Monadelphous's 2022 full year results investor and analyst briefing. Presenting from Perth are Monadelphous's Managing Director, Rob Velletri, and Chief Financial Officer, Phil Trueman. The structure of today's presentation is similar to previous results briefings. Rob and Phil will first take you through the company's financial and operational performance for the year ended 30 June 2022, as well as the outlook, before answering any questions you may have. Some further details are provided at the indices in the slide deck. Copies of today's presentation and associated materials are available on our website at monadelphous.com.au. Throughout this presentation, the speakers will guide you on when to click through to the next slide. I will now hand over to our first presenter today, Mr. Rob Velletri, who will start on slide two. Please go ahead, Rob.
Thanks, Kristy, and welcome to everyone to our 2022 full year results briefing. Now, during the past five decades, I'm proud to say that Monadelphous has built a reputation as a contractor and partner of choice, delivering high quality, safe and cost-effective service solutions to our customers. This reputation has helped us to make our fiftieth year in operation an extremely busy one so far, with high volumes of construction and maintenance work carried out across resources, energy and infrastructure sectors. Today, we have more than 7,500 employees operating across six countries. On slide three, you can see a handful of our dedicated and loyal people. Although we've grown significantly over the years, our people and our values remain at the heart of our business.
I wanna take this opportunity to thank our team who have contributed to the growth and success of Monadelphous, some for more than 30 years. It's this team of people who will help to shape the future of Monadelphous. A future that will see us continue to grow from strength to strength. Moving now to just slide four and the performance, group performance for 2022 and some highlights. You can see, we recorded strong sales revenue of AUD 1.93 billion for the year which was a very similar result to the previous year. Our Maintenance and Industrial Services division reported record revenue of AUD 1.17 billion, which is up 19.4% on last year.
The result reflects strong demand across the board with increased activity in the oil and gas sector, as well as in Chile and Papua New Guinea. Our Engineering Construction division reported revenue of AUD 774 million, which was down 21% on the previous corresponding period. As we forecast earlier in the year following a busy first half, construction revenue declined in the second half due to a number of major resource projects reaching completion and the timing of award and commencement of new projects. Net profit after tax was AUD 52.2 million, which is an increase of 11%, representing earnings per share of AUD 0.549, which was up a similar amount.
The board declared a dividend of AUD 0.25 per share, final dividend, taking the total full-year dividend to AUD 0.49 per share, fully franked, which is up from AUD 0.45 last year. Strong demand for labor across the industry as well as interstate travel restrictions hindered our ability to efficiently recruit and mobilize people and impacted labor costs, productivity and employee retention. Nevertheless, we did see an improvement in our EBITDA margin around 20 basis points from last year. Importantly, we secured approximately AUD 1.45 billion of new contracts and contract extensions since the beginning of last financial year, which I'll talk more about on the next couple slides. Moving to slide 5, Contracts Secured in Australia. You can see our contracts spread across a broad range of sectors and geographies.
Within our core markets, we secured around AUD 400 million of new work in the iron ore sector with long-term customers BHP and Rio Tinto, as well as with Fortescue Metals Group and Roy Hill. In addition, we were awarded AUD 500 million of new contracts and contract extensions in the oil and gas sector with Woodside, Origin and Shell. Also in Australia, you can see that large orange dot in New South Wales, which represents our joint venture Zenviron's AUD 250 million contract for the balance of plant work at the Rye Park Wind Farm, which is the biggest wind farm ever to be constructed in New South Wales. On the next slide six, you can see our contracts overseas.
We secured around AUD 175 million of new work overseas since the start of last financial year. This includes a number of contracts in Chile, particularly in the copper sector via our maintenance and construction services business, Buildtek. As well as new work in the gold sector in Papua New Guinea. After the year-end, so early this financial year, we were also awarded a contract for the construction of surface infrastructure at the Oyu Tolgoi underground copper project in Mongolia. Moving now to slide 7, our safety performance. Our 12-month total recordable injury frequency rate ended the year at 3.07 incidents per million hours worked, which was slightly up on last year with our performance impacted by high levels of operational activity and a large number of new employees onboarded during the period.
