For the 2024 financial year. On the call today are Lewis Gradon, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lyndal York, Chief Financial Officer, Justin Callahan, VP Sales and Marketing, Andrew Somervell, our VP of Products and Technology, and Andy Niccol, our Chief Operating Officer. Lewis and Lyndal will first provide an overview of the results, and then we'll open up the call to questions. We'll be discussing our results for the year ending 31 March 2024. Earlier today we provided our 2024 annual report, including financial statements and commentary on our results to the NZX and ASX. These documents can be accessed on our website at fphcare.com/investor. With that and with thunder and lightning here at our campus, I'd now like to turn the call over to Lewis.
Yeah, look, thanks, Marcus. You can't plan these things, but we are sitting here in the middle of a major downpour in Auckland. I hope there's not too much background noise. We might sound a little funny to you; that's because we're shouting at the speaker to try and get over this background thunder, lightning, and deluge. My apologies. Now, today I'm going to be using the investor presentation pack that we released to the NZX and the ASX this morning. Let's start on page 3 with the business highlights. Our people continue to work with clinicians around the world to promote the adoption of our therapies, and that's supporting the treatment of approximately 20 million patients during this year. In the hospital business, we've reached some important product milestones.
We got regulatory clearance in the United States for a number of products, and that includes the F&P 950 system, our Optiflow Duet nasal cannula as well. We also introduced the Airvo 3 into the United States this year, and you can find more details on these and the timing on page 26 of the presentation pack. In home care, OSA masks had an outstanding year. Our Evora full face mask continued to perform well, and we've recently launched our new Solo mask into the United States. So now let's turn to page 4. Operating revenue for the full year was NZD 1.74 billion, up 10% on FY 2023, and that's 8% in constant currency. This was driven by solid demand across the hospital consumables product portfolio and strong growth in OSA masks.
Now, as we explained in our market announcement, reported net profit after tax was impacted by three factors that were unusual: the voluntary product recall, the valuation of the Karaka land, and the removal of depreciation deductibility for our New Zealand buildings. These are all reflected in this table on page 4, where we also look at the underlying results. Lyndal's going to touch on this shortly, but I would like to make one brief comment on the Karaka land. We're actually pretty pleased that we've got this now as we consider that owning this site mitigates the risk to our future growth in light of the current increase in uncertainty around potential development of sites like this in Auckland. Including these adjustments, reported net profit after tax for the year was NZD 132.6 million. That's down 56% on FY 2023 in constant currency.
Underlying net profit after tax, which excludes those items, was NZD 264.4 million. That's up 6% on FY 2023 or 5% in constant currency. We think it's a better representation of the ongoing operating characteristics of the business for the year. Now let's look at our product groups. We'll start on page 6. Hospital operating revenue was NZD 1.1 billion for the full year. That's up 6% or 5% in constant currency. New applications, consumables revenue, was up 15% on FY 2023 or 13% in constant currency. Growth in the second half has come from reduced cumulative respiratory illness hospitalizations in the northern hemisphere compared to FY 2023. I should really say it's come after reduced cumulative respiratory illness hospitalizations because we're thinking of seasonal respiratory illness as including COVID, flu, and RSV-related hospitalizations.
FY 2024 had a strong flu season compared to historical periods, but that's offset by a lower COVID hospitalization rate, and it results in a lower overall seasonal hospitalization compared to the second half of FY 2023. So I think going forward, we'll be talking about seasonal hospitalizations to incorporate all those moving parts. Now, against this backdrop, growth was broad-based across the portfolio.
That's including a non-invasive inhalation, Optiflow for respiratory and anesthesia patients, and invasive inhalation. And it all suggests that we are making headway with changing clinical practice. Hospital hardware of over NZD 100 million was pleasing given the significant volume of hardware sold in recent years and the fact that we lapped a period with COVID-driven surges in some countries, such as China, for example. So turning now to page 8. Home care operating revenue was NZD 652.3 million. That's up 18% on FY 2023 or 16% in constant currency.
