Bouvet ASA

Yes. I would like to welcome you to the fourth quarter of 2025 in Bove. My name is Per-Gunnar Tronsli, and I have with me Steffen Garder. We are going to do this in the usual way. Welcome to those of you who have met here, physically, And then we have those of you who follow us on stream. And then we do, as I said, as usual, we run our presentation. I tell a little about what we work with. Then Stefan comes afterwards and tells more about Tala in a little depth. And then we take questions. And then we have a mic here, so then all those who are on stream, you also get the questions with you. I'll go first to some of the highlights in this quarter. And it is nice to have a quarter where we continue to win agreements and renew trust. And this quarter, there is a lot to bring forward, but we bring forward especially the Riksrevision, which we have found a big new agreement on. I will say more about it and what we are working on with it. And then we have renewed trust with good, dear customers who make BP, Equinor, Arbeidstilsynet. The fourth quarter is also a quarter where we conduct our annual customer satisfaction surveys, and perhaps most importantly, employee surveys. This has given us many nice confirmations. We have a lot to work with, but I was going to share a little about that later in the presentation. And then some of the highlights in relation to the figures. We came in with operating revenues of almost 1 billion, but 998 million, and then we get a operating result of 103 million kroner, and that gives an EBIT margin, an operating margin of 10.4. Steffen will go into depth on that, and then look at the drivers on that. Very nice this quarter. From last quarter, we have a net growth in the number of employees at 13. So we end the quarter with 2,367 employees in BOV. The fourth quarter marks the end and the last quarter of the year 2025. We commented on this in the report, that it has been a year that has also had a lot in it, also a bit demanding in relation to the market situation. But our operating revenues fall close to 4 billion, 3 billion, 912 million kroner. And then we get an operating result this year of 473 million kroner. That gives a operating margin of 12.1%. When we look at it year-on-year, we have to say that it is a good year. Historically, in the BOV-collective, we deliver good profitability. We would certainly have wanted more in relation to growth in employees, but I will come back to that and say a little more about it. But it is a good year. There is a solid profitability in a market that is so demanding. So to all Boveres who follow us, I would like to say thank you very much. It has been a great effort that has created these results. And then, based on these results, the Board of BoV has proposed for the General Assembly an exchange rate per share of 3 kroner. 3 kroner per share for decision and payment in the first half year. So those were some of the highlights. I will go a little further and talk a little about how the operation has been. And as I said, we end the year with 2,367 employees in Bove. And that is up net with 13 employees from the previous quarter, from Q3, and from the same period last year, the fourth quarter of 2024, it is a net growth of 7. In isolation, one could probably wish for some higher net growth, but the underlying story and explanation for that is the same as I shared last quarter. We have a turnover that is stable and low. And here, while the recruitment activity has been directly adapted to what we have seen of opportunities in the market. So that's where we have given a lot of honor to the whole organization and the management around in all regions, who are going to adapt that recruitment in relation to what we have seen of opportunities This is a difficult sport, but I think this year we have managed to adapt it very well. Now I will tell you a little about the sectors and what is going on there. Renewable oil and gas is our absolute biggest. It is good, it is stable, some minor adjustments there, down 2.2%, within that sector there. We were out with a press release here in the course of 2025, that we had won a new agreement with Ake BP. This is one of those agreements that has had a very positive development in the turnover of oil and gas, and some growth and development on new projects on our energy. And then we have had some down at Gasco and some down at Equinor. But regardless, it is a sector that we see is in stable need and in demand, as we see it now. Public and defense. This is a sector that we have been a bit against. Many have communicated that it has been demanding in the public sector. Over the last few quarters, we have talked about that we have had an increasing turnover. And it is especially, as I have also mentioned in previous quarter announcements, it is especially within the defence sector that has had an increased demand. And we have won contracts with NAV, which also contributes to the development of the public sector. and customers as directors of higher education and competence. And here are several that have positive developments, so Kystverket also, the same there, and what we experience in Sweden at Solna municipality, which is a municipality right outside Stockholm. So that's good, and now they have rounded up 20% of our turnover, so we are very happy about that. But as I said, a large part of what we see in public, as you can see here, 20%, a large part of that is the activity we have on the defence. which is good and rising. Then we have energy supply, which is also a sector that we have historically had a big foothold in, and is around 20%. Now we are slightly below, and that is where we have the biggest decline. The reason for this is quite simple. It is linked to two, especially two Two customers and deliveries. One is that we have completed the delivery at Elvia, and the other is what I talked about earlier, that we here from Norway have delivered solutions to balancing