Welcome to Steadfast 2026 full year results. Following the formal presentation, there will be a Q&A session for investors and analysts. Participants can ask both text and live audio questions during today's call. To ask a text question, select the messaging icon, type your question in the box towards the top of the screen, and press the send button. To ask a live audio question, press the Request to Speak button at the top of the broadcast window. The broadcast will be replaced by the Audio Question screen. Use the dial-in number and access PIN provided to ask your question via the phone. Alternatively, for those on a home or personal network, you can ask your questions via the web by pressing Join Queue. If prompted, select Allow in the pop-up to grant access to your microphone.
If you have any issues using the platform, dial-in details can also be found on the homepage under Asking Audio Questions. Press the Documents icon to see today's files and platform instructions. Select a document to open it. You can still listen to the meeting while you read. Text questions can be submitted at any time, and the audio queue is now open. I will now hand over to Robert Kelly.
Thanks very much, David, and welcome everybody to the call. I will get straight into it. If you go to page four, it is just basically our graphs that demonstrate our performance since 2014. I would just ask you to read the graphs from left to right, not from right to left. We are proud of those graphs, and I will not bore you by going through them from top to bottom. If you go to page five, I think this is the brief page of where we are actually at and where we look like from that point of view. It just proves our resilience and how through funny periods of time where the premium cycle goes up and down, we can adapt our business model to provide results. The statutory NPAT to AUD 269.1. Underlying NPAT, up 8.2% to AUD 319.5.
Underlying diluted EPS NPAT, up 7.7% at AUD 0.288, and the underlying diluted EPS NPATA is up 6.7% to AUD 0.33 CPS. Underlying NPATA up 7.1% of AUD 366.3 million and underlying EBITA stat of AUD 669.8 million. If you then go to page six, which is probably the most interesting part, it refers to the bid and the scheme implementation deed. As you are aware, Steadfast has entered with Amwins and Dragoneer and KKR to acquire all of the issued shares in Steadfast pursuant to a scheme of arrangement for cash consideration of AUD 6 per share, less any amount of any permitted dividends paid per Steadfast. Steadfast is also permitted to pay dividends to Steadfast shareholders comprising an ordinary final dividend in respect to FY 2026 and a special dividend prior to the scheme implementation of an aggregate amount of AUD 0.20 per share.
Scheme consideration represents 51.9% premium to the Steadfast undistributed closing share price of AUD 3.95 on 9th of June, 2026. The Steadfast board has unanimously recommended that the Steadfast shareholders vote in favor of the scheme. In the absence of a superior proposal and subject to the independent experts concluding and continuing to conclude in the independent expert's report that the scheme is in the best interests of Steadfast shareholders. The implementation of the scheme is subject to various customary conditions, including the approval of Steadfast shareholders and regulatory approvals from a range of people from the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Subject to Steadfast shareholders approving the scheme and other conditions being satisfied, or if applicable, waived, Steadfast is currently targeting the implementation of the scheme to be in December 2026. Steadfast shareholders do not need to do anything or take any action at this present time. Turning to page seven, this gives us an indication of the premium rate cycle and it diagrammatically shows you the way the industry has gone from Q3 to Q4 of FY 2026. As you can see, it has been a downhill slide and over the past two years, that slide has gained more momentum. In particular, we saw a softening at the FY 2026 close in June, which was the slowest period amount that we had seen over the prior two years. If you go to page eight, this is the final dividend that we will pay.
The total FY 2026 dividend will be AUD 20.95, fully franked up from AUD 19.5 for 2025, or in other words, 7.4% up from last year. The final 2026 dividend of AUD 12.75 shares fully franked will be up from AUD 11.7 or 9%. The Dividend Reinvestment Plan will not apply for FY 2026 because of the uncertainty of the scheme, that scheme places over the top of that, and there are the ex-div dates and the dividend dates. On the right, the graphs demonstrate to you clearly the growth of the shares from our start in 2014, financial year 2014.
Going to page 10. This is the analysis of the Steadfast broking/underwriting network. We have had sustained growth, and with further broker acquisitions have increased our bottom line. The financial highlight for 2026 is pretty simple. The broking network grew 6.2% to AUD 13.2 billion, and our professional services fees were up 2.5% to AUD 7.5 billion.
