Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Jason, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Arçelik conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first quarter 2022 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Özkan Çimen, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Oktan Söylemeç, Senior Investor Relations Specialist. Mr. Özkan Çimen, you may now proceed.
Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our Q1 2022 results webcast. I'm here with Oktan Söylemeç, our Senior Investor Relations Specialist. I will start with the highlights of first quarter. Our consolidated net sales was TRY 28.2 billion in this quarter, registering 170% growth on a yearly basis, and 25% growth on a quarterly basis. Excluding revenues of the acquired companies on a like for like basis, organic growth was 84% on a yearly basis. In Turkey and Eastern Europe, consumer demand was quite strong in the first two months, mainly due to the expectation of further rising of product prices due to inflation. In Western Europe, consumer demands were weak due to high base effect.
As expected, sales were contracted in Turkey in the first two months of the year. Our EBITDA margin was 10.6% in the first quarter of the year, reflecting 127 basis points expansion on a quarterly basis, mainly due to price increases and lower OpEx to sales ratio. On the contrary, on a yearly basis, our EBITDA margin was down by 393 basis points as a result of significantly increased material costs and cycling high base. When we look at the OpEx to sales ratio in the first quarter, it improved by 108 basis points to 22.7%, while it was stable on a yearly basis. Our net working capital to sales ratio increased to 27.7% in the first quarter, compared to 26.3% at year-end last year.
It's mainly due to higher receivable days in Turkish operations, and higher inventories, which is a result of increased material costs, despite those are offset with the improvement in payable days. The leverage increased to 2.81 in the first quarter of the year from 2.48 at the end of last year, mainly due to increased working capital requirements of our emerging market operations, dividend payment that we made this quarter, shares both like continuity and partially the ratio is impacted negatively because of the currency translation. When we exclude the share buyback and the adjusted EBITDA cash contribution of our recent acquisition, the leverage would go down to 2.24x .
If we move to the next slide, our net sales on a consolidated basis increased by more than double year-on-year to TRY 28.2 billion in the first quarter. This substantial revenue growth came mainly due to the price increases across regions, Turkish lira depreciation, and inorganic revenue contribution. Excluding the contribution of acquisitions, yearly revenue growth was still strong at 84%. On a quarterly basis, again, price increases and Turkish lira depreciation were the main drivers of 25% revenue growth. Consolidated gross profit margin was 30.8% in the first quarter, which is reflecting 208 basis points improvement compared to previous quarter through price increases and higher capacity utilization, although material costs overall continued to increase.
On the contrary, last year Q1 was above average levels where we have utilized long-term purchase contracts coupled with price increases, and again, a higher capacity utilization. Depreciating TL against U.S. dollar resulted in 368 basis points lower gross margin on a yearly basis. In the first quarter, EBITDA margin was 10.6%, up by 257 basis points compared to previous quarter like for like basis. Despite the declining volumes, the margin expansion was driven mainly by price increases, particularly the one that we have done in the late December, which was most effective in the first quarter, and improved OpEx sales ratio. On a yearly basis, EBITDA margin was down by 393 basis points, which is actually coming from the gross margin impact that I mentioned.
If you move to the domestic market slide. In the first two months of the year, Turkish MDA6 market was down by 11% on a yearly basis, and Arçelik units were down by 12%. Despite declining selling units, sellouts were quite strong in the same period, mainly as a result of continuous expectation of further hike in product prices. The continuing high inflation in Turkey is impacting the affordability and changing the customers' shopping priorities. Moreover, increasing energy prices and supply chain problems may impact the demand negatively in Turkish MDA6 wholesale and retail markets. AC market was up by 26% on a yearly basis, and Arçelik AC sales increased by 14%. Television TV sell-outs were down by 13%, while Arçelik sold 6% higher compared to last year.
Revenues from domestic market was considerably higher on both quarterly and yearly basis, delivering 7%-9% yearly and 42% quarterly growth. Domestic revenues reached TRY 8.4 billion in the first quater. With the geographical expansion, the share of our domestic revenues is continued to decline. We have 30% in the first quarter from 36% a year ago. If you move to the European market in the next slide, the share of European total revenue was 38%, which is down by almost 5% versus a year ago as a result of higher growth in the other regions, especially in APAC and Middle East.
