Hello, and welcome to the Edenred Half Year Results conference call. My name is Sharon, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded for the duration of the call. Your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your questions. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Mr. Bertrand Dumazy, CEO, and Mr. Julien Tanguy, CFO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Good morning, everybody. Bertrand Dumazy speaking with Julien. We are happy to share with you the results of H1 2023 for Edenred. If we move to Page 2 of the presentation, in the executive summary. First of all, Edenred confirms a strong momentum of the last few semesters because we grew our revenue in H1 2023 by 26% and 25.5% like for like. Our level of EBITDA is at EUR 483 million, which is a growth of 32.5% as reported, and 35.2% like for like. We also improved our EBITDA margin, moving up to 41.5%, which is 310 basis points up like for like versus the 1st semester of 2022.
As you know, cash is king, so we are able to post a strong cash generation with double-digit like-for-like FFO growth. We also present a strong balance sheet because S&P has upgraded Edenred from BBB+ to A- in April 2023, with a confirmation of the A- after the acquisition of Reward Gateway. The 2nd thing is, yes, in H1 2023, we made two landmark acquisition to position Edenred as the most trusted global benefits, but also engagement platform, with the acquisition of GOintegro to address the Latin American employee engagement market, but also the acquisition of Reward Gateway, which is a leading and fast-growing employee engagement platform that is leader in U.K., in Australia, and a challenger in the U.S.. We plan to expand in 6 other European countries in the coming years.
Edenred is building a leading comprehensive worldwide offer, combining engagements and benefits to meet the needs of a changing working world. The 3rd element is, yes, we continue to extend our value proposition at each level of our four-layer platform. Finally, thanks to this 1st semester that demonstrates our ability to deliver our beyond strategy, we will continue to generate sustainable and profitable growth. As you can see on the bottom of slide 3, our estimate for the full year 2023 EBITDA is between EUR1.02 billion and EUR 1.09 billion, versus EUR 836 million in 2022. If we move now to Page 5. Yes, the Q2 2023 is another buoyant quarter that leads to another record performance in H1 2023.
Page 6, as you can see, our total revenue has increased by 25.5% like for like in H1 2023 versus 2022. Our level of EBITDA has increased by 35.2% as compared to H1 2022, like for like. Strong cash flow generation, +13%, and net profit group share has increased by almost 19% in reported figures. We move to Page 7, where you have the sequence, in Q1 of this year, we grew by 20.4% our operating revenue like for like. In Q2, +19.6%, leading to a +20% like for like growth of operating revenue in H1 2023. We have a very strong business momentum behind our attractive solutions.
The growth of Edenred is, in fact, well-balanced between every product line. Page 8, you see that benefits and engagement has grown by 22.8%, operating revenue growth in H1. Mobility has grown by almost 15%, and complementary solution has grown by 18% in this 1st semester of the year. If we move to the geographies at Page 9, you see that not only the growth is well-balanced per product line, but also per geographies. Europe has grown by more than 21% like for like, Latin America by almost 15% like for like, and the rest of the world by almost 31% like for like. If we move to Page 10, let's look at what it means in terms of generation of EBITDA.
You see that the EBITDA is up 35.2% like for like, versus H1 2022, moving from EUR 365 million - EUR 483 million. The other remarkable thing is the improvement of our EBITDA margin, that is up like for like 310 points, It's driven by our operating leverage and the strong contribution from other revenue. At Edenred, we look at the financial performance, but also the extra financial performance. On Page 11, you see that in fact, all our efforts that we are doing in CO2 emission has been recognized, in fact, by Trucost, We are now, in fact, rated A. As to the transparency of our communication, we have been ranked number 6 among the most transparent companies within the SBF 120 Index.
As you know, Page 12, we joined the CAC 40 Index on June of this year. In fact, one week after having joined the CAC 40, we also joined the Euronext Tech Leaders, which is probably the recognition of our investment in the technology, but also of our economic performance. Page 13, what do we do and what do we intend to do? We intend to continue scaling the Edenred platform to extend our value proposition. What does it mean? Page 14, you remember that the way we are organized is we are organized with a four-layer platform. We have the infrastructure and the digital services on which we are trying to have a global scale. Then we try to stay super local with our digital experiences and business applications that are local and gives us local relevance.
The combination of those 4 layers should lead us to accelerated time to market. That's the idea. Now, let's see in practice, what we are doing towards the vision. If you are moving Page 15, if we start with the first layer of the platform, the top of the platform, which is the digital experiences. In fact, we continue to invest and to innovate to improve the user experience. 1 example, mobile payment at scale. We are now in 26 countries, developing 46 different mobile payment programs, we are proud to offer the most versatile offer, allowing mobile payment with the 3 wallet service provider, that are Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. If you look at the number of transactions between the 1st semester of 2022 and 2023, we increased the number of transaction mobile by 50%.
If we move to the 2nd layer, which is the business applications, do we demonstrate that we are able to provide more and more services to the users of our platforms? I remind everybody that today we have 60 million users around the world. Let me share with you a few examples. The 1st one in the Emirates. It's now by regulation, a requirement for the employee to have insurance in case of involuntary job loss. In Dubai, we are managing something like 1.4 million salary caps, and we were the 1st one to propose the access to this insurance via our platform, via the mobile. In six months, we have been able to enroll 270,000 beneficiaries for this unemployment insurance, and it's a 76% cost saving.
