Orsero Aktie

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero Group First Half 2026 Results Web Call.

[Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.

Hi. Good morning, everybody. First of all, I would like to address few points before I pass the word to Matteo, talking about numbers. We are saying in our press release that we are satisfied. I just would like to stress a little bit this point, why we are rationally satisfied, and address few points. First of all, in despite of the market circumstances, specifically for the banana and pineapple business, we are able to confirm at the middle of the year our year guidelines, which is not rather unique. If you think what happened in the banana business this year, which looks like a perfect storm, most of our competition, more influenced by banana business, are showing half of the profits or sometimes even losses. For our case, with our strategy, we are able to confirm our company guidelines overall. Second, the point of our growth strategy.

We always been saying that our growth strategy is based on 2 pillars. One is organic growth, and then a second one in M&A. Talking about organic growth, between the lines, we always say that we want to stress the growth of the value-added products. This year again, we have something new, like the lychee importation from Madagascar within the end of the year, which we think is a clear point of correspondence between our strategy on organic growth and what we do. Second is the most important investment this year, the acquisition of an important factor in the U.S. market of the Trucco company, as you know. This is particularly important. It is particularly point of satisfaction for us because we really believe that in a few years, U.S. market will become, for us, an important pillar of our business on the top of the South European market.

This is a particular factor of satisfaction for us, having found the right company, the right guy, and the right position for this. Third, the company is giving, and probably it goes between the lines, but I think it is important, since few years, consistent growing results. If you imagine what happened in the last 5, 6 years overall worldwide from any point of view, and this company is been growing and growing and growing. So this is another point of rationally satisfaction. Last but not least, we are also happy to confirm that there is always a correspondence in what we communicate, in what we say, and what we execute. I think this is important for the market.

I pass the word to Matteo to follow up.

Thank you, Paolo, and good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining the call. I will give you some context about the business, the corporate happening of the first half, the main figures, and then I will leave the rest of the space for the Q&A section. As Paolo said, the market context in the first 6 months of the year, specifically beginning from February, was pretty complicated, mainly due to the external factor affecting all the condition of the market in Europe. We are talking about mainly the Middle East conflict that is still running, where we do not see a quick solution to the actual situation. In this context, the inflation rate, mainly driven by the main factor like oil price, is still running.

Our company and our business model is capable to adjust to the situation, so we are able to increase our pricing, considering the market context and the external factor. But the most important thing is that our strategy is very strong on the product mix. It is very important to say that in these first 6 months, we grew 10% on the value-added product, while the staple goods like bananas, Platano de Canarias, and pineapple are struggling due to mainly what is related to the confusion and the oversupply of the European market, driven by the fact that many volumes that were historically allocated to the Middle East coming from our same origin, so Central America, basically, are diverted to Europe. What happened during spring and what happened during the summer, is that normally the business is able to increase the pricing and the value, specifically during the spring period.

This year, the oversupply related to the Middle East conflict created a stress in the demand situation of the market, supply/demand situation of the market. We were not able to transfer, let's say, the value to the category, and this is happening for everybody. It is a situation that is continuing during the summer, and we hope that the market now is going to be adjusted and the supply-demand dynamic will go back to a pretty normal situation. On the shipping business, we see a resilience thanks to our integration. We were able to keep the pace on the shipping business, and the result are well in line with our expectation and with last year. Actually, it is slightly over our expectations, so we are happy about that. Going to the main corporate issues of the third half.

As Paolo said, we have to remark the strategic investment we made in Trucco Group. We acquired 45% of the company. We are still waiting for some authorization to complete the deal on a smaller part of the group, but the main part of the group is already an investment for us. The total investment was around USD 46.5 million, and we are very keen and already working on developing the strategy on the U.S. market. The other CapEx of the period, the operative CapEx, are broadly in line with our expectation. But during the first half, we had some opportunity to expand our business in the future, so we decided to invest something more, mainly related to a development of the platform in the north of Spain, and other operative investment among the group infrastructure.

The interest rate situation at the moment see us in a very good position because our long-term debt is hedged by 75%. Now it is 60%, but it is already covered for a percentage of 75% beginning from December 2026. And this is very good news given the situation of the interest rate curves in the medium long term. Going to the main figures. Our sale grew by 1.8%, reaching EUR 860.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by almost 5.8%, reaching EUR 45.6 million. That is still a very good result in terms of profitability given our business, our sector, our competitors, and the market context. Adjusted EBIT stands to EUR 26.5 million, and the adjusted net profit reached EUR 18.6 million, decreasing by 11% comparing with last year. Net financial position grew to EUR 142.4 million, starting from EUR 116.1 million end of last year. This is mainly due to the impact of the Trucco acquisition.

The deal was closed on 30th of June, so all the impact is already considered within the figures of this first half. Drilling down a bit the sales and EBITDA, as we said in terms of sales, the distribution grew by 1.6%, so it is EUR 12.6 million, and shipping grew by EUR 1.4 million. All the rest is negligible. This is mainly driven by the added value product mix that grew by 10% during the period. But we have some challenges, as we said, on the banana, pineapple, and the Platano de Canarias business. On the EBITDA, shipping is in line with last year, holding the COM services as a slightly higher cost base by EUR 0.9 million. The main impact is driven by distribution that decreased by EUR 2.2 million compared with last year.

The main reason of this situation business-wise is the performance of the staple goods. We saw an increase of operative cost and SG&A, and this is mainly related to the fact that the company now is structured for the growth and the performance of some product does not allow us to cover the increase of cost. But it is something that we knew, we forecasted, it is under control and is going to be resulting in growth over the next years. Going to the net profit. The adjusted net profit H1 2025 reached EUR 20.9 million. Now we are reaching EUR 18.6 million. The main variance is related to the decrease of the adjusted EBITDA by EUR 2.8 million.

We had more amortization provision D&A due to the investment we performed in the past. We have a better performance of the financial and share of profit of our not consolidated companies. Just for your memory and your guidance, we are not considering end of June any value of Trucco within our figures. So it will be considered in the second half of the year and on. Those are the main, let us say, items. Bridging the adjusted net profit with the reported one. This year, we are having slightly more non-recurring costs. Main ones are the costs related to all the legal and due diligence costs for the acquisition of Trucco, slightly over EUR 600,000.

A tax assessment litigation that we had in Italy that comes in with almost EUR 940,000, and other items around EUR 1 million, mainly related to non-recurring costs of chartering of additional vessels on our COM service at the beginning of the year. If we look at the net equity variance, the net equity reached EUR 278.6 million. The main variance compared with the end of last year are the net profit of the period, EUR 14.6 million, the dividend paid towards Orsero shareholder in May. That comes in with EUR 10.4 million. Third-party dividends payout that is mainly related to the Blampin family share of Blampin in France, and the rest is quite negligible. Going to the net financial position, the main impact of the period is related to the Trucco acquisition that comes in with EUR 38.2 million.

We had a strong cash flow generation by EUR 26.5 million, a good working capital release by EUR 5 million, operating CapEx for EUR 6.5 million, expansion CapEx for EUR 6.8 million, the cash dividend paid to the Orsero shareholder, EUR 8.5 million, and the effect of the mark-to-market change on the hedging instruments. So, net financial position, excluding the IFRS 16, reached EUR 77.2 million, and then we have the IFRS 16 effect that counts in for EUR 65.1 million. Last words before leaving you the stage for the Q&A session are related to the guidance. We decided to confirm the economic metrics of the guidance. So net sales, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net profit are confirmed, so no variance on that. We don't have, at this moment, the insights to increase our guidance. So we think that the guidance we released in February is still solid given the context we're playing in.

