Chorus Limited (CNU) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the course H526 results. All participants are in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Ray, CEO. Please go ahead. Good morning everyone and welcome to Chorus' results presentation for the six months ended 31 December 2025. I'm Mark Owe, Chief Executive and joining me is Drew Davies, our Chief Operating Officer. I'll begin with an overview of our results for the half year and cover some of the progress we're making on our strategy, having just entered our next phase into Horizon 2. Gerard will then take you through the financials and FY26 guidance, and I will close out with the outlook for the second half and longer term. For the past two years, we've noted the economic downturn and its material impact across our country. We'd recognise economic recovery is at best still lumpy. Over the same period, we've continued to highlight the resilience of fibre more seemingly as an essential service, and so are pleased to be reporting another robust result for the first half. From the results perspective, comparing half on half, total fibre connections were up 3% at over $1.1 million, with uptake lifting to 72.4% and fibre revenues growing by 7%. Our ongoing focus on simplicity and efficiency has reduced operating expenses by 3%. Per previous thematics, this is despite inflationary pressures and non-tradable costs such as rent rates and electricity. EBITDA of $357 million is $11 million ahead of the comparative half, with underlying operating cash flows in line with prior year. Gross capex was $158 million, with ...