Medios AG (ILM1.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Medios AG Analyst and Investors Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. May I now hand you over to Claudia Nickolaus, Head of Investor and Public Relations at Medios, who will lead you through this conference. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Welcome, everybody, to our conference call on our results for the first half year of this year. As always, all relevant documents can also be downloaded from our Investor Relations website. Additionally, this presentation can be followed in parallel via the Internet link provided to you in the invitation. Today, with me is our CEO and CFO, Matthias Gaertner. He will guide us through the presentation and will be available to answer your questions. I would now like to hand over to Matthias.

Okay. Thank you, Claudia. Also a warm welcome from my side. Thank you for attending this call and for your interest in Medios. I'm proud to present excellent results to you today. The 6 months of '21, we are far the best half year ever for Medios. Not only is our M&A strategy paying off. We also have delivered very strong organic growth compared to all relevant comparative period, and even more important, our margins are continuing to improve. I will start with a short summary of the achievements and highlights for the first 6 months of this year followed by some comments on our financials and on our outlook for '21. I will also be referring to the slides of the presentation. So let's go directly to Slide 3. How can the first months be best summarized? Again record numbers. We can continue the growth and success story. We have set ambitious targets and even slightly raised our sales forecast for the year on August 2nd based on the excellent performance in the second quarter. What are the reasons for the extremely good half year with profitable and sustainable growth. First, strong inorganic growth to a huge extent, driven by the ongoing and successful integration of Cranach Pharma. Strong organic growth, also adjusted for M&A effect, we grew at a rate above 20% in the first 6 months of '21 and almost 40% in the second quarter '21. Sales growth, not at any price, sensible consideration in terms of necessary costs, focused on higher-margin products. This was impressively illustrated by our compounding business, as you will see later on, when I will give you the detailed figures. Addition of further specialized pharmacies to our network. Of now 530 partners also gained through our innovative platform, mediosconnect, as we could start an additional indication here. Ongoing improved working capital management. The good results as well as the cash inflow from the consolidation of Cranach Pharma led to a superior positive free cash flow. The extension of our market position in indications like hemophilia. Successful further integration of our acquisitions with cross-selling already picking up. And finally, further easing corona effects. Not only our figures have improved significantly, but also our governance. Following our AGM in June, our Supervisory Board now comprises 4 members and has implemented an Audit Committee as well as the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. We further advanced the establishment of the Medios ESG strategy and look forward to presenting the details later this year. In a nutshell, we are showing dynamic and profitable growth and are excellently positioned for the future. The new authorized capital and our strong cash position ensured the financing of further potential acquisitions and organic growth. Our new labs in Berlin is expected to be completed by year-end, new partner pharmacies, cross-selling opportunities and the digitalization of the health care system offer attractive growth potential. Slide 4 illustrates the impressive continuous improvement of all our KPIs after the corona effect recorded second quarter 2020. Also compared to the first half of last year and the first quarter of this year, all KPIs have increased. The same picture on Slide 5, again substantial growth year-on-year. Revenue more than doubled and EBT pre even more than tripled. In a nutshell, both slides show the very impressive development since the beginning of 2020. Strong sales growth only clouded in the second quarter 2020 with some corona effect. Significant expansion of our market leadership with the integration of Cranach Pharma a successful acquisition, increase in profitability with impressive margin improvement. So let's switch to Slide 6, providing revenue and EBITDA pre breakdown per segment for the first half of this year. Pharmaceutical Supply generated 95% of revenues and 80% of EBITDA pre. Our target is unchanged. To grow the share of the higher-margin segment, patient-specific therapies in line with the strategy to focus on high margin, but usually lower revenue indications in this segment. I will now provide a short update on our ESG strategy and what has been done so far illustrated on Slide 7. Compared to our last update in May, and as just said, we have made significant progress on the issue of governance as a result of Medios' ordinary AGM in June. Dr. Anke Nestler a highly experienced financial expert is our new and fourth member of the Supervisory Board. A new audit committee as well as the new remuneration and nomination committee was implemented. The members of the committees are shown on the next slide. The AGM approved of the further remuneration system for the executive and supervisory report. ESG targets are now integrated in our remuneration system for the Executive Board. The formation of the advisory board that we were considering is more complex than anticipated and a comprehensive legal review is currently underway. Therefore, we have not shown the advisory board here yet. Sustainability has and will be an integrated part in our corporate strategy, and we are working on its implementation within a comprehensive program. ESG is of top priority for us. Let's have a look at the financials and our outlook for '21, starting with Slide 10. Covering the figures for the first half of this year. The full set of financial figures can be found in the half year financial report '21 on our website and in the appendix of this presentation as well. If not explicitly mentioned otherwise, I will refer to the first half year figures of '21 compared to the same period of last year. Once again, these are the best half year results ever. Furthermore, our figures were affected by the pandemic only to a small extent. [indiscernible], KPIs doubled or even tripled due to organic and inorganic growth. Personnel and other expenses have risen mainly due to the current and expected strong growth. For example, by the launch of e-prescription from '22 onwards and by the expansion of our compounding business, which I had already commented on. The rise in costs was both proportional compared to the sales development. Please keep in mind that the post is higher D&A are mainly a result of the amortization of Cranach's customer list amounting to EUR 5 million for the first 6 months of this year. This is shown in the appendix. We have a phasing effect in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of EUR 500,000 due to the now final purchase price allocation of Cranach Pharma included in depreciation of customer base. The future quarterly run rate for the depreciation of customer list will be EUR 2.7 million adjusted for in EBT pre, there of EUR 2.5 million regarding Cranach Pharma. EBT pre and EBITDA pre were adjusted by extraordinary expenses for stock options M&A transaction costs and for amortization of the customer list mainly for Cranach. The latter item is the reason for the higher increase in EBT pre compared with the rise of EBITDA pre in the second quarter '21. The operating cash flow substantially improved to EUR 29.7 million, a consequence of higher earnings and improved working capital. After the successful implementation of the new indication hemophilia, inventories have already been reduced significantly and the cash position has been raised accordingly. Financing cash flow amounts to only EUR 1.3 million compared to EUR 70 million last year which included a capital increase as well as the temporary drawing of the syndicated loan. This year, EUR 30 million were drawn from the syndicated loan and thereof EUR 24 million were paid to Mr. [ Hete ] for prior shareholder loan to Cranach Pharma. Furthermore, the syndicated loan was regularly reduced by EUR 3 million at the end of the reporting period. All these effects on cash flows led to a corresponding increase of cash and cash equivalents from just under EUR 20 million at the end of 2020 to around EUR 75 million as of June 30, '21. For your information, we will from now on also report on free cash flow. In the first half year '21 the free cash flow significantly increased from EUR 3.6 million to now EUR 54 million because of the strong operating and investing cash flow of which the latter included EUR 30 million cash inflow from Cranach Pharma as part of the acquisition. On Slide 11 and 12, we provide a detailed revenue breakdown for our organic and inorganic growth by segment. As you can see, the H1 revenues was driven by the almost 96% inorganic growth, mostly in our segment pharmaceutical supply, including Cranach Pharma plus more than 21% organic growth as well. The remarkable overall growth of 117% compared to the relatively weak first half year of 2020, which was impacted by corona. This growth was strongly supported by synergy effects stemming from the Cranach Pharma acquisition, such as benefits from a greatly enlarged network of specialized pharmacies and respective cross-selling opportunities. This clearly provides the excellent strategic fit of Cranach and shows that the integration is successful and making great progress. In the second quarter, organic growth amounted to almost 39% compared to the corona loaded comparable period of last year. As mentioned before, the slight organic sales decline of the compounding business in the second quarter is strategically driven by focusing on high margin, but usually lower revenue indications and consequently led to a significant increase in EBITDA pre and EBT pre. The decline in sales at Koelsche Blister is a result of focusing on profitable customers only. Nevertheless, we will see sales growth here in the future. This is for sure. Let's switch to Slide 13, outlining revenues and earnings by segment. Here, the main messages are Also, the segment patient-specific therapies posted only a flat sales development, EBITDA pre rose disproportionately, which proves that our strategy is working. To focus on the indications with higher margins. We have already achieved this in part still higher margins are possible in this field. We posted lower costs of goods sold ratios for both operational segments, along with margin improvement year-on-year, not only because of Cranach's good cost of goods structure and higher margin portfolio compared with majors. However, on group level, the cost of goods sold ratio increased, which is primarily the result of a weighting effect the over proportional increase of the segment pharmaceutical supply due to the consolidation of Cranach Pharma led to an increase in the average cost of goods sold ratio of the 2 segments. So let's switch to Slide 14, providing an overview of our currently available funds as of June 30, amounting to around EUR 94 million, reflecting a syndicated loan of EUR 45.9 million with an original nominal value of EUR 62.5 million signed in March 2020. The decrease results from contractual reduction of facilities. Liquidity of around EUR 75 million, reflecting especially the strong first half with a substantially improved operating cash flow as well as the lower working capital. In line with our growth strategy, we will use these funds for organic growth and potential acquisitions as well. Around EUR 10 million, will be invested to build up additional reps in the already rented new building in Berlin, of which we already spent EUR 5 million in the first half year, and we will pursue our M&A strategy, looking for attractive targets mainly in the compounding business and/or the area of digitalization. There are attractive targets on the market, and we will take some of these opportunities. Our updated guidance for the fiscal year '21 is shown on Slide 16. On the second of August, we raised our revenue guidance based on the very good preliminary revenue for the first half of the year. We now expect consolidated revenue of EUR 1.2 billion, up to EUR 1.3 billion versus previously [ EUR 1.5 billion ] up to EUR 1.2 billion. The earnings guidance, however, remains unchanged due to slightly higher costs for future growth. So we expect an EBITDA pre of EUR 38 million to EUR 39 million and an EBT pre of EUR 31 million to EUR 32 million. Important to know, we could increase sales at an even faster rate, but that would be at the expense of our profit margins. We have opted for profitable and sustainable growth. Our compounding business is a good example of this stable sales but better margins. This guidance already considers following factors: ongoing but easing effects related to corona, additional expenses for future growth such as hiring new employees, for example, to be prepared for the expansion of our production capacities in Berlin. We are highly confident that all these investments will pay off in '22 and the years beyond. Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, the overall growth model of Medios and showing excellent results. We are very well prepared to continue our successful and sustainable growth story. For this, we have a clear strategy, a summary of our growth initiatives, both organic and via M&A is outlined on Slide 17. Our growth strategy remains unchanged, and its implementation will further advance. We are on track and well positioned to drive future growth, not only in '21 by expanding our compounding business. The new building in Berlin gives us the potential to triple our production capacities in the future by exploiting the blistering business with high future potential and synergy effects focusing mainly on specialty pharma trucks, by further expanding our partner network of specialized pharmacies and expanding business with already existing specialized partner pharmacies. By taking on new business opportunities in relation to the electronic prescription as of January 22, by further market penetration through the innovative digital platform mediosconnect and by further expanding and diversifying the indication area. And second, as already mentioned, we will drive growth via M&A, in particular, in the fields of compounding business as well as potentially on digitalization. And this is only our short- to midterm outlook, not yet reflecting the excellent mid- to long-term growth opportunities, which could be additional segments providing a higher margin potential, international expansion of our activities, we still benefit from the high market potential in Germany with the consolidating market. However, we take into account the opportunity to internationalize our business. This is why the management of Medios is strongly convinced that we are rather at the beginning of our attractive growth story than at the end. Ladies and gentlemen, this completes our presentation. Before I answer your questions now as a special service today, I would like to anticipate the following issues which are certainly of channel interest. Why did EBT pre grow more strongly than EBITDA pre in the first half of the year? EBT pre was adjusted by extraordinary expenses for the amortization of the customer base, mainly for Cranach. Furthermore, we had a phasing effect, as already mentioned, in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of EUR 500,000 due to the now final purchase price allocation of Cranach Pharma included in depreciation of customer relationships. This is the reason for the higher increase in earnings of EBT pre compared with the rise of EBITDA pre. Current situation on corona-related effects on our business. We do not know how long this quota system implemented in March '20 will be in place. The Federal Institute for trucks and medical devices declared, the directive will remain in place until the end of the COVID pandemic, but the effects are quite limited now. as we successfully learned how to cope with the situation, and we expect to be back to normal in '22. And lastly, why did you only raise the sales guidance and not also the results. As Carl stated, we anticipate additional cost preparation of future growth also in 2020 and beyond. For example, hiring additional late budgeted employees. And more importantly, as already explained, we have to find the right balance between strong growth on the one hand and higher margin on the other hand. As we do not want to grow at any price, we will continue to focus on strong but, however, profitable and sustainable growth. Thank you for your attention.