Our Evora full face mask continues to be a strong performer, and we're continuing to add new high-performance masks to our portfolio, and that accommodates a wide range of patient needs and patient preferences. In April this year, we launched a new Solo mask into the United States. This mask offers automatic fitting and adjustment for patients who prefer something that just works without adjustments or any assistance. We also unveiled our smallest and lightest mask yet, the Nova Micro Nasal Pillows Mask. This has been released in New Zealand and Canada and launches into Australia, Europe, and the U.S. to follow later this year. So I'm going to pause there and hand over to our CFO, Lyndal York, for more details on financial performance, and then I'll speak to guidance after that.
Thanks, Lewis, and good morning, everyone. On page 9, as Lewis mentioned, we have three abnormal items impacting profit this year: the voluntary recall provision, the Karaka land revaluation, and the removal of depreciation deductibility for our New Zealand buildings. We believe a more meaningful representation of the performance of our business for the year and for the future is the underlying result excluding these three items. On page 10, our underlying gross margin was 61.1% for the year, up 172 basis points from last year or 216 basis points in constant currency. Reduced freight costs account for the large part of the improvement over last year. We have had the benefit of negotiated reduced freight rates for most of this year. We also had a much lower proportion of our shipments going air freight this year, reflecting our inventory levels globally.
The return to our usual practice of working on efficiency and margin improvements is making an impact, and along with our pricing have more than offset the inflationary cost increases now flowing into our gross margin. Including the product recall provision, reported gross margin was 59.9%, up on last year by 95 basis points in constant currency. We remain confident of being able to return to our target gross margin of 65%, as prior to COVID, we had delivered improvements in gross margin of 100-150 basis points a year on average. Moving on to page 11, total operating expenses grew 14% or 13% in constant currency. This is as we expected given the full-year impact of the people that we added throughout FY 2023. Underlying operating margin was 21.4%, an increase of 41 basis points or 36 basis points in constant currency, reflecting the improvement in gross margin.
R&D expenses grew 14% to NZD 198 million and were 11% of revenue for the year. We have estimated that about 60% of our R&D spend will be eligible for the 15% R&D tax credit this year. SG&A expenses were NZD 493 million, an increase of 14% or 13% in constant currency.
Moving to page 12, operating cash flow this year was NZD 430 million, up NZD 191 million from last year. This year, our taxes paid is lower than usual as we prepaid tax during the 2023 financial year, requiring less tax to be paid this year. The reduction of our inventory levels throughout FY 2024 also assisted operating cash flow this year. Capital expenditure, which includes purchases of intangible assets, was NZD 339 million for the year. The increase of NZD 128 million from last year is primarily due to the NZD 190 million paid this year for the Karaka land acquisition.
Capital expenditure for the next financial year is expected to be approximately NZD 150 million. Looking at the balance sheet, debtor days were largely in line with the prior year at 45 days. Our net debt at the 31st of March was NZD 32 million, and our gearing ratio was 1.8%. Interest-bearing debt was NZD 113 million, with NZD 77 million of that being current. Turning to page 13, we have declared a fully imputed final dividend of NZD 0.235 per share. This represents a 2% increase on the final dividend declared last year and continues our recent track record of increasing our dividends to shareholders. It will be paid on the 10th of July. This brings the full-year dividend to NZD 0.415 per share, up 2% on last year. Our dividend reinvestment plan remains available for eligible shareholders with a 3% discount to the market price.
Looking now at foreign currency on page 14, foreign currency movements positively impacted our profit after tax by NZD 3 million compared to last year. At 1st of May rates, we would have an overall positive impact on net profit after tax of approximately NZD 35 million in FY 2025 compared to FY 2024. Hedging would deliver a pre-tax gain of NZD 19 million in FY 2025. Now, with that, it's back over to you, Lewis.
Okay. Thanks, Lyndal. So let's turn to Outlook on page 15. At the 1st of May exchange rates, our guidance for the full 2025 financial year is for operating revenue to be in the range of approximately NZD 1.9 billion-NZD 2 billion, and net profit after tax to be in the range of approximately NZD 310 million-NZD 360 million. And this guidance assumes no significant respiratory disease events within the 2025 financial year, and it assumes further improvement in gross margin. So I think I'll end my results there so that we can open the line to questions.
Thanks, Lewis. Cynthia, if I could ask you to please open the lines up for questions. Before we begin, though, can I please ask everybody to limit your questions to two? This is to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to participate, and you can rejoin the queue for any additional questions.
Preferably one at a time.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cynthia.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you wish to register a question, please press star followed by one on your phone, and if you wish to cancel your registration, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star followed by two on your phone.
