S&U (LSE:SUS) — Preliminary Results

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the S and U PLC Full Year 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. Just simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to chairman, Anthony Coombs. Good afternoon to you, sir. Good afternoon, everybody. And can I just thank you, missus Meade, for this opportunity to present our results from S and U for the period of 02/05/2026? We always like the opportunity engaging invest with investors, and we find this a particularly good way of engaging with our retail investors.

0:49 And, and so many thanks to to investors meet for for for that. Just quickly going through the highlights of of this year. We've had a good year. This is a a year of recovery as we anticipated it would be. But, you know, overall, our our profits are up by 32% to £31,800,000. Both advantage, our motor finance business, has performed very well, 16,500,000 to up to 23,400,000 profit before tax. Receivables are up to 317,000,000, and that's part of group receivables, which have re reached for the first time nearly £500,000,000, and we expect to go even higher over the next three years. Aspen, our property bridging business, has has produced record profits.

1:48 Both have had significant improvements in their credit quality. Although, to be fair, both the the advantages impairment was unusually high due to a regulatory intervention and are making provision for that for last year, which wasn't required and will will remain at low levels in the years to come, which obviously is is good for advances future profits. So with that, we're very confident about the future. We've got a big refinancing exercise going on to securitization, which will actually effectively double our our our our capacity to to fund our business over the next three years, and we expect that that will result in a significant expansion of it. But I just want to emphasize to investors that we're not just gonna expand because the funds are available, We're not just gonna expand because because because vanity rather than sanity. We're only gonna expand if the the lending opportunities become available, and and we will be making sure that our margins reflect that.

3:07 The only other thing I would like to say is that since these results, mister Trump has decided that he would like to to maintain his adventures throughout The Middle East. We think that that will be resolved reasonably quickly even if it isn't. We don't anticipate that having a very big effect on our motor finance business, and we anticipate that our property business, our property finance business can gain market share to compensate for any for any problems that the general residential market might experience. So with those few words, I'm gonna ask Chris Freckleson, our group finance director, to go through the group financials. So if you could turn the next page, that would really help.

3:57 Thanks thanks, Anthony, and good afternoon, everybody. So starting with the income statement, our profit before tax for the year is 31,800,000 against 24,000,000 this time last year. So a 32% increase year on year. In terms of the the key movements in the income statement, revenue is actually down 7% due to lower average receivables during the period and our cautious lending approach and advantage in in h one. Happily, that recovered in H2, and our revenue as a result in H2 was £56,000,000 compared to £51,500,000 in the first half of the year. Impairments substantially reduced from last year, reflecting better advantage repayments, which were at an average of 90.5 of due versus 85.6% last year.

4:51 We also had a debt sale in q four, which helped the impairment charge by £2,500,000, and we've continued to see excellent collection and recoveries in Aspen at 188,000,000 versus a 157,000,000 last year. In terms of other areas of the p and l, so cost of sales have increased 44%, albeit from quite a low base to to more normalized levels following a return to higher advances in Advantage. Admin expenses are are 31% higher than last year, and that's due to a couple of factors, one of which being higher staff costs as we as we invest for growth in the future. We also had additional complaints costs and advantage from CNCs in terms of processing in the first half.

5:41 And perhaps more importantly, we also recognized a FCA commission provision following the final scheme laws being announced recently of GBP 1,800,000. And then finally, finance costs have reduced due to the lower average borrowings and obviously the lower SONIA rates we've seen this year as well. If we can turn over onto the next slide. So in terms of the balance sheet, it's a relatively simple balance sheet, focused on accounts receivable, borrowings and equity. Following the recovery I mentioned in advances in h two for advantage, we've seen the net receivables increased 12% to 317,000,000, and that's also assisted by the better repayments and collections performance, meaning lower provision requirements.

