April 29, 2022
Takeaways from Signify’s Solid Start to 2022
CEO: “We were extremely strong in the U.S. with Cooper.”
NETHERLANDS - On Friday, the world’s largest lighting company, Signify, reported its first quarter financial performance. Comparable sales compared to the same quarter last year were up 6.4% to nearly $1.9 billion (EUR $1.788 billion). Earnings were healthy with an adjusted EBITA margin of 10.5%.
During the earnings call, Signify CEO Eric Rondolat gave an overview of the global business which included a strong statement about U.S. performance: “When I look from a geographical standpoint, we were extremely strong in the U.S. with Cooper.”
Here are more takeaways from the Signify earnings call:
Ukraine
Rondolat started off the earnings call on the topic of Ukraine stating that “Our main priority was protecting our Ukrainian employees and their families in the best possible way...” Investments into Russia were stopped and all new Russian business has been paused since February 25.
Pricing
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During the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer, Francisco Javier van Engelen Sousa, explained that the positive trend of pricing was initially a lower erosion and has been replaced by price inflation.
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During the last couple of quarters, there has been an acceleration of pricing across the three divisions. In Q3, the slow pace of price realizations still caused the company to see a negative offset, which has now turned positive.
Sales in Digital Solutions (the segment that includes Cooper Lighting and Genlyte Solutions)
Rondolat outlined some of the positives of the division’s performance:
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Stronger recouperation from the crisis, i.e. projects that were stalled and now moving forward.
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Being in strong positions in key markets.
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Growth of connected lighting.
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Investments over the last seven years to get full and complete systems:
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Light source
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Luminaire
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Control devices
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Software
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China lockdowns
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Rondolat: “Q1 topline was impacted by the renewed lockdowns in China.” Supply chain challenges caused an increase in inventory levels which impacted Signify’s cash flow.
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“China is a worry. Effectively we don’t see so much of an impact on Q1, although the paralysis of some of the key regions and harbors…would certainly have an impact on the supply chain.”
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Some of the factories are impacted, but “they may not be impacted directly”
Supply chain
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When asked about escalations of components in Q1 2022 compared to Q4 of 2021, Rondolat explained that “we were at the bottom and now are seeing an improvement trend” in component availability, vessel reliability and supply lead time.
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“Situation is not completely solved, but it’s in a momentum of improvement.” Rondolat warned multiple times that if China goes into a further lockdown that would negatively affect supply chain.
Outlook for 2022
Rondolat explained that the upcoming quarters will potentially be impacted by some of the macro challenges, but “the demand is strong, the demand is there, we are facing it and we are delivering.” We believe also better than competition.
Signify maintains its outlook for 2022. This assumes that the Chinese market and global supply chain dynamics do not deteriorate further
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Comparable sales growth in the range of 3-6%
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Continued Adjusted EBITA margin improvement of up to 50 bps
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Free cash flow in excess of 8% of sales
