Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sigma Healthcare full-year results briefing conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Vikesh Ramsunder, Managing Director and CEO of Sigma Healthcare. Please go ahead. Thank you, and good morning. I'm Vikesh Ramsunder, the Chief Executive of Sigma Healthcare, and welcome to our results presentation for the 12 months ending January 2024. Before I begin, I wish to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and recognize them as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging. I'm joined here today by Mark Conway, who started with Sigma as our CFO in October last year, and Gary Woodford, our Head of Corporate Affairs. In line with our ongoing disclosure obligations, we are also joined today by Mark Davis, the CFO of the Chemist Warehouse Group, who will be providing an update on their first-half financial performance. You're welcome to submit your questions using the tab at the top right corner of the screen, and we will answer your questions at the end of the presentation. It's important to note that Sigma and Chemist Warehouse remain competitive. To comply with our regulatory obligations, we are all unable to respond to any questions on Chemist Warehouse today. In terms of the agenda, I will start with an overview and highlights from the last 12 months. Mark Conway will then provide more detail on our financial performance. I will then review our operational performance, provide an update on the strategic execution, including the proposed merger with Chemist Warehouse, and finish with our outlook for the year ahead. I'll then hand over to Mark Davis, after which Mark Conway and I will respond to any Sigma-related questions. Starting with an overview of the year. Before we get into the detail, there are three points I'd like to impress on you today. These strong results go towards validating our strategy to build a simpler and more efficient Sigma. With the infrastructure investment program finished, we are now moving forward on executing multiple plans to drive growth and margin expansion. We know exactly what we have to do, and we have a positive outlook. The new financial year has started well with almost 7% sales growth. That's encouraging. Reflecting on the performance for the year, we have strengthened the core wholesale business, simplified our ways of working, reduced our cost of operating, and this is now starting to flow through into improved financial performance. Operationally, we have executed with excellence, and this year we also achieved the internationally recognized ISO 9001 quality accreditation across our network. This is an important milestone and signifies that we now have world-class processes and procedures to match our infrastructure. A customer-centric approach is a key pillar of our strategy, and we have maintained our delivery in full and dispatch-in-time metrics above 99% every month during the year. A key highlight was the successful securing of the five-year supply agreement with Chemist Warehouse, which brings over AUD 2 billion of new revenue to Sigma. This then formed the catalyst for the merger proposal announced in December, and I will provide you with more detail later in the presentation. Total reported revenue is down for the year as a result of the following factors. Firstly, the disposal of our hospital distribution business. Secondly, AUD 205 million of non-repeating COVID-related RAT tests. Thirdly, disruption to our brand network in the second half of the year as we progressed with the consolidation of the franchise brands. Encouragingly, like-for-like sales was up 4.3%. Focused cost management was a key highlight for the year, with costs down 11%. Mark Conway will provide you with more detail on this shortly. The combination of an improvement in profitable sales and effective cost management has resulted in EBIT excluding transaction costs being up 62% to AUD 31.4 million. Following our successful AUD 400 million equity raise, we finished the year with net cash of AUD 356 million. Net debt without the equity raise reduced by 43% to AUD 38 million at year-end. Finally, considering the ongoing improvement in the performance of the business, the board has approved a partially frank dividend of 0.5% per share. I will now hand over to Mark Conway to provide more detail on the financial performance of the business. Thanks, Vikesh, and welcome, everyone. Since joining Sigma at the end of October, it's certainly been a frenetic pace, but a very exciting time to join. As Vikesh has outlined, we have made significant progress on the strategy implemented two years ago, and we're now seeing the benefits flow through the financials, which I'll now take you through. For the FY 2024 year, sales revenue was AUD 3.3 billion, down 9% on the prior year. This was driven by non-recurring sales of RATs of AUD 205 million, combined with the revenue associated with the investments of the hospital distribution business of AUD 266 million. Removing these non-recurring items, revenue grew 4.3%, or AUD 127 million, in wholesale distribution. The lower revenue flowed through to gross profit of AUD 218.1 million, down AUD 36.3 million, or 14.3%. This is reflecting the loss contribution from higher margin RAT sales and the loss contribution of the hospital business. This was offset by the benefit of inventory write-offs in FY 2023 that were non-recurring in the current year. Pleasingly, the statutory