Ubisoft Entertainment SA ($UBI)

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. This past fiscal year was one of decisive actions for Ubisoft. We initiated one of the most ambitious transformations in the company history, building a more focused, agile and disciplined organization that is capable of consistently delivering high-quality experiences to players through a sustained release cadence while supporting value creation over time. To achieve this strategic resets in financial year '26, we began putting in place a new operating model, rationalized our portfolio of games and executed with discipline on our cost reduction program while significantly deleveraging the group. In financial year '27, we will pursue and complete the execution of this transformation and continue investment ahead of much stronger and sustained content cycle. This year is therefore expected to represent a low point in our free cash flow trajectory, along with a softer release slate and restructuring costs. We will continue to grow our live games led by Rainbow Six and its strong road map, deliver Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and launch other targeted premium games based on established Ubisoft brands. This 2-year transformation comes with difficult decisions and a disappointing short-term financial performance, but I firmly believe that together, these actions are better positioning Ubisoft to deliver sustainable free cash flow over time. The expected outcome beyond financial year '27 will be an important rebound driven by a significantly stronger new release pipeline, the acceleration of our live games and the continued reduction of our fixed cost base with free cash flow turning positive in financial year '28 and reaching a robust level in financial year '29. Overall, we expect to generate positive cumulative free cash flow through financial year '27 to financial year '29 period. In this context, with a comfortable liquidity position, the review of our financing options is actively progressing with the objective of executing the most efficient financing scheme in due course. I will now let Frédérick detail our financial performance this year.

Thank you, Yves, and hello, everybody. Overall, full year net bookings for the year stood at EUR 1.525 billion, down 17% year-on-year, primarily reflecting a softer new release schedule. Back catalog was robust this year, broadly stable year-on-year, highlighting once again the strength and attractiveness of the group's portfolio of franchises. The group reached 36 million MAUs and 129 million unique users across console and PC, stable when excluding XDefiant from the base. In Q4, net bookings stood at EUR 415 million, EUR 25 million above guidance, driven by better-than-expected back-catalog performances across the group's major franchises and MAUs were slightly up year-on-year. Net bookings were down 54% year-on-year, reflecting a higher -- a high comparison base that included the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows and significantly higher partnerships. For its part, back catalog net bookings stood at EUR 243 million this quarter, down mid-single-digit, excluding partnerships. Rainbow Six Siege delivered a solid quarter with activity and engagement trends significantly improving sequentially. Session days remained stable year-on-year while peak DAUs in March increased year-on-year and nearly 3x higher than in early November, reaching the second highest level since March 2020. MAUs were clearly above 10 million in March and up double digits year-on-year, reflecting a meaningful reengagement of the player base and closing the year with an annual audience growing low double digits and above 30 million unique active players. The Year 11 has been praised by players, showcasing significant community-driven content for the year ahead and reflecting the team's sustained effort to address player feedback over the recent months. The Division 2 saw net bookings outperform in the quarter, and more than double year-on-year this fiscal year, supported by the 10-year anniversary of the franchise, roadmap updates and continued strong live services execution. The anniversary season and the limited time Realism mode drove meaningful player engagement growth and led to a record quarter in terms of monetization for the game thanks to audience growth as well as structural improvement in terms of retention and conversion. The performance highlights the team's continued focus on evolving the player experience over time. The Assassin's Creed franchise also posted a strong performance this quarter, outperforming and delivering year-on-year engagement growth, closing the year with an annual audience above 30 million unique active players. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora continued to benefit from momentum generated by the third-person update, the latest expansion and the theatrical release of the Avatar film in the prior quarter, delivering very strong year-on-year net booking growth, both in the quarter and over the fiscal year. The Crew Motorfest reached record quarterly users on the back of a robust content pipeline, including the NASCAR-themed season and the release of Trackforge, a new UGC feature enabling players to build their own racing circuits. For Honor saw net bookings grow double-digit this quarter, supported by the launch of Year 10, Cycle of War that led to solid audience and engagement growth. The new seasonal content roadmap, gameplay updates and anniversary celebrations highlighted the franchise's long-term durability and reflected the team's continued live execution nearly 10 years after release. Total digital net bookings and PRI stood at EUR 390 million and EUR 301 million, respectively, both down year-on-year, reflecting a strong comparison base linked to the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows in March last year and a higher level of partnerships. Mobile stood at EUR 29 million, up mid-single digit year-on-year, excluding partnerships. The quarter saw the release of Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence. Both games were welcomed by players for their faithful gameplay experiences. And while the game had a slow start, the teams are working towards broadening their respective audiences. This quarter, Invincible: Guarding the Globe benefited from the release of the new TV series, driving a significant uplift in player activity throughout March and reaching record activity levels in early fiscal '27. Overall, its net bookings were up over 50% this fiscal year. Stepping back and as mentioned previously, this fiscal year has been marked by a major organizational portfolio and financial reset. These deliberate choices result in short-term painful, but necessary financial outcomes both in fiscal year '26 and fiscal '27 ahead of a significant rebound expected in fiscal '28 and fiscal '29. Starting with fiscal '26, you will find our non-IFRS P&L on Slide 6 of our presentation. Gross margin was stable year-on-year. R&D this year reflected the EUR 650 million accelerated depreciation we announced in January linked to the transformation-related decisions we took across our portfolio of games. It also reflects incremental depreciation, notably linked to the decision not to discontinue the development of a game based on the new IP that has been announced as delayed in our January communication. I will provide more details on the R&D topic on the following slide. SG&A was down 13%, mainly reflecting lower variable marketing expenses due to a softer new release slate this year. As a result, non-IFRS EBIT stood at EUR 1.040 billion, broadly in line with our objective of around EUR 1 billion. You can refer to our press release or presentation appendix for the full IFRS to non-IFRS reconciliation. Turning now to Slide 7. P&L R&D stood at EUR 1.086 billion this year -- EUR 1.086 billion, up significantly year-on-year, reflecting the accelerated depreciation we announced in January linked to the strategic decisions to refocus our portfolio and revise our roadmap in order to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met. For its part, total cash R&D was down EUR 151 million or 12% year-on-year, reflecting our continued efforts addressing our fixed cost base and the refocused roadmap. This year's reduction is in capitalized investments that will flow through the P&L over the coming years amounted to EUR 156 million. Looking at our cash flow statement on Slide 8, free cash flow consumption stood at EUR 443 million, in line with our updated target range of between EUR 400 million and EUR 500 million. The free cash flow consumption reflects the softer release slate, which resulted in lower gross profit generation, while we continue investing ahead of a significantly stronger content pipeline in fiscal year '28 and fiscal year '29. Turning to the balance sheet. Non-IFRS net debt improved materially to EUR 187 million at end March 2026 compared to -- compared with EUR 885 million a year earlier, reflecting the cash inflows of the investments into Vantage Studios. Cash and cash equivalents remained at a comfortable level of around EUR 1.35 billion. Let me now turn to an update on the group transformation. Following the comprehensive transformation we announced in January, a reset centered on a new operating model, a refocused portfolio and right-sized organization, Ubisoft is now firmly in the execution phase with tangible progress across all pillars. A key milestone with the creation of Vantage Studios alongside the closing of the EUR 1.16 billion Tencent transaction, strengthening our balance sheet and enhancing our financial flexibility to support the group's transformation. From an organizational standpoint, the recently appointed co-CEOs of Vantage Studios established a new dedicated leadership team for the Assassin's Creed franchise, bringing clear mandates and creative accountability to our most iconic brands. We also appointed Nicolo Laurent as a strategic adviser, bringing extensive experience building and operating globally successful competitive and live games, further strengthening Vantage Studios capabilities in this strategic segment. At the same time, we are rolling out our new structure, with key leadership appointments across Creative Houses 3 and 5 and the Creative Network, while finalizing the leadership team for Creative House 2. Julien Bares appointed as General Manager of Creative Houses 3 and 5 brings more than 25 years of extensive experience in the video game industry in leadership roles across AAA production and live operations, including more than 20 years in China. In a selective market environment, this new operating model has gone hand-in-hand with stricter portfolio discipline. We have discontinued 7 projects and delayed 6 others, reflecting elevated quality criteria and a refocus on the opportunities with the highest potential. This discipline is already translating into higher quality standards as reflected in recent releases such as Assassin's Creed Shadows, Anno 117: Pax Romana and the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora expansion, each achieving Metacritic scores above 80. Finally, we are leveraging AI to enhance the player experience and boost creativity and efficiency across our teams. We are accelerating investment behind Teammates, our first label generative AI experience to enrich player experiences as well as making tangible progress organically on applications to help manage the growing complexity of modern game development pipelines. This includes building more intelligent tools supporting quality control as well as smart NPCs and more active game worlds. By combining decades of expertise in open worlds and systemic gameplay with the pioneering work of our La Forge R&D teams, we are confident in our ability to remain at the forefront of this transformation and provide our teams with tools to enhance their creativity. We've also made good progress on our cost reduction program and the rightsizing of the organization, which remains a key priority for us. We have completed the second phase of our cost reduction program one year ahead of the initial schedule and the growth targets, highlighting continued discipline and strong execution. Total headcount stood at 16,590 at the end of March 2026, down by around 1,200 employees versus last year while maintaining voluntary attrition close to our record low levels, particularly among senior profiles and strengthening the talent base, thanks to the return of 155 former Ubisoft top talents. Our fixed cost base has been reduced by EUR 118 million versus last year or 8% at current foreign exchange rates, including a favorable EUR 39 million currency impact. Overall, the fiscal '26 fixed cost base stood at around EUR 1.435 billion. We accumulated fixed cost savings since fiscal '23 of nearly EUR 325 million. Looking ahead, we have a clear path to completing the third and final phase of our cost reduction program, targeting a fixed cost base of EUR 1.25 billion on a run rate basis by March 2028, supported by continued discipline in recruitment and targeted restructuring. We also continue to consider potential asset divestitures. Now let's have a look at fiscal year '27 and beyond. Our lineup for fiscal '27 is light and reflects our strategic decisions that Yves detailed earlier impacting our release slate. We will launch Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and other targeted premium games as well as continue to grow our live services. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a faithful remake of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag that was originally released in 2013, is led by Ubisoft Singapore and scheduled for release on July 9, 2026. Rebuilt from the ground up using the latest version of the Anvil engine, the game introduces substantial visual enhancements alongside enriched gameplay systems, including updated combat, stealth, parkour, naval mechanics and narrative content. The reveal generated strong engagement across the Assassin's Creed community, with players praising the game's modernized presentation and expanded gameplay features while recognizing its faithfulness to the original experience. We are encouraged by the early preorder momentum that has been particularly strong notably in China, ranking among the franchise's best performances over the first three weeks with the collector edition sold out and a very high share of premium SKUs. The fiscal year will benefit from continued investment across our live services portfolio. Rainbow Six Siege is expected to return to solid net bookings growth thanks to an ambitious, community-driven content roadmap for its Year 11, with the release of numerous highly anticipated features, including Ranked 3.0 and Meta-driven gameplay that brings freshness to the experience. The Salt Lake City Major last week further underscored the game's competitive appeal, setting a new record for a Major event viewership. The Division 2 will also continue to expand through its Year 8 roadmap, featuring 4 seasonal updates, a new DLC set in New York and additional content for players as well as introduce The Division 2 Survivors, a new game experience. Lastly, I would like to mention the opening of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era last month in early access on PC, marking the return of the long-running franchise for a modernized strategy RPG experience. The title developed by Unfrozen and published by Hooded Horse generated very positive community engagement and achieved 88% positive user ratings on Steam to date, demonstrating the strength of the Might and Magic brand. This also illustrates our capacity to leverage and monetize the strength of our IP portfolio across multiple genres and audiences, both directly or through partners. As we marked the 30-year anniversary of the brand, the highly promising early results of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era reflect and reinforce a broader renewed ambition for the franchise and its community. In this context, we expect the following fiscal '27 outlook. Net bookings down by a single-digit percentage, driven by lower partnerships, a high single-digit negative non-IFRS operating margin and free cash flow consumption of no more than EUR 500 million. The negative non-IFRS EBIT and free cash flow consumption expected this year reflect the ongoing transformation we're currently going through ahead of a strong cash-generative growth cycle. For Q1, we expect net bookings to stand at approximately EUR 250 million, reflecting the fact that we don't have any significant new release this quarter. Beyond fiscal '27, we expect a much larger and diversified pipeline of content to come over fiscal '28 and fiscal '29, supported by releases across our major brands, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon supported by the stronger release schedule as well as an acceleration of our live services driven by Rainbow Six Siege, our refocused portfolio and the continued reduction of our fixed cost base, we expect an important rebound with a return to positive free cash flow generation and non-IFRS EBIT in fiscal year '28, robust free cash flow in fiscal year '29 and positive cumulative free cash flow during the fiscal '27 to fiscal '29 period. To conclude, here are a few fiscal '27 housekeeping items for modeling purposes. The stock-based compensation is expected at around EUR 25 million, a significant decrease versus last year, reflecting the current share price. The non-IFRS net financial charge, excluding foreign exchange impact, is expected at around EUR 38 million. Assuming full exercise of the 2028 convertible bond put options, the interest savings from the 2025 repayments are absorbed by the convertible bond redemption premium and lower financial income expected for the year. The non-IFRS tax rate is not relevant in the context of breakeven non-IFRS operating income. And the number of diluted shares is expected at around 133 million reflecting the fact that with an expected negative net income, the dilutive nature of our instruments no longer kicks in. I will now hand the call over to Yves for the concluding remarks.

Thank you, Frédérick. What makes me confident in the success of this transformation is the very high quality of the leadership that we are putting in place across the whole organization along with a reinforced and streamlined talent base. Our ambition remains clear, reinforce Ubisoft's position as one of the industry leading creator of high-quality, memorable and engaging entertainment experiences that resonate with players over the long term by combining creative focus, the latest innovative technologies, reinforced talent base and a commitment to enhance quality. We believe we have the assets and brands to return to profitable growth, robust free cash flow generation and a strengthened capital structure. We are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Nick Dempsey from Barclays.

I've got a few. So first of all, on your planned debt refinancing, can you give us a bit more color about the kinds of partners that you might look to work with on this or anything else that can give the market some reassurance that a solution here is imminent? Is it fair to say that you need to come out with a solution in the next couple of months for this to all work? Second question, in terms of your plan to have positive cumulative free cash flow across FY '27, FY '28 and FY '29 with only positive free cash flow in FY '28, I'm guessing that looks like you need at least EUR 400 million of positive free cash flow in FY '29, which I think would be the highest in your history. Do you plan to have a particularly strong release schedule in that year? Or how often could you get to that kind of level? And last question, can you tell us roughly how much the cash restructuring charges that you're expecting to book in FY '27 now?

Thank you, Nick. So on the refinancing, our process review is actively progressing. We are considering several different options with the objective to optimize our cost of capital. Today, we have sufficient liquidity to address the near-term maturity using cash on hand is needed. And we enjoy comfortable cash and cash equivalent position of above EUR 1.3 billion. So that provides us with the flexibility to evaluate the most efficient financing solution for the medium to longer term. And we will update the market in due time. In terms of the outlook for free cash flows across fiscal '28 and fiscal '29, yes, we expect positive in fiscal '28 and really robust free cash flow in fiscal '29 on the back of a very strong pipeline of products across the 2 years, the recent portfolio review that we conducted, it gave us an even stronger level of visibility for a very rich pipeline, including our major franchises and notably Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon on top of a very strong roadmap from Rainbow Six Siege among other items. So yes, the perspective is very positive for fiscal '28 and even more so in fiscal year '29. In terms of the restructuring costs, if you think about the 2-year cost reduction program was nearly around EUR 118 million. You should consider that the restructuring costs to between 50% to 60% of that amount, and we expect the majority of this coming in fiscal '27.

And our next question today comes from the line of Nicolas Langlet from BNP Paribas.

I've got three questions. The first one on the full year '27 net booking guidance. So what's the year-on-year impact coming from the lower licensing and partnership deals? Or the other way, if you exclude those partnership licensing deals, what would be the expected net booking for full year '27? Secondly, on Assassin's Creed Resynced. Curious what your internal expectation relative to other Assassin's Creed titles. You think the total booking performance during the first year to be comparable to [indiscernible] or it could actually approach a full scale [indiscernible]. And finally, on the debt repayments, you mentioned the [ soft ] 70 million convertible bond. Can you remind us if there are other repayment both in full year '27 and full year '28?

So in fiscal '27, yes, the reduction in overall net bookings is driven by our partnerships. So excluding partnerships, you can consider we'll be growing. In terms of Assassin's Creed Resynced, as I said, we are very happy with the preorders momentum that ranks among the best titles in the franchise for the first 3 weeks. Of course, there is still 7 weeks to go. So we'll see how the momentum will continue building up, but we are happy and confident that it will be a really successful Assassin's Creed title because it's faithful to the experience, but it also comes with many improvements to the original experience that players have liked when they've seen the first showcase of the game. In terms -- now keeping in mind that it's not a full price type of game. Now in terms of debt repayments, so we have in fiscal '27 -- in 2027, we expect a maturity of slightly below EUR 700 million. So that will come after the maturity coming this year in 2026 or slightly below EUR 500 million if the convertible bond put is exercised. And then in fiscal year '29 if the second adoption of the convertible bond is exercised, that would be another EUR 500 million. So calendar year 2029 to be precise.

Okay, okay. And last question. On the Vantage Studio minority interest, are you able to quantify what we should expect in full year '27? And can you confirm that there will be a minority line related to Vantage Studio in full year '27?

Can we confirm there will be what, sorry, Nicolas?

Minority interest line related to Vantage Studio?

Yes. Yes. There will be, of course.

Can you guide on the magnitude of the potential minority interest?

No, we don't guide on this for now.

And our next question today comes from the line of Doug Creutz from TD Cowen.

I was wondering if you could just talk a bit more about your experience with Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence to date, how they're doing relative to your expectations? Do you expect them to be meaningful contributors to revenue in fiscal '27? And how has your experience sort of shaped how you're thinking about your investments in mobile going forward?

Yes. Thank you, Doug. So what we've seen with both launches is that they've been very well received by the players with high community sentiment, praising the quality of the game-play and the faithfulness to the original experience. We can qualify at the start as being slower than expected in both cases. But we see that there are a number of good features that we can bring to those games to progressively grow the audience and performance for fiscal '27, we remain cautious on the forecast for both games until we can see more meaningful growth.

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session for today. I will now hand back to you for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for your questions, and have a good evening.