Viohalco S.A. (VIO.BR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am [ Galey ], your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Viohalco conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first half 2025 financial results. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Zairi Sofia, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Ms. Zairi, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining Viohalco's Half Year 2025 Financial Results Presentation today. I'm joined here by Stratos Thomadakis, CFO; and [ Kyriakopoulos ], Deputy CFO. As usual, we will provide you with an overview of our performance, and then we will be very happy to take any questions you may have. I now turn the floor to Stratos for a short review of our results.

Thank you, Sofia. Thank you all for joining us today. We are very delighted to report a robust performance in the first half of 2025. Our revenue increased by 14% on enhanced top line contribution of all of our segments. The strong set of results highlights the strength of our strategy in action and our ability to capitalize on global megatrends. This strong set of results highlight the strength of our strategy in action and our ability to capitalize global megatrends, as I said previously. We delivered a 39% uptick in adjusted EBITDA, thanks to the smooth execution of complex projects, successful tendering activity, a continuous shift towards higher-margin products and disciplined focus on operational efficiency. Our aluminum and cable segments saw strong growth during this period, which will elaborate on shortly. This and the return to profitability in our Steel division led to both earnings before taxes and net profit after taxes more than doubling year-on-year. This performance has been achieved in a global environment that was far from easy or smooth. On the positive side, inflation in the Eurozone continued to decline, allowing the Central Bank to decrease its key rates 4x during this period. It now seems that a soft landing has been most probably achieved. Growth, however, remained low in Europe. Demand was sluggish in most sectors with a few notable exceptions that we will analyze later on. Our segments that have a higher percentage of sales in Greece benefited from the better growth rate of the Greek economy. Energy costs rose sharply during the first months of the year, following natural gas prices, which spiked during the winter. They later started to normalize and decline, reaching better levels. However, the average cost of energy was higher for the whole period in comparison to the previous one. Energy, as you can understand, is an important cost factor for most of our segments and especially for the steel one. The key characteristic of this period, as we all know, is the trade wars and tariff situation with several back and forth, conflicting announcements and failed expectations. The U.S. is not a major export market for most of our segments. However, all this created several -- in demand, especially in the first segment, aluminum and copper, this back and forth created temporary issues in supply as well. In aluminum, for example, the 25% tariff, which later became 50% created temporary scarcity and an increase in the price of scrap, which was excluded from the tariffs. Canadian primary aluminum on the other side, started flowing towards Europe, affecting the regional premiums. With copper, on the other hand, we had a very different case. Just the announcement of the Section 232 investigation caused an arbitrage. For some months, in second quarter, the copper price in the U.S. was significantly higher than in Europe. Everybody who want to sell to U.S., causing again a scarcity in the raw materials in Europe. This has now normalized. The new investment administration -- the new United States administration has a different view on renewable energy and of offshore wind farms. It is now obvious that our decision to build a new plant in the U.S. for our cable segment, which produces land cables was the correct one and one can remain. Here in the slide, you can see how the key financial metrics were evolving over the years, focusing on adjusted EBITDA and taking out 2022 which, if you remember, was an extraordinary year, we can see a very positive trend. And this year, not only we have increased our EBITDA by 9% and but we also surpassed this '22 performance during an extremely different situation. This Improvement is also reflected on our earnings before taxes which more than doubled than last year. It has not surpassed 2022 only because the metal prices at that time were rising and leading to significant metal results. In general, this quarter is the best ever quarter for the Viohalco Group. And the majority of this growth is a ultra majority of this growth is attributable to the Industrial division. If you see also here, you also see the real estate division. And this bridge shows us which segment performed better compared with the previous year. In a nutshell, there are EUR 100 million difference in between the 2 periods, EUR 50 million is attributable to the Cenergy Holdings, cables and steel pipes. EUR 35 million contributed by the aluminum segment and the rest around EUR 26 million to the steel segment. In this slide, you see an analysis of the investments of the group. For an industrial group like ours, investments remain a key element of our operations. Without focused investment, we wouldn't be in this position. We invest in order to keep our factories modern and competitive against our competitors, automation, adding capacity and diversification are the main drivers of our investments. In the first half, the Industrial division invested EUR 173 million, marginally lower than 2024. The majority comes from the cable segment, which in addition to the U.S. plant includes capacity expansion in current for offshore high-voltage cables and upgrades to onshore cables plant in Greece, targeting a best-in-class facility for medium, high and extra high voltage ground and underground cables. Other notable investments include infrastructure upgrades in the aluminum segment in Greece, Bulgaria and U.K. installation of new machinery for the increased production structure of steel products in Greece, and other operational investments and improvements across our steel plants. Our net debt related to the Industrial division amounted to just over EUR 1.5 billion, seasonally higher than the year-end, but EUR 250 million lower than the respective period of '24. This improvement was a combination of strong profitability, effective working capital management and continued strategic investment across the companies. It's worth to be noted that the leverage ratio, net debt to EBITDA has significantly improved over the years. Moving on to the aluminum segment. The turnover exceeded EUR 1 billion, corresponding close to 20% growth year-on-year. This was driven by strong momentum in packaging solutions. Adjusted EBITDA grew even more by 56% to EUR 98 million. Looking at subdivisions within the aluminum segment, despite the challenging environment, we saw strong and improved performance at ElvalHalcor, the segment's flagship. Additionally, Etem Gestamp increased its EBITDA, while Bridgnorth Aluminum in U.K. witnessed a rebound. These results demonstrate the positive impact of our strategic investments over the recent years. These have well positioned us to capitalize on accelerating demand for aluminum products. Looking ahead, we see continued positive long-term trends driven by strong demand for sustainable packaging and energy efficiency infrastructure. All these reinforce our positive outlook for this segment. Turning to copper segment. reported 5% revenue growth to EUR 945 million. This was primarily driven by higher average copper price on the LME whereas challenging market conditions kept volume growth to only 1%, mainly driven by stronger demand for copper tube products and busbars. Operational profitability for the segment was strong at EUR 58 million in the first half, declining by 5% as energy prices and the sales mix were not optimal. Going forward, process optimization, strategic investments and expanding the range of Sofia Med's product portfolio will further reinforce our competitive position in this market and allow our copper segment to navigate further headwinds. Moving on to the cable segment, which achieved a significant 37% increase in revenue in the first half to over EUR 730 million. This was thanks to growing utilization of expanded production capacity and smooth execution of existing projects. Adjusted EBITDA rose by 51% to EUR 123 million. This was a result of 6% higher project revenue, a consistently strong margins, especially in low and medium voltage cables. We saw continued strong momentum in tendering activity despite the volatile geopolitical landscape, Hellenic Cables secured EUR 200 million of new orders during this period. This kept the order backlog at close to EUR 2.8 billion at the end of June. Successful execution of key projects across Europe continued with significant progress of completion of high-profile mandates in Germany, Denmark, Poland, France and in the U.K. Looking ahead, our results highlight the growing strategic importance of the cable segment. And together with our targeted investments, position our company for continued success. Now moving on to the steel pipe segment. The revenue grew 11% to EUR 277 million. The segment leveraged the strong position in the market to capture growing demand for pipelines. This was driven by elevated energy prices and ongoing need for alternative natural gas transportation routes. Our performance was also supported by the revival of the key projects related to the energy transition. Many of these were fast tracked into execution during this period. This strong performance led to 23% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a record high EBITDA margin of more than 18%. These were supported by our targeted capacity increasing investments which in turn enable higher production volume and high-margin project mix. Our backlog rose to EUR 560 million by the end of June. With a successful award of several high-profile projects in Italy and the U.K. All these reinforce our positive outlook for this segment. And now in the steel segment, we are very pleased to report that despite the continued challenging operating environment and mainly in Europe, we saw a gradual recovery with a modest revenue growth of 2% while adjusted EBITDA more than doubled during this first half of the year. This trend was mainly due to strong demand and slightly better spreads for reinforcing steel and mesh products driven by the strength of the Greek construction market. For context, the European construction market remains very weak, with continued slowdown this year. Unfortunately, this makes conditions for the EU steel industry very challenging. But looking ahead, we expect continued growth in Greek construction while the European steel demand remains subdued. One thing that to be noticed is that we expect critical policy announcement up to the end of this year. These include steel trade defense measures and the CBAM review. We are closely monitoring these developments as they will have direct implications for all European steel producers. Finally, the real estate has maintained its revenues in the first half of this year and EUR 23 million with a slight improvement in adjusted EBITDA to EUR 9 million. The fair value of the investment portfolio increased by 5% year-on-year. This was driven by active asset management and robust demand for high-quality sustainable buildings. Key milestones during the first half, including the successful completion and delivery of 2 new developments. Ardittos House, a centrally located mixed-use property IN Athens and a prime office building in Athens' main office hub. Looking ahead, Noval Property remains focused on unlocking value from its existing pipeline and pursuing new acquisition of modern, high-quality environmentally sustainable properties. On the back of strong first half performance reported today, we look forward to the rest of the year with confidence. Our achievements are supported by the strategic investments we have made across the business. These are now delivering tangible returns and helping us navigate challenging operating conditions in some of our markets. Our companies have shown that they can deliver despite the persistently challenging microeconomic backlog. The value of the strategic initiatives focused on operational efficiency, product mix optimization and targeted investments in high-growth segments. Looking to the second half of the year, we tend to fully leverage our strong market position and capitalize on our strong alignment with global megatrends. We see growing demand for aluminum and copper and significant order backlogs within our cables and steel pipe businesses. Furthermore, we remain well positioned to capture opportunities for any potential improvement in market conditions resulting from policy changes in the steel sector. And finally, our real estate division is successfully executing its investment strategy, which we expect to continue going forward. Thank you all for your attention, and we are now -- we are all open to take any questions that you may have.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no audio questions at this time. I will now pass the floor over to Mr. Thomadakis for any webcast participant questions.

Actually, we have received the question via the web app. So the question I understand is regarding -- the question is -- first of all, the question is whether -- how can we explain the finance expenses with our level of net debt at the end of June. Our finance expenses, you have probably noticed that has decreased significantly compared with the previous year. This is because of the effort that we made in order to get better spreads from the banks. That's the one. And secondly, that the leverage ratio has significantly again decreased. This amount of financial expenses don't include only interest payable, but also includes other financial expenses like fees for issuing bank guarantees and other things. So this is the one reason. The other is that EUR 1.5 billion debt that we have at the end of the year is only -- it does not correspond the average debt that we utilized during the period. And the second question about the U.S. measures as described during my call, and expressed, we are living in a very volatile environment that these actions of United States administration has created. We monitor, but on the other hand, we feel confident that our plant and our commercial network is strong with a significant competitive advantage. And we will capable to overcome any problems that may arise in the future.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.

Thank you all for participating in the first half results of Viohalco. Looking forward to hear from you for the year-end results, in the beginning of March 2026. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

Thank you all. Bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.