Monadelphous Group Limited (ASX:MND)
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Apr 28, 2026, 4:10 PM AEST
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Earnings Call: H2 2023

Aug 22, 2023

Operator

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kristy Glasgow. Please go ahead.

Kristy Glasgow
Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Thank you. Hello, welcome to the Monadelphous 2023 full year results investor and analyst briefing. Before we commence, I would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which this meeting is taking place this morning, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation, and pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Presenting from Perth are Monadelphous' Managing Director, Zoran Bebic, and Chief Financial Officer, Philip Trueman. Throughout this presentation, the speakers will guide you on when to click through to the next slide. The structure of this morning's presentation will be similar to previous results presentations, with some further detail provided as appendices. Copies of today's presentation and associated materials are available on our website at monadelphous.com.au. I will now hand over to our first presenter today, Zoran Bebic, who will start on slide 2. Please go ahead, Zoran.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Thanks, Kristy. Welcome to our 2023 full year results briefing. Today, Phil and I will present our financial and operational performance for the year ended June 30, 2023, as well as the outlook. We will then answer any questions you may have. Before I commence, I wanted to take some time to acknowledge the passing of our former chair, mentor, and friend, Mr. John Rubino. We've included a small tribute to John on the next slide. Even though John is gone, his memory will always be present in our corridors at Monadelphous and in the hearts and stories of our people. We will continue to do you proud, John. To our group performance and highlights on Slide 4.

Monadelphous recorded sales revenue of AUD 1.83 billion for the year, including a record AUD 1.3 billion from maintenance and industrial services, and AUD 542 million from engineering construction. The result reflects strong demand for our maintenance services across all sectors, particularly in oil and gas. As everyone's aware, construction activity was impacted by delays in the timing of award and commencement of new major projects. However, we continued to experience high levels of construction tendering throughout the year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization was AUD 109.1 million, delivering an improved EBITDA margin of almost 6%. Net profit after tax increased slightly to AUD 53.5 million, generating earnings per share of AUD 0.558.

The board declared a final dividend of AUD 0.25 per share, taking the total full year dividend to AUD 0.49 per share, fully franked. We ended the year with a solid cash balance of AUD 178.3 million. Our discipline in maintaining a strong balance sheet continued to support our markets and growth strategy, enabled us to invest in opportunities such as our purchase of Victorian-based BMC. We continued to strategically target new work opportunities while ensuring the appropriate allocation of risk. Since the beginning of the financial year, we secured approximately AUD 2 billion of new contracts and contract extensions, including AUD 350 million of construction work post-year end, ensuring a strong pipeline of work for the coming year.

Importantly, we continued to develop our approach to sustainability, and we formalized our emissions and energy reduction roadmap during the year, which I'll talk about later in the presentation. Moving now to slide five. As you can see, we've secured new contracts and extensions across Australia, as well as in Papua New Guinea and Mongolia, particularly in the resources and energy sectors. This includes a number of significant construction contracts in Western Australia, the first in a new wave of construction activity. In the iron ore sector, we were awarded more than AUD 750 million of new work with long-term customers, including BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue Metals Group. We also won a major construction contract and two strategic long-term maintenance contracts in the lithium sector with Albemarle at their Kemerton operations in the southwest of WA.

These came on the back of successful delivery of earlier construction packages at Kemerton. In the energy sector, we were awarded both available two-year extensions to our contract with INPEX, valued at around AUD 350 million, as well as an extension to our contract with Santos in Papua New Guinea by our joint venture with Worley. Moving to slide 6 now. We finished the year with a workforce, including subcontractors, of around 5,700 people. In line with our succession plan, we announced a number of changes to our board of directors, which came into effect at the conclusion of our AGM in November of last year, including Rob Velletri becoming chair and me taking on the role of managing director. To support the attraction and retention of employees, we completed an employee survey during the year.

Feedback from the survey we used was used to shape our latest people and culture strategy. We launched our Respect@Monadelphous program, which aims to further embed respectful behaviors across our operations. The program includes acceptable workplace behavior and code of conduct training and is rolled out to all employees. In light of the tight labor market, we continue to strengthen our approach to people data, leveraging our talent acquisition and performance management system to provide deeper insights into recruitment activity. Our leadership programs continue to support the development of our current and future leaders, and we were recognized as Australia's top construction and property services graduate employer for 2023. Looking now at safety. We continue to focus on improving safety and wellbeing through the identification, elimination and mitigation of fatal risks, and the delivery of sustained improvement in health and safety outcomes.

