Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. I'm Rob Bishop, Chief Executive Officer at New Hope Group . I'm joined here by Rebecca Rinaldi, our Chief Financial Officer, and Dominic O'Brien, our Executive General Manager and Company Secretary. This morning, we released our quarterly report for the fourth quarter of the 2025 financial year. Hopefully, you've had a chance to go through the report, but in any case, I'll briefly step you through our key highlights before we open up the line for Q&A. The July quarter marks the end of the 2025 financial year for New Hope . Whilst our final quarter was impacted by significant weather events in New South Wales, our business continues to remain resilient as we increase saleable coal production year- on- year and execute on our organic growth pipeline.
Looking at safety, our 12-month moving average TRIFR was 3.22 at the end of the quarter, which was 12% lower than the previous quarter. Safety will always be a key focus for us, and I'm pleased to say that we have made meaningful improvements in this area during the year, with both our TRIFA and our all-injury frequency rate materially improving. Operationally, our New Acland Mine in Queensland achieved its most productive quarter since recommencement of operations. However, our fourth quarter result was largely impacted by significant rainfall in the Hunter region. Rain and flooding led to logistics constraints, including material increases in rail cancellations and extensive shipping delays at the Port of Newcastle, which impacted operations at Bengalla Mine .
During the quarter, we moved 16.1 million BCMs of prime overburden, in line with the previous quarter, despite the dragline at Bengalla Mine being unavailable for 50 days as it underwent planned maintenance. Group run-of-mine coal production was 4.1 million tonnes, largely in line with the previous quarter, with the group strip ratio remaining steady at 4 BCMs per tonne. As I mentioned earlier, flooding across the Hunter region resulted in restricted vessel movements and extended shipping queues at the Port of Newcastle. In addition, rail cancellations caused by both weather impacts and external labor availability led to site stock management challenges, with Bengalla Mine becoming stock-bound throughout the quarter. As a result, group saleable coal production was 2.5 million tonnes, 9% lower than the previous quarter.
Low production at Bengalla Mine was offset by strong performance at New Acland Mine, which increased saleable coal production by 33% for the quarter, following improved rail performance and increased stockpile capacity. In terms of financials, the group underlying EBITDA of AUD 93 million was down 40% on the previous quarter due to the lower coal sales out of the Port of Newcastle and lower realized pricing. Turning to our full-year results, despite a challenging final quarter, our team delivered another strong result this financial year. Group saleable coal production was 10.7 million tonnes, an 18% increase on the previous year, and within guidance range. Bengalla Mine achieved an FOB cash cost, excluding royalties, of AUD 76.50 per sales tonne, within guidance range. This represents a 2% reduction compared to FY 2024 and is a fantastic result, considering the lower volumes overall and our operational logistics challenges in Q4.
Despite lower thermal coal prices, the group achieved an underlying EBITDA of AUD 766 million, the fourth highest earning result in the company's history, reflecting our low-cost operations and continued production growth. We generated AUD 571 million in operating cash flows and finished the year with available cash of AUD 707 million, which supports strong shareholder returns. Overall, in light of the current global market and local weather-related challenges, we are pleased with our ability to remain resilient, low-cost producer, and we look forward to sharing our full-year results in September. I'll now hand over to the operator to start the Q&A session.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question via the phones, please press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the ask a question box and click submit. Your first question today comes from Daniel Roden from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rob, Rebecca [Rob] I just wanted to quickly ask on, I guess, the inventory at both Bengalla and New Acland. You know, we're hitting quite high inventory levels at both of the assets, and you've kind of noted, you know, specifically at Bengalla, you know, I guess, curbing CSPP. The report just hints to restrictions in, I guess, inventory capacity. I guess, what's the expected rate of unwind into, you know, I guess, over the next few periods? You know, do you have any ability to increase, I guess, you know, site capacity to, I guess, whether a bit more of that inventory build in the near term?