the Swedish power grid here from Norway. And many of those deliveries have been moved to Sweden and taken over by the Swedish power grid itself. So that is the reason for the development we see there. And then we have the service areas. And there we have a very pleasant development, even though it is a slightly smaller sector with us. But there we have customers such as Innovation Norway, Norske Kirke, Viking Redningstjeneste, KS Digital, and Offshore Norway and so on. So, good development. Let's talk about customer cohesion. In most of the quarterly publications that I have had, I have been able to tell you that we have had a constantly increasing concentration. The 10 largest, the 20 largest, have always produced a steadily larger proportion of our turnover. I'm not completely sure about the statistics, but this is one of the first times that I say that it has calmed down somewhat. So there it is a little down, both on the 10 largest and the 20 largest. So if you think that the turnover is largely flat, it means that there are more customers contributing to our total turnover. So I do not hold anything particularly negative or positive about that, but it is a pleasant development that we deliver more to more customers, which I am of course happy about. Public and private, we stand in support of both, with a leg well planted in each of those sectors. Nothing special to comment on, other than the comments I already had, which go on the adjustments that are within the different ones. And then we have our lead in life. We prioritize very strongly existing customers. This means that the main part of our activity always and every quarter is linked to existing deliveries. This is sometimes a small challenge in terms of winning new customers. This quarter, It is quite common to have one or two customers who are involved in the development of customers that we did not work with 12 months ago. This quarter it is especially within the municipal sector, so what we do at KS Digital, a case I had up here and told you what we worked with earlier. KS Digital works with making services for the municipal market, so large and small municipalities can buy standardized services from KS Digital. We have several teams working with that. Also what we do at Asker municipality, Bærum municipality, is customers who make the new ones. It is also customers we have mentioned earlier. Nordtømmer and also renovation companies that are in the municipalities around Bergen, that handle all renovations in that region. So, many nice new customers, but in general, the distribution is the same as before. It is fun to talk about the agreements we have received. I mentioned the Riksrevision. We won a big new agreement with the Riksrevision in the fourth quarter. Here we have the Riksrevisor himself at the top of the Riksrevision. All of you know the Riksrevisjonen. This is the parliament's independent control body. It performs accounting revisions, administration revisions, and company control. In its function, the Riksrevisjonen collects enormous amounts of data from the companies they do the overview and review with. And what we build for Riksrevisionen is what you can call a hybrid data platform, where something is in its own rig and something is in the sky. What we are working on here is something that we also wrote about in the quarterly report, that we work a lot with technology, but we work a lot more with everything that is surrounding it, which is about creating business benefits out of technology. And Riksrevisionen is an example of that. We work with a completely new data platform, but a new data platform creates no customer value if we do not work in work processes, in ways to work on, ways to negotiate, ways to share. So the competences we contribute to in that project and in that development is quite typical for the service composition at BOV. It is technologists who make what we can call front-end and back-end systems, but there is a lot with architecture, there is a lot with change management. We go into work processes and work with the organization so that you work in a new and more effective way with technology. Very happy about this. They have great ambitions for the years to come and towards 2030. We will have a lot of exciting things to work with. Then we have DIGDIR, the Digitalization Directorate. In short, the Digitalization Directorate works with making your and my digital everyday life, when we visit public services, easier. They work for a public Norway where digital services will be easier and more user-friendly to use, among other things. The background for what is called the design system, which we at Digdir have worked with, has been that when you look around the public sector, you can see that there is, to varying degrees, consistency and universal design, which is the basis for the design of these systems, and perhaps a slightly different approach to design user-friendly solutions. So we have worked with Digdir to create what is called the design system. It is a framework, a design system that is available to everyone in the public sector to build even better digital solutions. And it's a bit funny, because this is primarily about the public sector, but these are things that are also adopted in private. So then you can use these, this framework, this design system, to build even better and more universal digital solutions. So that is something we have done in the quarter. And then we have Stangeland Maskin. Stangeland Maskin is a large Norwegian entrepreneur. We have talked about these earlier. Here we have built the data platform for them, where they collect all the data about their operations. This is something we have done with Microsoft technology, Fabric and so on. The case here is that it is also about creating business benefit from collected data. Here, Stangeland Maskin had a desire to become even better at exploiting this data and creating real business value. So then you