I would now like to hand the conference over to Rob Bishop, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's presentation. I am Rob Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of New Hope Group. I am joined by Rebecca Rinaldi, our CFO, and Dom O'Brien, our Executive General Manager and Company Secretary. This morning, we released our full-year results for the 2026 financial year. Hopefully, you have had a chance to go through the presentation, but in any case, I will step you through our key highlights before we open up the line for Q and A questions. 2026 marked another strong year for New Hope Group as we continue to increase volumes and deliver our organic growth profile. Firstly, I would like to touch on safety. Throughout the year, our high potential event frequency rate reduced by 38% to 3.59, whilst our TRIFR increased to 3.89, 21% higher than this time last year.
The safety of our people remain our highest priority, and we are focused on continuing improvements in all aspects of safety and wellbeing. Looking at our operational performance for the year, the group achieved a run-of-mine coal production of 16.9 million tons, a 3% increase from the previous period. Saleable coal production of 11.5 million tons, 8% higher than the previous period, and coal sales of 11.8 million tons, 4% higher than the previous period. Our saleable coal production and coal sales exceeded guidance ranges underpinned by the continued ramp-up of New Acland Mine and Bengalla Mine's return to its nameplate production capacity. In terms of our financial performance, we delivered revenue of AUD 1.8 billion, an underlying EBITDA of AUD 514 million, and a statutory net profit after tax of AUD 161 million.
EBITDA and NPAT were impacted by a temporary increase in strip ratio at Bengalla Mine and lower realized pricing.
Despite certain short-term challenges, our assets remain resilient and continue to generate solid margins, which allows us to maintain returns to shareholders. On that note, I am pleased to announce the board has declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.30 per share. High potential event frequency rate became the group's primary safety measure during the financial year. We have seen an improvement in our frequency rate during the period, decreasing from 5.82 to 3.59. This reflects a deliberate shift in focus towards events and conditions that have the potential to result in fatal or permanently life-altering injuries. This approach aligns with broader direction of the mining industry, where there is an increasing emphasis on understanding and managing high potential events, principle of material hazards, and the effectiveness of critical controls.
While traditional injury metrics remain important, we believe this frequency rate provides a better indicator of our exposure to serious harm and helps ensure our attention remains focused on preventing the most significant safety risks. TRIFR continues to serve as an important supplementary measure of injury performance. During the period, increased prime waste volumes were delivered at Bengalla Mine, which supported the realignment of the pit sequence following significant weather events across the Hunter region late in FY 2025. The operation delivered a strong finish and showcased its ability to achieve its targeted run coal production rate. Bengalla Mine delivered saleable coal production of 8.2 million tons, which exceeded its guidance range. The operation achieved an FOB cash cost of AUD 81.30 per sale ton, which came in the low end of its guidance range.
At New Acland Mine, we continued to successfully ramp up towards 5 million tons per annum. In FY 2026, New Acland Mine produced 3.3 million tons of saleable coal, an uplift of 17% compared to the previous year. The operation was able to take advantage of increased spot rail capacity during the year, achieving coal sales of 3.6 million tons, which exceeded its guidance range. The group achieved an average sale price, including hedging, of AUD 145 per ton, approximately 10% lower than the previous period. Despite lower coal prices, the group's low-cost assets delivered a solid margin of AUD 45 per ton. Our business generated an EBITDA of AUD 514 million, which enabled reinvestment in our assets and allowed continued returns to shareholders. AUD 161 million was invested back into the business, largely by way of capital expenditure, supporting the group's organic growth.
As well as investing in our assets, we returned AUD 206 million to our shareholders by way of fully franked dividends. Our total shareholder return during the period was approximately 33%. Our approach to capital management is underpinned by a disciplined focus on delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. The group's strong cash position generation allows us to sustain our current baseline of production whilst also investing in our organic growth profile. The ramp-up of New Acland Mine is progressing well. Coal and quarry realignment to enable development of the Manning Vale West pit third mining area is underway, with AUD 16 million incurred during the period. Our two forms of capital returns are fully franked dividends and on-market share buybacks. As previously mentioned, our board has declared a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.30 per share.
