Operator: Hello, and welcome to the Basic-Fit Q3 2026 trading update. Please note that today's conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. If you require assistance at any point, please call our support number provided in the invite emailed to you. I will now turn over the call to your host for today's conference, Richard Piekaar, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Richard Piekaar: Well, thank you, Lynn, and good afternoon, and welcome all to our Q3 2026 trading update conference call and webcast. With me today are CEO, René Moos, and CFO, Maurice de Kleer. The call is being broadcast live on our website, and a recording of the call will be available shortly afterwards. As usual, I would like to point out that the safe harbor applies. We will start with René, who will discuss the highlights for the first 9 months, including our club and membership development, and this will be followed by a more detailed look at our financial results from Maurice. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions, and the call will finish no later than 3:00PM. With that, René, I would like to hand over to you.
Rene Moos: Thank you, Richard, and welcome, everyone, to today's call. We have delivered another strong quarter and continuing double-digit growth across every headline metric. On a group level, including owned and franchise clubs, the club network grew 36% year on year to 2,246 clubs. Our membership base increased by 32% to 6.25 million members, and revenue for the first 9 months increased by 18% to EUR 1,217 million. The club and membership growth is a result of strong organic growth combined with inorganic growth from acquisitions. Let me show you on the next slide the robust development of the Basic-Fit branded clubs. Our Basic-Fit branded owned club network ended the third quarter with 1,711 clubs, up 4% year on year. The number of memberships came in at 5.19 million members, up 10% year on year. The average number of members per Basic-Fit club increased by 6% year on year to 3,035.
Rene Moos: This compares to 2,902 members per club at year-end 2025. On average, we have added 133 members per club since the start of the year. The growth in members per club drives our organic growth and is the key driver of the operating leverage we are seeing in the business. It is also key in achieving our medium-term target of between low to mid-teens. We are very pleased to be advancing rapidly towards our target of 3,200 members per Basic-Fit club. Let's continue with a more detailed look at our club network development. At the end of September, the total club network consisted of 2,246 clubs, up from 2,151 at the end of 2025. This is a net increase of 95 clubs in the first 9 months of this year. We added 93 owned clubs year to date, which bring the total to 1,809 owned clubs.
Rene Moos: During the same period, our franchise network increased by two clubs, bringing the total franchise clubs to 437. Most of our owned club growth came from Germany, which now includes the acquired clubs from wellyou and Kraftwerk, and from organic club openings in Spain. The acquired clubs from wellyou and Kraftwerk will be converted to Basic-Fit format and reclassified as Basic-Fit branded clubs as of 1 January 2027. I am pleased to report that we already added 51 Basic-Fit branded owned clubs this year, reaching our guidance of 50 net Basic-Fit owned clubs. Let us now move to the membership development slide. As of the end of Q3 2026, we reached 6.25 million memberships across the group, a 32% increase compared with the same period last year. The membership base of our Basic-Fit branded owned clubs increased by 106,000 in Q3 this year.
Rene Moos: Alongside the ongoing encouraging underlying growth trends, the effect of the September marketing campaign contributed nicely. We continue to see growth in every country in which we operate, with yet another strong contribution from France and Spain. We are pleased to see that the average membership per Basic-Fit branded owned club has increased to 3,035 members. This is a testament to the high quality of our club network and the strong value proposition and flexibility we provide for our members. Let us move to the next slide. This slide is about the quality of our membership base. Memberships per club is not only about attracting new members, it is just as much about keeping them. Let me start with the length of stay.
Rene Moos: The average length of stay increased from 21.7 months in 2023 to 23.9 months in 2025. We expect the length of stay in 2026 to be above 24 months.
Rene Moos: Our investments in the member experience are paying off. Longer opening hours, the 24/7 clubs, the new Relax & Recover zones, a better app experience, and the new look and feel of our new club layouts. Our members are also using their membership more. Sleeping members, defined as members who have not visited the club in six months, have decreased from 14.9% in Q1 2024 to 11.1% in Q3 this year. This is on a rolling 12-month average. Finally, cancellation. Members can cancel their subscription in our app in about 30 seconds. We keep it that simple on purpose. We build trust, and it makes members more likely to resubscribe. Together, a long stay and a more active member base support further growth in the average number of memberships per club.
Rene Moos: With that, I would like to hand over to Maurice, who will take you through our financial results.
Maurice de Kleer: Yes. Thank you, René. Let me start with our revenue for the first 9 months of this year, which increased by 18% to EUR 1,270,000,000 from EUR 1,034,000,000 in the same period last year. This was mainly driven by the increased memberships per club and the consolidation of the acquisitions we completed in the past year. This year's revenue includes EUR 16.5 million franchise revenue for the first 9 months. In line with our expectations, franchise revenues were stable despite us acquiring franchise clubs and preparing the franchise organization for the launch of the Basic-Fit franchise model. We are excited about progress and see franchising as an incremental growth pillar for the medium term. Our revenue was EUR 11.9 million for the first 9 months.
Maurice de Kleer: On this slide, you can see the different drivers of our revenue growth, starting with the increase in memberships per club, up 6% year-on-year from 2,861 to 3,035. We are very much on track to achieve the average membership for club targets of 3,200 in the mid-term. Secondly, our Basic-Fit branded own club network increased 4% year-on-year from 1,653 clubs to 1,711 clubs. Thirdly, ARPU increased by 1.4% year-on-year to EUR 25.64 per member, euros per member per month. This growth was supported by an encouraging take rate of Premium and Ultimate memberships, partly offset by the lower fees paid by founding members and flat other revenue. ARPU is developing in line with expectations, and we expect it to increase going forward.
Maurice de Kleer: The remainder of the revenue growth is mainly due to the consolidation of Clever Fit, wellyou, and Kraftwerk acquisitions in our group figures. Let's now turn to the next slide with an update on our 24/7 clubs. In April of this year, we told you that we had received confirmation from the French authorities to operate 24/7 clubs without staff at night. I am pleased to give you an update on their progress. On the left, you see France. In April of this year, we had 300 clubs open 24/7, all of which were still staffed at night. Since then, we have grown the number of 24/7 clubs to 356, and we have converted 216 of them to staffless operation at night.
Maurice de Kleer: We expect to convert a further 70 clubs by year end so that we end the year with 233 staffless 24/7 clubs out of the total of 361 24/7 clubs in France. The staffless clubs in France have already delivered EUR 10 million of cost savings on an annual run rate basis, and we expect further savings as we continue to optimize this staffless model. On the right, you see the group picture where close to 800 of our 1,711 Basic-Fit branded owned clubs are now open 24/7, up around 10% year-on-year. France and Germany were the countries in which most of our growth in 24/7 clubs was concentrated. With that, let me now turn to our outlook. We are seeing a limited impact on membership growth from macroeconomic fluctuations and the social unrest in France. We expect this robust membership development to continue.
Maurice de Kleer: VAT rates in Belgium are expected to remain unchanged this year, and we have fixed energy prices for 85% of our energy consumption for the year, which limits the impact of higher energy prices on club profitability. Overall, we remain well positioned for the strong end to the year and therefore reiterating our full year guidance. We confirm our revenue guidance of between EUR 1.64 billion and EUR 1.69 billion, and our underlying EBITDA less rent guidance of EUR 430 million to EUR 460 million, which as you know, we raised twice this year, most recently with our half year results. We continue to expect a significant improvement in positive free cash flow driven by the strong increase in EBITDA. The net growth of 50 Basic-Fit owned clubs has already been achieved. Lastly, we expect our leverage ratio to be just over 2x at year-end.
Maurice de Kleer: All of this reflects the continued execution of our multi-vertical growth strategy and our new era of high-quality growth, combining organic, inorganic, and franchise growth. With that, we can move to the Q&A.
