Metair Investments Limited (M4HA.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Metair results webcast for the 6-month period ended 30 June 2025. Metair's CEO, Paul O'Flaherty; and CFO, Alastair Walker, are standing by to take us through the operating and financial results. [Operator Instructions] With that, I'll hand over to Paul.

Thank you, and good morning to everybody. I'm going to take you through an update and an operational review. I'll hand over to Alastair to take you through the finances. We'll conclude with an outlook for the next 6 months as well as longer-term prospects and then hand over to question and answers. I think the first is really to talk about our operating environment. We're happy to say that there was a stable performance from the OEMs, which is always good for us in the manufacturing environment, particularly if we reflect on the 6 months to the end of last year. There was strong automotive battery demand in Romania, and you'll see that coming through in our results. But obviously, there's a tariff uncertainty. And although it doesn't affect directly the OEMs that we support, it creates turmoil in the South African environment, and we need to deal with that, and we need to be cognizant of that. There is very strong imports into South Africa from China and Indian vehicles. And obviously, that has an effect on the OEMs in South Africa who sell 1/3 of their production into the South African market. And as we bed down AutoZone and as we get our hands around the aftermarkets, we've seen strong competition in that environment. Overall, we've seen improved performance across all of our subsidiaries. As we've come out of our restructuring, all the decisions we had to make last year, those are starting to show fruits. And our debt restructuring is concluded. That gives us sustainability going forward. And Hesto consolidation takes away a lot of the complexity of trying to understand Metair. Unfortunately, it was only accounted for from 1 April. So there's a little bit of complexity for the first 3 months, but it's now fully consolidated into Metair's results, and we continue to bed down AutoZone. We spoke last year about reshaping the portfolio, and we've done that. We've closed the manufacturing plant of ATE and focused purely on the aftermarkets. We're in the process of finalizing the close down of our industrial business for First Battery, which we announced last year. And we also closed our East London plant of Automould, which was totally unprofitable. From an operational performance, you'll see in our results that we continue with significant cost reductions. We've introduced shared service initiatives across the group. And if you remember, we spoke about last year that Metair has moved long away from an investment holding company to control. And so we share best practice amongst our subsidiaries. We share cost initiatives, and we share certain of the functions to make sure we're absolutely efficient in what we do. In the first 6 months, as expected, AutoZone incurred a small EBIT loss, but we're still confident, as we've said to the market last year, that we will break even for the full year. So from a highlights perspective, our revenue increased by 53% to ZAR 8.6 billion. Our EBITDA, up to ZAR 716 million, that's up 40%. Our EBIT, up to ZAR 450 million, that's 27%, with a slight decrease overall in our EBIT margin to 5.2%, which Alastair will unpack. Our headline earnings per share improved from a loss of ZAR 0.03 for the 6 months last year to ZAR 0.65. And from a continuing operation perspective, we're similar to last year's ZAR 0.77 at ZAR 0.71 per share. But Hesto is now consolidated. You'll see its results coming through, and you'll see its results for the full year. And that turnaround continues and the talks of the losses we had previously are long gone. The volume recovery gives us the stability from the OEMs. And that, coupled with all of the operational efficiencies we've put in place, has seen what we think is a strong performance when we compare it to the last 2 years. And all of our debt covenants have been met in the 6-month period. Just to touch a little bit on the strategy. We announced our strategy last year. If you remember, when I came in on 1 February of last year, we had significant issues that we had to fix. We spoke about the flywheel concept. But towards the end of last year, we had a Board-approved strategy, and we're busy in the throes of that strategy. We've appointed a new CFO. So this will be his maiden presentation to the market. On the OEM focus, so we're in 2 verticals. We've divided ourselves up into OEM manufacturing and aftermarket parts and retail. And that's a really important change for us because the diversification of the aftermarket parts and retails is what gives us protection against the volumes in the OEM manufacturing. We've continued restructuring and rightsizing. We don't miss an opportunity to do that. We don't miss an opportunity to improve our project management because we'll talk about some of the challenges that are coming in 2006 (sic) [ 2026 ], and we have to be dynamic, and we have to be agile. And that's the message to all of our manufacturing operations. There is no concept in Metair of too big to fail. There cannot be a concept of we always got to run to our full capacity because that's not the case. And we have to really adjust to the market conditions, and we've seen a really good response from the organization to do that. Got to be flexible, and we have to be agile in this market. Our diversification strategy we spoke about. So AutoZone is being bedded down. We are looking to expand in AutoZone, and we're currently looking at African opportunities, particularly in the aftermarket. We have identified synergies with our operations, the rest of our operations and AutoZone. And as I said, the first was to reposition ATE purely as an aftermarket, and that's been fully embedded into the AutoZone operations. And we're looking, as we venture into Africa, how can we capitalize on our Kenyan battery operations, who operate in a number of countries in East Africa and how do we capitalize on that going forward. So South African vehicle volumes, I mean, the market has spoken about it. The CEOs of the major OEMs have spoken about it that South Africa is really at an inflection point, right? Are those volumes fairly stable? They're certainly not matching what's expected in terms of the automotive master plan, surge of Chinese and Indian vehicles, particularly in this market. And so how do those OEMs respond and how do they still be cost competitive given that 2/3 of their production is in exports. But you can see the volume pickup. That's really good for us. And certainly, for the next 6 months, we don't expect that downturn in the volumes that we saw last year. So going forward, we expect good volumes for the year. Just touching on the U.S. again, when we look at our major customers, which would be majorly Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and Isuzu, those don't really export into the U.S., and it's more an effect on Mercedes. But that's not to be complacent about it. The strong surge of imports into the market obviously has an effect on the local OEM production. So we were requested -- since I joined last year, we really have to unpack and explain the Metair story. And we think by showing you what's in front of you, we've been really transparent about where we are. So on the automotive components and manufacturing, obviously, the major part of that is our Hesto business. And the numbers I've given up there other than the revenue contribution are for the 6 months versus the 6 months, so not just the 3 months of consolidation. So revenue was up 7% in our Hesto business, up to ZAR 3.1 billion for the 6 months. EBIT at ZAR 212 million, up 88%. So you can see those recoveries coming through and that margin. You can see it in the margin improvement. For the 6 months, Hesto produced an overall margin of 6.9% compared to 3.9% in the prior year. For the rest of our OEM manufacturers, which we consolidate, which would be Smiths, Lumotech, Automould, Supreme and Unitrade, revenue pleasingly, again, was up ZAR 3.6 billion, up to 9%; EBIT up to ZAR 228 million, that's 16% increase and margin improvement up to 6.4% compared to the half 1, 6% of last year. So very transparent about where our margins are and what our levers are. And then in our second vertical, which we've commenced with this year, the aftermarket parts and retail, so firstly, in the battery part of that, which is First Battery, Rombat and Dynamics in the U.K., a small warehouse that we buy and sell batteries from. Revenue was down ZAR 2.3 billion and mainly in the First Battery side and our EBIT at ZAR 143 million, down 19%. If you recall last year, we had an abnormal EBIT in First Battery at 14% margins. They've come back to more normality at 8.5%. So overall, our EBIT margin at 6.1% compared to 7.5% last year, which was influenced by First Battery. But pleasingly, Rombat showed good EBIT margin growth in the first 6 months, and we're happy with that. When we look at the AutoZone and ATE market, ZAR 868 million worth of revenue from AutoZone in the first 6 months and an EBIT loss of ZAR 24 million, which was expected. And as I said, for the full year, our intention is still to break even, and we really need to grow AutoZone back up to over the ZAR 2 billion to ZAR 2.4 billion revenue for the full year, and that will happen next year. So I'll hand over to Alastair to unpack the financials.

Thanks, Paul, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before diving into the details, I would just like to highlight 3 significant items under review that are notable. Firstly, the change in accounting treatment and the consolidation of Hesto from 1 April 2025. Secondly, the refinance of the group's debt. And thirdly, the realignment of the segments in terms of IFRS 8 between the OEM component manufacturing and aftermarket parts and retail. All 3 will be dealt with in detail during the presentation. So turning to the results summary for the first half of the 2025 fiscal. As Paul mentioned, the group delivered a pleasing result for the first half with revenue up 53% to ZAR 8.7 billion with stable OEM volumes and the benefits of the restructuring bearing fruit. It also includes Hesto for 3 months from April 2025 as well as AutoZone for the full period. EBITDA was up ZAR 716 million and EBIT up 27% to ZAR 450 million versus the prior period. The lower percentage increase for EBITDA and EBIT relative to revenue is due to the inclusion of AutoZone for 6 months, which contributed to revenue, but delivered a slight operating loss in line with expectations as it emerges from business rescue. Group net debt was ZAR 5.1 billion, largely reflecting the inclusion of Hesto's net debt from April 2025. Metair's total headline earnings per share, including discontinued operations, rose significantly to ZAR 0.65 per share. This compares to a loss of ZAR 0.03 per share in the same period last year, which included the losses from Hesto -- from Mutlu. Group headline earnings per share from continuing operations decreased slightly to ZAR 0.71 per share, and total basic earnings per share, including discontinued operations reflected a loss of ZAR 0.93 per share versus ZAR 0.03 in the prior year. This number was adversely affected in the current period by a once-off net capital loss relating to the accounting for Hesto as a subsidiary. ROIC reduced to 5.2% due to the inclusion of the AutoZone EBIT loss for the period, which is recorded in the numerator, but the acquisition debt is included in the denominator as well as Hesto's earnings for 3 months in the numerator versus the full balance sheet included in the base with effect from April 2025. As mentioned, the accounting treatment for Hesto changed with effect from 1 April 2025. This has had a material impact on the group results. Hesto was previously treated as an associate. But following the rightsizing of the disproportionate shareholder loans as well as a clarification of the agreement with the minority shareholder that its rights in terms of the shareholders' agreement are protective in nature rather than substantive, the business is consolidated with effect from 1 April 2025. Important to note, there's no change in the shareholdings and no consideration to affect the change. We have included a Hesto take on balance sheet and P&L as an appendix to the presentation. Turning to the results presented on this slide. I've spoken through the revenue, EBITDA and EBIT. Highlighting the other key items on the income statement. The results include a ZAR 307 million capital loss item, which is mainly the fair value adjustment, which results to record Hesto as a subsidiary from an associate. This, in essence, represents historic losses being absorbed against the Metair shareholder loan to reflect the net assets of Hesto being brought on at fair value at the acquisition date. Net interest has increased from ZAR 120 million in the prior period to ZAR 227 million in this period as a result of the inclusion of Hesto's net interest as well as the effect of higher interest rates following the refinance. I'll comment on the refinance in a later slide. This results in a loss for the period after capital items of ZAR 137 million versus the prior period profit of ZAR 158 million and an attributable loss of ZAR 168 million after accounting for the minority interest totaling ZAR 31 million. Adjusting for the capital loss gives headline earnings of positive ZAR 139 million for the period, which equates to headline earnings per share of ZAR 0.71 on a continuing basis. Turning to the balance sheet. This reflects our investment in noncurrent assets of ZAR 5 billion and current assets of ZAR 7.7 billion, offset by current liabilities of ZAR 4.2 billion. Net working capital at ZAR 3.8 billion reflects a significant increase relative to December '24, but is due to the inclusion of Hesto's net working capital of some ZAR 1 billion with effect from April 2025. Our gross borrowings amount to ZAR 5.2 billion, which again includes the take on of Hesto net debt of ZAR 1.46 billion, less closing cash of ZAR 143 million at the end of June, results in a closing net debt of ZAR 5.1 billion. Our net asset value per share of ZAR 13.01 compares to ZAR 13.88 per share in December 2024, which reflects the loss for the half year, but which is mainly due to the capital item fair value adjustment that arises on consolidation of Hesto. As Paul mentioned, we have redefined the verticals on which we report to better reflect the strategic realignment of the group and the core strategic focus being the OEM segment, which supplies components to the original equipment manufacturers and the Aftermarket Parts and Retail segment, which primarily serves the independent aftermarket and retail distribution channels. The OEM segment highlights. Volumes were stable in the period, up 4% versus the comparable period. It was a solid performance by all the companies (sic) [ segments ] in the segment (sic) [ company ], which on a like-for-like basis, i.e., excluding Hesto, increased revenue by 9% and EBIT by 16%. Hesto delivered ZAR 2 billion of revenue and ZAR 159 million of EBIT since being consolidated. For the full 6 months, Hesto was up 89% at an EBIT level. ROIC increased by 2.1 percentage points to 17.5%, supported by strong operating performance across the segment. The aftermarket segment reflects revenue growth of 33% period-on-period, which includes AutoZone revenue for 6 months. However, the segment delivered a mixed bag in terms of performance. First Battery experienced a challenging market with volumes slightly down at 770,000 batteries sold relative to 786,000 in the prior period, but the margin reduced from 14% in the prior year to 8.6% in the current year, which we believe reflects a more normalized EBIT margin for that business. AutoZone delivered an EBIT loss of ZAR 24 million, but this was in line with the recovery plan as the business emerges from business rescue. And Rombat had a pleasing first half with higher volumes and price increases coming through, delivering EBIT of ZAR 53 million for the period versus ZAR 19 million in the comparable period. ROIC decreased to 6.2%, down from 14% as a result of the decline in First Battery's EBIT over the period and the impact of AutoZone's negative EBIT contribution. Overall, the segment delivered an EBIT of ZAR 118 million versus ZAR 174 million in the prior year comparative. Turning to the cash flow bridge for the half. The group generated ZAR 722 million of cash from operations, but invested ZAR 844 million into working capital, mainly the result of higher receivables, reflecting stronger revenue during the period and a reversion to normalized payment terms from customers. The group paid interest of ZAR 283 million, the bulk of which was on bank borrowings, but which also included interest on finance leases and installment sale agreements. And the group paid tax of ZAR 94 million in the period. Investing activities include CapEx of ZAR 141 million. And in February 2025, the group invested ZAR 185 million into Hesto to partially repay Yuzaki as part of the rebalancing of disproportionate shareholder loans. The group had a net inflow of ZAR 100 million from financing activities, which I will break out in detail in the next slide. During the period under review, the group successfully executed a refinance of the group's borrowings. This refinance was affected by 2 separate packages, namely SA Obligor, which comprises the SA subsidiaries, excluding Hesto in an amount of ZAR 3.3 billion, comprising a 5-year amortizing loan, a 5-year bullet loan of ZAR 850 million each, totaling ZAR 1.7 billion and a further ZAR 1.7 billion loan, which is repayable in June 2027. This refinance was concluded in April 2025 and extends the repayment profile of the group's borrowings to align with the anticipated earnings growth and cash flow generation. Furthermore, in June 2025, Hesto concluded a debt capital raise of ZAR 1.38 billion to refinance the existing Hesto debt of ZAR 438 million as well as repay Yuzaki, the minority shareholder, which had previously provided trade credit support, an amount of ZAR 934 million. Following this refinance, the guarantees that Metair provided Yuzaki in favor of Hesto's debt obligation were extinguished. These 2 refinances are largely cash flow neutral and the predominant movement in total borrowings is a result of the take on of Hesto's debt in April as well as the debt raise in February of $10 million or ZAR equivalent of ZAR 186 million used to partially repay Yuzaki for the trade credit support advanced in the prior period. The outcome of the SA Obligor and Hesto debt refinances has ensured a repayment profile more aligned with the expected earnings growth and cash generation of the group over the next 5 years. The repayment profile by tranche is reflected in the table on the right-hand side. And it's important to note, all covenants and EBITDA targets for SA Obligor were met at June 2025, and the Hesto refinance was concluded on the 30th of June 2025, and the first covenant measurement date will therefore be September 2025. The ROIC for the half is lower than the prior period, largely due to the inclusion of the AutoZone EBIT loss and the impact of Hesto only being concluded for 3 months in the numerator versus the acquisition debt for AutoZone and the Hesto take on balance sheet in the base. We remain intensely focused on disciplined capital allocation for investments in CapEx as well as working capital management. The group assesses investment returns across a range of key metrics, including ROIC, return on assets, IRR, payback, and we will ensure that investments meet the return requirements. Thank you.

Thanks, Alastair. So a bit of an outlook. So we're comfortable where we've got to so far in the turnaround. And many of those initiatives, I've always spoken about the flexibility and the agility of the factories to respond to market conditions will continue as well as the significant effort we put into project management. Now we did have a new vehicle launch from one of our major customers in the first 3 months of this year, which we did successfully. So we have learned the lessons from the past. What's coming up next year is another of our major customers launching a new vehicle in 2026 as well as you would have read in the press, one of our major customers looking at rightsizing their business and the effects on our factories and what that means for us is busy being unpacked, and that will be a 2026 issue. But we're confident with all of the measures we've put in place to be far more flexible than we have that we can try and counter these conditions. Obviously, as Alastair pointed out, that restructured debt package with the big payments in '27 gives us headroom through '25, '26 to really focus on what we need to do. We've spoken about focusing on what we can control, and we continue to do that. So building on the foundations that we've established, implementing the shared services we spoke about, continually looking at our costs, particularly our indirect overheads and how do we reduce those indirect overheads. The factories are going to be about manufacturing variances and direct costs. Our aftermarket has to be about stock holdings and turning that stock going forward. Keeping those costs under control and being flexible on them is really, really critical. As you would have read in the press, we have had a bit of a hiccup with the steel production with AMS calling early on reducing and closing down the Newcastle operations, and that was a little bit unexpected. But we do have an alternative steel supply, and we're negotiating with our customers on that steel supply. So AutoZone, lots of focus. We need to get to that breakeven and more. We've seen the results coming through from Motus and particularly Midas and what they're doing in the aftermarket. We still strongly believe in this business. We need this diversification, and we're putting all efforts to really turn this business around, and it's showing good signs of that. And then we'll always look for new customers potentially coming into the country. There's a lot of talk in the press. We engage with everybody and all the potential OEM vehicle manufacturers who intend to come into the country and want to come into the country. And we'll look for these African opportunities, particularly in the aftermarket space and really trying to understand and unpack that market going forward. So from our perspective, we're comfortable with the first 6 months. We are operating in South Africa. It is a challenge, and we continue to respond to those challenges. We fairly -- we can see the next 6 months to December in front of us, and '26 will be a challenge, and we need to respond to those challenges, particularly with one of our key customers as we announced at the top of the presentation. So we'll pause here, and we'll hand over for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Alastair. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Alistair Lee, Coronation. Please disclose a pro forma HEPS number had Hesto been consolidated for the full 6 months.

So Alistair, it would have been similar because the net profit after tax and taking out the minority shareholder was not significant for the first 3 months, and that's due to what we expected as the new vehicle launch came into being. And Hesto did really well in the second 3 months. So it would have improved the HEPS from the ZAR 0.71, but not significantly.

Next question is from Bruce Williamson at Integral Asset Management. Paul, on what basis or facts do you expect vehicle sales to increase in the next 12 months?

Well, we talk about production, right, as opposed to the vehicle sales. So we know that last year, there were 615,000-odd vehicles produced in South Africa, which was down from the previous year, and it was one of the major customers that went down. We haven't seen those indications for the current year. We've seen -- so if you look at the first 6 months this year, an improvement on the 6 months of last year. And if you flow that through to what we're seeing in the market, we should see production levels for the full year better than the full year of last year. We're busy unpacking '26. '26 is difficult to determine. As we said, one of our key customers is introducing a new vehicle. So we have to look at parallel production and what that means. And one of our key customers is rightsizing as we indicated and what does that mean for the volumes. But if you think of the -- let's just say, South Africa is a 600,000 to 650,000 vehicle country at the moment, should be a lot more with the capacity that's in place, 2/3 of that is exports and the major markets being to Europe, Australia and Asia and 1/3 in the local market. So the OEMs have to be competitive in the local market if they're selling 200,000 into the local market, particularly with the Indian and Chinese coming in. So we're okay for the current year. We can see and we can see what the OEMs are saying, and we really just need to work closely with them for next year and reflect on how we need to adjust accordingly.

Next question is from Matthew Robarts of Blue Quadrant. Paul, Ford has announced plans to let go part of their workforce and presumably scale back. Is this in anticipation of lowered volumes? What are the expected implications for Metair, specifically Hesto?

Yes. So I've spoken about a major customer that is looking at rightsizing. You've mentioned the name of the customer because it's in the press, and we work with them. So they're rightsizing to the market. As you know, they introduced a new vehicle in the current year. They are -- Ford is an important customer across a number of our manufacturing operations, and we're working close with them as to what that means for the volumes for 2026. But for 2025, we can see clarity as to where that is going. And so as opposed to what happened to us last year when we got caught a bit short in vehicle production from a particular customer, there's lots of communication with this particular customer as to what we need to do, how we need to adjust, but they're still formulating their numbers.

Next question is from James Twyman at Prescient Securities. Could you talk around the ZAR 844 million working cap increase and how much can be recovered in H2? Rombat unexpectedly more than doubled its margin, how sustainable is this, please?

Thanks, James. Yes. So the typical split between H1 and H2 is that H1 has an investment in working capital and a release of working capital in the second half. So we do expect that investment to unwind. Yes. And then, Paul, do you want to take the second one?

Yes. On the Rombat, yes, we're really pleased and certainly beyond June through the months of July and August, have continued to show a good performance, although August being virtually a shutdown in Europe. Margins will probably come down, James, to higher than last year, but a little bit off what we're seeing. But we're seeing very good volumes and good demand from Rombat. So we're really, really happy with how they're performing.

Next question is from Yeroosen Naidoo from Primaresearch. What is the targeted EBIT level for AutoZone for the full year?

Yes. I think we've said a number of times in this presentation. When we bought AutoZone, we said we needed a year of restructuring and turnaround and bedding it down. Remember, we bought a company in business rescue, a company in distress. And although we bought a very good footprint, there was no stock on the floor. So they had been trading under these conditions for some time. We had to bring the creditors back because they were all compromised. We had to introduce cash into the company to buy it back. We have to bring the customers back, the footfall back. And so the expectations were for the full year at the EBIT level that AutoZone breaks even. And that is still our expectation as it ramps up and gets into the growth phase, which we always said would be in the '26 year onwards.

Another question from James Twyman. You mentioned cost savings. Could you give examples of this and an idea of sale of what you want to achieve here? And was any of this achieved in the period?

Yes. So let's just talk headcount. Let's start with headcount. We started the year on around 13,800 employees. We're down to around 13,000. So there's significant restructuring. And a lot of those employees would be in what we call the indirect overheads. So we have restructured our plants. We did a lot of that last year. So we're really focusing on the indirect overheads. The other initiatives that we've launched is in what we call the shared services. So how can you consolidate companies from a finance administration point of view, from an HR administration point of view, from a payroll administration, from an IT administration. All these things that Metair traditionally did stand-alone in each of the companies. These are the initiatives that we're looking at. We're looking across the procurement chain. What is the typical buying that we do right across all of the operations and how can we consolidate and scale and make savings because we're going in with bigger buying power. So lots of initiatives, James. The most important thing, though, was to get these factories operating, getting those manufacturing variances right. We use a standard costing system, and we agree prices with the customers, and we have to make sure those manufacturing variances are 0. So no scrap -- operating at the labor efficiencies we need, et cetera. Those are the big initiatives. And then how do we sort the indirect overheads of this company out -- of this group out.

The last question from anonymous. Your current revenue mix between the 2 business is 63% OEM; 37% aftermarket. What do you think a reasonable longer-term mix should be?

Yes. We said we need to -- 63%, 37% would be a little bit disproportionate because it's only got the 3 months of Hesto. So probably better to talk about 67% to 33%, I would suggest. So 33% to 35% in the medium term. And hopefully, we can grow that to 40% and beyond. That would be the right split that we see at this point.

Thank you. That concludes the questions that we've received online. Paul, would you just do some closing comments and then we can disconnect.

Yes. Thank you for your attendance, and we look forward to any engagement from our shareholders. Thank you.