Property Franchise Group (LSE:TPFG) — Interim Results

0:02 Good afternoon, and welcome to the PROPERTY FRANCHISE GROUP PLC interim results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses, which is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. I would now

0:32 like to hand you over to CEO, Gareth Samples. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Thanks very much, and I'm delighted to be able to be here this afternoon to talk about the company's half year results. It's been a pretty transformational period for the group and and delighted to be able to talk about record results following a couple of acquisitions in the in the first six months of the year. So little bit about us. We are The UK's largest property franchise group. For those of you that don't know us, established in 1986, we listed in 2013. And since two thousand and thirteen, thirteen, I've been been sort of busy doing acquisitions.

1:20 You know, we've now done eight acquisitions across the space. We now operate out of 18 unique brands across the country, some of those brands being national, some of those brands being regional. And and we look after 1,900 territories across The UK and and and now across international locations. So we are by far the largest property group by office location in the country. We've also recently acquired Finding Country, which has 65 international locations across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Dubai, all over the world, which, yeah, really is a a new string to our boat.

2:09 Some highlights over the last six months, we've been admitted to the AIM top 100, and and that's as a result of our market cap moving forward so significantly in the period. We now have a market cap of 301,000,000. Combined revenue of the group in 2023 was just short of £75,000,000. 56% of our our income is recurring, which is really important and a and a real attraction. Just short of £19,000,000 worth of free cash flow in a capital light business and and EBITA in 2023 equates to just short of 27,000,000. So, you know, we've got a proven track record of delivering growth underpinned by a really resilient business model and strong bias towards lessings, which provides a really robust recurring revenue stream.

3:03 That's a little bit about the group. In terms of the brands, I touched on this earlier. Big national footprint with real local expertise. So the national brands, and hopefully, some of you recognize some of these. Martin and Co, predominantly lettings. Hunters, predominantly sales. You move our hybrid disruptor brand. So that was part of the old TPFG stable. And and and since we brought in Belvoir and and the guild and finding country, we also have Belvoir as a national lettings brand. Northwood is a national lettings brand. Nicholas Humphrey specializes in student lettings. And mister and missus Clark is is a is a up mark well, mid to upper market hybrid disruptor brand.

3:52 You then got the regional brands dotted all around the country, White Gaze in the North Of England, Parkers in and around Reading, CJ Hall in and around Bristol, Ellison Cove butting up to London, country properties in Mullets, Hertfordshire, Lavelle's on the East Coast Grimsby, Newton Fallowell, Midlands based predominantly sales agent. And then you've got, obviously, Finding Country, big national luxury brands that has a 193 outlets in The UK and 65 outlets internationally. And and then the guild, which is a licensing model, which we'll touch on a little in a little bit more detail shortly, with 778 independent estate agents subscribing as members to the guild. So it gives you an idea about the the the business. We also have a financial services brand, which is Book Financial.

4:49 So what was the acquisition of the guild?

4:51 We did this just before June. So wanted to sort of give some context in terms of the business that we've bought. Obviously, we're we're we're big in franchising as a result of the Belvoir acquisition. We also have a big financial services business, and and this is our licensing business. So the guild in finding country provides services to a total of a 36 outlets, of which 65 are international. It strengthens our reach and marketing and delivers an international footprint, which is really important to us. Both businesses will continue to operate under their existing brands. The Guild is a well known and long standing brand that's been going for thirty years, supports its network of 778 independent estate agencies, and they pay a monthly fee for a range of services that includes technology, marketing, compliance, and training.

5:49 And, you know, it has has a really good retention rate and delivers a really good proposition to our estate agency partners. Finding Country is that luxury brand I talked about. So it supports its licensees with technology, websites, market insight, market capabilities of the global brands. And and, again, as I touched on, a 193 locations across The UK with another sixty five sixty five across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Great news is we've strengthened our team. The CEO, Ian McKenzie, and Nikki Sanson have come across from from nurture, and they continue to run the business on a day to day basis. And the great news is TPFG gains access to 20 strong team of marketing professionals as a result of the acquisition. So so the the the rationale behind the acquisition that we did just before June.

6:49 In terms of operational highlights, obviously, we've been really, really busy getting these acquisitions over the line. But but, you know, the performance that we've delivered in the first half year is also really impressive. David will touch on the financials a little bit later. But we significantly increased scale, and that's driven out a number of benefits that I'll I'll I'll I'll touch on later in the presentation. We've done the merger with Belvoir. They settled down really, really well. We've completed the acquisition of the Guild and Fine and Country in May 2024. We the the the market this year has been pretty good. We've got a sales agreed pipeline on a like for like basis that's up 16% and stands at 47,500,000, which by far the biggest it's ever been in total.

