Good afternoon, and welcome to the conference call organized by Vidrala to present its 2026 first quarter results. Vidrala will be represented in this meeting by Raúl Gómez, CEO, Iñigo Mendieta, Corporate Finance Director, and Unai Alvarez, Investor Relations. The presentation will be held in English. In the Q&A session, questions will also be answered in Spanish. It is strongly recommended to pose questions in English in order to facilitate understanding of everyone. In the company website, www.vidrala.com, you will find a presentation that will be used as a supporting material to cover this call, as well as a link to access the webcast. Mr. Alvarez, you now have the floor.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join today's call. As previously announced, we published our results for the first quarter of 2026 earlier this morning, together with a presentation that will support this conference call. We encourage you to access the webcast via the link available on our website, or alternatively, have the presentation at hand. Following the structure of this document, we will start with a brief overview of the key figures released today before moving on to a more detailed discussion of other strategic topics. We will leave an ample time for the Q&A session. With that, I will now hand over to Iñigo who will take you through the financial results.
Thank you, Unai. Before we walk through the figures, it's worth noting that the Chile acquisition has been consolidated into the results as of 1st of January 2026. To allow comparability, we have included breakdowns on a like-for-like pro forma basis, incorporating into the prior year figures the results generated by the acquired business during that period. Turning now to the presentation we have just referenced. The first quarter results reflect the following key business figures: revenue of almost EUR 368 million, operating profits, EBITDA, of EUR 104 million, and a net income equivalent to an EPS of EUR 1.53. Net debt amount to EUR 273 million, including the Chilean acquisition at an enterprise value of EUR 75 million.
As a result, the leverage ratio stands at 0.6 times last 12 months pro forma EBITDA. Moving on to the next slide, let's take a closer look at revenue evolution. In the chart, we have broken down the year- and- year movements on a comparable perimeter basis, arriving at reported sales of EUR 367.5 million for the first quarter of 2026. As shown, this represents an organic change of -4.7% at constant exchange rates and on a like-for-like basis. This performance reflects a moderation in pricing in line with our expectations, together with the softer demand environment in European markets that has been partially offset by stronger momentum in South America. Turning now to EBITDA, we apply the same analytical framework to better understand the year-on-year variation.
EBITDA amounted to EUR 104 million, reflecting, in this case, an organic variation of -2.1%. These figures translating to an operating margin, EBITDA over sales, of 28.3%, representing an expansion of more than 20 basis points compared with the 28.1% reported in the same period last year. On a like-for-like pro forma basis, margins would have expanded by almost 90 basis points. This improvement reflects a combined effect of our internal competitiveness initiatives and the execution of our investment plan, which remain the two key drivers behind margin resilience. We now turn to sales and EBITDA by business units, Europe, U.K. and Ireland, and the new South America, which now includes operation in both Brazil and Chile.
As mentioned earlier, in the first quarter, we continued to see price moderation across our European divisions in a highly competitive environment, while at the same time we are taking action on our cost base to support sales development over the course of the year. By contrast, South America continues to show solid performance driven by improving consumption trends and ongoing operational progress across the region. Finally, net debt as of the end of March stood at EUR 273 million. This includes the interim dividend paid in February, the cash out related to the ongoing share buyback program, and the acquisition of Chile for an enterprise value of EUR 75 million as already mentioned. Overall, the resulting leverage ratio remains broadly stable, reflecting the strength and financial resilience of the business. These final slides is slide where we just would like to highlight big messages.
The resilience of our margins that are based on cost competitiveness. Second of all, our robust financial position even after M&A and additional efforts in terms of shareholder remuneration, as we have already explained. Finally, also highlight the value of focused diversification and inorganic growth. We would like to spend some time explaining the recent acquisition in Chile, as well as our broader strategy in South America. On this first slide, we provide an overview of the Chilean market, as you can see, it is a relatively consolidated market with three main players, the map illustrates the footprint and plant locations of each of them. The image on the right corresponds to our facilities in Maipú. You can also see a summary of 2025 financials, which just as a reminder, have not been consolidated in our 2025 report figures.
