Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Codan's first half FY 2025 results webinar. My name's Sam Wells from NWR, and joining me from Codan today is Managing Director and CEO Alf Ianniello, as well as CFO and Company Secretary Michael Barton. Following a brief summary of the results released to the ASX this morning, investors and research analysts will have an opportunity to ask questions. There will be a choice of two options. First, you can submit a written question via the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. Alternatively, research analysts may raise your hand via Zoom if you wish to ask a verbal question. We kindly ask that you limit your questions to two per person, and we will endeavor to get to the majority of questions asked, in some cases consolidating questions on the same or similar topic.
With that, I'll pass it over to you, Alf.
Thanks, Sam. Good morning, all, and welcome to the first half FY 2025 results presentation for Codan. I'm Alf Ianniello. I'm the CEO and Managing Director of Codan, and alongside me, I have Michael Barton, the company's CFO and company secretary. Before we proceed, please take note of our standard notice and disclaimer. So the plan for today's presentation is for Michael and I to provide some key highlights on our first half results, touching on each of Codan's three business units. Following this, we'll run through our current strategy, reiterating some key focus areas within each of our business units. Finally, we'll aim to tie it all together and provide a high-level commentary on the company's outlook for the remainder of FY 2025. For those of you that have heard me present previously, you'll be familiar with this slide.
Rather than typically at the back of our presentation, I wanted to spend some time at the outset of today's session. Since January 2022, the board and the executive team have spent a significant amount of time not only reviewing our existing businesses but also identifying and reiterating our core organizational values, culture, and positive outlooks. As part of this, our entire leadership team developed a laser-focused plan and set out to build a stronger Codan, which is underpinned by financial, operational, and strategic objectives. This is where this concept was first born. Fast forward over two years, and we've now delivered four consecutive halves of sustainable growth and operational performance, a testament to the entire Codan team globally. Our consistent focus remains on strengthening the business and laying the foundation for long-term profitable growth, ultimately reinforcing a stronger Codan.
Hopefully, you agree this set of results is another step in the right direction as we seek to execute this to drive long-term sustainable value for shareholders. As our highlight slide illustrates, Codan has delivered another strong financial result for the first half of FY 2025, with group revenues growing 15% to approximately AUD 306 million. Our improved financial performance reflects strong organic growth across all our operations, with communications being the key driver, which we'll get to in a moment.
Pleasantly, all profitability metrics improved as both EBIT and NPAT were up over 20% versus the first half of FY24. NPAT for the first half was a touch over AUD 46 million, translating to AUD 0.254 earnings per share, allowing the company to declare a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.125 per share. I'll now pass it over to Michael to run through the financials in some more detail.
Thanks, Alf. Good morning, everyone. As Alf alluded to, we're really proud to have delivered sustainable growth across the last four consecutive halves, underscoring our strong operational performance. And this slide highlights that, driven largely by our growing communications segment. During the half, communications revenue was up 22% to AUD 187 million, exceeding the 10% to 15% growth target, while our metal detection business also grew revenues by 5% for the period to AUD 115 million. Expenses increased during the half, primarily due to the integration of acquisitions, with the cost base of the newly acquired entities being integrated into the group. During this period, the group incurred integration and acquisition expenses of AUD 2 million. Despite the increase in the expense base, EBIT and NPAT were both up 21% versus the prior corresponding period.
Turning now to our balance sheet, net debt increased by AUD 48 million to 124 million at the end of December, and in the period, we funded AUD 36 million for the acquisition of Kagwerks, which we announced in December, acquired in December, and AUD 26 million for working capital requirements for our growing communications business. Cash generation for the period reflects the group's shifting business mix, with communications making up a larger proportion of our overall performance. As expected for a growing business, this has led to an increase in working capital requirements. Notwithstanding this, the group remains focused on cash generation to ensure cash and debt levels are appropriate and well-managed. The group continues to maintain a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of less than one times, reinforcing the company's commitment to financial discipline.
During the first half of FY 2025, the group increased its existing banking facility to AUD 200 million, which was previously AUD 170 million, with the additional capacity available of a further AUD 150 million, subject to bank approval. These facilities provide the company with the financial flexibility to support future acquisition opportunities. Codan remains focused on improving the quality of its revenue streams by targeting acquisitions with recurring revenue models or contracted revenues, particularly with government customers through programs of record.
As outlined, this slide visually illustrates the changes to our net debt position throughout the first half, the key movements I've just mentioned on the previous slide. During the first half, we have continued our engineering investment across all of our business units, investing a total of approximately AUD 31 million, circa 10% of revenues, which is in line with prior periods. Our engineering investment is weighted towards communications and their key growth markets.
The recent acquisitions have contributed to this growing engineering spend and the weighting towards communications, which is consistent with our future growth strategy. We have a global team of highly skilled engineers and research scientists, and through product development, we ensure our competitive position is maintained. I'll turn back to you now, Alf, as we take a closer look at our three businesses.
Thank you, Michael.
As a reminder, for those perhaps newer to our story, our communications businesses design and manufacture mission-critical communication solutions for global military law enforcement, broadcast, unmanned systems, and public safety applications. These solutions allow customers to save lives, enhance security, and support peacekeeping activities worldwide. Our communication segment continues to be the core driver of our success, with all key strategic financial metrics achieved, reflecting strong overall performance. In terms of specifics, the segment delivered 22% growth versus the prior corresponding period. Organic growth exceeded the top end of the targeted 10% to 15% growth range and was further enhanced with acquisitions. Overall, this result demonstrates the operational leverage this business has by expanding the communications segment profit contribution margin to 27%, up from 25% in the prior corresponding period.
The company remains committed to achieving additional operating leverage, targeting a 30% segment profit margin in the communications segment over the next two to three years. Overall, we are pleased with the progress being made in communications as the business continues to strengthen, with an order book of AUD 247 million, up 35% versus prior corresponding periods, driven by the strong tactical order intake. Tactical communications delivered strong results, primarily due to the growth achieved in law enforcement and unmanned system verticals. Tactical continues to benefit from its leading mesh radio technology, which demonstrates exceptional performance in harsh and contested environments. Specifically, the business excels in providing compact, lightweight, and efficient radio solutions, optimizing size, weight, and power, making them ideal for a wide range of applications.
In particular, the business has achieved excellent growth in the unmanned systems market, where these attributes are crucial for enhancing performance, mobility, and operational efficiency in remote, contested, or challenging environments. We pride ourselves on delivering best-in-class technology that consistently outperforms competitors in both performance and innovation. A prime example is our recent partnership with SYPAQ Systems, where we are integrating our radio into the CorvoX drone for the Australian Defense Force. This collaboration not only showcases Codan's leadership in advanced communication technology but also strengthens Australia's sovereign defense capabilities, ensuring the nation remains at the forefront of cutting-edge defense solutions. The tactical communication near-term priorities include completion of the development of the multi-waveform radio solution with TrellisWare, the pursuit of opportunities for inclusion in longer-term defense-related communication programs across North America, the Five Eyes alliances, and the NATO member nations.
Lastly, consistent with our strategy to acquire complementary businesses of technology, we completed the acquisition of Kagwerks in December. As a reminder, for those of you less familiar with Kagwerks, they are a leader in tactical operator-worn communication technologies. Their equipment offers soldiers a lightweight network hub that integrates multiple systems into one solution. As alluded, this acquisition strengthens Codan's Tactical Communications division by providing access to the budgeted Nett Warrior program of record and expanding its presence in the US military communications market. With Kagwerks established relationships within the US Department of Defense and their proven product performance, Codan expects future growth opportunities, leveraging the company's existing global distribution network. As outlined at the time, in the first 12 months of our ownership, Codan expects the acquisition to generate $49 million to 57 million in revenue and $8 million to 11 million in EBITDA, a highly accretive acquisition.
