SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: COG Financial Services, a leading aggregator of small businesses in linked financial services segments, held its annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday, where it announced its achievements and plans for the future. The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Bennet, addressed the shareholders and highlighted the company’s strategy and vision.

Bennet said that COG’s business model is based on three pillars: providing capital, applying management expertise, and aligning interests. He explained that COG provides capital to businesses to maximize their medium-term potential, applies management expertise, standardized IT back office and accounting systems, and provides management capacity to focus on growing their businesses.

He also said that COG aligns its interests with the businesses it acquires by using a “skin in the game” model, which ensures long-term profitable growth and certainty of eventual exit.

Bennet claimed that all businesses acquired by COG have increased earnings organically since acquisition, proving that the business model works. He also shared some of the company’s recent successes and developments

In April 2023, COG acquired Paywise, a salary packaging business, through its novated leasing subsidiary, FleetNetwork. At the same time, COG divested an 18% interest in the consolidated FleetNetwork business (which includes Paywise) to the EML Group, a leading provider of services to employers and their staff.

Bennet said that this move allowed COG to expand its existing novated lease offering to salary packaging, while simultaneously partnering with an established organisation. He added that Paywise has shown strong growth since acquisition and has overachieved several of the synergy opportunities expected at the time of acquisition.

COG’s funds management business, COG Asset Management, has also performed well, with its flagship fund, the COG Diversified Income Fund, delivering a net return of 9.8% for the year ended June 30, 2023, outperforming its benchmark by 2.6%.

Bennet said that the fund has attracted significant inflows from investors seeking stable and diversified income streams, and that COG Asset Management has launched two new funds, the COG Australian Equities Fund and the COG Global Equities Fund, to cater to different risk profiles and investment objectives.

COG’s broker aggregation business, COG Aggregation, has continued to grow its network of mortgage brokers and loan volumes, despite higher market interest rates and tighter lending standards. Bennet said that COG Aggregation has invested in key operational areas, such as functional improvements, cyber security, data protection, and operating system footprint, to enhance its service quality and efficiency.

He also said that COG Aggregation has expanded its product offerings, such as personal loans, commercial loans, and insurance, to provide more value and choice to its brokers and customers.

Looking forward to the financial year 2024, Bennet said that COG will continue to remain active in the identification of strategic acquisitions (at the right price) to add to the underlying businesses’ organic growth trajectory.

He also said that COG expects good levels of activity across all areas of the business, with the strength of novated leasing and funds management particularly pleasing. He concluded his speech by thanking the shareholders, board members, staff, and business partners for their support and confidence in COG.

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