Chile is a region of strategic focus for us and is complementary to our current business base. A significant number of our key global customers are focusing their growth on this region and in addition, our technological and industrial model offers further deployment opportunities. Moving to the strategic rationale behind our expansion in South America, there are a few key messages we would like to highlight. First, we are acquiring assets that are well known to us as we have previously provided technical assistance to these operations. Second, we see clear room for further optimization, particularly in the most recently incorporated assets with a view to enhancing margins over time. Third, we are progressing in our strategy of building South America into a growth platform through a series of disciplined incremental steps while maintaining a structured and focused approach across differentiated regions.
Finally, these moves reflect our commitment to following our customers, deepening our relationships with them, and strengthening our positioning as a global partner that should allow us to capture opportunities across our different business units. On this slide, we present three charts to frame the South American opportunity. Starting with demand fundamentals, the region is expected to deliver solid growth, with demand projected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of around 4.5% between 2025 and 2030. The second chart illustrates a competitive landscape. This covers South America as a whole from Panama southwards. The market is, as you can see, largely dominated by two major global players, with ourselves positioned as the third key or global player alongside the number of smaller domestic operators across the region.
Finally, the third chart illustrates our customer base, the customer base in the region, sorry, where we already maintain strong relationships across all these key customer segments that are in the chart. Something that position us well to further strengthen our presence and capture additional opportunities going forward. Finally, on this slide, we present the 2025 Group's pro forma figures, including the contribution of Chile. On this basis, the Group would have generated revenues just over EUR 1.5 billion and EBITDA of EUR 453 million, with South America representing close to 20% of total Group business. Now before opening the floor to questions, I will now hand over to Raúl, who will provide his views on the 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Iñigo. Thank you, Unai. Thank you all for attending this call today. We really appreciate your time. Thank you. Well, as you may know, today we held our annual general meeting. Please take note that it's a big day for us. Our first quarter results provide a glimpse of the future we are building. In the face of adversity, you will agree with me under a context of abnormal complexity, we act. We never stand still. We are doing things to keep our costs under control. We are investing more than ever with our focus on the future and on the customer. We are managing our industrial capacity. We are divesting, we are investing selectively with a disciplined planning. We remain acting highly dynamic. Managing cost with an unwavering focus on our competitiveness. Competitiveness, cost competitiveness.
This is the core of our business. More, as Iñigo said before, we are diversifying the business. We are building a growth platform in South America. A business platform that has already reached meaningful scale. Basically, we are delivering what we promised. In the end, let me say that Vidrala is today a stronger and more diversified company, a real multinational, focused, designed in an structured way based on three different business areas that together create a powerful business combination: Europe, the United Kingdom, and South America. We, Vidrala, we are a world-leading glass manufacturer. We are today supplying major global customers, and we are operating industrial assets and technologies of the highest quality. We are taking the necessary actions to ensure that our future is in our hands.
Based on these factors, based on these principles, and more important, based on the internal actions that we are taking, today we are announcing our guidance or our outlook for the full year 2026. We today expect our full-year EBITDA to exceed EUR 450 million, a figure that is similar or is slightly higher than 2025, the prior year, in comparable terms, including Chile. We also expect our earnings per share to grow up more, by more than 5%. More relevant, we expect our free cash flow to remain sustainably at levels of EUR 200 billion after a year that will be again a relevant and ambitious years in terms of investments for us.
In any case, we remain firmly committed to our strategic pillars and our management principles: customer, cost, and capital discipline. Basically, what we are doing, we are building the future we deserve. Thank you.
Thank you, Raúl. This concludes our opening remarks, so we will now move to the Q&A session.
[Non-English content]Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. Questions by telephone will be answered first. If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Francisco Ruiz from BNP Paribas. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. [Non-English content ]. I have a couple of questions, and then I will pass it on for other colleagues. My first question is in the U.K. I mean, you continue with a very weak situation in terms of volumes, no surprise in the area after the restructuring that you announced in Q4. How do you expect this to evolve? I mean, I listened to some of the meetings we had during this quarter talking about an improvement in profitability or an activity, and I don't know if this is something that have to do with a better pricing scenario or it's just cost initiatives. The second question is more on the industry in Europe as a whole.
I mean, one of your competitors today has commented on a strong pressure in wine and, very low capacity utilization in Southern Europe. I don't know how you see the situation, because these are an area and a product that matters to you. How you see prices with, still, let's say, weak volumes, but also a big pressure in terms of energy cost. Thank you.
