Ellie, Ellie, you're on mute.
Apologies. I'll start again. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of ACL, I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. Today, Melinda and I are joining you from Sydney on the lands of the Wangal and Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation. Matt and Lana are joining us from the lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and the places from which our participants join us on their webinar and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. Welcome to the Investor Webinar for Australian Clinical Labs half-year financial results. My name's Eleanor Padman. I'm the Company Secretary at ACL.
I'm joined today on this webinar by our Group CEO and Executive Director, Melinda McGrath, our CFO, Matt Cordingley, our Deputy CFO, Lana Hudson, and our National Marketing Director, Joe Geran. Today's webinar will run for approximately an hour and will be recorded. A copy of the recording will be made available on ACL's website after the event. By choosing to attend, you're providing your consent to participating in the recording. If you'd like more information, a copy of our privacy policy can be found on our website. During the webinar, you'll hear presentations from Melinda and from Matt, and then we'll have time for Q&A. To ask a question, you may raise your hand.
If you'd like to ask your question live during the webinar, or if you'd prefer to submit a written question, which I can then read out, you can type it into the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen. Once we move to Q&A, we'll focus on the more frequently asked questions, and we'll try to get through as many as possible. I would now like to hand over to our Group CEO, Melinda McGrath.
Thank you, Ellie, and thanks to all for attending our first half financial year 2025 results presentation. I'd like to welcome Matthew Cordingley to the team as CFO and to sincerely thank Lana Hudson, our Deputy CFO, for stepping up in the past year. On to slide three, please, Joe. Against a backdrop of challenges with medical practitioner availability in Australian healthcare sectors in financial year 2024, 2025 has seen an improvement in volumes half on half. Our teams have consistently demonstrated excellent operational management despite the changing environment, and we have very positive engagement from our medical practitioners to our clinical value-added programs, which is showing in the business performance and in service to our patients. We've enhanced our market share in target markets and have continued to take a leading position in genetic molecular testing services, including the new carrier screening test.
However, in Australia, we are still seeing a large gap in trend volumes, which for ACL is in the order of AUD 60 million revenue gap between pre-COVID volumes and what we would expect current to be, and in the meantime, we've absorbed inflationary cost increases. With this background, in the first half of financial year 2025, Australian Clinical Labs achieved revenue of AUD 369 million and an underlying EBIT of AUD 27 million in line with company expectations. The underlying EBIT of AUD 95 million was up 9% on the first half of financial year 2024. The underlying EBIT of AUD 27 million grew by 17% as a result of revenue growth, including new tests added to the MBS and operational efficiency initiatives. The underlying EBIT margin was 7.4% for half one.
The underlying NPAT was AUD 12 million, and we continue to demonstrate efficient cash management with free cash flow up and an operating cash flow conversion from underlying EBIT of 98%. In half one financial year 2025, MBS outlays for ACL grew 9.7%. We have a strong balance sheet, noting we bought back AUD 4.4 million worth of shares as part of our on-market share buyback program, and today we declared an interim fully franked dividend of AUD 3.50 per share, which represents 59% of underlying NPAT in line with the Board payout ratio. Next slide, please, Joe. On to slide four. We've continued our operational efficiency program with improvements in key areas of cost efficiency and effectiveness, noting the environment I mentioned earlier. Labor efficiency improved by 12% year on year based on a proactive approach to management. We absorbed AUD 6 million of added labor cost in half one due to rate increases.
The Lab of the Future feasibility is in its second phase of operation, and I'll talk a little bit about this later. Our shared services operation has also expanded to include professional services. Growth initiatives progressed over the last year, which I'll go into further later in the presentation, include machine learning for test validation implemented in hematology and serology. Genetic melanoma tests for tissue and plasma, that is, the liquid biopsy, have both been accredited by the regulator, and pilots have started via our SunDoctors business. We've conducted successful pilots demonstrating the power of AI in pre-analytical operations with pilot programs in billing, customer service, and process operation. We've made significant improvement in the process and digitization of upfront billing, which has had a positive impact on the total revenue of private billing.
There are a range of additional private billing initiatives to roll out over the coming months, including potentially a range of Medicare items, and I note that some of the new tests are changing the relativity between fee, consumable cost, and volume versus previous years. Slide five, please, Joe. We're in our fourth year of execution of our ESG strategy, and it continues to deliver strong performance across all areas of our ESG mission. I'll just highlight a few of our achievements. We have a full report on our website with more detail. We continue to progress in addressing activities that affect the environment. Electricity is by far our highest impact area, and that's driven by our laboratories, and we have a very focused effort there. Cars also impact, but at a much lower rate, and we have a range of initiatives to lower car emissions.
