Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SunRice Group 2025 full-year results conference call and webcast. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question via the phone, you'll need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the ask-a-question box. I would now like to hand the conference over to SunRice Group CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Paul Serra, and the company's CFO, Mr. Dimitri Courtelis. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. I'd like to welcome you all to today's investor call and webcast. We appreciate you taking the time today for us to take you through our 2025 full-year results. My name is Paul Serra, CEO and Managing Director, and I'm joined here today by Dimitri Courtelis, our Chief Financial Officer. The plan for today is to run through our 2025 results. I'll touch on some of the key achievements and then hand over to Dimitri to take you through the financials and the segmentation performance. I will come back and cover off on our strategy and outlook, and we will then open for questions. You should also see the investor presentation on the screen that we've lodged on the ASX today.
Before I take you through our financial performance in 2025 and the key drivers behind it, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the evolution of the SunRice Group. The SunRice Group is a global food business with deep Australian heritage, operating in a unique dual-class share structure that seeks to optimize returns for both grower shareholders, known as A-class shareholders, and investor shareholders, known as B-class shareholders. As you can see from this slide, the SunRice Group has an incredible journey over our 25-year history and operation, and we're very proud of that. What began as a Riverina of rice growers pooling their money together to fund a single rice mill in 1950 has evolved into the truly global business that is SunRice Group today.
Today, approximately 60% of our revenue is generated outside of Australia, and around 70% of that, or 70% of our total revenue, comes from our branded products across more than 50 countries. We manage a portfolio of 1,500 products across 45 brands in 10 countries and employ over 2,400 people. We currently source rice from 10 countries, including Australia. This diversification has been fundamental to the resilience and the growth of the company, allowing us to capitalize on opportunities across different markets while managing our regional challenges. Which brings me to our financial year 2025 results. In this year, we effectively managed a complex operating environment while growing the value of our established brands and pursuing strategic growth opportunities which position us for the next chapter of our growth.
I'm pleased to report that this resulted in a solid set of financial results supported by improved profitability across the business, highlighting the quality of the group's earnings despite the pressure that we had on the top line. Let me start with our key financial highlights. As you can see on screen, we delivered improved profitability with net profit after tax of AUD 17.7 million and EBITDA of AUD 147.7 million. This was up 4% and 3% respectively on prior year. Group revenue was AUD 1.85 billion and was slightly down 2% on last year. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital management and declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.50 per B-class share, bringing the total dividend for financial year 2025 to AUD 0.65 per B-class share. This was an increase over financial year 2024, where we delivered a total dividend of AUD 0.60 per B-class share.
We also delivered a naturally determined paddy price of AUD 406 per tonne for medium grain rice, which was down from financial year 2024 of AUD 430 per tonne. This was largely due to the lowest average whole grain mill out rates that we've had in more than five years for the 2024 crop. We've also today announced that the SunRice Dividend Reinvestment Plan will be reactivated for eligible shareholders. The DRP will apply to the financial year 2025 final dividend of AUD 0.50 per B-class share to be paid on the 21st of July 2025 and will be partially underwritten. Overall, our performance was driven by the efforts of our team and underpinned by our discipline and agility in navigating what was a very complex global environment this year, as well as our ongoing execution of the SunRice Group's 2030 growth strategy and our strong branded positions and supply chain integration.
Turning to some of the key performance drivers for both revenue and profitability in financial year 2025, we'll start with some of the volume growth drivers. The strength of our brands and the product portfolio continue to deliver volume across several parts of the group, including new product launches and a successful Ramadan campaign in the Middle East, increased exports of rice in the United States, which was made possible by the plentiful availability of rice in that market, expanded distribution of rice cakes in Australia, and new export opportunities for rice flour. We also had strong performance of our Toscano range in the Australian baking category and the expansion into more branded pet food channels in Australia, which was supported by our SavourLife acquisition.
