Earnings Call: Q2 2021

Aug 11, 2021

Good morning, all, and welcome to ISS conference call for the H1 2020 21 Interim Report. My name is Michael, and today I'm sitting at the ISS headquarters in Schiphol with our Group CEO, Jacob Boerwanathan Group CFO, Casper Fanning as well as Luise and Jacob from the IR team. Please pay notice to the disclaimer in the appendix. And I'll now hand over to Jacob and Slide 3. Review. Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. So let's start with a summary of our results. In the first half year, our focus has been to execute on the 1 ISS strategy, the one we announced in December, including delivering on the short term turnaround initiatives. Route. We are progressing on the new operating model and we start to see early encouraging results of that. In parallel, we've been able to reach important milestones for our business. It impacts our visibility and we must stay agile and create healthy fundamentals for different business scenarios all the time. Room. Office workers in our largest markets were generally not back in the office in Q2. As a result, our portfolio revenue continues to be impacted by health restrictions. Route. We expect this effect to continue to a large extent in Q3 as most large clients are only seeing a gradual return to the office by end of Q3 with a more full return only having effect in Q4. Hence, we expect growth in the second half to be weighted towards Q4 instead of Q3 given the global development amongst clients. But we are strengthening our financial performance at these more subdued volume levels and we are making our business fundamentally stronger by delivering on our internal restructuring. Hence, our margin recovery is less dependent on the timing of return to the office. The importance of cleaning continues to be clear and we see how our customers continue to demand above base offerings reaffirming our growth and margin outlook and the free cash flow guidance is upgraded. Casper will come back to that later. Release. Please turn to Slide 5 for an update on our strategy work. Our 1 ISS strategy can be split into our work on the operating model, our short term financial recovery and finally our divestment program. We've come a long way on our operating model. We've completed the top leadership changes with our Chief Information and Digital Officer and CEO of UK and Ireland taking office during Q2. Route. To create an operating model where we can use our global scale as a competitive advantage, we need increased stabilization. Our work on the organizations in countries is continuing and it's settling in very well. At the same time, We're strengthening our global functions. Firstly, the Warsaw Hub for centralization of functions is progressing. Secondly, we are delivering on our strengthened commercial structure. And thirdly, we are implementing solid processes for benchmarking and operational improvements in all of our subsidiaries. It takes time to do it properly, But the potential is large. On the divestment program, we've achieved around DKK 1,000,000,000 in proceeds. That corresponds to half of the target for end of 2022. And we see good momentum on the remaining part. Release. Please turn to the next slide and some details on our progress on the underperforming contracts. Release. From the start of our turnaround, we identified improved financial performance for the Deutsche Telekom and Danish Defence contracts as critical. I'm pleased to announce that we've implemented the execution program with Deutsche Telekom, which includes main functions migrated in the IT system. Review. The implementation of the program implies a material uplift in contract compliance and financial transparency. We're satisfied with this progress and it reduces the risk related to the ongoing turnaround. Of course, this does not mean that the contract is now profitable and the compliance is best in class. It's a clear step in the right direction and we'll continue to do important day to day work including a capital project update to the IT system. We're now also better able to execute on our plan to improve profitability. This will lead to an improved run rate in second half compared to first half. And our target of being breakeven by the end of 2022 is confirmed and maintained. So, we still have Hard work in front of us to get the contract to the right profitability level, but I'm pleased to see us delivering according to plan. On Danish defense, you're all aware of our agreed exit. It will be a gradual exit and our 2020 provision will be sufficient, both to cover the exit payment and the cost of transitioning out of the contract. With that, let's move from strategy to business and let's go to slide number 8. Route. The commercial activities have gained momentum since late 2020. And we now start to see some of this momentum materializing into new wins as expected. Equinor was an excellent win for us based on a vested process and a true partnership contract. The start date is 1st November and it's fully up and running by March 2022. In late July, we also secured an excellent expansion from one of our industry and manufacturing customers. Route. Over 3 years, we've gone from being a small local supplier to being the customer's main global supplier, and the customer will become a top 5 customer for ISS from 2022. The €250,000,000 annual expansion is a 5 year contract starting in January 2022. Route. As you know, we are exiting the Danish defense contract from November 2021 to May 2022. And we've also been exiting smaller contracts deliberately as we are restructuring our business in markets such as France and U. K. Please turn to the next slide for a few