Superloop Limited (SLC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Peter O'Connell. I am the Chair of Superloop and thank you for joining us here at the humble digs of Baker & McKenzie for our 2023 Annual General Meeting. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging. I'm looking forward to engaging with you during the course of today's meeting. It is now 2:01 or 2:02 p.m. Sydney time, the nominated time for this AGM. I have been advised by our Company Secretary that a quorum is present, so I'm pleased to declare our 2023 AGM open. As this is a hybrid meeting, shareholders can participate either via the online platform or physically at our venue today. With me in Sydney, I have Paul Tyler, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer; Drew Kelton, Non-Executive Director; Vivian Stewart, Non-Executive Director; Tony Clark, Non-Executive Director; Helen Livesey, Non-Executive Director; Gareth Turner, Non-Executive Director; and Tina Ooi, our Company Secretary. Also joining us today are members of the management team, including our acting CFO, Dean Tognella. We also have Tendai Mkwananzi, representing our auditor, Deloitte; and Derek Pocock and [ Adrian DeBruin ] from Baker & McKenzie, our external solicitors. Tendai is available to take questions on the conduct of the audit and the preparation and conduct of the independent external auditor's report. This afternoon, I will make some introductory remarks regarding our company's performance in 2023 financial year and then comment on more recent achievements. We will then conduct the formal business of the meeting before handing over to our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Tyler, who will provide a more detailed review of Superloop's activities during FY '23, as well as some commentary on the outlook for the company. FY '23 marks my second year with Superloop as Chair, and I'm pleased to report strong growth continues across all segments. In FY '23, we successfully completed our 3-in-3 turnaround strategy. The ambition of this strategy was to triple the revenue of the company in 3 years, while deleveraging the balance sheet and simplifying the business by creating 3 distinct customer segments. Since this strategy was set in 2021, Superloop has achieved strong growth in revenue and profitability across the 3 segments and is now positioned to deliver further operating leverage, as we benefit from increased scale, stronger brand awareness and greater utilization across our Tier 1 network. I'm pleased to say that we achieved the goal set out in our 3-in-3 strategy, a milestone achievement for Superloop. Our full results for FY '23 saw year-on-year growth across key metrics, with revenue increasing by 30% to $324 million, underlying EBITDA increasing by 82% to $37 million, and customer connections exceeding 368,000. Since our last AGM, we launched the new Superloop brand, we've been seeing a bit of it on television here. It's a vibrant new look, new logo and new commitment to customers that we are here to refresh the Internet. The brand launch has been successful for the company with substantial increases in both awareness and likability. Importantly, our strategic acquisition of VostroNet also occurred during the year. The transaction completed in November 2022, and this business has gone from strength to strength. Through harnessing the power of the Superloop brand and leveraging our fiber infrastructure assets, our new Smart Communities team incorporating the VostroNet business is achieving considerable success in the new development space. Most recently, our Smart Communities team secured large contract wins with 2 notable national developers to provide Fibre to the Premises or FTTP infrastructure within their upcoming build-to-rent portfolios, representing thousands of lots to be delivered over the next 3 years. Pleasingly, we are now seeing our pipeline material with a significant number of opportunities moving into contracting stage. Our strong progress demonstrates that we have successfully established a reputation as an attractive and proven partner for Australia's property developers. In the Consumer segment, during FY '23, we experienced strong growth in subscribers and in revenue. With organic growth of 24%, we are now seeing improvements in our cost to acquire and convert as we benefit from improving brand awareness. We've also made disciplined subscriber-base acquisitions including the MyRepublic customer base, leveraging our infra-on-demand platform, we were able to migrate more than 50,000 MyRepublic customers across our network in 19 days. Pleasingly, the MyRepublic customers are benefiting from the quality of the Superloop network, and this acquisition is tracking above our acquisition business case. In our Wholesale segment, we experienced revenue growth of 15% in FY '23. And this financial year has started strongly with wins across backhaul and IP transit. These wins demonstrate the strength of our infra-on-demand platforms and our ability to quickly adapt to changes to NBN's Special Access Undertaking, and the wholesale opportunities that have arisen. We've made inroads with our ESG framework, prioritizing a reduction in carbon emissions and an improvement in waste management, joining the Telco Together Foundation, signing on as a champion partner of the DV Collective and remaining steadfast to our robust internal governance practices. To support our ambitions, we continue to invest in building and developing our Superloop team, which now exceeds 750 employees globally. With a motivated and skilled team, we are focused on providing compelling value and service to our customers to drive our future success. As we look forward to FY '24, Superloop is a simplified, strong and focused company with a clear focus on delivering value to our customers and shareholders. Moving to the Board. In February, we farewelled Independent Non-Executive Director, Stephanie Lai, and welcome Ms. Helen Livesey and Mr. Gareth Turner as independent nonexecutive directors. I'm pleased to share that Helen now chairs our Remuneration and Nomination Committee and Gareth chairs our Audit Committee. On remuneration, I would like to acknowledge the feedback provided at our last AGM. We have acted on that feedback and reset our remuneration approach, including improving the transparency of our disclosures. We've conducted an extensive review of our remuneration framework, appointed our new Committee Chair and engaged in services of Ernst & Young to ensure alignment to market practice. As a result, there are changes proposed for FY '24, including an increased STI stretch, moving to a 3-year vesting period for LTI and a refreshing approach to remuneration reporting. Sorry, it's not only refreshing. It's actually refreshed. Today, our first resolution is on the adoption of the refreshed remuneration report, and we ask that you support this resolution. As outlined at our last AGM, we view both our Executive Performance Rights Plan and our General Performance Rights Plan as worthy investments that further align our leaders' and employees' interest with the interest of the company and its shareholders. Again, this year, we are seeking a