Good afternoon, this is the Coral School conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Fiera Milano Good afternoon, this is the Coral School conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Fiera Milano full year 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Vincenzo Cecere, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Fiera Milano's 2023 results conference call. This is Vincenzo Cecere speaking, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability, and I'm here with Francesco Conci, CEO, and Massimo De Tullio, CFO of Fiera Milano. The presentation of today will be structured in three sections. During the first section, Mr. Francesco Conci will give you an overview of the business, main financial highlights, and 2024 outlook. Then, Mr. Massimo De Tullio will go through the divisional results and financial figures in greater detail. On a final note, an update on sustainability will also be provided. At the end of the call, you will be invited for a Q&A session with management available for your questions. At this point, I leave the floor to Francesco Conci for the key messages of 2023 results. Please, Francesco, go ahead. Good evening, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Fiera Milano 2023 full year results conference call. I'm very pleased to present to you a very strong set of results this year, which resulted in a very remarkable year in the history of Fiera Milano. With 73 exhibitions, 132 congresses, and more than 1.8 million sq m sold, the group has delivered a record-breaking set of results. Revenues have reached EUR 284 million, reflecting an increase of +29% compared to 2022, meaning that Fiera Milano has already exceeded the 2019 pre-pandemic level of EUR 279 million, slightly above market forecasts. This achievement underscores our resilience and strategic execution, demonstrating our ability to not only recover but also expand our market presence. EBITDA has experienced a significant boost, reaching EUR 97 million, marking an improvement of almost EUR 40 million compared to 2022, reflecting a very remarkable growth of +66%. 2023 EBITDA exceeded both our initial forecast and analyst consensus estimated by approximately EUR 10 million. Net result registered a record-breaking year, standing at EUR 45.5 million and marking a significant improvement from the EUR 5.8 million lost in 2022. The significant improvement of all the main economic results is attributed to our strategic and operational execution across all our core business segments. Italian exhibition business showcased significant revenue growth, driven by the strong performance of key events and a favorable trade fair calendar. The business approached pre-pandemic levels, with notable contributions from biennial shows like OST, ITMA, and PLAST. In particular, OST, our largest organized exhibition, has grown more than 45% in terms of occupied, while MADE has experienced a growth in square meters of 66%. We also launched a new exhibition, GEE, Global Elevator Exhibition, with 7,000 square meters at its first edition, and we hosted for the first time ISSA PULIRE, 40,000 square meters. Congresses achieved a record year, surpassing pre-COVID levels in revenue and EBITDA, thanks to a major medical congresses and corporate conventions. Foreign exhibition business showed remarkable recovery in profitability levels, mainly driven by the operation in China, where we doubled the number of exhibitions compared to the previous year. We are particularly pleased to report 2023 results exceeding both analysts' expectations and our provision guidance, primarily thanks to a very strong Q4 performance of OST and EICMA, cost-saving initiatives, and complete rebound of the operation in China. In terms of financial strength, net cash has reached EUR 81 million, a significant increase of EUR 51 million compared to EUR 30 million as of December 2022. Net cash at year-end exceeded both the consensus estimate of analysts and the previous guidance by EUR 23 million due to higher EBITDA contribution and improved working capital dynamics. Given our strong cash generation and solid financial structure, we are pleased to announce the proposal to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.40 per share to our shareholders, marking our return to dividend distribution after four years. Looking ahead to 2024, we are optimistic about our financial outlook. Despite the less favorable calendar year, we anticipate the EBITDA to range between EUR 65 million-EUR 75 million, supported by positive indications from our 2024 scheduled events, including the return of significant itinerant events like CPHI and CHINA, with more than 100,000 sq m expected, twice the size of the last edition, and the biennial Mostra Convegno Expocomfort, with more than 80,000 sq m. On 8 April, we will present our Strategic Plan 2024-2027. This presentation will be a key milestone sharing our vision and development initiative for the next phase of Fiera Milano growth. Please join us for this important event. You will receive an invitation shortly. At this point, I will leave the floor to Massimo for the business and financial review. Please. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining the call. I will now, as Francesco already mentioned, bring you through these results and give you some explanation about how we scored this positive result this year. As Francesco already said, the results were very, very positive at all the divisional levels. In fact, if we look at all our, let's say, divisions, we scored an increase in revenues and EBITDA basically on all our divisions, for sure, in the Italian exhibition business. Also, the congresses scored a positive increase in revenues, and the foreign exhibition business as well scored a positive increase, at least in EBITDA. Let's go now through the Italian exhibition business, which is for sure the most important one, which is accounting for 83% of our group revenue, with EUR 241 million revenue reached in 2023. These EUR 241 million basically are marking an impressive increase of EUR 65 million if we compare the same result achieved in 2022, which was EUR 176.8 million, which represents a growth of 36%. More importantly, if we compare the 2023 result with 2019, we see that basically we reached almost 98% of our pre-pandemic revenue in this division. The main driver for the growth, if we look at the increase between 2023 and 2022, are basically two. All the events, or most of the events, basically performed an increase in terms of volumes, square meters, and revenues compared to 2022, basically confirming a full recovery or at least a gradual recovery from the, let's say, pandemic shock. We are basically coming back year- over- year and increasing year- over- year volumes and revenues compared to the previous year, and we are approaching the pre-pandemic levels. If we go, let's say, for instance, we can do some examples. Basically, MICAM, Omnifashion & Jewel, or EICMA. All the annual events scored an increase compared to the previous edition. We also had in 2023, because this is, let's say, the year is, let's say, characterized by a more favorable calendar impact because of the presence of the biennial organized events. We had not only the presence of OST, which achieved so far the record in terms of revenue, even compared to 2019, an increase compared to the 2021 edition of 45% in terms of square meters, but we benefit also from the presence in 2023 of some pluriannual exhibitions. In particular, we had ITMA and PLAST that boosted the 2023 results. It's worth noting that we, as Francesco mentioned, launched also the MIBA, the new alliance related to the building. In this alliance, we launched a new event, a brand new event organized by Fiera Milano, the Global Elevator Exhibition (GEE), which at the first edition scored a very positive result and also positive in terms of contribution margin. Another important element to justify the increase in revenues and EBITDA compared to 2022 is the increase in the services and in the revenues and in the margin generated by the services. Considering the services we achieved this year, looking at the Italy division, 40% of weight, almost 40% of weight of our turnover, and we increased compared to 2022 the revenues of services by 25%. This is also thanks to the presence of the multi-annual exhibition like ITMA and PLAST, which, let's say, accounts for a higher, let's say, revenue per square meter if we look at the penetration of services. Other example of exhibition that increased in a significant way compared to last year, I was mentioned before, OST, which increased by 44%-45% in square meter compared to the last edition, 2021. MADE Expo, another important organized exhibition by Fiera Milano, scored 33,000 sq m compared to the 20,000 of the last edition, with an increase of 66%. Looking at the, let's say, OST events, so the events not organized by Fiera Milano, we have seen an increase in EICMA, EICMA Moto with a record edition of 120,000 sq m. Linea Pelle with two events per year that scored an increase compared to the last edition of 7%. Artigiani Fiera 13%. Mido, one of the most important fairs in the sector, scored a 33% increase in terms of volumes. Milano Unica as well increased by 22%. All these factors basically helped Fiera Milano to hit an EUR 80 million EBITDA in the Italy division, which is basically a EUR 35 million increase if we compare this result to 2022. To these results contributed also the, let's say, Italian JV, so Fiera di Parma and JV positive results. Now, if we look at the congresses division, we scored as well an increase in terms of revenues compared to 2022. We had EUR 4 million more, so we reached EUR 47 million compared to the EUR 43.3 million of 2022, while at EBITDA level, we scored more or less the same result. In terms of revenues, we had positive impact through the presence in the congresses portfolio of the year of conferences such as ERS, (the Respiratory One), EULAR, (the rheumatology event), and the urology HIEU, ECTRIMS as well, and HIRA. At EBITDA level, we have to say that the congresses results were affected by the increase in the cost of energies that, as we already mentioned in the past, in 2023, have been considerably higher compared to 2022, which was benefiting of a fixed rate contract that the company had previously signed off in 2021. Basically, this year, both the Italian division and the congresses division were affected by a material increase in the energy cost. This explains also why we did not increase significantly the EBITDA of congresses. Looking at the foreign exhibition business, we have just to explain that in terms of revenues, in the foreign division, we have a calendar impact, which is the opposite of the one that we have in Italy. Basically, in the odd year, we are less positive because we miss some biennial events. This explains the slight drop in revenues because we passed from EUR 8.7 million to almost EUR 4 million. When we look at the EBITDA, then we have to account for the very positive impact of our JV with Hannover Messe, which is basically organizing events in China. The JV with Hannover basically scored a higher result not only compared to last year, but also compared to 2019. This is clearly the effect of a completely, let's say, a completely rebound and restart of the exhibition in China that were basically suspended for almost the entire year in 2022. Thanks to this positive contribution, our international division scored an EBITDA result, which has been even higher compared to the 2019 one. Regarding the operation in Brazil and South Africa, we are, let's say, we have positive news for the future, at least for Brazil. We can say that we have closed two JVs, one with IFEMA, the Fair of Madrid, to launch a new exhibition in Brazil, which is Fruit Attraction São Paulo. This exhibition will be managed through this partnership. We did another partnership with NürnbergMesse in order to launch in Brazil the exhibition Esquadria. As I was mentioning before, when we look at 2023, we have to account for a less favorable calendar year because basically we missed in 2023 events like FESQUA, R+T South America, and Events, which typically take place in the even year. Regarding the, let's say, Foreign Exhibition, I would say that that's all. I'm going now to provide you with an in-depth overview of our economic performance in 2023, presenting the slide from 16 to 19. First of all, let me remark that all the guidance that we previously gave to the market have been surpassed. All the guidance in terms of revenues, EBITDA, and Net Financial Position have been exceeded. When we look at the EBITDA, we had a guidance of EUR 85 million-EUR 95 million with a midpoint at EUR 90 million, and we reached EUR 97 million. We also gave a guidance in terms of turnover between EUR 275 million and EUR 280 million, and we scored EUR 284 million. In terms of Net Financial Position, our previous guidance was close to EUR 55 million-EUR 60 million, and we have closed with an EUR 81 million Net Financial Position. It is important anyway to underline that this guidance, at least the EBITDA one, was basically provided during the Connect Plan, a plan that has been performed in 2021. Now, we all know that since 2021, a lot of things have changed. First of all, we experienced almost double-digit inflation if we cumulate 2022 and 2023. With the impact, as I was mentioning before, also on the energy cost, which accounted just considering the baseline for more than EUR 5 million increase compared to 2022. The fact that we were able to not only reach those two increases, the previously provided guideline is a very positive result for this company. In terms of operational highlights, we organized a total of 73 exhibitions with 44 held in Italy and 29 abroad. Among these, 43 were owned events, so organized by Fiera Milano, and 30 events were hosted events. We also hosted 132 congresses, and the total occupied exhibition space amounted to 1,882,000 sq m. Now, let's take a look to our financial performance for 2023. At Group level, we have done really well with EUR 284 million revenues. That's a significant increase of EUR 63.5 million, more than last year, and nearly 29% increase. Even compared, as I was mentioning before for the Italian Exhibition Division, even compared at Group level with the 2019 turnover, basically we were able to increase the turnover by almost 1.5%. As I was mentioning before, our success growth this year had several key drivers. For sure, the positive impact of our event calendar, which is positive in the odd year, as I was mentioning before. The presence of OST that anyway I have to remark again scored the record turnover, even compared to the 2019 exhibition, and notwithstanding the fact that we didn't reach the same square meters of the last edition. We missed more