Finseta (LSE:FIN) — 2024 Update

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the FINSETA PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it is appropriate to do so, and these will be available via your investor meet company dashboard. 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 exec management team from FINSETA PLC. James, good morning, sir. Good morning, and good morning to everyone.

0:48 So to go straight into it, my name is James Hickman, CEO, and presenting today also is Judy Happel, CFO.

0:59 Just by way of background, if I can go through the slides, what just as a reminder of what FINSETA does and and who we are, we are an international payments and currency exchange business. We help businesses and high net worth individuals, and that difference is is very important, and we'll come on to that, with payment requirements and specifically helping solve their payment solutions issues. We offer multicurrency IBAMs and bank and and accounts, for collection and payment of, currency, all done through our proprietary technology, on our platform and and importantly backed up by a very, very high level of service.

1:50 And, again, that's an important distinction where many businesses now have gone online only. We very much believe that that services is a critical pillar, of our offering. We've we can offer over a 140 key currencies, delivering to a 165 or more actually countries around the world. One of the key differences with our business and particularly with customer acquisition and our go to market strategy, it's all done through a growing introducer network. Introducers are lawyers, accountants, property agents, and such like, and all of our customers come through that growing network. One of the key things that we're building out are local payment rails.

2:39 We're doing that again through partnership, partnering with with other banks, payment companies localized to ensure that our customers are getting both price, so a lower cost as possible, and also fastest delivery, which, again, in in the payments world is very, very important. Just as a reminder, 2024, what what, occurred and and some of the highlights that I'll run through. I'll leave Judy to run through the the financials, but, increased revenue, up 26%. We have I don't know whether the yeah. It's come back again. Yeah.

3:29 EBITDA up 18%. We've invested heavily, and anyone who's listened to these previously, I've I've harped on about investing in revenue generation, and that very much means people and product and ultimately growing our sales capability. And we've very much done that, and we're seeing the benefits of that through increase in active customers and expanding our introducer network. We've we've increased the number of partners and counterparties that we deal with. That that now, as I say, allows us to send money to over a 165 countries. On the operations side, we've off boarded all of our historic white label businesses.

4:21 For those who followed the business, prior to it being FINSETA when it was Cornerstone, that business was very much focused around providing, almost as a software as a service type business, providing a platform for other FX companies to leverage. We've moved completely away from that. That was a, low margin, capital intensive business. So we're very much now selling direct to our customers. Thus, you will see in the financials the improved margin. We've also spent time and effort increasing efficiencies on our onboarding process, allowing our customers and or new customers at least to to have a very seamless onboarding process.

5:10 We've also improved our transaction monitoring processes with the introduction of some AI transaction monitoring. And that is particularly important as we scale the business and transaction and the transaction levels increase. In terms of the strategic growth, we've we've signed we signed in 2024, a very important agreement with Mastercard, very important for the business that will allow us, to launch a commercial card scheme, which which we'll come on to. We also, agreed an agency banking agreement, with a tier one bank.

5:56 Again, will become very, very important in 2025 and allows us to directly participate within the banking network. As I mentioned, the name change completed in 2024, from Cornerstone to FINSETA. Part of the reason for doing that was Cornerstone was a very ubiquitous name, used in many industries by thousands in thousands and thousands of different varieties, and different ways. We wanted something, that we could own and would be unique. FINSETA, we did a a a rename,

6:41 I would say, very, frugally. It has very little impact to to customers, which is obviously very, very important. And actually, I would say was a huge success. So I'm really, really pleased with that. We also set up our Canadian, entity, and that is now off we have an office. We're just going through integration there. But, again, that was, sort of a big milestone for the business as well. So just a little bit of, against the progress that we've made in 2024 against our strategy. I think it's very important to to provide a a very clear direction on the strategy and where we benchmark ourselves and how we're achieving against that strategy.