This included improving relevant in-field risk management tools and rolling out a series of fatal risk awareness campaigns. Pleasingly, our serious incident frequency rate remains at historically low levels. A number of technology-based safety improvement trials were completed during the year relating to the use of mobile fleet. This included implementing software to aid pedestrian avoidance, distraction and fatigue monitoring, and conducting Franna crane awareness training to prevent rollovers. Through our health and wellbeing program, we continued to support the mental and physical health of our people. This included offering mental health awareness training, partnering with The Resilience Project, and facilitating a range of health checks. We were also recognized for our efforts and contribution to safety innovation, and were named the winner of a number of state and national Work Health and Safety Excellence Awards. Now to slide 8.

Following the launch of our second Stretch RAP in July 2022, we continue to celebrate and acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands where our people live and work, including providing opportunities for First Nations businesses and creating pathways for Indigenous peoples. During the year, we again sponsored the Yalamb STEM Camp in Gladstone. We renewed our long-term partnership with the Polly Farmer Foundation, and facilitated a number of workshops for Indigenous high school students at our registered training facility in Coober Pedy. Our Indigenous Pathways program, which is run in partnership with Rio Tinto, also collaborated with Madalah to support Indigenous students from regional communities with their tertiary studies. With gender diversity and inclusion, we continued to facilitate networking and mentoring opportunities for women through our membership with the National Association of Women in Operations, and participated in several panel discussions and in-school engagements.

More broadly in the community, we were involved in over 120 events and initiatives across 20 locations. As I mentioned earlier, we formalized our emissions and energy reduction roadmap as a part of our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. We also established working groups focused on our transition to renewable power, greening our fleet, and optimizing operational activities. We explored opportunities to convert diesel vehicles into electric vehicles, progressed a comprehensive greenhouse gas data review, and confirmed our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas footprint for our base reporting year. Turning now to engineering construction, on slide 9. The division reported revenue of AUD 541.9 million for the year.

Following high levels of tendering activity and a number of early contractor engagement assignments, we secured AUD 640 million of new contracts, predominantly in lithium and iron ore, and we're hopeful to announce a few more soon. In the first half of the financial year, we were reappointed to BHP's WAIO Projects Framework Agreement for a further 3 years. Under the agreement, we were awarded the Car Dumper 3 Renewal project at Nelson Point in Port Hedland, subsequent to year-end, we were also awarded the electrical and instrumentation package of works. We completed multidisciplinary construction services at Fortescue's Iron Bridge Magnetite project and Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri Iron Ore project, in addition to a series of shutdowns at Rio Tinto's Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 project.

In Mongolia, we were awarded a contract for the construction of surface infrastructure for the Oyu Tolgoi underground project. We undertook a strategic review of SinoStruct, our China-based fabrication business, to ensure it remains aligned to customers' expectations and is appropriately structured to grow, geographically diversify its supply chain, and deliver in new and related sectors. The review resulted in a rebrand of the business to Interforge. On the back of the review, Interforge secured fabrication contracts with Liontown Resources and HydrogenPro, as well as for the Oyu Tolgoi underground project. Zenviron, our renewable energy business, achieved substantial completion of work at the Rye Park Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in New South Wales, and was engaged on early work packages for a number of other wind farm and battery storage projects on the East Coast of Australia. Moving now to our maintenance division.

Our maintenance division had a stellar year, achieving a record annual revenue of AUD 1.3 billion, up 11.4% on last year. We secured over AUD 1.3 billion of new work during the period and continued to perform a significant amount of maintenance, shutdown, and project work across the oil and gas and iron ore sectors. Under our Sustaining Capital Projects panel agreement with Rio Tinto, we secured several contracts. We also picked up a two-year extension for marine infrastructure maintenance services and minor projects at Rio Tinto's Cape Lambert and Dampier ports. We were reappointed to BHP's WA Site Engineering Panel for a further three years and secured a 12-month extension to our general maintenance and shutdown services contract for BHP's iron ore operations in the Pilbara.

