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

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SunRice Group FY 2024 Full Year Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand over to the conference call host, SunRice CEO; Mr. Paul Serra; and the company's CFO, Mr. Dimitri Courtelis. Please go ahead, Paul.

Thank you, 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 2024 full year results. My name is Paul Serra, the Group CEO and Managing Director of SunRice. And I'm joined in Sydney today by our CFO, Dimitri Courtelis. Our plan for today's call is to provide an overview of our 2024 financial results. I'll focus on some of our highlights, Dimitri step through our segment performance, then I'll cover the outlook before opening for questions from all participants. You'll see the investor presentation on the screen that was lodged on the ASX yesterday. As I shared in my CEO Report, this is my first year with the SunRice Group, and it's been a privilege to have seen the group deliver yet another exceptional financial performance. These results really demonstrate the strengths of the group's brand, our talented team as well as our operational excellence in navigating an unstable business environment to deliver global growth, as you can see on the screen. We delivered the highest group revenue and the highest fully franked dividend in the company's 74-year history. The strong growth in earnings for the full year was underpinned by a 15% increase in top line revenue to $1.88 billion. The group's EBITDA was $143.9 million, and the net profit after tax was $68.2 million. This represents a 23% and 24% increase -- percent increase on the prior financial year, respectively. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital management and declared a fully franked final dividend of $0.40 per B Class Share and a fully franked special dividend of $0.05 per B Class Share. This brought the total dividend for 2024 to a record $0.60 per B Class Share fully franked. Our closing price for the year of $6.51, this represents a total dividend yield of 9.2%. We also delivered a naturally determined paddy price of $430 per tonne for medium grain. Our success was driven by our capacity to leverage our previous portfolio acquisitions, make key strategic operational choices as well as pursue new opportunities. Our team exhibited discipline and agility in navigating challenging conditions and turning them into advantages. This included being nimble in overcoming supply chain challenges, adapting to volatile market dynamics, seizing opportunities for our diversified sourcing model to meet consumer and customer demand in global markets and most importantly, connecting our brands strongly to our integrated supply chain, which underpins our resilient business model. As a result, over half the group's revenue was generated outside of Australia and New Zealand in the financial year '24, demonstrating our successful international market expansion. I'll provide further detail on the key factors influencing our financial performance in FY '25 shortly. However, before we move on, I'd like to note the Board's decision to suspend the dividend reinvestment plan. This was based on consideration of several factors, including the group's strong balance sheet, the repayment of all core debt during the year and the resulting dividend for 2024. Sustainability remains an important part of how we create value for our employees, shareholders and stakeholders. In 2024, we undertook a number of programs that assist with meeting our sustainability objectives domestically and internationally, including our commitment to be Net Zero by 2050 and supporting community development in countries where we operate. There are many highlights, as we've shared in our annual report, and I won't read all of them, but I'll highlight a few. In collaboration with the Deakin University, we supported on-farm trials at our research facility RRAPL, using rice variety V071 to assess the impact of various sowing and irrigating techniques to reduce greenhouse gases and increase water efficiencies. These pilot trials have indicated that there is significant potential for reduction of methane gas emissions from growing rice by transitioning from aerial sown to drill sown, and drill sown with a delayed onset of permanent water methods. Submitting our emissions targets for validation to the Science Based Target initiatives and starting to draft our Net Zero road map to meet the group's commitment to be Net Zero by 2050. Our emissions reduction targets include a Scope 3 forestry land and agricultural target, making SunRice one of the first companies in Australia to submit a FLAG target to the initiative. We've also continued to strengthen our controls in respect to human rights within our international supply chains across a number of our sites. If we look at the drivers of our results, we achieved both volume and value growth in our revenue. Approximately 70% now of the group's revenue is made up of branded products in financial year '24. Our robust brand portfolio and discipline in balancing our product mix to maximize returns and operational efficiencies allow us to grow volume through the year. These factors drove the success of both the Australian Rice Pool business and the International Rice segment, as Dimitri will share shortly. The strength of the group's brand supported revenue growth despite the challenges in inflation, which we sought to address by our appropriate sales pricing strategies. If we turn to profit drivers, profitability growth was driven by revenue growth as well as cost savings measures. We are successful in achieving operational and manufacturing efficiencies across our businesses and our strategic actions continue to improve margins. Our extensive supply chain network also allowed us to source competitively and respond efficiently to the changes in supply and demand dynamics across the world despite many disruptions. The group's overall performance in 2024 was affected by consumer cutting discretionary spending and trading down to lower price offerings in some categories. This trend was especially noticeable in Riviana