7:36 And just as a reminder what the strategy is, key three key pillars, really, expanding our geographic and market footprint, which is pretty self explanatory, enhancing our product capability, ultimately developing our product set to ensure that, a, we're we're maintaining a market leading position, but but also to make sure that we're matching our customer expectations. And we're very much a a customer first business. And thirdly is, what we've classified as future proofing the business, but ultimately what that means is effectively, growing a sustainable business for the long term and putting into place everything that we need to do that.

8:28 So on our geographic and market footprint pillar, So in Dubai, we have received preapproval, and there is two two stages in Dubai for full approvals. There's the submission and then the preapproval. You then need to hit certain parameters, which we now feel we have done, which is office setup, a number of other things. So we are now waiting full approval, and that is now sitting with the regulator there. So we hope to update the market very shortly on that. In Canada, as I say, we've the office is set up. We're already FINSETAK regulated there. We're doing our technical integrations that that are coming very close to the end of that. So we're we're very, very excited for for the the opportunities that Canada present.

9:29 And actually, in terms of the sort of go to market there, very, very nicely aligns with what we're doing here in The UK. In Europe, we are in the process of of reviewing options. There are a number of regulators, obviously, throughout Europe that that you you can settle on. Each have their pros and cons. We're doing that sort of due diligence currently, and we will update the market as and when we we made a final decision. In Hong Kong, we're scoping the license there, and that will will ultimately come out over the next few months or certainly the decisions on Hong Kong will come out in the next few months.

10:15 And probably the most important thing in all of this is the local banking and the payment rails. And and ultimately, this is critical for servicing the customers locally. It's very easy to sort of set up in country. But unless you have the local payment rails, then actually, you're not offering a full service to your customer. So I'm very pleased that we have come to agreements in the jurisdictions that we're entering, so namely Canada and Dubai. And we have secured banking relationships in in both of those jurisdictions. And they're in a very advanced stage in integration. So we're really, really pleased with the progress there.

11:01 In terms of the product capability, the the card program, which I mentioned, we are doing live testing ourselves at FINSETA, so we're actually using it in in earnest. We we're doing the final pieces. One thing that I'm I'm very conscious about is launching a product that's not fully formed and absolutely ready for market. So I want everything to be absolutely perfect before we sort of go full live, but we're making extremely good progress on that. I've I've got the app, the card. It it works really, really well. So we're we're, if you like, polishing it, and, we expect a full launch imminently.

11:48 On the onboarding, as I mentioned previously, we we've implemented further KYC monitoring, It it improved our systems even further from last year to allow an even smoother journey for the customer, which ultimately we can now onboard a customer literally within five minutes. Now some obviously take longer, the more complicated cases. But for for very vanilla straightforward, it's it's almost straight through.

12:21 We are doing AI transaction monitoring, and this is particularly important for the card business where the the number of transactions are much, much higher and they're more instantaneous. So that will allow us to scale and create efficiencies both not in just the card business, but also actually in the the payments business as well or the the bank to bank business. We put our mass payments product live in the second half of twenty twenty four. We've already got a number of customers using that successfully, and we're seeing the number of customers and the number of transactions and payments going out of that increase month on month. So that's really, really good to see. And as I mentioned, we've increased the number of counterparties that we deal with to allow us ultimately to to deal in more currencies in more countries.

13:16 So, again, that that really happy with that. And then finally on future proofing the business, I'm very, very mindful and payments businesses need to be diversified to protect them. So by expanding our global net, we our global network, we are essentially diversifying our our payment corridors.

13:40 This also, as a byproduct, allows us to diversify revenue. And particularly within the jurisdictions, the geographical jurisdictions that we're going into, this will allow us ultimately to make sure that the business has a a wide diversity in the the corridors of revenue that we're generating. And in terms of actually the setup of each of these jurisdictions, we're very much revenue focused. So whilst much of the operational burden can be taken in The UK, certainly initially, We're very much focused, and this is both in Toronto, in Canada, and and in Dubai, very much revenue focused.

14:29 We've continued to develop our platform to make sure, as I say, that it meets customer needs and and expectations, such as mass payments, and we will continue to do that. So not this isn't a sort of, well, we've done a bit of work and now we're stopping. That will be continual enhancement of that of that platform.

