Hello, and welcome to the Teleperformance first quarter 2022 revenue call. My name is Jess, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to your host, Olivier Rigaudy, Deputy CEO and Group CFO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Good evening, good morning, everyone, and thank you for all your presence today. I'm very happy to be with you through this call to comment on our Teleperformance Group review as of end of March 2022 and outlook for the full year. I'm hosting this call from Paris with Investor Relations team, whom you know very well. Our primary comment to make before starting the presentation.
Thank you, Olivier. Hello, everyone. Financial press release related to the first quarter 2022 revenue has been published today at 5:45 P.M. Paris time. Slides of the presentation are available on the Teleperformance website in the Financial Publications page of the Investor Relations section. As usual, the presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. A replay of the conference call will be available tonight. Dialing numbers are available in the invitation to the presentation. Today's call contains forward-looking statements that address our expected future performance and thus, by their nature, address matters that are uncertain. These expectations are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
For a detailed description of these factors and uncertainties, please refer to the Risk Controls section in our 2021 universal registration documents available on Teleperformance website. Now I give the floor to Olivier.
Thank you, Quy. Let's start on the first slide, which is on page 3 of the presentation. I just wanted to start by saying that the first quarter performance was a great deal of year-on-year growth, and totally in line with the 2022 annual guidance. Concerning digital revenue came at EUR 1,962 million for Q1 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, 6.5% at constant exchange rate and scope of consolidation. Of course, 14.6% as reported. The recent acquisition of Health Advocate and Senture in the United States made a significant contribution to the group expansion during the quarter. Like-for-like growth was particularly strong given the negative but expected impact of the change in revenue from COVID support contract, down EUR 83 million in Q1.
Adjusted from this non-recurring impact, LFL growth, like-for-like growth, sorry, stood at 11.1%. This is clearly a very good achievement and clearly and I just wanted to mention one thing, and I'll come back later on, 11% is of course coming after a further growth of a previous growth of last year, which was, if you exclude like-for-like growth, 20%. We are on top of the 20% that growth of last year excluding COVID, we are posting today an 11.1% growth. Let's move to the next slide just to give you much more detail on the growth itself. We thought it was needed, as proof for you to have this slide in, instead of being excluded online.
There was a currency effect. I am on page four. There was a currency effect of EUR 54 million mainly coming from the dollar, but to a lesser extent from the pound sterling and the Euro. As you see, we had a decrease of an impact of the COVID support line evolution, which is negative by EUR 83 million, while the like-for-like growth excluding this COVID support contract is EUR 197 million, meaning 11.1% like-for-like. On top of that, we have the change in scope, which is EUR 82 million, which are from Health Advocate that is acquired on the first of July last year, and Senture from January 2022.
This is a way, this is how the sales have been, I would say, analyzed. If you move now to the following page, which is probably the most interesting one, is to see how we make a breakdown between the like-for-like growth and the like-for-like growth excluding impact from COVID support. As you can see, we are here in 2022 for the first quarter, and accelerating, we have a continued strong dynamic, in 2022, despite this very high comparative.
In Q1, it was of course like-for-like 36%, which is absolutely amazing, but also 20% like-for-like excluding impact from COVID support contract. Again, as I told you, we are posting 11.1% growth on the 20% growth that was achieved last year. The growth is accelerating, the trend of the growth is accelerating versus the pre-crisis growth. Let's move into detail now by region on page six of the presentation. As you can see, Core Services grew by 5.4% like-for-like, with, and I come back after in detail in each region. What are the three topics or three takeaways of this first quarter announcement?
Clearly accelerating market digitization, the recovery in travel and trade sector and the COVID supporting contract, which are down in Q1, mainly in RAP and in EMEA. This growth of 11%, for the whole group, has been achieved despite the global environment, which is at least complex, may never be so complex for Teleperformance, but we have been able to swallow it. It's true also for Specialized Services, where we've been able to post a 15.5% growth. Of course, you have the impact of the TLS contract business, but clearly favorable business comparison last year, but also LLS and debt collection is doing well again in this quarter. There are the figures that have been achieved.