comments related to our new commercial structure. Review. Our enhanced commercial structure reflects our strategy. We're building an IFS business where our core competitiveness will be based on deep segment expertise, which can be leveraged across sites, across countries and across regions. In Group Commercial, we now have a dedicated segment lead headed by senior leaders to secure wins within our prioritized segments. Each of our segment leads are supported by other dedicated expertise support functions such as operations and marketing. Together with the local execution teams ISS is creating best in class offers to potential customers. The win of Equinor is a prime example of a customer within one of our prioritized segments where the group expertise and the local team in collaboration created a successful win. Review. Let's go to the next slide. Both our customers and ourselves are seeking information on how to create a safe and well functioning working environment post COVID-nineteen. Based on our large global reach to customers around the world, We're formalizing this data in biweekly surveys called the ISS Pulse. The survey gives insights into the current environment and it enables us to act as a business partner for our customers and optimizing our service offering to fit their needs. The results of the survey are very much in line with the business environment that we are experiencing right now. Customers are hesitant in reopening as only around 10% of customers are allowing A majority of their employees into the office. I'm sure you experience the same yourselves at the moment. Policies are reviewed frequently and the environment can change quickly. We are therefore in constant dialogue to be on top of the development and support customers in creating a safe and inspiring office environment. Route. As you will see, almost half of our customers are saying that they will be revising their policies within 4 weeks, so this is a very moving target. Route. Despite the hesitancy to return to the office and scale in the short term, driven by the recent COVID variant, it's also clear to us that the end destination is more clear. Review. Our dialogue with the C suite across global clients clearly reflects that companies are moving towards an end destination where the office is the core workplace for the company. Our customers across the board are reporting concerns of lower productivity, lower innovation, less cultural attachment in the organization. And they are more firmly aiming for a return to the office with certain flexibility options. Therefore, we may see a slower return to the office short term, but we're seeing a much more certain one long term. This concludes my part of the presentation. And I'll now hand over to Casper for a review of the financial results. Thank you very much, Jacob, and good morning, everyone. I hope you are enjoying the summer. On Slide 12, I will go through the financial highlights. Overall, our financial performance developed positively in the first half year. Our results. And both operationally and financially, we are moving in the right direction. Organic growth turned positive to 5.8% in the 2nd quarter, revenue, driven by easier comparison base and continued solid demand for project and above base work. The margin ended at 1.5%, an underlying improvement of 70 basis points compared to the adjusted H2 2020 margin. The free cash flow was positive of DKK1.6 billion, which is better than expected, but partly impacted by timing effects in working capital. For the avoidance of doubt, I also just want to mention that the factoring balance is unchanged compared to the end of 2020. Note also that we have taken more conservative approach to the risk of our France activities and recognized a goodwill impairment of DKK 450,000,000. This has nothing to do with with our current short term turnaround of France, which is developing according to plan. Let's turn to Slide 13. Review. The organic growth was positive 5.8%. As seen in the chart, the revenue is similar to the Q1 pattern, relatively low portfolio revenue, but solid demand for above base work. Needless to say, this is a result of the business environment, which generally is still very restrictive, but it's also a result of our deliberate actions to exit unattractive businesses. Looking forward, you should note that we faced tougher comparison in Q3 and Q4 this year. Portfolio revenue will not increase before we see a more material reopening. Project and above based work is already at a relatively high level and by nature difficult to forecast. With With current projections, I expect Q4 to show a better growth rate than Q3, and this is driven by customers reopening within our food business. Our largest food customer in the U. S. Is currently projecting a significant return to office from October and onwards. Project and above base is 20 percent of revenue in H1, similar to H2 twenty twenty. Such a high share is unusual for the first half and it's one of the reasons for why we see a lower margin seasonality this year compared to previous years. Last quick comment is that our revenues are down organically by around 5% compared to the pre COVID level in Q2 twenty nineteen. Turning to the next slide. Review. I'll start with a quick high level picture of the margin development. The underlying margin suffered significantly in 2020 due to COVID-nineteen and the underperforming entities. We are improving the fundamentals, and we have taken an important step in the right direction in first half year and are on track for delivering on our turnaround target of above 4% when we enter 2023. The drivers are the same as we have communicated