Global Dominion Access, S.A. (DOM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the earnings call of Dominion. [Operator Instructions] Roberto Tobillas, the Managing Director, will be addressing the floor together with Patricia Berjon Martin who is the Corporate Development Director.

Good morning, and thank you very much for attending this earnings call for the first half of 2025. Before we go into the results in detail, I would like to describe the current context, uncertainty and geopolitical developments that continue to grow. And as we mentioned during Q1 results, even though Dominion is not directly affected by such events because we are diversified in different geographies and businesses. And since we provide services, we may be indirectly affected as we can see with exchange fluctuations. Now as an overall summary, we would to say that we have been growing in organic terms going beyond the guidance under our strategic plan. This first half of 2025 shows that operating income continues to grow progressively with good order intakes where the new contracts are coupled with new contracts in new areas and geographies. And of course, we would like to highlight progress made in terms of attainment of our strategic plan after the divestment in Dominican Republic, we are taking a quantum leap, therefore, reinforcing our strategy by divesting in noncore activities and renewable assets by focusing on high-margin activities, also taking into account the circular economy. Now we're going to see how this translates into figures. As we mentioned in Q1, in order to correctly interpret our income statement, the one that we are presenting, we should take into account that the divestments over the past months have been very important, especially the sale of maintenance services and industrial services. And this had an impact on revenue as well as on margin lines. We have included all the figures concerning those divestments. So we are talking about an impact of divested activities that account for EUR 4 million in EBITDA and EUR 1.7 billion in net profit. And therefore -- this has exactly the same perimeter, and this is the one against which we compare our results for the first half of 2025. Having said that, we are now going to turn to the figures for this month, reaching EUR 538 million, accounting for organic growth of 10% at a constant currency, therefore, doubling the commitment that we undertook under the strategic plan of reaching 5%, thanks to the fact that there are very good dynamics in terms of order intake over the past months and thanks to the development of new projects. As for inorganic aspects, they have grown by 13%, but there was some negative impact of 2%. As for margins, like in prior quarters, they continue to grow progressively, which shows that we are reaping fruit of our strategy by focusing on those activities that are related to the environment where we have divested lower margin activities. Therefore, EBITDA reached 13.7% of revenue. This is the highest historical level posted by the company, therefore, surpassing the total numbers reached year on year. EBITDA grew by 10%, in line with the simplification strategy and also taking into account our leveraging approach. In order to go to the bottom line, we should highlight that we have reduced finance cost, which is EUR 7 million, taking into account discontinued activities. We have, therefore, cut down costs by 25%. This is mainly driven to lower interest rates, which we believe will continue into the following quarters. On the other hand, there was a valuation correction adjustment as a result of the transaction in the Dominican Republic amounting to EUR 14 million due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar at June 30. This is just a fair value accounting adjustment, which has no impact on our cash flows. Therefore, we were able to reach EUR 5 million in income, which reached EUR 19 million without that correction, 40% higher compared to the first half of 2024 on a pro forma basis. Let us see how these figures have evolved across the business lines. We are reporting based on 2 main strategic areas, global environment on the one hand and Global Dominion Tech Energy. The purpose is to make more visible those areas that contribute to our strategy. As for Global Dominion Environment, this area provides service to the industrial sector in order to reduce environmental impact with EUR 221 million in revenue, up 5% compared to the previous period with a contribution margin of 11.9%, therefore, surpassing the figure reported in the previous quarter. As we mentioned before, this strategic area provides the greatest expansion space for synergies, and we would like to continue focusing on this growing area through inorganic acquisitions in order to position ourselves as an integral waste management provider. We believe that this allows for many good opportunities for the company. This area also provides great organic growth opportunities. All in all, Global Dominion Environment accounts for 41% of total revenue for Dominion and 30% of its margin. During this quarter, several milestones should be highlighted, like, for example, the internationalization of the circular economy strategy. For the first time, we have been delivering cleaning services as well as sludge removal services in the U.K. among other countries. There are other activities in other geographies, this can take place through inorganic or organic channels. Therefore, we have been growing, thanks to collaboration with our clients. We normally work hand in hand with those clients as it is the case with Repsol absorbed for the first automatic tank cleaning project in Latin America, and which also happens in La Pampilla refinery project. On the other hand, Global Dominion Tech energy, which is divided into the service and the project areas. On the one hand, as for services during the first half, revenue was EUR 230 million, which accounts for revenue growth of 9% vis-a-vis the prior year. As for contribution margin, it stood at 18% over revenue, and this shows the operating profitability of its activities. Services account for 47% of the contribution margin and 40% of revenue. As for the contracts signed during the first quarter of 2025, which are normally recurring contracts, they continue to grow and telco continues to be an important area. Additionally, we continue signing new contracts in Latin America for the operation and maintenance of telecommunication and electricity projects this quarter in Chile and Colombia. And they add up to those signed in Q1, showing our position and a strong foothold in the area. Then we closed at EUR 86.6 million in another area, up 20% vis-a-vis the previous period, whereas the margin of contribution accounts for 22.7% of revenue. Now this is well above what we established in our guidance. The execution of renewable energy projects in Italy continues to refuel our revenue in the territory. This accounts for 16% of total sales and 23% of contribution margin of the company for the first half of 2025. As for the backlog, it stands at EUR 430 million, in line with what we reported in the previous period. And we also have a new technological integration project for the construction of a new data center of the technological facilities in Galicia. The building covers more than 2,400 square meters. There are other technological integration projects such as the project for the installation of an alarm system in Antofagasta, Chile. This project was also awarded to Dominion. And before closing, I would like to wrap up the main figures concerning the divestment in the Dominican Republic that we disclosed a few days ago. Let me remind you that we are talking about a valuation of 100% of the solar farms that accounts for USD 375 million with the installed capacity being 321 megawatts. This accounts for the sale of 80% of ownership at the current time, whereas 20% will be retained for 3 years. The sale of this 80% accounts for EUR 102 million inflows for Dominion. EUR 42 million will be paid as of 2025 and the revenue will be obtained after the completion of the last farm that is now being built and that will be completed in 2026. It should be highlighted that this has been accounted for under the equity method. Therefore, this does not affect the next P&L account of the company nor its balance sheet. In the upcoming months, therefore, these cash flows will come to our company, reducing our net debt position. Therefore, we'll be able to grow as far as Global Dominion Environment is concerned, where we expect to expedite growth in the coming months. As for balance sheet items, I would like to say that this half yearly balance sheet is affected by the current valuation of those positions denominated other than in euros, mainly in U.S. dollars. And I would also like to say that no extraordinary movements have taken place over the past months. As for net debt, it's EUR 207 million, and this is also connected to CapEx over the period apart from the conversion adjustments that we mentioned before, this financial position does not factor in the transaction carried out in the Dominican Republic, which will be progressively added as the different milestones are completed. And finally, I would like to mention the dividend policy, which accounted for equity reduction. These dividends were distributed in June. Finally, I would like to mention that there was a positive evolution of Dominion, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and this reinforces our strategy and our positioning in those areas that make us grow in terms of profitability. Secondly, I would like to mention significant progress made in simplifying our strategy in the Dominican Republic. We see a project that has crowned all the investments made over the past years, and this continues to be part of the strategic deployment that we are currently undertaking. Thank you all for your attention, and we are now ready to receive and answer any questions you may have.

