Good morning. I'm pleased to welcome you all to PEXA's results for the first six months ended December 31, 2022. In particular, I'd like to welcome any first-time shareholders who have joined us through the in-specie distribution of Link's PEXA shareholding earlier this year. I respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, who are the traditional owners of the land on which the PEXA Group is headquartered in Melbourne Docklands, and pay our respect to their elders, past and present. I'm Glenn King, PEXA's Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Joining me this morning is our Group Chief Financial Officer, Richard Moore. Today, we will cover PEXA's first half business highlights and financial performance and provide some perspectives on the company's outlook going forward. At the end, we'll be happy to take any questions. First, a recap on the PEXA Group.
Let's start with what PEXA Group is today. Two years ago, before our listing on the ASX, we were a single brand operating in a single market with a single source of revenue, the very successful PEXA Exchange. At the time of our IPO, we laid out a growth path in terms of becoming leveraging our IP and expertise to become an international leader in digital property settlements, starting in the U.K., and also monetizing our real-time data and insights and identifying and incubating new business adventures across the property ecosystem. Today, when we now announce our results, we have multiple diverse revenue streams across three core areas or businesses. The PEXA Exchange, PEXA Digital Growth, which now represents the merger of PEXA Insights and PX Ventures, and our PEXA International expansion.
As you'll see in our results today, we are well on the way in all three streams. We are now a rapidly evolving international platform business that seeks to redefine the property experience by leveraging our experience, internet, intellectual property, technology, data, and partnerships. The Australian Property Exchange is the number one property exchange platform in the country with resilient, efficient performance and continued growth potential. We are building real momentum in PEXA Digital Growth services and revenue. Our PEXA Go technology platform is live in the U.K., and the acquisition of Optima Legal supports our scale and future growth aspirations. Now I'm gonna turn to slide six. Slide six lays out our strategy clearly. It's enhanced the core PEXA Exchange service in Australia. Continue to extend through PEXA Digital Growth to provide innovative data insights, building deeper customer relationships across a broader group of stakeholders.
Expand through PEXA International into new Torrens Title jurisdictions like the U.K., evolve our business by investing in our people, platform, and brand to sustain an innovative culture and reputation trusted by stakeholders. All these strategic pillars all support the fulfillment of our purpose, which is connecting people to place and are delivered in accordance with our values, innovate for good, better together, and make it happen, and make it count. Now turning to slide seven. Over the first half of this financial year, we continued to do what we said we would. Executing a clearly articulated strategy and delivering positive outcomes for all our stakeholders, including our customers in Australia and the U.K. The PEXA Exchange continues to perform well in a challenging Australian property market, with transfer penetration increasing by 4 percentage points to 88%, supported by the growth in Queensland and the ACT.
We delivered operating EBITDA margin of 52.4%, right in the middle of our FY 2023 guidance range, with ongoing focus on expense management within the business. Our strategy to diversify our revenue is coming to fruition, with 11% of our group revenue in December 2022 coming from our growth segments, PEXA Digital Growth and our international business. PEXA Digital Growth is building a solid platform for future performance with organic revenue growth and recent investments in M&A, contributing to its long-term potential. Internationally, our expansion is progressing well, with 2 lenders now transacting on the PEXA UK platform and the transformative Optima Legal acquisition completed and now being integrated. Slide 8 now provides a summary of the key financial metrics for the business, which Richard will go through in more detail shortly.
As flagged at the full year results last year, the Australian property market has entered a challenging phase in response to the Reserve Bank's round of interest rate rises. Nevertheless, our financial performance was resilient, reflecting both the strength of the PEXA Exchange, which, despite the moderating housing market, actually delivered a modest increase in revenue and EBITDA margin compared to the second half of FY 2022. We also delivered growth of new revenue streams. In fact, revenue from outside of the Australian Exchange grew from near zero in the first half 2022 to AUD 5.8 million in the first half 2023. The movement in Group NPAT and NPATA reflect both the property market conditions and our commitment to continuing to invest profits to underpin future growth across the business.
Notwithstanding the uncertainty in the property market, we are maintaining our FY 2023 guidance of PEXA Exchange operating EBITDA margin in the range of 50%-55%. Now I'll move on to our business overview and performance in the first half 2023. Turning to slide 10. The PEXA Exchange remains the number one trusted provider in the industry. The PEXA Exchange continues to grow, working with more than 9,800 practitioners and 160+ financial institutions across six jurisdictions. We offer a full range of property exchange transaction services. As previously stated, market share also increased with 88% of all property transfers nationally now completed via the exchange. Likewise, refinance transactions remain robust. It was up 7% for the first half, reflecting the shift in interest rates.
With the majority of all property settlements now occurring on the PEXA Exchange, platform reliability and resilience are of critical importance. We at PEXA continue to focus our efforts in this space and are pleased to note that we had a system uptime of 100% in the core hours for the period. This has resulted in positive Net Promoter and customer effort scores of both over 70 leading scores. Further to this, we have a roadmap to expand coverage in Western Australia and to enter the Tasmanian market while e-conveyancing has just been mandated in Queensland. I can tell you there is a lot of positive momentum ahead. Further to this, we've also continued to engage constructively with regulators on regulatory reform.
On key PEXA Exchange financial metrics for the period, our revenue was AUD 135 million, up from the second half of 2022. Our operating EBITDA of AUD 71 million was up from the second half of 2022. Our EBITDA margin of 52.4% was in the middle of the guidance range, and that was due to our focus on efficiencies and noting our continuing investment in exchange tech. Now let me go to slide 11, and we'll touch on a handful of headline figures showcasing the resilient volumes across first half 2023. While total market volumes shrank 12% from the first half of FY 2022, they were down just 3% from the second half of FY 2022, with refinances increasing compared to both prior periods.
This is an important point as the PEXA Exchange platform delivers a full and diverse range of property exchange transactions and is not solely dependent on sale and purchases nor on property prices. In fact, compensating for the market slowdown, the PEXA Exchange market penetration grew 3 percentage points to 88%, with all transaction types showing increasing penetration over the period. Within that movement, transfer penetration increased by 4 percentage points to 88%, helped by the strong growth in Queensland and the ACT, as you can see from the chart at the bottom of the slide. This is another important point as the PEXA Exchange platform delivers full property exchange transaction services across all Australian jurisdictions except for Tasmania and Northern Territory. Noting, we're exploring the opportunities in these two locations.
