Nomad Foods Limited (NYSE:NOMD) Q3 2023 Results Conference Call November 9, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Anthony Bucalo - Head of Investor Relations

Stefan Descheemaeker - Chief Executive Officer

Samy Zekhout - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jason English - Goldman Sachs

John Baumgartner - Mizuho Securities

Rob Dickerson - Jefferies

Steve Powers - Deutsche Bank

Peter Lukas - CJS Securities

Operator

Greeting. Welcome to the Nomad Foods Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Anthony Bucalo, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Anthony Bucalo

Hello, and welcome to the Nomad Foods third quarter 2023 earnings call. I am Anthony Bucalo, Head of Investor Relations, and I am joined on the call by Stefan Descheemaeker, our CEO; and Samy Zekhout, our CFO.

Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on Slide 2 of our presentation. This conference call may include forward-looking statements that are based on our view of the Company's prospects, expectations and intentions at this time. Actual results may differ due to risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in our press release, our filings with the SEC and this slide in our investor presentation, which includes cautionary language.

We will also discuss non-IFRS financial measures during the call today. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be considered a replacement for and should be read together with IFRS results. Users can find the IFRS to non-IFRS reconciliations within our earnings release and in the appendices at the end of the slide presentation available on our website.

Please note that certain financial information within this presentation represents adjusted figures for 2022 and 2023. All adjusted figures have been adjusted for exceptional items, acquisition-related costs, share-based payments and related expenses as well as noncash FX gains or losses. Unless otherwise noted, comments from here on will refer to those adjusted numbers.

With that, I will hand you over to Stefan.

Stefan Descheemaeker

Thank you, Tony, and thank you for joining us on the call today. Nomad posted a solid top and bottom line performance in the third quarter, following our excellent results from the first half of the year.

Sales grew organically by 1.6%, our fifth consecutive quarter of organic sales expansion. Additionally, we generated strong adjusted free cash flow, successfully refinanced USD 700 million of our debt to lower interest charges and bought back €66 million for own shares at attractive prices. We have borrowed back more than 4% of our shares in the first nine months of the year.