Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ampol Limited Full Year 2024 Results Call. 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'll 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. Matt Halliday, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name's Matt Halliday. I'm the Managing Director and CEO of Ampol Limited, and welcome to our 2024 Full Year Results Call. During the presentation, we'll be referring to the documents we've lodged with the ASX this morning, and before beginning, I wanted to draw your attention to the notice on slide two. Today, I'm joined by our CFO, Greg Barnes, who will discuss the financial results in more detail, and following the presentation, we'll take questions. Also joining us on the call are Brent Merrick, Kate Thomson, Lindis Jones, and Michele Bardy, and I may direct some questions to them also. I'll start now with our safety performance on slide four. 2024 has been another good year for Ampol with regard to safety.
I'm pleased to report that we are either at or close to our best-ever personal safety performance levels in all parts of the business. When it comes to process safety, our extended run of no Tier 1 process incidents came to an end in the first half with an incident at Kurnell, and another Tier 1 spill was also recorded in F&I for the full year 2024. We've completed a thorough investigation of both incidents and continue to strengthen our focus on process safety. Turning now to the performance overview on slide five, looking at our financials first, our RCOP EBITDA was AUD 1.2 billion, and our RCOP EBIT was AUD 715 million, with our RCOP NPAT AUD 235 million, excluding significant items. In some respects, it was a frustrating year.
The challenges in global refining markets for much of 2024 had a significant impact on the commodity-linked parts of the business, namely Lytton and F&I International. This was compounded by operational disruptions at the refinery, which were disappointing, and followed a period of strong performance in the preceding couple of years. That said, our team responded under pressure, and our value chain adapted quickly to changing circumstances. Most pleasing within the group, however, has been the consistent delivery and convenience retail in both Australia and in New Zealand.
The quality of our earnings has improved as a result, as reflected by the 6% earnings CAGR since 2020 in Australian fuel and convenience, and the successful acquisition of Z Energy, which has performed well for us in a difficult economy. Equally, our infrastructure-backed commercial business in Australia has demonstrated its resilience, albeit wearing some flow-on impact from the Lytton disruptions. Put simply, given the challenges we experienced at Lytton, we delivered a stronger earnings result than would have been the case a few years ago. Leverage was 2.6 times on a last 12-month basis, and net borrowings, excluding leases, were approximately AUD 2.8 billion.
Despite leverage being above the target range, in recognition of the importance of dividends to many of our shareholders and reflecting our confidence in the outlook, the board declared an ordinary final dividend of AUD 0.05 per share, taking the total dividend with respect to the 2024 financial year to AUD 0.65 per share, representing a payout ratio of 66% of NPAT. Turning now to slide six, you can see here the key group metrics on one slide, many of which I mentioned on the preceding slide.
I just wanted to highlight total sales volumes of 27.27 billion L, which was down about 2% year- on- year, with about half of the decline coming from our international business, which saw less opportunities to create value in a well-supplied and less volatile market. Turning now to our strategic priorities on slide seven, our strategy revolves around three pillars: enhancing the core business, expanding from a rejuvenated fuels and convenience platform, and evolving the offer for our customers.
As part of the decision to continue refining, we made a commitment to meet the regulatory requirements to upgrade the refinery to produce 10 ppm sulfur gasoline in line with European standards. During the first half, we declared FID on the Ultra Low Sulphur Fuels Project and expect to realize a premium for this product over time.
We also invested in asset reliability with the reformer T&I completed, and we undertook an FCC pit stop, opportunistically taking advantage of the low refiner margin environment in November. This step sets us up to operate more reliably and also allowed us to make the decision to defer the FCC T&I to the first half of 2026, helping simplify the start-up of the Ultra Low Sulphur Fuels Project towards the end of 2025.
We also announced a productivity program to deliver an initial AUD 50 million nominal cost reduction right across the business. We have a clear strategy to grow our Australian retail footprint and offer. This is through an initial focus on highway sites and upgrades to premium sites. In terms of the highway sites, the New South Wales M4 builds at Eastern Creek will complete later this year.
Our other major highway development involved the upgrade to the New South Wales M1 sites, which has been completed. It includes two Ampol-operated Hungry Jack's, Boost Juice outlets, as well as a pilot of a Noodle Box franchise as part of our food service and QSR strategy. At our premium sites, we piloted 10 stores with a refreshed design range and elevated customer experience. Product innovation is also part of the strategy to grow retail earnings, and we commenced a pilot to rejuvenate our food services offer in our hot kitchens.
We will also continue to explore opportunities to further segment our offer to meet the needs of customers in their local market. Z has focused on delivering its convenience retail growth targets and is continuing to deliver greater segmentation of its offer between the premium Z brand and the lower-cost Foodstuffs channel, which continues to grow share. The Caltex offer in New Zealand represents an opportunity for greater focus to turn around its performance. During the year, Z completed 25 retail site refreshes, taking the total now to 58, with the sites performing well.
As we look to the future, we are evolving the business to support our customers through the energy transition. The on-the-go public fast charging networks and network rollouts are progressing in both Australia and in New Zealand, and we will adjust the pace of our rollout according to the uptake trends for EVs, which, despite policy support, has been slower than expected in response to economic conditions and a lack of charging infrastructure. The progress of our EV charging network development is also slower than we expected, given the difficulties in connecting to the grid in Australia.
We have a pipeline of bays either awaiting grid connection or under construction in Australia and New Zealand, and this provides a window into some of the challenges in delivering the enabling infrastructure to support the transition and, in turn, plays into customer confidence to convert to EV. We are also exploring solutions for hard-to-abate sectors with a focus on renewable fuels in terms of both import supply chains and the potential for production of SAF and renewable diesel at Lytton, which has moved into the pre-FEED study phase. I'll now hand over to Greg to take you through more details of the financial result and balance sheet position.
Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. So turning to slide nine, you can see the detail behind total fuel sales volumes. Group volumes were 27.3 billion L for the year, with the minor difference year on year being largely due to reduced discretionary sales in our international business. Australian wholesale volumes were down 0.5%, driven primarily by the decision to exit low-margin jet sales to defence. As we'll dive into further in a moment, the Australian convenience retail business continued to focus on the premium end of the market. The strategy has seen profits grow consistently but has led to headline fuel sales reducing by 3.5% in the period, largely in lower-margin base-grade petrol volumes.
Volumes for Z Energy were down 1.4% on a like-for-like basis, once adjusted for the impact of exiting the bitumen and avgas sales in the second half of last year as part of the Z business's simplification program. Turning to our group results on slide 10, looking at the full-year result, the group delivered an EBITDA of $1.2 billion during the period and EBIT or our RCOP EBIT of $715 million. We reported a RCOP NPAT of $234.8 million and a statutory NPAT of $122.5 million. The statutory result includes $137 million of inventory losses after tax, reflecting the adjustment to bring cost of sales to their historic cost for statutory accounting purposes in a period where refined product prices trended slightly down over the period.
This was offset in part by favorable significant items, the bulk of which related to unrealize mark-to-market movements on derivatives and commercial settlements, partially offset by upfront investment in the introduction and integration of software-as-a-service solutions, which were previously capitalize and obviously have value beyond the year of spend. Slide 11 shows the key movements in group EBITDA and EBIT, and I'm obviously going to dive into each of these movements in subsequent slides.
However, in terms of earnings composition for the group, the first three bars of the waterfall really highlight the combined impact of weaker refining margins in 2024 on Lytton and on F&I International, as well as operational issues which further impacted the refinery in F&I Australia, where F&I Australia's supply chain was adversely impacted by those unplanned outages.
Now, that said, what is pleasing about the result is how well convenience retail performed, as well as the resilience of the New Zealand business, which faced a pretty challenging consumer for much of the year. Similarly, F&I Australia also performed strongly once you look through the flow-on impacts of the refinery outage. To build on Matt's earlier comments, the consistent growth in convenience retail over several years and the successful acquisition of Z Energy and its subsequent performance have strengthened the quality of Ampol's earnings base and therefore its resilience in movements in commodity markets and events at the refinery, as we saw this year.
We continue to invest in Energy Solutions at a rate consistent with the guidance provided at the start of the year. Our investment in recent years has seen the organisation develop deep knowledge and real capability. These learnings are now translating to more focused efforts on commercializing opportunities in e-mobility, particularly out-of-home charging, as well as assessing the viability of renewable fuels as a logical solution for aviation, long-haul, and heavy transport. In practical terms, this translates to smaller losses in 2025, particularly in the second half. On slide 12, it shows the continued growth in earnings from convenience retail.
Convenience retail has delivered 6% annual compounded EBIT growth since 2020, including earnings growth this year against a pretty difficult economic backdrop, including cost of living pressures. Ultimately, the 6% compounded earnings growth rate boils down to a few key drivers: the quality of our network and the capability in the organization, having spent several years addressing an underperforming tail of sites and repositioning under the Ampol brand.
Secondly, consistent improvement in our in-store execution. And thirdly, a focus on balancing fuel margin and fuel sales volumes with an increasingly segmented approach. And this is playing out in the stats on this slide. With the right sizing of the network in recent years and the focus on a premium offer, you would expect to see total fuel volumes decline.
However, an important feature of our results has been the strength of our premium fuels performance. This has played out again in 2024, where the mix of premium fuel sales increased by 1.7% points to 55.4%, helping to grow overall fuel margin contribution year- on- year. The good progress in shop performance continued, with shop sales ex-tobacco up 2%. Tobacco sales fell by around 14% during the year as demand for these products and their substitutes continued to move into illicit markets. As you know, we've consciously reduced our reliance on tobacco sales over the years, which now represents less than one quarter of our total store sales.
The strong store performance has come via growth in sales of higher-margin products like beverages, food service, confectionery, and snacks. And you can see the combination of these two dynamics playing out in our average basket value and gross margin. To hold basket value in line with last year, given the 2024 trading conditions, is a good outcome. This has been driven by effective price management and execution of promotional activity.
Similarly, the changing product mix, including falling volumes in low-margin tobacco categories, has led to store margins growing by 1.2% points year on year. The consistent execution by the team in terms of network quality, brand capability, and in-store execution has really set us up to take the next steps, be it selectively growing our premium store footprint, increasing food service offerings, and exploring a more segmented and localized approaches to our markets.
We are making good progress in these areas, giving us confidence that the trend of recent years can continue into the future. Slide 13 provides some more color on key contributors to the improvement in earnings. As we discussed, earnings growth year on year was driven by a continued focus on premium fuels. Our consistent prioritization of site profitability over volume continues to pay off.
In a tougher consumer environment, we delivered a high-quality shop performance with shop income broadly in line with last year. You'll note in the graph we called out a couple of one-offs that moved against us in comparative terms year on year. On balance, 2024 is a cleaner result, benefiting from less gains on individual property sales and other one-offs such as commercial settlements and the like.
None of these issues are individually material, but were unusual in comparative terms. As in aggregate, they largely all went the wrong way. Hence, they're called out this year and help underscore the quality of the 2024 result. Okay, slide 14 shows the trends in Z Energy's key retail metrics over the past six years, and that includes the time before Ampol had acquired Z . It's also a pretty encouraging set of statistics.
