Thank you, Ryan, and welcome to everyone joining the call this morning to discuss Navigator's full year results for the 2026 financial year. I'm Stephen Darke, Navigator's CEO.

I'm joined today, as usual, by my colleagues Ross Zachary, Navigator's CIO and head of NGI Strategic Investments, dialling in from New York, and Amber Stoney, NGI Group CFO. Turning to slide 4, the company snapshot.

Navigator is the only ASX-listed company focused exclusively on partnering with leading alternative investment managers. As at 30 June, Navigator provided growth capital and strategic engagement to a diverse portfolio of 12 partner firms.

This was prior to the settlement of the acquisition of the NGI Stable growth portfolio that closed on 2 July. At the partner firm level, Navigator's affiliates managed over $104 billion, up 24% over the past 12 months.

This AUM is managed across 42 investment strategies, invested via 242 products, with 19 new products launched during the period across our portfolio. These strategies typically have low correlation to global equity and fixed income markets and to one another.

Turning to slide 5, financial year 2026 was another year of building scale across the Navigator platform. We continued to grow ownership-adjusted AUM, maintained diversified earning streams, and further strengthened our balance sheet.

The FY 2026 results do not include any impact from the acquisition of the portfolio of 17 net revenue shares in asset managers from Stable. I'll now take you through the key operating drivers of the result, beginning with the assets under management.

Turning to a summary of the financial results on slide 6, Navigator saw strong AUM growth, but earnings lower than FY 2025, in line with expectations. Ownership-adjusted AUM increased 21% during the period to $33.6 billion, driven by both net inflows and strong risk-adjusted investment performance across both business segments.

Higher management fees with steady fee rates and higher performance fees from Lighthouse, offset by lower distributions from NGI Strategic, generated $206.5 million revenues, up 1%. The group's adjusted EBITDA was $101.9 million, a 10% decrease from last year's record result.

This is at the midpoint of our May guidance, consistent with the market messaging over the last 15 months, and following two exceptional years of NGI Strategic distributions. On slide 7, you can see Navigator's ownership-adjusted AUM growth over the last 12 months and since 2022.

The consistent AUM growth over the past 5 years continues, but with accelerated momentum. Over the past 12 months, we saw a 21% increase, with an additional $5.9 billion added across the portfolio during the period.

Post-reporting period, an additional $2 billion of AUM was acquired when the Stable transaction closed. It was pleasing to see the AUM growth across both business segments being driven by net inflows and investment returns, with aggregate net inflows of $3.4 billion, plus continued strong investment performance contributing $2.8 billion.

Given calendar year 2026 investment performance, recent and prospective new product launches across NGI's portfolio, more positive sentiment from capital allocators, and a generally improving fundraising environment across the liquid alternatives industry, we expect to see continued net inflows across our partner firms in FY 2027. Importantly, NGI continues to see minimal fee pressure in base management fee rates nor performance fee rates across our partner firms.

On slide 8, alternative asset managers who aim to generate positive absolute returns for their investors across all market cycles have a strong alignment of interest in the economic performance of their strategies and the returns they generate. For Navigator's portfolio of managers, this is typically reflected in higher and more sustainable fee yields.

In calendar year 2025, both underlying management fees and performance fees were higher than CY 2024 and consistent with historical ranges, although the performance fee yield was lower than prior years. Further, the ultimate distributions received by Navigator from these revenues were lower this year given our partner firms operate at different margins and due to a one-off item.

Moving forward and based on sustained investment performance, steady fee rates, and given the long-term track record of our partner firms, we think it's reasonable to expect performance fee revenues within this range, but on elevated AUM, providing a resilient source of recurring income for Navigator. We expect the future underlying revenue composition for Navigator to be positively impacted by the inclusion of the NGI Stable growth portfolio.

Turning to slide 9, you can see the earnings power of the diversified Navigator portfolio over the longer term. Navigator's FY 2026 earnings of $101.9 million is at the midpoint of the guidance range we provided in May, and reflecting contrasting outcomes across our two divisions during the year.

Lighthouse generated a record $45.2 million EBITDA, up 16% on prior corresponding period, driven by higher management and performance fees across the platform with consistent operating margins, whilst earnings from NGI Strategic was 24% lower following two exceptionally strong years. Despite most partner firms generating strong risk-adjusted results in calendar year 2025, it was mixed, with subdued results from our credit and commodities managers, meaning that across the NGI Strategic segment, the portfolio had a comparatively lower investment performance relative to the prior year.

Along with the impact of one-off items, this led to reduced contributions received from certain managers, which resulted in lower profit distributions compared with a strong FY 2025 and a strong FY 2024, as you can see on the longer-term graph on the left. Pleasingly, Navigator's private markets partner firm profit distributions were up 44% year-on-year to $20.8 million.

The EBITDA excludes the gain of $2.8 million received from the Bardin Hill sale during the year. Further, the results do not include any impact from the acquisition of the portfolio of 17 net revenue shares in asset managers from the Stable transaction.

This portfolio is expected to bring meaningful scale, diversification, and growth this year. This result is in line with our expectations, as communicated from May.

Over the past 5 years, Navigator has grown from owning only Lighthouse Partners to now a portfolio of 29 asset managers. During that period, earnings CAGR has been 22%, and manager concentration risk continues to be mitigated with deliberate, careful diligence and selected partner firm investments.

We are very pleased with the recent and long-term investment performance, management, AUM growth, and earnings generation by our partner firms, which continue to be some of the leading alternative asset managers globally in their respective areas of specialty. Now I'll hand over to Ross to present the NGI business update.

Thank you, Stephen, and thank you very much to everyone on the line for joining us today. Let's turn to slide 11, where I'm proud to highlight the truly differentiated breadth and diversification of the NGI business.

At our core, Navigator partners with scaled, established, but growing alternative asset management firms who are leaders across a diverse range of specialized alternative investment strategies. Today, we have 12 partner firms, as well as 17 in the NGI Stable growth portfolio, that deploy over $120 billion in time-tested strategies across global markets, designed and refined over long and proven track records to generate strong risk-adjusted returns.

It has never been clearer that scale, proven investment edge, and deep resources are table stakes that determine success in our industry. Lighthouse and our partner firms all benefit from these attributes.

In addition, NGI and our partner firms have a clear competitive advantage through our partnership with Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital, who provides access to NGI to their Value Creation Group, the global industry leader in providing strategic support and advice across such verticals as capital strategies, operational and technology best practices, as well as human capital advisory. Let's continue on to slide 12, which illustrates this diversification by partner firm and investment strategy.

The charts on slide 12 are remarkable. NGI provides our shareholders with access to earnings and enterprise value growth across a broad and diversified range of alternative investment businesses.

These institutional-quality, leading partner firms span quantitative strategies, global macro, commodities, structured credit, private healthcare and artificial intelligence growth, specialized real estate, and differentiated private credit, creating both a high-quality and long-term growth profile and a very resilient nature of earnings and cash flow. Not only is our company highly diversified by asset class, but it also spans the globe across broad and unique client segments and generates revenue through a wide variety of fee terms and structures.

The AUM across this platform is long-term oriented, and our earnings aren't riding on any one market cycle. In fact, we should benefit in times of market volatility or following broad market downturns.

Please flip to slide 13, and we'll provide a few select highlights of activity throughout this period. You'll see on slide 13 that our partner firms continue to be at the forefront of their respective strategies and continuously prove out why they are leaders in the alternative asset management industry globally.

During the period, we have seen our partners at 1315 Capital successfully realize assets, producing strong results for their clients, while also deploying capital into innovative, growing healthcare companies in a challenging but exciting market. In addition, Marble Capital continues to illustrate their leadership position in their asset class.

They have been continuously expanding their capabilities by adding high-quality talent and strategic client relationships to expand their reach and grow their platform over time. Just 4 months ago, we were excited to announce our partnership with Georgian, a leader in the AI investment space, which continues to grow in terms of its investment opportunity set and substantial client demand.

We'll cover that transaction in more detail shortly. CFM, one of the partner firms acquired in the NGI Strategic portfolio in 2021, has demonstrated their clear leadership position with extraordinary growth in the hedge fund industry.

With $30 billion of firm-level AUM today, their investment results have remained exceptionally strong, which you can see here, continued to result in winning several industry awards this past year. We see this recognition as a strong indication of further growth.

If we turn to slide 14, we can review the components of the strong AUM growth NGI delivered shareholders this year. On slide 14, you'll see that even after accounting for the sale of Bardin Hill, both NGI Strategic and Lighthouse segments generated strong organic growth within the period.

We're pleased to report 21% overall AUM growth in adjusted AUM. Over 12% organic growth has occurred in a year which has been one of the most challenging capital raising environments in the history of the alternative asset management sector.

This is a true testament to the quality and the differentiated nature of our partner firms and Lighthouse's products, capabilities, and operating infrastructure. Lighthouse continues to demonstrate their long-term proven track record of innovation by creating and offering new hedge fund products which leverage the breadth and sophistication of their platform, meeting both existing and new institutional client demand.

It is important to remember that the underlying returns of Lighthouse, our partner firms, and the public markets show little correlation to one another. Therefore, not only are we excited about the continued organic growth profile of the business, but we also continue to see the potential for the strong contribution of investment returns to our revenue and earnings growth at Navigator.

Please turn to slide 15, and we can turn our attention to the acquisition activity during the year, which further enhances this growth in the years to come. Slide 15 provides an overview of our partnership with Georgian.

On March 30th, we announced the purchase of a 4.5% ownership interest and preferred economic interest in a $6 billion AUM leading artificial intelligence-focused private equity investor for $100 million of consideration to be paid over 3 years. Georgian was established in 2008 and since inception has always been focused on the application of artificial intelligence in specific business-to-business software sub-sectors, such as cyber security and application infrastructure.

Through their own in-house AI lab and long-term track record of supporting some of the world's most successful founders, they have a true edge in a very competitive but important sector. This partnership represented an exciting opportunity to add additional exposure to a growth-oriented private markets business with a growing investment opportunity set and strong investor demand.

Through the transaction structure, we have structured a strong alignment of interest to provide $100 million of capital, all of which will be used to fund Georgian's future growth initiatives. If we go to the next slide, slide 16, we can cover the addition of the NGI Stable growth portfolio.

On slide 16, we have summarized the recent transaction with Stable that is financially and strategically compelling, further enhancing NGI's unique value proposition to our shareholders. On July 2nd, we closed the $190 million acquisition of a diversified portfolio of net revenue share interests in alternative asset management firms that specialize in both liquid and illiquid private market strategies.

Through this transaction, we have added $2 billion of ownership-adjusted AUM to start fiscal 2027 that is highly cash flow generative and further diversifying. In addition, our long-term strategic partnership with Stable strengthens NGI's business.

This strategic acquisition was funded by a mix of cash and scrip, funded through an entitlement offer, also increasing our share liquidity and increasing our market cap. The NGI Stable growth portfolio's cash flow profile immediately improves our broader diversification and our quality of earnings.

