Cemetir Holding

Good afternoon. This is the Coruscall Conference Operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Cementer Holding 9 months 2021 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marco Maria Bianconi, Head of M&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you.

Good afternoon and good morning and welcome to Chairmanty Holding 2021 nine-month results. My name is Marco Bianconi. I'm here with Francesco Caltagirone, our Chairman and Chief Executive, who's ready to take Any question you may have at the end of my short 15 minutes presentation. I'm here also with Elisa Pettinari of the investor relations team. We've distributed the press release and a presentation deck. So I'm going to go through the presentation now, starting with page two with the nine months results highlights. The group reported results in line with expectations with the revenues up 12.4% year on year with the cement volumes up by just over 8% driven by Turkey, Denmark and Belgium. Also aggregate volumes were strong up by almost 10% and ready mix volumes were up over 20% year on year. EBITDA reached 215 million Euro up almost 21% These results are due mainly to good performance in Turkey, Belgium, to a lesser extent in Asia Pacific and the US. EBITDA margin expanded to 21.3% from 19.9% in the first nine months of last year. We have to remind you that 2020 figures were impacted by 5.6 million one-offs. EBIT reached 133 million euro, up 36.5%. from the year before, profit before tax was up 49%, and net financial debt reached 100 million euro and was reduced by over 118 million euro year on year, including 28.8 million euro of share buyback and 22.3 million euro of dividend pay. Moving to page three on the main geographies, Nordic and Baltic, which accounts for just over 50% of our EBITDA here results was better in terms of sales and trading across all business lines with domestic cement volumes up seven percent due to increased market activity also white cement exports were up six percent and also ready mix and aggregate volumes were up strongly up eight and twenty seven percent respectively EBITDA in Denmark was down by 5.5% due to higher raw materials, fuel and electricity, and operating costs, mainly in the cement business. In Norway, ReadyMix sales volumes were up by around 6%, and there was, after a slow start since March, a significant recovery due to the start of some important projects. The Norwegian krona appreciated around 4.5% versus the euro. In Sweden, there was a favorable weather and robust construction activity, leading to sales volumes up in ready-mix and hybrids by 9% and 5%, respectively. The Swedish krona appreciated around 3.9% versus the Euro. On page 4, Belgium and France, which accounts for around 22% of Group EBITDA, Here, cement volumes in the period increased by around 3% thanks to favorable weather and market growth. Ready Mix volume growth was around 19% thanks to a kickoff of some major projects in the period. Aggregate volumes were up 10% with strong domestic and exports also to France. EBITDA in the period was up almost 16% to 47.9 million euro benefiting from operational leverage and better pricing. On page five, North America accounting for around 8% of group EBITDA. Here, wet cement volume growth was up 6%, mainly driven by Florida. And while New York, California, and Texas results were more or less in line with last year. Revenue was broadly unchanged, also due to a currency translation impact because of the 6.3% US dollar devaluation versus the Euro in the period, but EBITDA managed to go up by 9.5% thanks to good cost control and despite higher purchasing costs. Asia Pacific, which accounts for around 8% of group EBITDA here in China, reported the wet cement and clinker sales volumes of 8% with an EBITDA up by over 16% despite higher raw material and fuel costs. In Malaysia, white cement volumes were up by around 21%, driven by exports, where volumes grew by around 24%, mainly driven to better sales to Australia and the Philippines. Export pricing declined due to mixed effect and some FX impact as well. EBITDA overall increased by around 3.4% in the period In Turkey, here cement sales increased by over 63% in local currency with cement volumes up 8%, 17% in the domestic and minus 23% in export. Average cement prices were up in local currency and also ready mix volumes were up strongly by around 40%. We have to notice that in the period, the Turkish Lira devalued by around 28% versus the Euro. Despite that, the group reported strong EBITDA improvement year over year. And we have to remind you that 2020 EBITDA included 3.1 million Euro of one-off costs. The last business unit, Egypt here, accounting for only 3% of the group EBITDA, white cement volumes increased by 20%. and export volumes increased by 30% and overall EBITDA was up by 6.5%. This is despite a 5.5% evaluation of the Egyptian pound versus the Euro. Last slide here on the full year guidance, which is unchanged after an upward revision after the six months results. So we expect for the year revenues to reach around 1.35 billion Euro. and EBITDA range between 295 and 305 million euro, net debt of around 30 million and a capex on around 95 million euro. So this ends my presentation. Now Francesco Castalgerone is happy to take any question you may have. Thank you.

Excuse me, this is the Corusco conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Bruno Permutti with Intesa San Paolo. Please go ahead, sir.