Monadelphous Group Limited (8MP.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

August 20, 2024

Frankfurt Stock Exchange DE Industrials Construction and Engineering earnings 43 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Monadelphous 2024 Full Year Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kristy Glasgow, Company Secretary. Please go ahead.

Kristy Glasgow

executive
#2

Hello, and welcome to the Monadelphous 2024 Full Year Results Investor and Analyst Briefing. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we are joining you from today in Gorilla CurveBibra Lake, Perth, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation and the traditional owners of country and pay respect to elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations' people. Presenting from Perth are Monadelphous's Managing Director, Zoran Bebic; and Chief Financial Officer, Phil Trueman, who are joined in the room by our Chair, Rob Velletri. Throughout this presentation, the speakers will guide you on when to click through to the next slide. The structure of this morning's presentation will be similar to previous results presentations with some further detail provided as appendices. Copies of today's presentation and associated materials are available on our website at monadelphous.com.au. I will now hand over to our first presenter today, Zoran Bebic, who will start on Slide 2.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#3

Thanks, Kristy, and welcome to our 2024 full year results briefing. Today, Phil and I will present our financial and operational performance for the year-ended 30 June 2024, as well as our outlook. We will then answer any questions you may have. I'll begin with our group performance and highlights on Slide 3. Monadelphous recorded revenue of $2.03 billion for the year, which is an 11% increase on the prior year. The result reflects continued strong demand for maintenance services and higher levels of activity in the Engineering Construction sector. The Maintenance and Industrial Services division delivered another record annual revenue result of $1.32 billion, and the Engineering Construction division reported revenue of $712.7 million, an increase of 31.5% on the prior year. Earnings before tax -- sorry, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was $127.4 million, an increase of 16.8% on the previous corresponding period. Net profit after tax was $62.2 million, up 16.2%, delivering earnings per share of $0.641. The Board declared a final dividend of $0.33 per share, taking the full year fully franked dividend to $0.58 per share. We ended the year with a very healthy cash balance of just under $226 million, and our cash flow from operations was $187.7 million, with an outstanding cash flow conversion rate of 169%. We continue to strengthen our position as a leader in the resources and energy sectors. To date, we have been awarded more than $3 billion in new contracts and extensions since 1 July 2023. This includes a number of material long-term contract extensions and variations in the energy sector, as well as over $1.1 billion of new major construction contracts in the iron ore, energy, lithium, rare earths and renewable energy sectors. The contract secured figures quoted in this presentation have been reduced by $200 million to reflect the termination of the Albemarle contracts announced earlier this month. In October 2023, we acquired Perth-based civil business Melchor Contracting, complementing our existing construction offering with a proven civil capability. Melchor provides an extensive range of structural concrete services and is well positioned for a pipeline of opportunities across multiple market sectors, including stand-alone civil packages and vertically integrated multidisciplinary contracts. Moving now to Slide 4. As I've said, we continue to strengthen our position as a leader in the resources and energy sectors, securing more than $3 billion in new contracts and extensions since the beginning of the 2024 financial year. In the energy sector, we're awarded material contract extensions and variations with our key long-term customers, including Shell, Woodside and INPEX. We secured a significant amount of new construction work, primarily in Western Australia, including several major contracts in the lithium sector with Talison at Greenbushes, at Liontown Resources' Kathleen Valley Lithium Project, and Albemarle's Kemerton Expansion Project. Following Albemarle's announcement regarding a comprehensive review of its asset and cost structure, Monadelphous was notified that our construction contracts at the Kemerton Expansion Project had been terminated for convenience by Albemarle. We were also subsequently notified that our maintenance services and sustaining capital projects contracts had been suspended. Company forecasts estimate that the aggregate revenue expected to be delivered from all works to be performed for Albemarle at the Kemerton Project for the year-ended 30 June 2025 would have been in the range of $75 million to $85 million. Demand from the Western Australian iron ore sector remains strong as we secured new contracts and extensions with long-term customers, Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue. As a testament to Monadelphous's strong reputation for service delivery with customers, the company was named Rio Tinto's 2024 Western Australian Supplier of the Year. Zenviron, our renewable energy joint venture, was awarded its first EPC contract in the energy storage market and post year-end, secured a significant contract for the Lotus Creek Wind Farm in partnership with Vestas. Moving now to Slide 5. During the year, we maintained our focus on attracting, retaining and developing our people. Our workforce numbers, including subcontractors, increased by almost 31% to over 7,400 people at year-end. The growth reflected improved retention rates, a ramp-up in construction activity over the period, the acquisition of Melchor, and the award of the INPEX onshore work scope. We continue to invest in the important areas of early careers and leadership development, with more than 300 people participating in our graduate vacation, apprenticeship, and traineeship programs. Current and emerging leaders participated in in-house leadership programs and operational development forums and our registered training organization delivered more than 1,800 courses throughout the year. We conducted a review of our long-term leadership reward program, resulting in the implementation of a new plan designed to support the retention of key talent in a manner aligned to shareholder interests. Let's look now at safety and wellbeing on Slide 6. Through our ongoing safety and wellbeing initiatives and campaigns, we remain committed to our goal of 0 harm and to delivering work in line with our safety principle, The Safe Way is the Only Way. Our total recordable injury frequency rate was 3.02 incidents per million hours worked, a 12.5% improvement on the previous year. Our ongoing commitment to safety and innovation achieved industry recognition, including a Queensland Work Well Award for best demonstrated healthy and safe work design and the 2023 Queensland and Northern Territory Welding Excellence Awards: Health and Safety in Welding Award. We continue to focus on fatal risks through our fatal risk controls campaign. We also rolled out a