Today, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to ALS Limited's full-year 2025 results investor presentation. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Malcolm Dean, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ALS. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much, and good morning, and thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us for today's briefing. It is really good to be back with all of you to share what we believe has been a strong fiscal year 2025 financial performance for ALS. As usual, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Stuart Hutton. Earlier today, we released our fiscal year 2025 results and an equity raising to fund an extensive hub laboratory network expansion and our future in organic growth, which we will cover off after the fiscal year 2025 results. We will aim to hit the highlights and not necessarily talk through every single slide. This presentation will run for approximately 40-45 minutes, and we will follow with a Q&A session.
Let's start by running through the highlights of our full-year results, and we are pleased to have delivered results in line with our strategic plan. All in all, we have made strong progress in achieving growth as well as continuing to build resilience into the portfolio. During 2025, we produced strong revenue growth of 16% to AUD 3 million, while the underlying EBIT increased by 4.7%, reflecting the strength of the diversified and resilient operating model. The EBIT margin, excluding recent acquisition, was robust at 19.1%. In commodities, the minerals result demonstrated the strength of the operating model and the increasingly diversified revenue mix. The minerals margin was maintained above 31% in a year marked by fluctuation and variable sample flow, particularly in the first half. Industrial materials deliver strong results across all the businesses, in particular oil and lubricants and coal.
Life Sciences deliver robust performance with industry-leading organic growth of 9.8% in Environmental and a solid Food result. The Environmental business continues to benefit from supported industry megatrends, including increased testing demand for PFAS. Integration of Life Sciences acquisitions are on track. Vesseling and Nuvisan are ahead of plan, while York is performing in line with expectations. We are enhancing operations and customer experience across all divisions through innovation, advanced technology, and our proprietary data solutions. We are pleased to report continued strong cash conversion this year, reaching 95% of our underlying EBITDA. As you know, in ALS, we remain guided by our vision to be the global leader in the discipline of scientific analysis in pursuit of a better world for all while keeping safety front of mind. Health and safety underpins everything that we do and remains top priority in every aspect of the business.
This is essential to protect our people, to drive performance, and to build trust with our clients. ALS continues to deliver leading safety performance well ahead of industry benchmarks. Our strong safety culture is not only a core value, it's a key enabler of financial performance. Our business delivers strong overall revenue growth of 16% in fiscal year 2025, and organic growth was solid at 4.9% in line with our guidance. Underlying EBIT grew by 4.7%, 7.7% on a constant currency basis, while the margin declined to 17.2%, reflecting the dilution from recent acquisitions and cyclical pricing pressures in minerals. However, if we exclude the recent acquisitions, our underlying margin was 19.1% in line with the fiscal 2027 strategic plan objectives. The return on capital employed declined to 18.9% again, reflecting the impact of recent acquisitions.
Underlying net profit after taxes declined 1.4% to AUD 312.1 million, noting that the NPAR increased by 2.8% on a constant currency basis. Our cash generation, balance sheet, and liquidity remain strong, supporting implementation of our capital framework and continued growth journey moving forward. Reflecting the company's solid performance, cash generation, liquidity, and supportive outlook, the board has declared a final dividend of AUD 19.7 per share, which equates to a 60% payout ratio. Let's now turn to the operational performance across our key businesses. Let's start with commodities. In minerals, we saw modest organic revenue growth of 0.5%, driven by improved revenue mix in geochemistry and an uptick in sample volumes, particularly in Q4. Metallurgy was subdued, especially during the first half, with a modest improvement during the second half of the year.
Industrial materials performed well with strong organic revenue growth of 11.3% and margin improvements across all businesses. Combined, the margin in commodities business was down 116 basis points to 28.2%. Again, important to note the solid margins in minerals, even in this environment of 31.1%. Moving to life sciences, the environmental business saw strong organic revenue growth of 9.8%, with low to mid-teen organic growth across APAC and EMEA regions. As expected, environmental margins were impacted by recent acquisitions, while pleasingly, margins in the legacy businesses improved. In food, organic revenue was up 6%, with low double-digit growth within our largest European markets, offsetting softness in other regions. Finally, our pharma business saw organic revenue decline by 2.6%, with mixed performance across operations. Excluding Nuvisan, the pharmaceutical business saw organic revenue growth of 1.8%. Combined, the operating margin in life sciences business was down 57 basis points to 14.5%.
However, excluding acquisitions, the margin in the legacy business improved by 62 basis points to 17.1%. Let's touch briefly on how we are placed in what we think are turbulent times. Everyone on the call is aware of the heightening macroeconomic uncertainty of current times. There are three key points we would like to make about this. First, ALS is well-positioned to navigate current macroeconomic uncertainty, supported by a well-developed hub-and-spoke model, predominantly variable cost structures, and low exposure to tariff-sensitive inputs, with consumables representing only 10%-15% of our total costs. Second, we are progressively reducing business cyclicality by diversifying beyond mining exploration into resilient high-growth sectors like mine site and environmental that is now our largest revenue division. Finally, ALS is a truly global player with diverse revenue across all major geographies.
The U.S. represents 12% of the company's revenue, while China is less than 1%. The next slide outlines the strong revenue growth delivered in fiscal year 2025 for a total of AUD 3 million. In the interest of time, we'll move straight to the details of divisional performance, starting with commodities, which demonstrates resilience in our recovering market. Total revenue for commodities increased by 0.2%. Organic growth in geochemistry and industrial materials was offset by adverse effects. On a constant currency basis, revenue growth was 2.5%. The underlying EBIT margin declined to 28.2%. Pleasingly, the minerals margins remained strong at 31.1%, reflecting steady lowering of cyclicality, flexibility of the cost base, and improved revenue mix. Pricing was compressed during the year but finished more positively as volume improved.
Reduced sample volumes in exploration were partially offset through an increase in market share, ongoing value-added services take-up, and growth in downstream activity. Metallurgy was abused, with some improvements on the second half. The following slide provides a clear picture of geochemistry performance over the year, including the positive momentum we saw in Q4 and into the start of fiscal year 2026. During the first half of 2025, we flagged volatility in sample volumes. Pleasingly, the full year ended up with a 2.4% increase, an encouraging shift after last year's 8.4% decline. We saw strong volumes, especially in Q4, across most key regions, including Australia, Asia, and South America. North America was slightly down for the year but showed signs of recovery towards the end of the year. Exploration activity is being supported by strong commodity prices, the energy transition, and emerging trends like resource nationalism.
We have also experienced solid business development activity, which continues to reinforce our key position in the market. Our client mix has shifted towards majors, given funding constraints for juniors, though we have seen some recent positive increase in equity ratings in that segment. Our commodity mix reflects the recent uptick in gold activity and is consistent with global macro trends linked to electrification, battery metals, and rare earth. As we've outlined over the last two years, our minerals business is on a strategic journey to expand downstream, an important step in reducing revenue and earnings cyclicality. With minerals exploration testing services made up 73% of revenue in 2025, with new service offerings and downstream growing at an accelerated rate. High-performance metals continue to see increased uptake, with a three-year revenue CAGR of 28.5%.
