Centrepoint Alliance (ASX: CAF) is a financial services firm. The core business is providing licensing services for financial advisers. Centrepoint Alliance also runs its own network of salaried advisers. The new investment platform – IconiQ, launched in 2024, is attempting to muscle its way into the crowded investment platform space. Alongside this, new managed accounts are being rolled out after years of declining interest in the Ventura Managed accounts.
I (Chris Coe) wrote an introduction to the company back in February 2025 here, so this update will look at recent developments and track how management are progressing with their strategy of,
- Growing the core business of licencee advisers,
- Increasing higher-margin salaried advisers and,
- Growing the more scalable and also higher margin investment platform and managed accounts.
Centrepoint Alliance (ASX: CAF) Shows Growth in licenced Advisers
Centrepoint now has the second most advisers under licence in Australia, behind Entireti. As of 31 December 2025, Centrepoint had 587 licenced advisers, up 14 from 1 July 2025. As of 20 February 2026, another 15 advisers came under the Centrepoint licence, with 16 more advisers in the process of signing up and being on-boarded.
If Centrepoint can continue to grow licenced advisers organically, and management can effectively market the new IconiQ platform, Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) and Lending as a Service (LaaS) then the company could generate solid growth. Of course, if either revenue per adviser or adviser numbers fall, then it will be hard to generate much growth at all.
Centrepoint Alliance Is Growing Salaried Adviser Numbers
In June 2026 Centrepoint Alliance acquired two small wealth management firms in Queensland, adding salaried advisers. This was a small acquisition with three advisers, minimising integration risk. Centrepoint already has a working relationship with the acquired firms, so the integration should be relatively straightforward.
Centrepoint paid $3 million for $1.5 million in revenue, funded from a new $10 million bank facility, which management have flagged could be used for future acquisitions. The acquisition is expected to add $0.65 million in EBIT annually.
In June 2025, Centrepoint acquired the Brighter Super annual review trail book at a contract value of $977,400, paying $1,221,750, at a multiple of 1.25 times. This was also a low-key acquisition.
I think there will be lots of smaller financial advice firms with principals around retirement age wanting to exit the space, which could provide ample targets for Centrepoint; and some of these could be current licenced advisers whom Centrepoint would know well.
Over 1H FY2026, salaried advice revenue was up $1 million on the prior corresponding period (pcp), driven mainly by the Brighter Super acquisition ($0.6 million), and fee increases ($0.3 million).
CEO John Shuttleworth has flagged AI as a structural tailwind that will reduce back-office operations, which in financial advice are very time-consuming and costly due to compliance requirements. I think AI will help the salaried advisers the most. The SMAs are already automated in most facets, which is why advisers use them. I agree that AI will help rather than disrupt financial advice. I don’t think humans are ready to fully trust AI to manage their life savings. People will still want human connection, and someone held accountable, when things go wrong.
IconiQ Investment Platform & Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs)
New investment platform IconiQ is being used by 55 early-adopting advisers as of 19 February 2026, with $79 million in Funds Under Administration (FUA). In the 1st Half FY2026 webinar, CEO John Shuttleworth confirmed the $1 billion of transitions in the ‘pipeline’ into the SMAs is actual commitments from firms and ‘the money will transition.’
The Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) are growing with the new offerings; First Choice Managed Accounts (FCMA) & IQ Portfolios from Centrepoint. As of 31 December 2025, there was $501 million in Funds Under Management (FUM), up 51% on 31 December 2024.
The chart below shows total funds under management for the platform and SMAs. VMAPS are the original SMAs run by Ventura, which have seen a decline in FUM since 2021. The FCMA and iQ Portfolios are the new offerings (launched in 2024) that are growing. The new SMA offerings are also available on six investment platforms including, BT Panorama, Hub24, and Macquarie.
Managed accounts are a growing sector among advisers, due to time and administration saved. Investment platforms with managed accounts take care of the corporate actions, rebalancing, compliance, reporting etc.
Divestment of Non-Core Lending Aggregation Business
Since my last update, Centrepoint has divested the non-core lending aggregation business. Management kept the lending as a service component, effectively outsourcing the aggregation to Astute, while keeping the back book of revenue, and still being able to provide the lending service to advisors. Management wants to focus on the core segments whilst still being able to offer the lending service to salaried advisers. The transaction is expected to be positive for earnings, with Centrepoint exchanging aggregation revenue for Astute financial advice margin, delivering ~$0.4 million per annum EBITDA from FY27, including reduced labour costs.
Does the Centrepoint Alliance share price offer value?
The Centrepoint Alliance dividend has been consistent over the last four years, and the current fully franked dividend yield of 7.9% grosses up to 11.3%. The dividend is underpinned by the core business of licenced advisers growing steadily and organically.
Centrepoint Alliance’s net profit after tax has been lumpy over the last couple of years due to a tax asset in FY24 and tax payment in FY25, which meant the dividend payout ratio was 116% of NPAT, so to give a smoother context the chart below shows normalised Free Cash Flow (FCF) vs the dividend payment in recent years. FCF excludes acquisition costs. Over recent years, the dividend payout ratio has been steady at around 60% of FCF.
With EBITDA guidance for FY26 expected to be 11% higher than FY25 and the Cairns Wealth and Pinnacle Wealth acquisitions funded from the NAB loan, investors could reasonably expect the 2026 final dividend to be in line with the last couple of years.
Source: Centrepoint Alliance Annual Reports, Author’s Calculations.
Directors Linda Fox and Martin Pretty purchased $37,000 and $27,750 worth of shares respectively on-market in early June.
While financial businesses are not all the same, the P/E ratio in the mid-teens is roughly in line with other ASX small cap financial services firms with salaried advisers and platforms. The company expects FY26 Normalised EBITDA to be up slightly on FY25 with a range of $11.75 to $12.25 million (FY25 Normalised EBITDA was $10.6 million).
While this is a slow-growth business, it is progressing nonetheless.
Since my last update, licencee advisers have grown, salaried advisers have grown, and the new SMAs are attracting funds. It is early days for the platform, and I am mindful of the risk that it won’t gain traction as fast as expected. Platform adoption is a bigger step for an adviser than putting client funds in a new SMA on an existing platform.
I (Chris Coe) continue to hold CAF shares for the dividend while waiting patiently for share price appreciation from potential platform penetration and growth in the higher-margin salaried advisers, platform and SMAs. The price is down from highs in October 2025, but the long-term strategy is on track.
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Disclosure: The author of this article, Chris Coe owns shares in CAF. The editor of this article Claude Walker does not own shares in CAF. Neither the author nor the editor will trade C79 shares for at least 48 hours following the publication of this article. This article is not intended to form the basis of an investment decision and is not a recommendation. Any statements that are advice under the law are general advice only. The author has not considered your investment objectives or personal situation. Any advice is authorised by Claude Walker (AR 1297632), Authorised Representative of Ethical Investment Advisers Pty Ltd (ABN 26108175819) (AFSL 276544).
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