number of other health and safety programs, reinforcing employee awareness of common safety risks. A range of mental health initiatives were implemented as a part of our ongoing commitment to employee health and wellbeing. We also completed an independent review of psycho-social risk management systems to identify opportunities for continuous improvement in supporting the wellbeing of our people. Moving now to diversity, community and environment on Slide 7. We continue to celebrate and acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands where our people live and work, progressing the commitments outlined in our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan, which focuses on providing long-term indigenous employment opportunities, supporting indigenous businesses, and delivering training and development programs. Pleasingly, we exceeded our RAP targets in key areas with indigenous workforce participation increasing to 4.1%, which was up 42%, along with a 67% increase in indigenous business spend to around $20 million. We progressed the initiatives within our gender diversity and inclusion plan, focusing on ensuring a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace for all, increasing female participation through early career pathways, nurturing key female talent and removing gender-based barriers to entering trade roles. Testament to our efforts in this area, we received the Outstanding Company Initiative Award at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Women in Resources Awards 2024 for our Crane Operations Pathway Traineeship Program, a 3-year program designed to prepare female and indigenous trainees to qualify as crane operators. As part of our commitment to the regions in which we -- which our people live and work, we supported more than 80 community groups and initiatives and launched our inaugural Karratha Community Grants Program. We continued our focus on minimizing the impact of our operations on the environment. Data capture processes were enhanced to enable improved decision-making and tracking of progress towards our net 0 by 2050 goal, and we undertook a number of trials targeted at reducing operational emissions. Turning now to our Engineering Construction divisional highlights on Slide 8. The division reported revenue of $712.7 million for the year, a 31.5% increase on the previous corresponding period. As mentioned, more than $1.1 billion of new construction contracts were secured since the beginning of the financial year. In Western Australia's iron ore sector, we continue to progress our work for BHP's Car Dumper 3 Renewal Project at Nelson Point in Port Hedland, and also secured a contract with Rio Tinto for shutdown of miscellaneous works at the Western Range project in the Pilbara region. We completed the supply and construction of an overland conveyor at Fortescue's Christmas Creek mine and supported Fortescue to expand the iron ore export capacity of its stockyard facility as well as managing a number of shutdowns at Anderson Point in Port Hedland. Construction contracts were also secured with Chevron Australia for its Jansz Project and Lynas Rare Earths for the Mt Weld Expansion Project in the Goldfields region of WA. In the lithium sector, work was secured with Liontown Resources, Talison Lithium, and Albemarle. A contract valued at approximately $100 million was awarded with Liontown Resources for the construction of the wet plant at the Kathleen Valley Project in WA Goldfields region. We also secured a construction contract valued at about $160 million for Talison's CGP3 project at the Greenbushes site in south-west WA. Subsequent to year-end, we were awarded a multidisciplinary construction contract with Woodside valued at approximately $200 million to enable gas from the Scarborough project to be processed at the Pluto LNG Train 1 facility. Additionally, Mondium, our EPC joint venture with Lycopodium, was awarded a major design and construction contract by Rio Tinto for a new sampling facility at a port operation in the Pilbara region of WA. As previously mentioned, our renewable energy business Zenviron was awarded its first EPC contract in the energy storage market and successfully completed work at Tilt Renewables' Rye Park Wind Farm. We participated in a number of early works engagements relating to wind farm projects and pleasingly, subsequent to year-end, secured a contract with CS Energy to deliver the Lotus Creek Wind Farm in Central Queensland in partnership with Vestas. Zenviron remains well-positioned to capitalize on the significant growth anticipated in the renewable energy sector over the coming years. In Mongolia, we successfully progressed construction of the surface infrastructure at the Oyu Tolgoi Underground Project with Inteforge completing fabrication work for the project. Looking now at our maintenance division, Slide 9. Our Maintenance and Industrial Services division achieved another record annual revenue result of $1.3 billion off the back of strong demand for maintenance services across all sectors. The division secured approximately $1.9 billion in new contracts and contract extensions since the beginning of the 2024 financial year, including several major long-term extensions and variations with our energy customers. This included a significant variation valued at approximately $75 million per annum to our existing offshore maintenance services contract with INPEX Operations Australia. The variation extends our existing contract works to include the provision of operational campaign and shutdown services at the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG onshore processing facilities in Darwin, NT. During the year, we successfully commenced work onshore, employing approximately 250 people on site in addition to a Perth-based support team. We also secured a major long-term maintenance, turnaround and construction services contract to continue providing onshore and offshore services for Shell Australia's Prelude FLNG facility, as well as a 3-year extension to our long-term maintenance shutdown and brownfields project services agreement with Woodside for its onshore and offshore gas production facilities in WA. A number of significant turnarounds were completed for our energy customers, including a major turnaround at Shell's Prelude FLNG facility as well as multiple onshore and offshore shutdowns for Woodside at the Goodwyn and North Rankin facilities, Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG facilities. In WA's iron ore sector, a high volume of maintenance services and sustaining capital work was provided to customers, including Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue. Extensions were secured to existing maintenance contracts at Rio Tinto's Pilbara and Gove operations, BHP's Mt Arthur Coal, Olympic Dam and Pilbara operations, Santos' facilities in PNG, Shell QGC's Curtis Island operations and Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal at Hay Point. Finally, BMC, our Victorian-based specialist electrical and maintenance services provider, acquired in June last year, secured and delivered an outage contract at Loy Yang B power station during the period, strengthening our position in the East Coast-based energy generation, transmission and storage market. I'll now hand over to Phil, who will provide you with some more detail of our financial performance on Slide 10.