We continue to develop, enhance, and refine HPMs, and we are optimistic about the opportunities these unique ALS methodologies continue to provide to clients. On the downstream side, mine site is on a similar accelerated trajectory with a three-year CAGR of 22%. Metallurgy has a three-year CAGR of 8%, which is a solid performance considering the soft market conditions experienced during 2025. In summary, we are very pleased with your efforts to maintain minerals' EBIT margins through the cycle, with the margin remaining above 30% for the fourth consecutive year. Let's now move to the other segments within commodities. I will just mention briefly some comments on industrial materials. Industrial materials grew organically by 11.3% in 2025, with margin expansion across all businesses. To call out, oil and lubricants had a very strong fiscal year 2025, which delivered 12.6% organic growth.
Growth was driven by new client swings in North America and continued solid performance in Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. We have also begun expanding through greenfield sites in the U.S., with more underway in both Latin America and Europe. With that, now let's turn to life sciences, that is the larger of our two divisions. The life sciences divisions account for 64% of the group's revenue during fiscal year 2025, up from 58% last year. During 2025, we experienced strong growth led by environmental and food, with total revenue growing by 27.4%, organic growth of 6.6%, and contributions from recent acquisitions were partially offset by adverse effects movements. The underlying EBIT margin was 14.5% and was checked by recent acquisitions. Environmental delivered market-leading organic growth of 9.8%, with mid-teen organic growth in EMEA and low double-digit growth in APAC and Canada.
On food, volume and price growth in Europe supported a strong 6% organic growth. Pharma had a mixed performance across legacy operations, with improvements from Nuvisan. With the impact from recent acquisitions, it's important to look at life sciences performance through three lenses. Total division results, which we just covered, the underlying performance of the legacy business, and a high-level view of how the acquisitions are tracking against plan. Let's now take a closer look at the underlying performance. As I just said, life sciences organic revenue growth was 6.6%. Excluding Nuvisan, Vesseling, and York, legacy life sciences organic growth was 8%. Legacy EBIT margin was 17.1%, an increase of 62 basis points from 2024. The margin improvement was led by the environmental business.
While the recent acquisitions reduced margins in the short term, we are targeting continued improvement in Life Sciences margins with ongoing integrations and optimizations of these recent acquisitions. Consistent with our value creation framework, we are focused on delivering the expected 15% return on capital in the medium term. To touch on Vesseling, this acquisition performed well during the year, with both revenue and earnings exceeding expectations. In fiscal year 2025, our focus was on aligning the cost base and initiating the rollout of the operating model. The cost-out program was largely completed and delivered successfully, with most of the benefits expected to start flowing through in fiscal year 2026. We are now entering the second phase of integration, which centers on embedding best practices, advising our operating model, and accelerating growth. Moving to York, in the northeast of the United States, performance here was in line with expectations.
There has been incremental margin improvement, and ongoing focus will be on cost-out, with business case synergies to continue during fiscal year 2026. I want to take a few moments to showcase our environmental business, which is the largest revenue stream in the group and has consistently delivered leading organic growth with an 8.4% CAGR over the last three years. ALS is the second-largest provider of environmental testing globally. We have over 170 environmental locations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australasia. Environmental is a decentralized market segment that is driven by regulation and enforcement at local, state, and country level. These remain powerful growth drivers for the business. We enjoy operational leverage through our regional hub-and-spoke model, supported by global capabilities development and best practices sharing across our global lab network.
Our strategy focuses on expanding our presence in high-GDP per capita economies, where regulatory standards and enforcements are strong, and where we can achieve or maintain a top-three market position. Let me make a quick comment around PFAS and the momentum we're experiencing in this market. PFAS remain an accelerator for the environmental business, delivering organic growth at 2.5x the remaining environmental perimeter. We are confident we have built strong PFAS capabilities across our portfolio that will continue to support not only PFAS environmental demand but also other services like packaging, cosmetics, and food. Let me turn to Nuvisan, where we are pleased to report that the transformation program is not only on track but ahead of plan. Nuvisan has great capabilities, systems, and relationships already in place, and we are slowly leveraging these across the broader pharmaceutical business.
As we know, we have been intent on executing the transformation plan in this business, and this is paying off. During the year of full ownership, we implemented annualized gross savings of approximately EUR 19 million by the end of 2025, of the total target of EUR 25 million by the end of 2026. The P&L benefit in 2025 was of EUR 11 million. We are on track to complete the transformation program and realize the EUR 25 million exit runway by the end of the first half of fiscal year 2026. This is six months ahead of plan. This is no small achievement, so let me extend a special thank you to the team that is leading these efforts. Nuvisan made a positive earnings contribution to the group in 2025, and it's expected to maintain ongoing profitable growth. We're very pleased with how the sales pipeline is building.
As you can see on the right side of the slide, third-party revenue now represents 56% of Nuvisan's total revenue against 48% in 2023. To illustrate the strength of the year, closed sales opportunities grew by approximately 20% in value during fiscal year 2025. With that, let me hand over the call to Stuart, who will take you through the financials.
Thanks, Malcolm, and good morning, everyone. In short, ALS has delivered solid financial results amid mixed market conditions. Malcolm has already touched on the main callouts here, so I will move straight along to talk about margins. As noted earlier, the group margin contracted by approximately 160 basis points on a constant currency basis. This reflects the impact from acquisitions and cyclical pressures in minerals.
Commodities margin declined by approximately 95 basis points at constant currency, reflecting reduced exploration activities through the first half and some market pricing pressure, which we have referred to before. Life sciences organic margin grew by approximately 105 basis points. Scope dilution from the Nuvisan and Vesseling acquisitions contributed to overall decline of approximately 60 basis points. The adverse impact from FX of 25 basis points for the group was largely due to unfavorable currency impacts in high-margin emerging markets in the commodities business. Now moving to capital management. The group continues to deliver on key objectives for the ALS value creation framework: growth, strong cash generation, shareholder returns, and balance sheet strength. Leverage of 2.3x was at the upper end of our targeted range of between 1.7 and 2.3 times, but well within lender covenants, as was EBITDA interest cover.
We expected leverage to start reducing in the second half, though, or through a constant currency lender, did by 0.1 times. Moving to growth investments, total capital expenditure was AUD 165 million, which represents approximately 150% of depreciation and 5.5% of revenue. Roughly 70% of CapEx was for growth, with the balance for maintenance activity or maintenance investments. We'll go into more detail on the capital investment plan for the lab upgrades after covering the FY 2025 result. The board has declared a final dividend of AUD 19.06 per share, franked at 30%, and representing a payout ratio of 60% of underlying impact. That is the top of our stated range. On an after-franking basis, this dividend payout is in line with the PCP. Moving to cash, where we saw strong cash generation. EBITDA cash conversion increased to 95% and reflects continuous improvement in all facets of our working capital management.
