Braemar (LSE:BMS) — Final Results

0:00 Okay. Fine. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BRAEMAR PLC full year results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so on the

0:30 investor meet company platform. And before we begin, I would just like to submit the following poll. And if you'd give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from BRAEMAR PLC. James, good morning, sir. Good morning, everybody. My name is James Gundy. I'm the CEO of BRAEMAR, and thank you for joining us today for our annual results. On my left hand side is Grant Folio, f FD, and Trissim is our COO. I'll just start with my introduction first and then pass on to you, then we're going to the full sale results. I've been in the business I've been the CEO so I've been the CEO for the last three years. Been in the business for some forty years, started originally at Clarksons, which is one of our big competitors there for ten years, joined a smaller business, ACM. We grew that business in 2006.

1:21 We IPO ed that business. I was COO, then CEO. Then 2014,

1:27 we merged into BRAEMAR where I ran the shipbroking site first of all, then became the CEO three years ago. And since then, we've sort of had a very clear strategy on how how we will build that business model and and streamline it to basically a shipbroking basis and businesses that complement the ship broking side. So Grant?

1:46 Good morning, everyone. I'm I'm Grant Foley. I'm group CFO. I joined the business last August. My background is predominantly in financial services, and a lot of that is spent in various broking businesses. I was the group CFO and COO for CMC Markets. I was instrumental in leading the IPO, and then I was a fifty two fifty CFO and COO for a period of time after that. Cheers. Thanks, Grant. I'm Trish Simmons, the COO.

2:13 My background is the energy and commodity space, slightly different from James' shipbroking. Our careers have crossed a number of times over the years. James and I set up our first business together in 2002 when I was running one of the businesses in GFI Group. Subsequently, in 2018, BRAEMAR acquired my business, Atlantic Brokers, which very much became the cornerstone for the securities business that we now have within within BRAEMAR. Thank you. Thanks, Trish. Okay. Now let's go to the business update. I think first of all, I want to say we are very proud of this year's results. We've featured in a very resilient performance compared to where we were last year and the year before that. I think it's important to understand where we were.

3:08 And, obviously, we've had some distractions, which you may ask some questions at the end, and we'll answer best to answer that. But the most important thing is we kept in line with our budget that have come through. So as you can see, we've 5 $1.05 2,800,000 in revenue compared to $1.52.9 last year. 18.1, slightly less than last year, but Grant explained a lot of that going forward. We're still positive in the cash situation. Do you remember some three years ago when I came in, the debt situation was huge? We're 8% up on the fixtures and transactions, which means that we're growing our market share. And the forward order book is hitting new highs of 82,600,000 compared to where we were in twenty three, fifty six point two, so an increase of 47%.

3:56 And where we've maintained our

4:01 even progressive dividend policy, as you can see, we've increased to 13p. Next slide. Now our business is broken down to three sections. So how we break three sections? There's a chartering, which is a day to day fixing across the globe on what we call spot fixtures. Then we have investment advisory, which is basically our s and p new building, valuations, offshore, recycling, etcetera. And then we have the risk advisory business, which is our security business, which is really the freight forward agreements, coal, nat gas, oil, and Tris will explain more about that as we go into the presentation. Thanks. Now I think I better touch a little bit on this about how we're building our resilience.

4:47 When we came in 2014, the shipbroken business, as you can see, the revenue numbers there, and the profitability was in 2.4, 2,500,000. We've grown that business. I definitely had a I definitely could say I had a vision, and I was keeping my eye on Trish's business at Atlantic to bring that in to grow that business. We're only we're only basically building security businesses where we take zero risks, purely broker, that complements our present shipbroking space. We simplified the business when I came in in 2021 as CEO, and you can see from there we've enhanced the business, done some m and a deals so we can prove we can do that. It's complemented the business, and we now have what we believe are the perfect platform to build from here.

5:34 Thank you. Now, obviously, we have a we have a pure investment case policy growth strategy, which is very clear. I mean, not only would that be m and a, as I mentioned earlier, and we've we've done that, and we've continued to look to do that. We're definitely not a executive team that would go out there and just do deals doing deals. We want to make sure they're complementing our present business. It's obviously always a key thing to hire individual talents, and, obviously, we have our our training graduate schemes. But the fact is we feel that shipbroking is consolidating and it's self attracting now for BRAEMAR because we're now getting into a a good place. And on top of that, people now understand what our business model is.

6:21 Now the positive market drivers are the fact that ship shipping is is, as you can know, is well always in the press and where it is in the presently is the markets are exceptionally strong in some sectors. We're taking advantage of that. So the geopolitical reasons that we see today

6:40 help shipbroking with rates. And, obviously, with Red Sea being semi closed and and the Panama being semi closed, it helps to push those rates up, which we're able to take advantage. Our scale is increasing within the business. We've even opening up offices as we speak in South Korea, which help best complement each other, and we're able to we're able to cover our clients on many sectors, not just a single sector. And as I said again, our dividend policy is progressive, and we're increasing it by 8% now to 13 p. Now I'm gonna pass on to Tris to give a bit more about the growth strategy, well, how about where we were. Thanks, James. So just expanding a little bit on what what James was saying earlier.

7:28 We have a clear growth strategy which we invest in, and there are there are various means for us growing the business. The first one being through organic expansion, the second one being through through acquisitions that we might make, and then the third one being through, you know, growing our our market share in the products that we're already we're already trading in. I think it's important to talk about some of the investments that we've made over the last couple of years and how they're they're performing. The most notable ones being the the acquisitions of the business in in North America, which Southport, the addition of the tanker team in Madrid, and and then the expansion in securities into natural gas, which in total, that's delivered over 30 new brokers, all with new revenue streams. Now these are these are not these were not dealing with customers and geographies that we will be trading with and new products in the natural gas.

8:39 For last financial year, that brought in in excess of $30,000,000 worth of additional revenue. And and certainly for all of those teams that have joined BRAEMAR, I think being part of the the larger network and group that BRAEMAR is versus where they were before, they've seen their revenues increase substantially. We're always looking for new areas to expand into, but we do so in a in a measured manner. As James said, we're not gonna do deals just for the sake of doing deals and and adding brokers. It's really important that when we make these investments that we we can see something that's gonna be directly accretive to our bottom line and and also enhance our offering for our for our customers.

9:26 Next slide, please. So some of you may be familiar with this slide, but, generally, we use it to to show the opportunities that still exist within within our business. If you have a a clear circle here, we see that as a a big opportunity that, you know, we we would look to to examine further and and and obviously look to fill that space at some time or another. And actual execution of these opportunities, we had a very small footprint in The Americas prior to the acquisition of Southport. It was a a very tactical acquisition for us in that we had to increase that that foothold in The Americas. And I'm working with the management team at Southport now. I'm very much looking to expand our reach into the other prod products that we trade within BRAEMAR in in The Americas, which obviously a completely new set of customers.

10:24 Likewise, I talked a little bit earlier about the the acquisition that we made in Madrid. It was very much a space that we couldn't get into. It's quite hard to trade with the Spanish refiners. We bought an existing team that have over thirty years experience there. Again, a very tanker focused team, but their customers are trading a number of different products, which, for example, LNG. You know, we have a an experienced LNG team here in BRAEMAR, which, you know, certainly that that order flow is is starting to happen and interest being shown in that product now. And likewise, we hope to see that happen with some of the other products we trade within within BRAEMAR. We talk a lot about securities. Obviously, we've we've made some some investments in that over a number of years. The first one we talked about earlier, James and I, with with GFI in 2001 was the catalyst and then to where we are now with the acquisition of the natural gas desk.

11:24 We see the regulated space becoming tighter moving forward and very much the standards that are expected of us within our regulated business being brought up to the same kind of level as the large entity of the brokers. To that extent, we wanna future proof ourself. And due to the the current misalignment that still has existed post Brexit on the different regulatory environments for The UK and Europe, we very much want to extend our licenses, which will enable us to trade more products in the future with the clients that we already have who, to some extent, are already trading those products with other brokers. So it's a a natural step for us to expand our reach from the products that we're trading now based on the customer base that we already have.

12:11 Likewise, same situation in Singapore, expanding our our remits within with the Singapore authorities.

12:21 Just a little another little note there is on we opened an office in Korea recently in the last couple of weeks. That's very much driven by demand from our brokers on new build and S and P and finance. To have a have that geographic presence is is something which, again, is gonna be another footplate for us to grow into into other areas in in APAC. Key

12:51 key sort of stats here on on our people. I think it's really important to point out that we're not just investing in brokers. We see a lot of consolidation in the shipbroking space. I don't think shipbrokers can operate in the same way that they did ten years ago. There's a lot more customer driven policy and procedures

13:13 for for us to deliver, and we have a a a lot more alignment towards the regulated business from the unregulated business. To that extent, you know, we're increasing our headcount of the support services to the brokers so that we can give them a a fully compliant framework to work in as we expand the business.