Volume was challenged by an increase in competition across the Pacific and the US, the cost of living pressures, which were causing contraction in the food service sector here in Australia, as well as impacting consumer spending in categories such as microwave rice, pickled vegetables, premium biscuits, and equine feed. We also had a contraction in our dairy feed market in the ruminant business. The low whole grain mill out rates of crop year 2024 in turn also impacted our ability to place product in some markets. Revenue was affected by a sharp drop in global government tenders for the non-branded part of our business, sales price deflation in the dairy feed sector, and additional discounting in some markets and product categories to fight intensified competition. Profitability, however, was up due to thanks to disciplined execution of our strategic plan and a number of key factors.
We had a favorable mix shift towards higher value branded products. We made cost savings across various parts of the supply chain, including procurement, logistics, and distribution. We drove manufacturing efficiencies, particularly in our Rice Food and CopRice businesses, and raw material usage optimization in our Rice Food business. The non-repeat of one-off costs incurred in financial year 2024 in relation to the increased risk of doing business in some markets at that point in time, and the innovation agile pricing strategies to help absorb, where possible, inflation pressures such as global rice price fluctuations resulting from the Indian government's export ban on non-Basmati rice varietals during half one 2025, and the foreign exchange challenges associated with the weaker AUD and the PNG Kina in particular. The improvement in the quality of our earnings demonstrates the strength of our brands and our 2030 growth strategy in action.
Looking now at some of our sustainability highlights, in financial year 2025, we took an important step towards further embedding sustainability at the heart of our business by creating our sustainability strategy. Our strategy is based on our double materiality assessment in areas where we seek to have the greatest positive impact. It focuses on four pillars described on screen: thriving people, thriving planet, thriving communities, and inspiring products. These pillars guide our actions and investments, driving long-term value for our shareholders, our growers, our customers, and consumers, while also demonstrating our commitment to our people, communities, and the environment. Over the coming year, we will work towards operationalizing the sustainability strategy. In financial year 2025, some of the important strategic milestones include the validation of our science-based targets by the Science Based Target Initiative.
These targets really set the direction for reducing near-term and long-term scope one, two, and three emissions by FY33 and FY50, respectively. We are one of the few companies in Australia that have a forestry, land, and agricultural emissions targets as part of these. Today, alongside our annual report, we released our net zero roadmap, which focuses on the next five years to support SunRice to meet the near-term emissions reduction targets, with some actions for delivery by financial year 2033 and other actions providing longer-term support for SunRice to meet its financial year 2050 targets. We are also engaged with Monash University to undertake a benchmarking review of the group's FY24 modern slavery statement and received an A for the first time. This places the group on par with the top-performing half of the ASX 100 and higher than our sector average.
The rating reflects the results of the group's ongoing commitment to continuous improvement in its approach to modern slavery mitigation and our ability to report on such progress. Since FY 2022, the group has improved from a B minus to an A. Touching quickly on the financial year 2025 segment snapshot, and Dimitri will cover this off in more detail soon, we can see on screen we've had mixed results across various segments, including EBITDA strong growth in our Rice Food and Riviana Foods businesses. Looking at our track record, this slide really tells the history and the story of SunRice's consistent performance and strategic evolution. Over the last 10 years, we've delivered a total shareholder return of 350%, which has significantly outperformed the ASX 300 accumulation index TSR of 110%, including AUD 252 million in total dividends to B-class shareholders during this period of time.
We have also invested AUD 397 million in CapEx and acquisitions over this period in time. It gives us confidence in our ability to continue to create value and deliver sustainable returns for shareholders as we progress through challenging and dynamic markets. With that, I'd like to hand over to Dimitri, who's going to discuss the financial year 2025 results and each of our business segments in more detail. I'll come back and talk about the delivery of our strategy before we open for questions.
Thanks, Paul, and good afternoon to everyone joining us on the call and the webcast today. FY25 was a year of disciplined execution and strategic progress for the SunRice Group. On screen is a snapshot of our group financials, which we touched on previously.