6:34 Aspen net receivables have increased 18% to 179,700,000, following the very strong lending year on year and a more normalized level of collections and recoveries in h two. You may recall from our interim presentation that we were ahead of budget in terms of collections in h one, and that's now normalized to be in line with budget for the full year. Borrowings is the last item to call out, has increased in line with the increase in the loan books and included in the 300,000 of bank overdrafts we've got represent net borrowings of 241,800,000 as at the balance sheet date. So if we move on to the next slide, this is the cash flow and just tries to show the movement in the balance sheet positions more clearly by division.

7:30 So overall, we've had an increase of 49,500,000 in net borrowings since last year. And as you can see in the tables in the middle or on the right hand side, that's predominantly being driven by advances. As you can see in advantage, they've increased by 66% to a 182,000,000 in the year, and Aspen has increased by 18% to 212,000,000. We've also had dividend payments of $12,700,000 driving funding requirements, but that has also been offset by the good collections performance that we've seen in both businesses, as I've already mentioned. From a gearing perspective, that means we end the year at 97% versus 81% in last year.

8:22 And then finally, just over onto the next slide for treasury and funding. So the net borrowings of 241,800,000 sit comfortably within our committed facilities of 330,000,000. You you will clearly notice that that's 50,000,000 higher than interim, and that's following an accordion agreement with our RCF club lenders, which we should forward in in January this year. And then since year end, both businesses have required additional funding to support growth, and we we very much expect this to continue for the remainder of the year. Therefore, we're we're currently engaged in a major securitization project, which I'll hand over now to Jack Coombs to provide a bit more detail. Yes. Good afternoon. Hi. We are we're currently pursuing securitization two securitizations, one for Aspen and one for Advantage.

9:19 As the chairman alluded to, this is aiming, obviously, to give us capacity to, double the level of available funding. Nevertheless, I think it's important to emphasize, as as was mentioned previously, that our lending is obviously going to be driven by the right opportunities rather than by the availability of funding. And initially, all we will be doing is essentially a like for like refinance of of our RCF facilities with the accordion thereafter providing the headroom. Essentially, these facilities would be standard securitization facilities in the sense that they will be nonrecourse either to the subsidiaries or to the group.

10:10 And, also, these will provide a a a good improvement in cost of funds. I think it's just worth mentioning that the longer term trajectory is obviously the the advantage would qualify for a public securitization. And so there are there are further benefits to come to the group in the years to come. So, it's an exciting time. We've obviously put together a treasury team to facilitate this, and, there's also insights that we're getting, around the business off the back of additional data requirements that we're we're obviously putting together, which will hopefully improve our management reporting.

10:56 Good. Thank you. Yeah. I'll pick it up, from slide 10. Well done. First, the world of lending. You'll note that, a good strong return to growth in terms of cases, volumes, and quality, really unlocked by much improved credit risk capabilities, a whole new scorecard, a fresh sort of real twenty first century approach to affordability, and the ability to ingest much more comprehensive datasets. We accelerate through q three as you see on the graph, testing both our maximum operational and pricing capacity. And then aligned with the festive season, it tapers off in q four, And with that steady, good levels of growth continues into 2026.

11:50 Turning to slide 11 and the other part of the business on the repayment side. Not such a build back, really, just a a full year significant year on year improvement, leveraging our established and experienced team, revised structure that's been in place for many months now, embedded in all the changes you would have heard me speak about when discussing FY January 25. Repayments are up, bad debts are down, and those trends continue to improve in 2026. Really off the back of some significant investment in '24 latter end of twenty three and throughout 2024 in upgrading our platform, training our people, investing in new technologies, and, of course, the improving general book quality.

12:42 Turning now to external factors such as the regulating regulatory space. Obviously, we're in the middle of a very important period for all motor finance lenders following the publication of the final rules as part of the FCA commission redress scheme. From our perspective, look, we have a clear road map to execute execute against those plans. We feel it gives the market a a clear and consistent future to work upon. We'll be progressing that project for the remainder of this year. Looking to the table, we're delighted that our success in looking after our customers is reflected also by the findings of the financial ombudsman service.

