I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ryan Stokes, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the SGH half-year results presentation for the six months ended 31 December 2024. I'm Ryan Stokes, MD and CEO of SGH. Joining me today is our CFO, Richard Richards. Slide two. SGH is the leading ASX 100 diversified operating business. We own and operate market-leading industrial services businesses with additional exposure to energy and media. We deploy incremental capital domestically towards industrial and energy opportunities. Our approach to capital allocation is complemented by a disciplined operating model that prioritizes customer execution and accountability. Our owners' mindset approach guides decision-making and promotes a performance culture. It also drives a strong belief in the power of continuous improvement and long-term value creation. These core values and strategies have supported our ability to deliver long-term outperformance, including a 19% EBIT CAGR over the past decade and consistently top decile total shareholder returns. Slide three.
The half-year result delivered revenue and earnings growth. Revenue of AUD 5.5 billion was up 2%, led by capital sales and services growth at WesTrac. EBIT of AUD 843 million was up 10%, driven by earnings expansion across WesTrac, Boral, and Beach. NPAT of AUD 508 million was up 7%, with EBIT growth partially offset by higher interest and tax payments. Operating cash flow of AUD 821 million was up 15% and reflects stronger earnings, along with a 6% improvement in EBITDA cash conversion to 75%, largely driven by WesTrac. Slide four. The strong half-year result and long-term outperformance are underpinned by our purpose, objective, and values, and the disciplined application of our operating model. Our purpose is to recognize and serve exceptional businesses while delivering sustainable value creation and maximizing returns for our stakeholders. This purpose is guided by our four core values: respect, owners' mindset, courage, and agility.
Of these values, our owners' mindset is particularly important in an SGH context and is deeply embedded into our operating model through four core characteristics. First, we integrate an owners' mindset into our operating cadence, which drives a focus on execution and growth over unnecessary process. Second, each business operates under a dedicated board structure, ensuring clear accountability for performance and results. Third, decision-making is pushed to the front line wherever possible, creating a lean and empowered workforce. And fourth, our lean operating structure and focus on accountability make SGH inherently scalable. Slide five. This slide demonstrates our capital allocation in action. Our diversified operating structure allows us to preferentially allocate capital toward our portfolio of businesses or into new opportunities, depending on where we identify the strongest opportunity for risk-adjusted returns.
Our incremental capital allocation is focused on Australia and guided by the thematic exposures of industrials and energy, where we target high-quality businesses that benefit from long-term structural demand tailwinds. Our highly cash-generative industrial businesses allow us to take on and rapidly reduce leverage through operating cash flow. We can achieve that at investment-grade pricing, given our consistently strong earnings profile. Importantly, the cost of that leverage is well below our long-run EPS growth rate, so it can be used to effectively amplify return on equity. We combine that financial leverage with operating leverage and disciplined execution to drive long-term TSR outperformance. Slide six. SGH is focused on deploying incremental capital in Australia toward the industrial and energy sectors, where we have identified long-duration growth opportunities. This disciplined approach to capital allocation, combined with our operating model, has supported SGH to deliver consistently strong financial results.
In infrastructure and construction, the outlook remains strong, with AUD 1.8 trillion investment expected over the next seven years. In mining production, iron ore volumes continue to grow, and coal volumes have remained consistent year on year. Both commodities are expected to remain strong through this decade and beyond. In energy, strong demand and tightening supply are expected in the domestic gas market from FY 2026 onwards. In LNG, demand growth remains strong, with supply risk skewed to the downside. Slide seven. The earnings growth in industrial services, led by Boral, and in energy through Beach, were the core drivers of growth in the half-year 2025 result. Revenue was up 2%, with operating leverage supported and EBIT margin increased to 15.3%. EBIT of AUD 843 million was up 10%, and NPAT of AUD 508 million was up 7%.
Key strategic outcomes for the half included the completion of the Boral acquisition in July, after which leverage peaked at 2.3x before being brought down to below 2.2 x by December. We have also lifted our interim dividend for the first half by 30% to AUD 0.30 per share fully franked, representing our 30th consecutive period of stable or growing dividends. Slide eight. Our focus on people and safety continues to deliver tangible results across our businesses. In safety, we have seen significant progress in our lost-time injury frequency rate, improving by 9%, and in our total recorded injury frequency rate, improving by 12%. In sustainability, the Boral Chlorine Bypass is now complete, improving the facility's alternative fuel use capability to 45%. At Beach, the Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage Facility was commissioned over the half and is now operating at full capacity. Slide 10.
