Thank you, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to Ventia's half year results presentation. I'm Dean Banks, proud and privileged to be the Group CEO of Ventia. I'm joined today by our CFO, Mark Fleming. Thank you for joining us as we reflect on our half year 2026 performance. After our presentation, Mark Fleming and I will be pleased to take your questions. Before we begin, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land from where we are broadcasting today, the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation. I'd like to acknowledge their ancient and ongoing connection to lands, waters, and communities, and pay respect to elders past and present. We also recognize and celebrate the heritage and culture of New Zealand, where our teams engage with local iwi and communities across the country. I'd like to start, as always, with safety, which is our license to operate.
We continue to strive to strengthen our safety processes and critical risk protocols, making every reasonable endeavor to ensure our workforce go home safely. Since listing, we have delivered material improvement across our core safety indicators. Our total recordable injury frequency rate improved by 17%, serious injury frequency rate improved by 38%, and the associated serious claims rate has improved by 48%. These outcomes reflect strong leadership focus and continued investment in leadership and frontline training over the past five years. This slide illustrates the strong performance Ventia has delivered since half year 2022. Business momentum has been largely translated into progressive financial outcomes.
We've delivered on expectations, delivering a 50% growth in NPATA, an improvement of 1.3% in our EBITDA margin, whilst continuing to convert profit into cash with average cash conversion of From a customer perspective, we've maintained an average renewal rate of 92%, demonstrating the importance of our long-term relationships. Over the same period, work in hand has increased by 22%. In terms of shareholders, earnings per share have increased by 76%, and we've provided total shareholder returns of 350% over the five-year period since I will now take you through the headline financial outcomes for the half year. Mark will provide further detail around our financial performance shortly. The figures I reference today are underlying and exclude the one-off positive gain in 2025 from the Toowoomba novation. Group revenue declined by 4.7% to AUD 2.9 billion as a consequence of the reduction in Defence revenue.
Outside of Defence and social infrastructure, our other three sectors all delivered year-on-year revenue growth. During the half, the Defence Base Services contract and the Defence Clothing Services contract were successfully mobilized. Together, these contracts represent AUD 3.6 billion of work and provide a strong platform for future revenue. The business responded proactively to this anticipated Defence-based contract reset through disciplined cost management and operational efficiency initiatives, resulting in improvement across all other key financial metrics. EBITDA increased 8.2% to AUD 273 million, and EBITDA margin expanded by 1.1 percentage points to 9.4%, another record high. This margin performance reflects the deliberate shift towards higher value end markets, robust commercial risk and governance, and continued operational improvement across the portfolio. NPATA increased 7.4% to AUD 128 million, and cash conversion improved to 93.8%, demonstrating the quality of earnings and the strength of our cash management process.
This performance is further supported by work in hand increasing to AUD 21.1 billion, which underpins confidence in our future outlook. 2025 was an exceptional year for work winning, with four contracts awarded at or above AUD 1 billion. Against that very strong comparator, half year 2026 has delivered another robust period of work winning, with seven material contracts awarded across the half, compared to a historic average of four per half. These awards have helped increase our average contract tenure to 6.2 years, bringing further stability to our business and reflect our exceptional 98% customer renewal rate across the period. In Defence and social infrastructure, we secured a five-year extension at the Australian Marine Complex Common User Facility in Western Australia. We also secured a one-year extension on our Defence maintenance contract, with options to extend for a further four years.
These important further cement our role as a long-term partner to Defence and put us in a good position to support their growth plans. In infrastructure services, we secured a nine-year renewal with Yarra Valley Water in Victoria. We also signed a new panel agreement with Powerlink Queensland, with an estimated value of AUD 150 million, and a two-year extension with Transpower in New Zealand, further demonstrating our extensive capabilities in the energy sector. In telecommunications, we awarded two contracts with Optus with a combined value of AUD 110 million. These agreements span integrated programs across the Optus fixed and wireless networks. In transport, we secured new road maintenance contracts with VicRoads in the Grampians and East Metro regions with a combined value of AUD 340 million.
In August, we were also awarded two intelligent transport systems maintenance contracts valued at AUD 160 million over five years, which further expands our presence across the Victoria Transport Network. Taken together, these awards demonstrate the resilience of our diver across sectors and geographies. Our strategy has aligned Ventia over the past five years by giving our people a clear framework. At its core, our aspiration to redefine service excellence is about focusing on building deeper customer relationships and embracing innovation whilst creating sustainable outcomes that help differentiate Ventia. In our latest customer Have Your Say survey, 89% of customers said Ventia enables them to achieve their goals, and our net promoter score increased 140%, reflecting stronger customer advocacy. Innovation is the second pillar and a key driver of operational performance. It helps us become a better-informed and engaged organization that introduces solutions to enhance stakeholder experience.
VenSpark, our AI idea management platform, helps to bring ideas together from across our organization. Since its launch last year, more than 550 ideas have been submitted. One such example is VenLens, which uses AI to analyze field images to review work orders, increase compliance reporting, and maintain better records of asset condition. It is a great illustration of how we are using AI to unlock efficiencies across our operations. Sustainability is the third pillar of our strategy and is embedded in how we create long-term value, from our climate transition ambition to how we measure social impact. Our fleet electrification program is nearing completion, with 97% of passenger vehicles now electric or hybrid, and full transition is expected by the end of this calendar year.
We now operate 606 electric or hybrid vehicles across our fleet, contributing to the 27.2% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our 2021 baseline. Overall, our group strategy strengthens our competitive advantage and supports long-term value creation for customers, communities, and shareholders. Before I hand over to Mark, I would like to leave you with a few observations on what the half year 2026 result demonstrates about the strength and momentum of the business. We have again delivered on expectations, with a record EBITDA margin of 9.4%, reflecting our continued shift towards higher value work and pursuit of continuous improvement. Cash conversion remains strong, driven by disciplined and transparent capital management. We achieved a 98% customer renewal rate and increased work in hand to AUD 21.1 billion, reinforcing the resilience of our contracted revenue base.
Our performance also enabled us to increase returns to shareholders with a 9.8% uplift in the interim dividend and a 14.4% year-on-year growth in earnings per share. Ventia is well positioned for the future with strong momentum and a clear pathway to create value for our shareholders. We remain on track to deliver full year 2026 guidance. I will now hand over to Mark to provide additional financial detail.
Thanks, Dean, and welcome everyone to our half year results. This slide highlights our performance across five consecutive half year periods since listing at the end of 2021, with all key metrics showing strong improvement over that time. Revenue is 15% higher than HY 2022, reflecting robust work winning and enduring customer relationships. The decline year on year was driven by the transition to the new Defence Base Services contract. With that contract now mobilized, we expect a return to revenue growth from the second half of FY 2026. EBITDA increased by 34%, reflecting strong business performance and operational discipline, and significantly in HY 2026 to a record high of 9.4%. NPATA has increased by an impressive 50% as a result of sustained business performance, strong cash conversion, and our capital light business model, while earnings per share has grown by 76%, underpinned by disciplined capital management.
Overall, Ventia has delivered consistent and reliable growth since listing, demonstrating the resilience of our diversified portfolio, the strength of our customer relationships, and the ongoing demand for our services. Looking more closely at our financial performance for the year. I will not go over the headline numbers that Dean has already covered, and I will focus on the underlying numbers. Depreciation expense increased by 12.9%, reflecting the increase in investment in plant and equipment, primarily underpinning our rigs and wells business, and recently mobilized contracts. Amortization expense, as some of our software and acquired intangibles were fully amortized. We expect that amortization will begin to increase from the second half of this financial year following the implementation of our new SAP system.
Net interest expense increased by 7% as a result of an increase in the interest component of lease liabilities under AASB 16, and an increase in net debt due to the buyback and CapEx. Finally, our EPS grew by 14.4% compared to the same period last year, which is higher than NPATA growth due to the reduction in shares on issue as a result of the on-market share buyback program. Ventia's portfolio is diversified across sectors, geographies, and contracts. While revenue declined in DSI, we saw revenue growth in the other three sectors. Likewise, while margin declined in telco, we saw significant margin improvement in the other three sectors. Our Defence and Social Infrastructure revenue declined by 20% to AUD 999 million, predominantly reflecting the transition to the new base services contracts and scope reductions in housing and communities contracts. EBITDA reduced by 10.3%.
