De La Rue PLC

LSE:DLAR

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q2

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the De La Rue plc Interim Results Presentation for the period ended 25th September 2021. Thank you for joining us today.The results we announced this morning are available on our website, www.delarue.com. I'm Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury and Investor Relations; and our CEO, Clive Vacher; and CFO, Rob Harding, will present an update on the turnaround plan and the interim results to you shortly.After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for questions. If you wish to do so, please submit these through the message system via the website. Importantly, before we start, I'd like to draw your attention to the forward-looking statements within the results announcement and on Slide 2 of the presentation.Now I'd like to pass it over to Clive.

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Thank you, Matthew, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the De La Rue first half results for the financial year 2021 to '22. I am Clive Vacher, the CEO.Our first half results have shown substantial improvement in the group's financial and operational performance. I would like to give an overview of the good progress made so far this year in both Authentication and Currency, and then hand over to Rob Harding, our CFO, to give you more detail on the financial performance.We've shown good performance for the first half of the year. Adjusted revenue for Authentication and Currency increased by 10.3% to GBP 177.1 million up from GBP 160.6 million in H1 2020/'21. Adjusted operating profit for Authentication and Currency increased strongly by 166% to $17.0 million from GBP 6.4 million in H1 last financial year. This strong growth from Authentication and Currency more than offset the cessation of the U.K. passport contract, which was a significant contributor to profit last year.And so in this context, an overall adjusted operating profit of GBP 17.4 million compared to H1 profit last year of GBP 15.3 million represents a growth of 13.7%, which is a great result. Importantly, we continue to see good growth opportunities for us in both polymer and authentication, and we continue to invest in the business. In line with this, in September, we announced a major upgrade to the group's facilities in Malta, which will double the capacity for tax stamps and brand protection labels for our Authentication division and grow our capability and capacity for our Currency division.In Currency, our available capacity has been fully utilized in H1 this financial year, and we have also seen year-on-year growth of more than 90% in the first half in polymer volumes. We expect to utilize 100% of our banknote capacity for this full financial year across all sites. We saw a positive operating cash flow of GBP 25.8 million in the first half, with net debt reduced to GBP 43.9 million from GBP 52.3 million at the end of FY 2021, and Rob will cover this in more detail. So overall, it has been a good start to the year with the outlook for revenue, adjusted operating profit and net debt for the full year, remaining in line with the Board's expectations, although we are seeing some COVID-19 impacts, which I will cover later.Looking now at the first half, we saw good performance from both divisions. In Authentication, we saw revenue increase by 28.3% year-on-year to GBP 44.4 million, driven by growth in both government revenue solutions and brand. This was despite some variability in GRS contract volumes as countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.In Currency, we saw revenue increase by 5.3% year-on-year to GBP 132.7 million. The strong ongoing global demand for cash has continued in H1 as Central Bank sought to maintain high stock levels during COVID. We also saw a stronger mix of products as the ongoing shift to polymer continues. This revenue growth, combined with our cost reduction program from the turnaround plan with adjusted operating expenses of GBP 31.1 million, down from GBP 34.1 million a year ago, resulted in adjusted operating profits of GBP 17.4 million, up from GBP 15.3 million a year ago.Importantly, last year, we saw a substantial contribution from the U.K. passport contract, so we have grown adjusted operating profit this year despite having zero contribution from U.K. passports. We substantially completed the cost out program, first outlined in February 2020, in line with our turnaround plan strategy, while we continue to invest in the growing areas of our business, where we continue to see good growth potential for the medium and long term.In Malta, we will undertake a major upgrade to the group's facilities, increasing our 14,000 square meter factory to become a 29,000 