Mortgage Advice Bureau H1 2026 Earnings Report

Mortgage Advice Bureau EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 6.30
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Mortgage Advice Bureau Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Mortgage Advice Bureau Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2026
• Date: 9/23/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, September 25, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 6:00AM ET

MAB is a leading UK property finance platform that connects customers, advisers, lenders, and insurers throughout the homeownership journey. Through its scalable, technology-driven intermediary model, MAB delivers personalised mortgage and protection advice via its proprietary platform, supported by deep customer insight and a data-rich, digitally enabled framework. Through its partner firms, known as Appointed Representatives (ARs), MAB has over 2,100 advisers providing expert advice across mortgages, specialist lending, protection and general insurance products. MAB supports its AR firms with proprietary technology and services, including adviser recruitment and lead generation, learning and development, compliance auditing and supervision, and digital marketing and website solutions.

Mortgage Advice Bureau H1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Mortgage lending rose 16% to £16.5 billion in the first half, while adjusted profit before tax increased 2.1% to £14.8 million despite a weaker purchase market and a lower-revenue refinancing mix.
• Positive Sentiment: The company expects refinancing opportunities to remain strong, with fixed-rate product maturities in 2027 around 30% higher than in 2026. Management is forecasting a conservative flat housing market at approximately 1.1 million transactions.
• Negative Sentiment: Management reduced expectations for the year, citing weaker purchase activity, an unexpectedly high proportion of lower-margin product transfers, and delays in digital lead generation for Fluent. Fluent remains profitable but is expected to earn more than £6 million this year, below last year’s result.
• Negative Sentiment: Administrative expenses increased 21.6% as the group invested in technology, people, and recently acquired businesses, while Fluent is carrying approximately £1.5 million of currently unutilized costs. The revised full-year adjusted profit before tax target is £38 million.
• Positive Sentiment: MAB retains a strong balance sheet with 0.4x leverage, declared a 10%-higher interim dividend of 7.9p per share, and may consider a recurring share-buyback program. Management also sees longer-term upside from AI-enabled customer engagement, productivity improvements, and direct-to-lender referrals.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning and welcome to the Mortgage Advice Bureau PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions and queries can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. I would like to hand you over to the management team. Peter, good morning, sir.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Good morning. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for dialing in for our half year results update. Obviously, we did have to release the news a few weeks ago in terms of resetting expectations for this year's numbers. Today, we want to give you a bit more context around that, and hopefully reassure you about how positive things are underlying all of that. To kick things off, I am going to pass you to Mark.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Thanks, Peter. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining MAB's 2026 interim results presentation. I will begin with our first half highlights and some context on the markets that we operate in. Jo, our CFO, will then cover the financial review, before Peter provides an update on strategy. We will leave plenty of time at the end for your questions. First half to June, MAB delivered a resilient performance consistent with the headlines that we pre-announced a couple of weeks ago. Total mortgage lending increased by 16% to GBP 16.5 billion, despite mortgage pricing volatility creating a complex environment for customers and advisers. Growth was led by refinancing and particularly product transfers, which is where customers stay with existing lenders. That supported strong activity levels, but generated less revenue than we get from purchase lending. That explains why revenue growth of 8.6% was below the growth in lending.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

That product mix also presents a headwind to margins, although adjusted profit before tax did still grow by 2.1%. Our share of new mortgage lending remained stable at 8.2%, while our share of product transfers increased by 10 basis points to 3.2%. Turning to market trends. If you remember back at the start of 2026, expectations were for a gradual recovery in the housing market, supported by interest rate cuts in the second half of the year. Domestic and global developments have disrupted that outlook, increasing uncertainty around inflation and the path of borrowing costs. Against that backdrop, the first half was very much refinance led. You can see purchase lending was 1% lower for us compared with a 2% decline in the market. That is against a prior year comparative that benefited from activity ahead of the Stamp Duty changes.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

By contrast, remortgage lending was strong, increasing by 29% in line with the market, whilst product transfers grew by 44% ahead of market growth of 40%. Conditions did soften a little in the summer over July and August, and uncertainty around borrowing costs is likely to constrain purchase activity in the near term. However, we've got significant fixed rate maturities that build over the next 18 months, and that supports a sizable refinancing opportunity for us. Those product end date maturities next year are around 30% higher than 2026, and the pipeline for 2028 is also building well. With that, I'll hand over to Jo to run through the financial review.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Thanks very much, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'm just going to start with the income statement for the half. As previously noted, revenues increased by 8.6% to GBP 161 million half on half, and that was with a significant shift towards refinancing activity compared to the same period in the prior year. Gross profit increased by 15.6% to GBP 47.4 million, and the gross margin expanded by 1.7 percentage points to 29.4%. This primarily reflects the contribution from our invested business acquisitions completed during late 2025, which operated at higher gross margins than the AR network. Although a reasonable uptick in gross margin, headwinds created by the refinance led product mix, as well as the slower than anticipated ramp-up of revenue at Fluent, subdued gross margin expansion in the half. Adjusted administrative expenses increased by 21.6% to GBP 32.5 million.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

In the main, this reflects consolidation of recent acquisitions as well as investment to support growth and higher activity levels moving forward. Adjusted PBT increased by 2.1% to GBP 14.8 million, with the margin reducing moderately half on half to 9.2%. The increased contribution from invested businesses has changed the shape of our cost base, increasing operating leverage, but also the sensitivity of profit to the seasonal weighting of revenue towards the second half. Growth in EPS was less than growth in adjusted PBT due to the difference in non-controlling interest. Turning now to look at revenue in a lot more detail. The notable shift in product mix half on half towards refinancing activity has been offset by the growth in average mainstream adviser numbers in both the AR network and invested businesses, with average mainstream advisers up 8.7% to 2,163 advisers.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Average adviser productivity was stable at GBP 74,400, which is a solid outcome given that product mix shift, as earlier referenced, when you think about refinancing and product transfers generating lower average revenues per completion compared to purchase lending, as well as taking into account that recent joiners take time to build to full productivity, typically over a six to nine-month period. The shift towards refinancing meant that the increase in mortgage procuration fees of 12% to GBP 67.2 million was below the 16% increase in mortgage completions by value overall, as Mark previously referenced. Protection and general insurance commission increased by 7.8% to GBP 60.1 million half on half. It's important to note that this was achieved despite the higher refinancing mix, where protection attachment rates tend to be lower than on purchase transactions.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Client fees were broadly flat at GBP 30.1 million half on half, again, reflecting that shift from purchase activity in the comparative period towards refinancing, which attracts a lower client fee attachment rate. We move on now to financial strength and shareholder returns. The group maintains a strong balance sheet with net debt of GBP 15.1 million, equivalent to leverage of 0.4 times. Net debt did increase moderately compared to June 2025, and that reflects a deliberate deployment of capital across strategic investment, acquisitions, the ordinary dividend, and a small share buyback. It also includes GBP 2.1 million in exceptional costs in relation to the move up to the main market. Cash conversion remains strong at 98%, however, is lower than in previous periods.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

This reduction primarily reflects the payment of a one-off performance related bonus in the half pertaining to 2025, as well as an upfront commercial incentive embedded within a new long-term contract with one of our largest AR firms, which will drive significant future benefits for the company. Free cash flow was at GBP 11.8 million, compared with GBP 14.6 million in the prior period. This reduction reflects those same one-off payments, in addition to the GBP 2.1 million of one-off costs associated with the move to the main market. Diluted adjusted EPS increased by 1.1% to 18.4p. Finally, the board declared an interim dividend of 7.9p per share, an increase of approximately 10% on H1 2025, which is consistent with our progressive dividend policy. We turn now to capital allocation. Our priorities on capital allocation remain unchanged. In terms of allocation in the first half, we've maintained financial strength.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Leverage, as previously referred to, remains low at 0.4 times, providing financial flexibility. We invested in organic growth. We invested GBP 5.5 million during the first half in technology, digital marketing, and customer acquisition in terms of strategic spend, as well as the GBP 2.1 million of costs related to the move to the main market, for a total of GBP 7.6 million. We declared an interim dividend for the half of 7.9p, representing a cash return of GBP 4.5 million. We've deployed GBP 4.1 million towards M&A investment in the half, which comprises the acquisitions of HomeOwners Alliance and Home Loan Services, together with deferred consideration relating to Evolve and Lucra. Finally, with regard to additional shareholder returns, we did carry out a GBP 2.8 million share buyback earlier this year.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Looking ahead, though, to near-term capital commitments relating to existing investments, these are expected to be approximately GBP 3 million in the balance of 2026, GBP 1.5 million in 2027, and up to GBP 8 million in 2028. In addition, the group has a GBP 7 million term loan reaching maturity in the spring of 2027. The strength of our balance sheet and cash generative model provide the capacity to meet these commitments while we continue to invest in growth and deliver shareholder returns. The group has, however, received indicative support to expand its revolving credit facility from GBP 15 million to GBP 35 million to provide enhanced flexibility over the medium term. I'll now hand over to Peter to discuss the strategy and outlook.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Thanks, Jo. The first thing I want to say is how disappointed I personally am in terms of having to make that announcement a few weeks ago. We always pride ourselves on hitting numbers and have done that consistently in all market conditions. We always keep a few things in our back pocket, so when there are downturns and unexpected events, which there have been plenty of in recent years, we still get our numbers regardless. Too many things converged at the same time this year for us to have enough in our back pocket to get there. Obviously from my perspective, I have been looking at this closely to see what could have done any differently and what are the things that affected it all.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

I just want to do a little bit of that summary before I give you some more color about Fluent and other initiatives within the business. When we set these budgets, obviously in Q4 last year, I think the whole industry was looking at maybe two or three rate cuts in 2026, and maybe a gradual pickup in the market. In our numbers, we were sort of anticipating a flat market, despite hoping there would be an upside, and obviously a strong increase in refinancing, which we knew was coming through on our books anyway. Unfortunately, it did not happen and obviously we then understand obviously we had the worldwide issues that we had, and obviously the purchase market went backwards rather than being stable, never mind going forwards.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