In response, we rolled out a series of targeted safety campaigns to address common risks such as hand and finger injuries. We increased our focus on frontline safety programs to promote and support in-field safety leadership. I am pleased to report, though, that our serious incident frequency rate improved by around 55% over the course of the year, as a result of our sustained focus on fatal risk hazards and continued application of our fatal risk control standards. I'm also pleased to report we continue to be recognized for our efforts in the area of safety innovation, and were named as a finalist in 3 industry safety innovation awards during the year. Moving now to slide 8, our people.
We finished the year with a full workforce, including subcontractors, of around 8,000 people, which is up 2.4% on last year. With growth at our operations in Chile and Papua New Guinea offset partially by the demobilization of employees following some of our major construction projects finishing up. High levels of industry activity and interstate travel restrictions that were imposed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 significantly impacted our ability to source and retain talent. With strong demand expected to persist as skilled labor shortages are likely to continue to constrain our capacity, which means efforts around people retention and attraction will become even more important. During the year, we spent a significant amount of time reviewing and refreshing our code of conduct, supporting policies to reinforce acceptable workplace behavior in our organization.
As part of this, we rolled out our It's Up to Us campaign, which highlights the important role every employee at Monadelphous plays in creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive work environment. To support the retention of talent, we implemented an employee retention plan, which provides a one-off issue of retention rights to key employees, vesting over a three-year period subject to continued service conditions. To help with employee re-attraction, we launched a new talent acquisition and performance management system. We enhanced our employee referral and our alumni programs, and we've recently reinvigorated our international sourcing strategy, which was placed on hold during the period of travel restrictions. Part of our strategic planning process, we undertook a review of our organizational structures to make sure we're appropriately set up to deliver against our strategic plans.
The review identified a number of structural improvements to enhance our approach to growth and diversification and to optimize project delivery. Moving now on slide nine. Engineering Construction division, as I stated earlier, reported revenue of AUD 774 million after the successful completion of a number of large resource construction projects in the first half. In the second half, we had lower levels of activity due to the timing of award and commencement of new major projects. However, a new wave of resource projects is expected to contribute to a ramp up in construction activity throughout the 2023 financial year. During the year, we completed work at BHP's South Flank project, Rio Tinto's Western Range Deposit C and D project, and Albemarle Lithium Joint Venture's lithium hydroxide plant in the southwest of WA.
Mondium, our engineering procurement and construction joint venture, successfully completed the construction of Rio Tinto's Western Turner Syncline phase two iron ore project, as well as the tailings retrieval plant for Talison Lithium at their Greenbushes mine. In addition, we successfully delivered one of the largest shutdown campaigns ever undertaken at BHP's Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, and provided multidisciplinary services to assist Rio Tinto to complete the Gudai-Darri iron ore project in the Pilbara. In total, our engineering construction division has secured around AUD 325 million of additional work since the start of the year, last financial year. During the year, we established Alevro, which is a joint venture with global heavy lifting company, Fagioli, to provide turnkey heavy lift solutions to the Australian market.
Alevro provides us with increased capability and capacity to deliver large scale heavy lift and logistics services for major projects. Moving now to our maintenance division. As I mentioned earlier, our maintenance had a stellar year. They recorded annual revenue of AUD 1.17 billion, up almost 20% on previous year. Result reflects strong demand for maintenance services across the resource and energy sectors as our customers maintain high levels of production and capitalize on favorable commodity prices both in Australia as well as overseas in Chile and Papua New Guinea. Since the beginning of the financial year, the maintenance division has secured around AUD 1.13 billion in new contracts and contract extensions, including a strategically important five-year maintenance and shutdown services contract with Fortescue Metals Group.