The increased M&A expenditure relates to funding for life sciences acquisitions in the USA and Western Europe, while good progress was made on both DSO and DPO metrics in our working capital management. We expect cash spend on acquisition integration programs and ongoing investment in ERP systems to reduce from the levels in FY 2025 in FY 2026. Turning to leverage, at 2.3x , leverage remained at the top end of our internal target range, reflecting the investment and integration agenda. The depreciation of the Australian dollar through the second half adversely impacted reported FY 2025 leverage. As I mentioned before, applying the FX rate at the end of the first half through the second half, the leverage ratio would have been 2.2x , so it would have started declining as we were reducing as we had expected.
The focus remains on solid cash generation in the next 24 months as the integration of the acquisitions are completed, and the ROCE on those acquisitions improves towards our targeted levels. Post the equity raise, pro forma leverage at 31 March would have been 1.7x , so a reduction of 0.6x . While obvious, we are also calling out that the timing of investing the AUD 230 million organic growth capital that's been talked about today and timing of any bolt-on M&A acquisitions will clearly impact leverage over the next two to three years. Let me briefly introduce the property investment agenda. To protect and enable medium to longer-term growth to be met, a substantial brownfield capital investment plan of AUD 230 million was approved during half two of FY 2025.
This will enable future expansion and optimize our lab network at four of our key hub labs in Lima, in Peru, Sydney here in Australia, Bangkok in Thailand, and Prague in the Czech Republic. We will circle back more on this as we discuss the equity raise in a few moments' time. Now moving to our liquidity position. In May 2025, the group further extended its debt maturity profile, completing a rollover of revolving medium-term debt facilities totaling $250 million. The pro forma weighted average debt maturity is now 4.7 years, and average cost of debt is a touch over 4%. The total underlying interest cost on borrowings and leases was approximately AUD 82 million in FY 2025.
This presents a good guide for interest expense for FY 2026, but obviously, investors will notice that with the surplus proceeds of the equity raise should be successful today, being initially used to repay bank debt, the expected reduction in interest expense in FY 2026 is approximately AUD 12 million-AUD 14 million. Now moving to corporate costs and how these have evolved. Corporate costs were well controlled and in line with expectations at 2.2% of revenue. The increase in corporate costs versus the prior period reflects increased higher people costs, sustainability-related carbon credits and compliance, as well as additional support in the procurement and strategy plans. Our quest for improvement of operating leverage of the corporate functions continues. Looking ahead, corporate costs are expected to remain at approximately 2.2% of revenue in FY 2026.
For those of you, I think most of you are aware of this, we are also relocating our operational headquarters to Madrid in mid-2025. Malcolm and I will both be making the move along with other key executives. The corporate head office in Brisbane remains in place. With that, I will pass back to Malcolm. Signor Malcolm.
Good afternoon, Stuart. I promise I will not do the rest of the call in Spanish. Let's recap the key performance highlights from the year and, more importantly, share the outlook and priorities for 2026. Many of you are well familiar with the value creation framework, which we introduced last year to support growth and profitability, with the ambition to deliver top quartile shareholders' return. The framework combines a risk-weighted approach to capital allocation that will protect, extend, and expand the portfolio.
Overall, the group is targeting mid to high single-digit organic revenue growth in the medium-long term and steady improvement in operating margins and strong ongoing cash generation. Allocation of growth capital is deployed seeking a minimum ROCE of 15%, ensuring maximum growth and returns for shareholders over the medium term. As demonstrated in fiscal year 2025, our value creation framework is actively guiding both inorganic and organic capital allocation, with more than 70% of the overall organic investments directed to minerals and the environmental business. The next slide shows our fiscal year 2025 scorecard by business stream. Most of these items have already been covered. I just want to call out one point within pharmaceuticals on the right side of the slide. During Q4 of fiscal year 2025, the Mexican FDA issued a new regulation that released certain pharmaceutical products imported into Mexico from local testing requirements.
Minimization efforts are underway. However, this change poses a AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million EBIT risk during fiscal year 2026. With solid performance across the portfolio in 2025, let's now shift focus to our digital agenda. This is an area where we continue to build momentum and deliver meaningful impact. ALS is an innovative data-driven company, and we continue to invest across every area of our business to drive growth, efficiency, and value creation. From day-to-day testing improvements to the rollout of our proprietary LEED systems that we are targeting 95% coverage of key businesses in the next three years, we are advancing our operating model. We are also deploying robotics to enhance safety and productivity. Most importantly, we're using data to improve client experience, margins, and unlock new revenue streams.
We'll share more about our innovation journey at the Investor Day later this year, but the key message is simple. ALS is committed to embedding technology and innovation into everything we do and lay the foundation for what is coming in 2026 and beyond. It's important to acknowledge that we have a resilient operating model to navigate any near-term uncertainty related to macroeconomic conditions as a result of the ongoing tariffs announcements. We remain focused on delivering top-tier service to our customers consistently, safely, and reliably. The fiscal year 2026 priorities are ongoing successful integration of recent acquisitions toward targeted ROCE hurdles, complete phase two of Vesseling integration, and the separate Nuvisan transformation plan six months earlier than what was originally expected. The expected incremental gross EBIT benefit from Nuvisan is of $ 11 million in 2026.
We're also looking to the expansion of our laboratory network through execution of the capital investment plan. We are looking to minimize the AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million impact on EBIT from the change in Mexican pharma testing regulations that I noted earlier. For the wider group, we are targeting 5%-7% organic revenue growth and margin expansion. The commodity segment is positively exposed to recent volume tailwinds, which are showing a positive return on exploration investments, primarily by majors and mid-tiers. The sample volume recovery we saw predominantly in Q4 continued at the beginning of this current fiscal year 2026, with positive momentum in Central Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. At the same time, we also continue experiencing a recovery in sample volumes in North America. At this point, that full peak season has not yet fully kicked off.
It is more modest than in other regions we just referred to. We have reasonable confidence that the positive sample volume trend will continue for the first half of 2026. However, we expect incremental margin improvement from the positive sample volume growth. The price pressure encountering minerals in fiscal year 2025 will largely offset the full potential operating leverage benefit in 2026. Within industrial materials, we remain focused on accelerating organic growth in the oil and lubricant division, supported by new greenfield developments across multiple regions. Regarding life sciences, current market conditions support a continuation in organic growth. For 2026, the group is targeting margin improvements of 20-40 basis points within legacy operations, which, of course, is in addition to the incremental benefit of the Nuvisan transformation. Environmental maintained its strong momentum through Q4 and into the early part of this fiscal year.
