Envipco Holding NV

AEX:ENVI

Earnings Call Transcript

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Good morning, everyone. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Envipco's Q3 results presentation. My name is Simon Bolton, Group [ CFO ]. I'll be running through this presentation with my colleague, Mikael Clement, Chief Strategy and IR Officer.

Look, very solid Q3 quarter. We're pleased to present this morning. Sales, EUR 27.4 million, so that's 9% up year-on-year. And last 12 months, '24 versus '23 at EUR 117 million, well up versus prior year.

One of our important focus areas is gross margin, as you know, and we're pleased to show that, that continues its steady progress, and we reported 36.6%. We do have a number of one-off OpEx items this quarter, which we'll go through in a little bit detail later. But overall, adjusted EBITDA at EUR 2.9 million gives an EBITDA rate of 10.5%.

We're a -- as many of you know, we are a working capital-intense business in stocks and so on. And that was a particular focus of this quarter. So we're really good working capital management. We've increased our cash balance. It's up from EUR 24.4 million to EUR 28.7 million.

As those who have followed us for the last few quarters, 2024 is about really delivering on existing markets. So this is particularly Romania, which had a great quarter in Q3, Hungary and Greece. The other element is operational excellence, so that we also see coming through in gross margins and then investing in the future.

In terms of growth, one of the other interesting aspects that we updated in the Q3 report was a brownfield opportunity in Netherlands. Our focus, as you know, is in new markets -- greenfield new markets as they open up and they implement deposit return schemes to recover beverage containers. But we've got opportunities in brownfield. So very pleased that the first 2 Quantum units are now fully operational in Netherlands. And one of those is actually the best-performing machine in the Netherlands only after 9 months.

We continue to build for the future. We have this wave of countries coming through implementing deposit return schemes, which will need our machines and services. And so, there's investment both in the organization, the team, operations and also to expand our technology portfolio. So we're very pleased that the -- we closed the Sensibin acquisition in Q3 and also that team is now an integrated part of Envipco, which is fantastic.

Maybe for those who have just joined in, this is first earnings call. We are a global recycling technology business. We've been around 40 years. And our focus is the recovery of used beverage containers. We started in the U.S. and there, we have a really strong and stable business with about 40%, 45% market share. And with the legislative activity and the tailwinds of legislation in Europe, we now have a very dynamic and growing European business.

In terms of progress, we're 3x the business over the last 12 months than we were in 2021, and we maintain our ambitious growth goals of continuing that growth 4 to 6x going into '25 with a 30%-plus market share for those new markets and also continuing to work on gross margin to move that to 40% as we exit 2025 next year.

Okay. With that introduction, pleasure to pass over to Mikael to go through financial review. Mikael?

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Thank you, Simon. Good morning, all. I'll take you through some of the financials for the quarter, starting out with the P&L. As Simon mentioned, revenues in Q3, EUR 27.4 million, a growth of 9% from EUR 25 million in Q3 last year. Gross margins continued to improve this quarter, growing to 36.6%, up from 34.9% in the same quarter last year.

Operating expenses were EUR 10 million in Q3, up from EUR 6.6 million in Q3 last year. Operating expenses this quarter included nonrecurring items of EUR 1.1 million, which I'll come back to.

EBITDA reported EUR 1.7 million with adjusted EBITDA of EUR 2.9 million. That compares to an EBITDA of EUR 3.8 million in Q3 of last year. EBIT came in at EUR 100,000, down from EUR 2.2 million in Q3 last year.

Year-to-date figures. Revenues are up 56% to EUR 81.5 million, close to our full year revenues in 2023. Gross margins year-to-date 35.7%, up from 34.6%, with adjusted EBITDA of EUR 8.5 million for a margin of 10.4%.

European revenues continue to grow, up 9% year-over-year in Q3 and up close to 160% over the last 12 months. Key drivers, as Simon mentioned, Romania, a very, very strong sales performance in the third quarter, how also backed by very strong performance in Hungary and Greece as well.

Program services, I mean, our main share of revenues in the European markets are new installments of RVMs. And in the initial period of warranty, we don't see much service revenues coming through. But after a period of 12 to 24 months or so, we start seeing that. And this quarter, we see our service revenues from Romanian and Hungary installations starting to come through with program service revenues of EUR 1.4 million.

