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2022 Semi-Annual DS Smith PLC Earnings Conference Call Berkshire Maidenhead December 9, 2021 (Thomson StreetEvents) - Edited transcript of DS Smith PLC Earnings Conference Call or Presentation Thursday, December 9, 2021 morning 9:00:00 Greenwich Mean Time Text​​Version of the transcript= =============================== =================== ============================ Enterprise Participants= =================== ============================== =================== ========= * Adrian RT Marsh DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director * Miles W. Roberts DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director ========== ============================== =================== ==================== Conference call participant======= ===================== ============================= ===================== === * Brian Morgan Morgan Stanley, Research-Equity Analyst * Cole Hathorn Jefferies LLC, Research-Vice President * David A . O'Brien Goodbody Stockbrokers UC, Research Department-Building Materials and Paper and Packa Analyst* Harry Philips Peel Hunt LLP, Research Department-Analyst* Justin Joseph Jordan BNP Paribas Exane, Research Department-Analyst* Lars F. Kjellberg Crédit Suisse AG, Research Department-Research Analyst* Samuel James Bland JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Department-Research Analyst ========================= ====================== =========================== ====== Introduction------ ---------- ---------------------------------------- ---------- -------------- Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director[1] ------- ----------- --------------------------------------- ----------- ------------ Good morning and welcome. Welcome to our presentation on the results for the six months to the end of October. I am Miles Roberts, the CEO of the group. My colleague Adrian Marsh, our group financial director also joined me. In the past six months, the entire company has made continuous good progress. As a completely fiber-based company that does not contain plastics, we continue to benefit from a vibrant market, and we position ourselves to benefit from it. Different retail channels are developing rapidly and constantly changing. There is a different relationship between consumers and packaging, and of course COP26. It intensifies the debate and demand for circular solutions and carbon reduction. Therefore, all of this has enabled us not only to achieve growth in the past 6 months, but also to achieve sustained good growth. In this context, we have seen strong growth in our sales, an increase of 9.4%, but we have also seen good pricing momentum, coupled with our financial hedging and long-term in-depth supplier arrangements, enabling us to ease the growing growth Operating costs. As a result, our operating profit increased by 26%, and our earnings per share increased by 33%. I am very happy to see how the United States is doing, and operating profit has increased by 64%, not only due to the excellent pricing momentum, but also due to strong sales growth. Our cash flow has been strong, which brings our leverage ratio to 1.9 times of net debt and EBITDA, which is fully in line with our mid-term goals. Looking forward to the second half, a good start. We also have new investments that will be put into use in the second half of the year. We expect that profitability will further improve significantly in the second half of the year and move towards our mid-term goal. So Adrian, can you show us the details of the financial results? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Adrian RT Marsh, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director[2] --- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Thank you, Miles, and good morning everyone. As my normal reminder, I will describe the performance of the business on a fixed currency basis. The following are our financial highlights. Revenue increased by 22%, reflecting record box sales growth and higher prices in the packaging, paper, and recycling sectors. Altogether, these offset significant cost increases, and operating profit increased by 26%, of which the return on sales in the United States increased by 64% before special or adjusted items increased by 30 basis points. If our increased input costs are matched almost pound by pound in our revenue line, then mathematically speaking, we have a small optical profit dilution, which is offset by sales growth. Obviously, as the price recovery rate in the second half of the year and the next fiscal year exceeds the input cost inflation rate, our profit margins have become higher, pushing back to our target range. Profit growth has flowed to earnings per share and cash, and I will soon talk more about our net debt and leverage reduction. The rate of return on the average use of capital has increased significantly, of course, this is not the same nuance as the profit rate, and more directly proves our improvement in return. As profits grow, and after the expected dilution period following our major acquisitions and the recent COVID impact, we can clearly show that we are also on track to return to our medium-term target of return on average capital used in the short term. Although not on this slide, I believe that a keen eye will find special or adjusted items, as we suggest, during this period is minimal. I will now use the usual bridge to check the main moving parts. A record 9.4% increase in boxed sales contributed £172 million to revenue. The other quantity is a mixture of other packaging and increased recycling, but is offset by the decrease in external paper sales due to the increase in our internal use. The biggest increase is obviously the increase in sales prices. Of the 432 million pounds, about 200 million pounds is packaging pricing, representing an average double-digit increase in box prices, and the remainder is made up of external paper and recycling sales. Turn to EBITA. The contribution of sales growth has normally declined, which is basically the driving force of our profit growth. The situation for other rolls is the same as for revenue. The decrease in external paper sales offsets the increase in other packaging volumes. The sales price/combination drops directly to profit. Happily, we succeeded in pushing pricing to offset the very significant headwinds in cost, and managed the scale of these costs through our proactive procurement. All of this shows that our price recovery still has the usual lag, which has a positive impact on our second half of the year, but in the last three months of the quarter, additional input cost inflation will moderate. Considering all these and our current box prices and index contracts will still be triggered, we are confident that we will further restore prices and increase profit margins in the second half of this year. In terms of cost, the biggest influencing factors are external paper purchases and Fiber OCC, which total about 300 million pounds. Energy, labor, and distribution have also increased significantly. Obviously, energy has been a topic in recent weeks, and our 3-year rolling hedging plan has provided us with excellent protection. Having said that, we are not immune to the impact of year-on-year costs, especially our unhedged 10% risk exposure. Without this hedge, our results will be severely affected. Taking into account our long-term hedging level, especially next year, we expect that our energy costs will not be significantly worse than last year, if the price drops, there is a chance to improve. Overall, the group's profit margin has increased, although as I pointed out earlier, input costs and price inflation dynamics still have a short-term dilution effect, and this effect will be lifted by itself as the price transmission rate exceeds the input cost inflation rate. Despite this short-term impact, we still believe that profit margins will return to our target range; as CEIBS adds more paper production capacity, we believe that our short paper strategy will continue to provide our business with the most efficient use of capital The return allows us to allocate more capital to our higher value-added packaging opportunities. From a regional perspective, there are always differences in our own paper production levels. When paper prices rise or fall sharply, this difference will be exaggerated. Eastern Europe is the region with the shortest paper, and this region has the greatest impact on sales returns during this period before the packaging is usually completed. The key is that once the price recovery rate exceeds the paper price inflation rate, we will see an increase in profit margins, which is also our expectation for the second half of the year and next year. As mentioned earlier, I am particularly pleased to see that the expectations and continuous improvement in North America are in line with what we established 18 months ago. Although we have planned maintenance for our paper mill in Lesboro, we have seen that our profits in the United States have increased by 64% in this six months. I am also pleased to report the continued good cash flow in the first half of the year. After the excellent working capital performance last year, I think we have done a good job and basically remained stable in an environment of rising prices. Although the accounts receivable rises with the selling price, we also benefit from the risk management of energy hedging, which benefits our creditors a lot. For the whole year, I expect a small outflow of working capital. We also reduced the invoice discount to 385 million pounds again, in line with our guidance of less than 400 million pounds. Please pay attention to capital expenditure, we spent 125 million pounds in the first half of the year. I will give my technical guidance soon, but the phases are like this. The first half of the year is always lower than the second half. We still expect the annual amount to be approximately 430 million pounds. Move to the cash flow bridge. Driven mainly by free cash flow, net debt was reduced by GBP 155 million, to its lowest level since April 2017. According to the guidance, the adjustment items have been reduced to a negligible amount, and the acquisition and disposal items are the net amount of the sale and deferred part of interstate put options and some secondary interest acquisitions. For me, one of the highlights of the result is that the ratio of net debt to EBITDA has returned below 2 times. This is due to the increase in EBITDA this half year and the reduction in net debt. I expect it to continue to fall below the target for the full year. A cash flow headwind is coming. Finally, my technical guidance. We are expected to deliver in accordance with our guidance at the beginning of the year and further improve our financial KPI. Therefore, with this in mind, the guidance we gave before is basically unchanged, but there may be any small changes due to foreign exchange conversion. Now, I will return you to Miles to show you some operational highlights and some opportunities we are really excited about. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [3]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Thank you, Adrian, for letting us know the details of financial performance. But now I want to take a moment to talk about why we can achieve success with our customers? Emphasize some of the background behind this and what makes us confident in future growth and future opportunities. But first, I want to review some of the operational highlights in the first half of the year. People who turn to us. Everyone working at DS Smith, we once again see the high commitment and responsiveness of the entire company. Where inevitably there are some local problems, these problems are very short-lived and are resolved through our scale and flexibility and all our factories in full operation throughout the period. Take a look at our supply chain. This has always been very safe. Our procurement and procurement functions within the group, coupled with long-term and deep relationships with many suppliers, especially in key areas such as starch, energy, chemicals, and of course papermaking, have achieved good supply security and good Level supplier service. For our customers, we have been in close contact with them, listening to their voices, understanding their challenges and responding to them. This allows us to maintain a good level of service. We have good agility in meeting these ever-changing needs, and are usually supported by the extensive use of new digital technologies to help us adapt really quickly. Of course, all of this supports good pricing momentum to recover our increasing costs. Therefore, throughout the first half of the year, we saw good sales growth. We have been grabbing market share. As mentioned earlier, the growth rate is 9.4%. The FMCG industry is still very strong and strong. We see a partial recovery in the industrial sector, which is only a small part of our business, which may be about 16%, but some of our customers have been affected by some capacity restrictions, but we expect this situation to recover. With our large customers, we continue to grow strongly. In the past 6 months, they have certainly been seeking the security of supply and strong governance that we can provide them, while also satisfying their innovation needs and sustainable development goals. In the United States, we are particularly strong. Once again, use our global account. To be honest, if it were not for such a tight labor market, we could have grown stronger in the United States. The volume of the second half of the year started well. We have a healthy order book, and many truly exciting opportunities give us confidence in this year's prospects. At DS Smith, we put ourselves at the center of the 3 structural growth drivers, digital support, the changing retail environment, and the entire debate around sustainability and plastic replacement. At COP26, it further intensified the debate and once again raised awareness of the importance of the environmental impact of the lifestyle of all of us. Of course, it is about carbon. We have a science-based goal and promise to achieve net zero by 2050. But this is also our work in the circular economy, with regard to closed loops, reuse, recycling and plastic replacement at every opportunity. This alternative is supported by new legislation, which has now entered and will continue to enter the entire European Union and the United Kingdom. Here I show our performance in a series of ESG indexes over the years. You can clearly see continuous, good, strong, and steady progress. With MSCI, we have an AA rating, which is particularly relevant for shareholders and capital providers. When we talked to our customers, they were still very interested in CDP scores and they were happy with our continued progress there. Our rankings improved further this week, confirming this again. And turn to some practical examples of sustainability and action. The first is the recyclability around the circular economy and the actual recycling of packaging. As the largest fiber recycler in Europe, it has a wide range of recycling operations throughout Europe. Products are 100% recyclable. We use a completely closed-loop method to collect waste from customers and convert them into packaging. We have seen many customers grant new long-term -Based on closed-loop fixed-term contracts. Here I show an example of working with wine supplier Laithwaite's, where we collect waste and convert it into packaging within 14 days and bring it back to them. But very importantly, we have just signed an important new contract with a very large customer over the years, and our closed-loop products help us ensure the safety of this business. Of course, in terms of plastic substitution, the combination of new legislation, new plastic taxes and consumer awareness is accelerating the conversion of plastics to fibers. Therefore, during the entire fiscal year of the last fiscal year, we replaced 54 million plastic products with fiber products. In the first six months of this year, we converted 118 million pieces. We expect this rate of change to increase in the future. We will continue to invest to support this growth. We have seen strong continued demand, structural tailwinds, and in-depth dialogue with our customers. As we continue to invest in new technologies and new capacity, they are usually more efficient, carbon neutral, and can provide very attractive capital returns of 15% to 20%. For example, we have 2 new packaging plants. Both will be online on H2. They are all 50% pre-sold, and our customers are very excited about these truly state-of-the-art facilities. Of course, we will continue to evaluate more opportunities with our customers to support them in the medium term. When we combine these deep customer relationships with the structural tailwinds provided by our market and our supply chain and operational capabilities, we can see good sales growth, increased productivity and pricing momentum, all of which strengthen us Achieve the confidence goal of the mid-term goal. So, all in all, we are satisfied with the progress of H1, with the increase in sales volume, our customer service level, our supply chain strength, which allows us to manage our cost base and pricing momentum as well as strong cash turnover. Looking ahead, we have a good start in terms of sales and pricing momentum in the second half of the year. Therefore, in the second half of the year, we do expect a significant improvement in profitability and strong progress in achieving all of our mid-term financial goals. thank you very much. Adrian and I are now happy to answer any questions you have. ================================================== =============================== Questions and answers ----------------- -------------------------------------------------- ------------- Operator[1] -------------------------------- - -----------------------------------------------(operate Explanation) So our first question comes from Lars Kjellberg. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Lars F. Kjellberg, Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division-Research Analyst [2] --- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Just a few questions. The most striking thing is that someone discussed the energy surcharge, especially for cardboard paper. So I just want to hear your thoughts, how do you deal with this situation in the downstream corrugated paper activities, can you pass this kind of information, or have you been exposed to it? The other one I just want to talk to you about sustainable packaging. You said I think you said that 118 products were replaced this year, compared with 54 last year. Can you tell us what this means for your own new business? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [3]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Thank you, Russ. We have seen some-we have read some announcements from suppliers of energy surcharges. We ourselves have not actually experienced this situation in the supply chain. As I said, we work with many paper suppliers, but they often have quite long and deep relationships. So we haven't actually seen it yet, but we have seen it-we know that some people have already done this elsewhere. Of course from ourselves, but we have not done so yet. As I said, we have conducted extensive hedging and it is in place. And I think this is not just a hedge, but other solutions where we use more biomass. Different types of energy solutions help us alleviate this situation. However, due to various reasons, the price of paper has risen very strongly. As you can see in our results, we have actually completely mitigated all the cost increases that we are facing due to price increases, and we absolutely expect this to continue in the second half of the year. Obviously, we have already seen it in November, which has strengthened our confidence in this. I think-if we only look at plastics, then the wide-ranging environmental debate is actually looking at all the renegotiations we have with many major customers. It is just the importance of monitoring environmental issues and their location and ability to replace plastics. one. If you look back a few years-you have been monitoring for a long time, if you look back a few years, this is only one of the problems. But now it is there. Usually, this is the first thing they want to talk about, they want to talk about long-term innovation. How can we take out the plastic? What are the opportunities there? How can we improve our environment into a footprint? As you know, we have our design indicators, and we use these indicators with all our customers to really show them the impact of our products on the environment and our performance there. I think this is really regarded as an industry standard now. So it becomes more and more important. We put plastics there because they have been an example of the use of plastics by 118 million people. So far, we have been monitoring for the past few years. This may be during that time, it may be more and more-in terms of our income, it may be less than 1%. But I think what we are very excited about is that this is only part of the overall debate, but the growth rate was 54 million units last year and 118 million units in the first six months. We know that the effect of the legislation is coming. We know that taxes are imposed on plastics. I said that we do not produce plastic products. So our business has no conflicts in this regard. We can see what our customers say to us, and we expect this growth rate to continue to grow. Let's see where it will reach, but this is just another tailwind there. But thank you for your question. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[4] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Cole Hathorn of Jefferies. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Cole Hathorn, Jefferies LLC, Research-Vice President [5] ------ -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Just got 2. The first one is the on-demand trend. I mean you have talked about a good start to the second half. Can I start thinking about how this is progressing? I mean we-you do have a stricter combination. Are you paying attention to this demand trend? Yes, you will have stricter compensation, so your sales growth will obviously slow down, but you need a high level of understanding, you are talking about industrial recovery. So I just want to know how do you see the sales growth this year and next year? Secondly, regarding the North American division, you talked about a good recovery there, and there is a recovery, but the export prices in the United States are very strong. Will this benefit be reflected in the performance of your business in the second half of the year, your export prices are really starting to materialize, and you see the recovery of the North American division? How should we view the phases of the North American division in the second half of the year? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [6]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Thank you, Cole. On the demand side, you are absolutely right. We had a stronger and more difficult comparison in the second half of last year. I think it’s about 8.4%, and I think you have grown in the second half of last year, and you have grown by 3.5% throughout the year. But despite this, demand remains strong. We are still very busy. Obviously, we are now ahead of Christmas, and e-commerce continues-moving forward very well. Looking forward to the second half of the year, we see some new contracts. The entire environmental debate continues. So we actually see the absolute level of demand. Our forward orders are very strong, very strong, and very encouraging. We have these two new websites coming online soon, obviously, we are looking forward to their launch. They have been pre-sold 50%, and they are all on track. Also-I think their remaining capacity may be a little earlier than we originally planned. It looks really good, and it looks like it will last until next year. It is now clear that the entire economy is uncertain, what will happen and all these things. So we can't give exact numbers, but it does feel that it continues to be strong. You are right, in North America, export prices have been strong. Since we opened a new Lebanese factory, our export volume has been greatly reduced. This continues to grow very well. It does a great job. So our impact on these export prices is much smaller. But despite this, domestic pricing in the United States has also been strong. The price recovery is very good. But we will see more impact-I think as Adrian said, we will see more impact in the second half. Therefore, the outlook for North America in the second half of the year is that we will see further continuous improvement in this business. Similarly, in the first half, as Adrian said, we did close a large paper mill there, but-this will not happen in the second half. Therefore, we should see further good progress there, no matter in quantity or price, we will not close this paper mill. This is a planned maintenance shutdown. But thank you, Cole. thank you. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[7] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Sam Bland from JPMorgan Chase. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Samuel James Bland, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division-Research Analyst [8] --- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- I have two questions, if you can, okay? The first one is, can you talk about the percentage of trading volume in the index or contract price, and hasn't really seen an increase after the recent increase in paper prices? The second problem is that I guess you are now below your leverage target, and as your profitability rises, you may fall further below the target. What are the options? Will it continue to deleverage now, or-and other things you can do with cash, basically? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [9]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Thank you, Samuel. I will take the first one and let Adrian talk to you about leverage. You are absolutely correct. We have index trading. These are average jobs and may be the past 3 months. They do often need a little time, so it takes longer than our free negotiation. Currently, our contracts are at a high level-higher-45% to 50% of contracts are index trading, and 50% to 55% are freely negotiated. There are key indicator points. The next one is-I mean, they happen all the time, but you will see some major events on January 1st, you are right, we want to see-we certainly want to see October, November And the paper price increase that was actually realized during December has further recovered very well automatically, and the increase is considerable. So they will pass there like the first half. But Adrian, about leverage? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Adrian RT Marsh, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director[10] --- -------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Yes. Thanks, Samuel. When it comes to leverage, you are right. I am very happy that it is now below our target level. As you said, mathematically speaking, if you look forward, people can easily expect to see further improvements. But it is now just at or below our goal. We are very encouraged by the forward cash flu. But as Miles described in the second half of the year, we are making two very, very large capital projects, the Polish green space and the Italian green space, these two huge state-of-the-art facilities. Chasing organic growth there, the returns are very good. As you might expect, we will continue to look for future opportunities. What I mean is obvious, we have a limited number of options. We can invest in growth capital to achieve our target capital return in advance. We can continue to deleverage or return capital. They are effective options. As you might expect, Miles and myself and the board of directors are evaluating this very carefully. Similarly, we are in ongoing discussions with shareholders on expectations. However, although there are good organic opportunities that have brought us considerable returns, it is clear that we are also paying attention to these opportunities. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[11] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Brian Morgan of Morgan Stanley. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research Department-Equity Analyst[12] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ What we obviously feel is that the current cardboard paper market is very, very tight. I just want to know your net short position. Are you currently struggling to get a paper in any particular grade? Or your grades are poor, or your current potential areas where the thesis is insufficient? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [13]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- No, look, we-so we do have a short position, which is really important that Capacity, independent paper capacity that continues to go online in Germany. In fact, now that more production capacity has just opened up, instead of investing in the area and surrounding areas, we are more willing to buy paper. We believe that the return on these assets is not attractive to our shareholders. But obviously, we will not do this easily. We have signed long-term supply agreements with many large independent paper producers. Quite a lot of the new production capacity that is about to go online and has been announced will go online. We have reached agreements with these suppliers in the past 1, 2, 3 years to obtain the paper they produce. So in general, we did not encounter any paper supply problems. More important is the issue of logistics. We have the documents we need, just to make sure we can move it, there will inevitably be some-there are some logistics issues, they are very short-term. We have our own internal fleet. We have been able to use these to ensure that we can provide customers with a high level of service. So there is no real problem. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research-Equity Analyst[14] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ No problem with access? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [15]- -------------------------------------------------- - ----------------------------- No. No, it's not special. No, but thank you. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[16] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- Our next question comes from David O'Brien from Goodbody. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ David A. O'Brien, Goodbody Stockbrokers UC, Research Department-Building Materials, Paper and Packaging Analyst[17] ------------------------------- -------------- -------------------- If you can, there are two questions about sustainability. I guess you mentioned in the comments that Myers, when discussing contracts with clients, sustainability has raised the list of criteria. First of all, does this enable you to achieve or do you think it allows you to achieve a price premium in a short period of time, which is what the industry has been striving to achieve for many years? I guess you also mentioned one of the very long-term contracts. Maybe you can comment on what has changed to the contract period as we provide more value-added products to our customers? Secondly, how do we view carbon emissions, or how do you view the carbon emission intensity of your company? In particular, when we consider recycling cardboard paper, do you have the current average system carbon intensity per ton and the target you hope to achieve in 5 or 10 years? What are the key levers that enable you to reach your goals? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [18]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ They are two very important issues. In terms of sustainability, if you look at the chart on EBITDA bridge prices provided by Adrian, you can see that the cost of raw materials has increased and actually restored them slightly. This is called price and combination. We can pass on rising prices. If we actually look at profitability in cents or cents per square meter, for more sustainable products, where there are more projects, then it will definitely be better.我认为我们应该继续加强和解释那里的内在价值。最终，这是关于我们的客户向消费者提出这种情况。如果我们看到客户能够就其产品的完整环境认证与消费者建立联系，那么那里显然存在溢价。但这需要解释，需要- 需要对此进行更多营销。在它起作用的地方，它运行良好。但显然还有更多工作要做。而且我确实认为，在未来几年中，您声称拥有这些证书，而不同的消费者群体将支付该溢价，这将变得更加两极分化。而且我认为还会有其他一些。但它正在朝着正确的方向发展。当然，在短期内，我对价格回升和拥有这些解决方案的客户的粘性感到非常满意，因此我们有能力公平定价。效果很好。你对碳强度的看法是完全正确的。如您所知，我们有一个基于科学的目标。到2050 年，我们必须将每吨碳减少90% 以上。这就是标准。在过去的10、15 年里，我们取得了巨大的进步。但我们确实有一个到2030 年的中期目标，我们需要将每吨碳强度降低40% 以上。我们绝对可以做到这一点。我们解决该问题的大部分方式实际上与我们目前拥有的各种电源解决方案以及热能和能源解决方案的百年布局有关。因此，它们与现有的更换计划相关联。但很明显，他们——那些新设施必须更加高效，而且他们还必须使用一些新技术。所以有更多关于能源的废物，更多关于生物质，还有更多关于沼气。我们再次使用已知技术，以及良好的能源供应链。我认为我们将实现这些目标到2030 年。我们实际上正在讨论[他们一天]，再次，详细。我们正在以合理的成本实现这些目标。我们不会在这里看到某种形式的资本支出激增，因为无论如何都与必要的安置相关联，而且我们通常会得到政府的拨款和支持来做到这一点。所以这就是我们必须做的，我们有一个很好的计划。但是谢谢你。谢谢你的问题。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ 操作员[19] ---------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------- 我们的下一个问题来自法国巴黎银行Exane 的Justin Jordan。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Justin Joseph Jordan，法国巴黎银行Exane，研究部- 分析师[20] ----- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- 先生们，我有一个关于DS Smith 论文策略的问题。最近几天，我与您的几位主要股东进行了交谈，其中许多人很高兴今天与您通话。先生们，我会委婉地说，你的股东感到有些困惑，你的股东被出售了一个愿景，即DS Smith 短文策略将带来两个方面，首先，高回报，其次，（听不清）回报，那么你就更加垂直整合了欧洲的同行或美国的WestRock 可悲的是，事实与此大相径庭。首先，今天早上，您报告息税前利润率连续下降，截至21 年4 月的6 个月内为8.8%，并在截至21 年10 月的6 个月内攀升至8.2%，在此期间您更加垂直诸如此类的综合同行都支持利润率的连续提高，因为它们的成本通胀较低。它们实际上是集成在一起的。你不是纸现在可悲的是，这不是过去6 个月的一次性事件。事实是，在过去的5 年中，DS Smith 的EBIT 利润率上限一直低于您的虚拟集成同行，并且波动更大。所以我的问题是，您能否向您的股东，尤其是今天与我们通话的股东解释一下，为什么DS Smith 董事会会协助制定短文策略，该策略谴责您的股东首先要确保较低的回报，更重要的是，比垂直整合的同行更不稳定的回报，例如和------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- 迈尔斯W. 罗伯茨，DS 史密斯Plc - 集团行政总裁兼执行董事[21] --------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- 贾斯汀，谢谢你的问题。我要说的第一件事是，这不是我们得到的反馈，但很好。我的意思是，如果你有的话，很好。现实是我们已经出发了，而且我们已经很清楚了。我们的主要目标是使用资本的回报。我们进行了几次非常重要的收购，在这些收购之前，或者在我们宣布收购的时候，我们描述了对所用资本回报的稀释影响。我们现在看到那些回到我们的目标。关于利润率，这正是我在演讲中所说的。随着我们收回成本，我们的利润在数学上会被稀释。然后随着我们的价格回升率超过通胀水平，它们又会重新回到我们的目标。所以那里没有问题。就短期或长期纸张而言，我们之前已经描述过，这与我们希望在造纸业中使用的资本量有关。如果我们购买或成功，我们与完全集成的可比竞争对手没有什么不同，因为您仍将拥有OCC 和能源的投入成本。当然，除非目前用再生纸制成的超级好处。我们所看到的实际上与此相反。被压缩的再生纸的附加值。显然，这在Kraftliner 上有所不同。我要说的另一点是，我没有看到可比较的，我的意思是，您描述为长纸公司的公司之一。所以当然，当纸价上涨时，他们会获得更好的利润；同样，当它下降时，我的利润率会大大降低。你描述的另一个有许多相似之处，但也是重要的塑料业务。我们不分手。我们看不到这些不同的运动部件是什么。所以我只能描述我们的业务，我们的战略，我们对此非常清楚。我们相信这是正确的。我们希望将资本部署在可以增加最大价值的地方，我们将从中获得最好的回报。从历史上看，这是通过一些重大的收购来实现的，这些收购具有商誉，实际上可以去除商誉。显然，您也可以得出不同的结果。所以我们对此很满意。我们已经确认了我们的中期目标。我们可以看到通向这些的桥梁，但我很欣赏这个问题。谢谢。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ 操作员[22] ---------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------- 所以我们的下一个问题来自Peel Hunt 的Harry Philips。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Harry Philips，Peel Hunt LLP，研究部- 分析师[23] ------ -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ 只是一个关于您的顶线增长目标的快速问题。回顾历史，十年以来，GDP 增长了1%。迈尔斯，你提到了塑料替代品接近1% 的情况，电子商务显然正在加速发展。所以我只是想知道你在什么时候认为这个目标过于保守，你可能会考虑稍微提高一点？ -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc - 集团首席执行官兼执行董事[24] -- -------------------------------------------------- ------------- 哈利，这是一个我们一直在思考的问题和挑战。我们的业务与GDP 之间显然存在脱节。如果你看看去年，当我们市场的GDP 严重为负时，我们的交易量增长了3.5%。今天坐在这里，我们继续看到良好的强劲增长。而我们的挑战更多是关于它的绝对水平吗？从中期来看，我们谈到的那些驱动因素很明显，我们应该预期增长会高于过去。我们可以看到，在我们的客户中，我们可以看到他们交谈的方式，我们可以看到我们如何分享，我们可以看到我们如何在现有客户中分享，我们可以看到持续时间我们与他们签订的合同。所以我们感觉很积极。有点让我们退缩的东西就像每个人一样，只是一个不确定的环境。但我们可以看到的是未来的良好增长。也许它处于更绝对的水平。也许我们在某种程度上与GDP 脱钩了，因为我们在快速消费品和我们谈到的那些顺风方面得到了更多。但我们确实在积极地看待它。当我们准备好时，我们会回来，我们会再次审视这个目标，但这肯定是我们展望未来的事情。它将回到中期目标。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ 操作员[25] ---------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------- 所以我们的最后一个问题来自Jefferies 的Cole Hathorn。迈尔斯，看起来我们已经失去了科尔，所以我会把它转回给你的任何结束语。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc - 集团首席执行官兼执行董事[26] -- -------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- 谢谢大家，今天早上抽出时间来听我们讲话。我们对此非常感激。但总而言之，我们对销量增长感到满意。我们对价格和势头感到满意。北美正在强势崛起。资产负债表状况良好。正如我所说，仅展望下半年，我们预计盈利能力将显着改善，并朝着我们的中期目标迈进。但是，再次谢谢你。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc - 集团首席执行官兼执行董事[26] -- -------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- 谢谢大家，今天早上抽出时间来听我们讲话。我们对此非常感激。但总而言之，我们对销量增长感到满意。我们对价格和势头感到满意。北美正在强势崛起。资产负债表状况良好。正如我所说，仅展望下半年，我们预计盈利能力将显着改善，并向我们的中期目标迈进。但是，再次谢谢你。 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc - 集团首席执行官兼执行董事[26] -- -------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- 谢谢大家，今天早上抽出时间来听我们讲话。我们对此非常感激。但总而言之，我们对销量增长感到满意。我们对价格和势头感到满意。北美正在强势崛起。资产负债表状况良好。正如我所说，仅展望下半年，我们预计盈利能力将显着改善，并朝着我们的中期目标迈进。但是，再次谢谢你。DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director[10] --- ---------------------------------- ---------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Yes. Thanks, Samuel. When it comes to leverage, you are right. I am very happy that it is now below our target level. As you said, mathematically speaking, if you look forward, people can easily expect to see further improvements. But it is now just at or below our goal. We are very encouraged by the forward cash flu. But as Miles described in the second half of the year, we are making two very, very large capital projects, the Polish green space and the Italian green space, these two huge state-of-the-art facilities. Chasing organic growth there, the returns are very good. As you might expect, we will continue to look for future opportunities. What I mean is obvious, we have a limited number of options. We can invest in growth capital to achieve our target capital return in advance. We can continue to deleverage or return capital. They are effective options. As you might expect, Miles and myself and the board of directors are evaluating this very carefully. Similarly, we are in ongoing discussions with shareholders on expectations. However, although there are good organic opportunities that have brought us considerable returns, it is clear that we are also paying attention to these opportunities. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[11] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Brian Morgan of Morgan Stanley. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research Department-Equity Analyst[12] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ What we obviously feel is that the current cardboard paper market is very, very tight. I just want to know your net short position. Are you currently struggling to get a paper in any particular grade? Or your grades are poor, or your current potential areas where the thesis is insufficient? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [13]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- No, look, we-so we do have a short position, which is really important that Capacity, independent paper capacity that continues to go online in Germany. In fact, now that more production capacity has just opened up, instead of investing in the area and surrounding areas, we are more willing to buy paper. We believe that the return on these assets is not attractive to our shareholders. But obviously, we will not do this easily. We have signed long-term supply agreements with many large independent paper producers. Quite a lot of the new production capacity that is about to go online and has been announced will go online. We have reached agreements with these suppliers in the past 1, 2, 3 years to obtain the paper they produce. So in general, we did not encounter any paper supply problems. More important is the issue of logistics. We have the documents we need, just to make sure we can move it, there will inevitably be some-there are some logistics issues, they are very short-term. We have our own internal fleet. We have been able to use these to ensure that we can provide customers with a high level of service. So there is no real problem. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research-Equity Analyst[14] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ No problem with access? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [15]- -------------------------------------------------- - ----------------------------- No. No, it's not special. No, but thank you. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[16] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- Our next question comes from David O'Brien from Goodbody. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ David A. O'Brien, Goodbody Stockbrokers UC, Research Department-Building Materials, Paper and Packaging Analyst[17] ------------------------------- -------------- -------------------- If you can, there are two questions about sustainability. I guess you mentioned in the comments that Myers, when discussing contracts with clients, sustainability has raised the list of criteria. First of all, does this enable you to achieve or do you think it allows you to achieve a price premium in a short period of time, which is what the industry has been striving to achieve for many years? I guess you also mentioned one of the very long-term contracts. Maybe you can comment on what has changed to the contract period as we provide more value-added products to our customers? Secondly, how do we view carbon emissions, or how do you view the carbon emission intensity of your company? In particular, when we consider recycling cardboard paper, do you have the current average system carbon intensity per ton and the target you hope to achieve in 5 or 10 years? What are the key levers that enable you to reach your goals? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [18]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ They are two very important issues. In terms of sustainability, if you look at the chart on EBITDA bridge prices provided by Adrian, you can see that the cost of raw materials has increased and actually restored them slightly. This is called price and combination. We can pass on rising prices. If we actually look at profitability in cents or cents per square meter, for more sustainable products, where there are more projects, then it will definitely be better. I think we should continue to strengthen and explain the intrinsic value there. Ultimately, it's about our customers raising this situation to consumers. If we see that customers can establish contact with consumers about the complete environmental certification of their products, there is obviously a premium there. But this needs to be explained, needs-more marketing is needed for this. Where it works, it works well. But obviously there is more work to be done. And I do think that in the next few years, you claim to have these certificates, and different consumer groups will pay the premium, which will become more polarized. And I think there will be others. But it is moving in the right direction. Of course, in the short term, I am very satisfied with the price rise and the stickiness of the customers who have these solutions, so we have the ability to price fairly. good results. Your view of carbon intensity is completely correct. As you know, we have a science-based goal. By 2050, we must reduce every ton of carbon by more than 90%. This is the standard. In the past 10 or 15 years, we have made tremendous progress. But we do have a mid-term goal by 2030. We need to reduce carbon intensity per ton by more than 40%. We can definitely do this. Most of the ways we solve this problem are actually related to the century-old layout of various power solutions and thermal and energy solutions that we currently have. Therefore, they are linked to the existing replacement plan. But it is clear that they — those new facilities must be more efficient, and they must also use some new technologies. So there is more waste about energy, more about biomass, and more about biogas. We once again use known technology and a good energy supply chain. I think we will achieve these goals by 2030. We are actually discussing [their day], again, in detail. We are achieving these goals at a reasonable cost. We will not see some form of capital expenditure surge here, because anyway it is associated with the necessary resettlement, and we usually get government funding and support to do this. So this is what we have to do, we have a good plan. But thank you. Thank you for your question. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[19] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- Our next question comes from Justin Jordan of BNP Paribas Exane. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Justin Joseph Jordan, BNP Paribas Exane, Research Department-Analyst[20] --- - ------------------------------------------------ - ------------------------ Gentlemen, I have a question about DS Smith's thesis strategy. In recent days, I have spoken with several of your major shareholders, many of whom are happy to call you today. Gentlemen, I will say euphemistically that your shareholders are a little confused. Your shareholders have been sold with a vision, that is, DS Smith’s short essay strategy will bring two aspects, first, high returns, and second, (inaudible) returns , Then you are more vertically integrated with your European counterparts or WestRock in the United States. Sadly, the facts are quite different. First of all, this morning, you reported that the EBIT margin has been continuously declining. It was 8.8% in the 6 months ended April 21 and climbed to 8.2% in the 6 months ended October 21. During this period, you More vertical and other comprehensive peers support continuous increase in profit margins because of their lower cost inflation. They are actually integrated. You are not a paper now. Sadly, this is not a one-off event of the past 6 months. The fact is that in the past 5 years, DS Smith’s upper EBIT margin has been lower than your virtual integrated peers, and has fluctuated more. So my question is, can you explain to your shareholders, especially the shareholders who spoke with us today, why DS Smith’s board of directors will assist in the development of a short essay strategy that condemns your shareholders to first ensure lower returns, and more It is important to have more volatile returns than vertically integrated peers, such as and --------------------------------- ---- ------------------------------------- Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director[21] --------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- Justin, thank you for your question. The first thing I want to say is that this is not the feedback we got, but it's good. I mean, if you have one, great. The reality is that we have already set off, and we are already very clear. Our main goal is the return on the use of capital. We have made several very important acquisitions, and before these acquisitions, or when we announced the acquisition, we described the dilution effect on the return on capital used. We now see those returning to our goals. Regarding profit margins, this is exactly what I said in my speech. As we recover costs, our profits will be mathematically diluted. Then as our price recovery rate exceeds the inflation level, they will return to our target. So there is no problem there. In terms of short-term or long-term paper, we have described it before, and this is related to the amount of capital we hope to use in the paper industry. If we buy or succeed, we are no different from a fully integrated comparable competitor, because you will still have the input cost of OCC and energy. Of course, unless the current super benefits made with recycled paper. What we have seen is actually the opposite. The added value of compressed recycled paper. Obviously, this is different on Kraftliner. The other point I want to make is that I have not seen anything comparable, I mean, you describe one of the companies as a long paper company. So of course, when the price of paper rises, they will get better profits; similarly, when it falls, my profit margin will be greatly reduced. The other one you describe has many similarities, but is also an important plastic business. We do not break up. We can't see what these different moving parts are. So I can only describe our business, our strategy, and we are very clear about it. We believe this is correct. We hope to deploy capital where it can add the greatest value, and we will get the best return from it. Historically, this has been achieved through some major acquisitions, which have goodwill and can actually remove goodwill. Obviously, you can also get different results. So we are very satisfied with it. We have confirmed our mid-term goals. We can see the bridge to these, but I appreciate this question. thanks. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[22] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Harry Philips from Peel Hunt. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Harry Philips, Peel Hunt LLP, Research Department-Analyst [23] ----- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Just a quick question about your top-line growth goals. Looking back at history, in the past ten years, GDP has increased by 1%. Myers, you mentioned that plastic substitutes are close to 1%, and e-commerce is clearly accelerating. So I just want to know when you think this goal is too conservative, you might consider raising it slightly? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [24]- -------------------------------------------------- -------------- Harry, this is a question and challenge that we have been thinking about. There is clearly a disconnect between our business and GDP. If you look at last year, when our market’s GDP was severely negative, our transaction volume increased by 3.5%. Sitting here today, we continue to see good and strong growth. And our challenge is more about its absolute level? In the medium term, the driving factors we talked about are obvious, and we should expect growth to be higher than in the past. We can see, among our customers, we can see the way they talk, we can see how we share, we can see how we share among existing customers, we can see the duration we have with them Signed contract. So we feel very positive. Something that makes us retreat is just like everyone, just an uncertain environment. But what we can see is good growth in the future. Maybe it is at a more absolute level. Maybe we are decoupled from GDP to some extent, because we get more in FMCG and the tailwinds we talked about. But we do look at it positively. When we are ready, we will come back, and we will look at this goal again, but this is definitely something we look forward to. It will return to the mid-term goal. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[25] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our last question comes from Cole Hathorn of Jefferies. Miles, it looks like we have lost Cole, so I will turn it back to any closing remarks for you. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [26]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Thank you all, for taking the time to listen to us this morning. We are very grateful for this. But all in all, we are satisfied with the sales growth. We are satisfied with the price and momentum. North America is rising strongly. The balance sheet is in good condition. As I said, only looking forward to the second half of the year, we expect profitability to improve significantly and move towards our mid-term goals. But thank you again. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [26]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Thank you all, for taking the time to listen to us this morning. We are very grateful for this. But all in all, we are satisfied with the sales growth. We are satisfied with the price and momentum. North America is rising strongly. The balance sheet is in good condition. As I said, only looking forward to the second half of the year, we expect profitability to improve significantly and move towards our mid-term goals. But thank you again. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [26]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Thank you all, for taking the time to listen to us this morning. We are very grateful for this. But all in all, we are satisfied with the sales growth. We are satisfied with the price and momentum. North America is rising strongly. The balance sheet is in good condition. As I said, only looking forward to the second half of the year, we expect profitability to improve significantly and move towards our mid-term goals. But thank you again.DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director[10] --- ---------------------------------- ---------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Yes. Thanks, Samuel. When it comes to leverage, you are right. I am very happy that it is now below our target level. As you said, mathematically speaking, if you look forward, people can easily expect to see further improvements. But it is now just at or below our goal. We are very encouraged by the forward cash flu. But as Miles described in the second half of the year, we are making two very, very large capital projects, the Polish green space and the Italian green space, these two huge state-of-the-art facilities. Chasing organic growth there, the returns are very good. As you might expect, we will continue to look for future opportunities. What I mean is obvious, we have a limited number of options. We can invest in growth capital to achieve our target capital return in advance. We can continue to deleverage or return capital. They are effective options. As you might expect, Miles and myself and the board of directors are evaluating this very carefully. Similarly, we are in ongoing discussions with shareholders on expectations. However, although there are good organic opportunities that have brought us considerable returns, it is clear that we are also paying attention to these opportunities. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[11] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- So our next question comes from Brian Morgan of Morgan Stanley. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research Department-Equity Analyst[12] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ What we obviously feel is that the current cardboard paper market is very, very tight. I just want to know your net short position. Are you currently struggling to get a paper in any particular grade? Or your grades are poor, or your current potential areas where the thesis is insufficient? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [13]- -------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- No, look, we-so we do have a short position, which is really important that Capacity, independent paper capacity that continues to go online in Germany. In fact, now that more production capacity has just opened up, instead of investing in the area and surrounding areas, we are more willing to buy paper. We believe that the return on these assets is not attractive to our shareholders. But obviously, we will not do this easily. We have signed long-term supply agreements with many large independent paper producers. Quite a lot of the new production capacity that is about to go online and has been announced will go online. We have reached agreements with these suppliers in the past 1, 2, 3 years to obtain the paper they produce. So in general, we did not encounter any paper supply problems. More important is the issue of logistics. We have the documents we need, just to make sure we can move it, there will inevitably be some-there are some logistics issues, they are very short-term. We have our own internal fleet. We have been able to use these to ensure that we can provide customers with a high level of service. So there is no real problem. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Brian Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Research-Equity Analyst[14] --- --- ----------------------------------------------- --- ------------------------ No problem with access? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [15]- -------------------------------------------------- - ----------------------------- No. No, it's not special. No, but thank you. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Operator[16] --------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------- Our next question comes from David O'Brien from Goodbody. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ David A. O'Brien, Goodbody Stockbrokers UC, Research Department-Building Materials, Paper and Packaging Analyst[17] ------------------------------- -------------- -------------------- If you can, there are two questions about sustainability. I guess you mentioned in the comments that Myers, when discussing contracts with clients, sustainability has raised the list of criteria. First of all, does this enable you to achieve or do you think it allows you to achieve a price premium in a short period of time, which is what the industry has been striving to achieve for many years? I guess you also mentioned one of the very long-term contracts. Maybe you can comment on what has changed to the contract period as we provide more value-added products to our customers? Secondly, how do we view carbon emissions, or how do you view the carbon emission intensity of your company? In particular, when we consider recycling cardboard paper, do you have the current average system carbon intensity per ton and the target you hope to achieve in 5 or 10 years? What are the key levers that enable you to reach your goals? -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Miles W. Roberts, DS Smith Plc-Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director [18]- -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ They are two very important issues. In terms of sustainability, if you look at the chart on EBITDA bridge prices provided by Adrian, you can see that the cost of raw materials has increased and actually restored them slightly. This is called price and combination. We can pass on rising prices. If we actually look at profitability in cents or cents per square meter, for more sustainable products, where there are more projects, then it will definitely be better. I think we should continue to strengthen and explain the intrinsic value there. Ultimately, it's about our customers raising this situation to consumers. If we see that customers can establish contact with consumers about the complete environmental certification of their products, there is obviously a premium there. But this needs to be explained, needs-more marketing is needed for this. Where it works, it works well. But obviously there is more work to be done. And I do think that in the next few years, you claim to have these certificates, and different consumer groups will pay the premium, which will become more polarized. And I think there will be others. But it is moving in the right direction. Of course, in the short term, I am very satisfied with the price rise and the stickiness of the customers who have these solutions, so we have the ability to price fairly. good results. Your view of carbon intensity is completely correct. As you know, we have a science-based goal. By 2050, we must reduce every ton of carbon by more than 90%. This is the standard. In the past 10 or 15 years, we have made tremendous progress. But we do have a mid-term goal by 2030. We need to reduce carbon intensity per ton by more than 40%. We can definitely do this. Most of the ways we solve this problem are actually related to the century-old layout of various power solutions and thermal and energy solutions that we currently have. Therefore, they are linked to the existing replacement plan. But it is clear that they — those new facilities must be more efficient, and they must also use some new technologies. So there is more waste about energy, more about biomass, and more about biogas. We once again use known technology and a good energy supply chain. I think we will achieve these goals by 2030. We are actually discussing [their day], again, in detail. We are achieving these goals at a reasonable cost. We will not see some form of capital expenditure surge here, because anyway it is associated with the necessary resettlement, and we usually get government funding and support to do this. So this is what we have to do, we have a good plan. But thank you. Thank you for your question. ------------------------------------------

