Piaggio & C. SpA (PIA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Piaggio Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Raffaele Lupotto, Investor Relations of Piaggio. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Piaggio Group Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. Joining us today are Matteo Colaninno, Chairman of Board of Directors of Piaggio Group; and Alessandra Simonotto, Group Chief Financial Officer. The slides supporting today's presentation are available on the Piaggio Group website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements based on Piaggio's current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, these statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These factors are discussed in the safe harbor statement on Page 2 of today's presentation. With that, I would like to hand the call over to our Chairman, Matteo Colaninno, for his opening remarks.

Thank you. Good evening to everybody. Welcome. Just a few words because I would like to underline that we are in the middle of a historical phase of constant uncertainty where the world order based on shared and multilateral use is now in crisis, as we know. As far as the Piaggio Group is concerned, internationalization and diversification of our market, the power and the strength of our brands are key elements of Piaggio's resilience. In this context, despite the reduction in revenues, in terms of ratio, once again, Piaggio Group achieved healthy margins and profitability of the last few years, thanks to efficient management of its operation. As you can see, we came as far as gross margin is concerned. In terms of ratio, it came from 28.3% of [ 2020 years ] to 27.7%, 26.6% to 2022, 28.5% in 2023, 29.2% to 2024 and the best ever is this year, actual year with 30.5% of gross margin. As far as EBITDA margin is concerned, we came from 40.2% of 2020 through 14.4%, 14.3%, 16.4% year 2023, 16.9% in 2024 and actual 2025, 16.7% is the second best-ever EBITDA margin. So today, we can confirm investment in new models, technologies, while maintaining focus on process and product profitability. The past year 2025 showed the introduction of new models across all the group brands. Let me say, we have fantastic brands. As you know, Vespa, I can say, it's the best scooter of the world, continue to evolve. We have a new power engine 310 single cylinder engine. Aprilia, we see a triumphant opening of the 2026 MotoGP season and as you know, last Sunday, we have won the Grand Prix with Marco Bezzecchi in Thailand and 4 Aprilia in the first 5 position. That means that we had continuously, on-air by sport television throughout the world, focused on the brands Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Piaggio, Piaggio Commercial. So we have a fantastic brand. So the floor -- to give the floor to our CFO, I would like to stress again, innovation investments, competitiveness, sustainability remain the strategic compass of the Piaggio Group's development.

Okay. Thank you very much. So we can start now the Q&A session. Okay. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Intesa Sanpaulo, Monica Bosio.

Thank you for taking my questions, I have four. Do you prefer I ask all at once or one at a time?

Altogether, we try to remember what...

So my first question is on demand trends in Europe. The registration data show encouraging signs in Italy and Spain and also strong growth in Germany. So can you comment on the overall market conditions in February? And more importantly, do you see this rebound is mostly due to a favorable comparison base? Or do you see this rebound as an effective growth of the market? So this is the first question. The second is on India, according to the CM data, both industry volumes and your performance were strong in January. Is this positive momentum continued in February? And the third question is on the cash flow. The net debt increased materially for the third consecutive year. Should we expect a material improvement in free cash flow generation in 2026? And if yes, if you can elaborate more on this.

Okay, Monica. So I'll take the first two questions. So concerning Europe, you're right, Several countries have posted very positive demand trends. So overall, according to our data, the market grew around 9% in January and even more in the main countries in February, probably in the region of 13% with positive results spread across, I would say, almost 4 countries. Clearly, there is a favorable base effect. But I would like to highlight some of those countries not just above 2025 level by demand already at 2024 level. So there is an easy comparison base, but the trend is positive. Be careful because January and February are not super relevant in terms of market trend in terms of total volumes sold. With that said, moving to India, in this case, yes, I can confirm that market trend and Piaggio volumes that are public are very positive. So we end up in -- according to CM data in January with a strong growth in like commercial vehicle, where we gain also market share. And this morning, FADA released the date for the month of February and Piaggio in light commercial vehicles grew in the region of 33%. So [indiscernible] market trends and gain again around 2.5 percentage points of market share. At the same time, also volumes in 2-wheeler are very, very positive -- were positive in January, where we grew around 15% and also positive in February, according to FADA because we grew around 22%, 23%. So overall, the situation in India is very, very positive. And then I leave the floor to Alessandra.

About the cash flow, Monica, we can say that the first thing is that in 2025, we have another assumption for EUR 40 million, but it is lower than the EUR 100 million that we had in 2024. In this EUR 30 million, you have to consider that we have paid more or less of EUR 18 million for the new investment in Mandello del Lario, so the -- for the new [indiscernible] and for all the new investment that we did there. And this is so -- a peak with a specific investment that we will not have during the next year during 2026 and 2027. So this will not affect, again, our cash flow in the next future. On top of that, so if you have seen our balance sheet, and the analysis we have put in our slide for the net financial position, you can see there that both the inventories and the trade supplier are lower than last year. The inventories go down for EUR 50 million and the payables are lowering of EUR 95 million. So in any case, this lowering of these figures is something that has affected [indiscernible] the net financial position in 2025, but that helped us to get a better result in 2026.

Okay. And if I can, can you share with us an indication of the net debt the company is targeting for 2026?

You know that we have already published the consensus for 2026. So I can say that the consensus is more or less the target we have.

Next question is from Emanuele Gallazzi, Equita.

I would say three questions from my side. The first one, starting from, let's say, the guidance or the indication of 2026, you are confirming the indication or the consensus for net financial position. But basically, if we look at the revenues and the EBITDA, the consensus is pointing to revenues up mid-single digit and EBITDA up high single digit. I don't know if you can provide a comment on these and how should we think about the first quarter? In other words, do you expect a strong start of the year, so a strong first quarter? The second one is on Europe. Thank you for the indication about January and February. I would like, by the way, to know which kind of, let's say, strategic initiatives are you implementing to recover market share specifically on the scooter if it is a matter of new product or a change in strategy on the pricing side. And the last one is, if you can provide an indication or an idea about the factoring level in 2025. Thank you.

So about 2026, we believe that the margins that we are indicating in the consensus is the ones that we will work with for all this year and also for the first quarter. So there is no differences between what we have published and what we are expecting now in this momentum. About the factoring, if I remember well, the amount is more or less EUR 116 million while at December 2024, we were at EUR 126 million. And there was another question about the marketing initiative and so far, if I remember well. Well, I believe that you are seeing on newspaper, TV, all the social media we have, what we are doing both for Vespa, for Aprilia and so far. The initiative in Europe are going on the market and on the field in this week or in the next week. And so you will see what we are doing about it in the next days. About the price, I can confirm that the policy of the group, just like Mr. Michele Colaninno, our CEO, has confirmed in all the other conference call we had during 2025, we will not -- we will be not a price war. So we will not change our philosophy about price.

Mr. Lupotto, there are no more questions registered at this time.

So if there are no more questions, we can close the call now.

Apologies, there is one more person. Davide Zappa from [ DZ ]

One question from my side. Can you elaborate or give us a little bit of color on the dividend?

Excuse me, I do not know if I have already catch up your question. But as you can see, we defined together -- the Board of Directors has defined together to propose to the shareholders' meeting not to distribute another quarter of the dividend. So we will distribute only the accounts that we have already paid in September, nothing more.

Mr. Lupotto. There are no questions registered at this time.

Okay. So if there are no more questions, we can close the call now. So the call is over. If you need more info, as usual, you can call me later, okay? Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.