previously, 1, COVID-nineteen restructurings and 2, recovery of the underperforming contracts and release. I do not consider our margin projections as being dependent on the reopening of growth development as it is mainly internally ribbon, and we have strong mechanism in place to adjust costs for revenue fluctuations. Let's go to the next slide, please. Results. Let me briefly walk you through the regional growth and margin picture. Growth improved in all regions in Q2 versus Q1, rule, mainly driven by the easier comparison. From a margin perspective, I want to highlight the performance in APAC and Americas, which are at solid level. Our restructuring efforts in Americas are really showing results. The margin also includes a transition of the new Americas contract where transition costs have been fully expensed. The margin is now satisfactory is not satisfactory in Northern Europe and Continental Europe, which, as you know, is a result of the underperforming contracts and countries. Lastly, group costs are, as expected, up release. We have made extraordinary investments in group in the first half, and we are running at a high investment level in the early development phase of our new strategic initiatives, which is in line with the plan that we presented to you in December last year. Please turn to the next slide. Review. The overall takeaway from this important slide is that we are on track in all areas. Release. It's a milestone that we have gone from 4 to 3 underperforming areas following the exit of Danish defense. In the United Kingdom, operations are improving. And as illustrated on the restated on the Harvey Ball, we have gone from loss making in 2020 to a positive run rate out of H1. We have taken significant measures to achieve efficiencies, and the new Country Manager, Lis Bennesen, is spearheading our journey to and simplify and focus the business. The France recovery is progressing according to plan, but it is fundamentally a gradual turnaround. Release. The development on the Deutsche Telekom contract, which clearly will enable us to improve the financial performance in the second half. But it is a challenging contract, and we still have a long and complicated job in front of us. The COVID-nineteen restructuring in the 4th bucket is having a positive impact on the group results, not release in our food business in the U. S, which is visible in our reported Americas margin. The majority of the revenue recovery is still to come. Review. Finally, in the 5th bucket, the investment in group functions are currently impacting the group negatively by more than 20 bps. But again, this is according plan and will gradually normalize as we move towards 20222023. Please turn to Slide 17. Room. The free cash flow was materially better than expected in the first half, sitting at DKK1.6 billion. And we have a laser focus on working capital. And many smaller factors have played out favorably for us, even though we fully acknowledge that the majority is timing, and I'll come back to that shortly. The net of CapEx and D and A in addition to leases amounted to a positive of DKK0.2 billion. Review. The general activity level is impacting both CapEx and additions to lease assets. We paid $200,000,000 of restructuring and one off costs taken into the P and L in 2020. Let's turn to slide 18 and a deep dive of working capital. Review. Diving into working capital, you can see on the left side of the slide that the free cash flow is coming from payables. It's worth highlighting that we have managed to maintain receivables unchanged following the improvements we delivered in H2 2020. Focusing on payables, DKK1.1 billion of the improvement is a result of timing of wages, holidays and other payments. Especially timing of holidays has been impacted by COVID-nineteen, and we have worked with employees on holiday schedules fitting the COVID-nineteen challenges for our customers. Of the rest, dollars 300,000,000 is a contractual prepayment from a global key account, which will have a duration of minimum 5 years, and $200,000,000 is what I consider structural improvements. So $500,000,000 of the positive working capital swing in H1 is consequently sustainable. Even though receivables are unchanged in total, we see an underlying solid development from our initiatives as both overdues and DSOs are reduced further from the level realized by the end of 2020. This is also illustrated in the chart to the right of this slide. Please turn to slide 19 for an update on our debt position and leverage. The leverage is an important component of our turnaround. The progress on the divestment program, combined with significant free cash flow, has driven net debt down 15% from DKK15.8 billion in H2 to DKK13.5 billion in H1 1 2021. The debt level is actually lower than in 2019 pre COVID-nineteen, and it's then evident that the missing piece for us to get to our leverage target below 3 times is the recovery of our profitability in line with our plans. I I have now finalized my review of the first half results and will turn to the outlook on slide 21. Review. We are confirming the outlook for 2021 on growth and operating margin and upgrading review outlook for the free cash flow. On growth, our H1 was better than expected due to high above base, but The global return to office is, on the other hand, currently progressing slower than expected. We are guiding positive growth. Review. It's a wide guidance, but with the continued delays of reopenings also here in Q3, I believe this is appropriate. On the margin, we Good progress on our underperforming countries and contracts, particularly U. K, is moving faster than planned. And the important