13:28 And my last point is after a year of quite exponential growth in terms of applications and cases written, that does nothing to inhibit the service we offer our customers holding on to that super high 4.9 out of five Trustpilot score throughout the year. Turning to what have we been doing specifically as far as some of the key strategic activities over the last twelve months. Innovation, sustainability, a high performance culture really underpins our strategy, refreshed and relaunched the latter end of twenty twenty five, so well underway as we sit here today. Very briefly, in q one last year, four examples, I'll give you q one, the investment in the technology through the portal and telephony to improve access for our customers. Very high levels of engagement, which we're very pleased with.

14:24 In q two, it was around the team and the environment and the premises. That project concluded very successfully, improving our capacity at our head office there at Advantage. In q three, it was really a focus on credit risk and affordability assessments. And that was a major upgrade underpinning a lot of our growth in sustainable lending. And then lastly, we're very pleased with a very practical and scalable use of AI, building very journey specific AI products, primarily in the customer repayment space. Three new products made a big difference as far as our operational productivity and capacity in collections.

15:10 And that that investment continues into 2026, turning our attention to the new business operations areas currently. Lastly, on the next slide, really, all I'll say is this that investment that pays dividends continues at a pace. We'll be very shortly expanding into new channels of distribution. We have a very clear strategy upon which we're executing. We're into already the latter stages of a phase two of our AI project and investment, benefiting, as I said before, new business operations, augmenting greatly the capacity of management and including the recruitment and onboarding of our own in house AI engineering expertise.

15:59 Suffice to say, we've had a very positive first quarter of this year. So I'll I'll hand over to Chris for more details about that. Thanks, Carl. So the the next four slides take a closer look at the advantage book debt performance. So during the period, we've originated 18,279 deals. That's a high average advance of nine nine three five. So on the whole, quality customers demonstrated by the higher average customer score and also the lower interest rate flat per annum. Following the introduction of the new scorecard and refinement of the affordability models in q three, we've seen a move back to our more traditional customer base resulting in the average customer score reducing in the app in the interest rate flat per annum increasing from from where we were during h one to land at 13.5% over the course of the year.

16:58 Cost of sales have remained elevated to prior years, but again, have reduced since interim following their return to our more traditional customer base. If we then turn over to first repayment quality. So historically, we've seen a good correlation between first payments made by customers and bad debt and outcomes after five years. The the blue line and access here is first payments made with the red line and access is bad debts, and the dotted line dotted red line is forecast bad debts. So as I said, following the move to more our more traditional customer base, we have seen first payments decline from their recent highs when writing better quality originations since q three onwards, albeit, you know, that recent performance is in line with what we've experienced from the book in the past ten years.

17:53 And I think important also to draw out that the, you know, the dotted line in terms of bad debt forecast outcomes continue to reduce, reflecting our improved collections performance across the business. Let's then turn over to repayments more generally. So this is a simple payback chart of investment by advantage by year of origination, showing the the customer advance and the cost of sales of of writing that business. That's denoted by the blue line, and then we have the customer repayments in the green line. So as you'd expect, collections are largely complete for the January 19 to January 21 cohorts with the future years forecasted collections based on historical analysis.

18:45 You will see the collections performance is expected to be lower for the January 23 and January 24 cohorts following the challenging collections performance during the regulatory review. Happily though, we expect that to improve the January 25 and January 26 cohorts as you'll be able to see in the graphic there on the slide. And then finally, just over the page onto an analysis of the book debt at each balance sheet date based on a real status. So for the reasons we've already mentioned around better collections performance and improved lending. We have a much higher proportion of our debts in the up to date category at 71.8% versus 64.5% last year and far fewer accounts in the worst performing arrears buckets of six plus at 5.7% versus 9.3 last year.