What we obviously decided to do is to update the CapEx and the net financial position, increasing the CapEx that we forecasted between EUR 14 million and EUR 16 million at the beginning of the year. Now we see a range between EUR 19 million and EUR 20 million, and then we will see why in the next minutes. Then obviously, the net financial position considers the investment of Trucco, the increasing CapEx that we are seeing by the end of the year, and a working capital impact related to the new lychee importation campaign from Madagascar. So, drilling down the net financial position of our new guidance, we use, let's say, the lower end of our range. So at the beginning of the year, we forecasted the net financial position excluding the IFRS 16 impact between EUR 37 million and EUR 42 million. So we're bridging from EUR 37 million. We're adding EUR 38.2 million related to the Trucco acquisition.

We have additional CapEx by EUR 4.8 million, of which EUR 4 million related to new expansion initiatives. We are considering prudentially EUR 10 million impact of working capital related to the Madagascar lychee campaign. This is, let's say, a very unique campaign. Normally, the campaign is developed mainly during the month of December in terms of sales. So the cashing of the campaign will be visible in the first quarter of January, beginning of February 2027. This campaign works with relevant advances to the growers. So the reason why we're seeing this working capital effect by the end of this year is very simple. We are advancing payment to the growers to support the campaign during December. Let's say between end of October and December. We will receive the fruit beginning of December.

We will perform sales over December and during the first 2 weeks of January, and then obviously the client will pay us on average between 30 and 40 days. That is the reason why we are seeing an impact in terms of advances, but still, at the end of the year, we do not see the cash impact of the sales. The other impact is EUR 5 million that we consider comprising total working capital change, excluding the lychee that we already drilled down, and some non-recurring costs we already spoke about. So acquisition-related costs, the tax litigation in Italy, and the non-recurring vessel hiring. Our new guidance on the net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, is between EUR 95 million and EUR 100 million. And considering IFRS 16 is passing by EUR 102 million and EUR 107 million that we released in February 2026, and now we forecast a range between EUR 160 million and EUR 165 million.

Now I will leave you the rest of the time for the Q&A session. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Gabriele Berti, Intesa Sanpaolo.

I start with a few questions on Trucco. Could you help us understand the historical growth profile of the group, cash generation profile, and expected contribution in terms of share of profit? Then, what do you expect in terms of potential commercial synergies, if any? I am referring to efficiency on sourcing, for instance. In particular, should we expect Orsero to be directly involved in sourcing, commercial strategy, investment decision, or will the business remain highly autonomous? Lastly, I was wondering if the EUR 38 million M&A impact on net financial position already include the AJ Trucco transaction as well.

Thank you, Gabriele, for your question. Trucco is a company that grew over the past 3, 4 years, by what we observed during the due diligence process, I would say massively. Thanks to the product mix they are trading. They are very strong in the kiwi importation. They are very strong in blueberries. They are very strong in chestnut, and they have some good business line with citrus. U.S. market is quite different compared to the one we have in the south of Europe. Normally, the companies are more category killer compared to us. In Italy, we are more generalist. We trade many different products. In the United States, it is more similar to market like France or Germany, where you have, big retailers. The market is wide and enormous, but the concentration of the retailers is pretty high there as well.

Still, there are some regional ones, but the main ones are, national or clubs. Driven by the structure of the market, the muscle section of companies are the ones that are able to be super expert and category killer on 2, 3, 4 business lines. The strategy of Trucco was dedicated to some product that now are booming in the U.S. market. Surely, in the past few years, the growth was very good. We see the company growing a lot organically in the next few years, but the strategy and the reason why we made the investment is to replicate our strategy in Europe. To mix an organic growth that we see stronger than the ones that we can have in Europe now, together with an M&A growth as well selected because United States is a big country.

East Coast, West Coast are 2 different worlds. Now the company is focused on the East Coast. That is reaching 54%, 55% of the population in U.S. from the warehouse that Trucco operates in New Jersey. So is a very good coverage. But if you want to grow and to reach, 80% of the population, we will have to decide to go west or to expand our distribution capacity over the next year. The idea there is to obviously support and take advantage of the strong organic growth that we are already seeing in the company, but to mix it with some external growth as well as we did over the past year in Europe.

This is even the reason why this acquisition is really a partnership, because the will of the 2 shareholders despite the fact that now we are a minority one, and in 3 years, we will become a majority one. Anyway, the goal of the 2 shareholder is very clear, and the word to use is growth and sustainable and financially healthy growth. The company, as you imagine, profit-wise, performed well in the past and is performing well and has all the elements to continue to perform well. The company is more profitable in our vision, potentially compared with the mix of our group. This is the strategy that we follow every time that we decide to strike a deal. We did it in France. Blampin and Capexo are more profitable than the group in the mix.

The strategy on the value-added products and on the prospect market is very clear. We want to buy a company that has more potential to grow organically, where we see the market as a core potential market for the group, and where the mix of the product is very healthy and more profitable with the mix that we have now. This is the only receipt we can use to drive a fast growth and a very profitable one. In terms of financials, Trucco has no, let's say, net financial position, as we said in our press release. It's always cash positive, it's generating a very good cash yield. The cash yield is very comparable with our distribution performance. The dynamic of the business is quite the same. Obviously, being more profitable, the amount of cash generated can be higher.

The dynamic of the business is really comparable with our distribution business. That's a bit what I can say at the moment about Trucco. You were asking me if you are active basically in the Trucco governance and management. The response is yes, we are. We joined the board. Raffaella Orsero and myself, we joined the board of the company. Apart, let's say, the board, we are working closely with Nick Pacia and his team and with the board to develop the business. It's very clear that it's a partnership. We are continuing working together in finding opportunity and to support with our structure, strength, and know-how, the growth of the company. What we are seeing is that obviously we have some, let's say, partner in common together with Trucco.

We have some opportunity because some of our partners in production in Central, South America are wishing to collaborate with the group and with Trucco as well in the North American territory. All in all, we see big opportunities. We're working very well together with Trucco, and we are active in the governance, but it's very clear that we are keen to maintain the Trucco leadership as it is. The CEO will remain surely Nick Pacia because we are not seeing a better CEO for us in the U.S. market for the next year. That's a bit the situation.

The next question is from Mathias Paladino at TPICAP.

Just one question on the distribution. You highlighted strong momentum in premium categories such as kiwi, blueberries, and exotic fruits. How do you see this contribution of these categories evolving in H2 relative to the more traditional fruit categories? Maybe this is one of the main reasons for your confidence in achieving the guidance.

Thank you, Mathias. Yes, you are right. As we clearly stated, and as it's unfortunately very visible as well in the result of our, let's say, main worldwide competitors, banana business mainly and pineapple business is not going to support, let's say, the year result, and the performance is weaker compared with what we forecast at the beginning of the year due to the, let's say, Middle East conflict indirect impact. That's the situation. Just a quick 2 words on bananas and pineapple. The good things and the bad things about those kind of products is that the world is moving fast and you can have, let's say, 6 months of very good results, then you can pass through a very difficult period, but it's not a structural situation.

In terms of strategy, we push on the added value categories because we think that the staple goods can be worse or better during the season, during the year. But we cannot count on, let's say, a continuing growth and profits coming from those categories. We decide to keep a standstill position. We manage at best the operation and the sales, but the strategy is elsewhere. Our confidence in the guidance, it stems to what we are seeing in terms of performance of the added value mix, and obviously the support that we will have in terms of profit on the new campaign related to the lychee. The actual mix plus what we developed during this year, during this first 6 months, give us confidence in reaching our targets, despite, as we said, a very complex situation on the staple good categories.

The next question is from Andrea Bonfa, Banca Akros.

My question is related again on the performance of distribution, and in particular, you were mentioning, if I understood correctly during your introduction, that anyway the situation on bananas and excess of, let's say, offer and volumes from the Middle East rerouted to Europe is kind of normalizing. Is that possible for you to elaborate a little bit more on that? Looking at the performance of the shipping, it seems that it's kind of booming in the Q2, in terms of profitability. I was wondering or anyway, definitely performing much better than the first quarter, if that might surprise in the upside also in the second half of the year.

