After the acquisition of Finsure* and the update of earning...

After the acquisition of Finsure* and the update of earning guidance, MAF has now 3 growth drivers :
- net inflows for the asset management business : 1 bn after 11 months, significant given that they had only 5.4 bn AUM at the end of FY 20,
- organic growth of their lending business, focused on niches,
- M&A policy.
A lot of things which look interesting with Finsure : cheap price paid (12.6 x FY 22 expected results), high top line growth, high margin, light capital basis.
Also good to see that they are developing the lending business, without taking more credit risk (no credit risk taken by Finsure).

Even if MAF remains quite complicated to well understand (volatility for parts of their businesses, like corporate advisory or performance fees for their asset management), it is now showing regular growth of its earnings. They have also been regularly revised upwards since the beginning of the financial year.
The main remaining question is probably the valuation.
Based on its guidance, it has a PE 22 of 19 to 20 x.
Still not high if it is able to keep its trend of growth.

Interesting also to see the breakdown of their EBITDA 21 (before central costs) :
- 71 % from asset management (vs 59 % for H1 20),
- 14 % from lending (vs 19 % for H1 20),
- 15 % from corporate advisory and equity (vs 22 % for H1 20).

* still waiting for APRA approval