I would now like to hand the conference over to Brendan O'Connor, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My name is Brendan O'Connor, CEO and Managing Director of Regal Partners Limited. I am going to provide an update on Regal Partners' performance for the six months ended 30 June 2026. I am joined today by our Group CFO and Head of Strategy, Ilana Stringer, and our Head of Corporate Affairs, Ingrid Groer. I will talk to the results, highlights, and provide a business update. Ilana will then present the financials, and I will then discuss our key areas of strategic focus for second half 2026 before hosting Q&A. At Regal Partners, we seek to be recognized as a leading provider of alternative investment strategies. We believe that we have a persistent edge in alpha generation as a result of our investment skill in direct deal origination. Originating and structuring investments across the capital structure in equity, credit, royalties in both public and private markets.
We are highly diversified, as you can see here, with key capabilities across four asset classes of hedge funds, credit and royalties, growth equity, and real and natural assets, and in total, managing AUD 21.4 billion. Finally, we are uniquely placed to unite this diverse set of investment capabilities in our market-leading multi-strategy offerings. I will now cover the key highlights from the six months to 30 June 2026. In a six-month period that was punctuated by the Iran war, a continuation in the AI-fueled capital expenditure boom, 20-year highs in long-term interest rates, and domestically, a significant disruption to consumer and business confidence as a result of the Commonwealth Government's budget, we delivered management and loan fee revenue of over AUD 113 million and steady growth in management and loan fee pre-tax profit to over AUD 44 million. Our normalized net profit after tax was AUD 93 million, similar to our statutory profit.
It was also pleasing to have achieved a record half of net flows of AUD 1.4 billion, which together with our strong investment performance, took our FUM to AUD 21.4 billion. Earnings per share was AUD 0.214, and the board has approved a AUD 0.12 fully franked dividend. We finished the half with approximately AUD 290 million in capital, excluding the AUD 0.12 dividend I just mentioned, excess franking credits equivalent to a further AUD 0.21 fully franked dividend, and no drawn debt. I think I have five key themes that we observed during these first half results, and let me turn to each of them now. Turning to our clients first. Our client base and reach is expanding as evidenced by the AUD 1.4 billion net flows, with AUD 900 million achieved in the June quarter alone from North American investors supporting the first close of the third Taurus Mining Finance Fund.
Secondly, investments made in previous periods have delivered business growth and business diversification, and as a result, have demonstrated earnings resilience and a recurring profit growth. We continue to observe and execute upon exciting new opportunities for growth. The best example of this will be the income multi-strat product that we will officially launch next month. Our One RPL approach is creating a scalable platform to better service clients and our people by uniting our high-performing and differentiated investment capabilities. Finally, our robust balance sheet is underpinned by our strong organic cash generation, a disciplined approach to recycling capital, and a focus on growing our fully franked dividend. In summary, our resilient business model is delivering for shareholders.
Over the past three years, we have achieved normalized management and loan fee revenue up over 2.2 times, normalized performance fee revenue up over three times, normalized NPAT up 2.7 times, strong gross inflows up over three times, strong growth in normalized EPS, which has been up two times. We have been able to deliver for shareholders as well, with an increase in fully franked dividend per share up 2.1 times over that period. I will turn now to a business update. As you have heard me say before, our strategy is built upon three pillars: the growth and diversification of our investment capabilities, the growth and diversification of our client base, and we seek to evolve our centralized and scalable platform.
I am pleased to highlight that over the last four years since listing on the ASX, our fundraising momentum remains strong with 11 consecutive quarters of net flows diversified across a diverse range of asset classes, client segments, and geographies. I note that the AUD 1.4 billion in net flows achieved in the first half of 2026 includes an outflow of AUD 500 million as a result of two institutional clients participating in the Commonwealth Government's water buyback program at a material premium to their book value. The strong net flows from the diverse range of asset classes has contributed to significant growth and diversification in FUM on several measures. Firstly, overall, in absolute terms, as you can see on the left-hand side of this chart. Secondly, within our hedge fund asset class, now highly diversified by strategy and lead portfolio manager.
Thirdly, by client channel with a particular call-out of the domestic retail channel and offshore institutional growth. The majority of our institutional FUM is from offshore clients with long duration mandates. As you recall, the push to raise further money from offshore clients has been a strategic focus of the group for the last three years. Finally, by liquidity, we have a material amount of FUM from clients who are invested in term and closed-end investment strategies, providing certainty of recurring earnings for the group and better structuring the portfolio for the clients. Strong investment performance is a good leading indicator of future performance fees and net flows. Despite a number of things thrown at the group during the half, our performance remains strong and diverse.
