Nufarm Limited

Nufarm Limited

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Nov 19Next Earn

Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 27, 2026

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Rico Christensen, CEO.

Please go ahead.

Rico Christensen

Thank you, Ashley. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Nufarm's first half FY26 results.

With me today, I have our CFO, Brendan Ryan; our Group Executive for Portfolio Solutions, Beth Closs-Frank; and our General Manager for the Hybrid Seeds business, Rachel Palumbo. Over the past year, we have been very deliberate in sharpening our focus to improve earnings quality, strengthen the balance sheet, and increase capital discipline.

Today's presentation reflects good progress on that journey. I'll walk through the first half performance, Brendan will then discuss the financials in more detail, and lastly, I will talk about our strategy refresh and close with our outlook commentary.

Before we begin, I encourage everyone to read the important notices on the next page regarding forward-looking statements and non-IFRS measures. As always, our comments today are subject to market conditions and the risks outlined in this presentation.

I'm pleased to report that we have delivered a strong result with 18% growth in EBITDA and 35% growth in NPAT over prior corresponding period. We also delivered a significant improvement in free cash flow of $193 million, reducing our leverage to 3.6 times net debt to underlying EBITDA, which is not only better than last year, but also on par with the first half of FY24.

Revenue was lower year on year, reflecting a deliberate focus on improving mix and prioritizing margin over volume. Gross profit increased 7% and reached a margin of 33.1%, which is the highest gross profit percentage Nufarm has reported in the last 20 years.

Later in the presentation, we will provide more detail on the strategic choices we've made to change our margin profile and our focus going forward. Pleasingly, this overall performance gives us the confidence to reaffirm our outlook for the full year in regards to strong growth in underlying EBITDA and 2 times leverage.

Last November, we outlined our priorities for FY26. They were to focus on cost and capital discipline, drive profitable growth in crop protection, and deliver on our reprioritized seeds strategy.

We have done what we said we would. We improved cash flow and reduced leverage to 3.6 times, and we kept our operating expenses flat.

In crop protection, we delivered profitable growth and improved margins. We grew our EBITDA by 6% in constant currency.

Hybrid Seeds EBITDA grew by 8%, and we significantly improved performance in emerging platforms. We had a good crop protection result with growth driven by underlying regional strength, partially offset by currency translation and weather impacts.

While performance differed by region, what has been consistent is our emphasis on focusing resources on areas where we can generate sustainable margins and returns. That discipline is pleasingly reflected in earnings quality and cash outcomes, and resulted in an increase in EBITDA by 6% in constant currency.

Europe was the standout contributor, with EBITDA up 17% on prior corresponding period in local currency, reflecting improved product mix and lower operating costs following the implementation of the performance improvement program. North America EBITDA increased 11% on prior corresponding period in local currency.

Turf and ornamental and Canada grew strongly. Volumes in US crop protection reflected a continued focus on higher-value products.

Longer regulatory approval processes impacted the timing of new product revenue. APAC EBITDA declined 15% on prior corresponding period, primarily reflecting dry weather conditions in Australia and currency headwinds.

In Asia, underlying EBITDA grew strongly in constant currency, with Indonesia a key contributor. We are very pleased with Seed Technologies.

EBITDA grew 8%, driven by growth in hybrid seeds and a materially improved result in emerging platforms. Hybrid seeds performed well across all crops, with expansion and scale-up in South America, strong Australian canola growth, and successful new product launches.

In emerging platforms, we expanded our offtake agreement with bp to 2050. It positions carinata to grow at scale under a disciplined, capital-light investment model.

In omega-3, we reduced cash costs and capital. We are repositioning omega-3 to lower cost of production in South America.

Europe and China deregulation are on track for 2028. Overall, Seed Technologies is delivering higher-quality earnings with improved margins and lower capital intensity.

Now, I will hand over to Brendan to take us through the financial result in detail.

Brendan Ryan

Thanks, Rico. As Rico highlighted, this is a strong first half with improved earnings, cash flow, and reduction in leverage.

The financials I'll walk through now demonstrate that this is being driven by an improvement in earnings quality and capital discipline, reflecting deliberate actions taken over the past 12 months to reshape the business. Turning to the profit and loss.

While revenue was lower year on year, reflecting our deliberate focus on improving mix and prioritizing margin over volume, gross profit increased 7% and margins expanded by 3.7 percentage points to 33.1%. This reflects improved crop protection mix, strong hybrid seeds growth, and improved performance in omega-3.

Importantly, this margin expansion, combined with disciplined cost management, is now translating into strong operating leverage across the P&L, with margin gains flowing through to earnings. Operating expenses were broadly flat, with the benefits from the cost-savings program offsetting inflationary pressures.

As a result, underlying EBITDA increased 18% to $243 million, and underlying EBIT increased 32% to $136 million. We also delivered strong growth in underlying net profit after tax of 35% to $52 million, demonstrating the earnings leverage now embedded in the business.

Overall, this reflects an improvement in the quality and the resilience of our earnings profile, which is increasingly translating to cash. Turning to the balance sheet.

We are now seeing a clear inflection from the cyclical peak in working capital seen in the first half of financial year '24, and this improved balance sheet efficiency is supporting stronger cash generation. Average net working capital reduced by 12%, with a 2.1 percentage point improvement in net working capital to sales, reflecting disciplined working capital management.

At the same time, capital expenditure has reduced materially as we transition from a period of peak investment to a lower, more sustainable level. Combined with stronger profitability, this has driven a meaningful reduction in net debt and leverage.

Net debt reduced 10% year on year, notwithstanding a $190 million higher opening net debt position entering financial year '26. Leverage declined from 4.5 times to 3.6 times, a reduction of around 20%.

Overall, the balance sheet is strengthening with improved working capital efficiency, and the business is positioned to continue to deleverage, driven by earnings and cash generation. On net operating expenses, we are on track to deliver 2025 cost-savings program, with the full-period benefit of $50 million captured by this financial year-end.

As you can see on the slide, we've achieved $32 million of cumulative savings in operating expenses for the first half of the year. This has offset inflation.

Importantly, a significant portion of these savings is now embedded in the current earnings base, contributing directly to underlying EBITDA expansion. These savings have been driven by targeted actions across the business, including performance improvement initiatives in Europe, reduced commercial and support spend, and headcount is 115 lower than the prior year.

Overall, this program is supporting ongoing improvement in margins, cash flow, and returns. Turning now to cash flow.

Free cash flow in the half reflects the typical working capital build in the first half. We have delivered a 133 sorry, a $193 million year-on-year improvement in free cash flow, reflecting materially stronger underlying cash generation and disciplined capital management.

This improvement has been driven by stronger profitability, improved working capital outcomes contributing to $103 million, and lower capital expenditure. Importantly, this represents a strong lift in underlying cash generation and positions us well for positive free cash flow for the full year as working capital unwinds in the second half.

On net working capital, we delivered a further year-on-year improvement as we continue to deliver sustained improvement from the cyclical peak in the first half of financial year '24. Average net working capital reduced by 7%, with a 6-day improvement in the cash conversion cycle driven primarily by lower receivable days, resulting in lower funding requirements and improved capital efficiency.

As a result, net working capital to sales reduced by 2.1 percentage points and is now comfortably within our 35% to 40% target range. This improvement reinforces the progress we are making in embedding capital discipline across the business, and working capital will continue to be a key lever supporting free cash flow generation.

On capital expenditure, the reduction in our capital expenditure this year reflects our transition from a period of peak investment to a lower, more sustainable level of spend. It also reflects our more focused strategy, which requires less capital intensity and increased discipline around capital allocation.

This includes lower spending across manufacturing, a more focused crop protection R&D portfolio, and reduced investment in the omega-3 platform. We are targeting capital expenditure this year of less than $200 million, down from $246 million last year.

As you can see, the weighting of spend will be in the second half due to timing of project delivery. A more sustainable capital profile of the business will support improved free cash flow generation over time.

On net debt, we've delivered $135 million reduction year on year, notwithstanding a higher opening debt position and some benefits on currency translation, with leverage declining by approximately 20% from 4.5 times to 3.6 times. This reflects the combination of stronger earnings, disciplined working capital management, and lower capital expenditure.

Importantly, deleveraging is now being driven by improved earnings and cash generation rather than balance sheet actions alone, marking a clear shift in the financial profile of the business. Our funding position remains strong, with a diversified, covenant-light capital structure.

Liquidity remains solid after supporting the seasonal working capital build. Now to some information to help you with your models, giving guidance on some key line items for the full year financial year '26.

Depreciation and amortization, approximately $218 million. Net interest expense, approximately $100 million.

Foreign exchange hedge expense, second half expense expected to be below that of the first half. Underlying income tax expense, we expect a $20 million to $30 million range, reflecting country mix.

Overall, this result demonstrates an improvement in earnings quality, a materially stronger cash generation, and a stronger balance sheet. This supports our confidence in delivering the full-year outlook.

