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

Good afternoon. Welcome to Jardine Cycle & Carriage's Full Year 2025 Results Presentation. Thank you for joining us. I'm Freddy Lee, the Group Finance Director of JC&C. I think it's still not too late to wish everyone who celebrates a happy, healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year of the Horse. Typically, the full year results are presented jointly with the Group Managing Director. As Ben Birks will be stepping down at the end of our general meeting later this year and his successor will be announced in due course, I will take you through the 2025 performance today. Before we proceed, some logistics for today's presentation. If you have any questions, may I invite you to type them in the Q&A box, and we will address them at the end of the session. Moving on, we are pleased to report that JC&C produced a stable set of results for 2025 amid a challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop. The underlying profit of USD 1.11 billion is 1% higher than 2024's underlying profit of USD 1.102 billion. Our businesses in Indonesia faced a challenging operating environment. This was partially offset by the improved results from Vietnam and Singapore as well as foreign exchange gains and lower financing costs at the JC&C corporate level. During the year, we also strengthened our balance sheet position by reducing our corporate net debt from $816 million to $577 million at the end of 2025. Based on our performance for the year, the Board has declared a final dividend of $0.85, bringing our total 2025 dividends to $1.13 per share. In line with our sharpened focus on shareholder value and investor communications, we continue to enhance our corporate governance practices and disclosures. We are also delighted to share that in 2025, JC&C achieved its highest ever ranking of #4 out of some 500 listed companies on the Singapore Governance and Transparency Index. All in all, in 2025, we achieved a 1-year TSR of 34.2%. Our approach as a long-term investor is to build a portfolio that is exposed to sustainable profit pools and growth markets through identifying and investing today and tomorrow's market leaders. We engage with our portfolio companies through Board influence and management representation to work with them to drive performance. Our objective is to deliver superior 5-year TSR through sustainable earnings growth and steadily increasing our dividends. This also entails active capital management and portfolio management as well as other corporate initiatives to uplift the value of the overall portfolio. In 2025, we continue to execute this strategy. Some highlights include in the people area, the appointment of Jardine Matheson's CEO, Lincoln Pan and myself to Astra's Board of Commissioners as well as Amy Hsu, my predecessor at JC&C as Astra's CFO. Apart from Astra, we have also shareholder representation in our associate companies, THACO and REE. These appointments enable close communication with our portfolio of businesses to drive performance and future earning pathways. At the business level, Astra made various investments to position itself for future growth. In used cars, Astra partnered with Toyota to strengthen its leading position in this market, enabling greater access to used cars nationwide. Astra also acquired 83.7% interest in Indonesia's largest industrial logistics player, Mega Manunggal Property or MMP. Astra's holdings was increased to 91.4% following the completion of a mandatory tender offer. The acquisition of MMP thus enables Astra to gain a significant foothold in the fast-growing modern warehouse sector. Further, in 2025, Astra announced the $540 million acquisition of Doup gold mine in Sulawesi, which has reserves of 1.6 million ounces. This transaction was completed in February 2026. Astra has been investing in Indonesia's health care sector since 2021. To date, it has invested about $550 million into health care, and this includes increasing its stake in leading health tech platforms, Halodoc to 31.3% and in Hermina, one of Indonesia's largest hospital groups to 20.2%. In line with our approach to actively manage our portfolio and capital, we have also undertaken some corporate initiatives this year. JC&C divested 4.6% of its holdings in Vinamilk for $228 million in December. And just last week, we further sold another 3.5% for $188 million, bringing our remaining stake in Vinamilk to approximately 2.5%. In November last year, Astra and United Tractors each announced a IDR 2 trillion share buyback program. Both buyback programs were completed in full in January this year, following which Astra and United Tractors announced a further tranche of buybacks for the same quantum, bringing the total announced buybacks of both Astra and UT to $480 million. In February, Astra completed a second tranche with a total value of IDR 685 billion. As previously announced at both JC&C and Astra, we are undertaking a comprehensive strategic review that incorporates looking at portfolio management, capital allocation and sustained TSR performance. We are on track to share the outcomes in the later part of the second quarter this year. We aim to deliver shareholder returns through sustained earnings and dividends growth, which are fundamental drivers of TSR. Typically, we will communicate our 5-year performance, but for better comparability this year against a pre-pandemic baseline, you will see our underlying earnings and dividends from 2019 on this slide. Besides earnings and dividends, we also focus on clarity in communicating our portfolio and capital strategy to achieve our TSR objective. As at the end of 2025, we produced a 5-year TSR of 17.5%. Now moving on to the full year 2025 results. For 2025, we reported a consolidated revenue of $21.4 billion, down 4% compared to the previous year. Our underlying profit was $1.1 billion. This is 1% up from the prior year. Vietnam and Cycle & Carriage, which is part of regional interest, produced higher contributions, and we also benefited from foreign exchange gains as well as lower financing costs at the JC&C corporate level. This offsets partially the lower contribution from Indonesia. Our investments in Indonesia contributed $945 million to JC&C's underlying profit. This is 8% lower than last year. This mainly reflected the softer consumer sentiment and lower mining contracting volumes in Indonesia. In Vietnam, THACO and REE both saw improved performance, which supported the 25% increase in Vietnam's contribution to JC&C's underlying profit of $129 million. In regional interest, the contribution to JC&C is $56 million, 1% higher than the prior year. However, excluding Siam City Cement on a like-for-like basis, which we have since divested Siam City Cement, the total contribution of regional interest would have been 43% higher, driven materially by Cycle & Carriage. Corporate costs improved by $63 million as we recorded a $26 million translation gain versus a $17 million translation loss in the prior year as well as lower corporate financing costs due to lower debt levels achieved over the period of 2025. These factors improved JC&C's profitability. Now based on the 2025 results, the Board declared a final dividend of $0.85 per share. This brings the total dividend for 2025 to $1.13 per share, 1% higher than 2024. I'd like to share more about our balance sheet position. Shareholder funds remained strong at $8.6 billion. Due to strong operating cash flow, JC&C's consolidated net debt, excluding the net borrowings from Astra's financial services subsidiaries was $44 million compared to a net debt of $235 million as at the end of 2024. The JC&C corporate net debt was $577 million at the end of last year compared to $816 million at the end of 2024. The proceeds from the sale of our 4.6% stake in Vinamilk in 2025 were used to reduce the corporate net debt. We intend to further pay down our debt with the $188 million proceeds from our latest partial sale of our [ Vinamilk holding ]. I will now bring you through the performance of each of our business pillars in more detail, starting with Indonesia. Astra and Tunas contributed a total of $945 million in 2025, down 8% from the prior year. Tunas' contribution was down 46% due to a softer auto market and lower consumer financing. Astra's contribution was $927 million, 7% lower than the year before. I will take you through more details of Astra's performance in the next slide. On a constant currency basis, Astra reported 3% lower net income at $2 billion on a 100% basis. For 2025, Astra saw improved performance in Financial Services, Infrastructure and Agribusiness. However, the Automotive and United Tractors business reported lower earnings, which contributed to an overall lower performance. Net income for the Automotive and Mobility division was relatively stable at $689 million. The 4-wheel wholesale market declined 7% to 804,000 units due to weaker purchasing power in the entry-level segment. Astra maintained its leadership position with a market share of 51%. The 2-wheeler wholesale market was relatively stable at 6.4 million units, up 1% from 2024. Astra continued to command a strong market share of 78% in the 2-wheel market. Astra's used car business continued its growth, recording 21% higher sales of 31,000 units in 2025 compared to some 27,000 units in the year before. For Financial Services, net income increased by 9% to $542 million due to higher contribution from Astra's consumer finance business on larger loan portfolios. We saw a 5% increase in new amounts financed, primarily reflecting strong growth momentum in the multipurpose financing segment. On to heavy equipment, mining, construction and energy. United Tractors' net income decreased 24% to $551 million. This was largely a result of lower overburden removal volumes and reduced stripping ratios due to heavy rainfall, especially in the first half of the year. Lower coal prices further impacted profitability. UT benefited from a 40% higher selling price of gold. However, sales volume in 2025 were 2% lower at 227,000 ounces with the suspension of operations at the Martabe Gold Mine in December. We are in active and constructive conversations with the government in Agincourt. Our priority is to fully comply with applicable regulations and safeguard our assets as well as the well-being of our employees. There's not much further we can say around this at the moment, though Agincourt will be sharing more updates when they are able to. Thank you for your understanding. Moving on, Komatsu equipment sales increased by 2% to 4,500 units due to higher demand across all sectors. For Agribusiness, net income increased by 28% to $71 million. This was due to higher CPO prices and increased sales volumes. And finally, the Infrastructure division recorded a 24% increase in net income to $76 million. The toll road business saw a daily toll revenue growth of 8% as a result of higher traffic volume compared to 2024. Turning now to our businesses in Vietnam. JC&C's Vietnam portfolio contributed $129 million in 2025, a 25% increase compared to the prior year. THACO's contribution was $55 million, 39% higher than 2024. In 2025, the earlier moratorium on the real estate sector was lifted in Ho Chi Minh and THACO resumed construction and sales at its Salah City development. This helped offset THACO's lower automotive earnings, which was impacted by greater market competition in the passenger car segment. THACO total automotive sales were flat at 91,000 units and its market share declined from 18% to 15%. Within that, passenger cars accounted for 64,000 units, down 11% and commercial vehicle sales grew 45% to 26,000 units. We contributed 39% higher underlying net earnings to $41 million. This was primarily driven by improved results from its renewable energy business, which mainly comprise hydropower, wind and solar. JC&C's increased shareholdings in the company, which currently stands at 41.7%, also led to a higher contribution to JC&C's underlying profit. For Vinamilk, we received a dividend income of $33 million, largely unchanged from the previous year. Lastly, moving on to the performance of our regional interest. Our regional interest contributed $66 million to JC&C's underlying profit. This is up 1% compared to the prior year. Excluding Siam City Cement, it will be 43% higher. The increased contribution was mainly attributable to Cycle & Carriage's improved results, which contributed $48 million, up 49%. Singapore makes up the bulk of Cycle & Carriage's earnings. In 2025, new car sales were relatively flat in Singapore at around 6,500 units and Cycle & Carriage's market share was 12%. Cycle & Carriage recorded higher used car sales and aftersales throughput volume in 2025. Commercial vehicle volumes saw strong growth, mainly with the fulfillment of all 120 single-deck electric Zhongtong buses delivered to the Land Transport Authority of Singapore or LTA. During the year, Cycle & Carriage was also awarded by LTA a contract for 100 double-deck Zhongtong electric buses. We expect the delivery towards the end of 2026. These factors supported a higher contribution to JC&C's underlying profit. I just want to wrap up this segment now on a brief outlook for the year ahead. For 2026, we expect Indonesia's operating environment to remain challenging with moderate recovery in consumer sentiment. That said, in the near term, we are positive on the used car toll roads and modern warehousing sector and in the medium term, the health care sector. For Vietnam, we expect its growth momentum to continue. THACO's real estate arm will continue to see activity picking up and make progress on construction and sales. REE's renewable energy business is well positioned to benefit from the country's development in the area. REE aims to triple its current generation capacity to 3 gigawatts by 2030, which will support higher earnings in the future. Lastly, we expect our Singapore portfolio to maintain its competitiveness and deliver stable earnings. As we continue to keep a close eye on the individual businesses, we are also focused on the longer-term objective of building a portfolio with strong growth and sustainable total shareholder returns. To this end, we'll continue to drive the strategic review, including Astra's and JC&C's strategic review, achieve management alignment in terms of DR execution down the road, deleverage JC&C's holding company debt to create balance sheet flexibility and be disciplined in our capital management, which includes identifying capital release or recycling opportunities. Thank you again for joining.