Bilfinger Se Unsp/Adr

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Billfinger's fourth quarter and full year 2024 results call. My name is Martina Burger, and I'm here together with our group CEO, Thomas Scholz, and our group CFO, Matti Ecke. We will start with a presentation today and highlight the quarter and our financials. After that, we will open up for questions. You can ask your questions via telephone by pressing star 1 or via the webcast in the chat. During the presentation, all participants will be in the listen-only mode. The event will be recorded. And now over to you, Thomas.

Thank you, Martina. Hello, everybody. Yeah, a warm welcome to all of you for our presentation for the full year 2024, the quarter four, 24, as well as the outlook for 25. As you know, we start with our highlights. We had quite a successful year for the Billfinger Group. We achieved all financial targets. Orders received 13% up. Revenue 12% up. EBITDA from 4.3% to 5.2% improved. And the cash flow from €122 million to €189 million. Very important in that the sixth quarter in a row positive. We have an earnings per share on the full year of 4.79. And we propose as a dividend 2.40 per share. for the year 2024. When we look into the markets, we see an overall stable demand for our products in volatile markets. The outlook for 2025 is 5.1 to 5.7 billion euro on the revenue and a 5.2 to 5.8 in the EBITDA. We will operate a new capital markets day on the 2nd of December this year, where we will announce new midterm targets up to the year 2030. As I said on the highlights, targets for 2024 achieved. The revenue, what you see on the left side, we had a guidance 4.8 to 5.2, and we made a little bit more than 5 billion euro, which is an increase organically of 2% and reported of 12% versus 23%. The EBITDA improved 39%. And actually the margin from 4.3 to 5.2, which is quite a good improvement. The outlook for the year we had on 4.8 to 5.2. The free cash flow actually came out higher than we were guiding for. The guidance was 125 to 165. And we came out 189, which is a 55% improvement. Adjusted actually an 88% improvement. So the year 2024 was again for the Billfinger Group quite a successful year. Before we go further into financial figures, some about the market as well as sustainability and other things. At first to the sustainability, our ESG key figures. Important for us, important for our clients, important for our suppliers, too, is, of course, the occupational safety. And that is what you find on that quite lively slide in the middle. And you see here two indicators. One is the TRIF and the other one is the LTIF. On the TRIF, we had a very positive development to 1.12, coming from a 1.19. But on the LTIF, we had a deterioration, a negative trend. And that is where we put all efforts in it that we can present in the year 2026 for 2025 a significant better result. Important based on the efficiency program and the transformation, what we do with the company, we would like to highlight the spend for learning and development. We promised to do more than 0.5% of our revenue. And in 2024, we achieved that. Last but not least, on that slide about the environment on the left side. In 24, first time we were able to report on scope 3 up and downstream for the greenhouse gas emissions. Out of that, we come to our, what we think, quite famous sustainable business classification. As you know, Brussels forgot the mechanical industrial service providers, so we implemented in beginning of 23 our own classification, what you know when you go into an electronics store and looking, for example, for a fridge. A is the most green classification and D is the least green or non-green. And you see that despite quite a significant improvement in the revenue, the percentage split is actually not moving really different than in 2023. That's mainly based on the acquisition, what we did in 2024. But when you look through all the four classes, the A, B, C, D, you have on the right side some examples what we announced as orders to get a link into it. A for us is clear, green, sustainable, 100% improvement. B is what we call indirect improvement. And C are very indirect improvements. And D is, of course, activities where we can't claim any sustainability improvement at all. Out of that, we go into the industry, into the market development. We are mainly in chemical and petrol camps, oil and gas, energy, as well as pharma and biopharma. All the four industries develop actually differently. You see that on the left side with the production index. The production index is indexed to the base year 2019 as the last pre-corona year. And it's easy to see that despite pharma and biopharma, which enjoys a significant improvement in production index since 2019, all the other three industries are hardly really moving up in that. And of course, there are per industry different arguments. In the chemical and petrochem industry, we see significant regional differences. We see investments in the Middle East and North America, parts of Europe, and especially in Germany, actually the opposite. But the outsourcing potential, the willingness of the client to give industrial service to providers like us is actually on a very good level. Our demand in that industry, we would call that stable. The oil and gas we see based on several reasons, an increase in global oil production and the outsourcing potential, the willingness of our customers to do more of the asset management, maintenance and so on with us is quite good. We see the demand in that industry growing and positive. Then to the energy industry. Energy, we