Frenkel Topping Group (LSE:FEN) — Final Results

0:02 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the FRENKEL TOPPING GROUP PLC final results presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the wrong right hand side of the screen. Simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, company can review your questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'm sure the company will be most grateful for your participation. And now that I'd to hand over to

0:33 CEO, Richard Fraser. Good afternoon. Thanks, Mark. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining. It will unfortunately just be with me this afternoon. Elaine's had to go back up to Manchester. She's her youngest son is is poorly. So, hopefully, you can put up with me for the next, how long, forty forty five minutes. So we some of you may be aware in the last three years, we acquired a number of businesses to help us with our strategic goals to grow our business out. We operate in the personal injury and clinical negligence space. We are a professional service business pre settlement, and we are a wealth manager post settlement. Again, apologies for my voice. I've got a bit of a cold and and two days of presenting is taking its toll, so, hopefully, I can get through this.

1:23 So what I wanted to do, particularly with consumer duty coming in and and our responsibility on the outcomes of consumer duty is to really, like, link in our strategic objectives to our clients and what we're attending trying to do with our clients and how that then flows through where we want to get to. So, know, hence, provide more clients with a better quality of life. You know, we're dealing with catastrophic injuries, life changing injuries injuries, and if we can manage their assets in the right way, it's gonna help them with that quality of life. And our charity is set up to help, individuals who had an accident, a life changing event, and who will not have compensation. We want to provide the right advice at the right time. That helps with client retention, best in in consumer which is embedded in everything we do and continue to deliver our service proposition and be the leading expert in litigation support, which will help us to drive our market share.

2:19 When I set out last year with the management team in the next five years, I wanted us to get to a a 15% market share, which could potentially double revenue and double EBITDA. And for us, it would then we actually recognized for the value and expertise we provide to both our law panel clients and the underlying client who receives the compensation award. So this is the makeup of the group. It's full of distinct parts to it. We are we started right at the beginning in the major trauma centers, which we're now in 10. We provide a signpost and service for people who have had a catastrophic event, with welfare benefits advice, employment advice, rehab physio, helping with the discharge plan if somebody's had an accident in Manchester but lives in London, how do they get discharged back home or to the local hospital?

3:11 But only one third of people in the trauma center will have a a potential claim, two thirds don't. So is where the charity plays an important part. We we give, the major trauma advisers a debit card from the charity with £3,000 on them. Up to a £100, they've got discretion to spend over that and come back to the charity for approval. But, again, you just you know, it's literally things like clothes to go home and paying for car parking fees for a husband's spouse to come in this hospital. You wouldn't some of the things we've had to do is is is is unbelievable. But, anyway, it's there to help. We then go into the professional services section where we're providing litigation support for lawyers through our forensic accountants, armed force. They do loss of earnings claims, complex loss of earning claims, self employed company directors.

4:03 We at FRENKEL's do the pension loss because if you've got a loss of earnings claim, you then they factor a pension loss. Partners in costs and bid wells are cost lawyers, which I will come back to later, and so may provide the medical legal reports. We are experts at the court at this stage, so our duty is to the court when we report, and our clients are other solicitors. We're hoping through this pre second process that we have become a trusted adviser so that when the claimant gets their damages, we hopefully can get convert them into a client for the independent financial advice business, FRENKEL TOPPING Limited, and then ultimately, into our own discretion for management business. And the post settlement services I'll again touch upon as we go through the presentation.

4:53 So operational highlights. Last few years have been a very difficult time, market conditions as we all know, volatility. But, nevertheless, we've increased our FUM and our DFM, which has, you know, been a great result for us. We launched last year because at the start of the year with interest rates starting to rise, clients were getting a little bit concerned about volatility, particularly as interest rates were rising. So we launched our money market fund in June, and that has been a great success, and that's currently got 39,000,000 in it. And, again, I'll come back to that later. Our knowledge hub, we so we are accredited by the law society to train lawyers with CPD. Our training program is CPD. It's the way that we into one of the ways we do our business development and marketing.

