Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited (C07) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Jardine Cycle & Carriage Full Year 2024 Results Presentation. I'm Ben Birks, JC&C's Group Managing Director. Together with me is Amy Hsu, our Group Finance Director; and Jeffrey Tan, our Group General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer. Before we begin today's presentation and for those of you who have any questions, I'd like to invite you to type your questions into the Q&A box and we can address them at the end of the session. Thank you. I'll now start with the performance highlights. Firstly, I continue to be encouraged that the overall JC&C portfolio delivered a resilient result in 2024. Underlying profit came in at USD 1.1 billion. This was 5% down from the USD 1.16 billion in 2023. Secondly, we've declared a total dividend of USD 1.12 per share for 2024, which maintains the dividend ratio payout at 40%. The payout continues to be in line with the underlying profit. Thirdly, we continue to make progress in the strengthening of our balance sheet. We reduced the holding company debt by around USD 0.5 billion from USD 1.3 billion in 2023 to USD 816 million at the end of 2024. The recycling of capital also enabled continued capital deployment to support our long-term growth objectives. In 2024, we invested a further USD 99 million to increase our shareholding in REE from 34.9% to 41.4%. And lastly, we continue to make progress on our ESG strategy. One of the main goals is to decarbonize our portfolio to build longer-term resilience, and I'm pleased to share that we're on track to achieve our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission reduction target. In 2024, we reorganized our portfolio to align more closely with our capital allocation focus. This new business segment reporting provides greater clarity, I hope, and emphasis on our Indonesian and Vietnamese markets. A third pillar of regional interests groups the other investments beyond these 2 key markets. During the year, we continued execution of our strategy against our key priorities, and I'll now take you through some of the details on the next slide. We previously updated our focus on active capital and portfolio management to deliver enhanced returns and accelerated growth. In respect of capital recycling, I can update that in 2024, we released USD 344 million from the divestment of our entire 25.5% stake in Siam City Cement. We monetized an additional USD 43 million from noncore assets in Malaysia and also in Indonesia. This followed the earlier sale and leaseback of our Singapore properties that took place in 2023 and generated USD 225 million. Maintaining this financial discipline, we've released a total of $612 million from our portfolio with these initiatives. Connecting this to our target to reduce debt at the holding company level, in 2023 and 2024, JC&C also received an additional USD 460 million in enhanced dividends from Astra. Together with the capital recycling proceeds, this facilitated the paydown of our corporate debt from USD 1.5 billion in 2019 to $816 million at the end of 2024. In respect of capital deployment at the group level, our reduced debt levels supported the deployment of additional capital to our portfolio companies where we see higher growth. I'm encouraged that we've been able to further increase our exposure to Vietnam and through companies we know well and also in sectors we feel optimistic about. In 2024, we invested $99 million to increase our holding in REE. Since 2019, we have invested a total of USD 185 million in REE, growing our stake in the company from 24.9% to 41.4%. Today, we are the single largest shareholder in REE. We're very positive on REE's long-term growth prospects. REE operates in power and utilities, real estate and M&E services. Its largest and fastest-growing business is its renewable energy platform, accounting for 50% of REE's net income in 2024. While these reflect our capital allocation decisions at the JC&C Group level, at the portfolio company level, we're supportive of the ongoing commitment to invest for growth. In Indonesia, for example, we're pleased to see the early-stage profit contribution from Astra's investment in its infrastructure business. Profit grew 37% year-on-year to USD 84 million in 2024. We expect to see continued growth from this sector. In the same vein, Astra is now investing in health care to establish a new business pillar. To date, over $300 million has been invested in a number of quality assets. These health care assets will be integrated into Astra's wider ecosystem as a foundation to build a managed care environment that can deliver affordable quality health care in Indonesia. In Vietnam, likewise, for THACO, we continue to be confident in its medium- to longer-term earnings. This is reflected in our subscription of a convertible bond in 2023 and private share placement previously in 2019. THACO has expanded into new sectors such as property and agriculture. And as THACO ramps up these businesses, we expect to see meaningful contributions from these new income streams going forward. Alongside these portfolio developments, our businesses have also been focusing on optimizing and evolving their competitive positions and