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Afry Ab

Q12025

4/24/2025

speaker
Linda Pålsson
CEO

Hello everyone and warm welcome to AFRI's presentation of the Q1 results for 2025. I am Linda Pålsson, I am the CEO of AFRI and I will present the quarter here today together with our CFO Bo Sandström. After the call we will as always open up for questions so make sure to join us in the call. Okay, to summarize then the first quarter, we had a rather modest start to the year with a slight decline in sales and the profitability that was pressured in some of our divisions. These results reflects the market we experience, but it also underlined the need for structural measures going forward. The slight decline in sales was mainly due to a weak market in parts of our division, industrial and digital solutions and process industries. This was partly offset by a strong growth in the energy division, where we continue to see good demand driven by the energy transition. The order backlog was solid and it increased by 4% sequentially adjusted for currency effect. And I am very glad to see that we continue to win important client projects and build backlog in our core segments. Profitability was pressured by a slow ramp up in the beginning of the quarter, as well as the challenging market we see in some of our segments. We also had a negative calendar effect of four hours in the quarter, which impacted the EBITDA by around minus 37 million. At the same time, the global business environment was impacted by increased uncertainty as a result of the global tariff situation. At AFRI, we see a limited direct impact from this. However, we are of course closely monitoring the situation and the potential effects it can have on our clients and their investment decision and activity going forward. In the quarter, we also continued our efforts to pave the way for profitable growth. And as one important step on that journey, we are today announcing a new group structure and changes to the executive team. I will come back to that later in the presentation. If we take a look at the market, we see that uncertainty has increased in some segment as a result of the tariff situation. Aside from that, we don't see any major shifts in our view on the market since last quarter. We look at the industrial sector. The market remains mixed. We see a growing demand in defense, while the demand in pulp and paper and for IT consultants still is low. In the energy sector, demand remains on a high level across segments. And one area I would like to highlight is the transmission and distribution of electricity, where we see a lot of initiatives and opportunities related both to connecting new energy production as well as strengthening of the existing networks, grids. In the infrastructure sector, the real estate market continued to be weak, while demand for transport infrastructure was solid and supported by governmental initiatives to strengthen infrastructure resilience. I would also like to comment on the division's performance in the quarter, starting out with infrastructure. They delivered a slight growth driven by higher average fees and attendance rates in the quarter. And despite a challenging market in the real estate market, they continue to show progress in the improvement program, leading to improved margins. We move on to industrial and digital solution. They are still experiencing a mixed market in the industry sector. Profitability was also impacted by a slow ramp up in the beginning of the quarter. In our process industry division, the low demand in pulper and paper impacted performance. While we see signs of increased market activity in some regions, such as Latin America, profitability was impacted by ongoing actions to mitigate the weaker market, including capacity adjustments. Energy showed good growth across the segments with high demand related to the energy transition. Profitability was also improved, driven by solid project performance and supported by a favorable market. That also reflected in the management consulting division, which saw high demand for its energy offering as well as a growing interest for sustainability consulting. However, this was offset by the weaker demand in bio-based materials. Moving on to new client projects, because as I mentioned, we have a strong focus on building our order backlog that supports the execution of our strategic ambitions. In the quarter, we won several new client projects in core segments. One very interesting example is the development of an automated forest plant production factory for sweet tree technologies. This project aims to enable efficient production of fast-growing and resistant forest plants, which strengthen the bioeconomy and reduces carbon emissions. In this project, AFRI will contribute with deep sector expertise in areas such as automation and process equipment, which will support our client in taking the pilot plant to full-scale production. We also signed a design contract for an offshore wind farm in Estonia. Offshore wind energy is a key component of Estonia's strategy to expand its share of renewable energy and strengthening energy independence. And once this project is completed, it could cover half of Estonia's current electricity consumption. So that's another good example on how AFRI contributes to clean energy transition. And finally, I would like to highlight a contract that we won in the infrastructure sector for Tram Treno tunnel in Lugano, Switzerland. The tunnel is a key element in the redesign of the public transport network, and the project will support the expansion of sustainable transportation in the region. So really cool projects, I have to say. And with that, let's dive into the financials. And I would like to hand over the word to you, Bov.

speaker
Bo Sandström
CFO

Thank you, Linda. So I will, as usual, cover the main financials for Q1 2025. If we start with the financial overview, quarter one showed net sales of 6.7 billion and EBITDA of 490 million. On rolling 12 months, we remain at 27 billion on net sales and stay right above 2 billion on EBITDA, close to 100 million above last year. Despite the weaker Q1 result than last year, we remain ahead of last year on rolling 12 basis, also adjusted for calendar effects. In the quarter with a net sales of 6.7 billion, adjusted organic growth came in at negative 0.9%, where the continued negative volume was largely compensated with positive pricing of close to 5%, which is in line with what we saw during 2024. Total growth is reported at negative 2%, affected also by a negative calendar and FX effects from a strengthened SEK in the end of the quarter. In Q1, we again report slightly negative organic growth. Divisional growth is driven largely by the energy division, now at double digit organic growth. Industrial and digital solutions and infrastructure were the most affected by the slow ramp-up, and both of these divisions report sequentially lower growth, primarily then due to that. Process industries remain in negative growth, but at a lower level than seen during 2024. Order backlog increased sequentially to 20.2 billion, largely in line with last year and last quarter. However, FX impact in the quarter from revaluation of the order backlog contribute negatively 4% on the comparisons. Thus, year-over-year and sequential increase are positive 3% and 4% respectively. Currency adjusted, process industries continue to strengthen the order backlog and now report an improvement year over year for the first time in six quarters. EBITDA came in at 490 million and the EBITDA margin was at 7.3%. Calendar effects affect EBITDA margin with approximately negative 0.5% to last year, so that calendar adjusted margin was negative to last year, following five quarters with a small but positive development. The trend shift was largely driven by a slow ramp up of the quarter, most clearly experienced in industrial and digital solutions as well as infrastructure. In addition, continued capacity adjustments in several divisions affected the year-over-year comparison negatively by approximately 20 million in total, mainly in process industries and industrial and digital solutions. As seen throughout 2024, divisions infrastructure and energy continue to support the margin development of the group. Industrial and digital solutions report a clear decline in Q1, pressured by utilization and a mixed market situation. Process Industries is again reporting a higher than group average margin, but still carry a decline compared to last year, although smaller than seen throughout 2024. Utilization remained lower than last year, and year-over-year decline was higher in Q1, given the slow ramp-up in the quarter. With four out of five divisions with negative year-over-year development in Q1, utilization is a clear focus for AFRI when looking into our next chapter. We have some effects remaining related to the Agency Work Act, but we reiterate that we expect those to fade out over the next quarters. We report 30 million as items affecting comparability related to the final salary payment of the outgoing CEO. Following the very strong cash flow generation in Q4, cash flow from operating activities in Q1 was in line with last year, seasonably low. Available liquidity remain around 4 billion, and movement on net debt follows similar seasonal movements as seen historically in the first quarter of the year. Thus, on net debt to EBITDA, we remain well below our financial target of 2.5 times. And with that, I leave back to you, Linda.

speaker
Linda Pålsson
CEO

Thank you so much, Bo.

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