New Hope has a significant franking account balance and will continue to utilize this value for our shareholders. The dividend reinvestment plan, which we announced in September last year, will be operational for the final dividend. Turning to outlook, we have a very strong outlook for the industry. Our strategy is underpinned by the belief that demand for thermal coal produced from Australian operations will continue to play a vital role in providing reliable and secure energy supply to the world. While we expect coal share of global power generation to reduce over time, the sheer increase in global power demand will continue to support seaborne thermal coal exports into the future. In addition, the aging of existing thermal coal assets, combined with underinvestment in new projects, suggest a potential supply shortfall and attractive pricing outlook for the industry.
Regardless of pricing dynamics, our low-cost assets produce high-quality coal, providing resilience in the cyclical environment and ensuring continued margin generation. The year where we saw uncontrollable increases in our cash costs, our assets were still able to generate an underlying margin of AUD 45 per ton, or approximately 30%, which showcases our low-cost nature, as well as the significant upside potential available to New Hope and ultimately our shareholders in the current pricing environment. New Hope remains committed to our shareholders and delivering sustainable long-term returns. In the last five years, fully franked dividends have amounted to over AUD 2 billion, which equates to approximately 48% of the company's market capitalization as at 31 July 2026. In addition, New Hope's share price has outperformed the ASX All Ordinaries by nearly 10x since its initial public offering in 2003.
At New Hope, we recognize the importance of our dedicated workforce and the communities in which we operate. During the year, Bengalla Mine invested AUD 1.5 million into the community and spent AUD 186 million with local suppliers. New Acland Mine invested AUD 800,000 to the community and spent AUD 70 million with local suppliers. The success of our operations is closely linked to the strength of communities that support us. Rehabilitation remains a key part of the commitment as a responsible operator. Across Bengalla Mine and New Acland Mine, 3,086 hectares of land has been disturbed through mining activities, with approximately 35% of that area rehabilitated. Our growth pipeline targets a significant increase in coal production over the next two years, which represents low risk and cost-effective growth.
Looking ahead to the 2027 financial year, we are focused on remaining a resilient, low-cost coal producer while executing our organic growth plans, which will enable us to continue to deliver shareholder value. Our group's strategy is to safely, responsibly, and efficiently operate at low cost, long life assets with a focus on disciplined capital management, providing valuable returns to our shareholders. Our investment proposition is underpinned by these six key areas, which we have summarized throughout the presentation today. Thanks very much. I will now hand over to the operator to start Q and A session.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phones, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the ask a question box. Your first question comes from Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Congrats on the results. I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about FY 2027 guidance on slide 13. I guess it's not formal guidance, obviously, but it implies that next year might come around the range of 12.7 million tons sellable. If you don't include Malabar, of course. If I'm looking at that and looking at a forward guidance around cost, if I'm trying to think about what a normalized and consistent variable cost assumptions would be into FY 2027, how should I think about that? I'm, I think, trying to get a bit of a view on how New Acland might change the cost base and what the stripping profile looks like at, I guess, the rest of the business. I was wondering if you could help us think about that a little bit.
That's all right, Daniel. I think probably the key area of change will be Acland. As you know, that's in ramp up at the moment. We did about 3.3-3.4 for this financial year just finished, and that will push into the 4 million tons production range for next year. As a result, you'll see that fixed cost base at Acland spread over more tons, and you'll see that unit cost decrease. That will continue as we push out to 5 million tons production within the next 18 months or so. Bengalla will be more steady state. There will be inflationary impacts and it's probably fair to expect that we'll see some increased or heightened diesel costs coming through the books.
But I think as I've said previously on calls and information to the market that typically diesel is correlated to coal price, so we see a much bigger benefit coming through our revenue line, which more than offsets the increase in diesel costs. Probably another point, both of our operations are very low strip ratio, and as a result, diesel as a percentage of our overall cost base is less than perhaps some of our competitors.
