I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Paul Anderson, MD and CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Alongside me is our Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Thomson, who will present the financial results in detail later on in the presentation. Today, we're presenting our results for the first half of FY 26. We have delivered revenue growth on lower than normal episode volumes and an environment of flat NBS volumes. Cost out benefits, and in particular, labor, are now being realized, and we're making tangible progress against our strategy. We're very much focused on improving customer service for patients and referrers, modernizing the network with digital technology as an enabler, and building out our emerging diagnostics and higher value growth areas. In the first half, we continued executing that strategy, and importantly, you see that execution beginning to translate into revenue on this, and the cost base impacts beginning to take shape.
Turning to the group results, revenue grew 3.8% to AUD 688.1 million. Pathology revenue increased 3.5%, and Agilex delivered strong revenue growth of 16% to AUD 21.8 million. Underlying EBITDA increased 13.1% to AUD 122.2 million, reflecting improved operating leverage and early benefits from the cost reduction initiatives we have been implementing. Underlying EBIT for the group improved to AUD 7.9 million, compared to a loss in the prior period, which included an element of corporate costs. Cost reduction initiatives, along with reducing corporate and stranded costs, have flowed through the results in 1H'26. We ended the period with a net cash position of AUD 11.6 million at 31 December. Turning now to pathology.
Pathology revenues grew 3.5%, and importantly, that growth has been delivered with total operating cost growth reduced to 1.9%. Labor costs remain a key focus and reduced to 49.3% in the second quarter as the labor optimization program progressed. Consumables reduced to 15.8% of revenue and are below 1H 2025 in absolute dollar terms. Operationally, GP attendances were down 1.5% versus the prior corresponding period, while specialist attendances increased by 2.5%. MBS volumes were flat over the comparative 6-month period. Revenue growth has been a combination of volume growth and, more importantly, improved volume mix, particularly growth in B2B areas, including genomic diagnostics, veterinary pathology, and clinical trials. The majority of our labor optimization program is now complete.
We've also continued to deliver on our technology roadmap, with Midway Collections Portal successfully delivered and the Midway Results Portal significantly improved. Other major changes for pathology are the Australian Defence Force contract, which commences in April 2026. This is a major win for our business, with approximately AUD 60 million of revenue in the initial 5-year period. We have now deployed 2 AI co-workers, Riva AI and Julie AI. Both are now fully deployed and the beginning of our AI journey to improve operations with well-defined and purposeful use cases. Riva AI and Julie AI are co-workers in every sense. They form part of our organizational structure. They report to a manager and are currently responsible for improving our cash flows and workforce planning. The financial impact of the Fair Work Commission decision on gender-based undervaluation commences from April this year.
While the final decision has not been provided by Fair Work on all matters, what we do know is that there will be a circa AUD 1.8 million impact in 4Q 2026 with regard to our collective workforce. The annualized impact will be fully determined once a final decision is provided by the Fair Work Commission. With regards to the financial consequences of the Fair Work decision, we're working closely with Australian Pathology and the Department of Health, Disability and Aging to find a solution through the Medicare Benefits Schedule to support these increases. Now, turning to Agilex. Agilex Biolabs delivered a strong first half. Revenue grew 16%, and EBIT increased by 145.5% to AUD 2.7 million, with margins expanding to 12.4%.
This reflects 3 deliberate strategic decisions: enhancing our capability, focusing on large molecule development, and exiting the toxicology business. The new Brisbane Bioanalytical Laboratory is a significant milestone and represents the benchmark operating model for future expansion. Importantly, our order book has now returned to more normal levels. In terms of digital investment, this slide marks an important milestone for our business. We have now built substantial digital capability through our multi-year modernization program. From 1 January 2026, our digital expenditure will be treated as business as usual and no longer treated as a non-underlying charge. This program has delivered a range of technology enablers. They are set out on slide 7 in detail and cover every area of our business.
From a customer service perspective, we now have a front door for our business with new websites, e-referrals from all major practice management systems, a new fully digitized Midway Collections Portal, an upgraded Midway Results Portal with new CPD offerings, and new billing capabilities with simplified pricing and upfront payments. From a clinical perspective, we now have a pathway lab portal with a modern foundational platform to deploy nationally standardized pathology workflows, including the use of AI-enabled decision support. The key point here is that a large part of the heavy lifting is now done. These capabilities are now embedded in the business, and position us to drive both productivity and improve customer service going forward, all part of our normal operations. Now, the T27 scorecard, this is a busy slide, so I won't go through everything, but I'll touch on some of the key points.
We've launched a modern collectors portal for, in the first half to improve patient service and collection efficiency. Around 2 million episodes were collected digitally in H1, with 12% now fully digital through e-referrals. This is materially changing our workflow through the front end of our business. Alongside that, we have deployed new pricing infrastructure across private tests, and introduced upfront charging where relevant for criteria-based MBS tests, such as B12 and urines. Importantly, we also introduced informed financial consent. Since October, around 480,000 informed consents have been provided, mostly through digital channels, reducing billing risk and improving transparency for patients. Appointment booking continues to gain traction. We launched this for complex tests to manage peak demand and reducing waiting times. It has already enabled around 100,000 bookings.