Okay. Paco, thank you very much. Just as a very brief introduction to your two questions, please just remind that over 50% of our commercial base is based on price adjustment formulas, okay? That will progressively reflect inflation or deflation trends in our pricing.
Thank you. [Non-English content] Paco. I'm following Iñigo's message. Beyond this level of natural protection that our sales have, okay, this is a big difference when you compare Vidrala with most of our competitors. Please take, keep this in mind. For the remainder, we will remain the same. We will try to remain first cost competitive to attract customers and regain market share when needed, we will progressively adapt our prices to the real inflationary context as quick as necessary. Should inflation remains high after the context that we are seeing, we can be sure that we will progressively make our best to maintain our prices adapted. This is the reason why we think that our operating margins are today pretty much under control.
Even, taking your first question in the U.K. It's true that in the U.K. that we are seeing a particularly softer demand context. We are confident that our sales volumes are, or our top line performance is basically following real organic system trading conditions in the U.K. That means that, demand in the U.K. has to suffer most is the last, the last two years. We have the feeling that the demand today is more flattish and should start to recover. In any case, we are doing what we can do. We are reducing our cost. We are taking actions to remain competitive. We want to use our cost competitiveness to attract customers and secure volumes.
This is the reason why even after this softer than expected demand context that we consider that is basically organic or affecting the whole industry, we also consider that our margins and our profits this year in the U.K. are safe, under control. Don't forget, despite these difficult years that we are seeing, we are managing in some regions, particularly the U.K., our U.K. business in Encirc is a core strategic part of the Vidrala Group. A wonderful business.
Our next question comes from Natasha Brilliant, from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I've got a few questions on the Chile business. Firstly, how should we think about the margin profile of the Chile business versus the group average? You said you can enhance the margins over time, can you just talk a bit more about that and where you think they might be able to get to? My second question is on CapEx and whether there's any incremental CapEx requirements linked to Chile that we should factor in over the coming years. Just to come back on your comments on the customer base, can you tell us what the proportion of customers that you already have a relationship with you'll be serving in Chile, and what proportion will be incremental to the Vidrala Group? Thank you.
Well, thank you very much. As Iñigo said before, we consider our entry into Chile that is small from a financial point of view, but big from a cultural and strategic point of view, as a new step or necessary step to create a platform for growth in South America, yeah. The number of customers we have in Brazil are in Chile. Some of our big customers in wine in the U.K. are Chilean, so there is a big strategic rationale for us to be entering into Chile. Okay. It's very evident to take a look at the numbers, levels of profitability, that Chile is a process that needs to be improved, and we actually do consider this as a restructuring acquisition. In any way, we will for now consider Chile in combination with Brazil as part of our South American division.
A division that probably controls already or supply already approximately 20% of the markets are in South America. This is becoming... Our business is becoming a business of meaningful, meaningfulness scale, these businesses today obtaining margins of between 35%-40% operating margins, EBITDA margins, that we do consider safe. In this consideration, in this analysis, we understand that Chile will keep on improving as it is. Finally, your question, our customers are everywhere welcoming us. Okay. What our customers want is what we want from our suppliers, more than one only alternative supplier. We are becoming a reference in the glass packaging industry in terms of ambitious investments, future, and competitiveness. We know what we are doing entering Chile. Thank you.
Thank you. If I can just come back on the CapEx point, whether there's any extra CapEx we should expect?
Normally, our CapEx levels over the next couple of years, probably at least the next three years, will be aligned with our last three years, around 11%-12% of our sales. You are aware that this is more than normal, this is more than replacement, and this includes ambitious investments, and Chile won't be an exception. If this is the question, Chile won't distort your expectations on our cash profile in any year in the future.
Perfect. That was my question. Thank you very much.
[Non-English content] . Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please be reminded that you must dial star five on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Francisco Ruiz from BNP Paribas. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Our next question comes from Francisco Ruiz from BNP Paribas. Your line is now open.
Yes. Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Hello? Okay, good. I was on mute, mainly if there is no further question from anybody, I have another two. The first one is on current trade. If you could give us some details on how the business has evolved throughout this four months that we have already, and if you see a better improvement in April versus March and at the beginning of the year in the different markets. The second question is on in the use of cash. Mainly you announced a buyback of 1% in December, another one a month ago. If you are expecting EUR 200 million or around EUR 200 million free cash flow generation, you will arrive at the end of the year practically without debt again.