19:42 And this has continued to improve post year end as well. I'll now hand you over to Ed Aron, CEO of Aspen. Thanks, Chris. Aspen has had a very strong year, 2526, reaching new records in terms of lending, two hundred and twelve million, as well as record repayments of 188,000,000, as Chris mentioned earlier, whilst at the same time, importantly, maintaining the quality of our lending. And that's resulted in a record PBT of 8,800,000 for the year. We've expanded our product offering and continued to build our strong reputation with our brokers and wider borrower community.

20:30 We see continued growth in bridging and for the future. And the ongoing shortage of housing, there's plenty of stock to refurbish and invest in. Next slide, please. So this is a slide we've shown before. If you look at the business over a five year period, key headline here, we've reached $790,000,000 of capital lending with only naught point naught 2% of actual capital losses, which is extremely good and representative of quality that we're talking about in our book. Two key messages to to draw out from this table.

21:15 You can see that the average loan sizes have come down a little bit. This is a a market wide effect. We've actually made up for that in our business in terms of volume by doing more loans, but also product development has helped with average loan sizes being supported upwards with some of our newer products, longer term products. And you can see the effect of that at the bottom of the table with the sixteen months of average original term. We've been managing our blended interest rates in a in a reducing interest rate environment for that period. But it's worth noting that our outcome yields for loans that have actually repaid typically exceeds all of our original blended yields.

22:07 And from a cost of sales, you can see that we're in control of that at 1.1%. I'll now hand you over to Jack on the next slide. Yes. In terms of the outlook for Aspen, obviously, the level of of increase in volume of deals was very strong last year. I think we expect to continue to to increase the level of deals that we're doing. One thing we also saw, obviously, Ed mentioned, was a reduction in average loan size. That's really off the back of the more prime conversion redevelopment market really being being weaker in The UK off the off the back, obviously, of changes in taxation and non domes and various different things that have impacted London specifically and other more prime locations.

23:04 But, obviously, we're we're continuing to innovate and take market share. I think that's definitely the theme for for Aspen. And we've seen we've got a question coming up later, but we've obviously seen a lot of success in the product diversification that we've undertaken in our buy to let, bridge to let direction, which obviously we can we can come on to the questions later on. So I won't I won't go on about that too much. But essentially, we're obviously seeing, as Ed mentioned, the average length of the term increasing. That'll continue to increase this year to around eighteen months. So essentially, a healthy origination whereby we've always consistently lent year on year more than we did the previous year. We expect this year despite the headwinds in the property market to be no different.

24:02 And that combined with the longer average length of expected term used and, obviously, origination will lead, obviously, to a healthy and consistent book rate. We're not necessarily seeing the level of increase in staffing being commensurate with lending. We're we're seeing that our people are more experienced, and as a result, we've we've got good capacity within the business. And as is mentioned on the slide here, we are integrating AI into the business and and using that more and more in order to ensure that we're we're maintaining an efficient base. But, essentially, we've got good control on the valuation side of things. We've got a a a very low level of default position and arrears position, which is also also a healthy place to be.

24:58 So we feel like we've got good good control. We're not going to loosen our our appetite in terms of our credit appetite in any direction particularly, but we believe that the combination of our in house capabilities, which are pretty unique, and our innovative products put us in a good place to continue the growth of the business. Great. Okay. Well, thank you very much for that. I I won't leave time for for for questions. I mean, because obviously, yes, the essence of this is interaction as well as presentation. I'm just would just conclude by saying that we hope that that presentation gives you an idea of two things. First of all, that the business in terms of its present makeup, is is is is operating well, as reflected in the results.

25:55 And secondly, that our ambitions are very much intact And that, what we're trying to do with the refinancing process is to lay the ground for the funding we require for expansion of the future. And at the same time, over the last two or three years, we've been laying the ground operationally for a a operation which can be can be expanded in a very successful way. And, you know, we believe that the markets that we're operating in, both in terms of the value end of the motor finance market and in terms of an under provided housing market, will in the long term benefit the business.

26:41 And I think we're therefore in the right markets. So with that, could could we move on to to questions? And I've been trying to look for the questions, but I can't quite find where they are. Absolutely. That's great. Yes. So I'll read out the questions for you, Anthony, if that's okay. And the first one here says, given SUS traditional underwriting approach in subprime, is this a strength or seen as a weakness in a market which is becoming more digital in its processing? Also, how how have the improvements in collection rates been achieved? Very good. Thank you. And over to you, Carl, for that. Great question. The first thing of of of the underlying premise is that in specialist markets or non prime digital or digital first doesn't apply.

27:28 That absolutely correct from sort of previous years, but less so if if not if if that not at all going forward. So the subprime or nonprime specialist market strength of experience or knowledge that we have continues going forwards, but also can be hugely accelerated with the application of digital solutions. It's it's fundamentally no different. The the tooling available to a funder to survey market are are the same regardless whether it's the very prime to non prime to specialists. So in this in this modern world, the same digital approach will succeed.

28:20 The collection rates have been achieved really after well, first of all, it's a very well established experienced team that have looked after customers buying cars for an awfully long time in their twenty seventh year. Some of them have been there over twenty years. So first of all, the corporate memory is very strong. The upgrades and investment, the strong 7 figure scale in 2024, training, technology, resourcing, org design, Those are the key pillars really as to our current performance. So long established experience, very modern level of of investment, a improving book quality.

29:08 They all point to the improvement in collection rates. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. And the next question is on Aspen. In relation to the Aspen buy to let option for developers, how well has this specific innovation been received in the market? Yeah. I'll take that. Good question. I mean, it's been developing over the last couple of years. To give you a sense of that in terms of this last year that we're talking about, it represents 40% of originations for our business. So we think it's doing well, and we expect that to continue to do well in the future. It does attract high quality developers and and good quality projects.

29:59 So we expect that to be the same going forward. Just to clarify that, that 40% figure relates to to both the bridge to let and, of course, to the to the buy to let element. And every single one of our buy to let is originated off the back of an Aspen bridge, which I think fundamentally is the route to to quality here. So just to give some color to that, essentially, if you were going into the buy to let market, you were trying to originate debt that was on sort of rates that obviously the group would would demand. You know, you you would be going down the quality curve quite significantly.

30:45 We're not doing that because, of course, we're we're essentially lending to people who are undertaking conversion projects or whatever they're whatever they're doing in the Ab Initio with the bridge. And then essentially, typically, the buy to let element from Aspen tends to be almost like a backup. But I think, essentially, you've got you've got two types of deals that we're replacing there. You've got one is a a development exit deal, which is obviously a, you know, well established route within bridging. And so, essentially, people are not having to go and seek a a development exit loan, and there you are actually essentially passing on some degree of saving to the customer whilst also retaining them.

31:36 The second option is obviously the people who are hold people who who are staying with us on a on the, you know, multiyear product. And, essentially, one of the things that is working in our favor, the reason why people take these backup options and why they then end up converting is because, of course, you have various different time lags to do with, you know, completion of works on these projects to do with getting all of the paperwork required, and and then actually achieving a a term exit takes many months. So the combination of that just means that as a timing result of timing, we actually convert about 66% onto the onto the Bicelat. So it's a it's a successful niche, which helps us originate.

32:25 Good. Okay. Right. Nominated. Please, Alex. Perfect. Thank you. The next question here is the drop in impairment charge was a key driver for the PBT improvement year on year. Is the £13,000,000 a normalized sustainable level given expected business growth in 2026? Yeah. Thank thank you. So I think the key thing is to draw out here is the 13,000,000 this year was good performance. I think it was obviously helped by the 2,500,000 gain on debt sale that we did in Q4, which is we're expecting to be more of a one off item rather than a continuing trend. So certainly, for advantage, we'd expect the impairment to increase a little bit based on excluding that debt sale gain, albeit, you know, you're quite right to point out we've got quite a lot of growth in the book plans, but we are expecting our cash collection performance to continue to improve from the basis that we've we've seen this year, hence why you don't see a a big jump in the impairment charge.

