Annual Report 2020
2020: resilience, agility and strong execution in an exceptionally challenging
2020 demonstrates the strong resilience of the business, the excellent structural increase in profitability, and the strong cash generation in the exceptionally challenging covid-19 environment.
Letter to shareholders
Dear Shareholders,
2020 will certainly be remembered all over the world for the Covid-19 pandemic, an unprecedented health crisis of epic proportions bearing profound social, economic and financial consequences. A human tragedy of which the scars will remain visible for a long time. We are close to all of those who lost their dear ones and remind with the utmost gratitude all those who did their best to assist, care for and help the victims.
In this situation, our absolute priority was to safeguard the health of our people, thanks to the implementation of a rigorous protocol to ensure the highest safety in our stores, continuous support and superior service to our customers, besides adopting remote-work for the back-office. Moreover, being conscious of the importance of the service we provide, we decided since the very beginning of the outbreak to keep at least part of our stores always open to offer the assistance our clients needed also during the most severe lockdowns.
Such decision, different from those taken by several other hearing care retailers and not always economically convenient, allowed us to guarantee what the governmental authorities defined as an “essential service”, thus further increasing the trust our customers devote to Amplifon and strengthening our competitive positioning.
The performance of the Company, which had been very positive and growing in the first two months of 2020, was severely impacted since the beginning of March by the effects of the pandemic and, above all, by the adoption of restrictive measures by the authorities of the different countries to contain the outbreak. Even if hearing care services were considered essential services in most of the countries in which we operate, allowing us to keep our shops open, the progressive lockdown measures introduced in several countries caused, mainly between March and June of last year, a generalized drop in the Group’s store traffic and, consequently, in revenues.
We have, however, starting already in March, taken immediate and decisive actions to mitigate the financial impact of the health emergency triggered by Covid-19 through measures aimed at containing costs, maximizing cash generation, and safeguarding the net financial position, as well as further strengthening our already solid financial structure.
Moreover, in June, once the first signs of recovery were visible following the gradual easing of the restrictive measures, we have swiftly decided to reactivate our growth investments, mainly those in marketing, further accelerating the recovery of our business, and confirming the validity of the market fundamentals and the unchanged behavior of our customers.
2020 results reflect the dynamics described above. Revenues came to 1,555.5 million euros, down 9.3% at constant exchange rates compared to 2019 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but well above the reference market performance and strongly improving in the second half of the year. All that testifies to the resilience of our business. EBITDA came to 371 million euros, with the margin at 23.8%, around 110 basis points higher than in 2019 notwithstanding the impact of the pandemic, thanks to the timely cost containment measures. Net profit was 101 million euros compared to the recurring 127 million euros and reported 108.7 million euros registered in 2019. These results allow us to propose a dividend distribution of 0.22 euro for each ordinary share to shareholders, with a pay-out of around 49%.
Finally, also the balance sheet and financial indicators show excellent results in this unprecedented period, with free cash flow reaching the record level of 257 million euros and favoring an improvement of around 150 million euros in net financial indebtedness compared to December 31st, 2019, with a financial leverage that also improves at year-end. We have also further strengthened our financial structure, thus closing the year with a liquidity position of around 800 million euros including cash on balance sheet and undrawn committed revolving facilities.
Through 2020 we have also continued, despite the impact of the pandemic, the implementation of our several strategic initiatives: we completed the roll-out of our Amplifon Product Experience – which comprises the Amplifon product line and the Amplifon multichannel ecosystem – in the US and in Germany, as well as launched it in the United Kingdom with great results.
We have also continued with the GAES integration in Spain, and successfully pursued our consolidation process, always in line with our strategy of further strengthening our position in core markets. In February we completed the acquisition of Attune Hearing, the largest independent hearing healthcare player in Australia and in December the acquisition of the hearing care business of PJC Investments, our second largest Miracle-Ear franchisee in the United States.
We are very satisfied indeed with the excellent results achieved in 2020, which clearly confirm the resilience of our business, the agility of our organization and the strong execution capabilities. We can surely say we emerged even stronger from an exceptionally challenging scenario.
We conclude by reminding that this year we present our fifth Sustainability Report that, besides reporting the Company’s sustainability performances, is enriched by an essential component: a sustainability plan with objectives aligned to our business strategy and to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This is a particularly important year for us as it represents not only the 70th year since Amplifon was founded in 1950 by Algernon Charles Holland, but also a great challenge from which we emerged even stronger. We want to thank each of our 17,500 people, the management, and the Board members, expressing our greatest appreciation for their passion, extreme commitment, and sense of responsibility also in this difficult year. We also want to thank our clients for their trust which recognizes the uniqueness of the value we bring them; our partners who shared strategies to face common difficulties together and all our shareholders who continued to show us their trust and support.
Global leader in hearing care
global market share
people
countries
of which hearing care prof.
Consolidated revenues
1,555.5 million euros, a decrease of 9.3% at constant exchange rates and of 10.2% at current exchange rates compared to 2019, reflecting a negative organic performance of 11% and a positive contribution from acquisitions for 1.7%. The foreign exchange effect was negative for 0.9%. These results were impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak and the severe restrictions implemented to contain its spread, primarily during the spring, despite the strong recovery in the business recorded in the second half of the year.
EBITDA
371.0 million euros with margin at 23.8%, 110 basis points higher than in 2019, thanks to the timely and effective actions on costs which allowed us to significantly limit the impact on profitability in the second quarter, as well as improve efficiency and productivity, as shown by the noticeable rise in profitability in the third and fourth quarters. We also benefitted from income of around 9.7 million euros stemming from the renegotiation of lease agreements for the distribution network.
net profit
101.0 million euros compared to a recurring net profit of 127.1 million euros in 2019. This result is attributable mainly to the decrease in revenues caused by the pandemic and the slight increase in D&A and financial expenses. The tax rate came to 27.5%, down slightly compared to the 27.7% registered in 2019 on a reported basis.
Performance by region
The trend in the different regions was influenced by the impact of the
pandemic, by the duration and intensity of the restrictive measures adopted, as
well as the speed of the recovery once the measures were eased.
EMEA
Americas
APAC
EMEA
EMEA
Solid top-line & excellent profitability
Americas
Americas
Varied impact of Covid-19 in the Region
In 2020, we recorded 249.6 million euros of revenues in the Americas (-8.6% in local currencies). North America was impacted by Covid-19 from the end of March, but showed rapid recovery already in early May, reaching solid growth in the second half. In the fourth quarter the United States well outpaced the market driven by Miracle-Ear’s strong organic growth. Latin America suffered for almost the entire period but improved its organic performance at year-end.
APAC
APAC
Strong recovery & steller profitability
In the table above:
- 2018 data is presented with the application of IFRS 15 accounting principle
- 2019 data is presented with the application of IFRS 16 accounting principle