Thank you. Thank you for coming today, for our 2023 and first half 2024 results. My name is James Gundy, CEO. Tris Simmonds, COO, and newly appointed Grant Foley, our CFO. But before I go into that, a bit more, a bit more on that, actually, to tell the truth. I think that, it's, it's important for you to realize that we now have a full team in place as far as the vision I had. I think with Tris being the COO, that was always something that I had as a vision, going back to when we acquired Atlantic back in 2018. Tris' knowledge in the securities market is huge, from being from GFI days, and before that, in Spectron, which I've known him for, for 25 years.
And then Grant coming in, and his knowledge in this, you know, in this- in the broking world as well. It's really important that because we sort of- we can actually work together, understand how it goes, when the vision's the same, of how we can build this shipbroking model, which was definitely a vision I had when I came in as CEO, comparable to where Braemar was before that. Because for me, there's no point talking about the past anymore, because that's... I've been told by my chairman, "Please focus forward. Do not look back." Although there is some times when I used to get frustrated and angry, but now we are definitely on a projective path to go forward. So, thank you, Grant. Yeah. So look, I need to explain a little bit here, the numbers.
I mean, without a doubt, 2023 was a record number. You know, to go back to 2022, we were GBP 10 ,000,000, and here we are surpassing GBP 20 ,000,000 , so that was a massive... Now, there was some, obviously some tailwinds in that, with the FX, et cetera, as you'll see, but the fact is, it's still an incredible figures for us. Obviously, we increased the dividends by 33% for 2023. We strengthened liquidity. We've obviously, for me, personally, debt is something I don't like, and personally, as well as in the business, so we focused on reducing debt and to enhance the business. And obviously, since then, we've, by reducing the debt, we've targeted the growth strategy, which obviously Tris has been instrumental in as well, with me in doing that.
As for the first half of 2024, comparable to the first half of 2023, we're up there. As you can see on the revenue there, it's an increase of 8%. The growth strategy is definitely paying its dividends there, with what we've been doing. The interim dividend, well, at the moment, it's 4p, still maintaining from where we were. But obviously progressive as far as where we want to go going forward. Thanks. Strategic update. Now, I know most of you understand our business, but I think it's important to explain a little bit what we do and what we provide. Obviously, Braemar now covers all the sectors within the shipbroking world, and we have a great footprint to even further grow the business from where we want to get to. But the fact is, for...
Sort of like, obviously, as far as the volume and the revenue is obviously the most important factor. Now, just to explain on the commission side. On the smaller ships, it's 2.5% of the revenue of the freight. On the bigger ships, it gets to 1.25%, and then you also have the S&P side, which is basically predominantly 1% on the transactions. Now, for those of you don't realize or know, on the shipbuilding space, you know, it's definitely the bigger ticket deals, and the price of these ships we can do, selling from recycling ships from maybe $1 ,000,000 of a commission to anything to north of $250 ,000,000 of a transaction.
So that's the more lumpy the tickets. So, and obviously, as we've grown our securities business, you can see here as well how that's increased, but now we're obviously, we're concentrating mainly on business that complement the shipbroking space. And for that, there's quite a few markets out there. And all the cross-desk fertilization is basically helping our clients who are demanding more and more from a singular shop. That's creating the consolidation. If we can move forward. Now, two years on, I think I was very clear in what I said I was gonna do, and some I've already touched on. But I was very clear when I came in, that there is no point running a business if you don't fully understand that business. And for me, it's always been a... I've always been a believer.
I believe in leading by example. I'm considering now, I'm definitely old school, of the five days a week in the office and pushing from the front and leading by example. And I'm still a revenue maker for the business, and I push the desk everywhere I can. But on top of that, we disposed of the non-core businesses. They were lower-margin businesses, and they definitely were not enhancing or complementing the business to that degree. Focus on the shipbroking space, as I've just mentioned, we have acquired business. We said we were gonna go and acquire business, and we've done exactly that. We've gone out there, and we've acquired in the States, the Southport Maritime, Madrid, which are both key areas geographically for us, that complement the big part of the business.
