Industria De Diseno New

Buenos dias a todos. Good morning to everybody. A warm welcome to all of those attending the presentation of Inditex's results for the interim three months 2024. I am Marcos Lopez, Capital Markets Director. The presentation will be chaired by Inditex's CEO, Oscar Garcia-Maceiras. Also with us is our CFO, Ignacio Fernandez. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, starting with the questions received on the telephone and then those received through the webcast platform. Before we start, we will take the disclaimer as read. Please, Oscar.

Good morning and welcome to our results presentation. It's our pleasure to join you today. In the first three months of 2024, Inditex has continued its very robust operating performance, driven very much by the creativity of our teams and the strong execution of our fully integrated business model. This performance relies on the four key strategic pillars you are all familiar with. our unique fashion proposition, an optimized customer experience, our focus on sustainability, and the talent and commitment of our people. These factors have propelled our competitive differentiation. Our Spring Summer collections have been very well received by our customers. We have had a very satisfactory sales growth of 7.1%. Sales in custom currency increased by 10.6%. The execution of the business model has also been very robust, with a healthy gross margin and disciplined cost management. On the bottom line, net income increased 10.8% to 1.3 billion euros. This performance has continued going into the second quarter. Store and online sales in custom currency between the 1st of May and the 3rd of June grew 12%. Our diversified presence in 214 markets with low market penetration allows us to enjoy significant global growth opportunities. We have complete confidence in our ability to grow this business, mainly because the unique model we operate continues to drive an ever increasing level of differentiation. I'm going to hand you over to Ignacio now to go into the headline numbers.

Thank you, Oscar. As you have seen in our release in the test executed shortly in the entry three months of 2024. Sales have progressed well at plus 7.1%. We have managed the supply chain actively and this has driven a very healthy gross margin. Operating expenses have of course been well managed resulting in operating leverage. As a result EBITDA grew 8% to 2.4 billion euros. In any case, we have also seen very strong progress in the net income line with increase of 10.8% to 1.3 billion euros versus 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter 2023. Let me reiterate that sales have progressed very nicely at plus 7.1%. reaching 8.2 billion euros. That's 10.6% in constant currency. Based on current exchange rates, we expect a minus 2% currency impact on sales for the full year 2024. In the first quarter of 2024, gross profit increased 7.3% to reach 4.9 billion euros and clearly illustrates a healthy execution of the business model. The gross margin reached 60.6%. Based on current information, we expect a stable gross margin of plus minus 50 basis points this financial year. There has been very tight control of operating expenses across all departments and business areas. Operating expenses increased below sales growth over the first quarter of 2024. including early charges, operating expenses grew 110 basis points below sales growth. Over the first quarter of the year, we experienced a robust operating performance. Due to these factors, in the Texas inventory, as of the 30th of April, was 3% lower. As a side note, the end of the period inventory is considered to be of high quality. And now, over to you, Marcos.

On the back of the comments made by Ignacio, I would like to reiterate that the performance of the first quarter 2024 has been remarkable. We are very content with the execution of the period. We have continued with expansion and have opened stores in 28 different markets and have progressed with optimization activities. The store and online sales continue to be robust. The performance has been very strong at all levels. A key priority remains to continue increasing our differentiation. In the strategy section, we will cover an extensive number of initiatives carried out in the period. Back to you, Oscar.

Thank you, Marcos. We keep on strengthening the strategic pillars of our fully integrated business model. Firstly, our priority remains to continually increase the appeal of our fashion proposition. Creativity, innovation, design and quality are the defining features of our collections and a key focus across all our teams. Our meticulous design process impacts every tiny detail of our garments and collections, while striving to provide quality fashion to customers around the world. The focus on an ever more enhanced customer experience comes as a result of the continuous process of upgrading stores with strong architectural features and with highly curated internal spaces. Thanks to our unique integrated store and online model, our teams have been able to take advantage of the remarkable growth opportunities we see across all channels, concepts, and markets. And the pinning this growth are new openings, enlargements and refurbishments of stores in the best locations, expanding our concepts to new cities and new territories and the launch of new services that enhance the customer shopping experience. The full implementation of the new security technology AXARA by the end of 2024 is going to plan. We operate in 214 markets with low share in what continues to be a highly fragmented sector and we see strong growth opportunities. To meet the current strong demand, which builds on the significant growth of the business in 2022 and 2023, we are undertaking a number of initiatives. We are planning investments that will scale our capabilities, obtain efficiencies, and increase our competitive differentiation to the next level. The growth of annual gross space in the period 2024 to 2026 is expected to be around 5%. Over this same time period, Inditex expects space contribution to sales to be positive in conjunction with a strong evolution of online sales. For 2024, we estimate ordinary capital expenditure of approximately 1.8 billion euros. This investment will be principally directed at optimization of commercial space, its technological integration, and the improvement of our online platforms. As you already know, and in view of strong future growth opportunities, Inditex has designed a logistic expansion plan for 2024 and 2025. This two-year extraordinary investment program focused on the expansion of the business allocates 900 million euros per year to increase logistic capacities in each of the 2024 and 2025 financial years. as already announced for the financial year 2023. The Board of Directors will propose at the Annual General Meeting a dividend increase of 28,000 to 1.54 euros per share. The dividend will be made up of two equal payments. On the 2nd of May 2024, Inditex made a payment of €0.77 per share. The remainder €0.77 per share will be payable on the 4th of November 2024. I would like to finish with a comment on our current performance. Spring-Summer collections continue to be very well received by our customers. store and online sales in constant currency increased 12% between the 1st of May and the 3rd of June 2024 versus the same period in 2023. Thank you all for attending this resource presentation. That concludes our presentation for today. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

The telephone Q&A session starts now. If you would like to ask a question, please press star five on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star five again. We request that you limit yourself to only one question per turn so we can maximize the number of participants in the session. If you have further queries, you may press star five again after the next person's question has been addressed. Please ensure your phone is not on mute. The first question goes to Richard Chamberlain from RBC. Go ahead, Richard.

Thank you, James. Morning everybody. I wondered if I could ask a question on the net space contribution to Q1 sales. Maybe you can comment on that. Is that if you give us the number and is that in line with your expectations? And how is that sort of panning out in terms of sort of store openings versus the store absorptions? Thank you.

Thank you for your question, Richard. Very much so. You know, our target for the next three years is to grow space by 5% gross. And obviously, optimization activities, as we have described in the presentation, are ongoing, enlargements, refurbishments, and relocations. So, this remains a key feature. So, you should assume that, yes, that the net contribution is very similar to our long-term target. We have mentioned that for the next three years, we expect positive space contribution and we are very satisfied with the way we are executing on this.

The next question goes to Geoff Lowry from Redburn. Go ahead, Geoff.

Yeah, good morning, everyone. Could you talk a little bit more about inventory, please? I appreciate the balance sheet position is just a snapshot in time and doesn't indicate commitment, but you've done an amazing job of managing inventory growth below sales growth. And I wondered if that journey was done now or whether your logistics investments and the operation of the model could yield even bigger benefits. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jeff. As you have mentioned, inventory at the end of the period is 3% lower than in the same period last year. In the presentation, we have mentioned that we've had a very strong execution. Over last year, there was a normalization in the supply chain conditions. And despite this year, there have been some issues, as you know, with the Red Sea, we continue managing the inventory on the supply chain in a very, very efficient way. Execution has been very, very strong. This is reflected not only in the inventories, also in the gross margin, in the sales performance of the first quarter and the trading update. So, I would say that execution is a you know is one of the key focus of our business and clearly we have a very strong advantage there is a business model right and the fact that proximity sourcing is a key element and this is what I would like to to add on this the next question goes to Sridhar Mahamkali from UBS go ahead Sridhar

Hi, good morning. Thank you, James. Thanks for taking my question. Really just wanted to check if you were able to call out anything either in Q1 or current trading in terms of regional color, U.S., Europe, online stores. Anything you can help will be super helpful. Thank you.

Not really. As you have seen, execution has been very, very strong. 10.6% sales growth over the first quarter. Our trading update remains very strong at 12%. Obviously, we have a more demanding comp for the rest of the period. But we continue executing according to what we say. And in quarters, we prefer not to make any regional comments. But I would say a very strong execution across the board.

The next question comes from James Griznich from Jefferies. Go ahead, James.

Morning, everybody. Thank you, James. Just a quick one. Would you be able to add more color on how live streaming is helping in China? And I've been reading about plans for you to extend live streaming into Western markets. Any more color you could give on that front would be very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks for the question. Well, we are very happy with the performance of live streaming in China. We started that service before the year end, and we are working to expand that service through our own platforms to different markets, including the US and the UK. And the expectation is to start with this new service in the coming weeks.

The next question comes from Warwick O'Kines from Exxon. Go ahead, Warwick.

Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. So I was just wondering whether or not you could comment on whether online is outperforming stores at the moment, if that mix is changing during the quarter and whether you expect that to happen during the year. Thank you.

Thank you for the question. Well, the performance of the company is performing very well in both channels. But in mind that we have a fully integrated business model, it's not possible to understand the strength of the evolution of our physical store sales without taking in consideration the potential in terms of prescription coming from the online platforms. And at the same time, it's not possible to explain the strength of our online sales without taking into consideration the operational support coming from the physical store. Both channels are performing very well in a very positive trend, and we are very happy with the execution of the fully integrated model. Thank you.

The next question comes from Nicolas Cham from Barclays. Go ahead, Nicolas.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. There is currently high inflation in some countries. countries such as Argentina and Turkey. Will it be possible to proceed stripping out this market where inflation is particularly high? And a follow-up question also regarding the high inflation, cost inflation in Turkey. How has it impacted your sourcing strategy? I mean, did you change, did you reduce your sourcing in Turkey because of the significant inflation and increase in operating costs, for instance, in this country? Thank you.

Well, what I can say is that we have continued to execute according to a business model, and we have not made any certain changes to the model based on the inflation we have seen. Our growth is mainly volume-driven, as you know. And clearly we keep on executing according to our expectations. So I don't think I should highlight any market or any part of the operations that are massively impacted by that factor.

The next question comes from Georgina Johan from JP Morgan. Go ahead, Georgina.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Just to follow up on the previous one, actually, where you talk about... Hello, can you hear me?

Can you repeat, please? Can you repeat your question?

Sorry, sorry about that. Yeah, sure. Just a follow-up to the previous question. Where you talk about growth being mainly volume-driven, has there been any change at all in the pricing or ASP contribution into the... New Year versus last year, please. Is any of that sort of acceleration that we're seeing in current trading driven by higher prices in any markets, please?

It's been very, very stable. Nothing significant there, Georgina. No, nothing significant.

Great. Thank you. That concludes the questions. We'll move on to webcast now. We've had a couple of questions, the first of which is, can you update us on the €1.8 billion logistics investment plan, please?

Thanks for the question. Well, to put some context and just to remind, we have had a very strong growth these last two years, as we referred to in the presentation. And we keep on seeing growth opportunities going forward. And for our business model, it's key to keep on enhancing the experience of our customers. That relates, of course, to having the best stores and the best online platforms, but at the same time, the best customer experience also requires to have the capabilities needed to provide them what they are looking for, where, when, and how they want. We are executing within this context our logistic expansion plan for 2024 and 2025. these 900 million euros each of these two years. And the different projects of the plan are on track. And as announced in March, most of them will be gradually operational by the end of 2025.

The next question on the webcast platform relates to Spain. Can you provide any comment on your growth in Spain, your largest market? Please.

Well, we are very happy with our performance in Spain. As a reminder, in 2023, sales in Spain grew 13%, the fastest growing region for the group alongside Europe ex-Spain. remain being active with our store optimization program. One example of this has been Sevilla, where in 2023 we closed a few smaller stores at the city center to open a larger store at Plaza del Duque. Our new store not only allows us to better showcase Zara full collection, but also has improved customer experience with self-checkouts, automated online pickup and return points, etc. We continue to find opportunities for our profitable growth in Spain with all our concepts.

That concludes the webcast questions for today. Thank you.

Thank you to all of those participating in the presentation today. For any additional questions you may have, please get in touch with our Capital Markets Department and we will welcome you back in September for the first half 2024 results.