I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ian Testro, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Emeco's 2024 financial year results presentation. Thank you for joining us today. I'll run through the investor presentation we lodged on the ASX this morning and then provide an opportunity for questions at the end. Theresa Mlikota, our CFO, is with me today, and she'll cover the more detailed financial aspects of the results and will also be available for questions. As always, before we begin, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two, which covers the usual important information around forward-looking statements. I'll start on slide four with the key business highlights. Emeco delivered a strong financial performance for FY twenty-four, in line with expectations. The business achieved solid growth in operating earnings, margins, and cash flow generation.
Importantly, our simplified business model, following the sale of the underground contracting business, means we are now fully focused on our core business, which is equipment rental, supported by our site maintenance services and our workshop and component rebuild capability. Operating EBITDA was up 12% to AUD 281 million. Operating EBIT increased 20% to AUD 125 million, and operating NPAT was up 17% to AUD 69 million. Operating free cash flow was up 66% to AUD 87 million, with a cash flow conversion of 93%. These results reflect a strong performance across the business. The rental and workshop businesses delivered solid earnings growth, and the underground business achieved a turnaround performance following the restructure of its activities. Rental and workshop revenues were up 10% and 6%, respectively.
However, as expected, total revenue was down 6% to AUD 823 million due to the sale of the Pit N Portal underground contract mining business. Pleasingly, this refocus back to our core businesses was a key driver of the strong margin improvement, along with better cost and contract management. We saw an increase in higher margin earnings from rental and a decrease in lower margin earnings from underground contracting. EBITDA margin increased from 29% to 34%, and EBIT margin increased from 12% to 15%. Our focus on rental and maintenance core capabilities and our business improvement initiatives will contribute to delivering increased returns over the next 24 months. Strong earnings and cash flow generation underpinned lower leverage and an increase in return on capital to 15%, demonstrating good progress towards our longer-term target of 20%.
Gross fleet utilization averaged 91% for surface rental, reflecting continued high levels of activity in the mining sector and positive demand for our equipment. Our growth CapEx program, completed during the year, is expected to drive earnings growth in FY 2025, with all equipment now deployed to projects. The business remains focused on working toward our two-year target of 20% return on capital and generating increased free cash flow. Slide 6 shows the group's safety performance over the last three years. Safety remains a key priority for Emeco, and I'm pleased to report that it's improved. Total recordable injury frequency rate, or TRIFR, reduced from 3.2 to 2.8 in 2024. While this was positive, we still have work to do to reduce this further. Slide 7 provides an overview of our segment results.
I'll provide a high-level overview of our business performance before discussing each segment in more detail over the next few slides. Force continued to deliver solid earnings growth. External revenue was up 6% to AUD 166 million, with EBIT and EBITDA up 29% and 34% to AUD 9.4 million and AUD 15.8 million, respectively. Rental delivered a AUD 17 million uplift in EBIT, which is driven by ongoing demand for our equipment and improved pricing and cost management. Revenue was up 10% to AUD 545 million, with similar growth in EBIT and EBITDA at 13% and 11%, respectively. In FY 2024, we successfully transformed our underground business, delivering a turnaround performance which saw EBIT recover from being loss-making to reporting a AUD 5.5 million EBIT contribution in FY 2024.
Slide eight provides some more operational highlights for the surface rental business. With a fleet size of around 750 pieces of equipment and some 500 skilled employees, Emeco is Australia's largest provider of surface rental and site maintenance services. Year-on-year earnings growth was driven by strong utilization, pricing, improved contract management, and cost control. Our growth CapEx program was successfully delivered, which will drive further earnings growth in FY 2025. The demand outlook for our surface rental business remains positive, underpinned by continued high levels of activity in coal, gold, and iron ore. We'll continue to implement our business improvement program to further improve margins. Moving to Emeco Underground on slide nine. We have repositioned our underground operations to be a pure rental business. This aligns with the company's core strengths and capabilities, supported by our site maintenance and workshop services.
