Good morning, everyone, welcome to New Zealand Media and Entertainment's 2022 Annual Results Webcast. My name is Kelly Gunn, GM communications at NZME. Presenting on the call today will be NZME's Chief Executive Officer, Michael Boggs, and NZME's Chief Financial Officer, David Mackrell. All attendees will be in listen-only mode for the duration of the presentation, after which we will open the webcast to shareholders and analysts for questions. At this time, if you wish to ask a question, please hover your mouse over the bottom of your screen and click Raise Hand. You will be prompted to unmute your microphone on Zoom and will be able to speak. Please note that only participants on the webcast will have the facility to ask a question. If you have any technical questions, please use the chat function also at the bottom of your screen.
I will now hand you over to our CEO, Michael Boggs.
Good morning. Thanks for joining David and I as we take you through NZME's 2022 annual results. If you're on the webcast, you will be able to follow us as we take you through the presentation pack. I'll first take you through a summary of our results. I'll have an overview of our advertising revenue and an overview of the progress against these across each of our platforms in 2022. We do continue to see strong digital revenue growth across each of our business units. We'll tell you more about that today. David will talk you through the financial results. Following that, I'll return to cover the performance of each of our divisions, how we are seeing the market, and comment on the current outlook for 2023. Dave and I'll be very happy to take any questions you might have.
I'm once again pleased to be able to report another year of operating earnings growth. This is being delivered through revenue growth across each of our key strategic pillars. On Page three, you'll see our 2022 results summary, which highlights operating revenue growth of 7% on last year. Operating EBITDA was NZD 64.7 million. This is a 4% improvement on last year after excluding GrabOne, which was sold in October 2021. Net profit after tax was NZD 22.7 million, which was also ahead of last year, excluding the gain on sale of GrabOne of NZD 15.4 million that boosted last year's net profit after tax. Pleasingly, operating NPAT was 10% higher than last year at NZD 23.3 million. During 2022, we were pleased to distribute NZD 43 million to shareholders.
That's a reflection of the strength of NZME's balance sheet. These distributions were made through a capital return program of NZD 27.3 million via the buyback of shares and a special dividend and the payment of normal dividends of NZD 15.7 million. Given these distributions, net debt increased by NZD 31 million and was NZD 17.5 million at the end of the year. You'll see operating earnings per share was NZD 0.121 per share. This was 13% higher than last year on the basis of the improved earnings and the reduced average number of shares during the year due to the share buyback. Based on the business outlook, capital requirements, and our continued strong cash flows, the NZME board has declared a fully imputed final dividend of NZD 0.06 per share.
This brings the total normal dividends declared for the year to NZD 0.09 per share. We've made significant progress across each of the three strategic pillars of audio, publishing, and OneRoof during the year. Some of the highlights include, firstly, digital revenue continuing to grow at a faster rate than traditional revenue, continuing our digital transformation. Our radio market share reached 41.4%, continuing its growth since 2016. Publishing subscriptions increased to 209,000. That includes 113,000 paid digital subscribers. Finally, despite a cooling housing market, OneRoof digital revenue grew by 30% compared to last year. This result illustrates the significant progress and improvement of our business during what continues to be a challenging operating environment. Let's now turn to Page four.
The chart on the left shows the quarterly business confidence across the last four years, as measured by the ANZ Business Confidence Index. While there was some encouraging recovery through 2021, in 2022, business confidence weakened to record lows in the last quarter. While there has been some improvement in January 2023, inflationary pressures, in particular, remain intense. The graph on the right shows the quarterly advertising revenue over the last four years. Also identified are the quarters that have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Our objective has been to return advertising revenues to pre-COVID 2019 levels. These are the dark orange bars on the chart. This continued to progress well in 2022. We'll talk more about this later in today's presentation. Overall, you'll see advertising revenue in 2022 was 4.3% higher than 2021.
Quarters two and three both showed good growth, with the fourth quarter finishing lower than 2021. Total advertising revenue returned to pre-pandemic levels, finishing 0.3% ahead of 2019. I'd now like to cover our three strategic priorities and our performance in the context of the overall market performance. On Slide seven, you'll see that we remain focused on our three strategic priorities that were set in 2020. To recap, our strategic priorities are firstly, to be New Zealand's leading audio company. Secondly, for The New Zealand Herald to become New Zealand's Herald. Finally, for OneRoof to become your complete property destination. As you'll see, we have key pillars of delivery under each priority. I'll talk to progress on these later in today's presentation. We continue to grow compelling platforms for audiences and advertisers with an integrated multi-channel approach for our customers.
