Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Americana Restaurants FY 2025 earnings call. I am Pujeet Parekh, Head of Investor Relations and Business Development, and it is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the entire management team. 2025 was a year defined by execution and discipline. We delivered strong growth, improved profitability, and strengthened the foundations of our platform, while remaining focused on disciplined expansion, digital enablement, and long-term value creation. Across our markets, we continue to deepen customer engagement, scale our power brands, and embed our purpose of building communities around the joy of food into how we operate and grow. Joining me today are Amarpal Sandhu, our Chief Executive Officer, and Harsh Bansal, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Growth Officer.
Amar will begin with an overview of the group's strategic and operational highlights for the full year, followed by Harsh, who will walk you through the financial performance and outlook in more detail. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions. Please refer to our disclosures for additional details. The presentation design has been refreshed for the improved clarity and identity, while the underlying information remains unchanged. With that, let me now hand it over to Amar.
Thank you, Pujeet. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before discussing performance, it's worth acknowledging the context. 2025 was our first full year of operating in a structurally tougher environment, where we saw a permanent shift in customers' expectations towards value, experience, convenience, and all of this intensified by competition, both international as well as local. Within that context, 2025 was about strengthening the fundamentals of the business by staying relevant to customers, disciplined costs and pricing actions, and raising execution standards and efficiency across all our markets. Our results reflect the impact of the choices we made.
We achieved double-digit sales expansion, with revenues up 14.2% year-on-year, supported by purposeful innovation, sharper marketing and communication, and close alignment with evolving customer trends. EBITDA grew by an impressive 23.1%, supported by stronger flow-through and operating leverage.
Gross profit margins expanded by 1.3 percentage points, and net profit by 1.5%, driven by tighter cost control, deliberate pricing measures, and continued focus on efficiency across the business. We expanded our footprint with the same discipline. During the year, we delivered 159 net new stores, including 119 organic openings, in line with the revised guidance provided during the year. The Pizza Hut Oman acquisition further strengthened our regional presence, adding 40 net new stores to our Pizza Hut portfolio. Here, it is important to note that the Pizza Hut Oman business is now operating profitably. Beyond organic growth, we advanced on inorganic growth in line with our long-term strategy. The development of Arabic QSR category remains a clear focus area, given its customer relevance and scalable economics.
We begin 2026 on a strong footing with the acquisition of Malak Al Tawouk, operating entities in the U.A.E. and K.S.A., marking our entry into Arabic QSR. We will share more details on this later in the call. We also secured the exclusive franchise agreement with Carpo, extending our portfolio into luxury retail, with flagship store openings expected from middle of 2026. Further, technology remains a key enabler of our growth strategy. During the year, we launched our customer data platform, unifying over 15 million customer profiles to support more personalized engagement and improved marketing efficiency.
We scaled to more than 2,700 kiosks, enhancing convenience and frictionless experience in our restaurants. We also established a dedicated center of excellence for IT in Mohali, India, to support scalability and cost optimization. Finally, while continuing to focus on delivering value to our customers, we remained committed to shareholder returns.
For 2025, the board has proposed dividends of $201.6 million, equivalent to $0.024 per share, and this is subject to shareholder approval at the upcoming AGM. Overall, 2025 marked progress across growth, profitability, and platform strength, supported by continued investment in technology and data capabilities, and anchored in our purpose of building communities around the joy of food. Now let's talk about our power brands.
Across our brands in 2025, innovation was grounded in customer insight and brand strength. It was about staying closely tuned to how customer needs, preferences, and behaviors were evolving, and responding with relevance and intent. We focus on local relevance, cultural connection, delivering value that resonated while maintaining commercial discipline. This approach allowed us to reinforce brand equity and convert insight into sustained customer choice for Americana brands.
At KFC, innovation was anchored in culture, value, and familiarity. Platforms such as Epic Burgers and Fiery Twister reinforced KFC's value leadership and supported traffic momentum by addressing strong customer demand for bold taste and accessible value. Big Kentucky, or pronounced Big Kentucky, for all the folks who've been familiar with the brand for the last 50 years in this region. This product combines scale, familiarity, and cultural relevance, leveraging trusted brand equities to drive volume while remaining deeply connected to our local and Arab expat customers within the region. At Hardee's, the focus on rebuilding customer connection by leaning into brand heritage and bold positioning. Most recently, the Sorry We Are Back campaign reintroduced iconic products such as Roast Beef and Chicken Ranch, supported reactivation of lapsed customers.
At the same time, they launched Chicken Slaw and Mix & Match, which is a value offering, demonstrating how the brand continues to evolve creatively while also staying true to its core identity, sustaining momentum through the balance between traffic and check-driving initiatives. For Pizza Hut, innovation centered on strengthening sharing occasions and experience-led dining. Dip and Crunch reinforced sharing occasions and value perception for groups and families, while the Live Pasta Station elevated the in-store experience and helped establish pasta as a meaningful, scalable category alongside pizza.
Together, these initiatives expanded usage occasions and reinforced Pizza Hut's role in social and family dining. At Krispy Kreme, the focus was on expanding customer usage occasions and expanding relevance through local and international collaborations. Seasonal platforms such as Halloween, Trick-or-Treat, and Snoopy drove demand and excitement, while Savory Delights helped broaden the brand beyond traditional sweet treat moments.
Also, Krispy Kreme expanded its QSR partnership to Hardee's after the success with KFC, creating incremental dessert occasions within QSR and supporting average check. All this was underpinned by our newly established in-house consumer insights capability, strengthening how we listen to our customers and ensuring that real behaviors, usage, usage occasions, and choice drivers directly inform clear, commercially sound brand, menu, and communication decisions across the portfolio with speed.