With around a hundred items of specialized underground mining equipment, Emeco Underground is Australia's largest underground hard rock rental business. Our underground workshops have been merged with Force and overhead costs resized to deliver improved returns and margins. Our underground fleet is well suited to all hard rock commodities. It only represents 10% of our total fleet. While utilization for underground fleet was low at the completion of FY 2024, following the closure of a number of nickel mines, we've seen an encouraged uptick as we've entered into FY 2025. Over to Slide 10 on Force. Force provides Emeco the dual benefits of a capital-light rental earnings and a quality and cost advantage for our surface and underground rental businesses. Internal revenue is up 20% on prior year, with the successful delivery of our growth CapEx and rebuild program.
External revenue growth was 6%, which is in line with expectations. During the year, Force delivered 128 machine rebuilds. The demand outlook for equipment rebuilds and workshop services is positive, underpinned by continued robust levels of activity in bulk commodities and gold, and customers seeking to extend the life of their equipment. I'd like to hand over to our CFO, Theresa, to run through the financials.
Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone. As with our prior presentations, we refer to operating results in our presentation, which are non-IFRS. You'll find a reconciliation to our statutory results in the appendices. Slide eleven summarizes the group profit and loss. Ian summarized the key numbers, so I won't repeat all of these again. The table on the slide provides a first half, second half split, as well as a comparison to the prior year result. This illustrates the impact on both revenue and earnings of the sale of the contracting business in the second half. Margins improved strongly on the back of the change in revenue mix, with an increase in higher margin rental revenue and decrease in lower margin underground contracting revenue. Overall, we saw margin and earnings growth across all business segments for the year.
Operating EBITDA was up 12% to AUD 280.5 million. Operating EBIT up 20% to AUD 125.3 million, and operating NPAT up 17% to AUD 69.4 million. The focus on cost control and contract management were also drivers of this growth, and we continue to pursue repricing opportunities to counter cost inflation and business improvement opportunities to improve margins. Reductions in absolute costs in key expense categories were driven mainly by the reduction in costs associated with lower margin underground contract mining revenue. Real cost and margin efficiencies were secured in parts and labor, mainly within parts and maintenance, and the switch from subcontracted labor to full-time Emeco employees. Corporate costs are higher, mainly due to the award of short-term incentives.
Return on capital also showed a strong improvement from 13% last year to 15% in FY 2024. The benefit from growth CapEx deployed during FY 2024 won't be fully reflected until FY 2025, with ROC expected to strengthen again next year, with the benefit of full-year earnings from these growth assets, as well as lower cartage costs associated with their recent deployment. Slide 12 steps through the major cash movements during the year. Free cash flow generation improved significantly during the year, primarily driven by higher earnings and strong cash conversion of 93%. Operating free cash flow increased by AUD 35 million to AUD 87 million. Net sustaining CapEx was the largest cash outflow item at AUD 154.6 million, which was in line with expectations and in line with depreciation expense for the year.
The working capital outflow of AUD 14.2 million was predominantly due to the establishment of new projects in surface rental. Finance costs of AUD 24.8 million were well contained, despite higher prevailing interest rates during the period, noting that the FY 2023 interest included a AUD 1.6 million withholding tax payment. Growth capital expenditure was in line with expectations. The program included 18 793Ds and five 789Cs, and additional acquired fleet funded AUD 47 million in cash and AUD 12.7 million in lease finance. All growth capital is now deployed into projects, with the earnings kick expected in FY 2025. The AUD 6.4 million dividend and AUD 2.1 million in share buyback payments shown on the chart relate to first half FY 2024 commitments from the company's capital management program.
These comprise AUD 0.0125 per share in fully franked dividends paid and AUD 0.4 million in share buybacks. A further AUD 1.7 million was applied to share buybacks to service the company's employee share plan. The capital management program is currently suspended as we focus on net debt reduction for FY 2025 to provide future flexibility for capital management and growth. The other main item I wanted to touch on, rounding out our cash expenditure during the year, is our ERP program. The design phase of our ERP is now delivered and on budget with a spend of circa AUD 3 million, making up the bulk of the AUD 4.2 million in non-op cash items.
