The company's FY 2026 results. Presenting today will be CEO Bruce Rodgerson and CFO Andrew Bendall, who will be going through the presentation released this morning on the ASX. If you would like to ask a question, please do so via the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen, and we will do our best to get through as many of those as possible. I will now hand it over to Bruce.
Thank you, Ben, and welcome to our FY 2026 results announcement. Despite a challenging year on revenue and financial results, we have made a continual progression this year in expanding our footprint globally. Some key statistics here of that footprint. Probably most importantly there is that 66% of revenue outside the ANZ in a year in which our largest market, the U.S., has achieved a revenue result only two-thirds of what had been achieved the prior year on the back of continued federal government funding delays in the U.S.
That financial result, on the 3rd of July, we had flagged a revenue result between AUD 60 million and AUD 62 million, so AUD 61 million was back from AUD 69 million in the prior year for a net loss after tax of AUD 15.7 million, which was reflected that funding, the continued funding delays that we had flagged in our half-year announcement on the first year.
Unfortunately, they did continue into the second year, second half of the year. FX headwinds as well had impacted both first and second halves. There was a non-cash partial tax asset derecognition, which Andrew will go to in his report. But really pleasingly, for the second year in a row, we have been able to generate positive operating cash flows, AUD 4.5 million for the year, which is fundamental in funding the business going forward. As we also flagged on the 3rd of July, second-half contract signings were up on the prior comparable period, and there were some major projects of focus signings in, particularly late in June. Our first-ever project in Oklahoma opens up a new market for us, together with continued work in California. One of the ongoing projects is in Costa Rica, a project we are very proud of, the SENARA project.
We secured both the second and third stages in FY 2026 with the third stage there coming late in June, and that is an exciting and ongoing project for us. Also, in Chile, we signed one of our largest-ever deals, AUD 2.3 million, importantly with the Department of Hydraulics, which is the larger government funding scheme. Really, the important development for the business is the ongoing interaction and engagement with corporate funders. Late last week, and so we are just announcing today, a contract with a major corporate for water stewardship commitments in Nebraska valued at AUD 1.4 million. That came on the 21st of August, and we are announcing that today. That really solidifies our engagement with large corporates and hyperscalers following on from the AUD 2.3 million corporate-funded project we delivered for Glencore. We will have some more on that space later on in the presentation.
Again, really important technology demonstrations being delivered this year. The Ceres Main Canal Pilot Project for Turlock Irrigation District has been benchmarked at 69% in operational spills, which was one of the key metrics for funding that project. Turlock Irrigation District is one of our longest-term customers. It is a benchmark in the U.S., but particularly in the Central Valley. Likewise, Chaffin Farms in the Colorado River Basin achieved an 18% increase in yield with 35% less water, really demonstrating the power of our technology when applied to farms. Also, a super important metric for the business is that base business. The base business comes from existing customers using their own funds to continue to support, maintain, and roll out on a lower scale than the bigger flagship projects across our business. That business did expand. We have some more on that later in the project. In the presentation, sorry.
Our unique value proposition is still being maintained globally, and that really comes to the fore when we participate in tenders in our space around the world. We are typically the sole tenderer or at least the sole qualifying tenderer. We are also more and more entering into direct sale contracts with end customers rather than going through public procurement processes because we are recognized as being unique in our value proposition. That is a really strong position for us. Clearly, water resources is a major issue for the world. The United Nations this year has moved beyond calling it a water crisis to saying that the globe is in a state of global water bankruptcy. This slide here from the FAO in the background shows where those water stress basins are around the globe. Then we have overlaid that with where our offices and our presence are.
We are in all these spaces. Obviously, Australia, India, Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, and really importantly, India, the U.S., and South America. We have and maintain our investment in these places to be able to deliver on what we know this company is going to deliver. Just some global highlights around what we did achieve last year in terms of projects. I have spoken about, in the intro, the Ceres Main Project in Turlock. While that has delivered really successful water savings, it has got great engagement with the farmers who are in that pilot area, which are all ordering their water on our software now. TID has publicly linked that to its 20-year modernization project. TID is a big customer for us in the years to come.
Most importantly, the rest of the U.S. market, particularly in California, is watching what they are doing and what our systems are delivering. We also, in California, delivered the AUD 2.3 million contract for Glenn-Colusa , and that was provided by a private sector entity seeking to advance its ESG and water sustainability. Again, we will talk a bit more on that to come. I have mentioned the SENARA project in Costa Rica. This is third stage now. Two, one last year, and there is more to be tendered this year there. We see that as a long-term commitment.
Our technology is embedded in a really significant irrigation development in Costa Rica. One of the most stressed rivers in the world at the moment is the Po River in northern Italy, and our footprint there has continued to grow this year with some signature projects, Villoresi and also CER Romagna .
We did in Central Asia, a couple of projects there were delivered over the year in small pilot projects in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. That is clearly a water-stressed area where we are really being pulled into there with some scalable opportunities. In Australia, we have been contracted for our first environmental watering program, and we see that as a growing part of our business here. Most importantly is the base business, or really significant is that base business, where we delivered more than 280 projects contracted across 11 countries with a combined value of over AUD 30 million. That is all these projects from our existing customers that are typically utilizing their own budgets to progress the implementation of our systems. The dots on that diagram there show you where that is. Clearly Australia, Europe, a lot of that is coming from the U.S.
Even though the federal funding part of the U.S. was delayed into the second half, our existing customer base was still ordering, and the U.S. was still the biggest part of our business in FY 2026. Corporate water stewardship is a very important and growing opportunity for Rubicon. Here we can see the commitments being made by a sample of major corporates, but you could go to any, that list could be 50 strong. We are seeing it across all sectors, but predominantly, particularly the hyperscalers looking to secure water savings at a basin scale to be able to offset their water use, but also contribute to the communities in which they are building their facilities. That really comes around and there is a growing recognition of basin-scale water stewardship.
Rather than a factory in an area trying to offset its actual water use by doing something to create an efficiency, the big corporates are talking about basin-level impacts, and they are wanting measurable outcomes. Most of the major corporates have got targets around 2030 about being water positive outcomes in the basins in which they operate. There is an established accounting methodology for the measurement of these volumetric water savings. These systems are long-term, so it is not about a project to deliver something. Typically, these water accountability projects are over a 10-year period. The upfront, we are delivering the technology that creates the water savings.
We are auditing those, and our systems being data-driven really put us in a unique position in over the 10-year contract, typically, to be able to year -on -year demonstrate what we are delivering, the savings that are coming out of the investments that corporates have made. These large corporates and hyperscalers operate in thousands of facilities globally and particularly in the case of the hyperscalers, thousands under construction and being built. As we engage more and more with these parties, clearly it is an exciting space for us to not be subject to the vagaries of government timing politics around release of capital funds to deal with corporates that are making commercial decisions. But also those facilities are opening up new customers.
For those that track us know that our systems are really the operational facilities we provide are the operational systems for the irrigation districts in which we engage. Once we engage with an irrigation district in a meaningful way, then we have multiple years of both capital rollout and then support. This opportunity to deal with the hyperscalers and other corporates is already giving us access to new customers. This isn't just a plan, clearly it's been enacted now. We've had four contracts over recent years, two in this calendar year alone, which are from these corporately funded projects. Gila River Farms and Bear River were previous projects, and then we had Glenn-Colusa, and then the one that we've just announced this morning, which was contracted late last week.
One of those projects, Gila River Farms, Google has referenced that with the Gila River Indian Community deploying our technology to save the water, and there's a link there for anyone who wants to see that. The statement's being made, and there's some videos of our technology. The shot on the right-hand side of that slide is actually Gila River Farms delivering, irrigating a crop. The second reference there is Procter & Gamble. That was one of the projects we delivered for Bear River, and that was really to automate a section of canal to better facilitate delivery of water to a sensitive environmental wetland. Then there's a range of opportunities in Utah there around that Great Salt Lake system. With that, I might throw to you, Andrew, to lead through the deeper dive into the accounts.
Thanks, Bruce. Group revenues fell lightly in period on period. This 12% reduction was predominantly due to the delays in U.S. government funding for some of their larger projects. Despite this, our U.S. revenues at AUD 22 million still represent our largest region, indicative of the reliable base business that flowed from the recurrent smaller projects from our large existing U.S. customer base. As per our market announcement on 3rd of July, AUD 30 million of priority projects that, whilst well advanced, had not proceeded to contract signing by 30 June , and therefore did not contribute to the FY 2026 result, but rather will support our revenue growth in FY 2027 and beyond. Solid contributions in ANZ, Europe, and Latin America were welcomed. An appreciating AU dollar negatively impacted on the revenues to the tune of AUD 1.5 million.
The gross margin result of 41% was relatively indicative of a AUD 61 million top line, albeit that the stronger AUD depressed it by 1.4 percentage points. A further impact of exchange rate was a loss of AUD 2.5 million that was crystallized on the repatriation of funds to settle intercompany loans during the year. Other controllable operating expenses were AUD 2.1 million, lower than the previous year. All of this contributed to an underlying EBITDA loss of 8.9, down AUD 4 million year- on- year. The reoccurrence of another loss put significant pressure on the application of the accounting standard 112, accounting required to support the carrying value of our deferred tax assets. As such, we determined that a derecognition of AUD 4.1 million of that asset balance was required, which meant our income tax expense was materially higher this year.
In a nutshell, softer sales, a stronger AUD, and an unfavorable tax result led to a net loss after tax of AUD 15.7 million. On to cash flows. Something of a more pleasing result was the generation of AUD 4.5 million of operating cash inflows, indicative of our continued focus on cash collections. The problematic outstanding balances over recent years from earlier Indian projects have now all been fully collected, leaving only relatively small and current balances from recent projects. The business continues to invest in R&D, as it remains conscious of the need to invest in both the hardware and software technologies that provide important competitive advantages to Rubicon. Key movements on the balance sheet since 30 June 2025 were, there was a significant reduction in both receivables and contract assets as sales were quickly converted to cash through the period.
Despite the derecognition of AUD 4.1 of deferred tax assets, we still carried a balance of AUD 8.7 through to 30 June, reflective of the expectations of profits in foreseeable periods to absorb them. On the back of the cash performance in the second half, net debt ended the period within AUD 300,000 of last year, meaning the business maintained headroom of cash and debt facilities of over AUD 12 million at 30 June. Back to you, Bruce.
Thanks, Andrew. Moving on to that pipeline, which is now at the half year, we spoke about AUD 30 million of contracts in either in tender or under final award. That entire AUD 30 million is still very much alive, and it has been joined by several other projects as well. This is the doughnut chart of our major incremental projects for FY 2027. These revenues are on top of our base business, our recurring revenues, and the contract works we bring into the year. If you look at all those factors, those factors gets us into that roughly AUD 50 million -AUD 55 million, and these are the contract wins we are expecting on top of that. Already we have won three major projects for this year.
The privately funded project, the corporate ESG project in Nebraska that we are announcing this morning, and a job in Imperial, California, and also the third stage of the Costa Rica project. On top of that, there are five projects that make up AUD 47 million, which is projects that have been tendered and under final award or tenders that are about to close that we expect to be the sole provider, or other contracts. That is a really strong position. As is, then there is a further AUD 20 million in the next category, which is procurement processes we are very confident in for the year.
That gives us a really good base, and as we report over the coming months, we will be using this as the base data with which we can track our progress. With Rubicon, our focus is very much on water and what matters most.
We have already said that the growing water stress globally, the United Nations declaring water bankruptcy, and we are in a unique position where an investment in Rubicon technology delivers water savings of a scale that is really significant, through efficiency rather than trying to create water by other means. One of the biggest things that hit us last year, and probably an obvious question, is if the funding delays in the U.S. hit the first half and then the second half, are they going to be released this year? We believe so, and that is evidenced particularly by the situation in the Colorado River. On 31st of July, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a preferred framework for the management of the Colorado River. That was backed up by on Friday night, they released the operating rules for the next two years.
