Well, good morning, everyone. Yes, my name's Grant Fenn and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Downer. And here with me today is Michael Ferguson, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin with the highlights of the past 12 months. Michael will then go through the financials, and, I'll then come back and discuss the outlook, and then we'll open up the call for questions. Let's move to slide two, summary of FY 2022 financial results, showing the financial performance of the 12 months to June 30 2022. The year's been challenging for most businesses, including Downer. That said, the results announced today and the circumstances are good. Early in FY 2022, we were confronted with the Delta and Omicron versions of COVID-19, leading to lockdowns across Australia and New Zealand, disrupting workflows and supply chains, and resulting in employees and subcontractors being absent for extended periods.
We were impacted by severe weather, particularly over the last eight months of the year. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our people for continuing to deliver for our customers in those challenging times. Revenue for our urban services business was up 10.8% to AUD 11.5 billion. Most of the increase was in construction-related activities in building and projects. Underlying NPATA was AUD 225.3 million, and our urban services EBITA was AUD 508.1 million, down 3% with the productivity and cost impact of COVID and weather. You'll remember that we told you at our Investor Day in April that EBITA was down 4.7% after quarter three. We also said we expected to claw some of that back with a strong quarter four, and we did. Our cash flow performance was good, with underlying cash conversion at 88.9%.
The group is in a very strong financial position, with gearing at just 17.7% and net debt at 1.6x EBITDA. Given the strength of the business, the boards declared a final dividend of AUD 0.12 per share, taking the full-year dividend payout to AUD 0.24. Now I'll touch on some of the accomplishments of the year. Our sustainability reporting and performance has continued to improve, as have our external ratings. We are a good corporate citizen, and we're getting much better at demonstrating that to investors. Today, we published our 2022 Sustainability Report. It's a comprehensive report, and I encourage you to go to our website and have a read. Importantly, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 26% and achieved our sustainability-linked loan KPI targets. And of course, reducing the borrowing costs under that facility as a result.
We continue to focus on and invest in our people. We launched our THRIVE program, focused on female leadership development. It provides an opportunity for females in our organization to develop new skills and build a network of colleagues across the group, and the results have been really encouraging. During the year, we made great progress on board renewal, with Mark Chellew joining the board as Chairman, and we've added three new directors, Mark Binns, Mark Menhinnitt, and Adelle Howse. We also finalized the divestment of our last mining businesses and our hospitality business. We continue to roll out our quality system, the Downer Standard. Having consistent and effective standards across the delivery aspects of our business is crucial to project performance and higher margins. We also opened the new Rosehill Sustainable Resource Centre, the most efficient asphalt and recycling facility in the country.
Downer is highly levered to the economy's transition to a net zero economy. We spoke about this at length at our Investor Day in June. It represents a large growth opportunity for the Downer Group. A net zero emissions future will require adjustments to almost all urban infrastructure, but particularly power generation and storage, power transmission and distribution, electric vehicle augmentation, building energy management, and transportation. The amount of money required to be spent on infrastructure is mind-boggling. Downer is right in the middle of this, with capabilities across our portfolio that are in high demand. One of Downer's major technical capabilities is in power, with a market leader in design and construction of power transmission and distribution networks, and a market leader in renewable generation and electrical contracting.
With our suite of technical skills, we're in a prime position to grow our business in what will be a massive transformation effort. This is already starting to occur. We're at our customer sites, we know their assets, and as I'll touch on later, we're already working with many of them to reduce their emissions. Turning to slide five, you see the makeup of Downer EDI's business following the divestment of our non-core businesses. Transport has long been the powerhouse of the group, contributing over half the group's revenue. Facilities makes up 35%, and Utilities is currently 15%. I expect Utilities to grow substantially over the coming years as it focuses on the opportunities from the net zero transition. In the next part of the presentation, I'm gonna take a little bit of time to go through each business and some of the important things happening in each.
