Spie SA

PAR:SPIE

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Operator]

Hello, and welcome to the SPIE Q1 2021 Results Conference Call. My name is Val, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to your host, Gauthier Louette, Chairman and CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for attending SPIE's conference call for our first quarter results. Q1 has confirmed the good momentum of our activities with returned-to-positive organic growth even compared to 2019 and an EBITA margin at pre COVID-19 level. This is a solid performance, which confirms the vitality of our market and the relevance of our positioning as an enabler of the energy transition and the digital transformation. To illustrate this positioning, I will start with a few contract examples. On Slide 3, we're talking about bespoke IT solution for COVID-19 vaccination centers in France, and we are happy to participate to the fight against the COVID-19. We saw the deployment of IT solution for vaccination centers. This is an installation, which can be installed within 5 days. And we provide technical IT support during the extinction campaign and obviously, dismantling at the end. We are part of a consortium awarded with a public medical procurement contract, and this solution has already been implemented at the Clermont-Ferrand vaccination center. On Slide 4, as you know, we enable the digital transformation. And in this example, it is a rollout of an optic fiber telecom network in Schwedt in Germany. Optic fiber in Germany is a promising market that we have already started to address, and we recently geared up our capabilities since the acquisition, as you will see later in this presentation today. In this example, our customer is a local state vaccine, so the municipal utility of Schwedt. We've been working for them for the past 25 years, initially on gas and electricity networks and today, on optic fiber. Obviously, our good knowledge of the area was definitely a strong competitive edge to gain these contracts. On Slide 5. In the Netherlands, we enable the energy transition with the development of the chronic vent onshore wind farm in order to supply 65,000 households with green electricity by the end of this year. We are connecting '19 turbines to the local grid. Our services include cabling, engineering, setup of switchgears, installation of cameras, optic fiber cables, control and security systems. As you see, it is very flat, and it can get very windy. Moving to Slide 6. We often tell you about our strong local presence. This is the example of Moissac. The town in the southwest of France, where SPIE has been present for nearly a century. We started working on the electrification of the local train line in 1913. Today, we are active in public lighting, telecom infrastructure and rural electrification. We're obviously strongly involved in the local life. And for example, we are very active in youth professional insertion. We employ locally 70 people, some of them being the third-generation of speed employees. And now on Slide 8, moving on to the highlights of the quarter. Clearly, we have seen the confirmation of a good momentum with robust revenue trends. Q1 revenue was higher than in Q1 2020 and in Q1 2019 on an organic basis. We benefited from a strong rebound in France and a continued robust growth in Germany. Organic growth was at or above 4% in both these countries. Our Q1 EBITA margin stood at pre-COVID level, equal to that of Q1 2019. We have announced 2 bolt-on acquisitions, both in optic fiber networks and both in Germany and Central Europe, which will considerably increase our capabilities on the strongly growing optic fiber local markets. On the basis of this good start to the year, we do confirm our full year outlook. Now on Slide 9, moving to the financial highlights. Q1 organic revenue growth was plus 1.4% compared to robust Q1 2020, which was badly affected at the time by the COVID crisis. If we compare ourselves now to Q1 2019, which was a pretty good quarter, we are up 1.1% on an organic basis and 2.9%, including changes in perimeter and foreign exchange. Our Q1 EBITA margin was at 3.7%, up 10 basis points compared to Q1 2020 and equal to that of Q1 2019. It is pre-COVID levels. Moving on to Slide 10 and looking at our organic growth. Q1 2021 marks a return to positive organic growth and a continued sequential improvement on previous quarters. It confirms the good momentum already observed in Q3 and Q4 2020 with a firm business recovery following the strong impact on -- of strict lockdowns in Q2. On Slide 11, organic growth in Q1 was driven by both France and Germany. France saw a strong rebound in revenue, up 4.3% organically. Germany and Central Europe continued to deliver a solid organic growth at 3.1%, of which 4% in Germany alone. Northwestern Europe was down minus 5.3% organically against a strong comparison basis. We were at plus 3.6% in Q1 2020, and we do expect to catch-up in Q2. Oil and gas and nuclear was down by a limited 1.2%. Comparing now with Q1 2019. Group revenue is higher by 1.1% on an organic basis and 3.2%, including acquisition and disposals. So we are higher than pre-COVID levels in Q1, which again illustrates the strength of our business. Germany and Central Europe is a key contributor to this performance, being higher by 4.2% organically and as much as 12.6% overall, thanks to bolt-on acquisition made over the period. France, too, is higher by 1.6% organically. Northwestern Europe is only slightly lower, 1.9%, which puts in perspective 2021 versus 2020 decrease. Finally, oil and gas and nuclear is lower by 5.5% due to a tough context in oil and gas. And now on Slide 13. We are pleased to see the return of our user -- usual bolt-on M&A activity. We recently announced 2 acquisitions, both in optic fiber networks, both in Germany and Central Europe, which is spot on in terms of our strategic priorities. WirliebenKabel in Germany, specialist of FTTX projects with around 130 employees, a presence in over 10 locations and revenue of EUR 25 million in 2020. K.E.M. Montage in Austria, the Austrian leader in telecommunication infrastructure services with over 170 people and annual revenue of EUR 30 million. As we have mentioned before, the market potential in optic fiber networks in this country is considerable as they both need to catch up compared to the rest of Europe. So with this acquisition, we are very well positioned now to benefit from this growing market. Now moving to our activity by segment and starting with France on Slide 14. So France did enjoy a strong activity rebound with a 4 3% organic revenue growth. Compared to Q1 2019, revenue is higher by 1.6% on an organic basis. Following the good recovery momentum observed in the second half of last year, growth was solid across all divisions, highlighting the vitality of our markets and the performance of our French organization. In particular, technical facilities management activities are increasingly benefiting from our innovative SMART FM 360° digital offering and market dynamism remains unabated in telecom networks and smart city services. Moving to Slide 15, Germany and Central Europe. Revenue growth was particularly strong in Germany at 4%, highlighting yet again the excellent trends driving the German market. On the buoyant energy infrastructure market, transmission and distribution services turned in another quarter of solid growth despite a harsher winter in Q1 this year. Activity levels remain high in technical facility management despite the COVID-19 context. In Northwestern Europe, we had a slow start in Q1, but we do expect a catch-up in Q2. In the Netherlands, good trends in infrastructure and technical facilities management were offset by low demand for industry services, especially in petrochemical and by the impact of harsh weather conditions. Activity levels in the U.K. remain resilient, given the strict COVID-19 restriction that did prevail for the better part of the quarter. In Belgium, revenue decreased due to a hesitant building installation market, while transport infrastructure and transmission and distribution services remains well oriented. And now for oil and gas and nuclear, on Slide 17, we did record a healthy activity in nuclear services, with revenue increase on a very low Q1 2020. As you will remember, EDF was very fast to shut down the external activity in the nuclear plant mid-March last year. Now the Grand Carénage program as well as the recurring electrical installation activities continue to provide long-term visibility. In oil and gas services, it is, in fact, the opposite. Revenue was down against a high comparison basis as oil market environment continued to weigh on operation. Business levels are, however, showing signs of improvement in some geographies, primarily in West Africa. On Slide 18, a few words on how we value human capital, which is a top priority for SPIE, and we have set ourselves a gender diversity objective, which is to increase by 25% the proportion of women in key management positions by 2025. This would be achieved through internal promotion and external recruitments with the support of our group-wide network called So'SPIE Ladies. In terms of recruitment, we want to recruit 2,200 people in France this year to support our growth. This is another sign of the vitality of our business. This year, again, we want to give students their first professional opportunity as we are looking for 600 new apprentices. And with regard to employee ownership, with 6.1% of the capital, employee funds are SPIE's largest shareholder, and we are among the top 10 companies within SBF 120 for employee shareholding. As we've mentioned many times, employee ownership is key at SPIE, and we do intend to grow it further. And with this, I will hand over to Michel, who will give you more details on our financial performance.

