Aeorema Communications (LSE:AEO) — Company Presentation & Trading Update

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the AEOREMA COMMUNICATIONS PLC investor presentation. Throughout the recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives in the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. And I'd now like to hand you over to Steve Kwa, CEO. Good morning to you, sir.

0:33 Good morning, and welcome to thank you for joining me today. I'm gonna take you through our investor presentation. So I'm just gonna frame it. So I'm assuming that some of you guys know us quite well. Of you just might know us a little bit, and some of you guys might know us not at all. So a little bit of a general overview around Aeremia Communications and our setup, talk a bit more about the brands we operate within the business, show you some of our work, thinking about the future, and have a q and a session at the end, which I look forward to your questions. So please start finding the way. A little disclaimer slide, so let's get on from the legalities. So who are we? So we're in the communications PLC. Pleased to say we are multi award winning purpose led, which is very important strategic marketing communications group.

1:18 Delighted to say we have offices in London, New York, and Amsterdam, over 65 full time employees today, And a very strong senior management team with over six years kind of running the business. Oh, a picture of me. So a little bit like myself. I'm proud to be the CEO and kinda took over the reins in that formal role about six years ago. I'm also a founder and director of Chippen twenty first. Thirty plus years in the business. I actually started my first agency at 21. And ever since then, that's what I've been doing, leading and driving creative agencies. No. That helped by the fact my training is actually as a creative and is a big driving force behind the creative ethos within the group. I need to say, I continue to work with a a plethora of blue chip brands and continue to do that with a huge amount of experience there. So a little snapshot, and I've been told by my my my colleagues that were a bit of a bit of a secret in in the AIM world. So, you know, we are profitable, a record year again this year, back in the back of a another record year. Growth, again, a record year this year.

2:25 Cash generative and cash positive. We are sitting on 2,400,000 cash. We pay dividends, and we will continue to pay that going forward. We'll increase that growth policy. As I say, highly experienced team. Market leading, very respected, and become a bit of a noise in our industry as an agency to watch. They are no less reflected by the fact that we have won sleetfuls of awards more recently in our tickets through some of those later on. And, also, importantly, we are leading by being a commitment to net zero by 2030. So those are us. And in the AI world, I think some of those things are quite unusual as in we're paying money, we're making cash, and we're growing. So moving on. What's our vision? And, you know, a very top level kind of view about our vision going forward. So the core strategy is to continue our growth and strengthen our position as a leading fully integrated brand experience agency with offices in key markets, and I'll give you more color color to that later on. Culture strategy, which is really key because we are a people business. We only we thrive on the talent in my firm, and, obviously, attracting the best talent is very key to that, so to be the creative agency of choice. For a diverse, eclectic mix of talent across EMEA and The United States.

3:39 And our commercial growth, what is our strategy going forward? I'm sure you're gonna have questions about that, but please take this view. We are successful and continue to be successful that we are retaining and growing our clients by being strategic, consultative, and growing relationships, I. E. Beyond one project, multiple projects over multiple years or a long term relationship, and that's key to us driving forward. That also needs investment to continue that momentum. A little ticker tape. So noted when I became CEO is when it started going up. That's not just down to me, but, you know, here's a trend and long way that continue. Our share price today is around circa ATP. Our market cap is just under 8,000,000, which still makes us a very small cap business. And our year end was just finished. And, yeah, obviously, yesterday, our trading update went out. I'm sure you've got questions about that, so please ask for stage one.

4:30 So I'm gonna give you some sort of color in-depth about what do we do and where is our pool where we work in. So this is our industry sector. Yeah. In the simplest form, it's live events, it's conferences, it's exhibitions, it's kind of brand experience. You hear a lot of marketing jargon. I'll try and simplify it for you guys. So in The UK, we think our market sector is 42,000,000,000 in The US, and while there's a massive emphasis in The US, it's bigger, obviously, a 108 103,000,000,000. And globally, 800,000,000,000. So but our revenue is just under 20,000,000. See, we're just scratching the surface of that. And excitingly, our research in America is that's predicted to be a fivefold increase in the next five years, to be a 500,000,000,000 industry. And you're gonna hear that word, the experience economy and the experience marketing piece is what we do.