To better support our customers in the Pilbara, we opened an expanded facility in Tom Price. We progressed the construction of a new facility in Port Hedland, and we approved the development of a new larger facility in Karratha. In oil and gas, we secured a two-year extension to our existing maintenance contract with Woodside at their onshore and offshore gas production facilities, as well as a two-year extension to our maintenance contract with Shell. In addition, we commenced early decommissioning work with Petrofac on the Northern Endeavour FPSO facility. That will be the first of a growing number of decommissioning opportunities in the oil and gas sector in the years to come. Our Chile-based maintenance and construction services business, Buildtek, continued to grow, capitalizing on a strong copper market.
Since the beginning of the financial year, Buildtek has secured approximately AUD 80 million in new work, including several contracts with Codelco, which is the world's largest copper producer. Finally, the division acquired fabrication business, RTW Steel Fabrication and Construction, to complement its service offerings in the southwest of Western Australia. Moving now to slide 11, sustainability. We remain committed to making a positive contribution to the communities in which we operate. Our efforts are focused around the key areas of diversity, community, and environment. As part of this year's NAIDOC Week celebrations, we launched our latest Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan. This is our second Stretch RAP aimed at continuing to advance our contribution to reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our commitments include offering long-term employment opportunities and training programs for Indigenous peoples and supporting First Nations businesses through meaningful commercial partnerships.
We continue to deliver our Indigenous Pathways program in partnership with Rio Tinto, which aims to increase the number of skilled and tertiary qualified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the resources industry. Since it was launched in July last year, more than 20 participants have taken part in the program. We also renewed our partnership with the Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation. In May 2021, we launched our second 3-year gender diversity and inclusion plan, which focuses on ensuring a safe work environment for all employees, the removal of gender-based barriers, and extending targets for female candidates in vacation and graduate programs. I'm pleased to confirm during the year we've reached or exceeded all the measurable targets which are outlined in our plan.
To aid in our objective of increasing female participation through early career pathways, we extended our partnerships with the University of Western Australia's Girls in Engineering program and the Queensland University of Technology's Gender Equity in Engineering Makes Cents program. In addition, across our operations, we participated in more than 100 community initiatives across 25 locations, contributed over AUD 370,000 in funds, and supported our employees who participated in 600 hours of voluntary work. Finally, during the year, we formalized our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, underlining our commitment to the sustainable management of the unique environments in which we work. Our environmental strategy is focused on decarbonizing operational activities and includes objectives supporting the transition to renewable power and greening our fleet and offsetting carbon emissions.
I'll now hand over to Phil, who'll give you a little bit more detail on our financial performance.
Thanks, Rob. Good morning to everybody. I'm on slide 12 now, and this slide shows our financial performance for the period compared to last year. As Rob mentioned earlier, we've recorded revenue of AUD 1.93 billion for the year, reflecting the strong demand for maintenance services across all sectors and the successful completion of a number of major construction projects. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization was AUD 111.2 million, an increase of 2.3% on the prior corresponding period, giving an EBITDA margin of 5.8%. Labor costs, productivity, and employee retention were impacted by the very high demand for labor within the industry, along with the significant travel restrictions.
Our net profit after tax for the year was AUD 52.2 million, an increase of 11% on the prior corresponding period. Earnings per share was AUD 0.549. The board declared a final dividend of AUD 0.25 per share fully franked. Our cash balance at 30 June 2022 was AUD 183.3 million, and we generated a strong cash flow from operations of AUD 65 million during the year. The cash flow conversion rate for the period was around 84%. The strength of our balance sheet provides us with the financial capacity required in the current economic environment and enables us to take advantage of suitable investment opportunities which may arise. With that, I'll hand it back to Rob, who will provide you with an overview of the outlook for the business.
