Good morning, this is the Conference Operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the 9 Months 2024 Results Web Call. All participants are in listen-only mode, and after the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. For operator assistance via web call, please press the headset icon on the bottom left side of your screen. Via telephone, please press star and zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Massimo Scagliarini, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Good morning to everybody. Welcome to the 9 Months Result Presentation of the GVS Group. If I can use a word to introduce the presentation of today, that will be consistency. Consistency, consistency. Consistency in result, consistency in performance, and consistency in guideline. Let's see the number and why I am using this wording. First nine months bring us a nice growth of nearly 4% versus the previous year. We bring home a third quarter with a growth of nearly 8.1%, and this is exactly what we were promising in the last presentation, in the last conference. Just a bit down, that is nearly EUR 80 million with a growth of 13% versus the previous year. That reached a 24.3% margin. That is a 220 basis points improvement versus last year.
Most important is preparing us for the next year's result, where we want to achieve the 27% margin, as we promised a few years ago. Net income, that improved 20%, and is bringing us at to a margin of 10.5. Finally, I would say the more consistent data, a leverage that is decreasing to 2.3. If you recall, we will see the detail later on, but we were at 3.75, so I consider this one of the most consistent results that you can see and that represent our company and the team of our company. Okay, some detail on how we reached this number, but then Guido and Marco will give you more data on this result. The Healthcare performed very nice with a growth of 3.5% versus the previous year.
Energy & Mobility still suffering a little bit with a -2%, and a very nice and consistent Safety with a growth of nearly 10%. EBITDA, thanks to all the job that we're doing, is rising 13%, as I said, nearly EUR 80 million, EUR 78.1 million, and the one that I like more, a very nice graph of the debt that from 3.11 of the last year declined to 2.3 as a leverage ratio. Okay, now I will leave the speech to Guido for a bit more color on this number.
Thanks, Massimo. So let's move to sales, the sales evolution and the variance analysis. So the 3.7% organic growth year on year, you can split into the volume and the price effect. Volume effect is almost EUR 7 million, and there is a significant acceleration in the third quarter compared to the data as of first half of 2024. And we continue to have positive contribution by price, EUR 4.6 million of net price effect. Half of this is a carryover from the increase of the last year. The remaining are increases that have been implemented in 2024. This is partially offset by EUR 2.9 million of negative FX impact. Now let's comment on the evolution of sales by the single division. So let's start from Healthcare & Life Sciences, where the organic growth is 3.5%.
It is important to note that all the three subsegments are posting very solid growth, starting from Liquid, + 2%. Here is the best improvement compared to the first half of the year. Labs is + 5%, so reverting also a previous trend, the trend of the previous quarter, and very solid and consistent performance by Air & Gas. This is + 12% organic. Energy & Mobility is recovering from the result of the first half. In the previous call, we were commenting about some backlog sales that we have been able now to produce and realize net sales with customers. So the overall performance in the nine months is now - 2%. We note the Sport & Utility.
There was a segment that suffered the most in the last year, is slightly rebounding and is contributing to offset the decline that we have in the traditional automotive business. Power and Drive is - 7.8% on the back of the general slowdown of the automotive industry. Finally, Health & Safety here, the growth as Massimo anticipated is very consistent, very regular. We are growing almost 10%, 9.8% in the nine months, and we still see very strong order momentum for the division, and now I leave the floor to Marco to comment about profitability.
Hello everybody. So let's move to profitability as said by Guido. Here you see the adjusted EBITDA margin. In Q3, we went from last year at 22.1% to the current year at 24.4%, which translates into a 230 basis points increase. Here you see that over the past four quarters, the average increase in the EBITDA margin has been around 260 basis points. The continuous improvement of the profitability is mainly driven by pricing, but also volumes and variable cost efficiencies on the manufacturing side of the company. Next slide is on the adjusted EBITDA. In absolute terms, as said by Massimo, we went from EUR 69 million, so almost EUR 70 million, to EUR 78.1 million, so an increase of 9%. The EBITDA margin, as already said, from 22.1% to 24.3%. Notwithstanding a negative impact of FX, negative of around 1% of the adjusted EBITDA. Volume is very positive, EUR 6 million.