Can we expect further announcement on this? Given the sale price performance, or you prefer other type of remuneration? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Paco. Let me start with your second question, our use of cash. It's true, and we are fully conscious of this, that in the case we achieve our expected free cash flow generation this year, we will have the challenge to decide what to do with our cash. Wonderful challenge. Okay? We accept the challenge. It's too soon to announce, say, something on this. Okay? What we can tell you and the rest of you shareholders is that you won't be disappointed. Okay? Please keep in mind, you know that our industry is today living quite complex times.
We do consider that our capacity to sustain our cash flow, differential cash flow generation, our capacity to maintain our debt levels at low levels for a while, is something that will create a competitive advantage. Okay. This is our first priority, to generate cash and maintain our debt levels under control. Anyway, in terms of shareholder remuneration, I insist, you won't be disappointed. We are aware of that. Okay. Second or first question, sorry, current trading. Well, for our guidance to become real, the way we have built our outlook for this year, particularly at the EBITDA level, is very evident that second quarter will be more relevant than the first quarter in terms of profit contribution. Third quarter should be more relevant than the second quarter.
April is a more relevant month than it has been March, and April is almost done. What we can tell you is that everything is going as expected and aligned with our guidance.
Okay. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Iñigo Egusquiza Castellanos from Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. [Non-English content] , good afternoon. Raúl, Iñigo, Unai, thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions, if I may. The first one would be: You mentioned the trading update with April is slightly better, I guess, but in line with your budget. My question would be if you can elaborate a bit the performance of pricing and volumes by regions, Europe, the U.K. and South America. In the case of the U.K., why are you slightly, I would say, slightly more positive after the weak quarter in terms of volumes? It seems that your expectations is that the recovery will come. Why that? This is the first question.
The second question would be, going to back to the free cash flow question and focus on consolidation. I know that you just closed the acquisition in Chile, I read something this morning that you were looking at, I think it was Mexico. It was mentioned in the press. What about further consolidation? You also mentioned that the industry, a big part of your players are facing financial troubles. What about further consolidation, both in South America but also in Europe? Thanks for your thoughts.
Thank you, Iñigo. I will take the first one about first quarter of 2026 market evolutions. First of all, to say has not been representative of what is going to be the full year. If we look into the volumes by our different three markets, in Europe, volumes were down by -2%. In the U.K. and Ireland, where we still see highly competitive environment, volumes were down by -9%. Whereas in South America, that comprehends operations of Brazil and Chile, volumes were up by +12%. If you look surprising, I still see the anticipated pricing moderation in Europe in the range of -2%, -2% or -3%, while we are seeing some price inflation in South America regions.
I'm following this point, Iñigo, just to give you an update on a trading update today at the end of April. Please keep in mind our the seasonality of our sales by regional. You know that seasonality is more relevant. Our sales peak are second and third quarter in Europe, third and fourth quarter of every natural year in the U.K., and last and first quarter in South America, something that also explains how powerful we are becoming under this more multinational business profile. Second quarter that is more relevant for Europe, particularly Southern Europe, is going as expected, as positive as expected. Final comment, it was regarding free cash flow. Can you remind me, please, the second question, please, Iñigo?
Yes.
Right. Okay.
It's a question on consolidation, Raúl. I mean, I read something in the press today, I don't know if it's the press conference or before the AGM, that potential consolidation, I think it was Mexico, it was mentioned in the press, but also opportunities in South America, in Europe probably as well, considering how other competitors are evolving. I don't know. Your thoughts on further consolidation, both South America and Europe. Thank you.
Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Thank you, Iñigo. Yeah. I didn't have the time to take a look at the news that you are mentioning, but I remember what we said, okay? What we said is that Mexico is not for us tomorrow, okay? Mexico is not part of South America, and actually we are not thinking in any immediate action in terms of M&A, okay? We are just basically finalizing the first stage of integration in Chile, so it's too soon for an another step. In any case, we will remain dynamic. We will consider that our financial position is an opportunity to analyze opportunities. We will keep on analyzing different opportunities everywhere, but where you won't be surprised.