Z's store refresh strategy is working, and it is a contributor holding total shop volume revenue and gross margin in a tough economic environment. Ex-tobacco shop sales grew by 3.5%. And similar to the Australian convenience business, at a headline level, Z has seen about 8% annual growth in sales of non-tobacco products since 2019. Average basket value on the bottom right of graph has peaked during the height of COVID but has been pretty consistent over time. Z, like the Australian retail business, is focused on high-margin on-the-go categories such as food and beverages.
In a market that is particularly sensitive to fuel prices, it is unsurprising we saw some decline in volumes, but the benefit of the segmentation strategy was evident in the uptick of the discount channel through the relationship with Foodstuffs. Volumes through this channel have been growing as the price-sensitive consumer shifted to discount offers in response to cost of living pressures. Pleasingly, the relationship with Foodstuffs was renewed at the end of 2024 for a further five years. Slide 15, you can see the waterfall for New Zealand segment. This segment is inclusive of supply benefits from our trading business. It is presented in New Zealand dollars.
We've pulled out the estimated benefit in FY 23 from the restatement of the fuel excise duty to full rates. This occurred in the third quarter of 2023, and it impacts comparatives. The New Zealand consumer did it particularly tough in 2024, so when you look through this movement, it is a quality result in a challenging market. Integrated fuel margins grew slightly over the period.
Given the lower penetration of premium fuels in New Zealand and a generally price-sensitive consumer, we see this as a good outcome. And finally, as I shared at the half year, depreciation and amortization stepped up by AUD 10 million this year. This is largely the result of acquisition accounting impacts in the prior year. So the full year 2024 result is the right baseline from which to model this business going forward. Okay, slide 16 looks into the F&I result in more detail. And given the impact on group results, we've discussed most of these drivers already.
But to just go a little deeper, in 2022, the disruption caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine tightened global supply, rebalancing global markets, and advantaging freight-protected refineries. 2024, however, saw a notably weaker refining environment, well below long-run market averages. While there have been several factors at play, chief among them was the new capacity that began to come on stream, coinciding with a period of weaker global demand and sentiment.
Additionally, a succession of events impacted the refinery production levels, particularly in the second half, with total production for the year reduced to 5.3 billion L and production of high-value product at 4.8 billion L . The combination of these factors, particularly in the second half, led to a loss of AUD 42.3 million for the year. We estimate the impact of the outages to be AUD 140 million at the refinery, about 60 of that because of lower production of high-value product, about 70 due to the overall lost production, which was approximately 700 million L, and about 10 million additional repairs and maintenance spent.
We took advantage of the weaker refining environment in November to want to take a pit stop on the FCCU. This has given us confidence to defer the T&I on that unit till 2025, from 2025 into the first half of 2026, I should say. It also helps to simplify the low sulphur fuels project startup, which will occur towards the end of 2025.
While we don't control the global refining market and therefore the timing of any reversion to mean, as Matt will discuss, we're constructive on the outlook for refining margins over time based on a tightening of the supply-demand balance for traditional fuels for the foreseeable future and the rational response by refiners to lower refining margins through run cuts and ultimately closures, as we saw occur in 2024. We're now on slide 17.
F&I Australia, being our Australian fuel supply chain, includes commercial fuel sales. During the second half, F&I Australia incurred additional costs as a result of unplanned events at the refinery. These costs include product supply, coastal freight, and demurrage, estimated to be about AUD 25 million. Looking through this impact, F&I Australia delivered a result in line with the prior year and consistently so across both the first and second halves of the year.
The Australian sales volumes were 15.4 billion litres, down slightly with growth in diesel partially offsetting the loss of low-margin aviation fuel sales to defence. Slide 18, you see F&I International, which leverages Australian and New Zealand supply chain positions to create additional value in other geographic markets. We've built a lot of capability in this part of the business over recent years and certainly expect to do much better than this over time.
However, as we've said previously, you can expect earnings from this part of the business to move around year to year as it is largely opportunity-driven. 2022 and 2023 were exceptional years with the elevated volatility in global oil and refined product markets, and the tightening refined supply-demand balance created significant profit opportunities. This gives you an indication of the earnings potential of the business in those conditions. However, in 2024, the earnings contribution to the group was positive.
The introduction of new capacity in the global refining markets at a time of weaker demand and sentiment meant there were limited third-party sales opportunities. It also meant there were fewer value-creating opportunities from activities like storage and blending. As we've mentioned before, despite half-on-half variability, this part of the business consumes little capital and is expected to recover to higher profit levels and continue to grow over time.
Finally, from me, turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow on slide 19. We exited the year with net borrowings of just under AUD 2.8 billion. Importantly, this was inclusive of AUD 570 million of dividends paid during the year, being the AUD 1.20 final ordinary dividend for 2023 and the AUD 0.60 per share special dividend paid at the same time. It also includes the AUD 0.60 per share interim ordinary dividend for 2024.
Capital expenditure was approximately AUD 640 million, reflecting investment in low sulphur fuels and retail highway sites. Leverage lifted to 2.6 turns at the end of the year. This calculation is on a 12-month lookback basis and was essentially impacted by three factors. 2024 cash flows include the payment of significant final and special dividends for 2023 worth AUD 425 million.
Similarly, we were cycling a very strong second half 2023 for an uncharacteristically weak second half 2024 for the reasons we've just discussed. And we're in a period of higher CapEx as we transition to new gasoline fuel spec and extend our retail highway site network. It's worth noting we undertook a subordinated note issued towards the end of 2024, and Moody's reaffirmed our Baa1 credit rating. Looking ahead for 2025, we expect net CapEx of AUD 600 million and for leverage to return to our targeted range of two to two and a half over the course of the year. That's enough for me. I'll hand back to Matt and come back for questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Greg. I'd now like to close the presentation today with a discussion of our strategy and our outlook. Slide 21 shows the trend in transport fuel demand across Australia and New Zealand.
