Strong first half performance, with further increase in management’s expectations for year ending 31 march 2022

Renewi plc (LSE: RWI), the leading international waste-to-product business, announces its results for the six months ended 30 September 2021.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue up 11% to €916m, driven by Covid recovery and ongoing stronger recyclate prices
• Underlying EBITDA¹ up by 43% to €126.6m; underlying EBIT¹ up by 125% to €63.8m driven by Commercial Waste; Commercial Waste EBIT margin increased by 470bp to 9.6%
• Statutory profit of €37.1m (2020: €3.5m)
• Core net debt* reduced to €336m (March 2021: €344m), representing net debt to EBITDA of 1.82x, within our 2x leverage target two years ahead of expectations
• Management expectations for the full year ending 31 March 2022 further increased

Market and Strategic Highlights

• Regulation continues to support our business model, including increased incineration taxes in Belgian regions and the Vlarema 8 legislation in Flanders
• Increased demand for recyclates, combined with shorter-term supply constraints, has led to current higher recyclate prices; longer term outlook is for sustained value from secondary materials
• As detailed in the Group’s recent Capital Markets Event, our investments in circular innovations are expected to deliver an additional €20m of EBIT by the end of 2025.  Further projects remain under development
• The Renewi 2.0 programme remains on track to deliver €20m of savings by FY24 and is currently delivering run rate benefits of €4.0m
• ATM has shipped over 400k tonnes, representing 31% of legacy TGG stocks, and outlets for secondary construction materials are developing.  As previously indicated, low intake of inbound contaminated soil will delay the full ATM profit recovery

Sustainability

• Our business enables a circular economy: sustainability is core to our business strategy and Renewi contributes to the net avoidance of over 3 million tonnes of CO₂ per annum
• Newly committed innovation projects expected to underpin our target to increase the Group’s recycling rate by 10 percentage points to 75% and avoidance of a further 0.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per annum

¹The definition and rationale for the use of non-IFRS measures are included in note 17.
* Core net debt used for banking leverage calculations excludes the impact of IFRS 16 lease liabilities and UK PPP net debt.

Otto de Bont, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Renewi delivered a strong performance in the first half of FY22, with underlying EBIT 125% above prior year and 69% above the pre-Covid first half of FY20.  We have successfully retained some of the structural cost savings made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and these, combined with volume recovery and ongoing strong recyclate prices, have contributed to the significant increase in margins and profits.  Following this strong first half, the Board is further increasing its full year expectations, which assume a moderation of recyclate prices in the second half as well as a reduced throughput at ATM.

“Our business model is essential to enable advanced circular economies to achieve their carbon reduction targets.  By recycling more we reduce incineration and assist our customers in reducing their carbon footprint as they replace virgin materials with our high-quality secondary materials.  We therefore expect to see long-term accretive growth opportunities across our markets as we add more value to the waste we collect and process.”

¹ The definition and rationale for the use of non-IFRS measures are included in note 17.
² September 2019 values are for ongoing businesses only and exclude the results for the Canada and Reym activities which were sold during FY20.
* Core net debt used for banking leverage calculations excludes the impact of IFRS 16 lease liabilities and UK PPP net debt.

The results for both this year and the prior years are reported applying IFRS 16.  Where appropriate, we also disclose certain metrics on an IAS 17 basis as this is of particular relevance for the calculation of leverage for the Group’s banking covenants.