We are now building a more resilient financial profile, with improving operating leverage and cash conversion. This provides a strong foundation for continued deleveraging, sustained free cash flow, and improved returns over time, and demonstrates that the strategy is already translating into financial outcomes.

I'll now hand you back to Rico to cover the strategy refresh and outlook.

Rico Christensen

Thank you, Brendan. I will now discuss our strategy refresh before covering outlook.

When I think about Nufarm and talk to farmers and channel partners across the world, what stands out is the instant brand recognition and respect that people have for our business and the depth of the relationships we have built over more than 100 years of doing business. We are known for our solutions and our commitment to being easy to do business with.

We are a leader in key geographies, in core crops, and key product segments. We are known and respected for our innovations across crop protection and seeds, and supporting customers with solutions as the agriculture industry continues to evolve.

Our strategy refresh will see us take the best of what we have and what we do and apply more focus to drive better returns for our shareholders. Over time, our industry has evolved into an everything-for-everybody business model.

We are choosing a different direction. What we are articulating is not only choosing what we will do, but also what we will not do.

We are sharpening the focus on where we can win and applying greater discipline to how we allocate capital and resources accordingly. First, we're prioritizing capital more effectively, reallocating toward markets where we have a track record of strong returns and a competitive advantage.

This also means exiting assets and portfolios when they don't align with our strategy and returns discipline. Second, we are improving the quality of earnings and returns in crop protection.

This is about narrowing our focus on crops and markets, and as has been evident in this result, we are placing a greater emphasis on margin over volume. Our portfolio renewal will continue to come from partnerships that deliver innovation in a capital-light model.

Third, in hybrid seeds, we have a high-quality business with a clear path for growth. In emerging platforms, we have a unique position with technologies that are sought after and supported by strategic partners such as bp.

Here, we're taking a more disciplined approach to investments to support growth and group returns. Overall, this refresh is designed to support stronger cash flow and improved margins and ROCE over time.

In FY26, we remain focused on disciplined delivery, completing the previous $50 million cost-savings program announced in FY25, resetting our capex target to below $200 million, and continuing the path toward lower leverage. The strategy refresh creates the basis for additional efficiencies.

In April, we announced further cost savings of $50 million and expect to achieve the run rate by the end of FY27 and the full benefit in FY28. In FY27, we expect to sustain capex at a similar level to FY26.

Beyond that, our objective is to sustain positive free cash flow, continue improving ROCE, and operate the business within a leverage range of around 1.5 to 2 times. Collectively, these objectives reflect the financial discipline embedded in the strategy refresh and our focus on improving returns and cash generation across the cycle.

I want to share a bit more detail on the new cost-savings program. The focus in the FY26 program is centered around two areas.

The first is the rationalization of assets and portfolio, and the second is around operational efficiency and changes in our operating model. The anticipated cost savings are spread across reductions in internal cost of goods and SG&A.

I want to emphasize that we're not relying on external reductions in cost of goods to achieve the savings target. The FY26 program is expected to have cash implementation cost of $15 million, weighted towards FY27.

We expect to achieve the run rate savings by the end of FY27, with the full benefit coming through in FY28. In our crop protection business, we've taken several actions as a result of the strategy refresh.

First, we are narrowing our portfolio focus around fewer crops and reprioritizing capital toward markets where we can consistently earn returns above our cost of capital. Second, we are actively rationalizing assets to better align the footprint with that portfolio.

This includes the closure of the Wyke manufacturing facility and closure and sale of the Kwinana site. Further footprint options are being assessed.

We are also rationalizing the portfolio in North America to prioritize higher-margin products. In doing that, we are deliberately forgoing some revenue in the short term and focusing on growing higher-margin products, as evident from our first-half results.

Third, we are driving ongoing operational efficiency, reducing fixed costs, capital intensity, and complexity. Collectively, these actions are designed to redeploy capital to higher-returning activities and deliver more resilient margins and returns over time.

In Seed Technologies, we are also taking action to improve capital discipline and returns while preserving the long-term upside. We restructured the portfolio into two distinct operating models, reflecting very different routes to market, customer archetypes, and capital profiles.

In hybrid seeds, the focus is on scaling our highest-returning platform, with a strong Southern Hemisphere bias. It is a traditional business-to-retail model where we influence grower decisions at the farm gate.

Actions underway include streamlining the European sunflower business through a licensing model and expanding in South America, both aimed at improving margins and returns while capitalizing on the rising global demand for plant-based oils. Emerging platforms is a business-to-business model relying on selected and unique strategic partners.

Here, we're taking a deliberately more disciplined approach. In carinata, growth is being supported through our expanded partnership with bp under a capital-light model.