Additionally, we're pleased to report today that our first three months of ownership have been positive, with integration progressing well and on track. The sales opportunities pipelines remain strong, reinforcing the investment thesis, which is further evidenced by the current order book balance of AUD 16 million, which we will ship in the second half of FY 2025. So over to Zetron. Zetron delivered growth in line with expectations, with all geographic regions and markets contributing to this result. Zetron continues to strengthen its position in critical sectors such as public safety, utilities, and transportation by focusing on innovation and addressing the evolving needs of these industries.
As outlined on the slide, some notable wins during the period include continued growth in Iowa, providing the next-generation 911 services to more than 90% of all 911 calls, increased customer awards for command and control and LMR solutions, and several large contract renewals, including UK- Wide Rail, New York State Police, and Monroe County in the US. Research and development efforts in Zetron are focused on advancing the next-generation 911 capabilities and improving customer experiences by providing seamless integrated solutions for the operators. Again, for anyone new to the story on the call, Minelab is the world leader in handheld metal detection technologies for the recreational, gold mining, demining, and military markets. For more than 30 years, Minelab has led the metal detection industry to new levels of technological excellence. Minelab's revenue of AUD 115 million for H1 FY 2025 reflects a 5% increase versus the prior corresponding period.
As a result of an increase in the proportion of revenues generated for Minelab Africa, Minelab increased segment profit margin to 36% during the half versus 34% in the prior corresponding period. Minelab Africa delivered a better-than-expected first half result, with revenues at approximately AUD 45 million, increasing half on half as well as versus the prior corresponding period. This increase is attributed to West Africa, as the Sudan region of Northeast Africa remains disrupted. While Africa has historically delivered a stronger second half result due to seasonality, it is too early for the company to determine whether seasonality improvements will apply in FY 2025. Rest of the world, Minelab maintained the strong revenue levels achieved during COVID, highlighting the strength and resilience of its business.
Although revenues did not benefit from new product launches, as in the previous year, and were impacted by rising cost of living and political uncertainties in the U.S. ahead of the elections, Minelab's Rest of the World continued to demonstrate strong resilience. Minelab's Rest of the World is investing to grow its market through the development of its technology platform, expanding its retail presence in the U.S. and Europe, and enhancing its e-commerce capabilities. These strategic initiatives position the business for continued success as new products are introduced. Lastly, Countermine had an exceptional first half last year due to a large humanitarian order that was not repeated this half. Countermine remains a project-based business. However, the business is continuing to develop and innovate its leading-edge technology to support humanitarian demining efforts. From here, we'll now move to a strategy overview portion of the presentation.
As presented on a number of occasions previously, our strategy is focused on three core pillars to drive long-term sustainable value for shareholders. The first, investing in ourselves. This is what I term doing everything right internally. Here, we focus across people, process, and systems, driving improvements in core metrics, as well as investing in technology, innovation, and new product development across all segments. We continue to invest in our employees to ensure we have the right structure, people, and roles to deliver on the company's strategic growth plan and to build a stronger Codan. Secondly, strengthen our core businesses. This is where we seek to improve the quality of our top line, pursuing geographic and business unit diversification while seeking to expand our suite of products and services in our growing addressable market. A key component of this is building more stable and predictable revenue streams.
The third circle, disciplined capital allocation, this is our inorganic growth strategy, focused on pursuing strategically aligned and accretive acquisitions, specifically targeting opportunities that fill a technology gap, offer enhanced scale, or increase market penetration. As per our recent Kagwerks acquisition, we'll often execute bolt-on opportunities that complement existing technologies or pursue emerging technologies that strengthen our differentiated product pipeline. Over the past four years, we've invested nearly AUD 250 million in acquisitions, strategically driving our inorganic growth and creating a significant long-term value for our shareholders. Our acquisition strategy is underpinned by targeting opportunities that address technology gaps, enhance scale, and increase market penetration. We are proud to say that our leadership team has consistently executed this strategy with remarkable success. Our ability to integrate acquired businesses seamlessly is a true competitive advantage. In 2023 alone, we completed three bolt-on acquisitions alongside the Kagwerks acquisition finalized this half.