In other words, GWP up, organic growth up for the broker network, 2.4. Organic growth up for the AR network of 3.7, and new brokers is up 0.1, giving us a total uplift of 6.2% in our GWP. The graphs are really interesting. If you have a look at the graphs on the left and you go back to 2021. During the period from 2021 through to 2026, we have actually had initially PSC not been included in our GWP, and all of these figures are normalized in the current year for those leaving, and also the ANFS leaving. If you look at what our turnover was back in those days, it was two fairly substantial groups within our group that no longer are in. Our growth is incredibly powerful considering that they have got out of it.
The operational highlights, we completed three equity holdings, 31 step-ups, 10 step-downs, and 31 bolt-ons. We now have equity interest in 62 of the businesses in the network, which is over 50% of the GWP that the network sells. In terms of Insurtech, David Gillespie, our CTO, will give you a further update a little bit later. Our broker network has a great group of platforms in Insurtech that gives them a great sustainable advantage. There are now 268 brokers live on our WinBeat broking program with over 8,000 users, and we have 12,500 users participating in the Steadfast Client Trading Platform across Australia and New Zealand. I turn you now to page 11.
The solid underlying earnings growth of 13.2% on the Australian insurance broking network is highlighted, I guess, by the net revenue going up by 1.4% at the time when the whole market was down. But pleasingly our EBITA was up by 13.2%. Organic growth of EBITA was 2.7%, and organic growth due to the softness of the market was 1.4% on the brokers. But overall what that means is that we have an EBITA growth of 10.5% and acquisitions growth of 18.9%. FY 2026 shows that we have 83% of the EBITA in Steadfast. It comes from our equity brokers, as opposed to 80% the year before.
The waterfall charts across there show what we did last year and what we did this year, our organic growth, our acquisition growth, and it points out Rothbury, which is one of the major players in the New Zealand market, and a step-up that we made in that business. So, including the solid EBITA growth of 13.2% is as a result of a really tremendous diligence in our step-ups and bolt-ons that we've been able to do, and I guess the focus is to maintain a sustainable margin improvement brought through the execution of the brokers' hubbing strategy, which has worked extremely well. We continue to do that, and we've done that in the underwriting agencies as well.
Also our ability to enhance operational efficiency and the disciplined uplift that brokers have achieved during a soft market in their fee structure, which started last year and I think has been continued on, and I think brokers are seeing the fulfillment of that coming in this current 12 months. Enhanced subsidiary oversight on our behalf and governance through a dedicated data and analytics program has enabled us to be proactive in monitoring our renewal retention, our new business performance, and of course, that allows a sustainable earnings performance to take place. So if I then take you over to page 13, this is the underwriting agencies. And interesting to be able to say to you that we rose 2.3% in GWP at a time when the market is at the softest that I've seen, I think, in probably 30 years.
It shows the sustainability of our underwriting agencies is incredibly robust. If you look at the pie chart there, you can see their growth over there. GWP rose to 2.5% from 2.4%, plus we had this one sell down, so we took some GWP out of it. Total organic growth was 2.3%. The highlights being the launch of Castle by Sure Insurance, which gives us a national home product. Then the increase of some new products for CHU, and a MECON emergence in Coast, and the launch of Unity Trade Credit from our trade credit and broker. Successful completion also of consolidation process with the four consumer agencies combining to create one agency under Prevail, and nine individual small to medium commercial agencies merging into one brand under Miramar.
This gives us a great solid pathway for this consolidation to reduce costs in operating and also puts efficiency into some of the AI that we're putting through our businesses. By supporting this growth with mid-sale agencies, by our acquisition and product differentiation, we grow. Investment in automation continues, David will talk further about that. The resulting efficiencies through the underwriting agency ET platform, which we are working on and continually moving. You'll see a lot of the work we're doing on the underwriting platforms in the agencies have to go to your P&L. They can't be capitalized, but are very effective in increasing the efficiency of those businesses. Of course, we maintain strong carrier relationships and long-term relationships.
