SHLAF - Schindler Holding AG (SHLAF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-02-15 18:56:11 ET
Schindler Holding AG (SHLAF)
Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
February 14, 2024 3:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Nicole Wesch - Head of Corporate Communications
Silvio Napoli - CEO & Chairman
Paolo Compagna - COO & Deputy CEO
Carla De Geyseleer - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Remo Rosenau - Helvetische Bank
Lothar Lubinetzki - Octavian
Alexander Koller - Stife
Johannes Borner - Santro Invest
Klas Bergelind - Citi
Presentation
Nicole Wesch
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Full Year 2023 Results Conference, online and to you here in Ebikon. My name is Nicole Wesch. I lead the Global Communications and Branding Department at Schindler, and I'm standing in for Marco Knuchel today. I'm sharing the stage with our Chairman and CEO, Silvio Napoli, our CFO, Carla Geyseleer, and Paolo Compagna, our COO.
So what's on the agenda today. Silvio will provide a snapshot on the highlights of the year. Then Paolo will summarize the main developments in the markets and in the industry and at Schindler, followed by Carla, who will lead us through the financials. Silvio will then take over again and talk about our operational priorities for 2024 and our ambitions beyond. We are happy to take your questions after the presentation and close the session at around 11:00 a.m.
With that, please go ahead, Silvio.
Silvio Napoli
Thank you, Nicole. Good morning, everyone, here in the auditorium in Ebikon and online. In 2022, when we met here for this later cycle of our company, we had to perform an emergency landing. Today, 2 years later, we are back. And in fact, we are on a steep climb. When I say that, I refer in the same way as we did 2 years ago, very factually on actual performance elements. And in the same way, let's start off with some highlights for the year 2023.
Starting with the financial highlights. Our EBIT is up 31% year-on-year. Our net profit and earnings per share are up 42% year-on-year. Our revenue growth measured in local currency, we'll come later to the Swiss franc effects, and not withstanding challenging market conditions, is up 7.4%.
Our cash flows from operation are up 85%. Based on these results, together with the Board of Directors and also to celebrate our 105th anniversary, we decided to propose to the shareholders' meeting scheduled for next month to add an extra CHF 1 dividend, which will bring our total dividend to CHF 5. Now that would bring, and you'll see later with the CFO the total payout for the year to 62%, which is just at the threshold of the current payout ratio maximum of 65%. So looking ahead, but also taking onboard some of your comments in the past, we have decided to allow for more optionality going forward and therefore, decided to increase our payout ratio range to 50% to 80%.
These are some of the financials. And again, our CFO will take us in much more detail in many more numbers later. But besides financials, I would, in my mind, one has to look at what led to these financials. And I'm saying, my attitude, forgive me, but financials are the output. What is more important is the input. And this is what we decided to focus on 2 years ago.
And so let's look at some of the highlights. Let's start with the first one there, which is our mantra, which we declared openly as of 2022, which is that pricing plus efficiency have to always be bigger than inflation. This is how you drive, especially in an inflationary environment, which came back precisely in 2022....
Schindler Holding AG (SHLAF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript