OFX Group Ltd
ASX:OFX
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OFX Group Ltd
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the OFX Group Limited 1H 22 Results Webcast hosted by Skander Malcolm, Managing Director and CEO; and Selena Verth, CFO. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Malcolm. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Maddy, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call. As Maddy mentioned, I'm joined by Selena Verth, our CFO; and Matt Gregorowski, who leads our Investor Relations program with Citadel-MAGNUS. Selena and I will take you through the pages, then there will be time for Q&A. This year, we'll cover 3 things: the half year result, what it is and what drove it. Our financials in more detail and the full year '22 outlook, including why and how we will be more valuable in the future. Let's move to Slide 4 in the pack. The first half fiscal year '22 was a very strong half with turnover at $15 billion, up 34% versus prior year. Net operating income, or NOI, at $68.6 million, up 27.3% and EBITDA at $20.3 million, up 88%. We are particularly pleased to show strength -- strong growth rates across all our major metrics versus the prior period, and they all grew half-on-half. It was especially good to see our net operating income grow 7.2% against second half '21. Further, our NOI in the first half 22 exceeded the second half '20 result, even though that included the record volume-driven by the onset of COVID in March 2020. The last 2 halves have produced record turnover, with the first half '22 growing 9% over the second half 21, which, in turn, grew 23% over the first half '21. This is a sign of a very engaged client base. Moving to Slide 5. In addition to being a very strong result, it's great to see the strength across the portfolio with all segments delivering double-digit revenue growth, except online sellers in Asia, where we continue to pivot to higher-quality clients. Excluding that pivot, online sellers is also delivering double-digit revenue growth. Firstly, our corporate segment delivered revenue growth of 16.2% versus first half '21. It declined 6.1% versus second half '21, but that was entirely due to the unusual growth in offshore share purchases in FY '21, not repeating in FY '22. Excluding that, we saw growth of 26.3% versus first half '21 and 8.9% versus second half '21. And further, as I touched on earlier, the decline in revenue in corporate between second half '21 and first half '22 did not affect our group NOI, which grew first half '22 versus second half '21 by 7.2%. Our online seller segment was flat versus first half '21 and slightly down on second half '21, driven by the market correction in e-commerce globally. I'll describe that in more detail in a moment. As I mentioned, the pivot in Asia -- as I mentioned, sorry, excluding the pivot in Asia, we grew revenue by 13.5% versus first half '21 and 5.7% versus second half '21, both good results in a tight market. Our enterprise segment is returning to growth nicely, with revenue up 40.5% versus first half '21 and 17.5% versus second half '21. Whilst the overall contribution of enterprise is still relatively small at just under 4%, it is back to generating double-digit growth for consecutive halves for the first time since fiscal year '15, which is very encouraging indeed. More on this later. Our consumer segment has also rebounded exceptionally well, growing 28.1% versus first half '21 and 13% versus second half '21. We have worked very hard to ensure we continue to deliver a best-in-class product and service for our high-value consumer clients everywhere. Moving to Slide 6. We've shared previously that our corporate segment is valuable for its strong growth, strong returns and client loyalty to OFX. We have grown our investment in this segment considerably in the last 2 to 3 years. So it's wonderful to see the progress during this half. We grew revenue over 16% in the first half versus prior period and every region delivered strong double-digit growth, with our North American region being the standout at 38.3% growth versus prior period. It's also terrific to see our Australia, New Zealand subregion driving growth of over 16%, excluding the impact of offshore share purchases. Despite being the largest subregion and operating in a fiercely competitive market. Similarly, it's a sign of great health when both transactions and ATVs are growing well. That revenue growth everywhere is encouraging, especially given the high lifetime value of this segment. On the right-hand side, we are highlighting for the first time how this recurring revenue continues to grow, but the chart showing the turnover contributions from the cohorts remaining strong and sticky over time. And underneath the chart, we've highlighted some of the deliberate actions we have taken to grow this valuable segment. Our marketing, which traditionally was largely consumer focused, is now focused a lot more on corporate, which is bringing in more corporate opportunities. To make the most of those opportunities, we've invested heavily in our sales team's productivity, implementing better pipeline management, stronger measurement criteria, better feedback loops and better training for our front line. Alongside that, we have worked hard to make it easier for our clients and prospects to do business with us, improving our onboarding and service channels and giving them better product, faster and cheaper payments and better risk management. This is especially true in North America, where the journey to create a more localized approach started 3-plus years ago, and it's delivering exceptional growth now. We intend to continue building capabilities that make sense for local clients for Europe and the U.K. also. Moving to Slide 7. This is the third year since we announced