operating cost line has seen significant improvement, with total expenses down AUD 31.2 million, or 10.7%, for the year, substantially offsetting the decline in gross profit. This includes merger implementation costs, and I'll speak in more detail on cost drivers on a subsequent slide. As a result, statutory EBIT was up 20% -AUD 23.2 million after absorbing AUD 8.2 million of merger transaction costs. Excluding the transaction costs, EBIT was AUD 31.4 million. Despite lower debt levels across the year, interest expense was up 5.8% -AUD 14.6 million. This was reflecting higher borrowing costs despite lower average debt levels. Finally, the benefit has flowed to the bottom line, with statutory NPAT up 149% to AUD 4.5 million. Again, this is after absorbing the merger transaction costs. Excluding the transaction costs, the NPAT was AUD 12.7 million, a substantial increase on the prior year. Cost management has been a standout feature of the results, delivered against the backdrop of inflationary impacts, including rising fuel costs and strong wages growth. A strong result across the business has been enabled by a company-wide simplification program and the divestment of non-core assets. This has resulted in a sharper focus on productivity and continuous improvement across the business, including a leaner operating model. At the warehouse and logistics level, costs were down AUD 27 million. AUD 15 million of this variance was driven by asset divestments, and a further AUD 6.4 million driven by productivity improvements as a result of prior investment in warehouse automation and implementation of a continuous improvement program. You will note the chart, which measures total output against hours, has shown a 31% improvement across the 24 months, which has helped offset increases in both fuel and wages growth. Sales and marketing costs were down due to lower employment costs from the new operating model put in place, combined with lower levels of advertising and bad debts. Administration costs were largely flat when ignoring the impact of non-recurring software-related implementation costs. The progress made in executing the strategy has been demonstrated in the strength of the balance sheet. Boosted by the proceeds of the equity raise, net assets is up AUD 395 million, with a net cash position of AUD 356 million, with proceeds from the equity raise used to pay down all debt. Inventory was over AUD 100 million lower versus the same time last year due to better inventory management and lower holdings as a result of the divestment of our hospital distribution business. A strong balance sheet is critical to enable execution of existing growth initiatives, particularly the upcoming onboarding of the additional Chemist Warehouse supply contract as well as other strategic growth initiatives. Turning now to net debt, where we've made significant improvements over the last 12 months. Excluding the equity raise, net debt reduced 43% from AUD 67 million at the start of the year to AUD 37.9 million at the end of the year on a comparable basis. This was driven by a number of factors, most notably driven by our improved business performance, the significant improvement in working capital, and the proceeds from the sale of the hospital distribution business. We finished the year in a strong position with net cash of AUD 356.5 million. Now to cash flow. Working capital management has also benefited from a simplification program enabling increased focus on inventory management. While operating cash flow is down from last year, this is due to sales of high-margin RATs sold in FY 2023, which is non-recurring in this financial year. Noting a portion of the RAT sales in FY 2023 were pre-purchased in FY 2022, which also contributed to the results. Operating cash flow of AUD 42 million demonstrates a strong cash conversion for the business of 82%. You will see the benefits in the graph, with cash conversion cycle reducing significantly to 21 days, down from 27 days at the end of FY 2022. As mentioned in the previous slide, the proceeds of the equity raise were used to pay down debt, resulting in a net cash position at the end of the year. Working capital management is expected to remain a key focus for the business as we build inventory in the first half of the year in preparation for the Chemist Warehouse supply contract onboarding. And finally, to our capital investment profile. As previously communicated, the nearly AUD 400 million spent in upgrading our distribution network and IT systems is now complete, and we are starting to see those benefits in terms of operational efficiency across the network. These investments provide significant operational leverage, of which the Chemist Warehouse supply contract and our 3PL strategy will help drive returns for shareholders. We expect CAPEX to remain in the AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million range. With that, I will now hand back to Vikesh. Thank you, Mark. I will now provide more detail in relation to the operational performance of the business. Starting with wholesale operations, which is the core of our organization. Total wholesale sales were AUD 3.1 billion for the year, up 4.3% on a like-for-like basis. Operationally, we distributed 230 million units and, importantly, maintained the high delivery standards our customers expect, with delivery in full and dispatch-in-time metrics both above 99%. We have also made good progress in improving inventory