Michael Pegum:

Good morning, and welcome to Harmoney Corp Limited First Half '26 Investor Presentation with David Stevens, the CEO and Managing Director and CFO, Simon Ward presenting this morning. Many thanks for your attendance. As just a bit of housekeeping. David and Simon will do their presentation and would direct any questions to be taken to the Q&A box down the bottom of your screen, and management will happily field those questions and answer your questions at the conclusion of the presentation. So David, over to you, and many thanks for everyone attending. David Stevens: Thanks, Michael. Hello, and welcome to Harmoney's Half year 2026 Results Presentation. I'm David Stevens, the CEO and Managing Director of Harmoney. With me today is Simon Ward, our CFO. Harmoney has produced a very strong profit result this half year, surpassing our full year profit result from the last year in just 6 months. This result has been underpinned by the work we have done developing and launching Stellare 2.0 over the past 24 months. This has set us up to capitalize on the huge market opportunity we have in front of us. We are also upgrading our FY '26 cash NPAT guidance to record levels. Now turning to Slide 2. Today, I'll begin with our first half '26 key highlights, then our upgraded FY '26 profit guidance. And then I'll remind you of Harmoney's key differentiators before handing you over to Simon, who will talk you through the financial results in more detail. Finally, I'll discuss our outlook and strategic priorities before responding to your questions. Now turning to Slide 3, and then on to Slide 4. This half year, we've achieved a $6.1 million statutory net profit after tax, a massive 202% growth on the same half last year. Remarkably, the 6-month result has already surpassed our total statutory NPAT for the entire 2025 financial year. This was driven by our underlying cash NPAT, which also reached $6.1 million with noncash adjustments netting to 0 for the half. Cash NPAT also exceeded our full year FY '25 result of $5.7 million, driven by strong loan book growth and continuing efficiency gains. This profit result delivered a 31% return on equity, a significant leap from the 13% achieved in the same half last year. Our loan book growth remains robust, up 9% overall. This was led by a standout 17% growth in our Australian loan book. In New Zealand, the book has also returned to growth, up 5% in local currency, with New Zealand originations surging 49% following the successful deployment of Stellare 2.0 in June 2025. Our net interest margin or NIM continues to be a core strength. Sustained new lending NIM of over 10% has driven our total portfolio NIM to 10.3%, an increase of 130 basis points on the same half last year. On the credit front, performance remained stable with credit losses of 3.9%, while our 90-plus day arrears improved to 58 basis points, down from 64 basis points, reflecting the high quality of our loan portfolio. Our commitment to automation continues to drive efficiency maintaining a 19% cost-to-income ratio as a loan book scales. Finally, Harmoney remains exceptionally well positioned for future growth. In December 2025, we successfully refinanced our corporate debt with one of the Australian Big-4 banks. A facility of this nature from a Big-4 bank is rare in the nonbanking finance industry. So it's yet another endorsement of the strength of our business. In addition, we maintained warehouse facilities with 3 of the Big-4 banks with a total capacity of approximately $1 billion, and even after making a $7.5 million corporate debt repayment, we closed the half of $24 million in unrestricted cash. Now turning to Slide 5, then on to Slide 6. Our outstanding performance in the first half of financial year '26 has provided the confidence to further lift our guidance. We're upgrading our financial year '26 cash NPAT guidance by $1 million, an 8% increase over our previous guidance to $13 million. As you can see from the chart, this guidance represents a 128% increase on last year's record result and a phenomenal compound annual growth rate of 331% since financial year '24. This growth trajectory is driven by the continued impact of Stellare 2.0, which we expect to propel our year-end loan book to over $900 million at a net interest margin of around 10% and a risk-adjusted income of around 6%. Risk-adjusted income is our income after funding costs and actual credit losses and one of our core efficiency metrics. This upgrade is a clear reflection of the scalability of our platform and our team's ability to execute. We ended the second half of the year with strong momentum and a clear path to driving -- to delivering these record results. Now turning to Slide 8. I'd like to take a moment here to provide a quick recap of what sets Harmoney apart from others. We are Australia and New Zealand's largest 100% online consumer direct lender. We have a total market opportunity of $150 billion with our market share -- current market share less than 1%, so we have a huge total addressable market in front of us. Our algorithms partner with Google to attract prime, high-intent customers at low cost and then our direct relationship with those customers and great customer experience sees them returning again and again for the next borrowing needs at near zero acquisition cost. We use deep first-party data and AI models to deliver a prime loan book at a 6.4% risk-adjusted income. Remember, that's our income after both funding costs and credit losses. We're funded by 3 of the Big-4 Australian banks, plus public securitizations. Our Stellare automation drives a low cost to income ratio of 19%. And our return on equity for the half was 31%, which is exceptional in any business, especially financial services. Just a quick reminder of our products on the right-hand side of the page. Our loans are up to $100,000 with an average new loan size of $18,000, which is disbursed to customers within minutes. We offer personalized rates on borrowers risk profile. We don't charge any fees other than a one-off establishment fee and all our loans are fully compliant with applicable consumer legislation. Our loans are typically used for renovations, debt consolidation and helping people with life events such as travel, education and weddings. Now turning to Slide 9. Now I want to spend a moment on what I believe are a couple of the most important slides in this presentation, our customer flywheel. When Harmoney acquires a customer, we're not thinking about a single transaction. We're thinking about an ongoing relationship that builds over time as customers' financing needs come and go. The data here tells a powerful story. Our history shows us that on average, our customers borrow an additional 150% after their initial loan. So if someone takes out $18,000 initially, they subsequently come back for another $27,000 over their lifetime, with us so far. Here's the economics that matter. That first loan to the customer cost us around 5.6% in customer acquisition cost or CAC. So about $1,000 on an $18,000 loan. Each time that customer returns, the cost of acquisition is near 0 due to our existing direct relationship with them. This is pure margin expansion. And they don't take long to start to come back. The average time between a customer's first and second loan is 15 months. This isn't a theoretical long-term play. This flywheel spins fast. We're not in the business of onetime transactions. We're building a compounding profit engine where every customer we acquire today becomes increasingly more valuable tomorrow and over time. Now turning to Slide 10. I'll walk you through each component of the Harmoney flywheel. This slide shows the 4 interconnected stages of the Harmoney value flywheel all powered by our Stellare platform. I'll now talk you through each stage describing exactly how this creates compounding economics for Harmoney, stage 1, Customer Acquisition. We start with smart targeted acquisition. Our algorithms work alongside Google's to identify prime customers who are actively looking for credit. People with strong credit histories and genuine intent. We're using 10 years of proprietary data to find exactly the right customers, and that position is hard to replicate. Next, stage 2, Deliver Experience. We next focus on delivering an experience that makes our customers want to come back, minutes to apply, instant decision and money in minutes, generating a 4.8 out of 5 star rating with over 60,000 reviews. This isn't just good service. This is creating customer delight at scale through automation. Every interaction built, builds trust and increases the likelihood they will return. Then stage 3, Customers Returning. This is where the magic happens, because we already have a direct relationship with our customers, subsequent lending CAC is near zero. And so far, on average, customers come back for a further 150% of their first loan value over time. Because we have already covered our acquisition costs, the net income on every dollar of additional lending is nearly pure margin. Then finally, stage 4, Data Intelligence. This stage is what makes Harmoney's flywheel truly defensible. With every loan we generate more first-party data, which makes our AI and decision models better. Better models mean better decisions, lower losses and the ability to approve customers safely. It's a virtuous cycle that is hard for competitors to replicate. This isn't theory, these are actual results, and the beauty is the flywheel is accelerating Stellare 2.0. Now I'll hand over to Simon to present the financial results in detail. Simon Ward: Thanks, David, and hello, everybody. Please turn to Slide 12, summarizing our key financial metrics for the half year ending 31 December 2025. As David has mentioned, this half, Harmoney has delivered exceptionally strong growth in both our statutory and underlying cash net profit after tax, both surpassing last year's full year result. This success has been driven by strong gains across almost every key metric. I'll briefly touch on each of these now before going into more detail on the following slides. Firstly, our loan book continued its strong growth trajectory, up 9% on the same half last year to $857 million. That growth, combined with the higher portfolio interest yield drove a 12% lift in revenue to $71.9 million. Our net interest margin, or NIM, improved by 130 basis points to 10.3% from both the higher portfolio interest yield and lower funding costs. Our risk-adjusted income, which is our margin after both funding costs and credit losses, improved by 110 basis points to 6.4%, driven by the higher NIM. Our acquisition to originations ratio improved to 3.1% and Stellare team delivered higher new customer conversion rates across both countries, and Harmoney's customer flywheel, where existing customers return for future borrowing and near 0 acquisition costs begin to include those increased new customers. Our cost-to-income ratio was up slightly on the same half last year, but it remains a market-leading 18.5% and is an improvement on the full year FY '25 ratio of 18.9%. This exceptionally strong cost-to-income ratio is a direct result of the operating leverage achieved from our highly automated Stellare 2.0 platform. These improvements across key metrics have delivered our statutory NPAT of $6.1 million, up 202%,with noncash adjustments netting to 0. Our cash NPAT was also $6.1 million, up 166%. Our capital-efficient balance sheet means that the strong profit result translates to an annualized return on equity for shareholders of 31%. On the next few slides, I'll discuss each of these performance metrics in more detail. So now turning to Slide 13, looking at our loan book and revenue. With Stellare 2.0 operating in both countries, it's driving a reacceleration of the loan book. The group loan book is up 9% on the same half last year to $857 million, and that headline growth is suppressed by the current New Zealand dollar weakness against the Australian dollar, down at its lowest level in 13 years. By way of comparison, if the exchange rate had remained at the 30 June '25 level, the group loan book will be $882 million, nearly $30 million higher. While the weaker New Zealand dollar suppresses the headline group loan book, it does not have a material impact on our profitability due to structural hedging within the business. In local currency, the New Zealand loan book was up 5% on the same half last year, an expected but nevertheless, pleasing turnaround after contracting during FY '25. Stellare 2.0 led the turnaround with a 49% increase in originations compared to the same half last year. The Australian loan book growth remained strong, up 17% on the same half last year. Australian loan book is now 61% of the group loan portfolio. Looking at the chart on the right, accelerating loan book growth, together with an increased average portfolio rate has increased revenue growth, up 12% on the same half last year to $71.9 million. Now turning to Slide 14, looking at our lending margins. A key feature of the Harmoney business is the consistent strength of our lending margins, underpinned by our proprietary credit assessment models, which drive attractive pricing to prime borrowers in turn driving low credit losses with those low credit losses then unlocking competitive funding rates. Looking at the chart on the top right, you can see the 3 core levers of our lending margin. The top line shows our average portfolio interest rate has continued to climb, now at 17.2% as we originate new loans at higher yields and older lower-yielding loans paid down. The middle line shows our funding rate, the rate at which we borrow, which has reduced to 7%. Then the third line is our actual credit losses, which are up slightly but remained low at 3.9%. Looking at the chart on the bottom right, you can see the combined outcome of these underlying trends. The combination of higher lending rates and low funding costs lifted our net interest margin by 130 basis points to 10.3%. Then the ultimate measure of our portfolio's profitability is risk-adjusted margin, the income after both funding costs and credit losses. This is the key comparator between lending portfolios. In this half, Harmoney has reached an exceptional 6.4%. Next turning to Slide 15. I'll provide more detail on our credit performance. Harmoney's consumer direct model provides rich, deep consumer data. We use this data to train our AI credit models, and this has enabled us to build a prime loan book of resilient borrowers with 70% employed in either professional office or trade roles and 89% aged 30 years or older. Further demographic detail on the loan book is provided in the appendix to this presentation. Looking at the chart on the top right, you can see that while credit losses ticked up slightly this half, they remained largely consistent and stable with a downward trend over the past 2 years. The small uptick this half is expected to flatten or reduce over the remainder of the year. Moving to the chart on the bottom right, our 90-plus day arrears, which are a forward-looking indicator, remained very low at 0.58% and less than half the Australian market average. Next, turning to Slide 16, looking at our operating expenses. A key feature of Harmoney's business model has always been our Stellare platform and the high levels of automation that it provides, enabling us to scale our loan book without proportionately scaling operating costs. As the chart on the right shows, while our loan book grew by 9%, our cost-to-income ratio continued its long-term downward trend, down from 18.9% last year to 18.5% this half. Harmoney's combination of loan book growth, strong risk-adjusted margins and scalable cost base underpins another record result, with this half statutory and cash NPAT of $6.1 million, surpassing the profit for all of last year, which was itself a record and delivering a return on equity for shareholders of 31%. Next, turning to Slide 17, looking at our capital position. Harmoney has a well-diversified funding program with warehouses from 3 of the Big-4 Australian banks plus the securitization program and now an Australian Big-4 bank corporate debt facility. As is typical with warehouse funding arrangements, Harmoney's own money is also invested in its loan book. The strong credit quality of Harmoney's loan book means that we can be very capital-efficient with borrowings funding 96% of the current loan book and Harmoney providing the rest. The chart on the left shows in the red section, Harmoney's required cash contribution of $34 million for its current loan book of $857 million. On top of this, Harmoney has an additional $5 million, which it is entitled to draw cash from funders at any point, plus $24 million of unrestricted cash on hand. These together add to $29 million of cash, which can support growing the loan book by over 75% to $1.5 billion today, without needing to raise any equity. Then in addition to already being able to support a loan book of up to $1.5 billion today, being profitable means Harmoney can reinvest its profits for its contribution in book growth beyond that $1.5 billion. With every $1 million of profits, funding an extra $25 million of loan book growth. Finally, as a reminder, Harmoney's share buyback announced last May of up to 5% of share capital remains in place through to the end of April. So in summary, we have a profitable, scalable and self-funding business model that is well capitalized for the significant growth ahead. And with that, turning back to Slide 18. I'll hand you back to David to take you through our outlook. David Stevens: Thanks, Simon. Continuing now to outlook, please turn to Slide 19. Now let's take a look at how we're deliberately accelerating each stage of this flywheel over the next 18 months. I've already talked about what we have done. This is looking forward for the next 18 months. These aren't random initiatives. Each one is designed to make the flywheel spin faster. First, the blue box, Customer Acquisition. We're expanding who we can safely serve, Stellare 2.0 has already proven this with originations up 27% on the same half last year. We're using next-generation AI to approve more customers while maintaining credit quality. We've also started exploring embedded finance partnerships with auto marketplaces, which could open significant new acquisition channels. Second, the green box, Deliver Experience. We're increasing the value, we capture per customer for our auto lending product. This isn't just adding a product, it's about becoming the primary lending partner for life events. When a customer needs a car loan, we want them thinking of Harmoney first. Early results are promising with our vehicle loan book up 18% since this time last year. Third, the red box, Customer Returns. We're accelerating the velocity at which customers return by building a mobile app with one-click loan access and launching revolving credit to reduce friction when customers need additional funds. We've already driven overall CAC down to 3.1% and there's more room to go. Finally, the yellow box, Data Intelligence. We're investing in next-generation Agentic AI for personalization at scale. Think of it as giving every customer their own private banker. Automated, intelligent and getting smarter with every interaction. Our proprietary first-party data creates a defensible AI advantage that's extremely difficult to replicate. The key insight here is that these initiatives are interconnected. Better AI means we can serve more customers, multi-product households have higher lifetime value and lower churn, faster return cycles mean better economics, it all compounds, and we're making significant progress on each one. Now turning to Slide 20. So what does it mean when we accelerate at every stage of the flywheel simultaneously. More customers joining plus higher lifetime value per customer, plus faster velocity between loans equals exceptional profit growth. This compounds to our ability to deliver our upgraded guidance for financial year '26 of a loan book of over $900 million, driven by Stellare 2.0, $13 million cash NPAT and a 31% return on equity, which is what happens when you combine margin expansion with capital efficiency. But I want you to think beyond financial year '26. We showed over 300% growth in cash profit over the past 3 years. With the flywheel accelerating with Stellare 2.0 deployed, with our auto products scaling, we have a clear line of sight to continue strong profit growth, all while maintaining credit quality and being able to fund growth from reinvested profits. So when I talk about accelerating the flywheel, I'm talking about driving this business to even higher profit levels over the next few years. The foundations are in place. The technology is proven. The unit economics are compelling, and we're executing. That concludes today's presentation. We'll now turn to answering your questions. [Operator Instructions] Michael Pegum: Thank you, David. David Stevens: Are you going to ask the question, Mike? Michael Pegum: Yes. Just first question comes from James. Congratulations on another impressive result. Expansion into new regions, countries, is that on the agenda or is the runway in the current business substantial enough to maintain the current growth run rate? If you could talk to that, it would be [ Stellare. ] David Stevens: Yes. Look, there's no short- to medium-term plans of moving beyond Australia and New Zealand. But certainly, there's lots of product adjacencies and channels that we are actively pursuing at various stages. So -- yes. And look, we obviously -- we've now built a platform. We've talked about for quite a while, and that's highly scalable, and we're able to build new products under that new channels. So we've, obviously, the bigger numbers get, the harder percentage growth is, but we're very confident in being able to deliver very strong results. As I said on the last slide, going forward. We've got a great model. We've got a great team. We've got a great total addressable market ahead of us. So very exciting. Michael Pegum: Right. The next question is, you mentioned the accelerated flywheel. Can you please provide an update on how the development of the mobile app is going? David Stevens: Sure. Yes. So we expect that -- we've got a pilot of it. It's not on the App Store yet, but that's scheduled for Q4. So sort of the April to June period this year. Michael Pegum: Another question in relation to, obviously, geographies about -- is this Stellare platform transferable to other countries? Or is there enough runway in Australia and New Zealand... David Stevens: Yes , [indiscernible] first question was just, yes, it is transferable, but there's no intention to do that. And we're not planning on selling software off. That's just for our use. Michael Pegum: Right. Another question, touch on your product development. we've obviously covered that, David. I think maybe the next part of the question is in relation to partnerships with other financial institutions. David Stevens: Yes. Yes. Look, we're working through some options there. But look, I don't have anything to update the market at this point, too early stage. Michael Pegum: Well, another question talking about sort of segmentation and products. Is there any other areas you see ripe for disruption or extreme growth versus what's actually existing or incumbent. David Stevens: Yes. Well, obviously, the auto space is huge. That's a huge market across both Australia and New Zealand. We launched a new product last year in a different way to what traditional sort of financers offer. It's turning the customer into a cash buyer as opposed to sort of going with preapprovals or having to seek the finance in the car dealer or the like. This -- our product enables private buyers as well, you can go and take the car. Not have to go through a dealer. You can go and buy it. You've already got the money in your account, so you can go and buy the car from a private seller as