Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this investor webinar for Boom Logistics' first half results. My name is Gabby, and I'm joined this afternoon by Boom's CEO, Ben Pieyre, and CFO, Manny Bikakis. Before I hand over to Ben and Manny for the formal presentation, just a reminder that this webinar is being recorded, and also that there will be the opportunity to ask Ben and Manny questions after the formal presentation. If you'd like to ask them a question, please do so via the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. Thank you. All right, over to you, Ben and Manny.
Thank you, Gabby. Good morning or afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the first half results for Boom Logistics for financial year 2025. My name is Ben Pieyre. I'm the CEO and Managing Director. Joining me today is our CFO, Manny Bikakis.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Manny and I are in different locations for operational requirement as we continue to actively drive our business, being a national business, which is a good segue to the first slide on who we are. Starting on a quick recap, Boom is one of Australia's leading providers of lifting services and project solutions to the mining, industrial, infrastructure, and renewable industries. We provide specialized equipment, engineering services, and workforce solutions to a diversified range of operations and projects throughout Australia. Boom has a national presence, an extensive fleet of cranes and equipment, skilled labor, and a proven capacity to manage large-scale activity. We are playing a key role in supporting Australia's critical industrial and infrastructure development, renewable energy transition, and resource extraction projects.
Starting with a summary of the highlights for the half year, our revenue of AUD 131.7 million was driven by strong project activity, particularly by wind farms and transmission lines projects. Our EBITDA continued to improve due to our ongoing efforts to grow margins, tighten cost control management, and ensure operational optimization is maintained. The 32% rise in operational NPAT to AUD 5 million is a result of our underlying focus on delivering improved shareholder value by implementing our strategic initiatives. Our statutory NPAT result of AUD 19 million includes an additional AUD 14 million of deferred tax benefits. Given the confidence that we have in our future earnings, we are bringing these tax benefits onto our balance sheet. Net cash flow of AUD 8.5 million has been delivered through our improved operations and focus on working capital. The share buyback scheme has brought back circa AUD 1.4 million in shares in the first half.
Earnings per share is also improved considerably by 31% to 12% per share. On slide five, we demonstrate our recent track record on improving returns to our shareholders. We have delivered increases in our revenue, EBITDA, NPAT, return on net assets, earnings per share, and net tangible asset across FY2023, FY2024, and we are forecasting to lift this matrix again in FY2025. Our positive operating outlook and our continued delivery for our strategic roadmap places us in a strong position to achieve our goals of delivering double-digit returns on net assets for our shareholders. Turning to our strategic delivery for the first half, we have strengthened the balance sheet and improved shareholder returns through efficient use of capital and driving operational performance. For sector-focused profitable growth, we sustainably grew our renewables business and secured more than AUD 29 million in new and renewed contracts throughout our business.
Our focus on asset regeneration continues, resulting in asset utilization of 87% for the half and a valuated average fleet age of six years. On the labor front, we have a solid labor efficiency rate for the half of 86%. We continue our focus on safety, environment, talent, and governance, resulting in no lifetime injuries for the half. Our revenue increase is being driven by a diversified exposure in growth markets. A softer performance across resources and infrastructure was offset by growth across renewables and industrials due to strong demand for the energy transition in Australia, a key driver for future growth. Having said that, resources and infrastructure continue to be core sectors as we focus on key clients with profitable opportunities. A little bit about our key partners and projects. On this slide, we'll showcase some of our key partners and projects which we service.
The activity at a nine-hour mine site in the northwest, the Clark Creek wind farm project in North Queensland, a large transmission line project in New South Wales, and a desalination plant just outside of Perth in Western Australia. This is just a small sample of the complex and diverse customers and large-scale projects that we are involved in. A bit about our progress on the ESG front and safety for the first half. We recorded no lifetime injuries and a total recordable injury frequency rate of 5 per million hours worked. We completed a greenhouse gas emission assessment, reinforcing our commitment to assessing and mitigating environmental impact. We also conducted a materiality assessment to identify key environmental, social, and governance issues, ensuring our focus aligns with key stakeholders and business objectives. I will now hand over to Manny to talk to the financial performance of the business.
