Hexagon Composites Ord

Good morning everyone and welcome to Hexagon Composites second quarter presentation for 2026. My name is Berit-Cathrin Hoyvik and I'll be moderating today's presentation. Joining me in the studio today is our CEO Philip Schramm and CFO Eirik Lohre. They will take you through a company update, financials and outlook before we wrap up with the Q&A session. With a reminder that you may submit questions on your screen at any point during the presentation. And with that, I'll hand over to Philip.

Thank you. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today for our Q2 2026 earnings call. Let me start with the headlines. I can proudly describe this quarter as a turning point for Hexagon Composites. Over the last year, we've been focused on improving our resilience, strengthening our balance sheet, lowering our break-even point, and positioning the company for the next phase of growth. This quarter, we saw the results of some of these actions materializing, building on the improvements we have delivered in Q1. We are now fundamentally Moving from a defense position into an offense position. The progress we delivered is visible across four important developments. First, we have successfully completed the cost reduction program that we launched during 2025. When we initiated this program, we committed to reducing costs while retaining the capacity required to scale up as markets rebound. We have delivered on those commitments. Second, we have strengthened our balance sheet through a 650 million Norwegian kroner equity raise and significantly improved our financial flexibility. Third, our mobile pipeline business signed the largest order in its history in July. We secured an order of 100 million US dollars equivalent to 1 billion Norwegian kroner. That opens up a new application for our technology in supporting data center power generation. And finally, we secured an important long-term agreement with Iveco Bus, who has selected Hexagon Agility as the exclusive fuel system and cylinder supplier across its entire global CNG bus platform. And this for the next three years. As I mentioned in previous quarters, our goal was never just to navigate a market downturn. Our goal was to emerge from it as a stronger, more resilient and more profitable company. That disciplined execution is highlighted in these developments and testifies in our results this quarter. Hexagon Composites delivered revenues of 627 million NOC. Adjusting for currency effects, revenues were steady compared to last quarter. What is most significant about these results is the increase in profitability. We delivered EBITDA of 69 million NOC. For the quarter, a significant improvement of 57 million from the low point of the market downturn a year ago. This profitability step up corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 11%, a vast improvement of 9 percentage points from last year. Let me explain some of these actions we have taken to deliver this improved profitability. We have now successfully completed the cost reduction program that began in 2025. This program was ambitious and it required difficult decision, but it has fundamentally improved the economics of our business. We reduced our headcount by approximately 25%. With that, we reduced personal expenses and SG&A costs by around 260 million NOC. Adjusting for currency effects and extraordinary items, the underlying structural saving is 120 million. We reduced layers within our organization. With that, we improved the efficiency and the agility of our organization. We reduced capex spend and released around 60 million in co-working capital in spite of strategic inventory build-out. With those actions, we improved our liquidity. We consolidated our European manufacturing footprint. With that, we streamlined productivity. And in doing so, we have structurally lowered the cost base of our group. Today we are operating from a much stronger foundation and we will retain the capability, the expertise and the manufacturing capacity needed to capture future growth. Alongside our own operational improvements, the equity raise of 650 million NOK has enabled us to strengthen our balance sheet and amend our lending facilities with extended maturities and flexibility. The proceeds were used primarily to reduce debt, with net interest-bearing debt now reduced from just under 1.3 billion to 576 million NOK. Our available liquidity has also improved from $528 million to $796 million, all after the repair offering. This combined strategy has enabled us to deliver on one clear purpose to give Hexagon the financial flexibility required to execute through the recovery cycle and the growth ahead. We now have that flexibility and we intend to use it with the same discipline that has characterized our actions throughout the last year. Now let's move on to one of the most exciting developments for our mobile pipeline business. In July, we secured the largest mobile pipeline order in Hexagon's history. Valued at 100 million US dollars equivalent to 1 billion NOC. This latest order from Soteris also includes an additional option valued at around 25 million dollars through to entire 2028. Beyond the size of the order, it represents our first confirmed entrance into data center power generation. Alongside this exciting new application in data center power generation, we have also taken important steps recently in Europe. Last week, we secured a strategically important agreement with Iveco Bus. Iveco is the market leader in European ZNG transit. After two decades of collaboration and delivering more than 10,000 CNG buses together, IVECO selected Hexagon Agility as its exclusive fuel system and cylinder supplier across its entire CNG bus portfolio. Transit remains one of the more resilient parts of our core business, and natural gas and biomethane continue to deliver both economic and environmental benefits to municipalities and bus fleets. This new agreement strengthens our market leadership in Europe while unlocking a piece of future growth in emerging geographies. With that, I will hand over to Eirik who will walk you through the financials in more detail. Eirik.

