RYLPF - Koninklijke Philips N.V. (PHG) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-04-29 09:44:07 ET
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (PHG)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
April 29, 2024 04:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Leandro Mazzoni - Head of Investor Relations
Roy Jakobs - Chief Executive Officer
Abhijit Bhattacharya - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Richard Felton - Goldman Sachs
Hassan Al-Wakeel - Barclays
David Adlington - JPMorgan
Veronika Dubajova - Citi
Hugo Solvet - Exane BNP Paribas
Graham Doyle - UBS
Julien Dormois - Jefferies
Julien Ouaddour - Bank of America
Robert Davies - Morgan Stanley
Sezgi Ozener - HSBC
Falko Friedrichs - Deutsche Bank
Edward Ridley-Day - Redburn Atlantic
Presentation
Operator
Welcome to the Royal Philips First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call, on Monday, April 29, 2024. During the call, hosted by Mr. Roy Jakobs, CEO; and Mr. Abhijit Bhattacharya, CFO. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the introduction there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this call will be recorded, and a replay will be available on the Investor Relations website of Royal Philips.
I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Leandro Mazzoni, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Leandro Mazzoni
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Philips' first quarter 2024 results webcast. I'm here with our CEO, Roy Jakobs, and our CFO, Abhijit Bhattacharya. The press release, investor deck and the frequently asked questions on the Respironics field action were published on our Investor Relations website this morning. The replay and full transcript of this webcast will be made available on the website after the call. Before we start, I want to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on screen. You will also find a statement in the presentation published on the website.
Roy, over to you.
Roy Jakobs
Good morning, everyone and warm welcome. Great to be with you today. I want to start with the key highlights of this morning's release. We delivered results in line with our performance improvement plan with 2.4% comparable sales growth and strong margin improvement in the quarter and order intake growth turning positive outside of China, especially in North America. This was a result of continued strong focus and progress on our three execution priorities.
Secondly, we have taken several very important steps in resolving the consequences of the Respironics recall. The consent decree was signed and approved in court. We received final court approval for the previously announced economic loss settlement. We reached an agreement to resolve the personal injury and medical monitoring litigation in U.S. And we also concluded an agreement with insurers to cover Respironics recall related product liability claims.
Following the remediation of sleep therapy devices, and reassuring test results to-date, these are very important milestones to provide further clarity on the way forward for Philips. Supported by key innovation launches and our ongoing actions to enhance its execution, we are confident in our performance improvement plan for 2024.
Onto the key financial highlights. Comparable sales growth was 2.4% in the quarter, driven by 3% growth in the Diagnosis & Treatment and Personal Health segments, partly offset by a 1% decline in Connected Care against very tough comps in monitoring. Group sales grew 2% in mature geographies. Growth geographies sales grew 3% despite a decline in China. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved significantly to 9.4% in the quarter. Free cash flow was an outflow of EUR 336 million, in line with normal quarterly phasing....
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (PHG) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript