S4 Capital plc (SFOR) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

So good morning, everybody. I'm in Madrid, where it's spread all to the four winds. Radhika is in London, and Scott, I think, is in Singapore. So welcome to our Q1 update. Radhika is going to take us through the training update, and then Scott's going to take us through a brief client analysis, and then I'll come back just to do a brief summary and outlook, and then we'll take questions. So Radhika, over to you. Thank you, Martin. Good morning. I will start with the financial headlines for the first quarter of 2026. Performance in the period has been impacted by the volatile global macroeconomic conditions and ongoing client caution. Despite these pressures, the annualised impact of the 2025 cost-out actions and the continued strong focus on working capital management has resulted in the Q1 operational EBITDA meeting expectations. Revenue was £164.8 million, down 7.5% reported, and 3.7% like-for-like. Net revenue was £149.2 million, down 8.9% reported and 5% like-for-like. Quarter end net debt was £111.8 million, reduced €33 million from €144.8 million at 31st March 2025 and €45.6 million like for like. Leverage has improved to 1.4 times pro forma 12-month operational EBITDA compared to this time last year at 1.7 times. The company repurchased its term loan B at a discount with a total of €85.2 million repurchased to date. The outstanding loan now stands at €289.9 million, with a target reduction to €250 million. Our full-year guidance is reiterated. We expect like-for-like net revenue to be in line with current analyst consensus, slightly below 2025. We target full-year operational EBITDA to increase by at least 100 basis points. We target year-end net debt to be in the range of 60 to 90 million. The Board will approve an interim dividend of 1.1p and recommend a fin...