Yeah, it's a good question. You're quite right. Stock levels are quite high across both sites, and that's really, you know, as I've mentioned, a result of the logistics impacts which both sites have seen, particularly at Bengalla. Unfortunately, we begin the year with another fairly major weather event down in the Hunter Valley. We're sitting at probably about 60 ships off the coast from the port , which is hampering getting coal offsite. I guess having said that, we've had some good interactions with the rail provider and with the port, and it is being managed well. It really is reliant on continued good conditions and improving to get that coal offsite. We're fairly confident it will improve. Obviously, it hasn't been a great end to our financial year nor the start of the year.
We're confident it'll improve, and we're certainly doing everything we can to improve that downstream logistics piece.
Okay. Are there other, failing improved conditions on the rail and shipping, are there other opportunities you could explore in terms of capacity or resource sharing between other operations in New Maine?
Yeah, I mean, we are looking at everything, both from stockpile management, also the, you know, the parties we're working with, both from a rail and port perspective. We're keeping our options open there so that we can pull the trigger on any pivoting coal to another solution which will get coal down the line. Certainly, we've got ample stockpile capacity from a run perspective on site. With the recent growth project which we've had at Bengalla, which is well bedded in now, we've got the increased throughput through the prep plant when needed. I guess we're comfortable that we're doing everything we can, but there is a certain piece of it which is out of our control, and it's really how we bounce back from that is probably the key thing.
That makes a lot of sense. Okay. I just wanted to touch as well on the, I guess, the realized pricing. You know, Bengalla's realized pricing, I think, was pretty in line with expectations, but it was quite soft at New Acland. Was that just a function of, you know, I guess, when I run some numbers on, you know, quick numbers on a sheet, even accounting for, you know, higher ash sales and the change in, I guess, sales mix, I'm still seeing a bit of a soft print. Do you mind shedding a bit more color on what the sales are, you know, what happened in the quarter from a pricing perspective there, please?
Yeah, sure. I think if you look at the pricing for the quarter, the realized pricing was down a bit compared to benchmark. You did touch on the high ash portion. We did have a higher ash portion of sales during the quarter, which did push down our average realized price across the whole portfolio across both mines. That's really just a timing issue. I think there's also a bit of a lag effect with the pricing as it comes through, given how our contracts are negotiated and constructed. The key thing is, our sort of average of high ash to low ash hasn't changed from historical levels. It's really just a timing issue, which we saw in this quarter.
Was there a higher delivery into domestic contracts in the quarter? Does that have a different pricing, I guess, mechanism behind that?
That's on a fixed-term basis for our high ash domestic sales, which is the majority of that at the Bengalla Mine . Yeah, I mean, it's not tied to a benchmark like most of our export sales are.
Okay. Okay. I'll slip one more in if I can. The Bowen Coking Coal, I guess, the line facility, how much of that was drawn? How much is undrawn? I know that's something that's being watched, but I guess what are your expectations around their AUD 70 million obligation originally? Do you see that as likely to be recoverable if it's fully drawn by the Queensland government?
With that facility, we've got a sense here of about AUD 45 million exposure for a rehabilitation bank guarantee, which is in place with the government. That's our exposure there. That's AUD 45 million . Obviously, it's unfortunate where Bowen's at with administrators and receivers appointed. We're obviously keeping a close eye on that. Our expectation is that it's not likely that the bank guarantee will be drawn upon. At this stage, we just need to see how the administration and the receivership folds out and whether there's a successful sale process out the other side.
Okay. No, thanks, Rob. Appreciate your answers. Thank you.
No problem.
Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Rob Stein from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rob. Thanks for the call. Just drilling into the Bengalla issues in a little bit more depth. Can you give us a feeling for in terms of monthly sort of run rates, how you're sitting towards the end of July, how we would expect the operation to respond in the next quarter? We're just trying to get a feel for is this a permanent difference or a temporary difference and there's catch-up?
I think essentially, you know, and I touched on it in the last few questions. The run rate in July, sorry, in August, which is our first month of our year, has been hampered. That's really due to offsite logistics impacts both at the port and with the rail provider. It's certainly not a permanent issue. Our results for August will be a bit lighter than what we would have liked.