We'll start with Road Services, which contributed almost half of the total transport revenue. Roads was impacted by severe weather throughout financial year 2022, but on the positive side, we're now seeing strong demand for recovery work. We opened a new Rosehill Sustainable Resource Center in Sydney, a fantastic facility that'll lead the market with capacity to produce 550,000 tons of high recycle content asphalt each year. We were awarded Transurban CityLink and West Gate Tunnel road network management contract in Melbourne. We secured the AUD 800 million road maintenance contract in Auckland, and we acquired Fowlers Asphalting in Victoria. We lead the industry in the use of recycled materials, and we're increasing our investment in R&D to produce lower emission products and low energy manufacturing processes.
The products we're creating and the way we will produce them will ultimately have a big impact on state and local government emissions. In rail and transit systems, we submitted our bid for the next generation of Queensland trains. If successful, this will materially increase our rail EBIT contribution through to 2031 and cement our position as the largest passenger rolling stock maintainer in Australia and New Zealand for the next 30 years. That project award is expected in December. We've completed the first phase of the Women on Track program in our Pakenham depot. This is a great initiative to get more females into the rail industry, jointly sponsored with the Victorian Government. We've now delivered over half the High Capacity Metro Train fleet in Melbourne with 35 sets delivered.
We successfully completed the eight-year component change out of the Waratah fleet and have developed a technical case to increase the time between bogie overhauls, potentially eliminating one entire bogie overhaul and AUD 80 million in costs. We've also developed a raft of upgrades and innovation initiatives for the Waratah and SGT fleets, including initiatives that will reduce energy consumption by around 15%. The projects business had a good year with a strong pipeline of work ahead. We won the Waurn Ponds rail alliance contract in Victoria, secured the Western Port Highway upgrade, also in Victoria, achieved the highest pre-qualification status from all state road authorities. We won the Warringah Freeway upgrade project. That's a key enabler to connect the new Western Harbour Tunnel to the Northern Beaches Link.
We were awarded an alliance contract with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency for the delivery of two harborside shared paths on the edges of Wellington Harbour. Moving to utilities and the power business within that. In May, we entered the New Zealand transmission market for the first time with a five-year service contract with Transpower. This will be the foundation contract for expansion of our broader power capabilities in New Zealand. We successfully completed the design and installation of 46 MW of solar generation across 550 Queensland schools, contributing to AUD 26 million in annual power savings. We've been appointed to the Ausgrid Overhead Services panel for the first time. This is big news in New South Wales, and we'll now establish an electrical distribution maintenance business here.
The AusNet gas distribution network, which we operate and manage and have done since 2009, has been ranked by the Australian Energy Regulator as the number one gas distribution network in Australia. We were appointed one of four panelists to the Major Road Projects Victoria Utilities panel and were awarded two out of three of the first projects released. We've been the only service provider appointed by API to strategic relationship status, working with them on future opportunities. The Tararua North Renewables project is now online, contributing 2% renewable energy to the national grid in New Zealand. Our water services business has grown substantially over the past two years, and we're driving better outcomes and innovation. We're in the middle of constructing green and brownfields water treatment plants in New South Wales, and we're on all the major water authority panels for maintenance and project work.
The Loganholme Biosolids Gasification Facility won the Queensland Engineers Australia Excellence Award in August and is a finalist in an International Water Association award in September. Very recently, we've secured the South East Water Civil Maintenance contract with a secure tenure of 10 years, worth around AUD 200 million. Our communications business had a strong year. In Wireless, we added NBN to existing customers, Telstra and Optus, to be the industry leader in network deployment nationally, including rural and remote locations. We secured the major three-year field service agreement with Chorus in New Zealand. We became the largest supplier to NBN for on-demand business grade and residential services in all mainland states of Australia. We've maintained our leadership role on NBN's network maintenance programs across WA, South Australia and Northern Territory, and we're delivering electrical charging infrastructure across multiple bus depots in New South Wales and Queensland.