7:38 Our U Move recruitment has increased 29% this year over last year with 22 new territory sales. We we we've just gone through a restructure of the senior leadership team and and and have have, you know, created a really strong team that will run the business day to day. We look after a 152,000 properties on behalf of landlords. That's at 96% as a result of the Belvoir merger. And we've got financial services commissions of 7,700,000 in the period, which is a growth of 756%, which sounds really impressive, but says TPFG weren't very good at mortgages before. So so we've got a really strong financial services business now, which which is really complementary to the group.

8:27 I'm now gonna hand you over to David, my CFO, who's gonna talk you through some of the financial highlights so far this year. David? Good afternoon to everybody. This is one of those periods where when you've got two acquisitions or a large merger, I should say, in in in March and then an in, at the end of May. It starts to, test us in terms of how we present all the information, and I'll you through some, what I think, fairly simple explanations of where we're up to. But please, if you get to the end and think, I haven't hit the mark, ask us a question, and, I will try my best to reply to it. So, overall, we've got, let's say, four months of of Bell Runny's numbers, month of GPA. Turnover increased a 104%. Behind that, the like for likes of the business it was before these these, mergers and acquisitions, up 3% in turnover to 13,600,000.

9:18 Now of that, 12,300,000 has come from our management service fees. That's the royalties we charge to franchisees. And if it began to look at, the contribution from the old business, prior to all this activity, then, we we see management service fees up 8% like for like, take 300,000. Now you you might say, well, why hasn't the management service fees gone up by 12,300,000? And the main factor is because about half of Belvoir's revenue comes from financial services, so at a smaller, property franchising business compared to ourselves. So that's why you don't see a 100% increase there. But more sort of telling then is, you know, what's happening to adjusted EBITDA. It's up at 9.7, million. That's up 65% or adjusted PBT up 71%. I've picked those two numbers because they exclude the things that happened, like additional amortization arising on consolidation of the new group.

10:10 We've taken out from there the, costs of the of the acquisitions and a little bit of of of what the share pay, share based payment charge was. It's relatively small in the period. So you can get some sort of like for like comparisons of what the business was prior to this and what it is now. If we'd have had, you know, a bit more, two more months of Bellfire and five months of, of GPA, clearly, numbers would have moved on with them, so so so would the turnover. If we were to look at where we are in the process right now, how far have we got compared to numbers in the market? Depending on which measure you look at, about 3540% of the way there. But I think I can assure everybody that between the old business that was and its like for like growth and then the businesses that we've bought into the business in into the group, in the last six months, we will be on to at least hit those numbers in the market.

10:59 Everything, that's here, tells me that we we are on course to do that and and probably a little bit more depending on where like for like growth goes. So, what's next really? Well, basic earnings per share up, to 15.5

11:14 piece, so up 12%. A little bit growth there. We've got net debt again because we use that, we use debt to buy GPA. We actually, drew down 20,000,000 of our 27,000,000 facility, 14 of it's a term loan, and six on a revolving credit facility. We will probably have very little use of revolving credit facility by the end of the year, so that will have probably gone back into to Barclays. But, of the term loan, we'll we'll probably get ourselves down to about 12,500,000 probably of of of term loan by the end of the year. And net debt, I suspect we're running around about £10,000,000. So, we'll we'll we'll then just generate cash as we always do, and pay probably pay down our, term loan quicker than the three years that's on its moment in time.

12:02 It's a little bit tick forward in cash generated from operations. That does include the costs, obviously, of the acquisitions today or most of them. So it'll be slightly it's it's reduced for that amount. And also, just this half year as for '23, as for '22, this is the period where our working capital requirements increase noticeably. Well, not massively, but, yeah, they'll go from 700,000 to maybe 2,000,000 at this point in time. If you add in Belvoir, then you see actually that stretching out further because they're on the same cycle as us. So we're businesses that in the first half of year have a greater need for working capital, and it comes back in the second half of the year. And last, by no means least, I suppose to give a clear indication to the market that the business has improved, to look at the payaway ratio, which has been falling a little bit, and we've been running about 2.1, 2.2 times earnings, which is a tremendous amount to cover.

13:01 But we started out on a journey of being wanting to be two or a little less. So we've brought that, cover down, but we also know that we're gonna generate a lot more earnings in the future. So, we've increased the interim dividend by, 30% to six p, which for us, because we pay a third now and two thirds, after the end of the year, means that we're on for 18 p this year. And for anyone who's looking ahead, yes, next year's will probably go out to about 21 p as it stands based on the numbers we can see.

13:32 So group revenue up a 104%, but now we have to start trying to track through what that really looks like for everybody, including ourselves, some clarity and some focus on each of these, segments that we have and why they're important to us. So property franchising, 900 territories, four group MDs allocated to that. So, you know, that's a big business for us to run, very big business. That's the reason for the four MDs. Turnover revenue up, 67% to 18,200,000, But it's here just to put a stake in the ground and then see where that goes, clearly over the next few years and for you to be able to see our success or otherwise. Financial services segment, well, that's all down to Belvoir and the and, the financial services business within there. That's 300 advisers. As you can see, we had very little revenue beforehand up.

14:20 But, you know, it's up 29%. Sorry. Accounting for 29% of group revenue, at 7,700,000. It's up considerably from its point nine. And then licensing, revenue of £1,000,000 for one month. It's greatly appreciated. It says here it counts for 4% of group revenue at this moment in time. There's a thousand outlets through there. And these mixes now, if you look at June, which is the first month we've had all the segments running at the same time, property franchising, just over 50%, financial services, just under 30%, and licensing, just under 20%. So if you thought fifty, thirty, 20, you're probably about the the right proportions for each of them. I won't go through that. Oh, there we go. Other side the right hand side of this just gives a relative mix I've discussed through, so click on.

15:09 So most important sector for us, property franchising. And and just to recap, for most of all our franchise systems by U Move, we charge a royalty based on the revenue that the franchisee generates every month. And those rates run, depending on which system from between 812% system and and and type of income. And we've asked a couple of times, all we seek to align is and ours is that is no. We run each franchisor in a separate legal entity. We always have done. We have different arrangements in each of those. We look to preserve those, and our franchisees would like us to preserve them as well. And that's how we will remain at this moment in time. But of the, income that we have, you can see this, first six months, 68% of of it comes from management services for royalties, 17% from our owned offices. So that's the nine we've, always owned since we acquired Hunters. We've picked up three in Belvoir as well. They are predominantly lettings businesses. They're not sales businesses.

16:13 And and then that might be strange for Hunters, which is a brand is more dominated by, sales than than lettings, but these are predominantly lettings businesses, and we will look to buy portfolios into those to grow their value over time. We then got a little bit franchise sales activity, whether it's new recruits into U Move or or our other brands, accounts for about two percent of revenue. And then we have 13% coming from franchisee support and similar services. And of that, there's two main aspects. One, we support our franchisees in helping to manage the portfolios that landlords have entrusted to them. And secondly, we provide most of the CRM systems into our franchise network because we are the master licensee, and we license that on and we support it, and and we charge for that, service.

17:02 MSF split, not much change at this, six months, last six months. You know, 38% on on sales and sixty one, sixty two now on NetEase MSF. Don't see that changing too much despite the fact that we'll have a full six months of both run-in second half, predominantly because I think the sales market's going to move ahead, and that's going to strengthen its its case as well at the same time. And profit per total tax wise, well, if you look at property franchising, we're up 38% to 7,400,000. Very welcome to have that. We're up, a 175% to 1,100,000 in financial services, all all thanks, I say, to to Brooke. And then licensing, 200,000.

17:48 These scales are interesting. 200,000 in our first month. The key one is where's the adjusted PBT? Strip out the the exceptional cost from the acquisitions, the extra amortization, share based payments. Where is that at this moment in time? So that's 9,100,000 at the moment against a number in the market of 22,000,000. So it's not quite half, but then it's not so far away, I suppose, from some half of it. The second half of the year will certainly bring the remaining, what is it, just about 13,000,000 and then maybe a bit more. And last, by no means least, just a run through what's happened with interim dividends, and they're reflective of our strategy, I suppose, in that, one, we've said we try and maintain around about two terms earnings cover. Two, when we see earnings increase because of the acquisitions we've had, we we tend to come back in and say we need to reflect that in the interim and final dividend immediately.

18:44 So and knowing full well we've got enough cash generation behind us to pay down the debt and and think about other acquisitions that we need to. So, 2021, we bought Hunters, and we saw a step up from 2.1 p to 3.8 p at the interim. 2024, we bought Bell or merged with Bell Farm. We bought GPA and look at that again. We've we've stepped up from 4.6 to six. We look at around a 4% yield as our yardstick. We will try as much as possible to be there or slightly above it over the

19:14 coming years. Share price CAS run-in a bit faster ahead maybe than we would have thought. But, hey, we we've generated the cash. The cash will be there in the future. We can certainly match that with a 4% yield. And with that, I'll hand you back to Gareth. Thanks, David. So so some really good numbers. You know, we're partway through, you know, integrating the businesses in, but they're already showing, you know, really positive signs of of delivering a great result and and and with the opportunity that exists with bringing it all together, there's there's plenty more to come. So so looking at the market, the market drivers, and I said earlier that the market was probably slightly better from a sales perspective this year than we probably planned for. So demand for housing, outstrip supply, residential property remain remains a key investment asset class. We're seeing that sales completions in the period still slow. Conveyancing time scales from sale agreed to completion are still much slower than they should be and much slower than they would have been ten years ago. So there's still work to do on that. And, you know, we talked earlier about our bulging pipeline. Well, part of the reason it's so big is because stuff isn't coming out quickly enough. So we're gonna work on that in the second half of the year. Historically, over the last sort of two or three years, the second half has been better than the first. So we hope that's that's similar this year.

20:40 We obviously benefit from a continued strong demand in the lettings market. And, you know, lettings activity this year in terms of rent inflation is again probably ahead of where we thought it would be. We've had two, two and a half years of, you know, significant increases. And this year, the third year, we're still seeing close to double digit increases in rental prices, increased levels of sales activity, and actually stock coming to the market. So when you go back to '21, we were coming out of COVID, and there was a lack of stock, and that drove prices up and, you know, basic supply and demand. So so there is more stock coming to the market, and there is more choice for buyers. But the level of buyers that we're seeing suggest that, you know, we'll we'll do something like 1,150,000 transactions this year.

21:32 Last year was about a 50, and normal over the last ten years is about 1.1. So slightly over the norm in 2024.

21:43 Lettings demand continues at similar levels. You know, every property that comes to market, we're still seeing in most locations in The UK, 10 people for that rental property. So, you know, that's that's showing no signs for letting up even though rents have gone up significantly. And then financial services revenue set to grow as the sales market improves. If you look at last year after the Liz Trust budget, you know, interest rates for five year fixed rate were about 6%. Last week, there was a deal that came to market through NatWest at 3.7. So significantly cheaper, you know, the number of transaction transactional mortgages this year is up on last year because the rate's cheaper. So that will drive the revenue in the financial services business.

22:31 So we're really optimistic about that. I wanted to touch on this piece because I think, you know, for those of you that followed the story over the last two or three years, we've got a real consistency about how we, you know, the strategy for the business, how we look at growth, and how we drive growth. And, you know, part part of the driver for that growth is the management team that we've put together. But these are the key areas. If we can affect these at franchisee level, then franchisees will earn more money. They'll make more profit, and we, in turn, will will make more money. And and that's the whole reason we've put that structure in place.

23:05 Alongside this, through the acquisitions and that building of scale, there are a number of other opportunities that have become apparent, and I'm gonna put them in sort of a projects list that I'll talk to you about after I've been through the strategic growth initiatives. So so letting is obviously a massive part of our business. We look after a 153,000 tenants in properties, but we still want to grow. And and over the last few years, we've grown in two distinct ways. First way is to buy out local competitions, to buy smaller lettings books off of people looking to retire or get out of the lettings market and integrate them into an existing franchisees portfolio. So we're highly acquisitive. We help our franchisees on a number of levels in terms of identifying those potential acquisitions, helping them to agree terms, helping them to do the due diligence on that lettings book. And in some cases, we will fund them or part fund them. K? So we're really active, and our target across both businesses going forward will be to be to do between four and six thousand units a year. Last year, I think both businesses did just short of four, and I think we're on track to do four to four and a half in 2024.

24:28 So so they're the two and the second distinct way is is the rent inflation. So rent inflation has been running at sort of circa 10% for the last three years. We believe that will settle at some point, and we think that will settle around about 4%. So they're the two areas in which we're we're looking to grow our lettings footprint. In terms of residential sales, the franchise business will do approaching 30,000 exchanges a year, which sounds a lot, but in terms of market share by location, we probably underperform. So we've, you know, we've got we've got a a plan to up skill all of our agents, get all of them doing residential sales, and that's a big opportunity. So our MDs and our ops directors are helping our franchisees launch a business, look at their marketing, look at their recruitment, do the training with a view to growing that that that 28,000 number nationally.

25:31 We've talked about Michelle's business, Michelle Brooke, who runs our financial services division. And last year, she would have done 21,000 mortgage completions across 300 financial advisers. And Michelle's built that business by with a buy and build strategy along with growing her own her own business. So we are still acquisitive. We would like to do an acquisition this year into financial services. We've set some criteria, which is circa 20 to 30 financial consultants and profitable. So it'd be a profitable business that we will look to acquire, and I'd be disappointed if we didn't do that towards the end of this year, straight early part of next year. And and and that will be a consistent strategy. We'll continue to buy businesses into our financial services business.

26:22 And then there's the utilization of the opportunity that exists now within the wider group to drive leads through into Brookfield Financial. So we've just launched

26:34 to the guild, the 800 offices in the guild, a financial services proposition through Brookfield Financial. And that was launched last month, and we've already had 10 members sign up. So we think we can get out to 200 members supporting the financial services part of the business. So we're really excited about financial services as a significant growth area for the business. I touched on the strong senior leadership team. Know, You when you put a business together this big, you need to have that second tier of your senior sort of operational team of high quality. I'm delighted with the team we've put together, and they are the future. They are gonna drive this business forward over the future. Some other interesting things, 14,000,000 data records now held by the group, and we have invested in technology from a digital marketing perspective to ensure we've got, you know, up to date websites, lead referral sorry, lead generation software, and then lead referral software.

27:38 So, you know, we've got the ability to track across the 1,900 operations.

