Autins Group Regulatory News (AUTG)

28 June 2022

Autins Group plc

("Autins" the "Company" or the "Group")

Interim Results

Autins Group plc (AIM: AUTG), the UK and European based manufacturer of the patented Neptune melt-blown material and specialist in the design, manufacture, and supply of acoustic and thermal insulation solutions, announces its results for the six months ended 31 March 2022.

Financial Summary

· Revenue decreased by 31.5% to £9.39m (H1 21: £13.71m) though remained comparatively stable against the preceding 6-month period, decreasing 3.4% against H2 21

· Gross profit decreased by 39.9% to £2.35m (H1 21: £3.91m)

· Gross margins decreased by 3.4% to 25.1% (H1 21: 28.5%)

· EBITDA1 was a loss of £0.35m (H1 21: £1.18m profit)

· Loss after tax of £1.38m (H1 21: profit of £0.01m)

· Loss per share of 2.83p (H1 21: earnings per share of 0.025p)

· Operating cashflow was a £0.40m net outflow (H1 21: £0.87m net inflow)

· Net debt2 excluding IFRS16 lease liabilities improved to £1.03m (H1 21: £1.84m)

· Cash and cash equivalents were £2.78m at the period end (H1 21 £2.91m) following an equity placing in December 2021 which raised a net £2.80m

· Group cash headroom3 of £5.14m (H1 21: £6.11m)

1: EBITDA is stated on an IFRS 16 basis. 

2. Net debt is cash less bank overdrafts, loans, invoice discounting, hire purchase finance and excludes right of use lease liabilities.

3. Sum of net cash at bank and residual invoice financing capacity.

Performance Against H2 21

· Group sales were -3.4% (-£0.3m) compared to H2 21, with UK sales up 7.1%, whereas Germany sales were down -19.7% as they felt the full impact of the semi-conductor and Ukraine crisis. Swedish sales were stable

· EBITDA reduced by £0.27m compared to H2 21 despite no furlough support which contributed c.£0.35m in H2 21

Operational Highlights

· The automotive market continued to be significantly affected by a shortage of semi-conductors, whilst the Ukraine war further disrupted the supply chains, however OEMs still have large unfulfilled order books, and our customer base in the automotive market expects to see recovery once the semi-conductor supply improves

· Enquiry activity for long-term automotive projects totalling £17m received between January and April 2022, a significant improvement over the £3.7m received in the comparative period last year.

· Underlying sales demand for flooring products is stable

· 13 office pod companies, including suppliers to multinational companies, are specifying Neptune for their products

· European sales account for 37% of the Group turnover, up from 33% last year

· Neptune retail sales continue to increase and are up 10% on H2 21 to £1.2m

Gareth Kaminski-Cook, Chief Executive, said:

"OEMs continue to report record levels of order backlogs and the market expects new semi-conductor capacity to begin to ease during the latter part of 2022 after which an automotive market recovery should begin. In addition, the underlying demand for our flooring products remains positive and we continue to develop into other markets with dedicated resource.

There is little doubt that we are now entering a period of high-cost inflation and we will continue to take actions to mitigate the impact on margins through efficiency improvements, purchasing cost control and price increases. Over the last two years the Autins Board and Leadership team have demonstrated agility, creativity and great teamwork and will continue to do what is necessary to mitigate inflationary pressures.

Following a protracted period of very low new project activity in the automotive division, since January we have experienced an uplift in the number and value of new enquiries, totalling £17m of potential annual new revenue. 45 of these enquiries, with potential annual value of £11m are for parts to go on electric vehicles for 11 different OEMs including new start-ups and established brands.  

We will need to continue striking a balance between sharp focus on cost control and executing our growth strategy. Our priorities are to ensure that we can offer innovative recyclable NVH solutions, maximise our penetration onto full electric platforms and continue our diversification into new markets.

Whilst it can be expected that the Ukraine war could suppress the trajectory of market recovery, the medium-term outlook remains positive."

For further information please contact:

About Autins

Autins is a UK and continental Europe based industrial materials technology business that specialises in the design, manufacture, and supply of acoustic and thermal products. Its key markets are automotive, flooring, office furniture and commercial vehicles where it supplies products and services to more than 160 customer locations across Europe.

