I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, the 21st of February, 2024. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. John Cullity, CEO, EBOS Group. Please go ahead, John. Thank you, Delaine. Welcome, everyone, to EBOS Group's Half Year 2024 Results Presentation. My name is John Cullity, CEO of EBOS Group, and I'm joined this morning by both Leonard Hansen, our CFO, and Martin Krauskopf, our GM for Strategy, M&A, and Investor Relations. I'm very pleased to report that EBOS has achieved another strong result, reflecting the benefits of our diversified portfolio. The key financial headlines are: revenue increased by 7.1% to AUD 6.6 billion, underlying EBITDA increased by 8.3% to AUD 313 million, underlying net profit after tax increased by 7.6% to approximately AUD 152 million, and underlying earnings per share increased by 6.6% to AUD 0.795. Our balance sheet continues to remain strong, with a leverage ratio of just under 2.1x, and the Board declared an interim dividend of NZD 0.57 per share, representing an increase of 7.5%. Before we go through this morning's presentation, I should point out the following: the results are expressed in AUD, unless otherwise noted, and the presentation refers to both statutory and underlying results. The underlying results exclude costs associated with non-cash amortization expense attributable to the LifeHealthcare acquisition purchase price accounting, and one-off M&A costs. The commentary this morning is predominantly based on our underlying results, and we have included in the appendix a reconciliation between the statutory and underlying numbers. The group once again saw strong performances from both the Healthcare and Animal Care segments, and we continued on our path of investing for future growth. Our Healthcare segment increased underlying EBITDA by approximately 8%. However, within this growth rate, our Australian business increased EBITDA by an impressive 12.4%, and our Southeast Asian business increased EBITDA by 7.4%. We did, however, experience a decline in EBITDA from our New Zealand business due to the falloff in non-recurring COVID-19 activities within our Contract Logistics business. Key highlights of our performance were: Community Pharmacy increased its wholesale market share, the TerryWhite Chemmart franchise network continued its store expansion and sales growth, and we had strong growth from our Symbion Hospitals and MedTech businesses. Our Animal Care segment increased EBITDA by 8.6%, demonstrating strong resilience as the pet specialty experiences a shift in market share towards the larger national retailers. The strength of our brands and our long-standing relationships with these retailers positions us well in the changing environment. Our branded business continues to focus on its new product development pipeline and leveraging our in-house manufacturing capabilities. Consistent with our strategy of investing for growth, significant investments were undertaken in the half, including increasing our shareholding in our Southeast Asian medical technology distribution business, Transmedic, to 90%, completing the acquisition of Superior Pet Food Co, a leading New Zealand manufacturer and supplier of premium dog rolls, and we continue to invest in our operational infrastructure across Community Pharmacy, Institutional Healthcare, and Contract Logistics. In terms of other group highlights, we recorded a solid ROCE result of 15.1%, and our EBITDA margin of 4.76% improved again on the prior period. On this page, you can see that both our Healthcare and Animal Care segments recorded strong earnings growth, contributing to the solid overall group performance. Our Community Pharmacy, Institutional Healthcare, and Animal Care businesses all contributed to an uplift in GOR, and this was slightly offset by a small reduction in contract logistics GOR, which I touched on earlier. Slide 7 provides further details on the group's financial performance on both the statutory and underlying basis. You can see the benefit of our successful ongoing focus on margin management, reflected in the five basis point increase in our underlying EBITDA margin. During the period, underlying NPAT grew by AUD 10.8 million to AUD 152.4 million, representing growth of 7.6%, and underlying EPS grew by approximately 6.6%. When normalizing the Group's EBITDA growth to exclude the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract, which concludes at the end of this financial year, underlying EBITDA growth was up by approximately 10%. A similar uplift occurs if wholesale sales of COVID-19 antivirals are excluded. This further highlights the strength of the underlying businesses and our diverse sources of growth.... The first half of FY 2024 continues our long-term track record of delivering strong results with a focus on earnings and dividend growth, return on capital employed, cash flow generation, and maintaining a strong balance sheet. As mentioned earlier, consistent with our strategy of investing for growth, we increased our shareholding in Transmedic to 90%. We've also entered into an option arrangement over the remaining 10% interest, which will facilitate us moving to 100% in approximately two years' time. Transmedic is one of the largest independent medical device distributors in Southeast Asia, with a presence in seven countries, and together with the rest of our medical technology business, it provides a unique offering to global medical device manufacturers looking to access the