Foods. Nonetheless, the impact was mitigated by product innovation and a broader, more diverse and stronger portfolio of brands resulting from previous acquisitions. During financial year '24, the stronger U.S. dollar also put pressure on margins of our import businesses. Dimitri will cover off our business segments in more detail shortly. But as you can see, all our business segments across the group improved their metrics at the revenue and EBITDA level. However, in the Australian Rice Pool, the CY23 paddy price was affected by competition as the Northern Hemisphere emerged from drought, impacting global tender prices as well as a healthy amount of carryover volume in the Riverina. Looking back through the cycles, our solid track record -- you can see our solid track record of performance. In particular, the first 2 graphs on the screen showed the Australian rice crop and group revenue from 2017 to 2024, and our robust business model demonstrate how the group has been able to maintain and build overall performance even in years of low Riverina rice production. We've also delivered consistently strong dividends, and since 2017 have invested more than $309 million into the business, including $115 million in strategic acquisitions and $194 million in capital expenditure. We continue to actively pursue value-accretive growth opportunities. The exceptional performance of the group in financial year 2024 demonstrates the resilience and effectiveness of our business model. We have successfully delivered for our growers and A Class shareholders this year, while again increasing dividends for our B Class shareholders. As we step into financial year 2025, work has begun on undertaking a refresh to our growth strategy and identify new opportunities as we look to continue the momentum achieved to date. As part of this work, we've commenced the project to map out our value chain as well as move towards integrated reporting and unpack how we contribute as a global food company with a rich Australian heritage. As you can see, we draw upon our environment, our brands, our partnerships and supply chains and people. Utilizing this value cycle, we create unique, iconic brands for global customers and consumer needs that represent a commitment to excellence. Our products help nourish millions of people and animals, fostering a shared love of food. We ensure a reliable supply chain through our global network of sourcing capabilities. And by linking farmers to lucrative markets, we help uplift rural communities, both here in Australia as well as worldwide. Our dedication to innovation and partnership helps us reduce water usage and carbon emissions, whilst providing value to our shareholders. With that, I'll hand over to Dimitri to discuss our 2024 financial results in each of our business segments in more detail. And then I'll come back to discuss at the end our New South Wales rice vesting deregulation and outlook before we open for questions.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning to everyone joining us on the call and the webcast today. Looking at the group financials for FY '24, we delivered a strong headline growth, with revenue increasing 15% from the prior year to $1.88 billion and EBITDA increasing by 23% to just under $144 million. As Paul said, this outstanding outcome reflects a number of initiatives implemented during the year as well as in prior years to support the SunRice's growth ambition and of course, reinforcing the group's earnings. Below the EBITDA line, we did experience an increase in financing costs, reflected by the impact of the rising interest rate environments over the last couple of years. Our basic EPS grew 16% to just over $0.97. And using the SunRice's closing B Class Share price of $6.51 at the end of our financial year on the 30th of April, this represented a P/E ratio of only 6.7x. Looking at where we experienced shifts in EBITDA compared to last financial year, you will see the significant improvement in the International Rice segment and the continued momentum in the CopRice business. There's also been a significant increase in the return on capital employed. In FY '24, we achieved a 12.7% increase, on top of the 9.8% ratio that we had in FY '23. This reflects the company's ability to generate return on our investments. Turning our minds to our balance sheet. We continued to exercise discipline in our capital management. Net debt and gearing reduced to $224 million and 27%, respectively. We have continued to maintain balance sheet flexibility. Our core debt has been fully repaid. Seasonal debt, including bank overdrafts and lease liabilities, increased slightly to $224 million. All remaining debt drawn down on our seasonal facility now relates to net working capital funding, and with this net working capital primarily made up of near-term marketable inventory for our captive markets globally. This will place us in a position to seize further opportunities in FY '25 and allow us to consolidate our strong market positions, pursue further innovation and diversify our earnings further. I'll now discuss the performance of each of our segments in more detail. First segment I'd like to cover off is our Australian Rice Pool business, which is aligned to our A Class shareholders and deals with the receival, the milling, the marketing and the selling of Riverina rice, both locally and internationally. Volume growth in key international retail and tender markets, together with favorable foreign exchange on exports, drove a significant uplift in revenue in our Australian Rice Pool business. Revenue in the segment grew by 15% to $385 million on the prior period. The performance was boosted by increased sales in consumer and tender markets, favorable FX rates that supported exports, cost-saving initiatives and to the normalization of shipping conditions for a large part of last year. Disruption in the Red Sea and industrial action at some of the Australian ports partly offset the favorable conditions. The return in supply in the Northern Hemisphere also resulted in significant downward pressure on pricing in our global tender markets as the year progressed, and this further