In addition, we secured strategic long-term maintenance contracts with Fortescue Metals Group, as well as with Albemarle in the lithium sector, which I spoke about earlier. In the energy sector, we won a five-year contract for pipeline maintenance work in the Queensland coal seam gas market, as well as the extensions with INPEX and Santos. We commenced work on our first oil and gas decommissioning project after being awarded a contract by Petrofac on the Northern Endeavour FPSO. Late in the year, we acquired Victorian-based maintenance services provider, BMC. This strategic acquisition establishes a presence for us in the East Coast-based energy generation, transmission, and storage market, and expands our geographical footprint in the growing offshore oil and gas decommissioning sector. I will now hand over to Phil, who will provide you with some more detail of our financial performance on slide 11.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Thanks, Zoran, good morning, everybody. As Zoran mentioned, we recorded revenue, AUD 1.83 billion for the year, which is slightly down on last year. Our EBITDA was AUD 109 million, delivering an EBITDA margin of almost 6%, which is up from the 5.8% in the previous year. Our focus on driving improved productivity, maintaining operational discipline, and increasing efficiency across our business was a significant factor in this margin improvement, and was key to mitigating the effects of a period of heightened inflation and escalating costs. Our net profit after tax for the year was AUD 53.5 million, which is an increase of 2.5%, and earnings per share was AUD 0.558.

The board declared a final dividend of AUD 0.25 per share, taking the full year's dividend to AUD 0.49 per share fully franked. We ended the year with a strong cash balance of AUD 178 million, a cash flow from operations of AUD 93 million, and a very pleasing cash, cash flow conversion rate of 112%. Our continued focus on cash generation and maintaining a strong balance sheet is key to supporting our operational performance and growth strategy, and enables us to take advantage of suitable investment opportunities when they arise. I'll now give you back to Zoran, who will talk to you about the outlook for the business and the industry outlook.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Thanks, Phil. Slide 12 shows relevant current and forecast Australian market conditions for our business. Pleasingly, the sectors in which we operate have a positive outlook for capital investment and operating expenditure over the next few years. Moving now to our outlook slide. Longer-term demand is forecast to remain strong across most commodity markets, despite some short to medium-term uncertainty relating to Chinese domestic consumption and a possible U.S. recession. The resources and energy sectors are expected to provide a significant pipeline of prospects across a broad range of commodities, with expenditure related to energy transition representing an increasingly large proportion of investment activity over coming years. High levels of mining and mineral processing development are anticipated in the battery metal sector, and investment to sustain iron ore production levels will continue.

In the energy sector, there are several new gas construction projects currently in the development pipeline, and strong demand for maintenance and decommissioning services is expected over coming years. The development of the hydrogen market will also provide opportunities. Maintenance activity levels in the resources sector are forecast to grow on the back of a larger asset base from recently completed capital projects, as well as from new mining developments and expansions moving into the operating phase. Accelerating decarbonization efforts in Australia's power sector are driving an expanding pipeline of renewable energy projects and opportunities, including a large number of new wind farms and battery storage projects. Zenviron is well placed to capitalize on the growth expected in this sector over coming years, having developed an enviable track record since its inception.

Following the substantial completion of the Rye Park Wind Farm project this financial year, Zenviron has already been engaged on early work packages for several new wind and battery storage projects. The shortage of skilled labor in Australia continues to be a challenge, and we remain focused on improving the effectiveness of our employee attraction, training, and development initiatives. As well as ensuring Monadelphous remains a great place to work. An escalating cost environment and the potential for ongoing supply chain risks are also expected to continue. With capacity constraints, we will leverage our strong position and take a strategic and targeted approach to new work, engaging and collaborating early with customers, maintaining an appropriate approach to the allocation of risk, and focusing on earnings quality.

After securing a number of new construction contracts post year-end, and with further awards expected over coming months, we anticipate construction revenue will progressively ramp up over the 2024 financial year, with overall group revenue weighted to the second half. We will also continue to assess potential acquisition opportunities to facilitate service expansion, market diversification, and long-term sustainable growth. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our fantastic employees for another strong year. We have a very loyal and talented team here at Monadelphous. I would also like to extend my appreciation to our shareholders, customers, and other stakeholders for their ongoing support. Thank you. I'll now hand you over to the operator for any questions.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. One moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question is gonna come from the line of William Park with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

William Park
VP, Citi

Hi, Zoran, Phil, and Kristy. Thanks for taking my question. Can I just ask about your workforce? Just wondering whether if, if you were to sort of think about accelerating project award momentum, and presumably, there are more work packages for Monadelphous to secure in FY 2024. Are you comfortable with the current level of workforce to, to, I guess, deliver work that's out there, or do you need to see addition to, to the workforce that you've disclosed today? Thank you.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Well, I'd say, if you, particularly in our engineering construction business, we've worked hard to ensure that we've retained key, key white-collar employees to support the execution of work. If you have a good look at the result, you'll see a little bit of margin pressure there in the second half. That's consistent with ensuring we've got capacity to deliver work that we've secured and work that we're anticipating to secure. From a blue-collar level perspective, the reality is we employ blue-collar resources to support work directly. We've spent a lot of time understanding the work profile and what we anticipate we'll secure. We've spent a lot of time and effort in terms of understanding where the labor pools are, whether they're local, interstate, labor forces, trade meets, trade classification.