Thank you, Andrea. On the distribution, talking about bananas, again, I understand is the main concern. As I just said to Mathias Paladino, the very bad situation is that normally during spring, the market is breathing and the results are positive. Normally during the summer, banana consumption is always weak. What happened this year, let's say the perfect storm is related to 2 main situations. As we said, again, for the last time, the Middle East conflict that oversupplied our market. This is something that happens, and then everybody is not willing to lose massive amount of money. Let's say the shipping of banana in Europe is getting normalized now. The problem that we experienced during the summer again, was that, as we all know, the temperature in Europe were really high.

When the temperature are really high and the summer fruit production is very strong, we have an additional decrease in terms of the appetite of the people in buying bananas. Starting from end of May, beginning of June, we had not a good spring, and then we had a very difficult summer because the people were not willing to buy bananas, and they were buying summer fruits and other categories. We had a double impact of the very, very hot summer that is normally affecting the consumption of banana, plus an oversupply in spring. This is what happened. What we think now is that the temperature are getting normalized. The summer fruit is not there anymore because of the season. Normally the banana consumption is keeping up again. We are seeing a certain balance on the importation and shipment of bananas in Europe.

We will have to see which are the impact of the climate condition worldwide and in Central America, because obviously everything is affected by the El Nino atmosphere situation. This is creating some stress. Somewhere is raining too much, somewhere there's no rain. The mix of the impact in the Central America will possibly result in a shortage of production over the next months. It's not happening now, but probably end of the year, beginning of next year, we could experience, let's say, a different situation compared to now. It's what I was saying before. Bananas and pineapples, we don't have to be excited when we have a very good 6 months, 8 months, or 4 months. We don't have to be depressed when the situation is tough. Because it will always be like that.

That's the category, and that is why we since 10 years, we are moving, let's say, rebalancing through our growth strategy out of banana business, maintaining our position, but not pushing and growing again on the category. That's what I can tell you about the banana situation. In terms of shipping, yes, we had a very good performance in Q2. The good performance is related to the fact that we have a very good loading factors. Obviously the increase of the oil price in our model is well hedged because we have commercial clauses within our contract with the third parties that are, let's say, rebalancing the impact of the oil on the freight rates and on our captive volume. Last year, we did a very good hedging.

Now we're taking, let's say, the result of this prudent and consistent strategy that we apply every year since 10 years. Normally, the second quarter is a very good one because of the loading factor. This year, we have some additional good impact even related to the dry cargo services. The first quarter, Andrea, if you remember, was affected by some very strange situation related to the climate condition, to the port condition, and to the volume resulting in lower volumes. At the end of the day, you are comparing a Q2 that is good but it's not exceptional with a Q1 that was not very performing.

If you go to the rest of the year, for the same reason why during the summer there's no consumption of bananas because of the temperature, because of the summer fruit, obviously the loading factor goes down during the Q3. This is related to the importation volume in Europe that are decreasing every year. Normally then, the Q1 is pretty good, the Q2 is very good, the Q3 is the worst of the year, and then in the Q4, you start again to have decent volumes on the loading factor. We do not expect to replicate the second quarter over the rest of the year, and that is why we did not consider to increase the guidance up. We never speculate on our expectation on the shipping. Shipping is affected by many different external factor.

We are well-hedged, but the vessels are in the sea. We never try to be aggressive on our expectation on the shipping activity. We see a performance of the shipping over the year, more or less in line with last year. This is thanks to the Q2 performance.

If I may, Matteo, the H2 shipping performance should benefit from the fact that there will not be dry-docking. Is that right?

Yes. We have no dry-docking this year. Unfortunately, if you go then to the reported figures, we had some additional non-recurring costs this year that we did not forecasted because of the additional hiring, chartering of the vessels to continue our operation. No, we have no -- this year, there is no dry-docking, and we will not have a dry-docking until 2029 and 2030. The next years will be no dry-docking.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Prudenziati, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for your attention, and we will talk again after the next quarter. Thanks, everybody. Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your devices.

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero First Quarter 2026 Results Web Call.

[Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.

Hi. Good morning, everybody. Just one word before I pass the word, the speech to Raffaella. The company is happy, satisfactorily satisfied for all the different segment we are working on. On the top, I think the business model of the company is showing again that is very much resilient to any kind of problem. Now we have an additional work, but in despite of this, the business is still there, still consistent, still doing more or less like we've done last year. Now I pass the word to Raffaella.

Thank you, Paolo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter of 2026 delivered a positive and solid start to the year, fully in line with our expectation. Group revenue reached around EUR 389 million, up 2.5% compared to Q1 last year. This growth was supported by both business unit, despite a complex market environment. Looking at distribution, performance was very solid. We saw higher volume and prices in several key categories such as exotic fruit, grapes, kiwi, and berries, more than offsetting expected lower banana volumes and weaker Mexican avocado prices. Coming back to our recent announcement on distribution, I'd like to briefly explain their strategic relevance. The exclusive lease agreement is a key element of our premium positioning.

It has attracted strong interest in the market, we believe it could create additional commercial opportunity over time. By contrast, the investment in Vigo is clearly about growth. We still see strong growth potential in Spain, especially in that region where competition is still limited. Turning to shipping, the quarter closed broadly in line with last year, despite a lower loading factor and some temporary operational issue. The situation has improved since April, with loading factors now well back in line with our expectation and even slightly ahead our initial forecasts. Moving on to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 20.8 million, broadly in line with last year, with a stronger contribution from distribution offsetting lower profitability in shipping.

Adjusted net profit increased to EUR 8.3 million, supported by lower financial costs and a reduced negative impact from exchange rate. Our financial position remained very strong with net debt improved to EUR 103.8 million, driven by solid cash generation and good working capital management. Looking ahead, we remain fully focused on delivering our financial and economic targets. We are also continuing to work on selective external growth opportunities, as we have mentioned in previous call. We are approaching this process with care and discipline, investing time and effort to find the right target, the right people, and the right value. We will continue to update you as we move forward. Thank you.

I now turn it over to Matteo.

Thank you, Raffaella. Thank you, Paolo, and good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining the call. I will go a bit more in detail. We start with the economic and financial response for the quarter. The CapEx investment are in line with expectation, strengthening the group's distribution footprint through upgrades to building and equipment across all our warehouses, especially in Italy, where we are investing to enlarge our fresh capacity in Verona. And obviously, Spain, as Raffaella just mentioned, and France. It's very interesting because we are now employing our capital exactly when we see opportunity of growth, and we are working on delivering added-value processes and products to our clients.

Fresh-cut is one of the top picks. As Raffaella said, after the quarter, we closed the transaction with the new distribution platform in Vigo, in the north of Spain. This will benefit the whole Iberian Peninsula operation, because from Vigo, we can serve Portugal as well in the north part where we are less present. Lychee business was already highlighted by Raffaella. This is a milestone for our added value product gamma, and we are sure we're going to be able to create additional opportunities through lychee all over Europe. The interest rate situation is well in line with our expectation, our gross debt is established on the long term.

This is created to define, let's say, a stable interest rate value and to grant to the group the financial stability to grow. On May 13, Orsero shareholder received a dividend of EUR 0.005 per share in cash, and a dividend in kind through the allocation of one Orsero share every 172 shares held by the registered shareholders. The market context in Euro is seeing an inflation rate around 2.5% up to March 2026, up from 1.9% in February. With unprocessed food inflation, that actually is what is concerning or benefiting us, growing from 3.5% in December 2025 to 4.1% in March 2026.

The group results in this context are marking an increase in prices. This is always not only related to the inflation, but is specifically related to our mix that is growing in value quarter by quarter. The volumes are almost unchanged versus Q1 2025, but this is only because we decided not to participate to certain tenders, specifically in France, Portugal, and Italy. Following our strategy where banana business is a stable one, is a business that we want to continue to have, but with a portion of selected clients that we decide to serve or not depending on the market condition, not to lose money on the business. The distribution business unit, the sales growth is around 2% versus Q1 2025.

