Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to James Powell, General Manager of Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to the financial results presentation for the Rural Funds Group for the half year ended 31 December 2025. Presenting today is David Bryant, Managing Director, Tim Sheridan, Chief Operating Officer, and Daniel Yap, Chief Financial Officer. After the presentation, we've allowed time to take questions from attendees, who can submit a question by typing into the question box and clicking Submit. For those dialing in today, to ask a verbal question, please dial star one when prompted, and I'll now hand over to our first presenter, Tim.
Good morning, everyone. I will present the financial results for the half before handing over to David Bryant. The first half of FY 2026 has been a positive period for the group. Net property income is up 7%, gearing has reduced on a pro forma basis, and FY 2027 CapEx is significantly lower compared to the past several years. Independent valuations and asset sales continue to confirm RFF's asset values, and both adjusted funds from operations, AFFO, and distributions are on track to achieve full-year guidance. Now moving on to the financial results in more detail. The first slide of this section details RFF's key earnings drivers for the period. Net property income from leased assets increased by AUD 3 million to AUD 49 million.
The 7% increase is mainly due to additional rent being charged from the development of leased macadamia orchards, as well as annual indexation mechanisms that occur in all of our leases. Net farming income represented AUD 1.1 million, mainly derived from favorable dry land cropping and cattle results on Kaiuroo. While this result is an improvement on the prior corresponding period, the second half contribution of this segment is forecast to be significantly higher following the harvest of macadamia and cotton crops. From an expense perspective, fund expenses were in line with the prior period. However, interest on debt increased by AUD 4 million. This was largely due to a decrease in the interest that is able to be capitalized, reflecting the completion of various asset development programs.
These results provided net cash earnings or adjusted funds from operations of AUD 21.5 million or AUD 0.055 per unit basis. Importantly, AFFO is on track to achieve full-year forecast, noting the expected second half skew in farming income. After adding non-cash items, earnings of AUD 44 million or AUD 0.113 per unit was generated in first half 2026. This is compared to AUD 13 million for the prior period. The favorable result, driven by positive revaluations on interest rate swaps, as well as the gain on the sale of water entitlements. Finally, on this page, RFF paid two distributions during the half, totaling AUD 0.0587 per unit, which is in line with forecast. Now, looking at the balance sheet. Assets increased marginally during the period as a consequence of development capital expenditure.
The adjusted net per unit at 31 December was AUD 3.10 per unit, a minor increase of AUD 0.02 per unit, reflecting the mark to market of interest rate swaps. Pro forma gearing remained largely unchanged at 39.1%, despite AUD 70 million of development CapEx being deployed during the period. This CapEx was funded from the sale of two surplus sugarcane properties and excess water entitlements. These transactions demonstrate RFF's commitment to fund capital expenditure with asset sales and ultimately bring RFF's gearing back towards the target range of 30%-35%. Further to this, additional asset sales are expected during the balance of this financial year. This next page provides additional detail of property valuation movements that have occurred within RFF over the past six months.
Independent valuations were arranged for 25% of assets, which were in line with book values and consistent with our policy to independently revalue all assets at least every two years. On the remaining portion of the portfolio, directors' valuations were applied. The movement in this segment mainly reflects the depreciation of bearer plants in line with accounting standards. Further evidence to support asset valuations is the divestment of farms, which have occurred at or above book value. Two sugarcane farms were sold for 10% above their book value, and water entitlements sold at their adjusted book value. Water is held at cost in the statutory accounts, in line with accounting standards, and therefore, this sale provided a substantial gain as they were sold at approximately 2.5 times their purchase price. Looking now at the capital management aspect of the group.
During the period, RFF's core syndicate debt facility went through a scheduled refinance, providing a tenor extension and an improvement in the bank margin. The core facility remains well within all covenants, including the loan-to-value ratio and ICR. Despite our intention to fund development capital expenditure program with asset sales, we note that the facility does have sufficient headroom to fund committed CapEx for FY 2026 and 2027, if necessary. Forecast FY 2027 committed capital expenditure compared to the prior three years is detailed on this page. It highlights that RFF is now past its peak CapEx requirement for intensive asset development programs, with significantly lower forecast CapEx to occur in FY 2027. The debt facility is 60% hedged, with a reasonable level of hedging locked in through to FY 2029.