North American market, flat revenues year-over-year over the last 12 months, but improvements in revenues for the third quarter with revenues up 8%, both for program services and RVM installations. Program services continued to see positive benefits from the doubling of the Connecticut deposit early this year, giving a rise in collection volumes in that state.

Operating expenses, we continue to build at Envipco for taking on this growth opportunity that we see coming in the next 5 to 10 years. This quarter, operating expenses were EUR 10 million, with G&A expenses at EUR 8.1 million versus EUR 5.5 million in Q3 last year, sales and distribution costs at EUR 1.1 million and some R&D expenses.

We did have some nonrecurring items in Q3 from the uplisting process that we are now underway, the Sensibin acquisition and closing of that, and also some of the extended audit and some severance payments in the quarter. Total nonrecurring items were EUR 1.1 million, which gives an underlying OpEx of EUR 8.8 million, and that is flat with the 3 previous quarters.

Over to the balance sheet. Total balance sheet, EUR 125 million, up around EUR 5 million from Q2, with equity at EUR 65.5 million for an equity ratio of 52%. Noncurrent assets, EUR 37 million, primarily consisting of PPE EUR 17.7 million and also some intangible assets, where the Sensibin intangible -- values from the Sensibin acquisition make up around EUR 6.5 million.

Current assets, EUR 88 million, consisting largely of inventories and also accounts receivables, where the inventories came down during Q3. Noncurrent liabilities, EUR 15.8 million, fairly flat from the previous quarter, with other liabilities being EUR 6 million from projected payments under the Sensibin acquisition and also borrowings of EUR 6.8 million. Finally, current liabilities, EUR 44 million, up from EUR 37 million with trade creditors at EUR 17 million and borrowings of EUR 13 million.

Finally, over to the cash flow. As Simon mentioned, we had a very strong working capital management in the third quarter, starting in the quarter with EUR 24.4 million in cash with cash flow from operating activities of more than EUR 7 million from working capital release, offset by EUR 4 million in CapEx with EUR 2.5 million in underlying CapEx coming from capital expenditures and capitalized R&D in addition to EUR 1.5 million on payment for the Sensibin acquisition. And then we had EUR 1 million in positive cash flow from financing activities for a cash balance of EUR 28.7 million at the end of Q3.

With that, I think Simon will take us through some of the steps ahead.

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Thank you. Great. Mikael, thanks very much. Very good. So yes, just a few slides now on outlook. I just

[Audio Gap]

After the presentation, Q&A session. So please, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to use the functionality within the platform to post those, and we'll get on to those in a few minutes.

We've talked a bit about the Sensibin acquisition. So we just want to spend a minute talking -- giving a little bit more detail. So this is exciting technology for us that broadens our product portfolio and really is a great machine for the expanding and rapidly growing small convenience store segment. These are stores that may be covered by the legislation in their country, maybe decide to start manually collecting bottles, but find it very difficult very quickly. They also want to make -- they want to have an offering that maybe competes and continues to get their footfall versus maybe a larger store down the road that has a machine that's very convenient to use for customers. So this is a best price unit ideally suited for that segment.

In addition to -- for that segment itself, clearly, it broadens our overall portfolio, which is great for our larger Tier 1 customers because they are also obviously moving into that space. So a great strategic acquisition and implemented now and a great team have come over and joined the technology group within Envipco.

What does this mean then for our product portfolio? Well, maybe before we go through what it looks like now, maybe we can take a step back. So we talk about investing in the business. What does that look like from a technology point of view? Well, if we'd have shown this slide back in 2020, 2021, it would be half the number of units there. There wouldn't be the Compact, there wouldn't be the Optima and there wouldn't be the Modula. All of those have been developed state-of-the-art products in the last 3 years.

And what this does from the Compact, very small convenience stores to the very large first-to-market bulk feed product, which is the Quantum, this gives a very, very broad portfolio to cater for any customer in any situation. And we're seeing that, and we're certainly getting excellent customer feedback. So that's the investment we're doing in technology is continuing to refresh and broaden our portfolio.

And that's obviously resonating well with customers. So we've shown this slide before. But as you see, as markets start to open up, then that growth is starting to come through, and we've got a very, very exciting future ahead.

If we look at this snapshot, these are -- this is, again, what we've shown before. We like it. We have timing of the markets coming through our target markets. Really, legislation drives the implementation of a deposit return scheme to aid and encourage recovery of these used beverage containers. In itself, that then drives demand for RVM products and services that we supply.

