[Well?] , I'll now hand it over to Rob.

Thank you, Ben. Good morning.

Before we get into the numbers, just a quick overview for those newer to the LaserBond story. We're a leading surface engineering business, and what that means in practice is that we manufacture, repair, reclaim, and enhance the performance of capital-intensive machinery components.

Our customers operate across a range of sectors, including mining, manufacturing, power generation, and fluid handling, industries where component wear and failure are costly and where our work directly extends asset life and reduces downtime. We operate across four segments: services, products, technology, and research and development.

As you may know, since March 2024, we've also held a 40% equity stake in the Gateway Group in Perth in Western Australia, which is a complementary business focused on maintenance and reclamation of heavy industrial equipment. It's a strategic investment that's performing well, and I'll speak to that shortly.

Let's get into the highlights of the first half. Now the first half of FY26 was a strong one for the company, and we've delivered growth across the business and continued to execute on our strategic priorities.

Revenue came in at $23 million, which is up 13.4% on the prior corresponding period, and NPAT of $2.2 million, which is up 117% on PCP, reflecting the operational leverage in our business as we build scale. Three things stand out for me from this half.

First, our products division continued the momentum we established in the second half of FY25, with revenue growth of 34% on PCP. Second, our services division delivered meaningful margin expansion, gross margins improved from 50.8% to 58.3%.

Third, we continue to make important progress on the technology commercialisation, and a little bit more on that shortly. Looking forward, our order book as of the 1st of January this year was approximately 70% higher than it was 12 months earlier, which has given us a really great start to the second half.

The second half for us is traditionally a stronger period, we're well positioned to continue on that trend. With that said, I'll now hand over to Peter to walk through the financials in some more detail.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everybody. Look, let's talk about the LaserBond's key numbers.

I think they're pretty good overall in my opinion as a CFO, but revenue came in at $23 million, up 13% on the prior corresponding period. Also gross profit of $12.4 million represents a 22% increase, with a healthy group gross margin of 54%.

EBITDA came in at $5.2 million, up 58% on PCP, demonstrating again a strong underlying performance as the business scales. Net profit of $3.3 million was up 154% on PCP, with NPAT of $2.2 million being up 117%, more than double for the prior corresponding period.

Also earnings per share is at 1.88 cents, up 116%, and the board of LaserBond are pleased to declare a fully franked dividend of 0.8 cents per share. Cash for the period was at $4 million.

The movement from $5.6 million from close of June 2025 was driven by an investment inventory of $1.8 million in tungsten carbide to secure supply, which reflects a deliberate and strategic decision given the current environment. Looking at the results in more detail, I can say that revenue again remains strong, building on a solid second half from 2025, this isn't a one-off period spike, it's a continuation of positive performance.

Net profit before tax of $3.3 million, while representing strong growth on PCP, came in slightly below our second half FY25 numbers of $3.7 million. A number of factors influenced this: December seasonal patterns, which are typical for our business; plant equipment replacement downtime, which we chose to absorb in the half; and ongoing strategic investments in R&D.

None of these factors are unexpected, they're deliberate, and are being managed. The NPAT comparison to second half FY25 tells a similar story.

With our historical pattern of stronger second-half performance, we expect this to continue. Looking at the balance sheet, our balance sheet remains strong.

Total assets of $62.9 million are flat on FY25, while total liabilities have fallen 16% to $20.3 million, reducing financial liabilities and also we're paying down creditors. Net assets are up 3.7% at $42.6 million, again which reflects a healthy balance sheet.

Looking at working capital, strengthened by 7.3% to $16.2 million, again reflecting better collections and improved debtor management. On cash, as I explained in the earlier slide, the $1.6 million net reduction from June 2025 is explained by a single decision: we've invested $1.8 million of free cash in building an inventory position in tungsten carbide.

Given the geopolitical pressures on critical minerals supply, particularly from Chinese exports, this was a deliberate move to secure raw materials for uninterrupted operations. Operation cash flow of $1.5 million dollars remains solid.

Thank you, and I'll hand back to Rob to cover LaserBond's operational performance. Rob, over to you.

Thanks, Peter. We'll just take a a look through now each of the operating segments.

The first one, services is our largest segment, and in this half it delivered revenue growth on PCP and a significant improvement in margins. Services revenue grew, as you can see there, 10% versus the PCP to $14.3 million.

More importantly, the gross margins expanded that 50.8% to 58.3%, and this really reflects the work that we've done on sort of cost controls, better utilisation of our equipment and machinery across the LaserBond network through our workshops, and and more effectively our resource deployment. It has a really made a difference, these are meaningful step forwards steps forward in our profitability for this services segment.

I should also acknowledge that the services segment faced some headwinds from weakness in mining sector during this half. Look, but our team managed that effectively, and the margin result kind of speaks for itself.

Looking ahead for services, we're well positioned for the recovery that we expect in the mining sector as capital expenditures start to normalise. Equipment replacement cycles also are showing signs of normalising in that mining segment, and the machinery upgrades that we've made or completed in this half will give us a direct benefit in productivity in the second half.

If we look now to our products segment, the products was a standout performer this half. Revenue grew 34% on PCP to $8.4 million, which really matched the strong result that we saw from the second half of FY25.

To me, it confirms that the the growth trajectory in this segment is real, and and it's sustainable. Strong orders have come from major customers, and export markets also represented a significant component of revenue, which is an important point and underpins, our international growth strategy and those aspirations.

Gross margins or gross profit margins came in at 47.1%, which is slightly lower than recent periods, and this reflects the tungsten price volatility that's driven by that geopolitical challenges and the the Chinese export controls on critical minerals. This is the same dynamic that led us to build our strategic inventory position that Peter just talked about.

Look, we're actively working through this throughout our research and development program, developing alternative formulations to reduce the dependency on that constrained supply of tungsten wherever we can. Having said all that, the outlook for products is very positive.

We're expanding customer relationships. There's new components we've designed for the oil and gas sector that are gaining traction, and the international growth opportunities for this segment are are really quite significant for us.

When I think about, our technology division, look, we we believe we've we're building something really genuine significant for the longer term in this technology segment. There is really something special here.

We we've talked about the the licensing deal that we secured with Komatsu, of $2.4 million. We're we're busy building that cell right now in our workshops in Smeaton Grange in Sydney, and it's and it's shaping up really well.

This is a this commercialisation of our proprietary LaserBond cladding technology is it's a real demonstration that the IP we have is real and it's bankable with a with a strong commercial value. We also delivered the first modular LaserBond system to the Gateway Group on arms-length commercial terms, back in in FY25.

There's laser cladding revenues have already commenced from that back in June '25, and that's a significant milestone. It's the beginning of a new revenue stream for from that technology sector.

If I look forward into the second half this year, that, the Komatsu licensing agreement remains on track for delivery. We're confident we'll deliver that and that will run well.

Importantly, this deal is a foundation for additional opportunities. We have not only the Komatsu relationship, but other OEM deals are in advanced stages in negotiation.

As we move closer to closing some of these, the technology segment has has real potential to become a meaningful contributor to, our group's earnings. Research and development, look, it underpins everything that we do.

Without it, we we don't have a basis for the business, so, of course, we increased we we increase our investment in in innovation in this half, and that will continue, particularly across, the sort of three priority areas here. The first one has been developing those tungsten carbide alternatives, these are new formulations that reduce our dependency on the Chinese-controlled supply chains.

The second element is advancing projects in wind turbines and, to a lesser extent, agricultural applications. These are new markets that will support future revenue growth.

The third, and and investing in materials and process innovation to support the products division where we are seeking to expand into new sectors, not just domestically, but in offshore markets as well. Look, putting it simply, that our research and development is a competitive moat for LaserBond, and it allows us to stay ahead technically.

It's we've got to continue creating these proprietary solutions that we will do, and so that our customers and and competitors can't easily replicate them. As a part of this research and development, we've talked about this new product called E-Clad.

We announced this in late 2025, in fact at our AGM. Look, it's a next-generation cladding technology, and and it's really designed for the most demanding environments.

