Centuria’s AI bet reaches for revenue as FY27 profit target rises

FY27 guidance points to another earnings step-up

Centuria Capital Group (ASX:CNI) is entering FY27 with a stronger balance sheet and an ambitious earnings target: operating profit after tax is expected to rise approximately 14% to A$130 million, while EBIT is forecast to grow by about 20%. Operating earnings per security are guided to 13.0 cents and distributions to 10.4 cents per security, compared with FY26 operating earnings of 13.6 cents and distributions of 10.4 cents.

The apparent per-security decline is largely a consequence of the capital raising, which increased securities on issue by about 20%. The underlying operating profit still grew 12.8% to A$113.8 million, and group assets under management reached a record A$22.2 billion at 30 June 2026.

Property platform supplies the earnings base

Centuria’s traditional property operations remain the financial anchor. Real estate funds under management increased to A$18.6 billion from A$17.4 billion, while property funds management EBITDA climbed 25.5% to A$74.8 million. The group secured A$1.2 billion of real estate acquisitions, including a Sydney CBD office acquisition that supported the launch of its largest single-asset fund to date.

That transaction was part of a broader push into larger assets and alternative sectors, alongside the Arrow Funds Management acquisition, which added approximately A$444 million of agricultural assets under management. The group’s platform covered 102 funds and 392 properties, with occupancy of 95.1% and a weighted average lease expiry of 5.5 years. Investors had already seen the Sydney strategy take shape through the $454m Sydney CBD office fund, launched earlier in the year.

ResetData remains a costly but potentially material growth bet

The report’s most consequential forward-looking thread sits outside conventional property. Centuria’s 50%-owned ResetData recorded an operating EBITDA loss of A$10.9 million, widening from A$4.4 million as the business continued investing in sovereign AI and digital infrastructure.

Management says revenue from new deployments is expected to begin in the second half of FY27. ResetData has an initial 7 MW allocation under its agreement with CDC Data Centres, 72 MW of power generation units secured for a Centuria data centre development and a broader potential pipeline exceeding 250 MW. The group also has a A$165 million senior bridge GPU financing facility. Those milestones were detailed in the $165m GPU financing facility, announced earlier with the 72 MW power commitment.

The caution is embedded in the numbers. ResetData remains in an investment and deployment phase, with customer contracting, GPU delivery, power availability and funding all relevant to the timing of revenue. The annual report applies a 51% pre-tax discount rate to the sovereign AI cash-generating unit’s valuation and assumes average revenue growth of 203.6% from FY27 to FY31, highlighting how much of the valuation rests on execution still ahead.

Capital raising reduced gearing and expanded room to deploy

Centuria’s A$300 million fully underwritten equity raising was central to the year’s balance-sheet reset. Operating gearing fell to 5.1% from 12.3%, while cash and undrawn debt stood at A$445 million at year-end. After balance date, approximately A$221 million of floating-rate notes were repaid, leaving about A$265 million of available funding capacity.

The raise also gives management more flexibility to seed property funds, support Centuria Bass Credit and fund ResetData. The institutional component and early retail acceptances had settled by 30 June, with the completed retail component adding approximately A$35 million after year-end. The capital event followed the A$265 million institutional raise, which was completed before the retail offer.

Leadership transition arrives alongside the growth program

John McBain will step down from executive duties when the 2026 annual general meeting closes on 27 November, leaving Jason Huljich as sole group chief executive. McBain will remain a non-executive director, preserving continuity in a founder-led business that has grown from a small funds manager into a platform overseeing more than A$22 billion.

The board says the strategy is unchanged. That places the burden of proof on execution rather than succession: property acquisitions must continue to feed recurring management fees, Centuria Bass must grow without compromising credit discipline, and ResetData must move from infrastructure commitments to contracted revenue. FY27 will show whether those three engines can accelerate at once.