5:18 So let's give you a better color around the agencies that operate within the group. These are obviously our trade and brand names that's known outside of our investors. In our commercial world, we run two brands, Chip of twenty first. Is kind of the mother ship and the bigger entity. It's our creative brand experience division, which kind of specializes in strategy, comms, production, digital, moving image film, and lots of other exciting things with offices in London, New York, and Amsterdam. Eventful is our beautifully formed boutique agency,

5:49 specializing in a a slightly more niche market, but, again, under the same umbrella of live events, which is around venue sourcing, incentive travel, luxury high touch events, event planning, strategic meetings, and is a perfect combination. It was actually our first acquisition driven by no doubt. We actually shared several clients before they joined us, and it's working very well. So what do we do? Again, trying to lose some of the marketing hyperbar is the fact we ask strategic engaging, immersed, experienced communication agency. What does that mean? So dream client list on the right hand side. We work a brand. There's a brand who wants to talk to an audience, and that piece in between is what we do. So they want to sell something or inform something or change a behavior or influence something, and they want to talk to this audience, we would do that. And the mechanics in between and the strategy around that revolves around insights, understanding, maybe writing the brief, consulting, then saying, is the activation? A conference, an exhibition, a live experience, a brand activation. That's what we do. Then we follow-up measurements, and that's the circle we play in. And that's actually been key to our growth. We just don't do we just don't build things. We think about it. We deliver it. We create it.

7:01 And you see the dream list. Further out of that, with all these brands, we're a tier one procured agency, really supported by the fact we're a listed and very robust financially. So that's a massive benefit for us to kinda continue growing our client base. I'm gonna show you some work and show you some videos because that's what we do. So here's a recent one, YouTube. I must say YouTube is one of our great clients. We used to do a lot within Google, so great brands to work with. YouTube Unboxed, going back to what I was saying, they are brands. They wanna talk to their buyers in advertising and marketing. And they actually wanted to come up with an experience that actually kinda shifted the needle for their perception, engaged with the audience, and we created what's called Unboxed, a two day conference, 400 attendees, total brand emotion, but I'll let the video

7:46 play for itself and speak with us. The audience. Thank you. Welcome to YouTube Unboxed. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all here this morning. It's gonna be a sensory experience. We're gonna move through three different rooms, all exploring a different part of YouTube.

8:10 We see this viewing fragmentation in our industry as a as a challenge, but this morning, I want to reframe it as an opportunity. YouTube's content and creators represent modern Britain. Joelette, everybody. 3,000,000 YouTube subscribers and over 2,000,000,000 views on YouTube. Massive round of applause. Angela joins us. YouTube is my favorite platform. You guys are doing an amazing job on make creators feel safe. I'm very passionate about DEI. I'm very proud of YouTube as a platform and in terms of how diverse talent thrives.

9:02 YouTube was my first platform. This was the start of my creative journey. YouTube isn't just some platform to put your ad. It's a playground. It's a creative campus that allow us to create ads that truly connect with people. Thank you very much for joining us at Unboxed. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you for that, Ali. So, again, just to say, actually, eventful found the venue.

9:52 The most amazing immersive experience screens four ceilings, understanding the actual purpose of that. So we wrote the content, wrote the script, did the production, in house video, produced it, ran it, needed to say a huge success, and they plan to do multiple more activations. So moving on to our next activation. Slight different flavor. Wall Street Journal. Different kind of brand. Probably the most respected publication in the world globally of the highest quality.

10:18 We actually worked with Wall Street Journal over several years now, built up an amazing relationship. We're now their approved global agency for activations, multiple activations in both North America and Europe. This is their CEO Council Summit, which they repeat probably twice a year. I'm gonna run the video. This is a cannot fail, the highest quality experience with 250 of the top MDs and CEOs in the world together for three and a half hours of experiential content that we produced. Please run them in the video, Ali. Thank you. The Wall Street Journal is one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world.

11:03 As their trusted agency partner, cheerful twenty first works alongside them to deliver compelling brand experiences across their events and communications both in The US and in Europe. In May 2022, we partnered for the fourth time to produce The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, an exclusive event series that brings together the world's most influential people to discuss the issues that matter. Hosted live from the Rosewood Hotel in London, the May Summit was the culmination of over a year of audience insight, creative development, and an extraordinary partnership built on trust, creativity, and seamless execution. The Wall Street Journal uses these events to reinforce their positioning as a connected, highly credible, and sophisticated news outlet.