That is providing cuts across all the lower basin users, which is predominantly where our large customer base is in the west of the U.S. There are some important things in those operating rules now which change the game in terms of districts being prepared to invest in efficiency programs. That is that it allows irrigation districts to invest in efficiency systems and then take those water savings and bank them in Lake Mead or Lake Powell for their future use or economic benefit. That really changes the economics for irrigation districts in investing in our technology. Also, we are seeing other funding streams other than. We are certainly seeing the USBR funding return, and projects have started to roll, including some of the ones we have just mentioned from USBR particularly. But we are also seeing state funding systems.
California's Department of Water Resources has forecast new funding for watershed scale conservation programs, including irrigation efficiency, and they have mentioned a figure of $60 million for next calendar year. We are really seeing not only federal funding return, but corporate funding and state funding coming in to really move the needle, and we are confident where our U.S. business will sit in that. We are very much where we fit in, as that pressure on water efficiency improves our position of being a unique proposition for delivering high volume water savings from environmentally sound irrigation efficiency programs, it puts us in a really strong position. Summing up before we get to questions, what is really positive for this year is that AUD 47 million now of projects currently in tender under customer evaluation in the final stages of contract award.
That is the base of what we see is really setting us up for a really strong FY 2027. We are seeing the U.S. funding return. As I said there, the Colorado River operation stuff which was awarded on that, which was released over the weekend and California new funding. Clearly, corporate funding and water stewardship from the tech companies particularly, but not just tech companies, mining companies, all the big corporates, and us being increasingly engaged with them on being an economic way to produce efficiencies and meet their water saving commitments, not only for the infrastructure they are building, but for their broader ESG commitments to make a contribution to the basins in which they operate. The water stress in the markets with which we operate just continue to grow.
Those basins, the Po and the Ebro particularly, in Italy and Spain, the Krishna and the Indus, key markets for us in India. RLC, yes, but also Colorado River Basin and the Rio Grande, particularly in the U.S. These are markets which we've got the presence on the ground, we've got the reference sites where we're engaged, and that water stress is just continuing to grow. We enter FY 2027 on the back of some good contract signings in FY 2026 and some good early contract signings of both base business and priority projects in FY 2027. We believe that places us in a really strong position for FY 2027, and our priorities there are to focus on converting that active pipeline into revenue and importantly, conversion to cash. As I've said a few times, that base business is critical for us.
Every new customer is on a journey with us. As long as we continue to support them, there is that base business part of it, which is the smaller orders that come from existing customer base continues to grow, as well as we have these larger projects coming through on the priority project pipeline. That's the formal part of the presentation. Ben, I might throw back to you for any questions.
Thank you, Bruce. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please do so via the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen. A couple have come through. First question, Bruce and Andrew, given the state of the balance sheet, can you please give any guidance as to the board's thinking around a capital raise?
Yeah, certainly, Ben. Given our cash performance for the previous year is meant that, as I've mentioned earlier, our net debt's effectively stayed at the same level, and we exited the year with what we think is more than ample headroom in the form of cash holdings and also debt facilities. At this point in time, the board is comfortable that there won't be any need for a capital raise in the foreseeable future.
All right. Thank you, Andrew. Next question, given all the excitement, hype around data centers, the cost of power and water, is Rubicon Water in any position to play a meaningful role in the water supply nature of this situation? If not, is it at all under consideration?
Well, as we've highlighted in the presentation, it's not just under consideration, it's already delivering results for Rubicon. I think it's important to say that with data centers, water use is an important part for the facilities themselves, although technology's coming in to make those systems more efficient in their use of water. But, importantly for us, the water use requirement of those data centers and hyperscalers is more about making a positive contribution into the catchments in which they operate. So it's not just a data center provider wanting to be able to demonstrate that they've created water efficiency equivalent to or greater than what they use in their factory. They're wanting to make positive commitments to the communities in a much larger scale.
So that's where Rubicon comes in, because it's pretty hard to find meaningful, large scale water efficiencies to deliver on those sort of commitments. There's desal to create water. There's a minimum amount of water that can be saved from improving urban and treatment infrastructure. I'll come back to where we sit globally is, we're in a space where a third of the water that's utilized, consumed globally is lost in delivering water to gravity-fed irrigation. That's the space in which we operate. We've got the core technology delivers on those solutions, and that's what's really got us really well engaged with the data center creators, the hyperscalers, and the broader corporate community.
Hi, Bruce. Hugh Robertson. Thank you for the presentation. Whilst I agree with you about the logic of large scale irrigation systems, the problem, it seems to me, remains with bloody governments spending their money on other things. Anyway, by the by, to the question about the hyperscalers and the S word, what's the opportunity do you see? Is the company, firstly, two questions. Is Rubicon well enough resourced to deal with these groups, firstly? The second thing is, can you see opportunities with the likes of the Googles and the Magnificent Seven, I suppose, to look at sort of global deals with them, given your technology skills?
Yeah. Thanks, Hugh. Well enough resourced. We have dedicated some of the best talent in Rubicon to dealing in this corporate space. It is a very active and progressive state space in terms of conferences around the world and the establishment of the standards around Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting. We are throwing the resources required to engage with that. I suppose through that engagement, we are seeing. We have signed NDAs with most of the parties that you have spoken there. We have contracted with some of them to deliver projects. If you look even at, as an example in India, we have yet to deliver a corporately funded project in India, but there are several we are looking at.
There are thousands of these facilities being built there, in an area where there is, across the whole of India is one of the most intensive areas of gravity-fed irrigation in the world. There is an obvious, both from an economic and a social good point of view, investment in our technology hits all the metrics. What we are seeing is we are engaged across a broad spread of those entities that are either building, operating, or owning these facilities, all three of those. We see this evolving to, certainly in the catchments in which they operate, where there is broad spread irrigation, we are an obvious point for them to deal with. We are confident in that being a growing and important part of the business for us.
Maybe if I could too, Bruce, add to that. I think you mentioned about global contracts. Whether that comes to be or not is another thing, but what I could say is those same companies that we are talking and signing up with in the U.S., they are the same ones in India and even in Australia, discussions have been undertaken. There is already that extension within those companies across country borders.
Gee, I have never heard Rubicon be so bullish in the last five years.
Yeah. Obviously it's been, the founders and the long-termers at Rubicon understand the opportunity, but it's been a frustrating period predominantly dealing with the vagaries of governments, and the U.S. experience case in hand. The U.S. will still be the biggest part of this business, and it still is even in a lower revenue year.
Yeah.
But with a stroke of a pen out of Washington, a major part of our growth financing is still there, which we can point you to government websites that show about $20 million worth of contracts to Rubicon that are approved, they're just not released to start spending. So it will come back on that front. But certainly this corporate space adds another mark, not just in the direct contracts we have with them, but at the ability for us to reach new markets. The deal we announced this morning from Nebraska, that's a new customer for us. So they've come to us because the corporates come in and funded them to deliver water savings, but now we have our tech and that customer, and that opens up a whole future of dealing with a new customer. That's in our sales process.
It's going to be fundamental in that as well.
All right. Thank you, Bruce. Next question. Please elaborate on the stewardship opportunity, specifically the associated revenue and cost model and the amount of CapEx and working capital you need to expand to unlock the opportunity. And second to that, how can we be confident you'll be able to achieve profitability and profitable growth in this segment?
All right. If we talk through these, for instance, if I just use that AUD 1.4 million job in Nebraska. That is a corporate funding us upfront to deliver a project for an irrigation district customer. Cash flow-wise that is a very positive cash flow job. The capital is provided upfront, so there is no working capital drain on us delivering the capital side of that. Then we are funded for 10 years to be able to maintain the system we have provided and then do annual reporting on the savings. At the project level, dealing with these corporates in our experience across the four that we have done and all the ones that we are currently talking to, there is no working capital drain on those.
The opportunity there is, as I say, every one of those customers, if they are new customers, opens a whole new opportunity for future work as well. So what was-
Yeah, I think the other question was, are they profitable? The answer is yes, they are. In their own right, they are all profitable, at least as profitable as the other projects, if not maybe slightly more. The key for the business and the key for us is to make sure that we continue to get more of those, more of the large projects, continue to deliver the base business and get that revenue level up from where it has been the last number of years.
