Worley Limited ($WOR)

Welcome, and thank you for joining Worley's Investor Day 2026, and a special welcome to those who are joining us online. I'm Kylie Ramsden, Group Director of Investor Relations. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians on the land on which we meet today. We recognize the strength and resilience. We pay respect to the elders, past and present, and to all First Nations people who may be joining us today. We remind you to review our disclaimer, which is on the screen behind me. Today, we've got a very full agenda. You'll hear from Chris, our CEO, Chris Ashton, on our FY '30 ambition as well as the business update, including a live cross to one of our senior leaders responsible for our Middle East operations. You'll hear from Andy Hemingway, who will provide more detail on our strategy for growth, and then from Laura Leonard on how we're leveraging digital and AI to support our growth ambition. I'll return to host a panel discussion with Mark Brantley and Mark Trueman as well as some of our business leaders, who will talk to how we're executing our strategy. Finally, Justine Travers will discuss the financial discipline that makes all this possible. The halfway through the presentation, we'll give you the opportunity to take a short break of 15 minutes. At that time, I invite those who are in the room to join us for morning tea, meet our leadership team and visit the display booth that we've set up in the foyer. At the end of the presentation, there will be Q&A, followed by an opportunity for those present to meet our leadership team over a light lunch. Before our CEO, Chris Ashton, speaks, we'd like to share with you our most recent corporate video, which shows why we're so proud to work for Worley. Chris, I'd like to welcome you to the stage. [Presentation]

Thanks, Kylie. Look, welcome, everyone. Great to see so many familiar faces in the room. And for those joining us online, thank you for taking the time out of your day to join. Today, we're going to talk about Worley's next phase of growth. The opportunities we see ahead and the actions we're taking to realize the opportunities and drive growth as we work towards our FY '30 ambition. I'll start by setting out the current market context, what we see in the near term, the longer-term tailwinds across the markets where our customers are investing, and what that means to us. You'll then hear in more detail from the team around our strategy, how we're executing that, and that which enables us to support the delivery, including AI in digital and the decisions around capital allocation in support of our strategy. You've heard me say at every Worley webcast or meeting in person, our highest priority is to keep our people safe. With a global footprint, we operate in some challenging and occasionally, unstable environments. The current situation in the Middle East has highlighted the strength of our [ R3 ] process as we respond with care and agility to look after our people and our families as well as support our customers. And I'm pleased to report that our workforce of over 4,000 people plus 3,000 family members in the region are safe. There's been no reported injuries and no safety incidents. And this is a great relief to me, the Board and the leadership team around the organization. We have active location monitoring and the clear escalation protocols in place that allow our internal support mechanism to kick in and support our people as they work through the challenges that they were presented with and faced into in the region. And the efforts coordinated to R3 team and our R3 framework: ready, response and recovery. We're ready for an event. We have response protocols to events, and we're able to recover from these things. And we have a centralized cross-functional protocols in place to provide the necessary oversight. We'll work closely with our customers to ensure that we give them the continuity that they're looking for across the project and where it's needed. And we're assisting with their contingency planning to help them respond to the changing conditions. I want to take time to recognize the leaders in the Middle East and the R3 team for everything they've done through the conflict, working together tirelessly in the early phase of the conflict all the way through to today to provide the necessary oversight and support to keep our people safe and freely looked after. To share firsthand what's happening in the Middle East, we're going to cross over to [ Hisham Kabaj ], who's doing a fantastic job leading the Middle East at the moment. And Hisham is going to dial in now. Here is Hisham. You're now live. I'm going to ask you to take this over and share with the audience, both in the room and online, what has been like over the recent weeks, months and what it's like now. Would you leave the team through the conflict?

Thank you, Chris, and hi, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Unfortunately, I could not attend the event in person due to the situation in the Middle East. As you all know, the situation is still quite fragile as we speak, and we need to stay close and alert. Look, the crisis has just last in a way we [indiscernible] offer pace, and I'm really proud of the way we all came together as one team and how Worley shows the care and put our people first. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the R3 team, people team and communication team, which have been playing tremendous roles since the crisis started. From the start, our process were clear. Protect our people [indiscernible] sell. We have [ 4,200 ] people in addition to an important number of dependence across 6 countries: Saudi Arabia, Bharain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and UAE. Then keep the business operating and support our customers and partners. So today, we're 100% back in all offices and sites. [indiscernible] who were working abroad are returning, and we're continuing to manage the situation closely. When it comes to our customers, partners, Worley is highly trusted. When the first damages started in [indiscernible], the customer [indiscernible] picked up the phone and called our teams for restoration recovery work. The next day, we were in the ground in a couple of sites where we conducted engineering, procurement and construction support. And as the sites already online. I met the restoration team during my recent visit, and I can say, they are verified the work they have achieved. Also met the customer [ Aramco ] is very complementary and issue to Worley a certificate to recognize the work. Very proud, very proud how Worley and the team stood up and delivered such a complex situation. In general, the outlook in Middle East is very strong. Today, the Middle East business is an important part of Worley global revenue. And we were trying to do better this year, but the delay in new projects being awarded had a big impact to the crisis. With that said, we are today involved in business continuity-related scope and strategic projects, particularly with both Aramco and ADNOC, where some initial study contracts have been already awarded to us, and we are in the heart of some major important studies, which will have a strong pull with the strong investments that we will be discussing with the customer. It's investment focus on energy security, pipeline, upstream, downstream and critical infrastructure. In conclusion, our world is highly trust Middle East, especially with our global reach, and we are well positioned today to benefit from the major investments in the region. Again, thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today. And Chris, over you.

Thanks, Hisham. Look, great to hear firsthand what's going on and how we manage through that. Look, while there are some short-term impacts that the conflict creates, it also creates the need for restoration of assets that have been damaged, reconfiguration of import and export infrastructure and the importance of resilience when it comes to the nation state, energy, chemical and resource security has never been more important. For our customers, that means restoring the impacted assets, adapting facilities where needed and embedding greater flexibility and reliability for the future. This is an area where Worley is well placed to support, drawing on the experience and capabilities we already have to deploy engineering and project delivery as well as asset support to our customers. Although the near term conditions have clearly affected the pace and volume of work, including delayed schedules and project awards, as Hisham has said, we're already engaged in discussions and initial work with customers on rebuild, recovery and resilient investments that are going to follow ongoing now. So let me move away from the Middle East and give you an update on the business. We -- today, we reiterate the outlook that we provide an update on to the market on April 20. With the extended duration of the conflict in the Middle East, delaying project time lines and the award of new work, it is now unlikely Worley will achieve growth in underlying EBITDA in FY '26. That said, we continue to expect the underlying EBITDA margin, excluding procurement, to be within the range of 9% to 9.5%, and we continue to target higher growth in aggregated revenue than that in FY '25. If our expectations change ahead of the full year results as a result of what's going on, then we will update the market. We will update you. Importantly, at the end of March, our opportunity pipeline was up 2% and our backlog has increased to $16.9 billion, noting that no projects have been canceled as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. That backlog of $16.9 billion excludes ExxonMobil's Baytown, low carbon hydrogen project. Given the project is on pause and the timing remains uncertain, we've removed it from the project -- the project from backlog. We continue, however, to have conversation with ExxonMobil about their plans for this project. I'd also like to draw your attention to some of the strategic wins that will come on the screen. This includes Phase 2 Venture Global CP2. This is a great picture, a great visual of the size of the project. And if any of you listen to Venture Global's updates, their more capital market update a couple of nights ago, you'll hear them talk positively about the project. That it will be the fastest project to produce LNG in the history of LNG projects. There is no project that will reach first gas at a schedule that this project will deliver. Justine will discuss our restructuring efforts and cost management progress a little bit later this morning. Today, we also announced that I'm making a change to the leadership team to help us drive the strategy that you'll hear about later today, and that is from July 1, Andy Hemingway will take on the role of major projects and programs, and [ Mark Trueman ] will take on a new role as Group President role as Chief Commercial and Development Officer to help work with me and the group executive to drive the implementation of our strategy going forward. We're well positioned to be at the center of the long-duration capital cycle, and our growth strategy leverages the megatrend tailwinds. We have a capital light business model with global scale and strong customer relationships built and sustained over decades. And Worley has a track record of growth, taking a disciplined approach to execution and applying expertise to growth markets. And importantly, a question I get asked often is, we've been very selective and we will continue to be selective on the risk profile we take. We will not ever pursue competitively bid lump sum turnkey EPC work. We believe the combination, together with a highly diversified business, supports resilient earnings throughout the capital cycles. And as you can see in this slide and our results, over the past 4 years, our business model and disciplined execution have delivered consistent growth across revenue, underlying EBITDA and EPS. And we're proud of that, which has been achieved. Before we talk about what's driving our next phase of growth, it's worth stepping back for a moment to talk about Worley's history because our foundations are a platform from which we will drive our future strategic execution. I've been with the business for almost 28 years, and I've seen it evolve through multiple stages and distinct chapters. Each evolution we've made is full of deliberate choices to broaden capability, deepen customer relationships and scale, that which we do well. On this slide, we start with a strong base as WorleyParsons. In 2019, the acquisition of [ JCCR ] materially expanded our scale and scope, further building on our engineering, EPC and EPCM capability, and we rebranded as Worley. In 2020, we sharpened our focus again, with the purpose of delivering a more sustainable world, building our role in sustainability-related solutions. And now we're building on those foundations to further extend our role, this time as a delivery partner of choice to support our customers as they deliver their capital programs. Today, we impact our strategy for the next phase of our growth. I want to share 3 key growth drivers. First, we're positioned where capital is flowing, driven by the mega trends across energy, chemicals and resources. And we're positioned well to respond to the market disruption we're experiencing in the Middle East. Second, we're scaling full project delivery using AI-enabled workflows to do more across the life cycle, capture more value and execution and do it more efficiently. And third, we're selectively expanding into future growth markets, building from a strong base into adjacencies where our capabilities transfer well and we can scale. We've talked before about the need to balance sustainability, security and affordability. And in the current environment, security of supply and affordability have become ever more important drivers of customer investment across energy, chemicals and resources. And the same is true for infrastructure needed to support more resilient systems. Worley plays a critical role in helping customers navigate complexity and build systems that balance security, affordability and sustainability. Recent geopolitical disruption reinforced the importance of these mega trends. In the near term, we expect customer spend to prioritize reliability and security of supply, keeping systems running, adding flexibility and reducing exposure to disruption. Beyond this, we expect follow-on investment across chemicals, resources, including downstream, integration and infrastructure required to move, store and process energy and materials. In addition, we expect investment to continue in areas like fertilizers, with a focus on food security. Worley's scale, capability and execution expertise across energy, chemicals and resources positions us to support our customers' immediate needs while enabling long-term investment programs. Risk discipline is fundamental to how we scale. And as we expand AI-enabled full project delivery and selectively enter growth markets, we apply a returns-focused approach to building -- bidding, execution and market entry, with a clear threshold for risk and returns and capital exposure. That discipline means we're selective, and this includes not pursuing, as I've said, I'm going to keep saying we will not pursue competitively bid lump sum turnkey EPC work. This approach has underpinned our growth to date and remains a competitive advantage as we continue to scale. We have a clear ambition to deliver double-digit medium-term underlying EBITDA [ CAGR ]. And FY '30 provides a reference point for where we see the business heading and how we intend to create a meaningful higher level of earnings over time. The drivers of that ambition are already in motion. Structural demand across energy, chemicals and resources driving organic growth in our core business. Scaling full project delivery to capture more value per project with clear risk limits. Selective expansion into future facing growth markets, all supported by AI, digital and global integrated delivery. Will we see linear growth year-on-year? That's not how the world operates. It's not how markets operate. It's not the nature of the business we're in. And as we've taken a larger project over a longer time frame, we'll have to factor in the earnings profile. But we're confident in the direction because it's anchored in long-duration demand, strong customer relationships and capabilities we already have to continue to scale. With that, I'm going to hand over to Andy, who's going to take you through the strategy in detail, the growth markets that we're prioritizing and how we're delivering today and into the future. So Andy, over to you.