Overall, these initiatives reflect a disciplined and consistent approach to innovation at Americana, rooted in customer insight, adapted to local and cultural contexts, and executed with clear commercial intent across all of our brands. Next, we'll talk about our purpose, which is building communities around the joy of food. This continued to guide how we operate across our markets, leading to meaningful actions during the quarter.
Our purpose shows up in practical ways through how we create opportunity, build inclusive teams, and contribute to the communities we serve. In Egypt, we launched Education for All, Food for All, a unifying platform bringing together our educational initiatives across the region. During the quarter, we also celebrated the graduation of the thirteenth batch of dual education students from Capital University, marking another milestone in building sustainable career pathways for young talent. In the U.A.E., we reached a historic milestone with the opening of four inclusive Pizza Hut restaurants across four emirates. These restaurants are operated by people of determination with hearing and speech impairments, reflecting our continued commitment to inclusion, dignity, and equal opportunity.
In Oman, we opened a new KFC People of Determination store, extending our inclusive employment model into a new market and reinforcing a belief that accessibility and inclusion are integral to how we grow. In K.S.A., we continue to expand with the fifth Pizza Hut People of Determination branch in Medina to scale this initiative and embed inclusion into a footprint across the kingdom. It's important to note that these actions reflect a consistent belief across the organization that growth should create opportunity and shared value.
This will continue through the upcoming Ramadan period as we focus on supporting communities and spreading joy in meaningful ways across all our markets. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how our purpose is a consistent operating principle, creating opportunities, empowering communities, and ensuring that growth goes hand-in-hand with positive social impact across the region. Now, turning to full-year performance for 2025.
We continue to build momentum across the business, with consistent progress across sales, profitability, and cash generation. We expanded our portfolio to 2,749 restaurants, adding 216 gross new restaurants during the year. Expansion remained disciplined and aligned with our strategic priorities and return thresholds. Revenues reached $2.51 billion, driven by 9.7% like-for-like sales growth, reflecting sustained demand across our brands and the resilience of a diversified portfolio operating across multiple markets. Profitability continued to outpace top line growth. EBITDA increased 23.1% to $595.6 million, driven by stronger flow-through and operating leverage. Net profit rose 38% year-on-year to $219.1 million, reflecting strong fixed cost leverage and margin expansion.
We maintained a disciplined approach to capital allocation, with CapEx of $125 million, representing 5% of revenues, allowing continued investment and growth while maintaining capital efficiency. Finally, our strong cash generation enabled us to deliver meaningful shareholder returns. Our board has proposed cash dividends of $201.6 million, equivalent to circa 92% of net profit. With a strong balance sheet and zero leverage, we remain well-positioned to support both organic growth and inorganic opportunities in the future. Overall, 2025 established a strong baseline for the business, with improved revenue growth, accelerated profitability, disciplined expansion, and robust cash generation, and this supports Americana's long-term growth. Now, let me take you through the network expansion during the year.
As shown on the left-hand chart, we delivered 119 organic net new store openings in 2025, in line with the revised guidance provided during the last call. This reflects a balanced approach to growth, prioritizing quality of returns over absolute unit count. During the year, we added 170 gross organic openings, predominantly across our power brands, while executing 51 closures as part of our ongoing portfolio optimization. These were deliberate actions focused on underperforming locations, strategic relocations to capture shifting trade areas, and selective redevelopment, all aimed at maintaining a healthy, resilient, and future-ready network. In addition, the Pizza Aroma acquisition added 40 stores to the portfolio, bringing our total restaurant count to 2,749 stores as of year-end 2025. The chart on the right highlights our long-term expansion track record.
While gross openings moderated in 2024 and 2025, this reflects a conscious shift toward return-led growth rather than a slowdown in ambition. Our focus remains on deploying capital selectively into markets and brand formats where we see strong visibility on returns and long-term demand. For 2026, we are guiding 120-130 net new store rollout, including new brand NSOs focused on high-performing markets across the region. With that, I will now hand over to Harsh to walk you through the financial details. Over to you, Harsh.
Thank you, Amar, and good day, everyone. Let me now take you through the financial performance for 2025, starting with the revenue performance in the last quarter of the year, and then zooming out to look at full-year performance. In the fourth quarter, revenues increased from $589 million to $669 million, representing 13.6% year-on-year growth. This growth was primarily driven by like-for-like sales of $44 million, supported by new store openings, which contributed a further $38 million. Overall, Q4 confirmed a strong exit into 2026, consistent with the momentum which Amar mentioned earlier during the call. Moving now to the full-year bridge at the bottom left, revenues increased from $2.2 billion in FY 2024 to approximately $2.5 billion in FY 2025, delivering robust 14.2% year-on-year growth.
Similar to Q4, like-for-like sales was the single largest contributor, adding $205 million to the top line on the back of healthy traffic as well as average check improvement compared to 2024. New stores contributed additional $152 million, reflecting the organic expansion as well as Pizza Hut Oman acquisition. These were partially offset by the impact of FX, which is $22 million, mainly due to Kazakhstan and Lebanon. We also had some closures, which had an impact of $23 million on the top line. The underlying growth remains strong, and we have a momentum going into 2026. Looking at revenue mix on the top right, our portfolio composition remained stable. Power Brands continued to account for 94% of total revenue, which is largely unchanged year-on-year, underscoring the strength of our Power Brands.
Growth and Niche Brands represented 6% of the revenue. 83% of our revenues continue to be generated in pegged currency markets, unchanged versus last year, providing resilience and predictability to our results. The chart on the bottom right shows the channel mix evolution. Home delivery continues to be a key driver of the overall growth, resulting in increased revenue share. It has reached 48% for 2025. Kiosk rollout is giving results and now contribute 15% of our overall revenue in 2025. This has been a conscious effort, driven by deliberate integration within dine-in and takeaway, rather than just a channel substitution. Drive-thru overall remains stable, similar to last year. Overall, FY 2025 revenue growth has been driven by a healthy combination of like-for-like recovery, disciplined expansion, and focus on omni-channel, setting a solid foundation as we move into the next phase of growth.