Philip Trueman

executive
#4

Thanks, Zoran and good morning, everyone. So Slide 10 compares our financial performance for the year-ended 30 June 2024 to that of the previous year. There's a nice set of green arrows pointing upwards on the left-hand side of that slide. So revenue from contracts with customers was $2.03 billion, which is up 11% from the 2023 financial year and this is in line with the guidance we provided to the market in February. Our ongoing focus on operational discipline and productivity enhancement contributed to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $127.4 million. This is an increase of 16.8% on the previous year and gives an improved EBITDA margin of 6.28%, which is up from 5.96%. Our net profit after tax was $62.2 million, up more than 16%, delivering earnings per share of $0.641. The Board declared a final dividend of $0.33 per share, which takes the full year fully franked dividend to $0.58. This represents an increase of 18.4% on last year and yields a dividend payout ratio of 91%. And we ended the year with a very healthy cash balance of $225.9 million, which was supported by a number of significant advance payments associated with construction contract awards. Cash flow from operations was $187.7 million, delivering a cash flow conversion rate of 169%. We invested significantly in expanding the capability and capacity of our heavy lift crane fleet during the year as well as completing the construction of our new major workshop facility in Karratha, Western Australia, which further cements our long-term commitment to this strategically important region. Our strong balance sheet provides us with the financial capacity to take advantage of strategic investment opportunities, and we will continue to assess potential acquisitions that will support long-term sustainable growth. So overall, it's been a pretty strong year from a financial perspective. And I'll now hand you back to Zoran who will provide you with an overview of the outlook for the business.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#5

Thanks, Phil. Looking now at Slide 11, which shows relevant current and forecasted Australian market conditions for our business as per Oxford Economics Australia. Pleasingly, as you can see, the sectors in which we operate continue to have a positive outlook for capital investment and operating expenditure over the next few years. Turning our outlook -- turning to our outlook on Slide 12. Fundamental indicators of long-term resources and energy demand, such as sustained global economic growth, urbanization and decarbonization remain robust and are expected to support commodity prices. Despite ongoing short-term global uncertainties and cautious sentiment, the resources and energy sectors continue to provide a significant pipeline of opportunities, with projects related to decarbonization making up an increasing share of capital expenditure forecasts. Production across most commodities is expected to remain high, supporting ongoing sustaining capital and maintenance activity. Australian iron ore miners are anticipated to continue investing to sustain production levels with a focus on operational discipline and efficiency to maintain their competitive global cost position. Price volatility in certain commodities over the past year has resulted in reduced production, some cessation of operations and the deferral of capital spend, particularly in nickel and lithium. Despite this uncertainty, the level of mining and mineral processing development in the energy transition metals sector is projected to remain high over the long term. This includes the copper sector, which will require significant capital investment to address forecast demand shortfalls. Prospects in the energy sector remain positive with several new gas construction projects currently underway or in development and strong ongoing demand for maintenance services. Additionally, the increasing need for decommissioning of oil and gas assets is expected to create opportunities over the coming decade. Decarbonization investments across customer operations, including electrification, energy storage and hydrogen are beginning to proceed to investment. Continued efforts to decarbonize the Australian power sector have been affected by network constraints, delayed planning approvals and supply chain pressures. Despite these challenges, the pipeline of renewable energy opportunities is expanding with numerous new wind farms and battery energy storage projects in various stages of development. Zenviron remains well-positioned to capitalize on the significant growth anticipated in this sector over coming years. Additionally, ongoing investment in electricity transmission infrastructure and grid stability will be essential to support the increased introduction of renewable energy generation. While general labor availability has moderated slightly, Australia continues to face a shortage of skilled labor. We continue to focus on employee attraction, training, and development initiatives aimed at fostering retention and bolstering workforce capability and capacity. Market opportunities remain strong with further contract awards expected over coming months. And given the constraints on skilled labor and other key inputs, the company will adopt a selective and targeted approach to new work. Monadelphous will continue to engage collaboratively with its customers to support high standards of delivery, focusing on quality of earnings and an appropriate risk allocation. With a strong balance sheet, we will continue to assess potential acquisition opportunities to facilitate service expansion, market diversification and long-term sustainable growth. In conclusion, I would like to thank the talented and committed team at Monadelphous for their loyalty and dedication to the company's continued growth and another strong year. I also extend my appreciation to our shareholders, customers and our many other stakeholders for their ongoing support. Thank you. I'll now hand you over to the operator for any questions.

Operator

operator
#6

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from James Wilson with Jarden Australia.

James Wilson

analyst
#7

Just a couple from me. Firstly, I note that the recent contract announcements have been around $540 million in total over the past month that you've won. And you've also disclosed $80 million per annum roughly coming out of Kemerton earning. How do we think about, I guess, the wash or the balance for the E&C top line into next year from these recent announcements? Are we right in still thinking that over the past month, your net positive E&C revenue book?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#8

I think the contracts that you quoted that we secured over last month and the commentary we've provided around expectations of contract awards over the next couple of months would support the position you put forward in terms of certainly a net positive position in relation to the EC top line.

James Wilson

analyst
#9

And, Zoran, would you also be expecting a margin tailwind from those new contracts, given they were signed more recently relative to, say, Kemerton's earnings?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#10

I missed the first part of the question, James.

James Wilson

analyst
#11

Would you expect -- would you expect that to be a margin tailwind as well into next year, given these contracts were signed more recently than what you had Kemerton signed up?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#12

No, I wouldn't necessarily assume that.

James Wilson

analyst
#13

And then just secondly, guys, can I just ask on some of the margin trends into next year. Conscious that you've got labor availability headwinds easing. Are there any other tailwinds that we should be thinking about for margin expansion into next year?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#14

Well, I think the commentary we've provided around labor availability, it's moderated slightly, but we haven't seen a material improvement. There's certainly still an issue around the depth and the quality of the labor pool. In terms of margin performance will be a function of execution. It's as simple as that. So I'm not seeing any significant tailwinds in response to your question.

Operator

operator
#15

And our next question comes from Nicholas Rawlinson with Morgans.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#16

Could I just ask firstly how far through CGP3 completion you guys are?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#17

We're still in the early stages. I'd suggest approximately, we wouldn't be more advanced than say 20% complete, somewhere around there.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#18

Okay. That's great. And on the large Zenviron contract that you won earlier in the month, is there a bit of a slow ramp-up? Or is that expected to deliver strongly to FY '25? I noticed that work is expected to commence immediately, but just want to understand the profile, I guess.