[Michel Delville, Group Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Gauthier, and good morning, everyone. So I'm on Slide 20. As Gauthier have -- as already pointed out, we achieved a robust performance. In an environment still very much affected by the COVID crisis. Group revenue was EUR 1.611 billion, up 0.2% versus Q1 2020. EBITA was EUR 59.7 million, which was 3.7% of revenue, up 10 basis points compared to Q1 2020. As you can see on the right of the table, we are above Q1 2019 levels, both in terms of revenue and EBITA. And here, we have restated 2019 numbers just like 2020 numbers to include the contribution of a school maintenance activity in the U.K., which was reintegrated into the continued parameter in June last year. So it's a small restatement, EUR 10 million on the revenue and limited adjustment on the restatement on the EBITA, but it gives you an accurate comparison basis. As you can see on Slide 21, the revenue bridge on top of a 1.4% organic growth. Q1 revenue change includes a very small impact from acquisition, 0.1% and a negative impact, minus 0.7% from the disposal of our U.K. mobile maintenance activities in March last year. And then the negative ForEx impact, minus 0.6% located primarily in the oil and gas division. Slide 22 on our Q1 EBITA at EUR 59.7 million. So it was up 2.5% year-on-year, and EBITA margin was equal to that of Q1 of 2019. So this is a strong performance as we still have some negative impacts on the COVID-19, but the underlying operational performance of the business is very good, which allows to offset those impacts. This concludes my part, and I'll now hand back to Gauthier.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Thank you, Michel. So moving to our outlook. Looking forward, we confirm our outlook for 2021, and we expect a strong rebound in revenue and EBITA margin, both expected very close to 2019 levels. The full year revenue to be acquired through bolt-on acquisition in the order of EUR 200 million, a further reduction in the group's leverage and the dividend payout ratio at 40% of adjusted net income. And longer term, on Slide 25, as we have mentioned before, SPIE is well positioned to benefit from upcoming European stimulus plan. The energy transition and the digital transformation are core to these plans, and we provide a large array of services that are well positioned to address the expected growth of demand in electricity, T&D and renewable projects, smart cities, building energy or innovation. The digitization of businesses and public administration and industry services, notably now for the development of green hydrogen. Based on what has been announced so far, we estimate that a portion of the stimulus plan that would be directly addressable by SPIE would be EUR 10 billion for Germany and EUR 12 billion for France. Overall, these plans will bring additional growth to our activities, and they do reinforce our confidence in a promising future. Thank you very much for your attention. Michel and I are now available to answer your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from the line of Oscar Val Mas from JPMorgan.

