Hi Guys,I finally got to listen into the FY24 result...

Hi Guys,

I finally got to listen into the FY24 result presentation today and wanted to record my thoughts and observations:

The net asset value was reported at 11.8 billion which I divided by the 367.5 million shares on issue to give us a current per share value of $32.10. It's important to note this is more approximate for SOL than it is for LIC'S as a growing amount of the portfolio is in unlisted assets. I would say that looking at this figure a $35 SP is around fair value as their long history of outperformance justifies a slight premium to their underlying assets.

Net cash flow from investments was up by 10% to 468 million dollars and this has once again flowed through to a nice dividend increase. It's pretty impressive to see that dividends have grown at a 15.3% CAGR post the Milton merger although this was coming off a relatively low base considering the previous slow and steady approach of lifting it by 1c each half year.

Amazingly private credit income already makes up 23% of net income and they are still bullish in this area which returned 14.9% for the financial year. I continue to be shocked at how many businesses seem to be able to repay interest at those kind of rates but for the moment it appears to be sustainable. I was quite surprised that they are actually part of the lending group to Star Entertainment and have recently tipped in some more capital there (at least they don't own the shares!).

The agricultural portfolio has underperformed other parts of the portfolio although still steadily grown and they seem very bullish on both Aquatic Achievers and Ironbark which is aggressively rolling up financial planning practices.

They were probably most cagey when answering questions around the 12% Perpetual stake which is understandable other than to say they still believe it's well undervalued by the market and there's a whole lot more "water to go under the bridge" with the break up situation.

I find the SOL approach to be a genuine breath of fresh air in a very short term focused market and have thought more recently about the legitimate advantage that permanent capital gives them. Just yesterday there was an article in the AFR about ASX listings being at their lowest level since the GFC as more and more companies want to stay private which makes them not accessible to everyday investors. I feel SOL gives us a good chance to get exposure to a bit of a basket of these opportunities in one investment.

All in all it seems like business as usual to me.