One of the things we're most excited about today is that following this meaningful acquisition activity in the second half of fiscal 2026, NGI remains well-positioned to capitalize on additional opportunities in our pipeline. Please turn to slide 17, and we can provide a quick refresher on our approach to adding new partner firms.

Today, we are completely focused on using the scale and resources of the current business to execute on future growth opportunities. We continue to look for compelling opportunities where we can provide growth capital and other partnership solutions to help scaled, but growing firms capitalize on a clear and well-considered strategic growth plan.

In the alternative asset management sector, we believe minority ownership interests remain the most proven mechanism to align interest and partner in a successful and lasting manner for all stakeholders. The criteria you see here on slide 17 is informed by our deep experience in partnering with, investing in, and operating alternative investment management firms for over 20 years.

When evaluating new opportunities, our primary goal is to continue to increase the durability and growth profile of NGI's earnings, which in turn strengthens our competitive position to make further acquisitions over time. Thank you.

Fiscal 2020—excuse me, thank you. Fiscal 2027 could not be more exciting to be here at NGI.

Amber, over to you for the financial results.

Thank you, Ross. Starting with slide 19, I'll begin with the headline numbers.

Fees and distributions for the year were $206.5 million, up 1% on the prior comparable period. Lighthouse management fees grew 11%, and performance fees were $45.5 million for the year, up $9.8 million.

Distributions from our strategic partner firms were $63.7 million against $80.1 million last year, a moderation after two exceptionally strong years. Adjusted EBITDA was $101.9 million, down 10%, and with revenue steady, this reflects a $10.4 million rise in employee expenses, about half from the larger bonus pool tracking Lighthouse performance fees, and a $5.2 million increase in other operating costs.

Net assets at balance date are $930.3 million, up 17%. Turning to slide 20.

This slide reconciles the statutory and the adjusted views of earnings. Statutory revenue grew 8% to $470.5 million.

However, statutory EBITDA fell to $55.1 million, and statutory NPAT was $21.2 million, down 82%. The principal driver was non-cash fair value movements, a negative $40.1 million this year compared with a positive $31.5 million last year through the P&L, which is a $71.6 million swing year-on-year.

Our NGI Strategic partner firm investments are carried at fair value and remeasured at each reporting date. We utilize an external valuer with significant expertise in its field to assist in updating valuations and taking into account partner firm-specific and market assumptions.

Fair value movements through the profit and loss can therefore be significant in either direction as assumptions and outlooks change. FY 2025 resulted in $31.5 million net gain, while FY 2026 booked a $40.1 million net loss, with the majority of this net loss recognized in the first half.

These movements do not represent cash received or paid in the period, but they do flow through statutory earnings. Excluding that volatility and other adjustment items, adjusted EBITDA was $101.9 million, the midpoint of our guidance range, and adjusted NPAT was $75 million.

On the next slide, we break earnings down by segments, and this shows why diversification matters. NGI Strategic contributed $58.7 million at a 92% margin, down from $76.2 million as distributions moderated on prior years, partly offset by a 44% year-on-year increase from our private market partner firms.

Lighthouse grew to $46.7 million from $41 million, holding a 33% margin, driven by both management and performance fee growth. Employee expenses rose with the performance-linked bonus, and headcount, corporate costs were broadly flat at $3.5 million.

Group margin moved from 56% to 49%, reflecting a lower contribution weighting from the NGI Strategic segment this year and the investment needed to support continued growth initiatives. The charts on slide 22 show the shape of our revenue over 5 years.

Lighthouse management fees have compounded steadily from $73.5 million in FY 2022 to $96.5 million in FY 2026, and the performance fees have stepped up sharply, $45.5 million this year against $35.7 million last year and under $12 million in FY 2024. NGI Strategic distributions of $63.7 million in FY 2026 are down from an elevated $80.1 million in the prior year.

This is a moderation from a high base, not a deterioration of underlying performance. Distributions move year-to-year with investment performance, strategy mix, fee realizations, and timing.

The increasing private markets contribution is also important to highlight, these partner firms representing 33% of total distributions received this year. These private market partner firms are a growing share of NGI Strategic distributions, broadening the sources of cash flow beyond the more established liquid portfolio alternatives.

The mix that should continue to evolve as the newer investments scale and support greater diversification across strategies and return cycles. Moving to the next slide.

Our balance sheet continues to grow, with NGI Strategic investments now totalling $755 million. Valuation movements on investments measured through profit and loss affect statutory earnings, and while movements on investments designated at fair value through other comprehensive income are recognized in reserves with equity rather than impacting NPAT.

The table brings those two categories together and shows how each of the movements contributed to the change in net assets and how they largely offset each other in FY 2026. We also strengthened our debt funding capacity during the year.

In May, we increased our senior secured facility by $90 million, from $100 million to $190 million capacity, and extended its maturity to May 2031. This gives us greater flexibility to fund commitments to future growth opportunities.

Following the settlement of the NGI Stable growth portfolio, our balance sheet remains conservatively positioned. On a pro forma basis, including the settlement cash outflow on 2nd of July 2026, net debt to adjusted EBITDA is approximately 0.8 times, compared with a target ratio of approximately 1.5 times.

The Stable acquisition was deliberately funded through a combination of equity raised from shareholders and scrip issued to the vendor, rather than maximizing the use of expanded debt facility. While debt capacity was available, using equity alongside scrip preserved meaningful facility headroom, maintained leverage discipline, and retained flexibility to fund further partner firm investments from a robust opportunity pipeline.

