4/24/2026

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Welcome to HIAP's first quarter 2026 results call. My name is Aki Vesikallio. I'm from the investor relations team. Today's results will be presented by CEO Scott Phillips and CFO Mikko Puolakko. As a reminder, please pay attention to the disclaimer in the presentation as we will be making forward-looking statements. Before handing over to Scott and Mikko, let's take a look at the highlights of the quarter. Book-to-bill was positive in all three geographical areas. Our sales were still impacted by low order intake in the U.S. during the previous three quarters. However, our comparable operating profit margin increased sequentially to 13.5%, and we continued to deliver strong cash flow. The new operating model announced in January was successfully implemented in the beginning of April. We also specified our outlook for full year comparable operating profit margin from above 13 to above 13.5. Let's then view today's agenda. First, Scott will present the group level topics. Mikko will go through reporting segments financials in more detail, and the outlook. After Mikko, Scott will join the stage for key takeaways before the Q&A session. With that, over to you, Scott.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Thank you, Aki. Greetings, everyone, and a warm welcome to our first earnings report for 2026. I would like to start out sharing three developments highlighting our execution of our profitable growth strategy. So during third quarter earnings report, as you recall, we shared our plans to reduce our costs by 20 million euros within this year as a result of the increased uncertainty that has led to a more challenging demand environment in the U.S., as well as the overall development of the order backlog. Consequently, we have announced plans during quarter to evolve our organizational structure and our operating model targeting to create three positive outcomes. Number one is to evolve to further clarity on our end to end accountability through further decentralization by reducing layers of complexity within our overall organizational design. That should help us to attend to a few issues that occasionally come to light in terms of suboptimal customer support. And then third, overall it'll allow us and enable us to reduce our fixed costs in line with our plans, which should create much more improvement in our value creation resiliency. So core to our strategy is our aim to lead the sustainability transition for on-road load handling industry. So I'm really pleased to share the second development here in the execution of our strategy. And that's the fact that we have validation in our science-based targets to achieve our commitment to be net zero by 2050. The third development I would like to share with Pride is another example of a key outcome-based innovation co-created with our distribution partner, Mixa, together with key customers in Spain, aiming to optimize productivity for dump-over column lift tippers by developing a new Dell brand lightweight liftgate. So another great example of our focus on developing new innovations together with our customers and our partners that's purpose built to solve our customers most challenging problems. So let's get into the headline results of our group financials for the quarter. So starting off with our order intake development, I'm pleased to see that our organic order intake increased by 7% in constant currencies versus the comparison period. In actual exchange rates, order intake reached the level of 402 million euros or 419 million euros in constant currencies for an 11% positive variance. ING contributed 15 million euros in the quarter, so in line with our business plan. And all regions contributed a solidly positive book-to-bill, increasing our backlog sequentially. Now, unlike prior periods, we didn't get the advantage of large, lumpy orders, as myself and Miko and Aki have talked about in the past, but rather resulting from a number of increased activities that manifested in smaller order intake or midsize order intake. So, no real large orders of note to report within the period. So, overall, a good start to the year, despite the uncertainty in the macro environment. So let me turn your attention to the regional breakdown of our order intake profile for the quarter. Now, as you can see from the table, we had a growth in all regions with the exception of Asia Pacific. Europe, Middle East and Africa increasing from 203 million to 207 million euros or two percentage points. The Americas grew by 15% from 145 million euros to 166 million euros. And Asia remained relatively flat at 29 million euros compared to 30 million euros in the comparison period. Now, Europe continues to show signs of steady demand growth, which we do see in all businesses, but most notably our lifting solutions. The growth in the Americas is primarily driven by ING acquisition, but at the same time, we certainly did not see further declines in the U.S. Overall, the environment remains highly uncertain with ongoing trade tensions in the US and heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. So let's turn our attention to the revenue results for the quarter. Our revenues were down 7% year over year due to the 114 million euros lower order book we started the period with. Now in line with our expectations that revenues were on the level of 383 million euros, as you can see on the table on the left hand side. Our rolling 12 month revenues are now converging towards our order intake level of prior periods at 1.528 billion euros. Our share of services and actual exchange rates increased the percentage point due to the decline in equipment sales. However, as Miko will explain, we had a nice increase in service sales and constant currencies. And ING contributed 13 million in sales or 3%. And currencies overall had a negative impact of 4% on group results. Now, geographically, our share of sales were impacted by the positive order intake development in the second half of 2025 in Europe, while the Americas was negatively impacted by the decline in the U.S., but partially offset by ING. Now, in addition to the increase in Europe, our Asia-Pacific region was also slightly up, improving to 26 million euros, or 7% year over year. And I'm pleased to see the development of ECHO portfolio sales as they increased by 23% to 176 million euros or 46% of sales overall. Now with our year-over-year decline in sales, our comparable operating profit was