Laserbond Limited

Laserbond Limited

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Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 20, 2026

Rob Freeman

technology or intellectual property. Second, the processes we built up, they're proprietary, and they take considerable time to replicate.

It's not a claim that we make lightly. It reflects the material science and the engineering know-how that's gone into this period of business over a long period of time.

Thirdly, we operate an integrated platform. We're not just a service business or a products business.

We've got services and products and licensing technology under one roof, which gives us more than one way to generate revenue from the same underlying capabilities and our core competency. The fourth and really important one is our licensing deal with Komatsu.

It's a really good validation point. Having a global OEM commitment to our technology under that licensing arrangement tells you something about the commercial credibility about what we're building for the future.

With that context, I'll now hand over to Peter to take you through the financial results.

Peter Arambatzis

Thanks, Rob, and good morning everybody. Great to be here and just to give you the financial highlights.

I'll start with the headline numbers for the year. Revenue came in at a healthy $48.2 million, up about 10.8% on FY25.

Just to make a note, that figure doesn't include revenue from our 40% stake in Gateway because we don't consolidate those accounts just yet, but I'll cover off the contribution from Gateway separately when I get to the net profit. EBITDA was again a healthy $10.4 million, up 15%, with net profit before tax coming in at about $6.5 million, up by 30% of the prior year.

Net profit after tax came in at about $4.9 million, again a very healthy number at 27.7, and earning per share grew even faster at 27.7 to 4.17 cents per share. Again, excellent results from my point of view.

On capital returns, the board declared a fully franked dividend of 1.6 cents per share for the year, split between an interim of 0.8 cents and the final of 0.8 cents. Return on capital employed improved again at 13.05%, up from 10.8, 10.88% from FY25.

We're really generating as an organization, as a business, better returns on capital that we've got deployed to the business. I do want to flag one number that moves in the opposite direction because I know it will stand out and I know I'm going to get questions on it, more than happy to preempt.

That's cash and cash equivalents has been reduced to $2.9 million, similar to first half, down from $5.6 million from FY25. I have to say that is a deliberate outcome.

I don't have a concern as a CFO, and it's worth explaining. Through the year, we've continued to make ongoing strategic investments in tungsten carbide powder inventory.

We're building up stocks in a period where tungsten prices have been elevated, in times where supply has been constrained, we want to make sure that we support our OEMs and our broader customer base to make sure that we have as much tungsten as we need, and we're also managing very carefully inventory turns. That's tied up in more cash in inventory, as I said, than the prior years.

At the same time, our collections have improved significantly compared to FY25, which has offset the high inventory position. On a net basis, we're doing pretty well.

The net effect is a lower cash balance, of course, but it reflects, as I said, a deliberate decision to secure supply and support supported by better underlying cash collections. It's not a deterioration in operating performance of the business, and the balance sheet still remains very strong and our future forecast cash position for the year for FY27 will be strong.

Rob will come back to how the inventory position supports our growth a little bit later. In terms of the financial results and turning to the detail behind some of those headline numbers, revenue has grown consistently over the past 5 years from $30.7 million in FY22 to $48.2 million this year.

Within that second half, revenue was at $25.2 million, which shows the momentum that we've continued through the year despite some of those headwinds and especially the price. On an NPAT growth perspective, this year was supported by margin discipline and cost controls.

We're managing all aspects of the business and all aspects of our financials. It's not just a revenue story, it's also about how we managed our cost base as we've grown.

On EBITDA, the improvement was driven by revenue growth combined with continued discipline in cost management, as I said, across the group. The executive and the whole business has been actually supportive of that.

Gross margin for the year was at 51%, which is modestly lower than last year. This is mainly due to sustained high tungsten prices, which haven't fully passed on through pricing.

That was partially offset by strong margin expansion in our service business, which Rob will talk about shortly. For me, it is about strategic pricing, it is making sure that we support our customers, and being, a balanced review of revenue, gross margins, and bottom line.