management. Availability has improved to 93%, and at the same time, we have reduced inventory by AUD 103 million on last year. This is important for a few reasons. Firstly, it improves customer service with a better in-stock position for the inventory customers want. Secondly, it creates capacity within the DCs as we prepare to increase stockholding for the commencement of the CW contract. Thirdly, it reduces stock obsolescence risk. Finally, it frees up cash to reduce debt and enable investment in business growth. The operations teams have also supported our customers in their moments of need, whether it be floods, fires, cyclones, or other natural disasters. Our people go above and beyond to ensure medicine supply to our communities. The critical nature of what we do is being recognized by government. We are currently engaging with the relevant departments on the next five-year industry agreement to help secure funding that ensures sustainable and equitable patient access to medicines across the country. A key part of our strategy has been to secure profitable volume growth through our distribution centers. Securing the five-year supply contract with Chemist Warehouse will provide AUD 3 billion in annual sales, with AUD 2 billion of that representing new sales for Sigma. With the contract commencing July 1, 2024, plans are being executed to ensure a seamless experience for both Chemist Warehouse and all our existing customers. We have inventory management and replenishment plans in place to ensure sufficient stock is in the network at the commencement of the contract. We have also commenced a recruitment process to ensure we have the workforce trained and ready to support the volume growth, both inbound and outbound. We are currently modelling delivery routes to deliver more efficiently and effectively across our entire network. The equity raise concluded in January provides us with the required funding to purchase the inventory to effectively service our customers without straining the balance sheet. Importantly, it means we can also retain ownership of our Truganina and Canning Vale distribution centres. The retail area of our business experienced the most significant change for the year as we consolidated our brands and employed a brand new category management team to help drive future growth. Top-line sales for the year were impacted by non-repeating COVID-related volume and some impact from brand consolidation in the second half. As we announced last year, we have discontinued support for the Guardian brand, and we thank our Guardian members for their commitment to the brand over the past decade. This intense period of change has completed, and we are now looking to grow our retail footprint. In this highly competitive environment, our franchise network is always under attack from competitors. But pleasingly, like-for-like sales has grown 9%, reflecting an improved quality of the franchise network. With our retail teams in place and stability achieved, our attention is firmly focused on supporting the growth of our Amcal and DDS members. We have set targets to secure at least 300 Amcal and 150 DDS pharmacies in the medium term. One of the most important strategic drivers for the organization is improving the margin mix of products sold to pharmacies. Private and exclusive label is an important part of that strategy as we seek opportunities to enhance margin for both Sigma and our customers. The last 12 months have not only been about product pipeline development but, importantly, also building internal capability. The gross margin of a private label product is typically 6x-7x higher than branded products. Increasing penetration over the long term not only enhances margin but creates an important point of difference to other wholesalers. Currently, sales are subscale at below 1% of total sales. Pleasingly, we will have over 250 new products launching this calendar year, with over 80% launching in the second half of the year. We anticipate growing private label sales by 50% in the 2025 financial year. Our third-party logistics business operates across six states, providing warehousing and logistics services across the pharmaceutical, medical consumables, and fast-moving consumer goods sectors. We offer large-footprint climate control facilities, which are in high demand, with our ISO 9001 accreditation affirming our world-class quality standards. We have seen strong growth over the last 12 months, with the added capacity at our Truganina distribution center in Victoria being a key driver that has contributed to 17% growth in revenue for the year. At the same time, we are focused on improving the efficiency of our operations. I will now provide an overview on progress in executing on our strategy and a general update on the merger proposal with the Chemist Warehouse Group. This slide contains the strategic drivers we presented last year and the broad timing in which we expected to execute each one. We continue to make good progress in executing our strategy. In our wholesale business, we began FY 2023 by stabilizing the system, improving service delivery standards, streamlining our inventory management, and simplifying our operations. As an outcome of this improvement, we were successful in securing the new five-year CW supply contract that will begin July 1 2024. During the FY 2024 year, we disposed of our hospital distribution business and our interest in Doctors on Demand as well as other