Overall, compared to the first half of FY 2022, we saw a 9% decrease in PEXA transactions to 1.92 million, as you see in the right-hand chart. Compared to the most recent period, the second half of FY 2022 PEXA transactions ended up just 1% down, with strong refinancing volumes mitigating decreases in transfers nationally. Let me again say, the PEXA Exchange platform continues to demonstrate its resilient performance. Now let me turn to slide 12. As mentioned earlier, PEXA Insights and PX Ventures were restructured into PEXA Digital Growth to align new Australian growth initiatives and services. The strategic intent and market opportunity for PEXA Digital Growth is clear. Australia's AUD 10 trillion housing market continues to be rapidly transformed by digital technology innovations like the PEXA Exchange has done over the past decade.
The creation of significant volumes of property data is generating opportunities for new consumer and business solutions that enhance property and land decision-making. PEXA's strategy is to pursue both organic and inorganic growth through strategic M&A and partnerships in customers, services, and revenue pools associated with the property sector. It is about growth. In the past year, we made strategic investments in Landchecker and Elula, acquired .id, took a 70% in the leading Value Australia valuation service. Entered into research partnerships with the university, such as the Melbourne Business School. All these partnerships and investments are well on the way to integration. Today, PEXA, we now have several businesses and brands providing new services to our four key customer segments of practitioners and agents, financial institutions, property developers, and government.
New services that enhance and improve the customer experience, as illustrated on the slide, such as Business Advantage, OpEx, Landchecker, and .id. Yes, we invested $11 million in PEXA Digital Growth in the first half of FY 2023 for this growth. PEXA Digital Growth has already now delivered organic revenue of $1.2 million in the first half, up 100% year-on-year, an inorganic revenue of $2.8 million from the three months of .id performance. In fact, the inorganic annual revenue run rate will be at least $10 million this year. We are pleased with our progress for the first six months as we enter these new markets and related markets to support the diversification and growth of our customer base and revenue, taking into account ongoing regulatory and execution risk factors.
If we turn to slide 13, we can take a closer look at .id, one of PEXA Digital Growth's strategic acquisitions. Now, id brings more than 300 local governments into the PEXA Group's customer base, covering 80% of the Australian population, all delivering growth opportunities. The acquisition also brings an extremely capable team of geographers, housing analysts, forecasters, economists and software developers into the PEXA family, further deepening our talent base. It is a well-established and leading business providing platform services across several related areas, including communities, housing, economic, and population forecasts. .id is an innovative business that allows PEXA to grow in new markets and services associated with property tech and insights. Turning to slide 14 in PEXA International. PEXA International continues to deliver as planned with solid progress on our U.K. expansion.
After laying the groundwork in FY 2022, our U.K. remortgage offering went live with two lenders in the first half of FY 2023. Exploratory work is continuing with two more financial institutions. It is underway. In total, nine financial institutions have now successfully completed testing of PEXA Pay, with more testing slots to be made available this year towards a launch in FY 2024. To support our growth in the U.K., late last year, we acquired leading remortgage processing and bulk conveyancing firm, Optima Legal. Optima Legal counts for six of the eight top U.K. lenders as clients. Integrating PEXA Exchange into Optima Legal systems will help us demonstrate the benefits of our PEXA Go platform at scale. This, in turn, should support the adoption of PEXA's platform in the U.K. market.
The Optima Legal acquisition is now complete. Integration is progressing well with the business expected to deliver revenue at an annual run rate of more than AUD 20 million. We are making good progress in the U.K. Our continued momentum and progress will always be dependent on the execution, regulatory, and risk requirements of the respective geographies and markets for which we have and will continuously work through. Let me turn to slide 15, and we'll just take a closer look at the strategic significance of the acquisition of the U.K. firm, Optima Legal. Optima Legal is a high volume remortgage processing and bulk conveyancing firm, headquartered in Leeds, that provides legal and mortgage services in the U.K. remortgage market. It is one of the largest remortgage processing firms in the U.K., with approximately 22% market share of the remortgage processing market.
The U.K. Conveyancing industry can directly assist banking industry clients with remortgage transactions. The Optima Legal acquisition represents an exciting opportunity for us at PEXA to facilitate the adoption of the PEXA platform and its associated benefits for the U.K. Market at scale, reducing investment risk through potential customer service uptake, while also providing an alternate pathway for lenders to access PEXA. We are encouraged about the potential and the acquisition of Optima Legal. Now turning us to slide 16. Given the critical role played by PEXA in the economy, it is important for the Group to continue building and maintaining a culture of trust within the community. We truly believe that having an engaged team in the PEXA team translates to our highly satisfied customers and great business performance.
We at PEXA do this by delivering through our values of innovate for good, better together, and make it happen, and make it count. We are proud of their strong employee engagement, reflected in an engagement score of 76%. In fact, 94% of PEXA employees say they feel genuinely supported, genuinely supported with flexible working, and we were the winner of the Employer of Choice Award at the Australian HR Awards. We've also created a housing affordability agenda, including white papers with LongView. We granted funding for Homes for Homes and explored adding consumer functionality into PEXA Key that would allow home buyers and sellers to donate to Homes for Homes directly. We are passionate about what we can do in the housing affordability agenda, and we believe we can make a difference. Further this, we commenced our inaugural Indigenous engagement strategy.
This includes the formation of an IES working group and executive sponsors focused on creating educational opportunities, employment pathways, procurement opportunities, and community engagement. We also delivered an industry-leading FY 2022 greenhouse gas emissions report, independently certified by Pangolin A ssociates, and we are on track to achieve our targets in this space. Likewise, we have established a series of partnerships with leading organizations, including University of Melbourne, Deakin University, and the University of New South Wales, for a range of purposes, including the exploration of privacy, preservation, and data analytic techniques, as well as providing employment pathways into data analytics and tech for Australia's top emerging talent into a leading tech company such as PEXA. We've also partnered with Women in Tech to further support and nurture diversity across the tech industry, working towards a future where there's far greater female representation at all levels of tech.
I can tell you these are not only areas and things that we're proud of, but we also, in our view, they're mandatory. Our PEXA people are committed to creating positive impact, and it is our role at PEXA to make sure that happens. I'm going to hand over to Richard, who's going to take us through our first half 2023 financial summary.
Thanks, Len, it's great to be here today to talk through the financial results for PEXA in the first half of FY 2023. Before I start, I should say that we are reporting our financial information slightly differently from previous results when we were still comparing to prospectus forecasts with pro forma adjustments. Now that we have revenue coming from the International and PEXA Digital Growth segments, we're showing a Group P&L followed by three segment P&Ls instead of the Exchange results down to EBITDA and all other costs below that line. All figures align to the segment note in the statutory accounts. Rest assured, all metrics such as PEXA Exchange EBITDA have been calculated in exactly the same manner as prior periods. The first half 2023 PEXA Group results can be seen on slide 18.
