NRC Group ASA

Welcome to the presentation of the third quarter results from NRC Group. Due to COVID-19, we present the third quarter results as a webcast, followed by a Q&A session at 10 o'clock today. In this picture, you can see construction work from the largest ongoing project in NRC Group, the Jokeri Light Rail project going from Espoo to Helsinki. The project and Tampere Tramway project are the main growth drivers in Finland this year. Quarter 3 is high season for NRC Group and with high capacity utilization and normally the quarter with the highest profits. Revenue for the quarter was almost 2 billion, and this is a 6% growth driven by currency effects. For the full year 2020, we expect revenue in line with last year. We deliver an EBITDA of 88 million, driven by strong profitability in Finland. Lower activity in Norway leads to lower profit margins, and a write-down of 35 million on zero margin projects in Sweden also have a negative impact this quarter. In Sweden, this was partly offset by lower overhead costs and better results for the rest of the portfolio. Due to the write-downs in Sweden, we expect that the EBITDA margin for the full year will be in the lower range of our guiding of 1.5-2% EBITDA margin for 2020. The order intake for the quarter was 1.2 billion, which includes an important win of maintenance area 5 in Finland. And we delivered solid cash flow from operations, leaving us with a good cash position entering quarter 4. The impact from COVID-19 has had limited financial effects in this quarter. However, the infection rates are rising, and the government in Norway and Sweden are gradually implementing new restrictions. And especially restrictions related to workforce mobility are impacting our operations. With the current restriction, we see higher production costs or lower productivity in some of our projects in quarter four, as the current restrictions are more demanding for us than what we have seen this quarter. We also see a higher risk of additional measures being implemented that could increase the impact going forward. Our key indicators on safety is on a positive trend compared to last year with the LTI1 rate of 5.2 year to date. However, we are not satisfied with the numbers and we need to continue the systematic work to reduce the number of safety related incidents. The sickness absence rate is increasing compared to last year. Part of this is related to COVID, but regardless of this, we are not satisfied with the results, and the goal is to reduce this back to more normal levels. Then Dag will take us through the financial figures.

This quarter we had a record high revenue at 1.95 billion, up from 1.85 billion last year. The growth of 6% is explained by currency effects due to weaker Norwegian kroner versus Euro and SEC compared with last year. EBITDA was 88 million this quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 4.5% versus 5.7% in Q3 last year. In Finland, we had strong margins, mainly due to solid project execution in the light rail project and increased margins. The quarter is high season with good utilization of machines and people, hence improved cost efficiency compared with last quarter. In Sweden, most of the zero-margin projects, which we wrote down in Q4 last year, are in their final stage of completion. Unfortunately, some of them have not developed as expected, and additional write-downs of 35 million has been booked this quarter. Good margins in other projects, as well as cost savings from the improvement program, offsets some of the losses. In Norway, the margin has declined versus Q3 last year, mainly explained by lower revenue in civil, as the order intake has been low so far this year, but also due to lower revenue in rail. In addition, the profitability in parts of the environmental division has been lower than expected. Depreciation is minus 53 million this quarter, which is at the same level as last quarter. And net financial items is minus 23 million, which is somewhat higher than normal, mainly due to currency effects. Normal level should be around minus 19 million. Further comments on each country will be covered by Henning later in the presentation. Moving to the balance sheet. The balance sheet at the end of September is solid with an equity ratio of 45%. The historical weak Norwegian kronor versus Euro and SEC is still affecting the balance sheet. And since end of June, the Norwegian kronor has weakened even more. Looking at the main items in the balance sheet, we have goodwill and intangible assets of 3 billion, which is more or less at the same level as end of June. The net working capital has increased with 95 million and follows the seasonality of the business, with some improvements due to sharp focus on improving working capital. Our cash position at the end of September was 606 million versus 691 million end of June, and the cash flow in this quarter was good. Interest-bearing debt was 1.83 billion, a reduction of 29 million from Q2, explained by repayment of loans of 39 million and currency effects. Interest-bearing debt includes operational leasing contracts of 158 million, which is