E-Clad provides exceptional abrasion, wear, and corrosion resistance, especially in rotational wear applications. I've got to say, look, our team have done an outstanding job in developing this next-generation product.

The potential that we're seeing through the rigorous testing and the multiple, advanced customer trials that are out in the field now are setting new benchmarks for for performance for our customers in the real in the most demanding of situations. I know I am and the rest of the team are really excited to launch this technology and open up new market opportunities, towards the back end of this current financial year.

It's a it's a really exciting development for us, and and just one that demonstrates we the continued innovation and that investment in R&D, will pay dividends. If I just move on now to our Gateway Group, this is our 40%-owned subsidiary.

Gateway has had a really strong half, the revenue grew 24% versus PCP to $24.7 million. Our equity-accounted profit contribution from Gateway was $373,000 for the period.

Look, Gateway has really improved its capabilities and and successfully attracted new mining customers, broadening its base beyond traditional segments, which was always the plan. The market conditions also improving Gateway.

Strong gold prices and improving other commodities have sort of driven increased maintenance spending and supporting higher customer investment, so, these are these are solid tailwinds for Gateway's core business. The team completed the successful transition to a late larger facility in July, and they're now building revenue through that expanded facility with the LaserBond cladding technology that's that's already there and diversifying, Gateway's revenue base into additional industrial sectors.

The collaboration with LaserBond continues to be well received by our major customers and OEMs who are seeking that national coverage, which which opens that cross-selling opportunity for both businesses. The collaboration is is Gateway and LaserBond in the field looking to win and bring value or customers both to to our respective facilities.

Look, Gateway is well on track to to continue contributing, and look, now I'll just look at our strategic priorities and sort of outlook for for the second half. Our strategic priorities for FY26, they remain as, operational excellence, that workforce development, supply chain security, and import internet importantly, international growth.

On operational excellence, we're driving productivity improvements each and every day. We've completed some significant equipment upgrades that will, largely remove the downtime we've experienced in that first half and continuing cost efficiency initiatives that are sort of helping to expand that services margin.

On our workforce, we've focused on skilled migration in critical roles, and and importantly, in addition to that, we're welcoming or have welcomed a whole group of new apprentices to our business. Welcome to them, but it's an important part of us growing our own talent and supporting the communities where we operate.

Having that stable, capable production capacity is is fundamental to what we do. On the supply chain security, our tungsten carbide inventory build is a tangible example of where we've got, strategy in action.

We've diversified the supplier base, and we've we've held additional inventories, and our R&D team, they're busy working on on material alternatives for the medium term. Just lastly on international growth, our our products division is generating, really solid export revenue.

The technology license model is actually proving itself, which is great to see. We have to be frank, we see significant international market opportunity expansion opportunities ahead, we'll have more to say on that down the track, but that's that's really encouraging.

If I think about our, our growth drivers for the second half, just want to sort of be clear about sort of why we're confident in sort of the continued momentum. Look, our pipeline is is is healthy, and it extends well into '26, and it gives us sort of real revenue visibility.

The initiatives we've implemented already are contributing to margin expansion, and we see that as sustainable. The machinery that we've replaced or completed that replacement in the first half, again will largely remove that downtime that we absorbed, during the first half, this will give us higher productivity in the second half without the same sort of one-off costs.

Our growth optionality is expanding. Our oil and gas components are gaining traction.

As I said to a moment ago, the international market opportunities, we're we're actively exploring those, and we've sourced, new tungsten carbide supply options. That the products division, is is really going to be supported by that that more robust tungsten supply.

That Komatsu deal, really demonstrates our ability to generate sort of the the high-quality licensing revenue businesses with additional OEM deals in the pipeline. When we take those together, the second half of FY26 has a really strong foundation.

The second half is traditionally our stronger period, we've got a pipeline, capability, and a and a really strong strategic piece positioning to deliver in this second half. Having said all that, I'll just hand back to Ben for the Q&A session.

Thank you, Rob and Peter. First question, we have a couple of questions regarding how sustainable the services segment margins are, could it potentially go higher from where it is today?