Yeah, perfect. I touched on a few of the things I was going to follow up on. But maybe could you help remind us what the sensitivity to diesel is at Bengalla and acknowledging, I guess, the relationship between, I guess, energy pricing and thermal coal, of course. But you've obviously seen thermal coal react, but if I'm doing my calculations and backing out what's, I guess, the natural gas price equivalent in thermal coal units, there's still a fair bit of headroom there. From your perception, what are you guys seeing and what closes that gap on an equivalent term? Do you still see marginal buyers out there in the market, or is there a lot of resistance in making that coal to gas or sorry, gas to coal switching? Sorry if I did not.
Yeah. There's a lot in that. I guess what we've seen since the heightened tensions in the Middle East, we have seen directly some Asian countries switching. Certainly, our belief is that Korea is doing just that. Korea essentially turned to Russian coal off the back of the Ukraine crisis and wasn't taking much of any Australian coal. That's now changed, and we've had some inbound requests for supply to Korea. So that for us is a sign of switching, and our belief is Japan is as well. That certainly is underpinning some of the index price and the Newcastle Index. There are other factors at play which are impacting that with Indonesian quotas and certainly some stoppages in China.
That's obviously impacting more the high ash coal price, but ultimately, the more high ash goes up, typically, you'll see an underpinning of the Newcastle Index or high CV index. Probably the other point also is that certainly in recent days, we've seen impacts to gas supply and heightened concern over that, which will be making countries think about the switching potential, and certainly from a stability of shipping lanes, et cetera. Coal from Australia is certainly a much safer bet than some of the other sources for gas. So there's a lot contributing to it, and I think also, the likelihood of a hot, drier summer under the El Niño conditions, which are expected, I think will also underpin coal prices.
I think our view is that, with coal prices at the moment around AUD 150, there's probably a good chance it'll stay at that point to potentially work its way a little higher.
Yeah, okay. Maybe just the last one from me, and I'll hand it over and go right back on the queue. Just on your last point there, what's your expectation of maybe holding AUD 150 or higher on a coal price perspective? Maybe just walk us through the rationale behind the final div for the year and noting the franking balance there. If you could remind us what the residual franking balance is and, I guess, if we are expecting to hold around today's levels, what, I guess the expectation would be for depletion of the franking account?
Sure. So, I guess from a franking account balance, post the dividend, it will sit around the mid-600s, so AUD 650 million or thereabouts. And you will be able to work that out looking at the accounts. But certainly a solid dividend to shareholders and as you pointed out, fully franked. And I guess that really goes to the cash generative nature of our business. We certainly saw probably prices at the lower end of the cycle, particularly for the first half of the year. We benefit from a rally which has been sporadic depending on what announcements are coming out on what is happening in the Middle East. But after probably a fairly soft year from coal pricing, we still generate a significant cash and have the ability to pay a very strong dividend.
I think, if you convert that to an outlook of potentially higher prices, I think it is pretty clear that strong shareholder returns will continue, which is very exciting. And you look at the slide in our deck on our organic growth and the tonnage which is coming into the business for modest capital expenditure to achieve that. And they are low-cost tons. Both mines sit low on the cost curve, quality coal. All it means is strong cash generation, and particularly as capital expenditure internally for those growth projects is coming off. I think we see a really strong cash generative future for the business.
Awesome. Thanks, mate. I will hand it over. Thanks.
No worries.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Rob, and I'm guessing Rebecca and Dom are there as well. Good morning and hope everything is well. Rob, a little bit further, another question, sorry, on diesel and just the outlook there and to your point, yep, absolutely, coal prices are getting pushed up, particularly due to what's happening in Indonesia now with restricted exports and the dryness there and also the impact from diesel prices there. Just on specifically on your business, I just sort of look at that you've actually put in your release here that, in your annual report that Bengalla's diesel cost was AUD 1.12 a liter last year, and AUD 0.90 a year prior. Can you just step through what diesel price you're paying now and also how much diesel does actually Bengalla consume?
