After nearly nine years under Andrew Blattman, IPH has a new chief executive in former PwC and King & Wood Mallesons operator Tony O’Malley. He inherits a group earning record Revenue , paying a near-double-digit Yield , and trading at roughly half its 2022 price. The FY26 result on 20 August is his first real test.

In the six months to 31 December 2025, the Australian and New Zealand arm of IPH Limited (ASX: IPH) — the Franchise the company was built on — went backwards. Like-for-like revenue fell 6.1 per cent to $146.2 million and underlying Earnings before interest, tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 10.6 per cent. That the group still posted record half-year revenue says everything about how much of IPH’s growth has been bought rather than grown.

A new hand on the tiller

IPH’s member firms — Spruson & Ferguson, Griffith Hack, AJ Park, Smart & Biggar, ROBIC and others — file and prosecute patents and trade marks across more than 25 jurisdictions, employing roughly 1,800 people.

Dr Andrew Blattman flagged his retirement at the November 2025 Annual General Meeting after nearly nine years as managing director. On 28 May 2026 the board named his successor: Tony O’Malley, who commenced on 1 July 2026, with Blattman staying until 30 November to hand over.

O’Malley is not an IP practitioner. He was most recently global legal Business solutions leader at PwC, running operations across more than 100 territories with around 4,000 staff, and before that Australian managing partner at King & Wood Mallesons, board chair at Wotton Kearney and deputy general counsel at Telstra. Chair Peter Warne said the appointment followed a comprehensive global search and cited O’Malley’s experience in large-scale transformation and AI-enabled legal technology. O’Malley said he was joining “at a pivotal point in its transformation”. He is paid $950,000 fixed, plus incentives worth up to $2.1 million.

Three regions, three different stories

For 1H FY26 — the six months to 31 December 2025 — group revenue rose 6.5 per cent to $363.9 million and underlying EBITDA 6.6 per cent to $107.1 million, on a 29.3 per cent Margin . Underlying NPATA (net profit after tax and amortisation, which strips out non-cash amortisation of acquired intangibles) was $62.6 million, up 2.6 per cent; statutory net profit rose 10.5 per cent to $41.2 million.

Canada was the standout: like-for-like revenue climbed 7.3 per cent to $161.6 million and EBITDA jumped 18.9 per cent to $41.7 million, margins widening 2.6 percentage points to 25.8 per cent. That followed a torrid FY25, when an IT upgrade at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office stalled workflow and pushed revenue into later periods. Management says the disruption has eased but the Backlog has not meaningfully cleared — deferred value, not lost value.

Asia returned to growth, with like-for-like revenue up 3.5 per cent and EBITDA up 1.5 per cent on a 41.7 per cent margin, the group’s fattest. Filings outside Singapore rose 7.3 per cent and more than 2,200 cases transferred into the network.

ANZ remains the problem. IPH’s Australian Patent filing Market Share fell to 25.4 per cent from 30.4 per cent. Some of that is optical: the market grew 12.9 per cent, but only 1.9 per cent excluding self-filed applications, which surged after applicants began using generative AI to draft their own provisionals — Patentology counted a 193 per cent jump in 2025, pushing independent firms above half of all filings. The harder truth is that IPH’s own filings fell 5.4 per cent, and ANZ draws 45–50 per cent of its work from US applicants against a market average of 30–35 per cent, leaving it badly exposed to the slump in US-originating filings running since mid-2023.

The bill for four Canadian deals

FY25 illustrated the pattern. Revenue rose 16.5 per cent to $710.3 million, yet organic revenue on a constant-currency basis went backwards 0.2 per cent. The growth came from acquisitions — four Canadian firms since October 2022, taking IPH to roughly a third of Canada’s patent and trade mark market. Underlying NPATA rose 7.3 per cent to $120.6 million; statutory NPAT was $68.8 million. Non-underlying costs of $13.2 million after tax included $10.6 million of restructuring and a $2.4 million Impairment on leases and equipment from consolidating Canadian premises — no Goodwill was written down. The March 2023 cyber breach at Spruson & Ferguson Australia has faded, leaving $1.0 million of security upgrade spending in FY25.

Net Debt was $339.3 million at 31 December 2025, Leverage 1.8 times against a 2.0 times ceiling. Free Cash Flow rose 32 per cent to $63.7 million and EBITDA converted to cash at 101 per cent. The Interim Dividend was lifted 11.8 per cent to 19 cents but only 20 per cent franked — a consequence of earning most profit offshore — and absorbed 81 per cent of cash-adjusted earnings. A buyback of up to 12.2 million shares began on 9 March 2026, with about 2.7 million cancelled by mid-April.

Why the value crowd is circling

At roughly $4.01 as at 31 July 2026, IPH is capitalised near $1.05 billion, on a trailing yield close to 9.4 per cent and a forecast price-earnings multiple around 8 times; consensus sits at $4.80 across seven analysts. Renewals are recurring, sticky revenue. Canadian margins are widening, the CIPO backlog should eventually convert, Asia has momentum, and a cost programme targeting $8–10 million of annualised savings from FY26 is running. A chief executive with real AI-deployment experience looks the right profile for the moment.

What the market is actually worried about

Consensus FY26 Earnings Per Share were cut from 38.9 cents to 33 cents in June 2026. The Payout Ratio exceeds statutory earnings, franking is thin, and leverage leaves limited room for another large deal. Currency cuts both ways — a one-cent move in AUD/USD swings roughly $3.0 million of annualised service-charge revenue. And AI-assisted self-filing, however flawed the output, poses a structural question no cost programme answers.

The 20 August checkpoint

The FY26 result on 20 August 2026 is the checkpoint: whether ANZ stabilises, whether the Canadian backlog converts, the final dividend and its franking, leverage, and any early strategic signal from O’Malley. He inherits a dependable cash generator attached to an unresolved growth problem. The market has already priced the second.