GTN Ltd.

GTN Ltd.

AASX:GTN
0.18
AUD
0.00
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-0.03EPS
125.84MMarket Cap
Feb 24Next Earn

Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 23, 2026

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Peter Tonagh, Chairman.

Please go ahead.

Peter Tonagh

Thanks, Chuck. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the GTN investor call in relation to the FY '26 financial year.

I have with me today our Global CFO, Ben Brooks, and our Chief General Counsel, Sophie Jackson. Our Global CEO, Vic Larusso, has unfortunately suffered a sports injury over the weekend and can't be with me today, but I know that he'll be listening in intently.

FY '26 was undoubtedly a challenging year, a year of significant market disruption. GTN has come through that period leaner, more focused, and better positioned for the future, and we're excited about the opportunity ahead for you, our shareholders.

I want to make four simple points about our positioning before handing over to Ben to take you through the FY '26 financials in more detail. First, GTN continues to deliver a unique proposition to both our advertisers and our affiliate networks.

We offer one of the largest, highest-impact broadcast audience reach propositions in each of the four markets we operate in today, and those four markets are among the top 10 advertising markets in the world. Second, our position in this market is underpinned by long-term affiliate agreements that are now largely secure in Australia, our largest market, until at least 2030.

Our proposition in Australia is anchored by our long-term agreement with SCA, Australia's largest audio provider, through a contract that runs through until 2046. We've recently added a key new affiliate and extended other major contracts until around 2030.

We will not renew one large affiliate agreement at the end of the year, contributing significant dollar savings while retaining our reach proposition through our new affiliate and the extension of coverage with existing affiliate partners. Our third point is that this proposition translates into significant cash flow, which is the metric that we've determined to be our primary measure of success.

Last year, we generated $22 million in free cash flow while securing an annualized $15 million of cash savings per year through affiliate renegotiations, our exit from aviation, and operating efficiencies from initiatives including AI. We expect $20 million per annum of run-rate operating cost savings by 2028, the vast majority of which have already been enacted.

We've also been very focused on improving the way we grow revenue. Across the group, we're strengthening our direct relationships with clients, expanding access to new opportunities through agency partnerships, and becoming more disciplined in the way in which we manage and monetize our premium inventory.

Finally, with that free cash flow, we continue to focus on returning cash to our shareholders. With today's declared dividend of $10 million, we will have returned over $67 million in cash to shareholders over the past two years while maintaining a conservative balance sheet.

We expect to continue to distribute 100% of NPATA each year, which, based on recent guidance, represents a 13% to 26% dividend yield for FY '27 based on today's market capitalization. Overall, we believe that we're very well positioned for the future.

I'll now hand over to Ben for some more detail on FY '26.

Ben Brooks

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone. Group results: for the full year, group net revenue was $156 million, down 13.4% on FY '25, and adjusted EBITDA was $13 million, down 21.8%.

Both were ahead of guidance. Bridging the two halves: at the half year, we reported revenue of $82.5 million, down 14.7%, and adjusted EBITDA of $5.8 million, down 53%, alongside a $41.5 million non-cash impairment against goodwill and intangibles in Australia and the UK.

The second half recovered meaningfully as cost actions were realized and Brazil's momentum continued. Full-year adjusted EBITDA of $13 million implies second-half EBITDA of approximately $7.2 million, over 20% higher than the first half.

FY '26 segment performance in summary: Australia grew EBITDA despite weaker revenue on the cost-out initiatives. Brazil was our standout with strong revenue growth, which converted into dynamic margin expansion.

Brazil is now our fastest-growing market and is continuing to invest in new regions, which are not yet at full expected run rate. Canada underperformed in a tough ad market.

Management has reset the cost base, providing a path to profitability. The UK faces structural headwinds from a changing media landscape, and are reviewing options to restore profitability or eliminate the risk of sustained losses.

Corporate benefited from disciplined cost management group-wide. Cost initiatives: we actioned $12 million of annualized savings in FY '26, of which approximately $6 million is reflected in this year's result; the balance flows through in FY '27.

This included renegotiating key affiliate arrangements in Australia, the non-renewal of one of ATN's key agreements from 31st of December 2026, offset post-year-end by a major new affiliate partnership, and strengthened inventory allocation with our largest radio network partners. Management believes it will continue to have sufficient inventory to satisfy its advertising customers following these changes.

Combined with these affiliate changes, we've identified a further $8 million of annualized benefit partly recognized in FY '27. Together with the full-year impact of FY '26 savings, that converts to nearly $20 million of cost savings in FY '28 and beyond.

This shift to an asset-light model has cut annual capex to under $1 million going forward, down from $3 million to $5 million historically, and no operational impact on client service. We expect a further $1.5 million of cash proceeds in early FY '27 from the sale of the remaining aviation fleet.

Cash flow and balance sheet: net cash from operating activities was approximately $22 million, up around 69% from $13 million in FY '25, including a $10 million benefit from working capital management. A further $5 million was realized from the asset sales tied to the aviation exit.

Cash on hand rose to $32 million at 30 June 2026, up from $21 million a year earlier and $28 million at the half year. Net debt closed at approximately $2 million, and down from $7 million at the half year, despite returning $46 million to shareholders during the year via the capital return in August '25 and interim dividend March '26.

