Bittium Oyj

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this webcast. My name is Karoliina Malmi and I'm Head of Communications and Sustainability at Pittium. And with me here are our CEO, Petri Toljamo, and CFO, Petri Hiljanen. Today we are going to talk about our financial development of the second quarter of this year and the first half of this year and of course the main events resulting to the results. And at the end of the presentation, we have reserved some time for the Q&A. So anytime, if you have questions, you can place them through that Q&A button on your screen. And at the end, we will go through your questions. And before we start today about forward-looking statements, they may have risks and uncertainties and may occur differently. So bear that in mind. But without further ado, I will let Petri you to start.

All right, thank you Karoliina. So I'll start with the highlights for the second quarter 26. So first our net sales grew 60%, EBITDA was 27.5% and operating profit was 22.2% of the net sales. Our operating cash flow was 8.8 million euro, our new orders Order intake was 46.3 million euros and we have personnel at the end of the Q2 575 employees. Let's then look at the first half. Net sales growth was 37.2%, EBITDA 22.3% of the net sales, operating profit 16.6% of the net sales. Operating cash flow 36.9 million euro, new orders 81 million euros and our order book 102.2 million euros. And I'll summarize this briefly, the first half. I think that our final sale performance was excellent, both on the net sales and operational results. We were within company's strategic long-term final sale goals. Also the technology leadership and future investments through the new product launches and strategic partnerships. I think that we are progressing pretty well. Our second half was very active announcing new different investments and announcement on the product size. Also, we have put emphasis on the scaling the operations to ensure fast deliveries, also investing in process development and data driven systems continued as well. The main driver for the good results at PIT team was the defense and security business segments, driving the growth 67.8% on the first half and also very strong order intake. Medical turns profitable and restructuring start to pay off. Engineering service side is still a challenge. The market is not very positive at the moment and we are doing a turnaround there. Our ICP sector reclassified to defense, which is enabling us to access to international defense ETFs as well. Strong cash flow, significantly strengthened financial position and record order backlog. We believe it's provide a strong platform for the strategy implementation and future growth. And I'll now hand over our CFO, Petri Hiljanen, to cover the financial parts.

Thank you, Petri. Good morning, everybody. My name is Petri Hiljanen. I'm the CFO for Bitium. Let's review some key financials for the Last quarter and then first half. Our sales reached 36.6 million, which were heavily leaning towards the defense and security deliveries. Product deliveries especially went up. The service sales was flat comparing to previous quarters, so most of the Growth was contributed by product sales and deliveries. Quarterly operating result for second quarter was 8.1 million and it was an increase to EBIT of 22.2%. There was especially good performance at the defense and security, which then, of course, offset the other segments a little bit less, a little bit poor performance, especially engineering services was negative during the second quarter. As mentioned earlier, for second quarter and also for the first half, the sales growth was contributed mostly by defense and security product deliveries. Medical grew a bit, some 6.3%, but then again, as mentioned earlier, the performance with engineering services was not at the level that we are happy with. Top line went down there. And now as we can see that momentarily we have been exceeding even the long-term target range for sales, but that's then again heavily related to the cycle legality of the deliveries and the quarterly sales has been fluctuating during the past years and then past quarters. So that of course is explaining that part. And now the margins for the first half. It gives us a solid base to go forward and to develop further our strategy, especially in the defence and security area. But fluctuations, as you can see here, are quite high between the quarters and first half, especially has been lower than second half. But that's, again, something that we are not going to be considering as a change here from the previous years. Investments for future growth, we invested more than 10 million to R&D. Of course, percentage-wise, it was a little bit less than earlier, but then again, our sales went up so much that it's explaining the little bit lower percentage. Our investments and capitalizations were something like 3 million during the first half. And that's especially supporting our growth going forward. Our long-term financial goals here, as we can see, we are confirming them that the annual growth target is between 20 to 30%, and an operating result target is between 10 to 20% of sales. Order book reached also historically high number and then it was more than 100 million. The order book has been contributed mostly by the defense and security and it's concentrated there. Our customer base also has been mostly there. Our confidence of course is that Confidence for the outlook is still there, so we keep our outlook for this year sales 140 million to 155 million and estimate that the operating profit will be in the bracket of 26 to 32 million. That's about the outlook. Cash flow was extremely good, and now we can see and confirm that we are Net debt free company, so operating cash flow was 36.9. We were able to convert a huge amount of networking capital to cash during the first half. Operating cash, as mentioned, it was close to 37 million, and it leaves us a good base to continue with our development path forward. We informed this morning also that in addition to earlier paid dividend, we're paying an additional dividend of 0.15 euros, 15 cents, and then it will be paid shortly. So there was a stock exchange release this morning. You can refer to that. And balance sheet here as a final note. So we're in a good position to go forward and continue our growth and then even look for additional items that will help us grow. Key items, of course, are the capacity investments in production and development also. And then, of course, as I mentioned earlier in the strategy, Communication that of course we're looking and we're interested in other companies and working closely with certain partners and those kind of things. So healthy cash flow, healthy cash position, and that's a good basis for our future growth. And now, Petri, please.

