Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this analyst briefing, update on Seeka's, and announcement of Seeka's full year, full year annual results for the 31st of December, 2021. This is the first time we've made these announcements this way online. It's the first time we've actually invited the investor community and our stakeholders onto this announcement. You know, we welcome you to it. We have in this process brought our announcements forward a week. You know, we are a small company aspiring to be mid-cap, presenting itself well-governed, a clear strategy on a growth pathway worthy of the investment community's support or, you know, or consideration. We've decided to bring the results forward to sort of set ourselves ahead of the crowd.
It's come at some significant effort from our finance team and accountants, which we acknowledge. Also we would acknowledge the support of our auditors, PwC, and tax advisors, BDO Auckland, in helping us get to this timing. One week early may seem not, like, not much, but it's come at a significant effort from our people. Here today with me at Seeka 360, I have our Chief Financial Officer, Stuart McKinstry, also our Acting Group Financial Controller, Nick Reynolds. Stuart will leave the company by retirement at the end of April. We will celebrate his service to us in our company closer to that time. He's been with us for 16 years.
When he joined the company, our revenue was around, was under, you know, NZD 30 million, and here we are today about to tell you it's more than NZD 300 million. We acknowledge him and his service. Our chairman is on the call. Many of our directors are on the call. We have the media on the call, and our analysts are here as well. More than 40 people have dialed in this morning for this announcement. Thank you. Thank you for coming. The agenda, gonna continue through it. We're gonna talk a little bit about our highlights, talk you through the financials, talk a little bit about our capital management and balance sheet. We'll run you through the operating segments performance, and then we will give you the context.
In terms of the highlights, on the page that's up, you know, we have focused on achieving excellence. We have delivered excellent performance to our stakeholders and our drivers in spite of the COVID disruptions. They are motivated and committed to get this job done. We're very short of labor across New Zealand and Australia. All of our business has performed ahead of expectation. Our orchard business, a significant post-harvest infrastructure asset and service. Our Australian business has gone very well. SeekaFresh and Savio Labs have all performed ahead of what we might have reasonably expected them to do. We have generated record profits for the company, and importantly, we have increased our operating earnings. Our revenue at NZD 210 million, well ahead of last year, NZD 66.8 million in EBITDA.
Profit before tax, NZD 23.5 million, well in the range. NZD 22 million-NZD 24 million is what we advised the market would be our profit range at the before tax level. Earnings per share is NZD 0.43. We have paid or declared NZD 0.26 in dividends from this time. We also included in the results received, or have accounted for NZD 7.6 million of income from our share of the kiwifruit claim from PSA. In addition to running the company and focusing on service and efficiency across our business, we also took a lot of time and a lot of effort to actually work on the business. Three major kiwifruit acquisitions have completed. OPAC, Orangewood, NZ Fruits was substantially completed before the end of the year.
Completed at balance date, it has been subsequently completed in the new year. The businesses that have been purchased have been integrated. We have delivered the synergies, and they have been designed in the acquisition purchase process. They will be accretive to shareholders. In addition, we also took a 26% shareholding in an agritech startup called Fruitometry. It's digitizing the orchard farming process. It provides us with accurate crop data, which aids us with labor management, with understanding exactly what we've got coming to our processing units before it arrives. Helps us with our supply chain planning. There's a lot of work to go on there, but honestly, it's exciting. It's an exciting business, and it's exciting technology. We're happy to be here. Company also put in place a new banking syndicate. We moved.
We previously had Westpac supporting us. They really supported us for a long time. They've been a fantastic supporter of the company. They needed a new syndicate to come in place with ASB, BNZ, and Rabobank. Get lines at NZD 190 million compared to NZD 148 million prior. Early in the year, we considered our capacity, our post-harvest infrastructure capacity, our ability to handle the crop that is coming ahead of us. We announced a NZD 20 million spend at KKP for a new MAF Roda grader there. A new upgraded Transcool, which saw the cool store removed. A new 650,000 square store being built and is under construction at the moment.
Any consideration of a major upgrade of infrastructure, which has been mooted as contenders at the tender packhouse build, has been deferred until later this year to be considered by our board at this time. In terms of the financials, as I said a moment ago, revenue NZD 309.6 million is up 23% from the prior year. Our EBITDA at NZD 66.8 million is up 32%. It does include NZD 7.6 million from the Crown settlement of the kiwifruit claim, but still up 32% nonetheless. Of course, the previous year also had the one-off gain from the sale of the Australian orchards and leaseback. Our profit before tax of NZD 23.5 million is up 44% on the year before, well in the range.
If you take off the NZD 7.6 million that we've got from our share of the settlement of PSA claim, our operating earnings at NZD 16 million is well up from the prior year, which was around NZD 7.5 million. Profit after tax of NZD 14.9 million is down 2% on the prior year. In the prior year, there was a tax credit of NZD 5.6 million with the reintroduction of depreciation on buildings. Actually, we're pretty happy, pretty satisfied with the results as they have been reported. Significant improvement in underlying operational earnings, which you might have expected because the prior year was affected by the first year of COVID and drought.
We're focusing on now improving our return on capital employed in the year closed off 7.4%, well up on the 4.6% year prior. Our net tangible assets making it NZD 5.71 is well up on the NZD 5.20 the year before. I would note to you the current share price of NZD 5.06 is an 11% discount to current asset backing. Of course, the accounts are audited. Everything is valued at fair value. 571 is a figure that has been audited. The trends are good and healthy. You can see here from an EBITDA perspective, the results have gone up 25% compound annual growth rate since 2017. NZD 66.8 million in the most recent year.
Net profit after tax, 26% compound annual growth rate up over the period. Of course, FY 2020 was an anomaly with that tax benefit coming in. In terms of EBITDA by division, in terms of Orcharding, EBITDA, NZD 5.2 million, relatively flat. You know, costs are increasing. We've got inflationary pressure in our orcharding business. The returns that we're getting through from the market aren't keeping pace with the actual increase that we've got on in the on-orchard costs. That's something that's just important for us, and we're focusing on how we can become more efficient in our orcharding process. On the right-hand side, you'll see the engine room. Post-harvest, NZD 61.6 million in EBITDA. You know, it's doubled, nearly doubled in the last four years.
Of course, 2017, these results are pre-IFRS 16. SeekaFresh had a flatter year in EBITDA, NZD 2.3 million. Actually, it belies the fact that our SeekaFresh business is growing, and it's growing quite quickly. Avocados last year, the last half of last year, the market was very soft. Very, very soft. Our returns and commissions that we were earning and handling downstream services for avocados was a lot lower. Of course, those are some of the declines in offset by increased business. In terms of Australia, NZD 1.6 million in EBITDA. I would note that the year before had a NZD 6.2 million gain in the sale and leaseback of the orchards in Australia. True underlying EBITDA, NZD 1.2 million. It has improved.
It had tough operating conditions in Australia. Lots of lockdowns, lots of disruptions with COVID, lots of isolations going on. It's performed really, really well. I'm optimistic about what's going on in Australia, and I'll talk to you about that a bit more in a few moments. In terms of our balance sheet, well, NZD 97.1 million increase in capital employed. So that's net working capital plus fixed assets. So it's just on NZD 429.4 million. NZD 82.8 million increase in property, plant, and equipment, which reflects the acquisitions that we've done with OPAC and Orangewood. We increased our investments, NZD 2.6 million with Fruitometry and another NZD 1.7 million that we've co-invested alongside long-term lease developments, with iwi or with the PTS, now called Kanola Front.
We've got a NZD 9.16 increase in intangibles, which is mostly because of the goodwill from the acquisitions that we've acquired. In terms of the balance sheet further, NZD 100.6 million in net bank debt. A NZD 20.8 million increase from the previous year. Fair amount of it is the acquisitions that we've undertaken, the debt, either the cash was paid or the debt that was assumed in those acquisitions. We have put in place the new banking syndicate, Westpac, ASB, BNZ, and Rabo. With debt lines of up to NZD 190.4 million, and we appreciate your support of our company and the process that we have been through. Thank you, Westpac, for leading it. NZD 20 million upgrade at KKP and Transcool we've spoken about. Made up of a new machine, new cool stores.
There's about NZD 1 million of impairments in our results for writing off what was there before. We hold still now NZD 1.9 million of orchards that are held for sale in Northland. That's the last of those orchards that we've got to go that were from the previous T&G acquisition that we made up there when we purchased. We've been progressively selling all the orchards. Got one to go, and we're happy about that. In terms of our EBITDA multiple, if you're interested in that, 1.74- 1. Debt to EBITDA, where you're taking out the effect of IFRS 16, is 2.24- 1. You know, well within the board's range for the company.
Debt management remains front of mind as we grow and as we manage our way forward. Earnings per share, NZD 0.43, in the year completed. There's a 0.13 NZD final dividend to be paid on the 23rd of February. We brought that date forward as a part of the acquisition of NZ Fruits. Effectively, NZ Fruits have been paid the dividend that was owing to them from their year in the acquisition price. The shares that we've issued are excess, and we brought our dividend date forward so that we actually didn't double pay dividends. NZD 5.71 in net tangible asset backing, I've spoken about already. This business continues to grow. You know, we didn't have all of OPAC's results in this financial year because we bought it on the 11th of May. We've got NZ Fruits coming this year.
We completed it in February. The growth outlook, the short-term growth outlook for the business is good. In terms of going through segment by segment, looking at the wholesaling business, revenue NZD 77.1 million, up 2% as I said before, earnings are reasonably flat. EBITDA NZD 5.2 million reflects, you know, no growth, but also increasing costs. Assets are NZD 73.7 million. But you can see there we are now a major grower, NZD 14.4 million, New Zealand's largest kiwifruit grower. Our regional presence has increased greatly with the acquisitions in Northland, and in OPAC. Orangewood and OPAC significantly increased the size of this business. We do have 156 hectares that we are developing of kiwifruit, with landowners, with iwi and with the Kanola Front.
Some of that is gold, but predominantly is Hayward, and we have a good investment in our talkery with iwi and the Kanola Front underway at the moment. That will develop and deliver us increased volumes of fruit to handle in the future and incremental earnings to this part of our business. In terms of post-harvest operations, this is the engine room of the business, New Zealand post-harvest operations. Revenue at NZD 195.9 million, up 40%. Wow. EBITDA at NZD 61.6 million, up 27%. We've got volume growth, and we've also got a focus on the business of improving operating margins. This business is in an inflationary period. We've got significant cost pressure on us.
We hire human beings as a big part of this business, they are really short of supply at the moment, and they are costing more. Electricity has gone up significantly, 43% on our last renewal. You know, we are mindful of the inflationary pressures we're in. Of course, we're charging growers more to handle their fruit. Of course, we are. But also we are driving for efficiency as we go forward. 3.5 million trays of fruit was packed post-acquisition for OPAC. That's about half their volume, so there will be another 3.5 million in our own books next year. The profits for the first 3.5 million will be in the OPAC balance sheet. That's what we acquired when we purchased it. There's a significant effort went on in the company to integrate these businesses.
We are delighted. We have significant work undertaken at OPAC and at Orangewood, and both of those businesses are now fully integrated. NZ Fruits requires less integration work because it is really a standalone business. It had a pretty lean management structure to start with. And of course, we're bringing the purchasing power that we have got. Handling nearly 60 million trays to these smaller businesses and our shareholders and our growers will gain from it. This part of our business is set again to grow. Of course, we're just on the edge of harvest. It's not too far away and we are ready to get going. The NZ Fruits acquisition brings us early fruit, a lot earlier than we'd normally handle it here in Te Puke.
We'll get underway two and a half weeks earlier than we've ever got underway before here in Te Puke as we bring fruit over from Gisborne. SeekaFresh. This is really where we're handling fruit that's not sold through Zespri. We import produce to New Zealand. We export produce around the world, depending upon what it is. NZD 21.6 million in revenue was flat. This business was knocked around with COVID. The team's done a fantastic job to keep service up and keep deliveries to supermarkets and retail in New Zealand. We've also kept export programs going to avocados, kiwifruit to Australia, and importing produce from New Zealand. In spite of the lockdowns, the team's done a really good job. The avocado market has been very, very weak.
Last year, the previous year to this, you know, we never sold a crate of avocados in Australia for less than AUD 38. In this current selling season that we're just closing out now, prices have been between AUD 12 and AUD 19 . You know, less than half of what we got before. It's been a big hit in commissions. We are still confident with this business. It's growing very well. It's got good leadership, got dedicated people. You know, this is the kind of thing that happens occasionally seasonally when you're handling a fresh produce business. Australian business, we're delighted with the progress made there. Revenue is NZD 13.9 million, up 6%. EBITDA NZD 1.6 million. Compared to NZD 7.4 million, like for like.
However, the NZD 7.4 million included NZD 6.2 million gain on sale in Australia when we sold those orchards, NZD 28.5 million. Actually there is improvement in returns here. Australian team have innovated. They've innovated around COVID. They've innovated with labor management. They've innovated with what they're doing there. We've still got 63 hectares of kiwifruit to come on stream. We've got new variety pears in Australia, which are just exciting. We've got new meshy varieties coming through as well, which, you know, new colored meshies, which we think are just, you know, when they get to market, we think they'll be very good. As a new innovation, we're growing Medjool dates in Australia. They don't require a lot of water. They come to fruit quickly.
We're gonna learn how to process and get them through to market, but it's actually a very, very exciting innovation. We had fantastic leadership from the Australian business. Very happy with how it's running, and it's going very well. It's been very difficult for New Zealanders and the New Zealand management team to get across to Australia because they don't know if they can get home. We're looking forward to some relief in the border where we can do that. That brings us through to the end of the call. In a moment, I'll ask if there are any questions, but first, I'd like to say thank you very much for coming onto it. Thanks very much to the Seeka guys who's worked hard through the year last year to actually make these results possible.
