Compass Group PLC (CMPGF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to our full year results. 2025 was another great year for Compass. We delivered strong organic growth and margin progress, with profit up nearly 12%. Cash conversion was also very good, as we generated $2 billion of free cash flow for the first time. Net New Business, the cornerstone of our growth, was 4.5%, underpinned by strong new business wins and client retention of over 96%. This was the fourth consecutive year we've delivered net new growth within our 4-5% target range. This performance, together with a significant market opportunity, reinforces confidence in the sustainability of our growth algorithm and our ability to deliver long-term compounding shareholder returns. I'll talk more about this later, but before I do, first over to Petros to give you more details on the financials. Thanks, Dominic. Good morning, everyone. We've made good progress across all our key metrics as we delivered profit growth ahead of revenue growth. Importantly, free cash flow was also strong, growing faster than profit. Let's start by looking at revenue growth. Net New Business continues to be in the middle of our 4-5% target range, with pricing and volume growth consistent with the first half of the year. With our disposal program now complete, acquisitions are contributing to growth. Operating profit increased nearly 12% to over $3.3 billion. Interest was $315 million, reflecting higher debt due to acquisitions. For fiscal year 26, we expect an interest charge of around $350 million, reflecting the purchase of Vermont subject to regulatory approval. As anticipated, our effective tax rate was 25.5%, and this is expected to be the rate in 2026. Importantly, earnings per share were up by just over 11% in constant currency. And turning to cash, CAPEX was 3.3...