Waberer's International – fourth quarter & full year 2020 results

Highlights Q4 2020

– Revenue decreased by 16.6% to EUR 143 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to fourth quarter of 2019 while annual revenue decreased to EUR 569.3 million that is a EUR 126.8 million decrease compared to 2019. Revenue decrease both in the fourth quarter and annual was driven by the fleet size decrease in ITS that resulted EUR 35.7 million decrease in the fourth quarter and EUR 161.9 million decrease annually compared to 2019, while revenue in RCL segment increased by EUR 5.2 million in the fourth quarter and by EUR 25.3 million annually.

– Recurring EBIT was in the positive range in the 2nd consecutive quarter and reached EUR 3.5 million in the fourth quarter that is a EUR 4.2 million improvement compared to last year’s fourth quarter and – despite the challenging environment – the highest value since Q4 2017.

– Recurring Net income increased to EUR 0 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 and EUR – 15.2 million annually that is a EUR 4.2 million increase in the quarter and EUR 8.2 million annually on a year-on-year basis.

– Net financial indebtedness decreased by EUR 71.8 million compared to 2019 year-end to EUR 119.3 million, with a net leverage ratio of 2.2x LTM recurring EBITDA that is the lowest value since the Group is listed on Budapest Stock Exchange (2017). Net debt decrease in 2020 was driven by the fleet size decrease in ITS, improved cash generation on the operation as well as by one-off positive effects of working capital management and postponed fleet replacement.

– Management believes that: 

– The completion of the initial phase of the ITS Hungary restructuring (with its major one-off costs already expensed in the 2020 results), the positive results of the first 6 months operations of the trade lane model, the signing of long term agreements with our major financing partners and the coming appearance of new strategic owners, all give the Company support and encouragement to continue the turnaround process, improve operational and financial stability and renew our focus on long term business development;

– Based on the first six-month experiences of Trade Lane model and actual fleet size in ITS segment, the new operation model is successful and further efficiency improvement is expected;

– Brexit generated administrative and operational difficulties between UK and the continental Europe but Waberer’s was able to maintain the service in the region and we are committed in long term to serve our UK related clients;

– Despite the recently introduced 3rd pandemic wave related lockdown in Hungary, we experience that effect of the pandemic at our major partners are significantly lower compared to the first wave in the second quarter of 2020. Based on our last year experiences, the Hungary-based segments (RCL and Other segment) are relatively pandemic resistant. Waberer’s is also dependant on the success and speed of the vaccination process in Europe. However, we do not expect that it will become necessary to implement measures similar to the exceptional actions we had to carry out in response to the breakout of the pandemic last spring.

The full release is here.