IPD Group Limited (IPG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you very much, and a big warm welcome to everybody to our financial year '24 half year results. I'm coming to you today from Downtown, Phuket in Thailand, where I'm here for one of our major vendors, Socomec, a channel partner conference. So hopefully, the clarity of the audio hold in today. But if not for some chance that it doesn't, I've got with me today Jason Boschetti, who's our Chief Financial Officer; and I've got Mohamed Yoosuff, who is Executive Director and Head of Strategic Development. For those of you who haven't met me before, my name is Michael Sainsbury, and I'm the CEO of the company. So welcome to the call. I will talk through what slide we're on. So for those of you who are transitioning through a slide deck, you can keep up with it. Just moving on to Slide #2 at the moment. In terms of what we'll share today, obviously, the '24 half year results, we'll talk a little bit about an overview of the results we have achieved, I'll then hand over to Jason Boschetti who will do a deeper dive into some of the financial performance of the company. From there, we'll move into a market and business update, and close off with a deep dive into our strategy and our outlook for the business and then time permitting question and answers at the end of the session. Moving on to Slide 3, that overview and now Slide 4. It would be remiss of me not to start with showing our company vision and mission. We realigned this around about 12 months ago to be more adapted to our business model, and it remains the same as it has when we did that change 12 months ago. Our vision is to help build a future where sustainable electrical infrastructure creates a better life for all. How are we going to do that? Well, our mission is obviously, to enhance every aspect of infrastructure through energy efficiency, automation and secure connectivity while prioritizing the safety and well-being of everybody. Slide 5. So the business has evolved a lot over the last couple of years. And obviously, the value proposition of our business into the market has grown substantially, organically and also via acquisition. And here, I just want to give you a little bit of clarity around what IPD Group consists of from a business perspective. First and foremost, in the top left-hand corner there, our traditional IPD business, which is a product distribution business, and we take to market technology offers either as loose components or customized solutions. Those customized solutions we build in-house in our Sydney office, our head office, and predominantly, our offer is around power distribution, energy management, automation and motor control. That has been the core of our business since we had the IPO, embarked on the IPO in 2005. On the top right-hand corner there, we talk about the Addelec business. And you'll see for the first time there, I'm actually including Gemtek into that Addelec logo there. I'll talk more to that in future slides, but we will be integrating Gemtek into that Addelec business. And as I say, I'll talk more to that in a future slide. So what is Addelec. Addelec is a complete electrical engineering service provider focusing on high- and low-voltage projects, with a specialization around EV charging infrastructure, and that gives you some lane to the reason about bringing Gemtek into that business. Down the bottom left, an acquisition, EX Engineering that we closed off in July of 2023. EX Engineering is a very specialized business in the supply, modification, repair and design of hazardous area electrical equipment. It's a high compliance industry, highly legislated, big difficult barriers for entry for new players and a substantial part of our business moving forward. And last, but certainly not least, CMI Electrical, which was the acquisition, which we closed off in January of 2024. There's 2 parts to that CMI business. They are a distributor or we are a distributor of electric cables for the market, and it's a great synergy with the IPD business because everything we sell hangs off the back of a cable, and they are the manufacturer and distributor of specialty plugs that go into the hazardous area space as well. So they are the 4 businesses that consist of, that make up IPD Group, and I'll talk more specifically to each of them in coming slides. Before I do that, obviously, just a quick corporate snapshot, and I won't go through this line by line. Share price as at the 20th of February was $5.30. We have just over 103 million on issue. We have a net debt of $23.7 million. Important to point out that, that wasn't actually realized until the 31st of January, where the acquisition of CMI was closed off. We have a market capitalization at that share price of $5.30 of $547 million. From a Board perspective, 4 members of that Board. It's a very cohesive and well-operating Board. David Rafter is an NonExe Chair, and he does that role out of Brisbane. Andrew Moffat is a NonExe Director based out of Perth and both Mohamed and I, as Executive Directors based out of Sydney. While the acquisition of CMI and the subsequent raise to be able to fund that diluted the shareholding of the board, the management, employees. It's fair to say that it's still a substantial part of the shareholding breakdown. And on the left-hand side there, we're showing our share performance back to our listing date in 2021, which has been a strong result. Moving on to Slide 7. So from a results overview perspective, obviously, continued growth for the group, driving earnings to the top end of our guidance range. First thing I'll talk to there is revenue at $120.7 million, up 8.8% on the prior comparative period. Underlying EBITDA at $16.5 million, up $23.1 million, underlying EBIT at $14 million, up $21.7 million and the net profit at $9.8 million, up 22.5%. I know that there will be some people online questioning the strong result at a bottom line, however, not as strong at a top line, and it's very, very simple. There was a lack of major projects invoiced during the first half of the year. And when we go out and we talk to all the people online individually, we always say about the possibility of projects slipping from half to half and being out of our control. So what you're literally seeing in the first half of the year, there is a run rate business, and it's actually quite a strong result to be achieving that sort of growth without any major projects in the first half of the year. And it does demonstrate the strength in our operating model. That when we do have less major projects, it gives us a higher margin yield, which promotes strong bottom line results. When there's not -- when there's more major projects, that bottom line result is driven by higher volume. However, it comes with some margin erosion when we do that. So realistically, that's a run rate result and quite a solid result considering there hadn't been a great deal of projects in the first half of the year. It's not that those projects don't exist, but certainly and I'll talk more to it in the presentation. We just expect them to potentially roll into the next half and ongoing. From an earnings per share perspective, $0.108, up $0.161 on the prior comparative period. Net assets of $142.7 million, obviously, up from $72.9 million at June 30 last year, which was predominantly influenced by the $65 million raise. Net cash of $70.5 million. We do point out though, obviously, the $23.7 million of debt as of the 31st of January. We successfully raised $65 million worth of capital in December 2023, with a very, very, very strong uptake from all the investors, and thank you very much for your support. And our services products revenue split is 91% products, 9% services. We have announced a dividend -- approved the dividend of $0.046 per share fully franked. Moving on to Slide 8, financial performance. And at this point in time, I'll hand over to Jason Boschetti to talk with a little bit more depth about the financial results. Over to you, Jason.

