Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Stuart Robertson, and I am the Chairman of Solvar Limited. On behalf of the board, I'd like to welcome and thank you for taking the time to attend our 2025 Annual General Meeting of the company. I'd also like to formally acknowledge the many traditional owners of the country throughout Australia and recognize their continuing connection to the lands, waters, and communities. This meeting is being held in a hybrid format, allowing for greater shareholder participation, including myself. For those of you attending in person, you may have noticed that I'm not in the room with you today. Unfortunately, due to a family matter, I was unable to travel today to attend the meeting in person.
For those shareholders attending virtually, I can assure you that you will have the same opportunity to participate today as you would if you attended the meeting in person. This includes being able to ask questions and vote through the online platform, and I'll discuss these processes a little later. For those of you attending virtually, if you have any technical difficulties with the online platform, please call the number on your online platform screen now, and someone will assist you. There is also an online meeting guide on the platform to assist you. If we experience technical issues that impact the online portion of the meeting, I'll assess the circumstances and communicate further with you via the online portal. If for some reason we have technical difficulties with my participation in the meeting, our Managing Director, Scott Baldwin, will take over as Chair of the meeting.
I hereby declare the meeting open. I'm advised by the Company Secretary that the notices of the meeting have been properly dispatched and that a quorum of members is present and call the meeting to order. With us today, we have my fellow directors, Mr. Scott Baldwin, Mr. Symon Brewis-Weston, Mr. Craig Parker, Ms. Kellie Cordne r, and our Company Secretary, Mrs. Terri Bakos, and CFO, Mr. Siva Subramani. From our auditors BDO, we have Mr. Benjamin Lee. I'd like to start by reflecting on the achievements through FY25, and I'll conclude with comments regarding the outlook for FY26. Following my address, Scott Baldwin, our Managing Director, will give a short presentation on Solvar. Solvar delivered strong results for its shareholders through FY25 against a macro environment that is as complex as many of us have seen in our career.
The global economy is suffering from geopolitical complexities that bring significant risk, whilst global trade tensions are as volatile as they have been in recent memory. This uncertainty flows through to the domestic economy, where growth has been muted, and we're seeing some recent upticks in unemployment. Given this, households remain cautious about spending, and productivity growth remains lackluster and has failed to keep pace with wages growth. Solvar has been steering a middle path through these cross currents and still achieved top-line revenue growth and loan book growth. In the 19 years it has been ASX-listed, the company is extremely proud that it has financed in excess of AUD 3 billion while navigating numerous economic cycles.
During FY 2025, the group continued growing its loan book for its continuing operations to AUD 832.7 million, up from AUD 791.1 million the prior year, whilst revenue grew to AUD 180.3 million, up from AUD 177.9 million the prior year. Our focus on diversifying the business from a product perspective while also growing the loan book has been the correct strategy. In addition, our distribution remained well balanced between direct and intermediated channels, which has been an important focus for the group. Your Board and management have focused over the last number of years on achieving the strategic objectives of investing in infrastructure to enable lasting, meaningful growth and in building resilience to be able to deliver results for shareholders in ever-changing, challenging environments. I want to expand on three key initiatives that I believe ensure the ongoing future success of the business. Solvar provides financing solutions in markets that are underserviced.
At our core, Solvar addresses consumers' non-discretionary demand for finance. The company has been predominantly focused on personal lending, servicing both the non-conforming and near-prime sectors. Solvar believes there are still significant opportunities within these markets and continues to grow its business. In addition to this, the company in May 2025 launched a commercial lending business, Benji, which leverages off the group's existing reputation and distribution network, targeting small and medium enterprises. The group also acquired a stake in EarlyPay, which gives broader exposure to the commercial equity market. This diversification gives the group additional robustness by having access to large addressable markets in adjacent products. The second key initiative in enhancing the group's robustness has been the significant work undertaken on the financing side of the business, which is a key driver to the group's success.
The group has continued to evolve its funding program, and it's very pleasing that it achieved its first asset-backed securitisation of approximately AUD 200 million. While it's significant in terms of improving our funding margins, by securitising a portion of its financing, the group's risk profile decreases due to the more aligned asset liability matching that it enables. The group has also de-risked further by having multiple robust finance warehouses within the group, ensuring meaningful headroom to continue growth. To enable an ongoing program of securitisation throughout the business into the future, Solvar is focusing on continuing to standardise its policies across the group. The third key initiative is the ongoing investment in technology. As a society, we continue to increase our dependency on digital and internet-connected technology, including the way we do business with our customers, which makes us a target for criminal cyber actors.
The group achieved ISO 27001 certification, which is a risk management framework designed to help organizations identify, manage, and protect sensitive information. By implementing best practice processes, the group aims to continue building on the strong foundations it has. Let's talk about performance. The group delivered normalized NPAT or net profit after tax of AUD 34.1 million and an earnings per share of AUD 0.16 per share. The group's continuing operations loan book grew to AUD 832.7 million, up 5.3% on prior corresponding periods, and revenue of AUD 180.3 million, which is up 1.4% on prior corresponding period. During FY 2025, the group completed an AUD 20.9 million share buyback and announced a total of AUD 0.14 dividend fully franked per share for the financial year.
In terms of outlook, the International Monetary Fund's world economic outlook is forecasting global growth to remain subdued, with the overall environment remaining volatile, with a range of domestic and international scenarios that could rapidly shift the outlook. Continued ongoing global conflicts could lead to downward revisions. In terms of the domestic market, interest rates were recently left on hold, and there's no clear indication of any further cuts. The group anticipates the resolution of the ASIC matter that commenced in 2023 through calendar year 2026, while the Commerce Commission matter in New Zealand may continue into FY2027. With ongoing investments being made into infrastructure and the continuing build-out of adjacent business lines through FY2026, the group expects to see the first full year of these benefits from their investments being realized in FY2027. It's also anticipating that the churn rate that is a current industry-wide challenge will subside.
In FY 26, the group anticipates new loan originations to exceed AUD 400 million, with October just gone having the strongest AFS originations in the last seven months. The forecast Australian loan book for 30 June 2026 is expected to exceed AUD 900 million, approximately an 8% growth over the FY 2025 numbers. The group gives guidance of a normalised net profit after tax of AUD 36 million, which includes an additional one-off AUD 2 million uplift from the sale of the Ares loan book in New Zealand. I'm pleased to welcome Kellie Cordner to her first AGM. Kelly was appointed to the board in September of this year and brings a wealth of knowledge in marketing and customer engagement. We're looking forward to Kelly's contribution to the board in the coming years. Symon Brewis-Weston is retiring at the conclusion of this meeting after seven years as a valuable board member.
Simon chaired the Remuneration and Nomination Committee and was a member of the Audit and Risk Committee, and his knowledge and experience were greatly appreciated. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank Simon and wish him well in his future endeavours. Finally, I extend my gratitude to my fellow directors, our Managing Director, Scott Baldwin, his leadership team, and all the Solvar staff for their dedication to continue building a stronger, more resilient company. Okay, shareholders participating online today can submit written questions at any time during the meeting proceedings by clicking on the Q&A icon on the top right of the online portal screen and then selecting Other Business or a specific resolution. Once you finalise the question, click on the Send button. To ensure questions reach us in time, I ask that you submit them during the course of the meeting.
If you wish to ask a question verbally, an audio question facility is available. Instructions on how to do this are contained at the bottom of the online portal. When asking a question, please state your full name before asking a question. All shareholders participating will have an opportunity to ask questions at set times during the procedure of the meeting. Please note, if you have a question that is specific to a resolution, we'll answer it as we address that resolution. If you have a general shareholder question, it will be addressed after the formal business of the meeting is completed. If we're not able to get through all the questions today or if there are specific questions that would be better addressed on an individual basis, we'll respond to them after the meeting.
If we receive multiple questions that are similar, we'll try to amalgamate them into one or choose the answer to answer the broadest question, which will cover off the others. We'll take questions from shareholders in the room first, followed by written questions via the online platform, and then audio questions if any. I'm now going to hand over to Scott to conduct the presentation.
Thank you, Stuart. Afternoon, shareholders, board members, and guests. I appreciate you being here. Thank you for joining us today for Solvar's Annual General Meeting, which is to share with you the progress and provide an update on Solvar's performance. The Solvar Group has been listed for over 19 years and operating through summer 2025. There is a proven track record of adapting to market shifts and regulatory change. We have funded over AUD 3 billion of assets. That is over 250,000 vehicles. We continue to broaden Solvar's market appetite with the introduction of new products and diversifying the group's credit risk appetite. The group is in the last phase of its exit from New Zealand, and we are pleased to announce that today we concluded negotiations for the sale of the New Zealand Ares loan book, which is included in our net profit after tax.
This brings forward cash flows for our long-dated Ares in New Zealand and will provide a one-off uplift in FY26's net profit after tax. We're also pleased that the judgment in relation to the assets proceedings has been handed down, provides clarity to the group's responsible lending obligations, and it lifts the confidence of our teams in terms of the application of our lending practices across the group. Solvar remains committed to options for finance to underserviced markets across Australia. For many Australians, Solvar provides access to a reliable vehicle that improves their ability to sustain themselves. As we're all aware, cyber crime continues to escalate across the country, and Solvar continues to invest heavily in protecting customer and staff data. We've invested and accumulated in the ISO 27001 certification.
We've also invested heavily, as you would have heard of us, in replacing agent systems and software and technology to support bottom-line growth in this year, next 2027, and beyond. I'm also pleased to say that one in five shares in the company is currently owned by past and present directors of the company or staff, aligning our interests with the current share. Next slide, please. Solvar has a track record of growth, and with the repositioning of the group's funding and the near completion of the regulatory matters, we're very confident in seeing new loan originations. This is the precursor of an uplift in the other metrics highlighted on the screen. They aren't seeing the growth that those highlighted earlier. Next slide, please. FY25 was a year of discipline execution for Solvar with modest growth in loan book and revenue.
With tighter credit settings and a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we delivered modest growth and strengthened the foundation of the business for the future. The Australian loan book grew 5.3% to AUD 832 million. Interest income from continuing operations in Australia rose to AUD 180 million, a 1.4% increase on the prior year. While the normalised net profit after tax declined 74% to AUD 17.4 million, the statutory net profit after tax has surged 84.4% to AUD 31.4 million, and EPS improved 21.2% to AUD 16.86 per share. Clear evidence of the group's ability to drive profitability, even in a very constrained environment. On the balance sheet, net potential assets increased to AUD 1.62 per share, and our operating expense ratio improved to 3.1%, reflecting the discipline cost management with the business. Bad debts through May for FY 2025 at 4.4%, which is an indication of strength of the credit processes of the group.
Actually, five years now of consistent performance for the group. The shareholders have delivered a fully franked total dividend of AUD 0.14 per share for the year, which is up 40% on the prior year. As we look forward, FY2026 will be a pivotal year. We expect to conclude several significant initiatives that will set the business up for strong EPS growth into FY2027, including the resolution and finalization of the ASIC matter that has been there for some time, improved funder diversification, as mentioned by the Chairman, lower costs of debt funding, and we've also invested heavily in government finance. We expect to see loan book start to grow again as we expand our product that we're operating through the group.
Demand for accessible finance remains strong, and the strategic actions we've taken, we believe we are confident Solvar has well positioned to deliver sustainable long-term global growth for the shareholders. In terms of some of the strategic initiatives achieved in the over the year, we launched Benji, our dedicated commercial product, and we also took a strategic stake in it at the back, reinforcing our growth into the SME sector. From a technology point of view, we invested in digital platforms and automation that will continue to improve the customer experience and our efficiency in our business. We started FY26 with the lowest headcount our business has had in over five years, and this is as a result of technology that continues to replace manual filings and shorten the decision time from when a customer files for a loan.
There's significant evidence of the technology benefit coming through our business, and we'll see that in the AUD 3 million reduction in operating expense across our group in the first quarter of the year compared with this time last year. In terms of risk and compliance, as I mentioned, we achieved ISO 27001 certification, which has been a significant piece of work for the group, strengthens our cyber resilience and our governance and organization. We also take a strong step forward towards resolving the matter that we had handed between ASIC and Money3 with the judgment that was handed down in September. From a social point of view, we contributed over AUD 300,000 to community initiatives, which is reflected in the group's commitment to positive social outcomes.
