Good morning, everyone.
We can start. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining this call on the NewPrinces Group's first half 2025 earnings. My name is Benedetta Mastrolia, I'm the Investor Relations Director of NewPrinces Group. Joining me today to discuss our results are Giuseppe Mastrolia, our CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, Fabio Fazzari, Group Financial Director of NewPrinces Group, and Rocco Sergi, Group CFO. Joining us today, we also have Mr. Simon Eriksson, who's the CEO of NewPrinces Group. Before starting, I would like to remind you that this presentation may contain certain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's management and current views with respect to future events and financial and operational performance of the company and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements are based on NewPrinces Group's current expectations and projections about future events.
Any reference to past performance in NewPrinces Group should not be taken as a representation or indication that such performance will continue in the future, and this presentation does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy NewPrinces Group securities. Now we get directly into the presentation on page six. In terms of the first half, we had a very good performance, especially in terms of margins. You will see that there was a slight contraction in terms of sales, but this was largely due to a decrease in average selling prices and some strategic exits from some lower margin contracts, which were reflected then in a very good performance in terms of margins. Revenues were €1.31 billion, as opposed to €1.36 billion in the first half of 2024, which is on a like-for-like basis.
However, we had a very good performance in dairy and in drinks. Dairy grew almost 4% and drinks grew almost 5%. This was also reflected in a very good performance in terms of gross profit, which increased by 8.6% year on year. In terms of EBITDA, we kept the good momentum that we showed in the first quarter results, with an adjusted EBITDA of €104.6 million, which is an increase of 16.5% as opposed to the first half 2024 results. In terms of margin, we kept a margin of 8%, in line with the Q1 results, which is much higher than the 6.6% margin of the first half 2024 results. In terms of EBITDA margin, we can say that this is showing the results of the new cash strategy that was implemented following the acquisition of NewPrinces Group last year.
All of these actions are also shown in the lower lines. In terms of EBIT, we also had an increase of more than 116%, and EBIT was $52.8 million in the first half of 2025, as opposed to $24.4 million last year. This was also reflected in a much higher EBIT margin of 4% as opposed to 1.8%. Net income was probably the most interesting result, as we went from a negative $1.2 million net income in the first half of 2024 to generating $22.3 million in the first six months of 2025, which is also reflected in improved EPS and return on equity as well. Free cash flow, as always, is one of our main drivers, one of our key focuses as a group, and we had an underlying free cash flow of $88.9 million.
You will see later in the deck that this was, of course, as a result of the positive EBITDA results, but also of the net working capital contribution of the last months. In terms of cash conversion, we also were able to increase this with a cash conversion of 79.2% as opposed to 60.9% in the first half 2024 results. This was also reflected then in a better net debt. In terms of net debt, excluding IFRS 16 lease liabilities, we recorded a figure of $183.6 million, as opposed to $246.2 million at the end of the fiscal year of 2024. In terms of net debt, including IFRS 16, we still had a very good performance with a net debt of $285.1 million, as opposed to $346.2 million at the end of the full year 2024. Moving on to commercial updates.
In terms of commercial updates for the UK, we've selected some of the key drivers of growth or key drivers of performance in the first half of 2025 and some other drivers for growth in the second half of 2025, as well as into 2026. In terms of foods, we recently launched the new Naked line. Naked was completely revamped with new packaging, but also a completely new positioning, being a flavor maker from across the world, not just Asian noodles. Foods were impacted because of the warmer season this year, so that's also reflected in the results in the foods segment.
However, we have a pipeline of new NPD and new product launches that will be done into the second half of the year and also into 2026, such as the launch of the Branston Single Serve and Large Family Packs, as well as new home baking kits and other soups launched into key retailers such as Aldi and Morrison's. In terms of drinks, drinks was our best performing business unit this last six months. This was driven by many factors. First of all, there was a warm summer, which impacted soup. Soup was very positive in terms of drink sales. This has driven an increased consumer demand for soft drinks, both juices and other soft drinks, as well as we had the progression in terms of our recent contract wins with Capri Sun and with Nichols for the Vimto product production.
We also had some other NPD launches across other retailers around the UK. For the second half of the year and into 2026, we expect to continue seeing new contribution from additional contribution from the co-manufacturing contracts that we have with Capri Sun and Nichols, as well as new NPD in terms of juice and also other soft drinks and other partnerships with retailers across the UK. Moving on to fish. Fish had a particular moment in terms of raw material challenges across salmon and sardines. That was actually a benefit that we saw in terms of mackerel sales, as mackerel outperformed all the other types of species of fish in this particular six months. We also had a slight decrease in terms of B2B frozen seafood.
However, we expect to increase our sales in the second half of the year with the launch of new products such as the Princes Jack mackerel, as well as the mackerel launching to Morrison's. Into 2026, we expect to launch the premium tuna yellowfin in 2026, and also move to 100% MSC certified in terms of Princes tuna in the second half of the year. Moving on to the other business units for the UK. Italian was impacted by some strategic exits in terms of low margin contracts that were previously in place with Princes in tomatoes, but we recently launched new flavor oils with Napolina, and we've been investing in this new launch.
We also had some bread and tomatoes and pasta investments in terms of brand support, and we will see more of this coming into the second half of the year and into 2026 with new product launches within the Napolina range, such as flavor boosters, the pork bone black beans, as well as new pasta sauces into 2026. Moving on to oils, there were significant market movements into the oil market, so the commodity was affected. However, we had really good performance in terms of volumes with new COB contracts, as well as new distribution wins in terms of branded products with our own brands, Crisp and Dry and Flora. Into the second half of the year and 2026, we expect to see more COB gains, as well as new retailer space with our products, and we will also launch our new packaging for Fura oil. Moving on to Germany.
Germany had a very good performance in terms of branded pasta, so we had an increase of 9% in volume year on year compared to 2024. Especially within Delverde, we had an increase of 18% in terms of Delverde pasta volumes. We've seen great momentum in terms of Italian pasta and a really good interest in the market for this set of products, so we're really leveraging on this. To leverage on that even more, we've worked on launching the Delverde tomato products, so we've done some co-marketing activities with both the pasta and tomato products into the German retailer space, which has been paying off really well, and we'll see more on that in the second half of the year.
In terms of drivers for the second half of the year and into 2026, we are currently assessing the potential to enter the tomato sauce market into 2026, with ready-made pasta sauces. In terms of pasta volumes for the year, we expect to reach a new record in excess of 46,000 tons of Delverde pasta alone, which is an increase of 61% if we compare it to the first year of introduction of Italian pasta into the German market in 2016. We will see more brand activation as well, so we'll keep doing our co-marketing activities with Delverde and the tomato sauce and tomato products. Looking at foods, we have a very positive moment for Minuto. Minuto was launched two years ago into Germany, and it's been gaining more retailer space, as well as retailer interest and consumer interest.
We've seen good penetration across Germany, and we expect to see more of that coming into the second half of the year and into 2026. Moving on to Italy, we had, as you saw, a very good performance in dairy. Dairy is really driving our increase in revenues by 12.4% year on year, and milk also had a good performance of almost 2%. We had some new launches such as Kefir mix, so spreadable kefir with granola on top. We also did some nationwide campaigns across the major regions we operate in, and we had some other loyalty collections and activities to drive consumer demand. Into 2026 and second half of 2025, we expect to launch new products such as the Kefir Flora Plus, really focusing on new trends around gut health and probiotics and prebiotics.
We also launched ready drinks such as latte and caffè, so milk and coffee together, ready to go. We also increased our in-store promotion to really drive consumption into the point of sale. Moving on to Italian, we recently redesigned our bakery line. The new Gramfitte and Crostina products have been placed into Italian retailers, and we will see more NPD coming from these two products into the second half of the year, as well as 2026, with some new recipes. Something really driving consumer interest into new flavors and new occasions such as Faggio, so snacking occasions really driving, really focusing on the consumer needs in terms of convenience and taste. Moving on to foods, we had a stable performance in the first half of 2025 in terms of noodles, mainly Naked noodles.