14:54 Again, changed changed the name, Cornerstone FS to FINSETA, which which, you know, we're we're all delighted with. And finally, on the agency banking agreement to allow us to participate directly, into payment schemes, that's a big milestone for the business. We'll be looking forward to sharing with the market exactly, timing on that and exactly the benefits, to the business and actually, more importantly, to our customers.

15:25 I'll hand over to Judy now for the financials. Thanks, James. So, obviously, this is all based on our trading update that we released last week. Currently, unaudited as you will expect. We expect to release our full annual report, during April. So as I said, trading update only selected, headline numbers, so, you know, bear with me that that that I can't go into huge amounts of detail at the moment. But starting with revenue, we had headline growth of 19% up to 11,400,000 for 2024.

16:03 However, on on an underlying basis, that growth rate was more like 26%. So excluding the white label revenue that we off boarded, fully during at the end of twenty twenty three and some licensing revenue we generated, following the disposal of our Avila Health subsidiary. That was driven by growth in customer numbers. So a 59 customers trading during 2024. That's up 17% year over year, and that in itself continued, driven by the continued expansion of our go to market, route through our introducer network. It's fair to say that, our rate of acquisition of of of trading customers accelerated in the second half. So we added 46 in the first half and a 107, in h two, and we'll undoubtedly see the

16:52 benefit of that in the coming year. Indeed, we we started the year. Appreciate it. It's it's mid January only. So, you know, you can't, you know, use that as a as a a definitive benchmark for the coming year. But we've had a very, very, very strong start to the year in line with expectations, I think, given that that on ramp we had from from the end of twenty twenty four. But we've kind of broke internal records across the board for revenue per day, revenue per week, largest trade, etcetera, etcetera. So, yeah, giving us really, really strong confidence as we move into the new year. Moving on to some profitability measures. So first, starting with gross margin, that improved 65.5%, up 2.1 percentage points.

17:43 That's driven mainly by the end of the white label business,

17:47 as we've already, you know, talked about and and has kind of been a trending up that that we've seen over successive halves. Adjusted EBITDA continued to improve, so 2,220,000, sorry, 2,000,000, a growth of 18%, consistent with our sales growth and maintaining the EBITDA margin year over year at 18%. I think, importantly, you know, we've talked about that margin, being somewhat depressed, by some of the operating costs we've laid on to support both our our full commercialization in Canada and Dubai and and cards and also future proofing our global compliance system. So pleased to see that being maintained at 18%, notwithstanding that focused investment.

18:36 Lastly, in terms of the, as I say, the metrics that are within the the 2024 trading update, turning to cash, we ended the year with 2,600,000 in gross cash generating a cash inflow for the year of point three. That includes operating cash flow of 2,200,000 in 2024. So you can see compared to the 2,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA, a a very strong cash conversion rate, again, demonstrating that that we're not a working capital intensive business, something that we expect to continue going forward. And total cash flow for the year really, reflects, some of some of the investments that James has already talked about. So we spent 1,500,000 in in capital related items during the year.

19:25 That's compared to 500,000 in in in the prior year. So those investments, you know, we're talking about card program, those enhancements to our systems, some, IP related, additions with with our new our new trading name. Those will undoubtedly benefit future years. Indeed, we saw a small benefit even in 2024 from adding the mass payments functionality. So, yeah, really excited about those those platform, you know, those platform enhancements. Indeed, I'd I'd encourage anyone who's kind of tried us before if you, you know, go

20:01 and do do so again. I I would hope that you can see a tangible difference in our kind of in our service offering really kind of bringing us more into line with, you know, how you'd feel using a banking app, etcetera. We ended the year with 600,000 in net cash. So after the deduction of the 2,000,000 loan note that's due for repayment in August 2026, having repaid 200 k of loan notes during the year. And that's it for me. Just, as I say, key headlines from our trading update. Right. So just to to round off in in summary,

20:46 we're we continue to be profitable and continue to grow. Our regulatory, permissions are expanding. We believe that we've made a significant strategic progress in 2024, and and we'll continue to execute on that plan, in 2025, 2026. We have absolutely got the right people, to do the job.

21:13 We are continuing to invest in really, really good people to grow the business. Ultimately, this is a people business like any business. And unless you have the right people, then it won't work. We genuinely believe we have got the right people, and we'll continue to hire people with the right expect

21:35 And we continue to innovate through partnership. We're not pretending we can do all this ourselves. Ultimately, we believe that there's more benefit, for for the business, for our customers if we innovate through partnership, which we will continue to do. As the numbers say, you know, we we we continuing to increase our cash even though we are investing, on our third strategic pillar, which is, future pre excuse me, future proofing the business. And we will continue to do that to create a long term sustainable business and doing that via increasing our geographical presence and making sure sure that our revenue is diversified.

22:28 With that, I think that ends the presentation. Perfect. James, Judy, if I may just jump back in there. 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. James, Judy, as you can see, we have received

22:58 a number of questions that were both presubmitted ahead of today's event as well as a number that have come in throughout your presentation this morning as well. So firstly, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. And, Judy, James, at this point, if I may just hand back to you just to read out those questions and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so. And if I pick up from you at the end, that'd be great. Thank you. Sure. Thank you very much. So I'm just gonna curate questions and read them out, and assign them to kind of James or myself. So the first one we have is what percentage of customer numbers would you class as repeat customers who transact multiple times throughout the year?

23:35 You know, I I think we we typically have a a sixty forty split in terms of corporate customers versus high net worth individuals. You can definitely treat the the corporates as as recurring, some of those multiple times a month, some even daily, but, that that would definitely be a lead indicator for repeat customers. Even the 40% high net worth individuals, we see them, you know, maybe one or two times a year depending on their their investment. They're they're normally investment focused trading. And and all of this really is, you know, whilst we we kind of may see the the high net worth as as potentially not repeat customers as we've always said in our in our, presentations.

24:20 For us, it's the underlying introducer that that we have full visibility on in terms of their referring customers. So they're they're the repeat business for us, in that sense. Last year, you mentioned aspirations to become oops. I just lost it. A 100 mill a 100,000,000 revenue business. Do you still feel that is realistic, and in what time frame? James, do you wanna take that? Yeah. I will take I will take that. Genuinely, yes, I do. I think as the business grows in terms of, geographical jurisdiction plus also product set, that that will our our revenue growth will accelerate. I do believe the 100,000,000 is is very, very much achievable, and I have been within businesses that have exactly been where we are today and have grown to that in in a relatively short time scale. So I genuinely believe it's possible. I've seen it done, and I do believe we can do it.

25:26 K. Thank you, James. I will there are a number of these on the same theme, so I'll just kinda group them together if that's okay. Are you confident in meeting market expectations for revenue in 2025? I think, you know, absolutely, as as I mentioned, we had a very strong we've had a very strong start to the year driven by that customer acquisition in the second half. The analyst consensus has us at 14,100,000 revenue for 2025. That's a year over year growth rate of 2020 of 24%, which is consistent with our underlying growth. So as of today, extremely optimistic for the year ahead and expecting to deliver it in line with market expectations, the significant growth that that implies. With sorry. Who do you see as your competitors?

26:18 James, do you wanna take that? I mean, the the there are probably over 400 payments businesses in The UK alone, ranging from one man bands, and these are very much sort of the white label businesses that we've extricated ourselves from all the way up to the tier one banks. Ultimately, the majority of business is still controlled by tier one banks. So they, by the nature of that, are still our main competitors, and which is why, we believe the service offering is very, very important. And we still consider, the the sort of, even on a global scale, the the the tier one banks to be our our main competitors. Thank you.