The idea is to propose more and more services to our 60 million users and leveraging the cost saving. The example of C3Pay in the Emirates is a good example of that. I can take an example, Page 17, in fleet and mobility. You know that we made the acquisition of EBV in 2019, and we are now the top three biggest tax reform service provider in Europe. We propose digital solutions that are available 24/7 on self-service portal for the VAT reform in 31 different countries. We are able to help for the partial excise duty reform in 7 countries. What does it mean? It means that we made an acquisition, we refurbish our digital offer, and we improve dramatically the quality of service.
It leads to an NPS score of 58, but it also leads into a strong business momentum because we increase our operating revenue growth by 40% between the two the two semesters. It's another example of our ability to scale our platform to provide more and more digital business applications. If we move Page 18 to the 3rd layer of our platform, which is what we call the digital services, it means the ability to be connected with the other digital platforms, to be able to distribute, in fact, the services of some other platforms on Edenred platform. Here we give you two examples of things that we put on the market. First of all, in Mexico, we now partner with Medicato, which is telemedicine services. In fact, we are connected to the digital platform of Medicato.
As a member and a user of the Edenred platform, you have access to the service of Medicato. We multiply by 15 the number of users in 1st Half of 2023 versus 2022. We do it in Mexico. You know that we are in 45 different countries, scale is of the essence at Edenred. We just signed the same agreement with Stairway in France, which is a digital service of salary payment on demand, we just launched the service in May 2023. What we are doing is to use the power of APIs to provide innovative and differentiating 3rd-party solutions to HR managers, leveraging the go-to-market of the Edenred digital platform.
We are doing what we are saying, but to be able to do that, we need to continue to invest in our technology and especially in the layer 4 of our infrastructure. To give you a few elements, in terms of API meaning application programming interface, i.e., the ability to call for a service. In fact, we continue to invest into our APIs, and to give you an order of magnitude, the number of API has increased by 30% in one semester. To give you an order of magnitude, we have 3 billion API messages per month, which makes of Edenred one of the biggest user of API around the world. To be able to do that, this 4-layer platform, and to be able to be connected, we need to be on the cloud.
Today, 100% of our digital volume is in the cloud, we multiply by 5 our number of cloud experts since 2019. To do what we are doing, we need to be data and artificial intelligence at scale. At Edenred, we have more than 200 data experts, we are bringing more than 50 data-powered solutions, but also internal use case live with the usage of artificial intelligence. We try to augment our capabilities thanks to the data and artificial intelligence. Finally, part of what we are doing, not only, but part of what we are doing is payment. The payment industry is a scale industry. Are we working towards payment at scale? Yes, today we are able to post something like EUR 100 billion of annual payment volume.
Obviously, we want to do that in a super safe environment, so we are investing a lot in our cybersecurity capabilities. Yes, we are strengthening our tech infrastructure by accelerating our investment to continue to fuel the growth of Edenred. Why Page 20? Our mission in life is to be the most trusted global employee benefits and engagement platform. Not only we invest internally and develop our innovation capabilities internally, but we also proceed to some acquisition. As you know, Page 21, we are a benefits management platform with some employee savings, we decided to accelerate in the adjacent market of the employee engagement. That's why we made the acquisition of Reward Gateway and, in Latin America, the acquisition of GOintegro. If you move to Page 22, what does it mean?
Reward Gateway is the leading SaaS employee engagement platform in three countries, leader in the U.K., leader in Australia, challenger in the U.S.. Reward Gateway is serving more than 8 million users around the world via 4,000 clients. As you can see, iconic clients, so AXA, for example, Atos or some other ones. We do the same in Latin America. We bought GOintegro. We invested and bought GOintegro. It's also a SaaS employee engagement platform. It's developing businesses in seven Latin American countries, and this platform is serving 1.2 million users via 500 clients, some iconic ones such as General Electric, HP, PepsiCo or Bayer. Yes, we want to help companies to enhance their organizational culture and be an employer of choice.
Another way to say it, when you are using the world-class solutions of Edenred in engagement as an employer, you improve your capabilities in terms of attractiveness, but also retention of your employees. With the capabilities of Edenred and with those acquisitions, our goal is to build a leading worldwide offer. What does it mean? GOintegro is in 7 countries. Reward Gateway is in 3 countries, and our goal is to deploy the solution of Reward Gateway on continental Europe and to start with in 6 countries where Edenred operates today. To give you a little bit of flavor around what it means in terms of what is an engagement platform, I propose that we move to Page 24. We gave you 2 examples, one for Reward Gateway, another one for GOintegro.
Reward Gateway for a well-known service company in the U.K. that is called Mears. In fact, Mears, they are client of Reward Gateway. They employ 6,500 employees. The vast majority of those employees are what we call undesk worker. They don't sit on a desk with a computer or something else, or a laptop. But they need to be in touch with, you know, their company. Thanks to Reward Gateway and a mobile application, they have access, in fact, to the modules of reward and recognition, savings, well-being, and communication. Eighty-three percent of the 6,500 employees are now registered, and in fact, we are able to measure their engagement, that in the front line has increased by 500%.
We can go through the same case, use case for GOintegro in Latin America, for McDonald's in Uruguay. The challenge is to connect 2,500 employees in 60 different restaurants. Once again, those people are what we call undesk worker, and they needed to have a contact with their company on their mobile, and it's exactly what is proposed to GOintegro. 76% of the employees are now registered, and out of the 76%, more than 90% are active users. If we move now to Page 25, in the Reward Gateway project, where do we stand? As you know, we bought the company for EUR 1.3 billion. The transaction was closed on May 16th, so it's done.
