Deterra Royalties Limited (DRR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Deterra Royalties Half Year Results 2024 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Managing Director and CEO, Julian Andrews.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Deterra Royalties' First Half FY 2024 Results Call. I'm Julian Andrews, MD and CEO of Deterra and I'm joined today by Jason Clifton, our Chief Financial Officer, who is here for the first time following his appointment to the role in December last year. I'll begin with some introductory remarks touching on the highlights of the year, and then Jason will provide a review of our financial results. Following that, I'll provide some comments on our approach to growth and the outlook in that regard, and then we'll hand back to the operator for some questions. Once again, I'm pleased to be reporting another set of strong financial results with revenues of $119 million in the first half up 23% from the same period in FY '23. These revenues were again underpinned by our world-class cornerstone royalty over BHP's Mining Area C or MAC, which reported another period of strong performance for us. Production volumes were 61 million tonnes, down slightly on first half '23. However, lower sales volumes were more than offset by stronger realized Aussie dollar iron ore pricing. Once again, high earnings margins, a feature of the business model resulted in a transparent flow through to a net profit after tax of $79 million. Jason will talk to these results in more detail shortly. The Board has declared an interim dividend of $0.1489 per share fully franked, bringing the total dividends paid since listing to over $480 million. And as we've consistently spoken about, we're committed to looking for opportunities to grow our portfolio and continue to build a platform for this investment and growth. As I noticed last August at our full year '23 results, during the half, we have increased our liquidity through expansion of our credit facilities to provide the capacity and flexibility to act on opportunities as they arise. I'll talk more about growth activity and outlook following Jason's discussion of the financial results. With that, I'll hand over to Jason.

Thanks, Julian, and good morning, everyone. Today, we released another strong financial result. And if you move over to Page 5, as mentioned, total group revenue for the half was $119 million. This relates mainly to the quarterly MAC royalty revenue of $118 million. And just a reminder that any potential capacity payments are received in the June quarter that don't appear in the first half. We also have $0.5 million in revenue from our two smaller West Australian mineral sand royalties. This $119 million revenue delivered a healthy $113 million EBITDA for 1 half '24 and this represents an EBITDA margin of 95%, which shows the continued low overhead structure of the royalties business model. Finally, this resulted in both NPAT and dividends for 1 half '24 of $79 million. And based on this result, the Board has declared a fully franked interim dividend of $0.1489 per share, which represents 100% of NPAT. Turning to Page 6. I will now discuss the performance of the Mining Area C royalty. On the left-hand side, you can see that sales volumes were down on the prior corresponding period by 4% to 56.4 million dry metric tonnes. However, that has been more than offset by a 28% increase in realized price to AUD 170 per dry metric tonne to deliver a 23% increase in MAC royalty receipts. On the chart on the right, you can see the half-on-half movement to sales volumes and royalty receipts. BHP has recently confirmed that South Flank's ramp-up to full capacity remains on schedule with a full run rate expected by the end of FY '24. Moving to Slide 7. We show a simplified illustration of our P&L. This slide shows our leading cost structure and transparency of cash flow distributed through to shareholders. On the revenue side, as discussed earlier, we show the revenue streams from MAC and our smaller mineral sand assets. On the right-hand side of the chart, we show the distribution of these cash flows. Total costs for the December half were $5.6 million. Of this, $4.3 million relates to normal ongoing operating expenses, which is up 4% on the prior corresponding period, reflecting general inflation. The remaining $1.3 million cost relates to project-based external due diligence and business development costs, and this reflects an increase of $751,000 on prior corresponding period. And it's simply an outcome of the significant increase in BD activity we had in that period, and we continue to see. Julian will talk more about business development shortly. We also incurred $0.7 million in net financing costs. This is slightly higher than prior corresponding period due to costs from our credit facilities, which we increased from $350 million to $500 million during the period, and most of those costs have been offset by higher interest income held on cash resulting from higher interest rates during this current period. So after tax, net profit for the period was $78.7 million, which was up 24% on the prior corresponding period. Moving to Page 8. As you can see on the left-hand side, the Board has declared an interim dividend of $78.7 million or $0.1489 per share. This is fully franked and represents 100% of NPAT. In terms of our capital management, you can see on the right, firstly, we continue to demonstrate discipline in terms of shareholder returns, although we recognized our intent to invest in growth. So we continue to return surplus cash to shareholders if that cash is not required for new investments or balance sheet management. We also note that today's dividend represents cumulative $483 million returned to shareholders since the demerger in November 2020. In terms of our credit facilities, we intend to optimize the use of debt. We increased our credit limits to $500 million during the period, and that was done by upsizing an existing facility that expires in February '26, with no change to existing terms on margin. This increase provides Deterra with significant liquidity to meet market demand for royalty funding and secondary deals and flexibility in managing the existing $175 million tranche that comes due in February 2025. We also maintain our target leverage within the range of 0% to 15% of enterprise value. This leverage ratio reflects our intent to maintain both a strong balance sheet and the option to act flexibly when value-accretive opportunities arise. These slides show we continue to deliver upon our commitments of operating a lean corporate structure, maintaining a conservative and flexible balance sheet, and maximizing the return of available surplus cash flow to shareholders. The simplicity and scalability of the Deterra business model is unique on the ASX, and our small team continues to work hard to deliver maximum value for our shareholders. With that, Julian, I'll pass back to you.

Thank you, Jason. Turning now to Slide 10. As I noted in my introduction, we continue to pursue our strategy of seeking opportunities for value accretive growth. In that regard, it's worth noting that our investment criteria and target parameters remain the same. We remain focused on opportunities where we think we are better positioned. That is in established mining jurisdictions in both commodities, including iron ore fertilizers and base metals, such as copper, nickel and zinc, as well as battery and energy transition metals like cobalt, lithium and rare earth. Although our focus and approach haven't changed, it's fair to say that the broader market conditions have. There's no doubt that capital from traditional sources such as debt and equity is much less available and carries a higher cost than it has in the past. And we've also seen some significant volatility in pricing for some commodities. In this way, we believe the market has moved towards our offer, and we're seeing more opportunities that align with both our focus and our value requirements. This has driven a steady increase in activity in the BD team as we see more targets, particularly in the base and battery sector and in earlier stages of development. This is evident in the higher BD spend that Jason spoke to and that we've reported in the period as we leverage external assistance on some of these more advanced opportunities. As we noted at the full year results, we've also adjusted our structure to allow Brendan Ryan to focus fully on our business development team. That being said, it is still a very competitive environment. Nonetheless, we believe we are well placed in it. We have a high-quality foundational asset in the Mining Area C royalty that is generating strong cash flow. We have a level of liquidity that supports our ability to invest and differentiates us from many of our peers outside of precious metals. And we have a long-term investment perspective that recognizes the cyclical nature of the resources sector and can look through short-term volatility in commodity markets. Jason spoke to our capital management framework earlier. But to reiterate, our framework, as with most companies, is built around balancing returns to shareholders and other capital providers with the need to invest in growth. As I've said before, liquidity is critical to the success of our business model. We need to be able to invest through the cycle, and particularly when other sources of capital are less available, much like current circumstances. As we announced last August, we've increased our facilities to $500 million. If we are to retain our ability to continue to invest as we execute, it's important -- if we are to continue to retain our ability to execute on our growth ambitions, we need to recycle that liquidity over time. That can be very important to support investment, and we would anticipate it will be used from time to time. But the model is not to leverage the business to any great degree for any meaningful length of time. We have a target leverage ratio of somewhere between 0% and 15% of enterprise value. At present, given we have not drawn on our facilities to fund investment today, we remain net cash. With respect to cash allocation, we've shown discipline to date. And as Jason noted, we've returned more than $480 million to our shareholders. As previously, I do, however, highlight the discretion, the Board has to adjust the payout ratio and that if we're to grow and minimize dilution to shareholders, some retention of earnings may be required. So in closing, we're pleased to be reporting another period of strong performance. MAC continues to generate significant cash flow, and we remain focused on our disciplined approach to growth opportunities in a more prospective environment. With that, we'd be very happy to take any questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Rahul Anand with Morgan Stanley, Australia.

I've got two. Firstly, you've obviously highlighted in your presentation and opening comments about the changing environment in terms of deal flow and activity. A couple of questions in there. Firstly, is there an easy way to sort of quantify what levels of difference you're seeing in terms of the proportions that you received in terms of what's coming through to your desk? And you've talked about additional personnel. How should we think about headcount and costs associated with that?

