bpost NV/SA (BPOST) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the bpost Third Quarter 2024 Results. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to your host, Mr. Philippe Dartienne, Group CFO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to all, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to present to you our third quarter results as CFO of bpost Group. Hence our CEO, could not make it today. And I have with me Antoine Lebecq from Investor Relations. We posted the materials on our website this morning. We will walk you through the presentation, and we'll then take your questions. As always, 2 questions each will ensure everyone gets a chance to be addressed in the upcoming hour. As you can see on the highlights on Page 3, our group operating income for third quarter stood at EUR 1.025 billion, an increase year-over-year by 5%. At constant perimeter, meaning excluding the EUR 123.5 million consolidation impact of Staci, our operating income decreased by 8% or EUR 77 million, mainly due to ongoing pressures in North America, lower press revenue tied to the new press contract since 1st of July, while on the other hand, our Domestic Mail remained resilient with less than 2% decline in revenue and our Domestic parcel revenue grew by 9%. Our group adjusted EBIT stood at EUR 10.3 million with a margin of 1% or minus EUR 1 million when excluding the EUR 11.3 million EBIT contribution of Staci. On a like-for-like basis, this represents a decline of EUR 29 million compared to last year or EUR 24 million operationally when adjusting third quarter 2023 for EUR 5 million EBIT uplift resulting from the reversal of the repricing provisions. In a seasonally softer quarter, this decline is mainly attributable to press, where the lower revenue have a direct impact on EBIT and to a lesser extent, to North America. This decline occurred despite our relentless efforts in cost management and productivity, which has helped mitigate some of these pressures. The group EBIT decline is mainly driven by the Belgium activities, which evidence our need to reshape our domestic activities and further develop our commercial offering and also support our strategic shift towards logistics as shown by Staci EBIT contribution this quarter. Overall, while these results are soft, they remain broadly in line with our plan and with the guidance provided in July. We are, therefore, able to reaffirm the 2024 EBIT outlook today. On Page 4, you can find an overview of the key financials for the quarter, both reported and adjusted. Our reported EBIT amounts to negative EUR 0.9 million, reflecting, in particular, an adjustment for M&A cost of EUR 8 million incurred during the quarter. For context, nearly EUR 15 million in M&A costs were recorded in the first half of the year, and we do not anticipate any significant M&A costs in the fourth quarter. In Q4, while our adjusted EBIT decreased by EUR 18 million, our adjusted net profit decreased by EUR 33 million to minus EUR 14 million, reflecting notably lower financial results driven by the additional interest costs associated with the EUR 1 billion of new debt on our balance sheet, the absence of last year's gain on contingent liability following our acquisition of the remaining share in Actives and some unfavorable FX impacts. Let's move now to the details of our 3 segments. As a reminder, as of this quarter, we have aligned our reporting format with our new activity-based business unit, meaning Last Mile, third-party logistics, also called 3PL and cross-border. For ease of comparison, we have restated our 2023 and 2024 quarterly results in line with this new structure. These are available in the stat book on our website. I'm on Page 5 with the Last Mile segment, which corresponds to the former Belgium business and now also includes Personal logistics sub-segment featuring Dyna. At Last Mile, we see that revenue declined EUR 27 million to EUR 522 million. For Domestic mail, we recorded close to EUR 24 million decline in revenue, of which EUR 20 million comes from press, mainly due to the new contract with the editors following the end of the press concession on June 30, 2024. Excluding press, mail recorded an underlying volume decline of minus 6.7% for the quarter. As anticipated, this volume development in the quarter was supported by mail volume from municipal and provincial elections in Belgium. The decline in mail volume led to a revenue impact of minus EUR 14.3 overall, though this was partially offset by a positive price and mix impact of plus 4.9% or plus EUR 10.5 million. As a result, the Domestic mail revenue decline was limited to under less than 2% or roughly minus EUR 4 million year-over-year, including around EUR 2 million benefit from election mail campaigns, as I mentioned right before. For the parcels activities in Belgium, we recorded an increase of EUR 10.1 million in revenue or plus 8.7%. Parcels volume grew by 8.7% year-over-year, marking a strong uptick compared to the plus 2.9% and plus 2.5% growth in the first and in the second quarter. This significant volume growth was driven by a strong demand in fashion and apparel, supported by weather conditions prompting earlier purchase of winter collections and the outperformance of major marketplace like Amazon and Bol.com. Combined with the plus 2.7% in the first half, this brings year-to-year volume growth