Aktieselskabet Schouw & Co. (SCHO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to our 2021 Annual Presentation. Once again, we faced a turbulent and challenging year. And I also -- I think I can say that it has been a very difficult business climate throughout the year. In spite of that, I think we have delivered a very satisfactory development in Schouw & Co. Three of our operating companies has really performed very, very well even under these circumstances. So I have to say that our management really executed well. And all our 10,000 employees have worked very hard throughout the year. I think if you look at our annual report this year, you will also see that we have upgraded our ESG reporting quite a lot, and it's part of the way we are starting to think in Schouw & Co., and we will continue to upgrade and be proactive on the ESG strategy throughout the coming years. Just a very quick glance on our portfolio. What does the group or the conglomerate consists of. Many of you know it very well, but we have 6 strong independent businesses, all of them within the business-to-business segment and each of them are holding a leading position in their segment. Something we really put a lot of emphasis on that you need to be leading in your segment to be able to be profitable and also to build a future. Let me give you a very, very fast view into the group. And then after that, I will take a short, fast dive into each of our companies to give you an update on what happened throughout the year. Looking at it from an overall point of view -- I think it came yes, sorry, yes, then we have had a very strong growth in 2021, we continue to grow. Top line was up 14% to DKK 24.2 billion. Out of that, we had organic growth of about 12%. So most of our growth in 2021 came from organic. We had 2 minor acquisitions impacting the top line also. We delivered what we ourselves say, a very satisfactory EBITDA and even it didn't grow compared to 2020. We had an EBITDA of DKK 2.2 billion equals to 9.1% in EBITDA. Looking at our EBITDA, and I said it's very satisfactory. I think also we have to bear in mind that the costs around all companies have exploded, also input costs on raw material, energy, et cetera. And we have worked very, very hard to offset these costs through all our companies. But looking at it, at the end of the day, these cost increases had a negative impact of around DKK 150 million on our results. So with that in mind, I think it's very satisfactory. Our return on invested capital was slightly down due to a huge increase in our net working capital. I will elaborate a little bit on our net working capital development on one of the next slides. But looking at the table there, all in all, we are satisfied with the year. Also we had a 14% increase in earnings per share. So as I said, looking a little bit deeper into our net working capital, we saw an increase of close to DKK 1.5 billion or 47% of our net working capital. A lot of reasons behind that. I think the graph there also gives a good view on what has happened. Part of the increase is, of course, we have had a higher activity. We have seen increasing raw material prices in general. We have added a new business into that. And then we took at the beginning of 2021 a strategic decision that we wanted to build inventories on what we call critical components to be able to supply our customers around the globe and also to meet the contracts, et cetera, we have had from -- or we have from a lot of our companies. And we also thought that we have the financial capabilities and opportunities to do that, and we think it has been a strategic, very good decisions. We are standing strong with our customers and been able to supply in most cases. So that's part of the net working capital. You will also see that it is -- our inventory days increasing from 76 days in average to 99 throughout '21. Looking a little bit also on our net interest bearing debt increasing in 2021, also an increase that we have managed ourselves. Part of it, of course, coming from this net working capital increase but also investments in CapEx, DKK 745 million CapEx investments, small acquisitions and so on, then, of course, also our dividend and our share buyback program, which we initiated at the start of -- that we initiated last year has been good for us also. So all in all, net interest-bearing debt of nearly DKK 2.8 billion. However, our gearing still at a low level. Net interest bearing debt on EBITDA is 1.2x. I think that also shows clearly that we have sufficient room for growth and also opportunities to seek opportunities, new opportunities whenever they arise. And it's part of the way we think strategy in Schouw & Co. that we really want to have this financial strength. We call it a little bit the dry powder we have in the basement. And then we intend, of course, to use that when we see what we expect as value-creating opportunities. As I also said, CapEx continued also in 2021. We had a slowdown in '20. That was more, of course, we were at the end of a rather big investment program. And then we started up investing again in 2021. Even the business climate has been difficult. We do not stop investing and thinking in future. And we have, as I said, the financial capabilities for doing that. So in 2021, DKK 745 million in CapEx and a lot of new CapEx decisions, in fact, taking -- was taken in '21, which will affect the coming years. In 2022, we expect CapEx to be in the area of around DKK 1.3 billion. Most important we have in our 2 Fibertex companies initiated rather large investments. One is in Fibertex Personal Care, new line in Malaysia and new lines for Fibertex Nonwovens. Besides that, we are extending capacity at some of our factories, especially in GPV in Asia, meaning in Thailand and in Sri Lanka. So we continue to invest. It's part of our DNA, and it's also necessary to be able to reach our rather ambitious 2025 objective or ambition, we just disclosed that we expect to could -- to be able to deliver a top line of around DKK 35 billion in 2025 with EBITDA of at least DKK 3 billion. So we need to continue to prepare for that and pave the road for this growth. Let me then dive very fast into each of the companies in our portfolio, starting with the largest company in our portfolio. BioMar, as you see also here, BioMar continued to grow. Revenue was around DKK 13 billion, growth of 14%. However, volume growth was 8%, meaning that increasing raw materials hit the top line positive, but still very satisfactory that we were able to grow 8% to producing and selling 1.44 million tonnes of fish feed and those knowing about volume and so on, also know that 1.4 million tonnes, that's quite a lot. It demands a lot of trucks and ships to carry that around in the world. EBITDA was unfortunately declining from DKK 972 million to DKK 911 million and reasons were, among other things, lower volume in Chile. Chile has always been a very profitable market for us, was seeing lower volumes due to less fish at sea because salmon prices at the start of 2021 was low. We have really had a lot of increase in raw materials and difficult to pass all of them on to customers. Energy has increased a lot. Energy is a big -- BioMar is a big energy consumer in general. And then we also saw on the positive side, a very good development in what we call our value-added products, our functional feed continue to develop positive. So looking at it, in general, we are very satisfied with the good volume development we have had in most markets, still were hit on the volume. And we also were able to offset most of the very, very explosive cost increases we saw. Also positive to see that a strong development in what we call associated companies, our salmon farming company Salmones Austral in Chile performed very well. Results from associates was up from negative DKK 35 million in '20 to plus DKK 45 million in 2021. So that was very satisfactory. We are investing still in BioMar, 2 new extruder lines announced to be invested in Ecuador, a very good development. We see a change of feeding or feed production in Ecuador moving away from a more simple basic production methods and then to advanced extrusion. Also started up our new venture in Vietnam has been very difficult because we were not able to go and visit Vietnam. But hopefully, now we have people or feet on the ground in Vietnam and start to see this will develop. Also in 2020, we expect further growth and improved profitability. Turnover in the area of DKK 14 billion to DKK 15 billion, EBITDA expected in a range from DKK 980 million to DKK 1.040 billion. We will see what is going to drive that will be, of course, growth in volume, strong margin management, ability to pass on these increasing raw materials, and then we expect to change the tide in Chile. So that's the main reasons for the development in BioMar. From BioMar moving on to FPC, has been a very challenging year for FPC because of their #1 raw material polypropylene has been so volatile and has affected profitability. Turnover increased 6% to DKK 2.2 billion only driven by higher raw material prices. Volume were slightly lower in Asia because of the value chain, because of difficulties in getting products around transport cost of containers and so on has really jeopardized the way you could move goods around in Asia. EBITDA was down DKK 90 million to DKK 315 million, EBITDA percent from 19.2% to 14%, so it also really shows significant drive down but only affected by -- because of raw materials, we had a negative raw material effect in 2021 of DKK 77 million. And then energy also exploded for FPC, a very big energy user. Just an example, also when I said sending materials around in Asia, we are supplying from Asia to U.S. Container used to be USD 5,000 for 1 container at the end of the year, it was $29,000. So this is really something that is difficult to work on. We are installing the new Line 9 in Malaysia, getting ready, 15,000 tonnes capacity starting up here in '22. Line 2 print facility in U.S., also in the making and starting to produce commercial here at the start of the year. Sorry. Expect to continue to grow. Top line expected between DKK 2.5 billion to DKK 2.6 billion and