Autins is the UK and European manufacturer of the patented Neptune melt-blown material and specialises in the design, manufacture, and supply of acoustic and thermal insulation solutions.

Overview

This has been a period where global events have dominated the financial performance of the whole automotive supply chain.

Consequently, the year on year first half financial performance was disappointing, with revenue reducing by £4.32m to £9.39m (H1 21: £13.71m), which led to an EBITDA loss of £0.35m (H1 21: EBITDA profit of £1.18m). 

The performance comparison between H2 2021 and this reporting period is more positive, with revenue reducing by only £0.30m (-3.1%) and EBITDA reducing by £0.27m despite there being no furlough support from the UK government, which had contributed c.£0.35m in H2 2021.

Compared to H2 2021, UK automotive sales improved by 8.3%, driven by modest improvement in automotive demand and higher sales into other markets. However, our German automotive sales, which had largely been unaffected by the semi-conductor crisis throughout the last financial year, finally felt the impact, which was further exacerbated by OEM plant closures at the beginning of the Ukraine war, an issue that has since been resolved. Flooring sales were also lower as post Covid property refurbishment activity declined.

As furlough came to end at the beginning of this financial year, we have had to further reduce fixed overheads in UK and Sweden and reduce operational costs, whilst retaining motivated staff in an environment of labour shortages, volatile demand and rising household costs. We acted proactively and increased wages for production workers early, increased the overtime rates, introduced a banked hours scheme, and adopted hybrid working practices where it was efficient and effective to do so. As a result, our retention rate and teamwork has improved significantly. 

The Group undertook and successfully completed a £3m equity placing in December 2021 to improve cash headroom and ensure the Company is well positioned to take advantage of the future market recovery.

Revenue

Sales across the Group decreased by 31.5% to £9.39m (H1 21: £13.71m) driven by significantly lower demand from our key automotive customers in the UK and Germany and lower sales in flooring.

Sales through the European operations now account for 37% of Group turnover, up from 33% H1 2021.

Automotive sales declined by 33.9% to £7.6m (H1 2021: £11.5m), driven by reduced OEM production caused primarily by semi-conductor shortages, some cost reduction actions by the Group's major customer and latterly the impact of the Ukraine war. 

Revenue in the UK decreased by 36.6% to £5.9m (H1 2021: £9.3m), with component revenue reducing by 36.3% and tooling reducing by 54.1% as the OEMs focused less on releasing new projects and more on cost cutting. The trend of component sales in the UK however did improve, increasing by 8.3% compared to H2 2021.

Germany and Sweden have felt, for the first time, the impact of the semiconductor crisis across the whole period and the Ukraine war directly led to several German OEM factories being temporarily shut down. As a result, German sales declined by 21.1% to £3.0m (H1 21: £3.8m), with automotive sales declining by 13.3% to £1.3m (H1 21: £1.5m), and flooring sales declining by 27.4% to £1.7m (H1 21: £2.3m). Sweden auto sales reduced by 16.7% to £0.5m (H1 21: £0.6m). Post reporting period, both markets have improved with sales now above the prior year period. 

Non-auto sales were lower by 25.0% at £1.8m (H1 21: £2.4m), driven by a drop in flooring demand which was partly due to a slowdown in home refurbishment post Covid and due to high prior year sales for a significant new customer that required additional one-time stocking quantities. Monthly sales demand for flooring is now running slightly ahead of the prior year. In the UK, we have started supplying a strong pipeline of customers in the workspace market of office pods which has brought revenue of £0.14m in the first half of the year. Non-auto sales now account for 19% of Group turnover, up from 17% a year ago.

Sales concentration of our largest customer reduced from 46.2% last year to 38.3% in H1 22, driven primarily by the reduction of the demand from that customer. In the short to medium term, management would expect this concentration will normalise back to c. 50% as automotive sales recover, although the dilution will continue to grow over the longer term as we develop the demand from a larger customer base.

Gross margin

The loss of furlough income combined with significant increases in the cost of labour, energy, commodities, overseas freight, and material have all challenged margins. The largest impact over the last year is from significantly reduced automotive volumes that reduce the absorption of fixed production overhead costs.