The portion of hedging may also increase as asset sales are completed and debt is reduced, positioning the fund well in the event of any future increases in interest rates. I'll now hand over to David. Thank you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'll provide a portfolio and strategy update for the Rural Funds Group. Starting this section is a photograph of the Queensland property, Kaiuroo. Shown in the image are the first stage developments, which were detailed in the prior results presentation and are now complete, including pumping infrastructure, a water storage, and irrigated cropping area. Similar developments will be conducted on different locations on Kaiuroo over the next 18 months. Once fully developed, this property will be more profitable and more attractive to potential lessees. Kaiuroo serves as a useful example of the broader strategy for the Rural Funds Group: to generate higher returns through asset developments, using RFM's farm development expertise, while maintaining a majority of lease income from a diversified portfolio of agricultural assets. The various metrics on this page provide evidence of this approach.
Looking more closely at the leasing revenue of the group, as at the 31st of December, 83% of RFF's assets were leased for a weighted average lease expiry of 13.2 years. The largest lessees are shown on the left of this page and include high-quality, institutional-grade counterparties. Revenue is also diversified by agricultural sector and indexation mechanisms. As noted at the start of this section, the Rural Funds Group seeks higher returns through asset development opportunities. Assets in this category are presented on this page and include those being held for potential future development, currently under development, and properties for which the developments have been completed. Overall, these assets represent AUD 342 million or 17% of the portfolio. Importantly, the majority of these assets are able to be operated by RFF and contribute farming income.
Two sectors providing a material contribution to farming income in FY 26 are macadamias and cropping. Macadamia orchards on two aggregations will be harvested over the coming months, and the harvest of irrigated cotton fields will occur over April and May on Kaiuroo and on Lynora Downs. Turning to additional income-producing opportunities for the Rural Funds Group, RFM will shortly provide documentation for unit holders to approve a further increase to the J&F Guarantee. The guarantee is a security arrangement, which supports a cattle finance facility for the Rural Funds Group lessee, JBS, and has been in place since 2018. As a result of growth in JBS's business, increases to the J&F Guarantee have been previously approved by unit holders in 2020 and 2022, shown in the chart in the top left.
Unit holders will be asked to vote on two increases, the second being contingent on asset sales, which ensures that RFF's pro forma LVR does not increase. Importantly, the increases to the J&F Guarantee are accretive to RFF, providing up to an additional AUD 0.01 per unit of AFFO on a full year basis, assuming the approved increases are fully utilized. Documentation is expected to be provided to unit holders in March 2026, and a separate investor webinar will be held to provide more details on the resolutions. Finally, the last page of this section summarizes the sustainability updates, which were provided in the FY 2025 annual report, including emissions, which have been disclosed by the group for several years. Now, moving to the outlook and conclusion. In summary, the results presented today represent a business-as-usual set of disclosures.
We have made some progress on asset sales, but intend to do more, as evidenced by our clear statements that capital expenditure programs will be funded by asset sales. Capital management is ongoing, with appropriate debt headroom and hedging in place. And finally, guidance is reaffirmed both for AFFO and distributions. Following the retail investor roadshow RFM held last year, we are offering our retail investors the opportunity to participate in an asset tour at a Victorian vineyard in late 2026.
... If this is of interest, I encourage you to register via the QR code or directly with our investor services team. Thank you for listening, and I now invite questions from attendees.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. One moment for our first question. Our first question will come from the line of Cody Shields with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, David and team. Thanks for the time. Just firstly, on the AUD 80 million of asset sales you'd look to do, as part of that J&F guarantee piece, what kind of assets would you be looking to divest there, and what kind of timeline would you be looking to achieve that in?
