Basic-Fit N.V. (BFIT) Earnings Call Transcript

Hello and welcome to Basic-Fit 2025 Half Year Results Conference Call and Webcast. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to your host for today's conference, Richard Piekaar, Head of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon, and welcome to our conference call and webcast, everyone. With me today our CEO, René Moos; and our CFO, Maurice de Kleer. The call is being broadcast live on our website, and a recording of the call will be available shortly afterwards and as usual, I would like to point out that safe harbor applies. We will start with René, who will discuss the highlights and the operational developments during the first half, followed by a more detailed look at the financial results for Maurice. And after these prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. The call will finish no later than 3 p.m. And with that, René, I would like to hand over to you.

Thank you, Richard, and welcome, everyone, to today's call. The first half of 2025 has put us well on track to achieve our 2025 targets in all key metrics: memberships, revenue and underlying EBITDA less rent, all increased by either high single or double-digit percentages. Year-over-year, our club network grew by 6% reflecting the decision to slow down club openings, as was communicated at the time of our full year 2024 results. Even with the planned slowdown, our membership base grew by 10% year-on-year. Revenue and underlying EBITDA less rent are on track to achieve the full year guided ranges. Our club network saw a 16% increase in revenue, while the underlying EBITDA less rent saw 8% increase. Maurice will discuss this more in depth in the financial section. Let's go to the next slide on club openings. Let's take a look at our latest club expansion figures. As we announced at our full year results, we have taken the decision to slow down club openings over the 2025 and 2026 period. To focus on improving our balance sheet and lowering our net leverage ratio, it also allowed us to start a 40 million share republished -- repurchase program. At the end of June 2025, we have 1,628 clubs in our network, up from 1,537 clubs in the first half of 2024, a 6% increase. During the first half of 2025, we opened 57 clubs in our markets and closed 4 resulting in a net increase of 53 clubs. The concentration of new club openings was in our growth countries, France, Spain and Germany. In France, we further strengthened our market leadership with a net club growth of 25 to 883 clubs. Shifting our focus towards Spain, which has been a major growth driver. We achieved a net club growth of 14, bringing our total in Spain to 223 clubs. In Germany, we expanded our presence with 10 new club openings, bringing our total to 38 clubs. As we are all well underway to achieve the targeted 100 club openings in 2025. We remain the fastest-growing fitness operator in Europe and continue to fulfill our mission by making fitness accessible to even more people across the continent. Let's now look at the membership development slide. We continue to see strong momentum in our membership growth. As of June 30, we reached 4.51 million memberships, reflecting a 10% year-over-year increase. Growth was recorded across all countries, with particularly strong performances seen in France and Spain, increasing our membership base by 256,000 in the first half. During the same period last year, we saw an increase of our membership base to 288,000 but please remember that this includes our acquisition of RSG Group Spain. So if you look at the pure organic number, to us approximately 177,000. We can see that we had a 45% higher membership in growth than the first half of 2024. In the first half of this year, our average yield increased to EUR 24.73 representing a 4% increase year-over-year. The new membership structure that we introduced at the end of last year will continue to support our yield per member development and having no negative impact on our joiner numbers. Then going to the next slide. We saw joiner trends further improve in France during the first half of the year on the back of the operational improvement steps we took in 2024. As a reminder, in 2024, we implemented a new management structure, separating responsibilities for club expansion and club operation and divided the country into separate regions. Each region is now being overseen by its own dedicated business manager. As a result of these operational adjustments, we saw the quality of service in our clubs improve and ratings from our members increase. In the first half of 2025, we saw an average Google rating of 4.4 versus a rating of 4.0 full year 2024 and 3.8 for the full year 2023. Moreover, the ingrowth of new clubs was tracking very positively with ingrowth, outperforming that of the clubs that we opened in '24 which was already better than that of 2023. The operational improvement in France has translated into increased memberships per club. We remain committed to France, and we anticipate more members joining our club network in the second half of the year as we continue to execute on operational improvements. Let's have a closer look now at the longer-term developments of our most important KPIs. Since our IPO, we have consistently delivered strong growth across all key performance indicators, achieving double-digit compound annual growth rates. Drilling down into the numbers of clubs and growth of membership, we see a solid 70% CAGR (sic) [ 17% CAGR ]. Our 2 bottom graphs, revenue and underlying EBITDA less rent, illustrate that we are continuing the strong growth reactors in 2025 of 2 of our main metrics. The strategy update we announced at full year results has been designed to reinforce sustainable long-term growth on the foundation [Technical Difficulty] solid financial position, while increasing profitability and ultimately allowing us to continue building on our success in Europe. And finally, let's look at our 2025 guidance. At our full year results, we updated our strategy and gave an outlook replacing the guidance set at our Capital Market Day in 2023. I'd like to confirm that those guidance right now. As of the first half of 2025, we opened net 53 clubs and continue to foresee approximately 100 club openings before year-end. Further strengthening our leadership in the European fitness space. With the operational improvements made or in progress, we remain on track to meet the revenue guidance of between EUR 1.375 billion to EUR 1.425 billion. We are also on track to meet underlying EBITDA less rent guidance of EUR 330 million to EUR 370 million. Furthermore, we expect to be cash flow positive in 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, we began a EUR 40 million share buyback program, which is ongoing and is enabling shareholder returns. We see great opportunities in launching our own franchise platform, which can leverage our scale advantages, technology and knowledge. Discussions with potential experienced franchise partners are ongoing, and we are taking the necessary time to ensure well-structured agreements are in place to enable successful launch. We anticipate updating the market on our franchise plans before year-end. Looking at longer-term targets outside the scope of 2025, we are committed to reducing our leverage by 2x adjusted EBITDA before year-end 2026. With the expected positive impact of the 24/7 rollout outside of the Benelux countries and adjusted capital allocation in our updated strategy. We feel comfortable about reaching that target. As we know, growth and bringing fitness to everyone is part of the Basic-Fit story. We still expect that in the coming periods, we will open and operate more than 3,000 clubs in our existing markets, in addition to a franchise program. In conclusion, as we pursue our updated strategy, we remain as ever committed to delivering value to our members, our investors, our employees and to all stakeholders. And with that, I now hand it over to Maurice for the financial review.

Yes. Thank you, René. In the next slide, I will quickly walk you through the main elements of our income statement and the underlying performance. Total revenue increased by 16% and to EUR 677 million, thanks to the expansion of our club network and increase in memberships and an increase in the average monthly yield per member. On the line club EBITDA less rent, which is club EBITDA adjusted for exceptional items and minus the invoiced rent costs of opened clubs increased by 5% to EUR 225.6 million. The underlying club EBITDA less rent margin was 33.7%. The decrease compared to the 37% margin in the first half of 2024 is mainly due to the investments in the 24/7 clubs. Total club operating costs related to rents, personnel and other club costs increased from EUR 368 million to EUR 447 million mainly due to our growing club network, cost inflation and the costs associated with the staff 24/7 clubs in France as well as the extended opening hours in Germany and Spain. The bad debt write-offs remained stable in monetary terms compared with the first half of last year, while decreasing as a percentage of revenue. Marketing costs for the first half of the year were EUR 32 million. As a percentage of revenue, they came in at 4.8%, which is lower than the 5.5% of revenue we spent in the first half of 2024. We expect that the spend will be a bit higher in the second half of the year, bringing us to approximately 5% of revenue for the full year. Underlying EBITDA less rent increased by 8% to EUR 150 million compared with EUR 139 million last year. The increase was supported by our continued operating leverage as our attention to operational efficiencies at the head office are paying off. The underlying EBITDA less rent is adjusted for exceptional items that came in at EUR 4.5 million, which was slightly higher than the same period last year. In addition to various relatively small amounts, exceptional items in 2025 mainly relates to canceled clubs and preopening invoice rents. We have communicated our aim to reduce overhead costs to within the range of 11.5% to 12% of revenue in the medium term. In the first half of the year, our total overhead costs, including marketing, was 11% compared to 12.7% in the first half of 2024. Excluding marketing, the goal is to get to between 6% and 7% of revenue. And in the first half, we were at 6.2% within the medium-term target range. Our cash finance costs amount -- amounted to EUR 21.7 million compared to EUR 22.8 million in 2024. The slight year-over-year decrease is a result of the higher net debts and the lower interest rates. The noncash finance costs increased strongly to EUR 17 million as a result of a one-off hit of EUR 11 million. This was due to a catch-up adjustment in interest expenses based or the expected maturity of the convertible bonds. This is included in the accretion of interest related to the liability proponent of the convertible bonds, which amounted to EUR 15.8 million compared to EUR 4.8 million in the first half of 2024. On an underlying basis, we report a year-over-year increase in the net profit of 5% and to EUR 13.7 million from EUR 13 million flat. You can find the adjustments in the table. Let's now discuss how we are progressing in the 24/7 clubs. Moving to a 24/7 model is enhancing accessibility and convenience for our members and is further strengthening our mission to make fitness accessible to anyone and at any time. Let's first look -- take a look at France. French regulations still do not yet allow for unstaffed clubs. To enable us to open and operate 24/7 clubs in France after the encouraging pilot program in 2024 confirmed that there was an appetite. We increased the number of 24/7 clubs to more than 300, which we guided would be the main contributor to the approximate additional cost of EUR 35 million in 2025. As was stated in the income statement slides, while personnel costs have increased, we are observing that the higher costs are increasingly being mitigated by higher membership numbers and a higher yield. And of course, should French regulations change, allowing for the operation of unstaffed clubs, we have plans in place to enable us to move quickly to accommodate that change in legislation. If, however, we do not expect any change in legislation, we will change to a model with own staff, which should significantly reduce the cost of operating clubs at night. Beyond France, we have begun extending opening hours and opening 24/7 clubs in Germany and Spain, further enhancing accessibility for our members in these markets. The ingrowth we have seen in all markets is continuing as planned and justifying the investment in 24/7 clubs. Let's go to the next slide on CapEx. The average expansion CapEx for newly built club was EUR 1.38 million compared to EUR 1.25 million in the first half of 2024 and EUR 1.3 million in the full year 2024. The clubs that we opened in the first half of the year were a bit larger and more expensive than those planned for the second half of the year. And for the full year, we continue to expect an average initial investment per club of approximately EUR 1.3 million. Maintenance CapEx for the half year was EUR 36,000 per club, an increase of EUR 21,000 per club to the prior year. This year, maintenance spend was more front-loaded, whereas in 2024, it was weighted towards the second half. As such, we continue to expect average maintenance CapEx per club for 2025 to be similar to that of last year, approximately EUR 58,000. Other CapEx amounted to EUR 9.3 million, which was broadly in line with last year at EUR 9.4 million. Other CapEx consists of investments in innovations and software development and sustainability-related investments. The free cash flow in the first half year was an outflow of EUR 57.4 million. With the improved profitability and the lower CapEx in the second half of the year, we continue to expect positive free cash flow in 2025. Let's go to the next slide on financing. In the first half of 2025, we secured bilateral facilities from 3 banks for a total amount of EUR 330 million. In addition, we increased the syndicated facility with a EUR 20 million accordion facility. Total bank facilities now amount to a total of EUR 1,130 million, providing us with the funds to meet any redemption requests from holders of the EUR 304 million convertible bonds that wish to exercise a put option in June 2026. The net leverage ratio was 2.7 at the end of June 2025 compared to 2.8 a year ago. With the lower number of club openings and the increasing underlying EBITDA less rents, we expect to reach our medium-term leverage ratio target of below 2.0x adjusted EBITDA in 2026. Including undrawn facilities, the company now has access to cash and cash equivalents of EUR 395 million at the end of June 2025. Let's go to the final slide of the presentation, the outlook for 2025. I will conclude the presentation with our outlook for 2025 and reiterate the main guidance that René stated earlier. We expect further growth of our club network, memberships, revenue and underlying EBITDA, supported by positive membership growth trends. We are on track to open approximately 100 clubs this year. With the new club openings, the percentage of mature clubs in the total will increase significantly at least until 2027. With fewer starting losses and the maturation of our club network, this will have a positive impact on our profit margins. While we do not give guidance on yield and memberships, we do expect the average revenue per member to increase again this year on the back of the new membership structure. This will help increase revenue for 2025 to between EUR 1.375 billion and EUR 1.425 billion. As usual, the underlying EBITDA in the second half of the year is significantly higher than in the first half of the year. This is exacerbated by the investments in the staffed 24/7 class. We expect memberships as a result of these longer opening hours to increase and mitigate these additional costs in 2026. The ingrowth effect, however, had limited contribution in the first half of the year but will have more impact in the second half. For 2025, we expect online EBITDA less rent to come in at between EUR 330 million and EUR 370 million. The past 2 years, we have been reducing the overhead costs, including marketing as a percentage of revenue. In the first half of the year, we are on track to achieve the targeted 11.5% to 12% of revenue in 2025. Basic-Fit has had a solid first half year, and with KPIs tracking as planned to hit guidance for full year 2025. And with this, I end the presentation and would like to open the time for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Kris Kippers of Degroof Petercam.

A couple of questions on France, please. Firstly, looking at the French legislation, you already mentioned it. Could you give us an update on where you are?

Yes. Where we are is that we have -- we see positive signs. It looks like we're going to be able to do it in time. We just don't know if it's going to be 3 more months or 6 more months. So we don't have any guarantees on when it is law. So we have to just wait and see what happens. How long it takes. But we do expect it to come.

And we will now take our next question from Robert Vos of ABN AMRO.

I have a few questions. You already elaborated a little bit on the personnel costs, but they seem to be up by more than the run rate EUR 35 million that you mentioned for the 24/7 club openings. Beyond maybe normal cost inflation or wage inflation. Is there anything else that is included there that we should be aware of? That is my first question. I have a few others.

Yes, while we down there, I will take this question from you. I think it's a good question. Personnel costs in the first half of 2025, of course, were influenced by the 24/7 clubs, of course, we hired some more staff, of course, we opened new clubs. Then there was the indexation and the wage increases. But there was also some changes in legislation both in France and in Spain that has an effect on the total personnel costs. So yes, that's...

So the biggest part was the 24/7, as you said. And what Maurice just said, as an example, Spain as of January 1, the salary stayed the same, but instead of working 40 hours, they are now allowed or has to work 37 hours. So that is a big increase in salary costs. And so we had other things that were out of our control, and that is the reason why the growth of salary cost was so high.

That's clear. Maybe also a question on the other operating costs. These probably include some costs on which you said that they are front-end loaded. So should we anticipate some kind of reversal of these costs on a per club basis in the second half? Is that a fair assumption?

Yes, Robert Jan. So on the other operating costs, of course, I mentioned the maintenance part of it, which we expect -- so both on CapEx and on the OpEx part, we expect to come down in the second half of '25, and there was also some timing effects in the energy costs. So we expect them to come down in the second half too.

Okay. That's clear. And now that I have you, Maurice, can you explain again the investments that you mentioned in the written comments like growth or expansion CapEx, maintenance and other CapEx, yes, it adds up to around EUR 135 million, whereas in the cash flow statement, it is closer to EUR 180 million. Is that just timing differences? Or can you elaborate on that? And then I have one final question.

Yes, yes, that is mostly the timing differences, Robert. Yes, that's correct.

So if you look at the -- just to add on, so if you look at the new club opening, it's also one of the very expensive part is noise reduction. So on the first half of the year, we had a lot of new club opening where we had to invest a lot in noise reduction, because of the building of people sleeping on top of it. And in the second half, we will have less of it. That's why we are comfortable that the cost for a new club on average in 2025 will be the same EUR 1.3 million.

Yes. And yes, maybe one final question from my end. The EBITDA per mature club came down year-on-year. Of course, that is also related to the personnel cost that you talked about. The longer-term target is EUR 460,000. You earlier this year said that, that is still the ambition. Of course, yes, it won't be met in 2025. But my question is, last year, it was EUR 400,000 will it be higher year-on-year on a full year basis in 2025 because it was quite decrease in the first half. But on a full year basis, will it be above the EUR 400,000 that you reported last year?

I think it will be difficult to really project the second half. But you would expect it to be around the same number as last year. And again, the EUR 460 million -- EUR 460,000 on a mature club, we think is very reachable. We did get the 2020 bucket in the mature clubs now. So that took us a little bit down. But we expect to get that up again in the second half because it was also a combination of 24/7 staff clubs in France. So all on over, we think that the second half will be much better than the first half. And with that, we will be around this EUR 400,000 on a mature club, including the 2022 cohort. And maybe to add to that. So going from EUR 400,000 to EUR 460,000 means on the mature club, we need 200 members more. And we do think that is definitely feasible.

Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Leo Carrington of Citi.

If I could ask firstly, I think Planet Fitness has been operating in Spain for a year now. I know you have not that many clubs head-to-head, but do you have a sense of how consumers are reacting to the choice of both brands. And then my second question in terms of the franchise platform. In terms of what's remaining from your side, is this just about the precise nature of the agreement? Or are you still in sales phase with franchise partners convincing them to run with you?

Yes. Well, Planet Fitness is in Spain, a very short period, so it's really hard to -- and as you said, not very close to where we are. So we have no negative or positive impact by that. So bit too early to say something about that. I have no idea how they are other actually doing. And the franchise platform, yes, it's a combination of things, but we'd rather spend a little bit more time, so we're not in a rush. We will start when everything is ready, and everything is logical to open. But we're comfortable that we're getting closer, and we are also very comfortable that it will be a good business model having next to our own clubs.

And we'll now take our next question from Lynn Hautekeete of KBC Securities.

I have 2. First one is regarding the maintenance CapEx. Any particular reason why it is more front loaded this time? And are you taking more maintenance CapEx into your P&L than last year?

Yes, Lynn, thank you for your question. As I said in the presentation, maintenance CapEx was front loaded this year and backloaded last year. And that is due to the fact that we had a more intense maintenance program in place, especially in France over the years, which is on its end right now, but it's also reflected right now in the higher member customer experience, we see and uptake in memberships right now. So -- but -- so we expect it to come down in the second half of 2025.

It's a timing effect. So we expect it to be around this same number as last year, EUR 58,000.

And the second one is regarding the overheads. They're currently 11% of the revenue. You guide 11.5% to 12%. Is it then fair to assume that you will accelerate the marketing costs in the second half of the year?