A warm welcome to our briefing on our exciting news today about the acquisition of Globus Wine, the Danish wine company. I am Tua Stenius-Örnhjelm from Anora's Investor Relations. Our CEO, Pekka Tennilä, and CFO, Sigmund Toth, will soon discuss the transaction, after which we open up for your questions. You can send in your questions already during the presentation through the team's chat. A recording of this call and the presentation material will be available on our website soon after this. Without further ado, we are ready to start. Pekka, please go ahead.
Thank you, Tua. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining this call. Maybe Tua, we can move on to the next slide and start the presentation. As I said, this is a big day for us. We have made our first acquisition, and we have acquired a market-leading Danish wine company, Globus Wine. Obviously, this you know fills the missing piece in our Nordic market leadership position, which is the Danish market. Globus Wine is a very successful company founded in 2006, with consistent growth and with consistent above the market growth in the last years with their own wine brands. Globus Wine owns the top-selling wine brands in Danish retail and offers filling services for third parties.
Globus Wine net sales in last year were DKK 550 million and Adjusted EBITDA at DKK 66 million. The purchase price was EUR 80 million, and that equals to an enterprise value of EUR 90 million. Closing expected to happen in the beginning of July. Moving on, the Danish wine market is super interesting. It's the per capita consumption is very high on the European scale, right there with Sweden and higher than, for example, in the U.K. or Germany, and well above the per capita consumption of Finland and the Baltics.
Obviously, being a bit smaller country, the absolute volumes are a bit behind the data of Germany and U.K., but still very, you know, still quite high. I mean, if you compare, combine, you know, Norway and Finland, you'll get the Danish total consumption. Quite a significant market with growth expectations at 1%-3%. As said, Globus Wine has over the past years performed above the market growth. Moving on. A bit about the Globus Wine business. They source wine in bulk, mainly from U.S. and Italy, to be filled in bag-in-boxes or bottles in their production facility at Køge, which is right next to Copenhagen.
As said, products are sold under own brands, which has been growing fast and all their third-party brands. They have very strong in-house brand-building capabilities, and obviously, the best proof of that is the consistent market share gains across all wine types. They sell in retail in Denmark and then obviously the co-packing for wine houses. They have very efficient production, very good capabilities in wine sourcing as well. The production facility is a new one. It's built in 2018. It's actually the largest bag-in-box filling capacity in Northern Europe. Currently, the total volume exceeds 50 million liters, and that is from last year. It's also the leading producer of sustainable wines.
In terms of key figures, I guess I didn't mention the number of employees. It's 139. Own brands make 63% of total sales. They have five production lines, bottling capacity of 100,000 bottles per day, bag-in-box capacity at 90,000 units per day, and then warehouse capacity at 14 million liters. Moving on. This is what I said about the missing piece in our Nordic market leadership strategy. We are number two in spirits in Denmark, and with this acquisition, we become number one in Denmark wine, where we were basically non-existent. Obviously, the own wine business is super interesting. It is a big part.
It's probably almost half of total Nordic monopoly business, and it's super interesting for us for many reasons, but definitely one is the profitability of that segment. With this acquisition, we believe we are more competitive in that segment. It's often quite price competitive and with the very efficient supply chain that Globus Wine has, I think we're gonna be very competitive there. What's growing the fastest in wines is sustainable wines. It's a lot about packaging also. Other items are important, but probably what the monopolies talk about right now the most is packaging. Obviously, Globus Wine is very strong in that.
We believe that with this acquisition, it helps us to strengthen our own wine business in more countries than just Denmark. Is it already Sigmund the next, or what's the? Yes. Sigmund, go ahead.
Thank you very much, Pekka. I think most of these things were mentioned already, but as Pekka said, the purchase price is around EUR 80 million. It will be paid in cash, and we will be financing this acquisition with debt. You know, the agreement was signed today, and with no regulatory approvals needed, you know, we are proceeding quickly with the closing. That's expected to happen in the beginning of July. As a result of that, Anora will consolidate Globus Wine to Anora Group as of the third quarter of this year.
An important point here, our guidance remains unchanged, you know, at EUR 75 million-EUR 85 million in comparable EBITDA for this year. Obviously, consolidated figures from Globus Wine will contribute positively to our, ultimately to our result, but the guidance itself remains unchanged. I think with that, actually that was the presentation, wasn't it? I think we are now ready for the Q&A. Pekka, I don't know if you wanna do a brief summary before we go to the Q&A.
Let's do questions and then I can summarize after that.
