IMCD N.V. (IMCD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to this analyst call on the first half year results 2020 of IMCD N.V. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Piet van der Slikke. Please go ahead, sir.

Yes. Thank you very much. Welcome, everybody. I'm here as usual with Hans Kooijmans, and we will answer your questions in a few minutes. A few remarks from my side, and then Hans will take you through the key financial numbers. I'm happy to report that IMCD performed well given the very difficult circumstances because of the COVID crisis. We were able to grow in the first 6 months with 7% even in a difficult second quarter. As you know, we were confronted with lockdowns of various nature, but almost everywhere, we were considered as a central business and we could continue our activities. In many offices of IMCD, our people worked from home, but where possible, we also returned to the office. Our performance in the Americas and the APAC, Asia Pacific, was in particularly strong. In EMEA, the picture was mixed. Some countries were affected by the COVID crisis seriously, some less often dependent on government handle -- how governments handle the lockdown. Overall, I'm optimistic about our ability to grow. We are resilient, and we have sufficient interesting projects to drive future growth. Of course, timing of that will be dependent on how fast we will get past this COVID crisis. And now I would like to hand over to Hans, who will lead us through the numbers.

Great. Thanks for the introduction. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And I would like to take you through a short summary of the results of IMCD in the first half of 2020, as reported earlier today. And as usual, I would like to start on Page 9 of the presentation, where you will find a summary of the first half year income statement. As you can see, ForEx adjusted revenue increased 2% and gross profit increased 8% compared to the same period of last year. This gross profit growth was a combination of 5% as a result of acquisitions and 3% organic growth. Gross profit in percentage of revenue increased 1.3% from 22.3% last year to 23.6% year-to-date. This increase is, amongst others, the result of various internal initiatives to improve the gross margin and the small accounting change as a result of one of the business integration. Further, we saw the usual fluctuation and quarterly differences in margin percentages between regions caused by changes in local market circumstances, product mix differences and currency fluctuations. ForEx adjusted operating EBITDA and EBITA, both increased with 8%. This increase was a combination of organic growth and the first-time inclusion of acquisitions. Operating EBITDA in percentage of revenue increased to 10.2%, and operating EBITA in percentage of revenue increased with 0.5% from 8.8% to 9.3%. The conversion margin, calculated as operating EBITA in percentage of gross profit remained stable at 39.5%. On the next page, Page 10, you will find a summary of financial details per operating segment. In EMEA, we report 3% ForEx-adjusted gross profit growth and an operating EBITA of EUR 70 million versus EUR 71 million last year. The EBITA margin of 10.2% remained stable compared to the same period of last year. In the Americas, we saw double-digit gross profit and operating EBITA growth, respectively, by 11% and 14%. Operating EBITA in percentage of revenue improved 1.5% to 9.7%. In Asia Pacific, we realized 24% gross profit and 29% EBITA growth on a constant currency basis. This growth was a combination of organic growth and the first-time inclusions of acquisitions, like Whawon Pharm business in South Korea that we acquired end of last year. Operating EBITA margin and conversion margin both increased compared to the same period of last year. And in the last column, all nonoperating companies, including the head office in Rotterdam and regional support offices in Singapore and New Jersey but we reported slightly higher cost, mainly as a result of further strengthening of support functions in the course of the last year in these offices. Then on Page 11, a summary of the P&L lines between operating EBITA and net results for the period. A few general remarks. Net finance costs include, amongst others, interest expenses, currency exchange results and changes in deferred considerations. Further, it includes part of the IFRS 16 lease expenses. Income tax expenses related to the countries where we generate taxable income. And the tax cash out in the first 6 months, as you can see in the cash flow statement, was about EUR 20 million. Amortizations of intangible assets are mainly noncash costs related to the amortization of supplier relations, distribution rights and other intangibles. And last but not least, on the bottom of this page, you could see a ForEx-adjusted 6% increase in cash earnings per share to EUR 1.69. For your info, on Page 12, specification of the net finance cost, where we reported an increase of EUR 2.4 million compared to the first half of last year. And as you can see, main driver of this increase were changes in deferred consideration and currency exchange results, adding EUR 4.3 million to the finance cost. Interest cost of our loan structure were close to EUR 2 million lower than in the same period of last year. Then on Page 13, a summary of IMCD's balance sheet. Property, plant and equipment of EUR 91 million is a combination of a limited amount of fixed assets that we really own ourselves and more than EUR 70 million right-of-use assets, in other words, capitalized operational leases as a result of the application of IFRS 16. Intangible assets and related deferred tax liabilities are a result of M&A and our history as private equity of the company. And there's a substantial equity position which covers about 52% of our capital employed. In June, the AGM approved our proposal to pay a dividend of EUR 0.90 per share. This dividend was paid in Q3 in July resulting in a total cash out of EUR 47 million. I would like to make you aware that although we paid this dividend in July, we deducted this dividend from equity and included this payment in July as a debt item in these half year figures. The leverage ratio end of June, based on our loan documentation, was 2.5x EBITDA, which was well below the required maximum as set in the loan recommendations. Reported leverage was 2.9x EBITDA. The difference is the result of differences in definitions between IFRS and the loan documentation. Further reported leverage includes additional lease-related debt as a result of the application of IFRS 16. Working capital is summarized on the next page, where you will find a summary of the absolute amount of the various working capital components and these amounts translated in days of revenues. As you can see, the absolute amount of working capital end of June increased by EUR 34 million compared to year-end 2019. Compared to last year, June, the overall working capital days increased 2 days from 58 to 60. We did reasonably well on the debtor days. And there was a strong focus on cash collection which helped to avoid a material impact of COVID on our receivables. Compared to June last year, we could even reduce the number of debtor days slightly from EUR 60 million to EUR 59 million. It's fair to say that we could have done better on stock days. Inventories moved from 45 days last year in June to 49 days this year. In certain countries, the impact of COVID was underestimated. And in some cases, purchase orders were not, or too late, adjusted to an unexpected cohort-related delay. Further, we felt the impact of relatively long lead times of certain specialty chemicals, making it difficult to adapt stock levels quickly to the COVID situation. And we consider this relatively high stock position as a temporary issue, and we took actions to reduce stock levels where needed and possible. I would like to finish the short financial summary with a cash flow overview on Page 15. As you might remember, at the end of Q1, we reported a difference in cash conversion ratio between Q1 this year and Q1 last year of minus 23%. By Q1 last year, it was EUR 12 million better than Q1 this year. At the end of Q2, we closed part of this gap. But by the year-to-date cash, 57% cash conversion ratio is still below last year. As indicated before, the year-to-date working capital investment mainly stocks is the main driver of this difference. I assume you all read the outlook on Page 17 already in our press release and suggest that we move to Q&A. And therefore, I would like to hand over to the operator to open the line.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Mr. Mutlu Gundogan of ABN AMRO.