We're also now using real-time data along with AI to optimize ACC opening hours, increase productivity, and improve service availability and wait times. We've also nationalized our collector training program through our Healius Training Academy to ensure we have skilled collectors deployed across the network at the right times. We simplified our field structure by combining business development, medical, liaison, and collection teams into a single national team. This structure has created a single point of contact for referrers, improving engagement and accountability. In our laboratories, we've delivered major efficiency improvements across our network. Our main laboratory headcount has reduced by 2.2% through workflow and rostering changes. Across the broader regional and network, labor reduced by approximately 6% as we rebalance where work is performed and optimized our footprint.
Carrier operations have been digitized across multiple regions, with optimized routes reducing unnecessary stops, overtime, and costs. Paper reporting has also been reduced by up to 40% in some regions, with around 10,000 doctors now receiving fully digitized reporting. On emerging diagnostics, genomics continues to perform strongly, with 21.6% revenue growth versus the first half of last year, driven by oncology, cardiology, pharmacogenomics, and hematology, supported by new product launches. Our focus in the second half will be on omni-channel promotion, digital workflow automation, revenue assurance, and improved result reporting. In Vetnostics, our revenue is ahead of plan, supported by improved service experience and turnaround times. Our Victorian operations are now fully integrated into the Heidelberg laboratory, delivering standardization and cost reduction with minimal client impact.
Midway, clinical trials continues to grow strongly, supported by our modern, trials platform, and we expect this momentum to continue into the second half. Finally, on digital technologies and our ways of working. We continue to deploy new digital capabilities as part of our business as usual, including lab flow work, digitization, starting with genomics. We've also made strong progress in AI, with digital coworkers now live in accounts receivable, improving speed to cash, and in rostering, combining collector availability with network demand to optimize coverage and reduce closures. These capabilities will continue to evolve as we gain operational insights. So the overall message from this slide is that we're making tangible progress on our T27 initiatives. The operating model is changing, and we're seeing measurable improvements in service, productivity, and costs coming through.
I'll now hand over to Andrew to take you through the detailed financial results.
Thanks, Paul. I'm delighted to be presenting today for the first time as Healius' Chief Financial Officer. I'll walk through the first half performance and what it means for the rest of the 2026 financial year. As Paul's already said, the key message in today's results is that we're increasing revenue through top-line growth and revenue mix, while also reducing our support costs, keeping a disciplined approach to capital allocation, and setting up delivery for the second half. Let's begin with the group result and the key contributors to the turnaround versus the prior period. The group revenue grew AUD 25.5 million, or 3.8% to AUD 688.1 million, driven by both volume and fee growth in pathology, against flat Medicare volumes for the period, and strong revenue growth in Agilex.
Group EBIT was AUD 7.9 million, improving from a AUD 2.7 million dollar loss in the prior period. Pathology EBIT was up AUD 9 million to AUD 5.2 million, and importantly, now includes corporate functions that were reported separately in the prior year. Agilex EBIT more than doubled to AUD 2.7 million, with revenue growth translating into margin. Non-underlying items for the half were AUD 20.8 million, predominantly the digital transformation program, and also restructuring costs to rightsize the business in regional labs, main lab optimization, and in the contact center. Interest costs in the first half were primarily finance costs on properties, with very low interest costs and debt, and are down versus the prior period, due to our average debt levels. We remain on track to deliver AUD 20 million of targeted annualized support cost savings over the year.
We achieved AUD 7.3 million of annualized savings in FY 25. An additional AUD 10.7 million of annualized savings in the first half of this year, with more planned in the second half of the year. Full run rate benefit is expected from FY 27 onward. Next, on Impact Pathology. What's driving the revenue mix improvement and how productivity is tracking? So in pathology, we're seeing improved volumes despite a flat MBS market and better revenue mix, supporting an increase in the average fee, with revenue up 3.5%. That growth is underpinned by a better mix across specialist, hospitals, and B2B revenues.
As Paul said, genomics continues its strong momentum with a 21.6% increase versus PCP, and also clinical trials has had an exceptional growth and a forward pipeline, so up 118.6% versus PCP, although on a low base. Looking at labor and productivity, labor increased 2.9% versus the prior period, primarily from EA rate increases, although that's been partially offset by a reduction in headcount across the organization. Labor, as a percentage of revenue, improved to 49.3% in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting the benefits of the labor efficiency program to date. Our consumable costs are also well controlled. They're 1.8% lower than the prior period in absolute terms, despite higher volumes, and they're also down as a percentage of revenue.
15.8% in this half, versus 16.6% in the prior period. The network costs, so property, including our depreciation and finance costs, are trending higher as a percentage of revenue, driven by the timing of new sites versus exits within the portfolio. I'll now turn to Agilex Biolabs, where the mix shift is driving margin expansion. So as Paul said, Agilex is benefiting from a strategic pivot to large molecule work, which is contributing to that margin growth. EBIT margin for the half is 12.4%, so that's reflecting the mix shift away from the small molecule work, the pivot to the large molecule work, and also the closure of the loss-making toxicology business that closed during the first half. Agilex has also expanded its national footprint.