milestone with the IT migration reaffirming the margin expectations of above 2%. Above 2% is also broad, and I have no intention in trying to narrow us into outlooks of 10 or 20 basis points during a transformational turnaround. We need to take this company back to above 4 percent run rate within the next 18 months. And this is our big picture focus, and we have taken firm steps in that direction. Above base work in H1. Please move to the next slide for comments on the free cash flow outlook. Review. For the free cash flow outlook, we are now guiding above DKK1 billion for the year. Implicitly, that means that the free cash flow will be negative in H2, driven by a reversal of up to $1,100,000,000 of the previously explained impacts. The change of free cash flow guidance from previously slightly positive to the new outlook of above $1,000,000,000 is driven by the following factors: $500,000,000 in working capital, driven by our initiatives, including the key account prepayment and other initiatives 2, lower additions to leased assets and CapEx in the first half and 3, a bit lower payout of 2020 restructuring and one off predominantly related to the exit fee for the Danish defense contract, which is confirmed to materialize in 2022. With this, I will now hand back to Jacob for some closing remarks. Review. Thank you, Casper. Overall, the first half year has been an important period for us. We've been transforming the fundamentals of ISS and keeping that focus on the long term as well as the short term. Our financial performance makes us confirm all of our turnaround targets. Review. COVID-nineteen continues to be a challenge for our business, and I want to express my sincere compliment to our frontline employees who continue to show resilience We cannot control the development of COVID-nineteen, but we can control our own internal restructuring, our operating model enhancements and the associated margin improvement plan. I'm pleased to see us delivering on these items. That being said, we're 1 1 interim. The first question is from the line of Bilal Asais from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted. Release. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. 3 for me, please. Firstly, just on commercial momentum and perhaps a bit of an update there On the pipeline as you see it, we've clearly seen notable outsourcing moves elsewhere. Tied to that, I think you still have quite notable renewals for 2022. So a bit of an update there, please. Rule. Second question, just on the phasing of margin into the second half. Just taking consensus, it assumes the second half margins of 2.9%, which is perhaps below the usual seasonality, which you flagged. But equally, you look like you're getting good momentum on the 4 hotspots as well. So perhaps you could walk us through the building blocks in the second half. Rule. And then tied to that, you've suggested good progress on the hotspots, particularly the U. K, but perhaps just a bit of update elsewhere on the rest of the portfolio, Any other negatives which we should be aware of in the second half or beyond? Thank you. Okay. Review. Thank you, Bilal. Let me open up with the commercial momentum pipeline outsourcing moves. And I think you also said renewals for 2022. I'll try to be Brief on each topic and then Kasper will speak to the other 2. There's no doubt if we look at the broader global trends that we see a positive route. Development in the pace of outsourcing on the back of this pandemic. There are many regional nuances as you all know, but overall there is an increased level of activity. You can say the drivers can be a multitude of things, but I see 2 key elements when I when we think outsourcing momentum. And that's route. And those are the two themes that occur in all conversations. And that firstly, it's the operational learnings from struggling to deal with the pandemic with an internal FM organization. And then secondly, it's a need to address corporate costs by achieving first time outsourcing benefits. And that I think that's the driver of the outsourcing increase. On the broader topic of commercial momentum, we are seeing a growing pipeline of opportunities, but again with regional differences. The reopening in some of our markets is delayed due to recent COVID developments and that will impact pipelines. But overall, it's a positive trend. If I had to single out one region, then the U. S. Is seeing a quite exciting pipeline built faster than anywhere else in the world. Route. But as you know, it takes time to build a win from early pipeline to announcement to transition and then to being fully in the numbers. There are many small and mid sized wins in first half, and it was nice to see the 2 big recent wins that we just went through with Equinor on the unnamed global industrial company, which just shows the momentum that is building. But do remember when we talk connection between reported growth and commercial momentum, larger deals won this year will only impact the growth in 2022 and onwards. Then just finally, you mentioned the renewals for 2022. It's right that there's 7% off of renewal in 2022. There's one bigger ticket. All of those processes are Up and running and they are good. We are quietly confident that we settle all of them in the right way. And there's nothing There's nothing material to report on those. They are all at a stage which we are comfortable with at this stage. Room. Kasper, do you want to take the next one? Yes, definitely. Good morning, Bilal. Yes, obviously, our margins will be higher in the second half against the first half this year. But the seasonality, we do expect that benefit to be lower in the second