Fiera Milano S.p.A. (0EGH.IL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Fiera Milano Results at 30 September, 2025. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Vincenzo Cecere, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Fiera Milano's 9 months results conference call. This is Vincenzo Cecere speaking, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability. And I'm here with Francesco Conci, CEO; and Massimo De Tullio, CFO of Fiera Milano. The presentation of today will be structured in 4 sections. During the first section, Mr. Francesco Conci will give you an overview of the business and strategic update, main financial highlights and 2025 outlook. Then Mr. Massimo De Tullio will go through the divisional results and financial figures in greater detail. On a final note, an update on sustainability will also be provided. At the end of the call, you will be invited for a Q&A session with management available for your questions. At this point, I leave the floor to Francesco Conci, CEO, for the key messages of the 9 months 2025 results. Please, Francesco, go ahead.

Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to Fiera Milano's 9 months 2025 results conference call. As a general comment, I would say that the first 9 months of 2025 mark an important milestone in execution of our 2024-2027 strategic plan. And I'm proud to say that have been 9 months of strong growth, solid performance and clear delivery. The results we present today confirm that our strategy is working and that the group is progressing with discipline, resilience and ambition. We delivered results above expectation in a macro environment that remains challenging. Revenue grew 26%, plus 26%, EBITDA -- revenue grew 26%, EBITDA increased 15%, net profit rose 10% and we generated more than EUR 35 million of cash, bringing net cash availability to EUR 115.8 million at the end of September. These numbers reflect a business model that is robust, diversified and able to sustain growth over time. Despite some slowdown in a few market segments, mainly in the fashion-related industry, our diversified exhibition portfolio, together with the strong performance of the Congress Business and our service line more than offset this effect and support the Group's overall profitability. The Congress Business grew by more than 30%, supported by major international events such as the Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting and the European Hematology Association Congress, confirming the central rule of Allianz MiCo as one of the leading international Congress venue. Our services business continued its positive trajectory, growing 8% and leading key events such as Bit, Tuttofood and Gastech, all exceeded expectation, both in participation and services revenues. We also began to see the first positive contribution from the recently acquired Expotrans, which strengthened our integration services offering, including logistics activities that support exhibitors and organizers across all phases of our events. Looking ahead, visibility for the fourth quarter remains strong. HostMilano delivered excellent performance with either exhibition space and significant growth in international exhibitors. We also launched the first edition of Host Arabia, which will take place in December, marking the start of the global expansion of one of our most strategic brands. Other flagship event in the fourth quarter, such as Milan Games Week are expected to grow versus previous edition and further support year-end results. On the strategic side, we continue to strengthen our international footprint. We signed a partnership with NAFEM, North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers to bring HostMilano to the United States. We were awarded once again CPHI 2026, EMO 2027 and the World Gas Conference 2028, expected to attract over 50,000 participants. This achievement demonstrates our ability to completely globally attract top-tier events and position Fiera Milano as an international reference hub for major rotating exhibitions. In addition, 2 new international annual events have selected Fiera Milano as their resident destination for the first time. SEAQUIP, a new international B2B exhibition dedicated to marine equipment and technologies and MAPIC Italy, the leading national event for the retail and real estate industry. Sustainability also remain a core element of our long-term vision. The recent appointment of Fiera Milano to chair the Sustainability Committee for 2026, 2029 of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry reinforces our leadership in guiding the sustainability transition of the exhibition industry. Based on all these elements, we confirm our 2025 guidance. Revenue between EUR 350 million and EUR 370 million, EBITDA between EUR 115 million and EUR 125 million, net cash availability between EUR 100 million and EUR 110 million already included Expotrans and Emac M&A impact. As we move forward, the growth of our organic business, the pipeline of international rotating events and the progress of Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic work streams with the skating and Ice hockey venues now in the final stage of completion, together with the M&A opportunities we are currently assessing give us confidence also for 2026, even in a macro environment that remains challenging. I will now hand over to Massimo for the financial and business review.

Thank you, Francesco. Good evening, everybody. So as usual, before getting into details of the performance effect and calendar effect at consolidated level, which will help you to understand the dynamics of the 9 months, I will bring you at the beginning to our divisional performance scheme in order to understand how these results were performed in the different divisions of the company. So let me start basically from the Italian Exhibition Business, which accounts for 74% of our total revenues and remains the main contributor of our Group consolidated revenues. For this division, revenues reached EUR 179.6 million. These revenues were up by EUR 27.9 million versus last year. And this improvement reflects strong exhibition performance and a favorable calendar with the presence of major multi-year events such as The Innovation Alliance and Tuttofood. We also benefited from several new exhibitions, including Gastech and Artigiano in Fiera - Anteprima d'Estate. On top of that, we also organized for the first time, NetZero Minal, our organized event in the decarbonization sector. EBITDA for this division grew by EUR 6.6 million, reaching an absolute value of close to EUR 55 million, so EUR 54.5 million. This increase clearly is mainly linked to the revenue trends that we have already described to the contribution of equity accounted investments such as Ipack-Ima. These positive effects were partially offset by the higher maintenance costs by clearly the sponsorship rights cost related to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games and by the additional investment in people and related costs such as the employee share ownership plan and the expansion of the health insurance coverage. On top of that, we clearly also had an increase in terms of labor cost because of the renewal of the main contracts, national contracts related to our employees. Looking at the Foreign Exhibition Business, this accounts for 2% of our total revenues. Revenues were at EUR 4.3 million, in line with last year. This result reflects a portfolio of consolidated international events across key markets, the 12th edition of Investec Cape Town Art Fair in South Africa, the second edition of Fruit Attraction in Sao Paulo, the 25th edition of Exposec and the second edition of Esquadria in Brazil. We clearly also hosted even this year in Singapore, the exhibition that is co-organized with DMG, Find. EBITDA decreased by close to EUR 1 million, EUR 0.8 million, but this is mainly because and due to the performance of our JV in China with Deutsche Messe. And this is not really a performance effect, in reality, it's more a kind of calendar effect because we had the shift of the Domotex and other exhibition that became biannual events. So these events didn't happen this year. And why this is affecting our foreign business because through our JV in China, we bring exhibitors, Chinese exhibitors to these events in Germany. And because this event didn't happen in 2025, clearly, we couldn't rely on the revenues that we normally generate through this business. Congresses, it's still accounting for a very important part of our revenues. It's 19% of the total. Revenues reached EUR 45.3 million in the first 9 months of the year and were up by EUR 9.4 million year-on-year. This result was mainly driven by a mix of recurring events such as the AWS Summit, Milano, Salesforce and Netcomm and also a mix of non-recurring events, including major international congresses like the Asian Development Bank, the ADB, the Annual Meeting of the European Hematology Association Congress, but we also benefited from the income linked to the use of the Congress Center from the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Game Committee. These positive effects more than offset the absence of other important international congresses like the EASL and the SIRM. EBITDA increased by EUR 2 million, reaching close to EUR 14 million, for position EUR 13.9 million, although partially offset by higher maintenance costs related to the reconfiguration of the Congress Center. Last but not least, we have now the other segment in which we are accounting the results of the newly acquired Expotrans company. Revenues were amounted in the period that starts from May to September. Revenue accounts for EUR 12.7 million and EBITDA is accounting for EUR 1.4 million. Now at this point, we can go at a consolidated level. So moving to Slide #14 to better understand the calendar effect and the like-for-like growth of both the hosted, organized and also service division. So again, in the first 9 months, we grew by EUR 47.3 million in terms of revenues. If we want to split and we want to highlight how this EUR 47 million are performed, we can highlight that EUR 22.1 million were related to performance effect, so a like-for-like growth, EUR 