I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, the 19th of February, 2025. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. John Cullity, CEO, EBOS Group. Please go ahead, Mr. John.
Thank you, Maggie, and welcome everyone to EBOS Group's first half results presentation for the first half of 2025. My name is John Cullity, CEO of EBOS Group, and I'm joined this morning by both Alistair Gray, our CFO, and Martin Krauskopf, our EGM for Strategy, M&A, and Investor Relations. There are several pleasing highlights of our first half results, including strong revenue growth for the group, excluding the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract, reflecting the successful execution of our strategies. We are also realizing the benefits of our focus on efficiency and cost savings. The cash result was very strong, and we have maintained our interim dividend at the prior year level.
We continued our disciplined capital allocation, which included three investments to support future growth, and the first pharmacy wholesale agreement has been executed, providing a far more sustainable remuneration model for our pharmacy business in Australia. In terms of a financial summary, I'm pleased to report that EBOS has achieved solid underlying revenue and EBITDA growth, and we are on track to achieve our full-year guidance for underlying EBITDA of between AUD 575 million to AUD 600 million.
The statutory results are, however, down on the prior corresponding period, reflecting the loss of the CWA distribution contract effective 1 July 2024, and before we go through this morning's presentation, I should point out that my commentary this morning is predominantly based on our underlying results, with comparisons to the prior period, excluding the contribution from the Chemist Warehouse contract and certain one-off costs. We have included in the appendix a reconciliation between the statutory and underlying numbers.
The key financial headlines for the first half of FY25 are revenue increased by 9.5% to just under AUD 6 billion, underlying EBITDA increased by just over 7% to AUD 291 million, underlying earnings per share was AUD 0.675, our leverage ratio of just under 2.1 times is consistent with the prior period, and the board has declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.57 per share, being the same amount as last year's dividend, reflecting the board's confidence in the future growth of the group. Slide five provides further details on the group's financial performance on both a statutory and underlying basis. These slides are included for information purposes, and I won't comment on it in any detail.
EBOS has a long-term track record of growth, and we are again very well placed to continue to deliver future growth due to a number of factors, including our exposure to the healthcare and animal care sectors, which have defensive growth characteristics, our scale and leading positions within those sectors, and the diverse nature of our group, as well as our multiple growth drivers. Over the last decade, we have generated compound annual growth of 11% in gross operating revenue. Last year, we communicated our near-term growth strategies, and I'm pleased to report that we've made really strong progress with all initiatives tracking either in line or ahead of expectations. Specifically, we have demonstrated base business growth with our healthcare and animal care segments, growing underlying EBITDA by 7% and 7.2%, respectively.
We have now won more than AUD 450 million of annualized sales from new pharmacy wholesale customers, with approximately AUD 100 million of this recorded in the first half, well over our AUD 300 million target. We've realized cost savings of AUD 15 million in the first half, and we are on track to achieve our target of AUD 25 million-AUD 50 million per annum by FY26. And we have completed a further three investments with aggregate consideration of approximately AUD 70 million, which I'll expand upon later, and we continue to explore an active pipeline of further M&A opportunities.
Those three investments just mentioned all relate to our Southeast Asian medical technology business and include the acquisition of two distributors specializing in orthopedic products, one operating in Malaysia and the other in the Philippines, thereby strengthening our presence in those countries. And we also increased our shareholding in our Transmedic business to 100% from 90%.
The Southeast Asian healthcare market continues to represent an attractive growth opportunity for the group due to a number of factors, including its large population and increasing wealth and demand for improved healthcare services, global suppliers seeking access to the region via strong independent distributors such as ourselves to provide on-the-ground knowledge and customer relationships, and the market is still very fragmented, which lends itself to our bolt-on M&A strategy. And in Transmedic, we own one of only a small number of independent distributors with both scale and a multi-country presence.
The group saw strong performances from both our healthcare and animal care segments, with several highlights across our divisions. In community pharmacy, the first pharmacy wholesale agreement was signed, and we are pleased that this agreement will provide the industry with a far more sustainable funding platform. We have also outperformed our expectations regarding new pharmacy wholesale customer wins, and the TWC store network continued its strong growth, and we now have 616 stores in the network. Institutional healthcare continued to be one of the group's major growth drivers, with our hospital medicines and Southeast Asian medtech businesses performing particularly well.
Contract logistics experienced strong organic growth in Australia, and through our investments in new facilities, is well positioned for further growth. And in animal care, our Black Hawk and VitaPet brands continue to perform strongly, and our Australian vet wholesale business has returned to growth. On this page, you can see that both our healthcare and animal care segments recorded strong underlying EBITDA growth of 7% and 7.2%, respectively. Our community pharmacy, institutional healthcare, and animal care divisions all contributed to an uplift in GOR, while contract logistics was broadly flat.
We also continue to make good progress on our key sustainability initiatives. In respect of environmental matters in Australia, we are on track to self-generate solar power equivalent to our forecast electricity consumption by FY27, and our animal care business has begun transitioning its VitaPet snacks and treats ranges into 100% recyclable packaging. In respect of our people, we have recently introduced executive safety leadership walks in all of our distribution centers to drive further focus on all of our safety initiatives. There are many other sustainability initiatives that the group is progressing, which will be detailed in our next sustainability report issued at the end of the financial year. I'll now move to our segment performance.
Healthcare generated strong revenue growth of 9.7% and underlying EBITDA growth of 7%. This performance was driven by organic growth across each of our community pharmacy, TWC, and institutional healthcare businesses. In terms of our geographic regions, our Australian healthcare business grew revenues and underlying EBITDA by just under 12% and 6.6%, respectively, and our New Zealand and Southeast Asia business grew underlying EBITDA by 8.5%. Moving now to community pharmacy.
Naturally, the results in community pharmacy are down on the prior corresponding period due to the loss of the CW contract. However, excluding this, underlying performance of the division has been strong, with revenue of AUD 3.1 billion up 12% and GOR of AUD 288 million up 4.6%. There were several drivers of the result, including, as mentioned earlier, approximately AUD 100 million of wholesale revenue in the half from new customers, which represents more than AUD 450 million annualized business. We also recorded growth from our existing wholesale customer base. We saw an acceleration in sales of GLP-1 medicines, and TWC continued on its path of strong growth.
The GOR margin increased to 9.2%, reflects a shift in our product and customer mix. Future profitability in this division will be assisted by the recent signing of the first pharmacy wholesale agreement. TerryWhite Chemmart continued its strong performance and further strengthened its position as Australia's largest health advice-focused community pharmacy network. The TWC network recorded strong store growth and total sales growth of 11%, with like-for-like sales growth of 9.3%. This performance is a result of the many initiatives undertaken to provide outstanding care to our customers, such as Care Clinics, which are now operating in 90% of the network and offer core health services to patients. In addition, we have a strong focus on our TWC catalog and promotional programs, expansion of our consumer brands products, and continued uptake of our TWC app and rewards programs.
Institutional healthcare was again our largest growth driver, increasing revenue by AUD 191 million up 9.7% and GOR by AUD 25 million up 8.3%. Key drivers of this performance were continued growth in our Symbion Hospitals business, largely due to sales of oncology drugs. The medtech business delivered mid-single digit revenue growth due to growth in our allograft and implant products. Our spine channel was impacted by supply constraints for certain new products. However, this has now been rectified, and we expect a stronger second half in this particular segment.
As mentioned earlier, our Southeast Asian medtech business continued its impressive performance with double-digit growth and will further benefit from the recent investments referred to earlier. Contract logistics performance was stable overall, with GOR of AUD 75 million for the half. Underlying this was continued strong growth in the Australian business, with 16% GOR growth driven by new and existing principals.
The strong performance in Australia, however, was largely offset by the New Zealand business, which was primarily due to a legacy contract or a fall in the legacy contract for COVID-19 products that is winding down. Turning now to animal care. Animal care delivered revenue growth of 18 million, up 6.3%, and EBITDA growth of 4 million, up 7.2%, and this was again driven by strong performances from our branded business, as well as a return to growth in our vet wholesale business. Branded business growth was a result of continued strength in our flagship Black Hawk and VitaPet brands, assisted by the release of new products launched last year, as well as our Superior Pet Food business continues to perform very well in the New Zealand dog rolls and bulk treat segment.
Our revenue growth was partially offset again by continued softness in discretionary categories in light of the slower consumer spending environment. Margin improvements in the segment reflect product mix and production efficiencies. In line with our animal care growth strategy, and as communicated previously, we launched several new products under our Black Hawk and VitaPet brands, including our Healthy Benefits range for dogs and VitaPet dry food within the grocery channel. These product launches are strongly resonating with consumers, and additional category expansion is planned for the future. I'll now hand over to Alistair to run through the financial information.
Thank you, John. Now turning to cash flow. The group generated strong cash flows with underlying cash from operations of AUD 205 million, up AUD 90 million compared to the prior corresponding period, reflecting an improvement in working capital. Capital expenditure for the period was AUD 64 million, consistent with half one in the prior year. This includes both sustaining CapEx and investments in new distribution centers, including new sites in Auckland to support the growth of the contract logistics, pharmacy wholesale, and medical consumables distribution businesses.
Net working capital of AUD 384 million is down AUD 89 million from the prior corresponding period, reflecting the full release of working capital from the conclusion of the CW contract. This was partly offset by the investment required to support the strong underlying revenue growth of 9.5%. As previously announced, return on capital employed has been reset with the conclusion of the CW contract. On a like-for-like basis, return on capital employed grew slightly to 13.3%, and in the medium term, we expect return on capital employed to continue to improve and return towards 15%.
Net debt for the group was just over AUD 1 billion, which is materially consistent with the equivalent period last year. The net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 2.07, also largely unchanged from H1 last year. This leverage ratio remains conservative and within our target range, providing capacity for further acquisitions and growth investments. During the period, the majority of corporate debt facilities were refinanced, extending the weighted average maturity to 3.3 years and increasing available funds by approximately AUD 150 million. As John previously stated, cost reduction initiatives delivered savings of AUD 15.5 million, and the group remains on track to deliver AUD 25 million-AUD 50 million per annum of cost savings by FY26.
These savings were delivered across the entire cost base, including freight, cost of goods sold, labor, and administrative costs. This primarily benefited operating expenses in the period, although there was also some improvement to GOR . As previously communicated, in dollar terms, underlying operating expenses increased compared to the prior corresponding period. The primary drivers of this increase are underlying organic revenue growth, incorporating the expenses of acquired businesses, normal levels of inflation, and investments in marketing and IT, partly offset by cost reduction initiatives and productivity, which improved throughout H1.
On a like-for-like basis, excluding CW, underlying operating expenses as a percentage of revenue improved by 20 basis points. Underlying earnings per share were AUD 0.675, down AUD 0.12 when compared to the prior corresponding period, reflecting the conclusion of the CW contract, partly offset by the successful implementation of the group's near-term strategic priorities. Reflecting the board's confidence in the future growth prospects of the group, the EBOS board has declared an interim dividend of NZD 0.57 per share, consistent with H1 last year.
This represents an underlying payout ratio of 77.3% and will be imputed to 25% for New Zealand tax resident shareholders and fully franked for Australian tax resident shareholders. The group's dividend reinvestment plan, which has been strongly supported by shareholders previously, will be available for the FY25 interim dividend. Shareholders can elect to take shares in lieu of dividends at a discount of 2.5% to the volume-weighted average share price. I will now hand back to John to conclude today's presentation.
Thanks, Alistair. With respect to the group's long-term strategy, we will continue to aim to deliver long-term sustainable growth and shareholder returns through organic growth with a focus on growing our core businesses and striving for operational excellence, as well as growing and diversifying the group through M&A. Each of our core operating segments are pursuing clear initiatives to drive this growth, which are set out on this slide.
As stated at the beginning of the presentation, we are pleased with the group's first half performance, and we reiterate our FY25 guidance that we expect to generate underlying EBITDA between AUD 575-600 million. This full-year guidance represents approximately 5-10% underlying growth on the prior year, excluding the CWA contract. Therefore, the 7.1% growth recorded in the first half is supportive of this full-year guidance. And that concludes the formal part of today's presentation. However, on a personal note, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our investors for your support over the years. As many of you will have seen, it was separately announced this morning that I will retire as CEO effective 30 June and that the board has appointed Mr. Adam Hall as my successor.