Great. Thank you, Michael, for everyone on the call. I'm Jason Boschetti, the Chief Financial Officer, and I'm pleased to announce a record half year performance for the half year ended 31st of December 2023. We're on to Slide 9 at the moment for the financial overview. EX Engineering was acquired on the 21st of July, contributing just over 5 months of earnings towards the group result. The acquisition of EX Engineering and our growing daily trade business relative to projects delivered expanding gross profit, EBITDA, EBIT and net PAT margins. EX Engineering continues to perform well, and they're tracking towards earn-out targets for FY '24. Growing daily trade business, again, relative to projects has resulted in stronger gross profit margins for the group. And this is a notable highlight in the table to your right, an increase of 2.4% on the prior comparative period to an average gross profit margin of 40% for the half year ended. In December, $65 million of new capital was raised and the acquisition of CMI Operations completed on the 31st of January. And there are a number of other highlights on the table to the right, and I'll touch on them in the slides to come. On to Slide 10. Sales and earnings growth, record revenue and EBITDA results for the group. As Michael has mentioned, revenue of $120.7 million was up 8.8% on the prior comparative period. The acquisition of EX Engineering and our growing daily trade business contributed to the group's revenue growth. EBITDA of $16.5 million, however, is up 23.1% on the prior comparative period on an underlying basis. The timing of some major projects into the second half of FY '24 has resulted in stronger margin recognition in the first half of FY '24 to all the points that Michael has already discussed in the highlights slide. EX Engineering's high EBITDA margins has contributed to the growing first half results. And it's worth pointing out, I guess, that graph to the right, showing IPD's recent history of ongoing EBITDA growth and strengthening EBITDA margins half-on-half every half for the last 3 years. The group's operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased on the prior comparative period as the group recognizes the full cost base of strategic investment made last year as announced, such as the recruitment of the specification, focused business development managers and the group's expansion into our new warehouse facility out at Eastern Creek. On to the next Slide 11, pro forma financial performance. Now this slide presents the first half of FY '23 and FY '24 on a pro forma basis. This means it includes the financial performance of EX Engineering prior to acquisition, and it excludes the acquisition-related costs. Now these pro forma financials demonstrates IPD sales and earnings growth because on this comparable pro forma basis, IPD has still delivered gross profit, EBITDA, EBIT and net PAT growth during the first half of FY '24. Again, that's contributed back to growing daily trade business in the traditional IPD business relative to projects, and that's resulted in stronger gross profit margins for the group. Strengthening gross profit margins have offset the operating cost increases as the group recognizes the full cost base of those strategic investments mentioned in the previous slide. It's worth pointing out on the table to the right that double-digit pro forma net PAT growth is up 11.5% on the prior comparative period. And as already mentioned, Ex Engineering continues to track towards their earn-out targets for FY '24. I can click on to next Slide 12. Now onto IPD's balance sheet. As of the 31st of December, the group had $142.7 million of net assets on its balance sheet. That's after the $65 million of additional capital that was raised in December for the acquisition of CMI Operations. $70.5 million in net cash was available at the 31st of December for the acquisition of CMI, which completed in January. And on the 31st of January, the group utilized $31.1 million from the newly acquired $40 million CBA debt facility to partly fund the acquisition of CMI operations. Post completion of the acquisition of CMI, the group now holds $23.7 million of net debt as at the 31st of January 2024. If we click on to the next slide, Slide 13, continued investment for future growth. Net working capital of $48.2 million. The main driver for our increase in net working capital in the half has been increased in inventory holdings. So inventory increased by $7.6 million on the prior corresponding period. But it's worth noting that over $2.5 million of that is contributed by EX Engineering post-acquisition. So that's just over $5 million of increased inventory for the traditional IPD business. Now similar to last year, the inventory build in the first half of the year is going to be used to support the ongoing revenue growth into the second half of the year. And some of that inventory stock profile is inventory for projects, as Michael mentioned, that will kick off in the second half of the year. Cash conversion increased 11% on the prior comparative period, but as expected, the inventory build has resulted in operating free cash flow conversion. That's before interest and tax of only 50%. However, it's still an improvement on the prior comparative period. And a lot of that net working capital growth will be used for growth into H2. Dividend of $0.046 per share, $9.5 million in net PAT from ordinary activities, that's after acquisition costs for the first half of the year, that's up 18.8% and on the prior comparative period. Fully franked interim dividend of $0.046 per share was declared for the first half of FY '24, and that equates to a payout of approximately $4.8 million and a payout ratio of 50%. Again, I'm pleased to announce this record half year performance with Michael and Mohamed today. Now let me hand back to CEO, Michael Sainsbury, to take you through the market and business update on Slide 14.

