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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Össur Q2 Results 2020. Today, I'm pleased to present Mr. Jón Sigurdsson, President and CEO. [Operator Instructions] Speaker, please begin.
Yes. Thank you. I would like to welcome you to the Össur Investor Conference Call where we will cover the results for the second quarter of 2020. My name is Jón Sigurdsson, and I'm the President and CEO. And with me here today is Sveinn Sölvason, our CFO. We will begin by going through the highlights for the quarter and the financial results, after which a question-and-answer session will follow. Financial performance has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales were negatively impacted in many of Össur's main markets due to social distancing and other measures that were implemented by local authorities in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales in the second quarter of 2020, therefore, amounted to $135 million, which corresponds to a 25% organic decline. Sales in the first half of the year declined by 16% organic. Even so, our sales have been gradually improving since the beginning of April. When sales were about 60% to 70% of last year, June was at 80%, 90% attainment, and sales attainment for the first weeks of July was slightly over 90%. The outlook remains uncertain, but we want to highlight that the long-term prospects of our underlying fundamental drivers of the prosthetic and bracing and support markets are not expected to change. We also expect that the impact from COVID-19 will lead to some pent-up demand, but we don't find it possible to quantify the pent-up demand at this stage. EBITDA amounted to $12 million of Q2 or 9% of sales and EBITDA in the first half amounted to $34 million or 12% EBITDA margin. Even so, our cash position remains strong, but I will let Sveinn elaborate further on the financial later in the presentation. We recently completed the acquisition of the Prosthetic Manufacturing College Park and entered into exclusive negotiation to divest Gibaud, which is the part of the France business that does not sell into the O&P channel. Gibaud has supported our effort to build a platform within the O&P channel in France, where our market share is strong in prosthetics. With the potential divestment of Gibaud, Össur sales in France would primarily go through the O&P channel, which is our primary sales channel in Europe. The potential divestment will, therefore, allow us to focus our efforts in France and strengthen our position within the O&P market. If we turn towards the quarter sales, sales amounted to $135 million compared to $179 million in the same quarter last year. The prosthetics business has proven to be more resilient than the bracing and support through the pandemic, where the prosthetics segment declined 21% organic and the bracing and support segment declined 32% organic. Reported sales declined by 25%. Recently acquired companies contributed 3% to reported growth. And with the change in currency rate, sales were negatively impacted, corresponding to a 2% point impact on reported growth. The impact of COVID-19 varies by geography. In America, sales were significantly impacted in April and May but began to gradually improve in June. Outlook in the United States remains uncertain, in line with the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in some of Össur major markets within the U.S. In EMEA, sales were also significantly impacted in April, but then began to gradually recover in the remainder of the quarter, in line with each of lockdown measures in most countries. In APAC, sales in China and Australia continue to be on track, while sales in the emerging markets were negatively impacted. Over to you, Sveinn.