Net price effect already commented by Guido, 4.6, and other -0.9. Here there are two different phenomena. One is the decrease of the variable cost plant, which is offset by around EUR 4 million increase in the fixed cost of the company, which means people, labour, which means a strengthening of the staff. The company is getting ready for future acquisitions from the future growth of the business. Then adjusted net income. It's the third time we have shown you the adjusted net income excluding the impact of the FX, impact of, related to the non-cash items related to the intercompany loans, which is a non-cash item. This is the best proxy of the profitability of the company and the best proxy also of the capability of the company of generating cash.
You see that after nine months, we are at 10.5%, which means that if working capital is stable, if there are no extraordinary fixed assets, we are able to translate into cash around 10.5% of the company turnover, and you see we are, of course, improving year over year by around 20.5%. Adjusted net income last year was 28. This year we are close to 34, and now net financial position. Massimo said we are quite proud of that. The 2.3 at the end of September is perfectly aligned with the target we shared with you last September 2023, when we said at the end of 2025, leverage ratio 1.3. We are perfectly on track with that target. Massimo already said that in 18 months we went from 3.75 to 2.30, which means an improvement of 140 basis points. So in 18 months, 140 basis points.
In 12 months, you see we went from 3.1 to 2.30, which means in 12 months we improved by around 0.8. In Q3, you see in the first nine months, there is a negative impact of working capital, which we are going to fully recover in Q4. This is mainly due to factoring. We were, let's say, we reduced in September the receivables given to factoring company, and a negative impact was also due to, let's say, tactical move of some customers, which delayed around EUR 3 million payments just at the end of September, but we have already recovered that. So I'm assuming to show you something very close to zero, zero balance of the working capital at the end of the year. And the last comment is about cars.
Here you have around EUR 5.2 million, as written on the right side of the slide, EUR 5.2 million related to the new Chinese plant. If you remove the EUR 5 million related to the plant, you see that, as usual, the CapEx is around 6% of turnover. Having said that, okay, I just closed my comments saying that all the financial parameters, adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA, and leverage ratio, net financial position are all in line with the strategic plan we presented last September, and now I give back the floor to Massimo Scagliarini.
Yes. Outlook, where we go from here. So last year, fourth quarter was running at very high speed. So we will try to keep up, but it will not be easy. Anyway, nevertheless, we confirm our guidance of around 2%-3% organic growth compared with last year. We confirm from 100 to 220 bp s of improvement in our marginality year over year. And we confirm with consistency, let me say that, our decrease of leverage ratio down to around two times. So thank you very much. I believe that now we can move to the Q&A section. Thank you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To enter the Q&A question, please click on the Q&A icon on the left side of your screen and press the raise your hand button. Please do not mute your microphone locally and make sure you turn on your webcam in the pop-up window. Via telephone, please press star one for questions. The first question is from Anna Frontani, Berenberg.
[Foreign language] Thanks for the presentation. I have three questions. The first one, so the Healthcare and Laboratory division, as you mentioned during the presentation, they showed strong growth. Can you please elaborate on the specific factors driving this performance and how sustainable this growth is in the medium term? So that's the first one. Second one, on volumes, we've seen a pickup in Q3, as you anticipated earlier this year. What is your view on volume development going forward? And then the last one, given that the U.S. is an important market for you, any positive or negative implication from Trump winning the presidential election? Thank you.
This question is about the Laboratory division, strong growth, calls on that, and the medium-term perspective.
Yeah. So on the Life Science division, the situation is still very complex. If you look at our benchmark, they're definitely suffering a lot. So I don't want to be too bold. What I can say is that we have reorganized this division. We have a new vice president that will take formal effect from the beginning of the year, but he's already working behind the scenes. So what I am expecting is for sure to keep a positive momentum. If I can confirm what we have done in this quarter, no, I don't want. I want to keep prudence because, again, the overall scene of this market is still very, very, very complex.