Can you hear me? Perfect. Good morning, everybody. So Chris has set out our ambition, and I'll deep dive into 4 areas that underpin our confidence in it. The first, where capital is flowing and why that matters for Worley. Second, our full project delivery helps us capture more of that spend. Third, where we're strengthening our core market position while expanding into future facing markets. And finally, how we drive value through differentiated capabilities, relationships and partnerships. So firstly, where is the capital flowing, and why are we confident those tailwinds are durable? Building on the energy trilemma, we're seeing a clear shift in customer priorities. Sustainability still matters. But right now, security of supply and affordability are driving market dynamics. Gas and LNG continue to play an important role in the energy transition. At the same time, AI is driving a new wave of power demand through data centers, networks and large-scale compute. These materially more power-intensive assets are driving investment not just in generation, but also in transmission, grid connection and site infrastructure. We're also seeing strong demand in resources, particularly in copper, battery materials and fertilizers, driven by factors such as electrification, energy demand and food security. So the headline is simple. These are large and growing markets. Now of course, not all of the spend is addressable to Worley. However, the scale matters. It supports a sustained pipeline across energy, chemicals and resources as well as complex critical infrastructure for many years. Now Worley starts from a position of strength in relation to this opportunity. We have an established platform with global scale, deep customer relationships and life cycle capability. And as these energy intensive capital projects get larger and more complex, customers want partners who can take on more of the delivery scope with greater certainty and importantly, deliver outcomes. And this is exactly where full project delivery matters. So let's hear from 3 of our customers about what this means to the practice. [Presentation]

It almost doesn't need any words. It speaks for itself. But what I really love about that video is it talks about working with our partnerships -- our customers in partnership to deliver outcomes. So full project delivery gives us access to a materially larger share of our customers' capital spend across the life of the project. But it also deepens our relationships. In a typical project, more than 75% of the total installed cost sits in execution. And that's where schedule, cost, quality and safety outcomes are delivered, and where certainty creates the most value for customers. So when we scale full project delivery, we're moving deeper into the phase of the project where most of the value sits for our customers and for Worley. Now EPC and EPCM have been a long part of Worley for a long time. We've delivered more than 300 projects in the last 5 years alone. What's changing is that we are now scaling that capability, and that supported by AI-enabled workflows, more integrated delivery from concept to execution and into operations, and Laura will take you through the digital and AI aspects in more detail later. So turning now to the question of where we're choosing to play. And we are focused where we already have customer access and proven delivery capability. And there are 2 parts to that. First, we are strengthening our position in our core, especially where we see the strongest growth opportunities, and that includes things like integrated gas, but also energy transition materials like copper and battery materials. And in chemicals, refining and petrochemicals with a focus on supply chain resiliency. Second, we're expanding selectively into complex critical infrastructure, where demand is growing and where our capability transfers. And to be clear, this is not about stepping away from our current markets. We will continue to support customers across energy, chemicals and resources. What is changing is that we are leaning further into specific future-facing growth markets, including complex critical infrastructure, where capital is flowing, growth potential is strong and a credible path to scale exists. So the bottom line is this. We are increasing the size of the market we can play in. The way I like to think of it is we're increasing the share of the customer spend we can access through AI-enabled full project delivery by going deeper into our ECR markets, and then going wider into complex critical infrastructure. So this essentially doubles our exposure to capital expenditure in the market. Now let me now dimension the opportunity we see in priority markets, and I'll start with LNG and integrated gas. So central role gas plays in the energy security and the transition continues, and it continues to support investment right across the value chain. We already have real scale here from upstream and processing through to LNG liquefaction and regasification infrastructure. And we work with over 15 energy majors, and we have history on 40% of the world's floating storage and regasification units. You heard earlier from [ Brendan Deval at Glen Farm ], why they chose to work with us on both the [ last ] LNG Phase 1 and Texas LNG. This week, we announced an agreement with [ Baker Hughes ] to jointly pursue LNG opportunities. So here, we already have scale, momentum and room to grow. Copper and battery materials have seen strong investment because electrification is metals intensive, and that new supply takes time to develop. That's driving more complex and larger programs, and that really plays to Worley's strength. We have more than 100 years of experience in copper. We've delivered more than 350 lithium projects and more than 4,000 bauxite alumina and aluminum projects and studies. The resources is our fastest-growing sector. What matters here is not just demand growth, these are long-dated capital programs that sustain across years. And they support a reliable pipeline of opportunities to shape the projects early in consulting and then pull that through and continue into execution and delivery. So let's turn to complex critical infrastructure. Power is a clear growth market, driven by electrification, rising load, grid stability and new industrial capacity. Worley brings over 100 years of experience in power generation and distribution projects. So this is not new for us. And we do large stand-alone projects like the recently announced work for [ Dow's path to zero cogen ] project in Canada. And what you find now is large-scale power generation is increasingly a key part of complex projects that we deliver. In the U.S., we're building a power plant that can power a city the size of Brisbane. So while power is a growth market in its own right, it's a component of opportunities beyond. And data centers is a great example. Now everybody is talking about data centers at the moment. But the question is, why does this matter to Worley? Why now? And the answer is that these are no longer just buildings and the domain of developers. They are complex, power-intensive industrial assets. Hyperscalers want and need significant infrastructure behind the meter. The scale and the complexity of the customer need has changed. A 1 gigawatt data center uses a power equivalent to powering 800,000 homes. And data centers today need integrated infrastructure, power generation, cooling, water, site delivery, all bought together at speed with a high degree of certainty, and that plays directly to our strengths. And we're already doing work in this area with 8 new customers secured in FY '26 alone. And importantly, we're technology agnostic. And this matters because the right solution will vary by location, equipment availability and increasingly today, supply chain constraints. And customers often need creative ways to work through those constraints, which is where our integration capability is valuable. Next up, we have new [indiscernible] where policy support and customer interest are increasing as many countries look for firm, reliable, low-carbon power. Now Worley has an established position here with more than 60 years of experience in the new pillar industry from studies through to engineering through to construction management. And our [ Chemetics ] business in Canada adds nuclear certified fabrication capability, which expands our ability to support customers in the market. Now This same logic applies in areas where we see potential like industrial water and ports and terminals. In Industrial Water, customers are facing growing pressure around water availability treatment, reuse, discharge and particularly as projects get larger and more complex and more resource-intensive. Investment is also occurring in ports and terminals. Here, there is a need to move greater volumes and improve supply chain resiliency. These are different markets, but the common thread is the same. They rely on complex industrial infrastructure, integrated delivery, and most important of all, execution certainty, all areas where Worley already has relevant capability. An important part of how we evolve commercial models -- an important part of our strategy is how we evolve commercial models to share in the value that we create for our customers, particularly as we expand our AI full project delivery capability. Across the portfolio, that can range from time-based delivery to output and outcome-focused structures, where we share in the value that is created for customers. This is not theory. We're already doing this with our customers. We're using standardized execution, global delivery, digitally enabled workflows to lift productivity and predictability. And I'll give you an example. In one of our long-term customer relationships, we were able to reduce their CapEx by 10% in a single year while maintaining delivery quality. And under a value-aligned gainshare model, we shared in a portion of those verified savings. And just to be clear, and I know Chris has emphasized this, but our risk settings are not changing. We will not and we do not do competitively bid lump sum turnkey. To close, let me recap 4 key takeaways. Number one, we're positioned to where the capital is flowing, and the tailwinds are strong. Number two, we're scaling AI enabled full project delivery to grow our market share. Three, we're strengthening our core ECR and expanding into future facing markets. And finally, we're driving value through differentiated capability, strong customer relationships, as you've seen, and partnerships. And with that, I'll hand over to Laura, who'll take you through how digital and AI underpin this strategy and what it looks like in practice.