This slide shows our continued progress in these areas. Our customer NPS is positive 79. We actively use an automated SMS system, post-patient visit, to follow up on any issues and to reward and recognize the performance of our staff. Post-Board changes, we now have a Board comprised of four female and three male directors, and we continue to prepare for and are on track for sustainability reporting in 2026. Slide six, please, Joe. This slide for information outlines the CVs at a high level of some of our new team. We welcome our new directors, Sarah Butler and Grant Jeffrey as directors, and as I mentioned, Matt Cordingley as CFO. I also want to point out that Ian McPhan starts with us soon, a very experienced pathology executive, most recently of Healius Pathology, who will add both breadth and depth to the team.
Next slide, please, Joe, and over to Matt.
Thanks, Melinda, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be here at ACL and presenting the financial results to our investors. I'm looking forward to meeting with many of you over the coming days and weeks, but turning to our financial results now on page eight of the presentation, ACL achieved total revenue for the half of AUD 369.2 million, up by 9.5% on our first half FY24. We also generated an underlying EBIT of just over AUD 27 million, up by nearly AUD 4 million on the first half FY24. Our underlying EBIT margin was 7.4%, and as you review the results, you'll also see that there is immaterial difference between our underlying and statutory profit for the half.
Following on from the latter part of FY24 in half one, we can continue to see improvement in GP volumes and GP average fees across more than 1,300 of our ACC network, also by increased volumes in respiratory testing and in carrier screening testing. In terms of operating costs, labor costs were well managed at 43.6% of our revenue, consistent with full year FY24. And this is despite the cost and inflationary pressures that were evident, including the 3.75% increase in wages linked to modern awards and the compulsory superannuation increase of 0.5%. Rent expense pre the AASB 16 adjustment was up approximately 10% compared to first half 2024 due to an additional net 47 new ACCs and some inflationary pressures. Rent expense as a percentage of revenue was 20.1%, and that was in line with the prior corresponding period.
Consumables were 17.8% of revenue, up from 17.2% in the first half last year. This was due to higher volumes in respiratory and carrier screening tests. Those tests have a higher consumable cost. Management has continued to apply a discipline cost control focus across all aspects of the business, and this has resulted in an underlying EBIT of AUD 27.3 million, translating to an EBIT margin of 7.4%, which is in line with our expectations, and I'd remind investors of the seasonal skew in ACL's earnings between the first and second half. We'll move to slide nine. Thanks, Joe. We've continued our focus on strong cash management during the first half, generating AUD 27 million of free cash flow at a pre-AASB 16 EBIT cash conversion rate of 105%. Non-cash items of AUD 2 million predominantly relate to share-based payments. Working capital throughout the half was well managed.
Capital expenditure of AUD 4 million was approximately 1% of revenue. ACL's annual CapEx spend, excluding major growth and acquisitions, has remained consistent in recent years, demonstrating a sustainable level of investment. And aside from major projects and acquisitions for FY25, we would expect our CapEx to be in the order of AUD 8-AUD 10 million. During the half, we kept our borrowings flat while paying AUD 18 million in dividends and purchasing 1.3 million shares for AUD 4.4 million as part of the on-market share buyback program. Next slide. Thanks, Joe. ACL obviously has a strong balance sheet. It's conservatively leveraged with net debt excluding lease liabilities of AUD 34 million, and our ratios are well within our banking covenants. During the first half, we refinanced our banking facilities, extending the term to the 31st of July 2027.
The main callouts that I'll note include a decrease in trade and other receivables and trade and other payables compared to June 30. This is mainly due to seasonality with lower volumes over the Christmas and New Year period. An increase in other assets being prepayments where installments occur over the financial year. A reduction in plant and equipment where CapEx is lower than annual depreciation, and a reduction in issued capital as a result of the on-market share buyback program, as I mentioned earlier. Finally, we've declared a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 3.50 per share. Back to you, Melinda.
Thank you, Matt. Just on to slide 12. ACL's strategy consists of six pillars. We have, in a very focused manner, consistently executed on this strategy over several years. The industry will change over the next couple of years, and we are in a very good position strategically and competitively as this progresses. Our competitive advantage consists of two factors that are very challenging to replicate by our competitors. The first is a structural advantage. We have one instance of our lab information system, which allows us to drive efficiencies and process improvements across the country in both cost and revenue. It's evident in our labor as a percentage of revenue in particular. To replicate this, our peers need to change to one system so that they can drive out duplicated cost.
This change requires LIS code to be reprogrammed and standard operating procedures of thousands of staff to be retrained in an environment in which you cannot do a parallel run. Very high degree of difficulty when patients can be affected at any moment. For us, it's the key platform of differentiation. The second is our culture of agility, entrepreneurism, and drive for performance at all of all types, which we've created since our first acquisition. Everyone who joins us becomes part of this culture, which is beneficial for our patients, doctors, and shareholders alike. Just some comments on each pillar. Our network optimization. The business is well diversified across a range of customer groups. We expect BAU to continue to return in GP and hospital networks, and we're renewing our commercial contracts at good rates.