We focus on refining all of what we do, including our footprint in London and the Steadfast underwriting agencies' consorting and tender binding arrangements, which we put into place last year in London. Increased revenue for us in our commission structure. If you go to page 14, this is the underwriting agencies, again, showing the EBITA increase of 5.2% and net revenue increase of 5%. That's pretty pleasing to be able to keep those two in line, because sometimes that's not easy to do. Organic growth of 4.6% on income and 5.3% on EBITA. You'll see there our impact with the disposal. We sold Sterling off, which may have impacted that 0.1%. I guess underlying EBITA of AUD 260 is plus 0.52%. You can see from the bar charts there how we've lifted from over the two years.
You've got the organic and very little acquisition growth there. Most of it's in organic. We have maintained our underwriting discipline. All of our binders are strong and well renewed. Our retention rate is what we target, and we've been able, as you can see, maintain our GWP and increase it during a very difficult time. Revenue growth exceeds GWP growth, which is always exciting. That's probably highlighted by the fact that we've been able to combine agencies and increase efficiency with some smart software that we've been using. Additionally, our investment in underwriting agencies and claim systems, which we continue to roll out in FY 2027, ably by Susan Donaldson, who's heading up our claims. Pardon me, I'll just get a drink. Our actual equity ownership in FY 2026 is 88%. So we own a very vast, large majority of our underwriting agencies.
Now, I'll take a breather and refer you to page 16 and hand you over to Sam Hollman, our CEO of International.
Thank you, Robert. FY 2026 saw the core pillars of Steadfast International in place, with focus moving to scaling our operation, further developing our product capabilities, and diversifying our earnings base, both geographically and qualitatively. I'd like to share with you some of the FY 2026 operational highlights for a number of our international businesses. The first being ISU Steadfast, which is our broker network in the U.S. It exceeded FY 2026 budgeted EBITA. We achieved a record number of new members with 38 new members, 21 net of terminations. We also introduced two new membership tiers in this financial year, which provides a new opportunity for us to grow membership and create scale. We also enhanced strategic carrier relationships, achieving profit share growth of 15%, and we launched and drove participation in Novum and HWS Specialty Solutions, which are our businesses within our international family.
We completed also the first two trapped capital equity investments in members. These members are held at the Steadfast level and replicate what we've done in Australasia. The technology has been implemented to drive business forward with data insights, and we look forward to being able to see what that can bring. I'll move on to HWS. They're our specialist wholesale broker in London. They also exceeded FY 2026 budgeted EBITA. FY 2026 saw significant progress diversifying the business into new and expanded specialties through strategic recruitment. This was to cater to our global network requirements. This has established a strong foundation for future growth and profitability. We also experienced strong new business wins in marine, and we also focused on organic growth of our existing specialty products. If I move to Novum, who we only acquired in August 2025, they are our specialist MGA in the U.S.
Since then, we've acquired an additional 4.25% of Novum in May 2026 on the original deal terms. They have had very strong financial performance in the 10 months post-completion, with 60% plus organic growth in GWP and revenue in FY 2026. We've scaled existing programs and established new programs, and as a result of that, we've expanded our capacity relationships. We've encouraged engagement with ISU Steadfast with a focus on attracting flow and building strategic alignment, and that was really only done in April this year at ISU Steadfast annual conference. In that time, there's been 1,000+ policy submissions from ISU Steadfast members into Novum. We've also seen the recruitment of new talent to support the rapid growth of that organization, and we've also expanded their technology platform, Novum Online, with capabilities and solutions, which is implementing a lot of automation into the business and underwriting processes.
I would just like to call you out to the right-hand side of this slide with the gray boxes. This is a little bit of a brag sheet that the international team and Steadfast are very proud of, and it is just how those three businesses are performing since we acquired them all. If I can only call out one metric of each, which is all to do with financial. ISU Steadfast, since acquisition, 96% organic growth in EBITA. HWS Specialty, 1.5 years in, 34% organic growth in revenue. Novum, 10 months in, 60% organic growth in GWP and revenue. It shows we have a great track record of acquisitions to date. All businesses are performing well, and capital has been spent well. Can I please turn the page to the next one? I will move on to the financial highlights. The financials demonstrate continued strength of Steadfast International.