The share price of Chinese electric car maker Weilai (NYSE: NIO) plunged 4% this morning, and then began to rebound, first higher and then lower. The convergence of China's negative macroeconomic news headlines may put pressure on NIO's stock. Of course, the first and most important thing is the worry that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may begin to delist Chinese stocks because China has failed to allow its companies to accept audit inspections by the Accounting Supervision Committee of US Listed Companies. However, in addition to this, last week the Chinese real estate giant China Evergrande Group finally and officially placed itself in default when it missed the deadline to pay the due interest on international loans worth about US$1.2 billion.

Warren Buffett once talked about buying a good company at a reasonable price than buying a good company at a reasonable price. These three companies have been serving investors well, but recently their prices may have exceeded their own levels. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer that has grown into a behemoth with a recent market value of nearly 750 billion U.S. dollars.

The stock price of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has risen by more than 450% in the past five years. From fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2016, Microsoft's annual revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was only 4.1%. The architect driving this growth is Satya Nadella, who succeeded Steve Ballmer as the third CEO of Microsoft in 2014. Under Nadella's leadership, Microsoft's annual commercial cloud revenue rose from US$12.1 billion (14% of its revenue) in fiscal 2016 to US$69 billion (41% of total revenue). Income) in fiscal year 2021.

Semiconductor company Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares fell again on Monday-4.2% as of noon Eastern Time-and fell for the fourth consecutive day. There does not seem to be any special news behind today's decline, at least not for Nvidia. Although the high demand for high-end Nvidia graphics chips is usually good news for the company and its pricing power, the network pointed out that "more and more products are hidden under semiconductors", but "things made with chips are not only Use one chip.” So even if a PC manufacturer is lucky enough to get all the Nvidia chips it needs, it may not be able to sell its PC if it cannot get all the power control, memory, and other chips needed to make the product. .

As we enter 2022, stock selection may be the key, uncertainty is entering the market and opening the door to potential volatility.

Argonaut Gold Inc. (TSX code: AR) (the "Company", "Argonaut Gold" or "Argonaut") announced that it has completed its review of the estimated construction capital ("EAC") upon completion of its 100% owned Magino Project in Ontario, Canada ("Magino" or "Project"). The company also announced leadership changes. Unless otherwise stated, all U.S. dollar amounts are expressed in Canadian dollars. "US$" refers to U.S. dollars.

The market has become hostile to expensive growth stocks, which may be bad news for Cloudflare.

In this article, we will look at 10 high dividend stocks in 2022. To skip our detailed analysis of dividend investments, you can directly view the 5 high dividend stocks in 2022. As an investor, dividend investment is still the focus of 2021, scrambling to find a reliable source of income in the middle […]

The Supreme Court will not block the authorization of New York's healthcare vaccines, Apple is preparing to become the first company with a market value of $3 trillion, MGM Resorts selling Mirage Hotel to Hard Rock, and other news to start a new day.

Our appeal from Stifel that day believes that the Fed is working hard to create a bubble of the century. This is what happened before.

Since its direct listing in September 2020, the performance of the work collaboration software company Asana (NYSE: ASAN) has been impressive. Compared with the 39% increase in the S&P 500 index over the same period, its share price has risen by nearly 141 %. This seemingly large recent sell-off does not seem to be related to Asana's business performance (see below for more details), but to the current broader market volatility. Since its debut on the public market, Asana's overall performance has been strong and still has great potential in the future, making it a wise addition to long-term investor portfolios. According to Asana, knowledge workers spend 60% of their time on "work-related tasks" such as emails and meetings.

Towards the end of the year, professional analysts on Wall Street are busy integrating their forecasting models in an effort to let investors understand the direction of the market. All in all, this seems to be a positive picture. Despite some recent volatility, the market is still following the upward trend that has been maintained since last spring. Chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus leads the bulls in Oppenheimer's article. He thinks the S&P 5 index will rise by 13%

The company has just entered the third day of open market trading and is experiencing volatility.

The S&P 500 Index is not far from hitting a new all-time high after rebounding from the recent sell-off caused by concerns surrounding omicron variants. Since healthcare companies are generally more resilient than most other industries due to the critical nature of the products and services they sell, it is best for investors to focus on the healthcare industry. Below are two high-quality healthcare stocks operating in the pharmaceutical and health insurance sectors of the healthcare industry. The first stock is the pharmaceutical stock Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN).

In this article, we will discuss 10 high-dividend stocks that yield more than 12%. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of dividend investments and these stocks, please go directly to 5 high-dividend stocks with yields over 12%. For investors seeking passive income and retirement [...], dividend investment has always been an attractive option.

Stocks with a predicted yield close to 8% and a predicted P/E ratio close to 9 are either huge value traps or absolute thefts.

If you are looking for a company with development potential, investing in growth stocks may bring great returns in a promising market. Two growth stocks that provide investors with excellent buying opportunities during the recent decline include Chargepoint Holdings (NYSE: CHPT), a leader in the fast-growing electric vehicle market, and world-class media and entertainment giant Walt Disney ( New York Stock Exchange code: DIS). Chargepoint serves more than 5,000 customers worldwide and 76% of the Fortune 50 companies. It provides more than 118,000 charging stations in North America and Europe, making it its closest market share in secondary charging to 70% More than 7 times that of North American competitors.

The three underperforming stocks in 2021 are PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), and Pinterest (NYSE: PINS), which fell 23% each , 22% and 45%. For Twilio and PayPal, the market has readjusted the valuation of each stock and provided investors with buying opportunities. Pinterest’s business indicators are moving in the wrong direction that the market is paying attention to, but investors have ignored its potential revenue. Payment giant PayPal has achieved some victories throughout 2021.

In this article, we will discuss 10 cheap growth stocks that billionaire Steve Cohen thinks are worth buying. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of these stocks, please go directly to the 5 cheap growth stocks that billionaire Steve Cohen believes to buy. Steve Cohen manages Point72 Asset Management, a US$23 billion hedge fund company […]

Roblox (NYSE: RBLX) is one of the pioneers of Metaverse and is about to usher in 2021. Overall, Roblox's stock price has risen 65% so far in 2021. Let's study Roblox in more depth to see if this Meta universe stock is still suitable for buying in 2022. Roblox makes money by selling a currency called Robux that players can use on its platform.