In Western Europe, consumer demand has declined in the first two months of this year by a low- to mid-single digits, with the contraction in majority of the countries due to high base effect. Germany was cycling a low base, which posted close to double-digit growth on a yearly basis. Despite lower units, the market grew in value terms, mainly as a result of increases of prices and leaning towards premium segments. Having 27% share in total revenue, Arçelik's sales were up by 8% in Euro terms. In Eastern Europe, consumer demand grew more than 25% in the first two months of the year, and this is excluding Ukraine's figures. Growth was mainly attributable to pull forward demand in Russia due to the appreciation of ruble.
Market also grew in value terms, both in unit growth and price increases, having 11% share in total revenue. Arçelik's share sales were up by 11% in Euro terms. If you look, move to the Arçelik results in Africa and Middle East, APAC. In the next slide. Having a total of 11% share in our consolidated sales, Africa and Middle East region posted around 48% quarterly and around 59% yearly growth in Q1 in Euro terms. This strong revenue growth is mainly driven by significantly higher Middle East revenues. Defy in South Africa, units sold in domestic market contracted on both quarterly and yearly basis, mainly due to some logistic problems in the country, and the high base of the same year of last year.
Defy posted mid- to high-single-digit revenue growth in Euro terms in the first quarter of the year on a yearly basis, mainly due to the price increases. In Egypt, sales more than doubled, both quarterly and yearly. We have 155% higher year-on-year and 175% quarterly revenue growth in Euro terms in the first quarter. APAC sales having 19% share in total revenue grew by 136% in Euro terms in the first quarter versus a year ago, because of the contribution of Arçelik Hitachi's business. In Pakistan, together with price increases, sales increased by around 23% in Euro terms, and the local currency growth was 28%.
Mongolia sales growth was lower compared to other regions, with 2.8% in the local currency. If you go to the next slide, which is about raw material prices. In this quarter, average metal and plastic prices in the market have increased mainly as a result of the conflict and war between Russia and Ukraine, which also triggered the increase in energy prices, which also impacts the plastic prices and all the other raw material prices. Metal prices went up particularly starting from late February. We have made some contracts, therefore we were not that affected in the first quarter from the recent cost inflation as a result of Ukraine and Russia conflict. Additionally, with the metal raw plan, we executed second quarter purchases just before the war started.
Therefore, the material cost impact in the coming quarter will be limited. However, after that, we will start to feel the negative impact of all the material increases in our costs. For plastic raw materials, energy oil and natural gas are the main inputs of plastic raw material production. Ongoing rise of energy prices further accelerated by Russia-Ukraine war. As oil prices jumped, we do not expect the prices to go down as quickly as they went up. The contract is on a monthly basis, therefore in the second quarter and afterwards we will start to feel the pressure here. If you go to the sales bridge slide, in Q1, Turkey sales grow by 78.8% year-on-year organically.
International sales grow by 138.5%. Out of this growth, 5.6% was organic, 81% was the FX impact. 51% is coming from the acquisitions. On the right-hand side, you can see our regional sales breakdown. With the recent acquisition of Arçelik Hitachi and the Manisa factory, the share of Turkey in total sales have gone down by 6%, quarter-on-quarter. If you move to the next slide, which is the summary of financials. I mentioned that the revenue is TRY 28.1 billion. Cost inflation was quite obvious in the first quarter of this year when we compare it to a year ago.
Together with lower capacity utilization and Turkish lira depreciation, our gross margin was narrowed down to 30.8, registering 368 basis points contraction on a yearly basis. I need to underline that last year's quarter performance was well above the average in terms of gross margin. In Q1, consolidated EBITDA margin was 10.6%, contracted by 393 basis points on a yearly basis. We have been able to keep the OpEx sales ratio at 22.7%. Despite stable OpEx sales ratio on a yearly basis, the EBITDA margin declining in the first quarter was a reflection of the cost inflation and high base of the first quarter of last year.
Compared to this quarter on a comparable basis, EBITDA margin was expanded by 257 basis points, mainly driven by 111 basis points improvement in OpEx sales ratio and price increase. Net income before minority share was TRY 1.224 billion in Q1, with a net profit margin of 4.3%, which is 168 basis points better versus a quarter ago, and on a comparable basis, 413 basis points lower on a yearly basis, mainly due to higher interest costs coupled with the gross margin impact. If you move to the next slide. Our net debt has increased by around TRY 6 billion, mainly due to share buyback, which we continued in this quarter as well.
