Ricegrowers Limited (7H0.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Sunrise Group FY 2023 Full Year Financial Results Briefing. I would now like to hand the call over to your host today, SunRice Group's CEO, Mr. Rob Gordon, and Group CFO, Mr. Dimitri Courtelis. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to this morning's investor call and webcast. We appreciate you taking the time to join us following the release of our full year results for the financial year 2023. My name is Rob Gordon. I'm the CEO of the SunRice Group, and I'm joined in Sydney by our CFO, Dimitri Courtelis. Our plan for today's call is to provide an overview of our financial results, then open for questions to all participants who've joined online or who are dialed in. And along with yesterday's announcement, we've also launched an investor presentation on the ASX, which we'll display on the webcast. Now I'll start today with some commentary before handing over to Dimitri to step through our segment performance. Financial year 2023 was an outstanding year for the SunRice Group. We delivered the highest group revenue, naturally determined paddy price and totally fully franked dividend in the company's 73-year history. As we reported yesterday, EBITDA and NPAT were $117 million and $54.8 million. This represents a respective 28% and 12% increase on the prior financial year. The strong growth in earnings for the full year was underpinned by 23% increase in top line revenue to $1.64 billion. I'll provide further detail on the key factors influencing this financial performance in 2023 in a moment. We were pleased to declare a final dividend of $0.40 per B Class share, bringing the total dividend for financial year 2023 to a record $0.50 per B Class share, representing a 60% payout ratio. Based on our closing price for the year of $6.20, this also represents a total dividend yield of 8.1%. Combined with a record naturally determined paddy price of $461 per tonne for medium-grain Reiziq, the level of the financial year 2023 dividend, once again, demonstrates the group's ongoing focus on delivering value to both A and B Class shareholders. Sustainability is integral to how we create value for our stakeholders. In the year, we saw a continued focus on embedding sustainability across the group and improving how we track our performance. And in the last financial year, we saw progress against the Australian rice industry's aspirational target to achieve an average of 1.5 tonnes of paddy rice per mega liter of water by 2027. We committed to setting science-based targets. We became a foundation supporter of the National Plastics Recycling Scheme, and we commenced a 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic installation at our Woodlands mill in California. We also commenced a number of significant development programs that will grow the domestic capability and capacity of certain markets in which we operate, in addition to the many community programs we support. In Papua New Guinea, we launched our Trukai Smart Pharma program, which is a 2-week course in partnership with the PNG University of Technology at [ East Taraka ] campus in Lae. The 5-year partnership provides local rice farmers with access to seed research facilities for farmer training as well as undergraduate and postgraduate student courses, and will assist the broader development of commercial rice growing industry in Papua New Guinea. In Vietnam, we entered a public-private partnership with the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, and other parties, including the University of Queensland, to establish a traceable, quality-assured value chain for tropical medium grain rice in the Mekong Delta. We're working with Vietnamese small holder farmers to improve farming practices and better connect their product with international markets to improve their returns. The group's strong financial performance in the year was driven by a range of factors, including the abundance of Australian rice with the CY '22 Riverina rice crop 65% larger than the prior year, and this supported increased volumes into key markets domestically and internationally. Sales price increases across most of the group's segments and product categories, which helped us to offset inflationary pressures. Revenue growth was also supported by favorable changes in product mix in some markets. Our multi-origin, multi-market sourcing strategy supporting business performance, we also continued to evolve our product range to match global consumer preferences and reduced earnings volatility. The continued recovery of the CopRice segment, which returns profitability in financial year 2023, and the first full year contribution of Pryde's Easifeed, which was acquired in January 2022. However, financial year 2023 was not without its challenges, and we faced a number of headwinds, including widespread and worsening inflationary pressures, which drove a material increase in the cost of key business inputs. We also faced ongoing disruption to domestic and international supply chains, which resulted in a $79 million increase in freight and distribution costs over and above financial year 2022. And in that year, we also saw an increase of some $57 million in these costs. The group was able to withstand these headwinds throughout the year due to the strength of our brands and market positioning and the various organic and strategic growth initiatives we've delivered in recent years. Turning briefly to our segment performance. As I previously mentioned, our Australian Rice Pool business benefited from the increased availability of Riverina rice, and our CopRice segment had a significant improvement in performance and returned to profitability in financial year 2023. Our Corporate segment received higher levels of brand and asset financing charges, which are underpinned by the increase in branded sales from the Australian Rice Pool business and the sharp rise in the cost of capital due to interest rate rises. While the other segments remain profitable, they faced a number of challenges on which Dimitri will provide more detail later in the call. The group's outstanding performance in financial year 2023 reflects the strength and resilience of our business model and strategy, which you can see on the screen. We continue to deliver on our objectives to improve the prices we pay to our growers, and we also delivered value to our B Class shareholders by growing our dividend. During years of drought, we continue to consistently pay a dividend of $0.33 per B Class share. And now that we're out of drought, we have grown our dividend to $0.40 per B Class share in financial year 2022, and then to $0.50 per B Class share in financial year 2023. And we've been able to do this because of the strategic initiatives implemented in recent years, which are now delivering results. SunRice has adopted a multi-origin, multi-market sourcing approach. This has enabled us to continue to expand our global supply chain. We currently place branded products in over 50 markets around the world, have operations and offices in 10 countries and source close to 1.5 million paddy tonnes from 12 countries, including Australia, to meet the global demand for rice. We have moved from being a single-market source business that mainly sells Australian rice to become a truly multi-origin, multi-market business where we target different types of consumers and their preferences. We've also built strong brand and market positioning over the course of our 70-year history and currently hold leading brand positions across a number of our markets and product categories. As I previously mentioned, the financial performance the group delivered in financial 2023 demonstrates the strength of our business model and implementation of that growth strategy. It also reflects our strong history of performance and how the realization of a number of strategic initiatives and the efforts of our people across the organization enable us to deliver value to both classes of shareholders. The graph on the screen, which shows the Australian crop and the group revenue from financial year 2018 to 2023 as well as the graph illustrating our robust business model, demonstrate how the group has been able to maintain overall performance even in years of low Riverina rice production. And of course, we've also delivered consistently strong dividends. Since 2017, we've invested $286 million into the business, including $115 million in strategic acquisitions and $171 million in capital expenditure. And we continue to actively pursue value-accretive growth opportunities. Of course, a key contributor to our success and ability to implement our strategy is our people. We've built a talented workforce of around 2,000 people across the world who are aligned behind our growth strategy, our values and our purpose. I'm proud that in financial year 2023, we achieved a record employee engagement score of 77%, and that 45% of our senior management roles are now held by women. We have a strong commitment to safety across the group, and I'm pleased that we saw a 38.5% reduction in the number of recordable injuries and a 35.4% reduction in the total recordable injury frequency rate across the group in the year. Now with that, I'll hand back to Dimitri to discuss our financial year 2023 financial results and each of our business segments in more detail, and then I'll cover off our outlook before we go to any questions.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning to everyone who is joining us today. Looking at the group financials for FY '23, we delivered strong headline growth, with revenue increasing by 23% on the prior year and EBITDA increasing 28% to $117 million. As Rob said, this outstanding outcome reflects a number of initiatives implemented during the year to support Sunrise's growth ambition and reinforce the group's earnings in uncertain times. Below the EBITDA line, we did experience an increase in financing costs, reflecting both the impact of rising interest rates as well as the increase in net debt, which was driven by the larger 2022 crop. The increase in our effective tax rate reflects the stronger profit contribution from our Australian operations in the group's profitability mix. Our basic earnings per share grew 9% to $0.838. So using SunRice's closing share price of $6.20 at the end of our financial year, this represents a PE ratio of a mere 7.4x. Looking at where we experienced shifts in EBITDA compared to last financial year, you will see the significant improvement in the CopRice business with the return to profitability, driven by continued momentum in the segment's Australian Ruminant business and the Companion Animal portfolio, and, of course, bolstered by a successful year in our Pryde's equine business. I will also highlight the significant delivery of our corporate segment. Corporate captures the cost of holding and financing the assets that are utilized by both the Australian Rice Pool business and the profit businesses. It also includes cross-segment charges for the use of SunRice brands and access to milling and storage assets. We will look at the performance of each of the business segments shortly. Turning to our balance sheet and capital management. Whilst there has been an overall increase in our gearing ratio, we've continued to maintain our balance sheet flexibility with core debt currently sitting at $70 million and seasonal debt, including bank overdrafts and lease liabilities, increasing to $221 million. The increase in seasonal debt reflects underlying increases in working capital and inventories primarily driven by the larger 2022 Riverina rice crop. I will now discuss the performance of each of our segments in more detail. First off, I'll cover the Australian Rice Pool business, which is aligned to our A Class shareholders and deals with the receivables, milling, marketing and the selling of Riverina rice. The segment benefited from the largest harvest in 5 years with the CY '22 Riverina crop 65% larger than crop year '21. This supported a strong increase in revenue to $335 million, which is 36% up on the prior period. The larger crop provided the base for higher sales volumes in both domestic and international