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Highlights

  • Liberty Financial is a diversified financial company with operations in New Zealand and Australia.
  • In comparison to its bank and non-bank peers, LFG has delivered the highest ROE to leverage ratio in FY23.
  • In FY24, the company expects to register continued portfolio growth.

Liberty Financial Group Limited (ASX: LFG) is a speciality finance company that offers motor vehicle finance, residential and commercial mortgages, personal and business loans, general insurance and brokerage services. The diversified financial company has delivered the highest ROE to leverage ratio in the financial year 2023 (FY23) compared to its non-bank and bank peers. In addition to this, LFG delivered leading outcomes in the peer group in terms of capital strength, cost-to-income ratio and net interest margin. 

During FY 23, LFG’s total revenue zoomed by 41.8% YoY to AUD 1,232.6 million, while the underlying NPATA dropped by 19.3% YoY to AUD 186.6 million. The yearly profit fell because of the increase in the non-cash collective provision and the decrease in net interest margin.

The financial assets portfolio of LFG increased by 5% YoY to AUD 13,534.5 million, driven by the company’s long-term diversification strategy, which focuses on offering solutions to borrowers from the SME space and to consumers who require auto and personal finance.

Here are the historical financial metrics of LFG.

Top 10 shareholders of LFG

The top 10 shareholders of LFG together have around 84.76% of the shareholding in the company, while the top four shareholders together have nearly 80.77% of the shareholding. Ma (Sherman) has the highest stake in the company, with a shareholding of approximately 77.39%.

Recent business update

Through an ASX release dated 30 August 2023, the company informed that its 2023 annual general meeting (AGM) is set to take place on 25 October 2023.

The company announced an actual final distribution of 23.77 cents per share for the seven month period ending on 30 June 2023. The record date of the dividend declared was 30 June 2023, and the pay date was 31 August 2023. The distribution was unfranked.

Outlook

LFG expects to deliver continuous portfolio growth in FY24 through credit growth, diversification, continuous refinance activity and increased provision. The company also expects its distribution to move towards the midpoint of the dividend policy range of 40-80% NPAT in FY24.

The company is focused on continuing its ongoing investment in digital customer solutions and diversifying customer solutions.

Share performance of LFG

LFG shares closed 0.80% lower at AUD 3.7 apiece on 4 September 2023 with a market cap of AUD 1.13 billion. Including this, the stock registered a fall of 15.9% in the last 12 months and recorded a fall of 7.27% on a year-to-date basis.

The 52-week high of LFG is AUD 4.52 apiece, recorded on 14 September 2022, and the 52-week low is AUD 3.29 apiece, recorded on 9 November 2022.

 

Note 1: Past performance is neither an Indicator nor a guarantee of future performance.

 

Note 2: The reference date for all price data, currency, is 4 September 2023. The reference data in this report has been partly sourced from REFINITIV.