Regis Healthcare Limited (REG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Regis Healthcare FY '23 Half Year Results Briefing. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Dr. Linda Mellors, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much, Ashley, and good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Regis Healthcare results presentation for the half year ended 31 December 2022. And as Ashley mentioned, my name is Linda Mellors, I'm the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Regis. I'd like to begin our call today by acknowledging the Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging, and I extend that respect to any aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people joining us on the call. As usual, I'm joined by Rick Rostolis, our Chief Financial Officer. Rick will take you through the detailed financial information later in our presentation. Regis is one of Australia's largest and most sophisticated providers of aged care, including residential aged care, home care and retirement living. Regis has a team of more than 8,000 dedicated people and delivered caring services to more than 7,000 residents and clients at any given time over the past year. I'm immensely proud of our team and their commitment to our residents, clients and company. Our presentation today is in 6 main parts. I'll start with a brief overview of our 3-year strategy and provide updates in relation to industry reform and sector performance. We will then provide a summary of our financial and operational performance for the half year, a number of other matters, an update in relation to our Year 2 strategic priorities and outlook commentary. We will be pleased to take any questions at the end of the presentation. Our company and our people are dedicated to the care and service of older Australians. We were formed 30 years ago and are a proud Australian company. Our purpose is clear and remains completely centered on providing personalized and respectful care that embraces the experience of aging. This means accepting and knowing each person, and their needs and preferences, and supporting them to lift the best life they can in a community. Our strategic plan was designed to keep Regis at the forefront of the best industry providers and place the company in a strong position in a post-reform environment. Care and service remain our core business drivers to improve consumer experience and operational and financial performance. Regis has worked extremely hard to form the right team, supported by contemporary systems and processes, an ethical framework and a strong balance sheet to deliver our strategic plan and the best of care and services to our consumers. I have shared this slide previously and later, I'll provide the key updates for Year 2 of the plan. The half year has once again been challenging from an operating and financial perspective. The sector has been dealing with a great deal of regulatory and funding uncertainty and more providers have fallen into loss-making positions. It's important that I spend some time here talking through the industry reform and sector performance. Some reforms came into effect in the half year. ACFI funding was replaced by the new AN-ACC funding model on 1 October 2022, ahead of the mandated average key minutes requirement that will commence on 1 October 2023. While the mandate is not yet in place, there is an expectation that providers will ramp up staffing using the additional funding available through AN-ACC. Indeed, the new star ratings include an assessment of each provider against staffing targets that are not yet mandated and in an environment of chronic workforce shortages. The independent health and aged care pricing authority will model the cost of care under the new AN-ACC funding model from 1 July 2023, and it is essential that the cost of delivering a reliably high quality and service model are fully considered by the pricing authority and funded appropriately. Mandated came in at targets are an average of 200 minutes per resident per day, of which 40 minutes are with a registered nurse. Regis believes the government's narrow definition of mandated care minutes which only includes the actual work minutes of registered nurses and rolled nurses and personal care workers does not value the significant contribution of other care types, including Allied Health and lifestyle activities. This is inconsistent with the resource utilization and classification study produced by the University of Wollongong, and commissioned by the Australian government, which included Allied Health and lifestyle activities as direct care. Enrolled nurses have a higher qualification and broader scope of practice than personal care workers yet they're valued the same amount of the care minutes mandate. Enrolled nurses have long been a valuable and respected cohorts of nurses in aged care and the company believes they deserve greater recognition and an ongoing place in aged care workforce model. The existing mandate, risks and roles of nurses has been structured out of the sector at a time when there is a global shortage of registered nurses. The sector itself addressed a recommendation of the Royal Commission in coming together through a single representative body, the Aged and Community Care Providers Association. ACCPA is the leading advocacy for the sector in relation to the reform program and the additional funding and policy reform still required. Last week, the Fair Work Commission determined that direct care workers in aged care as defined through stage 1 of their deliberations should receive an interim increase of 15% to a number of aged care awards. The Albanese government committed preelection to fully funding the Fair Work outcome, and we await their formal response to the Fair Work decision, noting their submission to provide the interim increase in 2 stages was not accepted by Fair Work. Regis strongly supports higher wages for aged care workers to fairly recognize the value of the work provided. Regis also notes that the sector cannot afford the increases without full government funding, including relevant on costs and is somewhat reassured by the pre-election commitments and comments last week by the government. Other required funding reforms include deregulation of the Basic Daily Fee to allow providers to differentiate through a choice of service offerings to