Southern Cross Electrical Engineering Limited (SXE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Southern Cross Electrical Engineering Limited HY '25 Results webcast. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Graeme Dunn, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to SCEE's half year results presentation. Turning to Slide 2 for a brief introduction to SCEE. SCEE is a leading national electrical, instrumentation, communications and maintenance services group that operates across the 3 broader market sectors of infrastructure, commercial and resources. We operate through several company entities as shown, that have been acquired through our disciplined M&A strategy. Our most recent acquisition of MDE in May 2024 has settled in well to the group and is performing to expectations. A key takeaway from today's presentation are the 6 thumbnails at the bottom of the slide that outline the investment proposition for SCEE. Firstly, we are heavily exposed to the 3 growth tailwinds of infrastructure, data centers and electrification investment. We are diversified across markets and operations and have a long-standing blue-chip client base. We continue to grow the recurring revenue and deliver earnings growth that has resulted in a financially strong company with strong shareholder returns. And finally, we have a track record of successful acquisitions. Turning to Slide 3. Our strategy has been successful over many years, and it remains clear. We are primarily an electrical contractor diversified across the infrastructure, commercial and resources sectors. We will grow by deepening our presence in those sectors and broaden our geographic diversity through expanding our core competencies and adding adjacent and complementary capabilities, either organically or by acquisition. We are increasing our exposure to service and maintenance style works. I do note that our recurring revenues have tripled since FY '18. Finally, we are actively exploring acquisition targets offering further geographic diversification and new capabilities. Now turning to Slide 5 for a summary of our record half year financial performance. Our half year revenue of $397.4 million was a record for the group and was up 55.5% on the prior corresponding period. Infrastructure remains our largest sector at 63.3% of total revenue. Our record half year EBITDA of $27.1 million was up 58.5% on the prior corresponding period. Our record half year EBIT of $23.2 million was up 73.7% on the prior corresponding period, and our record half NPAT of $16.2 million was up 67.8% on the prior corresponding period. This result included $1.1 million of acquisition amortization. Our record cash of $114.8 million was up 36.5% on the record prior period ending on the 30th June 2024, and we remain debt-free. Our order book of $670 million was up $21.8 million on the prior corresponding period. We declared a fully franked interim dividend of $0.025 per share. That represents a 150% increase on the prior year interim dividend. Overall, a great result. To take you through the next 3 financial slides, I'll pass you over to our CFO, Chris Douglass.

Thank you, Graeme. And turning to Slide 6, a record half year revenue and profit for the group. As Graeme mentioned, the revenues were almost $400 million and up 55% on the prior corresponding period. The revenue split is that infrastructure remaining our largest sector, but has shown significant growth. It now comprised 60% of the work in the half approximately. And the other 2 sectors, commercial and resources are roughly 20% each, and they've been fairly static. As we've been saying for some time, they've been quieter sectors for us in recent periods. So the big revenue contributors in that half, really in order of size were the Collie Battery Energy Storage System at Western Sydney Airport, the NEXTDC Artarmon data center, various other data center projects, Pitt Street Sydney Metro Station, which is now finished and the towers, which are almost complete. And then, of course, we have our continuous range of various BHP, Rio Tinto, Woolworths and Coles projects, as we always do. So that resulted in a record gross profit of $50.6 million, which is up 34.2% on the prior period. The gross margin percentage was down 2% on the previous period, down to 12.7%. However, we should note that included in the gross profits in this half were $3 million of legal costs relating to the WestConnex arbitration. And we also note in the commercial building sector, the mix of projects we had in the half were almost entirely base build works, which is less profitable for us, and we didn't have any of the more profitable fit-out works that we normally have, and that also had an impact of suppressing the margins. Anyway, overheads as a percentage of revenue was 6% compared with 8.2% in the prior corresponding period. They were up 14.8% on the prior period. That's a combination of now consolidating MDE in for the whole period, as well as just general pay rises for staff and so on. But I think this does demonstrate how we are able to keep overheads under control, while growing the top line of the business. All of that resulted in record EBITDA, EBIT and NPAT. And as noted before, we do also include in that EBIT and NPAT $1.1 million of acquisition amortization. So turning to Slide 7 and our strong balance sheet. Cash increased to a record $114.8 million, and I'll make further commentary on that on the next slide. Business remains debt-free. Just before the end of the previous financial year, we increased our bonding facilities to a record $150 million. And at 31 December, we have a record number of bank guarantees and surety bonds on issue, which obviously reflects the highest ever level of activity we've had. So $112.5 million were on issue, leaving us a headroom of $37.5 million in the facilities, which is still adequate for future growth and so on. The franking account balance was $54.0 million at 31 December, and that then leads into we are paying this [ 2.5% ] (sic) [ $0.025 ] dividend on the 9th of April. Turning to Slide 8. So the cash flow waterfall, just noting some of the significant cash flows in the period. We had a record dividend payout of $12.7 million in October. We have a tax payment of $16 million, which is larger than normal, but that was really a catch-up on some of the timings of the installments we have with the ATO. The previous half, we only had to pay $3.7 million. We also made a $1 million deferred consideration payment for MDE Group, which went out in September, and that was based on them achieving their FY '24 earn-out targets. Finally, we should note included really in the 31st December cash balance was $20 million of advanced payments we've received on the Collie [ BESS ] project, which will now start to be and have started to be being deducted, we forecast that $8 million of those will get effectively repaid in the period up to 30 June 2025. And I'm going to hand back to you now, Graeme.

Thanks, Chris. Turning to our operational highlights and outlook slide. Very pleasingly, we were lost time injury-free across the group for the fifth consecutive half year running, having undertaken 1.6 million man hours LTI free in the period. Our direct workforce was circa 1,700 employees. The Collie Battery Energy Storage System project is at peak levels of activity. It is progressing well and is to schedule. The Western Sydney Airport Terminal project is ramping down, but further airport works are anticipated. The recent MDE Group acquisition is performing to expectations. During the period, we were awarded the Shellharbour Hospital project in New South Wales, our largest ever hospital contract award. We were awarded a further extension to the NEXTDC Artarmon facility, as well as other data center works for other providers. There remains a very strong pipeline of data centers and other infrastructure projects across Australia. With new project awards during the period, Trivantage Manufacturing's order book is at a record level. Our strong financial position with record cash and no debt will continue to support our strategy for further acquisitions that we are actively exploring. The WestConnex expedited arbitration has commenced and resolution is not now expected until the first half of FY '26. And we are reiterating our FY '25 EBITDA guidance of at least $53 million with expectations of further growth beyond. Overall, a very successful operational half for the group. Now turning to Slides 12 to 16 for an update on the 3 structural tailwinds driving our growth. Firstly, starting with infrastructure. Infrastructure is a very wide sector for SCEE, ranging from social infrastructure to transport infrastructure and then to energy infrastructure. One area of ongoing interest is in the health care, where Heyday have a long history of delivering hospital projects. Currently, we have 2 large-scale projects under construction. Firstly, for John Holland, the Shoalhaven Hospital redevelopment project that was awarded in 2023 for over $30 million and is to be completed this calendar year. And secondly, for Watpac, the recently announced new Shellharbour Hospital, which is our largest ever hospital contract award at over $60 million and is expected to be completed in mid-2027. Building on our history and our current projects, we are positioning for further hospital developments in the medium term in New South Wales and the ACT. Continuing on infrastructure. Outside of data centers, renewables and hospitals, other strong infrastructure opportunities for SCEE include further works at the Western Sydney International Airport and Aerotropolis, where we are tendering package for award in the near term for the Command Center and the Canine Center. Overall, we are expecting a long-term pipeline of works with further airport expansion and new projects in the surrounding Aerotropolis region. For the Sydney Metro, we are currently tendering for the new airport line and Sydney Metro West Station developments. Our manufacturing division, Trivantage Manufacturing are already supplying products for multiple transport developments in New South Wales and Victoria. They have multiple opportunities presenting for further transport projects in the near term. And in Western Australia, we are well advanced on the early works at the Alkimos desalination plant. Overall, a very wide assortment of opportunities in the infrastructure sector. Turning to data centers on Slide 14. Data centers are electrically dense with electrical work comprising the largest component of construction costs. SCEE businesses have worked on data centers for over 20 years, and the sector is now showing exponential growth. Data centers have grown in size. Those of the hyperscale cloud providers now have 10-plus data halls and consume hundreds of megawatts of power. Capital continues to flow into the sector as illustrated by the $24 billion AirTrunk sale in late 2024. And I also note the $4 billion capital raising flagged by Goodman this morning for data centers and warehouses. For SCEE, we have multiple businesses involved in the sector, particularly Heyday's strong position in general construction and Trivantage Manufacturing building and supplying electrical equipment. We are currently working at 3 data centers and manufacturing electrical equipment for others. Our data center revenues have grown strongly recently. We averaged circa $20 million per annum in the years FY '19 to '23. That grew to $50 million in FY '24, and we are forecasting $120 million in FY '25. In the first half, we announced over $60 million of data center awards, and we are currently tendering on or positioning for over $500 million of work to be awarded over the next 2 years for extensions at existing or new builds of multiple data centers. Turning to Slide 15 and Electrification. Australia is undergoing an energy transition requiring electrification of many activities in the coming decades, and SCEE has multiple exposures to these developments. In particular, the transition will require the transformation of Australia's electrical supply to run mainly on non-carbon fuels, the development of new clean energy industries and the electrification and decarbonization of existing industries, transport networks and the built environment. Currently, SCEE offers services across a huge range of electrification initiatives, including decarbonizing our client operations, projects include power efficiency upgrades for supermarkets, LED lighting and education facilities and manufacturing solar-powered security gates. We are assisting our clients to meet the demand for products required for electrification, including working on mineral processing plants and underground mine EV charging systems. And as the movement to sustainable buildings accelerates, the environmental initiatives are expected to become supercharged, resulting in further opportunities for Heyday, MDE and SJ Electric. Turning to Slide 16 for further commentary on renewables. The transition of Australia's electricity supply requires investment in renewables supported by battery storage and grid reconfiguration. SCEE is well credentialed to participate in this thematic, having constructed multiple solar farms, wind farms and battery energy storage systems. As announced in May 2024, our largest ever initial award by Synergy for the Collie Battery Energy Storage System involves the installation of 640 battery container units and 220 kilometers of cabling to provide a 500-megawatt or 2,000-megawatt hour battery to feed into the South West Interconnected System in Western Australia. Including the additional award of the switchyard package, SCEE has over $200 million of work on the project. The project is progressing well and to schedule with all the batteries having been delivered to Bunbury and over 50% installed at the site. Cabling and switch room installations have commenced, and all have commenced -- and all switchyard structural steel has been erected. Building on the success of CBESS, we are currently tendering for other battery developments across Australia. As I've said to many, it's a great time to be an electrical contractor. Building on this, the next 5 slides further develop the investment proposition for SCEE. I'll very briefly comment on a couple of these slides. Turning to Slide 18. The key takeaways from this slide, and Chris has mentioned them, is that 60% of our order book is now on the East Coast and over 60% of the order book is in the infrastructure space. Over the last 8 years, our diversification strategy has really paid off for the group, and that's shown by the graph on the right-hand side. We would be looking for our organic growth and our acquisition strategy to continue the growth of this diversification. Turning to Slide 19 -- sorry, to Slide 20. One of the other areas of focus for us has been the concentration on recurring revenues. As I mentioned previously, since 2018, we've had a tripling in the size of our recurring revenues. As we continue to explore our acquisition opportunities, this will be a focus that we will look at. Turning to Slide 21. As also discussed, the cash in the business is at a record high at $114.8 million. With this cash and no debt, we continue to be able to support both the organic growth and future acquisitions as we move forward. Now turning to the conclusion. So in conclusion, we had a record half year revenue of $397.4 million, up 55.5% on the prior corresponding period. We had a record half year of EBITDA, EBIT and NPAT. The record cash, as we have mentioned, at $114.8 million and no debt. The interim dividend of $0.025 per share was declared, is fully franked and is up 150% on the prior year interim dividend. The Collie Battery Energy Storage System is at peak levels of activity and is progressing well and to schedule. We were awarded our largest ever hospital contract at Shellharbour, and we have a very strong pipeline of data center and infrastructure projects across Australia. Trivantage Manufacturing order book is at record levels and the electrification tailwinds offer huge opportunities across the group. So in conclusion, we are reiterating our FY '25 EBITDA guidance of at least $53 million with expectations of further growth beyond. So on that note, I'll open up the session to Q&A.

So Graeme, I'll read out some of the questions we received for you. So there have been a couple of questions about the workforce. And really, roughly, it's around have we had any trouble scaling up the workforce given the growth?

Yes. No, it's a good question, and it's one that we continually have to adapt to. What I would say is that's one of the IPs of the business is that we are able to scale up and scale down. And that's particularly evident in the SCEE electrical business, which tends to operate in large projects that come on, go down, et cetera. The rest of the business is pretty stable with its workforce. What I would say we've been able to attract the electricians and the workforce that we've needed on our projects. And apart from some minor positions at different times, we've been able to fill the positions, and they haven't been an impediment to our growth at this stage.

Thank you, Graeme. The next question is, can you provide any comments on the contract award for the second phase of the Collie Battery project?

Yes, good question. At this stage, that project hasn't come out for any tendering at this stage. I don't think it will be out for tender before we complete the first stage of Collie BESS 1.

Thanks, Graeme. And the sort of question, I suppose that really builds on that is, can you comment on the tender pipeline for battery projects in terms of opportunity size and volume?

So I think where -- since the award of the Collie BESS project, it would be anywhere from sort of 7, 8 to 10 projects that we have identified and have looked at. A lot of those are in very early stages of development, and they're still looking for development opportunities. I would say they're a mixture of East Coast and West Coast, but we would be quietly confident of picking up at least one other battery project during the course of this calendar year.

Okay. I'm just going to make a query to the organizer because I've just had a question, which says there's no sound. And I just want to be sure that we do have sound.

Confirming the audio is going through on the webcast.

Okay. We'll assume that we are proceeding and it's not a problem at our end. Bear with me a second, Graeme. Right. So sorry, actually, there's a question I will answer now. It's around, are there going to be further litigation costs on the WestConnex proceedings. We're not really going to make any further commentary or disclosure on this matter because we need to preserve the strength of the position of our case. There will be some costs going forward. We have -- we expect they won't be of the same level because given the nature of an expedited arbitration process, we really have spent most of our costs in preparing the proceedings in the first place. So that's all we're really going to say on the matter. And -- but I will emphasize any costs we're expecting are already included within our guidance. Right. The next question is for you, Graeme. How much work remains in the data center space over the foreseeable future?

I think I did touch on that on one of the slides that we have over the next 2 years, we're either looking at existing projects or new projects over $500 million of tendering that we're looking at over that next 2 years. And I do note in the last half, we picked up $60 million of new work in data centers.

Thank you, Graeme. Another question. Can you discuss the acquisition pipeline?

We both can do that. I guess it's premature to discuss what the pipeline is in terms of details. But suffice to say that we get approached quite regularly, both Chris and I, for acquisition opportunities, I would say, nearly once a week. And it's an area that we're actively exploring. I'd say that we're looking at things that are directly in our space, but we're also looking at things at adjacencies just as our strategy refers to.

Yes. So I'll add to that, Graeme. Yes, there's a whole range of size of opportunities that could range from an MDE type acquisition that we made last year, which is sort of $20 million, $30 million revenue business when you acquire it, up to $150 million, $200 million businesses, as we've done in the past with, say, a Heyday and Trivantage style acquisition, as well as offering the same sort of stuff we do. There are businesses that have adjacent disciplines, which are of quite interest to us. And there's also geographic diversification we're looking at as well. So there's a whole range of opportunities. What we would say is we are hopeful we will be able to do something in this calendar year, if not within this financial year. The next question. So many people responded on the sound thing. I think actually, that's all the questions we can address now, Graeme. Okay. So that's it really.

Thank you, Chris. Hopefully, we've covered those questions off. I'll just give 5, 10 seconds for any last questions. Okay. No others have been received. So on that note, I'd like everyone -- thank everyone for listening, and have a good day. Thank you.

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