Our primary charity partner, the Big Group Hub, is dedicated to supporting vulnerable children and their families, particularly throughout Victoria, that are continuing to grow and provide essential items, and they foster community collaboration, particularly with councils and elders for helping people in challenging situations. Solvar has also made significant efforts to be a carbon-neutral organization, which we achieved in 2022. We do this through offsetting the carbon produced by the company, and we do that through verified climate credits provided by our partners. Next slide, please. Solvar's capital management strategy remains focused on delivering sustainable shareholder returns through disciplined balance sheet optimization and strategic capital reform. In FY25, we strengthened dividends per share with a AUD 35 million on-market buyback program. With this, the group purchased 14.3 million shares for AUD 20.9 million at an average of AUD 1.40.
The share growth program continues in FY 2026, where we have been able to continue to purchase shares below the net potential assets of the company, valued off. Our dividend policy targets a payout ratio up to 90%. For FY25, we delivered a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.40 per share, a 40% after 2025. This marks the 38th year of fully franked dividend paid by the company, and since listing, we've returned over AUD 1.40 to shareholders in dividends. The group maintains a healthy franking credit balance and continues to seek ways to effectively distribute those franking credits to shareholders. We recently completed our first asset-backed securitisation and established a second warehouse funding the Money3 portfolio.
The core fact that this warehouse provides Money3 with diversity of funding sources, and pleasingly, a lower cost of funds is expected to make material contributions to our bottom line in FY 2027 as a result of our Money3 warehouse. Looking ahead, Solvar enters FY 2026 with significant funding headroom and unrestricted capital, which will allow us to drive double-digit growth in our business with the current amounts of capital that we have. We remain committed to balancing investment in technology and product innovation along with attractive shareholder distributions, ensuring long-term value generation for shareholders. Next slide, please. In the last quarter, technology implementation challenges at AFS and a slow July have resulted in quite a modest Q1 result, where new loan originations were AUD 94.9 million, down 4.8% on the prior corresponding year period.
As highlighted by our Chairman, the start of Q2 has seen a bounce back in new loan originations, and we're confident to see new loan originations for the year exceed over AUD 400 million. Cash collections in Q1 have been stronger than expected in the current economic conditions, and with this accelerated number of consumers paying down their loans, it has impacted the Australian loan book, which is down slightly to AUD 828 million. Finally, Australian interest income in the first quarter was AUD 44.6 million. Next slide, please. Bad debt and portfolio quality have remained stable throughout Q1, considering a slight decline in the loan book. We remain confident that bad debts will be within the target range and that the rundown in the New Zealand business means that we will be able to reduce the portfolio provisioning between businesses as a group.
Ares loan book transaction has completed in FY 2025 and the establishment of a new funding warehouse on superior terms and improved funding costs, as announced on 7th of November, provide a foundation for strong loan book growth into the future without the need for any additional capital. Next slide, please. For FY 2026, it will be a pivotal year as we conclude several significant initiatives that will position Solvar well to strong EPS growth in FY 2027. These include the resolution of the ASIC and Money3 matter that has been there for some time, enhanced funder diversification, improved cost of funding and leverage, and also the strengthening of our governance and oversight frameworks in our business, which will ensure more compliance and greater operational resilience across our organization.
In addition, we expand our product offering, and we expect to see our loan book return to growth supported by these investments in technology and greater risk management and efficiency. Together, we expect that these actions will create a stronger, more agile business capable of delivering sustainable long-term growth for shareholders. Thank you for the trust that you've put in us and my team. Together, we continue to innovate at Solvar and grow responsibly, and we intend to create further long-term value for shareholders. Thank you for your time today. I will now hand back to Mr. Stuart Robertson and our Chairman.
Thanks, Scott. I'll now proceed with the formal aspects of the meeting, but before doing so, I'll remind you all that only shareholders or their appointed proxies and corporate representatives are entitled to vote or speak at this meeting.
As each of the resolutions before us today will be decided by poll, I hereby appoint Ms. Christina Piccolo of Computershare as the returning officer for the meeting. Votes will be counted after the end of the meeting and results published on the ASX and the company's website. Shareholders can cast their vote using the physical voting card that they received upon registering today or online through the meeting portal, validating their online registration. For those voting online, a vote icon will appear at the top of the online platform screen. Selecting this tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast a vote, select one of the options: for, against, or abstain. There's no need to submit your vote as the vote is automatically recorded.
