Blis returns to profit on 12.6% revenue growth, but H2 carried the year

Revenue rose 12.6% to $11.5m, lifting EBITDA to $0.8m (no prior-year EBITDA was disclosed in the same form).

The swing was second-half loaded. HY24 NPAT was a $0.7m loss on revenue of $4.8m (41.4% of the full-year top line), implying second-half revenue of $6.7m and second-half NPAT of roughly $1.3m. Operating cash flow tells the same story: $0.006m in HY24 versus $1.1m for the full year, against $0.1m in FY23.

Segment mix drove the outcome. Management cites B2B ingredient sales and royalty income up 18.2%, with B2C revenue affected (direction noted but not quantified in the supplied excerpts). Cash and equivalents held flat at $4.3m with no gross borrowings, and total equity grew 6.0% to $11.5m.

Management upgraded FY24 guidance in February 2024 to roughly $11.0m revenue and breakeven-to-$0.3m EBITDA; the actual print delivered $11.5m and $0.8m. The release attributes the beat to favourable timing of major customer orders, stronger B2B sales, and an R&D underspend. Order-timing and underspend are not repeatable drivers, which matters because the underlying H1 result was a loss.

B2B is now carrying the model and B2C is a drag. With B2B ingredient and royalty sales up 18.2% and B2C "affected", the franchise is consolidating around a partnership-led ingredient/IP model rather than a finished-product consumer business. That changes the read on revenue quality (royalty mix is typically higher-margin and lower-working-capital) but also concentrates dependence on a smaller number of partner relationships.

Balance-sheet capacity is preserved, not deployed. Cash is unchanged at $4.3m, there is no debt, total liabilities fell 26.8% to $1.4m, and ROE moved from -11.8% to +5.8%. The company has optionality but, with no dividend declared and capex at 4.9% of revenue, has not yet signalled how that capacity will be used.

Against the only available yardstick, FY24 came in $0.5m above the upgraded revenue guidance and roughly $0.5m above the top of the upgraded EBITDA range, with the upgrade itself flagging order timing rather than recurring uplift.

Because no forward shape is provided, the central question for FY25 is whether the H2 run-rate (implied $6.7m revenue and $1.3m NPAT) repeats, or whether reverting toward the H1 pace ($4.8m revenue, $0.7m loss) is the more realistic baseline. The release does not resolve that.

OCF/EBITDA was 132.0% and FCF-to-NPAT was 75.2% on capex of $0.6m, so reported earnings did convert. Working capital helped: receivable days fell from 51.6 to 41.0 and inventory days from 26.2 to 22.8, releasing roughly $0.2m of operating working capital. That is a real improvement, but it is a one-off contribution to FY24 cash that cannot repeat at the same magnitude.

Two items temper the read on the P&L. First, management explicitly attributes part of the beat to an R&D underspend, which lowered FY24 operating cost without reflecting steady-state investment. Second, the effective tax rate at 7.2% (vs 0.0% prior) is still well below a normalised rate, suggesting tax losses are still being utilised; the PBT-to-NPAT growth gap of 3.7 percentage points is small but the cushion will not persist indefinitely. Net-net, the cash result is high-quality; the earnings result is real but flattered by timing and underspend.

This briefing cannot assess FY25 trajectory because no forward guidance, forward-work measure, or stated medium-term target is supplied in the release.