The scrip component also created long-term alignment with Stable, with the substantial majority of those shares subject to either 12 or 24 months escrow. The funding mix was therefore a capital allocation decision, balancing shareholder dilution against balance sheet resilience, strategic alignment, and the ability to continue executing growth opportunities.

On dividends, as announced on the 15th of November 2025, the board determined that the best current use of capital is growth, and dividends have been suspended following the final payment in September 2025. Finally, slide 24 sets out the economics of the business.

NGI Strategic, on a pro forma basis including the recently acquired NGI Stable growth portfolio, has $15.3 billion in AUM as at 30 June 2026, and an average management fee rate of 1.23% per annum. 82% of AUM is able to earn performance fees at a 17% average rate.

The conversion of this revenue into distributions to NGI is estimated at a 35% to 45% indicative margin, and then applying a distribution payout rate of between 90% to 100% of those underlying earnings. Lighthouse AUM at balance date is $20.3 billion at 54 basis points per annum, with 88% of AUM able to earn performance fees at a 13% performance fee rate.

23% of AUM for Lighthouse is at or above high watermark—sorry, 88%. Swapped those around.

A 30% to 35% indicative margin. Together, these are the levers that convert AUM into growing profits.

With that, I'll hand back to Stephen.

Thank you, Amber. In terms of the outlook for Navigator for financial year 2027, on slide 26, NGI expects our portfolio of partner firms to continue to perform across market cycles as it has done historically, at both management company and investment strategy level.

Unlike other listed asset managers that may benefit from a sustained risk-on period for equity and bond markets, NGI's public markets-focused partner firms show resilience in more difficult time periods or those exhibiting greater volatility, which can provide strong diversification. We anticipate the recent momentum on net inflows to continue, given investor appetite globally for alternatives and the appeal and track record of our investment strategies.

In terms of execution of our growth strategy, we are focused on continued and measured acquisitive growth in FY 2027 and adding established, growing, and differentiated partner firms that meet our investment criteria and further diversify our earnings. We are seeing a robust pipeline of new opportunities.

In terms of funding those opportunities, FY 2026 marked the second consecutive year of generating over $100 million U.S. in net operating cash flow across our business segments, which we are proud of.

During the year, we extended and expanded our senior secured facility, as Amber mentioned, with a 2031 maturity. This provides significant flexibility to fund future partner firm investments.

From this year, that facility is undrawn. In accordance with NGI's capital management framework and post the suspension of the dividend, we will proactively and continually assess capital management opportunities when there is excess capital.

Turning to slide 27, the Stable growth portfolio is expected to meaningfully increase FY 2027 earnings. As Ross noted, the portfolio of 17 asset managers now has $17 billion aggregated firm-level AUM, up 19% this calendar year to June, and $2 billion ownership-adjusted AUM, growing in accordance with our expectations from both investment performance and net inflows.

The average AUM per manager is now $1 billion, up from $834 million at the end of calendar year 2025, and is exhibiting growth at a higher rate, as you would expect, from scaling high-quality alternative managers. Pleasingly, the portfolio is generating strong risk-adjusted performance ahead of our expectations, with an average 11% net returns year-to-date to June.

90% of that AUM is subject to performance fees, with an average 17% performance fee rate, consistent with the broader NGI Strategic portfolio, and higher than the Lighthouse segment of 13%. Strategically, the inclusion of this portfolio broadens our addressable market and improves the key financial metrics, as Amber just outlined.

It also enhances the organic growth outlook, as described on our deal announcement, and importantly, it's a valuable addition to diversify Navigator across investment strategy, investor base, and adds even higher predictability and stability to cash flows. The bottom line is that the Stable growth portfolio is performing in line with expectations for FY 2027 in terms of AUM, revenue, and earnings contributions.

Before I conclude and open to questions, on slide 28, I outline why Navigator is a unique and compelling investment proposition for shareholders as the only pure-play alternative firm on the ASX that's diversified. The four key elements on this slide have, and should continue to, lead to Navigator generating strong earnings across all market cycles, and we are focused on future growth opportunities that will enhance that result.

Number one, NGI has some key advantages: being permanent capital structure as an ASX-listed company, our proprietary sourcing channels for new opportunities, our innovative partnership structures, as evidenced by the Georgian transaction, and our model of supported independence with aligned incentives, which we believe is gathering support and confidence by the market globally as the right way to partner as an alternative asset managers. Number two, we have a scalable and fast-growing platform from not just consistent investment performance, but net inflow momentum and accretive acquisitions.

Navigator now has $7.9 billion U.S. dollar higher ownership-adjusted AUM to start FY 2027 including the Stable deal, a 29% increase over the past 12 months.

Navigator is focused on diversification—is number three—of earnings generated from a portfolio of high-quality alternative asset managers and reducing the dependence on any single partner firm. Post the Stable transaction, we have 29 asset managers across our portfolio, across public and private markets, across multiple asset classes, investment styles, geographies, and investors.

Each of Navigator, our portfolio of partner firms, our strategic partner Blue Owl, and our recent strategic partner Stable Asset Management, have deep global expertise across diverse sectors of the alternative industry, and established track records of generating high risk-adjusted returns for their investors. Both of our partners are potential avenues for future new partner firm relationships.

Number four, going into FY 2027, we have a resilient earnings base with recurring management fee revenues and consistent performance fee revenues over long periods, supported by a diversified product offering, with those 19 new products launched during the period. Since FY 2022, our earnings have grown at a 22% CAGR, and according to a UBS report last year, Navigator's performance fee revenues across NGI Strategic exhibited only 14% variability, the lowest of peers.

Given the absolute return nature of our strategies and the performance fee mechanics as outlined at our Investor Day, this is no surprise. I believe that 2027 will be a watershed year for Navigator, with the flywheel we outlined at our Investor Day coming online.

This should be driven by: one, the expected earnings contributions from our latest acquisitions; two, the AUM growth over the past year yielding higher base and performance fee revenues; three, the continued growth of our partner firms; and four, the execution of additional partnerships. Finally, at our Investor Day in November 2025, we set out the aspiration of growing NGI's high fee-paying ownership-adjusted AUM to more than $45 billion by 2030.

With our most recent transactions with Georgian and the NGI Stable growth portfolio, as well as positive investment performance and fund flow momentum across our partner firms, we continue to make very strong progress towards that goal. Thank you for your time, everyone.

I'd now like to open the call to questions. Ryan?

Hi, good morning, team. Thanks for your time.

Firstly, Stephen, just on flows, you mentioned that confidence in the outlook for flows. Could you just give us a highlight of a few of the key partner firms where you would expect this positivity in terms of flows to continue?

Could you specifically make a comment around Lighthouse, as obviously had a pretty good calendar 2026 so far on flows, just interested in the outlook for that one as well?

Thanks, Phil, and appreciate you joining the call. What I might do is I might just address Lighthouse upfront and then pass on to Ross to talk across the broader portfolio across NGI Strategic.

On the Lighthouse side, yes, you're right. It was very pleasing to see strong net inflows.

Worth pointing out that $1.5 billion of net inflows across the Lighthouse platform during the period was into the managed account services, at a lower fee yield. No investor should assume that those net inflows went directly into the higher fee-yielding hedge fund in a segment of it.

However, it was pleasing to see the flows across hedge funds as well, and also the customized solutions and the managed account services. When speak to Sean, which is on a regular basis, and ask where the pipeline and investor interest is in the product offering, I would rank them probably as follows.

The relatively new Fortress Beacon product is seeing significant interest, continues to perform well, and we would expect additional flows that are committed in the pipeline at least over the coming two quarters and look forward to talking more about that. We obviously've seen flows during the year into that, which was pleasing.

They were, I would say, delayed versus the original expectations of early last year. These are complicated products.

Jeff and his team are performing well, and we're seeing that pipeline, I would say, accelerate into the end of the calendar year. Of course, there's always a risk that those flows don't eventuate, but I understand that there are some at least high-key commitments around that.

We will see. Other products, interestingly, is a relatively smaller product called Penglai Peak, which is a Japanese multi-manager product, and we've spoken about this.

I won't delay the call too long. We can talk about it at the Ord Minnett session, Phil, but just with the active management and alpha generation opportunities in Japan, that I understand is also benefiting long-only active managers, Sean is seeing quite significant performance and interest from investors in that geographic region, and Penglai Peak, I understand, is one of only a small number of multi-manager hedge funds that has that sort of focus.

Even though it's relatively small, I believe between $300 [million?] and $400 million AUM at the moment, you would expect actually that to have meaningful growth over the course of the next few quarters.

I believe there's still some interest in the Northstar platform with another client, a large account in the pipeline, Northstar continues to perform well, as you can see in our performance slides. It started the year very strong, but it's been a bit more difficult the last couple of months, and we can address it more broadly with the industry, but the macro strategy is not necessarily seeing the sort of traction that the equity products are seeing at this time in the year.

Hopefully, Phil, from a Lighthouse perspective, that gives you some color. I would say that, actually, there's a number of custom accounts, RFPs, that are underway, according to Sean, and who feels good about, actually, Lighthouse winning those accounts.

We'll see where the growth is in that customized going through the next 6 to 12 months. Then on managed account solutions, it's less important from an earnings perspective, but I think they're doing a great job in that business providing a solution.

You're seeing a lot of flows into that. Even though it might be a little volatile, I would continue to expect to see flows.

If you add all that up, a great year last year, and we have a degree of confidence that that will continue subject to market conditions. Ross, do you want to talk perhaps about the rest of the portfolio?

No, happy to. Phil, thanks so much for the question.

What we saw this last year in the NGI Strategic segment was that it was really a mix between the private market firms and the liquid alternatives, probably with the private market firms driving a majority. As we've talked about, this year we've had Invictus, Marble, and 1315 out at different stages, but out raising their next vintage fund, as well as kind of associated separately managed accounts and co-investment vehicles.

Invictus has wrapped up a very successful fundraise, which really contributed to that this last year, and Marble and 1315 continue on at different stages, but we should see both of them contribute to this next year. I think the more exciting point, though, is kind of some of the drivers behind what Stephen said as well.

It really is clear that hedge funds are an increasingly valuable tool for institutional investors. We talked about it a little last year, but they've become almost like a black sheep to now a priority for the largest investment boards and investors around the world to get access to.

It's the type of firms on our platform that are gaining flows. Some of the data we follow showed that 86% of all flows in 2025 went to firms with $5 billion or more of AUM.

Navigator is where the market is going in many respects. Now, obviously, we see the NGI Stable growth portfolio, and those firms are also growing because they're specialized, exciting, and they get a lot of access through Stable's network.

Predominantly, firms like Capstone, CFM, MKP that partners almost exclusively with large institutional investors and others are out raising money. It's hard to say, given how lumpy those timelines are, but given the strong performance and just given the role in those portfolios being prioritized, we're very excited about the outlook there.