Second question was about volume Q3 pickup and your view in the future.
Well, the volume Q3 was predicted by us. I don't know, Guido, if you want to add some comments, but the last year Q3 was really oppressive. And so this year, we are definitely consistent and delivering constant results every month. So it was, let me say, easy to predict this. Volume will pick up, is moving in the right direction, but nothing is moving very fast in this period. So don't have gigantic expectations. Have expectations in our consistency. So bringing the results one after the other.
I think the message is aligned to what other players in the sector are telling the market. So there is this gradual recovery in terms of volume, and it's the same that we are experiencing. As Massimo said before, I think our performance in these nine months has been higher than what we see in the market today.
But in general, you still see that anyone, all the operators tend to be cautious in communicating the recovery of volume because we still don't see the real pickup. But this gradual recovery is visible and is translating into this 2%-3% organic growth for the year compared to the flat growth that we have last year.
The question was about the U.S. presidential election, the implication on GVS, if any.
Okay. We have always been local. So this is one of our mantras. When we are in a country, we are in this country to serve the local market. We have the capacity to produce everything in any of our plants thanks to our industrial flexibility. And this has always been one of our big skills. So if it's confirmed the trend to, let me say, to create wall to protect the local market, for us will be perfect because we are ready to serve the market locally. Moreover, that will protect us from foreign competitors that maybe try to dump on pricing, etc., thanks to other locations of manufacturing. So now I would say that I am happy also because I am expecting, let's say, a little calm down of geopolitical tension. And so that will be definitely helpful for all the industry, not just our company. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Emanuele Gallazzi, Equita. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the very clear presentations. I have three questions. The first one is on the 2025. I know that it's a little bit early, but maybe some initial comment on your view for the 2025 will be useful. And more specifically, on the cost saving or efficiencies, do you see room for further initiatives entering in 2025? The second one is, let's say, a picture of the current environment in the Energy & Mobility, basically given the softness of the automotive sector, what we should expect for this segment in the fourth quarter and in 2025. And the last one is on the net debt. You will end up in 2024 with leverage below three times. Can you just update us on the shareholder loans? What should we expect on this? Thank you.
First, 2025, so comments on the year, especially some comments on cost saving issues.
Yeah. Okay. I will not spend too much on 2025 because we will have the right time and place to introduce you what we are seeing for next year. We are working on the budget, the detailed budget for the next year in this period. I am visiting all the plants, reviewing all the targets of every single manager inside the plant. So there's still a lot of job to be done. Of course, we are focusing on trying to stick to the plan that we presented in September of last year, our industrial plan. Geopolitical is giving us some complication in this sense, but we are working in this direction. So if you want a view, I would suggest to go and review our industrial plan, and that will be the indication.
Then, of course, we will be more precise, taking into consideration all the variables of the next year that we are foreseeing on the next year. Again, there are different markets, different speeds. The U.S. is moving a certain speed, Europe at another one, China at another one. So it's not an easy prediction, but we've used it in the last four years. I don't have seen one easy year prediction. So, okay. So the rest.
Second was Energy & Mobility expectation on Q4 and 2025.
Again, we were just discussing about complications and very complicated forecast. It seems that the electrical campaign is crashing a little bit, and so we are expecting some adjustment in this market because, like this, it seems that it's not working, so that is bringing turbulence in the sector. Again, our work, and we are working very hard and accelerating as much as possible, is to move the big chunk of these sales into the energy area with our new membrane for hydrogen, and this is where we are working for the future. The machine has already been committed. The plans are in place, and we are expecting to start installing the machine by the middle of next year.
Go ahead, please, please, please.
Any comment you would like?
No, no, no. I thought you were going to the third question.
No, no, no. Again, so we are not expecting positive for next year in this area, as I believe not everyone is not expecting positive. But we will keep you updated when we finish our budget.
In any case, it's worth saying that the overall weight of the division on our sales is further decreasing. Now it is 15%. Of course, I mean, we don't expect in any case big that the impact of this division will have a substantial impact in our overall growth.
Absolutely. So the shareholder loan, again, theoretically, the shareholder loan will be given back by the end of 2027. Nevertheless, we are quickly reducing our leverage. And so we are considering different options, but these are ongoing work. So again, if any decision is taken, we will keep you updated. The true thing is that our intention is to reduce the leverage ratio and not to increase the leverage ratio. Let me say that this is the message that I can leave you with.
And the question B was, as you said at the beginning, you have the leverage. So there are news on shareholder loan. There are no news on the shareholder loan. So if the question was, are you going to repay the shareholder loan? The answer is no.
Exactly.
Just to be clear.
Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes, yes. When I say we don't want to increase the leverage means that we don't want to give back the shareholder loan and increase the leverage. So we keep focusing on decreasing the leverage because we want to go back in our toy park where we can restart with the acquisition as we were doing in the past.
Very clear. [Foreign langauge]
[Foreign language]
The next question is from Matteo Bonizzoni, Kepler. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. First of all, I would say congratulations for your result because they are better than your peers, mostly in still challenging market situation. If you look at your performance versus maybe Danaher or Merck or Sartorius, the relevant division for your business, there is in any case a positive delta. My question has been partly answered. I would like to ask a follow-up on 2025 margin increase potential. So the question is, assuming that as it was in 2024, the organic growth remains limited, and it seems that the start of the year at least could be on the same pace, you are not maybe in the call elaborating on what you are doing on the efficiencies, but it was a big topic a couple of years ago in terms of lever to recover the margin. So I think you are progressing.
So, assuming that the top line is not going to accelerate, so it's going to stay sort of low single digit, what's the margin potential improvement? And maybe pricing is going to stay more on the same page, so + 1% or so. We will see, but I believe maybe we will be on the same page. In terms of efficiencies, the internal improvement, because the market is the market, you cannot forecast, but maybe internal actions is something which is more under your control. So I was willing to know in terms of internal action, irrespective of top line up X% or Z%, which is market, what's your potential to ramp up in the margin depending on your internal efficiency action? That's the first question. The second one is just an update on the Forex issue.
The dollar is now 1.6, 1.5, 1.6, so materially better than 1.11, which was the picture at the 30th of September. Can you confirm that the sensitivity on your Forex item below EBIT is around EUR 2 million , more or less, for each cent of euro dollar in terms of impact below EBIT? And also, can you confirm that can be relevant for your P&L and revenues and EBITDA that around 50% of your revenues are denominated in dollar or in any case, what is the figure? Thanks.
Okay. So you are right. I was not completing my answer before. And yes, we still have a lot of space to increase our efficiency. We still have Puerto Rico that is not where the reconstruction has not been completed. And this is because being healthcare requires a longer time compared versus an industrial entity. But we are at the right point, and the expectation is to complete this activity next year. That means also internalizing the production of one membrane that today we buy from outside. And also this is expecting to give us a nice improvement in our variable cost. So no, we still have a lot to do next year. We are still very busy in simplifying our entity.
The other activity is the Laishi, the Suzhou plant of STT, because if you recall, in the past, we presented our willingness to close this plant and bring the production inside our new plant in Suzhou and keep the Shanghai plant of STT. Also, this is something that will happen next year. So again, there are a lot of activities that will happen next year. So we are very confident again that besides what the market will do, we will bring home our profit result as promised.
Okay. I'll be even more straightforward. As Matteo said, your expectations, okay, we will give next March our guidance on 2025. But what I can tell you, Matteo, is that we are perfectly aligned with our strategic plan. So you know the target, the 2025 target in our strategic plan. Then don't forget that 3% volume increase, where we are now more or less, means a 100 basis points increase of the margin. On top of that, our expectation is also to have lower variable costs. So I didn't say a lot, but I told you that I expect to increase the margin for two different reasons. The second question was about FX impact, U.S. dollar, especially the impact of U.S. dollar. I'll give you the answer referring to profitability. I will refer to adjusted net profit.