Legislation is complex. Usually takes a little bit longer than we expect. But nevertheless, it's a very strong tailwind. And sometimes it doesn't always go the way we think. So Portugal was delayed a little bit. If you remember those who follow the business, Scotland, we were ready to go in the middle of last year. That's now been delayed and to be included in the overall U.K. scheme. But despite these delays, still, as you see, very, very strong growth to our expectations through Hungary, through Greece, through Romania and the strong and stable U.S. business.

And if you look between 2025 and 2030, then we have a very significant wave of growth coming up. We're very excited about this. And we feel as we move nearer to the target for the EU legislation, which is 2029, 90% recovery by 2029, then the milestones, the legislative processes are firming up and becoming much clearer.

Just a reminder, the background behind this growth. So you have a critical piece of EU legislation, packaging and packaging waste regulation, the 90% target that I've talked about and importantly, minimum recycled content for the beverage industry, 25% by 2025, 30% by 2030. So there's a real demand for that recovered material. The U.K. is also really pushing on with a unified scheme going live in autumn 2027. And overall, that legislation with those markets is driving industry estimates are traveling of the installed base. We're over 100,000 RVMs now, and it's taken 40 or 50 years to get there. In the next 5 or 10 years, another 200,000 will be added. And that's why we're excited with that growth opportunity.

Last slide before we hand it over to Q&A. We're focused, as you see from the update we've given in Q3, we're focused on delivering on the growth strategy. Great legislative momentum continues. We have now an increasingly broad number of markets and we're certainly excited with the markets that are coming up. Portugal, Poland, U.K., still some things to work out, but nevertheless, significant markets, and that will continue to drive growth 2025 and beyond for us.

Also not to forget, there's a number of markets that we term brownfield like the Netherlands. We have technological solutions to really start to work in those markets. And we'll be selective, but we're also excited about that. And then we'll continue to invest in the future, as Mikael mentioned earlier, Sensibin acquisition closed, we continue to invest in our organization, our people, our technology such that we can deliver a great solution to the customer and also our own corporate structure. So we're going through the process of uplisting as we committed to on the main Oslo market, and we expect that to conclude in the next period.

So, thank you very much for your attention, and we open up for Q&A. Mikael, join me.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

See if we have any questions. Yes, coming in quite a few questions here. So let's just start on top. What is the role of the DRS operator in Poland? Is it similar to the MOL Group in Hungary?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Maybe I'll take that. This is one of the areas that the Polish scheme is still working on. The likelihood is the operators will be in Poland more traditional, and they will operate parts of the system, although at the moment, it's envisaged there could be multiple operators in Poland.

In Hungary, the MOL Group is one operator and also that is our customer. So traditionally, as we expect in Poland, the operator to look after the system or parts of the system, if there's multiple operators, and then we sell to retailers, whereas in Hungary, we're also selling to the operator, which is then installing the product in the retail environment.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Yes. Good. Portugal, could you give us some insight into the Portuguese landscape? Are there lots of smaller players, more like a handful of major players or a combination?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. What we -- I think what we see in Portugal is probably more a handful of the larger players. As I mentioned, Portugal, we're excited about the market. We've been in the market now for 2 or 3 years, working very intensively with all the major retailers, our potential customers. And obviously, that's taken a period of time. So we've seen a small number of major players make that investment, and we think that that's going to be the competitive landscape. But yes, we feel very, very positive about Portugal. We've got a great team on the ground. And certainly, our piloting, the work we've done with our potential customers, we feel is very positive.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Yes. How should we think about revenue phasing into Q4 compared to 2023, I guess, compared to Q4 '23? Sure. I mean as we entered the second half this year, I mean, our expectations were that the second half of 2024 would be very similar to the second half of 2023. And I think as we exit Q3, I think those expectations still are quite valid.

Are there any one-offs explaining the strong gross margin in the quarter? And the short answer to that is no.

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. That was very short. Yes. Good.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Assuming October live date in Poland, when do you expect retailers to conclude RFPs?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Yes. Look, we've got -- now there's commercial processes ongoing in Poland, I've got to say that there is still some kind of legislative work to do in Poland, which the scheme is working on. And this October deadline is no earlier than October. So however, assuming that's around October, then typically, those processes would conclude at the beginning, first half of next year, then go through to delivery middle of the year such that if they were to be switched on October, November, then there will be opportunity to install the product, test the system and then make the scheme work.

So we monitor it closely. It's a substantive market, Poland. We've got a great team on the ground. Again, great work going on with potential customers. There's some things to work out, but it's coming.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

California, can you provide some color with regards to developments in California?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. So look, I think as we've presented before, and I think those who have been on these calls a few times, we also -- we invite Bob from time to time to give a U.S. perspective. I think California is still a high opportunity for us, but it's medium term. It's medium term. It's a scheme -- it's a deposit return scheme that's been in place for some time. It's being redeveloped and improved. We have resources now that are focused on California to see what opportunities we can get, and we have active pilots in the state. So it's a good potential for us.

We like it because we want to see that growth coming through in the U.S. business, but it's not going to be quick. So medium term -- but certainly, medium term, we see California as a good opportunity for the U.S. business.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

On Sensibin, maybe it's a bit early, but have you decided if you would like to rebrand it to Envipco or keep it as a separate brand? And if so, what is the rationale?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Good question. I mean this is always with an acquisition question. I mean, simply, as you see from maybe the photo on the earlier page, the product will be launched in Envipco branding, and it's called the Compact. So with the Sensibin team, we decided that's the best thing to do. So yes, there you go. If you can see that picture on Slide 15, on the left-hand side, that is the latest branding library. And you see it's consistent and gives a consistent range.

And of course, one of the exciting things for the Sensibin team was that we could use our commercial channels and our geographic footprint to really give a much greater opportunity and greater channels to that exciting product.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

There are a couple of questions in regards to Greece, and I'll try to combine them. Greece has announced a launch date starting in 2026. Do you see more revenues coming from Greece in the next medium term?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Look, Greece has always been a really good market for us. We've got a great partner in Greece. As we've reported before, we do final assembly in Greece. So we have an assembly facility and a great team down there. At the moment, all of our sales are pre-DRS at the moment, and they are municipal recycling centers. So they have a Quantum, which is great for high volume of PET cans, and then they also have a glass machine for the smaller volume of glass.

The DRS is still being worked through how that would work in Greece. But certainly, we have a very strong position in Greece with a strong partner. So we feel that as that goes through, we expect more opportunities, maybe a different product mix. So maybe move to a slightly more traditional mix using the whole of our product suite, building on the Quantum. But certainly, we feel very positive about Greece. And certainly, the work we've done there with our partner should bode well for the future.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Yes. Absolutely. Then there's a question in regards to the U.S. How much of the U.S. revenue growth is due to the deposit fee increase in certain states? What's the latest regarding deposit fee increases?

I guess I can take the first part of that question. And I think a majority of the growth that we've seen in program services in the U.S., both in Q2 and in Q3 year-over-year is on the backing of the doubling of the deposit in Connecticut. And the second part of the question is, what's the latest regarding legislation?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Look, we're keeping -- we're obviously keeping an eye on it and where we can actively involve. But the next -- the states next to Connecticut, particularly New York and Massachusetts, have active legislative programs to follow Connecticut in increasing the deposit from USD 0.05 to USD 0.10, which makes sense because they're next door.

As we've said, particularly in the U.S., legislative processes are complex. They take probably a bit longer sometimes than we'd like. So it's still active, hasn't happened yet, but we expect that to happen in the short term.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Poland, back to Poland. Poland is sliding, which is not very surprising. Are potential customers there far from ordering? Or are some already deciding on specific rollout schedules?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. I think in general, it's a bit early for that at the moment. I would say that we're in active discussions with a lot of different customers. We have active pilots. The industry has active pilots with quite a few -- most of the large retail chains. So we're not at that stage yet. It's coming. But certainly, there's a very detailed engagement assessment of the technology presentations and discussions about everything from siting of the machine, logistics, IT and so on, which indicates that customers are starting to get very specific and real about making choices about products.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Yes. Questions keep rolling in here, Simon. Great. Are there -- do you have any updates on the municipality sector in Romania?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

That's a good one. Yes. So I think maybe just to add maybe a couple of sentences for those who are less familiar with this. So we see -- first of all, we see great growth in Romania. Romania had a great quarter in Q3. Romanian market, we've said before, is 3 segments: international retail, local large retail, small retail, and also municipalities. We pioneered municipality recycling centers 2 or 3 years ago in Romania. And certainly, we see that project continuing. It would take a little bit longer. So we see that -- us positioned well for that, but that would hit revenue more 2025, 2026.