square meter state-of-the-art manufacturing site. This will be delivered within the expected GBP 79.8 million total net investment for the turnaround plan. Approximately 100 new jobs will be created due to this investment and the expansion will be delivered progressively with the majority of the work targeted for completion by the end of financial year 2023-'24. In addition to the expansion of Authentication capabilities, it will grow our capability, capacity and flexibility for the group's Currency division.Meanwhile, our polymer expansion plans are on schedule. The new polymer line now installed in Westhoughton is the largest in the industry and will be fully commissioned during H2 of this financial year in time to meet increasing customer requirements. During the first half, we saw a polymer volume increase of more than 90% year-on-year. Our cash position at the end of the half was good, with net debt of GBP 43.9 million lower than at the end of the full year in March as a result of the phasing of capital expenditure and strong operating cash flows of GBP 25.8 million.Moving on to a divisional update and current trading. As I noted earlier, Authentication saw good year-on-year growth and secured a new GRS contract, plus saw an extension and expansion of an existing contract. The Ghana Revenue Authority contract is now fully operational and contributed to the growth in H1. At the same time, we did see a minor reduction in volumes and revenue in H1 this financial year compared to H2 of last financial year due to variable recovery rates during the half in countries which we operate, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the group's new contracts to deliver growth in volumes and revenue in H2 compared to H1 this financial year. However, there remains some uncertainty regarding the recovery path from the COVID-19 pandemic and the local time scales to launch new schemes in countries where we are contracted to provide solutions.As noted earlier, Currency continued to see good ongoing demand for cash, including seeing a growth in new customers and improved product mix. In addition, the division saw the continued delivery of cost reductions and manufacturing efficiencies. We expect 100% utilization of available bank note and polymer capacity in H2 this financial year, while we expect order patterns to normalize to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels in H2. We continue to monitor and work to mitigate headwinds in commodity and energy costs and challenges in our supply chain. To date, we've been able to mitigate the changes seen in the market for commodities and the strains on the supply chain due to factory efficiencies and our flexible operating model. Identity Solutions at this point is a minimal noncore activity, and we are now essentially 2 divisions, Authentication and Currency.Looking now to our progress on our 3-year turnaround plan that was announced in February 2020. The cost-out program is now substantially completed with a further GBP 7 million of in-year savings due to the turnaround plan expected in the full financial year. At the same time, we continue to focus on identifying and enacting further cost reduction opportunities within the business.Within Authentication, we continue to target strong year-on-year growth. However, as noted earlier, there remains some uncertainty regarding the recovery path from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, some of the GRS schemes that we have successfully won over the past few months are ready to be implemented. However, we are finding time lines extended as countries experience different speeds of return from COVID-19 impacts. To will result in our Authentication division exiting the year at an annualized run rate of approximately GBP 100 million instead of the FY 2021/'22 annual sales of GBP 100 million, as previously guided. As I have noted, we have had a good series of wins in both GRS and brand, and so we expect to see Authentication deliver further revenue growth in FY '22/'23. Importantly, we continue to see a good pipeline of potential new contracts which gives us good growth opportunities for 2022/'23 and beyond.In line with our turnaround plan, we have seen improved and sustainable profit growth for our Currency division. And in line with our drive to convert the world to polymer, since the start of 2020, there have been 25 new polymer bank notes issued on our SAFEGUARD polymer, representing 1/3 of the circulating and commemorative SAFEGUARD notes issued to date. Furthermore, SAFEGUARD's security features such as ARGENTUM ink and De La Rue-originated holograms are growing in popularity as more higher-value bank notes convert to polymer.I would now like to hand over to Rob Harding, our CFO, to go through the financials in more detail.