The Brisbane Bioanalytical Lab is performing ahead of expectations and really forms the blueprint for all future lab openings, and those other lab openings are planned. The industry fundamentals for Agilex remain intact and the strategic rationale also. We have a strong pipeline for the remainder of FY 26, with continued growth expected in both revenue and in margins. Given the investment we're making to support growth, I'll cover capital management and cash movements next. So as you've heard in the past, we're being conservative with capital until earnings consistency is achieved, but we are still funding targeted growth initiatives through CapEx. Maintenance CapEx for the period was AUD 9.4 million, largely the replacement of lab equipment and also IT hardware. And we're doing that in a very targeted way where the business case stacks up.
Growth CapEx was AUD 12.3 million, primarily investment in larger scale independent ACCs, also equipment for new hospital contracts, and around the AI development that Paul talked about before. Our net cash position reduced from AUD 57.2 million to AUD 11.6 million during the year, but that was mainly as a result of non-operational issues. So we had a large payment to the ATO. There were the underlying or the non-underlying digital costs that Paul's talked about, and also the restructuring costs that I talked about earlier. The cash bridge in the slide provides a graphic representation of that movement, broadly aligned to the stat reporting. We remain well within bank covenants for the period and expect to remain that way for the rest of the financial year. So Paul, I'll hand back to you to talk about the second half outlook.
Thanks, Andrew. Just looking ahead to the second half. So, as we said, we expect earnings for FY 26 to be in line with current consensus. As we set out earlier, we're on track to deliver AUD 20 million in annual support cost savings. Our digital transformation program is now complete, and future digital spend is just treated as business as usual as of 1 January. Revenue and profitability, as we know in this sector, is expected to be weighted to the second half, reflecting the seasonality and the timing of cost savings for us. We continue to expect to achieve high single digit margins by June 2027, and doing this by growing volumes through our own ACC footprint and our restructured customer and commercial operations, as well as pricing initiatives.
Continuing to aggressively grow the high margin parts of our business, and we've talked about some of those today. Leveraging our technology investment and the benefits from that, and continuing to reduce our costs. That concludes the formal part of the presentation today. Thanks very much for your time, and now I'll open the session to questions.
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 on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Leanne Harrison with Bank of America.
Hi, good morning, Paul. Good morning, Andrew. Can I start with guidance? I know that you're saying you expect earnings to be in line with current consensus, and I just wanted to confirm, by earnings, do you mean EBIT? And are we looking at sort of a AUD 49 million-AUD 50 million EBIT number?
Yes. Sorry, we're referring to EBIT, Leanne.
Yeah.
I think that number, by our calculation with Visible Alpha, is around 48, between 40 and 80.
Okay.
I think there's a couple of issues that Visible Alpha has to sort out, so... But, yeah, sorry, EBIT.
Okay. So if I'm working on that AUD 48 million, and you delivered 7.9 EBIT for the first half, obviously it feels like there's a lot to catch up on in the second half.
Yeah.
What sort of assumptions have you made for revenue in the second half in terms of growth? And if revenue or volumes remain flattish as we saw to date, you know, do you still expect it to hit that EBIT number?
Look, without taking you through our model, blow by blow, Leanne, look, so first of all, you know, I think you will know that there's quite a major skew between H1 and H2, and you saw that last year. I think it was 4.1 and 24.1 across the two halves. You know, we expect volumes to improve in the second half. I think, you know, we've shown that we have grown our revenue ahead of volumes. And there's two... Without giving you a specific number, the rationale for that, I think, one, you know, a number of people have talked about bulk billing and the potential for that to increase volumes. I think for us, it's more about us generating revenue out of our own network.
We have spent that first quarter of this year restructuring our customer and commercial team, as we set out. So we've got a single point of contact into our collection center footprint, which is now designed on a or monitored on an Sa3 footprint. And that's the way that our sales team is structured as well. So you know, we've been beating that in Q2, and we expect to see you know, an improvement in our own volumes in that second half.
So it's a combination of that, without giving you a specific percentage increase, and our continued cost improvement program, particularly around labor, where, you know, we've reduced our labor cost as a percentage of revenue from Q1 to Q2 by, you know, more than two percentage points. And, you know, we see that further improving in the third and fourth quarters. So that's a very long-winded answer.
Okay. So while you mention labor, I'll continue there. So, well done in terms of managing that labor cost in this first half. So in terms of second half, obviously, you said there's gonna—there's a bit more to come, but should we expect, you know, dollar cost labor to be relatively flat sequentially, given what we've seen, you know, from second half 2025 to first half 2026?
Yeah. Look, that's our ambition. I think we said that at the AGM, that we expect labor cost to be broadly flat year-over-year. It's, you know, the impact of Fair Work. You know, we've obviously made all of those changes in the first half of the year, in the major, mostly in the first quarter, not just in customer and commercial, but also across our main labs, our regional laboratories, in particular, and also across support costs.