half this year compared to what we've seen historically. And one of the things is definitely what I mentioned in the presentation that the margin accretive above base work typically comes in the second half where this year we've seen a very high level of above base work in the first half. And the other thing which I will mention is that release. We are disrupted from COVID-nineteen in some optimization plans, which is typically and uptick in margins for countries in the second half. Then of course, we will see and that's the other building block, we will see underlying improvements release. In the second half, we absolutely expect that and especially from the 4 hotspots. So in summary, we We'll see higher margins in the second half, driven by seasonality, although that is going to be at a lower level as we have 'nineteen historically. And then we will see the underlying improvements coming through in the run rate as well. In terms of your Second question is on whether any new issues have been popping up in the first half. The short answer is no. Release. That is not the case. We have not seen any new issues in the first half. Obviously, what is absolutely key is that We are not adding any problematic contract to our portfolio. And I have to say, I'm very pleased with the progress that we've made on the commercial bid process, which is certainly helping us to achieve that, both in terms of not promising anything to customers that we cannot deliver on and to make sure that we only enter into contracts where we get an acceptable margin. And the other thing that I will I mentioned is that, of course, it is also about making sure that there's not any poisoning popping up in the system business. And I think we have a very strong oversight, and we can assess quality of earnings all the way down to business unit level, so that makes me confident. So no new issues in first half. If anything, then the performance in the first half has only given us more confidence. The next question we have is from the line of Mikael Rasmussen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted. Review. Thank you very much and well done on delivering these numbers guys. Three questions from my side. 1st, on kind of the building blocks for organic growth here into Q3, can you maybe add a Couple of comments on the exit rate out of the Q2, yes. My second question goes on the corporate costs line. Obviously, I do see that you guys are investing into the Warsaw Share Services businesses and also into the IT. Review. Just for how long should we expect this to impact these numbers? And maybe you can talk a little bit about the medium To long term share of revenues that we should be looking for in the corporate cost line. My last question goes on contracts or the or I should mostly the public tenders. I do see that the Danish Building and property agency is coming up with this 2nd wave tender here relatively soon. Can you confirm that we're looking at a DKK 300,000,000 to NOK 350,000,000 tender. And also can you share any maybe any findings on the first wave, which I know that you guys are route. Operating right now, any problems or any positive findings? And just kind of your overall feeling on bidding in public contracts given the problems that you had on the Danish defense contract? Thank you. Thank you, Mikael. And why don't I start the public tender question. And then Kasper can speak growth and costs. So on the public tender side, route. As you would appreciate, I'm not going to be talking about specific contracts and specific bidding situations. It is correct that it Because that's publicly available for information that there is a tender for the Danish Building and Property Agency. But I'm not going to be commenting Specifically on that tender and the size of it, etcetera. But it is correct that there is a tender there and it's also correct that we already operate On behalf of the Building and Property Agency, which is another portfolio than this one that is being tendered. And route. In terms of that experience, I think we're having a we have a good experience on that and a good relationship with the authorities. And you can say good and sound performance from our own perspective as well. So I think your broader the broader Underlying question, it is also around the field for bidding and public contracts. There's no doubt that I think we need to separate the Danish defense situation With broader public centers, we when we look across our global footprint, we do operate a number of public contracts. We have a number of partnerships with route. Governments and public authorities and they are the vast, vast majority of those are going very well. Danish Defence was a route. Very specific contract where a lot of things unfortunately went wrong in terms of the structure of the contract to set up the expectations route. And then also circumstances changing during the initial phase of the contract. Both parties, as you know on Danish Defense both us and the authorities decided that it didn't make sense to continue. It doesn't reflect broader On whether or not we would do public business going forward. But of course, we have learned a lot of lessons from that specific tender, which means that route. You can say the post mortem on that deal in terms of what went wrong is a very, very important route. Part of any public tender that we do going forward. But I hope you appreciate that I will not comment on the specific process beyond, of course, stating that it exists. And then Casper, do you want to do the next one? Yes, definitely. Yes. Good rule. Michael, thank you very much. So just overall, as we said in the presentation, we are in