Macmahon Holdings Limited (MAH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Macmahon Holdings Limited. My name is Eva Skira and I am the Chair of Macmahon. Before we start, I wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Whadjuk people and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. We extend that respect to the traditional custodians of the lands on which we operate, the lands from which our online participants join us and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and nonindigenous persons here today. Today's Annual General Meeting is a hybrid meeting. It is being held physically at the Macmahon offices, and I welcome shareholders and visitors that have attended in person. The meeting is also being conducted online by the Computershare meeting platform to allow those not here in person, including non-Perth-based shareholders and stakeholders to attend. This allows shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting virtually and watch a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. I would like to extend my welcome to you, our shareholders and visitors attending virtually. Instructions on participating in the online meeting can be found in the Notice of Meeting available on the ASX platform. If you experience any difficulties during the meeting, please refer to the Notice of Meeting, which is also available on the Computershare website and on Macmahon's website. I would like to explain the format of today's meeting. After the introductions, I will provide an overview of the question and voting processes for our online attendees. I will then give the Chair's address, following which I will invite our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mick Finnegan, to provide an operational update. After Mick's presentation, we will move to the formal business of the meeting to consider the resolutions outlined in the Notice of Meeting. I would now like to introduce your nonexecutive directors: David Gibbs, who I'm welcoming to his first AGM; Denise McComish and Hamish Tyrwhitt. Upfront, I would also like to acknowledge the sad passing of Non-Executive Director, Mr. Bruce Munro, on the 21st of August this year. Bruce had a long and distinguished career over 4 decades in the construction and mining sectors in Australia and Southeast Asia. He was highly respected as a civil engineer and business leader. And as a gentleman and good friend to all who knew him. The Board, management and staff of Macmahon wish to express their sincere condolences to Bruce's family and friends. He will be dearly missed as a friend, trusted colleague and industry champion. I have with me in attendance, our Managing Director, Mick Finnegan; our Chief Financial Officer, Ursula Lummis; as well as other members of our executive leadership team; and our Company Secretary, Ben Secrett. Representatives from the company's auditor, KPMG, are also in attendance and will be available to answer questions on the financial statements and in relation to the audit. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for taking the time to attend today's meeting. Your support and interest in the company's affairs are appreciated by the Board. The company's Secretary, Ben Secrett, has informed me that we have a quorum present. I therefore declare this Annual General Meeting of Macmahon Holdings Limited open. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. [Operator Instructions] Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on 1 topic, amalgamated together. For those online shareholders who wish to ask a verbal question an audio question facility is available during this meeting. [Operator Instructions] If you have any issues using the system, please return to the Computershare meeting platform. [Operator Instructions] Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we encourage you to contact us via e-mail or telephone after the meeting so that we can respond in due course. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. Rod Somes from Computershare has agreed to be returning officer today. And following confirmation by Computershare, the final results of the poll will be announced to the ASX later today. This release will also be available on Macmahon's website. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions for shareholders eligible to vote at this meeting. For shareholders present at the Macmahon office, please ensure you have received your green voting paper. Please see the Computershare representative if you have not. Completed voting papers will be collected by Computershare at the conclusion of the voting process. For shareholders attending online, please select the Vote icon and the voting options will appear on your screen. To vote, select your voting direction. A tick will appear to confirm receipt of your vote. There is no submit or send button. Your selection is automatically recorded. To change your vote, select click here to change your vote and press a different option to override. If you have any questions about casting your vote online, please refer to the online meeting guide or call Computershare on the numbers set out in the guide. I now declare the poll open for voting on all items of business. The voting tab will soon appear. Please submit your votes at any time. I'll give you a warning before I move to close voting. Firstly, my Chair's address. Macmahon has delivered another year of strong performance at both the operational and financial level. This has been underpinned by the successful execution of the company's growth strategy. The company pleasingly met revenue and earnings guidance for the sixth consecutive year after achieving revenue of $1.9 billion and underlying EBITA of $117 million. We also saw record underlying earnings together with margin improvement and positive free cash flow of $34.7 million. This was another excellent result despite some persistent market and industry challenges around cost inflation and skilled labor shortages and unseasonal wet weather on the East Coast of Australia. With $5.1 billion of contracted work in hand at year-end, positive free cash flow generation and a strong balance sheet, the company is very well positioned