Ann: FY21 Results Overview, page-9

Historically PI law firms have poor cash flow conversion as you do a lot of work on no win no fee basis so you're incurring cash expenses prior to cash inflow. You're also funding disbursements on balance sheet, essentially lending your own money to clients to cover litigation related expenses. Class actions also have a similar dynamic. Hence your cash NPAT is generally significantly lower than your reported NPAT.

In recent years Shine have taken a number of steps to improve cashflows with by relying more on third party funders. Nevertheless I would calculate underlying "owner" cash earnings for FY21 at $12.2m so a $9.1m dividend seems reasonable to me. Also note that Shine currently pays de minimis cash taxes due to historical tax losses. (For those interested in the calculation it's OCF ex mesh less capex less rent).

Hope that helps in understanding what may appear to be an optically low payout ratio.