As we said, the increase in volume and prices for high-value added category in Europe was particularly for exotic fruits, kiwi fruit, and berries. Then as we said, counterbalanced by lower banana volumes and lower prices of Mexican avocados. Actually, Mexican avocados, we're seeing a market that is completely different in terms of pricing compared to last year, so we have to face a period of 2025 first quarter that was exceptional. The volumes are above last year, so this is a good KPI for us. Obviously, we have to stay with the prices that the U.S. market is giving to the Mexican volumes.

The adjusted EBITDA margin comes in with 4.42% versus 4.35% Q1, thanks to the high-value added product contribution. Shipping business unit, the sales are performing in line with our expectation, thanks to a more favorable schedule and to rebilling of low-sulfur fuel related surcharges related to environmental compliance, particular EU ETS. As we said, we always said in the shipping, we are well covered vis-a-vis the bunkering price increase, thanks to the commercial contract that we have with third parties and thanks to our hedging strategy performed last year. Adjusted EBITDA is around EUR 7 million, representing 23.7% of net sales, decreasing compared to last year due to a lower loading factor.

As Raffaella said, we are seeing since April an inversion of trend, we're confident to have a good performance for the end of first half. Now going to the consolidated net profit bridge. This year we have a consolidated adjusted net profit that is passing from EUR 8.1 million to EUR 8.3 million comparing the two quarters.

The main effect is a decreased EBITDA of EUR 0.7 million, additional D&A and provision of EUR 0.4 million, a better performance on the financial side and share of profit from our non-controlling interest by EUR 1 million, and a positive tax effect of EUR 0.3 million for the fact that we had a better result on the distribution in the country where we still have tax asset to use to offset our tax contribution.

This year we adjusted a bit more the net profit and the EBITDA compared with last year. Just because we had at the beginning of the year a stop of the four vessels that needed to fulfill the schedule to charter two additional spot vessels that are coming in with EUR 1 million additional non-recurring costs that we are offsetting because it's not going to be again suffered during the year. In terms of net equity variance, the net equity is passing from EUR 274.5 million end of 2025 to EUR 284.6 million first quarter of 2026. The main effect is the net profit of the period, EUR 6.5 million.

A positive effect on the hedging reserves, for EUR 3.5 million, mainly related to the bunker hedging and other effects that are negligible. In terms of net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, the performance is very positive. End of last year, we closed our balance sheet with EUR 49.7 million. We had EUR 9.8 million positive cash flow, a negligible net working capital variance, minus EUR 0.2 million. Operating CapEx for EUR 2.9 million, well in line with our expectation and forecast, and a positive mark-to-market effect of EUR 5.4 million. The net financial position without counting IFRS 16 principle is EUR 37.5 million, and adding the IFRS 16 effect, we are touching the EUR 103.8 million.

As Raffaella said, we are confident to achieve our financial economic targets for the end of the year. We will keep you posted on the evolution quarter by quarter to be more precise on our expectation on the guidance 2026.

Now I will leave the rest of the time for the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Gabriele Berti of Intesa Sanpaolo.

First question on the new Vigo hub. If I'm not wrong, you indicated the potential to triple revenues in the area, which currently stand at around EUR 12 million, if I'm not wrong. What is the realistic timeframe to achieve this target? More in general, which is the role the platform will play in strengthening your coverage in northwest of Spain and Portugal? Then on Madagascar lychee contract, could you provide more details on expected volumes, duration of the agreement, and the geographic scope of the distribution in Europe? It would be also helpful if you can provide any indication on the impact you expect from the contract.

Lastly, on shipping, you mentioned, probably extraordinary maintenance, issue during the quarter. Has this now been completed? Should we expect any further, impacts in Q2 or non-recurring cost, during the year?

Thank you. Thank you, Gabriele. Good morning. I will start from the Vigo hub. You're right. The new Vigo hub is a strategic path of growth for Spain, because actually you know that in the Iberian Peninsula we have two companies. Sorry. One is Hermanos Fernández serving Spain, and the other one is Eurofrutas serving Portugal. I'm sorry. Actually, we were not really covering the north of Spain and the north of Portugal, so the Galician areas that is really on the border of the Portugal between Portugal and Spain. The new hub is a state-of-the-art hub. It already has a team because we bought basically the warehouse and the team that were working there, so it's around 20 people.

We already have in place a total integration with the ERP system of Hermanos Fernández and Eurofrutas. We have in place the commercial team, the operative team, and everything that we need to start working. Actually the warehouse is already operative, and we are having direct sales since a couple of weeks in the region. The size of the hub is 5,000 square meters, and the hub will be dedicated to added-value products. As Raffaella said, that area of Spain is a populated one. It is really strategic because of the port situation there. We have the Vigo port that is one of the main hub for the importation of fruit and vegetables from the Atlantic coast.

Actually, if you look at the map, is one of the first stop a vessel can make to reach Europe. It's a very strategic place. The competition there is always present because we're working in a commodity space, is not as strong as it is in other region in the Iberian Peninsula. We think that we will be able to reach between EUR 35 million and EUR 40 million revenues in a three-year time. Hopefully, sooner, this is with that contingency approach as we always take our expectation at the moment. Most important is that the hub will not be used to ripen bananas, to deliver added value products, and processes to our retailers and to the wholesale market.

Together with the hub in Vigo, we bought as well two point of sales in the wholesale market of Vigo that following our strategy is really core because we always try to have a good balance between retailers and wholesale market. I pass through the Madagascar lychee. First of all, the Madagascar lychee is a new contract that we took, and the situation of the importing of Madagascar lychee in Europe is quite unique because there are only two importers for the whole Europe areas. We took the place of one of the two after, I think almost 30 years.

By definition, if we will be able to perform well for our partners in Madagascar and for ourselves, the contract is a long-term one, so we're looking forward to maintain this position, I would say forever, but forever means long term. Normally the volumes allows the two importer to have between EUR 20 million and EUR 23 million, EUR 24 million revenues each importer during the months of December and January. The campaign will be split mainly in December for the Christmas season, but it's lasting up to the end of January. The campaign will be split in two different years, let's say.

Normally the business is an intense one in terms of logistic effort, organizational effort, and commercial effort because it's a lot of volume coming in a short period. It will be needed to organize the shipping as well for the importation. We have a key capability to do that because as you know, we are integrated with the shipping activity. It's not a business that anyone can run. In terms of result, it's always difficult in the fruit and vegetable business to forecast a result, especially the first year where you're working with a new category. Historically speaking, the business used to be quite profitable for the importers.

It's not now the right time to be precise because we are starting to work, but we have a very good expectation for the turnover and profitability results related to the lychee.

Gabriele, can you please raise again the third question? Was it about the shipping? Am I right?

Yes, Yes. I was asking about the extraordinary maintenance you had during the quarter, and I was wondering if now it has been completed or we should expect any operational impacts or recurring costs during second Q?

Okay. Okay. Yes. No, Yes, I confirm the situation was one-off otherwise the adjustment is not fair on the figures. You know, we consider the problem totally solved. Exactly to solve the problem and to, let's say to be able then to deliver a normal year, let's say, that's why we decided to absorb over EUR 1 million of extraordinary costs because we prefer to idle two spot vessels in order to be able to correctly maintenance, make the maintenance to the vessel, stopping them one week each. Sometimes it's needed to do that.

It happened in the past, is nothing, super relevant, but obviously, being vessels and being on the sea and wanting to continue to have a weekly service for us, for our volumes and for our partners, obviously, when we had to take this decision, we look at the situation with a strategic approach, and we prefer to bear some additional one-off costs, but to fix the problem instead of continuing to operate the schedule, decreasing the one-off costs, but then having, let's say, recurring issue that normally, are cutting more profits compared to the one-off one. I confirm to you that, the situation is solved.

The next question comes from Andrea Bonfa of Banca Akros.