5:44 8,000 law firms have sorry. Lawyers have signed up to it during last year, and one of the investments we have made is is is an enterprise website knowledge hub. Capturing data keys when a lawyer now signs up on the knowledge hub, all of the information of who he is and who he or she is, which firm they work for, what their position is, partner, senior associate, associate training, whether in PI and clinic goes straight into our back office CRM system, intelligent office IO. That then allows us to then be very targeted in our marketing BD, which is a a big improvement on trying to do it manually manually, which we're doing last year, which meant we didn't always capture everybody who attended. Very proud of our welfare benefits team. They they because when somebody has a catastrophic injury, income is very very often the first thing to go. So last year, our benefits team reclaimed £2,000,000 in unclaimed benefits for our clients and helping them out at the most vulnerable time.

6:47 And, again, just bringing this whole trusted adviser relationship with the clients so that as we go through that process, we hope that they continue to benefit from what we do for them. Two years ago at our conference, I said that the future leaders of the business were in the room that day at our staff conference. And since then, we've made 33 internal promotions demonstrating evidence how important our people are because they are the future success and how determined we are to develop and and and promote our people, within the group. And then lastly, charity's growing. 79 applications last year, our charity board alone raised 29,000 in October, which is great. But all this is, you know, leading to particularly with our people on 99% retention ratio, which we've kept again.

7:41 You can see where the assets have gone from 22 to 23. And the other highlight was we did win the contracts in two more two new major trauma centers, Old Hay Children's Hospital in Liverpool and the John Adambrooks Hospital in Oxford, which again was a was a great success for us. So if we move on into the financial highlights, I think these numbers speak for themselves. You can see the growth across the group in both revenue, EBITDA, both our recurring revenue and our transit trans, actual revenue. And in fact, the strength of our transactional business, that diversification of revenue has helped with the growth and the the success of the business, particularly the markets being where they are. So, again, very, very happy with that. And and you can see I don't need to go through these because that these numbers speak for themselves. Moving on, we've just tried to put this in a in a graphics on the growth in a graph form to make easy, but I think the important thing is the box on the right hand side to see that we have maintained our margins even with, you know, the backdrop of volatile markets not quite, you know, earning as much in our recurring revenue and wage inflation. So, you know, we we again Elaine and her team worked really hard to maintain those margins.

9:04 We've just shown the bridge there between what's organic and what's acquired growth just to demonstrate again the success of our acquisitions and how that with our help, a lot of these businesses have continued to grow as we've acquired them, which again is really pleasing. And then just splitting out the 51% 52% growth between all organic and and 2022 to '23. Sorry. So, again, all all definitely going in the right direction. And then just lastly, again, generation, Elaine, really happy. She was here in between. She's really happy with the cash generation last year. Credit, you know, fair place to their credit control, the strength of the credit control team. You know, we do a less a lot of our work is on a deferred fee basis because of the nature of the work.

9:57 We have a 99% recovery of our age debt. We get paid because we we get paid by the defendants in in our age debt or by an insurance policy that lawyer takes out in the event of failed cases. But again, it's important that you see cash generation. I mean, we didn't make any acquisitions last year, which has helped. We haven't got some deferred consideration this year. But if you look at the broker's note, you will see our cash generation will improve and increase over the coming years. I mentioned the money market fund and to be fair, Accenture, our DFM, were very impressed with how quickly they put this together for us when we asked it. I think it's also important to note how well they've done. You know, our mantra in a century is defending the capital, defending the downside, giving the clients a smoother investment journey. You know, our our strength is three, four, and five risk profile. That's where that's where most of our clients sit.

10:58 So this is a two year chart against benchmark. And, yes, of course, we are down slightly, but far better than probably before better than benchmark and better than most of our competitors, which is demonstrated by this, scatter chart over a three year performance, which is an ARC from ARC, which shows Safety First, our core flagship, investment service solution, TOPPING GROUP those five dots are our main competitors, and they're defensive cautious funds. And, again, the MPS solution, those medium, right, you know, on benchmark and, again, very competitive with with our with our competitors, and those are the the dots there and the competitor from an NPS point of view. So really happy with the way Simon and his team have performed in the last two years.