weighed on the valuation of the substantial amount of healthy crop carried over into FY '25. Accordingly, the Australian Rice Pool business delivered a final naturally determined paddy price of $430 per tonne for medium grain for the CY23 crop. Moving on to our International Rice segment, which sources, processes and markets rice in Australia and around 50 markets globally, offering premium and value choices to our consumers. Revenue increased by 22% on the prior year, up to $893.8 million. This was driven by growth in the Middle East, which saw us enter the market with a lower priced offering and broadening our relevance to different consumers. Our SunFoods business in the United States offset the downturn in the domestic market due to intensified competition following the return of local supplied post breaking of the drought. This was achieved with an increase in government tenders exported to Japan and Korea. So these strong results were achieved navigating some significant challenges during FY '24. This included the global rice prices increasing considerably last year and due in part to a ban on the Indian exports of non-basmati rice as well as market demand increase in Vietnam and Thailand as suppliers pivoted to alternative supply sources. Overall, International Rice segment had fantastic results, with EBITDA increasing 42% over the prior period to $56.7 million and profit before tax going up by 53% to $42.5 million. You can see where our revenue was generated in FY '24. And notably, 73% of the sales were achieved by branded products, as Paul mentioned earlier. Looking now at our Rice Food segment, which manufactures, markets and distributes value-added, rice-based products. Revenue was $121 million, 7% up from last year. EBITDA increased from $11.1 million to $14 million and net profit before tax was up 31% from $9 million to $11.8 million. The uplift in revenue driven by a focus on product development opportunities and sales pricing strategies that helped absorb inflationary impacts across several of our product categories. The segment also benefited from a more optimum sourcing of raw materials and the normalization of shipping conditions and costs. Rice Food results were partially impacted by ongoing inflationary issues impacting consumer behavior in Australia. The group continues to focus on innovation and new product initiatives to build on consumer interest in our brands and our products. Within Riviana Foods, our brand-led specialty gourmet food business, while the segment achieved record revenue in FY '24, there were a number of factors that impacted our profit margins. Top line grew 3% on the prior year, up to just shy of $222 million, and this was driven by product innovation, including momentum in the Toscano brand and sales pricing strategies to help absorb inflationary pressures. However, the segment encountered several challenges which prevented the revenue growth converting into future profits. These included the Red Sea disruption and industrial actions at a number of the ports in Australia, operational challenges and inflationary issues impacting consumer behavior, and a weak Australian dollar affecting imports both against the U.S. and the euro. These challenges were countered, in part, by procurement saving initiatives and opportunities. As a result, EBITDA increased 13% from $6.3 million in FY '23 to $7.1 million in FY '24. Following that, net profit before tax increased 11% to $5.2 million from 4.7% prior year. Our Animal Nutrition business, CopRice, continued its growth and recovery to deliver a record revenue of $252.7 million in FY '24, up from $236 million in the prior period, and this represented a 7% increase to top line. CopRice's EBITDA and net profit before tax also improved from FY '23 as a result of the ongoing execution of our turnaround activities. EBITDA coming in at $17.2 million was up 39% on last year and net profit before tax, $11 million, which was 98% up on prior period. CopRice's strong profitability was driven by the continued momentum in Australia and New Zealand companion animal portfolio, benefited from the growth in the CopRice's branded dog food sales. This offsets an increase in commodity and distribution costs and a contraction in the New Zealand stock feed market. CopRice's positive gains in revenue and profitability were also delivered despite unfavorable climatic conditions impacting ruminant stock feed demand in Australia. Now finally, turning to our Corporate segment, which 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 some cross-segment charges for the use of the SunRice brands and access to milling and storage assets. EBITDA for the period was $48.9 million, up from $47 million in the prior year and net profit before tax down from $22.7 million to $16.3 million. The increase in EBITDA reflects the higher levels of brand and asset financing charges that we received from the Australian Rice Pool during FY '24. The combined asset financing and brand charges of $32.2 million, which were up from $29.4 million in the prior year, were driven by the ongoing abundance of the Riverina rice and its impact on the net working capital position of the Rice Pool business throughout FY '24. And this, together with higher branded sales levels of Riverina rice in the period. The receipt of proceeds associated with the disposal of a number of noncore assets across the group was largely offset by nonrecurring costs associated with the refresh of our growth strategy and other costs associated with the increased risk of doing business in some of our overseas markets. The ongoing review of the group's noncore assets led to the sale of properties, which generated $12.2 million of income, as well as the impairment of a number of nonstrategic and/or underutilized assets for a combined $10 million. This also reflected in the corporate results. Finally, on screen, we've provided a summary of the performance drivers across the group, which are made and addressed in the segment results just to make that a little bit easier to understand. I'll now hand back to Paul to cover an update on New South Wales rice vesting as well as our outlook for FY '25 and beyond.

Thank you, Dimitri. As you may be aware, the New South Wales government introduced legislation in June to end the New South Wales rice vesting arrangements by the 1st of July 2025. Firstly, I want to note that rice vesting arrangements continue to apply for the upcoming crop to be planted this October, crop year '25, including the operation of SunRice's sold and exclusive export license in relation to that crop. Although we sought for the New South Wales Rice vesting arrangements to be retained in their current form, it became clear that New South Wales government's original proposal for a partially deregulated rice export model, creating 2 sets of rules for growers, one in the south and one in the north, plus new regulatory compliance obligations, presented challenges for the industry. Without vesting, we will be able to work more directly with growers to help the industry achieve long-term sustainability. This is especially important as the industry navigates new challenges, such as the impact of the federal government's water reforms that have accelerated the need for this transition. SunRice will be able to work -- will have the ability to consider new contracting and pricing options for growers. This should allow the company to better align supply and demand from our premium markets. These new structures should enable both large and small rice growers to participate in the industry in a way that best suits their individual circumstances while ensuring a more consistent supply, which is in the best interest of the business and both classes of shareholding. Following a strong year in financial year '24, the SunRice Group will seek to repeat the exceptional performance at both top and bottom line in financial year '25. Against this backdrop, we are prepared to navigate through challenges, including softening sale prices, heightened competition, unfavorable foreign exchange conditions and ongoing cost pressures. We'll continue to focus on our branded product sales. However, implementing effective pricing strategies and competing with lower price offerings across our business portfolio in financial year '25 will continue to be challenging, particularly in markets where consumers are facing increasing cost of living pressures. I'm practicing in reduced discretionary spending, driving more trading down to lower products. Furthermore, we also remain focused on integrating sustainability into our business, driving cost and procurement savings as well as other operational and manufacturing improvement initiatives across the group in financial year '25. If we turn to the paddy price and crop outlook for the Australian Riverina crop, in crop year '24, the harvest was another strong outcome, with 618,000 paddy tonnes received. However, the market is not without its challenges. Several factors, including the disruption of global shipping industry, particularly in the Red Sea, as Dimitri highlighted, and the prevalence of lower quality scores from the crop year '24 that we've received to date have the potential to impact anticipated returns. As a result, the crop year '24 paddy price range remains unchanged at $370 to $430 per tonne for medium grain. With successive large crops in crop year '23 and crop year '24, we have full carryover levels and based on current water availability, expect a further substantial crop in crop year '25. In closing, and as I mentioned at the outset, it's been a privilege to lead the SunRice Group over the past year. I'm proud of everything our talented team has accomplished for our shareholders, growers, customers and broader stakeholders. The business is well positioned and with a highly capable management team and Board in place, this is reflected in the quality of results we announced today -- yesterday and the positive outlook for the future. Thank you, and I'll now hand back to the operator to take any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first phone question comes from Allan Franklin with Canaccord.