well, which is not that common. So we're already saw 18% growth there. It's still early days. We've still got lots to go there and expect over the coming few months, we'll have more to talk about there. So certainly, that's one. We talked about our revolving credit that we're building as well. We see that's a big opportunity as well because we're not in that space at the moment. And there's sort of different nuances to the product that we're looking to make to make it more customer appealing and get to be more front of wallet with customers, as I call it. So we really talk about not being one-off transactions about being more front of mind when making -- the customer is making a decision where they need a large amount of money to do what their life event is or their home renovation or whatever they're choosing to do in their life, we want to be more front of mind, and that's something we're doing a huge amount of work on at the moment. So yes, lots to do. Financial services has been around for hundreds of years. And yes, but it continually evolves, and we feel we're making some good progress into that, and our technology allows us to be at the forefront of it. Michael Pegum: Our next question is, what is the outlook for funding costs given the recent cash rate changes and the outlook here in Australia? David Stevens: Yes. Look, yes, small changes to the underlying rate. They don't have a real material impact on us, to be perfectly honest. We're not a mortgage book or a really low-margin business where every 25 basis points is going to make a huge difference to what you report the next half or year or whatever. And we've obviously got the flexibility to adjust our rates on a daily basis if we want to. So 25 basis points, 50 basis points, whatever it is honestly, it doesn't keep me awake at night. It's not something that's really concerning at all. But obviously, we manage that. Most importantly, we target a 10% net interest margin, and we target a 6% risk-adjusted income margin. So if we're sort of sitting around that mark, we're happy with that, and we'll work with whatever rates do. And we've proven that for last 5 years since we've been listed. So I think we -- that's not something that's too concerning. Michael Pegum: A question here in relation to risk-adjusted margins. Obviously, the company achieved a very impressive 6.4%. A question just around the guidance. Does that -- your guidance of 6%, is that sort of imply that it's sort of tracking back to that number? And what actually does give you the confidence around the higher NIM and is that all related to product mix? David Stevens: Yes. Look, Yes, we've targeted the 10% and 6% for a while. So I don't guide to specific basis points. So I think you can take the view that if you model our business, if you stick to that 10% and 6%, certainly on the current product mix, that's where we target. So it's been very transparent. Obviously, as we bring on other new products, and the like, auto is lower NIM, that's also lower losses. So that might bring that down a little bit over time, but we're not sort of building that into this year in any way. But for us, because we have got such a scalable platform, even if we add a lower-margin product on top, it's incremental. We're not adding cost to the business to do it. So why wouldn't you write it? If you got the funding for it, if you've got the capital for it, you write the business every day of the week. It's good credit performance. You drive the business every day of the week. So that's the beauty of the business. We're not having to add cost to it to bring on new products. So that might, over time, change a little bit at a group level. But certainly at a product level, they're the margins that we have achieved for years and we target. Michael Pegum: Our next question is, congratulations on a strong result and the excellent refinancing that the company recently did. Understand actual losses of below ECL provisioning rates. Could you please give some info as to why the company has sort of looked to drop the ECL provisioning rates to 4.3% from 4.5%? David Stevens: Sure. I'll get Simon to that one, so I'll flick over to him. Simon Ward: Yes, it's really driven by the relative performance of the underlying loans in the book. Back then, I think the 4.5% was actually from this time last year. So over that period of time, especially with Stellare 2.0 coming in, the underlying performance of the loans on the book is better, and we obviously look at forward-looking economic indicators and what we think the impact will be on the current book. So those two things combined is really what's driven it down. Michael Pegum: Thanks, Simon. Back to David. Next question is how much funding headroom do you currently have as an example, obviously, not looking at equity capital, but can you grow to $1 billion book without further securitization deals? David Stevens: Yes, we're saying that we've got close to $1 billion in warehouse funding. Look, we can increase our warehouse funding at any stage as well. And so we obviously don't go too high because we got to pay unused line fees on that. So we've got our books at $857 million at the moment. We've got basically $1 billion in capacity. So got $150 million grows further, okay, I'll get another $100 million. It's not a problem. We increased warehouses all the time. And then obviously, we've got the public securitization markets that we can do to clear those existing warehouses out as well, and that frees up a huge amount of capacity. So it's just -- that is something that I definitely don't lose sleep at night about. We've got great funders in place, have done for a long time. The 3 Big-4 banks, which I think is -- gives us the diversification as well. So yes, plenty of capacity, very supportive funders. We're bringing new products in, they're supporting those. So we're -- it's an area of the business, it's really well managed. Michael Pegum: Next question is around the macro environment within New Zealand, do