So at the moment, the growth in Romania is through the first 2 segments, international and domestic kind of traditional retail. And then we have municipal segment coming through in the next couple of years, which we hope will continue to grow our Romanian business.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Yes. Netherlands, could you elaborate on the potential for the Quantum in the Netherlands?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Very good. That is a -- that's a great question. So I think the market is quite excited by the Quantum. So it's even we've been on national television and so on. So it's great. Again, as I mentioned, the first Quantum that we put in has nearly done nearly 2 million containers over a relatively low number of months. So very high performing, high volume.

Netherlands has a challenge. It's a scheme that is developed step by step. And the latest step is adding cans, which has created a huge volume for the scheme. And with [ Stockholm ], Netherlands, we're looking at ways to help them to cope with that and recover that additional volume. Quantum is great for that, really great. And I think you can see from the first 2 customers are very, very pleased with the product.

In terms of number of units, I think that's still to work out, but just maybe a similar kind of a benchmark. As I think most people know, we've been in Sweden now for a number of years, really pioneering Quantum, again, a brownfield market for us a few years ago. And we introduced Quantum, which definitely delivered a niche. So probably a smaller market generally. And there, we have a couple of hundred Quantums operating at the moment, and we see potential for some more.

So certainly, we see a great potential in Netherlands, working closely with all of the key stakeholders and hopefully, more exciting news updates going forward into the next couple of years.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Very promising start in the Netherlands.

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes, indeed. Yes.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

How were revenues to Ireland in the quarter? Ireland is not a major market for us. And I think the rollout is going through some phases. So we have Romania, we have Hungary, we have Greece as our largest markets. Ireland is, I think, #4 for us in terms of size in Europe. We continue to see potential and continue to work in the Irish market and expect that to continue to be a top 5 market for us next year as well in Europe.

Why is inventory down sequentially? Well, we've been having a focus on working capital management. As you saw in Q2, we increased our inventories and our payables came down, taking some of the cash. We reversed that in Q3. I mean we need to have a readiness for a few of our major customers in terms of delivery capacity, short term, medium term. That's going to build some inventory. But we've built kind of work through on some very strong deliveries, specifically in Romania this quarter, been able to make that management a little bit more efficient, I think.

Where are you in regards to the 4,000-plus machine sales opportunity in Hungary? Are current sales still for retail? Or have there been deliveries into communities or -- yes?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. So as we announced now 18 months ago, Hungarian order has 2 components, a firm contractual element, 2,300 units, which we will pretty much complete the delivery of that by the end of this year, maybe slightly spilling over into next, depending on the busy Christmas period and how easy it is for us to install in the retail environments. And then we have an optional volume of initial 2,000 units.

And the mandatory component, if you like, the first component, that's really focused on traditional retail. And certainly, the feedback we've got is that most of the 2,000 or the 2,000 next opportunity will be a combination of maybe building out some retail, maybe going out to some areas that are less well served for return points and also nontraditional areas. But really, we haven't seen a lot of nontraditional at the moment, and we expect that to be -- the scheme has been really busy only last few months. So the scheme to settle down to be assessed by MOHU and then for obviously us to work with them on filling out the network so that it can be a very high-performing scheme, which we expect the Hungarian scheme to be.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Good. With the uplisting process initiated for Oslo Bors, what is the rationale for remaining listed in the Netherlands? Well, I guess, I mean, you get this question once in a while. I mean, we have a long and proud history of being listed on Euronext in Brussels, in Amsterdam. We have a big shareholder base in Amsterdam. We will always look at what's best for the company, what's best for the owners of the company, and we'll continuously evaluate that as we move ahead.

And then there's one more question on a long list of questions today. I see that Greece now has a DRS launch date. How do you expect to perform in Greece given your existing pre-DRS market position?

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Yes. Look, I think we've -- I think it was an earlier Greece question. So similar, I think we've worked in the country a while. We have a great partner. We manufacture in Greece Quantums -- final assembly of Quantums. So a really good foundation. And we would expect to continue to be successful in Greece as it moves through to -- from pre-DRS to DRS. So yes, yes, a very exciting country for us.

[Mikael Clement, executive]

Great. That brings us to an end, Simon.

[Simon Bolton, executive]

Great stuff. Okay. Well, thank you very much, everyone. Thanks for your continued attention in our business. It's really exciting to present an update to the business to you every time. The next one is in 5th of March. So that will be 4Q. We're available if you have any other questions before then. And with that, I say that finishes the Q3 presentation. Thank you very much, and have a great day.