You'll receive a vote confirmation on your screen, and you can change your vote at any time until voting is closed after the meeting. Proxy holders are reminded that you must vote in accordance with the shareholders' direction. The proxy votes that have been submitted prior to today's meeting will be set out on the slides shown for each resolution. For some context, the current number of Solvar shares on issue is approximately 189 million. Shareholders have appointed the chair of today's meeting, myself, as proxy for up to 110 million shares to vote either for, against, or with discretion for all resolutions. As indicated on the proxy form and in the notice of meeting, my intention as chair is to vote all discretionary or undirected proxies held by me in favor of each resolution. Notice of meeting.
With members' permission, I would like to take the notice of meeting, including explanatory memorandum, as having been read. Now to the formal business and resolutions. Ordinary business, the 2025 annual report. To receive the financial statements of Solvar Limited for the year ended 30 June 2025, together with the director's report and the auditor's report as set out in the annual report. As advised, we have Mr. Benjamin Lee, the audit partner from BDO, with us today. We have received no questions prior to the meeting on the accounts or conduct of the audit. Are there any questions in relation to these accounts and the conduct of the audit for the company's auditor? Terri, do we have any further online or verbal questions in relation to this?
We've received one question, Stuart, but it's general in nature, so I'm pushing it to the end of the meeting to get something specific to the financial statements and their overarching.
Are we up? Last question from the floor?
Yes, certainly. In relation to the financial statements, yes.
In relationship to the voting?
On the financial statements?
How to vote or questions about the vote? Yes, to do with the vote.
Yeah.
Or it's not to do with the financial decision?
It's a question. It's a question in voting in general, yeah.
I think so, yeah.
Stuart Robertson, step up here.
Yes, certainly.
Jeff Thomas is my name. I'm just looking at the annual report, and I couldn't see the interest of the directors. I'm just following on from Scott's comment about the alignment of interests. So I wonder what page that's on.
I can find it for you. Thank you. I'll comment at the start too on how he's passed in present durability. If you look here, so I'm referring to table 5.1. These are the directors. And this is the balance last year, and this is the current balance, so AUD 10.3 million.
Okay. Thank you for that. I'll just make a comment on that, if I may. Sure. I appreciate the fact that directors do have an interest, and I'm the poor keeping safe. You wanted to back the horse in a race, you always back self-interest. So it's good to see that directors have an interest in the business as I do, and I commend you on the result that you're doing in the public work. Thank you.
Okay. Is there any other questions? Terri, do we have any further online or verbal questions?
No. It's that one that I pushed you in, but that's okay.
As there are no further questions, I hereby table the accounts, and we shall move on to the formal resolutions. Resolution one, remuneration report. This resolution is to consider and adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2025. On screen now are details of the valid proxies received prior to the meeting. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution?
No.
Terri, are there any online or verbal questions in relation to this resolution?
No.
I now put the resolution to a vote. Please cast your vote if you wish to vote. Let's move to the next resolution. The next resolution relates to myself, so I will hand the chair of the meeting over to Mr. Baldwin.
Thank you, Stuart. This resolution is to consider the re-election of Mr. Stuart Robertson as a director of the company. Details of Mr. Robertson's qualifications, background, and experience are contained in the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting. On screen now are the details of the valid proxies received prior to the meeting. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution? Terri, are there any online or verbal questions in relation to this resolution? No. No. I'll now put this resolution to a vote. Please cast your vote if you wish to vote. I'll now hand the chair back to Mr. Robertson to consider the next resolution. Thank you, Stuart.
Thank you, Scott. Okay. Resolution three is the election of Kellie Cordner as a director. This resolution is to consider the re-election of Ms. Kellie Cordner as a director of the company. Ms. Cordner was appointed to fill a casual vacancy on 1 September 2025.
Details of Ms. Coroner's qualifications, background, and experience are contained in the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting. On screen now are details of the valid proxies received prior to the meeting. Are there any questions in relation to this meeting? Sorry, in relation to this resolution? Terri, none? No. Are there any online or verbal questions in relation to this resolution?
No further questions. No.