11:55 They understand that today's CEOs need an efficient and trusted forum to help them consider the most pressing issues of the day. Our hybrid format gave the CEO audience a choice in how they participated. Guests could join in person from the Rosewood or direct from their desks anywhere in the world. Alongside off the record sessions to exchange learnings with trusted peers, our guests heard exclusive conversations between Wall Street Journal editors and renowned global guests. With immersive design and branding developed in studio, the sophisticated members only atmosphere provoked thoughts and promoted conversation. A table of curiosities tapped into haptic memory. Each item was linked to a plenary topic, sparking the interest of our guests and making the content unforgettable.

12:47 The set design was critical to audience engagement. Both grand and intimate, the curved staging invited them into the discussion. Moving Image was central to the experience. Created by our in house team, we blended news and other footage in clever ways to provide powerful context for interviews. Our filmmakers worked closely with The Wall Street Journal news team, sometimes up to the wire to keep up with the pace of the changing agenda, while our broadcast team made sure the audience at home had the best seats in the house. Our partnership with The Wall Street Journal is based on a shared vision, inspiring the world's most influential decision makers to tackle the planet's most pressing issues in a time of extraordinary change.

13:58 Thank you. Needless to say, this was actually broadcast live to a 100 new stations. And, actually, if you remember Elon Musk in his weird haircut, that was actually us broadcasting that out. And we just completed two more poster, last one being in May this year. Again, success being part of our our relationship with Wall Street Journal. So you probably the people who know us know about Cannes Lines, but let me explain to you one part of the business. This is not exclusively our whole part of this, but a key part of the business, also a key opportunity for growth. So for those of you who don't know, Cannes Lines is a big advertising and marketing festival that's held in Cannes, the South Of France. And we've actually had a a presence there probably for the last twelve years, which we steadily built up, culminating this year being probably being our biggest presence ever.

14:48 It's also known as the Oscars of the advertising world where it's only the best can appear. If you win a lion, it's gonna be, you know, recognized as the you're an excellent expertise in your business. Brands and advertisers come together to meet, and then we help that meeting happen. We help that engagement piece happen. Excuse me.

15:08 Most most recently, we won a a competitive tent for Stagwell Beach. Didn't have a glass of water. Excuse me. Stagwell Beach was cryptically finished three or four weeks ago. This year, example, Stagwell, if you don't know, is actually one of the largest global marketing agencies. They wanted to go to Cannes. They wanted to make a noise, and they want to be seen as the best. If you do go to Lions, there are hundreds of brands shouting at you, and to cut through that is actually a skill and a challenge for any agent, but we did that. We created the best activation in Cannes. No. We didn't say that. Our peers said that. Let's run the video. We'll talk about that. Thank you. Excuse me. Now.

16:06 Ready now. Ready now. Ready right Ready now. Ready right now. Thank you. Excuse me. I have a problem, man. So as I said, it made such a big impact. Our client is super delighted, and we're planning for next year. Our picture was Sam to Stadium. We built a sports stadium based around the sports team activation.

16:52 It was actually successful beyond anyone's dreams and cemented us actually as a a an agency to watch. And we are attracting other brands to kinda say, we wanna work with these guys because they do the best work here. Following on from that, going back to our relationship with Wall Street Journal and just to just echo our multiple opportunities. We work multiple brands in multiple locations. Wall Street Journal. The same time, we did actually probably 14 activations for eight major brands at Lions this year. This was built in the port, in the harbor. A different approach. This embodied journal this embodied Wall Street Journal's brand as a physical building. It's called Journal House. This is the third year we've run it, and I'll run the video again. This is speaks for itself. This is actually from the point of view of one of our teams, so a different approach.

17:39 So go ahead, Alex. Next one. Thank you.

17:50 Journal House is a a premium event. It's where c level execs come and mingle. When they enter into the building itself, they know they've entered into Jailhouse. The core intention is to bring their CMO network together. It's a place for them to decision makers, their peers, policymakers, and sometimes it's a chance for them to switch off and actually relax away from the madness of what is Cannes Alliance. This year, Journal House hosted over 15 premium events throughout the week and was a space for guests to connect, host meetings, or relax. Each morning, kicked off of the Wall Street Journal newsroom led interviews featuring leaders in the marketing and advertising world, including actor Ryan Reynolds, Peloton CMO, Dara Tresda, and Google CMO, Lorraine Tughill. Journal House is actually built on top of a viewing deck at the end of a pier in Camp Port. That brings a lot of restrictions, a lot of access issues, weight loading issues, so lots of challenges to actually build there.

18:44 Everything about Chill House is in the detail, and I mean every single element is looked at under a magnifying glass. Even from the way the flags are hung, you know, the research that's done and the fact that we know that 75% of the time, at that time of year, the wind's gonna blow in that direction, so therefore, that's the way you put the flag. Through sun studies, we know exactly where the sun's coming into each part of the building. So do we need a blind there? Does it present any protection? So it is all down to that exact minute detail. As with any outdoor event, there are challenges with the weather, the rain, and how to deal with all these, you know, these problems. But the way we actually designed it and the versatility of the space, it meant we could overcome all these challenges.

19:31 What makes Journal House so special is the fact that you can see it from everywhere in Cannes. It is literally the beacon at the end of the pier. So really, it's it's just a massive branding opportunity, and it's a statement piece. Doing this, we built up an amazing relationship with Wall Street Journal. There was trust and true partnership. We could make decisions quicker and end up with a pretty amazing product. Thank you for that. Actually, I hope you saw some behind the scenes. And, actually, the expertise that goes into creating activation is extensive, and that's, you know, beautiful talent in my firm, but also the experience of doing it and learning from that and continue to grow that.

20:17 There's a picture of Kevin Hart. We have a lot of c a list as well. We're quite experts in that too, which is quite fun. So what's the point here? So and, again, trying to crystallize it for our investors to understand what the opportunity is. This is a Caroline's is referred to as a tentpole event. Most brands have multiple tentpole events globally. At the moment, we're killing it in, Camp Lions by having a multiple activation, but brands do other tempo events. For example, Barcelona Mobile World Congress, we're starting to do activations there. We wanted to go to the CES show in Vegas this year. We did two activations there in Las Vegas, Austin, South by Southwest. Thinking about going, brands are asking us to go there. Hamburg, Cologne, and Cannes itself, Europe, there are massive exhibition hubs, which are just scratching the surface.

21:11 We want to do more multiple temple events. Then they go back to it. It's it's it's a big part of our business, but it's not all we do, but it's a core part to go forward. So that's kind of a bit of flavor around why we do temple events, and they're gonna repeat that expertise and that experience in lines. Also, lines, by the way, continues to grow on the back of activations this year. My BD team, are brilliant, by the way, because they actually build business and close deals, quite unusual, but great, have got an inbox full of inquiries. We're actually being selective with who we work with. What a dream. And then following that North American investment, I know we announced this morning the point where Andre, who's joining as president in The US. I met Andre earlier. Great chemistry, great conversation. Actually, Andre has been with us since May.

21:57 Brings a huge amount of experience. And the American piece is very important to us on lots of levels. One, it's untapped in some ways for us. We've just started to go into the American market. And now can see some questions where about, you know, where where are we investing in spending. And part of that is that when we opened up in America in COVID, pretty bold, we had a man in a desk. It was a satellite office. The last twelve months, we moved that to be full time staff with a president in an office in the Rockefeller Center with the driving force to be get the American clients on American sold for American business, and that is going grand gang buses. And that's gonna be a massive push for us next year. Untap. You also see from our numbers, the American piece has been very profitable so far too. I can give more color on that, put it in the questions at the end.

22:47 Let's touch on Eventful, a beautiful but perfectly formed small part of our business. That was our first acquisition just as COVID happened. They were very impacted by COVID, but we managed to take some of their clients and flip them to our virtual business. Coming out of COVID, they're actually having a record year again and probably plus pre COVID levels, which is a delight for us as an investment. Great synergies across the business, nice specialisms, but also a different revenue stream for us, which is key for the business, which is, you know, what we wanna build up as a CEO is different revenue streams that have synergies, but also independent. They they particularly specialize in high touch luxury brands as well with Coach and Ralph Lauren and doing kind of expensive, what I would say, more intimate experiences that all all about the the F and B the quality of the experience and the the hospitality and the incentive travel side. And they're going gangbusters as well. And, again, very complimentary on our services across the group.