We delivered underlying EBITA of AUD 29.8 million, growth of AUD 23.9 million over the prior corresponding period. Strong organic performance is driven mainly by growth in ISU Steadfast profit-sharing and network membership fees, and also growth in HWS Specialty after the first 12 months post-acquisition. Acquisition growth has also been driven by the organic growth of HWS Specialty with new business wins in marine division, an exceptional first 10 months contribution from Novum at 60% year-on-year in GWP and revenue, and also two minority investments in ISU Steadfast network agencies in the second half of FY 2026. These results reflect the high-quality earnings as well as our disciplined approach to scaling the businesses. Thank you, I will now hand over to David Gillespie, our CTO of Technologies.
Thanks, Sam. Today I am going to focus on the Insurtech part of Steadfast Technologies, but I do want to call out all of the technology team for what they are doing to improve how we operate across all of the Steadfast Group. That includes the consolidation launch for the Miramar and Prevail agencies, as well as the new underwriting platforms, the office moves and new workplace technology we have implemented to improve productivity, and the significant uplift we have undertaken within the cyber area, where, for example, we have deployed new AI tools to both protect our perimeter and our applications, even when that comes from third or fourth-party software. AI continues to be a key theme, and we have a very targeted approach to how we deploy.
We have not taken a scattergun approach, but I am equally excited about how it is transforming how we operate in the Steadfast network, and I will touch on some of its uses in the organization. As I mentioned at the last results call, we have had our AI policy and governance forum in place since the end of last year. At the start of the year, we talked about OnePlatform and the program of deliveries we had in the roadmap to modernize our platform and improve the broker experience and capability, and I am really pleased to report the team have delivered what we committed to. Sometimes they are initiatives which in themselves do not seem that important or critical, but are crucial building blocks, and the first two deliveries fall into that category.
Steadfast ID significantly uplifted our security posture with multi-factor authentication, which provides better protection and will enable us and our brokers to better manage identities. It also simplified how our brokers and partners access across our various applications. That went live in April with no issues, and that in itself is a testament to the rigorous approach we take at Steadfast to releasing quality capability, including significant change management activities across a large number of users. Similarly, with our product Insurer Configurator engine space, it enables us to more quickly extend our product offerings, including in the future for single lines of business. It has also future-proofed us as our insurance and agency partners move on to modern platforms.
We work extensively to develop joint roadmaps with all of the major insurers, and as they move on to new platforms with more modern API integrations, we are ready to integrate with them. This includes an AI mapping agent to further speed that process up. As Robert mentioned recently, we are currently in testing with Allianz and implementing their farm product for pilot in November with full rollout early next year. With Steadfast Intelligence, we already have, I believe, the leading data platform in the market, which is used to provide insights for Steadfast, our brokers, and our insurance partners. We have now deployed CORTEX, a conversational AI capability, built out an underlying semantic layer, and deployed two targeted AI agents, one for broker analysis and one for insurer analysis.
These are enabling our analysts to get data insights five to 10 times faster than previously and has identified opportunities for improvement across the broker network that we had not considered previously. We flipped the historical paradigm of it taking 80%-90% of time to get the data and only 10%-20% analyzing for insights to now spending 80%-90% looking for insights. In addition, the data team have created a federated multi-tenanted data platform called Guardian One that can provide agencies and brokers access to their data within a powerful analytics platform without the need for them to invest in a separate platform. The first broker group is going live this Monday. Lastly, but most definitely not least, is Steadfast Apps, which is replacing our industry-leading INSIGHT platform.
That went live on Monday for seven pilot brokerages across Australia and New Zealand, with full release to all other brokers on the 7th of September. Let me explain a little bit more about that on page 20. With Steadfast Apps, we are bringing together the capability of multiple applications into one powerful application, hence eliminating the fragmentation of applications, processes, and data, and improving efficiency, whilst also saving brokers license fees in having multiple applications. As you can see, it is optimized for mobile. Moving to page 21, we have a conveyor belt of new broker functionality in the pipeline, which will be delivered in quarterly releases so we can manage the change impact for our brokers. What you see here is just a subset of the improvements we will be making.
Each release follows a human or broker-centered design process. Over 30 brokers have been engaged through the design prototype build and test phases to make sure we deliver the functionality that meets their needs. In this release, all brokers who currently use INSIGHT will transition seamlessly to Steadfast Apps with no data migration required. This activation has been designed as a stepping stone to the changes that are planned to come. Each user will have a dashboard of widgets showing information that is pertinent to them. For example, open tasks, policies due for renewal, open claims, et cetera. Strangely enough, one of the biggest requests has been for both light and dark mode, which we have accommodated as you can see.
