Coty Profit Momentum Continues in Q3, Delivering Early Results Across Brand Portfolio

Prestige Brands and Asia Pacific Region Resume Growth

Over $180M Improvement in Reported Operating Income and Adjusted EBITDA, Fueled by Over 400bps of Gross Margin Expansion and Continued Cost Reductions

Executing on Strategic Plan with Early Results in Each Pillar

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) (“Coty” or “the Company”) today announced continued improvement in its financial results and early evidence of recovery across its operations for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, ended March 31, 2021.

In Q3, revenues declined 3%, or 5.5% LFL, in a persisting COVID context in Europe and select regions. At the same time results were buoyed by +20% LFL growth in Asia Pacific, 30% growth in e-commerce, and a relatively stable performance in the Americas, including strong growth in U.S. prestige sales. Brands like Gucci, Burberry and Marc Jacobs were standouts, with double digit growth in the quarter, and Coty continued to build upon its newer prestige engines of growth in cosmetics and skincare. The 2% LFL growth in the prestige sales was noteworthy, given Coty’s higher commercial weighting in Europe and the continued active reduction of sales in low quality channels, which represented a high single digit negative impact to the prestige sales in the last two years.

In the mass channel, Coty’s strategic plans delivered early results, with CoverGirl gaining market share over the last 5 weeks according to the latest scanner data available; a first in over 4 years. While Coty’s mass beauty revenues in Q3 declined 14.5%, the Company’s mass beauty retail sell-out returned to growth in the month of March.

Coty’s progress on profitability over last two quarters continued in Q3, with an adjusted EBITDA* of $183.2 million with a 17.8% margin, up over $180 million versus last year, and a reported operating loss of $1.4 million, an improvement of nearly $300 million versus last year. This was supported by reported and adjusted gross margin expansion up 450 bps year-on-year to 62.2%; fueled by revenue and mix management, lower excess & obsolescence, and improved demand planning. During the quarter, Coty continued to reduce its costs base, with savings totaling approximately $110 million in the quarter. Fiscal year-to-date cost savings totaled over $270 million, and the Company remains on track to achieve its target of approximately $300 million in cost savings in FY21. Fiscal year-to-date, adjusted EBITDA totaled $633.0 million, up 50% versus the last year.

As anticipated, Financial Net Debt at the end of Q3 totaled approximately $5.1 billion. With an increase in the value of Coty’s retained Wella stake to approximately $1.25 billion¹ at quarter-end, the Company’s Economic Net Debt totaled approximately $3.9 billion. Coty also successfully raised $900 million in secured notes in April 2021, extending the maturity profile of its debt.

In line with Coty’s recently unveiled growth acceleration strategy, the Company continues to make progress across each of its strategic pillars. This includes initial market share gains for CoverGirl in the U.S., with the re-positioning plans for Rimmel and Max Factor in Europe on track for the fourth quarter. Luxury fragrance demand remained strong in the key U.S. market, with Coty’s portfolio outperforming the market. In addition, Coty continues to build upon its newer prestige engines of growth in cosmetics and skincare, which includes very strong growth of Gucci Beauty globally as well as encouraging results of Lancaster in China and Hainan. Meanwhile, the performance of digital and e-commerce grew close to 30% in Q3.

Commenting on the operating results, Sue Y. Nabi, Coty’s CEO, said:

“Our Q3 marked another strong milestone in our journey to rejuvenate Coty’s position as a global beauty powerhouse. In less than a year, the leadership team and the broader organization have successfully mapped out our strategy, activated our brand and category plans, while generating operational improvements, and strengthening our financial position.

From a results standpoint, in Q3 we saw a significant improvement in our sales trends even as we continued our efforts to strengthen the health of our business and brands by cutting sales in low quality channels. Importantly, the prestige sales returned to growth as the impact of the pandemic abated in many markets. We have seen strong momentum in several of our key markets, with China sales growing double-to-triple digits versus FY20 and FY19, and U.S. prestige sales up high single digits in the quarter and nearly flat in the fiscal year-to-date. While Europe sales remain under pressure, we are confident that the imminent lifting of COVID restrictions will drive improvement in this key region.

