Okay. Welcome, thank you for joining Worley's Investor Day 2026. A special welcome to those who are joining us online. I'm Kylie Ramsden, Group Director of Investor Relations. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians on the land on which we meet today. We recognize their strength and resilience, and we pay respect to their elders past and present, and to all First Nations people who may be joining us today. We remind you to review our disclaimer, which is on the screen behind me. Today, we've got a very full agenda. You'll hear from Chris, our CEO, Chris Ashton, on our FY 2030 ambition, as well as the business update, including a live cross to one of our senior leaders responsible for our Middle East operations.
You'll hear from Andy Hemingway, who'll provide more detail on our strategy for growth, and then from Laura Leonard on how we're leveraging digital and AI to support our growth ambition. I'll return to host a panel discussion with Mark Brantley and Mark Trueman, as well as some of our business leaders, who will talk to how we're executing our strategy. Finally, Justine Travers will discuss the financial discipline that makes all this possible. Partway through the presentation, we'll give you the opportunity to take a short break of 15 minutes. At that time, I invite those who are in the room to join us for some morning tea, meet our leadership team, and visit the display booths that we've set up in the foyer.
At the end of the presentation, there'll be Q&A, followed by an opportunity for those present to meet our leadership team over a light lunch. Before our CEO, Chris Ashton speaks, we'd like to share with you our most recent corporate video, which shows why we're so proud to work for Worley.
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Right. Thank you. Chris, I'd like to welcome you to the stage now.
Thanks, Kylie. Welcome everyone. Great to see so many familiar faces in the room, and for those joining us online, thank you for taking the time out of your day to join. Today we're gonna talk about Worley's next phase of growth, the opportunities we see ahead, and the actions we're taking to realize the opportunities and drive growth as we work towards our FY 2030 ambition. I'll start by setting out the current market context, what we see in the near term, the longer term tailwinds across the market where our customers are investing, and what that means to us. You'll then hear in more detail from the team around our strategy, how we're executing that, and that which enables us to support the delivery, including AI and digital, and the decisions around capital allocation in support of our strategy.
You've heard me say at every Worley webcast or meeting in person, our highest priority is to keep our people safe. With a global footprint, we operate in some challenging and occasionally unstable environments. The current situation in the Middle East has highlighted the strength of our R3 process as we respond with care and agility to look after our people and their families, as well as support our customers. I'm pleased to report that our workforce of over 4,000 people plus 3,000 family members in the region are safe. There's been no reported injuries and no safety incidents. This is a great relief to me, the board, and the leadership team around the organization.
We have active location monitoring and a clear escalation protocols in place that allow our internal support mechanisms to kick in and support our people as they work through the challenges that they were presented with and faced into in the region. The efforts coordinated through our R3 team and our R3 framework, ready, response, and recovery. We're ready for an event. We have response protocols to events, and we're able to recover from these things. We have a centralized cross-functional protocols in place to provide the necessary oversight. We work closely with our customers to ensure that we give them the continuity that they're looking for across the project and where it's needed, and we're assisting with their contingency planning to help them respond to the changing conditions.
I want to take time to recognize the leaders in the Middle East and the R3 team for everything they've done through the conflict, working together tirelessly in the early phase of the conflict all the way through to today to provide the necessary oversight and support to keep our people safe and feeling looked after. To share firsthand what's happening in the Middle East, we're gonna cross over to Hicham Kabbaj , who's doing a fantastic job leading the Middle East at the moment. Hicham is gonna dial in now. Here he is. Hicham, you're now live. I'm gonna ask you to take this over and share with the audience, both in the room and online, what it's been like over the recent weeks, months, and what it's like now. Would you lead the team through the conflict?
Thank you, Chris. Hi, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Unfortunately, I could not attend the event in person due to the situation in Middle East. As you all know, the situation is still quite fragile as we speak. We need to stay close and alert. Look, the crisis has tested us in ways we don't often face. I'm really proud of the way we all came together as one team and how Worley showed the care and put our people first. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the R3 team, people team, and communication team, which have been playing a tremendous role since the crisis started. From the start, our priorities were clear: protect our people and their families, as Chris said.
We have 4,200 people in addition to important number of dependents across six countries, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and UAE. Keep the business operating and support our customers and partners. Today, we're 100% back in all offices and sites. Employees who are working abroad are returning, and we're continuing to monitor the situation closely. When it comes to our customers, partners, Worley is highly trusted. When the first damages started in KSA, the customer right away picked up the phone and called our teams for restoration recovery work. The next day, we were in the ground in a couple of sites where we conducted engineering, procurement, and construction support. One of the sites is already online. I met the restoration team during my recent visit to KSA. They're very proud of the work they have achieved.
I also met the customer, Aramco, who was very complimentary and issued to Worley a certificate to recognize the work. Very proud. Very proud of how Worley and the team stood up and delivered such a complex situation. In general, the outlook in Middle East is very strong. Today, the Middle East business is an important part of Worley global revenue, and we were trending to do better this year, but the delay in new projects being awarded had a big impact due to the crisis. With that said, we are today involved in business continuity-related scope and strategic projects, particularly with both Aramco and ADNOC, where some initial study contracts have been already awarded to us, and we are in the heart of some major important studies which will have a strong pull with the strong investments that we will be discussing with the customer.
These investments focus on energy security, pipeline, upstream, downstream, and critical infrastructure. In conclusion, Worley is highly trusted in the Middle East, especially with our global reach, and we are well-positioned today to benefit from the major investments in the region. Again, thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today. Chris, back to you.
Thanks, Hicham. Great to hear firsthand what's going on and how we managed through that. While there are some short-term impacts that the conflict creates, it also creates the need for restoration of assets that have been damaged, reconfiguration of import and export infrastructure, and the importance of resilience when it comes to the nation-state energy, chemical, and resource security has never been more important. For our customers, that means restoring the impacted assets, adapting facilities where needed, and embedding greater flexibility and reliability for the future. This is an area where Worley is well-placed to support, drawing on the experience and capabilities we already have to deploy engineering and project delivery as well as asset support to our customers.
Although the near-term conditions have clearly affected the pace and volume of work, including delayed schedules and project awards, as Hicham has said, we're already engaged in discussions and initial work with customers on rebuild, recovery, and resilient investments that are gonna follow are ongoing now. Let me move away from the Middle East and give you an update on the business. Today, we reiterate the outlook that we provide an update on to the market in April 20th. With the extended duration of the conflict in the Middle East delaying project timelines and the award of new work, it is now unlikely Worley will achieve growth in underlying EBITDA in FY 2026.
That said, we continue to expect the underlying EBITDA margin, excluding procurement, to be within the range of 9%-9.5%. We continue to target higher growth in aggregated revenue than that in FY 2025. If our expectations change ahead of the full-year results as a result of what's going on, we will update the market. We will update you. Importantly, at the end of March, our opportunity pipeline was up 2%. Our backlog has increased to AUD 16.9 billion, noting that no projects have been canceled as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. That backlog of AUD 16.9 billion excludes ExxonMobil's Baytown low-carbon hydrogen project. Given the project is on pause and the timing remains uncertain, we've removed it from the project from backlog.
We continue, however, to have conversation with ExxonMobil about their plans for this project. I'd also like to draw your attention to some of the strategic wins that will come on the screen. This includes phase II of Venture Global CP2. This is a great picture, great visual of the size of the project. If any of you listened to Venture Global's update, their capital markets update a couple of nights ago, you'll hear them talk positively about the project, that it will be the fastest project to produce LNG in the history of LNG projects. There is no project that will reach first gas at a schedule that this project will deliver. Justine will discuss our restructuring efforts and cost management progress a little bit later this morning.
Today, we also announced that I'm making a change to the leadership team, help us drive the strategy that you'll hear about later today. That is from July the 1st, Andy Hemingway will take on the role of Major Projects and Programs, and Mark Trueman will take on a new role as Group President role as Chief Commercial and Development Officer to help work with me and the group executive to drive the implementation of our strategy going forward. We're well-positioned to be at the center of the long-duration capital cycle, and our growth strategy leverages the mega-trend tailwinds. We've a capital-light business model with global scale and strong customer relationships built and sustained over decades. Worley has a track record of growth, taking a disciplined approach to execution and applying expertise to growth markets.
Importantly, a question I get asked often is we've been very selective, and we will continue to be selective on the risk profile we take. We will not ever pursue competitively bid lump-sum turnkey EPC work. We believe the combination, together with a highly diversified business, supports resilient earnings throughout the capital cycles. As you can see in this slide, in our results over the past four years, our business model and disciplined execution have delivered consistent growth across revenue, underlying EBITA, and EPS. We're proud of that which has been achieved. Before we talk about what's driving our next phase of growth, it's worth stepping back for a moment to talk about Worley's history because our foundations are a platform from which we will drive our future strategic execution.
I've been with the business for almost 28 years, and I've seen it evolve through multiple stages and distinct chapters. Each evolution we've made is full of deliberate choices to broaden capability, deepen customer relationships, and scale that which we do well. On this slide, we start with a strong base as Worley Parsons. In 2019, the acquisition of Jacobs ECR materially expanded our scale and scope, further building on our engineering, EPC, and EPCM capability, and we rebranded as Worley. In 2020, we sharpened our focus again with the purpose of delivering a more sustainable world, building our role in sustainability-related solutions. Now we're building on those foundations to further extend our role, this time as a delivery partner of choice to support our customers as they deliver their capital programs. Today, we unpack our strategy for the next phase of our growth.
I want to share three key growth drivers. First, we're positioned where capital is flowing, driven by the mega trends across energy, chemicals, and resources. We're positioned well to respond to the market disruption we're experiencing in the Middle East. Second, we're scaling full project delivery using AI-enabled workflows to do more across the life cycle, capture more value and execution, and do it more efficiently. Third, we're selectively expanding into future growth markets, building from a strong base into adjacencies where our capabilities transfer well and we can scale. We talked before about the need to balance sustainability, security, and affordability. In the current environment, security of supply and affordability have become ever more important drivers of customer investment across energy, chemicals, and resource. The same is true for infrastructure needed to support more resilient systems.
Worley plays a critical role in helping customers navigate complexity and build systems that balance security, affordability, and sustainability. Recent geopolitical disruption reinforced the importance of these mega trends. In the near term, we expect customer spend to prioritize reliability and security of supply, keeping systems running, adding flexibility, and reducing exposure to disruption. Beyond this, we expect follow-on investment across chemicals, resources, including downstream integration and infrastructure required to move, store, and process energy and materials. In addition, we expect investment to continue in areas like fertilizers with a focus on food security. Worley's scale, capability, and execution expertise across energy, chemicals, and resources positions us to support our customers' immediate needs while enabling long-term investment programs.
Risk discipline is fundamental to how we scale, and as we expand AI-enabled full project delivery and selectively enter growth markets, we apply a returns-focused approach to building bidding execution and market entry with a clear threshold for risk and returns and capital exposure. That discipline means we're selective, and this includes not pursuing, as I've said, I'm gonna keep saying, we will not pursue competitively bid lump sum turnkey EPC work. This approach has underpinned our growth to date and remains a competitive advantage as we continue to scale. We have a clear ambition to deliver double-digit medium-term underlying EBITA CAGR. FY 2030 provides a reference point for where we see the business heading and how we intend to create a meaningful higher level of earnings over time. The drivers of that ambition are already in motion.
Structural demand across energy, chemicals, and resources driving organic growth in our core business. Scaling full project delivery to capture more value per project with clear risk limits. Selective expansion into future-facing growth markets, all supported by AI, digital, and global integrated delivery. Will we see linear growth year-on-year? That's not how the world operates. It's not how markets operate. It's not the nature of the business we're in. As we take on larger projects over longer timeframes, we'll have to factor in the earnings profile. We're confident in the direction because it's anchored in long duration demand, strong customer relationships, and capabilities we already have to continue to scale. With that, I'm gonna hand over to Andy, who's gonna take you through the strategy in detail, the growth markets that we're prioritizing, and how we're delivering today and into the future.
Andy, over to you.
Well done.
Thank you, Chris. Can you hear me? Perfect. Good morning, everybody. Chris has set out our ambition, and I'll deep dive into four areas that underpin our confidence in it. The first, where capital is flowing and why that matters for Worley. Second, how full project delivery helps us capture more of that spend. Third, where we're strengthening our core market position while expanding into future-facing markets. Finally, how we drive value through differentiated capabilities, relationships, and partnerships. Firstly, where's the capital flowing? Why are we confident those tailwinds are durable? Building on the energy trilemma, we're seeing a clear shift in customer priorities. Sustainability still matters, but right now, security of supply and affordability are driving market dynamics. Gas and LNG continue to play an important role in the energy transition.
At the same time, AI is driving a new wave of power demand through data centers, networks, and large-scale compute. These materially more power-intensive assets are driving investment not just in generation, but also in transmission, grid connection, and site infrastructure. We are also seeing strong demand in resources, particularly in copper, battery materials, and fertilizers, driven by factors such as electrification, energy demand, and food security. The headline is simple. These are large growing markets. Of course, not all of the spend is addressable to Worley, however, the scale matters. It supports a sustained pipeline across energy, chemicals, and resources, as well as complex critical infrastructure for many years. Worley starts from a position of strength in relation to this opportunity. We have an established platform with global scale, deep customer relationships, and life cycle capability.
As these energy-intensive capital projects get larger and more complex, customers want partners who can take on more of the delivery scope with greater certainty and importantly, deliver outcomes. This is exactly where full project delivery matters. Let's hear from three of our customers about what this means to them in practice.
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It almost doesn't need any words. It speaks for itself. You know, what I really love about that video is it talks about working with our partnerships, our customers in partnership to deliver outcomes. Full project delivery gives us access to a materially larger share of our customers' capital spend across the life of the project. It also deepens our relationships. In a typical project, more than 75% of the total installed cost sits in execution, and that's where schedule, cost, quality, and safety outcomes are delivered, and where certainty creates the most value for customers. When we scale full project delivery, we're moving deeper into the phase of the project where most of the value sits for our customers and for Worley. Now, EPC and EPCM have been a long part of Worley for a long time.
We've delivered more than 300 projects in the last 5 years alone. What's changing is that we are now scaling that capability. That's supported by AI-enabled workflows, more integrated delivery from concept through execution and into operations. Laura will take you through the digital and AI aspects in more detail later. Turning now to the question of where we're choosing to play. We are focused where we already have customer access and proven delivery capability. There are two parts to that. First, we are strengthening our position in our core, especially where we see the strongest growth opportunities. That includes things like integrated gas and LNG, but also energy transition materials like copper and battery materials. In chemicals, refining, and petrochemicals, with a focus on supply chain resiliency.
Second, we're expanding selectively into complex critical infrastructure where demand is growing and where our capability transfers. To be clear, this is not about stepping away from our current markets. We will continue to support customers across energy, chemicals, and resources. What is changing is that we are leaning further into specific future-facing growth markets, including complex critical infrastructure where capital is flowing, growth potential is strong, and a credible path to scale exists. The bottom line is this: we are increasing the size of the market we can play in. The way I like to think of it is we're increasing the share the customer spend we can access through AI-enabled full project delivery by going deeper into our ECR markets and then going wider into complex critical infrastructure. This essentially doubles our exposure to capital expenditure in the market.
Now, let me now dimension the opportunity we see in priority markets, and I'll start with LNG and integrated gas. The central role gas plays in the energy security and the transition continues, and it continues to support investment right across the value chain. We already have real scale here from upstream and processing through to LNG liquefaction and regasification infrastructure. We work with over 15 energy majors, and we have history on 40% of the world's floating storage and regasification units. You heard earlier from Brendan Duval at Glenfarne why they chose to work with us on both Alaska LNG phase I and Texas LNG. This week, we announced an agreement with Baker Hughes to jointly pursue LNG opportunities. Here we already have scale, momentum, and room to grow.
Copper and battery materials are seeing strong investment because electrification is metals intensive, and that new supply takes time to develop. That's driving more complex and larger programs, and that really plays to Worley's strength. We have more than 100 years of experience in copper. We've delivered more than 350 lithium projects and more than 4,000 bauxite, alumina, and aluminum projects and studies. And resources is our fastest growing sector. What matters here is not just demand growth. These are long-dated capital programs that sustain across years, and they support a reliable pipeline of opportunities to shape the project early in consulting and then pull that through and continue into execution and delivery. Let's turn to complex critical infrastructure. And power is a clear growth market driven by electrification, rising load, grid stability, and new industrial capacity.
Worley brings over 100 years of experience in power generation and distribution projects. You know, this is not new for us. We do large standalone projects like the recently announced work for Dow's Path2Zero Cogen project in Canada. What you find now is large-scale power generation is increasingly a key part of complex projects that we deliver. In the U.S., we're building a power plant that could power a city the size of Brisbane. While power is a growth market in its own right, it's a component of opportunities beyond, and data centers is a great example. Now, everybody's talking about data centers at the moment, but the question is, why does this matter to Worley, and why now? The answer is that these are no longer just buildings in the domain of the domain of developers.
They are complex, power-intensive industrial assets. Hyperscalers want and need significant infrastructure behind the meter. The scale and the complexity of the customer need has changed. A 1 GW data center uses the power equivalent to powering 800,000 homes. Data centers today need integrated infrastructure, power generation, cooling, water, site delivery, all brought together at speed with a high degree of certainty. That plays directly to our strengths. We're already doing work in this area with eight new customers secured in FY 2026 alone. Importantly, we're technology agnostic, and this matters because the right solution will vary by location, equipment availability, and increasingly today, supply chain constraints. Customers often need creative ways to work through those constraints, which is where our integration capability is valuable.
Next up, we have nuclear, where policy support and customer interest are increasing as many countries look for firm, reliable, low carbon power. Worley has an established position here with more than 60 years of experience in the nuclear industry, from studies through to engineering through to construction management. Our Kinectrics business in Canada adds nuclear certified fabrication capability, which expands our ability to support customers in the market. This same logic applies in areas where we see potential, like industrial water and ports and terminals. In industrial water, customers are facing growing pressure around water availability, treatment, reuse, discharge, and particularly as projects get larger and more complex and more resource intensive. Investment is also occurring in ports and terminals. Here, there is a need to move greater volumes and improve supply chain resiliency.
These are different markets, but the common thread is the same. They rely on complex industrial infrastructure, integrated delivery, and most important of all, execution certainty. All areas where Worley already has relevant capability. An important part of how we evolve commercial models, an important part of our strategy is how we evolve commercial models to share in the value that we create for our customers, particularly as we expand our AI full project delivery capability. Across the portfolio, that can range from time-based delivery to output and outcome-focused structures where we share in the value that is created for customers. This is not theory. We're already doing this with our customers. We're using standardized execution, global delivery, digitally enabled workflows to lift productivity and predictability. I'll give you an example.
In one of our long-term customer relationships, we were able to reduce their CapEx by 10% in a single year while maintaining delivery quality. Under a value-aligned gain share model, we shared in a portion of those verified savings. Just to be clear, and I know Chris has emphasized this, but our risk settings are not changing. We will not, and we do not, do competitively bid lump sum turnkey. To close, let me recap four key takeaways. Number one, we're positioned to where the capital is flowing and the tailwinds are strong. Number two, we're scaling AI-enabled full project delivery to grow our market share. Three, we're strengthening our core ECR and expanding into future-facing markets. Finally, we're driving value through differentiated capability, strong customer relationships, as you've seen, and partnerships.
With that, I'll hand over to Laura, who will take you through how digital and AI underpin this strategy and what it looks like in practice.
Thank you, Andy, good morning. Chris and Andy have spoken about how Worley's growth strategy and the focus we're bringing to full project delivery and growth markets. I'll demonstrate how we're leveraging digital and AI as key enablers of this strategy. I'll cover three themes. First, the foundations we've built that position us to deploy AI responsibly at enterprise scale. Second, we're applying AI across the full project delivery life cycle to improve our margin quality and customer project outcomes. Finally, proven solutions already in use delivering value now. We've spoken to you about digital and AI at investor days and results briefings before. Over the past couple years, you have seen us put the foundational building blocks in place to embed digital and AI in how we operate.
We are now able to leverage a repeatable sequence, build core capabilities such as data, governance, and strategic partners, prove business value, and then scale enterprise impact. By following this sequence, we have avoided pilot purgatory and are accelerating value realization. We know that strong AI governance is what enables AI to be scaled securely and responsibly, which is important to us and to our customers. These ethical principles underpin every deployment at Worley. We're applying AI across two fronts. In our enterprise functions, we're improving productivity and consistency, and in customer project delivery, we are improving outcomes across the life cycle. At this point in our digital evolution, we have made deliberate choices to focus on where the value is the greatest. For our customers, these are schedule, quality, safety, and the total installed cost of their asset.
For Worley, the value of differentiated AI-enabled services is enhanced and protected margin, expansion of our addressable market, and value-based customer relationships. AI doesn't happen in a vacuum. The value Worley brings is our decades of expertise, not just in the data we have, but in our specialized talent. The complexity of full project delivery demands human judgment and oversight across all stages of projects to ensure that digital concepts can be applied practically and safely. This video will explain our approach to AI-enabled project delivery.
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I hope from this video you can see both where we are today and where we're headed with respect to delivering value to customers, and why we have confidence in the durability of our business model. Our work sits at the interface of digital and physical worlds, and our focus on full project delivery means we are following projects from probabilistic analysis to the deterministic decisions that require human judgment to put a physical asset on the ground. The solutions I'm going to share with you show how we're targeting what customers value most, faster, higher quality decisions, greater predictability in delivery, and lower total installed cost. By creating value for customers, we're addressing what matters to them, directly contributing to their growth and ours. By embedding AI into delivery workflows, we can reduce the cycle time to final investment decisions and improve delivery confidence and predictability.
In this way, we become a more trusted, value-adding partner, both in our existing and emerging growth markets. Finally, let's turn our attention to tangible AI solutions that are delivering value that will compound over time. Last year, we talked to you about Advanced Work Packaging, our digital solution that improves constructability by designing with the end in mind. With Advanced Work Packaging, we improve construction certainty, translating into better schedule performance, fewer surprises, and more predictable outcomes on site. Now, we are further enhancing this by deploying an AI-enabled solution that sequences installation work packages. On large construction sites, installation work package sequencing can break down quickly if it's static. Our AI.SequencePlan tool addresses this by treating construction sequencing as a live, data-driven system, not a static schedule. AI.SequencePlan automates sequencing and re-sequencing of installation work packages. It enables predictable project delivery.
This is something customers are willing to pay for because it protects total installed cost, schedule, and value realization, and aligns with the output and outcome-based commercial models Andy spoke to earlier. In project procurement, cycle time, risk discipline, and decision quality have a direct knock-on effect on delivery. Last year, we showed you our AI.VendorSelect tools that increase speed and consistency in technical bid evaluation. We've extended the capabilities of these tools from technical bid evaluation to commercial bid evaluation, improving the accuracy and transparency so that we can select the right vendors faster with clearer trade-offs and stronger auditability. This matters because procurement is an early lever on predictability. Better vendor selection, clearer scope decisions reduce late change, rework, and schedule disruption downstream.
You can expect to see us continue to compound value as we the value we deliver to our customers as we further scale AI deployment. We have a disciplined pathway to scale, embedding proven tools into core workflows. Extending capabilities across the project lifecycle and into adjacent functions, augmenting the impact of our subject matter experts. Scaling enterprise adoption as using AI to surface insights earlier, while keeping accountability, engineering judgment, and approval with our people. To emphasize the themes we started with, leveraging AI at Worley means strong foundations in place that position us to deploy AI responsibly and at scale. Applying AI across our enterprise functions and the full project delivery lifecycle. Scaling proven solutions already in use to deliver value to our customers and our investors. AI is step-changing how we design, plan, and execute projects.
To illustrate how AI directly supports our strategy, I'll leave you with a short video on our partnership with NVIDIA. It demonstrates how we're applying Omniverse technology to data center design. Using the NVIDIA Omniverse, we can model real-world operating conditions, bringing power, cooling, storage, and onsite generation together in one environment. This allows us to design AI data centers that respond seamlessly to volatility. With this technology, Worley can deliver designs and simulations that improve capital efficiency and operational performance, helping data center developers and operators achieve better outcomes and make better informed decisions.
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Great. We're gonna take a short 15-minute break now, and then we'll return to hear from the panel. Please go and see our booths.
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I'd like to welcome Mark Trueman and Mark Brantley, who'll be talking to us about the current state of the market and some of the key elements around how we're executing our strategy. Many of you would already know Mark and Mark, but for those of you who don't, let me introduce them. Mark Brantley is President of Global Operations, and Mark Trueman is President of Major Projects and Programs. These events are also an opportunity to introduce other our investors to other senior leaders within our business. I'd like to welcome Rachelle Goebel, who is Senior Vice President, Power, Chemicals and Fuels.
Rachelle is here from Houston. Ross Macpherson, our President of Americas. Ross is also based in Houston. Jim Shaughnessy joins us from London, and Jim is the President of EMEA Major Projects and Programs. Great. Thanks for joining us. Mark Brantley, I'll start with a question for you. Hicham talked about our Middle East business. How have those events impacted industry sentiment beyond the region, and what conversations are you having around critical infrastructure and energy security?
Thank you, Kylie. Good to be with you all again this year. Chris and Hicham spoke about these events leading to a discussion about energy security, and we're hearing that in a global, you know, discussion or in all the countries and with our customers. We see this as an opportunity that we can help with our customers figure out how they're going to address the energy security concerns. It's early days. It's still unfolding. While in conjunction, we're talking to the customers and seeing how they're gonna scope to address the concerns, what projects that they're gonna move forward with. In a lot of places, they're looking at three, four, five different options to address it, and we're helping them with that.
The pace, you know, how fast are they gonna deploy the capital is important to help us, and that's been referenced earlier. We may see a refocus more on renewable energies, sustainable aviation fuel is one of those. Here in Australia, I'm sure you've seen it in the news, the discussion about energy security, and the customers here are trying to figure out, you know, what options that they're gonna do, and we're offering our support in that. That same discussion's happening globally with our customers, and it's gonna be interesting to see, you know, the pace that they're gonna move forward. We're there. We feel like we're very positioned to help them.
Great. Mark T., the current conflict has brought a lot more attention to traditional oil and gas. Can you tell us how we're supporting our customers in that traditional oil and gas space?
Yeah, thanks, Kylie. Hi, everyone. Good to be here again. Look, the Middle East has definitely shone a light on energy security as Mark spoke about. Actually, even before the conflict in the Middle East, we'd seen very publicly a shift back to conventional energy from the sustainable side. Shell, BP, Total very publicly have doubled down on return on capital and, you know, much more discipline about capital allocation into the conventional space. That's LNG in North America. For us, CP2, Alaska LNG, and the other projects. We announced Aphrodite with Chevron in the Mediterranean. Venezuela's coming back to life. The conventional markets were actually already, you know, back on the move with that pendulum swinging back towards conventional energy.
Turning to our competitive landscape now, investors often ask us how the playing field has changed over the years. Can you talk to that?
