NORMA Group SE (NOEJ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of NORMA Group SE. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. [Operator Instructions] May I now hand you over to Dr. Michael Schneider, CEO. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much for the introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to NORMA Group's Analyst Conference Q1 2022. What about NORMA Group's start into 2022? And I refer to our presentation, Page 2, where we give an overview about the key figures. In Q2, we generated sales of EUR 304 million, which is an increase of 6.3% and an organic growth of 2.2% versus Q1 2021. We generated out of these EUR 304 million and adjusted EBIT of EUR 30 million, which is a decrease of 17.8%. As you see in that decrease also the impact of supply shortages and higher raw material costs. With this EUR 30 million, EBIT margin was at 10%, and out of that double-digit EBIT margin, we had a net operating cash flow of EUR 16.7 million negative, which is part of the seasonal development of our cash flow in 2022 and according to our expectation. Balance sheet issues, we have an equity ratio of 44.6% and the net debt at EUR 361 million. In terms of dividend, we will propose a dividend of EUR 0.75 for the fiscal year 2021 to the Annual General Meeting, which will take place on May 17. I go to Page 3 to give some more information on the top line development. As mentioned, we have an increase in net sales by 6.3% year-on-year in Q1 compared to EUR 286 million in Q1 last year. And this is mainly due to our Americas business and some positive currency effects. Looking into the organic growth of 2.2%, we see a strong performance of our Americas business. EJT sales decreased to EUR 171 million, where we see an organic decline of 5.2%, mainly due to a weak automotive business in EMEA and a high comps base in APAC. The Standardized Joining Technology business showed a strong organic growth of 13.5%, which then led to EUR 131.6 million in the first quarter, and this is mainly referring to the excellently developing U.S. water business and even to the APAC region. As mentioned, we have some currency effects with a positive translation effect of EUR 11.5 million or in terms of percentage, 4% in Q1 2022. And you also can see the regional split of our sales. On the left-hand side, where we see 44% of our Q1 sales in Americas, 41% in EMEA and 15% in APAC region. Going to our segment reporting on Page 4. In the first quarter 2022 in EMEA, we saw for EJT, an organic decline of 6.3% in comparison to a quite strong Q1 2021. Weaker automotive business, partly related to economic sanction measures in connection with the Russia and Ukraine war. And in the SJT business, Standardized Joining Technology, we saw 3.5% organic decline in the first quarter versus last year, while we had in the first quarter 2021, a high positive impact from restocking sales in prior year. Americas, we saw in the EJT business an organic growth of 2.4% in the first quarter, which is also very positively impacted by the heavy-duty business in the U.S. The SJT business, Standardized Joining Technology, had a strong double-digit organic growth of more than 28% and 23%, 23.8% in the first quarter, where we see the good contribution of the U.S. water business, which grew slightly more than 28%. The APAC region, an organic decline for the EJT business of 12.8%, where we see the difficult China business currently related to the COVID-19 restrictions and the lockdown situations in China. While we saw a good organic growth in the SJT business, 8% organic growth, also due to a quite positive business in Australia. Based on these sales developments, we had a margin development in the first quarter, which showed a good upswing versus Q3 and Q4 last year. So we are showing a double-digit EBIT margin, 10% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.5%. Looking into some margin details and cost information, I hand over to Annette, our CFO.

Thank you, Michael. Well, then let's have a look to the profit and loss development of Q1 '22, which is, I would say, for everybody for the time being really in this volatile times, a challenge. Our material cost ratio increased by 300 basis points and our gross profit ratio decreased by 430 basis points, mainly due to higher costs related to either global supply chain shortages or higher raw material costs. All in all, Q1 is dedicated to manage and countermeasure inflation, and we should not forget the permanent COVID impacts all over the world there. We achieved an improvement in our personnel cost ratio by 30 basis points, amounting to 25.6% due to the reduction in workforce of roughly 250 people. This is mainly shown in Germany and Serbia, where we downsized plant significantly, and that is an important achievement of our "Get on track" transformation program. Focusing on OpEx, we can see that OpEx decreased by EUR 400,000 to EUR 41.4 million, leading to an improved ratio of 13.6% in relation to higher sales. This is also impacted by, on the one hand, a strict cost management and relatively lower terms compared to the sales. EBITDA decreased by 300 basis points to 14.5% and our EBIT margin decreased by 290 basis points to 10%. Despite all the headwinds, we -- everybody focuses for the time being in the market of global supply shortages, raw material costs and the Ukraine-Russia crisis to mention just the most important ones. Looking to Slide 7 and focusing on our operational adjustments. The message is always there, NORMA doesn't adjust anything operational anymore. Our adjustments are purely dedicated to prior acquisition activities and therefore, are PPA related. There, we show a reported earnings per share of EUR 0.53. The adjustment is out of that EUR 0.13, and the adjusted earnings per share is then EUR 0.66. On the next page, we see the development of the EPS, where we just look to amounting in Q1 EUR 0.22 to EUR 0.66. The reported EPS to EUR 0.53, and we see there a net income of EUR 20.9 million and the reported net income of EUR 16.7 million. We will propose a dividend of EUR 0.75 to our AGM in May, the 17th, which represents 33% of our adjusted group net profit, which is fully in line with our general dividend policy. Page 9 shows the evolution of our equity ratio, net debt and debt ratio. Our net debt increased by 13.4%, majorly due to increased business seasonality, which is driven by the increase of our water business. The leverage shows a moderate increase by 2.2 due to higher net debt and lower EBITDA in this moment. And finally, we could stabilize our equity ratio of 44.6%. On Page 10, we show the development of our cash flow. This is impacted majorly by on the one hand, for sure, a lower EBITDA as [indiscernible] figure. We reduced our factoring programs by roughly EUR 9 million to EUR 53 million. Our working capital outflow of EUR 54.7 million is majorly triggered by, on the one hand, higher business activities and the growth in there, the major figure is accounts receivable in this moment, yes, due to higher growth, majorly. CapEx, we realized EUR 6.1 million compared to EUR 9.2 million, that is the impact on our -- this is a reduced CapEx compared to Q1 last year. This is resulting to a net operating cash flow of minus EUR 16.7 million compared to EUR 2.5 million in our Q1 '21, where you can see that this is a typical picture of what we expected, normal seasonality in Q1. Page 11 shows the NORMA value added, which is NORMA's long-term strategic value. And there, we decreased or declined from EUR 9.3 million to EUR 5.1 million. Having said that, I give over again to Michael Schneider in order to summarize.

Yes. Thanks, Annette. Based on this development of the first quarter, we see the outlook for this year 2022 as we showed in our guidance and we confirm the guidance, which means we expect organic sales in the medium to high single-digit organic group sales, an increase, as mentioned, an adjusted EBIT margin based on that medium to high single-digit organic growth of around 11%. And based on that, sales and EBIT development, a net operating cash flow in the area of EUR 100 million. And as Annette mentioned, NORMA value added is our strategic indicator, and we expect a NORMA value added between EUR 20 million and EUR 40 million for 2022. That's the overview on the first quarter of this year. And of course, as every time, we are happy to go in Q&A with you.

[Operator Instructions] We have a first question. It's from Ingo Schachel of BNP Paribas.

My first question would be on your sequential margin development. It seemed the first quarter margin, I think, was pretty good, a lot of the input cost inflation. Now I think the second quarter will see even more input cost headwinds and probably peak raw material cost inflation. Can you already tell us whether your second quarter margin should be better because of the price increases you have implemented or worse because of higher cost inflation just to understand the path that you will take to get to the 11% full year target? And maybe you can also shed a bit more light on how positive pricing should develop in the second quarter, whether you already have an estimate of what percentage of incremental price increase you expect to implement in the second quarter compared to the first?

Yes, Ingo, thanks a lot for these questions. First part, margin development. Overall, we expect around 11% EBIT margin first quarter at 10%. So we expect sequentially an increase in our margin. We will see that the positive measures will increase and impact the next quarters positively. Of course, we see the input cost area and inflation. On the other side, we see that our pricing initiatives are very successful. And we overall expect also in the next quarters, the good seasonality of that pricing. Looking into that pricing, we have to see that in the Standardized Joining Technology, we have, from the first quarter, a quite steep increase in pricing. This is also the case for the EJT business, but there we have it sequentially with the increasing volume of, let's say, increasing amount of pricing for Q2, 3 and 4. So we are very optimistic to get to our 11% of EBIT margin sequentially increasing in the quarter of this year.

And maybe on a similar topic on the net debt and net working capital increase. I think you pointed to normal seasonality and Q1 net working capital buildup. I think normal seasonality would tell us that working capital should rather be stable in the second and third quarter? Is that a pattern we should also expect this year as normal seasonality? Or will we expect more net working capital buildup, for example, because in EJT, probably activity levels would hopefully improve further in the -- at least in the third quarter, so that you need to build up more net working capital also in the next quarter? So how do you see it from here?

At the end, that's a question of -- at the end that shows a bit the transformation of the business. As our portion of water business strategically gets higher, what we are very happy about, that it is actually like we would like to have it, that means that we will have in certain things, higher inventories on that because we have project business there, and we have seasonality. So water business stops more or less the season by October, September, October and ramps up the season by March. And in the meantime, we need to produce inventories. And this, as our portion of business increases there, so our, I would say, optimal mix of trade working capital is changing.

And we also should keep in mind, Ingo, looking on supply chains in these days, lockdowns in China, Ukraine-Russia war, we also tried to have maybe a little bit more on stock as we normally should have to make sure that we can keep our internal supply chain.

Of course, that makes sense. Just quickly go on the leverage ratio, can you remind us at which level of leverage you would expect a step-up of your interest costs?

It's 2 steps, 3 25 and 3 75. So at leverage 3 25 is an increase of costs and 3 75, we have the covenant.

Well, at the end, this increase in average for Q1 is pretty heavily impacted by the higher level of -- a relatively high level of supply chain financing, which we reduced there. And therefore, we have this impact, which should phase out, we expect under this condition again a decrease in leverage.

The next question is by Nicolai Kempf of Deutsche Bank.

As the long-term opportunities looks promising, so please allow me to come back to the short term and just kind of a follow-up question. So if we look on the second quarter, another auto supplier just kind of mentioned that the second quarter probably could be likely below the one in the first quarter, given the cost inflation, but also again lockdowns in China. So maybe just come back to that, is the lockdown in China impacting you on this? Or do you fear that pricing could compensate this?

Well, of course, we see a lockdown in China. Shanghai closes via a lockdown. Of course, an automotive supply business and a broad industry business, the impact, we are in a quite good situation because we are buying, producing and the selling within China. But even within China, the supply chain is impacted by the lockdowns. So we see these impacts, but we also have measures and pricing initiatives to try to compensate that.

Our current pricing activities, in particular, against inflation are, at the end, valid up from the 1st of April. So I think we will get a better countermeasurement, what we see in the figures there. For sure, China and so on, that is not an easy story. And for sure, everybody has to observe that with respect. That's no question.

Okay. Maybe at this point, do you see that rates are starting to increase both in Germany as well as in the U.S. giving you inflation?

Well, this is a story, what is up to my understanding is accompanying us since 2, 2.5 years already. So we don't see higher increases there. What we expect and what is baked in our guidance, well, that's regionally a bit different. But at the end, we have the also countermeasurement by shifting our workforce due to our transformation program, Get on track, from high-cost countries to best-cost countries, that should countermeasure as well.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is by Ingo Schachel of BNP Paribas Exane.

Just a quick follow-up question regarding your workforce and personnel expenses. I think over the last 2 years or so, we've rather seen an increase of the share of temporary workers. Just curious to understand how we should interpret this? Is it, let's say, in the old business that you are making your workforce more flexible and relying more on temporary workers? Or is it also a function of growth in areas like water, where you might have more and more temps? Just would like to understand a bit better how your flexibilization of the workforce has evolved over the last years and which business areas were affected.

So at the end, for sure, that is, for instance, everybody a portion to breathe. After COVID, we try to breathe with this, in particular, in regions where this is pretty easy. On the other hand, I always point out, the mixture will, nevertheless, for us, go in this direction. As we are shifting for the American business, our business from Americas to Mexico, there we -- anyway, 100% of our workforce is there temp because we are working in so-called [indiscernible] structures. This is our permanent headcount. But at the end, that's legal-wise temp. So therefore, the portion of temp should steadily increase.

And Ingo, we try to have around 20% of our workforce in the direct labor area as temps. And looking into 2020 and 2021, even 2022 first quarter, the number of temps still is also somehow a function of corona. If you take 2021, for example, we had an average, 150 people in quarantine. So we worked heavily with additional 10 people to breathe. And in fact, it's more a function of corona. And we also will keep a slightly high level of temps to be flexible also for the future.

The next question is by Philippe Lorrain of Berenberg.

A couple of topics related to pricing. The first one is, if I understand that correctly, you probably accelerated the price increases starting in April. Is that correct? And also, perhaps you can tell us out of the plus 2% roughly organic growth that we've seen in Q1, how much was pricing versus actual volume?

Yes, pricing is accelerating in Q2. That's right. And if you take the first quarter of this year, out of that, organic growth of EUR 2.2 million, we see a sales price increase or a price increase of 6% and a volume decrease of around 3.8% to 4%.

Okay. That's interesting. So that means that the price increases will be well above the 6% mark, so to say, from Q2 onwards?

Yes, exactly.

Okay. Great. And also with regard to your backlog because the backlog is pretty high anyway, is that backlog fully priced already with upcoming price increases that we see since the beginning of April? Or is it just like the -- basically the plus 6% that we had in Q1?

Well, if we have a backlog for, let's say, old products or products from the last month, we also have the prices from the last month using for the backlog.

Okay. I guess the related question was as well, is there any chance that the EUR 565 million of backlog could be repriced further, let's say, by another couple of percentage points?

Well, maybe that it has to be in discussion, but first of all, the target must be to reduce backlog from an operating perspective.

Anyhow, we split there a little bit between, I would say, normal pricing where we are more aggressive and countermeasurement of inflation. And what I spoke about is the countermeasurement of inflation, this gets valid by the 1st of April. The rest of the story already started step by step last year.

Overall, we had in the first quarter a challenging environment. But in these challenging environments, we were very successful in adjusting our prices and then reaching our double-digit EBIT margin and seasonality will be that we will further increase over the next quarters in 2022 to come to our EBIT margin of around 11%.

Okay. And if I get Annette's remarks correctly, with the basis effects that we had from Q2, Q3 and Q4 last year with prices already starting to increase. And I'm just speaking about the normal dynamics of the business and not the special countermeasures. Could we still speak about more than 6% price increase on that basis already? Or is it going to fade because of the base effect?

I think the 6% are good basis for 2022. But of course, we also have to be flexible in this area because we want to cover inflation of materials as far as possible in sales prices. And of course, we also have to keep our system flexible. We have volatile -- extremely volatile times. We do not know which raw material costs we will have in 2 or 3 months. So we have to be flexible and have to act quickly to make sure we can cover most of these inflationary aspects in the pricing.

There are no further questions, and so I hand back.

Yes. Thank you very much for participating. Thank you very much for the good questions. Once again, we had a good start into 2022 with a double-digit EBIT margin. We are on the way to around 11% EBIT margin for the full year and our medium to high single-digit organic growth sales increase. We are on the way for both. And so far, let's meet in the next quarter. Stay healthy. And once again, thanks for participating.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attendance. This call has been concluded. You may disconnect.