Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the D'Ieteren Group 2024 full-year results conference call. Throughout the call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please note this call is being recorded. Today, I am pleased to present Francis Deprez, CEO, and Édouard Janssen, CFO. Gentlemen, please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the publication of our results of 2024. I suggest we just go into the key messages right away. We have three key messages for you tonight. One is that we've delivered another strong set of results in 2024, both in our adjusted profit before tax group share, where we've increased with 9.6% or even 12.7% if you take it at constant currency and excluding the additional financial charges at Belron and corporate segment that were linked to the transaction of last year. Also in the free cash flow, group share, we've increased to 22.2%, reaching a number above EUR 740 million. That's message number one. Message number two is that our guidance for 2025 is that we expect a slight increase in our adjusted profit before tax group share on a comparable financing perimeter in both years.
That is because we do expect the operational performance of most of our businesses to continue to improve throughout the year. The third message is that we have repaid or reimbursed, actually, EUR 250 million of the EUR 500 million bridge loan at the group level today, and that we will also propose a dividend to the General Assembly in the beginning of June of EUR 1.6 as a normal, ordinary dividend. These are the three key messages. To give you a little bit more flavor behind those numbers, the + 9.6% or 12.7% in PBT group share basically leads to a number of EUR 1,065 billion, so a bit more than EUR 1 billion, basically, in PBT. The free cash flow, the EUR 741, is basically driven in particular by D'Ieteren Automotive, but also by the other activities.
The operational performance has been across the board. At Belron, for instance, we continue to increase our operating margin with 70 basis points, and so we landed in our adjusted PBT group share 1.4% higher. Of course, there were some additional financial charges, as of October, not surprisingly, given the refinancing we had done. D'Ieteren Automotive saw a very nice increase in its adjusted PBT group share, + 13.4%. They reached, actually, a return on sales margin of 5.1%, a very nice percentage for them, a record number, and that despite the fact that the market of new cars in Belgium was actually decreasing with about 6%. PHE continued on its growth trajectory. Its adjusted PBT group share grew with 8.1% and is now more than EUR 165 million. It was a combination of market share gains, cost containment, etc. We'll give more details in a second.
TVH had actually the highest jump in PBT of all, + 30.5%, almost reaching now EUR 100 million. Compared to 2023, of course, we did not have the cyber attack effects anymore, but they also did good cost containment, and that in softer market environments, at TVH. We had a 206 basis points uplift in the operating margin at TVH, reaching 15.6%. Moleskine had a slightly negative adjusted PBT group share at -EUR 3 million. It has continued to be an environment of a very cautious discretionary spending environment. The whole sector suffered from that, actually, and we had a bit of negative operating leverage, therefore resulting in that negative PBT.
The gross ordinary dividend proposal of EUR 1.6 million, as already mentioned, is, of course, coming after the big transaction of last year, which was, of course, successfully completed in December, where we had done a EUR 74 million extraordinary dividend, and where also the family shareholding has been reorganized and where we now basically have long-term stability for the decades to come. Maybe last but not least, we do have continued attractive prospects for 2025. The slight increase that I mentioned here in our comparative financing perimeter, you, of course, have to take into account that we will have now full-year effects of the financial charges linked to the new financing. We anticipate it to be about EUR 140 million at the level of Belron. That's the group share part of that.
Also at the corporate, central level at the group, we expect about EUR 40 million financial charge on the loans at our level. If you take those two things into account, you will, of course, see a lower headline number for the adjusted PBT group share, but on a comparative basis, it should be slightly higher than the year before. To go a little bit into the key slides here at the group level before we delve into the detailed activities, at sales group share, the + 3.5%, which brings us above EUR 12 billion overall now, comes to the strongest part, actually, from PHE, where we did an increase of 8.1%, followed by Belron, + 6.8%, then followed by TVH, + 4.3%. Also, D'Ieteren Automotive was relatively flat at - 0.5% and a decline of 6.1%.
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Okay, thank you. Sorry for the disruption that we had on the phone line, but I was basically on page six talking about the translation of the additional sales into additional operating results, where we increased with 12%, reaching over EUR 1.3 billion. Here, the strongest grower was de facto D'Ieteren Automotive with + 21.2%, followed very closely by TVH, which grew 20.1%. We had two activities growing their respective profits with close to 10%, 10.5% with Belron and 11% at PHE. We had, as I said, a negative leverage effect, operating leverage at Moleskine, where we saw a decline of - 34% in their overall profits. The adjusted profit before tax group share that I mentioned at the very beginning of the talk, and that increased close to 10%, is now actually composed more of non-Belron profit than of Belron-related profit.
For the first time, Belron is only 49% of the EUR 1.065 billion, where we had over 50% or 51% of all the other activities. You see the different components on the right: EUR 519 million Belron, EUR 238.9 million D'Ieteren Automotive, and then PHE clearly above EUR 160 million, TVH close to EUR 100 million, EUR 46 million at the corporate level, and - 3 at Moleskine. The translation to cash flow, I'll probably hand over to Édouard, who can talk a bit more about that.
