Key Highlights

  • The Brickworks Merger completed in September 2025 and changed how the group's accounts are consolidated.
  • Statutory net profit after tax attributable to shareholders rose 502% to A$2.19 billion, including one-off merger gains.
  • The board declared a final Dividend of 63 cents per share, fully franked, and FY26 Ordinary Dividends totalled 111 cents.
  • Pre-tax net asset value rose 10.4% to A$13.7 billion, with available Liquidity of A$3.8 billion.

What did the merger with Brickworks actually change for Washington H. Soul Pattinson (ASX:SOL), the Investment house better known as Soul Patts? The FY26 result, released on 24 September 2026 for the year to 31 July 2026, gives a clear answer: it simplified the group's structure, removed a long-standing cross-shareholding, and lifted reported profit sharply through one-off accounting gains. It also left the company with a larger Balance Sheet and, in management's words, more firepower for new investments. The harder question is what is underlying and what is accounting, and this article separates the two as far as the published figures allow.

What Soul Patts is

Soul Patts is one of the oldest companies on the ASX and operates as a diversified investment house rather than a conventional operating business. It holds stakes in listed and unlisted companies, private markets investments, property, Credit and fixed income, and it aims to pay a growing dividend funded by the Cash Flow from those investments. Unlike a fund, it has no fixed investment term and no performance fee structure, which allows it to hold Assets for long periods.

The company's results are therefore read through measures that capture investment performance, such as net asset value and cash flow from investments, rather than revenue, which can be distorted by the way acquired businesses are consolidated.

The Brickworks merger

The merger with Brickworks completed in September 2025. Brickworks, a building products company, had long been a major Soul Patts shareholding, and Soul Patts was also a major Shareholder in Brickworks, a cross-holding that complicated both companies' structures. The merger unwound that cross-shareholding. Since the merger date, Brickworks has been consolidated into Soul Patts' accounts, whereas the previous holdings had been accounted for using the Equity method.

That change in accounting explains why headline figures jumped. Statutory net profit after tax attributable to shareholders rose 502% to A$2.19 billion from A$364 million, including one-off gains linked to the merger. Revenue from continuing operations rose 96% to A$1.87 billion from A$955 million, reflecting the consolidation. Neither number should be extrapolated, because one-off gains do not recur and consolidation changes the base against which future growth will be measured.

A more useful measure of operating performance is net cash flow from investments, which rose 12% to A$572 million. This captures the dividends, interest and other cash received from the portfolio, and it is the figure that underpins the dividend. Even so, it is a different measure from the statutory profit figure and should be compared with it carefully.

Dividends

The board declared a final dividend of 63 cents per share, fully franked, up 6.8% on the prior year. Total ordinary dividends for FY26 were 111 cents, up 7.8%. The company has a long record of raising its ordinary dividend each year, though a track record does not guarantee a future increase. The Dividend reinvestment plan has been reactivated for the 2026 final dividend, which means shareholders can take new shares instead of cash, and which also retains Capital within the company.

Net asset value and liquidity

Pre-tax net asset value rose 10.4% to A$13.7 billion. Available liquidity was A$3.8 billion in cash and committed facilities.

Net asset value is useful for a Holding Company because it shows what the underlying portfolio is worth, and shares in such companies often trade at a premium or discount to it.

Portfolio moves

During the year Soul Patts sold down some listed equities, including its stake in TPG Telecom, and divested its Goodman industrial property joint venture for A$1.9 billion. It increased allocations to global private markets and fixed income. Chief executive Todd Barlow said the merger had delivered a cleaner capital structure, a more encouraging balance sheet and substantial firepower for new investments.

Management says it expects to keep rotating capital into global private markets, focusing on quality and disciplined deployment, while prioritising liquidity and a defensive portfolio and looking for sectors with long-term structural growth. That is a reasonable strategy, but it comes with trade-offs. Private market assets are harder to value and to sell than listed shares, and the valuations reported in NAV rely on judgement.

Competitive position

Soul Patts competes for investments with Private Equity funds, Superannuation funds, other listed investment companies and family offices. Its advantages are permanent capital, a record of long-term holdings and the flexibility to invest across asset classes. Its drawback is that, unlike a fund, shareholders cannot see a simple benchmark, and performance depends on the judgement of the investment team.

Risks and what to monitor

The main risks are market-wide falls in the value of listed holdings, valuation uncertainty in private assets, the integration of Brickworks and its building-products exposure, which depends on housing and construction activity, and the challenge of deploying A$3.8 billion of liquidity at returns without lowering standards. A concentrated holding that moves sharply can also affect NAV.

Next steps for readers to monitor include the annual general meeting, the half-year result around March 2027, how the portfolio mix changes as capital is deployed into private markets, and whether net cash flow from investments continues to grow in step with dividends.