Thank you, Ashley, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the full-year results presentation for Kelsian Group Limited for the 12 months ended 30 June 2025. I'm Graeme Legh, Kelsian Group CEO, and I'm joined this morning by Andrew Muir, Kelsian Group CFO. I took over the role of Group CEO on the 1st of April of this year, having spent the last couple of years based in the U.S. as CEO of our U.S. motor coach business, AHI. My journey with what is now the Kelsian Group started back in 2009, and prior to my time in the U.S., I worked within Transit Systems, now our Australian bus division, C-Link, and then Kelsian, with responsibility for leading the various growth initiatives of our operations over this period.
I took over the reins from Clint Feuerherdt, who has led the business since 2020, and who I had the privilege of working closely with for over 15 years. The transition has gone well, and the broader leadership team and I continue to benefit from Clint's knowledge and insight through his ongoing role as Strategic Advisor. I would like to start today by recognizing Clint for his dedication and leadership of Transit Systems and then Kelsian. Clint was instrumental in building the global transportation business we are today, and importantly, as CEO for the majority of FY25, a lot of the credit for the record result we are delivering today sits with Clint. I've been fortunate to step into this role at a very exciting time for our company, with our operating divisions continuing to perform strongly and well-positioned to capitalize on significant growth opportunities in front of them.
At the group level, we have delivered on a number of strategic priorities this year, including setting clear targets for our capital management, and we continue to progress the open strategic initiatives that will shape the future direction of the group, including the potential divestment of our Australian tourism portfolio from within our Marine and Tourism division. Moving now to the presentation detailing Kelsian's results for FY25. Today, I'll start by providing an overview of the financial results, as well as the strategic and operational highlights from last financial year. I'll then hand over to Andrew, who will provide a detailed run-through of the group's financial statements and the performance of each of our three operating divisions before we provide our outlook for the financial year ahead. Turning to slide three of the presentation, Kelsian delivered a solid financial result in FY25.
The results are in line with our expectations, with an underlying EBITDA of $285 million, falling within the guidance range provided at our full-year results last August. Importantly, and as I've already mentioned, all operating divisions continue to perform strongly, with growth in revenue, EBITDA, and EBIT delivered by each of the three divisions. Our business's ongoing commitment to operational excellence, combined with their established market positions and strong reputation, has underpinned the higher renewal rate of existing contracts, driving the organic growth across all divisions. Pleasingly, the FY25 result was achieved despite the ongoing inflationary environment. The result reflects the fact that most of our public transport contracts include revenue indexation mechanisms, which protect the business from fluctuations in the cost base of our key cost inputs, including wages, fuel, and spare parts.
These indexation mechanisms provide a natural hedge against the inflationary pressures we have witnessed over the last few years. These contract revenue indexation mechanisms, combined with new and retained contracts, allowed the group to deliver record revenues in FY25 of 9.5% to $2.2 billion. Underlying EBITDA was up 7.4% to $285 million. As flagged last year, the expected stronger second-half earnings contribution was delivered, despite the one-off impact of Cyclone Alfred in Queensland this February. The strong second half reflected the full period of our Bankstown Rail Replacement Service in Sydney, along with the rebound and continued growth of important industrial sector contracts in the U.S. At the EBIT line, the group delivered $136 million, up 11.4%, and NPAT-A was $94.8 million, up 2.4%.
One of the most pleasing elements of the result was the record net operating cash flow of over $200 million, which, together with the fact that we are nearing the end of our peak capital investment program, resulted in leverage of 2.7 times underlying EBITDA, down from a peak of 3.2 times reported at the first half result. The positive financial results from each of the divisions, when combined with the operational excellence that defines our reputation, provide an extremely strong foundation for us to capitalize on the growth opportunities that are presenting themselves across our global platform. Moving to slide four and an overview of our operational and strategic highlights from FY25, there were several notable highlights across the group during the period. Firstly, our U.S.
operations had a strong second half, with the back of services returning to normal for a large industrial sector contract that was temporarily impacted by the bankruptcy and restructure of the project's head contractor. In addition, the excellent contract renewal rate across our U.S. business continued, and we finished the year announcing two significant new contract wins. AHI represents a highly scalable platform for Kelsian's ongoing growth, and I'm delighted to have handed over the AHI leadership to a safe pair of hands in Brent Maitland, our new AHI CEO. Brent commenced with us last year and joined AHI with the benefit of a long and successful career in the U.S. motor coach industry. Brent has hit the ground running and is already proving to be a valuable addition to our leadership team.
Turning to our Australian bus operations, our Region 6 contract in Sydney is the group's largest contract and is due to expire on 30 June 2026. During the second half of FY25, we have been engaged in discussions with Transport for New South Wales regarding a possible two-year extension to the contract. In June, we were advised that Transport for New South Wales was seeking government approval to proceed with the two-year extension on improved contract terms. This extension comes off the back of the Region 6 operations being one of the best-performing bus contracts in metropolitan Sydney for service punctuality and reliability. Staying in Sydney, in September 2024, we commenced operating bus services to replace trains for the Bankstown Rail Replacement service. This contract contributed strongly in FY25 and will continue to be a material contributor in FY26.
In Singapore, the reliable and continued operational excellence delivered by our Tower Transit team saw the business achieve performance incentives during FY25. The team also made significant strides in driver recruitment, achieving robust staffing levels that enabled them to deliver a high proportion of in-service revenue mileage. This ability to attract and retain talent puts us in a strong position to staff current and future contracts and reinforces our inclusion in the list of Singapore's Best Employers 2025. In recognition of this strong performance, we were granted two-year contract extensions for each of our existing public transport contracts and awarded several new service routes by the Land Transport Authority, further expanding our critical role in Singapore's public bus network.
