John Rothwell

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. They’re probably not all that many people that don’t know me, but my name is John Rothwell, and I’m the founder and the past Chair, I said correctly. So we have — I would like to welcome you all to the 2024 Annual General Meeting at — of Austal. And my role today isn’t — in some ways, it’s fortunate. I’ve been doing this for 25-odd years and I’ve been the head of the company for 37.

So — but we have a new chair, and my role today is to introduce that new Chair. And I will do that in a moment, but I would probably just like to spend a couple of minutes, and that’s about all. We’ve got some pictures of the past 37 years since we started Austal, and it’s been a fun ride. The day is too short for me to start telling too many stories, but it’s been phenomenal.

So 37 years ago, I invited some young guys that had worked with me or for me to listen to my vision of what we could do with Austal. They joined me, and we kicked off back in — set up in ’87, started ship construction in ’88. Now again, most of you know the road that we’ve traveled and started off with ferries for China, then decided that maybe we needed a broader spectrum of work and started to build some patrol boats for the Australian Coast Guard customs-type people. And I guess and some of these, of course, the bigger ferries that you’re seeing now, but we grew through that.

And the highlight for me was, of course, what we finally achieved in the United States back in, let me just try and get this right, about ’97, I was invited to Washington to attend a workshop for — by U.S. Navy to try and determine how they could use high-speed ships for U.S. Navy and the workshop didn’t achieve too much.

But what it did do it convinced me and I was able to convince the other shareholders that we should be in U.S. That, of course, culminated in — we were not security cleared. We had to be a subcontractor to General Dynamics. And we did that in the end, that was when we got our own security clearance, they disappeared and they became a subcontractor to us quite frankly. But that’s the U.S. front.

And in Australia, we continue to build high-speed ferries such as you’re seeing, we opened a shipyard in Cebu and one in Vietnam and continued on with trying to win more defense contracts. And you will have all read recently in the last 12 months or so, where Paddy, our CEO, largely drove the relationship with Strain Defense, and we’re now in a very good position to build war ships, invest in Australia that are going to be built here.

So for me, personally, the highlight was very much the USS Canberra sailing into Sydney. So just think about this we were tasked or we started again. We put our hand up to bid for future little combat ships. And I think that came about largely after the attack on the USS Coal in Yemen, where maybe started to think about agility in literal areas.

And we then had a Trimaran, which you’ve seen some of here, the yellow boats that you saw as a commercial vessel. We then locked about 60 young Australian naval architects up in a secure area for a period of time, and they spent to us for years developing that warship.

So it was to see to think about a total concept by Austal, of which your shareholders or many of you are shareholders to think that, that could turn around and have become — we’ve built something like about 18, 19 of these ships right now. To think that one of them would one day be called USS Canberra and be escorted in through the Sydney head by the HMAS Canberra, it was a phenomenal moment for me. And all our people would have been very, very proud. It was absolutely done by Australians, although built in the United States.

So I’ve gone on long enough. I promised you I would introduce our Chair and many you will have seen Richard Spencer’s name. Richard has a lengthy career in both Navy. Of course, he was the Secretary of Navy in the U.S. the highest position that you can have in maybe in the U.S., to my knowledge. I think that’s right. And so he knows the customer real well, that is our majority customer.

Richard then also spent a lot of time working in finance area, and it was very fortunate that we came across Richard, and he agreed to Chair the Board. From my own perspective, it was something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years, I turn 80 early this year. And only a few goes on too long, I keep saying, and I certainly didn’t want to be in that space. But I deliberated on what would be the most suitable future tier successor for me.

And again, very fortunate to have come across Richard. So what I’ll do, I’ll vacate this space. I think before I go, just to say that I think Austal’s in a great position, and I don’t want to pat myself on the chest and show, I did all that because it’s a whole bunch of people that did that. And I was fortunately part of it. But Austal’s in a great position when you’ll hear much more about what we’re doing in the U.S. You’ll hear about we’ve come through the aluminum or ships such as that and also a fast freight called EPF. And we’re now, of course, doing steel ships. We’re also doing components or modules for the submarines, the Virginia class submarines and maybe Columbia ones as well later on.

But Austal’s in a great position. I think it will do very well with a new chair. I think we’ve got an excellent team — business team — sorry, the business leaders at Austal under Paddy. And I just feel that it’s set for a great future. I’d like to think that when I do step off the bustle together out of the Board, I would like to be able to sit back there and continue to see Austal prosper and I feel confident that it will.

So there’s one more thing I wanted to do before I move on. Chris Indermaur has been our director for the past 6-plus years. Chris has added a lot of value, and I wanted to personally thank you, Chris, for what you’ve been able to do. So let me shut up and let me put someone far more capable of talking in front of these microphones. Thank you.

Richard Spencer

Thank you, John. You’re not going to get away that easy. But before I say a couple of words on my own folks, let me address some formalities of this meeting, if I could. This is a shareholders meeting and only shareholders, their proxies, attorneys and authorized representatives are entitled to speak at this meeting.

This is a meeting being webcast to shareholders, who are unable to attend in person. As it is a webcast, virtual participants will be able to listen to the meeting live and view the presentation materials, but they will not be able to ask questions, make comments nor vote through the webcast facilities.

I’d like to introduce my nonexecutive directors, who you can see are here before you Sarah Adam-Gedge, who serves as our Deputy Chair and also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee; Chris Indermaur, who is the Chair of the Board’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Chris was up for reelection at this meeting, but has decided not to put himself forward for reelection. His term will, therefore, come to an end at the conclusion of this meeting. I would like to personally thank Chris for his 6 years of service since 2018. Your contributions have been invaluable.