resolution, resolution 7, that relates to the approval of a grant of Performance Rights to our MD and CEO, Paul Tyler. The Board believes that it is in shareholders' interest to provide the CEO with an equity-based, long-term incentive to ensure there is alignment between shareholder outcomes and CEO reward and retention. And we ask that you support this resolution. Resolutions 2 to 5 today relate to the election or reelection of 4 of our Board members. Needless to say, we ask you to support these resolutions. Earlier this year at our Investor Day, Paul Tyler shared Superloop's next 3-year plan, our Double Down strategy with 3 core pillars: maintaining cost leadership, deepening and broadening market penetration, and growing through M&A. The plan is bold, clear and, I believe, achievable. I am confident we have in place both an exceptional executive team and an equally strong Board, possessing the right mix of skills and experience to lead our company through this next exciting chapter. As I wrap up today, I'd like to thank my Board colleagues for their continued contribution and commitment. And on behalf of the Board, I also like to recognize the incredible team we have at Superloop, and to thank each and every employee for their passion, dedication, innovation, expertise and importantly, their care. They are the face and voice of Superloop to our customers, and they play a critical role in our ongoing success. Finally, today, I'd like to thank you, our shareholders, for your feedback, for your support. Thank you. Before we move to the formal part of the meeting, there are a few housekeeping matters I need to address. I will now summarize the shareholder questions and voting procedures, which will apply to this meeting. As set out in the Notice of Meeting, there are 8 resolutions to be considered today. The resolutions have been outlined and explained in the explanatory memorandum that was included in the Notice of Meeting. Each resolution will be put to the meeting with the exception of any that are not required to be dealt with in this way. Shareholders' questions which are submitted online or over the phone, which are relevant to the resolution, will be read out by Tina, our Company Secretary, and addressed by myself and Paul. I will then advise the number of proxy votes received on each resolution before moving to the next item of business. Any questions that come through relating to the general business of the company will be noted and addressed after the formal proceedings have been dealt with and the meeting is closed. Ladies and gentlemen, may I remind you that only shareholders, their appointed proxies, representatives of shareholders are entitled to make comments, ask questions or vote. For shareholders joining us online, instructions on how to lodge a question online are set out on the screen. The online guide is also available at the bottom right of your screen. I encourage shareholders who have joined us today via the virtual meeting platform to submit their questions as soon as possible. Shareholders are also able to ask their questions orally through the questions and comments facility over the phone. As stated in the Notice of Meeting, shareholders are required to call 1-800-990-363 to obtain their unique pin before calling today. For further guidance on how to join in over the phone, please refer to the last page of the online guide. [Operator Instructions] The phone operator will introduce and prompt you to speak at the appropriate time. All questions should be directed to myself as Chair of the meeting, and I will then invite other directors and/or relevant person to respond as appropriate. We will address questions received from shareholders attending this AGM in person here in Sydney first before moving on to shareholders' questions from the phone. And finally, questions received through the virtual meeting platform. The proxy votes received are reflected in our presentation slides today and will be displayed on screen at the appropriate time. All resolutions we put to the meeting today will be determined by a poll. As disclosed in the Notice of Meeting, all undirected proxies given to the Chairman of the meeting will be voted in favor of each resolution except the conditional spill resolution, which I'll be voting against. Shareholders here in Sydney hold a white voting card can mark their cards for each resolution as we consider them today. Representatives from our share registry, Link Market Services, will collect them from you at the end of formal business. Shareholders participating online may submit their votes at any time by completing -- by clicking the submit vote button at the bottom of their online voting card. If you need further assistance, please refer to the instructions that are on screen and in the online guide available on the virtual meeting platform. All of the resolutions, except for Resolution 6, are to be considered as ordinary resolutions. And as such, they must be approved by a simple majority of votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on that resolution. Resolution 6, however, requires a special resolution and will need to be approved by at least 75% of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. Shareholders can submit their votes online until 5 minutes after the voting closes. Once the voting has closed, our share registry provider will tabulate the results, which we release to the ASX as soon as possible today. The Notice of Meeting and explanatory memorandum has been released to the AXS (sic) [ ASX ] and was published on our website on the 17th of October 2023. It sets out the details of each resolution being considered at today's meeting. If there are no objections, I'll take the Notice of Meeting as read. The first item of business is to receive and consider the company's financial report, the director's report and the auditor's report for the year ended June 30, 2023. There is no vote on this item of business. A copy of the statements and reports were published in our 2023 annual report and sent to the shareholders who requested hard copies. Shareholders have also had the opportunity to view statements and reports on our website. The purpose of this item of business is to provide an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions and make comments about the company's performance, operations and management. For those who may wish to make a comment or ask a question regarding remuneration, please bear in mind that we have a separate item being our remuneration report that will follow next. I will now invite questions and comments on the financial statements and reports. Questions may also be asked by the auditors -- to the auditors about the conduct of the audit, the content of the audit report, accounting policies adopted by the company and the independence of the auditor in carrying out the audit. Questions that have been submitted regarding other items of business will be held over until we come to those items and the general business of the company will be addressed after the meeting has closed. I'll now take questions from shareholders that are here in Sydney today. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business?

