Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the half-year results presentation for Kelsian Group Limited for the six months ended 31st December 2023. I'm Clint Feuerherdt, Managing Director and Group CEO, and I'm joined this morning by our Group CFO, Andrew Muir. This morning, I'll begin by providing an overview of the business as it stands today, after a period that represents impressive organic and inorganic growth. I'll outline our financial and operational highlights from the half, and then I'll hand over to Andrew to go through the results in more detail before I return to provide an update on the current focus areas, pipeline of opportunities, and the outlook. Firstly, turning to slide three. For those new to Kelsian, I'll give you a quick summary of our diversified businesses, the majority of which have defensive, long-term, government-backed service contracts resulting in highly predictable, low-risk earnings and cash flows.
For those familiar with the business, you will see that we have materially increased our diversification, our contracted revenue, and undertaken substantial growth that is delivering immediate and meaningful new earnings. We have over AUD 1.5 billion in annualized, contracted, and non-discretionary revenues that are generated from a diverse mix of businesses and geographies. In today's environment of high inflation, the benefits of our indexation clauses are very evident. Most of our contracts have indexation coverage for our two largest costs being fuel and wages, and the remaining costs that support delivery of contracts are indexed at CPI. Furthermore, in our marine and tourism business, we can pass on fare increases to mitigate inflationary pressures. Kelsian is the most experienced and expansive public transport and marine operator in Australia.
The seamless mobilisation and delivery of two very large and complex bus contracts in Sydney during the half further builds on our reputation as a trusted and experienced operator and transition expert. Transport is the single largest identifiable source of carbon emissions and is top of the agenda for any government seeking to reach net-zero emission status. To decarbonise the transport networks, governments first need to facilitate the conversion of existing public transport fleet to zero-emission and encourage people to shift from cars to public transport by increasing public transport services. This requires both capital and skills to assist governments. We are proud to have the largest zero-emission bus fleet and the largest electrified bus depot in Australia, and governments increasingly rely on us for our deep industry knowledge and leadership in this important area as governments seek to reach net-zero targets.
Reflecting on our change in scale, as of the 31st of December 2023, Kelsian directly employs over 12,200 people and operates over 5,500 buses, 115 vessels, and 24 light rail vehicles that delivered more than 332 million customer journeys over the last 12 months. Now, turning to our three business divisions on slide 4: Australian Bus, International Bus, and SeaLink Marine and Tourism. As Australia's largest multimodal transport provider and tourism operator, we have a clear purpose to be a world leader in delivering essential journeys through safe, intelligent, and sustainable transport solutions while creating brilliant customer experiences. Our largest division is Australian Bus, which operates domestic and public transport contracts, resource contracts, and charters. Our counterparties are mostly government and blue-chip companies. We enjoy annual price increases, no fare box risk, and they are mostly capital light with an average remaining contract term of 4.6 years.
It is a defensive and low-risk business. Importantly, there are established barriers to entry, for example, around infrastructure, and not insignificant is reputation and proven track record of delivery. Our international bus division operates international public transport contracts and motor coach services in Singapore and the U.K. and encompasses All Aboard America Holdings, or AAAHI, in the U.S.A. Our Singapore and U.K. businesses are similar to the Australian Bus business in providing public transport under contracted governments, but AAAHI, which we acquired last year, has a more diverse customer base of corporates, governments, education, industrial, and tourism sector clients serviced through six integrated brands across seven highly populated growth states. AAAHI provides a multi-year growth runway that is underpinned by organic and inorganic opportunities.
Organic growth includes industrial facilities and construction projects supported by several depots in Texas and Louisiana, employee shuttles to some of the largest technology companies in Silicon Valley, and expansion into new cities. Inorganic opportunities exist in existing and neighboring states where the market is highly fragmented. Our marine and tourism business connects travelers with Australia's most iconic holiday destinations and experiences. We have operations across all states except Victoria and the ACT, providing essential transport services to island residents, businesses, and visitors serving 19 unique island destinations. In total, we deliver services to about 8 million customers each year. We have preferred operator status to most of our destinations, adding to our long-term non-discretionary and contracted revenue stream.
Kelsian is a diversified essential transport infrastructure business that enjoys a large and predictable contracted earnings base but retains the ability to drive greater profitability by overlaying discretionary high-margin travel and charter on top of our essential transport infrastructure networks. Moving to slide 5 to quickly touch on the decarbonization opportunity. As the largest operator of zero-emission buses, Kelsian continues to lead the way in the transition to zero-emission fleet in Australia and has built a reputation on active management and creation of relevant public transport networks that show high levels of patronage growth.
As of the 31st of December 2023, Kelsian had a fleet of 94 battery electric buses and 4 hydrogen fuel cell buses in operational service, with expansion work underway across the country, including grid upgrades and charging infrastructure, and plans to increase this to 379 battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses by the end of 2025. Kelsian is proud to operate the largest fleet of electric buses in the country, and we are confident our leadership position in electric vehicles will help to maintain our competitive advantage as governments rely on support in the decarbonization of public transport essential to achieving their targets of net-zero emissions. An important point to note here is that the capital deployment for this transition is either supplied by government or supported by government in such a way that it neither restricts Kelsian's borrowing capacity nor consumes existing operating cash flows.
Andrew will speak more to this in a second. I'll now go through the results for the half and the key operational and strategic achievements across the business. The result for the six months to the 31st of December reflects the benefits of our diversified businesses as well as the highly defensive nature of our long-term government-backed service contracts, with meaningful cost protection particularly evident in a period of continued inflationary pressures. Revenue in the half grew by 44.9% to AUD 982.7 million, mostly reflecting the acquisition of All Aboard America! Holdings, Inc., and the new Sydney contracts, which came online from August and October 2023. Last year's AAAHI acquisition was transformational for our business, providing a solid platform for growth in the large, high-growth, and fragmented U.S. market. AAAHI continued to deliver solid growth during the half, especially in the contracted shuttle services in the technology and resources sector.
Underlying EBITDA, adjusted for one-off costs associated with M&A and abnormal items, grew by 63.5% to AUD 130.5 million, illustrating the benefits of scale and higher-margin businesses that have been added to the portfolio, and of course, the cost indexation mechanisms that I mentioned earlier. This underlying EBITDA improvement represents a pleasing result as the majority of costs associated with the AAAHI integration and the transition of the new Sydney contracts also fell in the half. Depreciation increased by 117.6% to AUD 55.7 million, reflecting the acquisition of bus assets for the new Sydney contracts, resetting the asset base associated with the purchase price acquisition for AAAHI, some of which will only be a one-year impact, and the right-of-use asset depreciation of AUD 12.9 million. Underlying net profit after tax and before amortisation, adjusted for one-off costs associated with M&A and abnormal items, increased by 20.4% to AUD 43.1 million.