However, EBITDA margin improved by one percentage point due to proactive cost management in advance of the expected revenue reduction. As Dean Banks mentioned, we successfully mobilized the new base services contract in February and the new Defence Clothing contract in May. As a result, we expect a higher run rate in Defence for both revenue and EBITDA in the second half. Infrastructure Services saw revenue increase by 6.3% to AUD 733 million, and EBITDA reached AUD 75 million, up by 24.6%, assisted by a 1.5 percentage point increase in sector margin. This was driven by continuing growth in the energy and water segments and the ramp-up of some new contracts in the higher margin rigs and wells business. We expect these positive trends to continue into the second half. Telecommunications revenue increased by 5.9% during the half, albeit lower than the second half of 2025.
EBITDA was up slightly to AUD 97.9 million, and EBITDA margin remained within our target range at 12%. This performance reflects the mobilization of new contracts over the last 12 months. Our Transport business saw revenue increase by 5.3% and EBITDA increased by 29.3% as a result of additional volumes and operational improvements. Overall, the group delivered a solid first-half performance. The result highlights the benefits of diversification and our continued focus on operational excellence. Now to our capital allocation framework. Cash generation remains strong and our credit profile is robust. Net debt to EBITDA increased closer to the middle of our range at 1.4 x. At the same time, we continue to invest to grow our business. This half year, we saw an increase in our CapEx to AUD 53.6 million or 1.9% of revenue.
As indicated previously, we expect CapEx to move towards 2.5% of revenue this year due to our SAP upgrade. The upgrade is progressing well, and we expect the final implementation to occur by the end of the second half. From FY 2027 onward, we expect CapEx to return to a more normalized level of 1%-2% of revenue. Finally, we've delivered strong returns to our shareholders. We've increased our interim dividend by 9.8%, and we've continued to make steady progress on our share buyback program, having purchased in excess of AUD 185 million since commencement in March 2025. Ventia continues to deploy capital in a disciplined manner, balancing investment in future growth, maintaining a strong balance sheet, and delivering increased returns to shareholders. The next slide illustrates the strength of our balance sheet.
As at 30 June , we had AUD 880 million of liquidity in cash and undrawn facilities, strong credit metrics, and a lengthened and diversified debt profile. During the period, we successfully completed a AUD 300 million Australian Medium Term Notes issuance, diversifying our funding sources, extending our weighted average maturity, and providing additional financial flexibility. This transaction was more than three times oversubscribed, reflecting strong support from debt markets. Our S&P and Moody's ratings remain stable and unchanged, and we're well within our banking covenants. These settings give us the strength and flexibility to grow organically, fund future opportunities, and continue delivering long-term value for shareholders. We recognize the importance of dividends to many of our shareholders, and we remain focused on delivering a reliable and increasing dividend stream. This period, we've moved to 100% franking from 90%, which we expect to sustain going forward.
We announced an interim dividend of AUD 0.1176 per share to be paid on 8th October . This dividend represents a 75% payout ratio of NPATA within our target range of 60%-80%. I'm also pleased to confirm today that we have upsized our buyback by AUD 50 million to a total program size of AUD 300 million. In making this decision, the board and management considered the consistent cash generative nature of our business, the strong balance sheet, and our positive outlook. We'll continue to remain focused on increasing our overall returns to shareholders. I'll now hand back to Dean.
Thank you, Mark. As communicated at our recent Investor Day, Ventia is focused on realizing opportunities associated to four strategic growth markets, namely Defence, Digital Infrastructure, Energy, and Water, each offering significant structural tailwinds. Oxford Economics estimates Ventia's Defence business will have an addressable market of AUD 16 billion by 2030, driven by meaningful investment into programs like AUKUS, the Northern Force posture, and ongoing Defence estate and remediation work. Ventia is in a good position to expand our current market share of 10% through our current interface in geographies such as Henderson Precinct in W.A. and Defence bases across Australia. Digital infrastructure is forecast to have a AUD 19.8 billion market by 2030, supported by increasing connectivity and AI adoption. The expansion of core networks across fiber, mobile, and fixed line, and the growth in demand for satellites and data centers are all significant market opportunities for Ventia.
