Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Abderrahmane Ayadi, and I am the Deputy CEO of the Derichebourg Group. I want to thank you for taking the time to attend this video conference about the first half year and numbers of the Derichebourg Group. We'll be happy to answer your questions after the presentations or after the presentation. Now, I will leave the floor to Pierre Candelier, the Group CFO, for the presentation.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for attending. We have disclosed our press release 15 minutes ago. The slideshow that we will go through is also available on our website. The half-year report will be available later in the evening. We will go through the slides. After that, you can answer questions through the chat, which you can see with a question mark at the upper part of your screen. I and we will take the questions in two parts. First, the questions about our half-year results, and if there are some questions about the earlier investment, because I know that some of you are very interested in that, we will answer to them in a second part.
The key consideration and the key takeaway message for the half year results is that the group delivered an outstanding performance. This is indeed the best results in the six-month period for the group. We have delivered EUR 2.5 billion revenue, EUR 250 million EBITDA, and EUR 118 million net income over the six-month period. For those who know us for a while, often for full year results, we didn't have such numbers. Because we started consolidating Ecore on seventeenth of December. If we had consolidated Ecore on a twelve-month basis, the EBITDA of the group would have been EUR 559 million.
If we go, a little more in the detail, the revenue is EUR 2.5 billion, which is an increase by 54%, compared to prior year. The EBITDA is EUR 200 million, an improvement by 45%. Current EBIT is EUR 175 million, an improvement by 55%. Net income attributable to shareholders is EUR 118 million, which is an increase by 60%. The Ecore acquisition took place on December seventeenth. We are working on the implementation of the remedies asked by the European Commission. You will see that, we have an increase in revenue in both divisions.
70% in the environmental services in the context of this scope effect and also higher prices compared to prior year in the recycling division. There are also lower underlying volumes for ferrous scrap on the same scope basis by roughly 10%, which was already the case when we disclosed the press release after our general meeting of shareholder. You will see that our unit margin were satisfactory, that Ecore brought EUR 44.8 million EBITDA over 3.5 months, testifying once again the group capacity or ability to integrate targets. You will see also that we have some increase in energy and staff cost.
In the multi-service, there is also a positive trend in revenue by 9%, an increase by 9%, with a good recovery in aeronautics, cleaning in Spain and Portugal, that the EBITDA is stable in that division. We have a little less EBITDA in the cleaning. Last year, we had some, I would say, additional services in the cleaning due to COVID context, which, I would say luckily, we did not have to the same extent this year. These services were profitable. This is partly offset by a good recovery in aeronautics. In the environmental service, we had some good margins and promising first months of Ecore integration. The revenue increased by 70% and the EBITDA by 51%.
The EBITDA stands at EUR 232 million. The current EBIT is EUR 170 million, which is 58% better than last year. We have hardly any non-recurring item which translates into an EBIT by EUR 171.4 million, which is 78.7% better than last year. The ferrous scrap volume have increased by 20% compared to last year, but most of this increase is a scope effect, and it is due to the Ecore acquisition. As I told before, without this acquisition, the volumes would have been down by 10% on the same scope basis. Indeed, the manufacturing issues in the automotive industry led to a decrease in scrap purchases on two parts of our entries.
The end-of-life vehicles, of course, if less vehicles are manufactured, the customers have to keep for a longer time their old vehicle. Automotive industry is also a big producer of steel waste. If you manufacture less auto vehicles, you have less waste. This results in a shortage of ferrous scrap for our customers and translates into higher prices. For non-ferrous metal volumes, the increase is by either 23%. Once again, it is mainly a scope effect due to Ecore acquisition, as volumes were stable on a same scope basis. Our unit margins have improved both for ferrous and non-ferrous metal. I would say that at the end of March, for the month of March, we tapped some historically high prices.
We will speak about that in the perspective of the context of what's going on in our industry. On that slide, you see the change in commodity prices. You see that during the semester of the six-month period, we have had some increases for ferrous scrap prices, but also for non-ferrous metals. That from April or May on, the trend is a bit reversing. We have already spoken about these numbers. 20% volume increase in ferrous scrap, but decrease by 10% of underlying volumes, and increased by 23% for the 3.5 months for non-ferrous metal, but flat underlying volumes.
