B.P. Marsh & Partners (LSE:BPM) — Interim Results

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BPMARSH and Partners PLC investor presentation. 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 is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, as usual, we would just like to submit the following poll. And if you could 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 B. P. Marsh and Partners PLC. Dan, good morning, sir. Good morning, all. I'm pleased to welcome you to the B. P.

0:48 Marsh Half Year Results to 07/31/2024 presentation. Alongside me in presenting these results is our newly appointed group CFO, Francesca Chappell. In light of this, I'd obviously like to warmly welcome Fran to the presentation and also take the opportunity to thank her predecessor, John Newman, for his service to the company over two decades. John was an important member of the team during his time here, in particular, the company's flotation and then as the company has developed over the past decade or so. Whilst we're sad to say goodbye to John, we're delighted with Francesca's appointment. Whilst new to the role, Francesca is not new to the company, having joined BPMARSH in 2013 and was appointed Director to the Trading Company in 2018. During a time with the company, France formed part of the team that has taken it to where we are now and shares our confidence over the future potential of the company going forward.

1:39 Given this change, we thought it made sense to include summary Slides three and four, which sets out the experience management function within the group that is overall responsibility for the results we present today. This set of results continues the strong performance shown from our previous full year results, and we are pleased to present them to the market. I'd like to thank all the members of the BPMash team and the wider portfolio companies for their efforts in allowing us to achieve them. The key takeaways for this period's performance are set out on Slide five. Consolidated profit before tax in the period of GBP 29,000,000 compared to GBP 15,600,000 over the same period last year or an 86% increase. Net asset value has increased by £23,700,000 to £252,900,000 a 10.3% increase over six months and 24.3% increase over twelve months.

2:33 The portfolio valuation stands at GBP 153,000,000, an increase of 24% or GBP 29,700,000 in the period compared to an 8.6% or GBP 14,700,000 increase over the same period last year, with total shareholder return standing at 12.1% over the period compared to 7.9% over the same period last year. Available capital of GBP 80,200,000 compared to GBP 4,300,000 as at July 2023, an increase of GBP 75,000,000 or a significant percentage increase. Clearly, that's somewhat manipulated by the disposal of Nexus where our cash did increase relatively quickly after that period.

3:19 So whilst there is a big jump in cash, it's slightly mirrored or masked in these presentations. And then dividend per share of 10.72p for the year, an increase from 5.56p at 01/31/2023, a 92.8% increase. By twenty twenty six, twenty four point eight million in dividends would have been distributed since 2010 or nearly 71p per share or 50% of our flotation price. We're delighted with the overall performance of the group in the period, which, as I said, is a continuation of our previous positive results. At this juncture, I'm pleased to hand over to Fran, who will talk you through the financial highlights for the period and the strong financial position the group sits in. Thank you, Dan. Having been appointed to the role of Chief Finance Officer after almost twelve years at the company, I'm pleased to be able to present the key financial highlights for the six month period ended 07/31/2024, with the group having another strong period.

4:19 Slide six presents the financial highlights. NAV increased by GBP 23,700,000 or 10.3 for the period and now stands at an all time high of GBP 252,900,000. This is equivalent to GBP 690.8 per share or GBP 6 and 58.5 per share diluted. The growth in NAV is primarily driven by the rise in investment valuations with the equity portfolio increasing by 24% for the period, adjusting for additions and realizations. The equity portfolio is now valued at $153,400,000 and Dan will be talking through the equity portfolio later on in this presentation. Over the six month period, we provided GBP 9,500,000 in equity funding, with the highlights being GBP 7,300,000 in follow on funding for Pantheon and GBP 300,000 in one new investment, Devonshire.

5:14 The group achieved consolidated profit before tax of GBP 29,000,000, reflecting an 87% increase on the GBP 15,600,000 reported in the six month period to the 07/31/2023. This profit is the highest for any six month period since the group was formed, which is a testament to the strength of the underlying equity portfolio. The total shareholder return for the six month period was 12.1%, including GBP 4,000,000 aggregate dividends paid. Slide seven reports distribution of our loan portfolio and treasury funds. On the left of the slide, you will find a breakdown of our loan book as of the 07/31/2024, which stood at GBP 19,200,000, a decrease from $28,900,000 in January 2024.

5:59 Details of our loans can be found on Slide 28 of the appendices. The average interest rate for the period was approximately 10.7%, up from 9.9% as at July 2023. This increase was due to many of our loans being linked to the Bank of England base rate. The middle of the slide shows that during the period, we issued $1,400,000 in new loans and received loan repayments totaling GBP 11,000,000. On the right of the slide, you will see that at the end of the period, we held GBP 80,200,000 in cash, up from GBP 40,500,000 in January 2024. The main reason for the increase in cash over the period was due to the successful disposal of Paladin, for which the group received equity proceeds of $42,100,000 in March 2024.

6:47 The group keeps its cash diverse across prestigious wealth management institutions, with the majority being held with Rothschild, Rathbones, Coutts and GAM in a mixture of short term and instant access deposit accounts. The average interest rate received on the group's cash was 4.7, which amounted to $1,600,000 of investment income over the six month period. Slide eight presents our consistent long term NAV growth. Since flotation, the group has achieved compound annual growth of 9.712.2% since inception. This is after accounting for all expenses, taxes and distributions, excluding any capital raised. As of the 07/31/2024, 61% of our NAV was attributable to our equity portfolio, whilst 39% of our NAV was made up of cash and other assets. Slide nine outlines our dividend strategy.

7:46 The group paid out $4,000,000 in aggregate dividends over the six month period. The Board has already proposed further dividends of $4,000,000 per annum over the next two years, increasing the aggregate dividend paid to $24,800,000 by 2026. We believe this rewards our shareholders for their support of the company, whilst also providing significant firepower for new investments and to support the existing portfolio. I will now hand you back over to Dan, who will talk through the rest of the presentation. Thanks, Fran. Moving on from the financial position, NAV and dividend growth, I can now talk you through portfolio developments, which will take us through at the end of the presentation, which starts at Slide 10. Whilst we've previously talked about the disposal of PanadincBC, given it occurred during the period in review, we thought it's sensible to include it here.

8:37 As you all know, it was a tremendous investment and return, which is testament to the efforts of the management team, Andrew, Rob, Earl and many others at CBC in turning CBC from a loss making broker in 2016 to a high margin, high growth multiline specialist insurance broker by 2023. We were delighted with this result and happy to assist where we could with guidance, introductions and funding. A major driver for CBC's growth was their establishment of Alchemy underwriting, which we provided 100% of the financing for, which has proved to be a great success. Slide 11 provides a useful summary of recent disposals, which really is the proof in the pudding of our investment approach, exceptional returns on equity committed. So far, in 2024, the group has made three new investments, one within the period and two post period end, which takes on to Slide 12.

9:29 As announced in our full year results, the 01/31/2024, the group completed an completed acquisition of a 30% stake in Devonshire underwriting, an underwriting agency which specializes in transactional liability risks globally, excluding The U. S, for an equity investment of GBP 300,000 alongside just over £1,500,000 in loan funding. We believe the group has positioned itself as the first port of call for entrepreneurial management teams that truly want to run their own business, which alongside some risks then presents an opportunity for significant returns for both parties being management and BPMARSH. As per Slide 13, September saw the group acquire a 44% stake in CEE Specialty.

10:15 CEE Specialty is an underwriting agency based in The Czech Republic that focuses on marine hull, bonds and liability insurance targeting business in Central And Eastern Europe. Founded in 2019, BPMARSH offered exclusive support to allow the founders of CEE to undertake a management buyout. Whilst an established business, we believe this transaction will be transformational for CEE and its team as it now is management controlled with a minority specialist investor as opposed to the opposite as it was before. We see strong growth opportunities for this investment going forward. Whilst we haven't taken a position in this area of the world previously, we felt the caliber of the management team and the opportunity to assist the business in the next phase of its growth presented an excellent opportunity. Turning to Slide 14.