Thanks, Rahul. So to your first question in terms of quantifying sort of the level of activity, I think probably the -- Jason mentioned that we've reported increased costs in the business development sector, and I think that's probably a good indicator of both the level of activity and also perhaps the depth of some of the activity. As you know, the model is a light core overhead that gives us the ability to leverage external resources as required as we review opportunities. So it's very much an activity-driven level of cost. And so to your second -- and I'll come back to the first one in a moment, but so to your second question in terms of headcount, look, we -- we made -- we brought Jason on to the team late last year to bring that additional focus and expertise on the financial side and the capital management side. But it also enabled us to free up Brendan Ryan, who had previously been in the CFO's role combined with running the business development team to focus on the business development team, 100%. So that's given us that additional capacity. Look, we're always reviewing the level of investment that we have in the business development team. But I think where we sit at the moment, we think we're probably relatively stable there. In terms of the lots of opportunities we're seeing, we are -- I think I noted that we're seeing more opportunities. We're probably seeing opportunities, particularly in the sort of the base and battery and transition metal space at the moment, it seems to be an area where we're seeing quite a number. And we're also seeing opportunities probably -- relatively more opportunities that are coming in a little bit of an earlier stage than perhaps we've seen previously. But we do still continue to see a range of opportunities across the board.

And then just to test that a bit. I would have thought that given the current environment and how commodity prices have tracked, you're probably getting a bit more interest from more established players in the market that have probably struggled to get funding. There are a few in the lithium space that are perhaps a bit further down the development path. Is there any opportunity here to perhaps think about that strategy? I mean, what I want to understand is, is the strategy informed by your capacity to borrow? Is that -- or is that being informed by the value? Or like how are you strictly sticking to that early development phase type opportunities?

Yes. So just to be clear, we're not -- that's not a sort of -- my comments are really around the type of opportunities we're seeing coming into the team. Just to be clear, we're not -- we remain very much interested in and focused on some of those projects that are a little more developed. And you're right, we are seeing some of those projects that are perhaps a bit more developed that are looking for capital and a little more open to other sources of capital than they might have been 12 months ago. There is a period that it takes to -- for those projects to sort of develop and make their way through both internal systems on both sides. So we're seeing a shift. But that -- the shift doesn't happen overnight.

Our next question comes from the line of Glyn Lawcock with Barrenjoey.

Just on the BD expense and obviously, all the expenses, I'm not quite sure I picked up what you were saying with Rahul's question. But like it just seems to be ticking up, particularly the BD expense. I mean should we imagine that it's just going to keep creeping higher? Is that $1.3 million up -- $400,000 has been sort of growing half-on-half now for the last 3 halves. Is that -- or you think you're now at a steady run rate of expenses? Or is it still creeping up?

So it's probably -- There are 2 parts to it. One is we have a business development team of 5 people. And that's obviously a fixed cost and that expenditure is what we refer to sort of that fixed business development cost. And that is relatively stable that I think Jason mentioned perhaps up a little bit, just reflecting some general inflation over the past 12 months. But we also, on top of that, have a more variable component, which is really activity-driven. So that's where we get into -- we're looking at opportunities in greater detail and we seek some external assistance, be it technical or legal or otherwise to help us on some of those -- reviewing some of those opportunities. So that measure is a better measure of activity, both sort of quantity of activity, but also sort of how advanced some of those projects are getting. Typically, when we run a first screen on an opportunity, we're able to do that in-house. It's really only once we get to a more in-depth review of opportunities, we start to incur some of those external costs. So that is -- that will fluctuate with activity over time. And as I said, I think it's probably the fact that we reported a higher figure for the half suggests or indicates that we've been more active on some of those more advanced opportunities in the half.

I appreciate that, Julian. I guess I'm trying to feel what does it look like going forward now. Are we -- is this now -- or is activity still picking up even further? Like is it -- I mean it's good that you've got plenty of activity going on, but it's like is last half indicative now? Or do you feel that it's still increasing at the moment, if? You think about this half because I'm sure you've got a budget as well for the year.

Yes, we do. And I think, look, without giving any sort of guidance on costs for the second half, I think there is a level of sort of full employment, if you like, in terms of the -- some of those more advanced opportunities. And I'd say it was a pretty busy half for us last half. It remains busy, but I think that's probably what I can say on that.

It's good to be busy. And then you talked a little bit about opportunities. And I think you called out changing environment-based transition metals. Have you talked to Liontown? I mean Liontown just lost their funding, so they're short probably $200 million or $300 million, which is sort of in your sweet spot you talk about. Is that something that's of interest and have you talked to Liontown?

Yes. Glyn, as would you appreciate, I don't think we really -- we're really in a position to talk about specific opportunities with anybody. But the general comment where there are projects that are looking for funding, I think that's exactly what we're looking to do and as you would expect, we would always be looking at those types of opportunities, but certainly won't make any comment on specific ones.

Okay. No, that's fine. I appreciate you can't comment on particular companies, but a deal of that structure where the project's 6-months away from first production, it's in battery metals, it's got some risk, but that sort of opportunity would be a sweet spot for you, if it was to be available?

Yes. I mean I think we've been pretty clear from the beginning what our target parameters are. And as we say, projects that are looking for that level of funding at that stage of development would certainly fit very well within that.

All right. Well, if you need the company's number, let me know, if you haven't been in discussion.

Thanks, Glyn.

Our next question comes from the line of Tom Prendiville with Canaccord Genuity.

I just got a quick question on your investment criteria. So in the presentation, you mentioned you're seeing an increased number of targets across battery, raw materials. I mean assuming that includes lithium and nickel, obviously, we've seen a dramatic fall in both lithium and nickel prices over the last 6 months or so. Just curious as to how you're thinking about the fundamental changes in supply and demand of these commodities? I mean are you viewing these -- this drop in prices as an opportunity? Or are you seeing these markets now as structurally challenged over the short term and therefore, potentially less appealing?

Yes. Thanks, Tom. I think the key point for us when we look at any commodity is we need to line it up with our investment horizon. And as you know, typically, when we're looking at opportunities, they are associated with the life of mine. We need to take a view on how we think the industry will be and how pricing will perform over the life of that mine. So in a couple of the commodities, you mentioned, clearly, there's been some short-term pressure. And I think for people who perhaps have a longer-term investment horizon, that can often represent an opportunity to see value in investing. That being said, some commodities can be driven by sort of short-term matters of commodity pricing marketplace and short-term issues or maybe some long-term structural issues, and that's a challenge, I think, it's always being able to separate between those two. So we bring a long-term perspective to those opportunities. And I think we're more focused on where pricing is going to be in the medium-term and the long-term rather than where it is in the short term.

Our next question comes from the line of Lachlan Shaw with UBS.

Just I guess, around the BD side, you talked to changing landscape but also remarked on -- I guess, conditions are still quite competitive. I've seen a lot of strategics, family, wealth offices quite active in a number of sectors you're calling out as potential areas to grow. Given that, certainly around battery raw materials, can you just remind us what's the value proposition for potential companies looking to fund, given all the changes in the market right now, prices can increase competitiveness from strategic funds?

Lachlan, so you're right. Certainly, we are seeing other sources of capital as you'd expect and probably some newer sources of capital coming into the space and ones that are prepared to -- that are offering some less conventional forms of financing as well. Certainly, from our perspective, the benefits we can bring in sort of the -- I guess, the rationale for pursuing royalty funding is that it's really about the alignment we can bring with the project. We can provide funding in return for a slice of revenues. And in doing so, we are very much aligned with the owners of the mine in the sense that we get paid when it gets paid. We don't have fixed repayment schedules to make. We don't -- we're able to value our investment and price our investment of a project and the project returns. So we're less dilutive than equity, which is typically priced up with the share prices. And we're much less restrictive than debt. So we think we fit very nicely between debt and equity. We're able to contribute to a stack in a way that is -- can derisk that overall funding stack. We're not -- we don't require developers to go out and hedge their production. We don't have any concerns about short-term price outlook in the way that perhaps some debt providers do. And in doing so, we can derisk an overall funding structure and make it more efficient overall. We're not going to be all of the answer, but we can certainly be -- certainly I think be a very effective part of it.

Great. And maybe just to follow on. So obviously, we've come through a period of ultra-low interest rates in recent years, that's clearly reset as inflation has been a bit of an issue. If you accept a view that rates are higher going forward than they've been for some time, do you see that as improving or enhancing the value proposition that you bring?

Yes, absolutely. I think certainly, as you say, in the past, when cost of debt has been very low and equity has been very abundant, when you offer a product as we do that sits somewhere between debt and equity, there hasn't been a lot of room. I think that the -- as debt costs increase or maybe normalize, I would argue, normalize back to a more sustainable level, certainly our ability to -- our pricing becomes more competitive. And I think the other point we make when we talk to potential customers is that there's a headline cost to all forms of financing, there is a headline cost and then there's sort of an all-in cost or the total cost that is there. And I think that when you look at debt, there is that headline cost, but there's also a number of other factors that come along with it around -- covenants that come with establishment costs and fees, the chance that if things don't go well, you've got to meet that fixed repayment schedule. And you maybe forced to actually go out and look for other sources of funding at exactly the wrong time for your company and all those types of costs. And once you factor those in, we argue that we provide a form of funding that's very competitive from a price perspective with that.

And I'm showing no further questions. So with that, I'll hand the call back over to Managing Director and CEO, Julian Andrews for any closing remarks.

Great. Well, thank you. Thank you, everybody, for joining the call. We appreciate your time and interest and look forward to reporting another set of strong results in the future and look forward to further conversations. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's program. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.