One point I'll call out is with regards to the group's impact in FY25, and this was impacted by a higher effective tax rate there last year. This year, we had a 28% ETR, and that was compared against a 21% ETR for the prior period. This was due to profits that we made in high tax jurisdictions, as well as using up some historical unrecognized tax losses. Turning to EBITDA and cash flow movement, the group's leverage ratio and the return on capital employed were 1.5 times and 13.6%, respectively, as at 30th of April 2025. This was improved from 1.6 times and 12.7% last year. This was driven by a strong EBITDA generated in FY25, coupled with the largely stable net debt.
We continue to exercise discipline in our capital management to maintain balance sheet strength and flexibility, enabling us to pursue strategic investments, support innovation, and diversify earnings in line with our 2030 growth strategy. The company has no core debt. We only have seasonal debts, and with the strategic acquisitions of SavourLife and Simply Delish in FY25, we funded those through cash. Net debt and gearing slightly reduced to AUD 218 million and 26%, respectively, as at 30th of April 2025. This was driven by our net working capital, which remained largely consistent with the prior year at AUD 452.4 million, despite a 24% increase in the Australian rice crop. This was due to lower than average mill out rates on the CY24 Australian crop, which led to a faster inventory turnover and reduced stock holdings.
During the year, we invested AUD 42.8 million in CapEx, which included expenditure incurred as part of an approximate AUD 15 million strategic project to upgrade our Leeton manufacturing operations, which will be fully operational in FY26. I'll now discuss the performance of each of our segments in more detail. Let's start with the Australian Rice Pool business, and this is aligned to our A-class shareholders and deals with the receival, the milling, the marketing, and the selling of Riverina rice. Strong Riverina rice supply, robust branded and traded sales, and a weaker Australian dollar favored exports, and that supported the Rice Pool business into FY25. However, as we mentioned previously, the revenue and the paddy price were pressured by the lowest average whole grain mill out rates in more than five years and weaker global government tender prices.
This resulted in a 4% decline in revenue to AUD 370 million on the prior year and a final naturally determined paddy price of AUD 406 per tonne for medium grain for the CY24 crop, and this was against the AUD 430 per tonne in the prior period. A long-term viable rice industry is one of the outcomes that we're working towards as part of our 2030 growth strategy. A key focus of this in working in FY25 was preparing for the end of rice vesting, which is almost upon us at the end of June 2025. I'm pleased to say that the business is well advanced for the transition to this new operating environment. We've launched our new value proposition to Riverina growers, and this focuses on SunRice transitioning from being the buyer of last resort to becoming the buyer of choice for Riverina rice growers going forward.
While the year ahead is one of transition and direction setting, we are already planning based on our growers' feedback, including incentives that recognize consistency both for supply and quality, as well as new pricing mechanisms for quality and trash. I'll now move on to our International Rice segment, which sources, processes, and markets rice in Australia and around 50 markets globally, offering premium and value choices to consumers. Our multi-origin sourcing capability and the strength of our brands in our international rice markets continue to underpin performance against a very challenging backdrop. Revenue had decreased by 4% on the prior year to AUD 860.4 million, and this was primarily due to increased competition in the Pacific and the U.S. markets, as well as lower global government tender prices. This is despite strong market growth in our Middle East markets.
Profitability, though pressured by higher costs of internationally sourced rice and a rapidly depreciating PNG Kina, was maintained through agile pricing actions, cost savings, and the absence of working capital risk costs that we incurred last year. Looking now at our Rice Food segment, which manufactures, markets, and distributes value-add rice products, where we've really been working on innovation in the last couple of years, revenue was AUD 132.5 million, up 10% from AUD 121 million in the prior period. Additional sales opportunities, both in Australia and internationally, raw material sourcing optimization, and manufacturing efficiencies supported the strong growth in earnings in the segment, despite ongoing pressures from lower-priced competition in the microwave segment. As a result, EBITDA increased to AUD 18.6 million, up 33%, and net profit before tax was up 44%.
As I mentioned, the group continues to focus on innovation and new product initiatives to build on consumer interest in our brands and products in this space. In Riviana, our top-line growth was driven by continued product innovation and brand momentum, including our Toscano and Hearth & Soul brands, despite headwinds in food service, pickled vegetables, and portfolio rationalization. Distribution changes and cost savings throughout the supply chain supported Riviana's margins, though integration challenges and a weak Australian dollar against the euro and the USD continued to constrain the overall profitability of this business. As a result, EBITDA did increase 11% to AUD 7.9 million, but net profit was down 21%. The delta between EBITDA and net profit before tax was primarily due to the additional interest expense and the depreciation costs associated with the recent Simply Delish acquisition.
