Avolta Ag Unsp/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Avolta's Q1 2025 Trading Update Conference Call-in Live webcast. I am Moira, the Chorus Call Operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relative field. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Xavier Rossignol, CEO of Avolta. You will now be joined into the conference room.

Good morning, good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for being here today in this quarter one trading update of Avolta. We're going to make a presentation together with our CFO, Yves Gesser. I'm going to go straight to slide number four of our presentation. Quarter one, and we are also giving data on year-to-date April, has started very strongly. We have reported on currency exchange rate a turnover growth of 8.2% on the first quarter, with an organic of 5.3%. If we take into consideration that last year, February, was a leap year, the comparable growth on quarter one will be organically 6.5%. core turnover has also increased nicely in april we already disclosed that there are some seasonality moves this year easter being in april instead of march and as we already said we believe that the year today april is the right way to look the performance of the company that will be even slightly better than quarter one with an eight point five percent Total growth at currency exchange rate and 5.7% organic. Without the leap year effect, the organic will be 6.6%. very well in the long-term outlook of 5 to 7 percent per year. Core EBITDA has reached 196 million, which is an EBITDA margin of 16.3 percent, again on the top part of the range of our outlook, 37 basis points. Equity-free cash flow is difficult to look at the first quarter because low season, no Easter. But if we take into consideration the seasonal effects, it's negative, 104 million, but it's in line with what you see on first quarter. Does not change our outlook for the year. Capital allocation, we will go on that a little bit later, but we confirm that our capital allocation remains unchanged, focus on deleveraging, and we continue to deleverage. If we compare the leverage of quarter one 2025 versus the first quarter of last year, we went from 2.6 to 2.2 times net debt to leverage. We remain with a very strong liquidity, and we keep committed to the share buyback and the dividend distribution. Yesterday in the General Assembly, it was approved a distribution of one Swiss franc per share. This is an increase of 43% year-on-year on the dividend. And of the 200 million share buyback we announced, we already bought 49 million Swiss francs in shares on the first quarter. I'll explain a little bit more that in detail, but we continue with the transformation of our shops, our restaurants, and also on the digital transformation. And we have robust business development in all the regions, Europe, Middle East, Africa, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. If we go now to the next slide, we can see one of the strengths of Avolta. our diversification. Geographical diversification, business lines diversification with one-third duty-free, one-third to duty-paid, one-third in food and beverage, and we can also see a good balance on channels and category mix. Thanks to this diversification, we have been able to report a very strong organic growth, like-for-like growth. and a strong growth despite one of the regions performing a little bit weaker. We all know that due to the general economic and financial situation in the U.S., the number of passengers in that part of the world are being flat during this year until April. With that flat passengers, we also report flattish sales, slightly positive if you take into consideration the change of scope, but largely flat. But despite that, and thanks to our strong diversification, we have shown well in the outlook the total performance. And we have received some questions over the last few hours, like we received. I mean, a few months back, people were worried about the Chinese consumption. Prior to that, the Ukraine-Russia war, also some concerns on the Middle East. And over and over, we keep reporting, and I think this is the ninth consecutive report, quarter where we report higher sales. We always, with a group as diverse and big as us, we will have different performance in different parts of the world. The important thing is that on the overall, we see a good strength. The combination of March and April, it shows a performance that is in line with year to date. And therefore, we believe that the year to date is the best example in April on how we are performing as a group. If we move to the next slide, we can see that this performance is extremely strong in EMEA, and LATAM is strong in Asia Pacific, and as I just said, a little bit weaker in North America. If we look at like for like, we have 8% in EMEA, plus 1.3 in North America, plus 3.4 in APAC, and 5.5 in Latin America. If we go to the next slide, we continue with a commercial and digital transformation. We have 32 new stores since our last reporting, including completely new concepts like Premium Tea in China, Hungry Club in Malaga. As you know, this is an F&B concept that we put inside the duty-free stores, so it's a hybrid concept. We continue with the cross-promotion, so the combination on F&B. F&B and retail keeps yielding good results. We put also completely new concepts as part of this new focus. Gourmand in Barcelona, we keep pushing very hard on the entertainment. We are every month more and more convinced that this combination of entertainment, new concepts, new shops, combination of food and beverage and retail is the way forward to consistently keep growing organically ahead of the passenger. not forgetting also the digital and data transformation. CLAPA Volta continues to grow. We added another million members in quarter one. All the data, recruiting, spend per ticket, importance of the loyalty sales in the total have accelerated in quarter 1.25 versus quarter 4.24. So we continue going on the right direction. And we cannot underestimate the value we will have over time of this added intimacy with the loyal customers. We learn a lot about that, and we can keep improving our offering, our pricing, our promotions, the way we interact with consumers thanks to this increased number of data. Gaming is another aspect of the loyalty and in general of our interaction with passengers that is proving very interesting to increase the time we have relationship with those customers. If we move to the next slide in a second, I have a small video. You know, we always have two constants in these presentations, or three. Consistent results, happiness for FC Barcelona, and a video. So I'm going to go now to the video, and I'll come back in a second.

At the dawn of a new era in travel, our journey began with a promise. A promise of innovation, elegance, and connection. And now we are fully delivering on those promises. This is Avolta, where the future of travel retail unfolds. We are offering a world where shopping and technology merge. Where every step is designed for a flawless experience. Here, intelligent solutions transform everyday moments into extraordinary milestones, paving the way for a smarter, richer journey. Across continents, our vision transcends borders. From Bali to LA, from Stockholm to Barcelona, Avolta redefines travel retail by fusing state-of-the-art design with the heart of a global community. Behind every innovation stands an incredible team, united worldwide by passion and expertise. As we chart a course for the future, We now also honor our loyal community through Club Evolta, a global loyalty program uniting all Evolta shops under one innovative umbrella. With exclusive rewards and personalized experiences, Club Evolta turns every purchase into a milestone celebrated. Join us on a journey where every moment is an experience and every destination writes a new chapter of possibility. Because your journey deserves to be elevated. Evalta. Journey on.