5.8 million are coming from a calendar effect, close to EUR 10 million, so EUR 9.4 million are coming from new events such as Gastech and Artigiano in Fiera - Anteprima d'Estate. And then for sure, we have also the impact of the newly acquired company, Expotrans that is accounting for EUR 10 million in this consolidated level revenue view. Now going through the details, we have the organized division that in a like-for-like view is growing by 2%. So clearly, the minus EUR 1.1 million is affected by a negative calendar impact because we don't have -- we cannot rely in the 9 months of 2025 on the Transpotec exhibition, which is a biannual exhibition. The hosted exhibition grew by 2%. The absolute growth of EUR 7.6 million is relying also on top of the performance effect also on a positive calendar impact accounting for more than EUR 3 million and also on the presence of the new exhibition that I was mentioning before, such as Artigiano in Fiera and Gastech. Also, the service division was growing very positively. We had 8% like-for-like net of any kind of calendar impact growth. And on top of this, the EUR 14.5 million growth are also benefiting from calendar impact for sure and also the impact in terms of services provided to the new exhibition, Gastech and Artigiano in Fiera. Then as we have already highlighted, we have a very impressive growth of congresses, which grew by 32% compared to last year. EUR 10 million are coming from Expotrans and EUR 6.6 million are coming also from the revenues that we start accounting also from the stand fitting activities that we perform outside the venue and also from the venue contract with the Milano Cortina organizer. I will now go and move to Slide 15, just to take some sample and highlight the exhibition that performed the most important growth in terms of percentage in terms of square meters. So looking at the organized events, we can highlight the good performance that we have with Milano Home and Quick&More that grew by 5% with Borsa Internazionale del Turismo that grew by 8% and PTE that grew by 4%. On the positive event side, we have the very, very positive growth of Tuttofood that grew by 33% and almost 20,000 square meter compared to the last edition that happened in 2023. I want just to highlight here that Tuttofood, despite is a biannual event, will change seasonality in 2026. So we will become an odd year basically exhibition, biannual exhibition. The positive news is that we are turning into a biannual exhibition and exhibition that is growing very fastly in this moment. So we expect good and positive results in 2026 as well from this exhibition, which is increasing its international footprint at a very good pace. Milano Unica grew by 13%, MIDO grew by 5% and also Vitrum despite recent drop in their performance, grew by 36% compared to the previous year. Now I'm going to provide you with an in-depth overview of our economic and financial performance, presenting you Slide 17 and 18. So looking at the income statement, again, revenues reached at consolidated level EUR 231.8 million, showing a strong increase of EUR 47.3 million compared to the same period of last year. This reflects a like-for-like growth of plus 10% combined with several positive drivers. So organized exhibition space grew by 2%, so revenues related to organized exhibition space. Revenue related to hosted exhibition space increased by 2% as well in a like-for-like view. Physical and digital services were up by 8%. And again, Congress Business delivered more than 32% growth compared to last year. We clearly also benefited from a calendar positive impact of close to EUR 6 million, thanks to the presence of Tuttofood, The Innovation Alliance, which more than compensated the absence of Mostra Convegno Expocomfort, Transpotec & Logitec. In addition, new events, Gastech and Anteprima d'Estate by Artigiano in Fiera on top of NetZero Milan produced more than close to EUR 9.4 million additional revenues compared to last year. Again, Expotrans added another EUR 10 million just in the period in September to the performance of 2025. All these elements confirm not only the strength of our existing portfolio, but clearly, the strength of our diversification and the fact that we can rely on different drivers to keep fueling our growth. Moving on the EBITDA. The Group reached EUR 71.6 million, which represents an improvement of EUR 9.2 million versus the first 9 months of 2024. And this increase mainly reflects the strong revenue trend that I just described, along with the contribution from the equity accounted companies such as Ipack-Ima. These results were achieved despite several cost items such as the higher maintenance cost that I was mentioning before, the additional cost from related to the sponsorship rights linked to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, the