IPD Group Limited (IPG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the IPD Group Limited HY '25 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Michael Sainsbury, CEO, for the opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thank you very much, and welcome, everybody. Very pleased to be with you today. Thanks for taking the time to join us for obviously, some outstanding results for the FY '25 first half year results. For those of you who are viewing the webinar today, you'll be able to advance through the slides, and I'll sporadically call out what slide number we're up to, to keep you on track. So moving straight into it. Slide 2 is just around notice and disclaimer and then the presenters on Slide 3. Today in the room, obviously, myself as the Executive Director and CEO for the group; Jason Boschetti as the CFO for the group; and we are joined by Mohamed Yoosuff, who's Executive Director and Head of Strategic Development for the organization as well, although it will predominantly be Jason and I speaking today. Moving forward to Slide 4. A little bit of an overview of just the agenda, what we'll cover today. We'll obviously give you a good overview of the IPD Group business. And I know a lot of you who are online today would already be familiar with the business. We'll talk a little bit about the financial performance and give some highlights there around that. We'll then go into a market and business update, an overview and a continuation of the outlook of our strategy and moving forward, what our outlook will be and then the time for some questions and answers at the end. Moving forward to Slide 6. That just covers our vision and mission. Again, a lot of you would be familiar considering your understanding of our company. But for those of you who are new to us, our vision is to help build a future where sustainable electrical infrastructure creates a better life for all. Our organization is well placed to be able to deliver that, and we're certainly advanced in a lot of our actions around that. Our mission is to enhance every aspect of infrastructure through energy efficiency, automation and secure connectivity while prioritizing the safety and well-being of people. Moving on to Slide 7. The business. So IPD Group is the parent company and the listed entity. Underneath IPD Group, we have 4 very important different companies that represent the group. First and not in any -- actually, we'll do it in alphabetical order, so I don't upset anybody. The first business there is the Addelec Power Services business. Addelec was an acquisition for the business going back around about 5 or 6 years ago. Addelec is a complete electrical engineering services provider that specialize in high and low-voltage projects with a very, very strong focus and specialization around EV charging infrastructure, which includes the EV hardware, but as importantly, all the electrical infrastructure to be able to feed the power requirements into that EV charging hardware. The second business there is our most recent acquisition, a business called CMI Electrical. CMI is a manufacturer and distributor of electrical cables, specialty plugs and couplers and receptacles for industrial applications with a strong skew towards underground activity, but not exclusively. The third business in the group is a company called EX Engineering was acquired just over 12 months ago. EX Engineering specialized in the supply, modification, repair and design of hazardous area electrical equipment. The acquisition was done -- just as I said, over 12 months ago. They are predominantly a WA-based business, but certainly, and we'll talk to it in the slide deck in slides coming about their expansion on the East Coast and the ability to deliver that in a more national footprint. And then last but not least, the traditional IPD business, which is what the company -- the business was built around. It is a power distribution, energy management, automation, product distribution, product and solutions with customized assembly services to be able to value add for our customers' requirements. So we can deliver it either as loose components or we can deliver it as a complete solution. Excuse me, there is a phone ringing in the background. We'll just get rid of that. Moving on to Slide 8, a little bit of a corporate snapshot. Obviously, our code -- our ticker code, IPG, our share price at $4.27, which was as of the 18th of February. Our IPO date was 17th of December 2021. We have just over 103 million shares on issue, 103.69 million. And net debt, pleased to say our net debt at the end of the first half of the year at $2.2 million, which is a substantial reduction on the previous period. And our market capitalization at that $4.27 share price of $4.43 (sic) [ $443 million ]. From a Board perspective, we have a very cohesive, well operating and knowledgeable and certainly in a wide range of expertise Board. David Rafter is our Non-Exec Chair; Andrew Moffat as a Non-Exec Director; myself as Executive Director and CEO; and Mohamed Yoosuff as Executive Director and Head of Strategic Development. On the bottom left there, we just show our share price migration since listing, and it's been an outstanding result from a share price realization perspective over that period. And on the bottom right there, we talk about our shareholder breakdown, where we have 17% of our ownership still by Board management and now employees and 80% of the holdings external to the company. Moving forward to Slide 9 and an overview of our results. The headline there says it all, continued growth exceeding the top end of our guidance. We put guidance out in November for the remainder of the year and pleased to say that we finished above the top end of that guidance. Revenue at $176.9 million, which represents a 46% -- 46.6% increase on the prior comparative period. EBITDA at $23.6 million, up 46.6% as well. EBIT at $20.2 million, up 47.4%, net profit at $13.3 million, up 40%, earnings per share at $0.129, which is up 19.4% on the prior period. We have operating free cash flow of $25.3 million, which represent a conversion in the first half of the year of 107.6%. Our net debt now at $2.2 million, a reduction of just over $6 million since we last reported on the 30th of June. An order backlog there of $92.7 million, which represents a 49% -- just in excess of 49% increase in our order backlog from the previous period, and we'll talk about that in coming slides. Really importantly, around safety, our lost time injury frequency rate is at 0, which is measured over the last 12 months as a factor of 1 million working hours. So a very strong safety diligence and a good result there. And we have pleasure to announce an interim dividend of 6.4% fully -- sorry, $0.064 fully franked, which is up 39.1% on the prior comparative period. So a very, very strong set of numbers that we're proud to bring to you today. If we move forward to Slide 10, where we head into the financial performance and then to Slide 11, we'll go into the detail of some of those financials, and I'll hand over to Jason Boschetti to go through that financials with you. Over to you, Jason.