First thing to note is that Australian transport fuel demand is at an all-time high, despite the country's efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. Demand outstripped pre-COVID levels in 2023 and has continued to grow in 2024 as population continues to grow, jet demand has recovered, and diesel demand has grown in line with GDP. Ampol supplies over 25% of Australia's transport fuel demand, and more than 70% of our sales are in the growing products of diesel and jet.
As our scenario analysis presented in the climate report showed, we expect fuel demand to be robust well into the 2030s. And it's fair to say transition options look to be pushing out as the complexity and cost of this challenge becomes even clearer. And in New Zealand, while demand hasn't yet outstripped pre-COVID levels, the 12 months to end September 2024 does show growing demand.
Z's position in the New Zealand market means it supplies over 40% of the country's transport fuel demand, and similarly, Z Energy has over 60% of its volume linked to jet and diesel. On slide 22 now, we've provided the data on the EV penetration through to the end of the year. The signs are becoming clearer that the energy transition will be very challenging and costly. EV uptake in Australia has been flat, and in New Zealand, it's taken a step back as policy support was unwound. EVs remain a very small proportion of the total fleet, and the rollout of charging infrastructure has also been slow, highlighting the constraints in the system, including around grid connectivity.
The right-hand side shows some key statistics for our public fast and ultra-fast charging networks. It's early days, but the stats are encouraging both in average charge time and duration. You can see the dwell time is circa 25-30 minutes, even for fast chargers. The energy supplied has increased more than threefold since last year, and we continue to work on the convenience offering to benefit from the opportunity this presents. We are starting from a strong position with our significant retail footprint and strong B2B and SME customer relationships.
We believe it is these customers with fleets who will be amongst the early movers and are well placed to provide integrated solutions to their transport energy needs as they evolve, including reinforcing our strength in fuel. I'll now talk to our key priorities for 2025 on slide 23. Under the enhanced pillar, we'll continue to progress the Ultra Low sulphur Fuel Project with completion expected towards the end of 2025 and a focus on delivering higher reliability at Lytton.
I've mentioned previously our productivity program, but I wanted to provide a bit more color on the areas where the savings will come from. So this includes a focus on greater reliability through the supply chain. And from a cost standpoint, demurrage, which is incurred on both crude and product cargoes, is a key area of potential savings that we have a focus on. With Brad Blyth joining the team as EGM Technology, Data, and Digital, we've asked him to have a look at the technology, digital, and data requirements of the business as we execute on our strategic priorities and on how we can gain efficiencies in our considerable spend across this area.
He is off to a very strong start in this regard in terms of savings as we pull together the spend from right across the group and optimize. As just one more example, the work we've done over the past few years on test and learns as part of our future energy strategy has made clear that the best opportunities for Ampol lie in the on-the-go e-mobility solutions for passenger and light commercial vehicles and renewable fuels for the hard-to-abate sectors. With greater clarity and the foundational platform now in place, we'll be able to deliver a lower cost profile in this part of the business.
So there are three examples, and overall, we have very high confidence in our ability to deliver on that target for 2025. For the expand pillar, we have a clear strategy to grow our Australian retail footprint and offer. This is with a focus on completing the M4 Eastern Creek sites and extending the pilot for upgrades to premium sites to another five, taking the pilot to 15 stores, including the 10 completed in 2024. Pending success, we would then aim to execute a further five stores in 2025. This is all complemented by our food service and QSR strategy, where our capability continues to build, including our efforts in product innovation.
Z will focus on delivering its convenience retail growth targets and continuing the segmentation of its offer between the premium Z brand with a plan to upgrade a further 25 stores this year and improve performance across the lower-cost Caltex offering. During the first half of 2025, Z also plans to launch its digitally based Z loyalty capability. As Greg mentioned earlier, we have seen what F&I International can contribute to group earnings in favorable market conditions. We're focused on restoring international performance to more normalized profitability levels as markets normalize and volatility resumes, as seems likely in the current geopolitical environment.
We remain committed to building out our capability and presence to deliver growth in earnings in this area over time. Under the evolve pillar, we remain committed to our fast charging bay rollout, and once we hit our initial targets, we will continue to monitor EV uptake trends to ensure we are getting the pace of investment right. Our focus for the hard-to-abate heavy transport sectors, as I mentioned, is on renewable fuels, which will require clear policy support from government if we are to find a pathway where appropriate returns are to be delivered.
As we deliver on these priorities, we expect to see both a recovery in earnings from the cyclical low point in 2024 and further growth from the initiatives that we are pursuing. I'd now like to close out with a view of the current trading conditions and macro outlook, and I'm on slide 25. We are showing here for the first time some interesting data points to explain why we're positive on the outlook for a recovery in refiner margins in 2025. China demand and export intentions will continue to be a watch point, but history shows that export levels have been relatively stable despite the weak Chinese domestic demand that we've seen.
In addition, strengthened U.S. sanctions on Russian crude and fuel oil feedstocks and shipping and changes to China's export rebate tax regime both reduce the attractiveness of export economics and are directionally positive in keeping Chinese exports to a capped level. As they execute on the NDRC targets outlined here, we expect they will balance domestic refining capacity with smaller refinery closures as new capacity comes on stream.
