Banijay Group N.V. ($BNJ)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Banijay Group Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Louise Racine, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to Banijay Group's Q1 2026 Results Webcast. This is Louise Racine, Head of Investor Relations. Before we start, let me draw your attention to the disclaimer on Slide 2. I also want to remind you that this presentation is now available on the company's website, and a recording of this call will be accessible in the coming days. Your speakers today are Francois Riahi, our CEO; and Sophie Kurinckx-Leclerc, our CFO. First, Francois will present our key financial and business highlights for the quarter. Sophie will then cover the results in more detail before Francois provide some concluding remarks. We will then open the call for questions. Over to you, Francois.

Thank you, Louise, and good evening, everyone. Our Q1 results represent a very solid start to the year with 9% revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth of 5.4%. This performance is perfectly in line with our guidance and once again demonstrates the strength and diversification of our business model. Our sports betting and gaming business delivered 20% growth in unique active players and 17% revenue growth despite adverse sports results. And there is more to come, thanks to an exciting summer of Sport ahead. In Entertainment & Life, we saw mid-single-digit revenue growth overall. This figure reflects very strong activity growth in live activities, some lumpy revenues in distribution and seasonality in content production. With this solid start to the year and an exciting pipeline of major sporting events, content deliveries and life developments ahead in 2026, we are very confident in actually achieving our full year guidance. We enjoy also good momentum in executing across our M&A activity. Our acquisition of Tipico Group was completed at the end of April and our combination with All3Media is well on track with closing expecting during summer. A brief look at key figures for the quarter. Revenue reached over EUR 1.1 billion up 9% at constant currencies and current scope. This translated into adjusted EBITDA of just under EUR 200 million, up 5.4%. Restated from the betting tax increase following the new French regulation implemented in July 2025, adjusted EBITDA growth would have been over 11% above top line growth showing continuous cost optimization. Adjusted net income increased by just over 18% year-on-year, while adjusted free cash flow generation stood at EUR 161 million, resulting in a high level of cash conversion of 82% in line with guidance. Our leverage stood at 2.7x, stable compared to the end of 2025. Let's move to business highlights. Now starting with Sports Betting and Gaming. Once again, the key highlight this quarter was our continued strong business momentum with an impressive 20% growth in unique active players, the most important KPI when it comes to the commercial development of sports betting. This player growth came from all activities and results from our successful developments across geographies. Our new initiatives such as the poker platform in France and the launch of an online casino in Cote d'Ivoire are paying off, showing our capabilities to expand our activities and seize all opportunities offered by regulation across our markets. In Sportsbook, the double-digit UAP growth was driven by strong player interest during national and international competitions including, of course, the junction in multiplex at the end of January. Despite adverse sports results this quarter, impacted by FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and unfavorable outcomes during the Champions League, this UP growth translated into a strong revenue performance over the quarter. Looking ahead, the 2026 FIFA World Cup represents a major catalyst for the business with an expanded format featuring more teams, more games and a longer competition expected to drive significant player acquisition and engagement. It is widely expected to be the biggest sports betting event in history and we are extremely well positioned to take advantage of this, thanks to our leading positions in 6 markets and our unrivaled technology platform. Having now closed the typical transaction at the end of April, integration and consolidation are well underway, and I look forward to updating you on progress. Let's move now to entertainment, where we continue to leverage our scale and strong creative capabilities. We are developing in all the key strategic growth areas we set out at our Capital Markets Day last year and in the strategic update in March. The first is further developing our English language footprint to capture opportunities in a fast-growing market, driven by global streamers. To give you some examples, the highly successful reboot of the Fear Factor franchise, House of Fear, illustrates how we continue to create fresh content based on existing IP. On the scripted side, season free of NCIS Sydney had a stellar launch in the U.S., while Half Man, a new scripted show from the offer of Baby Reindeer, premiered successfully on BBC One and HBO Max where it ranked in the top 10 TV shows in 48 countries. Our combination with All3Media will only enhance, of course, our growth in this area going forward. The second growth pillar is the continued expansion of our digital footprint as we capture growth and monetization opportunities across social channels where viewers are increasingly demanding longer form and quality content. From 2027, we will launch a new season of the heat, food and travel format, Somebody Feed Phil on YouTube following its move from Netflix. We also acquired global format right to Stop the Train, the high-concept adventure game created by French Youtuber, Squeezie. We will help scale it globally for multi-platform audiences illustrating our ability to attract digital talent and leverage our reach and visibility. And finally, in the growing sportainment segment, Q1 saw new launches around fresh IP. Scripted drama Motorvalley had a strong debut on Netflix with over 2.2 million viewers. That's in Italy. Football is island, a new concept commissioned by RTL began streaming in March and had a strong start in the Netherlands. We also launched ShowdownTV in Germany, a new streaming and digital media platform, combining live curtailment, creator led formats and multiplatform distribution. As you can see, a lot is happening everywhere on our footprint on all our strategic direction, which is very promising. This quarter, the revenues from production are down but they are not reflective of what we expect for the full year with strong deliveries coming at the end of the year. Finally, Lived Experiences, which had an exceptional start to the year. We delivered one of the highlights of the quarter, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony, which I'm sure many of you watched and simultaneously across 4 separate venues, it received a massive EUR 2.5 billion view worldwide and was widely recognized as the most memorable winter opening ceremony ever. It was a clear showcase of the creative ambition and capabilities of our Live business, which will once again demonstrate its creativity during the summer with the World Cup. The Black Mirror experience, which we launched in Montreal at the end of May before opening in Madrid in June is a key milestone in our life strategy. This is unlocking synergies and monetization opportunities across our unmatched IP catalog. LUMINISCENCE also continues to perform exceptionally. The show is now live in 8 countries across Europe and Americas, following rapid growth last year and sold well over 0.5 million tickets in this quarter alone. These achievements demonstrate the strong execution of our strategy and are quite satisfactory when you think that we launched this new activity only 3 years ago, in just a few years, we are establishing ourselves quarter after quarter as an important player in the live entertainment business, which in this quarter accounted for almost 20% of our entertainment and live revenues. That's all for me for now. I'll be back at the end with some closing remarks before we open the line for questions. Over to you, Sophie.