The consolidation has started in the May financial statements of Edenred, and the refinancing was done only one month after, you know, the closing of the deal, thanks to a bond for a total amount of EUR 1.2 billion, EUR 500 million with a 3.5-year maturity, EUR 700 million with a 8-year maturity, with a coupon of 3.6%. The, you know, the structure of the is behind us. It's what we like at Edenred. When we move, we move fast, and we can be focused on the development of the business. Thanks to the talent of the team of Reward Gateway, we are happy to announce that in H1 2023, Reward Gateway has posted a growth that is above 30% in both revenue and EBITDA.
We see the continuation of the strong momentum and track record of Reward Gateway. In terms of post-merger integration, where do we stand? The governance has been finalized. We have a fully dedicated integration management office team, and we are working on the business and support function work streams. We are implementing the quick wins. We have some synergies that we prioritized around people and organization, product and brand, and the international rollout is in progress. At Edenred, we love to do things well, and we love to do things fast. We hate wasting time. That's it for, let's say, the general introduction of the 1st semester. Now, let's move on to the most important part, under the leadership of Julien. Julien, what is the H1 2023 detailed financial performance?
Well, thank you, Bertrand. Good morning, everyone. Yes, we open the section 2 of this presentation to look at Edenred financial performance in details. I propose we move to Page 27. Edenred posted a remarkable growth in both reported and like-for-like figures. Our operating revenue for H1 2023 stands at EUR 1,081 million. It's a reported growth of 21.3% and like-for-like growth of 20%. After a record Q1, Edenred delivered another strong quarter, despite low level of fuel price. Focusing on Q2, the revenue reached EUR 562 million, i.e., a like-for-like growth of 19.6%.
In reported figures, the growth is 20.9%, including negative impact from currency, -3.2%, and positive impact from scope, +4.5%, mainly supported by M&A and Reward Gateway acquisition. I move to Page 28 with some comments about our top-line performance in Europe. In Europe, Edenred recorded a strong double-digit growth of 21.2% like-for-like in H1. Operating revenue increase have been supported by another great performance in Q2 2023, with a growth standing at 21.9% in acceleration versus Q1. In France, Q2 growth is above 10%, allowing Edenred to post a solid 1st semester at +12%, and this growth is a consequence of sales dynamism on both SME and large accounts for Ticket Restaurant.
On top of our capacity to grow with Ticket Restaurant, we benefit from the leadership position of Edenred employee savings platform with ProwebCE. The success of those two products confirm our capacity to sign new clients with an attractive solution, fitting with both client expectations and user needs. Regarding the rest of Europe, operating revenue is up 26% in Q2 and 24.7% in H1. For benefits and engagement, growth drivers are quite similar to what they are in France. Ticket Restaurant growth is driven by a solid commercial momentum, and our sales teams are succeeding to push adoption of new legal face value by our clients, helping them to protect the purchasing power of their employees. Our Beyond Food solutions are also performing well in countries where we operate these model of products.
On top of benefits and engagement, we recorded an outstanding performance for our mobility business line, thanks to good dynamics in fuel solutions, as well as sustained success of Beyond Fuel strategy. During the first part of this presentation, Bertrand came back on EBV and tax refund offer that is doing well in H1. We move now to Page 29 and to Latin America. In Latin America, business traction is strong across the region, with a like-for-like growth of 14.7% in H1. In Brazil, the growth in Q2 reached 5.9% in 1st Half of the year to an 8.1% growth. This growth is supported by robust performance in benefits and engagement business lines, thanks to both food and Beyond Food solutions. Our performance in H1 is above the performance of full year 2022.
We also registered a strong business momentum in our mobility business lines that has been more than offset by low fuel price at pump. I remind you, the barrel average price was around $115 in Q2 last year. The barrel was below $80 in Q2 2023. This level of fuel price has impacted our overall performance in Brazil in H1, as Brazil price pump is very sensitive to barrel price. In Hispanic Latin America, operating revenue is up 31.9% in Q2 and +30.1% in H1. This performance is driven by our two major business lines in the region, benefits and engagement, and mobility. In mobility, the growth is mainly due to a good sales momentum on SME segment, and in benefits and engagement, Edenred is accelerating across the region.
I share with you a detailed analysis of our operating revenue performance for H1. We can move now to other revenue on Page 30. Other revenue more than doubled, moving up from EUR31 million- EUR82 million from H1 2022 - H1 2023. This strong increase is mainly driven by Europe, and more specifically by Eurozone, where interest rates increased significantly over the last 12 months, and where our strong sales performance impacted positively the level of growth. In Latin America, interest rates started to pick up earlier. The other revenue trend is still positive, but the growth is softer as Brazilian SELIC stabilized. SELIC rate is expected to decline in the coming months. On Page 31, we present our total revenue performance for Q2 and H1. As operating revenue, total revenue is surpassing EUR1 billion mark.
The performance of Q2 is in line with the performance of Q1, allowing us to pass the 1st semester with a reported growth of 26.1%. Our total revenue reaching EUR 1,163 million. This growth includes a negative currency effect of 2% and a positive impact of 2.7% from scope, as we did Reward Gateway acquisition in May. I move now to Page 32 to comment the PNL, starting with EBITDA. As we've just seen, the total revenue is increasing by 26%, and the EBITDA is growing even faster at +32.5% in reported figures and +35.2% in like-for-like. Thanks to the strong operating revenue growth and other revenue performance, we have been investing in technology to fuel future growth.
As explained earlier by Bertrand, we are connecting our platforms to partners in order to maximize our client portfolio monetization. As a result of combination of top line growth and operating expenses monitoring, the EBITDA margin is at 3.1% in like-for-like and at 2% in published numbers, reaching 41.5% at the end of the 1st semester. On Page 33, we present the net profit group share of this 1st semester. The net profit group share stands at EUR 202 million, up 19% compared to last year. Major numbers to comment on this PNL are other income and expenses and the net financial expenses. Regarding other income and expenses, it moves from - EUR 9 million- - EUR 19 million. This variation is mainly due to Reward Gateway acquisition costs that are one-off costs.