Net operating cash flow increased 63.3% to AUD 60.3 million, reflecting the majority contracted revenue, translating into strong and predictable cash flow generation. Turning now to slide 8, covering the operational and strategic highlights from the half. The standout highlight was the perfect execution of the Sydney contract transitions and becoming the largest urban bus operator in our largest city. I'll take the time to talk more about the Sydney contracts in a moment. A key theme of last year's result was the persistent issues related to labor availability that impacted our ability to meet contracted service requirements. I'm pleased to report that the labor availability challenges have now been resolved due to well-executed, extensive recruitment and training programs, as well as an improvement in the labor market.
In the international bus business, there were full-service operating throughout the period despite higher absenteeism, which was in part due to a change in local labor laws relating to sick leave. With a return to pre-COVID conditions and full-staffing, performance incentives were once again received, albeit at lower levels. This was the first full period of ownership of AAAHI, which is under the leadership of Graeme Legh, who took on the CE role in September 2023. I'm delighted with how the integration process has gone and with the continued growth in this business.
Following a strong start to the period and good performance overall during December, the marine and tourism business was impacted by relatively subdued tourism demand, particularly on K'gari, Fraser Island, with lower numbers of passengers on the ferries to the island as well as both lower occupancy and average room rates at Kingfisher Bay Resort, likely reflecting the cost-of-living headwinds impacting consumer sentiment. The recovery in international tourism continued during the period but did not fully offset the subdued domestic tourism, which was in part impacted by poor weather, particularly on the East Coast in December. Notwithstanding these effects late in the half, the marine and tourism division performed very well overall, particularly considering the very strong comparable half from last year. This division also strengthened its position in the Whitsunday region with the signing of an agreement to acquire Red Cat Adventures that settled earlier this month.
Strategically, there were several highlights, including the establishment of special-purpose vehicles to fund and house government-backed contracted assets, and I'll let Andrew talk more about those in a minute. We made several strategic acquisitions of land and property and commenced self-insurance for workers' compensation in New South Wales. We welcomed Jacqueline McArthur to the board in January, and she has already contributed significantly with her broad experience and commercial acumen. Yesterday, we announced that Kelsian independent non-executive director Fiona Hele will take over from Jeff Ellison as chair of the board on the 1st of July this year. Jeff has been pivotal in the growth and success of Kelsian and its subsidiaries over a 30-year period, and I would like to take this opportunity to recognise Jeff's immense contribution and thank him on behalf of the board, the Kelsian team, and Kelsian shareholders.
Moving to slide 9 and the Sydney transition success. A major highlight of the half was the seamless transition of the new contract regions in southwest of Sydney. Regions 3 and 13 began operating in August 2023, and Regions 2 and 15 commenced in October. These contracts were transitioned on time and on budget, demonstrating operational excellence in transitioning large and complex bus contracts, with the onboarding of 700 new staff, deployment of 380 additional buses, establishment of five new depots, 87 new regular route services, and implementation of 540 new school routes. The new contracts are located within the fastest population growth corridor in Sydney, and this growth is expected to continue with the launch of the new international airport from 2026.
On top of this success, Transit Systems has recently signed a new contract to deliver significant rail replacement services out of these regions during FY25, a contract that will see bus numbers increase by a further 60 and an additional 110 new staff members. We are confident that continued revenue growth will be underpinned by incremental Sydney contracts, expansion of routes, and a full complement of labour to support an improvement in margins in the coming months. I'll now hand over to Andrew to present the financials in some more detail as well as the divisional performance.
Thanks, Clint, and good morning, everyone. Kelsian has delivered a solid set of financial results for the six-month period ending 31 December against a backdrop of highly inflationary macroeconomic conditions and evidence of cost-of-living pressures starting to impact domestic tourism demand.
The highlights of the results were the performance and contribution from the recently acquired AAAHI business and the successful commencement of the new contract regions in Sydney. Once again, the results reflect the benefits of cost indexation mechanisms that exist in the majority of Australian bus contracts, which provide protection in times of high inflation. As a reminder about the indexation mechanisms in our government public bus contracts, the payments from government are adjusted either monthly or annually to take into account movements in the cost base. These automatic adjustments relate to monthly changes in the Terminal Gate Price for fuel, annual wage price increases for salaries and wages, and CPI increases for all other general operating expenses. During the period, we were also able to implement several fare increases in our marine and tourism business that partly offset inflationary pressures.
However, the marine and tourism business was impacted by some adverse weather, particularly in Queensland during the all-important month of December, and there was also evidence of consumer demand slowing in several areas due to cost-of-living pressures. I'll step through the results in a little more detail over the next few slides. Slide 11 provides a high-level comparison of the consolidated first-half result compared with the prior year. There are some material changes. The increase in revenue of AUD 304.4 million was achieved primarily through the inclusion of AAAHI for the full six months, the new contract regions in Sydney, which started midway through the half, as well as the impact of the indexation mechanisms I mentioned earlier.
During the period, despite maintaining a disciplined focus on cost control, the impact of labor availability, particularly drivers and mechanics, resulted in high cost to fill vacant positions in areas like advertising, recruitment, training, retention, and overtime. The business also incurred KPI Penalties in parts of the Australian bus business for failure to deliver predetermined contracted service levels. These KPI Penalties ceased in October once we had labor back to the required levels, but we did and continue to incur higher-than-normal levels of overtime. Underlying EBITDA, adjusted for one-off costs associated with M&A and abnormal items, was AUD 130.5 million, representing an increase of 63.5% or AUD 50.7 million compared to the first half last year. Depreciation increased from AUD 26.6 million to AUD 55.7 million, reflecting a combination of several factors. First, there was the resetting of the book value of the asset base associated with the purchase price accounting treatment for AAAHI.
This by itself has resulted in a one-off AUD 5 million increase for the period, and it will be AUD 10 million for the full year. This will not repeat in FY25. There was the unplanned acquisition of additional motor coach assets in the U.S.A. to take advantage of growth opportunities in the region. Finally, there was the acquisition of the bus assets associated with the new contract Regions 2 and 3 in Sydney, which commenced in August and October, respectively. Looking forward, the estimated depreciation charge for FY24 is forecast to be AUD 113 million. This will step down to approximately AUD 100 million for FY25. Amortization expenses also increased as the customer relationships and contract intangibles recognized as part of the various businesses recently acquired are progressively amortized over the remaining term of the contracts. Looking forward, the estimated amortization charge for FY24 is AUD 33 million and AUD 30 million for FY25.