Thanks. The first question comes from the line of Lyanne Harrison at BofA. Please go ahead, Lyanne.
Yeah. Good morning, Lewis. Good morning, Lyndal. Can you hear me okay?
We can. Thanks, Lyanne.
We can. We hope you can hear us too.
I can hear you now that the rain stopped over there in New Zealand. We can certainly hear you much clearer. Sounded like you were on an airfield at the time. But let me start with guidance, and then my follow-up question will be on gross margin in relation to that guidance. But on guidance, it's quite a wide range on that NPAT guidance, NZD 310-NZD 360. I'm just trying to understand what do you think the key variables are which would result either falling in at the lower end of that range or at the top end of that range?
Well, first of all, the biggest driver would be the revenue range flowing through. And then for the other moving components, I'll hand over to Lyndal.
Yeah. So in terms of the revenue, it's pretty much as that drops down, gives that NPAT range. Gross margin, we're looking at around about 100 basis points in an underlying basis. That's sort of 200 if you include the recall provision in FY 2024, and OpEx around about a 10% growth. And that's all sort of give or take at the lower and the upper end of the range and then that revenue flowing down.
Okay. Thank you. Then if I look at the gross margin drivers, so you're saying you're looking at about 100 basis points improvement. Where's that going to come from? Obviously, you talked about this year there was improvement being that freight in terms of renegotiating that. That's largely a big cycle through because if I understand you, you negotiated that in 2023. So if we think about that GM improvement, can you give us some color on where do you think that might come from and if there could be further upside?
Yeah. Absolutely, Lyanne. You're spot on that freight's largely done now in FY 2024, so there's really no benefit further coming from freight into 2025. So that 100 basis point of improvement is just that continued improvements and efficiency through the organization more than offsetting the cost increases coming through.
Okay. Thank you very much. I'll go back in the queue.
Thanks, Lyanne. Next question comes from Dan Hurren at MST Marquee. Go ahead, Dan.
Good morning. Thanks very much. I guess my question just in regard to the home care. With the Evora slowing, just wondering the experience of that and the exit rate of Evora and whether we should be thinking about stacking two new mask launches on top of that, or is Evora slowing to sort of historical levels after the successful launch?
I probably wouldn't go Evora slowing. If you're looking at H2 versus H1, you've got in our second half, you've got, I would say, masks lapping a really big lapping the Evora introduction. So I suppose in that regard, if you want to go slowing, but in absolute numbers, I probably wouldn't go slowing. It's just that we're lapping a really successful introduction. I think that our thinking is that if we can maintain that second-half growth rate going through FY 2025, we'd be doing pretty well.
Okay. Thank you. And second question, just on the hospital consumables business. I mean, obviously, lots of movement. There's been so many sort of one-off headwinds and tailwinds over the last two years. Do you get a feel for where consumption is or where utilization of new apps is perhaps versus the pre-COVID period or before all the volatility?
Not really before all the volatility, but we think there's a good signal in there. We've kind of got this new language now where we need to talk about seasonal hospitalizations because we need to incorporate a seasonal COVID component and then your standard flu component. And from most of the data that's available, U.S. CDC and European country data that you can get, it's pretty clear that that seasonal variation in FY 2024 is lower than it was in 2025. The seasonality of, sorry, 2024 is lower than it was in 2023. So against a backdrop of a lower hospitalization rate in our second half, we think delivering growth of 9% in new apps points to change in clinical practice, and it points to progress.
Great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Dan. Next question comes from Gretel Janu at E&P.
Thanks. Good morning. So I just wanted to follow up on the new apps growth rate. So that moderation in second half to just 9%. I think some in the market might be a bit disappointed that that's below the 10% mark. So I guess just want a little bit more color in terms of your expectations going forward. Do you expect it to accelerate from here back into the double digits or remain kind of high single digits going forward? Thanks.
Yeah. We've got to make some assumptions about the seasonal hospitalization period that you're following. But we're thinking, all things being equal, we're thinking we should be at mid-teens for new apps.
That's for FY 2025, mid-teens?
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. For FY 2025. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. Okay. Excellent. No. Thanks. That's very clear. And then just in terms of hospital hardware, big step up in second half relative to your first half numbers. Is that Airvo 3 that's gaining more traction there or just further replacements or entering into new hospital contracts?
Look, I think it's just actually lower than normal fluctuation, actually. At the best of times out, hardware number is quite lumpy year on year. And then delving into individual components or shorter timeframes, it's just so lumpy. So we really don't read anything into that kind of movement at all.
Okay. Great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Gretel. Next questions come from the line of Adrian Allbon at Jarden.
Good morning, team. Just wondering if I could sort of stay in hospital consumables. Are you able to give us a reference for where anesthesia sort of ended for the second half? I think at the first half, you referenced just short of 10% of new app sales.
Yeah, Adrian. We're going to sit at, yeah, still just a bit less than 10%. From a small base, and it's very strong growth.
Right. Okay. And so on that basis, is it fair to sort of because your IV consumables sort of if I just think first half versus second half is sort of first half was strong at 8%, second half feels more like 4%. And does that mean the core sort of NIV high flow was kind of more like 8% in the second half, like 7%-8% off sort of 13 in the first half, just doing the math of anesthesia?
Yeah. I mean, sure. Do that math. But Adrian, the caution there is that's all about what you're lapping. And first half, we're lapping a destocking period. Second half, we're lapping seasonal hospitalizations. We're lapping a China COVID surge. So certainly, on this side of the table, there's not much we can figure out from the comparisons of 2024 against 2023 growth rates.
Right. Okay. Well, maybe if I ask slightly differently, I notice you sort of haven't necessarily in terms of sales force investment in 2024, it's sort of less by number versus 2023. Are you anticipating sort of lifting that into 2025 to sort of lift that growth rate that you sort of referred to in Gretel's question?
So if I take you back to how we think about it, typically, we will add salespeople roughly in line with revenue growth. And we're continuing to do that, and we're doing that now. The one thing that changed several years ago is we made a strategic decision that we would allocate a proportion of that sales rep growth to a specialized sales force just for anesthesia. But otherwise, I guess what I want to make clear is the philosophy and the thinking has remained exactly the same. We're adding salespeople at a rate roughly proportional to revenue growth. We had a few years there where that was a hard one to figure out. But we're back to that mentality. The only difference is allocating some of them specifically to anesthesia.
Okay. Maybe can I ask a second question? In terms of if we look over the COVID period from sort of, if you like, FY 2023 to FY 2024, there has been strong reinvestment in R&D with the additional gross margin dollars that you've kind of extracted and that we have seen that intensity as a proportion of sales step out. For the next five years, are the products that we know about and you sort of described on 2026, would they be what you expect to underpin the majority of the next five years of revenue growth? Or with the recent reinvestment or lifting of R&D spend, we would be expecting to see new ones at the end of that period?
I think the context there is you've got a little bit of a COVID gap, sure. But otherwise, we're on the same track we've always been on. And that is, in the longer term, there will be new therapies, and that's driven by products and technologies. And we will be continuously updating the technologies that we have today. So I don't see any change going forward. And over the next five years, again, I think it's just a part of the continuum. We'd expect to be seeing constant new product introductions every year, year after year, in different geographies as we roll them out across all parts of the business. So no different over the next five years to what you saw before COVID.
So just to clarify that, but I would have thought that your 950 and your Airvo 3 would have been more platform introductions as opposed to just, say, if you're on the mask side of the business, we would expect new ones every couple of years.
Well, there are different cycles across the product ranges. OSA masks are a quicker cycle time, typically, than the hospital products.
Yeah. That's right. I mean, an OSA mask development time might be 3-5 years, whereas a platform might be up to 10 years.
10.
Okay.
Thanks, Adrian, for your questions. Next questions come from Vanessa Thomson at Jefferies. Please go ahead, Vanessa.
Thanks very much. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask about operating margin. We've spoken about gross margin this morning and that the targeted 65% is still on track. And I wondered if the 30% target for operating margin in the next two to three years is also still on track. Thank you.
Operating margin target, we would imagine, would lag achieving our gross margin target by a year or two or so.
All right. Thank you. And then my second question, just wanted to ask for expectations of R&D, ratio of R&D to sales for FY 2025? Thanks. We should be continuing the 11% kind of range.
I didn't catch that. R&D.
Yes. How much more R&D?
Oh, R&D.
