Livewire article by Adrain Ezquerro

We first introduced FID to Livewire readers in a previous article ‘The small cap stairway to Heaven’. For the uninitiated, FID is an integrated financial services provider with three key operating divisions; Financial Planning, Platform Administration and Funds Management. It was founded in 1996 by Indy Singh, who remains today as a substantial shareholder and Executive Chairman.To the more casual observer, FID is most commonly and broadly categorised as a financial planning group. However, we see this as an oversimplification that sells the investment proposition short. As we have previously detailed, Fiducian’s financial planning business unit acts as an enabler of flows to its high margin Platform Administration and multi-manager Funds Management divisions. It’s a powerful model that combines a strongly performing, diversified funds management group with a high margin platform business, all within the one operating structure. The efficient operating model has delivered positive long term outcomes for Fiducian’s clients, its advisers and shareholders for many years.As illustrated in the below chart, leverage to markets adversely impacted FY2023 results, especially when coupled with the inflationary environment evident during the year (wage cost inflation). But therein lies some of the opportunity. A rebounding market in the year/s to come will likely provide ample opportunity for growth across the FID ecosystem of businesses. None of this is in today’s price, with FID trading a substantial discount to our assessment of fair value.So while forecasting too far out into the future is fraught with danger, we see enough cause for optimism with this quiet achiever at current prices. FID management would appear to concur, with over a dozen on market Director buys announced over the past 12 months. In the meantime, we all get paid reasonably well to wait, with a forecast dividend yield of 6.4% (fully franked) currently on offer. Figure 3: FID Earnings Per Share (cents per share), FY2013 - FY2027e.