residents. Capital grants to assist the sector to rebuild and refurbish out-of-date building stock and changes to the means-testing thresholds, which have fallen behind current economic conditions. The sector has seen deteriorating financial performance for 6 or 7 years now. The most recent StewartBrown Aged Care sector report showed that 70% of aged care homes were operating at a loss. Although the introduction of AN-ACC from 1 October 2022 should have increased funding for most providers, the starting price of $216.80 per resident per day was insufficient due to increased enterprise agreements and award staff costs and higher inflation, which were not known when the price was set. Importantly, the sector has also had to absorb the 4.6% increase to the national minimum wage as it impacted awards and enterprise agreements. The government released late last week its quarterly snapshot of the aged care sector, validating what StewartBrown has been saying for some time. The extent of financial distress arising from systemic long-term underfunding and the cost of compliance is plainly evident. In better news, the maximum permissible interest rate used to determine a daily accommodation payment has increased following years of decreases to levels that we never anticipated when this conversion rate was set. The recent increases have returned the rate to a level that better supports real costs while maintaining consumer choice between a lump sum or a daily thing for those [ with names ]. On to regulatory changes. And while some reforms have been delivered, there remains substantial work to achieve meaningful sector reform to funding, quality and safety regulation, workforce design and pricing. In the meantime, expectations of provider delivery have increased within the context of chronic workforce shortages and systemic underfunding of the sector. In terms of regulatory changes, the new AN-ACC funding model was designed to provide a distribution of funding according to resident needs based on independent assessments. Over the longer term and once the pricing authority has completed important modeling, the new methodology for annual price changes, including consideration of indexation should be informed by actual financial data from the sector and known upcoming changes. As expected, Regis' AN-ACC outcomes saw government revenue per occupied bed day increased modestly. Regis's average AN-ACC for quarter 2 FY '23 was $222.70 per resident per day, below the government announced average of $225. Star ratings were a recommendation of the Royal Commission and were introduced in December 2022. Each residential aged care home is assigned an overall star rating comprised of 4 subcategories being resident experience, compliance, staffing and quality. The Regis portfolio of 64 homes retained an initial overall star rating average of 3 and an average of 4 stars for compliance. As expected, the staffing star rating only includes the direct care minutes of registered nurses and rolled nurses and personal care workers, so Regis' rating reflects the yet to be introduced government mandate, but not the broadly skilled and supported workforce in place today. In evaluation of staffing, Star ratings are based on actual care units reported to the Department of Health and Aged Care on a quarterly basis that are then compared to targets set by the government and which will be mandated from 1 October 2023. Regis' average total eligible direct care minutes per resident per day increased from 165.3% in quarter 1 to 170.0% in quarter 2. It is important to note that Regis has a well-developed staffing model currently, including double the lifestyle working minutes against the sector average as well as other frontline workers who contribute to the daily holistic care and well-being needs of our residents. Our workforce model also includes regional and national senior specialist clinical management and other support roles to strengthen our business and provide career pathways. There are a number of unintended but well-known consequences and risks of the government's reform program and particularly the direct care minutes mandate, which are compounded by the long-term underfunding of the sector. These include workforce redesign and redeployment options that could result in the removal of roles and career pathways that are not appropriately valued in key minutes, along with a loss of valuable sector expertise and experience. There is no recognition in the model of clinical seniority. For example, a minute of work completed by postgraduate qualified nurse with 20 years of experience is valued in the care minutes model the same as a minute of a graduate nurse's work. There is also inadequate recognition in the model of enrolled nurses. We have a high qualification and broader scope of practice and personal care workers that are valued the same in the care minutes mandate. Finally, there is a risk of inability to redeploy or recruit sufficient workers to the roles included in the eligible care minutes. Like many providers, Regis has commenced an organizational redesign to refocus resources towards more eligible direct care while seeking to preserve the holistic care and experience of our residents. The organization redesign is centered around redeployment of some workers into care roles, decentralizing some of our clinical programs and expertise and recruitment of additional registered nurses and personal care workers. Moving now to our financial and operational results, where revenue from services was $380.4 million, up 4.4% on the prior corresponding period. The company delivered a half year increase in underlying EBITDA to $45.1 million. Net profit after tax before amortization of operational places or NPATA, was $2.6 million, down on the prior corresponding period of $10.6 million, mainly due to increased COVID-19 outbreak costs that are yet to be reimbursed by government. Average occupancy improved to 91.1%, up from 89.3% in the prior corresponding period. Net debt level has increased slightly, although this has been impacted by the delay in receipt of COVID-19 outbreak grants, which the company expects to receive during 2023. The Board of Directors resolved to pay an interim dividend of $0.02 per ordinary share, 50% franked and payable on 14 April 2023. I'll now hand over to Rick to discuss the financial and operational performance of the business in greater detail.