13:35 I think also something that's quite important is that people are our business, and we want to ensure that our team are gonna be long serving colleagues. Our current employees own over 20% of the issued share capital in the business with most maintaining and building their equity stake the longer they are here at BRAEMAR. I think it's also very important to to James Grant and I that we've set us a clear path of succession. We've we've been doing that over the last couple of years. I think there's a little little number there of six that we've we've had six new department heads appointed, in the last twenty four months, which, you know, obviously, is is showing the business that we want these people to step up when we have a a clear line of succession.

14:23 Thank you.

14:25 Thanks, Tris. I'll just talk now about our financial performance. So firstly, starting with the income statement. Revenue, a £152,800,000 was in line with the prior year, and we saw saw strong performances from the recent acquisitions and the procurators business, which offset weaker dry cargo revenues, which were driven by by lower rates during the year as well as lower activity in our investment advisory segment.

14:52 Operating expenses were up slightly on the prior year with lower staff costs being offset by a foreign exchange swing, which I'll talk about in a moment. Underlying operating profit before acquisition related expenditure was £18,100,000, which is in line with market expectations. The acquisition related costs were in relation to the acquisition of the Madrid Tanker Desk. Reported underlying operating underlying profit was £16,500,000, 18% lower than the prior year due to the increased operating costs and acquisition related expenditure.

15:27 Statutory profit before tax at £7,500,000 was £2,000,000 lower than the previous year due to the lower operating profit being slightly offset by lower specific charges. Underlying earnings per share was 36.22p, 21% lower than the previous year, and total dividends for the year are 13 p, an increase of 8% and in line with our progressive dividend policy.

15:53 If we look at the revenue mix, the group has delivered a balanced and diversified set of revenues by segment and region. If we start on the left, we can see that tankers performed strongly driven by the acquisitions that were made at the end of twenty twenty two, offsetting weaker dry cargo revenues.

16:12 Securities continues to grow and is now an increasing percentage of overall group revenues, representing 15% for this financial year. On the right, if we look at the split by region, the contribution from The USA has grown significantly due to the acquisition of Southport Maritime, whilst APAC has fallen due to lower dry cargo revenues, while The UK has remained steady at 53%.

16:40 So despite mixed market conditions, we can see the increasing resilience that's coming through across the business, and we've sustained revenues. So if we look at this waterfall here, we can see if we start with chartering, overall revenues grew by £5,000,000 to a 104,000,000 with tankers specializing offshore all growing and offsetting lower dry cargo revenues, which, as I said, was driven by by rates. In investment advisory, fewer sale and purchase transactions and corporate finance

17:11 activity reduced revenues in that segment by £11,000,000 to £26,000,000. But as we know, revenues in this particular segment can be more lumpy, as there are fewer transactions coming through in some years compared to others. But having said that, sale and purchase starts this current financial year with a very strong forward order book at $41,500,000, which is $24,000,000 higher than it was a year earlier. This decrease in investment advisory was partially offset by a growing securities business, which increased by 36% to £23,000,000. If we look at the chartering revenues in a in a bit more detail, last year, FY twenty three revenues were £99,000,000.

17:57 In this financial year, we grew the total number of fixtures or transactions by 8%. So we grew our market share, and that was really driven by the acquisitions that were made. And that increased our revenues in this segment by £11,000,000. However, whilst we're growing our market share, we cannot control the market rates, and those rates reduced revenues by £6,000,000. And within this, it was really dry cargo. Dry cargo rates dropped to around 35% from where they were a year a year earlier, which had a 12,000,000 decrease in revenues from a rates perspective, which was then offset by some more positive movements in offshore and specialized tankers.

18:39 Just looking at operating costs that were 1% higher than the previous year and a 134,000,000. Overall staff costs were 2,800,000 lower with lower bonuses, partially offset by increased headcount costs as we continue to invest in the business. That increased headcount drove a higher travel and entertainment cost, whilst IT and property costs increased due to the ongoing investment and increased size of the group. In addition, there was a positive foreign exchange swing of £1,500,000 in the FY '23 numbers. And this year, we had a £1,100,000 loss. So that drove a £2,600,000 swing in to get to the the closing operating expenses.