expenses and I would call more than expensive investment that we are doing in our people and so the additional costs related to the employee share ownership plan, the extension of the health insurance coverage and the overall increase in the Group's workforce. In other words, we'll continue to grow profitability while investing in our strategic priorities. Finally, looking at the bottom line, net profit for the period reached EUR 17.1 million, an increase of EUR 1.5 million, which is basically 10% increase compared to the EUR 15.6 million reported in the first 9 months of 2024. The growth is more affected, let's say, or is less proportional compared to the growth in terms of revenues and EBITDA, and this is mainly due to a higher effective tax rate compared to the 2024. This reflects both a lower incidence of tax-exemptive dividends and a greater contribution from fully taxable operating results, which naturally increases the tax burden for the period. Now moving to Slide 18. So analyzing very shortly the balance sheet. I will now describe the net working capital and financial position movements. So at 30 September, 2025, net working capital stood at EUR 136.7 million compared to EUR 85.9 million at the end of 2024. So there is a positive change of close to EUR 51 million, so it's EUR 50.7 million and is mainly explained by 4 elements. First, there is an increase in trade and other receivables, which were up by EUR 25.7 million. And this is related to close to EUR 10 million of the invoices related to Milano Cortina 2026 project and EUR 10 million expenses connected to the Olympic activities. And then we have also EUR 6.2 million linked to the expansion clearly because we are consolidating now also the credits from Expotrans. Then the second impact is a reduction in trade payables, reflecting payments made during the period, including those related to Expotrans. Third, we have higher advances for more than EUR 45 million due to the prepayments for major exhibitions such as HostMilano [indiscernible] we are kind of anticipating the revenues that we -- and the margins that we are recognizing in Q4. And finally, a decrease in payables to organizer driven by a different exhibition [indiscernible]. We also recorded an increase in deferred income, both from [indiscernible] contracts and from commitments related to Milano Cortina. So overall, these elements reflect normal seasonal movements of our business and the ongoing Olympic-related activities. Looking at our financial position, net financial availability pre-IFRS 16 reached close to EUR 114 million, EUR 113.8 million compared to EUR 77.8 million at the end of 2024. There is an improvement of EUR 36 million, thanks to the strong cash generation of the period and to the advanced payment received from the upcoming Q4 event. These improvements already reflect not only the dividend payment that we have performed in 2025, but also the cash outflows related to the M&As of Expotrans and Emac. To conclude, the consistency of our results across the first 9 months together with the strong cash generation achieved so far and the solid visibility we have on the final part of the year gives us full confidence in confirming our '25 guidance, but not only to confirm also to say that we are basically in the upper part of all the guidance that we have already communicated. So revenues guidance is EUR 350 million, EUR 370 million. Again, we are basically already in the upper part of this range. EBITDA forecasted in between EUR 115 million and EUR 125 million confirms as well that we are in the upper part of the range and the same applies to net cash availability, which by guidance is forecasted by between EUR 110 million and EUR 100 million. Now I will leave the floor to Vincenzo for the sustainability updates, if any.

Thank you, Massimo. Just a final note, Fiera Milano has been awarded as the Presidency of the International Sustainability Committee of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, so confirming again the leadership role of Fiera Milano also in the area of sustainability. So I believe we have concluded the presentation and we can start the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Simonetta Chiriotti of Mediobanca.

I've got 3. The first is on the third quarter. So you have presented the results for the 9 months. Looking at the third quarter in duration, could you give us a flavor of the underlying trends. So on a like-for-like basis, the spaces that you have sold, the trends in the spaces sold continued as before services and so on. Second question on 2026, if you can share with us your first thoughts on what you expect for next year? And finally, if you can give us an update on M&A if you are still committed as I would expect and if you comment on this aspect.

