Ebos Group Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to eBoss Group Limited FY26 Full Year Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone keypad. You can cancel your request by pressing star 1-1 again. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, the 19th of August, 2026. I'd now like to hand the call over to your first speaker today, Mr. Cameron Sinclair, Head of Investor Relations, EVOS Group. Please go ahead, Cameron.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for your attendance today. My name is Cameron Sinclair, Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined today by Adam Hall, our Group CEO, and Alistair Gray, our Group CFO. Before commencing, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on page two of the presentation. The results are expressed in Australian dollars unless otherwise noted, and the presentation refers to both statutory and underlying results. The commentary this morning is predominantly based on our underlying results, and a reconciliation is included in the appendix. I'll now hand over to Adam to take you through today's presentation.

Thanks, Cameron. Good morning, everyone. There are three messages to take away from today's result. First, we delivered on our commitments while completing a major phase of investment. Revenue increased 9.9% to $13.5 billion and underlying EBITDA increased 5% to $614 million, both within guidance. We also completed our multi-year $360 million distribution centre renewal program with all facilities now in operation. Second, each division has clear growth opportunities in FY27. Across Symbian and healthcare distribution, retail pharmacy brands, medical technology and animal care, we have identified initiatives that support continued earnings growth. Each of these initiatives is underpinned by two common macro themes. Strong underlying growth in care for an aging human and pet population and eBoss's competitive advantages of scale and sector leadership. As we laid out at Investor Day, 85% of our EBITDA is derived from businesses where we are number one or number two in our sector. Third, we are not pausing. We continue to improve the portfolio with two great bolt-on acquisitions in the last six months and the capacity for more. You may recall over the last few years, we've deliberately shifted the portfolio towards higher growth, higher return businesses. In FY26, we continue this theme. with eight bolt-on acquisitions that improved the quality of our portfolio. Now, importantly, with about 30% lower capital requirements going forward, we have greater flexibility to continue investing in these attractive growth opportunities. Taken together, we enter FY27 with earnings momentum, a completed investment cycle, and additional capacity to deploy capital. The team have confidence in their ability to continue creating value for shareholders. Let me turn to slide four and our financial guidance and metrics At the start of the year, we set clear financial targets across EBITDA, capital expenditure, depreciation and amortisation, financing costs and leverage, and we've delivered on these as a group and in each division. Despite fuel costs and foreign exchange headwinds during the year, we delivered against our stated guidance ranges, noting that EBITDA guidance was revised in April following the disruption in the Middle East. Just as importantly, we continue to make progress against the strategic priorities we outlined at our investor day. In Symbian and healthcare distribution, we've now completed the distribution centre renewal program with all facilities operational. In retail pharmacy brands, we expanded the network with the acquisition of MediAdvice, which strengthened healthcare services capabilities and continued to improve digital transactions. We were up 30% and our own brand performance. In Maple Technology, we broadened our therapy and product portfolio with 18 new supply partnerships, and we grew the business both organically and through targeted acquisitions. And in Animal Care, we expanded innovation, manufacturing, and product development, including Kiwi Kitchen's triumphant return to the U.S. market. The next slide explains the key earnings movement during the year. You can see here that underlying EBITDA increased by 5%. Despite approximately $22 million of fuel and foreign exchange headwinds, importantly, the underlying performance of the business remains solid, generating $50 million more in avatar. The fuel headwinds we called out during the half were contained through operational improvements, fuel levy pass-through, and active contract management. The impact was about $5 million, which was at the lower end of our previous expectations. Also during the half, you'll have seen the Australian dollar strengthened against many currencies and hit a 13-year high against the New Zealand dollar. This had a meaningful effect on translated earnings for the group and purchasing costs predominantly within the medical technology division. Across the portfolio, healthcare grew at a data buy net 3.2% and animal care by a net 11.6%. So while external factors affected the reported growth rate, they didn't change our underlying trajectory. And that gives us confidence as we enter FY27. On the next slide, I'd like to highlight one of the most significant strategic milestones we achieved during the year. With the DC Renewal Program, I want to pay tribute to the teams across the business, and particularly the Symbian Healthcare and Distribution Division, who have successfully brought this program to completion and done so seamlessly. Our $360 million Distribution Centre Renewal Program is the largest infrastructure investment in EVOS's history. Think of this as a long-term investment in the capability, capacity and efficiency of our network, positioning us to serve the need for medicines across Australia and New Zealand for years to come. Just as importantly, the focus now shifts from investment to benefits. We're already seeing productivity gains at Kemp's Creek, with the site currently operating around 20% more productively than Greystains, the facility it replaced. Just to give you a sense of magnitude of what Kemp's Creek does, every morning, It converts about 16,000 SKU lines in storage to 8,000 daily customised totes and then delivers in hours to pharmacies and hospitals across New South Wales. But there's more productivity opportunity ahead. We continue to target a 30% productivity uplift by the end of FY27, and I was glad many of you got a chance to meet the Kemp's Creek team at the recent Investor Day and see this opportunity up close. The completion of this program also materially lowers our capital requirements, and CapEx is expected to normalize around $100 million in FY27. Now that matters because lower CapEx supports stronger free cash flow, improving returns, and greater balance sheet flexibility. A good example of that flexibility is in contract logistics. Over several years, we've invested in building a national healthcare logistics network. That capability is now supporting customer wins, share gains, and double-digit goal growth. that the Perth HCL facility is now up and serving our customers. With the distribution centres now complete and operational, we close the chapter on this program and we look ahead. Speaking of looking ahead, the final point I'd like to touch on before moving into the divisions is M&A. On the next slide, you can see that disciplined capital allocation remains a core part of the EVOS strategy. During FY26, we deployed across approximately $121 million across eight Bolton acquisitions that strengthened capability, expanded market