Philips delivers strong margin improvement; flat comparable sales due to further deteriorated demand in China; growth in rest of world
October 28, 2024
Third-quarter highlights
Roy Jakobs, CEO of Royal Philips:
“In the quarter, demand from hospitals and consumers in China further deteriorated, while we continue to see solid growth in other regions. We have adjusted our full-year sales outlook to reflect the continued impact from China.
Strong improvement in profitability was driven by progress on our execution priorities, productivity measures and the improved margins of our AI-driven, industry-leading innovations.
Within a challenging macro environment, we remain focused on successfully executing our three-year plan to fully capture growth and margin expansion opportunities. With patient safety as our number one priority, we are committed to delivering better care for more people.”
Group and segment performance
Group comparable sales were flat on the back of 11% growth in Q3 2023 and deterioration in demand in China. We delivered growth in all other regions and from an increase in royalty income. China remains a fundamentally attractive growth market for Philips in the long term, with market conditions expected to remain uncertain.
Adjusted EBITA margin improved 160 basis points from 10.2% to 11.8%, driven by a strong step-up in gross margin from innovations, productivity actions and higher royalty income. Free cash flow was EUR 22 million in the quarter, driven by higher earnings, offset by working capital outflows.
Comparable order intake in the quarter declined 2% due to China, with solid order intake growth in Diagnosis & Treatment, particularly in the US. Year-to-date comparable order intake grew 1%, including China.
Diagnosis & Treatment comparable sales decreased 1%, on the back of 14% growth in Q3 2023, with solid growth outside of China. Adjusted EBITA margin was 12.6%.
Connected Care comparable sales were flat, with growth in Enterprise Informatics and Sleep & Respiratory Care offset by a low- single-digit decline in Monitoring, on the back of high-teens growth in Q3 2023. Adjusted EBITA margin improved from 3.7% to 7.3%.
Personal Health comparable sales decreased 5% due to a double-digit decline in China, more than offsetting a robust performance elsewhere. Adjusted EBITA margin was 16.5%.
Productivity
Our productivity initiatives are on track and delivered savings of EUR 188 million in Q3: operating model savings of EUR 54 million, procurement savings of EUR 58 million, and other programs savings of EUR 76 million. Since 2023, productivity initiatives delivered savings of over EUR 1.5 billion.
Outlook
The significant deterioration in China demand leads to an updated comparable sales growth outlook range of 0.5-1.5% for the full year 2024. Comparable sales growth outside of China remains within the 3-5% range. Adjusted EBITA margin is expected to be around 11.5%, the upper end of the range, with free cashflow at around EUR 0.9 billion, at the lower end of the range.
Within an ongoing challenging macro environment, Philips remains focused on successfully executing its three-year plan to drive operational improvement and create value with sustainable impact. The uncertainties signaled in earlier quarters have intensified in China and are expected to continue.
The outlook excludes the potential impact of the ongoing Philips Respironics-related legal proceedings, including the investigation by the US Department of Justice.
Customer, innovation and ESG highlights
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For further information, please contact:
Elco van Groningen
Philips External Relations
Tel.: +31 6 8103 9584
E-mail: elco.van.groningen@philips.com
Ben Zwirs
Philips External Relations
Tel.: +31 6 1521 3446
E-mail: ben.zwirs@philips.com
Dorin Danu
Philips Investor Relations
Tel.: +31 20 59 77055
E-mail: dorin.danu@philips.com
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation. Philips’ patient- and people-centric innovation leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver personal health solutions for consumers and professional health solutions for healthcare providers and their patients in the hospital and the home.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, image-guided therapy, monitoring and enterprise informatics, as well as in personal health. Philips generated 2023 sales of EUR 18.2 billion and employs approximately 69,300 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.
Forward-looking statements and other important information
Forward-looking statements
This document and the related oral presentation, including responses to questions following the presentation, contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Philips and certain of the plans and objectives of Philips with respect to these items. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements made about strategy, estimates of sales growth, future Adjusted EBITA *) , future restructuring and acquisition related charges and other costs, future developments in Philips’ organic business and the completion of acquisitions and divestments. Forward-looking statements can be identified generally as those containing words such as “anticipates”, “assumes”, “believes”, “estimates”, “expects”, “should”, “will”, “will likely result”, “forecast”, “outlook”, “projects”, “may” or similar expressions. By their nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.
These factors include but are not limited to: Philips’ ability to gain leadership in health informatics in response to developments in the health technology industry; Philips’ ability to keep pace with the changing health technology environment; macro-economic and geopolitical changes; integration of acquisitions and their delivery on business plans and value creation expectations; securing and maintaining Philips’ intellectual property rights, and unauthorized use of third-party intellectual property rights; Philips’ ability to meet expectations with respect to ESG-related matters; failure of products and services to meet quality or security standards, adversely affecting patient safety and customer operations; breaches of cybersecurity; challenges in simplifying our organization and our ways of working; the resilience of our supply chain; attracting and retaining personnel; challenges in driving operational excellence and speed in bringing innovations to market; compliance with regulations and standards including quality, product safety and (cyber) security; compliance with business conduct rules and regulations including privacy and upcoming ESG disclosure and due diligence requirements; treasury and financing risks; tax risks; reliability of internal controls, financial reporting and management process; and global inflation. As a result, Philips’ actual future results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set forth in such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could cause future results to differ from such forward-looking statements, see also the Risk management chapter included in the Annual Report 2023. Reference is also made to section Risk management in the Philips semi-annual report 2024.
Third-party market share data
Statements regarding market share contained in this document, including those regarding Philips’ competitive position, are based on outside sources such as specialized research institutes, as well as industry and dealer panels, in combination with management estimates. Where information is not yet available to Philips, market share statements may also be based on estimates and projections prepared by management and/or based on outside sources of information. Management’s estimates of rankings are based on order intake or sales, depending on the business.
Market Abuse Regulation
This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
Use of non-IFRS information
In presenting and discussing the Philips Group’s financial position, operating results and cash flows, management uses certain non-IFRS financial measures. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be viewed in isolation as alternatives to the equivalent IFRS measure and should be used in conjunction with the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Non-IFRS financial measures do not have standardized meaning under IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. A reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures is contained in this document. Further information on non-IFRS measures can be found in the Annual Report 2023.
Presentation
All amounts are in millions of euros unless otherwise stated. Due to rounding, amounts may not add up precisely to totals provided. All reported data is unaudited. Financial reporting is in accordance with the accounting policies as stated in the Annual Report 2023. Prior-period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current-period presentation; this includes immaterial organizational changes.
Effective Q1 2024, Philips has revised the order intake policy to reflect the full contract value for software contracts that start generating revenue within an 18-month horizon, instead of only the next 18-months-to-revenue horizon. This change has been implemented to better align with the specific business model of our software businesses, simplify the order intake process, and better align with peers. Prior-period comparable order intake percentages have been restated accordingly. This revision has not resulted in any material changes to the order intake percentages for the periods presented.
Per share calculations have been adjusted retrospectively for all periods presented to reflect the issuance of shares in the second quarter of 2024 in connection with the 2023 share dividend.
*) Non-IFRS financial measure. Refer to Reconciliation of non-IFRS information.
