I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Pejman Okhovat, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead
Good morning. Welcome to the 2025 full year results call for G8 Education Limited. My name is Pejman Okhovat. I'm the Managing Director and CEO of G8 Education. I'm joined today online by Group's Chief Financial Officer, Steven Becker.
Good morning.
Steven and I will take you through the investor presentation that was released to the ASX earlier this morning. Following the presentation, we'll open the line for Q&As. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of Eora Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we are conducting this presentation today. We respect the spiritual relationship with their country. We pay respects to the elders, past and present. I extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today. I also want to recognize our G8 Education team, whose resilience, dedication, and care underpin everything we deliver and continue to demonstrate the profound impact early childhood education has on children, families, and communities.
This morning, we will cover a summary of the 12 months ended 31st of December, 2025, provide an update on our progress, outlining operating and financial performance for this period, and we will conclude with a brief current trading update and outlook. Slide 6. Beginning on slide 6, as always, everything we do starts with children. We are proud to provide quality early childhood education and care to around 36,000 children across our network of 395 centers. Our purpose remains at the core of everything we do, to nurture the greatness in every child to grow, thrive, and learn. This purpose continues to guide our operational decisions, our investment in our people, and our commitment to quality and safety across every G8 center. Turning to slide 7.
2025 was a challenging year for the sector, particularly with the persistent affordability pressure on families, softer demand being impacted by falling birth rates and increased supply over the past three years. Despite these headwinds, operationally, our team have executed strongly in areas within our control. Performance across our controllable balanced scorecard metrics continues to improve in quality, team retention, and family engagement. 95% of our centers are now rated, meeting or exceeding the overall National Quality Standard, and family Net Promoter Score improved to the highest level since launch of our Voice of Customers program in 2023. These outcomes reflect sustained investment in quality and team capability. Team retention improved again this year, supported by positive engagement initiatives and wage uplift delivered through the fully funded ECEC Worker Retention Grant .
Our unwavering commitment to safety has been demonstrated through continuously strengthening child safety policies and procedures, through a dedicated safety leader, strong compliance oversight, and active management with governance and regulators. While the occupancy environment has been challenging, disciplined cost management has ensured margin and stability, demonstrating resilience of our core operating model. Our balance sheet remains conservative, with a stable liquidity and low leverage, reflecting a cautious capital management approach and considered balance between operational needs and shareholder returns. Now turning to slide 8. We have delivered a solid result in a challenging operating environment. Lower occupancy and a reduced number of operating centers resulted in revenue decline by 7% compared to PCP. Operating EBIT and NPAT were also lower year-on-year. However, margins remained relatively stable. Operating costs were lower than PCP, reflecting continued cost disciplines and a well-controlled cost base, consistent with our focus on operational efficiencies.
From a statutory perspective, the reported net loss after tax included recognition of an impairment expense of circa AUD 350 million as a result of disciplinary assessment of underlying performance. A dividend was paid in October 2025, representing 34% of the reported NPAT, excluding goodwill impairment expense. No final dividend will be paid. Group occupancy for the year was 65.8%, with softer conditions, particularly evident in the second half and continuing into early 2026. Occupancy in Half 2 continued to be constrained by affordability, pressure on our families and confidence in the sector contributed to reduced inquiry levels across the sector. Our spot occupancy as of 15th of February of 54.2% is 7.6% behind PCP, and year to date, the spot occupancy of 57.1% is 7.9% lower than PCP.
Turning to slide 9. Our commitment to shaping a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future for all our stakeholders across the four pillars of our governance, service, quality, people, and environment. We will cover the first three pillars on the next Slide as part of our balanced scorecard result. In our environment pillar, from an emission perspective, we achieved a 9.4% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions, delivered solar generation equivalent to 262 homes of usage. Moving to Slide 10. The balanced scorecard has continued to deliver improvement across our controllable areas. Our strategy enabled a strong focus on further strengthening our core operations with clear results from our targeted initiatives.