Thank you, Jón. The P&L is significantly impacted by lower sales as a result of COVID-19 as Jón went through and also other items and costs in relation to the potential sale of Gibaud and other extraordinary items on the cost side. Lower sales resulted in lower gross profit, and gross profit margin is temporarily lower due to lower utilization and manufacturing. As we had communicated as part of quarter 1, we're able to reduce OpEx by $8 million when excluding the impact of, again, the potential Gibaud divestment costs. In relation to the potential sale of Gibaud, we are booking $17 million write-down, or let's say, impairment of trademark and goodwill. These are, obviously, both noncash items. Then we have about $3.2 million transaction costs in relation to the potential divestment, ultimately resulting in a negative EBIT of $17 million. The effective tax rate was negative 4% in the second quarter, as it was again impacted by some extraordinary items, mainly in relation to the potential sale of Gibaud. The effective tax rate would have been around 25% in the first half of the year excluding these items. The net loss in the quarter was $18 million. Over to the next slide, please. Reported EBITDA amounted to $12 million. And as a result, EBITDA margin was 9% here in quarter 2. Fundamentally, underlying profitability remains intact on pricing -- in market pricing or, let's say, productivity, cost structure and capacity remains in place. And as sales recover, margins will return to pre-COVID levels. In quarter 2, currency movements net of our hedging agreements had a neutral impact on the EBITDA margin in quarter 2. We expect moderate -- let's say, moderately lower OpEx in quarter 3 year-over-year, but we believe the operating profit, in general, will improve in -- for the second half year of 2020 as sales recover. If you go to the next slide, please. Free cash flow was strong and amounted to $20 million in quarter 2. The key items affecting the cash flow in the quarter are the, first and foremost, lower operating profit as already covered. We have a positive contribution from net working capital in connection with cash management activities in the quarter, and our accounts receivable were stable. And in general, we continue to see good collection rates. And our customers' ability to maintain payment terms has been very strong in the quarter. CapEx is lower than in the comparable quarter and amounted to $5 million. Our liquidity position is strong with cash and undrawn credit facilities amounting to $282 million at the end of the quarter. Net interest-bearing debt was $331 million at the end of the quarter, which corresponds to 3.0x net interest-bearing debt to EBITDA. And this ratio is now temporarily exceeding our target range of 1.5 to 2.5x. And if you go to the final slide. As mentioned before, we entered into exclusive negotiations to divest Gibaud in France. And signatures of the final agreements are subject to consultations with employee representative bodies of Gibaud and Innothera, and the completion is expected in the second half of 2020. You can find the pro forma financial impact in the table here on this slide, and we would like to highlight that the potential divestment will be accretive to our organic growth and profitability if we look at adjusted figures for last full financial year 2019, meaning that organic growth would have amounted to 6% in 2019 compared to the reported 5%, and the EBITDA margin would have been 23.4% compared to reported 21.8%. We would also like to highlight that the balance sheet items related to Gibaud are currently classified as assets held for sale. That includes -- or that concludes our overview for the quarter, and let's go to the Q&A session, please.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Thomas Bowers from Danske Bank.
Just a few questions here from me. If we kick off with the sales segment, so can you give us any color on what is the split between the U.S. and Europe right now? So I'm just wondering if you have any concerns about the current development in the U.S. with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases? And then just -- I think I heard you in regards to the July numbers. Can you just confirm that it was above the 90% level? And then maybe just on CapEx, the $5 million level, is that something that we should look for in Q3 and Q4 as well? And then maybe just lastly, on the full year guidance, or will -- remains suspended, but do you have any comments on the share buyback program which also was put on hold? I think I'll stop there.
Yes. Yes, regarding the USA, as of now, we are seeing very similar development in U.S. and Europe. However, of course, we are concerned about the recent development on researching of the situation in those big markets, Texas, Florida and California. But I think there is very little we can say about it. We can confirm that it was slightly over 90% attainment in July, the first few days of July. CapEx?
Yes, Thomas, I think you should expect CapEx to be similar or, let's say, per quarter for the remainder of the year. And on the share buybacks, again, let's say, I'll refer just back to our capital structure and dividend policy. I mean we are currently above the, let's say, our target levels of 1.5 to 2.5 as we would need to move into that range for us to resume our share buyback program.
And the guidance and the share buyback, we can't comment on that really. I mean we are still -- we have suspended the share buyback. And when we'll revert to that, it's too soon to say.
And the next question comes from the line of Christian Ryom from Nordea Markets.
A couple of questions. 3 questions from me as well. So first is maybe if you can dwell a little bit further into sort of the current sales attainment and whether there are any markets where you are actually seeing this pent-up demand being realized, say, what are the current trends in some of the countries that were quickest to emerge from lockdowns? And then my second question is to the gross margin and what -- how we should think about that, particularly if you can maintain or improve on the current sales attainment? Is a sales attainment above this 90%, would that put you roughly at a gross margin around the 62% level that you delivered in Q1? Or how should we think about that? And then the final question is whether you have any update on sort of the status on competitive bidding in the U.S.?
Yes. Let me start with the first one, current sales and pent-up demand. Yes, I mean, remarkably, U.S. has shown a quite resilience in the recovery, in fast recovery, and that is still the case, actually. But having said that, the development in U.S. have turned worse at the moment. So how that will impact, we don't know. Regarding the pent-up demand, we saw some in China. But at the moment, I would -- unfortunately, I just would like to say that this is a speculation at the moment. We -- the common sense prevail that there is some pent-up demand. We know that, discussing with some of our customers, everybody thinks that there will be some pent-up demand, and how, to what extent and how much, it's very difficult to say. And further than that, it's -- yes -- yes and I would also like to point out that Southern Europe came back very strongly from a very, very low trading levels. And the speed of the recovery indicates some pent-up demand. But on the other hand -- I know I sound like a politician here, but on the other hand, the rate of increase has been leveling off over the last weeks, but there's very little more I can say, really.On the gross margin...
Maybe just...
Yes, on the -- yes, sorry, go ahead.
Just one clarification on your comment on the U.S. You said that there's been resilience in recovery, but it has recently turned worse. Is that also -- is that what you're seeing in your sales? Or are you just referring to sort of the case load in the U.S.?
No. I mean we have not seen that in our case, but when you...
The reference is to the external environment, in U.S., which is obviously the same news on that. But generally, Christian, I mean, the regional -- there are just a lot of regional differences in how sales are coming back in this market, and it's largely very much just correlated with the underlying actions that are being taken in each of these markets to control this breadth of the pandemic. I mean we -- like we mentioned in quarter 1, markets that have like Germany, Sweden, we have been less impacted than other -- much less impacted than other markets that have had strict closures or lockdowns and, let's say, the recovery correlates very well with these developments. But ultimately, let's say, the pent-up demand will be there, but it's also just a matter of capacity out in the clinical field. And with our core customers, the O&P clinics, how much they can -- let's say, there's some capacity constraints there to perhaps take on the full extent of the pent-up demand. But as Jón said, we're simply unable to put a scientific or, let's say, or provide you with a numerical answer on the size of the pent-up demand, unfortunately.
Yes. But we can see that those clinics that are within the hospital environment, they are really hard hit. And we can see one of them there is some of our very good customers that are in those big hospital systems, they have dropped off quite significantly. Those who are more removed from the hospital systems have shown a much quicker return.
Right. Okay. So on the gross profit margin, I mean, what we see here in quarter 2 is that our gross profit margin is somewhat lower than what we would expect in, let's say, a normal quarter. And the reason for that is just that we are not utilizing our full capacity. We have idle capacity during the quarter. And you can also see on the working capital side, we are decreasing our inventories in the quarter. We're still having, obviously, a decline in sales, but so we've not been producing to inventory to, let's say, keep up gross profit margins. And that is -- I mean, we are, let's say, in market margins remain the same, meaning pricing, product mix, as such, although bracing is sort of not growing as strongly as -- or not recovering as fast as prosthetic. So there's some negative mix effect. But it is purely because of, let's say, lower utilization in our manufacturing platform. So as sales recover, we will gradually get to, let's say, a more normalized level. I hope that gives you some color on this. And then with the current rating, we are getting closer to what is, I would say, normalized gross profit margin. And on the competitive -- yes, and on the competitive bidding, no, there's no news as such on competitive bidding.
No, we don't know anything. And we've been asking, and we think it's safe to assume that, that will continue, although the system is quite collapsed at the moment in U.S. So it might be delayed, but we don't know.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Niels Leth from Carnegie.
My first question would be a question which I also think I asked last quarter. So could you remind us what share of amputations are considered elective surgery? And since there is a delayed effect from the COVID-19 as amputated are waiting kind of 6 to 8 months, I guess, to get fitted, would you then expect a delayed effect into the second half of this year from amputations that potentially being delayed?
Yes. This is -- it's a very good question, Niels. And we, at the moment, everything around this, even though it's very interesting, remains pure speculations. There are 2 indications pointing out to different directions. There is a delay in amputation, and there is a delay in vascular surgery. And what kind of effect that has on the amputation rate is a very interesting question. And there are some -- some of our customers maintain that this will mean increase in amputations later on because of angioplasty vascular surgery has been delayed. And that -- but as I say, Niels, maybe, your guess is as good as mine. We don't know. It's a speculation at this point.
And -- but maybe to add to that, just maybe a reminder that, let's say, on average it varies between countries and by customers. 60% to 80% of the business with our customers is just servicing existing entities. So it's not -- let's say so -- but obviously, yes, if there's a delay in amputations because of complexities in the hospital system as a result of COVID-19, that would have an impact. But we do not have any, again, clear statistics to be able to give a scientific answer on this.
So it's not that you can see how much of your sales that goes to newly amputated patients?
No.
No.
Okay. Great. Then I just have like a housekeeping question. Where did you book the $3.2 million of transaction costs in quarter 2?
That's in G&A.
Great. And do you expect to deconsolidate Gibaud from your P&L in Q3?
Let's say -- our expectation is that we will be able to complete the sale of Gibaud in the second half of the year. So as soon as we are able to complete on that news, we will announce that, yes, and then we will, obviously, separate that from our underlying P&L. But we've -- let's say, we've shared, let's say, information with regards to the approximate P&L impact of -- or the pro forma numbers which you should have.
Okay. I guess my question was, if you expect to put Gibaud in a separate line in the P&L discontinuing operations?
Yes, that would have been if we just look at the pure -- or definition of the IFRS standard for us to be able to do that Gibaud needs to be a separate, let's say, cash-generating unit, which it's not, it's we're just selling part of our French business. And therefore, from an accounting standpoint, we are applying the IFRS standards. We are not able to do that. So -- but, let's say, the impact -- you should be able to estimate the impact based on the numbers that we have shared.
And we talk about Gibaud as a company, but in reality we are selling a certain part of our French business out of Össur. And we are keeping a very good part of the French operation -- the big part of French operation still remains intact, and it's a very good business we have there.
Our next question comes from the line of Yiwei Zhou from SEB.
I have 3 questions. Firstly, a follow-up question regarding the capacity with the O&P clinics. Is it possible for you to indicate an average utilization in these O&P clinics? And secondly, when you say the sales containment, could you please confirm that is not impacted by the acquisitions? And could you give us an update on M&A opportunities? Do you see any change in the market dynamics, especially with the independent O&P clinics at the moment, which are suffering?
Could you repeat the second question, please?
Yes, it's the sales attainment. Could you please confirm that is not impacted by acquisitions -- acquired growth.
Acquisitions, yes.
Okay.
Yes, yes, yes, we can answer that now. Let's not -- that's -- it's just pure organic, let's say, it's not impacted by acquisitions.
And let's take the capacity. Well, there is -- we can see the health care system -- the capacity in the health care system, in general, is very defined and it's difficult. The whole system and our clinics are -- do not carry a lot of capacity, do not have a lot of capacity, idle capacity. But to what extent our customers are able to ramp up their production or ramp up their services, we don't know. But with our own clinics, we've been quite successful in our own clinics, but how the -- and how the customers, in general, will be able to, we don't know. But we can say there's a big difference between our customers. Some are able to, but some are not. The market dynamics -- I mean if we judge from our account receivables, our customers, in general, have been able to ride the storm quite successfully. I mean we have not seen distressed customers. Our customers are paying on time. And we don't see a big trouble there.
Okay. And can I just follow up the utilization question. Is it possible for you to quantify an average utilization rate with your own O&P clinics? And do you see it could improve if the pent-up demand occurs?
I would say the way that -- the general answer to that is that the utilization, I mean, is largely in line with just our own sales in these different markets. So in markets which are further along the recovery curve, the utilization correlates with that. And in markets like, again, as Jón mentioned, China, which is further along the recovery, we see, let's say, market back to good growth levels and obviously then full utilization in the clinical path. So again, I mean, the utilization will just correlate with how our sales are developing ultimately in these markets.
But there are 2 -- there are 2 -- you can -- I mean this is a very interesting line of question. This is -- these are questions we are asking ourselves every day. I mean there are 2 factors that come in play there. First of all, patients coming into the clinics; and secondly, the capacity of the clinics to serve those customers. And we see that there is a lot of customers that the need of the customers, specifically those who need service, they seem to be willing to brave the situation and show up. So there is a more -- this is a more question of the restriction of the authorities, how much can you -- I mean if people can't leave their home, they can't go to the clinics. But if they can, they show up. And then there is a question of, are the clinicians able to perform their duties or the -- how many can stay in the waiting area, all of those restrictions come into play. So but we see that if people need specifically prosthetic care, and that's the reason -- that might be the reason for the difference between prosthetics and orthotics. So people try to show up if they need the care.
The last question comes from the line of Benjamin Silverstone from ABG.
I have 3, if that's okay.
Yes. Sure.
Sure.
So first, I was wondering if you could provide some nuances as to how R&D is currently progressing. And also more in relation to the ongoing traction happening on the points presented at the last CMD. So if there's anything happening on the exoskeletons, the mind control aspects or also the emerging markets? So how perhaps your thinking about this has changed during the corona? And lastly, just to be sure that I understand correctly the impact that this divestment will have. Could you put a few words on how your French commercial infrastructure will look after divestment? Currently, it's my belief that the divestment will not have a material impact on the sales channel, but I just want to make sure that, that is correctly understood.
Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Benjamin. Let me start with the R&D. The R&D is progressing remarkably well. And we are -- I'm personally very impressed by how the R&D has been able to keep all major projects going. There are some -- there have been some problems with testing because we have not been -- it would be difficult to get to patients to test. But other than that, we believe the R&D pipeline is largely intact. I wouldn't say completely 100%, but it's largely so.
With -- I mean going back to, let's say, the Capital Markets Day and then some of the growth initiatives we talked about there, I mean, when you mentioned emerging markets, in particular, I mean there's no -- COVID has not changed our willingness to invest in this part of the world. We -- as we went through on the Capital Markets Day, we are, to some degree, underrepresented in some of those key markets and we have a very ambitious plan to grow that part of our business, and we have -- and we will continue to do that. And there's no change in those plans, whatsoever, and that remains one of our biggest growth opportunities, and we are very much committed to that. On the French infrastructure, I mean, what -- like Jón mentioned earlier, I mean, now our -- we continue to have a sizable business in France. I mean, France remains one of the biggest health care markets in the world and we are one of the key players, in particularly prosthetics in the French market. And our go-to-market in France will be focused on the O&P clinics, and we'll continue to maintain and grow that business. But with the potential sale of Gibaud, we are now moving away from the bracing and support pharmacy business in the French market.
And what we've done in France, we will keep everything but the business that is not going into the O&P. And we sell both, of course, bracing and supports and prosthetics into the O&P market and that will be intact. And that's a very lucrative and very nice business, which we have been building up in France, yes. On the exoskeleton question, nothing has changed. We don't see that the COVID situation per se will change anything there.
We have one follow-up question from the line of Niels Leth from Carnegie.
Great. Before, you mentioned that some U.S. hospital systems are badly hit by the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of profitability. How is this economic crisis in the U.S. hospital system affecting your business? I guess that most of your products are fully reimbursed. So how would that affect a company like yours?
No, no, yes, it's -- thanks for being able to clarify this. I mean in absolutely most cases, we do not have a direct business with the hospital system. But with some of our customers, even though they are independent from the hospitals, they have locations in the hospitals. And we have seen hospitals just close and close down for all but the most vital cases, and I don't want to mention any examples. But our clinicians have not been able to come to the hospitals. And the access to the hospitals has been severely restricted. That's the effect of it rather than the hospital systems per se is having direct business with us.
But again, and just to reiterate, in most cases in the U.S., our O&P clinics are outside of the hospital setting. But there are these few examples, which have been more impacted than the rest of the market, we would say.
But bracing and support is a different story where a large part of our bracing and support is post elective, "elective" surgeries, and those have been postponed, quite a few.
As there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers.
Okay. So thank you for your questions. And please reach out to us if you would have -- like to have a call with us or if you have any questions after this call. And thank you for listening, and have a good day and good summer. Thank you very much.
This now concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.