Adecco Group Ag Unsp/Adr

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. My name is Kelvin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the EDECO Group First Quarter 2025 results. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Benita Barreto, the ADECA Group Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you for joining the ADECA Group's conference call today. I'm Benita Barreto, the Group's Head of Investor Relations. Denis Machuel, the ADECA Group's CEO, and Coram Williams, the CFO, are with me today. Before we begin, we want to draw your attention to the Discamer on slide two. Today's presentation will reference GAAP and non-GAAP financial results and operating metrics. This conference call will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions as of today and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties. Let me now hand over to Denny and the results report.

Thank you, Benita, and a warm welcome to all of you who joined the call today. Starting with slide three, which provides an overview of the Q1 results. The consistent and rigorous execution of our strategy is paying off. In the first quarter, we gained further market share with solid margin performance. The ADECO GBU was 130 basis points ahead of key competitors this quarter. Revenues were 5.6 billion euros, 2% lower year-on-year on an organic trading days adjusted basis and 3% higher sequentially. The group saw flex volumes improving through Q1 and we are pleased to see ADECO US return to growth. The gross margin of 19.4% was healthy. 40 basis points lower year-on-year, reflecting current business mix and firm pricing. EBITDA, excluding one-offs, was €132 million, driving a margin of 2.4%, 40 basis points lower year-on-year. The margin evidences agile capacity management and strong cost control, in addition to the favorable timing of fiscal income. Adjusted EPS was 48 cents, 20% lower year-on-year, mainly reflecting lower business income. Cash flow from operating activities was minus 144 million euros, while the cash conversion ratio was strong at 105%. Let's turn to slide four, where we look at some key wins driving market share gains which was 30 basis points positive at the group level this quarter on top of the 200 basis points delivered in 2024. First, close collaboration between ACODIS and ADECO resulted in a significant win with a German IT services provider. The client wanted project management and software development capabilities to support digital transformation. The client valued the group's coordinated delivery model with a single point of contact. Moreover, the client valued the high level of technical expertise offered, combined with our ability to scale and support during high workload periods. Second, the US LHH and Pontoon teams secured a major contract with a leading market research company thanks to a referral from ADECO. The client required strategic workforce planning and talent management capabilities. They saw value in LHH's global reach and end-to-end service offering as they needed offshore recruitment, HR sourcing, and outplacement services across multiple geographies. Moving to slide five, which highlights recent developments in the group's strategy to adopt AI solutions at pace. to accelerate profitable growth. As an example, we've launched pre-screening agents in ADECO UK, accelerating our agentic AI deployment and leveraging the Salesforce partnership and their agent force platform. The new agents enable a 24 seven exchange for candidates. They allow recruiters to quickly receive a high quality list of candidates that can then be considered for the interview stage and reduce the need for recruiters to make pre-screening calls to candidates. They also ensure higher quality automated data capture. This is very positive, and we are very confident in its scaling potential, which will improve customer experience and reduce cost to serve. And, Accodis Germany has launched new capabilities as part of its modular AI core platform suite, which numerous customers have used for over 10 years. The suite helps companies build AI models using low or no code with ready-to-use plug-in and agents. The new tools include a virtual assistant for brainstorming, intelligent analysis of documents and contracts, as well as code generation support and analysis. It is proven to deliver efficiency gains, cost savings, and faster project completion. Another important development this quarter has been the launch of Our Potential. This is an exciting new technology venture backed by investments from IDECO Group, the majority owner, and Salesforce. Our Potential is uniquely positioned to support companies. It will leverage AI and adjunct technology to help clients optimize workforce configurations and better distribute tasks between humans and digital workers, harnessing insights from the ADECO Group's rich labor data. We are convinced that our potential will deliver pioneering innovation at the speed and scale required in the world of authentic AI, and we look forward to updating you on its progress later this year. Let's turn to slide six, highlighting how the group navigates current macroeconomic uncertainty. To be clear, we are not directly impacted by shifting trade policy and we have not seen an impact from trade policies on our trading activities to date. The top left chart shows ADECO's flexible placement volumes in our largest countries from Q4 2024 to April this year. In percentage, year-on-year terms. Volumes improved through Q1, and modest positive momentum continues. When we talk to clients, most do not mention a direct impact, although we've seen some slowdown in client decision making, particularly in permanent placement. We'll continue to monitor developments very closely. and adjust our operations accordingly. Let me now hand over to Coram who will discuss the results in more detail.