Thanks, Jason. Yes. So as Jason mentioned, Slide 14, market and business update, moving straight into Slide 15. So obviously, the first 6 months saw changes in the market dynamics as the supply chain improved in certain market segments rebounded. It's fair to say from a supply chain perspective, we're back to a normalized level now, obviously, post COVID. And certainly, from costings and from a lead time perspective, things have normalized. There's a little bit of a glitch at the moment with supply chain challenges around the Suez Canal and some increased costs, but we expect that to be relatively short term, and it's not affecting a massive part of our portfolio. So as a business, if I talk about the 3 things there that we've certainly been the beneficiary of and we're focusing heavily on with our diverse range of technologies. What that does, having a diverse range of technologies and solutions, obviously, it's enhanced the group's performance in those focused segments. But it also does give us -- that diversity gives us strength to be able to capitalize on the digital transformation and the electrification of the economy that is currently in front of us and the ability to be able to sell a bigger portfolio and increase market shares to our customers. It also does give us some protection for any potential future downturns in any particular area. Having a broad product suite gives us the ability to be able to leverage into other areas if indeed there was any downturn at any stage in the future. But there's nothing that I can see there that would influence that at the moment. From a data center perspective, we're seeing a massive increase -- continuous increase in the data center space. The implementation and the uptake of AI is certainly driving a lot of this, as this is just general data storage, both at a business level and a personal level, and certainly, the quotation activity and the business activity in this space is continuing to increase. On the EV charging side and the associated infrastructure to go with EV charging, it's fair to say that the first couple of years have been a little bit slower than what we had hoped, and the uptake has been a little bit slower. But with certain -- the rubber is starting to certainly hit the road, and we're seeing it steadily expanding, particularly in the space of new developments. And there was an update for the National Construction Code recently, and it is now a legislative requirement for any new buildings to be ready for EV charging. So what does that mean? It means they don't necessarily have to put EV chargers into the buildings -- new buildings just yet, but they have to make those buildings EV ready, which means they have to have upgraded transformers and substations to be able to provide the energy to fund it when it does happen. It means bigger switchboards. It means more distribution boards, more components and certainly having a positive impact on the overall infrastructure that sits in behind that EV charging. So our results are certainly are being benefited from the infrastructure upgrades going into those new builds and the larger order size now on the back of larger infrastructure requirements. Slide 16. And that's where I start to go into a little bit deeper dive into each of the businesses that I spoke about earlier in the presentation. I'll start with the core business, the traditional IPD business. Jason mentioned it earlier, we will continue to invest and expand our strategic sales team there. This is a team that are working on demand creation and specification. Predominantly, the IPD business has worked at a transactional level and I guess, negotiation point at the point of order with our customers. And that's been very successful for us, but there is a large opportunity and a large quantum that sits there, which is in, what we call, specification. And this is a team that aren't necessarily focused on getting an order today, it's more about getting our parts, our products, our vendors, technology specified for projects that may be 18 months, 2 years into the future. The investment in this space is not necessarily going to give maximum return in the short term, while we are seeing some wins from it, but the maximum return, the large -- the leverage from that will come more into the future, and we'll continue to invest in that space. The second thing there, we do an annual technology roadshow. This year, we're going to be highlighting our motor control innovations. The roadshow will be called Envision, where we'll be going around to every state promoting the technology offer we have and our capabilities in this motor control space. We do it in every state, and we get a large attendance, upwards of 100 customers to each of those events, and we get the likes of the consultants, the engineers, the contractors, the switchboard builders, a good diverse range of people attending those, and that generally comes with a positive impact on the back of that because we're promoting some strong technology. Supplier additions, since we last spoke, I think we've mentioned it before, but it has been all signed off now. We're taking ABB's high-efficiency motors to market. Since we last spoke, we have signed an agreement just recently with a company called Solexy, which is a wireless technology for hazardous areas. It's predominantly in the telecommunication space. It's a new addition to our offer. It will have benefits for the IPD business, but it'll also be able to leverage some benefits