19:26 If we move on to liquidity, the group maintained a positive net cash balance at the year end. At £1,000,000, this is lower than the £6,900,000 a year earlier due to a number of movements, including the investigation cost and other items, which were £3,000,000, payment of some tax on accounts for 1,500,000, and we paid some bonuses before the year end, which was a further £2,000,000. In addition to the revolving credit facility that we have, £30,000,000, we also have a £10,000,000 accordion, and we continue to have significant headroom against that covenant requirements. So finally, on KPIs. As I said, revenue is unchanged from the prior year, although the mix is very different, which really does show the increasing resilience within the business.

20:14 Revenue per head, and this is the total heads in the business, not just revenue earners, remains very strong at £373,000, 6% lower than the previous year reflecting that investment in headcount. Underlying profit margin remained strong at 12%, although slightly down on the prior year. However, if you adjust for that foreign exchange swing that I talked about, it's 12% for both years. The forward order book has grown significantly at $82,600,000, 47% higher than a year earlier, and that's really driven by growth in sale and purchase and new build orders, which we've got coming through in in future years. As I mentioned, net cash remains positive, and we would expect to see our net cash position improve going forward. Finally, total dividends at 13p were an increase of 8% and in line with our progressive dividend policy.

21:05 Thank you. Thanks, Grant. Okay. Market outlook. Now we tried to make it simplified on the graph, but to to show you how we're able to take some advantages here and give you a bit of an understanding where the shipping market is going forward. As you can see, the global fleet there that on the first side, left hand side, is basically increasing. Obviously, with a larger fleet, it allows us to do more deals when we were doing ten, fifteen years ago. And as because we're in all those various sectors across, I mean, we have many offices across the globe. We're able to increase those numbers as well. Bear in mind when I was when we were at ACM, ACM was very much a tanker brokered office, and we were basically singled out in one market. The attraction to come into BRAEMAR was there in many markets in the ship breaking field, and we've built on that. So we've taken advantage of that.

21:59 Yeah. As you can see on the fleet over age 15, normally, we'd say fleet ships sort of end their sea cell life by fifteen to twenty years. You can see the fleet is aging. If a fleet aging and coming out of the market, that potentially moves the fleet to be short on ships in a in a market, and thus the rates will even increase, thus helping us as far as our revenue is concerned. And you can see from the new building order book, you can see where it was in 2008 before the financial crisis came right down. It's leveled out again and, starting to increase to to to to help restore the fleet from these over age vessels. But there seems to be a fight in the yards over what sector because at the moment, we have most sectors in strong situation.

22:52 We have a strong new building team, which is taking advantage of that as once again that could be in our offices in Beijing, Shanghai, now in Seoul, and in Singapore. But we're always on top of the Asian markets, which is where predominantly the new building market is. Thank you, Grant. Now we're trying to give you an indication here with the BRAEMAR index. It's basically we're taking all the sectors to the containers, tankers, dry cargo. And you can see as as it was last year, you can see the numbers was higher. Obviously, our revenue was higher then on the basis of fact that we're covering those sectors. But even though the rates were higher then across the globe, we've maintained our number because we've diversified our business. So we're able to make our business more immune.

23:42 On the right hand side, you got take you can see from tankers and dry cargo. But what's interesting, both on our dry cargo futures desk and our tanker futures desk, we're showing positive optimism on the forward markets, which gives us a feeling the fact that we're in a very good strong cycle. Thank you. Now the summary here is that this is a very robust performance. We're we're obviously pleased and well, very pleased with the fact that we came out with some results. We did. We kept in line with our numbers, especially after four months of investigation, which is very distracting for the management team, plus, you know, unnerving for the brokers on the floor. Our fixed number volume increased by 8%.

24:30 We can't control the freight rates. And as Grant explained earlier, dry car came off hugely, but we still maintained our fixture basis up by 8%. As far as the acquisitions performed, Grant meant sorry. Trish mentioned earlier how those new businesses of Madrid and The States and the Natgas have embedded well. And they and I can safely say they've enhanced their own figures from where they were when they were on their own. So by coming into the bigger group, the information flow they can give to their clients has helped them create more revenue. Obviously, the cash position, as Grant mentioned as well, that's obviously maintained positive. And dividend, obviously, again, mentioning again progressive dividend policy in the business, were up 8%.