Now we split the revenue performance across our Power Brands. For Q4 2025, KFC reached $400 million in revenue, representing 12.8% year-on-year growth, with like-for-like contributing 8%. Performance remained healthy, supported by strong execution, value platform, as well as focus on relevance. Highlight for Q4 was a very successful campaign, which is Big Kentucky, which did very well across the GCC. Hardee's delivered another strong quarter, with revenues of $112 million, up 13.8% year-on-year, with a 7.4% like-for-like growth. Performance was supported by ongoing menu innovation and sustained engagement with the customers while maintaining pricing discipline. Pizza Hut reported $88 million in revenue, representing a 14.1% year-on-year growth with 6.2% like-for-like growth.
The quarter benefited from strong in-store activations, including Hut Pasta and continued momentum across the key markets. Krispy Kreme delivered a strong quarter, with revenues of $27 million, up 16.9% year-on-year, with a very strong like-for-like growth of 13.5%, marking a strong end to the year. This reflects successful seasonal activations, expanded retail presence, including launch of Krispy Kreme in KFC and Hardee's, as well as other brand collaborations and improved throughput across channels. Overall, the portfolio delivered 13.6% year-on-year growth in Q4, with 7.8% like-for-like, confirming a strong momentum carrying into next year. Here we talk about full year performance. KFC full year revenue grew by 12.7% with a 9.3% like-for-like growth. Performance was driven by steady transaction recovery as well as pricing, resulting in check improvement.
Hardee's delivered a very strong performance for the year, with revenues up 17.9% year-over-year and 12.6% like-for-like growth. Growth was supported by strong innovation and back-to-back successful new product launches. Hardee's has further solidified its position as a non-dominant number two burger brand in the GCC region. Pizza Hut recorded a 19.9% year-over-year growth with 11%-11.2% like-for-like. This reflects a combination of strong organic recovery as well as execution, and a $13 million contribution from the Oman acquisition. Krispy Kreme's revenue increased by 9% year-over-year, with 6.9% like-for-like growth. Krispy Kreme has been building on the recovery quarter- on- quarter, with a strong focus on collaborations and relevant innovation. It has also recently launched a savory donut offering, which is also adding to the product profile.
At a total portfolio level, Americana had delivered a 14.2% revenue growth for full year 2025, backed by 9.7% like-for-like growth. Now from revenue, I will go on to the cost of inventory slide. Starting on the left-hand side of the slide, inventory cost shows a clear multi-year downward trend, improving by 2.5 percentage points since FY 2022, to reach 28.5% of revenue in FY 2025. This reflects sustained procurement discipline, supply chain efficiencies, and disciplined pricing execution. Looking at the quarterly progression on the right-hand side, inventory costs remained well controlled throughout 2024 and into 2025, despite commodity volatility and continued value-led initiatives across brands.
Specifically, in Q4 2025, cost of inventory declined to 27.1% of revenue, representing a 2.3 percentage point improvement year-on-year versus Q4 2024. This also captures the impact of event-based pricing during December, in addition to multiple other factors, including procurement discipline and pricing execution. Going into 2026, we believe we can deliver on similar gross margin or have a slight improvement in 2026 compared to 2025. Let me now walk you through the profitability, starting with Q4 performance. Profitability improved materially across all metrics, driven by top line momentum, disciplined cost control, and operating leverage. Full-year EBITDA increased from $170 million in Q4 2024 to $226 million in Q4 2025, representing a growth of 32.3%.
Margin expanded from 29% to 33.8%, reflecting a strong flow-through and store-level profitability. EBITDA grew from $133 million to $181 million, an increase of 36.2%. EBITDA margins improved from 22.6% to 27.1%, supported by lower inventory costs, continued cost discipline, and operating leverage. Reported net profit more than doubled year-on-year, increasing from $41 million to $84 million in Q4 2025. Net profit margin expanded from 7% to 12.45%. Q4 net profit also included some one-offs, which we will discuss later in one of the slides.
Moving to a full year view, full year EBITDA increased from $635 million in FY 2024 to $757 million in FY 2025, representing growth of 19.2%. Margin improved from 28.9% to 30.2%. Reported EBITDA grew from $484 million to $596 million, an increase of 23.1%. EBITDA margins improved from 22% to 23.7%. Net profit increased from $159 million to $219 million in FY 2025, representing a growth of 38%. Net profit margin improved from 7.2% to 8.7%, despite higher tax charges in certain markets.
Overall, the year-on-year improvement reflects strong revenue growth flowing down to the profitability, both at EBITDA level as well as net income level, and ongoing operating leverage of the business. Now we will look at the net profit bridge from 2024 to 2025 and also explain the one-offs. On the left, reported net profit of $159 million dollars include a $2 million net one-off items. One-offs mainly include marketing relief of $10.4 million dollars, which was partly offset by goodwill impairment losses of $8.5 million dollars in Q4 of 2024. Excluding these one-offs, normalized net profit for FY 2024 stood at $157 million dollars, with a net income margin of 7.2%. The net impact of revenue growth, operating leverage, and cost efficiencies was $69 million dollars.
This takes normalized net profit for FY 2025 to $226 million or 44% growth versus normalized FY 2024 base. After adjusting for one-offs in FY 2025 and the incremental tax impact, reported net profit for FY 2025 reached $219 million, with a margin of 8.7%, representing 1.8 percentage point improvement. Pillar Two taxes have been fully factored in, in 2025 results, and going forward, subject to any further changes in tax regulations, this should be a normalized tax base for 2026. Here we talk about our paybacks. Across our portfolio, we opened 394 restaurants between 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2025, with an average CapEx of $379,000 per store.