27:45 Anybody with a house to sell who may go into one of our offices in, let's say, Derby with a house to sell in Leamington Spa. And we can identify that person, and we can pass that person on to the Lemington Spa franchisee to have a conversation with about selling their house. So this the scale and the footprint that we've got utilizing that to drive leads and activity back to our franchise franchisees. A best in class and digital marketing piece, which means we we send the right message at the right time with the right call to action is is also then vitally important. So a big investment in our digital marketing capability. And then the bit that's coming is AI, and we're seeing stuff at the moment which sort of has blown our socks off in terms of how AI will influence, you know, processes, procedures, sales activity going forward.

28:45 And this is gonna happen quite quickly. So we were, you know, we we're talking currently to an American firm that has a digital twin technology, which is where you can copy me. I can stand against a green screen for ten, fifteen minutes. It will learn to talk like me,

29:05 and then will learn my mannerisms and be able to have conversations with with with customers. So that that's pretty yeah. It it it it's a bit out there, but it's moving really, really quickly. And all of the sort of research we've done and and, you know, this this technology is being used in utility companies and IT support desks. And, you know, if you look at the utility companies, they they they deal with customers, and then they ask the customer to score the individual dealing with them. And the robots had a higher customer satisfaction score than the humans, and and exactly the same thing happened in the computer help desk scenario The the the the robot scored higher than the human.

29:50 So so things are changing

29:52 probably quicker than we thought, and we need to make sure that we're at the forefront of that and and and to be able to deal with these 14,000,000 data records in a different way that doesn't necessarily involve lots of humans, I guess. So so they're the sort of growth initiatives that we've got across the piece. I then said we we had a number of high value projects, and I'll talk to you about one of those. So when we bought the guild, we we discovered they had a very successful print business. So digital print and traditional print, and they service the guild members, and they service the final country members. And our intention is to stick that print business across all of the franchise business as well. So, you know, with the hope of doubling turnover and doubling profitability within that business.

30:40 And I guess that just illustrates one of the many opportunities that bringing these three businesses together has has has given us. And, you know, you'll have noticed in yesterday's announcement, we talk about David's replacement, Ben Dodds. But David's staying on to help me with those projects. There's there's probably 10 that are, you know, high value that require some work and some resource and some thoughts that, you know, if if we can get a number of those along the line, I think there's sort of million pound type returns to the business. So we're really excited about that. So that's a little bit about us and our growth plans. Summary and outlook. Summary for for me, you know, we've had a transformational six months. It feels like eighteen months following the merger with Belvoir, but, you know, you know, they've both been integrated really well. They feel part of the business already. There's a load of work to do, long way to go, but but, you know, in that first sort of three to four months with both businesses, we're delighted with with the way the business come together.

31:45 We've got significantly increased scale, bolstered financial services business, you know, massive financial services business with loads of upside and potential and a new licensing revenue stream. But but they're all complementary to each other. So so, you know, it's it's not like we're going off into different areas we know nothing about. These are businesses that, you know, we've we've admired for a long period of time and believed it to be right to to to bring them into the group. And as I say, the first four months has just, you know, put a big tick in that box. Another record set of results. You know, every single six months, we deliver a record set of results and group revenue more than doubling. Really happy with the share price, the market cap.

32:30 You know? And and and I think the big takeaway for me is we've invested in technology samples at the forefront of of, you know, wherever it goes with AI and and and digital marketing. We're at the forefront of that, and that will be a key growth driver, not just this year, but for the next five, ten years. Really proud to have entered AIM 100, you know, double the size of the business. And and, you know, to increase the interim dividend in a, you know, six month period where we've done so much by 30%, I think, reflects our confidence in delivering further growth, which we're, you know, we're we're really keen to do. Outlook integration of acquisitions, obviously, there's still quite a lot of work to do to release the benefits of the synergies in 2025.

33:15 So David and I will work really, really hard on those projects and that integration and drive those synergies. Strong lettings demand, we believe, will continue into second half of this year and beyond. Rent sales revenue should go up because the pipeline's bigger than it's ever been. Just just to clarify as well, the sales market, so the new stuff selling is also very active. So so, yeah, this showed no signs of slowing down after the election, so that's really good news. And then financial services revenues are growing as the sales market improves as you'd expect. Yeah? And we remain confident that trading remains at least in line with market expectations for the full year. So whistle stop tour through our presentation.

34:02 Thanks for listening. With that, I would like to hand over to you guys to come to us with any questions you'd like answering. Perfect, Gareth, David. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. I will now bring your cameras back up for the Q Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, 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 investor dashboard. I'm Gareth David. We have received a number of questions both presubmitted and throughout today's presentation, and I wanted to start off the q and a session with these. The first one reads as follows. How are you addressing the potential challenges posed by technological advancements in the property market such as online platforms and virtual meetings?