We are proud to have further strengthened team retention, continued to improve family sentiment, as reflected in a strong NPS result, and increased the number of our centers now meeting or exceeding the overall National Quality Standard. Occupancy was lower than the prior comparative period, with key reasons outlined earlier continue to impact demand. Team retention outcomes saw a positive result, up 2.5 percentage points on prior comparative period to 79.5%. Quality assessment ratings of meeting or exceeding have increased to 95%, 4% ahead of the long day care sector average. Our targeted focus on family journey is resulting in improved NPS result, being 3 points ahead of prior comparative period. Turning to Slide 11. Our employer brand continues to strengthen, supporting attraction, retention, and robust internal talent pipeline in a competitive market.
Our recruitment process continues to deliver strong results, with permanent vacancies down 33% year-on-year, and average time to hire improved by 14%, all the while maintaining enhanced screening and governance. Retention is improving, particularly in critical roles. Center manager retention increased slightly, and early childhood teacher retention improved materially, reflecting the impact of targeted engagement programs and training. We were pleased to deliver a second wage increase to our award-based team members in December, meaning they have now received a cumulative 15% increase through the fully government-funded ECEC Worker Retention Grant. We continue to grow our talent, supported by redesigned leadership and development pathway, resulting in more than half of our center managers' appointments being filled through internal promotions, reinforcing the depth of our talent pipeline and the strength of our employer brand.
While engagement-based engagement eased marginally year-on-year, it remains well above Australia and sector benchmark. Overall, vacancies continue to decline, workforce stability is strengthening, our people investment are supporting quality, safety, and long-term performance. Turning now to Slide 12, our family experience. We have continued to see family sentiment strengthen across the year, with Net Promoter Score reaching its highest level since the Voice of Customer program commenced in 2023. We successfully launched began embedding our family value proposition, targeting the key drivers of family experience. This supported continued improvement across family experience metrics, including knowing children's individual needs, safety and stronger outcomes for families and children aged 3 to 5, particularly in school readiness and educational quality. While engagement remains strong, affordability pressures continued to influence behavior. Higher out-of-pocket costs constrained families' ability to commit to additional permanent days, resulting in broadly flattening frequency year-on-year.
Inquiry levels softened in the second half, consistent with broader market conditions. However, conversions remained stable, demonstrating resilience in a tough market. Tactical initiatives included a second, continued casual day offer, supported occupancy in quarter four. Overall, family sentiment remained a strength of our business. The progress across controllable experience drivers provides a solid foundation as we navigate ongoing affordability and macro headwinds. Turning to Slide 13, quality, education, and care. Across our network, 95% of our meeting or exceeding the overall National Quality Standard, placing us ahead of the sector average and demonstrating consistency of our operating model and commitment to delivering high-quality centers for our families. We have made further progress in Quality Area 1, Educational Program and Practices, with 96% of our centers meeting or exceeding the standards.
This improvement has been underpinned by strong educational leadership, monthly learning communities, and focused capability uplift across our teaching teams. Inclusion is another area where we have continued to make headwinds. 98% of our centers have commenced or published a Reconciliation Action Plan. We have also strengthened support for children with additional needs through a new Inclusion Support Plan template, enhanced behavioral guidance resources, and expanded professional development for educators. Turning to slide 14. For full year, group occupancy was 65.8%, which is 4.9 percentage point lower than CY 2024. This reflects a market environment that remained challenging throughout the year, with softer inquiries levels across their sector. Performance was mixed by region. Victoria, with Western Australia, experienced a more significant occupancy pressure, driven by tougher supply-demand dynamics in those market, with New South Wales and Queensland being less affected.
At macro level, several factors continued to weigh on occupancy outcomes. Affordability pressures remained front of mind for families. particularly as broader cost of living pressures persisted. In addition, participation in long day care has softened, reflecting both economic conditions and demographic trends. While market conditions remain challenging, we are focused on controllables within our operating model, supporting conversion, retention, and center-level execution. Over to slide 15. Our operating model remains a key strength as we navigate a challenging environment. Safety continues to be our highest priority. During the year, we embedded our safety leader program across the network, strengthening leadership capability, accountability, and connection to supportive structures. We also completed a rigorous procurement process for CCTV, with rollout to commence in 2026. We have sharpened execution through simpler meeting structures and center leadership forum, improving alignment and speed of delivery across our network.
Ongoing investment in systems is giving us better visibility at center level, enabling earlier intervention and more targeted support. We also made progress across enrollment and growth initiatives with a stronger cross-functional execution, supporting key occupancy drivers despite softer conditions. Finally, we extended our turnaround program with additional wave focused on team capability, family experience, and facilities. These initiatives are designed to lift center performance and support a sustainable occupancy recovery over time. Overall, we remain focused on disciplined execution, strengthening our foundations, and positioning the business for sustainable improvement without compromising on safety, compliance, or quality. Now, moving to slide 16. Operating cash flow remains robust, supported by strong cash conversion and conservative leverage. We maintained a prudent approach to capital management. A fully franked dividend of AUD 0.02 per share was paid during the year, representing 34% of the reported NPAT, excluding the goodwill impairment.
We also completed a AUD 42.6 million share buyback, returning ex-excess capital to shareholders while preserving balance sheet strength. Net debt increased, reflecting higher investment in CapEx and the share buyback during CY 2025. Liquidity remains strong, providing flexibility as we navigate near-term market conditions. Our cost base remained well controlled. Wages as a percentage of revenue increased slightly, with ongoing wage optimization supporting additional safety training. Portfolio optimization continued to be an important lever. During CY 2025, we divested 5 centers and surrendered or exited 6 leases, continuing to refine the network footprint and improving overall returns. I will now hand over to Steven Becker to take us through the financial performance.
Good morning, thanks, Pej. On slide 18, we discuss in more detail our group financial performance. Group operating revenue was AUD 946.9 million, down 7% on last year, reflecting lower occupancy levels across the network, as previously discussed by Pejman. Our group operating EBIT was impacted by the lower revenue, came in within our previously guided range. Against a backdrop of challenging occupancy levels, our focus has been on disciplined cost management and preserving balance sheet strength without compromising safety, quality, or compliance. Operating EBIT adjusted for leases was AUD 93.3 million, with an EBIT margin of 9.9%. While margins were lower year-on-year, they remained resilient given the operating environment, supported by disciplined procurement, ongoing cost management, and reduction in underlying support office costs of 3.6%.
Finance costs decreased as a result of improved borrowing rates from a debt financed last year. Reported statutory results were materially impacted by a non-cash goodwill impairment of approximately AUD 350 million, reflecting conservative reassessment of long-term assumptions in light of current trading conditions. This does not affect cash flow, liquidity, or covenant strength. From a center performance perspective, center revenue was 6.7% lower than last year, mainly due to lower occupancy. Employment costs were appropriately managed and decreased year-on-year, which were driven by the lower booking volumes. Wages as a % of revenue were slightly higher year-on-year. Rent as a % of revenue has increased as a result of normal CPI and market reviews. Depreciation increased slightly due to the increased investment in capital works completed on center upgrades and center-based resources.
Other expenses are largely in line with lower occupancy levels and continuing benefits from our strategic procurement activities. This resulted in center margin decreasing year-on-year by 1.3% to 16.4%. In terms of our balance sheet and capital allocation, the group maintains a strong balance sheet with low leverage and good liquidity. Cash flow generation was strong, with cash conversion above 100% and operating cash flow after interest in tax of AUD 168 million. During the year, we invested approximately AUD 52 million in CapEx, paid out dividends of AUD 43 million, and bought back shares to the value of AUD 42.6 million, resulting in free cash flow for the year of AUD 12.3 million.
Net debt for the group ended at AUD 117 million, representing a conservative gearing ratio of circa 23% and a leverage of 1.18 times. In addition, the group also has access to another further, further AUD 45 million of committed bank debt facilities and as if required. Prudent capital and cost management disciplines will continue to be a focus for the group going forward. In this regard, taking into account the current challenging operating environment, the board has resolved not to pay a final dividend for FY25 and to pause the on-market share buyback. I'll now hand back to Pejman, who will talk through the rest of the presentation.
