B2 Impact ASA (B2I) Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the first quarter 2023 presentation for B2Holding. I am Erik Johnsen, the Group CEO. And with me today, I have the group's CFO, André Adolfsen, that will run through the numbers at a later stage. Rasmus Hansson will moderate the Q&A. You can ask questions during the presentation, and we will answer them at the end. So let's go straight over to the highlights for the quarter. The year started very well in both unsecured collection as well as secured recoveries. Unsecured collections shows a solid collection performance at 104.8% of the latest curves and also collection growth year-over-year. For the secured business, we had a cash collection of NOK 262 million, which includes REO sales of NOK 75 million at a high margin over 60%. The trend in collection continues into Q2. In line with our strategy that we have outlined previously, we have executed on a plan to reduce footprint with the aim to concentrate capital in fewer markets with scale opportunities. I will share more detail about the specific markets in a few slides. We see that the market economic development with rising inflation and interest rates is impacting the group. To meet these challenges, the group has initiated several cost mitigating actions to optimize the cost base. On the investment side, it's been a good start for the year. And at the end of Q1, we have invested and committed capital of NOK 1.8 billion for 2023. This includes the portfolios that was announced at the end of Q4, but also booked then in Q1 with a total amount of NOK 435 million. The group has a sound investment capacity in combination with low leverage. It should be mentioned that the booked equity per share at the end of the quarter was NOK 14.85 and return on equity was 10% on booked equity. André will also come back to -- with some points on this later. Let's go to the key figures. As previously mentioned, we had solid cash collection of NOK 1.2 billion. The REO sales was NOK 75 million and continues to deliver high margin. Adjusted net profit was NOK 112 million, and investment shows NOK 767 million at the end of the quarter, which includes the portfolio that was signed at the end of the last year and booked early this year, NOK 435 million. Now going over to the next slide. We continue to see asset growth in first quarter of 2023. The spike in cash EBITDA in Q4 can explain by REO sales that was collected at the end of the year, and that was expected in Q1. And thus, looking at the average cash EBITDA for the 2 quarters is more correct, and we can see that the cash EBITDA is showing solid performance. The net interest-bearing debt has mainly increased due to weakening of the Norwegian currency, NOK. And we have to remember then is the end rate of the quarter that is used for the balance sheet. Now going to the next slide. As mentioned, and we have said it several times in the previous presentations, we are reducing footprint with the aim to concentrate capital in fewer markets. This is an execution of the strategy to reduce operational units and focus on scale in core markets. The sale of Bulgaria was announced last year, and the sales process is now expected to be closed in Q3. In order to finalize the deal, the buyer requested additional time to finalize financing. A substantial partial payment has been received significantly reducing transaction risk. We have further discontinued operation of the consumer lending company, Takto in Poland. This was due to regulatory changes in Poland. With no origination of loans, we are freeing up around EUR 20 million for the investment in core markets. Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina and Hungary are smaller markets with limited scale opportunities. The book value of the portfolios are small and the operations are reduced. These markets will be on a runoff or possibly being sold during the year. We have divested the servicing business in Norway Interkreditt AS. The business unit was sold to Kravia AS with effect of 31st of March 2023. And with that, I'll leave the word over to André, who will share then more details on the financial performance. André, please.

