Cash conversion fell to 66.1% as a lower tax rate lifted NPAT 20.1%

This matters because it shows the business is turning less of its reported earnings into cash even as EBITDA rose, which changes the read on how much of the profit improvement is real versus timing.

Revenue was broadly flat at $305.5 million (-0.8%), while EBITDA rose 3.4% to $86.3 million and profit before tax rose 5.4% to $62.6 million. Net profit after tax rose a much larger 20.1% to $45.4 million, a gap driven by the effective tax rate falling to 27.4% from 36.4%. Segment margins compressed across orchard operations (13.9% to 9.9%) and Australian operations (29.0% to 12.9%), with orchard and Australian segment results both down year on year.

Net debt to EBITDA improved to 1.39x from 1.57x and gross borrowings fell 9.7% to $123.2 million, but cash on hand dropped 42% to $3.4 million.

PBT growth of 5.4% is the cleaner read on underlying trading than NPAT growth of 20.1%, because the 9.0 percentage point drop in the effective tax rate (36.4% to 27.4%) accounts for most of the gap between the two. For anyone assessing sustainable earnings power, PBT is the more reliable benchmark going forward since a lower tax rate is not a repeatable driver of profit growth.

Cash generation lagged reported profit growth. Free cash flow to NPAT fell to 92.6% from 135.4%, and capex intensity rose to 4.9% of revenue from 3.8%, so a larger share of this period's earnings is being reinvested or tied up rather than converted to distributable cash. This matters for dividend and debt-reduction capacity if the pattern persists.

Segment mix is masking margin erosion. Post-harvest operations, the dominant segment at 67.7% of revenue, saw its result fall to $73.3 million from $78.5 million and its margin compress to 35.5% from 38.4%, while orchard and Australian operations weakened more sharply. Group EBITDA growth conceals this underlying margin pressure because post-harvest's scale offsets the weaker segments.

This is consistent with the company's seasonal shape: in the prior full year, the first half generated the bulk of EBITDA (87.1% of the full-year total) while the implied second half NPAT was negative, at roughly -$5.8 million. That pattern suggests investors should expect a second-half profit swing toward a loss again this year rather than reading the strong interim PBT as run-rate for the full year.

Return on equity also strengthened to 13.4% from 12.5%.

However, the earnings quality signal is weaker than the EBITDA and NPAT growth headlines suggest. Cash conversion at 66.1% is materially below the prior half's 75.4%, and free cash flow covered only 92.6% of NPAT versus 135.4% previously, with capex intensity rising to 4.9% of revenue. Inventory days rose to 18.6 from 16.8, adding a modest working-capital draw. Combined with the tax-driven NPAT gap, this suggests the headline profit growth overstates the improvement in underlying cash economics this half.

This briefing cannot assess the drivers behind the segment margin declines or the specific causes of the lower effective tax rate, as no supporting management commentary on either was available in the supplied material.