I think we're, we're as well placed as we can be to support the, the, the level of activity we expect to see in FY 2024. Yeah, understanding-

William Park
VP, Citi

Thank you.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

The numbers go up.

William Park
VP, Citi

Yep. Yep. And, yeah, just, just on labor still. If, if I were to sort of compare your comment, outlook commentary at the interim result on labor, versus, your commentary that you provided today, it, it appears that you're Am I reading into a bit too much, that you're suggesting that the labor pressures are progressively easing, or has it, has it still been quite difficult to source, skilled labor?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Well, I guess my view would be that the labor pressures haven't eased. I don't think they've got any worse than they were six months ago. Also understanding that the level of major construction activity has been lower than we've seen in previous years, so hence we make reference to this next wave of work. I would expect that we will continue to see some challenges. Everyone will continue to see some challenges in securing labor, but like I said, we've done a lot of work to ensure that we're best placed to address our requirement for that work.

William Park
VP, Citi

Thank you. Then just one last one is around, I guess, some of the near-term engineering and construction opportunities in FY 2024. Where do you see... I mean, I'm aware of a few opportunities, just wondering whether you'd like to point out some of the larger opportunities that are coming up for award decision in the, in the near term.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Yeah, I, I guess what we've. If you go back to the half year results presentation, and we made some commentary around those opportunities, and understanding that we've seen the award of some of this work continue to slide, the view would be similar. I would expect the work will be in the lithium market, rare earths market, and a broad range of sustaining capital opportunities with the major iron ore producers.

William Park
VP, Citi

Thanks very much.

Operator

Thank you. One moment as we move to our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of James Wilson with Jarden Australia. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

James Wilson
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Jarden Australia

Hey, guys. Just three quick questions from me, if I may. Firstly, on the E&C pipeline, the dollar value of the contracts that you won over the second half of this year is roughly the same as what you won in the first half of FY 2021. Does the ramp-up that you're talking about imply E&C returning to similar levels that we saw in FY 2022 for the division?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I'd to be honest, I don't have the FY 2022 numbers off the top of my head. I guess absolutely, we expect to see a ramp-up and a step-up in activity. I guess the caveat there would be in terms of the first half and the second half. The work that we expect to be awarded has a different ramp-up profile. Some of the work will ramp up immediately, but some of the larger projects will only really start to ramp up in the new calendar year. I've just picked up on that number. I think it was around 770 in FY 2024, in 2022, sorry.

I would, I would, we would expect to see a ramp-up in activity, moving towards that type of number.

James Wilson
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Jarden Australia

Great. Thanks, guys. Just my next question is on CapEx. We saw a little bit of a step-up over the second half of the year. Are you able to just run us through what drove that step-up?

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Yeah, we've had You know, obviously we are, well, we're always planning the business for the short and medium-term outlook, in terms of resourcing. Zoran's already spoke about people. We do have an ongoing level of replacements within our CapEx every year anyway, but we're right-sizing the fleet for the expected workload, plant equipment.

James Wilson
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Jarden Australia

Awesome. Finally, just on that BMC acquisition from June, so you mentioned its per annum revenue contribution's around AUD 60 million. Are you able to give us some color on how it performs relative to the group from a margin perspective or earnings perspective?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I, I guess our view would be that, our margin expectation would be reasonably consistent with our regional operations, in the maintenance business.

James Wilson
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Jarden Australia

Thanks, guys.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

'Cause it is, it certainly is more of a services business.

Operator

Thank you, and one moment as we move on to our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of John Hynd with Macquarie. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

John Hynd
Analyst, Macquarie

Oh, good morning, Zoran and Phil. Hope you're well. Just a couple of questions if I can. Yeah, just coming back to the construction revenue comment there around progressive ramp-up. Does that mean that you are expecting revenue to increase, construction revenue to increase in 2024 versus 2023, or is there a sort of dip down in the from, you know, the, the, the timing of the awards beforehand?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Yeah, I mean, that's, that, that's the real question is the, the, the timing. I, I would say that FY 2024, we would expect construct- engineering construction revenue to be greater than it was in FY 2023, but a function of timing of award.