In omega-3, we have reset to a lower cash spend and are undertaking a staged approach, with production and deregulation progressing in a measured way while keeping the long-term growth prospects intact. Together, these actions are designed to sharpen returns while maintaining strategic optionality.

This brings us to our strategic priorities that continue to be cost and capital discipline, drive profitable growth in crop protection, and deliver on the reprioritized seeds strategy. To help us do that, we have listed some specific actions.

First is the additional cost-savings program of $50 million, which we have provided detail on. We've also made really good progress on resetting our capex to a healthier level and reallocating it towards our chosen markets.

It also remains a continued focus to improve our earnings quality and lift free cash flow. In crop protection specifically, we are shifting portfolio mix towards higher-margin products.

In the US, we built a solid plan to improve returns and now in the early stage of execution. In Europe, we saw really good progress in improving our margins and returns this first half, and now we're focused on maintaining that momentum.

In seeds, we are building out the new operating model around the two distinct businesses while at the same time expanding our hybrid seeds business across the Southern Hemisphere. We are aligning our investments to a returns-based focus without losing sight of the long-term growth prospects in emerging platforms.

This brings me to our outlook for FY26. We are reaffirming our outlook for this year, expecting strong growth in EBITDA.

We are targeting a net debt leverage of 2 times by the end of FY26, which compares to 2.7 by the end of FY25. We also expect positive free cash flow driven by the normal seasonal unwind in working capital, and we're targeting capital expenditure of less than $200 million.

In crop protection, we're expecting continuing growth in EBITDA, improving on the first half growth rate, driven by continuing margin improvement and cost savings. In Seed Technologies, we're expecting strong growth in EBITDA from hybrid seeds and a $40 million improvement in EBITDA from emerging platforms, resulting from our expanded offtake agreement with bp and improved omega-3 performance.

With that, Brendan and I, together with Rachel and Beth, will be happy to take questions.

Operator

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

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

Your first question today comes from Owen Birrell with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Owen Birrell

Hey, good morning, guys. Rico, I wanted to draw you out on one of the comments you made around the US crop protection market where you've said you've got a plan to improve returns and that's currently being executed.

I'm wondering if you can give us a bit more color around the strategies that you've implemented in that North American market.

Rico Christensen

Thanks for that question. It comes back to what we talked about during the presentation, which is really around the focusing on our portfolio.

We're changing the crop strategy and our portfolio strategy. In doing that, we're rationalizing the portfolio we have in the US market and then leaning towards more higher-margin products.

That's going to change the margin profile of the US crop protection business.

Owen Birrell

Are you able to give us a sense of some of those products that you're leaning into? Maybe

Rico Christensen

there's a long tail of products in our portfolio in the US, and I think what we're looking at are really the products that are more commoditized, some products that have become more commoditized over the years and had lost the relevance in the market. Those would be the ones that we're looking at.

I'll also ask maybe Beth to help explain a little bit about what we're doing on our portfolio and crop strategy.

Beth Lorsbach

Thanks, Rico. Maybe just a little bit more detail on our crop strategy.

Our focus is aligning our crop strategy around three key markets: cereals, soybeans, and tree nuts and vines, globally to drive growth and margin improvements by concentrating resources on those key groups. This represents the most treated in market value within crop protection.

It also leverages our strengths in post-patent solutions and value-added mixtures across the regions, with particular emphasis on cereals and soybeans in major markets like Europe, North America, APAC, and LATAM. Most of our current pipeline sales are linked to these three crop groups, highlighting their importance, and focusing on these crop groups allows sharper portfolio prioritization, streamlined registrations, better ROIs, and concentrated R&D efforts.

Specifically, our manufacturing footprint in phenoxies is equally important to us supporting these key crops, it's a key component of many cereal and soybean products currently on the market. Even when prices swing, acreage stability in these key two crop segments supports base volumes, which improves asset utilization and manufacturing overhead.

Owen Birrell

That's excellent. Just one last question from me around the cost-out programs.

The '26 cost-out program, $50 million, '27 another $50 million. I'm just wondering is this a sort of I guess a line in the sand that we should think about going into the future as a cost-out target required to continually offset inflationary pressures?

Brendan Ryan

Thanks, Owen. Brendan here.

On the 2026 cost-out program, as you can see from what we presented today, we've made very good progress in the delivery to date, and that was largely focused around SG&A, and we're on plan to deliver the remainder of that benefit in the second half. In regards to the additional $50 million that Rico mentioned as part of the strategy refresh, that's more broader based in terms of going across the value chain.

As Rico indicated, some of that benefit will be coming through in terms of cost of goods or manufacturing conversion costs as well as in our SG&A. There will be some reduction in our fixed cost base.

We'll continue to drive the efficiency in the cost base that we have. Some of those benefits will be offset by inflationary pressures.

That's an element that's hard to predict, but will be present, I guess, on the go-forward. Overall, from a cost perspective in terms of a theme in the strategy refresh is controlling the controllables in terms of cost management, being disciplined around where we spend our money in terms of the benefit and the returns it provides, and we'll continue to be focused on continued efficiency right across our cost base as we go forward.

Owen Birrell

Thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from William Park with UBS. Please go ahead.

William Park

Good morning. Thanks, Rico and Brendan, for taking my question.

Can I just ask about the trends that you've seen across different geographies in the first 3 months of second half to date, particularly around sort of the weather-related impacts and I guess the farmer economics there? Thank you.

Rico Christensen

Thanks, Will. As we mentioned, we're seeing good momentum in April and May in our business across all regions and businesses.

In terms of the weather update, we've seen obviously we don't have that elusive normal year as we always talk about. That always a mixed picture of things happening here and there.

Largely speaking, the weather conditions have been normal to that extent. In Europe, we've seen a little bit of late spring in parts of Europe and then flooding in a couple of the southern markets.

In North America, we also had a late spring this year. We're probably running 3 or 4 weeks behind from normal season there.

Then in APAC, we've seen also dry weather impact in the beginning of the year. Now in the last couple of months, including in March, we saw some good rainfalls at the right time of the season from our perspective and also in the right geographies.

William Park

Thank you. Can I just also ask about your strategy?

You've talked about how, I guess, you're not chasing revenue, but you're more focused on earnings quality. If I sort of look across your global peers, they're talking about somewhat muted sort of revenue growth in the crop protection space driven by volume.

I'm not sure, it kind of ties in with my first question around farmer economics. Given the cost inflation and diesel prices and all these things that are sort of out of their control, is there a risk that there is a flight to kind of lower-priced, more commoditized products versus some of the premium products or higher-priced products you're talking to?

Rico Christensen

I don't think so. I think what's happening around the world is that, yes, there is a concern among farmers around rising cost of fuel and fertilizer costs particularly.

I think most farmers they have options to reduce some of their fertilizer applications if they have done their work in previous years. You can skip for a year or reduce in a year without a significant impact on yield.

They're doing that. They also have other options to reduce their cash spend on farm, and they're going through all those different options just as we do when we are running a business, they're looking at cash flow also.

What they do not seem to be compromising on is the quality of the yields that they need to deliver on farm. Farmers continue to be focused on delivering high yields, which means that they are investing in seeds, they're investing in crop protection to help protect their crops because once the investment is made, you planted your crop, you need to ensure that you can harvest it and get those yields you're looking for.

We're not seeing a radical change in how farmers are spending on crop protection and seeds.

William Park

Thank you. Then just in terms of how you're thinking about, I guess, your COGS in the crop protection business.

If I look at some of the recent moves in the ag chem prices coming out of China, that there's been a pretty meaningful improvement there. Just how you're sort of thinking about benefits of the prices moving upward flowing through to the business?

Rico Christensen

A lot of that change we see out of China is obviously driven by the conflict in the Middle East that has an impact on their energy costs. What we've not really seen is a short-term impact on our business.

Traditionally, we've been very good at that and translating those cost increases into higher prices of our products. We'll continue to manage that development coming out of China, not just this year, but also next year.

William Park

Thank you. Then just one last question from me.

I notice that the licensing revenue in the half has jumped. How should we be thinking about sort of the licensing revenue profile going forward?

The

Rico Christensen

licensing revenue, yes, year on year, there has been some movement. It primarily relates to our emerging platforms segment of the business that will trending typical to what you've seen in the first half going forward.

That sufficient, William?

William Park

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Ramoun Lazar with Jefferies.

Please go ahead.

Ramoun Lazar

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.

Maybe just one to start with on the growth platforms. Could you just give us an idea of the initiatives to reduce those break-even costs for omega-3?

Where do you see those new costs relative to a break-even price, if you can maybe talk around that?

Rico Christensen

Thanks for that question. We've also talked about that in previous settings, and what we're doing is really two things.

The first one, maybe start by saying it's not only about reducing cost of goods, it's also about reducing the capex spend. What we did last year was we took a hard look at the capex spend and also opex spend we have around the emerging platforms, and we took action on that, and we saw some of that also happening last year.

In addition to that, we also decided to relocate production to South America. In doing that, we expect to see a lower cost to produce because of that decision.