So, it is a testament to all the control actions taken to improve efficiencies, purchasing costs, labour control and some price increases that, despite a very large reduction in production demand we have managed to control the decline in gross margin to a reduction of just 3.4% to 25.1% compared to the prior year period. However, in the context of increasing costs across the board, the Company maintained margins between H2 21 and H1 22.

EBITDA and operating profit

The reported H1 22 EBITDA loss of £0.35m (H1 21: EBITDA profit of £1.18m) and reported operating loss of £1.13m (H1 21: profit of £0.15m) do not reflect any exceptional costs.

Joint venture

The Group's share of joint venture activities relates solely to Indica Automotive, a UK based foam conversion business. 

Turnover at Indica Automotive decreased by 37.4% to £0.92m (H1 21: £1.47m), with a profit after tax of £0.01m (H1 21: £0.21m). The Group remains the largest customer of the joint venture, and the ratio of sales to the Group as a percentage of total sales has reduced from 82% to 73%.

Net finance expense

Net finance expense for the period was consistent at £0.26m (H1 21: £0.27m) including IFRS 16 charges of £0.14m (H1 21 £0.14m). The interest element of hire purchase agreements is £0.01m (H1 21: £0.01m) with interest charged on bank borrowings of £0.12m (H1 21: £0.13m). 

Taxation

Given the continuing economic conditions, a relatively small proportion of the losses carried forward are recognised in deferred tax balances, consistent with the judgement made in September 2021.

Dividends

The Board continues to believe that during the current period of economic uncertainty a suspension in dividend payments remains appropriate. As such, no interim dividend is proposed.

Net debt and financing

The Group ended the period with net debt (being the net of cash and cash equivalents and the Group's loans and borrowings, excluding right of use lease liabilities) of £1.03m (H1 21 £1.84m). Including £5.25m (H1 21 £5.34m) arising from IFRS 16 lease liabilities, the Group's net debt would be £6.28m (H1 21 £7.18m). Net debt has reduced as a result of the placing of shares in the period offset by the impact of the trading outflows. Cash and cash equivalents at the period end were £2.8m (H1 21: £2.9m). 

In June 2022 the Company secured a deferment of its UK loan repayments until January 2023 and at 31 March 2022, the Group's UK HSBC facilities provided up to £3.5m (H1 21: £6.0m) of invoice financing facility (subject to available accounts receivable balances). In addition, £0.5m (H1 21: £0.5m) of asset finance facilities are available, subject to covenant compliance. At the end of the period, none of the invoice financing facility had been utilised (H1 21: £nil) with £0.4m used from the asset finance facility (H1 2021: £0.4m). Group cash headroom, being the sum of net cash at bank and residual invoice financing capacity, was £5.1m (H1 21 £6.1m).

Capital expenditure

The Group invested £0.1m (H1 21: £0.1m) in its operating facilities during the period. The Group has planned further investment for replacement of ageing equipment, as and where required, and production performance enhancement. Over the coming twelve months, this is expected to be less than £0.5m across the Group.

Government support and cost conservation measures

The Group has reduced reliance on Government support schemes with the easing of the pandemic.

The Group has not utilised any Coronavirus job retention schemes in the UK in the first half of the current financial year. In H1 2021 furlough and pay reduction recoveries across the UK facilities amounted to c£0.35m. In Sweden, the Group was able to secure government funding of £0.02m during the period.

Employees

Autins continued with its Covid-19 safe working practices policy, with appropriate home working, social distancing measures and sanitising hygiene management and monitoring measures. This has only just been relaxed post period end. 

In the UK, we have taken several initiatives to help ensure employee engagement and retention, with special focus on production staff. These include a combination of regular weekly cross functional factory planning meetings coupled with informal feedback "coffee" sessions. We have introduced a banked hours scheme to align surety of workers' pay against volatile customer demand patterns and converted several temporary staff positions to permanent roles to aid core team strength. Production pay rates have been improved by more than 7.5% and overtime rates have also been strengthened to improve net take home pay, with pay banding and related multi-skilling also being improved. Staff retention has been in excess of 95% during the period.

Productivity and teamwork have improved which has had a positive impact on quality, customer service and net cost in the factories. This has been critically important during a period where availability of labour has become a key challenge for manufacturers.