Moving to the balance sheet, total assets have increased to $63.9 million, up by 1.6%, driven by 4.8% increase in current assets, $26.1 million. As I mentioned, inventory holdings remain elevated, reflecting the ongoing investment in our powders, especially tungsten carbide, which is the main driver of the reduced cash position.

Trade receivables actually reduced to $9.3 million from $13.5 million of the previous year, as I explained earlier, when normalized for the Komatsu billing at the end of the year. This reflects strong revenue growth alongside real progress on OEM collections.

The working capital story is a positive one, even though the headline cash numbers, especially on cash, are lower. Total liabilities decreased to 13.6% to $18.8 million, again mainly due to reduced financial liabilities and lower creditor balances.

As a result, net assets increased to $45.1 million from $41.1 million last year, and we continue to carry no financial debt. Finally, on working capital, it's increased by 11.9% to $16.85 million.

I see that and we see that as a positive. It reflects the benefits of the strategic investments that we made that gives us also the flexibility to keep investing in capability, in people, and in our customers, and in our equipment as the opportunities arise.

That's it from me, Rob, and over to you to go through the operational performance and outlook. Thanks, everybody.

Rob Freeman

Thanks, Peter. Starting with Services revenue, revenue was $27.3 million, it's modestly down from $27.7 million last year.

It really reflects the mining sector recovery that's been slower than we expected coming into this year. Despite that, our gross margins have expanded to 58%, up from 53.6%, which really is a testament to the team who have really been disciplined on cost control and operational efficiency.

Got to say really proud of what they've done and looking forward to continue that discipline. Our diverse customer base has been helpful as well.

Whilst mining has been slower and hasn't recovered as strongly, that diversity of customers has really helped us in sort of those sector-specific headwinds. As we look ahead for business development continues into new industrial markets.

Introducing alternative coatings solutions that absolutely reduce our reliance on tungsten carbide, particularly the premium tungsten carbide coatings. We've got a new partnership moving from a trial into commercial work this financial year, which is pretty exciting.

More broadly, we're expecting the mining sector's capital expenditure and maintenance cycles to recover over time, so that should support future volume growth in this division. Moving on to Products, in Products, revenue was up to $17.5 million, which is growth of 18.8% on the $14.7 million in the previous year.

It's really supported by strong growth from our global OEM customers. Having said that, we did see some moderated US sales in the second half.

One of our OEM customers reduced their inventory levels amidst concerns about tungsten pricing. There's also been a material impact from the US tariffs on some of our steel industry customers over there.

Margins in this division, with Products, also impacted because that sharp rise in tungsten prices, and it's simply our ability to pass through these prices has just not kept pace with those costs that have passed through, which we're now seeing the back end of. It's the same as Peter's touched on sort of the group gross margin, that impact has come from the Products.

On a positive side, Xclad coating that we'd normally introduced previously, which is a lower-cost alternative to tungsten carbide, are progressing through OEM trials with field validation underway in this financial year, and that we're really encouraged by this. We're also developing some coatings alongside Xclad with some global partners, and it gives our customers protection from the China-related trade restrictions that we've been experiencing with tungsten.

As we expect continued international growth opportunities to continue, and as particularly that OEM in the US works through their current stock positions, the outlook for the Products area is actually quite solid. If we're moving on into our Technology area, it had a really strong year.

Revenues are up to $3.4 million, so that's $1.1 million on the previous year. The standout achievement absolutely is completing the modular laser cell for Komatsu on time, on budget.

It passed through factory acceptance testing in June 2026, and you can see the photo there on the slide, that was it in the final factory acceptance testing, and then site acceptance in Perth in Western Australia where that happened in July. I visited that site and they're delighted with performance of it and the ease of operation.

Komatsu are fully expecting that to be in operations very early in this first quarter. It's really exciting and great validation for a job well done for our team.

As we look ahead, we've got further laser cell projects that are progressing through development. Our discussions are underway for new contracts in global markets, not just in Australia.

We continue to invest in our research and development focused on more of the smart laser cell capability, bringing increased functionality, enhancing on how it is to how easy the systems are to work, and it also helps streamline our costs as well. More broadly, we see a significant opportunity to enter markets where LaserBond doesn't currently have an established presence through our Technology area.

Moving into Research and Development, and look, R&D remains the core of how we think about our business, and it underpins the technology-led position that I've described earlier. There are a few areas that stand out this year.

First, the tungsten carbide alternatives. We are targeting two unique coating formulations a year that are really aimed at reducing our dependence on that constrained premium tungsten carbide supply.

The second and the quite exciting one, we've got a hard chrome replacement product that is really well advanced in development. This is a new technology at a much improved price point that's progressing, toward market.

What it does, it actually is it allows us to replace hard chrome products in the market at a much improved price point. The benefit of doing that is that you open a much bigger addressable market, something that we haven't really been able to do with our premium products in the past.

We're looking forward to releasing that in the market, and we've got some customers we're working with at the moment that is progressing really, really well. The third area which has progressed really well is, is recycling and process innovation.

The team have developed a really innovative separation process. When we're using tungsten powders in the lasering process, we're able to recover a much higher percentage of that and to reuse that back in our system.

That obviously helps with cost and also sustainability, we're using every last bit of that component. We also continue work with a number of research partners, universities, and these relationships have helped us validate the new technologies that we're bringing to market in an ever-increasingly quicker way.

I'll just move on now to Gateway. Gateway have contributed $1 million in net profit after tax this year, which is terrific.

It's up from $0.7 million in the prior year. Their parts and service growth was particularly strong, it's a notable turnaround.

It was supported by, an increased rebuild work through their much larger facility, which is a terrific asset for those who have seen the the test. Their laser cladding revenue also grew significantly.

If you remember, we introduced that laser cell to Gateway in May 2025. They've further supplemented that by further capital investment, the new boring machine and an additional high-velocity oxygen-fuel booth, which was added just, in fact, in the last few months.

The Gateway order book remains steady through the year, and we're seeing, really growing confidence in their position in the market, particularly as they move into the higher-technology surface offerings such as, laser and HVOF. Looking ahead, we expect the investment in Gateway to keep paying off, with other services diversifying the business and additional revenue streams that we expect to come online over the next 12 months.

It's really encouraging. Also in the West, the elevated gold prices are creating new opportunities for a bit further down the track.

Takes a while to develop gold mines, but we expect that also to be a strong growth driver for them, probably from FY28 and beyond. If we think about strategic update, our strategic position for LaserBond is simple: it's to be a globally relevant technology and solutions leader.

Our growth priorities are principally threefold: so as a global OEM offering, those turnkey smart laser cells such as we've just delivered for Komatsu; equally, the second pillar to that is, a really cost-competitive laser cladding replacement for hard chrome in a way that we haven't done it before at a really attractive price point that opens that bigger addressable market; and the third pillar or priority, those premium coatings from advantage materials that include, tungsten alternatives that are really bespoke, delivered to an application for a customer that stays in front of our competition. I think, when we think about, why are we positioned to deliver, we're vertically integrated.

Not only we do laser cell design and manufacturing of products and services under one roof, we've got local service capability across Australia, we've got manufacturing that serves global markets, and that in-house R&D really helps bring new solutions to the market ahead of our competitors. Doing that in a fast and a sustained way is really, really important.

That faster commercialization of hard chrome replacement will take us into other markets in a much deeper way, and I'm thinking sort of not only mining, but power generation, oil and gas, and then ultimately into defense. It really builds, a scalable operating model.

At the same time, we absolutely will be disciplined on our costs. We've demonstrated again another cost improvement this year, and we're going to maintain that.

In terms of our roadmap, in the near term, it's really about strengthening that core business, building the platforms and the foundations, and strengthen that core. In the medium term, it's taking what's really working and scaling that.