Most of my question have been answered. I would like to maybe to ask you if you can elaborate, what's the state of the art in term of inflation in general? You mentioned something during your presentation. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the state of the art of inflation for your industry, and what are your expectation? Generally, in inflation cost, in the, let's say agriculture world, is the first one to, let's say, to appear and, with the COVID pandemic has set, your industry is very able to manage and to pass over this cost. I would like to have your, maybe any inputs or opinion on that. Thank you very much.

Good morning, Andrea. Yes, actually, our vision on inflation, it's a pure forecast because by the end of the quarter, as you know, the conflict just started, we saw some speculation specifically on the energies input, specifically the bunker, the oil price and all the related derivatives and the energy cost. As we all know, the situation is continuing and it's difficult to forecast when it will be ended. Actually, we are seeing a situation where a higher inflation is coming and this will be related to the transport cost and to the energy cost. In our vision, the problem is already there, even if it's not really showing up now.

This is really because most of the goods that are shipped to Europe and all over the world carried by the liners. Normally, the Bunker Adjustment Factor that the liner uses is not weekly as we do, because we always try to be totally current and on time vis-a-vis the market condition. They normally apply a monthly BAF or a quarterly BAF, a quarterly reviewed BAF, Bunker Adjustment Factor. This will cause a lag of timing in the impact of the cost. We see beginning Q3 a massive impact due to the increasing cost of transportation. Obviously, we are transferring all our vision to our client.

When it comes to seasonal fruit or that we can manage on weekly or daily prices, we are confident to be able to transfer the inflation without speculating, but just doing our job as we did during COVID. Obviously, all the inflation and eventual disruption that we will have again on the container capacity worldwide being integrated with the shipping, we're well positioned to absorb it and eventually taking advantage, if possible, on that side. But this is mainly what we are seeing that is happening. The inflation now is still, let's say, under control, but we see a situation that will get worse in the second part of the year.

As a group and as a business, we are an anti-cyclical one. We are well prepared and the business model is well prepared to absorb the impact because of our gamma product, because of our shipping integration, and because of the fact that we are well-covered on the energy, well-hedged on the energy external input for the next month, and with the energy on the warehouse as well, in the next year. It's not a comfortable situation because it's always something that we have to handle in a day by day, but surely, we are well-positioned to perform. This is what I can tell you so far.

Okay. If I may, do you see those potential fallout effect of rerouting some supplies of products? You were mentioning, I think, in the past, oranges from South Africa or anyway other product that instead of going to the Persian Gulf, they are rerouting to Europe, and dampening prices or something like that.

Actually, as always, the main effect, the main impact, is on the bananas and will be on the bananas because certain multinationals that are exposed to the Middle East market are, let's say, the first reaction when you have the fruit on the vessels, and then you have to sell the fruit somewhere, is to, let's say, to turn the goal and to go to Europe instead of Middle East. Surely the situation will be. The market will be adjusted from time to time. In banana, there are supplies where we see the worst effect at the moment.

The typical good stock market that we see in the first month of the year is not there this year. Being the situation of Europe, 70% related to tenders with retailers, then let's say the impact is not massive, but it's mainly on bananas. Going on the overseas campaign like South African citrus, there are some phytosanitary issues that can block a massive volume from South Africa to come to Europe because we have stricter rules in Europe compared to Middle East. It's possible that some flows will come in with additional volume in Europe. Those are products that we work in consignment.

At the end of the day, we will be discussing with our partners in production in order to understand which is the right volume to have in Europe, but being able to maintain a certain level of pricing. If our partners will ask us to absorb more volume, we will be working for them for sure, because this is our role in the market. Obviously, we will protect our commission. We don't really see being the business model of the group well-balanced on the consignment pricing model on the overseas campaign. We look at our business as a protected one.

[Operator Instructions] Gentlemen, Ms. Orsero, there are no questions registered at this time.

Okay. Thank you very much to everybody for joining the call, and we'll continue to work to deliver the best result that we can as a group. We keep in touch and we will discuss again for the first half result in September. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your devices.

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero Full Year 2025 Results web call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everybody. before I pass the word to Raffaella Orsero, I just want to say one thing about the fact that the numbers are speaking for themselves about the result of the company, so there is not much to say. But just one point, which is the fact that overall, the company is doing fine, not only in the total result, but each single geography, each single product line, each single legal entity is making money. And this is proving, if necessary, again, the beauty of our business model. Also, the shipping is doing fine. So we are quite confident about the future. Now I'll pass the word to Raffaella.

Thank you, Paolo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Fiscal 2025 was a strong year for the group, reflecting the resilience of our business model and dedication and the execution of our team. Revenues increased by 8.2%, mainly driven by the solid performance of our distribution business with growth supported by both higher volume and pricing. This growth was also supported by the ongoing development of our higher-margin categories such as Kiwis, exotic fruits, citrus fruits and fresh-cut products. These categories are a key pillar of our portfolio and the key driver for the future growth, together with our strong presence across all distribution channels.

Margins also improved supported by positive contribution from both business units. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 3.8%, while adjusted net profit increased by 4.7%. In addition, we delivered strong operating cash flow generation supporting our solid financial position. Alongside this strong cash generation, we continue to invest across all our countries, upgrading warehouses announcing our ERP system completing the dry docking cycle with Cala Pedra and Cala Palma. Based on these results, we are proposing to the shareholders meeting, a dividend of EUR 0.61 per share to be paid EUR 0.50 in cash -- EUR 0.50 in cash and EUR 0.11 through the allocation of treasury shares.

Turning to our outlook for 2026. As you know, in recent days, the global environment has become increasingly volatile. And it remains very difficult at this stage to assess how the situation may evolve and what economic impact it may have. Despite this backdrop, we approached 2026 with confidence and expect to consolidate the strong result achieved in 2025. At the same time, we believe the group is well positioned to move into the next phase of growth, supported by further organic expansion and targeted acquisitions that aim to enter new markets.

With that, I will now hand over to Matteo.

Thank you, Raffaella. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining the call. I will go through the document provided yesterday evening to the market. I will start with the guidance 2025. So it's a very good news for us that we achieved all our targets. Sales, we exceeded the guidance on the sales on the EBITDA, on the net profit. We were in line with the CapEx, and we are in line in the range with the net financial position, excluding the IFRS 16 effect. .

Regarding the net financial position, including the IFRS 16 effect, we are slightly over the range, but this is -- this has a clear explanation because as you all know, we -- our shipping unit is running with 5 vessels, 4 of them are owned and 1 of them is chartered. Normally, we charter the fifth vessels for a 2-year cycle. This time, we decided having a good opportunity to cover our need on a longer period, we decided to charter the vessel on a 3-year cycle now.

So that's why the net financial position reported, including the IFRS 16 principle, slightly higher compared with our expectations. So it's an accounting impact. It's not a cash one. Going on the, let's say, main drivers of the group improvement in 2025, but we start summing up some corporate issues. So the CapEx investment continues to strengthen the group distribution footprint through upgrades to buildings and equipment across warehouses in Italy, France and Spain.

As Raffaella said, we completed the dry docking cycle and the upgrades for the 2 vessels, Cala Palma and Cala Pedra. And actually, we had a slightly higher investment compared with what we expected, but this is needed to maintain our vessels in the state of art situation. Interest rate situation, the hedging strategy put in place by the group allows for a substantial stability in the cost of debt. Almost 100% of gross debt with about 3 years duration is at 3.25% tax rate and around 72% is resulting in fixed rate. In this time of uncertainties, as a policy, we prefer to take a low-risk attitude vis-a-vis the inputs that can impact our business without the possibility for us to be controlled. So we decided to take this kind of a prudent approach.

The dividend that we paid in May 2025 was EUR 0.50 per share all cash and has been paid by our [indiscernible] shareholders with a total outlay of about EUR 8.4 million. This year, we decided to increase our dividend to the shareholder, adding on those EUR 0.50 cash that we paid out last year, EUR 0.11 paid in shares. We always try to maintain a balanced attitude on the cash reserves of the group because we are working on many different growth opportunities. So we want to save our cash and our balance sheet for the growth. That's our goal.

