Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Aussie Broadband Limited Full Year 2023 results. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Phillip Britt, Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Aussie Broadband FY 2023 results call. As mentioned, my name is Phillip Britt, and I'm the Managing Director of Aussie Broadband. I'm looking forward to sharing with you our great progress we've made over the past year. To begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first Australians, and for their role as the original communicators, connectors, and carers of the lands and waters across Australia. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. We commit to working respectfully to honor ongoing culture and spiritual connections between the traditional owners of this country and building an inclusive Australia together. I'm joined today by Acting CFO, Gurjit Mann, who'll take you through the financial performance for FY 2023, as our CFO, Brian Maher, is overseas.
I've just returned from three months long service leave, and Gurjit has been acting CFO during this time, as Brian stepped up to be acting CEO while I was away. I used this time off to travel and to reflect on the past 20 years since we founded the company that became Aussie Broadband, to recharge my batteries and to follow some of my other passions. This included attending the World Scout Jamboree in Korea as a unit, a volunteer unit leader. I've been asked what's next for me, and I'm committed and devoted to seeing our company succeed, and I'm looking forward to leading us into FY 2024 and beyond. The results we're presenting today are outstanding and a huge credit to all the Team Aussie. Moving to page five of the deck.
In FY 2023, we committed to build scale, strength from our position as a provider of reliable and resilient network infrastructure. We did this by delivering on our commitment to provide quality communication services and exceptional customer experiences to residential and all other segments. We've grown across all segments, and I'm encouraged by our progress in business, enterprise and government, and wholesale. We leveraged our strategic investment in fiber infrastructure and cutting-edge technology to deliver higher margins and significant cost savings. Looking at slide six with our FY 2023 highlights, we delivered strong growth across all key metrics. Our revenue increased to AUD 788 million, marking a substantial growth of 23% on a pro forma basis. Our Gross margin increased by 2.1 percentage points, reaching 35%.
This highlights our focus on efficient and sustainable growth, and we achieved an EBITDA of AUD 89.6 million, increasing by 52% and coming into the top end of the guidance range that we provided. Importantly, our operational cash flow grew by AUD 116.7 million, reflecting a 147% increase from the prior year. The figures underscore our financial strength and show the effectiveness of our operational strategies in a dynamic market. As we continue to grow, our NBN market share has risen to 7.6%, up from 6.5% last year. This upward trajectory highlights our consistent efforts to capture opportunities in the competitive landscape. During FY 2023, the number of broadband connections increased by more than 18% to 690,000 as at June 30th.
This reflects the trust our customers place in us and the value our broadband products bring to the market. That growth rate has continued, and our connection count as at today is over 716,000. I'll now pass over to our acting CFO, Gurjit Mann, to talk about our financial performance and segment highlights for the year.
Thanks, Phil, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to present Aussie Broadband's full year 2023 results. This is a really good set of results, which show outstanding performance across all segments of our business. We have continued to build scale and leverage our network to improve margins and manage our operating expenses to support revenue growth, while also investing in systems to support scale going forward. I'll walk you through an overview of our results, followed by a deeper dive into key drivers of growth and segment performance. On slide eight, we compare Aussie Broadband's profit and loss for FY 2023 and FY 2022. Important to note here that the FY 2022 numbers presented are on a pro forma basis, which is an aggregated view of Aussie Broadband and Over the Wire results.
Starting with business, we achieved an impressive 22% growth to AUD 788 million in FY 2023. Gross margin increased to over 35%, outpacing revenue growth, largely due to network synergies and mix of products sold. EBITDA grew at a faster rate than gross margin, increasing substantially by 52% to AUD 89.6 million, on the back of operating costs, which remained broadly flat as a percentage of revenue at 24%. Net profits after tax and before amortization of acquisition-related intangibles and associated tax savings increased to AUD 37 million from AUD 11 million in the prior period. Looking at the cost drivers, employee expenses as a percentage of revenue remained broadly flat at just over 15%, albeit growing by 23% to AUD 124 million.
This included new roles to support growth and an inflationary increase of approximately 5% compared to prior, prior year. Marketing costs as a percentage of revenue reduced to 4% from 5% in the prior period. This was driven largely by our focus on targeted campaigns, increased channel efficiency, and enhancing conversion rates through our new branding value propositions. Administration costs as a percentage of revenue were just over 4%, increasing from 3.4% in the prior period. They increased reflective investment to support growth and investment in systems with an OpEx impact. Moving on to non-recurring items. This includes one-off integration costs associated with Over the Wire and gain on disposal of Vodafone New Zealand and Fonebox contact centers during the year. Lastly, the higher interest rate expense relates to debt facility use for the acquisition of Over the Wire and reflect the full year impact.
