Asmodee Group (Stockholm:ASMDEE B) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our presentation of Asmodee's first quarter results for the fiscal year 'twenty six-'twenty seven. We have made a very strong start to the new fiscal year, delivering double digit growth in both sales and earnings, while continuing to strengthen our profitability and generate healthy cash flow. What is particularly encouraging is the breadth of this performance. We delivered growth across categories, geographies, and our publishing portfolio with both our own studios and our publishing partners contributing to a very strong start to the year. With that, let's look at some of the commercial highlights from the partner. Let me start with board games, which were one of the key contributors to our strong performance this quarter.

0:52 We delivered double digit growth with all continents contributing, reflecting the strength of our diverse portfolio, which combines evergreen franchises with successful new releases and expansions. Our evergreen franchises continued to perform very well, led by titles such as Catan and Double Spotted with recent releases, including Din Up, The Lord of the Rings, Fate of the Fellowship and Cozy Stickerville also contributing to growth. Expansions for Harmonies and Heat further supported the quarter, demonstrating our ability to continue growing both established franchises and new titles across multiple markets. Turning to trading card games. This category also delivered another very strong quarter with robust demand across our portfolio despite a demanding comparison with last year and the World Cup.

1:50 Growth was supported by successful releases across several leading franchises. Pokemon once again delivered a very strong performance. Magic the Gathering continued its strong momentum alongside Riftbound, the League of Legends TCG, which also saw the rollout of its French edition. Star Wars Unlimited also contributed to the category. Last week, we held the second edition of the Galactic Championship, the international competition crow crowning the best Star Wars Unlimited players. The event saw over 3,000 visitors from more than 35 countries gathering and engaging with Star Wars Unlimited at the center of their experience in Las Vegas. For those interested, we've also included an overview of the trading card games release schedule in the appendix.

2:37 It provides a good illustration of the diversification of our catalog as well as the strong cadence of launches we've seen across the category over the past year. Alongside the strong operational performance, we continued to execute on our strategic priorities during the quarter. The integration of ATM Gaming has started well and is progressing in line with our expectations. Beyond the acquisition itself, we have already begun deploying our distribution model across additional markets, and we are pleased with the initial commercial performance of the business. We also completed the acquisition of the full publishing rights of Time's Up, further strengthening our portfolio of owned owned intellectual properties. Our other recently acquired IPs also continued to perform well. We launched Zombie Seed site's first crowdfunding campaign as part of Asmodee.

3:32 Over 11,000 fans committed to the campaign for a total of more than €3,000,000. This demonstrates the continued strength and engagement of Zombie Sight's fan base and the first success of our crowdfunding team. Beyond our portfolio, we continued investing in the long term development of the tabletop gaming category. During the quarter, we published the first Kounta Asmodee Board game barometer, providing new consumer insights that reinforce our confidence in the long term attractiveness of the market. We also continue to broaden our trading card games portfolio through the new distribution partnerships and additional lines, including the new Naruto trading card game from Bondi. These further diversify our offering and reinforce our position as a leading partner for TCG publishers, with additional new distribution opportunities expected in the span of the current fiscal year.

4:29 Looking ahead, we remain excited about our upcoming release pipeline and continue to see attractive opportunities to grow both organically and through disciplined partnerships and acquisitions. Turning now to the quarter as a whole. We delivered net sales of €422,000,000 representing growth in excess of 20%. Performance was broad based across the business with growth across publishing mix, categories and continents. ATM Gaming also delivered a strong start of the year, in line with our expectations. This strong commercial performance translated into significantly improved profitability. Adjusted EBITDA increased to €61,900,000 with the margin expanding by three thirty basis points to 14.7%, reflecting the scalability of our business model together with continued cost and inventory discipline.

5:30 At the same time, we generated healthy free cash flow, enabling us to further strengthen our balance sheet and credit profile, maintaining financial flexibility despite the acquisition activity made in the quarter. With that overview of the quarter, let me now hand over to Andrea, who will take you through the financial performance in more details. Thank you, Thomas. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin with our sales performance for the first quarter. Net sales reached 422,100,000, representing growth of 20.9 or 20.2 organically. Exchange rates had no material impact during the quarter, whereas perimeter changes contributed to 0.7 percentage point reflecting the addition of ATM gaming.

