FCF turned positive and net debt fell $40.4m, but PBT loss widened 37.3%

Operating cash flow rose to $52.9m from $24.1m, lifting OCF/EBITDA from 53.3% to 99.2%. Free cash flow (post-lease) swung from –$29.9m to +$1.3m, the first positive print disclosed in the release. Net debt fell to $22.1m from $62.5m, taking net debt/EBITDA from 1.4x to 0.4x.

Underneath the cash story, reported revenue grew only 4.1% to $182.0m, but management points to 10.1% growth on a normalised basis ($165.3m FY23) once the Coretex acquisition accounting adjustment is removed. EBITDA rose to $53.3m from $45.2m.

The P&L below EBITDA is weaker. PBT deteriorated 37.3% to a $7.0m loss (FY23: –$5.1m), even as NPAT improved 90.0% to –$0.3m. The divergence is driven by tax: the effective tax rate moved from 41.2% to 95.7%, which is why the bottom-line improvement overstates the operating read.

OCF/EBITDA at 99.2% versus 53.3% prior is the sharpest improvement in the result. Combined with a $40.4m net debt reduction, EROAD is no longer running a balance sheet that depends on incremental debt or equity to fund the unit fleet — a structural change for a hardware-plus-SaaS business model that has historically consumed cash.

Operating leverage on the P&L is not yet matching the cash improvement. EBITDA grew roughly 17.9% on 4.1% reported revenue growth, but D&A and finance costs left PBT $1.9m worse. For an investor, this means the durable earnings line (PBT) has not yet inflected, and headline NPAT improvement is largely a tax-rate artefact. PBT is the cleaner read here.

The Coretex acquisition overlay still distorts comparability. Management's 10.1% normalised growth claim removes a one-off acquisition revenue adjustment booked in FY23. Prior-period comparisons sit on top of three consecutive periods affected by the merger (FY23, HY24 and FY24), so the underlying organic trajectory is not cleanly visible from these figures alone.

The release positions the FCF inflection as the new anchor.

Half-year shape suggests a modestly second-half-weighted year: HY24 contributed roughly 48.8% of full-year revenue ($88.9m of $182.0m) and 48.0% of EBITDA ($26.0m of $53.3m). The implied H2 NPAT of around +$0.9m versus H1 –$1.2m indicates the bottom-line move came late in the year, which matters for the run-rate read entering FY25.

The $28.8m increase in operating cash flow is large relative to the $8.1m EBITDA increase, indicating working-capital release rather than only earnings flow-through. Receivable days fell to 41.5 from 47.0, supporting that working capital aided OCF. This is a quality improvement, but part of it is a one-time benefit that will not repeat at the same magnitude in FY25.

The FCF print itself remains thin. FCF/NPAT screens at –433.3%, but the underlying numbers are FCF $1.3m against NPAT –$0.3m — both small. Capex stepped up 17.1% to $32.2m (17.7% of revenue), so positive FCF was achieved with capex still growing, not cut. Total equity rose to $303.0m from $248.8m, a $54.2m increase that is not explained by the $0.3m NPAT loss; an investor should assume capital raising or share-based equity movement is embedded in this delta and seek confirmation.

This briefing cannot assess unit growth, ARR, churn or contracted forward-revenue metrics, which are not provided in the supplied data.