into the EX Engineering space, which also plays in this hazardous area space. So a really strong offer, a world-class brand Solexy, and that will certainly open up some opportunities for us. In terms of key projects, 55 Pitt Street Sydney, which is probably Sydney's most high-end marquee commercial installation and a very, very good win for us as an organization. And not only did we get the order for the switch gear, which is traditionally where we've been strong, we also got the Busduct. We also got the UPS's, which were a newly introduced offer to our portfolio, and obviously, the switchboard systems and the switchgear. Some of the revenue for this project has been recognized in the first half of the year. A large portion of it will be recognized in the second half of the year. And some of the inventory we're holding is to support that project. That data center, which is a data center down in Victoria. It's actually stage 2. We were successful in stage 1 in the previous financial year's results. Stage 2 has now been rolled out, and we have been successful in Stage 2 with all of the low-voltage switchgear in that particular project. And there's still a couple of stages to go on that project for the future. And lastly, for Transgrid, we implemented the digital substation automation. We specifically supply the communication hardware for that. Obviously, a high-end client Transgrid and one we're very proud to be associated with and to be successful in as well. If I move on to the Addelec, Gemtek business, we will be integrating Gemtek into the Addelec business. Realistically, the reasons for doing that are so simple that every quote that Gemtek does for EV charging hardware, a large component of that quote is in the electrical infrastructure to be able to power the charges, and they were getting quotations of Addelec and putting a margin on that and taking it to market. We had 2 different teams. We had 2 different estimating teams, 2 different project management teams, and it just didn't make sense. So to bring those 2 businesses together and have the one business able to provide a quotation for all of the infrastructure and the EV charging on one quotation and making it more competitive from a pricing perspective made absolute fit. This integration will be set to be completed by the 1st of July. We already have started all of the changes, the required changes and people -- managing the people and the resources internally, and it's certainly anticipated to boost the operational efficiencies of that business there. Post the integration, Addelec will undergo a rebranding to communicate the market a clear updated message and we want to make sure we continue with the brand equity that consists of both of those. So the communication plan will be very thorough, making sure everyone understands the integration of those 2 businesses. And Addelec is certainly poised with that integration to meet the increasing demand for efficient electrical infrastructure within the sustainable energy sector. So that's a really good one for us. In terms of key projects, we completed the full design and construct of the high-voltage infrastructure for Cloud Carrier data center, which is a data center that's down in the Southern Highlands. We have completely recognized the revenue for the design, the construct and the implementation, the HV side is currently being done. So there will be revenue recognition into the second half of the year with all of the construction around that data center. We were successful in doing the design and constructive 2 NRMA, high-powered 350-kilowatt rapid EV charging sites in South Australia. This is the start of NRMA's rollout. We have received orders for at least another 10 sites and I think more than that now. And we have a very strong relationship with NRMA and working closely with them for their rollout around the country. We've supplied substations to BP for 16 EV charging sites. This is where BP are obviously looking to embark on EV charging. And the power that was provided at those sites previously wasn't enough to be able to fund those charges. So we have provided the substations, the upgraded substations to provide the power required for those 16 sites. And excitingly, we secured the design and construct contract for the electrification of Australia's largest bus depot. There's 170 buses. It's in New South Wales in Kingsgrove, which is Southwest Sydney. We've received the order from transport, and we're working through the terms and conditions with them at the moment. There's been no revenue recognition. And certainly, the next half, this will be fully recognized and even into the first half of the following year. So certainly a massive win for us as an organization and a reflection of the value that we can bring to the market in that space. EX Engineering, one of our acquisitions, July 2023. The point we want to make here is that we'll continue to run it as a separate organization. We will focus on sales, synergies and some cost synergies, but certainly the main focus around sales synergies. Our main focus here is to expand this EX Engineering business on a national scale. Obviously, EX Engineering by virtue of history are very much per centric, and we want to take that into a national footprint, substantial opportunity up in the northern part of Queensland in the Hunter and Newcastle areas in New South Wales, into South Australia, into the northern part of South Australia with a lot of mining applications in those