Fantastic. Thanks, Michael. And I'm pleased to present the financial performance of IPD Group for the half year ending 31st of December 2024. As Michael mentioned, on the 25th of November, IPD's Board of Directors released the first half earnings guidance, and I'm proud to report that continued growth has ensured earnings exceed the top end of that earnings guidance range. The group delivered record revenue, EBITDA, EBIT and Net PAT results for the group. Revenue and EBITDA growth of 46.6% on the prior comparative period, and just to reinforce to the audience, CMI Operations was acquired in the second half of FY '24. So from a statutory basis, which is the presentation on this table, CMI is not reflected in the prior period results. So as expected on a first half comparative basis, CMI Operations lower operating gross profit margins has had a dilutive impact on the first half of FY '25. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 4.9%, which ensure that EBITDA and EBIT margins have held at 13.3% and 11.4%, respectively. On a full 6-month basis of EX Engineering and CMI Operations contributing to the group result, earnings per share grew 19.4% to $0.129 per share for the half. Now this earnings guidance demonstrates the success -- this -- sorry, this per share growth demonstrates the success of accretive acquisitions made in FY '24 and the strength of ongoing focus on mergers and acquisitions. Now I'll cover more of these details of the earnings highlights in the coming slides, and I'll skip forward to Slide 12, sales and earnings growth. Revenue of $176.9 million, up 46.6% on the prior comparative period. The acquisitions of EX Engineering and CMI Operations have contributed to this result. IPD's diverse product range has enabled IPD to pivot towards growing industries such as data center and water and wastewater. As expected, as mentioned before, CMI Operations lower operating gross profit margins have had a dilutive impact on the group consolidated gross profit margins. EBITDA of $23.6 million is also up 46.6% on the prior comparative period. And you'll see in the graph to the right, the growth in IPD's revenue and earnings, including strengthening margins over the 3-year period represented in the graph. Stable EBITDA margins for the first half, whilst investing in the operating cost base to generate our record order book. And I'll skip forward to Slide 13, pro forma financial performance. Just to reinforce, IPD acquired EX Engineering and CMI Operations last financial year and pro forma information represented includes the financial performance of EX Engineering and CMI Operations prior to acquisition and excludes acquisition-related costs. Our record order book transitions from daily trade to larger and more complex orders, which typically have longer lead times and less certainty around delivery and timing. This has resulted in a portion of our orders that would previously become invoiced revenue now sitting in our backlog. As Michael covered in the results overview slide, the group's order backlog, which is undelivered orders, has grown 49% to $92.7 million. Amidst wider macroeconomic challenges in the commercial construction sector, IPD Group delivered pro forma revenue growth of 2.3%. IPD's gross revenues for the core or traditional IPD business are up 5.2% on the pro forma prior comparative period as IPD's diverse product range has enabled IPD to pivot towards those emerging markets, as mentioned, particularly around data centers and water and wastewater. CMI Operations has 2 parts to its business, its receptacle and plugs business and its cable business. The cable business is largely attached to the commercial construction sector and gross revenues have declined 3.3% on the pro forma comparative period. And despite challenging market conditions in Australia, CMI continues to expand through export markets and focuses on product innovation. Additional operating cost base investments were made to generate and deliver the record order book, and these have impacted margins in the first half of FY '25. It's worth pointing out gross profit margins have remained consistent with the full year financial pro forma results of 35.4% for the full pro forma FY '24 period to 35.2% for the pro forma first half of FY '25. Moving forward to Slide 14, balance sheet. As at the 31st of December 2024, the group had $158.1 million in net assets on its balance sheet after the acquisition of CMI Operations on the 31st of January in 2024. As at the 31st of December, the group had net debt of $2.2 million, down from $8.8 million at the 30th of June, with $28.9 million in cash and $31.1 million in borrowings. As a result of that prudent cash management, subsequent to the half year-end, the group has repaid $10 million of core debt. As a result of the acquisition debt facility and associated noncurrent borrowings have been reduced to $21.1 million from $31.1 million. And this represents a repayment of approximately about 1/3 of the core debt just 12 months after the acquisition of CMI. Moving on to Slide 15, net working capital and dividend. Net working capital of $76.6 million. Inventory increased by $1.2 million on the 30th of June, the prior comparative period, whilst net working capital has remained consistent with the prior comparative period. Operating free cash flow, which is the operating cash flow before interest and tax outflows has rose -- risen to 107.6% during the half, and that's up from 50% in the prior comparative period. Operating free cash flows were $25.3 million for the half year. On to the bottom part of that presentation slide, dividend of $0.064 per share. So $13.4 million in Net PAT from ordinary activities is up 40% on the prior comparative period, and the directors have declared a fully franked interim dividend of $0.064 per share for the first half, and that's up 39% on the prior comparative period. $0.064 per share equates to a payout of $6.6 million and a payout ratio of 50%. Now I hand back to CEO, Michael Sainsbury, to take you through the market and business update.