Financially, we took a significant step forward in reshaping our profitability profile, with gross margins over 62% and EBITDA margins up 18 percentage points year-on-year, despite a lower topline. With our year-to-date adjusted EBITDA of $633 million reaching over 80% of our FY21 target of approximately $750 million, we have generated capacity to significantly increase our marketing investments in Q4 to support our strategic growth initiatives while at the same time delivering on our financial commitments. We are also progressing on our deleveraging objectives, driving leverage towards 5x exiting CY21, and the recent successful $900 million bond issuance has helped Coty’s maturity profile.

Finally, we were pleased to recently share our strategy for accelerating sales and profit growth in the coming years, anchored in six strategic pillars: 1) stabilization of Consumer Beauty make-up brands and Mass fragrances; 2) acceleration of luxury fragrances and establishing Coty as a key player in Prestige make-up; 3) building a Skincare portfolio across prestige and mass channels; 4) enhancing e-commerce and Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) capabilities; 5) expanding in China through Prestige and select Consumer Beauty brands; and 6) establishing Coty as an industry leader in sustainability.

With this clear path towards value creation, a strong portfolio of desirable beauty brands, and a renewed sense of tempo throughout the organization, I am confident in Coty’s ability deliver on its near and long-term objectives.”

Highlights

• 3Q21 net revenue trends show solid sequential improvement, despite COVID-related lockdowns across many key markets, particularly in Western Europe. Net revenues declined 3% as reported and 5.5% LFL
• Reported operating loss was $1.4 million
• 3Q21 adjusted operating income increased to $95.6 million from an adjusted operating loss of $68.2 million, with 1570 bps of margin expansion to 9.3%
• Robust growth in 3Q21 with adjusted EBITDA of $183.2 million, increased from $(1.4) million last year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 17.8%
• 3Q21 cost reductions remained robust with an additional approximately $110 million of reductions, bringing the year-to-date total to over $270 million
• 3Q21 free cash outflow of $218.4 million was, as expected, negatively impacted by the over $100 million reversal of a working capital benefit in 2Q21 related to the Wella transaction
• Financial Net Debt in line with expectations at $5,106.6 million, which increased sequentially due to the closing of the KKW Beauty investment, the reversal of a 2Q21 Wella-related working capital benefit, and seasonal free cash outflow. Economic Net Debt now $3,856.6 at quarter end.
• Significant immediate liquidity of $2,376.8 million at end-quarter, with comfortable headroom under Coty’s financial debt covenants. Given Coty’s financial position and free cash flow characteristics, the Company expects to be in full compliance of covenant requirements going forward.

Outlook

As announced during the Strategic Update on April 23, 2021, Coty expects to end the year with net revenues of $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion. With strengthened profitability, the Company expects to increase commercial investments in Q4 to support its strategic priorities and the improvement of sell-out trends, as the broader beauty market begins to recover.

These investments will be supported by the continued reduction of costs, with cost reductions on track to reach approximately $300 million in FY21 and total targeted savings of $600 million through FY23. In addition, Coty is reaffirming its target for adjusted EBITDA of $750 million in FY21. The Company plans to continue to lower its leverage ratio towards 5x by the end of CY21, as previously announced.

Financial Results

Refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for discussion of the non-GAAP financial measures used in this release; reconciliations from reported to adjusted results can be found at the end of this release.

Revenues:

• 3Q21 reported net revenues of $1,027.8 million decreased 3.3% year-over-year, including a positive foreign exchange (FX) impact of 2.2%. LFL revenue decreased 5.5%, driven by a LFL decrease in the EMEA segment of 12.9%, and the Americas of 3.4%, partially offset by an Asia Pacific LFL increase of 19.5%. By channel, a LFL decline in the mass sales of 14.5%, was partially offset by a 2.4% increase in prestige.
• Year-to-date reported net revenues of $3,567.5 million decreased 14.2% year-over-year, including a positive FX impact of 0.9%. LFL revenue decreased 15.1%, driven by LFL decreases in EMEA of 21.8%, Asia Pacific of 16.2%, and Americas of 5.3%.