Thank you, Andy, and good morning. Chris and Andy have spoken about how Worley's -- about Worley's growth strategy and the focus we're bringing to full project delivery and growth markets. I'll demonstrate how we're leveraging digital and AI as key enablers of this strategy. I'll cover 3 themes. First, the foundations we've built that position us to deploy AI responsibly at enterprise scale. Second, we're applying AI across the whole project delivery life cycle, to improve our margin quality and customer project outcomes. And finally, proven solutions already in use, delivering value now. We have spoken to you about digital and AI at Investor Days and results briefings before. Over the past couple of years, you have seen us put the foundational building blocks in place to embed digital and AI in how we operate. We are now able to -- we are now able to leverage a repeatable sequence, build core capabilities, such as data, governance and strategic partners, prove business value and then scale enterprise impact. By following this sequence, we have avoided pilot purgatory and are accelerating value realization. We know that strong AI governance is what enables AI to be scaled securely and responsibly, which is important to us and to our customers. These ethical principles underpin every deployment at Worley. We're applying AI across 2 fronts. And our enterprise functions, we're improving productivity and consistency. And in customer project delivery, we are improving outcomes across the life cycle. At this point in our digital evolution, we have made deliberate choices to focus on where the value is the greatest. For our customers, these are schedule, quality, safety and the total installed cost of their assets. For Worley, the value of differentiated AI-enabled services is enhanced in protected margins, expansion of our addressable market and value-based customer relationships. AI doesn't happen in a vacuum. The value Worley brings is our decades of expertise, not just in the data we have, but in our specialized talent. The complexity of full project delivery demands human judgment and oversight across all stages of projects to ensure that digital concepts can be applied practically and safely. This video will explain our approach to AI-enabled project delivery. [Presentation]

With the help from this video, you can see both where we are today and where we're headed with respect to delivering value to customers and why we have confidence in the durability of our business model. Our work sits at the interface of digital and physical worlds. And our focus on full project delivery means we are following projects from probabilistic analysis to the deterministic decisions that require human judgment to put a physical asset on the ground. The solutions I'm going to share with you show how we're targeting what customers value most, faster, higher quality decisions, greater predictability and delivery and lower total installed cost. By creating value for customers, we're addressing what matters to them, directly contributing to their growth and ours. By embedding AI into delivery workflows, we can reduce the cycle time to final investment decisions and improve delivery confidence and predictability. In this way, we become a more trusted value-adding partner both in our existing and emerging growth markets. Finally, let's turn our attention to tangible AI solutions that are delivering value that will compound over time. Last year, we talked to you about advanced work packaging. Our digital solution that improves constructability by designing with the end in mind. With advanced work packaging, we improve construction certainty, translating into better schedule performance, fewer surprises and more predictable outcomes on site. Now we are further enhancing this by deploying an AI-enabled solution that sequences installation work packages. On large construction sites, installation work package sequencing can break down quickly if it's static. Our AI sequence plan tool addresses this, by treating construction sequencing as a live data-driven system, not a static schedule. AI dot sequence plan automates sequencing and resequencing of installation work packages. It enables predictable project delivery. This is something customers are willing to pay for because it protects total installed cost, schedule and value realization, and aligns with the output and outcome-based commercial models Andy spoke to earlier. In project procurement cycle time, risk discipline and decision quality have a direct knock-on effect on delivery. Last year, we showed you our AI dot vendor select tools that increase speed and consistency in technical bid evaluation. Since then, we've extended the capabilities of these tools, from technical bid evaluation to commercial bid evaluation, improving the accuracy and transparency so that we can select the right vendors faster with clear trade-offs and stronger auditability. This matters because procurement is an early lever on predictability. Better vendor selection, clear scope decisions reduce late change, rework and schedule disruption downstream. You can expect to see us continue to compound value as we -- the value we deliver to our customers as we further scale AI deployment. We have a disciplined pathway to scale, embedding proven tools into core workflows, extending capabilities across the project life cycle and into adjacent functions, augmenting the impact of our subject matter experts and scaling [ enterprise ] adoption using AI to surface insights earlier while keeping accountability, engineering judgment and approval with our people. To emphasize the themes we started with, leveraging AI at Worley means strong foundations in place that position us to deploy AI responsibly and at scale, applying AI across our enterprise functions and the full project delivery life cycle and scaling proven solutions already in use to deliver value to our customers and our investors. AI is step changing how we design, plan and execute projects. To illustrate how AI directly supports our strategy, I'll leave you with a short video on our partnership with NVIDIA. It demonstrates how we're applying Omniverse technology to data center design. Using the NVIDIA Omniverse, we can model real-world operating conditions, bringing power, cooling, storage and on-site generation together in one environment. This allows us to design AI data centers that respond seamlessly to volatility. With this technology, Worley can deliver designs and simulations that improve capital efficiency and operational performance, helping data center developers and operators achieve better outcomes and make better informed decisions. [Presentation]

We're going to take a short 15-minute break now, and then we'll return to here from the panel. Again, please go and see our booths. [Break]

I'd like to welcome Mark Trueman and Mark Brantley, who will be talking to us about the current state of the market and some of the key elements around how we're executing our strategy. So many of you would already know, Mark and Mark, but for those of you who don't, let me introduce them. So Mark Brantley is President of Global Operations; and Mark Trueman is President of Major Projects and Programs. So these events are also an opportunity to introduce other -- our investors to other senior leaders within our business. And so I'd like to welcome [ Richelle Gabel ], who is Senior Vice President, Power, Chemicals and Fuels. And Richelle is here from Houston. [indiscernible], our President of Americas. Russel is based in Houston. And then [ Jim Sharnie ] joins us from London. And Jim is the President of EMA Major Projects and Programs. Great. So thanks for joining us. So Mike Brantley, I'll start with a question for you. Hisham talked about our Middle East business. How have those events impacted industry sentiment beyond the region? And what conversations are you having around critical infrastructure and energy security?

Thank you, Kylie. Good to be with you all again this year. Yes. Chris and Hisham spoke about the -- these events leading to a discussion about energy security, and we're hearing that in a global discussion in all the countries and with our customers. We see this as an opportunity that we can help with our customers to figure out how they're going to address the energy security concerns. It's early days. It's still unfolding. But while in conjunction, we're talking to the customers and seeing how they're going to scope the -- to address the concerns, what projects that they're going to move forward with and a lot of places they're looking at 3, 4 or 5 different options to address it, and we're helping them with that. And then the pace how fast are they going to deploy the capital is important to help us, and that's been referenced earlier. We may see refocus more on renewable energies and sustainable aviation. Fuel is one of those. And here in Australia, I'm sure you've seen it in the news, the discussion about energy security, and the customers here are trying to figure out what options that they're going to do, and we're offering our support in that. That same discussion is happening globally with our customers and it's going to be interesting to see the pace that they're going to move forward. We're there. We feel like we're very positioned to help them.

Great. And [indiscernible], the current conflict has brought a lot more attention to traditional oil and gas. Can you tell us how we're supporting our customers in that traditional oil and gas space?