WesTrac delivered revenue and earnings growth over the half against a low single-digit parts price reduction effective 1 July. Total revenue of AUD 3.2 billion was up 8%, driven by a 13% growth in capital sales of AUD 1.2 billion and a 5% increase in services revenue to AUD 2 billion. The EBIT margin contracted slightly to 11.1%, with component growth partially offsetting the impact of the parts price reduction. EBIT of AUD 352 million was up 5%, reflecting strong underlying customer demand and operating discipline. WesTrac delivered an improved cash result, with operating cash flow of AUD 258 million up 146% and EBITDA cash conversion lifting to 67%. The cash result was supported by stronger earnings and a lower relative build in working capital. Slide 11. Underlying demand for WesTrac's parts and services was strong, with revenue growth of 5% and a CAGR of 11% over the decade.
The headline growth delivered reflects strength of the underlying demand at WesTrac, supported by major rebuild activity and the growing installed mining machine base. The outlook for both capital sales and services remains positive, supported by production expectations for key commodity exposures. Strong fleet investment also continues, with the aging installed base supporting demand for both R&M to extend asset life and capital sales to blend fleet age down. Slide 13. Boral delivered a strong earnings and margin result. Total revenue of AUD 1.8 billion was down 2%, supported by pricing traction and resilient infrastructure activity offset by softer residential construction. EBIT margin of 14.3% was significantly up, supported by operating discipline, performance improvement initiatives, cost variabilization, and pricing traction. The margin expansion drove a 29% uplift in EBIT to AUD 259 million, as well as significant growth in Boral's return on capital employed to 15.3%.
The performance improvement initiatives delivered over the half focused on operating efficiency and enhancing customer service, including a significant improvement in concrete DIFOT delivery in full on time to 83%. SG&A expenses were 8% lower for the half, and cost of sales are expected to improve further as volumes grow. Investment in heavy mobile equipment renewal has commenced and is expected to drive production and cost efficiencies. Progress is also made in increasing the performance of the network, supported by initiatives to reduce costs and increase P&L accountability across the business. Slide 14. Volumes were supported by robust demand for concrete, offset by variable demand for other products, including lower asphalt and quarry volumes. Pricing discipline held across all product lines, with concrete pricing increasing by 3% and quarries by 4% and recycling by 7%, helping to mitigate the revenue impact of softer volumes.
The outlook for Boral remains positive, supported by a robust infrastructure investment outlook that has improved compared to the previous forecasts, as well as an expected rise in residential activity needed to meet the National Housing Accord targets. The result shows continued progress on Boral's Good to Great performance journey. The focus remains on driving customer service outcomes, operational efficiency, cost variabilization and control, price leadership, and enhancing the network performance. Slide 16. Coates' revenue of AUD 546 million was down 4%, normalized for sale of Coates Indonesia in the prior period. The modest revenue decline reflects resilient customer activity in the east, west, and north, and lower activity in Victoria. Coates' focus on cost and pricing discipline drove growth in EBITDA and EBIT margins to 46.4% and 28.6%, respectively. The result also was supported by operating leverage in R&M, logistics efficiencies, and non-operational cost out, including a 7% reduction in personnel costs.
The margin improvement helped to offset revenue decline, leading to a 2% drop in EBIT when adjusted for the sale of Coates Indonesia. Slide 17. Time utilization of 59.2% was down 1% and slightly below the high-performance target of 60%. Utilization was impacted by softer demand in the south region, which was partially offset by fleet repositioning, leveraging our national footprint. Repairs and maintenance efficiency improved with R&M costs as a percentage of sales reducing to 17.3%, supported by the continued rollout of the hub-and-spoke model. Market conditions remained mixed for Coates, with softer trading conditions in Victoria ongoing due to major project deferrals, partially offset by resilient activity in the east. Coates has maintained pricing discipline across all regions against this increasingly competitive backdrop.
The outlook for Coates remains positive, supported by utilities and transport infrastructure spending, which is expected to grow by 11% and 4%, respectively, in calendar year 2025. The cost out and efficiency gains delivered over the half have positioned Coates well to capitalize on this expected market recovery. Slide 19. Beach delivered 15% growth in production to 10.2 million boe, reflecting the connection of new offshore wells and production optimization initiatives. The production growth, coupled with favorable pricing, saw Beach deliver 5% higher sales revenue for the half. Beach also grew NPAT by 37%, supported by the higher revenue, as well as ongoing cost out from the organizational restructure. This included the delivery of a 30% reduction in headcount and a 20% reduction in field OpEx to $12.50 per boe. At SGH Energy, our share of the Crux development investment was AUD 128 million for the first half.
The project is progressing on to schedule, and first gas remains targeted for CY 2027. SGH Energy continues to collaborate with Amplitude Energy to assess bringing the long-term gas resource in the Gippsland Basin to market. This supports our strategy of advancing domestic energy supply. Slide 21. Seven West Media's half-year revenue of AUD 727 million was down 6%, leading to a 41% contraction in NPAT to AUD 37 million. Half-year 2025 costs were down 2%, with full-year costs expected to be AUD 20 million-AUD 30 million lower than FY 2024. These efficiency gains, coupled with moderating market conditions, are expected to support modest year-on-year earnings growth in the second half. In other media, SGH realized AUD 8 million from CMC in half-year 2025, bringing the last reported MOIC of Fund 1 to 2.5x . I'm going to hand you over to Richard for a more detailed run-through of the financial results. Richard.
