Regal Partners Limited (ASX:RPL)
Australia flag Australia · Delayed Price · Currency is AUD
2.340
-0.030 (-1.27%)
Apr 28, 2026, 2:49 PM AEST
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: H1 2025

Aug 25, 2025

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks very much, Ingrid. Good morning. My name is Brendan O'Connor, CEO and Managing Director of Regal Partners Ltd. I'm going to provide an update on Regal Partners' performance for the six months ended 30 June 2025 before hosting some Q&A. I'm joined today by our Group CFO, Ian Cameron, and our Head of Corporate Affairs, Ingrid Groer. Before I get to our results, I'll take a minute to remind you that Regal Partners Ltd seeks to be recognized as a leading provider of alternative investment strategies. Since listing on the ASX three years ago, the business has grown substantially. We are now significantly diversified across four key asset classes: hedge funds, credit and royalties, real and natural assets, and growth equity.

Our strategy is built upon three key pillars: the growth and diversification of our investment capabilities, the growth and diversification of our client base, and to evolve our centralized and scalable platform. I'm pleased to highlight that over the past three years, we have demonstrated the power of the "one RPO" platform. For we have delivered a $13 billion increase in funds under management, including $3.8 billion from organic net inflows and $2.4 billion in investment performance for clients across a broad range of investment strategies. We have also delivered a significant increase in clients, particularly institutional clients, which I always feel is a great endorsement of the platform we're building. Finally, we've diversified our funds under management. We've reduced our portion of hedge funds and increased our exposure to private assets, leading to more resilient earnings.

I will now cover the key highlights from our six months to 30 June 2025 before I hand to Ian. In a half of significant equity market volatility, regional specific noise, and heightened macro and geopolitical uncertainty, we delivered a normalized net profit after tax of $44.8 million, or $0.105 per share. I'm also pleased to announce that the RPO board has approved a $0.06 per share dividend, fully franked, reflecting the strong cash generation in the half, strong capital position, and surplus franking position. We finished the half with $17.7 billion in FUM , although, as I'll highlight later, FUM today now stand at over $18.5 billion. We have experienced strong support from our clients, with net inflows totaling over $700 million.

I'm particularly pleased to highlight that this strong momentum in client support has continued in the September quarter, with a further $300 million of net flows so far. Our income was resilient, with total revenue of $148 million, supported by $42 million in performance fees across a diverse range of investment strategies. Finally, we have finished the half with a very strong balance sheet. Today, we are in an extremely strong position to continue to deliver the strong organic growth that the platform has demonstrated over the past three years, while also taking a disciplined approach to inorganic growth to expand our investment capabilities. I'll now hand over to Ian Cameron.

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. To those of you on the call, thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. I appreciate you're all busy with reporting season. My name is Ian Cameron, and I am Regal's Group CFO. We are going to spend the next 5 - 10 minutes discussing Regal's financials. The key thing to note here is that in the first half, we continue to execute on our growth ambitions. To show this, we will run through Regal's first half financial highlights, then our normalized or underlying P&L, then our balance sheet, and finally our approach to capital management. Turning to page 10, which is our first half financial highlights, the average fund for the half was $17.5 billion, up 49% on 1H24, and an average management fee margin of 1.15%.

Performance fees of $42 million, while slower than PCP, resulted in a strong performance towards the end of 1H25 and multiple strategies above high watermark, continuing into July 2025. Normalized impact of $44.8 million. There has been an increase in costs from 1H24 of 17% due to acquired businesses, up 4% from 2H24. We have a robust balance sheet with $244.2 million in cash, receivables, fund investments at 30 June, net of our corporate credit facility. Our gearing ratio is low at 2% of net assets. The board has signed off on an interim dividend of $0.06 per share, which reflects a 55% payout ratio, preserving balance sheet flexibility for future growth. As you can see already, we are executing on our growth ambitions. Slide 11 shows Regal's detailed normalized or underlying P&L. I'd like to draw your attention to the column in gray.

Starting at the top of the page and moving down the page, spot fund of $17.7 billion, with average fund of $17.5 billion, up 49% from 1H24 and also up versus 2H24. Management fees up 65% on PCP, driven by businesses acquired as well as additional flows. Performance fees of $42.4 million, primarily driven by PM Capital's global strategy, Attu nga Power strategy, a Taurus Mining Finance strategy, as well as a collection of Regal Funds Management funds. Other income just under $6 million, primarily includes mark-to-market and changes in fair value gains, as well as dividend and distribution income, with total net income of $148.4 million. Moving on down the page, employee benefits expense of $43.9 million relates to both fixed staff costs as well as variable remuneration.

Deferred compensation grant amortization of $8.4 million, that relates to prior year variable remuneration, which gets amortized over the relevant vesting period. Other expenses of $21 million, largely in line with 2H24, with total expenses of $74.4 million and a normalized impact of $44.8 million. Fully potentially diluted earnings per share of $0.105 is up versus 2H24 by 17%. Turning to page 12, which is our balance sheet, we have $244.2 million in cash, receivables, and fund investments net of our facility. On our facility, we have $20 million drawn of our upgraded $130 million debt facility, with a $0.06 per share fully franked dividend and plenty of franking credits post the payment of the 1H25 dividend. We ended 30 June with net assets of just under $860 million, with ordinary shares of just under $340 million. Turning to page 13, page 13 shows our disciplined approach to capital management.

Starting with the left-hand side, which shows the pro forma adjustments to cash receivables and financial assets at 30 June. Since that time, we've collected the management fees and performance fees, which were receivable at 30 June. As you can see, cash goes up with an off-season decrease in receivables. We put some of our cash to work in seeding some of our new funds and with the interim dividend of $23.4 million. After those adjustments, we've got $220.9 million on a pro forma basis. The right-hand side of this slide shows how we allocate capital. We support organic growth with a focus on investment capabilities, clients, and platform. We co-invest alongside our clients to seed and provide bridging finance for our funds. We provide a disciplined approach to M&A to attain new investment capabilities and expand the existing ones.

Finally, we've paid $0.38 per share in fully franked dividends over the last three years. Now back to you, Brendan.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Ian. I'll run through a bit of a business update now before we pause for Q&A. We are very proud of the contemporary platform we are building here at Regal Partners. Whilst we are only just getting started, I'm pleased to highlight that we have got off to a flying start: a nearly four-fold increase in funds under management, leading net inflows for a platform of active investment managers, the translation of that client growth into strong management and loan fee revenue, a nearly three-fold increase in the diversification of performance fee eligible fund, year-on-year growth in normalized net profit after tax, and in particular, strong growth in net profit after tax from management fee earnings, and strong growth in fully franked dividends, highlighting that we are delivering for clients and shareholders.

Our leading performance in delivering net inflows for active investment management undoubtedly reflects strong risk-adjusted return investment performance and differentiated and sometimes even scarce investment product. It also highlights the power of the RPO platform and the capabilities within our distribution and marketing teams. Over the past three years, we have delivered $2.7 billion in net inflows from domestic clients. We now have a large team, 26 people, sales and marketing and investor relations team, with an increasing focus on asset class and geographic responsibilities. We've been able to harness Regal's strong relationships with the domestic equity market and have now raised over $350 million in capital for our ASX listed vehicles. Finally, highlighting the essence of Regal's distribution and marketing capability, we have continued to innovate.

We've delivered multiple new products to market over the past three years, highlighting the successful marrying of great client relationships and great investment product. Offshore distribution remains a strategic priority, and I'm pleased to highlight that we have now raised over $1.1 billion in organic net inflows over the past three years, with the majority of those flows coming over the past 12 months. Further, we have started the second half strongly with a further $300 million in net inflows from offshore investors over the past two months. Offshore distribution is a key priority for us, as one, offshore capital allocators typically allocate in a larger size and typically are less constrained by the fee disclosure rules, which dominate Australia's superannuation capital allocators. Three, we have an investment capability that is in increasing demand as the world seeks diversification, particularly within alternative investment strategies.

Australia is seen as an increasingly sought-after destination for global capital allocators due to our stable democracy, low sovereign risk, and large pool of investment product and talent. To capitalize on these headwinds, I'm pleased to announce that we have appointed a Head of Distribution who will commence next week and cover North America for the benefit of all of Regal Partners. As I highlighted earlier, the product, a byproduct of diversification of the business, is the resilience of our earnings, a lower correlation to equity markets, and a longer duration to our earnings as we increase the proportion of our private assets within our funds under management. Uniting all this progress together has been the creation of the one RPO approach.

We have a standard way in which our investment capabilities coexist to one, drive performance and boost collaboration, two, to deliver and execute on comprehensive strategic distribution and marketing plans, and three, all enabled by a scalable and institutional-grade operational spine of HR, legal, compliance, risk management, IT, and finance. We've also become more vocal and thoughtful in our message to the market and to our clients. Our enhanced content strategy not only supports the one RPO approach, but it drives brand recognition and awareness of Regal's unique and high-performing investment capabilities. In summary, Regal Partners seeks to partner with best-in-class individuals, teams, and businesses who have a proven edge in the delivery of their alternative investment strategy. We have created a contemporary platform where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Perhaps the best example of the unique platform we are building at Regal Partners, the best demonstration of what separates Regal Partners from the crowd, is our leading multi-strategy investment capability that unites the best of Regal Partners' investment capability. Our flagship ASX listed multi-strat vehicle, RF1, has delivered annualized returns of over 17% post-fees to investors over a period of more than six years. Our unlisted partner's private fund that offers a similar multi-strat investment strategy has delivered similar returns and is offered to domestic wholesale investors and offshore investors. As I've highlighted a number of times through this presentation, we have had an extremely strong start to the second half of 2025. Our fund is now over $18.5 billion. Net inflows exceed $300 million in the last two months alone.

Investment performance has added a further $500 million, and performance fee eligible fund at or close to high watermark now stands at a record $10.8 billion. Over the past three years, we have clearly demonstrated that our growth-focused strategy is delivering for our clients, employees, and shareholders. We have built a strong platform. We benefit from very attractive market tailwinds as global allocators increase their allocation to alternative investment strategies. The business has strong economics, and we are seeing an acceleration of opportunities to grow. Regal Partners has never been in a stronger position to achieve its strategic ambitions. I'll pause now for Q&A.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. For questions today, if you are online, please submit your questions through the Ask the Question box. For those on the phone, please press star one to register for a question and star two to cancel your question in the queue. I'm just going to take a couple of questions online to start. Brendan, firstly, flows have been looking very good in recent months. Could you elaborate maybe particularly if PM Capital has been strong and also perhaps some of the sources of the offshore flows?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, certainly I agree. Flows have been strong. The PM Capital investment team, particularly around the global onshore capabilities, are doing really well from an investment performance perspective. Further, the distribution and marketing team that now supports that retail product is really prosecuting that investment performance and achieving acceleration in flows. We're seeing good growth through PM Capital in the retail channel domestically. We're also seeing some good flows in the enhanced yield product run by Jared Dawson under the PM Capital brand. The retail team and distribution team are doing an outstanding job there. From an offshore perspective, the gestation period around hunting offshore capital is longer, but as I've flagged, can come in larger size.

The flows that we've seen in the last two months are actually benefiting our longshore equity strategies, but we continue to chase down a pipeline of opportunities in our credit and royalty capabilities as well.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. One question online. Somebody was just trying to clarify about the fund that dipped from $18 billion in December to $17.7 billion in June. Could you just explain the background to that?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, so the $18.5 billion in April, we sort of provided an update to the market for the March quarter flows and performance. We highlighted in part that our business Taurus, which is a global provider of capital to the global mining industry, had some clients move from a fee-paying basis of committed capital to invested capital. As that invested capital increased because capital commitments could be drawn down, fund increased again. Ultimately, as you watch that through to 30 June 2025, we've actually had an increase in fee-earning fund within Taurus from where we were back at 31 March. Obviously, the bigger driver of the overall increase in fund has been our investment performance and flows right across the business.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

The next question online might be for Ian. Can you just explain the reasoning behind using normalized net profit after tax and how that differs to statutory net profit after tax?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, thanks for the question, Ingrid. We think the normalized or underlying P&L is a better representation of the financial performance of the business. The bridge between statutory and normalized profit predominantly relates to non-cash adjustments, such as the amortization or non-cash adjustment for contract assets or management rights, as well as the amortization of performance share rights, which are also non-cash.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thank you, Ian. Next question online is the RF1 LIT is doing really well, as is PGF the LIT. Can you talk to any other product opportunities that you're exploring currently?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

I think we've looked at a number of opportunities over the last six months from an M&A perspective. I think in respect of those listed investment vehicles itself, we're driving good investment performance. Provided that investment performance translates into good share price growth, with everything else constant, with a good suite of communication, we'll seek opportunities to raise further capital in those vehicles at the right time.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Great. In terms of M&A opportunities, how are you seeing the outlook at the moment?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

An acceleration of opportunities, both that we identified and being referred to us. I think we've been very disciplined. It's been 12 months now since our last material acquisition, but we remain focused on further opportunities. I'm pleased to highlight, obviously, that in the last six-month period, we've effectively seeded a new investment strategy being ARC Capital. We're very excited about the launch of the hotels as an investment strategy. We think that we've found the ideal partner to partner with in ARC Capital. They've been very active in what is a very large asset class offshore. We've purchased well with the first seed asset, the Mayfair asset in Adelaide, at a significant discount to prior valuations, and we're raising money from clients for that opportunity at the moment.

We started the partnership with ARC Capital because we believe hotels could be ultimately a billion-dollar plus investment strategy for Regal Partners Ltd over time.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Could you please clarify whether the fund relating to the hotel has been included in any flows or fund data yet?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

No, it hasn't.

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

No, it hasn't.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Great. We've actually got a question on the phones. Operator, could you take the first question, please? Marcus, could you speak up?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Good morning.

Marcus Barnard
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

We can.

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Hi, Marcus.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Marcus.

Marcus Barnard
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Yeah, hi. Just a couple of sort of detailed questions. Firstly, your average management fee, 115 basis points, that's actually what I was modeling. I think it's a fairly sort of complex blend of various parts of the business. Can you give us how you feel that will move going forward and why it might change? I think there might be some transaction fees in there from some of the managers. Secondly, the other income line, do you want to highlight again what's in that other income line? I think there's some PAC shares in there. Thanks.

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Sure. Thanks, Marcus. To break that question into two parts, on the average management fee percentage of 1.15%, as you said, it's come down a little since 2H2024. The key drivers there are probably threefold.

One, we've had strong flows into PM Capital's global strategy, and that's in an average management fee of about 1%. All things being equal, that will be a slight drag on the average management fee percentage. Private credit and specifically the Merrick's business has got an average management fee, which is inclusive of loan origination fees of about 2%. It's obviously been a tougher part of the credit cycle. That will be a key driver of those average management fees, as well as our Regal Partners fund, which is an average management fee of 1.5%. On a go-forward basis, it's part dependent on where flows come from. In terms of other income, that just shy of $6 million has predominantly come from dividend and distribution income from VG1, RG8, and our investment, all the balance sheet's investment in Taurus, in one of the Taurus funds.

Marcus Barnard
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Okay, brilliant. Do you have a breakdown of the other income between what is cash dividends and what is unrealized gains?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

No, we haven't provided a breakdown in the slide yet. What I can note there is it will move around period from period. On a net basis, most of that other income is from a cash perspective in this half.

Marcus Barnard
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Operator, could we please go to [Lachlan] on the line next?

Can I hear you?

Yes, you can now.

Great. Congratulations on a good result. Can I dig into the distribution team in a little bit more color? I've actually been a bit surprised at the level of breadth and net flows coming through. Have there been many changes within your distribution team in terms of the number of headcount, both in Australia domestically and the success you're having with offshore and moving into North America? Can you just talk through which strategies are going to be a focus? Are there things that you already think that are going to resonate more? Any color you can add would be great. Thanks.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, thanks. Firstly, I'm using this slide here, slide 19, to show you the "one RPO" approach. I think probably the most tangible thing we've done over the last 12 months is really sought to upgrade the capabilities, but co-location of those capabilities domestically. We now have one sales and marketing team that is servicing our clients across multiple channels domestically. The retail channel, the wholesale, and the institutional channel all working together as one team. I think undoubtedly they are capitalizing on wonderful investment performance within the underlying product. PM Capital in particular is a great example of that and lifting their presence and visibility about the marketplace, and that's helping drive flows. Your specific question around offshore, as you know, we have been looking to build our offshore client base for a while now. That has historically just been out of Singapore.

I'm pleased to say that that's continuing as we drive our client engagement out of Singapore, but we're looking to accelerate that out of North America. We have a big share of about 25 institutional clients in North America today. We thought it was appropriate to better service those clients and to help identify growth opportunities beyond that client base by appointing a person dedicated to be based in North America in and around the New York area to help grow and take great product to that U.S. marketplace. As I said, the offshore distribution is lumpier. The gestation period is longer, but ultimately, when it does come through, it can come through in size, which will further supplement the ongoing growth we've got domestically.

Can I just follow up? Sometimes it's a bit hard for us to understand when you will all these new funds and strategies that have come online, where they were distributed previously to where that's been expanded. Some may have only been wholesale, but are now being sold retail channel, or some were going through the private wealth and some through the retail. Can you just give us a bit of color around how the expansion of strategies has been changing from a target of funding perspective?

Yeah, I'd say there hasn't been a lot of movement between products that were previously wholesale into retail and products that were wholesale or retail into wholesale. It has really been prosecuting the existing channel with greater effect. I think it leaves the opportunity then for further cross-sell within those channels. The sales results that we've delivered over this six-month period are really a reflection of better execution within the existing channels.

Okay. Just finally, on the M&A, just to follow up, can you give us an idea on product or asset classes that are still of interest or you think are gaps in the overall offering or where you see greater opportunity?

Yeah, we've been pretty consistent in highlighting that we believe asset classes like real estate, infrastructure, and private equity would be natural additions to the platform we're building as a leading provider of alternative investment strategies. I've highlighted on this slide on the left-hand side as well, the opportunity to expand further into credit. I think that in the long run, we'll ultimately have more assets under management, funds under management in credit relative to our hedge fund product. We've got an investment capability now led through Adrian Redlich as Head of our Income Strategies that will help drive that.

Thank you.

Thanks. Operator, could we now please go to Olivier Coulon? From E&P.

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

Hi guys. Congrats on a strong result. Just a question on the performance fee outlook. If you go to slide 36, there's a fair chunk of that 74% that's sitting just below high watermark. Obviously, a bit of variability that's possible over the remaining half. How does it look when you strip out PM Capital, which most of it in the global strategy obviously only crystallizes performance fees in the first half of the calendar year?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

That's a good question.

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

Just to be clear, the second half, as a result.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Just to be clear, of that $10.8 billion, you're asking how much of that is contributed by PM Capital in the period of July?

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

I suppose if you look at it ex-PM Capital, because my understanding is the global strategy pretty much only crystallizes in the June half, right?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah.

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

How are we thinking on a kind of like-to-like basis, you know, for the parts of the business that are performance fee eligible in the second half?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, maybe we can, that's a fairly detailed answer to that question, Oliver. Maybe we can come back to you. I think what you're asking is, can you show me what this looks like just in the lead up to 31 December of products that actually have a 31 December performance fee?

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

Yeah, effectively.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, can I come back to you with that more detailed answer?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, I can give a little bit of talk, just add a little bit of color. In terms of what's moved between June and July for funds excluding PM Capital's global strategy, you've got funds like RF1, which is obviously one of our larger funds, the Regal Partners Fund, the Australian Tactical Opportunities Fund, as well as a Material Resources mandate. All of those funds have a 31 December performance fee crystallization. Notwithstanding stripping out PM Capital, which has got, as you say, a June performance fee crystallization date, we're still in a very, very strong position.

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

Okay, perfect. Thanks. Maybe just on your new New York hire, the thinking around when that capability should start to be reflected in increased offshore inflows?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, the first cab off the rank will really be working with Taurus Mining Finance, that as you know, has all their institutional clients located offshore. I think that'll be the first cab off the rank for the executive, and then we'll seek to expand their brief to many of the other investment capabilities that we've got. In the first instance, Taurus, and I think we'll start to see some traction on there in the next six-month period.

Olivier Coulon
Analyst, Evans & Partners

Right, yeah. Perfect. Thanks.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thank you. Could we now please go to Nick McGaragle from Baron Joey on the phones?

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Nick, lots of good questions already asked. Just in terms of the fund within 5% of high watermark, can you give us a sense of the mix between equities and credit across that, or any kind of larger breakouts you can give us to kind of work out where the potential leverage is, as you know given that's a pretty good amount of funds under management sitting near or above high watermark?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

On slide 37, we've actually included a chart on the bottom right-hand side to give you a bit of color in terms of the asset strategy mix of performance fee eligible fund.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

That's the stuff that's sitting above high watermark now?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Correct.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Obviously, just to call it out.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, that chart's at 30 June.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Yeah, since 30 June, the assets have gone from $9.1 billion, all within 5%, to now $10.8 billion over the space of June.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

That's right, yeah. Key contributors are RF1, Partners Fund, our Australian Tactical Opportunities Fund, Resources Mandate, but predominantly long-short.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Yeah, and the multi-strategy very thin sleeve there that you've got, that doesn't include you saying in over July, Partners and RF1 have gone through high watermark or are now within 5%?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

The former.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Okay, that's good to hear. Yeah, okay, that's helpful to understand. The growth that you've had this year to date, the $300 million in flows, is there anything to call out in terms of where that's been generated?

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, the majority of that's gone into long/short equity capability or hedge fund capability, Nick.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

All right, that's great. From, I believe, Charlie's emails, August has gone pretty well thus far as well in terms of performance.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

The team right across the board are doing a great job in August off the back of a good July. As I said, I feel like we're in a very good position, good momentum from a performance perspective, from a client perspective. I feel we're in a good position.

Nick McGarrigle
Analyst, Barrenjoey

Great, thank you.

Ian Cameron
CFO, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Nick.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Great. We've just got a little bit more time, so I'll just go through some of the questions online. I'm not sure that we'll get through all of them. I know we were just talking about the positive investment outlook, but there was a question there just wanting to know about the types of conversations that you had with clients around April when markets were down and Regal Partners Ltd's funds were down as well.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, fair question. Back in April, a number of the Regal long short equity funds were under, I guess, stress from an investment performance perspective. I note that they have all rebounded very, very well since that period of time. The conversations we were having with clients at that stage were basically highlighting the drivers of that. Obviously, it came off the back of a significant write-down in Ophea in the month prior to that that had sort of precipitated client engagement in the first instance. For the month of April and then May, we were net inflows into our flagship Regal long short equity fund. In our business, we pride ourselves on looking to generate strong investment performance over time. We pride ourselves on being able to engage well and actively with our clients through periods of market stress and perhaps softness in investment performance.