Thank you, Francois. So let's start with group revenue up 9% at constant exchange rates and current scope fueled by both business. This breaks down to over 17% for Sports Betting and Gaming and 4.5% for Banijay Entertainment in life. Group adjusted EBITDA increased by 5.4% at constant exchange rates and current scope despite the beating tax increase in France. Excluding this impact, adjusted EBITDA would have grown 11.3%. External and personnel expense increased by 5.2% restated for the change in betting tax regulation in France of EUR 11 million, therefore, in line with the revenue trend. Excluding this headwind, the rise in earnings translated into an expansion of the adjusted EBITDA margin to 18.1% from 17.6% in Q1 2025 demonstrating our constant focus on cost optimization. Moving to adjusted net income next, which was at 18.1% in reported figures. This was a very good result, mainly fueled by adjusted EBITDA growth and the positive impact of the implementation of the IP box tax regime in sports betting and gaming. Excluding an exceptional charge in Q1 2026 of EUR 25 million, a large part of this being noncash IP declined as anticipated and in line with our soft guidance. As highlighted in the strategic update in March, we are expecting a decline in LTIP charges in the midterm to reach on average 4% of adjusted EBITDA over the '26-'29 period, excluding an exceptional charge of around EUR 100 million in 2026 related to the evolution of Banijay Gaming Top Management LP. Moving to results by business, starting with sports betting and gaming. This quarter, we saw strong revenue growth of 17.3% at constant exchange rates and current scope despite adverse sports results. Sportsbook revenues were up 14.4%, supported by strong double-digit growth in unique active players. Casino, Poker and Turf revenues were up over 27% and reflecting the success of recent business developments. These include the continued strong performance of the proprietary online poker platform launched at the end of 2024 in France and the ramp-up of the online casino in Cote d'Ivoire since its launch in early 2025. Looking at earnings now. Sports betting and gaming adjusted EBITDA was down 5.4% on a reported basis impacted by the expected headwind related to the betting tax increase in France. Excluding this effect and at constant scope, the growth would stand at positive 7.1%. The adjusted EBITDA margin reflects the increase in betting tax in France and adverse sports results, which had an amplified effect in Portugal and Poland, where taxes are computed on turnover. Adjusted free cash flow conversion remained very high at over 90%. The change in working capital is mainly explained by betting tax cutoff effects while the reduction in income tax paid is due to the positive impact of the LP Box tax regime. Moving now to Entertainment & Life. Revenues were solid, up 4.5% at constant exchange rates and current scope. Looking at revenue by activity. The decline in content production reflects phasing effects with a strong volume of deliveries expected towards the end of the year. Distribution revenues were up 20% year-on-year, thanks to a format sale. The standout performance this quarter was, of course, life with revenues almost doubling year-on-year. As highlighted by Francois, this was driven by the strong performance of Balich, mainly thanks to the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony but there was also a strong contribution from LOTCHI with LUMINISCENCE now live in 8 countries and continuing to grow. Looking at earnings and cash flow now for the business line. Adjusted EBITDA was up 15.6% at constant exchange rates and current scope with margin improving 140 basis points to 14.2%. This improvement reflects a positive contribution from the Distribution segment as well as the continuous cost optimization. Lower CapEx reflects a high comparison basis with Q1 2025, where there were some significant IP investments and distribution advances. This leads to an adjusted free cash flow conversion at almost 75%. The change in working capital reflects cut-off effects, including phasing in payments at Balich Wonder studio. These temporarily impacted the adjusted operating free cash flow, which is expected to normalize throughout the year. From a cash flow perspective, group adjusted free cash flow reached EUR 161 million, resulting in a cash conversion rate after CapEx and miss payments of 82% fully in line with our full year guidance. The change in working capital requirements of a negative EUR 103 million in Q1 2026 came mostly from cutoff effects, notably and as explained in Life business. This led to an adjusted operating free cash flow of EUR 52 million. The group's net debt stands at EUR 2.59 billion, representing a leverage of 2.7x, which is stable compared to year-end 2025. We continue to have a strong liquidity position with a positive cash balance of EUR 424 million and EUR 280 million of undrawn secured credit lines. That's all for me. I will now hand back to Francois for some concluding remarks.

Thank you, Sophie. First, let me say that we confirm our guidance for this year of mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA growth, both stand-alone and pro forma of the Tipico Group and All3Media transactions both of which would have happened in the year. Excluding the impact of the tax increase in France last year, this would have been at mid to high single digits, which is our midterm guidance. Adjusted free cash flow conversion guidance of circa 80% is also confirmed, demonstrating the continued success of our highly cash generative business model. So in a nutshell, a very solid start to the year for the group with strong double-digit revenue growth in sports betting and gaming and remarkable performance in Life also stronger EBITDA growth in content production. We are excited by what is to come in the remainder of 2026 with the FIFA World Cup expected to be a meaningful catalyst for our sports betting and gaming, but also our life business. while the production and distribution trends will normalize by year-end. We are also executing on our M&A strategy with the road map for the Tipico and All3Media transactions fully on track. As you can see, we are building the next chapter of our journey with strong milestones in diversification and digital, leveraging our strong assets just as we did a few years ago with Life, which is now bearing fruit. That's all from me. Thank you for your attention, and we are at your disposal with Sophie for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Annick Maas from Bernstein.

The first one is on Tipico. I think you've just closed the deal. So I guess you have had access now to some other documentation that you didn't see before. Could you just tell us what has positively surprised to what has negatively surprised you since. The second one is on Live. Clearly, done super well helped among others due to Milano. So can you maybe tell us what Live did if you were to exclude the Milano event? And then production, I understand this is very much a timing effect. Can you maybe just dissect and tell us how much of this is timing and how much is maybe cyclical issues that the sector is experiencing more generally?