No? Okay. I'll now put the resolution to a vote. Please cast your vote if you wish to vote. Let's move to the next resolution. Resolution four, the issue of performance rights to Mr. Scott Baldwin under the Employee Equity Plan. This resolution is to consider the issue of performance rights to Mr. Scott Baldwin. Details of the issue to Mr. Baldwin are contained in the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting.
On screen now are details of the valid proxies received prior to the meeting. Are there any questions in the room in relation to this resolution?
No questions.
No. Are there any online or verbal questions in relation to this resolution?
No online or verbal questions.
Okay. I'll now put the resolution to a vote. Please cast your vote if you wish to vote. Okay. We'll move on to Resolution 5, renewal of takeover approval provision in the constitution. The purpose of this resolution is to allow for shareholder approval in the event that there is a proportional takeover bid for the company's securities. Further details of the provisions are contained in the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting. On screen now are details of the valid proxies received prior to the meeting. Are there any questions in the room in relation to this resolution?
No questions, Stuart.
Terri, are there any online or verbal questions in relation to this resolution?
No, Stuart, there's not.
I'll now put the resolution to a vote. Please cast your vote if you wish to vote. Ladies and gentlemen, that now concludes the formal business of the meeting. The directors and company management will be pleased to take any questions you may have regarding the company and the formal closure of the meeting. If you've not yet voted and wish to do so, please vote now. Voting will be open for five minutes after the conclusion of the Q&A. I want to thank everyone for your attendance, and I'll officially close the meeting at 3:33 P.M. We'll now answer any questions from shareholders. We'll start with any in the room, then online, and then via telephone. Is there any questions in the room?
Okay. If there are no questions in the room, I'll take the online questions.
Yeah. Just can you speak a bit louder there, Terri?
Do you want me to read it out?
Yeah, I can read it out. Yeah. Chairman, this is a small statement followed by a question. Since our CEO has been in the role, since our CEO has been in role, shareholders' equity has grown nearly 18% throughout over 16 years, an incredible feat. Numbers are outputs, not inputs. So just from your observations, what is in the DNA of the organization that leads to this result? What is the unseen we can't see? Only 58 companies on the ASX have delivered a CAGR greater than 15% for more than 15 years. So a CEO board should be commended.
Thank you. I'll take that. No, thank you for the question. Look, there's a lot of clichés we can use. There's no special sauce. I mean, this is a company that I've been really proud to be involved in for close to 10 years now. What attracted me to it was what attracts a lot of shareholders to it and a lot of customers to it as well. It's the willingness to work hard daily for everyone and to provide a fair result for our customers as well. We have a number of repeat customers, which is testament to the DNA of the organization. It's an organization that's always willing to learn and to grow. If I think about the journey and I talk today just about the debt, for example, we're now securitizing warehouses.
For those debt nerds like myself and a few others in the business, that's an incredible journey because we started as 100% equity funded. We then moved to debt that had security over the company. We then moved it into a warehouse, and we then are securitising it. These things, they do not just happen on their own. They take time and effort. I think there is a culture of learning and a culture of changing and being willing to change and to grow. No secret sauce, no special sauce. The other thing I would add also is that we spend a lot of time identifying who we are as a business and what are we.
In fact, we've spent many hours looking at each other saying, "Well, how do we explain what the company is?" Where we think the company is at its best is when it is servicing, I'll call it underserviced or specialist markets. That is, we're not just limited to cars, but we see ourselves as financiers in specialist markets. That's where we spend our attention and pay attention to. We're always watching three or four adjacent markets at any one time as well to see whether we should be participating. We may participate, and we tend to do that in a small way first, and then we'll grow into it. I think that's really the way it's been a successful business. Thank you for the compliment.
Okay. Next question. Dear Chairman, thank you to you and the board and our CEO for your ongoing excellence. Our financial statements hold AUD 75.5 million in franking—franks, I think that's what you probably mean—worth AUD 0.40 per share. It is the 14th largest balance on the ASX out of 1,920 companies. Given our growing profit, our franking balance will only grow. Can you please explain why we do not just pay out a special dividend to unlock this large balance? Others have done this in our sector.