As with the prior year, no income tax was paid due to the company's carried forward tax loss position, which was AUD 286 million at 30 June 2024. Moving to the balance sheet summary on Slide 13. The balance sheet remains in a healthy position and continues to provide flexibility to pursue growth, balanced with debt reduction or other capital management opportunities. Emeco's balance sheet strength was also reflected in the upgraded credit ratings over the last 18 months. Moody's upgraded from B1 to Ba3 in January 2024, following on from the upgrade by Fitch in February 2023. The net increase in plant and equipment and right of use assets by around AUD 40 million reflects the growth CapEx program I mentioned earlier, which focused on surface rental fleet.
Utilization levels across surface fleet averaged 91% for the year, justifying incremental investment in larger sized, in-demand fleet. The investment program delivered an IRR of around 20%. Net debt increased only marginally in spite of the group's growth CapEx program. Importantly, leverage reduced back to our long-term target of one, after funding, sustaining, and growth CapEx for the year, as well as capital management initiatives. The AMT notes of AUD 250 million, comprising the bulk of our debt, have a fixed interest rate of 6.25% and mature in July 2026. Available liquidity was around AUD 140 million at 30 June, which includes AUD 78 million in cash and an undrawn revolver of AUD 65 million. This is outlined on slide 15, which shows the maturity profile and liquidity position in a bit more detail.
The slide is self-explanatory, and the main thing I wanted to reiterate is that our debt maturity profile and liquidity position provide funding flexibility for growth and other initiatives. I'm happy to talk more to the finances in the Q&A, but for now, I'll hand back over to Ian.
Thanks, Theresa. Moving to slide 17. I'd like to draw your attention to Emeco's competitive advantage. A midlife rebuild capability and our site-based maintenance services provide our customers industry-leading rental equipment solutions that set us apart from our competitors. As Australia's largest provider of surface and underground equipment, with around 850 pieces of equipment in our fleet, supported by our strategically located workshops, we're positioned to service the Australian mining industry. An almost 1,000-strong workforce provides on-site and workshop capabilities, which enable us to deliver reliable and high-quality rental solutions for our customers. Our scale and engineering capability provide a cost and quality advantage that enables us to provide our customers cost-effective rental equipment while delivering strong returns for our shareholders. Moving on to slide 18. We are by far Australia's largest provider of surface and underground rental and maintenance services.
Our scale and national footprint provide us with a diverse portfolio of earnings, with 240 projects and 200 customers across a range of commodities. Slide 19 illustrates Emeco's business strategy. Our core strategy remains unchanged and is simplified down to three core pillars that guide our team in growing sustainable and resilient business and creating long-term value for shareholders. These three pillars are summarized on this slide, but to reiterate, our strategy is: to be Australia's lowest cost, highest quality, technology-driven mining equipment rental business, to maintain a balanced and diversified portfolio of projects, and to exercise disciplined capital management by targeting one times leverage, generating strong free cash flow, and achieving a 20% ROC target within two years. Moving on to slide 20. Return on capital, along with strong free cash flow, is the key performance metric for the business.
ROC increased to 15% in FY twenty-four from thirteen percent in the prior year. Our focus on our core rental and maintenance services and business improvement initiatives will drive us to achieve our target of 20% ROC over the next two years. You will notice that we have color-coded the improvements in accordance with the timeline we expect to deliver improved returns. In FY twenty-five, we expect the annualized earnings from our FY twenty-four growth program to be a major driver of ROC improvement. This will be supported by further expected savings in procurement, labor, and R&M expenses. Beyond that, in FY twenty-six, we'll be looking to further increase the utilization of our underground rental fleet. If not, we'll downsize the fleet in the future to improve returns.
Surface fleet optimization, as well as contract renewals, are also expected to be drivers of ROC improvements in FY 2026. Corporate overhead savings are expected to be delivered following the installation of our new ERP system in FY 2026. Improving ROC will have a significant positive impact on operating free cash flow, and our target ROC of 20% over the next two years broadly equates to an operating free cash flow of around AUD 140 million per annum, up from AUD 87 million achieved in FY 2024. Slide 21 outlines a brief update on ESG. The board approved an inaugural ESG strategy in February 2023. Work has commenced to assess and develop our position with respect to Scope one, two, and three emissions, and our first position statement on climate change has now been published.
