5/12/2025

speaker
Dani Sagara
Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability and Vice President at Grifols

Hello everyone, my name is Dani Sagara and I serve as the Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability and Vice President at Grifols. Welcome to our review of the company's business results for the first quarter of 2025. Today, I'm joined by Griffo's Chief Executive Officer, Nat Shabia, Chief Financial Officer, Rahul Srinivasan, and the President of Biopharma, Roland Vandeler. A few logistics before we get into details. Today's call will last about an hour, including a Q&A session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. You can find additional materials, including today's presentation, in the investor relations section of the Grifols website at grifols.com. The transcript and a replay of the webcast will also be available on the investor relations website within 24 hours. Turning to slide two, please note that this presentation includes forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company's future operating and financial performance, market position, and business strategy. These statements are based on current expectations and available information as of the date of the recording, and they are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Default financial statements are prepared in accordance with EU IFRS and other applicable reporting provisions, including alternative performance measures or APMs, prepared under the Group's financial reporting model as defined by the European Securities and Markets Authority. Please note that Grifols Management uses APMs to evaluate financial performance, cash flows, and overall financial position as the basis for operational and strategic decision making. These APMs are prepared for all time periods presented in this document. Now moving to today's agenda, Nacho will start with some introductory remarks, followed by a discussion of our business performance and strategic execution. Then Rahul will review the financial results for Q1 2025. After Rahul's presentation, we will return to Nacho for his closing comments. Roland will be joining us for Q&A. With that, I will now turn the call over to Nacho. Nacho.

speaker
Nat "Nacho" Shabia
Chief Executive Officer of Grifols

Thank you, Dani. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Building on the all-time high in 2024, we are pleased to report a strong start to 2025. The first quarter saw encouraging increases in revenue, EBITDA, and free cash flow. This performance reflects the fundamentals of our business and the continued execution of our strategic plan. We recognize that this growth is particularly noteworthy given the anticipated impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, IRA, and the global uncertainties we all are navigating. Despite these factors, our Q1 results across the board are ahead of our plan and importantly provide a solid foundation for continued progress throughout the year. Although the first quarter has traditionally been our softest, our Q1 performance reinforces our confidence that we will continue to see steady improvements over the course of 2025, similar to the pattern we observed last year. I will walk you through these drivers in the next slides to give you more clarity about how we plan to achieve it. Before we delve into the details of the quarter, I would like to briefly highlight that in recent weeks we have been closely monitoring the increasing microeconomic and policy development that is affecting all market participants. While we strongly believe we are well prepared to navigate these dynamic market conditions without meaningful impact, we remain vigilant and continue to carefully evaluate the situation. We will share as well more insights on this throughout the presentations. Ultimately, our focus remains firmly on executing our strategy, staying true to our mission and vision, and delivering on our performance goals. I want to express my sincere appreciation for the dedication of our teams across the globe. Their commitment to driving our strategy forward and serving donors and patients worldwide has been critical to our positive start to 2025. With that, let's move to the first quarter results in slide five. Before I go through this slide, it is important to note that in order to provide the market with a clearer view of the underlying performance of Grifols and Biopharma in particular, we are presenting key financial metrics for this quarter and for the remainder of the year in two ways, reported and like for like. Like for like figures are adjusted to account for the impact of the IRA Part D redesign and the fee for service reclassification. As a reminder, in Q4 2024, we changed the treatment of our US fee for service and GPO fees. These fees are now accounted for in our gross to net sales rather than in OPEX, which has no impact on ABDA. The full 2024 impact of this change was reflected in Q4 2024, and as a result, it distorts the biopharma revenue growth in