23:47 But let's say, like, let's just give some more color about, you know, why are we creating such a lot of noise in the industry? I'm not just saying that. It's it gets told back to us. Several reasons, insights and learning. Okay? We run a program that my marketing team started in 2020, which we call brand playbook. This is when we go out and give some thought leadership about key subjects that we foresee in the next twelve months, starting 2020, rolling around the whole virtual piece and working in COVID to today, which is our latest piece around audience insights, talking about our generation. If you don't know, during COVID, a whole generation of youngsters became employees called generation z. And we went out beginning this year, spoke to 400 of our clients. There's a tick box. We've got quite a few clients. 400 clients and asked them about, do they actually split the demographics on age when they talk to the audiences? And the research that came back was actually very enlightening and quite surprising as in they don't really think about it enough.

24:45 So that led on to two things. We created a white paper, which we released. But more importantly, we launched it in America, and we launched it in in The UK to our clients. We had about 50 clients that came in. On the back of that, we were asked to go into consult and present back to Google and actually to Wall Street Journal to say about how do we do this. This just cements our thinking. Going back to that word strategy, which is thrown around quite glibly on our industry. Strategy is about insights and intelligence and working out what is correct and what is the right thing to do to give you an impact on your business, and that's what we are doing. Backed up by, again, we are operationally carbon neutral in 2019, which we're very proud of, but this continues to be an investment piece for us to grow that and to keep going forward. We believe it's important for us to attract the right talent.

25:32 But here's a snapshot. Some of our recent brands ask us first for our CSR credentials and our DNI credentials first before our work credentials. They know you do great work, but what is your CSR policy? The world is changing, ladies and gents, that you need to be on top of that and be leaving it. But more importantly, it's also a revenue stream for us because we're consulting back to our clients to say about how they can improve their carbon footprint. So it's a fee earning part of the business. It generates revenue and puts us at a very highest level in the communication piece with our clients going forward, and that continues to grow. I've touched on the fact we won awards, Sleeve Falls Awards, but delighted to say these are all fresh out the box, but particularly proud. Six weeks ago, we won the Grand Prix award at the. If you don't know, it's one of our biggest industry events. The Grand Prix award is the agency of agencies. So it's the top award, which you won for the first time. We love that.

26:30 And, also, creative team of the year 2023 for the fifth year in a row. Unprecedented. And, again, testament to we're not just saying it. Our colleagues are saying it. Our industry peers are saying it. Just to recap on our financial summary, and I'm just gonna make it a bigger so I'll actually read. So as I said on our trading update yesterday, record revenue just circa under 20,000,000. Profitability, just under a mil. Wait for audited results to confirm that. Strong cash position, 2,400,000 sitting in the bank. Last year's 1.7. Dividend payment, as I said, expect to increase that going forward. Outlook, strong momentum. We'll continue in that growth chart. Go back to my chart at the beginning about our growth and our revenue, and you can see where we're going. Continued integration. I've talked a lot about America.

27:18 It is a key part of our business and a major investment for us, and that is paying dividends and paying and showing fruits of success. Long may that continue. Major new client wins, including the stag, what I just said, who's a Nasdaq listed company and a challenger brand, and we're on that journey with them. Multiple wins. And the impact of the global pandemic is pretty worth noting. That's in our back window now, guys. You know, the we came out of we actually thrived in COVID with our comms skills, but coming out of that, the pent up demand and the need for that experience piece is stronger than ever now, and we're capitalizing in a in a fantastic way. Love this chart. It just shows our trajectory going forward. Obviously, 2022 was our best year ever, and then '23, we had topped it again quite significantly. I think that's that's a testament to my team and the great clients we work with. That will continue.

28:06 Here's a synopsis. The key thing is, actually, we always have quite a lot of cash in the business. I know one of the questions is we are keen keen to keep that cash in the business going forward. And managing that with our investment, I think, is a shows the quality of our management team here. So just just to recap a little bit about, you know, where we are. As I said, 2023 is a good track and see senior talent, which is Andre. I opened up in Amsterdam. Continue our development with our relationship with our clients. There's a huge investment piece back into our account structure and then and and training and investment in setting up the right way to handle our clients and maintain those relationships. Eventful's backing and proper and growing. Continue return on our strategic insights, and our brand playbook is paying dividends for conversations and generating sales, and continue to develop sustainability and diversity.