This further demonstrates our unwavering commitment to acquiring businesses that strengthen our technology offerings, expand our market reach, and grow our customer base. The acquisitions outlined in this slide are a testament to the success of our strategy. We've developed a proven framework for acquisitions and integration, allowing us to unlock value from acquisitions and continue accelerating our growth. Firstly, across tactical communications, we continue to focus on enhancing their offering as full solutions providers, targeting first release of the multi-waveform radio solution under the TrellisWare partnership in H1 FY26 and completion of field trials of the Sentry 6161 mesh radio with key partners globally. Beyond that, we continue to invest in next-generation waveforms and product offerings, leveraging key global partnerships as well as pursuing inorganic growth opportunities.
Next, in relation to Zetron, a key competitive objective is to expand support contracts and enhance the predictability of our recurring services revenue. As we think about near-term objectives, we remain focused on expanding market share within the public safety sector and increasing customer spend within our existing accounts, while also developing next-generation command and control and LMR platforms. Consistent with our communications growth strategy, we continue to explore inorganic opportunities that expand our Zetron product portfolio or achieve geographic expansion. Lastly, in Minelab, we continue to promote and introduce new products and focus on expanding our channels to market. Looking forward, we will release the next generation of detectors across recreational, gold, and countermine segments over the next six to 12 months.
Additionally, we are focused on growing our recreational market share via expansion of our retail distribution footprint, primarily across the U.S. and Europe, and leveraging and growing e-commerce channels. Now, for our outlook and summary. When considering the outlook for the balance of FY 2025, communication continues to target organic revenue growth in a 10% to 15% range. With the benefit of Kagwerks acquired during FY 2025, communications overall revenue growth is expected to exceed 15%. If business conditions remain similar to H1, Minelab's revenues in the second half are expected to be comparable to H1. Codan is continuing to seek acquisition opportunities to enhance the quality of the group's revenues in the communication segment. Codan will continue executing its strategic growth plan by investing in the development of the next generation of products and solutions. As revenues grow, the company will continue to focus on driving operational leverage.
Additionally, strategic acquisitions in the communication segment will be pursued to enhance revenue quality and improve predictability. These initiatives position Codan for sustained long-term growth. And with that, this draws us to the end of our presentation today. I'll now pass it back to Sam for Q&A.
Great. Thanks, Al. Just as a reminder for the audience, you may ask written questions via the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen, and research analysts can raise your hand to ask a verbal question. Maybe I'll just kick off with a couple of pre-submitted questions before getting to the analyst. Firstly, just on inorganic opportunities, you've increased your debt capacity once again, and you continue to reference seeking acquisitions. Can you just elaborate on this? What are the key areas of focus in these businesses, domestic or offshore? Okay.
Thanks, Sam. Good question. We've been very consistent. We are focusing acquisitions in communications, and predominantly, those acquisitions are focused in North America, where the largest addressable markets exist. So that's been the focus area. Okay. Great. Thank you. And on the communication segment margins, you continue to target 30% margins in the next two to three years. How exactly are you planning to do this? Yes. I guess we thought the movement from 25% to 27% in the half was a real positive movement. Ideally, growth's got a lot to do with it.
A lot of the investment profile in these businesses are starting to sort of taper out. So we've actually spent time and effort investing in the right areas. So as we keep growing, as we keep putting solutions in the market that we might get larger gross margin dollars for and controlling costs, that'll continue to progress that contribution margin closer to 30%.
Okay. Great. Thank you. And we'll turn to the analysts. First question from Josh at Barrenjoey. Josh, please go ahead.
Alf and Michael, can you hear me okay?
Yes. Yes. Thanks, Josh.
Great. Thanks for taking my question. A couple on the comms segment. First one, just around the order book, obviously, you've noted very strong growth, up 35%. And I think if you X out the Kagwerks sort of order book, it's still sort of plus 26%. How should we think about the phasing of that order book to revenue when you've sort of seen that historically? And is there anything different in terms of the outlook in terms of how you'd be considering that revenue phasing or conversion as we look forward over the next 12 to 18 months?