Capital allocation and minimum ROCE targets will continue in line with the value creation framework. The group has pivoted to organic capital allocation in several key hub locations to accelerate medium-term growth in our core focus segments. Looking medium-term, subject to macroeconomic conditions, the group remains on track to meet the fiscal year 2027 financial targets. This includes growing revenue to AUD 3.3 billion and growing underlying EBIT to AUD 600 million, with a group EBIT margin floor of 19%, excluding the impact of recent acquisitions. We will provide a further update at our ATM, as well as the Investor Day in July of this year. We have taken you through fiscal year 2025 results, and we share the outlook for the year. Let us move now to providing more color on the proposed pipeline of growth opportunities in front of ALS and how we will fund this.
We are very excited about the strong pipeline of growth opportunities we see across ALS. Let us take you through some of the details. Before, I have to be clear on this, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to discuss details around the placement other than the basic terms referred to in this presentation. Please refrain from asking questions about more specific details of the placement as well. We are legally restricted from answering those questions on this one. As noted earlier, we're planning to redevelop four of our key laboratory hubs, two brownfields, all of which leverage existing sites. These upgrades will protect the business we have today, significantly increase testing capacity, and improve operational efficiency, supporting long-term sustainable growth. 70% of the investments will be made during fiscal year 2026 and 2027.
To fund these developments, we are raising AUD 350 million through an institutional placement with an additional SPP targeting up to AUD 40 million for our eligible retail shareholders. At the same time, we continue to see active consolidation across the tech sector. Proceeds above the AUD 230 million used for the lab upgrades will be used to pursue bolt-on and M&A opportunities over the next 24 months. While we remain committed to our de-leveraging path, these opportunities have come together at once. We believe it's the right time to strengthen our balance sheet so we can move decisively on both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. As most of you know, ALS operates in the attractive testing, inspection, and certification industry. Our portfolio is unique and diversified, and we are focused on those areas where ALS has a clear competitive advantage and where we see significant demand.
Our disciplined approach to value creation is built on strong organic growth, complemented by targeted bolt-on M&A. We are delivering on our commitments, tracking well towards fiscal year 2027 objectives with a clear disciplined strategy. The testing market within the broader tech industry is large, growing, and evolving, driven by global megatrends such as regulation, sustainability, electrification, and supply chain complexity. ALS is focused on the testing segment, which represents over half of the tech market, and it's increasingly shifting towards outsourcing. By 2030, outsourced testing is expected to make up to nearly 50% of the total market. We are well positioned in this space, currently leveraged to around 30% of the market, and we see significant opportunity to grow both organic and through continued industry consolidation.
As mentioned before, ALS is a leading global player in the tech industry with a well-diversified and resilient portfolio, both in terms of end markets and geography. Our environmental and minerals business are global leaders and together account for approximately 73% of the group's revenue. The remaining portfolio, comprising industrial materials, food, and pharmaceuticals, adds further diversity and long-term growth potential. This scale and balance supports a strong earnings profile and attractive returns, underpinned by a disciplined focus on ROCE. ALS has a strong track record of creating shareholders' value. Since 2018, we've delivered approximately 11% compound annual revenue growth and a total shareholders' return of 189%, well above industry benchmarks. These results reflect the strength of our portfolio, the disciplined execution of our strategy, and our focus on delivering sustainable long-term value. We've covered the disciplined value creation framework, so we'll skip to the next slide.
This next slide captures the exciting opportunities ahead for ALS. Over the past few years, we've been strategically developing our hub-and-spoke operating model, and we now have a clear path to unlock further value in two key areas. First, we are investing AUD 230 million to upgrade four major hub laboratories across key regions where we see strong organic growth and have a leading position and a competitive advantage. These upgrades will significantly increase capacity, support continued market share gains, and enhance efficiency, especially in minerals. Importantly, these investments also give us greater flexibility on our cost base during future cycles and reduce risks around environmental lab accreditations by securing long-term infrastructure stability. Second, ALS has a proven track record of disciplined, accredited bolt-on acquisitions. We see a strong pipeline of opportunities to add scale and capabilities to the group.
This rate will give us the balance sheet flexibility to act decisively as these opportunities arise, ideally enabling bilateral deals where we can move quickly and create long-term value. Let's start with how we plan to deploy the AUD 230 million investment. Let me start by saying that these upgrades will enable, in the first instance, to protect the business we have in those regions, and most importantly, enable us to participate in market growth for the medium to long term. As many of you know, ALS pioneered the hub-and-spoke model in the tech industry. This model enables us to deliver standardized, high-quality service to clients across regions while leveraging best practices, technology, and systems globally. It also provides operating flexibility by allowing samples to be tested across different hubs, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and business continuity.
Our global lab network today includes more than 200 spokes and 24 hubs. In minerals, we run a mature global hub-and-spoke model thanks to the centralized workflows and global demand. In contrast, in environmental business, we have developed strong regional hub networks due to local regulatory drivers and more limited cross-border sample movements. Strategically, this model gives ALS four key advantages. It allows us to adapt quickly to changes in regional demands, delivers strong operating leverage, supports global clients with consistent service, and diversifies our revenue base. With that in mind, Stuart will walk you through the four hub locations where we propose to expand through this space.
Thanks, Malcolm. Let me begin by emphasizing that managing laboratory expense is core to ALS, and we do this every year as part of our normal operating AUD 150 million-AUD 170 million CapEx.
We have a strong track record of delivering projects on time and on budget while achieving expected returns. In this instance, we are investing in four important hub locations, three in environmental and one in minerals. Given their critical role in our network and the long-term nature of these sites, we prefer to own these labs than lease them. These four projects share three key characteristics. Firstly, they are in markets where we have a leading position and right to win, which supports continued organic growth with current facilities nearing capacity. They will double the size of the existing laboratory footprint. That is the second point. Third, they will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and automation to enhance efficiency and scalability. The use of funds will be split roughly one-third for land and two-thirds for construction and equipment.
Importantly, all land has already been secured, and these projects have been carefully planned over the past 12- 18 months and in some cases longer. The capital will be deployed progressively, 40% in FY 2026 and approximately 30% in FY 2027, and the remainder between FY 2028 and FY 2030. Let me share some more detail on each of the four projects. Firstly, Lima, in Peru. This is a high-growth market where ALS has a strong position, and the new hub will be critical to supporting that momentum. ALS Geochemistry has been operating in Lima, Peru since 1997 and in the current locations since 2001. We will be consolidating three separate facilities, including sample preparation and the analytical labs, into a single modern site, enabling us to capitalize on future upcycles and increase market share in the Central and South American region, which this hub lab serves.
This will significantly improve workflow, efficiency, logistics access, and overall client service. Importantly, the new site also provides room for future expansion beyond this investment. Secondly, Smithfield in Sydney, which has been owned by ALS for more than 25 years. This is one of our flagship environmental facilities and one of the top three contributors in terms of revenue and EBIT in the environmental division. This site is a key hub lab for developing industry-leading methods, including PFAS testing, and central to the global rollout of our environmental systems and capabilities. The proposal involves converting the existing building into a purpose-built laboratory, then redeveloping the existing lab for offices and common areas. Construction has already started on this site.
Thirdly, the Prague facility, which is the second-largest environmental lab by volume and a crucial European hub for environmental and food testing, serving over 70 countries and processing approximately 25,000 samples weekly. The facility is approaching capacity. To ensure future continuity and resolve logistical issues which we have at the current site, ALS has secured the adjacent plot of land, which perhaps opportunistically became available. This will enable the company to further expand the lab's analytical capabilities through new methodologies and technologies, as well as free up capacity in other European labs. It will also support the consolidation of two other divisional sites in Prague into a single modern facility aligned with the ALS way. Finally, Bangkok in Thailand is a significant life sciences business, representing a strong environmental unit and the third-largest geography within the food business.
ALS Bangkok is the hub laboratory for Thailand, performing food and environmental microbiology and chemistry analysis with approximately 350 employees on site. The lab has been in its existing facility for 14 years, during which time revenues have quadrupled. There is no room for further growth in the current site, and hence there is a risk of business stagnation and loss of key talent and also leakage to competitors. Each of these sites plays a critical role in our global network and are designed to support sustained growth, efficiency, and technical leadership across our key markets. Now moving on to the sequencing of the developments. For three of the four developments, the location of the new site has been identified, while Sydney involves redeveloping an existing owned facility.
In Lima, we have already signed an agreement to acquire the land with settlement due in the first half of FY 2026, with designs and approvals well progressed and construction planned to start immediately thereafter. We anticipate construction to take approximately one year and target commissioning in the first half of FY 2027. In Sydney, we have secured all the planning approval and the construction has commenced. We expect to complete the laboratory upgrade by the end of FY 2026, with commissioning shortly thereafter. In Bangkok, we plan on completing the acquisition of the land in the first half of FY 2026, finalizing design and permits, and commence construction by the end of FY 2026, with a construction timeframe of approximately two years. Prague is a slightly longer-dated project. As I said, the land has become available opportunistically, so we've pounced on it.
We plan to commence construction in half two of FY 2027 and commission the new facility in half two of FY 2030. We'll obviously endeavor to do it faster than that if we can. Once we secure the land, which we will settle in June, the June 2025 quarter, there are some demolition works with completion required, with completion expected by the end of FY2026. We will carefully manage the transitioning from the existing hubs to the new ones to ensure minimal disruption to the business, as we have done before. In aggregate, the projects are expected to meet our ROCE target of 15% in the first full year of earnings post-commissioning at the final new laboratory, which, to be clear, is FY2031 or calendar FY2030. Our teams are working diligently to ensure that we stay on schedule to ensure the success of the projects.
We have partnered with leading real estate consultancies that have and will support us across the entire process. We have a solid track record of delivering projects on time and on budget and meeting target returns or targeted returns within the expected timeframe. To provide some additional context of the strategic importance of these sites, in Lima, Peru, our minerals hub lab for geochemistry in Latin America has shown high single-digit revenue KDR since FY 2018. This investment will capitalize on the increased investment in the Latin American mining sector, including for minerals such as copper, gold, and battery metals. In Sydney, Australia, our environmental hub has demonstrated mid-single-digit revenue KDR over the same period, driven by significant regulatory tailwinds and innovation in new methods by ourselves.
Similarly, our Bangkok, Thailand hub for environmental and food testing has experienced strong market demand due to more stringent food safety regulations and increasing government outsourcing in that country. Lastly, our Prague, Czech Republic hub is the largest environmental testing lab in Europe, with double-digit revenue CAGR over the last five years or so. This expansion will accelerate growth in target regions and support market entry into Benelux and Eastern Europe, and as I mentioned before, will free up capacity in other adjacent countries. I hope from this summary that you as investors understand the rationale for why we are undertaking these investments and why we are doing it now. All are highly strategic hubs with the development demand driven in line with our growth ambition. With that, I'll now hand back to Malcolm to conclude the presentation.
Thanks, Stuart.
Let's shift our focus to M&A opportunities, of which we intend to deploy in time AUD 1 20 million of the total AUD 350 million placement space. We have a pipeline of M&A opportunities. In the last 12 months, we've reviewed approximately 80 opportunities, and we are primarily focused on bolt-on opportunities and have had initial discussions with a subset of these targets and are actively evaluating a handful of priority opportunities totaling $150 million of cumulative revenue. We continue to see significant consolidation opportunity in our priority capital allocation segments. These are largely and rapidly growing markets that are underpinned by strong underlying behaviors. Both minerals and environmental markets are highly attractive and growing, well supported by microchips. We remain disciplined in our approach to M&A and apply our value creation framework in our assessment of M&A opportunities. There are three layers to our assessment.
The first is whether the asset fits in our portfolio and whether ALS is the natural owner. Second, does the opportunity align with our capital allocation priorities in line with the value creation framework? Risk-weighted growth will be prioritized for environmental, minerals, and industrial materials. Lastly, we target a minimum ROCE of 15% in the third or fifth year across investments. On these next slides, we map out the expected financial outcomes of the capital deployment strategy. Of the equity raised, we plan to deploy AUD 230 million towards organic investments in the laboratory network. The investments will be phased with the majority of the capital deployed within 24 months. As mentioned earlier, we expect aggregate returns to meet or exceed the 15% ROCE hurdle in the first full year post-commissioning of the new labs. The remaining proceeds will be used to pay down variable components of debt.
We'll generate interest savings before being deployed into future growth initiatives, including M&A opportunities within the next 24 months. We anticipate mid-single-digit EPS accretion based on run rate earnings from these three laboratories, which is fiscal year 2030 for Lima and Smithfield, fiscal year 2031 for Bangkok, and fiscal year 2033 for Prague. Further, EPS accretion beyond mid-single digit for the deployment of remaining proceeds in future growth initiatives that meet ALS targeted return hurdles. On a pro forma, 31st March 2025 basis, our leverage would be at 1.7x , which is at the lower end of the targeted range of 1.7-2.3x . Consistent with our previous messaging, we expect leverage to reduce to fall as ALS grow and begins to realize incremental earnings from these and other recent investments. To finish, we are very pleased to deliver another strong set of results.
We have carried strong momentum into the start of fiscal year 2026, and we remain positive around the outlook for our business as we look to target 5%-7% organic growth across the business, along with improved volumes and margins. ALS is a resilient global leader in the testing sector, with diverse markets poised to capture growth opportunities from industry megatrends. We have a clear strategic advantage through our leading hub-and-spoke model and are proud to hold leadership positions globally in minerals and environmental and regional strength in food, pharmaceutical, and industrial materials, with today's announced investments in the new hub developments to further entrench these positions. I am very proud to lead a strong global team and culture with our innovative data-driven approach to continue to provide growth opportunities and enable us to better support our clients.