27:07 So I've got another question here regarding, 2025 outlook. Could you comment on your expectation for off OpEx in 2025, particularly in light of international growth? Again, I'll I'll refer to the kind of analyst consensus that's out there. So that has, OpEx forecast at 5,800,000 for 2025. That's around the 8% growth rate. Obviously, as we've always said, you know, we're we're really highly focused on on, you know, tight tight cost control, closely optimizing our OpEx, and there were some, you know, one off a little bit of one off expenditure in twenty twenty four twenty twenty four that we're looking to redeploy redeploy year over year. And any expenditure, obviously, beyond that 5.8 would would would need to be in support of our of our growth pillars, and and we would expect to update the market accordingly.

28:01 With cash and cash equivalents rising to 2,600,000, what are the strategic priorities for deploying this cash? I'll take that initially, James, and feel free to comment. So as as I've said, so 2,600,000 gross cash that leaves us 2,600,000 in in net cash given the 2,000,000 loan notes that are due for repayment next year. I think in in general, you know, we we're very, very always been, focused on, servicing our growth aspirations from our own balance sheet. And we would certainly you know, over the near near term, we would certainly see us reinvesting the cash, any any cash, you know, in excess of of of kind of any any any debt.

28:46 We'd certainly see that reinvesting in the business to deliver shareholder benefit. And I think, you know, importantly, obviously, as a regulated business as well, we have to continue to demonstrate a strong balance sheet, particularly as we move into new jurisdictions, so kind of multiple regulators looking at our capitalization as well. James, anything you wanna add there? Yeah. I mean, one one one of the key things that I'm I'm absolutely set on is not having any surprise solutions for current shareholders. And and I'm I'm very pleased that we can achieve our our growth ambitions through our own cash, and and this sort of just gives us security that we can do. So, you know, I think underlying question is there will there be a a a dividend paid in the near term? Ultimately, no. We're a growth company.

29:39 Yep. How do your unit transaction costs compare to a platform like Wise? I'll give that to you, James, if that's okay. Might be a hospital pass, I'm looking at these. I I I unfortunately, I don't know what Wise's unit costs are, so I'm not in a position to comment. I think, you know, from a from a customer perspective, we would see it as a very different service offering. And I think, you know, that's always where we've differentiated ourselves. We are we are a service led business. So, you know, yes, wise, you know, on the face of it, know, they may advertise some very attractive rates.

30:25 You know, that may as you look behind it, as as as you put scale through it, that may that may be somewhat different. But I think the key thing for us, as I say, is service offering. If if you if if you're a business or or a high net worth individual transacting large amounts of money, you want someone on the end of the phone, and good luck trying to get that, from from a platform based business like like Wise or or Revolut. Remind us, is the 2,000,000 loan note repayment in just one lump sum? Yes. It is. It is, and it's a 6% coupon until, redemption in, August 2026. It's nonconvertible just for clarity. New products to be customer driven, what are customers asking for, and how do you prioritize?

31:17 James, do wanna take that? Yeah. I will take that. That's a very actually a very, very good question. Yeah. We we all ultimately get a lot of customer feedback. We're very driven by what our customers need. And, ultimately, we prioritize on the basis of, and and and let's be you know, we're a commercial organization. So we we prioritize on a number of things, one of which is commercial benefit to the business. Ultimately, also, we benefit we we we try and prioritize on the number of customers and the usability of of any new product or or enhancement, how many customers it will benefit. If it's a very niche little thing benefiting one customers, then obviously one customer, then obviously that goes lower down the priority.

32:16 We know, for for example, the mass payments was being asked for by men quite a few customers and actually was an integral part for for many of them to and it would enable their their their their own processes to be a lot smoother and save them money. So, obviously, that was a a bit of a no brainer for us. Some of the things are usability. So, you know, customers say, well, it would be easier if we could do this or that. And it's on the face of it, not a big change. But, actually, when you're sort of amalgamating all these things, actually, it makes a huge, huge difference. And as Judy said before, you know, the platform today is is actually quite different to what it was a year ago in terms of not potentially look and feel, but actually the functionality, from the onboarding process to the payment upload process, lots of different things, and it's all incremental.

33:15 So, you know, these are all small gains, but adding up to quite a lot when you when you all when you sort of add them all throughout the year. And and one of the key things that we do do, in terms of our product development and our our releases, is we're not sort of making huge releases on a semiannual basis or annual basis. We're doing small incremental releases. So it means that we act actually have sprints of two weeks, three weeks, and then release at the end of that. So you can constantly see the platform being updated, which which is a really, really good in my opinion, a really, really good way of doing it. Both internally, people can see progress, but also externally as well. Yep.

34:01 Thanks, James. Given your emphasis on in person servant service and investment in SG and A, when and how will we see operating leverage? I think there are a number of ways to look at this, and I think it's it's, you know, potentially hard to see that in a in a in a business that's always reinvesting for growth. And we have very much a a view on long term growth. So as James already outlined, you know, we're already looking at scoping our next area of, you know, regulatory expansion. So it will it will be difficult, I think, to see that coming through in the near term, but I can tell you, you know, we we've certainly positioned ourselves to to do that. And I think, you know, I've always said that that a a 30% EBITDA margin is is is very representative of a of a steady state business, maybe even higher than that.

34:54 And I think, yeah, particularly, as I say, positioning ourselves for for that international growth. We've already talked about the investments in in kind of in in compliance, both technology, you know, and supporting that with with head count effectively ready to to to deal with the international expansion that that we're looking at in in the coming years. Can you describe your introduced network? How many introducers? What growth in this introduce network happened in 2024? And what is the objective for the future? Do you wanna talk generally about that, James? It's not something Yep. We typically disclose in terms of numbers, but I'm sure you can talk to it generally. Yeah. Generally, so as I sort of mentioned at the the outset, the types of introducers, typically, our introducers are lawyers, accountants, property agents. Now we do have some sort of outliers and and different types of introducers, but typically, that's the the the target market that we're going for.

35:55 All of our salespeople are targeted to, effectively build and develop introducer relationships. We have no direct to customer. So traditionally, in the the FX and payments world, the traditional model was you make 200 phone calls and you get a client. And it was all very much direct phone bashing as it used to be called, but ultimately, it was very much direct to customer. That is not our model at all, and it's all very a personal relationship and developing those personal relationships with introducers. We we target, as I say, all of our sales guys on growing that growing that network and and not just growing it, but maintaining it because main maintenance is is vital.

36:50 Ultimately, we've gotta be show showing our introducers that we're providing their customers that they're introducing a an exceptional level of service. And that's really what we're what we're trying to do and what we're achieving. In terms of number of introducers, I don't specifically know the exact number, but it is growing all the time, and the diversity of types of introducers are growing also. I wouldn't I would I would say, though, in terms of our geographical expansion, our go to market strategy remains exactly the same. So in Dubai and in Canada, we do not anticipate, and we're not going to be changing our go to market strategy. So, again, both of those jurisdictions will be done through introduce through the introducer network.

37:41 And what what is good is we can leverage most of our introducers are international by nature, I. E. They have offices in in other jurisdictions other than, say, The UK. And we can leverage those those relationships to to ensure that we can manage, say, a company that has an office in The UK and Dubai that that we're basically managing both of both of those elements of the company. So so it it fits very nicely. And and, ultimately, it's all about maintaining those relationships. Thanks, James. I've got a question here on active customers. So 1,059 active customers. How has average revenue per customer evolved?

38:31 So, yeah, I think I think, you know, it's implied, revenue divided by active customers. So just short of £11,000 in in revenue per customer during 2024. You know, we typically say our our our margin on on revenue is about one percent. So you can, extrapolate that, and say, you know, each customer traded, you know, roughly 1,100,000, in terms of flow through us. I think, you know, we did see a very large step up in that average cost average revenue per customer during, 2023. I would say, you know, that was I I would say that was probably reflective of our life cycle and positioning as a business, last year. I would expect, you know, as we go forward, the the customer number to be the main driver of of the of the revenue growth, and and that to be the the larger growth rate as compared to revenue per customer.