Asia Pacific region. This transaction reflects our confidence in the business and is consistent with our strategy to explore future growth opportunities in Southeast Asia. In addition to those investments, our focus on investing for growth also includes capital expenditure on our operational infrastructure. This has included completing the construction of two new contract logistics distribution centers in Auckland and Sydney, and ongoing construction of four new distribution centers across Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney for our pharmaceutical wholesale and medical consumables businesses. We are making solid progress on our near-term strategies to increase earnings. As previously stated, our underlying EBITDA, excluding the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract, has been growing at a higher rate than our earnings, including the contract, reflecting the strong growth in our base business and the diversity of our portfolio. The changing dynamics in the Community Pharmacy wholesaling industry continue to create new revenue opportunities for us. During the half, we had a number of new customer wins and have also had positive traction with new prospects. We have also commenced cost reduction initiatives with respect to the group's approximately AUD 1 billion cost base, and the financial benefits of this initiative will be predominantly realized across the FY 2025 and FY 2026 financial years. In addition, we remain focused on supplementing our non-organic growth with strategic acquisitions. Our M&A pipeline remains active, and we will continue to explore opportunities. Our sustainability initiatives continue to also progress. With respect to climate change and recognizing our responsibility to act, we're investing in energy efficiencies, renewable power, and low-carbon technologies. In FY 2023, we achieved net zero Scope 1 emissions in New Zealand and Australia, using Australian carbon credit units to offset direct emissions from our facilities. We have also completed the first phase of our 18.8-megawatt solar array project, with the installation of a 500-kilowatt roof-mounted array in Parkes, New South Wales, and preparations for the next phase are underway. There are many other ESG initiatives that the group is progressing with within each of our five sustainability pillars, and we will report on these in our 2024 sustainability report to be released in August. Moving now to our segment performance. Healthcare generated revenue growth of 7.5% and underlying EBITDA growth of 8%. The strong performance was driven by our leading market positions, organic growth, and continued focus on margin management. Each of our Community Pharmacy, TerryWhite Chemmart, and Institutional Healthcare businesses delivered solid performances. In terms of our geographic regions, our Australian Healthcare business grew underlying EBITDA by 12.4%. Southeast Asia EBITDA grew strongly, up 7.4%, driven by our Transmedic business. However, New Zealand EBITDA was impacted by a decline in non-recurring COVID-19 activity within contract logistics. Despite cost pressures, our Healthcare segment successfully maintained underlying EBITDA margins. Moving now to the specific components of Healthcare and starting with Community Pharmacy. The Community Pharmacy business continued its strong performance, recording revenue growth of AUD 181 million, up 4.9%, and GOR growth of AUD 15.9 million, up 4.9%. There were several key drivers of the results, including strong performances from our Community Pharmacy retail brands, including TerryWhite Chemmart, and increased wholesale market share. If we adjusted revenues for the lower sales of COVID-19 antiviral medications in this half compared to the PCP, then our normalized revenue growth was 8.3%. Our TWC business continued its impressive growth, further strengthening its position as Australia's largest health advice-orientated Community Pharmacy store network. The 60-day dispensing policy change, which came into effect in September 2023, has had a limited impact on our business to date, with the financial impact offset by the increase to the CSO funding pool. As part of the response to the policy change, the government has brought forward discussions regarding the eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement. These discussions are currently underway. Institutional Healthcare generated double-digit revenue growth of approximately AUD 206 million, up 11.7%, and GOR growth of AUD 17 million, up 6%, largely due to the growth in Symbion Hospitals and our medical technology businesses. Symbion Hospitals' business revenue grew by approximately 15%, predominantly due to increased sales of high-value specialty medicines. Our medical technology division delivered first half revenue growth of 10.2%, driven by increasing surgical volumes, particularly with the implant channels. Medical consumables contribution was lower in this half due to the unwind of PPE and other COVID-19 related activity. In respect of contract logistics, its GOR decreased by AUD 1.5 million, or down 2%. In Australia, the business continued to generate strong growth through new and existing principals, and our recently completed facility in Sydney will accommodate ongoing growth in the business. In New Zealand, as I stated before, the business experienced a reduction in first half GOR due to a fall in demand for the storage and servicing of COVID-19 related products. Turning now to our Animal Care segment. Animal Care generated revenue of AUD 286.2 million for the half, and underlying EBITDA was up by 8.6% to AUD 55.4 million. The Animal Care segment demonstrated strong resilience as the pet specialty industry experiences market share shifts towards the larger national retailers. The strength of our brands and our long-standing relationships with these retailers position us very well in this changing environment. The recently acquired Superior business has performed in line with expectations under our ownership, with growth in both dog roll products and bulk treats. Our pet food manufacturing facility based in Parkes continues to enhance our local supply chain capabilities and provides a competitive advantage for the Black Hawk and VitaPet pet food ranges through continuity of supply and new product launches. Underlying EBITDA margin for the segment improved again, reflecting the relative performance of higher margin businesses and the successful mitigation of cost inflation. Demonstrating the continued strength of our brand, Black Hawk and VitaPet continue to maintain their share leadership in their respective segments. Our branded business grew sales 3.6%, within which was a softening in our portfolio of accessory products due to the more challenging consumer environment. Our wholesale business, Lyppard, delivered a solid underlying performance. However, overall sales revenue were negatively impacted by one particular supplier commencing direct supply to vet clinics, following the acquisition of it by another large direct supplier. In line with our Animal Care growth strategy, several new product launches have commenced or are planned for FY 2024, including the Black Hawk Healthy Benefits range and the relaunch and extension of our Black Hawk cat food range. Black Hawk Healthy Benefits is the first specific benefits line from Black Hawk. It appeared on shelves in leading pet specialty retailers and vet clinics in September 2023, and has had positive early in-market performance. The new Black Hawk cat food range was specifically developed by cat nutritionists and vets, and features premium ingredients to support cats' well-being and lifestyle. The new range of products were made available in Australia from this month. Our new product development strategy is designed to leverage our existing strong brands, manufacturing capabilities, and retailer relationships to expand into new product categories where we see growth potential. I'll now hand over to Leonard, our CFO, to cover additional financial information. Thanks, John. Underlying cash flow from operations for the six months to December 2023 was AUD 115.6 million. This reflects the underlying EBITDA earnings of AUD 313.2 million, partially offset by interest costs of AUD 44.8 million, tax payments of AUD 46.5 million, and net working capital and other movements of AUD 106.4 million for the period. The reduction in the group's underlying cash flows of AUD 45.5 million is attributable to the timing of net working capital payments. Capital expenditure for the period was AUD 66.4 million, primarily due to the operational infrastructure projects to support the growth of the business going forward. Working capital management remains a key focus for the group, and enables our strategy to invest for growth opportunities while returning value to shareholders. Our investment in working capital of AUD 473 million is up AUD 71.4 million from 31 December 2022, supporting the AUD 437 million growth in revenue for the half, compared to the prior corresponding period. Due to customer service level requirements and the impact of the holiday season on supply chains, we do typically see a seasonally higher investment in working capital at December compared to June each year. We expect to see our second half cash flow result be stronger from that from the reported in the first half, with a working capital investment of approximately AUD 60 million for the full year.... The average cash conversion cycle of 17 days is consistent with prior periods, and our return on capital employed as at 31 December 2022, of 15.1%, is an improvement on the 14.4% return on capital employed that we did report at 31 December 2022, and is in line with our group's target of 15%. Net debt for the group, excluding leases, was AUD 1.088 billion, as at 31 December 2023, an increase of AUD 250 million from compared to the prior period. The increase in net debt levels largely reflects the group's investment in strategic M&A activity, with the acquisition of the Superior Pet Food business for AUD 74 million, and the increased ownership in Transmedic for an additional AUD 135 million during the period. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.06x is higher than the 1.52x that we reported at the end of FY 2023. That's also attributable to the associated M&A activities that we did undertake during the period. Our gearing levels remain conservative and within our target range, providing capacity for further acquisition and growth investments, with approximately AUD 300 million of debt headroom available. That's excluding the earnings from the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract. Underlying EPS for the half is AUD 0.795 per share. That's growth from the same period, FY 2023, of 6.6%. The EBOS board have declared an interim dividend of NZD 0.57 per share, and this will be imputed to AUD 0.25 for New Zealand tax-resident shareholders, and fully franked for Australian tax-resident shareholders. FY 2024 interim dividend is an increase of 7.5%, the FY 2023 interim dividend, and represents an underlying payout ratio of 66.4%. The group's dividend reinvestment plan, which has been strongly supported by shareholders in the past, will be available for the FY 2024 interim dividend, and shareholders can elect to take shares in lieu of the dividend at a discount of 2.5% to the volume-weighted average share price. Thank you, John. I'll hand back to you. Thanks, Leonard. In conclusion, we're very pleased with the group's performance in the first half, which included strong earnings growth and continued successful management of our EBITDA margin in the current macroeconomic environment. Reiterating the key highlights, we generated solid underlying EBITDA and EPS growth. Both Healthcare and Animal Care are performing well. The group's EBITDA growth is even stronger than reported, when you exclude the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract. We've been very disciplined in managing our EBITDA margins. We generated ROTCE of just over 15%, in line with our target. We continue to invest in our growth, whilst maintaining leverage in our target range, and we increased dividends to shareholders by 7.5%. Looking ahead to the rest of FY 2024, we expect the group will continue to generate organic earnings or earnings growth across both Healthcare and Animal Care, and pursue further bolt-on acquisitions. This is supported by positive trading conditions in January, which delivered underlying EBITDA growth rates consistent with the levels recorded in the first half, including and excluding the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract. The group expects to record full year capital expenditure slightly above the FY 2023 level, as we continue to invest for growth and modernize our facilities, particularly within our New Zealand Healthcare operations. We've a strong balance sheet, and we're well positioned to pursue our growth objectives. So that concludes the formal part of the presentation, and I'll now hand back to Delaine to facilitate any questions. Thank you. Thank you, sir. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We ask that you keep your questions to no more than one question and one follow-up, and if time permits, we'll be more than happy to take more questions. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. I see our first question comes from the line of Saul Hadassin from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Good morning, John and team. John, you touched on the growth in the Community Pharmacy business in terms of revenues in the first half. I'm trying to go into a bit more detail as it relates to some of those customer wins, and particularly any churn you're seeing, following the announcement of the potential tie-up between one of your competitors, and Chemist Warehouse. Good morning, Saul. I think probably the best way I could answer that is that we're getting good traction in the market with the, you know, the future change in dynamics that we expect to happen with Chemist Warehouse taking over Sigma. So we're quite positive. We've communicated before that we think, for our business, that it'd be realistically for us to achieve, say, around about AUD 300 million in new organic growth in that market. Some of that's come into this first half result. We expect that to further build as we get into FY 2025 and FY 2026, but that's what we're sort of aiming for. Just to follow up, John, I think you've called out maybe 10%, underlying growth, if you normalize for Chemist Warehouse in that, in that business. ... Do you have any sense of what the market growth would be? I mean, is that, do you think that's sort of double market growth or just a sense of where you guys are in terms of that growth versus the industry as a whole? I think, look, it's stronger than the market. What the market growth is, maybe it might be about double. So, I'll hazard a guess, Saul? We think the market's probably growing 4% or 5%, right? Right. Thanks, John. That's all I had. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Montgomerie from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead. Good morning, and well done on another solid result. Looks like pretty good cost control in the Healthcare segment in the first half. John, I was just wondering if you could please comment on where specifically this is coming from as part of the cost review. And then, as you've advanced your thinking over the last six months with respect to the cost review, is the internal goal still that, you know, you take out sort of 2%-2.5% of your cost base from that AUD 1 billion base number? Yeah. Morning, Matt. Look, if I talk about the cost efficiencies we've got across the group, and the project we have, it's really quite broad-based in terms of where we see efficiencies, and some part of the efficiencies are in raw materials. There's some labor, there's freight, there's general corporate overheads, et cetera. So it's no real specific cost bucket per se. It's really quite general. We've set ourselves a target of achieving a reduction in the cost base of between 2.5%-5%. I can't be more prescriptive than that as to where that will land. I think we can probably comment further on that, our progress on that, when we get to the full year. But, you know, I'm quite heartened by what I see at the moment, and still feels like today that's a realistic target for us to strive for. Great. Thank you. And then secondly, on Animal Care margins, another very strong period. At the last result, maybe it was just conservatism from your part, you sort of commented that you didn't see scope for further margin expansion in that segment. I guess the question now is, is your expectation that you can hold the margins or at least hold the margins you delivered in Animal Care in the first half, looking ahead? Look, Matt, we'd always think that we can hold our margins. We never expect to sort of go backwards. What's probably happened in this first half that we couldn't foresee at the time of our annual results is some of the cost of production in our manufacturing facility are lower in this first half. So that's benefited us. And also, of course, we've had the contribution of our Superior business, right, as well. Mm. So they're the main ones. Great, thanks. Thank you. Thank you. I show our next question comes from the line of Sean Laaman from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator. Good morning, John and team. Hope all is well. John, on the commentary around Chemist Warehouse, which it seems dilutive to growth, is it still sort of rational behavior by Chemist Warehouse? Is it going to be a disciplined exit, and there's nothing going on that's seeing them deliver lower growth in the group? Sean, no, from our perspective, it, it's disciplined, to use your words. It's, it's quite disciplined. There's nothing, there's nothing out of the normal happening in the trading coming through from CW. So, you know, the volumes are still coming through. We're still servicing them as we normally have, and would, so we don't expect any change. That change we expect to happen on basically the first of July, and I've got no reason to think it'll be otherwise. Great. Thanks, John. And just to follow up on the next CPA, is there any particular new elements that you might like to highlight or points open for discussion that we might not be aware of? I think from our perspective, we're expecting a favorable outcome on the eighth CPA. I think the industry and the National Association of Wholesalers has made strong representations to government about the importance of the uninterrupted supply of medicines into the community, and we believe that the government understands our position there and is sympathetic to our view there. And I think, you know, if we can take some sort of a comfort, the additional CSO funding that we received in this first half, by virtue of trying to compensate the wholesalers for the change in the 60-day dispensing policy, is a positive. But we've still got to let that all take its course. But, you know, we're hopeful for a positive outcome there. Thank you, John. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Marcus Curley from UBS. Please go ahead. ... Good morning, John. Just, just firstly, could you talk a little bit about, how we should think about, the core margin in Community Pharmacy, obviously up a touch in the first half. Is it, you know, is there any seasonality, or should we expecting, you know, any, let's say, further improvement into the second half there, or is a stable picture more likely? I think it's pretty stable, Marcus. There's not a big change there from the PCP, so I wouldn't read too much into that. Okay, great. And then secondly, you know, you obviously, you talked to the working capital growth. Has there been any change in conditions post the 60 days dispensing, you know, with the pharmacies that have contributed, you know, to the working capital change? No, Marcus, no. Nothing there. Okay. And just to follow up on that, you know, maybe from a cost perspective, could you just talk a little bit to, you know, where your average interest costs are at the moment, relative to, let's say, market rates? So, would you suggest that the interest costs in the business have now fully normalized, or is there still further to go in terms of the increase in the interest costs for the business? Yeah. So, so my, my expectation for the full year was we'll land at a number of about approximately AUD 90 million for interest costs. We do have quite considerable hedging in place, so we, we are benefiting from the hedging we have as far as sort of costs in place. So we do benefit from the fact that we don't get penalized for any further increase in interest rates. However, we do- we will benefit longer term from a potential decrease in, in the benchmark rates going forward. So my expectation is that sort of AUD 45-46 million dollar interest cost for the half, but if we take that through to the full year, approximately AUD 90 million. But we do have some upside potentially if interest rates do decrease, about the hedging that we have in place. Okay, Leonard. And when that hedging rolls off, you know, is the AUD 90 still the right dollar number in the current market conditions? I would think, for the FY 2024, that number's about right. I would expect that that number will lower as we go forward. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I show our next question comes from the line of Adrian Allbon from Jarden. Please go ahead. Good morning, team. Just on Slide 11, just focusing on the new medical consumables facilities that are sort of coming online stream, like, how should we think about those facilities in terms of our modeling? Like, is it providing extra capacity to your expected growth, or is it lowering unit costs, or is it doing a combination of both? It's a combination of both, but more slanted towards providing the capacity for growth, Marcus. Oh, sorry, Adrian. So that, yeah, that... Okay ... profile that we encourage will provide the group with additional between 20 and 25% additional footprint capacity going forward. On the medical consumable side, you mean, or are you referring to the whole slide? Overall group, ANZ Healthcare business. Okay. Are you, like, within that medical consumables at the moment, are you running at quite high capacity or high utilization? Yeah. Yes, it is. It is, Adrian. So- Okay ... you know, when we open the new- Okay ... they won't be fully, fully utilized, but, you know, there'll be a good, good percentage of them utilized. Okay, and then, like, are you sort of transitioning off this Chemist Warehouse contract in the year ahead? Like, can you give us a sense of how, like, your management STIs are kind of struck for, say, like, on a 12-month forward basis? Like, is it, is it versus the counterfactual of, like, without that contract, or is it just, you know, like, as per normal, sort of more on an EPS basis overall? We structure incentives based on the business unit EBITDA growth or group PBT growth, right? And they're set on an annual basis. So they were set for FY 2024, inclusive of the CW contract, and when we come to set them for FY 2025, the board will decide. But my anticipation would be that we'd follow largely the same format, right? We just won't have that contract in there. Okay. Okay, right. That's fine. That's kind of clear. And just... Sorry, I'll rejoin. No, go on. Just, like, just in terms of like, on, I guess, on Slide 12, where you sort of say the pipeline for acquisitions remains active, are you able to kind of, like, sort of point to like, where, like, where it is sort of active? Like, obviously you've got numerous parts of the business. Like, are we talking more at add-ons up into Southeast Asia, or are we, or are we more back home in Australia? Well, there's activity across basically all regions, Adrian, but I think you could probably expect to see that come the announcement at year-end, that there's probably been, you know, a small bolt-on done in Southeast Asia, right? So- Okay. but as you know, we've always been highly inquisitive, and we continue to see good, good opportunities in our MedTech area, in our medical consumables area, and also, you know, other parts of the business, right? So we'll continue along, along that path and along that journey. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I show our next question comes from the line of Stephen Hudson from Macquarie Securities. Please go ahead. Oh, good afternoon, John and Leonard. Just two from me. Just firstly on the costs out potential that you've been referencing, the AUD 1 billion cost base looks to be excluding COGS. So I think you've got about AUD 500 million of wages and AUD 500 million of other over FY 2023. So I was just wondering if, essentially, the cost base that you can get your teeth into is larger than the billion, and therefore larger than the sort of AUD 25 million-AUD 50 million that we've sort of inferred from the comments today? That's my first question. The second question is whether or not the AUD 75 million EBITDA loss from the Chemist Warehouse contract that you've estimated is pre or post those cost out numbers. The AUD 75 million EBITDA loss from CW is pre those cost outs, right? And then the cost base is basically expense line we referred to is basically, you know, expenses. You know, labor, freight, rentals, et cetera. So are there more savings potentially in our raw materials, unlike, and COGS, et cetera? Unlikely, right? There may be some there, Stephen, but that's not what we're thinking is the major part of the 2.5-5%. So it is 2.5%-5% on the billion, not any part- On the billion. of the billion of COGS? Yes. Yeah, gotcha. Okay. No, thanks. Thanks, John. And just quickly, I'll sneak in a kind of a semi-third one, if I could. The Superior acquisition sounds as if it's gone well. Can you give us a feel for the contribution this, this half? It's performed basically in line with expectations. If I gave you some guide on the group EBITDA growth rate, it was eight, you know, just over 8%. If I excluded the acquisitions, that'd be like just over 7%, right? So I contributed about 1% to the group's growth rate. That's great. Thanks, John. Good. Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Lyanne Harrison from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Good morning, John, Leonard, and Martin. I'd like to go to Institutional Healthcare. You spoke about the hospital growth driver there being high-value specialty medicines. I just wanted to understand what's driving this. Is that sustainable and a permanent shift in doctors' prescriptions, or is it a reflection of the mix of patients in the hospitals? I think it's more towards the new product listings going on, Lyanne. Yeah. treatment conditions, particularly some new, new cancer treatments, cystic fibrosis medications, right? Is principally what's driving. So what we call high-value specialty medicines is driving it. Plus, there's been some shifts in market share there because Sigma exited the hospital distribution business, right? So there was some disruption, if you like, in terms of some hospital supply chain, and we were able to capture some additional share as a result of that. That's what's largely led to that growth rate. Okay, and so it's safe to say that that's a sustainable lift in the hospital growth? We believe so, yes. Okay, thank you. Then on the MedTech side, in Institutional Healthcare, you know, you pointed to higher surgical volumes. Is that, you know, higher than average, or is it sort of reversion to mean? It's, it's more like a reversion to mean, Lyanne. So it's sort of... As hospitals sort of start to come back through from the COVID, period, so it's, it's more reflective of that dynamic. Okay, thank you. If I might squeeze in one more on Animal Care. That supplier direct to clinic, is that a one-off because of that particular acquisition and increased scale of the supplier? I just wanted to confirm it's not a more broader industry change. No, it's, it's one-off, Lyanne. The supplier you may... Look, probably about four or five years ago, we had a supplier called Zoetis go direct, and Zoetis has recently acquired the Jurox business, and so that bus- they're taking their whole business now direct. So it's not reflective of a market change. It's specific, really, to the, the way Zoetis go to market. Okay. Thank you very much. I'll leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. I show our last question comes from the line of Dan Hurren from MST Marquee. Please go ahead. Well, good morning. Thanks very much. I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the TerryWhite rollout. I think in the past, you've given some approximate rough metrics there, and perhaps similar sales question, could you comment on any step change in momentum that you might have noticed following the announcement of that Sigma-Chemist Warehouse tie-up? ... I just missed the second part of your question, Dan. It was something about step change from the-- but if you could just clarify the second part of your question? Sure. Just wondering if there's been any step change in momentum in the TerryWhite—I mean, interest in the TerryWhite brand following the announcement of that Sigma and Chemist Warehouse tie-up? Yeah. No, I'm gonna say that, Dan, I think the rollout is basically... Look, we got the market, have guided the market typically to growth, average growth in Terry White new stores around about 30 per annum, right? That's what we typically strive for, and we're on track to do that in FY 2024. At this point in time, I wouldn't say that there was a particular step change in momentum, but I look at that, if we can continue to grow our network by, say, 30+, 30 stores per annum, we're doing very well, right? Okay. All right, thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. I'm showing we have one more question in the queue from the line of Mathieu Chevrier from Citi. Please go ahead. Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one was just to clarify on your cost savings. So you're expecting your absolute dollar cost base to go to, like, AUD 975-AUD 950? i.e., your savings net of inflation. Yeah, look, that that's an interesting one, Matthew. Look, I think the best to probably say at this point in time, right, that we'll just hold the 2.5%-5%. I think I could probably comment more on that on the full year, right? We're seeing—But to help you, we're seeing the impacts of inflation on the cost base diminish quite significantly from where they've been, right? And you can see that even in our EBITDA margins across- Mm. - both Healthcare and Animal Care. So I think, you know, that, to answer your question, can we get the cost base down to AUD 950 million post-inflation impacts? Time will tell on that. Great, thanks. And then just to go back on the transformation you're seeing in the Animal Care business, I was just curious to understand, you know, the sort of opportunities that it may create for you, or the sort of impacts you may see on pricing and margins going forward. I think the opportunities for us, really, in Animal Care, really, and the future growth of that business, will really be dependent on the NPD opportunities that we bring into market. So referred to some of those that we've already brought to market. There's new products coming in the second half. And when you're dealing with the national retailers, of course, it's more of a coordinated approach in going to market and probably more, more, more, effective with the end consumers, right? In dealing with the larger national retailers. So what we see here is some, you know, the independent market is declining, and that market share is going into those larger national retailers. So I think that bodes us well for our business and the way we've set our business up, and we're very positive on what we can achieve in terms of, you know, those future NPD opportunities from there. That answer your question. Got it, and then one final one. Yeah, no, that's, that's great. Thank you, and then just one final one on your MedTech business. You saw 10% growth. Could you comment on the sort of surgical volumes you've been seeing in your business, and I guess any discrepancy across the private and the public channel? Thank you. Well, I can't comment on the latter part of the question. Maybe I can—what I can say is that we've seen double-digit growth in the surgical volumes, right? So I think... But most of the business is sort of oriented towards the private part of the market, so right, rather than the public market. Okay? Got it. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to John Cullity, CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Delaine. Thanks, everyone, for your interest on the call, and look forward to updating you again when we get to our full year. Thanks very much. Bye for now. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.