Hey and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ELIS half year 2025 results presentation and conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be the question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Xavier Martiré, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon to all participants in Europe and good morning to everyone joining from across the Americas. Welcome to ELIS 2025 half year results presentation. I'm Xavier Martiré, CEO of ELIS, speaking to you from Paris and I'm joined by our CFO Louis Guyot. I will begin with a brief overview of the key highlights from the first half of the year. Then I will hand over to Louis who will walk you through the financial results in detail. After that, I'll return to share our main CSR achievements and provide an update on our outlook for the remainder of 2025. We then open the floor for Q&A session and as always, Nicolas Biron will be available after the call to address any further questions. Before we begin, please take a moment to read the disclaimer.
For the first half of 2025 confirmed ELIS' ability to deliver solid results in a demanding macroeconomic context. Revenue reached EUR 2.34 billion in the first half, up 4.3% including 3.5% organic growth, which is in line with our long term target of 4% when adjusted for minus 0.5 points calendar impact. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 5.1% to EUR 830 million with a margin expansion of plus 30 basis points to 34.7%. Adjusted EBIT rose by plus 3% to EUR 353.8 million with a slight margin decline of 20 basis points to 15.1%. Headline net income per share was up 3%, reaching EUR 4.85 on a fully diluted basis. Free cash flow stood at EUR 31 million and the financial leverage ratio as of June 30, 2025 was down 14 basis points at 1.92 times compared to June 2024.
This performance reflects the strength of our model and the momentum behind our growth drivers, including a strong commercial dynamic supported by new contract wins in the workwear segment, solid performance in hospitality, especially in Q2, positive pricing momentum across all regions, offsetting cost inflation, operational improvements and productivity gains across our operations. Finally, ELIS confirms all of its 2025 financial objectives as communicated last March. Let's now move to slide six which focuses on top line growth drivers in the first half of 2025. With 70% of its business resilient to economic fluctuations and primarily based on fixed fee bidding, ELIS remains firmly focused on its growth strategy. In the first half of 2025 ELIS recorded plus 4.3% top line growth, illustrating once again the effectiveness of its commercial and strategic choices.
Growth was mainly driven by strong commercial momentum in workwear supported by continued outsourcing trends across all geographies both in standard workwear and in clean room. This was further reinforced by the ramp up of additional sales team in high potential countries. Hospitality also performed satisfactorily, especially in France where Q2 benefited from a favorable comparison. Base activity in Southern Europe remained dynamic while the U.K. was more subdued. As anticipated, the calendar effect weighed modestly on organic growth in H1, trimming about 0.5 points. Notably, positive pricing dynamics across all markets help offset the impact of inflation on our cost base. Revenue growth was also supported by a 1.8% contribution from M&A largely stemming from recent acquisitions in Central Europe. Lastly, we recorded the -1% FX impact, mostly due to the depreciation of Latin American currencies.
Let's now turn to slide seven which highlights our long term ambition to replicate the successful French model in terms of footprint, scale, and breadth of services across all our geographies. As local network density increases, we naturally extend our offering to smaller clients. This strategy is already well underway and proving highly effective in markets like in the U.K. and Brazil. We also continue to expand our service portfolio in countries where some of our offerings were not yet available such as pest control and clean room, both of which benefit from strong long term hygiene trends. A clear example of our ability to save targeted opportunities is the recent contract wins in the U.K. and Spain for nursing home linen services, a segment where outsourcing still holds significant untapped potential.
These multiple growth avenues go on in on with the need to scale up our sales force in countries where we see strong organic potential. We remain committed to proactively capturing every opportunity and will therefore continue to invest in local sales team going forward. Let's now take a look at each of our geographies starting with France. France delivered another solid performance in the first half of 2025 with revenue growth at 3.1% which was entirely organic. Growth was supported by good commercial momentum across all end markets with a particularly strong Q2 in hospitality thanks to a favorable comparison base. As in previous periods, pricing adjustments help to offset the impact of inflation of our cost base. Importantly, the EBITDA margin continued to improve, reaching 41.8%, up +90 basis points year- on- year.
This margin improvement was driven by logistics savings and efficiency gains in our workshops, including higher productivity and more efficient use of energy and water. France remained a mature and well-structured geography for ELIS, and we continue to focus on margin improvement through industrial excellence and disciplined commercial execution. Moving on to slide nine, let's focus on Central Europe, which posted strong revenue growth of 8.8% in the first half. Acquisitions played a significant role, contributing +5.7% to regional growth, while organic growth remains solid at 2.6%. Despite the calendar headwind estimated at -0.6% for the region, growth was primarily driven by strong commercial momentum in the Netherlands and the Benelux. The region continues to be highly diversified. Healthcare and industry together account for 70% of the portfolio, followed by trade and services and hospitality.