see increasing demand, but complete different setup. Alone in Europe with the nuclear boom, what we see all over, despite, of course, Germany, we have in that sector a positive outsourcing potential and we see a positive market development. Last but not least is pharma, pharmaceutical. It's our smallest industry where we are in around 10%. Outsourcing potential, great. And the demand is great. What is the driver? It's actually the localization of supply and innovation of new products faster to the market. Both are the main drivers in that industry. Out of that, we look into some selected orders to see that you can see what we mean when we talk about these different industries. The first is with Garzoni in the Netherlands, quite a good customer of us. With the acquisition of the former Fleur Stock, we were able to get a 10-year partnership with Garzoni. So the M&A enabled us to To have a bigger contract, a bigger footprint, quite a good work. Then in the middle part of the slide, you see from Norway in NEOS, another extension of a long-term contract in engineering, fabrication, maintenance and management services, which proves that we over decades can add value, efficiency improvement, sustainability improvement to our clients. On the right side, it's about pharma and biopharma in Austria. Here, with a pharmaceutical company, we do the engineering, procurement, the fabrication, and other stuff to enable the client to produce better and more efficient. If you look through all the three contracts, you see there's a lot of commonality, and that's a big part of our strength. 80% of the business, what we do, no matter which country, no matter which industry, is more or less the same. Out of that, into innovation, because that's a big driver for our competitiveness. Today, I would like to introduce the so-called Biltinger Service Effectiveness Analyzer. It's, of course, a digital tool for rotating equipment like turbines, pump, where we are able to predict, to calculate before things happen for the client, what is the energy consumption, what is the CO2 footprint, what to do to improve it, and which effect it has on the whole plant as well as on the whole efficiency. This unique calculation tool on a digital format actually enables us to offer to the client up to more than 5% plant availability improvement, more than 25% efficiency improvement, and more than 15% CO2 reduction. Out of that... We go into the figures. Our well-known opportunity pipeline is on the top of that page. And it's over two years, month by month. And the highlighted areas is actually from the left to the right, the quarter four in 2022, then the quarter four in 2023, and then the quarter four last year in 24 in blue color. When you look at the figures, it is indexed to the October on the 100. And you see that we had in last year or in the year 2023, in the fourth quarter, an average 110 where we can bid on is actually the sum of, I call it the cake from the clients where we can bid on. And you see that the development over the year had actually peaked into May and then was going a little bit down and at the end coming back to 107 in average. So the market has more or less a side movement slightly up, as we say, stable market environment. If you look into the orders received, you see how it develops from 22 fourth quarter, 23 fourth quarter to quarter four in 2024. And there you see an increase of 8% reported and minus 5%. These kind of fluctuations quarter on quarter is absolutely normal for us. We call it the seasonality in the year. Very positive, we think, is, of course, the order backlog development from 22 to 23. It was a 5% organic growth. And from 23 to 24, it was a 7%. And with the M&A, actually a reported 22% improvement on the order backlog. Now to the further figures, to my colleague Mati as the group CFO.

Thomas, thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Some more details on the fourth quarter performance. Overall, I would say quarter four was a fairly good quarter and very much in line with the full year development. As you can see from the numbers here, EBITDA throughout the year, very good, ending up with 5.5% compared to 5.8% in the quarter for 2023. So overall, a very solid EBITDA margin progression and development. Revenue up by 14% in total, 1% organically with a book-to-bill of almost 1.0, so also continuing our very good trend line. Free cash flow, this has been mentioned a number of times. We had four positive quarters this year plus two quarters in 23, makes for six consecutive quarters with positive free cash flow for the Billfinger Group. we're really seeing that the working capital management efforts are bearing fruit. We have a lower intra-year working capital, and consequently the year-end quarter four numbers are lower than in the prior year, as we have communicated before. Take a bit of a look into the segments, and we start off with the segment Europe, quarter four performance. Orders received in quite difficult or challenging market environment. I would say 5% organically and together with the stock acquisition plus 25% over quarter four 2023. Again, a very good achievement and a testament to the strength of the Bülfinger Group. We do see a bit of a mixed picture across regions and industries. As Thomas said, very typical seasonality throughout the year. Importantly, we have achieved some contract renewals in the chemicals and petrochemicals industry. And as everybody knows, and as it's written in the center here, the industry has its challenges, particularly in Germany. And in that respect, again, a success for the Belfinger Group. Revenue, minus 1% organically, but in total plus 17%. Organic growth, particularly in pharma and biopharma, energy and oil and gas, in line with the market development. EBITDA margin consistently above 6% for the last three quarters. So again, stabilization throughout the year, very good margin recognition and a very good performance by our European colleagues. Over to international. The revenue is up by 6% organically, 10% in total. We do see or we did see revenue growth in both regions, Middle East and North America, and across all industries. Particularly in the Middle East, we have seen new contracts from the energy industry, something that has really taken off in 2024. EBITDA margin is down from 5.4% to 1.6%. In the fourth quarter, we have taken a little bit more risk provisioning for the project business that we have discontinued in North America. We're on the very last project that is being completed right now, and that took a bit of a hit there. Orders received minus 22%. While we have seen growth in the Middle East from new clients, rollovers of frame contracts, what we have seen in the United States is nothing unusual. Every time a new administration moves in, decisions are being slowed down until the new administration takes its footing. And consequently, the orders received here were a bit lower than what we had seen in 2023. Finally, segment technologies. I start off with EBITDA margin, progressive expansion as a result of product mix, operational excellence, and efficiency program. So you can really see our strategy at work here. 8.0% in the fourth quarter, up from 6.3% in fourth quarter 2023. On the order intake, While it shows minus 30% over the fourth quarter 2023, this is expected. It's an expected decrease year over year compared to the quarter three and quarter two where we had very strong order intake. So that's normal in this business. I think it's worthwhile pointing out that the backlog over the course of the year grew by 14%. So we're working off a very good backlog in technologies into 2025. Back to the group. Again, in total for the year, orders received and revenue up by 13% and 12%, including the acquisition, 2%. for each organically. Others received at 5.3 billion, revenue at 5.04 billion euros for 2024, a very solid performance by the Billfinger Group. And the book to bill of 1.06 also indicates further growth as we move into 2025. Profitability, I mentioned it before, €264 million in EBITDA equals 5.2%. EBITDA margin up by 39% over 2023 as a result of our margin improvement in gross profit. 60 basis point from 10.3% to 10.9%, and an improvement of the SG&A ratio, 6.6% to 6.3%, despite the fact that the acquisition came in at a much higher cost rate. So, again, a proof point that the efficiency program in our strict cost discipline is turning out the results that we have indicated and expected. A quick look at the segments for the full year. So revenue in Europe, 3.5 billion, up 1%. Revenue in international, up 3% to 710 million. And revenue in technologies, up 5% to 732 million. If we look at the book-to-bill, 1.06 for Europe. almost 1.0 for international and 1.10 for technologies, again, showing that Bildfinger is on a growth path. And if we look at the EBITDA margin, with the exception of international, we are also looking at sustainable, profitable growth. Net profit and earnings per share. When your EBITDA increases as much as it did for Billfinger, you would expect that your net earnings go up. However, last year we had a positive impact from the recognition of deferred tax asset of about 61 million. So that was considered last year, and hence the net profit did not move much in 2024. Earnings per share. €4.79. The dividend proposal, as Thomas mentioned earlier, is €2.40. That is based on our adjusted net profit, which is calculated with a standard tax rate, went up from €117 million in 2023 to €169 million in 2024. And the payout ratio is equal to 53%, which is in line with our dividend policy. Again, cash flow, not only in the fourth quarter quite good, but also throughout the year, very strong operating cash generation from 151 to 248 million. Free cash flow improved by 55% for a cash conversion rate of 71%. And if you use adjusted figures, then the cash conversion rate was even up at 88%. We spend about 1.3% of revenue on CapEx. That has not changed in 2024 over 2023. And one key parameter that we introduced is the net trade assets over revenue parameter. We started off in 2023 with 12%. We achieved 10% as a ratio. And as you know, our midterm target should be 8% or less. So we have done quite good work in 2024 to improve that KPI. Net liquidity obviously follows the cash flow. Nothing special to report about here, nothing that you didn't know already. The drop in the first quarter is related to the repayment of the bond by the end of March. Leverage net debt over EBITDA came out at 0.54 at the end of December, so well below the 2.00 upper ceiling that we have given ourselves. Capital allocation. No change. I think it's worth mentioning that M&A in 2024 was fully funded by ourselves. The integration has made extremely quick progress, will be completed early 2025. We have announced the share buyback, also funded by ourselves, obviously, and by the end of February, we had acquired about 0.35% of the outstanding shares, and that's roughly equal to 15% of the share buyback program. Obviously, a very sound financial policy. trying to achieve investment-grade rating, and we're quite optimistic that this is not too far away, I would say. And with that, I leave it to Thomas to talk about Guidance 2025.