Okay. If I think about obviously all the initiatives you have, including the T27 initiatives, what's your targeted revenue as a % of labor as you exit fiscal 2027? I know it's, you know, a long way ahead, but I'm, I'm sure you've thought about it in terms of your, your initiative program.
Yeah, look, clearly, you know, labor's running at 49.7% or whatever, 49.2% or 49.3%, and that being, you know, we're obviously hoping to reduce that by, you know, several more percentage points below that. Now, you naturally get a kicker in that second half just because, you know, revenue is skewed to that second half. So, look, I'm not gonna give you an absolute number, you know, but we know that that number needs to, you know, be in the 40s and reducing.
Okay, great. Just wanted to clarify just some of the wording around the annual savings made as part of your cost out program.
Yep.
The wording was additional and further AUD 10.7 million achieved in the first half.
Yep.
Is that on top of the AUD 7.3 million, or should we just think about it being AUD 10 million achieved?
No, that's on top of the 7.3. Yep.
Okay.
So you've got 7.3 that was ticked off in FY 25. You've got,
Yeah
... 10.7 in the first half, so that total is 18.
Okay.
And more to come in H2. I think it's important to say that those are annualized cost saving numbers, Leanne, and we'll see the full benefit of those in FY 27. But on an annualized basis, the AUD 18 million are possible.
Okay, fantastic. And with some of the further restructuring costs still to come through on labor, what's your anticipated restructuring costs that you expect in the second half for that?
Well, we think we're broadly done with that, Leanne.
Okay.
Most of the heavy lifting was done in that first part of this year.
Okay, fantastic. I'll leave it there. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Andrew Goodsall with MST Marquee.
Thanks very much for taking my two questions. The first one, just your growth on private pay and co-pay as a percentage of your revenue. Just wondering whether what percentage that that's sort of grown as, sorry, as a percentage of your revenue, and then whether phlebotomists can now take that payment?
Sorry, what was the second question, Andrew?
Oh, sorry. Well, that's all one. I jammed it together. But your, just your growth in private pay or co-pay as a percentage of revenue, just how much that's increased, and then whether the phlebotomists can actually take that payment at the point of collect, I mean-
Oh, sorry. So the second one is the easiest one to answer. So look, we've got Square payment terminals in each of our collection centers now, so absolutely they can. And that's part of our Midway Collections Portal. So the answer to your first question, look, we're obviously very difficult for us to give you an absolute percentage. You know, B12 and urine is probably as good an example as anything, where, you know, there's been changes to Medicare criteria. You know, we're doing tests still for patients that don't meet that criteria. So we are taking, you know, upfront payments for those where we can, and for those that we can't, that we'll give an invoice. So, you know, look, I can't give you a percentage.
It is obviously growing because of some of the changes to Medicare. You know, we can't be expected to be, you know, doing those tests for free. There is a number of, you know, tests that we do that are not part of the Medicare schedule, that for us to be able to take those payments upfront and be transparent with patients and, you know, get informed financial consent at the same time is, you know, important. So that cures a whole range of, you know, chasing up debts or sending out invoices. So it improves our fund collections and our revenue assurance.
Thank you. And sorry, my second one was that, just with the Fair Work Commission, can you just give... We had one of your competitors report earlier in the week, and they've got, you've got 50% more collection centers than them, but a similar number on the impact-
Yep.
on the Fair Work Commission. And then just also, if you've got any estimates on the impact of the health services, the professionals, when their increase comes through, next calendar year.
Yeah, look, so this is incredibly confusing and made even more confusing because we've had half the decision and not the whole decision. So, just on what we know for collectors, you know, we think we've got a charge of around AUD 1.8 for this year, and that is split AUD 1.2 for our collectors, and around AUD 600,000 one-off increase for annual leave or on costs. The reason for the differential between us and ACL, which I think is what you're asking, without trying to reconcile that for you, I think the way that the decision works is, there is an immediate 4.1%, 4.0% increase that comes on the first of April. And that increase has to take into account, that's above award.
So what has to be taken into account across each of your EBAs, across each of the states, is where your current pay exists. So that's the differential. And the third component that we don't know is the further payments, because it says, "Up to," but there's very little clarity around that for collectors. I think it's even less clear on health professionals, and we're just waiting to hear from Fair Work, you know, what that is going to be. And they've said that that will be split equally over five years.
Sorry, I was trying to keep it to two, but just to clarify, if you're already paying a little bit more, you're basically saying: Well, therefore our net increase on the first of October-
Would be less.
Does that put you at any disadvantage that you were paying more for a particular reason in the past, and now you won't be paying more?
Look, I think everyone has EBAs in each state that are kind of happening in different cycles. So, you know, I think there's always going to be some differences. There's this, you know, when you're negotiating EBAs, you've got to navigate that, the award wage that goes up each 1 July. So depending on the number of years that you do, you're trying to navigate the fine line between, you know, your upticks each year and not falling behind award, because then you actually have to go back and start, you know, changing everything again, so.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Your next question comes from David Stanton with Jefferies.