positions, and increased our participation in attractive growth categories. Now, in the last six months, the two acquisitions were Poringa Pet Foods and Catalyst. Poringa extends our presence in premium pet nutrition and gives us exposure to the fast-growing fresh and chilled pet food category. We have a great track record of bringing our strong brands like Blackhawk and VitaPets to new formats, and this continues that theme. Catalyst is another great example of bolt-on strategy, excuse me, bolt-on M&A in action. We have an existing supply relationship that was very strong, and with the benefit of this Catalyst acquisition, it's extended that into new markets across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, particularly in aesthetics and reconstruction. What's pleasing is that these acquisitions are consistent with our strategy of high growth, high return markets, and expected to be both EBITDA and EPS accretive. Looking ahead, our approach continues unchanged. We will stay disciplined, but where we see privileged access to attractive opportunities are supported by our market positions, relationships and balance sheet capacity. We have about $150 million of additional capacity to support our boss-only agenda. Let me now take you through the divisional highlights in financial performance. And on slide 9, you can see that healthcare delivered another resilient result revenue increased 8.5% to $12.6 billion and EBITDA increased 3.2% to $516 million despite fuel and foreign exchange headwinds. Now this result was supported by growth across community pharmacy, hospital medicines, medical technology and contract logistics. As I mentioned, this result is underpinned by an ageing population which increases healthcare demand, growth in specialty and high value medicine and a larger role for pharmacy and primary care. Sales of high-value medicines and GLP-1 demand also continued to grow at double digits. So while FY26 was an important year of execution, we believe each of our divisions are well positioned for the next phase of growth. Let's start with Symbian and Healthcare Distribution. Here we delivered another solid result while completing a significant period of operational change, as I just mentioned. While the team has successfully executed multiple slight transitions, they continue to grow the business What you may not realise is that Symbian now serves a million units a day to Australians, the vast majority through our automated eastern seaboard facilities. Within community pharmacy, revenue increased 10.2% and gore increased 4.3%, supported by continued growth in GLP-1s and other high-value medicines. Margin pressure remained a feature of the market, but gore margins were stable across the second half at 8.6%. Looking forward, Increased CSO funding should provide some support, although it needs to be netted against the medicine tiering changes, as well as continued competitive conditions. Hospital medicines, consumables and other also delivered growth, supported by record hospital sales, expansion in aged care and healthcare channels, and continued momentum in medical consumables. Contractual Logistics was once again a standout performer. Our gore increased 13.1%, reflecting customer growth and the benefits of the investments we've made over several years in our healthcare logistics capability. The priorities in FY27 are straightforward. Increase utilization, improve productivity, and leverage on our national footprint within contract logistics. Moving now to retail pharmacy brands. Here, we've had another strong year where we continue to expand both our scale and capability. Network sales reached almost $2.9 billion, supported by like-for-like growth of 7.6% across the Terry White King Mart network and dispensary sales growth of 8.5%. Importantly, this growth reflects the quality of the network and the performance of existing stores, not just network expansion. Total network stores increased to 780, driven by the addition of MediAdvice, and continued growth across our other banner groups, including Sincotta. Healthcare services remained a key differentiator, During FY26, care clinics delivered more than 1.2 million health services, reinforcing the network's leading position in pharmacy-delivered healthcare. We're also seeing encouraging progress across our own brands, digital engagement and retail media. The MyTWC app is a great demonstration of this, with the app processing 1.7 million transactions. Now that's up 37% on the prior year. Network sales of our own brand increased 11% during the year and these initiatives are helping broaden the earning space for both the network and our pharmacy partners. Looking ahead, our focus remains on improving store margins, increasing health service participation, growing digital engagement and expanding our own brand penetration. I turn now to medical technology and here revenue increased 5.5% or 8.4% on a constant currency basis, supported by a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Growth was broad-based across the portfolio and reflected high procedure volumes, therapy expansion and ongoing innovation. Across ANZ, we saw strong growth in neurosurgery, neurovascular intervention and urology. And in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, growth continued across spine, orthopaedics, cardiology and ophthalmology, partly offset by softer capital equipment activity compared with a strong prior year. Biologics remains one of our most attractive growth opportunities. During the year, we expanded solution development activity and extended into adjacent procedures, which creates additional pathways for growth. Across EMT, we also completed four acquisitions that expanded coverage across oncology, orthopaedics, plastics and aesthetics. These acquisitions continue our strategy of building capability in attractive growth markets. Looking forward, we see significant opportunities to expand therapy participation, increase biologics exposure, and selectively grow across Southeast Asia. Now let me turn to animal care, which once again delivered a strong result and continues to outperform many of the markets in which it operates. Revenue increased 34.6% to $907 million. and EBITDA increased 11.6% to $138 million. The result was supported by the SVS acquisition, but also by continued growth within Lippard and ongoing share gains across branded products. In fact, branded revenue increased 6.7%, supported by innovation, premiumisation and new product development. On the next slide, you can see the clear linkage between our manufacturing capabilities, and new product development across our hero brands, driving the organic growth within the branded portfolio. Wholesale performance also continued to benefit from greater scale in customer growth, with SVS growth accelerating under eBoss stewardship. Gore increased 13.1%, showing the quality of growth across the portfolio, and margins were arithmetically affected by the addition of the lower margin wholesale business, SVS, but the segment continued to deliver strong earnings growth. Our strategic focus during FY26 was increasing our participation in the premium pet nutrition categories, and the acquisitions of NextGen Pet Foods and Perringa did this by expanding our manufacturing capability and our exposure to the higher growth segments including fresh and chilled pet food and air and freeze-dried treats. As we move into FY27, our animal care priorities remain centred on innovation, vet channel growth, premium nutrition and extracting value from our recent acquisitions. I'll now hand over to Alastair, who's going to take you through the key movements in the Group Financials.

Thank you, Adam. I will cover the details in the next few slides, but at a headline level, FY26 was another solid result and consistent with the guidance we provided to the market.

Revenue increased 9.9% and underlying EBITDA was up 5% to $614 million. With that growth delivered despite the macroeconomic headwinds Adam mentioned earlier, This resilient growth speaks to the ongoing strong demand for care, needed for an ageing human and pet population, and EBOS's competitive advantage of scale in sector leadership. Underlying impact was $250 million, reflecting the completion of the DC Renewal Programme investment. At a statutory level, EBIDA was up 7.8%, and impact was up 4.7%. Importantly, the balance sheet remains in good shape, Leverage finished the year at 2.1 times, within our target range, and the Board has maintained the final dividend at 61.5 cents per share. Now turning to our earnings performance in more detail. As previously mentioned, revenue grew strongly at 9.9%, driven by growth in both healthcare and animal care, including the positive contribution from accretive bolt-on acquisitions. Underlying EBITDA increased 5% to $614 million despite fuel and foreign exchange headwinds. This result demonstrates the resilience, diversity and strength of positions across the portfolio. EBITDA margin improved in the second half, ending the full year slightly down at 4.6%, largely due to the product mix and competitive dynamics in community pharmacy. Below EBITDA, the movements are consistent with guidance and reflect the completion of the four-year capital investment cycle. On a statutory basis, EBITDA and NPAC growth was stronger than underlying, with lower one-off costs in FY26 than in FY25. Consistent with the communication at our first half results, restructuring and site transition costs reduced in the second half. These results are as expected, and the renewed DC network provides the capacity and capability to support future growth. Importantly, as the capital investment cycle is now complete, from FY27, CapEx drops materially, and the focus shifts to increasing utilisation, productivity and cash generated from those assets. In summary, the FY26 result demonstrates that the underlying growth fundamentals remain strong across the Group and with the infrastructure upgrades now in place, we're increasingly well positioned to turn that growth into stronger cash flow and better returns. Moving to capital allocation. Our framework remains unchanged and is centred around a disciplined approach of capital across four priorities. Preserving a strong balance sheet maintaining operational resilience, delivering sustainable shareholder dividends, and investing in attractive growth opportunities. In FY26, we allocated $145 million to capital expenditure, $121 million to bolt-on acquisitions, and returned $128 million to shareholders by way of dividends. Importantly, given the strength of cash generated, we have been able to maintain dividends through the peak capital investment cycle, while also investing in accretive growth opportunities, including programmatic bolt-on acquisitions. That said, if CapEx normalises in FY27, we expect greater flexibility and capacity to deploy capital into attractive growth opportunities and improve returns. Now turning to the balance sheet. Leverage finished FY26 at 2.1 times, comfortably within our target range of 1.7 to 2.3 times. Given the seasonal nature of our working capital and cash flows, like prior years, we expect leverage to increase modestly in the first half of FY27 before easing in the second half. This provides approximately $150 million of available capacity to invest through the year, up to the leverage of 2.3 times. Moreover, our debt can remain strong with $726 million of unprompted facilities and a weighted average debt maturity of more than three years. And with lower capital expenditure, stronger cash flow and continued earnings growth, we are well placed to steadily reduce leverage whilst continuing to fund growth investments. I will now step through the cash flow results. Networking capital remained well controlled, increasing by just $7 million despite 10% revenue growth, while cash conversion days were stable at an average of 20 days. This reflects a disciplined focus on working capital, as well as the favourable timing of year-end payments and receipts. Reported free cash flow was $204 million, representing the final year of elevated CAPEX and site transition costs related to the DC Renewal Programme. On a normalised basis, our reported free cash will improve slightly compared to the prior year. With the capital investment cycle now complete, CAPEX is expected to fall materially to approximately $100 million in FY27 compared to $145 million in FY26. That lower capex should drive a meaningful improvement in free cash flow in FY27, important as it enables additional investment to drive growth. I'll now hand back to Adam, who will share our perspective in the year ahead.

Thanks, Alastair. When I look ahead to FY27, across every division, we have clear operational priorities focused on growth, productivity and returns. In Symbian and healthcare distribution, our focus is on putting our new capacity to work. In retail pharmacy brands, we drive store dollar growth. In medical technology, we expand our scope and reach. And finally, in animal care, our focus is on new product development and customer momentum. Collectively, these initiatives support our expectation of delivering mid-single-digit appetite growth as we laid out at Investor Day in April. Importantly, FY27 is more than earnings growth. Our multi-year investment cycle is complete. Capital expenditure since the 30th of June has dropped to approximately $100 million, well below the FY26 levels, which in turn supports stronger free cash flows and improving returns. Depreciation and financing cost growth will remain elevated as we annualise recent investments, particularly in the first half of FY27. But the more important point is the cycle is complete, the assets are in place, and increasingly are being put to work. I want to share with you this final slide to bring together what we've tried to communicate through today's presentation. As we sent through at Investor Day, eBoss is very different than the business that we had five years ago. We've increased our exposure to higher growth, higher return businesses. And today, more than 70% of Group EBITDA comes from those high growth businesses, including animal care, medical technology and retail pharmacy brands, alongside platforms such as contract logistics and medical consumables. Our resilience is born of our market position, with around 85% of Group EBITDA coming from businesses ranked number one or number two in their sectors. And that gives us scale, customer relevance and a strong competitive base. Importantly, we now move into the next phase with a completed investment cycle, stronger pre-cash flow prospects and additional capacity to invest, which will drive returns despite cost pressures and competitive dynamics. So the messages to take away from today are simple. We've delivered on our commitments. Our investment cycle is complete. We are excited to continue driving value for shareholders. I want to thank you for listening this morning and I also want to thank our teams across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong for everything they've delivered through FY26. I'm now going to hand back to the operator who's going to open the call for Q&A. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and write for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please limit yourselves to two questions at a time. Once again, that's star 11 for questions. A moment for our first question. And our first question comes from the line of Stephen Ritchwell from Craig's Investment Partners. Please ask your question, Stephen. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Just wondering if you could please give us a split of FY26 EBITDA growth between organic and inorganic for the group overall and then for the two segments. And then maybe just in terms of guidance, if you could comment on how much of the 5% EBITDA growth at the midpoint for 27 that's driven by acquisitions and how much is organic, and then which segments are you expecting to deliver the lion's share of the organic EBITDA growth in FY27, please? Thank you.

Yeah. Stephen, thanks very much for the question. I'm going to start with the second part, and Alistair is going to jump in as needed. When we look ahead and provide that guidance, the 635 to 655 to FY27, we're incorporating in that all the businesses that we have today. We're not assuming any acquisitions are included in that. And I have to say, we're pretty excited for contributions from all of our divisions, roughly in proportion to how we indicated at Invest Today, with the higher growth divisions of MedTech, Animal Care and RPB really coming to the fore. Just a reminder, the assets that we've got there to put to work is Australia's largest dog food brand, Australia's largest pharmacy network, and Southeast Asia and Australia's largest independent medical distributor. So we've got plenty of market position to find opportunities during FY27. If I now come back to your question on FY26, I think you're referring to the first substantive chart that we have in the deck. You can see there that we've added $50 million of EBITDA to the group. Now across the last 10 years, we've grown about 10% and roughly equally between organic and inorganic. In that $50 million, I think it's probably slightly skewed to inorganic, but I think one thing we've been pretty heartened by is the synergistic nature of many of the transactions. So, for example, SBS was a great business growing at a fair click when we bought it. But it's really, growth has really accelerated under our stewardship, which we're really pleased by. Alastair, would you add anything to those comments?

No, I think you've covered it well, Arden. Stephen, it's very consistent with what we outlined at the investor base. So if you're looking for a sort of segmental view of growth into FY27, I'd use that as the basis.

So can I clarify though, so we're talking about sort of 5% year-on-year bear growth. You've obviously made acquisitions during FY26 and there'll be some annualisation of those acquisitions. That's really what I'm trying to get at, rather than future acquisitions, how much of the 5% growth is driven by acquisitions you've already made in the FY26 year, partway through the year, and how much is driven by organic growth?

Stephen, it's tough for us to give the split because a lot of them are very synergistic. So the EBITDA that we bought might be significantly higher in our hands. are given the ability to extract value with our existing businesses. So I think we're comfortable with the guidance we've provided.

Potentially the only other colour I would add, Stephen, is clearly there's a lot of moving parts in the group and informing guidance, and it's probably important to note that we have considered a number of, I guess, reasonably possible outcomes as they relate to FX and fuel, informing that guidance range as well.

Okay, thanks Alistair. Second question also on the guidance, really two parts. So just following up on your comment there Alistair on fuel cost, I mean at the low end of the range are you assuming that fuel costs remain at current levels for the rest of the year and perhaps at the top end of the range you're assuming they come down? Like some sense of the assumptions and providing what's a reasonable range but are you sure taking a worst case outcome at the low end and then have you assumed mitigation of your costs and the numbers you provided?

Thanks, Stephen. That's question number three and four, but that's okay. We're not counting for friends. And, Alistair, do you want to start on the fuel cost and then the mitigation?