Yes. Thank you, Erik, and good morning, everyone. First, as a backdrop to the financial numbers, I would like to highlight some items that should make it easier to understand the financial performance in the quarter. First item is a significant impact on FX, which is mainly related to strengthening Euro versus Norwegian kroner. The impact on the P&L was almost 10% compared to the same quarter last year, using average rates in the period. For the balance sheet, end rates are used and not average rates for the reported numbers and was impacted by close to 16% compared to last year. This has inflated leverage, NPL book values as well as equity, which now stands at NOK 14.8 per share at the end of the quarter. In contrast to some of the recent quarters, we had a lower impact on cash EBITDA from collections and a higher impact on the reported EBITDA. This was driven mainly by lower but still solid REO sales and higher repossessions compared to previous period. And I'll come back to this also later in the presentation. In terms of REO sales, we need to, as Erik pointed out earlier, we need to see the fourth quarter of last year and Q1 this year in connection as some of the assets expected to be sold in this quarter were sold at the end of last year. Inflation is putting pressure on cost of funding for the industry with higher floating interest rates and margins. B2H's blended margin has remained flat due to support from our bank partners in the RCF as well as interest rate hedging of 53%. Now going to some of the details of the quarter on Page 8. We have seen a solid underlying collection performance across our asset classes in the first quarter. Unsecured collections came in at 104.8% of the forecast and is up 4% in constant currency compared to the same quarter of last year. Secured collections came in at NOK 289 million, which includes repossessions of NOK 107 million compared to NOK 55 million last year. REO sales came in at NOK 75 million in the quarter at a premium to book value of 63%. The overperformance compared to the forecast in both our unsecured portfolios as well as the secured portfolios had a significant positive impact on adjusted EBIT in the quarter with growth in adjusted EBIT of 26% in constant currency compared to the same quarter of last year. Now as I touched upon earlier, we had NOK 107 million of repossessions in the quarter compared to NOK 55 million last year as well as lower REO sales compared to last year, which has resulted in a lower impact on cash EBITDA compared to Q1 last year. Cash EBITDA is consequently down 12% in constant currency compared again to Q1 last year. Erik made the point earlier, but I want to reiterate that the average cash EBITDA over the last 2 quarters was slightly north of NOK 1 billion comparing that to the 2 same quarters of last year of NOK 900 million. Net profit was impacted by higher interest expenses driven by an increase in the Euribor rate. Interest expenses in the quarter was NOK 218 million. compared to the previous quarter, Q4 last year of NOK 171 million, which is an increase of NOK 47 million quarter-over-quarter. And this has driven -- 90% of the increase is driven by a change in FX, strengthening euro versus NOK and a higher floating interest rate component. The blended margin on the company's outstanding debt was 4.9%, up from 4.8% in Q4 last year. The current hedging ratio stands at 53% in the quarter and will stay at this level, at least until the third quarter of this year. Leverage ratio increased to 2.52 and as mentioned, was inflated by the euro to NOK end rate at the end of the quarter. In constant currency, the ratio remains flat at 2.29. In terms of investments, investments came in at NOK 767 million. Adjusting for the communicated investments in the fourth quarter that were signed in the fourth quarter and now booked in the first quarter of NOK 435 million. The investments in the quarter was NOK 332 million compared to NOK 239 million last year. In addition, the group has NOK 1.1 billion of committed investments for the remainder of the year. Now moving to Page #9. We continue to see stable collection performance across all our asset classes in the quarter. Unsecured performance came in at a solid 105% of the forecast. Higher investment volumes end of 2022 contributed to a 14% growth in unsecured collections or 4% in constant currency compared to Q1 last year. Secured recoveries was up 19% compared to last year or 7% in constant currency, driven also by repossessions of NOK 107 million compared to repossessions of NOK 55 million last year. Cash impact from secured collections was consequently down compared to last year. REO sales continued to perform well with sales of NOK 75 million and a margin of book value of 63% in the quarter. Year-to-date, we have seen stronger-than-expected values on assets and have consequently repossessed more assets in this quarter compared to previous quarters as a fundamental part of our secured asset management strategy in order to not leave money on the table. Moving to Page #10. Cash earnings in the quarter was negative NOK 163 million. Now adjusting for the investments of NOK 435 million related to and signed in the fourth quarter of last year, the underlying cash earnings in the first quarter was NOK 272 million. Leverage ratio increased to 2.52, again, driven by the strengthened euro versus Norwegian kroner. The constant currency ratio was 2.29 and maintained at a comfortable level in line with previous quarters. Moving to Page 11. Over the last year, inflation has put pressure on the cost base, but we have been able to mitigate this pressure over the last 12 months. Cash revenue is up 6.2% in constant currency in the period, while OpEx is up 7.7%. Important to note that we also have costs related to repossessing assets, which is reflected in the OpEx but has no impact on cash revenue and will have a cash impact going forward. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, the OpEx was down 3% in constant currency. Going forward, the group has already initiated actions to contain inflationary pressure. In the quarter, we booked nonrecurring items of NOK 12 million related to several cost initiatives across the group, where the majority of the cost is related to closing down our loan receivable business in Poland. This will have an annual positive cost impact of NOK 35 million to NOK 40 million going forward. Now moving to Slide #12. Again, investments in the quarter was NOK 767 million or NOK 332 million adjusting for the communicated investments that were signed in the fourth quarter. Following an increased investment base over the last 12 months, we have seen an increase in ERC, including REOs, where we have a proven track record of selling notably above book values. In addition to investments in the first quarter, we have committed capital of NOK 1.1 billion for the remainder of 2023. The I would also like to reiterate the 2023 investment target in the range of NOK 2.5 billion to NOK 3 billion. Moving to Page #13. As already communicated in the fourth quarter presentation, we have completed an extensive bond refinancing and currently have EUR 500 million of bonds outstanding. We're happy to see that leverage in constant currency remains stable around NOK 2.3% and the blended outstanding margin of our debt also remained stable below 5%, in line with previous periods. We currently have EUR 370 million of available liquidity plus cash earnings in the coming quarters and the remaining cash from sale of Bulgaria of around EUR 30 million. This provides ample liquidity to deliver on our group investment targets for 2023. As a final note, I would also like to add that we have included both in the appendix of the presentation as well in note #3 of the Q1 report, a new detailed segment split. We have focused on the business lines, investment and servicing instead of regions as we believe this better reflects the value drivers of the company. The intention is also to provide more details and transparency on the group financial numbers. And with that, I leave the word back to Erik.