Thank you, Francis. As introduced earlier, indeed, record free cash flow group share at EUR 740.6 million, of course, particularly welcome given the leverage in place, but very solid contribution from most entities of the group, including PHE and TVH. Of course, the strong free cash flow generated by D'Ieteren Auto has to be highlighted: record of EUR 362 million, mainly due to two elements, right? First, the strong operational performance that we'll elaborate a bit further in a few minutes, and then the reduction and normalization of the working capital, the order book, and the delivery time. Finally, Belron, a very solid free cash flow group share of EUR 232 million, even after higher interest charges, in 2024.
If we look now at the debt structure and financial position per entities, well, at the end, Belron reached a senior secured net leverage ratio of 5.15x, down from the estimated 5.5x at the announcement of the transaction. With regards to Moleskine, TVH, and PHE, we have a pretty stable situation with regards to their debt. And Auto, D'Ieteren Auto, as you can see, they delivered strongly in 2024, thanks to the strong free cash flow generation. They only had a debt very close to zero at EUR 12 million. Finally, at the group level of the corporate and unallocated, we had more than EUR 100 million of cash at the end of the year, and our net debt was of EUR 652 million.
As Francis said, yes, we have repaid half of the bridge loan effective today, March 10, simply because it is three months since we did draw on the D'Ieteren Group debt on December 10, and we have used for that a cash upstream by D'Ieteren Automotive.
All right, if we go into the activities, and I'll start with Belron, and I'll go immediately to page 12, where you see a breakdown of the sales evolution. You can see on the table on the right that the 6.8% is decomposed mainly in an organic growth of 5.8%, but quite different in the three different regions. It's been basically relatively flat in North America with 0.2%, but a very nice double-digit growth in the eurozone, 15.6%, and also a very nice 9.8% growth in the rest of the world. The acquisitions contributed for 0.9%, and the forex effect was 0.1% overall. The volume growth was there, but was, of course, quite modest with 1.5%, mainly driven through the eurozone and some of the rest of the world.
We could actually capitalize on that, given that we had good capacity, and increased level of mobility in those markets. In the U.S., the volumes were affected both by the mild winter in the beginning of the year, in H1, but also by the more challenging conditions in the insurance segment. There was some claim avoidance behavior that we've seen in certain sets of customers, and so that is something that has not helped the volume effect in the United States last year. The recalibrations of ADAS continued its growth trajectory. We're now at 42.2%, so that's close to 6% higher than before. Also, Varia Added Products and Services grew nicely. The attachment rate is now close to 24% at 23.7%. The results on page 13, as you can see, the 6.8% top line became a 10.5% increase in adjusted operating result.
There were still some transformation costs.
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All right, we seem to have some phone line issues tonight, so sorry for that. I was talking about the operating results at Belron and that there are also some transformation costs that play if you go in translation to PBT. There were EUR 83.7 million transformation costs, 25.1 classified as adjusting items. The margin did increase with 70 basis points year- on- year, 77 if you take constant currency, so we're now at 21.2%, so nicely on track to our 23%. Our net finance costs, of course, have increased. The impact has been about EUR 60 million in the year 2024, due to the new debt issuance in October 2024. The PBT group share has been impacted by that, of course, as well. If we would not have had the additional financial charges, the increase would have been 7.3% year- on- year on that particular metric.
The adjusting items on page 14 at Belron, you have the usual components. The first EUR 71 million linked to the long-term incentive programs, close to EUR 34 million linked to customer contracts and amortization of those, so linked to recent acquisitions. In the other adjusting items, there were a couple of ones that I could highlight: some legal claims in the order of magnitude of close to EUR 33 million, some system integrator fees, EUR 25 million that are linked to a transformation program, and a couple of other ones that you can read in more detail on the chart. There has also been an adjusting item linked to the net financing, EUR 41.4 million that relates to the whole refinancing exercise and issuance of new debt that happened in October of last year. That is the adjusting item.
On the free cash flow and net debt for Belron, nice level of EUR 462 million, of course, lower than the year before, because we have higher cash interest, about EUR 159 million more, and now at EUR 355 million, linked to the new debt. There has been a bit of more cash outflow linked to some of the adjusting items as well, and then a bit of working capital outflow versus an inflow that we used to have in 2023. If you take those two elements together and take into account the higher EBITDA, we basically get to the EUR 462 million. CapEx was also there, about 1.7% of sales, so a good and average level, I would say. We have, of course, increased our net debt, or on EUR 9 billion more or less in total at Belron.
Despite the fact that we started at 5.5x leverage in October, we have already managed to reduce that leverage to 5.15x by the end of December. In that sense, the deleveraging that we've talked about before has kicked in already again at Belron. In terms of latest developments, the refinancing, I think, talked about sufficiently. You are aware of the new ratings that have been in place since that financing of October. It's BB- at S&P, it's Ba3 at Moody's, and BB at Fitch. Belron did actually 26 bolt-on acquisitions, relatively smaller ones, spending about EUR 93 million in total, both in Europe and in the United States.