The longer term, absolutely, it's around global leadership in our field. If I think about, our growth drivers, we're expanding that licensing technology further.

As I discussed, discussions are underway for further laser cells in new markets. Tungsten carbide alternatives, Xclad product is doing well in the market.

We're in advanced trials and we're seeing commercial revenue starting to come through the business now. It's going terrific.

The hard chrome replacement that I've talked about already is, is progressing towards trials and will be ready for commercial applications before the end of FY27. In our Products area, we expect continued OEM demand as customers, US customers particularly, work through their current stock positions.

We also expect that those products to be supported by international growth. Gateway's diversification is set to continue, with laser cladding growth and those additional premium solutions.

As they come online, they'll start to generate really material revenues. We're looking forward to that recovery in the mining sector, particularly in the Queensland and New South Wales area.

That'll underpin the sort of service volumes as sort of the equipment replacement and those maintenance cycles start to normalize. As I said, across our business, focus on that strategic roadmap, strengthening that core, improving the competitiveness of the product line, and ensuring that our sales strategy and the speed of our R&D is not only a match for our aspirations, but is market-leading and, really outpacing our competitors.

In terms of, our investment case, look, we believe we're a really attractive investment. We have proprietary IP.

We're in a defensible market position. We've built in-house R&D across laser systems and powder formulations, process methodologies.

You put all that together with the fact that a global OEM like Komatsu, has chosen us as a partner, and we've just demonstrated really validates the commercial value of that intellectual property we've developed over years. We also have, multiple revenue streams and margin leverage through products and service, products, and also the technology licensing.

Along with Gateway, we're seeing, really improved opportunities coming through to be able to leverage as we bring those streams together. Our balance sheet's strong.

We've got a scalable licensing model. A Technology segment offers really high-margin, capital-light growth, and with that Komatsu deal and others in advanced negotiations, we can really see the opportunity to scale that internationally.

With that sort of proven sort of momentum and visibility, a solid pipeline, and that disciplined operational improvements already embedded in the business, it's really solid. The innovation pipeline, through Xclad and others, is achieving market success.

We're showing that we know how to bring new products to the market in a very quick way and lead the market in that area. We expect to continue those launches, particularly the second half of FY27, and ensuring that we've got an industry-leading pace of innovation.

I guess in closing, I'll just summarize. Financial year 2026 was a year of solid growth across revenue, earnings, returns, and it was delivered in some headwinds, particularly with the tungsten pricing and the slower mining recovery than we'd hoped for.

We've made some deliberate investment decisions this year, particularly in inventory, but we believe they hold us well for this current financial year and actually beyond that. Our strategy remains on building out a genuinely differentiated and a technology-led business.

Thank you all for your time today. Really appreciate your attendance, and I'll now hand back to Ben for any questions that you may have posted.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Rob, and Peter. We've got a bunch of questions that have come through.

This one's probably for you, Peter, a couple of parts to it. Pointing to the cash flow from operations reducing materially over the last sort of 4 financial years, firstly, what is causing this and does this fundamentally illustrate weakness?

Also that pointing to the cash on hand is the lowest in 5 years, but current assets are at the highest, are there problems with converting assets to cash by getting paid by our customers?

Peter Arambatzis

No, thanks, Ben. I'm absolutely not worried about cash.

I've been very clear in terms of where the investment is, and it's in inventory and tungsten to make sure that we support the business. As I said earlier, there's been a significant improvement in collections, especially with the OEMs.

We have had almost minimal to no write-offs in the past few years in terms of collections ability. As far as I'm concerned, and based on everything that I've forecast through our budget process and for the next 12 months, we remain solid.

The cash position is recovering based on collections from Komatsu and other key customers. As I said, every aspect of the balance sheet's strong.

I have no concerns from a cash position perspective. It also reflects the investments that we're making, as Rob said.

We've been strategic. We're still investing in our people, and our apprentices, in systems, processes, process improvements, transformation.