to plus 4.7% despite ongoing challenging market conditions, including a negative consumer confidence index and inflation in Belgium still exceeding 3% and facing continued upward pressure. As our volume growth was mainly driven by large volume customers, the price mix remained stable in the third quarter. On the front of proximity and convenience retail network, revenue decreased by a bit less than EUR 7 million with lower banking revenue offsetting the indexation of the management contract. And revenues from value-added services remain operationally stable, mainly driven by fine solution and document management. However, this was offset by the repricing of state services, which is now accounted for within value-added services instead of in other revenue streams as in the previous year. Our personalized logistics revenue at Dyna remained nearly stable in the quarter. Let's move now to the P&L of Last Mile on Page 6. As just explained, our intersegment and other revenue decreased this year as they comprise a positive EUR 5 million impact from the reversal of the repricing of the state services provision in the third quarter of 2023. Excluding this mechanical impact, we have on that line, the EUR 2.9 million higher intersegment revenues from inbound cross-border volume handled in the domestic network for the cross-border segment. On the cost side, our reported operating including D&A decreased by EUR 75 million year-on-year, reflecting last year's provision for the repayment of potential overcompensation to the Belgium state for the past. The adjusted OpEx, including D&A remained stable, mainly driven by higher salary costs as our cost per FTE increased by 4% year-over-year following the impact of 2 salary indexations in December 2023 and in June 2024, while FTEs remained stable despite higher parcels volume and lower intersegment corporate costs. Our adjusted EBIT declined by EUR 29 million year-over-year, mainly due to a drop in price revenues and the absence of last year's EUR 5 million provision reversal, while the nearly stable mail revenues and the strong parcel roaming growth could not fully compensate the increased payroll costs driven by inflation. Let's move now to 3PL section on Page 7. The third sub-segment, 3PL Europe, comprises the European activities of Radial and Active Ants that were formerly part of E-Logistics Eurasia and Staci Group. The second sub-segment, 3PL North America, corresponds to Radial U.S. activities, formerly part of E-Logistics North America. 3PL revenues increased by EUR 82 million, but declined by EUR 41 million or minus 15% when excluding the EUR 123 million contribution from Staci's consolidation in August and in September. In 3PL Europe, at constant perimeter, Radial and Active Ants sales were up 14% year-over-year, continuing the trend of previous quarters. This growth was fueled by customer onboarding as part of our international expansion efforts and upselling activities targeting existing customers. In 3PL North America, revenue decreased by EUR 46 million. At constant exchange rate, this corresponds to a decrease of minus 18%, in line with the previous quarters as the lower sales from existing customers and the in-year contribution of new customer wins cannot compensate the client churn we announced last year in the context of economic softness and market overcapacity, resulting in higher competition and pricing pressures for Radial and its peers. Let's move now to the P&L of 3PL on Slide 8. Excluding Staci, while the operating income decreased by 14.3%, our operating expense and D&A decreased by EUR 15.6%, primarily driven by lower variable OpEx in line with Radial's revenue trends and productivity gains across entities in Europe and North America, including a sustained improvement in Radial U.S. variable contribution margin. Our VCM has increased by close to 6% year-over-year and stands at its high level in third quarter, delivering an impact of around $13 million compared to last year. Year-to-date, this corresponds to a cumulative efficiency gain of EUR 29 million. These efficiency gains helps mitigating the top-line pressures of the minus EUR 40 million, and we see that at constant perimeter, our adjusted EBIT improved by EUR 5 million to minus EUR 3 million. Now regarding Staci, specifically, EBIT contribution for August and September totaled EUR 11.3 million with a margin of 9.2%. This is slightly below our monthly average expectation, primarily due to the seasonal softness of the summer months and challenging market conditions in North America playing a role here as well. As we previously disclosed during our bond issuance in early October, Staci achieved an IFRS EBIT margin of 11.6% last year, and we remain confident in reaching a margin of between 10% to 11% over the 5 months of 2024. Moving on now to cross-border business on Page 9. The first sub-segment cross-border Europe encompasses bpost domestic inbound and outbound mail and parcels activities, along with European operations of Landmark and IMX, which were previously part of E-Logistics Eurasia. The second sub-segment, cross-border North America includes the activities of Landmark Global and Apple Express, which were formerly part of e-Logistics North America. Cross-border Europe revenues rose by EUR 4.6 million or plus 6%, showing an acceleration from the plus 1.7% and plus 4.2% in the previous