Thank you, Petri. So that's covered the final part. I'll now focus on our business segments. Starting with the defense and security. So if we look at the numbers first, so Net sales on the defense and security grew as 100%, and our operating margin was 30.6%, which shows excellent profitability. On the half-year level, the net sales was 67.8% growth and operating margin 24.5%. If we then look for some highlights, what happened on the first half on the defense and security, first R&D investments was 6.6 million euros, new orders 64.4 million euros and order book 94.2 million euros. So order book remains at the very high level. We managed to secure a lot of the orders during the first half. Also, we managed to win deals from the key customers on the first half, Finland, Austria, Croatia and Estonia. We are also progressing well with the new customer acquisitions. We also announced several strategic partnerships on the first half, namely Himera, for example. Also, we were active on the new product and solution logins, the new verticals, FUSOR, which is the software-based routing product, TUF SDSR unmanned for the drones and MissionNet for the battlefield interconnect. Then Pit Team Safe Move product portfolio was unified more towards the complete overall software offering. We are also investing aggressively on the AI integration. We launched two partnerships, Nest AI and Marshall AI, which was announced earlier. We are also increasing our own efforts on the AI to make sure that the AI will be actively involved with our products going forward. Also we have done hybrid network solution demonstration for the Finnish Defence Forces with the Telia and our production capacity was scaled up to meet the growing customer demand. That was we started already last year and I believe we have succeeded pretty well with this one. Also, we signed a NATO framework agreement regarding the secure communication products. Geopolitical uncertainties continue to increase the defence budget allocations for the defence. So we are satisfied with the defence and security progress on the first half. Let's then look at the medical. So we had moderate growth and this profitability turnaround is proceeding. So the net sales on the second quarter was 3.2% year on year, operating margin 2.1% of the net sales. Then looking on the half year development numbers, so net sales was 6.3% growth year on year and operating margin 5.5% of the net sales. Then looking then the medical highlights. So we are seeing positive signs of this turnaround. We are not yet satisfied with the level where the operability and the growth is. We are seeing a lot of long term potential for this business. And we can say that the strategic focus on the cardiac and sleep are delivering now results. 25 restructuring costs, benefits are now fully materialized and we are saying that this profitability turnaround has been made. Cardiac business outside of the US in the first half did grow 33%. Also, the collaboration with Boston Scientific is progressing as planned, and there is also year-on-year growth. Sleep Business Sites is still developing. We are awaiting results from the pilots by the end of this year, and we have signed several new distribution agreements in Europe and new growth markets. Also, we are planning to launch new long-term AEKG monitoring device on the second half 26, expecting to accelerate the cardiac sales. Also, we are continuing R&D investments for future product innovation as well. And like I said, the positive outlook for the future growth. And to summarise the numbers, so the R&D investments on the first half 2.9 million euros, new orders 9.8 million euros and order book 5.3 million euros. Sorry, 5.4 million. Then we continue to look at the engineering service. First, the numbers on the quarterly. So net sales decreased 14.5%, and operating margin was negative. Also on the half-year side, the net sales decreased 20.9%, and operating margin was negative. And then let's look at the Highlights, so of course we are not satisfied with the numbers on these engineering services. We are seeing a little bit difficult market on this engineering services side. We have also decided to make sure that we are utilizing the engineering services resources to help the defense and security business segments as there are many programs and opportunities in our hands. So the first half was weak, mainly because of the market situation. We communicated last year that we are making clear strategic focus towards the defense sector and embedded AI, and this is now progressing. We have made the first defense industry client wins, which is validating the new strategic direction. We launched a partnership with VTT as a defense R&D partner. Also, we changed the leadership. Hanna Hulkko started as a senior vice president for the segment earlier on the first half, and she's now focusing to make sure that we are able to make this turnaround and reposition ourselves for these new service areas. Staff utilization maintained through the defense and security project contribution and we expect it's We believe that the long-term competitive advantage comes from the deep embedded software and hardware expertise combined with the practical AI application capabilities. And we are believing that will position ourselves as strong partners for companies seeking to integrate AI into product development, particularly in the defense industry. And then summarizing the first half, we are delivering on our strategy. The main focus is acceleration of international growth. We are making clear progress there. Our growth is solid and our market outlook remains good. We are also now turning the growth to profits, which means converting to the cash. Defense mecan trend is structural tailwind for both defense and security and also increasingly for the engineering services segment as well. We are believing that our long-term competitive endeavors will remain because there's a strong innovation pipeline that we have. Clear strategy, strong execution and favorable megatrends are the cornerstones for the future growth. So thank you from my behalf.