... Thanks very much, team, for taking my questions. Hope everyone's well. Perhaps we could start diving into guidance, to beat a dead horse. Consumables, 15.8% as a percentage of revenue in the first half. You know, should we think of- should we be thinking about that kind of number as a percentage of revenue for F 26, please?
Yeah, I think the reality is, it's been a good improvement this year we've made, and it comes in two different forms, right? One is the contractual costs for the volumes of things that we buy, so effectively negotiating better contracts. The other part of it is the volume usage of those things, and we found savings there. Some of the CapEx that we've spent in the first half has been around buying equipment that uses or is more efficient with those kind of consumables, so you know, we expect to see that into the second half, with hopefully further improvement.
Okay. Interest expense in the first half, should we just, you know, broad brush, double that for the full year?
So I think the guidance... Yeah, I mean, I think the guidance that was given at the start of the year was somewhere between AUD 1 million and AUD 3 million for the year, for interest. It's been... This is bank interest? Yeah. So bank interest has been AUD 1 million. Look, I think it very much depends on where we end up the year. Obviously, based on where we think we're going to be, that's the guidance that we would still go with.
Okay. Any cash flows or targets that we should be thinking about for end FY 26?
No, look, I think, you know, what we've said is that, one, those digital costs, you know, that has become business as usual from the first of January. Those restructuring charges from the first half of the year, you know, that is now done, so the ambition is to have that now be, you know, relatively clean in H2.
Okay, thank you.
Your next question comes from Craig Wong Pan with RBC.
Good morning. Just wanted to ask about your ACC rents. Like, I've noticed that your D&A expense went up, despite that kind of reduction in ACC footprint. So could you talk us through what you're seeing on a rent or kind of lease basis?
Yeah, I think, look, there's a couple of elements to this, right, Craig? One is that the guidance we gave for the year, for the, for the total DNA number was AUD 230 million. For the half, it's been AUD 114 million. I think for the Right of Use Assets, so the, effectively, the leases you're talking about, full year guidance was AUD 192 million -ish. We've hit AUD 96 million. If you look at that, just that component for the right of use, it's 96 versus 93 in the prior period, which is a 3% increase in those kind of 3-year leases, which is kind of what you would expect, given that most of them are tied to a CPI number. Now, in terms of the footprint, in terms of the footprint change, like, there's obviously...
You're looking at, like, kind of a difference in the number between the first of July and the end of December. There were movements during the period. There's timings of when we entered and when we exited. So some of those ACCs we carried for a longer period in the year.
Okay. Thank you. Next question, just on the ADF contract. You know, AUD 60 million expected revenue over five years, starting in April. How should we think about that ramping up over time, and what kind of contribution could we expect for this fiscal year?
Look, it starts on the, dare I say, the first of April, starts in April. You know, so it's a standing start from zero to a hundred, so it's not a ramp up over time. Look, in terms of contribution, you know, that's pretty hard for us to set out, Craig. I think, probably a good way of just explaining there's a difference between the existing contract that exists and the new one. And the Defence Force have... They have 56 joint health command centers around the country, of which we provide collectors for 22 of them, and they staff the other 34. They all use our system, so we have a fully digitized appointment booking through to results system in place, which is new for them as well.
So the model is very different this time. The previous model had, you know, the majority of people going to, you know, an existing part of the ACC network for, you know, either ACL or us. So sorry, that's not answering your question around contribution. Look, it's obviously a fairly significant, you know, revenue item, and, you know, it's a fully digitized system as well. So we're very excited.
I guess what I'm sort of asking is, that AUD 60 million, can we apportion that sort of on a straight line basis, or is it expected to be kind of-
Oh, yes.
you know, building up?
Yes. Sorry, yes, you can.
I think that's what Paul sort of alluded to at the start, which is on day one, there's no ramp-up here. We don't sort of ease into the contract. We take over what's already happening.
... Okay, great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Davin Thillainathan with Goldman Sachs.
Hi. Morning, Paul and Andrew. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess to sort of help us bridge your EBIT from a first half, second half perspective, it does feel like your cost saving initiatives could be a pretty material driver of that. So could you sort of help us understand just how much more benefit comes into the second half from that initiative, please?
The majority of the change between the halves is not so much costs, it's just the skew of revenues. So if you look historically, and it's, you know, all of the players have this, is that you have a skew from H1 to H2. And the very simplistic way to think about this is, your cost base is relatively fixed across the two periods. Now, yes, we expect to achieve some additional cost savings in H2, but the big benefit comes from the additional volume you get in the second half. And, you know, the only cost associated with that is your circa 15% of consumables. So, you know, a 49-51 split kind of gives you that answer. Now, 49-51's not the absolute number.
It bounces around a little bit, but that's kind of where it lands.
But in terms of the cost savings, I think we've talked about the AUD 10.7 million that we've achieved in the first half. Clearly, those are, as I said before, that was an annualized number, so you do see more of that coming through in the second half on the basis that, you know, the 6 months where we've already put those things in place. But as Paul said, that's not the majority of the delta.
