Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC

LSE:AML

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q2

[Tobias Moers, CEO & Executive Director]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Aston Martin's First Half 2021 Results Presentation. I'm Tobias Moers, CEO, and I'm joined by Ken Gregor, CFO. I will start with some key highlights. Ken will then review the numbers, and I'll conclude with an update on Project Horizon, our plan to drive growth, agility and efficiency throughout every aspect of the company.Firstly, I'd like to start by thanking our employees and our partners for the tremendous job they have done over the past year. We have undergone considerable change on the extraordinary circumstances and their commitment and dedication to Aston Martin is greatly appreciated.I'm really pleased with the good progress we have made and that we have delivered results in line with our plans. Both revenues and wholesales trebled in the half compared to the last year, and we reached a double-digit EBITDA margin at 10%.On this slide, you can see some notable milestones we've achieved. I am particularly pleased with the healthy demand we are seeing for our products and the strong pricing dynamics we are achieving. This is a result of operating as a luxury company with the right supply to demand balance, which we achieved in quarter 1 earlier than we had originally expected. We have made excellent progress on Project Horizon with some key points highlighted here, and I'll come back to some of these in more detail later on.All of these actions are aimed at transforming Aston Martin into a world-class performance-oriented ultra-luxury automaker, and we are on track with that.I will pass it on to Ken to review the financial performance in the half.

[Kenneth D. M. Gregor, CFO & Executive Director]

Thank you, Tobias, and good morning, everyone. As Tobias spoke to and can be seen on this slide, financial metrics for the first half of 2021 improved across the board versus the prior year. Improved trading results, coupled with good investment discipline and some early benefits from Project Horizon, all contributed to this.In particular, you can see from the slide that the strong growth in wholesale volume and revenue has flowed through to significant improvement in EBITDA year-on-year. In addition, I was pleased to see the substantially lower cash outflow in the first half compared to the same period in 2020.Turning to Slide 6 and starting with the wholesales. On the top left, you can see that DBX represented over half of wholesales at 1,595 units and we saw growth in both GT and sport. Going forward, we expect core wholesales to increase marginally in line with seasonal demand in the second half. It's worth noting that in Q4 last year, we had dealer pipeline fill for DBX, which won't repeat, but that we still expect DBX to represent over half the mix over the year.On the bottom left of the chart is wholesale average selling price. Core was GBP 150,000 per unit, a strong step-up from last year as we benefited from reduced customer and retail financing support and improved residual values. With 20 specials in the half, total ASP increased to GBP 156,000 per unit. Our geographical wholesale split to the right highlights the impact of DBX with the Americas and Asia Pacific being our largest regions.Next, the key driver of the increase in revenue to about GBP 500 million was the GBP 345 million improvement from vehicle sales.Turning to Slide 8. Adjusted EBITDA increased to GBP 49 million with a 10% margin. Taking Q2 alone, and excluding the GBP 5 million doubtful debt provision, the margin was 12% in the quarter. Looking at the first half compared to the first half of last year, the biggest driver of the improvement was the unit growth and more specials year-on-year, driving GBP 115 million of improved gross margin, which also included initial manufacturing efficiencies with reduced manufacturing costs per unit.Net pricing was a further positive, mainly reflecting the reduced customer and retail financing support year-on-year. Net operating expenses increased as our restructuring savings were broadly offset by the loss of furlough credits and our fixed marketing spend increased to reflect the timing of Formula One activities and to support the development of the Aston Martin brand. Finally, we had a GBP 5 million foreign exchange tailwind, primarily due to realized hedges.On the right-hand side of the chart, looking below EBITDA, you can see the depreciation, amortization increased due to the addition of DBX compared to this time last year and more specials in the half. Additionally, adjusted financing expense reduced slightly, largely due to FX movements. The adjusting items consist of a GBP 14 million adjusting financing credit relating to the outstanding warrants and a GBP 2 million charge for Horizon-related costs.Moving on to cash flow. As I said earlier, our cash burn reduced by GBP 326 million to a GBP 44 million outflow in the first half of this year. The starting point was a reduced loss before tax. Adding back depreciation and amortization and other noncash items detailed on the slide resulted in positive post-tax cash generation of GBP 42 million. This was further boosted by a working capital inflow of GBP 62 million across receivables, inventory and payables, reflecting the actions we have taken through Project Horizon.Mindful of the shape of this year being very much half 2 weighted, CapEx was controlled with GBP 90 million of investment in the half focused on mid-cycle refresh, DBX derivatives and specials.Before interest, the company generated cash, a key positive on our path to being free cash flow positive by 2023. Net interest paid was GBP 57 million, resulting in the GBP 44 million outflow in the first half.Now turning to cash and net debt. Firstly, cash, which was over GBP 500 million at the end of June with the bond issuance in February, supporting this improved liquidity position. Outlined on the right-hand side of the chart is our debt table showing the breakdown of our net debt, which was GBP 792 million at the end of the half. In July, some of our warrant holders have exercised their warrants from which we received GBP 13 million, bringing our pro forma cash balance at 30th of June to GBP 518 million.Looking ahead into the second half, our guidance for the year is substantially unchanged. Wholesales are still expected to be about 6,000 units with a marginal increase coming in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be mid-teens prior to the GBP 15 million impact of the legal action announced in June, which will nudge this slightly lower. Depreciation and amortization is now likely to be somewhat higher than originally planned given program timings. And as usual, we've updated our interest guidance to reflect the fair value movements of the outstanding warrants and some FX movements, all of which is detailed on the slide, and there is also no change to our CapEx outlook.In summary, the substantial changes we've made over the past 6 months to position Aston Martin for success are starting to materialize. Our focus remains on delivering against the medium-term plan with a focus on our customers, our products, tighter cost controls and improved productivity, together supporting the achievement of our medium-term targets, as shown on the slide.Thank you, and over to you, Tobias.