Yes, thank you, Petri. Now I think it's time for Q&A. And I have received a lot of questions here. And you can still place questions if you want. And we go through as many as possible now here. But let's start, both of you. The first question is, can you comment on the expected revenue facing this year? Are you progressing in line? With your expectations or were things moving faster than you anticipated in the start of the year?

So I think we have said that there will be fluctuation between the quarters. Our first quarter was moderate, second quarter was excellent and I think that after the first half we are proceeding according to the plan. We are still expecting second half to be stronger than the first half and our confidence remains high to meet our guidance for this year.

Thank you. And Bitium has told that it has negotiations ongoing or discussions ongoing regarding tactical communications, at least in 10 countries in Europe. Are these discussions still ongoing and how they are going? And when are you expecting some deals resulting from these discussions?

So we have been very actively discussing and advancing these customer cases. These are kind of national cases, which are quite high and big cases, and there's a tendency that these will take time. The positive thing why our order intake went high on the second quarter, also on the first half, we have been in addition to these national deals, we have been able to win new customer from the weapon system providers. Some of these are smaller. Some of these are one-timers, some of these will be repetitive orders, but the amount, of course, we would like to announce that, but many of our customers are not letting us, unfortunately, to announce this. So we are expanding our focus, not just from the national, Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. I think you answered already these next questions about the defence margins in Q2 compared to Q1.

What resulted to these margins and can you comment on that?

So I think that of course that we managed the order intake was high. We managed to deliver our service business in general was pretty flat. So the growth came mainly from the scaling and increasing the volume for our defense and security product business. And that we will see the impact on the profitability right away.

Okay, and related question to that, so can you comment on the status of current Intra deliveries and any potential licensing income for Q2 was there?

So we are not opening individual customer kind of revenue recognitions, but we can say that we have Delivered everything to INDRA according to the plan and things are progressing as planned and we are very satisfied with the collaboration and the partnerships with INDRA.

What capabilities have you increased to strengthen your tender capabilities as you mentioned?

So, of course, this is one area. So we have actually increased quite many resources over a year. And we have said that we are going to emphasize and increase capabilities for sales, marketing and customer facing operation and bidding and the tender process. Capabilities is one element. Of course, we have to also make sure that we are strengthening while we go forward.

Yes. And you also highlighted the client below pilots that they have been progressed within the defense and security. Has the number of potential clients you are discussing with increased?

I would say that this national side, we are still working with roughly 10 different ones. But of course, I can maybe say that this weapon system providers, I think the number of the discussion, I think it has increased.

Yes. Thank you. Talking about geographically. So where are the most lucrative markets for bitium? Considering Asia or even Latin America?

So on the defense and security side, I think the main focus is Europe. And of course, with some extent Asia. So we have some customer wins there. We will increasingly add focus also on Asia Pacific as well, selective markets. Of course, the medical is then the global focus.

Thank you. Yes, congratulations on the strong results. Is there any prepayments or other one-offs triggering strong figures?

I don't think there is one-timers, so there are multiple customers that contributed both the orders and the revenue-wise. Of course, we have said that we have announced the most significant orders and also mentioned on the announcement whether we will deliver it in 26 or 27. And we have said also that Intra is a big portion of our business now. Beyond those, no single individual ones.

Yes, thank you. Going forward to engineering services, what are your plans for engineering?

So our plans, I think it's pretty clear. We changed the leadership under New leadership, we are going to execute the new strategy, which means that we will continue to increase the focus more on the embedded AI and the defense markets, as well as we have been helping to make sure that we are able to staff the programs that we have on the defense and security side. So it's a turnaround and it's a kind of a change how we are going to position ourselves in the markets going forward regarding the offering and the required skills and competencies.

Thank you. And about medical business, is there already a plan or are there negotiations to sell it?