On slide nine, we set out revenue growth drivers on a pro forma basis by segment. Important to note here, in the second half of FY 2023, we finalized our segmentation process, where we redefined our mid-market business customers to E&G to reflect the way we service customers. Going forward, no further changes are anticipated. In the appendix, we set out on the same basis, the revenue and connection profile of these segments. We delivered strong growth across all four segments, with outstanding performance in residential and wholesale, contributing a combined AUD 135 million growth. We also grew in business and E&G, accelerating our growth trajectory, albeit from a smaller base. Revenue grew by approximately AUD 6 million in each of these segments. In line with our strategy, these two segments generate high margins and play a significant part in Aussie's ambition to deliver diversified revenue.
Moving on to Slide 10, we present EBITDA drivers that have contributed to the FY 2023 results. As noted, EBITDA increased by AUD 31 million to a record AUD 89.6 million, an outstanding increase of 52%. The key drivers for the EBITDA growth was the return generated by our network investments. We understand the value of owning and operating our own infrastructure assets. Our investment in previous periods delivered an EBITDA uplift of AUD 20 million. Strong growth across all segments increased EBITDA by a further AUD 14 million, while synergies delivered approximately AUD 5 million improvement. Offsetting this was the impact of inflation on our employee cost base, which reduced EBITDA by AUD 5 million, or just over 5% increase in these costs. On Slide 11, we set out the high-level cash flow and leverage metrics with the detailed balance sheet and cash flow set out in appendix.
Our cash conversion ratio in FY 2023 was an increase of 130%, an increase of 50 percentage points on prior periods. The high cash conversion was due to improved working capital, driven largely by the change in NBN billing cycle during the FY 2023 and timing of NBN payments. Pleasingly, our net leverage ratio based on banking covenants was just over 1x, and plenty of headroom and interest cover ratio at 9x. Moving on to Slide 12. Our CapEx for FY 2023 was AUD 49 million, lower than indicated at the half year, due to timing of some of the customer fiber builds. Growth CapEx is approximately AUD 14 million, reflecting investment in both short-term and long-term growth. Replacement CapEx remains moderate at AUD 10 million per annum, which we anticipate to continue going forward. Fiber backbone is now complete and added AUD 9 million in FY 2022.
In FY 2024, fiber investment will be driven by customer demand and customer migration of other carriers. We anticipate our FY 2024 total CapEx spend to be similar to FY 2023. We remain disciplined in our CapEx investment based on returns generated and strategic intent. Turning to segment performance. On Slide 14, we set out our residential segment, which continues to deliver sustained growth in a very competitive market. Residential revenue showed strong growth at 23% to AUD 512 million, driven by increased connections and a shift in mix, including fiber connect upgrades. Residential growth margin increased four percentage points to 31.2%, reflecting returns on our network investment, effective management of CVC, and a focus on more profitable services. We continue to invest in our market-leading customer service and experience, and as a result, customer churn remains stable at an average 1%.
Moving to the Business segment on Slide 15. We remain focused on growing this high-margin segment and leveraging our unique customer experience and reputation. Revenue increased 7.6% to just over AUD 89 million, driven by strong momentum in this segment. Gross margin was slightly up at 47%, and customer churn remained stable at an average of 0.6%. We are making good progress in the Business segment and will continue to focus on delivering profitable growth as we take advantage of our product portfolio and fiber investments. Going to Slide 16. In our Enterprise and Government segment, we are increasing market awareness about our E&G capabilities and continue to see upward trajectory in our pipeline for future growth. Total E&G revenue increased 8.5% to just over AUD 86 million, with recurring revenue increasing 9% to AUD 75 million.
Gross margin was marginally down to just over 51%. In the E&G space, we continue to invest for future growth, with strong sales momentum in FY 2023, with over 800 deals signed.... You can see the new names we signed during the year on the page. We continue to see growth in FY 2023 on a quarter-on-quarter basis of deals signed, and this momentum continues into FY 2024. As Phil mentioned at the half year, lead times for E&G pipeline conversion and revenue recognition are typically longer than other segments. This is due to the size of deals and complexities involved with their solutions. Noting this, at June 30th, E&G had AUD 10 million in annualize recurring and AUD 7 million in non-recurring revenue signed, which is yet to be billed, positioning E&G well for FY 2024.