Regarding net financial expense, it goes from -EUR 70 million - -EUR 58 million. This EUR41 million variation includes impact of interest rates, increase on net from debt costs, and perfect investments and equity revaluations. This variation also includes the debt financing costs for Reward Gateway acquisition. This is it for the PNL. I move to Page 34 and to free cash flow statements. Free cash flow stands at EUR 11 million for H1 2023, to be compared to EUR 24 million for H1 2022. Keep in mind, our performance in 2022 has been positively impacted by one of the effects of EUR 170 million from changing regulations in Germany. Considering these impacts in 2022, our performance in H1 2023 is very good.
In details, the FFO, so the funds from operation, is benefiting from strong EBITDA growth, partially offset by net financial expenses and tax. I already commented the net financial expense numbers. Flows stand at minus EUR45 million to be compared to minus EUR 267 million last year, This is a solid position. The performance in flow is strong, thanks to sell dynamism in H1. As you know, we did a great gift voucher campaign in Q4 2022, We have been able to compensate the reimbursement of gift vouchers during the H1. On top of that, new regulation on pack in Brazil, bringing no payment terms, has also impacted positively our level of growth.
When it comes to working capital, excluding float, it has been mainly impacted by the clients of PPS Direct, which is the activity we operate for digital banks in Europe. Restricted cash has also been impacted by PPS activity, as this cash is regulated and as already mentioned, we benefited from a one-off effect in 2022, for EUR 170 million. A last comment on free cash flow is about our CapEx level. We invested EUR 79 million in CapEx in H1. It represents 6.8% of our total revenue, and it is in line with the numbers we gave during our last CMD. We intend to invest between 7% and 8% of our total revenue to develop Edenred's platform.
We move to Page 35, we contemplate the bridge of our net debt from June 2022 to June 2023. In June 2022, our net debt was EUR 1,056 million, our net debt is EUR 1,851 million on June 2023. It means the net debt has increased by EUR 800 million. While we did acquisitions for EUR 1.4 billion, we returned to shareholders almost EUR 300 million, we generated EUR 868 million of free cash flow. Our capacity to generate high level of free cash flow allows Edenred to keep a low level of net debt and to finance significant acquisitions. I go to Page 36, after the acquisition of Reward Gateway, Edenred has a robust financial position.
Edenred's new rating, i.e., A-, has been confirmed by S&P after the acquisition of Reward Gateway. Regarding the financial results, as explained during the last Capital Markets Day, the increase of interest rates impacts financial costs. In terms of sensitivity, 100 basis points increase drives additional EUR16 million in financial expenses. I remind you, we financed Reward Gateway's acquisition through a dual tranche bond success, successfully issued early in June. The cost of those two bonds is around EUR45 million on a full year basis, this is the impact before tax. This is it for the detailed figures. Bertrand will share with you now the 2023 outlook.
Thank you, Julien. I propose that we move to Page 38. What do we see as an outlook for the 2nd semester of 2023 and beyond? In fact, what we will do is, first of all, to benefit from the strong business momentum that we have. I remind that we are on vastly under-penetrated market, especially on SMEs, and the Edenred solutions are very attractive, and even more in the current environment of purchasing power needed to attract and retain the employees. Also, the need to control your costs, and that is feasible with, for example, mobility solutions. The 2nd thing is, yes, Edenred will continue to enrich its beyond offer. We are integrating and deploying our newly acquired employee engagement platform, and we will accelerate the distribution of additional 3rd-party services.
Having a digital platform connecting 60 million users to 2 million merchants is a very nice lever when you want to distribute additional 3rd-party services. Yes, we will continue to invest in our technology to further improve the user experience and to leverage our state-of-the-art tech infrastructure, whether in cloud, API data, but also compliance and security. What does it mean for the entire year of 2023? Our full year 2023 EBITDA estimate stands between EUR 1.02 billion and EUR 1.09 billion, versus EUR 836 million in 2022, and above the consensus. Thank you for your attention and to our presentation of Julien and myself. Now both of us are here to answer any question you may have.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. A voice prompt on your phone line will indicate when your line is open. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We'll now take our first question from Simon Lechipre from Stifel. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Three on my side, please. First of all, could you please quantify the fuel price impact in Q2? Secondly, on revenue growth, how should we view the rest of the year? Do you think the Q2 like-for-like growth could be sustained into the 2nd Half? Lastly, could you give us your view on where the financial expenses should land for the year? I guess it should more than double compared to H1. Thank you.
Okay, Simon, thank you for your questions. If, maybe, Julien, you can take the 1st one, the quantification of the fuel price for, you know, the Q2 and the 1st semester.
Yes. Regarding the fuel price impact, as I said, you know, last year in Q2, the barrel was at a very high price, 115 U.S.D per barrel. We knew that the comparison basis for Q2 this year will be high. It is the case. If we look at the impact of the fuel price on the total revenue, or from the operating revenue of Edenred, it's around 2% a negative impact in Q2. At a -2%, it means that the growth we've been able to deliver at 19.6%, if we consider the fuel price impact, it means by yourself, we've been able to generate more than a 21% growth.
If we look at the impact on the fleet and mobility business, it's around 6%. 66%. we should have been able to deliver 6% additional growth compared to what we published today.
Our revenue has grown by 26% in H1, with fuel price impact on Q2 that were huge.
Yeah.
