Business Update 29 April 2025 said ”Net debt $533.9m (March 25)...

Business Update 29 April 2025 said ”Net debt $533.9m (March 25) up 4.7% against pcp $509.9m (March 24) and up 13.4% against December 2024 [not highlighted in red!], as Pact continued its capital asset investment program.

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Today’s unsubtle update said “net debt at 30 June 2025 ($496.1m) was up by 18.4%[$77m] on June 2024 ($418.9m) because of continuing capex and settling the tax arising from Crates sale.” It’s odd that they didn’t (also) mention the tax payment in the 29 April update, as tax would have been due on 15 Jan or 28 Feb. My guestimate based on the 31 Dec balance sheet is that the tax payment was about $35m

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Despite the heavy capex, which presumably continued in the June 25 quarter, net debt fell $38m in that quarter. This shows that cash generation in the business is still strong.

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“Shareholders who wish to sell their shares will be able to do so…[until] close of trading on Monday, 14 July 2025”. As usual they mention only selling shares- not buying. This has been the strident message for over a year: not many boards relentlessly encourage their shareholders to sell, but not to buy.

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It can’t be a coincidence that they have decided to declare open season for staff and directors to trade for a few days- and chose to release a selection of figures 6 weeks early (but not NPAT!), to distance themselves from any accusations of insider trading. I suppose RG may pick up some more, but he’ll only get crumbs- there were about 200K shares for sale on ASX today. At the egm the chair said that being listed was a distraction not only for the board but the 5,000 employees of Pact. No doubt they will all be much more productive once Pact is delisted. I have heard many stupid comments over 50 years of investing but that took the cake for bullshit.