I acknowledge the efforts of the finance team in getting all of the results out today, which is a record for the company, record results, record timing. I thank the advisors, BDO, and their auditors, PwC. Stuart, are there any questions? Great. I've got 100 people on the call now, and there's no questions. We can put our contact details there. If you'd like to contact us with anything or if the media wanna contact us, we're available now through around 12 P.M . I'm sure we can go find a beer at around 12 P.M. , if that's okay. Otherwise, thanks very much for your attendance.
Look, finally, if you also, if you've got any feedback for us about what we could do better, the information, the presentation, if there is more that you might like to see from us, this is the first time we've done it this way. Please don't hesitate to let us know. I do have a question now. We got one question. Hey, Stuart. Can it come from one of our own people?
Michael, this question here was asked, "If you could please speak on the main drivers for profitability for post-harvest this year."
Okay. The main drivers for profitability for post-harvest this year are firstly volume. We think the volume numbers look pretty good. There was a wind event in Ōpōtiki that knocked that crop and that region around a little bit. But generally, we think that the outlook for the crop is pretty good, and the estimates that we've got barring any disasters at the moment is okay. Second matter around profitability is labor, access to labor and getting them at the right price. We think at the moment, we've got approval to get 1,200 RSE workers into New Zealand. We're about 650 odd all the way through. Arrivals have been delayed from Tonga and from Samoa, one, because of COVID, and two, because of an eruption.
They are still arriving, so we're keeping fingers crossed. Our sign-ups for labor look to be okay. Of course, we don't know that we've got them yet because we haven't actually started packing. At the end of the day, we haven't yet, we've yet to set our pricing. You know, inflation's among us, and so the price for the grower is gonna have to go up. We've still got to work it through. We expect to maintain margins, and we are driving for efficiency. That probably covers the post-harvest profitability scenario looking forward. I've got one more.
Michael, the question is, are there bolt-on acquisitions under consideration?
The question is whether or not there's any acquisitions in the pipeline that we're considering or bolt-on acquisitions. I'll answer that question this way. The company has acquisitions in its DNA. It does go to the very beginning. It's a growth company. It positions itself as a growth company. We're not growth for growth's sake. When we consider an acquisition, it has to be accretive to shareholders. It has to be strategically aligned, so we're actually doing something special to make the company grow and take it down a path that the boards endorse or set for us in our strategy. At the moment, our focus is on bringing all together what we've got and getting successful harvest underway. We have an open mind to future growth.
We have an open mind to complete acquisitions that are consistent with strategy. We have a reputation for doing it. We've been able to do it. Opportunities come to us. At the moment, our sole focus is getting this next stage of the harvest underway before we consider doing anything else. We tend not to like to do acquisitions during harvest because if we don't do a good job, it's gonna hit our earnings around. Do you have another question?
With the ongoing increase in the New Zealand minimum wage, would you be able to continue passing on costs, and would you be able to remain competitive globally?
Oh, that's a fantastic question. Look, I can't stop minimum wages going up. At the moment, you know, we are really constricted for getting access to labor. We haven't been able to get the RSEs in that we truly need. We would normally have 1,800. Last year, we ran the whole season with 480. You know, it costs what it costs. You know, we're stewarding public money, and so we have to prove ourselves as a company worthy of stewarding public money through our returns, through our behaviors, through our governance, and through our strategy. You know, it costs what it costs, and so it's going to have to cost what it costs.
The pressure's got to go back onto Zespri so that they actually return us more, so that actually the cost of inflation is offset or more than offset through the market returns, either through market mix, supply chain innovation, developments to take costs out so that the growers actually have the money and the wherewithal to justify their own investment, and to pay us for the service that we provide them and to pay us as a grower. It's a healthy tension that goes back onto Zespri so that they are pushed to perform. Do you have another question?
Does this company have an active program of seeking to attract greater institutional shareholder base?
The answer is yes. We actually want, and we aspire to be a company that does, and that institutions are prepared to invest in. We employ New Zealanders. We are a large regional employer. We have good governance. We have a strategy. We have a close relationship with iwi. One of the things as we've been growing, we might have skipped a little bit on, is our presentation of the company to the institutional investors. That's something that we are focused on. Very much the fact that we've done this way today, online, is part of the strategy to actually lift our profile with the institutions. In size, yeah. You know, also, I'd say to you is that, you know, we're not quite mid-cap.
You probably need to be more than NZD 250 million market capitalization to get to mid-cap, to get onto their radar. Part of the growth strategy is to get us there and hopefully deliver some of the share price opportunity that seems to be latently there at the moment. Okay. That's us. Thanks very much for your attendance. Thanks very much for considering us as worthy to come on for half an hour and listen to the results. We very much appreciate it. Hopefully, I've given you a good account of the company, and you have found this enjoyable. Please feel free to contact us afterwards. It's my pleasure. That's us signing off. Thank you.