Important to note that the phasing of this revenue recognition will vary into FY 2024 as services are commissioned, and therefore the annualized recurring run rate will not be entirely recognized in FY 2024. Moving on to Slide 17. Our wholesale segment is made up of white label, managed service providers, and voice. Our wholesale segment has seen strong performance, with white label and high margin voice growth. Revenue grew an impressive 62% to reach over AUD 100 million in FY 2023, reflecting strong white label performance, voice, and growth in managed service provider customer base. We now have 819 partners onboarded into the channel, setting us up for future growth. Gross margin was slightly up to 32.2%, driven by high-margin voice revenue, which continued to show strong growth in average monthly minutes in FY 2023.
In summary, this has been an outstanding year. Aussie Broadband delivered strong performance and cash flows in FY 2023 and is well positioned to deliver the FY 2024 outlook. Our approach to CapEx investment remains disciplined and is based on returns generated. I'll now pass back to Phil, who will talk to the operational highlights, outlook, and our FY 2024 guidance.
Thanks very much, Gurjit, and well done to you and all the team for the preparations that have gone into these end-of-year results. Looking at Slide 19, we've made significant progress on the operational front this year, too. First of all, an update on our acquisition of Over the Wire. The integration of the two companies has achieved an exit run rate synergy of AUD 6 million in FY 2023. These synergies have been driven by rapid network and voice SIMs, the streamlining of operations to remove duplication, and finding other efficiency gains. The team integration between Aussie Broadband and Over the Wire has now been completed, and solid progress has been made on the operational integration, too. The development of a systems integration roadmap is ongoing, and consolidation of the two networks is due to be completed in FY 2024, which will provide further benefits.
The remaining work is related to ongoing investment and the migration of customers onto the Aussie Fibre network, which remains a key focus. Moving to Slide 20. An achievement in FY 2023 that we're really proud of is our B Corp certification, which we welcomed after 18 months of hard work and data gathering. It's always been in our DNA to be good to people and the community, and this achievement takes all of that foundational work and helps us demonstrate that for-profit companies can be good for the planet while delivering for shareholders.
Part of securing this certification was the inclusion of a purpose statement into our constitution, which states: "The purpose of the company is to deliver returns to shareholders while having an overall positive impact on society and the environment." This change, together with the stakeholder clause, was supported by our shareholders in the 2022 AGM, and a vote in favor of almost 96%. We're the largest telco in Australia to be accredited as a B Corp and one of only 19 telcos in the world. With an overall score of 96.3%, we're one of the best performing B Corp businesses, with more than 250 employees in Australia, putting us in the top six. Underpinning our B Corp certification are our community impact activities, which seek to build and foster strong, sustainable communities across Australia.
Initiatives through our 1% pledge ensure that Aussie grows. As Aussie grows, so does our reach and the support that we provide. We have directly and positively impacted 110,000 people through our Helping Communities Connect program, direct charity sponsorships, and the Small Change, Big Change program. At Aussie, we recognize that we play a vital role in the shaping of a sustainable and equitable future. We've made strong progress towards reducing our carbon footprint during the year. We remain carbon neutral for scope one and two emissions, and decreased carbon emissions per full-time employee by 26% year on year. We've implemented initiatives to reduce our overall footprint, including purchasing carbon offset credits, transitioning to green power, and working in our supply chain to drive down carbon reduction.
Our work towards an equitable future has seen us drive a focused approach on inclusion and diversity, fostering a workplace culture that champions equality and lives up to our values. Further, our approach to governance has continued to develop. We recognize the importance of protecting confidential and personal information, and to that end, throughout FY 2023, Aussie has continued to strengthen our cybersecurity posture and resiliency. Onto Slide 22 and expanding our reach. Our Aussie Fibre initiative has been pivotal to our growth strategy. By the end of FY 2023, we'd installed over 1,400 kilometers of fiber and had invested a further AUD 19.1 million during the financial year.... We've now connected 354 buildings to the Aussie Fibre network. A further 1,700 buildings are considered near net and easily able to connect to the Aussie Fibre network, supporting sustainable future growth.