We pride ourselves on the fact that we've got a wonderful collection of clients that recognize the benefits that those Regal long short equity funds can provide to their portfolio.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. Ian, a question for you. Could you please provide some color on the expense of the $21 million that are classified as other expenses in first half 2025?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

That is, I guess I'm going to call out some of the key expenses. Insurance is one of our larger expenses, rent expense, professional and legal fees, as well as fund operating costs.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Great, thank you. Brendan, I might move to you again. We have a question. How are you seeing things on the private credit side? Are there any non-performing loans within the private credit portfolio? How's Merrick's been tracking more broadly in terms of, I think there were some redemptions recently? How are you seeing competition in terms of raising funds and deploying in private credit?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, so broad question. Private credit continues to be an exciting asset class that I think will continue to grow. The structural tailwinds behind the growth in private credit as an opportunity within Australia continue unabated despite the noise that we heard earlier in the year from an industry perspective, a market segment perspective, and assets broader review, and also the noise that we had regarding some of the assets within the Merrick's Capital stable and some redemptions from that product. The structural tailwinds remain in force. Private credit will continue to grow domestically. Merrick's Capital has a couple of loans that they're working through at the moment. Perhaps the largest one is their exposure to Pitt and Hunter. Pleasingly, we have observed we've been through, I think, a bottoming in real estate credit.

What I mean by that is the same way that a number of REIT managers have highlighted the turnaround in real estate investments. I think that is flowing through to more credit being available for those borrowers within the Merrick's Capital capability where they've got asset-backed security. That is leading either to the sale of their assets or the refinance of those assets, which will ultimately translate into good financial outcomes for investors in the Merrick's Capital products in particular. I think we've been through the worst that period of time. I think we're probably very close to some positive news coming through on a number of those high-profile assets. In the meantime, each of the private credit capabilities and funds that we have, whether it be Regal branded or Merrick's Capital branded, are continuing to perform strongly and generate good returns for clients.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. We probably just have time for two more questions online. The next one is, what is the confidence that RPO will gain entry to the ASX 300 either in August or next year? Bearing in mind also the new rules that were signed off last week.

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

Yeah, it's a good question. There's actually probably a very detailed answer to that because the rules can be quite specific. Even if we apply those rules as we see them, ultimately it's up to S&P. What I can tell you is that if we continue to build the business as we've been building and the free float has increased the extent it has, and we believe the free float is now up to circa 70%, I think index inclusion will inevitably apply. Whether it's September or March, that is ultimately a question for the owner of that index, S&P, to determine.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Great. Just to finish with a broad question, looking forward, what are the opportunities you're most excited about?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

I think the best opportunities we've got is the demonstration of the power of the "one RPO" platform. I think we've demonstrated the last three years the ability to be able to add significant value to the investment capabilities we've been able to develop organically and acquire inorganically as they come to the platform, an acceleration of flows, a diversification of earnings for Regal Partners overall, and a profile that helps elevate that capability to offshore markets as we join them up with our offshore client base. I think further growth, organic and inorganic growth, and further success in offshore markets are the things that I sit here today and am most excited about.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan. As I mentioned, there are a few more other online questions. We'll try and follow up with those people after the call. Brendan, would you like to make any concluding remarks before we wrap this up?

Brendan O'Connor
CEO and Managing Director, Regal Partners Limited

I'd like to say thank you very much for listening today. We appreciate the support of our shareholders. I think from a client's perspective, it's a great privilege managing your money. Finally, from a staffing perspective, thankfully, it's hard work over the last six months and achieving great results. Regal Partners Ltd has never been in a strong position to achieve its strategic ambitions.

Ingrid Groer
Head of Corporate Affairs, Regal Partners Limited

Thanks, Brendan, and thank you, everybody, for joining the call. You may now disconnect.

Powered by