You can see these on Slide eight. We connect advertisers with our audio, publishing, and OneRoof audiences. These have increased to have a total reach of over 3.6 million New Zealanders. Our audio brands reach 2 million people every week and includes New Zealand's number one radio station, Newstalk ZB, by both its broadcast and digital audio formats. We also have New Zealand's number one podcast network, iHeartRadio, which is reaching 800,000 listeners. This remains a huge growth opportunity for us. Our publishing platforms reach an audience of 2.7 million. This includes the 50% of New Zealanders who engage with nzherald.co.nz per month, together with those who read New Zealand's number one daily newspaper and a subscriber base of more than 209,000 people.
OneRoof products reach over 820,000 people through both our OneRoof digital platform and our various dedicated property newspaper publications. Page nine highlights the diverse revenue streams that we have across multiple platforms with the split of revenue for each platform clearly displayed. We hold strong positions in each respective market. We are pleased to improve both audience and revenue market share for each division in 2022, which is a key strategic focus for our business. You'll note that revenue market shares have increased to 41.4% in radio and 47.5% in publishing. Print real estate market share increased to 51.7% while leveraging the overall OneRoof proposition.
Not only have we seen revenue market share growth in the last year, but we have seen growth across each platform over the last four years, as shown in the charts on Page 10. It has also been pleasing to see market revenue growth in radio and digital advertising as markets continue to recover post-COVID. You'll see that publishing has been quite stable over recent years. The digital display market data for the last quarter of 2022 has not yet been published, so the chart includes a bar representing quarter one to quarter three of each of the years. Our digital transformation is delivering revenue growth across each of our digital platforms. You can see that on Page 11. The chart on the left shows the momentum that is building with digital radio and the success of our iHeart product, which is 54% higher than last year.
Within our publishing division, digital revenue now makes up 36.5% of the total publishing, advertising, and reader revenue. Despite a weaker property market in the second half, which resulted in a lower level of new residential property listings for sale, the OneRoof property platform grew digital revenues by 30% in the year. Let me now hand over to David Mackrell, NZME CFO, to take you through the financial results.
Thanks, Michael. Thank you to all those that have joined us on the call today. Page 13 shows the operating results for the year with operating NPAT of NZD 23.3 million, 10% higher than 2021, as a result of improved operating earnings. The improved operating earnings was driven by a 7% increase in operating revenue and other income. Reader revenue was 2% higher, driven by digital subscription growth, and advertising revenue was up 4% on the prior year, with radio and digital advertising the main components of the increase. Other revenue growth reflects the payments from Google and Meta, as well as grants to fund investment in public interest journalism and cadet development. These grants partially offset increased people costs. Operating expenses increased by 7% compared to 2021. I'll now cover these on the next slide.
You'll see on Page 14, we highlight the key expense categories with increased costs reflecting an investment in journalism and growth initiatives. Half of the people and contributors cost increase reflects the addition of BusinessDesk, the additional resources which are offset by grant income and the one-off NZD 1,000 bonus paid in 2022 to each eligible employee. The remaining increase relates to additional resources to deliver growth and rate increases. Printing distribution costs were similar year-on-year with increased paper and distribution costs offset by lower volumes. Content costs were higher due to increased activity and reselling of digital services and increased license costs. Total other expenses grew 14%, reflecting the impact of the BusinessDesk and Radio Wānaka acquisitions, higher radio broadcast costs, and the return to more normal levels of activity.
NZME continues to focus on ensuring it has an efficient cost base. Page 15 shows a strong balance sheet with net debt remaining below the target leverage range. Net working capital, excluding cash, was NZD 11.6 million higher in 2021 as a result of higher receivables, which are expected to be a temporary change as they are due to one-off timing impacts. Inventories increased due to larger volumes of paper stock being held and the higher price of them. Reduced tax payable due to the earlier payment of tax in 2022 as a result of supplementary dividends paid. Net debt increased by NZD 31 million to NZD 17.5 million as at 31 December 2022, primarily due to the capital return program completed during the year. Turning now to the capital management slide on Page 16.
As Michael mentioned, distributions to shareholders totaled NZD 43 million during the year, which comprised of the final dividend for 2021 of NZD 0.05 paid in March, and the interim dividend of NZD 0.03 per share paid in September, together with a special dividend of NZD 0.05 per share paid in July, and the share buyback program of NZD 17.6 million, which concluded in December. The board has also declared a fully imputed dividend of NZD 0.06 per share, which is payable on the 22nd of March. The net debt position of NZD 17.5 million results in a leverage ratio of 0.4 x EBITDA, which is below the lower end of the target range.
The graph on the left of the page shows how the company repaid NZD 100 million of debt over three years. The execution of the recent capital program has lifted debt levels towards the target range. Moving now to the cash flow summary on Page 17. Cash flows continue to support investment and distribution to shareholders. The cash flow from operations for the year was NZD 37.5 million, which is lower than 2021 due to the decrease in working capital that I talked about earlier. Tax paid in the year was higher due to the stronger 2021 taxable earnings, resulting in a larger final tax payment in January 2022. Additional supplementary dividends, which are treated as a tax credit, also lifted the tax paid for the year. CapEx was lower in 2021 due to reductions during COVID.
I'll now hand back to Michael to talk about divisional performance.
Thanks for that, David. I'll now have the opportunity to take you through the performance of each division for the year, together with an update on their strategic initiatives. Let's turn first to audio. Page 19 shows the key audience metrics across listeners, audience, market share, and digital listening. Weekly radio listeners have remained around NZD 2 million, which is shown on the left-hand chart. This shows the continued strength of radio across our brands. NZME's audience market share is shown in the center chart. The darker section of each bar reflects the music station's contribution to audience, and the lighter section, the share made up by the talk audience. With Newstalk ZB being New Zealand's number one radio station, its strength was highlighted with significant growth during key COVID and election periods.
This has been key to maintaining overall audience share, while changes have been made to music stations to position them for growth. The final chart on the right shows the average monthly listening hours on NZME's digital audio platform, iHeartRadio. It's increased significantly to around 7 million hours. The financial performance of the audio division is shown on Page 20. We continue to see digital advertising as a rapidly growing component of the audio business. Digital revenue for the audio division was up 54%, driven by NZME's digital audio platform, iHeartRadio. Overall, audio revenue was 7% higher than last year as revenue continued to recover following prior year impacts of COVID, and we continued to grow overall revenue market share. The people and contributor costs were higher, driven by a one-off bonus in 2022, investments in digital audio, and rising labor costs.
Other costs increased due to the costs associated with additional frequencies, which expand the reach of the broadcast network. Overall, the EBITDA for audio improved by 9% to NZD 22.8 million, resulting in an overall audio EBITDA margin of 13% for the year. On Page 21, we highlight the progress we're making towards our 2023 targets for audio. With audience share for 2022 at 37.7%, we are ahead of our goal to grow by 1% per annum. We continue to grow reach through frequency acquisitions. We are also expanding our audience appeal through our focus on podcast content, youth audio, and sports entertainment with The Alternative Commentary Collective.
As I noted, we have also positioned our music radio stations for growth. Our radio revenue market share grew half of a percentage point in 2022, which is short of our target growth. In 2023, we're also working as an industry to improve audio advocacy with the objective of growing the overall radio market size. We have continued to grow the portion of revenue from digital audio with 5.1% of total audio revenue now from digital platforms, mainly iHeartRadio. We have achieved the 2023 targets during 2022. Now, you'll see many of the initiatives we outlined at our November 2022 Investor Day included within the 2023 initiatives on this page. These are focused on growing the market and NZME's share of it with a continued increase in the digital audio revenue contribution to the business.
Podcasting remains at the core of this growth. I'll now talk about our publishing business. Our digital transition continues at pace for our publishing business while we focus on maintaining the profitable print business for our readers and our advertisers. The left-hand chart on Page 23 shows our print subscriber volumes and the yield trend over recent years. During 2022, we reduced the number of free trials, which has seen a reduction in subscriber volume and an increase in the overall average yield. We believe that this will provide an improved financial result in the years ahead. The chart in the center shows the growing engagement with our digital products with more than 80% of our subscription customers now engaging with us digitally. We now have 209,000 subscriptions across digital and print platforms.
The chart on the right shows the continued growth in paid digital subscribers. We now reach 113,000 since launching in the second quarter of 2019. The green line on the chart shows that the annual yield has reduced due to additional short-term acquisition offers in the market and the increase in corporate customer base, which continues to grow at pace. Let's move to Page 24 to review publishing's financial performance. The increased number of paid digital subscribers delivered a 39% growth in revenue for the year. This was more than enough to offset the decline in print subscriptions and retail sales with overall reader revenue growing 2%. Digital advertising revenue grew 6% compared to 2021, with print advertising remaining relatively stable with a decline of only 2%.
Digital advertising revenues are now within 7% of print advertising revenues. The increase in other revenue reflects the payments from Google and Meta, along with the grants we have received to allow us to increase investment in editorial resources and their development. People and contributor costs included increased resourcing due to the acquisition of BusinessDesk and the investment in the new editorial resources as a result of these grants. Print and distribution cost increases were limited to only 1%, with substantial increases offset by lower volumes and ongoing cost control programs. The result was the publishing EBITDA for the year was 5% higher at NZD 47.4. Page 25 shows the significant progress that we've made towards making The Herald New Zealand's herald. Many of the 2023 targets set in 2020 have already been met.
Total subscribers increased to 209,000, with more than half of these being paid digital subscribers. During the year, we acquired BusinessDesk and launched a new paid vertical, Viva Premium. Both of these provide us with significant opportunities for growth. The continued growth in digital advertising revenue, it now represents 48% of total publishing advertising revenue. You'll see in the 2023 initiatives that we have a number of new developments underway. These will allow us to continue to personalize our experience, grow our audience, and deliver new products for advertisers. Let's turn now to NZME's real estate division, OneRoof, on Page 27. The chart on the left shows the OneRoof platform has a strong position in the market with a significant number of the for-sale residential listings in Auckland and the rest of the country.
This inventory provides us with ample opportunity to continue to grow audience and revenue. Despite the cooling real estate market, OneRoof's monthly audience continues to grow as shown in the center chart. The gap to Trade Me has closed significantly, and we were pleased with the OneRoof platform's performance in delivering inquiries on listings and leads for our agents. Listings upgrade growth is shown in the chart on the right of the page. The ongoing focus on upgrades in Auckland has continued to lift the upgrade percentage to nearly 41% in the last quarter. Regional upgrades have also continued their increased trend over the last two years. On Page 28, you'll see that the increase in listing upgrades delivered OneRoof digital revenue growth of 30% to NZD 10.5 million. This ensured that OneRoof total revenues grew 7% for the year.
We've been investing in people and contributors to set the business up for further strong growth. These resources have been in national sales roles and audience and data specialists. Marketing costs have increased significantly during the year as we continue to build the brand. This has delivered the strong audience growth and supported upgrade revenues. The increase in costs has been made to support the planned growth of the business. This has seen a reduction in EBITDA to a loss of NZD 1.4 million for the year, but positions the business well to improve overall upgrade performance and take advantage of future recovery in the property market. You'll see on Page 29 that OneRoof's made continued progress against its 2023 strategic targets. As I just noted, OneRoof has grown its audience, significantly closing the gap to the number one player in the market.
The percentage of listings upgraded has continued its impressive growth in Auckland. The last year has seen a marked improvement in listings upgrade outside of Auckland, reflecting the increased resourcing around New Zealand. With listings outside of Auckland representing nearly two-thirds of total new listings, this remains a key opportunity for faster growth. We remain focused on growing overall digital OneRoof revenue while substantially maintaining the print revenue within the business. As noted at the November 2022 investor day, with continued growth in a more normal market, OneRoof is well positioned to deliver to EBITDA targets in 2024 and beyond. Slide 31 shows the performance of the corporate division, which also includes our events business. With a small improvement in revenue and a reduction in corporate costs, we've seen an improvement in the overall corporate EBITDA for the year.
Let me now talk a little bit about the market on Page 32. As we've noted, NZME has been increasing market shares across each of its platforms. However, business and consumer confidence have impacted the overall market over recent months. The left-hand chart shows NZME's overall advertising revenue by month right back to January 2022. The black line compares to the prior year. That's either 2021 or 2022 for January to March 2023. The orange line compares to 2019. As you'll see, Q4 2022 was below the levels achieved in Q4 2021. However, we have seen an improving trend into 2023, with March 2023 currently tracking to deliver growth over 2022. The right-hand chart highlights the total market change in new residential for sale listings by month.
Once again, you'll see that quarter four, 2022 has seen a significant reduction in new listings from those listed in quarter four, 2021. We expect it may be some time before we see improvement strength. I'll now talk about the operating environment outlook and capital management outlook as provided on Page 33. As I just noted, it has been a soft start to 2023, especially given the subdued real estate market. March 2023 is tracking to deliver growth over 2022. Cost pressures do remain across the business, and we continue to be focused on substantially mitigating these through disciplined cost controls. There is obviously uncertainty across the economy and the market, and we will update you further at the annual shareholders meeting on 26th of April, 2023.
Given the ongoing capital management, we are pleased to have made significant distributions to shareholders over the past year. The board does have a desire to operate at the lower end of the target leverage ratio in this current environment. It will continue to return excess capital to shareholders subject to the operating environment and investment opportunities. That concludes the formalities of our presentation. David and I are obviously now happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Michael and David. We will now open the webcast for questions. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please hover over the bottom of your screen and click Raise Hand. When it is your turn, you will be prompted to unmute your microphone on screen and will be able to speak. To ensure everyone gets an opportunity, could we please ask that you limit your questions to an initial question and one follow-up. Please rejoin the queue for questions if you wish, and we will give you an opportunity to ask more with time permitting. Our first question is from Arie Dekker. Please go ahead, Arie.
Good morning. Yeah, just firstly, on subs momentum, you know, obviously as you focus a bit more on yield and print, and that was more moderate in second half, how much, like, do you expect print subs to stabilize more in line with previous trends? Or is there still a little bit more to play out in FY 2023 as you focus more on yield?
Hi, Arie. Michael here. Firstly, just on subs momentum, I think, second half is actually a quite a strong half. Just noting that first half obviously included the acquisition of BusinessDesk, which was about 8,000 subscribers. When you look at that, I think you'll see that second half was strong, and it's a continued focus to continue, you know, growing that base quickly. We've also, as we noted, launched Viva Premium at the end of last year, and we're continuing to look at other new verticals to bring to market. Growing subscriber numbers, really important for us. From a digital perspective, and we will continue actually to just look at that yield. We're pushing it hard at the moment. We're obviously seeing growth from corporate subscribers, which are slightly lower.
You know, we definitely see it as an ongoing significant growth business for us. From the print perspective, you'll note that I mentioned that we'd actually stopped, you know, a number of our free trials. What we're finding with increased printing and delivery costs, a number of free trials that you've been used as a promotion was no longer a good acquisition opportunity for us. Those free trials were obviously high cost acquisition and then usually high churn. We do think we'll see a stabilization of that, and we actually think that's the right decision for moving forward from an overall continued yield improvement from a print subscriber base.
Yeah, great. You know, I mean, I was focusing on the 9,000 loss on print subscribers, you know, in the half, which is obviously a step up. Good to hear that that should sort of stabilize. I mean, you know, to your point on digital only, I mean, that growth was still solid in second half. With regard to strategy into FY 2023 on that, are you gonna continue to focus more on growing the base there? You know, will you be willing to give up some overall yield as you do that still?
We absolutely will continue to grow that base because we, you know, fundamentally think there is significant opportunity there. You will have seen from some of the previous work we've done from our strategy days, we think the overall reader market is about 1 million subscribers. We see plenty more potential to continue to grow that base. Yield will be one of those levers, so, you know, those acquisition offers and actually growing from a corporate subscriber perspective. You know, volume is the first thing to then be able to do yield management moving forward.
I guess, yes, I'll just ask one more question on the outlook before coming back, you know, once others have had a chance. Just on the outlook, can you just give some context on how soft the start to the year has been? I mean, you know, particularly in light of, you know, there have been some, you know, pretty big news events, like, you know, take your point on the macro, but, you know, political leadership change, weather-related events. You know, that's obviously provided, you know, some momentum still. I guess just in the interest of, you know, if you can be specific, in terms of overall profitability in the first two months, you know, is this likely to be more or less than 5% down on PCP at this point?
Yeah. I think, to your, to your first point there, we've seen really strong audiences in the, you know, first couple of months so far this year. In fact, we've seen a number of record days just given changes, whether it be a new cycle of a prime minister changing or whether it be weather events. You know, we've certainly played our part in keeping people informed on that. I guess all I'd do is, you know, refer you back to that Page 32, which showed, you know, it's less than 5% revenue year-on-year reductions in January and February and, you know, closer to 5% positive for March. You know, it is early days in the year.
I think what we saw at the end of last year, there was obviously, you know, significantly or, in fact, the worst in recent times from a business confidence perspective, and it's taken some time for people to readjust. Advertisers realize that they need to advertise to continue getting customers back in the door, and the more certainty that advertisers have in what's happening in the economy and the market, will provide more certainty for us from an advertising revenue perspective.
Great. Thanks.
Thanks, Harry. We now have a question from Roger Colman. Thanks, Roger.
Roger, are you on mute? Sorry, Roger, we can't hear you. Just checking if you're on mute or.
Got it. Got it now.
Good. Good morning.
Okay. I just want to zero in on OneRoof, if I could. The 69% increase in marketing to NZD 7.4 million a year, is that now a plateau or are you gonna go increase density in marketing?
We feel like we have all the resources and marketing that we need for that business. You know, as you can see, the audience is growing extremely well, the engagement well. Our focus now is on absolutely on top line revenue growth.
Yes. I've got an issue with Page 31, I think it's Page 31. Yes. It's to do with the 152,000 UV gap to Trade Me-
Yes.
for 2022. Looking at the chart on. Sorry, I think could have been Page three. I've written this down correctly, incorrectly. It looks like the chart for Q4 had a gap of only around 50,000-70,000, right? Between you and Trade Me, right? Your total full year figure was 152,000. You could also line across those closing jaws about a 50,000-70,000 gap. What's correct?
Yeah. I'm just trying to look at the footnote. One's a quarter and the last one's obviously, months. It's the last month of December. In the, I think it's Slide 29.
Got it. Yeah.
For the average. Yep.
You're this close to winning.
You're right.
Right. Could I just ask on the question relating to the... This is a continuation of that definition issue. Your audience reach for digital property is 47.4%, and that's described as in the footnote, at Footnote 5, I think it is. That's unduplicated. Is that correct or incorrect? That sounds extraordinary.
That is correct. It's of audience, of real estate customers. That's right.
Right. Well, congratulations, gentlemen. If you got close to 50% of the market unduplicated in audience, there's nothing more to say about that. All right then. Just one quick, question follow-up, we'll talk later on. CapEx for this year?
CapEx this year will be in line with our guidance, which has been NZD 8 million-NZD 10 million going forward. I think this year will be similar.
Right. Look, I'll let other people ask questions.
Thanks, Roger. We now have a written question from Kim Moody. What challenges does NZME expect to face in the year ahead, and how will the potential recession affect advertiser input?
Yeah. Thanks for that, Kim, and I think it comes back to just what we're seeing in the market at the moment. It's the predictability of advertising revenues overall. There's obviously been some variability as we've had in that chart that we put in our outlook page on Page 32. That's what we're monitoring really closely. At the same time, as we mentioned, there are cost pressures across the business. Things that we're specifically being focused on is, you know, print and distribution costs, as an example. You know, print, paper, for example, is up over 50% to buy a roll of paper, so that's seen us over the last year look for alternate suppliers. Distribution costs have been increasing, so that's seen us managing routes better.
As you saw, our printed distribution costs during this last year, even with all that pressure, actually only went up 1%. We're, you know, I think we've been doing a good job of managing risks to revenue, and they're not growing as quickly as we would like, at the same time as ensuring that we have great cost control, and that'll be a key focus for us moving forward.
Okay. Thanks for that, Kim. We now have a question again from Arie Dekker. Thanks, Arie.