I think the last part of that question was around, how do our investors have confidence in us returning to profitability? We have continued to invest to roll out this business because we know where it is going, what the opportunity is. Maybe, Andrew, if you could just lead through what the revenue means for future profitability and
Describing how we move to profitability as the revenue grows.
Yeah. Look, the company has maintained an operating cost base to be able to expand globally. That's obviously meant that we've needed to strive to a revenue level, albeit that the gross margin continues to increase as you get more revenue. So you've got two positives, more revenue and a higher gross margin associated with those higher, which will cover that cost base. Clearly, at AUD 61 million, and even at last year's, that's not sufficient. But, as we bring on these stewardship projects and, as I say, the larger projects which were on the brink of being delivered last year, but they've kind of fallen into this year and beyond. All of those help push the business up to a level of revenue, where we will return back to profitability.
Thank you. Another question here. Last year, during reporting, Rubicon showed that for FY 2026, there was AUD 52 million of projects planned for awarding in the close category, and we can see that you've now closed around AUD 5 million. Presumably, that leaves a balance of AUD 47 million of projects carrying over from FY 2026 into FY 2027. Does that indicate that Rubicon hasn't added any further sales projects into the close category for FY 2027? If so, what is the material plan to increase investment into sales and business development to increase the sales pipeline?
I think that, I understand that maths works that way, but it's not quite the way we put those numbers together.
At the AUD 47 million is at the half year, we said we had greater than AUD 30 million in that category of under tender customer evaluation or awarding. AUD 37 million at the 3rd of July announcement, and then AUD 47 million now. That is the nearest portion of that pipeline that we are obviously highly confident in, because we are in the final stages of being awarded or negotiating. The next category, there is another AUD 20 million, which is the next stage of the projects, which ones that are not quite at that procurement stage, but we are still very confident in for this year. We see ourselves as confidently moving through that pipeline to secure that. Sales is a big part of, obviously, it is a long sales process here for us, particularly when we are dealing with governments.
We have got to work through that process of presenting a business case to a district and then assisting that district to access the funding to be able to roll out those projects. I believe, and that is part of the investment we have made and why at a AUD 60 million business we are not making money is because we are continuing to invest with the resources required to be able to grow that sales pipeline. We will demonstrate that the sales process is successful as we start closing these. We are AUD 5.2 million this year of what will be a significant pipeline.
Ben, can I also just clarify the question? Was it that there was AUD 5 million of priority projects won last year? Was that part of the question?
Yeah. It said, you can see that you have now closed AUD 5 million.
Yes
into the AUD 52 million that was in the close category 12 months ago.
Okay. Just to add on to Bruce's comments, that AUD 5 million is just the projects that have been won year to date this year.
FY 2027, yeah.
The figure of priority projects that was won last year was significantly higher than that, of which we recognized some of those revenues last year, and some of them get carried over for recognition into this year, quite aside from the new projects, the AUD 5 million that has been won.
Thank you, Andrew and Bruce. That concludes the Q&A segment of this webinar. I will now hand it over to Bruce for closing remarks.
Yeah. Thank you, Ben, and thanks everyone for attending. Hugh made the comment that he perceives we are more confident and bullish than what we have been in the past. I think that is a reflection of the work we have done, albeit through a trying period from financial performance, given the results over the last few years. Yes, we are. That investment we are seeing in the quality people and relationships in the markets which we operate. The need for what we produce has never been greater. The frustrating thing has been linking that need with accessible funding to deliver the solutions, because one of the challenges for us is irrigation districts themselves are not funded through their own operations to be able to roll out this capital.
We are seeing that increasingly recognized by governments, and we will around the world, evidenced by Costa Rica, by Chile, by what is happening in Europe.
But also we are seeing these corporates moving in to fill that space. There are substantial funds being grouped together from the corporates. They are talking about collective action from major corporates to be able to make meaningful differences. That is the basis with which we enter this year, very confident about where we are going and confident being able to deliver for our employees and our shareholders. Thank you for your time.