Brambles Limited (BXB) Q2 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

I'll start today by sharing some of our performance highlights for the first half of 2025, an overview of the operating environment, and an update on our transformation progress before commenting on our outlook for the full year. I will then pass over to Joaquin to provide a more detailed update on our financials. We achieved a 4%. with equal contributions from price realisation and volume growth, while delivering a 10% uplift in underlying profit against last year. The return to volume growth was pleasing, especially net new business wins in our US pallets business, while pricing continued to recover the cost to serve. Our profit result demonstrates continued operating leverage, driven by ongoing commercial discipline and productivity benefits. including further improvements to asset efficiency, which delivered a material reduction in uncompensated losses in the period. The significant improvement to asset efficiency was also a key contributor to our free cash flow before dividends performance of US$429 million, which increased US$118 million from the same period last year. The strength of cash flow generation in the first half has informed our decision today to upgrade our FY25 cash flow outlook by US$100 million, primarily driven by lower-than-expected capital expenditure, which we will discuss in more detail. Our profit performance, combined with the enhanced stability of free cash flow generation, has supported us declaring an interim dividend of US$0.19 per share. This represents a 27% increase on the prior comparative period and a payout ratio of 58%, which is in line with our increased dividend payout ratio range of 50% to 70% announced in August 2024. These strong financial results are a direct benefit of our shaping our future transformation, which has stru...