Premier Miton Group (LSE:PMI) — Interim Results

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the PREMIER MITON GROUP PLC investor presentation. 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 will publish our responses where it's appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. Before we begin, as usual, we would decide to submit the following poll. Poll. If you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand you over to the executive management team from PREMIER MITON. Mike, good afternoon, sir. Thank you very much indeed, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Mike O'Shea. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of PREMIER MITON and I'm joined today by Piers Harrison, our Chief Financial Officer.

0:48 We are presenting our interim results for the half year ended 03/31/2026. I'll take you through the business and the strategic update, and then Piers will cover the financial section before I return at the end to draw those those key themes together. At a high level, this has been a difficult period in which we have responded to performance driven outflows with disciplined action. Closing assets under management were 9,000,000,000 at the 03/31/2026, and AUM remains at 9,000,000,000 as at the May 29 reflecting positive market movements offsetting net outflows. The business has continued to see inflows into our fixed income and retirement income franchises while net outflows have continued to be driven primarily by our US equity strategy.

1:44 During the period, we appointed a new head of global equities, and I'm pleased to note that we have seen improved investment performance in the shorter term across our UK and European franchises, and our sales pipeline is building across fixed income, infrastructure, and thematic multi asset funds. We also identified 2,500,000 of additional annual run rate savings during the period on top of the 5,000,000 already identified. The board is proposing an interim dividend of 1.5p per share with a further 1.5p per share currently expected later in the year as we transition to a new dividend policy for future periods. Overall, while we are far from complacent, we are seeing some early signs of stabilization as performance improves and our actions begin to take effect.

2:40 This slide captures the period quite well and it's worth being clear, I think, on the underlying dynamics here. We have built a diversified platform and as I'll come on to, our distribution engine continues to generate around 3,000,000,000 of gross inflows to our funds each year. However, the impact of performance in a small number of large strategies has been significant. In this half, around 1,000,000,000 of our 1,300,000,000 of net outflows came from our US and European equity strategies with 700,000,000 coming from The US and 300,000,000 from Europe. So while the broader platform is working as intended, those two areas have had a disproportionate impact in this period on the overall outcome, and that is why our actions have been so focused on investment performance in those franchises.

3:40 The core challenge has been really clear. Underperformance in US equities and, until very recently in Europe, has driven outflows, which in turn has put pressure on AUM and on profitability. In response, we've taken a series of actions. Those include the appointment of a new head of global equities to help stabilize performance in our international equities sector. We have made good progress over the last twelve months with a program of cost savings designed to reduce the cost base by around 15%, and we have identified further efficiencies more recently. Importantly, we are also seeing early signs of progress. Short term performance has improved across key funds.

4:25 Relative performance in UK and multi asset has been strong. European equities have recovered in a way that significantly supports stabilization of remaining AUM, and our fixed income business continues to attract regular inflows. So the picture is mixed, but it is moving in the right direction in several important areas. Before going into detail, it is worth just stepping back and looking at the shape of the business. What we have built is a diversified active asset management platform with a range of capabilities across equity, fixed income, absolute return, and multi asset. And that matters in the current environment because it gives us more than one route back to growth, and it helps reduce reliance on any single strategy or market backdrop.

5:22 And one of the strengths of PREMIER MITON is the diversity of its product set. At the March 31, the 9,000,000,000 of AUM was split across fixed income at 30%, multi asset at almost 30%, our equity business at roughly 30%, and our absolute return business at 10%. That diversification helps mitigate the impact of weaker international equity performance. We continue to have exposure to key areas of client demand, and we have seen AUM remain broadly stable in our UK equity and multi asset business, while fixed income has been growing. Each of these strategies are also highly scalable.

6:08 Now our international equities business has clearly been difficult, and there has also been some short term pressure on absolute return following the March derisking. Although we continue to see the longer term case there as being very positive. But the broader point is that this is not a one dimensional business, and that gives us resilience. The second point I would emphasize is that the group has a very well established distribution platform. The UK market remains large and growing, and we continue to participate in it in a meaningful and consistent way. Over time, we have generated around 3,000,000,000 of annual gross inflows across business cycles and around 20,000,000,000 of gross inflows over the last five financial years.

