Would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Graeme Whickman, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome to the earnings call of Amotiv Results for the half-year ended 31st December. I'm Graeme Whickman, CEO and Director, and I'm here with Aaron Canning, the company's Chief Financial Officer. As per normal, the recording of this call, along with the material, will be available later today on the website. I'll start the call by touching on the key messages and the group performance, a review of the operating divisions, then I'll turn over to Aaron to cover off the financial section in more detail, and then we'll conclude with a short trading update and outlook before conducting the Q&A. Let's turn to slide three. I believe we've delivered a solid result in what is a challenging operating environment. I think it reflected discipline, execution, and the benefits of a multi-year diversification strategy in terms of where we garner our revenue.
Amotiv Unified continues to deliver incremental benefits with ongoing cost, a margin, and operational initiatives mitigating segment-level macro pressures through a more streamlined and efficient operating model. We've had strong cash conversion and, coupled with disciplined capital management, that supported reinvestment in the business while returning capital to shareholders. Against all that backdrop, the FY 2026 guidance remains unchanged. Group revenue growth is expected with underlying EBITDA growth of circa AUD 195 million. Now, turning to slide four where we detail some group performance. Well, the revenue diversification's been a core pillar of our strategy, so it's pleasing to see the revenue growth of just over 3% underpinned by new business wins, ongoing product investments, and a high contribution from offshore markets. This provided an offset to some of the headwinds in four-wheel drive and LP&E, while our powertrain division continues to outstrip what is a resilient system growth.
Underlying EBITDA of AUD 98.3 million, up marginally on the PCP, it was impacted a little bit by lower four-wheel drive margins due to domestic inflationary pressures and the ramp-up of the South African plant, by the way, a market that we remain excited about in terms of its future prospects. And then we've got some select pricing implemented in Q2, and that's expected to support the four-wheel drive margins in the second half. The Amotiv Unified initiatives across the group delivered meaningful cost benefits, and these partially mitigated the margin pressure from domestic cost inflation. This program has got really good momentum, and further incremental benefits have been identified and expected to support H2 a little bit there and then certainly into future earnings. Had great cash flow, very strong. Capital management drove EPSA up 5% and dividend growth of just over 8% at the same time.
Leverage was maintained comfortably within the target range, and circa sort of AUD 48 million was returned to shareholders in the period, inclusive both dividends and buyback. Safety, always a pride point for the group, and therefore it's pleasing to see continued improvement in the TRIFR, which has trended down to just down to 9.7-ish. As an aside, our work on reducing emissions also delivered tangible benefits in the period. Now, turning to slide five, we outline the progress made on our strategic imperatives, which represent the key areas of shareholder value creation. If you look from left to right, as mentioned earlier, we're pleased to see the momentum and cost realizations from Amotiv Unified programs, which were first announced to the market back in May at our Thailand site visit.
Now, we'll cover this in a bit more detail later on, Aaron will, but these activities garnered benefits across three of our divisions, all three, as well as also our corporate head office costs. I'm actually really excited that the commissioning of the third Thailand plant is underway, adding capacity to the already well-utilized existing adjacent facilities up in Thailand, and this low-cost jurisdiction positions us well to win business in Europe and the U.K. And we touched a little bit on that at the full year, and I'm going to talk a bit more about that later on. As discussed earlier, revenue diversification has been an important driver of this result, with ongoing penetration of offshore markets resulting in a 14% growth in revenue outside of Amotiv's ANZ domestic market. Our operational excellence efforts were well-rewarded and half safety improved.
Headway was made on reducing emissions with circa 850 kW of solar energy commissioned at our four-wheel drive Keysborough plant. As a result of some of the unified warehouse consolidation initiatives, powertrain and undercarriage saw an increase in DIFOT post the latest phase of the Truganina DC consolidation. So very happy with the way that's coming together. Then finally, in terms of capital management, the buyback we announced in October 2024 was completed in the half. At the same time, we increased the dividend at a higher rate than EPSA. Now, moving to slide six, we touch on Amotiv 2030 strategic plan for the group unveiled at the last AGM. Now, as you can see from the slide, we've reduced and simplified our strategic priorities from the prior GUD 2025 strategy, aligning them with our divisions.
Now, this calls for us to optimize our powertrain and undercarriage portfolio while adding one or two adjacent non-ICE categories, solidify and defend our Australian and New Zealand lighting, power, and electrical business while still growing a global niche lighting and power business from our established bases both in the U.S. and in Europe, building a leading integrated four-wheel drive and accessories and trailing business in Australia while leveraging key expertise to build a focused global business. And I would term that as sweating the assets, both from an engineering and also manufacturing point of view. And then finally, simplify and improve via Amotiv Unified to make us more efficient and effective.
From my point of view, Amotiv remains an attractive pure play, all centered around automotive, as you know, servicing large and resilient addressable markets supported by market-leading brands of largely ICE-agnostic products, which in turn are supported by some really strong new product development credentials both in terms of investment and also strong market positions, something we don't take for granted. The group's led by experienced management team focused on improving shareholder returns through disciplined investment is backed by a strong and, I think, resilient balance sheet. Having said all that, there's lots of work to do, but we're all excited for the prospect. 2030, from a strategy point of view, is designed to create a clear path to leveraging our automotive pure play to grow and create value for shareholders, underpinned by, I think, a clear set of attractive investment thematics.
Now, let me turn my attention to some divisional updates. Right, starting with four-wheel drive. Well, revenue was up 5.5%, driven by new business, including a full period of South African revenues that weren't present in the PCP, and this was also complemented by some continued Aussie towbar wins. I think this is a credible performance against a highly challenging backdrop. Pickups were flat in the half, net of Shark in Australia and New Zealand, and down 7% net of Shark in January alone in ANZ. So January was an interesting month. The mix also of OEMs was challenging in Australia, as an example, in the half, with five of the top 10 pickups down in the half between 3%-37%. And then you sort of cast your eye to January because remember, we are generating revenue in the half, even though those vehicles are being sold in January.