All that is measured, part of a plan, and is budgeted. Again, no concerns.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Peter. Next question, first to state it, only negative was a gross margin crunch in Product in the second half.

To what extent will price rises help offset this in FY27? Another

Rob Freeman

another great question. Fortunately, we have seen prices through to our customers now, and and that's been a tough negotiation, but we've seen that come through.

We've also continued to see volatility of tungsten pricing, we think we've got a solid balance. We we'll restore some margin health.

The volatility of of tungsten pricing will play a part in that. We've we've rearranged our pricing mechanism to better match the costs.

We we're looking to smooth that as best we can. We're we're I'm still quite optimistic that we'll see, good solid revenues there.

We will get quality margins. I I can't control the price of tungsten, and that's that's that's a bit of a challenge.

Having said that, most indicators are that tungsten pricing is moderating. It's just the challenge of getting those super-premium grades.

Hence, our our focus is moving to, the tungsten alternatives where we know we can get those grades of products, or or powders, sorry, and we know that the margins there are are are actually back to what we would expect.

Peter Arambatzis

Rob, just to add, as you said, we've been very deterministic with pricing. We're looking at how we can service our customers better across spectrum of products that we provide.

There is that element as well. I think, in the first half I think we said we were as high as 58%, and that wasn't going to be maintained only because we wanted to make sure that we did think about strategic pricing and supporting our customers.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Rob and Peter. Next question, Xclad coatings partnership moving from trial to commercial in Product, just the question is this an existing OEM client or a new one?

Rob Freeman

It's a mixture of two. Absolutely, it's with OEM clients existing, and also we are seeding it with new clients.

We've got trials, and I noticed some other questions around similar themes. There is the new formulations we're bringing at, the innovation there targeted to specific applications is attracting interest from new clients as well.

The one thing I would say, some customers have a smaller trial period and others have a very extended. We've mentioned in the past, where we were doing trials in Europe with a European OEM, they're still ongoing.

They are very long duration trials, but in short, yes, a mixture of current OEMs and new potential clients, which is quite exciting.

Ben Larsen

We had the similar question regarding the Services division, is this a new client that you're doing trials with, and how material would a move into commercialization with this partner be?

Rob Freeman

Jeez, want me to tell everything. Yes, so that is with a current OEM.

How material is it? In FY27, I wouldn't say it's a very material element yet, but in the outer years, certainly, we expect this.

When we bring new coatings to market, the first thing is to protect that core business. Where tungsten, the premium grades of tungsten have been harder and harder to get, we want to make sure we don't lose those revenues.

The second part is these new innovations are bringing not only advantage materials, but in some cases advantage price whilst we keep our margins, so that opens up a bigger market. I don't want to get people too excited about this massive growth in these this year, but this is really building that core of foundational products in the outer years.

It's excited, but I don't want to get people overheated too much on the prospects for this year.

Ben Larsen

Okay. Thank you.

Next question, didn't question regarding LaserBond buying enough tungsten last year to alleviate margin impact because of the price, or is that not right?

Rob Freeman

We did go long on inventory, absolutely, and we were scrambling as the prices went up. The reason we saw some really solid revenues in that Products division is because we had the product on hand.

We did consume quite a part of that lower-cost product. We've still got really significant inventories well into calendar 2027, and the average price in that is actually not too bad.

It's looking okay. The demand really did and our customers are pretty savvy, right?

They could see what tungsten was doing in the market, they loaded up with orders early to take advantage of that. We're in a good place, but we've got sufficient product and the margins will be reasonable.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Rob. For the new hard chrome replacement product, can you give an indication on its cost to the customer and its wear improvement versus hard chrome?

Rob Freeman

Man oh man, I'm going to need an hour to explain this one, I'll keep it really short. There's various so in the past, currently, we have a product which is a hard chrome replacement, and it's a premium product and it's priced about twice the chrome of a standard chrome product.