a deliberate and targeted focus on the online seller segment, and it's encouraging to note the progress we've made. Revenue is up and so are active clients. COVID has seen a significant growth in e-commerce globally. Although there has been a correction recently with our Q1 showing a decline in some regions versus prior periods. Nonetheless, we're well positioned to capture this opportunity with the advantage of being a specialist who understands and is well equipped to support the specific needs of the marketplaces, the PSPs, the merchants and the risks that are inherent in this model. We have been growing our global team dedicated to this segment so that it gets the right attention and focus. Our sales and marketing efforts are increasing, too. And at our Q1 update, we announced incremental promotional expense targeted at this segment in North America. This has been in market since early September, and initial results are encouraging, with registrations up 77% in September and good momentum since then. There is a lot more work to do, better products, more promotional and sales investments, more and stronger partnerships, more global expansion and better risk management tools for our clients. But overall, we're very encouraged by the opportunity in this segment. Turning to Slide 8. We're very excited by the progress we've made in our enterprise segment in the last 3 years. Back in fiscal year '17, enterprise contributed 8.6% of revenue and was a healthy and EBITDA accretive part of the portfolio. While the focus was on other segments, as we've previously outlined, we turned our attention to growing this segment around 3 years ago and are now starting to see the results. After reaching a low point of just under $1 million in revenue in first quarter '21, we have grown revenue from the enterprise segment each half, and we delivered just under $1.5 million in the second quarter fiscal year '22 as well as being strong year-on-year, that is up over 14% versus first quarter '22. What is even more encouraging is the pipeline and the activation of recent wins. In the last 6 months, we've announced several new programs, including the ATO, Pearler and Douugh, all alive and contributing. We also went live with WiseTech on the 6th of October, which is already generating registrations. Our pipeline is healthier than ever, with 20% more prospects across existing and new verticals and every region is contributing. Our program with Link is gaining traction. However, as we shared in August, it is growing slower than we both expected. We're very happy with our relationship, and we're working with the Link team to explore ways to accelerate that growth. We think this segment will be a very strong part of OFX over the next several years as we continue to provide clients with a strong global platform, superior risk management, exceptional service and strong account management. Moving to Slide 9. We're delighted to see such a healthy consumer segment, winning that rebound we were targeting, with revenue up 28% and every region seeing good double-digit growth. We are more convinced than ever that our sweet spot is consumers who value that combination of a great digital platform, great prices and great service, including human interaction when it's required. We saw ATVs growing 33% as consumers manage their assets with our help. Property and wealth transactions have been popular in the last 12 months, in particular. What is interesting about our high-value consumer segment is that it is at its best when clients need us the most, such as during crises. When the combination I spoke of earlier, along with strong regulatory and back-end support means, unlike some of our competitors, we remain open to business and able to support them. Moving to Slide 10. We always share the drivers of our turnover so that investors can see what is happening in more detail. In the first half '22, we saw turnover grow 34% on the first half '21. But beneath that, we saw a pickup in active clients during the half and improvement in transactions for active clients from last year and a big step-up in ATVs driving that turnover growth. Actual transactions were slightly down, again due to the nonrecurring offshore share purchases. But if we exclude those, transactions were up 14.1% on the first half '21, again, a very healthy sign of an engaged client base. It was especially good to see the reactivation of consumer clients. Moving to Slide 11. It's wonderful to see that as a global company, all our regions are performing so well, each growing revenue double-digit versus the first half '21. North America was the standout, delivering 32.9% revenue growth. This was especially good as their first half '21 was actually slightly up on first half '20, the only reason to do that. We remain incredibly encouraged and committed to the region, recently increasing our investment in the online seller segment there, and announcing a 3-year partnership with the NHL to help us raise our profile and win both corporate and consumer clients. U.K. and Europe was also very good, growing revenue 26.2% in what was an especially difficult operating environment with COVID lockdowns, Brexit and political uncertainty or affecting consumer and corporate confidence. They're in good shape to grow further in the second half '22, and our European license creates opportunities for further expansion. Here in APAC, was also a great first half, with revenue up 11.2%. In Australia and New Zealand, we grew 10.5%, but that was over 18%, excluding offshore share purchases, which is outstanding, given they are the largest subregion. It was also great to see Asia growing again, with revenue up 20.1%. Our Asian corporate segment was particularly impressive, growing 152%. Now let me hand it over to Selena to walk you through our financials in more detail.