Thanks, Linda. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for your time in what we know is a busy day for all of you. Just turning to Slide 7, the financial summary. H1 '23 continued to be a challenging period for the business and the sector as chronic workforce shortages have led to significant amounts of agency and overtime costs being incurred well above historical levels. Additional government funding received from AN-ACC from 1 October '22 was welcomed, but a substantial component of this funding was absorbed by the impact of enterprise agreements, modern awards and agency costs. As Linda has mentioned, revenue from services of $380.4 million was up 4.4% on the prior corresponding period, with the majority of the increase made up by the basic daily fee indexation and higher AN-ACC funding received from Q2 FY '23. Pleasingly, average occupancy of 91.1% was up on the 89.3% in H1 '22 with increases across the 64 homes. I will come back to occupancy in a moment. Government revenue of $268 million was up 3% on the prior corresponding period and made up 70% of revenue from services. Importantly, AN-ACC funding, which commenced on 1 October '22, provided an additional $9.40 per resident per day. Resident revenue of $108.8 million was up over 8% on the prior corresponding period, mainly reflecting BDF indexation in late March and September, with Q2 indexation close to 4%. Other income of $33.3 million primarily included imputed income on RADs of $30.6 million, in line with AASB 16 accounting standard. Staff expenses of $286 million accounted for 75% of revenue, up from 72% in H1 FY '22. The increase in staff expenses of 8.6% was due to award and enterprise agreement increases, which averaged circa 4.6% and 3%, respectively. The impact of COVID-19 outbreaks with $11.2 million of staff-related outbreak costs incurred during the half, $7.4 million more than H1 FY '22, and as previously mentioned, significant overtime in agency fees as a result of continuing workforce supply constraints. Excluding the impact of COVID-19 outbreak costs, staff expenses were up just over 5% on the prior corresponding period. Underlying EBITDA, which excludes the impact of COVID-19 outbreak costs, other one-off items and RAD imputation was $45.1 million, up 2.3% on H1 FY '22 with higher revenue from improved occupancy and increased AN-ACC funding from Q2 will be key contributors to this result. Depreciation was 9% higher than the prior corresponding period, with one-off accelerated depreciation of close to $1 million relating to the closure of our Belmore home in January 2023. Finance costs of $36.1 million included $30.6 million of imputed interest under AASB 16. Excluding the impact of AASB 16, finance costs increased from $4.3 million to $5.5 million due to the higher cost of funding. As previously reported, the Australian government made a decision to discontinue bed licenses from 1 July 2024. The company commenced amortizing the value of operational places from 1 October '21 on a straight-line basis through to 30 June 2024. As a result, the company has incurred a before-tax noncash amortization expense of $40.7 million for H1 FY '23, which is higher than the $20.3 million recognized in H1 '22 due to the timing of the government announcement only impacting Q2 of the previous corresponding period. This has led to the company reporting a first half FY '23 net loss after tax of $25.9 million. Excluding the after-tax impact of the noncash amortization of operational places and one-off items, the adjusted net profit after tax, or NPATA, was $12.1 million. Turning to Slide 8. During the half, average available operational places reduced to 7,000, mainly due to the permanent removal of multi bedroom capacity and the wind down of our Belmore 60-bed home, which was subsequently closed in January '23. As a result, available operational places now stands at 6,960. As already mentioned, average occupancy improved from 89.3% to 91.1%, which is well above the sector average, with improvement across Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Pleasingly, we saw good growth across our Victorian-based homes with average occupancy increasing to 92.1% during the half, the highest occupancy level for several years. This is a very positive sign for the business and reflects management's continued focus on improving occupancy across all homes despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19. Since half year, we have continued to see occupancy improvement across the business with average spot occupancy increasing to 92.3% at 24th February. We expect to see further improvement in occupancy in the second half of this financial year. I note that a 1% increase in occupancy translates to around $7.5 million of additional revenue per year. Aged Care Government revenue per occupied bed day for the half of $224.50, was up 2.5% on the prior corresponding period, supported by the introduction of AN-ACC in Q2. The uplift in Government revenue per resident per day from Q1 to Q2 was $9.40, with an average AN-ACC of $220.70 for the second quarter. Q2 government revenue increased to an average of $229.20 per resident per day as a result of the AN-ACC uplift. Aged care resident revenue per occupied bed day of $93.20 was up 8.9% on H1 '22. As previously mentioned, this mainly reflected the basic daily fee indexation. Q2 resident revenue per occupied bed day averaged $95.60. Aged care staff expenses per occupied bed day, which excludes the impact of COVID-19 outbreak costs, increased by 5.3% on H1 '22 primarily due to the impact of award and EA increases and the significantly positive agency fees in overtime. Staff expenses ex COVID-19 remained stable across Q1 and Q2. We expect staff expenses to increase in H2 as a result of the phasing of enterprise agreement increases, more public holidays in H1 and the organizational redesign that Linda discussed earlier. RADs held increased by 3.4% to $1.3 billion, with the average incoming RAD increasing to $484,000, slightly up on H1 '22. Over to one-off and nonrecurring items. We have presented on this slide the impact of one-offs and normalization items for the half. Of note are the following items: direct COVD-19 outbreak expenses of $13 million that included staff expenses of $11.2 million, including incentives, additional overtime and agency fees, and $1.8 million of other costs, including PPE. As we have previously reported, COVID-19 protection and preventative measures are now embedded in the cost base as BAU. The company has applied for or is in the process of applying for COVID-19 outbreak grants that total in excess of $32 million, of which $20.1 million relates to H2 '22 outbreak claims, which have not yet been received. We note that many aged care providers, including Regis, have experienced significant delays in receiving approvals and payments from the government. Once grants are approved and received, we will recognize this as income. We remain confident that we will recoup the majority of grand supply for. In addition, the company incurred $1.8 million of professional service costs relating to the potential employee underpayments program, which remains ongoing. The normalization adjustment relates to the noncash amortization of operational places that I've previously mentioned. This will be a recurring normalization adjustment for the '23 and '24 financial years. Over to net debt. Given the complex industry reforms and uncertainties surrounding the financial impact of the new AN-ACC funding model, the company has continued to take a disciplined approach for managing debt. Net cash inflows from operating activities of $62 million were underpinned by EBITDA and net RAD cash inflows of $8.7 million. However, the delay in the approval and receipt of COVID-19 grant from the government has had an impact on our operating cash flow and debt level. Total net debt at 31 December of $67.6 million including government funding received in advance for January of $44 million was well within our banking covenants. In December '22, facilities B, C and D of syndicated debt facility were refinanced through to March '27, which followed a successful refinancing facility A in H1 '22. As part of the recent refinancing, Regis elected to reduce the total debt facility from $515 million to $405 million in recognition of anticipated working capital and investment requirements. And as Linda has already mentioned, the Board of Directors resolved to pay an interim dividend of $0.02 per share, 50% franked payable on 14 April '23. Moving over to capital expenditure. During the half, the company invested $18.8 million on capital expenditure projects. Although lower than the prior period, H1 '22 included $15.2 million purchase of land in Belrose, New South Wales. In line with our strategic plan, the company continued to invest heavily in technology with various WiFi-enabled initiatives put in place to support residents, clients and staff, together with an upgrade of our clinical care platform and roll out of an electronic medication management system. These investments place Regis at the forefront of technology-enabled care aimed at improving resident experience. On the property front, pleasingly, the company's greenfield development program recommenced during the half, with construction starting on a 112-bed residential aged care home in Camberwell, Victoria. For other residential age care developments in the pipeline, including a 120-bed home in Toowong, Brisbane, 105 beds in Belrose, New South Wales and the recently acquired land in Carlingford for New South Wales. Development approvals are in place, while design documentation continues with the commencement of Toowong and Belrose construction likely to occur in FY '24. As previously mentioned, the intended deregulation of operational places from 1 July '24 presents new market opportunities for Regis to invest in geographic areas previously not open to the business. The renewal of our operational places will increase competition around quality of care, service and accommodation. Importantly, a significant number of aged care beds in Australia require refurbishment or replacement. The baby boomer generation will have different expectations of aged care services and accommodation. The closure of our Belmore home in January '23 recognizes that consumer preferences are changing, with new build design standards catering for the next generation of residents. All of this should prove to be an advantage for providers such as Regis. We have a strong balance sheet and access to capital to further develop the sector subject to appropriate funding and returns. So over to resident profile. As you can see on this slide, there is an upward trend in RAD payers. The MPIR attached to debt has increased to over 7% at 1 January '23 from a lower 4% in Q2 '22. The higher MPIR and possibility of further interest rate rises should result in a further shift in preferences to RAD and an increase in DAP revenue. The next 6 to 12 months will continue to be challenging for the business from a financial perspective as we drive for increased occupancy, redesign the organizational structure, including refocusing resources towards more direct care, continuing to evaluate quality M&A opportunities and ramp up property development, while rationalizing nonincome-producing assets. We await government confirmation, that it will fully fund the Fair Work Work Value Case (sic) Fair Work Commission’s Work Value Case, including all on costs, and we eagerly anticipate the work of the independent health and aged care pricing authority to provide a strong platform for sustainable provider returns. And with that, I'll return you to Linda.

Thanks very much, Rick. And moving now to a number of other matters. Firstly, as previously reported, Regis announced to the ASX on 9 August 2021, that it had identified potential underpayments of employee entitlements to certain current and former employees under its Enterprise Agreements. These payment shortfalls had risen because some employee entitlements due under various enterprise agreements were recorded in accurately in the payroll system. Regis, with the assistance of external advisers, continues to [ deter ] the market dynamics and demographics, and it's important to note that the demographic shift continues to support increasing demand for aged care services. Notwithstanding that the government's policy reform is designed to provide care and services to more older people in their own homes, the rapid increase in the overall number of older people means that additional bed base services will also be required. This is in addition to the well-known current need to replace approximately 25% of the sector's built stock due to age and outdated layouts. Providers also need to respond to higher expectations regarding accommodation services and amenities that Rick referred to earlier. So if I move now to our response. Regis continues to adapt to both communicated and anticipated changes to the sector. We are in the second year of our strategic plan, which was designed around capability and capacity uplifts, operational excellence, consumer expectations and the post-reform environment. Despite the ongoing challenging conditions facing the sector, the company continues to focus on and invest in its people and technology to provide high-quality care to our residents and clients. These investments will ensure that Regis stays at the forefront of technology-enabled process and system improvements to better serve our residents, clients and workforce. Along with our second year initiatives, we are focused on addressing chronic workforce shortages through the levers within our control and advocating for workforce supply and availability that sit outside our control. The company is pleased that the Fair Work Commission has determined an interim increase for particular aged care workers and looks forward to both the further work to be completed by the Fair Work Commission and the government's formal response. We're also focused on an organizational redesign, as I mentioned, to refocus resources towards eligible direct care minutes and the realization of non-income producing assets to free up cash in order to invest in the M&A activity and new facilities. The company continues our transformational change journey to respond both to the reform agenda and our own aspirations. We have invested in our business continuity and emergency management systems and capability and build pandemic preparedness and response into our standard processes. Notwithstanding the ongoing presence of the pandemic, management has ensured appropriate attention has been directed to delivery of strategic goals and initiatives to ensure sustainable business performance. So following from the strategic plan that I showed earlier and just a reminder that our strategic priorities are built on 3 fundamental principles, being a culture of care, having positive people in practice and enhancing the future of our people and company. So I'll now provide you with some updates from the half year and working trends. Starting with the Regis culture of care, we are building on the strong foundations of our clinical governance program, registered nurses rostered 24/7 across all our homes, a range of in-house senior clinical and operational support teams, an electronic clinical management system, market-leading additional services offerings and a range of research projects with leading universities and partners. These are all important structures and platforms to underpin high-quality care and service experience for our residents and support for our frontline workers. During the half year, our teams delivered significant improvements across key quality, safety and satisfaction programs, including a major upgrade to our clinical management software, rolling out an electronic medication management system, commencing a new wound management improvement program. And I'll note, we've just appointed a wound management expert with specialist clinical and research skills, an exciting partnership with the Digital Health CRC, more engagement with our consumers through advisory committees, forums and projects, a pilot of wearables and nearables to support falls prevention keeping our pandemic response contemporary and progressing a number of important research partnerships with a focus on translational research that will make a meaningful difference to our residents, clients, employees and business. Work across the half year in the positive people and practice area has produced work health and safety improvements, including prevention of occupational violence and aggression, an early intervention program for injured workers that is having a positive impact on lost time injuries and return to work as well as lower claims experience. As I mentioned earlier, there is extensive planning for the changes required to deliver the care minutes mandate, and we have delivered uplifts in business resilience. The company has also implemented new legislative requirements in other areas. And finally, under this pillar, Regis has an updated learning and development framework, including new train modules, and we have expanded our talent acquisition capability. Moving to our third key pillar, we're attending to the future of our business is critical, and we have achieved the following improvements across the half year. We have new systems and processes to support the AN-ACC model and have delivered digital business transformation projects with multiple hardware, software and integration improvements as well as process improvements and use of Box. We have improved our use of data and analytics to run the business more effectively and provide better care and outcomes for our residents and clients. The company has made progress against our plans to rationalize non-income producing assets and recommence growth projects with building started at our Regis Camberwell greenfield development. Regis is upskilling our teams in lean processing capability, and we completed an external review of our ESG indicators and performance. Finally, management has continued to review our home care strategy, pending clarity on the government's reform program in this area. I mentioned work with the Digital Health CRC, and I'm really excited to announce here that Regis is the industry partner in a flagship aged care project with the Digital Health CRC and the University of Queensland. The project will develop and trial an aged care quality indicator app that will automatically generate quality indicators in real time. Not only will this better allow our nurses to use real-time information to guide care delivery for individual residents, it will also bring nurses from the administrative burden of entering [ and collecting ] quality indicator data. If the prototype is successful, there is potential to extend the application across the sector and in our benchmarking of evidence-based quality indicators. Moving now to our ESG updates, and our progress on these areas is summarized on this slide. Overall, the company is proud of its history and work to create safer environments for residents, clients, families and employees, shared value in an essential industry for the Australian community, robust and contemporary governance frameworks and achievements against and future plans for our environmental and climate change program of work. I would like to call out the substantial improvements in our work, health and safety programs and outcomes, including a new Board-approved and monitored Regis Safety Index, fewer lost time injuries, fewer claims and lost time injury performance rate well ahead of the sector. I'm also pleased to report that Regis is on target to reduce our energy consumption by 10% by 2024 as per our 2019 commitment. So now moving to our aged care developments and following a period of paused developments due to the pandemic and funding and regulatory uncertainty, Regis recommenced building activity in the half with a greenfield development at Camberwell, Victoria. Management continues to plan for future developments and has a pipeline of projects ready to commence as conditions improve. We are particularly keen to progress our development projects in Toowong, Queensland and Belrose, New South Wales. In line with our plan to derive benefit from the deregulated license conditions from July 2024, the company acquired a parcel of land in Carlingford, New South Wales in January 2023. This site has been earmarked for a 110-bed residential aged care home with the DA already in place. With the right conditions, Regis will continue to build contemporary fit for purpose and desirable aged care homes for older Australians with high care and service standards. From an investor perspective, these homes are expected to have higher occupancy and RADs. The Camberwell development will see a premium residential aged care home constructed with 112 beds across the 4-level residents. This is an investment of approximately $40 million, excluding land with the vast majority of rooms being single ensuite rooms. I'd like to finish today by providing some brief statements about the outlook and the areas Regis sees as urgent priorities for action. Regis continues to focus on the levers within our control while pressing for change in other areas, particularly relating to national policy and funding reform. As I mentioned earlier, the most urgent issue in the sector is the lack of an available workforce to meet existing needs, which increase under the care minutes mandate. Regis has commenced an organizational redesign to refocus resources towards more of the government-defined direct care. The company continues its work on quality care services and accommodation, upgrades of key systems and realization of non-income producing assets to strengthen the balance sheet. Regis remains positive about growth prospects, including better conditions to continue building and executing upon our development pipeline of projects highlighted by the commencement of the greenfield development program at Camberwell, Victoria. Regis has maintained a strong balance sheet and liquidity to pursue quality M&A opportunities when they arise. We expect more opportunities over the short to medium term to consolidate the sector. At this point, the Board remains of the view that it is not prudent to put forward any earnings guidance given the uncertainty over the financial impact of the reform program rollout. On behalf of the Regis Board, I would like to thank our frontline management workforce -- sorry, our frontline workforce and management team. Their dedication and care over this prolonged period of continued challenges has led to a stronger Regis and contributed to better outcomes for our residents, clients and business. And with that, I will hand back to the operator to open the meeting to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from David Low with JPMorgan.

If we could just start with the organizational redesign. I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more about what exactly you expect to do over what time frame? And what are the implications for the financial outcomes? I think we understand why you're doing it, but just more information on that would be helpful, please.

Thanks very much, David. So there are 3 main things that we're doing through that organizational redesign. One is looking at roles that we know are providing care delivery to our residents that aren't actually valued under the care minutes mandate and looking to redeploy people in those roles into care roles. We also have a sophisticated centralized clinical team that's not valued in the care minutes. So we're going to need to decentralize a lot of that team so that they do count. And we will need to employ additional registered nurses and personal care workers to meet the mandate. As I mentioned, the mandate comes into effect on the 1st of October. That's the 200-minute mandate. And I'll probably remind you as well that, that increases to 215 minutes in another year. And so there's a lot of work to be done around those areas. Does that give you enough information?

It does. I mean I think we can quickly calculate and I think we heard from Estia something very similar that the industry is sort of sitting 10% to 15% below that initial care requirement let alone, the increased one. And I guess I'm trying to make some sense of what the financial implications are. I mean it seems that face value is going to be challenging. You've talked about the organizational redesign and in a world of perfect disclosure and transparency, what I'd like to understand is net-net, is the business worse off, is that redesign going to bring you to that level without a material change to the cost base?

David, we've been on the record for a while saying that we would hope to be cost neutral once the AN-ACC funding and care minute mandate came into play. Now clearly, the results will be different than what we thought it would be. Having said that, the actions that we're taking around redeployment of staff, improved occupancy, reassessments of residents, there'll be some cost out. We still think cost neutral is where we'll end up.

Okay. No, that's helpful. Just one other quick question. You talked about rationalizing non-income producing assets. Could you just remind me of sort of what the size of the opportunity is there in terms of raising cash, please?

