NZME Limited (NZM.NZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to New Zealand Media and Entertainment's 2025 Half Year Results Webcast. My name is Kelly Gunn, and I'm the GM Communications at NZME, and I'll be facilitating all questions at the end of today's presentation. Presenting on the call today is Michael Boggs, NZME's Chief Executive Officer; and David Mackrell, NZME's Chief Financial Officer. Following the presentation today, we will open the webcast to shareholders and analysts for questions. [Operator Instructions]. I will now handover to our CEO, Michael Boggs.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to be with us this morning. Those of you participating via our online webcast will see the presentation materials on the screen, and you'll obviously be able to follow along. Today's session will begin with me providing an update on 3 key strategic focus areas, followed by a review of our top line financial results and the current market landscape. I'll then discuss how we're performing in the market and share updates on our digital transformation initiatives, which obviously remains central to our strategic objectives. David will then take you through our financial performance covering the first half of the year. After that financial overview, I'll then get into a bit more detail on our operational results and strategic developments across our 3 core divisions. Those are obviously OneRoof, Audio and Publishing. We'll then look at the present trading conditions and share our outlook for the remainder of the year. Wrap up, as Kelly just said, both David and I look forward to addressing any questions you have at the end. So let's now turn to an update on our areas of focus. You'll recall at our annual results announcement in February this year, we shared some key focuses for the company over and above our strategic priorities across the 3 divisions of the business. The first was that NZME launched a strategic review to accelerate OneRoof's growth and realize its full potential in delivering value for shareholders. The review has highlighted the significant value creation opportunity of the OneRoof business. The new Board is focused in the short term on growing OneRoof organically, while obviously keeping strategic opportunities under constant review. The second area of focus was on governance at NZME. NZME undertook to recruit additional specialists from a governance perspective as well as the election of Steven Joyce and Jim Grenon at NZME's 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting, Technology and marketplaces expert, Bowen Pan, has subsequently appointed and been joined the Board. The 3 new directors bring a range of skills and experience to the Board and have been prioritizing gaining a comprehensive understanding of the business in the first 2 months, meeting with executive and senior management across NZME to gather insights. Additionally, you'll see the Board has now established an editorial Advisory Board to provide advice, support and constructive challenge to the NZME editorial team on matters of editorial policy and direction. This editorial Advisory Board does not have executive or decision-making powers, but will provide independent counsel to the Chief Content Officer, that's Murray Kirkness, and the NZME Board on editorial standards, audience development and digital transformation initiatives. Furthermore, to support the growth and acceleration of OneRoof, the Board has also formalized the establishment of a OneRoof Advisory Board that reports to the main Board and is chaired by NZME Board Director, Bowen Pan. We're also focused on continuing to adapt to the slower-than-expected market recovery with market commentators advising economic improvement is now expected to incur in 2026. NZME is adjusting its cost base to preserve profitability while it works on lifting market share to benefit from the eventual market upswing. During this time, we've also played a small part in trying to inspire New Zealanders and the business community. We've written nearly 500 articles celebrating Kiwis and their businesses doing great things. This is in line with our commitment to keeping Kiwis in the know and connecting communities. Let's now turn to our results for the half, which are summarized on Slide 4. Operating revenue of $165.7 million was lower than the first half of last year, substantially due to the closure of our community publications in December last year. I'll cover this in a little more detail shortly. Pleasingly, operating EBITDA was $23.9 million for the first half. This was $2.5 million better than in the first half of last year. And this delivers an operating earnings per share of $1.8 for the first half. The statutory net loss after tax of $0.4 million or $400,000 includes $5.2 million of restructuring and other nonrecurring costs. The company produced free cash flow of $2.2 million, which was $2.9 million better than the first half of 2024. This left us with net debt of $33.3 million at the 30th of June. Now this was higher than December given the seasonal cash flows in the first half, which obviously include the final 2024 dividend being paid in March '25. Additionally, the Board has now declared a fully imputed interim dividend of $0.03 per share, consistent with last year, and that's payable on the 24th of September 2025. The chart on Slide 5 highlights the key components in operating revenue with some key changes to explain. OneRoof digital revenue continued its growth, although this was partially offset by lower print revenue. As OneRoof has grown to be a more significant part of the business, in December last year, we began deferring a portion of the revenue to be recognized over the time line that the classified advertising relates to. This is normally 1 to 2 months. Hence, the small adjustment to show a like-for-like comparison at the June period. Audio revenue showed solid growth year-on-year for both digital and terrestrial radio. The demand and yield for the digital publishing programmatic market was weak during the period, while core digital advertising was also behind. Low marketing -- low margin, digital performance marketing reduced in the period with fulfillment cost reductions substantially offsetting this revenue decline. As I noted earlier, the closure of several community publications reduced revenue for the half, but did not impact earnings significantly. Finally, this chart shows that while digital subscription revenue grew, this was more than offset by the decline in the print subscriber revenue. The early signs of economic recovery identified in the first quarter were constrained by continued higher inflation than anticipated and delayed house price recovery. You can see this on Slide 6. The business and consumer confidence, as shown in the graph on the left, showed positive signs as the year commenced, but then stalled. Similarly, on the right, both the consumer price index chart and the house price index chart show the expected improvements through quarter 2 just did not eventuate. On Slide 7, you can see that NZME's OneRoof audio and Publishing platforms reached 9 out of 10 Kiwis, attracting Kiwi audiences like no other. They also underpin our digital revenue streams. This shows the improvements in our digital revenues across multiple businesses and platforms. In the bottom boxes, you can see the significant audiences across NZME. The top figure shows engagement with our traditional media of print terrestrial radio platforms, while the bottom figure shows our digital audience engagement. As you can see, there's substantial audiences across each of our market-leading platforms driving digital revenue growth with the exception of digital publishing revenue that I spoke about earlier. Let me now hand over to David, who will take you through the details of the 2025 half year results.

Thanks, Michael, and thank you to everyone joining us on the call today. You'll see on Slide 9 shows the performance of each division for the half compared to the first half of last year. The chart highlights that the improved audio and digital publishing results are the biggest drivers of the improved operating earnings. On a like-for-like basis, OneRoof also delivered an improved contribution to the group with digital revenue 22% higher. Audio's performance improved through a 1% lift in revenue and a 3% reduction in costs. Digital Publishing margin improved as a result of reducing the low-margin revenue activity, along with cost reductions to achieve a 9% lower cost base. Print-related publishing revenue continued a declining trend, partially offset by the additional third-party print revenue. However, cost reductions were able to significantly improve the result with EBITDA down only $0.5 million for the half. Now turning to the operating results of the group for the 6 months on Slide 10. The operating EBITDA result of $23.9 million was $2.5 million better than the operating result for the first half of 2024. The improved results were achieved on a lower overall revenue base. The reader revenue was 3% lower with the decline in print subscriptions offsetting the growth in digital subscription revenue. Advertising revenue was also 3% lower with the closure of the community newspapers in December, the key driver. The improvement in the result was generated through a 5% reduction in operating costs, resulting in operating EBITDA being 12% better than the comparative half last year. Depreciation and amortization were higher with capital spending in recent years being shorter life technology-related spend. Operating net profit after tax was 22% higher than last year at $3.4 million. Slide 11 shows the total operating expenses were 5% lower than the first half of 2024, with the main drivers being lower people costs and lower print volumes reducing print and distribution costs. The cost base was reduced through the closure of community newspapers, lower third-party digital fulfillment costs with reduced performance marketing revenue and saving impacts of the restructuring initiatives. During the half, there were a number of cost savings implemented, including reshaping the newsroom. And these initiatives will deliver annualized savings of $12 million with $2 million recognized in the second quarter. The full impact of these cost reductions will be seen in the second half of the year. Nonrecurring expenses primarily relate to the major restructuring in the half, particularly regarding the newsroom changes, together with legal and consulting costs in relation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting in June. Slide 12 shows the continued strength of the balance sheet and highlights the seasonal increase in net debt. Net working capital is $0.6 million higher than December due to a higher tax receivable balance and $1.7 million -- $1.7 million lower than June 2024. Net debt is $9.2 million higher than December and $3.3 million higher than June 2024, with the main driver being the payment of the final 2024 dividend in March '25 and the large first half nonrecurring expenditure that has been incurred. Slide 13 shows a summary of the cash flows with cash flows from operations of $15 million, $2.9 million better than the first half of last year. This reflects improved operating earnings with higher nonrecurring expenses partially offset by lower tax paid. You note that other movement in the free cash flow for 2024 relates to a tax obligation arising on the issue of shares under the long-term incentive scheme. Capital expenditure was lower than the first half of last year and full year capital expenditure is expected to be between $10 million and $11 million. Distributions to shareholders of $11.3 million relates to the final dividend for 2024 of $0.06 per share, which was paid in March '25. Turning to the capital management slide on Slide 14. The graph shows the level of net debt and leverage over the last 7 years. The recent half year positions are also shown to highlight that midyear net debt is generally higher due to the seasonality of cash flows. The seasonal increase in leverage remains within the target range of 0.5 to 1x EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 and is similar to the first half of last year. Net debt is projected to reduce by the end of 2025 with the leverage ratio returning to the lower end of the target range. The Board has declared a fully imputed interim dividend of $0.03 per share, which is payable on the 24th of September 2025. I will now hand back to Michael, who will take you through the performance of each division.

Thanks for that, David. And let's now first turn to OneRoof, our property platform. On Page 17, you'll see that OneRoof residential listing revenue increased by 16% compared to a 1% market growth in listings. This above-market revenue growth was achieved through a 4% lift in upgrade conversions, which is shown in the middle graph. The graph on the right shows that average yield increased by 8% through an improved product mix during the year. Slide 18 shows OneRoof's monthly online web audience in orange compared to Trade Me Property, which is shown by the yellow line. Since matching Trade Me in the last quarter of 2024, audience levels have remained relatively close. Agents frequently tell us that they are achieving great results for their vendors from the OneRoof platform. However, we know we need to continue to improve to deliver on our revenue growth aspirations. On Page 19, you'll see that OneRoof digital revenue has continued to grow and is 22% higher than last year on a like-for-like basis. As I mentioned earlier, from December 2024, we began deferring a portion of the revenue to be recognized over the time line of the classifieds advertising. The 2024 comparative has been adjusted to reflect this. With the new listing market up just 1%, as noted just earlier, it's pleasing to see OneRoof outperform the market with upgrade conversion rates up 4% and yields up 8% through that product mix change. This delivered residential listings revenue growth of 16% year-on-year with other listings and digital advertising listing the total digital revenue growth to 22% year-on-year. Print revenue was lower, largely due to new listings skewed toward lower-value properties, which tend not to market through print. Costs were 2% higher overall than last year, substantially as a result of the investment in salespeople to drive growth outside of Auckland. Slide 20 highlights the progress being made against OneRoof's strategic priorities. Engagement and listing inquiries continue to improve, helped by the launch of an enhanced new app and supported by a fresh new brand campaign. In addition, the wider NZME assets continue to be leveraged to promote OneRoof. A new sales structure was introduced in January this year to create a nationwide network of professionals focused purely on growing OneRoof. You'll see EBITDA margin has improved from 5% in the first half of 2024 to 8% this half. There is considerable potential for improvement as revenues grow. Moving to Slide 21. You'll see the growth opportunity for OneRoof is significant with market listings currently 9% below the historical average. While upgrade percentages have improved, market recovery will assist in lifting upgrade percentages closer to the short-term targets as vendors look to market their properties given they have more certainty of selling. Our target is 60% for Auckland and 40% for the rest of New Zealand by the end of 2026. Average yields are continuing to improve and are well below the highest value package level we offer, as shown in the graph on the bottom of Slide 21. It is worth noting that OneRoof's package prices remain significantly less than the Trade Me equivalent with them having recently announced further increases to come. Let's now turn to our Audio division, which includes our digital audio platform, iHeartRadio, together with our many radio stations and our leading podcast network. Slide 23 highlights, outlines and the operating highlights of the Audio division. The graph on the left shows the monthly revenue market share between NZME and Mediaworks. You can see that in Q2 of 2025, our share has ended at 45%, which is slightly ahead of the 12-month average. One of the key drivers of the revenue growth year-on-year has been the increasing share of audio revenue sold through the agency sales channel, as shown in the middle chart. This reflects the larger brands returning to spend on their brands, while SMEs who book directly are still subdued. Podcast revenue growth has been a key area of focus. You can see the podcast revenue has continued to grow as a proportion of digital audio revenue and is now at 32% overall. Slide 24 shows the financial results for the Audio division. Digital revenue was 6% higher than last year with growth expected to rise in the second half. Broadcast revenue has pleasingly returned to growth. This is despite some slightly lower audience ratings. While overall selling and marketing expenses are lower, agency commissions within this expense line are actually 11% higher. This is due to the greater proportion of revenue being generated through this channel, as noted on the previous slide. Overall costs are 3% lower with reduced people costs and lower selling and marketing costs, the key drivers. As a result, the operating EBITDA of $10 million was 26% better than last year. Progress on the Audio division's key strategic priorities are set out on Slide 25. There has been a continued focus across a number of stations to drive audience and revenue growth. We launched a new station, iHeartCountry New Zealand in Auckland and 6 other markets to take advantage of a growing audience demand. We'll not see the benefits of the station in our audience measurement until later this year. This is expected to fill a clear gap in the New Zealand market and drive incremental revenue, both terrestrially and digitally. An upgrade to the iHeartRadio app will deliver an enhanced user experience and functionality in the third quarter. We've extended our partnership with iHeart. This ensures long-term stability and strategic alignment with the iHeart brand. It's good to see that we've improved EBITDA margins from 7% for the first half of 2024 to 10% for the first half of this year. We do continue to see opportunities for growth. Let's move to cover our Publishing division, which is focused on being New Zealand's leading news destination. Page 27 summarizes some of the key operating metrics of the business. Total subscriptions continued to grow. Despite a difficult market, overall subscriptions increased by 5%. Dynamic yield management allowed digital subscriptions to continue to grow through trials and retention campaigns, delivering overall digital subscriber revenue growth of 4% year-on-year. Print subscriber trends remain similar with yield improvements partially offsetting the volume declines during the period. As just noted, digital subscription revenue grew by 4% and print declined. This resulted in overall