Yeah. Yeah. That intensity. Well, so we've given that revenue range, whereas we're probably locking in a less wider range for R&D and OpEx spend, so depending on where we land within the revenue. But we're looking at growing our OpEx, which is R&D and SG&A, by about 10% next year. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Vanessa. Next questions come from the line of Matthew Chevrier at Citi. Please go ahead, Matthew.
Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted your views on the potential impact that some capitated arrangements may have in the U.S. on your OSA mask business.
We're not sure what you're referring to there, Matthew. Can you help us out with the question?
Well, yeah. You had Humana, for example, who used a capitation model for its patient population that signed up to Medicare Advantage in some states. And they signed up some capitated arrangement with some DMEs to provide things like CPAP.
Yeah. Matthew, it's Justin here. I think probably what you're referring to there really affects the DME provider. It's how they get paid. It doesn't really change too much how often they choose to replace the mask for the patient. So we don't see any real effect directly on mask volumes per patient, as an example.
Thank you, Justin. Okay.
Thank you, Justin. And then my other one was just on the 820, the new device. I was just curious to understand how important is this predecessor, the 810, and what are your aspirations for the 820?
Well, the 820 is largely intended for use in our home care applications, so supporting home care patients, home care ventilated patients, and so on. Sometimes these long-term facilities might use 820s. So it's important to keep the technology moving along. It's a relatively small part of the overall business.
Got it. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Matthew. Next questions come from Stephen Ridgewell at Craigs.
Yeah. Good morning. Look, just two questions. First of all, on OSA masks, just interested in the early reception you've seen to the Solo since it's launched in the U.S. over the last couple of months, it sounds like, and also any color you can provide on how Solo performed in Australia over the second half. And then just to bring it all together, can you help us understand the expectations for OSA mask constant currency growth at the top and the low end of the guidance range, please?
Yeah. Hi, Stephen. Justin here. I think I'll perhaps take on the question about the mask performance. So obviously, it's early days in the US, but the feedback's been tremendous. I think the features that we're promoting in that product are well received by the customer and they're viewed by the customer. So it's a good product out the gates. And in Australia, they've continued to get good feedback since nearly a full year of the release. So we see it performing what we have with our other masks, and that's all built into our thinking moving forward.
Yeah. And then we're thinking of, in a midpoint of guidance, maintaining H2 in OSA mask growth, so around the 10% mark. I think total swing around that, you might be talking 1% or 2% top-end, lower-end, something like that.
Yep. That's helpful. Thanks. Thanks, team. And look, just a second one on the Airvo 3. I guess, can you comment on the uptake of that product since launch in the U.S. market? And then again, just to run it back to guidance, I mean, it's a hard one for you to forecast and for the analysts too. At the top end of the range, what are the assumptions for device sales and perhaps at the low end as well, please?
Okay. Sounds like two questions, Steve. Do you want to take the Airvo 3?
Yeah. Yeah, Steve. I'll perhaps take the first question. Yep. So Airvo 3, we've had that in the U.S. now for a couple of months. Again, the performance has been good. The feedback from the customer and from the market's been really, really solid. But like all capital equipment, we mentioned already, it's sort of up and down as far as the timing of how much that will drive the impact this year. But the feedback's good, and it's doing the job. And so we're really pleased with it. The teams are really pleased with it.
Yeah. And for the second part of your question, top-end, bottom-end range, I presume we're talking about hospital consumables. So it's.
I thought of hardware.
Sorry?
I think you're talking about hospital hardware.
Hospital hardware. Oh, for hospital hardware, well, I go back to the lumpy comment. I think in guidance, bottom-end may be flat, top-end plus 20% would be within our range.
That's helpful. Thanks, Lewis.
Thanks, Stephen. Next questions come from David Low at JP Morgan.
Thanks very much. Just on the gross margin expectations trajectory, could we just talk about when do you expect to get back to that 65% level? And Lyndal York, this wasn't quite clear what you said about freight. I mean, it seems to be done, but I thought you made the comment that air freight was still significant. Maybe I misunderstood.
I think I can help on that. I just want to give you the science. We can make an estimate of what we think gross margin's going to be over the next 12 months. There are thousands of moving parts in that, David. We do think of that as sort of plus or minus 50 basis points. Then with regard to the and so trying to forecast FY2026 and 2027, we can't do that with any precision whatsoever. What we're relying on is our track record prior to COVID of improving gross margin. And it's all these moving parts. We're back to that behavior. We're doing the same things we did then. And the track record was that over, I forget now, five, six, seven years or something like that, we were able to generate 100-150 basis points of gross margin improvement a year.
That's kind of where that guidance is coming from.
Then I'll cover up the freight. I guess, David, the freight part of it, what I was saying is that we've got a big benefit into gross margin in FY 2024. We're not expecting any big benefit all cost, really, in 2025, assuming that we've got reasonable amounts of inventory around the world and we've renegotiated our rates that'll apply through 2025. So we're not seeing a major impact of freight for next year.
Barring any unforeseen events, of course.
Yeah. No, I understood that. I just thought your comment about air freight was a bit unclear. But look, it's neither here nor there. Thanks.
Okay. Look, I will clarify that. So in FY 2024, we did send a lower portion of our volume air freight than we used to pre-COVID. So that could be a bit of a headwind. But as you will see in our pack, we've relocated our international export distribution. So that reduces some of that freight rate and will help counterbalance a potential increase in the percentage of air freight.
Great. That's much clearer. Thanks very much.
Thanks, David. Next questions come from Matt Montgomerie at Forsyth Barr.
Thanks, guys. Good morning. Just on anesthesia, I'd be keen for you to talk to, I guess, feedback from the larger developed markets as you've begun to increase the sales force there. And then also just in terms of Optiflow Switch regulatory approval status. I know a couple of years ago that the product was yet to be approved in most large developed markets. So I'd just be keen for an update there on where it's at and potential timing.
Justin, you want to take the first part?
Yep. Yep. Absolutely, Matt. So Justin here. Yeah. So regarding anesthesia, the performance or sales growth there, so we're sort of progressively putting teams into the markets as each market's sort of it's set right to go after that space. And so that's been progressing quite well. It's still a small part of the business, though. But what we're seeing in each of those markets is in line with what we would expect to see, so in line with our expectations. And so we're quite pleased by it. But it is market by market, and that's what we're now progressively doing. But as mentioned, it is still a good growth, but on a small base at the moment. But very pleasing, and we're excited about it.
Yeah. I mean, on the regulatory approval, Matt, we don't have clearance for Switch in the U.S. yet. And these are notoriously dangerous things to predict.
Maybe just to follow up there, what's the delays or headwinds to approvals?
It's just an unpredictable process. There's no fundamental issue, no fundamental questions. How long the regulator takes to respond can be completely dependent on the regulator's workload at the time. Mate, there's no fundamental issue, but it's just not a thing you can predict.
Yeah. No, that's fine and understandable. And Lyndal, just one on gross margin. So your comment for 100 basis point expansion for FY 2024 implies sort of only 50 bips on the second half. Could you just maybe talk to the drivers here in a bit more detail? It just feels slightly conservative when you put together your comment around 100-150 bips, I guess, pre-COVID in terms of that track record.
Sorry, Matt. I'm a bit confused. Are you talking 2024 or 2025?
Yeah. I'm talking your 2025 guidance. But if you did 61.5.
Sorry. Sorry.
You did 61.5 in the second half, and your guidance is essentially for 62 for the full year.
Yeah. So don't forget, we've had a lot of the improvement in 2024 was the freight, which we don't get again. We still have cost increases coming in in 2025, so we still have headwinds of that facing us. So we actually think that's a really good result for 2025 if we can get that 100 that we've sort of put into the guidance there, give and take. All of those improvements more than offsetting the cost increases that are still to come into 2025.
No freight benefit.
No freight benefit. Yeah.
Thanks for your questions, Matt. Next questions come from the line of Saul Hadassin at Barrenjoey. Please go ahead, Saul.
Yeah. Thanks. Good morning. Lyndal, just a clarification to start with. You mentioned an FX impact in 2025 figure of $35 million. Can I just clarify? If we look at the FX impact in 2024, are you saying that that $35 million is effectively sort of $4 million less than what the impact was in 2024? Is that what you were referencing with that $35 million?
The NZD 35 million is at the total NPAT line of all currency impacts 2025 over 2024. The reported result for 2025 at the 1st of May rates, if that applied for the full year, would have a benefit to NPAT in 2025 reported by NZD 35 million. The number I spoke to in 2024, so 2024 over 2023, was that NZD 2 or NZD 3 million. But that's a year-on-year comparison. It's a year-on-year comparison. So there's significant tailwinds of currency into 2025 if these rates hold.