In Germany, top-line growth was more selective, particularly in the public healthcare segment where we maintain a cautious stance due to the ongoing budgetary constraints within the public healthcare system. On the profitability side, EBITDA margin improved by 100 bps to 32.3%, mainly reflecting lower engineering costs. Sustained operational progress in Germany alone delivered an impressive 240 basis points of margin expansion. Moving on to the next slide, let's now take a look at Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, a region with solid fundamentals but a more challenging environment. In the first half, reported revenue was up 2.6%, including approximately +2% organic growth restated from the calendar effect. Commercial momentum was mixed across geographies. We experienced volume losses in Denmark, where the competitive environment remained particularly intense. By contrast, Norway, Finland, and the Baltics performed well, showing positive trend.
As in other regions, pricing adjustments were more limited due to lower inflation level. In early 2025, a negative calendar effect in Q1 weighed slightly on performance, estimated at minus 0.4% for the region. On the profitability side, the EBITDA margin declined by 50 bps to 34.4%. While Sweden maintained stable margin, Denmark continued to face pressure. Encouragingly, we saw strong margin improvement in the Baltics, confirming the benefits of local operational initiatives. Despite the short-term headwinds, we remain confident in the region's fundamentals and continue to pursue selective growth opportunities, especially where outsourcing potential remains underpenetrated. Moving on to the next slide, let's now turn to the U.K. and Ireland where continued productivity gains supported further margin improvement in the first half, bringing it close to 32%. Reported revenue was up 4%, including 2.8% organic growth, a moderate but solid performance, especially considering the mixed market context.
Commercial momentum remained positive with many new contracts signed in hospitality. However, activity levels among our clients were somewhat subdued in H1, which impacted volumes. The pricing environment was also softer than last year, in line with the lower inflation observed in 2025 compared to 2024. In addition, the region faced a calendar effect of approximately -0.3% on H1 growth. On the positive side, we benefited from the appreciation of the British pound, which added 1.2% FX impact in the first half. Despite this external factor, the ELIS teams continued to improve profitability in the region. The EBITDA margin rose by 80 basis points to 31.9% thanks to effective cost control in workshop and logistics as well as ongoing productivity initiatives. Let's now move on to Latin America, which delivered solid organic growth in the first half.
Despite temporary margin headwinds, momentum across the region remains strong with 7.3% organic growth, once again confirming Latin America's role as a key growth engine. In Brazil, organic growth was close to 10%, supported by strong performance in healthcare, effective churn management, and continued commercial success in workwear including clean room services. Mexico posted mid-single-digit organic growth. Also, some contract tenders were delayed toward the end of the half. These tenders have since been secured and will start contributing to growth in the second half. However, revenue was significantly impacted by currency depreciation, particularly in Brazil and Mexico, resulting in a -13.2% FX impact and a reported revenue decline of -5.9%. On the profitability side, the EBITDA margin declined by 220 bps to 32.5%.
This was partly due to some one-off items, including recent government measures such as minimum wage increases, reduced working hours, and the introduction of new labor premiums, many of which have not yet been fully reflected in our pricing. In addition, operational performance in Brazil could have been stronger in the first half. That said, we expect margin stabilization in the second half versus the second half of last year, supported by ongoing commercial renegotiations and continued productivity initiative. We now conclude our geographic review on slide 13 with Southern Europe, which posted strong commercial momentum and a stable margin in the first half. Reported revenue increased by +9.5%, including +6.2% organic growth, confirming our strong performance in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
Growth was driven by continued outsourcing momentum in workwear with new contract wins, including in clean room, good activity in hospitality, which remains the dominant segment in the region, and a solid performance in pest control supported by past bolt-on acquisition. We also benefited from the integration of Carson and Bugaderia Nutral SL in Spain, which added +3.2% to the regional growth in H1. On the profitability side, the EBITDA margin came in at 31.8%, virtually stable year- on- year, down just 10 bps. This was due to an unfavorable calendar effect in the region. Looking ahead, we expect the full year margin to improve, supported by continued volume growth and operational leverage. Moving on to the next slide to conclude on M&A, the group continued to execute its targeted bolt-on acquisition strategy, with M&A contributing +1.8% to revenue growth in the first half.
Since the beginning of the year, four recently announced acquisitions have further strengthened our presence in key geographies and strategic market segments. In Spain, we acquired Carson, a plant located near Madrid and focused on high-end hospitality clients. The company generated around EUR 10 million in revenue in 2024. Also in Spain, Bugaderia Nutral SL, located south of Barcelona and dedicated to the hospitality market, delivered approximately EUR 12 million in revenue last year. In Germany, we acquired Ernst Wäscherei, which operates two plants serving flat linen needs for healthcare and hospitality customers across southern Germany and northwest Austria. One of the two sites is new and offers significant spare capacity. The company generated nearly EUR 20 million in 2024 revenue. Finally, in Switzerland, we acquired Bodensee, which runs two plants covering central and eastern regions, serving both hospitals and hotels.
The business generated EUR 27 million in revenue in 2024, and we anticipate significant logistics and industrial synergies. These acquisitions are fully aligned with our bolt-on strategy, reinforcing local density, targeting high potential segments, and creating long-term value through operational integration. With that, I will now hand over to Louis Guyot, who will provide more detail on our H1 2025 financial performance.