went into the HMS area, and then a lot of events are collected in the HMS context, into this data platform, and then we use artificial intelligence to analyze the collected data, look at trends and look at specific events, and then work with artificial intelligence, and that's why we're talking about AI agents trigger them on the collected data and the analyses that are carried out, and suggest concrete measures in HMS work. In this way, we use technology to create even better and more business-oriented solutions. So those were the customers we were going to talk about. And then I just want to bring up one thing that we work with, and this comes from all of our customers. And many, not just our customers, but many customers in the Norwegian market to work with in 2026. This is the EU's new rule of cyber security. It is decided in the EU. It is expected, decided by law in Norway in the course of 2026. This regulation affects all businesses that provide socially-critical services. So socially-critical businesses are directly affected by this. And this is very much about technical solutions in how you handle security and cyber security. But very much beyond that, this is about management systems, about how you anchor security work in the organization and in the top management and in the board. And responsibility of the board and management in following up on this. We, as a supplier to a lot of socially critical suppliers or businesses, we are also affected by this. So we prepare ourselves for this regulation. In addition, we help our customers prepare for this. So large parts of our customers are very directly affected by the character they are in the business. So then we provide services where we go in and work with them on this regulation, large and complex regulations, where we work with analysis of their state. We come up with plans on how they should survive and approach new regulations. and then we work with them in implementation and implementation. So here we work with, again, a process theme in the middle of this, that yes, we work with a lot of technology, but we work with many of the control systems and what affects the organization that is around technology. So let's see if it is implemented. We expect it to be implemented in the course of 2026. We're also doing a course on this, so just come and learn more about NIST 2. Great fun! And now I'm in the course. And the course business, you who are here physically today, you are in our course business here now. It is an important and dear part of our business, even though it does not make much of the turnover. But here we run a lot of courses throughout the year. We run a lot of courses that are purely technical, and there is a big demand for the course portfolio we have here. A lot of technical courses, a lot of artificial intelligence, and also a lot of courses around methodology and product management, team management, and so on. exciting course portfolio, and which obviously hits well. I would like to highlight some things. I am always impressed. I usually include this story about courses at the end of each year. And then we see that this year we have had 426 courses, and there are more than 6000 participants who are through exactly these locations for course participation. And then there is another thing. At BOV, we offer a large collection of breakfast seminars all year round. We organize everything through this company. So this year, there has been a lot of focus around artificial intelligence and much more, but we have had 45 breakfast seminars on the subject and more than 4,000 participants. So this is an important part of our business. But why is this so good? And why is the quality so good? That is one thing. Those who hold these courses are BV consultants who are out five days a week working with the newest and most exciting and important businesses. They bring learning from these projects and come in here and run extremely good courses. So it's just to participate. Learn a lot. A lot to learn. Finally, before I leave it to Steffen, who will talk a bit about going deeper into the details, I would like to go back to the point I started with, that the fourth quarter is a quarter where we carry out our annual employee surveys and customer satisfaction surveys. And you know our ambition. We have an ambition that we keep high. We use it in the organization all the time. And then we say that our ambition is to be the most trustworthy consulting company with the most satisfied employees and customers. That is a goal we will probably never reach. And that is not the whole point of the ambition. We will stretch ourselves to work with these things every single day. So when we do these annual surveys, it is good to see that we get good confirmation. On the employee survey, I would like to highlight two things. One is that there is a very high participation. Many are engaged in how we can improve the workplace even more. We have participated in the employee survey by over 90%. If I were to personally point out one thing that I really appreciate, it would be what we have here, perhaps in New Norwegian translation, but it is actually about whether people want to be in Bovea and see it as a long-term workplace, and we score well there. And in the customer survey, So again, I just have to say thank you to all the Bouviers who are in this every day, because the feedback we get from them is really good. And there are especially two things that I notice and that I am very happy about. One is that the customers see us as a long-term collaboration partner. That's nice. But even more important, perhaps, is that the feedback is that we score very high on relevant competence. And when we know what is happening in the market around us with artificial intelligence and all that, and how it affects our deliveries, then that is a very good confirmation. So with those words, I think, Steffen, you can say a little more about the figures.

Yes, thank you. Now it's time for the figures. This is what you have been looking forward to, I reckon, all of you. Then we will first look at the fourth quarter isolated, and then we will look at 2025, the whole year 2025. In the fourth quarter, the operating revenues ended at 998 million kroner, which is a decline of 2.7 percent compared to the same period last year. The EBIT was 103 million kroner, which is 16 million kroner lower, which is a decline of 13.1 percent. This gives an EBIT margin of 10.4 percent against 11.6 percent in the same period last year. If we look at the bridge analysis, we can see clearly what has affected the development in EBIT. The biggest change in the quarter is that we have had a lower rate of invoicing. It is down 2.3 percent points, and it reduces EBIT by 28 million. It is important to note that the factorization rate varies between geographies and subjects. That is why we say that the decline is not general. It applies only to areas affected by market trends, increased competition and project pauses. The leaders follow the capacity and measures closely. In this quarter, more holidays have taken place than in the same period last year, and this is in line with the indoor days in connection with the Christmas holidays. This negatively affects the results, with 2 million kroner, as you can see here. The personal income is at the same level as last year, despite a declining wage growth. This is largely due to a lower result-based well-being for the employee, and a drop in the extra employee income of 5 percent for revenues of over 850,000 kroner. Last mentioned, it accounts for 12.1 million kroner per quarter. On the positive side, the hourly prices increased by 2.8 percent, which contributed to 26 million kroner in the quarter. And the average number of employees, as you can see, is closer to the fourth quarter of last year, and therefore does not affect the results. The same applies to the number of working days. Here, there is also no difference compared to last year. If we go back to the table, you can see that The result after the tax ended at 72 million, equivalent to 69 euros per share. If we look at the year under 1, this is the picture. The revenue for 2025 ended at 3.9 billion, which is a marginal decline from 2024. The EBIT was 473 million kroner, a reduction of 17 million, correspondingly 3.5%. This gives an EBIT margin of 12.1% compared to 12.5% the year before. The BRU-analysis shows that the biggest positive contribution in the hourly rate is the increase in the hourly rate. The hourly rate rose by 3.3 percent, something that raised debits by 115 million kroner. We also have a positive effect from overall costs of 29 million kroner. This is mainly due to lower amortization of self-developed software and lower social costs. In addition, we see a less positive effect from the number of employees at 3 million. On the negative side, we first and foremost have a reduction in the rate of invoicing at 1.9 percentage points. This brings the EBIT down by 90 million kroner. The reason for the decline is the same as I described for the quarter, that it is not general, but there are variations between regions and areas of expertise. Personal costs increased by 58 million kroner in 2025, mainly as a result of a 4.3% wage increase in the last 12 months. This effect is partly due to a lower result-based well-being and the absence of the extra labor-giving allowance, which for the year reduced costs by 15.8 million kroner. There is no calendar effect this year. The result after tax for 2025 ended up at 359 million kroner, which is 25 million, or 6.5 percent lower than 2024. The result of the share was 3.46 kroner compared to 3.69 kroner the year before. Moving on, we look at this picture, and you can see the development over time, quarter by quarter. We can start with the turnover, which I have already mentioned. The fourth quarter is 28 million behind the fourth quarter last year, but it is significantly higher than the third quarter last year. And if we zoom in a bit, we see that the salary income from employees ended at 911 million, and that is marginally down from last year, but we see that the decline in turnover is mainly due to reduced use by subcontractors. The use is down 14.7% to 72 million kroner. Under-consultants now account for 7.2% of the quarterly turnover versus 8.2% in the quarter of last year. As we have said before, this is in line with our strategy of prioritising permanent employees. Reduced use of subconsulants also has an effect on the costs, which is why the cost of goods is lower, down 13%. The staff costs are largely stable, despite an increase of 4.3% in wages. This is because it is counteracted by lower result-based benefits, apart from the additional employer benefits. Let's take a look at the cash flow. It looks like this. The cash flow from sales was 363 million kroner in the quarter against 539 million kroner in the same period last year. As you can see, the cash flow is always very good in the fourth quarter. For the entire year 2025, the cash flow was 347 million kroner. The brokerage analysis shows that the quarter started with a bank interest of 373 million. The company generated 94 million in positive cash flow, and IFRS 16 contributed with another 17 million. Income from customers. gave a working capital change of 253 million. This is completely in line with what we see of normal seasonal variations. On the investment side, we had a cash flow of minus 2 million. This includes, among other things, 2.8 million in earn-out for purchase of Hedit in October 2023. The cash flow from financing activities was negative, at 41. Primarily linked to the payment of the additional exchange rate for 2024, at 70 euros per share. And finally, IFRS 16 effects from our rental obligations drew the cash flow down to 22 million kroner. In total, we ended the quarter with a good cash flow of 672 million kroner. Finally, let's take a short look at the balance sheet. It still shows a solid and robust financial situation. There is still no long-term yield and an unused cash credit. The equity ends at 24.5%, and the liquidity rate ends at 1.20%. That was the numbers for today. I'll give the floor back to you.