Group revenue was down 3% year-on-year to AUD 140.9 million. A combination of Exchange revenue being down AUD 9.7 million and international and PDG revenue being up AUD 5.2 million year-on-year. Combined cost of goods sold and operating costs were up 27% year-on-year, reflecting the significant investment we continue to make in growth initiatives in the first half of FY 2023. That resulted in a decrease in PEXA Group operating EBITDA of 31% to AUD 52.4 million. Group EBITDA, including one-off non-operating costs, was down AUD 7.3 million year-on-year due to sizable IPO-related costs in the prior year and M&A-related consulting costs in the first half of FY 2023.
Accordingly, group NPAT of AUD 4 million was down AUD 5.7 million from last year, and NPATA, which excludes the non-cash amortization of acquired intangible assets, was down AUD 5.9 million to AUD 23.5 million. I'll get into the drivers of each of these by segment over the next few pages, but I will say it's a solid start to FY 2023 in a challenging Australian property market. The first half 2023 PEXA Exchange segment results can be seen on slide 19. Exchange revenue was down 7% to AUD 135.1 million, with market volumes down 12%, Exchange penetration up 3%, and net price mix up 2%. I'll explain those movements in more detail over the next few slides.
It's worth noting that Exchange revenue was actually up on the most recent half, the second half of FY 2022, reflecting the resilient nature of our platform revenues in Australia. With Exchange COGS trending in line with revenue, Exchange gross margins held steady at just under 88%. Exchange operating expenses were up 8% year on year, driven by headcount increases in the second half of FY 2022 and inflationary impacts. Again, it's worth noting that the Exchange operating expenses were actually 1% lower than the second half of FY 2022, reflecting strong cost control in the period, given salary increases were implemented on July 1st, 2022. This means Exchange operating EBITDA was down AUD 12 million or 15% from the first half of FY 2022, but actually up AUD 1 million or 1% from the second half.
Exchange EBITDA, including one-off items, was up AUD 10 million or 17% due to the sizable IPO-related costs in the prior period. PEXA Exchange operating EBITDA was right in the middle of our 50%-55% guided range at 52.4%, reflecting our focused cost control in the Exchange. Overall, it's a robust first half 2023 financial result for our Exchange. On slide 20, we explain the key drivers of the Exchange revenue. It's a function of three things: market size, market penetration, and price. Slide 20 explains the first two of those. The left-hand chart shows the total market volumes which shrunk 12% year-on-year in first half 2023 to 2.2 million transactions or billable events. Within that, we saw transfers drop 20% year-on-year, but refinances actually increased by 7%.
Compensating for that, the PEXA Exchange market penetration grew by 3 percentage points to 88%. On the middle chart, we can see that by transaction type. We saw our transfer penetration grow from 84%-88%, driven by improvements in both Queensland and ACT, with penetrations in both of those states hitting 85% in the month of December. Refinance penetration was stable at 99%, and the penetration of other transactions grew by 1 percentage point to 72%. Combined, that delivered a 3 percentage point increase to 88% overall. Adding that to the 12% decline in the market means compared to the first half of FY 2022, we saw a 9% decrease in PEXA transactions to AUD 1.92 million, as seen in the right-hand chart.
Overall, PEXA transactions actually ended up just 1% below the second half of FY 2022, with strong refinance volumes mitigating decreases in transfers nationally. On slide 21, we then explain how volume and price determine revenue. The left-hand chart shows the PEXA volumes from the prior slide, down 9% year-on-year. We saw an average price increase to AUD 70, driven by the annual CPI increase during the year of 5.1%, offset by a mix shift towards lower price refinances, which resulted in the total average price increasing by AUD 1.60 or 2%.
The 2% price increase and 9% decline in volume resulted in a 7% decrease in PEXA Exchange revenue from AUD 143.9 million in the first half of FY 2022 to AUD 134.2 million in the first half of FY 2023. Again, it's worth noting that the PEXA Exchange revenue was up 1% on the second half of FY 2022, driven by a 2% decrease in market volumes, offset by a 1.5 percentage point increase in market penetration and a 1.5% increase in price. Again, made up by the 5% CPI increase offset by a higher proportion of refinancing transactions noted above. Slide 22 shows our operating expenses in the Exchange. We group our expenses into three categories: general and administration, sales and marketing, and product design and development.
Our general and admin costs, which cover our shared corporate teams, our board and executive remuneration, as well as professional fees and occupancy costs, increased by 15% in the first half of FY 2023 compared to the first half of FY 2022. This is driven by higher employee costs, which includes wage inflation, long-term incentive plan-related costs, higher insurance premiums, and advisory fees relating to regulatory environment changes. It's worth noting that the G&A spend was actually 6% lower than the second half of FY 2022, even after the salary increases that were implemented on the 1st of July, 2022. With a focus on managing the cost base in the first half and ongoing efficiency measures are in place for the second half of FY 2023.
Our sales and marketing spend in the first half held relatively flat to both previous periods, with increased external events post COVID-19 offset by lower discretionary marketing spend. Finally, our product design and development OpEx increased by just 1% in the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2022 due to prudent cost management offsetting salary increases and inflationary rises in contracts. You'll also see from the bottom chart that we capitalized a similar amount of product development spend, total cash spend on product design and development was AUD 26.6 million, up 10% from the first half of 2022, but down 1% on the second half of 2022. Total development spend on the PEXA Exchange equated to 19.7% of revenue, in line with our FY 2023 guidance of circa 20%.
The first half 2023 PEXA Digital Growth segment results can be seen on slide 23. Revenue increased by more than 500% to AUD 4 million, made up of AUD 1.2 million organic revenue and AUD 2.8 million inorganic. The organic revenue came from an increase in partnerships revenue alongside increased use of PDG's PEXA Plus and PEXA Tracker services, in total increased by over 100% from the first half of 2022. The inorganic revenue was 3 months of .id revenue, equating to an annualized run rate of AUD 10 million per year. Operating expenses were up AUD 9.4 million year-on-year, reflecting the increased level of investment in PDG and three months of .id operating expenses. This meant PDG operating EBITDA was down AUD 6 million on the first half of 2022.