to capitalize on future growth opportunities. Macmahon's capital allocation policy reflects the importance of paying dividends to our shareholders, balanced with the priority of retaining financial flexibility to enable the continued execution of our growth strategy. As a part of this, we have a commitment to paying a sustainable dividend. And I'm pleased to advise that the Board declared an increased final dividend for FY '23 of 0.45 cents per share, bringing our full dividend up 15% to 0.75 cents per share and a payout ratio of just over 23%. An ongoing and important focus for the Macmahon business is the safety and well-being of our people. I'm delighted that we were able to report a significant improvement in safety performance during the year with a reduction in TRIFR from 4.8 in FY '22 to 3.9 in FY '23. During FY '23, our workforce increased to 8,368 people, and I'm proud that the company has successfully attracted and retained talent in what is still a tight labor market. This was facilitated by a continued focus on embedding our evolved company values through the Winning at Macmahon program and the rollout of our diversity and inclusion road map. We also rolled out training through the Grow Our Own program as well as implemented training and development initiatives to supplement external recruiting, including the new-to-industry program launched for Australian Defence Force Veterans. While we acknowledge the considerable effort from our people to deliver our improved safety performance, we are not taking this result for granted, and we'll continue to pursue improving health and safety outcomes. Operating in a responsible and sustainable manner is an important part of our business strategy. We have again provided a stand-alone sustainability report for FY '23, which expands upon the information provided in our annual report and further outlines progress on environmental, social and governance activities and initiatives. At Macmahon, we are committed to embedding sustainability within our businesses strategy, operations and culture. And there are a few highlights I would like to call out outlining our progress in FY '23. We developed our sustainability framework and are now baselining our environmental footprint to inform our targets and road map development. Our First Nations' representation was 4.7% with overall attrition decreasing. We had female representation at our highest levels including 1/3 female nonexecutive directors and 57% in executive leadership positions. We continued to execute our respective Macmahon road map, including bystander training, independent culture reviews and pulse checks to ensure we are making solid progress. We have seen change the company's Board in recent times, and importantly, I would like to talk through that, including some acknowledgments. As I mentioned earlier, David Gibbs is attending his first AGM and we were pleased to welcome him during the year. David has been appointed as the Nominee Director of our major shareholder, Amman, following the departure of Alex Ramlie and Arief Sidarto who stepped down from the Board in July due to commitments related to the IPO and listing of PT Amman Mineral International on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. David brings a wealth of operational and broader sector experience and is a great addition. Again, welcome, David. I would also like to thank Alex and Arief for their contribution as Directors of Macmahon during the past 6 years. They provided invaluable guidance and oversight of Macmahon's performance and strategic direction. On behalf of the Board and the broader Macmahon team, thank you for your contributions, and we wish you both the very best. Finally, on Board composition, as you may be aware, it is my last Annual General Meeting as Chair and a Non-Executive Director of Macmahon with my retirement commencing at the completion of today's meeting. After 12 years of service, including more than 4 years as Chair, it has been an absolute honor to serve the company over that time. Taking over as Chair will be Hamish Tyrwhitt, who joined the Board in 2019 and has deep sector and strategic expertise. I have great confidence in the guidance and strategic direction he has provided to the company as a nonexecutive director and soon to be Chair. So I have no doubt Macmahon is in very good hands. The Board continues to review the composition, skills and experience required to best deliver its responsibility for the overall governance and strategic direction of Macmahon. This may include the appointment of new nonexecutive directors, but the Board will be comprised of 4 directors until any appointment is made. Before I hand over to Mick Finnegan for his CEO and Managing Director's address, I would like to make some final comments and thank yous. It has been immensely satisfying to see Macmahon navigate challenges with courage and integrity to reliably deliver for its clients and achieve its strong and sustainable position as a leading mining services contractor in Australia and Indonesia. Macmahon is well positioned for the future with a solid order book, financial position and growth capacity. But this is only made possible by the professional, dedicated and disciplined workforce and leadership we have in place. This, of course, includes Mick and the management team, who have delivered another excellent result in 2023, including driving substantial growth in the company's earnings per share. As a shareholder myself, I believe that this is not reflected in the current share price. To our clients, on behalf of our Board and the business, thank you for the ongoing support and trust in our business. To all our employees, I'd like to thank you for the dedication, professionalism and contribution shown in FY '23. And to Mick, I thank you for his courageous leadership as CEO of the past 7 years and for the strong working relationship we developed. And finally, this business would not be possible without the ongoing support of our shareholders. I would like to again sincerely thank you for your investment, confidence and ongoing support in our business and our people. With that, I will now hand over to Mick. Thank you.

