After the announcement of his firm’s “record” FY23 results, Steadfast Group CEO and industry stalwart Robert Kelly (pictured above) delivered Thursday’s investor presentation with pugnacity and snatches of humour.
The group’s market release said underlying revenue was nearly $1.5 billion, up by about 24%, with net profit after tax (NPAT) at $207 million, up by around 22%.
August 2023 also marks 10 years since Steadfast listed as a public company on the ASX. Kelly used the presentation to reflect on the reasons behind Steadfast’s ongoing success.
However, the anniversary was also a chance to provide some details on what the industry at large can expect after Kelly.
“Succession,” said Kelly, referring to a heading in his presentation that was streamed live to investors and the media. “Nobody likes anybody in Succession.”
Kelly referenced the popular drama series starring Brian Cox as the head of a powerful and dysfunctional business family.
“I don’t know who they’re modelled on but they’re not very nice people,” said Kelly. “Oh! this is about our succession! Sorry! Okay then.”
The Steadfast CEO said for more than two years his firm has worked on its own succession plans to make sure the company “is well placed if any of us walk out the front and a tram runs us over.”
“Succession is something that we’ve had front of mind,” said Kelly. “Well ahead of the people who’ve started asking me how old I was, whether I was going to hang around and whether I could still manage to get out of my car and get to our office unaffected - well, I can, between you and I.”
However, he said he was “also smart enough to realise” that there does need to be a succession plan in place.
“This juggernaut that we’ve created at Steadfast needs people smarter than me coming through to take it to its next level,” said Kelly. “Hopefully, when you meet the people that are doing this, you’ll be very impressed with what we’ve done there.”
He mentioned Nigel Fitzgerald who joined Steadfast Group in April as chief operating officer.
“Prior to Steadfast, Nigel fulfilled CEO and board director roles for AIG and Fairfax Financial and senior executive roles for Liberty International Underwriters,” says the Steadfast website.
“We got him having known him for nearly 14 years doing business with him in his other iterations,” said Kelly.
He also mentioned Samantha Hollman, who moved from the COO position now occupied by Fitzgerald to become CEO – International.
“Samantha was promoted to the new role of CEO – International and is responsible for planning and executing the company’s international strategy,” says the website.
In a market release, Kelly said underlying earnings growth was driven by sustained organic growth from price and volume increases in the Group’s insurance broking and underwriting agencies and acquisitions made over the last two years.
“We outlaid $574.2 million on EPS accretive acquisitions, including the major acquisition of Insurance Brands Australia,” said Kelly.
The firm’s broker network, said the release, also achieved “record” gross written premium (GWP) of $11.6 billion for the year.
“Our brokers increased volumes over FY22 and experienced further premium price rate increases from our strategic partners,” said Kelly.
Steadfast Underwriting Agencies “continue to perform strongly,” said the release, generating $2.1 billion of GWP, up more than 16% on FY22.
The release said the group’s balance sheet “remains well positioned” and has nearly $380 million of unutilised capacity available to fund acquisitions.
Steadfast Group describes itself as “the largest general insurance broker network and group of underwriting agencies in Australasia.” The company also has growing operations in Asia and Europe. The group comprises more than 420 brokerages and about 30 underwriting agencies.
The company also stages the biggest annual broker convention in Australia. According to organisers, this year’s Perth event attracted about 2,000 insurance industry professionals.
See the list of winners for the Best Insurance Industry Professionals in NZ in IB's Global 100 special report.
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