28:56 Next phase, as I said, is New York. Now we have really a strong independent team, but very much in synergy with us. Ongoing investments in our back end and IT and operations and finance, you can appreciate if you go from 20 staff to 70 plus. You need to invest in your team. You need to invest in your HR. You need to invest in your training, new talent. We'll explore m and a opportunities, but with caution. Easy for me to have a checkbook and write for an emergent. That's not how we roll. It's gotta make perfect sense commercially. It's gotta be the right value, and we'll explore things case by case. And, you know, as those opportunities come along, which a lot do come, I have lots of conversations, but most MNAs are prone to failure. We're looking at success going forward. So keep an eye on that space, and we'll continue to update if anything changes there. And, okay, let's continue that growth on multiyear contracts, which is pain proved to be very fruitful, not least the fact you can actually plan and scale up with confidence.

29:50 2025 and beyond expansion of global footprint, we will look beyond North America, maybe the the West Coast Of America, look at additional revenue streams, And that integration piece across, you know, other acquired businesses going back to anything, who knows by then? But, again, our core business, as you probably see, we've got enough to get on with. It's going gangbusters, and we will continue with that going forward. Just to summarize in the slide, profitable, record growth, cash quality, dividend paying, highly experienced, market leading, all winning, net zero. Any agency should be proud of that. So I that's my presentation done. I will go to a smaller screen where I look for questions. Steve, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab, which is situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. But just while Steve takes a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a, can be accessed via your investor dashboard.

30:47 Steve, as you as you can see, we received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. If I could just ask you to read out those questions and give responses where it's appropriate to do so, what I'll do is I'll pick up from you at the end. Okay. I'm just looking through here. I shall start with where do you expect no. Gordon. I think I know Gordon. Gordon, you got lots of questions. May I may ask I may ask several of these. We seem to revolve around, yeah, future forecasts, profitability, investments, margins. Okay. Let's talk about profitability. There's a question, obviously, and I'm gonna read the chat rooms. Obviously, you have we've had record growth as in revenue, and profits are great, but probably profits may be considered like what's the relationship between that and the revenue?

31:36 Let's step back and talk about profits in general. First of all, as a benchmark, other against other industry peers, as a group, we're actually above average as a profit margin in relation to revenue. So take that. And if you drill down further down to actually the operating companies, we're above average. So there's there's my internal benchmark, but let's put some carbon in. We talked about investment. Let's put some more depth in there. There's certainly some one off costs that happened last year that won't happen next year, so take comfort in that. That revolves around recruitment. That revolves around installing new back end IT systems. We've moved to a new office. Going back to the American question, we had a little desk in our satellite office. We have a desk now before an office for 14 people and invested in eight full time staff there. We have recruited a president there. We continue to invest around that marketing activity.

32:26 There's obviously costs around associated around CSR. CSR, we take quite probably these are costs that impact the bottom line. But I think we've built to a stage where we're a little bit consolidation now. We are rock solid as in robust with our back end, robust with the team we want now. We've had a rapid headcount increase. I don't see that happening forward. I think we're in nice shape and size going forward. And I think that would obviously improve our profitability stroke revenue relationship going forward. But it's about investment, and I'm playing the long game here. And I'm playing the game here about building a solid, robust business that isn't flighty to kind of one off projects, and that takes proper sound investment going forward. So that's kind of the investment piece. The CSR piece continues to develop going forward, and that hopefully will start being paid off by Azure revenue stream coming in. So it gives you some color around that.

33:24 Gordon, again, your US revenues appear to have grown explosively from a standing start. Can you provide details how The US operations grown in terms of headcount? That's what I just said. So, obviously, we've gone kinda like one person and and a laptop to eight full time staff and a president. That is to really kinda drive our business going forward. The revenues as a split, I can't give you the the actual numbers, but it's probably as a overall revenue number, probably around 20% of our revenues coming from our US side and and contribute to our bottom line. Again, Gordon, Karen, can you you mentioned in an interview that you had 14 activation can line events last. Are you able to quantify the percent of revenue cheerful twenty first to work in the events and whether you see room for growth in revenue stream for the '24? Good question. So as I said, it's not the major part of the business. It probably equates about 25% of our revenue.

