Hello and welcome to the Service Stream fiscal year 2024 half-year results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand has been raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Managing Director, Leigh Mackender.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Service Stream's FY 2024 half-year results presentation. As per the introduction, my name's Leigh Mackender, Managing Director of Service Stream, and I'm joined today by Linda Kow, our Chief Financial Officer. So we are recording the session today via webcast. It's open to all registered Service Stream shareholders, and we have a number of institutional investors and analysts who are joining us on the conference call. And I welcome to participate in a Q&A session at the conclusion of the presentation. So in terms of today's agenda, I'll start by covering some group highlights and provide an update on our operations. I'll then pass to Linda, who will walk through the group's financial performance in greater detail. We'll then cover off Service Stream's full-year outlook and then wrap up and open the call for questions.
So I firstly wish to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today and pay our respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging. We are really pleased with the results that have been delivered during the half-year, reflecting one of the strongest periods in Service Stream's recent history. The first half of FY 2024 marked a period where the business has continued to diligently execute against the group's strategy, and that's ultimately aiming to create sustainable and long-term shareholder value. While the results show significant and positive progress and reaffirm the business is in a really strong position not only for the current year but years ahead, we acknowledge that there's still further opportunities to improve the business's performance.
In fact, I think this represents a positive and exciting element as we look forward to future years and continue to build on the strong momentum that has been generated across the business thus far. I'll direct you to slide three and touch on some of the key messages over the half-year period. The business has delivered strong financial performance, but more importantly, we're focused on improving the quality of earnings. This is headlined by significant double-digit increases in both earnings and profits on the back of sustained demand for our services and another period of really strong revenue growth. The business has diligently managed costs as we've navigated through the inflationary environment. We've driven improvements across our operational delivery. Pleased to see further improvements in the utility division's margins, that being an area which has dragged on the business's performance historically.
Ultimately, the group results reflect a really strong start to FY 2024. The business has delivered another exceptionally strong cash flow result during the half. The cash flow conversion rates that we've achieved, combined with the disciplined approach to capital management, have resulted in significant improvements to the group's balance sheet and a net cash position achieved at the end of the period. This positions the business exceptionally well to support ongoing growth and diversification opportunities, which in turn plan to support further improvements to shareholder outcomes. A core priority has been on securing profitable organic growth, and it's really pleasing to see strong tailwinds in the form of continuing investment in critical infrastructure across many, if not all, of Service Stream's core markets.
The business has improved earnings visibility over the short and medium- term, driven through both the retention of all of our existing contracts which proceeded to market during the last half as well as the business securing new growth. Ultimately, as I said at the start, this is about delivering improved outcomes for our shareholders, which is what our strategy aims to achieve. We're really happy to announce a step up in dividends to a level which we believe the business is, one, sustainable and is reflective of our solid financial performance and our confidence in the group's future performance. Moving on to slide four, and I'll touch at a brief level on some of the financial highlights in a little bit of great detail. Revenue for the half-year was AUD 1.174 billion.
That reflects another really strong period of double-digit growth of 18% on the prior corresponding period. More importantly, though, than revenue, underlying earnings was AUD 63.3 million, reflecting an increase of 14.9% on the prior period. NPAT was up 47% on the prior period, achieving AUD 25.2 million during the half. As for my comments a few minutes ago, for myself, I think the standout achievement over the period was certainly the strong cash flows that were generated across the business and the group's markedly improved balance sheet. The group generated operating cash flows of AUD 70.1 million, which reflects almost twice that of the prior period, and achieved an EBITDA to OCFBIT conversion rate of 111%.
This exceptional result is a testament, I think, indicative of the nature of our client base, the positive terms that are negotiated under our contractual agreements, a disciplined approach to capital management, and the strong emphasis we place internally on cash conversion. The impact on the group's balance sheet has been significant, with Service Stream achieving a net cash position and finishing the year just in the black with AUD 3.3 million net cash balance. And Linda will discuss this in greater detail, but for me, again, I feel this is really one of the standout aspects of the group results, considering that only 12 months ago, Service Stream had AUD 98 million in drawn debt as a result of the transaction we completed with Lendlease Services.
