This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

Allwyn Ag
9/10/2020
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gayle Jacora's call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the OPAP conference call to present and discuss the OPAP-SA second quarter 2020 financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jan Karas, acting CEO of OPAP SA. Mr. Karas, please proceed.
Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon and good morning to everybody. Welcome to the OPAP's second quarter 2020 investors conference call. Although trying to grow any business amid these turbulent times has been a real challenge, We believe that the Q2 figures demonstrate that OPAP is well-placed to face challenges. That's why we will start with our CFO, Pavel Mucha, who will comment on the quarter's financial results. I will then provide you with an update of our business progress and future developments. We will then answer any questions you may have. Pavel, over to you.
Thank you, Jan, and good afternoon to everybody. Like it was the case with the first quarter, the second quarter of 2020 was again split into two completely different periods for both OPAP and most businesses in Greece. After previous closure, OPAP stores opened again on 11th of May and gaming halls opened on 8th of June. As a result, our year-on-year figures demonstrated a material drop, however the recovery path post the reopening was according to our expectations. Before going through the details, let me as always refer to macro projections. It is obvious that all macro KPIs have plunged during the lockdown, with GDP declining by 15.2% in Q2 and final consumption down by as much as 10.1% in the same period. The outlook remains weak, especially since tourism, which accounts for a material part of the GDP, is hardly hit. On the positive side, the government's relief measures are still providing some sort of support to several sectors and individuals, while the EU fiscal stimulus should also help towards the end of this year. Overall GDP estimates for the year still come with a wide range with consensus figures pointing to a sharp drop of minus 0.2%. Going now to OPAF's performance and slide 8, Total Q2 GGR declined by 53.2%, but clearly this metric is heavily burdened by the lockdown period, because between June 8 and June 30 all of our segments have gradually recovered, with some of those, namely online and VLTs, standing above last year's levels. In more detail, lottery dropped by a nominal 45% in Q2, with post-lockdown GGR recovering, but still remaining negative between 8th of June and 30th of June. Kino has been the game that was burdened the most, as the game's structure and successive 5-minute draws usually require more active time within the shop. When it comes to Joker, the addition of a third draw continues to contribute to the game's appeal, providing with a mild increase on average of the weekly sales. Betting-wise, revenues declined by 55%, however the restart of major leagues led to a much improved revenue from June onwards, and Jan will refer to that in more detail later on. VLDs recovered quite promptly, also due to the fact that the return to normal life post-lockdown was more established at the time of gaming halls reopening in June versus when OPA stores opened in May. Overall activity has been satisfactory, leading to a positive double-digit delta between 8 June and 30 June versus the same period of last year. When comparing overall trends, on slide 9 you will find out performance versus the average mobility trends in retail and recreation. While we obviously lost almost all of our revenue during the lockdown period, we managed to gradually come very close to the mobility average in the partial reopening period and returned positive year-on-year between 8th of June to 30th of June, clearly outperforming mobility trends. Through a different perspective and as seen on slide 10, pre-lockdown performance stood at plus 2%, in the first two months of the year, while the period that includes the lockdown and the partial reopening was down by 67%. The full reopening period pertaining to the full contribution of OPAP stores and VLTs, i.e. from 8th of June till 31st of August, was up by 3.1%, thus outperforming even the pre-lockdown period. But the fact that August alone was down by 2.1% together with the COVID second wave makes us cautious for the future. As seen on slide 11, the material diversification of the regional contribution of revenue demonstrates that even despite our shops reopening, certain islands that have gone under tougher local COVID-related restriction measures or experience lower local food flow and spending due to subdued tourism-related income are indeed underperforming versus the average. As a result, although mainland Greece has still been generating marginally positive performance, the why performance differs among different regions make us really worry about the upcoming autumn period. Moving on to profitability, And turning to slide 12, recurring EBITDA for the quarter reached €23 million, which is down by 74.7% for the year. However, looking at this through a different perspective, it took roughly one month of full operations for OPAP to generate positive operating profitability for the quarter, something that we believe represents a substantial achievement and demonstrates operating resilience of our business model. On our part, we have been able to fulfill our commitments with regards to OPEX savings, as our recurring OPEX base was down in the first half of the year, thus delivering on our promises when the lockdown came. Going forward, both payroll and marketing costs will normalize in line with the future development of the business. Below the EBITDA line, we note non-cash impairments of €11.5 million, mostly related to horse races, where the company numbers have been further burdened by the COVID-related implications, and as such, our auditors recommended that we should proceed with such a move. Finally, moving to slide 14, although impairments and amortization charges led to our net profit line to be negative for the quarter, we still managed to record operational cash flow of €70 million for the quarter. As a result, our cash balance remained exceptionally strong at €628 million, with our net debt to EBITDA ratio shaping at 1.6 times. Our solid financial position enabled us to once more deliver an above consensus expectations dividend of 30 euro cents per share on top of the 1 euro dividend which was delivered earlier in the year and this led to total 1.30 euro distribution within 2020 which is probably the highest yield when looking at both our international peers and also at Greek large cap companies. Just before turning over to Jan, I would like to end my part with a short reference to Sticheman, which has now been renamed to Kaizen Gaming, and it owns the success of Sticheman and Betano grants. Its profit for the quarter increased year on year, and in Q2 the profit contribution was 1.8 million euro. So very strong Q1 together with the shift towards online during the COVID period in Q2 has helped the company to grow in the first half of 2020. This is yet another reason why we feel happy that we managed to conclude the second part of the acquisition and we are now holding an effective 69% stake of the Greek and Cypriot business. We do not stop here and we have agreed upon authorities' approval to increase further our stake to almost 85% that together with the acquisition of control would, upon auditor's consent, enable us to consolidate the company. With that, I'm passing back to Jan.
You're reading a preview of the GRKZF Q2 2020 earnings call.
Free account.