premium markets, including the Middle East, the U.S. and, of course, in Europe. The increased revenue was also supported by sales price increases across the segment's portfolio, which followed current trends in world rice prices and helped to partially offset the significant inflationary pressures incurred during the year. These favorable dynamics enabled the Australian Rice Pool business to deliver a record naturally determined paddy price of $461 per tonne for medium-grain Reiziq and was well ahead of the previous record of $428 per tonne last year. I'll now move on to our international rice segment, which sources, processes and markets rice to both Australia and our global markets as well as offering choice to consumers. Revenue in this segment increased by 18% on the prior year to $735 million. This was driven by growth in the Middle East market, sales price increases across the segment's various markets, the product portfolio and a favorable change in product mix for our SunFoods business in the U.S. The significant increase in International Rice's revenue also reflects the strength of the group's multi-origin, multi-market business model. Despite this top line growth, the segment did face a number of challenges that weighed on profitability in FY '23. These include disrupted and limited access to rice supply from China, increases in international rice prices, ongoing disruption to local and international supply chains and delays and other constraints in passing on the increased cost of doing business to customers. As a result, EBITDA decreased 9% against the prior year to $39.9 million, and net profit before tax down 90% to $27.8 million. However, the segment is well placed to benefit from market dynamics in the year ahead, and we expect improvements in product mix to help offset the impacts of inflation. Turning now to our Rice Foods segment, which manufactures, markets and distributes value-added rice products. Revenue was up from $106 million to $113 million, and EBITDA increased from $7.9 million to $11 million, with net profit before tax up from $5.9 million to $9 million. This uplift in revenue was driven by a focus on product development opportunities and sales price increases across several product categories, particularly microwave rice products and rice flower. The segment also benefited from reduced costs from the greater availability of broken rice for rice flower production. Rice Foods results were partially impacted by ongoing disruption to supply chains caused by floods, labor shortages and other operational challenges. The group continues to focus on innovation and new product initiatives with the development of a 3-year pipeline for core rice and snacks, placing the segment in a good position to unlock future growth. Within Riviana Foods, our specialty gourmet and special occasions food business, while the segment achieved record revenues in FY '23, there were a number of factors which impacted profit margins. Top line revenue grew 9% on the prior year to $215 million, and this was driven by sales price increases and volume growth in some categories, with benefits from the KJ&Co acquisition back in FY '21 and the ongoing recovery in food service post the COVID lockdowns. However, the segments encountered a number of challenges which prevented the revenue growth converting into profit. These included the sharp rise in costs of imported products, ongoing systemic disruption in the global shipping industry and a weakening Australian dollar versus the USD and euro. As a result, EBITDA decreased from $14 million to $6.3 million, and net profit before tax decreased from $12.5 million to $4.7 million. In response to changes in some of the macro trends facing the segment, Riviana bolstered its onshoring capability in FY '23 with the acquisition and the successful integration of the Australian Waffle company, providing some local manufacturing capability in the baked goods category. Our Animal Nutrition business, CopRice, continued its recovery and delivered record revenue of $236 million in FY '23, which was up from $161 million in the prior year. CopRice's EBITDA and net profit before tax also improved at $12.4 million and $5.5 million, respectively. CopRice's return to profitability was driven by the continued momentum in the Australian ruminant business and companion animal portfolio, which benefited from new customer acquisitions, strategic partnerships with leading agricultural wholesalers and growth in dog food sales and increased sales prices to offset increases in commodity and distribution costs. It was also supported by the first full year contribution of Pryde's Easifeed acquired back in January 2022, which delivered ahead of expectations. CopRice's positive gains in revenue and profitability were delivered despite a number of challenges during FY '23, including inflationary pressures on costs, abundant posture availability, reducing the reliance on supplementary feed, flooding in Northern Victoria, and wet conditions across New South Wales and Queensland, which added cost and challenges to the supply chain. Finally, turning to our Corporate segment. EBITDA for the period was $47.3 million, up from $26.3 million (sic) [ $26.4 million ] in the prior period, with net profit before tax, up from $12.6 million to $22.7 million. This increase reflects the higher levels of brand and asset finance charges that were received from the Australian Rice Pool business during FY '23. The combined charges of $29.4 million, which were up from $18.6 million in the prior year, were driven by the improved availability of Riverina rice and the corresponding increase in branded sales levels and a sharp rise in the cost of capital due to interest rate hikes that also recharged to the pool. A review of the group's noncore assets led to the sale of a number of properties, which generated $3.3 million of income as well as the impairments of a number of nonstrategic and underutilized assets for a combined $5.2 million. These are both reflected in the Corporate segment. I will now hand back to Rob to cover our outlook for financial year '24 and beyond.

Thanks, Dimitri. As we move into the financial year 2024, our sustainability strategy remains an important commitment of the group to achieve long-term growth for our stakeholders. We're focused on continuing to make progress against the 6 focus areas in our sustainability strategy. And for each pillar, we've outlined our key planned actions in the year ahead. Of note, under the priorities of water productivity and climate resilience, we will commence our Australian rice emissions reduction pilot study in the Riverina, that, in partnership between our research center, RRAPL, and Food Agility, will undertake manual sampling of irrigation methods to determine the methane and nitrosoxide emissions associated with the various selling techniques. This gas flux data will provide us with a baseline for the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the aerobic versus anaerobic growing methods. The year ahead will also see us develop our net 0 road map and submit our science-based targets for validation to the SBTi. Looking ahead to financial year 2024, we expect the strong revenue momentum observed in the last year to continue, albeit likely at a more moderate pace. We anticipate this momentum will be supported by the positive effects of cycling the annualized price increases from financial year 2023, growth initiatives across the portfolio, including further international expansion, and ample Australian rice production with the recently harvested CY '23 crop of approximately 500,000 paddy tonnes, underpinning supply into key premium domestic and international markets, while supporting profitability in a number of the group segments, which benefit from the Riverina crop. We also expect group profitability to grow in financial year 2024, further underpinned by improvements in shipping conditions and costs and the ongoing recovery of the CopRice segment as the benefits of its transformation program are realized. However, the group continues to navigate an environment where foreign exchange rate volatility and other inflationary pressures on a number of input costs may well impact the expected earnings growth in financial year 2024. The group continues to have a disciplined approach to capital management. And while external conditions have not been favorable to more extensive merger and acquisition activity in the last year, we continue to explore a well-developed pipeline of potential strategic opportunities. Looking at our Australian Rice Pool business, more specifically, while opportunities still exist in the short term for Australian rice and international supply chains, these are expected to be countered to a degree by the drought in the U.S. breaking earlier than had originally been expected. Given the likely resulting increase in competition in key markets in the coming year, and a reduction in global rice prices in both consumer and tender markets, the paddy price range of $390 to $450 per tonne announced in February of this year for the CY '23 crop remains in place at this stage. With Southern New South Wales water storages currently over 90% full, the outlook for the CY '24 crop plantings, which is processed and marketed in financial year 2025, also remains positive. This is expected to result in a fourth consecutive year of abundant Australian rice production in financial year 2025. In addition to announcing the financial year '23 results yesterday, the SunRice Group also announced that it has entered into a share buyback agreement, under which it will become the sole shareholder in Trukai Industries. SunRice currently holds 66.23% of the shares issued in Trukai and more information about this transaction can be found in the ASX announcement on our website. Finally, as you'd be aware, in December, I announced my intention to retire as CEO and Managing Director of the SunRice Group. After navigating some of the worst years of drought and the disruption of COVID-19 in recent years and seeing the underlying performance of the business strengthen, I believe now is the right time for me to retire from the SunRice Group. It's been a privilege to lead the business over the last 11 years, and I'm proud of everything our team has accomplished for our shareholders, growers, people, customers and the rice industry. During my tenure, we've acquired our Lap Vo mill in Vietnam, established a substantial trading hub in Singapore, listed on the ASX, revitalized our brands, developed and implemented our sustainability strategy, improved paddy price for growers and diversified our earnings through the acquisition of several businesses, including KJ&Co, Roza's Gourmet and Pryde's Easifeed. The business is in a strong position, with a highly capable management team in place as I think is reflected in the quality of the results we announced yesterday and, of course, the positive outlook for the coming year. I'm pleased to be welcoming the new group CEO, Paul Serra, into the business on Monday, the 3rd of July, and will commence a substantial handover period. We'll be working closely together over the next 2 months to ensure a smooth leadership transition ahead of the AGM on the 23rd of August 2023, where I'll step down as Group CEO and Managing Director at the conclusion of that meeting. Thank you. I'll now hand back to the operator.