Thanks, Eva. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our 2023 Annual General Meeting. Before I provide an overview of Macmahon's performance for FY '23, I wanted to acknowledge upfront the outstanding contribution by Eva over the past 12 years. As Eva mentioned, there have been a number of both successes and challenges faced by the company over this time, and Eva has been at the forefront of it all. On a personal level, I'm incredibly grateful for the support I've received from Eva over the years, and she'll be greatly missed. On behalf of the Board and company, thank you again, Eva, and we wish you the very best for the future and hope you get to enjoy more time with friends and family. Eva also acknowledge the contribution of Macmahon's people in delivering another excellent result. It is important to also acknowledge the continued support and confidence in our team by the Board. This support in our leadership and our strategy is a significant factor in our performance for the year. Turning to our financial performance. Macmahon performed well in FY '23 with record underlying earnings, margin improvement and positive free cash flow, which signals the end of our CapEx-heavy growth cycle consistent with our strategy. As Eva mentioned, this was in spite of the challenging operating conditions experienced by the sector, particularly in the first half with unseasonal wet weather on the East Coast of Australia and in Indonesia. In the second half, we saw improvement across the business, which was reflected in our Q4 underlying EBITA margins reaching our 8% long-term target. This performance saw us meet our revenue and earnings guidance for the sixth consecutive year and generate free cash flow. Importantly, the reduction in our net debt as of 30 June 2023 to $202 million, together with the improved return on average capital employed of 14.5% approaching our long-term target of 15%, highlights the turning point in our strategy as we move to the cash generation -- as we move to the cash-generating period of the newer projects. Full periods of positive cash flow generation plus lower capital intensity new work should see the 15% return on average capital employed target exceeded consistently moving forward. We commenced our strategy in FY '18, building scale and contract tenure in the surface mining business unit. This foundation is now being leveraged to diversify and expand our revenue to include more lower capital intensity and early cash-generating services such as underground mining, mining support services and civil infrastructure projects. This continues to be a major focus for us and has continued to contribute to the positive results we've seen to date. We have made meaningful progress during FY '23, particularly in the underground space where revenue accounts for 25% of Macmahon's FY '23 revenue compared to 7% in FY '18. Furthermore, underground opportunities make up over 1/3 of the $10.6 billion tender pipeline, which supports our confidence in further growth. Building our brand as a meaningful diversified mining contractor will continue to be a priority as well accelerating growth in our mining support services and civil infrastructure business, which accounted for 9% of revenue in FY '23. This will include building our capability and capacity as well as expanding strategic partnerships that will enable us to successfully execute larger-scale civil infrastructure projects in the coming years. We believe this shift in a less capital-intensive work will not only play a critical role in achieving our longer-term target of building a prudently managed, more resilient, diversified and scalable business but will also enable a sustainable delivery of a return on average capital employed greater than 15% and a sustained period of free cash flow generation. While it's diversification in a lower capital-intensive work continues to be a key objective, from an operational perspective, the profitable and safe execution of existing contracts while managing the industry headwinds are noted have been a focus this year. In the surface space, we secured $2.6 billion as strategically aligned new and extension work during the year. And this includes the $1.1 billion Greenbushes lithium project, which commenced on the 1st of July this year. As I mentioned earlier, we've grown our underground business significantly to 25% of the revenue, increasing from $53 million of revenue in FY '18 to $472 million in FY '23. The acquisition of GBF in FY '19 has contributed to the creation of a meaningful underground mining services provider. We're looking to continue this momentum and are targeting a further 50% growth over the next 2 to 3 years to deliver greater scale and be an even more meaningful participant in this sector. In the mining support services and civil infrastructure division, we now have a significant focus on building internal capability and capacity to execute larger-scale civil infrastructure engineering and rehabilitation work. Our tender pipeline is highly filtered and focused on where Macmahon has existing relationships and a competitive advantage. At a corporate level, we've been able to attract talent in a tight skilled labor market. We've increased our workforce to nearly 8,400 people. In recent times, we've seen retention improving, which is really pleasing. Although supply chain shortages and delays are normalizing and inflation is moderating, as always, we will continue to manage the impact of these proactively. Critical to our business is safety management and the engagement of our people. Our TRIFR showed another year of positive progress decreasing from 4.8 to 3.9 during the year, as Eva mentioned. This is significant considering our team grew to nearly 8,400 people, and the proportion of industry new entrants is higher than it has probably ever been in the past. Throughout the year, we have continued to invest in our people through apprenticeships, skill upgrade programs, targeted international recruitment and new to industry training through to Grow Our Own program. We trained 758 people, 453 internal trainees, 150-odd external trainees, 30 graduates and 126 apprentices. In FY '24, our primary focus is on further developing our culture. In August 2022, Macmahon introduced our evolved company values, defining how we collaborate, interact and contribute to the overall success of our organization. We focused on embedding these values through the winning at Macmahon program and the rollout of our diversity and inclusion road map. And that will be monitored or the progress of this will be monitored -- and will be monitored through the progress of these and other initiatives in FY '23 -- '24 through additional pulse checks and engagement