There are no questions, Chair.

Thanks, Tina. If there are no further questions, we will now move to the formal resolutions. As a reminder, you can place your vote with respect to the resolutions put to the meeting and at any time use your physical or virtual voting card. Resolution 1. We will now proceed to resolution 1, adoption of the remuneration report. Resolution 1 is to consider the adoption of the company's remuneration report for financial year June 30, 2023. The remuneration report is set out in the director's report in Superloop's 2023 annual report. Please note that the vote on this resolution is advisory-only and does not bind the company and its directors. Voting exclusions applied to this resolution as set out in the Notice of Meeting. The directors abstained from making a recommendation in respect to this resolution, and I now welcome questions with respect to the remuneration report. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business?

There are no questions, Chair.

Thanks, Tina. As there are no further questions, I now formally move to motion that Resolution 1 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes in relation to this resolution are being shown on screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Thank you. Resolution 2. We now proceed Resolution 2, reelection of Mr. Vivian Stewart as a Director. Resolution 2 relates to the reelection of Mr. Vivian Stewart, as a Non-Executive Director of Superloop. Mr. Stewart retires in accordance with rule 19.3(b) of the Constitution and ASX Listing Rules 14.4 and being eligible stands for reelection as a director. Details of resolution 2 are set out in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. The directors, with Mr. Stewart abstaining, recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor?

[ Graham ], investor here, can you give us a bit of a history, please?

Sure. There's a bio in the back of the Notice of Meeting and the explanatory notes as well. But in terms of telecommunications, I was one of the founders of the first Internet service providers in Australia in the late '90s. More recently, I've been involved in corporate advisory work with M&A. In terms of an executive capacity, I've been involved in acquisitions for an ASX-listed company, mainly North American-focused. And in terms of my public company directorships, I've been involved as a public company director since the almost inception of BigAir, which was an acquisition of Superloop, which is in 2008, I've joined BigAir and then 2016, BigAir was sold to Superloop, I was the Chair of BigAir at the time of that. And so then I've been on the Board of Superloop since that time.

Thanks, [ Graham ], for the question. [ Graham ], is it your intention to ask a question in relation to the 4 directors, of the buyers?

No.

No, you just had your doubts about Vivian. I get that. That's okay because I was going to then preempt and come back to you each time.

[indiscernible] Welcome to say a few words [ that have been ]...

I actually dissuaded them from doing that. I just -- I thought we had enough going on here. Yes, thank you. But I'm happy -- if you want to ask a question, please. Thank you I'll be there for a coffee. You have a chat in. Thank you. As there are no further questions, I now formally move the motion that resolution 2 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are being shown on screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Thank you. I now move to resolution 3, reelection of Mr. Drew Kelton as a Director. Resolution 3 relates to the reelection of Mr. Drew Kelton as a Non-Executive Director of Superloop. Mr. Kelton retires in accordance with 19.3 of the constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible stands for reelection as a director. Details of resolution 3 are set out in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. The directors, with Mr. Kelton abstaining, recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for the item of business?

The are no questions, Chair.

Thank you. Proxy votes received -- I now formally move the motion, that resolution 3 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are being shown on the screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Resolution 4, we now proceed to resolution 4, election of Ms. Helen Livesey as a director. Resolution 4 relates to the election of Ms. Helen Livesey as a non-Executive Director of Superloop. Ms. Livesey retires in accordance of rule 19.2(b) of the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4 and being eligible stands for election as a director. Details of resolution 4 is set out in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. The directors, with Ms. Livesey abstaining, recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business?

There are no questions, Chair.

Thank you. As there are no further questions, I now formally move the motion that resolution 4 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution being shown on screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Resolution 5, we will now proceed to Resolution 5, election of Mr. Gareth Turner as a Director. Resolution 5 relates to the election of Mr. Gareth Turner as a Non-Executive Director of Superloop. Mr. Turner retires in accordance with 19.2(b) of the Constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible stands for election as a director. Details of resolution 5 is set out in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. The directors, with Mr. Turner abstaining, recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business.

There are no questions, Chair.

Thank you. As there are no further questions, I now formally move the motion that resolution 5 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are being shown on screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. We will now proceed to resolution 6, approval of the giving of financial assistance. Resolution 6 seeks approval for the purposes of section 260B(2) of Corporations Act and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the giving of financial assistance by VostroNet and each of the VostroNet subsidiaries to assist Superloop's acquisition of VostroNet and all elements of that transaction and any other transaction that may constitute financial assistance in connection with Superloop's acquisition of VostroNet. As described in the Notice of Meeting, details of resolution 6 is set out in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. This is a special resolution and will need to be approved by at least 75% of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. The directors unanimously recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business?

There are no questions, Chair.

Thanks, Tina. As there are no further questions, I now formally move the motion that resolution 6 be put to the meeting and the forms set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are being shown on screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Resolution 7. We now proceed to resolution 7, approval of grant of Performance Rights to Mr. Paul Tyler, Managing Director and Chief Executive. Resolution 7 seeks approval for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the grant of 1,322,314 Performance Rights and the issue of 1,322,314 Superloop shares on vesting and exercise of those Performance Rights to Mr. Paul Tyler, as described in the Notice of Meeting. Details of resolution 7 are contained in the Notice of Meeting, which we have taken as read. The directors, with Mr. Tyler abstaining, recommend this resolution be approved by shareholders, and I now welcome questions with respect to this item of business. Are there any questions from the floor? Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone for this item of business?

There are no questions, Chair.

Thank you. Thanks, Tina. As there are no further questions, I now formally move the motion that resolution 7 be put to the meeting in the form set out in the Notice of Meeting. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are being shown on the screen. Please mark your votes for this resolution now. Resolution 8. We now proceed to resolution 8, a conditional resolution to hold a Spill Meeting. This resolution is conditional on at least 25% of the votes of resolution 1 being cast against the adoption of the remuneration report. As the proxy votes on the remuneration report has shown an against vote of less than 25%, and this position will not be materially impacted by votes received today, the conditional spill resolution noted in item 8 in the Notice of Meeting will not be put to the AGM. We've now come to the end of the formal items of business. Please ensure that you have cast your votes for each resolution prior to the meeting ending today -- I'll put to the meeting today. Shareholders who are joining us online, please be reminded to click on the submit vote button at the bottom of your electronic voting card. You will have up to 5 minutes after the meeting closes to finalize your votes. The shareholders in attendance here in Sydney, your card will be collected by representatives of Link Market Services shortly. Please put your voting card into the ballot boxes that come around to you. The results of the polls will be announced to the ASX as soon as practicable after the meeting. This brings the formal proceedings to an end. I now declare the meeting closed. I'll now hand over to Paul, the Managing Director and CEO for review of financial year '23 and a financial year '24 first quarter business update. Thanks, Paul.

