Global Blue Group Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 21, 2024

There are 2 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. I am Jacques Stearns, the CEO of Global Blue. And I am today with Roques Anne Dufour, the CFO of Global Blue, and we will present you the H1 figures. Let me first start by the key takeaway of this first half. So very strong delivery.

Operator

H1 revenue has shown a 20% increase translated into a 36% increase of the adjusted EBITDA at 102%. Thanks to our operating gearing, we are happy to report an increase of the EBITDA margin of 4.6.2, 40.7 percent and a drop through of the revenue to EBITDA of 64%. As a consequence, we noted a solid acceleration of the adjusted EBITDA coming from 1.75% this quarter versus 164 the previous quarter, and all of that will be detailed by Roxanne in a moment. We have also adapted our financial guidance to 185 and 205. I will come back to that later in the presentation.

Operator

And finally, we are communicated this morning on an increased share buyback from €10,000,000 to €15,000,000 and the extension of the program until November 2025. With that in mind, I'll let you the floor, Roxanne.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jacques. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Roxanne Dufour, the CFO of Global Blue, and I will take you through, as mentioned by Jacques, through the group's financial performance for the Q2 6 months period ending at the end of September 2024. As a reminder, our financial year runs from April to March. So this is our Q2 and H1 announcements and all the reconciliation to the nearest IFRS metrics are included into the appendix.

Speaker 1

Let's start with the adjusted P and L related to our Q2. We are very pleased to report another strong quarter with significant progress across the business when comparing performance versus the same period last year. Tax Free Shopping Solutions and Payments reported sales in store increased by €940,000,000 an increase of 14%. The group delivered revenue of €132,000,000 a 17% increase, driven by a solid performance in both tax free shopping solutions and payment. Given the strong focus on variable cost optimization, the group delivered a contribution of €105,000,000 a 19% increase.

Speaker 1

Then the group delivered an adjusted EBITDA of €58,700,000 a 25% increase, reflecting strong revenue growth and the high operating leverage profile of our business. This resulted in an improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin by nearly 3 points to 44.5 percent with a 62% drop through. Finally, we recorded an adjusted net income for the group of €21,000,000 versus €14,000,000 last year. Turning now to the detail of the divisional performance. Starting with tax free shopping solution accounting for 77% of our group revenue in the quarter.

Speaker 1

The division delivered a strong performance with completed sales in store growth of 15% and revenue growth of 18% to €102,000,000 You can see here that for the first time, we are reporting revenue growth ahead of our sales in store growth. A few things are first and very pleasing to note, similar to our Q1, there has been no pricing pressure in the period, which has never been the case in the past. Then we have several positive mix effects and additional revenues, which has increased overall the TFS revenue by 6%. Those growth drivers were somewhat offset by a negative continental mix of 2%. This is because Asia Pacific is growing faster than Europe with sales in store at 30% versus 25% last year and the VAT rate in Asia Pacific is much lower at around 10% versus 20% in Europe.

Speaker 1

Then moving to contribution, which is revenue less variable cost. Here, we delivered a 20% increase to €87,000,000 with a strong improvement in both Europe and Asia Pacific. TFS has a strong contribution margin of 86% with the variable cost mainly related to airport refunding costs. Turning now to payment. Payments accounted for 18% of group revenue in the quarter.

Speaker 1

Overall, payments delivered a revenue of €23,400,000 a 16% increase, ahead of the 9% growth in sales in store, mainly due to increased margin on treasury gains. Then if we look at the contribution level of just over €13,000,000 €12,000,000 is from FX Solution with a strong contribution margin of 96%. Then €1,000,000 is from acquiring with a contribution margin of 10%. And then you have for €400,000 the integrated payment solution business, which has a contribution margin of 88%. Turning now to post purchase solutions.