Great results, so well done on that. Just 3 from me, please. Just perhaps kicking off -- and I appreciate it's still pretty early on in the piece. But just wouldn't mind conversation or just a context around if you were to be contracted by farmers, how does that flow through cost recovery and asset financing?

In relation to the nonvesting environment? Sorry, the phone's very...

Sorry. On the...

Yes. We see this actually as a real positive moving forward, being able to look at different ways of contracting with growers, both short term and long term. That's been more problematic in the past. And in particular, been able to match the crop size to the demand for premium Australian rice, and this will really limit the need for us to sell Australian rice into lower returning markets. So that flexibility we see is something that's critical for us moving forward and a positive for the business in being able to procure a more consistent supply of rice.

Just perhaps on the international side, obviously, a very strong print there. Just any sort of additional color you can sort of make in terms of next steps for growth there. Or are you sort of -- do you feel you're able to sort of hold profits at that level for international in the next little period?

Yes. There's probably 2 parts to that question. In terms of growing market share and volume across our international markets, we see ongoing opportunities. We have such a strong brand presence here in Australia and New Zealand, but also through the Pacific, Papua New Guinea, into the Middle East and into the U.S., and that opens up an opportunity for us to grow in really unique ways. That, coupled with the way that we're able to procure rice now from a very diverse set of countries and geographies and coupling that with very strong brand propositions in those markets, we see an opportunity for ongoing growth. I think we see this year, this upcoming year, in particular, more pricing pressure. So the medium grain markets in the U.S. have an abundance of rice. And with the cost of living pressures, we see that sort of starting to impact on the margin line. But certainly, on the medium- to long-term outlook, we see a lot of opportunity for our international businesses to grow, and we're in the middle of sort of looking at the detail of how we accelerate that.

And then perhaps just the last one on M&A. It's obviously been a couple of periods since last transacting balance sheet. It's obviously in a pretty clean position. Just any sort of comment on unchanged intentions on M&A. And/or do you feel that the current macro conditions might be creating more opportunities as some smaller operators start feeling filling the pinch more than they have historically?

Yes. So as you've mentioned, our balance sheet is in a good position, and we remain ready to look at opportunities that fit strategically with where we wish to go as a group and present good value for us as a company. No real change in terms of how we've always looked at that acquisition pipeline. We'll have a continued focus on both international acquisitions as well as here domestically within Australia.

Your next question comes from Paul Jensz with AgFoodFund.

Paul, Dimitri, my question is just, I suppose, the flow-on effects with the change there with the desk with the review of the A and B Class shares. Are you able to give us an update on that review that I think is due sometime this year?

Yes. So we see the 2 is completely separate. So the removal of the desk doesn't impact our share structure at all with the dual class share structure. As mentioned, the moving forward from the single desk on the New South Wales rice vesting gives us the flexibility to work differently with growers, and we need to take that opportunity to really secure a more consistent rice into the future, which is a benefit to both classes of shareholding. As we mentioned in our annual report, the Board's undertaken a review of our share structure and whether our company delivers to that share structure. And I think you can see from the results that we've got today, we're delivering very strongly both for the A Class shareholders as well as the B Class shareholders. And as we mentioned in our annual report, we'll review that from time to time.