Let's move now. I would say region by region to get a much more precise deep dive into it. Let's move to the English world. The growth, the like-for-like growth is 1.8% versus last year. In fact, if you take away the COVID line, the growth is double digits. Because U.K., there is a steep fall off in revenue from COVID, that was absolutely expected. The growth in U.S. is absolutely coming back to a very good momentum, both in the domestic market and offshore business. We are back on growth in U.S. globally and the U.S. market, and we are very satisfied with the figures that have been achieved.
Asia continued to deliver good growth, notably in Malaysia, but also in Indonesia. Very good quarter for the English-speaking world. If we move to the Ibero Latam, I would say little to say that we are just continuing the growth that we experienced for now some quarters. We are posting 16.2 like-for-like growth for this quarter. I would say again, strong commercial momentum with digital giants across the board. The top performer are in Q1 are Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and new Dominican, Guatemala, and Nicaragua that have been opened recently. Portugal is continuing to expand steadily as in previous quarter and previous year. Very good quarter also for Ibero Latam.
When it comes to Europe, we have an apparent decline like-for-like of 3.5%, which is mainly due from the contribution from COVID support contract that has been really decreased, particularly in Netherlands, in Germany, and in France. We have a satisfactory business growth, if we didn't impact with this COVID support contract. We are seeing there also growth in the hospitality and tourism segments that are continuing to pick up pace in the first quarter. The business is in line with multinational client. Satisfactory growth also for Europe. When we move to India on page ten, we see a 17.1% like-for-like growth.
Again, after the work that has been done over the last quarter to select our growth, we are now able to report again good growth, notably the offshore and high-value activities, which is detailing, transportation, hospitality, as I mentioned earlier on, and tourism segment is really positive and it will help, of course, the margin, India being probably the country and zone where the margin is higher. We have a satisfactory growth in domestic operation. Again, also visibility is controlled and monitored precisely to avoid to reduce margin. If we move to Specialized Services on page 11, 15.5% growth.
Of course, TLS is a major contributor to this growth, comps were significantly easier versus last year, and we have a stronger volume recovery since H2 2021. The volume trend in the Schengen area and U.K. We have less visibility due to the war in Ukraine and the ever-evolving health situation. We are reasonably confident that TLS will continue to develop again in 2022, not only in terms of growth, but also in terms of margin. LanguageLine Solutions, I would say, delivered a satisfactory pace of growth. We know that the base of comparison is higher, but LanguageLine is there.
We have the third consolidation of Conservare from H2 2021 that is also acting. If we move to the last page before the question, I would say we confirm our objective for 2022. Not a surprise. LFL growth adjusted for impact from COVID support contract above 10%. No, not surprised. Exactly what we said in February. Of course, we continue to see a decrease in contribution from COVID support contract. Including this one, we should have a LFL growth above 5%. We confirm our 30 basis points increase in EBITDA margin before non-recurring item. We are of course looking for targeted acquisition that should create value and strengthen our high value added business. As a whole, you have understood that the quarter is good.
The year is starting well despite the global environment, which is not so easy, whether it's COVID or whether it's war. The group is clearly in good shape to post again a 2022 year of growth and improve profitability. I am available with the team here to answer your question, and I will be happy to do so.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question or make a contribution on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. You will be advised when to ask your question. So once again, that's star one if you would like to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of Simona Sarli from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening, and thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of them. First of all, you mentioned that TLScontact was the major contributor to growth for Specialized Services. Could you give us a little bit more granularity where volume stands, as of today versus 2019? Secondly, considering the strong performance in Q1 and also the better than expected mix with our Specialized Services are growing ahead of expectations, what are the reasons for still guiding for a margin accretion of 30 basis points? Is there any other element that we should keep in mind? Thank you.
In terms of volume, TLScontact, you know, TLScontact has two major legs, can I say. The first one is what we call UK VI and the second one is Schengen. Finally, when you look at the first quarter, we are still a little behind 2019 for two reasons. Of course, Chinese people are not coming to Europe still, and this is something that we are not seeing. While UK VI is now aligned, roughly aligned with what they were doing in 2019. We are a little behind, but not dramatically. What will be the future for China tomorrow, it's hard to predict. Of course, we have clearly moving ability on there.
As a whole, as you know, the group has been, I would say, working a lot. TLScontact, all the team have been working a lot for now two years to adjust the breakeven point lower than it was before. We are reasonably confident that TLScontact will continue to, of course, help to increase the margin dramatically in 2022. Where does confirm this margin accretion? We have of course TLScontact. We have the mix effect with Health Advocate, as it has been continuing, that is continuing since the beginning of the year. I'm sure you have understood that the U.S. world that was not the best world for last two years in terms of margin is back on track. That helps.
On top of that, you have the U.S. dollar that is also helping in terms of translation of margin. Of course, that are the main driver of the improvement of the margin. In the other parts, you have less COVID business, even if it's not very different from the Core Services. It's less operational, you know. As a whole, that are the main reason of the change of the margin in 2022.
Thank you. Just to clarify, you mentioned that TLScontact is more or less in line with pre-COVID levels in the U.K. and is slightly below outside of the U.K.
Mm-hmm.
Is there any indication that you can give in terms of what you're factoring in your guidance in terms of how much you have?
No. You know, frankly, this is not a major, as you understood. Clearly TLScontact is going to significantly improve in 2022 versus 2021, mainly in the first quarter, in the first half year. Of course, you have a base comparison that is significantly helping in H1 that will be partially more complex to beat in H2. But as a whole, there is no major change versus what we have announced so far in when we announced the full year results. We are satisfied with the evolution of the U.K. TLScontact business. That helps, of course, to improve the margin in 2022.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of David Cerdan from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, David Cerdan from Kepler. I have a couple of questions, please. First one is related to the Forex. It was at EUR 54 million. Can you split between some currencies, U.S. dollar, not really. My second question is regarding the inflation impact, at which extent your organic growth is driven by some volume effect and a price effect. How do you expect the price effect to be over the year and for 2023 in the context of a strong inflation in wages? Thank you.
On price, I cannot give you the figure, but out of the EUR 54 impact is the vast majority of the impact, roughly two-thirds of the impact is coming from the U\.S. dollar that has been appreciated a lot in 2022. Just to answer the question you didn't raise, but it was raised before. It ends also in mix. As you have understood that the LanguageLine Solutions is delivering a higher margin than the group as a whole, and it's done in dollar. When we translate the dollar in Euro, it of course helping the rate. When it comes to inflation, what is the story? We understood clearly early that we have to increase price.
We started not only in the English world but also in the U.K., I would say, last October. We have been able to push dramatically the price of our major contract in these areas. We are following that contract by contract at regional level and at global level to see whether we have been able to increase the price. What has been done by the teams across the world is that today, it's never-ending story, but we have been able to mitigate significantly the increase of wages that have been given to the people. We are increasing our price, and we are in a position to increase the price. There are different ways.
Either people accept increased price locally, or we may move, I think for a part of it, I would say offshore or near shore, or if people really don't want to increase to follow the price, we have to make decision about the future of this contract. That's what we have done over the last months since October. It has been done, I would say, with permanent with a precise reporting. We know exactly where we are and we have been able to do so. We are following not only the sales figure but also the paid collection or to check whether our growth in real term is comparable to what we are seeing in dollar term or in euro term.
What is more difficult to answer your question is about what is volume and price. As always, the story is that it's difficult to compare the products that are changing on permanent way. We are not following price and volume this way. We are just following the volume to make sure that the volume I would say is following the same path as the price, the sales activity, knowing that the mix is not easy to capture through this approach.
As a whole, as you have understood, we have been able to. I wouldn't say easy, but we have been able to to increase our price across the board, and we've been able to do so, even most of our customers. We know how to live with inflation worldwide.
Maybe to just rephrase my question. At the end, have you been able to increase prices more than the wage inflation factor? Secondly, is there a lag effect between your decision to increase your prices and the fact that wages are up?