Next to crop rice, our animal nutrition business delivered a strong profit performance against a challenging backdrop, which follows the positive trend established in recent years. We did have a favorable product mix shift towards higher value branded pickled food products, along with cost savings throughout our supply chain and manufacturing efficiencies across most sites, which drove a significant uplift in profitability and was further supported by the acquisition of our SavourLife business in August 2024. This result was achieved despite the ongoing contraction in both value and volume of the dairy feed sector, particularly in one of our key markets, Northern Victoria. Finally, our Corporate segment, which captures the cost of holding and financing the assets that are used by both the Australian Rice Pool business and the profit business. It also includes cross-segment changes and charges for the SunRice brands and access to milling and storage assets.
EBITDA for the period was AUD 40.5 million, down from AUD 48.9 million in the prior year. This was due to the non-repeat of asset sales that we had last year and slightly lower asset financing charges received from the rice pool business, directly driven from the lower mill out rates of the crop year in 2024. Also, impacting this was a lower WACC rate as interest rates subsided. Net profit before tax was, however, up from AUD 16.3 million to AUD 16.8 million, and this was due to one-off impairment charges that we had in the prior period. I'll now hand back to Paul to provide an update on our 2030 strategy and, of course, the outlook for FY26 and beyond.
Thank you, Dimitri. If we turn our attention now to the 2030 growth strategy, financial year 2025 really marked the first year of implementation of this strategy.
Very importantly, the strategy provides us with a very clear North Star. It defines who we are as a group and, importantly, who we are not, and really sets out the growth geographies and markets for us and gives us very clear guidance about where to invest and how to grow as an organization. During the year, we made some very good progress towards delivering this strategy with our results. We have reshaped our purpose, solidified our values, implemented a new divisional structure, and we have reshaped the leadership team designed to help us achieve our ambitious goal of becoming everyone's favorite rice food company and positioning SunRice for the next 75 years of growth. I have already talked to our strategic progress at a high level. However, some of the notable strategic highlights for the year were the product innovation and portfolio diversification, which we were able to achieve.
We launched over 40 new product lines this year across key categories such as core rice, microwave rice, snacking, bakery, and ready meals. These helped to underpin some of our profitability. We had some very clear sustainability milestones that we achieved, which include the release of our sustainability strategy and our net zero roadmap. We expanded into chilled product and premium pet food with the acquisition of Simply Delish and SavourLife, the implementation of our Australian rice strategy as the industry transitions to the end of rice vesting, and ongoing investment to drive operational efficiencies and productivities, including strategic capital expenditure in excess of AUD 15 million to upgrade our Leeton packaging operations here in New South Wales in Australia.
As we look ahead to the outlook in financial year 2026, we expect to build on the solid results achieved in FY25 to continue to grow the business at both the top and the bottom line.
There are several positive factors which support our confidence: consumer preferences towards jasmine and basmati varietals, which we intend to meet with expanded product offerings in Australia and in global markets, including the U.S.; a normalization of global rice prices, which should benefit some of the group's more price-sensitive markets; opportunities for market growth in the Middle East, where we look to expand our presence and our portfolio offering; the strength of our brands with additional investments aimed at driving awareness and expanded market shares for our Toscano and SavourLife product ranges, in particular here in Australia; a strong innovation pipeline of new snacking and meal-based products across the portfolio and across geographies; and a large Australian rice crop, which will deliver a full milling program in financial year 2026.
In turn, it is expected to support strong brand and asset finance charges in the Corporate segment and optimize sourcing mix for some of our Rice Food products. However, as always, there are some challenges we expect in financial year 2026, and some of those will be continuations from the challenges in financial year 2025. These include intensified competition across several markets, including in the Pacific, placing pressure on revenue and margins there; the weak Australian dollar and the Papua New Guinea Kina affecting the cost of imported products here into Australia; and other inflationary pressures on costs. Additionally, recent legislative changes regarding the application of GST in Papua New Guinea is causing abnormal fluctuations in that market and leading to a slower start in financial year 2026 than anticipated for that business.
There are also highlighted heightened levels of uncertainty around the possible escalation of recent conflict in the Middle East and the impact of U.S. policies and how that may impact broader trade flows across the different economies we operate in. These have the potential to disrupt supply chains and increase the cost of doing business across those markets. Finally, we are likely to incur some cost in FY26 as we focus on the implementation of our 2030 growth strategy. If we look to the paddy price and crop outlook, in 2025, the Riverina harvest delivered stronger than anticipated farm yields, resulting in around 511,000 paddy tons to be harvested. This substantial crop will support a full milling program and strong branded sales in Australian Rice Pool segments here and abroad.
The slight improvement expected in global tender prices and in a ready well-hedged position against the USD are also expected to benefit the CY25 paddy returns. Given some CY24 paddy needs to be carried over for our continuing supply of the markets into FY25, the poor mill-out rates of that crop will continue to negatively impact the paddy returns. While slightly better than the CY24 crop, early indications of the CY25 crop are still showing lower-than-average mill-out rates, which will add pressure on returns while also creating capacity and storage challenges throughout our network. As a result, the CY25 paddy price remains unchanged at AUD 380-AUD 450 per ton for medium grain. We'll continue to provide updates on the range as the year progresses. I'd like to take this opportunity to personally acknowledge our Chairman, Laurie Arthur.
Laurie will retire at the conclusion of our 2025 AGM after serving on the SunRice board for 18 years, including over a decade as Chairman. Under Laurie's leadership, SunRice has undergone significant transformation and growth, including its successful listing on the ASX in 2019. We are grateful for Laurie's leadership and contribution to both SunRice and the Australian rice industry. I want to congratulate John Bradford on his appointment as Chair-elect, who will also assume the role of Chair following our AGM in September. John has been a grower director on the SunRice board for nearly a decade and has served as its Deputy Chair since September 2022. He's also Chairman of TruCo Industry Limited, a role he has held since 2018. This appointment ensures a very strong continuity of leadership at SunRice. In closing, it's been a privilege to lead the SunRice Group for a second year.
As we enter our 75th year, we do so as a truly global business, shaped by our heritage and strengthened by our people focused on the long-term performance. We remain confident in our direction and are well-positioned to deliver ongoing value for our shareholders, growers, customers, consumers, and communities. Thank you, and Dimitri and I are happy to take any questions now.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phone, you'll need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your first question comes from the webcast from Lucas Good from IML. Hi, Paul and Dimitri. Congrats on a strong result.
With the end of the single desk, is there a plan to collapse the dual-class share structure to improve liquidity and give the company more flexibility in funding future growth? Thanks.
Thank you, Lucas. Look, as we announced at last year's AGM, we are undergoing a review of our capital structure as a group. The cessation of the single desk does not really provide any catalyst for that to happen. We have ongoing conversations for that and continue to deliver well as an underlying business.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alan Franklin from Canaccord Genuity. Hi, Paul and Dimitri. Please, could you talk to one, further growth optionality in the Middle East, and have you had any supply chain disruption in the Middle East in recent weeks?
Two, on Rice Food, please provide some context to the capital investment within this division and how that might help growth moving forward. Three, please detail the mixed shifts within CopRice stripping out SavourLife. Revenue looked under pressure whilst margin grew strongly.
I might answer the first question, let Dimitri answer the other two questions for that. The growth opportunities in the Middle East remain quite solid for us. We have very strong positions in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Israel. Throughout the extended conflict that has been in that region now for the last couple of years, we have been able to continue very strongly. We have very strong branded positions, and large parts of the region remain unaffected by the current conflict. We, of course, look very closely, and any further escalation within the region of this conflict could lead to disruptions.
At this stage, we've been able to navigate those very well, and we've had a very strong history in this market. We understand it very well.
Okay, to the second part of the question, RFG CapEx. We have invested this year in our packing plant in Leeton. You'll see our CapEx number coming in at about AUD 42 million, and that's against a depreciation level of about AUD 30-AUD 31 million. We expect similar numbers next year as we invest in the Rice Food platform. It's really into that push of the innovative products in our microwave and rice cakes segment in particular, and the products that we have in our RFG segment. You'll see that we've got about 60% of our revenue driven internationally, 70% of the group's revenue in branded products.
It's really that push to convert that ultimately over time to 100% branded as we deliver on the strategy. With that branded push, also a further push into the innovation of products and the value add that will be accretive to the bottom line in particular and top line as we grow over time. Your second question on, or your third question on the CopRice mix. Historically, CopRice was a ruminant stock feed play. We've really transitioned that into an animal nutrition style business, particularly over the last few years and in the years to come. That's been really supported by the acquisitions of Pride's in Equine, and then more recently with SavourLife that we acquired, which is eight months included in the results. Next year, we'll obviously lap that from a 12-month perspective.
The mix is certainly now shifted more towards that branded play within the animal nutrition space, moving away from that ruminant pure play stock feed position. We still need those stock feed sales to help absorb utilization and efficiencies in the mills. Over time, we'd expect more and more accretive earnings to come from the animal nutrition division as we, as I mentioned, really have that push towards that branded position as well.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Gary Jos from Centennial. Hi, two questions, please. One, is there any update regarding a change to the A and B class structure given this is likely to be an important change in attracting institutional investors to the company?
Two, is there any profit impact to the B-class unit holders from a change in the rice pool price other than that which relates to the asset finance and brand use charges? My understanding is that it will impact revenue but has no impact on profit.
Yeah, to answer your first question, we are continuing, as I mentioned earlier on this call, we're continuing to go through a review of our capital structure as we announced last year. I think importantly, the business is well-funded, has a great balance sheet, and continues to deliver quite well. As I've already stated, that process is ongoing, and the board is very focused on how we can realize value for our shareholders moving forward. Sorry, in terms of the second question, Dimitri, you want to take that?
Sure. The asset finance charge is essentially an annuity style income that shows up in the Corporate segment, and that's a charge to the Australian Rice Pool because the B-class investor owns all of the assets in the business and is entitled to 100% of the dividends. As the quality of the rice crop plays out, and last year is a good example, the pressure on the mill-out yields did put a little bit of pressure on the asset finance charge, and it came off a few million compared to the prior period. The mill-out yields in the last year have been the lowest that we've seen for over five or six years now. Other than that, it's really more so the extreme scenarios of drought where there'd be potentially more of a disruptive impact.
Year in and year out, to your question, Gary, when you have a good paddy price or bad paddy price, it's more of a case of revenue, but the impact in the paddy price is worn by the A-class grower and minimal impact to the B-class side of the business other than what I described earlier.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone or type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your next question comes from John Burgess from RAAS Research. Can you comment on your observations around global freight rates? Presumably, lower rates would be a benefit for you.
Yeah, I can take that one. In terms of global freight costs, really post-COVID, they've been in a constant state of flux.
I think what's important for any organization is you're able to find ways to offset those price fluctuations. At the moment, we see global freight costs increasing as a result of closures in the Red Sea and disruptions to the Suez Canal as well, and sorry, through the Panama. That's really kind of driven, again, quite a sharp increase in prices over the last 12 months. I think as we've shown through our very disciplined operational execution and the way we're able to price through for that inflation, we're able to offset that and still deliver a very good quality of earnings. Really, I think where the prices go from here will be dependent on how some of these regional conflicts play out, in particular in the Middle East. We are watching that very carefully.
Thank you. We have another question from John Burgess. Have you added expertise in product development across the group to drive the 40 product launches?
Yeah, good question, John. We certainly have. We have strengthened, I think, our marketing and product development teams this year, in particular over the past two years. With the internal reorganization of our business behind the strategy that we have set for ourselves, we really feel like we have better expertise centrally to help leverage our scale where we can. We have also placed better expertise into the regional markets around the U.S. and the Middle East to help us get much closer to the consumer and the customer as we think about product innovation and new launches. We have to very intimately understand those cultures, routes of markets, customers, consumers, and how to execute against those food trends locally. Whilst we have more work to do, there is no doubt on that, we have also made very good progress in this space.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Fenella Burke from RAAS Research Group. SunRice has reintroduced its DRP for shareholders. What was the thinking behind this, and what sort of take-up are you anticipating?
Sure, I will take that one. Yeah, we switched that back on this year. The general take-up historically has been around the mid-20% range. Assuming that shareholders continue the same election, we expect the same level of number. In terms of the underwriting program, what we were looking to do is essentially fund the shortfall up to about AUD 10 million. It gives us that opportunity to drive the capital management strategy further.
Whilst net debt is at a healthy level, this also helps us fund items like strategic CapEx and then some ancillary benefits. We have obviously liquidity improving in the background. The register mix is also an important driver for us as we hopefully attract some more professional institutional investors onto the register. Yeah, that liquidity comments, when you look at our liquidity, it has improved about 10-12 times over the last 24 months. We went on to the agri index back end of last year. We are knocking on the ASX 300, hopefully in due course. That capital management strategy is really the fundamental key of what we are looking to intend to do with that level of financing and continue to support the growth of our business.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Lionel McFaden from Bell Potter Securities. Two questions, if I may. Given the strong balance sheet and steady gearing, can you run through the reintroduction of the DRP decision? Also, Riviana continues to struggle. Is it an asset that you will persist with?
I think Dimitri's answered the first point on the DRP. In terms of the second point on the Riviana question, Lionel, that business has really been impacted quite heavily by input cost inflations, predominantly driven by the weakening AUD versus euro. We are absolutely in the process of working through how we recover that. There are two parts to that that we're very heavily focused on. The first part is a profitable mix change. We are really driving parts of that portfolio that have tailwinds from a consumer perspective that we're growing in very high double-digit rates and have good margin on.
The second is that with that kind of cost input inflation, we have to realize better price through our business model. We are in the process of working through that and are confident we can make a good recovery in that business over the next 12 months.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Simon Kohn from IML. Can you comment on the M&A pipeline? How do you achieve the 3 billion sales target by FY 2030? Can you also highlight key NPD for the upcoming year?
Thank you, Simon. I think if we go back to the strategy that really sets out the North Star for us as a business, it really defines how we are looking to grow. Internationally, that growth will come very much from our integrated rice businesses.
This will be not just sort of the rice in the bag, so to speak, which is the traditional sort of volume driver of the rice categories across the globe, but also into much more value accretive and differentiated product solutions around microwave, around value meal unlocks, around snacking, and around other product ranges. If we look at the Middle East and the U.S. as two key geographies there, they're both at different states of maturity of our business internally, and there are different targets that are potentially available in the market. We've spent the last 12 months developing the relationships with the appropriate banks and advisors in these regions. We are very well attuned to the companies that may be becoming available.
I can't talk publicly about any of the conversations that we may or may not be having there other than to say we're looking for companies that have a very clear strategic fit to what we're trying to achieve and ones that will be complementary to what we could do ourselves without an acquisition. By doing the acquisition and by putting on our organic platforms around the innovation that we have, we create value for our shareholders. That is sort of internationally, as well as here in Australia, which is absolutely key. Unfortunately, I can't talk too much about innovation that we haven't released publicly yet because we want to be able to stay ahead of competition. What I can say is that we are very much working towards further differentiation of our products than where they are today.
I think here in Australia, like all food categories that we play in and like all food manufacturers, cost of living pressures and driving the private label driving consumption growth in our categories is something that we continually look at. The only way that we get profitable and continue to grow is by further differentiation to create products that can't be offered through that channel. We have a very good pipeline, and we feel very strongly about the innovation that we have coming to market. It will be in that differentiated space for sure.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I will now hand back to Mr. Serra for closing remarks.
Thank you all very much for joining us today. We appreciate the time that you spent for us to walk through our financial year 2025 results and the questions. Thank you very much.