The market context in the euro area saw an inflation rate slowing down and lower compared to the previous year, but the group was able to working on the mix of the products that we sell and working on our distribution strength was able to have a higher increase, both in volumes, thanks to the consumption of the market and our proficiency in the sales and distribution and having a better, let's say, price mix compared to the inflation. This is very positive for us because we -- our business is not against inflation. We can even benefit from that. But it's not -- it's a bit a false friend. So can be impactful in the short run, but in the long run, we want to see our price let's say, tag increasing, thanks to the mix, not thanks to the inflation.

The distribution business unit sales growth around 8.3%. The sales grew, thanks to the combined effect, as we said, of increasing volumes and pricing, mostly supported by high volume added categories, in particular, berries, fresh-cut fruits, kiwi fruit and citrus. The adjusted EBITDA comes in at 4.3% on the sales slightly lower compared to last year. Anyway, we consider the performance of the distribution, very, very positive. Shipping business unit, we had a strong overall performance with a record loading factor, well above 90%, even considering some issue in the last part of the year that affect -- slightly affected the loading factor and the profitability then.

Adjusted EBITDA comes in with EUR 25.3 million, representing almost 22% of net sales on the shipping sales compared to 19% full year 2024. Going to bridging a bit our sales and our EBITDA. We have to highlight that our sales grew from EUR 1,571.3 million to EUR 1,700 million, and all the growth was related to the distribution segment. We grew by EUR 124.3 million. Shipping sales are more or less in line with last year, just EUR 1 million in addition. Holding and services is negligible.

Going on the EBITDA side, the 2024 result was EUR 83.7 million, and 2025 is EUR 86.9 million. Distribution comes in with EUR 1.2 million, shipping with EUR 3.1 million and service and holding as a decrease of EUR 1.2 million. So as we said before, both of the business units performed better compared last year. Obviously, on the distribution, we were expecting considering the sales a slightly better result but we had some issue regarding some banana contract in 2025 that comes in with higher sales compared to 2024, but with lower margins. So that's mainly the explanation on the result on distribution. Anyway, we consider the result a very, very good one.

Going on the last figures before I leave the rest of the time to the Q&A session. We spend -- a few words on the net financial position. So we are talking about the net financial position without considering the IFRS 16 effect. So full year 2024 was EUR 55.8 million. We had a cash flow -- operative cash flow of EUR 46.4 million net working capital change connected to the growth on the distribution segment that absorbed EUR 6.4 million, operating CapEx of EUR 21 million, the dividend paid in May 2025 of EUR 8.4 million and other effects related to mark-to-market variance of EUR 5.5 million negative.

So the full year 2025 net financial position, cash, let's say, is EUR 49.7 million, on which we sum up EUR 66.4 million IFRS 16 effect to close at EUR 116.1 million as a reported figure. Net working capital is under control. Business is growing. So in absolute terms, the working capital is growing. But in terms of rotation and in terms of let's say, dynamic, we're keeping everything under control. Going on the operating CapEx, to sum it up, the most relevant one that we had in 2025. There's [ EUR 1.6 million ] warehouse improvement across France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. We are working hard in our warehouses to step forward in the automatization of our operations because we see there, a potential efficiency to be captured over the next year. So we are investing every year in those kind of efficiencies.

EUR 0.9 million related to the finishing of the Verona warehouse enlargement that I -- just to remember to you the reason why we enlarged the Verona warehouse, was to be focused on berries. We have a dedicated area for the berries and for the exotic gamma. We are working on our ERPs in Italy, Spain and France, EUR 0.7 million, then EUR 9.4 million was related to vessels dry docking and upgrades. Just as a reminder, we completed the cycles of the dry docking. So we won't see those investments for the next 4 years again.

And then EUR 6.4 million is what we call let's say, the recurring investment on the distribution platform. So we always say that between let's say, EUR 6 million and EUR 7 million for the distribution is what we need every year in order to maintain the state of the art of our distribution footprint.

Nothing more to add, analyzing the main figures of 2025. So I will leave the rest of the conference call for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Andrea Bonfa of Banca Akros.

Very quickly, I got 2 questions. One is related to, again, your guidance. And if you can, let's say, go through it again -- re-reading your press release, it seems that, let's say, the slight compression in profitability, especially for '26 is related mostly to shipping. If you can re-explain us a little bit the trend, which term you build this guidance.

And the second one, we might be entering into a new phase of inflation because of this geopolitical event. And going back at the, let's say, the difficult COVID period, you performed very well in an inflation scenario or let's say, in a scenario with higher inflation. So if you can maybe just give us some color on what you think -- how your industry will react? Because I mean, at the time, during the COVID period, you were very quick on reacting to price hikes and also thanks to your 50% exposure to the wholesale sector.

Andrea, thank you for your questions. So we will start from the guidance. So you're correct. The guidance 2026, let's say, is more or less in line with the first guidance that we gave for 2025. Then during the year, we upgraded when we felt like we had the chance to have better results compared to the guidance. And so normally, as you know, is very difficult for the group to have, let's say, a precise, let's say, guidance because we disclosed the guidance end of January, beginning of February.

So we prefer to, let's say, to give our view to the market as soon as possible. So we don't wait March, April, like many companies do. So we give a range. And at that time, we try to forecast at best, in line with our budget, what will be the evolution of the business on the year -- so over the year. So in general terms, our distribution is very solid. We have the good gamma products. We have many geographies. We have many channels, a lot of clients, over 15,000 clients. So we're very well balanced.

We decided years ago to push on the right so far categories. So we think that the distribution at this stage can grow organically. Obviously, there's always some ups and downs on bananas, as I was saying before, last year 2025, we decided to grow on banana specifically in France, but it was not a good decision. So at the end of the day, the results connected to those sales were not satisfactory, sometimes losing money, sometimes making very little money. So a lot of efforts, operates -- operating wise, a lot of efforts in the importation and at the end of the day, the final result was not the one we expected.

So complication on the -- in our warehouses, in our ripening processes, complication with the client, quality issue from the supplier. So we prefer again this year to take a position -- a different position on bananas and to -- not to decide to grow again, but let's say, reducing our exposure to certain contracts, fixed price one that are more dangerous in our opinion. So on the distribution, what I can tell you is that the sales that you see in our guidance are let's say, in line or slightly over 2025, but you have to take into consideration that we see a growth on our core categories, and we will decrease our banana sales. So that's really important to understand.

So it's a good mix. We consider a good mix of sales in 2026. Even avoiding the Banana exposure. On the shipping activity, the reason why we see slightly decreasing profitability is only because the last period, let's say, last 45 days of 2025 and the first 40 days -- 45 days of 2026, we saw -- we had some operative issues. We have to do some maintenance to some vessels. And so when you have issues like that, normally, you lose some cargo, you have some additional cost.

So at the end of the day, we saw that the profitability of the whole year compared to the 2025 was impacted, not because of the deterioration of the freight rate market. The market is totally in line with last year, not because we lost client and we see an issue on the loading factor. But just because we already accounted, let's say, some additional costs that we think we have to consider within our expectations.

So is not a strategic issue. It's not a structural issue. It's just a contingent one, but we have to take into consideration. So that's why we decided to release this guidance that anyway for us is in the range of what we reasonably can do with the actual size and dimension of the group. And obviously, as you know, when the shipping activity has a lower performance in our view than we adjust the net profit and the adjusted one is impacted a bit more compared to the distribution because the tax impact on the shipping result is very limited, thanks to the tonnage tax regime that we applied to, many years ago. So I think that on the guidance, I hope I gave you, let's say, a wider explanation compared to the freight guidance that we gave one month ago.

And so now I pass to the second question on the inflation. So in general terms, as I said, our business is not normally affected by inflation because -- we -- it's not given that we can take advantage on the inflation, but surely, we can try to be neutral vis-a-vis the inflation that's because we are very flexible and capable to pass through the inflation to the end consumer -- customer. So that's what we tried to do in general terms.