The paybacks continue to be robust at 3.1 years, which is consistent with last year. This is despite two years of lower baseline revenue performance, given the impact of boycotts in FY 2024 and also partially in FY 2025. KFC delivered 147 openings with a payback of 2.3 years, reinforcing its leadership position as a high return growth engine. Hardee's delivered 54 openings with a payback of 2.9 years, reflecting improved economics, strong like-for-like recovery and execution. Pizza Hut recorded 71 openings with a payback of 4.9 years. This has also been impacted, given Pizza Hut had significant share of openings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and subdued performance in Saudi. Krispy Kreme and other brands have longer paybacks, largely because of performance in Saudi.
Net working capital remains slightly negative at -$248 million, or -9.9% of revenue, compared to -8.9% last year. Payables improved further, supported by continued optimization of supply terms and disciplined cash management. On the CapEx side, we invested $125 million in FY 2025, compared to $115 million in 2024. CapEx was at 5% of revenue, which was slightly lower than 5.2% in FY 2024. On that note, I will hand it over to Amar to take you through 2026 guidance and also to give an exciting update on our latest brand acquisition.
Thank you, Harsh. Before we open the floor for Q&A and move to the math section of the presentation, let me briefly take you through our guidance for 2026. As we look ahead, our guidance reflects a continuation of the strategy we executed in 2025. Our growth remains anchored in like-for-like sales, driven by purposeful innovation and sharper marketing, alongside improving store profitability through efficiency, execution, and cost discipline. Starting with revenue growth, we are guiding for mid-single-digit like-for-like growth. Our priority remains growing brand love and trust through local relevance, sharper communication, and campaigns that resonate culturally with our customers across all our markets. On network expansion, we are guiding 120-130 net new store openings in 2026, including new brands. However, we maintain the flexibility to revisit this for acceleration through the year.
This is dependent on sustained momentum for existing and the scale - speed of scale of newer brands. Rollout will be highly selective, focused on high-performing markets and new brands with strong long-term demand and attractive returns. In summary, we will continue to grow, but we will grow responsibly. Turning to profitability, we expect growth margins to be slightly better year-on-year, supported by a continued operational discipline and menu re-engineering. We are guiding for double-digit growth in EBITDA and net income, with margins circa 50 basis points higher versus normalized 2025 baseline. This is going to be driven by operating leverage and efficiency initiatives. Digital leadership remains a key enabler. In 2026, our focus shifts from new development and rollout to monetization.
We will maximize ROI from kiosks, apps, loyalty, and personalization, and increasingly leverage unified customer profiles to reduce blanket discounting and improve targeting, driving both margin and customer lifetime value. On category expansion, we will continue to explore both organic and inorganic opportunities to onboard strong brands, particularly within Arabic food categories across the region.
Finally, on cost efficiencies, we will continue to drive inventory cost savings through menu re-engineering and supplier negotiations, while streamlining G&A through restructuring and offshoring of low-value-added roles, further strengthening and improving our cost base. Yesterday, we announced the acquisition of the Malak Al Tawouk franchisees in U.A.E. and Kuwait, as well as a long-term partnership with the brand for 13 markets. I know there's a lot of interest, so we thought this would be an appropriate time to walk everybody through the highlights of that transaction.
This transaction marks our entry into the Arabic QSR platform through a brand with deep regional roots, strong customer loyalty, and a proven scalable operating model. Founded in Beirut in 1996, it's a family-owned Lebanese QSR built around a focused Tawouk-led menu and authentic street food proposition. This clarity of focus has been central to the brand's consistency and long-term appeal. The brand scaled organically to more than 30 stores in Lebanon before beginning its international journey in 2019, starting with the U.A.E. Today, it operates over 70 stores across the GCC, as well as France and Canada, demonstrating strong regional relevance and an ability for the concept to travel beyond its home market. At the heart of the menu is a signature boneless grilled chicken or the Tawouk, carefully marinated and grilled for bold, authentic flavor. It anchors the brand's proposition.
This hero product is complemented by a curated selection of fresh salads, rice bowls, and lighter accompaniments. Together, this supports speed of service, operational consistency, and strong throughput, which are all critical attributes for a scalable QSR model. The store formats are equally disciplined. Formats are some flagships, small box, and low CapEx, allowing for flexible deployment while maintaining a contemporary, youthful brand identity. This combination creates a strong foundation for a scalable brand. From a positioning standpoint, Malak Al Tawouk is value-led, authentically Arabic, and contemporary in look and feel. It resonates strongly with groups of friends, families, and working individuals, and has shown strong digital traction, including ranking as one of the most popular Middle Eastern QSR brands on Talabat in the UAE.
Overall, Malak Al Tawouk brings together authentic food, operational simplicity, and customer relevance, making it a strong and natural fit within Americana's portfolio of great brands. Now, let me take a step back and explain why this transaction makes sense for Americana and how it fits into our long-term strategy. At a strategic level, this marks Americana's entry into the Arabic QSR segment through a flagship, value-led brand that naturally complements our existing QSR platform. It allows us to expand our share of stomach as well as share of wallet, while bolting on to our existing value chain platform, where we already have scale, infrastructure, and deep execution capabilities, which has been built and proven time and time again across all our markets. From a brand perspective, Malak Al Tawouk brings strong brand equity.
It is an authentic Arabic QSR with a clear value proposition built around generous portions, accessible pricing, and cultural relevance. This gives us a strong foundation to scale the brand across our core markets while preserving its distinctiveness. Operationally, the model is highly scalable. The small box, low CapEx store format, combined with an existing footprint across key markets, enables discipline and rapid expansion across the GCC and beyond. There is also strong alignment across the value chain. Grilled chicken sits at the heart of the Malak Al Tawouk concept, and it is an area where Americana has significant sourcing, procurement, and supply chain strengths. All this, combined with our operating discipline, supports attractive unit economics and returns.