Thank you, Xavier. Good afternoon, everyone. Moving on to the next slide, let's first take a look at this chart, which we like to show regularly. It illustrates the evolution of ELIS revenue and EBITDA margin over more than two decades, and it's fair to say that recent years have clearly confirmed the resilience and profitability of our business model. This resilience relies on two main pillars. First, a well-diversified geographical footprint, with France now representing less than 1/3 of revenue, and second, a broad and balanced client base diversified both by sector and client size. It's also worth highlighting that this profile has been further strengthened by our expansion into Latin America and the acquisition of Berensain, which structurally enhanced our growth potential and stability.
Looking at the graph, you can see that EBITDA margin has remained consistently high, fluctuating within a narrow range even through major discrepancies like the global financial crisis, COVID-19 recession, and energy crisis following the war in Ukraine. Remember that figures from 2019 onwards also include the IFRS 16 impact. Another key strength is how linear investments adjust automatically to top line trends. As we saw in 2020, when revenue slows, investments drop mechanically, which preserves cash generation, and that brings us to free cash flow. Over the last five years, it has risen steadily from EUR 186 million in 2019 to nearly EUR 350 million in 2024, and we expect this upward trajectory to continue going forward. Moving on to the next slide, let me walk you through the usual revenue breakdown by activity, market, and geography, which illustrates ELIS's highly diversified and well-balanced profile.
Whichever angle you look at—activity, customer segment, or geography—you'll see that ELIS is not dependent on any single category, which is a key strength, especially in times of macro uncertainty. By activity, revenue is split across flat linen 46%, workwear 37%, and agent wellbeing 17%, a mix that reflects the breadth of our service offering. On the market side, we serve four major end markets: Healthcare 30%, Industry 27%, Hospitality 25%, and Trade Service 18%. Each segment is driven by different fundamentals and offers complementary growth drivers, adding to our model's overall stability. On looking at geography, France represents only 30% of group revenue. The rest shows a solid balance between mature regions like Central Europe, U.K., Scandinavia, and more dynamic regions such as Latin America and Southern Europe, which offer strong growth potential. This well-balanced diversification is no coincidence.
It is a result of a disciplined long-term strategy supported by marketing, commercial execution, and targeted M&A. Moving on to the next slide, let's now take a look at revenue growth and EBITDA margin by geography. As Xavier Martiré mentioned, the total revenue growth of 4.3% includes 1.8% from M&A and -1% from forex, mainly due to the depreciation of currencies in Latin America. All in all, organic growth was 3.5% or approximately 4% when restated for the -50 bps of negative calendar effect in H1. In a nutshell, top line is supported by commercial developments on the back of our three-dimension strategy: product, market, size of clients. You see that particularly in Latin America and Southern Europe. Second, hotels activity was good in France, Spain, and Portugal but low in U.K., and third, adverse calendar affected particularly Central Europe, Scandinavia, and U.K..
For margin, that's another strong semester where no zones stand significantly below 32%. In a nutshell, very good productivity performance everywhere, energy aging impacting more or less the regions, somewhat underlined by Xavier Martiré, like the calendar effect in Southern Europe and lag to pass staff inflation in Latin America. Let's now take a look at the full P&L for 1H 2025. Revenue reached EUR 2.34 billion, up 4.3% year- on- year. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 5.1% to EUR 813.8 million with a margin of 34.7%, up 30 bps. I will provide more details on this in the next slide, but depreciation expenses represented 19.6% of revenue, up from 19.2% in H1 2024. This resulted in a slight 20 bps decline in EBIT margin to 15.1% of revenue, which stood at EUR 353.8 million, up 3% year on year.
Now, below EBIT, the main items below EBIT and the operating income are non-current operating income and expense, which amounted to -EUR 7.7 million, which is a standard amount for operational one-off like litigation or restructuring cost. In 2024, you remember that we had around EUR 32 million of earnout revaluation and the EUR14.8 million IFRS 2 expenses, which correspond to the accounting treatment of performance share plans, rose to EUR 21.1 million compared to EUR 12.5 million last year. This increase is linked to the three-year rise in ELIS' share price impacting LTIP valuation, but also to the higher employer contribution rate in France, rising from 20%- 30% following recent government decisions and social policy as set out in the 2025 Social Security Financing Act. Last, amortization of intangible assets from past acquisitions was stable at EUR 43.4 million as it is mostly linked to the 2017 acquisition of Behrensen and Lavibras.
As a result, operating income increased by 13.6% to EUR 280.5 million. Below operating income, the net financial expense was EUR 64.9 million, roughly stable compared to H1 2024. Higher interest charges due to more expensive refinancing conditions in 2025 were offset by around EUR 7 million reduction in accretion expense following the final payment of the earnout related to the 2022 Mexican acquisition. Income tax expense came in at EUR 63.1 million, also stable year- on- year. The effective tax rate decreased significantly to 29.3% as of 06-30-2025, down from 34.3% a year earlier. This drop is mainly explained by the absence in 2025 of material non-tax-deductible adjustments related to earnout revaluations which had impacted the 2024 base. Please note also that it encompassed EUR 5.4 million of French 2025 overtax compensated by the deductibility of the share buyback serving LTIP.