There's no doubt that tungsten is a concern for us in terms of supply, and we've underpinned the supply with alternate sources. That pricing volatility, as you saw a moment ago, has softened some of those margins.

Having said that, tungsten is not the only issue. We have got a lot of things that we're doing in the background in terms of the efficiencies I spoke of, having equipment reliability that offset or eat any of that volatility.

I think we've come through the tough part of it, and the margins that we've seen, we expect to see those sustained. Of course, we're always going to be looking to improve those or to grow those, but I think it's the offsets and the work that we're doing largely behind the scenes to underpin that productivity and efficiency that will make the difference.

Peter, is there anything you wanted to add to that?

Look, as you said, Rob, I think despite some of the tungsten challenges, I feel confident that we're going to maintain.

Right, thank you. Our next question: does the strengthening Aussie dollar against the US dollar and the current US demand pattern bring forward the board's interest in expanding into the US?

Look currency is always a factor that we have to contemplate, when we've got an export business and sometimes it's a little challenging to navigate. I think the focus for us at the moment, our products are absolutely pitched at the premium end of the market, whilst we're always conscious of cost and being competitive in the market, we've got that ability to sort of move a little.

I think longer term a presence in the US, an indigenous presence where we have some sort of business or some sort of way to operate there to sort of remove that volatility is absolutely where we need to be in the longer term. We don't have anything to announce on that today, but certainly we have, as I mentioned a moment ago, active work on what that could look like and generating options into the future.

All right, thank you, Rob. Regarding the Komatsu licensing deal, is this a one-off deal, and is there any ongoing licensing payments with that OEM?

Look, I'd love to be able to share with you all the details of that, but there's a lot that's commercial in confidence. Komatsu have stated that they are putting laser capability in various operations around the globe.

We've been successful in getting this first deal, and we're the first one outside of Japan to actually supply into that Komatsu business. There is a tremendous opportunity.

We're going to nail this opportunity, get it absolutely first-class in functioning when we deploy it in a few months' time in their Perth facility, and we're going to be quick, smart, busy negotiating for systems beyond that. It depends on our performance.

We know we've got form on doing these well, as we evidenced by the Gateway facility. We're going to get this one right and work hard at getting some more of those orders.

All right, thank you. What percentage of revenue within the products division comes from offshore?

Sorry, could you just repeat that question, Ben? Ben, we've lost you there.

Rob, the question was: what percentage of revenue within the products division comes from offshore?

I don't have those numbers to hand, all I can say is that it's a material part for our products division. It's an important part, and without jumping into sort of the detail of it, I think whilst it has improved in this sort of this current half as we've seen more stability, particularly in the US market, I think our customers in the US have got confidence around the tariff environment, so that's given them confidence to sort of purchase more from us.

I expect that to be a sustained area, but I don't have to hand that percentage.

We'll take that one on notice and get back to that person. In terms of Gateway margin, it declined despite strong revenue growth.

Was that due to temporary impact from moving the factory?

Generally, Gateway, the customer mix and the type of work that they do has a lower margin. If we're talking about the 50s, that business is kind of in the 20s to 30s.

Now over time, with the introduction of that Gateway laser cell, you will introduce a higher margin mix into that business, it is just by the nature it's a different margin business, but it's improving over time. As to anything detailed in their investments, Peter, I'm not sure if you've had anything to add on that.

Now look, they are project based, and from discussions with Gateway and the leadership team there, from what I can understand, the second half is being strong, they've got a stronger order book, and they're building. For LaserBond and our investment, all I can see is basically a really good first half, and I think it's going to continue from a Gateway perspective in the second half.

I'm encouraged about what's coming through, what their order book's doing, and also what they're converting significantly above budget. All right,

thank you. Had a couple of questions about the order book.

As was stated in the announcements today, 70% increase in the order book January 1 this year compared to 12 months earlier. Can you quantify the number, which segments and from current or new customers?

The 70% is a sort of an outcome of the work that we've been doing to get better data from our customers about demand forecasting and getting those into our systems earlier so that we can more effectively map out production. It's generally across all parts of our business, it's a sort of a capability lift and sort of better data so we can see into that.