We are committed to developing technology which supports the efficient use of our rental fleet by our clients. Finally, Emeco is a people business at least as much as it is an equipment business. We continue to invest in training and development of our employees. Slide twenty-three, this is our FY twenty-five priorities and outlook. We're very proud of our FY twenty-four result and the momentum it's created coming into FY twenty-five. Demand outlook for the business is strong, and FY twenty-five remains positive. An important priority will be to deliver earnings growth and strong returns on the growth capital invested in our fleet during FY twenty-four. The business will continue to focus on cost efficiencies and contract repricing. Underground rental fleet redeployment and right sizing will be a priority.
We'll also focus on a range of technology initiatives that we're investing in to widen our customer value proposition and increase our competitive advantage. With a positive demand outlook, we expect earnings growth in FY 2025 and progress on our pathway to 20% ROC over the next two years. Points to note are: FY 2025 SIB CapEx to be around AUD 160-AUD 165 million. Depreciation is expected to be circa AUD 165-AUD 170 million. ERP spend is expected to be in the order of around AUD 10 million. Growth CapEx is expected to be minimal as we focus on delivering earnings growth and strong free cash flow in FY 2025. I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of our entire Emeco team in delivering an excellent result in FY 2024.
I'd also like to thank our customers, suppliers, financiers, and the community partners who play a crucial role in our success. With that, I'll hand over for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before to ask your question. And we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question will come from Shahbad Thadani with Arkkan Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, Ian. Morning, Theresa. Congrats on another great set of numbers. I just at the outset wanted to say, I think it's been about eight years since we've been on this journey with you, and we continue to be impressed by the effort that you and the rest of the team have put in. So congratulations. Just one quick question from my side, just on your guidance for net debt reduction. It sounds like the combination of lower CapEx, you know, potentially less working capital outflows as the projects that you've commenced start to deliver cash flows. You will be generating a fair amount of cash in FY 2025, right?
With one eye on the bond that comes due, you know, just past the end of FY 2026, can you just help me to understand how you're thinking about dealing with that? Is the intent just to build up cash on the balance sheet to reduce gross leverage at the time of that refinancing?
Hey, Shahbad. How you doing, man? Thanks for those kind words at the start there. I hope you're well, man. Yeah, Shahbad, you're right about FY twenty-five. It is about us generating free cash and building cash. Absolutely. For me, it's all about creating optionality. Having a look at the end of FY twenty-five at our cash reserves and having a look at the options in front of us. You're right, we do have a refi due on FY twenty-six. Our bonds reach the end of their term in July 2026. So we'll consider options there. We'll consider options about opportunities that we've created with our mid-life asset model, and the returns that we get, future growth opportunities, and we'll also consider other capital management options in front of us.
So for me, it's all about creating optionality at that point.
Okay, and does some of that optionality include potential inorganic growth, or are you kind of happy with the returns that you're generating organically, and so that's kind of where the focus is likely to be?
I'm happy with the returns that we're generating organically, yeah, Shahbad. I see them come through in FY 2025 from our investment in growth CapEx and FY 2024. You'll actually see, you know, even if we don't put any growth capital into the business in FY 2025, you continue to see growth go into FY 2026, as we continue to pull business improvement cost levers. We look at some, you know, some of our business improvement initiatives, repricing some of our contracts. So, you know, feeling good about the business and our ability to generate organic growth.
Yep, fair enough. Okay, all right. Good luck on your path to 20%. Hopefully, you get there sooner than you expect.
Appreciate it, Shahbad. Thanks, man.
The next question will come from Zia Mulligan with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Yep. You're very soft there, Zia.
Sorry, can you hear me better now?
Yep.
Yeah. Okay, congratulations on the results. Just two quick questions from me, if I may. Just following on the last question around capital. So I noticed you didn't pay a dividend, and you ruled out focusing on the debt. Your leverage is already gotten quite low, and you said that it was at the target range. Is there plans to bring back the dividend?