Yeah, sure. I'll take that one, Paul, and thanks for the question. I guess our diesel contract does look at the market rates behind the diesel. It does fluctuate when the underlying diesel price does go up. Last month, as an example, we paid around AUD 1.23 a liter. As we've seen in the past couple of weeks, we expect that to increase with the diesel price. Bengalla uses about 80 million liters a year, based on current forecast run rates.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. Rob, the next question. Thanks, Rebecca. The next question is actually just on approvals in New South Wales and actually the outlook for Bengalla. I mean, one, you've done a great job of picking up the tenements around Bengalla and also through your investment in Malabar as well, we've got a few big decisions coming up in the next month with Mount Pleasant and also Hunter Valley operations. We've got the Net Zero Commission, New South Wales, having a view. We've got Penny Sharpe, Minister Sharpe, coming out with a view around no greenfields projects in New South Wales going forward, which is, it's a really interesting sort of juncture at the moment in the industry.
You have presented a really compelling chart on, I think, slide nine showing New South Wales coal production declining, and we have obviously got Mount Arthur coming off in 2030 as well. The question is actually around the tenements around Bengalla. Is the view, just initial discussions with the government and your work, that this is greenfields or brownfields?
It will be brownfield extension. It fits within the recent statement on coal from New South Wales. It is an existing precinct. It is adjacent to existing operations. It will utilize, on the basis we pursue an extension. As you pointed out, we have the two ELs out to the west, so the common sense approach, assuming exploration proves that there is economic coal there, we believe it will, would be to continue the advancement of the pit out to the west. That is certainly a focus. We are currently exploring that. There is not a significant rush for that. Our current permit is out to 2039. We believe we will have exhausted all the reserves within that permit around about 2037.
You quite rightly pointed out, there are a couple of imminent decisions which need to be made about neighboring mines, and we will certainly be, and have been, watching that closely. Hopefully, common sense prevails there. They are solid operators that make sense to continue. Certainly, I think the mid-government is, hopefully, there is a lot of support to continue both of those operations. We have a bit of time for an approval, and we have been engaging with government and had positive feedback. Certainly, the intention would be to pursue those, as we sort of get to the back end of this decade.
Yeah, great news. Just lastly, accounting question actually probably for Rebecca, just around your equity share within Maxwell, which continues to come through at the moment through the revenue line, and it has been making losses, obviously, because Longwall has not, it has only just started cutting coal and a large fixed cost base there. When it turns profitable, do you still expect to take the EBIT from that operation through that line? Or are we going to see that come through, NPAT sorry, come through the EBIT line? How should we think about the accounting, Rebecca, going forward?
Yeah. The accounting shouldn't change too much, Paul. It should still be considered a share of an associate, which will come through that line where the loss is coming through. That's because we don't control that operation. So essentially, when that operation starts to pay profits, we'll recognize those profits and subsequently get dividends off the back of that.
Yeah, okay. Understood. Thank you. Thanks very much.
No worries.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jacob Li with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hey, Rob, Rebecca, and Dom. Congrats on the strong result and dividend. Just trying to understand the thinking behind the dividend payout, and what we expect on a go-forward basis. You previously talked to wanting to hold a bit more cash than historically. If I look at your pro forma cash balance netting the final dividend today, that is more than AUD 500 million. I guess the question would be how much cash does New Hope ultimately want to hold on a balance sheet, and over what time horizon are you thinking about that target level and distributing any excess of cash? Thanks.
Good question. I guess our focus is still to execute existing capital within the group. That is really, and there is commentary in the pack around some capital that needs to be spent to build out the pit to the west at Acland. So that is completion of that road, some mobile equipment which needs to be purchased, ancillary equipment. That is obviously a focus. That is the best use of capital within the business to generate that extra tonnage for Acland to get up to that 5 million product. From a minimum cash balance perspective, we have spoken of around AUD 300 million as a sensible minimum cash for the business, and we constantly review that. But, I guess it has been pleasing to be able to pay a very handsome, fully franked dividend for this last year.
As I said before, it just really underpins the cash generative nature of the business. Obviously when we get to the middle of FY 2027, we will assess our cash balance then and what makes sense to pay an interim dividend.