25:19 So the outlook for the business is still very we believe. My gut feeling tells me the fact next five years is looking very positive, and there's many reasons for that. Geopolitical reasons in the world we are, you know, sadly for that, but it's also it's positive for the business because we see rerouting of ships coming from whether around the Red Sea being closed or Panama having its issues and for the various reasons. 26 so far this this year, we're in line with expectations. We feel positive about that. And there's there's many it's just just wanted to outline the fact that the business feels strong for many reasons with shipping business, and it's with the evolving fuel usage, whether that be from LNG to ammonia to to methanol.

26:06 We're obviously guiding our clients hugely on that as well, which is obviously making BRAEMAR a key factor for our advice. And as as we've said earlier as well, the business is a great platform now for growth. We've only just started our vision of how we can build this business, and that's what we're trying to get across today to everyone. So thank you. James, Grant, Tris, if I may just jump back in there. And thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that situates on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company takes a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via your investor dashboard.

26:52 Guys, as you can see there in the q and a tab, have received a number of questions throughout your presentation this morning. And thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. But if I may, guys, just ask you to open up that q and a tab, read out those questions, and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so. And if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great. Sure. Thank you. Yes. So I'll I'll read the question. So one of the questions with global seaborne trade growing and the total fleet size remaining stable, how do you plan to capitalize on these trends to drive growth? And are there any specific regions that you're targeting for expansion? I think probably really covered by that slide there, wasn't it, with our Yeah. I mean, hope hopefully, you you can see that we we, you know, we're proactive in identifying the the geographies and and the areas that, you know, we we can we can do better in and and where the real opportunities are.

27:47 And and I'd say without without being specific, I mean, you know, global trade is shifting around a little bit now. James has talked about some of the trade routes changing. And and with that, obviously, you know, that can provide opportunities for us, not just in the short term insofar as, you know, where the rates are, but also, let's say, know, where our clients choose to be based and perhaps, you know, you know, where where the business is is you know, the shipping routes are actually take moving to, etcetera. So, you know, we are proactive in in in choosing those those geographies, etcetera. Yes. So exactly. And I think going back some twenty odd years ago, there used to be a co broking involved. So you'd speak to a co broker in Singapore to then talk to clients in Asia.

28:32 Obviously, that market's evolved now, so the commission rate is across the globe. And for that, it's the reason why we have to be in so many different sectors. And, obviously, with having all the information coming to one office and one space, the fact that we're able to guide our clients. And please bear in mind the fact that the business is definitely evolving towards not necessarily regulated, but the fact is we're very close to that. So our compliance, as we mentioned earlier, compliance and KYC is all in place. But just under to emphasize the fact that we are a broker that can basically look after the client all the way through a transaction, whether that is raising finance to build the ship, whether that is into long book the ship on for a long term five, ten year deal, and we're also able to offset the risk with our future department. So we're basically a one stop shop.

29:25 Thank you. If your fixture up to 8%, why was your revenue flat? I think we've addressed that really. You know, it was really driven by that that weakness that we saw in dry cargo and really does drive the diversification and resilience that we that we're building within the business. The acquisitions of Southport Maritime and the Madrid Tanker does perform well. How competitive was that process, and how do we plan to balance growth through acquisitions versus organic? Yeah. I mean, I I I can start on that one and, you know, we we talk don't do deals just for the sake of being deals. We have a a formula that we work to, and and we like to see being a PLC, we we like to see the same kind of transparency in any businesses that we may look to bring into group.

30:12 I think that we've looked at other businesses in the last twelve months and perhaps, you know, the nature of shipbroking and the ownership structures can be a little bit opaque. And, you know, we've decided that we might not proceed with those those kind of transactions. But, you know, insofar as we talked about all of these businesses that we bring into group, you know, we want them to be immediately accretive to the bottom line, and we do look for a a fairly quick payback on the investment that we may have made, which, again, you know, something which we talk about the cash position. You know, everything that we've done in the last twenty four months has been self financed. We haven't raised capital from anybody else. Interesting. What considerations, if any, are the board taking into account for the possibility of switching to hybrid, wind, or hydrogen based drives powering newbuild ships for the fleet?