Thank you. I'll just say a little about how we see the time we're in and some of the future reflections. Some have said that it's difficult to predict, especially about the future, so I'll be careful with that. If there are any main points of what we see we stand in, then there is no doubt that we stand as Hedvin. Yes, it is a somewhat heavier market, and I think we see it best when we look around us. I think this organization, Bove, we handled it well, but we see that around us, there have been comparable actors who have more or less challenges. So when we look at the aftermath and the market situation that has been through the years, there has been a swing, but in general, just where we are now, we see that we are in a somewhat heavier market. This sets an agenda for us. This means that we are very focused on sales and new customers. It is very important that we are close to the customers to make the most of the opportunities we have and deliver well to our customers. So, a bit like business as usual, focus on the things we can work with. And I pointed out the things outside of us, and of course it sets an agenda for us internally, that we have to become even better, even more effective, and that's what we're working on. And I think we're doing well with that. Then we do not need to comment on the development we have around us in relation to technology and the market. It is a thriving development, actually. There have been some speculations, and many think a lot about what affects the consulting industry. My opinion, again, is that this is not about technology development. This is about a market that is a bit softer. But we are in the middle of a major tornado when it comes to artificial intelligence. I take that into the last bullet point. It sets a huge agenda in BOV in relation to investing in the skills that are necessary and required today, but even more so in relation to what is required in the future. So if I were to describe one of our main agendas, it is very high on our prioritization list and sets a huge agenda for the entire organization. Strong focus on business value. I can say that I have described a number of customer cases, especially the Riksrevision as an example here, which describes what we work with. And when we talk about artificial intelligence, it is often about technology, and there are many who forget that in order to create value out of it, it is about everything that is around. It is about the work process, to get it in so that it actually changes the business. That is a very important focus for our customers. So, we are a technology hub, but what we see customers asking for in a much greater degree now is, when we for example talk about artificial intelligence, is to find the right applications, but when we have found the right applications, work well with the organization and get it implemented. with changed ways of working, so that you actually get business value. And that actually describes a lot of what we deliver in the market. We deliver technology, and then we deliver everything that is about design and work processes around it, change management, competence development, to create combined business value. We strongly feel that the customers need what we offer. That is a focus for our customers, and we develop it further. The next point is about the agenda this sets. We live, we can say that artificial intelligence and everything that happens there is overwhelming sometimes, but it also sets a very positive agenda in a competence house like ours. We live by renewing and refining competence, and now it is actually on the rise in light of the development that is happening. And then, last point. Yes, we see with comparable actors around us, competitors, we see that they decrease in number of employees. So that gives some recruitment opportunities. And then we are very concerned about not losing the head of that. We employ very good people, and then we employ in the pace that we think is right in relation to the market opportunities. So we are an organization that is not motivated by growth alone. We are motivated by doing well, creating good profitability, employing good people, and building a solid organization for the future. So that is the agenda we live by, and I think we will continue to do so throughout 2026. So with those words, I would like to say thank you very much. Especially thank you very much to all of you who came here. We were a little afraid of a Friday before the winter holiday. I am very glad that you took the time. And thank you very much to all of you who followed us. And again to all the residents who have been involved in creating this. Thank you very much for your brilliant work. So I wish you all a really, really good weekend. Yes. Question? Yes, I forgot that. I forgot that. Is there someone who... Yes. You can give a... I just have to focus on the weekend, you know.