Adam is an accomplished global executive, and I trust that the group will be in safe hands under his leadership well into the future. My time at EBOS has been an incredible journey, and I've had the privilege of working with many exceptional people to grow the group into what it is today. I want to extend my gratitude to our Chair, Liz Coutts, the board, the executive leadership team, and all our 5,200 employees across New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Their dedication and professionalism to serving our community is inspiring, and I'm really proud of what we have all achieved together. So with that, I'll hand back to the operator, Maggie, to facilitate any questions.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please have one question and one follow-up per person. If you have more questions, please re-queue. To withdraw your questions, please press star 11 again. Please stand by as I compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Saul Hadassin from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Good morning, John, and good morning, Alistair. Thank you for taking my question. John, just with the first half community pharmacy results in particular and the gross operating revenue margin, if we back out Chemist Warehouse from the previous period, it looks like the margin went down about 60 basis points to that 9.2%. And you called out shift in product and customer mix and new business wins. Can you talk to particularly that new business win? Is that coming at a lower margin versus that divisional margin? Just some comments on that would be great.
Yeah, no problem, Saul. I think if you look at the margins, etc., then first thing I'd point out is the EBITDA margin for the group is relatively stable with the prior year, right? You will see the impact on the GOR margin, etc. It's really due to the product mix, right? And this is in both the community pharmacy and also in the institutional healthcare business, right? So we have basically what's driving that is really strong sales in community pharmacy by high-value drugs and also GLP-1 medicines, which come at a lower margin than the overall margin in community pharmacy. That's the key driver. Thanks, John. And just to follow up, as we think about the second half this year and the commencement of that CSO with a bit of a top-up, you've called out sort of modest benefit.
Any quantification that we can look at in terms of the quantum of gross operating revenue or EBITDA that you think that CSO top-up will contribute for you guys into H25?
I think what we'd probably refer you to, Saul, which is probably not that helpful for you, but we're probably just referring you to the overall reiteration of our full-year guidance, right, between AUD 575 million and AUD 600 million, right, rather than specifically point out or try and quantify what that amount represents.
All right. No problem. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Stephen Ridgewell from Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and first of all, congratulations on a great tenure at EBOS. John, first as CFO and then the last seven years as CEO. So I'm sure the shareholders are very happy with it's been a great performance.
Thanks, David.
And then just in terms of following up on Saul's questioning, I guess looking at the guide, we're seeing an incremental positive outcome from the CWA. There's more cost out, presumably, coming in the second half compared to what was realized in the first half. And getting a full benefit from the market share wins and the core business, I guess should we not be expecting things to track a little bit better or at least higher within the range in the second half? And if not, I'm just wondering if there are parts of the business where perhaps growth is weakening a little bit to offset the drivers I mentioned. Sort of color would be quite helpful in terms of what you're seeing and expecting in the second half.
Yeah, no, I think Stephen, the way I'd answer that is yes, there were some tailwinds into the second half that we pointed out in the presentation. But I think at the overall macro level, we're comfortable with that EBITDA guidance, AUD 575 million-AUD 600 million, right? And that's where we're comfortable positioning it today.
No, fair enough. And then just with, obviously, the change at the top, there's been sort of focus areas for the group in terms of M&A by kind of industry segments and geographies. I'm just wondering, is there any thoughts around that changing, just given Adam's background, or is there any change to either the focus or also potentially the criteria which the company's kind of communicated to investors around kind of M&As? Is there any change in that strategy signaled by perhaps the change in leadership?
No, Stephen, I don't expect any change in strategy. I mean, we've been very consistent, of course, about our growth plans in healthcare and animal care, and I think the opportunities that the group has in front of it still within its various segments, whether that's med tech or animal care or Southeast Asia, etc., there's plenty of runway for growth there. I think what was important from the board's decision in appointing Adam is that he has a growth mindset, right, and for EBOS Group, growth is in our DNA, as you know, and it's important that we have a leader that contributes and continues on that journey and that we can capture all that growth and that value for our shareholders going forward, so I believe that was the biggest determinant in Adam's appointment, and he's also got really strong experience in the Southeast Asian markets, right? And that's where we see we've been quite public about that. That's where we see some really nice opportunities for the group going forward.
Appreciate the comments. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Adrian Allbon from Jarden.
Good morning, team. Maybe John, could you just provide a little bit more color or detail around, I guess, some of the weakness in the Australian med tech business? I think you called out the supply issues in spinal, but also the capital sales. Is that one of the issues that's sort of slightly behind plan as you sort of complete through the current year and obviously with reference to those previous questions around the guidance?