Dividend payments, it was again in the last month of this quarter. Working capital funding of our emerging market operations increased, and negative currency translation impact all had an effect on our net debt level. In the first quarter of the year, a total of TRY 1 billion cash out for the shares buyback, and additionally, TRY 1.3 billion for net dividend payments. The remainder is coming from the working capital funding of Turkey, Pakistan, South Africa, and Bangladesh operations, and Turkish lira depreciation. As a result of the increases in net debt, our leverage was increased by 0.42x- 2.81x as of first quarter. On the right-hand side, you can see our loan and bond portfolio. As of March, we have TRY 37.6 billion equivalent debt.
29% of total portfolio is in Turkish lira. The average Turkish lira interest rate was 19.2%, which is up by 150 basis points compared to last year end. We have lower interest rates in our portfolio in Turkish lira, and we expect our Turkish lira effective interest rate to increase as we roll those interest loans with the new borrowing rates, which is higher than the current rates. As of March, we have TRY 16.7 billion cash in our balance sheet, which is well diversified between currencies. Around 66% of our total cash is in hard currency. If you move to the next slide, we can see the net working capital sales ratios here and the EBITDA margin.
Consolidated EBITDA margin was contracted on a yearly basis as I explained. CapEx sales ratio is 2.7%, which is flattish compared to last year's same quarter. Net working capital sales ratio increased to 27.7 as of March from 26.3, mainly due to increased receivable days in Turkish domestic operations and temporary increase in other items. The increase in inventories was mainly attributable to the increasing material costs and unit contraction in some of the markets. The negative impact of inventories was well balanced with our improvement in payable days. We have delivered negative free cash flow of TRY 1.8 billion, which is mainly coming from the working capital requirement. The final slide is related to our guidance.
We have made adjustments on our revenue guidance while keeping all other items unchanged. Based on our most recent forecasts, we increased our Turkey sales growth expectations from 35%-60% in Turkish lira terms. Our international sales growth expectation increased from 20%-25% in euro terms. Our consolidated sales growth expectation is adjusted from 60% to more than 80% in Turkish lira. This change mainly reflects price increases that we have already done so far due to rising costs. Okay. Now I've completed my presentation here, so we can have your questions.
Our first question comes from Cemal Demirtaş, from Ata Invest. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation, and congratulations for the results. My first question is about domestic side. I see that you are increasing your guidance, and we see a significant growth in first quarters. Could you give us some, you know, at least indication about the volume trends? How was the volume trends and pricing trends in domestic market and also in the international side? I see the inorganic growth impact. It looks like it's lower based on the FX currency when we translate into dollars. Did you see any seasonality in the, you know, the inorganic growth side in first quarter? That's my first question.
The other question is about the indications for the second quarter, in terms of at least the margin trends, so far, how does it go in domestic and international side? Thank you.
Thank you, Cemal Bey. When we look at the Turkish domestic performance, we have increased the sales prices last few days of December last year, which has a positive impact in the first quarter. We also continued to adjust our prices in the first quarter as well. That impacted the total growth of Turkish business because the price increases were higher than that we were planning to do because of the increasing material cost impact. Therefore, we need to adjust our Turkish revenue guidance reflecting the impact of those price increases. When we look at the quantity side of our business, we started to feel that there's a contraction compared to last year, and the sell-out both in sell-in and sell-out.
The reason mainly is there is a high base impact, and also the increasing prices are also impacting the demand side. Therefore, we are cautious about the Turkish markets while considering further price increases because we are monitoring the selloff very closely. We feel that the cost pressure, if it continues till the end of this year, there will be a further contraction in the quantities. If you ask the growth in international markets.
International, FX impact was around 81%. If you exclude the acquisition and the FX impact, it is 5% growth. We have seen growth in all of the markets, but the growth has slowed down. When we look at the competition, everybody was trying to increase the sales prices to reflect the cost to the customers. However, we see that the competition is also selective of making those price increases to sustain their demand and to continue the growth.
Therefore, as I said, similar comments to Turkey market, as long as the cost pressure is there and the competition is hesitating to reflect to the prices to keep their market share, there will be some pressures on the margin. If we increase the prices further, there will be a possibility of contraction of those markets which is to reflect to the quantities.
You know, the colors in, you know, April, May, do you see any, you know, the restocking or destocking in the market, in domestic market?
In domestic market, we are closely monitoring the inventory levels. We haven't seen a major increase in the inventory levels, but there are some categories, product categories which have higher inventory levels, so we are careful on those. There is no major increase in the inventory levels as of now.
Okay. The last question is about nationals. I see some PPE, you know, sales loss from those sales around TRY 22 million. I see a loss from Voltas. How should we think for the following quarters? What are the reason behind that loss for the asset sale? Again, the Voltas side, you record losses. Could we expect though that figure to turn to positive in the, you know, following quarters or in the following years? Thank you.
Cemal, wait. I couldn't hear the first part of your question. Could you please repeat?
The first question is, we see some loss, you know, it's not that significant, but still higher compared to previous years. TRY 22 million loss from sales of assets, expenses from investments 50%-21%. What was that asset sale? And the other question is, from associates, income from associates, we see TRY 50 million loss in Voltas, possibly due to currency changes. But I wonder how that could be in the following quarters? At some point, do we expect that figure, the loss from associates figure, to turn positive? Thank you.
Yes. Let me start with Voltas. It is actually since it's a joint venture, we are reflecting the performance of that 50% of that performance to our PNL. In the first quarter, the price increases were not in place, therefore the loss coming from the Voltas business was higher, but this will be compensated with the price increase we have already done in the market. Coming periods, quarter, will be better in terms of results. For the asset sales of TRY 22 million, let me get back with that after the call with the details.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Hanzade Kilickiran from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Özkan Bey, I have three questions. The first one is on margins, and the second is also related to this. How much margin headwind do you expect from raw material contract renewals for the second half of the year? I think you already renewed the second quarter, but not the third and the fourth quarter. Second question is, what is the timetable for this renewal for the second half? The third question is, how much increase do you expect in interest costs this year due to rollover of Turkish lira loans? I mean, what is the current interest rates that you are accepting on Turkish lira loans? Thank you.
Thank you. In terms of raw materials, we have contracts for three months, especially for the metal part. Plastic parts, as I said, is a monthly renewable monthly contracts with the suppliers. That means we have some room for risk management when it comes to metals, but plastics, we are open to fluctuations each and every month. When we look at the coming months, we can say that in terms of metal prices, we have not been that impacted by the huge increase after the Russia and Ukraine crisis. We will benefit some margin there. However, as you know, our purchases do not directly reflect in the cost of goods sold because of the inventory and production process.
There's a time lag there. We have already started to feel last year's pricing cost increases in our PNL, and we will benefit the contracts of metal this quarter. However, the plastic prices increases will be impacting us every month. We're trying to balance it with price increases, but every day it's getting difficult to reflect to the prices all the material costs. Not only the material cost, but we have the energy cost increase as well. We are trying to balance it, and I can say that we will be able to keep our EBITDA margin at the levels of 10.5% as in our guidance.
Carefully reflecting to the sales prices as long as we can do, and partially managing it with alternative suppliers and long-term contracts as long as we can do. In terms of interest costs, the current interest rates for Turkish lira borrowing is around 23%-24%. Whereas as you can see, our balance of portfolio is around 19%. That means the overall interest rates will be increasing as we re-roll with new loans. The total amount is around TRY 5 billion to be rolled.
Thank you, Özkan Bey.
Our next question is a follow-up from Cemal Demirtaş from Ata Invest. Please go ahead.
Özkan Bey, again, I have a question in some details in the other operating expenses activities. It's credit finance charges from trading activities. I see a significant jump in first quarter around TRY 241 million versus TRY 55 million in the fourth quarter. That's a significant jump in that figure. I don't see any, you know, big deterioration in financial expenses, and I don't see any. I see some improvements in the FX position, like the FX gains, around TRY 60 million. But I wonder, what was the factor behind that credit finance charges increase in the first quarter? It's significant compared to previous quarters.
We are using the benefit of discounting in case we are comparing it with the financing costs. In case we see an opportunity, we are discounting the receivables partially. Some of the dealers prefer to pay in advance. This is more related to that part.
Okay. Thank you. Okay, thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Özkan Çimen for any closing comments. Thank you.
I would like to thank everyone, especially our colleagues to drive the Q1 performance in this very volatile environment. Thank you everyone for joining our call.