EBITDA in the range of DKK 310 million to DKK 350 million. We will see some volume effect, and of course, many will ask, okay, couldn't we see a higher EBITDA level when you expect to increase your top line and your volume, but we also have to take costs for running in Line #9 in Malaysia. And we have also decided that we are going to participate in some of the cost increases in transportation around Asia to help our customers on the long run. So in 2022, we expect to see ourselves also sharing some costs that are exploding towards our customers. From FPC to the other company in the Fibertex family, Fibertex and nonwovens experienced extremely volatile and demanding year, they were flying in half 1, had a turnover of DKK 1.9 billion for the year, but the first half, all-time high profitability, fantastic second half dramatic down, very low profitability more or less from DKK 127 million EBIT in first half to 0 EBIT in second half. That's really dramatic. That was due to our huge -- a lot of our automotive customers stopped their activity for -- had a stop and go strategy. We saw our U.S. wipes business were hampered because of inventory build and a lot of the value-added product as a protective face mask or respiratory face mask and so on was for a time put on hold. And then we were also facing here as in other companies exploding costs, especially on raw materials and energy. Profitability was hard hit, EBITDA, 15% down to DKK 230 million. I have to say that Fibertex Nonwovens have worked very, very hard, pushing so hard on getting compensations on prices and so on and succeeded a lot, and I really have to appreciate what the organization through our Fibertex Nonwovens have been doing for handling this very difficult situation. We have a large investment program ongoing, decided investments of around DKK 600 million that will come into play in 2023, 2 new lines. 1 in U.S. and 1 in the Czech Republic supplying and building on the what we call specialty wipes markets, a niche segment where we are very strong, and we also expect to grow a lot in future. 2020 will be a year of transition. We expect to grow the top line between DKK 1.9 billion to DKK 2.1 billion, EBITDA will be down compared to 2021, but that has a starting point that second half was so slow. We have -- we begin to see things picking up again, so that's positive. But of course, let's see what happens on raw materials and so on. But demand is good. Margin starts to improve and the organization are pushing hard for cost compensation and also changing the mix. So from Fibertex Nonwovens or from the 2 Fibertex companies, I'd just like to show this slide here where you could see 3 of the most important -- sorry, I have to go back. Yes, where you could see the 3 most important raw materials in Fibertex, how they have developed throughout '21. Most important 1 is the 1 on the left side as the polypropylene or PP, where we use more than 100,000 tonnes. Just look at the way prices have increased in 2021, very difficult to handle and work with average now EUR 1,800, EUR 1,700 per tonne. And also viscose and Virgin PET has really developed a lot. So it takes a lot for an organization to handle that. You continuously need to work with adjusting your prices. Normally, we adjust prices Fibertex personal care every quarter, in Fibertex Nonwovens more or less every year. Here, you have maybe been out adjusting prices 10, 15x, continues to work on that. You need to rethink your products, you need to redesign how can you do to get around these prices. So it has been a big challenge, but good that we have a lot of experience in the companies to handle this. From that, moving on to GPV and now on to the 3 companies that have really performed very well or what we call our 3 industrial companies has had very, very strong years GPV, built on a stronger demand across all their segments, growing 11% to DKK 3.2 billion. And in fact, getting out of 2021 with an all-time high backlog even orders covering well into 2023. Strong profitability, EBITDA up 27% to DKK 342 million. We had a positive currency effect on EBITDA of around DKK 15 million, but still strong profitability also came out of high efficiency and capacity utilization. We are still -- GPV is still improving a lot. They have a very strong pipeline of new customers going well into the coming years. One thing we decided to do in GPV when this difficult component situation, freight situation started, we decided we need to build inventory on what we call critical components. So we have increased inventories in GPV with around DKK 600 million. Strategic decision came out of the difficult supply situation. And I think as we speak, we are very positive that we have these inventories because we are still able to supply customers around the globe. We are having needed capacity increases ongoing, extending our 2 signature factories in Thailand and Sri Lanka, expected to be ready in 2020 -- '22, beginning '23. So with that, I can say, GPV expect to continue strong momentum in '22, top line between DKK 3.2 billion to DKK 3.4 billion EBITDA, DKK 300 million to