Yeah, I think that's fair enough. Adrian, as we know, in the hospital sector, there's been a reluctance from public-private hospitals to spend capital. That has acted as a bit of a headwind into the growth of that particular segment. And then there was one particular product that was basically out of stock for regulatory reasons, and that's now back in stock and back in market from January, right? So those were probably the two bigger factors in the med tech business that were impacting on the Australia-New Zealand business, not impacting on the med tech Southeast Asian business.
And are you able to kind of give us a little bit what sort of quantification is that? Are we talking AUD 50 million in revenues, AUD 100 million revenues?
No, we're not quantifying that, Adrian, for you, right? Sorry. We're sticking to our goals, Adrian. That's right. All right.
No, I understand. Just in terms of just, I noticed there's a bit more restructuring and site transition costs sneaking into some of the stuff you adjust. Can you just kind of outline what the AUD 10 million was regarding in the period?
Yeah, I may take that one and hi, Adrian. So yeah, you're right. There was AUD 15 million in total, 10 of which were in relation to site transition and restructuring costs. As you can imagine, there was a significant change required to the operations of the business on the exit of the CW contract to ensure that they are right-sized and we continue to deliver the productivity that we expect to deliver and the right cost to serve. That's really the primary driver of that. There is also some cost associated with further restructuring to deliver the AUD 15 million of cost reductions in the half. But I would say the largest part of that is really right-sizing the business to the new volumes.
Okay. And should we assume that that's kind of could that contain to the first half, or is there more to kind of absorb into the second half?
Yeah. I mean, productivity in particular has improved throughout half one. We would expect that the vast majority of these costs have now been incurred. There likely will be some into the second half, but it's materially done.
Okay. And then maybe we'll look at your list. Just in terms of I think you called out in terms of the acquisitions, like AUD 70 million in capital deployed. I'm presuming the Transmedic sort of circa AUD 20 million paid in sort of January. What would be the sort of overall level of sort of capital expenditure plus acquisitions that we should run with for the full year? Not in terms of what you might be buying.
No, no, that's okay. So I'll try and answer the question. So in terms of CapEx, we spent, I think, AUD 64 million roughly in half one, which was largely to support future growth and sites in particular. We would expect H2 to continue at a similar level. We're probably at a point where we're at peak CapEx, and we would expect that to reduce as we look forward into future years. But I would expect for half two, we're at a similar level. In terms of acquisitions, you're right. About half of the capital we deployed of the M&A AUD 70 million was in relation to the uplift in Transmedic from 90% to 100%. I won't comment or try and speculate on what the equivalent number might be for half two, but needless to say, we continue to explore inorganic opportunities that make sense for shareholders.
But just to be clear, the Transmedic was paid in January, right? And so the primary interest line also disappears for the second half.
That's absolutely right, Adrian.
Okay. Cool. Thank you. And just staying with the cash flows, in terms of the Chemist Warehouse working capital release, did that prove to be higher than what you'd expected? Because I think originally we all sort of thought around AUD 100 million, and then I think it was sort of reduced to sort of more like AUD 50 million or 60 million. And what did it actually end up being within the mix?
Yeah. Look, we are definitely pleased with the cash flow performance that we've been able to deliver and net working capital has notably improved by circa AUD 90 million compared to the previous period. And that reflects the cessation of the CW contract and also the further investment that was necessary to support the 9.5% underlying base business growth. So I guess what I'm saying is the result in half one reflects the full benefit of that exit, and we're pleased with the way that that's been done. It's been a significant focus along with right-sizing the cost base to equally right-size the net working capital position, and we're pleased with that result.
Okay. But obviously, the CW portion is greater than the net, right? Because you've been able to support growth in the base business.
That's correct. Yes. Yes. I mean, the sales on a statutory basis, the sales are down, so that's reflected in the net working capital.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Godfrey from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Good morning, John and Alistair. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on the tenure, John. First one from me was just around market share in community pharmacy, and I was clearly still generating some good gains there and new customer wins. I'm just sort of wondering if you give us any color around, I suppose, the exit rate or the cadence, that 100 million in the first half. Is that slowing, and has there been any change in trends as your former customer and competitor have completed their merger?
So maybe I can try and pick that one up. So just in terms of explaining the new customer wins, so we've delivered AUD 100 million of incremental sales in half one. These are from new customers that started trading this year, which would be the equivalent of a full year FY25 number of AUD 325 million, and then on an annualized basis, AUD 450 million. So certainly through the half, we've continued to win new customers, hence that uplift across the three metrics. And these wins have come from a mixture of Sigma and API, largely. Not sure if that answers your question, Tom.
Yeah, no, that's really helpful. Thanks, Alistair. Maybe just to follow up just on cost out, I mean, we've still got a range of 25 to 50 by FY26. I'm just sort of keen to understand what the remaining swing factors are across those callouts being freight, packaging, labor, cogs, admin.
Yeah. I mean, it's right to recognize that while the majority of the benefit was realized on operating expenses this half, that mix between operating expenses and GOR will vary depending on the balance of initiatives that are delivered. We continue to target AUD 25 million for the full year and are obviously pushing to get as close to the AUD 50 million in FY26. They'll come from a lot of places, Tom. So the scope of this is all addressable spend. So we have quite rigorously interrogated the entire cost base, whether it's cogs, whether it's freight, whether it's distribution centers, whether it's labor, whether it's the administrative costs at corporate levels and across the division. So it's a holistic review of costs and that's reflected in where the savings are being delivered.
Understood. Thanks, Alistair. Appreciate taking my questions.
No problem. Thanks, Tom.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Marcus Curley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I just wanted to I could just follow up on the new customer wins. Could you just clarify whether that includes TerryWhite expansion?
No, it doesn't.
Okay. Great. And then secondly, just on the community GOR margin in the first half, would you say that that forms the base to think about the business going forward? I hear you in terms of potential cost savings coming on top of that, but what we saw in the first half, is that a reasonable assumption at sort of the ex-Chemist Warehouse level for the business?
Yeah, we believe so, Marcus.
Okay. And then just finally, on contract logistics, obviously, you talked about the tail of COVID business in New Zealand coming out. Is that fully out, John, or is there still more to go?
There's still probably more to go in the second half, Marcus, and maybe a fraction more into FY26, but nothing significant in FY26, we don't believe.
Okay. So we should have probably assumed sort of a similar style of revenue headwind that we saw in the first half, repeated in the second half. Would that be the right style of assumption?
Yes. Correct.
Okay. Thank you.
Good. Thank you.
Our next question comes from David Low from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Just on the community pharmacy and the AUD 450 million of annualized revenues, what are you targeting now? I mean, my understanding was your expectation was AUD 300 million. It's now AUD 450 million. Is there still more potential?
I think overall, David, there is, but that will largely depend on the market. We've been a bit surprised on the upside. So there's been a bit of disruption, as you would appreciate, in the market, and if that continues, then there should be some upside to that number.
All right. Thank you for that. Just on the cost savings, excuse my ignorance, can I just get you to explain how we should think about that? So the AUD 15 million achieved, is that annualized? Is the 25-50 your exit run rate in 2026? Apologies, I'm sure you've covered this, but just for my sake, please.
No, that's okay. So the AUD 15 million was the half one benefit that we achieved from the cost savings. What we're looking to do is deliver an annualized cost reduction of AUD 25-AUD 50 million by FY 2026. So by the end of FY 2026, we would expect to have ideally an AUD 50 million reduction on our cost base ongoing.
AUD 15 million in the first half, presumably annualized is 30. Am I missing something? It's some of it. Some of it's, I mean, your math will sound. There's some puts and takes in there, but we're certainly pleased with the progress against our target, I think would be the message, I believe. As I said, it's been a significant focus for the team, and we're pleased with where we've landed for the first half and progress into future periods.
No, that's right. On the downside, the bottom end of that range is probably unlikely. Look, Mark, just a last quick question, I hope. The M&A or the acquisitions in the period, can I get you to talk a little bit about the expected contribution? Was there any in the half? Will there be anything noticeable or material in the second half, please?
David, it added about 1% to the EBITDA growth rate, the acquisitions in the first half.
Or group?
At the group level.
Yeah. Great. That's all. Thank you very much for that.
Okay. Good.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Lyanne Harrison from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, all. Can I talk about the TerryWhite pharmacy rollout? So 52 new stores for the last year. Obviously, that's quite a high cadence. What are your expectations for second half?
Lyanne , we have a target which we're on the record for. We have an overall target that we can grow TerryWhite to, say, 700 stores. I think typically in a period, we typically generate new stores around 30 annually. It's been a stronger last 12 months, obviously. But I think you can expect if we're adding another 15 stores in the second half, that's a reasonable expectation.