Piet, Hans, a few questions. First, there's quite a difference in performance between the regions with EMEA gross profit in Q2 2020, down 4% year-on-year, while Americas was up 4% year-on-year. Can you tell us why that was? And then secondly, on your gross profit margin, this remained elevated at 23.6% in Q2. Do you expect this to normalize? And if so, by when? And then finally, on the inventory side, you talk about higher stock values due to COVID-19, and you referred to countries, if I'm not mistaken, in your remarks. But I was wondering, was it also related to certain product categories, given the fact that you expect this to normalize usually around 50 days of revenue. So should this -- do you think this will be normalized by the end of Q3?

Thank you, Mutlu. Yes, in my opening remarks, I already mentioned something about EMEA, results were mixed. Some countries performed very well, but we had also, particularly in the Latin countries of Europe, in some months of the second quarter, significant decrease of activity and particularly in those countries where lockdowns were also extended almost to manufacturing facilities. We felt that impact immediately. And I think that, that is the main reason, I think, why Europe has done worse than the Americas. We see improvement now but I think this is directly related to how lockdowns were performed. And in particular, in South Europe, France, Iberia, Italy, we saw a strong decrease in activity in those months. Whereas other countries did much better. So it's a mixed picture. As to stock levels, your last question, I think Hans put it well. I mean we have, in certain countries, higher stock levels than desirable and that's not so much, let's say, to be pinpointed to certain market segments that it's more about across the board. But we feel confident that we bring that back and that we get the cash out. And on gross margin. Yes, let's see, of course, this is a continuous effort for us to increase margins, in particular, also in the Americas where we -- in North America, where we integrated businesses where we, as you remember, had some lower-margin businesses in -- on the West Coast that we try to get to higher levels. As always, there's a ceiling. So let's see where that is, but I hope that we can continue on this level.

Can I follow-up on that, Piet? On the gross margins because one of your peers talked about higher unit margins, and that seems to be temporary. Well, in your remarks, you talked more about your own efforts to increase the margin. So are you saying that you had hardly or little benefit from, perhaps, temporarily elevated unit margins?

Unit margin is probably something we do not -- I'm not particularly sure of what that means. I think it's a brand taker term but -- and I think that has to do probably also with more commodity-related business. So that's less applicable to us. And I can imagine that it has something to do with certain product ranges that are now very much in demand, in particular for disinfectants, et cetera. We are not a big player in that field. So we are looking at, let's say, the whole range of our markets and try to increase our margin. So I don't think that, let's say, that effect that you're alluding to is applicable to us.

Next question is from Mr. Matthew Yates of Bank of America.

Two questions. The first one is just your statements around taking measures to bring down the inventory. Will that require any sort of write-down in the third quarter? Or is that just more of a natural unwind as you adjust purchasing patterns? The second question is a follow-up, really, around the margin. I think you explained the relative difference between Europe and the Americas. But just specifically on the Americas, you had -- if we look sequentially, revenue down just over 10%. Yet the percentage margin was more or less unchanged. Can you just give us some of the moving parts as to how you kind of manage the operating leverage in the business?

Yes. On the question on stock, we don't expect specific write-offs. We will unwind that in the ordinary course of business. So nothing special to expect. Hans, do you want to say something on the margins, or I think...

Pieter, this is what you said before. We bought in North America, substantial businesses with, on average, lower margins than what we do elsewhere in the group. I think we explained from the start that we expected that integration and putting in place IMCD support tools on the IT side will help us to bring gross margin percentages up. And basically, we see that happening right now. So there is a permanent internal improvement process. How to optimize your pricing, how to set your pricing in the right way and so on and so forth. And one of -- that leads to, amongst others, an increase in net margin percentage.

I think adding to what Hans is saying, we also -- what is very important for our business is to -- is transparency internally in terms of how we can follow orders, margins, et cetera. And we made considerable steps also with the new acquisitions during this period. In that sense. So that helps also to further optimize our business.

And if I can just follow-up around the Americas, you launched this kind of integrated platform late last year. It's very difficult for us to tell from the outside the kind of traction you're getting with the customer base, given the distortion on the numbers from COVID, but can you talk a little bit about how that kind of rollout process is going and then the traction you're getting in the Americas?

Yes. Yes, it's -- as you know, I mean, we had different systems in the U.S. because of the acquisitions that we did. There are a couple of layers here to help us, first of all, the backbone ERP system that we integrated and implemented. And on top of that, also the rollout of Salesforce. So that helps enormously sales people -- sales support people management to follow the business, to also communicate with each other about the business, with customers about the business. It's -- I agree with you, it's an intangible. It's difficult to explain but I mean sometimes people and companies work in -- more or less, I would say, blind, but with a rearview mirror, and it's better to look ahead, and see where the projects are, what the margins are, what the possibility, pricing possibilities are. So it's a combination of factors. And so in 2019, we started with that project and follow-up, and it's more or less done for the Americas. One step to go, but then it takes place. And of course, it helps also to easier communicate with our customers. On top of that, we're trying to build a B2B digital platform. So everything that helps us now to communicate with our customers in this rather difficult time is helping us.

Our next question is from Mr. Tom Burlton of Berenberg.

