Origin Energy Ltd Ord (OGFGF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2026 half year results for Origin Energy. It's Frank Calabria here and I'm joined by my executive leadership team. I'll provide a brief overview of the performance and outlook. Tony Lucas will also provide an overview of the financial results and we'll follow that with questions and answers. And you may already be aware, but you'll see that we've got additional detail included in the appendices. Okay, so then turning to the highlights, I think the overall message for Origin in this half is a half year results that have been solid, allowing an upgrade to the full year guidance for energy markets. Our retail performance continued to strengthen. Grid scale batteries added further portfolio flexibility. Gas production was steady and we continued to maintain cost management discipline. Turning to the summary of the financial result, Overall, we've got EBITDA of $860 million for energy markets, which is higher than expected with continued strong operational performance. Integrated Gas also had an EBITDA of $860 million, which was in line with expectations for APLNG and LNG trading. Octopus recorded an EBITDA loss of $89 million for the half, reflecting seasonality in their earnings, UK regulatory costs. They've invested in smart tariffs to grow connected customers, and they continue to invest in the scaling of their non-UK retail and energy services businesses. Turning to the business highlights, operational performance across the portfolio has been strong. We grew our customer base by 96,000. We reduced our cost to serve by 32 million. We brought the Uraring Battery Stage 1 online and it's generating revenue since December and it was delivered on time and on budget. Super Node 1 is in commissioning in January and we've been earning...