6:28 Let me briefly explain the ATM contribution. As a reminder, we finalized the acquisition of ATM on April 8, triggering a change in perimeter. Since closing, teams are taking care of the studio, and the onboarding is moving on according to plan. For example, the internalization of the distribution in France was done in end of May, and we have successfully entered in The Netherlands and in Belgium. From a from an accounting point of view, this is relevant because during the quarter, ATM primarily sold to Asmodee distribution entities rather than directly to external customers. Under consolidation rules, those intercompany sales are not recognized until the product reach the external customer.

7:23 On a stand alone basis, ATM generated around 10,500,000 of revenue during the quarter in line with our expectations. So to summarize, around one third of ATM q one sales was recognized in Asmodee consolidated net sales, and around two third is sitting in inventory within our distribution network and will flow through to consolidated net sales in the future. Importantly, this is a timing effect not related to consumer demand. Sell out at the retail of ATM product exceeded 60% in q one versus q one last year.

8:09 So this inventory in our deals is expected to rotate quickly. Board game grew by 16% with around 40% of the growth coming from games published by ASMDEEE supported by evergreen titles, expansion and new releases. ATM gaming acquisition contributed approximately 20% of the growth, and around one third came from distributed board games. Growth was broad based across geographies and further supported by the continued normalization of retailer inventory levels in The US and growth in long sellers, including the release of Catan on the road. Trading card games delivered another very strong quarter with sales increasing by 23%.

8:58 Looking at the mix, partner published games increased by 27% driven by the continued strength of distributed TCGs. Games published by ASMDEE Studios increased by 1.8% on a reported basis and were broadly stable organically. The strong board game performance was offset by the timing of the latest Star Wars Unlimited release with the greater share of sales recognized in the second quarter of this fiscal year compared with the first quarter of last year. Finally, the other category benefited from growth on board game arena and licensing activities. Moving to profitability.

9:45 We delivered another strong quarter with adjusted EBITDA increasing by 55% to 61,900,000. The primary driver was, of course, the strong sales performance, but at the same time, we continue to benefit from scalability of our operating model as higher revenue translated into efficiently into earnings. The addition of ATM gaming had a limited impact on EBITDA due to the temporary timing effect already mentioned. From a cost perspective, lower inventory allowances as a result of improved inventory management and lower royalty costs contributed positively during the quarter, while we maintained disciplined control over personnel costs and other operating expenses despite continued investment in the business.

10:36 As a result, adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 330 basis point, reaching 14.7% compared to 11.4 last year. Importantly, our last twelve months adjusted EBITDA margin has now increased to 17.5, moving us another step closer to our medium term ambition of achieving an adjusted EBITDA margin above 18%. Finally, below adjusted EBITDA, items affecting comparability amounted to €1,300,000 reflecting tariff refunds on previously paid duties. We expect to benefit from additional tariff refunds in the coming quarters.

11:27 Turning to cash flow. We generated EUR 37,500,000 of free cash flow after income tax and lease payment compared with 24.7 in the same period last year. This correspond to a free cash flow conversion of around 61%, broadly consistent with last year. The improvement was primarily driven by higher adjusted EBITDA, partly offset by our income tax payment, reflecting the stronger earning performance. Working capital development was expected, moving on expected as expected for this period of the year. We saw the usual seasonal inventory build up ahead of future sales, together with higher trade receivables, reflecting the increase in revenue.

12:18 This movement were substantially offset by higher trade payable, resulting in an overall neutral working capital development for the quarter. Finally, let me turn to balance sheet. We ended the quarter with the net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 1.6 times before M and A commitment and 1.7 times after M and A commitment, both ratio improving compared to compared with the same period last year. The improvement reflected the combination of higher last twelve months EBITDA and continued healthy cash generation, which more than offset the cash outflows associated with the acquisition of ATM Gaming and the remaining stake in exploding keytens.

13:08 At quarter end, cash and cash equivalent amounted to €196,500,000, while lower than last year due to the acquisition activity. Our liquidity position remained strong. During the quarter, we also further strengthened our financial flexibility by establishing a new EUR 20,000,000 unsecured committed credit facility alongside with our existing EUR 150,000,000 RCF. Following the end of the quarter, all three credit rating agencies upgraded our rating by one notch. We now hold the ratings of BB with stable outlook from both S and P and Fitch and Ba3 with a positive outlook from Moody's.

13:55 These upgrades reflect the continued strengthening of our financial profile and provide further validation of the progress we have made over the past year. With that, let me hand back to Thomas to conclude today's presentation. Thank you, Andrea. To conclude, we've made a strong strong start to the 2627 fiscal year. Growth was broad based across both our own games and distributed games across top games and trading card games with all continents contributing to the performance. That, again, continues to demonstrate the strength of our diversified business model and the resilience of our portfolio. Alongside the strong commercial performance, we delivered a significant improvement in profitability, healthy cash generation, and continued to strengthen our balance sheet and credit profile.