11:50 And like I say, it is testament to the fact that we've got a nine out 10910% potential clients, and we continue to win assets in beauty parades. So this is just, I've done this slide before, but just to say that, you know, the market landscape has not changed. You know, the catastrophic end, the NHS is paying out 2,000,000,000. Insurance, motor insurance are still paying out 2.4. This doesn't include accidents at work, public liability, so this is really the RTAs and NHS. Of that 4,000,000,000 plus circa 2,000,000,000 is is past losses, accommodation payments, adaptations, equipment. So we I don't know if we should say there's a roundabout 2,000,000,000 each year available for investing investable assets, which is new money coming to to markets. We want to get to 15% market share, so our goal is to get to 300,000,000 a year in new assets. We we did a 138,000,000 last year, a rise in the previous year, the year before that. And on this year, we've had a great start. So I think we're, you know, getting into that within five years is is definitely on that time horizon, we will do that.

13:06 So it's going back to our strategy. We know where is that? Well, it is focusing on just development activity within our, professional services business, driving the relationships there, creating the further opportunities hopefully for the IFA to convert, being innovative in our product development. So I mentioned before the insurance policy that a lawyer can take out in sorry. A lawyer assesses a claim, risk assesses, yes. I believe you've got a claim here. We'll then take out an after the event insurance which pays out if the claim falls over for any reason and pays expert witnesses like us, so that's why we know we'll get paid. We've developed a product with Markel, one of the leading providers at AT and This is an exclusive product to FRENKEL.

13:54 So as soon as one of our clients, one of our law firms sign up with Markel, Markel provide them with £20,000 for rehab funding for the for P, the patient's plaintiff. And this was launched last month, and then we've already seen just this week, well, last week, I suppose, in Kings, a gentleman went in, with serious injuries. We got rehab from him straight away, and he's been discharged, probably two to three weeks earlier than he would have been. His outcome is far better and more Angus important. The NHS have a bed filled up a lot quicker, so they they really bought into this. As I say, it is exclusive to us. We give Markel the distribution through our cardinal panel, and it just is another way reason for our partners that we're helping our partners, helping their clients, and help us to embed into their into their process.

14:51 If you let us here, again, she'd tell you that we believe there's a lot of opportunities and synergies and definitely around the margins. We believe in these businesses, we can improve margins. And now we've got the acquisitions over with now the partners. That's a lot of the work her team are doing. You know, where can we see margin improvement in the underlying businesses, which will only help to improve the gross margin. And I'm gonna come back to the cost business in a minute. So how's you know, three three pillars really, you know, the people people are, you know, are absolutely crucial. You know, our graduate apprenticeship stream is crucial, and I got asked this morning about young people, you know, the Gen Z. And I can only say that what we see in our business is young people who are hardworking, ambitious, want to develop, want to progress, and have, you know, have have have really, really come into the business, and and, you know, they are part of the third three internal promotions.

15:52 And when I come on to talk about the charity in a little while, it's again part of what we do. I think they really buy into. So we, you know, we are very happy with that. But there is one thing, though, I am discussing with the board. We do not have an LTIP in place for our key employees. And whilst we've got very good staff retention, it is something we need to put in place. I am discussing that with the board at the moment. Data technology, you know, key. I've talked about the enterprise website, the knowledge hub, the the data that we get, the dashboards that we can now produce out of the intelligent office system just help us with conversion ratios, looking at where which clients are instructing us, how those con compliance those instructions track through, and and continuing to improve.

16:40 That will help us again with our with our very targeted marketing and business development And AI, I mean, we've already seen in one of the cost businesses by using internal chatbots to help the lawyers and their cost lawyers save a hundred hours a month through, you know, the use of that. So we definitely think AI is going to help us in the future. Intelligent office have developed their own within AI within AIR themselves and that when one of our IFAs, when it's launched, think it's dropped launched next month, goes to future to a fact finding meeting and take all the details down, risk profiles, cash flow modeling, everything we do needs and objectives because our client bank is all behind. They're gonna draw down. It's it's very easy to segment them, and they will record the meeting and then produce a reason why letter of that recording. So, of course, it will have to be topped and tailed, and and, you know, a human being will have to make sure that it is right, but it it will save so much time back in the office, which will mean, you know, we can do more work without taking more staff on.