So driving this level of change in the group's leverage over a relatively short period of time, I think, again, speaks to the strength of the business's fundamentals. And on the back of that, as per my earlier comments, given increasing confidence in the business's position and execution of our strategy, the Board was confident to announce that step up in dividends to a fully franked AUD 0.02 for the half-year. And while the business has not yet released a formal dividend policy, the improved return, I think, reflects a transition back to what the Board believes is a more sustainable level of dividend given the strong results and performance, while also providing optionality in terms of the group's capital management strategy to support future growth. Moving on to slide five, and we'll touch on some of the group's operational and strategic highlights over the half.
So a key focus for all service businesses is their retention of existing contracts as they reach full term as well as securing new growth. The business has had another really strong result with this regard, successfully securing AUD 1.2 billion of works over the first half. That includes the retention of all major contracts that proceeded to market as well as new business being secured. That represents a really strong level of work in hand equating to approximately AUD 5.1 billion. And that AUD 5.1 billion only reflects the initial term of what are often multi-year agreements. As mentioned during the outset of the call, a clear priority has been for the company to drive margin improvements, particularly across a utility division, ensuring that that division can provide a meaningfully improved contribution to Service Stream in the future.
So we're really pleased to see both an increase in the earnings quantum and improved margins across the utility division in the half-year. EBITDA margin has moved up 40 basis points from 3%- 3.4%. And we've got further works to deliver in this space. The team have a clear plan. We are confident of delivering incremental improvements and see further improvements over the next eight to 24 months as we strive to reach our target range of mid-single-digit margins for our utility operations. From a workforce and people's perspective, we're seeing improved labor market conditions with a reduction in attrition and vacancy rates. And that's really supported the group to deliver on some of this recent and significant growth. Business has continued to deliver leading safety performance, and we've achieved 26% reduction in high-potential incident rates during the first half.
That safety performance is fantastic to see, particularly as our operations are expanding and knowing that we are delivering improved outcomes for our people, particularly those in the field. And finally, the group continues to work on our continual optimization program that we've previously discussed at the last full-year result. We've identified circa AUD 4 million in initial annualized benefits, and they're largely associated with consolidation of property, some reduced headcount, and improvements made across the group's IT systems. We're working to realize these benefits and will progressively see them flow into the P&L over the next 24 months. Moving on to slide six now. And while Linda, again, will talk through the financial performance of our reporting segments and the group, I'll provide some high-level commentary and insight into the performance across the segments. So I will start with the center of the page being the utility performance.
Very pleased, again, to report that improvement in the utility division's margins. And that's been on the professional performance, new growth secured which is delivering improved returns, and the renegotiation of existing contracts or, in some extreme cases, exiting legacy agreements. We have further work to do here, but the business, as I said, I'm confident, will continue to show incremental progress and improvement over the next few halves as we move back to that mid-single-digit target range. The legacy and near-complete Queensland utility project successfully reached one of our major milestones in December associated with First Water. That milestone reflected core infrastructure being in place and the plant providing potable water to the nearby community.
Unfortunately, the site and some infrastructure did suffer damage due to an extreme weather event that occurred in late December associated with cyclones that brought high winds and extreme rain to the southern coast of Queensland. The site then suffered further extreme wet weather during January, which hampered the ability of our teams to commence the repair works. It's certainly a regrettable situation, but the business has therefore taken an additional provision of AUD 9.8 million to cater to the repairs of the damaged site infrastructure and the extension of our site team or prolongation to see these works through. If we move to the left-hand side, telco. The group's Telecommunication operations had another very strong half, benefiting from continued and significant investments in both fixed line and wireless networks. In fact, if we look at the last three years of performance, our Telecommunication operations have almost tripled in size.
We're really pleased to say that the division also successfully renewed a major wireless agreement with Optus, which supports the deployment of 5G services and infrastructure around the country. The adverse weather conditions that I just spoke that have negatively impacted that Queensland pipeline project in Utilities have actually provided a benefit to our telco operations over late December and during the first two months of calendar year 2024. During this period, the business has seen significant increase in work volumes, reflecting our role in providing network fault and permanent remediation services across that critical infrastructure. I think it's a time to remind you that extreme weather is not always a bad thing for our business and can and often does provide a benefit by virtue of the important role that Service Stream plays in supporting that infrastructure.
