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DMPLF 2026 Q1 财报电话会议

Ignacio Sison: Good morning to all. Thank you for joining Del Monte Pacific's results briefing for the first quarter ending July of fiscal year 2026. Representing Del Monte in this call are Cito Alejandro, Chief Operating Officer of Del Monte Pacific and President and COO of Del Monte Philippines; Parag Sachdeva, CFO of DMPL and DMPI; and I'm Iggy Sison, Chief Corporate Officer of DMPL. This morning, we'll go through some financial and market slides just to provide an overview and then proceed to the Q&A. Parag Sachdeva will now present our results followed by Cito Alejandro. Parag Sachdeva: Good morning, everybody. Sharing with you on this slide, the key financial highlights. DMPL did sustain its growth trajectory in first quarter of 2026 following a strong Q4 performance in last fiscal year. Our sales of $203.7 million was up 13%, driven by both the domestic business in Philippines as well as international markets. Our net profit at $5.5 million increased from $0.4 million, driven by improved sales and margins. I would also like to highlight that effective 1st May 2025, the company's U.S. business has been deconsolidated from DMPL. Next slide. In terms of strategic priorities and outlook, very consistent with last quarter. DMPL remains focused on growing the Asian operations to drive long-term growth and profitability. DMPL's subsidiary, DMPI, continues to perform well with resilient consumer demand in both domestic and international business and supported by a strong and stable supply chain. The immediate key priorities include reinforcing market leadership in beverage, culinary and packaged fruit that constitutes our core business in Philippines. And we continue launching new products in adjacent categories to broaden the consumer base. From a channel perspective, convenience stores, away-from-home drug stores and schools continue to provide avenues of accelerated growth. On the international side, we continue to maintain leadership in fresh MD2 pineapples across North Asia. Operations also has been seeing very favorable trajectory and that's also reflected in our gross margins, which we will dwell into in a minute. And cost management-wise, the focus continues to proactively reduce waste, manage inventory and lower inventory write-offs. Capital structure, which is one of the biggest priorities for us. We continue working on all avenues to raise equity to lower leverage and offset the NPLs capital deficit resulting from U.S. impairments in fiscal 2025. And barring unforeseen circumstances, the company does expect to be profitable in fiscal 2026. Next slide. Now a deep dive into our first quarter results. Our turnover grew at $203.7 million grew 12.9% with a very good mix on both pricing as well as volume. From our Philippines market perspective, we achieved a double-digit growth in local currency, and that was equally helped by pricing, which was in line with inflation and wall mix, which grew at 7%. When it comes to international business, overall, we saw a growth of 6.4%, driven mainly by fresh, which grew double digit at 10.2%. In terms of our gross profit, the growth was significant at 32.8%, driven by improved pricing across both international business as well as Philippines, increased volume. We also saw favorability in mix. Let me give you an example of that. Our fresh business had higher sales of Deluxe variety, which obviously augurs well for us from a gross profit and margin perspective. And similarly, we saw sales of our key core businesses in -- in Philippines market to grow that have higher margins. On the plantation side and calorie side, we saw improvement in cost. That was driven by a favorable trend on processed pineapple productivity, which was at 150 metric tons per hectare. And more importantly, the trajectory of this has continued to improve in line with our previous commitments that Cito had outlined. So with that, gross margin driven by pricing, favorable mix and improved productivity across operations has meant that we improved by 490 basis points in the first quarter. EBITDA in line with gross margin improved and despite an unfavorable impact from unrealized FX loss of close to $5 million that has been booked in Q1, we achieved an 11% improvement in EBITDA. The unrealized FX impact was mainly due to devaluation of peso at the end of July, where it spiked to 58.2 versus average levels of 57. Net profit driven by operating profits, EBITDA at 5.5 million was significantly higher than last year. And debt also at $1.02 billion was lower by 5% as we continue to generate internal cash and stretch our working capital to lower our leverage. In terms of net debt to EBITDA, there was an improvement of 2.6x and cash flow from operations, as I mentioned before, driven by profitability and continued focus on working capital has improved significantly at $76.8 million. With that, let me hand it over to Cito and Iggy to cover the balance of the presentation. Luis Alejandro: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this investor meeting. I shall now talk about the Philippines. First of all, the NPL sales, 13% up versus a year ago at $204 million. Philippines sales at $88.4 million, 10% in peso terms and 15% up in USD terms. We continue to realize growth in the Philippines, driven by strong demand across our core categories. And if you were to summarize our growth strategy, it would be twofold. Number one is market share grab, particularly in categories with deep competition. And the second is increased usage of the product among current as well as tapping into new users. In the beverage category, we continue to strengthen leadership by sustaining relevance with health-conscious consumers. 100% pineapple juice led by Heart Smart, reinforcing juice as part of a heart healthy daily habit. Also functional benefits such as digestive wellness with fiber enrich and immunity building with the 100% ACE juice. Innovation also took a part in our growth with the successful launch of our Fruity Zing and Fit 'n Right Green Apple, which expanded the company's footprint in the ready-to-drink PET segment, targeting younger lifestyle-driven consumers. In culinary, we drove penetration through -- by positioning most of our culinary products as a nutrient-rich ingredient with Lycopene, vitamins A and C and iodine to improve family nutrition. This was further supported by our nationwide Nutrilicious advocacy, which aligned the brand with the national agenda of addressing malnutrition by promoting nutritious, delicious and affordable meals for everyday consumption. In packaged foods, we are seeing traction in our sales and marketing efforts to extend usage beyond holiday occasions into year-round celebrations and everyday dessert. At the same time, nutrition-led campaigns expanded the role of pineapple as a super food for everyday cooking, highlighting its phytonutrients that support immunity when paired with proper diet and exercise, okay? Let's now go to the international business. Okay. Sales in International grew by 6% to $98 million. This was primarily driven by higher fresh pineapple sales, particularly in China and Japan, supported by improved product mix and better pricing. Our premium S&W Deluxe pineapple, which is now our hero product, if I may say so, continues to grow and now accounts for a higher share of the company's exported fresh pineapple. We have also introduced and are seeing some increased traction in our fresh cut-packs in China to further boost demand for the company's pineapple product. Pleased to note that S&W was awarded Supplier of the Year by Good me, China's biggest food chain with more than 10,000 stores across the country. And in Japan, fresh pineapple sales increased by 20% due to higher demand of fresh cut in retail plus the entry of the S&W Deluxe pineapple with a new customer. In summary, if I were to look at the market share of fresh in North Asia, we now have a commanding leadership share of 50% in North Asia. And this is driven by our leadership share of 72% in China, leadership share of 42% in Korea and our strong #2 position in Japan at 23%. So that about sums up our -- the status of our business, both in the Philippines and international. So Iggy, we will now open the floor to questions. Ignacio Sison: And Jennifer Luy will moderate the Q&A. Thank you, Cito and Parag. Jennifer Luy: [Operator Instructions] We have some questions sent in advance. So I will start with these questions first. The first question is gross margin increased significantly to 32.5%. Will this be the norm for the next 3 quarters? Or is it just an extraordinary instance? Parag Sachdeva: So thank you for the question. We expect the margins to sustain. And we are seeing the same trajectory, both from a revenue perspective as well as costs are also trending the same way, including commodities. So we expect the margin improvement to be sustainable in the coming quarters. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. Related to that, what kind of savings or cost reductions have been achieved at the DMPL holding level given only one remaining operating subsidiary? Parag Sachdeva: So we have a clear outlook and our focus, as you know, is mainly to optimize our leverage. That's what we are focused on, and that's reflected in our debt reduction. That's the majority of the cost that we have at the holding company level. And as you can see, over the last 12 to 18 months, the parent debt has considerably reduced, thereby having a lower interest cost at the parent level. So that's what our focus is when it comes to our holding company financials. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. For Cito, how sustainable is the growth in international sales? Luis Alejandro: It is fairly sustainable, if I may just summarize it. There are 2 components in international sales. The first component is the processed pineapple products, mostly canned products. That part of the business is very much sustainable because we anticipate an undersupply of the market in the next 3 to 4 years. And this is primarily driven by the lower tonnage -- pineapple tonnage right now in Thailand. And as you know, in Thailand, the farmers have shifted to other commodities where they would be more profitable and earn money. And more than 10 calories in Thailand have already closed down. So that is a critical development for us as far as sustaining our package business is concerned because in the past, Thailand was the #1 country, not just the #1 competitor, but the #1 country in pineapple tonnage. So that is the part of the packaged pineapple business, where there are really just 2 big players in packaged pineapple in Asia, meaning Del Monte Philippines or PhilPaC, which is our export operation and also the other big plantation in Indonesia, PT Great Giant. So that is going to be sustainable. The second part of the business in international is the fresh business. Even though we are seeing a lot of higher market share in the categories in the countries we compete in we have not yet exhausted the demand. As you know, the health consciousness of global consumers have actually escalated. In fact, even in other countries, you will see that more of the packaged fresh pineapple are the ones that are growing faster. And this is the same trend that we are seeing in Asia Pacific. From a fresh pineapple standpoint, we're not yet maxed out in China. We have not yet exhausted Tier 2 and even Tier 3, Tier 3 cities, we're not yet there. We're just in the core and entering the Tier 2 cities. And that is going to be our greatest driver. As far as competition is concerned, there are really 2. One is Fresh Del Monte, and they have a farm actually in Mindanao, but our tonnage and our spans of control is bigger. And the other one, of course, is Dole, which is predominantly focused on the Japan and the Korea market. And we are also selling in Japan and Korea. Beyond that, we also have shipments to the Middle East. So from a global or region demand standpoint, it is solid and growing. From a supply standpoint, it is undersupplied in packaged pineapple. But as far as fresh pineapple is concerned, we are the largest actually in Asia right now. We are ahead of Dole and Dole is the other player and other small players as far as hectarage and total shipments are concerned. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Cito. Next question is with the deconsolidation of DMFI, does it mean DMPL will get nothing from this investment? Parag Sachdeva: That's what we are -- what we have assumed in our fiscal '25 results. We have taken a view that considering continued losses that have been incurred in fiscal '24, '25 and a significant increase in financing costs. Parent has decided not to invest. And accordingly, we have impaired our investments to 0 in our fiscal '25 results that have been recently finalized and were also shared with you on an unaudited basis at the end of July. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. Still on the DMFI, since DMPL still has significant ownership, what are the lenders, bondholders or the new Board doing with the DMFI? Were they able to turn things around or find a seller? Parag Sachdeva: As we know, the selling process is underway and is expected to conclude by November or December of 2025. So we will have to wait and see as to how the final process concludes. They have appointed -- the Board has appointed an investment banker to manage the process, and we continue to get updates through our Board members from time to time. In terms of performance, as we understand, the Board is focused on managing and optimizing cost, working capital and also focusing on growing the branded business and further downsizing any private label or nonstrategic businesses. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. On our loans of around $1 billion, what is the average lending rate? And how much will a 1% drop in interest rate affect the cost this year? And are the loans in U.S. dollar or in peso? Parag Sachdeva: Thank you, Jen. Most of our loans are in U.S. dollars. The split between U.S. dollar-denominated and peso-denominated loans would be around 80-20. That's the rough split. In terms of our average cost of borrowing, it's around 6.5% to 7%. That's what we are able to secure on our borrowings and 1% drop in interest rate would mean a reduction in interest expense by around $7 million to $8 million annually. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. Okay. Is there any update on capital raising activities such as the IPO of DMPI? Any time line for these activities? Parag Sachdeva: The process has been initiated by our DMPL and DMPI Boards. And clearly, this is a big priority for us. In terms of specifics due to confidentiality reasons, it would be difficult to share more details at this stage. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. From the internal cash flows, how much of our debt can be paid this FY '26? Parag Sachdeva: As we have demonstrated, our debt continues to be lowered. We were at $1.04 billion at the end of April. We are down to $1.02 billion to $1.03 billion. So we continue to lower our debt. But at this point of time, the main avenue of addressing capital -- addressing leverage would be some sort of an equity injection or a selected sale of assets. So that would be the main focus because there is a limit to which we can stretch working capital across the board, which we have done very well in the last 2 to 3 years. So main source would be of leverage reduction would come from equity raise, which we are prioritizing. Jennifer Luy: Thank you for the clarification, Parag. Our last question is, how much dividend is paid to the holding company to pare down the higher cost debt at the holding company last year? Is there any dividend payment policy for your subsidiary? Parag Sachdeva: Yes. In the last couple of years, our focus has been to upstream dividend from DMPI to DMPL so that the parent could continue meeting its obligations on a timely basis, which we have delivered on. Overall, the dividend payout has been between 75% to 100%. That's what we have followed and we think that would pretty much continue until we change the capital structure in the coming quarters or coming year. Jennifer Luy: Thank you, Parag. We don't have any more questions. So in case the audience has questions that they want to send, you can e-mail to me at jluy@delmontepacific.com, j-l-u-y@delmontepacific.com. Ignacio Sison: So thank you for [ joining ] our results briefing.

Operator: Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tsakos Energy Navigation Conference Call on the Second Quarter 2025 financial results. We have with us today Mr. Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board; Mr. Nikolas Tsakos, Founder and CEO; and Mr. George Saroglou, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mr. Harrys Kosmatos, Co-CFO of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I'd like to advise that this conference is being recorded today. And now I pass the floor over to your host, Mr. Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link and Investor Relations adviser to Tsakos Energy Navigation. Please go ahead, sir. Nicolas Bornozis: Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link and Investor Relations adviser to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the 2nd quarter and 6 months ended on June 30, 2025. In case we do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at (212) 661-7566 or e-mail us at ten@capitallink.com, and we will have a copy for you emailed right away. Please note that prior to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.tenn.gr. The conference call will follow the presentation slides, so please we urge you to access the presentation slides on the company's website. Please note that the slides of the webcast presentation will be available and archived on the website of the company after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides of the webcast presentation are user controlled and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. At this time, I would like to read the safe harbor statement. This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may affect TEN's business prospects and results of operations. And at this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the Chairman of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Please go ahead, sir. Efstratios-Georgios Arapoglou: Thank you. Thank you, Nicolas. Good morning, good afternoon to everyone. In the tanker market with still strong fundamentals, we continue to form extremely well. sticking to our well-known industrial model that the CEO, Niko Tsakos, has described many times, generating healthy contracted revenue under very strict cost control, as you see in the numbers. At the same time, we're selling all the vessels and replacing them with new state-of-the-art ships keeping a young fleet attractive to our customers. I will remind you that some time ago, we identified the lack of good rating on VLCCs. We are correcting this now. And as you've seen, we've gone ahead to order 3 new VLCCs with scrubbers [indiscernible] and 1. So we are rebalancing the portfolio, and we are filling a gap that we always wanted to fill. So again, the results, well done to Nikos Tsakos and his team, best wishes for every success going forward. So over to you, Nikos. Nikolas Tsakos: Yes. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning to everybody. It's a pleasure to be here. After the short summer lull, whereas in TEN, we did not experience such a lull because the company was very active during the summer months. We find it always interesting to make sure that during the slow seasonal months of the summer, perhaps is the best time do business when not everybody is around his desk. So we've been busy in August at the order in the 3 plus 1 vessel, taking delivery of in August and in July starting from June of our Suezmaxes and our shuttle tankers with long employment, selling older vessels and ordering, as the Chairman said, supporting the VLCC segment of our company, we have been traditionally a company with a larger number of VLCCs. And we renewed part of the fleet some years ago, and now it's very much time to come up with a strong environmentally friendly vessels, all of them built in South Korea in the traditional yards that we have been supporting over the years, like Hyundai, I mean we must be one of the very few companies, but we are very proud to take delivery of our vessels, thanks to our new building capacity and capability, we are just to deliver over 150 million new building in the last -- less than 30 years. And these vessels have been delivered from what I would say is the core peer group of shipbuilders in the world. We started in April with in Samsung. We moved in June to Hyundai in Korea, and we just renewed our relationship with what used to be called Daewoo, which we're just right now building VLCCs there. So the company is following this model of quality comes first. We are not -- we have not through the years, we have never cut corners. We have always done things the correct way by the book. And I think we are a proof but things can work when you actually follow your strategy follow the rules and always aim towards quality. This -- as mentioned in the press release, this has -- the beginning of the year and the first 6 months have been a period of turmoil mainly because we are big supporters of the open seas. And whenever sanctions and tariffs are imposed. Of course, this puts question mark and uncertainty in the market that we are facing. However, we have been able to navigate this, I would say, interesting new times successfully. We paid our first dividend in July. We're looking forward to pay the next dividend to announce it in November. And in the meantime, we are happy to see the appetite of the