I would just speak about the price effect, because you will see that for the ferrous scrap, the revenue increased by 73%, pure 73% with a 20% volume effect. For the non-ferrous metals, the revenue increased by 81% with a 23% volume effect. A bridge about the EBITDA in the environmental service division. Last year, we had for the six-month period an EBITDA of EUR 153.3 million. We have an improvement in the commercial margin for the same scope business. It does not include the Ecore contribution of EUR 52.4 million, which is partly a negative volume effect on ferrous scrap, stable volume effect on non-ferrous metals, and positive improvement in margins for both segments.
This is partly offset by a decrease in service income, increase in employee cost and increase in energy cost. Over the years, this energy cost will be higher because most of this energy cost, or at least for electricity, started in January. In green, you see the contribution Ecore brought as EBITDA since December, which is 44.8 million EUR. You see that the first months are very good. The EBITDA for the 6 months for the recycling and the environmental service division is 232 million EUR. A few words about the household waste collection. We have a slight improvement in services and a roughly slight also EBITDA at 12 million EUR.
A few words about the rationale of the Ecore acquisition. The rationale is that we want to increase our footprint on the metallic scrap market, both ferrous and non-ferrous, at a time when the group expects that the demand will accelerate in the coming year due to the fight against global warming. We will go into more details about that in the perspective and forecast section. We can expect additional volumes for our niche markets and the volume that Ecore collects. You see on the lower parts of the slides a few metrics from Ecore. We concluded the acquisition on December 17, after receiving the authorization to proceed by the European Commission on December 16.
We have taken some commitments towards the European Commission in order to be authorized to proceed to the acquisition. We have tried on a single slide to summarize months of discussions with them. You see the different steps of the value chain in columns, collection, valorization, and trade. In the few lines, the several specific products that they have identified, ferrous metallic waste, non-ferrous metallic waste, and they have also identified specific markets, end-of-life vehicles, WEEE, and batteries. You see for each line and column, in green, there was hardly any overlap and few competition issues. In yellow, there was a few competition issues, and in red, there were more competition issues.
Which results in the remedies which we proposed to the European Commission in order they give their authorization. We have to dispose of four valorization sites equipped with a shredder in France, and four collecting sites. We have also taken specific commitments in order to ensure the viability of the site, sites once they are sold. Where is the process as of now? We have selected one bidder for the takeover of all the remedy scope. We are discussing the legal documentation, and the signing is expected by mid-June. After that, the purchaser has to be accepted by the European Commission, but they are aware of the discussion that we have currently. The bidder must also file its antitrust returns. We expect a closing by autumn 2022. Multi-service.
You know that we have also the multi-service division, which was acquired in the mid-twenties through the purchase of the Penauille Polyservices service, which is a business which has a different economic cycle, which is contract business, and which is more, I would say, predictable, as there are some contracts. Most of it is tertiary, cleaning, service to energy. We have also industry services, which are outsourcing of services for the automotive industry. HR in interim, where we provide temporary staff, and one specific division where we provide urban spaces services. The revenue increases by 8.9%. The EBITDA is stable, nearly stable, and as well for the EBIT.
You have a more detailed flavor of the services and of the change of each division on that slide. The tertiary solution increased by 4.3%. Cleaning France is stable, which is already good because last year we had additional service, which we had to a lesser extent this year. Cleaning for Spain and Portugal increases by 8%, but energy increased by 4%. Industry solution, it's in aeronautics services, it increased by 42%, which is very good. The division recovers well after two difficult years in the COVID context. The momentum is very good. Not yet back to pre-COVID levels, but recovering. Sourcing HR increased by 7%.
It's a mix of organic growth and also recovery in temporary staff services to the aeronautics, which recovers later than outsourcing services. It is very understandable. All the companies which are in the business, they first find businesses for their own employees, and then they add on top of that temporary staff when their own employees are fully employed. That's the reason why this division is a little back in the growth, but it should increase over the second half. Urban maintenance increased by 16.7%. There are three or four subsidiaries in that division, and they all increase their revenue nearly to the same extent. If we look at the EBITDA, we have a decrease by EUR 2.8 million in the tertiary division.