For energy and renewables, the 2030 addressable market is estimated to be AUD 21.9 billion, driven by demand for grid decarbonization, battery storage systems, renewables, and high voltage substation demand. We have a long history in operations and maintenance of transmission and distribution, and more recently have introduced specialist end-to-end high voltage and substation capabilities, giving us confidence in our ability to grow in this capability. The uptick in the investment has commenced, driven by the need to address aging infrastructure, population growth, and climate resilience. Water assets built in the 1960s and 1970s are reaching end of life, driving refreshed master plans with multi-year renewal and modernization programs. Collectively, these markets provide Ventia with an unprecedented and significant growth opportunity. Case studies are the most effective way to showcase the work we are already delivering across each of these strategic growth markets.
In defence, we secured an extension of our Defence Base Services contract, taking us through to December 2029, with options to extend for a further four years. Under this contract, we provide maintenance and support for some of Australia's most advanced defence assets and a 24/7 nationwide recovery service. This extension reflects Defence's confidence in Ventia and builds on a trusted partnership spanning more than 35 years. In the digital infrastructure market, we have successfully delivered 13 edge data centers for Telstra's Aura Network program. Traditional network exchanges are being transformed into edge computing sites, and there will be an increasing requirement to build and maintain this new type of infrastructure moving forward. In the energy sector, Ventia is building critical grid connection infrastructure for the Kōwhai Park solar farm in New Zealand, including two high voltage substations and 5.5 km of cabling, supporting renewable energy generation in Christchurch.
In respect of water, we recently secured a new nine-year contract with Yarra Valley Water to deliver network and asset maintenance services, extending a trusted partnership we've built over the last decade. To scale our partnership, in 2025 alone, Ventia completed over 10,000 work orders in support of Yarra Valley Water's assets. These examples demonstrate the depth of Ventia's capability and track record of successful delivery in all four of our current growth markets. They also reinforce our confidence in the opportunity to expand our presence and create long-term growth. In closing, Ventia enters the second half of 2026 with strong momentum, a resilient portfolio, and a clear pathway to continued earnings growth. The business is performing in line with expectations.
Our strategic markets continue to provide attractive long-term opportunities, and we remain focused on delivering sustainable value for shareholders. We remain on track to deliver full year NPATA growth of 7%-10%, supported by strong cash conversion and operating discipline across the business. Importantly, the continued shift towards higher margin work is expected to support a long-term EBITDA margin above 9%, reinforcing the quality of earnings profile we have been building. Our balance sheet remains strong, giving us flexibility to invest in future growth. We continue to return capital to shareholders via the upsize share buyback. As these are my final results as CEO of Ventia, I would like to briefly reflect on progress since listing. Over the past five years, we have strengthened safety, deepened customer relationships, grown work in hand, expanded margins, and delivered strong shareholder returns.
We have built a high-quality business with a clear strategy and a solid foundation for continued growth. That progress reflects the dedication of our people and the trust placed in us by our customers, subcontractors, suppliers, board, and shareholders. I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved together and grateful for the support I've received during my tenure. As announced in June, Mark Ralston will formally take over as CEO from next week. Mark has been with Ventia for more than 12 years and brings a deep knowledge of our operations, customers, and markets. I'm delighted to see him appointed as my successor and view this internal appointment as a key legacy of my tenure. I'm pleased to be handing over a business with strong momentum, solid fundamentals, and a high-quality pipeline. Ventia is well positioned for the future, and I leave knowing the company is in capable hands.
I'll watch its progress from afar with confidence in the years ahead. Once again, and for one final time, thank you. I will now open the call for questions. Over to you, Rocco.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Today's first question comes from Nick Daish at RBC. Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you very much. Dean, congrats on your time with Ventia. My first question is just around seasonality. I'm just curious on what you would view as being a typical or a normal level of seasonality within your business. My sense is that it's likely largely in transport, which is your smallest division. Just curious, I think historically in the last few years, it's been about 42%/58%, 48%/52%, sorry. Is that about right moving forward, or what would you view as normal, please?
Yeah, Nick, first of all, thank you for the question. I'll probably open and then hand to Mark to give a bit more detail. I mean, we've always said seasonality in our business is relatively limited. That's really driven by the fact that the holiday period is where we see a bit of a slowing down in revenue occur in the first half in January and in the second half in December. Apart from that, we do see a lot of customers, obviously, with June year-end, and sometimes we can see an uptick therefore in that particular period. But you're quite right. Historically, the first half has been a little bit lower than the second half, but it's been relatively marginal. We probably expected it to be a bit more profound this year, but we're now starting to see that probably it's going to be consistent with previous years.
