Imcd Group Nv U/Adr

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for holding, and welcome to this analyst call on the first half-year results 2020 of IMCD-MD. During this call, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Piet van der Sleeken. Please go ahead, sir.

Yes, thank you very much. Welcome, everybody. I'm here, as usual, with Hans-Corey Mons, and we will answer your questions in a few minutes. A few remarks from my side and then Hans will take you through the key financial numbers. I'm happy to report that IMCD performed well, given the very difficult circumstances because of the COVID crisis. We were able to grow in the first six months with 7% and even in the difficult second quarter. As you know, we were confronted with lockdowns of various nature, but almost everywhere we were considered as essential business and we could continue our activities. In many offices of IMCD, our people worked from home, but where possible, we also returned to the office. Our performance in the Americas and the APEC, Asia Pacific, was in particular strong. In EMEA, the picture was missed. Some countries were affected by the COVID crisis, seriously some less, often dependent on how government handles the lockdowns. Overall, I'm optimistic about our ability to grow. We are resilient and we have sufficient interesting projects to drive future growth. Of course, timing of that will be dependent on how fast we will get past this COVID crisis. And now I would like to hand over to Hans who will lead us through the numbers. Thanks for the introduction. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to take you through a short summary of the results of EINCD in the first half of 2020 as reported earlier today. And as usual, I would like to start on page 9 of the presentation, where you will find a summary of the first half-year income statement. As you can see, Forex suggested revenue increased 2% and gross profit increased 8% compared to the same period of last year. This gross profit growth was a combination of 5% as a result of acquisitions and 3% organic growth. Gross profit in percentage of revenue increased 1.3% from 22.3% last year to 23.6% year-to-date. This increase is amongst others the result of various internal initiatives to improve the growth margin and the small accounting chains as a result of one of the business integrations. Further, we saw the usual fluctuation and quarterly differences in margin percentages between regions caused by changes in local market circumstances, product mix differences and currency fluctuations. Forex suggested operating EBITDA and EBITDA both increased with 8%. This increase was a combination of organic growth and a first-time inclusion of acquisitions. Operating EBITDA in percentage of revenue increased to 10.2% and operating EBITDA in percentage of revenue increased with 0.5% from 8.8% to 9.3%. The conversion margin, calculated as operating EBITDA in percentage of growth profit, remained stable at 39.5%. On the next page, page 10, you will find a summary of financial details per operating segment. In EMEA we report 3% Forex adjusted growth profit growth and an operating EBITDA of 70 versus 71 million last year. The EBITDA margin of 10.2% remained stable compared to the same period of last year. In the Americas, we saw double-digit growth profit and operating EBITDA growth, respectively by 11 and 14%. Operating EBITDA in percentage of revenue improved 1.5% to 9.7%. In Asia-Pacific, we realized 24% growth profit and 29% EBITDA growth on a constant currency basis. This growth was a combination of organic growth and the first-time inclusions of acquisitions like Wawon, a pharma business in South Korea that we acquired end of last year. Operating EBITDA margin and conversion margin both increased compared to the same period of last year. And in the last column, all non-operating companies, including the head office in Rotterdam and regional support offices in Singapore and New Jersey, where we reported slightly higher costs, mainly as a result of further strengthening of support functions in the course of the last year in these offices. Then on page 11, a summary of the P&L lines between operating EBITDA and net results for the period. A few general remarks. Net finance costs include, amongst others, interest expenses, currency exchange results, and changes in deferred considerations. Further, it includes part of the IFRS 16 lease expenses. Income tax expenses relate to the countries where we generate taxable income, and the tax cash out in the first six months, as you can see in the cash flow statement, was about 20 million. Amortizations of intangible assets are mainly non-cash costs related to the amortization of supplier relations, distribution rights and other intangibles. And last but not least, on the bottom of this page you could see a Forex-adjusted 6% increase in cash earnings per share to €1.69. For your info on page 12, a specification of the net finance cost where we reported an increase of 2.4 million compared to the first half of last year. And as you can see, main driver of this increase were changes in deferred consideration and currency exchange results adding 4.3 million to the finance cost. Interest costs of our loan structure were close to 2 million lower than in the same period of last year. Then on page 13, a summary of IMCD's balance sheet. Property, plant and equipment of 91 million is a combination of a limited amount of fixed assets that we really own ourselves and more than 70 million right of use assets. In other words, capitalized operational leases as a result of the application of IFRS 16. Intangible assets and related deferred tax liabilities are a result of M&A and our history as a private equity owned company. And there is a substantial equity position which covers about 52% of our capital employed. In June the AGM approved our proposal to pay a dividend of 90 cents per share. This dividend was paid in Q3 in July. resulting in a total cash out of 47 million. We would like to make you aware that although we paid this dividend in July, we deducted this dividend from equity and included this payment in July as a debt item in these half year figures. The leverage ratio end of June based on our loan documentation was 2.5 times EBITDA, which was well below the required maximum as set in the loan documentation. Reported leverage was 2.9 times EBITDA. The difference is the result of differences in definitions between IFRS and the loan documentation. Further reported leverage includes additional lease related debt as a result of the application of IFRS 16. Working capital is summarized on the next page. where you will find a summary of the absolute amount of the various working capital components, and these amounts are translated in days of revenues. As you can see, the absolute amount of working capital end of June increased by 34 million compared to year-end 2019. Compared to last year, June, the overall working capital days increased two days from 58 to 60. We did reasonably well on the depth of days. There was a strong focus on cash collection, which helped to avoid the material impact of COVID on our receivables. Compared to June last year, we could even reduce the number of debt-to-day slightly from 60 to 59. It's fair to say that we could have done better on stock days. Inventories moved from 45 days last year to June to 49 days this year. In certain countries, the impact of COVID was underestimated, and in some cases, purchase orders were not or too late adjusted to an unexpected COVID-related delay. Further, we felt the impact of relatively long lead times of certain specialty chemicals, making it difficult to adapt stock levels quickly to the COVID situation. And we consider this relatively high stock position as a temporary issue, and we took actions to reduce stock levels where needed and possible. I would like to finish this short financial summary with a cash flow overview on page 15. As you might remember, at the end of Q1 we reported the difference in cash conversion ratio between Q1 this year and Q1 last year of minus 23%, whereby Q1 last year was 12 million better than Q1 this year. At the end of Q2, we closed part of this gap, but by the year-to-date, 57% cash conversion ratio is still below last year. As indicated before, the year-to-date working capital investment, mainly stocks, is the main driver of this difference. I assume you all read the outlook on page 17 already in our press release and suggest that we move to Q&A, and therefore I would like to hand over to the operator to open the line.

Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we are starting the question and answer session now. If you have a question or remark, please press star 1 now on your telephone. Star 1 for your questions or remarks. Go ahead, please. Our first question is from Mr. Muklum Gundogan of Avian Amro. Go ahead, sir.

Yes, good morning, Pete. Good morning, Hans. A few questions. First, There's quite a difference in performance between the regions with EMEA gross profit in Q2 2020 down 4% year-on-year, while America was up 4% year-on-year. Can you tell us why that was? And then secondly, on your gross profit margin, this remained elevated at 23.6% in Q2. Do you expect these to normalize? And if so, by when? And then finally, on the inventories, you talk about higher stock values due to COVID-19, and you refer to countries, if I'm not mistaken, in your remarks. But I was wondering, was it also related to certain product categories? And given the fact that you expect this to normalize usually around 50 days of revenue, so do you think this will be normalized by the end of Q3? Thanks.

Thank you, Mudlu. In my opening remarks, I already mentioned something about EMEA. Results were mixed. Some countries performed very well, but we had also, particularly in the Latin countries of Europe, in some months of the second quarter, significant decrease of activity. And in particular in those countries where lockdowns were also extended almost to manufacturing facilities, we felt that impact immediately. And I think that that is the main reason, I think, why Europe has gone worse than the Americas. We see improvements now, but I think this is directly related to how lockdowns were performed, and in particular in South Europe. France, Iberia, Italy, we saw a strong decrease in activity in those months. Various other countries did much better, so it's a mixed picture. As to stock levels, your last question, I think I think Hans put it well. I mean, we have in certain countries higher stock levels than desirable. And that's not so much, let's say, to be pinpointed to certain market segments. It's more about across the board. But we feel confident that we bring that back and that we get the cash out. Yeah, let's see, of course this is a continuous effort for us to increase margins, in particular also in the Americas where we, in North America where we integrated businesses and where we, as you remember, had some lower margin businesses on the West Coast that we tried to get to higher levels. As always, there's a ceiling, so let's see where that is, but I hope that we can continue on this level.

Can I follow up on that, Pete, on the gross margins? Because one of your peers talked about higher unit margins, and that seems to be temporary. Well, in your remarks, you talk more about your own efforts to increase the margins. So are you saying that you had hardly or little benefit from perhaps temporarily elevated unit margins?

Unit margins is probably something we do not... I'm not particularly sure what that means. I think it's a Brenta term. And I think that has to do probably also with more commodity related business. So that's less applicable to us. And I can imagine that it has something to do with certain product ranges that are now very much in demand, in particular for disinfectants, etc. We are not a big player in that field. So we are looking at, let's say, the whole range of our markets and try to increase, you know, our margins. So I don't think that, let's say, that effect that you are alluding to is applicable to us.

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Next question is from Mr. Matthew Yates of Bank of America. Go ahead, please.

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Two questions. The first one is your statements around taking measures to bring down the inventory. Will that require any sort of write-down in the third quarter, or is that just more of a natural unwind as you address purchasing patterns? The second question is a follow-up really around the margin. I think you explained the relative difference between Europe and the Americas, but Just specifically on the Americas, you had, if we look sequentially, revenue down just over 10%, yet the percentage margin was more or less unchanged. Can you give us some of the moving parts as to how you manage the operating leverage in the business? Thank you.

Yeah, on the question of stock, we don't expect specific write-offs. We will... unwind that in the ordinary course of business. So nothing special to expect there. Hans, do you want to say something on the margins? Peter, this is what we have said before. We brought in Northern Africa substantial businesses with on average lower margins than what we do elsewhere in the group. I think we explained from the start that we expected that integration and putting in place IMCD support tools on the IT side will help us to bring gross margin percentages up and basically we see that happening right now. So there is a permanent internal improvement process, how to optimize your pricing, how to set your pricing in the right way and so on and so forth. That leads to, amongst others, an increase in the margin percentage. I think adding to what Hans is saying, what is very important for our business is transparency. internally in terms of how we can follow orders, margins, etc. And we make considerable steps also with the new acquisitions during this period in that sense. So that helps also to further optimize our business.

If I can just follow up around the Americas, you launched this kind of integrated platform late last year. It's very difficult for us to tell from the outside the kind of traction you're getting with the customer base, given the distortion on the numbers from COVID. But can you talk a little bit about how that kind of rollout process is going and the traction you're getting in the Americas?

Yeah, as you know, we had different systems in the US because of the acquisitions that we did. There are a couple of layers here. to help us, first of all, the backbone ERP system that we integrated and implemented, and on top of that also the rollout of Salesforce. So that helps enormously salespeople, sales support people, management to follow the business to also communicate with each other about the business, with customers about the business. I agree with you, it's intangible, it's difficult to explain, but I mean, sometimes people and companies work in more or less, I wouldn't say blind, but with a rear view mirror and it's better to look ahead and see where the projects are what the margins are, what the pricing possibilities are. So it's a combination of factors. And so in 2019 we started with that project and follow up. And it's more or less done for the Americas. One step to go, but then it takes place. And of course, it helps also to easier communicate with our customers. On top of that, we're trying to build a B2B digital platform. So everything that helps us now to communicate with our customers in this rather difficult time is helping us.

Thanks very much, guys. Have a good day.

Our next question is from Mr. Tom Burlton of Derenberg. Go ahead, please, sir.

Thanks. Morning, Pete. Morning, Hans. Thanks for the question. The first one is just in terms of the outlook. I know you guys don't tend to give a sort of quantitative guidance or anything of that nature. At the moment, it's even more difficult than usual to do so. But a lot of the companies that I look at, at least because of the difficulty in giving an outlook. They are giving a bit more colour in terms of exit rates and growth cadence through the quarter. Is there any increased colour you can give us around that, perhaps how you exited the quarter and just in broad terms, what sort of trends you're seeing? And then secondly, just in terms of the operating expenses, in terms of the cost line, It looks like quite good cost control in Q2, particularly if I look at EMEA and the Americas. And indeed, if I compare that to the sort of year-over-year cost trends that we saw into the Q1, it looks like a very good performance in Q2. Are you able just to quantify how much, if any, of the sort of cost control is due to any sort of government support schemes, any furlough schemes, any deferrals or social charges that anything sort of more temporary that we might expect to sort of unwind in the second half and sort of how we should think about modelling cost trends, I suppose, for the rest of the year. Should we be thinking about sort of Q3 and Q4 or being a bit more similar to Q1 in terms of the sort of year-over-year sort of OPEX trends for the group? And just the last one in terms of, Pete, the comments you made about the sort of optimism around the ability to grow in the future, you called out sort of projects to drive future growth. I just wonder whether you could sort of flesh out or give some highlights maybe from some of those projects. What geographies or business units are we thinking about there? You know, what's the sort of expected ROI perhaps on some of those projects? Just a bit more colour would be helpful. Thank you very much.

Thanks Tom. On the part of looking ahead, I'm of course extremely pleased that we have not looked ahead like many others and then had to retract. I think, and we continue to do that, we don't feel that we help anybody to try to predict the future. The only thing I can say is also during the second quarter that the months were volatile, whereby we could say cautiously that we see some improvements during the end of the quarter, and hopefully that continues. But again, I think that this will be very dependent on how... the crisis, the COVID crisis will develop. But so far, I'm modestly optimistic that we could see that trend that we saw in the last month or so could continue. On the operating expenses, We did not get any government and did not apply for any government help because we didn't need it and we don't need it and we feel also even if we would be eligible we have decided not to do that. So nothing what you see in this let's say cost reduction has to do with any government support. I think obviously what you see is that we reduced or have seen our travel expenses reduced because nobody travels. So maybe that's a good idea for the future. I don't know. But that has an impact. I think you will see that continuing during the rest of the year. There are other cost items that have not taken place. And other than that, we have been very prudent, of course. On the projects, I think that there is appetite from suppliers to work with us on optimizing their sales channels. But it is difficult for me to disclose more of that. We see both in the Americas and in Europe and in Asia good possibilities to work with our partners and our principals to expand cooperation or start new corporations of significant size. But it is too early to disclose that. But it is, of course, part of our continuous activity to be in conversation with our principals and suppliers and to convince them of the efficiency of our model and of our route to market and I'm happy to say that we're still quite successful in doing that but hopefully we will see the results in the coming period

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Stephen Golden, Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, please, sir.

Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Just a couple of quick ones. Obviously, you know, as you said, travel and payment down, I would have thought it's relatively difficult to be physically meeting customers, et cetera. Has there been... any has there been really much change in share would you say over the last quarter um and you know within that um what are the difficulties would you expect that have things opened up um you know there is there is a a decent pipeline of opportunity or is it a thing kind of relatively static at the minute with people really just focusing on getting supply, et cetera, having trusted partners, and maybe really sort of looking around for better opportunities. If you could sort of expand on that, that would be very helpful. The second question would just be on M&A and how you see your pipeline. Has the last quarter kind of impacted that at all? Yeah, if you could expand on that, that would be great.

Yeah, Steven, it's a good question. I think of course we cannot, as usual, let's say visit customers in the frequency and in the, let's say, concentration as we did before. That will also have, of course, also some impact in reaching new customers. I think that goes for everybody. I think probably you will see also a certain conservatism in not changing now formulations or getting into, let's say, embed with new suppliers or principals. so that I mean I'm not sure how fast that will change it has a downside it's also positive because it means that of course we have a steady flow of incoming business I think it also very much depends on how some of the industries we are working in will open up or will increase activities I mentioned there the car industry and the effects that have throughout the chain but also personal care production which is of course a very globalized business also very dependent on when it's concentrated in Europe for export and so far of course it's I think slowly starting up so there's not a lot of More that I can say about that. But what I can say is that the resilience of the model also is evidenced by the fact that we have so many customers that will continue to keep ordering also in this difficult time. And your second question was on M&A pipelines. Yes, well, we closed an acquisition in China and added some pharma business to our existing pharma business. Very happy with that because it strengthened our presence in pharma and we will notice that right away. Yes, we are working on projects. It's a bit more difficult because we can't visit many of the owners or sellers But we have still a reasonable pipeline of things that go on and that we hope to be able to close in the next 6 to 12 months.

Great, thank you very much.

The next question is from Mr. Shetan Udessi of JP Morgan. Go ahead, please.

Yeah, thanks. First one was just a clarification on the acquisition of intangible assets lying in the cash flow. It seems to have gone up significantly. Is any part of acquisition cost included in that or is that just all organic spending on intangible assets? That's the first question. The second question was just around second quarter, would you say there was any abnormal benefit you guys saw because of tightness in any of your particular end markets or product segments or would you think it's just a fair reflection of what was the normalized environment in second quarter of 2020?

Perhaps I should answer your first question on the acquisition of intangibles. It is partly related to the changes because of IFRS and that has to do with cash out related to licenses, software licenses and additions that we made on that side and partly a bit M&A related. So it's a combination of the two. And your second question? Yeah, on the different business segments, it's obvious that certain segments perform better than others. Industrial segments have a tendency, of course, to be more affected by this crisis, particularly because of the end markets that they work for, like the automobile industry or construction. And obviously, and we said that also after the first quarter, our pharmaceutical business has done quite well. And we have a strong business there. Our food business has performed well, although of course the food service side of this business has suffered because of the closure of restaurants, etc. But nevertheless still doing quite well. So that There are some differences in markets, but that is also, again, the evidence of the strength of us, that we not only geographically, we see differences in strength, but also in the different markets we operate in. Households, they're the smaller segment for RMCD but still doing quite well because of the COVID crisis but I saw a mixed picture which then ended in the results that you saw so what you seem to be saying is unless the market demand deteriorates because of second wave etc we shouldn't expect any

of difference in terms of how second half turns out versus what you guys have seen in the second quarter would that be a fair assessment

I find that a very clever way of asking what the outlook will be for the next six months. But I leave that conclusion to yourself because you saw the second quarter. You saw also that the second quarter, I think all of us know, has been the most severe in terms of... of how it affected the markets, and so you draw your own conclusions about what could happen in the third and fourth quarter.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Mr. Peter Olsen of Capital Shibboleth. Go ahead, please.

Good morning gentlemen. Two questions if I may. Maybe first for Hans on the cross-margin improvement. One of the drivers that you mentioned is the fluctuations in the product mix. Just to be clear, the support that you had for mix, was it because of a more favourable mix? within certain end markets and industries or is it because some higher cross margin industries did better than the ones where typically you would have lower cross margins. And then I have a second question which is around digital. I think in your relation with clients, digital has not played a very major role in this industry in the past, but with people now working at home, your people not being able to travel, do you sense that this crisis may accelerate the adoption of digital solutions in the chemical distribution industry? Those were my questions.

Peter, to come back on your first one on growth margin, it's difficult to say that it has to do with specific end markets. We do about 50,000 different products with individual pricing and we try to optimize wherever we can and we see usual fluctuations in margin. explained the activities that we did on this area in North America, integrating, improving the processes and so on and so forth. But what also plays a bigger role is who is responsible for transport of goods and how does that end up in your P&L. You can imagine if we take care of transport you make a higher margin but you lose a bit on the transportation cost and so on and so forth. So these type of things all have an impact, different size, different magnitude per quarter per month, but the overall tendency that we saw is a strong emphasis on if you If you can improve, please improve your pricing and make sure that you get the best out of the market and that is reflected in the numbers that you saw. On digital, a very good question. I think we all learned, everybody learned that working habits have been affected and can change also because of this crisis. I think digital is of course a very broad, let's say, concept. If you look at our industry where it was usual to visit customers and try to, you know, convince them to buy your products in formulations, I don't think that will totally disappear. But on the other hand, it's also clear that The fact that we can communicate so easily with customers over Zoom or whatever other teams makes a difference. The chat functions that we install, the formulation advice abilities, the digital that we do, the ability for customers to look into their history but also to download documents that they need. There's a lot of documents involved in the chemical industry for safety reasons. And then in the end of course also ordering, that is maybe the least important in this sense. I think it's about having contact, communication, insight in the possibilities of products. the ability of labs to communicate, organizing seminars over the web. So there are many, many different possibilities to communicate and reach out to customers. And I think this crisis has accelerated the possibilities there. So in that sense, I think you're right that also in our industry, that the chemical industry in itself has been pretty conservative, that this will also accelerate these tools in this industry. And that will have also an effect, I would say, on the qualities of the people that you need in your business and the qualifications that you need. Okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

Next question is from Mr. Kreden Milders of ING. Go ahead, please.

Yeah, good morning, everyone. Two questions from my side. Small ones. I think with regard to the output, you also mentioned the opportunities for organic growth probably by distribution, let me say, relationships with your suppliers. Can you maybe elaborate on that? Is there any impact from COVID-19 on that specific mentioning that figure? Or let me say that we want. And the second question is, can you give me an idea about the organic growth in the Far East, as you did not mention that? And I think it was relatively high. So maybe you can give an indication of that.

We speak here about outsourcing, your first question. As always, and this is a subject of course that we addressed earlier also in earlier conversations, and concentration also of let's say of your distribution channels as a supplier is a trend that we feel is continuing and here and there also accelerating. And I think that we benefit from that as a global player, as a company that is present in many regions and our relationships. help us to, you know, to strengthen that also, to bring across these relationships also to other territories. So that will continue, I think, and that will drive growth also. COVID, I don't think that has a specific influence on that. It's also too early to tell. I think what you see in the difficult circumstances, market circumstances, people have a tendency to look more, let's say, more focused on their sales channel strategy. So that could help. But I think it's too early to now, let's say, address that or allocate that to COVID. Hans, the second question was, I think the question was the split organic and M&A growth in Asia-Pacific. Typically we don't disclose that in each and every quarter per segment, but I think it's fair to assume that it will run about 10% in that region. Yeah, we had significant growth, yeah. did well in most regions in Asia and I think if you look at the impact of COVID that has been so far with the exception I would say of India in the first couple of months of the second quarter but in the other countries has been less so than in other parts of the world.

Okay, thank you.

We have another question from Mr. Mutlu Gundogan of AD Enumera.

Go ahead, please. Yeah, thanks. Just a few more questions, if I may. So on stock building, I remember that you said that this had a positive impact on the first quarter. So what kind of benefit did you see or did you see an impact in the second quarter? I mean, was this a benefit or was the drag that those customers eventually might work through elevated stock levels? And then getting back to pricing, because it's not exactly clear to me yet, Pete, is it possible that because of COVID-19 and because of certain, I would say, scarcity in certain product categories, that this has enabled you to implement price increases, which is having a positive impact on your gross margin, or are you absolutely ruling that out?

I think the discussion around Q1 figures was coming from the analyst side that if the results were impacted by stock building by our customers and then we said we don't rule that out, that we don't know if that materializes. And basically if there was additional hamstring or shock building at the end of Q1, that should then have had a negative impact on Q2. We did not really see that happening as far as... I think, yeah, I think Hans, it's difficult, as we said also then, it's difficult for us to see that. I think you could say maybe that in the pharma industry, there has been some stock building, but it's more guessing that we can quantify that. So I think we should not overemphasize this. As to pricing and COVID, Again, I mean, I don't want to hide behind the enormous numbers of products. Well, I want to hide behind it. I mean, I want to mention it at least. It's, of course, I mean, where we see the opportunity to increase prices, we do it. But this is more, let's say, in the DNA of the company. So I don't think that that is now a specific, let's say, COVID-related issue or benefit.

Thank you.

I hope this helps a bit.

Yeah, yeah, it helps. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any further questions or remarks, you can still press star 1 on your telephone. Go ahead, please. We have no questions coming through at the moment, sir.

All right. Then I thank everybody very much for their interest. And I wish you a great day, and see you in a quarter.

This concludes the analyst call on the first half year results 2020 of IMCD. Thank you for your attention. You may now disconnect your line.