Thanks, Jason. So we'll just skip through Slide 16 there and move straight to Slide 17. Ideally, obviously, the company continues to look to grow, and we'll look to attach ourselves to that growth through innovation and opportunity. We break that down into 3 areas. And ideally, we'll just talk a little bit about them now. Obviously, expanding our market reach. The organization has aspirations to -- and this is predominantly organically, we're talking here in expanding our market reach, growing to new regions, new industries, new customer segments and unlocking fresh revenue opportunities. Come to mind, electric motors, high-efficiency electric motors. We've embarked with an agreement with ABB for high-efficiency electric motors. We're launching a new switchboard offer into the second half of the year, which will give us the ability to expand into HVAC, where our switchboard offer has predominantly been more around power distribution. And there's a number of other activities that are happening there around new products, new activities, new geographies. From a nonorganic perspective, we also look to bolt that on with new acquisitions and new opportunities that align with the strategy of the organization. There's a good cultural fit and an adjacent attachment through the electrical industry. Strategic solutions, if I go back to organic growth, strategic solutions is part of our business where the market -- the opportunities tend to come out either as a design and construct where the market -- the end customer has the ability to choose what equipment they're going to use or they will come out fully specified by an electrical consultant, an engineer who's done a design. Our efforts have predominantly been in the first mantra there around that design and construct. In the last couple of years, we've invested heavily into that specification side. We're certainly starting to see the results of that, but we'll continue to expand into that space there, driving specification and demand creation. And we're also adding some specialists into that team around products where the expectations of the market is that we become the trusted adviser and we're able to provide selection and make sure there's conformance to standards, so we're expanding in with dedicated resources around UPS and motors to specialize and to be able to support our customers in these high-demand sectors. If I talk about data centers, and obviously, there's a massive opportunity there attachment for us in data centers. We've got continued growth in the data center space. It's up 25% as a percentage of our total revenue for 2024. I think it's moved from 12% of our total revenue to 15% of our total revenue. Energy efficiency gains, obviously, a lot of media attention around the DeepSeek AI models, how they're going to use a lot less energy. But I think for me, there could actually be a massive opportunity for us because while it will reduce the energy, the savings may be offset with more new sites. So I think for me, the sustained AI investments, while it drives lower cost, it may actually increase the AI deployment and potentially offset the energy savings while driving demand for data center expansion. So while there's some negative activity, negative media attention around it, I actually think it could be a very positive result for us. And at the end of the day, the opportunity size is so large that realistically, the opportunity for us is immeasurable. EV charging and infrastructure, we continue to be attached very strongly to that through not only the Addelec Power Services business, but through the IPD business. We're experiencing steady growth in there. It's driven by -- we're not necessarily getting into destination charging. We do sell destination chargers, but it's not our focus. We're focusing on new developments around the National Construction Code, which in the larger projects has up until now said that you have to make a building EV ready and the new changes to the National Construction Code will mandate for EV to actually be installed in -- EV chargers to be installed in the building. Once that comes out, that will certainly push a large uptake in commercial buildings and high-end, high-tier installations and drive a significant amount of investment into EV charging. Rising investment in the fleets, notable increase in companies doing electrifying their bus networks and trucks, cost efficiency and certainly overall efficiency there, obviously, including lower maintenance, reducing downtime and stabilizing energy costs, leading to long-term savings and a competitive edge. And we've had some real success in New South Wales and in WA. We've called out previously the Kingsgrove Bus Depot project in New South Wales, which is certainly moving along and starting to move along at a good rate of knots. And we've had some success with Perth Transit Authority over on the West Coast in their electrification of their bus depots and continue to quote a lot of opportunity there. Still strongly working with NRMA, still also working with BP around the service stations model and a whole lot of others as well. Moving on to Slide 18. Jason touched on before a diversified revenue. If I just, first of all, talk about the revenue by type, our products business represents 93% of our total revenue and our services model represents 7% of our total revenue. When we talk about products, power distribution, which is getting electricity safely and securely around the site, regardless of what that site is, is 36% of our total revenue. Cables, which is obviously the CMI acquisition is 22% of our revenue. Hazardous area equipment, 12% of our revenue, which is a steep increase on the back of the EX Engineering acquisition and a really good space to be in, highly legislated, highly regulated and certainly a good repeat business model in