So in summary, a very strong period for the Telecommunications division, continuing to reflect the engine room of the business. And finally, Transport. So this division has successfully rebased following the demobilization of regional operations in WA. While those operations did generate a large portion of revenue for the division, we're effectively a break-even position in terms of its financial contribution. Hence, we were clear from day one following the acquisition that we'd look to improve the financial performance in this space, and the client has now taken those operations back in-house. Business unit continues to secure a series of minor capital works associated with the deployment of ITI or Intelligent Transport Infrastructure. And the future focus is squarely on securing new growth, and there are a number of promising opportunities on the horizon which are coming to the market over the next year. Moving on to slide seven.
I spoke earlier about the importance of the business retaining existing contracts which proceed to the market at the end of their respective terms as well as securing profitable new growth. So on this slide here, we've just illustrated a few of the major agreements that were secured across the group during the half. I won't go into detail on each of these. Some were covered in market announcements over the last six months, but there are a number of positive attributes that I'd draw attention to. Firstly, each are associated with a provision of operations and maintenance works representing low-risk annuity-style revenues aligned to our preferred work type. The agreements span a diverse range of Service Stream's core industries and market segments. We're supported by an enviable client base that consists of government-owned entities and major regulated asset owners and operators, and are secured over multi-year terms.
Continuing on to slide eight, we've provided further insight into the group's revenue profile over the first half. The first point I'd call out is that there have been really positive and significant changes over this recent period. Our operations and maintenance works, has increased, to now reflect 70% of the group's revenue during the half-period, which is up on 64% as of the same period last year. These changes are directly related back to the strategy to transition away from large-scale fixed-price D&C works given the risk profile that these represent and instead have the business target operations and maintenance works which operate under these multi-year agreements and support those annuity-style revenues. Importantly, minor capital works, which reflects about 27% of the remaining revenue, reflect multi-year panel arrangements with our key clients that offer the ability for our business to selectively bid on small infrastructure upgrade works.
So as we sit back, we look at the balance of work, I think, is now really quite favorable, a significant portion of revenue being delivered under low-risk operations and maintenance works, but we still have those panel arrangements which allow us to benefit from those individual projects associated with minor upgrades across infrastructure. The first graph on the right-hand side of this page depicts the revenue split across our three operating segments. We see that the group continues to successfully diversify its operations from what was a very telco-biased business only a few years ago while still maintaining a strong position in that market. The industry sector graphs further to the right broadly show the market that Service Stream is now operating across.
Again, this has been a deliberate part of our strategy and successfully reduced the dependency of the group on any single market, customer, or individual contract. They're attractive sectors. They're benefiting from, and we believe will continue to benefit from, that increased investment in critical infrastructure in the years ahead. Turning now to slide nine, an update on our people and safety-related performance, the health and safety of Service Stream's workforce, our clients, and the communities that which we operate across remains a number one priority for our business. Not a slogan. It is our commitment and forms a major focus for all staff that work across our organization. We're very conscious of the safety of our growing workforce which extends to more than 5,200 employees and a large pool of more than 17,000 skilled contractors nationally.
During the first half, I'm really pleased to see that the business has delivered further reductions in high-potential incidents. The reduction of 26% on the prior period is significant, with high-potential incidents being those that have the ability to cause serious harm. Reflects a substantial improvement over that relatively short period of time, and the business continues to focus on a range of improvement programs which will further strengthen that strong safety culture and future performance. From a people and broader market perspective, we continue to see workforce attrition reduced across the half, and that's supported the group's ability to resource for some of those growing operations. While attrition levels are continuing to trend down, they are still not back to our pre-COVID levels.
We've grown our employee workforce so that now reflects 5,200 individuals, but a particular focus has been on increasing investment to support the expansion of our grassroots graduate and apprenticeship programs, each have grown by about 10% over the last half. Enough from me now. Hand across to Linda who'll walk through the group's financial performance in greater detail.
Thanks, Leigh. Good morning to everyone on this call. The business has had a strong half, and it is worthwhile touching on the key financial headlines on page 11 in a little bit more detail before we delve into the segments and overall group result. Total revenue for the group, which includes our proportional share of equity account at joint venture revenue, was AUD 1.17 billion, an increase of just over 18% on last year.