Gross Margin:

• 3Q21 reported gross margin of 61.9% increased from 56.6% in the prior-year period, while adjusted gross margin of 62.2% increased from 57.7% in 3Q20. The increase was due to the year-over-year improvement in excess & obsolescence, revenue mix management, and supply chain productivity, partially offset by the decline in sales volumes.
• Year-to-date reported gross margin of 59.6% decreased from 60.2% in the prior-year period, while adjusted gross margin of 59.7% declined from 60.5% in the prior year, primarily due to mix impact as well as lower production volumes.

Operating Income and EBITDA:

• 3Q21 reported operating loss of $1.4 million improved from a reported operating loss of $299.5 million in the prior year due to a $74.9 million reduction in restructuring and other business realignment costs, a higher gross margin, lower SG&A expenses, a $40.4 million reduction in asset impairment costs, and a $19.6 million reduction in acquisition and divestiture related expenses.
• 3Q21 adjusted operating income of $95.6 million rose from a loss of $68.2 million in the prior year, while the adjusted EBITDA of $183.2 million improved from $(1.4) million in the prior year. The increase was driven by a higher gross margin, continued fixed cost reductions across both people and non-people costs, combined with active management of marketing investments. For 3Q21, the adjusted operating margin increased 1,570 bps to 9.3%, while the adjusted EBITDA margin increased 1,790 bps to 17.8%.
• Year-to-date reported operating loss of $50.4 million improved from a reported operating loss of $316.0 million due primarily to a reduction in restructuring and other business realignment cost, lower asset impairment costs, as well as lower media investments and fixed cost expenses, partially offset by a lower gross profit and higher acquisition and divestiture related expenses. Year-to-date adjusted operating income increased to $365.0 million from $173.6 million, with a margin of 10.2%, while the adjusted EBITDA totaled $633.0 million with a margin of 17.7%.

Net Income:

• 3Q21 reported net loss of $1.2 million improved from a net loss of $311.0 million in the prior year, due to the aforementioned increase in reported operating income and lower interest expense, partially offset by higher taxes compared to the year-ago period.
• The 3Q21 adjusted net income of $2.3 million compared to an adjusted net loss of $104.7 million in the prior year period.
• Year-to-date reported net loss of $54.8 million improved from a net loss of $404.2 million in the prior year. Year-to-date adjusted net income of $76.8 million improved from an adjusted net loss of $11.0 million in the prior year.

Earnings Per Share (EPS) – diluted:

• 3Q21 reported earnings per share of $0.00 improved from a reported loss per share of $(0.41) in the prior year.
• 3Q21 adjusted EPS of $0.00 improved from $(0.14) in the prior year.
• Year-to-date reported earnings per share of $0.07 improved from a reported net loss per share of $(0.53) in the prior year.
• Year-to-date adjusted EPS of $0.10 increased from $(0.01) in the prior year.

   

Operating Cash Flow:

• 3Q21 cash used in operations totaled $(186.3) million improved from $(257.5) million in the prior-year period, reflecting an increase in net income on a cash basis. Year-to-date operating cash flow totaled $286.4 million, an increase of $81.9 million from the same period of the prior year.
• 3Q21 free cash outflow of $218.4 million improved from a free cash outflow of $318.9 million in the prior year driven by the increase in operating cash outflow of $71.2 million coupled with a $29.3 million reduction in capex.

Financial Net Debt:

• As expected, Financial Net Debt of $5,106.6 million on March 31, 2021 increased from $4,842.6 million on December 31, 2020. The increase was driven by the cash outflow of $200 million related to the closing of the KKW Beauty investment, a reversal of over $100 million working capital benefit in 2Q21 related to the Wella transaction, as well as the seasonal free cash outflow, partially offset by over $100 million of positive FX impact.

Immediate Liquidity:

• Coty ended Q3 with $315.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, and immediate liquidity of $2,376.8 million, with comfortable headroom under its financial debt covenants.

   

Third Quarter Business Review by Segment

Americas

In 3Q21, Americas net revenues of $409.6 million or 40% of Coty sales, decreased by 6.0% versus the prior year. On a LFL basis, Americas net revenues decreased by 3.4%. Although the mass beauty sales showed sequential improvement, softness in the color cosmetics market continues to weigh on the overall performance of the mass category. Meanwhile, the U.S. prestige sales, excluding the travel retail channel, generated very strong growth, supported by robust performance across fragrances, cosmetics, and skincare.