Then lastly, we are also awaiting the deregulation in China, which will provide an additional cost savings to the omega-3 products.

Ramoun Lazar

Okay. Any idea you can give us on that break-even price relative to where it's been previously given those initiatives?

Brendan Ryan

We don't normally disclose the break-even price. We obviously have competitors in the market that are also listening to these calls, we don't normally talk about that.

Ramoun Lazar

Okay. Second question, just on the leverage guidance for the full year around that 2 times net debt to EBITDA.

It does imply a significant net working capital unwind in the second half. Maybe if you can help us bridge that unwind in the second half, the key drivers, and how to think about leverage heading into the new year as well?

Brendan Ryan

Thanks, Ramon. Brendan here.

We've confirmed in terms of leverage for the end of financial year '26 that we'll be at 2 times EBITDA. The drivers of the ability to achieve that leverage is from the net working capital, as you mentioned, and the net working capital unwind in the second half.

That's typical to what we've seen in past years, which is largely driven by cash collections, effectively the reduction in receivables from the sales made in the first half. There will be some inventory improvement also, and as you can see from the first half, we've driven some working capital efficiency with a reduction in the cash conversion cycle.

It'll be also supported by a lower level of capex year on year. The weighting of that is to the second half.

That's largely the reason of the project delivery, and then also it'll be supported by stronger earnings relative to last year also. In terms of looking beyond this current financial year, what I'd message is around the focus on the continued commercial levers around driving better cash conversion in the business, sustaining the lower level of capital expenditure, continuing the improvement pathway that we have now sustained over approximately 2 years in driving lower working capital for the business, and better cost control and lower cost profile.

That's important, I guess, overall in terms of the strategy refresh. We're building a better-quality business with a stronger balance sheet, which will be leading to continued deleveraging over time.

Ramoun Lazar

Okay. Thanks, Brendan.

One other one, just on the capex. That's now more aligned with D&A around that $200 mil level.

Is it a sustainable level, you think, for the business for the foreseeable future, just given, I guess some of the initiatives you've talked about in terms of rationalizing product SKUs and the focus on more efficient capital deployment in the seeds businesses?

Brendan Ryan

Yes, we believe so. Maintaining a lower, sustainable level of spend of less than 200 is what we see for the business relative to the prior periods, which was following a period of sustained investment, particularly around the manufacturing asset base.

That's passed in terms of the requirements there. We've also looked at the emerging platforms, and communicated there'll be lower investment, particularly around omega-3, as we've repositioned that business.

Ramoun Lazar

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from John Purtell with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

John Purtell, your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.

We will move on to the next question. Your next question comes from Oliver Reg with Citi.

Please go ahead. Oh,

Oliver Reg

good morning. I just wonder if you can make a comment on channel inventory balances across the supply chain.

We're hearing these have been drawn down given the input cost inflation. I was wondering if you could also just touch on how you guys are managing inventory with the risk that the strait formulas opens and this could see AI prices fall sharply?

Thank you.

Rico Christensen

We are also seeing that inventories are being drawn down across the world. Obviously, people are hesitant to replenish their inventories with the costs we see out of China.

We are also doing the same. We're seeing the same in the channel partners that they are looking also at inventory management.

Oliver Reg

Could that have benefited your margins in the first half?

Rico Christensen

Sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn't really hear it.

Oliver Reg

You're drawing down this low-cost inventory, could that have driven your margins in the first half or was the timing not quite there? No,

Rico Christensen

the change in the margin in the first half is more related to our decisions around rationalizing portfolio. We also had a little bit of change in portfolio mix driven by some of the delays we saw in North America in the season.

Oliver Reg

Great. Thank you.

Just the last one. The US crop protection, you're going through the portfolio rationalization there.

Australia's also quite a big market and is also quite competitive. Is there further rationalization you're doing in other geographies?

Rico Christensen

We've been pretty disciplined in rationalizing the portfolio in Australia over the last few years. On a global level, on any given year, we typically rationalize around 10% of our SKUs, so that's the normal rate.

That number is going to be higher this year, probably even closer to 20%, mostly driven out of what we're seeing in North America.

Oliver Reg

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Jonathan Snape with Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Snape

Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?

Brendan Ryan

Yes.

Jonathan Snape

Great. First question, can I just ask around omega-3?

Obviously, you've upgraded the guidance today on that side of the equation. That looks like it's somewhere around about a couple hundred bucks a ton on pricing, if I remember the sensitivities right.

If I look at the market, when we were here in November last year, pricing in Peru and Chile was around that 2 $2,500, $2,700 a ton. If I look at it today, it's around $4,600, $5,000 a ton, and they've just halted fishing off the coast of Chile and they've halted it for 30 days off the coast of Peru.

It looks like the backdrop is getting better than what was 6 months ago relative as well to the pricing that it looks like you're taking up. I guess my first question is, am I right in the sensitivities around pricing that it looks like has been incorporated to guidance?

I guess the second question is, you had a US $90 million facility that you fully utilized at balance date last year. How are you finding the market to actually selling through this stuff at the moment?

Are you finding anyone more interested in doing longer-term offtake agreements?

Brendan Ryan

Hi Jonathan, Brendan here. In terms of fish oil pricing, like we actually said, we have seen an increase in the pricing from 6 months ago, and affirming overall.

That benefit has flowed through in terms of the pricing to our product in terms of Aquaterra. We have sold some volume in the first half and plan to sell some more in the second half.

There is a balance there in terms of optimizing between the short and the longer-term opportunities. Overall, in terms of the quoted prices, they are spot prices.

They are somewhat volume dependent as well, but overall, no dispute in the fact that the fish oil pricing has been firming and has increased over the past 6 months. In terms of our outlook lifting it from 30 million to 40 million on the emerging platforms, the predominant reason for doing that is related to that factor.

In terms of the $90 million facility, we have been doing sales, and we plan to do some more sales in the second half. That will support the ability for us to repay that loan, part of that loan, $45 million in September of this year, and then with the full maturity of that in September '27.

Jonathan Snape

All right. Can I follow up with some of the questions you've been around actives at the moment?

If I think about your business, you're maxing that long in March each year. Prices since March have probably rallied in active markets nearly 20% in an Aussie dollar sense, I guess a little bit more in US dollars.

I guess what people are trying to figure out is, is there almost like a free carry into the second half that, obviously, people have been landing, or would be landing now, high-priced stock that is competing against low-priced stock. Obviously, wouldn't have seen any in the first half.

Are you seeing any benefit for that in the second half at all in that you're effectively carrying lower-cost inventory relative to where spot pricing is right now?

Rico Christensen

As we talked about, there is a little bit of what we talked about earlier, which is that there is a little bit of an inventory unwind going on in the sense that people are hesitant to replenish cost. Certainly not in our case.

We're not going out and doing what you could refer to as predatory pricing, anything like that, taking advantage of the overall market situation by adding pricing. That's not what we're doing.

What we are actually doing is what we talked about earlier is we're seeing the effects on the portfolio rationalization coming through in our margins by eliminating some of those low-margin products from our portfolio. That's really what's driving most of the margin increase.

Then combined, as said, we have a little bit of phasing going on from the delay in the spring in North America. That's also reflected in that change in margin.

That's really the situation we have.

Jonathan Snape

Okay. Look, maybe just one last one because I think I noticed in the accounts, I couldn't find the off-balance sheet facility utilization this time.

Are you able to share what that number was in the first half? Like if there's a material contributor to cash flow or not?

Brendan Ryan

Jonathan, that number was $62 million at the half. That is a financing facility available to our suppliers.

Effectively, that would classify as neutral in terms of cash flow impacts.

Jonathan Snape

All right. Great.

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Belinda Moore with Morgans. Please go ahead.

Belinda Moore

Good morning, team, and great to see a strong improvement in the first half result. Just turning to the omega-3 price.

Can you say what your new assumption is in guidance versus sort of the previous 2,600? Then can you sort of turn to the crop protection and just sort of talk about where you're seeing sort of the most upside, what regions in the second half?

Then how we should think about corporate costs? Then lastly, what are you expecting to realize from asset sales, please?

Brendan Ryan

Hi Belinda, Brendan here. I'll address your omega-3 question and corporate costs.

On omega-3, the position that we had at the end of this time last year and in September, they reflect effectively the current prices at that time. In terms of where we position the emerging platforms and the omega-3 component of that within that platform, it reflects current price at this moment in time.

In terms of corporate costs, they're broadly flat at the half, and we expect that to be the same result at the end of the year. Maybe I'll pass to Rico just around trends.

Rico Christensen

As we talked about in the script, and we saw really good momentum in April and May, and those are big months for us. That's also what gives us confidence that we reaffirming the outlook.

That's one piece, but also that we actually seeing an improving gross margin, not around improved earnings, I should say, around crop protection in the second half. Then also because we had the impact of the dry weather conditions in Australia in the first half, which we are not expecting to see in the second half.

That's what changes the result in the second half.

Belinda Moore

Just in terms of asset sales, how we should think about potential proceeds, please?