Finally, the record financial result from the Marine and Tourism Division was a result of delivering on operational efficiencies, improved asset utilization, alongside these businesses taking advantage of their inherent operating leverage as passenger numbers continue to improve. Turning now to our strategic achievements during FY2025, in February, we completed and announced a comprehensive capital management and allocation framework, establishing clear targets and priorities for our future capital management and investment returns. Under the framework, we made a modest revision to the target dividend payout range to 40%- 60% of underlying NPAT-A. We also set a leverage target of between 2 times and 2.5 times underlying EBITDA, and we expect to continue to track towards the target range by the end of FY2026 before the benefit of any potential asset or business sales.
During the year, we undertook a detailed analysis of future CapEx spend and confirmed annual net sustaining CapEx of approximately $85 million per annum over the investment cycle. Finally, for returns, and specifically return on invested capital, we set a target of 200 basis points above our pre-tax weighted average cost of capital to be delivered over the medium term. The Board has also revised management's remuneration structure to align incentives with these targets and deliver appropriate returns to our shareholders. Having set the capital management targets, we then undertook a thorough strategic review of every business unit in the group to identify potential opportunities to improve returns.
This was an exhaustive process, and the outcome was that a number of bus depots were identified to be sold and leased back, and a potential divestment of a portfolio of tourism assets from within the Marine and Tourism Division would be pursued. In the event of a successful sale of the tourism portfolio, the remaining Kelsian business will be a more focused, infrastructure-like, commuter and contracted business, delivering essential passenger journeys to our bus, motor coach, and marine operations. This will further increase the predictability of the group's earning base and will lower the future capital intensity of our operations. In the UK, we closed on the acquisition of the third largest bus operator in Liverpool, Python Travel. While a small acquisition, this was strategically important to give us a foothold in the Liverpool region.
This region, like many others across regional UK, is in the midst of structurally changing the way public transport bus services are delivered through the introduction of bus franchising. As specialists in helping governments around the world successfully deliver this type of structural change, the Python acquisition positioned us as an incumbent operator in this market at the time these changes are being implemented. Finally, I wanted to again highlight Kelsian's strong track record of delivering organic growth over an extended period. This growth is underpinned by a majority of defensive long-term service contracts, and in FY25, 93% of group revenues were contracted or non-discretionary in nature. Before I hand over to Andrew Muir, on slide five, I wanted to update you on our focus on safety and sustainability for our workforce, our customers, and our communities. Each of Kelsian's businesses at its core is a people business.
We employ over 12,800 people and provided 383 million essential journeys for our customers over the last 12 months. The three core pillars of our sustainability effort reflect the people-focused nature of our business. Firstly, for our teams, we are committed to creating safe, healthy, and inclusive workplaces. The safety of our people and passengers is core to everything we do, and I'm happy to report a 12% reduction in the frequency of total recordable workplace injuries in FY25. Of note in this area, it was very pleasing to see our Singapore operations be awarded the Operational and Workplace Safety Awards at this year's Singapore Public Transport Awards. Unfortunately, our lost time injury frequency rate increased slightly during the period, which meant we did not meet our group-wide target to reduce lost time injuries.
This has resulted in several new initiatives being planned for FY26 to promote an injury prevention culture from the top of the organization right through to the front lines. Secondly, as one of Australia's largest operators of public transport with a significant international presence, we want to be an enabler of smarter, cleaner transport for the communities we operate within. By collaborating with governments, we continue to support mode shift onto public transport and the move from higher emissions to low or zero emission public transport assets. In combination, these two changes will play an important role in reducing the carbon intensity of the transportation sector. Kelsian is at the forefront of zero emission vehicle technology, with an impressive 204 zero emission buses in operation and ongoing bus depot electrification works underway across three Australian states.
Lastly, we take our role as the essential transport link for the many communities we serve very seriously. We value and are a key component of the communities we operate within, and we want to do our part to drive positive change in these communities. Our connections with many important community organizations demonstrate this commitment. Some highlights in this area include our formal partnerships with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Quonsar Foundation. However, the real contribution in this area comes from the countless hours invested by our teams in directly supporting initiatives that matter for their local community. I would now like to hand over to Andrew Muir, who will present the detailed run-through of the group's financial results for FY2025 and our divisional performance.
Thanks, Graeme, and good morning, everyone. Kelsian has delivered a very pleasing financial result for the 12-month period ending 30 June 2025, and our results are in line with the earnings guidance we provided at this time last year. We've seen good revenue growth and margin improvement across the portfolio on a first half, second half basis. The business has delivered an additional $20 million of EBITDA in the second half and $17.9 million more than the same half last year, reflecting evidence of the returns being generated from our recent capital investments in Bankstown Rail Replacement buses and motor coaches in the U.S. in particular. I'll now step through the results in a little more detail over the next few slides. Slide seven provides a high-level comparison of the consolidated FY25 underlying results versus the prior year.
The revenue increase of just under 10% was achieved through a combination of the contract indexation mechanisms we have in the majority of our Australian bus contracts, a full period of the Bankstown Rail Replacement project in Sydney, the ramp-up of a number of contracts in the U.S., and growth in the marine and tourism business. Underlying EBITDA and EBIT increased by 7.4% and 11.4% respectively compared to the prior year. Underlying EBITDA has been adjusted for several one-off or significant non-recurring items incurred in the period, which combined a total of $7.8 million on a pre-tax basis. These included acquisition and due diligence costs, a property-related cost relating to the unsuccessful Melbourne bus franchising tender, and costs associated with the upgrade of our finance and HR systems that we flagged at the half.
Overall, I'm pleased to report that the portfolio performed either in line with or better than expectations, with the exception of Gari Fraser Island, where demand remained soft throughout the period, and our Region 6 contract in Sydney, which continues to face challenging operating conditions, but it is now in its final contracted year under these terms. Higher interest compared to the prior year reflects the high levels of borrowings supporting the recent peak CapEx program and also higher line fees associated with our larger unsecured borrowing limits. The low effective tax rate was driven by lower tax rates in overseas jurisdictions and the ongoing benefits associated with marine training incentives, which satisfied the requisite eligibility criteria, including eligible training programs. The strong second-half performance sees our full-year underlying net profit after tax and before amortization up 2.4% to $94.8 million.
Earnings per share and before amortization improved despite the impact of high depreciation and interest in the period. We've maintained a fully franked dividend of $0.095 per share, which is the same as last year, and we continue to offer a dividend reinvestment plan for shareholders, but with no discounts, the same as the interim dividend. Statutory net profit after tax for the period was $54.5 million compared to $58 million last year. To the cash flow on slide eight, the business continues to generate strong operating cash flows underpinned by contracted and non-discretionary revenues across the portfolio. Gross operating cash flow of $290.8 million was a record, and cash conversion was just under 87%. The decline from the first half, which was over 90%, related to some changes in payment terms from several large clients in the U.S. as contracts were renewed and will normalize in time.
During the year, we invested $165.1 million in new and replacement assets, including vessels, buses, motor coaches, and land and buildings. All of this was in line with our previously announced capital program and in line with prior guidance. Proceeds from the sale of assets included $20.3 million from the sale of three depots in Western Australia, and $7.6 million was realized from the sale of assets. At period end, we finished with cash of just under $183 million. Slide nine provides a summary of the balance sheet. At period end, we had net debt of $623 million compared with $707 million at 31 December. This excludes the limited recourse SPV financing of $87 million we have on the balance sheet relating to government-backed contracted assets, but more on that shortly.
I'm pleased to report that from a leverage perspective, we finished the year with pro forma leverage at 2.7 times, down from 3.2 times at December, excluding SPV government-backed contracted assets. During the period, we proactively reduced the undrawn limits on some of our bank facilities, both performance bonds and unsecured debt lines, so we were not paying line fees on those available undrawn limits, which we did not need. All bank covenants were comfortably met, and we remain on track to meet our leverage target guidance range of between 2 and 2.5 times by the end of FY2026, excluding any proceeds from the proposed sale of tourism assets.
The main changes to the balance sheet during the period relate to the addition of the assets acquired as part of our capital program, accounting disclosure changes in right-of-use assets and liabilities associated firstly with the Hoxton Park bus depot in Sydney, which we acquired and was previously leased, and secondly, the sale and leaseback of three bus depots in Western Australia. Finally, we continue to hold $36 million of government-backed contracted assets on our balance sheet, which haven't yet moved into a ring-fenced SPV structure. Had we been able to move them into an SPV structure before 30 June, our leverage would have reduced to 2.6 times. We anticipate these will move into SPV structures at the next contract renewal dates for these contracts in 2027 and 2028.
In the next slide, I wanted to provide a recap of the special purpose limited recourse ring-fenced financing arrangements we have in place for some government clients. Since July 2023, we have had limited recourse asset financing arrangements in place, whereby Kelsian warehouses government-backed contracted bus assets on our balance sheet, along with the corresponding debt for the duration of the relevant government contract. These SPV facilities provide a cost-effective financing structure and flexibility for governments seeking to improve and upgrade public transport buses and infrastructure. These structures remain of interest to a number of governments in several of our target jurisdictions. Importantly, these limited recourse financing facilities are excluded when we calculate the bank covenants we have with our financiers.
In terms of accounting treatment, the asset value and debt profile are matched and amortized over the term of the contract, and if the contract is not renewed or lost, the assets and corresponding debt revert to government. This means there's no stranded asset risk or financial exposure from a Kelsian Group perspective. At 30 June 2025, government-backed contracted assets totaled $124.4 million and compared with $153.3 million at the same time last year. Turning now to slide 11, which provides an overview of capital expenditure. As foreshadowed previously, FY25 was a year of record investment in the business and brings to an end a period of heightened CapEx spend over several reporting periods.
This reflects the increased scale of the business, the capital investment required in new assets off the back of contract wins and extensions, as well as the need to continue to refresh the asset base to underpin growth and strategically position the business for the future. Major CapEx in the period included expenditure on two vessels and landside infrastructure for the new and exclusive 25-year Kangaroo Island service, the strategic acquisition of the Hoxton Park bus depot in Sydney, and the purchase of 16 new buses for the Bankstown Rail Replacement Service. Offsetting this, we realized $27.6 million from the sale of surplus assets, including three depots in Western Australia and the sale of some buses that were replaced in the period. Our guidance in August 2024 for FY2025 CapEx was approximately $185 million.
In the period, we actually invested $165.1 million with the underspend due to some timing delays in the construction and delivery of the Kangaroo Island and Southeast Queensland vessels. As a consequence, there'll be a carry-forward amount of approximately $20 million into FY2026. I should emphasize that there have been no further cost overruns associated with these delays. Looking forward to FY2026, we do not have any major vessel replacements or new builds underway, and excluding any growth CapEx, there will be a significant stepdown in CapEx from this year's record levels. In terms of breakdown, we anticipate net sustaining CapEx for the group in FY2026 to be $85 million. We will have the carry-forward of the FY2025 underspend of $20 million, and we have committed to growth CapEx of $23 million for the recently announced LNG contract wins in the U.S.
relating to motor coaches and leasehold improvements, all of which meet our investment returns criteria. Over the next few slides, I'll provide some comments on the individual performances from both a financial and operational perspective. Starting with the Australian bus business on slide 13, the division has seen revenue increase by just over 11% and an additional $9 million of EBITDA generated. Although the margins decreased slightly, we've seen an increase in revenue and EBITDA on a half-on-half basis. A key highlight of the period was the Bankstown Rail Replacement Service in New South Wales, which commenced in September. This project saw us procure 60 new buses and recruit, train, and deploy 140 new drivers on time and on budget. This project is performing very well, and at this stage, we anticipate we'll be operating for the majority of FY2026, which is longer than our original expectations.