Yes. Thanks, Kylie. Hi everyone, good to be here again. Look, the Middle East has definitely shown a light on energy security as Mark spoke about. But actually, even before the conflict in the Middle East, we've seen very publicly a shift back to conventional energy from the sustainable side and Shell, BP, Total, very publicly have doubled down on return on capital and much more disciplined about capital allocation into the conventional space. So that's LNG in North America. So for us, [indiscernible], Alaska LNG and the other projects. [indiscernible] we announced Aphrodite with Chevron in the Mediterranean. So Venezuela is coming back to life. So the conventional markets were actually already back on the move with that pendulum swinging back towards conventional energy.

And turning to our competitive landscape now, Investors often ask us how the playing field has changed over the years. Can you talk to that?

Yes. Look, it's changed. We talked about that a bit. And over the last 10 years, certainly, the competitive landscape has changed significantly. And there's been consolidation, and we've been a part of that with Jacobs ECR and a component of Amec Foster Wheeler. We've seen competitors move out of the energy, chemicals and resources sector to focus on government solutions or infrastructure. And then, frankly, we've seen some of our competitors get into a whole lot of financial pain by taking on bad projects and delivering them poorly. So that's helped us in our position. But really importantly, and I was talking to someone just at the break, the credibility that we have created with the delivery of major projects and getting them under the belt and showing great performance is actually really enhancing our position. And we're having very different conversations with our customers around full projects than we've had in the past. And that's basically the great work that our people around the world are doing.

And at last year's investor day, we announced the reorganization of our business into global operations and global major projects and programs. Can you tell us how that's positioned, will be better to win and gain market share?

Yes, sure. I think what stands out is, Mark and his team being able to focus on the major projects, which takes a lot of focus and energy from the pursuit phase, work on the customers, you win it and getting the project set up and then executing them. And that's allowed me and my team, the global operations to focus on everything else in the baseload of our business, which is small cap alliances, or portfolios that we had globally executing small and medium-sized projects. And in that, we do all kind of phases. We'll do just engineering. We'll not just do consulting. We might get engineering procurement [indiscernible] project delivery as well. but it's allowed us to bring laser focus on that. And of course, we still work together with our teams on executing the work.

And then from the -- on the major projects that we've had a -- we actually had a great year. I mean it was a really -- it was a bold decision, and it's really made a difference to allow me and the team and folks like Jim to focus on delivering what we've got and everything that we have, we're delivering really well. Touch wood. We've won the projects that we said we really needed to win. And just -- sorry, just going back on what we're delivering. I mean, Chris mentioned CP2, that's been a huge effort and Amanda noted, who was -- had a cameo on the video and the team to have our customers stand in front of their investors to talk about astonishing performance. And as Chris said, the fastest LNG project to go from FID to first gas, we've got to get there, but we're well on track. Really proud of the team. It's what we do. That's the best form of business development, quite frankly. In Stratos, and we've got Sean Murphy here, good-looking gentlemen, he'll be on the booth. Very public endorsement from our customer about the improvements that we've made from Phase I to Phase II and the value that we're bringing. We're winning the projects that we need to. We've announced them. We announced the Heidelberg Carbon Capture, Alaska LNG and it's very broad. It's across regions and it's across commodities and phosphates, potash, LNG, carbon capture, power, I'm sure, other pipelines. So we've actually had -- we've had a really strong year. Yes.

And Mike, how are customer expectations changing that's really supporting our move more into full project delivery?

So when we're doing the large projects, the expectations are predictable delivery, massive capital decisions are being made. And frankly, the dip that I have and Jim have and the others, it's their personal career reputations are one and lost based on our performance. So it's a very different dialogue that we have, but we've got to be predictable in how we deliver. We've got to turn up with world's best delivery systems and Laura talked about Advanced Work Packaging. We think we've got a real differentiated position there. We have to bring a full global Worley response. It can't just be a location response. It's the best of Worley and then bringing the full supply chain in. So buying China, where that's relevant. Buying India, buying Mexico, just bringing that full global response. So that's what we've got to do and deliver it really, really well.

Mike, do you have anything further you wanted to add to that?

Yes. From the global operations, everything Mark was saying about the major projects, we do part of the small and midsized [ cat ] projects. And we definitely see the customers in the full project delivery coming to us where they might not have in the past, where we do just engineering or engineer procurement. Now they're asking, "Hey, can you step up and do the full project for us?" And they want the trusted partners to do it with the AI digital solutions is going to help. So what Mark and his team are talking about on the big projects, we're deploying on the small and medium, and we're going to support our customers. And the sales funnel, we see a lot more in a number of projects in that as well.

Great. So I know a lot of our investors want to know how we're actually managing our risk and cash flow around these major projects and full project delivery.

So I'll answer that and let -- I'll split risk and cash flow. So cash flow, particularly for the EPCs, there's an expectation in the industry and including with our customers that we are paid, we get better cash terms and particularly for the EPC paid in advance or cash flow neutral. And that allows us to pass that down through vendors and make sure that we've got everything ready. There's no excuses. So we're actually seeing much improved DSO and so a lighter use of working capital. Risk. I think Andy said it twice, I think Chris probably said it twice. We're not changing our risk profile. We're taking on more risk just because of the scale and the reputation, and that's why we brought in a whole lot of additional governance that we're bringing in industry experts like the gentleman sitting next to me. But our contract risk sit down. We make sure that we're working with the customers. And particularly when we start at the beginning, so at concept phase, we're actually designing how we're going to deliver it with our customers together on the way through. And make sure there's a really clear understanding of risk, but we're very conservative about it, and we haven't changed our contract risk profile.

Great. So now we'll bring some of our sector leads and business leads into the conversation. And Mark has referenced Jim, that you joined us recently. You joined us from one of our major competitors just on 12 months ago. Can you talk to what attracted you to Worley and what the opportunity is that you see for us?

Yes. Thank you, [indiscernible]. I guess bringing 40 years of project delivery experience to Worley, I was truly excited about the step out and the expansion of the full project delivery as well as the growth ambition. I think Worley's platform of broad services positions us exceptionally well. I think working with this leadership team and our teams [indiscernible] desire to achieve the ambition is palpable for the business, and I'm really excited to be here to help shape the future. I actually think Worley has the superpower and that's the broad depth range in connectivity with our clients. I think that's a platform from which we can build upon. And I talked earlier around how we need to position earlier, and I think that's an absolute must in order to actually position, derisk our clients' projects, create that predictability. And then again, as Andy said, that allows us to look at innovation in our [ commercial ] models, take the value out of that predictability and work with our clients. So personally, I'm really, really glad to be here and be part of the journey.

Okay. Well, welcome to Worley 12 months on. What I'd really like to know also is, while you've got the floor, on EMEA region, what are the opportunities that you really see within that region?

Yes. And both [ Mark and Mark ] have said, [ Tina ] we've got a strong delivery platform already. And in the EMEA region, we're leveraging that. So we're bringing the consistent sales processes and systems into the region. We're thinking and operating globally. We're bringing talent from across the business to help us deliver and share the opportunities that we have in front of us as well as bringing in further talent and training our current talent to allow us to position for that. I think what's also important is to recognize that we're already delivering at scale and complexity in the region, so the Ma'aden project in Saudi Arabia is a good example of that. The Heidelberg project, which is more recent, again, another great example of scale and complexity into the business. As [ Mark ] mentioned, the conversations with -- that happen around our clients are different. We're having conversations around how to create capacity, how to create acuity, how to work with the supply chain to deliver the predictability in the business. And that's allowing us to strengthen our pipeline as well, which is what we're doing, which is great to see and that pipeline [indiscernible] across multiple sectors to allow us to balance that business view of working across those sectors and deliver our growth. So those sectors are power, resources as well as carbon capture and sustainable [ appeals ]. So a great position to be in.

And [ Ross ], the Americas now makes up almost 50% of our revenue, we're executing some major projects across the region. Can you talk to the opportunities there in particularly gaining full project delivery?

Yes. Thanks, Kylie, and great to be here in person with you guys today. Just to build on one of Mark's earlier comments, it's really important we continue to deliver and deliver well against those projects that we have in-house. That sets us up for long-term sustained growth. without putting a number to it or a cap on it, there's certainly a great number of opportunities out there. We're building on the back of some success with the likes of OXY in the U.S., Pembina and Canada, Rio and Lat Am, just continues to see growing demand for EPC and EPCM services across the region as well as globally. If I step back and look at the market in general terms, we're certainly seeing uptick in the pipeline across resources, power, LNG as well as the resurgence in oil and gas activity and spend. So really confident we're well placed to execute on that, leverage the existing capabilities that we have domestically as well as our GID centers in India and Bogota. The other piece that I would add to that, continue to make strategic hires bringing on board guys like Jim and John Gribble, in the Americas strengthens not only construction management capability, but wider fuel project delivery personnel and then underpinned by some of what you heard today from Laura in tools and systems, which creates the infrastructure to allow us to get after win more of those projects and then execute on those projects thereafter.

You mentioned LNG. We've got an established presence. We've got a solid track record in delivering projects in LNG already. Ross, what more opportunities do you see in LNG? How can we leverage the growth in this market?