Thanks, Phil. Slide 13 shows the relevant current and forecast Australian market conditions for our business. As you can see across all the sectors in which we operate, they're all forecasting strong outlook for, if not a solid, continuation of high levels, continuing growth in, capital and operating expenditure over a number of years in the future. If we move now straight to our outlook slide, which is slide 14, you see the resource sector in Australia and in our overseas locations will continue to provide a large number of significant opportunities across a very broad range of commodity markets.
Looking at them sort of one by one, the outlook for iron ore is expected to remain buoyant, with capital and operating expenditures required to sustain and indeed maximize iron ore production levels, will continue to drive strong demand for our services. High levels of global demand for battery metals driving significant investment in lithium, copper, nickel, also rare earths. They'll all provide numerous prospects for us in the coming years. Along with the gold sector as well, they all present opportunities not only in Australia but also in South America, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea. Conditions in the oil and gas sector are also buoyant. Construction opportunities from development of new LNG projects currently in the pipeline and demand for oil and gas maintenance services is expected to remain strong.
Australia's transition towards clean energy will continue to strengthen, provide opportunities in the renewable energy sector. Increasing pipeline of new wind farms are coming to market in the next few years will provide plenty of opportunities for Zenviron, both in the electricity market as well as in the private sector as industrial operators move quickly to meet their decarbonization objectives. Also rapid development of the hydrogen sector will provide us with opportunities in the coming years. More broadly, favorable conditions and aging assets across all resource and energy sectors will continue to drive strong demand for maintenance services. The shortage of skilled labor, though, will be the most significant challenge for our operations, especially in Australia. We're also mindful of the challenges posed by heightening supply chain risks and an escalating cost environment.
With capacity constraint, we will be taking a strategic and targeted approach to new work opportunities. We'll be engaging and collaborating earlier with customers and focusing on earnings quality. Also, obviously continue to focus on employee attraction, training, development, making Monadelphous just a great place to work. With travel restrictions lifted, we've also recently reengaged, as I mentioned earlier, our international labor sourcing strategy. Supported by a strong balance sheet, we'll continue to assess opportunities for acquisition to achieve ongoing service and customer market diversification and support long-term sustainable growth. As highlighted in our half-year results, following a ramp down of construction activity in the second half, a new wave of construction projects currently in the tendering phase, expected to see activity ramp up during the 2023 financial year and into the following years.
Revenue for the 2023 financial year will be dependent on the timing of awards and commencement of these projects and will likely be skewed, therefore, to the second half. Anyway, in closing, I would like to thank our stakeholders for their ongoing support, including all our shareholders and customers, and I commend our team on their commitment and effort in achieving another solid result. Thank you. I'll hand over to the operator now for any questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question now, please press star one one on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Our first question comes from the line of James Wilson from Jarden. James, please ask your question.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just two from me today.
Firstly, on the outlook for construction, can you just clarify whether that second half skew in your guidance is due to expected award wins in construction? Or is it something related to the timing perhaps of maintenance operations? Just given that we saw a slowdown of contract wins in the second half of 2022, particularly in that construction space.
Yeah. The skew is 'cause, James Wilson, you know, we've finished a significant amount of work last year, early last year. We still have some backlog work moving into this year. In terms of the timing of work, you know, we're seeing, I guess we're forecasting to grow our construction revenues in through this year into the second half, which will therefore give a skew, expected skew of revenue into the second half. It's construction related.
Okay. Great. Just secondly from me, guys. Cash conversion looked a bit lower over the second half. Can you perhaps talk a bit to the dynamics you're seeing there going into 2023?
It really just came down to the timing of payments around year-end. There's nothing that we're concerned about. Cash conversion would, you know, we still aim cash conversion around 100%. Nothing's changed.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Johnson from Jefferies. Please ask your question, Richard.
Oh, excuse me. Rob, can I just start with talking a little bit about FY 2022? I'm just trying to make sure I understand why the second half top line ended up being a little bit better than you had suggested at the half year. Is there anything particularly you could call out in that regard?