Okay, Cody, it's Tim speaking. It's further water sales, so we still have some high-security water entitlements which haven't been sold, and it's a couple of the low-yielding cattle properties. So asset sales, additional asset sales are, you know, they're well progressed. We're targeting selling approximately AUD 200 million worth of assets over the next, call it, 12 months, and they're just all, you know, processes are ongoing for those.
Okay, that's clear. Thanks. And then just on the scheduled refinance, could you provide some flavor on where the overall margins were prior to this and where they sit now?
Hi, Cody, it's Daniel here. We went through the refinance back in November and December last year. We did see some savings in margins compared to the previous tranches. We're probably seeing about 5-10 basis point decreases on those respective margins.
Okay. Thanks, Daniel. Maybe just the last one from me on just where yields are sitting across the book and what you're seeing in the way of transaction evidence?
So, you know, we've offloaded about AUD 65 million worth of assets in the past six months. They've all occurred at or above book value, so we sold a few sugarcane farms, which are at about a 10% premium to book value. All the water is transacted at book value, the adjusted book value, 'cause water is held at cost. And then beyond that, the process we're going through to sell some cattle assets, you know, we're confident that we will achieve book values on those. So, you know, I think it's, we're not seeing any significant increases in asset values. We're probably seeing a bit of a plateauing, but it's really supporting our asset values.
Okay, that's great. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of James Ferrier with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gents. Thanks for your time today. Just a follow-up from the first question around the, asset divestments associated with the J&F guarantee increase. You've got that AUD 34 million of New South Wales River Water contracted to divest, in the second half. Is that included in the 80? And I guess if you add on Cobungra, which is on the market, that probably gets you to 80, if, if those two assets, qualify.
Thanks, James. It's Tim speaking. So at the full year results, we had flagged that we were going to sell AUD 200 million worth of assets. We're not now targeting at selling AUD 260 million worth. So we've increased it 'cause we still wanna get our gearing back towards the target range of 30%-35%. So that, that we've sold AUD 60 million during the period. We still have about 20, call it AUD 22 million of high-security water that has not yet been sold. We will look to sell that, and then beyond that, we've got, Kabungra, which is on the market, and we have some other cattle assets we're looking at.
Yeah, understood. Okay. And so based on those plans, the gearing would reduce to that 30-35 range?
Yeah. It'd still be towards the upper end on a pro forma basis, so, you know, call it 35%. Certainly won't get to 30%. That's on the basis that we do, we do do the J&F increase. Initially, that J&F increase that we're proposing, we're only looking to take that to AUD 160 million. We're seeking approval to go to AUD 200 million, but that will occur over time.
Okay. Slide 15, with respect to the development portfolio there, what's the implied yield on those assets as it sort of stands within the FY 2026 guides?
Well, we-
I mean, some of those assets would be-
Yeah.
Little to no income.
That's right. If we look at the one that we're operating, so our farming income for the, for the first half was about AUD 1 million. On a full year basis, we're expecting that to grow to just over AUD 5 million. So the ones that we're operating, we're anticipating to generate AUD 5 million of, of farming income, and then you can divide that by the asset values, to give you the yield. But no, we'll see it. We're forecasting about a AUD 4 million, income from farming in the second half, so AUD 1 million in the first and AUD 4 million in the second half.
... Okay, that's helpful. And what's the outlook as it stands today? What's the outlook in terms of your leasing or divesting some of those assets?
Yeah, so with Kaiuroo, so stage 1 is completed. We've still got to do stage 2 of the development. That will occur over the next, sort of, call it 18 months, up to 18 months, depending on the wet season and rain. So Kaiuroo will then be fully developed at the end of that. In terms of the macadamias, that 670 hectares, as we're planning, it will be fully planted by the end of this financial year. So then it's, it's developed and, and ready to lease out. They're probably the two most significant. In terms of when they are actually leased out, it depends when we can find the right lessee or the right counterpart at the right rate. So that may take more time.