The AI-powered schedule formatter was one of the top requests from brokers and is a great example of how we are using Insurebot, who we acquired last year, as an incubator for new functionality. They have had brokers using this functionality almost 5,000 times since June, so that in itself gives us great insights as we integrate into Steadfast Apps with this release. In the next release before the end of the year, we will enable brokers with a unified client relationship management system, document management, and automation capabilities that simplifies day-to-day servicing and improves data quality. You can see in the bottom right those designs have been completed, and we are now in prototype testing with users before development starts.
Next year, we will enable our risk quotes to ensure full insurance coverage for clients, streamline quote to invoice experience, uplifting SCTP, driving reduced handoffs, rekeying, and time taken to move from quote to bind, all designed to make our brokers more efficient. It has been great to see Steadfast Apps come to life, but from my perspective, it has been equally as pleasing to see how we are powering those changes. We have implemented an AI development framework to enable us to build more, faster, and with fewer resources than we had planned. That framework enables agentic agents, for example, for project management, design, analysis, and in the last month, one to fix defects in testing. It picks up the defect ticket, recreates the defect, fixes it, and sends it on for approval for retest. On our underlying platform, we have again been using AI to optimize it.
We are treating this similar to the upgrades that happen with Formula One cars. Their first package has given us a 40% improvement performance, and we have two more scheduled in the next four weeks. That will not only make the website more performant, but means we use less processing power so we can reduce the cost of the platform as well. As I said, it has been an exciting year with much more to come. I will now hand over to Hannah for the detailed financials.
Thank you, David. Can we turn on to the next slide? I am pleased to report that Steadfast delivered a solid underlying earnings growth in FY 2026. Revenue increased 15.3% to AUD 2.1 billion, while underlying EBITA increased 13.8% to AUD 669.8 million. Underlying NPAT increased 8.2% to AUD 319.5 million, translating to diluted earnings per share of AUD 0.288, up 7.7%. Underlying NPATA was AUD 366.3 million, an increase of 7.1%. The result reflects a combination of organic growth and contributions from acquisitions. Our underlying agencies continued to deliver strong organic growth supported by disciplined underwriting, active retention, targeted new business, and effective expense management. In broking, acquisitions made a strong contribution and helped offset comparably moderate organic GWP growth. Across the group, we also maintained a strong focus on cost discipline and operational efficiency. STAT NPAT was AUD 269.1 million, compared with AUD 334.9 million in prior year.
The year-on-year comparison was impacted by a material accounting gain recognized in FY 2025 in relation to the Rothbury step-up acquisition. Turning to the next slide. This slide sets out the key drivers of the 13.8% increase in underlying EBITA. Organic growth contributed AUD 29.5 million, representing 5% growth from the prior year. Acquisitions completed during the period contributed a further AUD 25.7 million, while increased ownership interests in existing businesses excluding Rothbury contributed AUD 1.8 million. The increase in Steadfast ownership interest in Rothbury contributed approximately AUD 24 million to underlying EBITA. This reflects the accounting treatment where 100% of Rothbury's EBITA is consolidated into the group's results, with the proportion attributable to NCI recognized below the EBITA line, consistent with group's half year disclosures. As a result, EBITA included 100% of Rothbury's earnings, while NPAT reflects Steadfast's effective ownership interest, so cost 68%.
Taken together, these movements increased underlying EBITA by AUD 81 million- AUD 669.8 million. Turning now to the next slide. Moving from EBITA to NPAT, underlying NPAT increased by AUD 24 million, representing 8.2% on PCP to AUD 319.5 million. Organic growth contributed approximately AUD 16.8 million, while acquisitions contributed AUD 18.7 million. Increased ownership interests added a further AUD 2.1 million, primarily reflecting businesses that transitioned from associate to subsidiaries during the year. These benefits were partly offset by approximately AUD 13.6 million of additional financing and amortization expense associated with acquisition activities. This explains the difference between 13.8% growth in EBITA and 8.2% growth in NPAT for the year.
From a capital allocation perspective, we assess acquisitions based on their contribution after financing costs, amortization expense, and NCI, not simply on the headline EBITA. On that basis, acquisitions delivered a positive net NPAT contribution, while organic earnings remained an important driver for shareholder returns.
