Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero 9 Month 2025 Financial Results Web Call. All participants are in listen-only mode, and after the presentation, there will be an opportunity for a Q&A session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi. Good morning, everybody. Just a couple of things before I pass the word to Raffaella and Matteo. I would like to draw your attention to two items. The first is that the good results we have in front of us, for the first time, are driven not only by higher price but also higher volumes, which is particularly satisfaction to us. Second, that the overall margin that we can show to the market is very much comparable with global competition, but as you know, we are not at all involved in production, so it makes our things even more satisfactory to us. Now, I pass the word to Raffaella. Thanks.
Thank you, Paolo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to open by saying that this quarter, once again, met our expectations, showing how solid, stable, and well-grounded our business continues to be. Net revenue grew by 10.5%, driven by the excellent performance of distribution. We saw higher prices, thanks once again to the product mix we keep working on, but also, as already Paolo said, an increase in volumes, which is a very positive sign. We are convinced that the distribution still has possibilities for organic growth, and we have not expressed our full potential. Adjusted EBITDA at EUR 74.6 million increased by 11.5% due to the contribution of both business units. Distribution EBITDA improved by 5.9% compared to the same period last year. All countries delivered solid results and met our expectations.
All products had good performance, with New Zealand kiwifruit and fresh-cut leading the way. Shipping also improved thanks to an excellent loading factor and a very strong performance from dry cargo. Adjusted net profit increased by 19.4%, reaching EUR 32.9 million, and our net financial position stands at EUR 109.1 million. On the investment side, we have completed the dry docking of the second vessel, and we are moving ahead with the upgrades across all our warehouses. As for our guidance, we confirm it, and we are confident we will reach the upper end of the range in terms of economic margin targeting. Having this stronger foundation, and I conclude, we feel this is the right time to quickly move into a new phase of growth and further international expansion. With that, I hand over to Matteo to discuss our results.
Thank you, Raffaella, and good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining. Our results, as Raffaella and Paolo said, are showing a very strong performance. About the market context, we saw for the first time since, let's say, many quarters, an increase in volume and not only in pricing. The inflation is counting for 3% on food in general, so our mix is driving the growth. The good news about the volume is that we're not increasing the volume selling commodities, but the highest valued product in the fruit and vegetable gamma. That's really important for us and really current with our strategy. Sales are up 10.5% thanks to the distribution, and the distribution is not only growing on sales, but it's growing as well in the right way thanks to very good margins.
The adjusted EBITDA stands at 5% on distribution, and it's comparing with an extraordinary 2024 performance, and it's more or less in line, slightly lower, but this is showing a very, very strong and resilient performance of our business. The shipping is continuing to perform very well in line with our expectations. The market context is so far stable. The dry docking of the two last vessels is finished, so next year we won't have any additional operating costs driven by the dry docking activity. Loading factor is continuing to be above 95%, and this is one of the most relevant KPIs that we can observe. Going on the bridging of net sales and adjusted EBITDA, as we said, the distribution grew by EUR 115 million. This is the main driver of the growth, thanks to mainly kiwifruit, exotic categories, citrus, berries, and fresh cuts.
Shipping is increasing by EUR 3 million, or 3.4%, thanks to the contribution of the dry cargo, while the loading factor, as we said, registers record levels on both segments. On the ABCDA, as we said, the distribution improved by almost 6% versus last year, thanks to the improvement in terms of product mix driven by strong performance of high-value added categories, in particular, pineapple, kiwifruit, exotic products, citrus, and fresh cuts. We must underline that fresh cuts are performing very well, and the category is starting to boom again. Shipping increased by EUR 4.8 million. The reefer segment, so the fruit, let's say, transportation segment, remains stable with a cost base comparable to last year. What is increasing is the loading factor and the dry cargo.
Going to the net profit, actually, the net profit stands at the adjusted net profit stands at EUR 33 million, mainly driven by the increase of the adjusted EBITDA that comes in for EUR 7.7 million. We do not have main adjustments. The only adjustments that we have on the EBITDA are comparable with last year, so nothing to underline here. On the net equity variance, the net profit is driving the growth with EUR 31.4 million. We have to take into account EUR 8.4 million dividend paid to Orsero shareholders in May, almost EUR 2 million dividend paid to third parties, so our partners, negative hedging reserve for EUR 4 million, mainly driven by the US dollar/euro exchange rate, and other effects that come in for not even EUR 1 million. Our net equity passed from EUR 256.4 million to EUR 272.6 million.
