Looks like NWL has caved and followed MQG to pay out $101M. A bit surprised but after Macquarie I guess had no choice.

I guess this puts it behind them and this gives them the moral high ground too whilst the comments limit them to having to do so in the future for a similar event. Well played in the circumstance.

Discl: NWL Held IRL, HUB Not Held

CONTEXT

One of my to-do’s for NWL coming out of the reporting season was to do a quick high-level comparison with HUB24, NWL’s closest competitor. The objective of this exercise was to get a sense of where NWL was relative to HUB and confirm that staying invested in NWL continues to make sense.

Have kept the comparison at a superficial high-level based on info obtained from the ASX website + the FY reports from FY22 to FY25. While both are in the exact same FinTech Investment Platform space, they have different products, different metrics etc such that any attempt to compare at any lower level of detail than this is probably not going to provide any more insights.

Haven’t done a comparison like this before. Would really appreciate any feedback if the conclusions below are flawed ...

SUMMARY

• At roughly the same Funds Under Administration market share as at Mar 2025, it feels like NWL is significantly more efficient/productive/profitable than HUB
• HUB’s revenue is significantly higher than NWL and the gap appears to be widening
• BUT on Statutory NPAT and EBITDA (these being the 2 “directly comparable” profitability metrics), FCF Yield and Dividend Yield, NWL is clearly ahead of HUB, despite having much lower revenue
• So while NWL and HUB are running neck-to-neck in terms of current market share (HUB might be slightly ahead, I suspect) and running hard to increase market share, it does feel like HUB is some ways behind NWL in terms of generating shareholder returns

Based on this simplistic view, it gives me good confidence that staying invested in NWL is absolutely the right thing to do.

The sharp PE difference HUB PE = 108x, NWL PE = 64x, is what throws me out a bit. Given the above, I expected the HUB PE to be lower, not sharply higher than NWL, which perhaps could be a sign that the market is more confident of HUB emerging as the eventual top dog? Not sure if I am interpreting this correctly. 

CHARTS

Discl: Held IRL

Nice 1QFY2026 update from NWL today. 

• Positive momentum across all products & services sums up the quarter. 
• First Guardian update is cautious - FY26 guidance now includes a caveat against unexpected First Guardian costs

The commentary in the update is littered with the usual “record-this-and-that” which I find quite confusing as it is mostly against the prior corresponding period 1QFY2025. As NWL expects to grow each quarter, referencing and gloating about the pcp comparison seems quite pointless other than to generate the buoyant headlines. While there is some seasonality, I prefer to focus on the underlying QoQ trend instead.

• Total Funds Under Administration hit $120.8b, increasing $8.0b QoQ, an above trend increase, building on momentum in the previous quarter - up 7.1% QoQ
• The Quarterly Increase in new accounts of 5,146, up 3.2% QoQ, reverted to trend following the sharp spike in the June 2025 Quarter - the accounts growth is now in short-term acceleration mode - very nice
• Total Funds Under Management was $29.5b, up 0.2% QoQ, driven by growth in (1) Managed Accounts, up 32.6% on pcp to $25.7b (2) Managed Funds, up 23.0% on pcp to $3.8b

FUNDS UNDER ADMINISTRATION

• Continued on-trend increase in Total FUA Net Flows of $4.0b, slight exceeding 1QFY25 and improving on 4QFY25
• Continuing to benefit from ongoing transitions from existing financial intermediaries as well as new accounts from new intermediaries
• Non-Custodial FUA hit $1.0b for the very first time - a pricing increase kicked in on 1 Oct 2025

FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT

Sharp uptick in FUM Net Flows of $1.8b, up 63.3% QoQ - a (noticeable!) record as it towers over previous quarters FUM Net Flows.

Interesting to see if NWL ponies up and pays too - Macquarie to repay Shield investors after super platform failures - ABC News Not sure what their exposure was. Equity Trustees looks like they're going to court and not caving.

Was always a risk for NWL when they add almost every Fund. It is why a lot of advisers/ fund managers preferred them as they're easy to deal with compared to the legacy funds that were burnt in the Royal Commission.

I have a totally embarassing question to ask help on. Can anyone point me to a writeup or diagram which succintly describes what exactly the NWL platform does/manages/provides??

I have poked around Google, the NWL site, went through the Annual Report, looked at the marketing videos, read some of the PDS' but I am still struggling to clearly understand the products and services that are offered on the NWL platform. While some of the content talks about the capability and scope of the product, there is a lot of sales-y speak overlayed and a lot of ghee whizz "IT platform/reporting/data benefits" but I am still struggling to clearly understand what each product actually does for a customer or an wealth advisor. The products I have understood thus far, which is half-coherent:

1. Self-Super: this is an end-to-end SMSF management/administration service akin to eSuperfund, which is my SMSF provider.
2. Super Accelerator: provides the capability to invest in various products - managed funds, term deposits, fixed term annuities - there is a Super Accelerator Plus which provides more investment options
3. Wealth Accelerator Multi-Asset Portfolio Service Guide - a single account which allows you to buy, hold and sell various investments
4. Managed Account: access to a range of professionally managed investment portfolio's, which I gather you can invest in from either Super Accelerator or Wealth Accelerator
5. Global Specialist Series Funds (GSS Funds) for NWL GSS Managed Models
6. I gather it has a Share Brokerage
7. NWL is also a Superannuation Fund in its own right, similar to Aust Super, HESTA etc

I am actually thinking of ringing NWL tomm and booking a demo and asking them to help me understand the platform.

For context, NWL has been a complete coffee-can investment for me. I bought the position based on the MFPro 1 recommendation back in 2018 and other than happily collecting dividends, have done absolutely nothing on NWL. That blind faith in old Joe and Matt was not misplaced, as by then, they were a proven winning team, and I had no doubt that they had done the detailed research to come up with a long-term winner.