There is no change. That still has a purpose for certain customers.

What we're talking about is bringing in a laser replacement product for the standard chrome coatings at a small premium. Now, I don't want to give away what that premium is yet in the market until we fully test where that price point is where we get customers, where that tipping point where customers want to buy significant volumes.

It certainly won't be twice the price. In fact, it'll be much, much closer to parity than it will be to, twice the price.

We're quite excited about that. Hence, we've got a lot of customers or potential customers talking to us about advanced trials whilst we're in the final stages of development.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Rob. Just in the mining sector, is there certain mining types or more commodities where there are more services work?

For instance, does the Services division work mainly with underground mining equipment, for example, continuous miners, for instance, coal, or jumbos for gold mining, or is it open-cut diggers?

Rob Freeman

Certainly by volume, open-cut is the largest. For, I talk about mining in general, open-cut is by the largest volume.

If I look specifically at coal, which has been a bit softer, underground coal, there is quite a lot of opportunity for our work in the hydraulic cylinders or the chock legs. I notice in the question they mention continuous miners.

We actually do some work, some small quantities of work now for some of the ranging arm components in mining equipment, and some of the jumbos, I think was in the question there in gold mining particularly. Yes, there is applications that we haven't fully exploited yet, which we intend to.

Generally, I think that the largest demand growth will come when we see particularly the commodity coal prices improve, and you'll see that backlog of maintenance work come into our workshops and in industry workshops. Now, we're seeing some small elements of that now.

Why I think that's going to be stronger as prices increase is because the assets in particularly in coal mine have been sweated really, really hard. Sweated to the point where they will soon break if they're not breaking already.

Ben Larsen

All right. Thank you.

Question from Caleb Wing from PAC Partners: can product sector gross margin recover in FY27?

Rob Freeman

Sorry, could you just repeat that a bit for me, Ben?

Ben Larsen

I can. Can product sector gross margin recover in FY27?

Rob Freeman

Right. Thank you.

I think that's going to be to get to the historic levels of 50-plus percent is going to be challenging, but I don't rule it out. We've got new pricing now that sees us get closer and closer to those margins we've had before.

I think the other things that will help is our inventory that we've got, as Peter mentioned, I mentioned a couple of times, it's quite strategic. It is exceptionally hard to get the premium tungsten grades at the moment, we're pushing as hard as we can to price that on market when you've got scarcity.

I'm optimistic we'll recover the margins back. How long it takes us to get through this year, it's going to take a few more months, but, yeah, I expect that our margins will not be as they've been in sort of this particularly the second half of this FY26.

Peter Arambatzis

Rob, if I can complement also some of those comments. I think you mentioned earlier the recycled powders.

We've been very successful in having a quality powder that we're going to be using in production, and anywhere between 20% to 30%. That's going to help offset some of that cost pressure as well, and we have got considerable supplies of that as well.

It's going to be a, as you said, a combination, but definitely we're looking at other alternatives. We're looking at, because one of the questions was also, both domestic and international, we're trying to tap every single provider and supplier of tungsten.

Again, I think it's important that we're also looking at tungsten alternatives as well to complement our gross margin improvements. Again, for me, having 51% margin across the organization is extremely healthy.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Peter and Rob. Just regarding Gateway, noting the option in March 2027, what's your view on that option at present and will it be exercised?

Rob Freeman

Look, I like the Gateway business, if you haven't already picked up in the presentation, and whilst our board hasn't made a formal decision on that yet, we'll approach that soon, we're progressing on the basis that would happen, that we would exercise that option, but as I say, we've got to go through the formal process yet. I like it for their business is robust, the market over there is really solid, it's an exceptional management team and a talent pool of people, a quality assets.

With them now bringing in the sort of the service including the higher-technology services such as laser and HVOF, it allows them to participate in the higher-margin service business like LaserBond has built our business on. There's a lot of reasons to like it.

No formal announcement, but the intention of my recommendation to the board will certainly be that we go down that path.

Ben Larsen

Question regarding Komatsu, any update on Komatsu's interest in applying the technology to its other facilities and has discussions started?

Rob Freeman

Discussions are exceptionally well advanced. As I said, I have visited Komatsu in multiple locations in Australia and overseas.

There is strong interest. We're in advanced discussions.

When we have something to announce formally in terms of other systems, or we'll announce that to the market or declare that, but I certainly have good expectations that we'll do further work beyond the initial system and the initial licensing agreement, stay tuned, but we're well into that conversation.

Ben Larsen

Thank you, Rob. Previously, there's been some enthusiasm for basing some operations in the USA.

What are your views on that at present?

Rob Freeman

Nothing's changed. The US in fact, the US market, whilst it's difficult to serve it, well difficult, it's really difficult to service from Australia for some of the tariffs that affect our products, our aspiration to have a direct presence in the US market hasn't changed.

The market is underserved by laser, there are significant opportunities there, it is a gateway into other industries such as defense. I've spent time in the US this year, exploring opportunities and sort of internally we're thinking about what's the best entry point and how we might do that.

Nothing to announce yet, but our aspiration to have a direct investment in there is the same as always, and our US-based customers are active in that conversation as well.

Ben Larsen

Okay. Thank you.

Another question regarding the US, you've just answered the second part, I'll ask the first part, which is: how is the see-through of the inventory build-up of your key US customers?

Rob Freeman

I think that question is aimed at the inventory that one of our US OEMs was winding down, we saw some softening of that in recent months. One of our team is actually in the US at the moment with those customers, and it looks like we're the back end of that, so, yeah, from one point, we're expecting to see revenues ramp up, and fortunately, this product range is not exposed to the tariffs, fortunately.

The other part of the question which it may be pointing to is our inventories of tungsten. We certainly have tungsten inventories to see us through FY27 to sort of feed that customer, and as well as, I'd also add, that not only the conversations, but the plans for the field trials on Xclad and other technologies are progressing well, we have a lot of confidence that we can address that demand in the US for those OEM customers.

Ben Larsen

Another one on the US: have you received or are you entitled to any US tariff refunds?

Rob Freeman

Are we entitled to? I'm not sure where that question's coming from.

Peter Arambatzis

Rob, if I can take that?

Rob Freeman

Yeah.

Peter Arambatzis

We have the opportunity, yes, to recover some of the tariffs and also pass them on. Yes, we're working through that as we speak for certain customers,

Ben Larsen

and we feel that we should be successful. All right.

Thank you. A couple more.

When do you expect the release to the hard chrome alternative product?

Rob Freeman

Really good question. We're on track to have that ready for commercial trials or a market-ready product in the second half of financial year '27.

We're in advanced internal trials now. We will start doing that with customer trials very soon.

The indications are really good, but revenues from a commercial offering second half, they'll take some time to build. Some customers will jump all in and will put their components into lower-risk areas, others will want to trial those components quite extensively for many, many months.

It will build well, but we're wouldn't mention it today if we didn't have the confidence about our technology and the breakthroughs, and say, the multiple breakthroughs in various aspects of the technology that the team have made. Revenues starting in the second half of this financial year.

Ben Larsen

All right. Thank you.

That concludes the Q&A segment of today's webinar. I'll now hand back to Rob for closing comments.

Rob Freeman

Look, I just want to say to everybody, thanks, everybody, for turning up this morning. We've had a really solid year.

The growth has been consistent across all areas of our business. We've talked a lot this morning about our investments, particularly in the inventory and tungsten, but our focus really remains on building out those differentiated offerings that don't leave us exposed to the tungsten variations of tungsten availability and pricing, those alternative coatings.

The strategy is really focused on ensuring that we are genuinely a differentiated business, that a technology-led business that is, keeps rewarding your continued investment. I'm really happy with the results, really proud of the team, and again, like to thank everybody for taking the time today, and look forward to seeing you all soon.