Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the VivoPower International PLC Fiscal Year 2023 half-year earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kevin Chin.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the VivoPower half-year results presentation for the period ended 31st of December 2022. I'll take you firstly to page three of our presentation, the executive summary. At a headline level, we made very good strategic progress during the half-year. However, our results were affected by unseasonal weather and foreign exchange. Our revenue declined due to project timing and a decline in the Australian dollar versus the US dollar foreign exchange rate. Our half-year revenue decreased 23% year-on-year to $8.7 million. This is primarily attributable to timing of project execution, with one major solar project, Edenvale, undertaken in Australia, versus two in the prior period. Skills shortages have had an impact on our ability to take on new projects.
However, on a constant Australian dollar, US dollar exchange rate basis, our revenue decrease was reduced 17%. Our gross profit and GP margin also declined. This was due to the decrease in revenue, as well as one-off Edenvale project losses. Half-year gross profit decreased by $3.1 million year-over-year to - $3.6 million. This does include $3.6 million of specific one-off weather-driven cost overruns on the Edenvale Solar project. This was due to climate change related to higher than forecast rainfall, leading to damage of project works and delays in execution. Edenvale is in a regional part of Australia which normally doesn't encounter the extent of rainfall that was experienced, unfortunately, during the project.
GP margin, as a result, declined to - 42% versus the prior year of -4%. Adjusted for Edenvale cost overruns, this was -1% for the half year. We also incurred EBITDA operating losses due to principally the one-off Edenvale project loss. For the half year, our adjusted EBITDA loss, excluding Edenvale, actually improved to - $3.9 million versus -$4.5 million in the prior corresponding period. Operating losses did increase to - $8.2 million versus $7.7 million for the first half of this fiscal year. Losses were also driven by foreign exchange not moving favorably and reduced revenues in Australia, as previously mentioned.
With respect to our balance sheets, our cash position actually increased at 31st of December 2022, from $1.3 million as at June 30th, 2022. It increased to $3.2 million as at half year-end. Our cash was principally invested for Tembo scale-up and product development. The one-off Edenvale Solar loss was obviously unplanned. We did partially de-risk our balance sheet through the extension of the repayment terms and duration with our major shareholder, AWN, which extended the loan by 18 months to the 1st of April, 2025. Strategically, we made good progress, as I mentioned beforehand. Our distribution partner network for Tembo, we've been able to further expand that globally and also have entered into the much larger secondhand addressable market.
Our EV kit commitments and orders book has now increased to over 10,000 kits. Importantly, the development of our next-generation electric utility vehicle, which we've called EUV23, is on target with positive feedback from key customers who have visited and test-driven the vehicle. We also completed the divesture of our non-core business, J.A. Martin Electrical, as well as completed further financing and strategic investment initiatives to fund growth. Last but not least, in terms of the summary, we were named one of the best B Corps in the world for governance, with a verified score in the top 10% of all certified B Corps in the world.
We were again recognized as a top 300 global impact company for the third year in a row by the Real Leaders Impact Awards. Moving on to page four. This covers some of the key items and key developments since the half year ended 31st December 2022. Firstly, we've commenced shipping our vehicles to partners, we've also received our first orders for the next generation EUV23. We're thankful to our key partner in Canada, Acces Industriel Mining Inc., for our first material order of the EUV23 conversion kits. We are in the midst of prioritizing ramping up production over the coming months to fulfill this order as well as others that we already have.
Customer deliveries have been scheduled and agreed for GHH in South Africa, as well as Jankel in the U.K., over the course of February and March 2023. The first version of the EUV23 is on track with regards to testing. We've already covered more than 400 km trouble-free with the vehicle in difficult terrain. Now we're focused on extensive pre-production testing to define final third-party component suppliers for the production ramp-up. We've also completed supplier audits for major component suppliers. Very much focused on the next stage with respect to Tembo, which is production and delivery ramp-up. We've also executed on financing and strategic transactions post the half year balance date.
We've secured further bridge financing from our major shareholder AWN, and that's been followed by private investment out of the Emirates committed to Tembo directly for an initial $2 million, noting that VivoPower still maintains majority control of Tembo. These funds will be used for Tembo's growth, including engineering, assembly, and delivery of conversion kits. We've also been taking advantage of the EV winter, if you will, that's occurred, you know, over the last six months and accelerated in the past three months, to recruit, on a selective basis, great talent from other EV companies who are either downsizing or ceasing business.
VivoPower and Tembo remain one of the very few EV companies in the world that are in hiring mode at the moment. We are being very selective about it, and we're seeing that there is an abundance of talent now available in the market. That wasn't the case a year ago. Last but not least, and very importantly, we are concluding on the Edenvale project, which has been clearly very disappointing and has hurt us, you know, financially over the last six months, given the climate change-related weather patterns that we've had to deal with there. At this stage, we expect to conclude that project at the end of February 2023, a few days time.
You know, weather appears to be positive at the moment, that should be on track. In addition to that, we're seeing our Kenshaw electrical business, which is part of Aevitas as well, start to, you know, really build up its order book and pipeline. Recently, in the past few weeks, it's executed a three-year umbrella agreement with Glencore for reactive and scheduled maintenance, repair and overhaul, as well as the sale of critical electric motors in New South Wales, Australia. We expect to see further momentum, you know, from Kenshaw over the next six months. Moving on to slide five. This is the objectives and key results that we set for ourselves at the start of this fiscal year back in July 2022.
We have completed eight out of the 18 that we set for ourselves to achieve. As I mentioned before, we're very much focused now on ramping up assembly and production as well as deliveries, you know, over the next six to 12 months. We'll be looking to build up, you know, our team's capabilities in order to do that. Jumping ahead to page seven, I will talk a little bit more about Tembo. In terms of the results for Tembo for the half year, revenues of $0.9 million were achieved. Underlying EBITDA loss was - $0.5 million, reflecting growth in OpEx, investment, especially engineering talent.
As mentioned, the first version of our next generation EUV23 platform became available on time in December, which is a material upgrade on the previous generation, 28 kWh battery system. Our distribution partner network expanded with over 5,000 additional kits in the commitment and order book pipeline. We've entered into the second-hand electrification and repowering markets through our deal with ETC in Kenya, as well as our deal with Evolution in Australia and New Zealand. This is a very significant move for us and it materially expands our addressable market considerably. We've also, you know, beefed up the talent pool and hired, amongst others, a new Head of Engineering, Phil Barker, since December.
There's been a lot of progress on the Tembo front, both commercially, operationally and with respect to sales pipeline and commitments globally. Turning to page eight, Aevitas, as I mentioned before, you know, the big disappointment here has been the unplanned and uncontrollable weather dynamic, which has turned, you know, what was supposed to be a very profitable project for us at Edenvale into a loss-making one. This obviously hurts coming off the coattails of Bluegrass, which affected our results in the previous six months. We are, you know, very mindful now and very cautious about weather patterns.
Notwithstanding that, we still see, you know, a lot of potential for growth in the space given the build-outs of solar across Australia. As I mentioned before, the Kenshaw business is starting to see a pickup and a rebound in terms of its pipeline and order book, and we're confident that that business will continue to grow and resume its growth over the second half of this year and beyond. Turning to page nine, Sustainable Energy Solutions. We have pivoted our focus in that respect to mining and other industries to augment the customers and the partners' requirements for the Tembo vehicles. In that regard, we have secured some capabilities through experienced advisors and partners.
For example, we have identified an EV charging partner with hardware already being tested in collaboration with Tembo EUV. This is a global company. Distribution contract negotiations are ongoing at this stage. We're confident that we will secure that and be able to offer a more holistic solution to our customers. Moving on to page 10, Caret Solar. As foreshadowed one year ago, we were pivoting strategy for this to power tech applications, including looking at Bitcoin miners. Obviously, there's been a correction in the Bitcoin market, which has slowed things down with respect to our strategy in relation to this portfolio. However, in recent weeks, we've seen a re-emergence of interest following the rebounds in the Bitcoin price.
In addition to that, we've seen interest re-emerge again in terms of solar developers seeking to buy into or partner with us on these projects. This is in response to the Inflation Reduction Act, which has seen the income tax credit incentive being restored in the United States. That's a wrap up for me in terms of the half year results. Disappointing financial results due to weather and climate change. However, that's now been stemmed. Off the back of very strong strategic and operational progress in the first half, we're confident on executing on our objectives for the second half of the year.
Thank you everyone for joining and, that, wraps up the half year presentation for VivoPower. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.