IMCD NV

AEX:IMCD

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Please go ahead.

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Good morning, everyone. As usual, I'm here with Hans Kooijmans and we're happy to take your questions in a moment.

My name is Pieter Slikke. We started 2023 with a strong first quarter with an EBITA growth of 6% and even adjusted for ForEx 8%. Certainly, when you realized that we grew Q1 2022 with 59%, we were able to hold revenue more or less at the same level as quarter 1, 2023, and we're able to increase our margin. The business segments in Life Science performed quite well.

In the industrial segments, we saw effects of destocking and slowing down of demand. We completed 2 acquisitions in Q1, 1 in the U.K. and 1 in China. Sunrise in China will give us a strong position in the beauty and personal care market in that country. We closed a small bolt-on acquisition in Sweden last week, signed 2 deals in South Africa and India, and we expect to do more acquisitions in the course of this year. So we have proven resilience throughout our history. We remain very positive about our ability to grow organically and by adding businesses. Now Hans and I will take your questions later, and Hans will now give you a short update on the numbers.

[Hans Kooijmans, executive]

Thank you, Pete, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And as usual, a short summary of the first quarter 2023 results start on Page 9 of the presentation. We are happy to report a solid start of the year. ForEx adjusted revenue increased 5% and gross profit increased 9% in the first quarter of this year. And the gross profit increase was a combination of 5% organic growth and 4% as a result of the first time inclusion of companies that we acquired in 2022 and the start of this year.

Gross profit in percentage of revenue improved by 0.8 points to 25.9%. And this increase in percentage was amongst others a combination of product mix effects, changes in local market circumstances, and successful internal gross margin improvement initiatives. ForEx adjusted operating EBITA increased 8% to EUR 149 million. And the operating EBITA margin increased by 0.2 points to 12.8%. And the conversion margin, calculated as operating EBITA in percentage of gross profit, was 49.5%, which is slightly below the same period of last year. And ForEx adjusted net result increased [ 5% ] to EUR 83 million.

Compared to Q1 last year, both free cash flow and cash conversion margin more than doubled to respectively, EUR 147 million and 97%. And this increase was a combination of increased operating EBITA and a relatively low investment in working capital as a result of more modest top line development.

Net working capital translated in days of revenue was 60 days, close to the 59 days reported end of December. Year-to-date cash earnings per share were EUR 1.74, an increase of 6% compared to the same period of last year. And then on the last line of this page, you could see a 14% increase in our number of employees, and this increase is a combination of organic growth and the first-time inclusion of acquisitions.

Then on the next page, Slide 10, a lot of numbers, and you will find gross profit, EBITA conversion margin per operating segment. As you can see, EMEA reported 9% ForEx adjusted gross profit growth and 7% operating EBITA growth. Operating EBITA in percentage of revenue in EMEA improved, 0.3% to 13.6%. And as most of the acquisitions in this region were relatively small, it's fair to assume that the impact of acquisitions was limited and most of the growth in EMEA was Organic.

Americas, the next column, reports a ForEx adjusted gross profit increase of 6% and an operating EBITA increase of 8%. And part of this EBITA growth is acquisition related and as a result of the impact of M&A done in 2022. Asia Pacific in the third column reported 14% growth -- profit growth and 8% operating EBITA growth on a constant currency basis. The decrease in conversion margin is the result of higher gross profit being more than before, offset by relatively higher cost growth in this region.

And in the last column, the cost of holding companies. And as you know, this includes all non-operating companies, including costs related to the head office in Rotterdam and the regional support offices in Singapore and the U.S.

On Page 11, summary of the free cash flow. Adjusted operating EBITDA increased EUR 8 million, which is in line with the reported operating EBITDA growth. Then EUR 2 million of CapEx, followed by a relatively low EUR 2 million working capital investment. As mentioned before, last year's substantial EUR 75 million working capital investment was mainly the result of an all-time high 25% organic revenue growth in Q1 last year.