This exceptional result was driven by a combination of continuing strong tailwinds in our telco and utility operations, enabling strong organic growth, as well as some phasing in our telco operations, including some project volumes which we were able to accelerate into the first half. Underlying EBITDA from operations was AUD 63.3 million, an increase of 14.9% from last year. This was another strong result with group EBITDA margin of 5.4%. This result does also include some initial cost investment we have made into expanding into new adjacent sectors. While it was only a modest investment over the first half, it is expected to increase over the second half. It should be noted that consistent with prior periods, underlying EBITDA from operation excludes the additional AUD 9.8 million onerous provision recognized for the legacy Queensland utility project to enable a consistent year-on-year comparison of continuing operations.
As per usual practice, we have included a reconciliation of our underlying metrics to report the statutory result in the appendix for your information. The group's adjusted NPAT for the half was AUD 25.2 million, up 46.9% on PCP. This uplift reflects not only improved EBITDA but also lower depreciation and interest charges. Statutory net profit after tax was AUD 12.8 million, which allows for the additional Queensland project costs and amortization of customer contracts. This compares to a statutory loss of AUD 6.3 million in the prior comparative half.
No additional cost adjustments have been recognized in respect of the Lendlease Services acquisition or integration this half, of which AUD 4 million post-tax was incurred in the prior comparative period. Cash flow and net debt was another standout highlight for the half. Operating cash flow for the half was AUD 70.1 million, which was an OCFBIT conversion rate of 111%.
This enabled the group to return to a net cash position of AUD 3.3 million, which was a significant achievement just 24 months after the acquisition of Lendlease Services. Net leverage at December, including operating leases, has reduced to 0.46x underlying EBITDA on a post-AASB basis. Finally, capping off the headlines, the directors have declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.02 per share fully franked. The substantial increase in dividend is underpinned by the group's strong trading results, outlook, and balance sheet position and represents a return to a more sustainable level commensurate with earnings as part of the group's overall capital management strategy. Now onto segment performance, starting with Telecommunications on page 12. As previously touched on, strong sector tailwinds have continued to drive elevated performance across all aspects of Telecommunications operations.
The first half was bolstered by pull forward of project works in the last quarter and phasing of wireless programs, such as segment performance is expected to be first-half skewed in FY 2024. Telco revenue for the half was AUD 596 million, which was AUD 138 million or 30% above prior year.
The revenue growth was delivered across both fixed line and wireless operations, and recent adverse weather events have also provided additional revenue and earnings opportunities across our telco operations. EBITDA for the half was AUD 52.5 million, which was up AUD 11.1 million or 26.8% compared to the prior year. EBITDA margin was 8.8%, which was in line with expectations. It was slightly lower than the prior comparative period by 20 basis points above the FY 2023 H2 exit rate. On slide 13, we have Utilities. The Utilities operation has continued to make solid progress over the half towards repositioning and improving segment performance.
Revenue for the half was AUD 476 million, which was AUD 67 million or 16.4% on PCP. This revenue growth was achieved across industrial, power, and water sectors where the business has been able to progressively replace fixed-price lump sum D&C project revenues rolling off with new annuity-style O&M revenues. First-half EBITDA was AUD 16.2 million, up AUD 3.7 million or 29.7% on the comparative period. This was underpinned by a solid performance from core O&M contracts which are delivered at or above target margins. EBITDA margin was 3.4%, which is 40 basis points higher than PCP. This continues with the margin improvement delivered last half with the completion of legacy projects and measures taken to improve unprofitable contracts, progressively clearing the path for improved financial performance. Moving on to slide 14, Transport. Transport operations were rebased following the demobilization of WA regional road operations last financial year.
The focus of this segment is to now secure new growth opportunities across O&M and ITS markets to complement the existing high-quality operations. Revenue for the half was AUD 101.9 million, and EBITDA was AUD 6.8 million, which was AUD 24.4 million and AUD 1.3 million lower than PCP respectively.
This is reflective of the demobilization from regional WA and in line with management's expectations, with segment overhead costs cost base also resized to align with the reduced revenue profile. EBITDA margin for the half was 6.7%, which was a slight improvement on PCP, mainly reflecting the lower margin on exited works. Within this result, ITS operations have continued to deliver consistent revenue growth across existing and new contract opportunities. This result also includes the final settlement arising from the Inland Rail PCP demobilization agreement which was agreed during the half. Now slide 15 sets out our group profit and loss.