Thanks. Maybe

just a follow-up question

from me—

Oh, sorry, Phil. I was just going to point everyone to slide 34.

Just to outline Ross's point very well, I can't recall in recent history seeing that sort of uptick of investor appetite for hedge funds, and you've got sort of Barclays Strategic coming out saying that in the second-half plans for allocations, investors are up by sort of 6% from this time in the prior year in terms of interest in hedge funds. That seems to be coming at a bit of a sacrifice of some of the private market strategies.

My view, just quickly, is that I think people have been underpricing liquidity risk here, and now that they can see that hedge funds can provide the right risk-adjusted returns with liquidity, there's a greater interest in that product, and I think we're seeing that reflected across the platform. I don't think anyone sees the current world global volatility going away, and so we feel confident about that.

Sorry to cut you off, Phil, but I think slide 34 helps to illustrate Ross's point.

No, understand. That's really useful.

Just to try and sort of triangulate expectations for FY 2027, if we look at 2026, the one area that perhaps was a more modest contributor was the NGI Strategic portfolio, that sort of the five key sort of original partner firms. What's the outlook, do you think, in terms of FY 2027 for that business?

Clearly, Stable's going to be making a contribution coming on board. Lighthouse, we can look at that base management fee level and have some expectation of performance fees.

Private markets aside, that NGI Strategic portfolio of five, just sort of our expectation into 2027, how should we be thinking about that?

Ross, do you want to take that first, and then I'll follow up with any further comments?

No, absolutely. A great question, Phil.

What I would say there, and, Stephen, please do jump in if this is not quite giving you the insight that you're looking for, but the way we think about it is, as Stephen highlighted in his remarks, two of the firms in that portfolio certainly had more subdued years on the performance side in 2025, which led to lower overall distributions. We monitor the performance closely, but there's so many products and so many business lines in these platforms, it really depends on which products perform, what margins each business runs at to really determine the ultimate distributions to us.

The way we're thinking about it right now is that this upcoming year will be a stronger year, but certainly not what we're expecting to hockey stick or bounce back to what was two very exceptional years, the two not overly impossible years, but just exceptional across the 5/6 firms that are in that portfolio at the same time. One data point which may be helpful, but like anything in the markets, is subject to change, we don't emphasize it at this point in the year, but if you flip to slide 32, which shows the investment performance of a composite of those five firms, you'll see that calendar 2026 year-to-date, they're at about 3.6%.

If you were to look at our August results last year, it was about 1.9%. They are tracking ahead this year of last year, but it's going to depend on which firms.

The great news is that we don't see anyone in outflow. We don't see any of the performance that was subdued last year being damaging to the enterprise value or really the management fee-driven side of the business, and they are growing.

Directionally, all things are quite positive. It's just hard to have these big scaled firms bounce back super quickly and repeat what was our fiscal 2025.

Hopefully that helps.

That's really useful. I don't know if Stephen had anything you want to add there?

No, I was just thinking, but I don't think so, Phil. I think slide 32 is indicative.

Just while we're on that, look at the level of consistency across the ownership-adjusted Strategic portfolio over 1, 3, and 5 years. That also is largely mirrored across a number of the Lighthouse products.

The Stable growth portfolio has a higher risk return to it, as you can see across those metrics. To see this portfolio return really to those long-term averages would be certainly part of our expectation.

As Ross said, we're a couple hundred basis points, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you've got the performance fee mechanics and the way that the base fees work, and you see some inflows, that can make a big difference. You'd like to think that we have a bounce this year.

Amber highlighted the distribution slide historically on 22. On the left-hand side of 22, we used to refer to 3 to 5-year averages for this portfolio.

I think the 5-year averages is actually $71 [million?] .

It would be very disappointing if, for example, the $63 [million?] didn't rise by 10% to 15% to be ahead of that 5-year average.

It's very difficult to be able to say that right now as we sit here in August. In discussions with Ross and in terms of how the managers are going even at early stage July and August, it's really promising.

I sort of agree with Ross's characterization. For people to think the $80.1 [million?]

is immediately going to be an uplift, unless we have a big private markets contribution, I think is probably difficult. An uptick, but not $20 million,

$30 million. Understand.

Thanks so much. I'll jump back in the queue.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just one to start. Just in terms of the pipeline of M&A, and particularly, I ask because you've obviously talked about the capacity, the medium-term funding deal, and the cash flow generated by the business.

Can you maybe combine those two, sort of pipeline and capacity to fund the outlook, and maybe talk to a pro forma leverage ratio, if possible?

Maybe Ross can address the pipeline and Amber can address the funding and leverage.

No, happy to. Tim, thanks so much for the question.

As I said in my remarks, we have never been more active in the pipeline for a mix of reasons. I'd say the first one is that our track record continues to be recognized in terms of being supportive, value-add, and creative partners to these firms, especially with the 1315 and Georgian transactions kind of being successfully completed.

In addition, in the sector, the most what I would say is focused and growth-oriented firms are really seeking partners more and more. The quality of the pipeline has also improved.

We are very much looking at adding hopefully one, at least one partner firm this year that would further diversify. Most of the pipeline is private markets, just given the objectives that we're talking about, as well as things outside of our core portfolio today.

The pipeline has things in call it specialized areas of real estate investing in the private markets, other areas of real assets that are either kind of scalable, but focused. We do have a couple things in liquid alternatives that we think either from a global or a strategy perspective are very institutional quality, but could be diversifying.

As we've seen, certainly can add to the growth profile and the cash flow yield of our overall business. Then we continue to look at what we call specialized private equity.

You think of other sector specialists, like you've seen us partner with, or other very specialized strategies that we think will kind of be on that one side of the barbell in private markets that is growing and is generating good returns for clients. It is really active.

It's always hard, as we always say, it's hard to say if we can convert, but I think our strategic positioning, as well as the overall volume of opportunities, is as active as we've ever been.

Just on the leverage ratio, we cover in the deck, our target net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio is about 1.5 times. We do look at that, and for us also, it's interesting to keep in mind that we still have deferred consideration that comes into that mix.

It's not just all about debt, it's also deferred consideration we still have to pay out on the existing investments. The funding is really it's a case-by-case decision.

It depends on the size of the transaction, it depends on the terms and the size of trenching in over time, particularly on private markets. We just weigh that all up in those overall decisions in terms of managing our target ratio.

Is there a covenant leverage?

There's sort of our covenant leverage, and then there's the pro forma, as we're currently at 0.8 times, and as we would stick around that target of 1.5 times when we're looking at a transaction. It could go slightly above it if we had to structure something depending on the deal.

Thank you.

I'm least qualified, but just an observation on this I would say is that, obviously, with undrawn debt facility, and as we start to get the Stable more stable, predictable cash flows from the Stable deal, four times a year revenue shares, much clearer when we're going to get it. There's no margin that is really effectively applied to that, we get the cash flows like a royalty stream four times a year.

As they start to come online, we're going to really be increasing the cash flows.

We still will have cyclical cash flows. We're still going to have quite a large amount in the March quarter based on calendar year performance.

Yes.

Just to keep that in mind.

Very clear. Then maybe on the carried interest, obviously, performance fees are hard to forecast, but you can build in sort of some carried interest.

Can you talk to the position of carried interest across the private market funds?

Ross, do you want to cover that? I guess Marble and Invictus are the two large ones.

Sure. We continue to see the funds that were kind of of that vintage where we expect some carry coming in fiscal 2027, '28, and '29 to mature.

I would say some of those funds are performing or outperforming expectations. Some are either slightly behind from a return perspective or from a timing perspective.

We just continue to monitor that. We've had some, I would say, marginal contribution from that over time, and the FRE side is really what's been driving the increase you see year-over-year, as well as the percentage on Amber's slide with distributions.

We can see some lumpy carry here and there, kind of starting probably in the back end of fiscal 2027. For the most part, we continue to see the AUM and the highly profitable FRE stream, which, again, we think is super valuable, grow and compound over time.

Thank you very much.

Good day. Just a question around Stable expected kind of returns that should produce in FY 2027.

They've obviously had a little bit of asset growth as well since the announcement when you acquired it. Then how to think about the timing of that.

Presumably, it comes through all in January, very predictable, by February, we'll know what that portfolio has contributed to NGI. Is that right?

Why don't I answer it initially and then Ross can dive into some more details, Nick. It's obviously a great question.

I think the market's going to be very focused on the bridge from FY 2026 to FY 2027, and we've obviously called out that we believe it's going to be a meaningful number, and I actually think the consensus on this looks pretty right. I would say that we did think about whether we put up pro forma numbers of FY 2026 for Stable, but given we didn't hold the portfolio for any of that year, we didn't believe that was the right thing to do.

Also, we thought it actually was misleadingly low because that number would have been maybe in line with CY 2025 distributions, but it doesn't pick up the asset growth, as we've highlighted, of 19% calendar year-to-date, nor the power of the performance fee crystallization that's coming up on 31 December. I would just finish by saying we feel very good about the earnings accretion announcement being refreshed, as that we did in May, and also we feel very good about the underwriting.

Some of it's actually performing perhaps slightly ahead on investment performance. We didn't want to provide a bridge because we sit here in August, 11 months away from the next year, I think it's difficult for an asset management firm, especially one where it's got just over 50% relative performance fees, to give any prediction, but we feel very good about how the transaction's growing around it.

Ross, do you want to add anything more specific to Nick's next question?

Sure. The only thing I would add, and Nick, taking to the back end of your question to complete the thought, obviously agree with everything Stephen said, is that, yes, we'll know more earlier on that portfolio than we do on the NGI Strategic portfolio, where in the NGI Strategic, as you're probably more familiar than most, we really don't know until call it March, April, if not May, in terms of how the profit distributions that are impacted by annual performance fee revenues end up.

With regards to the NGI Stable growth portfolio, we should know by our February results kind of how the performance fee side is coming through. We'll obviously have two more quarters of management fee-driven revenue shares in our annual results, but by February results, we should be able to provide an update on that.

Right. Then my understanding is you kind of credit against the acquisition the dividends or the output of last financial year, is that right?

That adjustment comes through once you account for the acquisition in FY 2027 in terms of, obviously, we just saw the cap raise in the accounts you've seen, but the actual payment and the acquisition accounting will reflect that distribution?

Yes. The timing was good from my perspective of a 2nd of July settlement, it's not in the 30 June financials, and you'll see all that acquisition accounting will be in the half year.

I will say, though, some of the transaction costs for the cap raise were actually recognized in 2026, but a lot of those have gone through directly to equity as required under the accounting standards.

All right, cool. Then maybe just one last one from me.

The the progress at the new partner firms is looking really good. I think over $20 million worth of contribution.

Just maybe Ross, if you can give us an update on where they're at in terms of realizations or new raises, and if, if there's anything to think about year year-to-year with those, because I know sometimes it can be lumpy.

No, happy to. It's a mixed bag in terms of everything's going well, but in terms of, to your point, carry versus FRE.