Higher interest reflects higher levels of borrowings and higher interest rates associated with the unhedged portion of our borrowings. Furthermore, there were additional borrowings to fund the acquisition of bus and motor coach assets for Sydney and in the U.S.A.. From a tax perspective, the underlying profit level, the relatively low effective tax rate of 19.8%, is primarily driven by the benefits associated with marine training incentives, the benefits of accelerated depreciation in AAAHI, and relatively lower international tax rates. Underlying net profit after tax and before amortization was AUD 43.1 million compared with AUD 35.8 million in 2023. This represents an increase of AUD 7.3 million or 20.4%. There were several one-off abnormal or significant items incurred during the half which combined totaled AUD 2.7 million on a pre-tax basis and related to transaction costs associated with recent acquisitions offset by favorable foreign currency translation gains.
Statutory net profit after tax for the period was AUD 28.1 million compared to AUD 19.5 million last year, an increase of AUD 8.6 million or 44.1%. The fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.08 per share represents an increase of 6.7% on the prior year, and today we announced a dividend reinvestment plan with a 1.5% discount. Before moving on, I might just pause and make a few comments about the labor situation across the group. The labor availability issues that persisted during the prior period and the start of this period, primarily in our Region 6 contract in Sydney and our Singaporean business, have now been resolved. The key impacts of the labor availability issues are the monthly KPI penalties which we were incurring in New South Wales ceased in October.
We continue to incur higher levels of overtime to deliver the contracted level of services, although this too is starting to normalize with a more stable labor environment. Driver recruitment, retention, and training costs are moderating but are still above historical levels as we ensure the situation does not deteriorate from any unexpected high levels of driver turnover. Despite our extensive driver induction and training programs, we have seen an increase in accident damage with a less experienced driver workforce. We expect this will normalize in the second half. In Singapore, performance incentives are gradually recovering as we are back to full establishment, and absentee levels are also decreasing. In Australia, with most operators now having resolved driver and mechanic shortages, we're seeing an increase in opportunities for higher-margin ad hoc charter and rail replacement work. To the cash flow on slide 12.
It's pleasing that in a growing business, we continue to generate strong cash flows with a net operating cash flow of AUD 60.3 million, an increase of AUD 23.5 million or 63.4%. This represents a record cash flow for our business and was achieved despite the cash flow timing lag and impact of commencing the new large contract in Sydney where payment terms are 60-day end of month, so there's roughly a AUD 30 million-AUD 35 million impact in the cash flow generated in this period. We also paid an additional AUD 16.1 million in interest during the period. We invested AUD 56.1 million in new and replacement assets, including land and buildings, as part of our commitment to strengthen and improve the quality of assets employed in the business. We also acquired AUD 81.6 million of contracted assets associated with the new contracts in Sydney.
In September, we paid the first of two contingent installments of AUD 2.5 million to the Horizons West vendors, and there was also the final working capital adjustment payable for AAAHI. Slide 13 provides a summary of the balance sheet. At period end, we had a little over AUD 113 million of cash on hand and a liquidity buffer of approximately AUD 132 million. The main changes to the balance sheet during the period relate to recognizing assets and liabilities associated with the new contract regions in Sydney, the accounting amortization of customer contract intangibles, and the establishment of ring-fenced limited recourse financing facilities to fund and house contracted government-backed assets. I will talk a little bit more about this on the next slide.
With pro forma leverage at just under 2.4 times excluding government-backed contracted assets, a healthy interest cover of 8 times, and all bank covenants comfortably met, the balance sheet remains well positioned. Finally, with some of our banking facilities coming due in February 2025, we've commenced a refinancing process with the aim of improving the capital structure of the business and having new facilities in place by 30 June 2024. Slide 14 provides a pro forma balance sheet adjusted for the non-recourse government-backed contracted assets we have on our balance sheet. In a significant development for Kelsian, during the first half, we established wholly-owned special-purpose Australian subsidiaries to own government contracted bus assets used to service specific regions in Sydney. These special-purpose subsidiaries acquired the bus assets from the Kelsian operator entities using new ring-fenced financing arrangements.
These ring-fenced financing arrangements are supported by government and have limited recourse to the broader Kelsian Group. The ring-fenced financing arrangements are separate to Kelsian's corporate debt facilities and have a tenor aligned to the expiry of the associated bus services contract and an amortization profile that matches the residual value of the buses determined under the bus services contract. In November 2023, a ring-fenced asset financing facility of AUD 40 million was established for the purchase of 49 battery electric buses for Region 6. This was partially drawn to AUD 6.8 million at period end and disclosed on the balance sheet. In February 2024, ring-fenced asset financing facilities totaling approximately AUD 74.8 million were established and drawn for contracted bus assets that had been acquired from the outgoing bus operators in Regions 2, 13, and 15.
Contracted bus assets from our old Region 3 contract have also been transferred into this ring-fenced financing arrangement. This will be reflected in our 30 June 2024 accounts. In addition, we have government-backed contracted assets in Region 6 in Sydney and in Melbourne which have yet to be transferred into this ring-fenced financing arrangement. Our expectation is we'll be able to transfer these at the next round of tendering in approximately three years' time. The pro forma balance sheet provides an example of what the balance sheet would have looked like assuming these ring-fenced financing facilities were in place at 31 December and highlights the remaining contracted assets yet to transfer. These financing facilities provide flexibility and optionality for government at their discretion to accelerate the transition to zero-emission assets as new replacement assets can be fully debt-funded and do not draw on Kelsian's corporate group financing facility limits.
Turning now to slide 15 which provides an overview of capital expenditure. As foreshadowed, FY24 is a year of record investment in the business. This reflects the increased scale of the business continuing to refresh the asset base and underpin growth. It includes the significant one-off expenditure required for the new 25-year Kangaroo Island service which commences in July 2025. I'll provide some more specific details on the one-off investment in our Kangaroo Island vessels and the opportunity for future growth this provides on the next slide. During the period, we continue to invest in the business and upgrade our large and growing fleet of vessels, motor coaches, buses, and vehicles, as well as acquiring and investing in strategic property assets on Fraser Island and developing a bus depot at Melton in Victoria.
In terms of breakdown, we currently have five vessels under construction, two Southern Moreton Bay Islands vessels, a new Gladstone vessel to support the recently secured 10-year contract, and the two new Kangaroo Island vessels. In Australian bus operations, we acquired new battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses and motor coaches for Go West, Horizons West, and Grand Touring. In international, during the period, AAAHI were opportunistically able to acquire more than 40 motor coaches from one of our technology customers at very attractive prices. These assets have been earmarked to be deployed to pursue growth opportunities for both contracted and charter services. The anticipated CapEx for FY24 is approximately AUD 145 million. This includes the acquisition of the Newton bus depot in Adelaide for AUD 16 million which is due to settle in the next few days.