We have a lot of focus work going on to enhance and maximize our investment and our footprint, including impacts on average fee via private billing projects. We continue to grow our footprint where profitable. Indexation. The indexation campaign is ongoing, and we're talking to government about next steps as an industry. The government announced partial indexation offset by a larger decrease in rebates to patients for certain tests. If not reversed, we aim to offset with patient billing. It's actually their rebate that's been affected. The change is not supported by the AMA, the Royal College of General Practitioners, pathologists, nor the industry. New tests and services. Non-invasive prenatal testing continues to grow despite being on the market for more than a decade. We're above our market share in the new carrier screening test and have exclusivity for EndoPredict for breast cancer, which is partially funded by Medicare.
As mentioned, we have also had a new test for melanoma approved, which is Melaseq, which is an RNA-based tissue and liquid biopsy test that can identify melanoma at all stages of cancer. Both of these have been approved by the regulator this financial year. Other such projects are in the pipeline. Acquisitions. We've looked at some opportunities for acquisitions that were, in our opinion, valued above expectations. Domestic acquisition remains our key focus. We also see opportunities internationally providing they meet our criteria and our risk requirements. Billing projects. The digitization project allows targeted and upfront billing and will result in increased billing of patients with decreased debtors. This project has enabled increased billing to commence, and we've targeted private billing projects in train, including for Medicare items.
The Lab of the Future project continues, and we are redesigning the business lab operations to create a highly automated, borderless national lab network that capitalizes on our experience in COVID and our one LIS with the aim to further reduce our footprint. As mentioned, we've piloted AI and pre-analytic operations, and we keep a watching brief on other emerging technologies that may affect clinical and diagnostic performance. On to slide 13, please, Joe. We've inserted this slide since COVID impacted the previously predictable growth year on year for pathology episodes. This slide tracks the gap in trend pathology and GP episode numbers post-COVID. This trend implies a AUD 60 million revenue shortfall for clinical labs from where we would have expected to be given pre-COVID trends. We expect to continue to trend positively as GP numbers and availability improve.
Though, as I mentioned in the intervening years, we've had to cover the cost in inflation in all cost lines. Slide 15, please, Joe. We reconfirm our expectation of underlying EBIT of AUD 65-AUD 73 million based on our half one underlying EBIT being in line with our expectations and our previous guidance based on anticipated half one, half two seasonality. Half two underlying EBIT margin is expected to return to low double digits based on seasonally higher half two. We continue to expect that the business is well positioned to achieve double-digit EBIT margins under normal operating conditions. At present, there's ongoing short-term margin pressure given the gap in trend revenue and driven by inflationary impacts and externally imposed labor costs. Half two of financial year 2025 had started with lower volume adjusted working days of 2.9% compared to financial year 2024.
January volumes can be seasonally weak, and last year was unusually strong. However, we're noticing a change between the mix between the average fee and the type of test mix. So low volume needs to be tempered with the average fee differential. In summary, half one shows a focused performance in an environment of continued change with effective management of operations, cash, and balance sheet. We believe we're positioned well strategically and competitively, and we have a strong balance sheet. Our results were in line with our expectations of half one. To reiterate, the Board has declared an interim fully franked dividend of AUD 3.50 per share with a record date of 28th of March and payable on the 16th of April 2025. We confirm our guidance of underlying EBIT AUD 65 million-AUD 73 million for financial year 2025. Thank you. I'll pause for questions now. Thanks, Ellie.
Thanks, Melinda. So we've had a couple of hands raised for questions. Andrew Goodsall, I think you were the first out of the blocks. So Andrew Goodsall from MST Financial, please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking my questions. Just starting with labor costs, just trying to get a sense of how that's going to sort of stage into the second half. Last year, I think you sort of kept that reasonably sort of flattish. So yeah, and just curious about your statement, what were the government-imposed additional labor costs and whether that plays into the second half?
Andrew, those are the ones that have carried through from last year, the superannuation, the workers' comp increases, and the increases to the modern award. So they were fairly significant this year. But I think half two will get more leverage from that. Not expecting anything more.
Okay. And just more housekeeping, just a couple of those items in terms of, I know you've given sort of tax guidance, but just sort of where your D&A is going to go. I think we were a little light on the D&A just coming into this result.
Yeah, that's a bit of a theme that we have. Matt or Lana, do you want to just explain that?
Yeah. Look, I've looked at a couple of the analyst reports. It seems to be across the board a little bit light on the D&A. I don't know why that's a bit of a miss. I can probably pick that up with you in the one-on-ones later. But I think as I'm across the street, there probably just needs to be a small reset there in terms of the rent or the D&A as a proxy for rent.