Thanks, Peter, and thanks to the rest of the Board and everyone else in attendance. So I'd like to reiterate a little bit of what Peter has said. FY '23 was a hugely successful year for the company, with strong results across the suite of key financial metrics. Amongst those, we saw nearly 30% revenue growth, delivering over $323 million in the financial year in revenue. We saw EBITDA of $37.4 million, representing growth of 82% year-on-year, coming in above consensus and above the top end of our guidance. We finished the year with over 368,000 connections, a growth of some 53% year-on-year. And particularly gratifying, we achieved positive NPATA and free cash flow positive in the second half of the year, representing important milestones in the evolution of the business. The business is well positioned for growth and has a strong balance sheet to support our future ambitions. As Peter mentioned, these fantastic results in FY '23 marked the successful completion of our 3-in-3 turnaround strategy. That plan is now complete. And I'm very pleased to say that we delivered a threefold increase in revenue, significantly improving our profitability and cash generation as was planned. We're a growing business with a foundation in delivering value to our customers across our consumer, business and wholesale segments. The balance sheet has been significantly strengthened during the turnaround, creating capacity and opportunity -- and optionality, sorry, for the future. We also have a team of more than 750 employees now in place to support that next phase of our growth story. I'll come back to that next phase and our double down strategy shortly. I think one of the pleasing aspects of our growth is that it stems from all 3 of our segments: consumer, business and wholesale. On the left here, you can see the segment growth from FY '21 through to FY '23, with the CAGRs listed for each: 127% annualized growth in the consumer segment, 84% annualized growth in the business segment and 18% annualized growth in the wholesale segment. These numbers have been delivered through both organic sales and through M&A. Very proud of the impact that, that strategic M&A has delivered for our business. We've been highly selective and disciplined in our approach to M&A, and we intend to continue to be so in the future. In addition to that top line growth, we're now demonstrating the benefits of operating leverage in our business. In FY '23, that underlying EBITDA increase of 82% to over $37 million, represented some 11.6% of turnover, and we see that growing from here. That leverage has seen EBITDA margin quality improve, and we've guided where we see that going towards the mid- to high teens over the coming period -- over the 3-year plan, sorry. So another major milestone we delivered in FY '23 was the relaunch of the Superloop brand. That campaign kicked off in February 2023. And we've seen a tremendous response. We've seen buzz in the market, all centered around our "Refresh Your Internet" tagline. The brand relaunch has been a key part of generating momentum across all 3 segments and in particular, the consumer segment, where we're very pleased with the step change we're seeing in our marketing leading indicators. Those metrics have obviously set us up very well for the fast start that we've had coming into FY '24. Superloop's always been -- or has had a focus on being a good corporate citizen for many years. However, in FY '23, we invested significant time in formalizing and enhancing these activities under our new ESG framework. Having clear ESG fundamentals are an important pillar of how we do business. We made some great strides over the course of the year with initiatives such as waste reduction programs, carbon and greenhouse gas emission measurement and baselining, staff initiatives to support well-being growth, equity, diversity and inclusion. Significant efforts and dedicated resources, in fact, devoted to improving our compliance, risk and governance processes, further developing our ethical and sustainable procurement practices, as well as a Board review on composition and independence. As Peter mentioned, following last year's strike on our rem report, we have spent significant time taking onboard stakeholder feedback on remuneration and very pleased with the clear vote of support for our new remuneration framework. So that was FY '23. And we obviously covered a lot of that in the full year results. But if we shift gears now to FY '24. So after a successful FY '23, we're very pleased with the way the momentum has continued or in fact, accelerated into the first months of FY '24. It truly has been a great start to the year across all 3 segments, setting new records across the board. We start with the Consumer segment. We really did have a stellar Q1, in fact, our highest ever organic quarter of growth. We started the quarter obviously with around 3.1% share of the NBN market. Following that successful brand launch and marketing campaigns, we've successfully secured around 7.5% of all new NBN orders market-wide in that quarter. But more particularly, we won around 12.5% of the entire NBN market orders for the strategically important high-speed plans, and 14% of all market orders for NBN's new Fibre Connect program. Focusing on these high-speed plans has been deliberate as they become the most attractive part of the market under the new Special Access Undertaking or SAU. The strategy has been successful now with some 42% of our base -- of our entire base now on the 100 meg or above plans compared with just around 20% for the market in general. As of today, we're sitting at a total NBN market share of around 3.4%, up from the 3.1% at the end of June, which is a tremendous result, and I congratulate the team on it. That's some highlights for consumer. If I move now to