surveys. The company values are a driving force behind our achievements, and we are determined to build upon them to create an even stronger and more cohesive team. Macmahon's capital allocation policy reflects the importance of balancing shareholder returns in the form of dividend payments to our shareholders with retaining financial flexibility to invest in the continued execution of our growth and diversification strategy. The capital investment required in FY '21 and '22 increased leverage and gearing levels, however, also enabled Macmahon to deliver on significant growth in revenue, underlying earnings -- underlying earnings per share and order book. With our strong disciplines around cash flow generation and balance sheet management, coupled with further diversification in a less capital-intensive projects, we'd like to see gearing and leverage continue to decrease in addition to increased free cash flow generation. This, together with confidence in the outlook as the company approaches long-term strategic targets, allowed the Board to announce as part of our FY '23 results release an increase in the dividend payout ratio from 10% to 25% to 20% to 35% of underlying earnings per share. This will ensure we return consistent cash to shareholders in accordance with the new dividend payout policy. As a shareholder myself, I want to comment on the performance of the company. Macmahon's responsibility is to manage well -- manage capital well, deliver appropriate and consistent returns on capital and maximize total returns to shareholders. This is achieved through the successful execution of our strategy that diversifies the business in a lower capital-intensive work while maintaining a long tenure surface mining business. The execution of this strategy has seen the company deliver increased revenue, EBITDA margins and free cash flow. Over the past 5 years, there's been substantial growth in our earnings per share, which has not yet been reflected in the share price as can be seen on the graph on the right-hand side. The market has responded positively to our FY '23 results and outlook. However, at only 4x to 5x price earnings ratio, I believe this provides good opportunity for shareholders, particularly as we realize the continued growth in the lower capital-intensive underground and civil infrastructure businesses to increase free cash flow, reduce net debt and return funds to shareholders. Important to our outlook is continuity, consistency in delivering on targets around growth, diversification, margins and returns. FY '24 is underpinned by a $5.1 billion order book, comprised of an increasingly diverse mix of surface underground and mining support services contracts with a high proportion of alliance contracts that provide greater operational and commercial flexibility. We also have a strong pipeline of opportunities worth approximately $10.6 billion in addition to numerous targeted contract extensions and continuing contracts that are expected to build on FY '23's performance. While the skilled labor market across Australia remains tight and global inflationary pressures are still present, the business is executing on strategies and measures to continue managing these challenges. Our focus and investment in our people is a key part of this and will continue to be a priority moving forward, as well the company's commitment to the safe and efficient execution of its order book. Our current expectations for FY '24 remain unchanged, being revenue guidance in the range of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion and underlying EBITA guidance in the range of $130 million to $140 million. In closing, I'd like to thank all our stakeholders for their ongoing support, particularly our clients for their trust in us and their shared approach to supporting and protecting the health and well-being of our people. I'd also like to thank our people for their crucial contribution and resilience over the year and for being a vital part of the Macmahon winning formula. I'll now hand back to the Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mick. This now brings us to the formal part of the meeting. The items of business to be considered at this meeting have been listed in the Notice of Meeting. The Notice of Meeting has been made available to shareholders on the 20th of September 2023 and unless there are any objections, I will take it as read. Are there any objections? No formal apologies have been received. Are there any apologies from the floor? There will be an opportunity to ask questions in relation to the various items of business when each item is considered and I will also take any other questions at the end of formal proceedings before the meeting closes. Before we consider the items of business, there are a number of procedural matters I wish to draw to your attention. While our visitors and guests are most welcome here today, this is a shareholders' meeting and only shareholders, their attorneys, proxies and authorized company representatives are entitled to ask questions and vote at this meeting. I am holding undirected proxies in my capacity as Chair, and it is my intention to vote all such proxies in favor of all resolutions. Any directed proxies that are not voted at the meeting will automatically default to me as Chair of the Meeting, and I am required to vote those proxies as directed. The specific voting preferences indicated by valid proxies holding approximately 1.59 billion shares who have either directed their voting preferences or have left their voting preferences open to be cast by the nominated representative or the Chair are set out in the slide that appears before you. This represents approximately 73.8% of the current issued ordinary shares of the company. I propose to take this slide as read. The first item of business deals with the financial statements and reports. These have been forwarded to shareholders who requested them and are now laid before the meeting. These financial statements and reports are for the financial year ended 30 June 2023. This is not a resolution and no vote is required on it. As I have advised, representatives from the company's auditors are in attendance to answer any questions or comments shareholders may wish to direct to them in relation to the conduct of their audit or in relation to the preparation of the financial statements. I invite any questions or comments from shareholders regarding the financial statements. I will start with any questions from the floor to give our shareholders online a moment to submit any questions on this. Do we have any questions from the floor? Ben, as Company Secretary, could you please read out any online questions received regarding this item?