or less 10% of square meters, but we scored a higher turnover, also thanks to the services penetration. I was mentioning the basically growth of all the not only annual exhibitions, but also the biennial one. All the exhibitions scored better than the last and the previous edition. As well as I already mentioned, the increase in the services, which now accounts for almost 40% of the Italian Division in terms of turnover, and also the Congresses scored very well, at least in terms of revenues, and then scored the same level of EBITDA of last year. All these factors led to an EBITDA of EUR 97 million for 2023, which is a substantial growth, a substantial increase of almost EUR 40 million, EUR 38.7 million compared to last year EBITDA. A 66% increase. Let's say that there has been also another couple of, let's say, key trends that have contributed to the success. Firstly, our revenues have been following an upward trajectory, which has been bolstered by a mix of events that have been well received and strategically timed. Secondly, our partnership has been performing very strongly. The joint venture with Deutsche Messe in China has exceeded pre-COVID performances, as I was mentioning before. Not only better than last year, but even better than 2019. We have anyway to, let's say, notice that if we compare our result and our achievement to the pre-pandemic level, we are discounting for sure higher structural costs. I was mentioning before the energy cost and the increase we faced in this, but also when we look at the personnel cost, we have to consider all the increase in the national contracts that we are facing in this year and in the previous year. At least all our suppliers are increasing as a consequence, their tariffs and their prices. The net result of the year, when we look at the, let's say, standard business, has been really, really, really positive. Let's say that we closed in terms of net result to EUR 45.5 million, which compared to the EUR 5.8 million of last year is an increase of more than EUR 50 million. Even if we, let's say, take out from this achievement, from this result, the impact of the operation to food, we remain, we stand with a EUR 29 million net profit, which compared to the minus EUR 6 million of last year represented a plus EUR 35 million increase compared to 2022. Thanks to this, and also thanks to what we are going to look at now in terms of balance sheet and net financial position, we anticipate that today we have submitted and got approval from the board to come back to a dividend distribution in 2024 related to the 2023 result. Looking at the balance sheet and cash flow, I would just highlight three main points. First of all, we had an increase in the other non-current asset because of the operation with Fiera fdi Parma.b The purchase of the stake of 18.5% of Fiera di Parma in exchange of two to food of the two to food. In terms of networking capital, I think this is the other part that was to be mentioned. We had a shift from EUR 72.4 million to EUR 98.2 million. This increase in liquidity, which accounts for almost EUR 26 million, is mainly due to the dynamics of advances and increasing debt to supplier. It's quite typical for the odd year, but let's say that this year has been also amplified by the fact that we are in a recovering path. We are in a growing path, and this, let's say, amplifies also this kind of impact, which normally affects the odd year, but in this case was even higher than what we expected. For sure also the Q4 result had positive impact on this. In terms of net financial debt, as a consequence of the EBITDA and the shift in the working capital, we can mention a very high increase from the previous net financial position. The EUR 30 million almost we scored at the end of 2022 up to EUR 81 million almost at the end of 2023, with an increase of EUR 51 million that we can basically, let's say, explain looking at very few elements. The EBITDA accounted for EUR 97 million. When we take out the cash out related to the rents, we take out EUR 55.4 million. We remain with EUR 42 million more or less. We had the working capital shift for almost EUR 26 million, take out the CapEx expenditure for EUR 11 million, and then we landed to an operating cash flow of almost EUR 56 million. If we consider that we are accounting for equity result of our JV for almost EUR 6 million that we have not yet, let's say, received in terms of dividends, that we land to the EUR 51 million of free cash flow that we accounted in terms of variation between 2023 and 2022. Now, I'm pleased to leave you now the space for Q&A. We are here, me and Francesco and Vincenzo, for your questions. Thank you. This is the CORSCO conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. We kindly ask you to use handsets when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Emanuele Gallazzi, Equita. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking my question, and thank you for the presentation. I have three questions. The first one is on services. You mentioned a strong growth in 2023 compared to 2022. Can you just give us a sense of the drivers of this growth in terms of, I don't know, higher penetration or higher prices? The second one is on the Italian exhibition business. If you can just give us, let's say, an idea of the current performance of the first quarter events and on the level of bookings for the events of the second quarter. The last one is on the capital allocation, basically because you ended 2023 with this very good net financial position with over EUR 80 million of net cash. I know that you likely provide all the details during the capital market day, but at this stage, any comment on the M&A strategy will be very useful. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Emanuele, for your question. Your first question was about the services. Now, we scored this 25% increase in terms of absolute value, in terms of revenues. Clearly, there has been a positive impact of the calendar. The presence of the pluriannual events, EatMom Plus, and also the biennial OST, let's say, led part of this increase. If we take out this impact, we remain anyway, I think, with more than 10% increase, a like-for-like increase. Out of this 10%, we could say that 2% could be related to price increases, and the remaining part is a penetration increase. These affected almost all the services. We speak about stand fitting, the catering services, the technical services provided to the exhibitor. All the services line had a very positive increase in terms of penetration. Now, the second question was about the Q1 2024. We have positive, let's say, in this moment, we have, let's say, partial results for January and February, and we have some expected results for March events. In this moment, at least we see on the organized events an increase of, let's say, something between 15-20%. Also the OST events, the biennial OST events, or Mostra Convegno Expocomfort, looks like is bringing an increase of almost 19%. This is. Maybe just a clarification. Are you referring to top lines or revenue contribution or in terms of? At the moment, I'm referring to, in this moment, I'm making reference to revenues. Okay. Okay. Clear. Okay. Regarding Q2, we say more or less the same path of growth compared to 2023. These led us also to confirm for the time being the previous guidance in terms of EBITDA between EUR 65 million-EUR 75 million. Now, the third question was about capital allocation. As you know, we will have on the 8th of April, the new strategic plan disclosed. I think any comment about the M&A will have the right place in that context. For the time being, I can confirm that clearly with this net financial position and with the perspective of generating additional cash in the coming year, this company has to think about an M&A strategy. For the time being, I cannot anticipate nothing more. Totally fair. Thank you very much. The next question is from Simonetta Chiriotti, Mediobanca. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. The first question is about cash. You reached a level which is already in line with a target that you had for 2025. One of the drivers was basically the dynamic in working capital. My question is, do you expect that this generation of capital that came from working capital evolution will be reabsorbed in 2024 or 2025? Can we assume that you will add new cash flow on top of what you have reached in 2023? The second question is on Congress' positive trend in revenues. Last positive in terms of EBITDA, do you see any improvement also in terms of profitability from Congress'? Or do not you see this possibility? Thank you. Thanks, Simonetta. Regarding the net financial position, in the even year, we have, let's say, the opposite impact in terms of working capital. I do not see an impact, let's say, equal to the positive one that we had this year. I expect a negative impact in terms of working capital. All in all, let's say, considering also the dividend distribution, we can expect our financial position not to deteriorate and to go lower than, let's say, in this moment, I can anticipate EUR 55 million-EUR 60 million. This is clearly taking aside any kind of M&A operation that could take place in 2024. For the time being, considering the CapEx that we are going to face in 2024, and specifically the one related to the media center and the dividend distribution, the networking capital, let's say, dynamic, and the EBITDA range communicated, I think EUR 55 million-EUR 60 million net financial position can be considered a reasonable landing point. The other question was about congresses. We see already this year an improvement in terms of energy costs. We expect this will probably bring some fresh air to the EBITDA, the EBITDA margin of congresses. On top of that, I think we faced in 2023 also a little bit of a different mix of events. We hosted some specific events in the