quarters of the year. This growth was driven by increased volume from China to Belgium, contribution from new customers as well as from continuous growth from recent customer wins in the European lanes. However, challenging market condition in the U.K. and the decline in cross-border volume from Asia to destination other than Belgium limited further top line expansion. Similar to previous quarters, our top line in North America remains under pressure. Cross-border North America revenues declined by EUR 9.6 million or minus 15% as Landmark Global reported its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue decline. This drop is largely due to down trading among existing customers with only a few of our top 10 customers experiencing growth and a limited contribution from new business as well as Amazon insourcing, which began at the end of 2022 and is now stabilizing at just a few million. Overall, our global cross-border revenue decreased by EUR 5 million or minus 3.5% year-over-year. As shown on Page 10, our OpEx and D&A remained stable, driven by a net slightly decrease in volume-driven transportation costs, reflecting lower North American volume alongside higher volumes shipped to Belgium and marginally higher salary costs tied to the ramp-up of international activities and inflationary pressures. Overall, from a profitability standpoint, the EUR 5 million EBIT decline and year-over-year margin dilution reflects ongoing challenges at Landmark U.S. Moving now on to Corporate segment on Page 11. External operating income decreased by EUR 0.9 million year-over-year, reflecting the absence of building sales this year, in line with our annual guidance. The net OpEx after internal invoicing and D&A slightly decreased by EUR 1 million, mainly reflecting lower costs associated with compliance review from last year. This decrease was partially offset by inflationary pressure on payroll costs resulting from the 2 salary indexation I've mentioned earlier. Adjusted EBIT remained stable at minus EUR 10 million, while reported EBIT was minus EUR 18 million, reflecting M&A cost of EUR 8.1 million incurred during the quarter. Then we move to the cash flow on Slide 12. The main items to flag are the following: Cash flow from operating activities before change in working capital stood at EUR 80 million and increased by EUR 55 million versus last year, reflecting higher EBITDA this year since we had last year's impact of the EUR 75 million provision for the repayment of overcompensation to the Belgium state. Change in working capital and provision stood at minus EUR 8 million, reflecting a variation of plus EUR 30 million year-over-year. Excluding the impact of the EUR 75 million provision, the operational change is minus EUR 62 million. This variation primarily stems from a shift in accounts receivable due to the domination of the press concession, which was typically settled in the following year and was still recorded on the balance sheet last year. The cash outflow from investing activities totaled EUR 1.340 billion, primarily driven by the acquisition of Staci for EUR 1.3 billion and capital expenditure of EUR 43 million during the quarter. This item constitute the main variation in our free cash flow and the net cash inflow from financing activities amounted to EUR 952 million, following the utilization of the EUR 1 billion bridge financing to fund the acquisition of Staci. Before we get to the outlook, I am pleased that within just 3 months of acquiring Staci, we successfully refinanced the bridge financing through a EUR 1 billion dual tranche senior unsecured bond offering, featuring both 5- and 10-year maturities. This offering was met with an impressive oversubscription of 4.4x. The EUR 500 million bond maturing in 2029 carries an annual coupon of 3.29%, while the 10-year bond maturing in 2024 has a coupon of 3.63%. Both bonds are rated A- by S&P. Moving on to the outlook on Page 13. As our segment structure has evolved, we are now presenting our outlook according to the new reporting format. With the performance of the first 9 months tracking in line with plan and based on our current views on the year-end peak, we are reaffirming our outlook for 2024, projecting an adjusted group EBIT in the range of EUR 205 million to EUR 230 million. The underlying parameters of the outlook shared with you in early July did not materially change. For the Last Mile segment, we can confirm the guidance provided in July for Belgium business with no change to our mail and parcel volume assumptions or the financial impact tied to the new press contract. The former E-Logistics Eurasia and North America segment has now been restructured in 3PL and cross-border with revenue development and EBIT margin assumptions restated accordingly. In addition to the integration of Staci in the 3PL business unit, we have also taken into account the additional challenges faced by Landmark Global within the cross-border segment. Finally, our CapEx guidance has already been reduced from EUR 180 million to EUR 150 million in July, and we are remaining and we are maintaining this guidance. I am now ready to take your questions. Again, 2 questions each, so everyone gets a chance to get to be addressed in the coming 30 minutes. Operator, please open the lines.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from Michiel Declercq of KBC Securities.

The first one would be on the new 3PL business and more specifically the North American segment. So now that you brought this in this new 3PL segment, we can clearly see the margin evolution there. So quite striking to see that margins are going up despite the volume pressure, of course, if we adjust for Staci. I'm just wondering, can you give a bit of an update there because you mentioned in the past that you will start onboarding more niches and smaller customers, and this will become visible as of next year? Can you tell us a bit about the phasing? I would expect most of the positive impact to be at the year-end, but can you just walk us a bit through this and how this should translate into the 3PL margins there? Because I assume given the variable cost savings, it should have quite a positive impact. And then my second question is on the recent news in Belgium. We have seen quite some complaints regarding the new press distributions from AMP and PPP, and they're asking for bpost to maybe extend their service not doing it via subcontractors. So could you maybe comment a bit on this and if you would be willing to postpone the time line here and if there would be a financial impact from that? And then just a very small third one. For the Staci acquisition, I was just wondering, it looks like the Amware part is not part of the American business yet and it's still included in Europe. Can you confirm this or the reason why it's not in the U.S. segment?

Thank you for your question. I will start with the third one because it's a yes or no answer. So indeed, Amware, which is now -- that was the former brand name, now it's called Staci Americas, is indeed well reported on the Staci. That's the reason why we mentioned Staci Group, meaning all the activities of Staci. So for the moment, we have left the Staci Group in one block under the management of Thomas Mortier. By the way, Thomas Mortier is managing not only the entire former Staci Group, but also Radial in Europe and Active in Europe. And in the U.S. Radial U.S. is separate from the American activities. The main reason behind that one is that it's still different businesses in the sense that the portfolio of customers for Amware or Staci America is still different than what we have in Radial. This being said, it's not because they are managed separately that we are not already implementing synergies, especially on the cost side. We already mentioned that some -- the synergies that we could see with the acquisition of Staci were twofold, one being on the top line with cross-sell activities and the second one being on the cost aspect and the biggest one being the transport contract. And we are already migrating the Staci contracts to the Radial ones. So these synergies are already in place -- being implemented, sorry, not in place, but being implemented. You know that there are some periods, you cannot shift contracts from one day to another one. So you will see these effects gradually in the coming quarters. Coming to the first question, which is 3PL NAM segment. Indeed, we see a pressure on the former -- on Radial U.S. for the reason that we have mentioned since many quarters, unfortunately, the fact that we have some customers who left us and also which is, I would say, different in scope, customers leaving, and we have the full year impact of that. We also see that the same-store sales, so the sales of the existing customers really going down year-over-year. By the way, this is something that our peers are also seeing. And the signing of new customers, which is also part of your question, the reorientation, if you want, of the portfolio to move gradually out from big customers to midsized segment is not able to compensate for the loss of the customers. And as we already said, and Chris mentioned it last time as well, that portfolio adjustment will take time, and we will see the benefit. We commit to have really visible numbers after the peak of 2025, and we have no change on that one. So that's for the top line, which is -- let's be clear, it's not a good news, but it's no change compared to what we have seen in the past. And we have changed the strategy to move from the big customers to the midsized customers and also to enter new segments, so not only fashion and health and beauty, but also entering into ones. This is on the revenue side. On the cost side, I really want to emphasize that, again, Radial's team has been able to manage its variable and its fixed cost, where you see that the variable contribution margin, both on the fulfillment activities and on the transport activities are at its peak since many quarters now. And we have no reason to believe that it will change in the coming future. That's for the U.S. So now coming to what is happening relating to the press concession in Belgium. So indeed, the press concession contract ended up at the end of July of this year. So starting August, we are under the scheme. And there, we need to make a distinction between what is happening in Wallonia, so the southern part of Belgium, and what is happening in the northern part of Belgium. In the northern part of Belgium, of the volumes are being transferred either to PPP or to MP, so coming from bpost. And we are still at the beginning of this transition. We have launched 7 pilots, and we had agreed with the editors that the level of service for the first 2 months would be a challenge. By the way, it's no different that when we are changing routes, when we are changing postmen during holiday period and they are being replaced or when they are sick or going on training replaced by people who are less familiar with the routes, it has the first day an impact. We have never denied that. We shared a very transparently with the editors. And it's also important to keep in mind that we are still not at the end of the 2 months transition period that we had agreed upon with the editors, and we already see some improvement compared to the first weeks. On postponing any change, I will not comment. We have agreement with editors right now. Let's continue the implementation. And if and when necessary, editors could potentially or not come back to us, but let's give us a bit of time to deliver qualitative services as we typically do for delivering mail and newspapers. It's again, I repeat, sorry to be heavy. We knew that the transition would not be easy. We're still not at the end of the first 2 months.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our next question from Marco Limite of Barclays.