[Operator Instructions] There are no phone questions at this time. You do have a question from the webcast from Allan Franklin from Canaccord Genuity, who asks, "Please, could you provide additional context around the drought breaking in California and how this impacts the group? Also to what extent has the performance and CopRice ruminant business return to normal levels? Or is there more improvement to come in future periods?"

Thanks for the comments, Allan. Yes, so just turning to the groundbreaking in California. During the course of the last financial year, we saw Northern Hemisphere markets suffer significantly from drought, and that includes not just California, but also Southern Europe. And as a consequence, we had opportunities, particularly with the Australian Rice Pool to provide rice from Australia into both of those markets. The shipping costs did take some of the shine off the profitability on those trades, but, nevertheless, they were still very positive. We also traded rice out of other parts of our supply chain, particularly into the Southern European market and took benefit for the profit side of the business as well. What we've seen is that very late in the normal season of rain expectations in California, there were significant downfalls -- or sorry, rainfall, and, as a consequence, the water storages were replenished and there's a substantial rice crop being planted. It's probably below the long run average of California, but nevertheless, I think allows them to supply their traditional markets more fully than they were certainly able to in this last year. And that crop doesn't get harvested until October, November this year, which is why we've said, for the first half of our financial year, we still have opportunities to supply that marketplace, which, of course, is very short as well as going into Southern Europe. In the second half, we expect the Californians to go back to supplying some of the more traditional markets, and therefore, for competition to heat up. But of course, once those customers have experienced Australian rice, we hope that we can maintain the sales based on the reputation and quality of that rise to those customers. In Southern Europe, although many people will have seen that there have been significant rainfalls, indeed flooding in parts of Southern Europe, from everything we can tell, certainly, the Northern Italian area, which is renowned for Japonica-style rices as well as Spain -- Spain has effectively stayed very dry. And in Northern Italy, the rains were late and problematic for rice planting. And when the rains [ did ] come, I gather they were more damaging than helpful. So we think that there's likely to remain some opportunities for us for the full financial year into Southern Europe. So hopefully that provides a little bit of a snapshot of the Californian and drought situation in the Northern Hemisphere. And of course, as we flagged, we have a plentiful rice supply situation from the Riverina as well as, of course, from many of our other supply options. And when it comes to CopRice, I think it's fair to say, it will be lovely in part for a more -- for more favorable conditions for the CopRice business to prevail. And I certainly don't want to wish drought on anybody, but the last 3 years of La Nina has seen incredibly unusual full pasture conditions. We acquired our Hamilton business in New Zealand and of course, our [indiscernible] business in Gippsland during the course of the last 3 years, and those businesses have sort of phased into trying to build market presence in the marketplace where demand is naturally down because pasture conditions are so positive for farmers. They're unnaturally positive, and a more likely return to normal conditions is expected with El Nino being predicted, albeit it's still developing and we're still seeing rain in regional areas. We would expect to at least to return to more normal seasonal conditions, which should provide something of a tailwind to ruminant sales in the coming year, particularly the second half. Of course, the recovery that you've seen in the CopRice business has actually been achieved despite the headwinds of continued La Nina. And I'm delighted to say that the sales team in CopRice, I mean, it's a complete team effort, but nevertheless, the sales team, in particular, have been able to build market share in a flat market or depressed market and have done that profitably. And, as a consequence, we've seen the underlying profitability of CopRice really come through. We expect to see that continue, particularly as we cycle the sort of the trajectory that we've exited the year with, which should improve matters even without further market share improvements. And of course, Pryde's Easifeed, as Dimitri has called out, has continued to outperform versus expectations, and we expect that business to continue that trajectory. So I think a better year ahead for CopRice.

The next question is from the phone line from John Burgess from RaaS Group.

Just a question on the corporate business, just in round terms and if we exclude the profit on property sale, the first half was up about 30%, the second half was up about 90%. I guess my question is, should we expect some sort of recovery, still some catch-up in the first half of this year in that corporate business to reflect the higher WACC requirements?

Thanks for the question, John. It's fair to say that the second half of the year has certainly lapped up that increase in interest rates. So as we go into FY '24, it's fair to say, it would be more reflective of the second half as opposed to the first half. So that rebuild in the second half is already factored into the numbers. So a relatively steady growth in FY '24. What changes that profile is obviously the size of the revenue, attracting a brand charge, but a relatively consistent asset finance charge due to the size of the total assets and the inventory in the system with the Riverina crop coming through and underpinning that asset finance charge.

Okay. In terms of your inventory working capital position, how much do you think at the year-end close was? Because obviously, the -- [ as we harvest was ] a bit late, so how much of that inventory is sort of due to the late harvest in Australia?

Yes. Whilst the harvest was quite late, there's a little bit more of a tail that we're currently going through the final bits and pieces of the harvest. But with that late harvest, it's exacerbated the position of starting last year with a low inventory level and then essentially rebuilding the carryover. So as we go into the next 6 months, we expect to hold the grow payables, which will come off over time. So by the half year, you'd expect the grow payables number to diminish as we've settled those outstandings with the growers. And then, of course, monetizing the inventory over the course of the next 6- to 12-month period. From a year-on-year perspective, we've definitely finished FY '23 with a substantially higher position in that working capital scenario, which was driven by the Aussie crop. And with a more normalized view of the 500,000 tonnes that we've called out, expected for the coming harvest that to be more neutral from a year-on-year perspective. But what's happened at the end of FY '23 certainly reflective of the big ramp-up in Aussie crop, and of course, the large carryover.

I think I'll just add to Dimitri's comments that given the outlook for the planting in '24 and then into '25, I think we're blessed with the prospect of very strong inventories of Australian rice to place to good effect for some time to come. So I wouldn't expect to see a retracement of those working capital levels to perhaps where we saw a year or 2 ago. And of course, looking at sort of through that to the underlying core debt leverage, we still have a balance sheet that has plenty of capacity for potential M&A.

Okay. And I guess the final question, just in terms of the freight cost increase if we exclude the paddy pool or the Rice Pool, which divisions should see the most benefit as those prices ease?

Yes. So Riverina is, I guess, the business that, as you've seen in the results, has taken a step back at the bottom line year-to-year, as not only shipping costs and particularly refrigerated container costs, which are sort of slower to react or to come down the other side of this pricing curve versus more general sea freight rates. We are seeing that -- those rates [indiscernible] reasonably quickly now. And so that certainly should help coming through into the Riverina business. The Ukraine conflict, obviously also imposed very significant cost inflation into the Riverina business on the basis of a lot of the goods we pull out of Europe are baked. So if you think about wheat flower, energy and shipping costs, the Ukraine conflict has hit the first 2 very hard, and of course, the tail end of COVID hit the latter very hard. So we certainly expect to see the shipping costs come off. We expect to see the pricing that we've got away in the second half cycle full year. And then ideally, we would expect to see that -- those shipping rates flow through. FX volatility is the other factor that's hit that business unit in recent times, particularly the EU cross rate or the euro cross rates, sorry. And we have seen the Aussie strengthen somewhat against the Euro in more recent times. So that's the business unit that will have the most impact on. The international rice and in part RFG with some microwave rice coming in from Asia in the Rice Foods Group and then, of course, international rice is effectively leveraging many, many shipping routes across the world. And as those rates come off, we'd expect to see some lift in the cost base there, albeit that some of that is likely to be flowed through in pricing to end customers.

Your next question is from the webcast. Finola Burke from RaaS Advisory asks, "Congratulations, Rob and Dimitri and team on the great result. Should we read that the increase in the final dividend reflects confidence within the company that it can maintain the dividend at this new level?"

Thanks for that question. Obviously, the Board makes a decision on dividends, reflective of financial result in year-end also the future outlook as well with regard to capital requirements. I think what it does do, the lift this year is reflect the fact that we've had a strong result and that as the outlook statement says, we've exited this year with real momentum. You'll note we also cleaned up a couple of assets in a conservative manner during the year, we're taking a couple of impairments. So I think the business is in very strong condition with strong momentum as we exit. And the Board was very conscious that through the years of drought, we maintained a steady level of dividend at $0.33, which still reflected a very healthy dividend yield, but haven't seen the growth over those years that perhaps some of our shareholders might have expected. And we're keen, the Board was certainly keen to reflect a return to investors to reflect their patients during that period. And certainly, we would wish to see the consistency in growth over time. So hopefully, that covers the question.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Gordon for closing remarks.

Well, thank you very much, everyone, for joining this morning's call. This is the last call of mine, so I appreciate your support over the journey. I'm very confident that the business is well equipped to continue with momentum into the future. The very professional team that's being built at SunRice, I think, will ensure that. So on behalf of myself and Dimitri, thank you very much for attending the call this morning. We very much appreciate your time.

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