In this very situation, this crisis is slightly different compared to the COVID obviously, and it's even different compared to the Russian, let's say, conflict. So it's a new situation. We -- it's very -- as Raffaella said, it's very difficult now to understand which are the -- which could be the impact on our business or on the sector as a whole. But we are not looking at revising or suspending the guidance. We are confident we can achieve our results.

So we think that our business model integrated with the shipping with a range of products that allow us to sustain, let's say, certain turbulence on the market is solid enough to stand still on this situation. Obviously, today, nobody knows how long it will -- the conflict in the Middle East will continue. And so what we can do is try and to be focused, balanced, very flexible and to be focused on our goals.

The next question comes from Gabriele Berti of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the presentation. Just a follow-up on Andrea's question on implication from the current geopolitical situation from my side. I mean in addition to a potential inflationary environment, maybe there could be also potential impact on U.S. dollar that could be stronger versus the previous assumption that you have. And I don't know maybe also possibly impact also in freight rates. So I was wondering if you can help us to understand what could be a downside and what could be an upside?

It's a very good question because it was discussed yesterday during the Board and in the Risk Committee in the morning. And so it's a relevant issue. But here, we have good news because we used to have policies on, let's say, hedging our external input and we do that every year no matter if it's -- we never try to speculate or to take an aggressive attitude on those external factors because we know that we cannot control them. So what happened is that on the U.S. dollar, we are totally covered on the exposure on the fixed price contract for bananas, so we had 0 exposure on those kind of situation where we buy, let's say, fixed price in dollar, and then we have already defined with the retailers, a fixed price in Europe for the banana. So here, we -- normally, we buy exactly what we need to cover the volume, the forecasted volume that we defined when we will, let's say, the tenders with the retailers. So on the U.S. dollar, the position is very clean.

On the oil, normally, we cover almost 100% of what we call the captive usage of our vessels. So more or less our vessels are used captive for 50% of the capacity. In reality, it's slightly lower because we have to take into consideration that the dry cargo is a client as well. But anyway, we consider only the fruit and so we say 50%. And on this 50%, we were covered with a 75% relative coverage. So just 25% of our captive usage was exposed to the market.

So now we made another, let's say, hedging on the second part of the year. So we're going to be our exposure will be very limited in this situation in the next 2, 3 months. Impact is not going to be very high because, as I said, we are working as well on the dry cargo increasing our freight rates on a spot base on a weekly basis. So we're covered there as well. And on the third-party clients, we have the bunker adjustment formula on a weekly basis.

So summary-ing up, on the exchange rate, we are okay. On the bunker oil, we are very comfortable. And as well on the energy price, we covered 100% of 2026 needs in every country, just Spain has like 20% to be covered. But as a whole, the impact will be very, very, very limited. So I think that we did a good job applying our policies as we do every year and this kind of attitude is paying off.

[Operator Instructions]

Gentlemen, Ms. Orsero, there are no more questions registered at this time.

So thank you, everybody, for joining the call again. And we talk soon for the first quarter results in May. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your devices.

Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero 9 Months 2025 Financial Results Web Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.

Hi. Good morning, everybody. Just a couple of things before I pass the word to Raffaella and Matteo. I would like to draw your attention to 2 items. The first is that the good results we have in front of us for the first time are driven not only by higher price, but also higher volumes, which is particularly satisfaction to us. And second, that the overall margin that we can show to the market are very much comparable with the global competition. But as you know, we are not at all involved in production. So it makes our things even more satisfactory to us. Now I pass the word to Raffaella. Thanks.

Thank you, Paolo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to open by saying that this quarter once again met our expectation, showing how solid, stable and well-grounded our business continues to be. Net revenue grew by 10.5%, driven by the excellent performance of distribution. We saw higher prices, thanks once again to the product mix we keep working on, but also, as already Paolo said, an increase in volumes, which is a very positive sign.

We are convinced that the distribution still has possibilities for organic growth, and we have not expressed our full potential. Adjusted EBITDA at EUR 74.6 million increased by 11.5% due to the contribution of both business units. Distribution EBITDA improved by 5.9% compared to the same period last year. All countries delivering solid results and met our expectation. And all products had a good performance with New Zealand kiwifruit and fresh-cut leading the way. Shipping also improved, thanks to an excellent loading factor and a very strong performance from dry cargo.

Adjusted net profit increased by 19.4%, reaching EUR 32.9 million, and our net financial position stands at EUR 109.1 million. On the investment side, we have completed the dry docking of the second vessel, and we are moving ahead with the upgrades across all our warehouses. As for our guidance, we confirm it, and we are confident we will reach the upper end of the range in terms of economic margin targeting. Having this stronger foundation, and I conclude, we feel this is the right time to quickly move into a new phase of growth and further international expansion. With that, I hand over to Matteo to discuss our results.

Thank you, Raffaella, and good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining. So our results, as Raffaella and Paolo said, are showing a very strong performance. About the market context, we saw for the first time since, let's say, many quarters an increase in volume and not only in pricing. The inflection is counting for 3% on food in general. So our mix is driving the growth. The good news about the volume that we're not increasing the volume selling commodities, but the highest valued product in the fruit and vegetable gamma. So that's really important for us and really current with our strategy.

Sales are up 10.5%, thanks to the distribution. And the distribution is not only growing on sales, but it's growing as well in the right way, thanks to very good margins. The adjusted EBITDA stands at 5% on distribution, and it's comparing with an extraordinary 2024 performance and it's more or less in line, slightly lower, but this is showing a very, very strong and resilient performance of our business. The shipping is continuing to perform very well, in line with our expectation. The market context is so far stable.

The dry docking of the 2 last vessels is finished. So next year, we won't have any additional operating costs driven by the dry docking activity. Loading factor is continuing to be above 95%, and this is one of the most relevant KPI that we can observe. Going on the bridging of net sales and adjusted EBITDA, as we said, the distribution grew by EUR 115 million. This is the main driver of the growth, thanks to mainly kiwifruit, exotic categories, citrus berries and fresh-cut. Shipping is increasing by EUR 3 million or 3.4%, thanks to the contribution of the dry cargo, while the loading factor, as we said, registers record levels on both segments.

On the EBITDA, as we said, the distribution improved by almost 6% versus last year, thanks to the improvement in terms of product mix, driven by strong performance of high value-added categories, in particular, pineapple, kiwifruit, exotic products, citrus and fresh-cut. We must underline that fresh-cut is performing very well and the category is starting to boom again. Shipping increased by EUR 4.8 million. The reefer segment, so the fruit, let's say, transportation segment remains stable with a cost base comparable to last year. And what is increasing is loading factor and the dry cargo.

Going to the net profit. Actually, the net profit stands -- the adjusted net profit stands at EUR 33 million, mainly driven by the increase of the adjusted EBITDA that comes in for EUR 7.7 million. We don't have main adjustments. The only adjustment that we have on the EBITDA are comparable with last year. So nothing to underline here. On the net equity variance, the net profit is driving the growth with EUR 31.4 million. Then we have to take into account EUR 8.4 million dividend paid to our shareholders in May. Almost EUR 2 million dividend paid to third parties, so our partners, negative hedging reserve for EUR 4 million, mainly driven by the U.S. dollar-euro exchange rate and others effect accounting for not even EUR 1 million.

So our net equity passed from EUR 256.4 million to EUR 272.6 million. In terms of net financial position, the net financial position is quite stable compared to end of 2024. This year was and still is a year where we are investing a lot. So -- but the cash flow is still very positive, coming in for EUR 35 million. We have EUR 7 million change in net working capital. This is driven by the growth of sales, EUR 17 million of operating CapEx. And then we have the dividends, EUR 8.4 million and the mark-to-market that the bridge is minus EUR 6 million.