Okay. Thank you very much. And then onto acquisitions. So obviously, the acquisitions focused on in this half were Southeast Asia and med tech. I mean, in terms of your pipeline, is it safe to say that the focus in the near term is in that geographic area as well as in that segment?
I'll hand over to Martin Krauskopf for that one, Lyanne . Here you go.
Hi, Lyanne . Look, fair to say that the Southeast Asia region has been a focus of the group in the last six months, and we've had some success there. I think, as John mentioned earlier, it's a region that we will continue to focus on. We like the growth opportunities that are present up there. There is a level of fragmentation in that market, so it does lend itself to bolt-ons in the med tech division. More broadly, we can consider whether it makes sense for other divisions in the group to expand into Southeast Asia as well. There certainly continues to be a focus on other areas, as we've communicated before.
We still see opportunities in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and across our divisions. The main focus of deploying capital into certain segments has been within the healthcare division. We're looking at the medical consumables space. We do look at certain retail pharmacy management opportunities, med tech, as we've outlined. In animal care, we still continue to see opportunities in both brands and wholesale. Really, there's a wide variety of opportunities that we see in the pipeline across the group and across regions.
Okay. And just one last question. Can you comment on trading to date for this half?
Lyanne , we really just want to. We can't really comment on what we have on material that we've released. So we can really only comment on the material we've released. And I think, as I've tried to reemphasize during this morning's call, that we are reiterating the guidance for underlying EBITDA between AUD 575 million and AUD 600 million. So that's where we'd like to keep it.
Thank you very much. I'll leave it there.
Thank you.
Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Mathieu Chevrier from Citi. Your line is now open.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. And John, thanks for all your help over the years and congrats on your well-deserved retirement. Just wanted to ask about the TerryWhite 9.3% like-for-like sales growth. Can you help us understand what's driving that growth in terms of volume, pricing, mix?
It's largely being driven by dispensary sales, Mathieu, right? So that's the large driver of the growth. And it's typically, of course, that relates to ethical volumes and sales. And we're in a period where there's very strong PBS growth at the moment, which is, of course, assisting that growth. So of course, there's a like-for-like number that we've published as well as an overall number. So if you looked at the PBS data, it's like double-digit growth in terms of the PBS data. But in terms of the number of scripts that have been issued, they're sort of, I think, even down on the prior period. So a lot of it's being driven by these high-value medicines, Mathieu.
Okay. And so you think that TerryWhite's growing roughly in line with the market? What do you think is the market growth at the moment?
We think TerryWhite's growing above market. So if you said the market's growing about 11%, this is on dispensary. If you say the market's growing about 11%, right, and we're growing just under 12%. Part of those high-value medicines, of course, Mathieu, also there's an increasing uptick of GLP-1 medicines now coming through the system, right, and being dispensed.
Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. And then you spoke to some disruptions in the market. I mean, you all know about what's going on with Chemist Warehouse and Sigma. Is there anything else that you think is worth flagging that's happening in the pharmacy area?
Nothing else that we haven't highlighted today, Mathieu. I think we're very pleased with the performance of both our wholesale business and our TerryWhite Chemmart business. I think our TerryWhite Chemmart business really offers a point of differentiation for customers, and I think that's resonating well with the pharmacy community. And it's got a particular point of focus on this increased scope of practice that's gathering steam among the state governments, so TerryWhite Chemmart is really well positioned in that whole field, and the initiative we had with Care Clinics for consumers, that all lends itself very well to the growth that we're generating within the TWC network, so yeah, they're the key points.
Okay, and then if I can, just one last one on animal care. Could you remind us of what kind of exposure does that business have to poultry prices? And if you think that what's going on with avian flu could have an impact on the input costs?
In terms of pricing, largely the pricing's sort of locked in for 12 months, right, on avian-type products. So we don't expect any significant impact there as a result of the avian flu, but that can all depend on how it all plays out, of course. But at this point in time, we're not seeing any impact.
Got it. Thanks very much.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you for all the questions. This concludes the Q&A session. I will now pass back to John for closing remarks.
I'd just like to say thank you, everyone, for your support of the business and for your interest in the company. And we've talked to a few of you, no doubt, in one-on-one sessions. So thanks, everyone. And that concludes today's call. Goodbye.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.