Right, thanks, Ben. I'm going to cover our key financial statements, which is our profit and loss, our balance sheet, and our cash flow. I'll start with the profit and loss statement. We're very pleased to keep improving the quality of our earnings through the continued focus on margins, costs, and operational efficiencies, and hopefully you can see that on the graph in front of you. Our underlying operating profit for FY2025 was up 32% for the first half to AUD 5 million. The statutory profit that you can see in front of you, we've included AUD 14 million of deferred tax benefits, which is about 50% of what we actually have available to us. This is a step towards our confidence and illustrating the confidence that we have in our future profit projections and profits that are going to remain tax-free for many, many years to come.
As indicated, our first half was up 32%, and now if you do the maths for the second half, we're forecast to do about another AUD 4 million for the second half. That's equally going to be up about 42% on prior year. We are up 32% in the first half, 42% in the second half, which averages out about 36% for the full year. I will turn to the balance sheet, which has been a very key focus for us over the last couple of years, and it is very important that we continue to build a strong balance sheet and a resilient balance sheet. On the asset front, we are continuing with our asset regeneration program, modernizing our fleet. This fleet meets the customer demands. It delivers lower downtime. It provides higher labor and asset efficiency. To this end, our CapEx for the first half of AUD 21.3 million.
This has all been front-loaded this year, i.e., it's been most of our CapEx has actually come into the first half of the year. This is really due to the improved supply chain that we've had. So we've been able to bank most of our CapEx for the year in the first half. This allows those assets to be operating in the year of purchase, thus helping on the P&L front as well. So our forecast for the second half CapEx is very, very minimal given a lot of our CapEx is coming to the first half. From a debt financing point of view, you can see there we've lifted our facilities to AUD 150 million. This is all through first-tier providers, NAB being our number one banker and supporter.
This provides us with a lot more flexibility and a lot more headroom to take care of or take on opportunities as they arise. Our net debt is about AUD 100 million, AUD 99.7 million. We are two-thirds drawn, about AUD 150 million. There is lots of headroom there. Our gearing ratio is 43.5%. This is well within the guidelines we have put out. We want to be somewhere in that sort of 40%-50% mark so we are being responsible with the use of debt. What is pleasing is that during the half, we have been able to pay down any general debt or working capital debt or debt of factoring, however you want to term it. 100% of our debt is now asset financing. They are operating and finance leases across our key assets.
That is the way it should be, and that is the way we want to sort of move it forward. Our net assets grew to AUD 129 million for the half, partly due to our improved P&L, our rejuvenated assets on the balance sheet, and the recognition of the deferred assets. Now, turning to the cash flow statement. I appreciate we have had feedback on this. People assess cash flow in a number of ways. Always open to feedback. The way we measure cash flow is actual cash generated, less cash that went out the door. You start the year with some cash. You generate some cash flow through the business, which leaves you some cash in the bank at the end of the year.
If you take our definition of cash flow or free cash for the year, that was AUD 8.5 million versus AUD 1.6 million last year and previous years were sort of in those low digits as well. Vast improvement on what we've been able to do in the past. As I mentioned, on the CapEx perspective, about AUD 5 million of that CapEx was actually, we actually used cash to pay for that capital. About AUD 5 million was via cash. The other 80% of it was effectively via asset financing leases. They typically tend to be four- to five-year sort of leases on our equipment. The largest portion of our cash flow, as you can see there, has gone to meeting our banker obligations. We made AUD 23 million from the business, AUD 4 million from cash, from asset disposals.
We spent some on CapEx, and AUD 14.7 million was actually spent on paying back the banks on our finance leases and the AUD 1.4 million on the share buybacks. I think that is pretty much it from me. Ben, I will hand back to you to go through the FY25 priorities.
Yeah, thank you, Manny. I'm sure you'll be happy to take questions on the financials after the presentation if there are any.
I will.
In FY25, we will continue to deliver on all our core strategic initiatives that we put in place back in 2023. The three key priorities remain and are meeting our increased guidance for the year with AUD 263 million in revenue, AUD 51 million in EBITDA, and AUD 9 million in operating NPAT. We will look to grow profitable customers and continue to invest in profitable markets in our four core sectors. We will also ensure fee realization and charge-out is above 85%, and we will invest in key replacement assets to increase our competitive advantage. I'd like to reinforce our number one strategic focus, which is to improve shareholder value by targeting double-digit returns. We've come from 1% return in FY23 to 6% in FY24. We are forecasting 8% in FY25. Boom's focus on double-digit return has and will continue to grow through our core initiatives.