At 30 June 2026, I am pleased to say that 85% of our FUM has a performance fee attached to it, and 60% of our FUM is subject to a fixed hurdle or high watermark only. As we have diversified our business, our performance fees are also more diversified and therefore more persistent. I will reflect now the last two slides on a couple of evolutions within the business. Firstly, I will highlight that a changing investment landscape certainly requires an alternative investment strategy. We believe that four key themes will dominate markets in the years ahead, creating significant headwinds for traditional investment portfolios. Firstly, sticky inflation and higher for longer interest rates. Two, record fiscal spending and growing public debt is eroding confidence in government debt and promises.
An AI-fueled capital expenditure boom is reverberating through many sectors of the global economy, and an increasingly fractured geopolitical landscape is creating trade barriers, disrupting supply chains, and driving increased spending on security and defense. Against this backdrop, we are finding that our clients are increasingly seeking uncorrelated investment returns, inflation-protected strategies, and reliable income. Regal possesses a range of investment products that are at the intersection of these contemporary client needs and our unique and diverse investment capability. The best example of our unique offering meeting client demand is our leading multi-strategy capability, including our soon-to-be-launched Multi-Strategy Income product. We believe this product will play an important role in meeting Australian investors' growing need for monthly income, and this product will launch next month. Our distribution and marketing capability has expanded and diversified into every major segment in the Australian market.
With four key staff dedicated in offshore markets, our client base offshore is expanding. Offshore distribution is a key priority for us, as I have highlighted. Offshore allocators typically allocate in larger size. They are typically less constrained by the fee disclosure rules, which dominate Australian superannuation capital allocators. We have an investment capability that is in increasing demand as the world seeks diversification. Australia is increasingly sought after as a destination for global capital allocators due to our stable democracy, low sovereign risk, and large pool of diversifying investment product and talent. Finally, as we begin to harvest the dividends of creating a unified brand for direct client engagement, we have started to achieve some early gains in supporting direct client engagement, which we expect to be able to talk more about in future periods.
We recognize that clients don't want just great product; they want communication and insights on a regular basis that can be directly fed to them by a variety of mediums. I will now hand over to Ilana Stringer, who will take you through the financials.
Thanks, Brendan, and good morning, everyone. My name's Ilana Stringer, and I'm Regal Partners Group CFO and Head of Strategy. I'm going to spend the next few minutes on four things. First, the changes we've made to how we present our profit and loss and what this half delivered. Second, the growth in our recurring management and loan fee earnings. Third, the diversification that sits behind our performance fees. Fourth, our approach to capital management, including the interim dividend announced today. The first thing I want to call out is the changes to the way we present our normalized profit and loss statement. We've separated management and loan fee pre-tax profit from performance fee pre-tax profit to more clearly show the drivers of Regal's profitability.
In particular, the recurring earnings the business generates from its management fee base are separate from the performance fees we earn on top of this base. Normalized NPAT for the half is AUD 93.3 million, up 108% on the first half of 2025. That translates into fully diluted earnings per share of AUD 0.214, up 104% on the first half of 2025. All three drivers of profit grew: management and loan fee pre-tax profit, performance fee pre-tax profit, and other income. Management and loan fee revenue of AUD 113.9 million is up 14% on the first half of 2025, of very strong 20% growth in average FUM and 23% growth in fund management fees. This reflects a period of continued investment performance and continued positive net flow momentum for the business for the last 12 months.
Loan management fees were lower in the first half of 2026 off the back of lower activity at the back end of 2025, which is now rebounding. The growth versus the prior comparable half in employee and other expenses reflects investment in growth and efficiency. In particular, offshore distribution, our technology platform and brand, and rent on our new premises from May 2025. I'd also note that other expenses are down 14% on the second half of 2025, which carried the larger investment costs we flagged at the full year. Together, that gives us management and loan fee pre-tax profit of AUD 44.3 million, up 6% on the first half of 2025, and up 37% on the second half of 2025. Turning to performance fees, we've had another very strong half, with performance fee revenue of AUD 119 million, reflecting strong investment outcomes across a diverse range of strategies.
