PEXA has published its financial results for the year ending June 2022, with the Australia-based digital property settlements platform posted a 27% growth in revenue.
The results also showed a growth in transfer market penetration, which increased to 85%, and this combined to cause a 22% increase in PEXA Exchange volumes to 4.05 million.
Revenue and earnings for the financial year
Since its launch, PEXA has assisted in more than 12 million property transactions worth more than $2.4 trillion and the Exchange supports over 9,700 practitioner firms, over 160 financial institutions, and more than 1.1 million consumers each year.
PEXA increased revenue to $279.8 million thanks to underlying business drivers. Gross margin improved slightly from 875% to 88%, and pro forma group EBITDA increased 28% to $130.6 million.
Entry into UK market
PEXA International’s UK market entry has been followed PEXA Pay becoming the seventh net settlement payment scheme to clear through the Bank of England, and a UK board has also been set up within the company.
Balance sheet overview
At the end of the financial year PEXA were left with $75.4 million with 1.47x net debt to PEXA Exchange EBITDA. PEXA Insights completed the following strategic investments:
- acquiring a 38% stake in property information leader, Landchecker
- acquiring up to 25% of AI software leader Elula, improving PEXA’s offering to financial institutions
- acquiring a 70% stake in Slate Analytics, a progressive property analytics and technology solution co-developed by the UNSW Sydney and FrontierSI
- acquiring Australian demographics company .id –PEXA Insights’ first 100% acquisition
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria
PEXA achieved a 5-star rating in The Global ESG Benchmark for Real Assets (GRESB) for the 2022 financial year and ranked second in its global peer group with a score of 92/100.
The company also partnered with Homes for Homes, a not-for-profit organisation which creates sustainable long-term housing, in the companies attempts to tackle homelessness.
The company has also outlined its Environmental Statement for 2022, outlining a commitment to achieve carbon net zero by 2025.
Expectations for the next financial year
Due to growing interest rates, the company expect the property market to slow down. However, with high household savings rates, longer-term fixed rate mortgage rates falling and low levels of unemployment the initial outlook for the 2023 financial year the company claim look positive with the first quarter showing volumes tracking to be greater than 900,000.
Glenn King, CEO and Group Managing Director of the PEXA Group, commented:
“The Company’s focused growth strategy and commitment to our values, our people and our community underpinned PEXA’s performance in FY22, with key financial metrics outperforming Prospectus forecasts and upgraded FY22 guidance released with the H1 FY22 result. This result reflected the dedication and commitment of our highly engaged people (80% engagement score, which is top quartile of the ‘New Tech’ benchmark), delivering strong customer engagement as seen in our Net Promoter Score (NPS)of 74, and high brand trust rating of 8.9 out of 10.
Our team continues to deliver for the practitioners, financial institutions and homebuyers and sellers who have used the PEXA Exchange over the past 12 months in Australia, driving strong transaction volume growth on our Exchange platform that maintained 99.9% availability across FY22. We continue to execute on our strategy to build on PEXA’s position as the operator of Australia’s leading digital property settlements platform. With further enhancements made, and a new jurisdiction entered, were cognise the key and unique custodial role we play in managing this critical infrastructure that supports the safe and secure settlement of the majority of land transactions in Australia.
In addition to growing the PEXA Exchange in Australia, we have made meaningful progress on two primary growth initiatives. PEXA International’s market entry in the UK is on track, with PEXA Pay being approved as the seventh net settlement payment scheme to clear through the Bank of England, technology development advancing and customer sign-ups commencing. We have signed up the first lenders onto our platform for mortgage refinances, with ‘go live’ to occur with the first lender next month, and we continue to explore and identify potential opportunities to further progress our development.
As PEXA continues to build its reputation as a trusted source of robust, real-time property data, we continue to identify opportunities to extend our offering and meet market needs. Over the past 12 months, PEXA Insights launched two products, and invested in two relevant businesses, Landchecker and Elula. This continued in the new financial year, with an investment in Slate Analytics and the acquisition of .id. Likewise, PX Ventures is continuing to pursue opportunities across the property ecosystem.”