Piet, Hans, I've just got a few, please. The first one is just in terms of the outlook, I know you guys don't tend to give a sort of quantitative guidance or anything of that nature. At the moment, it's even more difficult than usual to do so. But a lot of the companies that I look at least, because of the difficulty in giving an outlook, they are giving a bit more color in terms of sort of exit rates and sort of growth cadence through the quarter. Is there any sort of increased color you can give us around that, perhaps, sort of how you exited the quarter? Just in broad terms, what sort of trends you're seeing? And then secondly, just in terms of the operating expenses, in terms of the cost line, it looks like quite good cost control in Q2, particularly if I look at EMEA and the Americas, and indeed, if I compare that to the sort of year-over-year cost trends that we saw into the Q1, it looks like a very good performance in Q2. Are you able just to quantify how much, if any, of the sort of cost control was due to any sort of government support schemes, any further schemes, any deferrals or social charges, anything sort of more temporary that we might expect to sort of unwind in the second half and sort of how we should think about modeling cost trends, I suppose, for the rest of the year? Should we be thinking about sort of Q3 and Q4 being a bit more similar to Q1 in terms of the sort of year-over-year sort of OpEx trends for the group? And then just the last one in terms of, Piet, the comments you made about the sort of optimism around the ability to grow in the future. You called out sort of projects to drive future growth. I just wonder whether you could sort of flesh out or give some highlights maybe from some of those projects or what geographies or business units are we thinking about there. What's the sort of expected ROI perhaps on some of those projects? Just a bit more color would be helpful.

Thanks, Tom. On part of looking ahead, of course, extremely pleased that we have not looked ahead like many others and then have to retract. I think -- and we continue to do that. We don't feel that we help anybody to try to predict the future. The only thing I can say is also during the second quarter that the months were volatile, whereby we could say cautiously that we see some improvements during the end of the quarter. And hopefully, that continues. But again, I think that this will be very dependent on how the crisis -- the COVID crisis will develop. But so far, I'm modestly optimistic that we -- yes, that we could see that trend that we saw in the last month or so could continue. On the operating expenses, we did not get any government -- and did not apply for any government help, because we don't need -- we didn't need it, and we don't need it. And we feel also, even if we would be eligible, we have decided not to do that. So nothing what you see in this, let's say, cost reduction, has to do with any government support. I think, obviously, what you see is that we reduced or has seen our travel expenses reduced because nobody travels. So maybe that's a good idea for the future. I don't know. But that has an impact. I think you will see that continuing during the rest of the year. The other cost items that have not taken place. And other than that, we have been very prudent, of course. On the projects, I think that is appetite from suppliers to work with us on optimizing their sales channels. And -- but it is difficult for me to disclose more of that, but we see both in the Americas and in Europe and in Asia, good possibilities to work with our partners and our principles to expand cooperation or start new cooperations of significant size. But it is too early to disclose that. And -- but it is, of course, part of our continuous activity to be in conversation with our principles and suppliers and to convince them of the efficiency of our model and of our route to market. And I'm happy to say that we're still quite successful in doing that. But hopefully, we will see the results in the coming period.

The next question is from Mr. Steven Goulden, Deutsche Bank.

Just a couple of quick ones. Obviously, as you said, travel and entertainment down, I would have thought it's relatively difficult to be physically meeting customers, et cetera. Has there been any -- has there been really much change in share, would you say, over the last quarter? And within that, what are the difficulties? Would you expect that as things open up, there is a decent pipeline of opportunity? Or is it a thing kind of relatively static at the minute with people really just focusing on getting supply, et cetera, having trusted partners and maybe is really sort of looking around for sort of better opportunities? If you could sort of expand on that, that would be very helpful. The second question would just be on M&A and how do you see your pipeline? Has the last quarter kind of impacted that at all? And yes, if you could expand on that, that would be great.

Yes. Yes, Steven, it's a good question. I think, of course, we cannot, as usual, let's say, visit customers in the frequency and in the, let's say, concentration as we did before. That will also -- and that has, of course, also some impact in reaching new customers. I think that goes for everybody. I think probably you will see also certain conservatism in a lot changing now formulations or getting into, let's say, embed with new suppliers or principles. So that -- I mean, I'm not sure of how fast that will change. It has a downside. It has also -- it's also a positive because it means that, of course, we have a steady flow of incoming business. I think it also very much depends on how some of the industries we are working in will open up or will increase activities. I mentioned there, the car industry, and the effects that have throughout the chain, but also personal care production, which is, of course, a very globalized business -- are also very dependent on when it's concentrated in Europe for export. So far, of course, it's -- I think, slowly starting up. So there's not a lot of more that I can say about it. And I think -- but what I can say is that the resilience of the model also is evidenced by the fact that we have so many customers that will continue to keep ordering, also in this difficult time. And your second question was on M&A pipeline. Yes. Well, we did -- we closed an acquisition in China. And added some pharma business to our existing pharma business. Very happy with that because it strengthened our presence in pharma, and we will notice that right away. Yes, we are working on projects, a bit more difficult because we can't visit many of the owners or sellers, but we have still a reasonable pipeline of things that go on and that we hope to be able to close in the next 6 to 12 months.

The next question is from Mr. Chetan Udeshi of JPMorgan.

First one was just a clarification on the acquisition of intangible assets line in the cash flow, it seems to have gone up significantly. Is any part of acquisition costs included in that? Or is that just organic spending on intangible assets? That's the first question. The second question was just around second quarter, would you say there was any abnormal benefit you guys saw because of tightness in any of your particular end markets or product segments? Or would you think it's just a fair reflection of what was the normalized environment in the second quarter for IMCD?.

Chetan, perhaps I should answer to your first question on the acquisition of intangibles. It is partly related to the changes because of IFRS, and that has to do with cash out related to licenses -- software licenses and additions that we made on that side and partly with M&A related. It's a combination of the two. And your second question. Yes. On the -- let's say, the different business segments. It's obvious that certain segments perform better than others. Industrial segments have a tendency, of course, to be more affected by this crisis, particularly because of the end markets that they work for, like the automobile industry or construction and obviously, and we said that also after the first quarter, our pharmaceutical business has done quite well. And we have a strong business there. Our food business has performed well, although, of course, the food service side of this business has suffered because of the closure of restaurants, et cetera. But nevertheless, still doing quite well. So there are some differences in markets. And -- but that is also, again, the evidence of the strength of us that we -- not only geographically we see differences in strength, but also in the different markets we operate in. Households, the smaller segment for IMCD, but still doing quite well because of the COVID crisis. But -- so our mixed picture which then ended in the results that you saw.

So what you seem to be saying is, unless the market demand deteriorates because of second wave, et cetera, we shouldn't expect any sort of difference in terms of how second half turns out versus what you guys have seen in the second quarter? Would that be a fair assessment?

I find that a very clever way of asking what the outlook will be for the next 6 months. But I leave that conclusion to yourself because you saw the second quarter, you saw also that the second quarter, I think, all of us know, has been the most severe in terms of how it affected the markets. And so you draw your own conclusions about what could happen in the third and fourth quarter.

Our next question is from Mr. Peter Olofsen of Kepler Cheuvreux.

Two questions, if I may. Maybe first for Hans on the gross margin improvement. One of the drivers that you mentioned is the fluctuations in the product mix. Just to be clear, the support that you had from mix, was it because of a more favorable mix within certain end markets and industries? Or is it because some higher gross margin industries did better than the ones where typically you would have lower gross margins? And then I have a second question, which is around digital. I think in your relation with clients, digital has not played a very major role in this industry in the past. But with people now working at home, your people not being able to travel, do you sense that this crisis may accelerate the adoption of digital solutions in the chemical distribution industry? Those were my questions.

No. Peter, to come back on your first one on gross margin. But it's difficult to say that it has to do with specific end market. It is -- we do about what this, is 50,000 different products with individual pricing, and we try to optimize wherever we can. And we see usual fluctuations in margin. Further, we already explained the activities that we did on this area in North America, integrating, improving the processes and so on and so forth. What also plays a bitter role is -- who is responsible for transport of goods? And how does that end up your P&L? You can imagine if we take care of transport, you make a higher margin, but you lose a bit on the transportation cost and so on and so forth. So these type of things all have an impact, different size, different magnitude per quarter per month. But the overall tendency that we saw is a strong emphasis on if you can improve, please improve your pricing and make sure that you get the best out of the market, and that is reflected in the numbers that you saw. On...