Yeah, yeah, we haven't changed our capital management policy, but as per announcements, we do have our capital management on suspension at the moment. We'll continue to do that through FY 2025, and as I mentioned to Shahbad, you know, building cash, generating strong free cash, and then considering our options at the end of FY 2025 is absolutely our intent.
Yeah. Okay, cool. And just on the underground business, the second half exit rate margin, is that fair to look at moving forward?
The margins, I think the margins will improve in the underground business. I mean, we, there is still a bit of the second half, had some contracting activity in it. So we've stripped and simplified that right back to be a pure rental business now, and we've reduced some overheads, and we've put the underground workshop business into Force. So yeah, you'll see strong margins similar to our rental business coming through in underground from this point.
Great. Awesome. Thank you.
The next question will come from Peter Prentice with Metric Asset Management. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi, Ian and Theresa. Thanks for delivering a really good result. Good to see things back on track. I'd like to ask you about revenue growth going into FY twenty-five. Could you give us a feel for how much is coming from basically industry growth, and how much you expect to get from making more inroads into your share of the business being done, and it's moving from your existing clients or new clients? In other words, market share type growth.
Gotcha. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate your support. Look, top line revenue, I think we're pretty flat. You know, particularly when you consider some of the revenue that we're getting from the underground contracting business in the first half of FY 2024. So overall, I think it'll look pretty flat year on year, 2024 to 2025. But you will see earnings growth. As far as revenue generated from our rental business, our core surface rental business, yeah, you'll definitely see growth in revenue from our rental business. I believe that we are really improving and increasing the competitive advantage we have in the market. This mid-life asset model, these core pieces of fleet that we are invested in and rebuilt through our facilities and put out to work, are performing really, really well.
I think that what you'll find is that we're generating a lot of value for customers. I think that we're positioning ourselves really into a very good space, and I think we will capture more and more market share going forward. As far as where we sit in the industry and in the market, I feel very good about it. I feel like we're adding a lot of value to both the mine owners and also to our contracting friends as well, particularly as they're looking at capital light options. You know, we are a capital-intensive business. We pride ourselves on that. We pride ourselves on generating a strong return on cash flow from our capital-intensive business and providing solutions to others who are looking for more of a capital light model.
If you've got a strong competitive advantage and you're offering your clients value, why would top line growth be flat in FY 2025?
Top line growth in our rental business, not will be flat in FY 2025. Top line growth in our rental business will, we will see growth, and we will see growth in earnings in the rental business. My reference to the flatness of revenue is the mix. The mix in FY 2025 will change versus FY 2024, 'cause FY 2024, the first half was influenced by the underground contracting business that we sold to our friends at Macmahon.
Right. Okay. So if we adjust for that, we'll get a feel for what your top line growth will be?
Correct. That's correct. That's 100% correct. Thanks for that clarification.
Yeah. Good. Okay, the other question is on your corporate overheads, which came in at AUD 51 million this year. That's a 20% increase from last year's figure, and in absolute terms, AUD 51 million is a hell of a lot for a company of your size, 6% of revenue, and it's sort of tracking in the opposite direction of your ambitions regarding EBIT improvement and ROC improvement in the next couple of years. So could you just tell us what's in there, why it's so high, and you know, where we'll end up in 2026 and beyond?
I'll just talk at a high level there. Well, look, we've invested in the business. We've invested particularly around our technology side of things, and in our ERP as well. But you know, we do expect to get some corporate savings in FY twenty-six, particularly as our ERP is put in place. But I'll let Theresa talk about some of the details.
Yeah. The increase in corporate overheads has increased for some very good reasons. The STI has gone up by about AUD 4 million, is a key driver. We've got a couple of non-op items, so the ERP spend for the year is in that number. So, and that we non-op that in our operating result, and an increase in LTI. They're the drivers of the increase in the period. We've added a bit of capability, as Ian said, around IT and procurement to you know, to push those programs to you know, that develop our value proposition to our customers, as well as to get the cost savings we're chasing on our procurement program.
But, the primary drivers of that increase period to period are, you know, last year we didn't pay much of an STI at all. And, the LTI and STI expenses are key items in that, in this period.