Yeah, absolutely. Like, to talk about fuel holistically, we did come out with an update to our guidance in April as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, and at that point called out a $5 million to $10 million impact across the four months. Of course, at that point, as now, it's actually difficult to predict the outcome and where fuel prices may track in the market. I think what's been pleasing through the four months of FY26 has been the team's ability to mitigate these costs, both through operational improvements and pricing actions taken through that period. So I would say that the 5% for the four months is fairly representative of our run rate, noting that fuel prices are currently lower than the average that they were for that five months. So, yes, at the end, we have assumed an improvement on fuel prices, and at the top end, we have assumed a worsening.

Thanks, Stephen.

Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Adrian Elbon from Jardin. Please go ahead, Adrian. Your line is open.

Oh, good morning, team. I'm just wondering, in the healthcare division... Hey, how are you going? In the healthcare division, when we look at page 27, or slide 27, I'm just wondering if you can help bridge for us. I think the New Zealand... and Southeast Asia revenue is up 10%, but the EBITDA is down 10%. Can you just give us a bit more detail of what's going on there?

Yeah, absolutely, Adrian. It's a fair question. I'm going to start and Alice is going to chime in. So two different pressures here in terms of firstly Forex and then the Southeast Asian capital items. So I know that there was a lot going on in last year's full year announcement, but we did point to the second half of FY25 having an absolutely outstanding gap in terms of capital items sales in Southeast Asia. So if you think of that as being well above the norm, and then the number of capital items in the second half of FY26 probably slightly below norms for Southeast Asia. So that plays into it. but also with the Australian dollar at 13 years highs against the New Zealand dollar. That has a big influence on our New Zealand earnings. And Alastair, would you add to that?

In terms of the drivers of EVA, they are the two large forces at play. Just to put it into context, the capital sales perhaps in the second half. Capital sales were more than double in FY25 than the prior corresponding year. FY26 was more akin to FY24. So that type of material invites, and then it's that one called FX. It's clearly at an unusual high. I would view, absent not being certain of where FX prices, FX may go, to be temporary factors, Adrian. There's nothing underlying or systemic in the outcome. Then the second or second, sorry. Go on, Adrian.

Can I just tidy this little bit up? So in constant currency terms, which you have sort of introduced for this part, do you have a sense of what the EBITDA would have been or would have been closer to, I think you said constant currency was more like 8% growth, wasn't it? I know that's for the division including Australia, but what would be the constant currency kind of equivalent?

Yeah, I mean, the Delta would be the Delta would be several of the benefits of the material impact in terms of how we translate our mix back into to AUD from from Southeast Asia. So like both are, they are the entirety of the region. Typically, we would expect that region to grow, given the given the weighting to MedTech, it's sort of mid to high single digits on a sort of sustainable track. Underline, that's what that's what happens. It may be helpful to maybe reference, outside of capital sales, we did continue to see low double-digit growth in our med-tech business. So there isn't, again, there isn't anything fundamental in that, it's temporary. But I'm conscious you're the second part of the question is then, is why revenue 10% up as well? We did mention at the half, we did have our because it was a similar distortion at half one. We did have a change in one of our contract logistics customers from 3PL to 4PL in the first half, which increased revenue, but not GOR or EBITDA. So that's distorted the margin. Again, that's a temporary factor. So we should expect that to normalize as we go forward.

Okay. Thank you for that. So capital sales, big swags. on the comparative, typically for the second half, and then in the revenues, a change in customer recognition, 3PL, 4PL, and FX being the other bridge in that explanation.

Well summarised, yes.

Good summary. Okay. Just the second question, just staying in medical technologies. Like, it feels to me like, arithmetically, The group returns there are more like 7%. When you think about you've spent $1.6 billion out of the $2 billion out of the last five years, and the earnings number doesn't look like it's 120-ish, 130-ish. What is the license to keep deploying money into that space? What sort of returns are you actually targeting from the bolt-ons? and how do you kind of lift the group returns against that kind of arithmetic starting point?

Yeah, fair question, Adrian. I think we go back to yesterday and we start with the tested calculation that we made around the return on capital deployed in M&A over the last, I believe it was five years, of 16%. So we're confident that the deployment of capital really creates value for the group there. What we're observing on the ground is the, I would say, the critical mass that we're achieving in Southeast Asia and the solutions that are coming to market in other graphs. So the critical mass that we're hitting in Southeast Asia is we now have the backbone of a leadership position across the region and we're seeing more and more that gives us access to franchise expansions, that means the sort of suppliers are choosing to come to us with their new products for the region. A great example is actually Catalyst, where we had an existing relationship with that supplier in Australia. They were really pleased with the work that we'd done for them there. And then we went through this acquisition, we've then extended that supplier relationship throughout Southeast Asia, and we think we've got a lot more growth opportunities. So that's in terms of the metric distribution, sort of leveraging that growth position and that scale. Within Allagraphs, you know, we brought the acellular dermal matrix to market. We talked a bit about it at the Investor Day. It was a new approach, a new solution to helping people with breast reconstruction. That's caught on really well because it's got a tremendous impact on patient recovery. And so we keep getting drawn into more and more procedures. And so I think that will also continue to be a great opportunity for the group. So, really pleased with Medtech and, you know, looking forward to more growth.

