Bluescope Steel Ltd (BLSFF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Bluescope's FY25 financial results presentation. I'm Mark Vassella and I'm joined this morning by David Fallew, our Chief Financial Officer. David and I will take you through the results materials, then we'll open it up for Q&A. We're joining you today from Bluescope's head office in Melbourne, part of the Eastern Kulin Nation. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Wiradjuri peoples. We pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people joining us today. To the highlights. FY25 was a challenging year, but one where Bluescope executed well and continued to make progress. Despite volatility in US spreads and trade policies and cyclically soft conditions in Asia, driven by record-still exports from China, the group delivered a resilient result. Underpinned by our diversified portfolio and multi-domestic strategy, we recorded $738 million in underlying EBIT and a return on invested capital of 6.2%. We made great progress on our cost and productivity program, continued to advance major capital projects targeting $500 million in annual earnings growth by 2030, and positioned our strategic property portfolio to realise value starting in FY26. We also continued to drive cultural and operational improvements through our global refocus on safety program and made solid strides in our decarbonisation initiatives. Our financial headlines. Underlying EBIT of $738 million was lower than FY24, mainly due to lower steel spreads. We maintained a strong balance sheet, finishing the year with $28 million net debt. During the year, we returned $293 million to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. And the board today has approved a 50% final dividend of 30 cents per share and extended th...