Thank you very much, André. Now to sum up the first quarter. We had a solid online collection performance and the pace into Q2 seems to continue on the same trend. So positive collection and recoveries both in unsecured as well as secured. We continued also to work on reducing footprint and concentrating capital in fewer markets. We will then achieve what we say operational efficiency and scale on the operating platforms that we invest in. We also see that we have a sound investment capacity in combination with low leverage. We have initiated several cost mitigating actions to reduce the impact of the inflationary pressure. And we will maintain capital discipline and already -- and we already have committed capital for NOK 1.1 billion for the remaining part of the year. So on that note, I will now -- we will now take questions. So please, Rasmus, have we received any?

Thank you, Erik and André. Yes, we have received some questions. We will then start with a question from Vegard Toverud at Pareto. What are the trends driving higher repossessions.

I can answer that. I believe I answered part of it during the presentation. We have seen higher asset values during both the first and the second quarter of this year than expected. And as a part of our secured asset management strategy of, again, not leaving any money on the table, we continue to repossess assets, and we believe that we can extract more value out of the claim by repossessing assets and selling it closer to market value as a REO.

And then a follow-up question from Vegard relating to financial costs. There has been some volatility in financial costs due to FX. Could you help us with what you expect in financial cost for the second quarter of 2023.

Well, I think the only thing we can comment on is the interest expense that we are exposed to. And as mentioned in the quarter, we have a margin below 5% on our outstanding debt, but we have an increase in floating interest rates, which is obviously market related, without the interest rate hedging in place of 53% interest expense would have been NOK 18 million or higher. So with the current interest rates in the market, we should expect the same level going forward. And it all depends on the development in the floating interest rates.

Then we have a question from Håkon but I think most of what he's asking for was covered by the answer to Pareto, but I will still ask this question. This is Håkon Astrup from DNB. Interest costs and commitment fees were NOK 223 million in Q1. What is your best estimate on how this will develop throughout the year given current FX, interest rates, the duration of your interest rate hedges?

I mentioned the duration on the hedges at least until the third quarter, we will be at 53% with the current outstanding debt. I will not venture into the development of floating interest rates, I believe others are more qualified to answer that question.

Very good. Then we have a similar question from Ulrik Zürcher at Nordea. But let's start with this question. The first part probably hasn't been addressed yet. Your blended margin is 4.9%, but what is the weighted interbank rate you face as of May.

Well, I can comment on the first quarter and the average floating rate experienced in the first quarter was around 3.3%, adjusting for hedging ratio of 53%, we were exposed to around 2.7% of floating interest in the first quarter.

Then we have a question from [indiscernible]. Can you elaborate on the risk-adjusted IRRs you are invested at compared with average book value.

The simple answer to that is we don't comment specifically on IRRs. What we can say is that the investment level in the first quarter has been made at a higher gross IRR than what we have seen in previous periods. And we continue to see on the investments in the group that we have, on average, higher returns on the investments made compared to what we saw last year.