Great. Thank you. We have a question in the chat, and it's from Joni Sandvall from Nordea. The question is, what level of synergies are you expecting from the acquisition, and when should we expect these to happen? Following that, does Globus Wine own its production facility?
The synergies. The valuation and the purchase price is based on standalone valuation. We feel there are positive top-line synergies. Like I mentioned, Globus Wine significantly strengthens our own wine capabilities across the Nordics and Baltics and travel retail for sure. With our capabilities, for example, in wine regions where Globus is not that strong yet, like France and Spain, you know, we can help them out and help them grow. I mean, we can also help them with more pricey wines, you know, in order to push them up the pricing ladder in Denmark.
I believe they will help us grow in own wine and sustainable wine, which is the fastest-growing segment right now, and we can help them to grow in Denmark. In terms of cost synergies, that's something we will come back to. We know for a fact the production is very efficient. Their sourcing is probably very capable as well, and we believe that there are synergies there, but that's something that we need to do a deep dive once we have the full numbers visible for us, which, as we were competitors, we were a bit, we didn't have the full disclosures of all the numbers.
That's something we'll come back to. The production facility, yes, it's owned by Globus Wine.
Okay. We have two other questions from Joni. First one is about COVID-19. How do you want to comment how that affect or impacted Globus Wine? Or the Danish market maybe in general, if you compare it to, for example, Finland or Norway.
Yeah. The impact of COVID was positive for the Danish wine market, obviously, especially the German border trade is quite sizable. You know, what we know right now, we estimate that impact to be 3%-5% for the total market. On the other hand, Globus Wine is operating in German border trade as well. It's a bit of give and take there. I would say to my understanding, it was a positive effect on COVID, but it wasn't nearly as sizable as it was for all monopoly markets. I mean, we experienced 10%-20% and obviously, Norway was 45%, so it's more single digits in Denmark.
Good. Thank you. About, do you want to comment on the sales channels and country mix? I guess this is now going forward or maybe for Globus Wine, actually.
Yeah. The absolute majority comes from Denmark, that the border trade is a good sales channel as well. Baltics is more, and then there are other countries, I think Poland. But I would say right now, Denmark is by far the most significant. In terms of channels, it's all retail. Globus Wine does not sell to on trade currently.
All right.
If the country mix, I'm not sure what, Joni, you mean with country mix, but if we talk about the origin of products, then that's mainly from US and from Italy.
Yep. Good. If you, Joni, did not get an answer, then we can come back to that later on as well. We have a few questions from Maria Wikström, SEB. The first one is there any material difference in Danish alcohol market compared to other Nordic countries?
Yeah, quite a lot different, actually. It's what we call an open market, so there's no monopolies. Wine is sold through retail and on trade. The second big difference is probably the excise on wine. So it is significantly lower, mainly driven by, you know, the German being a neighbor and a big German border trade. Maybe the third big difference would be that Denmark is quite a big alcohol market overall. Consumption of both spirits, wine, and beer is relatively high on a European scale.
Okay. The question is, the next one is about the seller. Who was the seller, and do you have any comments on the motivation to sell at this point of time?
Sigmund, do you wanna take it?
Yes. I can take that. That's the seller is Credo Partners, I guess mainly Norway-based private equity company. I think, I mean, you know, in the end, they are the ones who have to comment on their motivation to sell. I think it's kind of the nature of the business of a private equity company to acquire companies and then own them for a while, develop them together with the management, and then sell it on to an owner who can take it to the next phase in its development.
I think that here, Credo together with the management and the employees of Globus Wine have done a really fantastic job. It's very impressive to see the journey of this company over the last few years. You know, there comes a time in the investment cycle of private equity company and the life cycle of a company such as Globus Wine where maybe then it makes sense for all parties involved to sell it to a strong industrial owner such as Anora. I think that's the main reason if I have to speculate on their motivation.
I have a small additional answer to Joni's question on the production facilities. There is a long-term lease on that. Actually, if you see in our release, you will see a small footnote on IFRS 16 correction. If you compare the publicly available financials of Globus according to Danish GAAP to the figures that we released on IFRS 16, the differences is coming from there, that there is a long-term lease on the buildings in the facility. I just wanted to mention that.
Oh, thank you, Sigmund, for that. There is a question about wine producers or maybe also wine partners. Are there any wine producers you are not serving today in other Nordic countries? Do you think you could lure them to other markets as well?
Let me just try to make sure I understand the question correctly.
Yeah. Hi, Pekka. It's Maria. It's my question.
Hi.