PDG EBITDA, including one-off non-operating items, was down AUD 8.2 million, reflecting the operating result noted above, plus the M&A-relating consulting and due diligence costs. The operating cash outflow of AUD 11 million showed a slightly higher run rate than our previous FY 2023 guidance of circa AUD 15 million for the full year. It should be noted that this was for PEXA Insights only, not PDG, which includes what was PX Ventures. We have updated our FY 2023 PDG guidance to a total investment before M&A of AUD 20 million-AUD 25 million. The first half 2023 PEXA International results can be seen on slide 24. Revenue was AUD 1.8 million, all inorganic, from one month of revenue from Optima Legal. This equates to an annualized run rate of circa AUD 20 million per year. Noted previously, we are not expecting any organic revenue in FY 2023.
Operating expenses were up AUD 7.3 million year-on-year, reflecting the increased level of investment in International and one month of Optima Legal operating expenses. This meant International operating EBITDA was down AUD 5.5 million on the first half 2022. EBITDA, including one-off non-operating items, was down AUD 9.1 million, reflecting the operating result, plus M&A-related consulting and due diligence costs from the Optima Legal acquisition. The operating cash outflow of AUD 23 million in the first half 2023 was in line with our FY 2023 full year guidance of circa AUD 45 million. Although we have updated our FY 2023 International guidance to a total spend pre-M&A of AUD 45 million-AUD 50 million. The final financial slide, 25, shows our first half 2023 cash flow in two ways. The chart on the left shows the movement in our cash balance over the year and key drivers.
We started 1H 2023 with AUD 75 million of cash. We generated a further AUD 71 million of exchange EBITDA and spent AUD 13 million on capitalized product development and a further AUD 5 million of other exchange related cash outflows. Before investment in our growth initiatives, we would have had approximately AUD 128 million of cash in the business. We invested AUD 40 million in our International and Digital Growth businesses, meaning that we would have had cash balance of AUD 88 million before any M&A activities. We then invested AUD 50 million across the .id, Optima Legal, and Value Australia investments. That resulted in an actual cash balance of AUD 40 million on the December 1st .
The table on the right side of 25 shows the statutory cash flow, and you can see the consistent free cash flow before financing and tax of AUD 18 million, which equates to a 42% free cash flow conversion. Before I close, I should add there are more details on the financials in the appendix. Now over to Glenn to run through our outlook and guidance.
Thanks, Richard. The resilience of the PEXA Exchange platform was evident in our performance in the face of tough property market conditions. Volumes in the first half were down year-on-year, in line with guidance, but only 1% below the second half of FY 2022, with higher refinancing volumes offsetting falls in transfers nationally. The property market continues to be supported by strong economic fundamentals, including high household savings, low levels of unemployment, and increasing inward migration. It is fair to say that we will still see some risks on the downside as the full impact of the Reserve Bank rate increases flow through. In terms of FY 2023 outlook, I'm pleased to reaffirm that we expect the PEXA Exchange EBITDA margins to stay in the 50%-55% range.
We will continue to invest approximately 20% of Exchange revenue in our PEXA Exchange technology. We also believe that non-PEXA Exchange revenues will continue to represent a growing portion of the business, with Optima Legal and .id expected to contribute more than AUD 15 million of revenue in the second half. We will also invest approximately AUD 45 million-AUD 50 million in the international expansion and approximately AUD 20 million-AUD 25 million in PEXA Digital Growth, excluding the cost of any M&A activity. We are engaging positively with several UK lenders and remain focused on bringing these additional lenders onto the PEXA Go platform. The transformative Optima Legal acquisition gives us the opportunity to explore how we can use an integrated offering to serve these lenders and the broader lender base that Optima Legal supports.
We expect the timing for onboarding further lenders may extend beyond this financial year as we work through the best way to serve this broader lender base through our expanded offering. Turning to slide 28. In closing, PEXA is continuing to execute on a clearly articulated strategy with short and long-term growth pathways that deliver strong outcomes for customers in Australia and the UK. Summarizing our four strategic pillars. Enhance. The resilient and reliable PEXA Exchange platform performed well in a challenging Australian property market. We've had disciplined cost management resulting in lower PEXA Exchange OpEx, with further work underway to drive efficiencies. We'll continue to extend the PEXA Digital Growth, and we are making good progress with emerging organic and inorganic revenue and new offers coming to market that tap into new value pools and customer segments.
The recent acquisitions and investments are integrating well, and we continue to invest for growth. Our expansion in the U.K. The UK platform build and release has progressed positively, and the Optima Legal acquisition integration is progressing well, and we expect will support our PEXA UK platform take-up. We'll continually evolve as a business. We've had strong engagement with our people, and we're an employer of choice. We have built valued community partnerships, particularly in the housing affordability space, with LongView and strong commercial partnerships with influential thought leaders. That concludes today's presentation. I wanna thank everyone who listened, and Rich and I will be very happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phone, you will need to press the star key followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the Ask a Question box and hit Submit. Your first question comes from Josh Kannourakis from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Glenn and Richard. Thank you for taking my questions. First one, just with regard to that U.K. target, obviously it's taking a little bit longer to onboard some clients. Can you just give us some context about the, you know, prior discussion around the 20% refi volume? You know, do you think that's still achievable? How do you sort of think about where people should be moving that in terms of, how far to the right they should be moving that profile?
Thanks, Josh. The couple of points that I would state. The Optima Legal acquisition gives us access to 22% of the remortgage volume in the U.K. One of the things that we've been clear about is actually getting access to the particular market potential. The second element of that is now with the Optima Legal acquisition, we'll look to bring the PEXA platform into the Optima Legal proposition that makes it easier for some of those banks that are already existing customers to take advantage of the PEXA tech and the PEXA platform and the better experience. That's work that is underway at the moment, and we'll have greater clarity of that in the second half of the financial year.
The second aspect, we're still working with financial institutions, that, A, are also customers of Optima Legal, but also potential customers of the PEXA platform. The work that we're doing is ensuring that there's minimal disruption and overlap between those two. It's a coherent and consistent execution of our platform and our tech to improve those financial institutions' outcomes. That's some work that we've been doing over the past couple of months, Josh. The third element, though, is we also still work with financial institutions in their own right, and as I said, we're exploring the progress with two particular financial institutions with the intent to see that we can get them on the platform. Certainly, we're gonna get as many on as we can within this financial year.
However, given the work we're doing with Optima Legal, some of that may progress to the second half of this calendar year, and that's work that we're working through as per the presentation that I shared earlier.
Got it. No, that's really helpful, Glenn. Basically, you know, pushing it to the right a little bit into the, you know, the first half, I guess, 2024 or second half of this calendar year. We're not talking, you know, it's more significant than that at this stage based on what you know.