Yes. Significant market opportunity ahead. The team has done a fantastic job, to your point, Kylie, in creating a differentiated position. You heard from Amanda on the screen and CP2. Nick Cuban is working with Glenfarne and Alaska LNG and then wider afield, Paul Hughes and the team have done a fantastic job in Germany with [indiscernible] on the import terminal. Andy touched on the market and the size of the prize in LNG. We've identified $230 billion of CapEx opportunity across integrated gas. You only have to look at the recent challenges in the Middle East, some of the geopolitical tensions and disruption has reinforced the need for resilient gas supplies globally. So we've got the right teams and the right places to execute on that. What you also saw today, and hopefully, you'll see more of going forward, is beginning to leverage partnerships like Baker Hughes, which will give us greater access across the globe as well as open up the aperture from concept through to commissioning for those opportunities ahead.

Okay. And Jim, Andy had talked about growth in Resources and energy transition materials. Can you tell us what opportunities do you see in that space?

Yes. I mean, Andy shared the fact that these raw materials, the demand is there, we can see about operating across all of the sectors that we operate in. The economic fundamentals are strong as well and not constrained by geopolitics. So the client conversations that we're having, again, they're about how the projects are more complex, deeper underground facilities and they're wanting to create that capacity and capture that capability in the market. So we're having very early conversations around how to understand their portfolios better and share those portfolios with us to allow us to position well in that market. I think if you look at the -- various regions, we've got strength of our pipeline increasing in South America, Canada, Australia as well as Europe and the U.K. So we have a tremendous depth in the market. In the fertilizer space, we continue to grow our position. The Ma'aden project we're already working on the next phases of those projects as well and building that relationship with Martin as they build out their portfolio.

Jim covered it really well. If I just double click on the Americas briefly, it makes up -- resources sector makes up over 1/3 of our pipeline going forward. So significant size and scale and opportunity ahead. If I'm to break that down into the 3 subregions in which we operate, Canada, we've seen a return to spend in battery active materials, copper as well as gold. If I look at Lat Am in general, significant growth across the pipeline and top to decade long cycles of investment driven by some of the macro trends that you saw earlier on. Even in the U.S. on the back of the Critical Minerals Act and some of the amendments there, we are starting to see green shoots of opportunity building and can position early for those. What I really like about the resources sector is driven by fundamentals. You can see through the growth of power and AI, the copper and the demand for copper will continue to exist, government subsidies aren't required. So we're well placed looking forward to that market continuing to come to fruition over the next couple of years as well.

So if we turn now to complex critical infrastructure, which we have identified as a growth market. [ Rochelle ], how are we positioned to capture work around data centers? And can you talk to the new customer set that we're building there?

Yes. Thank you, Kylie, and it's a pleasure to be here with everybody today. So the data center ecosystem is evolving rapidly, and it's creating major challenges. And this is where Worley is leaning into play with us. So the actual workload per chip is increasing. So we're putting more information and more compute through the data center. So the capacity per chip is increasing, which means the power per chip is increasing. The footprint of the data centers is densifying and so now it's increasing to a point where it generally can't be supplied by just the grid alone. We're at a stage where they're looking at some sort of supplemental on-site generation to be able to support this. The data center workload requires a high level of reliability, a 99.999% uptime of reliability. In addition, data centers are challenged with water scarcity, so citing the data center and figuring that out is a challenge that's really truly emerging as we get to the larger scale. And additionally, there is a supply chain constraint on turbines and substation equipment as well. And of course, our customers want these data centers [ still at ] lightening fast speed. So fortunately, Worley is -- we thrive in solving complex challenges. And we're focused around the data centers really around how do we help with the integration from the grid, the on-site generation, the battery storage and the on-site cooling that has to happen for the data center. We work with our customers early. And I think Jim mentioned it perfectly as we need to be in with our customers early. So working with them on site identification permitting, then helping them through design and into construction. And for data centers, we're working with hyperscalers. We're working with mission-critical integrators as well as project developers. And one example of a project development that we're working with is a company called BCEI is a global company. They've been developing data centers on a global basis. But now as the mission has shifted to larger site data centers, we've been engaged with them to help them with their on-site power generation assets.

And [ Rochelle ], a lot of our investors ask us about a capability in nuclear. Can you talk to our capability and the opportunity that we see there?

Sure. Yes. So Andy mentioned about how we've been working on with nuclear projects for over 60 years. And we have a footprint where we have a center of excellence out of Bulgaria. We have a -- we fabricated mechanical components out of Canada, and we're actively investing in our U.S. capabilities. We're doing this because nuclear is really a future investment. There's projects now and getting in early now is important to our -- with our customers, but it's really about being positioned for when future capital flows into the space. It's important because nuclear, you think about the reliability aspect, looking at data centers, reliability is a critical piece. Nuclear is truly the only energy source that is going to be able to create that reliability and that much of uptime. It's also a clean energy source. So it really is the long-term future. But they take -- these projects take a long time to build out. So -- and an example of us working early with the customer is with Bruce Power. And we've been working with Bruce Power on their technology evaluation for their proposed Bruce C project in Ontario. And this was Canada's first large-scale nuclear project that's been announced in over 30 years. So we're really positioning ourselves early and being ready for -- and having that relationship with our customers as these projects develop over time.

And we've talked a bit about partnerships, and we've announced a few this week. Just want to ask what -- how important are these strategic partnerships to getting more position in this space?

Yes. So just taking nuclear alone, thinking about this. This is -- these projects are very large, very complex. And truly, they haven't been developed at scale in 30 years. So really nobody has the competencies to deliver these projects alone. It's going to require partners to be able to support these projects. And I've been working with Jim on these as well. We've been working on kind of building out these partnerships and then looking at it from both technology as well as execution partners to be able to support and position us and it's important because this helps to derisk the project by customer, but also for Worley as well. But this isn't just a story around nuclear. It's also something we're doing across all of our sectors. And I think the example with Baker Hughes is a perfect example of that.

So just continuing on this theme, Ross, long-term customer relationships are really important for our business. can you also then talk about the importance of global programs?

Yes. Just building on what Rochelle mentioned, and you saw in the video earlier on, long-standing core customer relationships has been in the heart of what Worley does now since inception and continues to play a large part of our future going forward. We're very proud of some of those relationships that we have. If I look at the 30-year relationship with Aramco, for example, we've also got a 10-year active master service agreement with Chevron, where we partner with them globally to provide engineering services. A little closer to home, we continue to support Rio and BHP here as well. What those program and alliances provide is steady, stable earnings for the group as well as an opportunity and a platform to learn and grow together with our customers trying new ideas, operating efficiencies and partnerships and innovation solutions and bringing them to the market together. So really critical for what we do. We have 150 of them globally that we're very proud of, and I continue to see that growing going forward.

And Jim, our global integrated delivery model, how quickly can we scale that? And are you seeing a greater willingness from customers to work with us using that model?

Yes. I'll start with the GID offering. As somebody who's worked with GID for over 20 years. I would say Worley's offering to the market is exceptional and market-leading. We have 7,000 talented individuals across 8 offices already delivering that scale across global operations and major projects. So we've got the foundation and the platform to build. We continue to invest in that. We're continuing to invest in connecting between our global offices so that we can create that relationship to allow us to deliver predictably and with confidence. In terms of the clients, they are absolutely desiring the offering and the volume that we bring through our GID offering. Again, it's a differentiator. And again, it's already operates and at scale. So right now, we've just got to build that out and continue to do what we're doing with the systems and tools allow us to operate in a common environment. So we're always working in the same systems, process and tools to build out these projects, and therefore, that again is a value-added position. So I think our position is strong. Our clients are desiring it. And very simply, now our business as usual model that we'll continue to deliver.

And Laura talked about our digital project delivery. Jim, I know investors would like to hear about some real examples about how that differentiates us from our competitors.

Yes. Again, Laura mentioned it earlier, we've driven our systems with a construction-led lanes to it. So we're driving it from the spectrum of how does this deliver and our clients to turn the keys on and operate these facilities all the way back through the processes. That enhances our ability to use the likes of [ AWP ] and again, drive that into our engineering processes and position everything so we can create greater certainty through our schedules, create a certainty through our quality of work and ultimately greater predictability. I think the fact that we've got the tools that allow us in real time to understand data, understand information gives us greater ability to inform ourselves, make decisions because projects are complex. Things always change. So you need to be able to change, relook at where you're going and the systems and tools that we have do that for us. And it's being recognized by clients. And I think Brendan was mentioned earlier, CEO of Glenfarne. He recently made reference to the innovation and the tools that we're bringing to the market. So please come and see our booths and learn a little bit more about what we're offering to the market.

Great. I'd like to conclude by touching on the leadership changes that Chris has shared today. We've set out our growth strategy in FY '30 ambition. Mark, in your new role as Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Commercial and Development Officer, what does delivering this ambition mean to you?