negatively impacted, so I'll guide you through the numbers. For the period, we delivered 52 million euros on sales of 383, which is 22% decline versus the comparison period, but all in all, a good start to the year. On a relative basis, the group was on a level 13.5% versus 16% last year. Now, the factors most impacting comparability were lower sales in the U.S., lower indirect costs affecting gross profit, and lower fixed costs affecting operating profit. Now, consequently, our operative return on capital employed declined due to the reduction of profit, items affecting comparability, and the ING acquisition. Now, MECO will further guide you through the bridge. Now, wrapping up on our quarterly check-in for how we were performing versus our long-range targets. Our 10-year Tager is now at 5% versus our long-range targets with 16% off comparable operating profit. Our last 12 months is at 13%. And versus our long range target of greater than 25%, we're in line at 27%, albeit a decline sequentially for the factors that I shared earlier. So with that, I would like to turn stage over to Mikko to share with you results for the reporting segments.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Thank you, Scott, and good morning also from my side. Let's start first with the equipment segment performance in quarter one. So the equipment orders were 284 million euros during the quarter. This is 10% increase year on year. But if we exclude the currency impact, the growth would have been 14%, so in constant currencies. Lifting equipment grew very nicely. Growth came mainly from Americas like elaborated already by Scott, very much driven by the ING claims acquisitions. The delivery equipment orders were flat year on year. I would say that taking into account the market situation in the US and the fact that we did not book any major key account or defense orders during the quarter, I would say that the equipment segment performed well in terms of orders during quarter one. Sales were 266 million euros. This is minus 9% year on year. And again, if we exclude the currency impact, the decline would have been minus 6%. Lifting equipment actually grew in all three geographies and the decline in sales is coming solely from our delivery equipment, especially in the U.S. market. The U.S. decline is very much due to the past quarters below one book-to-bill caused by the volatile tariff environment and the delayed decision-making by the U.S. customers. Equipment comparable operating profit was 32 million euros or the margin 12.1%. And the biggest driver for the lower profitability was the decline in the delivery equipment sales in the U.S. Like I mentioned earlier, equipment profitability was very much impacted by the lower sales as can be seen in the bridge on the right-hand side. Lower sales affected the cross-profit margin as the cross-profit margin includes also fixed production overheads, so the factory overheads. We had a slight positive impact coming from the lower SG&A costs. But I would say that the cost savings from the early announced 20 million euros cost savings program are not yet visible in our quarter one results. Then let's have a look on service performance. And I would say that currencies had a significant impact on services orders and sales during quarter one. Service orders were 119 million euros with constant currencies, actually service orders would have grown 4%. Sales was 117 million euros. And again, with constant currencies growth would be plus 5%. So in absolute terms and in constant currency services for one revenues would be 123 million euros. Really nice development in our recurring services like spare parts and maintenance. Those sales grew in quarter one. However, installation services sales declined. So I would say that the recurring services growth was able to offset really nicely both the currency headwinds as well as the decline in the installation services. The number of connected equipment and maintenance contracts also continue to grow in quarter one. So really nice performance in executing also the services strategy. Services profitability was stable at 28 million euros or the margin 23.6%. If we look the services bridge, on the right hand side, services sales growth would have been actually 6 million euros with constant currencies instead of 1 million decline as we have reported. Recurring services growth very much offsetting the decline in installation services. And then the negative effects impact mainly coming from the weaker US dollars offsets the volume growth. Next, let's have a look on Hayat's total financials. The overall Hayat profitability decline came from equipment volumes as you were able to see from the previous bridges. Low volumes affected the cross-profit margin as the cross-profit includes fixed production overheads. Our SG&A costs were stable in constant currencies Like mentioned, the cost savings program effects are not yet visible in quarter one. Those start to be more visible in the second half of this year. Currencies had a notable impact on quarter one profitability, mostly stemming from the weaker US dollar. We booked 11 million euros restructuring costs during quarter one. as items affecting comparability. So this is below the comparable operating profit. These items affecting comparability, they are related to the ongoing 20 million euros cost savings program, headcount reduction, including also the ZEPRO daily production move from Sweden to Poland. And our core one tax rate was 26%. Our cash generation continued on a very good level, in total 75 million euros in quarter one. The cash conversion was really high, 186%. Our inventories decreased slightly, but I would say that the main contribution to our cash flow was coming from the networking capital, like accounts receivable decline and the VAT receivables collection. So those were the main contributors to quarter one cash flow. IAF has a very, very strong balance sheet with the net cash of 219 million euros at the end of March. Our gearing was stable at minus 23% and thinking the target to keep our gearing below the 50% threshold, this would allow us to raise more than 700 million euros debt. So really strong balance sheet to execute inorganic growth strategy. We paid the 75 million euros dividend in April the 2nd. So this is not yet, the dividend payment is not yet visible in our quarter one numbers. And then on the right hand side chart, you can see that we have only one major debt item. That's the 150 million euros bond, which is maturing in quarter three this year. And today we have also revised or specified our outlook for the 2026 based on a very good start for the year. So we estimate that the comparable operating profit margin for this year exceeds 13.5%. This is up from the earlier above 13% what we announced in February. The key assumptions that behind this outlook are more or less unchanged what we said in February. We expect EMEA to continue to grow, USA not further declining from the previous quarters. However, the customer decision making continues to be still slow and difficult to predict. 