Thanks, Steven. Before I turn my attention to trading update and the outlook, I'd like to focus momentarily on child safety. At G8 Education, child safety is fundamental to everything we do. It is central to our values, our governance, and our social license to operate. Over the past year, the sector has experienced significant reform with heightened expectations around compliance, transparency, and safeguarding. We welcome these changes and continue to work constructively with federal and state governments and regulators to strengthen protection for children and support meaningful reforms across early childhood education. Our approach to child safety is an always on commitment. We continuously review and strengthen our policies, procedures, and operational practices to ensure accountability, trust, and the highest standards of care.
All our policies are aligned with the national and state legislation, including recent changes such as restrictions on personal devices in centers, enhanced mandatory reporting requirements, and upcoming national training and registration reforms. Importantly, we have invested in particular, on-the-ground safeguards. This includes dedicated safety leaders in every center with protected time, expanded mandatory training from pre-day one onwards, strengthened recruitment and background checking processes, and ongoing quality and compliance reviews across the network. We have also continued to invest in systems and infrastructure that improves oversight and visibility, including our compliance platform, enhanced reporting, and investment in physical and digital environments that promote child safety and wellbeing. Above all, in the best interest of children, guide decision-making at every level of our organization. We encourage transparent, confidential reporting of concerns and maintain a zero-tolerance approach to behaviors that compromise child safety.
I will now speak to current trading. Group spot occupancy is 54.4%, 7.5% lower than the prior corresponding period, and 57.2% year to date, representing 7.8 percentage points lower than the prior corresponding period. A challenging operating environment has impacted occupancy in 2026, driven by ongoing affordability challenges for our families. A continued trend of declining birth rates over the past five years, confidence and trust in the sector being somewhat impacted by recent events and media coverage, supply increasing and female workforce participation slightly decreasing, impacting demand, and significant change to the National Law and regulation— regulatory operating environment requires additional focus and resources. Changes to the Child Care Subsidy activity test are showing early signs of an increase in frequency, particularly in new families, with low uptake likely due to lack of awareness across the country.
A cautious approach to capital allocation was taken in response to softer sector conditions, balancing operational priorities, and shareholder return. We anticipate CY 2026 CapEx to be circa AUD 50 million. No final dividend is to be paid in respect of the year ended 31st December 2025, and the market buyback is currently paused. Turning to outlook. Near-term operating conditions remain challenging, with cost of living pressure continuing to weigh on families' affordability, and at this point, we are not seeing material relief from inflation or interest rate increases. There are several factors that continue to impact occupancy and operating environment in the near term. Female work participation is starting to flatten. Demand has softened as the total fertility rate has declined to historic low over the past two years. Ongoing significant changes to regulation and compliance impacting operating environment and creating complexity.
While supply to the sector continues, it is now starting to slow. Cost of living issues with increased inflation and interest rates impacting parents' affordability and our cost base is increasing as we invest in attracting talent, meeting heightened regulatory expectations, and managing broader operating cost pressures. That said, when we look beyond the near term, the medium to long-term dynamics for the sector remain encouraging. Government policy continues to support workforce participation through initiatives such as the 3 Day Guarantee and further investment in kindy programs across states. Both the state and federal governments have clearly articulated an intention to create a more equitable and affordable early childhood education and care system. Current projections indicate that total fertility rate is expected to increase over medium term.
We are seeing continued investment across the sector to uplift quality and rebuild trust, supplies are starting to decline, with some operators choosing to exit the sector. Against this macro backdrop, we are actively adjusting how we operate to be effective in what is the new normal. Our focus remains firmly on a strong execution and on improving the areas we can control, with initiatives centered on our key safety and occupancy drivers. Safety remains our top priority, supported by continuous improvement and a strong regulatory alignment. We are focused on delivering the key drivers of family attraction and retention. We will continue to promote and embed the 3 Day Guarantee activity test changes. We are investing in strengthening team capability and attracting top talent.
We remain positioned for performance resilience, with a proven ability to adjust our cost base and remain disciplined in managing costs relatively to occupancy levels. Portfolio optimization will continue with rigor, and we remain committed to improving network efficiency as we navigate this new operating environment. I will now hand back to the moderator for Q&A.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you'll need to press the star key followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. A reminder that we do ask that participants limit themselves to asking one question at a time and to rejoin the queue to ask further questions. Your first question comes from Tim Plumbe from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Pejman, just wondering if we can talk about the cost base into FY 2027 and appreciate it's probably a bit of a difficult question, given that there's still some moving parts with the inquiries that are ongoing. Do you guys have any sense for, like, incremental training costs that you're expected to incur in FY 2027? Then you were mentioning headcount changes potentially. Can you talk a little bit about how we should think about the increased cost base under the new environment? And then, sorry, if there are any offset, further offsets that you can do in terms of cost management initiatives, please.
Good morning, Tim. Thanks for your question. I'll try to answer your question fundamentally and kind of if I, if I heard it correctly, it was in three parts. Look, you are right. We don't have a very clear visibility into cost for 2027, but you are absolutely right. The significant regulatory changes that we saw in late 2025 and also in early 2026. There are a number of reforms that actually come into effect from 27th of February. They are adding operating costs fundamentally through new changes in regulation, stronger compliance activities, significant increase in compliance visitations, and also the training, which are some of them are mandatory trainings around safety that has been established across all the states and territories with the federal government. Those trainings will have additional costs.
One thing we do know from that specific training cost, Tim, there is two phases for that training. First phase will go live at the end of February, and all providers have got the obligation to complete that first phase of training within the first six months. It takes us to about October, when the second phase of mandatory training will be released, which again, the providers will have ability for another six months, which will take us in 2027. We don't know exactly the cost that's implicated by these trainings, but let's take the assumption that when you have 8,000-9,000 employees and every one of our team members has got to go through majority of this training, it will be quite a bit of extra cost. For 2026, we believe somewhere between...
We haven't run all of this to ground. As you said, there's more regulations that are coming to effect, and there may well be more in 2026 or 2027. These numbers that I'm quoting are just draft estimates in our mind at the moment. They'd be probably about AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million of extra cost that we can currently see coming towards us. I didn't mention anything about specific headcount. What I did mention is that, you know, over the last three years, we have demonstrated our ability to manage costs really well, with market conditions changing. What does that mean? Where there's variability in costs, based on trading conditions, we have again demonstrated that and will continue to exercise that lever really well. Beyond that, there's a certain level of fixed costs.
As you, you would know, in our centers, you know, we've done a really great job over the last three years in operating the core of the business efficiently. There isn't a significant amount of cost savings or improvement in efficiency that can come from our centers. The next layer of work for us, over the next few months, we'll be looking at our, how do we kind of leverage our support costs a bit better? You know, as, as this impact on occupancy, we've really been facing into it only in the last five weeks. You know, that work is still to be, to come ahead of us and to be determined what that really means. I hope, Tim, I've answered all your part of your questions.
No, that's useful, Pejman. Thank you. I'll jump back into the queue for another one. Thank you.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Wei-Weng Chen from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Apologies, I joined just in time for the Q&A, so I heard that last question and kind of that's it. Hopefully I haven't addressed it in the Prezi, but just in terms of the ordering of your macro concerns on your slide, do you see the cost of living as the fundamental issue facing, you know, the sector, or is there a broader sort of issue around that loss of trust in the entire sector? If so, like, what's gonna be the circuit breaker for this industry?
Good morning, Wei Wang. Yes, we did kind of go through it, but I'm more than happy just to go. I think you are right. We're not saying there's one factor at the moment that overplays another one. In our sector, like, whatever we do, is all joined, but for our families, all of these factors are also, in some way, interconnected. If we start by, you know, the, the macroeconomic factors, that are definitely continuing to play a role in families' affordability, no doubt. You know, everyone was hoping for improved inflation rate, and with 2 rate reduction last year, I think families were getting a little bit more optimistic coming in 2026.
