Okay, shall we start? Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining our call for our report on the six months ending 30 June. We really appreciate the support and interest that's been shown in our activities. The proceedings will be, I'll hand over to Richard, who will run us through the presentation, and there'll be ample opportunity for questions for Richard, the Manager, or myself on behalf of the Board when that's completed. Richard, I'll hand over to you.
Thank you, Rob. Welcome, everyone. For those of you joining us for the first time, I'm Richard Milsom, and with me in the room, I've got Xavier Lynch. We're going to run through a quick presentation for the result for the six months ending 30th of June , 2025, and happy to take questions at the end. The key takeaways from the six months ending 30th June were that we acquired a high-yield and highly productive dairy farm, which increased annual total revenue by close to $300,000. We sold two pastoral properties at above the most recent valuation, which was a December 31, 2024, valuation. Our interest rate hedging increased to 81% from 65% at the same time last year. Importantly, our FO per share, or free cash flow per share, has grown nearly 40% versus the same time last year.
Gearing ratios have been lowered slightly from 30.5% to 29.8%, and there's been a dividend declared of $0.0216 per share, which is the equivalent of 80% of the half-year FO. Financial highlights and metrics. The key points here are that there's been CPI-linked rental increases of just under 14% on approximately 16% of NZL's portfolio, which took effect in June 2025. As you know, all of our properties have uncapped, higher practice CPI-linked rental growth. Total assets of the company are $445.2 million. Net asset value is $230.5 million. Net asset value per share is $150.89, and gearing ratios are 29.8%, as I've mentioned. In terms of an operating review, we've been through the fact that we bought a highly productive dairy farm and we sold two pastoral farms at above the most recent valuation.
We're keeping a timeline of properties sold and transactions since inception that revolve around the net asset value per share and farms versus their valuation. In terms of the outlook and the FY 2025 forecast, as most of you will be aware, our leases incorporate regular uncapped CPI growth, and accordingly, inflation will result in rental growth. Furthermore, because of the market being land ownership and not a participant in operations, we're insulated largely from inflation related to on-farm costs. We're forecasting full-year FO of between $7.5 million and $8 million in aggregate, and this excludes cash. This excludes further income from our companies with football arrangements in place, which are largely capitalized. This is FO per share of 5.17%- 5.52%.
Our dividend payout ratio, in keeping with NZL's policy, is 60%-- 90% FO, and you can see below the chart below shows that FO per share has grown at a compounding annual growth rate of 20.4% since FY 2022. In terms of NZL's cash yield growth, FO has increased on an absolute per share basis since listing and is forecast to continue to do so. We've said that we're forecasting aggregate FO of between $7.5 million and $8 million in FY 2025, which is a 9.8% increase in 2024, and we're targeting minimum FO growth of 5% per annum. I believe we can do slightly better than that. If we walk through our financial results for the half-year ended 30 June 2025, we've seen FFO grow at 25% per share and FO grow at 39% per share. We've seen a profit loss.
We've seen net profit after tax of $3.48 million and earnings per share of $2.42 million. The balance sheet has total assets of $445.2 million and net asset value or total equity of $230.5 million. That's $1.5891 per share. In terms of the debt summary, we've seen gearing come back ever so slightly from just over 30% to a touch under 30%. The weighted average interest cost is 5.6%. 81% is hedged. You can see that there's a debt facility expiry profile there, and as we spoke about in our last result, we've brought Bank of China into our banking syndicate. We've got three charts on total return, which we'll continue to update as the company goes along. Net asset value per share has grown 4.9% compounding annual growth rate since inception.
FO per share has grown at a compounding annual growth rate of 20.4% and dividends per share have grown at a rate of 20.8% per share, although in FY 2023 we suspended the dividend. In terms of our sustainability program, we released our annual climate change disclosures on the 29th of April. The report didn't really represent a significant step in deepening our understanding of how climate change may affect our business and supports the development of our alternative strategies to enhance the resilience of our portfolio. We've got a very deep model that overlays data-rich forecasting of which areas are likely to be the most affected and conceded to long-term decision-making properties with relative longevity to others. At the heart of this work is the New Zealand Earth System Model, which is a cutting-edge data-driven simulation platform, which is often referred to as the ultimate crystal ball.
It uses vast assets of complex algorithms, but it really is a world-leading tool in terms of insight and the most up-to-date modeling in terms of where climate change is going to affect the world, particularly New Zealand, and in particular rural properties. Our sustainability program, Enduring Land for Life, remains the same. Here's a reminder of the framework of the five pillars. One of the highlights is our native forest regeneration. We partner with our tenant New Zealand Forest Leasing and take a particularly active management initiative approach to encourage native regeneration, which includes fire management, lifestyle, intensive pests, pest plant control, and forest health monitoring to ensure that the pine tree is being used as a nurse crop and incubate a very lively and healthy native regeneration.
In terms of the outlook for dairy farmers in New Zealand, which make up a material part of our portfolio, overall we're seeing record lows since 2018 of debt levels in the sector. We're seeing record high cash profits and increasingly positive bottom lines, which bodes well for tenant sustainability, viability, and cash in the system. As you can see on the left-hand side, the dairy payouts are at record highs and the card price continues to hold steady. In terms of our dividend and share buyback program, we've resolved to pay an interim dividend of $0.0216 per share, which is 80% of our half-year FO. Our dividend policy remains at 60%- 90% of FO, and we maintain our dividend reinvestment plan. In terms of share buyback program, we continue to have a live and active share buyback program.
We haven't repurchased any shares in this half- year because that hasn't hit our target prices. This is a slide from Project Vision Apartments that demonstrates their outlook on growth, yield, and forecast growth across different property and vehicles, which has NZL on there. On that note, what I'd like to do is pause for a moment and invite people to ask any questions of Rob, myself, and Xavier.
Okay, thank you, Richard. We have some questions that have come in already. Shall we, I think, work through those first, just in order that they popped up on my screen. First from Shane, can we talk about the opportunities for NZL to continue to deploy capital? What do you look for in investment? I'll give Richard the comments specifically, but in general, the opportunity set that we have is really good. We are finding potential assets for acquisition across a wide range of primary sector land assets. We get some brought to us and some we find. We're not at the stage of being able to make any commitments or announcements about that, but it's an active process for our manager. What we look for in investment is quality assets with the potential to return through the leases, sustainable and attractive rental returns. We're still looking for increasing diversifications in the assets that we focus on. Richard, anything more specific you want to say about this?
I think you've covered it pretty well. We look to hire the assets, we look to buy the wealth, and we're looking for the best of the assets in a particular sector at a top line where there's an opportunity to buy the wealth and an asset that's going to be able to return above average, that we think is going to return above average cash flow and asset value growth over the long term.
The next question again comes from Shane, but follows on pretty logically from that. NZL's benefited from some solid structural rental increases in the past year. What does the structured rental growth look like for the next year? Richard, I'll get you to answer that.
We're expecting to see, we've got our forestry properties had annual rate increases. We've seen just above 2% CPI for this, for, you know, since last year on those forestry properties. Our horticultural properties are close to 3% and our dairy farms in Southland, which are due for their three-year, are just under 10%.
Thank you. Let's then move on to Shane's next question. Given the improvement in dairy and hort industry profitability, how does NZL's current rents compare to market rents? You're unlikely to get a Chairman to confess that our rents are wildly different, Shane, than the market, but you can probably comment more specifically on that, Richard.
They're at the upper end of market. We're not wildly outside. We're definitely not below, we're probably in the upper bracket of market.
Luke, thank you. Moving on next to a question from Nicholas Hill. Looking at the split of FO between the Land Trust and NZL, as well as the movement in Redeemable Partnership units on the P&L, it looks like the Land Trust has been buying more partnership units over half 1825. Is that correct? If it does, does your current F25 FO per share guidance reflect this, Richard, or maybe even Xavier can comment on that?
No, we haven't been buying any partnership units off of it.
No, I can't quite understand. Maybe that's something that we could have a look at, why the numbers are suggesting that. It's not something that had occurred to me, Richard, or Xavier, unless you can comment on why the numbers suggest we might have.
It's probably because there are additional costs at NZRL that don't exist at the land partnership, particularly to do with being listed. There's not necessarily a 75/25 split when you add the numbers up.
Yeah, possibly just have a look at that afterwards and go back to Nicholas in more detail, but that seems quite likely, doesn't it? Next question also from Nicholas. What are the assumptions underpinning your longer-term minimum in FY 2025 FO per share target of $9.4, i.e. any acquisitions, major releasing events, interest rate assumptions? How does your hedging look like beyond financial year 2026? We can probably give you a fairly general answer on that, Nicholas. I'll ask the guys to do so now, but it may be that that's a question that needs some follow-up answer. Richard, over to you.
It's a very easy answer. We forecast with granular detail to the end of FY 2025, and later this year we'll put out a granular forecast to the end of FY 2026. Beyond that, what we've done is accrued growth of 5%, which is our minimum target growth of FO. It's not necessarily a granular forecast with CPI and interest rate assumptions in it. It's to show what FO per share would look like at a minimum target as opposed to a granular forecast out to FY 2025 and 2030.
Okay, thanks. Next question also from Nicholas. What's the rationale for maintaining your dividend reinvestment plan? You don't seem to be in a position where debt is putting pressure on your balance sheet or earnings. Raising equity at current prices is somewhat expensive and does not appear to be needed. Nicholas, we did have quite some debate about the dividend reinvestment plan. We're concerned primarily to be consistent, to have consistent behavior from the company about what we offer to shareholders. We were forced to, on one occasion, not maintain the dividend and then obviously reinstated it when we were able to do so. We think that has caused some doubts and concerns amongst shareholders and potential investors in the business. Having instituted the DIP , we think it's important to maintain continuity on that because some shareholders do value it quite highly.
We are a business which is still intent on growing and we will be making further acquisitions as we move ahead and as we're able to do so. It's certainly true that raising equity at current prices is not cheap, but we have limited opportunities to do this. As I say, it's primarily regarded by us as a service to investors who do value that opportunity. Richard, you can add to that perhaps, but that's Nicholas' explanation for why we've maintained it at this point. It will, of course, be something that will be addressed during the capital review, which we are going to be commencing quite soon.
I think you've covered it, Rob. I don't have anything unusual to add to that.
Thank you. Moving then to one from [François.] Thank you, [François.] What is the current weighted average capitalization rate on your portfolio? Richard or Xavier, have you got that number in your head?
It's approximately 6%, but this is probably a number we might start publishing in our regular presentations, [François.] That's a good question, but it's approximately 6%.
Yeah, it does occur to me, Richard. It occurs to me that it's a logical question to ask, so it's one we might as well answer as a habit in our releases. It's a good point, isn't it?
Yep.
Yeah.
The escalation mechanism for the new farm acquired, is it again every three years? Yes, it's a dairy farm. The ones we sold were three-year escalations. The new one continues to be three-year escalations because of the time that it usually takes for dairy price changes to watch. There is a strong preference in dairy farms for it to be every three years versus horticulture and forestry annually. There is a cumulative CPI catch-up, so you get it all at year three just with the layout.
Thank you, Richard. The next question from A.J. ' Mack. In the interest of increasing the share price to close to net tangible assets, would NZL consider selling some of the existing properties above valuation? We do consider this. Obviously, you need to have offers. We are intent on growing our portfolio. While we would recycle assets, as Richard was about to say, we have recycled some assets by selling and acquiring assets with high yield. That is something that we address actively, but we haven't currently got any proposals that are necessarily to do that. We see that as part of normal asset management, and it should, when conducted well, assist the share price. It's not simply a mechanism of trying to move the share price closer to NTA. It's just an active management of a property portfolio is the way that we think about it. Richard, please add to that if you wish.
I don't have anything to add to that. If we get a price and someone's prepared to pay us above market price for something, we take it very seriously. We see that we have sold and we've demonstrated over time that we've got the ability to recycle that into attractive investments. That'll be a natural part of maintaining an optimal portfolio and that's over time.
Yeah. Next question is, can you talk more generally about the medium-term risk profiles for different rural asset classes you're invested in and ones you are considering? Richard, I'll hand that one to you because you're more actively engaged in the current assessment of these than I am.
Medium-term risk for dairy, while the class that is low, we've seen on-farm inflation pressure on costs come right back. I don't just think the growth of the costs come back. There's been deflation in on-farm costs, particularly in relation to feed and fertilizer. The milk prices are at record highs. We've just seen Fonterra come out with an increase in dairy price next year. Dairy in the medium term looks very healthy from an industry and tenant point of view at the moment. Same in horticulture. We're seeing the odd pocket of distress for particular brands, but that's been water management with oatless supply as opposed to an issue in the sector.