On the facility side, in government and health and education, we successfully renegotiated our reviewable services for the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Bendigo Hospital PPPs, both for an additional five-year term with better rates and terms and conditions. We were successful in four key contract extensions for Victorian Schools, WA Housing, Land and Housing, and whole of government in New South Wales. We've secured new facilities management contracts in New Zealand. We've won the Metro Trains Melbourne and the Yarra Trams cleaning contracts, cementing our position as the leading provider of cleaning services to the heavy and light rail industries. Pleasingly, we've supported the Lismore and Casino communities in a lot of flood remediation work. Our defense business goes from strength to strength. We've secured and delivered a program of over 300 individual upgrade and refurbishment projects across the defense estate.
We've been awarded a major program of works for Defence's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, CASG. We've received an extension of our work with the Defence Chief Information Officer through Downer Professional Services. We've been awarded the major airfield upgrade project at RAAF Base Williamtown. It's now mobilized with works well underway. We've secured the managing contractor role on Riverina Redevelopment Program, a seven-year program developing options for five major base redevelopments. Finally, turning to power and energy and industrial and mining and marine on slide 14. As industry leaders in power generation, we have established the Downer Future Energy team focusing on new technologies and alternate fuels, providing thought leadership with our customers in the energy transition. We've been successful in the delivery of a large suite of decarbonization projects for Santos.
We've signed a multi-year agreement with AGL for power station shutdowns, maintenance, and projects. We've been awarded contract extensions with Santos, Origin's Eraring Power Station, Origin Energy Integrated Gas, Delta Electricity's Vales Point Power Station, and Gladstone Power Station. We've modernized our Kalgoorlie workshop to increase capacity and capability to meet the future demands of nickel, lithium, and base metal customers in WA. We successfully completed the BHP Olympic Dam hot metal shutdown. More than 500,000 man-hours, 500+ personnel on site executing both mechanical and electrical scopes. We've got a major Santos coal seam gas skid manufacture milestone of over 1,000 motor control centers manufactured in Newcastle and Brisbane, pleasingly. As you can see, we've been busy. We'll now move to work in hand on slide 15. The points I'd like to make on this are these.
Our work in hand is a substantial AUD 36.1 billion. It's up from the half. It's long dated. It's diversified by market and service type. It's 90% government or government-related, and the non-government customers are generally blue chip. We are seeing an increase in more collaborative risk-sharing contract models, such as alliances and early contractor involvement processes increasing Downer's addressable market. Across Downer, most service contracts include mechanisms to mitigate cost escalation. 91% of our work in hand relates to service contracts, predominantly long term. 96% of those contracts have some form of automatic embedded price escalation mechanism related to movements in cost. As costs increase, our revenue increases. If we take the Royal Adelaide Hospital as an example, the contract revenue was adjusted quarterly based on CPI movements.
Other mechanisms include labor industries, such as average weekly earnings or movements in material pricing, such as bitumen. Around 9% of our work in hand is construction. Of this, the majority of contract structures are alliance or early contractor involvement, which reduces risk substantially. Only 1% of our AUD 36 billion of work in hand relates to fixed price lump sum, and we manage the risk profile on these contracts very closely. For an escalation risk perspective, our construction contracts are also relatively short term and are in areas aligned to Downer's risk appetite. Labor availability is certainly challenging for the whole economy, and it's no different for Downer. Job vacancies are up, particularly in our facilities business. The highest demand for workers is in New South Wales, WA, and Victoria. Jobs with the highest demand are electrical, cleaners, and engineers.
Talent attraction and retention is one of our highest priorities. We're actively engaged in international recruitment. We have a series of programs to enhance our success rate, including internal referral programs, volume-based recruitment events, and training and upskilling our existing people. We're focused on programs and initiatives that foster a positive work culture, enhancing our employee experience and reinforcing Downer's reputation as an employer of choice. This is a critical element of management in 2023. I'll now hand over to Michael, who'll present the financial results in some more detail, and I'll come back straight after that to talk about the outlook. So over to you, Mike.
