Whitehaven Coal Limited

Whitehaven Coal Q4 FY26 Quarterly Production Report. All participants are currently on mute. Following management commentary, we will open the call for questions from sales side analysts. The queue for questions, you may press star 1 on your touch phone keypad. Thank you for joining us today. I would now like to hand over to Managing Director and CEO, Paul Flynn. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everybody. Thanks very much for joining us now for the June quarter production report. Very pleased to put a final quarter to this financial year that rounded out a year full of second-half disruptions, in fact, whether that be weather or conflicts, obviously, around the world. But despite all that, I think we've done well to button down the year and record some positive numbers to give us aggregate positive outcomes. So as usual I'll just go through the highlights and then we'll get to Q&A and as usual I'm joined by our COO Ian Humphries and our CFO Kevin Ball. So just to round out the Q4 round out to the year our total reportable injury frequency rate was a very positive outcome for the group so safety has delivered 3.3 is the tripper and that's actually a record for the expanded business which is very positive to see. The June quarter ROM production at 10.7 million tonnes was a nice increment over and above the weather affected March and we crested 40 million tonnes, 40.3 in fact for the year as a group which is very positive to see. The June quarter equity sales at 6.3 million tonnes and again the total for the year on an equity basis of 26 million tonnes. Revenue mix at 57% metallurgical, 43% thermal for the year. DefY unit costs, 26 unit costs of $132 came out well and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that a little bit later in Q&A and our CapEx again on the lower side of our range that we provided at $350 million. On the cost saving initiatives we have done well coming in between the $60 to $80 million range of annualised savings that we've mentioned before and I'll talk a little bit about that further. Net debt at $1.3 billion AUD is as expected and where we were guiding you earlier, that is after paying the second of the large payments to BHP or to VMA of $500 million US. Just in terms of the highlights quickly on Queensland versus New South Wales, Queensland are on production at 5.7, New South Wales at 5 million tonnes round. Queensland equity sales at 3.2 million tonnes and New South Wales equity sales tonnes there at 3.1. In terms of realised pricing, June quarter for Queensland at $2.47 Aussie, June quarter for New South Wales $197 Aussie. So I just changed it up a bit more like the state of origin, but New South Wales slightly ahead there in a couple of other metrics. Over to the table here, you can see the impact of obviously the second half, as I say, disrupted in some ways, as it has been. So if you look at the totals there, 10.7, as I mentioned already, at a group level, nice recovery over 9.5 in the June quarter, whether effective as it was. You can really see the impact of that when you go top down to the Queensland versus New South Wales comparison. Queensland obviously very weather-affected in the March quarter. Bounceback mass at 5.7 as we mentioned, 41% improvement based on the March quarter. New South Wales obviously bearing less of the brunt of weather in the March quarter, rounded out a good year at just on 5 million tonnes versus 5.4 for the March quarter. So good recoveries overall, but you can see the impacts of one state versus the other with the weather in one and less so in the other. As I say, 5.7 was a good result, 41% up on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Managed sales at the produced level of coal at 4 million tonnes for the June quarter, slightly down on the March quarter as we sold despite the weather impacts impacting in that quarter. The June closing stocks in Queensland at 2.1 million tonnes are reasonably healthy, carrying that into the afterlife 27-year. 20.1 million tonnes for Queensland for FY26. That's a very positive outcome and our managed sales on produced coal at 15.9 million tonnes were at the top of our guidance range for FY26. Blackwater's June quarter at 4 million tonnes was very healthy and a nice recovery for the team based on the wet weather in the March quarter. very positive to see that. Dornier which was less weather affected than Blackwater you can see quarter on quarter has been relatively consistent and landed 1.7 million tonnes of ROM production for the June quarter which is nicely up on March but not proportionate the same step forward that Blackwater had given the weather affected outcomes that it had for the March quarter. Overall very positive result and moving on to New South Wales 5 million tonnes as I mentioned for the managed ROM for New South Wales. As I say, New South Wales slightly got over the top of Queensland at 20.2 million tonnes and our managed sales of produced coal at 16.8 million tonnes are at the top of the FY26 range. The open cuts have done very well during the course of the New South Wales year, and particularly in this quarter, Malls Creek doing very nicely. The open cuts also being a model of stability and producing consistently through the course of the quarter. Malls Creek 3.5 million tonnes is broadly in line with the March quarter, so they've had a nice six months, obviously less affected by weather. Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited of the intrusions into the coal seam and the addition of a fault across perpendicular to the stress directions in this panel has caused us certainly some lower productivity during the course of this quarter, but it's nice to see that improving now, and we can talk about that in the Q&A section of this call. Flipping over to sales, June quarter, it delivered equity sales at 6.3 million tonnes, so 3.2 versus 3.1 for New South Wales. a 7% lower than March with a 6% improvement on our previous corresponding period. Now, the achieved prices for Queensland, an average of $247 Aussie for the June quarter was slightly up on March and averaged for the year there at $229 for FY26. The PLV across that period averaged $238, which is broadly in line, as I say, with where we've been in March. The PLV averaged $214 for the full year. which was up on last year at US average for the year 196. Our operations realised price is $176 US per tonne and that's about 74% across the four products of a realisation relative to the PLV hard coke index. The suite of our primary coking products versus the secondary is 61% for the hard coking semi-hard versus 35% for the PCI semi-soft and 4% attributed to thermal sales during that period. Switching over to New South Wales, as I mentioned earlier, $197 a ton Aussie for the quarter, 13% up on the March quarter, and this compares with an average of $177 Aussie for the full year. The June quarter actually is 136 US per tonne, 14% up on the March quarter at 120. Obviously energy security concerns playing out as a result of the conflict in the Middle East in this space. The GCNU average is $118 for the full year, which was slightly less than last year at $121. Moving on to the dynamics in the market, as I say, the met coal market, whilst we have been recording better prices, don't forget the currency has been moving during this period when we've seen prices, and we have added in the back table, on the back, just the currency that occurred on a quarter-on-quarter basis for you, just to remind you of that fact. We've had a lot of questions about realised pricing being better. That's true, but the currency during the period of the heightened periods of the conflict has also consumed part of that face value, the price benefit that we would have otherwise seen. But we are entering a period now where obviously we've had mine closures as a result of safety concerns in China. You definitely have had... some reduced sales into the Indian market by virtue of the weather and monsoon season being upon us now but you've actually had better mining conditions in Queensland as a result of the period post the weather of the March quarter which is actually seeing Queensland produce better and so there's a little bit more coal in the market at the moment. Flipping to the New South Wales side and obviously the thermal side of the market does benefit from the energy security concerns associated with the conflict in the Middle East and so you've seen some volatility of that rising and falling as a result of the announcements that come from the progression of that contract and in more recent times we've seen that re-elevate again as a result of further announcements but again there is a volatility to the news flow associated with this and unfortunately the thermal price seems to track it which makes it a little bit difficult for projections going forward. The market dynamics themselves remain unchanged, so we think structurally we're in a well position on both the met and thermal side of the market. We certainly see longer term, the met coal demand is certainly going to be short longer term, and the thermal side things would see a similar impact there as well. I don't think anybody needs a lesson in terms of the approvals timeline, so no matter what the prices are, the supply side response on both the met and the thermal side responses to any increase in prices would be muted and of course in Queensland in particular any supply side response needs to be viewed in the context of the royalty regime which is going to keep a damper on any new capital being deployed into that space. Over to production costs at $132 I think we've outperformed there in terms of rounding out the year. A combination of active management out costs and better performance across the year being at the upper end of our sales and ROM targets certainly assisted in that regard. As I say, we've done well on the cost out targets and we will go through the final verification processes for the landing point between the $60 to $80 million that we've achieved for the year and we'll confirm that at the time of the full year results. But we've done a very good job there in terms of managing the volumes. Of course, it's slightly assisted by the lower cost side of the portfolio being New South Wales being proportionately a little bit higher in this year than it was in previous. So that certainly has had a benefit as well. On the balance sheet side of things, I think that predictably 1.3 billion net debt, there's no real excitement there. That was pretty well covered in terms of what the cash flow projections were, as I could see from the various analysts. But obviously the highlight during the course of the quarter was the landing of the refinancing very, very successfully, as we've spoken about already. The $1.5 billion... U.S. facility that we had as a result of acquisition has been refinanced through the bank and bond market, very successfully lowering our costs of finance. And that will be a structural improvement for the business in terms of the way that average cost of capital that now applies to Whitehaven. Payments to PMA as a result of deferred and contingent payments. Of course, we paid the last of the large payments, the $5,000. Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited and we've given you the number that we paid there, $58 million, for the second year of that arrangement. And then we've also given you an estimate of where we're tracking for the first quarter of this last year three of this arrangement, being about $53 million US. On the buyback side of things, during the course of the quarter, we purchased 2.4 million shares at a total cost of $21 million US. and the total buyback expenditure during the course of the half was $32 million, consistent with the announcement that we made in February. So we have included the buyback program that was announced at that time, and over the course of the full year, we purchased 10.1 million shares and bought back a total of $77 million. So the buyback has performed well for us. We'll give further guidance in terms of dividend and buyback-related outcomes when we deliver the full year results. From a project's perspective, there's nothing particular to draw your attention to there, so I'll skip straight across to the conclusion for the year, and that is a good result to recover from both weather impacts and the volatility associated with the Middle East conflict and diesel pricing variability as well. So I think the team's done a really good job, and if I just reflect on the guidance quickly, 40.3 million tonnes split pretty evenly across New South Wales and Queensland very good outcome given the circumstances for the year the sales were 32.7 at a managed level again New South Wales and Queensland done very well in that regard and our costs of course I think that is the standout in terms of where we've been able to land at $132 Aussie per tonne for the year of course that will be subject to final auditing with the full year financial results Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited We're going to conclude and we might hand back to the operator and start the Q&A. Thank you.

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