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Alk-Abello As B Shs New
5/3/2024
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this presentation of ALK's Q1 results. And thank you all for joining us. Let's turn to slide number two with an introduction to agenda and the speakers. My name is Per Plotnikoff. I'm head of investor relations. With me today are CEO Peter Helling and CFO Claus Steensen-Sølje. First, we'll share a couple of highlights from the quarter, and then we'll take a closer look on European tablet sales, market trends, and financials. We'll also provide a strategy status before we cover the outlook. And then we will end the presentation with a customary Q&A session. And to get started, I'll hand over to Peter and slide number three. Please go ahead, Peter.
Thank you, Peter. And thank you all for joining this call. 2024 started well for ALK. Revenue in Q1 was up 10% organically and the operating profit EBIT increased by 41% measured in local currencies. Revenue growth was driven by Europe in general and European tablet sales in particular. Total tablet sales increased 22% and in Europe alone it grew by 28% as we succeeded in adding to the growth momentum that we established in the second half of 2023. Obviously, we're very pleased to see the European tablet sales continue to rebound and reinstate its position as a key growth driver to ALK. While European sales were ahead of expectations, sales outside Europe were soft due to temporary sales fluctuations and phasing of product shipments to international markets. Nevertheless, we remain confident that we'll be able to grow full-year revenue in all sales regions. Consequently, the full-year guidance has been updated accordingly, so we now expect full-year revenue growth to be up slightly better from 9% to 12% to 10% to 13%. Moreover, we have made solid progress on our strategic agenda in the first quarter. In particular, with efforts to extend the reach of respiratory tablets to new patient groups in local markets. Based on prudent cost management and capital allocation, we saw strong improvements in our profitability. In Q1, we reached 23% EBIT margin and thus we are moving towards our 25% EBIT target in 2025. I'll just add that Q1 are normally a strong quarter when we look at EBIT and so was 24. The work to update our business strategy continues. And based on the findings during the review, we have decided already now to take specific actions and initiate specific initiatives. This will support both our future top and bottom line. These initiatives are being implemented as we speak, and will help us optimize ALK's business platform, enable scale, and free up resources to further fund and strengthen key strategic initiatives without compromising our profitability improvements that we target. Now, I will further comment on this later in the presentation, but before we get there, I'll hand it over to Klaus and the market trends on slide four.
Thanks, Peter. Let's start with European tablet sales, which were up 20% in Q1. Please remember, this is against a weak quarter last year where we had zero percentage growth. That said, we continue to see a positive growth momentum after the decline in growth trends from late 2020 to mid-2023. Growth in Q1 was driven by higher volumes linked to a strong inflow of new patients in our main markets in Central and Northern Europe. Compared to last year, we estimate an underlying volume increase that was well above 10% driven by new patients, particularly in the pollen segments. Please notice that there could be an element of pent-up demand associated with this trend in light of the relatively low number of new patients in the Asians last year. Looking at the underlying drivers, then last year, we developed a number of focused sales and marketing initiatives targeting allergy sufferers and doctors, and we have been able to activate more patients, more prescribers, and more payers. For example, through the use of digital channels, we are increasing the depth with current AIT prescribers, as well as starting to broaden the prescriber basis to new segments. On top, we have worked with doctors to extend the initiation season to mitigate conflicts with common respiratory infections and other epidemics. While we saw small improvements outside the main initiation season last year, we need to keep in mind that we are trying to change something that is deeply embedded in the clinical practice, so we will likely see incremental improvements over time. We are also benefiting from an accelerating market transition towards evidence-based registered products in Germany, which is the largest AIT market in Europe. Last year, a series of court rulings confirmed that insurance companies and other private payers may reject reimbursement for non-registered AIT products. This is now impacting the clinical practice. Moreover, this year, the Allergist Association has put additional pressure on non-registered AIT products by publishing a list of 18 products recommended for new patients with grass, tree and house dust mite allergies. Three of these 18 products are manufactured and marketed by ALK. Three tablets and three SCID products. Q1 growth was also positively influenced by improved pricing through inflation, indexation, as well as other price and rebate adjustments, including the reversal of last year's mandatory rebate increase in Germany, which positively affected European tablet growth with approximately 2.5 percentage points. Also, Q1 sales were less influenced by changing trading patterns at wholesale levels than what we have seen previously. Now let's look at revenue development for our different regions. Slide five, please. Overall sales in Europe were up 18% in Q1, based on growth in all product lines, and we consolidated ALK's position as market leader in European AIT. Tablets were the main driver of growth, but combined skid and slit drops, sales also contributed nicely with 9% growth. Sales of other products and services, including Jext, increased 7%. Sales in North America grew 2%. Tablet sales were up 20%, mainly driven by better pricing in the US and higher volumes in Canada. Sale of skid bulk and life science products fell short of expectations, primarily due to phasing and discontinuation of a large but low margin customer. Revenue from international markets decreased 18%. This was caused by a delay in skid shipments to China and the phasing of tablet shipments to Japan. However, the in-market sales in both China and Japan remained robust, underpinning the commercial potential in both markets. Let's turn to the product categories on slide six. Global tablet sales grew by 22% and was mainly driven by strong growth in Europe. Growth in international market was modest, 1%, as higher sales in minor international markets compensated for fluctuations in shipment to Japan. In total, tablets accounted for 52% of ALK's revenue in this quarter. Global sales of skid and slid drops declined by 1% related to delayed shipments to China and bulk sales in North America, failing short of expectations. This was partly offset by growth in sales in Europe. Finally, sales of other products and services, including Jext, increased by 1%. Jext's supply is normalizing as planned, and sales were up 10% in first quarter. We are progressing in restoring JEC sales, but still in the process of fully rebuilding our market position after last year's significant shortfall of supply. Now let's move on to slide seven and the financials. Revenue in Q1 was up 10% in local currencies to 1.351 billion Danish kroner. Exchange rates impacted growth in Danish kroner negatively by half a percentage point. A gross profit of 889 million Danish kroner yielded a gross margin of 66%, which is an improvement of one percentage point. The margin benefited from higher sales, changes to product mix, production efficiencies, and reversal of the German rebate increased last year. However, these factors were partly offset by inflationary pressures on input cost. Overall capacity costs increased by 1% in local currencies to 574 million Danish kroner. R&D expenses were down 18%, mirroring the completion of last year's clinical trials of the respiratory tablets. Sales and marketing expenses were up 4%, reflecting high activity levels across markets. Finally, administrative costs increased 27%, driven mainly by one-off costs related to the ongoing projects. EBIT was 316 million Danish kroner, a significant improvement of 41% in local currencies and 39% in Danish kroner. The EBIT margin improved from 18% to 23%, driven by the higher sales and operational leverage, as well as improved gross margin and prudent cost management. Finally, free cash flow improved to 111 million Danish kroner and 226 million Danish kroner when excluding the acquisition of prepen made in the beginning of the year. Progress was mainly due to higher earnings, lower capex, and higher payables. All in all, decent set of results, ALK's best quarterly performance so far. I now hand it back to you, Peter, for an update on the strategic priorities on slide 8.
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