Okay, thanks. And then another question, I guess, on your balance sheet. There seems to be a step up in payable, sort of between June and December. I understand you've grown your revenues, but that rate of step up seems a bit higher than the rate of growth of revenues. Could you sort of help us understand what's driven that?
Look, I think partially there's the normal seasonality that you see with the December numbers. That's definitely part of it, but nothing really outside of that has materially changed.
Okay. Last one on my end, just to help with modeling, your interest costs, could you help us understand what the effective interest rate you'll be incurring, having drawn down some debt over the half, please?
Look, I think what we're seeing is in the first half, it was effectively AUD 1 million of bank interest. That's not all interest. Some of that is obviously the fact that we have a AUD 300 million facility that we haven't fully drawn. We pay a fee on the undrawn component as well. But I think you could assume that a sort of linear relationship between where the debt is at the half year end, and the forecast of where it will be at the full year end.
Okay, thanks.
Your next question comes from Saul Hadassin with Barrenjoey.
Yeah, good morning. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Andrew. Just stick to two questions. First one, again, just reflecting your labor cost being flat effectively, you know, this year versus fiscal 2025, that is, that suggests your labor cost in absolute terms needs to reduce in second half 2026. And on our revenue estimate, which allows for that seasonality, I think as a percentage of revenue, it has to come down, you know, circa 300 basis points in second half as this first half of 2026. Is that the magnitude of improvement in labor that you're expecting in second half?
It's probably in the realms of that. Yeah. So, look, you get... There's two components of that. There's the, you know, reduction in dollars of labor that exist in the second half, and then the naturally higher revenue, which a combination of those two things should bring your percentage, your labor cost, percentage cost, as a percentage of revenue down quite significantly.
Yeah, I guess it does imply a AUD 15 million reduction in sequential labor costs, but I'll leave that to follow up with you guys later. And then the second question, Paul, I know you've kind of asked this question a lot of different ways, and I think the confusion has been, you know, debt-related interest versus lease liabilities going through the interest cost line. But just to be clear, is second half 2026 likely to be similar in terms of that circa AUD 24 million of all-in interest expense that flows through?
Yes, I think so. You can assume that, that's the right number.
Okay. Which effectively means your PBT-
Within a range. Yep. Yep.
Sure. But just to be clear, it effectively means your profit before tax, if you assume consensus, EBIT will be AUD 0. Just to clarify that.
Sorry, say that again?
Well, if you're effectively guiding to consensus EBIT at around AUD 48 million for the year, and if we allow for the interest expense, it suggests profit before tax will be effectively break-even position for the business in 2026. The only reason I'm asking is consensus. Yeah, I ask because consensus, I think, is sitting with AUD 17 million of NPAT profit for the year. So just wanted to clarify that.
Yeah. And again, I think the issue here is that we did give the guidance number on the D&A, and the right-of-use D&A, and we're kind of tracking in line with those. So I'm not entirely sure why the profit after tax number is so far off.
Yeah, agreed. No, thanks for clarifying. That's all I had.
Your next question comes from Sacha Krie n with E&P.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I just want to ask a couple clarifying questions on the Fair Work Commission impact, and then I've got a question on the volume versus mix growth. Just on Fair Work Commission, so you're sort of talking about AUD 1.2 million impact for collectors in the quarter. Given that your comments around some uncertainty about how it's going to be implemented, you're basically saying there's a step-up in that one point two when we get to, to January, nine months later?
So what we're saying is that, you know, we can calculate that to 30 June. What they haven't given us is absolute clarity from 1 July. And the factor there is what step-up you have under your current awards, and they're different across each of the states, and how that impacts, you know, the total cost going forward. So that's the collector piece, and then the health professionals or the scientist piece is even less clear. So you know, I think we are going to see, you know, a relatively significant impact in that second half, sorry, from 1 July. We just don't know what that number is yet, so... And it's hard to just go-
Okay.
- times by 4 for collectors.
Yep. I'm just interested, you've maintained that high single digit margin guidance in that, in that context. Is there an asterisk next to that, depending on what the final numbers are from the Fair Work Commission?
Look, I think that's it, it's probably fair to say that. I think there's a couple of things there. There's one, understanding exactly what that impact is. And then, two, there is the ongoing, you know, dialogue with the Department of Health, around, you know, how this is dealt with. So I think, you know, submissions to Fair Work, you know, have been pretty clear that, you know, elasticity in pricing doesn't exist in this industry. So, you know, any significant impact from, you know, from these wage increases, there needs to be, you know, a solution for that.
Yep. Okay. And my second question was just on volume and mix. I'm just wondering if you can give us a bit more color on MBS versus non-MBS volume and mix growth.
Look, the reality is that the majority of our revenue, and look, I'm not going to give you a percentage, it still relates to MBS. You know, there's obviously been some changes with things like B12 and urines. There's a range of, you know, non-Medicare items that we are reviewing or have changed our pricing already. And there is also, you know, B2B testing, you know, vet testing, clinical trials and so forth. So, you know, still a high percentage of our revenue is still related to the Medicare Benefit Schedule.