areas. And we want -- to do that, we'll need to open up a new custom assembly manufacturing facility on the East Coast, replicating what EX has on in Perth on the West Coast. And we're working with the EX Engineering and the traditional IPD business to set that up. And realistically, it's just an expansion of what we already do from a nonhazardous area around custom assembly into our facility in Wetherill Park. Key projects that EX have been successful in the first half of the year, Bardex which is a USA-based mooring system company in the liquefied natural gas space. We were successful, the project was, what's called Chevron Jansz-Io project. We were successful in securing the order for a number of EX and non-EX control panels on behalf of Bardex. What's really important here is that they want to partner with a local company to ensure that the compliance to the Australian standards, and they selected EX Engineering on the basis of, obviously, the skill set, the knowledge, the experience they have in this space. So a big win for us. CBH, which is a grain storage company. There's 100 sites around Perth and they had grain storage sheds on there, which are being upgraded. The current order we have is for the long lead time items for the first stage only, and we expect significant revenue opportunities on the back of this one to be recognized by EX Engineering, while they upgrade those 100 sites over the next 12 months. Woodside there, floating production storage which is the same sort of facility we're talking about in point one there. We were successful in getting the variable speed drive conversion for the cranes for that particular site. And Woodside being a high-end client, very premium clients shows the value proposition that EX bring. And Chevron, we did the panel wiring modification for the crane for the Chevron site as well. So some really high-profile projects and some good successes there in the first 6 months. CMI, again, importantly point out, we'll continue to run it as a separate organization, focusing on sales, synergies, leveraging off the relationship of the traditional IPD business with a large contract, the electrical contractor network and look to grow their revenue from sales synergies. Two areas of focus here. Obviously, cables, it goes into infrastructure projects. It goes into construction. It goes in the industry. Obviously, the electrification of the economy that I mentioned before, it's attached to all of the same phenomenon that the traditional IPD business is. And we're looking to sell more cable into more customers and leveraging off the relationships that we have in the IPD business to be able to create more revenue stream for CMI and cable. And then on the plug side, the Minto line, which is a well-established hazardous area plug system. Before IPD acquired the CMI business, they developed a Minto to offer, which is more for above-ground applications. And without getting too in depth, it's predominantly around 11,000 volt couplers. This is going to be -- the upside here is going to be driven towards the decarbonization, further investment into Australian mining and above ground opportunities. But it also comes into infrastructure projects. And I know they were very successful in a project the Sydney West tunnel and all of the Minto offer was successful in being implemented in that project as well. If I talk about our revenue split for the first half of the year. From a product perspective, $109.8 million of our revenue was derived from the product side, 53% and a large portion of that coming from power distribution, important point, and I'll refer to this in the next slide. And then a good spread across the rest of our portfolio with industrial and motor control, automation, power monitoring. And you can see now with the acquisition of EX Engineering, hazardous area 8% of our total portfolio. On the services side, $10.9 million, 46% coming from installation and commissioning, which includes design and a good spread on the other side there of calibration and testing, maintenance and repair. And you can see the emergence of electric vehicle solutions in that space where they're providing the infrastructure to support those EV charging solutions. If I talk on a pro forma level, and I know this is the first half 2024 update, but it would be remiss of me not to talk about some of the benefits and some of the advantages and positive results that come out of the acquisition of CMI. If I was the pro forma the 2023 revenue of the business, it would have seen a revenue of $331 million, 31% of that would have come from the CMI business and 69% of that, the traditional IPD group business. Sorry, I didn't mention I'm on Slide 19. I've been a bit slack there in the last couple of slides. The top right-hand corner there covers the pro forma 2023 revenue into the product portfolio. What you can see there, the big thing to call out is 32% of our offer now. Our revenue is coming from power distribution, which has dropped from 53% on the previous slide. So a much better split of the product portfolio across our organization. You can see cable is now 25% and up in the top left-hand corner that is plugs, which is the Minto plugs from CMI, representing 6%. So a much better spread from a revenue perspective across the product portfolio. And the end markets, some small changes there, commercial construction not too much change there. And that's because the CMI business sell a large portion of their cable into commercial-type environment, so