non-core interests to simplify our organization. We have also taken steps to consolidate our franchise brands and rebuild our commercial teams. We will now move into the growth phase on this part of the strategy. Diversification remains a key focus area. As I have already outlined, we are launching over 250 private and exclusive label products this year with more in the pipeline. Clearly, merging with Chemist Warehouse, if approved, will provide increased diversification opportunities into the future. Overall, I am pleased with the progress achieved but not satisfied and will continue to pursue the opportunities that lay ahead, whether as a standalone business or as a merged entity. The operating model of the business requires us to both scale, improve cost efficiencies, and enhance margin to achieve our EBIT targets of 1.5%-2.5%. As I have highlighted in the presentation, plans are in place on all of these three vectors. Turning now to the proposed merger with the Chemist Warehouse Group. As we outlined in our presentation in December, the combination of the two organizations is truly transformational for Sigma and will create a leading pharmaceutical wholesaler, distributor, and retail pharmacy franchisor, combining Sigma's state-of-the-art distribution infrastructure with CW's leading retail expertise. The merger of the Sigma and Chemist Warehouse businesses is supported by strong commercial and strategic rationale and is expected to create significant value for all our stakeholders. In February this year, we made a submission to the ACCC, and on the 8th of March, a formal public consultation process began seeking input from interested parties. This is a significant and complex transaction, which will require a detailed review by the regulator. There will be community interest and a wide consultation process, which adds to the complexity of predicting timelines. We are hopeful of a decision from the ACCC in the second half of the calendar year and will keep you updated as this progresses. Once the ACCC completes their review, there are a number of other steps required prior to completion, including court and shareholder approval. Finally, looking ahead. As I said earlier, these results go towards validating our strategy to build a simpler and more efficient Sigma. With the infrastructure investment program finished, we are now moving forward on executing multiple plans to drive growth and margin expansion. We are intensely focused on effectively onboarding the new Chemist Warehouse supply contract, and importantly, we remain committed to maintaining the same high standards of delivery for all our customers, even during the transition. FY 2025 will also benefit from the full-year impact of cost efficiencies achieved during the year, as well as improved retail and private label sales. Meanwhile, negotiations with the Department of Health and the Health Minister are ongoing as we seek to finalize a new wholesaler funding agreement in the next few months. While it is too early to predict the financial outcome, we are pursuing an agreement that will help deliver a sustainable wholesale model and secure patients access to affordable medicines for the next five years. Clearly, a major focus for the board and myself is to step our way through the extensive regulatory process required to execute the merger proposal. Initially, when the proposed merger was announced, we had several questions and concerns from our franchise and independent customer base. We have responded transparently to these concerns and, encouragingly, have not experienced any material loss in pharmacy customers at present. Momentum is positive, with year-to-date sales growth for FY 2025 up 6.6%. Importantly, we reaffirm our medium-term EBIT targets of 1.5%-2.5% on a standalone basis. I will now hand over to Mark Davis, who is going to provide a brief update on the Chemist Warehouse business. Mark Conway and I will then return to answer your questions on Sigma. Thank you, Vikesh, and good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to present the Chemist Warehouse Group 1H FY 2024 results to you today. This is the first time we've reported 1H results before, so it's a new experience for us. This morning, I'll take you through the headline financials, and I'll provide you with an update on our execution priorities going forward. I appreciate there aren't as many numbers on these slides as you'd expect from a listed company. Naturally, we expect to provide more detail and transparency on our results post-merger and, indeed, as part of the merger process, assuming all of relevant approvals are obtained. At this stage in the process, we simply wanted to provide a snapshot of our performance, some high-level insights into the store network, and a brief recap on our growth strategies. So more to come as we progress. Turning now to our 1H FY 2024 results. As this slide shows, CWG is performing strongly. Statutory PBT was AUD 321 million, up 28.6% versus the previous corresponding period. I highlight these as statutory results. There are no adjustments for one-off costs incurred in the half. At the risk of being conservative, we wanted to keep the numbers clean. We are pleased with the sales growth achieved by our retail network in the first half. Total network sales for the half was AUD 4.56 billion, representing growth of 13.5% over the previous corresponding period. This is inclusive of online sales, too. We closed the half with 