Speaker 1

Here, the business line accounted for 5% of group revenue in the quarter. This business line saw a slight decline of 1% with the revenue at €6,700,000 with the contribution growth here flat at €4,000,000 Turning now to adjusted EBITDA. As I said earlier, the significant improvement in revenue, together with the high operating leverage profile of the business, led to a 25% increase in adjusted EBITDA in the quarter with a 62% drop through. Last year, we were at €47,000,000 And then with the additional contribution of increase in adjusted EBITDA margin of nearly 3 points, quarter with an increase in adjusted EBITDA margin of nearly 3 points to 44.5%. Turning now to detail the first half performance.

Speaker 1

Here, we are showing the adjusted P and L, so for the first half of the year. And again, we see the same positive trends as with the Q2. Tax free shopping solutions and payments reported sales in store increased by €2,500,000,000 a solid increase of 22%. The group delivered a revenue of €250,000,000 20% increase year on year, driven by particular strong performance in tax free shipping solutions. As I mentioned, given the strong focus on variable cost optimization, the group delivered a contribution of €196,500,000 a 23% increase year on year.

Speaker 1

Turning to adjusted EBITDA, another significant improvement here with an increase of 36 percent to €102,000,000 This boosted the adjusted EBITDA margin by nearly 5 points to 40.7% with a strong 64% drop flow. And finally, we achieved a net income of €27,000,000 for the group, up 66% year on year. Turning now to the divisional performance. Starting with Tax Free Shopping Solution. The division delivered a strong performance with an increase in completed seats of 27% and an increase in revenue of 25% to €193,000,000 Tax Free Shopping Solution delivered an impressive revenue of €193,000,000 up 25% year on year.

Speaker 1

Continental Europe contributed €162,000,000 a solid 21% increase, while Asia Pacific achieved €31,000,000 in revenue, a remarkable 49% growth driven by a strong sales in store performance. You can see here the slight difference in complete EBITDA growth of 27% and revenue growth of 25%. This is due to the positive trends in mix effect and some additional revenue for 5%. And again, very important to highlight no pricing pressure in the period. This has been offset by the negative Continental mix of 7%.

Speaker 1

Then, given this strong focus on variable cost optimization, we delivered a 27% increase in contribution to €165,000,000 and a strong contribution margin of 85%. Turning now to payments. Payments delivered a revenue of €43,700,000 up 12% versus last year, outpacing the 7% growth in sales in store. And this was primarily driven by the higher margin on freezer regains. FX solution generated €22,000,000 of revenue, a solid 10% increase year on year.

Speaker 1

Acquiring revenue grew to €20,500,000 reflecting a 14% increase, while the integrated payment solution business achieved €900,000 in revenue, a solid 32% year on year growth. Here, we delivered a strong contribution growth across all the business lines with an average of 9.3%. Turning now to purchase solutions. Here, the business line delivered revenue of €13,000,000 a 6% year on year decline. While revenue was impacted by management decisions to move away from certain low contribution zigzagkiver contracts, the contribution growth of the segment after variable cost is solid at 7%.

Speaker 1

Turning now to adjusted EBITDA. So last year, we delivered €75,000,000 in H1. Then this year with the additional contribution of €38,000,000 from all the business line and fixed cost and FX impact of €11,000,000 the group delivered an adjusted EBITDA of €102,000,000 a double digit increase of 36%, reflecting strong revenue growth and high operating leverage profile of the business. Consequently, the adjusted EBITDA margin increased by nearly 5 points to 40.7%. Turning now to adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 1

Here, you can see the breakdown of our D and A. The adjusted D and A has increased by €6,000,000 in the period to €24,000,000 This is mainly due to two factors. First, there was a €2,000,000 increase in the amortization of capitalized software, which reflects the increase in CapEx related to software development over the last 2 years. 2nd, depreciation of leases increased by €3,000,000 which include €1,000,000 due to a change in accounting related to short term lease in accordance with IFRS 16 standards. As a reminder, following the ramp up of the investment in software CapEx, in the coming years, annual software CapEx amortization should converge with the annual software CapEx spend.