Sure. Okay.
As well as that, yeah, and yeah.
Sorry, I was going to say, thanks, that explains the increase between years. But where would you like this to land in the long term? Where it sits at the moment, your corporate overheads are one third of the EBIT, which is being generated before head office. So in other words-
Yeah
Your EBIT goes from 150 to 100. Surely there must be some scope for reducing that, and I'm interested in knowing, you know, what your long-term vision for that mine is.
Yeah. So, our corporate overhead includes our asset management team, which is a fairly substantial cost that's really, you know, linked to our operations. So it does look a bit unusual versus, I'll say, a normal overhead. But it does reside, you know, in Brisbane, and we treat it as a corporate function.
Okay
That contain, that's contained within that number as well. So that would probably account for, I'll say, a bit of the unusualness versus a standard corporate overhead. As Ian said, we've had to crank some of our capabilities to get some foundation work done in, you know, in some of our capability areas. When we get our new ERP in, we should be able to dial back some of that incremental resource when we've got that up and running.
So how much of that is sort of abnormal ERP expenditure?
In this period, it's AUD 3 million.
3 million. Thank you. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question will come from Gavin Allen with Euroz Hartleys. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, guys. Apologies, I had a few technical issues there, so I may have missed a couple of the questions. Just, I like your ROIC slide on page 20. The annualized earnings growth for, out of 2024 CapEx, self-explanatory, but meaningful if I expect that green bar on there. Just wondering if you could flesh out maybe a little further the procurement program savings you're looking for in terms of, flavor and, timing of those.
Thanks, Gav. On the procurement program, we've had some benefits come into the FY 2024 results, so from the first of January on our parts spend, that'll annualize into next year. We have rewritten quite a number of contracts in relation to our whole procurement portfolio. Most of those have been written towards the end of FY 2024, so they will come into effect in FY 2025, and they are really across all of our spend categories, but we got a better deal in relation to our-
Yeah.
Primary parts spend with our Caterpillar dealers. That was effective the first of January 2024, but we only got a half a year of that.
Right. So most of the initiatives have sort of taken place, and they're to play out over 2025. Is that fair?
That's correct. It will, you know, it'll play out over 2025 and build out completely into FY 2026.
Yeah, absolutely. And just one other one, just in terms of underground, you sort of talk about it as one of the objectives to reset it, and we all understand nickel's been challenging. Just on the numbers, your EBIT improved to AUD 5 million on AUD 112 million worth of revenue, which is, you know, a great improvement, but nonetheless, you know, translates to 5% sort of EBIT margin. Your EBIT margin in surface is a lot higher than that, as you'd expect. Do we expect to see, as you've reset that underground business and kit, that those target EBIT margins sort of start to track towards surface? How do we think about that segment with that in mind?
Hey, Gav, that's exactly how you should think about it. That underground rental business will look like our surface rental business. It's about 10% of our fleet. So it's not overly meaningful, but it is strategically important for us to provide our customers a, an open-cut underground solution, particularly in hard rock, and you will see similar returns to what you see in our surface.
Yeah, true. And when we look at the ROIC slide, that happens over sort of 2025-2026, that reset.
Yeah, that's correct, mate. You know-
Okay.
We've got our fleet in place at the moment. We'll right size our fleet through FY 2025. We're seeing some pleasing uptick in utilization of our underground fleet. We've pulled all the levers around the costs and overheads, and we've integrated within our surface rental business. I'm feeling good about underground going forward.
Terrific. Thanks very much. That's all from me.
Thanks, Gav.
Thanks, guys.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Testro for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, and thanks to everyone for joining in. I just want to thank the team. I just want to reiterate that we've had a really good FY 2024. We're really encouraged, the growth in earnings and in margins and in free cash flow. The team working really, really hard, and we've really proved up this mid-life asset model as we've invested in equipment, rebuild it for our expertise and put it out to work and doing a great job with it. So I feel great about the business. I feel like I'm surrounded by the strongest team in my tenure that I've had in nine years as a CEO of Emeco. So feeling really, really good about the momentum going into FY 2025 with this simplified business model.