Okay. So sort of is it sensible to think first half, second half equals first half on that one?
Yep.
Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thanks, Andrew. So next we have Craig Wong-Pan from RBC Capital Markets. Go ahead, Craig.
Thanks. So just wanted to start on that comment about the volume. And Melinda, you mentioned we do need to take into account some of the pricing there or the mix. Could you give us a sense for what your revenues have been? If the volumes have been 2.9, can you give a sense of what your revenues have been doing?
We've given you the guidance for the half. So I think, and we've given you the guidance for the second half, Craig. So I think it's probably better to focus on what we've said from a guidance point of view. Yeah, there's quite a change in the mix of when the COVID and the carrier screening volumes go up, the average fee is going up quite a lot. Consumables doesn't follow perfectly, but it follows that a little bit because it's a different test way of doing it. The test is very high value, but it's more kit-based consumables. So we're just noticing there's not the same correlation between, for example, the volume of 2.9 doesn't necessarily correlate to the average fee. The average fee is a bit higher. So yes, I think just go by what we're saying from a guidance point of view.
And then Andrew's comment about the D&A, I think, is quite relevant.
Okay. And then just staying on that kind of volume that you've seen, some of the other players in the pathology space, I guess, haven't called out that kind of lower growth. But I know that you saw very strong growth in the PCP. Do you think it's just down to you cycling a stronger number, or is there other things that might have impacted your volumes relative to your competitors?
I think no, there's nothing that has changed. The thing that's changing year on year is when doctors take leave, I think, is a big part of it and how much leave they're taking. And versus our peers, I don't think there would be anything different in terms of volume growth. And also, yes, you're right, the previous period was high volume growth, previous January. And I think the January before that was pretty high as well.
Okay. Next question, just on the AI initiatives. You've called out the pilots have yielded some benefits, but when do you think we could see the majority of those benefits start to flow through?
We've taken quite a lot of cost, as I mentioned, in the labor line, although I think our labor still, this percentage of revenue has gone down from 44.9% to 43.6% in the first half's normally lower revenue period. So that's still fairly good leverage there. I think as the volume goes into half two, which is traditionally a better half for us, given that three of our four best months are in the second half. So I think that'll start paying off. The AI initiatives, we've got a long list of things that we're implementing over the next several years, and we're doing them in a very focused manner. So there's a cause and effect.
The next ones we're doing are billing projects in which we will be focusing on private billing, upfront billing, getting the bills paid before the patient gets tested, which is actually a difficult process that we think we've cracked on a few areas of target. The other is particularly in our data entry process with an AI application over top of that. We'll see those coming through. They're not baked into this half, but probably next financial year, Craig.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. We have some written questions that have come through that I'm going to run through. A couple have been put in anonymously. If you'd like to resubmit them with your names attached, then we will address them. Thank you. So the first is from Benjamin Yan, which is a question about the trading update. The question is, Medicare data shows a strong January 2024 comparable, so wondering whether you are seeing pretty consistent volumes and it's just the base effect.
Yeah, that's correct.
And then another question from Benjamin. Given the share price action today, is ACL intending to be more aggressive in respect of its buyback?
We have got. I probably won't answer that directly, but we have got a buyback program that supports what we believe our fair trade, our fair value is. So the share buyback program supports that. So I'll probably just say that. Thanks, Ellie.
Thank you. And then another question from Alex Vrossis, which is about. I'm just going to summarize it. It's about the number of ACCs that we have in the Queensland market, which has gone from 83 in 2021 down to 43 as of today in Queensland. And the question is, how and why has our ACL ACC footprint been reduced? And is it an issue in essence?
That's actually a very, very good question. This is one of the challenges with the industry that we need to manage. When we bought Medlab, the Medlab business, we knew we would have to downsize that Queensland business because Medlab had taken over Healthscope non-performing collection centers from a previous acquisition, and they hadn't addressed their portfolio, so coming into that acquisition, we knew that we were going to have to decrease the unprofitable centers. That's the result of what we do, which is looking at our profitability of all of our footprint and then making change where we need to, so I think we probably made that change. It'd be more than a year ago now, probably 18 months ago, and it definitely increased the profitability of our Queensland business.
There's not a correlation between number of collection centers and profit unless you're actively managing it, unless you're actively managing it. That was actually a very proactive management activity that we did. It doesn't indicate a problem. It indicates that there was a problem.
All right. That's the last question that we have in the Q&A, so thank you to Melinda and to Matt for your presentations, and thank you to everybody on the line for attending and showing such an interest in ACL, and we look forward to welcoming you to our investor presentation for the full year results later in the year, so thank you very much and goodbye.