Finally, we have diverse earning profiles, are disciplined capital allocators, and ultimately want to deliver strong cash generation to maximize returns to you, our shareholders. To finalize, before we open the floor for questions, I want to thank the entire ALS team for the continued dedication and commitment. I sincerely appreciate everyone's efforts. With that, I apologize for the long call. We thought it was important to cover both presentations, and we'll open the floor for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. One moment for our first question. We will now take our first question from the line of John Purtell from Macquarie. Please ask your question, John.
Good morning, Malcolm and Stuart.
Just two questions, if I can, please. The first question on minerals, I mean, it sounds like Australia and South America are driving the recovery so far. Are you expecting recovery from other regions going forward? I suppose, particularly your outlook for 2026. Are you assuming any recovery from the juniors as well, I suppose, particularly your first half outlook?
Thanks, John, for the question. Yeah, we called out that the recovery was coming from South America. That is correct, and Australia, but also we mentioned Central Asia that we are having good momentum. In North America, I think we are seeing mixed figures, especially probably the USA and Mexico on a different path than Canada. Within Canada, Eastern Canada is stronger than Western Canada.
This recovery overall is coming from majors and mid-years, and we've seen that probably the commodity mix is slowly slightly higher gold than what we've seen last year. In terms of your question around juniors, probably we have seen recently some junior developments, but it's a little bit too early for us to say whether the full recovery will be pushed through juniors or continued expenditures by majors and mid-years. Did I answer your ques
tion, John? Thanks, Malcolm. Just a second question on the environmental. I mean, you've talked to, obviously, we're seeing the 10% growth here. You've talked to that as industry leading. What do you see the drivers of that above-average growth? I mean, presumably share gains, and you've got obviously a strong position in PFAS. Are there any other factors to call out?
I mean, we are very excited about the environmental opportunity, and I think we called out that the KDR of the last three years was 8.4%. It is a business that has been experiencing not only top-line growth but steady, consistent margin improvement across all regions. What is driving that? I think that you called it out. I would say that a third of that is pricing, and that pricing discipline that we all gained through the COVID era is continuing to be very much embedded in our operations. Obviously, probably in the near future, the tailwind of price will be less than in the previous three years, but still, the discipline is there. Second, I would say that there is a component of market share.
We've been successfully deploying, I think, a very reliable service, and when your service is reliable, clients tend to accept your proposals at a different price point. We have been able to differentiate our services on quality as well. The third one is we continue seeing continued pushing on the enforcement of existing regulations. I will not call out new regulations, but the existing regulations and the enforcement of those regulations are consistently and continuing pushing for more work. That has been consistent in most of the regions, including the U.S., that the state regulations are still there and the enforcement is still very much vivid.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, John.
Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Riley from UBS. Please ask your question, Nathan.
Thanks for taking my questions. Just curious to dive a little bit deeper into the minerals testing volumes.
Obviously, I had a look at your chart there in terms of monthly trends. In terms of maybe how the fourth quarter tracked for you, can you just give us an idea on monthly trends? I'm guessing March was a reasonably strong month for volume growth. Can you talk through what you saw there and to the extent that you can in terms of those April and May-to-date trends, please?
Yeah, thanks, Nathan. I think that you're going to be happy that that chart is on the first couple of slides of the presentation, and you don't need a big magnifying glass to read the trends. I think your quote is very—what you said is very true. I think that the momentum or the improved momentum started, I would say, at the beginning of Q4 of our fiscal year.
Normally, the Christmas season is a slower season than what we experienced this year. We've seen mining activities probably resuming earlier than previous years, so that's number one. Those sample volumes, I think, continued steady and helped us to rebuild inventory and work in progress in the labs. That gave us also a little bit of a change in momentum in terms of pricing. I think we didn't mention this, but at the beginning of the calendar year, we raised prices by around 4%-5%. Also, the current demand is helping us to be a little bit more successful with pricing than what we had on the previous years. What we said during the call, we are seeing continued momentum. If you see the sample volume chart, there's a clear change, I would say, in Q4.
That is what we've seen since the beginning of the fiscal year without any major concerns that change. We are calling out that we are quite confident of H1 revenue because that's the visibility that we have. In these macroeconomic conditions, it's very hard for us to give or have certainty beyond that point. The confidence right now in terms of revenue is quite strong.
Thank you. Final question. What do you think has characterized that volume growth? Are you seeing outsized volume growth coming through from your mine site market share penetration strategy, or are you seeing, I guess, the benefits of gold majors reinvesting in some of their exploration programs given the strong free cash flow generation that they'd be generating with elevated gold prices?
I would say, Nathan, three things. The first one is the mix of services.
Clearly, the uptake of HBM is still there, and in this environment of less budget constraints, it's quite compelling the outlook that we have. You rightly called the mine site. I think we mentioned during the call that the mine site had a 22% KDR in the last three years. Clearly, we're seeing ongoing momentum. The third one is you're absolutely right. We've seen an increase in gold activities through our labs. Probably that was the main driver. In South America, I would say that the critical metals are driving the momentum and not so much gold. Does anything to that? No.
Thank you.
You're welcome, Nathan.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Megan Kirby-Lewis from Barrenjoey . Please go ahead, Megan.
Thank you. Morning, guys. My first question just on the outlook for growth CapEx.
Just noting that it was AUD 120 million in 2025. How will that look the next two years with inclusion of the Brownfields Lab investment?
Hey, Megan, thanks for the question. Look, I'd say to you the sort of level of operating CapEx that we've seen in recent years will continue on. The AUD 120 million, I think the total CapEx issue is around AUD 160 million-AUD 170 million. See that as the level that that will remain at, and then these hub lab investments are on top of that. Perhaps historically, because we haven't had the magnitude of these projects all happening at the same time, where we've been investing in our labs for minor expansions, that's just been funded out of that sort of AUD 150 million of CapEx. These four projects are in addition to what would be seen as an ongoing level of operating CapEx.
Hope that answers your question.
No, it does. That's clear. Thank you. Just to clarify, just the commentary on the minerals pricing that will be offsetting the operating leverage. If you could just explain simply, I guess it just sounds like the pricing commentary has actually improved in the fourth quarter. Why will that be offsetting the operating leverage in 2026?
Yeah, Megan, again, good question. I think the way you've got to think about pricing, it's really the we encountered from sort of Q2 and Q3 of FY 2025, really, because volumes were still subdued. The market was tight, and to retain the volumes that we had, we had to meet the market, and therefore, the pricing environment was much more pressured.
When we enter into those contracts, I mean, effectively, we're basically, we went as short as we could, but see that as a sort of a 12-month commitment to the client. While we've had to meet that pricing, those tests will be carried out in the ensuing 12 months. Some of that impacted FY 2025, so see that as second half of FY 2025, but we'll continue on as we run through FY 2026. While we expect if these volumes that we're currently seeing are retained or maintained, we will see some operating leverage benefit, which we want to see, and I'm sure you want to see even more. In this period where we've got the flow-through of the backbook of business at a lower margin, that is going to impact and largely offset any operating leverage benefit, certainly in the first half.
We would expect that as that backbook at the old pricing or the more competitive pricing flows through the system or flushes through the system, so to speak, that we will start to see more of the benefit of the operating leverage, which is why in our outlook, we say we're looking for incremental margin improvement in minerals, but that's most likely going to be more in the second half of the first half. To your point, Megan, we have seen now that volumes have improved, that the pricing environment has, if you like, become more in our favor. We're getting back to where we'd like to be, but I don't know that we can declare victory on that just yet.
Yeah. No, that's clear. Thanks. I'll pass it on there. Thank you.
Thanks, Megan.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Nicholas Rawlinson from Morgans. Please ask your question, Nicholas.
Hi, Malcolm and Stuart. Just a couple from me. On minerals, sample volumes look to be up about 15% in April, May. How do we reconcile your guidance for 5%-7% organic growth between life sciences and commodities? Just wondering if you could sort of give us an indication of what you're assuming for each division.
Yeah, I'm not sure you're matching there, Nick, but I'd say that's a bit more than what we're seeing. I think what we're, I can give you a back calculate last year. So we were flat in the first half, and then we were up for the full year at sort of 2.5% in volume. So that started in December.
While we said it was predominantly in the fourth quarter, that is correct, but we started to see volumes move positively in December, and the sample chart will show that. I think if you backward engineer it, all the maths, I think that delivers an organic growth of somewhere around in that sort of 7%, 6%-8%, somewhere around there. That is what we're seeing. That is why it's given us the confidence to call out that we expect across the group this year to deliver 7% organic growth. You'll recall last year, we said across the group would be around 5%. We're feeling more optimistic. I think everyone's got to understand that these are uncertain times.
We're not trying to be too negative or conservative here, but we have seen even in last year, we had some volume fluctuations quite regularly, especially in the first half. I think we just, I guess we're cautiously optimistic is how I'd describe it, Nick.
Okay. Thanks for that. Just on that 20-40 basis points of margin expansion in life sciences ex your acquisitions, does that include the AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million impact from Mexico, or do we need to deduct that afterwards?
You need to deduct that afterwards. It's a separate building block.
Can I just ask one last one? I've heard through a few juniors that turnaround times have actually blown out here in Australia for some of your competitors. Could you just comment on the industry landscape here in Australia and whether that will give you some incremental pricing power?
Was that a question? I think that it's a fair assessment, Nicholas, but that's everything we can comment. We always work to improve our service delivery and be sure that we can serve the client's demands. Obviously, while capacity continuum will start lacking in the market, that will give us opportunity from a price perspective. I think you made a fair comment.
Awesome. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, Nick.
As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. We will now take our next question from the line of Jakob Cakarnis from Jarden. Please ask your question, Jakob.
Hi, guys. I'm interested in, obviously, the focus on volumes, but clearly, price mix deteriorated in the minerals business through the second half.
It looks like, including FX, in the first half, price mix was positive 3.2%, and then if you back it out, it was -4% in the second half. You bothered in the commentary on slide 33 to say that you think it is going to constrain the operating leverage. I'm just trying to separate essentially what looks like an elasticity. As you've dropped price, you've got more volume. How do we think about that in the first half and then second half? I mean, it sounds like you're expecting some of that price mix headwind to continue in the first half, but what gives you confidence that that reverses?
Yeah. Jakob, good question. It is similar to Megan's question, I think. What we're saying is, and this is how, I guess, the pricing works.
As we went through Q2 and Q3 in FY 2025, the market was, if you like, in the client's favor because demand was still subdued. To meet the market, we had to lower prices to firstly retain the business we had or that we were bidding for. Similarly, we were still endeavoring in those times to grow market share because as the market hopefully recovers, you have the market share that you can then leverage into a better pricing environment. Those commitments to clients tend to be 12 months in duration. As we've started to provide those testing services, they have started impacting Q3, more impact in Q4, and will continue FY 2025, that is, and will continue impact through FY 2026. You're quite right.
We think, as our assessment at the moment is, in terms of margins, because of that pricing pressure, that is going to largely offset, especially in the first half, the benefit of the operating leverage that we are absolutely steadfast in pursuing on the improved volumes. As those pricing arrangements start to run off in the second half of FY 2026, we should start to see our margin, and we expect to see our margins expanding. That is why we have called out across the year incremental margin improvement, but I think you should be thinking of that more second half than first half.
Is there a case study historically, Stuart, that you can point to? Seems like we are in a similar situation to FY 2018, FY 2019. Is that the kind of operating leverage we should look at?
There was obviously a big improvement in commodities earnings across those two years versus the base from the prior years. Is that the kind of operating leverage that you're talking to? I mean, operating leverage seems a little bit vague as a catchall. I think consensus has 100 basis points of commodities margin expansion for 2026 on 2025. How do we think about all of those?
The question, Jakob, I think we need to see how the year plays out before we continue with a similar cycle than the years that you just got. Secondly, obviously, from a mix perspective, the revenue mix and data has changed since that year from a downstream perspective. That is also something that we have to take into account with a big focus on expanding mine site. The reason of expanding mine site is to reduce inequality on the future down cycle.
I think it's hard to give you a precise number because if you want on the positive, we should have the HPMs that were not as material as they are right now. I think, as we said in the past, it's something that we want to prove. We're always working and improving our operating leverage. Short term, as Stuart said, on the first half, I think that the headwinds are the pricing that we needed to have in order to secure market share and expansion last year. We will have to see how the cycle plays on the second half to give you a solid answer on where's the upside of that. We are quite confident of the operating model that we have in minerals.
I think in every up cycle, we have proven that we can break that ceiling, but let's wait for the cycle and see where's that ceiling, and we'll always be looking to break it. I think it's something we need to prove and we are working on, but it's too early to give you a number.
Yeah. Obviously, that downstream, as you push into mine sites at lower margin than the overall group, just given that that's growing faster and the margins are going backwards, is that the right conclusion, Malcolm?
Yeah. That makes sense, Jakob, that's right. I think perhaps the other you pulled apart first half, second half. I think what I would take away from our second half is the margins were the same as the first half.
I would say see it as a positive that we're able to offset the pricing pressure that was coming through in the second half with, if you like, called operating leverage benefit, which is a whole number of things. To your point, it's not easy to quantify exactly. I think for the operating leverage, our margins would have gone backwards. I think we're comfortable that the operating leverage is there. Yes, it's being masked by the impact of the pricing, but as I said, we made the decision to retain the volumes and keep our labs as full as we could.
We were not uncomfortable with short-term pricing, I guess, call it meeting the market because it enabled us to keep our market share on the basis that we know from history, if you go back to you mentioned 2018, we have done this before where we make sure we keep the volume so that when the market conditions change, customers raise the question around turnaround time and competitors, etc. If you have got the business, it is up to us to continue to deliver to keep it, but you have got to have it first. It is very hard to win business in a much tighter or much more demand-driven market than it was during the sort of middle period of calendar 2025.
Just one final one from me. Just on life sciences, just to rehash Nicholas's questions. He is saying 30- 40 basis points on the underlying business.
It sounds like we've got to take off that 5-10 from Mexico. But given the mix of those businesses that you've acquired are essentially less than group or a drag on group, is there a chance that FY 2026 life sciences EBIT margins, as reported, are less than FY 2025?
I wouldn't think so because the other thing is you've got to factor in the life sciences, which again, in addition to that 20-40, is you've got ongoing improvement in Vesseling, and you've also got the ongoing improvement in different stuff. On the map I've got, I wouldn't see margins going backwards in life sciences.
No, I agree.
Thanks, Jacob.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rohan Sundram from MST Financial. Please go ahead, Rohan.
Hi, Malcolm and Stuart.
Just a question on tariffs, and I appreciate you said that is minimal impact to your cost base. In terms of impacts to your customer base, just wondering if any customer groups are showing any more sensitivity than others around tariffs, and do you see it as a potential opportunity in some instances for your customer base or with regards to your customers? Thanks.
Thanks, Rohan. Good question. To your first part of the question, whether we have seen more sensitivity, I think what we have tried to pull out is that we have seen ongoing momentum. I think that the question is on the lack of stability and when these tariff discussions will settle. Specifically, I would call out that for Canada, I think that the volatility in Canada was a bit larger than in other regions. We have not seen that sensitivity and clients pulling back.
I'm reflecting, I could say with some certainty, none of our businesses we've seen that. In terms of upsides, let's see where the tariffs end and what's the meaning of that because clearly, whether that's going to be an opportunity for operations that we have in India or in Mexico or in Brazil, clearly, some of those countries will be more benefited, especially Mexico and India maybe on the discussions. I think it's too early to call the upsides. Clearly, from a negative, we haven't seen an impact or we haven't seen an increased sensitivity from clients.
Thanks, Malcolm.
Yes. All right.
Thank you. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Our next question is a follow-up question from the line of Megan Kirby-Lewis from Barrenjoey . Please go ahead, Megan.
Hi, again.
I just wanted to ask on the acquisition strategy. How should we be thinking about the deployment of those surplus funds? Any commentary you can give on potential size and market focus would be helpful.
Thanks, Megan. I'll take that one. On the acquisitions deployment, I think you shouldn't be expecting anything in the next six months. We're still focused on completing and starting phase two of Vesseling, completing the transformation plan of Nuvisan. This will give us the opportunity to start shaping the pipeline. I think we have a solid pipeline. In terms of end markets, clearly, minerals is an area that we are looking, and we have seen an improved pipeline in the last 12 months. Where in minerals, I think we're looking throughout the entire value chain, but specifically everything that we call not exploration.
It could be metallurgy, consulting, it could be mine site as well. In the case of the life sciences portfolio, we're clearly more focused on expanding our environmental business. There are some opportunities across different regions that we're looking. Those opportunities will take probably 12 months to start realising. Why do we want to have this flexibility? I think it gives us the opportunity to have bilateral discussions, and that has also always improved the return for our shareholders that go into the process, private equity process or institutional process. It is a better outcome for our shareholders. In terms of end markets, you should be thinking of those two areas as key areas of focus.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next follow-up question comes from the line of Jakob Cakarnis from Jardan. Please go ahead, Jacob.
Hi, guys.
I'm just interested in the move of head office to Madrid. Can you just talk us through the thinking there and why now?
Thanks, Jakob. Yeah. The move of the head office to Europe was something that we discussed since I joined or took the CEO position. The truth is it's pretty simple. We have right now the executive team in six different time zones. Primarily, the executive team is now focusing in Europe. That's number one. From an agility of decisions, I think we value the culture that we can create in one same office. We've seen that Europe is the right location. Also from a talent perspective, most of the team players are there, and we have been making changes to the executive team and the senior leadership team with the key individuals from within the market that are normally in Europe.
That's the second point. The third point is 40% of our workforce is in Europe. As you can see from our results, we have been having a lot of focus on improving Nuvisan, improving Vesseling, expanding in South Europe, expanding in the Nordics. It is clearly an area of focus for us. In terms of the time right now, again, it is something that we have been speaking about for the last 12 months. It is the right time to do it right now because the recent hires of the executive team are all based in Europe. In terms of cost from a company perspective, Madrid is slightly lower than other jurisdictions, so that will give us an advantage. Why are we in Houston? I think that in Houston we are there because the previous CEO was based there and the focus was in America.
But it does not change a lot at all, the focus in the United States because we have a very strong regional team that will continue being focused there, as we have in Canada, the entire minerals team being focused in Vancouver.
Jakob, do you have any follow-up questions?
That is all. Thanks.
Thank you. Our next follow-up question comes from the line of Nicholas Rawlinson from Morgans. Please go ahead, Nicholas.
Hi, Malcolm and Stuart. I just wanted to clarify. So that 20-40 basis points of incremental margin expansion in life sciences, so put that to one side, that is ex-acquisitions. But is it fair to say the expectation is that the acquired businesses, Nuvisan, York Laboratories, and Vesseling, would actually have higher incremental margin expansion just given the restructuring and the turnaround within those businesses?
Indeed, Nick. Very good observation. Correct.
That is why we're not quoting a blended story because those businesses, I mean, those on the call would call. Both of those businesses, when we acquired them, were with Nuvisan, went to 100%, were losing money. They've both turned them both into profitable outcomes in FY 2025, which we're really pleased about. We're still a long way to go. You're quite right. If really growing those or improving the margins by 20-40% points, that's a fail. They will be improving at a faster pace than that.
Right. Okay. The 20-40 is sort of the low watermark. Awesome. Thanks, guys.
It's for the, call it the legacy perimeter, excluding Nuvisan, Vesseling, and York.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Thanks.
I'm showing no further questions. Thank you all very much for your questions. I'll now hand back to Malcolm for his closing comments.
Yes. Just to close, I want to thank the shareholders for the support, everybody for the patience during this call. I think it was quite important for us to explain the fiscal year 2025 results, but also the perspective that we have in 2026 about the equity raising. Lastly, but most importantly, I want to also thank, again, all the employees of ALS for the hard work and commitment during this fiscal year 2025 and what we have ahead. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the rest of the day.
Thank you for your participation. Goodbye. Today's conference does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.