Rico Christensen

Potential what, sorry?

Brendan Ryan

Potential proceeds. I guess Belinda, on the asset sales and proceeds, it's too early to determine a value around that.

You had the recent announcement in terms of the closure and sale of Kwinana. That closure is expected in May of next year.

In regards of any other asset rationalization or portfolio rationalizations, they are pending decisions that will become in due course.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Scott Ryall with Rimor Equity Research.

Please go ahead.

Scott Ryall

Hi there. Mine's hopefully a quick question.

Rico, you talked to the impact of customers and some of their cost increases that they're incurring. You've talked about your ability to pass on the increase in price for inputs.

I'm wondering if you're seeing any potential shortages on the horizon for critical inputs into your products, please, and if you can talk to what you're doing to manage some of those risks if you're not prepared to say which particular chemicals they are, but just talk more generally about what you're doing to ensure that you've got product clearly doing a good job of passing through the cost increases, but just in terms of making sure that you're in production at all times, please?

Rico Christensen

Thank you. I think it's an interesting question, and if we go back and looked at what happened when the conflict first broke out in the Middle East and the changes it caused on supply chains, we saw a very, very little impact.

We had a little bit of some difficulties in sourcing packaging materials in a couple of markets. All those short-term impacts we saw at that time, we worked through that.

Whatever impact there is on some of the raw materials that are based on petroleum and so on, that has already been mitigated, and it's also reflecting in the fact that we are reaffirming our outlook for the full year.

Scott Ryall

Yep. Okay.

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from John Purtell with Macquarie.

Please go ahead.

John Purtell

Good day, Rico and Brendan. Hopefully you can hear us this time.

Brendan Ryan

Yes.

John Purtell

Thank you. Just had two questions.

Thank you. Firstly, just on the broader ag chem industry, it's obviously been a very competitive space over the last few years.

What are you now seeing in terms of a more rational environment or otherwise?

Rico Christensen

That's a really interesting question, John. As I said in the script earlier, we feel like the industry has evolved into an everything-for-everybody kind of model, and which is possibly part of the reason why that there has been these problems with generating results the last few years.

We do see that some companies are beginning to act more focused, and I think that's going to be a positive trend for the industry overall. Nevertheless, there is, of course, still the question of the cost to serve, and I think that some companies are struggling in improving that cost to serve.

I think we have been really focused on controlling what we can control in our business in terms of delivering the balance sheet, but also reducing our cost to a more sustainable level, which what we're focusing on right now. I can't speak to exactly what are decisions other companies should be doing, but as said, we're focusing on what we can control and making sure that we are reducing our cost to serve and taking the right actions around our portfolio and be more focused on those parts of our portfolio and those markets where we know we have a right to win.

John Purtell

Thank you. Just a second question for Brendan on FX.

What are you assuming on FX in your second half earnings guidance? Also, obviously there was the $10 million FX hedging loss there in interest, just a bit of color as to what that relates to.

Thank you.

Brendan Ryan

Yeah. Hi, John.

Just in terms of the composition of net financing expense in the P&L, if we look at the breakdown, our external interest in terms of borrowings has reduced by a couple of million, and yes, as you point out, from an FX perspective, that has increased half on half. It particularly got some more variable volatility around the commencement of the Middle East conflict, and that sort of has influenced the impact of that.

Though we still continue to have a consistent hedging policy in terms of managing exposures. In terms of the second half, we do see some stabilization, and therefore, we've moderated what we think the impact will be in the second half.

Sorry, was there a second point to your question, John? Was the first point on FX?

John Purtell

It was just around what you're assuming in your second half earnings guidance for FX. Probably from an earnings translation viewpoint.

Brendan Ryan

Yeah. We are expecting it to be less than what the impact is on the first half, you can take that to be approximately half of what the impact was in the first half.

John Purtell

That's on the interest side, Brendan?

Brendan Ryan

On the FX expense.

John Purtell

Yeah.

Brendan Ryan

Overall, in terms of net interest expense, we've advised the financial year '26 number to be approximately $100 million.

John Purtell

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.

I'll now hand back to Mr. Christensen for closing remarks.

Rico Christensen

Thank you, Ashley. Once again, just reiterate the results here.

We're very satisfied with the result we've achieved this first half, and we're reaffirming our outlook for the full year. As said in earlier, we stated those priorities for this FY26 back in November, and we're delivering on those priorities in terms of improving free cash flow, reducing leverage, and growing profitable products.

Again, thank you for listening in. Also, thanks to our teams across the world who helped us deliver this result, and thank you so much.

Operator

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.