Mark, do you want to add?
Yeah, sure. Look, just to build on that, I think last year at the NPATA line, the seasonality was 46%/54%. So 46% first half, 54% second half. We are actually anticipating to be quite similar this year, 46/54 or thereabouts. And obviously, it can vary one or two percentage points either way. But a similar amount of seasonality as in prior years.
That is great. Thank you. Very clear. Second one is just around Defence, obviously mobilized a new contract at the start of this year. I am just curious on the mobilization and demobilization costs that you have taken above the line during the period, and just trying to get a sense for their quantum they will not repeat in FY 2027, please.
Yeah, look, again, I will hand over to Mark, Nick, to give a bit more detail. But I think the first thing to say is that we have always operated under the principle that we want the business to be as clean as possible from a financial perspective. So we try to keep everything within normal trading. So we have never put any numbers around that particular category. But clearly, there is a cost to that. And there are costs to other things that occur in the period. Like, for instance, in the last six months, although a lot of people are not talking about it now, we had the fuel crisis come through as well. So we try and take them within trading, and there is obviously puts and takes in that we consider as we go through a period of time. But Mark, do you want to add a bit more detail?
Yeah, I think that's right. We don't call out specific numbers, as Dean says. That's the approach that we've taken. There's always one-off costs and one-off benefits, and the other one I'd call out is the SAP upgrade cost this year. But we've included all of those within our result, and that's the approach we take. Sometimes that is a benefit for us in the half, and sometimes it's a negative. But as Dean said, swings and roundabouts.
The one thing I should probably reiterate, Nick, is that both contracts for Defence that we mobilized in the first half, the team have done so successfully. Defence Base Services, followed by Defence Clothing in June of this year. And both of those are building momentum, so we expect them to perform better for the organization as we move forward.
Very clear. Both tailwinds into 2027. Thank you very much for taking my questions.
Thanks, Nick.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Cameron Needham at Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, all, and thanks for the presentation. First one, just on group EBITDA margins. You have gone from 8.3% - 9.4%, despite your revenue coming off by about 5%. You have highlighted mix and efficiencies being tailwinds, but just intrigued, I guess, how much of that 1.1% improvement would you describe as structural versus timing and mix benefits? Then I guess if we just think into the sort of medium term, would you say that sort of 9% + is now a reasonable through the cycle margin level for the group? Thanks.
Yeah, Cameron, again, thank you for the question. Look, we have been quite bullish about margin in previous periods and felt that it was going up. Largely driven, as you say, by mix with our two highest margin sectors, infrastructure services and telecommunications, seeing growth. Which obviously means that every dollar there is accretive versus the group average. That said, back to your point, is this structural? I think there are lots of things that have changed over the last five years that have been trying to drive to this outcome. The first thing is that, five years ago, our distribution curve across projects probably had three or four projects that were outperforming versus the market in terms of margin, and they have largely been corrected by renewals in the market. We had a lot of contracts that were underperforming, largely a consequence of the acquisition of Broadspectrum.
We have really addressed those unfavorable and onerous contracts by either improving the performance or replacing them with contracts that are better in our portfolio. We are at a point now where we have only got one contract left from that legacy. That will mean about a AUD 1 million release per annum for the next 15 years, unless, again, we can improve it further. So we have really cleaned up the business from that perspective. But also structurally, we have been trying to drive towards higher margin works, and not just in Defence, digital infrastructure, energy, and water, where clearly as demand comes on, you can get better commercial terms. But if I go back three or four years in telecommunications, the team did not see the benefit of margins on wireless work that they did on fixed. So we really focused our attention on fixed network work where we get a better return.
I think if you look at Defence and social infrastructure, we've really pushed more for hard FM than soft FM, where cleaning and catering attracts a more modest margin. Latterly in resources, we've really been looking at our activity on more labor hire type work for mechanical and electrical fitters, and moving more into that energy and water space where we can appreciate better margins. So I think it is structural. Of course, with that as well, we do look at continuous improvement generally and try and drive efficiencies, and I think transport's a great example of that, where there's probably no material change, but actually just better operational control over activities we deliver. So all in all, a really good result on margin, and I think we're very confident that we've got a sustainable margin moving forward, and we'll continue to strive to improve as we move forward.