If I looked at the performance in January, six of the top 10 pickups were down, actually even more pronounced, 14%-38%, so a little bit softer than what we were expecting. Cruisemaster, so if I turn my attention to caravans, continued to gain share, which positions us nicely for what is a weak caravan RV market when that eventually turns. I think overall, the result reflects a cyclical and the inflation headwinds that the team are facing. It also reflects the ability of this division to win global business, and this has been leading us to invest in the growing and prospective offshore revenue pipeline. Underlying EBITDA was down just over 15%, down 12% if you were to back out the impact of a doubtful debt provision for an RV customer that was around AUD 1 million.
With that similar approach, the actual EBITDA margins were down 290 basis points. Now, the key driver of which was delayed price realization relative to domestic cost inflation, and we signaled this to the market previously. At that same time we were talking to you, we spoke about out-of-cycle OEM pricing, and that was secured in the end of Q2 to address a period of heightened inflationary pressure within the domestic manufacturing operations. As a result, margins expected to improve from H2. There's also been a country mix impact as we consolidate South Africa for the full first period. Now, this new facility has excess capacity, again, not new news to our investors, as it's in the early stage of ramp-up.
You'll be reminded it's been stood up on the basis of two skews, but we remain confident in the ability to win business in that jurisdiction and improve utilization of margins. And of course, while it's profitable, as detailed in our FY 2025 full-year results, South Africa is below the margins of a mature four-wheel drive operation. Within the four-wheel drive, Amotiv Unified also positively contributed to earnings through the right-sizing of the New Zealand operations, which are now profitable. So if I start to look forward, we expect the combined impact of pricing actions and high volumes such as HiLux in H2 and Navara in FY 2027, and particularly from offshore, the likes of U-Haul and some European business, coupled with the unified efforts to improve margins from H2 and specifically beyond.
Interestingly, we had some comments from our shareholders in the past and wanted to understand a little bit more about the Chinese situation. Well, the depth and breadth of our relationships with Chinese OEMs continue to improve through the half. You can see on the chart on the slide that the Chinese OEMs are becoming a larger part of the addressable market in Australia and New Zealand. Much has been made of the successful launch of the BYD Shark. Unlike some of the other Chinese OEMs, BYD has taken the approach of self-supplying towbars. But the balance of the Chinese OEM, which represents 72%, as you can see on the chart, of units in CY 2025, that's CY 2025, have outsourced this function, and we are already pending or already are customers of the four-wheel drive business, which means we're well-positioned for any OEM mix change within the Australian carpark.
As mentioned earlier, capacity also has been added to our Thai facility. The four-wheel drive team have a really strong track record of winning and retaining business, and it's focused on scaling these offshore operations to drive revenue growth and recover fixed cost investments, supporting that margin improvement I mentioned over time. As evidence of this, I'm really pleased to announce that we secured our first European towbar contract. That's being supplied out of Thailand, so it's utilizing and sweating that asset based on the engineering capability we already have. And that's our first material when I say material, I mean in terms of an OEM contract that we've been able to secure. And that volume will be expected to come in FY 2027, and we expect to perhaps get some more European contracts. And that's market share gains. That's taking business off the likes of First Brands and Westfalia.
In the U.S., export volumes from Thailand continue to build. With growing U-Haul demand, expected to support volumes into FY 2027. So I'll stop there and perhaps now move to slide 9 and the LP&E division. Now, the ANZ market conditions remain challenging for LP&E, particularly across the reseller channels. Against this backdrop, the group benefited from continued execution of the Amotiv Unified and increasing offshore revenue diversification, which provided a meaningful offset. Revenue reflects volume growth in the U.S. and Europe, which mitigated some of the soft reseller demand in ANZ. By category, lighting delivered growth of 1%. Well done to the Vision X team in the U.S. and Europe, and that offset muted Australian reseller demand. Power management revenue increased 3%, reflecting ongoing investment and product innovation and continued growth in the U.S. market.
And then electrical accessory revenue decreased 4%, impacted by softer Australian reseller demand, some ranging changes, but really some emerging signs of flight to value. The unified benefits were delivered through a leaner Australian operating model, with total operating costs down circa 12% compared to PCP. As a result, underlying EBITDA increased nearly 9.5%, with margin expansion of 210 basis points largely driven by those unified benefits. I turn my attention to looking ahead. Well, the ANZ reseller dynamics are expected to persist in the second half, while Europe and the U.S. are expected to continue to grow. The full benefit of the Q2 U.S. tariff-related price increases expected to flow through into H2, with modest price increases anticipated from Q4. The net result is that we expect underlying EBITDA in H2 to be marginally softer than H1 but slightly above, certainly, the PCP.
Now, let's turn to the final division, powertrain and undercarriage. This is a really pleasing result. Well done to the powertrain and undercarriage division. It reflects the continued resilience of the wear-and-repair market, supported by some really strong brand strength and ongoing efforts to diversify revenue. That revenue growth, almost 5%, was driven by volume and the annualization of pricing actions across select product categories. A broadening product portfolio increased R&D investment, drove outperformance. And when I say outperformance, I'm thinking about that relative to system growth. Interestingly, the New Zealand revenue grew by 12%, and that was driven by enhanced distribution and ranging outcomes. Efficiency and margins were supported by ongoing unified consolidation benefits and reduced EV investment. And this resulted in underlying EBIT growth of 6.7%, so nearly 7%.