at the same level as Q2. Net debt was 1.22 billion, an increase of 55 million versus last quarter, mainly due to reduced cash position affected by payment related to earn-out settlement of 92 million in the quarter. Cash flow from continuing operation was 129 million in Q3, which is historically high for this quarter. This is a result of our continuously sharp focus on working capital improvements. In Sweden, the payment terms to Trafikverket has been reduced by 15 days since April as part of the governmental support related to COVID-19, which also explains some of the improvement. Payment terms in Sweden is back to normal from November. Year-to-date cash flow from continuing operation is solid with plus 202 million and improvement of 302 million compared with last year. We have net investments of minus 110 million this quarter, explained by settlement of an earnout of NSS and Gunnar Knudsen of minus 92 million, payment for a small add-on with Gestrik in Sweden, minus 15 million, and net capex of minus 4 million. Net cash from financial activity was minus 100 million, where the main items are repayment of debt of minus 39 million, leasing payments of minus 40 million, and net financial costs of 21 million. Our financial position at the end of September is robust. We have a cash position of 606 million and an unused credit facility of 200 million. Our net debt is 1.22 billion, consisting of a bank debt of 671 million, a bond of 600 million and leasing arrangements of 559 million. At the right part of this slide, we show the bank and bond maturities the next coming years. As you will see, we have around 40 million left in quarter four for repayments, and then approximately 160 million each year from 2021 to 2023. The bond is a bullet and has a repayment in 2024. Henning will now go through the operational business and the market outlook.

Thank you, Dag. Our improvement programs are moving along and activities are implemented according to plan. We have implemented the measures we announced in Finland in Q2 to reduce overcapacity and build a more flexible cost base. However, the full financial effect will not be realized before Q2 2021. We have also implemented additional measures with regard to tender process in Norway to be more competitive in the future and increase our heat rate for tenders in the Norwegian market. When it comes to the measures marked as in process on this page, these are measures that will be ongoing also when the improvement programs are closed down and they are an integrated part of our daily work. One example of this is strengthening project management skills. Our cost reductions are moving forward as planned. During the year, we have realized significant cost reductions in Sweden and it is starting to yield results. In Finland, the full effects will not be realized before Q2 2021. In Finland, we see an organic growth of 8% in the quarter. We see a high growth rate in construction, where light rail projects are the main driver, but the growth is partly compensated by lower revenues in the maintenance area due to the ending of maintenance area 1 in quarter 1 this year. The win of the €25 million maintenance contract for Area 5 this quarter was a very important win for us, as it proves our competitiveness and that we again can see growth in the maintenance business from 2021. EBITDA is significantly up from Q3 last year, driven by good performance in light rail projects. The initial contract in Tampere is soon completed and will be delivered Q1 2021. And with the strong team we have in place in the Tampere Alliance contract, we were very happy to announce the win of the part two of the Tampere Tramway after the end of the quarter. Part two is divided in two steps. The first step, which we announced, had a value of 175 million Norwegian kroners. As a part of this contract, we have an option for the second step, where the value will be somewhat higher than step 1. The second step is expected to be approved next year when all environmental permits have been achieved. We see a continued high level of investment in Finland in 2021. We expect that the high investment level in light rail will continue, and we are very well positioned to take our part of this growth. Last year, we announced the win of the Crown Bridge Alliance project development phase. We are now in the middle of this development phase, and the decision to move forward with the construction will be taken second half of 2021. If the City Council of Helsinki approves this, this will be another major light rail contract for NRC, being the backbone of further growth in Finland. As we showed in Q2, the increase in spending within investments and renewals from 2019 to 2020 was not reflected by actual tenders in the market this season. But we see that the investment level is confirmed in the 2021 budget proposal, and we also see signs of tender activity picking up in Finland. Compared to last quarter, the tender pipeline within rail construction has increased by 1 billion kroner and the second half of 2021 also looks promising. Within the maintenance division, the tender activity is more predictable