557 stores in the Australian network, adding nine new stores in the period. The Australian store network delivered total sales of AUD 3.94 billion, up 13% over the prior corresponding period, with like-for-like sales growth in Australian stores up 9%. CWG's earnings benefited from the store network sales growth and the corresponding demand for goods and services from CWG, together with successful online profitability initiatives and growth in supplier support income. Profitability is also improving in our international markets. We closed the half with 63 stores across New Zealand, China, and Ireland, with nine stores added offshore during the half. These stores generated AUD 550 million of sales in 1H, an increase of 38% over the previous corresponding period. Our international stores are profitable, and they have good momentum. Two final points to call out in the results. These results include the early impact of 60-day dispensing rollout. While it did not have a material impact in 1H, we are monitoring the impacts closely in 2H as the next tranche of drugs are added to the 60-day dispensing list. We also benefited from a AUD 135 million one-off tax credit in the half. It related to a material one-time expense back in FY 2021. Following discussions with the ATO, they've deemed the expense deductible, and we are able to claim the tax benefit over a five-year period. Our group tax rate would have been circa 30%, ignoring this one-time benefit. Turning over the page, we show more detail on the statutory profit and loss and balance sheet. As I mentioned, PBT, our key earnings metric, increased by AUD 71.4 million to AUD 321 million. As we noted in the December merger announcement presentation, from the 1st of February, 2023, CWG implemented certain changes to commercial arrangements. Importantly, they have no impact on profit before tax, but they do impact individual line items in the P&L. The changes had the impact of reducing the reported gross profit and EBITDA, with a corresponding reduction across the depreciation and amortization and net finance cost line items. Again, I emphasize that these changes have no impact on profit before tax, which is our key earnings metric. 1H 2024 earnings have strengthened our balance sheet. We're well placed to self-fund our growth strategies and reward shareholders through dividends. We closed the period with net debt at AUD 238 million. This is after a FY 2023 final dividend of AUD 101 million that was paid on 6th of October. Later this month, an interim FY 2024 dividend of AUD 117 million will also be paid to shareholders. As noted at the time of the merger announcement in December, we anticipate CWG will have circa AUD 300 million in net debt at the time the merger with Sigma is implemented. So taking a step back, what's driving this strong performance, and what's our outlook? It's fair to say the Chemist Warehouse value proposition is resonating strongly with customers in a challenging economic environment and with rising cost of living pressures. How are we going to maintain our momentum? Execution is a key strength of CWG. In 2H and beyond, we're focused on growing the store network, both in Australia and internationally. We're also looking at ensuring a smooth transition to new supply agreements. These are large logistical projects that will provide further efficiencies and benefits from FY 2025. We're also making good progress with the various required steps for our merger proposal, but naturally, it all remains subject to required regulatory and other approvals. I'm pleased to say 2H FY 2024 has started well, with positive network sales momentum continuing and more store openings. We have a confident outlook, and I look forward to updating you further on our performance as the year progresses. I'll now hand back to Vikesh. Thank you, Mark. And we are now happy to respond to your questions on Sigma. Firstly, there's a number of questions in the system that are directed towards Chemist Warehouse, so we'll take those on notice, and we'll pass them on to the Chemist Warehouse team who can consider before how they respond down the track. Firstly, question from David Stanton for you, Vikesh. So what is the likely impact of the 60-day dispensing rule on your EBIT in FY 2025? Is it likely to be negative to EBIT? I mean, there's no doubt that 60-day dispensing does compress margins slightly. We haven't gone through a full year yet of implementation on 60 days, but currently, we're not experiencing a major impact affecting the margin. Similar question from Ross Curran. So can you talk about 60-day prescriptions and whether you're seeing a different impact across different brands? Certainly not. I think as doctors start to script more 60-day scripts, that will be felt and noticed in pharmacy, but we certainly haven't seen anything material currently. Another question from Ross Curran. So how has the early feedback been from your existing pharmacists on the merger? Has there been any increase in customer churn following the announcement? Well, certainly, as I said in my presentation, initially, there were a lot of concerns. So we took some time in December and in January engaging our customer base and taking their questions. Certainly, from what we can see at the start of the new financial year, customers remain resilient. They support the strategy currently. I do think they're in a holding pattern to fully understand what materializes into the future. In summary, no