Napier Port Holdings Limited (NPH.NZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Napier Port Holdings Limited 2025 Annual Results Announcement. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand the conference over to Kristen Lie, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everybody, to the Napier Port Holdings 2025 Annual Results Call. My name is Kristen Lie, CFO at Napier Port. I'm joined on the call this morning with Todd Dawson, Chief Executive; and Blair O’Keeffe, Chair of Board of Directors. During this morning's presentation, we will report on the highlights of our full 2025 financial year, including some detailed analysis of our financial results. We will reference the suite of information released earlier today on the NZX reporting platform and also available in the Investor Center section of our website. At the end of our presentation, we will be happy to respond to any related questions you may have. I hand things over to Blair to get things going.

Thank you, Kristen, [indiscernible] and thank you for joining us today as we report on what has been another milestone year for Napier Port. We're pleased to build on last year's strong growth by delivering another step-up in financial performance with strong revenue and earnings growth. Our result reflects the benefits of a more stable trading environment and our focus on operational execution while putting in place the foundations for the future. Across the region, key primary sectors have continued to recover and performed strongly, supported by a favorable growing season and improved operating conditions. Our diverse trade base, available infrastructure and skilled team have ensured Napier Port continues to deliver for its customers and the community. At the same time, we've made solid progress on our transformation and investment program, including cornerstone projects under the Napier Port Transformation or NPT initiative and the new joint venture dredge with Port Otago. These are investments that will enhance our capabilities and organizational capacity into the future. Napier Port is well positioned for sustained volume and further earnings growth, supported by a strong balance sheet and ongoing focus on performance, capability and returns to shareholders. Todd will now take us through the year's results.

Thanks, Blair, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we look back on a year of strong performance and increased container activity for Napier Port. Trade this year reflects improved operating conditions for our customers and the continued resilience of our diverse cargo and services base, supported by the capability and flexibility across our port to deliver. Comparing our volumes to previous financial year, total cargo increased 1.5% to just over 5 million tonnes with stronger container volumes offsetting softer bulk and cruise activity. Containerized cargo grew 9.1% to 250,000 TEU. This was driven by Pan Pac's return to full pulp and timber operations, an early and strong apple harvest and an increase in restore and transshipment activity as shipping lines adjusted their rotations around the New Zealand coast. These factors helped sustain momentum throughout the year and reinforce the strength of our container trade. Bulk cargo decreased 1.7% to 3.41 million tonnes, largely due to lower log exports. We handled 78 cruise vessel calls down from 89 last year, reflecting a softer season across New Zealand and Australia. Despite this, it was still a solid season for Matterport and continue to bring welcome tourism activity into the region. Across all trades, our teams responded dynamically to shifts in volume, cargo mix and customer demand. Our whole approach to resource planning, combined with improved productivity and a continued focus on service, delivered strong operational performance under recovering market conditions. Moving to Slide 7. Turning on to our financial results. 2025 delivered new highs for revenue and earnings as a more stable trading environment translated into higher activity across the business. Revenue increased 11.6% to $157.7 million, led by container services revenue growth and higher average revenue per unit across all our main service areas. This outcome highlights the strength of our operating leverage with revenue growth outpacing the increase in operating expenses as the benefits of our asset investments, approach to resource allocation, flexibility to meet customer requirements and cost discipline continue to flow through. Underlying net profit after tax rose 36.5% to $28.3 million, while underlying operating cash flow increased 14.6% to $53.7 million, demonstrating the quality of our earnings and strong cash conversion. Overall, the financial results reinforce the momentum created from our operating model that can convert higher activity into proportionately stronger earnings. This year, we've built further on the strong foundations and capability that underpin Napier Port's performance, both financially and operationally. Our operational focus has been on advancing reliability, productivity and efficiency while modernizing the infrastructure and systems that support our operations. The whole of port approach to resource allocation is delivering more coordinated and data-driven operations, allowing us to flex with customer demand, optimize our resource allocation and provide consistent high-quality service. The peak season brought challenges with weather-related disruptions, compressed shipping schedules and some crane availability and maintenance issues, combining to test our operations teams. Our teams responded with agility, reallocating resources, adjusting birth and plans and working closely with customers to maintain service levels. That adaptability translated into strong results and demonstrates the value of our port culture to respond quickly with a coordinated whole of port model. We are investing in the reliability and capability of our existing operations, enhancing the performance of our existing mobile harbor cranes and continuing the standardization of our plant and equipment. These improvements will strengthen performance and service consistency ahead of next pet season while we prepare for a wider port transformation to come. At the center of that transformation is the Napier Port transformation program, NPT, preparing the port for a new operating model with battery electric autonomous trucks. Automation and systems integration are planned to begin in a phased way during the next year. It's not just a technology project. It's about building capability and ensuring our people are ready to operate a safer, smarter and more sustainable port. Alongside this, we're progressing initiatives that strengthen our long-term capability and resilience. Our joint venture dredge with Port Otago, preparations for next-generation ShoreTension mooring systems and early work on future crane replacement options to accommodate larger vessels and growing exchange sizes are all underway. Together, these projects show how we are maintaining strong performance today while transforming and shaping Napier Port for the future. Moving to Slide 9. Napier Port's growth is underpinned by a proven, resilient and diverse trade base spanning container, bulk and cruise services. This year, we've seen that diversity continue to be a real strength, providing balance across trade types and helping sustain volume momentum through the changing market conditions. Building on this, our strategy to grow with our customers through new solutions and partnerships is delivering good results. This year, we refreshed our 10-year strategy developed in consultation with our people, customers and stakeholders to guide long-term value creation. It sets a clear direction for growth through enhanced supply chain services, reliable performance, innovation and collaboration and reflects Napier Port's expanding role in the wider supply chain. Our Viewpoint supply chain services continued to grow its network and customer base across the North Island, strengthening connections between exporters, importers, logistics providers and Napier Port. Viewpoint performed strongly through the Manawatu Inland Port, our joint venture with Hauls Transport and is KiwiRail's largest customer on the Napier-Palmerston North Rail corridor. Likewise, our collaboration with Ernslaw One and KiwiRail to move logs by rail from Karioi Forest to Napier Port reflects how we're supporting regional producers with more efficient, lower carbon transport options and port services, extending our reach and improving supply chain resilience for the forestry sector and our customers. At the same time, we've maintained a disciplined approach to capital and asset management, sequencing our investments carefully and preserving our balance sheet strength. These efforts are positioning Napier Port to capture the next phase of growth and positioning Napier Port to play and continue to play an important role in the New Zealand supply chain. Moving to Slide 10. Sustainability is now embedded in how Napier Port operates, influencing our decisions, investments and the way that we work with customers and partners. This year's progress reflects that integration across our business with advancements in certification, reporting and some investments. We achieved -- sorry, Toitu Enviromark Gold accreditation, recognizing the strength of our environmental management system and our commitment to continual improvement. We also reported for the second year our emissions under the New Zealand climate standards. Our sustainable finance framework confirmed through a second-party opinion from Sustainable Fitch links future investment to transparent environmental and social outcomes, aligning our funding and sustainability goals. Current and planned investments in efficient, low-emission equipment will reduce our emissions footprint over time and helps prepare Napier Port for a new and future operating model. It is pleasing to note also that both our employee engagement and our customer satisfaction metrics have improved during the year, reflecting the continuous focus we have on creating aligned and shared values over the long term. In 2025, our employee recognition scheme will see a payment of $4,314 per employee being distributed. This will be paid in a mix of cash and Napier Port shares. This payment recognizes the collective contribution our team makes to our ports shared success. I'll now hand over to Kristen.

Thank you, Todd. Slide 12. As mentioned earlier, Napier Port again achieved strong total revenue growth this year, increasing $16.3 million year-on-year to $157.7 million. As Todd noted, the benefit of trade diversity was once more demonstrated this year, container services led that growth, increasing $15.2 million, while bulk cargo increased $2.3 million and cruise decreased $0.8 million on lower vessel calls. Container Services revenue increased 19.1% year-on-year on 9.1% higher TEU volume and 9.2% higher average revenue per TEU. Cargo laden full export and import container volumes increased by 9,000 TEU, made up of 3,000 more reefer containers and 6,000 more dry or unrefrigerated containers. At the commodity level, higher reefs were driven by record apple exports, partially offset by lower export meat volume. Higher dry containers were driven by higher export timber following Pan Pac's full return to our pulp and timber operations and supported by higher import fertilizer and import general cargo. Empty container volumes increased 3,000 TEU to provide the capacity required for export cargo and DLRs and tranships increased 8,000 TEU due to increased restore activity and transhipments following service changes amongst container shipping lines. Average revenue per TEU increased from $346 to $378, another strong result, driven by a number of factors, including container mix changes, tariff increases and contributions by supporting service areas such as Port Pack and our container depot operations. [indiscernible] on power had a small drag effect on ARPU as higher vessel calls resulted in lower average container dwell times. Bulk cargo revenue grew by 4.7% year-on-year on 1.7% lower bulk tonnes and 6.5% higher average revenue per ton. The volume decrease was attributable to log exports, primarily due to the prior year containing log sourced from Central North Island wind farm forests and additional redirected log exports by Pan Pac. And what is a positive economic indicator for the local economy, bulk import volume increased 23% to 0.63 million tonnes on higher fertilizer and oil products to support the region. The average revenue per ton increased of 6.5% to $15.08 resulted from cargo mix changes, tariff increases, more log debarking and a higher marine contribution due to higher ship calls on smaller average vessel loads. Slide 15. Although cruise vessels in Napier reduced during the 2025 season, 78 calls was still our second largest season on record. Cruise revenue continues to be a significant contributor being $8.3 million or 5.2% of total 2025 revenue. And the new '26 season begins on Friday, and we currently have 60 vessels booked for the season. The New Zealand cruise industry, including the port sector and government agencies have responded to the current decline in cruise ships visiting New Zealand. And whilst recognizing cruise schedules are forward usually by 1 to 2 years, we expect to see a stabilization in cruise vessel calls in the short term and a return to growing numbers in the medium term. Slide 16. In terms of operating expenses, total operating expenses have increased $4.2 million or 4.7% to $93.6 million compared to last year. Just over 1/3 of this increase was directly attributable to higher container volumes, costs such as contract services, including stevedoring, fuel and electricity. For the year, employee benefit expenses increased $2.1 million due to general remuneration increases, higher annual leave accruals and staff incentives, partially offset by the higher capitalization of cost to capital investment projects in the year. Property and plant expenses increased marginally on higher site and plant maintenance spend, and that was partially offset by lower fuel and power costs. Other operating expenses increased $1.2 million, mainly due to higher contracted stevedoring costs on higher container volume, increased Viewpoint cargo logistics activity and increased technology and other administrative expenses. Slide 17. The result from operating activities of $64.2 million has increased $12.2 million or 23.5% as revenue increased by $16.4 million, whereas operating expenses increased by $4.2 million. The operating result excludes the $7.5 million final settlement of business interruption insurance income and related expenses reported within our other income in our financial statements. As shown in the waterfall chart on the left, the increase is attributed to higher trade volume, specifically containers and improved yields or ARPU. Direct variable expenses increased by $1.5 million and other expenses increased by $2.7 million. The margin chart on the right shows ongoing operating margin growth, improving from 36.8% to 40.7% in 2025, which has resulted from our continued focus on costs and operating leverage on higher year-on-year trade volumes. Our net profit -- underlying net profit increased $7.6 million or 36.5% to $28.3 million. The result from operating activities was the key driver of this increase. Other offsetting factors include higher depreciation, amortization and impairment expenses on capital asset additions, impairment of end-of-life assets and adjusted depreciation rates on certain mobile plant and equipment assets. Reported net profit after tax increased by $6.1 million or 24.4% to $30.9 million in the year and this also incorporates $1.5 million before tax less net insurance income and $3.6 million for tax of expenses related to the disposal of assets, which are excluded from the underlying NPAT metric. CapEx capital expenditure during the year was $33.1 million or $25.3 million in actual cash flow spend terms. Roughly half of the spend is on development, including stage payments towards dredge construction, progressing the container terminal transformation project and mooring plant and equipment and half on replacement, including vessel dry docks, crane major maintenance, mobile plant replacement and various asset works. As mentioned several times this year, we continue to forecast approximately $120 million of CapEx spend across '25 to '27 financial years. As of now nearly 2/3 of the spend is complete or underway and the remainder subject to approvals and timing. Slide 20. Underlying cash flow from operating activities of $53.7 million increased $6.9 million or 14.6% from the prior year. Reported cash flow from operating activities increased $9.8 million to $63.6 million and included insurance claim cash receipts of $11 million. Investing cash flows comprised of $25.3 million in capital spend referred to on the previous slide and $3.1 million invested in marketable securities to establish our risk reserve investment funds. Total dividends actually paid during the financial year of $25 million included the final 24 year dividend paid in December 2024 and both the 2025 interim dividend and special dividend paid earlier this year in June '25. Operating cash inflow exceeded capital financing outflows, leading to a $2.5 million reduction in gross debt during the year. Capital management. We ended the financial year in a strong capital position as a result of our conservative management and growing operating cash flow. Gross debt totaled $107 million at year-end, and we have $73 million of additional undrawn banking facilities. These facilities were recently renewed and extended with our existing lenders, ICBC New Zealand and Westpac New Zealand, providing improved terms and sustainable loan provisions to support investment into eligible assets under Napier Port's newly introduced sustainable finance framework. Our total debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 1.5x at the end of the period, and our weighted average term to maturity for all debt was 3.3 years at the balance date. Operating cash flow growth and sound financial position support the Board's decision to pay increased total dividends for the year. In respect of the 2025 financial year, total dividends of $0.145 per share fully imputed translates to a gross dividend yield of 5.9% as of end of last week. Sustainability and emissions reporting. This year, we have issued our fifth climate change report and fourth certified emissions. We expanded our Scope 3 emissions reporting scope to include the emissions associated with purchased equipment, purchased goods and services and construction projects this year. As a result, total gross emissions increased by 106% compared to the prior year or increased by 8.5% when stripping out the newly reported categories. Scope 1 emissions increased 4.8% on higher fuel usage by generators used for the higher reefer container volumes and higher fuel usage from cranes and forklifts on higher container volumes generally. Scope 2 emissions, essentially electricity consumption related, increased by 18.7% despite 13% lower electricity usage. This is due to official emission factor changes increasing 39% year-on-year. Emissions intensity on a per cargo tonne basis increased 103%, primarily due to the expanded Scope 3 reporting. On a like-for-like basis, the increase was 6.9% on containerized cargoes increasing proportion of total cargo and the higher public electricity emission factor. In the medium term, we are working towards lowering emissions intensity. Two avenues to help achieve this are investing in the NPT program and increasing electrification. I'll now hand back over to Todd and Blair for concluding remarks.

Thanks, Kristen. 2025 has been a milestone year for Napier Port, delivering record financial results and improved operational performance while advancing the transformation projects that will define our future. Looking ahead, we're well positioned to deliver on our strategies for continued growth. Our ongoing investments in our core operations, including our assets, people and systems sees us positioned well to consistently perform while we progress our transformation programs and strengthen our operational capability. Our balance sheet remains strong with the ability to fund future developments, build capacity and continue supporting a growing dividend. While global trading conditions remain mixed, Napier Port's diverse cargo base and proven operating capability provide confidence in the outlook. For 2026, we expect an underlying result from operating activities of between $70 million and $74 million, assuming stable trading conditions. Over the medium term, we're focused on achieving returns on invested capital for shareholders commensurate with our weighted average cost of capital. This continues to guide our approach to disciplined investment, focused yield management and sustainable cost management and service delivery for our customers. Overall, Napier Port enters 2026 from a position of strength, strategically, financially and operationally with the capability and balance sheet to keep delivering long-term value for our shareholders, customers and region. I'll now hand back to Blair.

Thank you, Todd. And finally, we're pleased to have announced today a final 2025 dividend of $16 million or $0.08 per share. This dividend will be fully imputed and paid on 16 December to those recorded on the register as at 3 December. This brings the total dividend in respect of the 2025 financial year to $29 million or $0.145 per share, which has increased from the $0.09 per share for the 2024 year. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank our shareholders, customers and the Napier Port team for their continued support and contribution. This has been a year of strong delivery and progress, and we are proud of what's been achieved together, and we look ahead with confidence. I now hand back to Kristen, who will conclude the presentation.

Thanks Blair. That concludes our prepared presentation. We would like to provide the opportunity for those on the call to ask questions related to our presentation. And therefore, I'll hand back over to the moderator to do so.

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from Andy Bowley with Forsyth Barr.

Congrats on the strong FY '25 results. I've got a couple of questions to kick things off, primarily on the revenue line and the revenue outlook. And I'm mindful, Todd, of the comments you've made around the outlook in terms of the profit guidance, talking about stable trading conditions. Can you kind of expand on that in terms of what your expectations are from a volume point of view, maybe for the next year, but then also for the next couple of years. We've got an idea in terms of where the cruise bookings are, but can you kind of elaborate on that in terms of where you see cruise going beyond FY '26, but then also talk to containers and the bulk side of things, please?

Yes, sure. Andy, I'll touch on the cruise piece first. Obviously, this coming year, we've got lower bookings at around 60. Our expectation is that with the good work that we've been working with the cruise association and other ports on and the government that we are hopeful to see that those cruise numbers start to climb back up over the next couple of years with forward bookings and things. It's probably just a little bit early to confirm 24 months out, et cetera, but we believe that there will be a recovery in those going forward. So that's good. On the container volume, we -- I think we've issued guidance now, which in the last few years, we haven't wanted to do that this early in the season. But given what we're seeing across the likes of some of our bigger commodity container customers, the likes of Pan Pac, early indications from the port sector and sort of more normal trading conditions across the primary sector, has given us confidence to be able to put those numbers out today. And we expect to see certainly Pan Pac and Apple volumes continue to go well, and we're seeing and hearing good growth numbers coming out of the port sector in particular for the next year or 2. So that's given us that confidence to talk about that. And on the bulk side, we're seeing pretty steady volumes on the -- in particular, the log market despite the ups and downs of the key -- key market in China, our underlying cargo coming through the gate. And what we're hearing from exporters is that it's reasonably stable going out with some more normalized conditions. So that's good. But we're also seeing, as you would have noted, on the import volume in the bulk side. I think that -- well. And so that's translating into those inputs like fertilizer sector increasing in volume through the port. So again, that's given us confidence to be able to put some guidance out this early in the year.

So I guess you're optimistic that volumes both on the container and the bulk side are going to lift in FY '26 in terms of what you're seeing at the moment. Is that the kind of core message?

I think container volumes, yes, we would hope to see that those will lift. And then on the bulk side, we think it's steady. And...

Great. And then kind of the other side of the revenue line is pricing. Looking at the tariff schedule changes for this year, there's some pretty hefty increases on the container side of things. Can you kind of talk to the broader pricing backdrop in terms of where you see the biggest gains? I'd assume it's on the container side versus the bulk side, but maybe more broadly, how you see it playing out across the next 12 months?

We've made some moves in the standard tariffs around about October this year, which is our usual process that we go through with customers. And as you know, Andy, a lot of our trade is tied up in contracts and things, and we'll assess those as we go each year as they come up for renewal and things on the -- I think a lot of the movement has been made is my kind of impression over the last 12 months. So I wouldn't expect to see massive increases in pricing being pushed through in the next 12 months or so. But as you know, we always look at what the overall balance is, whether it's price, volume or cost control to get to those sort of returns that we want to try and achieve 5 to 10 years post wharf target. And I think we're tracking towards that quite well.

Just to be clear, the infrastructure levy and VBS are outside or completely outside of any contractual terms that you have with the shipping lines? Or are they influenced -- are the contractual terms influenced by those?

No, those are outside of any contractual terms. So those are things that we'll review annually. And my comments around that we've made some reasonably significant moves as you've talked about in the last 12 months, I wouldn't expect to see those sort of level of increases going through in our next review for those ones that don't get affected by contracts.

Yes. Brilliant. Maybe just last before I hand over. Just curious in terms of asset for sale, which was the Renown asset, what does that relate to? And then where are you on the Whakatu land?

Andy, yes, so that's -- we've got some plant and equipment that we're looking to sell. It's sort of mid-life sort of type assets, reasonable value. And basically, we're, I guess, looking to recycle capital, frankly, just basically looking to move on and reinvest the proceeds, hopefully. As far as Whakatu's goes, there's nothing to report at this stage. You're sort of working in the background, but nothing to report at this stage.

The next question is from Grant Lowe with Jarden.

Congratulations on the result. Just going back to the pricing side of things. So looking at guidance and the tariff schedule, and you've mentioned not everybody is on the same sort of the tariff schedule for many contracts outside of that. But if I look at say 5% increase across the board on the tariff schedule, for example, and increases last year, et cetera. And then I look at the increase in the infrastructure levy, VBS, et cetera, do some rough math, the guidance range that you've given looks pretty sort of conservative. But just thinking about the pricing on the container side, it seems to me like that the effective price increase is probably low double digits. Does that feel reasonable to you?