This policy in practice is evidenced by the recent reporting that the teapot utilization rates in China are at 43%, the lowest level since 2020, while SOE utilization is sitting up at 79%. That all indicates that further closures of teapots are likely as this policy intent is sustained. Then on the right-hand side, you can see what is expected globally ex China. You can clearly see here where new capacity came on stream in 2024 ahead of demand.
The key takeaway is that the supply-demand balance is expected to tighten during 2025 and should be supportive of margins as the supply overhang reduces. An important element of this story is a new wave of plant closures coming through this year in the U.S. and Europe, which will remove approximately 800,000 bbl per day from the market and more than offsets the new capacity expected to arrive ex- China, and experience tells us that ramp-ups of new capacity are often delayed while closures tend to be more certain. Looking beyond 2025, capacity growth is then set to slow with the major grassroots refineries in the Middle East and Africa that had been in train now up and running.
Lastly, as we look to inventory levels, they were below historical levels throughout 2024 and are expected to remain so during 2025, especially when you take account of the implied demand-supply balance on these charts. You can see that on slide 46 of the slide pack. Turning now to the current trading environment and outlook on slide 26. Convenience retail has commenced the year solidly, albeit in a rising fuel price environment, which tends to compress margins until those higher prices flow through to the pump. Shop sales ex-tobacco trends remain similar to 2024 in growth. In New Zealand, we have seen some early green shoots in year-to-date trading as the interest rate cutting cycle is taking effect.
LRM for January was $6.31 / bbl, which was impacted by lagging higher crude premiums and short-term compression of the clean dirty freight differential, with some offsetting benefit from a weaker currency. In February so far, we've seen Singapore product cracks strengthen in the order of $2/ bbl . And while it's difficult to predict where cracks will settle, this trend should be positive for margin, including as crude premiums reduce and freight differentials normalize.
The refinery is operating normally after a challenging year in 2024, and the proactive decision to take the FCC pit stop in Q4 last year during a period of particularly weak margins has allowed us to move the FCC T&I into 2026. Total refinery production is expected to be about 5.8 billion L.
F&I Australia is expected to have continued strong fuel sales at an annual rate of over 15 billion L, underpinned by strong diesel demand. It is also expected to benefit from improved refinery reliability. We have seen an uptick in volatility due to global political dynamics and trade policy speculation, which should also be supportive of a return to stronger levels of international profitability, but it is too early to call this definitively.
We expect the AUD 50 million nominal cost reduction program to deliver benefits to earnings this year, as I mentioned, and that OpEx and Energy Solutions peaked in 2024, and to complete my comments on the outlook, after declaring FID on the Ultra Low Sulphur Fuels Project, we expect total group CapEx for 2025 net of divestments to be around AUD 600 million, with around AUD 160 million left to spend net of grants on the project.
I'm now on slide 25 and would like to close out with the key reasons we believe you should invest in Ampol. We have built a more resilient business over the last few years by growing our retail, fuel, and convenience earnings through the repositioning of the Australian retail business and the acquisition of Z . This has improved the quality of the earnings mix and underpinned the result in 2024, a year in which we experienced bottom-of-the-cycle earnings from F&I.
Based on the scenario modelling presented in our 2023 climate report and fuel demand in Australia and New Zealand at close to all-time highs, the outlook for fuel is expected to be robust well into the 2030s, and we have flexibility to respond to the pace of transition as it evolves and as returns become clearer. We own and operate an integrated fuels value chain underpinned by high-quality irreplaceable infrastructure, including a uniquely positioned refinery with a favorable outlook and with an ability to invest with confidence given returns are underpinned by the FSSP.
We are clear on our strategy for the rest of the decade, where we will continue to build a stronger and more efficient fuel supply chain, which will be required for many years to come, accelerate growth in our fuel and convenience businesses building on our strong track record since 2019, built around an increasingly segmented offer for our customers, and benefiting from increased dwell time that the transition to EVs and on-the-go charging presents rather over time, and develop and grow new mobility solutions, including extending EV charging into third-party sites and exploring opportunities in renewable fuels, all, of course, subject to strict returns criteria.
Lastly, as cyclical drivers recover and Lytton returns to more normal levels of production, we expect to restore our long track record of applying our capital allocation framework with discipline to deliver strong returns to our shareholders. And while we reported leverage above the target range for the last 12 months, largely due to one-off factors and a cyclically low point in earnings, we have a pathway back to the target range through both a recovery and growth in earnings and lower CapEx as we complete the Low Sulphur Fuels Project.
We believe we're through the worst of the issues in refining and that the global refining margin environment should recover through 2025. I'm confident that we have a clear strategy to grow our earnings over time with a strengthened focus on productivity and a strong team to deliver on our ambitions. So that ends the presentation, and now we will take your questions. So with that, we'll take our first question. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. First question from me on convenience retail. So you've had a very good performance in what was a very tough year. Just interested in some commentary from you on how sustainable you think that performance is if there's no change to the macro environment and/or illicit tobacco. And related to that, and you touched on it in your outlook commentary, industry data suggests retail fuel margins are a little bit softer in the start to 2025. Is that reflective of what Ampol is seeing, and what do you think the driver of that is?
Yeah, thanks, Michael. Look, I think we're pretty encouraged by the market and the pressure on the consumer was pretty intense during 2024, but we continued to see growth in sales ex tobacco. Tobacco was down in the order of mid-teens, so that remains a headwind as that market goes to illicit. But it's a low-margin part of the business, and it's becoming a much less material part of the business, which I think Greg talked to.
We're pretty confident from what we see that shop sales growth, both as the macro improves and rate cuts start to take effect, and as we deliver on our strategy and the execution capability that we've built, we've got real confidence that we've grown earnings 6% on a CAGR since 2020, and that's in sort of order of magnitude what strong execution of our strategy should continue to deliver. It's encouraging.
New Zealand's obviously further ahead of us in the rate cutting cycle. New Zealand grew sales ex tobacco in the store 3.5% last year, and it's outperforming that number as we've started the year. I think as an indicator, that's pretty encouraging. Fuel pricing, yeah, we've seen higher input prices play a role in fuel pricing, as I mentioned, through this year. That just takes time to flow through the board, and that's what we're observing, but we otherwise observe normal conditions.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And secondly, I've got a couple of related questions on Lytton. Just firstly, how confident are you in Lytton's ability to operate reliably in the lead-up to the T&I next year? And then I've just got a quick one on margins as well.
Yeah, so what I would say is it was a frustrating year last year. We've taken steps to invest, and the FCC pit stop, I think, is the best example of that, which enabled us to not only push out the T&I, but deal with some reliability performance issues. So the asset is well invested. We have a strong team in place on the ground, and we're confident that the decisions that we've made, including the proactive steps we took during 2024 from a maintenance point of view, means we're set up to have a clearer year in 2025.
Okay. And then on the margins, so you've given us the margin for January 631. I think that's probably a little bit lighter than what most expected it to be. And you've talked about crude premium as well as clean dirty freight spread. The comment on February that product cracks have improved about two bucks a barrel, should we infer from that that, I know you don't have the number yet, but the underlying margin improvement for Lytton should be more than that as the headwinds normalize?
Greg, do you want to take that?
Yeah, hi, Michael. Look, so the $2 is a good guide. I mean, we're still seeing lower clean freight rates, which is probably going to be with us for a little while, but you should assume the majority of that AUD 2 flows through over the next month or two. So that's sort of how it moved from the start of February to the end of February. It seems to have stuck today. So that's the guidance we would give.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Martin from E&P Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Matt. Greg, you talked quite a bit about sort of cyclical factors and recovery. I mean, one of that is the sort of international F&I business, AUD 26 million EBIT versus AUD 140 million in 2023. I mean, how confident are you that's going to lift in the next six months? Can you just talk through what you're seeing there, please?
Yeah, so it's really around kind of trades on the strength of the short positions we have in Australia and New Zealand, Adam, and does to some extent rely on volatility resuming and markets being less well supplied, let's put it, than in 2024. As we're pointing to, we do expect markets to tighten through 2025, and we've given some color around why we believe that will be the case. I think that's fairly consistent with commentary that other refiners around the world are providing.
Also geopolitically, we're seeing now further action on sanctions around the dark fleet, around the movement of Russian crude, and also speculation of sanctions as they apply, coming out of the U.S. on Mexico, on Canada, on other countries. It's an environment, we would say, and from what we can see already, that is restoring a level of volatility into the system. A lot of unpredictability, but we think the settings are certainly there for a recovery in earnings from that part of the business after a very soft 2024.
Okay, no, thank you. Just on the Australian F&I business, I mean, you've been doing about AUD 180 million EBIT per half the last three halves. It's typically, if you strip out that refinery impact, AUD 25 million. I mean, should we sort of assume just sort of roughly flat performance from here, or do you see some growth opportunities? Perhaps just talk through Australian F&I, what you're seeing there, please. Greg?
Yeah, so look, I mean, the 25's called out, I think, as the baseline, right? And then that's the way to think about it. Our ambition is to see that business grow at a minimum over time with broader GDP. It is a business that's resilient in that it disproportionately services middle distillate customers, so mining, long haul, aviation, transport, and the like, which the outlook remains very positive for. So we're constructive on it. It benefits, obviously, from the sourcing capability we have into Australia and the profit on barrels sent to Australia from the trading and shipping team. And similarly, they are off to a good start. So I wouldn't speculate beyond the true up, other than to say our ambitions to see it grow in line with GDP or faster over time.
And just to build on that, Adam, I'd say, as Greg's saying, diesel and jet volumes we'd expect to continue to see growth and positive growth. The biggest drag in that part of the business has been from a volume performance, Z Energy, which has impacted us.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Dale Koenders from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Morning, Matt, Greg, and team. Maybe just firstly on the dividend, understandably lower in the second half, given outside leverage settings and your dividend policy as well. How should we think about dividends through 2025? Do you think they'll be constrained by balance sheet, maybe in the first half and not in the second half, or not at all?
Look, I wouldn't guide on it specifically other than to say that, as with the decision on this dividend, we're very committed to our capital allocation framework, and we're very conscious that shareholders value dividends from Ampol, so they're always top of mind. We expect to be back in the range over the course of the year.
I think your point is drawing out the fact that we won't be cycling the second half of this year by the first half of 2025. So when I say this year, I mean 2024, and cycling that by the end of the first half of 2025. But we're typically a cash-generative business and mindful of dividends. So we'll see where we are in the half, but certainly the intention is back in the range and dividends at a leverage level and then dividends within the stated range of 50%-70% over time.
Okay. And then second question, just on the cost-out program, Matt, you gave some examples, but maybe Greg or you, Matt, can you maybe help us with the modeling? How should we think about where this AUD 50 million cost-out is coming through, what segments? And we'll all be realize we'll fall to the bottom end of some of this just really offsetting cost pressures.
Yeah, so I gave three examples, Dale, that are all meaningful ones, I would say. Now, if I talk you through those, and there are a range of other initiatives, I'm just calling out those three as fairly material ones. So demurrage is an opportunity that will play through both refining and F&I Australia. The technology, data, and digital savings, and that cost was effectively spread across different parts of the group. We're pulling all of that together and leveraging it much harder. And so that is savings that will play through right across the group as we redistribute those savings in a lower cost base. And then Energy Solutions, as I mentioned, will play through that line item.