Yeah, understood. And then last question for me, just on the proposed increase in J&F guarantee, you previously increased that instrument in the past. What's interesting from my perspective is we've had some pretty extreme volatility in cattle prices over the past five years or so, and I was interested in what relation you've had around the variability in income streams, RFF, through that period, what sort of variability you've seen from JBS as the operator through that price volatility period?
Yeah, that's a good question. Because of the structure of that transaction, we have seen no—we haven't seen any variability in return. So that guarantee has been providing us about a 10.5% cash yield on it, with no variability. It's been very stable because we simply get paid a fee based on the guarantee amount. What is happening, but because of the increase we're seeing in cattle prices and because of the demand for Australian beef, JBS are simply wishing to see more cattle, and the purchase of those cattle is costing them more. So that is why they're seeking an additional guarantee amount. In terms of the counterparty, they've been fantastic. It's a highly accretive transaction for RFF with a very strong counterparty.
Yeah. Thanks, Tim.
Thank you. One moment before our next question. Next question from the line of Thomas Ryan with Moelis Australia.
Good morning, and thank you so much. Just a question on yields in general, across the segment. Could you just talk through where, where you're still finding that's too low, and just knowing the way that you present this in the reports, just in terms of those assets that you might look to divest outside of value?
Yeah. So, slide 29 probably illustrates this best. So where we've got natural resource, so these are cattle properties or dry land cropping properties, they have relatively low yields, so call it a five- we can get about a 5% lease rate. That's against a backdrop of interest rates that call it 5.8%. So those types of assets at the moment, on a fully levered basis, are accretive to earnings. But because the gain in cattle land base has been so significant over the last 4 years, it's hard to see that cap rate of call it 5% increasing, and it's hard to see the capital growth being as significant as it has been. So they're the types of assets we're looking to divest.
On the left, on the, you know, the things like the J&F guarantee or the permanent plantings, they all have much higher cap rates and much more long-dated leases. So we don't see any variability in those lease rates, lease rates, and those assets are all accretive based on current interest rates.
Appreciate it. Thanks, Tim. And just one more question on your hedge profile. It hasn't really changed from the full year. Can I just get a clarification over how you see that going out into the outer years and also the sort of the state of your existing facilities and how you're thinking about the headroom?
Yep. Thanks. So it's Daniel here. So we are continuing to monitor the hedging market on a regular basis. At this stage, we are approximately 60%-70% hedged, particularly with asset sales in the pipeline, that could potentially increase, but we are looking for opportunities in the mid to long-term sort of period, where rates come back to or hopefully come back to levels that we would target. So it is something that we'll continue to monitor, as we look to extend our hedging profile.
Thanks, Daniel. And just the last question for me, just noting the result from, TWE the other week. How are you thinking about-
We don't think about them at all because we're not investing any more money in them. I mean, it's an industry that's probably got 25% over capacity globally, and that is gonna take capacity destruction to reduce the oversupply, and it's gonna take time for consumption to increase... very slowly. So that industry is going through a very deep cycle. Our vineyards, they're performing very well. We've got the leases that we renewed them last year, but such that now I think we've got 13 years?
That's right.
Yeah, 13 years to lease expiry. The assets are performing very well for Treasury. They're part of their core brands, particularly the high-end brands. So we're very relaxed about continuing to own those assets. There's indexation clauses in them. And in 13 years' time, I hope, for the sake of everybody in the wine industry, that it's through the cycle.
I'll just add, those vineyards only make up 5% of our forecast revenue, so it's quite a small segment.
Terrific. Thanks, James.
Thank you. And one more-- one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of James Druce with CLSA. Your line is open, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning, David and team. Sorry if this has already been addressed, but across the real estate sector, we've seen bank margins come in quite considerably over the last six to 12 months. We've seen sort of 20-30 basis points improvement. I appreciate you guys don't have anything expiring for a couple of years, but is there... And you probably have done some recently as well, but can you just talk to what margins are doing for you and any opportunity that you have there?
James, Daniel here. So we have been going through an annual refinancing cycle for each of our tranches. So we just went through one of the a refinance for one of our tranches. As part of that, we did see margins come back. But that, I previously quoted that margin came back about 5-10 basis points from the previous the previous margin, which was which was two years ago. So what we'll see as the refinance at the end of this calendar year is hopefully a continuation of the decrease in margins.
