KGSPY - Kingspan Group plc (KGSPF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-02-16 20:13:03 ET
Kingspan Group plc (KGSPF)
Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call
February 16, 2024, 03:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Catriona Nicholson - IR
Gene Murtagh - CEO
Geoff Doherty - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Florence O'Donoghue - Davy
Shane Carberry - Goodbody.
Arnaud Lehmann - Bank of America
George Speak - BNP Paribas
Gregor Kuglitsch - UBS
Yves Bromehead - Societe Generale
Elodie Rall - JPMorgan
Cedar Ekblom - Morgan Stanley
Yassine Touahri - On Field Investment Research
Alexander Craeymeersch - Kepler Cheuvreux
Jonathan Coubrough - Numis
Brijesh Siya - HSBC
Harry Goad - Berenberg
Presentation
Operator
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Kingspan Preliminary Results 2023. My name is Bruno, and I'll be operating your call today.
[Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to your host and CEO, Gene Murtagh. Please go ahead.
Gene Murtagh
Thanks, Bruno. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our 2023 results call. We'll take you directly into the detail on Slide 3, please, titled 2023 in Summary. So basically, revenue, just over EUR eight billion which was minus 3%, and we go through the detail of the makeup of that shortly. Trading profits, 5% ahead, earnings up 7% and I think very significantly, greenhouse gas emissions, Scope one and two down over 50%, which obviously was a fairly monumental year in terms of emission reductions across the business.
By the business units, Insulated Panels, sales decreased 9%, very mixed markets, which we highlighted all through the year. Strong volume performance in France, the U.S. and Latin America, which I think not surprisingly was offset by subdued volumes in Central and Eastern Europe and indeed in the Nordics.
The vast majority of the reduction really was related to giving up cost deflation in our selling prices. So in essence, the cost declines in all of our businesses were pass-through so funded essentially by cost reductions. Similarly -- and the Insulation business behind again by 8%, I'd say, reflecting very much the same type of trading pattern.
The technical insulation business and most significantly around district heating had a very strong year. We expect that ongoing to continue to perform very well for us, although it might be a little more subdued this year with I think the deflation in gas prices. But over the longer haul, we expect this to be a very significant performer for the business.
Significantly, we have been on a path of fanning out the full spectrum of insulation activities across the business and technologies. We took a very significant step forward on that front in recent times, even since the close of the year. So we've taken a 51% stake in the world's largest producer of wood wall insulation, Steico....
Kingspan Group plc (KGSPF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript