Trading Update

RNS Number : 7341O

DP Eurasia N.V

03 June 2020

 

For Immediate Release

3 June 2020

DP Eurasia N.V.

("DP Eurasia" or the "Company", and together with its subsidiaries, the " Group ")

Trading Update

DP Eurasia (DPEU.L), the master franchisee of the Domino's Pizza brand in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, today provides an update on its operations with respect to developments that have taken place since its trading update of 22 April 2020, and its liquidity.

Operations

In both of its core markets, the Group continues to operate under government mandated operational constraints due to COVID-19 and remains focused upon ensuring the safety of its staff and customers.  As a result of these operational constraints, dine-in service has been unavailable in both countries and take-away has been greatly reduced, especially in Russia.  Delivery system sales have increased by 19% in Turkey and have remained flat in Russia during the post-COVID period (16 March - 31 May 2020) compared to the same period last year.

In Turkey, the Group has been able to operate a consistent delivery service even during weekend and long-weekend curfews, which have continued to be in effect.  The number of cities under curfew, which started with 31 cities, has been decreasing over the last few weekends except for the 23-26 May long weekend of Eid holiday, when the entire country was placed under curfew.  Take-away service has also been available with the exception of curfew periods.  Excluding ten stores located in shopping malls, all Turkish stores are currently operational, and the government lifted the dine-in restriction in restaurants as at 1 June 2020.

In Russia, 26 stores remain temporarily closed for reasons of labour optimisation.  All other stores continue to provide delivery and take-away services, though Russia has been under strict lockdown measures which have been extended to 15 June 2020.  The actions undertaken as part of the Group's Russian plan have been showing progress in delivery; however, the impact of COVID-19 is making it difficult to gauge the full benefits of the Russian plan.

The Group's sales performance is as follows:

System sales(1) like-for-like growth(2)	Pre-COVID (1 Jan-15 Mar)	Post-COVID (16 Mar-31 May)
Turkey	23.5%	2.7%
Russia (based on RUB)	-10.2%	-31.8%

	Pre-COVID	y-o-y growth	Post-COVID	y-o-y growth
	(1 Jan-15 Mar)		(16 Mar-31 May)
System sales(1)	(in millions of TRY, unless otherwise indicated)
Turkey	200.6	26.2%	153.2	0.7%
Russia	113.1	9.6%	68.8	-34.0%
Azerbaijan & Georgia	5.6	43.3%	5.4	29.3%
Total	319.3	20.0%	227.4	-12.7%

Russian pre-COVID and post-COVID system sales decreased by 6.3% and 34.5%, respectively, in RUB terms.  Additionally, the post-COVID period in 2020 includes the entire month of Ramadan and the Eid in Turkey, whereas the comparable period in 2019 only includes 26 days of Ramadan.  Comparing trading during Ramadan and the Eid in the current and prior periods (being 25 April to 26 May 2020 against 6 May to 6 June 2019), Turkish like-for-like growth and the increase in system sales were 12.7% and 5.6%, respectively.

Liquidity

The Group continues to have a strong liquidity position, having access to cash at hand and additional borrowing capacity available from its Turkish banks.  As at 1 June 2020, the Group had TRY 144 million of cash at hand and additional available bank lines of TRY 136 million.

The Group is in a constructive dialogue with Sberbank regarding its covenants for the remainder of the year.  The Group can either look to obtain a covenant waiver or repay the loan voluntarily.  The principal outstanding under the Sberbank loan currently amounts to RUB 1.6 billion, of which RUB 0.3 billion is supported by a cash collateral deposit.  The Group's strong liquidity position enables it to prepay its bank borrowings in Russia if required, and still maintain a strong liquidity position.

Outlook

As steps to ease governmental restrictions are being taken in Turkey, the Group is experiencing a pick-up in take-away sales in the cities where weekend curfews are being lifted.  The government also lifted the ban for dine-in as at 1 June 2020.  Whilst Russia is behind Turkey in terms of starting this normalisation process, the Group is more comfortable that a full shut down of its stores in its markets in the future is a very remote possibility. Assuming that the current operational constraints do not significantly worsen, the Group remains confident in its plans for business continuity and cash flow. 

Enquiries

DP Eurasia N.V.
Selim Kender, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Investor Relations	[phone]
Buchanan (Financial Communications)
Richard Oldworth / Victoria Hayns / Tilly Abraham	[phone] [e-mail]

Notes

⁽¹⁾ System sales are sales generated by the Group's corporate and franchised stores to external customers and do not represent revenue of the Group.

⁽²⁾ Like-for-like growth is a comparison of sales between two periods that compares system sales of existing system stores. The Group's system stores that are included in like-for-like system sales comparisons are those that have operated for at least 52 weeks preceding the beginning of the first month of the period used in the like-for-like comparisons for a certain reporting period, assuming the relevant system store has not subsequently closed or been "split" (which involves the Group opening an additional store within the same map of an existing store or in an overlapping area).

Notes to Editors

DP Eurasia N.V. is the exclusive master franchisee of the Domino's Pizza brand in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Company was admitted to the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange plc on 3 July 2017. The Company (together with its subsidiaries, the " Group " ) is the largest pizza delivery company in Turkey and the third largest in Russia. The Group offers pizza delivery and takeaway/ eat-in facilities at its 765 stores (550 in Turkey, 203 in Russia, eight in Azerbaijan and four in Georgia as at 24 May 2020), and operates through its owned corporate stores (32%) and franchised stores (68%). The Group maintains a strategic balance between corporate and franchised stores, establishing networks of corporate stores in its most densely populated areas to provide a development platform upon which to promote best practice and maximise profitability. The Group has adapted the Domino's Pizza globally proven business model to its local markets.

 

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