In Germany and Sweden, we have also worked hard to ensure excellent stable and committed teams.

Going Concern

In approving these Interim Financial Statements, the Board have considered current trading, profit and cash flow forecasts and assessed existing borrowings and available sources of finance.

At the time of releasing our full year financial statements, forward looking profit and cash flow projections for FY22, FY23 and beyond until September 2027 were prepared and considered. As noted above, an equity placing of £2.8m (net) was successfully completed in December 2021 and, in conjunction with this, our major UK lenders also gave covenant waivers until March 2023 and capital payment deferments that are now extended until January 2023. This was preceded by an independent assessment of the trading and working capital forecasts for a two-year period until September 2023, which assumed that semi-conductor supply chain disruption would continue throughout calendar 2022 and into 2023, and easement was expected to commence during calendar Q3 2022.

Against a reasonable base case, adverse sensitivities of up to 40% and 50% were assessed against the prevailing key customer demand schedules and forecasts. These assessments were documented in detail in our FY21 audited financial statements.

Whilst UK sales in H1 22 remained above these minimum ranges there remains uncertainty on the exact timing and profile of semi-conductor supply and automotive market recovery against the current backdrop of the Ukraine conflict and global supply chain pressures. However, the Board still believe it is reasonable to expect a modest recovery in automotive volumes in the coming 12 months.

Energy, materials and labour costs are being impacted significantly, and the Company is taking a number of actions to address these issues, including engaging in price increase negotiations with its customers. Accordingly, the Board considers that it is reasonable to assume that these actions will adequately protect gross margins.

The Company will continue further covenant compliance review discussions with its two major lenders over the coming months for the period beyond March 2023, using forecasts that will be updated to incorporate prevailing market and trading data. At the June 2022 reporting date, the Group's liquidity remains healthy, with cash headroom being in excess of £4.5m.

Having due regard to all the matters described above, the Board have a reasonable expectation that the Group will continue to have adequate resources to remain in operation for at least 12 months after the release of these financial statements. The Board has therefore concluded to adopt the going concern basis in preparing these financial statements.

Outlook

OEMs continue to report record levels of order backlogs and the market expects new semi-conductor capacity to begin to ease during the latter part of 2022 after which an automotive market recovery should begin. In addition, the underlying demand for our flooring products remains positive and we continue to develop into other markets as a result of additional dedicated resource.

There is little doubt that we now enter a period of high-cost inflation, and we will continue to take actions to mitigate the impact on margins through efficiency improvements, purchasing cost control and price increases. Over the last two years the Autins Board and Leadership team have demonstrated agility, creativity and great teamwork and will continue to do what is necessary to mitigate inflationary pressures.

Despite the impact of the Ukraine war and semi-conductor supply shortages, which are suppressing the short-term outlook, the medium-term outlook remains positive with an uplift in the number of new enquiries since January 2022 totalling £17m of potential new annual revenue. 45 of these enquiries, with potential annual value of £11m are for parts to go on electric vehicles for 11 different OEMs including new start-ups and established brands.

We will need to continue striking a balance between sharp focus on cost control and executing our growth strategy. Our priorities are to ensure that we can offer innovative recyclable NVH solutions, maximise our penetration onto full electric platforms and continue our diversification into new markets.

Whilst it can be expected that the Ukraine war could suppress the trajectory of market recovery, the medium-term outlook remains positive.

Interim Consolidated Income Statement

Interim Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

Interim Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

Interim Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity Unaudited

Interim Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

Notes to the Interim Consolidated Financial Information

1. Accounting policies

Description of business

Autins Group plc is a public limited company domiciled in the United Kingdom and quoted on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange. The principal activity of the Group is the design, manufacture, and supply of acoustic and thermal insulation solutions. The address of the registered office is Central Point One, Central Park Drive, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV23 0WE.

Basis of preparation

In preparing these interim financial statements, the Board have considered the impact of any new standards or interpretations which will become applicable for the FY22 Annual Report and Accounts which deal with the year ending 30 September 2022 and there are not expected to be any changes in the Group's accounting policies compared to those applied at 30 September 2021.

