Revenue up 12.8% but NPAT fell 53% on biological-asset fair value swing

Underlying trading went the other way. Revenue rose 12.8% to $211.0m, statutory EBITDA rose 7.7% to $26.4m, and management's preferred pro-forma EBITDA was $29.7m versus $24.5m.

Cash performance was the standout. Operating cash flow lifted to $38.5m from $13.2m (+191.1%), inventories fell 26.6% to $27.2m, and the cash balance rose to $49.7m from $20.9m. No final dividend was declared.

• PBT growth of -52.4% and NPAT growth of -53.0% are almost entirely explained by the $23.5m turn in biological-asset fair value. Stripping that out, pro-forma EBITDA grew to $29.7m and revenue mix scaled, so the economic read on the salmon business is stronger than the statutory P&L suggests.
• Cash conversion jumped because inventory was drawn down, not just because earnings improved. OCF/EBITDA of 145.7% (versus 53.9%) and FCF/NPAT of 207.4% are flattered by a $9.9m inventory release, with inventory days falling from 72.3 to 47.0. This is genuine cash, but a portion is a one-off working-capital unwind rather than a new run-rate.
• Balance sheet is materially stronger and capex is stepping up. Net cash improved to roughly $45.2m, gross borrowings fell to $4.5m, and capex rose 77.6% to $10.7m (5.1% of revenue versus 3.2%). The capacity to fund growth internally is now clearly there; the test becomes whether the lifted capex translates into volume and margin.

Reported pro-forma EBITDA of $29.7m landed near the top of the revised range, so the result delivers against the company's own stated benchmark even as GAAP NPAT fell.

The release does not contain explicit FY26 guidance in the excerpts supplied, and there is no forward-work backlog to anchor a top-line trajectory. The shape of FY25 was modestly second-half weighted (HY25 was 48.2% of full-year revenue and 47.3% of EBITDA), which is a useful baseline but does not by itself indicate momentum into next year.

Effective tax was 30.0% versus 29.0%, so tax is not distorting the read. ROE of 6.9% (versus 15.9%) reflects the same biological-asset accounting effect rather than a return-on-capital deterioration in the trading business.

The cash result is higher quality than the headline cash-conversion ratio implies, but with a clear caveat. FCF pre-lease of $27.7m versus $7.2m is real cash, supported by:

• $25.2m uplift in operating cash flow, of which roughly $10.1m came from operating working-capital release (inventory −$9.9m, debtors broadly flat).
• A $4.7m increase in capex to $10.7m, partly offsetting the cash benefit.

Because a meaningful slice of the cash uplift came from drawing inventory down 26.6%, the FY25 conversion rate is unlikely to repeat at the same level if biomass needs to be rebuilt to support volume growth.

This briefing cannot assess unit economics, harvest volumes, pricing, or biomass health, because the supplied data does not include segment, volume, or biological-asset detail beyond the fair-value movement.