It's important to note that decisions made on our depreciable asset base mean that going forward, maintenance CapEx does not equal depreciation. Maintenance CapEx will be lower. Furthermore, in our government contract contracts, any future capital deployed is not a drain on operational cash flow as the ring-fenced financing is in place and government compensates us with increased contractual payments for additional capital employed. In FY25, we do not anticipate any major vessel replacements or builds, so we anticipate a reasonable step down in CapEx from this year's record levels to approximately AUD 90 million-AUD 100 million. To Slide 16. This slide provides a high-level comparison of the existing Kangaroo Island vessels and the new vessels that are currently under construction to support our 25-year exclusive license to operate freight and passenger services to Kangaroo Island.
These new vessels will operate for the duration of the new contract with little or no additional capital needed to be deployed over the life of the contract. Some of the benefits that the investment in these new vessels provide include more than doubling the annual vehicle mileage capacity, 50% more weight-carrying capacity in the vessels, and a 20% increase in passenger capacity. Operationally, drive-through vessels will improve turnaround times and safety. The vessels will have more fuel-efficient engines to reduce emissions, and they're designed with enhanced propulsion systems with greater redundancy and improved maneuverability. Both vessels are designed to allow for the transport of dangerous goods for things like fuel for island residents, and both vessels will be disability compliant with lift access and toilet facilities available on each level. Finally, they will have enhanced customer amenities and provide a better overall experience.
These vessels will be a game-changer for our Kangaroo Island customers and visitors for the next 25 years. Over the next few slides, I'll provide some comments on the individual divisional performances from both a financial and operational perspective, starting with Australian bus on slide 18. The highlight for this division has been the success we've had in increasing our footprint in Sydney. Pleasingly, all new contract regions transition seamlessly on time and on budget, and we have not experienced the driver availability issues which we've seen in Region 6. The operations are meeting contractual performance KPIs, and we've commenced the process of optimizing the network to drive operational efficiencies and cost savings. Overall, contract indexation mechanisms have been working effectively to offset widespread inflationary pressures, but the results have been overshadowed by the industry-wide availability of drivers and mechanics which was not resolved until midway through the period.
This has seen an abatement of KPI penalties, but some higher than normal levels of overtime have remained. The overall impact of the labor situation, new contract regions starting on lower margins, and one-off integration and startup costs has seen some margin deterioration. In addition, we've also absorbed the significant tender costs associated with Melbourne bids which we submitted in January. We've continued to focus on disciplined operational cost control and the benefits realized from the group-wide tendering and procurement initiatives we have in place. This will ensure the business is well positioned and well placed for margin recovery as overtime normalizes and network optimization deliver operational efficiencies as expected. The Go West business was impacted by some short-term inflationary headwinds in the period which have now been addressed through changes to contract structures to include more frequent indexation mechanisms with several of our larger corporate clients.
Finally, during the period, the major rail replacement project in Perth commenced. We secured this opportunity a few years ago, but it was deferred due to COVID and commenced in November. This project will run for the remainder of the financial year and possibly to the end of calendar 2024. Turning to slide 19, the international bus segment. This was the first full period of operations of AAAHI under Kelsian's ownership following the completion of the acquisition on 1 June. During the period, the AAAHI integration was substantially completed with all critical integration projects successfully delivered. This included the transition of AAAHI's chief executive officer with Kelsian executive Graeme Legh relocating from Australia to the U.S.A. to take on the CEO role from 1 September as the previous CEO retired. The Kelsian advisory board was established and with representation from the original AAAHI brand founders, Kelsian directors, and senior executives.
Operationally, the coach charter operations continue to perform strongly with pricing and fleet utilization benefiting from the ongoing recovery and demand in the coach charter market post-pandemic coupled with constrained supply when compared to pre-pandemic levels. Contracted operations continue to grow with new contracts awarded for technology and resource sector employee shuttle services and the renewal of a significant contract providing employee shuttle services for a large technology sector client. There was significant reinvestment into the fleet of vehicles during the period to ensure the continued delivery of safe, comfortable, and reliable journeys for our customers. A total of 46 additional new and used vehicles were acquired and added to the fleet during the half including 4 electric and hybrid vehicles providing a low-emission employee shuttle service for a new client in Colorado.
During the period, AAAHI successfully established operations in new markets in Texas, and the business continues to assess potential acquisition opportunities as the consolidation of motor coach operators in the U.S.A. market gathers pace. In Singapore, our ongoing efforts in recruitment and retention have led to the improvement in the labor challenges and situation we were facing during FY23. Throughout the first half, the business was able to operate full service despite persistent levels of absenteeism due to recent legislative changes in labor conditions. Operationally, patronage has returned to levels seen before the pandemic, and the business has been receiving performance incentives on achieving operational targets albeit at low levels. There continues to be a good pipeline of tender opportunities in Singapore which are being actively pursued, and a bid for the Seletar package will be submitted in the next few days.
In the U.K., the Channel Islands businesses continue to trade in line with expectations, and we're currently waiting on the outcome of tranche three of the Manchester franchising opportunity. Marine tourism on slide 20. During the first half of the period, the business delivered strong growth in revenue reflecting the continued strength of domestic tourism and the growth in international visitation as airline capacity increased and airfares became more competitive. This growth was particularly pleasing as we were cycling the prior period of a very strong growth post-pandemic. However, during November and December, there was a softening in demand for domestic travel as many Australians choose to travel either overseas or for others, the cost of living pressures hit households. Unfortunately, during both November and December, many parts of the East Coast business were impacted by inclement weather and in particular relating to Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
As well as cyclones, there were storms and flooding in Queensland during the peak holiday period that reduced the number of travelers to the region, impacting earnings of the businesses in these areas. Weather-related impacts and disruptions persisted into January with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily. International inbound travelers continued to grow and was up 95% on the prior period and represented approximately 70% of pre-COVID levels. However, more Australians are now traveling overseas than international visitors are traveling to Australia, which has impacted demand for our services. The top international visitor markets for the period were Europe, U.S.A., U.K., Japan, New Zealand, and China. The increase in international visitors underpinned a recovery in the Sydney business, and New Year's Eve was particularly strong.
Magnetic Island and Rottnest Island have also experienced some months with record passenger numbers, and the whale watching product offered in multiple businesses has also had a good season. The reduction in the number of domestic travelers has resulted in an increased discounting of accommodation on K'gari, Fraser Island, to drive occupancy. Yield management continues to be a focus, and several additions to the revenue management strategies have been developed to drive yield and increase prices where possible to mitigate the drop in demand. The new revenue opportunities have also been sought with a resurgence of cruise ships to Australia with ship-to-shore vessel transfers and tourism operations offerings being secured in many of our business units.
In December 2023, we secured another three-plus-three-year contract for the ferry service operations to Hayman Island, and in November 2023, we announced the acquisition of the highly awarded small vessel cruise and jet ski touring business Red Cat Adventures in Airlie Beach with settlement taking place on 1 February. Red Cat Adventures carried over 65,000 passengers in FY23 and expands our presence in the Whitsundays. Finally, corporate costs on slide 21. This period reflects concerted effort we've made to build scale and invest in people, skills, and systems to drive efficiencies and position the business appropriately for growth.
Areas of focus have been to further bolster IT with the appointment of a Group Chief Information Officer, enhance the capability in business development, group enterprise risk training and development, ongoing investment in cybersecurity to better manage our cyber risks and exposures, and enhance technology and customer experience with the integration of the Salesforce CRM across the business which is anticipated to be completed by June. We believe the corporate function is now fully resourced to support the larger business, and we are not anticipating any further material changes or increases to the corporate function going forward. In conclusion, it was a solid result reflecting significant progress achieved on delivering our growth strategy both organic and M&A. With this growth, we've had a disproportionate amount of costs and non-cash items that have landed in the first half that have impacted the cost line, margin, depreciation, interest, and CapEx.
Several of these additional costs will not be repeated in the second half. I'll now hand back to Clint to talk about the growth strategy outlook and sum things up.
Thanks, Andrew. Firstly, to our focus areas in the second half of FY24 on slide 23. Operationally, we're focused on the momentum that exists in the AAAHI business and supporting Graeme and the team to ensure we capitalize on the prospects in that market. As well as global procurement opportunities, the team are focused on leveraging scheduling and planning expertise to deliver synergies. As a global transport operator, we have opportunities to leverage our scale across all the various geographies. In Sydney, the focus is now on extracting the operational synergies and efficiencies that exist through bringing the four historically contract regions together as one.
We were very recently pleased to be awarded the Bankstown rail replacement contract in Sydney, a sizable new contract that requires the mobilization of 60 additional buses and over 110 new staff members. Recruiting and planning for the Bankstown rail replacement work has begun with the contract to kick off in the early part of FY25. The focus in marine and tourism is to continue to capitalize on the rollout of Salesforce CRM and to ensure yield management and dynamic pricing initiatives are well executed to maximize margins. The peak investment in marine and tourism assets is nearing completion, and in the second half, we will see the completion and mobilization of the first of four of our largest vessels to be delivered. The organic growth delivery in Sydney has been impressive, but there is an even larger pipeline of opportunities at various stages of evaluation.
Our aim is to continue to position the business for success in these other geographies with multiple contract processes outcomes to be determined over the next six months. As always, M&A opportunities that unlock additional organic growth and shareholder value will be under constant evaluation. The pipeline of opportunities is constantly growing and evolving and is subject to change according to government policy. We currently have bids submitted in Melbourne, Manchester, and Singapore, and as shown on the slide, there is a very strong pipeline of major opportunities in the short term as well as in the medium and longer terms. Beyond Manchester tranche three and excluding tranches one and two, we anticipate approximately 5,400 buses in regional contracts to go live in the next five years via various franchising schemes across the U.K..
Notwithstanding the expansive pipeline of new contract opportunities, we cannot lose sight of the organic growth that exists within our existing portfolio. Our business is well positioned in high-growth areas of Australia, and Kelsian is the leader in decarbonization. Higher frequency services and the deployment of additional buses is going to be key to achieving mode shift in all of the major cities we currently operate across. This has been highlighted in the recommendations of the Bus Industry Taskf orce in New South Wales which is calling for more frequent services in Western Sydney. In Victoria, Infrastructure Victoria highlights the underutilization of the bus network and the need for higher frequency services operating longer hours and connecting people with more destination which is going to be essential to cutting emissions and easing traffic congestion in Melbourne.
To quickly recap, this half-year result illustrates the execution of our strategy that delivers substantial organic growth and careful use of strategic M&A to establish a presence in new markets that in itself brings additional organic opportunity. We have a defensive and resilient business model. Furthermore, the diversified nature of our various businesses and our geographic spread provide a consistent and predictable earnings base underpinned by a majority of long-term low-risk service contracts. We have an established first mover advantage and a strong track record in deployment of electric vehicles including investment in the required infrastructure, and we expect this leadership and sustainable transport will ensure we are well placed to benefit from government's focus on decarbonization and traffic reduction. We have a proven track record in M&A.
Opportunities are constantly evaluated both at home and overseas which have the potential to continue to deliver meaningful growth and generate shareholder value. On that note, I'll now open up the call to any questions that you might have.
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 is from Tim Piper from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Clint and Andrew. Seasonality for this year, if we just look at the operational side of the business, so sort of EBITDA, revenue and EBITDA, it would appear that sort of our bus Singapore bus is going to skew to the second half. Can you just talk us through how you sort of think seasonality plays out in the second half? There's clearly some one-off impacts in that first half that have been dissipating. Maybe some context on those two segments.
Yep. Certainly, Tim. I'll kick off, and I'll let Andrew contribute anything that I miss. On the Australian bus side, we've highlighted the additional overtime that we're carrying, and we did pay KPI penalties in those Sydney contracts through to October. September was the last month. October, we were clear of them. So there's the partial headwind in the first half on KPI penalties, and overtime persisted in Australian bus throughout that period. So we're seeing now overtime abate, so a lot of that will flow back through to the bottom line as we deliver those services with regular time. We've also got the mobilization costs that haven't been called out as abnormal for the new Sydney contracts. So they sit in the first half.
So certainly, there is kind of seasonality in that sense, not in the typical sense, but where some of those abnormal costs have kind of fallen into the first half for sure. On Singapore, again, overtime persisted through the first half. The other big miss in Singapore in the first half is the incentives that we get from performance delivery with shortages of staff up there for part of the first half. We weren't able to kind of bank some of those performance bonuses that we get by running the services on time. They're all back online now. Those performance bonuses are flowing through. And just to add another point on seasonality that wasn't part of your question which is obviously the marine and tourism.
Typically, the first half of marine and tourism is the stronger half, and the only exception to that really is that December work was quite soft because of the weather on the East Coast. That did persist into January, but certainly, we're now seeing that we're clear of that weather, and hopefully, we'll flatten out, and that part of the business will recover.