There is always a lag effect. As we have understood, the group has taken this issue very early last year. In fact, it's happened even in July for some contract, but most of it has been done during the fall. There is always a lag effect. We have been able to pass increase of price higher than the inflation or the salary, it might happen, but I'm not going to comment on too much on that. Clearly what is important for you, I would say as a manager, we have the ability to pass on the increase of price. That's what has happened. We took the appropriate measures sufficient timely to make it happen. To make it clear.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Oscar Mayol from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, Olivier. I have two questions. The first one is, could you clarify what your expectations are for COVID revenues in Q2 or what the exit rate was in March, what level of COVID sales you were running? That's the first question. Then the second question is around your new sales cycle. Some of your competitors have talked about the sales cycles shortening during COVID, and they have lengthened a bit now that we've come out of COVID. Could you just comment on are you seeing more competition for bids? Is your growth coming from new clients versus existing clients? Thank you.
I must confess that on this, last point that you just mentioned, we have not seen a major difference. Of course, there are things that have been shorter, things have been longer, but as a whole, it doesn't change a lot, or very marginally. It is not an impact factor. About the COVID, the expected COVID figures for Q2, as you have understood, they are not so big. Clearly, I'm not going to disclose figures because I'm not disclosing the forecast in detail. But clearly we do believe that the COVID figures are going to go down significantly in Q2, as they have done already, in Q1. This is going to continue. We know that the base of comparison for COVID is still high, but this is as you see.
What is the most important thing for me is the ability to swallow such, I would say, peak. When you look at the figure for Q1, I'm not sure what was your forecast for Q1, but probably we have been able to in LFL to be significantly higher than people expected. The LFL in Q2, of course, this is a question that you are going to ask me after, but we are going to be positive here.
Okay. Maybe another question. It's just on going back on the contract structure and the ability to pass through wage inflation. Could you comment on, for a standard contract, how often could you go back to the customer to pass through wage inflation? Is it annually or is it more ad hoc?
You have what we call the QBR, quarterly business review, that is done not with all the clients, but to major clients. When comes this QBR, of course, a lot of stuff are put on the table from the client side, quality, volume, and for our side, price and forecast and all that stuff. There are some contracts, and there are some legal provisions, and of course, you can imagine that we are speaking on a regular basis with these people. And somewhere now people want to have volume, so they are looking for people to answer or to help them. If we have to move quickly, we will move quickly. We have done that over the last months.
It's not a legal requirement or legal provision that, I would say, forbid us to enter a negotiation with a client when needed.
Okay. Thank you. That's useful color. Thank you.
Thank you.
Before we go to the next question, as a reminder, please press star one if you would like to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Anvesh Agrawal from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. I've got three questions. First, I mean, your comment on LLS of satisfactory growth would imply little bit of sequential slowdown. Maybe if you can comment on what's driving that or how you think about rest of the year in LLS. Can you provide some color on where you are on the U.S. visa contract? I mean, has it started, or when it's gonna start and the possible impact? Then finally, just for maintenance purpose, can you let us know what was the COVID revenue last year in Q1, or how much of COVID revenue in absolute basis you have delivered in Q1 this year?
Okay. For LLS, the growth is less explosive than it was last year. Let's put it this way. The growth of last year was absolutely explosive. Now we are much more in what I call the classical growth. That's why we would mention it's satisfactory. About U.S. contract visa, I would say I've little to say. Since the beginning, this contract is delaying. There are, if I'm not mistaken, two or three. I'm not sure, at least two, maybe three, you know, part of the world that are in tender as we speak. We are still waiting the answer from the U.S. government. Frankly, I cannot give you, I cannot commit on the U.S. government timing.
What I'm saying is that we have not made a lot, we took that in the forecast. We didn't take a lot so much sales derived from this U.S. contract in 2022. I would suggest you to do the same, because frankly, the payout from this contract is very low. As far as COVID figures are concerned, it was EUR 210 million last year. You have to average, which is less than EUR 83 million. You have it for 2022.
Fair enough. That's clear. Just to be clear on that LLS comment, so adjusted for the comps, because the comps were super high last year, you're not clearly seeing pull down the base business still very solid.