you see any green shoots in the New Zealand macro/economic environment? David Stevens: Yes. Look, I live across Australia and New Zealand. And yes, so I can see both. I think probably the certainly in Australia, sometimes the media that we see, read, is probably a bit more damning what the reality is. New Zealand, they've dealt with some high interest rates for a long time. It's come off. People are now buying -- doing more things because rates are a lot cheaper. Employment is still good. The country is actually going along reasonably, interest rates going back up later in the year. So yes, people are making -- taking advantage of the lower rates and taking out loans to do things that they may have put off for a while. Yes, still a small country, of 5 million people. But we've seen our growth turn around to the loan book started growing again. And we don't see that changing. We think that growth has really returned. And we'll continue to grow the existing product and roll out new products as well. Michael Pegum: More question around the order book, David, just obviously growing off a low base. How do you see the acceleration of that growth and the potential of the size of that order book. David Stevens: Yes. Well, look, we -- probably in the next quarter, so not the one we're in now, but the one after. We've got some pretty exciting things happening. And the auto is a big space, right? So it could actually be bigger than our current book, right? But the important thing for me is we continue to grow our current products have the returns that we're getting. And anything that comes from auto and the like is pure cream on top of that incremental size. So we've got the scalable platform, right? And I keep saying that, and I'll keep saying it because that's what makes this business much more profitable and successful than others in the market. We have a truly scalable platform that's now built and delivering. I've kept the same IT team that we had when we were doing the migration and building the platform, they're all working on new products. They're all working on improvements. They're all doing that now. All that really exciting stuff. So we haven't gone and save a bit of money, you got to stop innovating and building in this business, as we've kept the same number of people, let's grow this business into more segments, more channels, change the product -- get more centric with the customer and continue to grow this place. And we're doing that at a 19% cost-to-income ratio. So we'll continue to drive that down as we bring on more revenue. Michael Pegum: Our next question is pretty much along the same thematic, David, just around the learnings from the auto loan book. But -- and how -- what your learnings about approach to that in the future? I think you pretty much answered that, but if you've got any further to add? David Stevens: No. Look, I don't think so. Like our product is new. So obviously, it takes a little bit of education. People don't quite get it initially, obviously, but everyone once they get it, thinks it's a pretty cool product. And that's okay. It takes a little bit of time. That's why we don't build the numbers into our current year guidance for new products because we don't want to -- we want to make sure we get them right and we're not pressured into making poor decisions on rollouts because it hit time frame. So yes, we've got -- it's already coming through, but we've got a long way to go still. And that will all be incremental to the business going forward. The beauty is the core of the business is performing. That's the beauty. So everything we do on top of what we're trying to substitute the underperformance of the core product. That's the key difference. We're not doing M&A to try and find something to substitute under poor core performance. The core is performing. So everything we do on top of that is incremental. And that's how I run the business. I don't want to be trying to have to find things to substitute a poor underlying business. Michael Pegum: Now a question around capital management. With the ROE delivery of an impressive 31%, why is cash better utilized buying back shares rather than investing in the growth of the business? And can you give us some more thoughts from management around capital allocation? David Stevens: Yes, sure. So -- we brought out the -- we implemented the share buyback back in May last year. And a key reason for that was because we did have surplus cash for a period of time. If you recall, we couldn't repay our old corporate debt until December. So it allowed us to do that, obviously, buy back some shares over that time. Since then, we've bought back some shares, and we've also repaid $7.5 million of corporate debt out of our cash earnings. So a pretty impressive number. There's not many in the space that are paying down corporate debt out of earnings. So obviously, that's obviously chewed up some cash. Share buybacks are in place. We obviously haven't bought any for a while. There's no -- whilst it's there and we can use it. There's not -- we don't necessarily going to get to the 5%. We may not buy any more but it is in place until April. We don't have to do anything. So as I said, as those -- there are a lot of new things coming on. And to that person's question, yes, you're right. I probably will leave it in the business. But for that time there, I was particularly had a fair bit of surplus cash. So we took the opportunity to buy the shares -- buy some shares back, particularly when they were ridiculously cheap. And whilst we had -- before we had -- could repay that corporate debt back in December. Michael Pegum: A question here from Steve. What's the company's thoughts in relation to sort of mitigation of sort of economic downturns? David Stevens: Look, I think this comes back to -- we're talking about sort of -- we've been through downturns before. We have a very diversified loan book, which is quite key in any sort of downturn. We're not like, our loans haven't come through a