Yes, on digital, a very good question. I think we all learned, everybody learned, that working habits have been affected and can change also because of this crisis. I think digital is, of course, a very broad, let's say, concept. I mean if you look at our industry, where it was usual to visit customers and try to convince them to buy your products in formulations. I don't think that will totally disappear. But on the other hand, it's also clear that the fact that we can communicate so easily with customers over Zoom or whatever, over Teams, makes a difference. The chat functions that we install, the formulation advice abilities, the digital that we do, the ability to -- for customers to look into their history, but also to download documents that they need. There's a lot of, let's say, documents involved in the chemical industry for safety reasons. So there's -- there are lots -- and then in the end, of course, also ordering, but that is maybe the least important in this sense. I think it's about having contracts, communication, insight in the possibilities of products, the ability of labs to communicate, organizing seminars over the web. So there are many, many different possibilities to communicate and reach out to customers. And I think this crisis has accelerated the possibilities there. So in that sense, I think you're right, that also in our industry that the chemical industry in itself has been pretty conservative that this will also accelerate these tools in this industry. So -- and that will have also an effect, I would say, on, let's say, the qualities of the people that you need in your business and the qualifications that you need.

Next question is from Mr. Quirijn Mulder of ING.

Two questions from my side, small ones. I think with regard to the outlook, you also mentioned the opportunities for organic growth by -- probably by distribution, let me say, relationship with your suppliers. Can you maybe elaborate on that? Is there any impact from COVID-19 on that specific mentioning that figure, or let me say, that remark? And the second question is, can you give me an idea about the organic growth in the Far East as you did not mention that? And I think it was relatively -- it's relatively high. So maybe you can give an indication of that.

Yes. The -- I mean we speak here about outsourcing. And for your first question, as always -- and this is a subject, of course, that we addressed earlier also in earlier conversations. Outsourcing is -- and concentration also of -- let's say, of your distribution channels as a supplier is a trend that we feel is continuing. And here they are also accelerating. And I think that we benefit from that as a global player, as a company that is present in many, many regions. And our relationships help us to strengthen that also in -- to bring across these relationships also to other territories. So that will continue, I think, and that will drive growth also. COVID, I don't think that has a specific influence on that. It's also too early to tell. I think what you see in the difficult circumstances, market circumstances, people have a tendency to look more -- let's say, more focused on their sales channel strategy. So that could help. But I think it's too early to now, let's say, address that to, or allocate that to, COVID. Hans, the second question was...

I think, Quirijn, your question was the split organic and M&A growth in Asia Pacific. Typically, we don't disclose that in each and every quarter per segment, but I think it's fair to assume that it was around about 10% in the region.

Yes, we had significant growth there, did well in most regions in Asia. And I think if you look at, let's say, the impact of COVID that has been -- yes. So far, with the exception, I would say, of India in the first couple of months of the second quarter. But in the other countries, has been less so than in other parts of the world.

We have another question from Mr. Mutlu Gundogan of ABN AMRO.

Just a few more questions, if I may. So on stock building, I remember that you said that this had a positive impact on the first quarter. So what kind of benefit did you see or did you see an impact in the second quarter? I mean was this a benefit? Or was the drag [ hacked ] because customers eventually might work through elevated stock levels? And then getting back to pricing because it's not exactly clear to me yet, Piet. I mean is it possible that because of COVID-19 and because of certain, I would say, scarcity in certain product categories, that this has enabled you to implement price increases, which is having a positive impact on your gross margin? Or are you absolutely ruling that out?

Perhaps Mutlu, to answer your first question. I think the discussion around Q1 figures was coming from analyst side that if the results were impacted by stock building by our customers. And then we said, we don't rule that out, but we don't know if that materializes. And basically, if there was additional hamstring or stock building at the end of Q1 that should then have had a negative impact on Q2. But we did not really see that happening as far as...

I think -- yes, I think, Hans, it's difficult. As we said also then, it's difficult for us to see that. I think you could say maybe that in the pharma industry, there has been some stock building, but it's more guess that we can quantify that. So I think we should not overemphasize this. As to pricing and COVID, again, I mean, I don't want to hide behind the enormous numbers of products and but I want to hide behind it. I mean I want to mention it, at least. It's, of course -- I mean, where we see the opportunity to increase prices, we do it. But this is more, let's say, in the DNA of the company. So I don't think that, that is now a specific, let's say, COVID-related issue or benefit. I hope this helps a bit.

[Operator Instructions] We have no questions coming through at the moment, sir. Please continue.

All right. Then I thank everybody very much for their interest, and I wish you a great day, and see you in the quarter.

This concludes the analyst call and the first half year results 2020 of IMCD. Thank you for your attention. You may now disconnect your lines.