B&S Group S.A. (BSGR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello. Welcome to the B&S Half Year 2025 Results Conference Call, hosted by Peter van Mierlo, CEO; and Mark Faasse, CFO. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand the call over to Peter van Mierlo. Mr. van Mierlo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Elba. Welcome to our analyst call around the half year results 2025. We will speak to the numbers, a bit of the strategy execution. I'll do the first bit, and Mark will go into the details of the financials, and then there will be room for questions. If we move to the next slide, in terms of progress on strategy, I do believe we made quite some progress around autonomous and accountable segments. Quality within the segments in terms of managerial style and managerial performance is definitely improving. This is also shown by the operational excellence results, especially in the segments of Food and Travel Retail. I do believe that we made progress and which can also be seen from the results. In terms of culture and governance, we've been working the last 2, 3 years hard on improving the culture and governance for the size of this company. We launched a way of working within the organization on a global level. We executed on the HR agenda bringing the values to life, which we believe is important, especially in doing the interactions with our suppliers and our clients. And last half year, as can be seen from the numbers, I must say that we did improve on our working capital management across all segments, and we will go into the details a little bit later in the call. In terms of sustainability, we remain focused and committed to our CSRD program. The internal reporting will definitely be on the same level as it used to be. It is a bit uncertain how legislation around the reporting on sustainability affairs will evolve, and we will keep track with what is normal in the market. If we go to the next slide, we'll give you the first set of numbers. So turnover, strong performance, 4.5% increase. EBITDA margin lowered a bit due to geopolitical tensions, due to the tariff discussion in the second quarter, also partly because of the U.S. dollar foreign exchange. And especially in the U.S., we robotized our warehouses, leading to much increased temporary staff that we needed to hire to make sure that operations went smoothly also during the robotizing of the warehouses. This will lead obviously to better performance as from Q2, Q3, Q4. Cash flow, yes, if you compare our first half year '25 with a positive cash flow from operations of almost EUR 10 million. And last year, there was a huge inventory buildup due to market developments. And this led last year in the first half year to a negative operating cash flow of EUR 44 million. So which leads you to an improvement of almost EUR 55 million cash. This translates into lower inventory days, lower debtor days, creditors also lowered. And if you put that all together, it leads you to a return on invested working capital of 25%, which is definitely in line with our targets. Turnover growth per operating segment, let me do that on the next slides. There's a small effect of acquisitive growth around Tastemakers and the government and defense business contracts that we acquired last year. If we go to the next slide, and we go to Beauty. Beauty had definitely a strong performance in terms of turnover. Turnover grew in all 3 parts of the business, so B2C, B2B, as well as B2R. The first 2 grew the strongest in the first half year. This was also supported by increased product availability on a global level and as a result, strong sourcing possibilities. Margins, however, were pressured due to the geopolitical developments and also the uncertainties around import tariffs. Now, today, the import tariffs apparently seem to be agreed upon with 15%. So that would help to stabilize the market. But in the last couple of months, it was uncertain what would actually happen and especially that uncertainty doesn't help the business. The higher staff costs, I've already commented upon due to the rollouts, the introduction of robots in different warehouses in the U.S. Food. If we go to Food, then operational excellence definitely has helped there, focus on cost control, focus on working capital management, client selectivity, strong performance in terms of growth, 8%, a little bit over 8% growth, primarily driven by the strong performance in the subsegments, Duty Free and Maritime. Maritime also, because of the cruise businesses that we are focused upon. Export markets recorded marginal growth that had also to do with the market conditions and the increased product availability. Good performance, strong performance and definitely operational excellence is paying off. If we go to the next segment, then we go to Liquors. Liquors, as you know, as we've communicated with the market in April, we divested nonstrategic businesses. This is the main result why turnover actually decreased compared to the first half year 2024. But you can also -- it also shows you that this is definitely nonstrategic business if you look at the development of EBITDA, which has improved from minus almost EUR 1 million last year to almost EUR 5 million, EUR 4.5 million EBITDA positive in 2021. If we look at Personal Care, strong market performance in terms of turnover growth, another 11 -- north of 11% growth percentage. Gross profit declined, and that has everything to do with the market developments, logistical costs that we also referred to in previous analyst calls, leading to an EBITDA, which is slightly lower than in 2024. Last but not least, if I go to Travel Retail, we see a turnover decline, which is almost completely or mainly the result of the operational excellence program that was introduced in 2023, 2024. It has everything to do with the closure of shops that were economically less interesting than the others, which led to an 8% decrease in turnover. And EBITDA, you need to bear in mind that in 2024, we had a windfall one-off profit due to the sale of the building of EUR 2.1 million. So if you look at those numbers from taking that into account, then we move EBITDA from minus EUR 1 million EBITDA to profitable EBITDA. Closure of shops was not the only part of the operational excellence program. It was definitely also focusing on cost, focusing on working capital and focusing on the shops staff and how to improve performance in terms of sales and how we treat our clients in the shops. This leads to the analysis of the financial results, and I'm sure that Mark will take you through those slides in detail.