I think we've seen-
On that, you've seen the numbers, right? Medicare volumes are flat for the same period. Medicare spends up 1.8% for the period. You know, we're a component-
Yep.
of the industry.
Okay. And then just in terms of, I mean, just looking forward to 2027, you sort of talked about the bulk billing incentive change. We're gonna be cycling the B12 and possibly some other, you know, cyclical issues. Where do you think we can get back to in terms of MBS? Is there something structurally wrong, or do you think it's more just a, you know, an FY 26 story, we see a better growth rate in 2027?
Look, I think that's pretty hard to predict, Sasha. I think, there's lots of factors at play here. Obviously, everyone hopes that the changes in bulk billing incentive improves, you know, improves GP attendances, and specialists for that matter. So it, it's pretty hard to predict. But look, I think there's no doubt that the industry is changing to a certain extent. You know, telehealth has grown as part of GP attendances, and MBS published those, published those numbers. So, you know, that's increased by kind of 4 percentage points over 24 months. So, there's kind of lots of things happening. I think, you know, there's clearly, cost of living pressures on people attending doctors, the cost of, a doctor visit, bulk billing. There's lots of things rolled into that. So, it's pretty hard to give a definitive answer.
Of course, we all hope that volumes return to, you know, kind of historic 4% levels. But our job is to, you know, manage our way through that and grow the higher growth margin parts of our business, like genomics, which is growing, you know, growing quite fast.
... I might jump back in the queue, give someone else a go. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Steve Wheen with Jarden.
Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. Just back on the lease payments. I'm just a little surprised that the total payment amount hasn't come down by more now that Lumus is no longer part of the business. Or are you still carrying some of their lease costs? And when, you know, what happens at the end of FY 2027, when I think those lease arrangements expire?
No, we're definitely not carrying any of the Lumus lease costs.
Okay.
Guidance was quite clear, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, I think the where we are is in line with the guidance that was given at the full year last year.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right, next question. Just with regards to the ADF contracts that, that you, you've won or secured, is there much of an offset from the Western Health contract loss? Just trying to understand what the net benefit will be of those two contracts going forward.
Yeah, look, I mean, we're not going to kind of give you a, a reconciliation of one offset or the other. Look, Steve, there has been changes in the, you know, in the makeup of, you know, a bunch of things. So we've obviously won ADF. We have, you know, in this past six months, you know, we've taken on the North West Tasmanian contract. We renewed our Grampians Hospital in Victoria and took over, the Horsham Hospital as part of that from ACL. And, you know, in terms of losses, obviously, Western Health leaves us, this month and, also Hollywood, in, in WA. So there's ups and downs and swings and roundabouts with those.
I think the, you know, the combination of all of those, you know, is, you would have to say is positive in terms of revenue. When you've got, you know, 3, 3 new contracts and, and 2 disappearing.
Okay. And then last question for me, just with regards to the private billing that you speak of, that's been able to sort of help offset some of the pressures from the Medicare changes. Has the Health Minister softened his stance on this? Because he seemed to be more averse to the idea of private billing, but I guess the argument from the industry was, because of the time prescribers, you could claim that they weren't covered by Medicare if they were prescribed those tests within a period of 12 months. So has that argument resonated with the Health Minister?
Look, I think that's probably a question for him. I mean, we should be quite clear, is that if we just use urines as an example, and a patient comes in to get a urine test and does not meet criteria for whatever reason, you know, we are entitled to charge them for that service. So and that is what we mean, and what we have been doing. So, you know, this is not about us, you know, trying to increase prices elsewhere to offset that. There's been some specific changes made to B12 and urines. And, you know, we should also be quite clear that, you know, that has reduced volumes, you know, not insignificantly across the whole sector.
So, you know, the cost or the revenue that we have, you know, charged patients that do not meet criteria, you know, has not filled, you know, the hole left by those reductions in B12 and urines, so.
Yep. Okay. Thanks very much.
Your next question comes from Brian Stein with Macquarie.
Hey, guys. Thank you. Thanks for taking my question. The question I have is, I saw that you put a note out on the impact of AI and health misinformation. I'm just curious to understand how you feel that would impact your business moving forward.
Look, Brian, so we first did this research back in November 2024, so 15 months ago. And the reason we did it, so we publish this report, and we publish a report on diabetes. And part of that is, you know, we have that information, and essentially quite valuable for us to go to the government and say, you know, "Here is the result of, in diabetes terms, the cost to you, and here is our ideas how you can use information to reduce those costs." So it's kind of part of us being a good corporate citizen as part of the healthcare industry. The health misinformation piece is fascinating, in that 15 months ago, half of the population would self-diagnose using, you know, Dr.
Google, and half of those that did self-diagnose got it wrong. The really interesting fact that came out of the most recent research is, if you put your symptoms into, you know, the internet now, you don't get five or six different links to click through to. You get a nice little AI-summarized, you know, paragraph up front, which summarizes it all, which 80% of people, you know, trust relatively highly. So there's a kind of health misinformation piece for the government here. But I think for the industry, you know, it's a fact of life.