reader revenue declining by 3% during the half. This can be seen on Page 28. Digital advertising revenue was down 9% year-on-year. Core digital revenues are down 2%. The balance is driven by our decision to deprioritize low-yielding digital performance marketing campaigns. These are placed on third-party platforms and in addition, a reduction in programmatic revenues. The print advertising revenue decline of 11% reflects our decision to close the majority of NZME's community titles in December 2024. Operating expense reductions also reflect this closure of the community titles. But in addition, the refreshed newsroom operating model completed in the first quarter of 2025 delivered $4 million of annualized savings and is reflected in the second quarter lower cost structure. The Publishing business delivered an operating EBITDA of $15.4 million, an increase of 5% on the prior year. So let's move to Page 29. It separates the Publishing business into the digital and print platforms business. On the left, you can see the digital business has increased its operating EBITDA to $5.7 million for the half, a 25% increase year-on-year. As noted on the right of the page, the digital business bears the cost of the majority of the newsroom journalists. Content that is produced for our digital platforms is then able to be used by our print publications at no cost. Only roles that are dedicated to print publishing, which does include some journalists are included in the print publishing costs. We undertook a review of the people and costs that are dedicated to print in the second half of last year. As per note one at the bottom of the page, an adjustment for these newsroom cost allocations has been made and reflected in the 2024 first half comparatives. This saw first half 2024 print newsroom costs increased by $1.2 million and digital costs reduced by the same amount. You'll note the print business produced an operating EBITDA of $9.6 million for the half. So let's now talk about some of the key metrics of the publishing business. We've continued to see growth in our digital subscription volume, but revenue growth is being hampered by the economic environment. Our new subscriber technology is allowing us to offer customized pricing options and our personalization of content is driving greater consumption and engagement. We have commenced work on improving the New Zealand Herald app experience and are migrating business desk to the core operating systems that will deliver improved capability. The business is performing well, and we continue to see strong demand from both readers and from advertisers. We are continuing our transition to a subscription-led business, including a strong advertising offering. This is shown on Page 31. On the left of the page, you can see digital advertising revenue growth over the period and the introduction of digital subscription revenue in yellow. On the top of this is the solid level of print reader revenue that we continue to see with print advertising revenue added at the top. Digital revenue as a percentage of total revenue, this is represented by the blue line, has now grown to over 40% of total revenues. On the right-hand side, we look to our digital audience and revenues. Subscribers are the smaller category of audience to site in a month. But as you would expect, they have a significantly higher average monthly revenue per user. Given this, they now generate 50% of our digital revenue from their subscription payment and their advertising consumption. We have a significant opportunity to convert the engaged users, those visiting more than 10 times per month become subscribers of our core products. Let's move to Page 33. As we've previously noted, the corporate and other financial results reflect the unallocated costs associated with the overall management and governance of the NZME Group plus the NZME Events business that operates across the country. These totaled $3.1 million for the half. On Page 34, you'll see a summary of the divisional results for the half versus last year. This includes the corporate expenses and sums to the operating EBITDA of $23.9 million, which was up 12% year-on-year. You can see the large increase in this exceptional nonrecurring expense in the half, which, as we noted, is substantially represented by the cost of implementing the cost savings of $12 million per annum. Now let me move to the outlook for NZME, including some key focus areas of the Board. As we've noted, despite the market recovery continuing to be slow, economists do remain optimistic there will be improvements in the year ahead. We are seeing big brands that are represented by media agencies investing and building their brand profiles. This is a benefit to NZME as they see cross-platform advertising opportunities. However, small to medium businesses are still challenged. As the economic environment improves, with lifts in consumer confidence and spending, we do expect that SME's advertising spend will increase. We've noted that NZME has completed annualized cost reductions of $12 million, $2 million of which was recognized in the second quarter of the year. The full impact will be seen in the second half of 2025 and then into 2026. We have seen improved performance in advertising revenue with July up 2% year-on-year. That's after adjusting for the closure of the newspaper network. This has flowed through to improved year-on-year profitability. Given this and based on current performance, without significant economic improvements, NZME expects to deliver an operating EBITDA in the range of $57 million to $59 million for the year. This level of operating EBITDA would enable a full year dividend similar to the 2024 dividends, which were $0.03 and $0.06 per share, subject, of course, to a Board decision at the appropriate time. Finally, on Page 37, as you'd expect, the Board is focused on improving shareholder value through a number of initiatives. These include a review of strategy across all 3 operating divisions of the business, accelerating the growth of OneRoof, improving the overall audience experience and performance across our many platforms, returning digital revenue to growth, proactively continuing to optimize the cost structure and ensuring there are short-term profitability improvements across the business. We'll be able to update you further on these in the future. That now concludes our presentation. David and I are now very happy to take your questions.

Thank you, Michael and David. We'll now open the webcast for any questions from shareholders. [Operator Instructions] our first question is from Arie Dekker.

I mean accepting that the new Board still has to assess the growth and acceleration opportunities in OneRoof, could you at least just provide a little bit of color on what was identified out of the review in terms of things that they will be looking at as options to accelerate that growth?

Yes. I think, Arie, and good morning, and thanks for joining. I think there's a couple of things. Firstly, you will have seen that the OneRoof Advisory Board has been formalized with Bowen Pan taking the Chair role of that. That reports directly to the Board and will continue to give great guidance and support to management of the OneRoof team. I think secondly, the review identified there just a significant opportunity with the current product and in the market overall. And so the Board is very focused on ensuring that we continue to offer a better experience in the product, grow revenues quicker and deliver shareholder value organically, but we'll obviously keep its eyes open to other opportunities as they present themselves.

Okay. And there was no reference to the initiative that you're exploring with Gumtree. I think you announced that in May. How is the exploration of that opportunity going? Any update there?

No, there's nothing further to update on other than OneRoof is definitely our priority. We can see significantly improved shareholder value to be created through that. And I think it's more of a watching brief with other verticals.

Okay. And then just OneRoof Print. I mean, contribution margin there, even if I just only deduct the direct cost of print and distribution is obviously becoming reasonably marginal. How far -- like are you assessing whether you will close down the print product in OneRoof and how far away might that be?

I don't think that's something we're considering at all at the moment, Arie. I think print was definitely impacted, I think, as we alluded to, the types of homes that are currently selling. We actually see more opportunity in print at the moment. A number of other publications have closed around the country, even specifically in Auckland, which gives us further opportunity to use print. It's great, one for the OneRoof brand. It's also great for agents brands. And so we see it as very complementary overall to the product offering.

And then lastly, just digital-only subs. I mean, and again, we are in a different -- difficult macro backdrop, but this sequential growth in first half '25 on where you finished last year was definitely pretty slow. Can you just talk about initiatives there, specific initiatives to support growth and what your outlook is for the balance of the year? Is it possible that the '26 target will need to be lowered there? Or are you not at that point yet?

No, we're certainly not at that point. Like if I look through to last year, in the first half last year, we did 7,000 growth in digital subs. We did 5,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 in this first half. So yes, it is off a bit there. Second half is usually a bigger half for us. The new technology we've put in now actually allows us to be personalized and customized from a pricing to either gain clients or to retain them. And so we have seen some yield degradation as we continue to do that, but we now see that gives us an opportunity to build engagement and continue to grow strongly. So we're still very focused on growing to that target number.

We now have a question from James Lindsay.

A couple from me as well. Obviously, the team has obviously never sat still on costs out. But any expectation for further nonrecurring expenses for the second half?

So will be -- most of it will be captured in the first half, James. Well, we wouldn't discount the fact that we might do something more, there's nothing significant planned at this point in the second half.

And then just interested in the sort of perception of yield versus volume. I understand, obviously, it's been a particularly challenging time for the New Zealand economy. But just where you're thinking with regard to yield increases versus obviously print subscribers off that 10% and as Arie, pointed out, digital being somewhat weak.

Yes. So maybe firstly, just a little more color on the print overall. If we adjust for the communities, and I think with overall print advertising revenues were down about $2.7 million in the half. We obviously closed our communities, but we also bought in the Gisborne Herald and Sun Media. And the net of all of those was actually about $2.7 million. So print advertising revenues were actually flat year-on-year after those adjustments. So we're seeing really good advertiser support from a print product. And again, that comes back to those larger brands wanting to promote their brands and they're seeing print is good for that. And then as we go through to readers, we did see a 10% volume decline offset by a 4% margin improvement to give the net 6% subscription revenue in the period. And that's about what we've been seeing, maybe 1% different. But again, we've got, as you will have seen, some dedicated teams now focused. And so yes, we're actually really pleased with the print business and its future potential.

And then on Slide 17, you gave a good chart with residential upgrades [indiscernible] obviously, that uplift has slowed somewhat. How much of it do you think is just an economy perspective? Or is the significantly more that the dedicated teams can do to uplift that?

Yes, I do think it's a mix of both. So one is economically, if you're not -- it's sort of the converse thing, isn't it? If you're not sure if you're going to sell, you should advertise. But the mindset goes, I'm not sure if I'm going to sell, so I might not advertise and cost myself money. And so I think an improving market, we definitely would see more people marketing and advertising. And then with our dedicated team, we're definitely seeing improvements in that overall movement up. And so if I look through last year, for example, H2 in Auckland was a 42% listings upgrade versus H1 this year at 45%. We've seen a 1% improvement outside of Auckland. So overall, we're 2% up half-on-half, and we just need to keep improving there.

And then on Slide 21, obviously, you talked about your short-term listing upgrade targets. And so thanks for the extra color on that. And you talked about by the end of FY '26, if I listened right. Would it then be sort of an FY '27 sort of project to actually see yield improve once you've actually got the upgrade to a sort of a target level you're happy with.

Yes. So our first priority is getting agents, obviously using the product with their vendors. And so we don't want price to be an issue with that. So we're very focused on working with agents, having them selling our product and then our objective would be for them to be buying the biggest product possible.

Yes, cool. And then just lastly, just with regard to, obviously, on Slide 19, the print revenues, you said there was sort of a mix of things that adjusted for that. So would you expect to see any rebound in the second half from that print OneRoof revenues?

I think it will substantially be come down to what the market is like. And recent days commentary is saying things are better from a sales perspective and listings coming to market. So that will be obviously the key driver.

Actually, I'll just sneak in another one if I may as well. Obviously, just in audio, it looks like a pretty solid result and your revenue share doing well. Can you just talk to -- obviously, the audience share is probably coming back a bit, but your revenue share is lifting. So -- and MediaWorks in the last 2 or 3 sort of sector prints has actually done relatively well. So what's driving those 2 sort of divergent outcomes?