Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Yali, your conference call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Intralot S.A. Integrated Lottery Systems and Services conference call and webcast to present and discuss the six months 2025 financial results. All participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Nikolaos Nikolakopoulos, Group CEO of Intralot S.A. Mr. Nikolakopoulos, you may now proceed.
Thank you. Good evening or good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our first half conference call for the first half, the results of the first half of 2025. I will start with a brief introduction, and then I will give the floor to our CFO, Andreas Chrysos, to walk you through in detail with the numbers and the operational performance. On the first half, we experienced a stable performance with a slight increase in revenues and EBITDA, despite the absence of any significant jackpot activity in the U.S. I think it's worth noting here that August in the U.S. seems to be a good month in terms of top-line performance for the industry in general, as the Powerball jackpot has already accumulated in $950 million, which is, if I'm not mistaken, among the top 10 jackpots in the history of Powerball.
We really hope that this trend is going to continue next week also. Again, on the first half, we experienced some significant operating cash flow generation that practically helped us to move our net leverage ratio close to a multiple of 2.3. On new projects, we went live in Nebraska the previous month in July, where we had an implementation of containment, I would say, on a record timeframe. We managed to renew Idaho and Montana in the two contracts in the U.S., and we have ended with OPAP in a binding memorandum of understanding to provide technology for the next tender of Hellenic Lotteries, which continues the strong partnership that we have with the Greek operator.
I'm sure you all know that last month we announced the acquisition of the international division of Bally’s Interactive, a transaction that we believe is going to be transformative for the industry and obviously for the group. The new entity will remain in the asset stock exchange. The main business, the majority of the business is going to be on the digital part, digital services. More than 73% of the total revenues are going to come from digital and B2C, and that transaction is expected to close in Q4 this year. It is noted here also that the integration of the technology stacks that we have started a few months ago is almost concluded. We believe that we are going to have a unified ready technology stack within October. With that brief introduction, let me ask Andreas, as I said, to walk you through the operational performance and the results.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nikos. Good afternoon, good morning to all of you. The operational performance of the first half of the year, as also Nikos stated, was pretty stable, and this was depicted in the P&L metrics just a year ago. At the same time, this was also characterized by a strong operating but also free cash flow generation, supported to a large extent from a strongly positive working capital. The operating cash flow for the period was approximately $72.72 million, almost $27 million higher versus the respective period of last year. The cash balance at the end of the quarter stood at $67 million, almost $2.4 million higher versus the year end of 2024.
While at the same period, the group repaid approximately $20 million in loan amortization in the U.S., term loan, and the Greek syndicated loan. During the same period, Intralot S.A. Integrated Lottery Systems and Services satisfied one of its obligations to restrict additional amounts for coupon payments of EUR 6.4 million as per retail bond requirements. Adjusting the free cash flow generation for these two elements, it stood at around EUR 29 million. Summarizing all the above, adjusted net debt for the first half landed at EUR 303 million, improved by around EUR 53 million versus year end of 2024, reflected also on the improved adjusted net leverage ratio, as also Nikos mentioned, it's 2.3 times versus year end. We are now moving to the first half of 2025 presentation. Going directly to page number five, we see the revenue analysis per business activity.
Our technology activity line was higher by EUR 2.9 million, mainly driven by the better performance in our U.S. business. Although the service revenue of the first half of the year was negatively affected by the lower jackpots compared to the respective period of 2024, this was offset by increased equipment sales versus the first half of 2024. Better performance in our Croatian business, as well as a solid performance in our Argentinian technology line activities, also supported the revenue performance of each activity line. Licensed operation in Argentina was higher by EUR 2 million year over year, with improved macroeconomic conditions supporting market growth. In local currency terms, the results for the current period posted an increase of 91.4% compared to the same period of last year. The game management activity line was lower for the first half of 2025 by EUR 2.2 million.
Despite the continued growth of the local online sports betting market in Turkey, the revenue performance was impacted by adverse accounting effects related to the hyperinflation in the Turkish economy, which contrasted with a positive effect in the same period of last year. In addition, higher investment in player acquisition and retention activities calculated in the revenue line also affected the revenue performance negatively, but resulted in an increased market share at the end of the first half of 2025 versus previous quarter by around 1%. Turning to page number six, we have the overall P&L performance for the first half of 2025 compared to 2024, which, as already stated, it was pretty stable. Revenue was slightly higher in the first half and around 5% lower in the second quarter versus the respective quarter of last year, affected primarily by negative FX movements.
Gross profit was lower by 12%, mainly due to the higher cost of sales coming from the U.S. due to the increased merchandise sale activity that supported the revenue line but came with an increased cost of sale. EBITDA at almost equal levels year over year due to the prudent cost handling in the OpEx line, mainly in the U.S. and in Turkey, managing to fully counterbalance the negative impacts on the gross profit line. EBITDA margin stable at around 36%. Earnings before tax in the first half of 2025 amounted to EUR 9.8 million compared to EUR 6.1 million in the first half of 2024. The reduction of debt has led to lower interest expense for the period, which was also positively affected by lower reorganization costs in the first half of 2025, resulting in a much better EBITDA performance in current versus a year ago.
Turning to page number seven, the other two graphs have been analyzed already in the previous slides in detail. On the bottom left graph, the operating cash flow was higher by EUR 27 million, mainly due to the strongly positive working capital movement. CapEx was slightly higher at slightly higher levels compared to the last year period, primarily due to increased CapEx spendings in the U.S. On the bottom right, we see the net debt and the leverage ratio adjusted for the restricted cash, referring to debt servicing and repayments, was EUR 303 million and 2.3 times, respectively, for the first quarter of 2025, better by EUR 35 million and 0.6 times, respectively.
Turning to page number eight, we see that the adjusted net debt movement bridge from December 2024 through June 2025 stood, as already stated, at EUR 303 million, reflecting a reduction of EUR 52.7 million, while adjusted net leverage ratio improved to 2.3 times from 2.7 times at year end, underscoring the company's enhanced credit profile. The solid financial performance in the first half is evidenced by the generation of EUR 43.5 million in free cash flow. During this period, principal repayments of funded debt totaled around EUR 20 million, while net interest payments amounted to EUR 14.6 million. Furthermore, other movements amounted to EUR 24.1 million, driven by favorable foreign exchange effects on the U.S. dollar-denominated debt. Lastly, on page number nine, we see the contributions per region to our revenue and EBITDA. North and South America revenue performance, namely U.S.
and Argentina, counterbalanced fully the deficit in the rest of the world, while EBITDA contributions were either stable or better year over year in all jurisdictions. At this stage, the presentation of the results for the first half of 2025 is finished, and the Intralot executive team is at your disposal for any questions you may have. Thank you so much.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Boynton Russell with Edison Group. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Nikos. Good afternoon, Andreas. I have a few questions, please. Can I just start off in Turkey? Could you just talk about the actual constant currency revenue growth in Turkey in Q2 and the first half? Apologies if I've missed it because your management operations revenue is down by over 30% in Q2 and the currency depreciated by quite a bit, that indicates underlying declines. You mentioned a number of things there in terms of investment in player acquisition and retention, and that's affected revenue. Also, your number of active customers has increased year on year quite nicely. Could you just unpick some of those parts, please, and their effect on the revenue? Thanks.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Russell, for the question. The underlying growth in Turkey of the six-month period versus last year was around 6%.
Okay. All those other, you talked about investment in player activity and whatever, how much of an impact were they on the growth?
It was around $2 million.
Good. Okay.
Russell, sorry, it's Nikos. It is difficult now to practically calculate the impact on the growth that the investment is having because, practically, especially all the promotions and the marketing that we are spending, we are expected to have an impact also long-term and not realized on the same necessarily quarter. This is the first thing that I think you should take into consideration. If I understood the question, what I see there.
Yeah, I did know you've had a good increase in customers year on year, so it's showing that you're gaining share. Thanks. Can I just move on to Croatia? I mean, you've had a good performance there. I'm just interested in the growth there has been quite volatile over the last 18 months. Could you just talk about why it is so volatile? Is that inflation? Is it other factors?
Russell, can you please repeat the question?
What is the volatility?
The volatility on what?
In terms of if you look at the growth rates between the halves over the last 18 months or so in Croatia, it's been quite volatile. Could you just give some indication of why that is? Is it, you know, are there macro issues? Is it inflation?
No, no, no. In Croatia, we are providing technology and operational services to the state lottery. At the same time, we are managing multiple verticals there. It is lottery, retail, and iLottery. It is also the casino, the iGaming, I mean, online casino, and the SportHub. In order to get in every period the specific, we need to go across verticals because especially sports betting, but also lottery, is burning the jackpots. They have a volatility in the performance. All in all, what we experience is a stable and very decent double-digit growth as we are moving forward. I think this is the key message there.
Okay. Thank you. Just moving across to the U.S., you've obviously had a great first half in terms of contract renewals and extensions. There is quite a lot of detail in the results release about Maryland and the legal proceedings. Do you have any idea when that may resolve itself?
The short answer is no. Why? Because it does not depend on us. What I can tell you in Maryland, and I think you should appreciate that this is an active procurement, so I will refrain from any either judgments or predictions. What is public is that we submitted the proposal along with other companies. Initially, we were awarded through the evaluation committee and the gaming commission the contract, then through a decision which was really, really surprising. The evaluation committee decided to revert the proposal. Where we stand now is that there is a proposal from the evaluation committee for the second bidder to get awarded the contract. Obviously, we have done what legally we were allowed to follow. We are following this process. For us, it is an important contract.
For the time being, I really don't know how and when this practical process is going to be resolved one way or the other.
Okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you for the answers. I'll move on.
Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe first on the operations in the U.S. You called out a little bit of the headwinds in the multi-state jackpots. I understand that it's an inherently volatile business. I know some of your peers have also experienced similar trends. I'm just curious, are there any trends in the U.S. to call out for the second half of this year as it relates to what you're seeing in terms of volume, demand, or just in general how the casual play is looking on that front?
To me, the experience in the U.S., I think it's the same trends like in half one, which is in terms, especially on electronic instance, it is practically a steady state. I say electronic, sorry, scratch cards, physical instance because this is, give or take, 65% of the market there. In my point of view, this is also practically demonstrated trends. What is different, I think now, as I said in the beginning, is that in August, there is a ramp-up in the jackpot on Powerball, which I believe is going practically to make the results of the industry, not only Intralot S.A. Integrated Lottery Systems and Services, much better because this year was the only year in the last three, four years that practically until now, we had very, very thin performance in terms of jackpot. Other than that, you know, it is a stable market.
There is no obvious growth from the normal business. We do still believe that the growth in the U.S. is going to come with the digitalization, especially in the lottery of the iLottery, when the legislators in each state decide to include this type of activity in the specific states.
Great. That's a really helpful caller. Thank you. Just one more from me. As it relates to, I think, the financing, you guys have communicated, I think September roughly is what's been communicated about the Bally’s Interactive transaction, both on the equity and the debt side. Any update you can provide there would be helpful. Also, just any initial thoughts you can share on, you know, what sort of the pro forma capital structure may look like. Are you planning to take out pretty much all of the existing legacy debt with this new debt that you're raising? Do you think it'll be more euro-based or dollar-based? Thanks.
Yes. Thank you for the question. What we have announced is that we already have a bridge financing of EUR 1.6 billion by a consortium of international banks. This will be taken out by a mix of term loans and high-yield bonds. We're currently contemplating a term loan B in sterling, which is the currency where a large part of the future revenue will be generated in GBP from the UK operation of Bally’s Interactive, and a euro bond. We also have a syndication of Greek banks which will come in to refinance part of the maturing legacy debt of Intralot S.A. Integrated Lottery Systems and Services. Our plan is to make necessary amendments to the retail bond that Intralot currently has, the EUR 130 million, so that this remains in place until its maturity.
The future capital structure will be EUR 1.6 billion of total debt, and it will be all debt maturing at much longer periods.
Great. That is excellent color. I appreciate it. Thanks, everybody.
The entire transaction will be funded by the combination of this new debt, new shares that will be issued for an in-kind payment of part of the consideration for the acquisition, and roughly EUR 400 million of new equity that will be raised in cash. Yesterday, we had the AGM that gave authorization to the management to establish and propose the terms of this transaction. You should expect more announcements probably later in September.
Okay, thanks, everybody.
As a reminder, if you would like to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from the line of Osman Mehmisoglos with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Many thanks for your time. Congrats on particularly the improvement on operating cash flow. Linking that and looking forward, can you comment on the outlook for the combined entity post-transaction in terms of cash flow and particularly dividend prospects? How should we think about that? Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, Osman. As has been clear from previous presentations, and in case that people on this call have not reviewed the presentations on our website, we are uploading a lot of materials there in the tab of this transaction. The part of the business from Bally’s Interactive that's coming into the perimeter of the transaction is a very strongly cash-generating business. The way we present it currently in our presentations as free cash flow generation of EBITDA minus maintenance CapEx has a 90% to 95% conversion rate, which is very high. It will be a completely different profile going forward compared to Intralot S.A. Integrated Lottery Systems and Services as analysts and investors used to look at it until now. It will be a very strongly cash-generating business that will allow us to quickly come down to a net leverage ratio of 2.5 times.
This is the target that we will be reaching in two years' time.
Thank you.
I think you asked about dividend. We have established that in the financial policy, the leverage, we said it will be 2.5 times and that dividend will be 35% of net profits.
Thanks again.
Thank you.
Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.
For once more, thank you very much for your interest and your attendance. We wish you to have a great weekend. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.