Yeah. Understood. And then my second question was just on CapEx. So just noting the step down to NZD 150 million in FY 2025, which kind of gets you back to CapEx spend roughly in FY19. So is there a metric that we should think about in terms of your CapEx, let's say, over the next three years as a percentage of sales, or is it just going to remain lumpy over the next years based on developments that you've got going on?
Yeah. There will be some lumpiness there as we develop and do the fifth building here in New Zealand. So certainly, we're expecting a bit of spend there for 2025, but the bulk of that spend probably 2026, 2027.
Okay. That's all I had.
Thank you, Saul. Next questions come from Andrew Paine at CLSA.
Yeah. Hi. Morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the recall, you've noted that your stepped-up provision to NZD 20 million. Can I just get a bit of a view on what the reason was for that and how confident you are that we'll cover it and, yeah, also how you're progressing with the recall?
Yeah. Sure. These are units that are 7-12 years old. The challenging part and the moving number is how many of them do you think are still out there and in use? We had an original estimate of that. Essentially, what we've done here is we've revised it up based on the early responses from customers and what they have. The 20 million reflects what we've seen so far with over half the responses in. So I think that gives us confidence that we're probably getting a bit closer. In terms of progression, I think we're probably a bit over in terms of volume. I think we're a bit over in terms of responses, we're over halfway through it.
Okay. So there could be a bit of increase there. Is that right?
Well, based on the data we've got now, which is over half of the responses, over half the customers have responded. So we think that's a fairly reliable data point. And we're confident the NZD 20 million covers it. There is a theory out there that your early responders are people that have some, and your late responders are people that don't have any. So I'd put that out there as a potential theory.
Okay. That's great. And yes, sorry, just coming back to gross margin. Look, you're talking about your views on pre-COVID 150 basis points improvement each year, and everyone's focused on, obviously, getting back to that 65%. But from there, do you think you can keep growing above that 65%, or do you think it taps out there?
Well, the goal always was to get to the 65% gross margin and the 30% operating margin, keep working on efficiencies and continuous improvements, but reinvest that back into the business and try and lift growth. And we're back to having that as a goal.
We think that those targets are what's sustainable over the long term. So once we get to that point, we feel like that's sort of world-class margins. And if we can sustain that, we're quite happy. And that continual reinvestment to continue the strong growth of our business.
Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Great. Thanks.
Thanks, Andrew. Next questions come from Craig Wong-Pan at RBC.
Good morning. I just wanted to ask about the mask market in home care. Just trying to understand the competitive dynamics there. Could you make any comments about what you're seeing there with competition, if any particular competitors are doing anything different recently?
Well, the market's kind of these days dominated by ResMed. Our fundamental strategy for all competitors is to have a product offering where the customer can see a difference between the performance of what we have and what the competitor has. I don't think much has really changed in the last few years. We have the same strategy, and we're pursuing the same outcome, really. In terms of market dynamics, the only thing that's really happened there over the last 4 or 5 years is the competitive landscape. If anything, it's reduced.
Okay. And with kind of Philips, I guess just as a follow-up, with sort of Philips, have you seen much change from them?
Justin's shaking his head.
Oh, sorry.
That's all right. You can shake your head.
Sorry. Sorry. You're all right, Craig. Justin here. Yeah. Not really. I mean, we think as far as in the major markets globally, the landscape's kind of consistent. As Lewis pointed out, it's all based around having the right technology for the customer, for the patient. And we're still on that same trajectory we've always been on. But I don't say we've seen anything material different from our competitive landscape. Okay. And then just my second question. On CapEx guidance, so to Saul's question about the sort of, I guess, lumpiness of that coming through, that seemed to be sort of different to commentary that you'd provided previously. Just wanted to understand, has there been a delay or rephasing of those building projects?
No. Look, we continually assess, looking out over the next 5-10 years, what we think our requirements might need to be. And our priorities and our strategy is to always have buildings ahead of when we think that we're actually going to need them. And so when we put out some guidance a few years ago, we were in the eye of the COVID volatile storm. And so we were foot flat down going, "Just build, build, build. We're going to need more buildings, need more buildings." Now that that demand has sort of stabilized and we've normalised out of it, we've assessed and we don't need to go as hard or as fast with those buildings, but still making sure that we've got empty buildings. And we've got a new empty building in Mexico that we've still got room to grow into.