[Oscar Val Mas, Analyst]

Gauthier and Michel, I have 3 questions. The first one on guidance. As you think about your full year '21 guidance, that 2021 [ revenue will be ] close to 2019, if you're already running above this level in a quarter that arguably had some COVID-19 impacts, can you remind us if there are any positive one-offs, the cap you think you want that falls away over the rest of the year? That's the first question. The second question on M&A. We've had some press reports in fresh -- in French newspaper suggesting that SPIE could be looking at ENGIE's services assets. Can you comment on what your appetite is for larger M&A? And if you can't comment on that, maybe if you could just comment if you're seeing any changes in competition or pricing in France with your main competitors. And then a final -- a third question, just on raw material price inflation. Can you comment on if you're able to pass-through higher price inflation from things like copper? And if so, how much is it impacting your revenue in terms of pricing?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, thank you. So line was not very good. But I -- regarding the first question on guidance, we do not have any one-off in this quarter. This is -- I mean, perfectly run-of-the-mill type of quarter. So no one-off on this quarter. Regarding the question regarding ENGIE, obviously, this is a major event happening in our industry. And yes, we do hope that whomever the next shareholder will be, we do hope that it will have a positive impact on competitive environment and bringing more discipline on margin expectations. And regarding the raw materials, well, it is still early, and we don't see a lot of impact. Usually, and from our experience in the past, we're always able to pass on the increases, if any, to the customer. We have a number of indexation formulas in many contracts. And as you know, our projects are small and rotating quickly. So we are able to incorporate it in our tendering, exercises or the most actual prices with again, indexation formula. So in the past, similar to wage inflation, which will -- which has been a question sometimes in the past, also from the analyst. It is never an issue to pass on the price, and it has no detrimental effect to the margin.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Charles Scotti from Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Charles-Louis Scotti]

Yes, the first one on the guidance, sorry to come back on this topic, but you are facing some headwinds like your lockdowns, COVID, the weak oil and gas business and temporary headwinds in Benelux. And despite that, you are running ahead of your pre-crisis level. So what prevents you today from raising your sales guidance? That's my first question. My second question, are there still some contracts where clients refuse to accept price increases? And those that are still dragging on your profitability? My third question on optic fiber. Can you remind us the size of the business in France and Netherlands? And is this business still growing in the two countries? And what's in your view, your sales potential in the German market? And finally, I do understand that you can't say anything on the ENGIE transaction. But can you tell us what kind of maximum leverage you could go into the offer of a platform acquisition?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

So regarding the guidance, this is -- the first quarter is only a small quarter. It accounts for 15% of our results. So yes, it is a good start to the year, and we are very pleased, and we are really confident about our guidance. There are still uncertainties, as you have mentioned, and just a few things like some productivity issues, et cetera. So we are linked to the COVID. So quite a bit still of uncertainty in front of us. So we prefer to confirm the guidance at this stage and leave it there. But you are right, the start of the year has been very encouraging. Contracts where customers do not accept price increase, as I said, there's quite a faster rotation of the portfolio. So it is -- as I said last time, the main issue for us nowadays is a case where we have to quarantine a site because of suspected cases. As I said, it is a small disruption to the projection. And it is hard to claim this from the customer. So this is the sort of events we have to deal with at the moment more than anything in this regard. Regarding the market of optic fiber in France, we're talking -- I mean what we are doing in optic fiber is between EUR 150 million, EUR 200 million in France at the moment. In the Netherlands, it is closer to EUR 50 million to EUR 60 million. It is still growing in Netherlands. It is starting, growing in France and by far, the deployment is not over at all. And it is only starting in Germany. So there's a big potential where, as we have seen on the chart, the deep -- the gap between France and Germany is really considerable. So we are looking now with this two acquisition, where we'll be doing roughly EUR 100 million in this market on top of what we are already doing, which will be in the rest for 2030. But we expect growth from this margin. And regarding the last question, it is really too -- I mean, we have no idea really about what will be for sale. The -- so very vague understanding of the bright topic. And clearly, we have -- so no comment at all to make regarding any kind of leverage. We are very, very far from such consideration.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of James Winckler from Jefferies.

[James Peter Winckler, Equity Analyst]

A lot of mine has been answered. But wondering if you could let us know what the U.K. growth was through the quarter. And then secondly, just curious if you could talk about any -- I believe there's new services, new device that you talked about, one with ultraviolet light disinfection, for example. But if there's new services, you're seeing a lot of pent-up demand for or strong demand for end markets, which are starting to reopen and return to work that you'd like to highlight.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, starting with the second part. We -- well, clearly, as our areas where we were busy in the past time, which we are not doing a lot at the moment. As an example, we mentioned in the past, the large contract we have with the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg for the next 20 years. So the base contract, which is maintaining [indiscernible] access control and whatever, this is still fire, security [indiscernible]. So we are still paid for the base contract. But the additional revenue we derive usually from all the performances and the special features we have to bring for when the opera is working, if we don't get anything at the moment. So clearly, yes, I think there will be some pent-up demand from our customers and from the public as well to restart. So this is a simple example. It is same for hospitality, and we have customers amongst hotels, et cetera. They're not obviously spending right now. And as I mentioned, we are also active in the aeronautics and working for Lufthansa, Air France, Airbus, et cetera. This is fairly slow right now. So we can expect some catch-up later. Who knows maybe second half of the year or later. But yes, there should be some catch-up in this area. And regarding the U.K. growth, we had the single-digit -- mid- single-digit decrease in the first half. Also, do you -- as you will remember -- it is mainly due, as you remember from the comparison with 2020, where in the first quarter, we still had our mobile business. Apart from that, the organic, clearly, it was more stable in Q1 compared to Q1 last year.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Tabor from Stifel.

[Nicolas Tabor, Analyst]

The first one would be on the -- on your Slide 25 on the infrastructure plan and spending. Do you have an update on where exactly you're expecting the tenders to start and the first impact on revenue? Any idea? Then on the second one, thinking of the more Q1 exit rate in terms of cost base evolution. We've had the Q1 margin, but thinking of how you're going into Q2 and forward, are you, let's say, cautious with recruitment? Or are you actually trying to find as much qualified employees as possible because you see that pent-up demand and how we should think about that? Will you wait for the investment? Or will you wait -- invest ahead of actually getting the revenue from either the Green Deal or the pent-up demand? And then on -- the third question would be on the M&A pipeline. Where is actually the focus for you right now for the rest of the year? I mean, we've seen your 2 acquisitions in optic fiber in a very attractive market. And so where is your attention turning now for the rest of the year? Is it still more Germany? Or do you see things to do in France? And which segment, for example?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, regarding the timing of tenders, no. It is early to say. As we've said, we've -- we have not based our plan for 2021, with a lot of impact from the stimulus plans yet. And we think that we'll start to see the tenders probably towards the second quarter or third quarter of this year. Regarding the cost base evolution, as we have mentioned in the presentation, for instance, in France, we plan to recruit more than 2,000 people this year. And I mean, if we were looking at our plants in Germany or elsewhere, we'd have, not dissimilar figures. And so clearly, we were gearing up for growth, but in line with what we see in our portfolio. So in our type of business, we have some good view on what the customers plan to do. And then we try to adapt, not too much in advance because then it would cost money to have people lying idle, but we try to adapt with the type of growth and in the sectors, which -- where we anticipate growth. So we are not investing ahead, but we're trying to keep pace and have some -- and anticipate the growth because it takes time also to recruit people. And regarding the employee, it is generally not too big an issue. We are an attractive employer. We have a very good retention rate, a very low resignation rate. So we -- and because it is relatively decentralized and with a lot of proximity to our customers, people are really able to see what's going to happen in the months to -- regarding M&A, in terms of geographies, the focus remains in Germany and Central Europe. So we have more deals cooking in this part of our business right now. We want to further develop the SPIE scope. And so we're looking at targets in the area of HVAC. We are looking at a target in the area of infrastructure and also in the area of ICT. This area, we are also investigating in other countries, and like in Belgium, we are also looking at targets in optic fiber. In France, we are looking also targets in the industry. So clearly, we do not plan to grow by acquisition only in Germany, but it does remain the main focus in terms of overall growth. Yes, and very likely, the next days we're going to announce will be in that in the part of the business.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Peter Testa from One Investments.

[Peter Testa, Analyst]

I was -- I wanted to understand it a little bit on some of the puts and takes in margins still being felt in Q1. For example, PPE that might not be able to be passed on in areas which were lagging, maybe some labor utilization may not have been ideal. Are there any of these factors still present in Q1? Or are these still to work through?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

No. Well, to -- generally now, all the PPEs, et cetera, won't -- that have been passed onto the customers or they have been included in the new bids. And so it is not a major issue nowadays for us. It is just as we don't mention to the customers the cost of safety issues. So they are about -- it is the same now. That's become part of run-of-the-mill business. So no significant issue there. Then what -- as I said, what we are facing more in terms of small disruption here and there is that sometimes a site has to be shut off and because of suspected cases, that sort of issues, more we have to deal with that. And it does happen now and again, across the geographies.

[Peter Testa, Analyst]

Okay. And anything to say on labor utilization or labor structure, the extent to which in some of the areas they're lagging and maybe some people not used as well or they've been absorbed across the business? And if you look at your labor structure in general between the use of internal people, subcontractors and temps and so on, are there any areas that are still yet to normalize?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

No. We are back to normal, let's say, in terms of the split between our own workforce, the subcontractors and the temporary workers, which would vary from one country to the other due to legislation also due to the type of activity we do. But being -- some of it being more seasonal than others. So we are back to the usual structure, which is roughly -- we have -- from the productive workforce, we have about 15 to 25 temps.And 10 to 15 subcontractors. So this is a range, and we are back to that. We still have a number of people in short-term employment in Kurzarbeit or chômage partiel or furlough, but it has reduced considerably, and we're talking at group level. We're talking probably in the range of 215.

[Peter Testa, Analyst]

Right. Okay. And then the last question was just on -- if you look at the building segment as it's hard to speak and the activity level there, how it might be changing or how some of the other factors, such as Green Deal-related spending maybe also started to improve that segment of SPIE.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

So I'm not sure I understood the question.

[Peter Testa, Analyst]

Just the customer exposure in the building area. Is any of that part of your business to an extent you would say that is growing in line or less than in line with the rest of the group, you saw opportunity? And maybe you're starting to see more customer activity to bring that part of that business up to good growth.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, the facilities part. And so the technical facility management. This has -- this is working very well in all our countries. We have growth in Germany. We have growth in France, and we are doing well in Belgium or in the Netherlands. It's -- and now what we tend to expect is that if towards the second half of the year when there will be more people coming back to the offices, it should be benefiting to us in terms of adaptation, changes of the layouts, et cetera. So we're quite positive about our tech FM business. Regarding installations, one of the markets, as we've said, is a bit tougher in Belgium right now for a number of reasons, but we see it more difficult at the moment. And elsewhere, it's been resisting fairly well, and we are -- we had a good order intake in France or in the U.K. So we're doing okay.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are currently no further questions in the queue. [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions submitted via the -- apologies. Sorry. Just one question that's in now, and that comes from the line of Eric Lemarié from Bryan Garnier.

[Eric A. Lemarié, Research Analyst]

Yes. Sorry about that. I just got one follow on. You mentioned the organic growth in the U.K. in Q1. Can you -- could you do the same for the Netherlands and Belgium? Maybe give us an idea of the organic growth in Q1? And second question, could you remind us the breakdown of renew -- of revenues within the Northwestern Europe between these 3 countries, Netherlands, U.K. and Belgium, please?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, the -- for Q1, the segment average is minus -- roughly minus 5% and minus 5.3% as we mentioned. And U.K. was better, as I said. And Netherlands and Belgium, a bit worse. But again, Netherlands in 2020, Q1 where the -- plus 2% growth compared to 2019. So it's not a meltdown either. And as I said, we had the harsh winter conditions in the Netherlands for about 2 weeks. So it did have an impact, especially because we work quite a bit with infrastructure or overhead lines. And as I said, we will anticipate a catch-up in Q2. So no major worries there at all. Netherlands is about 60% of the segment revenue and then Belgium and U.K. is -- has roughly the same size, yes.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Guillaume de Villelume from BNP Paribas.

[Guillaume de Villelume]

Can we just have an update on M&A pricing? Is it -- do you see any price inflation or do you have data on it?

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, the recent deals we've made at -- in our usual range of multiple. So we remain very disciplined in this regard. And no major change. It's -- well, again, we remain very disciplined. But we -- a lot of the deals we do are on a one-on-one basis. So no, not that many are done through auctions. And we'll see it helps to keep the prices very reasonable.

[Michel Delville, Group Chief Financial Officer]

I can also take this opportunity to highlight that with this discipline on M&A, we have no impact on the leverage or very limited. And I take also this opportunity. Although, as you know, we don't publish any balance sheet on the quarter, but it is to tell you that so far, this year, the working capital and the cash collections in general have continued to be very good. And although, as you know, we have a usual seasonality with the timing of certain payments, variable pay, the dividend and so on. Every year, we deleverage in H1. Typically, in the order of 1x the EBITDA and then we deleveraging in H2 by an even greater number. So for this year, we do not anticipate the H1 deleveraging be bigger than usual. Although, as I said, we'll have -- we start M&A, and we will pay a dividend. So it should remain within the onetime EBITDA. So from 2.4x at the end of December to 3.4x at the end of June, max, really at max compared to 3.6x in June last year. And this, despite the fact that we will have paid back most of our 2020 social charges, deferrals, if you'll remember. And so we took the opportunity last year to defer social charges payment at the end of the year. So this is another sign of the excellent working capital performance we are delivering at the moment.

[Operator]

Thank you. That was our last question for today. So I'll hand the call back to our speakers to conclude today's conference. Thank you.

[Gauthier Louette, Chairman & CEO]

Well, thank you very much for your attention today and for the interest you have for your SPIE. And we are looking with confidence as this year, I think we have shown the very strong resilience of the company, and we are now back to pre-COVID level. So it is a very encouraging start to the year, and it gives us a lot of confidence to deliver on our promises for this year. Thanks a lot, and have a good day. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.