Operator: Thank you. The lines are now opened. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press the hashtag followed by the number 5 on your telephone keypad. Please ensure that the mute function on your telephone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. If you find that your question has already been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing hashtag 6. Again, please press hashtag 5 to ask a question. We will pause for just a moment to allow everyone to signal. Our first question is for Karel Zoete from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Karel Zoete: Yes, good morning. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I have one with relation to the outlook and then on Germany. Regarding the outlook, you see very strong commercial execution in the key September period with acceleration of member growth. At the same time, you keep the outlook as it is. Can you provide some more insights into puts and takes here? We see acceleration in member growth. Then the second question, if I may. A lot of things have happened in Germany in recent months, two acquisitions. What is the agenda for the coming months and to enter 2027 in a different way? Thank you.
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah, thank you, Karel. We will take the first and sixth question also. If you look at our outlook for the rest of the year, we still feel comfortable with the ranges on revenue and EBITDA that we shared earlier this year. We raised that guidance twice this year. You see some going forward. Of course, we see some pluses. I referred to the Belgian VAT, but if you look at that cost line by cost line, there is always also some minuses, and that evens out. So still feeling really comfortable with the guidance that we shared, and I would like to continue with that. Then maybe regarding your second question. I think if you look back then during the year, we shared that we did some acquisitions, Kraftwerk, Speedfit, and wellyou, mainly focused at the DACH region.
Maurice de Kleer: Earlier this year, we shared that we are really focused in the German market to get to that critical mass of at least 200 clubs to enable us to do a cost-efficient marketing campaign. I would say we are well on the way. We expect to have, let's say, 127 clubs at the end of the year in Germany, but we are also not there yet. So we are looking for opportunities that still are there. We are doing that in a very disciplined way, so the price has to be right. It has to fit our business model. But if there are really good opportunities out there, then we will look at it. Of course, nothing on the table yet, nothing definitive, but of course, we will inform the market as soon as it is definitive.
Karel Zoete: Thank you.
Maurice de Kleer: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Chiara Tomesani from UBS. Please go ahead.
Chiara Tomesani: Hello, this is Chiara Tomesani from UBS. I would like to ask three questions on behalf of Natasha Brilliant. The first one, it is on France, and I was wondering whether you are seeing any signs of slowdown in France due to the macroeconomic environment and the recent protests. The second question, it is on club openings. With 93 net owned clubs additions year to date inorganically and organically ahead of the 50 target, how should we think about the run rate for the rest of the year? For the new organic openings, should we continue to expect the CapEx per club to be broadly in line with historical levels? Lastly, the last question I have it is about the conversions in Germany and Austria, and more specifically, what have been the main hurdles relative to your initial expectations and how the conversion proposition being received by members and franchisees?
Chiara Tomesani: Thank you.
Rene Moos: Thank you. I am not sure I counted correctly, but I thought it was more than three questions. Let us get started on the last one. I remember that one. The conversion in Germany, what are the hurdles? It is quite a few clubs, the wellyou and the Kraftwerk, so we are working on them currently. Expect them to be all finished end of this year, maybe the first week of January.
Rene Moos: So as of the first week of January, they will be converted to Basic-Fit clubs with everything in how we typically run a gym. There is quite some work to be done, but we do not really see hurdles there. It was a very well value chain, a very well-organized business. We are working very well with the team there, so we are happy how that is going. I think the first 10 clubs are almost finished, so it is going the right direction. Your questions about club opening, the 93, not exactly what the question was, but if you look at the rest of the year, maybe we will add one more, but that is it. We probably will open one more Basic-Fit club. That would bring the number in the full year to 94 owned clubs. You talked about France, how
Rene Moos: CapEx club.
Rene Moos: The CapEx club. Okay. First let us go to France. If you look at France, of course, it is clear that the riots do not help. It is also clear that people cannot leave their house at 9:00 in the evening. That is not also helpful. I must say we do not see it in our numbers yet. If you look at the numbers of France, they are doing actually very good. So good that yesterday we reached 3,200 members on a mature club base. We have, at this moment, 1,450 Basic-Fit mature clubs. We actually reached yesterday the 3,200 numbers. We are very happy with that. France, if you look at our clubs, the riots, we had one window, not broken, but harmed. The rest, our clubs were luckily not hit. So they are also open when they are allowed to be open.
Rene Moos: We do not know how it is going to be in the coming weeks and months, but so far till now, it has not hurt us. Then you ask something about the club cost.
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah. New club CapEx. If you look at the clubs that we have been opening this year, they tend to be on the plus size, I would say. So they are on average, they have more square meters. So we are now approximately heading for 1.4 million on average. And of course, if you look at the club, we also invest more in those clubs, wellness areas, et cetera. So that results in a bit higher price, but also in a lot more value for our members. And we still, of course, only open those clubs even at a higher average initial investment, only if we can get the 30% ROIC on that investment in the third year after opening.
Chiara Tomesani: Got it. Thank you so much.
Maurice de Kleer: Thank you.
Rene Moos: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Marc Zwartsenburg from ING. Please go ahead.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Yeah. Good morning or good afternoon. I want to drill down into the membership in growth a bit further because the 106,000 net new members is quite a bit below last year's number, the 215,000. I know that we have maybe opened up a little bit less clubs, and you do not have the full support from 24/7, but it is quite a gap. At the same time, you are talking about very strong momentum, accelerating momentum. I am trying to get those two together. Can you maybe drill down a bit further into what you are seeing and what explains the 106,000 that it is so far below last year's in growth and also below Q1 this year? How you are seeing October then maybe accelerating and what you expect a bit then going forward for Q4? There is a bit of a gap with the consensus as well.
Rene Moos: I am not sure if you are correct with the consensus. I think we are there. We are not behind on consensus, but it is clear. A year ago, the beginning of 2025, we had 2,700 members per club. Last year we grew round numbers with 200. We start the year, let us say with 2,900. Now we have finished nine months, and we added 133,000, and we still have the Q4 to go. Q4 if compared to last year, you will also see growth. If you compare it to the full year, it will be lower than last year, which is quite logical because growing from 2,700 to the end goal, the 3,200, there was still a big gap. Now the gap is getting smaller, so next year you will see even a smaller increase in growth.
Rene Moos: That is quite logical because you started with a higher number base this year. Overall, with 133,000 members and the growth in Q4, we are very happy, and we are on budget of what we expected. That is why we also confirm the EUR 430 million, EUR 460 million EBITDA.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Yeah. René, I am talking about the net in-growth and absolute members. So the 106,000 net in-growth in Q4 compared to last year's 215,000.
Rene Moos: Yeah. I tried to explain that. You said it already yourself. If you have 20 clubs less, that is 40,000 less. So if we add 20 more clubs last year than this year, that is around 40,000. So now the difference is 180. So we started with higher numbers. So this year we will grow less than last year. We can promise you next year we will grow less than this year because we are getting closer to the 3,200 members. As I also said just now that the 1,450 mature club already reached the 3,200 members. So the growth is in line with the expectation, and it is in line with our budget.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Okay. Yeah, talking about the budget, so the mid-range of the guidance, but you also have the benefit now of the VAT postponement of Belgium. That is an extra half a year of. That is also EUR 6 million or so.
Rene Moos: Mark.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Yeah?
Rene Moos: It is EUR 3 million. It is three months, so it is EUR 3 million.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Oh, sorry, Anton. Yeah, but there is an additional three months because the guidance has not been changed this H1.
Rene Moos: No, that is not true, Marc. We explained that after the six months, and we knew that.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Okay, EUR 3 million.
Rene Moos: changed it within three months.
Marc Zwartsenburg: What is the contribution from wellyou to your EBITDA? Is there any contribution already foreseen for this year?
Rene Moos: It is limited this year.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Consolidated.
Rene Moos: It is a contract that I think they are starting this month or last month.
Maurice de Kleer: No, it is not wellyou, but wellyou. We consolidated the numbers of wellyou from the beginning of August, Mark. We were able to gain control at, let us say, I think it was 11 August, so we included their numbers starting from August. That is two months in Q3 and of course the full Q4. The total EBITDA contribution is limited because of that quite short period.
Rene Moos: It will be something that we expect to grow because they are just starting in some countries. But in time, we think it could be very interesting.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Yeah. Then maybe on the free cash flow, you mentioned significant increase. If you look at the consensus, we are somewhere north of EUR 100 million for the full year. Is that still a valid number if you look at your developments and your net working capital as far as you can see now?
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah, on the free cash flow, we did not give any specific guidance, of course, Marc, but we see that significant improvement. Of course, it is on the back of the EBITDA that develops very well, but also combined with the strict control of our CapEx right now. So we see in maintenance CapEx, expansion CapEx, and other CapEx, no negative surprises. So that is all developing as planned.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Maybe the final one, if I may, on the franchise in France, anything to update us there? Any progress there made by finding franchisees?
Rene Moos: Yes, we are in discussions about contracts. We expect this year still to communicate to the market that we have signed the first contracts. That is going in the right direction.
Marc Zwartsenburg: Good. That is very good. Thank you very much.
Maurice de Kleer: Thank you.
Rene Moos: Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Flavien Baudemont from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Flavien Baudemont: Yes, good afternoon. I have two questions on my side. The first one is franchise membership. We see that it went down by 10% between the previous quarter and this one. Can we have an explanation on that? The second question, more a follow-up on the French possible franchise. Are you going to sell a club to a franchisee, or is he going to open a branch? Can we have also some detail on the financial of this possible deal? Thank you.
Rene Moos: Yeah. About the franchise membership drop, we aligned that with how we calculate a member. It is not that they lost 10% of their member, it is just that it took some time to get a better overview of what really was a member. If somebody canceled their membership, with Basic-Fit, it is not a member anymore, and the franchisee, they all had different ways of calculating. The earlier statement was not completely correct. About the selling of the clubs to a franchisee, I think that was a question. What we are looking for at Basic-Fit is to find franchisees who can do at least 10 locations, which is different than Clever Fit because at Clever Fit, they typically have one, two, or three locations. For Basic-Fit, we are trying to find franchisees who can do at least 10 locations. That means they will buy a certain area.
Rene Moos: We want to do the Basic-Fit franchisees in the big countries. We are talking about Germany, Spain, and France. Then we are looking at a region. For instance, if we have a region in Spain where we can get a good franchisee and we have one or two or a few clubs there, then for us, it is not a problem to sell those clubs to the franchisee where he can then build his 10, 20, or 30 locations. The main goal is, of course, to grow the market. It is not about selling clubs. If we sell clubs, it should be because they are buying a region where they will continue to grow our label and our brand. That is the reason why we could sell clubs in the bigger countries, France, Spain, and Germany. But it is only in the combination with growth.
Rene Moos: It is about growing our business.
Flavien Baudemont: It is all clear. Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Karel de Suter.
Karel Zoete: Yes, thanks. I have two follow-up questions. The first one is on the finance cost, because you issued a bond a couple of weeks ago, at the same time we see rates go up. What is the outlook for your more blended cost of capital in the coming period? Will it go down? Will it go up or stay a bit the same? The second question is on M&A in the sector. We see deals materializing in Switzerland but also in Spain. How do you look at your own activities in these two markets and the ability in the medium term to become a dominant number one player in these markets?
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah. Thank you, Karel. I will take the first question and René will take the second one. If you look at our finance costs, we are actively managing that cost, of course, certainly in the more volatile markets where we are. With the refinancing of our acquisition loan that we got last year from our banks, refinancing that through our Nordic bonds, we actually were able to save interest costs or manage our interest costs. And of course, we have done the same with issuing the convertible earlier this year at a 2.5. Then in addition to that, also keeping part of our bondholders in the convertible bond '21 in with the offer to waive their put option early this year. So all in all, on the convertibles, we have, by doing that, fixed our interest costs, because that is of course a fixed rate.
Maurice de Kleer: And if you look at the remainder, you know that we are still with the positive cash flow that we have and lower net debt ratio, we are also able to reduce our interest costs because of less of a premium actually from our banks. So all in all, it is going in the right direction. Of course, what is not under our control is Euribor, of course. So that is not that we have hedged 50% of our interest risks. So we have limited our exposure very decently, I would say. So that is about the finance cost. And René?
Rene Moos: Yeah, the M&A. If you look at M&A, there is some consolidation going on. It is what we also said in our Capital Markets Day, that we want to play a role in that. What you see is that the bigger players are actually doing quite some acquisitions. So if you look at the PureGym transaction in Switzerland, what you just mentioned, I would say it is a logical step for them to do this acquisition, being the clear market leader there. Also, I think it was a serious price, over EUR 5 million per club for 100,000 members. But I am sure they have calculated it correctly that this makes sense. And if you look at what happened in Spain with VivaGym buying Synergym, I think it is also a logical step. They are currently the clear market leader with over 400 locations. What does that do for us?
Rene Moos: Does it hurt us or not? I think overall, the markets where we are in is still very under-penetrated. So if you look at Spain and France before they have the same fitness penetration as, for example, the Netherlands, there still needs to be thousands of clubs opened. So there is still a lot of room for growth and there is a lot of room for consolidation. I also think that strong competition will help the markets and will also at the end really help us because the bigger chains can do more marketing, and more marketing will get more people also to the gym. So overall, I think it is a good thing that this happens.
Rene Moos: For the short term for us, after an acquisition like VivaGym and Synergym, they will be very busy with themselves trying to get the two different companies into one, two cultures into one, two brands into one. They will be very busy. If you look at it, yeah, per saldo, I do not know what the word in English is, but altogether, it is not a club growth, right? It is a different brand on a building. We still think we can be the clear market leader in Spain. But for now, we are the number two.
Karel Zoete: Super. Thank you.
Rene Moos: Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Robert Jan Vos of ABN AMRO. Please go ahead.
Robert Jan Vos: Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one, what can you say in general about the non-Basic-Fit owned clubs that you acquired recently? Do you manage to maintain the members, for example, at Clever Fit and also wellyou and maybe the more recent Kraftwerk? Do you manage to maintain the memberships there? Second question, you are growing quite fast with your memberships per average Basic-Fit club now at 3,035. You still mention medium term objective of 3,200. But when do you expect to achieve that threshold? Because you added 133 members on average per club already in the first 9 months of this year. When do you expect to be close to the 3,200? My last question, in France, sequentially there was one less club than in H1. What is the message that we should take from that?
Robert Jan Vos: Is that number to work with going forward, apart from the franchisee opportunity? Have you shifted focus for growth to other countries a bit more, or is there still more club openings to expect also in France? That is my questions. Thank you.
Rene Moos: Thank you, Robert. The first one was the non-Basic-Fit clubs. If we can maintain the members? Yes and no. We will definitely lose members. Every acquisition we do and when we convert it to Basic-Fit, we lose a few hundred members. Why is that? Because we do not have any kids daycare, or we take out the sauna or the wellness or something like that. Somebody wants to stop anyway, and this is the right moment to say, "Okay, now I stop my membership." But in a few months, we always see a plus. It is a dip. Once we convert, it is a dip. We lose a few hundred members, but 2, 3 months later, it is a plus already. Overall, that is about maintaining the members. The second was the growing. We are growing.
Rene Moos: If you see now 21 months, we grew from 2,700 members to 3,035. What I just said, that the 1,450 mature clubs, the more than 1,400 mature clubs have already reached the 3,200. Yeah, if you open a lot of new clubs or do a lot of takeovers, you drop again. That is clear. If we add 100 or 200 clubs and they start with zero members for the new clubs or with, let us say, 2,000 members for an acquisition, the average will drop again. But a year later or a year and a half later, that is back. The faster you grow, the more difficult it is to get to 3,200.
Rene Moos: And that was actually also one of the reasons why we said, "Okay, we are going to slow down to around 50 club openings a year to show the market that we can reach this 3,200," which we have now done already on the mature clubs. Fast growth, a lot of takeovers or a lot of new openings will drop that. Because of that, it will take a little bit longer to reach this 3,200. About the French, I think it is more a bit about the timing. We still have the intention to grow to 1,200, 1,300 locations in France. We are currently actually also building new clubs in France. So the expansion definitely did not stop there. Actually, we want to grow a bit faster even, but we want to do that in a combination of owned and franchise clubs. So nothing has changed in France.
Rene Moos: We are happy how that is going. As you know, I think two years ago, we had a lot of discussions about how do we call them? Corona clubs. So the clubs we built during or just after Corona, well, they are now mature, and they are now all pretty much reached the number that we anticipated when we started those clubs. So overall, the business is going very well.
Robert Jan Vos: Maybe one follow-up and another try from my end for Maurice. If you look at the recent company collected consensus, free cash flow expectations is actually EUR 125 million or so, depending on average or medium. I would say, are you happy about this or maybe a bit nervous? We are reaching the end of the year. I know that you have not provided specific guidance, but based on what you know right now, are you nervous about this number?
Rene Moos: Well, I can react to that. He is laughing, so he is not nervous. He is happy.
Maurice de Kleer: No, I am not nervous at all, John. Don't worry.
Robert Jan Vos: Okay.
Maurice de Kleer: No. You want to go ahead?
Robert Jan Vos: No, I can.
Maurice de Kleer: No. I think it is also what Marc asked. Looking at free cash flow, we are really progressing well if you look at all the ingredients in there. No surprises in interest and tax and no surprises in actually also in all the CapEx streams now. That means that with the EBITDA guidance that we gave, there is also a good view on where we will end up at the end of the year on the free cash flow. Please note that by the way, the free cash flow is after organic expansion, but pre-acquisition. In our acquisition. Our only problem is, of course, we don't know what you mean by a significant increase. I know.
Rene Moos: We come back at that in January, Robert.
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah. Yeah, Robert. Okay. Also shared is that we are looking to give more, let's say, more detailed guidance going forward. But for this year, we would like to stick with what we shared. Okay, clear. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Lynn Hautekeete from KBC. Please go ahead.
Lynn Hautekeete: Good afternoon, everyone. I have a question on your underlying EBITDA guidance. So indeed, it should have increased with EUR 6 million on the Belgian VAT. It did not. So I am just wondering, what kind of negative pockets that you see, and if you could be a bit more specific on those, if they are structural or more related to one-offs.
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah. Hi, Lynn. I think this also was what we shared with Marc. If you look at the most recent updated guidance on EBITDA that we gave, that was including no VAT change in Q3. That means that the plus that we have is now only in Q4. That is 3 months times approximately EUR 1 million. You are right about that. Compared to our last EBITDA guidance, it is a EUR 3 million plus. Of course, as I said, EBITDA is a mix of a lot of losses and cost lines. We still are comfortable with the guidance that we shared last time, which we raised 2 times.
Lynn Hautekeete: Okay, clear. My second question is on inflation. Indeed, you said energy costs in 2026 are fixed, 2027 is a bit more volatile potentially. Would you consider increasing membership prices, or do you see room to further increase membership prices to offset certain pockets of inflation? I know the last time you did it was 2 years ago, and you have a policy of checking every 2 years if you can change it.
Rene Moos: Well, no, we are not planning to do any member price increase, but we do expect that the yields will increase this year and also next year. No, no membership increase.
Lynn Hautekeete: Okay, that is clear. Thanks.
Rene Moos: Thank you.
Maurice de Kleer: Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Jeremy Kincaid from Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Jeremy Kincaid: Good afternoon. Thanks very much. Two questions from me. The first one just on your comment about launching the Basic-Fit branded franchise system by year end. You mentioned, René, I think, that you hope to sign contracts by the end of this year with an S at the end, suggesting that there could be multiple franchisees that you could sign this year. I just wanted to confirm that I heard that correctly. Additionally, when you say launch by the end of this year, is that what you mean? Just you sign the contracts, or is there also the potential for construction to start on new locations this year as well? Then one quick one for you, Maurice. You mentioned that you have hedged 85% of your energy prices, energy costs for this year. I think that is up from 80% when you last communicated.
Jeremy Kincaid: Have you also increased your hedging for FY27? Thank you.
Rene Moos: Yes. We are talking about multiple contracts, so more than one. That is correct. The launch means signing the contract, but signing contract also means that they will sign then already some locations. That does not mean that we are going to open clubs, and it does not mean that in the same week they are going to start construction, but in the near future, they will start building the clubs. The last question was the-
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah, Jeremy. On the energy crisis and energy hedging, it is correct. For this year, we hedged 85% in total for the full year. Until now, we have never looked for fixing or hedging 100% of our prices because it has been better to buy our energy on the spot market. For example, in Spain, where they have very specific possibilities to generate energy via hydro and solar energy. That has been much more interesting to buy that on the spot market, and we will probably continue to do so. For next year, it is still on 55% of our total energy consumption that is hedged, and we are still looking at opportunities to do that more than that.
Maurice de Kleer: Again, the energy markets are quite volatile, so we are constantly looking at the prices and seeing if hedging is a better way than just buying it on the spot market. So we have a bit more vulnerability next year, of course. Still, with 55% hedged, and also probably not wanting to hedge 100% of it, we are still very much in control, I would say.
Jeremy Kincaid: Thank you. Very clear.
Maurice de Kleer: Thank you, Terry.
Operator: Our last question is from Leo Carrington from Citi. Please go ahead.
Leo Carrington: Good morning. Good afternoon. Thank you. Could I firstly just clarify on the free cash flow point, how would you classify the CapEx associated with the conversion of the wellyou and Kraftwerk clubs? Is that organic or M&A related for the purposes of the free cash flow definition? Then second question, into the interest rate environment in terms of the new lease signings, new lease economics and renewals, is there anything to be aware of or to call out that you're seeing already in the lease costs? Thank you.
Maurice de Kleer: Yeah. Thank you, Leo. Your first question is regarding, let's say, the conversion CapEx. That is, let's say, if we have acquired a club, we rebrand that to a Basic-Fit club, including some extra investments we do. That is excluded from our free cash flow definition. Included is the organic growth, so the new builds, but acquisition CapEx, including rebranding, that is excluded from our definition of free cash flow. It kind of makes sense because, let's say, rebranding cost and also the extra CapEx that we have to spend there is taken into account when defining our purchase price. So it is actually part of our total purchase price. So it is not part of the free cash flow definition.
Maurice de Kleer: If you look at our leases, and you look at, let's say, the effect of inflation in there, of course, our leases are increased with inflation indexation. But in most contracts, either on regulations in specific countries, for example, France and Spain, and/or in our contracts, that inflation adjustment is capped in most of our contracts. So that means that the vulnerability that we have there is quite limited. Of course, every year our lease costs go up, but again, it is capped.
Richard Piekaar: All right. So I assume there are no further questions, and I would like to thank you all for dialing in. If there are any other questions coming up at a later time, please don't hesitate to give us a call and we will continue the conversation. Have a nice day. Cheers. Bye-bye.