I've got a couple of questions, and apologize if those questions have been asked already, but I had some IT issues for a bit. So the first question is Staci. I think the run rate in Q3 for Staci was a bit below the EUR 8 million to EUR 9 million EBIT annualized. I mean, is there anything else in there other than Q3 being softer seasonality? First question. And the second question, given the change in disclosure, just checking how the underlying Radial North America business is doing. So is there any big change in trends compared to the previous quarters, number one? And on your U.S. cross-border business, which has been affected in the past by in-sourcing, whether there has been any meaningful change there?

Okay. None of your questions were asked before. So I'm going to take them. Anyway, I would have taken them anyway. So starting with Staci, so different elements. Like in all our activities, the third quarter is always a bit soft because of the summer months. It's not different within Staci. Summer months are always soft. So we see some seasonality impact. That's true that this summer has been particularly soft, including at Staci and mainly driven by American activities, by the way, more or less like what we are seeing ourselves. Nevertheless, we are very confident for the full year average because you will recall that we had spoken about an average over the 5 months. The peak season is also important for Staci in Europe, but it's also in the U.S. So we have no reason to be worried when it comes to that one. I would also mention because this is more the top line, but also in terms of profitability measured at EBIT. I just want to remind that the profitability of Staci in IFRS in 2023 was 11.6%. When we went to the market in October to market the bond issuance, we have said that we would be thinking of reaching a 10% to 11% EBIT margin in 2024. This quarter, which is particularly soft, we're at 9.2%. So yes, we are a bit below, but nothing to be worried about. Of course, dependent of the fourth quarter. But this comment, I could make it for all the businesses, which is the impact of the peak. When it comes to U.S. Radial, unfortunately, a bit of the same story where we're still being negatively affected by the churn of the customers that happened last year and this year, combined with a severe negative same-store sales. By the way, that same-store sale evolution was negative in 2023, which is still negative in 2024, which is not a good element, but we are not the only one facing that. Our peers also face the same kind of situation in the U.S. That's on the development of the top line. On the operational efficiency, I would say there are still very positive news because Radial U.S. has reached its highest variable contribution margin forever in the third quarter. So it's -- their continued effort of managing, in an efficient manner, the cost, variable and fixed cost is still maintained. When it comes to LGI, so the U.S. activities, we indeed see softness due to the loss of customers. And it has been, indeed, Amazon decided to leave us -- announced they would leave us at the end of 2022. Now they are at the bottom, which is very marginal into the total top line, but we have not been able to onboard a sufficient number of customers to offset that. And you have also to understand or to know that there is a fierce competition going on the Canadian market that makes the acquisition of new customers even more difficult than it was in the past. I think with that, I've covered your 3 questions, Marco.

You did. And if I can, maybe I've got a fourth, please. So you have announced a few weeks ago the stamp price increase for '25 at 2%, 3%, if I remember right. Again, I apologize if this question has been asked already, but I mean, that sounds a bit lower compared to the mid-single-digit run rate that we have seen in the past. And yes, definitely inflation is still, okay, has gone down, but still stronger than pre-pandemic or pre-Russian war. So yes, why the price increase was quite lower compared to the historical run rate of mid-single digit?

So basically, the price increase, if I look at parcels, prepaid products will increase by 1.6% in 2025. Contract parcels will increase by 3.5% and on that one, you know that there is a rule that we have to adjust our pricing based on the ITLB, which is Institute Transport Logistics in Belgium. And we typically translate the increase of 80% of the increase of that index. So that's for the parcel side. So basically, it's driven by our cost evolution. There is -- the comparison with what happened in the past, it's a bit difficult for me because we are looking what is our expected evolution of cost. When it comes to mail, the average price increase will be 4.8% that has been approved, by the way, same as for prepaid product by IBPT, by the regulator, which is always the result of 2 elements, the fact that the volumes are going down and that we have inflation of cost. So we have applied, I would say, roughly the same methodology as in the past. It's also important to notice that as we have introduced that optionality 2 years ago, we could increase the price by an additional 3% in the course of 2025 would the inflation indices or cost raise in the course of the year.

[Operator Instructions] And we will now take our next question from Martin Lautenberg of ING.

One question actually left for me. Could you perhaps give a bit more color on your parcel volume trend because it was quite a good number over the average of the quarter, but you mentioned specifically September. We also saw at your peer that September was a strong month. So yes, September, can you provide a bit more color on exit rates, whether they were already double digits and what we're seeing going into Q4?

So thank you for question, Mark. Indeed, strong performance on the parcel side, some strong performance for parcels in Belgium, so mostly driven by the big platforms, Bol and Amazon. So these 2 platforms are really growing faster than the market. And since we are delivering their parcels we benefit from the fact that they are outpacing the market. So very positive news on that one. I would say recent development are still positive and of the same win.

Is it indeed true then that September was double digit because it was behind, you mentioned specifically September month.

Yes. Absolutely. You're right.

And given the trend of the larger platforms, should we expect still a sort of flattish price/mix for Q4? Or should we expect a bit more negative price mix?

Very good question. I think as you mentioned it, have you seen it, the price mix impact in the third quarter was negatively affected by the fact that big customers, typically the platform taking more weight into the average portfolio negatively affected. Would that trend accelerate again in the fourth quarter, same cost would generate the same effect. Now if all the market would go the same trend, meaning the platform and the rest of the market, then there would not be an additional impact.

And we will now take a next follow-up question from Michiel Declercq of KBC Securities.

I just wanted to return a bit to the radio in the U.S. because, yes, returning to the fact that revenues were down at the one hand from the customer churn and the other hand, of course, from the same customer sales. Just wanted to check because if I look at it from the previous quarter, Q2 and Q1, I mean, your trend in terms of revenue growth minus 19% is roughly the same. But I think if I look a bit at the overall environment in the U.S. and what your peers, UPS and FedEx reported, there was actually a bit more of an improvement there in volumes, so to say. So I would originally expect that some of that improvement would be visible in your same customer as well. I'm just wondering why this is not the case. Is this also because the same trend that you see in Belgium, the move towards these larger players like Amazon? So that would be my question. And then I have a very small one still on Staci. Very useful that you provided the revenue and EBIT contribution for this quarter. I'm just wondering, will you continue to provide this info in the upcoming quarters as well as I would expect most investors would like to see the evolution of Staci in the future.