That's a good summary, Clinton.
Yeah. Sorry, maybe to ask on OzBus in a bit more specific way. That revenue uplift in 1H24 is extremely strong. If half on half, sort of AUD 433 million to AUD 501 million, there's, what, an incremental, call it, AUD 30-odd million from the transition of the contracts partway through the half. So there's another sort of AUD 30 million to flow through in the second half, but it obviously implies very strong inflation-linked growth in revenue there as well. When we look at that 10.8% EBITDA margin, there's clearly some one-offs in there as well and new contracts coming in. Once those contracts in the second half are fully annualizing, what's sort of the right EBITDA margin to be thinking about in the second half for OzBus?
We're going to see improvement, Tim, in the second half. It's not going to get back to 12.8, but it will be on a trajectory before that. So I'm expecting something in the mid-11s.
Got it. Thanks. Just on the depreciation, you've called out AUD 100 million in FY25, call it, which is on an underlying basis if we sort of knock out the $10 million one-off in 2024 in the US. Kind of flattish year-over-year, but you're sort of rolling through AUD 150 million of CapEx on an underlying basis this year. How's sort of depreciation not going up more in FY25?
Well, there's other assets that are pretty much fully depreciated now, Tim. So I mean, based on our modeling, it's going to be around that AUD 100 million.
Okay. Got it. And then, sorry, just one final one. On the finance expense, haven't had a chance to sort of calculate this yet, but that impact from you bringing in the new contract assets and that uplift in net debt that hasn't rolled out into the special purpose vehicle as yet, what sort of impact has that had on the finance expense? It looks like your effective interest rate is quite high in the first half. Do we expect that effective interest rate to normalize down in the second half?
Yeah, we will, Tim, because with the SPVs in place, the rates that we enjoy on that are much lower than our corporate rates. Yeah, so that's our expectation in the second half.
Thanks. I'll jump back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from Cameron McDonald from E&P. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Sorry, can I just delve into that interest component as a follow-up? So what drove the higher interest then? Was that just establishment costs, or what was the driver of that in the first half with the expectation that it's going to be lower in the second?
Yeah. So there's establishment costs in setting up the new financing. We were below our 50% hedged position in terms of what was fixed and what was floating, and we had a higher level of debt during the period. So with the SPVs coming in, we do enjoy a reasonable step down in margin as a consequence of that for that portion of the debt that we had to pay out in August, and the majority was paid in August for that.
Yeah. Okay. And you've mentioned just on the cash flow, you've mentioned that you've got this delay in terms of the receipt of the payment from the government. I'm actually more interested in the payables, to be honest, because it looks like you've paid nearly AUD 20 million more in payables than you've actually expensed, and yet the absolute level of payables has actually decreased despite the acquisition or the acquisitions and the combination of the company. So what's happened in the payables side, please?
Look, Cameron, I don't have that detail at the moment. I can come back to you offline.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, because obviously, the cash flow should have, from our perspective, should have been a bit stronger. And lastly, just in terms of the AAAHI, can you please just tell us the AAAHI contribution for the period? I mean, at the time of the acquisition, you said it was $208 million of revenue and $51 million of EBITDA at a 25% margin for the prior 12 months. Where is it sitting versus that today, please?
Oh, it's continued to contribute a stronger run rate than that, Cameron. We're now consolidating, obviously, AAAHI back into the international bus division, so we won't be calling it out separately.
All right. Okay. And sorry, just last question then is you called out further growth in the Australian bus, and I think you mentioned you've got an additional 60 staff coming through into Sydney. Sorry, can you just clarify that in terms of what some of those metrics were?
Yeah. So that's a new contract that we've just been awarded. So it's 60 buses and 110 staff. So it's a rail replacement program for the new Sydney Metro, so it runs out of Bankstown through to Sydenham Station.
Okay. Okay. So that's at Bankstown.
So it's a new contract. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Benjamin Jones from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Can you hear me okay?
Yep.
Cool. Just first question in AAAHI. I mean, are you seeing any changes to the size or terms of contracts on the back of maybe some headcount reductions, particularly in the tech space in the U.S.? And is there any impact that you're seeing on contract retention rates?
No. Probably the opposite then, I'd say. So we've just renewed our largest tech client or actually our largest client in the portfolio for an extended term after a competitive process. So that contract has retained, and additional growth has been achieved through that procurement process. What we're seeing with the tech clients is mostly they're increasing their participation at work as opposed to work from home. So the numbers are still very solid. Growth is coming through strongly, and we're able to get the pricing that we need to keep up with inflation.
Fantastic. I mean, obviously, then in Singapore, I mean, it's a market that's quite leveraged to incentives. You've made progress on labour shortages, and now you're facing these elevated absenteeism rates. I mean, can you talk to where that level of incentives that you're seeing now, and what does the path look like in terms of getting back to the sort of 4% range that you've talked to in the past?
Yeah. So the 4% range is kind of the prior generation of contracts. So each time you go through a procurement process, they change the benchmark to make it a little bit harder to achieve. So we're not expecting to get back to 4% during this term of the contract, but certainly, we're in positive territory on the Singapore contracts. Not big numbers at this point in time, so sub 1%. But certainly, as we project towards the end of the financial year, I would be expecting a 2 in front of that number according to plan.
Okay. Great. Great. And then just one last question just on the U.K. business. I mean, could you just remind us just how large the cost base is there that particularly relates to tendering in the U.K.? And with the third tranche in Manchester pretty imminent, I mean, how does the outcome of that tender impact your thinking on the size of that cost base?
Yeah. So we've got a full team in the U.K. business, and the cost of carrying that's about GBP 2 million per annum. And it's kind of washing its face with the contribution that we get out of the Channel Islands operations. But obviously, if we're unsuccessful in the next tranche of tendering, we'll review our position and the team that we've got on the ground there.
Fantastic. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. The next question is from Marnie Lysaght from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Clinton and Andrew. Yeah, a fair few of my questions have already been asked, but perhaps to go back to some of the prior questions around AAAHI's contribution. I mean, you've called out in the segment notes the United States contribution, and you've also called out maintaining a good margin. So that implies about high single-digit % growth in AAAHI over the half. Are you confident that you can kind of hold that, or does that accelerate further over the second half given you've this one-off opportunity to buy bus assets at a good price to fuel future growth?
Certainly, the business continues to be very, very strong, Marnie, and that is growth within the existing contract portfolio. It's repricing of contracts that we're coming out to the annual anniversary of and retaining. So we're seeing growth across that tech sector, as I mentioned earlier, but also in the industrial resources space. So the buses that we've purchased that we've yet to put to work, they're kind of getting prepared in anticipation of a pretty significant ramp-up on the industrial side, the industrial construction side in Texas and Louisiana. So there will continue to be some very strong growth come out of that business even without winning any extra new work.