Lee Goddard, who has been on the board since January of 2023. Kath Toohey, who joined us February of this year; Brent Cubis, who joined us in October of this year, and of course, Paddy Gregg, our Chief Executive Officer. Each of our Board members presents — is able to assist in answering your questions as we go forward today.

We also have a representative from the company’s auditors, and external legal advisers present. John, it’s an absolute privilege and honor for me to accept the transfer of reigns from you as Chairman to oversee this great company. Austal’s accomplishments here in Australia and overseas have been absolutely remarkable, and it’s due in no small part to your amazing presence foresight, drive, determination and strategic approach to the Austal business. And this, ladies and gentlemen, I think we give John a good round of applause for what he has done.

Much has been made of Austal’s transition from building aluminum cray boats to the present, occupying a crucial position in the U.S. defense industrial base as the designer and/or builder of warships and nuclear submarine modules for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The company started with just one build program in the U.S., as John referenced, the joint high-speed vessel for the Navy Military Sealift Command. Now it has 12 programs in the United States. And with the expansion of additive manufacturing, which Paddy will get into, it will provide us even a more secure place within the defense industrial base and ultimately provide you the shareholder greater value.

This staggering expansion has been a 36-year journey for Austal with one constant, John Rothwell. I needed to do very little due diligence when I was approached to take the Chairman’s role. I had already had a significant interaction with the company going back to 2017, when I was Secretary of the Navy. I was impressed with its pragmatic approach, its desire to grow and provide solutions to its customers, such as the U.S. Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and Australian Border Force.

And I was also taken by the amazing commitment of Austal employees to their respectful — for their respective national security. On the latter point, one thing that struck me when I first visited Austal’s headquarters down in Henderson last July and that was the honor board in the Austal office. And in particular, the staff who had worked at Austal for 10, 20 and 30 years.

The list is incredibly long, ladies and gentlemen. John himself has 30 years, as you well know, another 30 staff members have clocked up 25 years. Another 36 members have clocked 20 years. I see a similar set of boards in Mobile, Alabama. And I note some of the original disciples that came over from Australia have remained there since the doors opened 20 years ago back in 1999.

The longevity of workforce is a testament to the culture of an organization. The number of people who remain with Austal is a testament to Austal itself. Since becoming Chairman, I’ve held initial discussions with some of Austal’s most important stakeholders, whether they are employees, customers, suppliers or shareholders.

The 3 things have stuck with me. First, the can do DNA that permeates the enterprise, whether in Australia or the U.S. and the acknowledgment of that DNA by those stakeholders, particularly our customers. Two, the understanding of continual advancement of modular assembly and industrial flow as it pertains to our business, we are like no other in the defense ecosystem. For those who don’t have the same understanding of industrial flow charts, that translates to the continuing build of ships more efficiently.

Three, the endorsement and appreciation of intellectual curiosity, which can be seen in our center of excellence for additive manufacturing, robotics, advanced materials and the application of evolving technologies. These provide the foundations of our business. And those foundations will support the company’s growth and again, ultimately provide value to you, our shareholders.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the financials for the year that just ended because I was appointed post June 30 and can lay no claim to having any influence on the quick turnaround. The quick turnaround $4.8 million earnings before interest and tax loss in fiscal year ’23 to a $56.5 million positive EBIT in 2024. A $28 million turnaround in profit from a loss of $14 million in ’23 to a net profit after tax of $14.9 million in fiscal year ’24.

However, what those figures tell me is that as Austal enters the next chapter of its life, it will with an excellent financial and operational base to support further growth. And our growth strategy for the next phase is very simple, but groundbreaking at the same time. Let me explain why.

Our goal at its core is to be the strategic partner for the Australian and U.S. Navy’s Border Force and Coast Guard. When it comes to maritime products, we will be first of mind. That is our goal. We want to move away from other companies to simply take orders and build ships. We want to be there to solve problems, a disciplined strategic partner.

What do I mean by that? I believe a partnership is where we work together collaboratively with our customer to improve designs to reduce build times, to make the build process more efficient, a partnership where we ultimately understand their drivers and provide solutions to their problems, a partnership where we provide support to their vessels over many years and then put what we learn from sustaining those ships back into future designs, so we continually improve.

It sounds simple, yet no other companies are doing it. So the playing field is wide open for Austal. And we will own this space and entrench ourselves with our customers. Our expansions in the submarine modules and additive manufacturing is an example of this, but it is just the beginning. We have continually invested in Mobile, Alabama, and we probably have the most modern shipyard in the U.S., coupled that with a technology like robotic welding and there’s no one who can touch us.

Expect more from robotics and what we call Industry 4.0 as we build out our submarine module facility in Mobile. This investment helps us improve efficiency, provide cost-effectiveness solutions for our customers, as I addressed earlier.

In the U.S., the planned growth of our campus in Mobile will be a key component of our strategy. And there are some really important points about the planned expansion of Mobile that I’d like to highlight. Firstly, many companies take a considerable build it and hope they will come. This risk is usually undertaken with capital expansion similar to those that we are about to embark on. Austal does not take that risk, because we already have the construction contracts in place to underpin that expansion.

So provided we can efficiently execute. It does not pose the risk that other capital expansion programs pose. Secondly, in some cases, we’re actually being paid to expand with other groups funding the capital cost because of Austal’s importance to the U.S. military industrial base. As an example, the recent announcement of the funding from the U.S. Navy through a contract from General Electric — I beg your pardon, General Dynamics Electric Boat, where electric boat will pay Austal $670 million to build a submarine manufacturing facility is a testament to how Austal is viewed by those in this industry.

Austal’s market capitalization is about $1 billion. Yet there is one of the biggest companies in America, defense companies in America, paying Austal the equivalent of 2/3 of its market cap not to build submarine modules, but to build the facility that will ultimately build those modules. And while we don’t and will not take it for granted, there is no doubt in my mind that this is an enabler and hopefully, a precursor for the future construction contracts on the U.S. nuclear submarine build program.

Additionally, while I have naturally devoted much of this speech to the United States. Austal’s position in Australia defense industrial base is just as important to our strategy. The strategic shipbuilding agreement heads-up agreement signed with the Commonwealth late last year, should position Austal as the Commonwealth preferred shipbuilder for all Tier 2 vessels, such as landing craft medium, landing craft heavy general person — I beg your pardon, general-purpose frigates and optionally crude vessels. This will establish Austal’s position with the American — with Australian defense and provide us build orders for the next 20 years with a considerable backlog to perform more.

Strategic is an overused word. But in this case, it is perfectly apt. The federal government is taking a very strategic approach to its maritime defense requirements. And importantly, Austal and its shareholders that — Austal and shareholders, that strategic view extends to the vessel construction program needed to meet those requirements. If the submarine modular facility and the submarine build in the U.S. is an enabler and a precursor, then I believe the SSA is a similar enabler and precursor in Australia.

And Austal will have that same position as a strategic partner with the Australian Navy. One thing I haven’t mentioned is AUKUS. There’s another ripe opportunity for us to benefit. We are one of the few Australian businesses with significant operations in the United States, and I am certain there will be future opportunities in this space, both in Pillar 1 with submarines and Pillar 2 with some of the technologies I’ve already referenced, which brings us full circle back to John Rothwell, the company he has built and what has been achieved by many, many — and has achieved many, many great things, including those I’ve just listed. And I hope he continues to receive the accolades that he is due. Austal is poised to build on that foundation in the years to come. And that’s what I’m looking forward to as Chairman of the Board on behalf of you, the Austal shareholders. Thank you.

Patrick Gregg

Good afternoon, everybody. So I’m going to build on what both John and Richard have talked about and help you understand just what an exciting point Austal is at. I’ll refer back to some historical information to help frame where we were 3-or-so years ago. And hopefully, that will you understand just what a great situation we’re in today. And I’ll fast forward a bit and help you understand some of the announcements we’ve made and what that’s going to look like for the future. And then because we built some very cool stuff, we’ll have a lovely video at the end to, again, show products that are actually happening.

So if I think about the situation we’re in at a minute, we’ve cleared or we’re clearing the slipway we’re ready for launch. We’ve had 3 pretty tough years, a lot of issues to deal with. And I think we’ve got through the vast majority of that. And the business is absolutely primed and ready for growth. In the last year, we delivered our EBIT guidance, pretty much bang on the middle of the range that we gave. And today, we’ll be giving more EBIT guidance for this year. Big issue that was overhanging us. We resolved the Department of Justice matter, and that really has freed us up to look towards the future, an issue that happened back in 2015, and we spent 4 years working on, having got that behind us really opens up in the future.

And as both John and Richard have talked about, relationships to the customer are vitally important. The whole team have worked incredibly hard in the United States and in Australia to build that relationship and to become a trusted partner. We are really committed to delivering on our commitments, and I think that’s really been recognized, and we’re in great shape today. So if we look back 3 years, we were probably stood here talking about what does Austal look like after LCS ends? That was the big question. You built 2 programs in the United States. One of them is going to end, what are you going to do? Is this the end? What does it look like? So I can now tell you around 13 programs in the United States. We’re working with Navy. We’re working with Coast Guard. We’re working in aluminum. We’re working in steel. We’re working in ships. We’re working in submarines.

It’s been a phenomenally hard 3 years and the diversity we now have in the business puts us in a really great place for long-term growth. That steel investment happened and we opened the facility back in 2022. It’s really hitting its stride now on some of the technology and the automation and the robotic welding we’ve got in there, this is a world-class shipbuilding absolutely at its best.

Submarine modules and the manufacturing facility. I’m going to show you pictures of that and help you understand what it is. But yes, helping people understand that, that $450 million announcement is to increase our facilities. We will then have those facilities for many, many years of revenue to go through the business. San Diego drydock, it is now in San Diego, and we’re working through this year to commission it. So again, another area of growth, not just shipbuilding, we set a target few years ago to get to $500 million of revenue by FY ’27.

You’ll see in the pictures of that dock and how that is going to enable us to hit those targets and indeed exceed them. And then thinking back here, 3 years ago, we were building the 13th Guardian. We’re now on the 21st or just delivered the 21st Guardian on the 11th Evolved Cape,and we’re now on 18th and appointed as the strategic shipbuilder in Western Australia, something that we could have only ever dreamed of, really.

For years, we’ve talked about the need for continuous naval shipbuilding, the efficiency and the certainty that we’ll put into the business and the employees. Whenever the government came out last November and announced us as a strategic shipbuilder, really put us into a new league and really paved the way for a long bright future. So we’ve put a lot of work into creating long-term value for our shareholders. The strategic growth opportunities, the order book that sits at $12.7 billion today, excluding everything that’s coming in Australia. That is probably the best part of $20-plus billion over 20 years.