I think I'll answer it by referring to Chris' first slide and then it was very similar in Andy's, we've got a lot to get after. The ECR markets, there are good chunks of the ECR markets that we've discussed that had significant tailwinds. We're doubling down on full project delivery supported by GID we have opportunities in -- with that delivery platform to move into complex critical infrastructure. And lastly, as Laura was describing, we've got to do it with a digital AI-enabled digital platform. So lots to get after, and it's not business as usual. We're very ambitious. We will be making very deliberate, very bold moves with our customers doubling down on what we've been doing over the last few years with industry partners and the Baker Hughes example that we've announced is a really good example of that. We're using our position in the -- our changed position in the marketplace. And also, really importantly, it's organic growth, but it's also inorganic growth. So it's a new role. Chris is giving me a fairly broad [indiscernible] to work with the group executive and go out and really drive growth in the business with a strong focus on EPS accretion, of course, improved returns on invested capital for that sustained value creation. So I'm pretty excited about how we're going to go forth and really [indiscernible] the lines out with our aspirations.

Great. Thank you, Mark and Mark, and thank you, Jim, Rochelle, and Ross. We really appreciate your insights, [indiscernible] with the investors today and your thoughts on the business opportunity [indiscernible]. So we're just going to take a moment to reset at this stage. Then I'd like to invite Justine to talk through our approach and initiatives supporting our capital management.

So we're on. Good morning, everyone. I'm Justine Travers. I'm really pleased to be here this morning. And really, I wanted to discuss 3 things today. I want to be able to connect the strategy that you've heard to the financial outcomes that we're targeting. I want to show how we're protecting margins and remaining focused on cash as we scale and explain how we think about capital allocation choices between reinvestment returns to shareholders and balance sheet strength. I will also provide an update on the ongoing FY '26 transformation and restructuring work. For Worley, value creation is about doing a few things consistently well, growing the markets where we see strong demand drivers, deliver that growth with discipline and convert that work into cash, deploying that cash in ways that then compound value through the cycle, there are a number of levers to how we're managing that model. We grow EBITDA by scaling full project delivery while staying disciplined on risk and contract selectivity, we're building more durability into margins through cost discipline and global integrated delivery model and digital and AI-enabled workflows that will help us deliver more efficiently and consistently across the business. We are using the outcomes of our cost management program to reinvest into targeted priority areas to support our strategy and fuel organic growth. And underpinning all of these, we're maintaining a balance sheet strength and liquidity that is supported by strong cash conversion. And of course, we will continue to return capital to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. As you heard from Chris and Andy, we are scaling but it is with intent. And we are ensuring that customers and contracts continue to align with our risk appetite. We are focused on disciplined bidding and project assurance so that we protect the margin quality. And we're continuing to maintain and enhance our cost discipline across the business. As the model scales, we will continue to focus on margin durability, strong cash conversion and meaningful earnings growth over the medium term with an ambition of double-digit medium-term underlying EBITDA CAGR. As Chris stated, it will not necessarily be a straight line each year. That is not the nature of our business, but we are confident in the direction. We have a track record of delivering double-digit EBITDA CAGR over the medium term. As we discussed at the half, we're transforming and restructuring to remove complexity, to improve efficiency and to drive greater consistency in the way that we work. In the first half of the year, we acted in response to softer conditions in traditional chemical sector and some project cancellations in Western Europe. We incurred $82 million of costs in the first half. These were largely related to severance or related costs. These costs are outside the normal course of business. And given this, we reported them below the line. As communicated in the first half, we do expect further one-off restructuring and transformation costs in the second half of the year. These, however, will be less than the cost that we incurred in the first half. I now turn to cost management and the program that we commenced at the start of the year. We will exceed the initial target of $100 million of annualized savings from FY '27 onwards. We've actioned around $95 million of initiatives to date with an additional $25 million of confirmed actions that are underway. And we will continue to look for further opportunities to take cost out of the business. This cost-out program is resetting how Worley works. We are simplifying the organization, reducing duplication tightening spans and layers where it's needed and standardizing and centralizing transactional processes so that we are well positioned in applying and using AI. To ensure the cost savings are sustained, we have strengthened a number of areas, including central cost oversight, clearer approval controls and embedding cost tracking. The outcome of the program is twofold. Firstly, it supports our margin resilience in the near term. And second, it creates the capacity for us to reinvest capital where we see the clearest path to high-quality growth. That takes me to reinvestment. And this is the next part of the value creation model. The cost savings that I just talked about not only protects the margins, they create this capacity to reinvest. Over the next two years, we expect to invest around $70 million. This is not broad-based spending. It is targeted. In practical terms, this organic investment goes into building the capabilities, particularly in those areas that Andy spoke about today. It's added strategic hires where we need to expand skill sets and relationships. It allows us to continue to scale the digital and AI tools that enhance value in execution. The goal is to access larger, longer-dated customer programs and grow in a way that is scalable and accretive. Our capital management framework helps ensure that we make consistent value-based decisions through the cycle. And more broadly, it reflects the way that we manage the business. with discipline on costs, on cash and on capital deployment. So firstly, we generate operating cash flow with a focus on maintaining cash conversion above 85%. That cash discipline supports the business, including lease payments, maintenance capital, and we have a minimum liquidity target of $1 billion. Only after that do we deploy capital. We consider investment for growth, returning capital to shareholders and maintaining disciplined leverage position of at or below 2x. This matters because it gives us the flexibility to invest in the growth platforms that we've talked about today whilst continuing to support shareholder returns without compromising the resilience of the business. Our capital management approach looks to sustain an asset-light, cash-generative model that supports growth and returns through the cycle, and it is underpinned by an investment-grade credit rating of BBB with a stable outlook. Let me close by bringing together a number of these things, funding, capital and returns. We're managing these together. We're maintaining our balance sheet strength and liquidity. We're reinvesting into growth and returning capital to our shareholders, all within a disciplined approach to cost, cash and capital management. Over the past 10 years, we've returned $2.5 billion through -- to our shareholders through dividends and our recently completed $500 million buyback program. Following the successful completion of our first ever buyback in April this year, we've announced a new on-market share buyback this morning of up to $300 million. The new program demonstrates the Board's continued confidence in the company's financial position and growth outlook and its commitment to delivering shareholder value. The timing and value of shares purchased will be dependent on prevailing market conditions and share price. Our near-term FY '26 debt maturities are covered through existing liquidity and committed facilities. And we have a diverse and well-distributed portfolio with access to global debt markets. The message I'll, therefore, leave you with. Our capital allocation and funding decisions are aligned to the strategy and to the execution of the growth priorities that you've heard today. We have the balance sheet strength to invest and the discipline on costs, on cash and on capital to do that while continuing to support shareholder returns. And with that, I'm going to pass back to Chris, and then we will move to Q&A.

Thanks, Justine. So as you can see from the leadership team, it's focused on the opportunity ahead of us. And we've built a strong foundation. We've set clear strategic priorities and remain disciplined in how we're going to execute. And that's really important, disciplined execution. So before we move to questions, let me remind you and leave you with a few points. First, our FY '30 ambition provides a clear reference point for where we believe the business is heading. It's underpinned by long-duration demand, strong customer relationships and capabilities we have in place and can continue to scale. Second is our investment proposition. We're a capital-light business. We've got global scale and the discipline in our execution with clear risk settings. Together, these fundamentals support resilient earnings throughout the life cycle. And we've already demonstrated that this model delivers. And third, we're aligned to where the capital is slowing. Some people describe this as [indiscernible] to where the [ puck ] is going. We're going deeper through the full project delivery and wider through selective expansion supported by cost discipline, our global integrated delivery capability that Jim talked about and digital and AI and execution that Laura covered. That is what underpins our FY '30 ambition and the confidence in our ability to deliver it. It captures opportunities in future-facing markets and delivering double-digit underlying EBITDA CAGR over time is what we believe we can achieve. With that, I'm going to invite the group executive on stage, and we'll open it up to questions.

I will help moderate some questions and just actually directs them to the members of the GE. But also as you think about your questions, please remember that we've also got our subject matter experts here. You've heard from Jim, from Ross, from Rochelle. We also have Sean Murphy here, who is one of our presidents for major projects and programs. So you may also have questions for them. But before I do that, Chris, maybe just pass to you briefly.

Look, I think -- look, we've got, I think, 30 minutes allocated. And I think it's important to use the time to allow you to answer ask questions that may be on your mind. Clearly, we had a message we wanted to share today, and we hope to share that message clearly, and that it's been well understood, but we're certainly open to questions and let's use the time the way you like to use it. Yes, sorry. Kristen, stand up, please. So Kristen is new to the business, started with us in April as our new Chief People Officer, and you've -- I think you've met everyone else. But yes, welcome, Kristen to the team.

Okay. Over to the floor.

It's [ Marash ] from Goldman Sachs. Just a couple of quick ones for me. Given the focus on scale, I guess, full project delivery, how should we be thinking about the mix between professional services, construction fabrication versus procurement, I guess, in the 2030 ambition?

So maybe let me start and then we'll others pickup. But look [indiscernible] you saw one of the slides that Andy put up, 75% of the revenue comes from the execution side of itself over time as we grow the pie as the pie grows, the slice that we're taking out of the pie will also grow. But clearly, we see engineering is growing, but also the full -- the actual delivery of the portion of the work. And given the scale of it, the scale of the opportunity, proportionally, we expect to see probably more growth in that space, but equally, the engineering portion will grow as well. But Andy?

