Vidrala Sa

Buenos días y bienvenidos a la presentación de resultados del ejercicio 2024 de Vidrala. La compañía estará representada por Raúl Gómez, CEO, e Íñigo Mendieta, director de finanzas corporativas. La exposición se realizará en inglés. En el turno de preguntas se atenderán también preguntas en castellano. En la página web de la sociedad www.vidrala.com encontrarán documentación de soporte a esta presentación, así como un enlace para acceder al webcast. Good morning and welcome to the conference call organized by Vidrara to present its 2024 FUES results. Vidrara will be represented in this meeting by Raúl Gómez, CEO and Íñigo Mendieta, Corporate Finances Director. The presentation will be held in English. In the Q&A session, questions will be also answered in Spanish. Nevertheless, it is strongly recommended to post questions in English in order to facilitate understanding of everyone. In the company website www.vidrala.com, you will find available a presentation that will be used as a supporting material to cover this call, as well as a link to access the webcast. Mr. Mendieta, you now have the floor.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. As announced earlier, Vidrala has released its 2024 full year results, along with a presentation that will serve as a reference throughout the talk. Following the structure of the presentation, we will start with a brief review of today's key figures before opening the floor for Q&A, where we'll go deeper into business performance. So let's begin with the key financials. Over the full year 2024, we delivered revenue of almost 1.6 billion euros, EBITDA of 454 million euros, and a net income equivalent to an EPS of 8.85 euros. Please remember that this net income is not fully representative as it is affected by the impact of 50 million euros capital gain from the sale of our Italian operations. At the end of the period, net debt stood at 248 million euros, representing a leverage ratio of 0.6 times our annual debt. Turning to revenue performance. Total sales for the period reached 1,588.3 million euros, reflecting a 0.2% increase at constant currency and comparable scope. Volume growth of nearly 8% was largely offset by a negative price mix effect. Effects and scope, reflecting the combined effect of incorporating the first 11 months of Videoporto in 2023 and excluding the last 12 months of Italy, contributed an additional 1.7% to revenue growth. Looking at EBITDA, we applied the same breakdown to analyze the year-on-year variation. For the full year 2024, EBITDA came at €454 million, reflecting an organic increase of 10.5%. Including all effects, reported EBITDA growth reached 15.3% year-on-year. These results translated into a solid EBITDA margin of 28.6%, expanding by 330 basis points compared to last year. Now, this slide breaks down sales and EBITDA by business unit, based on the updated perimeter, meaning Vidra Porto is fully included in 2023 figures, while Vidrala Italy is fully excluded in both years. Let me briefly remind that Italy contributed to reported sales and EBITDA for the first two months of 2024, before being reported as discontinued operations, adding to net profit from March to June 2024. So, we observed somewhat different trends across regions. Absolute figures for Iberia are modestly down year-on-year, mainly due to price reductions, but volumes remain resilient, slightly up for the year, along with a strong margin performance. The UK continued to perform well, supported by the integration of the filling business and some bowling lanes in the glass business. And Brazil reflects the impact of the large furnace launch last year, which has enabled us to increase sales volume and improve cost absorption. Now, let's take a close look at free cash flow generation, which is a key priority for us and a critical indicator of our financial health and operational success. This chart illustrates full-year cash conversion, starting with an EBITDA margin of 28.6%. We allocated 10.6% of sales to investments and another 5% to working capital, financial expenses, and taxes. As a result, Free cash flow generation stood at 13% of sales, which is equivalent to 206 million euros, highlighting our strong ability to translate operational performance into solid cash flow generation. And finally, net debt was significantly reduced to 248.3 million euros, with a leverage ratio of 0.6 times our annual GDP. So this shows that we are able to deliver 0.3 times our annual EBITDA in a natural way, excluding the transaction of EBITDA Italy this year. Again, these figures reflect the impact of our recent e-money transactions and the acquired debt, along with proceeds from the sale of our Italian operations, dividends, and serverbacks. This solid financial position gives us a solid foundation and parallel agility and flexibility, and the financial capacity to identify opportunities to further enhance our competitiveness and drive sustainable. And now, before we move to the Q&A, I hand over to Raul, who will summarize the key takeaways and share additional insights.

Thank you, Inigo. And thank you all for attending this call today. We really appreciate your time, particularly for those of you that are connected today far from Europe at different time slots. Good morning. Well, 2024, what a year. What a year for us. We have strategically refocused the business on three careers. We divested from Italy where we were weak. We integrated a large boating facility in Bristol. that has made our business in the UK and Ireland and CERC stronger and even more unique. A business that reached, in 2024, new and higher profitability levels. Also, big thing for us, we have entered Brazil. Very important strategy movement for us. We are very happy to welcome the reporters team with its fantastic leadership. And I am proud to see that we are learning and improving together quite a lot. At the same time, during 2024, we kept on investing in improving our operations in Spain and Portugal, where we are today stronger than before. I mean, more cost competitive. And in the end, with the work of all our people and the support of our customers, we have navigated through quite a challenging macroeconomic environment with, let me say, a reasonable level of efficiency. This is evident in our numbers. Under an overall quite weak unexpected demand context, we have exceeded our initial expectations for EBITDA and cash generation. So, please consider that our 2024 results are a proof of who we have become and what we draw at stake. a business strategically focused with competitive and differential positions in each of our three regions of activity, and a company in a strong financial position. Hope you join me today recognizing that this is the result of our strategic actions, the work of our people, and the support of our customers and our shareholders. We are all part of this. Looking ahead, to 2025, despite macro and the right macro uncertainties and a still weak global consumption environment, we consider that the competitive optimization of our production capacity in Iberia, the value of our unique positioning in the UK, and our continuous progress in Brazil mean that our cash flow levels are safe despite we are to invest more, and our APTA is expected to stay at similar or higher levels in 2025 in comparison with the previous year. In any case, more important for us, far beyond this year, you please consider that we are living in exciting times, a real transformation in the consumer world, and a material progress in our business. We are moving forward with our view on the long-term, strictly fit to our industrial principles. That means that we aim to invest more than before our customer in mind. And we will do so with a financial discipline, firmly committed to our long-term aesthetic guidelines. Customer, cost, and capital. That's all from my side. Thank you very much again for your time and your interest, and you please remind, keep on eating and drinking glass, please. Thank you.

Thank you.

This completes our initial remarks, so let's turn to the Q&A session. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. Question by telephone will be answered first. If you would like to ask a question, please press dial 5 on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Natasha from UBS. Now your line is open.

Thank you very much for taking my questions. So maybe if we could just get an update in terms of what you're seeing in demand in the last few months. You obviously talk about a Soft environments, are there any signs of improvement in terms of volumes and any colour that you can give us by the different end markets would be very helpful. And similarly, if we could have an update on the most recent pricing discussions that you had with your customers at the end of last year. And then my other question is just if you can update us on your capacity utilisation at the moment, if there's been any change in that since we last spoke. and how that might impact your percentage margins as we go through 2025. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Natasha. Thank you for the question. Well, regarding the land, the demand context, the first thing to consider is that the comparable basis today, comparison with one year ago, is, let's say, more normal. We are not yet seeing any sign of relevant recovery, but we are not seeing any further drops. So that means that for our comfort and for your comfort, the 2025, the comparable basis will be much more normal. We are seeing, it's true that we are seeing some minor symptoms of potential recovery in the consumer space. But globally, we are still at softer than initially expected demand context.

Just to clarify, Natasha, on that, all the comments we are doing today is an effort, let's say, to give you some visibility and an exercise of transparency. But please remind you all that official guidance will be issued with occasion of the AGM. That's as Rob was saying. The start of the year is more or less being as expected. But please remember also that Q1 will be quite challenging in terms of comparison basis, especially in terms of top line, not that much in terms of ABDA.

Regarding pricing, as you may remember, a rather important portion, about half of our sales are comprised by long-term supply agreements with yesterday's customers, where prices are defined by formulas. It's more simple than in the past. This means that most of our prices are and will be progressively adapted to reflect real or underlying external cost factors. And we do consider that our starting point today is that we broadly see that our price levels in each of our regions of activity are broadly competitive. And that makes me think that the reason behind the weak demand context that we are suffering is not our glass price levels, but much more structural or cost on macro factors. So we have little reason to compete there. let's say, more aggressively. Anyway, we will make our best to satisfy our customers' attractive volumes and compete with the financial discipline and trying to protect our markets. And finally, a third question, utilization rates. We are today at utilization rates of slightly above 90%. And you probably remember that we ended 2020 for utilization rates of slightly below 90%. So that's probably consistent. The improvement in our utilization rates is probably consistent with the message that we are sending with you regarding the demand context. We are seeing some symptoms of modest improvements.

Thank you. That's very clear. Can I just ask a follow-up if there's any improvements coming from beer or wine or spirits, any color by end market?

Well, this improvement is a slow recovery after big drops last year, so it's more related to the comparable vices. But on a more mid-term view, considering the last two, three years aggregated, we are seeing a better performance by regions in Brazil, next in the UK because of our unique positioning, and third in mainland Europe. And in terms of segments, beer is performing better than high alcoholic products, okay, and wine is probably flatter.

That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that in order to ask a question, you have to press Start 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Fraser Dunlop from Berenberg. Now your line is open.

Good morning, Marilyn and Inigo. Thanks for the presentation. It's Fraser here from Berenberg. I have three or four questions. So the first was just about the U.K. business. I'd be interested in your thoughts on kind of EPR, PRS, and how the next few years could play out for UK glass and how you look at, let's say, NSERC within that. The second question on M&A, I guess you probably have some competitors who could be forced to sell some assets in the next years. So I guess do you see a more kind of buoyant environment on the M&A side? Would you consider buying assets in Europe or are you strictly focused on South America, Central America? And then the third question is just on investments. I know you said you kind of plan to continue to invest more. Could you maybe go through a little bit like the CapEx wallet you see for 2025 and almost how you allocate that in terms of maintenance, logistics, filling, CO2-related investments, for example? I'll leave it there for now. Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you very much, Professor Kent. Regarding the UK and the specific case of EPR and packaging recovery now, this is a new example of hyper-regulation that is affecting the packaging industry as a whole and the glass packaging industry, particularly in the UK and also in Europe. It's something that we need to manage. It's an issue that we need to navigate through and make sure the UK and Europe different than South America, and explains a little our recent study actions. Anyway, so far what we can see is that our customers are reacting well to this new regulation in the UK, particularly maybe for us because our business is more unique. Please consider our 360 business model with our filling or bottling services. the last integration we made last year in the UK after the acquisition of the last botulinum facility in Bristol. And at the end, these issues that we are trying to manage shouldn't change our profitability levels in the UK in the next two years, okay? That they are safe, particularly safe, after having reached new record levels in 2024, okay? We are dealing with that. We are managing this, but our business is still under control. Second point, you asked about the M&A, or let me say the potential inorganic static actions. In that sense, our story and our plans remain the same. We are and we have always been continuously looking for opportunities to grow the business. We will first try to explore where we can expand our capacity. Probably you will understand very well that it's most likely to expand, to find opportunities to expand capacity in Brazil and in mainland Europe and the UK. Second, we also want to seek for a cooperation with strategic customers, something that could be a big thing for us. Third, We aim to strategically verticalize the business to gain control over our operations and better serve our markets. And we have made quite a few small transactions in the last months in spaces as recycling, bottling, or energy supply, that in some cases explain our cash profile in the last months. And third, yes, Fraser, we are exploring a few number of potential acquisitions. all of them in regions that we consider currently core and strategic. And in any case, in the midterm, we will remain financially prudent and stay at low levels of debt, preserving our solid financial position to stay well capitalized. Probably today is a competitive advantage and to be ready for whatever happens in the long future, I think. There is nothing more that we can add so far. As in any cases, we are in very preliminary stages of analysis, and in some cases affected by the usual confidentiality agreements. We can promise that you won't be surprised. This is the same umbrella that you know, speaking, and there are somewhat more dynamic management axes. And we also promise that we will inform you in due time and transparently in case anything material evolves. This is not yet the case.

Okay. And then, Fraser, on your last question on CapEx, just to remind, the CapEx figure for 2024 was 168.8 million euros, equivalent to 10.6% of sales. So next year, probably this figure will be slightly higher than that. You can assume something in the range of 11% of sales. There is more than few replacement in that CAPEX, as Raul just mentioned, regarding sustainability, regarding verticalization, or some opportunities to grow volumes or to capture volumes in specific regions, basically Brazil. Anyway, despite the CAPEX figure in 2025 being expected to be higher than that of 2024, As Raúl also mentioned in the initial remarks, we consider that our free cash flow generation, the absolute figure around 200 million euros, is safe for 2025.

Perfect. Thanks for that.

Our last question comes from Inigo Ebusquiza from Kepler Chevron. Now your line is open.

Raúl Íñigo, hello, how are you? Íñigo from Kepler CFE. Just I would say three questions from my side. The first one, if you can provide us, Íñigo, the pricing and volumes by regions in 2024. This is the first question. The second question, sorry to come back on the CAPEX because I didn't get your answer on the CAPEX for 2025. And then a final question on the M&A that you were mentioning, Raúl. I don't know if you can, obviously it's not an easy question, but I don't know if the money that we can expect would be similar in terms of size to Encirco, Videroporto, or smaller than that, similar to Santos Barossa. I don't know if you can give us some indication on that. Thank you. Gracias.

Okay, Inigo, thank you for your question. So, the first one on... the breakdown between volumes and prices in 2024 and Bay regions, okay? In Iberia, volumes were slightly up, plus 1%, with prices down minus 9% for the full year. In the UK and Ireland, volumes were up almost 8%, with prices down minus 7%. And in Brazil, volumes were significantly up due to the effect of the new furnace, plus 38% in the full year, with prices slightly down, minus 3%, okay? Overall in the group, as we mentioned in the call, we saw volumes growing in the range of 8%, which was fully offset by price variations. Second of all, in terms of capex, what I was saying is that we are expecting higher capex in 2025 in comparison to 2034. You can expect something, a figure around 11% of sales. But the two highlights in that sense is that, first of all, there is more than pure replacement in that capex figure. And second of all, free cash flow generation of around 200 million euros for 2025 is safe.

And the last question, thank you. Regarding M&A, as we said, and With respect to any specific question regarding any specific case or name, what we can say today with you is almost nothing, as we are in all the cases in very preliminary stages. But in any case, following your question, and that will be quite illustrative, in all the cases that we can foresee so far, our debt levels are to be preserved below one times debt to EBITDA. So that means answering your question that is very clear. Thank you for that. The transactions that we could be exploring, as we can see so far, are smaller transactions than the ones that we have made in the last five, ten years and the ones that you mentioned. Hope that gives you some level of comfort of clarity.

Okay. Thank you. Gracias, Raúl. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that in order to ask a question, you have to press Start 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions by the telephone. I return the floor to Mr. Gomez and Mr. Mendieta.

Okay, so before finalizing, there is still one question on the webcast regarding shift to CAMS that says, some CAMS producers have reported particularly strong European volumes. Have you been hearing much from your customers recently that could shed light on attitudes on CAMS versus glass in 2025?

Oh, thank you. This is a very interesting question, okay? Cans versus glass in the beverage packaging space. It's very evident that over the last, and we need to be very aware of this, over the last three, four years, metal cans, aluminum cans particularly, have taken some market share against glass in every place in the world, in the packaging world. And it's now time for us to be aware of that and try to recover from the gap, okay? And that will depend, basically, on how competitive glass is for our customers and for the consumer. The good thing is that we can see very recently that the gap is under a process of reduction. We are reducing the gap, the price gap, between an aluminum can and a glass bottle. And that makes us to be a little bit more optimistic. looking at the future. The things that we are seeing in the world regarding tariffs and geopolitical tensions is something that should give us a new level of comfort about the capacity of the glass container industry to recover some of the gap against our incomes. We are doing this and you can see that the A growing portion of our sales volumes are dependent on global customers that help us learn a lot about that. Please consider that we do consider this as a priority, a study priority in the long term.

Okay. There is an additional one on the webcast on global demand and tariffs. It says, would you be able to guide us to what proportion of your volumes relate to export, particularly to the US and China? Firstly, how might you expect your exporting customers to be affected in the event of US tariffs? And to what extent could a weak Chinese consumer hold back your volume growth in the medium term? What do we think?

Well, there is nothing more that we can add on this. Okay, we are trying to analyze the circumstances that are quite changing. I have mentioned one potential positive factor of these circumstances in comparing the cost of aluminum, the global cost of aluminum with the cost of manufacturing glass. And regarding negative impacts, okay, what we can intensify the message now is that we don't export any of our volumes into the U.S. or Asian, American or Asian markets. But some of our customers export into these markets, and the total percentage of our sales indirectly exposed to this is, I would say, less than 3%. Nothing relevant for us in the short term, but I have the feeling that what is happening could be something relevant for the glass container industry as a whole. We'll take a look and we'll try to monitor this very carefully.

Okay. And one final question on prices negotiations in Iberia. It says, how was the price negotiation in Iberia specifically where the weight of formulas is lower in a soft consumer situation?

This is a good question. Iberia, or as we say south in Europe or mainland Europe, is the region of our activity where demand is weaker. It's probably the region where competition should be or competitive dynamics should be tougher. But so far, we are maintaining a disciplined approach with the aim and the priority of protecting our margins. I have the feeling that the software-inspected demand context we are living in is not due to our competitive levels. to our pricing proposal to our customers is more due to macro factors. So it's time for us to be prudent, keep calm, and try to capture your volumes and market share on a long-term view. Okay.

Okay. So we have now answered all the questions received via webcast. Please remember that we are always at your disposal for any further questions. Before leaving, I am pleased to share that we will be soon strengthening our IR team, confident that this new incorporation will help us to improve and better meet the growing demands from you, analysts and investors, so I'm excited for you to meet him soon. That's all. Thank you once again for your time and attention, and remember to choose glass, a powerful way to care for your health and the plants.

Thank you very much.