Turning to the statutory balance sheet. Steadfast finished the year with a sound balance sheet and appropriate liquidity. At 30th June, the group held AUD 470 million of cash. Total current assets were AUD 3.1 billion, compared to the current liabilities of AUD 2.1 billion, and net assets were AUD 2.6 billion. Total gearing was 36%, with AUD 138.8 million of undrawn committed bank facilities. The group's corporate debt facilities were AUD 1.37 billion, with maturities well diversified between May 2028 and June 2032. Subsequent to year-end, we entered into additional AUD 100 million of buy-let facilities, increasing our committed facilities to AUD 1.47 billion and providing AUD 240 million of funding flexibility. Turning to the next slide.
Finally, the group continued to demonstrate stable cash conversion. Post-tax operating cash flow, excluding movements in trust accounts and premium funding, increased to AUD 408.6 million, up from AUD 373.7 million last year.
This exceeded underlying NPATA of AUD 366.3 million, highlighting the group's ability to consistently convert earnings into cash. After dividends to shareholders, net of DRP and distributions to NCI, free cash flow increased to AUD 166.6 million compared to AUD 124.9 million in FY 2025. This further strengthened the group's funding flexibility and capacity to support future growth. Overall, the group's stable cash generation continues to support shareholder returns while providing capacity to fund ongoing working capital requirements. Before concluding, I would like to acknowledge the significant contribution of our subsidiaries, associates, joint ventures, and network brokers. Their hard work, commitment, and focus on delivering for clients have been instrumental in achieving our group's solid FY 2026 results. Thank you. Now I'll hand back to Robert to discuss our FY 2027 outlook. Thank you.
Thanks, Hannah. That's great. Page 29 is an interesting page because this page is our business as usual. Okay. I guess it would alter dramatically if the scheme completes. But it's important that you leave this meeting today understanding that we are running the business as if the business is going to continue in perpetuity for the rest of its life. Obviously, if the scheme completes, then the whole dynamics of the business will alter. But we'll continue to execute on our growth strategy for both organic and acquisition growth. I guess we'll drive the subsidiary performance metrics that we've been putting in place to improve earnings quality, drive margin expansion.
We'll recognize the operational efficiencies that we can get through various targeted revenue initiatives and also the strategic hubbing and not to downplay what David spoke about in terms of our agentic use of software in Steadfast Apps and the applications that that will do in terms of reducing time to do things that we'll be evaluating over the next 12 months to 18 months. We'll maintain our capital discipline because it's crucial, and we've done that since August 2013, pursue value-accretive acquisitions and generate substantial shareholder returns. We've managed to average out a much higher return to our shareholders than was anticipated when we floated the business, and we'll continue to do that. Sam's team have done an incredible job in the U.S.
We'll continue the U.S. expansion in the way we have at the moment with expanding trapped capital over there very selectively, small steps at a time, and making sure that we do and build that network the same way as we built Australia and New Zealand and other places. We'll leverage the technology, as I alluded to. We'll enhance our operating efficiencies to drive margin across the whole group, and we'll deliver innovative AI-enabled solutions. The AI revolution started in Steadfast six years ago. It makes me actually laugh when I consider where people jumped up and say this has happened. We've been working on it for six years, and implementing Insurtech pipelines for AI. Steadfast Apps accelerated that, and the brokers that are using it this day but put out are absolutely astounded by its efficiency that it creates.
We'll foster the values led by a culture of leadership, where all people are engaged, empowered, supported to do their best. Steadfast is an organization that believes people support one another and work alongside one another, not have the top of one another dictating down. We want talent to come and grow through the organization and never be held back. Also, I guess finally, Steadfast performance through risk management and compliance and governance will continue to keep doing it and continue to go forward with this business.
Page 30 is interesting. There's our guidance for 2027 NPATA, AUD 382 million- AUD 392 million. Underlying NPAT, AUD 333 million- AUD 343 million. Then underlying EBITA, AUD 700 million- AUD 715 million. Then you can see that between 4% and 8% for diluted EPS and diluted NPAT growth. We'll need to get probably 2% - 3% increase in pricing. We're very confident of doing that.
We think we're in the bottom of the barrel at this particular time. That slide we showed you before says how you can go downhill and how you can go uphill with that, and probably refer you to the key risks in our 2026 annual report, page 74 and 77. That will conclude mine, David. I'll hand back to you at this particular time.
Thanks, Robert. If you have not yet submitted your text question or joined the live audio queue, please do so now. Please note that each caller will be allowed two questions at a time. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. I will introduce each caller by name and ask you to go ahead. You will then hear a beep indicating your microphone is live. Our first caller today comes from Andrew Buncombe from Macquarie. Andrew, please go ahead after the beep.
Hi, team. Congratulations on the results. Just one from me, please. In terms of the proposed takeover, where the dividends have been capped at AUD 0.20 per share. Based off the annual report that we've seen today, it does appear that there's quite a bit of franking credits or franking balance left. Can you just walk us through why that's not being returned to, I suppose, listed shareholders, particularly in the context of the recent CGT changes? Thanks.
Andrew, the franking credits, Hannah, we will use AUD 225 million of them, I think.
Yeah
under the dividend payment for the franking credits.
Andrew, management considers it prudent to retain sufficient working capital to support ongoing operation and corporate activities. Accordingly, the pro forma special dividend has been calibrated to cover roughly four to six months period, while we are still maintaining a meaningful return to the shareholders, but we ultimately have a healthy working capital position for the group.
Also, we have got to be cognizant of the fact that you cannot borrow money. We make sure that our capital is used correctly, and with the amount of capital that we can put into this allows us to keep running the business and not ever put ourselves at any risk of having anybody look at us that we may be borrowing to pay the dividend.
Understood, and congratulations again on everything that you and the team have built over the years. Thanks.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a text question, please select the messaging icon, type your question in the box towards the top of the screen, and press the send button. To ask a live audio question, please press the Request to Speak button at the top of the broadcast window. Follow the instructions on screen to join the queue. I will just pause there to allow time to join the queue. Okay. Our next question is a text question from Rod Carrett from Steadfast NSG Group. Rod asks, "When will the special dividend be announced and paid?
I guess the special dividend will come into play.
It'll be disclosed when the scheme booklet is lodged.
I guess when the scheme booklet gets out. So time-wise, maybe.
We're hoping early October.
early October.
Yeah, early October, I think, Rob.
Thank you. The next question is also a text question, comes from Siddharth Parameswaran from JP Morgan. Siddharth asks: "Can you help us understand whether any acquisitions are included in the FY 2027 guidance?
Yes. There is some. There's about AUD 100. If you are looking for a figure, Sid, about AUD 100 million.
Thank you. Our next question is from Shreyas Patel from UBS. Shreyas asks: "What gives you confidence that premium rates will improve to 2%-3% versus the 4Q exit of 1%? What are you seeing in July/August?
Shreyas, one swallow does not make a spring. One month where it drops below everything else doesn't say that Armageddon's going to fall and that the rest of the 12 months are going to be the same. What makes me so sure of that? I guess my 58th year I enter insurance now, and I've been watching these cycles go through, and for the last 14 years, I've given figures about where I saw the market would land, and what the prices would go up and down, and I've been right, I think, 98% of the time. My feeling is we're at the bottom of the cycle.
My feeling is that there was a lot of competition for June, and some insurers made some silly mistakes about how they were going to price their product and there was an overreaction to losing business, so renewal premiums were sliced by the insurers. I don't believe that is going to be going on, and I don't think that will continue. We saw an uplift in July, whereas last year we saw a big drop in July, if you remember, from the June 2025, July 2026, yet there was about a 3% differential between the two. I'm pretty confident that the 2%- 3% will run through.
Thank you. A follow-up question from Shreyas Patel. Shreyas asks, "Looks like a strong second half strata result. Can you talk to some of the market dynamics given your competitors are suggesting CHU is irrationally undercutting the market to pick up share?
That's an erroneous, stupid statement for anybody to make. Anybody who makes a statement like that doesn't understand the strata market, has no understanding of the competitive nature of it, and no understanding about who's actually creating the price drop. My answer to that is, that is not true.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I will now hand back to you, Robert.
Okay. Thank you, everybody. I know we have been concise today, a little more concise than what we have been in the past, but we are in an interesting stage of this comp. Thank you for coming and joining us today.
That concludes today's call. Thank you for joining us.