Thank you, Ryan, and good morning. SGH delivered another compelling financial result for the half, achieving revenue, margin, and earnings growth in varying market conditions. Revenue of AUD 5.5 billion was up 2%, or 3% when adjusting for the sale of Coates Indonesia completed in April 2024. The revenue growth was driven by 8% expansion at WesTrac, partially offset by a slight contraction at Boral and Coates. Expenses for the six months rose 2%, mainly due to WesTrac, where cost of goods sold grew in line with revenue. This was partially offset by cost efficiencies delivered at Boral and Coates. The lower relative increase in expenses compared to revenue reflects SGH's characteristics, disciplined cost management, and realizing operating leverage, which, when combined with higher equity accounted earnings, drove significant margin expansion.
This increasing operating leverage amplified revenue growth, driving EBITDA up 8% to AUD 1.1 billion and EBIT up 10% to AUD 843 million. When adjusting for the sale of Coates Indonesia, EBIT growth was 11% period on period. Net finance expense of AUD 162 million was up 14%, largely referable to the increased net debt associated with the completion of the Boral acquisition. The underlying tax expense of AUD 173 million was up 17%, driven by higher taxable earnings for the period. Underlying NPAT rose 7% to AUD 508 million, while statutory NPAT rose 134% to AUD 526 million. The larger statutory delta reflects substantially lower significant items losses from our equity accounted investments relative to the prior comparative period. Moving to Slide 24. SGH's statutory result includes AUD 45 million of pre-tax significant item losses, primarily driven by a AUD 32 million mark-to-market impairment of our Seven West Media investment.
Other notable pre-tax significant items include SGH's AUD 8 million share of Seven West Media significant item losses, our AUD 4 million share of significant item losses from Beach, and a AUD 5 million net income from discontinued operations, reflecting the receipt of deferred consideration, partially offset by additional liabilities recognized for previous divested Boral U.S. businesses. SGH also preliminarily recognized AUD 60 million in positive post-tax significant items attributable to the tax benefit on ACA tax value reset on Boral's entry into SGH's tax consolidated group. Combined, these significant items resulted in an AUD 18 million net benefit to after-tax statutory earnings for the six months. Moving to slide 25. This slide presents an EBIT bridge detailing the underlying EBIT movement for each business, as well as the reconciliation to statutory EBIT.
WesTrac's EBIT increased by AUD 18 million, overcoming the EBIT headwinds from a parts price decrease, highlighting the strong underlying customer demand for both new equipment and services. Boral's EBIT growth of AUD 58 million, with marginally lower sales volume, more than offset by pricing traction and performance initiatives, driving significant margin expansion to 14.3%. Coates' EBIT declined by AUD 8 million, or AUD 4 million when adjusting for the sale of Coates Indonesia. The decline reflects softer revenue due to project deferrals in Victoria, partially offset by margin growth from cost reductions and R&M benefits from the continued rollout of the hub-and-spoke model. Energy's EBIT contribution increased by AUD 20 million, driven by a 37% rise in NPAT at Beach, enabled by a 15% production growth and a 20% reduction in operating cost per barrel.
Media EBIT contribution declined by AUD 5 million, reflecting a softer total TV advertising market, partially offset by cost out initiatives. In aggregate, these movements delivered a AUD 79 million increase in underlying EBIT to AUD 843 million, or a AUD 797 million statutory EBIT after accounting for the AUD 46 million of above-the-line significant items. Slide 26. Underlying operating cash flows for the period increased by AUD 106 million to AUD 821 million, largely driven by stronger cash flows from WesTrac. WesTrac's operating cash flow rose by AUD 153 million to AUD 258 million, supported by earnings growth and lower machine inventory. This was partially offset by higher PEX inventory and lower advance payments. The higher cash flows from WesTrac were partially offset by lower cash from Boral on unfavorable working cap movements and Coates due to modest earnings decline.
EBITDA cash conversion at WesTrac grew 39% on an absolute basis to 67%, partially offset by lower conversion at Boral and Coates. In aggregate, these businesses delivered 75% EBITDA cash conversion for SGH, ahead of the 70% conversion in the prior comparative period. Net interest paid increased by AUD 35 million to AUD 163 million, reflecting higher interest rates on floating rate debt and the increased debt used to fund the Boral acquisition. Net income tax paid rose by AUD 87 million to AUD 152 million, primarily reflecting the higher taxable income and the utilization of Boral's carry-forward tax losses in the prior period. Net investing cash outflows for the year increased by AUD 130 million to AUD 274 million, reflecting higher CapEx for Crux, coupled with lower proceeds from disposals.