Yeah. Let me take that. And then Scott can add some more comments if he'd like to. Franking credits, we're very aware of franking credits. And we often, as a board, sit around and we know and we talk about it, that franking credits are worth something to investors and they're not worth money to the company.
Our long history of profit, always been profit, always been profitable, is the reason we have a large franking credit balance. We have been paying out dividends, which is the majority of our earnings, to look to shift that franking credits out to our investors. We are looking at also other ways of being able to get those franking credits out to investors. We are very cognizant of it. We are very proud of the fact that we have been such a profitable business for so long. We are always looking to maximize for shareholders. I think, Scott, you talked about dividends that have been paid over the life. They are all fully franked dividends, to investors. Very pleased and will continue to monitor and to look to see the best way to get those to investors. I don't know, Scott, if you want to add anything further to that.
We have looked into a number of ways on how to distribute franking credits. And we generally keep concluding that the best way is to have a high dividend payout ratio. As I've mentioned earlier, we've paid out over AUD 1.40 in fully franked dividends since we listed. It's been some time, but we have raised our payout ratio and continue to do that and other methods in order to pay out dividends. I don't think there's any secret bullet here or that that's what we have been doing.
Thank you. Terri, is there any more questions?
Just one more continuation of that particular question from the same shareholder. Chairman, can you please explain if my logic is right here? Scott's very good presentation today said dividend payout up to 90%. With normalised impact, they guided at AUD 36 million and 189 million shares. Is it AUD 0.17 at 90% payout? Does this seem right as a guide on the dividend?
Yeah. What did I say? Oh, sorry, Terri.
It would grow on last year from AUD 0.14 , which is good.
Yeah. Look, with dividends, firstly, we as a board discuss them and we decide what's the best option with the earnings of the organisation. There's always a discussion, and it's the right discussion on whether we should send the earnings to investors or reinvest it back into the business to grow. We talked today about putting in place the infrastructure and the diversification. That takes time and effort. If we look at Benji, for example, that's a new business we started. To start new businesses takes infrastructure and time.
We'll analyse the best use of that capital that we have. We're always cognizant at the time, and we're always cognizant of shareholders and what shareholders are looking for as well. Not all shareholders are looking for all your earnings to be paid out at all times as well. There's a balancing act that goes on there as well. We'll consider those at the appropriate times each time. What I can tell you is we're very lucky to have such an experienced board with great knowledge in these areas. We have very good discussions around it. We'll continue to do that.
Yeah. Excellent. One more question. Is the FY26 impact target AUD 34 million or AUD 34 million+ AUD 2 million in New Zealand sales of local?
If I can answer this. The deal we concluded with New Zealand was done today, actually literally moments just before the start of the AGM. Those looking at the slide online might have seen a slight difference to what's on the ASX. We are guiding to a forecast AUD 36 million net profit after tax normalised for the asset matter and the other items highlighted. That includes the AUD 2 million for New Zealand. What we're trying to highlight there is that the AUD 2 million is as a result of an asset sale in New Zealand. It is not going to be reoccurring in nature. The full year guidance for FY 2026 is a normalised net profit after tax of AUD 36 million. That answers the question.
Great. Thank you, Scott. Okay. Terri, are there any further questions?
I've got one more final question. Our buyback is nearly at an end. Are we renewing the buyback given we have excess capital? I did not see in the presentation any mention of this.
Yeah. It's a good question. It's a little bit like the dividend question. We will, as a board, discuss the best use of the capital. I can tell you that for those who have been in the public markets game for some time, there are people at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their love or dislike of buybacks, and very few that sit in the middle. What we've aimed to always do is where it makes sense, where we think the best use of our capital is to buy our own stock, has been to allocate our stock to that.
As a board, we'll be discussing that very shortly in terms of the future use of the capital and best use of that capital. Again, the options of buyback, dividend, reinvestment into the business will all be assessed.
If I could also add, in addition to that, just a reminder that share buybacks do not operate throughout the blackout period. From essentially the 1st of January through the release of our results, there will be no share buyback as a result. It is not in line with our goal.
No further questions, Chairman.
Thank you very much. We are very excited about the journey ahead. Thank you very much for your support and for joining today. It is not an easy ask to get people at a Friday afternoon. Thank you very much for your attendance today. Thanks for your support from the board. Thanks very much, guys. Thank you.