Yeah. I think if we look forward, I'll break it down a bit further. If you look forward to H2, a lot of the tactical conversion book gets converted into H2. In my time with Codan, this is the best order book tactical has had going into H2. So they've done a great amount of work in just creating activity and, obviously, the solutions in market. When you look at the order book for Zetron, that's predominantly 30% of that number spread anywhere from three years to 10, but the bulk of it would be under an 18-month portion because they're delivering large programs. And when I talk about the three years to 10, that's just the service component of those contracts, which, from a whole Zetron level, is really 30% of their turnover.
Got it. And Alf, would you break down, or can you give any extra context around that order book, just how much is DTC versus Zetron under that?
40% is tactical, and 60% is Zetron.
Okay. Perfect. Second question, just with regard to the development of the multi-waveform radio solution with TrellisWare, how much does that expand, I guess, your addressable market in terms of DTC? How much does it open up as you go into that? When do you think we'll see some evidence of momentum there?
Yeah. So the first, we are through the technical phase. So there's been some very strong engineering work. I think the first product is due in December on one of our radio platforms. So there's three radio platforms. But there's a lot of dialogue currently with the U.S. Army on having joint waveforms because they can see the applicability.
I think apart from reputational benefits and having a product that does not exist today in the market, which will be market-leading, you probably won't see a benefit for 18 months. Once you talk about military programs, there is always a longer burn with respect to proving the technology, testing the technology. So from an addressable market, it opens up all those programs of record that we are chasing. Because one thing you need to remember with TrellisWare, that is a US Army requirement. So if we're able to have that on our radio or on a Kagwerks dismounted soldier solution, that just gives us greater scope to chase contracts. Great.
Thanks for taking my questions, guys. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thanks, Josh. Next question comes from Mitch at Macquarie. Mitch, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Alf and Michael. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you hear me all right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Great. I was just hoping you could expand maybe on the new product side of things, more so in Minelab. Can you maybe just give us a little bit more color on how many products you're expecting to release over the next 12 to 18 months? Yeah, and potential timing. Thanks. Yeah.
Yeah. I think we've been quite consistent. We've got two gold detectors, two recreational detectors, and two countermine detectors coming out over a period of time, all various technologies, all leapfrog technologies. So that's what we're excited about. The performance of the next-generation gold detectors will be at another level. And also, one of our countermine solutions is also more of a military-bent solution rather than a humanitarian solution such that it opens the addressable market for that range of products. And the consumer range is, again, just an uplift in performance.
Yep. Great. Thanks. Next one, just on Africa. I know you said if conditions remain the same, you think second half will be pretty similar revenue to first half, but gold prices above $2,900. Yeah. Can you maybe just give a bit more color on what you're seeing in terms of sales activity into that country? Are you having to start to rebuild inventory there? Yeah, just a bit of a more detailed look on the outlook. Thanks, guys.
I think the opaqueness of Africa always makes it difficult to give any forward-looking comments on it. But I guess what we've seen in Africa in the last six months, it's just the pull-through of product. You've had some new markets open up, like Ghana, which has been exciting. These are supplementary markets of the big core markets.
So I wouldn't want people to rush away and think we're opening up another sort of Sudan equivalent. But you're definitely seeing product being bought and pushed out to market through our dealer network. So yeah, they're all positive at the moments. And as we mentioned, Sudan, it's still locked down. But that result is sort of a COVID-level result for West Africa, which is real positive, I must say.
Great. And so just a really quick last one for Michael. Just on the unallocated, almost AUD 26 million in the first half, they included two million of acquisition integration costs. Yeah, just what should we expect on those cost side of things in the second half? Thanks, guys.
Yeah. Thanks, Mitch. Yeah. The outlook would be really unchanged other than the one-off costs we've called out that are sort of transaction-driven.
A lot of that was to do with the Kagwerks acquisition that settled in December. So they'll be dependent on whether there are any other transactions in the second half or into next year. So if you back those out, Mitch, that's sort of the run rate that we're on.
Great.