Net financing cash outflows rose AUD 517 million to AUD 701 million, driven by higher repayment of debt, increased dividend payments, payments for both shares and transaction costs associated with the Boral acquisition. Closing net debt increased by AUD 248 million to AUD 4.6 billion, primarily due to the completion of Boral's transaction and foreign exchange impacts on our U.S. dollar denominated debt. Slide 27. SGH's net assets increased by AUD 625 million to AUD 4.7 billion as of 31 December, largely referable to the decrease in trade and other payables and an increase in the oil and gas assets, partially offset by a decrease in inventory. The AUD 504 million decrease in trade and other payables primarily relates to the closeout of the AUD 335 million for Boral shares purchased required to achieve full ownership.
The increase in oil and gas assets reflects a AUD 137 million rise in the carrying value of Crux, comprising AUD 128 million in development expenditure and AUD 9 million in remediation provisions. The AUD 155 million decrease in inventories was predominantly driven by working capital issues at WesTrac, enabled by the easing supply chain constraints. The combined impact of these items, along with other lesser balance sheet movements, resulted in net debt of AUD 5.6 billion, or AUD 4.6 billion excluding leases, representing a 6% increase over the June 2024 debt levels. Slide 28. Adjusting for the AUD 197 million of positive mark-to-market debt-related derivatives, SGH's adjusted net debt to EBITDA, or leverage, was 2.18 x at 31 December. This represents a 4% decline from the peak of 2.3 following the Boral acquisition in July and is flat relative to 30 June.
We expect to continue deleveraging in the second half through strong operating cash flows supporting financial flexibility and growth. SGH fully repaid the AUD 700 million Boral acquisition facility early in the half, utilizing the proceeds of a six-year AUD 600 million Asian term loan. SGH also took on AUD 600 million incremental fixed-rate hedging at 3.6% swap rate, increasing the fixed portion of our drawn debt from 49%- 65%. We have also extended two SFA tranches early in the second half, totaling AUD 1.3 billion. These initiatives diversify our funding base, and the level of support from our new and existing lenders reflects our strong balance sheet, earnings profile, and stronger credit metrics. At 31 December, 65% of SGH's debt was fixed with an average drawn tenor of 4.9 years and an average rate of 4.8%. Post the refi, average duration has been pushed out to over five years.
We also have no further material corporate bank maturities until FY 2029. I will now hand you back to Ryan.
Thank you, Richard. Slide 30. SGH remains focused on deleveraging through stronger operating cash flows in FY 2025 while driving discipline execution and operating leverage. At Boral, our focus is on locking margin expansion and improving customer service in support of our ambition to deliver through the cycle mid-teen EBIT margins. At Coates, we'll continue to drive operational efficiencies, targeting a return of time utilization back above 60% while maintaining R&M to sales below 18%. At WesTrac, the focus remains on efficient execution of the capital sales and rebuild pipelines to support customer fleet productivity and growth. We'll also continue to allocate capital across our businesses where we see the strongest potential for risk-adjusted return.
These priorities will be executed in line with our disciplined operating and capital allocation models, which have underpinned earnings outperformance and top decile TSR for over a decade. Slide 31. The strong first half earnings result and positive outlook for our core sector exposures gives us confidence of achieving our full-year earnings guidance of high single-digit EBIT growth expected in FY 2025. WesTrac's outlook remains strong, supported by underlying growth in services activity and a robust capital sales pipeline. Volumes are expected to remain under pressure at Boral in FY 2025, while cost discipline, operating efficiencies, and improved customer service support the outlook. Trading conditions remain challenging for the South region for Coates, while the infrastructure activity in other regions, ongoing cost out, and the fleet profile support the outlook. At Beach, a strong first half production supports the narrowed FY 2025 guidance of 18.5 to 20.5 MMboe for FY 2025.
At SGH, we remain focused on deleveraging through operating cash flows, targeting an adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2x . We look forward to capturing these opportunities and delivering for our customers and stakeholders in FY 2025 and beyond. Thank you for your interest and continued support. We're now open to questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. And if you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Shaurya Visen from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Ryan. Good morning, Richard. Congrats on the results, and thanks for taking my questions. Two questions, please. I'll start with Boral.
Ryan, just looking at Boral, right, you're talking about EBIT margins of 14.3%. If you look at what you've sort of told us in the past, those targets of mid-teen EBIT margins, is there a view internally to think that these margin targets should be set higher? And also, what numbers are we looking at? I had a quick follow-up, but maybe you want to go with that.
Yeah, sure. I mean, if we just step back in the Boral journey. Originally, when we acquired a 27+ stake and then became active, we set out our goal to deliver a low-teen EBIT margin. Since then, we've seen the performance journey executed, I think, superbly. And that's kind of stepped beyond that. So we lifted that low-teen 10-12 EBIT margin to somewhere closer to low-teens, mid-teens.