Your question is, 2nd Half, can we continue to generate revenue like that, revenue growth like that? First of all, when you look at the growth of Edenred, the growth is well balanced. On every product line and in every geographies, we are generating strong double-digit growth. The 2nd thing is there are some structural trends behind that are very positive and that will continue. First of all, inflation is everywhere, and the companies have more and more difficulties to make the link between salary increase and inflation. They need to give back purchasing power. It's very different from one country to another, from one category of employees to another, from one economic cycle to another.
We are coming with a portfolio of 250 different solutions, totally digital, easy to put in place, easy to modulate, and so we will continue to benefit from that. The 2nd thing is, every employer needs to be attractive and needs to develop some retention strategy. The job market is very tight everywhere around the world. We don't see the unemployment rate increasing, and we see on many categories of labor a lot of tension. You have between 50 million and 100 million jobs in the digital economy that are not filled. We are all fighting for the same good resources, and to do that and to win that competition, we need to be more attractive, and we need to be high, better in terms of retention, and Edenred can help on that.
Because there is inflation, every company is trying to be very careful on the cost. Transportation costs, mobility costs, are, you know, significant for many companies. When you have the service of Edenred, basically, you are able to better control what's going on, and you leave less money on the table. When you are using Edenred VAT services, you are sure that you're gonna get your VAT reimbursed. It's a luxury when times are good. It's not a luxury anymore when economic conditions are tougher. When you maintain thousands of vehicles, using the maintenance services of Edenred is helping you, first of all, to be compliant, but also is helping you to be efficient in your compliancy. Those structural trends will continue.
Another one, which is, you know, remote working, we all know that, when you are a remote worker, you are looking for more versatile solutions. We see it in the engagement platform that we deploy, for many people who are un-desked. In fact, when you are a remote worker, to a certain extent, you are un-desked as well. Our solutions makes more and more sense. I could go on like that. Digitalization of the economy, it's increasing, you know, every year, and our solutions are totally digital. To make a long story short, the fact that we are the worldwide leader, the fact that we are the ones who is investing the most, the fact that we have a good track record, and the fact that we have those mega trends, are very positive for the growth of Edenred.
If we focus on H2, the business momentum is gonna continue. However, you have to take into account a few things. First of all, the impact of the fuel price. As explained by Julien, it was mainly in Q2, and here it's gonna be in Q4 and Q3 of the 2nd part of the year. We know that it's gonna have an impact on our growth in fleet and mobility, so our growth totally. The 2nd thing is the basis of comparison. Q4 was a superb year for us, for programs that are not repeatable, in the sense that every year you play and you start from scratch. We are very confident in the capabilities of our salespeople. We are very confident in the attractiveness of our solutions, but you never know.
To make a long story short, structurally, do we see the same trend of growth for the 2nd part of the year and beyond 2023? The answer is yes. Is it going to be 25%? Too early to say, taking into consideration the fuel price impact on 2 quarters, in fact, in H2, and taking into account the basis of comparison of Q4, that is super high. You know us, we love those kind of challenges. Your 3rd question was financial expenses. Julien?
Yes. Regarding financial expenses, you really need to break down this line to take into account a few things. The 1st one is, as you know, and we explained during the last CMD, we have the bond we issued before 2023 with fixed interest rates that have been swapped. It means that when interest rates are picking up, it has an impact.
on our financial expenses. This is the 1st thing you need to consider. Second thing is the financing of the Reward Gateway acquisition. We issued 2 bonds and before that, we had a bridge to finance the acquisition. It means that you have a financial cost regarding this acquisition that are booked in our P&L at the end of June, but it's only for one and a half months duration. It means that it will have a bigger impact in H2. The 3rd thing you need to consider is that in financial expenses, you have more than the cost of our debt.
You also have the cash that is invested, I would say, our corporate cash, that is invested in our different subsidiaries. It has a positive impact on this line. The last topic you need to consider is the fact that, as we explained already last year, we are a limited partner of Partech. It means that the valuation of the portfolio of the assets we have is moving from one semester to another. All in all, yes, financial expenses will increase in H2, mainly impacted by interest rate increase and the Reward Gateway financing cost.
Thank you, Simon.
Next up, we have Julien Richer from Kepler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Hello, Julien.
Yes, good morning, everyone. 3 questions for me. The 1st one, in terms of operating EBITDA margin, it has been down 50 basis points in H1. It was down last year also due to investment. What trend do you expect for the back end of this year and beyond? The 2nd question in terms of competition in France, you posted a strong 10% like-for-like growth in terms of operating revenue in H1, but Q2 was weaker and or softer, let's say, than Q1. Is it due to tougher operating environment or just a question of quarter? The last one, in terms of other revenue, any guidance for this year, do we have to multiply H1 performance by 2 for this year and to be at around EUR 160 million? Thank you.
Operating EBITDA margin, first of all, in H1, our operating EBITDA margin, like for like, has improved. It's the scale effect. After that, you have some mixed geographical effects, huh? That's why in published you see a small decline of the operating EBITDA margin. What do we expect? We expect full year to have an operating EBITDA margin in published and in like for like, to be at least at the level of last year, at least. In EBITDA, we expect the EBITDA margin to improve significantly. I remind that in H1 2023, the EBITDA margin has improved by more than 300 basis points. Let me remind the way we operate the company.
To fuel the growth, we need to invest, we need to invest in technologies. Our investment in technology is between 60% and 70% in OpEx and between 30% and 40% in CapEx. In CapEx, as explained by Julien, this semester we were at about 7%, we said our CapEx investment is gonna be between 6% and 8%. We are at 7% in H1. We sustained a high pace of investment in CapEx, so also in OpEx, because we are a tech company, a good chunk of our investments are OpEx. We pay super talented engineers to develop our digital solutions and to go after new markets. The way we pilot is we are a platform. A platform needs to have scale effect.