Well, no, not really. Perhaps I guess. I mean, it's very, it's not that easy to forecast. I mean, in this particular market, we do find that we get asked to do stuff that we didn't expect, you know, perhaps to happen during the period. We had a lot more work come through that was not necessarily in our book. Yeah, it just really probably reflects the amount of demand that there is out there in the market.
Got it. Thanks. That's helpful.
Sorry.
Sorry?
No, no, that's fine.
Okay, great. Thanks, Rob. Then just on the issue of the labor challenge, which obviously I presume it doesn't come as any surprise to anybody. I'm just trying to understand the work you're tendering at the moment, that's based off labor numbers that you're, you know, very confident in or have already. Essentially what I think what I'm trying to ask is whether labor is an issue of availability, or is it just an issue of cost, or both?
No, no, it's availability. Availability is not there. There's just so many people available, and there's more work to do than the people that are available.
What does that imply for sort of near-term top line growth then?
Well, it implies that we will need to be more selective in the work, because there will be probably more work available for us than we can actually do. We will be selecting jobs that are obviously gonna give us, I guess, a more secure and long-term return.
Would it be fair to say that in the near term, notwithstanding labor cost pressures, that the growth might be more skewed to margin than revenue in the short term?
Yes. Well, I guess that's the implication of all of that, yes. The quality of our earnings.
Yeah.
We need to, yeah, we will be, I guess, making sure we're getting good return from people that we do have.
Absolutely. Is it your sense that the customers are fully aware and understand the pressures in the system?
Look, I think it's varied across the industry. Generally, people understand that I would think getting to understand that better over time.
Okay. Just one last one. You mentioned the capacity uplift of your maintenance facilities. Is that being done to address business that you've already got, or does it give you some latent capacity?
Probably a bit of both. Yeah, a bit of both. I mean, and you know, there's also an emphasis on, you know, regional, bolstering regional kind of presence and having more people located in those areas, rather than or trying to minimize perhaps fly in, fly out, that sort of thing. It's just reflecting the increased level of activity and demand on our business in those regions.
Right. Thanks, Rob. That's very helpful. That's it from me.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Hodge from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead, Andrew.
Morning, guys. I'm not sure if I'm on the line or if I've been cut off.
Hello. We can hear you.
Hello?
Please go ahead, Andrew.
We can hear you, Andrew.
Oh, thank you. Thanks, Phil. Morning, gents. I wanted to ask, just extending that idea about the margin, I guess, going forward in the next little while, Rob, you've talked about being more selective in where you allocate resources to. Is the implication that you can make better margin because of that or that you'll skew the portfolio further again to Maintenance and Industrial Services because it has the longer duration nature to it? As a composition, the margin may not improve as much as we might otherwise expect if there was a bigger increase in Engineering Construction side.
The statement is thematic in that this will apply across the board. It won't be just for construction, it'll apply to maintenance. I mean, we do have workforces that are, you know, whilst there's some overlap, they're quite discrete workforces. The demand is right across the board. I guess the point I'm making is that clearly, given that sort of supply/demand situation that we've got, we should be sort of trying to focus on improving our returns from the people we have, which will therefore should translate to better margin, I guess.
Got you. Could you make a comment just around your early observations of labor supply? I understand you're saying it's still tight with regard to the WA border having opened just domestically and whether you think the government lifting the cap on skilled immigration maybe next month for something to flow through later in the calendar year or early next calendar year has the capacity to make any difference for you over the next 12 or 24 months?
Look, every little bit will help. I guess the way we're sort of reading the outlook in terms of demand versus supply, I think we're going to be heavily restricted on, you know, for the foreseeable future. I think, you know, getting more people in from overseas, et cetera, I think will be good 'cause this is not just a problem that we have, it's a problem everywhere. That will help alleviate the situation. I don't see it as, you know, something that's gonna fix it. In twelve months time, we're all good again.
Got you. Then just one last question on whether the higher payout is something sort of to look for going forward if it's just sort of more novel to this period here?
Sorry, the higher payout?
Oh, the higher dividend payout ratio.
Oh. Well, we, you know, our policy is 80%-100%. So what was it? 90% or something? It's pretty spot on. Maybe it's been a little bit higher than before, but it's, I mean, we're running between 85% and 90%, I think.
All right. Thanks, guys.
Yeah, it's good to be.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Reilly from UBS. Nathan, your line is open. Please ask your question.
Thanks. Thanks, Rob, Phil. Rob, just picking up that comment you made with respect to your aspirations to grow construction revenues into FY 2023. When I layer that with the maintenance outlook, sounds like there's a fair amount of catch up in deferred maintenance volumes, which should support a bit of growth into 2023. I'm just wondering, is there any risk that 2023 revenues could be below FY 2022?
Oh, definitely. I think there is definitely a risk. I mean, it's a timing issue. It depends what sort of falls before June. I mean, yeah, there's definitely a risk that we won't do the same. I'll be happy if we did do the same. I mean.
Yeah.
The story's long. The story is a longer term story than what fits into this year. The outlook beyond this year, I mean, I think if you look at where all the execution, revenue, if you like, on project.
Yeah.
So
Yeah. That definitely comes through as your guide to that sort of back end.
Yeah.
Skew to the second half.
Yeah.
Picking up on your comments that there is, you know, substantial sort of tendering activity and, you know, very buoyant demand outlook. I'm just wondering though, do the current labor constraints that you see at the moment impact your ability or do they constrain your ability to grow revenues into 2023 even if those contracts did fall for you as you'd anticipate?
Yeah, there's no question that we know when our revenue will be constrained. There's more work available, I think, or will become available, than capacity to do the work.
Got it.
Where that ends up, I'm not too sure. Hence the focus around, you know, making sure it's the work with best returns or the longest, the best jobs. You know, even the best work that is work that will best attract labor to the job. To the job. Get what I'm saying?
Okay. One more question just in relation to that tender outlook. You know, picking up what you're saying with respect to a high level of demand and project activity over the next 18 months to 2 years. I'm just curious about your recent tender win rates. Can you give us an idea of how those more recent tender win rates would look relative to, say, what you were achieving heading into that last round of iron ore mine replacement project activity?
Look, I think we'd be one of three, if not one of two maybe, on our work, you know, our SMP and I kind of major resource project work. As in, yeah. That's what? 30%-50%.
The win rate's unchanged? It's always in that sort of 30%-50% more recently?
Well, I think where we are today, that's where we are today, yeah. We find ourselves in business of two or three.
That's great. I'll hand it back. Thanks for taking my questions.
All right. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Longo from JPMorgan. Anthony, please go ahead. Anthony, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Sorry, I was on mute. Hi, Rob. Hi, Phil. Just a quick question from me. Just with respect to the construction work that you're expecting to bid on and hopefully secure over the next little while, how should we be thinking about CapEx and CapEx requirements in the context of, you know, what was achieved this year and or what level, you know, versus this year and also what we've seen in previous years?
Probably not a lot of change. Maybe an increase of some sort.
Uh-huh.
Minor increase. You know, we've got with this demand going forward with you know plant equipment, et cetera, maybe some more expenditure in that area. That's cranage, that sort of thing. I think, what are we running at, 2 or 3% of our revenue? That's likely to continue probably at maybe 3%, something like that.
Yeah, no, that's perfect. Also just a final one from me and, you know, covering off on some of the earlier questions on labor costs and shortages and the like. When you look at this particular result, I mean, with some of those projects rolling off in the first half, you know, 2022 call it, and in the context of costs that you've achieved for the year, like how much of that is. How much cost sort of came off as a result and, I guess I'm trying to work out what's ultimately the cost base gonna be going forward, as some of those new project wins and work comes online as well?
Not sure. Phil, do you understand the question?
I think the question was how much of our cost base came off when the project's finished. Was that it?
Yeah, exactly. Sorry. Yeah, exactly.
The majority of our
It all comes off.
Yeah, majority of our costs are labor costs, and the majority of the people employed on those projects.
For the duration of those projects, so it all comes off.
Okay. Thinking about it going forward, while we're expecting that to come back online in terms of costs for work, you're still expecting it to be margin-accretive work just given the project pipeline that is out there?
You know, are we expecting it to be margin-accretive work based on the pipeline of work that's out there?
I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't understand the question.
Anthony, do you wanna try and rephrase it?
Yeah, okay.
No, it's fine. We can take it offline.
Yeah. I think the answer is probably yes to the question. Yeah.
I think it comes back to what Rob said earlier about, you know, the limited resources we have maximizing the return that we get on those limited resources, so quality of earnings.
Sure.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jonathon S. Purtell from Macquarie. John, your line is open.
G'day, Rob and Phil.
Please ask your question.
How are you too? G'day, Rob and Phil.
Hi, John.
Hey, John.
Just had a few questions. Rob, thanks for the presentation, some of the color there. Can you talk to some of the major opportunities that you are tracking currently, to the extent that you can and potential timing of those awards? It sounds like there's some near-term opportunities with timing.
Oh, yeah. There's like many and varied opportunities all day. You know, there's a number of near-term perhaps opportunities with Rio, Western Range. You know, there's a pipeline of, I guess, of iron ore work that spans over the next two or three years for both BHP and Rio Tinto. Western Ridge is another one for BHP. There's about five, six opportunities in lithium over the next 12 months. They've got to get some sort of an award. It's two trains at Albemarle, at Kemerton. There's some work at Talison, Greenbushes for two more trains. Also, Pilbara Minerals have a project that needs to get awarded in the next six months.
Liontown Resources have got a project that needs to get awarded, same period. Gold opportunities with Newcrest. Yeah, there's a lot of work available to be awarded within the next 12 months, like more than we can do. I mean, there's a lot more I can say about that, but does that help, John?
Thank you. That does. Just the second part of that, I mean, obviously, we've heard a lot about labor availability issues and higher capital costs. You know, is that having any meaningful impact on the pipeline? You're still seeing a buoyant pipeline notwithstanding that.
Yes, we are. I'm not sure the implication in the long term here or whether it means that projects will take longer to do or to be done. That will be clearly you know issue around the cost et cetera is gonna be in question. You know, maybe it's harder to get projects up. I'm not sure. It certainly will be a constraint on the volume of work that can be done. Now, remember, we're talking whatever resources and energy here. There's just a lot of work in infrastructure, which is a lot of work more generally right across the construction services, if you like, right across a number of all sectors, which is really making the supply so difficult. It's just demand everywhere.
Got it. Just a final question, in relation to margins. You obviously, your margin was up slightly in the second half versus the first despite the revenue drop off. Question is, what was driving that? Is that essentially the new work rolling on and at better margins and the legacy work rolling off? Sorry to ask a 2-part question here, but you know, we've talked in the past about, you know, a 7% EBITDA potential margin. That's where you were pre-COVID. I think the target was, you know, to get back over time to that sort of margin profile. Is that still a realistic expectation?
Oh, look, it's definitely a realistic, you know, potential outcome for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, I think the new work that is being taken on is, you know, in some ways we might actually be in a good position in that or better position because, you know, we've seen some significant issues around price increases, inflation, supply chain type issues that, you know, we're going into some of this new work, we're well aware of the risks there, and so we're better able to deal with that in our pricing or negotiations with customers, et cetera. We probably didn't really see any great impact of those increases. Yeah, any of the new work we took on was probably better margin work than the work that was coming off.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no further questions. I'll now turn the call back to Kristy for closing remarks.
Thank you for your participation today, everyone. That now concludes our briefing.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes all today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.