We've launched Nat Gas, which is obviously increasing our securities presence, which is obviously the, you know, Tris's leadership. Well, I touched base on the three of us, of how we push. We have, including the... It's a completely new board, not just, just not the execs in the last two or three years, it's also the non-execs. It's a completely new board, and we, in fact, we complement each other. It's great to be part of a team. No one's pulling in different directions, no different agendas. We all talk continuously about where we want to push this business to, which I think is critical. And I think if I was to say anything, that wasn't necessarily happening in the previous systems.
Of course, now I know you're going to be talking a lot about the legacy issues. There's not a lot I can say about that, but I can tell you now, that is in the past, and we've moved, and we can move forward. It's a historical transaction dating back to 2006-2013, old. We had an independent investigation committee, chaired by a non-exec, as you can see, Nigel Payne. External advisers, they were brought in, FRP, and the outcome of the investigation was completely thorough at every level.
And I can assure you, as CEO, I wanted to double-check internally as well as externally, that everything had been investigated, so we could now go out and start to sell the story properly without anything coming back to bite us down the line. Looking ahead, obviously, as I said, so if you can turn over, go. Now, as I said, we had a strategy, and I'd like to think this slide is showing that the strategy was the correct strategy. I mean, you can see the revenue numbers. I explained to you, first of all, about the fixtures, so it's important to realize that the deal transactions increase on the revenue. That's all in the slide there.
You can see the growth from 2021 to 2023, and you can see the first half of 2024 was from 2022 going up. So as far as I can see, and I'm sure you can see, we've grown the business, and we have a massive footprint where we believe we can further grow this business. I think the other key factor is, this whole business is consolidating more and more. I feel because in the world of compliance is entering into the shipbroking space, so we believe that that's going to be another key factor for us to be able to grow our business. Now, Grant's right. Yeah, and I think I'm going to pass you on to Grant, who, by the way, is doing a fantastic job. I want to emphasize that one more point. Thank you.
Thank you, James. Good morning, everyone. Firstly, I will cover the financial performance for the year ended the 28th of February 2023. So starting with the income statement. Revenue was up 51% on the prior previous year, at GBP 152,900,000 , and we saw strong performances across all sectors. Chartering was up 57%, investment advisory up 40%, and risk advisory up 42%. Although we did benefit from a stronger US dollar, overall fixture volumes at 7,716 were 32% higher than the previous year. Given the increase in revenue, the main driver for the increase in operating expenses was broker costs, and underlying profit at GBP 20,100,000 was double the GBP 10,100,000 from the previous year.
Within the numbers, we did have a number of specific items, including goodwill impairment of GBP 9 ,000,000 on our corporate finance business, an acquisition cost of GBP 2 ,000,000 , which was partly offset by a gain on our purchase of Southport Maritime of GBP 3,600,000 . The corporate finance business was acquired in 2017, and given the trading outlook were weaker, we took the impairment and recognized that in the 2023 numbers, as I've just mentioned. As a result, statutory profits were GBP 9,500,000 , which is 11% higher than the prior year, and underlying earnings per share of GBP 0.4622, was 65% higher than the prior year. A final dividend of GBP 0.08 has been proposed, and that will be discussed at the forthcoming AGM.
So total dividends for the year, as James mentioned, GBP 0.12, which is an increase of 33% year-on-year. So just looking at our revenue mix in a little more detail, you can see here that revenue grew in all areas of the business, with the exception of corporate finance. And as we all know, the revenue profile for corporate finance is typically more lumpy, with fewer mandates in the year. With that in mind, we reduced our expectations and took the impairment that I've just mentioned. However, you can see here that overall, the group has a very well-balanced revenue mix, and this is building resilience through the cycle. And as we continue to expand our global reach, we are generating more revenue from our offices outside of the UK.
With the acquisition of Southport Maritime in the U.S. and Madrid Tanker Desk, we will see revenues from outside of the U.K. continue to grow moving forward. So if we now focus on operating expenses, as I said, of the increase in cost, the majority was due to increased broker costs at GBP 35 ,000,000 . Of this, GBP 5 ,000,000 was for new hires and to cover pay rises. GBP 4 ,000,000 was increase in travel and entertainment, which followed the lower activity that we saw in prior years as a result of COVID, and the remainder was bonuses. Professional fees increased by GBP 1,600,000 , partly due to increased audit and compliance costs. Share-based payments also increased by GBP 1,600,000 .