Yeah. Thanks, Rob. I guess just to push you a bit further on that. If I look at your pro forma cash balance since 2021, you have been holding around AUD 400 million-AUD 450 million. I am talking about cash, net dividend declared. Is AUD 300 million still the cash balance you want to hold? Or you want to hold a bit more given the uncertainty in the microenvironment and the coal pricing? Thanks.
I think it goes to the point of having capital to deploy within the industry, in the business. I think we have highlighted before that coal price has fluctuated a lot, in the last six months. There is a potential that that will continue. We want to make sure that we have got the cash on the balance sheet to deploy for our organic growth. Then we will assess where we are at come middle of the year.
All right. Thanks, Rob. My second one would be on New Acland. Just looking at your chart on slide 21. FY 2028 appears to be, I think, 4.5, 4.6 instead of 5 million ton run then play. Is there a level of conservatism there, given the rail performance has been impacted by Cross River Rail outages and QR industrial action, et cetera?
Yeah, that is certainly something which we have highlighted as a challenge. Certainly, Cross River Rail is very delayed, and that will continue to hamper consistency of rail. This month, there is a material shutdown in September, for example, which is planned. We have catered for it. I think from our perspective, we are confident that the mine will get up to that 5 million tons. There probably is a level of conservatism in our outlook, and I think we have probably consistently exceeded the expected ramp up for Acland. Certainly, we acknowledge the risk of rail. We are engaging both with Aurizon, our bulk rail provider, and QR to ensure that we get the right support to support that ramp up.
All right. Thanks, Rob. If I can squeeze in more on New Acland. Good to see the increase in coal resources. How does that shape your thinking around potentially stage four mining, given, I think, you are permitted to go to, I think, 2040 with stage three mining? Thanks.
We have a lot of land, a lot of tenements surrounding our existing approval footprint. We've engaged with Queensland government on a potential extension similar to the scenario which we spoke about in an earlier question around Bengalla. We have a very good understanding of the reserves around our existing footprint. In many cases, it's probably lower strip ratio than what we're seeing with our existing approval, into the 2 :1 strip ratio. So very low strip ratio. It should be very prospective, very early days from a current permit. Stage three, which is the stage we're in at the moment, will continue till around about 2040. So we do have time, but we're certainly looking at that and engaging with government on a potential extension.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone or type your question into the ask a question box. Your next question comes from James Goodsall. It's noted that salable production hit the upper boundary of your guidance, but FOB cash costs still climbed 7.9% to AUD 88.9 per ton. How much of this cost expansion is temporary and due to the Bengalla pit resequencing versus structural inflationary pressure?
There are a couple of points there, and we've talked about the pit resequencing in Bengalla having an impact on unit costs, and that was particularly in the first half of the year. We did see a strong second half of the year for Bengalla, which is more indicative of that asset on a longer term. As Acland ramps up, that becomes a more material part of our group, and when you look at the tonnage coming out of Acland at the moment, it's still in ramp up. So, you will see a heightened, I guess, unit cost for Acland having an impact on the blended unit rate for the group. As Acland ramps up to the 5 million ton production, you will see an easing of that ton cost base to a lower level.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Vanitha Nagarajan. Could you please provide some color on how the capped call options operate to mitigate the potential dilution arising from the convertible notes? Taking into account the AUD 0.30 dividend, the effective exercise price of the convertible notes will now be closer to the market price.
Yeah, sure. I guess on the capped call, essentially, that instrument stepped in at the strike price of the convertible bond. The strike price at 31 July was AUD 7.41 of that convertible bond, and that capped call then pushed that strike price up to an average blended rate of AUD 9.55. If the share price is within that strike range, and the bond could convert, essentially those counterparties would step in that regard. In terms of your second point, yes, both that strike price of the convertible bond and also the strike price of the capped call will adjust based on the dividend. That is based on a view up prior to record date, so we do not exactly know what that is at the moment.
But the expectation is that on the convertible bond, the strike price of AUD 7.41 will come down to around AUD 7 or so.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the conference back to Rob Bishop for any closing remarks.
Thanks all for joining, and have a good day. Thank you.