major oil companies for good quality vessels at very, very accretive rates. And with that, I would like to ask George Saroglou, our President, to give us a more detailed analysis, not very detailed, George, more detail of what has happened in the last 6 months and this subsequent period. George Saroglou: Thank you, Nikos. We are pleased to report today another profitable quarter. Tanker markets have remained healthy through 2025 to date. Energy majors continue to approach our company for time charter business. And as we speak today, total fleet contracted revenue, the backlog that we have today, the minimum is approximately $3.7 billion... Nikolas Tsakos: Which coincides -- equates to more than $120 per share, just to put it in share perspective. That's the limit. George Saroglou: TEN is one of the largest transporter of energy in the world. We have started with 4 vessels back in 1993, and we have turned every crisis the world and shipping has faced into a growth opportunity. Today, we have a pro forma fleet of 82 vessels, thanks to the company's crisis resistant model. During these 32 years, we have combined self-generated cash traditional bank lending and countercyclical capital markets fundraising in order to build the corporate fleet. Fleet modernity is an integral part of our operating model. We built vessels at the best shipyards. We acquired very modern, high-specification tonnage, and at the same time, we sell some of the older vessels in the fleet. We have built a young, diversified and versatile fleet covering both the conventional and specialized transportation requirements of our clients, which are mainly major energy concerns, blue-chip names with global risk. In Slide #4, we list the pro forma fleet of all conventional tankers, both crude and product carriers. The red color shows the vessels that trade in the spot market and our new buildings under construction. Since our last earnings call, we have added 3 new building VLCCs to boost our presence in a sector that we felt we needed to increase the number of vessels we operate. and with very good solid fundamentals as a big part of the VLCC fleet in the water is over 15 years. With light blue, we have the vessels that are on time charter with profit sharing, and with dark blue the vessels that are on fixed rate time charters. In the next slide, we list the pro forma diversified fleet, which consists of our 2 LNG vessels and our 16 vessel shuttle tanker fleet. We are one of the largest shuttle tanker operators in the world following the recently announced deal with Transpetro in Brazil for 9 high-specification shuttle tankers to be built in the Samsung shipyard in South Korea. We have 6 other tankers in full operation after recently taken delivery of both Athens 04 and Paris to 24, which commenced long-time charters to an energy major. If we combine the 2 slides and account only for the current operating fleet of 61 vessels, we have 24 vessels or 39% of the operating fleet with market exposure that is spot and time charter with profit sharing, while 53 tankers or 87% of the fleet is in secured revenue contracts, time charter and time charter with profit sharing. The next slide, we list our clients with whom we do repeat business through the year, thanks to our industrial model. ExxonMobil is the largest revenue client as we speak. Equinor, Shell, Chevron, Total and BP follow. We believe that over the years, we have become the carrier of choice to energy majors, thanks to the fleet that we built the operational and safety record, the disciplined financial approach and a strong balance sheet. The left side of Slide 7 presents the all-in breakeven costs for the various vessel types we operate in TEN. Our operating model is simple. We try to have our time charter vessels generate revenue to cover the company's cash expenses that is paid for the vessel operating expenses, finance expenses, overheads, starting costs and commissions. And we let the revenue from the spot trading vessels contributed to the profitability of the company. Thanks to the profit sharing element for every $1,000 per day increase in spot rates, we have a positive impact of $0.10 in the annual EPS based on the number of 10 vessels that currently are exposed to the spot markets. We have a solid balance sheet with strong cash reserves and the fair market value of the fleet is $3.8 billion against [ $1.8 billion ] debt, and the net debt to cap is around 42%. Fleet renewal and investing in eco-friendly greener vessels has been key to our operating model. Since January 1, 2023, we further upgraded the quality of the fleet by divesting from our first-generation conventional tankers, replacing them with more energy-efficient new buildings and modern secondhand tankers, including dual fuel vessels. In summary, we have sold 17 vessels with an average age of 17.3 years and capacity of 1.4 million deadweight ton and replaced them with 33 contracted and modern acquired vessels with an average age of less than a year and 3.4x the deadweight capacity of the vessels we sold. We continue to transition our fleet to greener and dual fuel vessels. We are currently one of the largest owners of dual-fuel LNG powered Aframax tankers with 6 vessels in the water. The fundamentals continue to be good as global demand grows year after year. OPEC Plus really accelerated further the voluntary production cuts, economic sanctions, wars, sanctioned list and tankers and geopolitical events affect our tanker market positively the savings happening on freight rates. And while the tanker order book remains at healthy levels as a big part of the global tanker fleet is over 20 years and it needs to be replaced soon. And with that, I will pass the floor to Harrys Kosmatos, who will walk us through the financial performance of the 2nd quarter. Harrys Kosmatos: Thank you. Thank you, George. So let me start with the first half highlights. With a slightly larger fleet, both in terms of vessels and deadweight tons when compared to the first half of 2024, TEN during the first 6 months of 2025, continued to place more tonnage on time-charter contracts to adhere to the long-term needs of its clients. As a result, during the first 6 months of 2025, TEN secured charters, including those with proper [ term ] provisions increased by about 14%, while spot contracts experienced a marked decline by about 27%. A point of note, however, is the company's continued belief in the market, which despite TEN's limited exposure in the inherent volatile spot market, which has happened somewhat from prior periods of the recent past has increased its presence in profit sharing contracts by about 28% from the 2024 1st half in order to capture the upside on are expected to provide starting with the upcoming winter months. In addition, during the first 6 months of 2025, 5 vessels underwent scheduled dry dockings from 8 in the same period of 2024, which when combined with the shift in employment patterns explained above, resulted in an increase of fleet utilization from 91.9% in the first half of 2024 to 96.9% in the first half of 2025. As a result, TEN's 62 vessels in the water fleet generated $390 million of gross revenues during the first half of 2025 from $415 million in the spot heavy 2024 first half, averaging a healthy $30,754 per ship per day. The aforementioned shift in employment patterns led to a material reduction in voyage expenses from $83.4 million in the first half of 2024 to about $68 million in the 2025 first 6 month, a $15.5 million reduction. In a similar fashion, charter hire expenses fell from $11 million to $6.6 million, a $4.5 million improvement during the equivalent 6 months time frame. Vessel operating expenses, reflecting the somewhat larger fleet, both in terms of numbers and vessel sizes were at was $102.3 million, slightly higher than 2024 first half level, equating to a daily average expense of a still competitive $9,743 per vessel. A similar pattern was evident in both depreciation and amortization expenses, which closed the first half of 2025 at $83.2 million, up $6 million from the 2024 period. Unlike the 2024 first half, these results included a near $49 million capital gain from a series of vessel sales. Such gains for the 2025 1st half were reduced to just $3.5 million as a result of the sale of the 2009-built Suezmax tanker during the 1st quarter of 2025. Inclusive of these gains during the first half of 2025 TEN's operating income settled at near at about $111 million. Interest and finance costs during the 2025 was part of a somewhat lower interest rate environment and 2 refinances of lower margins were $49 million from $35.2 million in the same 2024 6-month period and over $6 million improvement. Interest income during the first half of 2025 reached $5.5 million. general and administrative expenses for the first half of 2025 were $23.1 million, incorporating a management incentive and stock compensation plan. Reflecting all the above, the company generated a net income for the first half of 2025 or $64.5 million or $1.70 per share. Adjusted EBITDA for the first 6 months of 2025 came in at $193.2 million, while total debt net of $287 million of CASA fund settled at $1.4 billion, leading to net debt to capital of accountable 43.6%. And now let's go into the 2nd quarter highlights. During the 2nd quarter of 2025, the employment shift to world secured employment was equally evident as available under time charters and profit-sharing contracts increased by 12% from the 2024 2nd quarter, while based on the spot voyages dropped precipitously by 31.5% and leading to fleet utilization increasing to 96.6% from 92.4% in the 2024 2nd quarter. Worth highlighting here is the 30% increase in total debt of profit-sharing contracts emphasizing intense employment strategy of downside protection with upside optionality. Resulting from the above and reflecting again a somewhat softer but still healthy market from the 2024 2nd quarter and after having the 3 vessels in dry dock TEN's fleet generated $193 million of gross revenues equating to $30,767 per vessel per day, a healthy performance. Voyage expenses, again, due to later days of spot contracts declined by about $10 million from the 2024 same period, while short hire expenses also experienced a drop to settle at $3.3 million from $5.1 million in the 2nd quarter of 2025. Operating expenses and not indicated earlier due in the first half overview were just $3 million higher from the 2024 2nd quarter at $52.7 million or $9,982 per ship per day. A still competitive level, thanks to the efficient and profit management performed by TEN's technical monitors. Depreciation and amortization costs during the 2025 2nd quarter and again reflected a slightly higher vessel classes in the fleet were at $42.1 million from $39.5 million in the 2nd quarter of 2024. During this 2nd quarter, there were no gains or losses on vessel sales registered compared to the 2024 2nd quarter, which recorded capital gains of $32.5 million. As a result, operating income for the 2nd quarter of 2025 settled at $50 million. increase in finance costs during the 2nd quarter of 2025 were $5 million lower from the 2024 2nd quarter up $25 million while interest income reached $3.2 million. Taking all the above into consideration TEN during the 2nd quarter of 2025, generated a net income of $26.8 million, which equates to $0.67 per share. In ending adjusted EBITDA for the 2025 2nd quarter was up approximately $94 million. And with this, I'll pass it back to Nikos. Thank you. Nikolas Tsakos: Thank you, Harrys, for your detailed analysis. And with this, we would like to open the floor for any questions or input that you may have. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] My first question comes from Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Poe Fratt: Can we talk about the new build orders for the VLCCs? As you mentioned on the last quarterly call, you previewed -- it seemed to preview that. Can you talk about how you decided to go forward with new builds versus acquiring assets in the open market? Nikolas Tsakos: Yes. Thank you. Well, we are always looking for good quality vessels in the open market also. So I mean, we do not exclude this to happen. We took advantage of the strong secondhand market to sell vessels -- so perhaps it is -- when it's a good time to sell vessels and we made a significant cash profit and the profit overall on the sale of 18-year-old vessels, it means that it's not perhaps the best time to acquire secondhand vessels because they are pricey. So I believe that it's very, very good for us. We are very competent and experienced new building site offices in Korea and Japan in the past. So it has been -- it makes much more sense since we are building a big number of vessels in the first class Korean yards with the site officer to build the environmentally friendly vessels of the future. that are actually following all the upcoming regulations, and they are built at the yards to traditional build ships. So I think VLCCs has been part of our portfolio that we are lagging behind. And I think that's a very good opportunity to find -- we believe the reason we are able to run ships at, I would say, significantly lower operating expenses than a big part of our peer group is because we tend to build good quality ships and sister vessels, and that helps us very, very much in keeping operating expenses and the experience of our seafarers, the crew and the captains. It's like running, let's say, a very similar fleet of airplanes or a very similar fleet of Boeings or -- in order for -- to have the training for the crew, the spare parts for all the vessels, and it gives us a lot of flexibility. Poe Fratt: Great. And then if you could clarify whether you exercise the option that you had when you first announced the VLCC new builds? And then secondly, typically, you -- when you have a newbuild, you typically have a contract or a time charter set up in advance of delivery. Do you currently have a time charter in place? Or when do you anticipate securing a time charter for the Vs? Nikolas Tsakos: Yes. I think what we did is we opted for the option and we actually got an extra option for another couple of months. because we believe that it's good to maintain this price levels going forward in a very uncertain environment. So the options are always valuable. So actually, yes, we have 3 foreign vessels right now, plus an additional option in the same yard in the same quality. The -- right now, the VLCC market is a very hot market. We have actually 3 of our existing VLs are opening in the next 6 months, and we see a lot of appetite. I mean we're in the process of renewing some of the existing VLs going forward with significant increased base rates and profit sharing arrangements. And the new orders,, we are -- there is a lot of appetite, but it's still early to make a decision. So we will be taking care of more of the 3 existing ships, very young ship also themselves. But it gives us with 6 VLs and perhaps more coming it's starting to get critical mass in that very I would say, interesting segment of the tanker market. Poe Fratt: Great. And then could you preview -- I know that you talked about declaring the second half dividend in the November time frame. Can you preview it at this point in time? Or is it just too early? Nikolas Tsakos: Well, I think it is early, but we are looking at a healthy market. So we are expecting to -- for the Board to opt for a healthy dividend. So I think we are in a good space, I would say. Poe Fratt: Okay. And then on the last call, you talked about potentially given the current valuation in the equity market, you talked about potentially restructuring the company or looking at alternatives maybe splitting the company into a company that has twofold: 1 with long-term time charters in place, especially on the -- when you look at the shuttle tankers versus assets that have shorter-term time charters. Any progress or any comments on that type of move? Nikolas Tsakos: First of all, we are not restructuring the company. We have never restructured any part of our debt or the company. So I think TEN is one of the few companies that, I'm just joking, but we're not restructure. We're always thinking out of the box. I think we are very -- we are very happy to where we are today with the growth of the company, with the profitability of the company. One thing that I would say, like other shipping companies, but especially ourselves, we are disappointed is with share performance, and we're trying to -- I think our company should be -- should have easy the market cap of $2 billion from where it is today. But -- so we're always thinking of ways to get shareholders' interest and appreciation. We are -- I think we are going through a period that, with inflation being around, we are going through a period where real assets matter. So I think this is -- and we have very, very, very real assets and quite undervalued real assets. So I think what we want to do is to be able to have a much more efficient -- to make it more efficient for our shareholders. So we have thought of perhaps having one of the largest tanker fleets plus a lot of long-term business and specialized vessels to do something down the road in the next 8 quarters, I would say, and perhaps putting the more specialized vessels in a vehicle that, of course, TEN will be by far the major shareholder. But I guess, these are ideas that we are discussing with our investment bankers, but there's nothing imminent, I would say, for the next 4 quarters. Poe Fratt: Okay. And then could you preview or give me an idea of sort of the direction of OpEx and G&A over the second half of the year. It looks like the first half G&A especially might have had some onetime items in it. Nikolas Tsakos: Yes. Well, I think we are putting a lot of emphasis, we are running things hands on and we look at our technical management -- managers almost on a weekly and monthly performance. We are facing some inflation issues, but I think we have been able to cap the majority, and we still have an average for such big diversified fleet, which includes DP vessels, which the operating expense of those ships are in the high teens. And we're still under $10,000 on operating expenses. So I think we put a lot of emphasis in running a tight ship literally. I believe that we will be able to maintain the expenses there. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. At this point, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Tsakos for closing comments. Nikolas Tsakos: Well, again, thank you for attending our call. In the first 6 months and I think moving forward has been an exciting time for the energy markets. I believe that we are here to see even more solid results coming forward. The energy part of the world economy is becoming more and more important. The players right now are getting more. We're seeing shipping energy part of the business, where really you have a 2-tier market. You have vessels and they're growing in numbers that are, I would say, they do not serve the core part of the business. And this which allows us with modern high-specification vessels to be able to have more opportunities in order to serve our major clients. So I believe I am optimistic that we're going to be seeing at least in the near future, another 18 months over a very solid, perhaps getting even stronger market. And we see also actions from the administration in the United States to support shipping, which is important because shipping and energy transportation have always been in the background. I mean, we provide a significant service, a very big service for the world economy. But in a way, we are kind of the unsung sailors, not heroes, the unsung sailors of the world economy. And I don't think it's good to see that people are paying much more attention to actual the services we're doing, be it on the LNG, be it on the crude or on the product segment. I will be in the United States in the next couple of weeks, having meetings specifically on ways where simple transportation and especially energy transportation is going to be appreciated and more and assisted more. And I think we have -- it is going to be good for the charterers and the ship owners. So I think we have an optimistic view going forward. And with that, I would like to thank everybody. Ask Mr. Arapoglou, our Chairman, if he wants to have a closing statement. Efstratios-Georgios Arapoglou: Thank you, Nikos. Just to say that we believe that market does not -- continues not to appreciate the nearly $4 billion of minimum contracted revenue for TEN. and keeps looking at us like any other shipping company with high volatility and low predictability of income and revenues. We feel that perhaps the market has begun focusing on it, but we feel that the value of the stock is much higher than where it is today. And as far as dividend is concerned, the CEO just mentioned that the Board is going to look at the results of the third quarter and be able to perhaps announce -- make a decision on the dividend in a few months' time. So we continue to be very positive on that front. So with that, thank you very much. Thank you, Niko. Nikolas Tsakos: Thank you. And I think we are -- we will be -- I think the team will be attending events in London, on for London International Shipping Week, including capital league event where our CFO is going to be a speaker and the following week in New York. So hope to see you face-to-face. And thank you very much, and have a good rest of the day. Operator: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

242天前Insight Analytics约5分钟阅读

SRTSF 2025 Q2 财报电话会议

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Vassilios, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Sarantis Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Sarantis Group's Half Year 2025 Financial Results. With us today, we have Mr. Ioannis Bouras, Group CEO; and Mr. Christos Varsos, Group CFO. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Please be reminded that this presentation contains the formal disclaimer with regards to forward-looking statements. The presentation and discussion are conducted subject to this disclaimer. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ioannis Bouras, Group CEO. Mr. Bouras, you may now proceed. Ioannis Bouras: Hello, everyone. I would like to thank you for joining the call today. We're very happy to have you all here. We are ready to start. So first of all, I would try to highlight -- we give some highlights at the glance of the first 6 months of 2025. What we would like to confirm is that our strategy remains the same. We are consistent and very precise with our strategy designed over the last 3, 4 years and consistent execution is also critical for our performance. This year, the first half of 2025 has been massive in terms of investment and energy behind the CapEx investments in our group, and we are on track on that, where all these CapEx are supporting the growth for the future. The Stella Pack integration is in the final stage as we are working right now on combining warehouses in Poland for the local operations plus all the networks in the markets. And of course, a significant part of our CapEx investments directed to Stella Pack upgrade -- factory upgrade, supporting our regrnulation capabilities in Poland. On the digital transformation, we are well on track. It's also a significant amount of energy from the team to deliver our digital agenda. We are -- of course, we'll have some details later on that. 2025, we continue our investments in our people as the capability enhancement of our people and of course, the leadership development is critical for our future of our business. And another highlight is the expansion of our footprint in the U.S. market via our Sun Care brand, Carroten, which is well advanced and has been also significant for the first half of the year. From a commercial excellence point of view, the priorities and strategy remains the same. The HERO SKU philosophy continues and even we are working towards that. We're applying a lot of rules of revenue growth management in the market, focusing on the mix of the portfolio, the investment strategy, promotional strategy and how we are delivering the growth via the categories that are improving our profitability as a business. On the innovation side, many new things coming through. And of course -- but as always, we are focusing on fewer and bigger initiatives. And the international expansion, as I mentioned, is driving growth and strengthening, of course, our select international markets that is one of our key priorities in our strategy. So in terms of numbers, of course, from a top line point of view, plus 0.5%. It's -- we're keeping -- just to remind you that last year, first half was very, very strong. So we're keeping our power in the market. On gross profit, we have also equivalent growth. But when it comes to EBITDA, EBIT and EBT and net profits are double-digit growth is coming through. And this is happening, of course, because of our operational efficiency, cost controlling and of course, all the work happened over the years to make the organization much more efficient, plus the mix of some of the categories are helping towards this direction. Now when it comes to category, as you can see clearly here, as we always present, Beauty and Skin and Sun category has provided significant growth in the first half of the year, plus 22.7%. This is, of course, includes the international markets growth where U.S. also is critical to this journey. Personal Care. Personal Care, there are some pressures in this category. Of course, intensive competition is coming to the game. There are things happening in the market that are affecting the top line growth, but still is one -- it's a very big category for us. Home Care Solutions, also similar. We have a pressure in the market where it's coming from demand from specific markets. And this is also something that we are working on. Strategic partnerships, we have a 2.1% growth, and this is coming mainly because of the work that we are doing with our strategic partners on some of the innovations they are providing for us, plus some new smaller businesses that they are coming to our portfolio. Private label has been minus 16.7%. We have discussed this in the past that private label is a business that is supporting our supply chain agenda for Home Care solutions category. So key priority for us also is the profitability of this category. It's not -- as you will see later, it's not a massive profitable category for us. So we have to balance between the growth and the profits at the same time. So although the category for us is dropping by 16% from a profit margin point of view is not significant. On the right-hand side, you can see that the branded business of Sarantis Group for the first 6 months is growing by 2.5%, while in private label, we are dropping by 16.7%. Now a bit of an update on international expansion. As we said, Skin and Beauty is a significant growth category for Sarantis Group as a whole. And within that category, the international expansion of beauty and skin is a critical part in our agenda. We have set up this priority 2, 3 years ago. The projects that we are running in different parts of the world are doing very, very well with, of course, U.S. been exceptionally -- running exceptionally well for the first half of 2025. We are working with some of our portfolio from a planning point of view and becoming a very successful in the U.S. market in different retailers, either online retailers or offline retailers, where this year, of course -- and this is also increasing our appetite for further initiatives in the market for the years to come, right? So this is something that is helping us a lot. And of course, we'll put a lot of energy and efforts behind. On top of U.S., though, we have on the other side of Earth is Australia, where the news are that we have listed in one of the leading retailers in Australia, one of the 2 biggest retailers in Australia. So it's going to hit the market in the coming summer for summer, meaning Australian summer, November, December this year. With Philippines, we continue with our Bioten very strongly. Of course, the brand is launched many years ago. So we are now quite mature. But of course, the product is developing nicely there together with Clinea. And recently, we had some openings in the Middle East with Saudi in the #1 retailer in Health and Beauty and United Arabic Emirates with the second -- #2 retailer in Health and Beauty with our Carroten brand in Middle East. So plenty of initiatives here. And of course, as a team, we are working behind all this and some others that they are rising over the last period. When it comes to geographies, so here is the usual table about the different markets. As you can see, Greece is growing nicely. It is not only the international markets that they are growing by 52%, but also Greece domestic market, which is the biggest, it would a growth of 3.5%, which is very, very positive. And Poland is -- overall, if you see, there is a minus 4.7%, but this is mainly due to the private label business, which is included in Poland country. While in the branded portfolio, we are growing 1.1%. Romania, the first 6 months has been challenging for Romania market. There are several issues on the market. We believe that going forward, things will get better. There are some political things happening in the market affecting the overall demand from the consumer. When it comes to Czech and Slovakia, very, very good growth and continuing growing from the previous years. West Balkans also have been facing some challenges, especially in Serbia over the last months. Ukraine, yes, minus 12%. But just to remind you here, we have disposed some business from Stella business that we bought last year, mainly private label or tactical business that they had in Ukraine. So if you compare like-for-like, this is minus 1.2%. So actually, Ukraine business for us is flat versus 2024. When it comes to Bulgaria, it's again, a smaller market, flat, and then Hungary is developing by plus 5.2%. So this is a picture from the geographies point of view. And now regarding all the things that I mentioned at the beginning of the highlights, 3 major pillars here. One is the digital transformation. So if you remember, we said before that we are implementing new SAP for our business and plus other systems together with that. So where we want to build a unified data platform across our markets. So the go-live of SAP went first in Greece, Czech Slovakia and Hungary, very successfully in the Q1 of 2025. And now we are preparing the Wave 2 for January '26, which includes West Balkans, Romania and Bulgaria. The whole project on this one will be concluded beginning of '27 with Poland and Ukraine. So we are well advanced now with our plans. Team is very confident, and I think the implementation is successful and without disruptions. Now the integrated business planning completed. This is already completed in June this year. So we have a new platform for planning and for the whole organization, critical to manage our complexity to include our commercial planning together with the supply planning. and, of course, be more accurate in our forecasting and our planning accuracy. The new -- we have new digital tools coming together with the new systems that are helping to optimizing our operations and workflow and processes. So this is critical. On the manufacturing upgrade, as I said before, the Stella Pack regranulation update is well on track. And of course, the whole project will be completed by Q4 2025. And I think this is critical as the investment is around EUR 15 million, and this investment is critical for making sure that our supply chain of garbage bags is one of the most competitive supply chains in Europe. And of course, having a fully recycling granulated materials for producing our garbage bags, which is a differentiator for us as well. Our [ Innovita ] plant because of the expansion of our Skin Care business and our export business of the sun care, we have another EUR 10 million investment program that is going to be completed by Q1 '26. But of course, the majority of that will be happening also this year, increasing our capacity for our Beauty and Skin and Sun Care sales. All of these CapEx investments are linking also our sustainability and ESG agenda, where energy efficiency is also critical for the business. And of course, all the automations around our plants in Greece and Poland are critical also to improve our productivity. On the ESG agenda, we have commitments. We are following through properly our agenda on delivering the commitments that we promised. Now we are in the position to validate with SBTi our near-term climate targets. Also, we are working on with the digital agenda