So hopefully that gives you a bit of a steer as to where you should see that AUD 50 million turn up. And those three areas would, give or take, there's a lot more in the pipeline, but those three areas would certainly give you in the order of AUD 50 million.
And a little bit back end loaded, Dale, just by the nature of the activity and time to execute.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Henry Meyer from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. Thanks for the update. At Lytton, we're expecting the margin improvement as Australia shifts to lower sulfur gasoline, particularly produced without MTBE additions. Could you expand on what you're expecting in the market there?
Yeah, so look, historically, what we have said to the market is we're expecting, on average, of course, these things don't move linearly, but on average, it'll move in the order of $3 a barrel on gasoline cracks. So that's about half our production volume, so call it a AUD 1.50 in Lytton. That is essentially the tight supply nature of that specification in the region and the need, when demand is strong, to balance from outside the region and therefore incur the cost of time and additional shipping.
So that underpins it. When we look at what we're seeing today, remembering we supply similar product into New Zealand today, when we look at the tightness around supply and demand and some of Matt's references earlier to how new capacity will be absorbed globally through 2025 and into 2026, we're not really moving from that position. I think it would support that view, recognizing that it moves around period to period, but that's what we'd expect to see on average over time.
Might ask Brent, Brent, do you want to provide any brief color on why this product has a tight supply envelope?
Yeah, I'll add a little bit. I think Greg's covered largely most of it. And you call out one of the key differences, which is 10 ppm spec that is also MTBE related. So a lot of the large exporting countries and importing countries rely on an MTBE spec. We're in markets that don't have MTBE, so that narrows the supply envelope. Obviously, Australia being one of the large import markets in this region, all moving to an MTBE-free 10 ppm just adds more pressure on the refining sector in this part of the world. So we do see periods where we'll need to solve for the regional grade and that creates a price differential to the mean of Platts Singapore's reference spec, which is MTBE related.
Thanks, Brent.
Great, thanks. And just to expand on that, we're over the halfway mark for the current FSSP agreement, but we've seen increases in energy costs, inflation, safeguard mechanism costs added to Lytton. Can you share how you're approaching the potential expansion or extension of FSSP and any confidence in receiving additional support?
Yeah, I think what I would say is that when the FSSP was put in place, it acknowledged the criticality from a fuel security point of view of the two refineries that remained in the country. That criticality has only been reinforced, I would say, since that time. And the existing arrangement expires in 2027. So it's a conversation we'll be looking to start, and I think there's a logical escalation, if you like, or indexation of the arrangements as we look to go forward. But I think on both sides of politics, the support remains there for the refineries and the critical role that they play.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Wiseman from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Oh, good day, Matt and Greg. Thanks for the update today. I just wanted to start with where your future investment is likely to lie. You've set the CapEx budget for this year, and I understand the focus on deleveraging, but it seems like you've now got strategic clarity around your role moving forward in energy transitions and whatnot. So I just wondered if you could talk about, you've built an electricity customer book, about 17,000 customers. Does that still fit with your strategy?
I know that was a test and learn. And then once your gearing does come down and you're able to invest, where are the best opportunities for you? Are they in rolling out more major highway sites? Is it QSR? Is it something in international trading where you could own new infrastructure or into B2B? If you could expand on that, that would be great.
Yeah, so thanks, Mark. Look, yeah, we have got real clarity on the strategy and kind of where the focus areas are. I would say that we are very much intent on growing our retail businesses on both sides of the Tasman. And as you can see in this result, albeit in tougher economies, our ability to deliver growth there, we're really encouraged by. And that's about an increasingly segmented offer for the customer, including the premium site rollouts.
We'll be moving beyond kind of the highway site rollouts and opening up more premium and more food service and product innovation around the offer for the customers. And we see that together with continuing to drive more efficiency through the delivery of our retail offers on both sides of the Tasman as delivering and unlocking considerable growth.
So that is absolutely a priority. And what I would argue is the highest multiple part of our business. International, we'll look to build capability, but it's not really a part of the business where we have, as Greg mentioned, significant capital deployed, but we do continue to look at how we can extract more value from each barrel. And building capability in that part of the business is an important part of that. And then on the transition, I think we've mentioned we're going to have more focus.
We've got some good foundations in place now, and that will be very much returns driven based on the pace of transition and how we see things unfolding. The platform that we have in place is a really strong one now. We've kind of pre-invested, if you like, in that, and greater clarity now enables us to be more efficient with our spend.
And just on the electricity into the home, is that something you're wanting to grow further beyond those 17,000 customers?
Yeah, so we've done some test and learning in that space, and we'll just assess. We've seen some proof points that are interesting, but we'll then assess once we've got to a certain point where we are and how we want to take that forward.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Gordon Ramsay from RBC. Please go ahead. Thank you very much.
I just want to focus back on the margin outlook where you said that you're seeing February product cracks strengthened by approximately $2 a barrel. Is that a Singapore-weighted average margin, or is it something else?
Singapore-weighted average, Gordon.
Excellent. And then the other question, and apologies, these have been kind of asked before, but I'm just clarifying. On the international business, just want to understand, you've commented on the growth in diesel being partly offset by low margin, loss of low margin aviation fuel to defence. Is that the defence contract, or is there something else?
Yeah, no, that's right. That's an Australian reference, those comments. But yeah, no, they're the right drivers, and it was the Australian Defence contract.
Okay, that's all from me. Thank you.
Thanks, mate.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the question. Just first of all, just on convenience, just 120 basis points of gross margin expansion in 2024. How much of that was tobacco mix driven versus underlying? Yeah, thanks.
Yeah, it's kind of a split, Bryan, between the tobacco decline, which tobacco is obviously our lowest margin product, but then seeing growth in beverages, snacks, and confectionery. So those growing categories or categories that are in pretty strong growth are really where the growth's coming forward, but yeah, but yes, there is a portion that relates to the tobacco drift down.
Okay, great. And then just my second one's on the call from Dale's question earlier on the dividend, specifically on the first half dividend, given you, I think you called out the cost-out program seems a bit too H weighted. It's going to take time, obviously, for the LRM to normalise. Essentially, my question is, how willing are you to remain substantially above the top end of the guidance range in order to declare a more normal level of dividends, notwithstanding the AUD 0.05 in the second half in terms of that expectation that the market has that there is a decent dividend coming in the first half? Just keen to get a feel for how sensitive you are to the leverage ratio when declaring that.
Yeah, look, I think our capital allocation framework is pretty clear on this, Bryan. Shareholders were a big beneficiary in 2024 on the back of a very, very strong 2023 number, which is then a read-through to what drove leverage on top of, obviously, a softer second half earnings period.
So I don't really want to get drawn on sort of first half versus second half financial performance because then that's sort of the read-through on the dividend. What I would say is we're committed to that policy. We think the settings are right. And while AUD 0.05 final isn't sort of a shoot-the-lights-out outcome, it does reflect two things. One, a commitment to the policy, and two, a recognition that dividends are valued by our shareholders, and we will seek to operate within that framework and with that mindset.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nicole Penny from Rimor Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you. Regarding renewable fuels, you've publicly collaborated with IFM and GrainCorp for some time now, and pre-FEED has been reached. Could you make some comments around whether this has led to conversations with customers with material demand for these renewable fuels, please? And specifically, is there greater interest in renewable diesel or SAF? And does it appear that these customers or potential customers are willing to pay a fair premium for these products? Thank you.
Brent?
Thanks for the question, Nicole. You're right. Each year, we just see more progress in the thinking of customers in the markets we operate as they look to solve their own decarbonization challenges. We are seeing interest in renewable diesel increasing. We have some sales active in that space. And as we look further into the future towards ramping up through to, say, 2030, there's definitely, in the hard-to-abate sectors, seen as a sensible solution for meeting that decarbonization challenge.
I think it's widely understood that for the aviation sector, SAF continues to be the primary solution, and as different economies and different countries in the world look to resolve their national contributions and setting targets for transport sectors, more clarity will come into that space. But it's a well-understood technology, well-understood product to meet that decarbonization challenge, which we're well-positioned to fulfil with our customers.
I think what I would add to that is it's why the policy equation is so important, because the policy needs to set up effectively a level competitive playing field, so for customers that are buying this product, it is the logical pathway. It does have a higher cost profile at this point, but a level playing field is going to be important, which is why the policy environment is so important and consistency around it. So that's our message, and I think that's very much an aligned perspective from customers.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking another one. Greg, is it possible to give us some sort of a steer on interest costs for 2025, given your number in the second half came in quite a bit higher than what the market was looking for, and most of the change in leverage going forward will be earnings-driven rather than debt-driven?
Yeah, so I don't think there's not a material change in cost of debt, if you like. So that would be the first thing I'd highlight. The second is some of the step-up in debt is just driven by that dividend payout ratio that was, or the dividends that were paid out on 2023 final and special. So as a consequence of that, when you're then at the start of what turned out to be a weaker earnings year, invariably your average net debt increased over the course of the year.
They're the big drivers. So you should see CapEx lower year on year. You'll see one would expect and certainly hope for stronger earnings over the course of the year. Cost of debt is not moving materially and certainly not upwards. We are 50%-60% hedged on a floating to fixed basis. So I think that's a pretty good guide in terms of the key drivers of interest and what was underlying in the 2024 result and gives you a bit of a lead into 2025.
Yep, okay. Thank you. And then second one, I think you had some fairly material cost increases in the F&I Australia business relating to labor in the 2024 year. Were they fully in the base over the course of 2024, or is there a bit more annualization to come through into 2025?
Yeah, look, I mean, I think we're, I mean, like the rest of the country, we had seen, particularly going into 2024, some upward pressure on wages. But I wouldn't specifically call out F&I Australia in that regard. I suspect what you're referring to was an EBA outcome going into the year at the refinery was where you would have seen that outcome, which we continue to manage, as you'd expect, through your usual sort of focus on productivity, and it's also part of, more broadly, this is a group-wide statement now, more broadly part of our focus on productivity going forward.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Henry Meyer from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking another one. Just in convenience, and in New Zealand, you're piloting some premium store formats and expanding other trials. Could you just expand on what success looks like here and perhaps quantify the sales or margin improvement you're targeting or expecting?
Yeah, so thanks, Henry. Look, we're well into the rollout now with the team in New Zealand, and it's generating some pretty interesting results. So we're spending in the order of NZD 350 a site on a refresh, some a bit lower than that as we're continuing to optimize spend. But we're focused on delivering very strong returns out of that spend and seeing a sales uplift that is kind of mid to high single digits. So pretty encouraged by those trends. And obviously, we've got another 2025 that we're looking to flow through the system this year.
Great. Thanks, Mate.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Halliday for closing remarks.
Great. Thank you all for attending the call. It was a reasonably tough 2024, but a low point for Ampol on the cyclical parts of our business. Convenience retail and Z continue to perform really strongly, and we see strong growth out of those parts of the business in addition to a recovery in earnings as the market looks more constructive through 2025 on the cyclical factors. So thank you for joining, and look forward to catching up with you soon.