We saw before that our adjusted net profit is between 10% and 11% of range. So just to keep it simple, this year something between EUR 40 million-EUR 45 million. Around half of that is coming from NAFTA, around EUR 20 million. This means that, for example, if the dollar goes from the current 1.1, there is a 10% movement. Next movement, for example, goes to 1.2. If the dollar goes from 1.1 to 1.2, there is just EUR 2 million impact on our adjusted net income. I hope this helps.
So confirms what he was.
Yeah, EUR 2 million. Yeah. I'll explain to you why. Matteo, are you there?
Yeah, yeah. Thank you, and as regards the more volatile forex changes, which we know only mark to market, is it correct that $0.01 is EUR 2 million, roundabout?
Yes, yes. And if you refer to the FX impact on intercompany loans, you must know that we hedge the yearly impact. So the impact of the dollar is almost fully recovered because the movement of intercompany cash from the U.S. to the Italian mother is around $6 million per quarter. And this amount has been fully hedged up to the first half of 2025. At the beginning of 2025, we hedged the third and fourth quarter. So we hedge that impact, which is not reported anyway in the adjusted EBITDA we showed you before.
Clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Alessandro Tortora, Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Good morning to everybody. I have, let's say, three questions, okay, if I may. The first one is you can come back a little bit, okay, on the performance in the health and science, but also on the liquid filtration. If you can, let's say, give us more color on the performance of this subsegment, which seems, okay, underperforming a little bit the other subdivision. I remember that in this division, there are no new products you launched. So just understand what are the major drivers behind if it's still a matter of the stocking inside, let's say, the liquid filtration. So that's the first question. Thanks.
Okay. In terms of the liquid filtration, I would say that last year was absolutely a crazy year in terms of the stocking and complexity. This year, we are absolutely very constant, and we are recovering all the customers that were paralyzed last year. But most important, and now I will split the European market versus the U.S. market. The European market is still frozen, let me see, for a new product, a new launch, because the MDR, I don't know if you are aware, there is a movement from the MDD to the MDR certification. So the MDR certification is still clogging completely all the notified bodies to register new products because everybody is focusing on registering with the new norms, with the new registration, the old product. So Europe is still slow in terms of launching new projects and new products.
Versus on the other side, the U.S. is super sparkling. We have a lot of new projects, new products, and it's moving very fast on this side. So as I said before, there are different complexities and diversities in the market to be analyzed. But generally speaking, I see a positive recovery. We are in a phase of stability and growth, slow growth, not gigantic, but positive, and things are moving for an interesting 2025.
Okay. Okay. Thanks. Then the second question relates to your comment on the different options you are assessing for your shareholder loan. The question is, can you comment a little bit also on the, how can we say, the M&A environment, the multiple environment, if this is something that you can consider, let's say, attractive for you, given that you mentioned that, let's say, the outcome of the shareholder loan is clearly linked also to the possibility to find the right M&A option. Thanks.
M&A is a super interesting market in this period because multiples are low. So it's an excellent period to go out and find targets. As always, we are on top of this activity. And so we have different super interesting targets where if we can find the right solution to not increase the leverage and keep the promise that we have done at the market, then we will definitely move on with this activity.
Maybe if you can add, Massimo, important thing is to stress that, I mean, in the near future, what we are focusing on is a small bolt-on situation. So we are not going to engage in anything that is transformational because we are aware of the fact that we are still in the process of consolidating the large acquisition we have been doing in 2022.
In any case, we think that there are small opportunities in the market. We are constantly monitoring that might be very strategic for us, very, very accretive, and can be afforded by the company without jeopardizing the trend of the leverage. We are very cautious that the market is asking us not to accelerate too much on this. Still, we are also very confident that any transaction that would create valuable, visible, sorry, value creation will be appreciated as far as we are also very prudent in how we finance it.
Without creating industrial complexity.
Absolutely.
Okay. Okay. Thanks. And then, let's say, the third question relates to the Energy & Mobility. So clearly, this is a division, as you mentioned before, which now clearly weighs much less, okay, considering the development in Health & Safety and the Healthcare & Life Sciences. Is there the possibility that at some point you consider this business non-core and therefore, let's say, you could think about, let's say, an exit for this segment? Thanks.
I mean, we have received different proposals about this division. The point is that, as you remember, our production technology is super flexible and goes across all the divisions. So in reality, the same technology and technique that we use for the energy mobility for production can be the same machine can be used to produce Healthcare Liquid. So it's very difficult to extrapolate this specific business from our industrial plant and then spin off the.
Yeah. I would also add that on top of the complexity of potential separation of this business, there is also. I mean, you need to assess the pros and cons of the opportunity. The mobility is not going to grow, but it's generating cash for us. It's a cash generator.
If you sell this asset, put this asset on the market right now, I don't expect it will be an exciting multiple because, given what is happening in the underlying sector. So the risk is that you want to just simplify the structure and taking out this part of the business from a cosmetic perspective, you destroy value because you give away cash generation and you get a low multiple compared to the real potential of the business. Then, of course, this is also a trade-off that I think we need to carefully consider.
Yeah, it's not simple. It's not simple. We have evaluated this, but at the end, at least at this moment, we don't see the opportunity that puts in this way.
Okay. Okay. Thanks, and sorry for taking so long for that, but just, let's say, the last question is on the Health and Safety. You mentioned in the call that the order momentum is strong in this division. Can you give us a sense, first off, for this division, whether you have a sort of larger visibility if the order, let's say, intake or the order backlog gives to you, how can I say, like three, six months visibility for this segment? Thanks.
No, the segment doesn't give you any visibility because it's made all by small, medium, and some big distributors. But by an absolute, it's much more easy forecasting with this type of customer because they tend to be absolutely very regular in their order. And again, what we have seen is that at the end of the story, the growth is made by, of course, as we said before, the packets that we have reached today of product, plus the recent launch of the full face mask that is already, I mean, we are already out of stock even before to start full speed. And in reality, again, I always say if you have a good product, a good division is like a snowball. It's just trying to accelerate. It will not slow down if you don't do something very stupid.
And let me say that I believe, without being too bold, that we are in the phase where the snowballs start to run by it, by itself. Yeah, to roll by themselves. So this is a very positive moment.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks for the answer.
The next question is from Christian Hinderaker, Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen, and thanks for taking the questions. Most have been covered. So I have two. Firstly, just welcome a broader comment at the beginning of the call. It was flagged that your performance sort of stands out versus peers who've had maybe more shaky growth during the quarter. I'm just curious as to whether you think there's any specific context to point towards in that sense. And then the second question, and again, this might be very specific, but curious whether you expect to see any impact from the BIOSECURE Act in the U.S. Appreciate that the legislation dynamics in that market may be subject to change, but any thought there would be welcome.
This question was about the performance versus the peers, specific reasons.
Again, there are no specific reasons. For sure, new blood into the division brings more new ideas, more aggressive approach. So this for sure might make the difference. And again, it's not an easy market right now. For the first time, I have seen our competitors slashing down the price, so giving up a little bit to the branding power. And so that was really surprising to me. But it's understandable. Everyone is trying to bring home the result that everyone is expecting. Again, I believe that in this moment, being small allows us to be more quick and more flexible in taking decisions, and that might make the difference in such a complex period.
The second question was about the possible implication of the BIOSECURE Act.
Again, as I mentioned before, we are a local company. So all the bio research or bio product that we have are produced in the local market. So we are not importing anything from China. And so we don't see any specific possible impact from this point of view.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Mr. Scagliarini, gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Excellent, so thank you very much to everybody to assist with our presentation, and see you at the next presentation. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye.