Hello, everyone, and welcome to International Distribution Services full year results presentation. I'm John Crosse, Director of Investor Relations. Now, before we start, I'd like to address the delay in publishing our 2023-2024 results yesterday. The sole reason for that delay was due to the group's auditor, KPMG, requesting additional time to complete the usual standard procedures after their internal reviews were late in the audit timetable, thereby delaying their final audit process. I'd also like to draw your attention to the usual disclaimer in our release this morning on forward-looking statements. This sets out examples of the factors that can cause actual results to differ from any forward-looking statements that we make. A summary of the principal risks and uncertainties, which could affect the group, was set out in today's release, and they'll also be included in the annual report, which will be published in June of this year. All of these risks and uncertainties have the potential to impact the group's business results of operations, financial condition, and prospects adversely. As you'll know, we're also in an offer period, which means we are subject to the rules of the U.K. Takeover Code. That means that today's presentation will focus on our performance in 2023, 2024. We won't be making any forward-looking statements. And now, turning to today's agenda, Martin will kick off with some initial comments. Michael will then take you through the financials, and then Martin will cover the business updates for both Royal Mail and GLS. So I'll now hand over to Martin. Thanks, John, and hello, everyone. It's great to be here presenting our full year results for the 2023-2024 financial year. IDS delivered a good performance during the year against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. We have set Royal Mail on the right trajectory and made good progress on delivering our modernization agenda. We have improved quality, won back customers lost during industrial action, managed cash more rigorously, and delivered Christmas for our customers. This is great progress, though there is hard work in front of us to get back to profitability. GLS built on its track record of growth and outperformed its peers with revenue growth across almost all markets. Operating margin is lower than prior year due to prolonged investment into growth and cost pressures. I will now hand over to Michael to run you through the IDS group financials for 2023-2024. Thanks, Martin. We achieved a good performance across the group, with revenue at GBP 12.7 billion, a 4.1% increase year-on-year on a 52-week basis. Growth was seen in both Royal Mail, as it recovered from the industrial action in the prior year, and in GLS against a difficult trading environment. In parcels, we saw volume growth of 5%, taking the total number of parcels handled in the year to 2.2 billion. This now means the revenue generated from parcels across the group is just short of GBP 9 billion, a 4% increase year-on-year. The overall loss position on an adjusted basis was GBP 28 million, an improvement of GBP 43 million, reflecting pricing actions and a focus on cost management. Excluding the voluntary redundancy charge of GBP 12 million, it was close to breakeven at a GBP 16 million loss, as the profits in GLS broadly offset the losses in Royal Mail. This was broadly in line with our expectations. In-year trading cash flow was an outflow of GBP 73 million, a worsening of GBP 39 million. This was largely driven by an increase in working capital due to the additional week in Royal Mail, which affected the timing of payments at year-end. Net debt in the year increased by GBP 216 million to GBP 1.7 billion, with the group maintaining a strong conservative balance sheet, with a focus on cash management and liquidity, supported by the additional bonds issued in the first half of the year. The board is proposing a final dividend of GBP 0.02 per share. Moving on to slide seven, you can see some more granular detail of the financial performance of the group. I'd like to draw attention to the results, which presented on both an adjusted 53-week basis and also on adjusted 52-week basis. The 52-week adjustment removes an estimate of the impact of the additional trading week within Royal Mail during the year. All year-on-year percentage movements to operating profit are reported on a like-for-like basis, comparing 52 weeks to 52 weeks. Moving on to Royal Mail in more detail. Revenue was up 3.8%, with growth in both letter and parcels, driven by a strong performance in the second half of the year. This is despite the continued decline in letter volumes, which was 9% in the year, as we introduced price increases, which offset this decline. In parcels, we continued to win back customers lost during the dispute, as well as gaining new business from both existing and new customers, resulting in volumes increasing 17% in the second half of the year. The tight control on costs against the 6% pay deal and high inflation meant overall costs only increased by 3.2%, meaning losses were reduced by GBP 71 million to GBP 348 million, which was broadly in line with our expectations. In-year trading cash flow improved partly as a result of the reduction in losses. In addition, we implemented tight controls on cash management and prioritized investment projects, reducing capital expenditure. This helped to part offset increased working capital outflows, which were impacted by the timing of payroll and VAT payments at year-end due to the additional 53rd week. Again, the financial tables on this slide are provided to give more detail on Royal Mail performance. Turning now to GLS. As mentioned, against an increasingly difficult economic backdrop, GLS performed well, delivering a 4.6% increase in revenue in sterling terms, with revenue growth in almost all its markets. The revenue increase was driven by increased volumes, which were up 5%, partly offset by the lower freight revenue and product mix, with a higher proportion of lower weight B2C shipments. High inflation continued to put pressure on costs, particularly staff costs and subcontractor rates. The cost increases were only partially offset, which contributed to an 8% reduction in operating profit for the year to GBP 320 million, or EUR 371 million in euro terms. GLS's ongoing investments into strategic growth, including scaling out of home and launching further parcel hubs, also adversely affected operating margin, where we saw an uplift in CapEx expenditure of circa 25% year-on-year. This next slide presents the GLS results in more detail, both in sterling and euros. Despite the challenges of recent years, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet position with tight cash management and disciplined capital allocation. At year-end, we retained liquidity at the group level of GBP 2.1 billion, including GBP 925 million relating to the undrawn revolving credit facility. During the year, we issued two new bonds, extending the debt maturity and refinancing the existing EUR 500 million 2024 bond, EUR 365 million of which matures in July. The blended interest rate on debts, including leases, was around 4%. In summary, a good financial performance across the group, despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop and a strong balance sheet with the ability to invest. I'll now pass back to Martin. Thank you, Michael. Now coming to the business updates of both Royal Mail and GLS. As you have now heard, Royal Mail successfully delivered its year-end forecast. Royal Mail has crossed an inflection point in 2023, 2024, and is on a positive trajectory. Our operational turnaround is in full swing and accelerating apace, with an average improvement in quality of service across our commercial products of 2%, and 3.9% across First Class letters between Q2 and Q4 of last year. We reported our best Christmas performance in four years, with more than 99% of items posted before the last recommended posting dates arriving by Christmas Eve. A great achievement, enabled by the stability we have brought to the frontline and the best middle-mile performance we have seen in a very long time. We delivered these improvements while also enhancing productivity across both processing and delivery, with more than half of delivery offices either reaching or exceeding their target. We are also focused on progressing our modernization agenda. Last year saw the launch of our new channel strategy, where we are expanding choice and convenience for our customers. As a part of this, we entered new partnerships with Quadient and Collect+ convenience stores. By this Christmas, we will have added 1,500 lockers and 5,000 Collect+ sites to our existing out-of-home offering. This is a 50% increase in choice for customers and a big step forward. We have achieved our parcel automation goals well ahead of schedule, deploying the use of automated guided vehicles and loose-load trailers, increasing throughput in our parcel hubs considerably. We've made good progress delivering the pay deal initiatives, including the introduction of later start times, revised Ts and Cs, and new attendance and sickness policies. We continue to reduce our emissions to further solidify our position as the greenest parcels operator in the U.K. We saw an 8% reduction last year, with now a quarter of our last mile delivery routes being zero emission and 7% of Royal Mail's HGVs using biofuel. This is all great progress. However, significant headwinds remain. Royal Mail remains a loss-making business, requiring transformation to become a successful parcels and letters operator. This will take time, money, and considerable effort. Royal Mail operates in an extremely competitive U.K. market, with the macroeconomic environment remaining tough as we see stickier than anticipated inflation and decreased consumer spending. USO reform is still not agreed, and progress is too slow. The fact is, the current universal service, which is among the most rigid in Europe, remains both unachievable and unsustainable, with a consistent decline in letters, which has been a further 9% this year. USO reform is urgent, and our proposed approach does not require legislative change. Reform is in the hands of Ofcom. Therefore, we once again call on Ofcom to drive this change as soon as possible. Now moving on to the business update for GLS. Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, GLS delivered good financial performance over the year, with revenue growth of 4.7%, outpacing our key European competitors. Top-line growth was driven by 5% higher parcel volumes and 8% cross-border volumes. Our price mix was influenced by growing B2C share, where GLS has seen market-leading volume growth of 10%. Operating profit is at the upper end of full-year guidance, though down 8% year-over-year, adversely affected by ongoing investment and increased staff costs and subcontractor rates. GLS continues to successfully invest in its strategic priorities. We have unlocked significant capacity and productivity with the new Madrid hub, and we will open two new automated hubs in Paris and Berlin in time for the peak season, growing overall parcel capacity in Europe to over 750,000 parcels per day. Alongside this, we continue to transform the last mile. We achieved more than 50% growth in our locker footprint, led by strong investment in Eastern Europe. We acquired a leading parcel shop chain in Italy, formed locker partnerships in France, Netherlands, and Germany. We are actively implementing measures to reduce emissions, growing our eco-friendly fleet by 47%, now equating to 11% of vehicles. For GLS to continue building on its track record of growth and consistent margin, continued investment into strategic priorities is required. This includes further upgrading the network, increasing automation to gain cost efficiency, scaling our locker footprint further and faster, investing in seamless digital consumer experiences, and exploring strategic acquisition options. To summarize, in terms of 2023, 2024, IDS delivered good performance, where we made considerable progress despite a challenging environment. At Royal Mail, we have crossed an inflection point, and the business is on a positive trajectory, though there is hard work in front of us to get back to profitability. GLS built on its track record of growth and outperformed its peers with revenue growth across almost all markets, though operating margin is lower than prior year due to prolonged investment into growth and cost pressures, both of which we see continuing. I would like to finish today by thanking all of our colleagues for their efforts and hard work. Thank you for listening.
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