our 2025 quarterly results. In Q1 of this year, the difference between our like-for-like and reported figures amounted to 43 million euros. Of this, 28 million euros was attributable to the IRA, in line with our forecast, while 15 million euros were related to the fee-for-service reclassifications. Revenue in the quarter was a key highlight, reaching 1,786,000,000 euros, a 7.4% increase on a constant currency basis. On a like for like basis, revenue increased by 10%, showing a clear continuation of the positive revenue growth trend we saw in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reached 400 million euros and improvements of 14.2% at cost and currency. Like for like, it grew by close to 22%. The IRA impact, along with some temporary phasing in albumins and rabies, put some pressure on our gross margin and EBITDA in Q125. Going forward, we remain confident of our continuous improvement of our margins throughout the year, following same pattern than in previous periods. Free cash flow for the quarter was negative 44 million euros, primarily due to the payment to Immunotech for 79 million euros, as previously disclosed. While free cash flow was negative this quarter, we achieved a year-on-year over-improvement than more than 200 million euros. Considering our first quarter performance, we see these as clear signals for continued upward momentum in top line growth, profitability, and free cash flow generation. While we maintain our strong commitment to further the leveraging our balance sheet. In terms of guidance, we are forecasting sustained revenue growth throughout the year, driven by our immunoglobulin franchise with significant growth in the US as well as outside the US. We expect our subcutaneous immunoglobulin to continue gaining traction and contributing to the product mix. Our revenue projections are also supported by the improved performance of rabies and albumin, as the phase in reporting in Q125 will not carry into subsequent quarters. We also see our Alpha-1 franchise continuing to show positive momentum following a new specialty pharmacy partnership in the United States. Equally important will be the contribution of lower cost of goods as the cost per liter initiatives and the yield improvement efforts has been delivering and improving our inventory cost. Additionally, as revenue increases throughout the year, it will trigger a higher absorption of operating expenses, thus having a significant positive impact on our ABDA. Finally, let me emphasize that this business momentum is not only reflected in the quarter's positive results, but also underpinned by increased plasma capabilities and efficiencies, along with the successful completion of key innovation milestones, including fibrinogen, which we expect to launch in Q4-25 in Europe and in the first half of 2026 in the United States, following its FDA approval. With that, I will turn to the top line comments in slide six. Year-to-date revenue increased by 7.4% on a constant currency basis, driven by robust performance across all business units. Excluding the impact of the IRA and the reclassification of our fee-for-services, revenue grew by 10%. The sustained momentum was primarily fueled by biopharma, which like for like grew by 9.6% on a constant currency. The immunoglobulin franchise continued to be the cornerstone of our growth strategy, achieving 17.5% growth in revenue at constant currency and like for like. This growth was led by IV and subcutaneous IG, as I will explain in a second. AlphaOne continued to improve in Q1, reversing the challenges facing prior quarters when the company switched its U.S. AlphaOne major distributor. While Biopharma posted a strong overall performance, it was partially upset by some facing in albumin and rabies. Albumin was impacted during the quarter by a standard license renewal process in China, which has been successfully completed, allowing for the resumption of shipment as planned. The diagnostic business achieved a 5.2% increase in revenue on a constant currency basis this quarter, due to a broad expansion across both core and non-core markets, as well as a strong joint business volume growth. Key segments, including molecular donor screening, immunosauce donor screening, and blood typing solution, each grew by 7%, 12%, and 4%, respectively, all on a constant currency basis. As I previously mentioned it, biopharma continued to be the main growth driver in the first quarter of the year. The IG franchise remains the leading growth protein. IVIG growth was fueled by strong demand in both U.S. and international markets, while subcutaneous IG continues to gain momentum, growing an impressive 91% at cost and currency, driven by higher demand across all key regions. As mentioned, album sales growth was temporarily affected due to the manufacturing license renewal process in China. This resulted in a decline of 8.9% on a like-for-like basis and 9.4% on a reported basis. As said, the renewal process has been successfully completed, and accordingly, we expect a stronger album in revenue performance in the upcoming quarters. Albumin remains a key component of our portfolio, and we expect to continue to leverage our partnership in China with Sangharas and higher to continue strengthening our position. Alpha-1 and speciality proteins revenue growth improved by 2.3% at cost and currency, and like for like compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by Alpha-1, continuing the traction seen in the last quarters, although it was partially offset by the phasing of demand for RIVIS treatment, which, as already mentioned, will reverse in Q2 2025. Turning to the next slide, I'll take a closer look at the performance and outlook for our IG franchise. As we highlighted during our Capital Markets Day, Immunoglobulin remains the corner store of our biopharma business, driven by the status as our highest growth protein. This is evidenced by the strong underlying demand for both intravenous and subcutaneous therapies. Our strong growth and solid market positions have enabled us to capitalize on several market, favorable market trends, including increased awareness of immune-related diseases, rising diagnostic rates, and the ongoing expansion of both secondary and primary immunodeficiencies. Additionally, the continuous development of therapeutic solutions in areas like neurological diseases presents further opportunities for growth. We remain focused on executing the strategy outlined for biopharma, building on our leading brands, accelerating the diagnosis rate, and solidifying our leadership position in the market on the back of increasing global demand for the treatment of immune deficiencies, followed by steady increases in albumin and alpha-1 antitrypsin and other specialty plasma-derived therapies. Let me discuss now our situation regarding recent tariff developments and our confidence that previous and STEM investments protect us well in the current environment and the latest developments in US drug pricing policy. For decades, Grifols has developed a diversified global footprint of plasma donor centers, manufacturing facilities, and distribution hubs across key geographies, ensuring we are strategically located to serve patients where they need us. Our growth strategy has been investing in regional end-to-end capabilities that allowed us to adapt the process in response to evolving global demand. This vertical integrated and cross-licensed structure provides valuable flexibility and optionality to meet global needs with minimal disruption, while significantly mitigating uncertainty from potential tariff impacts. In the United States, our comprehensive end-to-end supply chain is a key strength. Plasma collected at over 300 U.S. donor centers accounts for approximately 70% of our global plasma supply. This is then processed at our fractionation and purification facilities in Clayton, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California, which together represents about 65% of our global capacity in these critical areas. This alignment between our U.S. collection and manufacturing operations minimize reliance on external sourcing and allows for agile responses to changing needs. Our presence in the Europe and the Middle East is also significant, with nearly 100 plasma collection centers, paired with our manufacturing facilities in Spain, Germany, and Ireland. Our European plasma collection network, the largest privately owned fleet, coupled with our expansion in Egypt, positions us well to serve increasing demand outside of the U.S. Consistent with our global strategy, we continue to invest in local partnerships that directly address regional needs. In China, our long-standing strategic partnership with Shanghai Rasenhaier, combined with our European manufacturing capabilities, enable us to leverage a local presence and respond swiftly to regulatory developments. In Egypt and Canada, we are investing in greater self-sufficient partnership with Egyptian government and Canadian blood service, respectively. In both countries, we're establishing donor centers and manufacturing capabilities to support local healthcare ecosystems for the long term. This established global network of donor centers, manufacturing, testing sites, and distribution channels provides Grifols with a degree of resilience across core border microeconomic, political, and environmental uncertainty, including tariffs. To reiterate, we do not anticipate any meaningful impact to our business due to tariffs, as we believe this strategic approach has positioned us well to effectively serve patients globally and navigate the evolving geopolitical and fast-changing landscape. Since the early 2000s, recognizing the scale and importance of the U.S. market, we began strategic investments, starting with the acquisition of plasma centers and manufacturing assets, establishing our presence as a U.S. manufacturer. In 2011, we expanded farther with the acquisition of Talecris in North Carolina, and we have since grown our plasma collection network through acquisition and