Finally, net income rose sharply by 28.6%, reaching EUR 152.5 million compared to EUR 118.5 million in H1 2024. Moving on to the next slide, let me focus on the evolution of D&A as promised. As you know, linen CapEx is two-thirds of the total CapEx and it is depreciated on three years only. It means that in case of linen CapEx perturbation, the whole group depreciation can be affected. That is the case in the recent years as shows the yellow curve at COVID in linen CapEx is very low, that's 2020 and 2021. There came a sharp rebound in year 2022 and 2023 driven by both inflation and catch-up effects. Since mid-2024, linen CapEx is nearly stable in Euro and much lower in percentage of sales and at the same time the revenue has developed quite fast. 2025 revenue shall be 25% above 2022, 45% above 2019.
It means that the depreciation ratio to sales, which is a blue line, is at the worst in H1 2025 and will go down in the coming semesters. Moving on to the next slide, let's now take a look at the H1 2025 fully diluted headline net income per share or EPS. As usual, the main restatements to get to headline net income include the amortization of intangible assets recognized in past acquisitions, IFRS two expenses which corresponds to non-cash cost of performance share plans, and non-current operating income and expenses which were particularly high in H1 2024 due to the revaluation of the Mexican earnout and its related accretion impact on the financial result in H1 2025. We also restated the extraordinary surcharge on French corporate tax which applies only to the 2025 fiscal year.
All in, headline net income for the first half stands at EUR 213.2 million, up 2.6% year- on- year. This translates into EUR 0.91 per share on a basic basis and EUR 0.85 on a fully diluted basis, both up 3%. The fully diluted figure reflects the potential impact of performance share plans and convertible bond, in which case the corresponding interest expense is restated in line with IFRS methodology. As you know, we started the share buyback in March only, so the impact of this program is smooth in the beginning of GPS, especially as we served the performance plan in April this year. Moving on to the next slide, let's now review our free cash flow performance for H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA came in at EUR 813.8 million, up 5% year- on- year. Like I said, remains the starting point of forecast generation.
As usual, we adjust for non-recurring items, IFRS 2 social charge, which include the increase in employer contribution rates mentioned earlier. This brings us to a pre-CapEx cash flow of EUR 796.9 million, up 4.6% year on year. Net CapEx stood at EUR 431.8 million or 18.4% of revenue against 19.2% last year, reflecting the low level of linen CapEx due to better control on linen and positive inflation. Change in working capital requirement was negative at EUR 113 million, typical first half pattern compared to H1 2024. The increase is mainly due to suppliers' payment calendar and a bit of stocking to improve lead time delivery of workwear to clients. Net interest paid rose EUR 7 million to EUR 66 million, reflecting higher refinancing cost in 2024 and 2025. Tax paid amounted to EUR 67.7 million, pretty similar to H120 24 level due to the drivers I mentioned with the P&L tax.
Lease liabilities payments totaled EUR 87.3 million, including both principal and interest. The increase versus last year is mainly due to the electrification of our vehicle fleet and the replacement of previously owned vehicles. You understand it is a balance with the CapEx line. All in, free cash flow came to EUR 31 million for the first half, impacted by seasonal effects on working capital but fully in line with our full year trajectory. Below free cash flow, we see the deployment of our capital allocation policy. First, M&A related outflows of around EUR 70 million, adding the first three line mainly linked to bolt-ons and EUR 20 million for the last Mexican earnout payment. Second, the EUR 105 million dividend paid in May, full in cash. Third, EUR 84 million of equity related outflows, mainly related to the share buyback program which has reached nearly 4 million shares by end of June.
The line "other" is mainly non-cash items impacting the net debt via accounting. As a negative, there are the fees depreciation and convertible option depreciation which are both recurrent, minus EUR 7 million. As a positive, this year can go both ways. The accrued interest for EUR 22 million and also as a positive this year, the USPP dollar currency translation for EUR 45 million. You remember it was negative last year. As a result, net financial debt stood at EUR 3,207,000,000 end of June compared to EUR 3,038,000,000 end of 2024 and EUR 3,232,000,000 mid 2024. Moving on to the next slide, let's look at the debt in detail. In line with our strategy, the debt is well spread between 2026 and 2035, mostly at a fixed rate. We are rated investment grade by the three rating agencies with a lot of headroom.
Now, the current average cost of debt is 2.8%, average maturity three years. Going forward, we will of course remain opportunistic about potential refinancing. Moving on to the next slide, the group's net financial leverage ratio at the end of June continued to decline year on year, 0.14 times compared to last year. Significant reduction in financial leverage since 2020 reflects both strong EBITDA growth and steady net debt reduction. As a reminder, the ratio had been temporarily impacted by the COVID hit in 2020, but since then deleveraging has accelerated. Looking ahead, we expect a further reduction of around 0.1 times by the end of 2025 compared to 2024, in line with our capital allocation policy, which Xavier Martiré will return to later in this presentation. Let's wrap up with the key financial takeaways for 1H 2025.