Speaker 1

Turning now to the net finance costs. Here, we are showing an increase of €5,000,000 in net finance costs versus the same period last year. This is mainly due to the increase in interest rates on the senior debt, which was 7.6% in the period versus 6.1% in the same period last year. And looking to the full year 'twenty four, 'twenty five, the expected senior debt cost is €45,300,000 which includes a saving of €3,000,000 from a swap on a rebar for half of the senior debt. Turning now to the next slide.

Speaker 1

Here, we are showing the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA over the last 8 quarters. And as mentioned by Jacques in the introductions, you can see here there has been a solid acceleration in the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA to €175,000,000 up from €164,000,000 in the previous quarter. Turning now to detailed cash flow. After an adjusted EBITDA of €102,000,000 the level of CapEx was €26,000,000 in the period, and it's essentially related to technology development. So the group delivered a solid improvement in adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditure of €76,000,000 a year on year improvement of €19,000,000 In parallel, reflecting the normalization of working capital, pretax and leveraged free cash flow reached €57,000,000 versus €11,700,000 last year.

Speaker 1

Finally, there has been an increase in net debt of €7,000,000 that I propose to analyze in the next slide. At the end of September 'twenty four, group net debt reached €516,000,000 consisting of gross financial debt of €610,000,000 and cash and cash equivalents of €94,000,000 This is resulting in a net leverage ratio of 2.9x, which is a significant improvement from the 4.5x in September last year. Turning now to the key takeaways. Here, to conclude the financial sections, here are the main highlights. 1st, very pleased to report a very strong first half of the year with a significant increase in revenue of 20% to €250,000,000 2nd, reflecting the strong revenue growth and high operating leverage profile of our business, we delivered a strong improvement in adjusted EBITDA to €102,000,000 which is an increase of 36% of that reported last year and with a 64% drop through.

Speaker 1

Then if we look at the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA, there has been a continuous improvement over the last 8 quarters, reaching now €175,000,000 up from the €164,000,000 in the Q1 quarter. Finally, we delivered a strong improvement in the net leverage ratio to 2.9x versus 4.5x in the same period last year, and we reiterate our objective of being below 2.5x. So this concludes the financial sections, and I will now hand over to Jacques to present the latest trends, guidance and the long term growth drivers for the business.

Operator

Thanks, Roxanne. Let's start this second part by the latest trends. So in this slide, you have the figures of October 24, which are really very similar than our Q2. If we start by Europe, where we have the detail in a minute, you see that we are reporting a 12% issued SIS increase versus 11% in Q2, so very similar. And for APAC, we have a 29% increase, slightly slowing down versus Q2.

Operator

I will come back in a minute on that. If we make a focus on Europe, so the growth was 12% during this October time. We see that Italy and Spain remain very strong, with France coming back to the previous Olympics figures at 10%, while during Q2, the Olympics had a negative impact translated only into a 2% increase versus previous year. If we switch on the right side of the slide, looking at the nationality, you see that the main nationality in Europe is the U. S.

Operator

With 18% contribution, and we are noticing there still very strong double digit increase at 10% in October versus 15% in Q2. The European regional, which are all the non EU resident, contribute for 16% with a 26% increase during October. And probably last comment I will do is China, which represent 10% of the total business in Europe have grown by 15% in October, in line with the 22% of their Q2. So overall performance in Europe, which remains strong double digit, 12%, slightly ahead of Q2. If we move to APAC, as I was mentioning, we have seen a slowdown of the EBIT growth at 29% versus 40% in Q2, mostly linked to Japan with a 32% performance versus 59% 57% performance, mostly linked to the strengthening of the Japanese yen.

Operator

They also, if we look to the nationality, in this part of the world, Mainland China is a main contributor with 36%. We see a very strong growth over China with 50% in October, which is more or less in line with the Q2 figures of 58%. Let's now turn to the short term guidance and the long term target. I will start by the guidance of 24, 25, where we have adapted our guidance to €185,000,000 to €205,000,000 with the following context. So we see still a very positive trend in the travel industry, in particular, in the high end segments, which has benefited from to Global Blue.

Operator

As you know, around 85% of our consumer take a plane in order to go abroad and shop abroad. So the fact that the travel industry remains strong is a very good indicator for us. We are also pleased to report strong progress in the implementation of the management initiative, which translate into improvement in penetration of our solution in our clients and usage and more usage by customer, which translate by an incremental growth versus just the market growth. Having said that, obviously, I'm sure that all of you, you have noticed that the luxury market itself has reported figures, which are clearly showing a slowdown. This has not been the case for the last quarter for Global Blue, and you can see the comparison between Global Blue figures and the luxury market in the last two quarters.

Operator

This is mainly thanks to our exposure to affluent and high networking individuals. But having said that, we are not totally immune, I would say, from this market. So with that in mind, but also the fact that during the year, we have decided to accelerate some investment in future growth driver, which had an impact of EUR 5,000,000 impact on additional fixed cost. We have guide to this EUR 185,000,000 to EUR 205,000,000 Coming back just a second on this new initiative, 3 to mention, which will be providing further growth in the future, new country, where the pipeline is very healthy and where we believe that in the next 2 to 3 in the next 15 months, we will be able to open 2 to 3 country. And therefore, we are accelerating our investment in this field.

Operator

2nd is Japan, where the Japanese government has decided to change the regulation in 2026, going from a system where there is no validation like in most of the country to a system where there will be a validation and where like in Europe, consumer will be installed of VAT and will after the validation receive their refund. Thanks to that, we believe that we will be able to increase the take up in Japan, which is, as you know, one of the lowest in the world, having in mind that in terms of volume, it's one of the biggest. So with that in mind, it's really a very sizable opportunity for us. And therefore, we are ramping up in order to bring all our expertise and know how that we have developed for 40 years outside of Japan into the Japan organization, which mean there are also some investment, but which will translate into a real sizable opportunity of growth for us in 2026. And last but not least, in the payment side, I've already talked a little bit about our hospitality gateway.

Operator

A lot of traction in the market there with potential of growth in terms of rolling out new hotel in the next 15 months. And there also, we have speed up the growth in that perspective. So with all that in mind, as mentioned, we have an adjusted EBITDA guidance of 185 to 200 and 5%. For the long term target, I would say, in short, no change. So we remain committed to a target of 8% to 12% in terms of revenue growth with drop through of 50%, CapEx between 40% 45%, neutral working capital in terms of cash flow and a tax rate of between 24% 26%.

Operator

And as mentioned before by Roxanne, we remain with this long term objective to be below 2.5x EBITDA versus net debt in terms of net leverage. Last but not least, I like to finish by this slide, which remind all of us that Global Blue is well hedged against inflation or recession risk. Just to remind you that in the last 4 years, our underlying business, which is luxury, have increased the price by 27% versus inflation, which was only bracket 20%, which means that the revenue of Global Blue has been indexed on this luxury price increase, and therefore, we have benefit from that. On the other side, on the recession case, in particular in Europe, we have seen in 2,008 and 2,009 that Global Group was very resilient, at that time being capable to post flat Seats growth, while the luxury market was negative by 8% and the travel market by 16%. The main reason for that being that, as I've already mentioned, we are really skewed to this high network, individual and affluent network, which are, I would say, more resilient to any economic shock.

Operator

So in summary, not sensitive to inflation and resilient to recession. So in conclusion, very strong H1 figures. I will not go to the detail, but I think the acceleration of the last 12 months EBITDA at 1.75 is a very good indicator on our capability to reach for the full year 185 to 205, which is our guidance. And as mentioned, as introduction, we have decided to increase our share buyback from €10,000,000 to €15,000,000 with a program which will endure until November 2025. Thank you very much for listening.

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Global Blue Group Q2 2025
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