There are no plans and no ongoing discussions to sell the company. Like I said, we are not satisfied with Profitability and the growth, but we are satisfied how this turnaround is progressing. The team is doing a good job. There are a lot of long-term possibilities and we have kept also the R&D investments on the high level and currently we want to make sure that we are able to support the medical business segments to capture the growth and profitability going forward.

Good, thank you. Going back to defense and security. So how do you see the potential sales of the new product areas like the unmanned or anti-throne systems in the coming years? What kind of expectations could be realistic for the sales outside of the current core, which are the radios and the cameras?

Yeah, I think those new initiatives, maybe I would say that some revenue are expected from 27 and onwards.

Could you comment on Himera cooperation? Do you believe that this will lead into significant sales in addition to technological support?

I think that we have commercial targets for that partnerships. We are helping them and they are helping us. So, of course, we want to make sure that our product sales will be increased also in Ukraine with the help of Himera.

Thank you. And could we expect decisions from UK and when and what other large opportunities do you see within the next six or 12 months?

So I would say that this UK is a normal business in that sense that we are participating, we have the framework agreement with the BAE systems in the UK and this is of course the high priority. We have not received any major significant news regarding that who would have won these cases so this remains a high priority for us but it's just one of our many potential opportunities and we are not naming these opportunities what we have, there are many Sizable European countries what we in our hands and we want to go forward with the full portfolio what we have.

Thank you. So you mentioned important customer winds Finland, Austria, Croatia, Estonia. Can you elaborate a little bit what kinds of projects these are and are they all military customers?

Yeah, these four are military customers and we are expanding our sales towards these customers. These have been multi-year customers for us. So when we get a new customer, it's really A single delivery. It's typically that it's the start of a long-term relationship like all these four mentioned customer has been many years as our customers and they are repetitive orders. They keep buying. So we have been mostly selling Takvin, SDR, Radius and also some other products that we have.

Yes, and thank you. More than 92% of Bittium's order backlog now comes from the defense and security business. Has Bittium effectively become a defense company?

So I think that we are gradually putting more emphasis on there. Our classification on the ICP was changed to defense, but we are still committed on all of our business segments. And that means that we are continuing to support the medical. We are making sure we are funding the R&D investments. and making sure that it can grow. But on the other hand, we have said that we want to make sure that we are capturing all the opportunities that we have in the defense and security. For example, in M&A, our main focus is the looked opportunities for the defense side.

Thank you. You mentioned that geopolitical uncertainty continues to drive higher defence budgets. Do you believe this represents a structural long-term shift in defence spending or are you planning for a normalisation later in the decade?

So I think this is something that we are closely monitoring and it's very hard to forecast and predict what will happen but we are making assumptions that this is a multi-year trend and we are betting on that that the modernization of the communication systems on the military side will continue strong even if there would be a peace in the Ukraine so this is a long-term wave that has started and I think we are making good progress there

Sounds good, thank you. So further, did the pilots for the new potential defence clients you mentioned in the report contribute to your Q2 sales or order intake?

Yeah, some of these are, yes. So if we are selling pilots, smaller deliveries for the new weapon system kind of customers, also the new countries. So yes, those have contributed to the order book.

Yes, thank you. So what is the outlook regarding new customers? Are all the cases still open or have you lost any tenders? Is there new cases open?

I think that it's mostly the same. Maybe some are progressing slower than expected, some are progressing faster than expected. There are also some new opportunities that have arrived as well.

Thank you. A lot of same questions regarding the UK. Then about Sweden. When could we hear something from Sweden?

So Sweden is of course one of these 10 customers which is now a high priority and focus and we have announced the frame agreement with Sweden last year and of course we are in a good discussion with Sweden but it's very difficult to predict when the actual orders would come.

Thank you. For now, the final question. What is the outlook with the secure government devices, meaning TUF Mobile and that service market, and what's going on with TUF Mobile 3?

So, TUF Mobile 2 4G version is still there. There are opportunities with TUF Mobile 2. At the same time, we are progressing with the HMD Secure Oy regarding the development of this TUF Mobile 3. And this is something that we will later provide the details about availability, but this is what we are developing. We are making sure that our software Portfolio on top of the TUF Mobile 3 is also progressing and we are advancing those software versions as well. Thank you.

Trying to look if I missed any question here, but I think so far I have captured all questions. One is regarding any potential customers in Asia.

So like mentioned, we have already some design wins from Asia and also said that it increasingly will be more in our focus going forward. But the main emphasis is on Europe. Yes.

Well, I think that's it for today. So thank you all on my behalf.

Thank you also from my behalf. Thank you.

Thank you.