34:52 So I'll I'll I'll take that one. Really good question. But I think I think with past virtual viewings and and online meetings, they they you you look at so COVID was a big factor where we can gain properties. We use that technology, and we have a number of branches that are still using that technology. But I but I think, you know, things are moving on at pace. So so, you know, the the session I covered with the AI piece, you know, we wanna make sure that, you know, as the biggest business in this space, we are at the forefront of all technology development. We work very closely with nurture in terms of providing tech across our network, and and, you know, they they have a big responsibility to stay relevant and stay up to speed. And then you've got AI that sits on top of that, which is brand new and has a number of different potential uses.

35:44 And and, you know, we're we're taking control of that ourselves. So so, you know, we're we're in discussions with a number of providers in The US. We will probably visit The US in the next month to look at, you know, the the the sort of telephony products that I touched on in the presentation that that I think will be game changing and and get better and better and better. And, you know, with 14,000,000 data records, you know, we currently have through the group 4,000 leads, you know, leads, I'm gonna call them, that are that go unanswered because the franchisees are too busy. So if I can find some technology solution that fulfills those initial requests better than we do currently, that's all upside for us and our franchisees.

36:32 So so so technology encompasses everything we do and everything we think about and will do moving forward because it's moving at such a pace, and we have to be at the forefront of it. Perfect. Thank you very much. Another one on the market. What other companies plan to mitigate the risks associated with the cyclical nature of the property market? Yes. That's a really interesting one. We did a load of analysis on this probably three years ago. So so, you know, the the cyclical cyclical piece of it is sales, not lettings. Okay? So let's concentrate on sales. A normal market in sales in the last ten, fifteen years is defined as 1,100,000 transactions.

37:21 I think the worst month or the worst year in that period has been about 980,000 transactions. Last year was a 50. So it was a tough year, really, really tough year. So we did the analysis. So what does a 100,000 transactions in a franchise in franchisor terms mean to us? And when you looked at it, it means about half a million upside or downside depending on the cyclicality. So 500,000 to £600,000 worth of profit is at risk if you drop below 1,100,000 transactions. So for us, we don't get a massive, you know, cyclical bump.

38:08 But, similarly, when the market's really good, we don't get a big spike. So it's much more balanced, much, much more protected. Clearly, our franchisees feel it more. But from a at the franchisor level, we're relatively protected. And I think we demonstrated that in 2023 with a 50 transactions and a record profit. Perfect. Thank you very much. Next question is, can you provide an update on the group's efforts to improve sustainability and reduce its environmental footprint? David? Yeah. I'll pick that up. Thank you, Gus. Well, so if we look at our our footprint, environmentally, it's it's relatively small.

38:54 But we are going through the process now of of the carbon measuring that we need to do. And we're also looking at, just, you know, emissions and efficiency, with what we're using in the offices. We've done quite a bit of work of that over time, but we're going back through that and, again, measuring it just to see how we've progressed. We've got two, firms of consultants that we're working with at the moment. One to advise us and do a lot of the measurement work, and then one to review what we've done and audit that and then come back with recommendations. So we'll we'll see, in the next annual report that that update. But more importantly, I suppose, us at the end of the day is the social piece. I mean, we are local business people working in local markets. And, how do we support, franchisees and and licensees in those local markets to serve the local communities beyond what they do with their own services? So that that's something very much in our minds. We know, lots of, franchisees and licensees are heavily involved in in local groups and their communities and supporting them.

39:53 So, essentially, we just want to have a look at that and understand how we can do that better. And in the Fine and Country brand, which is one of the businesses we picked up, licensing businesses in the acquisition of GPA, they have their own foundation. So, again, we were looking at that and just understanding how that mechanism works and whether a charitable foundation might be the way to go across the whole group. But, you time will tell. We'll have a look. But, certainly, we want to deliver as much as we can benefit back into local communities and build stronger stronger, even stronger relationships between franchisees, licensees, and those communities. Thank you, David. Next question is, what does GPEA actually do? I noticed the intangible note reference must franchise agreements, but the income statement references licensing.

40:42 What is the distinction between the two? Well, happy to pick that up. G GPA is today is a licensing model, with two brands. There are licensees in Find a Country brand on on slightly longer licenses, but, generally, everyone's on twelve months license and has to give twelve months notice if they if they want to come out of that arrangement. That's different to the franchise agreements because people in five year agreements. And, you know, they've gotta give well, they gotta stay there for the five years. And if they want to come out, the option usually is they have to sell their business onto some other another franchisee or a new entrant, and the charging mechanisms are different. So in the guild, it's a fixed fee per month, a, you know, subscription almost.