However, we've been working in the background on new NPD launches, really working on the Naked noodles that was launched into the UK in these last few months. We are looking to launch the ramen range, as well as the chicken laksa and miso and chili and hot beef recipes into the Italian market in the second half of the year and into 2026. Moving on to sales breakdown, if we look at the business units, we saw good momentum in terms of drinks and dairy, as we saw. Drinks was mainly driven by our B2B partnerships with Capri Sun and Nichols (Vimto), and dairy saw an increase because of the new sales in terms of mascarpone and milk and UHT milk. The other business units had softer sales, this was a mix of lower average selling prices, as well as some other strategic exits from low margin contracts.
For example, in the Italian category, we discontinued some tomato products, some of the tomato products co-manufacturing contracts, but we focused mostly on the olive oil category. We also saw some very good growth from the special products category. Moving on to distribution channels, looking at distribution channels, we had a very good performance in terms of B2B partners. As we said, this was mainly thanks to the new drinks contracts, as well as the increase in baby food sales. Normal trade was largely in line year on year, and food service was slightly down. This was again following a strategic decision to exit some low margin contracts in foods and in oils and Italian. Large retailers were also slightly impacted. However, this was mostly a result of lower average selling prices and some other seasonal impacts in terms of warm weather and so on.
Moving on to geographies, the sales in Italy were impacted by some lower sales in B2B fish sales and some lower average selling prices in pasta and bakery, which were offset by the good performance in dairy. Germany, as we saw, we exited some low margin contracts. However, we had very good performance in branded products, and that was shown earlier in the slides. In terms of UK, we had a contraction in terms of foods, fish, and oil, which was partially offset by the good performance in drinks. Now moving on to one of the most important points of our presentation today, our adjusted EBITDA results. As we said, we achieved results of €104.6 million as opposed to €89.8 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8% compared to 6.6% in the first half of 2024.
This was driven by our strategic choices to have better procurement terms at the group level, as well as a new cost management strategy across the group, which includes supply chain optimizations in terms of logistics and procurement and so on. We highlight in particular some good performances in terms of the foods EBITDA margin, which grew to almost 10%, so 9.8% as opposed to 8.2% in the first half of 2024. This was again a result of our strategic choice to exit some low margin contracts. In terms of drinks, we also had a good performance. This has been showing the results of the new B2B contracts into the drink sector, and we will see more of that coming into the next months. One of the most impressive results was definitely in Italy, where we grew to 12.3% in terms of EBITDA margin.
This again was a mix of cost optimization and exit of some lower margin contracts and a focus on higher value-added products such as olive oils, etc. We also saw a really good performance if we compare it to the first Q1 results that we showed back in May, which were 200 bps lower than today. Moving on to cash flow generation, as always, we say we saw that we had a very good performance in terms of underlying free cash flow of €88.9 million. This was driven, as you can see, from a good contribution from adjusted EBITDA and change in net working capital, again driven by our net working capital approach to really trying to work on payables and receivables, as well as optimizing inventory at group level. We also saw an increase, an improvement in days, working capital days.
For example, we saw a 25-day improvement in terms of days of sales outstanding. We saw an increase in terms of days of payable outstanding from 82 days to 98 days in the first half of 2025. We've also highlighted our key leverage ratios. We've improved these dramatically since the end of the year, went from almost two times net debt to EBITDA to 1.38 at the first half of 2025, and then with a gearing ratio of 70% as opposed to 1.04. In terms of net working capital, this was driven mainly at NewPrinces level because of the new strategy that we put in place after the acquisition. Moving on to the Carrefour Italia acquisition update, as we weren't able to share much in the last month and a half, we can say that we expect to close the Carrefour Italia acquisition by mid-October.
We wanted to highlight the fact that this acquisition will actually have a neutral impact on our net debt by the end of the year. Looking at the table here, you'll see that there will be a cash contribution of €13 million if we include IFRS 16. If we exclude IFRS 16, there will actually be a huge liquidity coming into the company of €325 million. Looking at the Carrefour Italia historical EBITDA and taking into consideration all the synergies that will come from the integration of Carrefour Italia, we expect the EBITDA margin levels to return to historical levels within a relatively short time frame. This is, of course, based on the integration of Carrefour Italia into the NewPrinces Group. Lastly, a quick update on our M&A activity. As you know, we announced a number of deals in the last two months.