After performance related variable remuneration, both the cash expense and the deferred amortization related to prior year's performance. Performance fee pre-tax profit was AUD 82 million. As you know, some of the variable remuneration generated from fees is also deferred into future periods. Other income of AUD 10.8 million is up 83% on the prior comparable half. That includes net fair value gains and dividend and distribution income from our seed investments. I'd like to spend a moment on management fee revenue and profits as a key driver of growth and profitability. On the left, we've separated loan management fees in blue from fund management fees in black. Loan management fees include loan establishment fees, which are activity-based and drive the variability of our all-in management and loan fee yield. This was 108% in the first half of 2026, up very slightly versus the second half of 2025.
Management fee yield, excluding loan fees, is stable across the last four halves, reflecting very consistent fee margins. On the right, you can see what that means for profit. Management and loan fee pre-tax profit of AUD 44.3 million is our strongest half since merger. We delivered another impressive half of performance fees of AUD 119 million, following AUD 133 million in the second half of 2025. On a rolling 12-month basis, that represents a performance fee yield of 1.2% of average FUM. Importantly, this reflects the diversification of potential sources of performance fees within the business. Each band in these columns represents a different underlying strategy, and the key contributors to the AUD 119 million in the first half of 2026 are different to the key contributors to the AUD 133 million in the second half of 2025.
This diversification gives us confidence in our ability to deliver a recurring level of performance fees through the cycle and underpins the resilience of this stream of earnings in addition to our growing management fees. In light of the growth and maturity of our business, we've implemented a more structured capital allocation framework, as set out on this slide. The strong fundamentals of our business that Brendan has talked to today deliver strong operating cash flow and a robust low leverage balance sheet. We pay a fully franked ordinary dividend out of our recurring profits. Management fee profits, plus a recurring portion of performance fee profits. We intend to continue to deliver a fully franked dividend aligned with earnings growth. We reinvest excess capital to drive growth where returns hurdles are exceeded or return excess capital to shareholders. This slide is what that framework delivers in practice.
On the left, we're showing what normalized NPAT would be if compensation was not deferred or at risk, which provides a look through the effects of deferred compensation amortization related to previous year's performance. This measure has doubled from AUD 42.7 million in the first half of 2025 to AUD 85.1 million in this half. Our dividend history demonstrates Regal's ability to support sustainable growth in dividends as earnings grow. The board has approved a fully franked interim 2026 dividend of AUD 0.12 per share, double the AUD 0.06 paid for the first half of 2025. This implies a dividend payout ratio of approximately 56%, and our balance sheet remains strong. We have capital of AUD 289 million at 30th of June, adjusted for the first half dividend. Of that, AUD 128 million is free cash and AUD 133 million is invested seed capital. The AUD 130 million debt facility remains undrawn.
We continue to invest in the growth of the business, growing our existing strategies through our investments in our platform, distribution, and capital raisings. New product innovation, as Brendan has talked to earlier, continues to be a focus, supported by deployment or recycling of seed capital. We continue to take a disciplined approach to assessing M&A opportunities. In light of the value of franking credits in shareholders' hands and the changing tax landscape, I'd note that we are currently focused on growing our ordinary fully franked dividend while retaining flexibility, including for future growth. To recap the half, we've delivered growth in FUM, growth in management fees, and growth in recurring management and loan fee profit, which, combined with strong performance fees from a range of strategies, delivered normalized NPAT more than double the first half of 2025.
We have a balance sheet that provides Regal Partners with financial flexibility. With that, I will hand back to Brendan.
Thank you, Ilana Stringer. I will just focus on some of the strategic priorities for the second half of 2026 before we move to Q&A. Just to remind you, we have had a strong capital raising start to the second half of 2026. Most notably, AUD 500 million in inflows in July and August so far. When I add together the AUD 300 million in net flows in July, the further AUD 200 million in the capital raise for PGF, AUD 200 million, I should say, and that is excluding a further capital commitment from a sovereign fund in credit, which has been achieved in August 2026. That is most notable because in the last two months, we have now won over AUD 1.1 billion in directly originated, bilaterally negotiated commitments to private credit, originated by the Regal Partners and broader team. New products and strategies. We have highlighted the multi-strat income product that will launch next month.
We believe there is a very large addressable market out there. There are some products that are performing really well. We think our product is well-positioned to sit alongside that and to capture a growing share of Australians' desire for monthly income. We are capitalizing on our expanded distribution footprint, and as you can see during the half, the strong flows that we have achieved, particularly from offshore clients, and we see that pipeline building. Our One RPL approach is achieving greater resiliency and scale for the business. Finally, our disciplined approach to capital management, as Ilana Stringer has mentioned, balancing strong organic growth and efficient returns to shareholders while also exploring accretive M&A. Regal Partners has never been in a strong position to achieve its strategic ambitions.
Now, before I turn to Q&A, I would like to acknowledge Phil King, who has signaled his intention to transition to retirement effective 30th June 2027, effectively 10 months away. There will be plenty of time to celebrate the significant contribution Phil King has made to building Regal Partners, and I can assure you that in the interim, it is business as usual here. We remain focused on continuing to deliver great outcomes for our clients and shareholders, and we have never been in a better position to achieve this. Thank you.
Thanks, Brendan. We now might go to questions. Operator, could you please go to the first person in the queue? Who is Cameron from Canaccord.
Team, can you hear me okay?
Hey, Cameron.
Excellent. Thanks for taking questions, all. Pleasure to be here. If I could start with perhaps a couple. Perhaps just on fundraisings, looking into the balance of the year. Brendan, you mentioned the seeding of the Multi-Strategy Income Fund launching next month. Two-part question. Will that be closed-ended or open-ended? The second part of the question, any flavor you guys can provide us on additional fundraisings in the balance of the half, whether that is Regal Resources, royalties offshore or any others? Thanks.
Yes, certainly. The multi-strategy income product will be an open-ended product, so taking applications and redemptions on a monthly basis. The fund pipeline continues to grow. We have achieved a great growth in fundraising for our Regal Long Short strategy. As of today, we are probably about AUD 800 million calendar year to date. That is up materially from the same time last year, and that is before we include the benefits of the SPP from the PGF capital raise. That momentum would probably put us on track to be over AUD 1 billion for the calendar year as I sit here today. When you supplement that with other more campaign-like raises for things associated with our multi-strat income fund and some product offshore, we are well on track to achieve a AUD 2 billion net flow target for calendar 2026.
Great. Thank you. And perhaps one just around the management fee rate looking into the second half. Obviously, we have got our first half run rate to start with, but I think as mentioned, Taurus Fund III sort of got itself away through the half just gone. Can you help us, I suppose, just think about that incremental contribution starting the second half as that sort of flows through?
Yeah. We expect that total management fee and loan fee yield will actually be pretty stable on the first half of 2026, if not very, very slightly up, and that will include the impact of the Taurus fundraising.
Okay. Thank you. And Ilana Stringer, maybe just the last one. You sort of mentioned there that, within the loan management fee comments that establishment fees had again been a bit soft, but I think your comment was that things had started to rebound. Just zooming in on that, is that sort of a comment on Q4 versus Q3 or just early start to this financial year, please?
Start to this financial year. I think what we see is that activity-based fees, particularly in the second half of 2025, were a fair bit lower than the first half of 2025 and that activity has increased in this half and that is beginning to flow through again to the ongoing management, like loan management fees as well going forward.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you again.
Great. Thank you. We might now go to the next person in the phone queue, who is Lafitani from MST Financial.
Hi, Laf. Morning. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to ask some questions. Can I just get a reminder of Phil's current portfolio responsibilities and the broad plan to who it is going to be handed over to? Are you thinking internal? Are you going external? There is talk of a possible Regal Investment Committee. Can you just give us a bit more color, please?
Yeah, certainly. Thanks, Laf. Phil directly manages about 16% of our fund today, and that is principally around some of the longer duration or heritage products that we have got, like the absolute return strategy, the market neutral strategies, and part of the small company strategy. It is broader than that. They are probably the major ones.
What we have observed as we have developed the business and built the business out over the last four years in particular, and particularly following some of the volatility after Liberation Day early last year, where we responded to expand the investment committee for the multi-strategy funds to incorporate the investment talent of Paul Moore from the global side and Adrian Redlich from a credit and royalty perspective joining Phil, myself, and James Persson, Chief Risk Officer, we reflected upon the scale and complexity of the business that whilst we want to preserve the individual autonomy and accountability of the individual portfolio managers who lead each of the strategies, we saw merit in having a Regal Investment Committee that will act as oversight on performance and governance across those.