As you also may recall, we did have at the end of October a small transaction between two minority shareholders at Belron, of about 1.4%, where the company had been valued, at least equity had been valued, at EUR 23.5 billion. The outlook for 2025, a mid-single-digit organic sales growth, thanks to, of course, continued price mix, increased ADAS calibration, modest volume growth is what we anticipate for 2025. We are very much on track with our 23% adjusted operating margin ambition for the full year 2025, linked to both top-line drivers, product programs, the transformation benefits that, of course, start kicking in more and more. The free cash flow is expected to remain at a high level at Belron. I suggest we first go to Otto, and we'll continue like this until before we start opening for questions. D'Ieteren Automotive, Édouard?
Yeah, D'Ieteren Auto, as you said, record year for D'Ieteren Auto, both in terms of margin and free cash flow generation, particularly good performance in a Belgian new car market, which has contracted by 6% or 6.4% if we take in terms of registrations, net or gross. The market share of D'Ieteren Auto has declined slightly to 24% versus 24.2% in full year 2023. That means that the total number of vehicles of 119,800 units have been delivered, a bit lower than 2023 by 4.1%. Important to flag is that the order book has now fully normalized at the end of the year to reach a level of 23,500 at the end of 2024 versus 58,000 at the end of 2023. This means that the top line has decreased by 0.5%.
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Thank you. As we were saying, top line, a slight decrease of 0.5% at D'Ieteren Automotive, primarily explained by a favorable price mix effect, and sales growth, positive and strong as well in various activities such as spare parts and accessories and after-sales, both close to 12%. Throughout the year, there has been some tight cost management at D'Ieteren Automotive, and this has led to a strong 21.2% increase in adjusted operating result to close to EUR 270 million, with, as Francis highlighted in introduction, a record adjusted operating margin of 5.1%, + 92 basis points versus last year, right? Adjusted PBT group share also improved strongly by 13%, and we have to flag a negative contribution of equity-accounted entities at EUR 17 million.
This is mainly due at VDFin Volkswagen D'Ieteren Finance of a decline in residual values and remarketing activity, particularly and mainly in BEVs, so in electric vehicles. As we have seen throughout the market for electric cars, residual values have declined, in 2024. Finally, indeed, a very strong free cash flow at D'Ieteren Auto, EUR 362 million, strong increase of 160% year- on- year, or EUR 223 million, mainly reflected by the strong operational results and significant working capital inflow. It's mainly the normalization of the order book and the delivery times, and as well, lower capital and lower CapEx. Now, if we look at the Belgian market for a second, on the next slide, 30, we can see that we had 448,000 gross registrations, a decline of 6%.
Since COVID, the high point had been 2023, and D'Ieteren Auto delivered a slight decline to 24% market share versus 24.2% a year earlier. To flag, nice gain by Škoda and Porsche, Porsche above 1% at 1.04%, which is worth flagging, right? Because definitely good margins by Porsche, both in retail and in import, and slight decline for Volkswagen, Audi, and the Cupra brand. Also to highlight for commercial vehicles, D'Ieteren Auto delivered a market share increase up to a new record of 12.6%. If we look at the mix of the fuel mix environment, we had for the first time the new energies, which represented the majority of the market, and, as well, for the first time, electric vehicles, which surpassed hybrid vehicles, in Belgium, 29% versus 24%.
Important to flag that D'Ieteren Automotive remained the market leader in the market in 2024 with 24.1% in EVs, and that if you can see that in 2023, there had been a higher share of business customers, also because we had a change in tax treatment for cars in Belgium around mid-2023, and we can see that at 62% in 2024 for business customers, we are now closer to the multi-year norm. We have talked a bit about the results, but again, we can flag 119,800 new units being delivered, a decline of 4.1%, but strong, very strong results by D'Ieteren Automotive and strong margins in this environment.
It has been, in a sense, with the reduction of the order book, it is pretty much the end of what we had called the premiumization or the positive results of the chips crisis, which had led to a positive price mix effect, as we'd said. On top of the strong performance of spare parts and accessories, at + 11.7% year- on- year to EUR 366 million, and after-sales also double-digit growth. As we had said, adjusted operating profit margin standing at a record 5.1% versus the 4.2% in 2023. Finally, with regards to VDFin, we already talked about this. In terms of free cash flow and net debt on slide 22, very strong free cash flow, as we said, mainly the result of the strong operational results, with an EBITDA increase of EUR 57 million.
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Okay, hello again, everyone, and are we live?
Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hello again, everyone. Apologies for these technical issues. We were on slide 22, free cash flow and net debt of D'Ieteren Auto. Very strong free cash flow generation at EUR 362 million compared to EUR 139 million last year, a strong increase, right, of + 160%, mainly related to the strong increase in operational results, significant working capital inflow of EUR 211 million related to the whole normalization of working capital and the retime and order book, and finally, lower CapEx as well of only EUR 12 million. That has led to a significantly lower debt, which has decreased from EUR 250 million at the end of 2023 to only EUR 12 million at the end of 2024, related to this very strong free cash flow generation by D'Ieteren Auto.
In terms of latest development and outlook for 2025, we said indeed that the order book stood at 23,500 vehicles at the end of 2024. The company bought the Porsche Center Eastlanders as well throughout the year, cross the new dealer management system has been implemented, and finally, D'Ieteren Automotive obtained the EcoBalise gold medal as a reflection of their good efforts in the sustainability field. Finally, in terms of outlook, we expect the Belgian markets to be between 420,000 and 450,000 new registrations versus gross registrations of 448,000 in 2024. Indeed, after a new record year in full year 2024 and a normalized order backlog, sales should be impacted by the market evolution and this mixed normalization we talked about at the end of the premiumization. Hence, we expect a decline by low to mid single digit year-on-year.
This, of course, is very much related to the, to the Belgian market size we talked about a second ago. Finally, adjusted operating result margin is expected to return to at least 4%, still above historical trends, but driven by this expected decline in sales and mixed normalization.
Thank you, Édouard. We'll move to PHE. The highlights of 2024 at PHE were a good solid growth of 8.1%. 5.2% was organic, and the rest was basically 2.9% coming from acquisitions. I'm on page 26, immediately giving you a bit of flavor of the sales and the results. In the sales, France still represents 64% of sales, and international about 36% of sales. International actually grew a little bit faster than the French activities. The adjusted operating profit margin is now 9.3%, and that's given profitability improvements both in France and international.
There's also been some good cost containment, although there were still some cost items that had inflationary pressure, particularly around building rental costs and personnel costs. There were some adjusting items at PHE, EUR 57.5 million, mainly linked to PPA, adaptations linked to acquisitions, and some cash-settled share-based payment expenses as well. The overall contribution to the adjusted PBT group share is above EUR 165 million now, which is a 20.3% increase from the year before, and is by now about 15% of our overall KPI. The free cash flow and the net debt at PHE on page 27, the free cash flow was about EUR 85 million. There was some non-recourse factoring reserve drawdown happening, which had an impact of EUR 71 million, and then we had the strong operational results.
There were also some acquisitions, of course, more than the year before, at PHE, EUR 96 million, partially linked to direct stakes in Spain, Belgium, and France, but also linked to some of the put liabilities that existed between the different activities. We had some higher cashed interest charges as well at PHE. CapEx was about 1.9% of sales. The net debt declined to EUR 77 million, thanks to the good cash flow generation. It is important to note that when we talk about net debt at the level of, in our definition, it does not include some of the put options that may exist, either at the subsidiary level or at the minority investor level at PHE.
The latest development of PHE, we did do at the beginning of the year last year a refinancing, with a EUR 960 million in a term loan B with a seven-year maturity. It was then repriced in November. We had then received new ratings from Moody's and S&P. We're at B1, stable outlook, and B B- , a stable outlook. We have, of course, also continued our acquisition strategy this year. We have actually recently announced that we're in exclusive negotiations with an Irish operator, Top Part, that then hopefully soon will be able to contribute to PHE as well. Our outlook for 2025 is a mid-single digit organic sales growth and a stable operating result margin, to be expected. That is PHE, basically. Very good.
If we move to TVH, definitely we had a rebound following the cyber attack in 2023 at TVH in an environment of cost containment in the company, but in the context of relatively softer end markets. We always talk about a mixed picture, right, across markets and regions, with definitely some softness across these different markets for TVH in 2024. This allowed to have sales growth in slide 31 of 4.3% year-on-year, out of which 3.4% organic, largely driven by the recovery from the cyber attack, 1.1% due to M&A, mainly Sincanlı in Turkey. As a reminder, Sincanlı was an agri spare parts distributor, both local and international. Based in Turkey, with a good hub of Turkish manufacturers. Finally, - 0.3% due to negative currency translation effects.
The adjusted operating result has increased by slightly more than 20% to EUR 262 million, representing a margin of 15.6%. This is an uplift of 206 basis points, mainly driven by this revenue growth, strict cost containment, and an amount of EUR 6.6 million of cyber-related insurance income in 2024. To be highlighted, the transformation program continues and has led to operating costs of EUR 32.1 million, out of which around EUR 9 million in adjusting items. Various adjusting items as well at the operating profit level for an amount of EUR 105 million, mainly, the PPA, mainly related to PPA and provisions for LTIP programs. Finally, adjusted profit before tax group share amounted to EUR 97.6 million, + 30% year-on-year, partially supported by lower interest charges, largely FX-related.