organic investment. At the same time, we're strengthening our European footprint by expanding manufacturing in Spain and increasing our capacity for fractionation, immunoglobulin, Alpha-1, and albumin purification. We also expanded our European plasma center network, primarily in Germany, through joint ventures and organic growth. This was further consolidated with manufacturing operations in Ireland and the acquisition of a majority stake in biotest in Germany. In 2019 and 2020, Grifols pioneered local partnership models in emerging markets. We deepened our presence in China through a strategic alliance with Shanghai Rush and launched self-sufficient initiatives in Egypt and Canada. In both countries, we're building plasma collection and manufacturing capabilities to meet local demand. Together, this investment set the foundation for our next phase of growth and innovation, positioning Grifols to continue benefiting patients both in the U.S. and internationally. Finally, earlier today, the U.S. administration announced its intention to reintroduce a most favored nation MFM policy, which aims to align U.S. and ex-U.S. drug prices. While this is a recent announcement and we do not have all the details, there are some observations I would like you to consider at this point. First, plasma-derived therapies are different than regular drugs in its cost structure. We saw that this was recognized in the past in the U.S., as they were excluded, for example, from IRA direct price negotiation, and as well as in the first proposal of the MFN, where IG was explicitly excluded. We will continue to educate policymakers on the importance of access to plasma-derived therapies for U.S. patients. With respect to global pricing, price point for plasma-derived therapies are much closer than for many other pharmaceuticals. And part of the limited price difference is due to the higher cost of US plasma compared to other markets. And finally, we have a diversified product portfolio and offering across different markets, which further help us to mitigate any potential impact. In any case, we will closely monitor the developments and share any relevant updates in our forthcoming quarterly calls. So with that, I will turn it over to Rahul, who will walk us through our financial results. Thank you.

speaker
Rahul Srinivasan
Chief Financial Officer of Grifols

Thank you, Nacho. Indeed, we have highly dynamic forces impacting markets. Equally, as you say, we are very fortunate to have a business that benefits from significant strategic flexibility and optionality that allows us to navigate these highly dynamic markets very well. Notwithstanding the backdrop, the entire Griffles team has been resolutely focused on execution and executing well, and thereby delivering for our patients and our customers. And in doing so, we remain on course to continue our record financial performances of 2023 and 2024 into 2025, having delivered in Q1 2025 the best Q1 in Griffles' history. Moving on to page 12 for the more detailed picture. Our Q1 numbers are ahead of plan across the board, beating revenues, EBITDA, free cash flow, margins, and leverage. As Q1 is our seasonally weakest quarter, we thought that the relative performance to our internal plan for the year would be helpful to the market. But I also want to make it clear that we will not be making reference to our plan or the relative performance on any of our subsequent quarter calls. In addition, and as we did with our approach to laying out our full year 2025 guidance and the impact of Part D redesign within the Inflation Reduction Act during our Capital Markets Day, we are disclosing both our reported numbers as well as like-for-like numbers that allows the market to track more easily our underlying performance and momentum versus 2024, given the impact of IRA, and as you will recall, the gross-to-net reclassification that we made in Q4 last year. Reported revenue for the quarter grew by 7.4% and by 10%, like for like, both on a constant currency basis. Reported Q1 gross profit margins were higher than Q1 2024, despite the impact of the IRA and the fee for service reclassification. The corresponding like-for-like margin improvement of 150 basis points clearly shows the continuing gross margin improvement potential. Reported adjusted EBITDA was up by 14.2%, on a constant currency basis and adjusted EBITDA margins improved by 80 basis points to 22.4% on a year-on-year basis and considerably higher on a like-for-like basis. Profit before tax and group profit are up by 145% and 179% respectively. Free cash flow pre-M&A had a year-on-year improvement of $209 million, and I will elaborate on the drivers of this considerable improvement further in the presentation. And unlike prior years where leverage tended to increase in Q1, we were able to delever in Q125, and more on that later in the presentation. Finally, liquidity continues to be in a very robust place at 1.7 billion euros. All in all, a strong performance across the board delivered Griffl's best Q1 performance