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Clariane Se
2/27/2026
Welcome to the Clarion 2025 full year results presentation. For the first part of the conference call, participants will be in listen-only mode. However, during the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions. This can be done by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad or by typing a question in the chat box. Now I will hand the conference over to Sophie Boissard, CEO. Please go ahead. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear investors, Welcome to the Client Group 2025 Annual Result Presentation Meeting. My name is Sophie Guatta, Chief Executive Officer of the Client Group. Together with Grégory Lobicki, Chief Financial Officer of the Group, I will present Client Results for the 2025 financial year. I will then discuss our Group's Outlook for 2018 as part of our new medium-term plan, Succeeding Together. As you see on the slide number five, There are actually three key highlights for 2025. First, we have delivered a solid operating performance in accordance with our announced targets. Second, we have successfully completed, under excellent condition, the plan to strengthen the financial position we launched in 2023. Three, we confirm our profitable growth target for 26 and beyond, looking ahead to 28. Let's stay a while on the first message. In 25, we delivered a solid operational performance, as you see here, with revenue of €5,310,000,000, representing organic growth of 4.5%. All of the group's geographical areas and activities contributed to the increase in revenue, thanks both to steady volume growth and tolerable price effects, particularly in Germany, which once again benefited from a strong repricing effect of around 8%. This positive momentum is reflected in the increase in operating profits. EBITDA reached 594 million, up 3.1% compared to 2024, and the EBITDA margin, which remained stable over the financial year, improved significantly in the second half to 12.5%, up more than 260 basis points compared to the first half of 2025. Operating cash flow generation also improved significantly with an operating free cash flow amount 267 million up 46% driven by strong operating performance in the second half and the normalization of working capital requirements. In terms of non-financial performance, which makes a lot of sense in our industry, we have once again met and even exceeded our target. I will come back to this in a few moments. The second highlight of 25 is about the plan to strengthen our financial position, which will launch in November 2023 in response to inflation and sharp rises in interest rates. This plan has enabled us to regain access to the bond market and be six months ahead of schedule. More specifically, last year we achieved three major milestones. First, we finalized our 5 billion divestment program with very good valuation terms. Second, we have been able to extend our syndicated credit facility and to return to the bond market with an initial unrated issue of 500 million last summer. And finally, three, we obtained an inaugural rating from S&P and Moody's at B plus and B2 respectively, rating which will facilitate our regular access to the bond market in the future. Overall, as expected, we have been able to significantly reduce both our debt and our whole coal leverage to 5.1 times, and we have recovered a strong liquidity position, €1.2 billion at the end of 2025. Based on this achievement, and this is the third message for 2025, we are in position to confirm our announced target for the 2023-2026 period, namely an average organic growth of around 5% over the period, an improvement in the EBITDA margin of 100 to 150 basis points compared to 23, and a whole call leverage to be reduced to below five times at the end of 26. Beyond 26 and building on the quality of our pan-European platform, on our business portfolio, as well on the good visibility we have on our activity load, We are targeting an average revenue growth of around 4% per year, taking into account the expected normalization in price increase in Germany following the strong catch-up cycle that started in 2020. This momentum, combined with the impact of the productivity plans that we have implemented at headquarters and in shared service as part of our better support efficiency program, will contribute significantly to the growth of groups operating margin. We are targeting an average EBITDA growth of between 7% and 9% over the period 2025-2028, and an OPCO EBITDA growth of between 11% and 14% on a pro forma basis. And of course, we will continue to make reducing our leverage a priority in our financial policy, targeting to reach around 4.5% by the end of 2028. I would now like to review the various elements of the 2025 performance, as you see here on slide number 6, the main financial aggregates for the year. First, you see reflected the level of activity already mentioned, €5.3 billion in revenue, up 4.5 organically, In terms of profitability, pro forma IFRS 16 EBDA are reached 1.2 billion, up 3.5%, and the reported pre-IFRS 16 EBDA amounted to 594 million, up 3.1%. In terms of cash flow generation, as I mentioned a moment ago, operating cash flow was very strong, up 46%. This performance support our debt reduction trajectory. Net financial debt decreased by 390 million compared to December 24, reaching 3.1 billion. And as a result, whole core leverage has fallen sharply to 5.1 times compared to 5.8 times in 2024. Finally, the Group's net profit returned to positive territory 36 million pre-IFRS 16 and plus 2 million post-IFRS 16 to be compared with the loss of 55 million in 24. In terms of real estate, the value of the portfolio of the group stands at 2.5 million euros and the loan to value ratio has remained stable at 58 over the year. Let's turn now to the main component of operating performance. First, here, the reflection on the divestment program we initiated two years ago. After this, we see now the new streamlined profile of Clarion. We focused on six countries and two complementary lines of business. First line dedicated to the elderly care under the Corian brand. and the second line dedicated to non-acute mental health and rehabilitation under the brands INICEA, Cormed, and ITA in Spain. With 1,215 facilities in six countries, representing more than 90,000 beds, 65,000 employees, and nearly 850,000 patients, we operate one of Europe's leading specialty care networks. In terms of country splits, France accounts for 43% of revenue, which are shared almost equally between Corian and EDCA, elderly care and post-acute care. Germany is our second largest country, accounting for 25% of revenue under the Corian brand, followed by Belgium and the Netherlands with 16% of the revenue, Italy with 12%, and Spain with 5% and some room for further growth. In terms of mix, three-quarters of our revenue comes from long-term care, elderly care, and one-quarter comes from specialty care, mainly in follow-up care, mental health, and addiction treatment. It should be noted that the latter accounts for 80% of patients treated due to a very high churn and a strong growth in outpatient care. And as you see on the bottom part of the slide, we are now showing the pro forma financial information pre-2425 that forms the basis for our objective in the new format of clarion post disposal plan i hope this will help understanding our figures and guidance on an easier basis let's move on now to slide number eight and this slide provide a very concrete overview of the major milestones achieved since the end of 23 of our plan to strengthen our financial position. As a result of these various milestones, we are already one year ahead of schedule, very close to the target of below five times leverage by the end of 2026. That was at the core of the plan. Let's move on to slide number nine, which is dedicated to our non-financial performance. 25 was another very good year in terms of non-financials. This is particularly true when it comes to quality of care with an NPS measured by Ipsos among 85,000 patients and carers that has risen again this year to reach an unprecedented level of plus 45, placing us more than 20 points above industry benchmarks. We have also improved our quality standards with now 99% of our elderly care homes and clinics that are ISO 9001 certified. In terms of human risk, we remained also very focused and quite successful over the years. We were again recognized as a top employer Europe for the third consecutive year and for actually as an exception in our industry. We have also signed a Europe wide agreement with our unions on health and safety at work. And we support our efforts to continuously reduce frequency of workplace accident and absenteeism. And of course, and this is probably the most important, we continue to invest more than ever in skills development in order to be able to source on very scarce labor market our own workforce. more than 7,700 employees representing around 12% of Clarion workforce took one of the qualifying courses offered by our Clarion University. This feeds into our internal promotion policy with 55% of our facility director position filled internally. As the strong results show, ESG is more than ever a central part of our business plan, as it is inseparable from our mission and a ground chief of quality, attractiveness and sustainable performance. I will now hand over to Grégory for the details of our financial performance. Grégory, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Sophie. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. So we can go on to slide 11. I would like to begin this section by discussing revenue growth. In 2025, we posted organic growth of plus 4.5%. And this is an important point. All activities and all geographical areas contributed to this growth. With the new segmentation, the long-term care business, which, as Sophie said, accounts for 76% of revenue, grew by 5.4% organically. This momentum was driven by price increases, and improved occupancy rates despite the effect of closures and disposal in several countries. Specialty care business, SMR and mental health accounts for 24% of revenue and grew by plus 1.8% organically. Here too, scope effect is at work with disposal in France and Italy. And in France, the reading is impacted by factors related to the implementation of the SMR pricing reform, as already mentioned earlier this year. Looking now at the geographical breakdown, Germany, Spain and Benelux are the main drivers, with organic growth of plus 8%, 7.8% and 5% respectively, supported by pricing and occupancy rates. Italy is also growing at plus 2.4% organically, with pricing on the rise and occupancy rates already at a very high level. In France, organic growth is plus 2.6%, We were affected at the beginning of the year by the flu outbreak in nursing homes in the first quarter, but we are seeing a rebound in the second half of the year in specialty care, thanks in particular to an improved mix. Overall, organic growth driven by all activities and geographies, reflecting the group's relevance and strengths in terms of activities and geographies. Let's take a quick look at the Robert-Dupree on the slide 12. We start with published revenue for 2024 of €5.3 billion. The impact of the disposal plan is minus €125 million or minus 2.5%. On the like-for-like basis, this gives us a pro forma base for 2024 of €5.2 billion. On this basis, organic growth is plus 4.5%, driven mainly by the price and mis-effects. at plus €156 million or plus 3.1%. This is mainly due to long-term care with price effects, particularly in Germany and France. Volumes also made a positive contribution of €74 million plus 1.4% linked to improved occupancy rates and increased activity in specialty care. Finally, there were two negative items, other effects of minus €42 million and portfolio management for minus €35 million mainly related to pricing in France in specialty care, suspension of real estate development activities, and the effect of M&A and closure, particularly in Germany. This brings us to a 2025 turnover of €5.3 billion, reported growth of plus 0.5%, and overall solid organic growth of plus 4.5%, driven mainly by price and mix, supplemented by volumes. On the slide 13, in our long-term care business, we continue to improve occupancy rates. This is an important point because it has a direct impact on our growth and a positive trend in our margins. In 2025, the average occupancy rate over the 12 months will reach 91% up from 2024. And the momentum has strengthened over the course of the year with the rate rising to 91.6% in the fourth quarter after a slightly lower start of the year. Taking a step back, trajectory is very clear. We are moving from 86.6% in 2022 to 88.5% in 2023, then 90.6% in 2024 and 91% in 2025. In other words, improvement is steady and ongoing. Finally, we still have significant volume growth potential within our existing capacities. I would now like to look to the EBITDA performance by geography. First point is that the group's EBITDA margin is stable at 21.8% in 2025, the same level as in 2024. Behind this stability, we see quite contrasting trends depending on the country. We have seen marked improvements in most regions. Germany is making a significant progress with its margin rising from 21.3% to 24, an increase of 260 basis points. Benedict countries are also improving, at 23.3 percent, up 100 basis points. Italy is up slightly at 21.8 percent, an increase of 30 basis points. Conversely, France declined to 20.2 percent, down 200 basis points. This change is mainly due to the negative impact of the implementation of pricing reform in specialty care in France, central deployment costs of our better support program, which will bear full fruit from 26 onward. Finally, Spain came in 19.9%, down 70% by this point. This is mainly a mixed effect linked to the development of asset-light, contract-based activity in social care that does not require capital expenditure. Overall, these movements offset each other and explain the stability of the EBITDA margin at group level, with significant improvement in most countries and two areas of concern identified in front of Spain. On the next slide, I would like now to take a look at the ABTA bridge for 25 versus 24, 3, 5, 16, to better understand the main drivers. We start with published ABTA for 24 of 605 million euros with a margin of 11.5%. The scope effect related to the divestment plan represent minus 29 million euros. On the like-for-like basis, pro forma ABTA for 24 is therefore 576 million euros with a margin of 11.2%. On this basis, we first have a positive volume effect of 17 million euros linked to the growth in activity, which was positive overall in all regions. Next, the price effect is significant, plus 156 million euros, supported in particular by significant revaluation in Germany and a positive effect in France, Benelux and Italy. On the other hand, cost inflation, net of performance measures, represents minus 155 million euros in other words the price effect almost offsets cost inflation over the year it should be noted that as mentioned at the end of the first half of the year pricing anomalies linked to the entry into force of the new smr financing framework in france had a negative impact of 23 million euro on our cost base and the impact of the cost of deploying our better support program was around 15 1 5 million euros These two factors combined have a negative impact of 60 basis points on the annual EBITDA margin, which, restated from these two items, would be at 11.8%. In total, EBITDA for 2025 comes to €594 million, with a margin of 11.2%, a stable margin on the like-for-like basis, and a growth in value driven by volumes and the ability to pass on cost increases. Let us now move on the analysis of the profitability by half-year. As you can see, the BTA margin is historically higher in the second half of the year. In 2025, the improvement in the margin was even more robust, with an increase in the second half to 12.5% compared to 9.9% in the first half of 2025. This improvement is notably driven by volumes that continue to improve in each of our regions, good control of operating costs, and improved rates in the second half in Germany, and a performance that is normalizing in SMR clinics in France. Let's now move on cash and debt. I will start with cash generation presented in accordance with EFR 16. So in 2025, operating cash flow will increase significantly to 469 million euros, up 69 million euros compared to last year. This improvement is due to three factors. Firstly, non-cash and miscellaneous items which remain negative. Secondly, a sharp improvement in working capital requirements, showing a continued improvement in this indicator after a sharp deterioration in 2023. And finally, a level of maintenance capex that remains under control at €111 million. In this context, free operating cash flow amounted to €267 million, up €84 million year-on-year. This corresponds to an EBITDA conversion rate of approximately 45%. We benefited from lower financial expenses due to lower interest payments. We are also maintaining strict discipline on capex, with maintenance and development capex totaling €159 million compared with €242 million in 2024. Finally, positive impact of disposal reached €368 million compared with 391 million euros in 2024, contributing directly to debt reduction. In total, the net debt will increase by 408 million euros by the end of 2025, including ES17, and excluding ES17, the decrease will be of 390 million euros, mainly driven by the contribution of disposal, increase in operating cash flow, and the growth in free operational cash flow. It should be noted that, excluding disposal, net debt will have decreased over the period thanks to positive net cash flow. I will now move on the debt and liquidity as at 31st of December 2025. The first point is the net debt reduction. Including EFR 2016 and EFR 2017, net financial debt fell by nearly 400 billion euros over the year to 1,055 million euros, indeed closer to the 3 billion euro level. This improvement is the result of a combination of cash generation and the contribution from disposal as we have just seen. Secondly, maturity profile is no better spread out. Maturities are mainly positioned from 2027 onwards with further maturities in 2029 and 2030, which reduces the risk of short-term refinancing, as it is in line with the return to normalised aspects of financing. Thirdly, liquidity remains solid. It stands at around €1.2 billion, including an Android revolving credit facility with cash levels up at the end of 2024. Finally, on the real estate side, maturities are spread over time, which also contributes to visibility on the financing trajectory. On the slide 20, with this Transcendent Financing Framework, I would like to move on the performance and the financial trajectory elements. World co-leverage ratio stands at 5.1 times at the end of December 25 compared with 5.8 times at the end of 24 and 5.6 times at the end of June 25. This represents a decrease of approximately 1.1 since 2023. This improvement is due to two factors. Firstly, the finalization of the plan to strengthen the financial structure of the group. And secondly, the increase in cash generation, particularly operating free cash flows. I will now move on to all real estate and the gross value of the portfolio. We are starting from a value of €2.6 billion at the end of 2024. Firstly, there is a perimeter effect linked in particular to the disposal plan with minus €155 billion achieved at market price in a challenging environment, which highlights the value and liquidity of the group's assets. After this disposal, the pro forma value at the end of 2024 is €2.5 billion, From this base, the value is broadly stable. Market effects are close to balance, with a net impact of around minus €10 million. Index session at €29 million, largely offset by a slight change in the capitalization rate, which rises to 6.5% at the end of 2025, from 6.4% at the end of 2024, for an impact of minus €38 million. In total, this results in a portfolio value of approximately €2.5 billion at the end of 2025, Excluding scope effects, the value is stable, with cap rates normalizing and the portfolio continuing to benefit from indexation. In real estate, financing structure at the end of 2025 clearly illustrates our asset smart strategy. The consolidated real estate portfolio is valued at approximately €2.5 billion, as already mentioned. It is now mainly held in the shared equity partnership vehicles, accounting for approximately 77% of the total of 1.9 billion euros. The balance corresponds to the DirectEL portfolio, representing approximately 23% of the total, or 600 million euros. On the partnership side, we have four vehicles in place since 2020, with leading and long-term partners. The gross value of the asset in these vehicles amounts to a low 1.9 billion euros, and client economic share is approximately 52%. This structure allows us to share capital on long-term assets while maintaining significant exposure and good visibility on the value creation. At the same time, we maintain a locally held portfolio with a gross value of 600 million euros. This structure combines the stability of a long-term real estate portfolio with more efficient capital allocation and supports of our debt reduction trajectory while maintaining a solid real estate base. On that note, I will hand back to Sophie to conclude with our outlook for the current year and the medium term.
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