So our net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, passed from EUR 55 million to EUR 58 million. And then we have an IFRS 16 effect that comes in with EUR 51.2 million. Last word on the guidance before leaving the rest of the call for the Q&A session. As Raffaella said, we are keen in obtaining the top end of our KPIs on the margin, so adjusted EBITDA and net profit. So we are really happy to be able to have this trust in our performance for the rest of the year. Thank you. I will leave the rest of the conversation for the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Gabriele Berti of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Congratulations on the strong results. At this point, also the upper end of the guidance range appears rather conservative. However, my first question, I wanted to understand whether the increase in volumes reflects the underlying market trend or a greater exposure to faster-growing product categories or an outperformance driven by other specific factors? And if you think this positive environment is sustainable also entering 2026?

Second one, could you share some color on your early planning assumption for 2026, in particular, across shipping? Maybe you already have some visibility on time charter contract for next year and also expectation for banana trading environment? And lastly, on CapEx, could you please provide us an update on the key organic development plans for 2026, in particular, warehouse modernization planning, the Spain project. So in general, some indication on next year investment priorities would be helpful.

Thank you, Gabriele. So starting from your first question, volume-wise, this year, it's quite difficult to be very precise because in our business, we don't have a clear data set to be able to answer to your question. But surely, the category as a whole is growing. So the consumption trend -- the healthy consumption trend is growing, and this is basically very good for everybody in our category. But we surely are exposed to the fastest-growing categories. So we're not pushing, as I said, on the pure commodities where there's no value in increasing that much the market share because the consumption is flat. So you always buy market share. You're not building up anything.

So we are growing with avocados, with the exotic gamma, with the berries, with the kiwi, with the table grapes, with the clementines, with the categories where we think and we feel that the growth is there. But surely, the market context this year was not bad. For next year, we -- it's difficult to have a clear picture, but the feeling is that the trend is continuing or at least we are positioned on the right categories. So we have a strong confidence that the growth will be there.

Then very difficult to say which will be the percentage of growth because, obviously, it depends on as well the inflection and the pricing of the whole category. But we are positioned to grow organically. On 2026, shipping and bananas. On the shipping, we have the feeling that the market is stable. So we are not seeing in our niche neither a relevant increase or decrease on the freight rates on the fruit business. On the dry cargo, the situation is flat. But it's a spot market. So we have to see that month by month next year. But our feeling is that the situation of the market is not under pressure on our niches.

Surely, all over the world, some routes are under pressure or are starting to be under pressure, but we work in a very protected niche in the good way and in the bad way. So we don't see a relevant swing up or down for next year. Banana tender are really starting now. Banana situation is probably one of the most difficult situation to understand because the market is short, the production cost is booming, but it's very difficult to pass this information to our clients mainly to the retailers. So still it's a product where the tenders are trying to push the price down.

That is why already 4 to 5 years ago, we decided not to participate to the tenders where the pricing is not satisfactory for us. So hopefully, we will have an increase on average on the price, on the tenders, but we cannot be sure because we just started now. On the spot market, the difference between the price on the tenders and the price on the spot market is very relevant. So our strategy at the end of the day is to push more on the spot market, so the wholesale channel to have some satisfaction on this category that is unfortunately always under pressure without any industrial reason.

CapEx. CapEx, next year will be a year hopefully dedicated to CapEx for growth. So the maintenance CapEx will be under control. As you remember, there's the Spanish project. We are still obtaining all the permission and preparing the land to be able to build. We think that the building will be starting not next year, but in 2027, but we have other plans for Spain. So we will see some CapEx to grow organically as well even next year. And all in all, we will expand our fresh shop facilities next year because, as we said, the category is booming and is giving us a very good satisfaction. But we will try to keep the maintenance CapEx and the operative CapEx really under control to save space for growth CapEx. Hope I answered to your question.

Yes, thank you.

The next question is from Matteo -- sorry, Andrea Bonfa -- sorry about that, Banca Akros.

Some of my questions have already been answered. But Matteo, if you can remind me and to the audience, I mean, what's preventing you in the fourth quarter this year to repeat the profitability of the shipping last year? Can you remind us what were, let's say, the dry docking issues? But last year, you almost delivered EUR 4 million, EUR 5 million EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 in the last quarter of the year. And I think the business should be back, I mean, with the same trend of last year at least.

Andrea, actually, I understand you're trying to understand why we did not increase our guidance at the end of the day. Actually, we don't see the last quarter as a very strong one like it was last year. This is mainly due not to market condition all in all or consumption, but only driven by the campaigns. So sometimes the campaigns are lasting longer or sometimes are shorter and very profitable at the beginning.

So when we -- maybe we will exceed something in our guidance, but it's not that relevant, and we're not so confident that the difference will be that higher to suggest us to increase the top end. And if it's going to be better, it's going to be a good surprise for everybody. The shipping activity, we think that this year, the last voyages of the year won't be that high in terms of loading factor. This is mainly due to a speculation attitude of our suppliers because given the fact that starting from the first week of 2026, the prices of banana will be increasing by mostly $1 per box.

They will try to sell the bananas -- most of the bananas -- they will try to keep the most of the banana they can on the new contract and not on the old one. So to give you a general concept, they will try to short the market with the actual prices and then to load the market when the prices will be higher. And we already know that the prices will be increasing next year on bananas in dollar base, I'm talking.

So taking in consideration all the information that we have so far, we think that the last quarter will be okay, but not so brilliant like it was last year, mainly driven by bananas, what I told to you and then the loading factor. Then obviously, there are many different categories that we can drill down in detail. The lychees, for example, it's something that is probably will be -- the market will be overloaded with additional volumes compared to last year. So when we look at our product mix of the last quarter, we are not that confident to be able to massively beat our high end. That's a bit the consideration that I can give you.

Very useful. And if I may, can you share with us any information on your M&A campaign, if it's possible?

We would like to be able to tell you more, but it's not already the moment. We are working hard, and we are doing our job, let's say, but it's -- we're not ready to be able to disclose additional details.

The next question is from Mathias Paladino of TPICAP.

Congratulations for the results. Most of my questions have been already answered. But one of them, I want to get your view -- maybe to share your view on one point to the audience is about -- we saw last month, there was a delay on the votes on the cutting maritime emission by the IMO. In this trend, let's say, you're back in some way because U.S. are opposed to this cutting maritime emission. I wanted to get your view maybe. Can we say that this delay in the votes can give you more flexibility also to run your business with the current vessel? And yes, maybe what's your view on the situation on this cutting maritime emission of this association?

So thank you for asking this question and for the consideration. We are not the player that is able to give you a very, let's say, deep answer to your question, but we will try. Our perception in general is that this delay on the IMO decision is really coherent with the impossibility of the industrial footprint and distribution, both on the, let's say, new engine, new technologies and mostly the new fuels, let's say, that are not there.

So the industrial footprint end-to-end is not ready and is not current with the political vision. This is, I think, a reality so far. And so the target that the IMO was dreaming to have is not there and cannot be there. So probably the reason why they delayed the rotation is because the agreement proposed is not possible to be, let's say, agreed upon. So there will be 1 year to rediscuss. I don't know actually if they will change massively the way and the trend. But what we can say is that in our segment, in our, let's say, tonnage as a player, basically, there is no order book or relevant ships now with different engine and fuel than oil and carbon-based engines.

So at the end of the day, we think that the green wave is something that is positive, obviously, but must be paired with the reality, with the technology and with the industrial footprint. Otherwise, it's going to remain a dream and it's going to damage a lot the economy, both in Europe and worldwide. And given the fact that IMO is not representing the European Union, but is representing, let's say, the worldwide shipping activity now is blocked, and we will see what will be the evolution of the new agreement, if there will be a new agreement.

For us, it's a good news, formally speaking, but it's since a couple of years that we have this vision that at least this situation will be slowed down compared to the communication that we had. So we will see if we will be able, thanks to this new situation, to operate our vessels longer. We have time to see and decide. But surely, let's say, it's not a bad news for us. Being practical is not a bad news.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Colombini, at this time, sir, there are no questions registered.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody, for joining again, and we will talk soon early next year for the full year results. All the best.

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