Okay. Do you have a feel for what spot is compared to where? I mean, are you still talking about 10 basis points or, I mean, what can you kind of see today?
After your comment, James, we'll try and seek another 30 basis points, I think. But, yeah, I mean, it would be good to see, you know, another 10 at least on the next revive, but that's, that's 12 months away.
Thank you.
Thank you. I would like to hand back to James for questions.
Thank you. Just a reminder to our new hosts that are available to the presentation this morning, that we encourage you to submit a question via the question box. You should be able to see it at the bottom of your screen, and there's a Submit button as well, that sometimes falls outside of the app window. So scroll down and hit Submit, and we will answer your questions as they come in. We have had a few questions come in already from our... I'll hand over to David in the first instance to respond to them.
Thanks, James. Some questions here. I'll start with the first one, which is, why is dividend the same each year, despite net being different each year? A dividend is driven by our FFO, so the amount of cash that we generate as distinct from profit. The distinction, if you go to page seven in the presentation, the distinction is best drawn by looking at earnings for the half year, which was AUD 44 million, and FFO for the half year was AUD 21 million. You got a big disparity. What you'll see, if you go back through the years, is the FFO has been largely consistent, but flat, whilst the earnings have been generally significantly higher than the FFO. The difference is explained by non-cash items, and normally, in 90% of the times, it's the property revaluations.
We've evaluated the property. We've experienced really strong capital growth over the past five years, and that's why the earnings has been high, but it's been moving around because it depends on the valuation cycle and on the capital growth and so forth. But FFO is really the cash we collect, the cash we collect minus the expenses, and that stayed fairly consistent, but flat, largely. So there's the distinction. That leads me to the next question, which is a very good, good question. So good, in fact, we had it from three different people so far this morning, and that is, when are we going to increase distributions? The answer is, and someone of the questions made, and that perhaps increasing distributions would close that gap. So when are we going to increase distributions?
The answer is, when FFO increases. When is FFO going to increase? It started to increase. We've got to the point now where our FFO and our distributions are roughly the same, so that we've got about 100% payout ratio. What we are achieving growth in income from indexation clauses and range of other things. We're achieving growth in income, so that growth in FFO, I should say. And so we would expect continued FFO growth. Once we get to 95% or below payout ratio, so in other words, if once we can get our FFO so it's higher than our distributions, then we'll have room to move with increasing distributions. Have room to move with increasing distributions.
Look, I reckon that's, you know, more than 12 months away, but I would hope, but I can't. It's impossible to be certain because there's a lot of moving parts to this. More than 12 months away, but less than two years away. But the moving parts that, you know, that are perhaps obvious to you all, but so I won't labor the point here, but the moving parts, of course, are interest rates, in particular, and then just the, you know, the various volatility that you have when you're renting things out. Generally, you get the rent, and we would expect that would always be the case, and we would get indexation, as well. That's a long answer to 4 questions, so, thanks for your patience.
Just one moment, we'll just absorb. So another question here is: If asset development drives growth, how does that reconcile with a marked reduction in CapEx? So yes, there's been a marked reduction, or there is forecast to be a marked reduction in CapEx, because we have not been putting more, acquiring more assets for development because we have fully utilized the balance sheet capacity. In other words, we, we've got enough gearing. We don't want any more gearing or any more debt, particularly with high interest rates and just what is prudent. So that is what's capped the development pipeline. However, what you'll see that we're doing is selling some assets to pursue growth by wanting to finance more cattle in feedlots.
So there's more than, you know, there's more than one way to skin a cat without getting fur in your mouth. And so we're going to drive growth through a different strategy in this higher interest rate environment, and that is by increasing our allocation of capital to the livestock business. Now, I think that's all of our questions. And so I'll say thank you very much for your attendance and for your interest in the Rural Funds Group, and we look forward to continuing the journey over the coming year. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.