Thank you, Skander. Moving to Slide 13. We have delivered a strong financial result, and had every region and segment growing. This highlights the value of our global operating model and targeted investments by segment. First half '22 fee and trading income or revenue was up 20.1%. The regional results were excellent with standards are taking us through, all up double digits in all regions. It is also pleasing to see consumer up 28.1%, corporate up 16.2%, online seller was up 0.7% and enterprise up 40.5%, highlighting the broad sustainable growth across the portfolio. Net operating income was up 27.3%, which is a higher growth rate than revenue as we worked hard on previous halves to improved efficiencies and have seen these come through in the first half of '22. Our bank fees were down 12.7% and partner commissions down 46.4% with $2.3 million saving. NOI margins of 46 basis points were down 2 basis points on first half '21, but stable on second half '21. This is largely driven by the consumer segment. Higher ATVs reduced margins by 4 basis points. But with the increase in the consumer revenue in the second half '22 versus first half '21, this was offset by 2 basis points. We continue to work hard to keep margins stable. Our underlying EBITDA is $20.3 million, up 88% on the first half '21 and exceeds our pre-COVID levels, up 22.7% on the first half of '20. This signals to strength in the underlying portfolio, our loyal customer base and a solid growth trajectory. We delivered operating leverage for the half with underlying operating expenses up 12.1% and net operating income up 27.3%, generating EBITDA growth. This is also seen through the underlying EBITDA margin of 29.5%. As we have signaled, we intend to invest more in our North American online sellers business, so we expect this to drop in the second of '22. We have reviewed some of our lease obligations, resulting in a reduction in depreciation and interest expense for the half of $0.8 million. You'll also see a reduction for both right-of-use assets and lease liabilities on our balance sheet as a result. Our amortization policy for intangible assets remains unchanged, which is between 3 and 5 years. Our tax rate is 23%, slightly below our guidance of 25%. And our statutory net profit after tax is $10.9 million, up on both the first half of '21 and the second half of '21. Our cash position remains strong, with net cash hold of $63.1 million and net available cash of $37.6 million, both up $10.3 million. We also successfully closed the TreasurUp investment. Moving to Slide 14. Our underlying operating expenses of $48.4 million, up 12.1% on the first half of '21 as a result of our targeted investments, which are driving good outcomes. Our employee expenses are up 13.3%, largely driven by variable compensation that is accrued for fiscal year '22 as a result of the excellent performance in the first half of '22. We have just over 400 employees with 170 of them in revenue-generating roles being sales, dealing, marketing and customer service, and we continue to invest in these areas. Promotional costs of $7.9 million, up 15.1%, with an increased investment in brand campaigns across our major markets. Search spend now makes up less than 40% of the promotional costs. OFXpert campaign continues to resonate, and we have seen first 3 month revenue from customers up 31.3%. Technology costs of $3.8 million, up 38.1%. And as guided, will continue to increase as we invest in reliable scale and systems and risk management. You can see the direct output of this investment with bad and doubtful debts at 0 for the half as fraud losses have significantly reduced, and we have had some recoveries on fraud write-offs. We could not be more pleased with this investment, but we remain as vigilant as always in new and different types of fraud. As discussed at the AGM, when we presented the first quarter '22 results, we continue to invest to grow the business. Over and above what we have already discussed, we have also just released a North American online seller campaign to drive momentum in the second half of '22. And we are a proud sponsor of the National Hockey League in North America. The NHL is the world's preeminent hockey league and is the most popular league in Canada and fourth most popular in the U.S. It also has the most affluent fan base. Turning to Slide 15. We continue to have a strong balance sheet, no debt and generate good cash flows. Our net cash held position, which includes cash held for own use and deposits due from financial institutions is $63.1 million, up $2.6 million from 31 March '21. We hold some of this cash as collateral for our trading lines in a bank guarantee. Collateral and bank guarantees are relatively constant at $25.5 million, resulting in net available cash of $37.6 million, up $0.8 million on the 31st of March '21. Cash flows from operating activities is $19.6 million, which is an excellent cash conversion rate from our underlying EBITDA of $20.3 million. Of the $19.6 million of cash operating activities, we've invested $5.1 million in intangible