17:46 And then the the development of our relationships, it is a key part, continuing to build out our relationships and and they're getting stronger and stronger each month and, week as as they pass. So I mentioned the legal cost. So legal cost is important, as part of this process because the Jackson report reforms in 2013 put some process in place. So when a lawyer has a catastrophic injury case, he he or she, at some point, will need to do a cost budget. And that cost budget will cover all the experts they want to instruct, whether that's consultants, doctors, architects, financial experts, medical legal experts for care reports, etcetera, etcetera. They have to list them all down in the cost budget, which the judge approves.

18:40 The consequence of not getting an expert on the cost budget so let's say they didn't get a paying expert and suddenly realized they need one. All the experts on the cost budget are paid by for by the defendants as disbursements in the action. If they need an additional one after the cost coverage has been approved, then the claimant has to pay for out of their damages. So they would have to have a discussion with the families, the merits of paying for this additional report. So, again, you'll get involved early in the cases, knowing who's dealing with and what type of case. And then at settlement in the interparty cost assessment, that's when the cost consultants come back again, lawyers. They work very well for the claimants. They get their filing order to make sure that a grade a funeral at £500 an hour is not doing. Checking back stating is that grade d funeral should be doing at a £180 an hour. So they get the final order, make sure it's all right for you and is doing the right work, and then go and negotiate with the defendants to get the bill paid as soon as possible. So finds an important role for the claimant lawyers for cash flow. But, again, it just tells us when case is settling.

19:48 So it then it helps if it's one of our cases that we know that's settling, and we know then that we need to look to see if we can get, and have a conversation with the the claim or the professional deputy post settlement. And then a and m b, you can do the court protection work for court protection deputies post settlement, and I and I I will come back to that in a little while. This new acquisition is gonna give us the this is the one section where we can bring them all together, create one new brand and and and we believe become leading legal cost business, clearly, one of the largest legal cost business in The UK providing these services to lawyers. It will allow us to harmonize. It will allow us to have synergies. For example, one of the things we've done in in certain parts in cost is something called Proclaim, which is a system that has the files transferred across digitally.

20:48 On the old system, it used to sometimes take two weeks to get these files across because of these large large PI and clinic faces. You they could have 50,000 documents that they're trying to digitally send over. We invest in ProClaim at the end of last year. This can speed this up to to a day to twenty four hours, and more importantly, it brings it in a date order, which didn't always happen, and they they they'd spent hours trying to get the files in order, which just was not to not fee paying. So this has been a great great set in saving the time, allows the fairness to be more efficient, and we can now put this across the whole of the of the cost business and create a new brand to go out into the market. So what Northwest Law is interesting here is in Manchester, nice little nice business. They've got clients that they deal with that we don't.

21:44 This we've been allowed for this because the two principles are for various personal reasons, which is not appropriate to go into. I'm not do not want to be in long term. One is going to leave as soon as we've done the integration. The other one will be there and will step back, which is fear in the future, so we'll still be around. But it's gonna allow us to take this business and pull it together. Bidwell, who was Bidwell Henderson, we actually promoted her to director of strategic implementation, and she's gonna lead this. Her experience in in the cost world is is first class. So she will lead this whole development, and and that's all. We are really excited about this to pull all this together. So m and a will continue, but it's not our main focus. You know, there's nothing really big out there that we can you know, we'll go to look for. We've got a revolving credit facility in place of 7,500,000.

22:36 We will get more bolt ons like this cost business, maybe care and case management. These will tend to be lifestyle lifestyle owner managed businesses. And so we get approached all the time, but, you know, it has to be right for us. So that will continue, but our main focus now is on the growth and how we can extend our reach and create market share in our marketplace. Important that I brought this up, obviously, duty. I'm not sure all of you are aware of the four outcomes that have come from consumer duty, and I'll come back to that on the next slide. But, there is some implications around this case of p w versus IMTC around, the fine duty and duty of a of a deputy. So just to recap there, if you are financially unable to manage your affairs because you have an acquired brain injury, you have a wrongful birth child, a minor with brain injury, all that into Alzheimer's and dementia in the elderly, the court of protection will stand in in your stead to manage your financial affairs.