Scale effect needs improvement of the EBITDA margin. You saw an improvement of the EBITDA margin, like for like, and published by more than 300 basis points. As to the operating EBITDA, we try to find, you know, the right level, depending on the amount of investments we want to do to fuel the growth of Head & Head. By the end of the year, you will see an operating EBITDA margin, at least at the same level as the one we had last year. Your 2nd question is the competition in France. You cannot judge the situation in France in 1 quarter. It's double-digit growth. For example, why is it slightly below? It's because we had a huge gift season in Q4 2022, with our leading product that is called Kadéos, the leading gift digital solution in France.
It has been a very good season in Q4 2022. It means that you have a lot of reimbursement volume in Q1. It creates, you know, contribution to the +12%. We go back to a more regular, let's say, growth rate in Q2. It has nothing to do with the competition in France. The market, I remind that the market is vastly under-penetrated. There is room for many players, and we have been growing at double digit for a long time in France, and our market share is increasing year after year. Finally, on the other revenue, can we multiply Q1, H1 by 2 to move to full year? Julien, help us on that.
Yes. Maybe a few comments on that. First, when we look at the performance we did in H1, it's true, it's a very strong performance. Keep in mind that interest rates started to increase last year in Q2. It means that we have a very favorable comparison basis in H1, which will not be the case in H2, and it will not be the case in Europe, because interest rates, as I said, already picked up quite significantly in Q2, Q3, and Q4 last year. Second thing is about what is happening in Latin America. In Brazil, you know, the Selic is at 13.75% today, and we expect the Selic to go down starting in August.
What we expect is a 1stt decrease of 25 basis points in August for the Selic. We will do another good semester in terms of other revenue in H2, but we have a comparison basis that is higher, and we know that interest rates will go down in Brazil.
Thank you, Julien.
Thank you.
Julien.
Julien. Next up, we have André Juillard from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Congratulations for the strong results. Just a few question-
Thank you, André.
Just a question about external growth. You acquired two companies in H1, one pretty big. What is the plan? Could you remind us the guidance you gave at the investor day in terms of external growth, the perspective midterm, and the way you plan to do that? I mean by that, can we expect an acceleration on that side regarding your free cash flow generation, which is really strong, and allows you to accelerate, or will you continue to do step by step?
Okay, André, thank you for your question. What is the plan? The plan is what we said at the Capital Markets Day in October 2022. We said that by 2030, we want to meet the EUR 5 billion mark of revenue. The way we look at that, we say we are EUR 2 billion, we're gonna add a EUR 2 billion additional revenue coming from organic growth, which we love, because organic growth is the only way to make sure that you are fit and competitive. We also recognize that being a platform, we can accelerate and leverage even better the strength of the platform, because we serve 60 million users.
To continue to be the most innovative, to continue to have one step ahead of the competition, we will also accelerate via acquisitions that bring services, reinforcing our mission, which is to be the everyday platform for people at work. We said out of the EUR5 billion, probably EUR1 billion additional revenue will come from acquisitions. Based on that, we also said that Beyond is our plan, we want to go Beyond Food, Beyond Fuel, we gave proportion of where we want to be versus our current portfolio. The acquisition of Reward Gateway and Go Intego is exactly what we announced at the Capital Markets Day. We are moving into the integration, we are moving into the generation of growth and deployment on continental Europe of those acquisitions.
Your question is, Can we expect some acceleration? What you can expect is, yes, you are right, our cash flow generation is very good. To give you an order of magnitude, the acquisition of Reward Gateway was EUR 1.3 billion. You look at our generation of cash flow, probably by the end of the year, our leverage is gonna be around one. If we don't do any acquisition by the end of 2024, it's gonna be very close to zero. Do we have some dry powder? The answer is yes. It's not because we have dry powder, that we will not continue to be very disciplined in terms of strategic rationale.
I.e., we are here to fuel the growth of Edenred via our beyond strategy. You can expect us to continue to be very disciplined on the strategic rationale of our acquisition. You can expect us to continue to be super disciplined on the financial metrics. What is the multiple? What is the payback? What is the IRR? That's things that we are following very closely. What you can expect from Edenred as well, is to be in terms of PMI, we start on time, we finish on time. We do what we say, we say what we do, and we do it in a very collaborative way. With that spirit, yes, we will do some bolt-on acquisition in engagement and benefits to extend our Beyond Food strategy.
Yes, in fleet and mobility, we will continue to do some built-up acquisition in greener B2B mobility. Yes, in corporate payments, we will build up acquisition to further expand in new verticals or extend a long accounts payable automation value chain. To make a long story short, André, what we have been doing quite successfully, we will continue to do it in the coming years.
Thank you for your answer. Just as a follow-up, the 1st feedback on Reward Gateway, is it a good surprise, in line, or right above expectations?
You know, with Reward Gateway, it was a love at first sight, we didn't succeed 2.5 years ago, now we are together. In fact, we are, I would say, between a good surprise and according to the plan. Why? Because we did some extensive due diligence, and due diligence that started, in fact, almost 2.5 years ago. We had time to get to know each other, and we had time to understand that we want to love each other. On that, we are according to the plan. What is good is, first of all, the business is doing super well, in H1 2023. It's good when you start a relationship that you are up to the plan that you sold to your new family.
With growth that is above 30% in all the new and media. That's very good, but it was the plan, but it's always better than it is done. The 2nd thing is I just came back for many rounds of visiting our operating companies around the world to discuss what we call the three-year plan, i.e., what do we want to be three years from now? I had the chance to discuss very extensively with some of our teams, and I can tell you that the level of excitement as to the sales and marketing team and to deploy on continental Europe the magnificent offer of Reward Gateway is super high.
I would say performance, well done, and according to the plan, spirit, i.e., the ability to work together from a cultural point of view, above expectations, and in terms of excitement from Edenred people to adopt the Reward Gateway solutions and to push them on our different distribution channel, super high.
Perfectly clear. Thank you.
Next, we have Harry Martin from Bernstein. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone. First question I have is on the fleet and mobility business in Europe. I mean, it's clear to see you continually adding to the size of the merchant network here in terms of fuel stations, et cetera, but wonder if you can give a bit of an update in terms of where we are on the journey to a complete European network and whether that is still gonna be a priority area for future M&A spend. Then a couple of questions on France. The 1st one is just on the regulations today are temporarily allowing vouchers to be used to purchase grocery as well as food.
I was wondering if you had any quantifiable benefit in terms of higher usage there, and, you know, if that's something that, you know, in the long term, your regulators might be more willing to do if the pilot is successful. Finally, just an update on the French antitrust appeal, which I believe was due in 1st Half of this year. Do you still expect to book that, you know, receivable at some point this year? Thank you very much.
Okay, Harry, thanks for your questions. In France, first of all, the antitrust appeal. In fact, we should get, you know, the answer by November to the latest. What I want to say, for us, it's the past. It's about things that were done 10 years ago. That's the 1st thing. The 2nd thing is we paid the fine. For us, it's part of the past. It's not because it's part of the past that we will not fight like hell, but it's part of the past, but also by November 2023 to the latest.
As to the regulation, in fact, to make things even more precise, there is a temporary regulation that, let's say, widened a little bit the kind of product you have access to, but it's temporary. It's by up to the end of 2023, and the impact on our business is very limited. Whatever the decision of continuing with this temporary decision or stopping doesn't have really significant impact on our business. It's very minor. Fleet and mobility in Europe. As you can see, we did well, in fact, in Europe for the 1st semester. We have a lot of traction on our core product, which is the energy count, so fuel, but also ability to recharge.
We have hundreds of thousands, you know, charge points now that are connected to our car. We are doing that well, but we're also doing well what we call the Beyond Fuel. Beyond Fuel, that's why I took the example of VAT, for example, but I could have talked about telematics and toll. Our Beyond Fuel strategy is, you know, getting some very good traction in Europe. We also get good traction on the SMEs, because you know that we are in the CRT business, but also the mobility business. Mobility business is where we have the biggest reservoir of unpenetrated markets, and our sales and marketing machine is doing well. As to the network, we continue to increase, you know, the sales points of our fleet and mobility solution in Europe.
If you compare the network of UTA Edenred versus our competitors, we have a world-class network in Europe. In itself, it's you know, it's let's say more maintenance than, you know, than a goal, because the size of the network, the location of our sales points is very good. Julien, do you want to add something?
Yeah, it's true. When you look at the market in terms of the network, it really depends on the country. For instance, if we look at what we propose in France, we have the larger network in France, combining both old core networks and retailer networks. We know this is a specificity of the French market. This is an example of country where our network is larger than our competitors.
Where you are right is, a network needs to be managed. You have some entrants and some exiters, depending on the evolution of the economic situation and your clients. That's something we are working on, but I would say it's business as usual.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Harry.
Please be informed, due to time constraints, we only limit to one question to be asked at a time. Next up, we have Johanna Jourdain from ODDO BHF. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. One question for me. Could you please provide us with the assumptions you have been taking to build the upper end and the lower end of the EBITDA fiscal year range? Thank you.
Julien, what are the assumptions?
The assumptions, so Bertrand already talked about what we expect in terms of growth for H2. Beyond the assumptions, you know, we did a very good gift season last year, so the comparison basis in Q4 will be high. If we are able to replicate the great performance we did last year, we should be in the upper range of the forecasts. If we do not succeed in that, maybe we will be at the lower end. Second topic is about the fuel price. You know, fuel price had a big impact in Q2. The level of fuel price in H2 last year was still high.
We don't know where fuel price will stand for the H2 this year. Depending on that, it will have an impact on our performance. I just remind you what we already said, the impact of fuel price on our revenue is 2% for Q2, it has a significant impact on our operating revenue, and obviously, it has a significant impact on our level of EBITDA. These are, for me, the two main drivers that will allow us to be in the lower level of guidance or in the upper level of guidance.
maybe, Julien, can you remind us if we are at EUR 1.02 billion and EUR 1.09 billion, what does it mean in terms of EBITDA growth versus last year?
Yes. If we are at EUR 1.02 billion, it means a growth of around 22% versus last year. If we are at EUR 1.09 billion, it means +30% EBITDA growth versus last year. Anyway, it's a strong double-digit growth for EBITDA this year, for Edenred.
With the consensus that was at 1.02.
Yes.
Thank you.
Next up, we have Mourad Lahmidi from BNP, and then your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Mourad Lahmidi from BNP Paribas. I just had a follow-up question on the financial expenses. There are many moving parts here with the, the swap, the bridge loan, your LP, variability. Very difficult to assess that from an external point of view. Maybe you can give us an order of magnitude of where financial expenses could land for the full year. What will be your cost of debt on a normative basis, let's say, next year? Thank you very much.
Mourad, not an easy question, one more time, as I already explained to the question of Simon. In terms of magnitude, I think that if we come back to basics, maybe it will be the easiest way to look at it. First thing, in terms of cost of debt, if we consider the debt we had at the beginning of the year, and you will find that in our publication, obviously, you can do times 2 versus what we add in H1. This is the 1st thing. It is what we call a aging instruments. On top of that, you can add the Reward Gateway financing cost.
During the publication, we give the number, we said that it was around EUR45 million of financing costs per year. For the 2nd Half of this year, you can take 50% of this amount, and you can add that to the financing cost. These are the two things that are quite easy to predict and to forecast. Regarding the other topics, it's a little bit more complicated, not easy for me to guide. What I can tell you is that in terms of revenue, financial revenue, we get from what I call corporate cash. You know, the cash we have, but which is not float, so we obviously we invest this cash.
I think you can, you can also do an easy computation and double the level we had in H1 for H2. This is it in terms of, I would say, fair tech or asset valuation we have, I cannot guide on that, so it could have an impact. I think that with the few things I told you will be able to forecast a financial cost for H2.
Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll take our last question from Justin Forsythe, from Credit Suisse. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Bertrand, Julien, congrats on the great results. Thank you for letting me on here.
Thank you.
Good to hear from you. Look, just wanted to ask a little bit about the Beyond Food growth algorithm. You know, if I recall back to Capital Markets Day, you talked about the mix decreasing within that business by about 10 points from, I think, 75%-65%, implying that you expected the growth to be multiples higher in Beyond Food compared to the core food and meal. I guess I was wondering, it kinda seems like given face value increases, and, you know, strength in SME, that actually the core food platform is growing, you know, quite significantly at the moment. I guess maybe could you parse through, as it stands now, what's happening so far in 2023, what the respective growth is in each of those different, in each of those different segments within the business?
When do you expect that kind of longer term dynamic to take hold, effectively, call it, I don't know, mid to high single digits, let's say, in food and meal over time, or will that continue?
It's not an easy question, but okay. First of all, on the core food platform, you are absolutely right. Things are rising, you know, faster than what we expected at the Capital Markets Day. Yes, you have the face value increase, but more importantly, due to the gap between the inflation and the salary rise, we have a lot of traction to give back some purchasing power. Due to the fact that I go back, you know, to the macro trends we share together. It's not only a question of face value increase now, because I remind that it's only between 45% and 50% of the countries we operate went through face value increase.
Maybe to summarize my thought, yes, face value increase is contributed to the core food platform growth, but not only. It's also a purchasing power to digitalization and being a worldwide leader, the attractiveness of our solutions. What does it mean for the Beyond Food? It's super good, because in fact, we enlarge our basis of customer, we have more opportunities to cross-sell. How do we fuel the cross-sell? We fuel it by bringing more innovation. Think about the examples I shared with you, in France, also in the Emirates, but also, thanks to the acquisition we did with GOintegro and Reward Gateway, we're gonna leverage this enlarged customer base. What does it mean then for the proportion?
We said that by 2025, we want to move from 74% meal and food to 65%. Moving the Beyond Food from 26% - 35%, and in fact, the objective is still the same. Yes, we are running faster than expected on meal and food. You know what? We will practice, train to run even faster on Beyond Food, because we want to leverage the cross-selling. Reward Gateway is gonna help us a lot. When you look at the growth of Reward Gateway, Reward Gateway in revenue is growing by more than 30%.
Reward Gateway is a beyond food solution, and the growth of Reward Gateway at 30% in H1 2023 is contributing to a higher proportion of beyond food, because unfortunately, we didn't grow at 30% on our benefits product line. Even if it was not bad, huh? Because on benefits, we grew by 23%.
Got it. Got it. Super helpful. Really appreciate the color. Just a quick follow-up there with regards to the guidance. Can you just parse through, that was like, what, an EUR 85 million-EUR 155 million range upgrade? What proportion of that is coming from Reward Gateway, and what is, you know, organic scope increase? Thanks.
Okay, Julien? Well, if we look at the guidance, obviously, you know, we did the acquisition of Reward Gateway 2 months ago, so, the impact of Reward Gateway will be taken into account for only 8 months this year. So, we gave 2 numbers about Reward Gateway profitability and the level of EBITDA that has been delivered by Reward Gateway over the last 2 to 3 years. So, the impact in full year will be in line with what we said in terms of numbers and in terms of growth, as Bertrand said.
I'm sure you would be able to find the right number, knowing that we do not communicate on Reward Gateway standalone. It will be part of benefits and engagement numbers. You will see how it goes, so it will be easy for you to track the performance of Reward Gateway.
Got it. Thank you so much. Congrats again on a great quarter. Cheers.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It appears that there are no question at this time. I would like to turn the conference back to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.
First of all, thank you for being with us today. Second thing is, we are pleased by the results of Edenred, because we have a strong business momentum, and we are positive as to the 2nd part of the year, with a guidance between EUR 1.02 billion and EUR 1.09 billion above the consensus, which represent an EBITDA growth, like for like, of between 22% and 30%. More importantly, when you look at, you know, the drivers of growth, it is well-balanced by geographies, well-balanced by product lines, and it is fueled by mega trends that are super positive for Edenred.
The digitization of the world, the purchasing power issue for all the employers, the ability to attract and retain skilled labor force, but also the ability to control your costs, especially in mobility business, but also the corporate payment business. To make a long story short, we will continue to invest to develop, strengthen our innovation and our unique digital platform. Thanks to that, we are super positive in our ability to generate double-digit growth in the 2nd part of the year, but much more beyond the year 2023. Thank you. Bear with us, and talk to you soon.
That concludes today's conference. Thank you everyone for your participation. You may now disconnect.