Unfortunately, you know, coming after Christmas, which is usually a very expensive part of the year for, for our families, coming into January and being kind of promote, you know, seeing in the public that there was gonna be a rate hike, and the rate did increase, and inflation, unfortunately, is not coming down, definitely has an impact on families' ability to, to have that discretionary spend. There's other couple of components which impacts partly the demand is, you know, again, there's been a number of reports have come out. The birth rate over the last few years, and certainly when you look at the fertility rate over the last two years, has been the lowest consecutively in the last five years.
That birth rate is definitely impacting some age groups within the sector, particularly that sort of one to three-year-olds in this, in where we are. Saying that again, last year, there were reports showing that pregnancy testing and ultrasounds have been slightly increasing in 2025, which hopefully means somewhere in, in a mid to end of 2026, we might start to see some of that birth rate improving. We don't have exact numbers, but those are some of the indicators that, that we can, we can only use. The other part, which I think what we said, when we want to be very open and genuine, as always, is in the last six to eight months, you know, the, the media focus and attention on some horrific issues across the sector has been pretty unrelenting, too.
Again, us including everyone in G8, and I do know that the whole of the sector condones any of those activities, and we're all appalled by any of those horrific issues that have been surfaced across the country and in every state. That people, you know, intentionally are causing harm to children. With that public attention, and rightly so, and the media attention to bringing those to fruition, a number of public inquiries, whether they're federal or state-based, has definitely increased some family concerns around safety and perhaps impacting their trust in, in, in the system. Again, federal government and the state governments are all very aware of this issue, and everyone's trying to work really hard with the providers to build that trust back.
I think for us, it's probably a little bit like, you know, if you go back a few years ago, like aged care. You know, there is everyone that's part of the sector has a responsibility, including ourselves, to continue to work collaboratively to build that trust back to where it has been historically. The other couple of components, which again goes hand in hand with everything else, is the supply into the sector, this still continues to be a net supply. The one positive that we've seen in the last quarter, and again, if you remember through all our reporting periods, net supply over the last 7 or 8 quarters was somewhere in 3.4%-3.5%. For the last quarter, dropped to 2.4%.
We did highlight in the second half of last year that with cost of construction, we were anticipating, not just us, but the sector was anticipating that supply would slow down somewhat. We are seeing that. Having said that, right here, right now, there's still 2.4% of net supply into the sector. We are seeing those kind of impacting some of that demand overall.
Okay, thanks. I'll jump back in with you. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, please press star one. We'll pause a moment for any further questions to register. Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Drew from Carter Bar Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just a question on, I guess, the portfolio. Are there any more sort of planned changes for the portfolio? You know, given the, the sort of the, the, the tough environment, is there any scope, you know, to, to approach your landlords, for some sort of relief?
Good morning, Peter, and thank you for your question. Look, as we've mentioned in the last two years, and you've seen evidence of how we've been approaching this, portfolio optimization has been an always on for us in the last two years. In both previous years, we have divested or exited or surrendered a number of centers. Last year, as noted in 2025, we divested five centers and we surrendered or exited six, a total of 11. We will continue to have a diligent eye on dynamics of every one of our centers across the states that we operate, and we will take appropriate action in where we see appropriate.
The second part of your question, approaching landlords, yes, of course, that is very much what we do, but to be very open and frank, at the moment, no landlord is prepared to do anything to help and support the providers, not us on... You know, I can tell you, none of my other counterparts are also facing the same thing. Unfortunately, landlords at the moment are unrelenting.
Thanks, Pejman.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Plumbe from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. just one from me on occupancy and thinking about flowing that through into CY 2026. Quick back of the envelope suggests, you know, you guys, I guess the, the comps get easier as we progress throughout the year, like that minus 7.5% spot. If I flow it through and assume that it's kind of maintained at that level, but the comps get a little bit easier, I kind of get occupancy down in the high twos, like 2.7-ish. Is that the right way to think about the potential headwinds into FY 2026, or should we be factoring in potentially interest rate increases, making it a little bit, a little bit harder again? How are you guys thinking about the remainder of the year relative to where we stand now?