39:35 It's probably financial, but I'll give it to you, James, if that's the case. I've got a number another one for me. Is there an argument to dilute existing shareholders through a rights issue to accelerate growth? There's always an argument to doing it. But, ultimately and and this is not necessarily reflective of our business, but I think, generally, the the the the markets, particularly the small cap markets currently, I I genuinely don't think the value is there. And I think for for a share a current shareholder, dilution at these sort of levels, particularly when we know we can execute on our strategy with our current cash flow, I think would be a bit of a bit of a kick in the teeth, quite frankly. So I'm very mindful of dilution, particularly at these levels.

40:25 I I would ultimately say, could we could we accelerate our growth strategy? Probably. Would we want to, as I say, at these levels? Probably not. Or or, in fact, definitely not. So so I think it's more less about our business and more about the the general environment that we're currently in in in particularly in relation to smaller caps. I think that's right. I I would only say, you know, that I think there would be a risk that that the return would be somewhat diluted by the major step up that would require. And what I mean in terms of step up is we we're still a a small business. You know, we're we're 45 heads, to kind of, you know, fully accelerate at at a growth that would kinda justify a rights issue. That's a a lot to bring at bring together. And I think, therefore, undoubtedly increases the the the risk to the shareholder.

41:22 And and, you know, from the outset, we've always been very focused on on on kind of, you know, rightsizing our investment and and kind of cutting our cloth accordingly. I have one question in terms of h two. Were you satisfied with h two? I think so from a revenue perspective, I I would say it was slightly, slightly down, you know, in in terms of where we expected to be. Just ever so slightly, you know, we we were we we finished a 100 k below analyst consensus for the year. I think, yeah, within that, we we did see a a slow October, which, you know, we we've kind of potentially, you know, extrapolated to to being uncertainty in the market around around budget, and it was certainly reflected in our discussions with with other other people in the market who similar who experienced a similar thing.

42:21 I think that said, as I've already talked about, we've had really strong customer acquisition, in the second half, and, that's really, you know, putting us in good stead, and we're already seeing the fruits of that. I think outside of the financials, I think we we gen this is one of those, for me, one of those kind of periods where almost the financials don't tell the whole picture. I think there's been tremendous progress on on those investment pillars and and setting ourselves up for for that next phase of growth. So for me, as I say, this that one's a little bit beyond the financials. James, not sure if you've got anything to add. Yeah. I I I would absolutely agree with that. I think being totally frank and honest, if but, you know, with the question asked directly, were we happy with h two?

43:12 I wasn't happy revenue wise. I would have liked more. As you say, October was was disappointing, but but, I would have liked more from h two. That said, operationally, against strategy, we made huge, huge progress, and we've done sort of going back over what, you know, what we've done. You know, we're a small business, but we've done a remarkable number of things over that period of time. So so I'm not disappointed in that. I'm excited about what's gonna come in 2025 and all the groundwork that we've done that will help us grow both revenue operation, everything else within 2025. So so it's a sort of double edged sword, if you like. But but being being totally honest, yes, I am I'm disappointed with 2020 h 02/2024.

44:08 But that said, you know, the fact that we've had a a fantastic start to 2025 sort of helps helps that bitter pill being swallowed. I think in I think that's it for the questions actually, James. Everything else we've we've kinda covered already. Perfect. Judy, James, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time there and addressing all of those questions that came in from investors. But James, 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'd be great. Certainly. Well, I I'm hoping everyone can see that there's a very clear strategy here.

44:56 I'm hoping that people recognize that we are executing on that strategy and that we're making significant progress against that strategy even within a short period of time, but with a long term plan and the belief that we will be able to execute on that strategy. And and moreover, that we'll be able to do it through our own, cash from ongoing business. So without the need to dilute, without the need for cash calls. So, you know, the this is a relatively small business currently, but with huge, huge potential. And as we grow geographically, we grow product wise, what we are doing is set setting the groundwork for a a significant business with a lot of long term potential.

45:52 Thank you. James, that's great. And, Judy, as well, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? You will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of FINSETA PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good morning to you all. Thank you.