So these are numbers we could never talk about. Business diversity and reducing risk. Whenever we had 2 programs, if we had a problem on one program, it just marked its way through the results and made shareholders pretty unhappy. That diversity of workload hopefully, when somebody is having a good day and somebody is having a bad day, we can actually still carry on delivering stable results as a business.

Lots of programs that we’ve won. We are moving from this transition phase and we’re now into the execution phase. So we’ve won the work. That’s arguably the hard bit. Whenever it’s execution, it’s much more in our control. Huge investments coming, whether that’s submarine modules or the land next door. And again, I’ll show you that on pictures. And I still think, even though we’ve had a great run in the share price in the last couple of weeks, whenever you look at how big this business is going to be in years to come, there’s still opportunity for share price growth.

So comparing some of this year’s stats to 3 years ago, some of these will help explain the situation we were entering. Ships ordered one back in 2021. So we were coming off a peak and we were entering a bit of a trough as we transitioned from the old LCS EPF programs into what’s new? This year, 13 ships ordered. So we are growing. There is more coming.

Ships under construction. That order book is there, and we’ve got the runway ahead of us. Ships delivered. Look at that record a year or 3 years ago, 19 ships delivered in a year, only 7 ships delivered this year. That gives me the confidence that we are back on the way up and look at what we have delivered in the past.

We know how to do this. Execution is what we do very well. We are ready for it. Ships under sustainment, recognizing sustainment a great part of our business, having delivered all those ships over the last few years. Lots more work and growth in the sustainment world. Service centers and shipyards very similar to where we were 4 years ago, but investment in those and making them ready for growth is what we focused on.

As the workload dropped off, the employees dropped off, but look at where we have been, we probably need 3,000 employees globally right now, 2,000 in the U.S., 1,000 in Australia as these programs come on board. We’ve run a bigger business. We know how we will do it. It’s not going to be easy, but we need to go out and win those people back and grow the revenue. And then the order book, very, very pleasing figure. Tendering is a difficult thing. Winning is even harder.

We’ve got that order book, and we’re not ready for delivery and execution. And again, revenue falling as the order book dropped off and ready to grow as we recruit people going forward. And what does that look like in pictures, I could have put 3 pictures up there 3 years ago. And here we are with some amazing opportunities.

Nuclear submarines would never have been on there. Nuclear submarine is probably a Navy’s greatest asset and something that will go for a very, very long time. So getting into that program is a tremendous opportunity for us. Top right, you see the Coast Guard also diversifying our customer base, working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the same way we work with the Australian Border Force building ships in steel and aluminum, they attach ship right in the middle, the first deal ship that we’re working through an incredibly big and complex ship.

And then looking forward to the future, whether it’s medium landing craft, heavy landing craft and the general-purpose frigate that the government have all announced great opportunities for Austal to go and get after. And then also really pleasing, 2 tremendous shipyards in the Philippines and Vietnam.

A few years ago, we moved our commercial work to those countries, so we could still be internationally competitive and it was really tough during COVID. People did not want to spend $100 million on a new boat whenever they were unsure as to whether they could get the revenue back on that.

Well, that’s changing. We have won 3 orders, and there are more in the pipeline. So we will see the Philippines and Vietnam continue to grow as we go forward. So pretty much exciting and great opportunities right across the business everywhere I look right now.

So some of the financial highlights. These were the year-end results. So as Richard talked about, last year was a tough year or the year before it was a tough year. We had the onerous contract with T-ATS, and that didn’t do us any favors. But having turned the corner coming back up, delivering $56.5 million of EBIT. We’ll talk about guidance soon. We spent a lot of money investing in the business, which had taken the cash down. We had an onerous contract, which serves our cash. But I’ve put the current cash figures in this presentation. That $450 million we got in the United States is a very front-ended load — front-end loaded cash positive contract, yes.

So right now in the bank account $396 million. We’ve gone from worrying about things are getting tight. We’ve got an onerous contract to our CFO, Christian worrying about what interest rate he can get on the cash we’ve got deposited in the bank.

So a big turnaround for us. It’s taken a bit of pressure off the immediate need for CapEx for final assembly too that we’ve been talking about for the last 18 months or 2 years. But again, we’ve got some good news on that on our way forward. So I’m pleased with where the financials are and where we’re going, and we should have turned that corner and just continue to grow.

What are these ships that we’ve looked at do in terms of bill generations and dates. If you’re a financial analyst and you want to go and build a model, this is absolutely in there to help you put your numbers in the right years. But for me, when I look at this, I look at the top and programs that are going on past 2034. So that longevity, that certainty we’re putting into the business allows us to attract people, train them, retain them with the work that we’ve got and really just continue to grow that business.

So you see what that looks like in the United States, and we’ve done the same thing with the Australian pipeline as well. Some of these things on contract and then down the bottom end of the slide, some of these opportunities. But again, look at the time lines. Historically, we’ve stood here and talked about, we can see 18 months look ahead. And having we done a great job keeping that going for 37 years, but winning some of these progress that put 10 years of certainty in the business is a very, very exciting place to be.

