Pinned straw:
AHC Calendar:
ASX Announcement 23 July 2025,
CEO Commentary Commenting on the performance, Clayton Astles, CEO of Austco, said: “FY25 was a transformative year for Austco. We delivered strong double-digit growth, successfully integrated acquisitions, and executed our strategy with discipline.
Our ability to fund acquisitions through operating cashflow while maintaining a strong balance sheet reflects the resilience and scalability of our business model. With robust contracted revenue and momentum across key markets, we enter FY26 with confidence.”
The Company expects to release its audited Full Year Results and Appendix 4E on 26 August 2025. Authorised for release by the Board of Austco Healthcare Limited.
then 27/02/2026 Interim Report
Can add that "Revenue from Customers" aligns with accounting standards to differentiate from other income.
Hey @DrPete , I saw @Wini replied but had already started below so sorry for the repetition. I added a couple of notes at the end.
Why did revenue start to grow in 22/23 after many years of stagnating?
I’ll flag a couple of things. First, there was a COVID impact whereby they weren’t able to access hospitals readily for a couple of years. They were still selling and growing the order book, but FY23 was the first year they were able to start running it down.
The second was related to funds raised in 2019 to fund growth and add sales capacity. When COVID hit they had fortunately not spent it and they did the right thing for a couple of years and sat on it, rather than piss it up against a wall. They then deployed it in FY23 and you can see the cash balance drop in that year. The full benefit of that investment is only really being felt now.
Who are Austco's main competitors?
I probably can’t do much better than Chattie on this one:
They had another Australian competitor called Hills Ltd (ASX:HIL) but they went into administration in 2023, and I believe got wound up.
Who is John Bennetts and why does he own 16%?
Dunno, has been on and creeping up the register for a while. Seems like he has good taste.
Who is Robert Grey and why has he been aggressively offloading shares?
I think he was one of the founders. Not sure why he’s selling.
Is there a reason Austco uses the language "revenue from customers" rather than just "revenue"?
I’ve always assumed it’s to differentiate it from Other Income. If so, I dunno why you’d bother because in my mind “revenue from customers” and “revenue” mean the same thing.
How comfortable are you with the strategy of acquiring resellers, given the resellers aren't entirely focused on reselling just Austco but also have other unaligned sources of revenue and profit?
It’s the unanswered question. When they started buying them my initial reaction was to think the business quality was getting diluted. But the early indications were that heuristics like EBITDA margins actually went up! Could selling in different verticals be a distraction for management? Maybe. Ultimately I think we’ll judge them on the result, but so far so good.
As to a couple of the other concerns you raised:
- I agree the CEO’s remuneration is at the high end. They got a first strike against the rem report in FY20 but I don’t think that’s been repeated. It’s one of those things I get shitty at when the performance drops and tend to ignore when times are good.
- Re: the dilution. I get concerned when I see shares on issue going up consistently like a set of stairs, but I don’t think that’s the case here. I think I’m right in saying that over the period you mentioned there were two notable raises. The first was the one in 2019 that I mentioned above. The second was in 2024 to purchase Amentco. It was interesting to see that, given they had the cash, they paid the upfront portion of the most recent acquisition with it. It will be interesting to see what they do with the earnout, given that 75% of it is at Austco’s discretion i.e. scrip or cash.