41:28 In Fine and Country, it's a mixture of that and a charge on revenue. In the franchise arena, everyone's charged a percentage of their revenue every month. So slightly different charging mechanisms. And a license agreement, if you end it, you walk away with your business in the franchise agreement. If you end it, you you can't. That's that's the nature of of that. In reality, if you look at the commercials of this, there have been many, many, many members in the guild for a long, long period of time and continue to be so. So so the you know, that that's it's not really that much different, on that aspect to a franchise business. Finding Country is a newer brand, but, again, the founding members of many of the, licensees have come in, have been there, seen through this journey. It's a fantastic brand.

42:15 It's strong in the marketplace, and people don't want to, walk away from it. So, in that respect, again, it's not very different to franchising. Perfect. Thank you. The next question consists of many questions. There is a lot of chat about landlords exiting the market and was also referenced in Winkworth's results. Does this present does this present a risk to the business and its stability as franchisees lose recurring letting revenues and the company loses service fees? Are you able to quantify this risk? Presumably, could it also result in franchisees exiting their own businesses? Okay. I'll take that one. So so are are landlords exiting the business? Yes.

43:01 And have they been since 2021? Yes. You know, in 2021, prices went up. People saw that as the height of the the the price for that asset and and decided to cash in at the top of the market as they perceived it. Are people selling now because of the possible capital gains tax changes? Yes. Give you a real life example. My Cheltenham office looks after 600 properties on behalf of landlords. Last year, he had 23 landlords that wanted to sell their properties. 21 of those sold to existing landlords. Two went back to normal market to a first time buyer. Okay?

43:46 And that's what happens. You know? When you wanna put your house on the market as a landlord, you have to give the tenant notice because you have to sell it with vacant possession. So the land the letting agent always finds out about it sooner than anybody else and can do something about it. So a good progressive franchisees would just ring a landlord and get them to buy that property and just increase their stock. If you like a bad operator wouldn't, and and then that may give some problems. But you still got six months to to to wait for the tenant to exit in most cases. So you've got some notice to understand which ones are looking to sell. So it is it is an issue, you know, and that's why, you know, we keep buying four, five thousand units a year in terms of local acquisitions and the number, the 152,000 remains quite static.

44:41 I think there's an opportunity for, you know, landlords that currently look after their own management to increase supply. I think regulation, the rent is right, bills, I think there's been some stuff on it today, is is about to be launched. We're told it's similar to the renter's reform bill that wasn't sorted before the government called an election. So so we've got used to the the sort of topics within the Renters Reform Bill, but but what it has showed with the roadshows that we've the landlord roadshows we've run is that a number of people are unaware of the changes, the biggest change is landlords being fined. So if you self manage your property going forward and you get it wrong, there are some pretty penal fines that are applied to you. Get it wrong again, that fine doubles. Get it wrong again, that fine doubles.

45:33 And, you know, I think it starts at five, then becomes 10, then becomes 20. So, you know, the the the the, you know, incredibly low good value services that a letting agent would offer for, you know, 12% of the monthly rent will give landlords protection like never before and becomes even better value. So I think we will see growth in the properties dealt with by estate agents, stroke, letting agents because of the regulation, and that's a a positive thing for the renters rights bill. Perfect. Thank you very much. Next question is how quickly might we expect some of the owned offices to be franchised out? How could do that? We've done one already, to be fair. But, you know, we've got what we're left with is pretty significant profitable franchise businesses, and and, you know, they represent such a small percentage of the the network now that the reality is we will probably keep most of them, and we will probably practice what we preach and buy lettings books into those branches and and and drive profitability that way.

46:45 So, you know, I think we'll end up with 10 to 12, maybe a dozen owned offices that are, you know, superstores delivering a really good profit. And, you know, we operate in some really, you know, great areas like York and Manchester and Leeds and Birmingham and Leicester. So so, yeah, having 10 doesn't doesn't faze David or I. The the the ones that were not super offices will look to franchise back out. But but, yeah, we will probably always have some owned offices. Perfect. What is the appeal of having the FNC International presence? It's a really good business. I you know, the the day after we acquired the business, I flew out to Lisbon because it happened to be the international conference. And if I hadn't gone then, I'd have had to wait twelve months. And, you know, it was really impressive to see the caliber of agents, the countries that they worked in, the types of property they were selling from all and and, you know, the camaraderie of of, you know, an international business here.

47:53 Lady flew in from from South Africa, got delayed. She turned up a little bit late on the the and just was so excited to be there. You know, we're opening in Dubai shortly. I've been invited to the opening there. We've got, you know, great a great business in Cannes and Nice, Portugal, both Auldgarve and and and beyond. We've got Spain, Costa Del Sol, Costa Amira. You know? So, you know, it's it's a really good business. Go on the website if you don't believe me. There's some absolutely cracking properties. Properties. And, yeah, we should be proud of what what these people are doing overseas to drive the Finding Country brand. Will we invest a load in further expansion? You know, I I think it's yeah. So the investment, probably not, but but, you know, we have inbound inquiries all of the time to open in different parts of the world. And, you know, we will consider that and make the right decisions.

48:50 But but, you know, we're really proud to have it. There's some incredible operators. And and, yeah, it it it will grow over time. Thank you. Next question here. You touched on higher working capital requirements in h one, but there has been a substantial increase in receivables combined with an increase in provision for bad debts. Can you provide some additional color in relation to these increases? Yes. First thing to say is I don't think there's been a significant increase in provision for bad debts. It's quite minor. I think I'd say it's 200,000 in the RNS, so that's nothing too substantial. And, you know, as to the increase in receivables, well, it's it's it's kind of two aspects, isn't it? We we've got a lot that's come through the the acquisition. There's loans to franchisees that came through through Belvoir as long as as as well as the normal trading debts have with the franchise network.

49:43 We have a licensing business now, again, with with, trade debts there, normal sort of pattern of things. And then, you know, we we have our existing business. So there's there's absolutely nothing, stand out in any of that at all. Nothing at all. And, you know, before we acquired the businesses, we looked at the provisions that existed against the the various debts that were there, and and we were happy with them. And that's not just us. Obviously, we have external third party firm of accountants that take a look at that and come back to us to report. So, yeah, there's nothing nothing stand out, nothing out of the ordinary for this period of our trading. Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question is on competition. Is your notable success attracting meaningful new competition for franchising of property businesses in The UK? If so, how are you positioned to continue to win new franchisees going forward?

50:37 Yeah. I mean, really good question. Something we'd we'd we'd we're looking to invest in. You know, we we we will have, you know, 30 to 50 resales a year, we think, in the enlarged group, and we probably haven't focused enough on that next generation of franchisee. So our intention is to recruit a franchise sales director to, you know, take franchise to the masses, I guess, and we educate people, do all the things that, you know, Ian and Richard Martin would have done back in the eighties and the nineties to launch their franchise brand. And, you know, some of these businesses are now really significant and and go for, you know, really good money. So, you know, making sure that we understand how someone would finance that that that acquisition. But but, you know, that that new blood is is a big focus for us, a big topic of conversation.

51:27 We understand we need to drive next generation franchise interest to enable us to continue to grow and thrive. So big big topic on the agenda. Thank you very much. Have you seen much of a change in the ownership or rental property? Are smaller owners selling up as worried about potential capital gains changes? So so I think we covered that in in the previous so, yes, you know, people are selling. Lots of people have put their properties into a company structure. They're less likely to sell. But, again, we're selling onto landlords. So so it's not something that we're panicking too much about. Perfect. What was the h one organic growth rate of the businesses you acquired, Belvoir and The Guild and Fine and Country?

52:17 Oh, crikey. Right. Let's think about this. All the business we acquired, I think across lettings and sales in Belle Vieux, it was slightly less than us. It was about 5%. Yeah. Financial services wise, that is the business because we didn't have much of any business beforehand. So on a like for like, that was that was 9%. The guild, is probably slightly away from the growth date last year, not by much, a couple of percent, and finding countries about the same same. So, yeah, business as usual in finding country. Thank you, David. I'm changing topics here. What would you like to see at the upcoming budget, and what don't you want to see?

53:06 Well, what you don't wanna see is increase in capital gains tax, really. No. And and lots of reasons for that. If I was, you know, putting a different hat on for the the market, the a market, I'd say business property relief needs to remain. We need capital invested in this country to help businesses grow from the fledgling ones that they are through and hopefully into the a market and then onto the main market. That's been something that's been a success of of of, for decades, you know, since since the second world war probably. And, it'll be you know, I think that would be awful to see that slip. You know, inheritance tax, again, that might change. Entrepreneurs' relief might go. All these things, I think, are threatening capital, being allocated to The UK economy. And and then, you know and and if that's a threat then, there's uncertainty, that causes capital to go elsewhere, and that's not good for us as a nation. So, yeah, I I wouldn't want to see any changes, quite frankly, I think we're gonna see some. Yep.

54:03 Perfect. And the last question we've got here is, how quickly do you think the financial part of the business can grow? The potential seems enormous. I totally agree. I think, you know, 1,900 outlets, 300 financial consultants and growing, yeah, some some decent looking acquisitions to consider, and and 800 guild members that can embrace financial services and have a proposition that will earn them money, but also drive productivity from Shell's business. So, you know, all those component parts exist. I guess it's down to us now, you know, from an execution point of view. But early signs are really good. Really, really good. We've got good activity. The market's decent. You know, 300 financial consultants, 1,900 offices, 100,000 sales transactions.

54:55 You know, it's, yeah, it's an exciting proposition. Perfect. That's great, Gareth, David. Thank you for addressing those questions for investors today. And, of course, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll polish those responses on the investment company platform. And, Gareth, I was gonna ask you for a few closing comments there, but I believe you have given those. So could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of PROPERTY FRANCHISE GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you. Thank you very