similar sort of ratios to the traditional IPD business. But you can see that resources and mining has jumped out at 14% as a result of the plugs, the Minto plugs. Data centers, while it's dropped from 8% of our revenue to 5%, that's the dilutive effect of the acquisition, but certainly still growing fast. And important to point out that residential construction, and there are certainly some challenges in that space at the moment, is actually a lot less than it was before at lower than 1% because neither CMI nor EX Engineering really sell into the residential space. So we're moving further and further -- less -- even less concentration in that residential construction space. So what does that mean? Obviously, this brings a reduced reliance on single vendors and gives a much better spread around our vendor concentration. You can see in that slide, and we're on Slide 20, my apologies. You can see in the graph there, the 2023 revenue, 44% of our revenue was derived from ABB and 62% from the top 5 vendors. The acquisition has brought a dilutive effect to that with ABB now only 38% and the top 5 vendors now 53% of our portfolio. Obviously, the spread -- the much broader spread of our portfolio gives some protection around risk, which we identified at the IPO being a distribution model with less concentration on those key vendors but it also give -- having a bigger suite of product gives us the ability to navigate through the ups and downs in the industry by aligning into the different product portfolios where that growth is evident. Slide 21 talks about strategy and outlook, and I'll move straight into that now into Slide 20 -- 22, our strategic priorities. No changes here. It's to look at acceleration of growth and synergies across the IPD Group of portfolios. We will, with our acquisitions, focus very heavily on sales, synergies within the IPD group of companies. We have already launched a lead-sharing incentive to the business, which rewards individuals who find opportunities that the revenue won't be recognized by their particular business unit or them as an individual, and they'll be financially rewarded for promoting those and providing those opportunities to other businesses in the IPD business. So a strong focus on sales synergies to help the acquired companies grow at an aggressive rate. From an organic growth perspective, our aspiration is to grow at double the market rate. And even though we haven't had a lot of major projects in the first half of the year, the 8.8% revenue growth is still in line with double the market growth there. Fair indication, all indications are that the market is growing somewhere between 3% and 5%. So 8.8% growth without any major project paramount in there is a strong result. We wanted to expand our customer base for our existing products. We want to sell more of what we have to more people. And our sales resources are mobilized to achieve that and obviously increase our market share. And we want to leverage new technologies and bring on new portfolios to tap into these emerging market trends, the introduction of new product portfolios and I spoke to ABB mergers, and I spoke to the Solexy hazardous area telecommunications product in the last 6 months. And last but not least, around acquisitions, while we've been very active in this space in the last 12 months, we will continue to pursue acquisitions that strategically enhance the earnings for the organization and, importantly, have a good cultural fit with the company. We'll seek synergies for value creation and increase market share through those acquisitions. And we will achieve some economies of scale by realizing cost synergies through the group's shared services model. As those businesses expand, the cost model for that expansion in the IPD Group will be less than what it would have been potentially if they were still out on their own. So from a strategic perspective, nothing changes, organic double the market growth, expanding our product portfolio, selling more of what we have to more people and leveraging off the sales synergies across the organization. Moving on to Slide 23, the outlook. And I know you've all been waiting for this and we kept it from the last slide to keep you all interested and looking forward to seeing this. The outlook for our market remains buoyant. The tailwinds from the electrification of the economy continue to have a positive impact and the group is expecting a number of significant projects to commence in the second half of the year. The overall outlook for the business remains positive. I am extremely confident in the shape of the organization. We're in very good shape. And I think we are well poised to capitalize in the second half of the year of some of these major projects, some of which have already been booked as orders, some of which we expect to be placed early in this half of the year and the revenue to be recognized in this half and in future periods as well. Slide 23, we'll move into question and answers -- sorry, Slide 24. Before I do, obviously, the disclaimer that's attached to this presentation, I encourage you all to read through that and understand that. And last but not least, I want to thank you for your time today. We're very proud of the result we have achieved, record performance for the organization, and thank you for your continued support moving forward. And I'll hand over for questions and answers now.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Philip Pepe of Shaw and Partners.