So thank you, Simonetta, for your question. So the third semester was quite positive in terms of additional revenues. We accounted for close to EUR 40 million additional revenues, of which EUR 4.4 million are coming from the performances of Expotrans, let's say, net of any division between the company. The calendar effect was basically close to nil. We had positive revenues coming and additional revenues compared to 2024 coming from the presence of Gastech in Q3. And I would say that we also accounted from additional revenues from the Olympic, from the contract we signed -- from the venue agreement we signed for the raw venue with the Milano Cortina Foundation. On top of that, we had also a positive growth from the activities that we performed outside the venue, so the stand fitting and logistics services activities that we perform outside the venue. This increase in terms of revenues was reflected also in terms of additional contribution margin. We generated more than EUR 76 million additional contribution margin, of which EUR 2.3 million are related to Expotrans contribution. And positive impact was also driven by the presence of, as we mentioned, Vitrum and Gastech as additional exhibition not present in the 2024 calendar. At EBITDA level, we discounted this additional margin with higher costs. We had close to EUR 3 million, I would say, additional costs compared to last year. Part of these are related to the insurance coverage plan, the [indiscernible] so the share ownership plan and also some additional costs that we have to incur in order to prepare the venues for hosting the Olympic speed skating and games. So this is related to your question about Q3. Related to 2026, at this stage, what we can say is that we expect anyway solid performance from the core business. It's an even year. So we are not speaking about the more favorable year for Fiera Milano because we know that the calendar is naturally lighter because we cannot rely on the revenues and margin related to our biannual organized events. But we have several positive elements that will support the overall trajectory that we have already designed. And this gives us anyway a positive view of the year, even in, I would say, macroeconomic environment that is still quite unstable. So we keep monitoring carefully this scenario. Anyway, we will, for sure, rely on the contribution in terms of revenues and margin coming from the contracts that we have signed with Milano Cortina. Just to remind everybody, we have -- we won the tender to realize -- to create temporary infrastructure. It's more than EUR 30 million contract. We expect at least 15% margin coming from these contracts. And part of the revenues and margin will be accounted clearly in 2026. We will rely for sure on the return of CPHI which is a major global event for us. And we have already some positive sign that this exhibition will grow in terms of occupied space compared to the last edition that happened in 2024. Third, I was already anticipating before, Tuttofood that happened in May 2025 will come back in 2026, again in May, and this will sign the start of a new biannual cycle in which Tuttofood becomes basically an even near biannual exhibition. And we will clearly host again Artigiano in Fiera - Anteprima d'Estate that was launched as a first edition in 2025. And again, we have expectation that this exhibition at the second edition will grow and will keep growing. We will rely again on Host Arabia. We will have the first edition in less than 1 month or close to 1 month. Now it will happen on the 15th of December. Clearly, the expectation is that the second edition will be better than the first one. So -- and in terms of revenues, we can anticipate we are speaking about EUR 1 million additional revenues. We also -- I mean we are working on M&A. You know that this has already closed the gap to your third question. We are working on 2 M&As in this moment. We are in the due diligence phase of both the possible M&A activities. So in case, hopefully, these activities will be closed positively, clearly, we could also rely on the additional positive impact of these 2 M&A. At least one of the 2 because I can spoiler that one is a biannual event that we are looking at. So maybe we will not generate additional impact on 2026, but for sure, then in the future years. So at the moment, we are working -- I can confirm that we are quite active in terms of possible M&A operations. And I hope that this update is giving you the data you are looking for. So based on all these reasons, we think we will provide formal 2026 guidance once we have full visibility clearly on the performance of the exhibition that we organized, on the auto exhibition, on the results of our Milano Cortina contracts, but also when we will have certainty that the M&A operation will be closed.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is a follow-up of Simonetta Chiriotti of Mediobanca.

Yes. So since there is a possibility, I would ask also an update on [indiscernible]. If you can share with us some thoughts about this important event. And more in general terms, from your point of view, did you see any impact on -- from the turbulence that we had on international commerce, so trade war and tariffs and so on?