We're super proud that Invictus and Marble and 1315 are all on track to hit their targeted fundraises in the private markets. As we've said for the last call it two, three reporting periods, it's really challenging.

You see very successful private market firms with funds that are smaller than their predecessor. We don't see that happening here.

Invictus raised over $2 billion across their fund complex for, call it 1.5, 2 years. They're done now.

We were very confident that Marble's going to hit, if not exceed, their $800 million target by the end of this year. And 1315 is out with their $750 million, $800 million or so for their next two kind of simultaneous funds.

That's likely going to go through the end of our fiscal 2027, but they're making a lot of progress and doing quite well, and their portfolio is performing well. Georgian also, the nature of that transaction was for the full $100 million of consideration to primarily be used to support the next few fundraises.

They're actually going out very shortly to raise their next two funds. The first one is their Fund 7, their flagship growth fund, as well as their second version of what they call their breakout fund, which is a very much in-vogue kind of as-needed kind of step-up for individual funding rounds.

We're really optimistic. They would be targeting over $1 billion across those two as well.

There's a lot of momentum for continued fundraising. In terms of the increment and the increase of the $20 million of profit distributions this year, it's primarily still Marble and Invictus, just given they're seasoned more.

I would say Invictus's growth this year especially has been really impressive. Starting to see that $2 billion of AUM come online, but also a pretty meaningful increase in their kind of origination or lending volume creates additional kind of ongoing earnings, and that's what contributed there.

Long way of saying is that good fundraising to date, more coming, and we have not seen 1315 or Georgian contribute in that $20 million yet.

Cool. Thank you.

good morning, guys, and thanks for the opportunity to ask some questions. I'm a little bit surprised with the single slide on Stable, which is largely a rehash of stuff we already know.

Is this what we should expect to see going forward on the level of disclosure now that you own the business?

No. Hi, Laf.

Thanks for joining the call and asking the question. No, it's not the expectation going forward.

The expectation going forward is it will be disclosed as for the rest of NGI Strategic and rolled up into that and you'll be able to see the same metrics. I think you are right with effectively updated the key financial metrics with the impact of Stable.

We've also called out the growth of Stable on an AUM front and other metrics year-to-date. Happy to take it offline, but a simple spreadsheet modelling out the impact of the metrics we've put here will effectively tell you the distribution.

I think that's the way for us to articulate this, is to provide the inputs and to talk you through it, but I think it's very hard to make a prediction here in August when we do have performance fee revenue streams that come off the back of this. No, you'll be expecting enhanced disclosure once we actually own the portfolio.

We did not own the portfolio for this period of time. It was a matter of some discussion.

We thought that would be misleading on the downside given how well it's actually going.

I get that, but there's always some metrics you can give us on a bit more color on on the breakdown of how some of the underlying funds or strategies are going. Maybe could you add us add some color around possibly the net flows in the business since you like in the June quarter?

Can you give us any color on how it's gone so far this financial year or into, this current quarter?

Why don't I answer broadly, and then, Ross, you jump in for sure. What I will tell you is that, just like the rest of our portfolio in the financial year, this calendar year, Stable has contributed its growth from both investment performance and from net inflows.

You may have the numbers at hand, Ross, although, as said, we haven't owned the portfolio for the 6, 7 months of that. I will tell you, just like NGI Strategic, investment performance has been indeed the dominant driver, like you do see in leading alternative managers.

In terms of more color around specifics and how some of the larger managers perhaps are going, Ross, do you want to talk a little bit about Paradigm and Harborview and others to give Laf some color?

Sure. What I would say, Laf, and great to talk to you, is that there has been organic growth in the first 6 months of the year, which is kind of the period, obviously, we're most focused on to hit our earnings coming in the future.

There's both closed-end fund growth, as Stephen said, at firms like Harborview, and then some of the larger hedge funds are growing. One quick reminder from the announcement is, even though they are on average smaller than the NGI Strategic portfolio and Lighthouse, they are targeting these large institutional mandates, which do take some time, the flows happen to be lumpy.

We hope they come in very frequently, but they come in kind of in size and lumpy. Since the transaction itself, one bright spot is, as Stephen highlighted, one of the firms did launch a brand new product with multiple hundred million dollars, and that was raised very easily, there's very good momentum.

That's kind of, I think, where I would leave it, unless there's anything, Stephen, specifically you want me to highlight.

Just more generally, was it in positive flows or negative? It's great that one strategy had positive flows.

I'm just trying to get color on was the June quarter positive since you announced the transaction? Has it started this quarter positive?

Any color on that as a whole?

As a whole, it was about flat for the quarter, but, again, that's just one quarter across 17 institutional firms. Obviously, if I look at the managers, some were materially inflows, a couple of them had outflows, but directionally, very positive.

Just to double check, before you bought it, what were the flows looking like the two, three quarters before that? Was it positive or largely flat as well?

Oh,

it was positive. Again, not to be difficult, Laf, I can't say that I really do look at quarterly flows that carefully here.

We're talking to Stable to understand what types of institutional mandates and products are being launched and really looking at an annual basis. When we look back how these firms were built and grown since Stable's seed or acceleration capital in, the flows were obviously quite positive.

All right, got it. Thank you.

Thanks for the

Laf.

I think just given the time, Ryan, we might just wrap it up because we're out of time. We've got to go to the next meeting.

Appreciate everyone's support and joining the call. Certainly, on behalf of the management team, we are very excited about FY 2027 to be able to convert a lot of this great AUM into earnings and to deploy the capital effectively and accretively.

Thanks for your time and look forward to investor meetings in the coming weeks.