23:46 They will appoint a deputy, and in our world of personal injury and clinical negligence, it's always a lawyer. 99% of the time, it's a lawyer. The court order says that that lawyer will stand in your shoes as your agent and make decisions as if it were their own money and in your best interest, in the best interest of p. So, not this case two years ago. There was a case of AA where p was AA and the lawyer or the sorry. The professional deputy was buying a house and adaptive property, used their in house conveyancing department, could have got the conveyancing cheaper from another law firm, and went in front of the court, and the court upheld that their fiduciary duty was to act in Pee's best interest.

24:32 This was a conflict of interest and ratified the court's power to say that if you're gonna go internally, then you should get court's permission. PW, is an IMTC's Erwin Mitchell Trust Corporation. Erwin Mitchell Trust Corporation also have Erwin Mitchell Asset Management. They appointed from Erwin Mitchell Trust Corporation their own asset management business. They apply to the court for a statutory will, and when you apply for a statutory will, the official solicitor is appointed to represent p's interest in statutory will. They saw the appointment and referred it to the court. And three weeks ago, Caroline Hilde, judge Hilde, came out to, you know, just confirm this is a huge conflict of interest. Your, you know, your fiduciary duty is always to pay, and you haven't been to the court to get this approved.

25:24 She's given them leave to come back and just to prove why they should be appointed. But I think the implications for us are whilst so we have our joint ventures with law firms, with the independent financial adviser business, not the asset management. However, there, you know, there is a conflict potentially there. One of our JVs, the CEO and I had a discussion already, he's saying that on cost protection cases, he wants to refer it directly to FENKEL TOPPING limited IFA. Conversely, it makes little difference to us, you know, which route it comes down, whether it's directly or fought through the the joint venture. But then you put in consumer duty and our duty over transparency and communication, and is it clear to the client who they're dealing with? Is it the law firm, or is it, frankly, TOPPING limited? So we are just reviewing this whole process at the moment. We're having discussions with our joint venture partners as the way forward.

26:22 It doesn't affect lay clients per se, but we still got consumer duty issue. So it is I just want everybody to be aware that it's on our horizon and we will be looking at this. I think the plus side for us is is the positive is that I was always concerned that if FRENKEL is particularly about biggest JV, you know, what is it got pretty successful? Would they do that themselves? Would they set up their own independent financial adviser business? This now stops any of that. No law firm dealing with deputy work will set up their own in house IFA or asset management business because of this. So actually, that's a big plus for us and an opportunity. So in the consumer duty, we have made great strides of the maturity curve on this.

27:13 We've done our gap analysis on the group basis. There's implementation plans in place. We are continually reviewing and monitoring at every meeting consumer duty is first in general is militant audit. There's an audit trail for the FCA to see what we're doing. We're doing our fair value assessment, which will go to the board on the May 31. Mark Field has been appointed as nonexecutive consumer champions to the board with Mark Holt and I as the executive consumer duty champions. And in fact, the two Marks won an FCA training session on Monday around consumer duty and consumer duty champions, and they came up both of them independently said to me, when they report back with the other people on the call and the comments and and questions being asked, it was obvious we are we are well ahead and and, you well into embedding this.

28:03 So I have no concerns on the report in June June that, you know, it is not it is at the center of everything we do. And and from, you know, the look through by the FCA, I think particularly when labor get in late this year, we'll only become more intensive. So I think we're very well placed to deal with this. So let's say a little bit more about the charity. So, Wright was a ball last year. We had a a Hollywood theme, as you can see, with Marilyn Monroe. Mike Myers there. Morales in the middle in his wheelchair. Morales was 13, playing football in the back garden with his brother, younger brother, had a spinal stroke, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. That's his mom in the background. No claim, obviously. There's some fantastic work being done in the world on robotic AI.

28:51 They couldn't afford that rehab. So the charity has put them through that, and it's you know, he's making great strides, and, hopefully, he will regain mobility and and hopefully be able to walk again at some point in the future. So that's what our charity is doing. It's helping these people who, you know, who haven't got access to, these things or who can't afford them. We've also partnered now with UA ninety two in in Manchester. UA ninety two was set up by Gary Neville, Philip Noble, Ryan Giggs, I think Nikki booked to help underprivileged children to, you know, areas of Manchester to get an education they wouldn't would not all normally get. We've partnered with them, and we are now giving work experience through through our IFA business, the discretion business, but also with our law firm partners and and our accountancy practice giving these kids work experience which they would not normally get. You know, I get asked all the time to give son or daughter work experience, but it's very often a part of a law firm. So you're giving access to this to these children or, say, children or teenagers, owe owe Ms. Dorfs for them they wouldn't normally have. So we're very we're very happy about that and excited about that relationship as it continues to grow.