Thank you, Annick. On the Tipico, I don't know exactly what you referred to in terms of documentation. We did our due diligence during the -- before signing the deal. What we can see today, we are very, very happy about the cultural fit between Betclic and Tipico. We held our first joint seminar in Paris with all the teams, and it was -- it happened, it was the same day than PSG [indiscernible] Munich. So it was a good opportunity to spend some time together. And we are very excited about the integration. I think all we are all excited both at Betclic and at Tipico and we see more and more upside. So definitely no bad surprise. We learn a little bit more about the retail business, of course, which is new to us. So that's something we are, of course, looking carefully because that's -- we think that we are not so much used. So it's also an important add-on of the Tipico acquisition, but no real surprise, but we are, I think, progressing very well and very confident on the integration. On the live, I don't know, Sophie, if you want to give some figures without Milano Cortina, but clearly, it will be a strong growth even without Milano Cortina. Milano Cortina is, of course, lumpy source of revenue, but it's not sufficient to justify the full growth. Now we see growth everywhere. As mentioned, LUMINESCENCE is also an important source of growth. We also had some good development on the live on the Star Academy in France, for example, with the 2. So multiple sources of revenues. Clearly, the Milano Cortina is an important one, but it's it would remain a very, very strong growth even without Milano Cortina. On your third question, you want to answer, Sophie, on the...

On the timing effects of the production.

Yes.

So in fact, this -- well, we always had a seasonality in the production delivery -- and you know that we always expect more deliveries of shows by the -- at the end of the year. But today -- well, this year, we see a stronger seasonality than in the past years. Some shows that were delivered in Q1 2025 has been delayed or in production or partly delivered in Q1 2026 which explain this. But clearly, we remain on track to deliver the guidance that we gave on this business. So it will normalize throughout the year.

Your next question comes from the line of Davide AmorimMoran from Berenberg.

Just 2 questions for me, please. You delivered a very strong part of the year on Banijay gaming despite facing tough comps of the year in Q1 2025. Could you give us a bit more detail on which country performed the best during Q1. And also [indiscernible] Banijay Gaming delivered 17% growth at the constant currency without any World Cup impact. Should we, therefore, expect growth to come well above this level in Q2 and Q3? And secondly, could you also give us a bit more color on Tipico performance in the first quarter, please?

Thank you, Davide. Sophie, you want to go on?

So on the revenue by country, we don't provide figures by country. What we can see is that we see the same kind of growth in all of them. But I will not comment more on the detail by country. Which growth we have to expect. So during the first quarter, the growth in new AP was a growth 20%. Of course, as you know, the World Cup is always a very significant event for this business in terms of UA. In terms of revenue to be expected, it's quite difficult to say. The main challenge of these big events is really to attract and retain unique active player. The results can be volatile. So that's why we will not commit on higher growth, thanks to this work up. What we can say is that we are very confident to deliver our guidance by the end of the year on this business. On the Tipico performance, of course, as you could see, and this is also the same case for our competitors, of course, they have been impacted by the adverse sports results as we have been impacted also during this first quarter. So they know exactly on the same trends that we knew during this quarter. So we -- well, this is, in fact, very similar to what we knew.

There's no surprise on Q1 of Tipico.

Your next question comes from the line of Ramin Narula from Principal Asset Management.

Congratulations on the strong results. First, could you just remind us, please, on the full year annualized impact of the French tax through the Banijay gaming P&L?

Yes, sure. So we said it's around EUR 50 million on our EBITDA full year. So we took half of the impact last year because the tax started July 1. So we took half of the impact last year and we are going to take the rest of this year.

Got it. Understood. And then maybe transitioning your way to the World Cup, I mean, obviously, a big event. But just curious, given it will be in the North American time zone and your European sports betting player like historically, have you seen any maybe more muted impact on sports betting performance when you have like large America-centric competition, like, for example, like the Copa America or something similar? Just if you could comment on that and whether you still sort of expect strong performance, notwithstanding the time zone impact?

First, of course, World Cup and Copa America's are not comparable. World Cup is a very, very strong, probably the strongest event in Europe and Copa America is not comparable, and we are based in Europe. But a large part of the games will happen during the afternoon in America. So during the evening in Europe. So we believe that it will be significant work up for us. Of course, there will be also some games during the night, but there are more games, more teams. So we expect it to be really a big event. But of course, we will see. But we believe it will be a big event, and we expect it to be the same type of impact for us. That's what we had during the previous World Cups or European [indiscernible].

Got it. Makes sense. And then just on dividends for the Banijay gaming permit. I appreciate it's only first quarter that's close of this year. But is there any early guidance that you can give on what sort of quantum of dividend we should expect if you hit your guidance at the end of the year for that perimeter?

We don't -- I don't understand really what you mean by the dividend on this perimeter because -- so the dividend we are giving is on the full perimeter. What we gave during our last Capital Markets Day update was the fact that we were going to increase progressively our dividend with more than 10% CAGR year-on-year. So we don't commit on doing it for next year. But if we meet our guidance, that's the type of dividend you can expect. So it was in 2025, EUR 0.35 per share. And so starting from there, a 10% -- more than 10% increase in dividend every year. That's it.

But I guess just to get a sense of how much of that dividend will come from the Banijay gaming box.

Well, in fact, we can't commit and we don't disclose, but what we can say is that we, of course -- this business is generating high as a high cash generation. So we will pay some dividends from this perimeter in line with what we mentioned also during the past that we had in line with the dividend policy that is described also in the RD as well as in line with the covenants that we have to comply with on the financing with the -- regarding the financing documentation, regarding the financing we just raised from -- for the Tipico acquisition.

Got you. And then maybe just another one on Tipico. Are you able to disclose like maybe revenue and EBITDA numbers for the first quarter or at least growth rates were the same?

Well, we didn't finalize the acquisition at -- well, at the end of the first quarter. So we can't disclose this kind of information for now.

We'll have it next quarter.

Yes.

Understood. And last quick one. You mentioned at the previous call that sort of at year-end for the Bang gaming segment, you sort of post detailed 3 statement financials. Just struggling to find that on your Investor Relations side for full year '25. Has this been posted yet? Or is that something that will be posted at a later date?

Yes. It has been disclosed on a dedicated bondholder website on the website of [indiscernible] Group. But let us know if you don't find them and we will provide you with the link.

Your next question comes from the line of Andrea Bernardi from LGT Capital Partners.

Just a follow -- a quick follow-up on the production side. I think last -- in Q4, you mentioned that some deliveries were pushed into 2026 because of [indiscernible] uncertainty [indiscernible] in the macroeconomic background. And how can we think about those are -- are they still supposed to be delivered by year-end at this point? Or should they flow through Q1, Q2, are they included in the EUR 502 million reported production revenues. If you could comment on that, that would be helpful.

Sorry, maybe I missed part of your question.

No, I think, yes, I think some were pushed -- in Q1 this year, we had some shows which happened last year, which not happened this year on the nonscripted some are delayed in the next quarter. So for example, some big brother shows in certain countries. So all in all, Q1 has been lower in terms of production revenues. But again, we have a good visibility on the rest of the year and we are not worried on the full year.

Could you disclose like the amount of revenues that were supposed to be delivered in Q4, but they were pushing in Q4 '25, but that were pushed into 2026.

No. Well, it's...

No. Well, it's -- because it happens every quarter, in fact. So for example, you have some shows -- you take, for example, a show like LOL in France and Amazon. Last year, it was in Q1, this year it's in Q2. So you have some delays like that. But when we look at the backlog globally, we are not worried by the year in terms of production revenues.

Okay. So just confirming that there's still -- that are supposed to be delivered throughout the year?

Yes.

[Operator Instructions] We will take our next question, and the question comes from the line of Conor O'Shea from Kepler Chevreaux.

Just a few remaining from my side. First question, maybe for Sophie, on the sportsbook revenue growth, the constant currency scope growth was considerably higher than the reported. So I think 14.5% versus 10.4%. So just wondering, I didn't understand that there were major currency impacts there. So if you can just explain the gap that would be very helpful. Secondly, I'm sorry to insist on just on the production revenues full year. So are you willing to give any more details at this stage, do you expect full year at this tone to be broadly flat, slightly up or slightly down. Any further thoughts on that? And then the third question, just on the live business, obviously, events and expected to do so in Q3. I think in previous years, there's been some drag from some Middle East events. Is that no longer an issue in 2026 weighing on the growth? Have you switched to venues for that and therefore, no longer an issue.

So on the first question, and then -- on the sportsbook revenue, it's at -- well, it's at constant exchange rates and current scope and the main impact on the sports betting business is current scope because, in fact, we excluded [indiscernible] from 2025 figures. This is not a question of FX impact.

On the -- your question on production revenues, we gave a single guidance this year. We don't want to detail it more precisely -- and as you can see, the -- actually, the first quarter for -- in terms of EBITDA on production was quite positive production and distribution. So we're not going to detail, but again, what I said was that the trend of the first quarter, we don't expect it to be the same for the rest of the year. We expect it to reverse. On the Middle East, I think first -- it's true that we experienced some tension in the Middle East on our Life business in Saudi Arabia 18 months ago, maybe. So it pushed us to diversify more our geographies and which is the case this year, as you can see with the Olympics, with the World Cup, we are going to be active in -- with significant events in Europe, in the U.S. We have, of course, also the LUMINISCENCE shows, which is diversifying outsourced revenues, [indiscernible]. So we are becoming more and more diversified in terms of geographies. And when you look at our Middle East -- it's very small in our overall revenues. We are talking in 2025, I think it was 3% of our revenues and probably less projected this year given the diversification of our business. And so we are very confident in the fact that so far, not so many events have been concerned. Some of them have been postponed. Some of them are happening. So we don't have a full visibility on the year on the Middle East, of course, because the situation is difficult to predict. But we are confident that in any case, it would not jeopardize our guidance.

There are no further questions from the phone lines. I would like to hand back for any webcast questions.

Yes. So there are 2 questions on the webcast. The first one is on the margin expansion in the Entertainment segment. Those lives has a different margin profile from production and distribution.

Well, the margin profile is quite similar in this business. For this first quarter, what drove this margin expansion is a larger contribution of the distribution business. And because the margin in this part of the business is higher. And of course, again, always cost optimization and reorganization plan within this business.

And the second question, can you go into more detail on the working cap outflows at Banijay Entertainment and Live.

Yes. So what I said during this presentation is that -- on Banijay [indiscernible] studio shows for the opening ceremony, a part that's been paid during Q1 and the second part is expected to be paid within Q2. And we also had some payment delays agreed on the sale of some formats. So that's why we have this negative working capital, but we clearly expect this to be normalized during the year and to have to be compliant with the guidance that we gave during our strategic update on the adjusted operating free cash.

One question on the independence. Is there an update on existing sizing or call options? And if not, where we have to wait for All3Media deal to complete in order to get permission from RedBird IMI or could this happened before.

So no that today on this, we are still working on it with our new partners of RedBird actively it's not linked to the closing of All3Media. We can make a decision earlier than that. And as soon as we have a decision, we will communicate it. But for the moment, we are still working on it.

Last question on live experiences. In terms of the shape of the year, would you call out any phasing of revenues we should be mindful of?

I think, of course, Q3 will be reflecting the World Cup ceremony. So these ceremonies are a little bit lumpy, of course, but again, more and more, you have a lot of also recurring business with luminescence and with all the smaller events that we are organizing all year long. So yes, it's probably also a hike in Q3.

And there is no further questions.

There were also no further questions from the phone lines. I would like to hand back for closing remarks.

No real closing remarks. It's a good Q1. It's just a Q1, but it comforts us on how the year is going to look like. So very excited again about all the developments that we have this year, a lot is happening, and we are very confident in our capability to deliver on our guidance. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.