And finally, the increase in other was due to increased IT costs of GBP 1 ,000,000 , non-broking travel of GBP 1 ,000,000 , and non-broking staff costs of GBP 1 ,000,000 . But importantly, on this slide, you can see that despite the increase in costs, we can now start to see the operational leverage coming through in the business. So we've got operating expenses reducing from 90% of revenue in 2022 to 87% of revenue in 2023. So moving on to liquidity. The strong trading performance has improved the group's liquidity position, and we've moved from a net debt position of GBP 9,300,000 at the end of 2022, to a positive cash position of GBP 6,900,000 in the 2023.
During the year, we received GBP 6,500,000 from our disposal of Cory Brothers, but this was offset by the acquisition cost of Southport Maritime, which was GBP 6 ,000,000 , and the Madrid tanker desk, which cost GBP 1,300,000 in 2023. But importantly, this improved liquidity position provides the business with additional liquidity for investment. So finally, looking at the KPIs for 2023, as I said, revenue has improved strongly over the last three years, with 2023 revenues 51% higher than 2022, and actually 83% higher than 2021. The improvement in revenue has led to improved revenue per head, and based on total average staff numbers, that's GBP 398,000 for 2023, which is 45% higher than the previous year.
As I said, as the business continues to grow, we see operational leverage coming through, with underlying operating profit margin increasing from 10% to 13% in 2023. I talked about liquidity and finally, dividends for the year at GBP 12p are a 33% increase in prior year, as I've said. So now talking about performance for the first six months of this year, ending the 31st of August 2023. Revenue performance has been strong, 8% higher than the same period last year, and 5% up in U.S. dollars. Fixture numbers have also been up 8%. During the period, we saw a very strong performance in tankers, offset by weaker dry cargo revenues. Once again, operating expenses were higher due to broker costs as a result of higher revenues, as well as the additional operating expenses from the new business.
In the prior period, the business had a GBP 2 ,000,000 foreign exchange translation gain, and this period was a GBP 800,000 loss, so we've got a GBP 2,800,000 swing year on year in these numbers. In addition, the business has incurred GBP 900,000 in relation to the Madrid tanker team joining the business, and this cost will be amortized over three years and is disclosed in acquisition-related expenditure. Now, adjusting for these two items, you can see the underlying operating profit, GBP 8,400,000 , is actually GBP 500,000, or 6% lower than the prior year, which is due to the increased operating expenses that we've got in respect of the acquisitions.
Underlying profit, as reported, is GBP 6,700,000 , which is 3,200,000 lower than the prior year due to the items I've explained, mainly the FX swing and the Madrid tanker costs. Specific items of GBP 4,500,000 were incurred in the period, including GBP 2,600,000 in relation to acquisitions and a further 1,400,000 in relation to the investigation. As a result, statutory profit before tax was 1,900,000 , which is a decrease of 8,200,000 on the prior year. Underlying earnings per share at 17.43p is 45% lower than the prior year, and an interim dividend of 4p is declared. This is unchanged on the prior year. However, importantly, we continue to maintain our progressive dividend policy for the full year.
Just looking at our resilient revenue, I think the growing scale and resilience of the business can really be seen on this slide. We saw a very strong performance in tankers, which includes the USA acquisition and the Madrid tanker desk, as well as improved performances in specialized offshore and our growing securities business. But this more than offset a weaker dry cargo market and lower revenue in sales and purchase and corporate finance, so that overall, we still grew revenues by 8% on the prior year. The reduction in dry cargo revenues is entirely rate driven. Our fixture numbers have remained consistent year-on-year, and we've just seen a real drop-off in dry cargo rates, but we are maintaining market share.