bolstering future growth prospects. United Tractors continues to leverage its strong cash generation from its coal business to increase exposure to non-coal minerals and renewables. Today, around 24% of UT's profit comes from noncoal-related operations such as gold, nickel mining, heavy equipment distribution and renewables. This is 6% up from prior year. Separately, in respect of our automotive interests, Astra remains fully cognizant of the challenges and opportunities inherent to this sector. In 2024, I'm encouraged that Astra's 4-wheel and 2-wheel market shares remain robust. In respect of new energy vehicles, Astra continues to enjoy strong market shares in the fast-growing hybrid segment that make up 60% of the broader EV market. And I know Astra continues to work closely with its OEMs to ensure that we have the appropriate products for the Indonesian market of tomorrow. That said, to further protect its automotive earnings, Astra continues to prioritize initiatives that grow their upstream and downstream profit where they can leverage their Indonesian-wide network, their customer connectivity and deep operating smarts. A good example is the targeted initiative to go after Indonesia's significant and growing used car profit pool. Since acquiring OLX in 2023, Astra through its [ OLX Mobi ] brand continues to execute their plan to become the clear #1 used car player in Indonesia. At around 30,000 units, although doubled on the prior year, it's early days in the rollout plan. But with every used car sourced and sold, [ OLX Mobi ] is able to drive incremental profit opportunities within the Astra ecosystem around finance, insurance, parts and service. Overall, I remain encouraged by the initiatives to achieve long-term growth and attractive shareholder returns by actively evolving the portfolio and allocating capital to higher growth opportunities. Now moving on to ESG. We are committed to safeguarding shareholder value and progressing our sustainability agenda is a key part of this. Our focus remains maintaining -- on maintaining strong governance, measured decarbonization and building the long-term resilience of our portfolio. We're pleased to share that in 2024, we continue to engage with ESG ratings agencies and maintained our position in the top 15% and top 20% of our peer groups for the S&P CSA and Sustainalytics, respectively. On decarbonization, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 17% from our 2019 baseline, and we remain on track to achieve our reduction target. We also sold our stake in Siam City Cement in 2024. The cement industry is widely considered as a hard-to-abate sector, and the divestment improves the overall ESG position within the JC&C portfolio. And on that note, can I pass over to Amy, for her to take you through the details of our 2024 results. Amy?

Thank you, Ben. Now I would like to start by recapping our profit growth over the last few years starting from the pre-pandemic in 2019. We are pleased to report that JC&C's underlying profit has grown by 28% during the period, achieving a CAGR of 5%, which is in line with the region's GDP growth. Apart from the earnings growth, we have also delivered equivalent growth of dividends to our shareholders, maintaining a steady payout ratio of 40%. In the meantime, our balance sheet has also been strengthened via several capital recycling initiatives. We have reduced USD 700 million of debt at the JC&C level since 2019. All in all, we have maintained resilient earnings and dividends while actively moving the portfolio towards higher growth areas and improving our overall financial strength. Zooming now into our 2024 performance. I'm pleased to report that we have posted yet another year of resilient set of results. Our underlying profit in 2024 was $1.1 billion, 5% lower than the year before, largely due to the impact on foreign exchange. Astra contributed the largest share with $993 million and posted another record year in rupia terms. The non-Astra portfolio contributed $192 million in total. I'll take you through the details later in this presentation. Under corporate costs, we have a foreign exchange loss of $17 million compared to a gain of $22 million in the previous year. This is due to the translation loss of JC&C's foreign currency loans, which is largely noncash in nature. Excluding this, corporate costs has decreased mainly because of lower financing charges. This is in line with our lower corporate net debt. The nontrading items in 2024 mainly comprised a $127 million loss from the disposal of Siam City Cement as well as an unrealized fair value loss of $28 million related to investments. For the full year, the Board has declared a final dividend of $0.84 per share. Together with the interim dividend of $0.28, our total dividend for 2024 is USD 1.12 per share. We have maintained a dividend payout ratio consistent with the historical trend of 40%. Turning now to our balance sheet. Our group's financial position remains strong and improved with shareholders' funds at $8.3 billion. On net debt, excluding Astra financial services, consolidated net debt in 2024 was $235 million compared to $1.1 billion the year before. This reflects JC&C's lower corporate net debt at $816 million as well as Astra's improved overall operating cash flow. Gearing remains very modest at 1%. Our balance sheet strategy is to not have significant long-term structural debt at the holding company level. We believe the leverage should be held directly by the operating companies. We will continue to assess and take further steps to strengthen our balance sheet while also seeking opportunity to deploy capital for growth. Moving on, I will now take you through each of our business segments in further detail, starting with Indonesia. In 2024, our portfolio companies in Indonesia, including Astra and Tunas Ridean, collectively contributed a little over $1 billion to JC&C, 2% down from the previous year. Astra's contribution was $993 million, 3% lower due to translation impact from a weaker rupia. However, on rupia basis, Astra delivered another year of record earnings, driven by higher profits from its motorcycle sales, financial services and infrastructure businesses. I'll go through the details in the next slide. Tunas Ridean contributed $34 million, down 13% from 2023. This was due to a softer 4-wheel automotive market in Indonesia. On Astra, it reported net income of USD 2.1 billion or IDR 34 trillion in 2024. This is up 1% year-on-year. This was driven by the resilient performance for most of its businesses during a very challenging year. First, on automotive, net income decreased by 2% to $705 million. Indonesia's 4-wheel new car market was down by 14% in 2024. Astra sold 483,000 units and maintained a stable market share of 56%. As with the 2-wheeler business, it increased by 2% to 6.3 million units. Astra's 2-wheeler sales was 4.9 million, and it continued to possess a dominant and stable market share of 78%. On financial services, Astra's net income increased by 6% to $525 million. All its main businesses such as consumer financing, equipment financing and insurance saw healthy growth during the year. For the heavy equipment, mining, construction and energy segment, net income was down by 5% at $754 million. Coal prices have come down from the previous highs, which resulted in lower profit from the coal mining business. However, the impact was partly offset by the improved earnings from [ palm, ] mining contracting and as well as the gold mining business. On Agribusiness, net income was up 9%, driven by higher CPO prices during the year. And finally, on infrastructure and logistics, this is a business that we are very positive on given the consistent growth profile. Net income increased by 37% year-on-year to USD 84 million on the back of higher traffic volumes and toll revenue. Over the last 5 years, traffic volume has increased by 10% per annum. We are optimistic that with increased connectivity, there will be further growth. Now turning our lens to Vietnam. THACO, REE and Vinamilk together contributed $103 million profit to JC&C. This is the same as the prior year. THACO contributed $39 million, up 10% compared to the year before. This was driven by better automotive performance as a result of higher sales. THACO's unit sales was 10% higher year-on-year at 89,000 units. Automotive side, THACO continues to ramp up its agriculture and property platforms, which are not making a meaningful contribution today yet, but they are engines for future growth. Next, on REE. REE's earnings contribution was 6% lower at $30 million. This was due to less favorable water condition and lower hydropower demand during the year, resulting in lower profits from its renewable energy business. Nevertheless, this is cyclical, and we remain excited about the prospects of the energy segment, which contributes to more than 50% of REE's income. In 2024, we also continue to make progress on expanding its energy portfolio, including 2 hydro and 1 nearshore wind project. One of the hydro projects is expected to be completed this year, while the other 2 will be completing in the next 2 to 3 years. Lastly, on Vinamilk, its income contribution to JC&C was flat on local currency terms, but 5% lower due to FX translation impact. Turning now to our regional interest segment. Our regional interest delivered $55 million to underlying profit, representing 9% growth year-on-year. The Cycle & Carriage business contributed $32 million. This is 13% higher than the previous year. The improved performance was due to higher sales in both the new car and the used car sales in Singapore. New car sales were 16% higher at 6,500 units and used car sales were 22% higher at 5,800 units. Cycle & Carriage remains Singapore's #1 automotive dealer group with a market share of 15%. We are expanding also our EV portfolio, which now includes new brands such as [ Smart ], ORA, Gogoro and [ Le Motor ]. Siam City Cement, which we have divested, contributed $16 million to the group's underlying profit in 2024. And lastly, our investment in Toyota Motors Corporation generated a dividend income of $7 million.

Thanks, Amy. So looking ahead, we're -- looking backward, sorry, we're pleased with our 2024 performance. And looking ahead for 2025, we expect the Indonesian business to see improvements, and we're optimistic that Vietnam will recover well. We'll continue to actively manage our portfolio to drive shareholder value and deliver sustainable earnings and dividends growth. Okay. With that, we can bring this session to a close.