Definitely. I'll try to give the go, Peter. Thank you. So yes, I will now guide you in some more detail through our key financials. And as a starter, please take into account that as a result of the sale of the Lagaay Medical Group, the financials of the Health segment have been excluded from both the half year 2025, actually the Q1 2025, as well as the half year 2024 financials. So overall, as indicated, our turnover increased by 4.5%. Gross profit increased by 4.2%. And as a percentage on turnover, reported gross profit was 14.9% as compared to the indicated 15% over half year '24. Reported turnover growth during the second quarter was lower as compared to the first quarter, although it should be noted that the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate impacted the Q2 reported turnover. At constant currency, the second quarter turnover grew at 5%, slightly above the Q1 turnover growth. And as Peter already indicated, most of our business lines are being impacted directly and indirectly by the global political tensions. During the first 6 months '25, we incurred approximately EUR 2.1 million one-off advisory costs, which we show in the next slide to give you a better understanding, yes, the both reported and the normalized column. Secondly, so we indicated Lagaay Medical Group, representing the Health segment was sold early Q2 for approximately USD 64 million and is classified as a discontinued operation. In addition to the transaction result, I must say, the Q1 2025 earnings of the Health segment, as well as the earnings for the first 6 months of '24 are excluded from the reported P&L as presented as profit from discontinued operations based on IFRS. Additionally, as indicated briefly before as well, we divested the nonstrategic business activity within the Liquor segment. And in relation to this transaction, we acquired the remaining 5% stake in B&S HTG B.V. As this transaction is not classified and presented as discontinued operations based on IFRS, we have normalized this in our key figures 2024 for the divested Liquor business in order to better understand and follow the underlying trends of the remaining business. As a reminder, in half year 2024, we also reported, Peter just mentioned it, a one-off windfall in the Retail segment stemming from the sale of the former retail office building located in Hoofddorp, which resulted in a profit of EUR 2.1 million. And as said, in order to better understand and follow the underlying trends, we have normalized for the impact of these items in these normalized columns shown here. As such, it can be noted that the normalized EBITDA margin decreased from 5.1% last year to 4.4% during the first half 2025. Staff costs increased by 9.1% to EUR 88 million, and staff costs grew on the back of market conditions, investment in our workforce and increased temporary staff, especially for our warehouses, predominantly in the first quarter. Other operating expenses increased by EUR 2.3 million to EUR 34.3 million in total. But again, please bear in mind that just indicated that approximately EUR 2.1 million stems from indicated one-off advisory costs. As such, all in all, operating expenses are more or less in line with the same period last year. Normalized EBITDA came in at EUR 49.5 million compared to the EUR 52.3 million last year. Depreciation and amortization for the period amounted to EUR 17.6 million, which is more or less in line with both first half of 2024 and the second half of 2024. Normalized net profit from continuing operations amounts to EUR 60 million. The return on invested working capital came in normalized at 26.5% and as such, in line with our targeted 25%. I will zoom in on the working capital development in a minute. Net profit, including from profit from discontinued operations amounted to EUR 14.7 million, of which net profit attributable to the shareholder of B&S Group amounted to EUR 31.3 million. Our net debt/EBITDA leverage ratio stands at 3.1x, and our interest coverage ratio came in at 4.7 over the period, as such, both within our covenant. Then let me briefly touch on the Q2 turnover development from continuing operations. So all in all, the second quarter turnover increased by 3.4%. Turnover growth during Q2 was driven by the performance across segments. As indicated earlier, the foreign exchange development of the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate increasingly impacted reported turnover during the second quarter, a negative impact of approximately EUR 9 million or 1.6% in growth on reported turnover. All in all, the first 6 months of '25, turnover grew from continuing operations by 4.5% to EUR 1.1 billion. Then let me zoom in on our net debt development. Our net debt position increased from approximately EUR 380 million as per year-end '24 to EUR 389 million as per the end of Q2. As compared to the second quarter last year, net debt decreased from EUR 425 million to EUR 389 million. The net cash from operation activities amounted to a positive cash flow of EUR 9.5 million as compared to the cash outflow of EUR 44 million during the first 6 months of '24. This operational cash flow improvement mainly stem from the working capital movement. Working capital decreased during the first half of 2025, whereas during the first 6 months of '24, as historically also factual for the previous years, the first 6 months are marked by a buildup of the working capital. Then the investing cash flows for acquisition and other investments amounted to EUR 7.1 million as compared to the EUR 56 million as per the first 6 months of 2024. These investing cash flows for the first 6 months are related to the following items. So first of all, we paid the second tranche of the 24% acquisition in Personal Care, which we acquired in January 2024, which payment amounted to EUR 23.5 million. Secondly, we also acquired the remaining 5% stake in Personal Care for the amount of EUR 12.8 million, of which EUR 6.4 million was paid at closing in January. Furthermore, we also acquired the remaining 5% stake in B&S HTG B.V. in connection to the divested nonstrategic business activity within the Liquor segment. Additionally, we divested the 100% in Lagaay Medical Group, known as the Health segment, in which B&S had a 70% stake for the amount of USD 46 million -- USD 45.9 million, of which USD 32.4 million was paid in cash and the USD 13.5 million we received as a deferred payment later on. The remaining other investments concern regular CapEx, amongst others, the building of the new warehouse in [ Delfzijl ] and improvement of our warehouses and shops. Dividend payout to minority shareholders mainly concerns the minority interest share of the Lagaay Medical Group transaction proceeds. hen with the buyout of the remaining 5% Personal Care in January and the remaining 5% of B&S HTG early Q2, here we show for your convenience the remaining minority interest as per today in the sheet to give you some guidance as compared to prior periods in which we gradually decreased the minority interest, which were applicable within the group. Then working capital. So last but not least, let me zoom in on the working capital development. So working capital and working capital in days both decreased when compared to the same period last year, as well as compared to the working capital for year-end 2024. But it should be noted that approximately EUR 34 million out of the EUR 54 million decrease of working capital stem from the divestment of the nonstrategic Liquor business and the Health segment. The remaining EUR 20 million decrease has been realized within our continuing operations. Inventory decreased by approximately EUR 55 million as compared to Q2 last year and stood at EUR 454 million. Trade receivables decreased by 11% to EUR 176 million, and as such, average days sales outstanding decreased to 26 days. All in all, the working capital decreased to EUR 474 million, the combined effect of the above. That would end the financials. And Peter, let me ask you to [ administer ] the outlook.

Yes, certainly. Thank you. Yes, in terms of outlook, we do believe that we will -- the results will continue to be helped through the diversification across the different segments as shown also in the last 3 years. We do believe that staff cost is going to continue to grow much in line with what we've seen in the first half of the year. We expect top line to grow at approximately 5%, obviously, [indiscernible] parts of the businesses to normalize this [ art ]. And normalized EBITDA, we believe is going to be in line with the financial objectives as we've communicated those into the market, but it must be definitely said that it will end or land in the lower half of that range. That's our current expectation. So that is around the outlook. And now, I believe, Elba, we're going to open up for questions that. [Operator Instructions]

[Operator Instructions] It appears we have no questions at this moment. So I will hand the call back over to Mr. van Mierlo for any closing remarks.

Well, that's super. And thank you for listening in. And I wish you a very, very nice Tuesday. And maybe if you go on holidays, have a fantastic holiday period. And we'll leave at that. So thank you very, very much.