Ann: FY2023 Results Presentation, page-2

So far I've only read some other documents, not the above.

The good news is that Bloomberg says net profit was in line with market expecations.

For Australian investors, franking of the US$0.05 dividend last year was 10 per cent: this year, it's nil, with RWC stating that because less than 10 per cent of its revenue is derived from Australia, it'll review its dividend payout strategy and consider share buybacks (in lieu I assume).

However due to the fall in the A$, the final dividend has increased in A$ terms to A$0.07748074 from A$0.07139 a year ago.

USA results seem quite good and UK results (the latter largely driven by price rises, given high UK inflation) reasonable, but Europe and especially Australia (c.20 per cent drop in residential construction) were poor.

It's pleasing that cashflow has hugely improved.

The outlook is not great with total sales expected to drop, even though 'repair and remodelling' (to use the USA terms) should be OK.

Government taxes and regulations aren't helping with lead-free brass fittings requirements costing RWC over a million dollars while in the UK the corporate tax rate is rising, so another hit to the bottom line.

Partly due to the previous EZ_FLO acquisition, interest costs skyrocketed more than 100 per cent compared to FY 22.

While Australia is but a minor contributor to RWC's bottom line, it's hard to see wall-to-wall Labor governments on the Australian mainland managing to reach anything close to the recently announced very ambitious target for new housing construction. This won't help RWC.

The company needs to redouble efforts in cost reductions, and perhaps consider moving more Australian-domiciled business units to the USA (although this imposes short-term costs).

RWC is a solid company but at present I'd describe the outlook as sobering and unexciting. Thankfully however this is most unlikely to lead to RWC incurring a net loss, so RWC remains better than many other companies listed on the ASX.