Continued individual business improvements, investment in growth assets in key markets such as the renewables, pricing efficiency, and cost management. To end the presentation, we'll finish with a recap on our investment highlights. We look to deliver our upgraded full-year guidance with an operational NPAT position of AUD 9 million for FY24, which is an improvement of 36% on FY24. We have an experienced board and management team with a track record of delivering returns for shareholders. We have a strong balance sheet and lending partners that provide flexibility and a platform for future growth. Lastly, our targeting of double-digit return on net asset is tracking well with higher returns and a boosted free cash flow. We are very pleased with the improvement made over the last two years, and we are looking forward to continuing our journey into the second half and beyond. Thank you all.
We will now take any questions you may have through Gabby and the platform.
Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Manny, for that presentation. A reminder, if you'd like to ask Ben or Manny a question this afternoon, please do so via the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen. Okay, so first question for you, Manny, is can you provide more color on your increased gearing levels?
The gearing ratio?
The increased gearing levels.
Yeah, yeah. Our gearing ratio has gone up. I think it was 41.5% last year. We're now 43.5%, from the top of my head. A lot of the, like I said, a lot of our capital that we purchased this year, 80% of it was actually debt funded, so it's via finance leases. That explains the increase in our gearing ratio. Predominantly, it's the extra debt on the capital.
Okay, thank you. Next question. It's from Richard Thackeray of Phoenix Portfolios. He says, "Congrats on the good results. For clarity, could you please confirm that following the recognition of the deferred tax asset, operating profit after tax excludes any assumed tax expense in the second half?
Do you want me to handle that one, Ben?
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, so this company won't be paying tax for quite a number of years. Our profit last year and the year before and this year's forecast of AUD 9 million is fully tax-free. Given the level of prior year tax losses that we have within the group, the forecast is many, many years of zero tax expense and tax payable to the ATO. That is a real benefit to the organization and to our shareholders because it is a real cost that won't be incurred probably for the next quite a number of years, as I said.
Thank you, Manny. Okay, next question is from Rob Jeeves of Gregan Harrison. It says, "The AGM presentation said the return on the assets target was 15%. This presentation only says double-digit. Is the target now only something greater than 10%?
Yeah. Look, I think the double-digit or 15% is double-digit as well. The double-digit was, you know, we want to go with double-digit because it does not set a set target. We do not want to be restrained by, you know, we will restrain ourselves with time and numbers. We are actively seeking the double-digit returns. We are getting closer and closer. You know, and obviously, it will be a continued effort to reach the target. 15% is not a target. You know, obviously, the more returns we get, the better these businesses. That really is, you know, that was really the shift in our thoughts, is why limit ourselves to a fixed number rather than just, you know, going, you know, we are going for double digits with no restrictions, and we will make that number as high as we can in the years to come.
That's pretty much, you know, that was the change in our thoughts of not limiting ourselves to anything. Just keep going, continue to grow, continue to make the right returns.
Thanks, Ben. Next question relates to capital management. The attendee asked, "At the last AGM, it was agreed to increase the share buyback to 20% with strong cash flow, solid results in the half, and cash at bank. Why is the share buyback being so low? What's the target for 2025?
Yeah, thank you. Look, the policy that we've installed is average. It's the average profit over two years. And for us to reinvest from 40%-60%. Look, liquidity has been, you know, is something that we can't really manage. But we are actively looking to buy back our shares. We've actually just changed brokers. We are working actively to the program actually restarted today. We will be actively seeking to participate in the buyback.
Excellent. Thanks, Ben.
Just to add to that, Gabby, it's the last two years' average.
Last two years' average.
Three years' profit. And 50% of that profit is what we buy back. And we're actually on target to deliver at least AUD 2 million of share buybacks, which is about 50% of the last two years' profit.
Okay. Thanks, Manny. Next question also relates to capital management. I mean, you're obviously doing the buyback, but this attendee asks whether Boom will ever consider paying dividends.
Look, that's something, you know, it's been a recurring comment, I guess. That's something that the board, you know, we're looking at the board to always, you know, we're not setting anything. We've got a policy. We're sticking with it. We think it's the right, you know, it is the right policy for us now. You know, we're not saying that nothing's ever getting reviewed. You know, we've got an open mind. You know, we're looking at the performance of the business. You know, and we're also listening to our shareholders. You know, we're keeping an open mind. For now, we are committed to the buyback. We think it is the right thing for us to use our capital.
Okay. Thanks, Ben. Next question comes from Monty Swift at Taylor Collison. He says, "Well done on the results. How should we think about net CapEx into FY2026 and going forward, acknowledging second half 2025 will be minimal?
Look, we have invested a lot in this business in the last few years, certainly the last, you know, three or four years at least. For us, CapEx is for us now, you know, is getting a lot more strategic than what it was. We needed to refurnish our fleet. We need to regain confidence from our clients. Looking forward, we will be looking at CapEx as growth investment more so than capital replacement. We will be a lot more strategic in the way we go. You know, at the end of the day, we have over 300 bits of equipment between cranes and travel tails and others that, you know, where we generate our revenue.
You know, with an average life cycle for these assets of 12-15 years, we're bound to replace, you know, a certain amount of assets every year. We keep, you know, we keep that in mind. Certainly, the focus will be on growth assets.
Okay, thank you, Ben. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask Ben or Manny a question, can you do so via the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. Next question for Manny is just about, well, for both of you, actually, the general sort of financial economic environment and probably with, you know, the advent of Trump and a lot of geopolitical things going on at the moment, possibility, you know, the Australian election as well. What's your thoughts on these events and how they'll affect the business?
If you do not mind, Manny, I will probably start with this one. Look, geopolitics is always there, right? Australia is a strong country. We have got, you know, we have got the resources. We have got growth in population. We have got, you know, we have a lot of infrastructure to build. It is not only renewables. It is, you know, bridges and others. You know, we have got to build our cities literally. We have got to rebuild, you know, our rail network. There still are a lot of opportunities that are part of our core sectors, resources being one. Whilst the resources may be going, you know, some part of the resources may be slowing down a little bit, the production has not changed. Most of our activities and resources are based around the maintenance and supporting the production of any different type of oil, right?
We see, you know, we see opportunities in copper, for example. We see opportunities in gold whilst, you know, lithium and nickel, for example, have not been going too great. There are a lot of opportunities still for us. How it will affect the business? That is part of myself, the team, Manny, to be able to make sure that we are adaptable, that we have the capabilities of being able to react and being part of any type of growth around Australia, any type of strong activities. Keeping in mind that, you know, we are really focusing on profitable growth. It has to be all right. The terms have to be all right. It has to be something that, you know, we feel very comfortable in delivering as well. There are issues, but, you know, there are always issues.
You know, when it comes to our business, we're focusing on ourselves. We're focusing on what we need to do to deliver the returns that are required. We feel very comfortable that we have the right team to deliver that.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Next question is, "Coates recently reported a weaker outlook for infrastructure-related hire, particularly in Victoria. Are you seeing similar challenging conditions at all?
Look, we're not really involved in the Victorian market. The Victorian market is very particular. It's mostly city work, and, you know, which we don't, you know, highly unionized, which we don't really participate in. For us, the activities in our sectors, you know, look, again, you know, there may be challenges, but by being flexible and adaptable, we are able to ride. You just have to look at our performance so far this year. The resources have gone a little bit down, but we find growth, you know, which was a target and a strategic view that we had to go more into renewables. And renewables, we're not talking necessarily construction and projects. We're talking about maintenance. The more we build wind farms, the more wind turbines there will be to maintain.
The more transmission lines we put up, the more work there will be to do on transmission line on the maintenance work. So that's just two examples of the many things that we do. So we, you know, you got to have a good look forward. We got to understand our market. And as such, you know, we feel comfortable with where we are, you know, regardless of what, you know, of what the market does.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Next question relates to M&A. Are you seeing any attractive M&A opportunities and how are you weighing these up versus capital returns given the low multiple?
Yeah, look, I mean, we're not actively, obviously, we're not actively seeking anything. But just looking around in the market, there's been a few. What you'll find is in depressed areas, like the previous question, some people may want to get out. Why would you go into a depressed market, right? For us, we have assets. We move around. We are comfortable and confident with our service delivery, with our product. We have the right people. We are moving organically to new markets in order to, you know, in order to seek, you know, to replace lost markets such as the nickel, for example. We're going into gold now, you know, and we're pushing into iron ore.
We, you know, we're not really, you know, there's nothing really to comment about M&A outside of, I think the people that are trying to sell right in the depressed market will be people that they need to exit. We're not, you know, for us, we're looking for growth. You know, we're very comfortable with what we're doing internally.