First, organic revenue was up 3.5% despite a slightly negative calendar effect, driven by continued strong commercial momentum and outsourcing trends across our markets. Second, our adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 30 bps, reflecting ongoing productivity gains on more favorable energy purchasing conditions. Third, headline net income reached EUR 213 million, up 2.6%, and headline EPS came in at EUR 0.85 per share on a fully diluted base basis, up 3% year- on- year. Finally, free cash flow for the first half is fully in line with the full year trajectory, confirming the strength of our cash generation model. With that, I will now hand back to Xavier, who will give you an update on our CSA achievements in the first half.
Thank you, Louis. Let me now take a few moments to walk you through our key corporate social responsibility achievements for the first half of 2025 on slide 27. First, on the left, we focus on circular economy initiatives. In 2024, we conducted a comprehensive life cycle analysis of our workwear to better understand the environmental impact of our products and to support transparency and stakeholder engagement. We also launched the environmental calculator in January 2025, which allows anyone to explore and quantify the environmental savings from using our services. This tool has already recorded over 2,300 visits across all our markets, showing strong stakeholder engagement. As you can see, this tool illustrates the positive impact of washing workwear at ELIS with savings in CO2, water, energy, and waste. Also worth highlighting is our continued progress on circular product design.
We have extended our Workwear to Workwear project, which uses 60% end-of-life ELIS products to create new garments. In January, we launched a new item in the chef jacket on the right. A few additional CSR highlights: We maintain our strong focus on workplace safety with a 30% reduction in accident frequency between May 2024 and May 2025. We continue to green our fleet. Seventy-five additional electric EV trucks are expected in France by year end, supporting our decarbonization goals. This year's engagement survey saw a record participation rate of 88%, and satisfaction rose by 2 points to 73%. Importantly, 74% of employees believe ELIS is actively engaged in CSR, which reinforces the impact of our collective efforts. Finally, the ELIS Foundation extended its reach to two more countries, Germany and Portugal.
Overall, these milestones reflect the strength and maturity of our CSR strategy, which supports both business resilience and our long-term commitments to people and the planet. Moving on to the next slide, this illustrates how our CSR performance continues to be acknowledged by several leading non-financial rating agencies. Thanks to our concrete actions and our circular economy business model, our already high ratings have continued to improve across the board. ELIS is included in the CDP A List following the Climate Questionnaire. This is a major milestone as only 2% of the 24,800 companies assessed globally receive an A rating. It highlights both the strength of our business model in addressing environmental challenges and our ongoing commitment to tackling climate change. We also maintain our A rating from MSCI, reflecting consistent ESG engagement. Our first analytics score rates ELIS as low risk.
EcoVadis awarded us a score of 80 out of 100, a gold medal level, placing ELIS among the top 5% of 125,000 assessed companies. Finally, our EthiFinance rating, formerly Gaia, was maintained at gold level with an improvement of two points, now reaching 75 out of 100. Taken together, these results are strong recognition of our strategy and, above all, of the dedication and day-to-day commitment of our teams across the group. Before we turn to our 2025 outlook, a reminder of some of the main takeaways from the Capital Markets Day we hosted in London in May. The webcast replay of the event is available online for those who wish to revisit the full presentation. During the event, the management team reaffirmed the Group's long-term strategy and strong fundamentals.
Built on a proven business model combining operational excellence with commercial strength, ELIS operates in recurring revenue markets with significant barriers to entry, which reinforce its market leadership and provide strong resilience over time. The business is also well aligned with ESG-driven expectations thanks to its circular rental model and tangible contribution to client decarbonization and resource efficiency. In terms of growth, ELIS continues to benefit from numerous organic opportunities in its existing geographies, with additional potential for selective expansion into new countries. The Group also offers a solid outlook for continued growth in revenue, margin, and cash flow, and we will detail this medium-term financial trajectory on the next slide. Deleveraging is well advanced and ongoing, allowing ELIS to maintain financial flexibility while enhancing shareholder returns through a balanced capital allocation policy.
Moving to slide 31, let's now take a look at our medium-term financial objectives as presented at the Capital Markets Day. Over the 2025-2028 period, ELIS targeted annual revenue growth of 5%- 6% at constant exchange rates, with roughly +4% from organic growth and +1% to +2% from bolt-on acquisitions. In line with our proven M&A strategy, we also expect to deliver average annual EBITDA margin improvement of around +20 basis points, reflecting our ongoing efforts in productivity and operating leverage. We also anticipate that EBIT and EPS will grow faster than revenue, supported by margin expansion and good control of non operating costs. Finally, we aim to generate approximately EUR 1.5 billion of cumulative free cash flow over the period, representing a 35% increase versus the previous four years.