6:56 This slide also notes that this equates to around a 1% market share on a gross flow basis, which we believe indicates strong distribution efficiency relative to our AUM. There are also some specific examples of that strength, including current capture of more than 4% of The UK's strategic bond sector flows and more than 9% of the important mixed asset, 2060% flows alongside consistent access across the IFA Wealth Manager platform and institutional channels. Our gross flow tells us that client demand and our distribution reach remain intact. And as performance improves, we believe that that positions the business well to absorb flows across several scalable franchises.

7:49 I think the key point for shareholders is that as redemptions from underperforming strategies reduce and performance improves, this level of gross flows gives us a clear route back towards net inflows. And just in in terms of demonstrating that distribution strength, you can see that clearly with our fixed income business. This franchise now has five actively managed funds, which are aligned to structural UK income needs, and we have an active pipeline supported by established client engagement. We have also expanded through our Dublin funds to capture offshore demand. The chart shows the steady growth in fixed income assets under management since we launched that those funds, five or six years ago, and that reflects both product relevance and the strength of our client relationship.

8:47 In the current market where clients continue to value income, liquidity, and active risk management, this remains an attractive area for us. And we therefore see this as a franchise with clear capacity to scale over time supported by structural demand for income and the strength of our distribution platform. This slide is intended to show how performance and distribution interact in practice. In European opportunities, the strategy has delivered meaningful outperformance versus both sector and benchmark over time, albeit with a more volatile pattern of delivery reflecting its high conviction approach. The slide shows relative performance since launch alongside assets under management development, and it illustrates that relationship clearly.

9:40 The broader point is that the business has proven distribution capability. Where investment performance is supportive, we can scale successfully. When performance weakens, AUM can be difficult to retain as we have seen in recent periods. Now we have made changes within the investment team to reduce the risk of more pronounced periods of underperformance over time, supporting a more stable asset base through the cycle. And Europe is now a good example of the model working in the right direction again. Improved performance is supporting a more stable AUM trajectory for a fund that already benefits from strong client positioning, leaving us better placed to stabilize and rebuild assets from here.

10:28 Now this slide highlights the contrasting experience in our US equity franchise. We have demonstrated the ability to raise and scale assets when performance is supportive. However, the scale of recent underperformance in US equities has been the single largest contributor to outflows in the period and the primary driver of pressure on group AUM. Now we have acted on this. As the deck sets out, leadership changes and investment actions are underway to improve performance. These steps are intended to reduce the risk of more pronounced periods of underperformance over time. Now we should be realistic. Rebuilding here is going to take time. However, we have been decisive in addressing the issues and the fund is now at a lower level of AUM reducing the absolute scale of potential further outflows compared to prior periods.

11:28 And another area of opportunity for us is thematic multi asset. The investment case here is underpinned by aging demographics and the shift from accumulation to decumulation, which is driving long term demand for retirement income solutions. Our existing multi asset and income capabilities give us a solid foundation to capture that opportunity. The slide also highlights that active management, disciplined risk management, and sustainable income generation remain highly relevant in supporting client retirement outcomes and that we were investing selectively behind areas of durable client demand and attractive long term growth potential. Encouragingly, the percentile ranking table shows that these multi asset funds have been performing strongly across multiple periods with several first quartile and top decile outcomes.

12:23 That combination of structural demand and strong investment outcomes makes this an important franchise for us. Taken together, we believe this positions the franchise well to scale as client demand develops, supported by those long term drivers in retirement income and the strength of our investment track record. More broadly, we are seeing improving investment results across the product set. As of May, the percentage of AUM outperforming median was 73% over six months compared to 38% over one year. So a short term improvement, the longer term numbers remain respectable. The slide also highlights several important underlying trends. Improving performance across key strategies, including Europe, multi asset thematic strategies that are top decile over every period, a strong bounce back in UK equity funds, and excellent long term performance across fixed income and global infrastructure.

13:23 Again, I would not overstate it, but improved investment performance is a necessary precondition for stabilizing assets under management, and it is encouraging that the direction of travel here is improving. So if I bring this together before handing over to peers, I think our message is straightforward. First, performance is stabilizing with short term improvement across key funds. Second, distribution within PREMIER MITON remains a genuine strength with an established platform continuing to deliver consistent gross flows. Third, we are maintaining cost discipline with ongoing efficiency actions designed to protect profitability. Taken together, that means we are moving towards an inflection point.

14:13 So when you look across the business, we have several areas, particularly in fixed income and multi asset, where there is both strong client demand and clear capacity for growth. As performance improves in the challenged areas, that gives us confidence that the business has the building blocks to absorb flows and return to net inflows over time. The combination of stronger fund performance, resilient distribution, and tighter cost control gives us a pathway back towards growth. Let me now hand over to Piers to take you through the financials. Thanks Mike. I'll take you through the financial results for the six months to 03/31/2026, starting with a summary of the presentation.

15:01 The Group continues to generate revenues from management fees based on the levels of assets being managed across our investment teams, and with some strategies having the ability to generate performance fees Now, the Group's assets under management, or AUM, closed the half year, as Mike said, at $9,000,000,000 representing a decrease of 13% on the opening position for the period. The AUM ended the first quarter of the financial year at 9,600,000,000 and we saw this recover to 9,700,000,000 by the end of February. However, volatility across markets in March also led to an increase in investor redemptions and the resulting lower closing AUM. The fall in AUM across the period reflects a heightened level of redemptions for the group, primarily concentrated within the equity strategies as Mike has already mentioned, and the net outflows for the six months were 1,300,000,000.

15:56 The lower levels of AUM being managed by the Group has driven the fall in adjusted profit to for the period, along with the reduction in the Group's operating margin. However, the benefits from cost efficiencies are now starting to show in the overall cost base to partially offset this fall in AUM. Turning to the income statement: The blended net management fee margin decreased to 53.6 basis points. Now this is consistent with previous periods this reduction continues to be driven by changes in the group's product mix the higher weighting towards the lower margin fixed income strategies where AUM increased by 30% to 2,700,000,000 when we compared to the same period last year. The average AUM was 9,700,000,000 for the period and that was a decline of 8% when we compare it to the comparative.

16:48 As a result, the management fees were lower at 26,900,000. No performance fees were generated in the six months, resulting in gross profit being lower at for six months. Administration expenses decreased by 16% to and as already noted, the adjusted profit before tax was 3,000,000 compared to 5.4 in the comparative period. The amortisation charge for the six months was unchanged at 2,600,000, and as expected, the share based payments reduced to 700,000, reflecting both the vesting of historic awards and the lower fair value of grants. Non recurring items totalled 200,000 related to operational efficiency initiatives and professional fees, and they resulted in statutory loss before tax of for the period.

17:39 So looking at the cost base, as mentioned administration expenses totalled for the period. The fixed staff costs reduced to reflecting headcount reductions which are partially then offset by annual salary reviews and higher Employers National Insurance costs. The variable staff costs decreased to and half of the decrease relates to performance fee shares in the comparative period, with the balance reflecting the lower levels of gross profit and the underlying profitability of the group. Overheads and other costs decreased by to reflecting some of the cost control initiatives starting to come through. This slide just demonstrates the breakdown of that £10,000,000 which is broadly similar to what we've seen in other periods.

18:27 Roughly half of our overheads relate to administrative costs, and of this amount 50% are subscriptions with the largest component being for Bloomberg. And the balance mainly relates to fund administration costs, and the majority of which are semi variable. The other costs on this slide relate predominantly to irrecoverable VAT. Now against a more difficult trading environment, we continue to take decisive and pragmatic action to ensure the business is positioned to protect profitability, improve client outcomes and increase momentum. And we continue to make good progress against our efficiency program. Last year we identified $5,000,000 of annualized cost savings. Over the past twelve months, and subsequently after the period end, we are delivering these material cost savings through a combination of fund rationalization, organisational changes and increased use of outsourcing and strategic suppliers.

19:23 We've now closed three subscale funds, we've completed one fund merger, along with the restructuring of our global equities investment team. We have created simplification by reducing internal processing and in April we completed the move from an in house to a third party platform for the PREMIER Portfolio Management Service. At the end of March, we closed the Guildford office and that office is now moved out of and is being actively marketed and in May, we completed the outsourcing of the Group's equity trading activities. Building on this, we announced further identified opportunities to simplify processes and remove duplication, delivering a further £2,500,000 of expected annualized savings, to be implemented by the end of the financial year. Now, following the delivery of some of these initiatives, the FTE headcount at the end of May was 136.