With a further extension, this project is set to materially exceed our return on investment targets for the investment that we have made in the new fleet. Balancing the encouraging contribution from the Bankstown Rail Replacement service, several operational factors, primarily in New South Wales, continue to impact the overall performance of the bus business. These included delays in getting our proposed service changes to improve network efficiency approved by government. Congestion-related challenges impacting on-road performance that require timetable changes also need to be approved by government. Delays in the delivery of government-owned and funded replacement EV buses and persistently high levels of accidents due to congestion and new drivers. To combat these challenges, we've focused on a number of efficiency programs which have had a positive impact.
Some of the major contributors include group-wide procurement savings for fuel, oil, and lubricants, as well as a focus on reducing driver overtime penalties and additional driver training. Our major rail replacement project in Perth is also nearing completion, and this will be replaced in the first half of FY2026 by the bus bridging work we've started for the tram replacement project in Adelaide. This project will run into the new year. On the contract front, during the period, we announced that we'd entered into discussions with Transport for New South Wales for a two-year extension for our Region 6 contract in Sydney. As many of you would know, this is our largest contract and the one that, from a financial perspective, underperforms the rest of the portfolio. Operationally, though, it's the best-performing contract in Sydney.
If the contract extension negotiations are successful, we expect to see an improvement in the economics and contribution for any extension term beyond July 2026. We had our Bunbury and Busselton contracts in Western Australia renewed for a further 10 years, and our National Resources and Charter team continued to work with clients to renew and expand our existing contracts. Finally, from a portfolio perspective and excluding Region 6, it's important to note that we have no material contracts up for renewal until 2028. Turning to slide 14 and the international bus segment, the division has seen revenue increase by nearly 9% and an additional $8.3 million of EBITDA generated. Nearly all of this additional contribution has come from the AHI business.
The slight decline in margin has been a combination of a mix of work and the impact of the Channel Islands Jersey contract repricing and the loss of the Guernsey contract. As mentioned previously, the AHI business performed very well. Throughout the period, we saw the ongoing recovery in the Golden Park LNG contract that was delayed in FY2024. There was also the ongoing ramp-up of the Port Arthur LNG contract, and late in the period, we announced the successful award and commencement of the CP2 and the Louisiana LNG contracts. There was good news on the renewal front at AHI with the renewal and expansion of the capital-like bus team contract we have with the Colorado Department of Transportation, and we also were successful in securing a new contract with Louisiana State University.
In the textiles space, business activity levels have stabilized, contracts were repriced, and we have not seen any further reduction in the level of services or frequency to our tech clients in California. In Singapore, our two contracts with the Land Transport Authority were extended for an additional two years. In addition, the business secured a number of new service routes and also commenced operating from the new Tenga Bus Interchange, which is an expansion of our scope of our existing Fulham contract. Late in the period, we announced that we've secured a new capital-like contract with the Sentosa Development Corporation to provide bus services on the island of Sentosa. This contract is for five plus five years and commences in September 2025. This is a significant milestone to the business, as it is our first contract outside of traditional government route service contracts in Singapore.
In the UK, we renewed our contract in Jersey, securing approximately $216 million of revenue over 10 years, and in February, we completed the full acquisition of Python Travel, a regional bus operator in Liverpool that provides us with access to buses, drivers, a leasehold depot, and a training school. The priority and focus of the UK is on the upcoming tenders in Liverpool, and the Python Travel acquisition should put us in a good position with the regional UK government as the incumbent operator. The marine and tourism on slide 15, we were really pleased with the record results from the marine and tourism division, particularly given some of the challenging operating conditions, primarily weather-related, and with the backdrop of the divestment process that was announced earlier this year.
A number of fare increases were implemented throughout the year, along with several dynamic pricing initiatives, which have delivered improved returns. This has assisted in delivering improved margin in the second half. Several markets continue to see very good levels of activity and growth: Southeast Queensland, Kangaroo Island, Gladstone, and Townsville, but others, primarily K'gari or Fraser Island, did not perform to our expectations. The K'gari business experienced reduced occupancy compared to the prior corresponding period, although room rate and revenue per occupied room were relatively stable. The launch of the Illumina light show in October was a success, and it is expected to support increased visitation to the island as it gains greater awareness. To address performance at K'gari, we undertook a resort management strategic review, which resulted in us appointing 1834 Hotels to take over the management of operations of the resorts on our behalf.
This engagement commenced on 1 August, and the benefits will flow into FY26. In the Northern Territory, we extended the services funding agreements with the Northern Territory government for ferry services from Darwin to Mandorah and Darwin to the Tiwi Islands for five years. The first half was impacted by the total loss of two ferries and the losses we incurred as a self-insured operator. The good news is that the business is now benefiting from the new funding arrangements and is trading well. A new Gladstone vessel was delivered during the period to support the recently secured 10-year contract, and in January 2025, the first of two new Southern Moreton Bay Island vessels was delivered. The remaining vessel was anticipated to be delivered in November this year. These new vessels provide increased capacity and will deliver improved operational performance to the services we operate in the region.
The construction of the two new Kangaroo Island vessels and works to upgrade the landing infrastructure progressed, but the delivery timeline has been delayed due to a number of factors, primarily delays in the South Australian government completing its infrastructure works and delays relating to the vessel builder in Indonesia. The first vessel commenced its sea trials in September, and work on the second vessel is ongoing. Whilst the delay is frustrating, there's been no increase in the total cost of the project. We're currently working with the South Australian government in relation to mobilization plans and new service commencement dates, as the business is fast approaching the busy Christmas holiday period, and we would not want to risk any service disruption given the impact this could have on tourism and local businesses and residents who rely on this service. Finally, Corporate on slide 16.
During the period, we commenced work to implement Workday's consolidated platform to manage our global finance and human capital management function. By consolidating finance and HR onto a single integrated platform, we anticipate enhanced operational efficiencies, data accuracy, informed decision-making while driving innovation and cost savings, and to provide a globally best-in-class finance and human capital management system to support our current and future workforce. The software will replace a number of redundant and legacy systems across the business. The internal and external third-party costs to implement Workday over the next three years are estimated to be approximately $21 million, with $2.3 million incurred in FY25. Accounting standards do not allow us to capitalize these costs and amortize them over the expected life of the new system, so they'll be expensed as incurred.