We'll get greater, we'll get certainly greater clarity, Josh, as we work through this second half. Certainly one of the things that, and for everyone who's listening, one of the things that we're seeing, the Optima Legal acquisition does provide us with a number of interesting and exciting opportunities, both in terms of the existing customer base and the opportunity to help transform that in terms of a tech service. We can certainly see a good pathway with the PEXA platform through Optima Legal on the remortgage element. Certainly we'll be sharing more as we keep developing that strategy throughout the year.
Great. That's really helpful. Second one on the investment, maybe for Glenn or Richard. Obviously the investment in digital a little bit higher than what we're expecting. Can we talk a little bit about maybe just a little bit more color on what that's going into, how you think on the return on the investment, and just a little bit more context on the sort of medium-term profile of the business in terms of, you know, profitability, et cetera?
I'll kick off first, Josh, and then Richard can add a little bit more on where some of the dollars are going. The first thing, in terms of the PEXA Digital Growth, one of the things, and you'll appreciate this, one of the things that we've certainly seen is the progress we're making has certainly been in accordance with our strategic intent, but some of the opportunities are emerging quite rapidly. If you take the .id as an example there, that acquisition will certainly generate solid revenue. What we're also seeing is that acquisition gives us the opportunity to provide additional services to the existing local council customer base, but also start to grow into some of our existing customer bases within the PEXA Group.
You learn more of that as you acquire. As it is, if you take Value Australia, which is not yet live in the market, what we can see there that provides a potential new growth, revenue opportunities in new markets that are accretive but also additive to our existing segments. That has required some additional tech element that we've been working on as we start to bring that to market. I can certainly say every one that we've done, and I can certainly see that the progress of the ones that we're doing will add to the broader group, not just in terms of the existing customer base, but also the growth of our revenue pools as we've banked 12, 18 months ago. Richard, did you wanna add any more to that?
Yeah, I'd just add one thing, Glenn, and that's that the previous guidance was AUD 15 million of spend for PEXA Insights for the year. You really do have to add in whatever your estimate for PX Ventures would have been on top of that. It's not unreasonable to think that that would have, you know, been another AUD 5 million. Potentially an annualized spend of AUD 20, and we spent AUD 11 in the first half. I don't think it's that far from expectations. It is quite a different, you know, entity now that we've combined the two and continued to invest for growth. In my mind, we've probably spent AUD 11 against an expectation of AUD 10, as opposed to it being particularly far away from what we expected to spend.
To Glenn's point, we're very confident that what we're investing in is gonna drive returns in the future. Got it. Richard, just to close off on that question, though, I guess, the profile of the business in terms of when we see that, you know, turning, you know, from the investment to, you know...
Positive or whatever. How are you guys currently thinking about that?
Yeah, we've not given any guidance specifically on that, Josh. Certainly, you know, as Len said, we've got a profitable business in .id. You know, we've got other inorganic opportunities in play. I certainly wouldn't be thinking that we're pushing out the date of profitability across PEXA Digital Growth. I think that's, you know, that's a good opportunity for us in the not too distant future. We haven't formally guided to what, when that'll be. Certainly, Josh, as Rich was saying there, one of the... Not only the profitability dimension, one of the other dimensions is also ensuring that we start to diversify the broader revenue base and the customer base. That is something that we definitely will be moving on over this 12 months.
Okay, great. I'll give someone else a turn. Thanks for taking my question.
Thanks, Josh.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ed Henning from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just further following on the U.K., you've highlighted nine lenders have tested. Can you just talk about their intent to sign up with you? Then also, you know, again, you touched on today about the opportunity around Optima Legal. Can you just talk about when that will be integrated, so then you can push forward with lenders using that combined Optima Legal and PEXA platform? As a first question.
Yeah, thanks, Ed. Probably, well, let's just work through. The first one, so there's nine that have done their testing with the Bank of England, the PEXA Pay dimension of the PEXA proposition. Of those nine, some are already live, as you'd know, including Rugby, as an example, and Shawbrook. We're working with a couple more of those at the moment, and exploring how we get them on the platform. That's work in progress, as I flagged in the presentation. The second element on the Optima Legal acquisition, there's two parts of it. The first part is we've now acquired, and we're integrating that into the broader PEXA Group, and that includes things such as HR and finance and all those normal dimensions.
The second part of it is also ensuring that we improve the performance of Optima Legal to existing customer base. We're working through that at the moment. There's numerous dimensions in there that not only just lead to improved customer services, but also help drive further efficiencies within that group in terms of performance. As we're doing that work, and we're doing that work now, we've also now had our tech teams do further exploratory work, both in terms of the Optima Legal tech and the PEXA Go platform, which is the name we use in the U.K. for the PEXA Exchange. We're just working through how can we get that PEXA Go platform into the Optima Legal tech? What are the additional features that we'll be providing?
What does that look like with existing financial institutions that are customers of Optima Legal? That work is still work in progress. What we are doing as well with that work, we're also engaging with some of the existing customers of Optima Legal to ensure that it's the right approach for them, and it's also something that they want to be part of to deliver better customer service outcomes for them. Our intent is certainly to have that mapped out this half of the financial year, and our intent is to progress certainly in the second half of this calendar year. Some of the timing is going to be dependent on till we complete the exploratory work.
Again, Ed, I would add that I was in the U.K. last week and the week before, and on any of these things, you know, there's numerous dimensions. I am encouraged about the progress we've made and what the opportunity looks like.
That's helpful. Thank you. Just to clarify on the Optima Legal, you know, to get more lenders signed up to start to go and test with you, it's not conditional on having all that linked up. Even if it's 'cause I imagine it'll take, if you're starting progress in the second half of the calendar year this year, you won't be completed till next year sometime, you can still sign up banks and potentially start down the path while not waiting for Optima Legal?
It's a great point, Ed, and there's none of these things are necessarily mutually exclusive. If you take existing customers on the Optima Legal, they're already using Optima Legal process and tech. It's working through actually how does that tech integrate into the Optima Legal? What does it look like for the existing customer base? What's the benefit, et cetera, et cetera. There's a stream of activity there. The second point, as you flagged, is that we've also got pathways which we're working through. Okay, if you don't wanna use Optima Legal, what's the pathway for you to come onto the PEXA platform through that lens? The third element of that is, as I flagged, is we've got some more banking slots with the Bank of England later this calendar year.
The intent is to have some more financial institutions take up those banking slots. At this stage, you know, that's looking encouraging as well. What we need to do across all that is ensure that we've got an execution path that allows us to continually grow, improve the customer outcomes, grab some market share, and coming back to Josh's earlier question, ensure that we get revenue. Also ensure that it has the profitable dimension in the certainly in the medium long term as we build out the exchange platform. There's numerous dimensions, but all those are being worked through.