assets as we continue to deliver our single scalable platform and our payment and risk capabilities. We also successfully closed the TreasurUp investment of $6.1 million and purchased just over 1.9 million shares as part of our share buyback program for $2.65 million instead of paying a dividend. You'll see our balance sheet now includes the investment at costs of $4.7 million and a loan to TreasurUp as we have closed the transaction. The TreasurUp team has a really nice pipeline of activity to generate future growth. Slide 16 is an overview of ongoing capital investment in our global operating model, reliable and scalable systems, risk management and people. This slide is only the investment in tangible assets. There has also been considerable investment in people, software as a service and in service delivery. In the first half of '22, our investment of $5.1 million has included delivering better payment capabilities across 4 key currencies, being the Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit and the Indian rupee and more to come. This not only reduces the settlement time from days and minutes for our customers but also provide bank fee cost reductions so that everyone wins. We've improved customer verification tools in the U.K. with consumer conversion rates up 130 basis points and continuing to improve. We've also implemented and improved onboarding processes for online sellers customers that have gone live for the first week of October with our CargoWise solution with WiseTech. A great success for both teams as they work so well together to create a great client experience. We are expecting the investment intangibles to increase in the second half of '22 and remain at the $12.6 million level for a year or so as we continue to work in the payments excellence, risk management and customer services space. These investments provide a return by growing enterprise revenue, lower cost of payments and increased revenue from conversion rates. I will now hand back to Skander to take us through the fiscal year '22 outlook.
Thank you, Selena, for that excellent coverage of our financial performance. And in this section, I will share with you our view of the rest of fiscal year '22 and touch on how we feel about our future. Turning to Slide 18. We've worked very hard over the last 2 years, in particular, to get a deep understanding of what the opportunity is OFX, where we want to play and how we can be distinctive. And if we execute against that, why we will be a more valuable company in the future. This slide summarizes that thinking. Firstly, our total addressable market, or TAM, is huge. With McKinsey is estimating the total cross-border payments market at over $130 trillion in turnover per annum. We have a small fraction of that supporting just over $25 billion in payments last year. The economic outlook for the countries and regions where cross-border payments are largest and where we are located, particularly the U.S., the U.K. and Australia is very good, with GDP growth in those markets in 2021 calendar year estimated at 6.3%, 5.5% and 4.4%, respectively. Healthy and growing economies tend to support increased economic activity, including trade. We have targeted segments of the $130 trillion market that we see as being valuable and where we believe we can be distinctive. Consumers who value great rates of digital plus human service delivery typically send the larger transactions than consumers who value a purely digital platform. Or who send smaller amounts for remittance use cases. In a growing economic climate, we expect that segment to return to growth. Corporate or SME clients who also value great rates, a digital plus human service and the expertise of a company able to help will typically do very well in a growing economic climate also. So we expect that segment to grow even faster than the consumers. SMEs who specialize through e-commerce are expected to do very well indeed in the year ahead. And again, we see strong growth from them through our online seller segment. Finally, we see more and more enterprise clients flourishing in an increasingly global economy. So we also see strong future growth from them, particularly as global banks retreat from this segment. While each of these segments will grow, it's our job to win disproportionately by being distinctive and executing better than competitors. I have mentioned that our research tells us that the heart of what clients in these segments want is a great digital platform supported by human service to provide expertise where it's valued. To execute that well, we've laid out those elements that we believe and clients have told us are most important. The winners will have a single global platform that provides a world-class payment experience, both in terms of the product and the service, supported by strong risk management and run by the best team. We believe that by unlocking that opportunity through those segments with our execution, we can build an even more valuable company, characterized by healthy revenue growth, high recurring