If we look at the free cash flow and the net debt of TVH, we had a stable and free cash flow year-on-year of EUR 84 million. Of course, thanks to the strong adjusted EBITDA growth of close to 20%, but a good control of CapEx slightly below 5% and a negative delta of working capital year-on-year and a bit more acquisitions than in 2023, as we said, around Sincanlı in Turkey. This led us to a net debt of slightly above EUR 770 million, but with a net leverage of only 2.5x , which went down from 3.1x at the end of 2023. TVH has distributed a EUR 73 million dividend in 2024, aligned with its dividend policy.
In terms of latest developments and full year 2025 outlook, after six years, by solid work by Marco Sterling, the current CFO, we have a new CFO coming in with 30 years of international experience to lead TVH to the next levels. Also to flag Innovatis, the digital transformation program continues to make progress among other things with operational solutions expected early 2025 in North America and continued improvements around various e-commerce platforms, which are important for the customers. Finally, on top of the Sincanlı acquisition, TVH also did two smaller deals, one in the U.S. and one in Colombia, which is, of course, important for the global global footprint.
Thanks to all of that, the outlook for 2025 is an organic top line, which is expected to grow by mid single digit %, reflecting market share gains, but in a still soft market environment, among other things, in the United States. We expect a slightly declining adjusted operating result margin for two main reasons: dilutive sales mix, higher growth expected in construction than in MPA, and, of course, an absence of that cyber-related insurance income, which we received in 2024. Finally, free cash flow generation expected stable compared to 2024. We come to Moleskine, where the sales declined with 6.1% in 2024, mainly organic. We did, however, because the whole sector suffered overall, we were able to reinforce and grow our market position in the core papers product at the wholesale customers, and at our direct channels.
We saw a year of cautious discretionary spending around the globe. The category did see a decline. There has been a negative operating leverage, so our operating result did decline with 34.2%. However, and that's particularly the strength of the Moleskine economic model, the cash conversion, even in some situations, remains very good. We are at 81%. They were able to also pay the interest on the shareholder loan we have with them of EUR 18.8 million in total. The net debt ended at the level of EUR 266.5 million, in particular. There were also some financing costs of EUR 18.1 million. The PBT group share landed at -EUR 3 million. On page 37, the free cash flow, I talked about the EUR 18.8 million interest payment and the cash conversion of 81%.
You can see the details of where the net debt landed, in more detail, in the table. The latest development is, of course, we have a new CEO since the 1st of January at Moleskine. Daniela Riccardi retired after five years at the company. Christophe Archaimbault, who was the Chief Commercial Officer, has taken on the role of CEO now. Second, we have continued to pursue a cautious store footprint increase, where we have relatively small stores, actually, that we're adding surgically to our footprint. We've added six of those in 2024, and we'll continue to look at key cities around the world where that could make sense. We've also continued to develop the product lineup. We had a very successful Van Gogh edition that has actually received an international award, and there's a couple of other very nice limited editions that Moleskine was able to develop.
Our outlook for 2025 is a mid-single digit sales increase, and an adjusted operating result margin that should increase above 100 basis points versus 2024. With that, we have the corporate and allocated, and the wrap-up, I would say, for questions. Absolutely, yeah. I think the corporate and allocated is pretty self-explanatory. Exactly. We are not too much to say in the questions. Let's just open it up to questions. I think that will be the best thing, as we have already spent about 40 minutes in this call. Any questions?
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Your first question comes from the line of David Vagman with ING. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello, David Vagman. From ING. Can you hear me well?
Yes, we can.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. Just the first question to clarify the guidance. You are saying that the guidance is at comparable financing perimeter in both years and is expected to slightly increase. Just to be sure I understand correctly, then the comparison base then is EUR 1.9 billion. That is the right way to understand the comparable financing perimeter. And then we need to adjust for the financial charge at Belron and the holding level. So the 140 and the EUR 40 million.
I am happy to take that one, David.
Indeed, to clarify, in 2024, our PBT group share at December 2024 FX, so foreign exchange, and excluding the -EUR 24.8 million net impact from the additional financing, both at Belron and at corporate, is at EUR 1.1 billion. That is expected to grow slightly. You then have to take the full effect in 2025 of the additional financial charges, which is EUR 140 million at Belron, our share, right, at the Belron group share, and EUR 40 million at the corporate level for our side of the debt. That is what we mean by slightly increasing, on a comparable perimeter. Okay?
Okay.
We do not need to, let's say, adjust for the charge you add at Belron level and make a complex calculation on the EUR 60 million you had already in 2024.
Group shares at 30 and then something else. No, it's really the one EUR 1.1 billion, as you said, for FX at the end of the year. Indeed, how do we get to the EUR 1.1 billion? It is by taking care of the EUR 24.8 million, right, both at Belron and at corporate, like you said.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then, another question on Belron. You said you want track to reach the 23%. And so we have been picking the path and I'm still today. The objective in 2022 was at least 23%. Here, in recent press release, you've been saying 23% and not at least. In the past, you've also been saying you were comfortably on track. Can you just give us a bit more color about the 23%? Actually, it's a big step up.