As I've already said, sale and purchase, as well as corporate finance, do have a lumpier revenue profile, but the pipeline in both businesses does remain strong. Moving on to operating expenses, as I mentioned, with the increased revenue and the hires that we've made, broker costs have increased by GBP 3,600,000 . Other costs have increased due to an increased share base payment charge of GBP 1,200,000 , and GBP 1 ,000,000 of cost relating to the new business that we've acquired in shipbroking and securities. The group's liquidity position has also improved. We have net cash of GBP 3.,100,000 , which is GBP 1,300,000 higher than the previous year. Now, this is lower than the GBP 6,900,000 that we reported at the end of February, and that's reflecting the timing of bonus payments.
So we typically pay majority of our bonus payments after the February year end, and then we build up our cash profile in the second half of the year. Finally, looking at the KPIs, as I've said, revenue is up 8% on the prior year. Revenue per head has decreased slightly due to the number of people in the business. Average headcount has increased from 362 to 407, given the first half of last year. Operating profit margin at 10% is lower than the 16% that we reported in the prior year. However, adjusting for those significant FX swings, that's 11% versus 13%.
Importantly, the forward order book continues to strengthen at $67,200,000 at the end of, at the end of August, which is 21% higher than a year earlier. I've said that liquidity... I've talked about liquidity, and as I've discussed, a 4p dividend is declared unchanged on prior year, but just to emphasize, we continue to maintain our progressive dividend policy. I will now hand over to Tris. Thank you. Thank you.
So we talk a lot about growth in the business, and I think it's important for you to understand how we identify those opportunities, which we've tried on this slide to highlight the most important bullet points for us when we're looking at other businesses or, or desks to hire. I think sort of just expanding on, on what's here, we use a calculated timeline for the delivery of profit enhancement. The investment must be accretive to our bottom line within a very short space of time. We're always looking at new product lines, but also ways of enhancing our existing portfolio with new brokers that give us a larger client base. We're looking for scalable additions, both geographical and through product diversification.
We're not just looking at adding to broking teams, we're interested in diversification, such as the investment that we did in Zuma Labs three-plus years ago, which has reaped dividends for various businesses within the within our security sector. Moving on to the next slide, please. On this slide, we basically identified 35 areas in our business. We have then rated our positioning in these spaces. For example, in the vertical of tankers, we have a strong offering in the UK, but we still see good opportunity in the rest of the world. This was very much sort of a key indicator for us that we used in the successful acquisitions of Southport in the Americas and Madrid Shipping Advisors in Spain.
We identified these as two geographies where we didn't have the coverage that we wanted, and we successfully executed a strategy to improve and grow our overall tanker offering. There are also clear verticals, such as derivatives, where we see very strong opportunities. We've talked a little bit about the acquisition of the Nat Gas desk, but we still see this across other geographies in the world as still having very strong opportunities for us now that we have that baseline in place. One point to note is that even where we have a strong market position, opportunities can still arise. For example, dry cargo in London, we've recently, in the last six months, acquired a team of six Panamax brokers.
That was very much an opportunistic acquisition at the time, which, you know, it may not have been something that we were thinking about a year ago, but needless to say, it's increased our offering. So you know, we have an open mind to those kind of things. The offshore market has presented much opportunity as a result of the clear transition of renewable energies globally. And just sort of a summary of the whole slide here, we're now confident that across 17 offices, we have a global platform that is scalable for new products and new brokers. Just moving on to the next slide, please. So talking about two of the acquisitions that we made. Southport, first of all, it's performing very well ahead of our expectations.
The addition means that Braemar is now one of the largest fixing brokers in the U.S. for Afra and Suezmax tankers. That's a new business line for us. Our U.K. and Singapore VLCC desks have enabled Southport to become a very active broker in the U.S., China VLCC market. This was previously not a feature for them. And it's very much now a key driver of global TC rates. Also, the new and wider information flow from having that business has had direct, tangible benefits for all of our other tanker desks globally. Sort of, on another note, a by-product of this is, our long-standing JV with GFI on tanker FFAs has definitely seen a big tangible benefit from that information flow from the States. Looking at Madrid Shipping Advisors, likewise performing well ahead of our expectations.
This has also delivered a new business line to Braemar. The acquisition has allowed us to work with large Spanish refiners and oil companies that were previously very localized in a closed marketplace for us that we couldn't get access to. Since inception in Braemar, they fixed over 350 ships, which is phenomenal. This is all new business for Braemar. The business, likewise, as with Southport, works very closely with our offices, providing more invaluable information flow, which in turn has resulted in uplift in the number of transactions executed by the whole tanker group. Just moving on to the next slide, please. So securities was identified some time ago as a major growth opportunity for Braemar.
We have a long-standing JV with GFI that's over 20 years old now, which, James and I actually, were the inception of that. I think it was very much a vision of, of James and the management team that, in 2018, that, securities was, a good divestment from shipbroking, with, with obvious synergies. I think with the acquisition of, Atlantic Brokers, which I previously ran, it gave Braemar, a separate platform outside of the GFI JV to, to establish their own security offering in, in new products. We feel that we've, we've successfully done that. Initially, from the acquisition of Atlantic, we started a dry FFA team in 2018. We now have 14 brokers in that space.
We've recently hired the 10 natural gas brokers, two fuel oil brokers, and in total, we're in excess of 35 derivative brokers. That's an increase of 85% in 3 years. With offices in Dubai and Singapore, we see further opportunity for geographical growth within securities, and we also see an ease to use the products that we have now to spring into other products, such as LNG, EU ETS carbon credits, and energy options. Just moving on to the next slide, please. So looking at growth from 2025 onward, shipbroking, I think there are a number of significant changes that will challenge the market over the next five to 10 years. We see a lack of investment in replacing the world fleet, leading to an aging bulker and tank fleet in particular.
We're also seeing a complex transition to green fuels, which is very much underway, but far from clear as to what the chosen fuel source will be. We've seen that a lack of investment in New York capacity, and the market is gonna have to face various challenges, such as the EU ETS coming into effect next year. All of these are good for us as a broker. I think it creates volatility in the space and means that change has to happen. We also talked a little bit about a blending between the regulatory landscape of the regulated business and the unregulated shipping business, which we feel that as a PLC with a regulated business, we're well positioned to take advantage of that and provide that security of quality of service to our customers.
Just going back briefly to the securities. I know we've covered this a lot. It is a complement to shipbroking. We do feel that we have the platform now to expand further in energy and commodities, and we're certainly seeing from the performance of the larger interdealer brokers, not just the shipbrokers, that if they're seeing single-digit growth on their results so far this year, they're very much showing double-digit growth within energy and commodities. You know, for most of them, in excess of 25% year-over-year growth in that sector. By expanding our regulatory approvals, we can broker more products. We've applied for an OTF license in Spain. That's gonna enable us to trade off-exchange products. Again, only as an agency business. We don't hold client funds, and we don't execute any business for ourself.
We're not a principal. But it means that, again, we'll be able to deal with more customers in Europe once we have an OTF. So thank you. Over to me.
Thank you. Okay, so that's basically giving you a rundown of the business and where we are. I think, to summarize where we are, and I do appreciate that we're sort of delivering our 2023 numbers at the same time as our 2024 and our first half. So, but just to say that, obviously, we're in line with expectations as far as we, as far as where we are. The, the performance, I'm obviously super proud of where we are for 2023 numbers, what we did, and where we've-- how we've built the business going forward. We feel we're in a completely very exciting space of, of, how we can continue to build that with the vision we have. I think we've got a great, management in place now, as I said earlier, we can do that.
The underlying profits, I mean, Grant's mentioned everything where we are on the numbers now. That all looks as far as I'm good. The progressive dividend is, we've said that. We're maintaining that, for sure. Forward order book continues to strengthen. Just so you realize that at least 15% of the forward order book comes into the start of the year, so first of March next year. We could say probably 15% of the revenues already hits the numbers right away, so it makes it a little easier for the budgeting. As you say, some being involved in some of the big-ticket deals on the new building side and the long-term deals, and we go out, like, 15, 20 years on our forward order book, so that's obviously helps the business massively.
We remain positive, but I mean, I've been in the business since the '80s. I mean, I started my first ten years in Clarksons for 10 years, and I tell you, when I came into the business, it was pretty depressed. I've never felt, even in 2008 and 2007, it just felt that was a bubble that might burst in those days. Now, it just feels there's longevity in this market for so many reasons, and we've seen shipbuilding capacity cut by 25%. We've seen new sectors coming out, taking away what was previously being built. So we're seeing, as Grant and Tris said, with the aging fleet, it just feels so positive.
Of course, many analysts in the room. Not many can predict what might happen, and what we can say is the political nightmare at the moment in certain areas. It causes the reason why freight rates suddenly move. We've got situations with the Panama Canal that suddenly move rates from $20,000 to where, on the product market, we're hearing reported rates of $160,000 a day. So all that benefits our shipbroking, what we're doing, and being geographically in the States and the area, we're taking advantage of what's happening in the Panama Canal, whereas we wouldn't have done a year ago because we weren't in that area. So the business is growing, and we see... We all have this vision of what we want to get to. So we feel positive the next five years.
I can definitely say that. Right, that's how I look. We can go forward. Of course, to conclude, I think you can see the numbers again, it just proves the fact that where we are and what we're trying to prove and how we're trying to grow this business, whether that being shipbroking, in securities. And I think, as just to reemphasize what Tris said earlier, we only intend to go in the security space to complement what shipbroking does, because I can tell you now, on the trading floor in London, there's 200 on the floor. They talk all the time, on the different desks of how one market's moving, why is the futures market moving? We're just seeing, for example, like on-...
The Cape desk, the Cape market has moved from $8,000 to nearer $35,000 a day. So the market's moving all the time. So being with a securities desk as well as a physical desk, it helps so much of that desk. So obviously, you know, we're maintaining where we are on the $18 ,000,000 for this, for 2024 numbers. We've put our neck on the line two years ago about we want to double our numbers, which I could sit here and say: "Look at us, we're clever, we've done it already." But no, we understand that it's a sustainable number, and that's where our low is. So we had to build the business, and we have to feel we're slightly immune from one market falling. So for us, and obviously, we've very clearly said about the dividend policy we've been maintaining.
So for us, you know, we're feeling very, very positive. And I know I'll sit in front of you and say that the team now in place is definitely has a clear vision. That is for sure. Thank you for coming. All right, open to Q&A. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Just one question from me, Andy Murphy at Edison. On the matrix picture that you put up, which I always found quite interesting, there's some clear and obvious holes in either geographically or by desk, where there's sort of empty dots either going across or down. I was just wondering whether you could talk a little bit about whether those holes are there because they're very, very difficult to fill, or whether they have a sort of an almost equal opportunity of being filled as any other hole?
So for me, I mean, it's about reaching a certain scale, which we're probably at now, where we have the framework in place to expand into those other geographies. I think a lot of them are in, you know, other geographies rather than sectors that we're not involved in. If you look at something like securities, I think we had to grow our offering in the UK first. Very much the... Let's say, the energy products that we're involved in, I think are more driven by the London space. But I think you have to have that base in place before you start moving into Asia, Middle East.
And I mean, the Americas in that sector is one that, you know, would be a very big nut to crack for us from London because, you know, it's a huge market. And you'd essentially be looking at completely new product lines. But yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, in all of these, some of them are easier to achieve than others. And it's really about, you know, how much money and scale the business wants to commit to doing that. So in that respect, it's no different from any other industry or financial services space.
Thank you.
But I think just to add to that slightly, I think, you know...
Yeah
... there's no doubt about, we mentioned earlier about the consolidation story within the business, and that, and, and all the reasons I mentioned earlier regarding the compliance and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So some of those holes, we believe, by acquiring businesses, will, will fill, which would only complement. So, you know, the business will never sit still. There's no way we could ever sit there and say, "Oh, we are now complete in any sector," because the business evolves, and we have to evolve with it. So, that makes it interesting, and we have to keep on top of our game the whole time. There you go.
Thank you. Gert Zonneveld, Investec. Just a couple from me. Firstly, on dry cargo, you touched upon it, talking about the fact that you managed to keep your fixtures flattish. But, you know, there's been, you know, fairly severe rate weakness in that market in the first six months. How do you see the second half of the year? You talked about Capesize rates spiking, but do you see any structural reasons to be more optimistic, say, over the next 12-18 months?
Yeah, I think down the line, I think, I guess we had a bit of a vision, maybe you had a vision as analysts, where China might sort of come back out of its COVID situation. I think that was a key factor. I probably felt that China was gonna come out with a bang and say, "Look, we're back out there again, and we're going to start trading." That hasn't necessarily happened. That's been potentially created a bit of a slowdown on dry cargo market. Obviously, then we had the situation with... I mean, it's interesting to watch how the markets played. I mean, we have one of the biggest FFA desks on the wet side, as we mentioned, a big FFA trader on the dry side.
It was a complete buy on the tankers and a complete sell on the dry cargo, of how the markets work after the invasion. I do feel that's going to come back. There's a lot of optimism coming in, which obviously helps us with scrapping what was happening. The market started clearing out some ships, lack of shipyard capacity, especially in Korea for the dry cargo ships. So the long-term view is still very strong. I mean, on the situation with the Cape market, rising now, I mean, that's probably predominantly down to the fact that in Brazil, the rainy season seems to have been delayed, and for that, we're seeing a lot more upturn on the iron ore side. How long that lasts, but the prompt side, it's definitely very strong.
So the most optimistic, I think you'll see the numbers, I think Grant mentioned earlier. Our fixture numbers has increased on the dry cargo side as we grow geographically, which is important. Where I'm sitting here saying proud that we had one of our biggest desks that was one of our biggest tests for the numbers. The year, the prior year has come off hugely, and we've still maintained our numbers. That, to me, shows we've got resilience in the business now, whereas going back to our ACM days, and I go back a long way, which is predominantly tankers. When the tanker market fell, we had nothing else to sort of move back to, so scale is important for us.
Thank you. And then another one on investment advisory. Yeah, it's always a tricky one because it's quite lumpy. It's-
Yeah
... depends on deals, the deal flow. We don't have any visibility in terms of your order book, but you did touch upon the order book, saying that it looks very, very promising. Anything you can share with us regarding H2 on how that's performing?
On the, as far as the-
Yeah, but both the corporate finance-
Both
as well as S&P.
Yeah, I mean, S&P, we've been, we have, you know, we've definitely been involved in some big, big transactions in the last, 2 or 3 months that come. But those are staged payments that, you know, you're getting a ship in 2027, so the main revenue will hit, although you'll be getting staged payments, 10% here, 20% here, the main revenue comes when ships delivers. So that's definitely increased in the forward order book, which obviously is good for going down the line as well. As far as the finance side, look, I think they've had a tougher time, for sure, being a debt restructuring business. When, I guess, people make a lot of money, it's not necessarily to do debt restructuring.
But they are definitely getting involved in business, and I think we shrunk that business in the fact that we trimmed it and made it more into some... protecting ourselves for profitability down the line. But there are things in the pipeline. It's a percentage basis on that business where it comes, and we had some big ones last year, and we hope they still believe in this year as well.
Yeah, I think the thing that we're doing there is concentrate on building the pipeline. You know, all we can do is build the pipeline and try and get the deals over the line, and the pipeline is strong. Yeah.
Thanks.
Morning, all. Robin Byde from Zeus Capital. Just two from me, please. Firstly, just on slide 18, where you split out your H1 revenue mix. The GBP 11,500,000 in tankers, can you give us some insights into how much of that was from Southport and Madrid, please? And then secondly, I think you mentioned earlier that you've booked GBP 2,600,000 of M&A-related expenses in the first half. Could you talk a bit about what's in that number? Thank you.
Sure.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, within the tanker growth that we've seen, of that $11,500,000 , around $10 ,000,000 is coming from our acquisitions, which is important to build out that resilient number. So yeah, we're really pleased with the performances of the Madrid and the Southport tanker desk. I'm sorry, what was the second point?
Yeah, second point. I think you mentioned on an earlier slide, to that one, GBP 2,600,000 of M&A expenses or exceptionals booked in H1. I mean, that does seem like quite, quite a high number.
Yeah.
Could you just explain-
Yeah, this-
a bit, what's in that?
This is just in relation to the acquisition of Southport Maritime. So the way that the deal is structured, the cost associated with that would be amortized over three years. So that's just the charge that we're seeing in the first half, and we'll see a similar charge coming through in the second half.
Is that mainly professional fees or?
It's just the consideration that we paid is being spread over that period.
Okay, right. I understand.
It's an amortization charge, effectively, at the consideration. But it's all disclosed within the notes.
All right. Thank you.
Cheers.
Morning, Henry Willcocks, from Shore Capital. Thanks for the presentation. First question, James, you spoke about compliance creeping in. What area is it creeping in? To what extent has it, and is it impacting your cost base yet?
Yeah, I would say compliance has been creeping in for the last 10 years, but it's suddenly got a lot, definitely in the situation with the KYCs and the, and... On the shipbroking side, if you go, if you go to Tris' side, it's always been the case, but in the shipbroking side, we're getting it more and more from our client base. So to say that it's affecting us, yeah, I would say it's definitely, the cost base is increasing. If you go from where we were, probably 1, we're now... How many are we now, Tris?
Four.
Four.
Four people now.
Four people now.
But I think we had the basis for the larger business, so it's not we've had to learn something new. It's the framework that we have for the regulated business. We can take a big percentage of that and transfer it directly across the shipbroking business. It's not as heavy a workload, but by increasing it. You know, for example, we've hired two more people specifically for KYC and sanction checking within shipbroking in the last six months.
But-
But that's pressure of the industry, you know, from our customers. They're expecting us to do that. But making this investment in compliance is a good thing.
It is.
Yeah, it's a good thing. We've got a platform for growth. We've made that investment. It's an attractive place for, for their clients to trade and for other brokers to do business with us.
I mean, if you think about where shipping, shipbroking was in the eighties and nineties compared to where it is now, it's a completely different business. I think that it used to be annoying for us as a larger shop, seeing that a one-man shop could do business with the likes of, you know, the big oil companies because they weren't so strict. Now, the chartering guys at the Shells, the BPs, they know that they need to be dealing with a broker that has all this in place, because if someone upstairs comes down and goes, "Well, why are you using that person? You haven't got any protection for us. Why is that?" It was a mistake. So it's starting to create more consolidation because the smaller shops need to have all this in place, and for them, it's not necessarily viable.
Yeah.
So, I have no problem with the costs go up regarding that, because I feel that our revenue will go up because we'll be acquiring more teams and more personnel to compensate for that.
... Thank you. Yeah. Historically, the broker bonuses was split between cash and shares. Is that still the case?
No, there is still a cash and shares, but not so much on the share base. We have a situation now where we have split that 10% to a deferred cash for three years-two years, sorry, on some of that cash, and obviously, some stock as well.
It's a smaller percentage now, yeah?
It's a smaller percentage.
Okay. Seb Davenport- Thomas left the business, I think, in September. I'm not interested in understanding why, but has he been replaced?
Yes, so we replaced internally with David Holland of the London office and Dimitri Kitsos, who runs our Athens office. Both are exceptionally competent S&P brokers that have been in the business a long time. But if I was to say they're one of the higher revenue earners for the desk and have been for some time as well, touching base on both with the new buildings, second-hand in both markets. And I think that if anything now, and as I want to get into the depths, it's allowed the business to breathe because another generation coming in of how we want to grow the business. So for us, it's, you know, it's just the way it happens, isn't it? The way the business happens, people move on and go forward.
Thank you. And then lastly, on the investigation, have all the costs been fully expensed now? And has your potential exposure been fully provided for?
So you see in the announcement that we put out on the full year that we anticipate the cost to be GBP 2.5, of which GBP 1.4 is in the half year. So you've got an extra GBP 1.1, or there or thereabouts, coming through in the second half numbers, which will be treated as a specific item. And you see in the disclosure that we made at the full year, the amount that we've been provided for is our best estimate of what those obligations are at this period, at this time.
It's hard to sign the checks.
Great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.