Thank you for additional questions. So let's start with Radial. I think as it has already been mentioned many, many times and also by Antoine when he is in direct contact with you, we take the peers as a proxy for the market. It's not a like-for-like comparison because you know that we are heavily health, beauty and fashion weighted, while the have a more broader portfolio. So a trend that you are seeing with them does not automatically translate in the same manner in our situation. And I think once again, it's the case in the quarter. So it's not directionally, it doesn't go in the other direction. It's just that sometimes it's a bit more a bit more or less on our side because we are dependent on mostly 2 customer segments. So again, treat these numbers as a proxy for the market and a proxy never totally reflect the reality. It's always more subtle than that. Coming to your question on Staci, we will, in some quarters, continue to report data on Staci, while it will be will be in a run rate. We will combine together. But nevertheless, we will always be ready to take specific questions on Staci.

We will now take our next question from Henk Slotboom of The Idea.

Sorry for having missed the first 35 minutes of the call. So I may ask a question that has already been asked I blame your colleagues from Poland for that. A couple of very brief questions. When I look at a question I've discussed with you before, Walmart has answered and it's on 3PL market as well. I can imagine that the impact on radial has been pretty limited up to now. As you always say, if you want to change from a 3PL provider, that's quite a hassle and you don't do that ahead of the peak season. How are you looking at it right now? What are your first experiences there? Could there be an impact in, let's say, 2025 or so that distorts your growth pattern? Then maybe a stupid question, I don't know, but the vision between Staci's sales and non-European sales, so U.S. sales basically? And is there a material difference in the growth part of both areas? And then the final question, and that I may have missed it. Again, apologies for that. You spoke of a Capital Markets Day or Investor Day at the third quarter. Has that date already been fixed?

Okay. Henk, thank you for your question. So let's start with the easiest one. Capital Market Day will be in April next year. So after the fourth quarter result being known. When it comes to the U.S., and I start with Walmart, any impact on Radial? So far, no, we have not seen any impact or customers that we could have lost to Walmart. As you rightly mentioned, Henk, people are not keen on changing prior to the peak. So short answer, yes, no impact so far. Midterm, can we fear that one? Then I would quote Craig, who is our CEO in the U.S. when we asked exactly that question some weeks ago. And he said, you know that there are customers who like to be served by big corporation. There are some customers who don't want. Since the processes are more standardized, less tailored solution, some like it, some do not like it or do not need it or sometimes need it. And typically, when it comes to the new target or set of customers that we are targeting, which are mid- to small-sized customers, maybe they would be keener to work with a smaller size type of 3PL organization that could also sometimes be a bit more flexible when it comes to their needs. So we do not see that as a major threat, as a factor that would limit the growth in the segment. Staci, you rightly point out that they are active in Europe and in the U.S. So roughly, the balance between European activities and U.S. activities is a bit more than 2/3 in Europe, a bit less than 1/3 in the U.S. Indeed, the growth pattern is Europe has a slower growth potential than the U.S. This being said, they are also active in different markets. They are mostly present in France. And they also have U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium in their portfolio. And all that have a different dynamic. But also their market share is totally different, where they have a very strong market share in France, they are very small in the other countries. So the potential for growth, even if the market itself is not really double-digit booming, they have a good growth potential as well. In the U.S., they are pretty small. The forecast growth of the market is significant, combined with the fact that they also want to bring to the customers some core capabilities that they have in Staci that was not there in Amware because Amware was a sort of radio-like type of services on smaller customers. They're also bringing their expertise when it comes to promo goods, this kind of stuff that would help boosting their growth in the U.S.

That was our last question. I will now hand it back to Philippe for closing remarks.

So thank you, everybody, for joining the call and for your questions this morning. We will look forward to staying in touch with our fourth quarter results which will be published on February 20. Thank you very much, and have a nice day.

Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.