30:05 And I think this comes back to our value. So we we had a the company conference in January this year. We relaunched all our values. Tracy did a a lot of work going out to many, many discussions, with all different levels of staff to get their views to come out with our our values. And and the one that sort of sticks out for me and at the top is resilience. You know? Life is gonna hit you around the face, both either personally or or business wise, that happens. You know? And so it's not about how hard you get hit. It's whether you can get hit, get up, just keep hunting, move forward. That resilience message really resonated, and we had Simon Weston who, for those of you who remember, The Falklands was Simon was bombed on Sir Gullahan and had ninety percent burns all over his body. If you ever get a chance to listen to him, he was just so motivational. But the resilience he had over the last four years of life has been unbelievable.

30:59 But this comes back, I think, to the charity and and our just cause and who we look after and why our younger members of staff have really bought into who we look after our vulnerable clients. And, again, it's one of the reasons for the charity. We do retain staffing. A lot of them ran the Manchester marathon. Last Thursday, one of the younger members of staff arranged the charity football five assigned competition with 10 of our law firms. We raised £2,200 on the afternoon for the charity, and so therefore, the younger members of staff are now integrating the staff from the law firm. So, you know, it just really works and and helps with, you know, helps from our perspective that the fact that, you know, we do make a living from people who've had this catastrophic event who and like I said before, we wouldn't wish on our on our on your worst enemy, but it is about giving things back and and our staff giving things back.

31:52 So just to finish, outlook. We had a really, really strong start to the year. We've had a record number of files, inquiries into the cost businesses and into SOMMEK and forensic accountancy business. We've had a our our pipeline for both, in beauty parades and in for AUM, FUM, sorry, and direct structures is the is the best that we've ever had, and it's the highest we've ever had. And our and the first quarter new assets, again, record number of new assets from the first quarter. And so the BD team and our sales team, you know, are really excited about that. However, just do on a caution because you'll see on the right hand side, our money market fund has gone from about 39,000,000 to 92,000,000, which again is fantastic, but it is lower margin business compared to the full discretion offering. So whilst, yes, we have had a record month, revenue streams is slightly lower. So whilst, you know, we're comfortable where we are, that's just the caution bit. But from a post point of view, we've now got 92,000,000 with clients in there that at some point when clients get more comfortable around markets, we'll be we'll be able to go back, review, do it in the right way, reason why, and then move them across into the discretionary, business. So so, you know, that's a big plus.

33:15 The the welfare benefits team, again, 666,000 in first three months of the year. Great. And team and team are doing great work to help clients when they need it most. And it's, you know, we are it's all about putting that client first, embedding it with our values, with the consumer duty, and and having the staff the clients at the heart of it with the staff there to help them. So, you know, we are although it's still tough, you know, don't get right. You know, still we are very happy in, you know, with where we've got to and the continued momentum in the in the business and and my time for this five year 15% market share and doubling revenue, doubling it down, we feel is definitely definitely in our our mission to do over that time period. So, Mark, that's me going.

34:04 Richard, thank you very much indeed for updating investors. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen, just while Richard takes a couple of moments to review your questions submitted already. I'd just like to remind you that all your questions will be available on the platform post today's call where it's appropriate to do so. Richard, you've had a number of questions from investors. Thank you to everybody for their engagement this afternoon. If I may just hand back to you just to read out those questions where it's appropriate to do so, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Yeah. So the first one is the introduction of consumer duty guidance. Are you having to significantly change your compliance framework and work in practice? A good question. So, yeah, that we have made some internal changes around that. So one being, for example, Denise was the director of compliance when we start to look at this. She was both a compliance officer and anti money law and an officer for both FRENKEL TOPPING Limited and Ascensia to separately direct business.