Thanks, Mitch. Next question comes from Tom at Moelis. Tom, please go ahead.
We can't hear you, Tom. Yep.
Sorry, guys. Just want to check you can hear me okay?
Yep . All good.
Thanks. Brilliant. Thanks, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, just on the margin expansion in the comms segment. Kagwerks, we acquired slightly below group margins, which we expect to improve. So ex that sort of three-month contribution, how much was driven by Kagwerks sort of coming up to group margins of that 2% versus just the original business ex Kagwerks in the comms segment?
Yeah. So we only got the keys to Kagwerks in the month of December, during the month of December. So really, I'd exclude that from your thinking, Tom. So the expansion was largely through the existing businesses.
Okay. Great. Fantastic. Also, just sticking on the acquisitions, I could see you've upsized the facility. So I just want to get a sense for a hypothetical, if you were to deploy all of that, what gearing levels are you comfortable taking to the group to if you were able to find suitable acquisitions for that u psized facility?
Yeah. Tom, I mean, we've traded below one or had the covenant of below one for a long time. We have a covenant at three. I think in the high ones to twos, probably appropriate for a business like Codan, which is sort of consistent with the sort of ASX 200, that kind of target.
All right. Brilliant. And sorry, I'll just sneak one more in. On the Minelab side, you flagged the US election was a bit of a distraction there for some of the sales last year. I just wanted to get a sense for what sort of occurred post that and what you're seeing maybe into sort of second half, but FY26, more interestingly, if there's a different view there.
Yeah. I guess when you look at the rest of the world, Minelab, and we include Countermine in that, so it's a fairly that's taken a larger hit.
But our rest of the world, in discussions over the last week, we would think there would be a recovery in H2 in that rest of the world segment. It's early days, but that's the signals we're getting. And so we would have an improvement in that state. But we've been quite consistent across all our markets in Europe, Australia, and the US on where they sit. Our European markets have been standouts. Our performance on some of the e-comm platforms or the marketplaces have been exceptional. So all the strategies we've got in place, they've just hit the mark. And when you come into a year where you have no new product launches, I think the result is an extraordinarily good result in that relation.
So if you couple that with new releases in 12 months' time, we would have an expectation that our rest of the world consumer market does really well.
Brilliant. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Tom. Just sticking with Minelab, Alf, a couple of submitted questions, including one from Jason at Taylor Collison. It looks like the rest of the world Minelab has potentially gone backwards since last year. Can you please provide context to that performance specifically across geographies, US, Europe versus APAC?
Yeah. I can take that one, Sam. So we did call out in the announcement the sales that we've made in Africa. So by deduction, outside of Africa, Minelab sales in the first half were circa AUD 70 million. It's down around AUD 10 million compared to the prior corresponding period. The majority of that reduction came from the Countermine division, which in this half produced a normal result.
In the first half last year, it was an exceptional result driven by some large humanitarian orders. So the majority of the decline has been Countermine-related. In our markets of Australia, U.S., Europe, Asia, the business has been really resilient. So as Alf just mentioned, we've been really pleased with the results across those geographic regions. Europe's probably been the standout. And we did call out in our last update to the market that the U.S. had seen some headwinds through the election cycle. So they've largely balanced each other out.
Yeah. I just want to add one thing from a sort of a market outlook perspective for consumer Minelab products. So if you look at sort of some of the consumer metrics that we look across those regions Michael spoke about, and you just made and then you look at the actual market sizing of recreational detectors, that market has dropped. So it actually clearly demonstrates that we've taken share from our competitors when you look at some of those markets. So our continuing investment in product processes and digital platforms is reaping rewards.
Great. Thank you. And maybe just two more, if I can, on Minelab. The inventory post the COVID bottlenecks in Africa in particular, has that fully worked through? And then just on countermine, can you give any context as to the size of the contribution in that business revenue and/or profits?
Yeah. So on the inventory, it's all gone. It's all gone. It's all gone. We're back to building at strong rates in our manufacturing facilities. So yeah, we're back to normal. Back to normal. Yeah. Countermine, we've always described as a circa sort of AUD 20 million business on a per annum basis. Our first half results are in line with that.
