Steadfast Group, the parent company to a range of broking and underwriting operations, including broker Steadfast Re, has reported an underlying revenue of $1.41 billion in FY23, representing growth of 24.1%.
The growth in revenue was driven by hardening market and solid volume growth more than mitigated expected cost increases flagged when issuing the initial guidance for FY23, Steadfast noted.
The firm’s statutory net profit after tax for FY23 $189.2 million, compared with $171.6 million for FY22.
The group also saw strong underlying EBITA growth in FY23, of 26.5% to $430.7 million, which was heavily driven by acquisition growth of 12.9%, as well as organic growth of 13.6% from further increases in premiums by insurers and some volume uplift.
Additionally, the Steadfast Network delivered a gross written premium (GWP) increase of 12.8% to $11.6 billion in FY23.
At the same time, Steadfast Underwriting Agencies continued to perform strongly in FY23, with sustained organic growth generating $2.1 billion of GWP, representing an increase of 16.7% from FY22.
In a statement, Steadfast Group stated that its balance sheet remains well positioned, with a corporate gearing ratio of 19.0%, which is well below the Board’s maximum of 30%.
As of 16 August 2023, the Group had $378.5 million of unutilised capacity available to fund acquisitions.
Managing Director & CEO Robert Kelly commented, “Our underlying earnings growth was again driven by sustained organic growth from price and volume increases in the Group’s insurance broking and underwriting agencies, and acquisitions made in FY22 and FY23.
“We outlaid $574.2 million on EPS accretive acquisitions, including the major acquisition of Insurance Brands Australia. We also continued to deliver on our active acquisition pipeline, where the Group is seeking to
increase its equity positions in Network brokers,” Kelly added.
Steadfast Group provided FY24 guidance for underlying EBITA of between $500 million and $510 million, underlying NPAT of between $230 million and $240 million, underlying diluted EPS (NPAT) growth of 10 – 15%, and underlying NPATA of between $277 million and $287 million.