revenue, strong EBITDA at attractive EBITDA margins that generates good cash flow. And as we foreshadowed, we see the industry consolidating, and we see ourselves as well positioned to participate in that. Turning to Slide 19. This is a bit more detail on what we're prioritizing in order to win in each segment. In consumer, we'll be focused in the near-term on faster, safer and easier onboarding, better currencies to use and better pricing. In corporate, we'll also focus on a better, faster and easier onboarding experience as well as invest in the risk management tools, we know this segment values. We're already learning a lot about what matters and how to execute this digitally through our investment in TreasurUp, and look forward to bringing this to our clients in due course. In online sellers, we're also investing in a better, faster and easier onboarding experience as well as more currencies and more payment options. We have a great marketplace integration with Amazon, and we'll be exploring others in the near-term as well as enhancing what we have. In enterprise, we have a great pipeline and are investing in more people to help us take these opportunities through the pipeline. However, while we will continue to work through these opportunities, we'll also be working hard with existing clients to make -- to ensure their customers are getting the best from OFX. So a better digital experience through our APIs and more streamlined services in due course. Turning to Slide 20. We are well positioned to grow in the post-COVID era. Firstly, we believe our pivot to focus on corporate online seller and enterprise segments will be more valuable due to the economic outlook favoring these segments. COVID has meant that governments in most countries have reacted with strong fiscal and monetary stimulus. And in turn, GDP growth outlooks look very positive. In a post-COVID world, our larger exposure to these segments, therefore, is a good tailwind as in general, strong GDP growth ordinarily means SMEs and enterprises growing well as the engine of that economic growth. Secondly, for many years, we've invested carefully and deliberately in our infrastructure and have long believed in the value of working with Tier 1 banks around the world to ensure we have great capabilities and strong liquidity when it's needed. In a post-COVID world, where risks are growing, we believe the strength of our banking partners will be more valuable. As regulators and banks globally become more focused on balance sheets, risk management and governance, all of which we excel at. Thirdly, like many, we have been investing in technology for many years. In our case, our CapEx associated with technology has grown substantially since fiscal year '18 as we've built a more contemporary global platform with more emphasis on scalability, security and client experience. We see lots of good technologies in the market. But very few companies who can combine it with the global network, the global banking partnerships and the client base and understanding we have. We believe we are very well placed to get substantial returns from this in time, such as what Selena described with our investment in fraud and biometric tools. But more than that, it will mean faster payments than peers, better payment options and lower costs over time. In a post-COVID world, having a single contemporary global platform delivering a better client experience at a lower cost will be a differentiator versus competitors who lack scale or differentiation. Moving to Slide 21. We can confirm our prior guidance for fiscal year '22. We will continue to invest in the areas that make us more valuable. Regional growth in North America, particularly, but also globally. We will invest and grow our corporate online seller and enterprise segments as a priority. We will win prospects in our enterprise pipeline and activate the ones we already have. And we will continue to win the rebound in consumer as it happens. As we do those, we expect our financial results to be healthy. NOI growth of 10%-plus at stable NOI margins. We will preserve the principle of delivering positive annual operating leverage, but we will keep an eye on opportunities to invest and may do that if we deem the opportunity to be in the medium-term interest of our shareholders. Thank you for your time. And now let me hand back to Maddy for any questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Lafitani.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Sure. It's Lafitani of Laf from MST. I've got a few questions, if I may. The first one is in relation to Slide 8, the enterprise page. It's good to see some strong progress coming through there. I just wonder if you could add some comments around some of the previous guidance on revenue for -- you had $5 million-odd for WiseTech. I know that one's only early. But for Link, you've got $5 million as well. Are both those figures still current? And if you could just add some comments around some of the ones that have gone live, Pearler, Douugh, ATO. Is the run rate as per expectations?