We know from that research that you've got, you know, parents with young children at home, are more likely to go online and check out their conditions before they go and see a doctor, to a pretty large extent. So I think it's just another factor, that, you know, goes with cost of going to see a doctor, doctor availability. And, you know, look, the, the upside in all of this is that, you know, you're more informed before you go and see your doctor. You know, the, the downside in all of this is, you know, you have potential for less, less people to go to the doctor because they think they know what's wrong with them.
So the purpose of the report was really to highlight, you know, the prevalence of people, you know, checking symptoms online, and, you know, we've seen that go up, and that's gone up over 15 months. So it's just another factor, I think, to take into account.
Thank you. I guess, you know, where I'm going with this is, you know, if what you're saying means that people are less likely to go see their doctors, and you're already having a drop in your GP volumes, you know, will this have a significant impact? And if so, when? But also, with the MBS indexation pass-throughs, you know, will that be enough to essentially buffer you before any significant impact happens?
They're pretty hard to answer questions, both of those. Second one, incredibly hard. Look, as I said, it's just another factor. What I would say is that, you know, it was 15 months ago when we did the original survey. Have things changed dramatically? The way that you receive the information has. So it's, you know, it's not as though, you know, this has materially changed the fact pattern of how people go to GPs, but give us more of an understanding, along with, you know, the things that we do know about, like the cost of going to see a doctor. And on the positive side of that, since then, bulk billing incentives have changed as well, so we're yet to see that play out.
Great. And, and just one last question. How sustainable do you feel is the fee mix up with, with your genomics and B2B and vet business? You're getting really nice growth numbers. Do you think it's a structural shift or, or just episodic at this point?
Oh, look, I think, there's clearly a shift, sorry. There's clearly an increase in, you know, wellness companies out there that are doing pathology testing. The, I think the, the vet pathology market is, you know, it is non-MBS related. We are the largest, vet pathology provider in the country, so focusing on that, the, the average fees are significantly higher than for human pathology. So leveraging our network, which is what we're doing, you know, that is a achievable and sustainable increase. And then on the genomics front, you know, precision medicine is, is, you know, growing significantly. And we have a genomics business that has real scale. So I think you see the, Medicare Benefits Schedule items, coming on each year.
A lot of those are, you know, cancer related and genetics related. And we've launched, you know, 8 new products this year. So our challenge, I think, as we've set out in here, is to improve our ability to process volume across, you know, the different products that we've got and to be able to market that. So, and that's what we mean, you know, in large part, by growing the higher margin parts of our business.
Great. Thank you very much. No further questions for me.
Your next question comes from David Stanton with Jefferies.
Thanks, team, for taking my follow-up. Just to follow up on the previous question then, you know, we have seen the CROs in the U.S. come under share price pressure on the back of concerns around AI. You know, how is Agilex going to avoid that going forward, please?
Look, I'm not sure I'm probably qualified enough to answer that, Dave. Look, I think what we've seen with you know, Steve McIntyre and the Agilex team is you know, they are a small part of the clinical trials chain. They are highly specialized in what they do. We've obviously got a good or a very good you know, environment here in Australia in terms of speed to market and also the R&D R&D incentives. So, those are all the things I think that along with the their pivot to large molecule work. So, you know, the one thing I would say is that you know, that market has been continually changing. Some of that's been through politics in the U.S.
And as you say, there are other, things coming down the pipe, like AI. So which I, I think historically, Steve and his team have actually been pretty good at navigating their way through. So, I don't think I fully know the answer to that, but I kind of, you know, they, they know their strengths, they're playing to their strengths and, you know, they've grown quite significantly because of that.
Thank you.
... Your next question comes from Sacha Krien with EMP.
Thanks for taking my follow-up. Just a question on cash flow and cash burn. Look, you got AUD 300 million facility, I think AUD 40 million is drawn down. I'm just wondering if there's any sort of restrictions on your ability to draw down, given the cash burn, or whether or not that could potentially be reviewed depending on what happens with the sort of Fair Work Commission outcome?
No, there's no restrictions. You know, look, our ambition and, you know, part of the, we've been very clear about from the first of January that, you know, the business becomes, you know, much cleaner in terms of, you know, any of that cash going out below the line. So becoming cash flow positive is, you know, the number one ambition. You know, and I think if you strip out those one-off costs for the last half, which have been very deliberate to achieve that, then that's the answer. But the answer to your first question is no.
Yeah, and so all else equal, you'd have, you know, better growth and better cash flow into 2027. Maybe some of that comes off with the Fair Work Commission. I mean, I guess my final question would be: do you think you can still grow cash into 2027, you know, with Fair Work Commission impacts?
Well, look, Sacha, you know, we don't know what the Fair Work impact is going to be. So I think there's one, quantify what the Fair Work impact will be. And then, you know, what is the, the quid pro quo, if you like, in terms of how do we actually support that, you know, that cost increase.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. That does conclude our question and answer and conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.