DKK 340 million. Of course, supply situation component prices and so on is difficult to forecast, but we are still positive on the development. From there to HydraSpecma showed very, very good development. Global OEMs bounced back, all the global OEM customers in 2020 were really suffering but in 2021, flying high. Growth 17% to DKK 2.3 billion and very high activity level across all segments in HydraSpecma. And also here, we have an all-time high backlog. So that's very positive. Profitability was strong. EBITDA up 36% to DKK 286 million. Here, we also have to say we had an extraordinary income of DKK 17 million, but again, still good and solid profitability due to high productivity across all facilities in HydraSpecma and they have also had a lot of increasing prices, et cetera, and they were partly offset by strong pricing excellence strategy throughout the company. We are expanding facilities throughout the company. We are growing with our customers. We are building new in Asia. We are building new in Poland, and we are exercising what we call a best cost country strategy, looking at where do we have the best cost opportunities and utilizing that. HydraSpecma will build on a solid backlog, expect top line to be between DKK 2.3 billion and DKK 2.5 billion, EBITDA around DKK 260 million to DKK 290 million as we speak. Moving on to the last, but not the least, company in our portfolio. Borg had a very busy year with both acquisitions and integrations top line, we're growing 57% to DKK 1.36 billion, Borg came out from a very difficult 2020 where they had months where the sales were very low, but Borg regained 18% organic growth on the reman products, reman strategy strengthening. DKK 345 million of the growth came from the acquired companies TMI in Spain and the new SBS. Profitability were improved in general EBITDA plus 50% to DKK 162 million, of course, also some effects from acquisitions. But as I said, the reman business doing very well. Efficiency improved throughout the entire company. We took over SBS is a new activity in -- from July 2022, SBS is a trading company with their own brands, 2 brands, NK and Euro-Breaks, having 160 employees, strong positions in Germany, even in Russia. And in France, company, we extend -- we have intention to build on and to develop brands with. Borg expect to continue to grow, top line DKK 1.6 billion to DKK 1.8 billion and EBITDA around DKK 170 million to DKK 200 million. So we really have now moved Borg in the right direction and can see a DKK 2 billion company not too far away. So with that very short dive into each of our portfolio companies. Let me just elaborate a little bit on our 2022 guidance. And I think as a starting point, we should say we expect that really 2022 to be a very good year, high activity. We have a solid backlog. A lot of things with our customers were going on. We have added new capacity. We see opportunities, but we did not take into consideration the tragical development in Ukraine and it is not factored into the actual guidance but just to lift a little bit on uncertainty, I could say, of course, uncertainty increased, but our activities in Russia, Ukraine, they are not that big. It's around 1.4% of our top line. We do not have any production facilities in neither Russia nor Ukraine. But of course, we have sales of around DKK 350 million, mainly coming from BioMar Denmark and from the newly acquired SBS. And we have also feet on the ground in Russia, a small organization over there. But this guidance here does not include any kind of uncertainty from that situation there. So we still guide growth, top line DKK 25.5 billion to DKK 27.5 billion, EBITDA having a more broader -- a wider range, DKK 2.15 billion to DKK 2.4 billion. And as I said, when we looked into the year, a month ago, we were very optimistic on this guidance. We are still positive on the guidance. But of course, we also have to be realistic on what's going on around the world. We have a general global concern on input costs, energy, freight and so on, and we are looking into that. But we have not seen anything that changed our present outlook. So with that, just last slide, also saying that, of course, we have a lot of priorities at group and company level. We work with a clear road map on how to continue to be profitable and create growth within the group. We have 4 priorities we expect to deliver on, and we have put a lot of activities around. We want to improve profitability in general, we have pricing excellence teams working in to secure that we can pass on all increasing costs. We have expanded capacity also means that we need to go in the market and get sufficient volume in the long run. We have to balance our net working capital, but also to understand the market dynamics. And then we -- as a new thing, not a new thing, we have worked on it a lot, but we have put ESG on as a strategic lever for Schouw and we are pushing hard on creating value and at the same time, being a very responsible company. So with that note, I think I will just put on the next one and then open up for Q&A. Thank you. Claus Almer?