I've already touched on the key headlines, so I don't need to dwell too long here. The key additional takeaway for me on this slide is that irrespective of whether we are looking at our reported or adjusted profitability metrics, this half-year result has delivered a substantial uplift across revenue, EBITDA, and net profit after tax. Adjusted earnings per share for the half was AUD 4.1 cents per share, a substantial increase of 46.9%. The reduction in depreciation expense, which was driven by leasehold consolidation savings and tight CapEx discipline and lower financing costs as a consequence of our lower debt position, has contributed to a much larger improvement in NPAT and EPS relative to our growth in EBITDA. Now moving on to slide 16, which is our cash flow.
As noted in the headlines, we delivered an exceptional cash flow outcome for the half, achieving the EBITDA to OCFBIT conversion rate of 111%. This has been achieved through a continuing focus on working capital optimization as well as some timing benefits typical of the December cycle which are expected to unwind over H2. The result was also aided by a maiden dividend from the Connect Sydney joint venture after two years of operation. Looking below OCFBIT, net cash outflow relating to the Queensland project was AUD 2.6 million for the half. The majority of cash impact from this project has already been absorbed, with only just over AUD 3 million of net cash flow outflow remaining through to the project completion. The group has also returned to payment of tax installments following the successful tax loss carryback claim last year.
CapEx and leasing cash flows for the period have continued to track well below the expected range of 2%-2.5%. This is partially due to the strong growth in revenue but also reflects supply constraints impacting the fleet refresh program and our disciplined approach to CapEx. Now turning to the balance sheet and capital management on slide 17. The group's strong financial position at December, which includes a return to a net cash position just two years after the Lendlease Services acquisition, has enabled the material increase to interim dividend to AUD 0.02 per share. Coupled with the growth in EBITDA, the group's net leverage ratio including lease liabilities has reduced from 1.4 x last December to just after half a turn this half.
The reduction in net debt is well ahead of target, which was to achieve less than a 1x leverage ratio within two years post the Lendlease Services acquisition and has partly been driven by the continuing focus on working capital which has progressively reduced as a percentage of revenue from 4.9% two years ago to 3.5% today. We do expect a return to a small net debt balance at June with the unwind of H1 timing benefits and client contractual cycles and, of course, increased dividends. In terms of liquidity, the group's syndicated debt facilities are largely untapped with almost AUD 300 million of available liquidity. These facilities are due to expire in November 2025 and are expected to be financed towards the end of this calendar year. Finally, all facility covenants have been comfortably met. That's all from me.
So I'll now hand you back to Leigh to take you through the remainder of this presentation pack.
Thanks, Linda. Moving through to the group's outlook, and I'd first direct everyone to slide 19 where I'll provide a few comments on the group's work-in-hand and market conditions. So I've already covered some aspects of the group work-in-hand, including successfully resecuring AUD 1.2 billion of works over the first half. And as I stated earlier, that work-in-hand balance now for the group represents just over AUD 5 billion in future works. But if we include the multi-year extension options for which the majority of our agreements contain, we add another AUD 3 billion of work-in-hand to total just over AUD 8 billion. The business also has an attractive and enviable client base consisting of low-risk government entities and major industrial blue-chip clients which are infrastructure owners or network operators.
These clients are well capitalized, work is generally contracted under a reasonable set of terms, and they pay their bills on time. In terms of service streams and markets, the last six months have certainly seen a continuation of those strong tailwinds that Linda just touched on and we've previously discussed. We continue to experience buoyant levels of works coming across each of our markets and industry sectors with demand in that infrastructure largely driven through aging infrastructure and assets, population growth, adverse weather events, digitalization, and the energy transition. Certainly feel very comfortable and confident that there is further significant organic growth opportunities that we can continue to secure as we have done so over the past 12 months.
But we also have the business in a really favorable position with regards to our financial performance, cleaning up of legacy works, and that strong balance sheet which can support external growth and diversification opportunities into the future. So moving now onto slide 20 and the group outlook. That strong financial performance that we've delivered over the first half has certainly set the foundation for what we expect will be a very strong and positive year. We're managing the current inflation environment well. New growth is meeting or exceeding the group's profit targets. We've got improved visibility given those strong work-in-hand levels and the buoyant market, and we expect further improvements in those utility margins over the second half of FY 2024.