These targets reflect the strength and stability of our business model and our confidence in delivering profitable and sustainable growth over the long term. Moving on to the next slide, ELIS also reaffirmed its capital allocation policy, first introduced with the release of our 2024 full year results last March. This policy is structured around three clear priorities. First, ELIS will continue to pursue its targeted bolt-on M&A strategy with an annual investment envelope of EUR 50 million to EUR 150 million, fully aligned with our strategy of consolidating local positions and densifying our network. Second, we remain committed to maintaining our investment credit rating with further deleveraging expected, so this will be limited to around 0.1 time per year. Finally, the remaining cash will be allocated to enhancing shareholder returns either through special dividends or share buybacks, depending on market conditions and opportunities.
The disciplined approach ensures a balanced use of cash supporting both growth and shareholder value creation. As announced in March and in line with our updated capital allocation policy, ELIS launched a EUR 150 million share buyback program for 2025, reflecting our strong balance sheet and our view that the group's current valuation does not fully capture its strength and long term potential. This buyback comes in addition to the EUR 0.45 dividend per share for the 2024 financial year, which was paid on May 28 and represents a 5% increase year on year. The buyback program began on March 6, 2025 and may run through December 15. It serves two purposes. The first portion of shares will be used to cover maturing LTIPs which benefit approximately 600 managers across the group and to support the employee share ownership plan planned for H2 2025.
The remaining and larger portion of repurchased shares will be cancelled, contributing to an overall reduction in the share count and enhancing long term shareholders value. As of June 30, 2025, nearly 4 million shares have been bought back at a weighted average price of EUR 22 for a total cash out of EUR 87 million. Finally, turning to slide 34, a word on our 2025 outlook and following this solid set of functions first half results, we are reaffirming the objectives first presented last March. Organic revenue growth is still expected to come in slightly below 4%, reflecting a calendar impact of approximately -0.3% for the full year. We anticipate modest improvement across all key profitability and cash flow indicators: adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted EBIT margin, fully diluted headline net income per share, and free cash flow.
Lastly, we expect the financial leverage ratio to decrease by around -0.1 time by year end 2025, in line with the capital allocation policy just outlined. These expectations confirm our ability to deliver consistent profitable growth while maintaining financial discipline and continuing to enhance shareholders' returns. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention and we are now happy to take your questions. Operator, back to you.
Thank you so much. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one on e again, please. Bow will compile the Q & A queue. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question. The question comes from the line of Anneliese Mermoulen from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please ask your questions.
Hi, good evening. I have two questions, please. Firstly, you mentioned positive pricing across all geographies, offsetting cost base inflation. Could you quantify the price contribution to growth for the first half and for the second quarter, and perhaps comment on which geographies you're seeing the most pronounced cost base inflation? It sounds like LATAM would be top of the list, but if you could elaborate on that, that would be great. Secondly, you mentioned ongoing subdued client activity in the U.K. in hospitality. How has this developed so far in Q3, and what are your expectations more generally for that going into the second half? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. Pricing and volume, if we exclude the calendar effect, pricing and volume are more or less the same. Half for the situation in 2025. You're perfectly right, the geographies where we see the biggest impact of cost inflation is Latin America. You know that we operate in four countries with a lefty government now, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. Those governments have decided some strong measures for workers. It's not only a question of cost per hour, but also in some countries they have decided to decrease the number of working hours per week. It is clearly the geographies where we have seen the biggest level of inflation of our cost, U.K. as we said. What you have seen is, globally speaking, an activity that was quite weak for hospitality in Q2.
Nevertheless, the activity has been much better in July and it is a trend that we see quite everywhere. It's for us good news. The season starts very well because the level of activity is quite good everywhere. It is good in the U.K., it's still super good in France. It's also not so bad in Nordics and it remains super strong also in Southern Europe. We are quite happy with the volume that we have seen in our plants in July. It's just the beginning of the summer. Nevertheless, it starts very well.
Thank you. Just to follow up on that LATAM point you mentioned, you expect the margin in LATAM to stabilize. I assume part of that is also getting that cost-based inflation under control. Could you clarify what you mean by stabilization and when do you expect that margin to recover to previous levels in LATAM specifically? Thank you.
What we have in mind when we say stabilization in H2 is we have seen a decline in H1. In H2 we expect the same level of margins on 2024. That means that more or less, instead of having -200 bps for the first semester, you can say that normally we should have only - 100 for the first full year and stabilization in the second semester. It is linked to several topics. First one, of course we will implement progressively and we have implemented proactively some price increase to offset this impact of huge inflation of the cost of workers. It's not the only reason we are not super satisfied with the performance in productivity in Brazil in H1. We have seen how we can improve and how we have started to improve this productivity. That's why we are more confident for the second semester.