EV investment was further moderated through the first half in line with the changing market dynamics, and we had spoken about what we were going to do at an early stage, with that business on track to reach break-even by the end of FY 2027 on a runway basis. Looking ahead, further Unified initiatives will be implemented through the second half as the business continues to consolidate site operation and improve returns. This also includes the consolidation of Infinitev operations into the IM Group, operating cost benefits flowing from the first half, headcount reductions, the rationalization of the ACS warehouse into Truganina, and the commencement of group procurement benefits, including freight. So that sort of wraps up the divisions. Perhaps I'll now ask Aaron and hand over to Aaron to give a bit more detail to some of the finances in the back. Aaron.
Thank you, Graeme, and good morning, everyone. My name's Aaron Canning. I'm the Amotiv CFO, and I'll take you through the first half financial results in more detail. On slide 12, we highlight our group financials. As Graeme has touched on, revenue grew 3.3%. Importantly, that was all organic growth. The four-wheel drive business benefited from new business wins as well as the inclusion of South Africa for the first full half, growing 5.5%. The powertrain and undercarriage business grew 4.9%, really driven by a broad range of categories from filtration, brakes, and gaskets, which was pleasing to see. The LP&E division, as Graeme has touched on, was marginally down, driven to a softer ANZ reseller demand, offset by continued growth in both Europe and the U.S.
Gross profit declined by 0.5%, with margins lower due to the inflationary increases in four-wheel drive, which have been yet to be offset by the OE price increases that were announced in Q2. These will show up in the second half. U.S. tariffs also impacted the LP&E margins as our double-digit price increases announced in May 2025 post-tariff updates did not come into effect until midway through Q2 as we honoured customer backorders at pre-tariff pricing. We expect all of that margin to flow through to the second half, and we continue to monitor the U.S. tariff environment and are prepared to make any further pricing changes, if required, to protect our margins. Operating costs, pleasingly, were lower by over 2%, more than offsetting inflationary increases, largely due to disciplined cost management and the benefits from our Amotiv Unified program flowing through.
Depreciation and amortization were broadly consistent period-on-period, and our underlying EBITDA at AUD 98.3 million is marginally ahead of the PCP by 1.3%. Importantly, it keeps us on track for an unchanged full-year 2026 earnings guidance, which Graeme will speak to in more detail later. Significant items, total AUD 8.3 million, and largely relate to restructuring activities linked to executing on Amotiv Unified initiatives. In the half, a further 50 employees departed the business, predominantly across our powertrain and undercarriage and lighting parallel electrical divisions, as we continue to simplify and optimize the operating model in these divisions. A more detailed breakdown of significant items are provided in the appendix on slide 26. We remain disciplined when it comes to managing significant items, and it's worth noting we are one year into our three-year Amotiv Unified journey.
Although we do expect further one-off costs in the future, we see this as moderating over the medium term. There were no non-cash impairments in the half, and we remain comfortable with the carrying value of our core brands and intangibles. In terms of tax, we had an effective tax rate of 29.1% in the half, marginally up on the PCP, with some minor movements in the period. A further breakdown of these movements is provided in the appendix on slide 27. We expect the full-year effective tax rate to be broadly in line with the current levels around 29%.
Our statutory net profit at AUD 46 million represents 39.4% growth on the PCP, with the prior year impacted by higher significant items, including a AUD 10.4 million non-cash impairment. Underlying EPSA grew 5.3%, largely due to earnings growth and lower shares on issue on completion of our buyback in the half.
The board have approved an interim dividend of AUD 0.20 per share, representing over 8% growth or a 52% payout ratio. As Graeme has touched on, pleasingly, we've been able to return over AUD 48 million to our shareholders in the period, with a combination of over AUD 18 million invested to complete the 5% buyback program and nearly AUD 30 million in dividends paid in September 2025. Directing your attention to slide 13, net working capital. Net working capital percentage of revenue improved one percentage point to 28.7%. Improved collections partially offset inventory growth and inventory balances for the period, with total working capital growing at 3.1%. I'll unpack this in a little bit more detail by division. An inventory increase just under AUD 19 million since June, or 8%.
It's predominantly driven by the LP&E division, which has carried higher inventory levels for our Vision X business in the U.S. and Europe post-U.S. tariff changes. In Australia, we have sought to rebalance our inventory holdings, commensurate with reseller demand. This is still work in progress. Australia represents an opportunity for us to improve our inventory position through the second half as we build our sales and operational planning capability. Four-wheel drive saw marginal increases. It's important to note in that division the majority of finished goods inventory is made to order in that business. It also includes the inclusion of South Africa for the period and some timing of inventory purchases. The powertrain and undercarriage division also saw some increases as we continued our work on consolidating our logistics and warehousing footprint as part of Amotiv Unified.
As such, we have built inventory through the first half to manage this transition as we expect to make some further changes in Q3 as we rationalize our warehousing operations for our clutch and EV businesses. We expect the current inventory levels to unwind in this division through the balance of the year. Our payables were broadly in line with PCP, and pleasingly, our receivables have decreased by 4% or over AUD 8 million against a reported revenue growth of over 3%, largely due to better compliance and a concerted effort around collections. Compared to the PCP, we do not have the one-off collection issue repeat in this period.
Importantly, we see further opportunities to improve our collections through the balance of this financial year. For transparency, we executed similar levels of debt factoring around AUD 16 million in this period versus the PCP in December 2024 and again in June 2025.
Pleasingly, our cash conversion remained strong, just under 92%, and ahead of our guidance. Directing your attention to the chart on the bottom right-hand side of the slide, you can see the strength and the resilience of the business across a number of periods and regardless of the cycle and broader macro environment. As we look to the full year, we do not see this changing. We expect our cash conversion to be in line and/or ahead of our cash allocation target of 75% or more. As we turn to slide 14, capital investment. Our investment in product development has ticked up in the period to 3.8%. It's been a key driver and underpinning our performance and our powertrain and undercarriage result, and also supporting future wins in four-wheel drive. We expect similar levels of investment through the second half of this year.
Our CapEx is moderated and down 22% versus PCP, largely in four-wheel drive, which in the prior period included investments in South Africa and Thailand. As previously advised, we expect the full-year CapEx investment to be up to 10% lower than last year. In terms of our CapEx split between growth and maintenance, it is broadly balanced. It's in line with our capital allocation framework metrics and ensures we balance investment in maintaining what we have today with investment initiatives to generate future growth. On slide 15, our foreign exchange exposure was well managed. The first half was impacted by a stronger USD versus the PCP. However, this was well managed within a volatile spot market. For the remainder of this financial year, we are now effectively fully hedged, with further hedging being executed in January.
We also have taken the opportunity in the last few weeks, in particular, to take advantage of the AUD strength, and we have locked in meaningful coverage for the first half of FY 2027. If there continues to be any further AUD strength above current levels, this will mostly be an H227 impact for Amotiv. In terms of our offshore earnings, it continues to provide a natural hedge to FX exposure, particularly as we increase our US dollar and Asia currency earnings. U.S. dollar earnings grew 41% versus PCP, building our natural hedge in the period. Combined U.S. dollar and non-ANZ earnings now represent 32% of our total post-tax earnings in the half. And we see growth in offshore earnings continuing to be more meaningful through the second half and beyond. Onto slide 16, our balance sheet remains in great shape.
The group's balance sheet remains in strong position, with gearing at 1.95 times, increasing by 0.2 turns since December 2024. It remains well within our capital allocation framework target range of 1.5-2.25 times. Our leverage increased marginally since June, largely due to the completion of the buyback program. I said earlier we invested a little over AUD 18 million in completing that in the period and some further investments in new jurisdictions in the form of working capital and operating expenses. The business continues to deliver stable and predictable cash flow earnings, as I noted earlier. Our leverage guidance remains unchanged, with the expectation the business will deliver through H2. Our debt profile remains long-dated and with nearly two-thirds of it fixed at market-leading rates.
As such, recent and any future changes in the Australian domestic interest rate environment will have a relatively low impact on our cost of funds. As a guide, a 25 basis point increase or decrease will have a 0.3 impact on a full-year result for us. We remain strong support from our end of group and strong appetite for further support should we need it. In terms of our cost of funds on the right-hand side, it's reduced marginally in the period by 11 basis points, largely reflecting the domestic interest rate environment. Onto slide 17, in terms of our capital allocation framework, we performed strongly against the majority of these metrics. In February of last year, we announced this framework. The framework provides visibility on how we will deploy capital against, as you can see, a set of return metrics, both for organic and inorganic investments.
Importantly, these metrics, in particular return on capital employed, now form part of management's long-term incentive program. For the first half, we performed in line or ahead of all metrics, with the exception of return on capital employed. This remains a key area of focus for us, and we're unhappy with our current performance in that area. We continue and will continue to measure ourselves on a pre-APG impairment metric. On a reported basis, you can see the result provided in the footnotes to the slide. Furthermore, today, we are announcing we expect to generate an incremental AUD 10 million annualized gross benefit from the Amotiv Unified program on exit of this financial year. On that particular topic, I will now cover off the Amotiv Unified update as part of a broader update on our outlook. I'll now direct you to slide 19.
In February 2025, we announced our transformation program called Amotiv Unified. This is a three-year program made up of a number of projects with execution staggered into three ways. Exiting FY 2025, we delivered AUD 15 million in gross analyzed benefits, with AUD 5 million reinvested into marketing, product development, and new roles. This net AUD 10 million of benefits is included in our FY 2026 guidance. We are announcing today an incremental, in addition to that, an incremental AUD 10 million annualized gross benefits to be realized on exit of FY 2026. These further benefits will support AUD 5 million investment into simplifying our IT platforms, further warehouse consolidations, and program management resourcing through the second half of this year. The timing of these benefits add an additional net AUD 1 million EBITDA benefit in FY 2026, highlighted in the table on the bottom right of the page.
These benefits are helping offset our revised modest pricing increases expected in the second half. These combined net benefits of the AUD 1 million announcing today and the AUD 10 million that we previously announced are included in our FY 2026 guidance. I'll now hand you back to Graeme to discuss this guidance and trading update in more detail.
Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate the detail, as I'm sure the listeners did as well. As you say, let's get into the trading update and outlook. After the four weeks of January, if you just take January in isolation, ANZ pickups were down 7% net of BYD. As mentioned, in Australia, six of the 10 pickups were down. This outcome is slightly below our expectations. I guess that's important to note only because, obviously, we're collecting revenue from the January performance ahead of that, given we supply ahead of a sale, so to speak.
Lighting and power and electrical, the AU resellers and OE channels remain subdued. So whether it's a reseller or indeed the truck or the bus or the RV market, not a lot has changed there. But pleasingly, we are seeing continued momentum in the U.S. and EU. And then from a powertrain point of view, the wear and repair remains resilient. With the forward workshop bookings, they're stable at sort of one-two weeks, nothing changing there, which is great. From an outlook point of view, our guidance is unchanged. Regardless of some headwinds and some tailwinds, we're still holding our point of view around the revenue growth. It's expected to grow in FY 2026 and the underlying EBITDA of circa AUD 195 million. As I said, it still remains a challenging environment.
Four-wheel drive, new vehicle sales are trending slightly softer, but H2 margins within this division are expected to improve due to the H1 pricing actions. LP&E, the headwinds in ANZ are expected to persist. The H2 underlying EBITDA is expected to be marginally softer than H1. Powertrain, the wear and repair categories are expected to remain resilient. As outlined in the Amotiv Unified slide, the incremental FY 2026 net benefit of AUD 1 million is included in our 195 guidance. That's provided a bit of an offset to a revised pricing approach to account for more modest price increases in H2. The H1 and H2 EBITDA skew are expected to be broadly balanced. Cash conversion is expected to be in line with capital allocation. The balance sheet strength will be maintained, and we expect to deliver in H2.
As Aaron just mentioned, we've got an incremental AUD 10 million of annualized gross benefits as we exit FY 2026. So that's really the outlook and also the trading update completed. Of course, it would be rude of me not to finish the presentation, though, by not thanking the Amotiv team who worked so hard through that first half. So from a board point of view, from Aaron and I, I just wanted to thank those people. And I know some of them actually listen to the call because they have great interest in our results, as you would expect. So with that, now I'll hand over to the moderator who will coordinate the questions that we have online. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phones, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your first question on the phones today is from Mitch Sonogan with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Graeme and Aaron. Thanks for taking the questions. Just the first one, just on the FY 2026 guidance, I'm just trying to understand a little bit of the moving parts. So you're pretty specific on the LPE guidance. But on four-wheel drive, you've talked to new vehicle sales being slightly softer but expect better margins in the second half. Do you mind us giving some color on your expectations and what you've got in terms of forward visibility at this point in time? Thanks.
Well, I'll answer the forward visibility, and I'll just hand over to Aaron in terms of the composition of the second part of the question. I guess it links to perhaps other questions that no doubt will be asked around, say, the January performance in terms of new vehicle sales. So when you look at new vehicle sales in January, as I mentioned briefly, they were down net of BYD 7% and ANZ. But then you sort of peel that back a little bit. Ranger was down 20%, Hilux 15%. I think D-Max was sort of 14%. Triton was up. Navara down about 35%. That revenue, obviously, has already been recognized in most of that context. We did expect January to be slightly softer anyway. December was relatively strong. And January can always be a bit of a funny month in terms of vehicle sales.
The forward visibility that sort of sits behind our point of view around the guidance across the group is generally between two and three months in terms of, I'm talking about new vehicle sales, and I think your question specifically is around probably four-wheel drive more than anything mentioned in that regard. So we have forward visibility of those sorts of sales. And perhaps others will ask around interest rates. It's interesting that the likes of Triton have actually been on a bit of a tear, and they've actually been perhaps a bit more aggressive in terms of their discounting over the last two or three months, whereas Toyota and Ford and others have sat a little bit on the sidelines but starting to come back in. So I expect that to happen a little bit more.
Aaron, from a guidance point of view, did you just want to cover off the composition?
Yeah, I will do. Hi, Mitch. Look, just in terms of the second half of four-wheel drive, we've obviously got a couple of towbar wins into the second half. We announced the pricing around out-of-cycle OE pricing. So that'll all bite in the second half. We do expect to take some more pricing in the second half around aftermarket. We've obviously got the new HiLux coming into the second half as well. And we've also got some Amotiv Unified benefits into the second half, some quite meaningful benefits, particularly around things like freight that are going to come into the second half. So sort of bundling all those up together, we are expecting a better margin performance in H2. I would say that's not going to fully offset the margin erosion we saw in the first half versus PCP, but it's going to be materially stronger in the first half.
Yep. Very clear. Thanks, Carole. Just a second one on that. Just in terms of the powertrain undercar, you've talked about first half, second half, EBITDA expected to be broadly balanced. Yeah, again, Graeme, just maybe a little bit of color there. Any reasons why we shouldn't expect a little bit of improvement half on half, given it has been pretty steady and resilient and a good outcome in the first half?
Yeah. So the broadly balanced comments, more the group, is what I was referring to in terms of the outlook. I didn't speak to the powertrain half on half. You can probably get there by deduction of sorts anyway. We expect powertrain to continue to be resilient. We're not calling out specifically anything around powertrain in terms of half on half. We mentioned LP&E, and obviously, we've mentioned four-wheel drive. So therefore, the deduction you can do for yourself. For the reasons that we've been speaking about, and I touched on earlier on when I was chatting and reviewing this slide, we've got further benefits that have come through in terms of truck and China consolidation. We've also got benefits of putting the IM and the Infinitev businesses together. So we do expect decent performance out of powertrain in the second half.
Yep. Thanks. And just probably more thinking about just run rate into FY 2027. But just, yeah, I guess in terms of any quick commentary on corporate costs, should we expect a similar run rate into the second half and FY 2027? And Aaron talked to the AUD 10 million gross benefits for the Amotiv Unified. Just wondering what costs will be required in 2027 to achieve those ones as well. Thanks, Carole.
Yeah. What? I may help you out, Mitch. You're obviously looking to have a bit more color in around divisional second half performance. So let me just. I'll expand and answer to your question. So four-wheel drive, we've touched on, better margins in second half. LP&E, a little softer in the second half. Powertrain, as Graeme said, we've got a few things in the second half that are going to support that business. In corporate, we are going to put some more costs in in the second half. You heard me touch on things like resourcing around program management, really to support our unified program. So I expect our corporate costs will go up in the second half versus the first half.
Then into 2027, yes, with the further benefits we've announced on Unified today, that's largely going to be a 2027 story, as only AUD 1 million net of those are turning up this year. So we haven't finalized our reinvestment levels for 2027, but I would say that that AUD 10 million will provide some buffer to further headwinds around cost and inflation into 2027 to support continued growth into 2027.
Okay. Thanks, Aaron. And this one, super quick one. You talked to the EV investment, still having a loss in 2026. Can you maybe just tell us what that loss is, given you're guiding to a break-even in FY 2027? And I'll jump off. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Look, we're going to it being break-even on a run rate basis exiting 2027. So the 2027 year won't be break-even, but we'll exit the year being break-even. Look, it's less than AUD 2 million, and it's more than AUD 1 million. So it's pretty close in terms of where it's currently tracking. We're very happy with the EV business. Revenue growth is strong. We're making further changes around our operating footprint in terms of warehouse consolidation. That's going to happen in the second half. Graeme touched on a moderated investment in that space, and we're just being very cautious in relation to the changing dynamics of the car park. But over the long term, it's a business that we see huge potential in, and we're just going to balance that investment with the revenue growth we're getting up from that business.
So yeah, on exit, on a run rate basis, Mitch, profitable. In FY 2027, not profitable, though. But I've given you sort of some tramlines there for the quantum.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Hodge with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Morning, Graeme. Morning, Aaron. Thanks for the presentation. Look, a couple of my questions have been answered there. So I'll just ask around the currency. Just in terms of, Aaron, you mentioned second half 2026 improvement from the sequentially, but down on the TCP. So can you just remind us where you were hedged in second half 2025?
Yeah. Why don't I just give you a more definitive answer? It's less than AUD 1 million, the impact, Andrew, so it's pretty marginal. I'm talking second half on second half, right, thinking it's your question?
Yes.
Yeah.
And then into 2027, have you started hedging first half 2027 yet?
Yes.
Should we be thinking about, I mean, subject to how far hedged are you? Is spot a reasonable expectation of the level that you're hedging at at the moment?
Second part of your question, yes. We are sort of covered out to beginning of November.
Great. Thank you. And I just want to ask one question on the four-wheel drive margins. I know you've talked about the process, the OEM price rise in order to bridge some of that gap. How much of a risk is the lower-than-expected volume? So January was lower than your expectations. If that trend continued and you lost some of the volume that you were otherwise expecting, how much of a risk is the operating leverage to that margin, even in the face of some price increases and not a repeat of the bad debt?
Well, obviously, the bad debt goes away. We're not trying to hurdle that. But look, we've also got aftermarket pricing that sits to the general car park. We've also got some Unified benefits coming through, a little bit of an exchange in the last part of the second half. And the likes of HiLux, we'll get the full half of that. So those are some of the tailwinds that will sit there. In terms of the volumes, I mean, yes, there is a downside risk, clearly, although we have two-three months' worth of visibility already, Andrew, as you would expect in terms of Ford. So some of that's already I would call that pseudo-hedged in our minds. We're watching it closely. And January, I don't think necessarily is a good barometer of either good or bad. December was a pretty strong month.
Sometimes you have a bit of supply. And the other thing is that, as I said earlier on, some of those OEMs are still not that active in the market in terms of discounting. So we're watching it closely. And naturally, there's a little bit of downside risk, but we do have some other levers to pull, and we are expecting some of that margin improvement. And then if you note that you've asked this, but when you then start to reflect on how does that exit FY 2026 and go into 2027, we still haven't even spoken about the actual delay of Navara. That's actually a full-year impact of Navara, which is fantastic. U-Haul starts to increase. Kia comes in. So we're not as reliant on the ANZ market, and we think that we'll also pick up some other European towbar business.
So we're trying to offset that ANZ cyclicality as we speak, and some of that shows up and will be showing up in the first half of FY 2027. So sorry, it's a bit more of an answer than what you asked for, but I just wanted to give you more color.
That's great. Thank you. Thanks very much.
Your next question is from Sam Teeger with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Graeme. Hi, Aaron. We're just keen to understand the dynamics driving the different performance between PTU and LP&E in Australia, given they share a number of customers. Are you seeing retailers focus more on private label in electrical and accessories?
Well, look, I think when you separate out across the three areas that we speak about on the LP&E slide, and if you went to that slide, you'd see that we sort of break out lighting, power management, electrical. We speak about lighting being up, power management being up, electrical accessories being down. And that's a reflection of the reseller demand that we see at the moment. There's a mix of home brand performance that sits behind that, Sam. But at the same time, without disclosing a particular customer, we've just won the Globe business in one of those big three resellers with a Narva brand. So house brands come and go, and the performance can ebb and flow. But in times of tight economic circumstance, there is a bit of flight to value, and we do call that out, Sam.
I think there's a bit of a mixture there. Having said that, though, we are now ranging in other areas. We're doing better in some of the independents. We're into Bunnings and a couple of other areas like Autopro and Auto One. So we always look to offset and reduce the customer concentration. But that's how I sort of characterize it.
Yeah. No, that's good. Thanks. And then on that slide, which of the LP brands are showing most of the weaknesses? Is it KT Cables, Boab Offroad, National Luna, or another one? And are you thinking about any potential divestments to help improve your return on capital employed?
Oh, look, we're doing that day by day by day in terms of ROCE. We have a point of view around what we want to achieve. And that includes brand rationalization. That includes marketing dollars being spent on particular brands where we want to put our energy. And so the likes of National Luna, Boab, and the brands you've just spoken of, they are very, very low investment, if not little at all. Whereas we're concentrating, frankly, on the Narva, Projecta, and also KT. Obviously, that provides a mid-range electrical accessory range compared to the Narva. We're also in the process of taking some of those brands online. We've just launched Projecta.com. So you can now buy directly from us on certain products through that, and we're doing that internationally. So really, we're concentrating hard on Narva, Projecta, and KT. The other ones are less of a distraction.
Actually, we're going through a brand rationalization effort as part of Unified, not just in LP&E, but across the other brands as well to ensure that we're spending the right dollars on the right brands.