Once the rollout is complete, Kelsian will be able to retire over 13 outdated legacy systems, and the AI-powered Workday will provide our global businesses with real-time information on every aspect of our finance and HR function. This information is expected to lead to improved decision-making at the local and corporate levels that will combine with process efficiency to deliver substantial returns on the investment for the project. I'll now hand back to Graeme to talk about growth strategy and outlook. Thank you, Andrew. To start on slide 18, I wanted to highlight the important strategic initiatives that have been delivered or commenced in FY25 that will provide the foundation for our direction and growth in FY26 and beyond. Several commitments were made off the back of our FY24 full-year result, which has now been completed. We completed and published the capital management allocation framework.
The strategic review was completed, and a proposed divestment of the tourism portfolio was announced in April, and the sale process has commenced. We announced that leverage levels would peak in FY25, and today we are reporting a step down in leverage compared to what was reported as of December 2024. Important changes have been successfully implemented for the Senior Management Team, with the change in Group CEO and Brent Maitland transitioning well into the role of AHI CEO. Finally, having identified our international bus division as a key driver of organic growth, Singapore has successfully added a new contract and client, and the U.S. has delivered several material contract wins. We set out what we were going to do and have delivered on each of these commitments. The job is not done, but the foundations are now in place for our next chapter.
Importantly, we know that to be in a position to capitalize on the opportunities available on the horizon, we must narrow our focus. We can't deliver strategically if we don't deliver operationally. I understand this, and that is why I am laser-focused on delivering key operational improvements in FY26. For the Australian bus division, Sydney is the primary focus, with the renegotiation extension of the Region 6 contract alongside delivering further efficiencies across our Western Sydney bus contracts being essential for this division's success. For marine and tourism, the transition to the new 25-year Kangaroo Island exclusive license will occur in FY26. The Kangaroo Island service is where it all began for Kelsian 30-odd years ago, and the transition to a new contract will see the preparation, mobilization, and ramp-up of operations for the two largest vessels ever operated by SeaLink.
These vessels will provide the essential transport link to Kangaroo Island for the next 25 years. I'm also focused on finding efficiencies across our operations. With the potential divestment during the year ahead, the right sizing and right skilling of our corporate and shared service function will be a focus. A big part of this is having the right systems to efficiently serve our businesses, and as Andrew Muir has detailed, we're in the process of delivering a new and transformational finance and HR system for the group. Strategically, we are focused on getting the potential divestment of the tourism portfolio right. As I know, a divestment of this magnitude and of many business units that have been part of the group for a long time is a complex process and comes with both operational challenges and people risks.
On the growth side, we'll focus on continuing to deliver organic growth. We're going to do this through capital-light contract opportunities such as contract extensions, expansions, and growth by leveraging existing in-house expertise and expanding relationships with existing customers. There are key structural shifts in target markets like the Southeast Queensland bus market and in regional UK that present important opportunities for the group. These opportunities are capital-light in nature, and any contract win will open a new organic growth market for our core public transport business. To give some indication of the scale of one of these opportunities, up to 10,000 buses are expected to be franchised across regional UK over the next five years. We are also looking at entering new markets. New Zealand represents an adjacent market with similar characteristics to our Australian business, and there are open contract opportunities for both bus and ferry services.
Finally, we expect further growth from existing and new contracts in the US, especially contracts servicing industrial clients. $23 million of growth CapEx has been invested to support the two contract wins announced in late FY25, with opportunities for further growth in this area over FY26. Where we find opportunities that require incremental CapEx, we'll look at investments in existing geographies, target investments that deliver appropriate returns, and that unlock new strategic benefits for the group. On slide 19, we provide an update on the tourism portfolio divestment, which was announced to the market in April. The potential divestment of the tourism portfolio will enable Kelsian Group Limited to emerge as a more infrastructure-like commuter and contracted business with lower capital intensity and a more stable earnings base. I don't plan to go through the proposed investment portfolio in detail again in this presentation.
However, I would like to reiterate that assuming value and terms are attractive and determined to be in the best interest of shareholders, proceeds from the divestment will be applied in line with our capital management allocation framework to reduce debt and selectively invest in strategic growth opportunities within our bus, motor coach, and marine transport businesses. The inbound interest in the tourism portfolio, since we announced the potential divestment, has been encouraging, with a mix of both domestic and international parties with interest in both the whole portfolio and certain assets. In terms of the process, we are in the middle of stage one of a two-stage process, and we'll continue to keep the market informed on material developments as the divestment process progresses.
Moving to our outlook for FY2026 on slide 20, it was a positive start to the new financial year, with July trading performance being in line with our expectations across all three operating divisions. Some of the key operational drivers for the remainder of the year include the Bankstown Rail Replacement service in Sydney, which we now expect to run for the majority of FY2026. Also in Sydney, we expect further efficiency to be delivered from the contracts we operate in Western Sydney, especially as parts of the bus network are improved ahead of the opening of the new Western Sydney Airport later this year. Elsewhere in the Australian bus division, we have the Adelaide Tram Replacement Bus Services, which kicked off earlier this month. For international bus, the new industrial contracts in the U.S.
will ramp up in FY2026 and be a contributor to the ongoing organic growth we continue to expect out of the U.S. As for Kangaroo Island, we are still working with the South Australian government to confirm the exact timing for the mobilization of the new contract. The final mobilization plan will be designed to minimize disruption for residents, businesses, and tourists, especially as we get close to the peak season for this service, and this will dictate the exact timing of the contract mobilization and transition costs, which will be incurred during FY2026. In terms of our expectations for our financial performance for FY2026, we expect to deliver underlying EBITDA of between $297 million and $310 million. This guidance is provided on the basis of the business today and does not account for any potential divestment of the tourism portfolio during the period.