to have a proper accurate and fast way of measuring our progress. So everybody will be accountable and dedicated to the delivery. We are working with the ratings right now, CDP and EcoVadis to get proper rating and also -- and this is also part of our agenda of ESG. So that's an introduction from my side with the basic numbers. I will hand over to Christos right now, Varsos, our CFO, to give us more detail about the numbers and the financial results. Christos Varsos: Thank you, Ioannis. Let me now provide some details behind the key numbers Ioannis described. Our net sales grew marginally compared to 2024 with focus on our core categories in Beauty Skin and Sun Care, which influenced favorably the mix of sales. I remind you that we are cycling a very strong half year 1 in 2024 when we had very hot summer across Europe, which was not the case this year for several of our countries. Our gross profit grew marginally with a gross profit margin remaining at 38.6%. EBITDA grew significantly by almost 16% to EUR 48.3 million, leveraging on the mix of categories of our core portfolio with strong growth, as mentioned, our beauty skin sun care category, supported by our export business, cost benefit from initial phase of commercial integration of Stella that was completed last year, while controlling OpEx overall in our business. EBITDA margin grew by 200 bps coming to 15.9%, plus EBIT at EUR 37.5 million, an 18% increase versus EUR 31.8 million last year and EBIT margin of 12.3%, an increase of 181 bps. Financial expenses in 2025 improved significantly following the early prepayment in the last quarter of 2024 of EUR 18 million of debt, combined with lower interest rates. We will continue prepaying early debt, supporting further improvement in our earnings per share. Following the improvement of financial expenses, our earnings before tax grew by 21% to EUR 36.5 million from EUR 30.1 million in 2024 and PBT margin grew by 200 bps to 12% from 9.9% last year. Net income, EUR 29.2 million, up by 20% versus EUR 24.3 million in 2024 and EPS at EUR 0.46, a 22% decrease to prior year of EUR 0.37. Moving now to our product categories, so you can understand more about the dynamics in the first 6 months of the year. Beauty, Skin and Sun Care. As we have already mentioned in our 5 years plan, achieving disproportional growth in the Beauty skin and sun care category is a key pillar where we build our organic growth strategy. In half year 1 2025, we grew by 22.7% to EUR 55 million, supported by our Sun Care sales that continued accelerating this year with the help also of our export business that Ioannis described. Category EBIT grew by 72% and EBIT margin by 800 bps to almost 29%, affected by the mix within the category. Personal Care. In terms of Personal Care, which is a core profit generator for us, we have a decline of 3.5% of net sales, as Ioannis described, compared to prior year, but EBIT grew by 13% to reach EUR 8.5 million EBIT with EBIT margin of 16.7%, an improvement of almost 250 bps compared to prior year. Home Care Solutions. Home Care Solutions declined by 2.9% to EUR 101.7 million, affected by pressure in some of our markets like Ukraine and West Balkans, which are mostly represented in this category. EBIT declined by EUR 1.5 million to EUR 11.1 million, largely affected by the sales and the [indiscernible] expenses of Stella supply chain as we are optimizing our supply chain network while continuing investing heavily. However, the real support and the benefits from these investments and from the optimization will be benefiting mostly 2026 rather than the current year. Private label sales were mainly impacted by continued rationalization of the private label product portfolio, especially in terms of Stella Pack products. We expect that the completion of our CapEx investments in the granulation lines will support us not only to be more cost efficient, but also will improve our overall competitiveness, both for our private label and branded portfolio. As mentioned in the past, we use private label on a tactical basis to absorb costs from branded business will over time increase branded business and decrease the private label portfolio. Strategic partnerships. Finally, in our strategic partnerships, we had a healthy performance, increasing our sales by 2%, while improving our EBIT by 9% to EUR 2.8 million, improving slightly also the margin. As mentioned in the past, we use the category for market leverage, and we are focusing in fewer and better relationships. For the total group, we had a solid net sales performance, reaching EUR 304 million of net sales. EBIT grew, as mentioned, by 18% to EUR 13.5 million, and EBIT margin grew by 180 bps to 12.3%. Now turning to our geographies. As discussed in the past, we wanted to share with the investor community the different dynamics outlining our performance. For Greece, we are splitting the sales between the domestic market and the exports to selected international markets. For Poland, we're splitting Poland between branded products and private label as this affects mainly the geography of Poland. Greece grew in total to EUR 97 -- almost EUR 98 million, an increase of almost 10%. In terms of EBIT, this grew by 56% to EUR 19.3 million and EBIT margin grew by 600 bps to 19.8%. If we look at the subsegments, Greece domestic business net sales showed a healthy growth rate, posting an increase of 3.5% despite citing a very strong half year 1 2024 due to Sun Care sales with an EBIT of EUR 12.1 million, a 32% increase to prior year and 15.1% margin, an improvement of more than 300 bps affected by mix of categories and cost control. In export markets, we grew by 53% to EUR 17.6 million and EBIT to EUR 7.2 million, which is more than double compared to prior year. As you see, exports have much higher EBIT of almost 41%, and that's why we strongly believe in this segment as an accelerator to our growth for our 5-year plan. In Poland, the total business had net sales of almost EUR 90 million, a 4.7% decrease versus prior year, with EBIT also declining affected by the private label portfolio. The branded portfolio grew by 1% to EUR 64.3 million, while EBIT decreased by 7.6%, coming to almost EUR 6 million, including also supply chain integration expenses, as already mentioned. Private label declined by 6.7% on the back of rationalization of contracts in the product portfolio, especially for Stella, with EBIT being similar to prior year. In other territories, we had a mixed picture driven by specifics in each country. Romania, as already mentioned by Ioannis, had a slower start this year with EUR 46 million of net sales, a decline of 5% versus prior year, cycling a strong performance in prior year. In terms of EBIT, Romania achieved almost EUR 7 million, representing a decline of 7% with flattish EBIT margin at 15%. Czech and Slovakia accelerated growth by adding 8% more net sales, reaching almost EUR 25 million with EBIT of EUR 3.4 million, a 23% increase to last year. In terms of EBIT margin, this improved by 160 bps, reaching 13.8% West Balkans showed a decline in the net sales of 4% to EUR 19 million, mainly impacted by the Serbian market with some arrest in the year and market pressure. However, in terms of EBIT delivery, West Balkans managed to grow EBIT by 5.6% to EUR 1.6 million and EBIT margin 8.6% with support from cost control. For Ukraine, it is a year of pressure in the results as identified already from our full year results discussion. However, Ukraine specifically was also impacted by the sale of Stella Ukraine completed at year-end. Stella Ukraine for the record had EUR 1.4 million of sales in half year 2024, EUR 100,000 EBIT. Without this impact, the net sales would be almost flat and the EBIT would be growing by 4.5%. As mentioned, we are working with resilience in Ukraine and expanding our portfolio outside the Home Care category, which is the key category for Ukraine, which still -- and still it is a leading business in the area. Moving now to our healthy and strong balance sheet. As we have discussed also in the past, we maintain a strong balance sheet, which can support our organic growth, the next steps on our transformation agenda and M&A activities. As of 30th of June, we had a net debt of EUR 32.8 million compared to EUR 43.9 million net debt as of 30th of June 2024. I remind you that due to the seasonality, our lowest net debt position -- our worst net debt position is on 30th of June, whereas the best is on 31st of December. Already today, today, I'm talking about today, 10th of September as we speak, our net debt has improved more than EUR 20 million compared to the June numbers, standing today at around EUR 12 million. Thus, by year-end, we should be again close to net cash position. During half 1, we have received the EUR 20.8 million installment from Estee Lauder with the final one expected for January 2028. As discussed also in the full year results, in the last quarter of 2024, we have made early debt prepayments of EUR 18 million, reducing our financing expenses. We have now committed and formed one of our lenders for EUR 5 million early prepayment to be executed next week and further enhancing further our earnings per share. In half 1 2025, we have generated free cash flow of EUR 13.4 million with our working capital improving compared to last year by 2.3 days. Enhancing our shareholder value is key for us. EPS reached EUR 0.46 from EUR 0.37 last year, an increase of more than 22%. During the first half, we paid dividend of EUR 20 million or EUR 0.31 per share, representing a 33.3% increase compared to the EUR 15 million paid last year. This represented a 43.5% payout ratio versus 38.2% payout ratio last year. And as you remember, as per our dividend policy, we said that floor or the minimum we're going to pay will be 38% and more. I would like now to provide an update on our CapEx for this year. We are assuming less CapEx this year with respect to the distribution center next to our Nova factory due to later commencement of the project. We are now in the competitive process to commission the construction company that will build it for us, so we expect to start within the next month. This will mean that only EUR 1.5 million from the EUR 7 million initially assumed will be spent this year and the remaining amount of EUR 5.5 million will be invested next year. The rest of CapEx remains the same as per our guidance back in March. Thus, our new CapEx expectation for 2025 is EUR 34.5 million from EUR 40 million we communicated earlier this year, while '26 -- 2026 will be EUR 35.5 million from EUR 30 million initially communicated. This will impact obviously favorably the free cash flow generation delivery by -- for full year 2025 by EUR 5.5 million. Finally, we would like also to update you on our 2025 outlook. We reiterate our 2025 profitability guidance. I remind you that our estimations for 2025 are EBITDA of EUR 92 million, improved by 12.7% versus 2024. EBIT to EUR 70 million improved by almost 3% versus 2024. For net sales, we now expect a growth of 2% versus 2024, which will bring our net sales for 2025 to EUR 612 million. Thank you. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Svyrou Natalia with Eurobank Equities. Natalia Svyrou Svyriadi: I was wondering if you could -- if you have any indication on how we are -- exports are running into Q3 as we entered because we are talking about products that are summer care products. Should we assume that these are continuing also in Q3 and running rates are holding in this period also? And as I understand, with the expansion into Australia, we're trying to get the seasonality there. So maybe you could give us also an indication about the exports you are expecting in the other markets. And based on the experience you've already seen, what are you thinking? What numbers are you thinking there? That's one question. I also have a question again regarding exports. If you could remind us -- this is just a reminder, these are higher-margin products, higher margin actually and the products we are talking about. Could you remind us a range there? How much this boosts our EBIT line? Okay. These are the questions I have for now. Ioannis Bouras: Yes. Okay. On the export side, because, yes, Sun Care products is the majority of the growth coming for the export business. So the seasonality is critical. So until the first half of June of 2025, the majority of the sales are in -- so the second half of the year will not be the same, not the same momentum. Definitely, though, Australian business like Australia will help. But what we know is that it's not going to be near to the ones have in U.S. in the first half of the year. So you cannot put the same second 6 months for the exports. It's a slower pace, of course. And this is also helping, of course, the first half of the year from this category point of view. So just to remind you that last year, total year exports were EUR 19 million for the full year. And this first half is EUR 17.5 million, if I'm not mistaken, right? You said... Christos Varsos: EUR 16.5 million. Ioannis Bouras: EUR 16.5 million. So our expectation -- and also just to remind you, in the 5-year plan, we said that by 2028, we'll get to EUR 30 million. So it looks that this one is coming much faster. So the expectation of the year will be something a bit below -- in the area of EUR 24 million, EUR 25 million, right, just to give you the perspective. Christos Varsos: So practically, we'll bring this from 2028, most likely will be at this range in '26. Ioannis Bouras: But of course, you cannot expect the same rate of sales for the second half of the year because the majority still is in Northern Hemisphere is not in the South, is only in Australia in the South. So it's not enough to do the same. Now regarding the margin, I think Christos presented that the EBIT margin for export is around... Christos Varsos: 41%. Ioannis Bouras: 41%. So this is the accelerator from a profitability point of view, is presented in the presentation, right? So it is a margin that it is really accretive to the margin due to the structure that we have discussed in the past. So this brings much more. Natalia Svyrou Svyriadi: Okay. Great. Yes, I remember the margin around 30%. That's why I wanted to get this clear. Okay. Well, that's a good business coming in. Also, I wanted to ask something -- a follow-up. I just thought about that. Poland has been running, if I recall correctly, 1%, 1.5% on sales, the local market. But should we expect this to continue at this rate? Or should we see there -- not the private label products, the rest of the -- should we expect an acceleration there? It's one of your big markets. So I'm wondering how this should evolve? Ioannis Bouras: We're expecting to be higher. We don't have exactly the number to share with you right now. But of course, if you remember also because this is a general comment, this is not taking the opportunity because in the 5-year plan, we talk about 4.5% to 5% -- 4% to 5% growth, organic growth every year. So this year, what we said right now, we are guiding for 2% at the end of the year, including private label, including all the roles of the different categories. We are not changing the thinking and the mindset for the organic growth for the coming years. We believe that 2025 has been a little bit challenging in the sequence of some markets. And -- but we are not changing our strategy or say we are keeping our 5-year mindset and thinking behind the growth and organic growth. So we believe that -- and all the action plans we are taking in every country, in every category is to deliver these numbers. right? So what we are expecting coming to your question specifically is not only in Poland, but also in other markets that today showing a drop for the first half of the year to go back to growth and go closer to the numbers that we have in our 5-year plan. Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Christos Varsos: We can look at the questions that we have already received also in writing, so we can start answering that. And as if people want in the meantime, they can also continue asking questions. Operator: Okay. Great. There are no further audio questions. We will now accommodate any written questions from the webcast participants. The first written question comes from Iakovos Kourtesis with Piraeus Securities. And I quote, "What is your CapEx estimate for full year 2025?" Christos Varsos: We have actually, we included in the presentation. So as I said, we'll just -- we had EUR 40 million, now we have almost EUR 35 million, EUR 34.5 million. And we're only switching EUR 5 million to next year because of the later start of the distribution center in [ Nofta. ] So for this year, instead of EUR 40 million will be EUR 35 million, EUR 34.5 million. Next year instead of EUR 30 million will be... Operator: The next written question comes from [ Giorgio Andreopoulos ] with Piraeus Asset Management. They quote, "Given the slowdown in sales within the Personal Care segment, do you anticipate this trend continuing into the second half of the year and into 2026? Additionally, what strategies are you implementing to remain competitive in that market? Finally, should we expect any changes to the sales guidance provided in the Q1 report for this year or subsequent years, 2026, 2027 and 2028 sales growth of 5.5%. And what should we expect in terms of EBITDA margin in the medium term?" Ioannis Bouras: Now starting from the end, I think I said something before, but now I can reinforce, as we speak right now, we are keeping the 5-year plan and the guidance of the top line and the EBIT margins the same. Of course, this year is 1 year as we are moving on following the closure of the year in March and of course, the guidance for 2026, things can be a little bit -- but this is what we keep right now, haven't worked another plan. So that's the plan that we have. Of course, as you remember, it was doubling the EBITDA when we presented. So it's a strong and challenging plan. But this is what we keep and the mindset of the growth as a company, organic growth is still here with our strategy that we are implementing. Regarding the Personal Care specifically, I think I also -- Christos mentioned about the top line in the first half, but also the profitability growth. these categories are quite competitive, and we have strong plans behind to bring back to growth and of course, to even further grow in our coming years. So this is a continuous battle in the stores. And of course, with everybody participating in this category. So competitors in this category coming from new product, innovation, coming from promotional strategies, from advertising strategies, all this mix that is critical for all FMCG companies. So we are working on all these plans behind with our big brands and our hero brands in different markets or the whole region. Operator: The next question comes from Iakovos Kourtesis with Piraeus Securities. And I quote, "Do you expect the recent VAT rate increases in Romania as of 1st August 2025 to further affect demand in the country? Do you have a specific strategy to cope with this?" Ioannis Bouras: Definitely, any measurements that are affecting the consumer income, they are not positive for the market, right? But this is something is not only in Romania, but other markets have other measures. So the #1 priority for us is to be competitive and of course, adaptable to the new reality, and this is what we do. Competitiveness, meaning that you have to be aware about the consumer disposable income. And of course, what is your promotional strategy and how you're promoting your brands and taking every little opportunity from the market. This is the way we work. This is the way we worked before, and this is the way we keep working right now. So there is no magic recipe. There is one thing. We have to do multiple things right in order to compete. But definitely, things like that are affecting the consumer demand. This is for sure a reality. Operator: The next written question comes again from Iakovos Kourtesis with Piraeus Securities, and I quote, "Could you provide us with an update on the third quarter 2025 trading for specific international markets, Poland, Romania and Serbia. Do you see improved trends in these markets?" Ioannis Bouras: In the third quarter, of course, not ending. So September is a significant month for all these markets because it's true that July and August are months that are not heavy in terms of sales and, of course, of activities. So we have to wait to see the closure of September. But again, the things are not like they are on flying. There are, of course, continue there have been challenges in these markets, right? But of course, we still need to wait the closure of September. Christos Varsos: We're going to announce the third quarter end quarter in 24th of October or something like that. So we will have a full view on the September. And by then, we'll have also a portion of October. Operator: The next question comes from Emmanuel de Figueiredo with LBV Asset Management. And I quote, "Could you give more color on the seasonality of the business as skin and beauty grow more, does this mean the company become more have to weighted?" Christos Varsos: Thank you for the question. So if you remember the season in terms of seasonality, Q2 is a very strong period every year because of the sale of sun care. I remind you that we sell the sun, we start selling the sun. We produce it late in the year. Then first quarter, we actually send it to the stores and especially in the second quarter, then the stores sell it on the third quarter. So practically in every year, the first 6 months is the growth due to the sun care, which is seasonal, is much stronger. Obviously, we have seasonality at the year-end with gifting and with our selected business as well. But in terms of half 1, it is always the stronger pace in terms of growth of our revenue. In this respect, the duty scheme is growing, obviously, not only the Sun Care. So the Sun Care is what we're talking about. But as Ioannis already mentioned, we have the exports will be a slower growth on the second part of the year. So to your question, we're not becoming much more heavy half 2 weighted. We are still largely half 1 weighting. But again, this supports also the difference in the profitability. Operator: The next question is again from Emmanuel de Figueiredo with LBV Asset Management and I quote, "For 2025, should we expect a stronger second half than first half?" Christos Varsos: I think you have seen the first half and you have seen the guidance for profitability for the full year and for revenue. So in this terms, it is -- it's almost 50-50 in terms of net sales, if you think about it, EUR 304 million versus EUR 612 million. In terms of profitability, we maintain at the same pace. So I don't think that we're talking about stronger or less strong half 1. We mentioned about the exports and everything that continue growing, which improves also the EBIT margin. Operator: The next question comes from Georgia [indiscernible] Securities. And I quote, "Can you please elaborate on the reduction in your OpEx? Can you please discuss the impact of the changing product mix on your EBIT margin? Can you discuss your strategy on private label?" Ioannis Bouras: I think on the OpEx side, elaborate. I mean, all the investments that we started a few years ago, and of course, we are accelerating in 2025 with more digital investments and everything, including our way we do business. This is helping, of course, the cost of doing business, and that's one of the major objectives. And this is what we are doing. It's not a magic recipe, plus making an efficient organization. Of course, we can grow without increasing our costs. This is also critical from this side. This is meaning also we are challenging the way we do things. with new systems in place, we can challenge the way we did things in the past that were not that efficient. So efficiency in our business, meaning lower cost, right, definitely. Christos Varsos: It is a sequence of events as well. Don't forget that last year, we started integrating Stella, and we started getting the commercial integration, which has finished last year. So we're reaping the benefits now. Now we're doing the supply chain optimization, and we're actually controlling this, which you'll see much benefits coming in 2026. So the OpEx is not a drastic type of thing. It is -- we built on it, and we built the culture as well to be able to have this saving moving forward. Now... Ioannis Bouras: Product mix. Christos Varsos: Product mix. As you remember and we have discussed even in the 5-year plan, in our plan for organic growth over 5 years in order to double our EBITDA to EUR 120 million, we said that we want to disproportionately grow Beauty, Skin and Sun Care because this has the highest margin. And I think this 6 months is pretty obvious of this because we are improving largely in a product category that we're gaining large EBIT margins, whereas at the same time, we're rationalizing a category like the private label, which in terms, it didn't have a strong EBIT. So practically, we removed, if you think about it, we removed the balance that you see removed in private label really affected the bottom line. So this, you can see it going forward, and we believe that the acceleration also of the Beauty, Skin and Sun Care categories and the export, obviously, as discussed, will support very much the mix towards the direction that we've already communicated in the 5-year plan. Ioannis Bouras: On the private label because I think we said during the call, we said before private label in [indiscernible] is complementary to our supply chain as an activity. It is a big size. It's important for us for 2 things. One is fulfilling capacities and of course, keeping our competitiveness. On the other side, we are not going to build more capacity to serve private label. This is that we made it clear. And our objective is to build and grow our branded business over the years and gradually removing capacity from private label. Operator: The next question comes from Dimitris Giannoulis with Researchgreece and I quote, "What level of EBIT do you expect for the private label segment post rationalization? Which countries contributed in international sales in first half besides the U.S.?" Ioannis Bouras: In the EBIT of the private label, we don't expect to be -- it's going to be a single-digit EBIT, right? So this is positive. So this is going to happen. It's not going to change significantly our profitability because of the rationalization. Regarding the countries contributed national sales, we have countries like Middle East, Philippines, we have Australia and of course, we have some Middle East, as I said. And we have countries, the U.S. is a big part of the H1. Operator: The next question comes from John Kalogeropoulos with Beta Securities, and I quote, "What about further expansion abroad, examining any further opportunities?" Ioannis Bouras: Yes. I mean what we say internally, I mean, this is one of our growth pillars for the future, in line with our skin and beauty strategy that we have as a strategic pillar. And of course, some of the initiatives that we are doing in the markets are giving us the signal that our brands, whether it's skin care brands, Bioten, Clinea or our Sun Care brand, Carroten, they are well accepted by consumers in different markets because of the quality, because of the claims that we have, the seriousness behind the production and of course, the competitiveness in general. So as we speak right now, of course, we are scoping other markets around the world. Just to remind you, international business, meaning markets outside our territory, right? So whether markets can be in Western Europe can be an activation place for us, for our brands. And of course, accelerating markets like Australia and U.S. because U.S. we just started a year ago, less than a year ago. So we are having plans to expanding our distribution in the U.S. or bringing more products into the market, and we are well advanced with these plans for 2026. More news on that, we will have on -- either on October this year in the 9-month results or in the results of the year-end in March 2026. Operator: The next question comes from Bruno [indiscernible], and I quote, "The Romanian economy is currently slowing fast. What level of sales are you expecting for the full sales are you now estimating?" Ioannis Bouras: What we're estimating for the full year is to have a flat year for Romania or minus 1%. This is the number that we are looking at right now. Operator: The next question comes from Emmanuel de Figueiredo with LBV Asset Management and I quote, "How likely are you to perform any M&A? Do you have any open due diligence ongoing for bolt-on acquisitions?" Ioannis Bouras: Starting from the end, we have no any due diligence at this moment in time. From the M&A point of view, as you already know, Sarantis is always open and active on this field. As long as there are any targets that are in line with our strategy, where the strategy is in our categories that we operate in our markets that we operate here in the Eastern Europe and in our channels. So at this moment in time, we have no active due diligence process. But of course, there are opportunities out there, which may arise anytime soon or not. I don't know right now. I can't give you any information on that. Operator: The next question comes from [indiscernible] and I quote, "Anything in the M&A pipeline considering the potential return to net cash by year-end?" Christos Varsos: Starting from a net cash position, as you know, we are a cash flow generative business. Obviously, we have also committed debt and we have committed lines if we want to buy something. So in this sense, we have the framework, and we're actually in the market, as Ioannis described to have -- and we have things that we would like to buy. Obviously, they need to be -- wanted to be sold as well at a reasonable price. So in our strategy, we maintain and want to do bolt-on acquisitions. Obviously, it's a matter of timing. But we have all the capability internal and the funding to actually do larger things as well. Operator: The next question comes from John Kalogeropoulos with Beta Securities and I quote, "You mentioned lower CapEx and potential shareholders reward uptick. To what extent?" Christos Varsos: I mentioned lower CapEx, and I mentioned that we have higher free cash flow by EUR 5 million. What I mentioned as well was that we have a policy, a dividend policy that we're paying at least 38% of our net income as dividend. This year, when we saw also the profitability this year, we actually gave 43%, and that was the EUR 20 million. So it is not that it will be anything outside of our policy, and we'll continue making sure that we provide a good return to our shareholders and the good value for our shareholders. Operator: The next question comes from Bruno [indiscernible] and I quote, "Please explain what caused the large drop of sales in the private label segment. What is the outlook for sales in the private label market in second half?" Ioannis Bouras: I'll take the first part. I think we mentioned also while presenting that it has to do with rationalization of our contracts, especially of contracts, and we wanted to make sure that they actually are much more profitable. That's why you saw that despite the difference in the net sales line, practically nothing changed. So actually, we're doing -- we're removing the correct contracts out of the case. So... Christos Varsos: And also just to add here that some of the big customers that we have in private label, they have a bit of slowdown in sales as well. So we are not -- we are depending on also their activities in the private label. So this is also affecting. From the H2 on the private label, we don't expect any significant change versus H1. Maybe we expect things to improve. So we'll bring the level of sales minus 10% versus 2024. This is what we see right now. But of course, these things are changing right now. And of course, new discussions are happening in every -- with different types of customers for the year to go. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you. Ioannis Bouras: I would like to thank you for participating in the call. I hope we explained and present our case properly. Thank you very much for the participation and the questions and talk to you soon in our future interactions, right? Christos Varsos: Looking forward for our next announcement in late quarter and obviously, to the continuous discussions with you, understanding more of our case and the execution of our 5-year plan. Thank you. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a good evening.

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