Michael and Co, well done on a record result. Just trying to understand the operating lease, obviously, great increase in the EBIT margin, you're kind of suggesting some revenue shift from first half to second half. Looking at the gross profit, we're pretty up -- pretty strongly on the PCP sort of 37.5 versus 40. Recent history, you've done 38. So is 38, what we can expect for full year as revenue for one of a better phase normalizes in the second half? And then second and related question. Freight expenses went backwards by about $350,000 despite the revenue increase. What drove that? Is it just less volume? Or is price come down?

So I'll talk -- thanks, Philip. I appreciate the question. I'll answer the first part, and then I'll hand over to Jason for the second part of that. You're absolutely right, and I appreciate you bringing it up. The second half of the year could completely be a quantum shift around the results we're putting forward today. When we expect some of those major projects to fall in the second half of the year, it will have a dilutive impact on the margins because those projects are highly negotiated and certainly very visible around pricing. So the answer to your question is, yes, I expect in the second half of the year, the EBIT margins -- sorry, the gross margins will somewhat normalize around that maybe not 38, but somewhere around that number, maybe a little bit higher than that. But the revenue would certainly underpin that and a strong revenue growth would underpin that. That as I mentioned, the strength in our operating model is that if projects -- the major projects are nonexistent. We have strong gross margin realization, which has a positive impact. And if they are present, it's driven by revenue growth. I will also say and credit to all of our sales team and our people in the company, there has been a real success has been our pricing management over the last 12 months, just in day-to-day business, too, and there's been a strong focus on it. So I appreciate all the efforts of our team and that certainly influenced the strong result of 40% gross margin. But I'll hand over to Jason to talk there about the second part of your question.