These investments have greatly expanded our capacity, network resiliency, and interconnectivity, providing a solid foundation for future growth opportunities. Our Tier 1 voice network is another cornerstone of our capabilities. With an average of 144 million voice minutes per month, there's been a strong 28% increase over the last 12 months. We are now one of six Tier 1 voice providers through our NetSIP brand, and we are the third largest host of 13 numbers in Australia. Owning and operating this infrastructure allows us to have greater control over the reliability, quality, and scalability of our voice services. Looking next at cloud services, we've taken big steps to improve our presence in the cloud domain. A major government client has been successfully onboarded onto our modernized cloud architecture, and we've engineered a private cloud tailored towards our enterprise and government customers.
We've added cloud infrastructure in the data centers in Melbourne and Sydney to enhance our data protection services, which were Brisbane-centric. We've budgeted an additional investment in FY 2024 to further expand our cloud capabilities and onboard more customers into the platform. Onto Slide 23, and we've maintained our position as the Roy Morgan most trusted telco, and secured 16 awards acknowledging the team's excellence in customer service, technology, and innovation. These accolades are underscored by our team's unwavering commitment to our customers, propelling us to consistently exceed customer expectations and drive innovation across our product offerings. None of this would be possible without a highly engaged team. Four out of every five team members say Aussie is a great place to work.
Just before we jump into the FY 2024 outlook and guidance, I want to share with you some changes to the executive leadership team, which adds further technology and innovation depth, together with systems and project management expertise. In May, Anna Clive commenced as Chief Information Officer, and have brought significant experience to the role, having previously been a senior executive at two companies, including Thryv. Previously, Anna spent nearly 10 years at Deloitte as a leader in its strategy and operations management consulting practice. In July, Brad Parker joined Aussie Broadband as the new Chief Infrastructure Engineering Officer. Brad joins Aussie Broadband with a wealth of experience and expertise, following 20 years as an infrastructure executive in Silicon Valley. He previously held positions at Google, Cisco Systems, Salesforce, and Yahoo.
As CIEO, Brad will lead the team that delivers our critical technology infrastructure, supporting Aussie's exceptional customer experience, technology excellence, and ongoing commitment to delivering outstanding solutions for our rapidly growing user base. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, John Reisinger, who has led the infrastructure team to date, will be transitioning to a new role focused on innovation. John and I have worked together for over 20 years, and we're looking forward to him continuing to lead the technology innovation within the business. After seven years in various roles at Aussie Broadband, Matthew Kusi-Appauh, or more affectionately known to us internally as Kusi, will step down as Chief Operating Officer at the end of 2023. Planned for over 18 months, this will allow him to pursue his desire to travel extensively.
Anna has assumed many of Kusi's key responsibilities, as has Jonathan Prosser, who's been with the company for over 12 months now, and his remaining duties are being transitioned. While Kusi still has another four months to go, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for his outstanding commitment and contributions to the company over the past seven years. As we continue our journey into FY 2024, we're excited to build out our momentum to further drive our growth in the non-residential segments. We're committed to deepening our presence in the business, enterprise, and government segments. This will be achieved through a focus on solution selling and providing tailored offerings that meet the unique needs of these segments.
By leveraging the trust our customers have in the Aussie Broadband brand, we're also poised to secure wins in the enterprise segment as we are going to increase the marketing spend in this area as well. In the wholesale segment, voice will continue to be a core pillar as we capture further market share. In line with our commitment to operational excellence, we'll continue to make targeted investments in fiber infrastructure and technology to deliver efficiencies and improve profitability. While we concentrate on expanding our presence in key segments, we're equally dedicated to nurturing our growth in the residential segment. We'll achieve this by investing in our network, ensuring that our services continue to attract new customers. As we look forward into the FY 2023 year, there are some upside and downside risks, which we called out on Page 26 of the presentation.
On the upside, we continue momentum across all market segments, manage costs through efficiency initiatives, further improve operating leverage, and increase deal volumes in the enterprise and government space. We'll be wary of possible continued delays in the NBN SAU implementation, the impacts of the new NBN wholesale pricing regime, continued inflationary pressure on costs and staffing, and cost of living pressures for customers. All of these things can impact churn and product mix, although I must say we've not experienced this to date. Our FY 2023 growth trajectory has continued into FY 2024. As already mentioned, we are now at 715,000 connections, up from 691,000 in June. We're also adding new customers through deals we're signing in the enterprise and government space, and this pipeline continues to grow steadily.