[Rob Harding, CFO & Executive Director]

Thank you, Clive, and good morning, everyone. Firstly, I'd like to take you through the key highlights from our income statement and are showing our half 1 performance compared to that of the prior half. If we start at the top, we can see adjusted revenues of GBP 179.2 million, which is an increase of just under 1% and that's driven by growth across our 2 divisions. Authentication's revenue growing by 28.3% from GBP 34.6 million to GBP 44.4 million for this half, with this increase coming from both GRS and brand lines. Currency revenue is up 5.3% from GBP 126 million to GBP 132.7 million with a strong mix plus ongoing polymer conversion driving that top line. And this has more than offset the loss of revenue from ID and the U.K. passport contract that concluded in the first half of last year.Adjusted operating expenses decreased by 8.8% from GBP 34.1 million to GBP 31.1 million, and this really reflects the run rate benefits of our cost reduction initiatives completed last year. This reduction in operating expenses combined with revenue growth has resulted in a 13.7% increase to our adjusted operating profits with Half 1 landing at GBP 17.4 million versus the GBP 50.3 million for the prior half. This increase in group profitability is driven by substantial improvement to the underlying performance of our 2 go-forward divisions. Specifically, Currency's Half 1 profits of GBP 8.2 million are up 228% on the prior half's profits of GBP 2.5 million. Authentication's Half 1 profits of GBP 8.8 million are 126% up on the prior half profits of GBP 3.9 million.Adjusted EPS was marginally down at 6.4p for half year versus 6.5p. And that was really driven by a higher weighted average number of shares post equity raise that we saw last year. Net debt for Half 1 landed at GBP 43.9 million, which is 16.1% down on our full year position of GBP 52.3 million, and this positive movement is driven by strong operating cash flows plus lower-than-expected capital expenditure, which is largely timing related.Finally, on this slide, we show our statutory results, and you can see from this that our operating profits increased by 200% from GBP 4.6 million to GBP 13.8 million. And this reflects really a lower exceptional spend for this half of GBP 3.1 million compared to the GBP 10.2 million that we had in the prior half, and that prior half really including a significant amount of charges related to the cessation of banknote manufacturing at our Gateshead facility.Moving on to the next slide, adjusted revenue. I mean this revenue bridge provides a visual of some of the deltas that I mentioned on the previous slide, as we compare Half 1 to that of the prior half. Currency revenues are up GBP 6.7 million. As I highlighted earlier, this is really a stronger mix of products as we convert more banknote customers to polymer, a growth in our direct polymers substrate sales, and this is partially offset by lower security feature volumes.Authentication revenues increased by GBP 9.8 million, and that really reflects the benefit of new contracts with the GRA that were signed at the end of half year of last year, plus additional growth that we've seen from our GRS and brand lines. And as I said earlier, this top line growth has more than offset the ID business that we see on the right-hand side of this slide.If we move on to the next slide, that covers our adjusted operating profits and the bridge showing the drivers of the increasing profits from GBP 15.3 million to GBP 17.4 million. And similar to revenue, we see the strength and growth of our 2 go-forward divisions is more than offsetting that loss of ID profits and U.K. [ paid ] cessation, with these 2 divisions driving GBP 10.6 million or 166% growth in operating profits and contributing to GBP 17 million of the GBP 17.4 million profits we saw for Half 1.And as I said earlier, Currency's $5.7 million profit growth is a combination of top line growth, polymer conversion and cost reductions, that run rate savings that we see from our cost-out initiatives. Authentication's is a similar story with that GBP 4.9 million profit growth coming from top line growth in GRS and brand and plus that cost reduction run rate savings that we see flow to that division as well.If we can now move on to cash flow. In terms of cash flow, we've seen net cash inflows for Half 1 of GBP 8.5 million before we include the impact of a GBP 9 million reduction related to our borrowings. And this position is driven by strong inflow from operating activities of GBP 25.8 million that you can see on the left-hand side of this waterfall chart. This positive inflow is driven by our Half 1 profits of GBP 17.4 million, plus some very positive working capital flows of GBP 14.1 million for the period. And this includes a reduction in inventories of GBP 4 million versus our year-end position, a GBP 50.1 million reduction in receivables, and that's primarily driven by around GBP 32 million of cash collections that we've had from customers, the benefit of a return of GBP 8.5 million cash collection balance, and that's offset by a GBP 40 million reduction in payables, and that's driven by the settlement of year-end trade creditors and accruals of roundabout GBP 26 million, and we've had a reduction of about GBP 8.6 million in advanced payments.The inflow from operating activities is also stated after pension payments of GBP 8.1 million, an outflow due to movements in provision of GBP 4 million, and we've also made payments in relation to exceptional items of GBP 2.8 million in the period. Cash flows from financing activities saw a net outflow of GBP 13.2 million, and that's driven by the GBP 9 million net repayment of borrowings that I mentioned previously, plus GBP 3 million of interest payments, which also includes our advanced payment guarantee fees.The cash outflow from investing activities was GBP 13.1 million, and that's primarily from the purchase of property, plant and equipment, which amounted to GBP 9.6 million and plus we've had some spend on software intangibles and development assets capitalized of GBP 4 million.The last slide before I pass back to Clive covers off our debt and pensions position. In terms of net debt, as I said earlier, this has come down to GBP 43.9 million from GBP 52.3 million at the year-end. And this continues to give us a significant facility in covenant headroom. On the EBIT interest payable, we are coming in at 7.1x versus a covenant of 2.8. And on the net debt EBITDA, we've landed at 0.83x versus a covenant of 3. As I said earlier, net debt at the half year was lower than expected, and this was a result of both the phasing of capital expenditure and also strong cash collections. And the outlook for the net debt for the full year is in line with our Board expectations. The group has banking facilities of GBP 275 million, including an RCF cash drawdown component of up to GBP 175 million and a bond and guarantee facilities of a minimum of GBP 100 million, and that facility is due to expire and mature in December 2023.On pensions, the valuation of the group's U.K. defined benefits pension scheme on IAS 19 basis at the end of the year is a net surplus of GBP 0.3 million. And this is around GBP 1.1 billion of assets, broadly netting off against GBP 1.1 million of liabilities. And the Half 1 surplus of GBP 0.3 million compares to a net deficit position of GBP 18.5 million at year-end. And that movement is really due to positive growth in scheme assets, partially dampened by growth in liabilities, and that's driven by a larger -- sorry, a lower discount rate use at the valuation due to a small decrease in corporate bond yields.Pension contributions of GBP 15 million were agreed 18 months ago for the first 3 years of turnaround through to March 2023 and then they step up to GBP 24.5 million thereafter until financial years '28 and '29. Additional contributions are only payable in extreme circumstances, and the next triennial valuation is set for December 2022, with the results no later by -- than April 2024.If I can now pass back to Clive to cover off the summary and outlook.

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Thank you, Rob. I'd like to now summarize our first half and discuss the outlook. We have seen good growth in the group's adjusted operating profits with very strong growth from our 2 ongoing divisions, Authentication and Currency, more than offsetting the cessation of the U.K. passbook contract. Our turnaround plan cost-saving initiatives have been largely enacted and were delivered on time, and we expect a further GBP 7 million of cost reduction benefit this year.In Authentication, we have seen good progress with contract wins, although we are seeing delays in implementation of contracts and awarding of new contracts due to COVID. In Currency, we've continued to see good levels of demand with growth in H1, and we expect to utilize 100% of our remaining available bank note and polymer capacity for the financial year 2021/'22. We expect to see year-on-year growth of 70% for financial year 2021 compared to the prior year for polymer volumes. We saw good cash flow in the first half with net debt reduced to GBP 43.9 million, lower than at the end of the last financial year. So overall, it has been a good start to financial year 2021/'22 with the outlook for revenue, adjusted operating profit and net debt for the full year, remaining in line with the Board's expectations.And now I'd like to hand back to Matthew to go to Q&A.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Thank you, Clive. Now we will cover some of the questions that have been submitted, and if people wish to submit them, please do so through the system very soon. So first few questions come in from [ Bobby Pruitt ], private investor. So firstly, to Rob, can we offer any guidance on the operating margin and product mix for the second half in both divisions?

[Rob Harding, CFO & Executive Director]

[ Bobby ], thanks for that. I suppose if I recap on this, I mean, we said in our turnaround 18 months ago that we wanted to drive mid-teen group operating margins by the end of year 3 of our turnaround plan. So that's what we're aspiring towards. And I think if you look at last year, we saw our group margin at 7.5%. And for the first half of this year, we're seeing that at 9.6%. So you're seeing us driving that bottom line margin over the last 12 months or so. And that has shown actually good margin improvement across both Currency and Authentication with a controllable profit margin increasing both in Currency and in Authentication. You can see that at the back of the RNS when we differentiate that kind of controllable profits from the kind of fully loaded bottom line profits of those 2 divisions.In terms of second half and going forward, like I said, we do want to drive continued improvement to our margins. So that's certainly much kind of our expectation. We don't drive -- we don't disclose profits on a kind of product outline based on that, but I say we have targeted to drive the group margins to 13% or above in year 3.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. Thank you, Rob. Another question has also come in is, can we give any indication of a plan for dividends for next year or subsequently?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

So let me take that one. So we -- as part of the restructured RCF that we signed with the banks that goes to December 2023, we have a prohibition of paying -- or announcing dividends for 18 months from July 7 of last year. So that takes us to January of next year before we are able to announce any dividends. Our commitment at the time of the equity raise last summer was to pay a dividend in year 3 of the turnaround plan, and that remains our aspiration at the moment. And so there's no change to that.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. A final question from that particular investor, probably a very short one is, can we comment if the company has been approached by a buyer, whether it's trade or private equity?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

The short answer is no.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. A few questions in from Tom Rands at Investec. So firstly, can we have some more color on a good Authentication pipeline and the number of clients that have signed up to the WHO that have yet to sign a contract with anyone.

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Yes. So let's go back to what we said back at the time of the equity raise. So there were approximately at that time about 30 countries that are signed up to the World Health Organization's framework convention on tobacco control. And of those countries, we -- over the last 1.5 years, a relatively small number have committed to a scheme. So I would say that it was somewhere between 20 and 25 of those countries still to go. Again, the deadline remains December 2023 for them to have schemes in, although I'm not sure how they would be penalized if it took longer than that. I don't think they would be. But I think generally, we continue, therefore, to see a good pipeline of a considerable number of countries that we do expect to implement tax stamp schemes on tobacco over the next couple of years. So really, the outlook is unchanged and remains positive. Any other...

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

So for -- a follow-up to that is what comes after that to drive revenue growth?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Yes. So we've got a number of different things in Authentication. We would certainly expect to see the tax stamp schemes that often start with tobacco to expand to other excisable goods, and we're certainly seeing that as a trend in the business. So we would expect that the existing countries with schemes will expand those schemes, and that will drive growth as well as continued growth in our brand business, which is showing solid improvement this year.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. All right. Another one, Clive, which is has the introduction of the new [ higher contactless limit ] to GBP 100 in the U.K. affected the volume outlook under the Bank of England contract out to 2028?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Short answer is no. I think that the Bank of England volumes remain independent of that contactless limit. I certainly see no link between the 2 of them.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. Rob, the question that's come in, which is do we still anticipate peak net debt in the first half of next year?

[Rob Harding, CFO & Executive Director]

When we said it would turn around 18 months ago that we expect the peak out in the second half of this year. So I think as we look towards the end of this financial year, I expect us to be peaking out and then moving into year 3 and becoming cash generative into year 3.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. And then a final question from Tom is with the stronger balance sheet and potential pay dividend next year, what are our thoughts on capital allocation towards M&A and other opportunities we're seeing out there?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

So it certainly is in my ambitions that we need to further develop the company, both in terms of its breadth and in terms of its size, which will increase its resilience. So we are consistently looking at M&A activity, although I don't want anyone to expect that we would see anything imminently. But certainly, as part of our going forward planning towards the back end of the turnaround and beyond, I would like to think that we're in a position to do some M&A activity that will strengthen and grow the company for the future.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. Thank you, both. Questions coming in from James Beard at Numis. I pass this to Rob, link these together, which is what's the cost of raw material inflation that you've seen during the half year? Has it changed since the half year? And what ability do we have to mitigate this cost inflation through pricing?

[Rob Harding, CFO & Executive Director]

Yes. I mean essentially, we have seen inflation, not just in terms of raw materials, but obviously, gas utilities, et cetera. And I think we, as a position, well in control about where -- on a supply-by-supply basis, we have negotiations that are ongoing with that. So we've mitigated for Half 1. So we have seen those progresses. But as we look forward, we will continue to try and mitigate those headwinds that are coming. We certainly haven't reached the top of the kind of the headwinds on this. So we will continue to focus on that and mitigate wherever possible.In terms of the quantum, we have actually got an absolute number on this, we just kind of -- we deliberately set up our cost reduction to absorb that, and we've successfully done that in Half 1.

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Yes. And I think just to add to that, we have been seeing this coming for some time. And I think the important thing about our approach to it is that we are in no way going to sit back and be a victim of this. We consider it to be a business problem, and we have significant activity ongoing, both in terms of supply chain management, further options in the supply chain. We are improving our planning process to put orders in earlier because of the lead times extending. And given that even with all of that mitigation, we will still be facing price cost inflation. We will continue our drive for cost reduction and efficiency right across the group and reinvigorate further activity in that regard. Our ability to pass on the inflationary cost pressures to customers varies by contract. But we have to assume that we will need to continue this intense activity to ensure that we have mitigation and where we can pass it through, we will, but we can't assume that right across the board.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. Next question is do we have any comment on Crystal Amber's recent statement with regard to De La Rue after its AGM earlier this week?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

The answer is we won't comment on Crystal Amber's statement. What I would suggest is that, that should be a question for Crystal Amber.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. And then at the moment, the final question that we got is do we see a growth in polymer production capacity as we're fully utilized right now?

[Clive Graham Vacher, CEO & Executive Director]

Yes, absolutely. So we have almost doubled, so 90% plus increase H1 2021 to H1 2022. And that we have achieved with our existing lines. So we've really work the assets that we have at the moment. Come early Q4 this year, so early in the calendar year, we will be bringing up the world's largest polymer production line, which will take our overall capacity for polymer substrate from about 2.2 billion banknotes a year to about over 5 billion banknotes a year. And the good news about that is that, that line will be, although not fully utilized immediately, will be pretty busy from day 1. So we feel very good about our position in polymer in the marketplace.

[Matthew Rose, Director of Tax, Treasury & Investor Relations]

Okay. All right. Thank you, Clive. Thank you, Rob. That's all the questions that we have for now. So I think as we've covered all of those, we will close the call. Thank you, everyone. Have a very good morning.