Okay. Okay. And just I appreciate there's been a few questions about operating cash flow. And Andrew, you called out an AUD 30 million to AUD 35 million impact from the payment terms with government in Sydney. Just to kind of when I've kind of worked out the conversion's about 75%, similar to the PCP. Should we walk away interpreting that moving forward, going into the first half of FY25, your conversion could be a lot better than that?
Yeah, that's right, Marnie.
Okay. Well, that's all from me. I'll step back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from Brian Han from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
For the Australian bus business, sorry to harp on about this, but can you elaborate on how much of an impact the KPI Penalties and higher overtime had on first-half margins?
Yeah. Brian, we touched on this to quantify it at our full-year results. So the KPI penalties that we have been incurring in Sydney are around the AUD 300,000 mark per month. So they finished up last month was September, as we explained. So they're reasonably significant. And we're not going to kind of dovetail to the specifics of our cost base to you guys and our competitors specifically, but certainly, the overtime is kind of in the AUD millions. That would be abnormal in our view.
Yeah. I appreciate the confidentiality, but those mobilization and integration costs, were they material?
Yeah, Brian. I mean, they were in excess of AUD 1 million. So more than 1, less than 2.
Okay. In marine and tourism, the price rises you're planning, are they dependent on the demand environment improving?
No. So most of our operations around the country in the marine and tourism space enjoy kind of preferred operator status to the island. And in some cases, there's government endorsement of the fare increases. It's kind of semi-regulated, like freight, for example, on Kangaroo Island. But in most cases, we just put the price increase through to the customer. And typically, what we've seen from the increases that we've put through, there is zero impact on demand.
Okay. And last question, I think it was $19 million you spent in the U.S. on those coaches. How did they come about? And do you think this is a one-off, or do you think these opportunities will come up more often going forward?
Well, this is certainly a one-off. So this is associated with a relationship that we have with one of our tech customers who are converting their entire fleet to electric vehicles. So we, given the relationship, had the opportunity to purchase their entire fleet or all the buses that they were removing out of their fleet, and we were able to cycle them back into our business. And we've already locked in contracts for quite significant growth in the southern part of the United States. So whilst we've purchased them in this period, they're getting prepared for work, but they haven't been income-generating through this period. But they certainly have contracted work that they will 100% roll onto as that work ramps up over this next half.
Okay. Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. The next question is from Roy Harrison from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Pardon me. The next question is from Nick Desch from RBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, Andrew and Clint. Can you hear me? Cool. Just on the contracts in Melbourne, I think you mentioned that you just submitted some tenders recently. Our understanding is that there are seven contracts up for tender at the moment spread around Melbourne entirely. I'm just interested in if you are tendering for all seven or parts thereof, and the bids that you are tendering for, approximately how many buses those contracts represent, please.
Yeah. Again, some of that information is probably confidential, but it's fair to say that we're one of the few operators in the market that can pretty much tender for everything that comes into the market just given the size of our team and our experience in tendering. So you could assume that we've got a fair shot at all of that Melbourne work. As far as buses, I mean, they range from 50-bus contracts to 200-bus contracts. So depending on which combination of those contracts you do win as to what you end up with, but the total price is in excess of 500 buses. But I would not expect that they will award all of that work to one operator.
Yep. And do you have a feel for timing as to when you're likely to hear an outcome on those opportunities?
It's likely to be early in the first part of FY25, but certainly, we would hope to be able to hear prior to the full-year results announcement. So probably July, I would anticipate.
Cool. Thank you. And just one other. Just on Go West Tours, you've called out some short-term inflationary pressures. I think you mentioned them during the presentation, but do you mind just stepping us through that a little bit and essentially why you're describing them as short-term in nature, please?
Yeah. So it's kind of worth me kind of just spending a second to illustrate the, I think, the explanation probably illustrates the power of the Australian bus portfolio as a whole in the contract indexation clauses that we enjoy in the very complex government contracts. So those contracts have monthly indexation on a lot of our costs. So there's very little exposure at all to any inflationary cost-based movements. In the less sophisticated corporate space, we don't enjoy those same indexation clauses. What they rely on is much shorter-term contracts and a pricing discussion at the end of each of those periods. Of course, the governments can't do that because of probity and procurement. So they write 10-year contracts with very complex indexation mechanisms in them. The big miners don't need to worry about that.
They just sit down with you and have a conversation, and you run through a price increase according to cost-based movements. Some of that is transparent and kind of open book. Some of it is a bit more of a negotiation and discussion. So we're in an inflationary environment. We need to wait for the window of opportunity to have the conversation with the client to be able to push the price increase through. So most of that has rolled through now already. Most of the big inflationary stuff has been captured in price increases with our clients. And in a lot of other cases, we have actually pushed on the client a more automatic indexation mechanism, particularly with some of the biggest clients in Go West. So most of that is rolling through now, Nick.
Yep. Yep. That's great. Very last question, very quickly, those 60 buses in Sydney, is it fair to say that they will be at an incremental margin to other contracts you have in Sydney, or where would it finish or lie there, please?
Yeah. It's a rail replacement. Sure, worth it kind of a medium-term contract, this one, but certainly, it comes at a much higher margin than the base level would.
Cool. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Roy Harrison from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Clinton and Andrew. Can you hear me?
Yep. Yep.
Okay. Yeah. Just on the rail replacement contract, the 110 staff, have they been recruited? And therefore, you're going to see ongoing recruitment, training costs. You mentioned that the labor force is less experienced, so there's been higher traffic accidents. And does that kind of imply that the labor availability issue isn't fully resolved now, that you have an extra 110 vacancies?
So we do have 110 vacancies because we just literally signed the contract just recently. But it doesn't mean that there's a labor availability problem. So there's plenty of applications and plenty of people wanting to come into the business. The number of staff that we've got to run the services that we're currently required to run is sufficient. I mean, winning this contract is actually a big advantage to us because what we can do is we can start taking on those staff members now. And because we've had a labor availability challenge in the core base of the business, we've built up quite a few annual leave provisions on the balance sheet.
So we're able to take these staff on early, run the regular route services by paying down some of the provisions, and then roll a full workforce into the rail replacement when it commences in the early part of FY25. So we see it as a big advantage. And certainly, there is no challenge getting that sort of level of staff over the next six months.
Gotcha. Is there any high-level commentary on kind of turnover of your staff and ongoing labor issues?