So on the back of these points, the group expects that strong financial performance that's delivered in the first half to continue and support a comparable level of underlying earnings in the second half of FY 2024. And finally, to close out on slide 21, we have just some insight into the group's FY 2024 half two priorities. So unsurprisingly, we need to continue to maintain that strong focus on safety performance, really critical to our business. We want to realize further improvements across utility division margins and earnings as I've just said. Want to continue to see a delivery of a full year of optimization benefits currently underway. Want to also ensure that the business is able to further secure sustainable growth opportunities aligned to our revised risk appetite, and we will consider external growth and diversification opportunities as they may progress.
I'll now hand back to the moderator to open up the bridge for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. One moment, please. Once again, if you have a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. Our first question comes from the line of William Park with Citi.
Good morning, Leigh and Linda. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, just on the Beaudesert project and the additional provision that you've taken, are there any tail end of work that's left to go or is that done and dusted?
Yeah. Good morning, Will. Thank you very much. As I said before, bitterly disappointing that we've had to increase that provision for Beaudesert . The fact that our team's got to a point where the infrastructure is in the ground and we're actually currently supplying potable water to the nearby communities is just devastating to know that we've now got to go back and repair that. So that AUD 9.8 million provision covers a couple of things. It certainly covers the repairs to some of those above-ground assets, some of the buildings and other infrastructure that were damaged in those winds and heavy rain, but also covers the cost associated with our teams just extending out towards the end of this half year so that they can see through that final completion. Yeah.
Yeah. That makes sense. And in your commentary, you've talked about how you're looking at a number of legacy agreements and trying to renegotiate better terms and so forth with respect to Utilities. Can you just give us a sense around how much of that legacy agreements relates to Utilities work-in-hand? I believe it's around AUD 2.7 billion. Thank you.
Thanks, Will. I don't have the number off the top of my head as to what portion of that revenue those agreements would reflect, but we can follow that up and get back to you. But look, we do have probably about half a dozen, I'd say, legacy-related projects. I'm going to say legacy. They've existed in our business for a period of time, but ultimately, over the last couple of years, these have transitioned to a period where they are not providing an adequate return to the business. Some of that is due to issues that we've had to address and we have and are, but some of them are also related to just changes in the market or changes in the client's business. We have some instances where clients have decided to take a portion of those works in-house. So we are looking to renegotiate those.
We are very confident we'll see further improvement in those margins as we work through that tail end of, as I said, six contracts. To give you some insight, Will, our utility business probably has about 70 contracts across the company. So to have five or so, it's not a significant number. But as Linda stated, I think we'll certainly see some improvement from either exiting those or those further improvements that we're in the process of taking benefit as well as that new growth. And that's a really important aspect. We are seeing the division successfully secure growth at a higher margin and deliver at or above those expectations. So those things combined will certainly improve the margin performance across Utilities into the future.
Thank you. Just moving on to, I guess, the entry into adjacent markets you've talked to, any meaningful progress and update with respect to social infrastructure and defense?
So a couple of aspects there. Certainly, we are, I think, as I said before, in a favorable position where our business, given the turnaround, given the performance we're delivering and the strength of our balance sheet, are able to really now look at how we might fund further growth both organically and looking at external. That external growth will cover, I think, a range of sectors and industries that we find attractive. Some of those are expansions of our existing sectors such as power or industrial, new energy, etc. Defense is another one that certainly we are looking at some opportunities in that space.
In terms of our work around social infrastructure, as the market probably would have seen over the last 12 months, the major defense contracts that we are sort of bidding on as one of the major opportunities in that space has been extended for a 12-month period to allow that tender to take place. We are and have been ramping up our team, and that bid starts or the next phase of that response starts later in this half year. So I think we'll probably have a couple of months of feverish work to provide a response and then hopefully some positive engagement with defense thereafter. But that represents one of those opportunities. As we've talked about before, there's a lot of other opportunities in that sort of social housing, education, health sectors, etc., where we are also able to sort of leverage some of our services and skills.
But at the moment, the primary focus has been on this defense tender given the significance that plays. It's only once every 10-15 years that this comes out to the market. So that's certainly been a major focus over the next couple of months for the team.
Thank you. Just one last one from me. Perhaps this one's for Linda. Dividend payout ratio going forward, how are you sort of thinking about that given that your cash position has improved quite materially half and half? Thank you.
Yeah. Well, we've touched on this before. We don't have a set payout ratio. I think what we're trying to provide is an indication that we see improvements in our earnings and the strength of our balance sheet. The AUD 0.02 that we struck is an indicative quantum, but we don't have a set ratio.
Thanks very much.
You're welcome, Will. Thank you.
Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Warren Jeffries with Canaccord Genuity.
Morning, Leigh. Linda, how are you going?
Good. Thank you. Warren, yourself?
All right. So I missed a little bit just juggling a few calls, but the AUD 9 million investment into further optimization and looking, I think, at facilities management, defense, and infrastructure, how much of that has been invested in this result?
Yeah. As I noted in my section, we've spent a little bit, not a lot, but the second half will be heavily weighted as we ramp up, particularly around the defense tender. But again, we always said that that was an indicative of what we may look to spend, and the mix will really depend on the opportunity. But yeah, we haven't spent a lot, but it is carried within the first half result.
Did you quantify how much you've spent?
AUD 2 million. Not much.
Less than half. A lot less than half.
Yep. And that'll ramp up in the second half as part of that tender?
Yeah.
Yep. Right. Do you still feel that AUD 9 million's the right number for this year? And I know you're not wedded to it, but it was more of an indicative range. I mean, if you're still feeling that.
Yeah. Look, it really depends. It really depends on the opportunities that we find. I think loosely, I think that's a no, but yeah, it will really depend on the opportunities that we find.
Fantastic. And just with the onerous contract being impacted by weather and now there's a repair process there and additional costs to that, countering that a bit, was there a bump or a level of not one-off, it's not the right term, but gain or uplift late in the period on the weather events that may have helped the telco business or other parts of the business?
Yeah. You're absolutely right, Warren. That was something I covered with the insights. You may have missed it, but absolutely, as you know, weather can be a positive aspect and generally is a positive aspect, adverse weather, for our business. It's not for project-based works where you've got a set budget and a set time, but as we said, we're running that legacy project down and we'll finish shortly. So yes, we actually called out, but that same adverse weather in southern Queensland actually provided substantial increase in work volumes across our Telecommunications and some broader aspects of our operations, yeah, which was great. We know that that's part of whilst the situation, the circumstances of these events are unfortunate, that's the role we play. We're the first in to reestablish and set up that infrastructure.
It provided a little bit of benefit in December, but more notably, that's actually providing benefit into January and February this year.
Right. Good one. And again, you might have touched on this. Is it muck around with the skew too much, typically? I mean, I think things are always going to be second half weighted if there's any skew in the business. Is it softened a little bit or does it indicate?
Yeah. As we've said in the outlook, what we actually expect is that strong performance to sort of be from the first half to be repeated in the second. So you start to get a view of what the skew will be, which is virtually the fact that there will be no skew this year. And a couple of things have happened there, Warren. So one is, as Linda touched on, we pulled forward. Well, fortunately, some of our project-based works in telco, we're actually able to pull some of that forward. And we also had some pent-up demand in wireless that had to be delivered over a set time period. So that actually sort of provided, I think, a bit of a benefit to the telco division in that first half.
So pulling that forward was going to mean the second half for telco was and is going to be lower. It's going to be less low than what it was because of some of those benefits we just talked about with the pipeline, but it still will be lower. What we'll see in the second half, and we are seeing over the first few months, is the contribution from Utilities coming up. And that's how we sort of get that half-on-half result.
Right. So I think reasonably flat second half at this stage until things, I suppose, are further evolved in the future.
Yeah. I think absolutely. Given the step up of the first half, we continue to hold that momentum. Through the second, that's a great result.
All right. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you. One moment, please. I'm showing we have a follow-up question from William Park with Citi.
Yeah. Just a quick follow-up. Transport, just how should we sort of how are you thinking about the second half from first half FY-based level? So are there any drivers and headwinds that you're currently seeing at the moment that could potentially have an uplift in the second half or potentially a flat result versus first half? Thank you.
Thanks, Will. Look, our Transport business actually notwithstanding that our group was supposed to be sort of flattish across the year, our Transport business in itself is traditionally second half weighted, particularly around some of the O&M works that we have. So we would expect to see a slight improvement into the second half with our Transport operations.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. I'm showing no further questions. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Managing Director, Leigh Mackender, for any closing remarks.
Thank you all for joining today. Like I said earlier, we're really pleased with the results being delivered. But over the half, but more importantly, we're genuinely excited about the position that the business is in and those future opportunities that are ahead of us. So look forward to engaging with all of you over the next period, and thank you for joining.
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