Say again, because I need
No, on the LLS.
Mm-hmm.
It's just the comps which is driving the slowdown.
Yeah. Still, yeah. It's got to slow down somewhere. You know.
Yeah.
When you deliver more than 15% growth last year, so close to 20%, when it comes to something that is more classical, you say, "Okay, to decrease, but coming from a high, I figure.
Yeah. Fair enough. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Patrick Jousseaume from Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Hello, Olivier. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Very well.
Yeah. Good evening. Just coming back on your comment regarding Q2, when you mentioned that you expect like for like growth to be positive.
I know it means that.
Considering that, the gap between COVID revenue in Q2 last year and Q2 this year will be probably more important than between
You're right.
Q1 last, does it mean that you expect like-for-like growth excluding COVID contracts to be still in excess of 10%?
I'm not going to comment on that. Clearly we are waiting a good growth in Q2. We know that I would say the Q2 is more difficult given that we have been able to deliver some growth from COVID line in Q1, that was probably not expected at the beginning of the year. Probably it's going to be more difficult in Q2 on that. But as a whole, we don't see why we should not be delivering a good growth again in Q2. Let's put it this way. I'm not sure I can sort of precisely your question, but...
It's a good start.
To know what the number traffic, frankly, I cannot tell it.
Yeah.
Of course, you can imagine that what is the fundamental message? I'm meaning that despite COVID, I would say that is now a burden, that was not a burden last year. If you take that out, if you strip that out, of course it might change a quarter to another. You see that fundamentally, Teleperformance is well placed to take advantage of this digital economy across the world, across the country, across the sector. Of course, there are ups and downs, there are peaks and valleys, but as a whole, you see that the fundamental growth of the group over the last two years has been solid and resilient.
Yeah. Last year, COVID revenue in Q2 was slightly higher than in Q1. That's right?
Yes.
My last question is about M&A pipeline. Could you elaborate on that, please?
By nature, it's a more difficult stuff. There are things in the pipeline. As you know, again, it gives me always the same opportunity to give you much more detail. What we are looking for, and I'm going to be precise. If you look at Teleperformance, it's a Rubik's Cube. You have three dimensions. Geographical, industry that we serve, the SSI, retail, transportation, accommodation, insurance, gaming, e-commerce, whatever. What kind of product you sell. Which could be, of course, customer care, technical support, content moderation, debt collection, sales, BPO, all of that. When you combine these three dimensions, of course there are possibilities where we can have better. We are looking at some of them.
It means that we are going to make them, as you can imagine, the way forward is more complex. We are much more looking for, I would say, tactical mid-size acquisitions that will, I would say, implement and deliver good results, and improve the profile of the group, while not taking too much risk, in the size of the business. That's what we are looking for. The pipe is there. After, you know, I think you need to have a pipe to make acquisition. It's not that because you have the pipe that you are going to succeed in acquisition. It's always more difficult to predict. You're right. Yes.
Okay. Thank you very much.
That's all I can tell you. I believe there is no more question from, except what I just want to, I would say, to platform. I know people are very anxious about COVID, non-COVID, blah, blah, blah. What is important for you to get, that Teleperformance is engaged in this digital world. When you see the level of the digital clients that continue to grow as a percentage of the sales, that continue to improve in different direction, in different sector or in different countries, we are, I would say, convinced that Teleperformance is well placed to take advantage of this, change of the global environment in terms of business in a disrupted world. That's what I can tell you, Chris.
Of course, I'm going to give again Quy Nguyen-Ngoc the speech to give you some logistic information on the communication and agenda for the next week and months to come.
Yes. Thank you, Olivier. Just a few key information and date to share with you. Please note that the next financial communication will be about the 2022 first half results on 28 July 2022. You will receive invitation to attend the webcast organized as usual for this release. Of course, Teleperformance will continue to participate to numerous digital and at least physical conferences organized by brokers in the coming weeks, coming months, including on ESG topic. Please contact us if you need more information to attend this event. See you very soon, digitally and physically, we hope.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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