Philip Trueman

executive
#19

Yes. I think you're right. We've said work will commence immediately. In fact, has. I'd certainly see the revenue would be weighted to the second half, but it will be a pretty quick ramp-up and therefore…

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#20

And then FY '26 is the bulk of it?

Philip Trueman

executive
#21

I wouldn't say bulk of it.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#22

Yes. Okay. And then on the Pluto modifications work that you won, we didn't really get much detail on when the work is expected to commence and how long that job is expected to go for. Could you just give us an indication of start date and duration?

Philip Trueman

executive
#23

So the first phase of work, there'll be a lot of offsite planning activity that's occurring probably to about the Christmas period. So we'd expect to mobilize to site and be executing work in earnest second -- first -- back in the first quarter, second quarter of calendar year '25.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#24

Yes. Okay. And just the last one from me. Oh, yes, could you also just give us sort of an expected duration for the Pluto [ mods ]?

Philip Trueman

executive
#25

Well, I think if you look at what Woodside have said in the press, they're expecting first gas by the end of calendar year '26. So I would expect our scope to be completed before the end of that calendar year.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#26

Okay. Awesome. And then just on maintenance. Revenue was only up 2% year-on-year and actually went backwards year-on-year in the second half. Was that just because you were lapping oil and gas turnarounds last year? And how should we think about maintenance revenue growing into FY '25?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#27

Well, we certainly had a larger proportion of our turnarounds in the first half in the maintenance business, particularly Shell's first major, and the number of Woodside turnarounds. So you're right. There was a stronger first half. If I look at FY '25, there will be a similar level of turnaround activity. So I guess on that basis, I think you could expect modest growth.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#28

Okay.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#29

Look I've said before, we are a big -- we are a very big player in that maintenance market. So to continue to grow at a more significant rate will be difficult.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#30

Low single digit is probably fair at this point in time.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#31

That would be my view.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#32

Yes. Awesome. I'll let someone else go.

Operator

operator
#33

Our next question comes from John Purtell with Macquarie.

John Purtell

analyst
#34

Just had a few questions if I could. Maybe just picking up on James' earlier question there. Obviously, the second half construction revenue was really strong, sort of up over $400 million. Do you think you can maintain that run rate into next year? Or is there likely to be some moderation?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#35

I'd like to think we can maintain that subject to the award of work in the coming months. So, yes, I think we can, John.

John Purtell

analyst
#36

And just around the second half margins, which obviously improved pretty nicely versus the first half of last year. What were the main sort of drivers of that? Obviously, construction revenue being higher, would have helped. And you mentioned, Zoran, before sort of execution is always important. Any other factors to call out?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#37

No, I think you've answered your own question. The mix of work changed slightly with the EC component. And the reality is, I think across the business, we had strong execution, operational performance over the period, which also supported the margin position.

John Purtell

analyst
#38

Got you. Just the last one. In relation to the Kemerton cancellations there. I mean, how does that expect -- how do you expect that to sort of complete as far as the cost position thinking about demobilization costs, et cetera, and cash flow? Do those costs get covered? So essentially, the impact is really a loss of revenue rather than sort of also incurring other additional costs?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#39

I think we're in a process where we're working through that with Albemarle. But that -- I'd like to -- that's my expectation. So my expectation is that we can -- yes, it's a loss of revenue. We'll recover our costs.

Operator

operator
#40

Our next question comes from William Park with Citi.

William Park

analyst
#41

Can I get a sense around Melchor second half contribution? I remember in the first half you said the top line in the last 2 months of first half was around $25 million. Just wondering how that sort of cascaded into second half?

Philip Trueman

executive
#42

We did about $100 million for the year, Will, and we did about $25 million in the first half, so therefore $75 million in the second half.

William Park

analyst
#43

And I've just noticed the net gain on PPE sales that stepped up around $5 million. Can you just elaborate what's led to this?

Philip Trueman

executive
#44

Yes. We -- as we've mentioned, we built a new major workshop facility in Karratha over the last couple of years and we've now moved into that. So we sold our existing facility up there. And the increase between the 2 years really relates to the profit on sale of that old facility.

William Park

analyst
#45

And appreciate that the CapEx has been somewhat elevated this year versus previous years. But just how should we sort of think about CapEx heading into next year onwards?

Philip Trueman

executive
#46

So for many, many, many years, as long as I can remember, we sort of -- we run at about a 2% of revenue average over a period of time. The last few years, we haven't spent very much in terms of CapEx. We've had a very big CapEx spend this year, specifically to support these newly awarded construction contracts, and we've also added to the capacity and capability of our fleet. I would expect going forward that it's going to return back to more normal levels of around that 2% of revenue.

Operator

operator
#47

Our next question comes from Nathan Reilly with UBS.

Nathan Reilly

analyst
#48

Question on the maintenance contract awards, which you won recently, I think you've flagged $1.9 billion over the last 12 to 14 months. Can you just give me an idea of what level of renewal sits in that versus new awards and scope extensions?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#49

In terms of the more recent announcement, they're predominantly renewals, Nathan.

Philip Trueman

executive
#50

We did...

Zoran Bebic

executive
#51

We did extensions.

Philip Trueman

executive
#52

Yes. We did have the INPEX onshore variation to an existing contract, which was a significant win for us, which was new work.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#53

That was at the back end of last calendar year.

Nathan Reilly

analyst
#54

Okay. Understood. And just picking up your comment around, I guess, a more selective tendering approach. Can you give me a hand in -- and I guess, just try and put some dimensions around the current tender pipeline as it stands at the moment in terms of what you see relative to, say, this time last year?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#55

It's probably -- the composition may have changed a little, but in terms of the size of the pipeline, it's still pretty consistent. It looks pretty solid. I think the more immediate opportunities are in the -- significant opportunities continue to be -- I think, we'll see in the iron ore space, clients committing to CapEx programs that they previously announced sustaining capital and to maintain production. So across the majors, we're seeing a fair bit of tender activity and early works engagements in that space. And then in addition to that, there's -- certainly in the renewable energy market, we've talked about the prospects for Zenviron. But I think even beyond that, in terms of the resources market, mining, minerals market -- resources market more broadly, there are other opportunities. So the pipeline looks pretty strong, still pretty well -- pretty elevated.

Nathan Reilly

analyst
#56

Okay. So with respect to being more selective about that pipeline, are you pursuing, I guess, what you would consider to be higher quality or higher margin work? We just want to talk through [indiscernible] think about.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#57

Yes. I think, it's -- the comment around risk allocation, which translates into margin outcomes. But timing is important. Given the depth of the pipeline, we can make sure that we're pursuing opportunities that work in terms of timing and don't stretch us excessively. And the opportunities that play to our real core, our sweet spot, where we know we can deliver the best outcomes with clients that we have strong relationships and relationships we've had over many years.

Nathan Reilly

analyst
#58

Makes perfect sense. Okay.

Operator

operator
#59

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Richard Amland with CLSA.

Richard Amland

analyst
#60

Just a quick question following up on one of the earlier ones. So, clearly, the mix of revenue changed in the second half that had an impact on margin. So I would like to ask just to get some clarity on where you guys get comfort with the market's expectation around margin next year. Second half looked like an EBITDA margin of about 6.4%. Should we be growing that to 6.6% next year? Or, yes, where do you think you wind up?

Philip Trueman

executive
#61

Well, we don't provide guidance on market -- sorry, on margin, Richard. We just focus on doing our work as well as we possibly can. And it's also --I think, the point that Zoran made earlier is relevant as well. It depends on the overall revenue mix between construction and maintenance work. But, yes, we don't provide guidance on margins. Never have.

Richard Amland

analyst
#62

Okay. So just summarizing the prior comments then, just so we all understand, is that what you said, maintenance service is probably growing at low single digits and depending upon the time of awards, we're looking for probably more than that coming through construction in fiscal year '25?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#63

I'm not sure we quite said that, but that's not an unreasonable assumption.

Philip Trueman

executive
#64

Yes.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#65

But it will be a function of further awards in the next couple of months, yes, and timing.

Operator

operator
#66

Thank you. And our next question comes from Nicholas Rawlinson with Morgans.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#67

Just a follow-up one from me. I was just wondering if you could give us some detail around these potential awards that are coming in the next couple of months, just in terms of sort of size and duration maybe?

Zoran Bebic

executive
#68

I'll give you a very short answer, Nick. Not in a position to give you more detail around the awards.

Nicholas Rawlinson

analyst
#69

I got it. That's fine. All good.

Operator

operator
#70

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Kristy Glasgow for closing remarks.

Kristy Glasgow

executive
#71

Thank you all for your participation today. That now concludes our briefing.

Philip Trueman

executive
#72

Thanks, everyone.

Zoran Bebic

executive
#73

Thank you.

Operator

operator
#74

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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