31:07 I think as far as hydrogen hydrogen driven vessels, that's still at early stages. I mean, we have obviously, we are very much involved in seeing the transition early transitions with with LNG, with ammonia, or with methanol. We've even some seen some wind power ships even adding some sails to try to get that. But they're all still early stages, but the bigger the the most used so far, the most popular one is the is the LNG dual fuel. But it's when I say it's still dual fuel. There's no singular fuels really being built. So still fuel oil is still a common fuel made for for for vessels going forward.

31:52 But, obviously, we have seen a lot of transition in the more modern ships. Obviously, more eco and the less consuming vessels, which is obviously helping as far as that transition. Thank you. Can you give some color on bank S and P had a good FY '23, which subsets are particularly strong? Yeah. If you look at to the point, overall S and P revenues were down from '22 to '23, but we went into this current financial year with a particularly strong new build order book. So the the the S and P team performed very strongly in that new build, which has really driven our forward order book as we go into this current financial year. Yes. I mean, just to highlight to understand the the fact that the client's focusing more on new buildings as opposed to secondhand deals, then there's obviously gonna be a reason why what they have done is performing exceptionally well because, you know, it's important to get a forward order book as well as get a secondhand.

32:52 You. Can we provide more detail on performance metrics we use to evaluate the success of our acquisitions in The USA and Spain? I'll I'll I'll start on that. Yeah. We really look at at how the revenue has performed from a from a fixture perspective when before they were part of the BRAEMAR group and post the BRAEMAR group, how well integrated they are across the desks and how the information sharing is working across the business so so we can ensure that having made these acquisitions, as James and Trishman really said, you know, they are more than they were as a stand alone business, really ensuring that the synergies across the group are are realized. And we look at that for a number of measures, but in particular, sort of fixture numbers improving and and that communication across the group. Anything you can add on that? Yeah. I mean, I think the only thing I would add is that sort of pre bringing them into the group, it it's obviously important that we look at them as a stand alone business and the profit they can deliver as they are.

33:49 When they're brought into group, obviously, we we hope to, you know, optimize that, but we don't build in, let's say, unrealistic unrealistic expectations of what those synergies might be based on the acquisition price. We look at it as a stand alone business, you know, with with a with a bigger view to to what those synergies might do, but that doesn't necessarily necessarily influence, you know, the the acquisition price at that time. Okay. I'm pleased to tell us the date of the dividend payment. This was in the latest announcement. It is it is in the annual report accounts which are on the website, but I can say to you, the record date is the August 2, and the payment date is the September 9. Why are revenues expected to be flattish this year if the outlook is so positive?

34:36 Are you what are you expecting rates to do? And the five year outlook is positive, so what growth in average is possible over that period. I think that we've you know, as we've seen this year, we've built that resilience and sustained our revenues so that if we see weaker rates, we can we can offset that. So we've we've taken a more measured view in our outlook. And and given where rates are, we expect dry cargo broadly to stabilize, and we expect tankers to to remain positive going forward. Yeah. Got a lot of growth opportunities. Why have we decided to increase the dividend by 8% rather than investing in future growth?

35:24 I think that the the balance here is is really you know, we have a progressive dividend policy. We feel very confident about the future, and, hence, we we felt it was right to to maintain a progressive dividend policy, increase the dividend slightly, but we still feel confident about the future growth prospects for the business as well and how we can fund those. Thank you. Perfect. James Grant, Chris, if I may just jump back in there, thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. And, of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended, just for you to review to then add any additional responses, where it's appropriate to do so, of course, and we'll publish all those responses out on the platform. But, James, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great.

36:19 Yeah. First of I want to say thank you for taking time to listen to the BRAEMAR results. I think I wanna say emphasize to to Grant as well to say thank you for getting the accounts up early, his finance team compared to where we were the last couple of years. That's really important for us to get back on track. So that's that's a key factor for us within the business. I know that you guys as well wanted to invest in the business or investors in the business to make sure that is in line. We are obviously proud of the fact that we're coming in line with our budget, and we've done that. We're building and we are building a business. It's basically making us slightly more immune to those market swings, and you can see that from where we're break where Tricargo was to where we were when the business still came in on the numbers. I wanna thank, obviously, executives here, and I'll thank you for your time as well. So thank you so much.

37:08 James, that's great. And thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of BRAEMAR PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good morning to you all. Thank you. Thank you.