Hi. Yeah. Just three groupings. Just on OneRoof. You know, obviously there is pleasing progress there, you know, against obviously what is a really challenging backdrop for listings. Just on those audience figures, I mean, I assume that there are some structural changes going in terms of, you know, how audience is engaging in that. Like, are those monthly audience figures compared to Trade Me property, are they for, you know, I guess PC, sort of desktop sort of viewership only? How are you sort of going, you know, are you able to track what's happening on sort of mobile devices and that sort of thing, and how are you going there?
Yeah, these are audience across all platforms. Which I'm positive is the case, I can, yes, they absolutely are across all platforms. Again, we are, you know, obviously really pleased that we're pushing. We still see the highest engagement from people on a desktop, as I'm sure our competitors would, because that's when people are in a much more, you know, experience of doing more hunting on a desktop and wanting more information. We obviously see substantial engagement too, from a mobile device.
No, that's great. Just audio, I mean, that was a, you know, a pretty solid result in audio. Can you just sort of... You know, obviously the macro environment will be a factor in audio in FY 2023, but do you still see, you know, I guess, you know, and what's happened with your market share and that sort of stuff, the potential for further lift in your core audio advertising revenues into FY 2023.
Yeah, we do.
From a structural share gain perspective?
We're looking with the audio. I mentioned that we're investing in audio advocacy, that's something we're doing as an industry. We've actually appointed a person and a number of support resources to focus on growing the overall audio market. That's been an industry initiative that we're doing, you know, right across the board. I think that's really pleasing that we're saying, you know, we think audio is really important, and we wanna make sure that advertisers know about it more into the future. Secondly, you know, the last couple of years we've been supported by strong growth in the talk business with Newstalk ZB, and that is absolutely continuing.
We have another election year this year, obviously, and there's plenty of news events, while at the same time we've been making changes to our radio networks and, you know, many of those happened over two years ago. Those just take time, and we're seeing really good growth starting to come through in the audiences in those entertainment brands. Two things: One, obviously trying to grow the overall market as an industry. Then secondly, we think we've made good changes that will see us grow our share of an increased market.
Great. Then David, just a few very quickfire ones just on the numbers. Just inventories. Do you expect to hold higher inventories through FY 2023 or should we expect some unwind there?
They'll be higher than they've been. There'll be a little bit of unwind, but it will depend a little bit on how, you know, how good the supply chain is, and just how much we wanna hold. It will probably unwind just a little bit from where it is.
I think just.
Yeah
... Your question there, Arie, I think around working capital overall. I think there are a number of components to it, which were inventories, which were tax, and there was a fourth one.
Yeah, Then there was some, there was some receivables which were sort of one-off, temporary, changes that will unwind as well.
I think you're thinking.
About 1/2 . Half of that NZD 11 million will unwind.
Great. Okay. Yep. Yep, then just trying to cut quick. Yeah, so the cash exceptional items was low also. You know, do you expect that now will sort of stay at, like, quite de minimis levels? You know, anything sort of significant we should be thinking about there for FY 2023?
I would expect them to be minimal in the current year and looking forward.
Great. Then last one, just the level of lease payments, you know, principal plus interest from a cash perspective. I mean, that is sort of ticking up, you know, and there was a reasonable step up in FY 2022. Were there any one-offs to call out there? Are the structure of your leases such that we should sort of expect, you know, sort of moderate growth there to be ongoing?
I'd probably expect it, that that would be a peak. There was a couple of things through the year where we've been making some changes in Wellington. We had moved our team out of the office there because of a new rating around earthquakes. We've shifted them out temporarily somewhere else, and then now we'll find a permanent home. We've had a little bit of double up. We've just moved into a new facility in Christchurch as well. You know, that's there too. My expectation is I'd probably see this as the peak, and it will come off from here.
Perfect. Thank you.
I mean, just following up on David's question, that's another area we're focused on from an efficiency perspective, is obviously with different ways of working these days, a number of our offices are nowhere near as full as they used to be. You know, we've got a program to look at that over the next 12 months to ensure we have the best efficiency we can from a property perspective while we've got great working environments for our people.
Great. Thank you.
Just prior to the meeting, we did receive a written inquiry, and it was, you have stated a target debt level of 0.5-1 times EBITDA. When and preferably how do you expect to reach that target? I think, you know, probably the key answer for that is actually in our outlook statement. You know, fundamentally, you will have seen the board has increased the dividend payout in this financial result, and we still remain at the lower level there of our 50%-80% target range for paying out of dividends. There still remains opportunity to increase dividends overall. Then secondly, the last dot point on Page 33 just refers to the desire of the board to operate at the lower end of that target range.
Obviously, we're below it at the moment. We're at 0.4, so the lower being 0.5, toward the 1 times. The board will continue to return that excess capital to shareholders, obviously subject to what's happening in the environment at the time or other opportunities. This is a key focus of the board, the capital management operating at the right level of leverage while ensuring that any excess capital is returned to shareholders as soon as possible. I would expect that we'll be able to give a further update, and the board would be able to do that at the ASM.
We have another written question from Paul Robertshaw. OneRoof, with catching up on audience, are you following Trade Me price moves or are you now at a bigger discount? What's the strategy moving forward?
Hi, Paul. We haven't been following Trade Me from a price perspective. We still have significant opportunity, obviously, to grow from a upgrade perspective. The first thing we wanna do is, you know, grow the audience. Second thing, we want agents who are our sales team at the end of the day, selling our product. As you pointed out, Trade Me has been making significant price increases and continue to do so. That creates initial opportunity for us to get higher market share of listings, and that's where our initial focus is right now.
Roger Colman has another question. Thanks, Roger.
Gentlemen, I'd also like to thank Mr. Dekker for actually making a duo here. The amount of effort that gets put into the presentations, at least you've got some questions from some people. I did wanna cover on the print market share. You know, you seem to have topped out at a 0.1% creep. Is that a geographic problem for South Island, where your share is weaker and especially down at Queenstown? Is Stuff.co outperforming you guys?
Sorry, what was the first part of your question there, Roger?
Sorry.
What was the first part of your question there about what was the share number that you just quoted?
Well, you've got your print share at 47.5 versus 47.4%. It's only eight points.
Right.
I'm just wondering if the competitors rejuvenated themselves to restrict your growth?
Okay. Well, I think overall print market shares in that scenario do include property market overall.
Yeah.
In the last year, Auckland property's obviously been doing it tougher than the rest of the country. The rest of the country's moved to follow since. That has actually subdued our print market share for, you know, some chunks of last year.
Right. Right. Got it. Then the Google and Meta grants, are they inflation indexed or UV indexed or what's the mechanism or is it at a steady level?
It's substantially at a steady level other than new products that might be introduced to market, but not material.
Right. My last question relates to getting close to OneRoof in UV share. Is that UV share includes your editorial?
Counted as UVs inside the vertical?
There's two things. One is, Trade Me's includes the rental market, and OneRoof's does include its own editorial.
Right. Netting those out, at your guess, what's your gap now?
I don't have the detail on either of those, actually, of what theirs is versus ours. I think, you know, proof we're getting told is that our listings, when upgraded on OneRoof, are delivering quality leads and that agents are really valuing them.
Right. Before Trade Me vanished in 2018, their revenues were NZD 35 million in their property vertical. Is that what you're looking for once you reach parity? When do you expect to reach parity on the current trend?
The number won't be exactly right, but I think in Trade Me's 2022 accounts, I think their current property revenue is around NZD 90 million.
Well, let's hope you guys make it for the change of the company.
Thanks, Roger.
That's it for me. Thank you.
Thanks, Roger. We have another written question from Miki. Congratulations on another strong result. Given the low leverage, strong and improving operating metrics and the fact that NZME remains deeply undervalued, will the board consider a further share buyback this year, especially as uncertainty could make this an opportune time to implement a buyback given the strong outlook?
Yeah. I think that's the key thing that the board will continue to look at, is that balance of what's the operating environment, what's the dividends, and you know, I think the share buyback has been a key tool over the last year and will absolutely be something that they'll continue to look at. Okay, everyone. That concludes our presentation and Q&A for today. Thanks for those excellent questions and interest. We'll continue to obviously catch up with many of you over the coming days and weeks, and we look forward to updating the rest of you at the ASM in a couple of months' time. Thanks, everyone.