Thanks, Grant. Good morning, everyone. I'll start on slide 19 with a summary of our FY 2022 group underlying performance. The group reported total revenue of AUD 12 billion for the 12 months to June 30 2022. This was 2% lower than the prior corresponding period, predominantly due to the impact of non-core business divestments. Excluding non-core businesses, core urban services revenue increased 10.8%. Underlying EBITA declined 14.6% to AUD 399.2 million, with an EBITA margin of 3.3%. Non-core business divestments, COVID-19 and weather were the key drivers of the EBITA decline. EBITA margin was predominantly impacted by COVID-19, particularly hospitality losses, and again, the weather disruptions to operations. The second half underlying EBITA margin of 3.6% increased from 3% for the first half.
Corporate costs decreased 2.6% to AUD 100.5 million. Net interest expense of AUD 85 million is represented by approximately AUD 65 million of bank and DCM interest and AUD 20 million of lease interest. This is reduced by 15.1% due to our lower debt levels and improved average cost of funds. The effective tax rate of 28% remains slightly below the Australian statutory rate of 30% due to non-taxable distributions from joint ventures and a lower corporate tax rate in New Zealand. Downer delivered an underlying NPATA of AUD 225 million, which is 13% lower than the prior corresponding period. As Grant said, the board has declared an unfranked final dividend of AUD 0.12 per share, a 14.3% increase in total dividends declared compared to FY 2021.
Downer expects to return to franked dividends either for the final FY 2023 or interim FY 2024 dividends. Moving now to slide 20, outlining the performance of our business segments. Downer's core urban service business delivered EBITA of AUD 508.1 million, a decrease of 3% on the prior corresponding period. Considering the challenges experienced during the year, this is a pleasing result. Transport delivered EBITA of AUD 254.6 million, an increase of 1.8%, with consistent performance in the rail and transit systems business and improved performances in the transport projects business offsetting the severe wet weather impact in roads. The decline in EBITA margin is predominantly a result of the weather impact and business mix. Utilities delivered EBITA of AUD 73.7 million, down 22.3%.
This business saw significant COVID lockdown disruptions in Australia and New Zealand, particularly in water services with reduced capital works programs and meter reading. This also impacted the utilities' EBITA margin, reducing to 4.2%. Pleasingly, however, margin improved in the second half to 4.4%. Core facilities EBITA increased by 0.7% to AUD 179.8 million through increased activity in health and New Zealand buildings. This was offset by further deferrals of plant shutdown and maintenance in power and energy, increased cost to serve and losses from the commercial FM business driven by lower demand. This also saw margin decline by 1.5%. We have provided more information on the divisional performance as part of the appendices to these presentations. Slide 21 lists the six items that reconcile Downer's statutory result with the underlying result.
The first item relates to the non-cash fair value movement on the Downer contingent share obligation liability arising from the options issues as part of the Spotless minority acquisition. We've recognized a non-cash benefit of AUD 3.7 million for the year consistent with the treatment of prior periods. Second item relates to costs and net asset write downs on divestments of AUD 75.8 million relating to mining and hospitality. This has increased AUD 10.4 million in the second half following the sale of residual hospitality contracts during the period. Third item relates to restructuring costs arising from the divestment program of AUD 7.6 million during the period. The fourth item relates to bid costs for Downer's bid for the Queensland Train Manufacturing Program of AUD 12.7 million, again highlighted at the half.
Grant's highlighted the scale of the program and we have included the bid cost as significant relative to Downer's normal bidding activity. Fifth item relates to Downer's credit loss due to the administration of ProBuild, where we had an outstanding claim totaling AUD 34.6 million. This is as we announced on February 24 this year. Final item relates to the compulsory acquisition of land by Sydney Metro at Downer's Rosehill Sustainable Road Resource Centre. The transaction has resulted in Sydney Metro reimbursing Downer on a like-for-like basis for the actual costs incurred on the construction and commissioning of a replacement facility. The compulsory acquisition and reinstatement of operations at the new site is cash neutral in net terms.
