We didn't have a full half contribution from Laminar, so I wouldn't overstate that, but Laminar will be material to the new Perpetual Digital segment. You'll see more of that coming through in the second half. I think the bigger opportunity from what Laminar provides is the ability to take that capability and roll it out to our installed client base across PCT. A couple of those new modules you saw in the PCT slide that Laminar brings, the sales team at PCT is in full swing trying to roll that out to our installed client base. Without giving guidance, PCT business is in really good shape, and I don't see any reason to.
It's been very resilient in terms of its earnings and its profile, and I don't see anything particularly changing that on the downside. If anything, Laminar brings upside.
Thanks, Chris. If I could just have a follow-up for Rob perhaps. On slide 30, you're talking about targeted organic and inorganic growth. I just wonder if there's anything you can say around. It seems like your comment refers to more happening in FY 2022 around inorganic growth. Is there anything you're working on at the moment?
Yeah, I hope so. Yes, there are things we're working on. You know, we're working on actually, as I think about it, you know, Chris talked about a healthy pipeline of M&A opportunities. We're actually active on opportunities for each business right now as we speak. So yeah, I'd be very hopeful, Matt, that we can execute on a transaction or two. Yeah, in our asset management business, we've got a few gaps, you know, in a perfect world that we'd like to cover, particularly in alternatives. You know, for PP, you know, we've got a strong pipeline of bolt-on opportunities.
For PCT, you know, Laminar sort of extends out what we can do for clients and anything that we think can have a similar impact in terms of extension of service and product. Yeah, could be in the frame. I'd definitely like to think that we can execute something, you know, in this current half.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Matt. We'll take the final question from Julian. Julian from JP Morgan, over to you.
Good morning, guys. Just a follow-up from me on the Perpetual Digital question. Look, I just wanted to understand, obviously that business is about just over 10% of revenues in corporate trust, but growing, seems to be growing phenomenally. I just wanted to understand how you're thinking about the longer term financial opportunity there. I mean, what is it that you're targeting and I mean, further to the question earlier, is it sustainable, these sort of growth levels that you're doing at the moment? Thanks.
I'll make a brief comment and pass to Chris, who I think as everybody knows, you know, for more than a decade ran the business and set up, you know, components of what is now Perpetual Digital. You know, Chris talked about effectively the cross-sell of, you know, services within Perpetual Digital across our debt market services business. I think Chris, you know, our existing client penetration would be less than 10%. You know, there's a pretty decent runway there.
It's really not complicated in the sense that we've got a lot of new capabilities with Perpetual Digital, of which only 10% of our current clients utilize. So the main game is to penetrate our existing client base with those new capabilities, many of which come from Laminar. And then there are, you know, in time, there'll be extensions beyond as we've extended beyond securitization into broader banking and financial services markets. You know, there'll be other markets that in time, I'm not suggesting any time soon, because there's a big opportunity in financial services, but the sort of capabilities that we're building lend themselves to an analytics and data aggregation in with any other industry that needs it with big complex data sets.
The immediate opportunity is to sell a bunch of new capabilities in Perpetual Digital to our existing client base beyond the 10% that use them now.
Okay, great. Thanks so much for that. I just had one last question just on the margins in the Australian business. I just wanted to get a bit of color as to how you're seeing margins hold up. Obviously, they've been pretty stable in the PCP. And then also, I think it was slightly down on the second half 2021. I'm not sure if that's performance fee driven. The question I'm asking is, are you seeing much fee pressure in just the Australian business or are just the margins holding up pretty stable ex mix impacts?
If you're talking about the Australian asset management business, you know, I don't think there's been any discernible change in our pricing. We couple years ago proactively adjusted prices in some of our capabilities that we wanted to prioritize. I think in some ways we proactively dealt with any potential client-led margin pressures. You know, I'd say there's been no discernible negative trend in that regard.
Last half, the impact of those repricing moments of 12 months ago coming through. Beyond that, no pricing pressure. Really what's going to drive margin in PAMA and PAMI will be business mix going forward.
Okay, great. Excellent. Thanks so much for that.
Okay, thanks, Julian. I think we'll close it out there. Thank you for watching and listening in today. The financial material and a recording of the webcast will be available on our website shortly. Please reach out to me if you've got any further questions. Thanks, and have a great day.