Banijay Group N V

Good evening and welcome to Baninjay Group's 2025 full-year results webcast. This is Louise Racine. I recently joined as head of investor relations. Before we start, let me draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two. I also want to remind you that this presentation is now available on the company's website and a recording of this call will be accessible in the coming days. Your speakers today are Francois Riailly, our CEO, and Sophie Curings Leclerc, our CFO. First, Francois will present our key financial and business highlights for the full year. Sophie will then cover the results in more detail before Francois provides some concluding remarks. We will then open the call for questions. Over to you, Francois.

Thank you, Louise. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us again this week. I hope you're not fed up with Banerjee Group. We are pleased to present strong full year 2025 results. In a challenging market environment, Banijay Entertainment demonstrated a resilient performance with strong growth of Banijay Live as we continue to scale our IP through immersive experiences and produce major sports ceremonies across the world. Adjusted EBITDA increased by around 6% for this division with a strong margin improvement. Banijay Gaming delivered a double-digit revenue growth with strong momentum across all products. This was driven by 23% growth in unique active players and effective cross-selling. This is particularly impressive when you consider the high comparison base with 2024, which included both Euro 2024 and the European Games. It also delivered a double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth despite French tax increase. This performance clearly demonstrates the strength and effectiveness of our diversification strategy. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 8.6%, reaching the upper range of our guidance with 100 basis point margin improvements, reflecting continued cost control and operational efficiency. Before turning to the detailed review of our 2025 financial performance, Let me briefly comment on our recent strategic developments. We have been very active, I'm sure you will agree on that, in consolidating our markets, fully aligned with the ambitions set out at our Capital Markets Day in May 2025. Following the announcement in October 2025 of the acquisition of a majority stake in Tipico Group, reinforcing our leadership in sports betting and online gaming. We announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership with Redbird IMI to combine BanyJay Entertainment and All3Media to create a global media and entertainment powerhouse. This combination will give us an enhanced scale, deeper IP ownership, and greater exposure to structural growth drivers, reinforcing our long-term positioning. Zooming in on our 2025 results at constant currency and current scope of operations, we delivered a revenue growth of 3.4%. This translated into 8.6% adjusted EBITDA growth, reaching 961 million euros, and 6.3% growth of the adjusted net income, which is at current effects, unlike the two other metrics. Adjusted free cash flow generation stood at 780 million euros, resulting in a high level of cash conversion at 81%, again in line with guidance. Adjusted operating free cash flow reached 584 million euros, with a conversion rate of 65%, excluding one-off effects. Our leverage improved to 2.7 times, a 0.2 time reduction compared to the end of 2024. Finally, we are proposing a dividend of 35 cents per share, representing a 33% payout ratio as per our guidance. Let's move to business highlights now, starting with our content production and distribution business. Once again, 2025 showcased the unmatched scale of our content production and distribution leadership. At the end of 2025, our catalog grew to more than 220,000 hours of content. We had 30 formats traveling across three or more geographies. And we launched over 350 new shows during the year. 350. This includes 80 180 titles with global streaming platforms such as Netflix, Apple TV+, and Paramount+, which is unmatched in the industry. Revenue from streamers now represents 23% of our production and distribution revenue. From a scripted perspective, we doubled our production revenue in English language content with streaming platforms, and that's just the beginning if you think of the all-free media deal. House of Guinness on Netflix was a major success with over 61 million viewers. The Buccaneers was a top 10 hit in multiple territories and has been recommissioned for a third season. And NCIS Sydney season three on Paramount Plus reached 4.7 million viewers with a fourth season order. On the unscripted side, our focus is scaling formats through local adaptations. LOL on Amazon launched in the Nordics, the US, France, Italy, and also the UK, where it was the number one unscripted new launch across all platforms. The local adaptation of Temptation Island was launched on Netflix for the first time. I think if we had been saying five years ago that Temptation Island would be on Netflix, I think we would not have believed that. and it was crowned the best performing non-scripted program globally on the platform with Season 2 commissioned for 2026. The 50 Shaolin Heroes and The Summit continue their international expansion with six versions commissioned to date for each format which show our capability to roll out formats globally. Moving to live experiences now, which has performed exceptionally well this year. In 2025, we more than doubled the number of events produced, reaching over 33,000, representing an average of eight events produced per day, including the independent shows. Badditch Wonder Studios delivered major international sports ceremonies throughout 2025, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the FIFA World Cup of Clubs, the African Cup of Nations and the UEFA Women's Euro, as well as the UEFA Champions League final kick-off show, which was very important because Paris Saint-Germain won, demonstrating our ability to execute large-scale, globally broadcast productions across continents. Most recently, many of you have watched the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, which we proudly produced. The ceremony was seen by 2.5 billion people around the world, and it was widely praised globally. and according to IOC data, was regarded by a strong majority of viewers, I think by 70% of viewers, as the most memorable winter opening ceremony ever. A clear illustration of the creative ambition and execution capabilities of our live business. And of course, this type of event is the best demonstration of capability for the future events. On the immersive experiences side, Lochi, which we acquired in early 2025, has been a remarkable success story. In just one year, we have launched 16 new shows, opened in four new countries in partnership with Banija Entertainment's local labels. We tripled the number of tickets sold to approximately one million. And we are now producing around four shows per day on average. We are excited by the potential of our live business, and we will continue to seek out opportunities to rapidly scale IP in this way, leveraging our global production footprint, and tomorrow, all free media as well. Moving now to Vanigy Gaming, which continues to drive outstanding profitable growth. As I say, every quarter, unique active players is the most important KPI for the commercial performance of the platform, as the margin can be volatile with results. And this grew 23% year-on-year to 2.3 million. This is particularly impressive given the absence of major global sports events in 2025, such as the World Cup or the Euro. This sustained growth was enabled by our relentless focus on our tech platform and user experience. BetClick is the number one downloaded sports betting app in all its markets, enhanced with a recent major cloud-based upgrade and new features such as AI-powered recommendations. And we are preparing a new release for the World Cup. Our multi-product strategy continues to deliver strong results, with cross-selling between sportsbooks and other activities, namely casino and poker, reaching 35%, which is remarkable. In online casino, we launched 280 new casino titles, 20% of which were original or exclusive games, and successfully entered Ivory Coast in early 2025. Our new proprietary poker platform, launched at the end of 2024, has also performed strongly, driving player growth, engagement and monetization. These multi-product capabilities, combined with our strong technological foundations, become even more strategic in the context of the typical acquisition, with clear synergy opportunities already identified. It's also true for potential regulatory upsides. That's all from me for now. I'll be back at the end with some closing remarks before we open the line for questions. But over to you, Sophie.

Thank you, François. Let's start with Group Revenue for the full year, where we delivered 3.4% growth at constant exchange rates and current scope to reach almost 4.9 billion euros. As François mentioned earlier and has already highlighted during our nine-month results, 2025 was a challenging year for the global content production and distribution industry. On the gaming side, we delivered double-digit growth despite a high comparison basis in 2024. Group adjusted EBITDA increased by 8.6% to €961 million at constant exchange rates and current perimeter, reaching the upper end of the guidance range. The strong performance also translated into one percentage point expansion of the adjusted EBITDA margin, reaching 19.7%. This was driven by the increased contribution from Banerjee Gaming, which has a higher margin, combined with efficient cost control in both businesses. Moving next to our P&M. The operating profit increase of more than 25% was driven by the strong adjusted EBITDA growth and the significant decline in LTIP expense as anticipated. The improvement in the financial result reflects the successful repricing and refinancing of our debt at better conditions as well as the fair value changes in financial instruments including hedging, put options and earn out debt together with foreign exchange loss and gains. Income tax expense increased in line with activity growth while our effective tax rate improved meaningfully to 35% compared to around 42% last year. adjusted net income rose by more than 6% in line with adjusted EBITDA growth. Let's move to results by business, starting with content production, distribution, and live experience. Revenues were resilient, up 0.4% at constant exchange rates and current perimeter. Looking at revenue by activity, Content production was done slightly, reflecting broader softness in the market and cautious commissioning from broadcasters. Distribution revenue decline of 5.4% reflects the condition in the production market and a different mix between streaming platforms and linear broadcasters in the sale of scripted hits. The standout performer was Live Experience and Other, which grew 20.3%, driven by the successful roll-out of Loci's luminescence experience across France and internationally, and the strong performance of BH Wonder Studio with the delivery of major sports ceremonies. Looking at earnings and cash flow now for the business line, adjusted EBDA was up 5.7% at constant exchange rates and current perimeter, with margin improving 80 basis points to 16.6%. This improvement reflects a favorable mix in production margins, particularly on some major scripted shows and cost control on production budgets. Higher capex reflects increased third-party distribution advance advantage rights, investment in Mochi, and continued investment in digitalization. Adjusted free cash flow conversion stood at a solid 72%. The improvement in working capital reflects timing effects on long-term distribution contracts and different phasing between show delivery and cash collection. Income tax paid was higher, mainly reflecting payments to the Tax Consolidation Group with no impact at group level. Adjusted operating free cash flow increased by almost 2%, reaching more than €309 million. Sports betting and gaming next where we saw strong revenue growth of 10.2% at constant exchange rates and current perimeter reaching 1.6 billion euros of revenue. Sportsbook revenue were at 6.8% supported by 23% growth in unique active players and sustained player interest during major competitions such as the new format of the Champions League. This is a remarkable outcome, given the high comparison basis with 2024, as well as the impact of adverse sports results in September 2025 that did not fully reverse by year-end, as we communicated at our nine-month results. Casino, poker, and turf revenues were at 22%, also an outstanding performance. This reflects effective cross-selling between products, the successful launch of online casino in Côte d'Ivoire in early 2025, and the strong performance of our proprietary online poker platform in France. Looking at earnings now, Banijay Gaming continues to deliver solid profitability and generate strong free cash flow. AGC De Bilda was up 12.6% at constant exchange rates and current perimeter. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 26.7%, driven by continued cost discipline, including lower marketing costs. This was partially offset by higher betting tax in France, which came into effect in July 2025. Adjusted free cash flow conversion remains extremely high at 93%. Adjusted operating free cash flow was temporarily impacted by one-off items as highlighted at our nine-month results. These include one-offs related to the exceptional 2024 performance with cash outflows occurring in 2025, notably performance-related payouts and an exceptional 27 million euro income Pax catch-up linked to strong 2024 results. Excluding this one-off, adjusted operating free cash flow was up 10.8%, which is more reflective of the underlying performance of the business. From a cash flow perspective, Group adjusted free cash flow reached 780 million euros resulting in a cash conversion rate after CapEx and its payments of 81% fully in line with our full year guidance. Adjusted operating free cash flow was 584 million euros with a conversion rate of 65% excluding one-off effects mentioned earlier. The Group's net debt stands at 2.57 billion euros, representing a leverage of 2.7 times, an improvement of 0.2 times compared to the end of 2024. We continue to have a very strong liquidity position with a positive cash balance of 494 million euros and 280 million euros of un-drawn secured credit lines. That's all from me. I will now hand back to François for some concluding remarks.