That's good. Håkon Nilsson in Kepler. I have three questions. I thought I could start with the development in the top 10 customers. It's down, so I'm just wondering if it's down in revenue from those customers, or is it more sales to the rest? If you understand...

I'm not sure what the correct answer is to that. Regardless, I think the answer would be that it is completely marginal. We can look into it, but I don't think there are any essential changes in the top ten.

No, thank you.

I also commented that we had a slight decline in Equinor, but I still did not get any points from it, because there are actually no points, actually less adjustments.

Thank you for that. And then I have two on AI and productivity and team management. First I wonder, if there is any change in the way you have been working in the last few years, and if the number of employees is not a good parameter for future employment, if you are potentially more efficient.

That is a very interesting question. The only thing I am completely sure of is that the way we work will develop in the time ahead of us. And that is what we are working with. To be very clear about how it will change, I find it a bit difficult to give a good answer to. But there is no doubt that if you look at technical subjects, which is part of what we provide, in what technical subjects we provide, it is clear that these tools create essential opportunities, and it makes a lot of what we do more effective. And then there's the fact that they work with a lot of things that are outside of creating technology. I will be careful to give that prognosis, but this changes all the time. And if we just take a perspective backwards, then it has also changed all the time, as I have been in the IT industry. So that, I mean, is a continuous thing. And then there are a little more steroids today. And then we work as a large supplier and a large competence house to take this to us and change the way we work. And just how it will be, and how it will affect, I think is a future discussion.

Thank you. And the last question from me. I was wondering if you could comment on the team prices, because you said that they increased by 3.3% this year, while the salary growth was 4.3%. Why can't you put these costs back on the customers? How should I think about the next few years?

What can we say about that, Steffen? It is correctly observed. If I can put it that way, Steffen might have a different view on it, but I am very clear that it sets a very important agenda for us as well. We live in a market where there is a question of competence, and good competence costs. At the same time, we know that you can do the math better than most people in terms of growth in new graduates and so on, and how the wage gap develops. So it is clear that this sets, in a business like ours, this sets an agenda in terms of that we do well, that we work well with costs, that we work with effective operation to take in and compensate for some of that.

So I don't know, Steffen, if you want to... No, the only thing I can say is that there is a macro picture here, where there is an imbalance between inflation and what are the wage expectations for the workers, also in our organization. That's one thing, and the other is that we have such a tough competition out there that we can't turn around and just put the increased cost on our customers. Then there are some others who come and steal the orders from us. So we have to work internally with our cost base, and then we just have to constantly try to visualize the value we create for our customers so that we can have the highest price we can take.

This is a personal comment, but a market like this is actually a good market. We have to work with what really matters now. We have to be extremely good at selling, we have to be extremely good at delivering, we have to be extremely good at developing competencies, and we have to run really well. So I think this is a very positive agenda that forces us to work well with what has really been the success of BOV all the time, that we have managed that balance, and we have a plan to continue with that. So when someone talks about a market, a declining market, or a weaker market and so on, they often talk about it in a negative context. That gives us as a business some opportunities to work well with the things that build a solid store.

Should we take a break after that? Nils from Nordea. It's natural to focus a lot on Norway, obviously the largest part of the company is there, but can you tell us a bit about Sweden, how the situation is there, and what you're thinking about in the future?

It's hard to say what we're thinking about, but of course, Sweden, just to say that, if we're talking about a slightly weaker market in Norway in 2025, then it's almost a guess as to how it has been in Sweden. And I think we're all aware of that. It has affected something in relation to our small business. A personal reflection, I have always wished that we were even bigger and stronger in Sweden, just in 2025, so it has not been a pronounced wish that we would have so much big activity in that market in those times. We see a little light there. If we were to show that we see opportunities in the Swedish market, we have a Scandinavian ambition, but we are still quite conservative in that, so we'll see. Right now, we are working on developing the business we have purely organically. That is the agenda now. Da er vi vel der at jeg kan ønske god helg. Men da må jeg bare si takk for at dere kom, og så takk for at dere lyttet på. Og så må alle ha en fin dag resten av fredagen, og så god helg. Takk for oss.