Then a short update on net debt and leverage. Reported leverage ratios and leverage based on the definition used in the definitions in the new loan documentation were more or less similar compared to 2022 year-end numbers at 1.8 and 1.3x LTM EBITDA. The 1.3x leverage ratio is well below the lowest 3.5x leverage threshold in the IMCD loan documentation. You might have seen that in February, we completed the refinancing of IMCD's multicurrency revolving credit facility and the new facility amounts to EUR 600 million as interest margins based on external credit ratings and the 5-year term. So the first maturity date of this new facility is March 2028.

And then last but not least, our outlook for 2023 on this page that you might have seen. And so far, the short summary of our year-to-date financials, and Pieter and myself are happy to answer your questions. So I would like to give back to Sharon, the operator.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We'll now take our first question from Matthew Yates from Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

[Matthew Yates, analyst]

Good morning, a couple of questions. The first one, just on the outlook. There's a line in the press release about it being prudent not to give an outlook because of the uncertainties. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and I know you've always stressed on calls that the order book of the business is inherently pretty short term. But I can't recall you ever including that explicit comment in writing before. So are you trying to convey something there?

And then the second question, we have seen in the course of the last couple of months, the company has announced that Valerie will take over as CEO next year. I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about the background here, why you've gone external route than internal? I guess you must know Valerie pretty well from her time on the IMCD Board over the last 18 months. But what especially impressed you about her and trusting her to take over the business going forward?

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Thank you, Matthew. Thank you for your questions. The first question on the outlook. We have always, in our history, been very prudent and cautious, hoping to underpromise and overdeliver. We feel that economic uncertainties now are, let's say, more so than usual. And therefore, we felt it's prudent to postpone an outlook later. And I think I don't -- we don't want to convey a message other than the message that we conveyed namely that there are uncertainties. But we also say, and I said it also in my opening remarks that we are positive about the resilience of our business.

On Valerie, yes, we know Valerie, of course, as you pointed out, as a Supervisory Director and she has been an excellent nonexecutive Board member. She also has a long experience in the chemical industry as her CV shows. So she knows our business -- and yes, after carefully weighing possibilities by the Supervisory Board, the choice was on her, and we are very confident that she will do an excellent job as my successor.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Matthias Maenhaut from Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Matthias Maenhaut, analyst]

One question, actually, if you look at working capital and the fact that you do not provide a guidance statement for the next quarter. Could that probably relate to some recent weakness in the order book? Or is that not necessarily the case? And could you maybe also elaborate a little bit on the trends you're seeing in the different end markets you have and over the different geographies into Q2, please?

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Yes. On the working capital question, I think you answered it already Hans, to a certain extent. We have invested less in the working capital. So we see, of course, a bit of flattening of our revenue line, and that also frees up cash. On the different business segments, I already indicated that the industrial segments show some slowdown and industrial segments in our case, are the coatings and construction and mainly in Advanced Materials segments, whereas the Life Science segments do very well. So coatings [indiscernible] pharmaceuticals, beauty and personal care and food.

Food ingredients have performed excellently. But as always, in our type of business, if the economy is softening somewhat, we see also softening in the more industrial segments. And we have to see if that is the main effect of destocking or also a slowing of demand. It's difficult to see that for every single product. So I guess that is a summary, a bit of a softening in the industrial segments and a very strong performance in the Life Science segment.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our next question from Suhasini Varanasi from GS.

[Suhasini Varanasi, analyst]

I just had a follow-up on the outlook, please, the lack of one. Just wanted to understand if you had seen any incremental or worsening of trends towards the end of the quarter, March or in early April that makes you cautious on the outlook on your inability to keep the outlook at this point. Just wanted to understand if things have worsened through the quarter because it felt like a pretty decent start to the year.

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Yes. So as somebody also pointed out already, our feasibility is pretty, let's say, limited because of our, let's say, the order book is pretty short term. And what we see is volatility almost per month. So I don't want to speculate about the second quarter yet because again, the volatility is high. So that's why we also felt it's better to be cautious than taking the usual outlook. So basically, I would say the volatility is a bit larger than we used to.

[Suhasini Varanasi, analyst]

Understand. That's very clear. And just one question on the APAC region, please. Can you maybe comment on what you're seeing in that end-market because of the way the margins have evolved in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis, where do you see normalized margins trending? And what are you seeing in terms of the country trends over there? -- is where are the weakness -- areas of weakness that you're seeing in Asia?

[Hans Kooijmans, executive]

Yes. Pieter, I should take this one, feel free to add, of course. If I look at gross margin development, then we reported a softening in Q4 last year of the margins in that region as a result of some specific items. And I've referred to the discussion that we had about stock provisions that we took mainly in that region in Q4. What you see in Q1 this year is that gross margins came back to a similar level as last year. And that is a bit of that. And if I look at different trends and different markets, I think we all have seen what happened in China coming back after the lockdown, but taking quite some time to be back to more normal. And the question is, what is the more normal in China going forward? And there we see also different trends in different parts of the market.

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Yes. So maybe I'll add to what Hans is saying, China is coming back, I think, but slowly. And we see other markets performing relatively okay, strong India. So it's a different picture all over, but pretty okay, I would say.

[Operator]

Next up, we have Annelies Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley.

[Annelies Vermeulen, analyst]

I just have one question left, please. I wanted to ask about food. You flagged that food has no range relatively resilient within the Life Sciences division. Some of the commentary we're hearing from some of the food producers has been quite mixed in terms of still relatively strong pricing but a potentially slower volume outlook as consumer demand waned through the year. I realize your visibility is limited given the short [indiscernible] of the order book. But I'm just wondering if you're seeing any of that going into the second quarter based on your conversations with customers in your Food segment...

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Yes. Well, we still see growth in the first quarter, good growth, maybe a little bit less than we had hoped but still very good growth. and very resilient margins. I have no inclination to expect that, that will change in the coming period. I think we have a very strong food business, very much focused on specialties, but also very much focused on the trends in the market. Now let's see how the volumes develop. But so far, we are pretty happy with what we have seen at this moment.

[Operator]

Next up, we have Jayanth Challapalli from JPMorgan.

[Jayanth Challapalli, analyst]

In the last earnings call, you had mentioned expectations for healthy profit growth for the first quarter. Would you say the same now about the second quarter? And if not, what has changed?

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

I think I should stick to the outlook that we gave. As I said before in the previous question, visibility is quite short term. And I wouldn't want to speculate now on what will happen in the next couple of months. So I mean, again, you don't see big swings in our business, but we just want to be prudent. So we don't want to speculate now about the second quarter.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We will take our next question from Quirijn Mulder from ING.

[Quirijn Mulder, analyst]

Yes. Good morning, everyone. So Yes. So the market is still quite volatile. So is anything you can think about the destocking is coming to an end somewhere in 2023. Is there any idea you have on that subject? That is my first question. And second question is, with the changing markets, what do you think about the M&A possibilities in this market? Because it looks to me that the opportunities could increase. I'm not speaking about pricing, that it could increase in terms of [ people ] reconsidering their position with regard to their ownership of companies.

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

Thank you for your question. Yes. Thank you very much. On destocking, it's a good question when it ends. I think one has to assume that it ends rather sooner than later because at a certain stage, of course, stocks are depleted and need to be refilled. Very difficult to say, also difficult to say because of the large range of products that we carry in our business. I would say that we are at a point that it's more -- makes more sense to -- if going forward, that destocking has finished than assuming that this will go on forever and particularly in the industrial markets.

But I think -- I think it's -- the reason also that we are cautious is that if you look at the outlook of macro economists also in markets like the United States, that there's a large uncertainty there about how far the economies will slow down. So that also triggered our caution.

On your M&A question, listen, we always feel that in the market that is resilient and strong, that M&A opportunities are better than in a market that goes down as a general remark, because people in our business feel that we cannot extract maximum value if the market goes down.

So -- and not many companies in our sector will suffer really difficulties, economic difficulties in the sense that they have to sell. Notwithstanding that, we still feel that there is a lot of opportunities in M&A -- we have a healthy pipeline. And as I said also in my opening remarks, we expect that we will close more deals in the course of this year. So don't, let's say, expect that there will be more opportunities because the market goes down versus a resilient market. I don't think that, that as a general view is the case.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] It appears that there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.

[Pieter Slikke, executive]

No. Well, I thank you very much. And in particular, the people that are in London and had to wake up early and I wish you all a good day, and see you next time. Goodbye.

[Operator]

That concludes today's conference. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. You may now disconnect.