14:46 At the same time, the integration of ATM Gaming is progressing well and in line with our expectations with multiterritory deployment of our dual distribution playbook. Looking ahead, while we continue to monitor the macroeconomic situation closely, we believe we are well positioned to navigate the current environment. We continue to express to expect growth across both board game and trading card games supported by a strong release pipeline and by new partnerships. We also look forward to the Pokemon's upcoming thirtieth anniversary activations. Finally, we remain firmly on track towards our medium term ambition of delivering an adjusted EBITDA margin of above 80%. With that, thank you very much for your attention. And then I will now be happy to take your questions.

15:48 The next question comes from Simon Johnson from ABG Sundal Collier. Go ahead. Good morning, guys. Hope you can hear me well, and congratulations on strong numbers here. My first question is on the underlying board games growth in the market. If I remember correctly, you said last quarter that both U. S. And Europe markets that they were growing in the mid single digit range. My question is, is that still true? Or have you seen any shifts in the market momentum for board games? And also in terms of your market share and what you have seen in terms of sell in versus sell out volumes?

16:35 Thanks, Simon. We have effectively had very strong performance in board games. The market has grown in the past quarter for what we monitor in the mass markets above slightly above mid single digits, and we've delivered low above double digit growth in in the same quarter. So it's a it's a very strong performance from Asmodee. We expect it to continue. All right. Thanks for that. Very clear. Then on trading cards, Stars Unlimited, of course, holding back here a bit, especially if you look at the internally published games.

17:28 Could you maybe or maybe you said something about it that I missed, but could you maybe quantify the effect of Star Wars Unlimited here in this quarter? Like what is the loss of sales compared to last year? Or what is the timing effect of lower sales this year this quarter that you expect to come back next quarter? Yes. There is roughly €10,000,000 of revenue that is transferring from Q1 to Q2 related to Star Wars Unlimited. All right. Very clear. Thanks for that. Then yes, the final one from my side, maybe a bit tricky to answer, but it's on the operating leverage.

18:15 Of course, significant here due to the weaker seasonality for board games. But if we look at the coming quarters, when you start to meet also more difficult comps on the profitability level, Should we still expect or is there still potential for trading cards to contribute positively to operating leverage if these sales volumes continue at these levels? Well, we we expect the operating leverage to continue improving in the coming quarters, both coming from the scalability and the and the growth. Of course, also of the strong dynamics of the games published by the group that we see. If you add to this the acquisition of ATM Gaming and the the margin it generates, and then finally, the trading card games will continue to accompany that improvement.

19:18 Alright. Thank you for that. That's all for me. Thank you very much, Simon. The next question comes from Jacob Edler from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Hi, Thomas and Andrea, and thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions. Starting off a bit on the ATM kind of sell in or sales recognition commentary here, because you recognized as part of Asmodee sales one third as you talked about. And my guess is that what you have recognized is mostly the Amazon sales part within ATM. And when I just think about the current quarter being Q2, should we expect kind of a small kind of catch up from this delay as you are taking over the distribution agreements?

20:05 Or will this be kind of a more prolonged effect where there will be a two month lag or something between how ATM was recognizing revenues previously relative to how it now looks in Asmodee?

20:20 Yes. So very good question. I confirm I agree that most of the sales recognized at consolidated level were direct sales. Those that are still intercompany sales should unfold and the magnitude and the proportion between direct sales and what has been eliminated is due to the fact that the we opened actually quite big market, including France, The Netherlands, and Belgium. And so those market need some inventory buildup in the in the short term. As you remember, we communicated when we communicated the acquisition, ATM,

21:12 bit more than half of its turnover was generated through direct sales. So that was the that's the business model. But again, in Q1, still a bit offset by the magnitude of these new geographies that we have opened. Yep. Very clear. And then I just have two questions on TCG. And starting a bit about with Pokemon, and this is more of a kind of a philosophical discussion. But I mean, we've been used over time that Pokemon has had these kind of three year cycles, right?

21:51 And last year was kind of the third year of the cycle and many thought that this would be the start of a new kind of generation, right? But it feels like Pokemon has gone forward with the transitionary set being kind of Mega Evolution and then also the thirty anniversary this year. And then I believe that the new game, which typically starts the next cycle, is coming out next year. So are you getting some senses that the Pokemon Company are kind of actively trying to reduce the cyclicality of these cycles? Yes. That's what we get from our exchanges with them. As you duly noted, Mega Evolutions is a it's an intermediary set that will last for two years. The next generation being launched next year with the new video game.

22:39 So I do think that it's a strategy, but it's also the strength of the franchise where consumers are more and more engaged every single day, thanks to the amazing job that the Pokemon Company is doing across all the types of

22:54 entertainment provided by this, including the the trading cards. Yep. Good. And then I just have a question on the quite newly press released partnership here with Bandai regarding Naruto. It obviously has a large fan base. And maybe one can draw some parallels, I might be mistaken here, to one piece, given the partnership you already have had there. But what kind of potential do you see in the Naruto TCG? And what should we compare it to in terms of newly released here the the last couple of years?

23:32 Well, we do not communicate on the potential of the partnerships in details. But as you duly noted, Naoto is one of the strongest manga franchises in the world. Will it be comparable to one piece? Probably not at the start because when you launch, you you expect a a ramp up and and one piece is has multiple years of history. So I would say that it will be a we expect it to be a strong addition without additional comments. Yeah. Great. And last question on my side before I hop into the queue. But the tariff refund was roughly €1,000,000 here in this quarter, which you had adjusted for in adjusted EBIT. But can you give any more flavor? Should we expect it to be a bit larger here in the coming quarters? Or how should we view it?

24:25 Yes. We expect additional refunds in the coming quarters with probably the largest part currently expected in in q two. Even if the timing is still subject to the administrative process, we will report on the amount as they are confirmed in future quarterly quarterly reports.

24:51 And as you've noticed, yes, we put it as an item affecting comparability to do not change in the way we communicated the underlying profitability of the business. So it's a it's a one off positive this year. Very good. Thank you for those answers. I'll open to the queue. Thank you, The next question comes from Adrian Almlin from Nordea. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, guys, and good morning from my side as well. I think I have two major questions here. So first one on the ATM accounting of

25:32 gaming. My question is, could you explain if there are any material changes to the gross margin or albeit the EBIT margins now that you move the distribution kind of in house? Is there any changes there? Or is this sort of does it continue like it was before the acquisition? Not at studio level on a stand alone basis. The the profitability is in line with the with with the past, the EBITDA margin that we communicated in the press release. So on a stand alone basis, there are no changes. And the the

26:13 internalization of of distribution contract is also consistent with the with past past practices between studios and use. Right. Okay. Fair enough. And then another question, kind of a follow-up on the question before regarding the kind of outgoing of board games compared to the market. You know, is this sort of structural? Or do you include the ATM acquisition, you know, revenues here?

26:48 The ATM acquisition contributed in relatively limited way to to the growth, as Andrea pointed out, only 20%. So the rest is structural from the market across all geographies on the board game side, as we did say. And with the past US situation that we were experiencing in the last fiscal year being clearly behind us today with very strong dynamics both in terms of sell in and sell out from a consumer basis. Okay. Very well. That was all for me. Thank you. Thanks, Adrian. Thank you. The next question comes from Rasmus Engberg from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

27:34 Yes. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Actually, I have just one remaining here. With regards to the margin target, do you think that is within reach for this year?

27:49 As we said, yes, it's reach. It still comes with many things to deliver on the year to go, And it will come from our organic business model as well as value accretive contribution of the M and A. And just a follow-up on the comment you gave on Star Wars Unlimited, the transfer of €10,000,000 that's high margin

28:26 revenues. Right? Oh, yes. It is. Royalty. Yes. Exactly. It's a game published by by our own studios in the in the higher range of of gross margin to which you need to remove the

28:43 royalties. The next question comes from Riccardo Cuncilla from Deutsche Bank. Hey, good morning. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I wanted to start with the Pokemon thirtieth anniversary. You continue to highlight that the anniversary is going to be a key event for the category. Relative to previous major Pokemon milestones, are you seeing any difference in retail ordering behavior, allocation requests or inventory positioning that will increase your confidence in the demand related to this event?

29:27 Well, we see a very strong demand. If we look also historically, all anniversaries has been quite successfully handled both by the activations that the Pokemon Company has organized and the execution that we do provide in terms of product availability and sales into retail. So cutting it short, it means that we look at the upcoming quarters with strong confidence on the Pokemon side. Got it. Your, you know, trading card business appears to be increasingly diversified now with Pokemon, Magic, One Piece, Rebound, Star Wars and Naruto. How does the concentration of sales among your largest franchises has evolved over the last twelve months?

30:17 And do you believe earnings volatility from the category is structurally lower today compared to, let's say, a year ago? So we see growth across most of the TCGs. After that, when you compare one quarter to another the same year, you can have slightly more or slightly less releases. So this does drive within one quarter the the difference. But what's important is that we continue to diversify the portfolio of TCGs that we distribute.

30:52 I would say that alongside the very strong performance of Pokemon and Magic the Gathering, we are also adding, as we did say, additional lines that we distribute that all contribute to the growth. So for us, it makes us more diversified and stronger for the future.

31:13 Got it. Last one for me. Your EBITDA margin has now reached, you know, 17.5% on an LTM basis, very close to your medium term target. Can you just comment on which factors drove this stronger than expected progression this quarter? And should investors view the 80% as a milestone or as a level from which further expansion remains achievable?

31:36 Thank you. As it's as we have communicated until now, it's a it's a medium term target that we are confident in our ability to reach fairly soon. And beyond, I would say that we will communicate in due time on our ambitions. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Thanks, Ricardo. The next question comes from Martin Arnold from DNB Carnegie. I have a question on your outlook comments. You expect continued growth in board games and TCG.

32:19 Based on your pipeline and momentum, would you say that you expect games published by ASMDEE Studios to return to organic growth in the coming quarters? Yes. Most definitely. As we had hinted, we were expecting q one to be still decreasing this year this quarter because of the timing effect on Star Wars Unlimited. Look actually, even despite this, it's broadly stable year over year, which means that the rest is growing significantly, and we expect it to continue in the upcoming quarters.

32:58 Perfect. Okay. And then a minor question on cash flow in the coming quarters. Do you expect a normal seasonal sort of working capital? Or is there anything we should watch out for? No major changes compared to compared to previous years, subject, of course, to higher volumes that might be might be handled. Perfect. And then my final question is on your market share. I remember a little bit more than a year ago, I think you had 10% market share in tabletop globally.

33:45 What would you say have you exceeded that level now? Or where do you think you are today? Well, what we see is that given our the current sellout, because we measure the the market share based on the on the consumer sellout, is that our market shares have continuously improved across Europe and and North America in the recent months. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Martin. We have a few written questions. First question, I will read them out loud. Congratulations on the strong quarter. Can you please discuss your crowdfunding strategy in more detail and its impact on cash flow, r and d costs, and potential goodwill or bad way from from consumers?

34:37 And what would be the advantage or disadvantage to internally fund projects. So the crowdfunding strategy is complementary to our traditional go to market strategy going through retail. What's important here is that, first of all, crowdfunding is a consumer engagement strategy. It's a it's a way of marketing products and reaching consumers and increasing their engagement get ahead of the product release. And so it's designed for specific products that often might have a limited potential in traditional retail. The second part is on its impact when you recognize the cash flow when the campaign is completed, and then you recognize the revenue and associated profits when the campaign is shipped a few months later. So in terms of working capital, it's it's quite positive.

35:32 But, again, I would say that part is a nice to have. It's not why we engage into the strategy. It's because it enables us to bring products that otherwise would probably not exist or not reach consumers in the same magnitude. We have a second question, which is can you discuss what your hopes are with the acquisition of ATM Gaming? Well, we have communicated an acquisition that we expected ATM to contribute around 50,000,000 in revenue and 25,000,000 in EBITDA. And based on what ATM is currently deliver delivering, we maintain our expectations. So those are strong expectations because if you remember in the past financial in the past calendar year ending December last year, ITM Gaming delivered 17,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA.

36:30 So we expect it to grow to 25. The last question we have is how do you make sure you have enough product for the thirtieth year Pokemon anniversary? There is only so much available production capacity. Well, you're actually right. We are not managing the manufacturing. It's the Pokemon company. And so our role is to make sure that the products that we do get in inventory are being shipped to the consumers in according to to shipping rules so that everybody gets share of the products. And then we have one final question, which is in TCG, can you give us an indication of which game is growing more and how much does Pokemon represent of total TCG sales?

37:33 So we do not comment on the contribution of individual products. But as I did say previously, all product lines are contributing positively, which continues to, as I said, diversify our sources of revenue on the TCG side. And I think that we are through the written questions that we received. So with this, I would like, first of all, to thank all of our teams, the gamers, the players, and our partners across retail, publishing, and licensing for their continued support in keeping us inspired and growing.

38:23 Thank you all for joining us today, and I wish all of you an enjoyable summer period. Thank you very much.