But just to halt you there, like, is the maths right? Like, if you look at the capital employed to date, are you returning about 7% out of that vertical?

I think the... I don't... I have not had the opportunity to go back and look over the life healthcare acquisition, which was over five years ago now. That's right. within 2021? I think, yeah.

I think, Adrian, what we have seen certainly in recent years is a continued improvement of the return on capital employed from the division, which speaks to both the, I guess, the organic growth potential, particularly of the markets in Southeast Asia, but also in ANZ, as well as the accretive bolt-on acquisitions, which, as we've talked about, both of synergistic value and provide access and sort of follow high margin, high growth geographies and therapy areas. So I think, would we like it, would we like, are we, sorry, are we targeting a higher return on capital at the group? Absolutely. We continue to be focused on driving towards 15% of the group and MedTech will continue to increase as part of that.

Okay. So the So if I summarise that, you sort of regard the establishment of MedTech, which is a sizable amount of money as a sort of a frank investment, and the activities that you're doing now are quite accretive off that platform. That's correct.

We certainly think that it's accretive on the platform.

It certainly is accretive.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Laura Sookley from City. Please ask your question, Laura. Your line is open. Hello.

Thank you for taking my question. Firstly, can I ask if you've got any remaining inventory work done or systems cut over left to do related to the DC program now that Kemps Creek is up and running? I'm thinking about the kind of tail work that you do to finish off the shutdown of the old pieces?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I'm delighted that when we say the chapter's closed, the chapter's closed. So all of the impact of the startup and inventory transition is captured within the FY26 results. We wouldn't be expecting that to hit us in FY27. Laura, just for those who may not, recognize your point. During the year, we were forced to run, for example, two facilities at the same time in parallel as we brought up Kim's career. And I believe that Laura's referring to the fact that that's a heavy load on us. But now that's behind us, and we're now putting them to work in getting the utilization up.

Great. That's very clear. And then my second question is, in the community pharmacy setting, do you find that you're having to compete for patient spend on high-price, out-of-pocket drugs, so GLP-1s in the weight loss setting will be the obvious example, or do you just get the market share that you would expect without too much extra effort and the Terry White positioning as it is?

Yeah, I think what we see is the GLP-1 space is fierce in the sense that it's a real flashpoint for competitive dynamics, and we probably indexed slightly low in GLP-1s in terms of our share. It's still very respectable, but slightly less than what you might expect. However, in high-value medicines, which are... High-value medicines are, of course, much higher than GLP-1s. They're more than $1,000 a dose. That's where we probably tend to over-index in our share. And that's, again, a result of the reliability of the Symbian network and the care focus of Terry White. So I think that's consistent with our positioning in the markets.

Perfect. Thanks very much. Thank you.

You're welcome.

We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Stephen Hudson from Macquarie Securities. Please go ahead, Stephen. Your line is open.

Hi, Stephen. This is actually Nick from Macquarie Securities. Just tied up another call. I was asking a couple of questions on his line.

Yeah, that's a really great question. So in the first month of trading, we've seen three different factors at work. First is the, exactly as you say, the change in the tiering of medicines from three tiers to four tiers. We've then seen increased or continued competitive dynamics. But offsetting that, we've then had the CSO come through. literally one month of trading. I think we'd say it's as expected and the impact's included in the guidance that we provided for the year. But more data to come as that trading shakes out. And I think over time, moving from that three-tier system to the four-tier system is a net benefit for us, but in the short term, a little less so. And why do I say that? Because the cap changes from $54 to $223. So with the continued rise of high medicines and complex medicines, that will tend to work to our benefit in the Symbian Division.

Great. And then just in terms of the CSO poll, are you guys still on track to capture the 29% share that you previously talked about of the funding uplift?

We're absolutely on track on a gross basis. to capture 29% of the $78 million. Again, those two other factors that I've just called out, the offsetting impact in the short term of three tiers moving to four tiers, which is probably a mild headwind, and then, of course, continued competitive dynamics in the space. As you pointed out, Nick, we're just in the first month. It's going to take a little while to settle in. But again, our best expectation contained in that guidance number we've provided.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. We're going to take our next question from the line of Marcus Culley from UBS. Please ask your question. Marcus, your line is open.

Hi, Marcus.

Good morning, team. Adam, I just wondered if you could be drawn a little bit more on maybe a divisional view on that guidance in terms of the relative growth rates. Are you expecting in particular higher or lower than 5% in health care?

Yeah, if I go back to our four divisions, the expectation is bang on investor day. So we'd expect slightly slower growth from Symbian Healthcare distribution, slightly higher growth from retail pharmacy brands, animal care and medical technology. And again, the opportunities there are sort of real. They're accruing from our current leadership positions in each of those sectors. And so that's what gives us the confidence despite some of the cost pressures in front of us.

Great and I suppose you've mentioned competition a few times when it comes to community pharmacy. Maybe if you could just elaborate a little bit in terms of is this sort of the rolling impact as you contract more and more of your third party distributors or maybe just a little bit more context in terms of how that competition is playing out at the moment?