there. Industrial and motor control. So that is obviously turning motors on, controlling the speed of motors, protecting them. So 10% of our revenue attached there. Automation and industrial communications is around 8% of our total revenue. As mentioned before, services 7% and power monitoring at 5% of our total revenue. If we talk about the end markets there, commercial construction is still the most significant attachment to our business, and it has seen some challenging times in the last 12 months around that commercial construction. Infrastructure, industrial and mining is 22% of our business. I mentioned before data centers, the rise in data centers from 12% of our revenue to 15% of our revenue, water, wastewater to 13%, utilities at 5%, food and beverage at 3%. And as previously stated many times, not a massive attachment to the residential construction with less than 1% of our revenue coming from residential construction and the remaining 7% coming in more diversified areas around the rest of the market. Moving forward to Slide 19, just to give you a little bit more depth around the individual businesses. And this slide talks specifically to the highlights around the traditional IPD business, where we class ourselves as the energy efficiency and automation experts. Obviously, very, very strong growth there, driven by data centers, mining, HVAC and strong demand across the wholesale markets. While a lot of the wholesale markets are attached to residential and low-end commercial, we've certainly outperformed the market, taking market share in that wholesale space with our offer, and it shows the strength in our value proposition and the take-up of our customers over the last couple of years. Some major project wins in there, including software renewals, busduct. Busduct is an alternative to cable to be able to get power around the site. It's used substantially in critical buildings, which is data centers and hospitals. And we took all out some of the projects there, the Atlassian Headquarters, the One Circular Quay and the Melbourne Quarter Towers, which are all high-end marquee projects. We have certainly ongoing attachment to Amazon data centers, the supply and the infrastructure projects in Woolworths, where we've done an energy management rollout with a -- through a third party over the last 12 months. And as I mentioned, our wholesale business continues to grow significantly as well. A special call out to Yarra Trams, where we're doing some surge protection in there, which is protecting the tram system from lightning strikes. Our market expansion, obviously, we're looking to invest in putting a data center focused team together to be able to go and talk to the data center providers that have input into product selection here in Australia. We'll leave our ABB counterparts to do that specification on a global scale with the global providers, but there are a number of local providers who certainly look to local people to have input into specification and design, and we'll continue to focus heavily in that area. We're testing some new switchboards -- sorry, we've got 2 new manufacturers, switchboard manufacturers who have tested to the regulations of the AS/NZ 61439. You have to test the metal work that they produce with the switchgear as a combination. And unless you have testing there, you can't validate compliance. So 2 large switchboard builders have now tested with our equipment, which allows us to be able to capitalize on that. And certainly, as I mentioned before, expansion of our Wholesale Stockist Program. In terms of partnership and innovation, we're certainly looking to technologically and digitally transform our organization to make it a better user experience. We're using external consulting services to enhance our digitization. We're looking at introducing in this second half of the year, a software that will make quotation of our distribution boards much quicker, much more streamlined and certainly give us the ability to be able to leverage off that for some efficiency savings internally as well. In terms of industry partnerships, we work closely with NESMA, which is the National Electrical Switchboard Manufacturers Association and the body that tips over all of those switchboard builders, and we have a really good relationship there. And we are well attached through Engineers Australia, where we're doing regular presentations to all of the engineers in Australia around our technology, our innovation and our product portfolio. Last week, we did one, I think it was around energy efficiency last week, and we had over 400 participants in that seminar there. When we talk about sustainability and future growth, there's obviously a focus around energy management and NABERS ratings of buildings and Green Star ratings of buildings. And we certainly are well attached to that through the sustainable infrastructure, and we'll see a market demand for that. Enhancements, what are we looking to do to get better in this space? We've launched the ABB Motors. I mentioned before, we've launched a new modular switchboard system to penetrate into new markets, which that's predominantly around the mechanical space. We're looking at operational efficiencies for the organization, how can we do things and how can we do things better with better customer segmentation, that digital engagement. We also have put some warehouse automation in to be able to streamline our operations in our warehouse, and that's a scalable automation solution that we can grow and expand on as we grow. And as importantly, if ever we felt the need to relocate, it is completely relocatable solution, so it'll be able to take that with us. And expanding on making sure our customer experience continues to improve and meet the expectations of our customers. So we've upgraded our phone systems, and we provided new digital tools to our customers to enhance service levels. So a lot happening there to underpin not only the strong results we're seeing at the moment, but into the future as well. EX Engineer -- Engineering, trusted in safety and hazardous areas, continued strong demand on that space there. A lot of it is in heavy industrial applications where we see upgrades, renewals as well as new sites. We're taking on new product in the DEXEN Product, and we are looking to increase our scale around repair growth. So we'll continue to do that further in H2. We will also continue to look at enhanced custom solutions and compliance. So expanding our offer, and we've signed a new agreement with a company around Ex d enclosures, which enable us to deliver an enhanced solution to our customers there in a dedicated area in that hazardous area space. Scaling customer solutions, when we talk about leadership, scaling our solutions and our certification capabilities, we're certainly looking to continuously expand our capabilities, our headcount to be able to offer more, but also increase our certification capabilities around that EX and enhanced engineering compliance and expertise. So you will -- and we do tend to -- we will be expanding this business down the bottom there into the East Coast. As I mentioned earlier, it is a West Coast business, but the skill set is absolutely transferable and a lot of the customers that they're supporting in the West Coast are present on the East Coast. So we will do that in the second half of the year, and we'll move that into our Lidcombe facility, which is part of one of our existing facilities, allowing us to do that in a lower cost model, but give us that expansion as well. We've secured some major oil and gas contracts which we've already secured and are in our pipeline for the future. So it should underpin very strong delivery results for H2 and what is very high-risk environment, and building and infrastructure service capacity, enhanced stock, obviously, with IPD acquiring the business, we're certainly increasing the stock levels for EX to be able to catch some of that discretionary business, which is there available if you've got it, expanding the workshop capabilities and faster turnaround to support that business into the future. Moving on to Slide 21, which is the Addelec business, driving sustainable electrical infrastructure, strong sales performance. I think it's about 40% growth there from services. Yes -- I'm sorry, my apologies, 14% growth there from services, not 40%, but a good result there and certainly a very strong order pipeline for the future there. Key contract renewals, we've got Powercor and CitiPower, which are 2 of the utilities down in the -- in WA and in Victoria, where we've secured $3 million per annum of opportunity there and long-term contracts with zone substations, massive pipeline there of around $10 million for Public Transport Authority, which is the Perth Transit Authority with $10 million -- $10.9 million and certainly quoting on more opportunity in the future with that Perth Transit Authority, and NRMA, over $3.5 million worth of opportunity there in our project pipeline. A growing demand for EV and public transport electrification positions well Addelec as a key player in the sector. Obviously, to a large extent, while we have competitors, none of them are able to offer the service capability that we're able to offer. We talk about future opportunities, the rising demand for that bus and truck electrification, well attached to that, expanding into heavy vehicle and freight charging, we're certainly well attached to that and scaling the electrical infrastructure expertise. So we're adding more people to our more technicians, more engineers and design is a big part of that Addelec business as well. Major wins in the first half of the year. With partnership with ChargeHub, which are a software provider, and we've also partnered with Kempower. Kempower are the charging hardware, which is going into all of those Perth Transit Authorities. So we've partnered with Kempower there. We're looking for innovation in our service delivery. We're developing a maintenance, an EV maintenance. We talk about a strong uptake in installation at this stage, but that is going to build a massive service requirement for the future. And that in itself will be a significant pipeline of business. So we're building up a service program to be able to support EV charging hardware into the future. And the New South Wales Government, the Kingsgrove Bus Depot, it's been delayed for nearly 2 halves now, but I can -- I'm pleased to present today that we have turned our first bit of soil. Transport New South Wales are expecting to deliver that bus depot in August, which means that if it stays on track and it stays to that time line, there will be a significant amount of revenue in the second half of the year attached to Kingsgrove Bus Depot. Slide 22 is the CMI business. We talk about sales, strong performance in Western Australia, exceeding our targets. Queensland performing certainly as per our expectation. It's fair to say that in New South Wales and Victoria, they're very heavily attached to the commercial markets, and we haven't necessarily seen the same growth there, nor have we had really the opportunity to diversify the portfolio of CMI to give them a bit more broad protection like the rest of the IPD business has. However, a very strong positive outlook for H2 across all of those regions, supported by an increasing market demand and certainly some partnerships with some of the major contractors and leveraging off the relationships of the traditional IPD business. In terms of product and compliance advancements, we're doing a lot there. We've enhanced our Minto 11 -- [ 800 11kV coupler ]. We've put a noncontact presence test point in there. So that