34:16 Absolutely, it can grow. And I go back to that 10 poll question where we're looking to kinda repeat that activation across other activations. Absolutely further growth in financial year '24. As I said, the inquiries we're guessing from the work that's just been shown is quite phenomenal. So as I say, part of our ambition to be, say, more profitable is we're actually selecting work. And we've actually set a certain threshold where we actually don't do work with the below our number, and that's actually a first for us to make use of resources. M and a. M and a. Oh, Maybe it's too. The cash varies significantly throughout the cycle here.

35:01 What is the peak and trough of cash? So, yep, obviously, a snapshot of June was 2,400,000. I think we sometimes nudge $45,000,000 at that stage, and we certainly never go between 1.5. That's our emotional threshold. We always like having a million plus in the bank, whatever helps. How many employees do you have globally? This is from Tom. How many employees do you have globally? How do you find recruiting, retaining experienced staff given the complexity of what you do? Very good question, actually. So as I said, I was 65, put in 1970 at the moment, full time staff. Two factors. Probably anyone employing anyone post COVID found a very frothy market of employee costs going up and inflation being factor around that and actually had you contract the best seller. And there's a bit of a land grab. I'm glad to say that's kinda calmed down.

35:55 So with one, we're being much more rigorous and selective in our employees. But, also, we are a shining attractive agency, so we are finding it fairly easy to attract the right talent going forward. And that's something we need to nurture because as I say, we are a people business. I have a team of people who are designers, logistics, planners, editors, creators, account directors, but they're all people, and it needs to be kind of working with an agency that they see a career in so that continues going forward. Jonathan c. I think I know that Jonathan. Jonathan c. Why bother with a dividend? Clear M and A is much very much in the agenda. Will it not be better to keep the cash until you need it?

36:44 Particularly as management ever who's to be good custodians of the cash so far. We believe that we should be paying a dividend to our shareholders. We believe that's the policy, and we're confident that we do have enough cash and resource going forward. And we think that's something that makes us attract us for outside of business. So that's something we will continue to do. David s, what excites you and indeed the board most? Winning the walls, building a talent team, gaining big new clients, increasing the company size, increasing profits. Well, we're saying I like winning because we're not losers here. Building a talent team. Let me break it down too. How do I get why do I get out of bed in the morning? I still love what I do, and I still love the people I work with.

37:34 And we certainly do not like losing. So that drives us. Size, revenue, profits. You know, there's a do I have an ambition to be a thousand people firm? No. Strong profits, good revenue, talented team, giant killers. We are we are punching way, by the way. We're pin we are pitching against agencies that have four or 500 staff, 20 offices globally, and we are taking work of them. I like that. I like the fact we're slightly an outlier agency. I like the fact that actually how we roll is kinda unique. People have said we're kind of, like, spectacularly unique in certain levels, so I think we'll keep that going. That's what excites us, and I hope the excitement goes through my firm, and they feel that. I think everyone here, if you cut them when they believe, they believe you for twenty first.

38:21 Is it easy to recruit in The US and The UK? It's Jonathan c. Another good question. So you gotta be smart to operate in The US. Okay? As a British agency, do not be fooled by the fact it's easy to work in The US. Okay? Part of the reason that we recruited Andre is that you have to have an American experience working with American brands and American commercials and their language. And we realized that two, three years ago, so we built up to that. Getting the right talent mix is quite a challenge in America. It's very expensive to operate in America. Go back to investment thing. Opening an office in America is not something to be sniffed.

39:06 Recruiting talent is something that we're looking at the blend of actually we're actually sequesting some of our team are going to work over there and hiring quite well now in The US. And that's actually probably the biggest challenge in the early days was actually finding a talent. We kinda crack that now, and we will continue to go forward with that. I'll take another question. You talked about, this is from Paul. You talked about your CSR approach. How unique are you in the industry? Well, everyone's obviously embracing CSR, but I think we are being watched and people are actually copying our policy in the CSR side.

39:52 And that's something we're very proud of and actually is a differentiator in the industry. Another one from Paul. How active in the business is your chairman, Mike Hale? Great question. Well, love Mike to bits. He's actually very active and actually a fantastic chairman. And I must say my board is actually very, very functional and very conversational almost on a week by week basis. We have monthly board meetings. It's very structured. There's a huge amount of, experience there. I'm very pleased to also just emphasize that Hannah Luffman joined as a nonexec director. She's the youngest female board member and name, by way. So we're very proud of that. It brings another world because she's working as a commercial marketing director for another tech brand, brings that experience in but back to the question around Mike, of course, he's an old agency guy and lives and breathes agency lifestyle, and actually is amazingly active actually in his dynamism. So it's a it's a it's a great support for us going forward.

40:51 Another one. Does this company plan on expanding further internationally Asia, for example? Obviously, you can see we're quite focused in America, that will be our driving force. We will look at other territories, but probably from a delivery point of view. As a as a as an example, we're doing a massive event in Tokyo next week, another event in Singapore. So operationally, we can do that. I think we've got enough to get on with to focus on North America and Europe. This is actually putting too much work for us to deal with at this stage, so we'll focus on that. But, again, that may be something under the m and a thing where, obviously, if you're gonna be be simplistic in criteria, do it add something to our business that we don't have? Geography, say, one of them different verticals is another one. Obviously, skill sets another one.

41:43 How do you how do you anticipate paying for these acquisitions? Good question. So in an ideal world, we would try and finance it out of cash flow and maybe paper from us without trying to raise any money. We would structure a deal in the conversation. We structure a deal around a certain earn out period that actually makes it fairly derisks for us going forward. That's exactly the model we did with eventful. We did it at one out of the cash we had in the business, and we did it for cash and paper over a three year period, and that proved to be very successful. It's all about joining us and actually becoming one plus one equals three. So the fact that to us, the paper in our business is probably the most exciting piece for anyone joining us, and if it's not, that's not the putting on people to talk to because we believe, obviously, the share prices tend to headroom to double, triple, quadruple in the in the future.

42:46 Something about forward forecasting. I think I've answered that. That's what Alan's asked about. Questions about investment. Can you give us more color on that? Sorry. I'm just reading this. Any more questions? No more questions. Broker forecast. Forecasting. I'm good. Broker forecast. Aweema reminds me of a hidden gem having demonstrated tremendous revenue growth possibility, but without any recent group coverage or forecast in the market. Most recent recent broker research was released by L and B in 2022. Did not include any forecast. Okay. We are working on that. And I think part of that is that we are actually engaged in a much more rigorous investor comms channel. We're working with Saint Brier's who are a PR firm. We're working with Allenby. And and the plan is is, obviously, we're gonna this is the first stage, doing an investor presentation like this.

43:39 Probably do this at least every six months, if not quarterly. And we're gonna build around our comms to give you more forward side going forward. Eventful again. Eventful question. Gordon Gordon. Eventful. I was delighted to know that event will return to profitability. Pre pandemic, this business delivered sales of $3.04 k profit and 96 k. Has the business returned to pandemic levels of profitability? Does the business have the ability to scale further? Yes. I think I mentioned it. They're actually this is probably the best year they've ever had this year, which is fantastic with significant revenue and profit. Does it have ability to scale further? Absolutely. There's a part of the business which they do. It's called incentive travel.

44:25 And for those who don't know that, that's just it is a bit like being a tour operator, but, really, it's about employee engagement. Going back to our synergies, it's about motivation and play engagement, where lots of big corporates have an incentive reward scheme where they spend millions of pounds on sending their top sales team or their top performers across the other. That is something they can do and don't do much of yet, and that's actually one of our big revenue streams going forward. What's the time now? 11:45. Okay. Here's a good question. David s, when you delivered the trading update yesterday, did you expect more tangible increase in external interest while on equity demand?

45:26 And the share price increasing seems fairly very muted to me. I have no power or control over that. So I go go back to we're back on our plan, and we're going forward, and I think that will follow. And, yes, interesting. So we'll see what happens in the market. If anyone thinks they can play the market, we'll fool them. So, anyway, so going back to what we are convicted on and just to say, you know, an overall view, I hope you've given you some color on about why the investment has probably had an effect on our our margins. But as I say, there's some one off cost there that won't be repeating next year, so take some information there. But it is about growth. Yeah? And we have a five year plan to be, you know, a bigger agency with bigger clients, particularly in North America, continue a our expansion. The temple piece is important. Eventful is now growing.

46:19 We have cash in the business to play with as well in a in sense sensible way. We will look at MNAs. We will communicate to our investors more frequently, and I think that's probably enough for me talking now. Thank you very much. Perfect, Steve. Thank you very much for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you'll now be automatically redirected to private feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of IRoma Communications PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.