NWL has now become my 2nd largest position (after the ALU sale, AD8 crash etc), returning 182%, proving that there absolutely IS merit in the coffee-can approach and that the less one tinkers with a position, the better the outcome.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Disc: Held IRL with total ignorance ...

Very strong results from Netwealth for the H1 to Dec 31st 2023 showing the fly wheel effect with an acceleration of revenue and most importantly widening margins as they reap the benefits of growing portfolios as markets finished 2023 on a high.

Key take outs

• Revenue and Market share growth between NWL and HUB24 not abating comparative to legacy platforms (see below)
• Operating Cost growth of 13.9% well below revenue growth and showing discipline management of capital
• Net profit margins expanding to 31.9%
• ROE over 50% past 5 years
• Rock solid balance sheet with no debt and $115m in cash and 57.4m FCF
• Insider ownership of just under via Heine Family 50% ensuring alignment with shareholders
• 86% of EPS paid out as dividend (14c FF)

Priced to perfection at 50x forward earnings so one to watch as movements in SP present opportunity to enter or top up on existing holdings.

Disc - Held in RL, not on SM.

Netwealth released their FY23 results yesterday. From their presentation:

I thought this was a pretty solid result with a return to bottom line growth of over 20%. They are taking advantage of a structural shift away from the legacy funds management platforms. Still only a 6.7% market share currently.

Disc: Held IRL. Not held on Strawman.

Market didn't like the quarterly update released today.

While FUA increased 14% to 8.2B, growth is slowing. This is now the second quarter in a row of shrinking net inflows (and down 37% on PCP).

Next comp NWL may fare better as market movement hadn't yet bottomed in the Mar-22 quarter (and hopefully outflows peaked in Dec and continue to reduce from here).

Disc. held IRL.

Nice half year results for Netwealth

Revenue 102.8 million up 18.9%

EBITDA 46.2 million up 10%, margins 44.9% (down on 2021 48.6% due to investing within)

NPAT 30.6million up 11.4%

EPS 12.4c up 11.7%

DPS 11c up 10%

Cash on hand 98.8million up 15.2% . No debt.

High insider ownership and high conviction in the strategy

With the theme of the current reporting season across the globe being on cost control and in United States job losses Netwealth is definately bucking the trend and investing in more people whom drive technology improvements to the business to enable them to maintain their growth and innovation as an organisation.

These investments can be seen in the staff headcount and costs which grew to 542 up 27 in the half and up to $38.1million or 22.8%. The heads that were added 19 were technology orientated. Add to this the spend in IT which grew by 97% to 6.7million on the half as Netwealth moved to migrate to cloud, upgrade workflow and enhance security.

Free cash flow grew by 9.4% to 47.66 million for the half.

Although expensive when measuring on traditional means ie PE at over 50 there's alot to like.

Happy holder in RL not on SM

Netwealth (NWL) released their results for 1H 2023 this morning. From their presentation:

Good to see them back on the growth trajectory after several years of investment into their platform.

Management have stated that they believe the investment phase is over and they should start to see some operating leverage kick in.

First time that they have hit over $100m in revenue in a half. Benefitted from increasing interest rates.

From a market share perspective, they are at about 6.3% of the total market share with plenty still to be gained from the top 4 large institutions.

Full presentation here

Half year report here

Disc: Held IRL, not held on Strawman.

Netwealth released Dec 2022 quarter inflows and fair to say a mixed bag.

Short term there are some points to keep an eye on in terms of growth of inflows.

1. December qrt 2022 funds under administration growth rates slowed to 7.4% to 62.4billion for the Dec quarter which below the 2022 full year growth rate of 10.2%. Not a trend i like to see
2. The call out of the withdrawal of funds by high net worth investors was noted and something to watch in 2023 as economic landscape evolves
3. Due to trading at high PE netwealth can be volatile both to the downside and upside as is reflective with today's 9% fall.

Long term the move to recruit and attract key personnel in IT / communication services and Sales and Marketing is contrary to industry trends but clearly earmarked to maintain the advantage NWL have in the industry. This also reflects the financial strength the business upholds and confidence in the future.

Netwealth is aiming for inflows to financial year 2023 to be 11billion and is optimistic on new licenses which are set to convert in the current half.

Additionally the piloting of multi asset portfolio service as well as Xeppo (mobile integration) will further assist.

Overall Netwealth is a long term hold for me for the following reasons:

• NWL ranked 6th in size to 6.3% of all inflows having grown from 4.1% in 2022 or over 50% in 2 yrs
• (AMP over same period has 15.8% in 2020 to 14.2% in 2022)
• EBITDA 50% plus
• Net profit 33-38%
• No debt
• 80% plus dividend payout ratio
• 52.5% inside ownership with 3% dilution occurring in past 6 years

Along with HUB24 was able to purchase stock at single figures in real life pre 2020 and look forward to standing aside and allow compounding to do its thing .....

NWL December-2022-Quarterly-Business-Update.pdf

Netwealth is still sitting on a hefty PE of over 50 but their growth trajectory is still heading in the right direction. There were Funds under management net inflows of $2.9B for the September quarter which I think is strong given current market volatility. Total FUA is now at $58.1B. Their mobile integration with Xeppo is due to be launched in Q2 of 2023 which will hopefully provide a kick along to grabbing further market share from the big boys.

Netwealth have provided the market with their full year results and the depressed share price on offer earlier in the year looked to have been a solid opportunity to get into a nicely growing business at an attractive price. You can find their announcement here but the graphs that really standout for me are below. Rated number 6 in the industry by market share with 5.8% but tops with net fund inflows means their is still plenty or runway for growth (also highlights how well HUB24 are travelling too).