That then meant because we had a strong year on products, on product end dates, so refinancing, that meant the product mix significantly shifted, and obviously far more towards refinancing. Actually, because of the economic concerns and outlook, there was a sharp jump up in the number of product transfers compared to remortgages, with 86% of those refinancing being product transfers. That was because people were trying to lock down their rate early in case rates went up. That obviously excluded the opportunity to refinance, which takes longer. That was something we did not expect either. Also, what made it worse is this year, having worked very hard with a lot of major digital partners, we were expecting a significant step up from Fluent. These things take ages to build these relationships. We are talking about very significant lead flow from major digital lead flows.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Although contracts were signed in all but one case, the resources required at those lead flows to either ramp up existing partnerships or commence new ones was diverted because of economic pressures in other areas of their business, that resource had to be diverted to, or alternatively, obviously, AI focus that meant they had to maybe re-look at their model, and how they engage customers and the mortgage aspect of it, rather than being dealt with as an individual vertical would be built into a bigger, wider strategy, which again, pushed down the start dates time and time again this year. But the relationships are strong, the opportunities are still strong, and it is postponement rather than anything else. The other thing that happened is obviously we had all those further investments in 2025. We were expecting those synergies to cut in sooner.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Maybe that was too optimistic in terms of our projections. You add all those things together, it was just impossible for us to make enough adjustments from other areas to hit the numbers. We are still going to get 5% or 6% growth. It continues our track record of 25 years of growth out of 26, since the company started, but it is still highly disappointing from where we wanted to get to. What is more disappointing and probably disappointing to you is that we did not give you probably a better insight for the remainder of the year in our July statement. I think some of that was because we felt there was still some opportunities with the Fluent opportunity. We probably did not expect the market to dip back probably quite as much as it did. We have not missed.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We were very determined to hit our numbers, but that should not have made any difference. I still think, looking back, we could have projected a more cautious view a few months ago. All the right intentions were there, and we were absolutely certain of our numbers of what is coming through. It is just the timing has let us down. I just wanted to apologize for that, set the scene, and this is very unusual for us, so obviously we have to looked at this forensically to see what can we change and what could we have done differently. There will be changes as a result. I will just give you a little bit more context about Fluent.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Just kicking off a little bit around why we took them on, because we invested in and acquired them to drive access to major digital lead sources that need to deal with big, centralized telephone operations, not local brokers. At the time, the main lead sources were price comparison websites. There was opportunities to extend that into other more significant areas where big data-led companies had access to millions and millions of homeowners and future homeowners and started to realize the value of their data. Mortgages obviously are a standout opportunity to monetize and build lifetime value for some of these models. Of course, we have been involved in quite some time now, securing, building these relationships, securing these relationships, testing, learning, and understanding how we drive that lead flow into Fluent primarily in the first instance.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We were expecting a step up, a significant step up in four of those. We felt we could actually achieve, our target was to achieve GBP 5 million of additional PBT from that step up. In our budgets, we had GBP 3 million, to give us a buffer. That did not quite work out as planned, and for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, it is a postponement. One of those lead sources is now cutting in. We are expecting the final contract that we have not signed to be done in the next few weeks. The others expect us to have IT time and integration time and reprioritization in Q4, and probably one of those not until early part of Q1 from next year. It is an extremely good business. The strategy is absolutely right.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It is just such a big opportunity to capture, not only in-market customers, but a lot of early researchers, and it is the only way of really doing that. We have been very patient and worked very closely and invested a lot of time and resource to nurture these relationships because any one of them, in their own right, could potentially generate 5% of the U.K. market in terms of lead flow. These are obviously very serious considerations, and there are not many people that are in a position to be able to leverage these opportunities, and we have put ourselves in pole position to do that. There has been an investment in time, in cost, in putting and scaling up Fluent to have the resources in place for when the anticipated lead flow came in.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We are probably carrying right now GBP 1.5 million of unutilized cost within Fluent, which had to be in place to deal with the volume. Having worked so hard to get these relationships on, we wanted to make sure we could deal with it when they came in. One of the things we have decided to do as part of our learning experience here is to say, right, one of the problems is that Fluent will say 50 mortgage advisors, albeit high producing ones. There was too much expectation in terms of having to deal with that much lead flow for a business of that size. What we are going to do is to mitigate that moving forward. The mortgage arm of Fluent is going to be transferred into First Mortgages, which is our biggest, most successful business, which has three regional telephone centers. This will be a fourth one.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It means now Fluent, rather than having 50 advisors, will be part of a single group, a single process of 300 brokers. That means if we had that at the beginning of this year, we would not have had to put that resource in place for that influx of leads. We would have had a lot more flexibility. But it also means a lot of efficiency aligning with one process, one business, and then would keep Fluent to do what they always did originally and do very well, and they are still very profitable, which is second charge and bridging business as a specialist brand. That is one of the changes that we are making to make sure that this does not happen again.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

To ensure that as we get the next firms and opportunities that we have already got lined up for 2027, we do not have this problem of expectations not being met because of timing. Next year, talking to Jo, we are going to be even more cautious next year, putting sort of GBP 2 million to GBP 2.5 million in for Fluent, despite GBP 3 million this year being the pessimistic and the target being GBP 5 million, and also despite there being other lead flows that we expect to cut in next year. Fingers burnt. We are going to do that as well as making that move across to Fluent.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

The Fluent acquisition is a key part of our strategy to access customers digitally, have access to millions of new potential and future customers that are in-market and pre-market and drive new increased levels of refinancing outside the organic refinancing that MAB does. They have really helped us be in pole position with major digital partners. The market worked against them as soon as we acquired them with the Liz Truss event. Obviously now the market is diverting people's resources into other priorities in the short term. Fundamentally, a good business is just going to have a longer lead in time to get us where we need to get to. Structurally and strategically, that is quite a big additional arm, and future growth area for the business. That is my bit about obviously Fluent. I will obviously answer any questions at the end.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

The next slide is just talking about far more positive things that we are doing in the business. To give you confidence actually, despite an unfortunate year in performance and a very low share price at the moment, the underlying story is very, very different. I can see optically how it might look differently to you. First thing we are doing, not in any particular order, is we have been working this year on a rebrand for the business to enable us to have a wider reach, not just be Mortgage Advice Bureau, but MAB as we are generally known to in the industry, also by a lot of our customers. There will be a transition of MAB, Mortgage Advice Bureau for 12 months. In certain sectors, it will go straight to MAB, and then we will drop the Mortgage Advice Bureau part further down.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

You will see that obviously, when we do that in November at our conference. When we do that, we are also launching a refreshed appointed representative model with significant new technology and AI aspects to it. We are also launching a franchise model. A lot of businesses now, I think, are concerned about the changes in the industry moving so fast. Can they keep up with them? A lot of the relationship with customers has been driven by advisers previously. Now it has to be driven by the business far more because there is a lot more being done with that customer outside the physical advice in its own right, and businesses need help to do that. I think MAB's strategic partnership model is ideally positioned for businesses that need to change quickly and adapt their role in supporting their brokers.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We do allow firms currently to use our brand, but we do not stipulate how they have to operate day-to-day. The franchise model will change that. It will mean they will have to align far more with our invested businesses. There will be more control in terms of system and process use. Therefore, that will impact quite significantly in the speed of productivity and performance in these firms. There will be some firms with us that although they have got long contracts, will have to rebrand away from MAB because that might be not what they want to do. There will be others that will be absolutely delighted by this, and I think it will also be a big recruitment opportunity with the timing in the market and where the sensitivities are now and where the threats and opportunities in our sectors may lie.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

This year, just to give you context, we have been sitting back a little bit on the recruitment of new AR firms. Everything we have done is organic, although there has not been a lot of organic growth within the business to support that. The reason for that is there has been a bit of consolidation going ahead with a couple, what, 2 or 3 networks up for sale. That is not the market we are in, folks. We think the models are going to change moving forward. What was happening is firms that were looking to exit were starting to compete with ridiculous commercial terms in a market that are not sustainable.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

But when you think you are going to be exiting at a multiple of 7, 8, or 9, whatever it might be, you are prepared to slash those margins and get that multiple and lower number, if it helps your exit value. We have not been playing in that game whatsoever. We stayed out of it. We have still got a few really good firms and a good pipeline building. But in November, we are doing a massive relaunch across social media and our industry, to reposition where we are, and we expect to have a very strong year next year on the back of it now that that sort of consolidation piece has dropped back a little bit in terms of the pricing and competitiveness out there.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

The team, again, I think you optically seen sort of quite a lot of change in the last 12 months, and I want to give you some context around that too. So going back to the first biggest change was appointing Lady Korra Jaisa to join our board. It was replacing Ben, who was Deputy COO, but rather than being Deputy COO, she was going to be COO. We wanted someone with a lot of transformation experience of technology, data, and AI, because that was obviously increasingly driving our business model. We really upped the game in terms of the quality of the individual we brought in. We waited 6 months for her, brought her in. Ben stepped aside to focus on MAB 3.0.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

She did a full analysis of our entire business from beginning to end, which was excellent and exactly what we need and what we brought her in for, highlighting some of the changes we would need to make. A lot of those we sort of understood we had to anyway, but it was good to see the rationale behind it. She was not the right fit for us culturally as a business. At one point, I was considering that she could be a successor in due course for me, years down the line. I could see that was not going to work, and so we had to part company. That was not the right decision. So it was a shame because she was an excellent addition to the team, but unfortunately, the culture and the fit with the rest of my team is way more important.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Since then, we have adapted our strategy in terms of who we will need to bring on. I am not replacing anybody on board level, so we are keeping it free. We brought an outstanding lady in called Renee to be our CDIO. So she is running technology and data. She's absolutely, completely revitalized what we're doing and how we're doing it, and I can now see exactly what we can achieve with the significant resource that we have got. She's brought in the data team. She's brought a fantastic head of product and other key roles underneath her. It is transformational in terms of what we're already seeing and the output that's already coming out from that team.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We're extremely happy with that appointment, which makes no need for us now to replace Yaiza. That's a really positive mood. We've also brought in a new CMO. We needed to change that because technology, data, and AI, and marketing and brand and lead generation, which is what that's all about, are very closely aligned. Again, we've got a new gentleman just joined us there called John Woods. Exceptional, and again, working with that team and Renee's team will make a significant difference in the way we are attracting and nurturing and using AI to capture and drive customer relationships. Very happy with that. We obviously made a change. Obviously, you'll see Jo here rather than Emilie.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

The change there happened, I think it was a pressure point, really, because Emilie came, she was a fantastic lady, came in, but without listed company experience. We felt that wouldn't be an issue at the time with the other skill sets she had. If you think what she had to do in the last 12 months where we had two capital markets days, two sets of results, a move to main market, and nine investments. That was a lot for her to take on. She lives remotely. Following discussions with Emilie, she's moved to do something probably less pressurized. We've replaced with Jo, who obviously has got listed company experience and has taken over the baton there. Has been a great addition to the team in all fairness. We've also made other key appointments.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We've looked at everything from right from the top, board, non-execs, exec board. We've even looked down to right through to our invested businesses where when we invest in those firms, we've run them all autonomously up till now. This year, we were looking to synergize some of those costs and centralize those. We're doing more than that now. You may have got an indication of that, what I said about Fluent and First Mortgages. We're now taking our two biggest leaders, most successful leaders, and arguably the best leaders in our industry, which is Ewan McGregor of First Mortgage and Matt Coulson of Heron. We are consolidating our businesses into two super groups. One is a new build group, so four firms into one. We've already merged two.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We're now bringing Matt's firm into that and giving him CEO responsibility for the group and another firm. We've already obviously been consolidating other businesses this year into First Mortgages. Obviously, Fluent's Mortgage Arm is the latest addition to that. We're now bringing those two leaders into our exec team as well, so they're part of how the whole of the group works, and Matt is also part of our technology strategy. Obviously, he's been leading on that in his business and on the new launches, et cetera. Literally, we have been looking at absolutely everything. We have needed to bring a lot more expertise in of people that worked in industries which are not people led.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Everything in our industry has been people led, whether it is the lead generation from an estate agency member of staff, whether it is the broker, the administrator. Everything is very people intensive. We needed experience at high level of people that worked in a non-human engagement method. Someone like Renee dealing with Sky and Compare the Market, and others, shows you that they know how to engage digitally, how to build that trust. Obviously, we need to do that to be able to balance that out with the human aspect that we have got in the business. I can assure you, however it looks on the outside, it is an extremely positive place.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

You speak to anybody at MAB now, they will look at that team and go, "We are working so well together as well." I have never been more confident. I have taken all those reports back myself rather than passing some reports back to Yaiza, who was my COO previously. That has worked really well, too. That is positive. The last bit I want to sort of talk about in any detail is AI, because we get it raised all the time. As you can imagine, our last set of roadshows, I do not think there was a meeting I went past, went through, that it was not raised. Let me talk a little bit about where we are seeing the real benefit. We have built considerable reach.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We have got 3,500 estate agents, the biggest lettings distribution that we cannot access without technology and have not been able to for 25 years. We do 23% of new build and growing. We are now in pole position for these big national digital lead flows. What we have been testing with Fluent and their lead flows this year, which has been really positive, is, like others have, is using AI bots to engage with customers to triage them far more effectively to make sure when they get to broker, they are going to the broker for the right reasons rather than just filling in a load of questions and being diverted to a broker online. Customers have really engaged brilliantly with them, and we can start to have far more open conversations with those customers to find out, are they ready for a broker?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Do they need more digital engagement? Because more and more customers want to do more online before seeing a broker. Are they just early researchers, and how can we help them? What type of nurture journey can we put them on? What we are now going to use that technology for, the testing that we have done, is to drop it into our more traditional lead sources of estate agency and new build. I will take estate agency just as one example. We get all our leads from human beings in negotiators and estate agency branches. We only get around 25% of the opportunities we should do. The reason we know we only get 25% is because the vast majority of estate agents are introducers. They are introduced to a local broker. They do not run their own financial services.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

But we have got some really big estate agency firms that do run their own financial services, and they generate probably three times plus the number of leads and opportunities from the same level of activity. It is because they have got that ownership. It is their brokers. There is a cost base there rather than just a potential income stream. The culture is very different. You are not going to change that situation in introduced relationships. Dropping AI bots into that environment is exactly what we are now starting to do. The Property Franchise Group PLC, obviously a listed business, part of our group, has been testing that too and getting some good early success. I see it as a real unlock opportunity, even though housing transactions are at 1.1 million, well below their average. We can unlock so much more out of what we have had.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

For 25 years, we have been hampered. We have not been able to do that. The whole lettings market with future first-time buyers and landlords, that same AI strategy will be deployed there. We see that as a really big opportunity to take the unique reach and coverage we have got across all sectors to drive a lot more lead flow out. Of course, when you are dealing with these big digital partners that Fluent deal with, they are all digital leads. Of course, we use that functionality there, but we now need to use it in that traditionally human-led area of the business. That is a real positive for us. In terms of potential comments about AI disrupting the role of the mortgage broker, AI itself is not a disruptor. It is fairly toothless, to be fair.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It has got to be part of an organization or a business that has to have extensive customer reach and scalable reach, both pre and post-market. Otherwise, you cannot deploy it. There has got to be a compelling customer proposition. There has got to be trust. There has got to be the right culture. There has got to be exceptional people. There has got to be strong strategic leadership. The business has to be well-resourced, and it has to be able to have very, very strong data sets, and we have got extraordinary data sets within MAB over the years we have been building. When you add AI into that is where you start leveraging AI. AI itself won't achieve anything unless you have that around you.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Of course, what we are now using AI for is to be able to communicate with customers weeks, months, years before they are in market. To triage them effectively, like I mentioned earlier, rather than it just being a transactional business where a human being talks to a human being at the point where they may need a mortgage. This opens up the value of MAB as a brand, as a research brand, to engage with customers earlier on, later on, during the transaction in a number of different ways and services. It extends the reach of what we can do quite significantly. It can also improve performance far better by giving those customer insights. It drives the behavior on our platform. In terms of the brokers, it can increase efficiency.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It is starting to do, and we have got a lot more to do on that, but that can increase efficiency and generate cost savings within head office and all our firms, not just the advisors, but their administrators as well. It also helps us extend our proposition into other areas far more effectively rather than relying everything to be funneled through a broker. Those are things I think are fantastic for us as a business opportunity. The one bit, which is about AI being a threat, it basically relates to will AI mean that customers go direct to lenders more? That's the only threat. That's it. Our view is, a lot of research we have done as well, is that right now at least, customers really want to do a lot more online.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Do not confuse that with going direct to lender. They want to be empowered to do a lot more. They already do a lot of research before seeing a broker. AI enables to do that more, give them more certainty before they see a broker. Also them to reduce down the relationship, that conversation with the broker as well. They might just have light touch advice because that's all they need, and reassurance, and checking they have got the right deal. A lot more technology will be used to get that customer to a point where they can probably proceed before they even speak to a broker.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Equally, there are segments of customers that can go direct because they will be able to do the same sort of thing we are pushing our customers through, driving our customers through. Then we can also present that business direct to lender. I see the future being that MAB will be a funnel for all customers to research at whatever stage of that research cycle they are in. Whether they are in-market or pre-market. Driving those people in not just a research mode, but then when they are active, either to go to a broker for light touch advice, for more handholding advice, which a lot of people are still going to need with more complex mortgage and financial literacy being where it is.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Also driving business direct to lenders, fully packaged, already underwritten, accepted to a large extent. The discussion we are having with lenders is they will welcome that business and pay us for it. Whether that has gone through an advice route or potentially if it has gone through an automated route. It's not automated advice, it's a very well-packaged case for that customer. I still think that that will be a minimal number of people. The point is that threat is one we can embrace and actually open up the opportunities that we actually have as a business as well.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

At the same time, make sure we keep the protection as part of that referral, because that is very much always going to need a human involvement because customers do not understand they need it. Also, what we also have got to remember is that if we do push a mortgage into a lender, we will still monitor that mortgage and tell them when to leave that lender, which that lender will not. The next transaction might not be as simple. Might want to capital raise, get a second property. Whatever it might be, the situation may have changed. In the same way someone we did give advice to initially, their circumstances could change, they will not need advice next time. This is not putting people in boxes and thinking they are all going to go down this one route.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

But if you also think if you are a customer doing a lot of research and there is 100 plus lenders to deal with and you can only think of eight. Most clients will be able to name more than eight lenders, probably less, most half that. You are never going to go to a lender outside of that eight because as much as you want to research, you are not going to deal with a lender you have not heard of. A broker can recommend any lender, and the client will follow their advice, even if they only started trading today. Whereas actually, if you are researching and you have got the confidence to want to go direct and you have got really simplistic needs, you are probably going to stick with someone that you understand and trust, or think you trust.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

So, I think that is not good for the customer. We have got to still give them that choice, even if they decide to go direct to lender. So, we have thought all this through and there are so many clear benefits, but also there is a threat, and we need to turn that threat into an an opportunity. And I think for a group of MAB size, maybe not a small local broker, but a group of MAB size, we can work with lenders to do that. And they are willing to work with us on it as well. So look, that is everything. Done a lot of talking. But I wanted to give you just context around what we have been through and where we are heading and give you confidence in what we are doing.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

And I am now ready to answer any questions, as are the rest of the team.

[Operator]

Perfect. Thank you for updating investors today. Can I please remind investors to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen? And for your reference, a recording of today's presentation will be available in the Investor Meet Company platform shortly after the meeting is ended. As you can see, we have received a number of questions during today's presentation. So Mark, if I could just hand back to you at this point to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I will pick up from you at the end.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Sure. Thank you. We will not go through the outlook slide in detail. Peter has covered much of it, but I will just leave it there whilst we walk through the Q&A.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Just one quick point, Mark, I'd point out of the outlook, the only thing we haven't really talked about is that we know we've definitely got a 30% uplift in product end dates, and therefore refinancing opportunities in 2027. Everything we expected to refinance this year happened. Everything we expect next year will happen. We're expecting a completely flat market at 1.1 million transactions, which is near the Liz Truss low of about a million. There's caution throughout the numbers right now.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay. First question combines a couple of questions around Fluent. Is the business profitable? Do you expect Fluent outturn this year to be better than last year? Looking to 2027, how much Fluent contribution is there in your group step-up for 2027?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Yeah. Fluent as a group will make over GBP 6 million profit this year. Not where we want it to be, obviously. It won't be better than last year. The reason for that is that we haven't had the growth in mortgages. The growth was going to come in the mortgage side, probably not in the second charge or bridging side this year, predominantly mortgages. So we've incurred all the cost in mortgages, but we've not had the lead flow to be able to monetize it. So that sort of puts mortgages in a backward position for 12 months. But obviously we talked about the mitigating factors for that moving forward.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

We still expect the mortgage element, as we talked earlier, even further cut down our budget for next year with extreme caution, sort of around the GBP 2 million-GBP 2.5 million for Fluent in addition to what they've done this year. But there's still obviously considerable upside, but we'll wait until we get the momentum going on some of these big lead sources before we can predict that of any more certainty.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, next question on admin costs, maybe one for Jo saying, "The results are not too bad considering market headwinds, but growth in overheads has been high. Historically, MAB has reduced overheads as a percentage of revenue. Why the recent increase and what's the outlook?

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Yeah, sure. The increase, half on half, about GBP 4 million of that's driven by the incorporation of our recent invested business acquisitions. We also get benefit coming through to gross margin from those. The net upside in the half is GBP 1 million. Of the remainder of the uplift, that has gone towards planned investment in technology and people as we're now a bigger business with 10 new businesses incorporated in the last year, as well as preparing to scale for growth.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, we've got a question about the budget. Do you have any expectations for policy changes in next month's budget? If the Help to Buy scheme was to come back similar to previous versions, how impactful could that be for the business?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Jo?

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Yeah, I can take it. In terms of the budget and any initiatives that we might see out of that, given the length of time, if it were to impact the purchase market, for example, and given the time for those to complete, we would probably see most of the benefit of that coming into 2027 rather than into 2026. But the current year forecast outturn has remained conservative and we haven't made any guesses as to where the budget might take us.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, question on productivity. Your Capital Markets Day materials talked to technology improvements in advisor productivity. We saw a step up last year in 2025, but productivity has been more flat in the first half. Is there a trade-off with advisor numbers?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Yeah, there's an underlying improvement in productivity this year because if you think about the fall in purchase, the increase in refinance, and the massive step up in terms of product transfers and that being by far our lowest margin product. Actually, if you look at what the brokers have done in any form of more normal circumstances, they've actually done more. Obviously, we've seen more mortgages done per broker, but the value hasn't been the same. We're still very happy with the progress that we're making. There's a whole round of new technology going into our distribution and starting to get deployed from Q1 next year, which again, will increase productivity further. There's a lot of companies really focusing on that now rather than taking on more brokers.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

I can see organic growth in advisor numbers slowing and far more focus on productivity, especially as more and more tools are deployed to support that. As they grow, they'll obviously be taking on a lot less administrative support behind that, because obviously there's going to be a lot of automation in that process, too.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

But it's important to note that any upside, any uplift in productivity per advisor, so half on half, has been offset by the shift in product mix towards refinancing. In your case, yeah.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It has an impact on us where we, the productivity where we own the advisers. So the 700 or so that we do, it does not impact on us directly if it is an appointed representative. But it is good for them, which is therefore good for us.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, back to capital allocation. Question saying, "Thanks for the forward capital funding detail. Can you update on the board's view on share buybacks as a use of capital, given where the shares are trading?

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Sure. I think in terms of our capital allocation policy, it remains unchanged. We do recognize that there is a strong business case for share buyback or a share buyback program being introduced based on where the share price is at currently. In terms of future plans, we laid out our existing commitments and near-term commitments, as well as the capital we have allocated so far in year to M&A. I think it is fair to say that any M&A that we do in the near term will be bolt-on in nature as opposed to significant, and we are very much in execution and integration mode in that regard. Therefore, a share buyback program with the additional flexibility that would be provided to us with the revised, enlarged RCF facility.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

It is something that we will consider in the range moving forward, but it is all about doing the right thing for the business in the long term, as always.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

I think it is having a clear policy about it and making it a built-in feature of what we are going to do. I think we will probably release some guidelines on what the policy on that would be. Yeah, I think it has got to be a regular feature based on set criteria. That is where we want to head to.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, switching to protection. Please can you comment on the impact, if any, on the FCA market study into pure protection?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Sure. Well, they announced their initial findings at the beginning of the year, to say there is effectively nothing to see here. The sector seems to be working well. We are waiting for their final findings, which came out in the last week. They pretty much confirmed exactly what was there originally. There has been no change. They have given the industry a clean bill of health and a big endorsement in terms of the big protection gap that exists out there right now. There is a couple of key areas they said, "You need to look at this and look at that." That was just recommendations rather than any draconian actions or anything like that. Those areas do not really affect the areas we operate in.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Again, we know such a huge opportunity, we are so good at it and we are trying to now shift in a strategy to ensure that protection is now sold completely independently of the mortgage. The First Mortgages obviously has protection where appropriate, and then we take that client on a different protection servicing journey to review their requirements on a regular basis rather than waiting two or five years and then getting poor attachment rates because it is predominantly the mortgage they are looking at at that point. I would see over the next three, four years, freestanding protection sales increasing significantly rather than looking at attachment rates to refinancing, which is where the disappointing numbers are. From my perspective, that has just given us a green light. We have had a big strategic review of all our protection providers, who are really enthused with our strategy.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

They are wanting to now work with us far more strategically. Had that meeting just a few weeks ago with them. They are really excited about what our new model, our new brand, and our objectives in the protection market are. We are adding some more providers into our panel, to ensure we can cater for every single area of protection advice that we need, including some areas of specialization. This is like, to me, we are as much a protection company as a mortgage company, and we have got a lot of initiatives going on on protection right now.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay. Jo, this one probably for you. Can you talk about the implied second half bias in the numbers and how much confidence you have in the revised guidance of GBP 38 million PBT?

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Sure. Just to give you the bridge, if you like, to the 38. While half on half in the first half, you will note that we called out a GBP 1 million benefit from M&A, therefore implying that half on half, we had decreased on the core. That is a really tough comparison because the first half of 2025 had the benefit of the Stamp Duty incentive, and the impact of that in the purchase market. However, the shift in the second half of 2025 towards refinancing means that the H2 to H2 comparison is more of a like for like. Then with the GBP 1 million benefit from M&A in the first half, that is forecast to be GBP 2 million in the second half.

[Jo Stent, CFO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

You can draw the bridge towards the GBP 38 million from there, with some fairly conservative assumptions on H2 in terms of productivity per advisor, as well as the forecast outturn on admin expenses. Then, as always, we have a 40/60 weighting on our revenue. With the integration of the invested businesses, the shape of the P&L has changed. So we have a 40/60 weighting on revenue and a flat phasing on admin costs, where we did not have that before. So, I hope that helps.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay. The next question is, how do you expect to monetize direct-to-lender funneling compared with procuration fees connected to advice?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Yep. Again, these are the conversations we are having with lenders now. No intermediary does that right now. It makes sense that the funnel for the consumer all comes through an intermediary, rather than what the industry shouldn't be doing is sort of saying, or the lenders say, "We have more direct business" and the broker says, "Well, clients should come to us." That debate is pointless because really what we should all be doing as an industry is focusing on the customer outcome. There is not a single lender that will tell you the best customer outcome is to only go to one lender. Because that is obviously clearly nonsense. Although some lenders or bigger lenders will be able to drive more directly, they can also do so with our input and our lead flow. What they want is high quality leads.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

If you actually look at where lenders get direct business now, through, I don't know, price comparison websites and other areas, what they pay away varies dramatically depending on the quality of the lead that they get. From the perspective of a client coming into our funnel, and we sort of digitally getting the mortgage ready effectively before they meet the broker. We can send them in a very good shape, probably the best shape of anybody, to a lender and therefore justify the highest fee that a lender would pay for that type of business. Obviously you then don't have the broker costs of doing it, but you still have the protection advisor engaged with the client. The conversations we are having with lenders now, openly, the big boys are big.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Because no one is going to go to lenders outside of that on a direct basis, for the reasons I explained earlier. Depending on the lender you talk to, you will look at different fees, but certainly, the fees vary from what you get from a product transfer right up to a full fee, depending on how the quality of the delivery that we can get that customer in before we pass it across. To me, it actually widens our audience because we know we lose some customers currently that are more simplistic, and especially on the product transfer piece where they don't do that through us, or they might do it direct with lender. In a way, this can open up this whole opportunity part far more for us.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Look, I can't give you some proper numbers at the moment because this is all very early stage for our industry. The regulator only sort of removed the advice trigger last year to make something like this even possible. You have to relook at your compliance standards and processes to make sure there is no consumer detriment. Regulation doesn't really allow non-advised business recommendations in, so we have to make sure we are within those bounds. There is no confusion between advice and no advice. To me, that is a natural progression at some point. Hopefully, that should be reassuring.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, there is a question asking about the move to the main market providing benefits. I could probably start on that just to say it is very early days since we moved to main market, and we will judge this on years, not quarters. It has helped us engage with some of our investors in North America and Canada, who have found it harder to access companies on AIM. We have seen some improvement, not material, but some improvement in liquidity, in average daily volumes. But really, it felt like a natural step up given the size of the group and the ambitions of the group. The aspiration was to become a FTSE 250 company. Not to be in the bottom half of the small-cap index. That remains the plan. It will probably just take us a bit longer to get there. Peter, is there anything you want to add?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

No, that is exactly it. We felt we had real momentum this year, and that if the market did not work against us, then that momentum would get us onto 250 relatively quickly. Our first estimations a year ago, that we will be there by the end of this year, which clearly is not going to happen. But in fact, the market has worked against us. That has hit our numbers and some of the initiatives, obviously, that we are working on. The whole market is down on investment side. So we are not going to get there yet. But it was a steppingstone strategy, so that is disappointing. That is just, again, a timing issue when we did it. But I am glad we did it, and I am glad we are off AIM.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

So this is more in our control now, hopefully, than it was on AIM, really, for us.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay, got time for one last question, which is going to be the favorite topic of AI. Please could you discuss some of the obstacles to AI-powered new entrants? What stops new entrants from developing agents to compete with you?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay. Right. Can I just firstly say that, I think there's a view out there that the people that are going to use AI best are new people on the block, which is complete and utter nonsense, obviously. Us and others, and there's other big brands out there, not just in the mortgage market, other sectors you're familiar with, that are bringing in fantastic people, and they have far bigger resources, and they've got far bigger brands, and they've got far wider customer reach. They're the incumbents that are in a far better position than a new AI-based or autonomy-led business could possibly do. You still need access to consumers. There's still cost of acquisition. The cost of AI will obviously go up significantly.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

If you build your business purely around AI, you're in for a shock in the next few years because the cost of that is going to be tremendously higher. As we embrace AI, we also look at how we can actively protect ourselves from those hikes, because once you're in and fully hooked, it's going to be hard to extract yourself. So we need to make sure we're fully planning for that as well, and that we have the security elements all there in place. It's not just about growth. The other thing you've also got to remember is client ownership. If you want to be a funnel straight into a lender, that's it. That's your customer gone. You're not going to be able to monetize that function. So you've got to look at where the financial benefit of that's going to come back.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

I dare say there will be lots of new opportunities there. But what actually it's doing, I think it's opening up our market, as we've been saying, with big groups, property portals, various others, that already got huge customer reach, where the data they've got, working with our data and allowing us to build really bespoke customer journeys. That's where the real power sits. I don't think it's from someone coming in externally, because they're going to have to go direct to consumer to get that, whereas we're working with major brands consumers are already engaged with. And we have insights of where they are and how we talk to them, and they're our customers that we have then value on.

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

To me, I'm sure there will be those models, but I don't actually see how they could become viable or become a major threat as long as we have the right strategy, the right people to implement that strategy. Then I think we're fine. I think other intermediaries could be in problems. I'm not saying the whole sector's protected, but we can protect big chunks of the sector under MAB. You need different skill sets than just being a good broker, but good broker isn't going to help you here. You need a far wider strategy to have the chance to still be a good broker, if I want to put it that way.

[Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

Okay. We're up on time. If anyone has further questions, feel free to reach out. Come through the investor relations email, and we'll try and come back to you. Otherwise, any final comment, Peter?

[Peter Brodnicki, CEO at Mortgage Advice Bureau]

No. Again, other than just voice my disappointment, and I hate letting people down. I take that very personally. I didn't think we'd be in this position. I'm the ripe old age of 64. I'm still learning a lot every day. And we'll learn from this experience, and we'll get back on track very quickly. I think it's an exciting time for the business compared to the last 25 years put together. And where there's risk, there's huge opportunity, and we make the right decisions, then we'll be a beneficiary of that, and I hope you'll continue to back us.

[Operator]

Perfect. Thank you to the team for updating those investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected for your feedback. On behalf of the management team of Mortgage Advice Bureau PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good after-

Participants

Executives

• Peter Brodnicki, CEO
• Mark Irvine-Fortescue, Head of Investor Relations
• Jo Stent, CFO