Therefore, based on the current market assessment, operating plan, pipeline, and trading data, we anticipate an EBITDA result in the range of AUD 100 million-AUD 110 million for FY 2024. This is an improvement of 12%-23% on FY 2023's EBITDA result. This projection really reflects our confidence in our strategies, marketing position, and overall efficiency. In addition to EBITDA guidance, we've also provided CapEx guidance of AUD 47 million-AUD 52 million, and this range is primarily dependent on customer demand for Aussie Fibre. We're focused on the organic expansion and are dedicated to leveraging our core competencies and owning infrastructure to deliver superior services and capturing opportunities in the market. Should the opportunities arise, we'll consider acquisitions that align with our strategic objectives. They will be thoroughly investigated to ensure they align with our values, goals, and long-term vision.
Our financial outlook for FY 2024 underscores our unwavering dedication to growth and operational excellence. While challenges and uncertainties persist, we're confident in our ability to navigate the evolving landscape and continue our journey towards success. Thank you for your attention and patience as we've worked through the presentation. We're now happy to address any questions that you may have regarding our results.
If you wish to ask a question, please press Star, then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press Star and two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question comes from Jonathan Higgins with Unified Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Hi, Phil. Hi, Gurj. Appreciate the time today and great set of results. Very pleasing to see it coming through, particularly the leverage. Just firstly, just a couple of questions just on just the E&G segment, and just would need to understand just sort of the nature of the work in that segment, firstly, just from a qualitative point of view, and then you called out the sales momentum increasing. Can you, can you define just that AUD 10 million? Is that AUD 10 million of revenue, not PTV, and, and, and give us an idea of when that would come on, please. Thank you.
Yeah, that's AUD 10 million. Thanks, John, for your questions, and, yeah, great to have you on the call again. Yeah, the AUD 10 million is annualized revenue, not total contract value. As Gurj called out, it will come on progressively through FY 2024, and naturally, we'll continue to sign more deals as we progress through FY 2024 as well. So we don't see it as being the end game for what's going to get at it. It's just really calling out that the time to provision cycles in enterprise are much longer than, obviously, ready, and the time to win. So it's all about pipeline and making sure that pipeline is well stacked, but we have a great signed book already, basically ready to go as we head into FY 2024.
Awesome. And, we'll get Unified Capital Partners up there in that presentation next time, Phil. Appreciate the service from a IT point of view. Just another one for me, just on just the CapEx and the cash flows. I mean, the cash flows are a standout. This one's probably more for you, Gurj. Just talking towards if you could talk towards just the benefit from the NBN, and then secondly, on the CapEx side of things, I think CapEx is coming lower than what we were originally expecting from the, from the half year results. Has that just sort of moved from one half to the other based on customer demand, please? Thank you.
Sorry, sorry, John. I think I dropped out there for a second. On the cash flow side of things, as we said, due to the NBN billing cycle change, there's approximately AUD 30 million upside that has come through, and that's what you see on the cash conversion side of things. Our typical cash conversion cycle is around 90% and so 90%-95% side of things. On the CapEx point, it's really just been a different approach to that, and part of that is led by customer demand. So therefore, some of that CapEx is moving into FY 2024, and that's really the key driver of the lower CapEx spend in FY 2023.
Understand. Appreciate that context. Last one for me, and then I'll join the queue. Just on the SAU, Phil, I mean, it's been sort of ongoing for a long period of time. We'd obviously all like it. I think the last thing I read from the NBN said that they'd be submitting their plan by mid to late August, which we're sort of in that zone at the moment. So usually, it's something that should be coming. Can you just sort of give sort of Aussie's view on the SAU, you know, and just essentially how you think it all plays out? We've obviously been through a few iterations, particularly on the 50 Meg and sort of various pricing. Thank you.
Yeah. So the NBN has submitted its latest, latest version of it. Prior to seeing it, they put out many consultations providers, where they provided a number of options. Aussie's option, preferred option, was option 2, which is the option that has actually gone up to the ACCC. There's been some commentary from the ACCC in the last sort of 48 hours, that they're quite warm to the proposal and feel that it's addressed a lot of the issues that were there. And so we're growing in confidence now that hopefully this will be approved and implemented by the first of December.
All right, excellent. Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate the time and great result.
All right. Thanks, John.
The next question comes from John Campbell with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
... Hey, Phil, and guys, thanks for the preso. Just further on the SAU, Phil, so your expectation is implemented by December 1st. And so is there, is there sort of an, a, a level of conservatism as to what the financial impact will be on your FY 2024 guide or built into your FY 2024 guidance around the, the new SAU?
Look, our modeling is based on it coming in on the first of December, and it's based on where we believe Aussie's reaction will be to that. Obviously, we need to also consider the rest of the market's reaction, and how things move with that as well. So there's two elements that play into the guidance. One is timing. Does it happen on first of December? We think confidence is getting higher with that. The second part is we've estimated what we believe the market's reaction will be to that and and built that into our guidance as well.
The market might react differently to that, in which case we'll look at that at the time, where we're sort of not providing any forward-looking stuff on what our plans and that might look like because we don't want to signal competitors what our reaction will be. But in terms of the timeline part, we're growing in confidence with that.
Okay, thanks, Phil. And just in terms of the business segment, seven percent revenue growth for the full year is obviously the weaker part of the overall segmental results. And, you know, sort of SMEs, I guess, we would—our view would be that that's an area that you should have increasing success in, you know, now that you've got effectively a full suite of capabilities and approaching the market with one voice. So can you just talk a little about, a bit about that sort of relatively low revenue growth so far, and how you... You know, what your sort of expectations for, particularly for SME, into 2024?
Yeah, look, business is an interesting mix. So business we've definitely put into the smaller end of the range. Part of that reclassification we did during the year was move our, what we call mid-market sort of part, which was like the top end of the business, if you like, actually flipped that over the fence into the E&G because we felt they were better managed there. Where we've been getting what we sort of find is some businesses will sign up actually on resi type services and get classified that way, and others sign up as business. So part of what we're doing, we run business primarily through call centers. We run E&G through business development managers and so on. We're obviously trying to grow all of the segments through over the next 12 months.
But I would say the bulk of our energy is going into that, that E&G space, because there's, there's greater margin opportunities there, and we're also seeing greater interest in, in the multi-site business space. So, businesses that have 10, 20, 100 plus sites sort of things. And so we rely on business teams to get more of our generalized marketing and focus, like what resi does, whereas E&G has a completely different approach to, to how we tackle it. So it's, it's definitely a focus. Yes, it's one of the lower, growth things, but, 7% growth is still pretty good by, a lot of businesses' standards, so.
Just on E&G, are you getting invited to tender on any, say, large opportunities or ASX hundred type enterprise levels? Is that where you're—I mean, I've seen most of the names that you've listed in terms of wins are, you know, obviously good-sized corporations, but any particularly large ones?
Look, there's definitely some probably ASX top 20 customers that we're tendering for at the moment. There would be definitely some that fall into the 100 category as well. There's no real limitations to what businesses we go after in that space. They, they naturally have much longer deal cycles. There's one that I can think of, which would be ASX top 10 at the moment, which has been ongoing for about seven months now. Hopefully, might close out before the end of the year, but we're definitely hitting that, that top end of town as well as that mid-tier kind of space, like some of the logos you see on that page.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. Look, last question, Phil. Obviously, the resi segment, margins were, you know, solid, stable, up a bit and sort of belies the concern out there around discounting, in terms of resi NBN. So can you just comment on how you see the market now, you know, with all those various new players, how the stability around pricing and margin?
Yeah, look, boss, there's a lot of price pressure going on at the top end of the market, sort of thing. We've been able to hold our pricing and margins pretty well. As we sort of move into the new SAU world, we envisage that some of those top-end spending tiers will reduce in price but will actually increase in margin, basically because of some of the pricing change benefits that come through.
Mm.
So it's, there's a lot of moving parts in it. I think telco in general, just with what's going on in the overall market, will see a lot of change over the next 12 months. But we're pretty good at weathering change. We're pretty good at weathering sort of tough competitive environments, so I think we're in a great position to, to do that continuing forward.
Okay, thanks, Phil, and congratulations on a solid result.
Yes, thank you, John.
Next question comes from Ross Harris with Wilsons Advisory. Please go ahead.
Great, thanks, and thanks for taking my questions. Just to... If I could revisit the competition topic. You did notice or notice increasing competition, especially in the high speed tiers. You know, where is that pressure coming from? Are they kind of the, the expected parties? And maybe any comment on, I guess, how much more intense it is or any, you know, rate of change in that competition level? Thanks.
Yeah, look, I'd say the usual suspects, and I think it's basically people starting to try and reposition their customer bases ahead of the SAU. There's a lot of benefits to having your base in high-speed tiers, 100 mega above, when the SAU comes in, obviously has the highest SKU and customers in that sort of space. So we don't need to pre-move, I guess, into that space, but others are starting to do that. So that's kind of where we're seeing that. We counteract that from time to time with different offers and so on. But yeah, we're not seeing any massive change or concern there at the moment.
But that top end of the market will change price-wise, quite considerably once the new SAU comes in, and that's sort of part of the design in that those high-speed tier prices at the wholesale level are actually reducing under the new SAU.
Thanks. Just a second question around the synergies. The headline numbers are around AUD 6 million, but quite often in certain companies or companies tend to take that, those synergy savings and redirect into new spending. And could you just share any color you might have on, I guess, how that AUD 6 million, is it gonna be a gross number, net number, or if it is redirected, where it might be heading to?
Yeah, happy to touch on that. So, in terms of the synergies that I mentioned, a large part of them relate to network-related synergies, particularly from the voice network side of things and the migration of data services to Aussie's, Aussie network. There are a portion of that which related to redundancies or restructuring of our teams, those roles. Those roles haven't been built again, so therefore they haven't been deployed to other parts of the business. They are largely on a net basis. So what we've presented is what we realized in FY 2023. The AUD 6 million relates to run rate, so this largely reflects the phasing during the year.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Next question comes from Ian Munro with Ord Minnet. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Phil. Welcome back, and thanks for the call this morning.
Thank you. Good to be back.
Yeah. Yeah, no, very good. And hi, Gurj. So just my question relates to the CapEx, please. So the first half globe CapEx looks to be quite an immediate payoff in the second half for GP within the enterprise and government segment. So just, I guess, on a look-forward basis, is there any reason to believe that that wouldn't be the case going ahead?
Well, I think a big part of that CapEx benefit came through in essentially defraying our other backhaul costs and so on, that we used to pay to other carriers, and so that was the big benefit of it. The CapEx, as we go forward into 2024 and do more fiber migration work, some of that benefit starts to flow almost immediately as we switch customers across. But we also have some shutdown costs and so on with previous links and that with other carriers. So, it probably won't be quite as pronounced as what it was in FY 2023. But we basically, our policy is we don't do any CapEx work or build new links unless we're gonna get a fairly rapid payback from it. And when I say fairly rapid, within sort of 18 months to two years.
That's sort of our investment ethos for fiber.
Just with respect to the white label agreement with Origin, yeah, I mean, they're, they're talking about 100,000 customers at this point, and I think they've reaffirmed the target of 600,000 within four years. Just in terms of Aussie's GP and RPs per month, have you kind of hit an operating cadence with that agreement now, where the return profile is starting to dial up for you and perhaps any gives and takes in that over the next six months to expect? Thanks, Phil.
Yeah, look, things continue to be really good with Origin. We have a great relationship there. They're starting to get to some of the volumes now where there's some price improvement clauses and things like that, that start to kick in. So, that will work, but obviously that is also offset by some of their volumes. So I can't go into the specifics of the arrangements with Origin. That's obviously quite commercially sensitive, but, yep, their volumes are growing well. They did quite a lot of campaigns into the end of the financial year, which helped boost their numbers. And we're continuing to see them grow, and then we're happy with the margins there. Obviously, that wholesale space, the margins are hugely improved by the voice, wholesale voice that goes into that segment as well.
So it's not just, but the margin we're getting from White Label and so on, there is sort of a blend of margin between White Label and voice, and that's, that's a really important call-out when people are doing their modeling.
Very good. Thanks, Phil. Appreciate it.
All right. Thanks, Ian.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Britt for closing remarks.
No worries. Well, thanks very much, everyone. As we said, it's an awesome set of results. We're very happy with it, and we hope you are too. We continue to be focused as we head into FY 2024, and we think we're really well set up to really impact that business and E&G space, as well as continue the core businesses. So, as I said, a big thank you to all the team who delivered these results. They're awesome, and look forward to speaking to you next time we get the opportunity. Thank you.
That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all now disconnect.