Okay. Great. Thank you. Next question from Cameron at Canaccord. Please go ahead, Cam. Yeah.
Thanks, guys. I just wanted to ask about the Ukraine. Just wondering, I guess, what's your revenue profile linked to that conflict and how might a change in political strategy flow through to you?
Our revenue profile, obviously, we benefit from the Ukraine from a run rate perspective. So our sales into Ukraine, I would say, were up considerably half and half. But we can't predict what happens from a geopolitical perspective. At the moment, one thing that needs to be quite clear, all our sales into Ukraine are not reliant on U.S. funding.
They are being procured by drone manufacturers. And at this point in time, we are still receiving orders for Ukraine. And we're in late February. So that gives you a bit of a feel of orders moving forward. But from an unmanned system perspective, which is what we are selling into from the market, that market continues to grow. The technology development in the Ukraine is by far the most significant in the world on drones at the moment. We've been front and center. We've developed great technology alongside our partners. So if that war did cease at a point in time, they will just be able to sell that product into the international market. So I think in the last point of that, the defensive nature of tactical being in military broadcast, law enforcement, unmanned systems, Kagwerks' market con tinues to expand.
I think we would be able to cope with a change. But I don't think that would go from a number to zero. That's my point.
Yeah. Okay. That makes a lot of sense, especially where the customer base is. Can you give us a sense of what the revenue number was this half, or what do you think even the indirect sales going eventually to the Ukraine might have been?
Yeah. I think we're in the low tens of millions. So across the group, well less than 10%.
Okay. Great. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Cam. Next question. We had one earlier on the U.S. sort of geopolitical market. Being an Australian company, are we any threat from Trump's Made in America mandate and any thoughts around potential risk mitigations there?
I think if you understand how Codan's set up at the moment, we are a heavily international organization, 250 people in Adelaide making Countermine products for a set group of customers. A lot of our production for Minelab comes out of countries that aren't impacted by tariffs. And we do manufacture in North America. So we have our DTC headquarters there. We have our Zetron headquarters. We do make some in Canada that we'll need to review. But the Made in America mantra, I think we've got covered. I think Codan as a business is a net benefactor of some of these political changes in the U.S., considering we're in public safety, law enforcement, and military.
Okay. Great. And then just sticking with the U.S., what percentage of your revenue is denominated in U.S., and what impact did the lower Aussie dollar have on the half-year revenue graph?
Yeah. USD is by far the major currency that we trade in. It is a significant component of our sales. Over many years, we've tried to ensure that a lot of our cost base is in USD as well. All of our metal detectors, for example, they are all costed to us in U.S. dollars. We've got a large natural hedge. That said, we'd still be converting between $50 million and 100 million of USD back to Aussie in each year. A lower rate is a tailwind for us. We've probably benefited by a couple of cents in this first half.
Ok ay. Great. Thank you. I think just maybe time for one more question. In terms of geographic markets, you're obviously very focused on the European and U.S. markets. Any additional plans to further open up within Asia across any of the businesses?
I would say we are fairly much opened up across Asia. If you take Minelab, it's got an APAC presence. The Indian geographic expansion has done extremely well over time, considering it was set up from zero. It'll probably be a million-dollar-plus market this year. And then our tactical comms division and critical comms divisions have presence in APAC. So we're well covered.
Okay. Great. Thank you. I think that sort of brings the close to Q&A now. So maybe I'll just pass it back to you, Alf and Mike, for any closing comments.
Thanks, Sam. I guess the result today really reflects our consistent approach to business. We've got a very strong strategic plan called A Stronger Codan, and we're just effectively working our way through it and accomplishing a lot of good things. When you look at the amount of activity initiatives at Codan today, they're all growth-focused.
They're all about laying down strong foundations for the future. So I'll thank everyone for their time and support of Codan, and we look forward to our FY 2025 full-year update. Thank you.
Thanks very much for joining today's Codan's first half 25 results webinar. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you and goodbye.