There are none.

Okay. As there are no written questions, do we have any virtual verbal questions?

No.

No? Okay. As there are no questions, we'll now move on to the formal resolutions. The next item of business asks shareholders to adopt the company's remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2023. The remuneration report is included on Pages 55 to 67 of the annual report that has been made available to shareholders. Unless there is an objection, I will take the motion as being read and refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. Whilst this is a nonbinding advisory vote of shareholders, the views and comments of shareholders will certainly be taken into account by directors when further considering remuneration matters. I note that a voting exclusion applies to this resolution as set out in the Notice of Meeting, and the company will disregard votes in accordance with this voting exclusion. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. I invite any questions from shareholders regarding this resolution. I will again start with any questions from the floor to give our shareholders online a moment to submit any questions on this. Do we have any questions from the floor? No? Ben, as Company Secretary, could you please read out any online questions received regarding this item?

There are none.

Okay. Are there any virtual verbal questions?

No.

Okay. Thank you. As there are no questions, I now draw your attention to the resolution and the proxies received on the screen. I now put the resolution to the meeting. If you have not done so, please now cast your vote on this item. [Voting]

The next item of business that requires voting is the election of Mr. David Gibbs as a director of the company. Details of Mr. Gibbs' qualifications and experience are set out in the Notice of Meeting and the company's 2023 annual report. As an ordinary resolution, this resolution is required to be passed by at least 50% of votes cast. Unless there is an objection, I will take the motion as being read and refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. The Board, excluding Mr. Gibbs, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. I invite any questions from shareholders regarding this resolution. I will again start with any questions from the floor to give our shareholders online a moment to submit any questions on this. Ben, as Company Secretary, could you please read out any online questions received regarding this item?

There are none.

Thank you. And do we have any virtual verbal questions?

No.

Thank you. As there are no questions, I now draw your attention to the resolution and the proxies received on the screen. I now put the resolution to the meeting. If you have not done so, please now cast your vote on this item. [Voting]

The next item of business that requires voting is the renewal of proportional takeover provisions. This is a special resolution that seeks approval to renew Macmahon's proportional takeover provisions, which expire every 3 years unless renewed. As a special resolution, this resolution is required to be passed by at least 75% of votes cast. These provisions were first adopted in 2010 and have subsequently been renewed, including most recently at the 2020 AGM. The directors are not aware of proposals for a party to acquire a substantial interest in Macmahon. Unless there is an objection, I will take the motion as being read and refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. I invite any questions from shareholders regarding this resolution. I will again start with any questions from the floor to give our shareholders online a moment to submit any questions on this. If there are no questions from the floor, Ben, as Company Secretary, can you please read out any online questions received regarding this item?

There are none.

Thank you. And do we have any virtual verbal questions?

None.

Okay. Thank you. As there are no questions, I now draw your attention to the resolution and the proxies received on the screen. I now put the resolution to the meeting. If you have not done so, please now cast your vote on this item. [Voting]

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business before this Annual General Meeting. I will shortly close the voting. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all the resolutions. I will now pause to allow you time to finalize those votes. During this time, and as advised at a Notice of Meeting, I will also vote all available undirected proxies in favor of all resolutions. [Voting]

I now declare the poll closed, and ask all shareholders attending in person to place their ballots in the ballot box being circulated by our representative from Computershare. After the votes on the resolutions have been counted and reviewed, the results of the poll will be announced on the ASX via an ASX announcement and on the company's website. At an Annual General Meeting, shareholders are entitled to ask questions about or make comments on the management of the company. Before calling this meeting to a close, I would like to provide shareholders with this opportunity to ask any question that you may not have been able to ask earlier. As before, I will start with any questions from the floor to give our shareholders online a moment to submit any questions.

Ben, as Company Secretary, could you please read out any online questions received?