A full description of those accounting policies are contained within our FY21 Annual Report and Accounts which are available on our website (Autins FY21 ARA).

This interim announcement has been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, as adopted by the United Kingdom as effective for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021.

New accounting standards applicable to future periods

There are no new standards, interpretations and amendments which are not yet effective in these financial statements, expected to have a material effect on the Group's future financial statements.

This unaudited consolidated interim financial information has been prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the United Kingdom. The principal accounting policies used in preparing the interim results are those the Group expects to apply in its financial statements for the year ending 30 September 2022.

The financial information does not contain all of the information that is required to be disclosed in a full set of IFRS financial statements. The financial information for the six months ended 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2021 is unreviewed and unaudited and does not constitute the Group's statutory financial statements for those periods.

The comparative financial information for the full year ended 30 September 2021 has, however, been derived from the audited statutory financial statements for that period. A copy of those statutory financial statements has been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditor's report on those accounts was unqualified, did not include references to any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying its report and did not contain a statement under section 498(2)-(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial information in the Interim Report is presented in Sterling, the Group's presentational currency.

Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements present the results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group") as if they formed a single entity. Intercompany transactions and balances between group companies are therefore eliminated in full.

Subsidiaries are all entities over which the Group has control. The Group controls an entity when it is exposed to, or has rights to, variable returns from its involvement with the entity and has the ability to affect those returns through its power over the entity. Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which control is transferred to the Group and cease to be consolidated from the date on which control is transferred out of the Group.

The consolidated financial statements incorporate the results of business combinations using the acquisition method. In the statement of financial position, the acquiree's identifiable assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities are initially recognised at their fair values at the acquisition date. 

Operating segments

Operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with the internal reporting provided to the chief operating decision maker. The chief operating decision maker has been identified as the management team including the Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer and Chairman.

The Board considers that the Group's activity constitutes one primary operating and one separable reporting segment as defined under IFRS 8. Management consider the reportable segment to be Automotive NVH. Revenue and profit before tax primarily arises from the principal activity based in the UK. All material assets are based in the UK. Management reviews the performance of the Group by reference to total results against budget.

The total profit measure is operating (loss)/profit as disclosed on the face of the consolidated income statement. No differences exist between the basis of preparation of the performance measures used by management and the figures in the Group financial information

2 Revenue

Segmental information

The Group currently has one main reportable segment in each year/period, namely Automotive NVH which involves provision of insulation materials to reduce noise, vibration and harshness to automotive manufacturing. Turnover and Operating Profit are disclosed for other segments in aggregate as they individually have not had a significant impact on the Group result. In H1 FY22 and in FY21 with a continuing subdued automotive market, a majority of the other revenue arises from acoustic flooring sales.

Measurement of operating segment profit or loss, assets and liabilities

The accounting policies of the operating segments are the same as those applied by the Group in the FY21 annual report and accounts.

The Group evaluates performance on the basis of operating (loss)/profit.

Segmental information (continued)

Segmental information (continued)

Reporting of external revenue by location of customers is as follows:

3 Earnings per share

(Loss)/profit per share is calculated based on the share capital of Autins Group plc and the earnings of the Group for all periods.  There are options in place over 2,523,648 ordinary shares at 31 March 2022 with vesting dependent on meeting a combination of EBITDA and share price targets over the period to September 2023. These options were anti-dilutive at the period end but may dilute future earnings per share.

4 Share capital

In December 2021, 15,000,000 additional £0.02 ordinary shares were issued at 20 pence each. Net proceeds of £2,800,000 arose after incurring issue expenses of £200,000. This resulted in an increase in the nominal value of share capital of £300,000 and an increase of £2,500,000 in the share premium account net of the issue expenses. The total number of ordinary shares in issue since the December 2022 is 54,600,984.

5 Taxation

The tax credit for the period reflects losses for the period which are not being recognised as a deferred tax credit and asset (H1 FY21: receipt of a tax refund of £71k arising from the allowances in respect of prior year research and development costs). Given the continuing economic conditions, a relatively small proportion of the losses carried forward are recognised in deferred tax balances, consistent with the judgement made at September 2021.

6 Interim Report

A copy of the Interim Report will be available on the Company's website: www.autins.com.