and on stable levels. The activity level in Sweden was high in third quarter with an organic growth of 13%. We still see fierce competition in the market and the next six months are important for us to build a solid order book for the 2021 season. The EBITDA of minus 7 this quarter was 9 million below last year. Unfortunately, we had to do additional write-downs of 35 million on the portfolio of projects that generated losses in 2019. This is disappointing, but at the same time we see positive development in the rest of the portfolio, and together with the cost reductions we have realized this year, it compensates partly for the write downs we had to take. We still have 155 million of production left on zero margin projects in Sweden. They are challenging, and we really look forward to close these, but the most important thing is to prove that we can deliver the projects we have won with our new organization according to plan. The proposed investment level in Sweden is increasing in line with expectations. The increases are mainly allocated to existing projects, and we expect our addressable market to be more or less at the same level in 2021 as we have seen in 2020. The tender pipeline is strong within rail construction. It is more than enough projects to calculate, but we need to see more sound pricing in the market to see the growth rates we want in Sweden. Within maintenance, the tender pipeline has been reduced by 2.5 billion. And the tender process, or all tender processes from Storstockholm Lokaltrafikk, are on hold due to COVID-19 impact, with lack of security for funding and losses related to ticket revenues. This is a market we have defined as a growth driver for our Swedish maintenance business, but this opportunity is now postponed for two years as it looks now. In Norway, we saw a low activity level in third quarter, and it will continue to be low for the rest of the year. Low hit rate in civil construction so far this year leads to significant lower revenues in civil. Project execution is still strong, but the volume also leads to lower margins. We have some wins in the quarter, but we need to see a higher volume going into our order book to come back to the volumes and results we saw in 2019. We have completed the high season in Rail Norway and we delivered project execution in a much higher level than what we did one year ago. And this should start to yield results if we continue these improvements going forward. We see lower profitability in parts of the environmental division related to demolition and recycling activities. We believe this of being of temporary character, but we expect to see the same margin level in Q4 before we get back to more normalized levels. During the quarter, we have also hired a new managing director for Norway, and yesterday, Aril Mo took over the lead of the Norwegian organization. Aril has more than 30 years of experience from the construction industry, and for the past 11 years, he's been a part of the group management team in AF-gruppen with the responsibility for the civil construction activities. I'm very happy to get Aril on board in NRC Group. He has the experience and he has the leadership skills needed to further develop our Norwegian organization. We see a strong increase in the investment level in Norway in 2021. Most of the increase is targeted towards already awarded projects, and in total we expect the addressable market for Rail Norway to be in the same high level in 2021 as this year. As the government keep underinvesting in existing infrastructure, the maintenance backlog keeps growing, and at some point Norway needs to do the same as Sweden has done, significantly increase the investment level of renewals and upgrades. We still see a strong tender pipeline in Norway, although it's somewhat lower than second quarter, but the market is still at high level and we have more than enough projects to calculate and tender for. We need to increase our hit rate to build a good order book for 2021, but I'm confident that our Norwegian organization will deliver on this. Currently, our order book for Norway in 2021 is at the same level as it was for 2020 the same time last year. To sum up, we delivered an EBITDA margin of 4.5% in the quarter, a strong quarter in Finland, and somewhat weaker in Norway and Sweden than what we hoped for. With the write-downs in Sweden, we believe it to be more likely that the results for the year is in the lower end of our guiding. And with a solid cash flow in third quarter, we have a solid financial position heading into quarter four. We see a solid tender pipeline in Sweden and Norway and improving in Finland. And the proposals for the state budgets confirm a strong outlook for investments in sustainable infrastructure going forward. We continue to strengthen the organization through the appointment of Aril Mo as new managing director in Norway. And he will bring additional strength to our Norwegian organization and to our group management team in NRC Group. Thank you for watching our third quarter presentation. You are also welcome to join our Q&A session later today at 10 o'clock.