So long.
Somewhere. Yeah.
Yeah. I think to be fair, Craig, we did say at the time with the COVID strategy, "We're keeping the pedal to the middle. We're going to keep building capacity until things stabilize." That's what we said at the time. That's what we were thinking at the time, which kind of implies an overshoot.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Thanks, Craig. Next questions come from David Bailey at Macquarie.
Thank you. This is me. I just had a follow-up question to Saul, actually. Just want to make sure the numbers are right for currency. So am I right that 264 is the 2024 number? Midpoint of guidance is NZD 335 million NPAT. Are you saying NZD 35 million of that NZD 71 million delta is coming from currency?
Yes.
Okay. So we're looking at more like a 300 midpoint excluding currency, sort of 13.5% NPAT growth at the midpoint?
Yeah.
Yep. Yep. And just as a follow-up to Craig's question, if there's been no real material change in the market dynamics around, I would say, masks, does that imply that the new patient starts has stepped up materially or recovered post a COVID lull, or do you think there's incremental market share gains coming through there from Philips as well?
Do you want to talk to that, Justin, or?
Yeah. I think probably at this stage, David, I think the new patient starts volume, and we still model it out to be percent-wise fairly similar to previous. Obviously, that step up with the CPAP supply kind of sort of probably washed through the previous year. So we're growing above market growth rates at the moment, which implies market share gains. And so that's probably what we should be expecting to see with some of these new products that we bring to the market.
Just to follow up there, where do you think the new patient starts are growth rate?
Well, that's always a tricky one, isn't it? Typically, it's always been around that sort of high-mid.
Single-digit.
Single-digit teens.
Yeah. The reason we're being cagey, David, and Justin used a careful word, we model it. We don't actually have any hard data that would help you out with that question.
Yeah.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Thanks, David. Next questions come from Christian Bell at Jarden.
Yeah. Good morning. So just on your sort of OpEx comments, you're looking to pull back on growth from 14%-10% into 2025. Just wondering, where is the main pullback coming from? Is it in R&D or SG&A, or is it sort of even across the two of those?
Look, it's even-ish, and it's driven for us. OpEx growth is largely driven by the people we added the prior year. So FY 2024 was driven by adding, I think, 9% or 10% people the prior year, and we get them for a whole year. FY 2025 will be largely driven by adding about 5% to our total OpEx headcount, if you like, going into FY 2025. So that's the basis of the numbers. In terms of the ratio, I'd say it's pretty similar. And we do tend to think of it as OpEx, and the spread across R&D and sales and the rest of it for us is not really the driver.
Okay. Great. Thank you. And then just secondly, when you mentioned mid-teens growth for the new apps, are you able to sort of give a sense of the growth mix across NIV, NHF, and anesthesia? Is it mostly coming from NHF? And then is that sort of driven by more salespeople on the ground or more leverage on the current salesforce?
All of the above. Always happening. Adding salespeople always contributes. We're always looking to get leverage on what our people do per person. I think the short answer is all of the above.
Okay. So just to follow on from there, are you sort of expecting anesthesia at a sort of similar growth rate to what you have been seeing? And perhaps there is a bit of a slight pickup in NHF in 2025 compared to 2024?
Yep. I think that's on the money. Yep.
Cool. Thank you for clarifying. Thanks. Questions?
Thanks, Christian. That's the end of questioners in the queue. In bright sunshine here now in East Tamaki, it's changed in the course of 50 minutes. I'll turn over to Lewis for some concluding comments.
Okay. Well, look, thanks, Marcus. And hey, thanks to everyone on the call for your questions. We do appreciate it. Now, looking ahead, we've got all the right foundations in place for future success. We've got a fabulous portfolio of products. We've got strong relationships with customers and clinical partners. And we've certainly invested in the infrastructure to meet our future needs. I'd like to acknowledge the people of Fisher & Paykel for your efforts in delivering the innovative products to market. Thank you. And my thanks also go to our customers, suppliers, clinical partners, and, of course, our shareholders for your continued support. So thank you very much, everybody. And please enjoy the rest of your day.