EUR 1 million is explained by a non-recurring cost on the contract. Indeed, a contract that did not start. The unreliable customers that we had committed to some costs, and we are trying to recover them from him. But it's not certain as of now. The other EUR 1.8 million is the impact of the lesser COVID services. In the industry, the EBITDA improved by EUR 1.77 million as a result of the revenue increase. Recruiting is becoming the new difficulty, which is indeed good news. Sourcing HR, the EBITDA increased by EUR 1.7 million due to overhead savings in the context of the merger of the three subsidiaries which were active previously in that division, and also improvement in revenue.
Urban maintenance, EBITDA decreased by EUR 0.7. Indeed, most of the decrease comes from one subsidiary where we have a number of difficulties. We are negotiating the disposal of that subsidiary for the time being. On the holding parts, not much to say. Nothing significant. You can read everything on the side. On the balance sheet side, you see that most lines of the balance sheet change significantly, which is due to the Ecore acquisition. What I want to say for that page is that we have a preliminary goodwill for the Ecore acquisition, which is EUR 231 million. We will finalize this goodwill for the September accounts. Equity, this is the highest equity which we've ever recorded in the group.
Debt, of course there is an increase in the debt, which is due to the Ecore acquisition. You will see with more detail on the next page. We had, in September, a debt of EUR 195.7 million. You see the big brick, which is the Ecore acquisition, EUR 423 million, which is roughly the enterprise value of Ecore which we have acquired. Our EBITDA, which is in green, you see that a significant part of this EBITDA is offset by an additional working capital requirement. A few words on that. The EUR 97.7 million, this is the increase in working capital requirement for the historical Derichebourg business and also the increase at Ecore, but only since December seventeenth. Why this increase in working capital?
You will see when we have our annual report, that our inventories have increased very much, because it's not the quantities. Quantities they have a little increase, but it's mainly the unit prices. As we have historic prices, historic high prices, and that we have some inventory, the value has increased significantly. We expect that it will to most of the extent reverse over the second half of the year, because the prices may be a little lower. Also we have some, I would say also synergies with the Ecore acquisition at the level of inventory, which we have not incurred yet. CapEx is EUR 78 million, which is, I would say lower than we expect compared to our EBITDA. Indeed, we have committed to a higher commitments CapEx than that.
Our suppliers, they have problems to deliver us semiconductors, logistic disruption. I would say the CapEx will come over H2 and also next year. I recall our guidance to be roughly below 50% on a multi-year basis compared to our EBITDA. The other big, income tax, EUR 35 million, which will increase significantly over H2. The dividends, there will be no other dividends over the second part of the year. I recall the dividend policy of the group, which is to pay a maximum 30% dividend compared to prior year net income.
We have reclassified some assets according to IFRS 5 to be disposed in the context of the remedies that we have to sell into the EU because of the commitments that we have taken with the European Commission, and also due to the subsidiary which is under disposal. This results into a reclassification of debt of EUR 14 million. The last 12 months pro forma EBITDA is, as I said before, EUR 559 million. This does not take into account the effect of remedies which will have to come. This will be roughly, I would say 4% of the EBITDA. The pro forma leverage ratio is currently 1.12.
We will go very rapidly into those pages just to say that at the end of March we have a very good headroom on our liquidity, nearly EUR 600 million. We have also very good visibility on our credit lines. The first significant credit line to mature is our factoring facility, which matures on December 2023. Every year it's rolling on a yearly basis. I will give the floor to Abderrahmane Ayadi for the outlook of the group.
Thank you, Pierre. We're very confident in the future of the recycling industry. We are seeing that the European Union is pushing for the decarbonization of the industry. A lot of steel makers are planning to switch their steel production from blast furnace to electric arc furnace, which will trigger more consumption of scrap. For us, this will keep a high level of prices. We are very confident in the future, and all this will happen in the coming three or four years. In terms of Ecore acquisition, we are working now on the implementation of the second part. We have already achieved, I would say 50%-60% of the synergies. We are now working on the second part of the synergies.