11:02 In the last week or so, we've also completed an investment in Vault underwriting, as outlined in this slide. Earlier this month, the group acquired a 25.5 shareholding for a nominal cost of GBP 25.50 in Vault alongside a more meaningful loan facility of just over GBP 1,000,000. Vault is a start up underwriting agency specializing energy insurance in both the renewable and nonrenewable sector. The co founders, Chris Allison, Andrew Topley and Kevin Cleary, each have over twenty five years' experience working in senior leadership positions at various underwriting led businesses, including large reinsurance companies, Lloyd's syndicates and underwriting agencies. These three new investments exemplify BPMark's investment approach, offering unique investment structures, which attract motivated and entrepreneurial management teams in an area generally bereft of professional funding, which helpfully takes on to Slide 15, which provides further background on the gap filled by the group. With the support of BPMARSH, our investment approach allows our investments to grow over time and eventually attract wider interest from a variety of parties amongst others mid market private equity houses and trade buyers consolidators, of which there are growing number.

12:20 Often, we sell these through competitive run processes, and this is how we bridge the gap. Clearly, we've shown the success of our realizations earlier in the portfolio, and this shows how we start the process in attacking an area which is underserved by professional investors, where we deploy our experience in capital to support management teams to take them to the next phase of their development, which provides excellent underlying returns to BPMARSH. In terms of new investment origination, given the capital we've got to deploy, we thought it sensible just to provide an overview of where we sit in terms of new investments on Slide 16. As you can see, this sets out what the numbers are and where they come from. I'd say a key driver of BPMARSH is we get the vast majority of the investments that we do, if not all of them, from personal connections or the insurance network within which we operate.

13:18 And I think that shows our unique approach in terms of drawing out these investment opportunities that others wouldn't see. Turning to Slide 17. As at 07/31/2024, the group reported a portfolio value of GBP 153,000,000, which you can see is spread across the portfolio in the table on the left based on an invested amount of GBP 47,600,000. As mentioned earlier in the presentation, the portfolio has increased by GBP 29,000,000 or nearly GBP 30,000,000 or 24% over the period, which I think demonstrates the underlying strength of the BPMash portfolio. Given timings and focus, I thought it made sense to draw out the larger portfolios in the company for specific attention, which hopefully is welcome.

14:05 Looking at Slide eighteen, ATC, an investment we made in 2018. It's one of the largest independent underwriting agencies in Australia. We've backed it up for a number of years, and it continues to perform strongly across its many product offerings, many of which have been developed under BPMARSH's investment. For their financial year to 06/30/2024, ATC has achieved substantial year on year growth in gross rent premium, revenue and EBITDA. Specifically, ATC generated nearly AUD 15,000,000 of EBITDA, marking an increase of over 40% compared to the previous financial year. Looking at Pantheon Specialty Group on Slide 19. Since it was established just over a year ago, the business has seen a quite phenomenal start to life with the hiring of a new number of key individuals and has built a position in a very short term as a market leading independent specialist Lloyd's broker.

15:01 Since establishment, Pantheon has performed strongly. And in 2024, its first full year of existence, Pantene is forecast to produce an EBITDA in excess of GBP 16,000,000, making it arguably one of the fastest growing start up noise brokers on record. Slide 20. Lilycrummer Risk coming to its fifth anniversary of our investment, continues to grow and expand its product offering. Whilst established as a start up marine broker, the business has now developed into a number of other niche areas, including political violence, terrorism, North American property and reinsurance. Again, a strong performance over 2024 with revenues approaching GBP 13,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA approaching approximately GBP 7,000,000. On Slide 21, XBT, the largest investment BPMARSH has made within the portfolio, another tremendous start up success story for us given we invested in twenty seventeen in four individuals in a business plan.

16:02 That's changed completely to where we are now, where XBT is forecasting to produce nearly GBP billion of gross written premium, north of GBP 20,000,000 of EBITDA after 2024 financial year, 16 acquisitions made to date, offices in over 20 locations across 13 states with over 300 employees. Like the other large investee companies in the portfolio, it's experienced significant year on year growth in revenue and profitability. Following its acquisition plan, it's now developed an attractive platform with which to hire producing brokers as opposed to our M and A or coupled with M and A activity, and we see this as an area of significant growth going forward. Alongside our new business opportunities, we see strong opportunities in committing further capital to the existing portfolio to meaningfully assist in their growth, which in turn should deliver significant uplift to BPMash as an investor.

16:58 Whilst I've highlighted the larger investments within portfolio, we do have a very strong portfolio overall, which is detailed in the appendix. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts, too, from Bend, Oregon Toronto, Canada to Leeds, England and then through to Singapore and Sydney, Australia, they've all contributed to the group's overall performance for the period. Moving away from the portfolio and on to shareholder returns. Slide 22 illustrates how our strategy to date has led to significant and growing shareholder returns through our dividend and share buyback strategy. This is something we have flagged previously and remains a key focus alongside developing the portfolio. The group remains committed to driving a reduction in the discount between share price and NAV per share. This is dealt with on Slide 23.

17:50 These strategies that we've put in place have seen continue to make good progress with regard to reducing the discount. And as you can see from 2009, where it stood at 61% discount to January 31, it's 18% discount, that discount is continuing to be monitored, managed and reduced, hopefully. Alongside of all the portfolio activity, the group announced the appointment of Singer Capital Markets as joint corporate broker alongside Pannual Liberum to broaden our market reach and enhance investor engagement. In drawing our presentation to a close, and as I said at the beginning, we're absolutely delighted with the results achieved, thanks to our partnership with our portfolio companies and the efforts of the team at BPMARSH.

18:37 Our modus operandi remains the same, being we continue to identify businesses with strong management teams and good growth potential. We help fund, support and develop these companies so they can deliver on growth opportunities and produce returns from our investments to our shareholders via a blend of ongoing equity growth within the portfolio and regular returns of capital to the shareholders. We believe the results for the period continue to justify this approach, given the strong cash position, our current portfolio and the strong pipeline of new business opportunities, we believe the group is in a very positive position moving forward. I think this is an extremely exciting time for the entire team at BPMARSH with strong cash reserves, a first rate portfolio of investments with significant growth opportunities, which we have the capital to fund alongside a considerable pipeline of new opportunities, coupled with the potential for one or two disposals over the next six to twelve months, subject to the right terms being achieved.

19:39 As Chief Investment Officer, I share the optimism given the promising opportunities ahead. We believe these will have a positive impact on the company's performance share performance and share price and ultimately shareholder returns, which is the long term measure of success for any listed company. At this juncture, I can conclude the presentation and invite any questions. Perfect. Dan, Francesco, 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's situated on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can all be accessed via your investor dashboard.

20:25 Guys, as you can see there, we 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 Katie, at this point, if I may just hand over to you to chair the Q and A with the team. And if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jake. Thanks for the presentation, Dan and Fran. Starting off with the new business pipeline and what does it look like. And someone's raised a question about CEE speciality and how it's based in Prague and how did that come about? Thanks, Katie. In terms of new business, yeah, we do have an active pipeline. I think talking as to it came to us strange enough by an ex portfolio CEO that we'd invest CEO that we'd invested in and wish well and moved on. And the company that bought that portfolio company was not interested in the area that CE was based for a variety of their own commercial reasons given where they were based.

21:34 The CEO that we had a good relationship over nearly a decade with came to us and said, would BPMARSH be interested in looking at this? And we did. We met with the individuals concerned. One, the CEO, Jane Gridley, an English gentleman with a marine background at Lloyd's, who'd moved to Eastern Europe and Thomas Marcelak, an individual from Czech Republic with a finance and private equity background, and they made a compelling team. So we thought we'd have a further look. We engaged Deloitte and as finance for financial due diligence and Taylor Westing on the legals to to go belt and braces from a due diligence perspective. It satisfied all our questions, and we we proceed with it. Whilst the Central And Eastern Europe isn't necessarily a natural area for us to invest as primarily investors in people and, you know, compelling business plans, this this did tick all the boxes. So we're we're quite quietly confident that this should prove to be a good investment in an area that BPMash has good experience and results in.

22:36 Thank you, Dan. There's been a question about in your new appointment, noting that you've been at the company for many years, as it's mentioned. Just kind of questions if there's been any plans about your new appointment, anything you're looking to change, or any more information. Thank you, Katie. So I've been at the company a long time and worked closely alongside John during that period. And I'd say that reporting has significantly improved over the past few years. Our stat accounts have significantly grown and provide additional notes. So in terms of the information provided, I'd say it's ample, and I don't have any plans currently to change this. But I'll keep it under review. Thank you. Thanks, Fran.

23:22 There were some questions over how BPML structured its investments in terms of loan versus equity, Dan. If you can provide some color on that? Sure. Well, I mean, it really depends because we're early stage investors and significantly focused on start ups. Generally, the propositions that come to us, our management teams say they need x amount of money to get the business up and running and they're prepared to give up a percentage, we will say, we'd quite like to take it, all things being equal and positive, we take the position that from that standpoint, we'd say we'd like between 2040% shareholding, and we can provide the funding. But opinions on valuation might differ, so we'll lead with our valuation. So we can we can provide all the funding, but in order for it to tick our boxes from a valuation standpoint internally and then for our auditors and then from when we release our accounts and and valuations, We set the valuation at what we think is an appropriate and conservative level, but then say, but we can provide the remainder of the funding via loans or similar instruments. And that generally is how we're able to tailor make our investments that we make. And then on to established investee companies in the portfolio, it's a case of trying to negotiate the best possible terms for both BPMARSH and the portfolio company.

24:49 Generally speaking, and thankfully, our experience to date, our portfolio companies are very selfish and guarded over equity dilution and want to keep hold of it because they see that's where the ultimate value is. So we'd much rather take funding via loans as opposed to equity dilution. We're kind about it down with them on that in as much as we want them to value the equity. We try and take a meaningful minority position so that we're covered. And also, we think it's a some people say debt is bad, some people say it's good. I think it's a good discipline to get into as a growing company to be able to manage your cash flow such as satisfy any debt covenants that we might impose. And it also provides income to BPMash where our investments go over an extended period of time.

25:37 Thank you, Dan. Could you share some examples of minority protections you request from investee companies? Okay. On Slide 42 of the presentation, we do set out an exhaustive list of these, and these are essentially veto rights over certain corporate actions that we think are proportionate and reflect our position as the funders to these businesses. And generally, focus around any deviation to the business plan, material underperformance, material acquisitions and any financing arrangements and ultimately, adviser appointments and sales. We also appoint nonexecutive directors to the board of all our portfolio companies. And we do have thresholds as the companies grow. We review these thresholds in terms of what's appropriate and not appropriate because ultimately, we want these individuals to be entrepreneurial, manage their own company in a sensible fashion.

26:36 So we try and make sure that all our shareholder protections and minority protections engender the good performance of the business. Thank you, Dan. A question about NAV CAGR and how it's reduced over the years from 15.5% in full year 2017 to 12.1% in full year 2024. Are opportunities available reducing now that the group is larger? For example, size weighs down performance. So in the financial year ended the 01/31/2017, we reported compound NAV growth of 11.4% since 1990. As at the 07/31/2024, we're reporting compound NAV growth of 12.2%.

27:25 As at the 01/31/2017, our NAV was GBP 79,700,000 compared to GBP 252,900,000 being reported as at July 2024. So to be able to exceed our previous compound NAV growth based upon NAV of a much larger scale really is testament to our underlying investments led by our strong management team. Thanks, Fran. There's been a couple of questions around kind of the home for cash, saying you typically make early stage investments in the low millions. How are you going to be able to find a home for the cash? Or also kind of how many proposals do you get in and how many do you invest in? And how long do you think it will take to deploy the capital as well?

28:15 Our investment approach isn't going to change from a new business We do see we set out in the presentation how many proposals we see. Of them, you can then board it down and say that we do three to five, generally speaking, on average over calendar year. I think that will remain the same. And certainly, our upper limit of around GBP 5,000,000 for new investments is it fits the bill. I think where we've grown as a company and have better cash reserves, we've been able to follow investments where in previous times, when we were a smaller company with less capital available, management recognizes and we work for an exit whereas where we are now, we we can follow the money and and and benefit from the growth of the company.

29:04 And I think with our larger investments, XBT and Pantheon, certainly, we've we've been able to demonstrate that. Thank you. Okay. Please go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead if you want to. I was gonna say no. You know, we're we're very cognizant of the capital position we find ourselves in. And, you know, as and when disposals occur, we're mindful of what we need to satisfy the demands of the current portfolio and new business, but also recognizing and rewarding our long term shareholders for their loyalty alongside the upward performance of the share price, I. E, via a dividend. Thank you. And slightly following on from that, there's been a question around how many new investments come from the contacts of Brian Marsh first, the rest of the wider team?