Great. Appreciate the color. Then a quick second, if I may, just on the battery storage opportunity. We've got, call it, between 4 GW and 5 GW being built out across the NEM over the next 12 months. I appreciate you spoke a little bit about this at the Investor Day, but I guess just intrigued, given your existing capabilities, where exactly do you see Ventia sort of participating in that spend? I guess maybe just a little bit of a mark to market in terms of what you're discussing with customers and what proportion of the work that you're seeing is recurring services versus some of the shorter duration construction work.
Yeah. Look, for us at the minute, it's quite minimal. So we've got the capability, we've demonstrated the capability, and we've delivered battery storage. But the market's still very transactional. People doing one project at a time. Whereas actually where Ventia really comes into its fore is when we see bigger opportunities with more strategic considerations around battery storage across geographies. So, we've got the capability, and we aim to try and work with partners on that. But I don't think in the short term we're going to see considerable margin or revenue drive from that. That said, I think in the future it will come. Of course, one of the points that you raised there was the question about when we start to see maintenance of those assets. Clearly assets have got to be built before we can see revenue stream from them.
Often when they are built, there is a warranty period from the OEM as well. So there's probably a bit of a lag to the opportunity. But I think, like this whole transition around energy, battery storage, AI requirements, data, it's just growing and growing as a phenomenon. So there's no doubt that the market opportunity is just going to come. But I don't think it's probably short term. I think it's a bit more medium to long term opportunity.
Great. Thanks very much for the color. I'll pass it on there. Dean, very best of luck for the future. Thanks.
Thanks, Cameron.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Nicholas Rawlinson with Morgans. Please go ahead.
Hi, Dean and Mark. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats, Dean, on your time at Ventia. I know there's sort of swings and roundabouts, as Mark mentioned, but would you mind quantifying the gain or loss on the sale of PP&E? It was a pretty big line in your cash flow, so kind of just keen to understand if there's any impact on earnings either way, please.
Nick, thank you for your comments. Thank you for your question. It sounds like a really difficult one, so I am definitely handing this one over to Mark. Mark, over to you.
Yeah, I do not think there was anything particularly unusual this period. We did invest in some rigs assets, and we retired some older rig assets. That is probably the biggest driver there. But I would not say that is a material item and again, as you say, it is one of the things that you will see from time to time as we recycle our capital.
Look, the investment in rigs is good for us because that means growth. We are finding good sensibility about the way we depreciate that asset over a contract life as well. So, if we can have more investment in that space, I think it is good news for the business.
Okay. That is helpful. Thank you. Just on the corporate costs, guys, like down more than 25% on the PCP. Could you just run us through how you have managed to bring those costs down so materially, and how should we think about forecasting this line moving forward?
Yeah, thanks, Nicholas. One of the other things that Dean mentioned was, in terms of one of the drivers, is efficiency. Certainly, that has been a focus in the last 12 months when we've known that this Defence Base Services contract was going to reduce for some time now. We've been preparing in terms of our cost base. That includes both looking at the DSI business but also looking at our corporate functions. We've done quite a lot of work in right-sizing our cost base for the reduced revenue, and that's what you're really seeing coming through there. Looking forward, yes, I do think that what you see in the first half is a reasonable base for going forward.
Great. That's it from me. Thanks, guys, and congrats again, Dean.
Thanks, Nick.
Our next question today comes from Nathan Reilly at UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Dean, congrats and all the best. My question actually was going to be for Mark Ralston. I do not know if he is around to take questions, but maybe in his absence, maybe one for Mark Fleming. I am just curious, a bit of an update in terms of current thinking on capital deployment opportunities, particularly in terms of M&A strategy to support some of your strategic growth initiatives. Just, I guess, capital allocation decisions going forward, obviously noting the upsize to the buyback.
Yeah. Look, Nathan, great question. I will say that Mark Ralston is here, and that is part of the transition. Mark Fleming is probably the most appropriate person to answer the question, so I will hand that to him.
Yeah, look, I think the best. Obviously Mark will have his own views on strategy. I do not expect that it will be materially different. The way we think about capital allocation is really around having that balance that is set out on the capital allocation framework slide. So we want to maintain our financial strength and flexibility while leaving room for investment to grow and also being able to return capital to shareholders. So I do not see it as an either/or decision. It is really about doing all three of those things in the right balance. We do not feel capital constrained. Our net debt to EBITDA is 1.4 x, which is still below the middle of our range. If there are good investment opportunities that have really good returns on investment, then we are very happy to pursue those.
That would be the case whether you are talking about a capital expenditure opportunity like the rigs and wells that we spoke about, or whether you are talking about an M&A opportunity. In relation to M&A, we have been very disciplined, as you all know, over the last five years, and we have really focused primarily on organic growth. Where we have done acquisitions, it has been in adjacent areas where we are building a capability or a customer relationship or a geography that we do not already have. I suspect that will continue going forward. Having said that, as I said, we do have capacity for growth.
Look, there are two things I would add, Nathan. One is, I think in this period, hopefully it is seen as a positive that we have taken two actions. One is we are now 100% frank in our dividend, which has happened progressively quicker than we anticipated due to tax paid in Australia. Secondly, we have announced a further AUD 50 million of share buyback, which hopefully is positive as well. Just in terms of your question to Mark Ralston, he is certainly not dodging it. He is very happy to talk about his future outlook and his considerations. Maybe we take the opportunity to do that later today in the analyst call, and I am sure other people will ask him questions over the roadshow over the coming days.
Not a problem. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Nathan.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Amanda Kelly at Barrenjoey Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Hey, team. Morning. I am just wondering if we can talk about how the mobilization is progressing on some of the recent transport wins you have had, like those VicRoads maintenance and East Metro and stuff, just how you are seeing those performing in the second half.
Yeah. Look, first of all, great wins for the business. Really starting to create a mass now in that Victoria region. So two big wins on the two regions you have talked about. But also in August, we announced the intelligent transport systems. Clearly on the two for the East Metro and Grampians, we inherited a workforce. We are very pleased with the workforce. We have inherited some really high-quality individuals, and the mobilization has gone really well. Clearly, it is going to take time to ramp up. It is still relatively new contract for Ventia. But the feedback as well from the people we have inherited is they are very happy to be part of the Ventia brand moving forward and enjoying it. At this point in time, everything going really well. Clearly, like any contract that is new, we have got to build the relationships, build the rapport and the understanding of the network.
I think we have started really, really well. And the transport team, I think, in this six months have had a stellar period. So, I am really pleased with how our transport business, even though it is a niche business, is performing. I will probably take the opportunity, Amanda, as well, just to reiterate that the outlook for transport is probably a bit different to some of the others because we have still got contracts that we have already secured to commence on Western Harbour Tunnel here in Sydney. We have got North East Link in Melbourne, and we have got Torrens to Darlington in South Australia. From our perspective, the outlook for the transport business looks really good.
Great. Thank you. I am also just wondering if you can provide some color on how you are expecting Telco volumes in the second half to hold. I think the margin was still pretty solid this half, so would you say that there is upside there if the volumes can move higher?
The simple answer is yes. Complicated than that as ever, in that, in the second half of 2025, we did just over AUD 900 million of revenue, and we thought that would probably repeat through both halves of 2026. We're a little bit down, in H1 versus H2. We're obviously up, year-on-year in comparison. But it's probably been a little bit softer in the first half than we anticipated. There's no doubt there's a volume of work there and we've got long tenure contracts, so we're in a good place. I don't think there's anything secret here in NBN have ambition. They're difficult to connect and try and get through that work as quickly as possible, and we're certainly working with them in a collaborative manner to look at how we can advance those works, which ultimately will drive revenue as well.
For all the big operators, we're in a good place. We also secured some contracts with Optus that give us further outlook in the telecommunications sector going forward. I certainly wouldn't expect it to go down. We feel confident that it'll go up. But these volumes are a bit variable. But we're probably a little bit softer in the first half than we anticipated at the outset of the year.
Thanks, Dean.
Thank you. Our next question today comes John Purtell at Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Dean and Mark. Dean, I would like to echo the earlier comments. Congrats on what you have achieved at Ventia, and all the best going forward. Look, a couple of questions, please. Just in terms of the question on NPATA growth in the second half. It looks to be implicit from your guidance and your revenue comments just before. Are you expecting growth to accelerate in the second half versus the first, and what are the key drivers of that? Thank you.
John, thank you for your kind words and your question. I am going to pass you to Mark.
Sure. Yeah, look, we feel good about the second half. In the first half, we have obviously mobilized the Defence Base Services contract, we have mobilized the Defence Clothing contract, and some Housing and Communities contracts. All of those should see growth into the second half. The IS business we expect to continue to grow. The transport business with those new contract wins that Dean mentioned also looking good for growth. Then, of course, we have got the seven contracts that we have announced we have won in the first half. All of that is positive. I think the only swing factor is the telco business. As Dean said, little bit of softness there in the first half and whether that continues into the second half is probably the question mark.
Apart from that, we feel as though we have got a really solid base to build on for the second half. As I said in the speech, we think that the first half is the bottom for us in terms of revenue, and we should see growth from that base going forward.
John, I think we said this in previous periods, but we see 2026 as a transition year, with some of the changes to contracts. We probably expected the two halves to be a little slightly more profound than previous, but it is probably now running more like previous years, which Mark amplified earlier. The good thing, though, in this business that we always talk about is we have got a really good insight to the revenue secured, and therefore, we have got a good insight to what the second half is going to bring.
Thank you. Just a final question, please. The warranty and contract claims provision was down in the period. What drove that reduction? Thank you.
Yeah, look, I think it has been a really good half in terms of cleaning up a lot of our legacy commercial claims. One of the ones, for example, that we resolved this half was Gateway. You probably remember, John, back at the IPO, there was a claim in excess of AUD 60 million in relation to Gateway. Well, that is now resolved. A number of other commercial issues and matters were also resolved during the half. So that is what has really driven that. If I put that together with last year. So last year we locked in a lot of our business through long-term contracts that you are well aware of. This half, we have cleaned up most of our commercial claims. So we are well-positioned going forward and have really de-risked the business through those things.
John, I will probably just clarify one thing, that although there was a claim of AUD 64 million, we never thought it was going to be at that value, and we certainly never released any provisions anywhere near that value. So I think it has come out probably as we expected. But these things take time and as Mark quite rightly articulated, we really de-risked the business over the last 12- 18 months, which means it is really about trading now going forward rather than binary matters from a commercial perspective of that nature.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thanks, John.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Chenny Wang at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just had one. Just, I guess, regarding your business, I was interested in just better understanding if there's any additional major contracts that's ramping down or finishing, let's say, in the second half of 2026 and 2027. Obviously, you talked to some of the new contract wins and mobilizations and ramp-ups, but just interested on the other side as well.
Yeah. Look, great question. First of all, I'd say that we've talked about on this call the fact that we've probably de-risked the business. Our really big material contracts have been renewed over the last 12- 18 months or so. So we have a much longer tenure now in terms of contract term, which has gone up to 6.2 years, which gives us stability. Clearly now, our focus moves to growth, and now we start to grow the top line of the business. It's always a bit difficult of what's in the public domain. The one that is in the public domain is Auckland Council, which is a contract that's already started the procurement cycle. It should be completed in 2026. Invariably, though, these things often take longer, so it may be that it actually gets announced in 2027.
Apart from that, what I can probably point you towards is the fact that we've said over the five years we've been in the market, we've announced about eight contracts per annum. So I think we're going to be around that run rate again in 2027 with contracts that are up for renewal. Albeit, I think the majority of them will be lower value rather than the big billion-dollar contracts. We won a number of billion-dollar contracts last year, and if you look back historically, the last time we won a billion-dollar contract was 2021. So it's not like they come around on regular intervals. It's more in the AUD 100 million you'll see renewals in 2027. As they come in the public domain, clearly, we'll talk about them more openly.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I will now hand back to Mr. Banks for closing remarks.
Rocco, thank you, and thank you to all the analysts for your support. Thank you for finding this time to listen to our questions. We look forward to continuing to share our story over the coming days, and we very much look forward to introducing Mark Ralston to the team, and I am sure he is going to be very successful and help take the business to the next level. From me, thank you and goodbye.