This will happen between, I would say September and December, this year. We are also expecting to benefit from the synergies and the decision in terms of CapEx that we have implemented two years ago in Spain. We have invested in a second lead furnace, which will start in the second week of June. We have also increased the treatments of the WEEE, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, by 50%. This will start in July. We are confident, you know, for the long term, in the perspectives of the industry. It is true that here and there we are talking about recession because of the events, I mean geopolitical events that are happening now or taking place in Europe since 3 months now.
We may have a slowdown of the activity. We may have a recession, but this will be for the short term. For the long term, we are very confident our business model will continue. For the multi-service we have over the last five years shown that there is a very good trading dynamic, and it is now accelerating with the aeronautics business, because as we have seen now that, I mean, we are going back to a normal situation and the flights are back and, you know, the demand, for example, for new airplanes is very strong and this will help us to recover this sector that has suffered a lot from the pandemic in the past. Overall, very positive about the future. I think now I adjust. Okay.
You see here the next step of our fiscal year. I will now speak about an event which did not take place over the H1. It took place more recently, but I know that many of you are interested in that, and that some of you have a question about this, which is the minority stake which the group purchased in Elior. First, some facts. On the nineteenth of May, there were the announcements of the purchase of a minority stake in Elior, 44.7% purchased from BIM, which is controlled by Elior's co-founder, Robert Zolade, and also Gilles Cojan. Derichebourg becomes Elior's largest shareholder.
The best price is 5.65 EUR per share, plus a possible earn-out capped at 1.35 EUR, but only if the share price increases over 5.65 EUR, which will be very happy if it takes place. Of course, there are some usual provisions. It will be paid in before June 30. Derichebourg held already 4.93% of the company purchased on the stock exchange, which results in a 19.6% stake. You see on the lower left part of the page, the Elior change in the share price over the past five years.
You see that until the start of the pandemic the company the share price was steadily over EUR 12, that it's decreased significantly with COVID. There was, I would say, a second state of decrease after the former CEO resigned. The average for 1 year is 5.41 EUR. The premium of the basic price is 4% over that. Over the 6 months average, the premium is at 27%. Of course, over more recent 3 months for example, the premium is 80% because the share decreased significantly. We have filed on the 20th of May with the AMF a declaration of intent for the next 6 months. We have the possibility to increase our shareholding up to 30% maximum. We have no intent to launch a takeover bid.
We are supportive of the board of directors, and we intend to ask for two seats at the board of directors. I'm sure that many of you have questions because we have read in the press release, in some analyst investor, in the newspaper, that there are some questions of the rationale of this minority stake purchase. With Abderrahmane Aoufir, we will be happy to answer your questions. What we can say for mega contracts in the facility management for CAC 40 customers or largest international customers, they often outsource together the catering and the cleaning. Catering, the risk book, we did not have that activity in our portfolio.
Often, either we cannot answer to this contract, or we have to find a partner to answer to this contract. What we hope that, of course, with respect to independence of both groups and competition regulations, that we will be for our multi-service division in a better position to answer this large facility management contracts. There is also a service division at Elior, which is smaller than the Derichebourg multi-service division. Maybe there can be also some, I would say, good practice, of course, always paying attention with meeting the criteria of competition regulation and independence of both group, that there can be maybe some cooperation with both groups.
First, as we already said, we will have two seats at the board. We do not control the company. We will observe what happens at the board, and we are supportive of the board of directors. Many of you are familiar with the Elior Group, which has two divisions, the contract catering and the facility management solution, which is a group which is number three in catering in Europe, but number one in France, number one in Spain, number one in Italy. You see many very big places and a large market share, number five in the USA. Last year, EUR 3.7 billion revenue in for the group. Only EUR 100 million EBITDA, but in the past, the EBITDA was in the region of, I would say, EUR 300 million.
99,000 employees. Catering is 90% of the revenue. Service is 10%. Geography, 46% France. International, 54%. You see that the revenue is well-balanced between business and industry, education and healthcare. Of course, we are aware of the challenges of the company that the in the business and industry post-COVID the revenue will certainly not come back rapidly to pre-COVID level and that we can expect that it comes more rapidly to pre-COVID level in education and healthcare. That's all for our. Sorry for being so long, but we were happy to discuss in detail our results and also to speak about also this minority stake purchase in Elior. We can.
You can ask some questions through the chat, which is the question and answer button in the low upper part. We already have some questions. We will answer first the question about the results and then the question about Elior. There are some questions about the group results, which are the details of the synergy expected and quantify them. What would be the revenue without Ecore. The synergies is about Ecore, sorry. Ecore, Elior, I sometimes mix up about the names. The synergies, it's with Ecore. The revenue, it's about what would it be without Ecore. I will give the floor for Abderrahmane El Aoufir for the synergies.
I would say for the revenue, it starts to be difficult to answer because as there were some trade flows between the companies, and like it's not easy to answer to that.
We can give just an idea about the revenue last year for, you know, the full fiscal year of Ecore was EUR 1.2 billion. Roughly speaking, Pierre-
One point five. One point five.
EUR 1.5 billion last year. It gives you know, a flavor of what could be the revenue this year.
Okay.
Their EBITDA last year was EUR 124.
120.
EUR 120 million EBITDA.
Jérôme, do you want to speak about the synergy which we explained?
We have, I mean, you know, anticipated synergies of an amount of EUR 20 million. The majority of them come from transportation because our footprint is more important with, you know, Ecore and we, I mean, obviously there are some savings in the, in the transportation and there are other savings. I would say that the majority of the savings in transportation have been achieved now, and we have, I mean, adjusted, you know, put in place the rationale of the movements, I mean, between the purchase and the sales. Now there are other synergies that we are implementing, and we think that the implementation will end up by the year-end. The calendar year and not the fiscal year-end. We are planning now EUR 20 million.
Maybe we'll have, you know, some positive news, and maybe we will be beyond our expectations. It's at least our, what we have planned.
There is a question about what would have been the EBITDA without the Ecore over the H1. So you have the figures in the presentation. It would have been EUR 44.8 million less. Can we have an idea of the remedies in terms of EBITDA? Not so easy to answer to that question, but roughly I would say EUR 20-25 million under current economic conditions, which are very good. Of course, if the market were even better, it would be higher and if it is worse, it would be less than that. There is no deferred contingent payment related to the Ecore acquisition. There are some questions about the process of the sale of Ecore, of the remedy. We have already spoken about that.
We will not give the value of the sale tonight. We'll say it when it is completed. Some of you were late. We have selected one bidder, and we have to conclude before June sixteenth. We are working very hard on the legal documentation, but it's fairly complicated because there are some notary which have to take place. There are eight sites, which means eight contracts. There is also some French ICPE regulation involving that. It's indeed a fairly complicated process, but we expect to be on time. The question about the gross margin per ton at H one.
Indeed, we do not answer to that question because we do not want to give a hint to our competitors. You can, if you take, with the
In the bridge.
With Excel spreadsheet you can.
In the EBITDA bridge there is a, you know, an explanation. I mean how much, in the gross margin has improved.
Unless I've missed the question, I think it's all for the questions of for the H1 results. After that, we have questions about the Elior acquisitions. Just let me one second to summarize them. There are some questions about the price. Why it was such a high premium? You have seen on the charts which we have disclosed that the magnitude of the premium depends on the horizons which you look at, of course. There is a big premium if you look at the spot price. But if you look at a one-year period because I think the market was not confident with Elior anymore since the dismissal, or since the resignation of the CEO.
Well, we were not very sure that the share price on a day-to-day basis was representative of the intrinsic value. If you look on a larger horizon magnitude, three months, six months or one year, you see that the premium is much lower. Also, one issue, BIM had the largest shareholding in Elior. Three times the shareholding of the next shareholder. Of course, it's not a controlling share, but it nevertheless deserves a premium. We can say. We can speak for hours or even more than that if the premium is low, high, but it's a premium that the group was ready to pay for this 47. There are some technical questions about the earn-out mechanism. Indeed, it starts with a share price at EUR 5.65.
Roughly, most of the accretion value for the two years, because of this amount, is between January 2023 and December 2024. If the share price exceeds for a certain period at the end of BIM, EUR 5.65, which I repeat, we will be very happy if it happens. Most of the value is attributable to BIM, with a cap at EUR 1.6035. Why is BIM not pay immediately this amount? It does not depend on us. It's an agreement between the parties. Then we have some question, there are some questions about the negotiations. I would say it's not very interesting.
What I just can say is that the negotiations were very, very short. Then we have some questions about the rationale of the investment. What is our investment horizon? What are the targeted synergies? How do we consider the earlier steps? We will first answer these questions. Investment horizon is very long-term. Everything that the group does is long-term. We are not financial investors. We are industrial investors. Mr. Daniel Derichebourg, together with Armand Derichebourg and Alfio, they have a long-term strategy. That's what we can answer on that. It means that there will be no rapid synergy. We're aware of that. As I said before, we will be observers at the board.
We will try to see if it makes sense to answer together to some bids on the multi-service market. First, we have to answer the bids, be awarded the contracts, and then start delivering the service and have the synergies of that. It will take some months. Armand, do you want to add something?
No, I think that you have said it all. Just, there was this opportunity and, I mean, we took it, and we will see, I mean, in the near future how the evolution of it.
Additional questions about the earlier minority stake investment. If we will go up to the 30%. What, you know, in the declaration of intent, we say that we do not exclude to buy additional shares. You will see the developments on that matter. About the debt of Elior, of course, it's a significant debt, EUR 1.2 billion. We are aware of that. As of now, as I said before, we are minority investors. We have two seats at the board. Some of you have, because we already have contacts with some of our analysts. Some of you has asked us, which are the next steps. We want also to answer that questions. The story, the next pages, they are not written yet.
Maybe if we meet in six months or five months, three months, one year, it depends. Maybe we'll be in the same position and nothing would have happened more. Maybe we would have some small JVs on the contracts. Maybe because some of you have said to us they have a service division. We have a service division. Would it make sense? It's very too early to speak about that. First we are at the board, and we will observe. Just an additional point about that. Some of you have asked for us how it impacts our ratio.
What we can say is that with the current level of the EBITDA of the group, it impacts our debt to EBITDA ratio with the money that we are committed to in Elior by 0.3 times EBITDA. We are at 1.12. It would impact by 0.3 more. I think we have answered the most of the questions or nearly all the questions. There is another questions about, so it's about the Derichebourg group, not AO. Is the EUR 559 million EBITDA the target for the whole exercise?
I would say that the market conditions which prevailed in order to deliver this EBITDA, they were under, I would say, steadily increasing prices, which enabled us to make the profits which we expect to each unit margin that we sell. Because we know that we try to work with fixed unit margin. In addition to that, we made, I would say, extra margins due to our inventory, which we try to be as low as possible, but which is nevertheless a few hundred tons, 200 tons, I would say, 250,000 tons. We made extra margins on that, both on ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Over H2, in order to do the same, it would mean that the price would. I would say it implies the underlying assumption is that the price continue to increase. I would say it was the case in April. It was not the case in May because the prices started to decrease. We don't know how it will take place in June, but I would say that we have at least one month where we will not have this, the actualization of this assumption.
At the same time, I would add, Pierre, that on a like-for-like basis, the cumulative numbers as of the end of May will be better than the last year. I mean, taking Derichebourg alone on a stand-alone basis or taking GDE on a stand-alone basis. We don't know about the last, you know, four months of the fiscal year, but so far, I mean, our numbers are better than the last year, combined or on a stand-alone basis.
I think there are some other questions about, I would say, business issues, so we cannot answer them in this call. I think we have answered most of nearly all the questions which are on the chat. Maybe if someone wants to add an additional question. I think that I don't see any pop-up of additional question. Thank you very much for attending this call. We wish you a very good weekend because in France, most of the people, many will have a four-day weekend. Not all of us, unfortunately. We wish you a very good weekend, and we will be happy to disclose to you our half-year results at the beginning of December. Thank you very much.
Thank you all for taking the time to attend this video conference. All the best.