[Tobias Moers, CEO & Executive Director]

Thank you very much, Ken. Now I'd like to give you an update on Horizon. I hope you recognized the slide from the prelims. I'm proud to report we are making great progress under all 6 pillars. But today, I would like to focus on 3 of them. Starting with portfolio strategy and cycle planning. We have started delivery of 2 of the more than 10 new vehicles we planned to launch by 2023. First, the Vantage Formula One edition, an example of leveraging our Formula One credentials offers improved horsepower and performance at a higher price point than the core Vantage. It is attracting good reviews and strong demand, but more importantly, bringing new customers to our brand. Second is the V12 Speedster, a limited run special, most of which will be delivered this year. The Speedster was part of the Aston lineup at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and do a lot of attention.Looking ahead, there are 3 more cars delivering this year. First of all, Aston Martin Valkyrie is on track. This era-defining vehicle will pave the way for our mid-engine program and [indiscernible]. Having spent a lot of time in the car, it is an unbelievable experience and you've never experienced anything like that before. Following Valkyrie deliveries, we have AMR Pro batched the ultimate no rules hypercar. This track-only vehicle unconstrained by raising regulations, all registration for road use is an extreme evolution of the Valkyrie. The first of the 40-car production run will be delivered in the quarter 4 of this year.Turning to SUVs. The third quarter will see the start of production of our first DBX derivative. This product marks the start of our electrification journey with an I6 mild hybrid engine. There will be more to come from DBX in 2022, so watch out.Last, but by no means least, is the Valhalla marking a step change in how we think about specials for the brand and the business. Not only have we stayed true to our commitment to build a world-beating super car but we have exceeded our original aims. Given its heavy influence from Formula One know-how and best-in-class technology and innovation, it is cutting edge of performance and technology. Silverstone was a fitting platform for its wheel. Valhalla, a plug-in hybrid mid-engine supercar marks the expansion of our product portfolio into new segment and an evolution for our brand. This was a big moment for us as we embark on our journey from combustion to hybrid to electric.Next, go-to-market recognizing we are transforming the business to become more customer-centric focusing on their wants, needs and perception of the brand. First, we've seen a significant boost to our social media engagement and traffic to our website since the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team joined the grid this year. With COVID restriction lifting, we have had the pleasure of meeting customers at races again, for example, presenting Valhalla to them at Silverstone.To further drive our brand evolution and our commercial activities, we have appointed a new Head of Global Marketing and Communication. Moving to the commercial operations side of this pillar, we have strengthened our team with a new head of sales operations and network development, and there are many changes on the way. Digitally, looking at our customer experience, we have launched a new more bespoke class-leading configurator, which will make the customer journey more seamless when customizing Aston Martin. This went live in early July, and feedback from both our customers and dealers has been really positive. As an example, in the first week of the system being live, we had as many configurations submitted to our dealerships as we did in the previous month, thanks to the improved usability, functionality and class-leading graphics. And that was without any PR activities. To bring this to live a bit, I share a short video view.[Presentation]

[Tobias Moers, CEO & Executive Director]

As you can see, it's a much improved experience. I'd like to encourage you all to have a look on it Aston Martin configurator.Finally, operational excellence. Execution here is an imperative in achieving our medium-term efficiency savings of 30%. It touches every part of the value chain through working with our logistic partners and suppliers to make us more efficient.In assembly, we have actioned some of the plans I spoke about last time. We have consolidated all sports manufacturing into a center of excellence, transferring both Valkyrie and Specials assembly into Gaydon. The move to a more efficient single production line of Gaydon went live in April. Delivering tangible cash benefits through reduced working capital, as you have heard from Ken, and also lifting profitability and quality over time.With our clear commitment to quality, it is embedded as a metric in our all company bonus schemes, and we have just recently changed our structure and appointed a new head of quality and a head of technical after sales. There are further opportunities at both sides, be it the efficiency consolidation of St Athan live after the summer break, and the last day of operation of the paint shop at Gaydon was last week, as we centralized painting of all standard body colors in our state-of-the-art paint shop in St Athan, when we restart in a couple of weeks.You have started to see some of the initial benefits of early actions in the gross margin, and they will continue to build through the second half and beyond as we deliver on our mid-term profitability targets.So to close, we are creating a world-class performance-oriented ultra-luxury automaker, laser-focused on our customers be it the product they desire to the service they expect, underpinned by embedding operational excellence, agility and efficiency throughout every aspect of the company, and ultimately build a self-sustaining cash-generating business. Progress so far has been good, and I look forward to keeping you up to date as we go on this journey.Thank you very much.