Yes. I think what I'd say is we step into full project delivery. There's still an extensive professional services component to that. So every single full project delivery project has engineering services, procurement services, logistics and then also as you get into the field, construction management and commissioning. So yes, there will be certain locations where we do more construction and fabrication and direct [ sell perform ]. In some areas, we'll subcontract. But I see the professional services component growing as we step into full project delivery as well.

And just a second quick one. And just to be clear on the double-digit growth ambition, to what extent is, I guess, M&A required to hit that ambition?

Maybe I can take a brief stroll and then Chris can jump in. So we don't -- at Worley, we haven't had an acquisition strategy but it is something that we will always look to where we would see that it aligns strongly with our strategy where we believe that we're able to implement and where we see value. The double-digit EBITDA CAGR that we've outlined over the medium term as an FY '30 ambition is not underpinned necessarily by M&A it is underpinned by the things that we've talked about today and the organic investment program that we believe is there.

I think that's [indiscernible] I'm glad you said it. We're often asked about our M&A strategy, and we've always said that we don't have one. We never have. We have a growth strategy where if an acquisition or a target opportunity or a partnership helps us drive that growth strategy, and then we'll consider it.

John Purtell from Macquarie. Just a couple of questions. Again, just on those medium-term targets there for the double-digit EBITDA. Just to be crystal clear, that's a target between fiscal '26 and fiscal '30?

That's correct. So what we see is this where have set out the strategy that we've got today, some in the room will recall we had an ambition 1.0, and that really was taking us through to FY '26. This, as we think about the new strategy for Worley and what we've outlined today is really from an FY '26 to an FY '30. That's the medium-term time frame under which we've looked to underpin that ambition.

And just a second one, you've obviously referenced the alliance with Baker Hughes and further LNG opportunities, how do you balance that with the need to deliver on what are existing very large projects, CP2, further opportunity with Glenfarne, obviously. So in essence, the question is how many of these larger projects can you do at once?

[indiscernible]?

Yes. Good question, John. The -- if you remember, I think it's 3 years ago, I missed Investor Day because I was doing the final negotiations with Venture Global on the contract. So it's -- we're 3 years in. We've had a bit of delay in terms of the site phase, but it's 3 years to get to the full volume. And that's something that we need to be aware of as we move further into the major project space. So Alaska LNG, we've just started that journey. We expect that, that will move forward in a not too similar time frame. We're perhaps a bit more aggressive without -- assuming we don't have any delays. And then with Baker Hughes, it's partnering into the supply chain and the project pipeline as it goes forward and a really important relationship. That's good for us. It's good for Baker Hughes and it's good for our customers. So that's all just positioning us for further growth in the LNG supply chain -- LNG project pipeline.

Ramoun Lazar from Jefferies. Just a couple from me. On the FY '30 ambition, double-digit EBITDA growth, but no margin quantified. I guess, just how does the margin curve look in a world where you are taking on more of the EPC kind of work?

I'm going to let -- this is a question we often get asked. It was a Macquarie conference last week and we had 22 investor meetings. And I think I asked most of those who have joined the 22 meetings, what was important, the growth. And if we're managing cash, we're looking at things through a [indiscernible] capital lens if we're growing the absolute EBITDA number to share their views on the importance of [indiscernible] and Justine why don't you share the answers from a majority of the people who attended those meetings.

I think in the conversations we've had, what is important is the earnings growth that we're able to deliver. And we've talked a little bit today around how we would intend to do that in terms of scaling on full project delivery but also ensuring we've got margin durability. So we're doing a number of things to actually look at the resilience of our margin is around the utilization of our global integrated delivery offices. It is about the cost management program that we're doing and it's also about the AI work that we've got that will drive that increased efficiency and consistency. so we haven't set out a margin specific ambition on this. What we've sent out is a growth ambition.

[indiscernible] do you want to talk about what you're seeing as you're pursuing these large projects in terms of margin? Because the market is good.

Look, it's -- particularly as we're building a reputation, the conversations I have with our customers, where they see our systems and they see our people. We're not having conversations about costs. We're having conversations about surety of delivery, predictability of delivery. And EPC is not E plus P plus C. It's an EPC integrated offering.

And that's exactly why you saw in our AI strategy that we're looking across that full project delivery life cycle, including on-site solutions and procurement solutions because as we look across the full cycle, it gives us more and more opportunities to differentiate what we're able to offer to our customers.

And then just the second one, just on the revenue model, if you can just talk through how the traditional sort of billable hour model is evolving in the face of AI? And how do you sort of ensure that AI doesn't result in revenue slippage for your business?

Andy, do you want to talk to that?

Yes. I think -- I mean, I mentioned it in the presentation, there are really 3 different types of models that we're continuing with. Some of it is around by the [ hour ]. But increasingly, what we're seeing is a shift towards output an outcome. So our part is really -- we're monetizing the productivity of what we do through things like lump sum engineering. But I think the shift that we're seeing more significantly is to outcome. So whereby we will set targets with the customer. That might be on schedule, that might be on costs. And then we share in the game when we deliver ahead of those targets. So what I really like about that model is it's a win-win for us and for the customer. The customer creating value for the customer through bringing on that asset earlier reducing the amount of capital outlay, allowing them to generate a return on that asset, which then opens a space for us to have a completely different conversation around the model.

And I might just add, all -- I think every one of our major projects that we've negotiated, we have a substantial component that is [indiscernible] outcome-based cost schedule performance.

And those -- there was an article in the AFR a couple of weeks ago, it was a short article, but it was really good at talking about AI and if you think about what we've done traditionally and what we do now, there's a transfer of value between ourselves and our customer. And the measure of that value transfer was by the work hour. Well, we're still transferring value the value we've got in our 50 years of experience in our data and our people, that value transfer is still occurring, and that value needs to be compensated for appropriately. Now the model to transfer that value will be different. But we're still transferring value, that value that we're transferring still needs to be reward and we need to get a return for it.

Cameron Needham from Bank of America. Firstly, just on the buyback, what is it that gives you confidence that now is the optimal time to announce a new buyback program?

No. We've just completed the $500 million buyback, which, as I mentioned, was the first buyback that Worley had done in its history. We believe that it is an important tool, essentially in our capital management toolbox of ways in which to distribute value to shareholders. And so it fits together with how we think about dividends but we also think that there is an opportunity within Worley where we see value. We have confidence in the growth of the business, and the buyback is a good tool to actually be able to enable that. But it is just one of the tools in the toolbox is the way that I would describe it. We're conscious that we've talked about organic investments. We've announced the buyback of up to $300 million and we'll execute that buyback in a disciplined way as we look at the market and we execute that over a period of time.

Great. And a quick second one, if I may. Could you place the backlog a little bit more for us, please? Obviously, you have full notice received on Phase II CP2, congratulations on that. But just at the 16.9 bill as at March, how much of that is CP2, please?

At various points in time, we've looked and provided input into what's moved from pipeline into backlog. And you would have seen, as Chris said, we moved CP2 Phase II from our pipeline into our backlog and we'll see other projects that also came in. We don't usually specifically describe what is the component breakdown of that. But it certainly has the Phase I work that we're doing and executing on now, and it has the Phase II of CP2 as well within that backlog.

Megan Kirby-Lewis from Barrenjoey. My first question is for Justine. And just in terms of your current thinking about the repayment of the sustainability bonds, which I think is due next month.

Yes. So we're working through that, we're well positioned. I mentioned very briefly that we've got a number of facilities in place, liquidity facilities that -- I mean we're well positioned in terms of the maturity of that note. We're continuing to work through that. I won't announce that now in the market, but we'll have an update on that as we go into the full year as part of that result, but certainly in discussions currently with a number of our banks.

Okay. Would you announce it before the result if something new is locked in or should we be [indiscernible] U.S. debt?

It may not necessarily. So if it's something material, we will announce it.

Then just maybe for Mark Trueman, just on the topic of risk and completely appreciate that you don't do the competitively lump sum [indiscernible] work. But I guess just tying to understand how risks within sort of full project delivery and these major projects does compare to the type of risks on consulting work. And I think there was a mention of some increased governance. So just keen to, I guess, understand what that actually means in practice.

Yes. I mean, certainly between consulting and a mega project is -- I mean it's chalk and cheese even with the smaller projects. What we've learned over time once that you get over a certain scale, the projects, you can't deliver them with the heroics of individuals. You actually need to codify and systemize what you're doing, whether that's the data flows or whether it's actually just the supervision and the quality assurance and quality control on the project. So we have a whole -- we have project risk groups. We have commercial risk groups, and it's how we pursue the projects how we negotiate the projects, how we actually set them up in terms of systems, and I'd encourage you to go and look at some of the systems that -- afterwards and then how we govern them on a monthly basis in terms of reviewing the performance of the projects and making sure we're having the difficult conversations when we need to have them because projects never go 100% according to plan, that's how you react, which is the difference between success and not. And then -- and dealing with the firefighting. So we just bring a whole -- we spend money with our customers in ensuring a greater level of governance over those projects. I mean, I can talk for days, it's a whole world of project risk that we look at.

Nathan Reilly, UBS. It was good to hear about the ECR tailwinds. I guess my question is just a little bit more geographic. Mark T, can we get a bit of an update just in terms of, I guess, there is a significant level of construction planned in the U.S. I'd be keen to get an understanding of how you're thinking about labor availability as you move into that sort of more construction focus and delivery focused strategy. And also just in the context of a higher level of focus around energy security globally at the moment is what your customers in Western Europe are now saying about the outlook for activity in that market.

So I'm happy to answer the first one, and Ross might want to jump in, and I'll let Andy or Mark answer about the [indiscernible] but we watch the labor markets very tightly in the U.S., both white collar and blue collar. At the moment [indiscernible] and certainly in Louisiana with the LNG buildout, there's -- that's something we're watching really closely because we also have significant needs for direct labor construction, but where we have access to all the labor that we want. We were looking at a data and power center overlay over the next 10 years in the U.S. And we think there's about another 500,000 laborers in Australia, we call laborers, blue-collar workers in the U.S. And it's something that we need to watch really carefully. But then it becomes really important. People have a choice and they'll go to the projects that are the ones where they know they're going to be safe, that they get their [ per diems ], that they get paid properly and that they can do good quality work. And our good customers, and I like to think that they're the ones that we work with it's really important to them that they set their projects up as the projects of choice. So at the moment, the U.S. is okay, very large. We got big labor pools from the Worley point of view, we will do direct hire construction sort of from Virginia around to Arizona. And there are big chunks of the U.S. market where we would absolutely not do direct hire construction. I don't know, Ross?

I'll talk about Europe. Could you repeat the second part of the question for me?

Yes. Within the context of, I guess, an increased focus on energy security and food security, I think, was something was also touched on earlier in the context of post Middle East implications. So just in the context of how customers in Western Europe are communicating to you on their needs in this environment?

Yes, I can jump in. Right after the pandemic, we've really spent a lot of time on studies with our customers in Europe, U.K. in the sustainable fuels and a lot of those projects got all the way to FID and never got funded. And so those projects are still there. We're waiting to see if the customers are working with the governments, getting subsidies if they'll move forward. Some of the major projects, Jim's work on those. We're seeing those come online. We're opening the funnel into the critical infrastructure where we were not as focused before. So we're having to reposition a little bit in the Europe market to see where the capital flow in and go after that market. But it's -- when the sustainable projects didn't go forward and there's a lot of them moving, that set us back a little bit. So we're pivoting some great opportunities in the funnel. Jim, do you want to add anything? You're based on London, you're right in the middle of it.

Yes. I think, Mark, you've summarized it well. We're seeing a number of large projects and sustainable fuels moving forward now. There's a lot of discussions going on in U.K., for example, with government in terms of moving those forward. We were successful on Heidelberg, and that positions us very well as a proof point for us into that market. So I think we've strengthened our position and certainly, we can see a larger portfolio in front us.

Yes. Maybe I'll just add as well. I mean, I think Europe has to do something differently. You saw with the dependence on Russian gas and the impact there. And then again, now the dependence on Middle East and the Kerosene has been imported at the moment from the U.S. A lot of European refiners have been shut in and converted to terminals. Will you start to see a reversal of that? Possibly. I think then also gas and gas from other suppliers and particularly LNG import reclassification infrastructure, you'll see as well. So to me, Europe has to do something in order to not be beholden to a single point of value.

I'll go again, if that's all right. On LNG and integrated gas on the slide, you sort of quoted a 2% to 3% market CAGR. I'm just curious to the extent do you think that captures the rebuild and reconfiguration opportunity that's out there as a result of the conflict? And just trying to understand how material that might be on a kind of 1- to 2-year view?

Maybe I'll open up and let Andy jump in No, I don't. I mean the 2% or 3% is pre Iran conflict. You've lost a significant amount of capacity out of Qatar yes. They're projecting 3, 4 years for rebuilds to bring that back on to market. So that rebuild investment as well as the sort of increased capacity that has been looked at. So the 2% or 3% is outside of the restoration and it excludes the third bullet point, which was resilience of [indiscernible] globally to really focus on energy security and affordability. So my view was and Andy jump in here. And it's still early. I mean, it's hard to put data around it. But conceptually, the trajectory would my view, would put investment up and above that which was projected [indiscernible]. Andy?

Yes, I think that's right. It does -- as Chris said, it doesn't include the rebuild of Qatar LNG or whatever that pipe look like. I think the energy security is going to drive investment, particularly in smaller fields that were perhaps more stranded. So in the 1 to 5 Tcf range. Our expectation is we'll start to see [ FLNG ] come back. more strongly. And that's a key asset and component of our relationship with Baker Hughes as well. So yes, upside beyond that, hard to quantify.

Just one more for me as well. Just on the CCI revenue mix contribution at the moment, can you give us a sense of where that sits? And then I guess just on the deep data center side, new customers, who are you winning that work against?

Maybe Andy on the first one was around the CCI and how we see that as the proportion of revenue today in terms of the work that we're doing. And then what we might do is pass to Rochelle to just talk about the competitive environment from a data center perspective.

Yes. Look, I mean, what you're going to see is that's going to take an increasing share of -- that's going to be an increase in share of our revenue as we move forward. The sheer amount of capital that's been invested there is significant. And I would flag power in North America to data center buildout as well. So I think we see huge outsized potential in that market and lots -- I think what's really interesting for us is it really speaks to our fungible skills. This is not a market that we're having to create new capabilities to enter. We can step straight into it with the capabilities we've got.

Yes, let me just build it up before Rochelle. So typically, you'd look at -- can you take existing capabilities into adjacent markets or do you do develop new capability in existing markets and what we're doing in this build-out with the critical complex infrastructure is taking the existing capabilities and moving into an adjacent market. So it's not a stretch. It's a natural -- you wouldn't typically want to take a new capability into a new market. That's a 2-dimensional move. You would typically do one of the other, only occasionally both. But, Rochelle do you want talk about competitive intensity of the data side?

Yes. The data center landscape is really interesting. It's not our traditional project approach to the two that we have within Worley. So you have customers that really we've worked with early on in -- from a consulting perspective, and they see us as a trusted partner and so they're just taking us through to the next stages. So we see -- we have customers that way. The other ones that we're really starting to see are competitors that are not our typical competitors. So in other words, as these projects become more complex and they need on-site generation, they're scaling to a point where their traditional supply chain to support some substations and whatever battery storage that they were putting on before, it isn't -- they can't meet the scale of what the customers need today. So that means that it's -- they're looking to us to really help support them and such. So a lot of these conversations are us kind of coming into it from a consulting stage, helping identifying challenge and the need that they have and just being there to help them support scale from there.

And what's the typical scope? Is it feed? Or is it full hyperscaler EPCM when it comes to data centers?

So we're doing from [indiscernible], early-stage consulting to design, and they don't typically go through a [indiscernible], they're moving faster. And so our work and what we've done with PetroGlobal and back to being able to accelerate is that skill set we're able to take over to the data center space. And so thinking about for them, they're looking at saying, "I need this built -- I want it built in 18 months. How do I do it? Who's -- I want to hire one person that's going to make that happen? How do I get it done? And so -- that's where we have to step up and answer that question [indiscernible].

In terms of competitive intensity, Look, we see floor, yes. We see floor on the space. We see a key width in the space. But what's happening is that data centers are really data factories and the complexity of the infrastructure required, it lends more to our capability that it would necessarily to the traditional data center competition. So data centers against the hyperscaler Gigafactories, the complexity actually opens up the opportunity for us to play in that, where before data centers as opposed to the hyperscaler gigafactories, they were a different set of players. But as we move into the hyperscaler gigafactories, that's our space. But it will be floor, it will be key width and I'm speaking about in the U.S. and there'll be different plays in Europe but it's the complexity that makes it difficult for some of the traditional data center players to operate in for the reason Rochelle shared.

It might be worth just adding as well. It's not just the box of the data center.

That's exactly right.

Because of the scale and the power demands, almost all of them now certainly in the U.S., you've got to have a power station attached to it, significant needs for water. We're also seeing significant needs for dealing with carbon emissions as well. And if you've got the ability to do power, water, you've got a permitted site, you can deal with the carbon that's absolutely all in Worley's wheelhouse, you bring it all together.

It's not space inside of the box really. That's where the complexity exists. The power, the water, the cooling, communities will get kind of used to maybe get -- they can accept maybe a power station being on the horizon and what they won't accept is water being sucked out of the [ aqueduct ]. Yes, so water management and how you're going to source treat, use, treat, recycle becomes increasingly important, and that's really complex.

We're at time. Thank you. Chris, you might want to say some closing words, but thank you, we'll have an opportunity after now if people have questions that we want to take in the foyer.

I think it's also -- look, we appreciate you coming today. Many of you are on the register. Many of you, we hope to get on the register. But certainly, look, we've got lunch. Come and chat with us. Happy to answer any questions that haven't been answered so far. But I really appreciate everybody joining in the room. And for those online, again, thanks for joining us.