2026 has started with 114 million Euro slow order book Also the March 26 order book was almost 40 million euros lower than what we had a year ago. We have factored in the outlook also the 20 million euros cost savings materializing in 2026 as mentioned mainly effective from second half onwards. And then our group admin underlying costs would be more or less on 2025 level, plus then approximately 5 million euros investments in process and systems development, mostly in the second half this year. So with those words, then I would hand the word back to Scott, please.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Thank you, Mikko. So just closing with a few key takeaways summarizing the quarter. I'd say first and foremost, we certainly continue to see a gradual recovery in lifting equipment in Europe, Middle East, Africa, which is great to see. Our delivery equipment market in the US is expected to be in a cyclical trough. Third key takeaway is we are on track to achieve our 20 million euros lower cost level in 2026 versus the prior year. We continue to nicely execute on our profitable growth strategy with a keen focus on where we can take advantage of opportunistic growth. As Miko mentioned, our strong cash flow and balance sheet position us nicely to catalyze growth in the coming periods. And we're really pleased to see the solid good start to the year in 2026. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Haki.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Mikko. With that, we are ready to start the Q&A session.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Auntie Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Good morning, gentlemen, and thanks for taking my questions. And I'll start with a bit of a long-winding one on the U.S. demand. I mean, backing out kind of your America's orders, the FX impacts and the acquisition impacts, it still looks quite good organic order growth for the quarter. Then again, if we look at kind of the quarter, your flag increased geopolitical uncertainty. There was a bit of a back and forth on the Section 232 tariffs and things like that. So how would you kind of describe the demand environment that you saw on the first quarter? Did you start to see a gradual recovery in some sense, or is it kind of the heightened uncertainties, adding kind of an extra layer of slower decision-making versus what you kind of saw going into the quarter?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, good morning, Antti, and thank you for the question. Just starting that one off, in the U.S., I think one of the key factors to note is that there was a bigger impact towards the second half of Q1 last year, impacting both of our at-scale delivery solutions business within the U.S., so we're coming off of, I'd call it a relatively low comp. So, therefore, I'd say that was a driver in terms of the positive variance that you see slightly in the U.S. year over year. But on the other hand, I'd say from the combination of still the factors that existed prior to the trade tensions and then subsequent to the trade tensions, And even with the geopolitical unrest notwithstanding, we are seeing a bit of stability, albeit as Aki characterized and Miko as well, but the decision-making is still on a similar level in terms of customers being cautious. Having said that, I think it voted quite nicely for us in the quarter of that, similar to what we saw here in EMEA. The composition of the order profile in the period was more skewed towards smaller midsize type orders, so the overall activity level was quite strong. And I'd characterize the sales funnel within the quarter also nicely positive variance compared to last year. Having said that, we still have the same level of uncertainty. We have the added variable of geopolitical unrest. So, therefore, we're trying to stay quite balanced in terms of managing expectations, which is why we made the note of we think we're in a situation where we don't see it imminently getting worse. And so, therefore, I think there's a potential problem. to be stable to slightly improving. And certainly you see that supported nicely in some of the reports from the truck OEMs. And then as has been noted in some of the analyst reports, there will be a bit of a lag in terms of the impact for our business compared to what you see at the truck OEMs. So the factors at least are lining up to be, I think, skewed more positive versus negative.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right, and then specifically on the changes on the Section 232 tariff start of April, what's your analysis on are there any impacts on your clients in terms of truck prices or truck costs, and also what's the direct impact to yours specifically?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, the impact of the change in the tariff code certainly has a negative impact from the customer perspective in that the cost level goes up. And so we've run through all the analytics and the math, and we've revised our price model vis-a-vis the surcharge as a consequence. So our customers will certainly see that. I don't see it at a level where there would be an eminent negative impact compared to the current demand environment, but certainly an additional factor to consider on behalf of our customers in terms of deploying the budgeted capital within the year. And then as we have highlighted in some of the past periods, one of the key changes that we did see in the U.S. was a tendency to move away from providing longer-term view of demand and capital allocation and rather going to more shorter demand horizons, if you will, in terms of quarter-by-quarter or biannual, if you will. So we still see that trend continuing.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Okay. And then kind of talking about pricing and surcharges, how much would you say that the U.S. orders in Q1 benefited from pricing in terms of year-over-year basis?