That 70% was as of 1st of January. There was two a couple of elements there: one, towards the end of December, we were really just struggling with production to get every last dollar through, we ended up with a good start, but equally, that demand forecasting and those orders and the customers gave us a nice bump, and that set us up really well for the January period for the start.

Otherwise we might have had a slower start. I don't want people to be misled to think that it's going to be 70% higher through the whole half.

That's not what it is, but it's just representing a really strong start. Sorry, Ben, is there another part of the question?

I think I've just missed.

No, no, fine. We've had, yeah, just another question regarding the order book.

Does the order book include the Komatsu licensing order, that's $2.4 million? That's a follow-up question from another attendee.

We knew that contract was there and that was already locked in, when we refer to the 70% includes obviously everything, but a big chunk of that is the business coming from the products and the other servicing business.

All right, thank you. Is tungsten used much in the services division?

It's less. I guess to break it down a little bit further, tungsten is the premium material that we use in our premium products, in the products division, it's tungsten heavy.

In the services division, we've got products that use no tungsten all the way through to heavy amounts, and that's the area where we're looking to, well, both areas, but we're looking at that one to say, how can we substitute alternate materials in some applications whilst not compromising on performance? That's where we're making some really good progress, particularly with E-Clad.

Tungsten's used across the business, more skewed to the products, but the services one, as I say, we still do use it, but not as much.

All right, thank you. Can you explain the structure of the Komatsu deal, pointing to revenue recognition, gross margin, etc.?

You didn't

hear me, Rob, then? Look, I I don't want to go into too much detail here because it's, to be honest, it's commercial in confidence with Komatsu.

Other than to say that for the the $2.4 million, we will deliver a system turnkey ready, trained to produce results from day one. We'll deliver that in this second half and will be invoiced, once we've commissioned that.

There is, of course, a licensing arrangement with that that's ongoing that provides, technical support, supply of other components, and ongoing technology and updates. Look, I'm not going to go into the the commercial in confidence elements of that, other than to say that, Komatsu have picked us aware that why they've picked us, one of the reasons they picked us is that licensing arrangement, that ongoing technical support, and they can see the evidence through other customers where we've deployed that.

They value that. Yes, that's absolutely a real revenue opportunity for it, but the commercials, I'm just not going to go into that level of detail.

Thank you, Rob. Can you provide more colour on the capex, and can you give an indication on what its ratio will be at the full year compared to operating cash flows?

I'd say the last part we can't provide, but so can you provide more colour on the capex?

Peter, are you okay to grab that one?

Look, we have been investing heavily in upgrades. Laser 1 is at the moment, we're going to replace that and that'll happen over the next year.

We're also getting ready for a horizontal borer in our Smeaton Grange facility, and it's really ongoing investment in our equipment as well as our people and our systems, just to make sure that we're ready for any future growth and we're scalable. The organization over the last few years has been investing and reinvesting especially in equipment, I think that will continue for sure.

All right, thank you.

Those two Sorry.

There you go, Rob.

I was going to say those two main items that Peter just pointed to will break the back of the major investments certainly for Smeaton Grange, in the next sort of 12 months. As Peter touched on, the investment in capability, and processes and that sort of stuff will be sort of the next thing, not a big cash draw, but certainly that capability so we can scale the business, particularly as we think about what an investment in the North American market might look like.

All right, thank you. Another question, this one's for Peter, will you be reporting segment-level profitability in the future, i.e.

services, product, tech? Can you also comment about the high goodwill and how you'd handle Gateway moving ahead?

Sure. Let me take the segment reporting question first.

We do that already as part of our reporting, but we are working on restructuring our system to be able to actually track that on a more regular basis, and also to do that, and that'll be probably be done over the next six months. Sorry, Ben, the second part of the question was?

Hello?

Ben's is on mute. Hello, Ben?

Apologies. Sorry.

Can you also comment about the high goodwill and how you'd handle Gateway moving ahead?