I'm not downplaying the achievement, for sure. That's my first question to clarify. On the, let's say, the building blocks of this 23%. You go from 21%, I think a little bit more than 21% at the end of 2024 for the full year, sorry, 2024. So 21% debit margin. You go to 23%, or you've been thinking and modeling 2025 in terms of margin, etc. Thank you.
Yeah. The guidance is exactly the same as we've been seeing in the last three years. It doesn't change at all. We are on track to reach what we said we were going to reach. The 21.2% from which we now start, because that's the number that we landed in 2024, we see, of course, different contributions.
Part will come from the translation of the top line development into bottom line. Part will come from the continued benefits from the transformation program, which progresses nicely. Part of it will come from the fact that there is, of course, recalibration and VATs and so on that will continue to develop. Some overall, let's say, good cost containment that continues improvement overall, I would say, that happens across the company. It is all of these elements. There will be some volume, as I said, some volume effect in there, more a modest volume increase, and the normal pricing effects that you can anticipate in the normal environment that we have.
It is the combination of all the typical levers that we've seen at Belron, but added by some of the facts that, well, the transformation program is getting in fuller steam. And we have, let's say, the way the budget has been made, and that makes us comfortably on track to reach the targets that we set before.
Okay. Thanks. Very clear. And last question, and then I give back, let's say, the mic. On TVH, you are saying you expect to grow by mid single digit percentage, in a still soft environment and reflecting market share gain. Can you also give us more color on that? Do you expect the market to be down and to grow, the market to slightly recover?
What is basically behind the guidance for the top line?
Yeah, the guidance actually assumes that there will be a continued mix of markets where we're not fully in full swing in the market environment, and so that we can actually develop our market position as we normally do, but in still a mixed market environment. That's why we have a mid single digit, top line group. Indeed, very much across geographies and markets, right, like Francis just said.
Okay. The mixed means some are positive, some are negative. Can you?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, given the market position that we have. Some have stronger growth, some have lower growth, indeed, etc., leading to a mid single digit, top line overall.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Michiel Declercq with KBC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Francis. Hi as well. Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions on Belron, if I may. Just referring a bit to the top line output, so mid single digit organic sales growth. I have the feeling that this is a bit softer than what you had in the previous years, the mid to high single digits. I would suggest, I know that 2024 was a bit of a difficult year in terms of demand and the insurance premiums. Based on your outlook, I would assume that also 2025 might be a bit more difficult, or at least it shows that maybe the impact of the increased insurance premiums and the claims avoidance continues.
Can you maybe, yeah, give a bit of color there on that mid single digit organic outlook, how we should see that between the U.S. and the EU? Maybe also I was assuming that there were some price negotiations ongoing as well, so I would have expected some positive tailwinds from that also. The second question on Belron is on the strategy here between the insurance and the cash market. Last year, or starting at the end of 2023, you focused more on the, yeah, technician retention. What is the strategy here now?
I assume that, yeah, maybe this could be a bit of a tailwind if you decide to change the strategy here from a margin front, given that that was a bit of a drag in the first half of 2024 and the end of 2023. If you could maybe comment on that as well.
Okay. The top line, yeah, we anticipate the normal developments at Belron. We do not have, of course, a very long visibility looking forward and how things may change, but you still have some of the same effects of last year continuing this year. Most likely, that's at least the way we've made the budget, I would say. We will see what that will translate to in the different regions of the world.
As you know, one is typically also impacted by a couple of other things as well. There, things are maybe a bit different from last year. In terms of the insurance dynamics, the budget has been made in a kind of a, well, this is slowly going to start to normalize again, but it may still take, and we do not have that much visibility how long that will last. That immediately links to your second question. We, of course, are looking at all the segments in the market, but our position is the biggest in the insurance market. Even if we do good efforts in developing some other parts of the market, like the cash market, that does not play in each of the states necessarily. It does not necessarily play at the same size either.
We, of course, are pursuing these things. All of these things together lead us to this mid single digit top line evolution of Belron in the way we've made the budget.
Okay, that's clear. Is there maybe, as a quick follow-up, we have seen quite some storms in the U.S. and on the East Coast in the first half, or some difficult or cold weather conditions. Shouldn't that be also a tailwind for this year?
Maybe we'll see. It's a bit early days. As usual, we'll have a better view on that once we're in the month of May, and we have a good view on the Q1 top line. I think that will have a better visibility on that.
It's true that there has been some decent, winter vortex elements in some of the weeks in the U.S. in some parts of the U.S.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Craeymeersch with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hi, Alexander from Kepler Cheuvreux here. Two questions from my side. One, I'll probably pick in on David a bit here. For the 2025 outlook, I'm trying to figure out the implied profit before tax group share here. You mentioned a mid single digit growth and a rather large margin increase in most segments, except for the auto.
Starting from that EUR 1.1 billion in profit before tax in 2024, and then assuming the EUR 180 million that we need to deduct, would you allow me to pinpoint that your implied profit before tax group share is between EUR 960 million and EUR 980 million? I'll immediately go to the second question. On TVH, the sales post the cyber attack in TVH still hasn't really fully recovered. Is there still an impact of that cyber attack? How do you plan to get TVH fully back on track with its growth ambitions? Thank you.
Maybe start with the second one first. The effects of the cyber attack are really behind us, and it's really been more the softness of the markets that has actually led to less growth on the top line of TVH in 2024.
With the percentage of growth that we've had at TVH, we have, quote unquote, a note, the cyber effect of 2023, but we have not had additional growth beyond that very much in 2024. When we're now in 2025, say that we want to do a mid single digit growth, that means, of course, we will continue to grow our market shares and our positions in the markets, in an environment where some of the markets will have some growth and some of the markets will have less growth. That's more behind it. What we are continuing to do is a very surgical fine-tuning, looking at the share of wallet of all of our different customers and making sure that we continue to have a good representation, a good share of wallet in each of them.
Not all of the customers have the same utilization rate. Not all of them have the same growth rates in their equipment, and therefore the demand for spare parts, etc. That is actually behind the somewhat softer top line that we have seen and that we have used to come up with our mid single digit top line growth for TVH. On the first question of the guidance, absolutely. We are not providing a range, but I can repeat what you have said, right? We did provide the figures. What we expect is a slight increase from the level of EUR 1.1 billion and the EUR 140 billion+EUR 40 billion, which is EUR 180 million of full year financial charges, both at the Belron level group share and at the corporate level in 2025, right?
Normally that should make it pretty straightforward.
Okay. Yeah, that's very straightforward. That's why I dared to put out those numbers. Just maybe I'm going to ask it in this way. EUR 980 million, do you feel comfortable with that number?
We're not going to guide on a specific number, so I guide on the fight. From the comparative base that we just mentioned.
Sorry for that. Thank you, Francis. Thank you, Édouard, and have a lovely evening. Bye.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Kris Kippers with Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Okay. Perfect. Just one question still on Belron.
Looking at the winter effects, could you share with us a bit more detail on indeed keeping those blue colors on the P&L, what that altered in this winter? A second question, just, yeah, financial detail perhaps, but looking at dividends, the EUR 1.6, how should we look at this going forward? Will this be, should we be using a payout or just something that goes roughly up with PBT or something like that? Thank you.
On the blue colors, last November, December, we reverted a bit back to our former approach, I would say, from a couple of years ago where we said, we are not going to keep everybody just hoping that we will meet them.
We just basically live through this, the low season with a lower level of capacity, but have differentiated between the level of expertise and the level of experience of our technicians to then, of course, mainly hold on to the ones with most of the experience to, as the volumes then come up, as the winter now unfolds, to not have to recruit too many people. We have kind of reverted back to our older approach rather than the one that we had done between end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. On the dividend policy, Édouard, do you want to say something?
Sure. Yeah. The dividend policy of EUR 1.60 per share. It is a decision of our board of directors, but indeed our policy stays the same to have a stable or increasing dividend going forward, when business allows.
Given the large dividends, of course, we have paid last year, and given that we start 2025 with some leverage, also at the different group level, which we have already lowered, right, by EUR 250 million today. For all these reasons, that's why what will be proposed to the shareholder meeting is this dividend of EUR 1.60 per share, also to be a bit cautious on the cash side and at the group level. Yeah. I think it's too early to speculate on what KPI would we use if we were to think of increasing, will we increase following a ratio or this or that? We'll take that next year when there is a decision to be on dividends in February or March of 2026.
Yeah. Absolutely.
The whole idea of the rebasing definitely is to start from there, right, stable or increasing going forward. A bit as we had done in the past as well, right? If you look at the we had a nice CAGR in the last five to seven years, and we are not committing to anything, but we rebase at that level. Okay. Just a small follow-up. Just looking at the cash upstreaming you already did from Auto in start of 2025, so already a quarter actually of the EUR 1 billion you raised at group level is already repaid. What is the leverage we should look at going forward, at Auto? Where are you comfortable with going forward?
Yeah, it's half of the bridge, right? So it's EUR 250 million, right, which has been repaid.
We are not stating anything particular at this stage. It's just strong cash generation in 2024 at Auto, as we said, right, more than EUR 360 million. Following this, it was very simple to upstream some of that cash early 2025 to reduce by EUR 250 million. We will provide more information on all of this at the investor day in May.
Okay. Looking forward to that then. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen . Good evening.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Kincaid with Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. I've got two questions on PHE and then two questions on Belron.
Starting with PHE, if I look at the organic growth rate in the second half, I get to a number around 6.2%, which looks very strong compared to the previous half and also compared to peers in the market. I was just hoping if you could talk to some of the dynamics there as to why that number is so strong. Maybe if you could break out the price and the volume components of that, that would be very helpful. The second question on PHE, you've obviously expanded into Ireland now, which is a new strategic step for that business. I was just wondering if you could talk to whether or not there would be changes to the CapEx envelope that would be required to grow that business. Thanks.
Okay.
On PHE, H2 was in that sense a bit similar to H1. We had very limited price and pricing effects overall. That means that the majority really came from volume effects, also in H2. That is both a continued growth in the market and a continued growth in the market share. That has been both the case in France and in the international environment. In that sense, it has been relatively across the board, but mainly volume-driven elements at PHE and a lot less on the price effect, because that has really kind of petered out. The umbrella under which we operate did not allow for many price increases. On Ireland, yes, of course, we want to close that deal in the coming time.
Once it's there, it's not going to change or have a big impact on the CapEx profile of PHE. There's not anything we need to particularly invest in that activity that would change the CapEx profile of the company, as we usually do. The first synergies that will be looked after will be, of course, procurement synergies, and we'll work from there. The other things will follow more the development of that Irish operation. They are not covering the entire country at this stage. At some point in time, it may be useful to look at whether they would want to keep playing exactly the same role as they do today or whether they would have a broader role. That's really something to be decided at a later point in time.
Just to reinforce that point, it's very much continuation of the ink spot strategy at PHE. And they can easily ship from France, from close to Logisteo to Ireland. So it's good as well, like Francis said, on their purchasing synergies.
Sure. And then just two questions on Belron. Organic growth in North America has been flat for three halves now. And implicitly, you're guiding on to more flat halves, largely due to this claim avoidance trend, which we're seeing. I still personally struggle to understand the claims avoidance issue. So I was just wondering if you could provide some context as to how long you think this behavior might last and whether or not there's any catalysts that could see claims avoidance behavior abate.
And then the second question for Belron is, you talked to some legal claims that came through in the one-offs. I was just wondering what those were.
Okay. On the organic growth claims avoidance in the U.S., it is of course triggered by the relatively drastic insurance premiums increases that several insurers had done. When consumers decide when they have a crack in the window to not use the insurance and just repair it via cash involvement, then our position in cash has, of course, been a bit more opportunistic and less developed than in insurance. That means even if the volume was in the market, it may not necessarily have come to us because we were stronger in the insurance market than in the cash market.
What may change that or could be a catalyst to start thinking, well, what's the behavior of the insurance players that we're going to see? I think you have some insurance players who still talk about a little bit of premium increases here and there. You have other insurers who start saying, well, I want to increase my footprint, to go on my market share, and these are in that state and who are talking about potentially decreasing their insurance premiums or not. If that happens, then there's less reason for people not to use the insurance anymore. That claim avoidance would start reducing like we've seen that in the past.
It's basically what we're monitoring is the competitive behavior of the insurance players in the different states in the United States because that will ultimately trigger to what, when it gives people a good reason to continue to practice claims avoidance or not. That will trigger that.
Mm-hmm.
On the legal claims?
Yeah. On the legal claims, what we are talking about is what has been called the Qui Tam case. It dates back a few years back during the COVID-19 pandemic. Safelite has reached a final agreement to resolve this litigation, which was relating to insurance billing of aftermarket windshield molding and the care and cleaning program. To be clear, Safelite has denied all allegations made in this case.
After careful consideration, the decision was taken to settle, because this seemed like the best solution for all stakeholders, and to allow Safelite to continue going forward. There have also been a couple of other, let's say, legal claims that you typically have every year that may be linked to an accident that happened or things like that. From time to time, you have these type of things.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, simply press star one to register for a question. Your next question comes from the line of Victoria Adesina with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one on tariffs. Obviously, very popular topic at the minute. How should we be thinking about how the tariff situation affects D'Ieteren?
Sorry. The tariff situation? You have a couple of our activities that are not affected, I would say, especially if I'm talking tariff rates U.S., so PHE also and will be not affected at all. In Moleskine, we ship the notebooks around the world, but we have anticipated because we listed that a couple of years ago, how to do that. We do not anticipate a bit of an effect either. TVH and Belron, which are the activities that have big U.S. activities, sourcing for TVH happens around the world from all kinds of regions. They have looked to that five, six years ago as well. Of course, what you're trying to do is to make sure you have as much flexibility as possible to source your different spare parts around the world.
Then you want to get them into the U.S. if that would be the issue where you would want to sell them from, and then try and deal with any tariff impacts you may have at that level. At the level of Belron, we know that in the U.S., we are already reliant for a large degree on domestic glass production. We are importing a little bit, but not that much. Also, that is something that we have dealt with in the past. Again, if, of course, tariffs would start to lead to a real inflationary environment again, we are going to, of course, have to apply what we applied to the previous inflation wave, which is to try and price it through. That is ultimately what we will be doing then.
Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Francis Deprez for closing remarks.
All right. Thank you very much all for joining in the call. Apologies again for the technical issues we had, but I'm sure we'll be able to talk to several of you in the coming days and weeks, more about these results or any other issues. Thank you very much and have a great evening.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you, presenters. This now concludes our presentation. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.