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Yeah, the U.S. orders benefited approximately 10 million euros from the surcharges during quarter one.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right. That's very clear. And then just a housekeeping question on the savings program on the 20 million. So would I model it correctly by kind of adding a full run rate impact for Q4? So it's a little bit of a benefit on Q3 and then in a similar fashion first half of next year as well. On a year-over-year basis.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, I'd say that's about right. Yeah. Yeah.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right. Thanks so much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Analyst
Analyst, Danske Bank

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I would have two questions around the guidance. So firstly, what kind of triggers the upgrade? I mean, is it that you have now more visibility towards the end of the year or was Q1 or what you see in the market better than you were expecting? And then the second one is kind of what kind of, what are you expecting for the U.S. market for the rest of the year in your guidance assumptions?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

if you want to take the first part out.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

So basically what we got the specified outlook is that we had of course a solid start for the year and we have now basically three months better visibility for the year. We don't see in customers behavior at the moment any change so that those are the basically the elements which basically made us to slightly specify the outlook from the above 13.5.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, and just adding one more to that one, Pano, is also the view that Europe continues on the positive glide path that we've seen. So better visibility to the order book now as we have an additional three months coverage, positive variance to the start of the year versus expectation or plan. and then the continued good development in Europe and offset, of course, by a more or less stable situation in the U.S.

speaker
Analyst
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Then we had the second part of your question was with regards to the U.S. demand. Yes. Yes, so in terms of U.S. demand, just to reiterate the prior comments, we certainly see the similar factors coming into the year that we did for the second half of last year. where you had the environment where there was already a bit of a slower level of decision-making or let's say a longer time horizon to deploy capital based on changes in the cost levels and the inability of our customers to know, let's say upon the time of taking possession of the equipment, what their forward-looking cost curves would look like. So then naturally you would, if you could, delay the decision-making until you had better visibility there. we see that continuing within the year having said that we did see a bit of recovery of course in the delivery solution business in the u.s and activity level bodes well as the composition of the order intake was again rather than being skewed towards a few lumpy key account orders but rather a number of small to mid-size orders so The key account orders are also still in the pipeline, so overall we see a situation where we feel a bit more comfortable given that we still have a lack of coverage to the end of the year, which then will further clarify potentially in line with our Q2 earnings report. But for now, given those three factors that I talked about earlier and this U.S. situation that we think uh is on quite a stable level or we don't see it eminently declining supported by the data that we're seeing with the truck oems key factor for us to be able to bump up the the outlook for the year slightly okay thank you uh my final question is on the european market so so it continues to recover but could you kind of uh have a bit more like which segments are looking better for you and and what about construction which i understood has been still slow but do you see any anything up there yeah for us the quick answer on the construction side is not yet but what we do see is we see a pickup on special logistics a bit of infrastructure a little bit of retail last mile but significantly, of course, in our waste and recycling segment, somewhat offset by a slight decline in the defense logistics as it's a consequence of timing, a fulfilling past, very large orders that were one in the past, and then the fulfillment schedule is starting to wind down a bit. So, Overall picture, with the exception of construction, is all moving somewhat in the positive direction and somewhat steady. We're not seeing big swings period over period or sequentially within the quarter, but rather a nice steady improvement.

speaker
Analyst
Analyst, Danske Bank

All right. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Michael Dople from Nordia. Please go ahead.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Just starting off, pulling off on the EMEA question there. Any specific countries you would like to flag here that are looking particularly strongly or seeing some kind of improvement, maybe some early signs into Q2, or any specifics you could add there?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, if you think about our demand environment in Europe, it very much follows along with the countries that have the highest or the most at scale GDPs. And those were certainly the countries that had the most positive variance for us within the Europe, Middle East, Africa region. So of course, UK, France, Germany, Benelux, France, Spain, all were nicely positive.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Okay. No, that's clear. And then also coming back to what you mentioned on defense, how would you describe the pipeline there currently? And also maybe a specification, did you book any orders there in Q1? And then, you know, the pipeline and then potential, how you see it going forward?

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Mikael, was your question concerning Middle East or? because the line was a bit... Sorry, no, on defense, yes.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

I was asking, did you put any orders related to that segment in Q1 and also how would you describe the pipeline and potential you're going forward?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, quick answer, yes, we did, albeit I'd say overall there was a slight negative variance on the defense orders from the comparison period. Pipeline looks really healthy, and as we've called out in the past, it's challenging to call the timing of converting the orders, but... But Hermione, Frank, the team are doing a great job managing the pipeline, and we feel really good about how we're positioned to convert the pipeline. The question is around the timing.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

The defense owners ran up to 4% of the total order intake in quarter one. So as we have said earlier, they are... a bit lumpier than the kind of typical commercial orders. So from quarter to quarter, it might fluctuate a bit, but like Scott said, solid pipeline and something to come most probably later this year. So, yeah.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Okay. No, that's fair. And then just finally on the end of the day, I think you mentioned the 70 minutes over here. How would you describe the pipeline? I mean, which reagents would you say are most active right now and what are the key hurdles to get to this point?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, so let me start, I'll take that question. Pipeline is quite active as we have consistently called out in the past. Of course, it's always all a matter of timing. Our focus is in line with our focus segments Similarly, from a geographic perspective, I'd say there's an active pipeline, of course, both in both of our core markets, both within Europe as well as the Americas. And, of course, that's a critical area of focus for us. At the same time, we continue to look for opportunities to help us scale quicker in regions where we're subscale. And so we still like the APAC region and are investing a lot of time and energy and expense in analyzing and understanding the opportunities in that part of the world. And similarly, we still see opportunities in Latin America as well.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Okay. And then just to follow up, what would you say are kind of the key hurdles to get the things done? Question more or is something else that's coming up? What are the kinds of things being discussed?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, yeah. Sorry just to give you a bit of context around the history. So the first key factor was just needing to work our way through the merger and then the demerger process. as we were certainly constrained for good reasons to take actions during those years. So post-completion of the demerger, then the key constraint really has just been a matter of timing of working the processes.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Yeah. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Auntie Kansanen from SEV. Please go ahead.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Thanks for taking my follow-up, which would be on the U.S. distributor. So Scott, maybe could you talk a little bit about where you are with this kind of approach strategy, adding the distributor network or expanding the distributor network in the U.S. and expanding geographically, and what type of revenue potential should we think about from these actions in the next, say, 12 to 24 months. I mean, if the demand in the U.S. is starting to bottom out, I guess the fact that you have a wider distributor network today than, let's say, a year ago would add a little bit of a bigger potential for you going forward.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, thank you very much for the follow-up question, Antti. I'd love to provide some color on this follow-up. So quite pleased with where we are relative to executing on our growth strategy in North America vis-a-vis activating a hybrid model, whereas in the past we were almost entirely direct with the exception of our Princeton-branded truck monoforklifts. So over the past two years, We've activated 16 new dealers. Of course, very much back-end loaded towards that time period. So great companies at scale. For the first time, it gives us real coverage in all 48 contiguous United States. And so that's a key milestone for us. And then I'd say number two, and I couldn't emphasize this one enough, that the quality – and capability within these dealers is extremely good and proud that they've elected to, you know, work together with us as real partners. And they're going to certainly help our overall growth strategy as well as to develop the overall brand in the U.S. Now, having said that, we're in the mode of developing and going through the training and activating the dealers. And so that's a bit of a step-by-step process. Hard to exactly characterize the amount of positive variants, certainly within this year, but we expect some positive variants to our order intake development in the U.S. as a consequence. And over the time series, if I think about 27, 28 and beyond, then that should steadily pick up. We believe that we'll end up somewhere around 20 to 22 distributors overall. So we still are in the process also of adding new dealers in. areas were either were undercovered and or were looking for the capability be it for a lifting solution or a delivery solution as some of our dealers are quite specialized and others are more generalists covering the whole portfolio.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Is there any way for me to kind of compare from revenue potential wise a 20 to 22 distributors versus your prior direct model, kind of how much does it expand the addressable market or how much kind of the dollar revenue potential would it give you down the road when all are fully activated and selling your equipment?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, on the spot, no, probably I can, but however, as we work, progress through subsequent periods. And, of course, as we certainly have touch points with all of you that cover our business, we certainly would be able to start to give better and better color on just that point.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right. Looking forward to that. Thank you. Yeah.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Okay, thank you for the telephone conference questions. We have at least one question from the iPad. This one is related to the German infrastructure package. Did we see any impact in the quarter? How would you characterize the situation or the stimulus money from the German infrastructure package? Is it visibility better the same or worse than in the beginning of the year?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Well, certainly better visibility. compared to the beginning of the year. Timing-wise, I'd say too early yet, but we do anticipate having nice opportunities in the future and we're starting to get visibility in the opportunity funnel.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Great. How about then the supply chain? Do we see any constraints, especially in the hydraulics or electronics? I think this must be related to the Middle East situation.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Honestly, great question, and it gives me an opportunity to put the spotlight for a second on our supply chain teams. I think they've done a great job, both in terms of our factories and in collaboration with our sourcing teams. So really pleased to share that. Now, that picture, of course, looks a lot like the duck on top of the water. But, of course, below the surface, there's a lot of activity behind the scenes, both internal to HIAB, but also in our partner network, vis-a-vis our suppliers, as well as the logistic shipping companies. But overall, no negative impact within the quarter. a lot of organizational bandwidth has been redirected to make sure that we secure and stabilize the overall supply chain.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Indeed. And the next one here is that do we see any potential considering new trade agreements between Europe and South America or then potentially How about India? Do we see any potential there? Will this lead to high-ups, new equipment, production service units in the medium term impacting sales year-on-year growth rate in these regions? Any color you could provide?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, we haven't seen yet any impact at this point as a consequence of the new trade agreements. However, I would say that markets such as India are a great example of those that we are constantly pulsing and checking for, you know, what's the right opportunity for us to better participate in the market? Is that an import opportunity or is it a produced local opportunity? and certainly I anticipate that a market such as this will play a key and ever-increasingly important role in the future of our business.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Okay, thanks. And I think we have still some more questions from the telephone line, so let's turn back to the moderator.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Michael Dople from Nordia. Please go ahead.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Yeah, thank you. Just very briefly a question on your service business. Just talk a bit about how you see the environment there, the dynamics there. I mean, where are we currently in the spare parts capture rate, and how do you see the economic overall growth here going forward?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah. Yeah, thanks for the question, Mikhail. In terms of the services business, what I would still say is that Mikael and his team are progressively working towards better and better partnership training and development of how to, one, make sure that as a result of having new or current activated connected units, that that gives us great control then over the install base, which is the first key factor, and that's why that's one of the critical KPIs that we track relentlessly each period. then that enables to have the dialogue of converting the management of the assets in the installed base wrapped around ProCare contracts that we do both for direct as well as through indirect. And we know that we have a significantly different outcome of capture rate and revenue per unit on those units that are captured in ProCare. And the good news is that our net promoter score and feedback from the customers are on a significantly higher level as well. So the team is doing a good job getting better and better control of the overall installed base, but it'll take time as given the top line split between what we sell direct versus indirect. the biggest opportunity for us is to continue to increase the share of capture on the indirect sales side and so a lot of good progress is being made there overall in terms of the capture rate versus what we shared in 2024 we continue to step by step make good improvements sequentially and throughout each period the Limiting factors so far potentially, and this is a bit of opinion as it's quite variable, is then around the utilization rates of the equipment. And we have seen a lot of variability through the period where some periods, some geographies is up and some within the same geographies may be down. And that might have a bit of a factor there. If I think about the past two years, moving forward, our expectation is that given the age of the installed base, the replacement rate should continue to increase. And at the same time, the level of service events or the frequency of the service events should get slightly increasing as well, which goes well for our recurring revenue business. So overall good progress there. When we come back on our next capital market today, we'll give a lot more color on how we're progressing relative to the three KPIs that we shared in 24 as well as the overall capture rate. And I'd say the last comment I would add is I think I did share in either Q3 or even in February in the Q4 earnings, our share of recurring revenue is now on quite a good level at around 75, 76% level.

speaker
Michael Dople
Analyst, Nordia

Thank you very much. Yeah.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Tom Scottman from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Yes, good morning. I know you have sensors installed in your equipment. Can you open up a bit what you see, how customers are using the equipment, you know, sequentially, year on year, and it's in different geographies. What can you read about your customers from this?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah. Hey, good morning, Tom. We get quite a lot of data-driven insights off of our connected equipment and really pleased by the fact that we are able to provide condition-based monitoring services so we can see any number of data points from the amount of how they're being utilized, the time under load, the type of loads, whether it's overload, underload, time in idle, even if an operator's not buckled the seatbelt and attended to some of the basic requirements around safe operations. So a whole host of variables that we're able to see relative to most of the units that we have connected. And then quite pleased to tell you that At least before the end of the year, you'll start to also see quite a nice uptick in connected units in our tailwind business as well.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

But what do you see in customer activity like in the U.S. where we have this kind of uncertain demand situation? Do you see any signs in how customer equipment is used, for instance,

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Sorry, now I understand a little better than what you're getting at there, Tom. So in terms of utilization, we see quite a lot of variability. I'd say overall we don't see any real negative or positive trends, but some periods utilization or activity levels are up, and then in the next period it might be down. So overall I'd call it quite stable. And I'd say that's the theme that roughly applies here in Europe as well. In some periods, it's trending more positive, and then in another period, it will trend slightly negative.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

All right. And then about your M&A pipeline, do you have any targets you would like to share, how many companies you would like to acquire this year, or how much sales you would like to add through an M&A in one year or three-year period or so?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, I mean, I'll stick to my same answer as before. You know, I think that given we're a business configured of six divisions and a number of business units, I would love to get to a steady state where we're able to do a bolt-on at least one per year per division per business unit. And similarly, if you think about the then the composition of our business, managing one or two more transformative or let's say business unit or division size acquisitions per year would be a great steady state to get to. But to go from where we are to that, then it's going to take some time as we now are, what, nine months or so into being able to now action opportunities that we were constrained to action until we completed the demerger. So we'll also share a lot more color on that as we progress towards our next capital market stake.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

And when is the next capital market day?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

We haven't set the date yet, but we will share that as soon as we do.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

But it's for already this year you plan to have it for?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, my sense is that it's likely to be in 27. Yeah. Yeah.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Not yet decided yet.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Yeah. And perhaps, you know, a bit more on this service sales target. You have 700 million euros as a target. I realize this downturn probably was a bit steeper and longer than you expected, but just, you know, on a general level, how do you feel about this? Because, I mean, that would really demand exceptional sales CAGR to reach, doesn't it?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yeah, you're exactly right. There is that element if you think about the, especially on the non-recurring revenue piece, there is a significant element there of when does the equipment demand recover relative to the way we modeled the demand curve in Q4 23 when we established the current strategy period. So a lot will be understood depending upon how the balance of this year and the beginning of 27 plays out, of course.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

But of course, one should still, if we think quarter one service development, so sales up by 5% with constant currencies, at the same time we saw a decline in the installation services. So if the installation services, i.e. new equipment sales then attached with the installation sales would improve then that would of course have had in this quarter a nice further addition to service revenues.

speaker
Tom Scottman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

And then finally, these new U.S. distributors, do they wish that you would expand your product portfolio to some certain direction?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

I think at this point, too early to tell. They're still in the mode of, getting themselves up and running on understanding the full scope of the portfolio that they're responsible for, how to work within our processes and systems and with the support staff that's available to them. But I am confident that As we look forward, they will certainly and frequently share insights where they see that we have opportunities to fill gaps within the portfolio. But at this point, I'd say it's too early.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yep.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Auntie Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Yeah, hi, thanks. Just a quick follow-up on the U.S. order side. I mean, I just wanted to get a reminder, like last year, America's orders declined by 14% on Euro basis, but I'm sure that there was a pricing contributor on a positive side. So how much did the volumes last year decline, or how much your pricing was up with the surcharges and all of that during 2015?

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

The surcharge impact, if I recall correctly, was something like between 20, 30 million euros for last year. Yeah, a bit less than 30 million euros, around 25. Okay.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Yeah. Do you have any view kind of how much the volumes are currently, the order volumes are below, let's say, what you looked on 24, which was kind of the previous peak?

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

you mean in the US?

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

In the US just trying to kind of think about the recovery on the market what is kind of the upside in terms of your order intake given that your prices are quite much higher now than they were a few years back.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Of course it's good to remember that these surcharges are something which I mean they change all the time as tariffs change so of course depends on the tariff landscape whether one can use that as a let's say permanent price increase, or we have communicated to the customers that the tariffs will, if the tariffs change, then the surcharge will change. But all in all, last year, roughly that 25 million, let's say impact in the order intake. It's a bit difficult to, because there are so many different products in the US market. There are daily load of claims, truck mounted forklift. So one cannot count those together. It's like calculating apples and bananas together. So from that point of view, it's a bit difficult to say the kind of volume impact.

speaker
Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Sure, I mean, it's a simplification, but it seems like the pricing had a single-digit impact, and then that would kind of suggest 20% down on volume.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

That's not the right way to think about it. Overall, the biggest impact is coming from the customer's overall demand. The pricing having a quite small impact.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Absolutely. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Yeah, let's still take a couple of questions from the iPad. So firstly on the services, so do we always nowadays offer a service agreement when we sell a new piece of equipment, and what is our hit ratio with service agreements with new equipment sales?

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

A quick answer to that is that's certainly our expectation, that it's one of our key strengths. And certainly if I think about the 50 or 60 customer meetings that I have a year, that's usually the first topic of conversation is services and the availability of services, proximity to install base, and the high need to secure uptime as most of our customers are struggling understanding that they're paying a premium on the margin in order to secure the service outcomes that they need to keep them going. So, therefore, it's critical for us to offer the services concurrent with the opportunity to sell a new piece of equipment. The hit rate, or let's say the attachment rate, of the services contract varies depending upon region. So I would kind of come back to Miko's comment earlier. It's a bit... It's not a great metric if you just aggregate it all together and say here's our percentage of attachment because it's much higher in certain areas depending upon how we're configured with our own organization and the personnel that we have, but it varies. I'd say that overall I can say that this is one of the key opportunities for us to continue to not only drive our services business, but more importantly, a key factor for us to increase our net promoter score customer satisfaction. So the teams are working quite diligently together and with our partners to ensure that we feel like we have all the tools, processes, and capability and training in order to not only offer the services, but then most importantly to execute successfully in delivering against those service contracts.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Then we have two more questions. I think these are quite quick ones. The first one is on the M&A. Any preferences in geographical regions? I think you, Scott, already mentioned that we like EMEA, Americas, our key regions, but we also seek for opportunities in the APAC region. So that was the answer already. And then the final one. which one of you remembers the numbers, how large proposal is the US out of our America sales? Of course, we provide on an annual basis North American sales, but we don't split the US separately. But of course, it's a significant share out of the Americas and also on the North American side.

speaker
Mikko Puolakko
CFO

Yeah, I don't remember now the exact percentage, but it's... I would say the US is the majority of the Americas seven years.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Exactly.

speaker
Scott Phillips
CEO

Yes. Yeah. A very high percentage.

speaker
Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations

Yeah. And of course for this year, the rest of the Americas is somewhat higher due to the ING acquisition impact. So the Brazil market is proportionally higher than last year. Yeah. Okay. That then concludes our Q&A session. Thanks for the great questions and for the great answers. We will be back with our second quarter results in 22nd of July, so stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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