In a recovery phase from COVID-nineteen, we're discussing return to office programs with our customers as we speak. We do see release. A gradual improvement, although it has a slow recovery than what we initially expected. And the thing that we are highlighting on growth side is that we are facing a significantly tougher comparison in Q3 against Q2, actually almost 4%. So all else equal, our organic growth percentage will decrease in Q3 unless we see Significant movement in the back to office programs. Then on corporate costs, it is Developing exactly according to plan. And the plan that I'm referring to is, of course, The one that we presented in the 1 ISS strategy update mid December. So as you're quite right here saying, we're investing into the Warsaw Hub, but also centralization of key support functions. And you will release. Gradually, the benefits starting to come through. And at the end of 2023, it will be more than offset. I I do not want to guide on a percentage on corporate cost that at this point in time, we are in a transformation phase. And I will wait with that until a later stage, Michael. Thank Thank you, Casper. And just a comment on the exit rate in the Q2, please? Higher or lower than the organic growth for the full Q2. I do not want to disclose that, 1 The next question is from the line of Annalise van Neler from Morgan Stanley. Review. Hi, thank you and good morning. Three questions from me as well. So thinking about back at the end of last release. Yes. When you gave your guidance for full year 'twenty one, and I know you've talked about how the pace of reopening hasn't been quite where you thought it would be. Release. And clearly, we've had lots of large office providers in recent weeks announcing delays in the return to office. Release. But obviously, your guidance hasn't moved. How should we think about that? Is it a case that actually the return to office doesn't matter to the guidance in terms of growth and margin? Or is it that you've been able to do other things to offset that delay through the above the work. Work or anything else. I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on that. And then secondly, we've talked about it in the past, but you haven't commented room. Today on some cost inflation and wage inflation and how that's tracking, particularly in the U. S, but also now in parts of Europe. Release. Any comment on that and your ability to pass that on would be helpful. And then lastly, you've talked in the past about review. A big focus being baking more cleaning and hygiene into your contract renewals from higher disinfection services. And just in the context of your ongoing negotiations for contract renewals, I was just wondering how that's going and whether you're still seeing A good appetite for higher disinfection work baked in more permanently to those contracts. Thank you. Review. Thank you, Annalise. Let me open up. So in terms of the guidance, I guess, route. So what has changed from your is basically your question. In terms of end of last year, how can we maintain guidance despite pace of reopening being slower? I think there's a number of elements here. So if we take the margin side first, our margin recovery and restructuring sorry, the growth plan we've laid out in terms of how we see margins coming back from basically around 0 last year moving towards Above 4% as we enter 2023. That is a plan that is heavily driven by what is in our own control. So it's driven by the restructuring efforts we did in the second half last year. It's driven by our turnaround of our 4 hotspots. And it's driven by the overall efficiency agenda around 1 ISS. So we are firmly comfortable With the guidance we're giving on margin, we the first half has also shown that we are in control of our margin and we deliver according to that plan. Room. That is not impacted by whether or not the top line is 1% higher or 1% lower driven by growth. It's driven by our internal work. On the growth side, you can say we kept a relatively open guidance when we opened up the year by saying above 0. Route. Within that I guess you would appreciate that we had the flexibility around different types of scenarios. And we did it on purpose for the simple reason That we knew that there was a likelihood of continued volatility around reopenings and COVID-nineteen. We sit here today in August route. And I think we're very pleased with the fact that we kept a relatively open view on how growth could develop because there has been A number of changes in views over the last 7, 8 months. That being said, our growth is not as volatile as you would think. And I think that's also what you're seeing in the first half for the simple reason that, yes, our you can say our food business, the restaurant business, catering etcetera is not coming back when volumes are not coming back. On the other hand, it is then compensated by a strong showing from our cleaning business where It is then compensated by the especially above based work on the cleaning side. And with that from that perspective, the diversified business mix of ISS also means that we have less volatility on the top line. You also see that if you look at the absolute numbers where if you go back and look at the same quarter In 2019 pre the pandemic, we're actually only down 5%, which is I guess quite a different picture compared to many of our peers. So There is less volatility on the top line and that's driven by the fact that cleaning compensates for food and front of house. Route. On your other question on around this topic, which is around the debates we're having with clients around converting above base into portfolio business. My answer is very similar to last time around. There are good dialogue and we are seeing Above base work moving into portfolios at certain clients that are well advanced in their thinking, many clients are at a stage where They are only right now progressing their return to office agenda and will continue to have the flexibility of a broad based work room? Until their populations are fully back in the office. That means that we are having the right conversations. We have good confidence in terms of being able to retain A good amount of the above base cleaning that is happening right now on a permanent basis, but is very different from on a regional basis depending on how Fast people are returning to the office. So good confidence, the same confidence as last time. And it's also playing out on our larger clients, on our especially on our global key accounts, who are probably one step ahead of many of the local accounts in terms of their thinking of returning to the office. Kasper, do you want to talk about wage inflation? Yes, definitely. I mean, obviously, the risk of inflation in general is our Our bread and butter and what we do on an ongoing basis. And we've also done that successfully in the first half of this year. And we approach it in a proactive way. Generally, we can pass inflation on to to customers. But we do it in a proactive way where we also discuss other efficiencies with the customers. So we're not just passing on additional route to the customers. We help them to find cost savings so we can reduce our costs And they can keep the same customer, not just passing on a problem to the customer. Again, of course, we do see inflation, But it has not been a hit to us in the first half. And we believe we have a very strong mechanism in place internally to deal with that issue. Okay. Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Magnus Jensen from REB. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted. Thank you very much. Most of my questions have been answered, but I have To the Deutsche Telefom contract. First on sort of route. This IT implementation that you've done, could you maybe put a word to a couple of words to how much of a hurdle that was to you? Rule. And maybe a couple of words as well to you write in the report that there's still some work to do in terms of this system. Could you maybe also comment on that? And the second question is, you have a formal you said that that's all of your external targets to go breakeven with the Deutsche Telekom contract at the end of next year, but you've also on a couple of occasions said that you actually have a way back to breakeven already at the end of this year. And just wanted to hear where you are on that. My best guess is, of course, that it's improved since you now have implemented the IT system. And also if you can just confirm that if you can make a breakeven at the end of this year that it will give you around 30 pips on your margin? That's my question. Thank you. Okay. Why don't I start with the IT implementation and then Kasper can speak to the financials around breakeven. Room? So you're right that when we finalize the first sorry, the IT execution this summer, it does lead to Yes. A change in our run rate on Deutsche Telekom. It is one of the key drivers behind the improvement of run rate. Kasper As we spoke about an improved run rate in the second half and that is the key one of the key drivers is the IT execution being finalized according to plan. This will lead to simply lead to less cost on a monthly basis in terms of running massive integration programs. Route. As we also said, we still have a lot of work in front of us. And you asked more specifically what that type of work is. And I think that here we are in several buckets. So we will continue to develop IT on Deutsche Telekom. You do need to remember that this is a contract the size of a country. And we do a lot of IT development in the country and the route. And the same thing here on the contract. But the big work for us here is the operational work. It's bringing the efficiency of the contract to the level where we want it to be. Route? That happens in several different strands. It happens in, you say, broader scale efficiency measures like FTE reductions route. As we become more efficient and get better processes, and there are very strong plans around that. 2nd element is our close to gap exercises where we room. Have hundreds of initiatives across the board where we drive efficiency simply driven out of The operational enhancement that we are used to doing on all of our contracts as our bread and butter. And the third element is now that we have route. Our efforts around the IT development in place, we can then also work much more heavily around substituting subcontractors with self delivery, which is all three elements that will be driving better margin performance. Room. So a lot of work to be done from here, but there's no doubt that you can say the hurdle around the IT execution program rate. Being taken away reduces the risk around it. And it's really operational hard operational work which we are used to as you know on bigger contracts in terms of driving efficiency. And we have to be clear that that is work that has also been delayed due to all the IT execution work that we've been doing. So now We can really spend the resources and efforts on it. Kasper, do you want to talk about the breakeven? Definitely. But I just want to come back to what Jacob also mentioned. So the key things where the avenue really is open for acceleration on DTAC now is that, 1, we do need to see further benefits from the restructuring. Some is coming through, but there's regional additional benefits that needs to come through into the P and L. And then we have this long list of smaller items that add up to a significant amount that we're working on. And in the projections for 2022, We have targeted that we are breakeven. If we could do it faster than that, of course, we will do that. But What I'm alluding to here is we're absolutely following the plan. We are very confident with 2022, but it's not a walk in the park. And it's not that We are saying that we don't have any execution risk on DTAC. In terms of the margin effect, If we move to a breakeven level at the end of 20 '21. Magnus, I don't want to be that specific on that, so not comment on that. Okay. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raoul. Please go ahead. Review. Thank you so much. I have three questions. One follow-up on the wage inflation topic. Review. Can you just comment in terms of are you seeing some labor scarcity in your markets or particularly in U. S. In particular, Maybe some comments around that first question. Secondly, around factoring, I think you mentioned that we'll probably see higher factoring in 2021. I think it's a departure from your previous that you intend to reduce factoring. So just wanted to understand why are you seeing increased factoring in 2021? And my final question is on cleaning. Just to get a sense of numbers, cleaning is 48% of portfolio and above base work is 17. So just wanted to check, is the entire above base cleaning or is it something in the mix? Just wanted to understand basically where the above base work In terms of your size from the business segments, if you could give some more color around those segment lines that will be useful. Thank you. Review. Okay. Thank you, Raul. Let me just talk about the labor scarcity question in the U. S. And I think that's It's the right question to ask. And it's clearly something that is heavily on the agenda across the industry. I hear the same from all of our peers. There's no doubt that when we look at the U. S. Labor market, then it has tightened quite substantially. And we as we've also alluded to in previous quarters, it does require a significant effort route. In terms of ensuring that we constantly have the available labor and that we can ramp and transition contracts in the right way, You know that we are in the U. S. A growing business and are seeing, of course, a significant growth in the coming quarters as well as people return to the office and especially our large food business recovers. And at the same time, we are winning good business in the U. S. So There is a lot of recruitment going on in the U. S. And it is definitely harder than it used to be. No doubt about it. We're not at a stage where It becomes a bottleneck in terms of us delivering on the agreed transitions or delivering on the agreed contracts, but it requires a lot of effort. And route. Good thing is that the this you can say, scarce labor does lead to some inflation. Casper talked about the inflation and how we can handle that route? Quite well within the model. But it also requires that you can say we have beefed up our efforts on the people and culture arena both in terms of working with a multitude of different external partners to help us on the recruiting and also in terms of utilizing new tools. I believe I spoke last quarter around the fact that we are using AI, artificial intelligence tools in the U. S, which is helping us route. In terms of becoming sharper and more efficient in our recruiting, so there's a number of efforts that we're doing. It's also in terms of Transporting labor between labor pools where there's more availability than others. And it's around utilizing cross fertilizing our different sites. Room. So a lot of different elements are being put into play here. The additional cost of it we can price through as Kasper talked about. So it's more the question of the efforts and the resources around making sure we constantly have available labor. And on factoring, thanks for that. I'll just repeat what I've said in many calls now. I mean, we do have a strong factoring policy in place. And 2 things need to be true in order for invoices to be eligible for factoring. Payment terms need to be greater than 45 days. And then it needs to rate. Economically to factor. So the cost of factoring needs to be attractive against our corporate funding rate. In terms of refractoring at the first half, no benefits to the free cash flow is exactly sitting at the same level. I I do expect factoring to slightly increase in the second half as we have now fully transitioned a significant key account in in Americas. And these invoices are eligible for factoring. And Arul, maybe I'll just rate. The third question, as you know, currently, our Partic and above base comprises 20% of our total revenue. And if you split per service line, then cleaning is 50%. And it is fair to assume that cleaning comprises a larger part of the above base than for you in this post COVID-nineteen environment. Maybe just adding one thing. Just on factoring, I think you alluded to it being a changed guidance. Just to be very clear, that is completely unchanged guidance on factoring. Review. Understood. Okay. Thank you so much. As there are no further questions at this moment, I will hand the call back to Jacob Ove Andersson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead. Okay. Thank you very much, operator, review. And thanks for your good questions on a, as always, eventful first half here. We route. I'm looking forward to the dialogue we'll be having with many of you over the next couple of days. And as always, the IR team is ready for further conversations and dialogue.