AUD 60.1 million after-tax gain during the period is reflective of the difference between the historical written down book value of the existing facility, the reimbursement of costs for the replacement facility and relocation costs. Turning to cash flow on slide 22. Operating cash flow was AUD 495.4 million, which again is down following the divestments and the impact of COVID and weather. Statutory cash flow conversion was 84%. Cash flow across the business was strong, but the roads business, which is usually one of our most consistent in terms of cash flow conversion, converted at 65% due to the working capital build up following the weather disruptions. The result also included the unwind of approximately AUD 30 million in receivables factoring as a result of the mining divestment.
Our statutory conversion increases to 89 when adjusted for the final payments made for items provided for and funded through the July 2020 capital raising and the Queensland Rail project bid costs. Core CapEx and lease costs of AUD 317.8 million decreased by AUD 13.3 million compared to prior periods. Proceeds from divestments of AUD 245.4 million related to the final proceeds received from the mining divestments, while acquisitions relates to the Fowlers business in roads. Repayment of borrowings includes the repayment of AUD 250 million of medium-term notes during the year and the total spent on the share buyback totaling AUD 142.6 million.
Cash held at the end of the period was AUD 738.5 million, which when combined with undrawn facilities of AUD 1.2 billion, provides Downer with significant liquidity at just under AUD 2 billion. Slide 23 gives an overview of Downer's debt profile. The group's weighted average debt duration is 3.9 years, with the maturity profile shown in the graph to the right of the slide. Following Downer's refinancing activity in the first part of 2022, we have no maturities due in FY 2023 and very little in 2024. In addition, over 80% of our interest costs for FY 2023 is fixed through either fixed rate swaps reflecting rates prior to the current round of rate rises or through fixed rate debt instruments. Accordingly, we are well protected from the current rise in interest rates and expect our net interest costs to be AUD 85-AUD 90 for FY 2023. Thanks very much. I'll hand back to Grant.
Thanks, Mike. Just on to the outlook now. The Downer business has again proved its resilience with solid earnings, strong cash conversion and high levels of work in hand. Our end markets are essential services and our position in those markets gives us strength and reliability. Demand remains robust with a strong pipeline of opportunities. Our cost to serve is still elevated and will persist during 2023. It is trending in the right direction. Our balance sheet is strong with net debt to EBITDA of 1.6 x, providing flexibility, supporting the dividend and enabling investment in accretive opportunities. For FY 2023, we expect 10%-20% underlying NPATA growth. Of course, that's subject to COVID-19, weather, labor and other disruptions that might occur. Thank you. That's the end of the formal presentation, and I'll now hand back to the operator for questions. Thanks.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question comes from Rohan Sundram from MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, Grant and team. Thanks for that. Just a couple from me. Firstly, on the guidance, should we expect there to be, or do you expect there to be a margin improvement aspect to it, or are we mainly expecting a revenue recovery in 2023?
No, there'll be a margin aspect to that, mate, yeah.
Okay, sure. The guidance that you've given, it just feels a slight departure from the indications of a strong rebound in earnings at the time of the investor day in late April. Maybe if you can just talk through has anything changed on how you see the outlook and what is driving that range from 10%-20%?
Yeah, no, I don't think there's any real change there, mate. You know, we look at a whole host of things as we look into the future here. We've obviously done our budgeting exercises. We're looking at all of what presents ahead of us, including a very robust opportunity pipeline. You know, there's a lot of uncertainty out there, and we think 10%-20% is a fair position on the combination of things that are ahead of us for 2023.
Okay, thanks, Grant.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Hodge from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Morning, gents. Just a couple of questions from me if I could. Just the change in the work in hand from AUD 35 billion previously to AUD 36.1 billion now. I take on board that there is quite a bit of work in front of you, but the sort of slower, if you like, growth in that work in hand number relative to the opportunity set, is it just a timing issue, or is there anything more to read into that?
No, I don't think there's anything extra in there, Andrew. We're pretty happy that it's continued to improve. You're right. You know, our view is that, with all of what's ahead of, you know, the company, in the transition, you know, we'd like to see that increase further.
Thank you. I just want to touch briefly on the adjustments back to underlying earnings. I understand we've had the conversations previously around the Queensland Rail bid. I just wanted to refer to understand what your typical total bid cost would be in a year to understand this in the context of something that's abnormally large.