sports sector. We hosted the Mondiale di Scherma, some events for padel, the Christmas Village at the end of the year. Clearly, these events have probably lower profitability compared to the corporate ones or the standard ones. As more as we, let's say, will gain experience also in managing this kind of events, I think we will also recover and we will regain profitability also managing this kind of, let's say, events. Yes, I expect to recover profitability on Congress' very soon. The next question is from Andrea Bonfà, Banca Akros. Please go ahead. Hello. Good evening to everybody, and thank you for taking my question. I was wondering if you can elaborate on your, let's say, 2024 guidance, which is a bit old because it's related with the Connect plan. It seems to me that it's quite conservative considering that you announced the CPHI, let's say, exhibition, which is plus 100,000 square meters in the sense of 100,000 square meters. At the time of your plan, this event was not included. The second one is related on the same point when you elaborate on the guidance for 2024 at the time of the Connect plan, if that included also the MCE, Mostra Convegno Expocomfort at the time. The second question is on the foreign exhibition. If you can kindly remind us what is the seasonality between even year and odd year also for abroad, in particular for China. I mean, will China be more or less the same level also in 2024? That's basically the question. Okay. Thank you. Finally, very last detail, if you can remind us what were the assumptions for energy costs in the old Connect plan, if you got the data with you. Thank you. Yeah. So first question about the 2024 guidance. So first of all, the 2024 expected result communicated during the Connect plan was already considering CPHI. So this is not an addition to that target. It was already part of the plan because we had already an option based on the contract in place with Informa. Clearly, it was just an option, was not, let's say, a certainty. But based on that option, we already considered the impact on CPHI. Regarding the statement that this can be underestimated, this guidance can be underestimated, let's say, I would just stress one point. This is an even year. So aside CPHI, we don't have our biannual organized events. So we will basically miss OST, Made, Sicurezza, EatMa, which had place in 2023, TuttoFood. So we miss very important events that made part of the result of 2023. And just to give you an idea, if we compare 2022 calendar with 2018, a like-for-like will, let's say, take out from 2024 result compared to 2018, almost 10 million EBITDA. So that led us to a guidance of almost 65, 75 million, which is already quite challenging because when we look at the volumes, we are recovering, but we are not yet at the pre-pandemic level. So to me, this guidance can be still considered quite challenging. Regarding MCA, most of the Convenio Expo Comfort was clearly part of our 2024 guidance. So there has not been any addition brought from the presence of these events. And regarding the impact on China of the, let's say, calendar portfolio, China is like, let's say, the Italian business. Basically, there is not a very big difference in terms of number of events, but there is a kind of seasonality which is negative in the even years and positive in the odd years. Probably China, the JV result in 2024 will be lower compared to 2023, considering a calendar impact affecting some of the China exhibition. Regarding the energy impact, we can clearly state that in the previous plan, in the Connect plan, we accounted more or less for the same cost we were facing during 2021 and 2022, which, let's say, all in all can worth EUR 5 million-EUR 6 million less compared to what we are facing now. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks. Excuse me, there is a follow-up question from Andrea Bonfà, Banca Akros. Please go ahead. Yes. Sorry. Sorry. I spoke the fact that there are no other questions. Just a clarification. If I understood correctly, this year EBITDA includes some 3 million of no recurring or reorganization costs. And if that is correct, if you can elaborate on those costs. Yes. That's right. We face some, let's say, costs related to the change management and the change in the board and the appointment of the new managing director and all the changes and the reorganization. So basically, we can consider 3 million of costs that we incurred this year as a one-off that will not recur in the coming year. At the same time, we have to consider that in the coming year, this company will be probably we will be for sure engaged in the development on additional business, probably M&A activities and so on. So let's say there will be probably additional costs that we have to sustain in order to grant our growth and development. But for sure, 3 million this year were a clear one-off cost. Thank you very much. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephone.