Centrepoint spruiks ‘market leading’ adviser recruitment

In an ASX announcement, Centrepoint said it is the leader in adviser recruitment with 556 advisers as at 9 May 2024, an increase of 38 since the February H1 FY24 announcement, and a net increase of 46 for the financial year to date.

The company says it has seen growth in its licensee revenue for FY24 as the full-year impact of the advisers recruited during FY23 is realised.

Also fuelling growth was the successful integration of the Financial Advice Matter Group, which Centrepoint acquired in December 2023. The firm said it has exceeded the initial expectation for earnings contribution, with Centrepoint attributing this to operating efficiency improvements and a continued focus on growth in new client service revenue.

Further emphasising the company’s successful growth this financial year, Centrepoint stated that “seven of the top 10 licensee companies continue to see net losses of financial advisers”.

Earlier this year, Wealth Data identified Centrepoint as the industry leader for organic adviser growth in the calendar year to date, with the licensee increasing net 25 advisers from 1 January 2024 to 21 March 2024, highlighting its continuing momentum of growth throughout the year.

Earnings estimates for FY24

Centrepoint’s earnings estimate in February indicated the company could reach between $8 million and $9 million EBITDA pre-LTI and one-off costs in FY24 but recent performance now brings the estimate to between $8.75 million and $9 million EBITDA.

The company said the “strong financial performance” of the company is, in part, due to the “ongoing prudent expense management, particularly the efficiencies leveraged from the operating model and technology-enabled productivity savings”.

Regarding the development of its own investment platform in partnership with FNZ that was announced in February, Centrepoint said it continues to make “good progress” towards the release of the new platform, IconiQ, expecting to launch it in early FY25, maintaining the timeline from the original announcement.

At the time of the announcement, Centrepoint chief executive John Shuttleworth stressed that the development of its own platform will not impact its advisers’ ability to access other platforms.

“One point I just want to reiterate is that Centrepoint is an open architecture business and our commitment is to be open architecture,” Shuttleworth said.

“We provide advisers with a broad choice of platforms and investment managers and have a very expansive approved product list.”

Initially launched in December, Centrepoint’s IQ Managed Portfolios in a Separately Managed Account structure are now available on both Macquarie and HUB24 platforms, with “further platform distribution agreements expected in the near future”.

Overall, Centrepoint said, “the company is performing well both operationally and financially as it executes on the previously enunciated growth strategy” and “further growth expected in FY25”.