John Hynd
Analyst, Macquarie

Hmm. In terms of the, just the margin piece, are you expecting sort of, you know, margin improvement in the year ahead, Zoran? Should we expect any improvement to be relatively modest if there is?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I, I guess my view would be that, that, well, we may, we may comment around cost, you know, our view around ongoing challenges with cost pressure. I think that's something that everyone will need to, need to navigate through. I think if I look at the, the pipeline or the, the, the, the work committed or the prospects in the engineering construction space, I think we've definitely seen some movement from the compensation models, the way they were constructed, say, 18 months ago to what the way they are now. i.e., maybe more rates reimbursable style work. I mean, that reduces the risk associated with those contracts, but it also caps the opportunity or margin on the, on the upside. My broader comment would be, I think there is an opportunity for margin improvement.

I don't think it's a significant step up in the next 12 months. Also understanding there are some challenges and risks, and we need to execute well to capitalize on that margin improvement opportunity.

John Hynd
Analyst, Macquarie

Thank you. Just the last one, you mentioned some oil and gas construction projects in the pipeline. like, if you're able to sort of just elaborate on, on what that includes.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I mean, if you look at the broader pipeline spanning, say, the next, rather than 12 months, the next 2-3 years, obviously there's Pluto 2, which is in train. Beyond that, there's Shell Crux, there's Santos' Dorado Field, there's Santos' Barossa. Project is Surat Gas Project works. There are a number of Gorgon Stage 2 potential projects. In PNG, Elk-Antelope's the one that's probably closest to execution, but still some time away. In terms of broad, there is a pretty broad, broad pipeline.

John Hynd
Analyst, Macquarie

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment as we move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Julian McCarthy with E&P. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

Hi. Just two from me. Firstly, on the headcount changes year-over-year, seeing, you know, quite a substantial drop, fair bit in maintenance. So has you've just become much more efficient or was that sort of maintenance, sort of, revenue, including a bit of construction activity, and that's why it looks to become, you know, very inflated in terms of revenue per head?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Well, we did make the commentary that, that, you know, there was ceased operations in, in our Buildtek operations in, in Chile earlier in the year. That, that, that certainly had an impact in the, in the maintenance business. Probably the other comment I'd make is the employee numbers are a snapshot at a point in time. You're seeing numbers there at 30th, 30th of June, which is a snapshot, and we've said that we've got low, quite low levels of construction activity, or certainly at that point in time.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

Well, how many were employed at Buildtek?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Over 1,000.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

All right. Okay. Okay. In terms of, like, just cost pressures, I mean, you said there's more reinvestment rate works that are going on. I mean, early in this year, you know, around really over the last year or so, the pendulum's very much swung in favor of the, the contractors. Is that still very much the case?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

When you say the word pendulum has very much swung, I would-

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

That'd be nice. That'd be nice.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I think the pendulum has moved a little, a little in our direction from a previously extreme position. It, it has moved slightly. Like I said, the, the, the mix of work in terms of compensation models does look a little different to what it did 18 months ago.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

Given that, like, the tier one bench is kind of emptied out over the last year, you know, forges and costs and all that sort of stuff, are you able to be just as selective on projects as you've been last year? Or you think competition will come back in because builders want to get the projects done?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I, I think the broader pipeline is, is pretty strong in terms of opportunities. Yes, we've been fortunate enough to be able to prioritize the work that we're that's important to us. Yes, we have been able to be a little more selective.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

Okay.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

I think it's also fair to say that a lot of our competitors as well are, you know, telling, telling the market that they're quite, they're quite full at the moment.

Julian McCarthy
Analyst, E&P

Well, okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment as we move to our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Nathan Reilly with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Oh, hi, gents. Quick one, Buildtek, just in terms of its contribution to FY 2023?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Nathan, you're dropping out. I didn't hear the question.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Sorry, can you hear me now? I was just asking about Buildtek.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Yes.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

I just wanted to know the contribution.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Yeah, we talked about it was a 4% of group revenue, so, circa AUD 80 million.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah. I was just wondering if it was paid or indeed lost?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Sorry, Nate, we didn't pick that up at all.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Can you hear me now? I was just asking whether the earnings contribution from Buildtek was break-even or loss-making in FY 23.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

It, it was, well, yeah,

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Even if the Buildtek operations, it didn't materially impact on our results, Nathan.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Okay, I'll move to the next question. It was just around the Unitywater situation there. Just picking up your recent announcement in relation to the project and the claim that's been, that's been issued there from the customer. Just remind me, with, with that, I think when you had a similar situation with, with Rio at Cape Lambert a few years back, I think you flagged that there was about AUD 150 million worth of public liability insurance cover. Can you just give us an idea whether that insurance cover is, is to, to this situation?