Look, it's changed. We talk about that a bit, and over the last 10 years, certainly the competitive landscape's changed significantly, and there's been consolidation, and we've been a part of that with Jacobs ECR and a component of Amec Foster Wheeler. We've seen competitors move out of the energy, chemicals, and resources sector to focus on government solutions or infrastructure. Then, you know, frankly, we've seen some of our competitors get into a whole lot of financial pain by taking on bad projects and delivering them poorly. You know, that's helped us in our position.
You know, really importantly, and I was talking to someone just at the break, the credibility that we have created with the delivery of major projects and getting them under the belt and showing great performance is actually really enhancing our position. We're having very different conversations with our customers around full projects than we've had in the past. You know, that's based on the great work that our people around the world are doing.
Okay. At last year's Investor Day, we announced a reorganization of our business into Global Operations and Global Major Projects and Programs. Can you tell us how that's positioned Worley better to win and gain market share?
Yeah, sure. I think what stands out is Mark and his team being able to focus on the major projects, which takes a lot of focus and energy from the pursuit phase, working with the customers, you win it, and getting the projects set up and then executing them. That's allowed me and my team, the Global Operations, to focus on everything else in the base load of our business, which is small-cap alliances or portfolios that we have globally, executing small and medium-sized projects. In that, we do all kind of phases. We'll do just engineering. We might just do consulting. We might do the engineering procurement or full project delivery as well. It's allowed us to, you know, bring laser focus on that. Of course, we still work together with our teams on executing the work.
Yeah.
From the, you know, on the major projects that we've actually had a great year. I mean, it was a really bold decision, and it's really made a difference to allow me and the team and folks like Jim to focus on delivering what we've got. Everything that we have, we're delivering really well, touch wood. We've won the projects that we said we really needed to win. Just, sorry, just going back on what we're delivering, I mean, Chris mentioned CP2. That's been a huge effort.
Amanda Knoest, who had a cameo on the video and the team, to have our customers stand in front of their investors to talk about astonishing performance and, as Chris Ashton said, the fastest LNG project to go from FID to first gas, we've got to get there, but we're well on track. Really proud of the team. It's, you know, what we do, that's the best form of business development, quite frankly. In Stratos, we've got Sean Murphy here, good-looking gentleman. He'll be on the booth. You know, very public endorsement from our customer about the improvements that we've made from phase I to phase II and the value that we're bringing. We're winning the projects that we need to. We've announced them. We announced the Heidelberg carbon capture, Alaska LNG. It's very broad.
It's across regions and it's across commodities. Some phosphates, potash, LNG, carbon capture, power, I'm sure about pipelines. You know, we've actually had a really strong year. Yeah.
Mark, how are customer expectations changing that's really supporting our move more into full project delivery?
When we're doing the large projects, the expectations are predictable delivery. You know, massive capital decisions are being made and frankly, you know, the zipper that I have and Jim have and the others, it's their personal career reputations are won and lost based on our performance. It's a very different dialogue that we have. We've got to be predictable in how we deliver. We've got to turn up with world's best delivery systems, and Laura talked about Advanced Work Packaging. We think we've got a real differentiated position there. We have to bring a full global Worley response. It can't just be a location response. It's the best of Worley. Bringing the full supply chain in, so buying China where that's relevant, buying India, buying Mexico.
You know, just bringing that full global response. That's what we've got to do and deliver it really, really well.
Mm-hmm. Mark, did you have anything further you wanted to add to that?
From the global operations, everything Mark was saying about the major projects, we do for the small and mid-size CapEx projects. We definitely see the customers in the full project delivery coming to us where they might not have in the past, where we'd do just engineering or engineering procurement. Now they're asking, "Hey, can you step up and do the full project for us?" They want the trusted partners to do it. With the AI digital solutions is gonna help. What Mark and his team are talking about on the big projects, we're deploying on the small and medium, and we're gonna support our customers in the sales funnel. We see a lot more in number of projects in that as well.
Great. I know a lot of our investors want to know how we're actually managing our risk and cash flow around these major projects and full project delivery.
I'll answer that, and let I'll split risk and cash flow. Cash flow, particularly for the EPCs, there's an expectation in the industry, and including with our customers, that we are paid, we get better cash terms and particularly for the EPC paid in advance or cash flow neutral, and that allows us to pass that down through vendors and make sure that we've got everything ready. There's no excuses. We're, we're actually seeing much improved DSO and so a lighter use of working capital. Risk, I think Andy said it twice. I think Chris probably said it twice. We're not changing our risk profile.
You know, we're taking on more risk just because of the scale and the reputation, and that's why we've brought in a whole lot of additional governance and we're bringing in industry experts like the gentleman sitting next to me. Our contract risk, sit down, we make sure that we're working with the customers and particularly when we start at the beginning of, at concept phase, we're actually designing how we're gonna deliver it with our customers together on the way through and making sure there's really clear understanding of risk. We're very conservative about it, and we haven't changed our contract risk profile.
That's great. Now we'll bring some of our sector leads and our business leads into the conversation. Mark just referenced Jim, that you've joined us recently. You joined us from one of our major competitors just on 12 months ago. Can you talk to what attracted you to Worley and what the opportunity is that you see for us?
Yeah, thank you, Kylie. I guess bringing 40 years of project delivery experience to Worley, I was truly excited about the step out and the expansion of the full project delivery as well as the growth ambition. I think Worley's platform of broad services positions us exceptionally well. I think working with this leadership team and our teams blew up the desire to achieve and the ambition is palpable for the business and I'm really excited to be here to help shape the future. I actually think Worley has a superpower and that's the broad depth range and connectivity with our clients. I think that's a platform from which we can build upon. You know, Andy talked earlier around how we need to position earlier, and I think that's an absolute must in order to actually position, de-risk our clients' projects, create that predictability.
Again, as Andy said, that allows us to look at innovation in our commercial models, take the value out of that predictability and work with our clients. Personally, I'm really, really excited to be here and be part of the journey.
Great. Well, welcome to Worley.
Thank you.
12 months on. What I'd really like to know also is while you've got the floor, on a MEA region, what are the opportunities that you really see within that region?
Yeah, as both Mark and Mark have said, you know, we've got a strong delivery platform already and in the MEA region we're leveraging that. We're bringing the consistent tools, processes and systems into the region. We're thinking and operating globally. We're bringing talent from across the business to help us deliver and shape the opportunities that we have in front of us, as well as bringing in further talent and training our current talent to allow us to position for that. I think what's also important is to recognize that we're already delivering at scale and complexity in the region. The Ma'aden project in Saudi Arabia is a good example of that. The Heidelberg project which is more recent, again another great example of scale and complexity into the business.
As Mark mentioned, the conversations which we're having with our clients are different. We're having conversations around how to create capacity, how to create surety, how to work with the supply chain to deliver the predictability in the business. That's allowing us to strengthen our pipeline as well, which is what we're doing, which is great to see and that pipeline strengthening across multiple sectors to allow us to balance that business view of working across those sectors and deliver our growth. Those sectors are power, resources, as well as carbon capture and sustainable aviation fuels. A great position to be in.
Ross, the Americas now makes up almost 50% of our revenue. We're executing some major projects across the region. Can you talk to the opportunities there, and particularly again in full project delivery?
Thanks, Kylie, great to be here in person with you guys today. Just to build on one of Mark's earlier comments, it's really important we continue to deliver and deliver well against those projects that we have in-house. That sets us up for long-term sustained growth. Without putting a number to it or a cap on it, there's certainly a great number of opportunities out there. We're building on the back of some success with the likes of Oxy in the U.S., Pembina in Canada, Rio in LATAM just continues to see growing demand for EPC and EPCM services across the region as well as globally. If I step back and look at the market in general terms, we're certainly seeing uptick in the pipeline across resources, power, LNG, as well as a resurgence in oil and gas activity and spend.
Really confident we're well-placed to execute on that, leverage the existing capabilities that we have domestically as well as our GID centers in India and Bogota. The other piece that I would add to that, continue to make strategic hires. Bringing on board guys like Jim and Jon Gribble in the Americas strengthens not only construction management capability, but wider full project delivery personnel, and then underpinned by some of what you heard today from Laura in tools and systems, which creates the infrastructure to allow us to get after, win more of those projects, and then execute on those projects thereafter.
You mentioned LNG. We've got an established presence. We've got a solid track record in delivering projects on LNG already. Ross, what more opportunities do you see in LNG? How can we growth leverage the growth in this market?
Significant market opportunity ahead. The team have done a fantastic job, to your point, Kylie, in creating a differentiated position. You heard from Amanda on the screen in CP2. Nick Cemin's working with Glenfarne and Alaska LNG, and then wider afield, Paul Hughes and the team have done a fantastic job in Germany with Brunsbüttel on the import terminal. Andy touched on the market and the size of the prize in LNG. We've identified AUD 230 billion of CapEx opportunity across integrated gas. You only have to look at recent challenges in the Middle East. Some of the geopolitical tensions and disruption has reinforced the need for resilient gas supplies globally. We've got the right teams in the right places to execute on that.
What you also saw today, and hopefully you'll see more of going forward, is beginning to leverage partnerships like Baker Hughes, which will give us greater access across the globe as well as open up the aperture from concept through to commissioning for those opportunities ahead.
Okay. Jim, Andy had talked about growth in resources and energy transition materials. Can you tell us what opportunities you see in that space?
I mean, Andy shared the fact that, you know, these raw materials, the demand is there. We can see that operating across all of the sectors that we operate in. The economic fundamentals are strong as well and not constrained by geopolitics. The client conversations that we're having, again, they're about The projects are more complex, deeper underground facilities, and they're wanting to create that capacity and capture that capability in the market. We're having very early conversations around how to understand their portfolios better and share those portfolios with us to allow us to position well in that market. I think if you look at the various regions, we've got strengths of our pipeline increasing in South America, Canada, Australia, as well as Europe and the U.K. We have a tremendous depth in the market.
In the fertilizer space, we continue to grow our position. The Ma'aden project, we're already working on the next phases of those projects as well, and building that relationship with Ma'aden as they build out their phosphate portfolio.
Jim covered it really well. If I just double-click on the Americas briefly, it makes up, resources sector makes up over a third of our pipeline going forward, so significant size and scale and opportunity ahead. If I'm to break that down into the three subregions in which we operate, Canada, we've seen a return to spend in battery active materials, copper, as well as gold. If I look at LATAM in general, significant growth across the pipeline and talk to decade-long cycles of investment, driven by some of the macro trends that you saw earlier on. Even in the U.S., on the back of the Critical Minerals Act and some of the amendments there, we are starting to see green shoots of opportunity building and can position early for those. What I really like about the resources sector, it's driven by fundamentals.
You can see through the growth of power and AI that copper and the demand for copper will continue to exist. Government subsidies aren't required. We're well-placed, looking forward to that market continuing to come to fruition over the next couple of years as well.
If we turn now to complex critical infrastructure, which we've identified as a growth, market, Rachelle, how are we positioned to capture work around data centers, and can you talk to the new customer set that we're building there?
Thank you, Kylie. It's a pleasure to be here with everybody today. The data center ecosystem is evolving rapidly, and it's creating major challenges, and this is really where Worley is leaning into play with this. The actual workload per chip is increasing, so we're putting more information and more compute through the data center. The capacity per chip is increasing, which means the power per chip is increasing. The footprint of the data centers is densifying. Now it's increasing to a point where it generally can't be supplied by just the grid alone. We're at a stage where they're looking at some sort of supplemental on-site generation to be able to support this. The data center workload requires a high level of reliability, a 99.999% uptime of reliability.
In addition, data centers are challenged with water scarcity, finding the, you know, siting the data center and figuring that out is a challenge that's really truly emerging as we get to these larger scale. Additionally, there is a supply chain constraint on turbines and substation equipment as well. Of course, our customers want these data centers built at lightning fast speed. Fortunately, Worley, we thrive in solving complex challenges, and we're focused around the data centers really around how do we help with the integration from the grid, the on-site generation, the battery storage, and the on-site cooling that has to happen for the data center. We work with our customers early, and I think Jim mentioned it perfectly is, you know, we need to be in with our customers early.
Working with them on site identification, permitting, then helping them through design and into construction. For data centers, we're working with hyperscalers, we're working with mission critical integrators, as well as project developers. One example of a project developer that we're working with is a company called BCEI, who's a global company. They've been developing data centers on a global basis. Now as the mission has shifted to larger sized data centers, we've been engaged with them to help them with their on-site power generation assets.
Rachelle, a lot of our investors ask us about our capability in nuclear. Can you talk to our capability and the opportunity that we see there?
Sure, yes. Andy mentioned how we've been working with nuclear projects for over 60 years. We have a footprint where we have a center of excellence out of Bulgaria. We fabricate key mechanical components out of Canada, we're actively investing in our U.S. capabilities. We're doing this because nuclear is really a future investment. There's projects now, getting in early now is important with our customers, it's really about being positioned for when future capital flows into the space. It's important because nuclear, you think about the reliability aspect. Looking at data centers, you know, reliability is a critical piece. Nuclear is truly the only energy source that is going to be able to create that reliability and that much of a uptime.
It's also a clean energy source, so it really is the long-term future, but these projects take a long time to build out. An example of us working early with a customer is with Bruce Power, and we've been working with Bruce Power on their technology evaluation for their proposed Bruce C Project in Ontario, and this is Canada's first large-scale nuclear project that's been announced in over 30 years. We're really positioning ourselves early and being ready for and having that relationship with our customers as these projects develop over time.
Okay. We've talked a bit about partnerships, and we've announced a few this week. I just wanna ask, you know, what, how important are these strategic partnerships to getting more position in this space?
Yeah. Just taking nuclear alone. You know, thinking about this is, these projects are very large, very complex, and truly, they haven't been developed at scale, you know, in 30 years. Really, nobody has the competencies to deliver these projects alone. It's going to require partners to be able to support these projects, and I've been working with Jim on these as well. We've been working on kind of building out these partnerships and then looking at it from both technology as well as execution partners to be able to support and position us. It's important because this helps to de-risk the project for the customer, but also for Worley as well. This isn't just a story around nuclear.
It's also something we're doing across all of our sectors and, you know, I think the example with Baker Hughes is a perfect example in that.
Just continuing on this theme, Ross, long-term customer relationships are really important for our business. Can you also talk about the importance of global programs?
Just building on what Rachelle mentioned, and you saw in the video earlier on, longstanding core customer relationships has been at the heart of what Worley does now since inception and continues to play a large part of our future going forward. We're very proud of some of those relationships that we have. If I look at the 30-year relationship with Aramco, for example. We've also got a 10-year active master service agreement with Chevron, where we partner with them globally to provide engineering services. A little closer to home, continue to support Rio and BHP here as well. What those program and alliances provide is steady, stable earnings for the group, as well as an opportunity and a platform to learn and grow together with our customers, try new ideas, operating efficiencies and partnerships and innovation solutions and bringing them to the market together.
Really critical to what we do. We've 150 of them globally that we're very proud of, and I continue to see that growing going forward.
Jim, our global integrated delivery model, how quickly can we scale that? Are you seeing a greater willingness from customers to work with us using that model?
I'll start with the GID offering. As somebody who's worked with GID for over 20 years, I would say Worley's offering to the market is exceptional and market leading. We have 7,000 talented individuals across eight offices already delivering at scale across global operations and major projects. We've got the foundation and the platform to build. We continue to invest in that. We're continuing to invest in connecting between our global offices so that we can create that relationship to allow us to deliver predictively and with confidence. In terms of the clients, they are absolutely desiring the offering and the volume that we bring through our GID offering. Again, it's a differentiator, and again, it's already operating at scale. Right now we just gotta build that out and continue to do what we're doing.
The systems and tools allow us to operate in a common environment, so we're always working in the same systems, process, and tools to build out these projects and therefore that, again, is a value-added position. I think our position is strong. Our clients are desiring it. Very simply, it's now our business as usual model that we'll continue to deliver.
Laura talked about our digital project delivery. Jim, I know investors would like to hear about some real examples about how that differentiates us from our competitors?
Again, Laura mentioned it earlier. We've driven our systems with a construction-led lens to it. We're driving it from the spectrum of how does this deliver and our clients turn the keys on and operate these facilities all the way back through the processes. That enhances our ability to use the likes of AWP, and again, drive that into our engineering processes and position everything so we can create greater certainty through our schedules, greater certainty through our quality of work, and ultimately greater predictability. I think the fact that we've got the tools that allow us in real time to understand data, understand information, gives us greater ability to inform ourselves, make decisions.
Projects are complex, things always change, so you need to be able to change, relook at where you're going, and the systems and tools that we have do that for us. It's been recognized by our clients. I think Gary Nagle, that was mentioned earlier, CEO of Glencore, he recently made reference to the innovation and the tools that we're bringing to the market. Please come and see our booths.
Learn a little bit more about what we're offering to the market.
Great. I'd like to conclude by touching on the leadership changes that Chris had shared today. We've set out our growth strategy and FY 2030 ambition. Mark, in your new role as Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Commercial and Development Officer, what does delivering this ambition mean to you?
I think I'll answer it by referring to Chris's first slide, then it was very similar in Andy's. You know, we've got a lot to get after. The ECR markets, there are good chunks of the ECR markets that we've discussed that have significant tailwinds. We're doubling down on full project delivery, supported by GID. We have opportunities in with that delivery platform to move into complex critical infrastructure. Lastly, as Laura was describing, we've got to do it with a digital AI-enabled digital platform. Lots to get after, and it's not business as usual. We're very ambitious.
We will be you know, making very deliberate, very bold moves with our customers, doubling down on what we've been doing over the last few years, with industry partners and the Baker Hughes example that we've announced is a really good example of that. You know, using our position in our changed position in the marketplace. And also really importantly, it's organic growth, it's also inorganic growth. It's a new role. Chris has given me a fairly broad remit to, you know, work with the group executive and, you know, go out and really drive growth in the business with, you know, a strong focus on EPS accretion, of course, you know, improve returns on invested capital for that sustained value creation.
You know, I'm pretty excited about how we're gonna go forth and, you know, really shoot the lights out with our aspirations.
Great. Thank you, Mark and Mark.
Thank you, Jim, Rachelle, and Ross.
Thank you.
We really appreciate your insights, sharing them with the investors today and your thoughts on the business opportunities ahead. We're just gonna take a moment to reset the stage. I'd like to invite Justine to talk through our approach and initiatives supporting our capital management.
Make sure we're on. Good morning, everyone. I'm Justine Travers. I'm really pleased to be here this morning. Really, I want to discuss three things today. I want to be able to connect the strategy that you've heard to the financial outcomes that we're targeting. I want to show how we're protecting margins and remaining focused on cash as we scale, and explain how we think about capital allocation choices between reinvestment, returns to shareholders, and balance sheet strength. I will also provide an update on the ongoing FY 2026 transformation and restructuring work. For Worley, value creation is about doing a few things consistently well. Grow in the markets where we see strong demand drivers, deliver that growth with discipline, and convert that work into cash, deploying that cash in ways that then compound value through the cycle.
There are a number of levers for how we're managing that model. We grow EBITA by scaling full project delivery while staying disciplined on risk and contract selectivity. We're building more durability into margins through cost discipline and global integrated delivery model and digital and AI-enabled workflows that will help us deliver more efficiently and consistently across the business. We are using the outcomes of our cost management program to reinvest into targeted priority areas to support our strategy and fuel organic growth. Underpinning all of these, we're maintaining a balance sheet strength and liquidity that is supported by strong cash conversion. Of course, we will continue to return capital to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. As you heard from Chris and Andy, we are scaling, but it is with intent, and we are ensuring that customers and contracts continue to align with our risk appetite.
We are focused on disciplined bidding and project assurance so that we protect the margin quality, and we're continuing to maintain and enhance our cost discipline across the business. As the model scales, we will continue to focus on margin durability, strong cash conversion, and meaningful earnings growth over the medium term with an ambition of double-digit medium-term underlying EBITA CAGR. As Chris stated, it will not necessarily be a straight line each year. That is not the nature of our business, but we are confident in the direction. We have a track record of delivering double-digit EBITA CAGR over the medium term. As we discussed at the half, we're transforming and restructuring to remove complexity, to improve efficiency, and to drive greater consistency in the way that we work.
In the first half of the year, we acted in response to softer conditions in traditional chemical sector and some project cancellations in Western Europe. We incurred AUD 82 million of costs in the first half. These were largely related to severance or related costs. These costs are outside the normal course of business. Given this, we reported them below the line. As communicated in the first half, we do expect further one-off restructuring and transformation costs in the second half of the year. These, however, will be less than the cost that we incurred in the first half. I now turn to cost management and the program that we commenced at the start of the year. We will exceed the initial target of AUD 100 million of annualized savings from FY 2027 onwards.
We've actioned around AUD 95 million of initiatives to date, with an additional AUD 25 million of confirmed actions that are underway. We will continue to look for further opportunities to take cost out of the business. This cost-out program is resetting how Worley works. We are simplifying the organization, reducing duplication, tightening spans and layers where it's needed, and standardizing and centralizing transactional processes so that we are well-positioned in applying and using AI to ensure the cost savings are sustained, we have strengthened a number of areas, including central cost oversight, clearer approval controls, and embedding cost tracking. The outcome of the program is twofold. Firstly, it supports our margin resilience in the near term. Second, it creates the capacity for us to reinvest capital where we see the clearest path to high quality growth.
That takes me to reinvestment, this is the next part of the value creation model. The cost savings that I've just talked about not only protect the margins, they create this capacity to reinvest. Over the next two years, we expect to invest around AUD 70 million. This is not broad-based spending. It is targeted. In practical terms, this organic investment goes into building the capabilities, particularly in those areas that Andy spoke about today. It's adding strategic hires where we need to expand skill sets and relationships. It allows us to continue to scale the digital and AI tools that enhance value in execution. The goal is to access larger, longer dated customer programs and grow in a way that is scalable and accretive. Our capital management framework helps ensure that we make consistent, value-based decisions through the cycle.
More broadly, it reflects the way that we manage the business, with discipline on cost, on cash, and on capital deployment. Firstly, we generate operating cash flow with a focus on maintaining cash conversion above 85%. That cash discipline supports the business, including lease payments, maintenance capital, and we have a minimum liquidity target of AUD 1 billion. Only after that do we deploy capital. We consider investment for growth, returning capital to shareholders, and maintaining disciplined leverage position of at or below two times. This matters because it gives us the flexibility to invest in the growth platforms that we've talked about today, whilst continuing to support shareholder returns without compromising the resilience of the business.
Our capital management approach looks to sustain an asset-light, cash-generative model that supports growth and returns through the cycle. It is underpinned by an investment-grade credit rating of BBB with a stable outlook. Let me close by bringing together a number of these things: funding, capital, and returns. We're managing these together. We're maintaining our balance sheet strength and liquidity. We're reinvesting into growth and returning capital to our shareholders, all within a disciplined approach to cost, cash, and capital management. Over the past 10 years, we've returned two and a half billion AUD through to our shareholders through dividends and our recently completed AUD 500 million buyback program. Following the successful completion of our first ever buyback in April this year, we've announced a new on-market share buyback this morning of up to AUD 300 million.
The new program demonstrates the board's continued confidence in the company's financial position and growth outlook, and its commitment to delivering shareholder value. The timing and value of shares purchased will be dependent on prevailing market conditions and share price. Our near-term FY26 debt maturities are covered through existing liquidity and committed facilities. We have a diverse and well-distributed portfolio with access to global debt markets. The message I'll therefore leave you with. Our capital allocation and funding decisions are aligned to the strategy and to the execution of the growth priorities that you've heard today. We have the balance sheet strength to invest and the discipline on cost, on cash, and on capital to do that while continuing to support shareholder returns. With that, I'm gonna pass back to Chris. Then we will move to Q&A.
Thanks, Justine. As you can see from the leadership team, it's focused on the opportunity ahead of us. You know, we've built a strong foundation. We've set clear strategic priorities and remain disciplined in how we're going to execute. That's really important, the disciplined execution. Before we move to questions, let me remind you and leave you with a few points. First, our FY 2030 ambition provides a clear reference point for where we believe the business is heading. It's underpinned by long duration demand, strong customer relationships and capabilities we have in place and can continue to scale. Second is our investment proposition. We're a capital light business. We've got global scale and a discipline in our execution with clear risk settings. Together, these fundamentals support resilient earnings throughout the life cycle, and we've already demonstrated that this model delivers.
Third, we're aligned to where the capital is flowing. Some people describe this as skating to where the puck is going. We're going deeper through the full project delivery and wider through selective expansion, supported by cost discipline, our global integrated delivery capability that Jim talked about, and digital and AI and execution that Laura covered. That is what underpins our FY 2030 ambition and the confidence in our ability to deliver it. It captures opportunities in future-facing markets and delivering double-digit underlying EBITA CAGR over time is what we believe we can achieve. With that, I'm going to invite the group executive on stage, and we'll open it up to questions. Okay. All right, come on. Gonna put up this. Yeah. Just Okay.
Let's go. Thank you.
Right. I've got it in trouble now.
I will help moderate some questions and actually direct them to the members of the GE. As you think about your questions, please remember that we have also got our subject matter experts here. You have heard from Jim, from Ross, from Rochelle. We also have Sean Murphy here, who is one of our presidents for major projects and programs. You may also have questions for them. Before I do that, Chris, maybe just pass to you briefly.
I think we've got, I think, 30 minutes allocated. I think it's important to use the time to allow you to ask questions that may be on your mind. You know, clearly, we had a message we wanted to share today. We hope to have shared that message clearly, and that it's been, you know, well understood. Certainly open to questions. Let you use the time the way you like to use it.
Where's Kristen?
Oh, yeah, sorry. Kristen, stand up, please.
Oh.
Kristen is new to the business. Started with us in April as our new Chief People Officer. You've met, I think you've met everyone else. Welcome Kristen to the team.
Excellent. Okay, over to the floor.
Hi, it's Niraj from Goldman Sachs. Just a couple of quick ones from me. Given the focus on scaled, I guess full project delivery, how should we be thinking about the mix between professional services, construction fabrication, versus procurement, I guess in the 2030 ambition?
Chris?
Maybe let me start, and then we'll let others pick up. Look, you know, clearly if you saw one of the slides that Andy put up, 75% of the revenue comes from the execution side of it. Over time, as we grow the pie or as the pie grows, the slice that we're taking out of the pie will also grow. Clearly we see engineering growing, but also the full, the actual delivery of the portion of the work. Given the scale of it, the scale of the opportunity, you know, proportionally, we expect to see probably more or well, more growth in that space. Equally the engineering portion will grow as well. Andy?
Yeah, I think what I'd say is we step into full project delivery. There's still an extensive professional services component to that. You know, every single full project delivery project has engineering services, procurement services, logistics, and then also, as you get into the field, construction management and commissioning. You know, yes, there'll be certain locations where we do more construction and fabrication and direct self-perform. In some areas we'll subcontract. I, you know, I see the professional services component growing as we step into full project delivery as well.
Okay, thank you. Just a second quick one. Just to be clear on the double-digit growth ambition, to what extent is, I guess, M&A required to hit that ambition?
Maybe I can take just a brief go and then.
Yeah, you.
You go.
Chris can jump in. You know, we don't at Worley, we haven't had an acquisition strategy. It is something that we will always look to, where we would see that it aligns strongly with our strategy, where we believe that we're able to implement and where we see value. The double-digit EBITA CAGR that we've outlined over the medium term as an FY 2030 ambition is not underpinned necessarily by M&A. It is underpinned by the things that we've talked about today and the organic investment program that we believe is there.
Yeah. I think that's it. I mean, you know, I'm glad you said it. We're often asked about our M&A strategy, we've always said that, you know, we don't have one. We never have. We have a growth strategy where if an acquisition or a target opportunity or a partnership helps us drive that growth strategy, we'll consider it.
Good morning. John Purtell from Macquarie. Thanks for the presentations. Just a couple of questions. Again, just on those medium term targets there for the double-digit EBITDA. Just to be crystal clear, that's a target between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2030?
That's correct. What we see is we have set out the strategy that we've got today. Some in the room will recall we had an ambition 1.0, and that really was taking us through to FY 2026. This, as we think about the new strategy for Worley and what we've outlined today, is really from an FY 2026 to an FY 2030. That's the medium term timeframe under which we've looked to underpin that ambition.
Thank you. Just the second one, you've obviously referenced the alliance with Baker Hughes and further LNG opportunities. How do you balance that with a need to deliver on what are existing very large projects, CP2, further opportunity with Glenfarne, obviously? In essence, the question is: How many of these larger projects can you do at once?
Mark Trueman?
Yeah. Good question, John. If you remember, I think it's three years ago, I missed Investor Day.
Three, yeah.
Cause I was doing the final negotiations with Venture Global on the contract. We're three years in. We've had a bit of delay in terms of the site phase, but it's three years to get to the full volume. You know, that's something that we need to be aware of as we move further into, you know, into the major project space. Alaska LNG, we've just started that journey. We expect that that will move forward in a, you know, a not dissimilar timeframe, but perhaps a bit more aggressive without assuming we don't have any delays. With Baker Hughes, it's partnering into the supply chain and the project pipeline as it goes forward and, you know, a really important relationship. It's good for us.
It's good for Baker Hughes, and it's good for our customers. It's all just positioning us for further growth, in the LNG supply chain, LNG project pipeline.
Good morning. It's Ramoun Lazar from Jefferies. Just a couple from me. On the FY 2030 ambition, double-digit EBITA growth but no margin quantified. I guess just how does the margin curve look in a world where you are taking on more of the EPC kind of work?
You know, this is a question we often get asked, and it was in Macquarie Conference last week, and we had 22 investor meetings, and I think I asked most of those who had joined the 22 meetings, you know, what was important. You know, the growth, if we're managing cash, you know, if we're looking at things through a working capital lens, if we're growing the absolute EBITDA number, you know, to share their views on the importance of margin. Justine, why don't you share the answers from a majority of the people who attended those meetings?
I think in the conversations we've had, you know, what is important is the earnings growth that we're able to deliver, and we've talked a little bit today around how we would intend to do that in terms of scaling on pro-full project delivery, but also ensuring we've got margin durability. We're doing a number of things to actually look at the resilience of our margin is around the utilization of our global integrated delivery offices. It is about the cost management program that we're doing, and it is also about the AI work that we've got that will drive that increased efficiency and consistency. We haven't set out a margin-specific ambition on this. What we've set out is a growth ambition. Yeah.
Let maybe Mark Trueman. Do you want to talk about what you're seeing as you're pursuing these large projects in terms of margin? Because the margin's good.
Yeah. Look, it's particularly as we're building a reputation, the conversations I have with our customers where they see our systems and they see our people, we're not having conversations about cost. We're having conversations about surety of delivery, predictability of delivery. You know, EPC is not E plus P plus C. It's an EPC integrated offering.
That's exactly why you saw in our AI strategy that we're looking across that full project delivery life cycle.
Yeah.
Including on-site solutions and procurement solutions, because as we look across the full cycle, it gives us more and more opportunities to differentiate what we're able to offer to our customers.
Okay. Just the second one, just on the revenue model, if you can just talk through how the traditional sort of billable hour model is evolving in the face of AI, and how do you sort of ensure that AI doesn't result in revenue slippage for your business?
Andy, do you want to talk to that?
I mean, I mentioned it in the presentation. There are really three different types of models that we're continuing with. Some of it is around by the hour. Increasingly, what we're seeing is a shift towards output and outcome. Output is really, we're monetizing the productivity of what we do through things like lump-sum engineering. I think the shift that we're seeing more significantly is to outcome. Whereby, you know, we will set targets with a customer. That might be on schedule. That might be on cost. Then we share in the gain when we deliver ahead of those targets. You know, what I really like about that model is it's a win-win for us and for the customer.
The customer, creating value for the customer through bringing on that asset earlier, reducing the amount of capital outlay, allowing them to generate a return on that asset, which then opens a space for us to have a completely different conversation around the model.
I might just add, you know, all, I think every one of our major projects that we've negotiated, we have a substantial component that is, to reinforce what Andy said, outcome-based, cost, schedule, performance.
Yeah, you know, there was an article in the AFR a couple of weeks ago, it was a short article, but it was really good at talking about, you know, AI. If you think about what we've done traditionally and what we're doing now, there's a transfer of value between ourselves and our customer. The measure of that value transfer was by the work hour. Well, we're still transferring value. The value we've got in our 50 years of experience, in our data, in our people, that value transfer is still occurring, and that value needs to be compensated for appropriately. Now, the model to transfer that value will be different, but we're still transferring value. That value that we're transferring still needs to be rewarded, and we need to get a return for it.
Yeah.
Thanks very much. Cameron Needham from Bank of America. Firstly, just on the buyback, what is it that gives you the confidence that now is the optimal time to announce a new buyback program? Thanks.
We've just completed the AUD 500 million buyback, which as I mentioned, was the first buyback that Worley had done in its history. We believe that it is an important tool, essentially in our capital management toolbox of ways in which to distribute value to shareholders, and so it sits together with how we think about dividends. We also think that there is an opportunity within Worley where we see value, we have confidence in the growth of the business, and the buyback is a good tool to actually be able to enable that. It is just one of the tools in the toolbox, is the way that I would describe it. We're conscious that we've talked about organic investment.
We've announced a buyback of up to AUD 300 million, and we'll execute that buyback in a disciplined way as we look at the market, and we execute that over a period of time.
Great. Thanks, Justine. A quick second one, if I may. Could you just flesh out the backlog a little bit more for us, please? Obviously, you had full notice to proceed on phase I CP2. Congratulations on that. Just at the AUD 16.9 billion as at March, how much of that is CP2, please?
At various points in time, we've looked and provided input into what's moved from pipeline into backlog. You would have seen, as Chris said, we moved CP2 phase II from our pipeline into our backlog. We'll see other projects that also came in. We don't usually specifically describe what is the component breakdown of that. It certainly has the phase I work that we're doing and executing on now, and it has the phase II of CP2 as well within that backlog.
Great. Thanks very much.
Hey, Megan Kirby-Lewis from Barrenjoey. My first question is for Justine, just in terms of your current thinking about the repayment of the sustainability bonds, which I think are due next month.
Yes. We're working through that. We're well-positioned. I mentioned very briefly that we've got a number of facilities in place, liquidity facilities that mean we're well-positioned in terms of the maturity of that note. We're continuing to work through that. I won't announce it now in the market, but we'll have an update on that as we go into the full year as part of that result. Certainly in discussions currently, you know, with a number of our banks.
Yeah.
Okay. Would you announce it before the result if something new was locked in, or should we be assuming it rolls onto the existing USD debt?
It may not necessarily. If it's something material, we will announce it.
Just maybe for Mark Trueman, just on the topic of risk, completely appreciate that you don't do the competitively lump sum bid work. I guess just keen to understand how risks within sort of full project delivery and these major projects does compare to the types of risks on consulting work. I think there was mention of some increased governance. Just keen to, I guess, understand what that actually means in practice.
I mean, certainly between consulting and a mega project, there's, I mean, it's chalk and cheese. Even with the smaller projects. You know, we've learned over time that once you get over a certain scale, the projects, you can't deliver them with the heroics of individuals. You actually need to codify and systemize what you're doing, whether that's the data flows or whether it's actually just the supervision and the quality assurance and quality control on the project. We have project risk groups, we have commercial risk groups, you know, it's how we pursue the projects, how we negotiate the projects, how we actually set them up in terms of systems, and I'd encourage you to go and look at some of the systems afterwards.
How we govern them on a monthly basis in terms of reviewing the performance of the projects and We're having the difficult conversations when we need to have them because projects never go 100% according to plan. It's how you react, which is the difference between success and not. Dealing with the firefighting. We just bring a whole You know, we spend money with our customers in ensuring a greater level of governance over those projects. I mean, I could talk for days. It's a whole world of project risk that we look at.
Perfect. Thank you.