Yeah, Marcus, absolutely. And forgive me if I repeat what I think we've spoken about before, but the change of the single largest wholesale customer two years ago kicked off a period of market flux. And during that period, we also happened to see an increase in contract renewals during FY25 So that really kicked off a period of competitive intensity. I would say that competitive intensity accelerated and increased during FY25, but then I would say has stabilised. It hasn't reduced, but I'd say it's stabilised during FY26. So we would expect that competitive intensity to continue during FY27, and that's what we've baked into the guidance. So you'd describe it more as a...

It's more of an annualisation of where margins have got to as opposed to, or rebates, as opposed to incremental reductions.

I'd say a little bit of both. I'd say, because remember the average tenner length is in the region of three to four years. So you've still got some, you've got the annualisation of the ones you refer to, but you've also got some new ones coming in at the more competitive rate.

Sure. And then secondly, if you call it a second question, I just want to give you a little bit of perspective. It might be two and a half. Could you just give us a little bit of perspective in terms of where you saw market growth in the two big markets, being community and hospital, last year and where you think market growth is going this year? I suppose music being, I suppose, your overall level of spend in medicines.

Sure. I'm going to throw to Alastair in just a moment to speak to both of those in community pharmacy and in hospital. But I'd say the thematic here is, of course, GLP-1s, but also high-value medicines. So we're seeing the continued emergence of a couple of oncology blockbusters that continue to also be high-value and making a difference in the market. Alastair, what would you add to that?

Yeah, I mean, that's certainly an important dynamic, which is obviously driving the growth. I mean, GLP-1s are still continuing to grow quickly in dollar terms. They're obviously beginning to cycle a higher base. So we saw in the second half slightly slower high growth from GLP-1s. I would expect that to continue unless there is a change in format for GLP-1s. What I would say in addition to that in community pharmacy, somewhat tied to my previous comment. We did see very high growth in FY25, and in particular in the second half, we grew revenue at 20%. So there is some cycling impacts in 26, but I think as we look forward, I think the two drivers of growth will continue to be high-value medicines and GLP-1s.

Did we answer your question there, Marcus?

Well, I suppose when you look at the PBS data in the last five months, the overall level of Section 85 medicine spenders' growth is zero. So I take your point, there's a lot of growth and high value, but it does seem like there's other things offsetting it. I'm not sure if you're necessarily seeing that, because obviously PBS data is not quite the full picture, but it does feel like the level of overall growth in medicines... is starting to plateau.

I think on the PBS, that's absolutely right. Again, what we're seeing is in the high value, in the private scripts, in the GLP-1s, that's what's continuing to to flow through for us. And also that's probably thematically consistent with the continued rise of complex medicines and more advanced medicines that are coming ahead.

The only other point I'd sort of reiterate on that, Marcus, is that there is an element of cycling of very high growth rate in the second half and more broadly across FY25. I think it's important It's as much about that as it is about the ongoing trajectory of growth in the industry. So it's just one to bear in mind. It's certainly a very high opportunity.

Sure. So does it count as two and a half, Marcus?

Well, there's extensions. You don't know off the top of your head what private script would be of your community pharmacy business and your hospital business. I think our expectations were contained in the guidance we provided, Marcus, but I will let you... Oh, no, no, just as a level of what is the relative size of private script versus government funded, just to give us a feel of the magnitude of what each of them contributes. Yeah, I...

I think we won't be sharing that today, but I appreciate the theme and we'll think about it for future discussion.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Dan Hearn from MST Marquee. Please go ahead, Dan. Your line is open.

Oh, good morning. Thanks so much. Just want to go back to the wholesale agreement again and understand you're talking about those three T's there. I think originally you were talking about the changes to markup and so forth across those tiers would be managed to be relatively neutral and the CSO uplift would sort of come through as the benefit. Has it played out that way?

Yeah, it's been one month of trading, Dan. Very fair question. I would say it's been a mild negative on the change from the three tiers to the four tiers in that first month of trading. So it is going to be an offset for us. I think long-term it's very helpful, but in these... And again, it's one month and it's straight after the financial year-end, so it's tough to get a comprehensive read that we think will continue. But certainly I think our bias would be a slight negative in the short-term.

Okay, understood. So just on that basis, and looking at the uplift in the CSO, which is pretty significant, I mean, it makes the EBITDA, underlying EBITDA growth you've got at 2S by 27 look pretty modest, especially with some of the acquisitions from the last year that are contributing to that. So, I mean, are you implying that there's softness in the underlying business, or is that CSO benefit smaller than we're imagining?

I think you've mentioned tiering, which is absolutely fair, and one of the other callers mentioned the ongoing competitive challenges within community pharmacy. And as we mentioned there, there's continued... rollover of contracts into the new pricing regime or softer pricing regime, as well as annualising what occurred before. So I think the net expression, we're very confident with the guidance, and that reflects both a slower growth in Symbian and healthcare distribution, but also great gains in the other divisions.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Thanks, Dan.

We will now proceed to the next question. From the line of Ben Crozier from Foresight Bar, please go ahead, Ben. Your line is open.

Morning, guys. Just a quick one on the Symbian Network. You've given help to give a realisation for contract logistics over in Australia. Where does utilisation sit for the Symbian Network in Australia? Obviously, you've put a bit of capacity on that side of the business at the moment, and how many years of growth do you need to grow into that capacity, do you think?

That's a great question. I'd be disappointed if we were busting at the seams having just finished, like literally in the last half. I think we've got a number of years of growth ahead of us. And it also, I think there's two sort of layers to that. One is just straight up more rack space that we can deploy now, but also the sort of smaller and more efficient slugs of incremental capex if we want to re-rack or add more incremental capex later on, excuse me, incremental capacity later on. So I think we've got plenty of years of growth in front of us. The focus today is productivity. Let's take the volume that we do have and pump it through as most efficiently as possible. So the three automated facilities that we have, Keyes Borough, Acacia Ridge, Kemp's Creek, they account for the vast majority of our million doses a day that we supply to Australians. And so every time that we can drive our productivity, that really impacts the labour cost base. in Thames Creek, I think we've set up a target of 30% productivity over grey stains to be achieved by the year end and certainly the team are charging ahead on getting to that productivity.

Maybe just a second one on CapEx. You're pulling CapEx back quite a lot next year. How much of that $100 million is maintenance or ongoing CapEx versus how much is available for growth? Are you going to have to stick to that $100 million and turn away attractive growth projects if you get A lot of your divisions come to you with attractive investment opportunities well above your cost of capital hurdle and you're saying, no, is that how we should read it?

Ben, I'm not sure if one of the divisional CEOs got to you and has been asking you to ask me that question, but certainly there's no shortage of great growth opportunities in front of us, but we are very disciplined about what's the return that they can provide. In terms of the overall maintenance versus growth within the $100 million budget, I'd say a little more than half is connected to maintenance and safety. And so that leaves a healthy clip for growth opportunities. And we won't be held back if... won't be held back if there's an incremental opportunity to deploy capital to, I don't know, serve a customer. It's interesting you mention it, Ben, because one of the divisions actually had an opportunity come up in the last month where a customer came to them with an urgent request for a little extra capital, but a very attractive contract extension, which we've done. Now, I've talked about capital in terms of capital expenditure. But of course, the other thing that I think we're pleased about with the reduction in CapEx is it just gives us a little more room for Bolton M&A as well. And again, with that privileged access to deal flow, I think there's going to be some opportunities there that were pretty interesting.

All good. Thank you. That's all from me.

Thanks, Ben.

We will now take our next question from Saul Hudison from Baron Joey. Please ask your question, Saul. Your line is open.

Thanks, and good morning, Adam and Alice there.

Good morning, Saul.

Apologies if I missed this on the call, Adam, but was there any commentary you made around the outlook for the Chemist Warehouse New Zealand wholesaling contract?

Yeah, Futsal, very fair question. So let me mention again what we said at Investor Day. We don't love commenting on individual contracts, but this one has been mentioned before. It's well understood that the contract should be able to roll off at the end of calendar 26, and we are, the team have known that for a long time, and they have a They're expected to redeploy or reduce the cost base to match changes in their contract base, including this contract. Now, the two things probably to add. One is, structurally, the New Zealand pharmacy wholesale market is significantly less attractive than the Australian pharmacy wholesale market. It's a much lower margin base. So the loss of any contract in New Zealand is less meaningful in terms of group-wide EBITDA and that probably helps to explain why the magnitude of this contract would be mid to high single digit EBITDA millions, so 1% of Group EBITDA. The other thing to mention is, and maybe we haven't done a good job of really pointing this out, but our New Zealand colleagues have done a great job over the last few years of consolidating and modernising the asset base So they absolutely are aware of commercial dynamics in New Zealand and have been tailoring our asset base to suit. So I think we're comfortable that, again, that contract is scheduled to roll off at the end of calendar 26 and that the team will deal with it appropriately. Does that give you a little bit more background on that one, Saul?

Yeah, it does. So just to follow up, the guidance that you've given for fiscal 27, does that assume half a year's worth of that contract and then the second half it expires? Is that how we should read that?

It certainly includes our best understanding of that contract for FY27. Okay.

That's all I have. Thanks.

Oh, thanks, Saul.

Thanks, Saul.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Tom Godfrey from Audminet. Please go ahead, Tom. Your line is open.

Hey, Tom. Good morning, Adam.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I just had a quick one for Alastair, actually, just around the restructuring and transition costs taken below the line. It looked like another $16 million in the second half. Now that we're through the DC renewal program, does that sort of go to zero, to $27 million, or just... any comments around the outlook for one-off costs and cash conversions next year?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Tom. As I mentioned on the call, the vast majority of the one-off costs or the restructuring and safe transition costs of these were connected to the GCO renewal program. That has obviously now concluded, so we would expect the we wouldn't expect any other site-related transition costs associated with that programme as we look forward. That and the reduction in capex will both support stronger cash flows as we look forward to FY27, which we're obviously pleased about because that provides further capacity and flexibility to invest in growth. So looking forward to that in 27. That's all I have. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Tom.

Thank you. That's the end of the question and answer session. Thank you all very much for your questions. I'll now turn the conference back to Adam for his closing comments.

Thank you all for dialling in today. We really appreciate the time you've taken, and we also very much value the questions that have been asked. Importantly, as you just heard Alistair mention, Airfly 26 was an inflection year for EVOS. It's now behind us. Looking forward, if you think that humans will continue to age and continue to love their pets, then the EVOS portfolio is well positioned to deliver this care, productively and in partnerships with others. Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.