So what does that look like in terms of numbers, investment proposition? Share price has recovered recently, Fantastic. I think that’s where we closed last night. You’ll see from the EBIT, we had the disaster in FY ’23 with the onerous contract. You can see that turning a corner, and you can see that continuing to grow into the future. Order book absolutely stand out and puts the certainty in the business. And then that revenue growth, a representative line in there of how the revenue is going to grow in line with the programs that we’ve already won and what’s been announced to come in Australia.

So I think from an investment perspective, also still a great opportunity. So guidance, whenever we did full year results, we promised we put our guidance at the AGM, and here we are. So we’re guiding to an EBIT of $80 million this year. So you can see an increase again on last year. Consistent as we continue to get into the execution phase of these contracts. We’re optimistic that we’ll continue to grow the EBIT back to where it has been and indeed straight through that and years and years of growth ahead of us.

There’s always some complications in terms of the levers we’re pulling, what we’re wrestling with to try and pin the tail on the donkey and give you an exact number. And we’ve put some of those up there just to help you understand some of the things that we’re dealing with on a daily basis to try and make sure that we can manage the risks and the opportunities and come out and hit our numbers and keep everybody happy.

But I think that’s a number that’s very much in line with analyst estimates. And I think it should be well received today that we’re confident that we can deliver in line with it. So let’s have a bit of a run through some of the things that are going on in the business. I’m not going to go through every project, but I want to talk about things that are strategically important.

Yes. So in Australia, we are very committed to partnering with the Commonwealth with Navy, with Border Force. We’ve had an amazing track record of what we’ve delivered in the last few years, even during COVID, we kept the shipyard open. We continued delivering ships, and you look at the number of ships that are out there, there was very much a theme of Austal deliveries on time and on budget we can be relied upon by our customers. So really amazing delivery schedule from the guys here in Australia and also working with a whole lot of Australian partners in the supply chain.

Us winning a prime contract is great for a lot of people outside Austal. If we look at what’s happening in the U.S., so there have been a lot of announcements recently, and I wanted to put this in here just to try and help you understand exactly what’s happening. So if I use the pointer, this is kind of the existing shipyard as it is today. That’s the steel facility that we built a couple of years ago. So we cut metal here and we run down a production line, where modules, big sections of ship come out. They go to the completion sheds, final assembly sheds where the modules are joined together, turned into ships and we launch them out the front into the river, take them around to the vessel completion yard where we commission them and take them out into the Gulf of Mexico on sea trials.

So 2 announcements recently. We have been talking about final assembly 2. So this is all fine for aluminum ships, which are considerably lighter than steel. Steel obviously being 3x as dense as aluminum, it all weighs a lot more. And you’ll notice that the interstate disappears. Well, actually, it goes through a tunnel here under the river. And the tunnel can’t take the load of the major modules that we want to bring in. So we need a new vessel completion site for steel ships. We need heavier floor loading. We need bigger cranage.

And we actually want to build a ship lift out the front. So we can either launch ships or if we want to do maintenance on ships, we’ve got the ability to bring them up and do work on the ships. These are the 3 sheds that we want to build. And those are big enough for everything we foresee in the future. So not just the work we’ve won today, like the offshore patrol cutter or the T-AGOS surveillance vessel. Those will be big enough for frigate if they want to go for a second source or some of the bigger logistics ships that we see coming in the future.

So tremendous opportunity for us and a very exciting time that we’ve received a letter of support from an Australian government financing agency and for up to 50% of that $300 million, that should help us underpin the rest of the lending syndicate to allow us to come out in the near future and finalize exactly how we’re going to fund the building of that facility. So the other announcements that came a couple of weeks ago, again, very exciting. 2 module — 2 announcements back to back. One of them was the USD 450 million. So a piece of land that we bought a year ago, 2 years ago, in preparation for this.

This has been an awful lot of work in progress for our teams to try and secure this but a big purpose-built module facility that could build up to 20 submarine modules at any time. We will probably have 1,000 people working in that building, and you guys can do the calculations on revenue versus people, but that will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue that we add to the business going forward.

And that has been backed up with commitment from Electric Boat to put the work to us. And then the second announcement was around the submarine industrial based investment in the Alabama shipyard that was next door to us. The Navy have invested through us into a fund that has bought that shipyard with a view that they would like to develop it and it provides a great opportunity for future expansion and growth. Again, we’re not going to win or lose on that through the financial system, but it gives us first run of refusal on opportunities for the future. So Navy really backing us again to say, hey, we think you’re going places when you run out of space in a few years’ time, we’ve already secured the facility that you’re going to grow into.

So a very, very exciting opportunity. And I hope that helps to explain what the site’s going to look like in Mobile, Alabama in the next couple of years. Support business, I talked about. You can see the trend graph that we’re on track to hit our $500 million, maybe slightly ahead of it. Real focus to get the floating dock, which is a huge dock that we had built and delivered to San Diego. We’re now working with the various agencies, environmental agencies to make sure we can commission that dock and really take a big step forward in terms of the revenue we can generate in San Diego.

But recognizing we do this in other places as well, whether it’s supporting the U.S. Navy out of Singapore, whether it’s supporting Trinidad for the Capes and ferry that we delivered a few years ago or whether it’s here in Australia with the yards in Brisbane cans and Darwin, and that growing number of patrol boats being delivered, that will be stationed out in Cairns in the future, support is very much a great part of our business and one that has opportunity for growth as well.

So a few years ago, we talked about submarine modules and people kind of scratched their heads and said, what’s that? What can that be for the business? We spent the last 2 years working very hard on that. And hopefully now, we’ve been able to communicate just how lucrative that’s going to be and what a great deal that is for Austal.

Well, in the United States, we’ve been funded to set up an additive manufacturing center of excellence that Richard talked about in his speech. That is really going to support the U.S. Navy and their desire to get parts that are a traditionally forged a cast, built in a much more modern, much more reliable, much quicker fashion. And Austal’s right at the center of it. So we manage that facility.

We understand the IP. Arguably, we’re learning the recipes of multiple materials that are cold spread or additive manufactured or laser cut, their properties and the heat treatment. And every day, we’re delivering more and more components. We’ve delivered over 100 components — now 100 different components as part of this program to start delivering for the United States Navy.

Richard talked about AUKUS and Pillar 2 of AUKUS, which is more focused on the technology and things like that. I think this is a prime example of AUKUS in action. We’ve been funded by the United States Navy. We’re doing the development work. We’re proving the products. That is very easy for us to replicate that capability here in Australia. And imagine if the United States Navy needed a part for a U.S. submarine that is under maintenance here in Paris as per Richard Marles’ announcement last week and the submarine maintenance coming.

While someone in Austal can receive an order in the United States, press a button, send the recipe down the tube that pops out on a 3D printing machine right here, and we can walk out the door and deliver the part to the United States Navy. So just a bit of a teaser to get you excited about what the future looks like and where we’re going, but another great opportunity that I wanted to talk about. And I’ll link that with things autonomy. So in the U.S., we’ve still delivered the largest autonomous ship in the U.S. Navy, the EPF 13. And here in Australia, we took the patrol boat autonomous or sentinel, as we call it, the old Armadale that we bought, converted, it was able to drive itself to Geraldton and being controlled right out of the Henderson office. And we’ll have a little look at a video on that later on.

But that’s got to be a good opportunity for the future. And this is Austal demonstrating whether it’s United States or whether it’s Australia. We are autonomous capable. We understand the technology and we can absolutely do it. So I think we’re doing a good job at focusing on what we’ve got to deliver today and execute the contracts we’ve got.

And we’ve got half an eye in the future about where all the growth is going to come from. So if I talk about — just to summarize things as I see it, as we’ve gone through, the record order book in the U.S. and what’s coming in Australia puts us in a great place. Positive momentum with the announcement on the Henderson precinct. I’m pretty pleased that the government while it was frustrating for a while, we did a defense strategic review, and that took a bit longer and then we weren’t certain on the output and then we did a fleet review.

Well, to be fair, and they said, this is what we’re going to do. And every announcement is consistent with they said they’re going to do. So in my mind, they are delivering on their commitments and long may it continue because we’ve had many years of uncertainty, and this is putting a whole lot of certainty into the system very, very exciting time. And our underlying business is performing pretty well. You can see that from the numbers, the growth in the EBIT. Still a couple of challenges out there.

We want to finalize the funding for the facilities in the U.S. that we’re going to invest in. We’ve still got the T-ATS program that we talked about last year. We need to resolve that with Navy. Great conversations happening. And I think based on how supportive they’ve been of Austal generally, it’s hard to imagine they’re going to stiff us on T-ATS issue.

So we’ll continue to work with that and do everything we can to get that resolved this year. The growth in Australasia, very exciting with the strategic shipbuilding agreement, the commercial orders that we’ve looked at. Support business going really well towards its targets and the floating dock there. The CapEx that’s happening, whether it’s funded by U.S. Navy, whether it’s funded by Austal, but we are setting that yard up to be probably the most modern, the best equipped shipyard in the United States, really, really exciting time.

We’re in that transition and the growth of people is going to be pretty exciting. It’s great that we’ll be able to grow both in the U.S. and here and provide longevity of jobs and revenue for the company. Still more opportunities. We talked about AUKUS, I’ve given you some examples through additive manufacturing, through autonomy. I think we’re only scratching the surface of AUKUS at the minute. The focus is still very much on the submarines and how they’re going to get those.

But the whole Pillar 2 side of AUKUS, I think Austal’s really well placed to try and grab that. Relationships are critically important. Whether it’s through tendering processes, whether it’s with customers that we’re building boats for, whether it’s boats in service, we are working very hard to build that relationship and be a reliable partner for the very long time.

And I think my summary is we have come through the last 3 years of transition, and we’re into the execution and growth phase. So very, very exciting time from my perspective. and I will leave you with a video showing you the autonomous patrol boat.

[Presentation]

Richard Spencer

Thank you, Paddy, for your comments. Truly is amazing. And I think what you’re witnessing here is just the tip of the iceberg. I now welcome any questions from the shareholders present relating to Paddy’s presentation, and so that everyone may hear you, could you please stand and we’ll deliver you microphone, state your name and ask your question.

Unknown Shareholder

I’ve got some queries and I really feel as if I’m — I’ll introduce myself. My name is Ann Pryor, and I’m a very long-term shareholder. I feel as if I’m going to stand here and rein on Paddy’s parade. There were some items in the financial statements that I really didn’t like and are red flags. So I’m going to put them out there. And through you, Mr. Chairman, ask somebody in finance to respond.

First of all, you were cash flow negative from operating activities, which is always a big red flag for me. Secondly, your trade and other payables were up by 88%, which could be explained. However, I’ll leave that to Mr. Greg. And I noticed that there’s a revolving credit facility that’s crept on to the balance sheet of nearly $40 million. And when I look to the further down, the trade and other receivables are up, and I think that nearly double from the previous year. The loss allowance is up by a factor of about 6x. I know it’s only a relatively small amount, but the trend is not a good look. That leads me to wonder if there’s a cash squeeze.