Look, we actually talked about that with our auditors yesterday, and that's something that we're contemplating, and it is something that we'll address as part of the FY27 reporting period. It's something that I'm definitely looking at in terms of how we recognise that and what the carrying value of the goodwill will be when we actually switch to 51%.

At the moment, we're at 40%, and there's a number of things that we need to do around valuations, etc., it's in hand, it's being discussed, and definitely talk more about that when the time is right.

Thank you, Peter. Regarding Gateway, beyond moving to 51% of Gateway ownership, is there a pathway to 100% ownership over time?

It's a conversation that we are starting now with Gateway, and as to what respective aspirations are. I've got to say, what informs that discussion from LaserBond's perspective is it's a quality business with really top-notch management.

It's in a market that's got a lot of headroom. That laser technology put in there is going to take it into other markets and grow it, so that business is very attractive to us.

As we've seen from the results, they're exceeding their own internal budgets, I'm the sort of person naturally to say, well, we should go to a bigger stake beyond the 51. To be honest, that's a conversation that we're having.

The 51, we've got that right to go to 51 to exercise that in April next March or April next year, 2027. Beyond that, there are options for either party at that pre-agreed multiple of 4.5 times EBITDA.

It's an active conversation. We'll progress this year.

When we've got something to announce, we'll announce it. Certainly from my point of view, it's an attractive business, it's in a good market, and there's a lot to like about how that's shaping up into the future years.

Thank you, Rob. Just regarding E-Clad, you launched it to target extreme wear and erosion resistance at more competitive pricing.

Does this mean you're competing on price in a commoditised segment, and is there a pivot or reposition to your margin profile in order to push products and services more aggressively?

Interesting point. Context is crucial, isn't it?

When you think about our products, the tungsten-heavy products, they're premium prices when you compare to, say, legacy products or legacy technologies, say chrome plating and other things. They're at the sort of more cost-competitive price.

With E-Clad, we're not talking about going down and competing with the chromes. What we're saying is that we've got a formulation that has the premium quality and characteristics, allows us to be more competitive at that upper end of the segment.

No, it's not a race to the bottom as such, but it will bring us at a slightly more competitive cost point. What it will do is not only allowing for either margin expansion or retaining competitive position, I think it certainly will give us the opportunity to break into some markets for people who might have been using legacy technologies and move over to laser, it is absolutely targeted at how we grow that market for laser technologies.

It's not a price-leader race-to-the-bottom-type products.

Thank you, Rob. Just a follow-up on E-Clad: it seems you don't need to set up facilities in close proximity to the customer and can rely on OEM partners.

Can you comment if this is likely how you'd scale?

It depends, I guess is a really deep question. We could probably spend way more time than we've got on it.

There are some customers who'll say to us, "Here's a component. I've got longer lead time.

Just fix it. Where you put it in your network, if you move it to Adelaide or Perth or whatever, they don't mind."

There are other customers who might have a breakdown or need response times quicker, so that's why having that broader network is crucial. It does depend.

There is no doubt so it's a more of a customer-centric answer to the question. We succeed in the US or the export markets because those markets are used to having specialty premium products of us having longer lead times.

As the market moves ahead or matures, whether you're in the US, whether you're in Australia, proximity to your customers will become more important, but not the only driver, if that makes sense. I know that's a bit of a 50 cents each way type answer, but it really does depend on the particular customer in the segment.

Thank you, Rob. That concludes the Q&A segment of this webinar.

I'll now hand back to Rob for closing remarks.

Thanks, Ben, and look, thanks, everybody, for attending today. I know reporting season is busy, but really look, just in summary, our first half of '26, we delivered really solid financial performance.

Our advanced technology commercialisation and strengthened sort of strategic foundation of the business have really delivered for us. Revenue up 13.4%, NPAT, it's more than doubled, the order book is actually very strong and it gives us confidence, we're entering that second half with really solid momentum.

Look, our team have done a terrific job. I'd like to thank them as well, but also thank you, everybody else, for attending today.

Appreciate your support for LaserBond. Look forward to updating you with our progress as we move ahead in the future.

Have a great day.