29:56 In terms of that, so having been in financial services maybe twenty years and seventeen years at BPMARSH, when I joined it, the vast majority would come through Brian's or network or associated network. But as the company's grown in size and experience with the portfolio, the majority, I'd say, if not all, are developed by the management team. And Brian's very much more a guiding hand with experience as opposed to delivering new business proposals, which I think if you look at the age demographic of the portfolio and the management team, that kind of makes sense. We've got our own network that we've developed over the The business for quite a long time and also within the insurance market for quite a long time. And BPMark corporate has got a good reputation, and we leverage and harness that to drive new business.

30:49 Thank you, Dan. And there's a question around whether you can comment on Ardona's acquisition of PSC now that it's been completed? Well, I can't comment that it's been completed, and we're delighted to welcome Ardona to the shareholder base. From our standpoint, as a less than 20% shareholder, we intend to look after Ardona's interest as we did PLC. PLC bought their shares at 2.52 The share price is, I think, hovering around 5.70 at the moment alongside the dividend. So I'd like to think that we played a very small part in the success of that business. And we're happy to partner with them with Ardona as any other shareholder. So I think in the short to medium term, it's business as usual with regard to our donor. Clearly, they've got their own separate and distinct strategy and there's no crossover as yet, but we're always mindful that this is a people business. And if anything occurred, which was to impact the people we invest in, all the people at BPMARSH, then the situation will be put under review.

31:54 Thank you, Dan. We're coming near the end of the questions, a couple more, I think. There may be more of a little bit on market conditions and whatnot. There's been a couple of questions about the effect of, say, Hurricane Hilton or issues within the Red Sea and whether that's affecting your portfolio. Yes. I mean, at a high level, yes, it affects the portfolio. But to what extent and negatively or positively is a different question. Clearly, Hurricane Melton is a terrible natural disaster that's affected many thousands of people in America, which is unarguably a bad thing. Clearly, there will be insurance claims on the back of that, which a market bereft of surplus capacity could lead to prices going up. That would mean that the commission, our brokers, if they were involved in North American property, which they are received, would go up on the back of premium uplift. And the same in the Red Sea, Germain too, our marine broking invest the company, Lilly Plumber Risk. They do place a lot of war risk, and war risk has unfortunately skyrocketed due to the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea and also the Black Sea in Ukraine.

33:11 That being said, it's not a driver for real growth within the portfolio. We very much focus on the standard stuff of either organic growth, hiring or mergers and acquisitions with XBT. And I think you can see that across the portfolio in terms of how they've grown. These things happen. Pricing insurance is generally plateauing at the moment, but we've been doing this for a very long time and seeing markets move up and down, and we'll continue to see that. Thank you very much. And just for the final question, is there much competition from generalist private equity who also have lots of other money available?

33:58 Or does your specialist positioning give you an advantage? In terms of that, no. We we don't. I think the way we're structured, our investment appetite and approach means that we consider ourselves unique. Our approach is we focus on the start ups. We set it out in the proposal at the presentation as regards where we think there is an equity gap that we fill. We're what I consider the only financial institution that deploys professional capital at that GBP 0 to GBP million gap with a track record in insurance distribution.

34:43 I think all that coupled added together has meant that we're a unique proposition alongside our minority approach. But we don't see competitors operating in our daily work. Perfect. Katie, Dan, Francesco, if I may just jump back in there. And thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time there in addressing all of those questions that came in. 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, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. And we'll publish all those responses out on the platform. But, Dan, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with 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 would be great.

35:36 Thanks for that. Think in closing, we're delighted with these results. It's a continuation of prior periods performance where I think that generally positive about a lot of the portfolio, if not all of it, I think there's some significant investments in there that are continuing to do well. The growth is very, very pleasing. I think we've got a strong new business pipeline to develop and we can take advantage of. The portfolio is very strong and growing. And alongside that, we set it out in the presentation about realizations and where we've delivered value returns in excess of where the market might be in terms of when we seek to realize investments. And I think we'll see a continuation of that. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next three to six months, there might be one or two disposals, which should be pleasing for all concerned.

36:34 Perfect. Dan, 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 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 with BPMARSH and PARTNERS PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good morning to you all.