We haven't publicly spoken about this previously. It's significant, but I wouldn't want to put a number on it today, David.

Could you give me some sort of sense of time frame?

Next 12 to 18 months.

Your next question comes from Vanessa Thomson with Jefferies.

I just wanted to follow up on the staff expenses, obviously very challenging. That circa 9% increase on the PCP in employee expenses, I just wondered how much of that or any of that would be attributable to having increased staffing to resolve to mandate minutes?

Very little of it as it turns out at the moment, Vanessa. The 8.9%, as I said, as I spoke about, reduces to 5.3% when you exclude COVID outbreak costs. So you need to exclude that for a start to get a like-for-like. So the increase is 5.3%. And what we've actually experienced is a 4.6% increase in minimum awards on July, and we're sort of averaging around 3% on EAs, that, in combination with overtime and agency fees is really driving the 5%.

And then in the second half? And I guess in FY '24, we should expect an uplift to result for this minimum minutes?

Yes, you should. You should see some increase.

Okay. And then just again on the same thing, what happened...

Sorry, Vanessa, just to be clear because I just want to be clear, we are talking about an increase in aged care staff expenses here. So staff expenses in general may not increase the very -- for the reasons I mentioned earlier, around redeployment, some cost out, et cetera. The aged care staff expenses should increase as a result of the mandate.

Okay. And then just lastly, what happens -- I mean, apart from the impact of Star Ratings, what happens if the mandate minutes are not satisfied?

It's a good question, Vanessa, and we actually don't know yet. So the legislation -- the draft legislation hasn't actually been released to the sector as yet. We're also awaiting clarity.

Your next question comes from Craig Wong-Pan with Royal Bank of Canada.

My question, just on the AN-ACC funding of $220.70. Just wanted to understand why your rate might be below the industry average. And then are you requesting reviews to see that potentially increase over time?

Thanks, Craig. Yes, I can speak to that. So it is lower than what we were expecting for a few reasons. One was the initial classification, and we have submitted many, many, many hundreds of reclassification requests. And so we are seeing that AN-ACC level go up. The other part to that puzzle is that under the AN-ACC's funding model, more of the overall funding pie has been redirected to regional and rural aged care services. And so that really does muddy that average. I think it would be helpful for the sector to see what the average is for metropolitan services. And also, just as a reminder, all 64 of our homes now, 63 actually received the metropolitan funding rate. So that base rate, even though we have homes that we certainly consider to be in regional areas that they're not considered to be under the AN-ACC Model.

Okay. And just to follow up on that, the submission around your initial classification. So does that mean for the second half, we should see an uplift in that rate, given that you are getting those reclassified?

Yes. Look, we are seeing a bit of that come through in January and Feb, Craig. So you might see another $1 or $2 there across the second half.

And then the second question, which is somewhat related, the government revenue per occupied bed day, there was just an increase of 2.5%, which I thought it could have been a little bit larger. I was just wondering if there's any other moving parts there that might explain that kind of, I think, kind of somewhat lower kind of growth rate than I expected?

Well, no. Just first half to first half. There's no COVID impacts in there or there's no grants or funding from COVID. So it's strictly ACFI AN-ACC, remembering AN-ACC going to kick in for the second quarter of this financial year, and COVID was only 1.7%. So it is what it is.

Okay. Okay. And then just my last question. The occupancy rate when -- during your AGM, I think you gave a spot rate of 91.7%, so it seems like occupancy might have trended down a little bit in that second quarter. I just wondered if you could talk to that.

So I think you'll find that we might have peaked at the 30th of September, 91.7%. But we started slow July, August, September, so you need to see the whole trajectory. So we've trended up again in December and we continue to trend up in February.

Your next question comes from Matt Johnston with Jarden.

Maybe just on that occupancy question for you, Rick. Is the nominal trend, i.e., beds occupied going up as well despite taking some beds off-line?

Absolutely. Our headcount is up. So if you look at first half '22 to first half '23, we're up roughly 30 residents. If you look at the occupied bed days, you can look it out on Page 8 of the slide deck, so we're actually up on [ hedges ].

Okay. Great. I haven't got that slide this morning. Maybe just secondly, on Q1, Q2, I know you haven't disclosed anything, but would it be fair to assume that COVID costs trended down into Q2? Is that a fair assumption?

Yes, they did. They did, of the $13 million that we declared, you're right, I didn't call it out. I think the split was roughly $9.4 million [indiscernible] the second quarter.

Okay. That's helpful. And then just in terms of underlying costs going forward, was there much difference between Q1 and Q2?

So we called out staff expenses Q1, Q2 pretty similar, but we do expect some uplift in the second half.

Okay. And then just on the mandated minutes around 200 minutes of an average, given that the AN-ACC funding is lower for Regis, does that mean that the required mandated minutes is lower than 200 minutes?

So I'll take that one, Matt. So look, we actually come in around about that average of 200 minutes. It's just the tinniest bit shy of that. But again, I think that we need some more transparency on what the metro average is versus the other.

Okay. That's helpful. And maybe just last one for me. Any sort of color or insight, I guess, around what the pricing authority might look like in terms of recommendation for 1st of July this year?

No, we don't have anything at this point.

Your next question comes from David Bailey with Macquarie.

Just on Slide 4, that 165 to 170 direct care minutes. I mean of these initiatives you're looking to put in place at the moment, how should we think about that as progressing throughout the rest of this calendar year?

David, so we will -- I mean, obviously, we're doing a mountain of work in this area. We will look to redeploy roles during the second half. We will also look to recruit additional registered nursing minutes in particular because there are less redeployment options available there.

But in terms of rates of change to 170, I mean, should we be thinking about like sort of 5 minutes per quarter? Or do you have any sense as to where you might be able to end up by October when these -- on the back of these initiatives?

So we will do everything we can to hit the 200-minute mandate by 1 October.

Understood. And then just a broader industry question, some more positive occupancy data coming through for yourselves, but there is the demand slide that you sort of referenced and the industry has slowed the number of places that have been added because of regulatory uncertainty as well as COVID-19. I mean how should we think about industry occupancy trending over the next couple of years just on the back of a potential mismatch between supply and demand.

Yes. So I think that's absolutely the right way to think about it. There will be a mismatch. And with the demographic shift, we're going to have a lot more people entering the sector at a time that follows the capital strike. So there will be a supply issue. The other thing that's playing out in the industry is that we are seeing some other providers closed beds because of a lack of available workforce -- so whilst there might be built beds, we know some providers are closing beds because they can't staff some.

Understood. And then just the cost of -- cost per bed for a new or brownfield development or greenfield, I should say. Development currently versus where they might have been historically? Any metrics there would be interesting.

So look, very rough metrics depending on what you're building. But if you take a line through Camberwell's closer to [ 350 ] a bed to build, but we are seeing in some places up to $400,000 per bed.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from David Kingston with [ K ] Capital.

Okay. Look, I appreciate it's been a very challenging industry. We all understand that. But my focus is really on shareholder value. Back in 2015, the shares was $6 a pop. You sort of had some overtures about privatization of the company, which started at $1.65 recently. That then moved up to about $1.85. Clearly, there was the possibility of that becoming a figure to shareholders with a $2 in front of it. So I'm just concerned about shareholder value. I'm also concerned that perhaps your most direct listed peer, Estia, has very substantially outperformed Regis in the last year or so. It's just been much stronger. In other words, it hasn't fallen anywhere near as much as Regis is falling. So my question is, is there still a possibility of a privatization? Is the Board encouraging that in the interest of shareholder value, which is really a pretty important thing for our shareholders, because certainly, even on today's call, the results haven't been excited the market. The stock is down into the $1.50s at the moment. And it's just concerning bearing in mind there was a genuine bid with Washington Soul involved $1.65 firm, but that certainly went to $1.85 indicative. And I'm sure if you've encouraged it, it could have gone to $2 plus. So I'd appreciate your thoughts about shareholder value, and I accept it's a tough industry at the moment. But that potential bid was relatively recent in full knowledge of the tough industry, and just concerned you're not optimizing shareholder value.

Thanks for the question, David. So I'll answer that as best I can. So obviously, we don't control the share price and how the market sees the different providers. I would always encourage anybody to look at the underlying numbers. And as Matt called out before, particularly the occupied bed days which drive revenue. In relation to your other questions, everything was disclosed to the market. And if we had anything to disclose to the market now, then we would, so I think that you can very safely assume that there is nothing to disclose. But I certainly take your point, and we'll note that and take it back to the Board of Directors.

But all I'd say that -- I understand there's nothing to disclose. But all I would say is the Board potentially can be proactive, recognize that shareholders have had a pretty terrible run in the last 7 or 8 years in this company. And if the Board is proactive, potentially, you can initiate an offer that would very substantially enhance shareholder value. So I'm gratified if you'll take it to the Board because it is a concern, and we can all read all the detail, but certainly, peer group analysis is always a very important issue. And it is clear cut for whatever reason that Estia has very substantially outperformed that Regis in the past year or so.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Dr. Mellors for closing remarks.

Thanks very much, Ashley, and thank you, everybody, for joining the call today and for your questions, and we look forward to speaking with many of you over the coming weeks. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

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