ever. Slide 13. Having hit a revenue and earnings trough post-COVID, Griffles has delivered very strong and consistent growth across revenues and earnings. Indeed, the last two years have delivered record revenues in EBITDA, and Griffles very much remains on course to beat those records again in 2025. The rapid growth of revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and reported EBITDA quarter on quarter is evidence of the secular growth in biopharma and our strong position in this attractive market. We at Griffles are particularly proud of the sequential improvement in LTM margins, be it adjusted EBITDA or reported EBITDA margins. And as a team, we remain very focused on executing well and thereby continuing this trajectory for the quarters, if not years, to come. In particular, the 430 basis points improvement in LTM reported EBITDA margin and an almost 500 million increase in LTM reported EBITDA from circa 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion in just six quarters speaks to the normalizing earnings profile after the impact of a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic event and the clear reduction in one-off non-recurring costs as well as the continued and rapid convergence of reported EBITDA to adjusted EBITDA. If you look at page 26 in the annex, you can see further evidence of this convergence as the delta between adjusted EBITDA and reported EBITDA margin more than halved in Q125 versus Q124. Indeed, if you look at the two EBITDA charts on slide 13, it clearly shows that reported EBITDA lags adjusted EBITDA by only two quarters, providing clear evidence that adjusted EBITDA is a very good proxy for Griffiths' very near-term cash EBITDA potential. Slide 14. Adjusted EBITDA in Q125 grew by 14.3% year on year. Just to contextualize that performance, EBITDA is growing almost twice as fast as revenues, as has been the case in 23 and 24, and depending on which end of the guidance range you use, our EBITDA is growing almost twice as fast as the growth implied by our EBITDA guidance for 25, which, as you will recall, is on a post-IRA basis. and hence our reference to the Q1 performance being ahead of plan probably will not come as a surprise to the market. Despite the circa 140 basis points negative impact on our margins from IRA, we delivered a year-on-year adjusted EBITDA margin improvement of 80 basis points in Q125. I will not belabor the even more impressive stats of the like-for-like adjusted EBITDA performance as we absorb the IRA impact, but it certainly should give the market an appreciation for the underlying demand and the secular growth tailwinds led by our biopharma business. And it was particularly pleasing to see that revenue and earnings growth across all segments, including the strong revenue and EBITDA momentum that we are observing in our diagnostics business. On the biopharma side, the growth drivers of the strong performance in the quarter are consistent with our observations in prior calls. Strong diversified growth across regions in IG, both US and ex-US, that as you heard from Nacho, is clearly outpacing the market. And due to the planned phasing impact as a result of our albumin license renewal in China, we would expect stronger albumin revenues in the upcoming quarters. Same holds true of Alpha-1 and other proteins, particularly if we take into account the seasonal demand for our rabies product. We continue to squeeze CPL with lots of focus from the team on efficiency gains, and we remain encouraged about the outlook. And speaking of efficiency gains, the team is excited about the manufacturing yield improvement potential, as well as moving the mindset to a cost per gram of protein and not simply cost per liter. And finally, ensuring we capture as fully as possible the operational leverage improvement potential that comes with the strong growth prospects whilst maintaining tight cost discipline. The last point I'd like to flag on this slide is the IRA adjustment. The 28 million was our accrual for Q1. We have had the benefit of receiving our first invoice, and it was in line with our expectations, giving us confidence that the 125 million midpoint of our range remains a prudent estimate. Slide 15. An update on our free cash flow generation improvement efforts. As a reminder, following our significant outperformance of free cash flow generation in 2024 versus prior guidance, we laid out much more detail around our prioritization of free cash flow generation as part of our strategic plan. And the significant 209 million free cash flow improvement in Q125 versus Q124 is further tangible evidence that the result from Q4 2024 was not a flash in the pan, but that this business can absolutely produce significant free cash flow as the effects of COVID period recede further and further into our rearview mirrors, and that we expect to be able to continue to demonstrate strong momentum in free cash flow generation in the quarters and years ahead. And this 209 million year-on-year improvement credibly underpins our free cash flow guidance for 2025. Also, I wanted to touch on why Q1 tends to be our weakest free cash flow quarter. It is for two principal reasons. Firstly, it is our weakest EBITDA quarter, partly due to seasonality, and it tends to be sandwiched between two relatively strong quarters. And secondly, this is the quarter when the bonus payment for the year is made. Working capital management continues to be at the heart of our free cash flow improvement. Our inventory days in Q124 was unnaturally high, but Q125 continues the trend of the last four quarters. As we guided to during our capital markets day, I do expect us to invest more capital to bolster our inventory position further given the strong demand that we continue to see, but we will continue to manage that tension diligently. Our receivable and payable days are settling down, or normalizing if you will, and continue to be in line with the last couple of quarters. The other notable part of our improved free cash flow generation is more EBITDA, further benefited by less cash adjustments as the effects of restructuring and transaction costs begin to dissipate as we have guided to previously. Finally, for the eagle-eyed amongst you, the phasing impact of interest and capex offset each other in Q125, so this 209 million year-on-year improvement is not simply down to timing or phasing differences, but it is real improvement. Slide 16. As our free cash flow generation story normalizes, it also helps our deleveraging profile. In prior years, Griffl's leverage typically increased in Q1 by up to a half a turn or so. In contrast, due to the normalizing of our free cash flow story, as evidenced by the sequential improvement you see on the chart on the right, and continued strong year-on-year EBITDA growth, instead of leverage going up meaningfully in Q1, we have in fact delevered slightly from 4.6 times to under 4.5 times. And this deleveraging focus will remain a clear priority for us. Aside from the positive deleveraging, I continue to feel very good about the state of our balance sheet. We have strong 1.7 billion euros of liquidity. We have a lot of rainy day secured capacity if we ever need it. We have no meaningful maturities till Q4, 2027. We have a very encouraging rate outlook supporting our refinancing plans in Q2 or Q3 2026. The private placements we placed around six months ago are yielding meaningfully less than they were issued at, which suggests that our credit re-rating focus continues to gather momentum. In summary, all progressing very positively on this front too. Slide 17. At a time of significant change from a global macroeconomic perspective, to be able to provide the market with the confident message that we are providing today is helped significantly by the Griffill's legacy and its pioneering spirit that has allowed us to be at the forefront of this attractive market. For many years, indeed decades as Nachu mentioned before us, Griffles has developed a global yet very local strategy, essentially an in-market, for-market, vertically integrated strategy and pioneering various regions' self-sufficiency aspirations. and with it, highly critical regional partnerships. That gives us today a highly strategic portfolio with somewhat unique optionality and flexibility to be able to effectively navigate all the changes that are upending global markets and global supply chains, and also be in a position to capitalize on opportunities that these potential changes might create. Clearly, this remains a fluid situation, but our assessment is that we are navigating these changes from a position of strength, and we will continue to monitor the detail closely and adapt if we need to, even if for the moment our assessment is that we are not expecting any meaningful negative impact on our business. With respect to Eurodollar, critically, a depreciating U.S. dollar is broadly neutral to positive from a group profit, leverage, and free cash flow standpoint. This is as a result of the natural hedges embedded in our business model. For example, a significant proportion of our COGS, our OPEX, our CAPEX, our inventory, our debt, are all U.S. dollar denominated. Yes, a structurally weaker dollar does pose a headwind in absolute revenues in EBITDA, even if it is positive from a margin standpoint. So in summary, we are not overly concerned about a depreciating US dollar. And as a result of the strong momentum and outlook that Nacho and I have talked about, notwithstanding the macroeconomic backdrop, we reaffirm our 2025 guidance and we remain on course to deliver a third consecutive record year in 2025. Finally, on buy test, the delisting offer has been approved by BaFin, and the offer period runs through till early June, and therefore we are progressing as planned with this offer being financed from existing resources consistent with the capital allocation framework we presented at our capital market sale. With that, let me hand it back to Nacho for his concluding remarks.

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