broker, say in a particular state that has -- gets impacted more than another one, the loans right across Australia and New Zealand probably reflective of the population. In terms of the mix, we've got a lot of detail in our appendix around the demographics. And look, we monitor this. We look huge historical loss -- static loss rates to really monitor how losses perform. So you can see early if things are changing. And we can adjust on the go because we are a direct platform, we can move our credit models to tighten them if we wanted to. We just -- we haven't had to for years and years and years to do that. And the business is robust. So we're not -- like it's something that we monitor like any business, but not something that, again, we -- yes, we get too hung up on, right? We manage to not monitor the data. We get 10,000 customers a month, and we get bank statements from about 6,000, 7,000 of those. We see what's going on with people's ability to pay, so we start seeing more people coming through that look stressed, we'll make decisions across the rest of the business. But I think because of that first-party data that we get, we actually have a greater insight into what's going on than a lot of others in the space, probably getting like sort of what sort of smaller banks get where you're seeing lots of transactional data. So we're seeing all that, and we can adjust as we see things improve or decline. And I'm not so sure it's [indiscernible]. I think New Zealand has been through the worst of it, looking to improve and Australia will -- it's going pretty well from an employment sense and the like as well. So obviously, what happens globally no one really knows, but that can -- if there is things on that. We've got an adjustable business that we can make changes to as we need. Michael Pegum: Just a question around partnership channels. Is the company sort of looking at sort of meaningful partnership opportunities. David Stevens: Yes, we are. And as I said earlier, we're probably too early to talk to the market about some of those things. But we haven't really been able to look at those until the platform was rebuilt. So early days on some of the bigger ones, for sure. But yes, there's plenty of other ones coming through. Michael Pegum: A question just about the uptick in loan losses to 3.9%. Is the correlation with the implementation of Stellare assessing the credit quality coming through? David Stevens: Look, it is. And yes, it's -- we've got a target range of 3% to 4%. I think it's moved from 3.7% to 3.9%. It's not something worth really talking about, to be honest. The same as it went from 3.9% to 3.7%. So as long as it's in that range, we're happy. You can see the 90-day arrears down to 58 basis points, which is 1/3 of the market, what the market average is. So you can see there's not like a big tail coming through into the numbers. So yes, look, there's nothing of substance to see there. Michael Pegum: Question just on economic macro in New Zealand. Unemployment rate sensitivity. You've seen a tick up of 1%. Does that affect any of your origination growth plans? David Stevens: Simply no. Michael Pegum: Okay. Moving on, given the discount versus your listed comps. Why do you think the market is rewarding in terms of valuation rerate given the growth and execution over the last 12 months? David Stevens: Yes. Well, look, yes, that's the market to determine, not me. I think for us, we're the only one that gives guidance we deliver on guidance or exceed and it's a good guidance number. There's some of the peers out there making big losses, right? I can only do what I can do. But hopefully, from this presentation, you can see the differentiated factors of us through our platform, cost-to-income ratios, growth rate, return on equities, all that stuff, the new opportunities that are coming to us. I can only control my backyard. And hopefully, the market starts to see that we're a company that delivers on our promises or exceeds on what we say. And can get some comfort around that, that we are a growing profitable stock. We're not adding back everything in town to get to a profit number. We're consistent in our reporting. We clearly reconcile everything to our audited numbers. And I run listed companies for many, many years now. And this is not a short-term play. You'll see that we're transparent. We deliver. And we've got a great story in front of us. And I think over time, that builds long-term shareholders and trust. And that's -- that wins in the end. So some of my peers have a better valuation than me at the moment. Yes, I can't control that, but I can control what we're doing, and I think we'll win in the end. Michael Pegum: Thanks, David. Just talking about returning the customer base. Does that sit with a lower loss rate versus the new customers coming through? David Stevens: Sorry, I missed that -- what was a question there, Mike? Michael Pegum: Returning customers is lower risk, what is loss rate versus new customers? David Stevens: Yes, good question. You're correct. Historically, it's been about 30% to 40% lower on existing customers to new customers. I think with the Stellare 2.0, that's narrowed a little bit. I think we're getting better at the new customers origination. We're certainly seeing that in our early loss cohorts. So that percentage might be dropping a little bit over time. But yes, there is absolute value in when you've known a customer, you've seen them make good repayments. You're only offering repeat loans to good customers. Obviously, we're offering to the customers that have been in and out of arrears. So yes, it does perform better. But I do believe that -- and we believe it's factual that we're getting better on the assessment of new customers as well. So that's why the returning customers is very valuable to us, and we stressed that through the presentation. Michael Pegum: Just for the benefit of an investor here, can you sort of give us a bit more sort of color around your unrestricted cash and its use. David Stevens: Yes, it is what it is. We don't play games with it. It's our free cash flow at the top of the company where we can use that to grow the business. We can use it to fund deals. We can use it for anything. There's no restrictions on it. The total cash number is restricted cash, which, obviously, I don't even include that in the numbers I talk about because it's money that's used for funders only. It's not our money per se. It's not my free cash flow, it's a timing difference in money that's got to be repaid back to the funder each month. We obviously have to snap the cash balance at 31 December and whatever sitting in collections accounts and the like gets included in that number. But really, it should be a net offset to borrowings. It's just the accounting standard requires you to hold it in cash because it's actually cash. But really, the right way is probably deduct it off the borrowings number as cash received. So yes, it's a true free cash flow number. There's no restrictions on that cash. Michael Pegum: Just a follow-on question from Jonathan, just around sort of new customers and loss rates. There's a higher loss rate for new customers added into the counts for the customer acquisition cost? David Stevens: No. The customer acquisition cost is just the marketing spend. And that's got nothing to do with the loss rate. The loss rate would come through the risk-adjusted income. Michael Pegum: Okay. We're just coming down to the final, conscious of time, we'll get through this. Stellare 2.0 appears to be obviously a driver of loan book growth, operational efficiencies. Talking about New Zealand originations up 49%, 50% after the rollout and the group achieving 10.3% NIM in the first half as you scale towards the 900-plus million book, what specific enhancements to Stellare 2.0 or the auto or any upcoming automation initiatives will further improve the risk-adjusted income and maintain your lower 19% cost-to-income ratio. So in short, enhancements around Stellare 2.0, David? David Stevens: Thanks for summarizing that one detailed question. Look, I'd like to think we've covered a fair chunk of that. We're continually -- like our platform is something that we are continually enhancing, finessing, updating, it is our #1 asset, right? So we will continue to do that. We -- as I said, we target that 6% plus risk-adjusted income. So that's something that hasn't changed. We do those enhancements to help keep that level. Where we're not -- that's where our targets are. That's why we have a team of around 35, 40 people in product engineering and data science, right? That's their job is to ensure that's operating efficiently. We're continually rolling out enhancements to that to make it better. We're using a lot of AI within that. We've used machine learning for 12 years across our platform. But -- and with our buying. We're now using that, obviously, a lot more of that -- the LLMs and the like that within the business, and we're building applications that ideally, will be just using AI, having the app speak to you rather than having to fill it in. Yes, there's all sort of stuff we're doing. And that all helps to get more customers, that's better experience for them, and then also not add cost to the business by when you bring these customers on. So lots and lots going on to answer that question, and we're very focused on that. Michael Pegum: Thanks. David, last question just around your NIM of 10.3%. Talking about sustainability, just given the landscape of increased competitive pressure and reliance on Big-4 bank funding. David Stevens: Well, I'd rather have my reliance on 3 of the Big-4 banks funding me than others, for number one. We've been around that level for quite some time. Obviously, I think it went down to the low point is around 9% when we -- a few years ago when we had really high interest rates for a while. But I think we're in a better funding spot since then, rates are nowhere near scheduled to go up so much so quickly, which that was a pretty rapid increases. So it was hard to move pricing, and the like back then. So we're very comfortable. On the current product mix, we're very comfortable around 10%, as I mentioned earlier, if we move into more into autos. That does come with a lower margin and also comes with lower losses as well, but that's all incremental on top of what we do today. So as long as that core business keeps firing, and we're adding more and more on top. If that comes at slightly lower margin, so be it. Who cares. We will keep growing shareholder returns and profit. And that's what we're all here to do. Michael Pegum: Right. That closes out the Q&A segment of the presentation. So just for a bit of advertising, the company will circle back in March for a formal road show for investors, potential and existing. So please feel free to reach out to myself at Ethicus Advisory Partners. I'll pass to you, David for closing remarks, post a very excellent first half FY '26 results. David Stevens: Thanks, Michael. On behalf of Simon, myself, thank you for your time. Thank you for all those questions. I think that's probably the most questions I've had, I think I need a glass of water after that. But yes, look, I think in summary, we've got a fantastic platform, I'd say, best in market. But certainly, we've got a great customer acquisition model. We're building sustainable profits. We've got great new product initiatives, and we're doing this with a return on equity of 31%. It's really, I think, any way you cut it, the financial numbers don't lie, and they're really proving, we're now executing on a really strong platform and a strong business model. So I look forward to meeting yourselves -- some of yourselves over the next few weeks and coming on a journey with us because I think we've got something really special here and we're excited to be executing our strategy. And hopefully, delivering even better numbers in years to come. Thank you. Have a good day. Michael Pegum: Thank you, David. Thank you, Simon.