Yes, I will start out with a few questions and I will wait for the most obvious question gets for later.

Yes, I know what it is.

So the first will be for your 2025 targets. First of all, why did you not decide to single out the M&A impact? It is slightly difficult to use your '25 targets if that includes an M&A impact, which we don't know what it is. That will be the first question.

Yes. Claus, thank you for that. And I agree with you. When we say including M&A, as you also know, we have small M&As going on every year. As you saw this year, we had the TMI, SBS with Borg and so on. So most of the expected growth will be organic. That's what we expect. We have also set in capacity investments and so on to meet that target. So we do not, in this target foresee any major acquisitions. So it's more, can I say like that business as usual M&A, small bolt-ons easy to integrate into each of our companies. So that's with that in mind, Claus.

Okay. And then so now you said in new direction or see a direction for 2025. It's a little bit difficult for the outside to figure out. But have you also -- does this mean a case of your strategy for the individual divisions? Or is more as we know Schouw?

No. It's also -- of course, it's built on the back of what we see from each of our companies. So we run a strategy exercise every year and update forecast and so on, and then we just had our strategies seminar here in January and then looking into our 2025 strategy, we call it Build Future, and we could see this is where we expect to come and we thought it was time also to disclose to the market that we are a company that intend to grow. We are ambitious, build on the companies we are having in our portfolio now and not including very big acquisitions. But of course, each company, they have had a strong strategy process and have plans for how to deliver.

But -- okay. But now you're making all this cash flow, and we've been discussing this in the past. So why don't you be more precise or more ambitious on your M&A journey?

No. But I think it's -- you're right, asking that question, but you also know, Claus, it is difficult to be specific to say, okay, now we are going to make acquisitions of this and this size and so on because do we find the right companies, do we -- could we find them at an attractive pricing and so on. But let me be very clear and say we also have intention of being acquisitive also if something very attractive and big comes up, as I think I started saying we have a lot of firing power and we intend to use that to create value also in future. So yes.

Okay. And then jumping to BioMar. You mentioned, Jens, that cost inflation -- or input cost inflation, freight costs and so on, was difficult to pass through to the client. Normally you have a sort of a pass-through structure. And volume is good. Is this -- and of course, the situation in Chile is maybe a little bit not the ordinary as we know about BioMar, but can you try to add some color to the pricing discipline in the market and for you? And what should we think about cost inflation being passed through to clients?

Yes. There are several things, and you were elaborating right on that. And that -- but one thing is main cost contracts or cost plus and pass-on mechanisms is within the salmon segment. The other segments are much more fragmented. We don't have the same ability just to go out and say, okay, cost increased that much, so you have to do it. So it's -- it goes for salmon. But I think also we built on industry kind of contract structure saying that it's only raw materials you can do it on. But we have had a lot of other costs exploding as energy, transportation and so on. And that's not built into the contracts in the same way, also meaning that we are rethinking how should we try to build contract structures in future. On the other hand, also, we have had some raw material that all by a sudden became scarce, and we couldn't get them. And then we had to reformulate and do a lot of things. So it has really been very difficult. But direct raw materials cost to large salmon customers, you can pass on within a month or things like that, how it's said in the contract. But energy transport and so on, it doesn't go in the same way. So we have to look into how do we see contract structures in future and something we are rethinking for the time.

Okay. And then just the final question, and that goes to net working capital, Jens, a old good topic. And of course, I acknowledge that revenue growth means higher net working capital and also the situation within PDP. But still, I think it was a high level you ended the year. So maybe to ask in another way, how should we think about a level when you are leaving 2022?

Yes. No, but I think we should be very honest and open. We have -- we said, okay, it's a strategic decision. But I have to say myself also I got surprised that it had to increase that much. And it happened very fast also because of price increases and things like that. So I cannot stand here and say that was 100% as we expected it. But we took a strategic decision saying, we need to build inventories and so on. But our net working capital is at the high end. And I tell you, it's something we have been discussing a lot around the table here. But you should expect it to decrease in 2022. We are putting a lot of efforts into it also because when you have strategic build inventories, you need to be sure also to -- you have the inventories at the right prices, what happens if market suddenly starts to deteriorate and do we then sit with too high component prices and so on. So it's something that is very high at the agenda. But we have been calm in 2021 because it was necessary, but believe me, we are focusing it a lot. And I have been a little bit surprised, I would lie, if I didn't set that.

So you come down in absolute or as a percentage of revenue?

Now, we will -- we work on a percentage of revenue, but we also look into inventory days, debtor days, things like that. So there's a lot of components that we play on. And I think also we have -- we took also a decision to say that some of our customers, we need to protect and help some of our customers, meaning we are extending their credit base if we think there are security behind it. And I think let's say that the situation gets difficult in 2022, then we intend to use that facility again because we can.

Sure. But you're thinking in a normal situation is as it is today, would -- will your net work capital in absolute terms be lower at the same level or higher when we are leaving this year?

In absolute terms, I could put it that way, depending, of course, on the activity level, if that increases a lot, but in percentage, we will see it down, and we will also see inventory days, et cetera, coming down absolutely.

Okay. I will -- I have to just use that.

Was it Klaus Kehl that was on? Yes, Klaus.

Yes, a question related to your guidance. Obviously, you stick to your guidance for '22, but you also say that risk has increased following what is going on in Ukraine. And I can fully understand that. And I guess it's not your direct exposure to Russia that I should be most concerned about. What I'm more concerned about is your input costs, your energy cost, everything that goes into your production. So generally speaking, are you hedged for '22? Or are you buying in the spot market? And what kind of -- sorry, what kind of impact could it have if, for instance, gas prices stays at current levels for the next, let's say, 6 months?

Yes. We have factored the high gas prices, et cetera, into our guidance, and we are headed at certain levels. So we have some hedging. Hello, somebody is -- Okay. Klaus, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Sorry, there was a lot of noise. Somebody unmuted and had a launch going on or something, but. No, Klaus, we have hedged some of our energy, of course, also for a longer time and so on. And we have factored rather high energy costs into our guidance. But of course, if things really goes bananas we have to readjust. And we are following the situation, I would say, on a weekly basis. And if things really happens, we have to come out to the market again and clarify how we see things and so on. But for the time being, we still think that we are covered.

And that's also including what has been going on for the last weak?

Yes, you could say, of course, we see some peaks and we have not taken what's going on the last week into our guidance. I said that also. We have -- it has been impossible to evaluate still, but we are looking at it yes, as I say, on a weekly basis, we have a follow-up meeting in our Executive Committee at 4:00 today, where we are looking into where are we, what happens and so on. And we need to do that every week now. As we can see on the screen, there are no more questions. So thanks to everyone for listening. Also thanks for the questions. And I wish all of you a very good weekend in spite of these dark times here. Thank you very much.