Now, that will start within the Regal Long Short suite of products, but ultimately, will be brought right across the full breadth of Regal's investment products to harness the experienced leaders that we have got right across the group to ultimately generate better risk-adjusted returns for our clients. To summarize, no one person will replace Phil as CIO of Long Short Equities by the time he retires in June 2027. We believe this investment committee oversight structure, which we will have implemented by 1 January 2027, will be the effective mechanism going forward by which we will provide oversight of strategies.
Just to clarify, you think you have got all the appropriate internal people for that?
Yeah, absolutely. I think there are clear heads for each of the strategies today, whether it be Ben McCallum and Jess Farr-Jones on emerging companies. You've got Tim Elliott leading the resources strategy. You've got Jackson leading small companies, and Mark Nathan and Jovita on the broader base Long Short product. I think there are clear successions in place for each of those, and over the months ahead, we'll be clearer to the market around what that transition looks like as we lead towards June 27th.
Got it. Can I move to the capital framework? The language seems to have just moved away from the AUD 75 million buyback. Can you just elaborate more specifically why only AUD 5 million of the buyback was completed when it was announced, and the overall thought, has it changed now? Is it no longer a priority?
Yeah, good question, Laf. You're right, we started a small toe in the water of the buyback back in probably March 2026, March this year. Then you'll recall, the Iran war kicked off, and we decided it fit to pause any further movement on the buyback until we saw how things settled. That coincided with some change at a board level. So Peter Yates has come on board as chair, and we thought fit to sort of take stock of where we were from a capital perspective. And the third thing I'd say that has occurred, was the Commonwealth Government, you'll observe, has sort of started to change the landscape a little bit in terms of relative return of capital versus franking credits.
You put all that into a mix, combined with the demand for some new product seeding, and we have decided to keep the buyback there, but put it on ice for the time being while we prioritize steady growth in fully franked dividends to shareholders. Obviously, if things change, we obviously have the flexibility to respond to that if need be. But that's probably a chronological version of events that have led to us where we are today.
All right. Got it. Just one final question. Can you talk us through how the capital framework works if, say, you're looking at an acquisition and your own stock's on six times? How do you sort of compute that calculation?
Look, as always, as we look at acquisition, we're going to look at the capital available for the acquisition, the accretion that acquisition delivers, its strategic benefits, and the synergies. I don't think the capital framework actually changes our analysis for an acquisition. It's really more setting out how we think about that. Firstly, let's really look at options to reinvest for growth that meet or exceed hurdles, and then returning excess capital to shareholders.
Well, maybe I'll put it another way. What do you say to investors or potential investors that are looking at your stock at six times, and you don't see it as cheap enough to buy yourself with the balance sheet you have, and you're sort of pulling away from the buyback, and still putting M&A on the table?
I'd frame it slightly different, Laf. I guess I'd say that we see very accretive opportunities by continuing to invest in the organic growth of the business. We believe, for example, seeding the income multi-strat product, which we're doing off our balance sheet, can create a very large product with a very large addressable market that will ultimately be very accretive to shareholders. We believe we're in a good position to augment our existing investment capability with products like that, and that's a superior return for investors above and beyond returning fully franked dividends to shareholders.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks, Laf. I would just like to remind people in terms of how to lodge a question. If you are on the phone, please press star one to register a question or star two to cancel if you are in the queue. You can also lodge your questions online through the Ask a Question box. I now might go to a question online. Jonathan Higgins joins us online. He passes on his congratulations to Phil for his tenure. His question is around the internet flows. I have already touched on that a little bit, but if there is anything else that you could add in terms of your ambitions for the Multi-Strategy Income Fund at launch or within a period of launch.
As we said, the Regal Partners Multi-Strategy Income Fund will launch next month. We have seeded that directly off our balance sheet. We are speaking to a range of clients that are interested in the structure and our capability to deliver what will be, I think, an attractive monthly yield. We are targeting monthly income based off the RBA cash rate plus 350 basis points. Today, that would put that interest rate just under or yield for investors at just under 8%. We will talk further at upcoming results announcements about our progress there. We think it is a product that is receiving a lot of interest, and we are building a pipeline of further flows.
Great. Thank you, Brendan. At the moment, there are no further questions. Given the time and everyone's busy, I would like to now hand back to Brendan for closing remarks.
Well, thank you very much for your attention and support. We think Regal Partners is in a very strong position to continue to develop and grow the business. I will stop there, and thank you very much.
Thanks