We will start from the first announced deal of Agile Operations Italy, which we expect to close by the end of this month. We've then closed the Carrefour Italia acquisition, as we just said, by the 15th of October. Lastly, we expect to complete the acquisition of Plasmon and the other brands by the end of Q4 2025. Now we can move on to the Q&A session. As always, you can either unmute yourself and ask the questions directly or submit them through the chat, and we'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
I think there was one question in the chat. Yes, about the IPO, we can say that the process is ongoing, as we already said. At the moment, we don't have any official announcement to make, and we will update you in the coming weeks and months as soon as we have something officially that could be communicated to the market. Now I see Alberto Jegra.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay. A few questions from my side. Considering, let's say, the standalone NewPrinces, if you can comment on the expected top line and margins in the second half, in particular if you confirm for this part of the perimeter your indication of EBITDA in the range of €210 million to €220 million for the full year. On cash generation, you were targeting around €100 million cash generation from the working capital reduction. If you can comment also on the levers in the second half for a further reduction of this. A couple of questions on Carrefour. First, if you can give us some example of the quick action that you can implement to improve the profitability and cash generation.
In particular, on the cash generation, you mentioned it in the slide, €80 million of cash generation in the quarter that you expect from Carrefour. I just want to understand if there is a particular seasonality of this business or if you can comment, a high-level comment on the moving part of this cash generation. Thank you.
About Alberto. Sorry, I was on mute. Thanks, Alberto. About the first question related to the expected trends and margin for the year, what I can tell you is that especially referring to the range of the EBITDA, we have visibility about the fact that we can absolutely confirm the previous guidance. It's clear that not really for seasonality, but for the structure of the business, we usually expect and receive more in the second half versus the first half of the year. This means that we can confirm the previous guidance without any particular issue. About the cash flow generation, yes, I think that especially after the cash generations that we achieve in the first half, we can absolutely confirm what the expectations that we announced at the beginning of the year.
It's clear that the picture is more than in line because we are performing also above our expectations. This is because some actions that we have in place, also on the capital, also on the working capital side, are performing earlier than expected. We are very happy, and we believe that we continue with this trend also in the second half of the year. About Carrefour, what I can tell you is that what we represented in the slide is coming from the business plan of Carrefour and the financial due diligence. If you see the historical numbers or the adjustments, this is official. Our official figures are not adjustments that we made.
It's clear that, as it is usual in the retail business, we have here a bit of, we can mention this as a seasonality, but it's the structure of the business that is generating cash in Q4 of the year. Most of the cash is generated in Q4 of the year. This means that in the business plan, they had these expectations that we reported, but it's not something I would say like strange expectations because it is what usually happens in their business and in general in the retail industry. About examples, it's probably too early, but what I can tell you is that a very clear example could be the savings that we can immediately do related to the fact that today Carrefour Italia is linked to a centralized management of the procurement.
This implies an important amount of fees, around 4% that should be paid every year to the central structure. It's clear that this is for us a savings of around €100 million. You can easily do the calculation of which kind of impact this may have in the structure. This is an example of something that we can really realize immediately as soon as we enter in the structure.
Thank you, Fabio. Now we have Arianna.
Yes, thanks, Arianna. Terrazzi from Intesa Sanpaolo. Hi, Fabio. Thanks for the presentation. First, I would ask you a clarification on the revenues decrease. I mean, is it possible to have a breakdown between price and volumes effect? In particular, in relation to the volumes contraction from the contracts you decided to terminate. Also, a clarification on the indication of top line you gave. Are you incorporating also Carrefour Italia in the perimeter in the stable revenues indication you gave us? Of course, any further update indication on the targets of Carrefour Italia and integration will be welcome. I understand you also already gave us some indication, but any additional information can help us.
Maybe, Fabio, I can take just the first question from Arianna, and then the second and third I give to you.
Yes, yes.
