speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Welcome to the Royal Philips First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call on Monday, April 29th, 2024. During the call, hosted by Mr. Roy Jacobs, CEO, and Mr. Abhijit Bhattacharya, CFO, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the introduction, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this call will be recorded and replay will be available on the Investor Relations website of Royal Philips. I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Leandro Mazzini, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

speaker
Leandro Mazzini
Head of Investor Relations

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Philips' first quarter 2024 results webcast. I'm here with our CEO, Roy Jacobs, and our CFO, Abhijit Bhattacharya. The press release, Investor Deck, and the frequently asked questions on the Respironics field action were published on our Investor Relations website this morning. The replay and full transcript of this webcast will be made available on the website after the call. Before we start, I want to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on screen. You will also find the statement in the presentation published on the website. Roy, over to you.

speaker
Roy Jacobs
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone, and warm welcome. Great to be with you today. I want to start with the key highlights of this morning's release. We delivered results in line with our performance improvement plan with 2.4% comparable sales growth and strong margin improvement in the quarter and order intake growth turning positive outside of China, especially in North America. This was a result of continued strong focus and progress on our three execution priorities. Secondly, we have taken several very important steps in resolving the consequences of the Respironics recall. The consent decree was signed and approved in court. We received final court approval for the previously announced economic law settlement. We reached an agreement to resolve the personal injury and medical monitoring litigation in the US. And we also concluded an agreement with insurers to cover Respironics recall related product liability claims. Following the remediation of sleep therapy devices and the reassuring test results to date, these are very important milestones to provide further clarity on the way forward for Philips. Supported by key innovation launches and our ongoing actions to enhance its execution, we are confident in our performance improvement plan for 2024. Onto the key financial highlights. Comparable sales growth was 2.4% in the quarter, driven by 3% growth in the diagnosis and treatment and personal health segments, partly upset by a 1% decline in connected care against very tough comms and monitoring. Group sales grew 2% in mature geographies. Growth geographies sales grew 3%, despite a decline in China. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved significantly to 9.4% in the quarter. Freed cash flow was an outflow of €336 million in line with normal quarterly phasing. Order intake in the quarter declined, as anticipated, due to the situation in China. This was driven by the impact of the industry-wide anti-corruption measures and the comparison against an exceptionally high order intake base from last year. Importantly, order intake grew outside of China, with encouraging performance in North America. We remain focused on implementing the necessary actions to strengthen quality delivery, reduce lead times, leverage our enhanced operating model, and market our AI-driven innovations to improve order intake. Overall, based on the gradually improving market environment in the US, as well as expected improvement of the situation in China, our exciting innovation launches, and our ongoing actions, we continue to expect positive order intake growth in the full year 2024. In China, the government-imposed anti-corruption measures continue to impact short-term decision-making by hospitals. But we do not expect it to impact the fundamental demand, as China remains an attractive market. Our order funnel is very active in the country, and we expect order growth to resume in China in the second half of 2024. Also supported by the newly launched government program for medical equipment upgrades. It's important to note that our order book, which accounts for around 40% of group sales, remains strong and is further being built down to expected normalized levels. I've met many of our customers and partners in the last few months, and it's absolutely clear that we are a preferred strategic and innovation partner to provide imaging, therapy, and monitoring solutions, supported by a strong enterprise informatics and AI suite. This has been, again, amplified by how strongly our solutions resonated with customers at the recent VIVE, ECR, and HIMSS global healthcare events, which I attended during this quarter. Let me now provide you with some of the recent customer innovation milestones during the quarter. We launched the new Azurian image-guided therapy system and advanced informatics, as well as the new AI-enabled CT5300, designed for more accurate and reliable imaging results while enhancing productivity using up to 80% lower radiation dose. We were also recognized as a Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovator for the 11th consecutive year and ranked as a Top Medical Technology Patent Applicant at the European Patent Office in 2023. We continue to see strong customer pool for our solutions and signed several long-term agreements across the world in the quarter. For example, we signed a 10-year agreement with the Nicholas Children's Health System in the US to provide AI-enabled technologies such as helium-free, MR, ultrasound, and monitoring solutions for deeper clinical insights and improved workflow and productivity. Now on Respironics. As I said, we have taken very important steps in resolving the consequences of the Respironics recall in the quarter. As said before, we do regret the concern that patients may have experienced. Let me call out the milestones reached. First, Phillip's and plaintiff's leadership, supported by a court-appointed mediator, have reached an agreement that resolves the personal injury litigation at a medical monitoring class action in the US. This settlement ends the uncertainty associated with litigation in the US. It should be noted that Philips and Philips Respironics do not admit any fault or liability or that any injuries were caused by Respironics devices. Philips Respironics has agreed to pay a total kept amount of $1.1 billion. The related payments are expected in 2025 and to be fully funded from Phillip's cash flow generation. You will find more details of the agreement in the Respironics field action deck published on our investor relations website this morning, which underscores the high degree of confidence from all parties in achieving closure and finality with the settlement. Also important, earlier this month, the Phillips Respironics Consent Decree was approved by U.S. court. As communicated before, the decree primarily focuses on Respironics business operations in the U.S., and we now have made a roadmap to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements in order to restore the business in the U.S. and grow outside of the U.S. Moreover, Phillips Respironics obtained the final court approval for a previously announced economic less settlement in the U.S., for which a provision was recognized in Q1 2023. We continued to work on other Philips Respironics-related legal proceedings, including the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. And we also concluded an agreement with insurers to pay Philips in relation to Philips Respironics recall-related product liability claims. Following the remediation of sleep therapy devices and the reassuring test results to date, these important milestones on litigation, consent decree, and insurance provide Philips with a clear path forward for sustainable value creation. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our plan and financial outlook. In 2024, we expect to deliver 3% to 5% comparable sales growth, building on a strong comparison base of last year and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11 to 11.5%. The free cash flow expectation is now increased to 0.9 to 1.1 billion in 2024. Factor in the receipts from insurers that I just mentioned and the remaining payments related to the economic loss settlement. I will now hand it over to Abhijit to take us through the financials in more detail, after which I will come back on our execution priorities.

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