Richard Spencer

That’s very astute analysis. Paddy, would you like to address?

Patrick Gregg

Sure, sure. Thanks, guys. I’ll give it a go. And if I get it wrong, Christian will correct me. But I think they’re all really related to the same problem, and that’s the onerous contract on T-ATS. So we disclosed that to the market. While that contract remains onerous, it eats a lot of cash. So yes, a lot of the other programs generating great cash. But while our estimates are complete or in excess of the contract value, then we’re unable to claim that cash back from the United States Navy. And that’s all part of that request for accrual adjustment process that we are working with them at the minute to recover.

So that has a knock on to cash flow and how we’re paying our suppliers. So whereas we might have been very, very prompt in paying suppliers whenever we had a lot of cash. When we don’t have a lot of cash, we go and manage it appropriately. And I don’t mean we don’t pay people. I mean we might take the full length of time to pay them that we possibly can. And that gets compounded by the growing business.

So you see that the trade creditors and debtors, those things grow as the business is growing. So there is a relationship there that you can add those 2 things together and come up with an answer that says we have a cash problem. The only cash problem is the fact that we are funding the build of the T-ATS program in the United States at the minute. And that will change. I’m confident we will with fix that with the United States Navy.

And then if you want to consider the $450 million that we were awarded for the module manufacturing facility. It’s very convenient that, that is very front-end loaded in cash. And you saw the cash balance today as $396 million. So there absolutely is no cash issue in the business. We do need to resolve T-ATS. I think if you looked at the position with the supply chain at the minute, it is significantly improved on where it was at half year because we wanted to bring those supplier payments back in line with how we’ve done it traditionally rather than take it to the maximum we can.

And we put that focus on the smaller suppliers rather than the bigger suppliers because we know cash flow turnover is harder for those guys. So there’s a huge amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure we manage cash in the business appropriately. But I’m not sat here with a concern that we’ve got a cash issue as a business.

Unknown Shareholder

My name is Neil. I actually have a request for the Board. Can you consider engaging the corporate communications specialist to take over communication for Austal. The reason for asking for that is, if you look at things like your website, it’s not a good look. It’s not professional. The presentation that we’ve just been through, if you look at that, it’s not a great presentation. There’s just lots and lots of words. People sitting here can’t read it. When you do announcements to the market, you are inconsistent in when you use price-sensitive announcements. So there’s been some discussion today about the fact that you’ve had issues with forward order books, particularly when the Asian expansion was underway.

And you think that when the announcements were made to the market, if you have been awarded a contract, you’d make it price sensitive. You don’t always do that. As you build the order book, you think you would be using that market announcement to say, “Hey, this is a contract we’ve got. But this is what it looks like now in Vietnam. And I’m just not seeing it. And I think you’re over burdening Paddy with too much to do, and you need was actually good at corporate communications to present the company more effectively in the marketplace. I think what’s happening at the moments hurting shareholders.

Patrick Gregg

Duly noted. Duly noted. We will take it for consideration.

John Campbell

Chairman, John Campbell. I’m representing the Australian Shareholders Association. I’ve got a question for you. As Chairman of Austal, you’re an American, presumably without a great deal of background in Australian corporate law. You’re located in the U.S. And I don’t know whether you’re located in Mobile, but quite probably not. And I just wonder how you managed to keep on top of things here at Henderson and around the globe? And also whether you’re briefed and requirements of corporate management in Australia?

Richard Spencer

Certainly. I spent 19 years on Wall Street as a banker, dealing with corporate law with great regularity. I’ve sat on 3 public boards, 1 New York Stock Exchange listed board. The fundamentals of law between Australia and the U.S. on the corporate basis are not that terribly different. When it comes to the regulations on the exchanges, I have my corporate attorney — my council here who was giving me tutelage on ASX regulations with the regularity after this meeting, so I feel fairly comfortable that I truly understand what is going on in the regulatory side over here.

John Campbell

Can I ask another one? The settlement you’ve done with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission was to set up a fund, I think, for shareholders to make claims with respect to losses that were incurred because of the misreporting back in the 2013, ’15 period, whatever it was. Do you know how Australian shareholders are going to be able to access that? Is there a mechanism in place whereby they can line up to make a claim?

Richard Spencer

That’s a very timely question. We believe this has been done before. So it is under construction as we speak. Out of our control, but that’s going to be the SEC DOJ probably in concert with the regulatory — regulators here.

If there are no further questions, we’ll move on. I now move to the next item on the agenda, which is the directors’ report and the financial statements of the company. The annual financial statements of the company for the year ended 30 June 2024, together with the director’s report and the auditor’s report in respect of those documents were released on the ASX on 30 August 2024 and were sent to shareholders who so requested. We also have copies of these at the meeting, should any shareholder require a copy. There is no voting on this item of business. Instead, shareholders have the opportunity to ask questions about these reports. Are there any questions from the floor, from the shareholders? There being no question, we’ll proceed — sorry.

Unknown Shareholder

Sorry. Just in relation to your sustainability report, we noticed it comes out some weeks after the annual report. We prefer representing retailers to shareholders. And we have the opportunity to review that at the same time as we review the annual report because the two things are linked in, in terms of investors’ perceptions about their investment and continuing with it. So we’d ask if it’s possible that the publication of the two documents is synonymous at the same time.

Richard Spencer

Duly noted, and I think you’ll see corrections next year. Any further questions? All resolutions will be put to a poll. However, there will be an opportunity to ask questions relating to each of the resolutions I’m going to go through before the poll is taken. Resolution #1 is for the adoption of the remuneration report. The resolution is set out on the screen next to me, and I’ll give you a moment to read it. I note that a vote on this resolution is not binding on the company. The proxies shown on the slide beside me have been received in respect of the resolution. Although I’m personally excluded from voting on this resolution, I will vote the undirected proxies I hold in favor of the resolution.

Are there any questions relating to this resolution? Thank you. As mentioned, we’ll proceed to a poll on all resolutions. I will ask a representative from the company’s share registry to conduct the poll at the end of the meeting after all resolutions have been considered.

We will now move to Resolution 2. Resolution 2 concerns the election of Kathryn Toohey as a director. The resolution is set out on the screen next to me, and I’ll give you a chance to read it. I and the rest of the Board recommend Kathryn’s election as a Director of Austal. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on the resolution? Thank you.

Resolution #3 concerns my own election, and therefore, I’ll hand it over to Paddy Gregg to chair the meeting for this item.

Patrick Gregg

The resolution is set out on the screen next to me, and I’ll give you a chance to read it. I and rest of the Board recommend Richard’s election as a director of Austal. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions relating to the resolution? Thank you. I will hand back to Richard as we now move to Resolution 4.

Richard Spencer

Thank you, Paddy. Resolution 4 concerns the election of Brent Cubis as a director. The resolution is set out on the screen next to me. I and the rest of the Board recommend Brent’s reelection as a Director of Austal. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions related to this resolution? Thank you.

We’ll now move to Resolution 5. Resolutions 5, 6, 7 and 8 deal with the issue of share rights to some of the nonexecutive directors of Austal. At the last 4 annual general meetings, shareholders approved the grants of share rights to nonexecutive directors so that participating directors will be remunerated through a combination of 75% cash and 25% share rights. Resolutions 5, 6, 7 and 8 seeks shareholder approvals to continue the grant of share rights for 12 months following this Annual General Meeting.

Resolution 5 concerns the approval of the issue of shares to Lee Goddard. I and the rest of the Board recommend the approval of the share rights. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions relating to this resolution? Thank you.

Now we’ll move to Resolution 6. Six concerns the approval of the issue of share rights to Kathryn Toohey. I and the rest of the Board recommend the approval of issues of share rights to Kath. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions? Thank you.

We’ll now move to Resolution #7. Resolution 7 concerns the approval of the issue of share rights to Brent Cubis. I and the rest of the Board recommend the approval of the issues of share rights to Brent. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions related to this resolution? Thank you.

We’ll now move to Resolution 8. Resolution 8 concerns the approval of share — issue of share rights to Sarah Adam-Gedge. I and the rest of the Board recommend the approval of the issue of share rights to Sarah. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions as it relates to this resolution? Thank you.

We’ll now move to resolution 9. Resolution 9 concerns the approval to issue LTI rights Mr. Patrick Gregg. The resolution is set out on the screen next to me. I and the rest of the Board recommend voting in favor of the resolution. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions relating to this resolution? Thank you.

We’ll now move to Resolution 10. Resolution 10 concerns the approval to issue STI rights to Mr. Patrick Gregg. The resolution is set out on the screen next to me. I and the rest of the Board recommend voting in favor of the resolution. I will vote the undirected proxies in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions relating to this resolution? Thank you.

I now direct that the poll will be held in relation to each of the resolutions. Lindell Weston from Link Market Services Limited, Austal’s share registry provider, will conduct the poll. I retain the right to make all final decisions on who may vote. The votes cast and the declaration of the results of the poll. I ask Lindell to come forward to announce the directions in relation to the conduct of the poll procedure.

Unknown Attendee

Thank you. The persons entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, representatives and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders who hold yellow voting cards. If you are here in more than one of those capacities, you will have been issued with as many yellow voting cards as you have separate capacities. On this card, you will find a series of boxes for voting. Please indicate on your card how you wish to vote by ticking or marking the appropriate square for all resolutions 1 through 10. You must mark either for or against for your vote to count. If you wish to cast some of your votes for the resolution and some of your votes against the resolution, write the amount of shares in each box.

The sum of votes cast for or against the resolution must not exceed your voting entitlement. If you are a proxy holder, a summary of the votes to which you are entitled has been provided with the yellow voting card. If you only have directed votes, you need to do nothing other than submit the voting card. Votes at your discretion are open votes as shown in the column titled Votes Open on your proxy summary and can be cast at your discretion by marking either the for or against box. Once you’ve finished marking your card, please place it in one of the ballot boxes circulating the room. If there are any aspects regarding the voting on which you are uncertain, please do not hesitate to ask the Link staff who will be circulating the room. Have — sorry, I got that Paddy. I’ll hand back to you.

[Voting]

Richard Spencer

I believe that those persons who wish to vote in the poll have now done so. If there’s anyone present who has not yet had their completed paper or ballot collected by Link, please raise your hand. If all persons have now voted, I declare the poll closed. I do not intend to keep the meeting open while the poll results are collected. The results of the poll will be announced to the ASX as required. There being no further business, I now declare the meeting closed, and thank you for your attendance. I’d also like to invite you all to join us for tea and refreshments in the back here, and also been advised that we must vacate the presence of the property by 5:00 p.m. Thank you all very much for participating.