Look, bid costs are typically sort of embedded within our operational results, and we've only called this one out because it is very significant in terms of the normal course of things, right? You know, we spend a lot of money on bids, but they're all relatively small in the individual cases, Andrew. This is one that's particular, and it's, you know, because of the size of it, we think we should call it out. Otherwise, you don't get a real understanding of the results of that business.
Yeah, it's not material to the profit, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure. Okay. Just in the same slide, just the portfolio restructuring cost. Michael, did I hear you correctly that those portfolio restructuring costs relate to the divestment and exit costs? So they're not included in that line, but they relate to that process or relate separately?
Yeah. They relate to the process, Andrew. They're predominantly people changes as a result of the divestment program. It's the same as we reported at the half.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from John Purtell from Macquarie Group. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, Grant and Michael. How are you?
Yeah, good. Good, John. How are you?
Not too bad, thanks. Just had a few questions if I can. Just going back to April, you called out AUD 50 million-AUD 60 million of sort of EBITDA impacts from COVID and weather. Just trying to get a sense of where that finished for the year and how much of that you're able to claw back in that fourth quarter.
We had a reasonable, well, a good fourth quarter as we've as I sort of talked about, and we've pulled some of that back. It's increased off that number. We're not gonna disclose exactly what that is, John, for very good reasons. You know, it was increased from that amount, but it wasn't at the same rate as it had in the previous period, in the previous three quarters.
Okay, thank you. And in terms of the comment there around margins and expecting margins to improve, just in terms of what you see as the main driver of that margin improvement, Grant? I mean, obviously there's some useful color there on, in the presentation re, you know, your cost recovery mechanisms. But in terms of what's really driving that margin improvement, in a higher cost environment.
There's a couple of things. We've had a revenue increase, mainly that is in projects and building areas, right? There's a change in mix in that increase. That's been the majority of the revenue. On the cost side, you know, we've seen cost to serve increase, that's for sure. We think that's where the margin will come, right? As we turn that around.
Thank you. Just in terms of thinking about sort of capital allocation, you've still got the buyback on foot. You know, is there an intention to sort of restart that, or is there a more of a preference for growth?
We don't think it's a bad time just to hold on for a bit here and just look what's out there. We've certainly got our eyes open for growth and accretive acquisitions, you know, in more bolt-on levels. You know, we're gonna address that as we roll into the next number of months, John. We've got no change from where we are currently at the moment.
Okay, thank you. I'll probably hit my quota here, but just wanted to ask one last one if I could. Just in terms of, you know, I mean, obviously we've sort of talked to those COVID impacts which were quite substantial. You know, in terms of that 10%-20% growth guidance, and, you know, it's obviously good that you've sort of returned to giving sort of a form of quantitative guidance after a couple of years' hiatus with COVID, et cetera. Is it fair to say that there is a degree of conservatism regarding the guidance, particularly at the bottom end?
Well, there's a couple of things to that, mate. We've historically, when we've given guidance, given you know, very specific positions. Just the fact that we're giving a range would tell you that, you know, the times are a bit different. Of course, you know, we wanna make sure that we wanna do our best to give the right guidance. I think in the scheme of, you know, to the current environment, I think it's a pretty good outcome, frankly.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Nathan Reilly from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gents. Just a follow-up question on that, I guess the net negative impact of COVID and weather that you called out, previously. That number of AUD 50 million -AUD 60 million that you had in your, you know, I guess your Q3 trading update. Did you-
Yeah.
Did you just say, Grant, that I guess the full year impact was greater than that AUD 50 million-AUD 60 million on a net negative basis?
Yeah, for sure. Definitely.
Can you say by how much?
No, no, I'm not going into the how much exactly for good reason. ASIC doesn't want us to. We don't want to. It's a significant, you know, draw. Our fourth quarter was a better result than what the previous three had been in our expectations, but we were still impacted, obviously, right? There was still COVID impact, and there was still weather issues.
Yes. Got it. Okay. Thank you. You're forecasting that to persist through FY 2023?