What I basically wanted is, I mean, to talk a little bit more about the, like, the sales synergies that if there are producers in, I guess, in Italy or the US that you are currently not partnered with in the other Nordic markets that you think you could. I mean, with this acquisition, you could basically get a better foothold with those producers and then try to convince them to come to your clients in Finland, Sweden, Norway.
Yeah, absolutely. I think there will be a lot of good opportunities for finding synergies. One, the obvious one is that our wine business in Denmark was very small. Now, you know, we have a strong base to build on. Obviously, Globus Wine, for example, they don't have partner wines at all. That's obviously something that could be interesting for some of our existing partners. Obviously, Globus Wine sources a lot of wine from different companies. I think, you know, our current partnership or having those new partnerships certainly could open up new opportunities. You're quite right. I think there's a lot of opportunities to explore.
Yes, I do believe that we can lure them to other markets as well. I think, obviously that is the strength of Anora's business model being a leader in all markets. You know, we can offer with the same contract, we can offer four markets if that's interesting. I think that is a good offering to a lot of wine companies.
I definitely hope that you are successful because I would love to see more U.S. based wines in Finland. Please do so.
Thank you. We keep that in mind.
Thanks, Maria. Okay. We just a reminder that if you have questions, please use the chat to send them to Pekka and Sigmund. We next take Joni's question about seasonality. Does the Globus Wine seasonality follow that of Anora's wine business? Do Sigmund want to comment on the seasonality?
I have to be so honest that I don't think I have a very firm grasp yet of the specifics of the seasonality of Globus Wine's business. I think it does follow the market in Denmark. It does follow the same cycles, right, as the market in the Nordics. You know, with, I guess more rosé and white in summer and then, you know, for the festive seasons around Christmas that there is more consumption and also Easter, you know. The opening of the summer cottage in Denmark is a big event. This we know from our spirits business.
Then another aspect of it that is more, I would say, more specific to the open markets is, of course, the possibility of doing promotions, right? Trade promotions. Again, this is something that we are quite familiar with from our spirits business. In some sense, in the monopoly markets outside of the seasonal peaks that are driven more by, I would say, festive events, you can also have seasonal, let's call it, seasonal peaks and drops that are driven by promotional activity, right?
In some years, you know, you have more promotions in this or that retail banner at a given time, and the next year, you know, you may have the same amount of promotions but coming, you know, in a slightly different month. I guess you could say that there is maybe a bit more variability in general, you know, coming from an open market where you have more tools in your toolbox, both as a supplier and obviously as a retailer.
Okay, thanks. The question from Paul at Tigera, I think that's also for you, Sigmund, about the enterprise value and how much of the enterprise value for the acquisition is leasing debt.
Let me just check the number. I think I'll have to come back on that. I don't recall the exact amount, but it's not a huge amount. I think it's in the order of magnitude of DKK 100 million. You know, if the memory serves me right, so something around EUR 10 million, around that amount. It's not that long a lease commitment, so the IFRS effect of it is somewhat smaller than if the lease were longer.
Okay. We can come back to Paul on that still to confirm the number. Okay. I think this is at the moment all the questions we have in the chat. Please, Pekka, go ahead to summarize.
All right. This is a big day, important day for us. You know about the wine market first. It is a growth market. From our point of view, the Danish wine was really the miss in our Nordic market leadership position. Own wine brands is an important part, very interesting part of our business for many reasons, like I said, and not the least for the profitability of it. Own wines are often built on sustainability, and that's the fastest growing segment in the Nordics. That's what all customers especially want, and consumers more and more. Like I said earlier, own wine is often quite price competitive.
What the Globus Wine has is, you know, great sustainable brands, high quality, very efficient supply chain. It is a great answer to our short and to our long-term needs to grow their own wines. Further, we believe that with our knowledge of certain wine regions, high-priced wine, we can help Globus Wine to strengthen their market leadership in Denmark. With that, I guess, I thank you for joining, and thank you for all the questions. I think we have one more question, Tua Stenius-Örnhjelm, from Maria Wikström.
Oh, okay. Great. Good. Okay. Could I ask about the cost of the new debt? That's for you, Sigmund, to comment on that.
For sure, you can ask. Whether I'm gonna answer, that's a different question. No, I don't think I wanna go into the details of that other than to say that I think, you know, Anora is and remains. I think a very stable company that I think is seen as a quite good credit risk by various banks. The cost of the new debt was I think competitive, and we will come back with I guess more details when that becomes relevant.
Okay. Great. Thank you to the speakers and to everyone online for joining our event today. As I mentioned earlier, there will be a recording and the presentation material on our website still later today. Feel free to reach out if you have any follow-up questions. We wish you all a really relaxing and sunny summer. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.