real major impact currently. Question from Tom Kierath, which follows on from that last question as well. So have many customers left, and/or have you had to increase incentives to keep customers? Well, our competitors are certainly being much more competitive in the marketplace with their offers, and we're having to respond in line with that. But customers still stay pretty loyal to Sigma at the moment. Question probably from Mark Conway. So from Nicholas Plessas, could you further clarify the figures around the exited hospitals distribution business on slide six? Over what period of time were the reported figures relating to that business? Yeah. So there was clearly impacts right through the P&L of the exit of the hospitals business, the non-recurring costs that were in there, and also the gain on sale that sat in there, which I think was around AUD 8.6 million for the period. And if I can just add, that was probably over a four-month period because Mark wasn't here at that particular time as we went through the ACCC process. Another question from Nicholas Plessas. For the pharmacy brands you own, roughly what proportion of these are franchisees, and what proportion are owned outright? We don't own any of our franchise brands. Question from Leanne Harrison. This year, Sigma provided EBIT margin guidance, while in previous years, Sigma provided EBIT dollar guidance. Why? What uncertainty does Sigma have with respect to FY 2025? Well, I don't think there's any uncertainty. Certainly, since I've joined Sigma, we've set a guidance on margin of 1.5%-2.5%. I do think it's quite important to note we've had a positive start. And one of the most important things we're doing currently is the transformational merger that we are focused on. So we really thought that it didn't make sense providing a dollar guidance considering the transformation that's taking place. And notwithstanding that, if the ACCC process is approved, a very detailed prospectus will be put into the market in the current month. So at this moment, we didn't seem it being relevant. Question from Abhishek Jain. How will working capital be impacted by the CW contract, D&A, net finance, income expenses for FY 2025? So as we sort of flagged at the time of the equity raise, the cash proceeds will be used primarily to fund the CW supply contract. We do have a significant sort of inventory build through that May-June period with the contract commencement in July. So we do expect the majority of those funds to be used to do that, remembering that the equity raise allowed us to keep the strategically important DCs in Truganina and Canning Vale. So we'll continue to focus on inventory management and work with suppliers to minimize those impacts, and we'll provide future updates as they come in. To the degree that they sort of how it works post-world, we haven't sort of started detailed integration planning, so we don't have those sort of numbers today. Another question from Abhishek Jain. 9% like-for-like growth in franchise stores. That's in line with CWG. What do you think market growth is? What's the contribution of inflation to this growth? Well, if you actually look at market growth in the health and beauty sector and the way we measure the market, actually, market growth was only 3% for the year. So there's no doubt that our brand members are growing faster than the market growth currently. I really can't speak on behalf of CWG. We don't really know and understand their business well enough at the moment. And our ambition is to continue to drive that growth above market growth to take share. Question from Ross Curran. Can you give an update on negotiations of franchise terms with the regulator in New South Wales? From my perspective, from a Sigma perspective, we continue to work with the regulator, and the regulator in New South Wales has no iss ues with granting our franchisees, that's Sigma, licenses to operate in New South Wales. Question from Nicholas Plessas. How is the business thinking about the risk of losing sales from independent pharmacies post a potential merger? Well, we always think about the risk of losing sales. So we have a frontline team. We're always very competitive in terms of the way we service our customers. But what you can do is do the call right. What's important to our customers is really getting the product, getting it on time, and getting the front-shop products at a really good price. And those are the things we can focus on. I think at the moment, customers trust that we will continue to service them equitably. Hence, we haven't seen a mass exodus of customers from Sigma. Probably a related question as well from Philip Pepe. Have you noticed any change from EBOS in terms of competitiveness or Wesfarmers' API? Significantly more competitive. But you would expect that, and we expected that as well and have planned accordingly. Question from Rhett Kessler. Was the GP on RAT tests sold in 2023 approximately 25%? That's correct. Yeah. It's roughly in that ballpark. Yeah. Just a few moments if there's any more questions, if you want to answer them in the system. No further questions. Thank you, Gavin. Back to you Vikesh. Thank you very much. And thank you for listening to our presentation today. We'll certainly meet more shareholders and investors and analysts on our roadshows over the next few weeks. And it's goodbye from all of us here today. This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may. You may.