We have also a nice impact that will come in the second semester in Mexico. In Mexico we have some super big public hospitals tender, quite sizable, that has been postponed in the first semester. It's a super profitable contract. We have now won this tender and it is massive. We will have not only nice growth in the second semester thanks to this tender, but it will be also super profitable for the region because we have won the tender with super good prices. If we take into account those three topics, we are comfortable to say that the margin in H2 will come back to the margin of 2024.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Xavier.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The question comes to the line of Ben Wilde from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, good evening everybody. Three questions from my side, please. Firstly, in H1 CapEx is flat year- on -year, broadly flat. Anyway, do you expect that to be the case in H2 as well? Maybe, Louis, if you can just expand on the chart that's in the presentation pack. The clear direction of travel with respect to linear investments is on a downward trajectory. Is that going to continue, do you think, in 2026 and 2027 or will it start to stabilize next year? Second question is on Scandinavia. In 2018 and 2019, Scandinavia delivered EBITDA margins above the level that you delivered in France. Now there's a 750 basis point gap between the two. Can you talk about what's going on in that geography and scope to recover margin over time? Over what time period would you expect to recover margin?
Do you think that you can get back to the levels of profitability that you have previously? Then a kind of third question. On Southern Europe you did 6% organic growth, but margins are broadly flat in Southern Europe. Why are you not generating operating leverage on what looks like fairly decent volume growth? Are you in a kind of investment phase to drive growth in the region or is there something else going on in H1?
Thank you.
Okay, thank you Ben, for your question. We start with Scandinavia. Probably it was slightly in 2018 and 2019, but it is not the sole point that we can highlight. I think if we try to summarize what happened over the period, the last six years, globally speaking, the mix of growth has been quite unfavorable. We see that we have more growth in flat linen in this area, in Sweden and Denmark mainly, and less growth in mats and uniform. At the end, it has an impact on the margin environment improvement because in those two countries the margin for flat linen is significantly below the margin for workwear and mats. Globally speaking, we are so big in those countries that are quite small and the total market is not super big.
Denmark, you have 5 - 6 million inhabitants only, and we deliver 200 ft, something like this, with a market share of 50%. That means that the potential of organic growth is limited. The operating leverage is also limiting. That is why, to the second part of your question, do we expect to see recovery of the margin in Scandinavia? I don't think that it is cautious enough to bet on this for the future. When we did the exercise of business plan for the next two to three years, what we have in our books now for Scandinavia is more stability of the EBITDA margin. Even for the full year, you will see that globally speaking, I think that the second semester will be better and we can expect a kind of stability or super small decline perhaps, but not a lot.
For the years to come, we will stabilize the margin in Scandinavia at a good level. We are more or less close to or at the level of the group, so it's a decent level of margin as we don't have a lot of growth in volume. The beauty of these countries is in cash because we are not forced to put a lot of CapEx there. The level of investment is limited and at the end it's a pure cash co profile. Not a lot of potential of growth, stability of the EBITDA margin, and super good level of cash flow. It is more or less what you can expect from Scandinavia in the years to come. Southern Europe, for me, the analysis is much more positive than Scandinavia. You have some one-off also in the 2024 first semester.
In Spain, we received some subsidies regarding energy in Q1 2024. When you compare H1 to H1, it does have quite an important impact. Otherwise we are improving the margin, and I have absolutely no doubt about the full year margin of Southern Europe that will increase quite significantly. Of course, we will benefit from the growth, and the margin in Southern Europe will improve significantly. We have also, as we try to highlight, it's quite technical, but in Portugal we charge and we invoice by week, and the end of June was super favorable for the top line and immediately for the margin. Of course, we have seen in the first day of July the recovery of this. That's why all in Southern Europe does not represent any kind of issue. We are super happy with intrinsic performance in H1 in Southern Europe.
As I said, I repeat, the margin for the full year will significantly improve.
Coming to the first question, Ben, what you've seen in the first half, the super good news is that the linen CapEx, as you've seen, has strongly declined since one or two years ago. It started mid 2024. That, due to better control, better process, and positive inflation balance between linen on the top line, we are now in the 12.5% region where we were previously, as a member, up to 13.6% in the very strong curve. That is what is very well described on the slide with the chart with the CapEx on the depreciation year per year so far. That's very good news. It means that linen are under control, and of course it forecasts pretty well the future CapEx.
If the inflation balance still remains at this good level for linen, it means that indeed the CapEx may be in the bracket, EUR 85 million, EUR 80.5 million to EUR 90 million onwards. It means also that mechanically the only linen depreciation impact shall drive the total depreciation done after 2025, which probably will be the worst year for depreciation to sell. The ratio may be in the region of 19.4%, but after that it shall recede progressively in the coming years. That is underlined by the yellow line in the chart described during the webcast.
Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The question comes from the line of Simona Sarli from Bank of America. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yes, good evening and thanks for taking my question. It is a follow-up actually in part related to what you have already discussed, but you are reiterating today the EBIT margin improvement guidance. Could we discuss in more detail what are the key drivers that should support a margin improvement of at least 30 basis points in the second half, especially if we consider that in theory the flat margin in Latin America will be barely 20 basis points of data? What will the rest be coming from? Again, reconnecting to your D&A, what are your expectations specifically for the second half? Thank you.
What we mentioned is that.