FY26 CapEx is expected to be $128 million, and as Andrew has previously broken down, this includes the $20 million of CapEx spend on vessels and infrastructure, which has been carried over from FY25, and the $23 million of committed growth CapEx related to the new contracts in the U.S. We also set out on the slide our expectations for the key below-the-line items for FY26, and again, this guidance is provided on the basis of the business as it stands today. Finally, on slide 21, we set out a Kelsian investment proposition and what I view as the key strengths of our business. Firstly, we're an operations-focused organization that delivers essential journeys for our customers. Importantly, the potential divestment of the Australian tourism portfolio will further streamline and simplify our operations and make the business more infrastructure-like by increasing the predictability of our revenues and cash flows.
Our operations are underpinned by predictable long-term contracts, with 93% of revenues contracted or non-discretionary in nature. Our business is truly diversified, not only by business type but also by geography, transport mode, contract type, and customer. Our reputation for operational excellence is our biggest asset and has been the driver of our demonstrated track record delivering organic growth through contract renewals and new contract wins. Our incumbent positions and exclusive contracts, with natural hedging of our cost base, support our resilient margins. Finally, we're benefiting from several very tangible global tailwinds, including population growth, urbanization, and decarbonization that are expected to underpin growth in our core industry over the longer term. That brings us to the end of the formal presentation, and I'll now hand back to Ashley, who will manage any questions you have for Andrew and I on the results released today.
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 today comes from Allan Franklin with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hey, guys, morning. Great to see your clean print. Just a query on Singapore and follow on to the sort of 2026 guides, just the extent to which you're sort of comfortably within performance incentives in Singapore, and then maybe any additional color you can make on what drives the bottom end or the top end of FY2026 EBITDA?
Yeah, thanks, Allan. FY25 was pretty good in Singapore, and we saw a rebound in the performance incentives we're generating out of that business through the improved operational performance. Expectations for FY26 is sort of continued measured growth in those performance incentives, not expecting a huge step up, but we continue to do slightly better over the course of FY26. In terms of the guidance and sort of top and bottom of the range, looking at each of the divisions, probably the key drivers there, international bus, really the big one is AHI.
There's obviously some underlying variability in the AHI earnings, but the key driver in terms of what moves the dial there between the top and bottom of the range is really the speed of the ramp-up of the industrial sector clients' contracts that we operate, including the two original contracts and the two new contracts we announced in June of FY25. For Australian bus, big swing factors there are the Bankstown Rail Replacement service. We don't know exactly how long that's going to run for during FY26, but we are expecting it to be a contributor for the majority of the year as we stand at the moment.
The other stuff, which is a bit less certain, is timing of some of the service improvements, approvals from government in terms of change to timetables and putting new timetables in place, along with the speed that government can roll out some of the new zero-emission buses they have planned in our major networks. As those buses come in, the brand new zero-emission buses clearly come in at a much lower operating cost compared to 20-year-old diesel buses that they are facing. The quicker we can get those in, the quicker we can get some of those benefits. The other one, as I called out, is really just overall efficiency of our Western Sydney bus contracts, which we're looking to continue to gain further efficiencies over the period.
Finally, marine and tourism, similar to last year, the performance of Gari is a pretty big swing factor depending on how occupancy goes and how the new contract with our new manager, 1834, goes for the business in Gari. The other big one this year for marine tourism is the timing of the introduction of the new KI vessels and their transition to the new 25-year license. They're probably the big ones.
Helpful, thank you. In the US, I know you mentioned $23 million CapEx. If you could just clarify, please, where that is going, if that's more of an existing replacement spend, and just trying to layer in how to think about the new contracts, LNG contracts as they roll through, the extent to which you might be able to use existing fleets versus needing to spend CapEx until, I guess, 2027?
Yep, so the $23 million specifically, that is all growth CapEx going directly to the two new contracts that we announced in June. They are not replacement vehicles; they are new additional vehicles designed to service those contracts. That $23 million is over and above the sort of roughly $40 million we expect to spend in the international bus division on an annual basis. That's part of the sustaining CapEx figure of $85 million that we've flagged. That $40 million allows us to replace fleet in the U.S., but it also does provide some capacity to move vehicles out of the charter business that are replacing new vehicles to move them to service some of our industrial sector clients as well. That $40 million does buy us some extra capacity to service those industrial sector contracts that we have as well.
Helpful, thank you. Maybe just one other quick one, just on the provisioning, I noticed that lifted by $14 million, and there's a fair chunk of sort of other provisioning in there, but deferred consideration payables, do you expect those to get paid out over the coming period?
We're not sure on that yet. I know it's best that there's certain performance hurdles that need to be met. That ultimately depends upon the net performance and the hurdles required for those.
All fine, thank you.
Your next question comes from Aryan Norozi with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys, hope you're well. Just first one for me, just the Aussie bus business margins, they were 11% in the first, 11.2% in the first half and 11% in the second half. You've had Bankstown ramping up, which is high margin. You've got these efficiencies that you've rolled through in the second half that you didn't have in the first half. What's the key driver of that? Looking into fiscal 2026, should we expect a sort of 11% margin to be the norm until you reprice Region 6, or do we expect a step change upwards? Thanks.
Yep, thanks, Arya. Big driver of that sort of slight margin compression in the second half was primarily related to the aging of our fleet. There's been some delays from government in terms of the speed that they can roll out the new zero-emission buses, which means we're operating some of the older diesel buses longer than we expected while they get through that backlog. That does have a relatively material impact given the cost to keep some of those older buses in the fleet. We do expect that to start to normalize over the course of FY2026, which should see that margin profile turn around. In terms of expectations, looking at FY2026, expecting modest improvement in the Australian bus division compared to where we ended up in the second half.
Right, so it's still not at the 12% number that you guys sort of typically target or should be at, but an improvement on the 11%.
Yeah, we expect it to, you know, modest improvement on where it was in the second half. Don't expect it to get to 12%. The big step change, which gets us to where, you know, that 12% figure, which is sort of indicated what we expect out of the division as a whole, will really come from the revised Region 6 contract, which only kicks off on July 1, 2026.
All right, so 12, yeah, you need the Region 6 contract to get you to 12. Perfect. Within guidance, do you factor the Cyclone Alfred impact? I mean, there was a $3 million Cyclone Alfred impact that you called out in the first quarter. I suspect some of that flowed through to the fourth quarter, but it's $3 million as we know it. Do you have that fully unwinding, or do you have a provision for that within the guidance range, please?
I mean, the variability of the weather obviously goes to the range that we provided. We've certainly got an allowance that the weather is not going to be perfect for the full financial year, so that we don't hopefully have to call out weather as a reason for not getting there. In saying that, it probably doesn't account for very, very extreme things. This year, we're able to get there on the guidance despite the impact of Cyclone Alfred, but those things do have a pretty material impact, as we saw this year with the $3 million impact at the EBITDA line from Cyclone Alfred. There is some allowance there, but that's said with a bit of caution given the current environment.
Right, and last one, you don't disclose AHI separately, but is it fair to say your EBITDA in that business grew sort of roughly 8% in FY25 in AUD terms?
Let's have a look. Sounds about right. T hat's pretty close, Arya. Thank you.
The next question comes from James Wilson with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple from me. Are you going to be able to maybe just talk us through the profile of the return that you're expecting to see from these finance and HR investments? Is that something that we should be thinking about perhaps from the second half of FY2027 onwards?
Yeah, I mean, that's when it'll start to take effect. The go-live for the finance part is not until April next year, and the HR system later into October. There will be some time before those benefits will start to realize, but you know, there are a lot of efficiencies to be gained around duplication, automation of parts, things that are done manually. As I said, we're getting rid of effectively 13 legacy systems across the portfolio.
Great, just on the incorporation of ROIT into your longer-term incentives, am I able to just confirm that that incentive is set in line with your capital allocation target of ROIT being 200 basis points above pre-tax WACC? Also, can you maybe just give us some color on what that pre-tax WACC is that you're using for that calculation?
On the first part of that, that is correct. The incentives that we'll see into the LTIs from this year are aligned with the capital management allocation framework in terms of the target of the targeted returns. As we sort of stepped through in quite a bit of detail when we released the capital management allocation framework, we don't intend to be disclosing the WACC upfront, and that remains our position. Obviously, in terms of the performance over the period for those long-term investments, we will disclose the historic WACC that's used to assess how we have gone over the three-year period.
That's it from me, guys. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Owen Birrell with RBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. I guess a bit of a follow-up question with regards to the targeted return versus that capital target of 200 basis points above your pre-tax WACC. You've given no sort of update on how that's been progressing over the last, call it, 6 to 12 months, and acknowledging that the sale of the tourism portfolio will assist that target. I was just wondering if you can give us a baseline of what the current gap between ROIC and WACC is for the portfolio as we end FY2025?
Yep, so I mean, in the presentation in February, we sort of provided the indicative calculations of how we're going to calculate ROIC going forward. Now, as flagged at the time, you know, we weren't expecting any material increase in ROIC for this financial year, given the ongoing Capex spend on vessels that aren't yet in the water, and that has played out. Overall, ROIC under those calculations for the full year of FY2025 ended up pretty much in line with where it was in FY2024, so no real growth there. In terms of where we stand relative to WACC, as per the previous questions, you know, we're not going to disclose WACC, so it's a bit hard for us to give specific guidance on that question.
Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to understand is, you know, you've clearly got a tourism portfolio sale in the works, and that's going to materially affect your WACC and your ROIC. I'm just wondering to, I guess, try and triangulate when you do make the sale, what the improvement has been at that point. Given we've got no baseline to work off, it makes it very difficult for us to measure you against these targets.
I understand the concern, but it also goes to one of the reasons we don't want to be sort of getting a running commentary on WACC because we are expecting the WACC to change if we get the tourism portfolio away. It puts us in a difficult position if we've got to provide continuous updates on what we expect or what we think the WACC is. We don't really want to get into providing running commentary on the WACC over the period.
Okay, understood. Can I ask a second question, if I may? Just on AHI, a lot of positive momentum there with the renewals and new contracts, but again, I guess quite difficult for us to quantify the potential ramp-up as we move into 2026. I just wanted to get a sense as to, you know, a broad guide on, I guess, the organic growth coming through that business. Should it be in line with all of the 8 to 9% that you've delivered in FY2025? Should we see that same degree of momentum continuing into 2026?
Yep, I think that's what we would expect to see from that business for the foreseeable future, especially with the ongoing opportunities in the industrial sector clients with the industrial sector contracts. There's probably some upside there to do a bit better. The only counter to that is to do much better than that is going to require some further growth Capex in addition to the $23 million we've already spent this year. We do expect that sort of 8%- 9% to be achievable for that business.
Wonderful, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Piper with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, Graeme and Andrew. Just a couple of questions. On the depreciation and interest guidance, on the interest, what you've got it to of $59 million, does that kind of assume you move to the top end? You've flagged that you're going to move to within the range, I think, by the end of FY2026. Does that kind of assume you get to the top end of that range, middle of the range for gearing? What have you built into that assumption? The D&A, I assume, is obviously based on what you've guided to of $128 million of CAPEX in 2026, or is there anything else built into that depreciation forecast?
No, that's right, Tim. It's on the basis we get to the top end of the range in terms of the interest, and there's nothing else built into depreciation other than the CAPEX that we've disclosed.
Perfect. As we roll to the end of FY2026, obviously some uncertainty around when Bankstown finishes, but let's say it's June or July, and then you've got a successful re-tender in Region 6 at around the same time. What's the kind of balance between those two in terms of the earnings, Bankstown dropping out versus Region 6 stepping up? Would that be a net incremental positive to the earnings run rate, or will Region 6 not fully offset the step down in Bankstown?
Bankstown's been a pretty material contributor to TIMS, I think we've called out, and the resetting of Region 6 will have a pretty good impact, I think, in terms of bridging that gap. We're not expecting any big step up, but we're not expecting any big shortfall either.