Thanks, Ben. Next question relates to revenue composition. Like you've mentioned, resources, it still accounts for about half your revenue, but you've mentioned growth in renewables and transmission lines. How do you go about driving that growth? What's the strategy behind that?
Yeah, thank you. Look, the strategy has been, we've created two different departments. Part of the restructure we've done in the last two to three years, you know, we've exited some markets and we created new divisions to specialize and really focus on these markets. That's been paying off. You know, the replacement of the fleet has been very strategic as well. We've replaced old fleet with, you know, the right fleet in order to target these markets. You know, we're comfortable. We have the right people, the right equipment. It was certainly a strategic focus, something that, you know, we really aimed at diversifying our business. Whilst the wind market has always been around Boom Logistics for many, many years, probably close to 15 now, I think.
We have actually erected over a gigawatt of power so far in wind turbines, which is quite exceptional for our business over the last 15 years. The effort that we have put in in the last few years to really focus on this market is, well, it is paying off. We have recruited the right people, the right people that want to join us. We have got the right assets. We have got the relationships. We are certainly marketing ourselves as such as well that, you know, we are one of the leaders in the industry in Australia. We are being recognized as such.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Next question. I know that we do quarterly updates, but the attendee says there's minimal communication on contract wins to shareholders between results. What's the plan going forward on improving this?
I guess, you know, the size of the contract dictates that, you know, we can't really go out every day. Every day we sign a tender or a quote, right? The size, you know, the impact of the size of the market is what we do. We have made some announcements this year. You know, we certainly will be guided to make announcements if there were to be any considerable size, you know, contracts to be signed. We are guided by ASX guidelines as well with the materiality of the, you know, of the size of the contracts as well.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Next question relates to guidance. The attendee says, "Regarding FY2025 guidance, it appears conservative given traditionally the business has a modest second half skew. Can you please comment or clarify?
Yeah, thanks for that. Look, I think, you know, we are really positive about the second half. It's an improvement, you know, it's a major improvement compared to last year, almost 40% from, you know, if you compare the forecast for the second half, for the guidance for the second half and the second half of FY2024. You know, we're keeping that guidance. We are comfortable with what we're doing. You know, we're very, very pleased that the first half has had a good impact. We continue to work, you know, to work hard on it. Someone mentioned the resources. You know, there's weather events. There's a lot of things that we, you know, we take into consideration as well. We are comfortable that we will be delivering the guidance for the full year and the guidance for the second half.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Probably time for one last question. Guys, obviously really good results. Everything's sort of tracking as you'd like it to be. Guidance lifted for the full year. Besides those things, what are some of like the three to four key takeaways that you'd like attendees to take away from the session today?
Only three or four.
Or 20 if you want.
Look, you know, a big takeaway for us and something that, you know, whilst the results are improved, you know, we know there's still a lot of work to do. The pleasing factor certainly for us is that we keep on delivering what we say we do. That is, you know, a key factor really in the confidence that I personally have in working with Boom, the team, the board, is that our people are really invested and we are working and fighting hard every day to improve.
That for me is really, you know, is really important to highlight because, you know, having cranes and people is one thing, but what we do with it and how we've improved in the last few years and we continue to improve, you know, is really a credit to our people and to the strategy that we've installed, the confidence of the board with us. Also, we're hearing it a lot more and more, the confidence of the market with what we are doing. That really to me is a key highlight. You know, from FY2023, we've continued to improve. There was a lot of work done prior to that. Now we're taking this to fruition. It is really key.
The other key is, you know, you look at our NTA, you look at the value of our share, we are still, and, you know, I'm not saying that out of course. Everything that you read and hear about us is, you know, there's some strong opportunities here, you know, when you look at Boom Logistics from our NTA to our current value, which if anything is very positive for everybody on the call today, from shareholders to brokers to everybody investing in us. That is, you know, that's really the key thing.
We, you know, yeah, I'd like to leave everybody with this is, you know, the business is doing great, but that's the investment that everybody's put in from time, energy, focus, you know, for our people to the board backing us by, you know, allowing us to grow this business and to really focus where we need to focus to get the right return and essentially getting, you know, getting the return for the shareholders.
Okay, thanks, Ben. Thank you both for your time presenting today. Thank you everyone for attending. Have a good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you very much.
Thanks everyone.