means someone can come up and determine if there is electricity going through that without any contact, which is certainly something which none of our competitors have. We're testing and quality. So new environmental research do a lot of in-house testing beyond the compliance standards. So we don't necessarily need to go outside to do that. We can do that testing inside. And we're certainly look around the regulatory milestones. EX certification secured for our 300 amp to 425 amp stainless steel plugs, which we will launch in H2, which will see a significant opportunity for us in more expanded and not necessarily belowground opportunities, but aboveground opportunities as well. Market growth, I know that I have spoken previously about some of our challenges around export. Pleased to say that export is back and running as per normal. And Mongolia, certainly a big part of that, Indonesia as well. We're looking to expand our international presence. One of the -- Jim Johnson, who plays a significant role in the CMI business, who came to the business with the acquisition. He's focusing very heavily on our international presence and looking for export opportunities in other regions. That should provide a significant pipeline for us. Some of the wins there, we've had the Woodford Youth Correctional Center, the Rio Tinto Iron Ore and multiple NEXTDC Data Centers. So a little bit about all 4 of the core businesses. Slide 23 is just the headline slide for our strategy and outlook. If I move straight to Slide 24. The 4 pillars that really build up our strategy, and we are committed to short-, medium- and long-term value creation for our shareholders. We'll do that through business growth, expanding our customer value and our market expanding -- expansion. This is organic growth, leveraging the strong brands of our supply chain partners and delivering tailored reliable solutions and expanding into new markets. We'll look to accelerate that with inorganic growth around investing in strategic acquisitions to increase our earnings market share and sector reach. And we have a number of people that we're talking to in that space, and we've had good success in the past, and we expect to continue that into the future. Also around our value creation, we'll focus very, very heavily around our operational efficiency and use the leverage of the scale of the business to more efficiently -- have a more efficient cost model into the future to be able to drive those revenue opportunities and emerging technologies. We'll use partnerships to vendors, supply chain partners to be able to attach to some of these areas that are growing and some very, very strong manufacturing partners who have good solutions there. When we talk about sustainability, it's important for us. ESG is a big part of it. As a business, we're looking to reduce our environmental input -- our footprint. We're doing that through a number of ways, cutting our energy consumption ourselves. We're transitioning our fleet to hybrid and electric vehicles, and we're promoting circularity around minimizing waste and extending product life cycles and ABB have got us as a demonstratable case to the market around that, making a social impact, supporting charities, industry initiatives and education programs to strengthen the electrical industry. Certainly, in Sri Lanka, we have very, very strong relationships over there with all of the universities, and we actually provide training to a lot of the engineering students coming through the university there. At the core of it, that's all well and good. But if you don't have people at the forefront of your strategy, then you're not going to succeed to the level where we intend to succeed. Our success depends upon strong, engaged, diverse workforce, which is essential for us. We're focusing on employee well-being and development, enhancing our satisfaction, which we have -- we monitor on a yearly basis around our Net Promoter Score and promoting safety as a key part of our business. Talent attraction and retention. We have come a long way in the last 5 years where we go to market now with a requirement for a new person. The quality of the people that we're attracting to the organization is certainly significantly better than it was 5 years ago, and that enables us to be able to leverage off the skills of those people to be able to develop new relationships into the market and certainly provide best-in-class support for our customers. Slide 25, and this is the last slide before I head into questions and answers. Outlook is sustaining the strong results that we're able to present to you today. The growth drivers despite challenges in some of our markets, and I talk about construction, and it has been a challenging 12 months, IPD is certainly capitalizing on growth areas in that transition to renewable energy, data centers, EV charging, public transport and a supportive legislation environment. There's certainly enough out there for us to be able to still deliver growth despite some of the macroeconomic conditions around construction. And we still only have market share around about 10%. So there's a massive opportunity to expand our market share despite market conditions. Strategic focus, we remain committed to executing strategic priorities, creating long-term value and adapting to evolving market conditions and sustainable growth. We continue to prioritize sustainable growth while navigating the market dynamics and leveraging into these new opportunities. So for me, a really, really good set of numbers we are putting to you today, but certainly plenty of opportunity for us to deliver as good, if not better results in the second half of the year. And with that, Slide 26 opens the floor to any questions or answers that might be there. I believe there's a couple already logged, so we'll hand over to those.