Michael, yes, just to, I guess, support your answer there, Michael, is, yes, looking at that gross margin realization to the second half of the year will somewhat be supported by the acquisitions as well. So I'd be remiss not to consider the impact that EX Engineering, of course, the nature of their business via margin business and IPD's traditional business as well as CMI into the second half of the year will dynamically shift those gross profit margins. And then on freight expense, you'll notice feel, I guess, the big shift there is probably a bit more of a higher services revenue play in the first half of this year versus last year. So there have been, I guess, a little bit of impact on freight pricing. But I guess the most of it is just the mix of revenue and the mix of product.

[Operator Instructions] The next question we have will come from Sam Brandwood, BP.

Good work and well done on another good result as well. Could you just please give us, I guess, a feel for the second half order book in value terms? I know it's a little bit of a bastardized approach, but could you also comment on how that compares to a year ago as well?

So the quick answer to your question, Sam, is no. I won't give any clarity around the order book because truthfully, and this first half year has shown that there can be so easily slippage of some of the major projects into the following period, and I create an expectation that may not necessarily be resulted. So I won't put any quantum to it other than to say to you that with -- and I repeat what I've already said, there are some major projects and quite a few of those. We expected to have substantial impact on the revenue for the second half of the year. I don't know if there was another part of your question that I may have missed, what was it, Sam?

Just how it compared to a year ago, but that's fine, Michael. I'll just move on to the second question and it relates to ABB and [indiscernible] which I tend to ask most results. Do you have any view on how ABB and [indiscernible] grow for you in first half '24?

Yes. Because there was no major projects in the first half of the year or not none, a lack of major projects, ABB, a lot of the revenue, when I spoke about the major projects in the earlier slides, a lot of that is ABB. So I expect the second half of the year to be much stronger from an ABB perspective than it has been in the first half of the year. And -- but I will say, day-to-day, it's still growing significantly the day-to-day business. Now that doesn't necessarily have the material large impact that a couple of major projects would, but certainly, day-to-day business is tracking, and we're selling more of it on a day-to-day basis to customers to just use in their day-to-day operations. On the [indiscernible] side, though, it is still aggressively growing at the same sort of rate it has been before. And that's further reinforcement of the changes in the standards and the alignment to the IEC-61439. There's new customers coming over on a daily basis to our steel. And we launched a couple of years ago an outdoor switchboard system and what we call our EXT56, and that certainly is opening up a lot of new opportunities for us. So strong growth on steel, good growth on ABB on a day-to-day perspective, but I expect it to be much higher in the second half on the back of some of these major projects.

Yes. Okay. And just a couple more sort of follows on from the ABB as well. I noticed that you've secured the Motors division for ABB. Do you have any idea or could you give us some color on how big that is or how meaningful it is for the group?

So here, look, it's -- ABB has a fairly low market share in this space at the moment. Without getting too complex, the market predominantly at the moment is what we call low-efficiency motors and that's called IE1, IE2 motors. And ABB is more aligned to a high-efficiency motor, which is IE3, IE4 applications. I don't expect you guys to understand that. What that means is the revenue at this point in time will be not so significant, but as a shift towards renewal, towards decarbonization and better use of our energy and reducing our carbon footprint becomes more paramount, those high-efficiency motors will come into their own. To give you some sort of quantum, I expect probably in the next 12 months sort of maybe $3 million to $4 million worth of revenue coming from those mergers, with potential growth over the next 5 years to sort of $10 million to give you some sort of indication, Sami?

And just finally on CMI and the growth expectations that you guys have for the acquisition, how is it going so far? I know it's only been about a month, but do you have any idea about synergies, growth? And how does that relate, I guess, to the rest of the business in terms of your expectations?

So I will say that the integration of the CMI business in the first month has been exceptional. The interaction at a senior management level, at an operational level has been significant. There's already been 2 projects for cable projects that CMI have been successful on that they wouldn't have been successful if it wasn't for the introduction from one of the IPD staff. So we're already seeing the fruits of that coming to fruition even at a very early perspective. Because they're attached to the group now, obviously, they come with the same expectations that we do as a total business. And the expectation is there, it's sort of growing at double the market rate. And because they are attached to a large extent, to a lot of the same phenomenon that the traditional IPD business is. We would expect the same sort of quantums in that business as we do the rest of the organization. On the connected side, maybe even a little bit more than that because they're moving into a complete new market where they haven't had any revenue recognition in the past. So I expect, again, just to summarize, double the market growth from the CMI business moving forward.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, there are no questions. I'll now hand the conference back over to Mr. Sainsbury for any closing remarks. Sir?

Thank you very much to everybody for joining us today. I repeat that we're extremely proud of the results we've achieved, and we're really excited about the second half of the year, with some strong projects to underpin a good results. So thank you for your ongoing support, and thanks for taking the time to be with us today, and I'm going to go and enjoy the beautiful weather of Phuket for the next hour or so until I'm on some calls for the rest of the day. So thank you very much, and take care everybody.