Ann: NRW Full Year Results Conference Call details, page-17

Next question from Jakob Cakarnis from [Jarden]

Jakob:
hi Jules, hi Richard
I’ll try asking Will’s  question a different way …
…. The coverage that you’ve got from work in hand  on your revenue guidance is 96% this year - it’s the highest that it's ever been.
What’s keeping you conservative on the upside for the revenue guidance for ‘24?
What things do we need to be thinking about?
Obviously weather was impactful in the first half of ‘23 .. If we move to a more stable environment is there anything else operationally that we need to be considering when we look at the revenue vs historical patterns of coverage  vs ?? ??)



Jules:
I hope so … we’re not weather forecasters but we didn’t necessarily see what we were going to see this year.
It was the  first time we put a slide on the weather in the half year presentation because of its’ level of impact.
Yes, if you cross your fingers and hope everything is going to be alright in the weather sense,  yes, there clearly potential to do more
however being conservative for now is probably appropriate.
And the scheduling of some  projects, ramp up of some projects is not always out of our control, but that can be a risk in terms of delivering more.

Richard:
And I think, just to add to that point that Jules has just made …
.. one of those factors that is outside our control and has been a real pain for us over the course of this year has just been the delays in clients being able to obtain the regulatory approvals that they  need  - around environment, around heritage.
And that has been completely unpredictable for clients and of course for us
- So that’s something that I guess also is a factor that we are conscious of in putting that guidance together.


Jakob:
Understood ..
And similarly just for the earnings guidance; a narrow difference between the top end and the lower end - $10 million ?.
what’s the difference there that holds true?
What’s the assumption that drives  that $10m guidance (difference?) in the guidance please?


Richard:
It’s really the same sort of things Jake. If we have another run of wet months then we’ve got people and equipment sitting around unable to be deployed
- it’s  things of that nature - so it’s really the same sorts of factors, and again for whatever reason …and we saw this on projects that we were tendering this year .. where clients were pushing back start dates each month by a couple of months as they couldn’t secure the regulatory approvals.
I think that there’s such a volume of projects going through the government approval cycle across each state that timelines for these…. can be quite unpredictable and …. …. and … If we find ourselves again in the position were during the year where  we’re having to keep people and equipment on standby, that is costly.
Now, as we said before, we can see that position’s  improving markedly and we don’t see why it should return  to that, but it is a risk, and it’s a risk outside of everyone’s control.