the business segment, it was a similar good news story. In particular, I'm thrilled to announce that our Smart Communities team has recently secured signature wins with Tier 1 developers. Those being Mirvac and Investa, and those wins being to deliver several thousand new Fibre to the Premise lots over the next 3 years in their upcoming build-to-rent projects. This is just the beginning, supporting our ambition to build a scaled competitor against NBN and [ Unity ] in that strategic on-net FTTP market. But outside of the Smart Communities team, we've also had success across the broader business segment with connectivity, SD-WAN wins, SASE, voice and many other parts of our portfolio, including key names such as the PACT Group, Baptcare, CSC Global and many others. Wholesale has similarly seen an acceleration of deal activity during the first quarter. In addition to our normal run rate, we're seeing that the finalization of the new NBN SAU is proving to be a trigger for other RSPs, retail service providers, to relook at their backhaul supply arrangements. And during the quarter, we've seen a number of new RSPs moved to the Superloop infrastructure, the Superloop infrastructure-on-demand platform, sorry, for the supply of their backhaul and IP transit services and really setting us up well for the full year. We're also shortly going to commercially launch a new solution as part of that infrastructure-on-demand suite. This new solution is called Hosted Backhaul. It's something that's not currently available in the market, and it's specifically designed to suit NBN's new wholesale broadband agreement 5, WBA5. It's not just the launch of the solution that we're proud of, but we're in very advanced discussions with a significant retail service provider to move to Superloop and be the launch customer for that platform. Stay tuned on that one. And what does all that mean for customer numbers? Well, in the quarter, we saw a growth in our -- growth of our base of some 21,500 customers or around 6% in that single quarter. And I remind you that is all organic. The growth came from all 3 segments. And in addition to this, as I previously said, we saw a meaningful growth in our contracted book of Fibre to the Premises lots signed by that Smart Communities team. I've had a lot of questions on the NBN SAU, so I'll just touch on it briefly here in this slide. So following several years of back and forth, we now have clarity on the new NBN SAU, which now formally comes into effect on the 1st of December. In our view, the new SAU is a net positive for Superloop. With the option selected by NBN and approved by the ACCC being the option that Superloop preferred. We see that it provides certainty and thanks to our strategy and success with focusing on the high-speed part of the market should have minimal to positive impact on our margins, while creating new opportunities with disruption in the consumer and wholesale segments in particular. The implementation of the new SAU is creating a pricing disruption in the market and provides a catalyst for our customers, or soon to be customers, both in the consumer and wholesale segments to review their providers, leading to new conversations with our teams. So for now, move attention to the outlook from here. Well, following the success of that 3-in-3 turnaround plan, we're now in year 1 of the next plan our creatively named Double Down strategy. And the objective of that strategy is simple to double our size over the next 3 years. To achieve this goal, we've identified 3 key pillars: The first being to maintain cost leadership; the second being centered around organic growth across all 3 segments; and finally, acceleration through disciplined M&A. And as I've covered, Q1 has been a great start to this new strategy. We continue to see great strides in our digital transformation. We have been maintaining our focus on cost base and realizing the benefits of the operating leverage that's emerging. We've seen fantastic organic growth and new opportunities secured, setting us up for our ambitious organic growth targets. And clearly, we've maintained our disciplined approach to M&A with the withdrawal from the Symbio process once we saw price exceed where we believe value lay. We'll continue to work on M&A opportunities that fit our strategic aims and the value additive for our shareholders. And finally, if I touch on guidance for the year, which we've not given to date, we are guiding a full year underlying EBITDA range of between $49 million and $53 million, which represents 31% year-on-year growth at the low end and 42% year-on-year growth on the upper end of the range. We intend to hold our CapEx range to the $20 million to $22 million we've been saying for some time, leading, we believe, to a very healthy FY '24 from here. So that's all I wanted to say around '23 and the '24 year-to-date and the outlook for full year '24 from here. So with that, I'd like to thank you again for your attendance and support. I'll hand back to Peter to open the floor for questions.

Thanks, Paul. I'd now like to take time to address any general questions put to the Board or Superloop's management team? And are there any questions from the floor? Surely 1 colleague question, it wouldn't go [ astray ]. Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders joining online or on the phone, Tina?

There are no questions, Chair.

As there are no further questions, on behalf of the Board, I'd like to thank you for your attendance and participation today. Thank you for your interest, and we look forward to your ongoing support. As advised earlier, the results of the voting will be released to the ASX and published on our website once the votes have been counted. This brings us to the end of Superloop's 2023 Annual General Meeting. Thank you for attending.