We're seeing very healthy growth of prices and reasonably insulated from any tariff discussions globally in horticulture, bearing in mind that we own land that's suitable for a wide variety of horticultural products in some of the best horticulture growing countries with water in New Zealand. Medium-term risk for that I see as low. In terms of forestry, again, medium-term risk for that I see as low. Log prices are pretty good. We're seeing increased interest in carbon. We're seeing the government start to tighten up on policy. We're seeing it getting harder to plant in certain places and new legislation. I see those as more favorable than negative tailwinds. In terms of things that we're looking at, there's medium-term fluctuation in viticulture with some over-supply of sauv, especially, which is causing a little bit of short-term pressure. We're seeing France ripping out 20% of grapes and not replanting them.
Structurally we'll see a bit of a correction worldwide on that. It continues to be a well sought-after blue chip global type asset with attractive lease rates. Viticulture I see as non-structural short-term pain, which provides quite a lot of opportunity to look at. Solar, in terms of rural land that sits underneath solar farms, that remains productive with additional high-value uses to them. That remains the appealing sector of the market. We're seeing opportunities in forestry, especially on the ground, with rules changing and uncertainty around planting for experienced foresters with a good priority network of origination that remains attractive. We see pockets in horticulture as well where pricing of highly productive land still has caught up with how positive the sector looks structurally. We see attractive sort of risk adjustment in terms of opportunities in that sector.
This probably ties into the next question, which I might carry on to from Toby. Should we expect the core dairy exposures to share the portfolio to continue to be diluted in the coming years? What's the target investment next? I would probably expect dairy exposures to share the portfolio to continue to be diluted simply because the price of dairy land has increased materially in the last couple of years with such an attractive outlook, confidence in the sector, and lowering debt levels giving New Zealand buyers balance sheet capacity to be out acquiring. When I talk about prices not catching up to industry outlook in dairy, we are seeing prices catch up to industry outlook. You're remembering 2021, we were buying dairy. We knew it was short-term pain, but the outlook looked good. We bought very well and seemed to recycle a couple of those assets recently.
I would just accept that the opportunity set in the medium term lies elsewhere. That doesn't mean that we wouldn't buy an adjacent farm or something really, you know, strategic or incredibly attractive. As is natural, when opportunities lie elsewhere, by a product of that, we'd probably expect to see dairy exposures reduce.
Yeah, I think that's very reasonable. I mean, from our point of view, we're very positive about dairy, but the opportunities to buy dairy, certainly as attractively as we have bought our existing dairy exposures, are pretty limited at the moment. Nothing we'd like better than to buy more dairy if it's available at the right kind of price. We are aiming to hold a diversified portfolio, and it's reasonable to expect that dairy would dilute a bit over the coming years. I agree with what Richard's saying. On the question, the next one, which is about how would NZL fund any future investments, obviously that's a critical issue in the capital review that we're looking at at the moment. We look at the full range of possibilities of funding. Right at the moment, we don't, on our current capital base, have a lot of firepower for future investments.
We have some, both equity and debt capability that we could access, but the capital review will be critical to making any future decisions about that. I don't think we can make any sort of further statements about that at the present time, but we will obviously be coming back to it. There's a next question about wine alcohol and lease rates. Again, Richard, you might want to comment on that. You're pretty engaged in this stuff in the viticulture, not in the wine and alcohol consumption, I assume.
The forecast, and this is something we've done quite a bit of work on, the forecast is for sort of increasing structural deficits in sauv and higher quality chardonnay supplies. Yes, alcohol consumption is coming down. Some wine is, but the sort of blue chip wine, if you like, is forecast to be an increase in deficit and supply. That's the sort of macro environment we like against some short-term pains.
Thank you. I think that completes the questions I have on my list, unless anyone has others, we'll close the discussion. If there is more detail on any of these questions that anyone would like, then please come back to the Manager and, if necessary, to me, and we'll provide you with a more detailed answer if we haven't clarified it sufficiently. Please feel free to do that. Richard, anything you'd like to cover in conclusion?
I'd just like to thank everyone for attending this morning and thank everyone for their ongoing support. Of course, we'll be reaching out at any time.
Okay, great. Thank you everyone for joining. We really do appreciate your contribution. Thank you.