Okay. No, that's helpful. Thank you. Just going back to the ones that are tested, obviously you've got another couple you're hoping to get on, might be a little bit delayed, but then there are another five or so that have tested.
Yeah.
Are there positive signs from those that they wanna sign up after testing through PEXA Pay?
It waxes and wanes, but it's still, you know, encouraging, I would say, Ed. I don't wanna be over-promising, obviously, but it's still encouraging. No one's suddenly saying that they don't wanna do it at all. It comes down to timing on their work that they're doing on their tech, the work they're doing on the platform, how it fits in with what we've got in terms of capacity and capability as well. But the one thing I can certainly say, in the U.K. market, the consumer experience in terms of sale and purchase or sale and transfer and refinance or remortgage is suboptimal. We've done some further testing on that. The consumers, just as an example, takes about 24 weeks to get a sale and transfer done, you know, generally based on the research we've done.
In Australia, it's eight weeks. Just on that aspect, you can see the consumers are suffering. There's no doubt that, okay, platform, this is the general message we're getting, will make a difference. What the art of us, it's not just pure science [audio distortion], is to ensure that we execute in a way that allows people to get the benefit of it, but also we get the right momentum and pace and execute well. Certainly, that's what we're working on. That's why we're using multiple paths, Ed.
That's great. Thanks. Just one final question, if I can. You've given some good guidance on potential revenue of both the digital and the international business that some acquisitions coming in, and you've given us, obviously some CapEx and OpEx spend guidance previously. Can you give us any more guidance around the cost of the acquisitions in with your spend that you're planning on the international business and the digital business, just to give us a feel of what we should be thinking about for EBIT and costs in the second half and beyond?
Do you wanna pick that one up?
Both the .id and Optima Legal businesses are slightly EBITDA positive. We haven't formally broken out the OpEx on each of those, but you can clearly see the revenue in the month. We've given revenue guidance in terms of an annualized position, you can assume that both the businesses will contribute a small amount to the EBITDA line at this point in time. As Glenn's earlier point, you know, we are working with both businesses in terms of the long-term outlook. I think for the rest of the year, there's a revenue number there, and you can assume that they'll slightly positively impact it at an EBITDA line.
What I like about both those businesses, to Rich's point, they're bringing revenue for a start, which is good. It's got some positive dimensions on the EBITDA. It also, if you take on the .id, really skilled base in terms of the broader insights and data dimension that is bringing quite a bit, I would suggest, in the first few months to the broader group in Australia. That's the first point. There's some broader dimensions. In the Optima Legal, what that does, besides giving us a revenue base, a customer base, it also gives us the opportunity to appropriately get scale in terms of the operations dimension in the U.K. whilst we've got revenue coming in as well.
Does give us good access to a broader customer base and a talent base, too. There's numerous strategic advantages of both, and that's certainly one aspect that we look at when we're doing the M&A, how it's gonna add relatively quickly to the group.
That's great. Thank you.
[crosstalk]
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brendan Carrig from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Maybe just, sorry, just to clarify on Ed's final question there. Is the way to think about the expenses across the sort of the non-exchange, that you've got the investment guidance, which is OpEx and CapEx, which you sort of said is sort of a 55/45 split between those. In addition to that, you have, you've given that revenue guidance and then the OpEx sounds like it's, you know, broadly similar to that revenue, maybe slightly less.
I think that's fair. The only other thing I would say is that probably gets you to an operating EBITDA. Obviously, these are new businesses that we're integrating, there will be integration costs that will go in below that operating EBITDA line as a one-off spend. We will see those.
In the non-operating.
Yeah.
EBITDA line.
Yes, in non-operating expenses. Particularly with Optima, obviously it's a large business, 350 + employees. There's a fair amount of integration that we'll need to do over the next six to 12 months to bring it into the group. There will be costs associated with that, which we'll set below the line as a one-off integration cost.
Understood. Just on the U.K., when you're getting those banks to sort of sign up to the testing, is there any, I guess, are you able to gauge their level of interest or desire to continue when you're allocating testing slots to some banks that could maybe go to others? I guess obviously it's, you know, sort of an ideal outcome when they're taking a limited amount of testing slots and then electing to not pursue any, you know, any further progress on connecting to the full platform.
No, thanks, Brendan. The first, the simple answer is yes, we do gauge their interest. We're not just giving out slots and just filing testing for a start gives an indication of interest. That's point one. Point two, I don't want anyone to be having the wrong impression. Look, the ones that have signed up of the nine, and obviously in reality there's, you know, I've mentioned a couple already now live. It's not that they're not interested at all, quite the opposite. You know, we've just got to work with them in terms of timing, what it looks like in terms of the platforms they've got available. Some of them have their own tech platforms, some of them use other platforms as well.
Just what it looks like on that broad roadmap, combined with our roadmap as well. No, we don't just give out, "Oh, here's a testing slot," and give it to an organization that's got no intent. We do work that through pretty consistently and carefully. The local team do that. The second point, and these are the indications as well. Certainly, continue to trend this way. The existing customer base of Optima Legal, which is, you know, I mentioned the six of the eight majors, and there's others as well. They're generally enthused and engaged about what an Optima Legal PEXA proposition looks like for them to actually keep progressing, because we've already got some pipes in there with the Optima Legal part of the proposition.
How can they progress and become, rapid or early adopters of the PEXA proposition? That's the work that we're going through at the moment, Brendan. There's numerous ways that that could play out. Again, it's using multi-paths, I suppose, is the best way as we keep growing that market. That's talking about refi. The other question that
Sorry, Glenn, actually.
Yep.
Just on that point. I mean, you maybe sort of walked away a little bit from that 20% target, but is it because of that Optima proposition now and so you go, "Well, you know, we might've signed 1 major bank to get to that 20, but actually we've got access to, you know, to six of the eight. And now we can go with a better proposition. So whilst it might take a little bit longer, we're more confident in being able to sign up, you know, multiple of those major banks?
Exactly right.
off the back of the Optima.
Yeah, that's a good summary, [audio distortion]. You know, one of the elements, you wanna get that network effect. If you think of from a broader bank perspective, how can you make that more seamless, I suppose? That certainly is the path that we wanna use in terms of the remortgage. That's a great summary. The second dimension of it is actually what's our approach to pursue the sale and purchase or the sale and transfer element, which is an important part of the broader strategy. We're working that through, not just from the Optima Legal PEXA element, because they only do remortgage. We're also looking at other paths into the sale and purchase dimension as well.
You're exactly right on the remortgage and it also opens pathways to the sale and purchase dimension.
Okay. Then one more just on the domestic business, if I may? Sorry if I missed it. I was coming from another call.
Yeah.
The other penetration has seemed to sort of slow, in terms of that penetration increase that we had been seeing. WA's, you know, slight to down-ish. Anything to call out there? Should we expect, you know, is the WA, I guess, stumbling blocks that we've been expecting for a little while going to be released soon? Should other penetration continue to trend higher from here?
Yeah. It's a good summary on that one. On the WA one, Brendan, as many of the listeners will know, you know, we don't do all the transactions here, even though it's mandated. Not all the transactions have been digitalized through the e-conveyancing process, both on the State Revenue Land Titles and the PEXA proposition. The good news on that is that we've been working with the WA stakeholders, and we've got a roadmap forward now to progress that would certainly assist with that other dimension that you just flagged. That's probably the best answer on that. We should see some progress on that over this financial year and certainly into the next financial year. It does depend on the capacity and capability of the WA stakeholders as well.
The other thing-
The WA and other correlated. Isn't the WA stabilization just on the transfers?
I can cover that one. It is. The 80% that we talk about in WA is transfers. Everything that Glenn just said absolutely applies to both those transfer transaction types that we can't do digitally at this point in time, but also some of those other transaction types that are that as you say, we're sort of plateauing in the low seventies. What I would say, though, is as an ELNO, we are obliged over time to try and deliver 100% digital transaction types for all transactions in each state. We are working to that goal. You know, we've just about got there in Victoria and New South Wales and South Australia. We're working in the other jurisdictions to get there.
It will take time, but it's absolutely the target.
Certainly with the Queensland mandate as well is gonna assist that too.
Yeah.
Okay. I'll jump back in the queue. I've taken a bit long.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Elizabeth Miliatis from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one's just around the PEXA Exchange business and the cost base there. You had AUD 1.5 million of non-operating costs in the first half. Just wondering what that related to?
It's just a combination of sort of one-off spend, normal sort of restructuring costs that you would see, I think, in any corporate business of our size. Some one-off professional fees on items that we believe won't reoccur. It's very hard for us to sort of forecast what that'll be, because by the very nature, those are non-operating one-off costs that we don't really foresee. Pretty standard, I think, with what you would see around predominantly restructuring related.
Okay, got it. Just curious as to the decision to not strip these out as the P&L this period?
Sorry. Do you wanna just repeat that, Liz? To not strip them out? To?
Yeah.
I mean, obviously, we want to leave them in overall, which is why we do have an operating EBITDA and an EBITDA measure. We certainly do not want to go back to the days of having pro forma and statutory type P&Ls like we did around the IPO. That's why they sit outside of operating EBITDA, but within the overall EBITDA of the group.
Okay, got it. Cool. Just a sort of similar follow-up question. Just on the CapEx side of things, within the Exchange business, the total CapEx has sort of stepped up half-on-half by a few mil. If you would just give some color on what's really driven that step up.
Yeah, there's a number of things. One is, you can see the absolute spend within the technology space, it's sort of 13 and a bit. The other thing is we are investing really heavily in cyber at the moment, and we don't capture that as a product or development spend, obviously, but it is, there is a lot of investment going in there. In general, you know, just like any business, we've grown quite quickly in terms of heads. We buy a lot more technology for our teams, and that all gets capitalized as we bring it on board. It's a combination of growth, of cyber and just the ongoing CapEx required to run a sizable business.
The other thing, Elizabeth, just to add to Richard's point on the tech spend. We're noting the cyber dimension. We are doing a lot on the APIs just generally. A lot of our broad customer base on APIs into their broad systems. A lot of work over the past six months in particular, and that will continue on.
Yeah.
Okay, got it. Thank you. If you could just perhaps give some color on interoperability and where you see the industry tracking in the near term. Obviously, ARNECC put out a statement at the end of last year, which seems to be targeting still, you know, March this year for the first interoperable transaction. You know, in terms of how likely the industry is to actually achieve that and have an interoperable industry, you know, how are you seeing that fair and all the different things that need to be done to actually, you know, complete that process?
Well, thanks, Elizabeth. A couple of points on that one. The first thing, obviously it's up to ARNECC to put out dates and timelines of, you know, targets and what they're expecting, and I'm sure they'll keep doing that. I think the thing that I would add from our side at the PEXA Group, we continuously work with all the regulatory reforms and bodies as per the requirements. On any of those aspects, you know, we're on target with the requirements. If you take interoperability as an example, it's not just based on an owner, it's based on, you know, you've got the land registries, you've got the state revenue offices, and you've got banks as well. You've got all the relevant state jurisdictions.
I think what is transpiring is that as we've seen over the past few years, it's complex. It's a complex system, being the property sector. It's one of the largest, if not largest, sectors in terms of wealth, and investments and assets for the Australian economy. It's something you've got to do very, very cautiously and very, very carefully. I think that's continually playing out, which PEXA, whilst we're always gonna be actively involved and positive and professional on it's also been a message we've been clear about, is we're gonna make sure we do it the right way for citizens of Australia and the broader economy, and we're gonna take into account all the complexities of it. That's probably the best way I can respond at this stage, Elizabeth.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now address your webcast questions. Your first webcast question asks: Can you please talk through the events, in your opinion, that will significantly de-risk the U.K. investment case? When are they likely to occur? Secondly, are more acquisitions required to embed the exchange in the U.K.?
Right. Oh, is it? Just to be sure I've got the questions. What are the events that are gonna de-risk, I think was the first one. What would you mind repeating the second one?
Secondly, are more acquisitions required to embed the exchange in the UK?
Right. Thank you. On, on the first one, on the events, to de-risk, I would suggest that the Optima Legal acquisition is an example of an event that would de-risk it from something that we can control within our own right. You know, obviously, we've acquired, allows us now to look at a remortgage bulk and rate, so with their significant customer base and does a significant remortgage element. Going back to, I think it was Brendan's question, allows us to put our tech in there to get the remortgage onto the broad platform. That's an example of an event that we believe helps de-risk our PEXA growth in the UK market. That's the first aspect.
I think the second e-element, if I take just an example of an outside dimension that should help de-risk there, is the unfortunate experience of the consumers, the mortgage brokers, in the U.K. market in terms of the property transaction experience. Those events certainly help put increased pressure and transparency of transforming the sector in the U.K. I still believe, based on my recent visit to the U.K., and I'll be there quite frequently, is that there's some good tailwinds there in terms of transforming the sector in the U.K. and PEXA and the PEXA platform plays a good role in that positive transformation of the sector in the U.K. It's an external event.
That also partially came to fruition when we had the previous prime minister and the chancellor make some announcements out there that led to some mortgage experience challenges that were detrimental to the broader industry. That's the type of thing from that consumer lens. I think the third element that I will then just move on to is do we need to do any other acquisitions to assist us in the entry in the U.K.? A couple of points there. We'll always look at what can we do in our own right, both in terms of the PEXA platform and now that we've got Optima Legal. We'll continually do that, and we do map out those paths.
However, if there's both commercial partnerships and M&A opportunities that further de-risk our entry in the U.K., that make sense strategically and also make sense from an accretive perspective in numerous dimensions, and also knowing the market is quite dynamic in the U.K., we will certainly look at those opportunities, evaluate them, and certainly take advantage of them. We'll take advantage of them, not just from the U.K . Perspective, but also how they can add value in other markets, including the Australian market as well. I believe that so far we've shown that, but we'll certainly ensure that we execute on what we're doing.
Thank you. Your next question asks, "Could you please provide more detail around the GBP 40 million-GBP 50 million of investment into PEXA Exchange in UK?
Yeah. I'll start off on it. Most of the. Richard might want to add a couple other dimensions. Most of the investment in the U.K. is on the PEXA platform. That, that's the PecTech, PEXA tech platform. A, we've got our own tech team working on the development of that platform. B, we're also working with our core partners in the development and implementation of that platform as well. Most of the investment is on that platform. That platform has numerous dimensions. Not only having the platform, which is looking very good. Not only having that platform, but also ensuring that the connections are in place with bodies such as the Bank of England, HMLR and respective financial institutions. That's the first point. The second point is the platform is up and running.
Now that the platform is up and running, you have to ensure that you operationalize it. The operationalization of that platform comes down, not just in terms of the processing dimension, but also the regulatory dimension and the cyber dimension and the security, amongst others. There's investment on that dimension as well. The third aspect is we also have a team on the ground. Give or take, the PEXA, in its own right in the U.K. market, has approximately about 40 to 45 professionals on the ground. That team has a number of elements. Firstly, the executive team that are well-credentialed in the U.K. market, both in terms of financial services and the property sector. Also they bring specialist knowledge.
Some of that knowledge could be the development of the PEXA platform, ensuring it's fit for purpose for the banks in there, but also regulatory and risk dimensions as well. Some of that investment also goes to that lens. That's predominantly it. It's actually setting up a business, developing the business and then running the business. The only thing I would then add, and Richard might want to put a bit more flavor on an element, is the Optima Legal element of it. What that does is, firstly, we have to ensure we've got the relevant dimensions in terms of M&A, getting integration and there's, you know, costs associated with any of that, which you'd expect.
The other aspect of it is now we're looking at how can we appropriately utilize the Optima Legal acquisition in terms of efficiencies and scale, and what do the two entities look like from a potential merger perspective as well. I think that gives a far better long-term run perspective.
I'd just add a couple of clarifying points on top of that. The sort of Optima Legal theoretically should be broadly cash neutral in the year other than the integration work that we spoke about. The AUD 45 million-AUD 50 million wasn't envisaged to include Optima Legal at this point. To Glenn's point, it's sort of there's three core areas of spend. The UK team that Glenn just articulated, that's nearly all expense because they're our sales and marketing front end team. There's the Australian-based PEXA team that are working to build the technology, and there's a combination of OpEx and CapEx within that. There's our build partner, Thoughtworks, and they're based in Australia and overseas, and that's predominantly CapEx.
The AUD 45 million-AUD 50 million, similar run rate to the first half, which was AUD 23 million, roughly 50% OpEx, 50% CapEx.
Thank you. Your next webcast question asks, "Where are you at with exploring other prospective geographies, please?
Yes. I'm not gonna go into too much detail because it starts to share too much of the strategy, except to say we are exploring other geographies and we're evaluating those geographies both in terms of potential from a financial element, potential in terms of entry, the appetite with our different stakeholders, and also coming back to the earlier question, potential partners as well. That exploration is certainly progressing and underway.
Thank you. Your next question asks, "What is the expected capitalized costs in FY 2023? And could we get a rough split between A.U., U.K. data on this? Thank you.
We haven't formally given a forecast, but I think you can, you can see, we've just talked about the AUD 45 million-AUD 50 million of spend overall in International. You can expect half of that roughly to be capitalized. We've also talked about our AUD 20 million-AUD 25 million in PDG. Again, you can expect roughly half of that to be capitalized. You can see the CapEx run rate within the Exchange from our cash flows. We expect that to continue at a similar rate into the second half. If I do the maths in my head, it's probably, you know, the low 20s in International, low 10s in PDG and probably 15 to 20 in the Exchange, something like that.
Thank you. We have a final phone question from Ed Henning from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking a follow-up question. Just given with your line of sight in the Australian volumes, can you just talk about the third quarter and you see them at the moment? Are they significantly down, or are they just down a little bit?
We're basically, Ed, seeing very similar trends in the third quarter as we saw in the first half. We're continuing to see transfer volumes below last year's run rate at a similar level, and we're continuing to see refis ahead. We're not putting guidance for the second half at this point in time. We have, you know, reasonable line of sight to the end of the quarter. At this point in time, it's just too early to tell how whether the property cycle has bottomed out, as some media commentators are suggesting it may have done. It's also too early to see exactly how this large proportion of refis that we're expecting based on refis coming to a fixed term mortgages coming to an end.
It's too early to see the impact that that might have through the rest of the year. Broadly speaking, what we've seen in the first two months is very consistent with what we saw in the first half.
Okay, that's helpful. If I just push my luck with one last one. Previously, you talked about, you know, kind of an EBITDA level breakeven in 2025. Given the slight delay here, but then you've got potentially more confidence around Optima, does that see the, you know, the breakeven point push out or hold steady, or have you got more confidence now in that breakeven point with Optima in the suite of products?
Yeah, we wouldn't be making a clear statement on that one. It's obviously too early, given the work that we're doing in terms of integrating Optima. It absolutely increases our confidence on execution in the U.K. I think we've been pretty clear that that's the core reason for the acquisition. At this point, it would be too early to say how it moves the needle in terms of breakeven point.
Yeah, that's great. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. That does conclude our time for questions. I'll now hand back to Glenn King for closing remarks.
Thank you. First, I just wanna say, thank you for all the questions. We do appreciate them, we do appreciate the interest. I also just wanna say a big thank you to everyone who listened to the presentation. We're certainly confident in terms of what we've done for the first half. We believe in our business, we also believe we're executing well against everything that we're committed to. Thank you very much.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.