We expect to catch it up in the following months as the logistics piece turns to normal again.
Given either then there's flattish Q1 for you, are we expecting that those impacts to be sort of worked through as, hopefully, things dry out and you can sort of catch up on movement to sort of get back ahead of your mine plan?
Yeah, I mean, we've got the ability to operate in fairly wet conditions now with the recent modification approval. On-site overburden movement is still pretty strong. We were impacted by dragline shut during the year just gone. That was down to about 50 days. Operations on-site remain strong. Obviously, when we have been stopped out, we've continued to pivot our operations to continue maximizing overburden movement and run production, albeit that we probably leave some in situ while we're waiting for the prep plant to start up again.
From an overburden movement perspective, we expect that to remain strong and sort of get to that circa sort of 13.4 million ROM level, which is the key behind our growth plans of recent.
Sorry, just a quick one on Malabar. From your point of view, construction or ramp-up hasn't been hampered by the wet weather. Things are looking reasonable in that neck of the woods?
Yeah, I mean, underground operations tend not to get impacted as much by wet weather. There is probably a slight impact with the surface construction for the development, but nothing material, nothing really that would impact getting to first long wall coal, which is due first quarter next calendar year. So calendar year 2026.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Jonathan Sharp from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Rob and team. Just two questions from me. The first one, just given Bengalla's unit costs jumped above AUD 100 a tonne, how should we think about the costs sort of trending into FY 2026 as sales normalize? How long do you think it will take for unit costs to normalize if they do? Thanks.
I think Bengalla's unit cost was probably the standout performance-wise. The figure you're quoting, that might include royalties.
Excluding royalties at AUD 76.5 million.
I guess a strong result despite the fact that we were hampered with production levels during the quarter. We expect if we had more production, that would have been even lower. I think moving forward, we can expect that to continue. Cost is a big focus for the business. That will help us remain resilient during these low coal price times.
Okay, thanks again. Second question from me. You may have already said this in the past, but first thought from me is, as Maxwell transitions from development to longwall production and with Malabar 's, you know, shareholder base expected to likely evolve, how do you think about New Hope's role there? Would you be comfortable remaining a passive investor, or would you consider taking a more strategic or even, you know, being the operator there?
Yeah, you're quite right. It is sort of at the pointy end of its development. The long wall, as I said before, should ramp up or begin essentially first quarter next year. Bord and pillars started to get good consistency as well. Wayne and the team on site are doing an excellent job of getting that asset ready for good consistent production. Currently, from a, I guess, a shareholder perspective, we're sitting just under 23%. We're very happy with the shareholder group. They're a lot of experienced individuals and all very supportive of the project. If we were approached for more equity, we'd obviously consider it. We've quite often told you there's strategic criteria for which we look at investments. Malabar up to now has certainly fit within that criteria.
Okay, thanks, Rob. I'll leave it there.
Thank you. As there are no further phone questions at this time, we will now pause briefly and address any webcast questions. Your first question from the webcast states, "It doesn't seem like you have spent much time on share buyback. Have you put any of that on hold for now?
Thank you. We have taken a conservative approach with the share buyback. When we announced the buyback back in March of 2025, we did see value in the share price, and our assets at that point were very undervalued in our eyes. Off the back of March 2025, we have seen significant volatility in the market. I guess given this volatility, we really wanted to tread carefully and not rush the pace of the buyback. We really pulled it back, as you would have seen with our announcements, and we are kind of all in today at AUD 3.60 per share, which is, we see that as a valuable price to buy back shares. We've seen a big uplift in the share price recently, and we continue to use the share buyback when we see the time is right.
At the moment, we probably see there's more value in dividends for our shareholders.
Thank you. Your next question from the webcast states, "Can you please provide an update on mining in the Manning Vale West Pit at New Acland?
At this stage, we're targeting mining to commence in the second half of 2026. To get over to that pit, there's surface infrastructure work that needs to happen, including access roads and various other construction pieces. That is a focus for the moment. The intention is to open up the third pit to give us flexibility across the whole mine.