Thanks, Tim. Great question, but a very difficult one to be, to, to be honest, to be very, very accurate about that. As you know, historically, the occupancy curve is at its lowest at that first or second week of February. From there onwards, the occupancy curve builds towards November, be it, you know, there are some kind of minor ups and downs due to Easter holidays or school holidays throughout the year, but it gradually improves towards November, and then from mid-November till December, it kind of comes back down as families take their children out and, and take them on holidays. We anticipate the curve, the shape of the curve to be pretty similar to every other year. What I can't tell you right here, right now is how, how steep will that curve be compared to last year, and will we see an improving?
The points that you made are valid. You know, last year was a challenging year, so you are correct in terms of will we be comping some, let's say, softer numbers as we go through Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4? Perhaps, but it just depends how the market conditions are this year. I think it would not be wise of me to start giving any forecast. As you know, we will provide the market with a market update at our AGM in April, and we'll provide the market update again when we do our half-year results in August. Just to follow up.
Thank you.
I just wanna Tim, I did wanna say hopefully, you know, as I said in my presentation, that, you know, we are generally not leaving any stones unturned. You know, at the moment, you know, we, we're, we're pulling all the levers, including, you know, further investment in marketing activities to, to kinda capture more inquiries that's available in a very tough market. You know, our teams on the ground, you know, daily conversations with families. Every inquiry, you know, we're doing our best to turn them into a tour, and we, you know, we're following every tour up within 24 hours to see whether we can, we can convert the families into an enrollment.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks, Tim.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Drew, from Carter Bar Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, guys. Just a question on sort of EBIT sensitivity. I mean, putting aside the additional regulatory costs that you flagged, that, that AUD 5 million or AUD 10 million estimate that you understand that that's just an estimate at this stage. If we put that to one side, how should we think about the EBIT sensitivity to a, you know, percentage point decline in occupancy, you know, based on where you've got the cost base today?
Hi, Peter. Yeah, look, I think it's probably changed. It probably hasn't changed somewhat from where we've normally pitched it. I mean, we've always said that every % was worth a few AUD million or so. Yes, probably goes up to that AUD 4 million-AUD 5 million. We don't think that's changed materially. Obviously, we've got some extra costs, but obviously, we're taking some other costs out as well. We don't see that materially changing.
That kind of number that Steven just talked to, Peter, is, you know, across a full 12 months impact.
Annualized, yeah.
Annualized.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep, yep. What about support costs for sort of 2026? Should we assume that they, they can stay relatively flat year-on-year?
Yeah. I think we, we managed to pull them down obviously this year. We pulled them down by 3.6%. I think we, we, we would be disappointed if, if we, we, you know, I think at least flat. We hope to maybe take some, maybe some out of those as well. Yep.
So is a reasonable way to look at, I guess the numbers for CY 2026, taking into consideration an assumption around occupancy at that AUD 4 million-AUD 5 million EBIT impact, and then layering over the top that AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million impost from these regulatory changes?
Then obviously take some, take some savings into account as well, that we will, will, will obviously, you know, we'll adjust our cost base as well. There's a limit, as Pete said, because we've got to be careful that when we optimize our cost base, we don't sort of, you know, cut off our nose to spite our face a little bit, because we really will manage that sort of prudently.
That's helpful. Thanks. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Okhovat for closing remarks.
Thanks everyone for attending the call and, and really appreciate your engagement with G8 Education, and appreciate for those who had questions. In closing, I would like to once again thank the G8 Education team for their outstanding work that has delivered these results and outcomes. Our team's passionate and dedicated work results in supporting thousands of families and their children with high-quality education and care. Their hard work allows us to live our purpose, to nurture the greatness in every child, to grow, thrive, and learn. We thank all our stakeholders from, from our shareholders to our families, to our communities, and of course, everyone else within the sector that we work collaboratively with. Appreciate it. This now ends.