33:38 If we look at Aspen, that has had a probably quite unusually low impairment charge this year, and that's because we had some really excellent collections and recoveries in in h one in particular on some of that more long long standing arrears cases. So I think that will naturally increase a little bit more to a a normalized level that we saw sort of this time last year. Understood. Thank you. The next one next one here is you've achieved strong growth. How do you ensure you maintain your disciplined approach to risk as volumes increase? Well, we we do that by maintaining our credit standards, both in both businesses.

34:25 You know, we we we've continued refining refining our credit scoring. We've refined our affordability. That's an an advantage. And in Aspen, we're we're working closely as part of anything else, as part of the refinancing exercise with the banks. So in order to ensure that our underwriting criteria meet their requirements as well as our own. So so for those reasons, we we're we're we're maintaining our existing operations but refining them, and we anticipate that that will mean that the quality of our debt remains very high in both businesses. It's crucial it is because that's our main asset. I mean, if you look at the assets in business, the vast majority of them are in the £500,000,000 worth of receivables, and we're gonna make sure that that is is maintained.

35:17 I mean, just to put a bit of color on the on the Aspen book, there isn't a single live CCJ on the on the Aspen book, which is why we say, you know, it's it's quite a prime bridging lender. Perfect. Thank you. The next question here is on competition. Are you seeing any competitors pull back creating opportunity for SNU? And that's from Peter M. And I'd also like to to to couple that with Nigel a, which I think he's probably talking about motor finance, particularly given the Moto Novo situation. And and, Nigel, do you wanna just read out Nigel's question?

36:02 Yeah. Of course. Yeah. So with Moto Novo, who have 10% of the market pulling out of The UK, our advantage aiming to take a slice of this market share, Is there an opportunity to buy the book of Oldhamore linked to this given the redress impact on Close Brothers, Lloyd's, Barclays, etcetera? Are we seeing organic growth from competitors adopting a more cautious stance on lending? Have we seen evidence of this in q two and the 2026 pipeline? Over to Carl. Thank you for the short questions. Let me pick them up apart a little bit. Is there going to be opportunities? Yes. Following the off the back of all we've seen in regards to regulation, FCA redress and the bills that follow that, we're still in a we are in a certain period as to what the rules are.

36:55 We have a relatively high degree of certainty. I'm I'm talking at the market level here, not just advantage as to what the costs are. What happens next on this journey, not not so much. As as you've seen, some are accepting of the rules and wish to execute against them. Others may not, so there could be a few more twists and turns in this story yet. From that, obviously, therefore, you'll have some who want to double down in the market continue to serve it strongly, and others who may not, for various reasons, be in a position to do so. And, obviously, we you wouldn't expect us to comment against any any specifics there. We are of a mind to take advantage of opportunities as as and when they arise, whether they be market specific or organic growth. There's an awful lot of market for us to go for. You know, we have about an eight and a half percent market share of the non prime motor finance market, so plenty of runway.

38:00 I I probably would comment so much on the specifics of other vendors that are, you know, being marketed for sale. I'm sure that will take a great deal of time for that to happen. So we went around the houses there a little bit. My apologies, Nigel. I think it's gonna be a long summer before we get some real clarity as to what some of our market participants intend to do. One thing's for certain, a plethora of opportunities sit before us, and they did anyway even prior to the regulatory intervention or or other aspects. So we still have 92% of the market to serve from one perspective. So I hope that helps.

38:47 Fantastic. Thank you, Carl. Can I just just ask Alex? It's disappeared from my screen. The most important question has disappeared, which is for Matt h. If we can get that one back, because I'd like to to do that last. Yeah. No problem. And and but but could we go on to Edward g next? If you could read it as well. Yeah. So your admin costs have risen from around 13 percent of sales in FY twenty twenty one to nearly 27% in the second half of FY twenty twenty six. I know this is due to various temporary costs associated with compliance. Can you give a guidance on what it would be if these one off changes were stripped out?

39:33 John, do have to Yes. Absolutely. So you you're absolutely right. I mean, the one of the key drivers of the increase for admin expenses this year is is the recognition of the FCA commission redress provision of £1,800,000. So if we if we strip that out as, you know, truly being a a more of a one off item, the admin expenses increase would drop from sort of around 31% to to closer to 22%. In terms of guidance for next year, we're not expecting a big increase in admin expenses. We're expecting that to track broadly in line with inflation. Fantastic. And the last question which Anthony was referring to is, what do you think the market is under appreciating about S and U today?

40:22 This I thought was the most important question because it impacts on the value of the business. And that's something we're all all of our shareholders and potential shareholders very much very much interested My view would be twofold. First of all, I think it may be that they people don't appreciate that, thank god, we are now in calmer regulatory waters so far as advantage is concerned. But that hasn't been the case for for for many years under both governments, conservative and labor. And I think that the penny has now dropped that if you want growth, you've got to have proportionate I'm not saying no regulation, but proportionate and pragmatic regulation.

41:18 Regulation which is consistent and which is predictable. Because if you don't get consistent and predictable regulation, you don't get investment. If you don't get investment, you don't get a growing financial services industry. So I think the penny is dropping both in government and in the regulators that that is the case, and we'll look over the next, few months to see how that is translated into pragmatic action. And I I keep on saying, that there was a very good report from the House of Lord Select Committee on regulation, which dealt precisely with this topic, regulation, the financial services committee in industry, and it made 77 recommendations. And the FCA, Nikki Ratti, appeared before it. He's appeared recently again before it, and hopefully, those recommendations will be followed up by both government and by the by the regulators.

42:17 Whether they are, we don't know, but it will be a good acid test of the government's commitment towards growth in the English financial services industry, which has unfortunately contracted over the last over the last few few years. So that's the first thing. We we we think that there's a more consistent regulatory environment. The second thing that we want to emphasize is that, obviously, dependent upon the right lending opportunities, S and U is now on a growth phase. In other words, we've had two or three years where we've had to retrench to look at our operations mainly due to external forces Provided and this is obviously, important revenue business. Provided that we have a stable macroeconomic environment, and, you know, we're talking about both national and international, then we see very, very significant opportunities for growth in the business. You know, to give you an indication, our three year plan would indicate that our receivables go from around about 500,000,000 now to maybe maybe 60% more than that, possibly even more if we have the right conditions and the right lending opportunities in the next three years. That is the the second thing that I think that the market doesn't really appreciate about us.

43:44 So with the that's my answer. I don't know if anybody else has got a plan. Do you wanna say anything on that? Hi, Jack. I wanted to add something which is just support of what Anthony was saying. We've got 249, you know, in in net assets million. We've got a we've got a market cap of 248. So, you know, you you we've always had a sensible provisioning policy. So so the reality of what's there is is, you know, solid. And and so, essentially, the what's the market under underappreciating? It's exactly as absolutely said. Zero value assignment to future growth, zero value assignment to future cash flows. It's a pound for pound on the net asset values if there wasn't exciting operating future that we've got. Very important.

44:39 Very important. That's great. Well, look, guys, that concludes the Q and A session. You have addressed all those questions for investors, so thank you very much indeed for that. But, Anthony, before we direct investors to provide you with a feedback, which one is particularly important to yourself and the company, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? Well, there's no wise man who said last words are for fools. We've said what we we want to say. And so far as I'm concerned, the most important question was the last one from Matt H. And I think I would like to direct our viewers and listeners towards that. That's that's the question. Fantastic. Thank you all once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.