Okay. Great. What should we expect for significant items in this second half to unlock that AUD 10 million in incremental Amotiv Unified benefits?
Sam, broadly similar to H1 levels, perhaps marginally lower. Most of it's going to be around work we're doing around our technology platforms in terms of simplifying ERP platforms and a little bit around warehouse consolidations. So it won't be any higher, but it'll be in and around the same number, possibly slightly lower.
Okay. Great. I think you've touched on it a little bit, but just wanted to clarify the second half guidance. What's the assumption around the macro and interest rates?
If I just go back to the first question or that last question before we go to the assumptions, I think the other thing when you talk about significant items, Aaron, I mean, the payback in terms of the dollars being spent, I think, are pretty compelling. What would you say about that?
Yeah. Look, very compelling. I sort of noted it in my speaker notes that we're very aware of one-off costs. We're trying to run the business and improve the business at the same time, and we've got a very strong lens on improving shareholder returns. You can see that in our capital allocation framework. We're unhappy with where our return on capital sits. In order to make some meaningful changes, there are some costs we have to put into the business on a one-off basis. Clear examples of it are in the first half. Unfortunately, we said goodbye to 50 people in the first half. We didn't replace those people. The payback on that's less than a year. It has a very strong correlation with our payback metrics.
Yeah. A lot of those significant items that get the paybacks are less than a year. I mean, the likes of some of the warehousing and tech stack, which is what Aaron's referring to, have paybacks within the sort of one-three-year period. But we're determined to make sure when we're rolling out Unified that our investors can see a real plain correlation, a clear correlation of a return quickly. Anyway, I just wanted to make that point before we get into it. In terms of the assumptions around the full-year guidance linked to the second half, I mean, look, we had expected a muted, maybe slightly better year-over-year in terms of NVS and pickups in the total year. Obviously, the second half started out a bit weaker.
But with the full visibility we have, we're sort of expecting it to be sort of there or thereabouts year over year in terms of NVS. We're not expecting if you think about other OEM and OES business, which might translate between both four-wheel drive and LP&E, we're not expecting the RV or caravan market to suddenly spurt back. We do expect a little bit of market share gain, though, whether it be Cruisemaster or indeed LP&E. LP&E have just launched 48-volt systems in the Projecta range. The biggest caravan manufacturer is very excited about that and already taken it. We've pushed that into Crusader. We've got MDC taking that. So caravan show has gone very well. We've just launched body control modules in the caravan market. So while the caravan markets we're not expecting to come back, we're still expecting a little bit of market share there.
Truck and bus, we're certainly not expecting to see that. That's quite low. The cyclicality is, I would say, at a really low trough, so we're not expecting that to come back. In terms of the resellers, Sam, we're not expecting that to spurt. I think the economic situation, the macro and ANZ, is still very muted, as you would know. So we're not expecting that to bounce back. And we're watching with some interest around where the interest rates head. And then we're expecting people to continue to service vehicles in terms of the wear and repair, and that's not abating. If anything, as you know, the car park and some information in the later part of the deck, the latest information shows that the car park's approaching 12 years.
If there was a bit of deferral because of cost of living pressures over the last 12-18 months, that will have to show up at some point. So we're not expecting that to drop away, and our assumptions, therefore, are relatively buoyant. And then you've heard from Aaron our assumptions around some of the things that are less in our control, whether it be exchange or interest rates and other bits and bobs. We've kind of got some of that covered, and the rest of it, we'll see how we go. So hopefully, that gives you a flavor of the assumptions that sit behind second half and, importantly, the full year.
Yeah. That's helpful. Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone or type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your next question is a webcast question from Tim Plumbe with UBS. This reads, "January ANZ pickup sales excluding BYD down 7%. Some OEM models a fair bit worse than that: Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Prado, RAV4. What are your thoughts on this? Is this Australian consumer demand coming off, or is this OEM supply-driven? How are you thinking about the remainder of the year from a volume perspective, and does this change, i.e., worsen, if RBA announces further interest rate hikes? Or have you incorporated this into your thinking for second half 2026?
Thanks for the question, Tim. So you're quite right, and I think I have already articulated the nuance of some of the OEM brands within the January performance. I mean, obviously, the first half was flat, net of BYD. We looked at the first half, Ranger down three, D-MAX down 11, Triton sort of four-ish. So it sort of was in that sort of space, and that was more pronounced, clearly, in January. Those same models Ranger down 20, and HiLux 15, and D-MAX 14. I think it's actually a mix of both. I think people had a bit of pause through January. And we saw January, really, quite a, I wouldn't say peculiar, but quite a variable month across all of our businesses, some strong, some a bit weaker. It seemed like workshops were coming back a bit later.
People weren't necessarily spending in some of the retail-centric areas of some of our resellers and indeed weren't necessarily buying vehicles en masse. I think it's a bit of so no, it's a bit of both. I think December was a stronger month and, therefore, a little bit of supply, perhaps constraint, not massive, and then a little bit of demand off. I think the interest rates I mean, we've been much higher than where we have, obviously, with the deceleration of the rates. And if we return another 25 basis points or 50 basis points, I don't think we'll be facing anything different than what we were six and 12 months ago. I do expect and if you were to look on the pages of Ford, indeed, Triton, and others, they're just starting to spurt the market.
Interestingly, Triton, if you look at where they came in for the half, they were actually up 11%. If you look in January, they bucked the trend again. They're up 36% now. And part, that's because again, my personal point of view, in part because they've got more supply, in part they're actually quite aggressive in the market. So they are drawing customers out of the market with some reasonably aggressive driveway prices. Ford have just put some driveway prices in recently. Toyota have not. I can't remember now exactly piece by piece. So I think we'll start to see more progressive incentivization of the market. And of course, the other thing with HiLux is there's not been a huge supply of them as they start to launch. So our assumptions are built on a slightly softer second half. We're watching carefully.
We know we'll get a bit more business with HiLux because that's starting to launch. And we obviously have the sports bar in addition to the tow bar. And we'll watch closely. But we also are sucking more revenue out of a few more Australian tow bar contracts. And in the background, we expect right at the back end of the half, Tim, that we might see just a little bit of that offshore revenue come in, just a little bit of it. And we'll see also what happens with the U-Haul business. So we're kind of balancing a little bit of that.
Thank you. Your next question is a webcast question from Adam Dellavedova with Taylor Collison. This reads, "Can you discuss relative utilization levels for Thai and Australian plants at Amotiv? Is it still patchy? How does throughput today compare to when you acquired APG? And what things can be done to improve margins independent of securing higher order volumes?
Yeah. Sure. And thanks for the question. Look, the Thailand plant is its utilization's very high, hence why we're just commissioned the third plant or in the process of commissioning that. That's useful given that we've just won some European contracts, and we're pitching for more European contracts. So that third plant naturally will be less utilized, but we're bursting at the seams. And that's before, Adam, you think about a full year of HiLux sports bar, which we now have before. And then you start to take the Navara. And we haven't spoken much about the Navara, but the Navara will go from currently or in the past cycle, we used to literally deliver parts of a tow bar to a domestic operation, and we're now delivering the tow bar, the sports bar, the nudge bar, and that comes in FY 2027. So naturally, the utilization will creep.
In terms of Australia, that's still a bit patchy, but we run a one-ship operation there anyway. It's not in the 40s, 50s, 60s, but it might be in the 70s and 80s, depending on which month we're looking at because it does ebb and flow. The average batch sizes there are a lot lower. We're at seven or eight batch sizes, and that also supports the aftermarket. So it's a little bit more patchy there, Adam. In terms of the margin, look, if you were to take it to a dollar value as opposed to a bps value, we were down AUD 4.5 million half over half, or AUD 1 million of that was Zone Caravans, and then probably about AUD 3 million's worth of pricing annualized with the pricing we're about to put in place. So you'd get back that pretty quickly.
That's not discounting the fact that we're paying our workforce another 4%, our electricity bill quite higher, so you think about utilities and also the rent of that. So that pricing sort of that's the last 0.7. That pricing fixes the majority of that. Then you go and start thinking about AM pricing that we've spoken briefly about outside of the OEM pricing, the new business wins that concrete and nature, HiLux and Navara, just to name two, increasing U-Haul and the EV sorry, the Kia business in Europe, and I reckon we'll win some more. Then you've got Unified benefits. Freight is decent and contract labor. That's to come. And then a bit of margin improvement because the Thailand part's been a bit brutal for a while. We picked up a little bit there.
There's plenty of reasons to see this business return to not just FY 2025, but FY 2024 type margins at a minimum as we expand.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ralph Katz, a private investor. This reads, "How will the switch to electric vehicles impact Amotiv performance?
Thanks, Ralph. I don't know what you've been reading or what you've been following, but the EV investment around the world is crashing at the moment. You can look at Ford. They wrote off $20-something million. Stellantis $32 billion sorry, I'm talking billions, not millions. Everybody is pulling out of EV investment quicker than they can, and that's just because the payback is just brutal. They were all primarily compliance plays linked to particularly the U.S. government's point of view around CAFE and a few other bits and pieces. Now, I'm not making a judgment on whether an EV is right, wrong, or indifferent. We, as a business, are committed to reducing our emissions and have done so. And actually, at scope one and two, we're actually carbon neutral, so just as an aside. But the onslaught of EVs has slowed quite dramatically, Ralph.
What you are still seeing is a strong Chinese level of investment, although there's 100 brands or so in China that will go through massive consolidation. BYD recently just had a very tough period. So ultimately, at the end of the day, we're going to see not as strong as predicted ICE adoption in this particular market. We've already moved, though. Our revenue, as it stands now, is roughly 75% non-ICE, so it's ICE-agnostic. So we're well positioned in that regard. The adoption isn't quite as high. And where those vehicles are coming through are in small vehicles, passenger vehicles, and small SUVs, which is less important to us. And where we've got pickups and the likes of electrified pickups, whether it be Ford, electrified Toyota, and the like, we've been able to engineer tow bars that are lightweight and actually support them. So I think we're well positioned.
I don't see that as any threat, but we've already moved to a strong non-ICE position anyway. Hopefully, that answers your question in a broader context.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Whickman for closing remarks.
Well, thank you. Firstly, thank you for your attention. I appreciate the questions. As I said earlier on, we feel we've delivered a really solid result in a challenging environment. The balance sheet's in a great place. And as you tick through many of the financial metrics, whether in the allocation framework or indeed the broad financial metrics, we're seeing a lot of green ticks. It doesn't mean that we don't have more work to do. We're always anxious and ambitious with the 2030 strategy. We're keen to see the business grow, but grow in a way that's done in a quality fashion. And I'm not just talking about revenue. I'm talking about the EBIT with clear ROCE. As I said earlier on, the prospects for each of the divisions still remain strong. Reiterating guidance, I think, is very positive.
And some exit rates around the work on Unified, I think, also demonstrates that we're not sitting still in what is an incipient market. We remain committed and active in managing the business in a way that I think we can be pleased with. So with that, I'm sure we'll be meeting with many of you through the course of the week, whether it's at a broker lunch, dinner, or breakfast, and then our individual shareholders. So we look forward to those conversations, both Aaron and I, and we'll see you through the course of the week. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.