Our guidance is given really on the basis that, okay, we've got some level of labor shortage at the moment, but it's not, you know, debilitating. We've still got some wet weather, but we're expecting that to be a bit better. You know, we're not expecting major disruption. As we say in our outlook statement, we say subject to something, you know, major going on with COVID-19, major going on with weather or continued, you know, La Niña weather patterns, you know, or something else going on with labor than we're expecting 10%-20%.
Okay, got it. Thanks for the additional detail around that. The final question I had was just in relation to, I guess, the negotiations you've had on some of the more recent EBAs. Can you talk through what level of, I guess, wage cost inflation you're seeing come through those EBAs and just maybe give us an idea about how that compares to, I guess, the contracted revenue protection measures that you're seeing in terms of what is passed through to customers? I'm also just curious whether there's any, I guess, lag in passing through those costs that you've factored into your guidance for FY 2023.
Yeah, there's been very few since the elevated inflation spike. Of the ones that have been done, they're up, but they're not to the point of causing us a drama. You know, as we all know, when you've got inflation like this, inflation runs higher than wage increases, and I think that will be the case in our contractual positions for long-term contracts. You know, they reset relatively regularly. It's different in each of the contracts. From what we can see at the moment, we're not going to see in those long-term contracts a negative position coming out of the negotiations. Of course, you know, we'll have to assess that as each of them rolls through.
So far it's been okay. You know, on some of the other indices that are in there, bitumen pricing, you know, there is some lag on bitumen. It sort of works as a bit of a lag, but you know, eventually you catch that up.
Okay. Thanks for taking my question.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ross Chapman from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, Grant and Michael. Thanks for your time. The first question relates back to the work in hand in relation predominantly to utilities, which has fallen from AUD 5.4-AUD 4.8. Can you provide some detail on this fall, whether this is a trend? You know, how do you expect to see this improve in FY 2023? I suppose expanding on that, where do you see the biggest opportunities in regards to the pipeline into FY 2023? Thanks.
Yeah, funnily enough, over the next few years, I see real opportunity in utilities, frankly. You know, as we look to the transition, I think that area of the business, you know, hopefully in the relatively short period, we'll see improvements in there. Work in hand. Yes, they've come off slightly, but mainly due to projects that have finished, and we'll see as we roll through into 2023, 2024, I'd expect utilities to be a very significant contributor to an increase.
Great. Thanks for that. The second one again harks back to inflationary pressures. I'm keen to hear some more detail on not so much what you're seeing now, but where you see the biggest risks regarding cost escalations into FY 2023.
Mm.
Also just any update you can give on the pricing improvements you spoke to, in the first half of 2022 result as well. Thanks.
Yep, sure. Well, our cost base, 70% of our cost base is labor and subcontractors, et cetera, so that's the area of attention from us. You know, we've talked in this presentation around, you know, the longer term contracts and the mechanisms that sit there across, you know, a lot of that, and including some of the materials-based stuff. To the extent you've got short-term contracts, you know, then you've really gotta make sure that your pricing reflects, you know, the likelihood of the movement in your labor and your materials. That's all about risk management. You know, we spend a lot of time looking at this, looking at how, you know, even from a time when a project is bid through the time of award, you can have significant movement here.
You've gotta make sure that all of that's covered, which is what we do. You know, we have seen very significant increases in materials, you know, across the board, steel and timber in particular. For the most part, we've been able to cover it, but not all. You don't, you know, it'd be wrong for me to say, "Gee, we've got some arbitrage on labor, and isn't it great that we've got high inflation?" That's not the case.
Yeah, great. As you come into FY 2023, are you starting to see some of that pressure ease on material costs or stabilize at least?
Yes.
Great. Thanks for your time.
Yeah, thanks.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Fenn for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, look, thank you very much for taking the time to come onto the call this morning. We'll be completing sort of discussions with bankers, et cetera, over the next couple of days and also others in the investment community. If you have any questions that you would like answered that you haven't been able to ask now, please send them through to our investor relations team. Again, thank you very much for coming on the call.