Understood. Just on underlying, just on one-off costs expected in FY2026. There are some further one-offs you'll take below the line on the IT investments. Are we expecting any sort of tender one-off costs? Are you going to take any one-off costs associated with transition costs on the new Kangaroo Island vessels when they come in? What else might be in that bucket?
No, that's it at the moment, Tim. Just the new HR finance systems. That's all we're planning or we've got line of sight on at the moment.
KI will be just taken as an underlying result, nothing sort of pushed below the line there?
Yep.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Yep.
Your next question comes from Cameron McDonald with E&T. Please go ahead.
Just in terms of the tourism portfolio divestment, you've said that there's interested parties, you know, domestic and international for the whole or part of the portfolio. Process is underway. What exactly is the timing on this and how many parties are actually involved? You know, whereabouts are they in their due diligence and when do you think you'll be in a position that, you know, you'll at least get an indicative bid?
As called out in the presentation, we're in the middle of stage one of the process. We've got good interest and a lot of people in the data room having a look around, signed up to NDAs. We aren't at the stage of any formal MBOs, but we do expect those to come through in the near term, and then we'll be into stage two. The timing on stage two, we've obviously got a timetable that we would like to run through, but it is very uncertain depending on who the ultimate parties are that will take through to stage two. It's a bit harder to provide direct guidance on when we're going to have an outcome on that, but we certainly expect that during the first half.
Okay, so first half of 2026, you'll at least have some sort of update?
Right, yeah, I think there'll be an update definitely in the first half. I'm hoping we'll get it done by then. It's just a bit hard to give specific timings, given we don't know how exactly the stage two process is going to run just yet.
Sorry, how many parties are actually involved?
Multiple. Lots. We don't want to give an exact number, but you know there's strong interest.
Okay, great. Thank you. In terms of the guidance for next year, the range, you know, 4.2%- 8.8% EBITDA growth, you've just done sort of 7.3%. Is there any reason that, you know, other than just growing off a slightly higher base, why the bottom end of the range would be significantly below the growth that you've currently got and the momentum in the business?
I mean, it just goes to some of the uncertainty that we called out earlier. The big ones being timing of the ramp-up in the U.S. As we called out, when those contracts were awarded in June, you know, we're not expecting material contributions from them over FY2026, but there is a bit of uncertainty to the exact timing of how those pay out. The other one that does have material impact is around Bankstown and when that does fall away. As we've called out, we expect it to run for the majority of FY2026, but if that doesn't run for the full period, there is a potential gap there versus what was delivered this year.
Got it. Just staying on international bus with Liverpool, what's the timing on the bidding there, please?
For the Tranche 1 in Liverpool, bids go in in September, getting close to bids being submitted. Expecting results announced by the end of the calendar year.
How many buses is Tranche 1 for?
It can be ordered about 300 across two contracts.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from Jason Palmer with Taylor Collision. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for your time. One question I had was around the effective tax rate assumptions on the guidance. I think in this year it was around 19.2%. I think next year you're guiding just 22%- 25%. Just maybe you can unpack that.
What's your question? Sorry, Jason.
Sorry, maybe you can't hear me okay, but the effective tax rate this year was 19.2%. The guidance is 22%- 25%. Just curious to understand what's sort of driving that and how conservative that is.
Yeah, so in the capital management allocation framework, we've got a range that we stated there of 22%- 25%. I think where we sit at the moment, we're probably coming in at the low end of that range for FY2026. I'm pretty comfortable around that 22% for 2026.
Okay. Is that just a mixed change in terms of a greater % of earnings relative to the marine tax incentive? I mean, what's driving that?
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it comes from international contribution as well, particularly in the U.S. with state and federal in terms of how the mix of earnings and how that's attributable in that position. The marine training incentive is pretty steady. It's more driven from the international differentials.
Okay. Just for the housekeeping in respect to that, if a good portion of growth in the business in the future is being delivered by the U.S. business, is it fair to assume that the effective tax rate will step up again in 2027?
It'll be, we're comfortable in the range we've got, Dave, 22% to 25%. I think 22% is a reasonable number to have for 2026, and then, depending on mix, it will be in the range. I think for 26%, it would be the low end.
Okay, thank you.
Your next question is a follow-up from Aryan Norozi with Barrenjoey . Please go ahead.
Hey guys, just a quick one. The EBITDA split first up the second half, should we expect a similar split to FY2025 when it was 46%, 54%, or would it be the normal 49%, 51% that you think is directly done? Can you just get expectations in check for first half reporting?
Yeah, correct. It'll be the more normal one that you mentioned, Ari, because we won't have the impact of the bankruptcy in the industrial sector contract in the U.S., which drove a big part of the skew last year. There'll still be a skew, but it won't be as significant as it was in FY2025.
Okay. Depreciation, so obviously you've got $130 million this year. The CapEx delay is roughly $20 million, so they don't start hitting the P&L until partway through FY2026. Just in terms of FY2027 depreciation, do we expect more than CPI-style growth in depreciation in fiscal 2027? I know it's two years away, but just.
No, I don't think so, Arya. I don't think so, Arya, because we're going to have some assets retire. They'll be replaced by the new. There's depreciation dropping off as well. There's a bit of duplication this period. It'll just be CPI increases. This is kind of the new base.
The Kangaroo Island vessel transition costs that Tim sort of alluded to earlier, is that assumed within the guidance range in terms of taking that above the line? We shouldn't expect any negative surprise around you guys having some sort of integration of transition costs associated with the switchover of the new vessels?
I mean, there's definitely going to be transition and mobilization costs, but they're not below the line. They're part of the guidance provided or included in the guidance provided.
That's perfect. Thanks, Andrew.
Anyone? No further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Graeme Legh for closing remarks.
Thank you, Ashley, and thank you everyone for joining today. I look forward to speaking with a lot of you over the next couple of weeks. Thank you very much for your time.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.