Hulamin Limited (HLM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. I am Mark Gounder, CEO filamin. Welcome to our 2026 interim results presentation, where Prakashi, our CFO, and I will take you through our operational performance and the financial outcomes for the first half of 2026 and share an update on our execution against our operational recovery plan. We will then close with an outlook on our business for the second half of 2026. We have also included additional information for your reference. At this point, I invite you to type in your questions as we progress through the presentation. The first half of 2026 marked a significant turning point for Yum as the group delivered a strong operational recovery. The operational challenges that adversely impacted performance during the second half of 2025 have been substantially resolved, restoring stability across the group's core operations. Core stream production output has been -- has recovered to achieve an annualized rate of 527 tons per day in the month of June, which is substantial progress towards our ambitious run rate of 550 tons per day. The illumine Group returned to normalized profitability basis in the first half of 2026. While first half normalized earnings remain below the comparative period, the substantial improvement in operational performance from second half of 2025 provides a solid foundation for improved financial performance in the periods ahead. The disposal of the noncore extrusions and containers businesses is complete. Proceeds from the disposal will flow into the remainder of 2026 will be applied to reduce debt and further strengthen our balance sheet. Throughout the operational recovery journey, safety remained a key priority with focus on leading indicators has continued to yield positive results, driven by a shift from a reactive to a proactive safety culture. The continued focus on leading indicators has yielded positive results as our safety trends improve against benchmark. This reinforces our commitment to people, discipline and high-risk management. Yul amin remains substantially market unconstrained despite geopolitical landscape changes and challenges. Our order book remains strong on all key streams and wide can body production qualification has been completed with can customers. Following the resolution of majority of the operational challenges experienced in second half of 2025, our core operations have stabilized and are ramping up towards the upgraded plant design run rate. Volumes of 85,000 tones were 4% below the strong first half of 2025 comparative, but improved by 7% compared with the second half of 2025, reflecting a meaningful recovery across the group core product streams. This improvement was driven by an operational restructuring program, including targeted management changes to strengthen accountability for plant reliability, operational performance and product quality. while the appointment of specialist technical resources to address critical skills gaps and support the sustainable improvement of operational capabilities. Our capital expenditure peak is now complete following the commercialization of wide can body investment. The focus is on sustaining plant reliability and uptime, which is enabled by normal Capex levels between ZAR 250 million and ZAR 300 million going forward. We have substantially resolved all quality challenges that impacted our can end stream with performance recovering from below 80 tones per day last year to approximately 120 tones per day. We will cover operational performance in the next slide to clearly show the recovery journey thus far. Lum has restored operational performance following the commissioning and subsequent quality challenges associated with the can stream in the second half of 2025. This represents a significant milestone in the execution of our strategy, enabling the business to begin realizing the benefits of the expansion and growth capital invested over the past 2 years. To orientate all of you to the slide, highlighting plant performance ramping up to target on a tones per day basis. On the far left, we cover the half year overview. In the center of the slide is the monthly tones per day run rate achieved. On the far right is our 200,000 tons annualized ambition broken into tones per day. Our high-margin products is can body, which is in blue, can end in green and heat treat plate in blue. Besides the total volume, the ideal mix is crucial for Yulin to deliver improved value to our stakeholders. H1 2026 was 12 tons per day lower than H1 2025, but 56 tons per day higher than H2 2025 with core product streams responding positively. Can body and heat treat plate both exceeded first half of 2025 production levels, moving closer to the run rates required to achieve the group's targeted annualized production capacity. Can end production remain below benchmark, constrained by internal quality challenge. However, having substantially resolved these issues, the stream improved steadily through the half to achieve production of 120 tons per day in June. Further improvement is expected during the second half of this year. Excess capacity in casting and hot rolling was redirected towards noncore hot band production where market demand remained available. This enabled the group to improve fixed cost absorption and optimize utilization of casting and hot rolling assets. From a market perspective, Helaman remains substantially market unconstrained despite geopolitical landscape changes and challenges. However, these developments have promoted review and responses to our business model and overall strategy in order to remain well positioned to capitalize on global demand. Our strategy is to seize emerging opportunities in both local and export market. On the local front, we are currently at 56% of total volumes and are on track with our strategic objective of 60%. Can body demand remains strong with Yul amin well positioned to displace wide can body imports as we have fully commercialized our investment. Can end is under import pricing pressure as a result of cheap finished ends being imported from Asia. We are currently working with our customers to support applications for local industry safeguards. Lost volumes are being repositioned to North America. Local standards represent an incremental opportunity pending working capital and route-to-market improvements. In North America, plate demand remains resilient despite Section 232 tariffs with market prices absorbing tariffs. Growing U.S. can end demand enables reposition of displaced local volumes, while excess hot mill capacity being optimized through spot hot band sales. The expanded routes to market in Europe for plate is showing positive results, while Yul amin's chrome-free production is key in increasing compliance-driven export market. Notably, on the export market, our focus is on high-margin and niche product streams and segments. I will now hand over to Prakashi to take you through the financial outcomes for the first half of 2026.