In terms of transaction highlights, Americana has secured exclusive 75-year rights to develop and operate Malak Al Tawouk across 13 markets in MENA and the CIS, and will be the sole operator and developer of the brand in these geographies. In parallel, we are acquiring 100% of the existing franchisees in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, comprising seven stores in the U.A.E. and three in K.S.A. On an annualized basis, these entities generate approximately $21 million in revenue, with pre-IFRS EBITDA of around $2.3 million and net income of approximately $1.7 million. The acquisition is valued at $20.8 million, equivalent to 12x P/E multiple, and will be fully funded through internal cash reserves, preserving a strong balance sheet.
Overall, this is a disciplined transaction that combines immediate earnings contribution with long-term growth potential and reinforces our ambition to build a diversified, scalable, and culturally relevant food platform across the region. Before we go to Q&A, I just want to end with some closing remarks. Americana Restaurants is focused on building a business that delivers sustainable growth and long-term value. We will stay closely connected to our customers and attentive to changes in the market. We translate these insights into purposeful commercial innovation, and we earn customer choice through great tasting food at great value, shaped by local and cultural relevance. These are the drivers of sustained like-for-like growth across the business. Alongside this, we operate with the highest standards and a strong focus on efficiency to protect and improve restaurant-level economics.
Disciplined execution, supported by strong leadership in the markets and continued investment in digital and people capabilities, allow us to scale with consistency. Our confidence comes from how we operate, combining optimism about the future with courage in decision-making and leadership grounded in humility. Together, these principles guide how we deliver on our mission of creating awesome experiences for customers and meaningful value for our shareholders, and how we continue progressing toward our vision of being the fastest growing and most trusted food operator in the world. Thank you for joining us today. We now welcome your questions.
Thank you. So we will now move to the question and answer section. If you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you're dialed in by the web, you can also request to ask a voice question. We already have some participants in the queue, so we'll start with [Shrouk] from AlJazira Capital. [Shrouk], please go ahead. Your line is now open. [Shrouk], please go ahead. Double-check if your microphone is unmuted on your end. Okay, in that case, maybe we'll come back to you later. Our next person in the queue is [Abdulla Al-Bu] from Emirates NBD. Abdulla, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, yes, we can hear you.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. This is [Abdulla Al-Buraiki] from Emirates NBD. Congrats for the very, very great results. Just a question regarding the gross margin. We noticed that year-over-year, that gross margin has improved by 3%, and mainly it is coming from this first of inventory. I get the guidance of slightly better gross margin, but if we look at quarters, we notice that the gross margin has been increasing gradually by around 1% each quarter. So we would like to understand, how did it go up? And if it's slightly going to increase from the full year level, that means that this high level is not sustainable, but toward higher than the year average. Am I understanding it correctly?
Thank you, Abdulla, for your question. So on gross margin, in 2024, there was a lot of focus on value, and we were pushing discounts as well. So that's why in Q4, you didn't see an improvement in 2024. But generally, in quarter four of every year, we see better gross margins because we selectively take pricing in December, given customers are relatively less price sensitive. Now, from a 2026 guidance perspective, from a full year standpoint, we feel 2026 should be slightly better than 2025. Quarter- on- quarter, there might be some variations, but full year guidance remains intact, which is slightly better than 2026, which will flow down to EBITDA and net income margin guidance, which Amar gave, which is 50-100 basis points better than 2025.
Okay. Another question regarding the take rate. We noticed if we, if we take the channel mix, which is 48% of revenue to be through delivery app, and we take the delivery costs, we notice that the take rate has increased from 13.8% to 15%. Either it is because of higher take rates from terms or because of something that you've adapted this year, which is dynamic pricing. So, which is which?
No, Abdulla, there are two factors to it. One is quarter-on-quarter, the share has increased from quarter one to quarter four. So 48% share we mentioned is actually for the full year. Our contracts are long-term contracts with our partners, including Talabat, HungerStation, Keeta, and others. So there has been no commercial model change, per se, but that's just because of higher share quarter-on-quarter from Q1 to Q4. What you look at is 48% overall.
Okay. My last question regarding the dynamic pricing. What is the impact of the dynamic pricing of the fourth quarter, whether it is on revenue or gross?
So this is what, Abdulla, we do every year, and the impact is more in the last three weeks of December, where we take selective pricing in some of the stores, not in fact in all. So the impact won't be material, but it's difficult to give you the exact number.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, and wishing you all the best going forward.
Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll now move to the next question that comes from Mohammed Bin Dawood from Investor's Vision. Mohammed, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes, hi. Congratulations once again on the excellent results. I got three points please to share. In the results press release, you did mention about the fourth quarter growth compared to last year, that if you exclude an incurring income, it will drop down from 102% to 47.4%. So if you can elaborate on this, please, more.
Yeah, sure. So Mohammed, in Q4 to Q4, our normalized net income for Q4, 2024 was $52.3 million, and our normalized net income for Q4 for 2025 is $76.5 million. So the growth on normalized basis is 47.4%. In terms of the one-offs in 2024, as I mentioned earlier, we had a goodwill impairment, which was $8.5 million, and then we had some other CGU impairment, which is cash generating unit of $2.5 million. In 2025, we had some incremental tax impact as well as, IFRS 16, negative impact. But net-net, the clean growth in Q4 to Q4 is 47.4%.
Clear. My next question is, in the home delivery is now account almost for 50% of revenue. So I'd like to know how much of it's being delivered internally and by third party, and is there any strategy to control the expenses in this area?
Hi, Mohammed. So K.S.A. is one of the markets where due to regulatory, all the aggregators are full service, and that's not just for Americana, that's across the board. And K.S.A. is a sizable market, but still across all of, you know, the other big markets, for example, in U.A.E., in Kuwait, KFC in Qatar and many other markets, all the delivery is handled by Americana riders. I would say roughly the split is more than 60% of deliveries are handled by Americana riders, and the other probably 30+ would be, you know, by the aggregators, largely driven by KSA.
