MA Financial Group (MAF) – Growth engine

MA Financial Group provides various financial services in Australia and operates through asset management, lending and technology, corporate advisory and equities divisions. MA Financial Group Limited was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

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Ord Minnett has resumed coverage of MA Financial with a Buy recommendation and a target price of $10.05. Its asset management business is seeing continuing momentum in net flows and the launch of new investment vehicles in FY25 leads us to expect strong growth in assets under management (AUM) in the near term. Further, the residential lending business is hitting its straps and will deliver a more material profit contribution in FY26. We see an attractive value proposition in MA Financial, with the stock trading on a one-year forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 14.7x, along with a forecast EPS compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% over the FY25–28 horizon.

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The asset management business is the largest contributor to group earnings, making up almost 2/3 of operating earnings (EBITDA) in FY25. Private-credit funds comprise 46% of AUM and have been the fastest growing segment in recent years. There is good momentum in net flows and we are expecting total AUM to grow by 12% in FY26 and a further 10% in FY27. There has been much attention lately on private credit funds overseas around exposure to AI disruption, but we draw a distinction with MA Financial’s private-credit funds given the software sector represents only 2.9% of MA Financial’s exposure, versus 13–26% for some of the large US-based funds.

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The residential lending business reported its first full year of positive EBITDA in FY25, with its loan book more than doubling. We see strong profit growth in the near-term as the loan book continues to expand off a small base.

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