Our view is that needs to be achieved through the cycle, not just at a peak moment. I'll just note we're not quite at mid-teens yet. We'd say we're at low-teens and performing well. We expect this to be a journey that'll occur through FY 2026 and beyond. What's been pleasing in the experience of Boral and the way the team, with Vik's leadership, have executed has been the unlock of that margin has come quickly. There's still more potential for further performance improvement. I don't think we're necessarily done with that target, so to speak, and we haven't capped out on the potential for improvement within Boral. The more we see that the team execute, and this is not just the leadership team, this is at every level within Boral, perform and deliver the results, we see that margin potential improve. This will take time.
So we're not expecting that to cap out. Certainly, this financial year, not in FY 2026, as we move into 2027 and beyond, we still have an ambition to see that EBIT margin just edge further up.
Thanks, Ryan. Very helpful.
Just to be clear, mid-teens EBIT margin, so we haven't pivoted from that focus at this point. So we're not pushing beyond that from an ambition we're calling out.
Yep. Thanks, Ryan. Richard, quick one for you. Just on Boral, right? If you look at seasonality, Boral is more first-half weighted. If you think about last year, your EBIT was 54, 46. I mean, look, I'm not trying to get to an exact number, but is there a good ballpark to think about, or there's something that's happened this half that we should be mindful of? Thank you.
I think the seasonality usually displayed by Boral reflects elements like Easter, ANZAC Day, falling in the second half, slightly different weather patterns. I think that is, at this stage, that's probably the best reflection of what we would expect in terms of FY 2025.
Thanks. Thanks, Richard. Ryan, last one for you. Look, I need to ask this. Just on the guidance, right? I mean, look, first half is very strong. Of course, you've not changed your guidance. Is it fair to say that Coates is holding you back?
No, I'd say there's a few aspects. Visibility is a question mark for us in the second half. There's a parts price dynamic playing in the second half of WesTrac as well, which does take some of the upper end of that opportunity off, to be quite frank. And that's a similar parts price dynamic as first half.
We don't have the reval, but we do have the dollar margin impact in the second half. They're probably some of the factors playing into it. We're focused on that guidance, but there's a few aspects that are going to take that upper end of that guidance away. But again, from where we sit today, that's what we're aiming for. But as we go forward and get further clarity through the year, we're hopeful we can continue to deliver consistently. So it's just based on what we see today, it's prudent to hold the guidance where it is.
Great. Thanks, Ryan. Thanks, Richard.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Niraj Shah from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Hope you can hear me. Just a follow-up question on the Boral margin.
It seems to be a pretty healthy sort of balance between gross margin improvement and SG&A efficiencies. Just on the SG&A piece, how much of those savings do you view as sort of cyclical versus sustainable through the cycle?
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, if we stand back and look at where we think we are in the cycle, I mean, certain attributes across Boral are positive from an activity context, but the overall volume is not at a high point in the cycle. We look at there's still a large amount of the Boral opportunity that sits in residential. We're kind of at a low end of that overall activity context, and we know that needs to step up. That is an opportunity for us. So from a cycle context, we're not at a high point.
So I think you're better to think through that the current cycle is kind of more mid-cycle than anything else. So the core attribute of the question, where we see the efficiencies today, we do see them being able to be locked in. I think the core element of the good-to-great strategy is actually embedding those changes so they're not just one-off, that they're actually locked into the way the business operates. They become quite just core to an efficient business operation that we do expect to sustain. And we do see more opportunities as we can kind of improve network performance that ultimately is going to further lock in improvement within the business.
Great. Thanks. And just to follow up on Boral, could you just perhaps remind us of where things are at with Logos and more generally, I guess, progress against the broader property strategy within Boral? Yeah.
For us, Deer Park is kind of in the background and moving through its stages. So at the moment, we've got various stakeholders we're engaging with, including government in relation to the land. The nature of that partnership with Logos is about taking that forward. We've been relying on their expertise, if you like, on that development context. So it's modeling up what's going to be the highest and best use for the site from an industrial perspective. And it's enabled us, in a Boral context, to focus on core business. But it's something that we don't envisage seeing that play through in this side of the five-year outlook. It's probably in the latter side of the five-year outlook before you see any real progress there. But it is moving along in the background.
But it's not a near-term expectation that we're going to see that physically commence and then move into having kind of rental income.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Steyn from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, Ryan and Richard. Congratulations to the team on a good result. Just if I may, on WesTrac, Ryan, you've obviously cited the margin effects of that parts pricing decision by CAT in the second half. But in the context of the strength in the U.S. dollar, what are your expectations around pricing going forward, and what are the likely impacts on WesTrac?
The parts price is traditionally set twice a year. So the decision from a 1 January perspective is a pretty similar reduction to 1 July. So that's what we're working with in half two, and hence that comment around the guidance.
It's difficult to say what that will be for FY 2026. We don't have any visibility on that. The currency has moved in such a way that at the moment, that looks more positive than not, but we don't quite know. And that's a process. We'll get better visibility, to be frank, in that kind of end-May-June period. But at the moment, we're focused on that dynamic in half two. What I would call out is, even through that, we've seen a step up in service revenue. Activity remains strong. And if you looked at that parts price dynamic through, it's pretty close to that 10-year CAGR for support growth. So we still see that activity demand remaining strong. We haven't started the big fleet rebuild program. So we've had delivery of new replacement trucks. We haven't seen some of the big fleet truck rebuild processes occur yet.
That'll play more into 2026 and beyond as well.
Thanks, Ryan. Then perhaps just a follow-up on that. The fairly significant unwinding inventories at a group level of AUD 156 million. Presumably, the vast majority of that came from WesTrac. You sort of pointed to less machines and packs in the inventory. But could you give us a bit of a forward-look expectation there? Supply chain normalization is obviously an important structural development there. But what do you think is going to likely be the cash dynamics in WesTrac?
We'd like to kind of return to even that cash conversion. If we look at the period, we actually built inventory within WesTrac period on period. I mean, but it was a much lower build. And you saw the release from the prior period come through. So still a pretty healthy order book.
I think, to be honest, the outlook we're trying to get a feel for, when we look at the big rebuild program, that's probably going to be a heavy working cap dynamic for us, but not material, and not that you'd notice from the outside looking at the WesTrac result. But we still see that playing through over the next couple of years. So overall, parts availability is improving. That's enabling us to get back to more traditional working capital to sales level. And we would, over time, expect that to trend back to that high 20% level versus where it's at at kind of 30% of sales. So that's kind of long and short, we would expect that to start to normalize back to a traditional kind of inventory to sales level.
Perfect. Thanks, Ryan. I'll leave it there.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ramoun Lazar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Great. Yeah, just a couple more on Boral, if I may. Just the 200 basis points you're only improving in gross margin. I think mix sort of is still a drag to that margin just given Resi's weak. So just wondering, what's driven that step up in gross margin improvement? Is it all just headline price or something else?
I think there's a couple of factors. I mean, firstly, pricing had a big component of that. So that's price realization across the product range. And if you think about looking at it from a product context, we have achieved pricing, particularly kind of in concrete through the period. I mean, even though we haven't got a strong Resi dynamic, we've been able to get better pricing through that infra activity.
I think the cost management kind of at that and the efficiency is driven at all levels of the cost structure. It isn't just about a focus on SG&A. This is about the direct costs and what we can do to drive efficiency there. I think there are all the factors. So a little bit, I mean, part of that margin improvement has been pricing, but a lot of it's been that whole process to optimize and drive efficiency through the network of Boral.
Okay, great. And just on the SG&A piece, is it I mean, should we just assume second half sort of SG&A, like the run rate similar to the first half, around that AUD 190 million or so SG&A costs that you saw in the first half?
Would you just annualize that into the second half, or is there something else that we need to take into account heading into the second half?
I mean, there's nothing material that stands out, to be honest. It is, yeah, should be broadly consistent second half. There's nothing that stands out from a first-half perspective on the SG&A side. I mean, there'll be further kind of marginal improvements that we'll look to make on SG&A, but not, I mean, I think looking at that half one, half two, pretty similar is right.
Okay, great. And just to confirm, that SG&A to sales is now sort of tracking around just over 10% of sales, which is higher than where it's been. And you think that's a sort of sustainable level even when volumes come back?
The SG&A to sales, I think, has come down quite a bit over the period in the Boral context. But as far as the operating leverage in the business, yeah, there's obviously some increase in SG&A, but not a corresponding amount relative to the growth. So we do see further operating leverage as volumes grow, absolutely coming through. And hence, when we talk about the EBIT margin dynamic, our focal point on a through-the-cycle attribute, I mean, if you see a big step up in Resi come through, volumes step up accordingly. Obviously, there'll be a natural kind of operating leverage attribute come through in EBIT margin translation as well. But our focus is on how do we get this to be sustained through the cycle, not just having that peak EBIT margin and then it drop away.
So yeah, the short answer is, as volumes step up, there will be more operating leverage coming through.
Great. Thanks, Ryan. I'll leave it there.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Julian Mulcahy from E&P. Please go ahead.
Hi, Ryan. Just two questions. First thing on WesTrac with the services business, with the growth slowing to 5%, presumably that was impacted by the swing in parts pricing. But do you have a sort of a feel for what the underlying growth would have been if you sort of strip that out?
Yeah, look, in short, that's right. If you think about services, the lion's share of that is parts. So you're probably best to look to that single-digit impact, and that will move that up close to that CAGR. It'd be from a normalization aspect, it'd be probably revenue would have been closer to 8.5%-odd % in that context.
Right. Cool. And with Coates, can you talk about the exposure to Victoria? I mean, we're broke down here in Melbourne, and when the big build finishes sort of next year or so, there's going to be quite a big decline. So can you talk about how that's the shape of that curve and then how easy it will be to relocate gear to other states?
Yeah. Look, frankly, I think we're kind of in that period in Victoria at the moment. I mean, for want of a better description, we're talking about the broader economy. We see things relatively stable across kind of New South Wales, Queensland, WA, and recession in Victoria if we looked at it from an infrastructure and construction activity. And infra, we still feel pretty comfortable and confident in the outlook.
I think the broader issue is, I think that's the only thing happening in Victoria is probably the way we characterize it. There's a lot of other activity that's been suppressed. So we haven't seen the balance of that activity. But we still see pipeline projects continuing. There's still projects that are commencing. So it's a factor we're managing through. From a Coates perspective, yeah, the relocation of fleet, the rationalization of presence and costs, that's all underway at the moment. But it's probably been the more dramatic impact in the half has been, yeah, the elements in Victoria and Coates that's felt that. Yes.
And so with that relocation, is that going to save on CapEx in the next year or two?
Yeah, we definitely see the FY 2025 CapEx being kind of under where we would have expected. So that's going to be slightly lower.
We'll also similarly look at where we'll end up from an original cost perspective. So that'll probably still hover around that AUD 1.8 million-AUD 1.9 billion range. But clearly, we'll be moving gear to where there's demand. And if we don't see that demand, that's a question of what we do with that fleet. But overall, the view we've had through Coates has been trying to have a long-term perspective on fleet. So we haven't fleeted for that peak. So we've got a lot more flexibility in where we move fleet around the country. And that's been happening through a half. So I'd say it's something that's going to naturally have a slightly lower CapEx through FY 2025, but not materially. But it will be lower than where we guided to originally.
Okay. Thanks, Ryan.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brook Campbell-Crawford from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a few quick ones. Firstly, on Boral margins, obviously very topical, but in the presentation, there was an explicit comment that you're aiming to lock in the Boral margin improvements. Does this suggest you think the 14% EBITDA margin you achieved in the first half is sustainable into the second half?
Look, it'll be there or thereabouts. We're not projecting it to be above that. It'll probably arguably be slightly below that for half two. But fundamentally, on a full-year basis, it'll be in that upper end of the low-teen margin range, if that makes sense. And then I think the key point there is saying that the changes are not just one-off, are not short-term.
It's running in the way Boral operates that will mean that we want to continue to build on that as we go forward into 2026 and beyond.
Understood. Thanks for that. Just a couple of clarifying questions on the WesTrac parts price dynamic. Can you just confirm or quantify what the EBIT headwind was in the December half just gone relating to that price fall? And then for the one January change, I would have thought a lower Aussie would have ordinarily led to a higher parts price in Aussie dollar terms here locally. So can you maybe just step through what we're missing there and why it's perhaps not what I would have thought? Maybe I misunderstood the way that dynamic works.
Firstly, on that latter point, I'll let Richards answer the first one.
But the point on the way that pricing structure works, it's not a period of time where a currency is assessed, and then there's a period where it's kind of announced and implemented. So if you think about that, for a half, it's kind of like six weeks out from that period. So it was set in that late November period, the period before that. And unfortunately, there was a much stronger currency period there. It's not as direct in that context that we get the same visibility as to what the drivers are. But at that point in time, it was a much higher AUD. Where it is today, you're right. It should have been the opposite. But in relation to your first question, Richard?
So the revaluation impact was about AUD 36 million in an absolute sense.
There was obviously then a second-order impact in terms of just in a revenue context. So what we did see is an increase in, again, in lines shipped. So the volumetric increase. And against that backdrop, we actually saw the average cost per line also increase, highlighting that the work that's been done is certainly moving into the larger component-type rebuild work.
Got it. Thanks. And just the last one, with respect to Crux, do you mind just providing a comment on, I guess, expected timing for your earnings, your share of earnings there? And I guess that spot pricing and your assumptions around cost, etc. What would your share of EBIT be once that comes online?
Yeah. I think timing-wise for us is CY 2027. So we're probably tail end of FY 2027 or early FY 2028. It's difficult to say what that's going to be.
But if you think through the timing, the first stage would be getting that up and into production. So first year, it shouldn't be that substantial. Then we'll have a better feel for what the outer years are going to be from a production perspective. But in trying to put that into the model, it's kind of in that timeframe. Richard,
yeah? Yeah. I think probably think of it more in terms of cash flow rather than earnings contribution, Brook, because there will be amortization of the capital cost. But in terms of that, once in full production, we would expect upwards of AUD 250 million of cash flow.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Joseph House from Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Ryan and Richard. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three.
Firstly, looking at WesTrac, it appears your inventory remains elevated, and that's generally been a positive indicator of growth ahead. How is in-transit machine inventory holding up against historical trends at 30 June 2024? And how should we think about the timeline of machine deliveries ahead? Does the current order book see deliveries into early FY 2026?
Richard, you want to talk about in-transit?
