Cenergy Holdings SA (CENER) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gaily, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Cenergy Holdings conference call and webcast to present and discuss the 9 months 2024 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Sofia Zairi, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Ms. Zairi, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for 9 months '24 financial results of cn Holdings. Alex Benos, Cenergy Holdings' CFO, will be presenting. [Operator Instructions] So Alex, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Sofia. So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this 2024 Q3 financial results presentation. Our agenda this afternoon will be quite short. I will start with the key financial figures for the quarter and the 9 months period. Then I will outline some views we have about our new facilities and the outlook for 2025, and I will finish up with our mission and vision for 2025. The main messages of the 2024 Q3 performance is that we have very strong margins. These margins continue. The backlog is also steady and high, taking into account, of course, that a large number of projects were executed since December '23, almost EUR 1 billion in value and the backlog remains at levels -- the record levels of EUR 3.5 billion. So we have -- we will focus on a small increase in turnover, reaching EUR 1.26 billion, 8% higher than the corresponding period of last year, a much stronger increase in adjusted EBITDA for the 9 months reaching EUR 194 million and getting us closer to our fiscal year 2024 objectives. This, of course, translates to a very strong profit before tax and the profit after tax and also at twice, a twofold increase in earnings per share. The backlog, as I said, is very strong. It's EUR 100 million higher than the June '24 backlog at EUR 3.5 million. And finally, all the above allow us to confirm the fiscal year 2024 guidance of adjusted EBITDA between EUR 245 million to EUR 265 million. Let's look a little bit more in detail Q3. As I said, Q3 was a very strong quarter. Sales have increased 8% quarter-on-quarter since June. And you see that June was already 5% higher than March. Operational profitability also kept rising from EUR 54 million in Q1 to EUR 65 million and then to EUR 74 million in Q3, reaching a 16.6% margin for the quarter. This is 100 basis points higher than Q2, the preceding quarter and 300 basis points higher than Q1. If we add to that adjusted, the one-offs, which in this case are positive. It's a positive metal lag. The EUR 34 million of adjusted EBITDA leads to EUR 76 million of EBITDA also with very strong margins. The operation profitability of course, trickles down to profits before tax of EUR 50 million for Q3 and after tax of EUR 44 million for Q3, 1/3 up from the numbers of Q2. The main responsible, the main culprit for that strong performance is steel pipes that sustained for Q3, they're very high margins that were prominent in the first 6 months of the year. As you understand, a very strong third quarter also led to very strong 9-month results with the solid performance of the steel pipe segments. It takes us closer to our objective for the end of the year. The turnover is now at EUR 1.26 billion and EBITDA of EUR 194 million or EUR 197 million, including the one-offs with margins for both segments for the 9-month period of close to 16%, 15.4% or 15.6%. And with profits before tax rising to EUR 123 million from EUR 60 million in the corresponding 9 months of 2023, so doubling up from '23 as do profits after tax, which reached EUR 100 million in the 9-month period of '24. This -- the mix of good projects together with very strong performance from the product side in both segments allow us to execute our performance figures with success and get over the EUR 100 million mark in the bottom line for the 9-month period. Turning now to some details about our backlog, actually, some days about the awards that were -- guaranteed that were won during these last months. First of all, in Europe, we got this project with train agreement with Enexis in the Netherlands. So we were part of a group of suppliers for a project total of more than EUR 2.3 billion in medium and low voltage land cables. The part awarded to Hellenic Cables was between 10% and 20% of the -- and it's a project that goes to EUR 130 million over 8 years. In France, we got some frame agreements with RTE, Réseau de Transport d’ Électricité, for 90 kV and 220 kV land cables and in the Ionian islands in Greece, we won the turnkey contract for the subsea interconnection in the Ionian islands. Our backlog was also increased by winning 2 projects across the Atlantic, one of them being in the U.S. an inter-array cable project for leading light wind. This is an offshore wind park in the New Jersey, New York area and the Trion Offshore project in Mexico that steel pipes contract, High Frequency welding pipes with Mexico being a very promising market to come in the future as well. So both of these led to a EUR 100 million increase in our backlog from June to September. What about our investments. Our investment plans are on track or is almost finished. We have -- as I remind you, we will have double capacity for the subsea medium voltage, high voltage, and extremely high voltage power cables. In Thiva, the investment is ongoing, we have additional lines at Thiva and additional machinery orders have been put down to the market, and we're expecting that investment to be completed by the end of 2025. Going to Ionis islands. We are really very proud that it is already operational. As I told you, as the management has told you in the past, this will be a center of excellence for land, low-voltage cables, fiber optics and compounds. I personally visited the plant and saw the immense progress that has been made in turning deserted industrial sites in a up, alive and kicking plant in less than 9 months or almost a year -- between 9 months and the year. And Ionis will really be a very important addition to our production facilities. Turning to Corinth Pipeworks and the last Greek production facility. In Thisvi, the debottlenecking that we have announced recently has almost been completed. It will continue until January 2025. And the new cement coating line will be fully operational by the end of the first quarter of 2025. This is an important addition since it allows us to win contracts in deep water offshore projects. Finally, about the U.S., the U.S. expansion that was very successfully financed through the share capital increase is on track. We have fenced the land plots. We have [indiscernible] the coastal line of the plant and the tender for the primary contractor for construction works, we made in the first quarter of '25 with construction works once the contractor is chosen, starting in Q3 -- Q2 to Q3 of 2025. So what does do all these give for the future, for the short-term and the medium-term future. First of all, I wouldn't like really to burden you here with repeating the views that we have about cables and steel pipes, but it is for me important to reiterate the positive outlook that we have for both segments. Cables are enjoying a great macroeconomic trends, which is expected to persist for the years to come. The Greek market is variant in interconnections. There is high tendering activity for projects, especially in [ DC ] and the demand for products for cable products remains strong. For steel pipes, steel pipes face new application for gas fuels, natural gas, hydrogen, carbon capture. Gas is really very relevant for the energy markets in the next year and will remain for the next 10 years at least. CCS in Europe is also very positive. There are numerous projects in Europe, but perhaps some of them will be slowing down. Actually, what I mean is that the final investment decision might be slowing down. On the contrary, the U.S. is much more bullish, and there are a lot of carbon-capturing storage projects in the U.S. where we are present. The hydrogen infrastructure is still necessary but might be slowed down due to the macroeconomic stagnation of Germany. And the backlog of steep pipes is really steady, around EUR 500 million as the offshore is expected to grow stronger in '25, '27 and give us more projects and awards in the years to come. Closing up this outlook, of course, we are very confident that our guidance for the end of the year will be reached. So we confirm guidance for EUR 245 million to EUR 265 million for adjusted EBITDA, and we remain focused on our mission vision, which is as a vision to forge a dynamic path in the energy infrastructure market, advance our capabilities, advance our expertise deliver value with responsibility, efficiency and passion, keeping always as primary values, safety for all integrity and accountability for all, sustainability for our entire value chain, working as a team and most importantly, have a passion for delivering excellent products. I close up with some dates for 2025. The financial results for 2024 will be released on the fifth of March. On the sixth of March, we will have our usual annual conference call, perhaps with a video conference on the results of 2024. And the towards the end of May 2025, the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders is scheduled. So with that, I stop my presentation here, and I turn back the floor to Gailey for your questions and answers. Thank you very much.