[Foreign language] Tena koutou katoa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of our Full year Results for the 12 months ended 30 of June, 2024. Moving to the agenda on slide three. I will provide an overview of the results, and then Bevan McKenzie, our Group CFO, will talk through our financial performance and outlook. I'll then close with how we are planning and thinking on the year ahead, and we'll take questions after that. Before we get into the detail, let me explain how we have reported our results. Due to the Tradelink divestment being held for sale, we have reported our results on a continuing operations basis, and Tradelink has been treated as a discontinued operation. Consequently, the FY 2023 results have been represented on a like-for-like basis. Turning to slide four and a summary of the year.
We have been facing tough trading conditions for the year, particularly across the materials and distribution sectors, where market volumes declined materially. This resulted in a revenue decline in these divisions, offset by higher revenue in construction and residential and development. On a continuing basis, EBIT was NZD 509 million and was within the guidance range we provided in our May trading update. Disappointingly, we recorded a non-cash write-down of NZD 117 million on Higgins at year-end. As flagged previously, we recorded legacy construction provisions of NZD 180 million, while the Tradelink net loss, including impairment, was NZD 141 million, which is included in discontinued operations. This resulted in a net loss for the group of NZD 227 million in FY 2024.
Our strong cash flows were a particular highlight for the year, with trading cash excluding legacy and significant items of NZD 784 million, a material uplift from last year. Our leverage ratio was 1.99x , net debt NZD 1.8 billion, and liquidity remains strong at around NZD 1.1 billion. Looking ahead, we expect FY 2025 to remain challenging, with macroeconomic pressures to persist throughout the year. We are planning for FY 2025 market volumes to be around 10%-15% below FY 2024, and we remain vigilant to further market weakness. On slide five, I would now like to briefly reflect on the actions we have taken and the priorities going forward.
Our first priority was to have new leadership team members in place, and we are pleased to have announced yesterday's appointment of Andrew Reding as Managing Director and Group CEO, and the appointments of Will Wright as Group CFO and Haydn Wong as Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. All have strong industry experience and performance track records. Second, we worked hard on our operational performance with accelerated cost reduction, particularly overheads. Third, we focused on improving our balance sheet through strong cash generation. We adjusted our CapEx program, divested non-core businesses, and extended debt facilities and covenants. Last but not least, we have made good progress in closing out our legacy projects. Looking to the immediate future, we will continue to focus on ongoing cost reduction to adjust to a weaker operating environment, reducing debt and leverage through capital discipline and proceeds from non-core asset sales.
We will also explore capital options for the residential and development division. Supporting our people and deliver on our promises to customers, as well as completing our legacy projects and establish a sensible joint industry response for WA Plumbing. Turning on to slide six. Revenue, profit, and margins were under pressure for the group during the year as we dealt with the large declines in market volumes. Importantly, our materials and distribution businesses on both sides of the Tasman proved resilient against this backdrop. Revenue for these divisions were 8% lower than a year ago, which compares favorably to overall market volumes, which dropped materially further than FY 2023. Combined, these businesses produced lower profits and margins for this year. Meanwhile, for our residential and development division, the New Zealand house sales market was positive in the first half and then slowed materially through the balance of FY 2024.
This slowdown was driven by greater caution among prospective home buyers as the New Zealand economic outlook deteriorated. This led to fewer transactions across the overall market and price pressure in the second half of the year. In spite of this, we sold good volumes overall, with 886 units sold, but our residential EBIT was lower year- on- year, and there were also NZD 29 million lower land development earnings year- on- year. Pleasingly, the construction division reported solid EBIT for the year, with the usual second- half seasonal weighting. Group return on funds declined to 10%, with funds employed increasing from investments made. Moving to slide seven and on to cash and leverage. Group trading cash was NZD 341 million.
Excluding legacy and significant items, trading cash flows from continuing operations were very strong at NZD 784 million, well ahead of FY 2023. This was a particular highlight for the year. Furthermore, CapEx spend for the year was lower overall as we reduced our investment spend, and as I've mentioned, net debt increased to NZD 1.8 billion, and leverage ratio was 1.99x . On slide 8, net earnings before significant items were NZD 183 million. After including the legacy construction provisions, the Higgins write-down, and the discontinued Tradelink operations, the group net loss was NZD 227 million. Flowing from this, basic earnings per share were NZD -0.29.
Given the current market conditions, the continued legacy cash outflows, our lender agreements, and in line with the company's dividend policy, the board has made the decision to not declare and pay a final dividend. On slide nine, on our non-financial performance metrics. Firstly, we continue to drive a strong health and safety culture and risk controls. Our injury rates are at top- quartile industry levels, and 89% of our sites were injury-free. On sustainability, we continue to make good progress with 22% intensity and 19% absolute CO2 reduction compared to our 2018 level, on track for 30% lower absolute carbon emissions by 2030, and 87% of waste diverted from landfill, well exceeding our 2026 target ahead of time. Slide ten highlights our progress in two other key areas, our customers and our people.
On customer, we are very pleased to see continuous improvement of our service performance, with our Net Promoter Score increased to an average of 48. Our customer focus has been critically important in this tough market. We also saw our overall employee engagement improve to an employee Net Promoter Score of 35. Through the year, we have been engaging more with our frontline staff to drive ownership and achievement in business plans, as well as recognition. Slide 11 highlights our performance through the year across all our divisions. It is evident that our margins have been impacted by the macroeconomic backdrop, sharp competition, and the deleverage effect of lower volumes. While our residential exposed divisions have been affected by the market slowdown, the number of house sales in the residential and development division has been a particular highlight, as well as the strong cash flows across the materials businesses.
There are more details on the divisions in the appendix to this presentation, as well as in our annual report published today. Moving to page 12. The residential and development division has performed well through the cycle and over the years, generating strong EBIT margins and ROFEs above 15%. We think it's the right time to explore capital partnership options for residential and development, to invest in and drive the next phase of the business success. Consequently, we have engaged Jarden to explore these options with both local and international investors. On slide 13, we provide an update to WA Plumbing. We remain focused on reaching a sensible industry response with builders and the WA government to the WA plumbing matter. Mediated discussions have been constructive.
If agreed, this can deliver a coordinated, effective, and timely response for those impacted, and we will update the market of any such agreement, including the terms and financial implications. There is no change in our view on causation, and leak rates are below what we have seen previously. We also note the class action filed in the Federal Court of Australia, which Iplex intends to defend. I'll now hand over to Bevan, who will take you through the details of our financial results for the year.
Thanks, Nick. [Foreign language]Kia ora mai tatou, and good morning, everyone. On page 15, the income statement, Nick has covered off the key points, so just two to add here. Funding costs in FY 2024 have risen to NZD 142 million, which is in line with our prior guidance, and with the increase from the prior year, driven around 2/3s by higher borrowing levels and one-third by higher average interest rates. On tax expense, this was lower in the year due to the impact of the significant items charges, and the increase in the effective tax rate to 38% was due to a one-off non-cash tax expense, which is related to a change in treatment of depreciation on commercial buildings in New Zealand.
On page 16, we provide more detail on the drivers of the year-on-year EBIT performance, bridging from FY 2023- FY 2024 EBIT on a continuing operations basis. Starting from the left, the first four drivers in the chart relate to the materials and distribution divisions, with the most significant impact being the drop in market volumes. This resulted in an overall NZD 220 million adverse EBIT impact in FY 2024. For clarity, the market volume declines of 25% in New Zealand and 15% in Australia are measured against volumes in the first half of FY 2023. So this is against the same baseline that we used at the interim results. This highlights the progressive decline in market activity that has occurred right through FY 2024.
The NZD 20 million market share impact relates to the drop in share in the distribution division in the first half, but we saw this stabilize in the second half. This impact was then partly offset by share gains in our concrete and building products businesses. Despite competitive pressure on pricing and areas of variable cost pressure, particularly in energy, overall gains on price across the business more than offset inflation, with a net benefit of NZD 32 million. These benefits were mainly in the Australian businesses, with the New Zealand materials and distribution businesses broadly flat on price versus variable cost. We note that steel inventory valuations were a net NZD 16 million adverse impact, which reflects the movement in steel prices between the years, and in land development, lower earnings were a NZD 29 million impact.
Finally, on the right-hand side, we show the impact from the overheads position across the full group. Cost reduction initiatives, which as Nick has said, has been a key focus, provided a NZD 111 million benefit on a gross basis, which was driven by material headcount reductions, rationalization of facilities, and significant compression of discretionary spend. This more than offset inflationary overhead cost increases of NZD 91 million, and restructuring costs of NZD 16 million. In a market environment where activity is still declining, cost reductions remain an important ongoing area of focus across the group. Turning to cash flows on Slide eleven, slide 17, excuse me. The highlighted row in the table shows trading cash flows for the group. This is prior to legacy construction and significant items.
Pleasingly, these cash flows in FY 2024 were NZD 784 million, well ahead of the prior year, with working capital inflows more than offsetting the lower earnings. The positive working capital performance was across all divisions, which we'll cover on the next slide. In construction, while cash flows for the go-forward business were strong, legacy AP cash outflows were a material impact at NZD 376 million, which was almost wholly on NZICC and Puhoi to Warkworth. We note that this legacy cash outflow was below or favorable to the guidance that we provided at the interim results, and this is due to the early receipt of the contract works insurance settlement on the NZICC project. On slide 18, we provide some more detail on the improved working capital position.
In our materials and distribution divisions, we are actively managing inventories to the lower market environment, and this resulted in a $79 million cash inflow in the year. We also improved our DIO, which measures inventory efficiency, by around 1.5 days in FY 2024. In the receivable space, we had just $3 million of bad debt expense, and our DSO was only slightly up, which we see as a strong result given the deteriorating customer liquidity in the market. In the residential and development division, we've been actively managing inventories lower, given the tougher market for housing. In FY 2024, we brought approximately $156 million of land onto balance sheet. This was from prior land commitments we had made. However, this was more than offset by a reduction in work in progress through the high house sales.
We also note here that we have updated our valuation of the land portfolio held by the residential business, and at June 2024, this valuation was around NZD 265 million compared to the book value. This buffer is slightly lower than at December, as we have cycled out of land made through the significant house sales during the second half. Finally, here, construction also contributed to the working capital inflows as we see improved performance on cash management in the go-forward business. On page 19, the legacy construction cash outflows. As I've mentioned, the early receipt of the contract works insurance claims on NZICC in June 2024, means that we now expect a net NZD 100 million outflow on legacy projects in fiscal year 2025.
This is split between a material outflow in the first half, mainly relating to NZICC, and a net inflow in the second half, which is the assumed settlement of the Puhoi to Warkworth claims. For clarity, there is no change in overall legacy provisions or cash flows. There is just a timing slide between the two years. We remain on track to complete the legacy projects in FY 2025. While risks will remain until they are finalized, we are pleased that the construction works on NZICC are on track for completion by the end of this calendar year, and we are targeting handover to the client in early calendar 2025. On slide 20, net CapEx and investments in the year were NZD 416 million. The key point, as Nick has mentioned, is that we continue to compress our CapEx spend in the current environment.
Base CapEx in FY 2024 was NZD 218 million, which compares to guidance at our half-year results of 240 million. As also flagged, we have been smoothing our growth investment profile with FY 2024 CapEx of 136 million, coming in below prior guidance of 150 million. On slide 21, closing net debt for the group was NZD 1.77 billion. This is materially below the NZD 1.9 billion-NZD 2 billion range we provided in May. Around half of the improvement from that guidance is from the early receipt of the insurance on ICC, with the balance due to the improved working capital inflows and lower CapEx. As shown on slide 22, our leverage ratio for the group is at the top end of the target range, at around 2x .
On this slide, we also show our position against our key banking covenants. We announced in June that we had agreed amendments with our lenders, which enable us to rely on more favorable covenant terms for testing through the end of calendar 2025, if required. At June 2024, we have headroom to both our normal and our amended covenant levels, which are both shown on the chart. Slide 23 shows that the group's funding profile remains strong, with around NZD 2.8 billion of total credit facilities. During the year, we refinanced our syndicate bank facilities, increasing them by around NZD 100 million and extending their tenor such that our earliest maturity is now in FY 2027. This, combined with a strong cash performance in the second half, means our total liquidity is healthy at NZD 1.1 billion.
The average maturity on the group's debt at June 2024 was 3.0 years, with 44% of all borrowings on fixed interest rates at an average duration of 2.3 years. Inclusive of floating rate borrowings, the average interest rate on the debt based on period-end bonding borrowings is 6.2%. To close, on page 24, the tougher market conditions and additional legacy cash outflows have put pressure on the balance sheet, and the company is committed to reducing debt and leverage over time. Our FY 2025 CapEx is expected to be around NZD 325 million, which is below the already reduced guidance from the half year. Growth CapEx will be limited in FY 2025 to our critical in-flight projects, and we're also compressing our base CapEx envelope to around NZD 155 million.
This is materially below the run rate from prior years and around NZD 20 million below underlying depreciation. In residential and development, we expect further working capital reductions in fiscal 2025, and Tradelink divestment proceeds of NZD 170 million are expected in September. Construction legacy cash outflows in H1 mean that we do expect the group's leverage to be higher than the top end of the target range at half year . As we manage through a market environment where we expect further volume declines of 10%-15% in FY 2025 and as we complete the legacy projects, our focus will remain on delivering robust operational performance and cash flows to reduce our debt and leverage. I'll now hand back to Nick to conclude on the broader outlook.
Thanks, Bevan. Finally, looking forward, we expect the year ahead to remain challenging, as mentioned before, with market volumes in our materials and distribution businesses to be around 10%-15% below FY 2024. Consequently, we remain focused on, firstly, ongoing cost reduction and reducing debt by being disciplined on working capital and CapEx and completing the sale of Tradelink. Second, focus on what matters, our people and our customers. Third, finalize legacy projects and agree an industry solution with government and builders on WA Plumbing. Finally, position our businesses well for when our markets return to growth. With that, I'll now hand back to the operator to run through your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you'd like to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Simon Thackray from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning, gentlemen. Bevan, just a bit of clarification for me, if you wouldn't mind. Pardon me. Your comment on the effective tax rate at 38%, I think, if I understood it correctly, was that a denied depreciation charge on a commercial building? I didn't quite catch that. Is there a cash impact in FY 2025, or has that already flowed through in FY 2024?
Yeah, morning, Simon. So it's one-off, it's non-cash. There's about a NZD 34 million expense that we need to put through. That's as a result of the new New Zealand government changing the rules such that you can no longer apply depreciation to commercial buildings, but it's non-cash one-off in this year. Absent that, the underlying tax rate is around that 27%-28%, which is what we expect going forward.
Okay, that's super helpful. And then just looking at your commentary in terms of legacy cash flows, about 170, which I would think was-- is obviously offset by the Tradelink settlement, in the half. And you've got further working capital reductions, but you're still expecting gearing to be above the target range. Is that just the slowdown in the market that is accounting for that expectation on, on net debt being higher above the target range at the end of the first half?
Yeah. So the first half, you've got that seasonal build of inventories, both residential and development and the materials and distribution divisions. And then you'll see for resi, that working capital unwind in the second half, which will bring it back down at that sort of 50 million- 75 million level. So yes, the seasonal movement in working capital, and then as you rightly point to, it's the pressure on earnings from that market environment, which we're guiding to 10%- 15% down year- on- year.
Yeah, that's helpful. And then a final one, if I may. Just on your commentary, Nick and Bevan, about the Iplex interim fund will run out of funding in September. What is the intention around any further funding for that interim fund?
Thanks very much, Simon. Look, the mediation and the discussions are progressing really well. So no, we don't have any further plans for the fund here, because we think that that should be it by then.
Okay. So, is that, am I to read that, and I don't want to misread it, Nick? Is that a suggestion that we should be settled or come to some kind of resolution by September?
Yeah, we would be disappointed if that wouldn't be the case.
Okay, fantastic. And thanks to you both for your time out of the past, and good luck.
Appreciate it, Simon. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shreyas Vaidya of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, Nick. Morning, Bevan, and thanks for taking my question. So, two questions here. So I'll just start with the volume guidance, right? You say, you know, 10%-15% volume decline. I'm just curious if this reflects the very rapidly changing macro in New Zealand, and I'm saying, you know, just given the recent rate cut and expectations of more to come, and then I have a follow-up. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Look, obviously, we are very kind of positive about seeing an OCR interest rate decline ahead of, I think, most people's expectation. But in our experience, this will take time to flow through consenting, building, and sale of houses, apartments, or materials, and that's why we are taking a prudent, cautious approach here for next financial year 2025. We also see obviously positive signs long-term in the infrastructure space, and as you know, we have quite a nicely set up business in that space as well. But again, you know, it takes time from planning and actually getting the money on those projects, until actually you start building and seeing materials flow on those projects.
Thanks, Nick. And just as a follow-up, right, you know, as, as you run your numbers internally, and just, just curious if you are comfortable with your covenants, for, for even the revised covenants as we look ahead, say, to 2025. How, how do you think about that?
Yeah, thanks. Look, as you will have seen, we have good liquidity, covenant headroom at year-end financial year twenty-four. We also negotiated the covenant relief Bevan was talking about before with our lenders for the next eighteen months. We recognize the need to reduce further our level of debt and leverage in line with our target credit metrics, and Bevan talked about that. Again, especially at this point of the economic cycle, we are very focused at the moment on further cost reductions, tight management of working capital and investments, and also targeted divestments, as we have just announced with Tradelink, but also with Higgins and land sales before. As you will have seen also today, we announced that we are exploring capital options for our residential and development business.
So t here's a whole range of actions we are pursuing, to be in a good space, in a tougher market environment.
Nick, thanks for that. That actually brings to my next question, you know, your comments on, you know, exploring capital options for the residential development. Can you just lay out, you know, some of the options you're exploring, and how should we be thinking about that? Thank you.
Yeah, I appreciate the question on the residential, because, look, we. Maybe add a bit of color here. We really love that business. It has provided really strong results in terms of profits, but also returns. As we have said just before, we're also looking at further reducing our debt level and strengthening our balance sheet. Again, you've seen the OCR rates come down. This is good news for first home buyers, and also the government is looking at alternatives for affordable housing in New Zealand, because we have a significant housing deficit. So it's actually, we believe, a good time to go to the market, talk to potential investors, both locally and internationally, because that could further really allow this business to grow and perform into the future.
But we are not entering those discussions with any preconceived ideas about any fixed models or outcomes we have in mind.
Great. Thanks, Nick. Appreciate the call. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Scott, from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Morning, Nick and Bevan. Just a quick one to start with for me. You're guiding for 10%-15% reduction in volumes. Given the environment you're in, I'd imagine price is a headwind, or if anything, is it fair to say revenue is down more than that? Sorry, that's for the materials and distribution, I should say.
Good morning, Andrew. I think, you know, you're right that price is challenging in the current environment. That being said, it was, you know, a challenging environment in 2024, and you saw us broadly hold. So our assumption it would be that we're net neutral against variable cost. We're seeing inflation come off a bit, so we'd expect that more to be down around that 3% level, with price basically offsetting that. The thing we remain really attuned to is just ensuring we maintain our market share position through this point in the cycle. For instance, in distribution, you saw that we had to shape, particularly frame and truss pricing, to do that. So we'll be targeted with price to ensure that we maintain share positions.
Thanks, Bevan. That leads me to my next one. So the 2024 year saw materials and distribution revenues down 10%. I think EBIT was down to, like, 34%. That's a pretty stark reminder of the leverage that sits in these businesses. I know there are a couple of things, like the steel rebalance and some restructuring costs, but when you're guiding for volumes and therefore top line down another 10-15, is there any reason, anything you want to call out, that will mean we don't see a similar leverage level again in FY 2025?
Look, there is obviously a business-by-business case here to be made as well. As you said, you know, we had a destocking of resin, for instance, in Iplex, and we had some new businesses to kind of build up. We also did a couple of businesses which required a turnaround, like Humes and others. There's quite a couple of businesses which enter in a more stronger setting than they kind of exit 2024. I'm looking at businesses like Humes, Iplex, New Zealand, Higgins, you know, much improved order book there. So this is not just a straight extrapolation, I would say. There's much more work which has gone in there. I would also point out that we would expect that certain inflationary pressure on certain input materials, but also hopefully energy, is gonna adjust again.
So, there's a whole range of things, and it's no straight extrapolation, I'm afraid.
Okay, thanks, Nick. And then look, against this backdrop, and, well, I know this is really good cash performance in the period, particularly the second half, so well done. But you have said you'll be above your target range at the first half. Things are getting worse. Yeah, take your point, you will be within covenants, and you're comfortable on that, but history sort of shows an incoming CFO, CEO, there's a high likelihood of any company raising at some point. Has there been discussions about getting in there now? I mean, the market's only getting worse from here. Your earnings base is only getting worse. Has there been discussions about a capital raise and fixing the balance sheet now at management and board level?
Look, Andrew, we are really focused on the measures we have outlined before here. I mean, like, cost reduction, tight management of working capital and CapEx, targeted divestments. We just announced capital partnership, optional residential development. We'll have to see what we get as a response here from investors over the next couple of weeks and months, so we are really focused on that at the moment, and, of course, we'll closely monitor over the next months how the market and our results are going to pan out. That's really all I can say at this stage.
Thanks, Nick. Maybe a problem for your successor. Thank you both, Nick and Bevan, for your help over the years, and good luck with what comes next.
Appreciate it, Andrew. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brooke Campbell-Crawford, from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thanks, morning. Appreciate you taking my question. Just on the outlook, you're talking about 10%-15% volume decline for the full year. Do you think that'll be, like, a steeper decline year- over- year in the first half, and then get less severe in the second half? I guess, given what you're seeing at the moment in terms of order work, books, et cetera, if you could comment on those year-over-year trends in market volumes, and how it compares between the first and second half. Thanks.
Good morning, Brooke. That would be our expectation at this stage. We're obviously coming off a high level of activity in first half 2024. So yeah, we would expect the drop to be higher in the first half of 2025. I just know this is obviously a very volatile market environment, so yes, that's our expectation, but we're obviously watching it very closely. The key point for us is we're just continuing to see the declines, and, you know, you're seeing that in the residential and in New Zealand consent numbers and also the commencement numbers in Australia. So we remain very watchful for any additional movement.
That's great. Thanks. And appreciate your comments earlier that you usually build inventory in the residential business as well as your core units in the first half, but for residential, what's the magnitude of investments you're looking at for the first half there to build some stock? And any sort of commentary on the outlook for home sales for the full year? I might have missed that in the materials, but if you wouldn't mind commenting, that'd be great. Thanks.
Yeah, sure. So we exited the year with about 840 of funds. We won't see the level of working capital build there that we have historically, Brooke. So, you know, I'd expect it to be in the NZD 50 million sort of range before it unwinds in the second half. What happens on house sales from here, obviously, as Nick mentioned, we hope that that OCR cut puts a bit more confidence back into the market. You're obviously seeing the banks move their their lending rates, which is positive. What Steve and the team are doing, they're putting in place measures to help new buyers as well. We've just put in place a NZD 10,000, what we call a first home grant, because that was removed from the government, which essentially gets treated by the banks as a deposit.
Our sales at this point, they're always a bit softer through the winter months. We've been selling about 12-15 per week on average. We would hope that would move up as we enter into the summer period. Again, we just need that confidence to come back into the buyer market in NZ.
Thanks for the comments, and best of luck to you both on the chapters ahead. Thanks.
Thanks, Brook.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Stephen Hudson, from Macquarie Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, Nick and Bevan. Just a couple from me. I suppose just following on from the last question, we've seen consents in New Zealand sort of falling kind of 30% over June in real terms, and you're sort of guiding for 10%-15% declines. Would it be fair to say. Well, I'm just trying to square what you were seeing right at the moment, sort of in the final quarter of the financial year or into July. Are you sort of seeing volume declines in Australia and New Zealand consistent with your 10%-15% or something significantly worse?
Good morning, Steve. I'll start at the end. Yes, we're seeing declines, July, August, consistent with our guidance. To Nick's point before, it's a mixed bag. It's business by business. You're seeing the businesses which pour into the later trades do better than those pouring into the earlier trades, which is what you would expect, given this point in the in the cycle. Just on the declines, obviously, you know, the floor area consented is the best metric to look at, and there, I think that's down 23% year on year at the moment. The only thing I'd point out is you're still coming off a period in which you had consents which weren't getting activated.
We think we're moving to a point where actual consenting is more getting activated, and we've moved through that period of the gap between actual work and consents that are happening. So that would explain that delta that you're seeing between our 10-15 and the higher drop in the consent numbers.
Yeah, that makes sense. And just on cost out, you've talked about gross savings of NZD 111 for FY 2024. Is there any sort of flow through FY 2025, sort of annualized gross ups that we should be allowing for?
We obviously got that full base that's now flowed into there. I think the theme to take away, Steve, is that Nick and I, and I'm sure Andrew, as he come in, we're pushing for additional cost out to Andrew Scott's question earlier with that level of market decline, we're going to need additional cost out of the business in order to adapt to that again, next leg down in the market. We're not quantifying it at this stage, but I'm sure we'll give more color on that in ASM and half year.
Good. And residential sales, obviously the margin is, you know, moves around quite a bit, depending on which sales front you're, you know, selling from. Can you give us a bit of a feel, Bevan, for sort of volumes and margin versus what you've just reported coming into the next year?
As I mentioned to Brooke's question, Steve, we're seeing 12-15 house sales per week at the moment. It's a bit lumpier than normal, and again, that's not unusual at this time of year. On the revenue front, we have had to move price. You've seen prices coming down across the REINZ index at about 1% per month of past three or four months, and we've been consistent with that. Our expectation, I think most economists are pointing to that stabilizing and improving through the year. That's our pick at the moment, and obviously, if you believe the forwards on the OCR cuts, that should be materially positive to that. We just need to see it actually happen.
Okay, and then just one on the CEO and CFO announcement. Sorry, it's an awkward question to ask, I suppose, but if the acting chair is there, maybe one for her. I think the advice offered initially was that we would see the chair announcement, then the CEO announcement, then the CFO announcement. It almost looks to be the other way around. Can she comment on the sequencing there, and why that has changed from sort of earlier signaling?
Oh, look, I mean, it is a question to the chair, Steve. However, what I can say, like, look, it is really key that you get the right talent, the right experience, the right skill set when it's on the market, and that's why it was important to get, you know, legal covered, CFO covered, as quickly as we can, and when the candidates are available and can join us. I think, like, yeah, there's, there is kind of w e can't let perfection get in the way here, but as I said, the chair, CEO's succession is a question to the chair and the board.
Okay. No, that's, that's fair, Nick. Just echoing other comments, thanks to both of you for your time and thoughts over the years.
Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it.
Cheers, Steve.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Grant Swanepoel from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Nick and Bevan. First question, just on distribution division. I see 2H was down 82% on the PCP at just NZ$14 million. That was an eye-watering decline. Is this the competition you guys were talking about in FY 2021, that had picked up, that got hidden by the COVID effect, and now is showing up again, so is actually a structural change to this division that's a bit more in trouble than just a cyclical downturn?
No, it's the latter. I mean, like, the market came off very quickly, as Bevan described before, and as you know, the distribution business is very exposed to the residential build, and those kind of home builder market kind of dropped very, very quickly. Of course, there is also competitive positioning going on here. We kind of lost market share. We had to grab back in the second half. That came with certain pricing conditions, and we also had to reset part of the business, like, the frame and truss operation, which is now on a good track there.
I'd also like to point out that we have a new kind of leadership team in place there, led by James, who gets his feet on the ground very, very quickly here, takes some quite important measures with regards to cost, pricing, positioning of the offer, et cetera. So, there's a lot of good work on the way here to mitigate the market impact going forward.
Thanks. And then just exploring a little bit further, just in terms of the 111 million of cost out, can you talk about which divisions had a lot of the cost out over FY 2024, and which ones have opportunity in FY 2025 for further cost out?
The answer is, the cost out was across the full business in 2024, Grant, and that's, yeah, all divisions, plus we also took material additional cost out of corporate. As we've announced, previously, we've taken the decision to pause our Digital at Fletcher program. It was about a 10-15 million runway OpEx that we have now corporate cost line, there. And in FY 2025, really the same thematic is, is applying. We're obviously making sure that we, you know, we take the right approach to that, so that our businesses come out of this cycle in good shape, but the reality is, we're going to have to cut our cloth further to the environment. As I say, that'll be across all divisions.
Thanks. My final question is on that, the elephant in the room, the Iplex. If you guys do develop an industry solution or come to some solution there, does that negate the possibility of an industry recall, and what does it mean to the class action?
Yes. Look, I mean, that's a key element of the joint industry response is to kind of end up with a much better solution, and I think everybody's seeing that now that a recall would be very disruptive would not really kind of immediately support the people who need it most, which are the homeowners who have a leaking pipe right now. So I think everybody's landing there as we kind of pursue the discussions. Look, I mean, as you have seen, yes, we got the class action filed in the Federal Court of Australia, but this was a likelihood we knew was there, but it's not related to the industry response in that sense.
We'll, as we said, we will strongly defend our position there.
Thank you. The industry response in Western Australia, how does this affect any of those bursts that are sitting outside of Western Australia, or do they have access to that industry response as well?
Look, we always said it is a Western Australia topic, and we see that also in the latest numbers again and again, so it is focused on Western Australia.
Thanks for answering those questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Harry Saunders, from E&P. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, just given you're flagging this market volume decline of 10%-15%, could you give us what your market share expectations are in 2025, please?
Oh, look, I mean, we expect that to kind of have stable market positions there, and there's maybe one or two businesses also where we wanna have a bit of position back. Like we said, Distribution had a tough first half. We got it back in the second half, so you would expect that to flow through into FY 2025, and it's just a flow-through or base effect, whichever way you want to call it. But we think we have a pretty good order book. The businesses which needed attention got the attention in the second half. I mean, like, Distribution is one. Other ones, like Humes, we are quite happy how that's coming along, Higgins, but also, Iplex, New Zealand, all those businesses which had a tough time, maybe last year, are much better positioned.
Also, some new leadership, as you might have seen, so we are quite happy with how those have positioned. So you might see a little bit of improvement there, but overall, we see a stable situation in our market positioning.
Thank you. And just confirming earlier comments, you mentioned, I think, 3% pricing to offset inflation across these businesses. Is that right?
Yeah, talking to what we expect average inflation to be, and a view that we'll broadly hold price versus cost. Again, to your question on market share, making sure we're really thoughtful about if we need to get more aggressive in the competitive environment to hold, we might need to do that in some areas.
Thanks. And is it possible to give any more color on operating leverage in that volume environment, perhaps what you're sort of internally expecting, by division, please?
I think the best way to look at operating leverage. We've shown the figures in the past around the fixed cost base in the materials and distribution divisions, Harry. We've talked in the past to around 25%. That's ticked up a little bit, just given obviously you've got lower revenues and therefore lower variable costs, but it's about 1-2 points higher. So, Steve. To Andrew's point before, yes, you do have leverage in the business, and again, that's gonna make that cost cutting as we head into this environment, or continued cost reductions, important.
Great. Thank you. Also just wondering how comfortable you are about the senior interest test in first half 2025, please?
I think it goes back to Nick's points earlier, Harry. We've put in place those agreements to give ourselves additional headroom. We always thought that the market was going to be tough into 2025, which is one of the reasons we did that. Again, then it's the focus on cost, on working capital, on CapEx, and on those targeted divestments, and finally getting that burden of the legacy projects finished. We're very close. We've put Puhoi to bed operationally, just got to land the claim, and construction and ICC just got you know, two or three months to go. So once we do that cash burden lifts off the company.
Thanks. And just a final one from me. Could you give us an idea if the timing of the capital options for resi and development could be before the December covenant test or not?
Oh, look, I mean, that process will have its own dynamic. I wouldn't kind of give any guidance on how fast we can achieve that. It also depends on the option we finally want to pursue. I mean, rest assured, obviously we're gonna do as fast track as we can because I think that's the best thing also for all stakeholders involved, also our employees. But as we don't have any kind of fixed options in mind at the moment, rather wanna hear also the feedback from investors, both locally and internationally, I think it's too early to give any timelines here.
Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Keith Chau, from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Nick and Bevan. First question, Nick, maybe I'll start with you, just as a follow-on from Harry's question. You know, you said you're keen to work through as fast as possible, you know, the options for the resi and land business, but earlier in the call, you talked about how Fletchers has really loved that business. What I'm getting at, ultimately, is how investors can develop, I guess, a degree of comfort or get some assurances internally from Fletcher Building that the outcomes for shareholders will maximize value or at least add a little bit of value? You know, noting that the sale of Tradelink hasn't necessarily yielded an outcome that on a net basis even recovers the book value of those assets.
So I'm just keen to understand how willing or how far you wish to, you would want to push that divestment process, to try and solve a balance sheet issue.
Oh, look, we think it's as we said before. We love this business. It's a very different case to the others you mentioned. We think it's very likely we'll retain a material stake in the business, just to be clear here also. And look, I mean, this is an opportunity we're pursuing. It's not a must-do. So again, if we can't get a fair value for this business, it's not worth pursuing. But we believe there is kind of quite an appetite for those sorts of assets, just those sorts of investment in a New Zealand context particularly, and we have a really well-performing business here. So, we are quite confident here about finding a good outcome for shareholders, obviously.
Okay, thanks. So just to be clear, if the value isn't there, you would walk away from a process?
That's how we look at it, yeah.
Okay, thank you. And then, second question, again, some follow-ups from prior questions, but I apologize for harping on about this 10%-15% volume decline guidance for FY 2025. But Bevan, you mentioned things are tracking as expected in response to Steve's question, but also in response to Brooke's question, you said that the first half is likely to be worse than the second half. So when you say track in line with the expectations for the first half, or as you're seeing it through July and August, are you seeing volumes down 10%-15%, or are you seeing volumes down more than 10%-15%? Just to be clear. Thank you.
Yeah, the additional color I'd had here, add here is, you know, Australia in particular, we're seeing come off more, Keith, in both the back end of FY 2024 and early, early FY 2025. And I think, you know, looking at the BlueScope results as well, those numbers are pretty consistent, there. So yeah, but to your question, we're expecting sort of at the top end of that first half 2025 against first half 2024, with if we've picked it right, that should ease off in second half, because obviously going to be comping off a lower base. So yeah, we would expect to be at the top end of that, half on half declines in the first half of 2025.
Okay, thank you. That's clear. And then, again, just covering off on the NZICC timing. So, I think the guidance there is that construction is still gonna be completed at the end of CY 2024. Is there anything material, with the handover or any potential costs that could arise that we need to be thinking about, given the handover is gonna be somewhere in the, second half of fiscal 2025?
Oh, look, the major spend is really in finishing the construction by end of calendar year 2024. Those handovers, it's always you know a top-notch asset in the end we have built now and wanna do a good job handing it over to the client here. So that will have a bit its own dynamic, like also with the hotel. But no, we don't expect major costs there. The major costs are clearly in finishing the construction by end of the calendar year.
Okay, that's great. Thank you both.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Phil Campbell, from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, guys. Just a few questions from me. Especially on NZICC, I just noticed when we go back to the February, and update on it, we're looking at an NZD 80 million outflow in FY 2025, and obviously, today's announcement, we're looking effectively at a kind of a NZD 100 million dollars , - 170, the 70 million in. So just had a question around that. And I suppose the other question was, if we go back to the February announcement, you talked about the Horizon Hotel that was completed and was going to be handed over, but obviously there was a delay there. I think between February and July, it actually got handed over.
Just kind of curious as to, you know, could there be a chance we could see a similar thing happen around NZICC, or is some of those quality issues being kind of addressed on that project?
Look, I'll take the Horizon thing first, and then I hand over to Bevan for the outlook on the impacts. Look, on the Horizon Hotel, there's actually more than just the hotel which got commissioned at the time. There was also some really important infrastructure for the whole of NZICC, so that took a bit longer. But again, if you look at the spend, the major spend on construction was finished well before, and then we went into commissioning, which, as I said, had more than just the hotel in there and took longer. But no, we don't expect that to be the same for NZICC, because we learned a lot. We have a lot of people on the commissioning here.
But again, that's why we say second half of financial year 2025, but with a very good view of finishing construction in the first half of financial year 2025, where the major spend is. Bevan on the-
Yeah, on the cash flows, Phil, as I said before, the both provisions and cash flows haven't changed. We've just had a timing slide there. So yeah, it's all in line with where we were in half year. I have to come back on your detailed numbers. Key point, there has been no change, and we've just got obviously first half 2025, higher outflow, because the cost is there, so the construction works, contract works, insurance has already been received.
Question number two was just on the gearing and the balance sheet. Obviously, the gearing is expected to be north of that top end of the target range. Do you expect in the first half 2024 covenant test to have to use the covenant relief clause?
We're not going to get into those forecasts, Phil. Obviously, start to speak to guidance. Key point, we put those in place to give ourselves headroom against a weaker environment, and that's what we're seeing. So we're pleased we did that work. And as Nick said, you know, the target's absolutely to manage within them.
Great. Awesome, and just another question on working capital. I noticed with the Franklin Bathroomware liquidation that I think Iplex, Fletcher Steel and Construction are secured creditors there. So, I think it's NZD 25 million with Westpac being the other secured creditor. I'm assuming you would expect to get money back on that situation?
Yeah, I'm not going to discuss the security position of a particular client. I'd go back, Phil, to we had a total of NZD 3 million of bad debt expense for the full year, FY 2024. The credit teams do a fantastic job in this environment. Where we do have exposures, we obviously use PPSA to secure positions. But again, I won't speak to the specifics of Franklin.
Okay, no worries. And then just the last one for me, was obviously quite topical at the moment around the energy costs. I'd just be interested to see what to what extent, under your kind of main businesses, probably the concrete and maybe the wood businesses in terms of the extent of hedging and what kind of impact you would expect from the higher energy costs in FY 2025.
Yeah, look, I mean, it's quite an unusual situation to have such a dry winter, right? And that's why also this is the quarter, and Golden Bay is our major electricity consumer here by far. And that's why we are not substantially hedged for that quarter. But the Q2, Q3, Q4, we are very well covered with hedges, but also we have our first purchase power agreements kicking in then. So we are in this kind of 60%-75% hedging space for those quarters. So the impact is really felt at the moment, and across the business, we are feeling about a NZD 2.5-NZD 3 million per month extra cost for our New Zealand business, relative to financially at 2024.
And look, it's not the big help, but I think everybody realizes that affordable, sustainable, reliable energy is absolutely crucial for manufacturers in New Zealand. I think everybody is kind of making the point here that this needs to be sorted. Because even if you do hedging and so on, you need to hedge from an acceptable competitive level here, and that's not the case at the moment. But again, this is an impact for this quarter. But the Golden Bay is well hedged for the next quarters, and the other businesses are much smaller, so we are normally not entering into hedges there.
Great. Awesome. Thanks so much for that.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Rohan Koreman-Smit from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. A lot of questions that I had have already been covered off, but just on the operating leverage in your bridge where you calculate the NZD 220 million volume impact, you know, just doing some simple math, given with 25% fixed cost, it seems a little light. You know, what was the actual volumes? I know you've given 25% and 15% down, but you know, if you look year- on- year, rather than against just the first half, what was the actual volume impact on 2024?
Yeah, so if you take it year- on- year, you're between 15% and 20% blended down year- on- year, 2024 against 2023 across Australia and New Zealand.
Okay. It still looks a little light if I put that into my very simple spreadsheet here. Obviously price was relatively important this year. Can you just give us some color on how any recent price increases have stuck, if at all?
Yeah, I think the theme, as mentioned earlier, is that, you know, getting price in this market has been relatively challenging. And again, we've had to be very mindful of market share. We have had price increases coming through in certain businesses. We tend to do them. They were mainly earlier in the calendar year, so we're getting the flow-through or the run rate benefit of those now. Key point is expectation going forward, we think we're going to have to be tight, and, you know, flowing through more than your cost increases in this environment, we think is gonna be tough.
Thanks. And just on this, this cost reduction that you're talking to, I know it's been been talked about a decent amount. You know, you used to talk to having, you know, 10% of the variable costs that you could, could take out. I'm assuming all of that's been enacted to date.
Yeah, the teams have done a good job. We have, as we've discussed in the past, Rohan, yeah, things like, you know, contractor spend, you know, variable over time, temp labor, we've really hauled back on that. And what you see in our numbers is we've also obviously made material permanent headcount reductions. And the other key factor, as I've mentioned before, is that the company made the decision to pause the Digital at Fletcher investment just given the environment that we're in. That was another decent headcount reduction, albeit we were able to redeploy some of our good people into businesses where we'd because we'd taken them out of the businesses into that project. So yeah, there's a bunch of those things.
But yeah, on the variable, we're basically pretty light in terms of further opportunity now, so it's going to have to be more structural.
Perfect. And you've in the past given some indication of where that kind of corporate head office line will end up, as 67 this year. You know, how much of that has actually been taken out when you look at this headcount reduction that you've push through?
Yeah, we would expect to be certainly no higher than that. We'd be targeting more in the lower sixties, this year would be our position. We just have to look at the- what additional work is done through the year, Ron. But yeah, that, as I mentioned before, it wasn't just the divisions who looked at their overhead costs, particularly through the back half of fiscal 2024, it was also the corporate office.
Perfect. As with all the others, thanks for your time and color that you've provided over your time at Fletcher's. And all the best for the future, both of you.
Cheers, Ron.
Thanks, Ron.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Kang from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just a real quick one, and I know we're running out of time. Most of my questions were asked, but maybe if you can provide some color on your outstanding insurance claims, you know, progress, timing, and magnitude, that'd be great.
So on the International Convention Center, Daniel, we have fully settled our contract works insurance claims. So they are the claims against the remediation costs. They've all been settled, and as we mentioned, we did so in line with our provisions and was pleased to de-risk that aspect of the project. So that leaves us with what we'd call the third-party liability claims. Those are quite complex, and as we've said, take time to prosecute. We've got north of NZD 100 million of claims. We expect that'll take till next calendar year, 2025, before they're sorted. I'll just repeat per prior statements, none of that is included as revenue in the ICC provision. So to the extent we get benefit there, that would be upside against our current position.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is a follow-up from Brooke Campbell-Crawford from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking the quick follow-ups. Two quick ones. Just around the ERP pause, can you just talk about how much was spent so far on that? How far progressed it is, and estimated for the spend to restart that, if that is the decision at some point. And then the second is around the growth CapEx. I think previously you talked to 800 million plus over FY 2023 to 2026. Presume that's a bit stale now. Do you mind just providing an update on where that's at and the incremental growth CapEx in the plans at this point? Thanks.
I'll kick off with the ERP and then hand over for the CapEx to Bevan. Look, on the ERP, we basically have spent NZD 100 million so far, and we have four businesses on the platform running well. That 100 million is obviously a global template we want to then reactivate going into financial year 2027. We also have redeployed quite a bit as I mean, Bevan alluded to that before. We have redeployed some key talent we have put on that project on various other things. You have, for instance, seen a GM of Michiel who was actually project manager, just recently appointed, and we have some key people also now helping with the carve-out of Tradelink.
So we redeployed in a very agile and pragmatic manner here, some key talent back into the business. And that was the other idea. It was not just about reducing the cost and the CapEx for the next two years, but also have everybody fully focused on the business here and now, and that was also a key element of that decision. Okay?
On the CapEx, Brooke, your read is right. As we've mentioned in the material, we're only at this point continuing with the in-flight growth projects. The two biggest of those are the Laminex wood panels plant in Taupo and PlaceMakers Automated Frame and Truss. There are a couple of smaller ones, for instance, a new plant down here in Penrose. But key point is we have no additional plans at this point on that further growth CapEx. That would obviously need to be a decision down the track, as you know, balance sheet is restored and the market improves.
Makes sense. Thanks.
Thank you. Unfortunately, that does conclude our time for questions today. I'll now hand back to Mr. Traber for any closing remarks.
Thanks very much, and I also particular thanks everybody for the farewell wishes. Speaking for myself, my family and I have generally enjoyed the four years here in Aotearoa. It's a great place. Fletcher Building is a great business, and I'm wishing Andrew really all the best, and I'm fully committed here to make sure he has the best handover and start at Fletcher Building possible. Appreciate you joining our call today. Look forward to talking with many of you over the coming days. Thanks very much, and have a good day.