In terms of net financial position, the net financial position is quite stable compared to the end of 2024. This year was and still is a year where we are investing a lot, but the cash flow is still very positive, coming in for EUR 35 million. We have EUR 7 million change in net working capital. This is driven by the growth of sales, EUR 17 million of operating CapEx, and then we have dividends, EUR 8.4 million, and the mark-to-market, the bridges, EUR 6 million. Our net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, passed from EUR 55 million to EUR 58 million. We have an IFRS 16 effect that comes in with EUR 51.2 million. Last word on the guidance before leaving the rest of the call for the Q&A session. As Raffaella said, we are keen in obtaining the top end of our KPIs on the margins, so adjusted EBITDA and net profit.
We are really happy to be able to have this trust in our performance for the rest of the year. Thank you. I will leave the rest of the conversation for the Q&A.
Thank you, sir. We will now begin the Q&A session. To enter the queue for questions, please click on the Q&A icon on the left side of your screen. When announced, please click Continue on the pop-up window. If you are connected and audio only, please press * and one on your telephone. The first question comes from Gabriele Berti of Intesa Sanpaolo.
Hi, good morning, and congratulations on the strong results. At this point, also the upper end of the guidance range appears rather conservative. However, my first question, I wanted to understand whether the increase in volumes reflects the underlying market trend or a greater exposure to faster-growing product categories or a performance driven by other specific factors, and if you think this positive environment is sustainable also entering 2026. Second one, could you share some color on your early planning assumption for 2026, in particular across shipping? Maybe you already have some visibility on time charter contract for next year and also expectation for banana trading environment. Lastly, on CapEx, could you please provide us an update on the key organic development plans for 2026, in particular warehouse modernization planning, the Spain project? In general, some indication on next year's investment priorities would be helpful.
Thank you, Gabriele. Good morning. Starting from your first question, volume-wise, this year is quite difficult to be very precise because in our business, we do not have a clear data set to be able to answer your question, but surely the category as a whole is growing. The consumption trend, the healthy consumption trend, is growing, and this is basically very good for everybody in our category. We surely are exposed to the fastest-growing categories. We are not pushing, as I said, on the pure commodities where there is no value in increasing that much the market share because the consumption is flat. You always buy market share. You are not building up anything.
We are growing with avocados, with the exotic gamma, with the berries, with the kiwi, with the table grapes, with the clementines, with the categories where we think and we feel that the growth is there. Surely the market context this year was not bad. For next year, it's difficult to have a clear picture, but the feeling is that the trend is continuing, or at least we are positioned on the right categories. We have a strong confidence that the growth will be there. Very difficult to say which will be the percentage of growth because obviously it depends on as well the inflation and the pricing of the whole category. We are positioned to grow organically. On 2026, picking and bananas.
On the shipping, we have the feeling that the market is stable, so we are not seeing in our niche neither a relevant increase or decrease on the freight rates on the fruit business. On the dry cargo, the situation is flat, but it's a stock market, so we have to see that month by month next year. Our feeling is that the situation of the market is not under pressure on our niches. Surely all over the world, some routes are under pressure or are starting to be under pressure, but we work in a very protected niche in the good way and in the bad way. We do not see a relevant swing up or down for next year. Banana standards are really starting now.
Banana situation is probably one of the most difficult situations to understand because the market is short, the production cost is booming, but it's very difficult to pass this information to our clients, mainly to the retailers. Still, it is a product where the tenders are trying to push the price down. That is why already four to five years ago, we decided not to participate with tenders where the pricing is not satisfactory for us. Hopefully we will have an increase on average on the price on the tenders, but we cannot be sure because we just started now. On the stock market, the difference between the price on the tenders and the price on the spot market is very relevant.
Our strategy at the end of the day is to push more on the spot market, so the wholesale channel to have some satisfaction on this category that is unfortunately always under pressure without any industrial reason. Capex. Capex next year will be a year hopefully dedicated to capex for growth. The maintenance capex will be under control. As you remember, there is the Spanish project. We are still obtaining all the permission and preparing the land to be able to build. We think that the building will be starting not next year, but in 2027, but we have other plans for Spain. We will see some capex to grow organically as well even next year. All in all, we will expand our fresh cut facilities next year because, as we said, the category is booming and is giving us a very good satisfaction.
We will try to keep the maintenance CapEx and the operative CapEx really under control to save space for growth CapEx.
Thank you, Matteo.
My answer to your questions.
Yes, thank you.
The next question is from Matteo—sorry, Andrea Bonfà. Sorry about that. Banca Akros, please go ahead, sir.
Hello, good morning to everybody. Some of my questions have already been answered, but Matteo, if you can remind me and to the audience, I mean, what's preventing you in the fourth quarter of this year to repeat the profitability of the shipping last year? Can you remind us what were, let's say, the dry docking issues? Last year, you almost delivered EUR 4.5 million EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 in the last quarter of the year. I think the business should be back, I mean, with the same trend of last year at least. Thank you very much.
Hi, Andrea. Actually, I understand you're trying to understand why we did not increase our guidance at the end of the day. Actually, we don't see the last quarter as a very strong one like it was last year.
This is mainly due not to market condition, all in all, or consumption, but only driven by the campaigns. Sometimes the campaigns are lasting longer or sometimes are shorter and very profitable at the beginning. Maybe we will exceed something on our guidance, but it is not that relevant, and we are not so confident that the difference will be that higher to suggest us to increase the top end. If it is going to be better, it is going to be a good surprise for everybody. The shipping activity, we think that this year the last voyages of the year will not be that high in terms of loading factor. This is mainly due to a speculation attitude of our suppliers because given the fact that starting from the first week of 2026, the prices of banana will be increasing by mostly $1 per box.
They will try to sell the bananas, most of the bananas, they will try to keep the most of the banana they can on the new contract and not on the old one. To give you a general concept, they will try to short the market with the actual prices and then to load the market when the prices will be higher. We already know that the prices will be increasing next year on bananas in dollar base, I'm talking. Taking in consideration all the information that we have so far, we think that the last quarter will be okay, but not so brilliant like it was last year, mainly driven by bananas, what I told to you, and then the loading factor. Obviously, there are many different categories that we can drill down in detail.
The lychees, for example, it's something that is probably will be the market will be overloaded with additional volumes compared to last year. When we look at our product mix of the last quarter, we are not that confident to be able to massively beat our high end. That's a bit the consideration that I can give you.
Okay, thank you very much. Very useful. If I may, can you share with us any information on your M&A campaign if it's possible? Thanks.
We would like to be able to tell you more, but it's not already the moment. We're working hard and we're doing our job, let's say, but we're not ready to be able to disclose additional details.
Thank you.
The next question, sir, is from Mathias P aladino of TPI ICAP.
Hello. Thank you very much for the presentation. Congratulations for the result. Most of my questions have been already answered, but one of them, I want to get your view, maybe to share your view on one point to the audience. It's about, we saw last month, there was a delay on the vote on the cutting maritime emission by the IMO. In this trend, let's say, you're backed in some way because the US are opposed to this cutting maritime emission. I want to get your view, maybe can we say that this delay in the vote can give you more flexibility also to run your business with the current vessel? Yes, maybe what's your view on the situation on this cutting maritime emission of this association? Thank you very much.
Good morning. Hi. Thank you for answering this question and for the consideration. We are not the player that is able to give you a very, let's say, deep answer to your question, but we will try. Our perception in general is that this delay on the IMO decision is really coherent with the impossibility of the industrial footprint and distribution, both on the, let's say, new engine, new technologies, and mostly the new fuels, let's say, that are not there. The industrial footprint end-to-end is not ready and is not current with the political vision. This is, I think, a reality so far. The target that the IMO was dreaming to have is not there and cannot be there. Probably the reason why they delayed the votation is because the agreement proposed is not possible to be, let's say, agreed upon.
There will be one year to rediscuss. I do not know actually if they will change massively the way and the trend, but what we can say is that in our segment, in our, let's say, tonnage as a player, basically there is no order book or relevant ships now with different engine and fuel than oil and carbon-based engines. At the end of the day, we think that the green wave is something that is positive, obviously, but must be paired with the reality, with the technology, and with the industrial footprint. Otherwise, it is going to remain a dream and it is going to damage a lot the economy, both in Europe and worldwide.
Given the fact that IMO is not representing the European Union, but is representing, let's say, the worldwide shipping activity, now it is blocked, and we will see what will be the evolution of the new agreement if there will be a new agreement. For us, it's good news, formally speaking, but it seems for a couple of years that we have had this vision that at least this situation will be slowed down compared to the communication that we had. We will see if we will be able, thanks to this new situation, to operate our vessels longer. We have time to see and decide. Surely, let's say, it's not bad news for us. Being practical, it's not bad news.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
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Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, everybody, for joining again. We will talk soon, early next year for the full year result. All the best.
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