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Oh, Nathan, I mean, I think we, we don't talk about our insurances and we never have, so I'm not quite sure where that's come from. We've got the usual insurances in place that you'd expect for a contracting business, and we are, we are comfortable with, with the position that we have taken in respect to the claim.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Got it. Okay, no problem. A final question, just that, that point that you're sort of flagging in terms of the shifting mix in compensation models, just maybe if we're focusing in on that sort of AUD 640 million worth of E&C revenues that you've booked this year, just wanna give us an idea of, you know, what the mix would be between, I guess, this shift towards cost reimbursable, you know, relative to, I guess, your, you know, your historical sort of, you know, fixed price approach?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I think when we talk about it, they're not necessarily one model or the other. So if you say it's, there, there are contracts that are fixed price, there are contracts.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Yeah.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

that are rates reimbursable. We've got a number of contracts which are a combination of both. Components that are fixed and variable compensation for other parts of the contract. I would, I would suggest that we're probably not at 50/50, but, but moving in that direction between fixed price and rates reimbursable.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

How would that compare to three years ago?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Sorry, I missed that again, mate.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

How would that compare to three years ago?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

I would, I think it's probably fair to say in engineering construction, 3 years ago, most of the work was fixed price.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Yep.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Probably all of it.

Nathan Reilly
Executive Director, UBS

Understood. Thanks very much for my question. Sorry about the line.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

No worries.

Operator

Thank you. One moment as we move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Nicholas Rawlinson with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Hi, Zoran, Phil, and Kristy. Thanks for taking my questions. Just firstly from me, given 1H23 was so strong in maintenance with lots of turnaround activity, can we still expect to see reasonably strong year-on-year growth in maintenance in 1H24?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Yes. Yeah, I mean, the, the variability will be in major turnarounds and understanding the profile of what that looks like. I'd be hopeful to see some growth in FY 24 in maintenance.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

In 1H24, some growth too?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Half one 2024. In fact, I think the maintenance result will be stronger in the first half rather than the second, based on the turnaround profile or turnarounds that you make a reference to.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Okay.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

There are a couple of significant ones in the first half of FY 2024.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Yeah.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

The first half of last year, Nick, was a very big one, hey?

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

So.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Yeah. Okay, but you're still expecting to do great on that. Okay. E&C in 1H24, like, we know it's still subdued. Should we just expect it to be around what you guys did in the first half and the second half of FY23, or is it?

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Nick, I think, I think we're sort of as we said, like, the timing of work is gonna be the key here, but, you know, we, we, our modus operandi is to give guidance around what we think the first half is gonna be at the AGM. It's still very early in the year now.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

You can't give us a rough idea?

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

If I had one, I'd give it to you, but I don't have it.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Okay. All right, and, and the book-to-bill, was well above 1 in E&C for the first time in a while. You booked AUD 640 million, I think, and, and you burnt, you burnt around AUD 540 million. Is, is most of that revenue that you booked in E&C sort of forward-looking, and expected to land in FY 2024?

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Not sure I understood the question.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

With your question, we had AUD 640 million worth of wins last year.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Yeah.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Remember, we, we, we do have some recurring work in that business as well, and we also brought some work into the year, too.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

We had scope growth.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Yeah

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

contracts.

Philip Trueman
CFO and Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

While we've booked some of the work, that we've won...

You know, I mean, it, it, it, I don't know. It depends on the timing of the work that, and when it comes in. I think, you know, I think we've already given our view in terms of where we think E&C revenues may, may go this year. Up on last year, towards 2022, somewhere in between there. It depends the timing, the start of the work.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Okay.

Zoran Bebic
Managing Director, Monadelphous Group

Also, understanding that the engineering construction business has secured AUD 350 million worth of work post, FY, the end of FY 2023.

Nicholas Rawlinson
Equities Analyst, Morgans

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, awesome. That's it for me. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions, and I'd like to turn the conference back over to Kristy Glasgow for any further remarks.

Kristy Glasgow
Company Secretary, Monadelphous Group

Thank you all for your participation today. That now concludes our briefing.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

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