Yeah. Turnovers come right down, actually. So that's retirements and people changing jobs. So that really peaked in that kind of post-COVID period, probably double what it was pre-COVID. We're certainly down to at or below turnover levels that we experienced pre-COVID. So certainly, that is all very, very much normalised. But as Andrew mentioned, we do still have a relatively new workforce for a large percentage. And now that we have plenty of labour availability, there are pockets of the business where we're being a bit more strict with respect to accidents and performance such that we now have a bit more flexibility in getting the right person for the job.
Very clear. Thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Jason Palmer from Taylor Collison. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks. Good morning, Andrew and Clint. Can you hear me okay?
Yep. Hi, Jason.
Yep. Great. Just in terms of the marine and tourism business, you called out some softness in November and December. I think you called in the Fraser Island assets, not weather-related but consumer-related. Has that continued into January and February and your bookings through to Easter?
It's certainly continued into January. Certainly, February and as we kind of lead into Easter, Easter will always be strong, and mostly, everything is full over that period regardless, weather or otherwise. But we've seen it's a generalisation. Fraser Island is probably the softest part of the business just around that kind of East Coast weather. For example, in January, we had 22 days of rain in January alone. So that did affect those Southeast Queensland businesses. And of course, 2 cyclones to go through Townsville, but 1 in December and 1 in January. So certainly, things are much stronger post that weather clearing. But we do see that some of the travel that was not taken to Fraser Island could well be more consumer sentiment than weather-related.
Yeah. Right. I mean, because traditionally, the business has been more first-half weighted, right, in marine and tourism. So to that extent, I'm just trying to gauge where you see that run rate business now at going forward, whether it's actually potentially there's a mismatch now we're going to run into around international tourism not coming back to the extent that domestic tourism falls away?
Yeah. I think that's right, Jason. It was really only a little bit of November and December that were soft in the first half. So in relative terms, the first half will still be stronger than the second half. So we would see the second half a little bit softer than the first half as we would in any normal year, I think.
Right. But no material step down in the trend on sort of what you're saying is what you're sort of alluding to at the moment?
Oh, it's not certainly getting any worse than what we're seeing now, no.
Okay. All right. And then the pipeline of RE, I mean, I think at the full-year result, you might have said that low double-digit revenue for the year was kind of attainable. With the pipeline you've got ahead of you, what's a fair benchmark for this business over the next 8, 10 months?
I think we'll deliver every bit of that, Jason, from even what we've already contracted. But we have a number of big contracts under evaluation in the United States as well. And that's even before we look at kind of any bolt-on opportunities that might exist in contiguous states.
So is your passmark, then, Clint, that low double-digit revenue growth to continue into 2025 for RE, or is that being too aggressive in assumptions?
No, I think that's a fine assumption for the next 12 to 18 months.
Yep. Okay. Thank you. I'll pass it back to someone else.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Tim Piper from UBS. Please go ahead.
Oh, thanks. Sorry, I wasn't sure if I'd get a follow-up. One quick one again on the finance expense. Sorry, Andrew, can you just confirm out of the debt pile that you've got there at the moment, how much of it's hedged? And then you called out that you're refinancing in 2024. Is that when hedging will roll, and will there be a step up there in the effective rate because of the refinancing as well?
Look, we're not sure where that'll land, Tim, but at the moment, it's in the 40s in terms of our hedging. So yeah, that's where we're at at the moment. We haven't taken out any forward swaps this period given the pending refinance. We're well advanced on that at the moment. So hopefully, have that concluded by June, and we can give you a better line of sight and update then.
Sorry, 40% of debt is hedged?
Yes.
Okay. And I mean, you've given very specific numbers around CapEx and things for the second half. There's a lot of moving parts in this finance expense. So maybe you can kind of just give us an indication of what finance expense will be in the second half dollar-wise?
Yeah. It'll be slightly below what it is in the first half. With some of that SPV, the benefit of the SPVs flowing through, we will see some reduction in that in the second half.
Thanks. That's helpful.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question is a follow-up from Cameron McDonald from E&P. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just one follow-up from me. You mentioned the contract outlook for Melbourne and the timing and the size. What's the timing and size in Manchester, please?
The timing in Manchester will be certainly over the next couple of months based on their evaluation or advertised evaluation timeframe. Governments can always kind of bury that at their whim. The size of the price there, again, it's a bit hard to tell based on what you win. Again, we're not going to win everything in tranche three. It could kind of be anything, Cam, from GBP 10 million turnover to GBP 100 million turnover, depending on how much of that pie we win.
I mean, my understanding is that's the largest tranche. Then there's some speculation that they may split that tranche into three. Is that sort of consistent with what you've been told?
So there was a lot of feedback given after the first two tranches. One of the big changes they made in tranche three was they consolidated the assets that were available into certain depots. So as an operator that doesn't have a big presence on the ground, our business Tower Transit, whilst we were very cost-competitive and very attractive bid, we're not able to kind of bring buses around the corner from an operation down the road. So one of the pieces of feedback that we gave the authority was to, rather than spread their assets across all of the depots, to consolidate them into a few depots, which they did off the back of that feedback. So we've certainly focused on those ones that come with all of the assets available. There's some quite big depots amongst that group.
Just sort of finally on that, what sort of impact has your withdrawal from London had in this, given how important sort of Manchester is to the broader rollout of sort of the London bus type model to the broader U.K. market?
Yeah. Whether we have a physical presence there right this minute or not doesn't make any difference. We have a very good credential of operating in that network for 10 years. We've got the same. I would argue that we have the best management team in the country, in the United Kingdom, who ran that London business. And as Andrew said, the cost of retaining that management team is very expensive. But they're, of course, overseeing and running the Channel Islands business. But also, we're able to front up with the best management team in the market when we bid for those contracts in Manchester. And next will be Liverpool and Yorkshire. It goes on. So there is we come with a very good reference from Transport for London.
We have operating businesses in the Channel Islands that we can point to notwithstanding the global presence that we have in this space. I don't see it as a disadvantage at all.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Clint for closing remarks.
Thanks, Rachel. And thanks, everybody, for joining. I think what I would say about this result, operationally, it is a very strong result. All of our divisions have performed very well through this half and continue to do so. But I do obviously highlight that it is a period of transformational growth, delivering both organic and inorganic growth. And I think the other thing that I would probably just reinforce that we did make some very prudent decisions to maximize shareholder value, particularly around that purchase price allocation in the United States. And as Andrew called out, a lot of that is a one-year-only impact. So in closing, I'd just like to thank our team here at Kelsian for delivering this result and all of that change. And obviously, I'd like to thank you guys, the shareholders, for your ongoing support. So thank you, and good morning.