Okay.
Our next question comes from Fraser Donlon from Berenberg. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. It's Fraser here from Berenberg. Thanks for the presentation. I've got three or four questions. The first, I was just wondering if you could quantify how much of the restructuring in Chile is done, because I know you were kind of hoping to do some of that before you closed the deal. The second question I had is about the U.K. I don't know what kind of you think or your customers think about the deposit return scheme, which will, I think, impact aluminum and other substrates, but not glass in 2027. Could that be good or bad for glass as you see it?
Then the third question, I think this is something you and maybe some competitors mentioned in the past few months, could you maybe comment how you see glass against aluminum, the extent to which that could kind of support the business or not in the next kind of six, nine months? Are you more or less positive than you were a few months ago on that? Those are my three questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fraser. Well, regarding the specific details of the restructuring in Chile, please let us remain silent for a while for competitive reasons, okay? Just please keep in mind that we aim and we deserve to reduce our cost significantly there to remain competitive, this is what we will do. These actions won't distort significantly our profits and our cash flow, and these actions will be completed before the end of this year. We are today providing an specific guidance and outlook for this year. Hope this is enough, hope you understand that our obligation is to remain a little bit more prudent on specific details regarding Chile.
Second, the deposit return scheme and the rest of other regulation that we are seeing in the U.K. This is something that we do consider as being very bad treated for the future of the glass industry in the U.K. Glass is made in the U.K. Aluminum is not fully made in the U.K. We are doing our best to promote this idea in front of administrations and British politicians. Let us be a little bit more optimistic. Please stay tuned. Maybe something relaxes a little in terms of the U.K. regulation that is affecting our industry. Finally, your comment regarding aluminum. I will take this opportunity to be more optimistic, okay?
I have the feeling that, if you, if we put ourselves on the place of our customers, brand owners, even on the place of we as consumers, we will see some positive gap for the first time in a period of years, under which the cost of aluminum will increase more in relative term than the cost of glass. This is what we need to build our future, okay? I have the confidence, I am convinced on the fact that glass, as a packaging material, has today a brightest future than ever, if and only if glass remain competitive. We have reasons to believe on this.
Thank you very much.
There are no further questions by telephone. I will now hand it back to the Vidrala team who will address questions submitted via webcast.
Okay. Thank you all. Let's address now the questions that we have received via webcast. We have grouped them, please, if some of the questions aren't fully answered, just feel free to contact us after the call, okay? First one says, How do we see the European business areas for the rest of the year after the soft Q1? As I think Raúl has already mentioned, we have reasonably good visibility going forward, supported by the inherent seasonality of our European business. We expect the second quarter to already be the first inflection point where we should start to see a gradual recovery taking shape. Okay. Second question is on our energy hedging strategy.
On top of the 50% of our contracts that are based on long-term agreements with price adjustment formulas, and despite geopolitical volatility, please remember that we entered the year with a very strong hedging position, with more than 85% of our European energy needs, which is the region that is most affected, already protected before the conflict in Ukraine. There is a second part of this question related on our financial costs in the first quarter. Financial results in this quarter are positive, although it's important to put it into context, the main driver of that performance is the ongoing optimization of our financial cost, reflecting a disciplined management of our funding structure and lowering also our average cost of debt.
On top of that, we also benefited from positive foreign exchange effects, okay, mainly related to intragroup financing exposures. Final question we have received through the webcast says, If we have any feeling, Raúl, probably this is for you, that our peers might be increasing prices this year due to energy costs.
Thank you. Well, the feeling we have is that there is a lot of renewed inflationary pressures. The feeling we have is that the competition is intense out there in the marketplace. It's a lot of competition. The feeling we have is that margins across the packaging industry are pretty much under pressure. There are a lot of reasons to think that prices should be progressively adapted to the new conditions. Conditions have changed quite significantly over the last couple of months. In the specific case of Vidrala, please, let me insist that half of our sales volumes are automatically dictated by formulas. For the remainder, our first priority is to remain competitive and attractive, and we will for sure progressively adapt our prices should inflationary pressures prolong in the future.
With that, we have addressed all the questions received via webcast. Once again, thank you for your time and attention, and please do not hesitate to reach out should you have any further questions.
[Non-English content] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.