EBITDA.
Is not the point here as we had a decent improvement in EBITDA margin in first half, and you understand that the guidance drives to more or less some kind of improvement for the full year. It means it all works on the depreciation and especially the linen depreciation. The chart I discussed with Ben just before, you can fine tune that even more closely semester by semester because the shift happened in mid 2024 in the linen CapEx. It means that when I said that depreciation to sales is at the worst in 2025 exactly, it is at the worst in H1 2025. It means that H2 2025 will be much more favorable, and you will see a depreciation to sales ratio much better in the second half. For the full year I mentioned earlier a ratio in the circa 19.5%.
Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to the next question and it comes from the line of Christoph Greulich from Berenberg. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good evening, and thank you for your presentation and for taking my questions.
It's two from my side, please. The first one is regarding your statement in the press release.
Close to 70% of your revenue is less exposed to economic cycles. Could you just clarify the methodology with which you arrived at this number?
What exactly is included in the remaining?
30% that are more exposed? Secondly, if you could provide some color on the M&A pipeline for the second half of the year. Thank you.
Methodology, it's quite simple. We have just excluded the hospitality part that represents more or less 25% to 30% depending on the quarters. For the rest, as you know, the level of exposure to the cycle is super limited. With ELIS health care, by definition no cycle. We resist super well. For trade and services and workwear, two subjects. First one, we have a large part of the business that is more in line with businesses like services provider that are not impacted by any kind of crisis. Super important is the way we charge because it is a monthly fixed fee, whatever is the level of activity of the customer at the end. It is the reason why, by the way, this semester is another demonstration of this resilient business model. The level of growth in Europe in our market is super limited.
Despite this super low level of GDP growth in Europe, we have been able, if you exclude the calendar effect, to deliver the long-term commitment of the group, the 4% of organic growth. I will not say that we are totally immune to any major recession. Of course not. You know that it is the beauty of our business model. We are protected. If you remember the last big crisis in Europe, 2008, instead of delivering 2% of growth, we delivered zero in a context where we were more exposed with portfolio of activity in countries less balanced than what we have today. In 2008 we had 90% of the business in France only. Now we have half a billion in LATAM , mainly with health care. No impact on any kind of recession in Europe, of course.
That is why we say that we have a large part of our business that is not totally affected by any kind of recession. As I said, it's not only some words. I think that figures that we deliver this semester demonstrate again the resilient profile of ELIS. For M&A, we have a nice pipe with quite some opportunity of bolt-on in majority of countries where we operate. Nothing new as always, majority of flatlinen. It's quite classical in our industry. You will find much more family business oriented in flatlinen and in almost all geographies where we operate. We have some opportunity and some ongoing discussion, in some cases super well advanced, where we shall close before the end of the year. It will be at the end a good year of bolt-on.
We said probably close to the EUR 80 million-100 million additional revenue thanks to the acquisition of the year. It is what we will probably deliver. A nice pipe.
Very clear.
Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one. We are going to take our next question. Just give us a moment. The question comes from the line of Ollie Davies from Rothschild & Co. Redburn. Your line is open. Please ask a question.
Thanks.
Yep.
Good evening. Just a couple from me. Firstly, can you talk about how customer retention trended in the first half and any changes you've seen in customer behavior in the second quarter? The second one, I guess on growth, you obviously made a pretty significant investment in the sales force last year. Can you give some color on how that's ramping, and any regions where you've made any further investments this year, next?
For customer behavior, no major change. Of course they are concerned by the macro situation. By chance they need absolutely a service that is absolutely essential for them. Despite some example where they can afford to stop a contract for what is not totally essential, like mats or water cooler, it is just anecdote. For the rest, the service that we provide, flat linen for hotels or clinics, or uniform for industry is totally key. We have not seen any major change in the behavior of customer. Same outcome, outsource trend because you know that during crisis you are more focused on your cost base and they know that they can make some saving by outsourcing. Same trend in terms of investment in new sales. It is a kind of regular level of investment and we have more or less the same level in euro every year.
It will depend year- on- year, we will select some new end market depending on our priorities. For instance, we have decided to be more aggressive on the pest control in Netherlands or Belgium, and then we have added some position there. We know that we are super successful with a small customer in Brazil or in U.K.. We have decided this year to add some position there. For instance, we see also some success in hospitality in Germany or in the U.K., and this year we have decided to reinforce our position there. We can say that it is a regular investment in additional salesforce so that at the group level it's more or less the same level of classical investment year- on- year.
Every year we decide as part of the exercise of a business plan that we conduct with all our managers, country manager, to decide where we split this investment.
Great, thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press on your telephone keypad. Dear speakers, there are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Xavier Martiré, for any closing remarks.
Thank you again for your interest. For ELIS, super happy as you can imagine, with the resilience of our performance. We are perfectly on track with the long term commitment of the group with 4% organic growth, despite the calendar effect and the regular improvement of everything. It's time to wish you a wonderful summer that, as I said, starts quite well in terms of activity for ELIS. Bye bye.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.