We are going to allow Carlos Trevino to ask the first question from Banco Santander.

I would like to mention the one-off of this EUR 14 million coming from the Dominican Republic transaction. You said that this is due to the valuation adjustment. Out of this EUR 14 million, how much should be attributed to the appreciation of the assets or to the currency depreciation? At the closing of this transaction, do you expect any additional adjustment? Or do you think that this adjustment carried out in Q2 would actually price in any change in -- that you may expect. So I'm talking about the change in valuation. The second question is concerned with increased debt, which grew by EUR 24 million. Do you think that this is due to working capital, CapEx and investments. Could you provide more detail about why there has been this increase in CapEx and working capital because working capital between December and December amounted to 3.3%. So could you please shed more light on the projects where you see an increase in working capital.

Thank you very much, Carlos. I will try to answer the question myself. Well, as for the Dominican Republican transaction, out of this EUR 14 million, the exchange rate effect amounts to EUR 9.5 million. So we show this effect for you to understand that we are well shielded against any foreign exchange fluctuations. If we carry out this adjustment by EUR 9.5 million, actually, the effect would only be 0.7%. We have considered this taking into account the equity method, mainly because the projects were delayed a little bit during the commissioning phase. Therefore, when we decided to sell everything, all the financial costs had been recognized. We decided, therefore, to account this in this way under the equity method. We do not expect any additional variations, even though this is a U.S.-denominated account receivable that is EUR 9.5 million in exchange differences. We are now at with 1.17, before it was 1.46. So this is actually tied to the evolution of the U.S. dollar because the company as such was very well balanced in terms of foreign currency. But this equity value of USD 100 million, well, should be recovered, but since we were not certain about the transaction, we had not recognized that. So this is a snapshot. We still have a 20% that we're still keeping that we are going to retain for the next 3 years. We are going to work hand in hand with the partner in order to continue creating value and so that, that 20% will account for a higher percentage at some point down the road so that we can continue improving the asset through refinancing. As far as the increase in net debt, we should highlight that there is a seasonal component. On the one hand, you know that in June due to seasonality reasons, we are not at the same working capital situation as in prior years. The level of factor, I think, is EUR 20 million or EUR 25 million lower compared to December 2024, and that somehow accounts for this change in net debt position. However, as far as our businesses is concerned in U.S.-denominated markets, there we are reporting net positive results. Therefore, this conversion difference somehow impairs our level of working capital. Even if you believe that we are at the same footing, we are actually making more investments due to the conversion differences that have an impact on the company's working capital. But actually, this is just the effect. As far as the Dominican Republic is concerned, we normally design our transactions very carefully not to be impacted by any one-offs. However, due to the tariffs imposed by Trump, even though they do not affect us directly, this affects the U.S. dollar, and therefore, this has hit us. That's what happened in June, but we have to wait and see how this evolves. The transaction is tied to the closing terms and conditions as usual. According to governmental permits that should be expected from the Dominican Republic authorities shortly, and we have to wait and see how the U.S. dollar evolves up until then.

We are now going to start with Raphael Perez's question from ValueSpain. He has 3 questions that he has posted in the chat function. What has happened with the [ Mathal ] structured asset in Germany? Are they still for sale?

Well, I understand that you are referring to the asset that we held in Slovakia. I believe that this has been recorded in our financial statements. This asset is already reporting positive results as part of our transition in the industrial sector. This has been recognized as a continued activity, not a discontinued activity in our balance sheet. This is part of the wind project.

The second question is what about the rental contracts. This is changing. We are at EUR 12 million approximately, taking into account the IFRS 20 effect.

I think that, that effect amounts to EUR 20 million. But this is just a ballpark figure.

And the third question from Raphael is whether the fall in House will take us to change our valuation for this asset.

Right now, we are monitoring the value of this company. So we are going to look into these one-off impacts. Nonetheless, whatever we do on this asset on the goodwill that the firm has will not have an impact on our cash flows. And this will enable us to have some fiscal or tax improvements, but we are going to report on that at the end of the reporting period. We are happy with the performance that we experienced on this side of the business, and we are now trying to create value along this process.