Thank you, Mark. Mark has highlighted several of the key drivers of our 2026 financial performance. Before discussing the operational and financial performance in more detail, it is helpful to set context by looking at the market conditions that shape the results. Halaman's financial performance remains highly sensitive to the movements in the LME aluminum price and the rand-dollar exchange rate. During the first half of 2026, both variables were unusually volatile, influenced by geopolitical uncertainty and a tightening global aluminum market. The LME aluminum price increased by more than 30% compared to the prior period and moved above the $3,000 per ton. This supported earnings through a favorable metal price lag contribution of more than ZAR 300 million. At the same time, the higher metal price materially increased the funding required for inventory and therefore, placed pressure on networking capital. The rand strengthened by approximately ZAR 1.98 against the U.S. dollar year-on-year. This reduced rand-denominated margins and adversely affected earnings by more than ZAR 150 million. The group currently has no LME hedging in place as the program remains suspended. Foreign exchange exposure is, however, partially managed through rolling margin hedges. As we continue to monitor net debt and liquidity, we will also continue to monitor market conditions and the appropriateness of reintroducing LME hedging. Despite an LME increase of roughly $1,000 per ton from June 2025 levels to the 2026 peak, the increase in net debt was limited. This reflects the benefits of stronger operating cash generation, tighter working capital management and disciplined use of available facilities. Turning to the key financial highlights. Group revenue increased by 2% to ZAR 7.2 billion despite lower sales volumes. The increase was primarily driven by the higher LME aluminum prices, stronger geographic premiums, particularly during the first quarter of 2026 and improved product mix and the initial commercial returns from the wide can body project. Normalized trading profit declined by 53% to ZAR 102 million. This was driven primarily by the stronger rand and the carryover impact of the operational constraints from the second half of 2025 into the first quarter of 2026, particularly in the canned product stream. EBITDA increased by more than 100% to ZAR 470 million, benefiting significantly from the favorable metal price lag arising from the rise in aluminum prices. Despite the pressure of higher metal prices on working capital, the business generated positive cash flow from operating activities before capital expenditure of ZAR 96 million compared to ZAR 16 million in the prior period. Net debt increased marginally to ZAR 1.7 billion from ZAR 1.59 billion in the prior comparative period. Importantly, the group remained within all funding covenant limits with debt to equity at 52% against a maximum of 60% and the current ratio at 2.8x against the minimum requirements of 1.2x. This bridge explains the movement in normalized EBITDA from ZAR 282 million in the first half of 2025 to ZAR 177 million in the first half of 2026. The largest external headwind was currency. The rand was approximately ZAR 1.98 stronger against the U.S. dollar, reducing earnings by around ZAR 175 million after the benefit from currency hedges. Inflation and commodity-related cost increases added further to the pressure. These included approximately ZAR 55 million of inflationary cost increases and around ZAR 30 million in commodity pricing. Performance was also affected by one-off operational constraints that carried over from late 2025 into the first quarter of 2026. As Mark highlighted, these constraints resulted in approximately 7,000 tons of lost canned in production. The impact was partially mitigated by an increased lower-margin hot band volumes, together with stronger demand and an improved sales mix in the can body and heat treat plate product streams. On the positive side, as indicated in the previous slide, improved pricing, mix and geographic premium supported margins, while cost reduction initiatives delivered meaningful savings towards the ZAR 150 million full year target. The operating restructure reduced the ongoing cost base, and further benefits arose from lower overheads and the termination of or lapse of certain share schemes. The bridge, therefore, shows that underlying demand and cost discipline remains supportive, but these benefits were not sufficiently sufficient to fully overset the impact of the stronger rand and the operational shortfall in the can production. Operating cash flow before working capital movements was ZAR 443 million. However, the sharp increase in the aluminum price increased the value of inventory and receivables, resulting in a net working capital outflow of ZAR 294 million. The group also invested ZAR 128 million in capital expenditure, largely relating to sustaining investment. Interest and statutory payments amounted to ZAR 76 million. These movements resulted in a net cash outflow of ZAR 55 million and an increase in net borrowings from ZAR 1.647 billion at December 2025 to ZAR 1.702 billion at June 2026. The increase in working capital was driven by both price and volume. The price effect arose from higher LME and aluminum embedded in inventory and receivables. The volume effect reflected the inventory required to support the operational recovery and production ramp-up. These pressures were mitigated through stronger EBITDA generation, disciplined inventory and debt management, reduced capital expenditure from the prior period and continued focus on cost reduction. The group's funding facilities have increased over time to support the business through the periods of elevated metal prices and operational investment. At June 2026, the net debt was ZAR 1.70 billion against total facilities of ZAR 2.250 billion, leaving headroom of more than ZAR 500 million. The headroom was maintained despite the significant increase in the LME price and the associated pressure on working capital. The business achieved this through a combination of improving operational stability, disciplined cash management and the optimization of available hot rolling capacity. The priorities for the second half of 2026 are focused on reducing net debt and improving liquidity. These include realizing approximately ZAR 100 million from the extrusion's disposal and the related working capital recovery, receiving approximately ZAR 13 million from the containers property disposal and targeting around ZAR 60 million from inventory optimization and ZAR 50 million from debtors optimization. Management will also continue to review noncritical capital expenditure and align investment with available liquidity and operational priorities. In parallel, we will continue to monitor both net debt and the group's commodity risk position. The LME hedging program remains suspended, but its reintroduction will be reassessed as liquidity improves, net debt reduces and market conditions become more supportive. Overall, the immediate focus is to convert the operational recovery into cash, preserve adequate facility headroom and progressively reduce the balance sheet risk. I will now hand over to Mark.

Thank you, Prakashi. Our strategy remains intact with operational recovery substantially complete and key actions in place to strengthen our core in our business. These include embedding a delayered operating model with clear accountability and timeless execution, bridging critical skills gap by allocating correct technical expertise, knowledge transfer and operational stability with focus on the following key areas: casting, rolling oil, roll grinding and total productive maintenance, while at the same time, investing in executive leadership and capability by appointing a Chief Operations Officer by September and a human capital executive by October. With the operational recovery substantially complete and the core streams ramping towards design run rates, Helaman enters the second half positioned to convert improved production into stronger financial performance. Wide can body commercialized completed and improving product mix, commissioning of Richards Bay scrap utilization capacity in August, use of recycled secondary ingots, continued delivery of cost reduction and the anticipated flow-through of higher, should I say, global can in pricing are expected to support margins, while proceeds from the noncore disposals and continued working capital discipline are directed at reducing net debt. Thank you for joining us for our interim results presentation. We will now open the floor for any questions. We've also included additional information to be considered when performing analysis of the business as part of the indexes.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for attending this morning. We have 4 questions so far. We're going to take them one at a time and give an opportunity to the CEO and CFO to respond. We'll start with a question from Sabrina from the Engineering News and it reads, could you please comment on the impact of U.S. tariffs on the company, if any?

Thanks, Handa, for the question, and thanks, Sabrina. I think in order to answer the question completely; I think we need to understand the U.S. tariffs properly. The Section 23 tariff right now, above 50%, is actually applicable to all countries, whereas that was not consistent previously. So what we've seen right now is, firstly, our plate sales, which is majority of the product that we sell into U.S. has actually been completely resilient in the market. And we've seen actually an uptick. And that's as a result of, firstly, an equal playing field being maintained for all countries. And due to our quality and service, we're able to compete globally in that sense. But more especially what we've seen is because of the U.S. market being a net importer, market prices have adjusted for the 50% tariff and has increased accordingly. So going into H2, I see the trend continuing as long as the equal playing field is maintained.

Our next question is from Tao from Laurium Capital. The question reads as follows. Given the higher LME price and the resultant higher working capital commitment, can you give us some color on where rolling margins are? And to what extent the rolling margins compensate for the working capital drag. Let me repeat that. Given the higher LME price and the resultant higher working capital commitment, can you give us some color on where rolling margins are? And to what extent are the rolling margins compensating for the working capital drag?

Thanks, and thanks, T. Good question. I think on this one, I'll answer very clearly is that we need to understand the pricing as a whole. Firstly, higher LME pricing is metal. which, as we always state, is a pass-through to the customer as a whole. One of the key variables also is there's geo premiums that we've seen -- not just due to the high LME price, but also due to geopolitical activities that's been happening, shortage of aluminum in the sector, we've seen geo premiums also adjust accordingly higher. And then the last part is conversion margins itself. What I think I'm speaking specifically around Yul amin, with our focus on, firstly, a well-established cost reduction plan that we've had over the last 2 years. And over and above that with our investment in the wide can body and displacing wide imports, -- we've seen an uptake on rolling margins in -- particularly for -- or conversion price, should I say, for Yul amin. But it's definitely a win-win, especially with our can customers because from the wide project, as we advertised previously, they are able to make more cans due to the efficiencies that they will get. At the same time, we start getting back from the returns from the investment that we've made over the last 2 years.

Our next question is from Rohan from Chronix Research. The question reads, what has been the impact of the Middle East conflict on the aluminum and can market?

Okay. On this side, it's actually -- I'll explain it in 2 ways. First is the cost base. Just like all manufacturing companies, I think, in the world, but particularly in South Africa, Yulien is not dissimilar. We've definitely seen an uptake, particularly in energy costs that has gone up substantially from the time the Middle East conflict started, and we are continuously able to monitor it. Our reaction with regards to how we can continuously maintain our costs. I Pravasi mentioned that in H2, we're going after a further ZAR 100 million cost reduction that we've got planned. And I think just like all other manufacturers in South Africa, it's not a simple way to just be able to pass that to the customers. You also have to dig deep to be able to continue to strive to be globally competitive. From a market perspective, we've actually seen positive due to us being able to source our -- where we source all our metal locally in South Africa from South32 and obviously, scrap supplies within South Africa. We've seen an uptick, particularly in Europe with regard to demand as a result of Middle East, not only in volume, but also in pricing, which we're looking into H2. And I think in my commentary that we've put out, that's what we talk about global canon pricing, in particular, going up.

And our next question is also from Rowan again from Chronux Research, and it reads as follows: how long are the specialists going to be retained for the operational skills transfer?

Okay. So firstly, the one thing, key thing that we at Yulin has embarked on is to make sure that we have the special skills, and I highlighted 4 areas that we're focusing on right now from coolant to roll grinding to casting and so forth. Now these technical experts have been with me from -- been with us from last year November. And where we are right now is a formalized skills transfer to all levels at Yul amin. -- and that we're looking to complete during H2.