[Operator Instructions] Your next phone question comes from John Burgess with RaaS Research Group.

Just a couple of questions on the expense line items, if I could. I guess, freight. Obviously, it's come off high. Do you think there's still some room to bring that, obviously with Red Sea issue, to bring that cost down over the next 12 to 24 months?

Yes. So we have seen freight come off a little bit towards the middle part of last year, but that's been then coupled with the challenges in the Red Sea. So with importing boxes out of Europe, we've had to reroute those shipments around Africa. So getting back to Australia, they're obviously taking a lot longer on the water, increasing cost and putting a bit of pressure in the supply chain from a net working capital perspective. And equally, exporting out of Australia, whilst we are managing globally about 160 different shipping routes on any given year, we do have those options. But having to pick those supply and demand peers are quite challenging. So as long as we're not going through the Red Sea Channel, we're able to see some normalization in the shipping rates. But those Red Sea surcharges are certainly still in place and no sign of those abating in the current period. So normalizing back to pre-COVID levels probably unlikely, but costs similar to last year is probably the base assumption, what we're going in, caveated by the Red Sea challenges.

Great. And a small one on energy. I noticed that the energy cost spiked in the first half of '24 have come off. What divisions use a lot of energy? And what are you seeing in energy prices going forward?

So in Australia, in particular, the Australian crop is the primary utilizer of that energy and drying our crop, in particular, is the largest user of energy. So depending on the timing of the harvest, if you have an earlier harvest, you'll see that energy spiking around March and April. And generally, if there's a later harvest, you'll see that energy spiking around April, May, which sometimes crosses over our year-end, which can cause some noise from a year-end perspective when you're looking year-on-year. The rest of the year, it's a relatively continual cycle. It's really around crop harvesting time when we're having to aerate and dry the crop that you'd see that spike in energy. And we do have strategies in place to look at the market from an energy sourcing and procurement perspective, looking at dovetailing that into 1, 2, 3-year types of contracts, which is what we've done in the past and what we'll continue to do to maximize costs and volumes on that line item. But it's definitely aeration and drying of crop that's probably the biggest user there.

Right. Got it. And finally, just thinking on the special dividend. What sort of drove that special dividend in your mind?

Yes. So as we called out in the results, we did have some profits on sales of noncore assets to the tune of about $12 million around the group. So it was an opportunity to return some of that extra cash or excess cash back to shareholders. That's why we specifically called that out as a special divi and our underlying divi at the $0.55 mark. So we can clearly see the difference between that $0.55 plus the $0.05 getting to the total of $0.60. So yes, pleasing to have had that opportunity this year.

Your next question comes from Finola Burke with RaaS Research Group.

Congratulations, Paul and Dimitri, on such a fantastic result. I just have a couple of questions. With 70% of your group sales now in branded product, should we expect to see this expand? And what sort of impact could we expect to see that on margin as a result and over time? And then secondly, just wondered, given you flagged that you're aiming to deliver a similar or a consistent result in 2025, is it reasonable to expect a similar quantum of underlying dividend coming into this year?

Yes. So I'll answer the first part of that first. The -- do we expect to see the branded percentage of our total sales increase? Certainly, our strategy is to continue to capture more of the total supply chain profit pools. And so our strength as an organization, and really this has been something I've looked at hard in my first year here, our strength really is our ability to create unique consumer brands and propositions and increasing differentiation in those brand positions and propositions to consumers and couple that with a really sophisticated diverse sourcing, manufacturing, sort of growing total end-to-end supply chain. So our strategy is absolutely to continue to find ways to deliver value to consumers through our brands and through the innovations that we bring to market, but coupling that really strongly with an integrated supply solution and manufacturing solution that enabled us to make good margin from that. But you would hope to see over time that, that drives the margin improvement in our underlying performance over time. The second part of the question, I can't speculate in terms of what the dividend might be at the end of next year. I think the wording we're using is we're hoping to repeat this exceptional performance. So I think that's appropriate.

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

Thank you. On behalf of myself and Dimitri, thanks again for everyone joining today on this call, and we appreciate your time.

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