Impressive organic growth, especially in relation to the...

Impressive organic growth, especially in relation to the Underwriting Agencies, although the Broking business went backwards in the second-half.

But the quality of the group result is difficult to discern, because of the degree of change of accounting for equity-accounted associates going to being to fully-consolidated after acquisitions of minority interests in those former associates.

The impact of this is, at face value, faster top line growth as well as increased costs, so it is difficult to isolate the underlying result.

Still, given the impeccable track record of these guys and the way they run their business, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

And I think the FY2020 guidance is conservative, given they flag significant technology spend, partly in relation to the acquisition of IBNA as well as in terms of creating an increasing technological competitive advantage, especially in terms of the Steadfast Client Trading Platform which I think will end up being a very powerful "trapdoor moat" for SDF for years to come.

And the capital raising is very prudent, I think; being quite modest in relation to the size of the company, and provides balance sheet firepower for further acquisitions (none of which form part of the Fy2020 guidance).

I rank the management of this company in the top decile of executive teams in the Australian market; if anyone wants to know why, have a listen to today's conference call to see how some very smart operators think about the business they run, and how they invest in it for the long-term value creation.

I will certainly be taking up my entitlement offer for each entity I have that owns SDF.