At half year, we'd fully drawn our $35 million debt facility to fund that return. Second-half cash generation brought net debt down to $2 million.

Capital management: the board has declared a final FY '26 dividend of 5.24 cents per share, franked to approximately 16%, totaling approximately $10 million, record date 4th of September '26, payment date the 21st of September '26. On payment, GTN will have returned approximately $64 million to shareholders via dividends and capital return over the past two years, plus $3 million via an on-market buybacks, a total of approximately $67 million in capital management initiatives against our current enterprise value of approximately $40 million.

Consistent with our disciplined approach, the board intends to pursue further returns subject to ongoing capital requirements and prudent balance sheet. FY '27 outlook: FY '27 will benefit from the full run rate of FY '26 cost initiatives and part-year contribution from the new affiliate improvements.

The board has confirmed FY '27 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $15 million to $20 million, expected to translate to NPATA of $5 million to $10 million. Consistent with our capital management policy, the board intends to distribute 100% of NPATA to shareholders in FY '27, indicatively a dividend yield of 13% to 26% on that range.

With that, I'll hand back to Peter.

Peter Tonagh

Thanks, Ben. That concludes our briefing.

Before we hand over for questions, I want to thank Vic, Ben, and Sophie for their leadership of the fabulous GTN team, our country heads for navigating the challenging environment and making the most of it to reset the business, and you, our shareholders, for your ongoing support. Are there any questions from shareholders?

Operator

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question.

The first question will come from John Burgess with Rask Research. Please go ahead.

John Burgess

Hi, good morning. I'm just interested if the working capital release, I think it's now, in my calculations, it's about -6% of revenue.

Is that a sustainable number going forward?

Ben Brooks

I think it will probably settle at where it is now. I think, and once again, half of the $10 million is contributed through the accounts receivable and half was with regards to the accounts payable.

I would say it would be settling where it is today.

John Burgess

Have your affiliates just given you better terms in terms of payables?

Ben Brooks

We definitely have worked harder with regards to our payables, yes. Also, we've just implemented a new finance ERP system that obviously has also contributed a lot to better management of our suppliers.

John Burgess

I'm just interested in your guidance, what's your assumptions around cycle versus cost savings? Can you give some color on that?

Peter Tonagh

John, thanks for the question. I think you mean in terms of the advertising cycle?

John Burgess

I guess probably more the revenue side of with a cycle over, that's right, in terms of what you're controlling with the cost out.

Peter Tonagh

Yeah. I think, first of all, we're a very small part of the total audio advertising market, and so I think we're kind of less think about the total market as the driver of our revenue.

Having said that, we're very realistic about the audio market and the position it's in right now. Obviously, the change in the total market varies depending on the country that we're talking about.

We expect that we're going to see continued pressure in the market in the UK in particular. In Canada, Canada's had a very tough few years from a market perspective.

We don't expect to see a full recovery, but we expect it to stabilize a little. In the Brazilian market, we still expect to see continued growth in that market.

It's always hard to tell in that market. It's a bit more volatile, but we do expect to see continued growth.

The Australian market, we're in line with the forecasts for the Australian market, as you'd expect. We're really following the guidance of the experts in the market.

John Burgess

In Australia, if I look at the numbers, I think, adjusted EBITDA before any one-offs, first half was about 6.6 and the second half was 13. Should we look at 13 as an annualized rate achievable in FY '27?

Peter Tonagh

I think as has been mentioned, the second-half performance was definitely better than the first half. That's associated largely with improvements in and affiliate agreement that we had renegotiated.

We'll see the full-year impact of that half in the second half of this year, and then we won't be renewing that affiliate for calendar '27 and beyond, and so we'll see very significant cost savings flow through in the '27 calendar year.

John Burgess

Okay. A final one.

Just an update on the aviation fleet. How many helicopters do you have left and will have left going forward, if any?

Peter Tonagh

We expect to have no aviation moving forward. I believe we have one fixed-wing asset was in Canada at year-end, I think, and is now been sold and we've exited, and there's one helicopter in Brazil which is in the process of being sold right now.

Post that, we'll be completely removed from aviation. There's a couple of reasons for that.

The first reason is clearly with the improving technologies, including a whole range of different sources of traffic information, it's no longer critical to our business. The second thing is it's pretty high cost.

The third thing is there's obviously a lot of risk associated with being in the aviation business, and as an organization, we would prefer to be out of that risk.

John Burgess

Presumably, there's obviously a COGS saving, and there's also a lower depreciation going forward because of the sale of those assets?

Peter Tonagh

It's combination of we'll see significant reduction in capex costs. Helicopters obviously have significant capex, our capex is expected to be sub a million dollars a year going forward.

You're right, also in terms of improvements in depreciation and, but most importantly, operating cost savings.

John Burgess

Great. Thanks for your time.

Peter Tonagh

Thanks, John.

John Burgess

Thanks.

Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. As there are no further questions at this time, I would like to hand the call back over to Mr.

Tonagh for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Peter Tonagh

Thanks, Chuck, and just like to thank everybody for joining the call. Again, thanks to the leadership team here at GTN for all of the effort, and once again, we're excited about the future opportunities with a refocused business in GTN, and look forward to updating you further after the first half.

Thank you.

Ben Brooks

Thank you.

Operator

This does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation.

You may now disconnect.