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

Well done on a very strong result. And yes, lots of detail in the presentation. I assume you pay your IR person by page. So thanks for all the detail. Just on the backlog sort of -- what was it, $93 million. Appreciate we don't know when it starts. But if it started today, is that 6 months' worth of work? Is that 12 months' worth of work? How quickly [ could that covert ] backlog into actual revenue?

Sort of 4 months' worth of work, mate. And at a headline level, our revenue at $174 million for 6 months, which averages out sort of $30 million per year. So yes, sort of in that 3 to 4 months' worth of backlog, mate.

3 to 4 months, okay. So we just wait for it to kick off. So that sort of underwrites your second half if it starts reasonably soon.

It doesn't.

And just secondly, I guess, related to the market share point you made. In the last sort of year or 2, you've been gradually adding more, say, ABB products into the Australian market. How much more is out there in terms of if you had other M&A, other distribution networks that how many more in percentage terms, ABB products that you're not currently selling that you could actually sell into the Australian market should you have that customer base or ability to enter a bigger market?

So for ABB, ABB break their company up into different divisions. In the electrification division, we have master distribution there exclusivity, if you want to call it that, for all of the electrification products up to 1,000 volt. On the other division is their Motion division, which is motors and variable speed drives, and we've got agreements with ABB in that space as well. But to answer your question, Phil, there's still a substantial amount of opportunity to expand with ABB. However, when we want to take a new product to market, ABB may be the right alternative, but not necessarily has to be the right alternative. The beauty we have as a distributor is we can understand what the market dynamics are, the requirements are. And if the ABB product is the right product for the market, we can leverage off our relationship to put ourselves in a very strong position to be able to secure that. However, if there's an alternate product that is better suited to the market applications and the customer requirements, we don't exclusively have to use ABB as long as it's not competing with our existing portfolio. So to answer your question, massive opportunity to expand with ABB, but not exclusively with ABB with multiple other manufacturers globally. If I just quickly talk about any building, it doesn't matter whether it's a data center, a high-rise commercial building, a water treatment plant, a food and beverage, it doesn't matter what it is, the electrical contractor -- when a new site is built, the electrical contractor gets the -- given the ability to deliver the complete electrical package. And in fairness, we're probably selling maybe 20% of that total electrical package at the moment. What that means is whether it's organically or inorganically, there is 80% of the opportunity that the contractor gets charged with the responsibility for delivering that we don't even have yet. So when we talk about adding new products, new portfolios, acquisitions, that is the sweet spot for us is around what does an electrical contractor get charged with the responsibility of delivering, and we have really strong relationships with those contractors and what can we bring to market that can add value to those guys. So 10% market share with what we've got. So a massive growth opportunity there. And only really -- that's only really 20% of the market in that new installation space. So I hope that answers your question, Phil. It's a bit of a long-winded answer.

That was a long-winded question. It does.

The next question comes from Sam Brandwood from Bell Potter.

Congratulations, Michael, Jason and Mo, on a very strong result. My main question was just around the higher-margin daily trade business. And I was wondering if you please give us a comment on how that side of the business was performing exiting FY -- first half '25? And do you feel like whether the sector or you guys within that, whether that part of the market has bottomed or not?

So I'll answer the second part of your question first there, Sam. I think certainly, I expect the market to not get any tougher than it is at the moment. We are expecting to see potentially improvement in the market over the next 12 months in that bottom end of the market. I've got to be really careful because we might have some of our customers online today talking about what is our high-margin yield business. But certainly, our day-to-day trade has been strong through this period despite some of our competitors and you would see some of them coming out as ASX-listed entities putting their results out there. Our results, particularly in the core IPD business of revenue growth of upwards of 5% growth in a tough environment. Even CMI, and we put that out there that while at a revenue level, they've gone backwards by 3.3%, there are a number of our competitors that are reporting 8% and 10% and 15% revenue degradation as well because of the market conditions. So I think we've done better than the market. I certainly feel as though we've taken some share in these tough conditions, which will hold us in really good stead when the market does pick up again that you've secured that business and you move into more buoyant market with more share. But the first part of your question or the last part of your question, I expect that it's bottomed out for me. I don't expect it to get any worse. We're not expecting to see a massive improvement in the next 6 to 12 months, but I think interest rate reductions will certainly drive construction, whether it's in resi or in commercial. And certainly, it looks as though aging population is driving housing. It's driving retirement villages and a lot of construction there. And as -- I guess it's decentralization of our population, too, and that drives infrastructure, shopping centers and hospitals. So yes, I expect better times ahead, Sam, in the next 6 to 12 months, but not a massive spike.

Okay. And just on the project side as well, following on from Philip's question regarding the backlog. So I'm just keen to get a bit of a sense of how the backlog has transitioned, especially in November and December. In other words, did you deliver on some of those contracts earlier than anticipated? Or are you still forecasting a second half skew in that side of the business?

Yes. Thanks, Sam. Good question. Yes, the result that we're putting out there a little bit higher than our guidance come back to 2 factors. Number one, some of the Amazon work that we weren't all that confident would come into the first half of the year did. So we were lucky enough to be able to bring 1 or 2 of those orders forward to the first half of the year. But it was also on the back of a strong day-to-day trade. December, Sam, you can literally get rocks or diamonds. You don't know what you're going to get until you get there. But December did see a very strong day-to-day trade. So to answer your question, we cleared a little bit of our backlog through those projects coming forward, but still a massive amount there, a 40%, nearly a 50% increase in our backlog from the previous period at $93 million holds us in good stead to be able to deliver that in the second half of the year. And I talk about Kingsgrove there, particularly, we're talking $10 million worth of revenue there. And if the state government stays on track and on time, we should see most of that delivered in the second half of the year. So yes, good question, and I hope that gives you some clarity, Sam.

Yes, it does. Just finally, really quickly, can we say that the $93 million backlog that you quoted in October, it's around that level still. So you've landed and delivered on some contracts, but there's been others that have moved in at the same time.

Correct. That's exactly right, mate. They're brought forward and delivered in December, they've been backfilled with other orders taken over that period. So you're absolutely right, mate.

Your next question comes from Matthew Chen from Moelis.

Just wondering if you could talk to how you're thinking about price increases in your product suite over the next 12 months.

Thanks, Matt. I appreciate the heads up. I probably should have covered that. Yes, we haven't had any price increases relatively from suppliers for close to 12 months now. So certainly, market conditions have certainly plateaued there around pricing, and we did go through a period where we're seeing significant price increases. On the back of that, we haven't had a price increase literally since about March last year ourselves, but we are intending on having a price increase next month in March. And that will be in the vicinity of sort of 3% to 4% price increase. Important to note, Sam -- sorry, my apologies, Matt, don't just take up that 3% to 4% in the second half of the year. A lot of our business is done on contracts and on quotations and being market competitive. Literally, rule of thumb, we see sort of half of that flow through. So -- and we won't be doing it until March. So you'll see some small upside potentially in the second half on price. But moving into the new financial year, we'll potentially see a little bit more of an upside on that. But the good part is we're seeing stability from our vendors and even not just around pricing, but around supply chain issues of the past. They certainly have plateaued and become much more manageable now.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Michael Sainsbury for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, and a big thank you to everybody online today. I know there's a number of shareholders who have supported us since IPO. So I want to say thank you for being part of that journey with us. We're extremely pleased about the results we have been able to deliver, but even more excited about what we can deliver into the future. It would be remiss of me not to quickly just touch on one thing. I know a number of our employees are online today listening into this, and it's a massive thank you to all of those employees that have worked so hard to help us deliver this result, not just the people working for us at the moment, but ones that have worked for us in the past and have moved on and going and doing other things. I know one is online today, Mr. Warren Peisley, thanks very much for all your efforts in getting us to where we are, much appreciated. But a big thank you to all our staff, and a thank you to all of our partners who have worked with us over the last couple of years. We look forward to delivering strong results into the future and potentially catching up with you all over that time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.