20:14 This compared to 147 at the end of March, 150 at the opening position of the period and 164 at the end of the comparative period. Now, turning to the dividend: as Mike has already mentioned, the Board has undertaken a careful review of its approach to capital allocation and the dividend policy. The Board has therefore declared an interim dividend of 1.5p per share. The final '20 20 6 dividend is currently expected to be 1.5p per share as the Group transitions to a new policy for future years. This is, however, subject to the trading conditions in the second half of the year. From the next financial year, the Board intends to adopt a new dividend policy to distribute 75% of the adjusted profit after tax, and the Board will consider returning surplus capital to shareholders from time to time.

21:06 At 03/31/2026, the Group had £24,600,000 in cash, and after the interim dividend, the Group has a surplus regulatory capital of £11,400,000 I'll now hand back to Mike for the summary. Thank you, Piers. So to close, I would like to come back really to the same four points. We are seeing stabilizing performance with short term improvement across a number of key funds. We continue to benefit from an established distribution platform delivering consistent gross flows. We are maintaining cost discipline through ongoing efficiency actions. And as performance stabilizes and outflows moderate, we believe the business is moving closer to an inflection point with a clearer path back towards net inflows.

21:56 There is more work to do, and we remain very realistic about that. But we've acted decisively in the areas that need attention, and there are encouraging signs in both performance and business momentum. And as a final point, the board remains focused on disciplined capital allocation and shareholder returns. Since our mission to AIM in 2016, we have now returned over £100,000,000 to shareholders through dividends, and that compares with the current market capitalization of about 56,000,000. So that reflects a consistent approach over time, balancing shareholder returns with the need to maintain a strong and resilient balance sheet through different market conditions.

22:44 Thank you very much for listening, and we will now open up for any questions that people may have. Thank you. Perfect. Mike Pearce, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. 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 have been submitted already, 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 be accessed via your investor dashboard. Guys, at this point, if I may just hand over to you to read out any 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. Yeah. Thanks very much. So, yeah, we just we just have the one question at moment, which is what is the long term target mix between equities, fixed income and multi asset? I mean, that's a good question. I think the, you know, as we sit here today, we're roughly 30% in equities, 30% in multi asset, 30% in fixed income, and 10% in absolute return.

23:49 And I would have said that that is pretty much the mix that we would like to achieve over the long term. I mean, sadly, we were about 45% equities, but so we didn't exactly expect to get there by losing equities. But as the mix stands at the moment, this gives us a really good balance in terms of the revenue streams that the firm enjoys. Obviously, fixed income and absolute return are less volatile revenue streams. Equities are more volatile revenue streams because of the way that we run money with very high active shares and high tracking errors. And multi asset sits somewhere in the middle. So and multi asset obviously goes to a slightly different market to to the equity and fixed income parts of our business. So the the current split is pretty much perfect in terms of where where we where we would like to be long term. But, you know, obviously, the moment, it looks like our our fixed income business, a multi asset business, are growing more strongly than our equity business, which will clearly change the mix over time.

24:53 And then we have a how do you assess the valuation gap between listed asset managers and strategic m and a pricing? Which is another brilliant question. I mean, it is a really it's a really challenging point, and I think the the valuation gap between listed and private is is huge in many industries, not just in asset management. And it does it does make things difficult when you are looking at m and a, and we we do look at a lot of of m and a. We've not really referred to that in our in our presentation, but it is something that we're very open to and very mindful of. But it, you know, it does create a gap, and that is a difficult gap to bridge sometimes. Having said that, you know, we did successfully complete the Telworth transaction a couple of years ago, and valuations for listed asset managers weren't that good in those days either. And we were able to do that through through a combination of a a small amount of cash from our balance sheet together with equity in the business. So it is possible to structure deals on a structured basis if you're if you're creative.

25:57 And then we have a question from Michael on, is it realistic to to think you have what it takes to build a scalable US equity franchise? I I I mean, we did build a scalable US equity franchise. We had almost 2,000,000,000 in that franchise. And I think the the key there is that we deliberately ran a strategy that was very different from the index. And that was attractive to a lot of investors because they felt that, you know, perhaps there was too much concentration risk in the main indices and our sort of multi cap approach fishing in parts of the S and P 500 and below that were not exposed to those very large tech companies was an attractive option, and we were able to prove strong performance and raise assets.

26:49 However, I think what's happened over the last three years is the concentration within equity within The US equity market has made the pain, the relative pain of following a strategy like ours against the index really difficult for our clients to bear. And, unfortunately, we've seen outflows as a result as our strategy has significantly underperformed the main index. So we've done it before, so, you know, there's no reason why we couldn't potentially do it again, but it is gonna be a long term build now. And then there's a question for Philip. Is there any scope to reduce your regulatory capital requirements to free up more surplus cash? Peers. That's a finance question. Yes.

27:34 Yes. There is. I mean, reality, your regulatory capital and your sort of liquid asset requirements are are really quite similar, and they certainly are for us in terms of the quantum that's required. I think as you kind of build out the business and simplify the business, that removal of the complexity does allow you to potentially reduce the amount of regulatory capital you need. And indeed, a starting point is often your sort of fixed overhead requirement is one of the calculations, which is sort of your fixed cost base is driven by the last the previous year's sort of audited results. That's a starter. That's your sort of base requirement. And as you reduce those fixed costs, which we have been doing in terms of whether that's headcount and everything else that will ultimately reduce your your regulatory capital and liquid asset requirements going forward. Yeah. Thank you, Piers.

28:25 Why not show confidence by buying back your own shares here? And that's another good point and I think as Piers referenced when he made his section on dividends, the board have agreed that they will use surplus return surplus capital to shareholders from time to time. I would say, however, that we do have a number of large institutional shareholders who are against us buying back shares because it reduces liquidity and and decreases the the size of the company. So, you know, we we've got sort of con contrasting views, but but I think this is something as we've reset the dividend now that the business will definitely look at on a on a forward looking basis. And then Michael has asked, looking at the business, costs remain high.

29:13 I have seen your statements about strategy, but would you not accept that PM is subscale in the new environment of higher costs? I think cost, you know, costs are coming down significantly, and I think you will see the impact of that as we move through the second half of this year and into the into the new financial year. Yeah. I think that's very fair. I mean, I think if you look to I I mentioned, obviously, at the end of the period, we're a 147 head count. At the end of May, we're a 136. So you'll see that then drag through in the second half of f y twenty six and obviously hit the run rate for f y twenty seven. So you should see that coming through next year. And would you accept the PM is subscale in the new environment of higher cost? I mean, yeah, you know, we're a small business, but I think as we've demonstrated from our distribution capability, we've been able to generate roughly 3,000,000,000 of gross sales each year, which I think is is punching well above our our weight by market by assets under management. So I think, you know, where we have performance and where we have strong performance, we have the distribution capability to be able to deliver.

30:18 The the real challenge that we faced over the last two years has been the significant underperformance of our US strategy and our European equity strategy. Although, to be fair, that strategy has come back very strongly during 2026, which is obviously helpful. And then what else have we got? How has the recently expanded distribution in South Africa and Ireland? Yeah. That's been that's been going well. I mean, we launched Global Dynamic Credit, which is a sort of offshore version of our main strategic bond fund a little over a year ago. I think it was February last year. That's over 200,000,000 now. And we have been up and down to South Africa regularly. We're getting regular business in, not only into our fixed income funds, but we've been successful in attracting some assets into our multi asset strategies there as well, particularly on the retirement income side.

31:18 Our team are in our fixed income team are actually in Switzerland this week with our distribution team. I think we had 14 meetings with small wealth management businesses across Switzerland, and we're marketing actively our contingent convertible strategy and our global dynamic credit strategy. So we're we're very slowly expanding outside of our core market. I mean, we're conscious of of course and all this, but, you know, if we can get regular flow by regular attendance at events and regular meetings with potential distributors, then, you know, that can help drive flow going forwards. So I think that is everything that we've got. I'd just like to say thank you very much indeed for for attending today. Thank you for your questions. We hope it was a a helpful update.

32:08 And we, you know, obviously, we recognize it's been a very difficult period for for shareholders, and we are shareholders in the business too. But we have taken steps to do what we can to reduce costs, to improve performance outcomes, and to ensure that our distribution capability remains in a good place so that we can get to that inflection point and get this business back onto a growth path. Perfect, guys. If I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this afternoon. 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. But, apart from that, guys, thank you very much indeed for updating investors, this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can really better understand your views and expectations.

33:00 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 PREMIER MITON GROUP PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.