Nathan Reilly, UBS. It was good to hear about the ECR tailwinds. I guess my question is just a little bit more geographic. Mark T, can we get a bit of an update just in terms of, I guess, there is a significant level of construction planned in the U.S. I'd be keen to get an understanding of how you're thinking about labor availability as you move into that sort of more construction-focused and delivery-focused strategy. Just in the context of a higher level of focus around energy security globally at the moment, just what your customers in Western Europe are now saying about the outlook for activity in that market.
I'm happy to answer the first one, Ross, where Ross is lovely to have Ross might wanna jump in. Yeah. I'll let Andy or Mark answer about Western Europe. We watch the labor markets very tightly in the U.S., both white collar and blue collar. At the moment it's fine, and certainly in Louisiana with the LNG build-out, there's, you know, that's something we're watching really closely because we also have, you know, significant needs for direct hire construction, but we have access to all the labor that we want.
We were looking at a data and power center overlay over the next 10 years in the U.S. We think needs another 500,000 laborers in or what in Australia we call laborers, blue-collar workers in the U.S. You know, it's something that we need to watch really carefully. It becomes really important. You know, people have a choice. They'll go to the projects that are the ones where they know they're gonna be safe, that they get their per diems, that they get paid properly, and that they can do good quality work.
You know, our good customers, and I like to think that they're the ones that we work with, it's really important to them that they set their projects up as the projects of choice. At the moment, U.S. is okay. It's very large, got big labor pools. From the Worley point of view, we'll do direct hire construction sort of from Virginia around to Arizona. There are big chunks of the U.S. market where we would absolutely not do direct hire construction. I don't know, Mark or Ross.
No, you go.
I'll talk about Europe. Anything else?
Can you just repeat the second part of the question for me?
Yeah. It was in the context of, I guess an increased focus on energy security, and food security, I think was something that was also touched on earlier in the context of post Middle East implications. Just in the context of your, how customers in Western Europe, are communicating to you on their needs in this environment.
Yeah, I can jump in. You know, right after the pandemic, we really spent a lot of time on studies with our customers in Europe, U.K., in the sustainable, you know, fuels. A lot of those projects got all the way to FID and never got funded. Those projects are still there. We're waiting, you know, to see if the customers, working with the governments, getting subsidies, if they'll move forward. You know, some of the major projects, Jim's, working those, we're seeing those come online. We're opening the funnel into the critical infrastructure where we were not as focused before. We're having to reposition a little bit in the Europe market to see where the capital's flowing and go after that market.
It's when the sustainable projects didn't go forward, and there's a lot of them moving, that set us back a little bit, so we're pivoting and some great opportunities in the funnel. Jim, you wanna add anything? You're based in London, right in the middle of it.
I think, Mark, you've summarized it well. We're seeing a number of large projects in the sustainable fuels moving forward now. There's a lot of discussions going on in U.K., for example, with government in terms of moving those forward. We were successful on Heidelberg, and that positions us very well as a proof point for us into that market. I think we've strengthened our position, and certainly we can see a larger portfolio in front of us.
Yeah. Maybe I'll just add as well. I mean, I think Europe has to do something different.
Yeah.
You know, you saw with the dependence on Russian gas and the impact there, and then the, you know, again now, the dependence on the Middle East and, you know, the kerosene has been imported at the moment from the U.S. A lot of European refineries have been shut in and converted to terminals. Will you start to see a reversal of that? Possibly. I think then also gas and gas from other suppliers, and particularly LNG import, regasification infrastructure you'll see as well. To me, Europe has to do something in order to not be beholden to a single point of failure.
Yeah.
May I, go again, if that's all right. On LNG and integrated gas, on the slide, you sort of quoted a 2%-3% market CAGR. I'm just curious to the extent, you know, do you think that captures the rebuild and reconfiguration opportunity that's out there as a result of the conflict? You know, just trying to understand how material that might be on a kind of one or two year view.
Maybe I'll open up and let Andy jump in. No, I don't. No, I mean, the 2% or 3% is, you know, pre-Iran conflict. You know, you've lost a significant amount of capacity out of Qatar.
Yeah.
They're projecting three, four years for rebuild to bring that back onto market. You know, there's that rebuild investment as well as the sort of increased capacity that is being looked at. The 2% or 3% is outside of the restoration, and it excludes the third bullet point, which was resilience of nation states globally to really focus on energy security and affordability. My view is, Andy, jump in here, it's still early. You know what I mean? It's hard to put data around it. Conceptually, the trajectory would, my view, would put investment up and above that which was projected pre-Iran. Andy?
I think that's right. You know, it does, as Chris said, it doesn't include the rebuild of QatarEnergy LNG of whatever that might look like. I think the energy security is gonna drive investment, particularly in smaller fields that were perhaps more stranded, so in a one to five TCF range. You know, our expectation is we'll start to see FLNG come back more strongly and, you know, that's a key facet and component of our relationship with Baker Hughes as well. Upside beyond that, hard to quantify.
Yeah.
Just one more from me as well. Just on the CCI revenue mix contribution at the moment, can you give us a sense of where that sits? I guess just on the data center side, eight new customers, who are you winning that work against?
Maybe.
Well, sorry, Andy.
Andy on the first one was around the CCI and how we see that as the proportion of revenue today.
Yeah.
In terms of the work that we're doing, and then what we might do is pass to Rachelle to just talk about the competitive environment from a data center perspective.
What you're gonna see is that's gonna be an increasing share of our revenue as we move forward. The sheer amount of capital that's been invested there is significant. You know, I would flag power in North America, the data center build-out as well. I think, you know, we see huge outsized potential in that market, and what's really interesting for us is, you know, it really speaks to our fungible skills. This is not, you know, a market that we're having to create new capabilities to enter. We can step straight into it with the capabilities we've got.
Yeah. Yeah, let me just build on that before Rachelle. Typically, you know, you would look at can you take existing capabilities into adjacent markets or do you develop new capability in existing markets? What we're doing in this build-out with the critical, complex infrastructure is taking existing capabilities and moving into an adjacent market. It's not a stretch. You know, it's a natural You wouldn't typically want to take a new capability into a new market. That's a two-dimensional move. You would typically do one or the other. Only occasionally both, Rachelle, do you want to talk about competitive intensity of the data side?
The data center landscape is really interesting. It's not our traditional project approach that we have within Worley. You have customers that really we've worked with early on from a consulting perspective, they see us as a trusted partner, they're just taking us through to the next stages. We have customers that way. The other ones that we're really kind of starting to see are competitors that are not our typical competitors. In other words, as these projects become more complex and they need on-site generation, they're scaling to a point where their traditional supply chain to support substations or whatever battery storage that they were putting on before, it isn't, they can't meet the scale of what the customers need today.
That means that it's, they're looking to us to really help support them and such. A lot of these conversations are us kind of coming to it from a consulting stage, helping identifying a challenge and a need that they have and just being there to help them support and scale from there.
What's the typical scope, is it FEED or is it full hyperscaler EPCM when it comes to data centers?
We're doing from, as I said, early-stage consulting to design. They don't typically go through a pre-FEED FEED. You know, they're moving faster. Our work and what we've done with Venture Global and the fact of being able to accelerate is that skill set we're able to take over to the data center space. It's thinking about, for them, they're looking at saying, "I need this built. I want it built in 18 months. How do I do it? You know, I want to hire one person that's gonna make that happen. How do I get it done?" That's where we have to step up and answer that question for them.
In terms of competitive intensity, look, we see Fluor in the space, we see a Kiewit in the space. What's happening is the data centers are really data factories, and the complexity of the infrastructure required, it lends more to our capability than it would necessarily to the traditional data center competition. You know, data centers against the hyperscaler gigafactories, the complexity actually opens up the opportunity for us to play in that. Where before data centers, you know, as opposed to the hyperscale gigafactories, they were a different set of players. Yeah. As we move into the hyperscale gigafactories, that's our space. It'll be Fluor, it will be Kiewit, and I'm speaking about in the U.S., and there'll be different players in Europe.
It's the complexity that makes it difficult for some of the traditional data center players to operate in for the reasons Rachelle shared.
It might be worth just adding as well, it's not just the box of the data center.
That's exactly right.
You know, because of the scale and the power demands, almost all of them now, certainly in the U.S., you've gotta have a power station attached to it. Significant needs for water. We're also seeing significant needs for dealing with carbon emissions as well. If you've got the ability to do power, water, you've got a permitted site, you can deal with the carbon. You know, that's absolutely all in Worley's wheelhouse.
Yeah.
You bring it all together, so.
Yeah, yeah.
It's that space outside of the box.
Yeah.
Really. That's where the complexity exists.
Yeah.
You know, the power, the water, the cooling. You know, communities will get kind of used to, or maybe they can accept maybe a power station being on the horizon. What they won't accept is water being sucked out of their aquifer. Water management and how you're going to source, treat, use, treat, recycle, becomes increasingly important, and that's really complex.
We're at time. Thank you. Chris, you might wanna say some closing words, but thank you. We'll have an opportunity after now if people have questions that we wanna take in the foyer.
Yeah. I think it's all said. Look, we appreciate you coming today. Many of you are on the register. Many of you we hope to get on the register. Certainly, look, we've got lunch. Come and chat to us. Happy to answer any questions that haven't been answered so far. Really appreciate everybody joining in the room. For those online, again, thanks for joining us.