35:02 Obviously, that was not she couldn't be, so we have separated that out. And and Adrian, who's the compliance manager, is now the authorization is going through there. So he was he was now the anti money laundering officer and compliance officer for Accenture, and Denise is for FTL. Mark, who's the MD of FTL, used to attend the Accenture meetings. He doesn't do that anymore. He can't. He's gotta keep it completely separate. And so that's definite some some work in practice changes, and and I do think that is one area. Well, I do I did I know that is one area that we're going to have to recruit in to give some Denise, Aig, and and Chris some additional support through there because, you know, it is from that point of view, there is definitely some strength of that. So we will be looking what it is being looked at at the moment.

35:58 Didn't we know we didn't declare any dividend last year. Our dividend policy going forward is still gonna be a progressive dividend, you know, as the acquisitions work itself out, you know, the cash starts to grow, that will become more progressive. Yeah. I think last year, we just felt that we we didn't want to do the interim dividend just just to round where we're on cash cash flow. We might go back to that in the future whether we'll do an interim. That's for a board discussion going forward, but there's no real, you know, nothing sinister around it. We just felt that that we wanted to just do full year dividend going forward. Might might change again in the future, but it will definitely continue to get progressive dividend policy.

36:49 So I can't get too far fast. Right. So what are your plans for your further acquisitions? What do you consider when evaluating new company? Like I said in the presentation, it's really gonna be more bolt ons than than anything really big around the cost businesses and case management. You know, it's gotta be we gotta pay the right price. It's got to be the the culture fit. It's got to be right with the people. And then enhancing really and and sort of would fit in like like, North West all fit in really well of their client bank, because of the FENAs, the type of work that they did, and and the price was right for us. So it's going to be around that. But well, so it will continue. But at at the moment, I can't really see any new areas that were pretty much covered with what we've got.

37:45 And I can't see unless it comes from left field that there will be something really large that we would build.

37:56 So that's the main lessons learned from the acquisitions in prior year. I don't yeah. Don't really think there is, to be honest. I mean, we've had handled it quite well. I think maybe maybe probably maybe just the tech we could have got to grips with a bit quicker, and which we're doing now with with certainly Northwest Law. But, no, I mean, I'm quite happy with what we've done. You know, we got HR, payroll, finance, and trade quick quickly. We we we work very hard with the people to make sure we're engaged with them, got them on board. No, I don't think there is if I'm being perfectly honest. Next question was, could you provide more about the potential market is and its impact on certain new clients and assets under management?

38:46 Well, it's been a very positive on attracting clients and assets as you've seen from the growth from '39 to 92,000,000. The from a client's perspective and it's more lay clients, I would say, than professional deputies. Professional deputies understand that you're investing for the long term. So they are not quite as bothered about short term volatility, and, ultimately, they know they've got a plan in place for care requirements and equipment. But if if then the underclined family is nervous, then they will listen to that. So it's been nothing but a plus for us, the money market solution. Yields 4.7% in terms of short dated instruments in there. So now we've been very, very happy with that, and it it's helped us attract new clients definitely.

39:37 And it's also on a not a lot, but on a couple of occasions, helped us keep clients where clients have maybe got a bit jittery. Rather than leaving completely, we've put them into the money market fund. So, yeah, I know it's been a big plus for us. What are you doing to get your story, Mark? I'm just trying to do as much of this as possible. You know, I do this. I've done the AJ Bell platform, Mellow Monday. You know, whenever I get the chance to tell a story, I do. You know, as a small end business, of course, it's difficult sometimes to get it to the wider marketplace, but, you know, we do as much as we can through that PR to to get the story out into the into the public domain. Richard, that's very kind. You've taken all the questions from investors, so thank you, to everybody for your engagement this afternoon. Richard, I know that feedback, is important to you, and I'll shortly redirect those on the call to give you their thoughts and expectations.

40:31 But perhaps if I may just come back to you for a couple of closing words, after which I'll send investors to give you their feedback. Well, yes, firstly, thanks for everybody's time. And I just think that from our point of view, where we've got to everything we've done, we saw I feel that we delivered on strategy from outset, and it's really now about how we can grow out those into the businesses to enhance the opportunities and and meet growth targets. That's great. Richard, thank you once again for your time this afternoon. Company is asking investors not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the company can better understand your views and expectations. May take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at FRENKEL TOPPING GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and wish you all a very good afternoon.