Thank you, Philip, and good morning, everyone. Starting with the group financials, we delivered revenue of 627 million NOK in the quarter, broadly in line with the first quarter when adjusting for FX effects. Revenue for the first half of 2026 amounted to approximately 1.3 billion NOK, reflecting what is typically a seasonally softer first half of the year for Hexagon. The quarter was characterized by low activity level in mobile pipeline, Partly offset by solid performance in fuel systems, which delivered another relatively strong quarter. EBTA came in at 69 million NOC, corresponding to a margin of 11%, and the improvements in profitability reflects both the favorable segment mix and the structural cost measures implemented throughout 2025. For the first half of the year, EBTA amounted to 126 million, or a 10% margin. Overall, we are quite pleased with the profitability development so far in 2026, particularly given that these volumes remain below what we consider normalized levels. Segment-wise, I'll turn first to fuel systems, which, as mentioned, delivered a relatively good quarter, with revenues of NOK 450 million and EBITDA of NOK 78 million. This represents a margin of 17%. The truck market remained relatively quiet in the first half for us, but we continued to see solid activity from selected customers. During the quarter, we delivered meaningful volumes of sleeper cab systems into Mexico, which is becoming an important growth market for Hexagon. Transit bus activity was strong across multiple regions in the quarter, not least in Europe, where we have consolidated production in Kassel from the month of June, as also Philip touched on earlier in the presentation. And together with aerospace deliveries and other specialized deliveries, this contributed positively to both revenue quality and margins in the quarter. And all this, together with operational cost improvements, a good mix contributed to very healthy profitability and, in fact, our best quarter in fuel systems, EBTA-wise, since our record quarter Q4 2024. Moving to Mobile Pipeline, which continues to be lumpy and delivered revenue of 101 million NOK during the quarter, which is significantly down versus Q1. This development was driven partly by timing effects, but also lingering caution among customers regarding capital investments in the North American market, a trend that we expect to see reverse. And looking ahead, we do expect a significant step up in activity during the second half of the year and also into 2027, driven, of course, by the record Sataris contract we announced in July. And in preparations for this, we deliberately built inventory during the second quarter. And we do expect a significant portion of that inventory to convert into shipments during Q3 and Q4. Turning to Europe, which delivered a strong performance this quarter, good activity levels in the UK and Ireland, where we did supply modules to several RNG, renewable natural gas projects, in addition to deliveries into continental Europe, but also into Middle East. And despite the overall activity level remaining pretty low for Mobile Pipeline in the second quarter, the segment delivered break-even EBTA, which also reflects improved cost performance and the actions taken over the last year to reduce the structural break-even level of the business. Additionally, I do want to note that the discipline continues to guide our market expansion strategy. In Q2, we had multiple opportunities to pursue additional opportunities in South America in particular, but chose not to participate where pricing didn't support our return requirements. So we do want to protect our margins also when approaching new markets and emerging markets. Aftermarket, we delivered revenue of 98 million NOK and EBTA of 11 million NOK for the quarter. The overall parts and service market remains relatively soft as we continue to see fleet operators extending service intervals and also utilizing existing spare parts inventories. That said, the mix is gradually improving. We saw increasing activity in mobile pipeline trailer requalifications during the quarter, and while this is still a relatively small part of the business, requalification activities entering a more favorable cycle that follows mobile pipeline sales volumes in the years following 2020. Moreover, we're seeing our certified pre-owned and refurbishment offerings continue to gain traction as our first-generation systems and trailers reach end-of-life. These activities typically carry attractive economics and represent a growing share of our external service revenues, but also contribute positively to revenue and margins in Q2. Turning to cash flow, cash flow from operations was 128 million NOK for the quarter, which was helped by release of working capital and other accruals. And I do want to point out that this is despite the fact that we have built significant inventory of finished goods, as mentioned, to prepare for the extra and increased activity in the second half of the year, in particular within the mobile pipeline segment. So we could expect that particular effect to be reversed in the coming quarters. We continue with low capex spend, only prioritizing critical capital projects. So far this year, we have spent around 20 million NOC, 12 million NOC this quarter, against our full year guidance of 70 to 80 million NOC. Net interest payments of 39 million included an annual interest payment related to the PURES TRS, which was terminated in April. So expect this to drop significantly in the coming quarters, also because we have obviously reduced our overall debt level. All in all, net cash flow for the quarter was 115 million NOK, which includes around 30 million net proceeds from the equity raise and repayment of debt, but also 30 million from our discontinued operations in Poland, which involved sale of inventory, but also a collection of receivables as we emptied the factory in Poland. On top of our cash flow improvements, I wanted to touch briefly on our balance sheet. Our leverage has significantly reduced following the recent equity raise and refinancing. And at the end of the second quarter, we had gross debt of 972 million, cash on hand of 294 million and net interest bearing debt of 678 million NOC. And including the proceeds from repair offering completed in July, as Philip mentioned earlier, Eirik Lohre, Gunnar Engkrog, Philipp Schramm Eirik Lohre, Gunnar Engkrog, Philipp Schramm So all in all, we believe the refinancing and the strengthened balance sheet provide us with the financial flexibility needed to support growth and also execute on our commercial opportunities for the second half of the year and not least beyond that. So with that, I'll hand it back to Philip to walk you through what we see ahead.

Thank you, Eirik. Let's move into the outlook. As I mentioned earlier, momentum is building across several of our key markets. Moving into the second half of the year, the market environment still contains some lingering uncertainty, but the direction is increasingly positive. A mobile pipeline, broader industrial demand, including oil and gas, is showing the first signs of improvement after a soft year where customers focused on asset utilization, as we have spoken in previous quarters about. New demand drivers such as data centers and data center energy demand are now also emerging and beginning to offset some of that cyclical market softness which we had to experience. For fuel systems, refuse remains healthy and transit momentum continues to improve across multiple regions and geographies. In trucking, After a slow year, freight fundamentals are recovering and the economic case for natural gas continues to strengthen. Also, on the challenging side, we do expect diesel pre-buy activity due to the incoming 2027 regulations and we experience some lingering caution from fleets who are limiting capex investments in new technology while they absorb near-term diesel opex increases. However, we do see good momentum and promising signal for the remainder of 2026 and the outlook for 2027 is improving. The structural drivers supporting natural gas vehicles continue to remain very compelling. While the recovery in our core markets is still ongoing and some conditions remain mixed, I want to be clear that the momentum we see today is fundamentally different from what we experienced 12 months ago. This is supported by our significant better profitability and significant better cost base. These improving underlying trends are why for 2026 we expect to deliver revenue growth moderately above last year's level. Based on the progress we have delivered during the first half, the strengthening of our financial position In improving visibility in our key markets, we are raising our full-year EBITDA guidance from above 200 million to around 300 million Norwegian kroner. We do see some normal uncertainty around timing of customer deliveries and project execution in the second half of this year, and we continue to monitor cost impacts from the broader geopolitical environment. That leads me Based on the current visibility, we are confident that the second half of the year will be stronger than the first, with an improving base demand in 2027. This quarter's satiris order validated what we believe could be a major opportunity for our business. Data centers are rapidly becoming a significant new end market for our mobile pipeline technology. The challenge many developers are facing is simple. Demand for power generation is growing faster than the infrastructure can be built. Grid expansion takes time, with wait times exceeding up to four years in some US states. Developers are seeking solutions now, and our mobile pipeline technology can solve that gap. Mobile Pipeline Modules provide compressed natural gas directly on site for power generation and enabling projects to begin operations while permanent infrastructure is developed. And with the Titan 510, our latest product launch in May, we have designed a technology platform specifically to service higher volume gas applications. The Titan 510 contains the largest type 4 composite cylinder ever manufactured, enabling a fleet of mobile pipelines to efficiently support power generation for a hyperscale data center. Our technology leadership and the scale of the opportunity gives us confidence that this is the beginning of a potential, meaningful new market for our technology. Moving to one of our other exciting long-term growth opportunities, which is natural gas trucking in North America. For several quarters, we have spoken about the importance of the economics. That remains true today. Alongside the U.S. Class A truck market rebounding, fuel spreads continue to favor natural gas, and fleets are increasingly focused on improving the operating cost. As I've said before, the industry is approaching an important shift from 2027 onwards. Natural gas trucks now offer diesel-like performance while delivering compelling total cost of ownership. While the latest US EPA regulation revision may extend the transition period over the course of 2027, the incoming EPA regulation from 2027 onwards will improve this CNG conversion equation even further. Diesel trucks will get more complex and more expensive. As we have seen over the last 18 months, fundamentally changing an entire industry that had used diesel for a century is not easy, but we are on it. While the timing of accelerated CNG adoption is difficult to predict, our conviction in the long-term direction remains unchanged. As we have seen the underlying drivers and enablers materializing and more and more smaller fleets are piloting our systems. This gives us confidence the market is moving sustainably in the right direction. To wrap it up, I want to touch on how all of this ties together. First, Hexagon today is a stronger and more resilient company. Alongside a strengthened balance sheet, we have completed our cost transformation and structurally improved our profitability. Second, we have multiple growth drivers across both existing and adjacent markets. Natural gas adoption continues to advance. Transit momentum is positive. The data center opportunity is emerging and we continue to expand our reach across geographies and applications. And third, we are well positioned to capture long-term profitable growth. We are the technology leader in our industry. We have unmatched customer base and unmatched capacity. With that, thank you so much for your interest and thank you for joining us today. With that, let's move on to Q&A. Berit-Cathrin, please.

Thank you, Philip. We'll jump straight into the first question for you, Philip, on regulation. How do you see the EPA's recent revisions to the 2027 NOx emission standards impacting CNG conversion?

Positive, first of all. And let me explain to you why. The NOx rule holds, meaning that heavy-duty trucks in North America, Class A trucks, need to reduce their NOx emissions. These emission levels which are proposed can be fulfilled by CNG trucks. Diesel trucks need additional after-gas treatment. That means they become more expensive and from a technological point of view, More complex to maintain. So for the adoption of C and G, this is very positive. With the new discussions about EPA 27, there is an This is something which we see from our discussion could lead to a slightly increased diesel pre-buy into 2027. Nevertheless, the investments made by all the major OEMs to transition to lower NOX emission and compliant trucks will happen what we hear from everyone so what we only see is it might be that the diesel pre-buy will extend into the early of 2027 so in as a sum sum it up it's very positive and we are happy that it's going in this direction it's good for our application but it's also good for the environment

Thank you. Moving to you, Eirik. Given the improvement delivered so far in 2026 and the stronger second half trajectory you're pointing to, How should we translate that momentum into 2027 expectations?

I think obviously it's early days and typically we don't provide any guidance for next year at this point in 2026. I think we feel relatively good about the second half of this year and for those who have followed Hexagon for a while they know that the visibility is not always the best but we still feel quite good about the second half. Of course, we have booked some business already. Notably, some of the Sartoris orders will be delivered. Quite a significant portion will be delivered in 2027. So that provides a good baseline for a mobile pipeline business. We know that our transit business and our refuse business and our aftermarket business is relatively resilient. And as Philip mentioned, we're still trying to learn how the new proposal from EPA will impact the demand for CNG trucks into 2027. But generally, we feel that we have the low point of the cycle behind us and that 2027 should be Another year of market recovery, but we look forward to sharing more insights in the Q3 presentation, but also the Q4 presentation, which is typically when we provide forward-looking guidance or indications.

Thank you. Another question for you, Eirik, on mobile pipeline. Can you give more insight into the forward profitability pattern in mobile pipeline? In the second quarter, it was zero. And the $100 million order will show up as revenues in the coming quarters. But which EBTA margins should be assumed? In the past, 2024 mobile pipeline EBTA margins was 20%. So is that a realistic level?

Good question. I think inherently the mobile pipeline business is pretty lumpy. I think you've seen that with the volatility on the top line over the last couple of years, as an example. We have to acknowledge that we still are at a pretty soft overall market, although we think it is improving. So kind of Commercial terms also in contract reflect that, even though we think the margin and profitability of this business will improve going forward. Generally speaking, this is a business that scales pretty well with volume, so high operating leverage. We think 20% is probably a stretch, but we're optimistic that we can restore a healthy margin. And I think also we have done quite a good job in terms of reducing cost, both on the material side, but also on the other operating cost side. So we're optimistic that we can deliver improving and sustainable margin in this business going forward.

Thank you. Question for you, Philip, on X15N. Are you still securing new pilot orders for fuel systems to the X15N? And could you quantify the number of fleet operators who have or are testing?

We're seeing great interest demand into the application. We also see that the The benefit of the X-15N is materializing in real life. For example, with our demo trucks, which we provide to a lot of fleets. So the fuel economy holds. It's in some cases even better with what we have internally predicted. With the current diesel natural gas spread, the benefit for natural gas, the return of investment can be for some fleets be unbelievable. And this is what the discussion is, which we are currently having with a lot of fleets currently ongoing. But as Eirik said, it's a little bit too early to put the drum out, but it's like something it's our work, which we do. And it's accompanied by all the hard work which we have done over the last 12 months. And we will continue so because this will drive the adoption up. and this is what we are committed to and you see it from these results we can deliver and we will drive this market forward.

Thank you. An additional question related to the X15N. The Clean Energy released information about their progress on the 4th of August where eight or nine trucking companies were mentioned and they are deploying new Cummins X15N power trucks. How does this impact Exxon Composites?

You can be assured that with all the major releases in the US, a major portion of these new trucks have one of our fuel systems on.

Moving back to you, Eirik. Could you please comment on what factors that are driving the decrease in COGS percentage the last two quarters? Is the current level of 42% a level we should expect going forward?

Yeah, I think first and foremost, our team has done a very good job through 2025 renegotiating prices and terms with our suppliers. And there's a natural lag to see the effect in the P&L. I think we've seen that come through in the last couple of quarters. There is also some mixed elements in here. Mobile pipeline is typically a more materials heavy product for us. So with low mobile pipeline volumes in the second quarter, COGS margin is probably on the low side compared to what it would be in a normalized scenario. So in terms of expectations going forward, I mean, when the mix sort of normalizes and we get more mobile pipeline business in the second half, which we believe, we could expect to see that going up a little bit back to average over the last few quarters, including Q4 last year. But also, as we have talked about in the presentation in May, we expect some surcharges and we've seen some surcharges related to materials given the higher energy prices, higher freight costs as well. So that's another dimension to it, which would impact the second half expectations in terms of COGS. And the third one would be the fact that we have, as we talked about in the presentation, We have built inventory now ahead of the second half because we expect higher demand, notably in the mobile pipeline segment. So we have activated some of that cost and that will flow back into the P&L in the second half. So I would say it's probably on the low side in this quarter compared to where it would be next quarter.

What is Hexagon's position in the potential refinancing of Hexagon Pures? Is Hexagon willing to inject more capital?

I think about the last point of the statement we have been very clear. Like with all our minority shareholdings we are evaluating the situation of all our shareholdings very careful on a regular basis. We evaluate what the options are and With always the focus in mind to maximizing the shareholder value for our shareholders. This is the intention all along with everything which we do. This is the Maxime, Eirik and myself we are committed to in the entire executive team. And that's also according to Hexagon Purus. I think it's prudent what we have heard and when I listened into the most recent earnings call from purists that they will evaluate their balance sheet. It's something they might need to do and we stay open, constructive to their suggestions, but I think we have been very clear about injection of cash. We have contributed in the past and we felt that this contribution should give them enough runway to turn cash flow and EBITDA positive.

Thank you. Moving back to you, Eirik, similar on the margin side. Looking at the full year math, if revenue lands above 3 billion and you've been running at a 10% EBITDA margin year-to-date, Sticking to around 300 million in EBTA implies weaker margins in the second half, should we expect margin compression in the second half.

I think there's a couple of factors that come into play. And we talked about the COGS side of things and with the normalised business mix in the second half. We had some specialty products in the first half that contributed positively to margins. Aerospace being an example. So when we see a mix normalising in the second half with higher mobile pipeline content, I think... Also where we are in the cycle and in terms of, you know, especially the Sotaris contract driving revenue. You know, with volumes in the order of magnitude and top line in the order of magnitude of 100 million dollar, we can obviously also level up production and offer attractive pricing while still preserving good nominal profitability on our side. So I think all in all, we feel relatively good about the full year. But as I also talked about, there are some cost factors that will come into play in the second half, including the inventory effect, but also the raw materials effect.

Thank you. I think that concludes our questions for today. So thank you for joining.