So in-transit was actually up slightly. And that just reflects, again, we're in the middle of a very strong delivery cycle, particularly for mining machines into WA. In terms of that, certainly gives us confidence around the outlook for the remainder of the year. And the team is currently working to then lock in the order book for next year.
Okay. And you called out in your AGM that you expected a recovery in residential market activity from late FY 2025. Are you still keeping to that outlook?
If so, could you perhaps talk to what gives you confidence in that outlook and maybe some discussions you're having broadly with customers on incoming project deliveries?
I think the late 2025 is in calendar year 2025. We haven't expected it to come through in FY 2025. So just want to clarify that. And to be honest, we haven't seen any indication of that changing. I think it's a pretty well-publicized sector as far as that activity. And ABS published the data, which, to be honest, we use as our insight tool as well. But we haven't seen any substantive shift there. What gives us some confidence is just that we know the demand's there. We know there's a gap in supply. There's a lot of political will to solve it. And there's yet to be a catalyst.
In our view, something like a rate cut is probably a confidence catalyst that will help. So they're the factors. But we are not expecting that to change in FY 2025. We're hopeful for kind of towards the end of calendar year 2025, we'll see a shift. And then there's the time before it translates to a benefit like a Boral and potentially Coates. But yeah, that timing is not going to play through this financial year. Certainly not in our expectation.
Yep. Understood. And just on Boral, how should we think about the uplift in margins from the heavy mobile equipment renewal program that's underway kind of over the short to medium term?
Look, pretty frankly, on that point, probably minor.
If you recall, I think it was more than 12 months ago now, we called out a step up in what we term catch-up capital, which was quarry investment, HME, and then the WesTrac fleet, the three years we need to deploy capital. So this is coming through that HME. There'll be some savings in R&M, some reduction in rental costs and op costs. But it's going to be relatively small. We see better just overall kind of efficiencies with having that fleet standardized, better overall performance of fleet. But it won't specifically be the catalyst to drive a margin improvement. It'll just be part of the mix that's going to drive further efficiencies of Boral.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nathan Reilly from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Ryan and Richard.
Quick question just in relation to your expectation for the Coates business in terms of equipment utilization for the second half, please.
We are focused on and have our ambition to get that back to 60%. From a TU perspective, it's an important threshold. We were hopeful we'd be close to that through the first half. But activity and relocation of gear from south to other parts of the network have been a key focus for us. That's something we're committed to deliver on. From our perspective, we want to see that delivered and executed in half two. So that's something we'd like to see kind of 60%+ TU.
And it looks like you've been pretty consistent on price. But in terms of the outlook and demand environment in Victoria, can you talk to the competitive outlook for pricing?
Yeah.
I mean, in our view, that pricing discipline is important and retaining a focus on how we drive customer value through the overall offer versus just looking at cut price. So we work closely with customers in how we kind of win projects and deals based on the overall fleet offering, the quality, the service, broader attributes than purely price. But what we've known is if we pull a price lever, the industry by nature will follow. So it's not necessarily going to drive a better competitive outcome from our perspective. So it's something that we're mindful. We want to see a fair price for the gear that we have and win through how we can drive service and value proposition of the overall offering outside of just price lever. We still see a lot of activity across other parts of the region.
So for us, the activity in New South Wales remains strong. We're seeing good activity in Queensland and activity in WA. It's really just this dynamic of a shift in overall activity in Victoria that we're navigating through in our view. Elsewhere, it's been reasonably positive for the half.
Thank you. And final question, just in relation to Boral, the Good to Great sort of progression and journey continues. But in terms of your thinking around M&A within that business, can we get a quick update on where you think the business is positioned from a bandwidth point of view, managing the efficiency process as well as, I guess, a potential growth process as well?
I mean, I think the management team's got incredible breadth to take on multiple aspects of that. So I wouldn't say they're stretched.
What we've been pleased with is how the Good to Great journey has been locked into an operating cadence. It's a very strong rigor. The monthly business review mechanism that's there really pushes that ownership and result into the business. So the core operating rhythm is there and driving the result. So we feel very confident that these changes are being enshrined into how Boral operates, which is something which is very aligned with how we think. And that's been key as we think about that core operating model. And for the opportunities outside that, so we've still been able to progress growing other areas like recycling, looking at how we develop the property portfolio, and looking at other businesses to bolt in. But I think the key for us is making sure we remain disciplined from a pricing perspective. We've got a great network.
There's parts of it that we'll want to strengthen in areas. But again, back to our thought process and capital allocation, it needs to drive an acceptable return. And we are in a fortunate position. We don't need to buy something just to bolster that network. We've got an extremely strong network across Boral, and we've got opportunities to drive that. But there's been small quarries we've acquired and other assets that we'll continue to look to acquire that bolster the Boral network. But I think the short answer is, team, we've got capacity to do that from a capability context, absolutely. They've got capital support from SGH, absolutely. So it's just going to be disciplined around picking the opportunities.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. And that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.