Sure. So maybe I'll jump in. As you rightly said, WiseTech is very new. So we're very confident in the registrations we're already getting in WiseTech and the integration. And for those of you who are able to attend the Goldman Sachs Tech Conference, you had Richard White, the CEO, talk a lot about what it meant for WiseTech, and we're very, very encouraged by the progress so far. On Link, as we've highlighted on the slide there, the activation has been slower than expected, and that's really been caused by a couple of things. The first one is, obviously, coming out of COVID, you saw about 1/4 of all ASX 200 clients of Link reduced their dividends. So the opportunity wasn't what was in our original case. And really the second piece was what we both wanted to do was have a fully integrated digital experience, and we haven't been able to do that as yet. And that's why we have said, in this case, it's been slower than I or both expected. But having said that, we're very, very encouraged. We really love the business case. And as we've seen in other examples, when you integrate it and you have a fully digital program that delivers clients that sort of exceptional service, we're very confident that we'll continue to grow that and we'll grow well. And as I said in the note, we're also exploring other opportunities with Link to continue to grow that portfolio. In terms of the clients that are in the activation stage. So as you say, Pearler and Douugh and ATO, they're all activating well. We're very happy with that. They're all in line with what we were seeing. We don't guide on individual clients because clearly, there's, in many cases, they're very new use cases. And so it's difficult to have sort of what I would call, reliable assumptions underpinning guidance. So we don't guide on those individual cases. And I would also highlight that in that enterprise segment, as I said in my note -- in the remarks, sorry, it's also very important to remember our existing clients. And obviously, we have some of those, and it's great to see the bounce back in activity and progress in those particular clients.
Okay. Just moving on to the balance sheet. You can see there's obvious improvement in the cash balance. But can you just update the thoughts around the current buyback versus dividend policy that's in place?
Yes. So consistent with what we said at the full year results for '21 is in the near term, we see the share buyback replacing the dividend in the near term. It would be distribution of capital back to shareholders. It gives us a little bit more flexibility, which is nice. And as you can see that we closed the TreasurUp deal. Now we like how it's been going. It's been very successful. So so far, we've purchased 1.9 million shares at $2.65 million. We will continue the share buyback program. Look, there wasn't a lot of volume in the last few months. So it was a little difficult, but we'll continue that share buyback program. We like what it gives us. It's -- it provides a capital return, but also flexibility at the same time. Now with the cash on the balance sheet, yes, it is higher. For our business, we do need to hold about $15 million of cash for working capital. Also, what we like is in times of high volatility, you do need to post collateral to keep trading. So you do want some cash there. So a huge volatile event you want to keep trading because it's very good for the business. And also we see I out there to invest, that actually allows us to do that.
Are you able to expand on some of those opportunities, what you see as priorities for the business? And just can we wrap it up in terms of a broader discussion around both organic and inorganic development within the business? Some of your overseas competitors are looking to add sort of investments attached to the multicurrency accounts they've got in various jurisdictions to try and create new revenue opportunities. Are there things that you're looking at that would create new revenue in addition to just increasing the service and speed of your offering?
Yes. Maybe I'll take that one up, Lafitani. So first of all, as Selena outlined in terms of the way we invest, we're looking at a very strong and healthy product road map that includes ways in which we could generate alternative revenue from, let's say, the core FX margin. But that said, we're incredibly disciplined about what actually really matters to our client as opposed to a company trying to cross-sell various products because they're trying to diversify their revenue. And what we know, particularly in our corporate and online seller segments is they do value a couple of other areas, and we've laid that out in the past that are on our product roadmap. So you should expect to see those over time. And in the organic space as well, as Selena outlined, if you look at, for example, investments in payment corridors, we can actually provide better value, faster, which in turn gives us more net operating income and a more engaged client. So that's a kind of sweet spot of organic investments. On the inorganic side, as you said, there's a lot of activity. We've been very, very mindful of that. We're very, very clear about our inorganic strategy. As we've previously guided to the market, we've got a corporate development focus with the Board. We talk about it. TreasurUp was the first of those investments. And we're certainly seeing out in the market that companies are consolidating because in many cases, they're getting up to sort of 3-, 4-year plus holds. Also, not all companies are able to sort of grow beyond their core portfolio. And also some companies have less capabilities globally than us. So all of those create opportunities for us, and we're actively working through those with the Board.
Okay. Just one final question for me. Is there any comment around the NOI guidance? I mean, your first half is up 27% versus PCP, you're still sitting at 10% for the year. Is that just a case of leaving it as per the full year -- what we said at the full year result? Or is there a reason why it wasn't updated?
It's actually 10% plus. So it's not 10%, still just for clarity. And look, we love the growth in NOI. Obviously, we're coming off a softer comp in the first half. But there were also a couple of things that were going on. You saw consumer ATVs jump substantially with the post-COVID rebound, in particular use cases. That's the highest I've ever been in the company's history. So whether they remain at those levels, it's very hard for us to forecast. Secondly, you still have to be very mindful about what's going on out in the global markets. We love the NOI growth. We're certainly reconfirming our commitment to 10% plus. And obviously, we'll continue to update the market if we think it's going to be dramatically different to that. But we're very happy with the growth that we're getting.
Our next question is from Seth Hoskin at Canaccord.
So just continue on the NOI guidance question. It really is just sort of about near-term macroeconomic uncertainty and particularly use cases, is that what you're pointing to?
Yes. Plus it's a comp question, Seth. We really like it. Let's be very clear about that. And as we've been very clear about and consistent about, we're actually working all of the levers on NOI. So we care a lot about how we run our margins. We care a lot about things like bank fees. We care a lot about partner commissions. And all of those are trending in the right direction. And then as you say, there's a bit of a macro backdrop around, okay, well, what are clients thinking? What are the use cases in consumer? How will online sellers evolve over the next 6 to 12 months? And there are some uncertainties in there. So we just felt we're more in that sort of keep promise mode than make promise node, and we just thought it would be prudent to retain that 10% plus. And again, if there were substantial changes, we'll update the market.
Our next question is from Helen Manning. She asks, will you be resuming paying dividends and when?
Yes. So as we answered a couple of questions ago, in the near -- the policy at the moment in the near term, we're doing a share buyback instead of paying a dividend. We like the flexibility that gives us. It's also a great way to redistribute capital to shareholders. We'll continue to look at that. We always have discussions with board is that the right approach. But in the near term, that is the strategy, and then we will revisit that in due course.
Our next question is from [ Wiman Z ]. He asks, does positive operating leverage excluding capitalized spending?
Yes. Our definition of positive operating leverage is basically that your NOI is growing faster than your operating expenses, which effectively generated EBITDA growth. And expenses a year -- operating expenses for your P&L, it doesn't include the capitalized costs.
We have another question from Mark Williams. Who asks, can you comment on seasonality in the business? Historically, the second half has been stronger than the first half.
Thanks, Mark, and maybe I'll tackle that one. Yes, you can observe that over time, but it's not dramatic. Typically, the seasonality that you might be referring to is in the EBITDA line, where we tend to normally spend more promotional expense in the first half than the second half, and that's because we want to generate as many new dealing clients as possible to get as much as possible. What I would say is, though, if you think about this first half versus the second half, you've got an absolutely exceptional bad debt outcome. I don't think that's ever been produced, certainly not in my time. So don't count that for your second half estimate because, obviously, we'll keep very, very vigilant, and we're not aware of anything at this point. But it's always a challenge to keep on top of fraudsters and bad actors. I'd say the other thing is we've made it very plain to the market that where we see advantages, such as, for example, our approved PSP status with Amazon, we're going to go spend money because we really like that advantage. And as I touched on, the team decided to go and invest extra promo expense in our online sellers segment. For that reason, we were getting some really nice leads, so we wanted to do that. Sometimes the timing of expense, too, in the second half can be affected by those opportunities. So there is a bit of seasonality, but I wouldn't say it's dramatic, and we're absolutely pushing to continue to invest where we see opportunity.
[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions today. I will now hand back to Mr. Malcolm for closing remarks.
Thanks, Maddy, and thank you to all who joined the call. We're obviously delighted with this result, and we look forward to catching up with you individually over the next few weeks to answer any further questions you have.
Thank you, Skander. That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.