Arianna, thanks a lot for the question. Given your first question on 100% of the decrease, one thing that I want to highlight is that this year we were really impacted by the really warm summer. Imagine that in the UK, this was the hottest summer ever in the history of the country. This really impacted our products, as you can imagine, our soups and ready meals. It really impacted, as they were positively impacted, all the drinks that are more on the fresh side. Given the 100% of the commercial decrease, we can say that 50% of it was from exit of existing contract and 50% was on discount that we applied to the customer. I want to align that if we align our price to the customer, this is always aligned with the P&L. As you see, the impact on EBITDA and EBIT was positive.
It means that we reduced the price in a lower level compared to our reduction of cost. This had a positive effect on the EBITDA. In terms of volume on tomato, we exited some contracts because the season starts, the season is during summer. Now we regain new contracts that will start later in the year. We will restart the volume increase with new contracts, with new prices that are more aligned with a better margin effect on our tomato business. I don't know if this is clear.
Thankful, thanks.
Thanks to Giuseppe, I can say that on this basis, it's clear that the trend of the revenues was substantially driven by some external factors that are not obviously company or business specific. For us, the important results that we are going to get is that despite this deflation that we are experiencing in the market, we are absolutely in line with our expectations on the margin side and the EBITDA side. For us, the big goal for the year is to be able to confirm the EBITDA and the profitability improvement because obviously with maybe the stop of the deflationary scenario, we may have additional advantage in that area. Considering the very strong EBITDA that we expect to deliver in line with the guidance that we gave, this will have an impact, a positive effect on the free cash flow generation.
These two items for us are the two most important goals for this fiscal year. About Carrefour, honestly, we share everything that we can share at this stage. I think that the closing is every day closer. After that, we can give you more details and we can go more in deep in all the details.
I understand. Thank you, Fabio. Thanks, Giuseppe.
Andrea Bonfa.
Hi. Good morning to everybody. Can you hear me?
Yes, yes.
Okay. Thank you very much for your time. Very quickly, Fabio, if I may, again, on Carrefour, for us, which were, as I understand, supportive of the equity story, we understand the rationale of Carrefour. If you look at the published annual report of GS, the actual reported losses are by far distant from the EBITDA that you mentioned in your presentation. Is it possible for you to help us to understand which kind of reclassification adjustment we need to be reminded in order to reconcile your number with the one reporting the GS profit and loss? This is the first question. The second one, if you can give us more details on the purchase price for the Agile Operations Italy, I don't know if it's too early, but we can have more details on that transaction. Thank you very much.
Yes, Andrea. Starting with Carrefour Italia, it's clear that it's impossible to build up the performance of the perimeter, especially if we consider also the exceptional items, the adjustments for the run rate, etc. Even for the reported number, it's really difficult to do that. The perimeter was reclassified and rebuilt up by EY during the due diligence process on the vendor side and also on the buy side. This means that at the moment, obviously, we cannot share additional details, but as soon as the closing will be done, we will prepare very detailed presentations about all the parts of the economics of the perimeter. At the moment, we share with you slide 18, if I remember well, to try to give you the numbers and the indications that at the moment we are able to share.
For the rest, you need to be a bit patient, but as soon as we can, we will share this. About Agile Operations Italy, it's more or less the same in the sense that the price, the adjusted EBITDA of the transactions for Agile Operations Italy will be impacted by the level of the working capital and the level of cash that we will have inside the company. There is a defined calculation metric on this. This means that the day of the closing, we will announce the closing with the precise detail about the purchase price and the situation of the company balance sheet at that time.
If I may, on this, Fabio, I presume that the Ageo plant was a captive for the Diageo group. Is it possible for you to share how long will Diageo leave you some volumes of production, or is it too early?
It's not too early. I have to say that for sure, for the first year, we will continue to work also with Diageo. The Diageo process, I can give my thought on that. It's not a linear process in the sense that they didn't build up a new plant in the UK in which they will transfer all the productions. The productions will be located in a different plant around the UK in which they have capacity. This probably will require the right time. We remain available with Diageo to support them in this and to continue to produce until they complete this plan.
On the other side, this for us, obviously, it's something that we need to manage carefully because what I can tell you is that we already have a very important plan with important, I cannot say order at this time, but we already are in talk with a lot of new potential clients. We are already started to develop the new business that we will develop there related to B2B and related also to the customer-owned brands. This means that for the first year, for sure, we have to manage the new volumes and the old one. I hope that Diageo will complete quickly this process because we already have a lot of volumes. We are looking forward to start to implement this new business because it's incredible, the success and the demand that we are receiving from the market.
Thank you very much.
We have Miguel Blanco.
Should we be able to ask you a question now?
Yes, please.
Hi. Hello. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, yes.
Okay. Thank you very much for your time. I would like to ask you regarding the Carrefour Italia acquisition because I would like to know how did you plan to mitigate the channel conflict? Beyond ensuring fair pricing, what guarantees would you offer your retail partners so they continue to see you as key suppliers and not as the manufacturing arm or competitor?
Yes, I can answer you in a very simple way in the sense that we don't have and we don't see any conflict in the sense that on one side, we will operate with a huge transparency to guarantee that the distribution channel that we bought will operate with the same price that we are able to offer to all the customers. The second point is that you have to start from the idea that in the retail business, there is no one that is making you a favor to give you space on the shelf. If the retailers are selling our products, it's because we are offering them traffic. We are offering them the opportunity to do business. This will be the same also after the acquisition of Carrefour Italia if we will have products that are with a very strong demand, with a very strong turnover.
This will continue to be something that the retailer wants to have on the shelf. Maybe I ask Giuseppe if he could add something to this.
Miguel, if I can answer you back. First of all, in the regions where Carrefour Italia is present, we are in a really strong position. Mainly, we talk about milk, where we are really strong regionally. In Piedmont, in Tuscany, in Liguria, in Lombardy, we have all really strong and market-leader brands. Of course, the retailer cannot, I don't want to exaggerate, but cannot not have our products on the shelves because they are market-leader by 45% to 50% of market share in their segment. This is really one point that gives us the confidence that we can have no negative feedback. On the other hand, we are having really a good welcome from the Italian retailers with really good talks and more proposals of collaboration instead of talking about negative impact.
Commercially, we are really confident we can only do better in Italy compared with the previous years, thanks to Carrefour Italia and thanks to the other retailers as well. We don't see any threat looking forward. I don't know if I answered your question or you want to deep dive on it.
Yes, it's here now. Thank you very much. Let me congratulate you for the strong results.
Thank you, Miguel.
There is a question about the buyback shares in the sharing in August. You made more sales than buys. There is no reason behind this situation. It's clear that we manage also the portfolio of the company considering also the market trend. Honestly speaking, there are no particular reasons or strategic reasons behind if we are in the positions also to give an help to the liquidity and to the stock everyday movement. Obviously, we do, and we did also in the past when the stock was suffering. We help buying shares. Sometimes we rebalance the shares that we have in the portfolio, but there are no particular reasons behind.
We have a question from Alberto Jegro. You can go ahead.
Sorry, just to follow up on my side. On the current trading, if you can make some comments on these first months of the third quarter, in particular, if you are seeing this deflationary trend on both price and cost to continue in this quarter.
Do you mean for all the second half, or are you talking only about the third quarter?
I'm talking about the first month of this third quarter, but if you want to extend the comment also on the second half, as you prefer.
Yeah, yeah. What we are seeing right now is that, as I told in the answer before, the reduction of prices that we are applying to some customers, of course, upon receiving back some good commercial agreements. It means that we are not giving discounts for free. It means that we increase volumes, we increase on promotional activity, and so on. We are totally aligned with the deflation in cost. The target for every commercial person is to gain some margin into the deflation. Of course, trying to work better on procurement and try to make in this scenario some opportunity to gain margin, as you have seen from the results. For this quarter, I can say that the same is on pasta, on rice, and I've seen a downtrend even in other costs of the product that are not only raw material.
This is an opportunity for us to gain good margin. So far, yes, the discounts are totally related with the decrease of cost, with the deflation of costs. I can add on this, Alberto, that you have to consider also the comparison base in the sense that even if, as we expect, the trend will change in the coming months, it's clear that we stabilize at a level of price that is totally different than last year. This will be present also in the coming months in terms of the comparison versus last year.
Okay, clear. Thank you.
We have a question from Arturo Lopez.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Hello? Fantastic. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. If I look at your quarterly results, there is a compression on the EBIT margin. You mentioned that basically, you have suspended some non-profitable contracts, and you actually have renewed some contracts in a deflationary environment. Perhaps you can give us a little bit more color with regards to the EBIT margin that we should be expecting forward for the next quarters. That would be my first question. The second question that I have is when I look at your press release, there is a significant release of capital, basically, from the holding company to the NewPrinces, $127 million, going by memory. Is that a trend that should continue by year-end?
Sorry, I lost you at the beginning of the second question. If you can repeat, please.
There is a reduction of the exposure from the, I would say, NewPrinces to the holding company of more than $100 million. That's why your working capital looks lower, which is very positive, of course, for the company, but it's a one-off, I guess. What should we expect by year-end? Are you going to really, is the holding company going to release more capital towards the, basically, NewPrinces in light of the important acquisitions that you have made? My third question is related to the slide that you presented on Carrefour capital contribution. I wanted to know if those $245 million, gone by memory, are actually real cash or do include the capital increase that Carrefour made in Q1 into GS S.p.A. and therefore, they are actually already in the business that you are acquired.
Okay. I start answering then probably on the third one. I need clarifications if I didn't get correctly your question. About the EBIT margin, the movement on the EBIT margin is related to the structure of the DNA more than something specific related to the business. This means that this structure remains substantially the same going forward. What we consider is more the EBITDA margin because this is free of other non-business-related factors. I mean, there is also the more reliable proxy to the cash flow generation. On this side, we expect substantially to get the guidance that we gave at the beginning of the year.
About the working capital movement and the exposure to the holding company, if you consider the reduction of the shareholder loan that is visible around €30 million, this will have been made not for particular reasons, but just because we got the opportunity to reduce the cost of the debt, considering that the shareholder loan remained not for other reasons because it was in line with the market when it was made. Now the market has changed, and we got the opportunity to reduce a bit the general cost of debt that we have. There are no particular reasons behind the reduction of the exposures versus the holding company. I want to highlight that most of the working capital improvement is related to the business and not to this adjustment. In particular, we continue to manage very well the days of payable outstanding.
This is a project that we started last year in September, and we continue to get important results on this, especially on the UK side. About the third question, what we presented in the table that is in the slide are three substantial items. One is the IFRS 16 debt that is going to obviously impact our net financial positions, including the IFRS 16. We represented the cash that Carrefour Italia is going to put in the company at the closing date. We include the cash that, according to the budget, as I explained before, the company is going to generate in Q4 of this year. Apart from these items, the company will be zero debt, zero cash when we complete the acquisition. This means that everything related to the past won't be part of the transaction.
The transaction will start with the company zero cash, zero debt, on which we have to consider the IFRS 16, the injection of cash from Carrefour Italia, and the cash that we expect to generate in Q4.
Can I have a follow-up question?
Very good.
The follow-up question is, the divestment you made in financial assets for €127 million, what is it related for? It's not a credit that you had to the holding company.
The divestments, okay, 100 and.
Of financial assets, your.
Yes.
Cash flow statement, there is a divestment of financial assets for €127 million, which is obviously a one-off, I guess, because I think it was a credit towards the holding company.
Yes, absolutely. To get the target that I explained before, to substantially reduce the shareholder loan, etc., we reorganize the structure of the situations also versus the holding company. This is the item related to that divestment.
Is there going to be further divestment going forward?
No, I don't think so. It's clear that it's something that we manage also considering the general structure of the cash generation, of the market, of the cost of debt, etc. If you are asking me if there is a plan that includes the defined next steps, I can tell you that no, it's not the case because it's something that we do and we manage according to the situations that we face in that precise moment.
Thank you very much for coming.
You're welcome.
There's one question from Gianluca Bergamaschi. What is the estimated timing for the UK IPO? We already answered more or less, Fabio or.
Yes. As soon as we have communications that we can officially make, we'll do.
Let's say within the end of the year, estimated.
If there are no more questions, we may end the call here. As always, you can submit your questions by email, call us, and we'll be glad to answer any more questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. Bye.
Thanks, everyone.