During the quarter, our U.S. prestige fragrance business continued to generate very strong sell-out growth, with particularly strong performance from Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Gucci, Hugo Boss, and Tiffany. Encouragingly, Marc Jacobs Perfect continues to see very robust sell-out growth, moving Marc Jacobs brand up 4 spots to the #5 prestige fragrance house. Meanwhile, Burberry Her accelerated during the quarter, and was the fastest selling brand within the top 25 US prestige fragrances. Following on the success of prior quarters, Gucci continues to see strong sell-out across both fragrances and cosmetics. Within fragrances, the performance was driven by Gucci Guilty and Gucci Bloom Profumo. Within cosmetics, Gucci continued to generate robust sell-out growth in the triple-digits, driven by particularly strong performance of mascara, liquid primer, and bronzer.

Within our Americas mass beauty sales, the cosmetics and fragrance categories remained pressured through much of the quarter as usage occasions remained limited, though trends have started to improve. Despite this, we continued to execute our strategy, focusing on our key brands. For CoverGirl, our national media campaign went live in March, which has resulted in a clear improvement in trend for CoverGirl, and the Magnificent 8 in particular. Lash Blast Clean delivered very strong performance during the quarter, while Simply Ageless has also seen strong support at key retailers. Meanwhile, Sally Hansen continued to gain market share in the U.S. In addition, we continued to win market share in Brazil.

E-commerce sales for the region continued to increase over 50% in Q3 and over 60% fiscal year-to-date, with solid growth across both prestige and mass, driven by robust performance across all e-tailers and brick & click. Fiscal year-to-date, e-commerce penetration is in the low double-digits, up a mid-single-digit percent from last year.

The Americas segment generated a reported operating income of $2.3 million in 3Q21, compared to a reported operating loss of $40.3 million in the prior year. The 3Q21 adjusted operating income was $29.2 million, up from an adjusted operating loss of $16.0 million in the prior year, driven by gross margin improvement, strong fixed cost reduction, and close management of marketing investment, particularly non-working media spending. The adjusted operating margin was 7.1% versus (3.7)% in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the Americas segment rose to $68.5 million from $14.7 million in the prior year, with a margin of 16.7%.

EMEA

In 3Q21, EMEA net revenues of $473.0 million, or 46% of Coty sales, declined by 7.8% versus the prior year. On a LFL basis, EMEA net revenues declined 12.9%, which included a mid single digit headwind from Travel Retail. Sales trends for both Mass and Prestige continued to be pressured by COVID-19 driving fairly broad-based lockdowns and restrictions across much of Western Europe during the quarter.

Within our EMEA prestige sales, Hugo Boss Bottled, Chloe Signature, and Gucci Guilty delivered strong performances, with Chloe Signature becoming the #2 female fragrance in Germany. Meanwhile, we continue to expand our presence in prestige cosmetics, with Gucci Beauty climbing the ranks at Sephora both online and in-store, and is now solidly in the top 10 makeup brands in the stores where it’s present. In our mass beauty brands, Rimmel continued to expand its market share in the U.K., as well as in Spain and France. Importantly, we remain on-track with the repositioning of both Rimmel and Max Factor in June, which includes a ramp in working media investments to FY19 levels on a dollar basis as well as key new media assets and brand ambassadors. We expect both brands to be well positioned to benefit with the easing of lockdowns and restrictions across much of Western Europe.

3Q21 EMEA e-commerce sales grew nearly 90%, driving e-commerce penetration as a percentage of sales to the high-teens percentage level, with strong growth in both prestige and mass.

Reported operating income was $28.7 million in 3Q21 versus reported operating loss of $57.5 million in the prior year. The 3Q21 adjusted operating income of $58.2 million increased from an adjusted operating loss of $26.3 million in the prior year, driven by a higher gross margin, controlled marketing spend, and solid fixed cost reductions. For 3Q21, the adjusted operating margin rose to 12.3% from (5.1)% in the prior year. During the quarter, adjusted EBITDA increased to $94.5 million from $0.8 million in the prior year, with a margin of 20.0%.

Asia Pacific

3Q21 Asia Pacific net revenues of $145.2 million, or 14% of Coty sales, increased 27.7% on a reported basis and rose 19.5% LFL. The LFL performance was fueled by robust growth within our prestige brands, despite travel retail continuing to face significant pressure from lower air travel. In addition, strength was particularly strong in China during the quarter.

In China, our prestige beauty brands across both brick & mortar and e-commerce continued to generate very strong sell-out growth, particularly Burberry and Gucci, both of which had triple-digit-sell-out growth during the quarter. In particular, we continued to see solid momentum in Gucci and Burberry’s prestige cosmetics business. During the quarter, Gucci Beauty was launched on Tmall with very strong initial results that continued into the second month following the launch.

E-commerce generated very strong growth, increasing at a triple-digit rate during 3Q21, with penetration in the mid-teens.

Reported operating income in 3Q21 of $1.9 million increased from a reported operating loss of $31.4 million in the prior year. The 3Q21 adjusted operating income of $7.6 million rose from an adjusted operating loss of $25.2 million in the prior year, driven by reduced fixed costs and lower marketing investments. The 3Q21 adjusted operating margin of 5.2% increased from (22.2)% in the prior year. For 3Q21, adjusted EBITDA improved to $20.2 million from $(16.9) million in the prior year, with a margin of 13.9%.

Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Business Review by Channel

Prestige

• In 3Q21, Prestige net revenues of $600.6 million, or 58.4% of Coty sales, increased 6.5% as reported and increased 2.4% LFL, reflecting significant sales trend improvement from 1H21, driven by particular strength in the US and China. In EMEA, sales trends showed meaningful sequential improvement, but lagged Asia Pacific and Americas, as much of the region was under strict lockdowns throughout the quarter. By brand, Gucci, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, and philosophy were stand-outs with double digit revenue growth in the quarter.
• During the quarter, our newer engines of growth – expanding our presence in prestige skincare, prestige cosmetics, and China – all delivered very strong results. In U.S. prestige skincare, sell-out growth was robust and outperformed the market in March, while early results with the repositioning of Lancaster in Hainan have been very encouraging. Within prestige cosmetics, both Gucci Beauty and Burberry continue to see very robust trends, with double- to triple-digit sell-out growth in the U.S. and Asia Pacific.
• Prestige e-commerce sales grew over 20%, representing a low 20s penetration rate of Prestige sales.

Mass

• In 3Q21, Mass net revenues of $427.4 million, or 41.6% of Coty continuing operations, decreased 14.3% as reported and decreased 14.5% LFL. Mass sales continue to be pressured across regions, which is primarily due to reduced demand for color cosmetics given fewer usage occasions as consumer continued remain locked down or practice social distancing through much of 3Q21. However, sell-out trends have started to improve more recently. In addition, we continued to execute on our strategy to stabilize our mass beauty sales with multiple green shoots including solid sell-out growth and market share gains at CoverGirl, continued market share expansion with Rimmel in the UK, and additional market share gains with Sally Hansen in the US.
• Mass e-commerce sales generated solid growth during the quarter, increasing over 50% and representing a high-single-digit percent of our Mass sales. Coty brands continued to see very strong sell-out growth on retailer websites and on Amazon.

Noteworthy Company Developments

Other noteworthy company developments include:

• On March 3, 2021, Coty announced that it signed a letter of intent to partner with LanzaTech to introduce sustainable ethanol made from captured-carbon emissions into its fragrance products. The proposed partnership means that Coty will incorporate this carbon-captured ethanol into its fragrance manufacturing process, with the goal of having the majority of its fragrance portfolio using ethanol sourced from carbon-capture by 2023. This is an important step for Coty as its continues its journey to become a more circular business and create a more sustainable and inclusive world.
• On April 21, 2021, Coty completed the issuance of $900 million of 5.000% senior secured notes due in 2026. The offering was upsized to $900 million from the initial expectation of $750 million due to very strong demand. The proceeds are net leverage neutral and have been used to partially paydown FY23 term loans, resulting in reduced refinancing risk.

Contacts

Investor Relations
Olga Levinzon, +1 212 389-7733

olga_levinzon@cotyinc.com

Media
Antonia Werther, +31 621 394495 /

Antonia_Werther@cotyinc.com

Read full story here