Clear. My last question is for the acquisition plan. You just mentioned about Malak Al Tawouk and Carpo. Is there any other things that may happen in the near future?
There's no news that we can share at this point, but as we have shared, you know, on previous calls, we are very keen to continue to build the Arabic segment. You know, this is the first foray into Arabic for us. We are very excited about Malak Al Tawouk. You know, I think the dates, Pujeet, have been announced for the Capital Markets Day?
Yeah, that's right. 17th of April.
Seventeenth of April is our Capital Markets Day, and, you know, by then, we'll be able to share more information on M&As and, you know, strategic expansions.
Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. We are now moving to the next question from Taher Safieddine from JP Morgan. Taher, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, good afternoon, gents. Again, congrats on a very solid set of results. Just maybe two questions from my side. One is just on the accounting in terms of one-off. Harsh, can we just understand what was the magnitude of the one-off in Q4, and were these booked above the EBITDA line, part of them? If you can just specify. The reason I'm asking is trying just to get our heads around what kind of a clean Q4 EBITDA margin was in place. I think that's the first part of the question. The second part, with such a massive drop in the cost of inventory, I mean, is this usual for a business like yourself? I mean, Q4 was a significant drop in cost of inventory. Are you pretty comfortable in terms of sourcing when it comes to commodities? I mean, given the contracts and the supply chain management that you have. So maybe if you can just give us some color in terms of the visibility on that front. That would be my first question.
So, Taher, I'm going to turn it over to Harsh to answer the question, but I'm surprised you got beaten by others. You are not the first one, you know, on the Q&A list.
So, Taher, on your first. You're putting pressure on Taher.
I know.
So on. Sorry, go on.
No, no, go ahead. Go ahead.
On the net income, on the normalized net income, Taher, yes, there is the one-off, which we spoke about for Q4 of 2025, that part of it is actually flowing into EBITDA. So you can kind of have the same normalized EBITDA compared to normalized net income. So the impact would be close to $8 million on the EBITDA, so you can adjust for that for normalized EBITDA. In 2024, there was no impact because it was more a goodwill impairment and CGU impairment, so there will be no impact for 2024. So that's on one-offs. On cost of inventory, as I said, we have good visibility of commodities going into 2026.
In fact, we have locked most of the contracts either for full year or at least for six to nine months. And overall, on the chicken side, on the French fries, we are seeing some reductions. The only commodity which we have seen some headwinds is beef, because beef prices have been going up globally, but we are navigating through that. And in Q4 of 2025, it was a conscious decision to, given the momentum in the business, to wean off some of the discounts and also to take some pricing, especially in December. That is why you see the impact of that flowing into gross margin improvement. On 2026, we will always be focused on value, but as I said earlier, our guidance is to be better than 2025 on account of better commodity prices, as well as, as we continue to wean off some of the value in some of the other markets.
Okay, all right. Very clear. And just maybe just a follow-up to the CEO. Just on the new acquisition. Again, interesting entry, but just to recap, there's 10 stores today in the portfolio, in the U.A.E. and Saudi. Does the agreement cover other GCC markets? I mean, I just wanna understand what's the overlap between, you know, the country rollout and what you have in the portfolio. And the second point is, how scalable can a brand like Malak Al Tawouk be in the core markets of Americana? And you did announce the Cravia discussions, you know, I think a few months back, which I think has Zaatar Zeit in that portfolio. Is it fair to assume that this is behind us, and now you're looking at other targets? Just for us to get our heads around that.
So, on Malak Al Tawouk, you're correct, it's seven in U.A.E. and three in Saudi. We have agreement for 13 countries. This is the existing countries, with the exception of Qatar and Iraq, and Lebanon, you know, where the founders will continue to operate in Lebanon. They have 45 stores, very successful business there. It's probably the leading QSR in Lebanon. And, outside of that, all the other markets, the 10 other countries outside of Qatar and Iraq, as well as some countries in the CIS region. So that is part of the territory. We believe that this brand, you know, has legs to cross over to CIS as well. The Cravia discussions, I mean, that's a very different category. You know, there's no new news on that at this point for us to share, so the current focus is on onboarding and integrating Malak Al Tawouk.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Our next voice question comes from Rashad Kawan from Morgan Stanley. Rashad, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah, thank you. Hey, Amarpal, Harsh and Pujeet, thank you for the time, and congrats on the results. Just a couple of questions for me, if I can. The first one, can you just give us a bit of a tour through your key geographies of Saudi, U.A.E., Egypt? Are you still seeing a bit of cautiousness from the Saudi consumer? I know last quarter you had said September was a bit weak, but there seems to have been a bit of a recovery since then. And based on your opening remarks, you know, sounds like the push for more value is here to stay, while the U.A.E. and Egypt seem to be a bit more robust. So just an update across those key, key markets would be helpful.
Sure, Rashad. So, Rashad, in terms of geographies, U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar, within GCC, have been performing very strongly. In fact, we are very close to full recovery in U.A.E., in Qatar and Kuwait. In Kuwait, in fact, we are slightly ahead of pre-boycott levels. U.A.E., we have always been growing quarter-on-quarter, and we are much ahead of 2023 levels. In Egypt, we have made some leadership changes in late 2024, and that has shown results. Overall, the market is also more stable from a macro perspective, and that is also flowing in terms of performance, driven by strong execution. We do believe now we feel comfortable to deploy growth capital in Egypt, and we would be looking at also store openings in Egypt as a market.
Saudi continues to be challenging. In Q4 2025, we did see some positive green shoots. Having said that, it's a bit early to comment how 2026 looks like, but, but given the visibility we have, we feel Saudi consumer is still under pressure, so there will be a lot of focus on driving value and connecting with the local communities in Saudi, in 2026 as well.
Got it. Thank you. And if I can ask one more, on food delivery, do you have a sense for how the regulatory changes we've been seeing in the Saudi food delivery segment around pricing practices would or could impact your business, either from a margin or demand standpoint?
So Rashad, I know where there are some soundbites around that, but, you know, we nothing really, concrete in terms of, further regulatory, practices that would impact, you know, us directly. I mean, let's see what comes out, but, you know, we haven't heard any changes in regulatory, to that effect. Having said that, Saudi structurally is, I mean, it's a market challenge, and it's not. Even the local brands are not, spared from some of the challenges there, whether it's food delivery, whether it's spending, whether it's intense competition, everybody's facing that. And, you know, based on some of the conversations, understanding the market, you know, our leadership team is there quite a bit, including myself. We're also seeing, some consolidation and exits and, strain on some of the weaker players, you know that. So it'll probably take another 12-24 months for the market to structurally stabilize in the F&B sector.
Got it. Thank you very much, and congrats again.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Maxim Nekrasov from Citi. Please go ahead, Maxim. Your line is now open.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank you so much for the presentation. Just wanted to follow up on Saudi, and I remember after the third quarter, you mentioned that you want to slow down expansion in that market. So, do you still continue with that policy? And also on the store openings, so next year, from your guidance, how many of the stores would be from the new brand? And does your store guidance include the acquired 10 stores? Yeah, I will follow up after that. Thank you.
So, Maxim, yes, so the slowdown in Saudi on deploying fresh capital is definitely intentional. So, and our plan is similar to what we delivered in 2025. But at the same time, we can ramp up very quickly. If we see sustained momentum and our return thresholds are healthy, we can accelerate, depending on market conditions and depending on the performance. As far as new brands and the guidance, I would say we've taken a very conservative approach, like, you know, because we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves. So there is, you know, some stores built into, you know, that guidance. But once again, our focus is integration, synergies, proper launch and, you know, i n U.A.E., K.S.A. The good thing is the POC of the brand is already done, right?
You know, it's been well received both in U.A.E. and K.S.A. by our customers, so that gives us a lot of confidence. So if we have to take it to Kuwait, the model is already, the proof of concept is done. So we will be able to give you more color once again at the Capital Markets Day. By then, we would have integrated and onboarded the brand. We'll be able to provide more color at that point.
Understood. I wonder if you can share, at this point, any CapEx or payback numbers for the new brand?
See, we, we can share the CapEx numbers. I believe it was in the. Was it in the announcement or? No. Okay. So I would say they're similar to in, in the 300+ range, 300,000+ range. It's a QSR brand. Similar, you know, standards as some of the other QSRs, so between $300,000 and $400,000. See, returns, again, we'll be able to give more clarity on the returns once we onboard or bolt on the brand to our value chain platform. We, we are targeting improved margins, you know, once it's bolted on to our platform.
Okay,
But the AUVs are very strong.
Got it. And apologies, just the final one. I just wanted to ask about the recent management appointments and, maybe, you know, the logic behind it, if you can maybe talk about that.
I was mentioning to Harsh that somebody will ask this question. So, I think Harsh got bored in his CFO role after eight years, so we had to give him a new challenge. So, again, part of this is, we believe in flexing our leadership across different roles. And we also hire people, at least in middle management and definitely in senior leadership roles, who can be flexed. So this is very much part of the strategy, our people, you know, strategy, and also getting people ready for succession. So that is what is behind this. You know, we, our new CFO will be joining in, early April. We are looking forward to that. And Harsh is super excited about doing an operating role.
Vishal, who's done the operating role for the last five years, is best placed to lead our digital function. We used to have digital in different places. It was fragmented. So we've consolidated all of that under Vishal's leadership. So those are. I mean, these are well-planned-out moves. These were planned middle of last year, and, you know, we just wanted to make sure that we transitioned them smoothly.
Got it. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much. That's it. Congratulations with the results, and looking forward to CMD. Thanks.
Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll now move to the next question from [Ali Srour], from Arqaam Capital. Ali, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes. Hi, good evening. Can you hear me?
Yes, yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead.
Excellent. So congratulations on your strong results. I noticed that you had a very strong LFL growth, almost in the low- to mid-double digits, and you had a very strong new restaurant openings, maybe among like the highest in the past five years, you can say. And considering that this LFL growth is coming from 2024, which was sort of a low, also historically, and with this aggressive, and considering that the payback of each is around 3.1 years. How much do you think this will impact the LFL growth for 2026, considering that the payback is around 3.1 years and the possibility of a repetition of any possible geopolitical issues that might happen?
Thank you, Ali, for your questions. So on like-for-like, as Amar indicated on the guidance slide, we are looking at mid-single digit in terms of like-for-like, and that has been a guidance even at the time of IPO on like-for-like. At an overall portfolio level, we are close to full recovery compared to Q4 of 2023. So now we do not expect any step change in terms of like-for-like, and we will gradually build like-for-like as we go through 2026 and post that. In terms of payback, yes, the paybacks of 3.1 years are strong, and we are also conscious that we are not opening stores which results in significant cannibalization. While we will be disciplined on capital deployment and continue to deploy capital wherever it makes sense.
Saudi is one of the markets where we have scaled back, but we still have opportunities to open stores in Kuwait, in U.A.E., in Qatar, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and in fact, also Egypt, given Egypt market as well as our business has strongly come back, and we will also look at selective opportunities in Egypt going forward.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Before I move to the next question, just a quick reminder, if you would like to ask a question and you're connected via the phone, please press star two on your phone keypad and wait for your name to be prompted. If you're connected via the web, you can also request to ask a voice question. Our next question comes from Sultan Al-Shaalan from Jadwa Investment. Sultan, please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good evening. Am I audible?
Yes, yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Perfect. Thank you. Just a question on the recent regulation in Kuwait, which is basically introducing a ceiling on delivery platform commissions. I'm just wondering, what should we expect from that? Do you expect any negative impact on Kuwait sales or profitability?
Sorry, Sultan, this is, we lost you there for a second. The regulation on, pricing on?
On basically in Kuwait. In Kuwait, introducing a ceiling of delivery platform commissions.
See, that would not impact us. That impacts the aggregators only. So there's no impact.
You don't expect.
Yes. So we don't expect any impact on our business.
In fact, our commissions are below the ceiling, so w e don't expect any positive.
Positive or negative? Yeah, it's, it's neutral for us, that decision.
But it wouldn't affect your dynamic pricing in any ways?
No, no.
Kuwait is more price controlled, so it's difficult to do dynamic pricing.
See, it's not impacting. So this regulation doesn't impact the menu pricing, right? I mean, there is. Your pricing is somewhat controlled anyways in Kuwait. So this is, this regulation is non-material for us.
Got it. And, I think you've touched base on this, but I probably missed it. Just if you can clarify what was the exact one-off in the fourth quarter of 2025, and did this come through the gross or the operating level?
So I assume, Sultan, you're specifically asking about Q4 to Q4. So in Q4 of 2024, our normalized net income was $52.3 million, and Q4 of 2025, normalized net income is $76.5 million. So if you look at the growth on a normalized base, it is 47.4%. Now, Q4 2024 has no impact on EBITDA because this was largely impairment. Q4 2025, $8 million of these one-offs were in EBITDA, so you can adjust by that amount from an EBITDA normalized perspective.
Sure. Are you able to share exactly what are these one-offs?
We have mentioned that in our full year bridge, in the footnotes, you can look at that. As I said, in 2024, it was we had a Jordan goodwill impairment, which on Pizza Hut business of $8.5, and remaining $2.5 was on cash generating unit impairment, given the impact of the boycotts in 2024. In 2025, there have been three, one is some changes in IFRS 16, the handover date versus opening date, which was -2.1, and some tax settlements in Egypt, which resulted in a positive of roughly $8 million.
Clear. Thank you so much.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. It looks like, Taher from JP Morgan has a follow-up question. Taher, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, Taher again. Sorry, just a follow-up, Harsh, on the guidance that you've highlighted. Double-digit growth in EBITDA and net income. Just on the net margins or on the EBITDA margins, are we talking about 50-100 basis points expansion versus normalized FY 2025 level? Is that the right way?
Yeah, that's right, Taher. That's the right way to look at it. Compared to normalized 2025, we expect 50-100 basis points improvement in EBITDA margin and net income margin. As I mentioned earlier, going into 2026, there should be no incremental tax impact of Pillar Two, given most of the markets or all markets have, in fact, constituted or implemented Pillar Two taxes.
Okay, all right. And maybe just the second question is on the home delivery. I mean, this as a channel has been growing quite aggressively. I just wanna understand, since, you know, today we are more hopefully in a, in a more normalized environment, you know, post the boycotts and all of this, do you see more room for home delivery as a channel to grow? And is it fair to assume that the worst from a cost perspective, given that this is a higher cost channel, the worst is behind us, just looking at 2026 on a clean plate?
So, Taher, we believe, it will not grow at the same pace. There might be some nominal, you know, growth in terms of, channel, you know, shift. Because we are investing, quite a bit in, making sure our brands are strong and driving traffic both for dine-in, takeaway, and drive-throughs as well. So there are, you know, a lot of initiatives to drive traffic, to our restaurants, across, you know, across the board, across all markets. So that is, how we are approaching the business, and that's how, you know, kind of our plans are built.
Just to add, Taher, while home delivery as a channel has increased, from a pricing standpoint, we have also been very, I would say, deliberate in making sure some of the price dilution on margin is covered through higher pricing, not only on aggregators, but also on our channels. And that is not only us, a lot of other players are also doing it in the market.
Okay. And on this point, can you give us just a breakdown in FY 2025 between transaction growth and average check? Just high level, just to understand, the drivers of growth on that.
Overall, it was, as I said, robust on both accounts. Transaction was slightly higher than average check, but overall, you can say evenly split between the two, but slightly higher on the transaction side, given there was some organic recovery as well.
Okay. All right, great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just, just a final reminder, if anyone has a question, if you're connected via the phone, please press star two on your phone, keep it and wait for your name to be prompted. Our web participants can also request to ask a question. I'll just give a moment or so for any additional questions to come in. Okay, we have a question from Dana Alanjari from Kuwait Financial Centre. Dana, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes, thank you. I have a question. Is the cost of inventory achieved in quarter four sustainable at 27%, or do we see that growing in 2026?
Thank you, Dana, for your question. So as I mentioned earlier, we are not saying that the Q4 inventory should be used as a reference point for full year 2026. From a full year 2026 perspective, we believe our gross profit or cost of inventory, gross profit should be slightly better and cost of inventory slightly lower compared to 2025. But then overall, from a margin perspective, we believe EBITDA margin as well as net income margin should be 50 to 100 basis point higher in 2026 compared to 2025.
Okay. Looks like we have no further questions at this point, so I would like to pass the line back to the management team for their concluding remarks.
Thank you all for joining today's earnings call and for your continued interest in Americana Restaurants. Just to reiterate, our Capital Markets Day is planned to be on the Friday, 17th April 2026 in Dubai at Ritz-Carlton JBR. RSVP links will be sent soon. I would also encourage you to download the Americana IR app, where you can access our disclosures, results, presentations, and stay up to date on all our investor communications in one place. We appreciate your time and engagement, and we look forward to the continuing dialogue in the months ahead. Thank you and goodbye.