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.

CAG Group AB (publ)
4/24/2025
Hello and welcome to today's broadcast. This is the COG Group with the CEO Åsa Landén Eriksson, who will present the first report for 2025. If you have any questions, please use the form on the right to ask them during the Q&A session after the presentation. With those words to you Åsa, please go ahead.
Tack Martin och Finnvarger och välkomna alla som lyssnar. Jätteroligt att ni vill spendera lite av den här soliga dagen med oss. Jag ska presentera CAGs första rapport som sagt för 2025 och jag inleder som vanligt för er som kanske är nytillkomna med en kort överflygning över oss. As you probably know, we are an IT consulting company with also management and management among our nine independent subsidiaries. A sign for us is that we have independent operations with clear niches and competencies. We are a little short of 450 employees and geographically we have a very strong point around Mälardalen, but also a little in Oslo, Uppsala, Linköping and so on. Vi har en spännande dag i morgon. Jag kommer tillbaka till det apropå vår fina Great Place to Work-logga här. Det ska vi prata lite mer om sen. Tittar man på vår utveckling hittills så So we have grown quite well and I usually point out this figure 20% which is our recurring income. It is mainly for operations and administration but also a lot of other larger projects where we have long contracts. och inte bara vanliga konsultkontrakt. De kan också vara väldigt långa men de definieras inte som återkommande. Så det var lite kort om CAG generellt. What you see in this picture is our segment distribution, and that is a large part of the explanation for how it works for us. We have been called the most stable IT consultant, and we see that also this quarter. One of the reasons is that we are large both in defense and banking and finance, and compared to last year, we have increased our defense exposure even more, so it is now at 35% of our revenues. A little short of 300 million kronor, which is still quite large, and it is both FNV that is our largest customer with 20% of the revenues, the Swedish Defence Force, it is the Norwegian counterparties primarily, and if you look at the industry segment, it is a lot of Saab and BRJ Hägglund, but other customers as well. Bank och Finans är både mycket drift och förvaltning och storbankerna. Och sen har vi mycket övrig offentlig sektor också, såsom Arbetsförmedlingen, Tillväxtverket och så vidare. Man kan se vår jättefina kundvepa här, som vi är otroligt stolta över. Vi har ju långa kundrelationer i nästan alla våra verksamheter och extremt fina varumärken. Det här är något som vi är jättestolta över. Om man tittar på siffrorna då i kvartalet så har vi ett litet irritationsmoment, det står ett litet minustecken framför tillväxten här som är minus 0,8% och det är två miljoner som är short in our under-consult business compared to last quarter, last year. Otherwise, our own business has gone evenly towards Q1 2024. You should remember, however, that this quarter had one shorter working day and also some calendar effects after Christmas. So if we had had an extra working day, we would have actually been on a plus, then you can rest assured. Men vi har haft god beläggning, lite ökande priser och bra kostnadskontroll som jag skriver i kvartalsrapportens lilla rosa ruta på framsidan. Och det innebär att vi har haft en vinsttillväxt med 7% så att vi landar på en marginal på 9,9% och det är ju 0,7%-enheter bättre än föregående år. Så det får man ändå vara ganska nöjd med. Bra kassaflöde, någorlunda bibehållen. profit per share, which is also important. We have a vote on May 7, and after that we will pay for the allocation, if not the vote against the assumption of deciding something else, so that also feels good. Yes, we will certainly ask the numbers later, but I will go on and talk a little bit about what we are always so happy about, which is that we have a a constant flow of new projects. Even if the market on its part is a bit difficult, we have, as I said, new businesses that drop in all the time, thanks to the fact that we are of course very active on the market. We work a little, we have long customer relations, a broad network and we also cooperate a lot between our nine subsidiaries, which helps. Ramavtalet från Region Stockholm, det pratade vi om redan i Q4, men för saken skulle jag ta med det, för det hände ändå i Q1, då det gick i kraft. Det är många andra som har det också, så man ska inte dra alldeles för stora växlar på det, men det är trevligt. And if you look at new and upcoming customers, as I mentioned, the Finnish Defence Force always has new tasks, including in the command system for the army and the navy. C2 stands for Command and Control, that is, the command system, quite simply. And BAE Hägglund also has new tasks and several different parts of SAAB, even that. Vi har fått nya uppdrag på. Tittar man på finanssektorn så är vi jätteglada att jobba med Riksbanken. Det är ju en väldigt förnämlig kund. Även SPP och många av storbankerna, SCB, Handelsbanken, några av våra största kunder. Och lite kul sak är att Regionhuvudstaden som det står där, eller på dansk, är en Första kund i Danmark för vårt e-handelsområde, tack vare fina relationer med Pimcor, som är en av våra mjukvaruleverantörer, så har vi hjälpt Region H, som de kallas. Det är bland annat Köpenhamn och Helsingör. and a lot of municipalities around there, to build a more efficient patient communication with the help of PIMCOR, as we can. So it's really fun. It doesn't mean that we're going to open offices in Denmark, but we have more businesses there, actually in addition to, for example, Novo Nordisk and Vibe, which is a defense company and so on. So it's fun, and I'm going to mention more, Svenska Kraftnät, Praktikertjänst, also a very nice customer. And a little bit on the other side of the authority, Tullverket, unfortunately a very current subject. Tullverket, Socialstyrelsen, Poststaterestyrelsen. So all the time a flow, even if the general market is quite competitive, then it goes well. However, we have already announced in Q4 that we are doing a reorganization and according to more clear text it means that we are closing our smallest company here. and takes a non-recoverable cost of 3 million, which is a adjustment that is included in this 9.9% margin. That is, it would have been a slightly lower margin if we had taken these costs directly. But they will spread out during the year, so we calculate a slightly positive margin effect from Q2 now. And that has affected about 10 employees and the rest of the employees, thank God, have been able to move to other companies. So that's what we're happy about. And then we also had after the end of the period, that is to say yesterday, så annonserade vi nya finansiella mål. Så det var nyhet som vi som sagt har skickat ut direkt, vi fattade det här beslutet och det är för medellång sikt då, vilket definieras som tre till fem år. Och vi har ju tidigare haft ett mål om att vi ska omsätta en miljard beslutet av det här året, vilket då, vi vet ju att då hade vi behövt göra något stort förvärv och vi är ju väldigt upptagna om att bygga vår position Strategiskt och långsiktigt. Vi vill inte göra det till vilket pris som helst och tyckte att det fanns anledning att se över de här målen och modernisera dem. Det här är mål som säger att vi ska växa med 10% per år över tid genom både organisk tillväxt och selektiva förvärv. And if you look at the margin, we will reach 10% or more over time. We have actually also introduced a debt measure for the first time, and that is that the net debt should not exceed 1.5 times the adjusted EBITDA, that is, in our case 100 million times 1.5 million, 150 million. Nowadays, we have a cash register, a fairly large cash register. So we are far from it. This is more of a signal that we value the fact that we have such stable finances. Because it is our experience that in the consulting world you absolutely do not want to end up in financial difficulties, because then it becomes very difficult to employ employees. It becomes too uncertain for the consultants, so it is very important that we have a stable situation. In our finances. On the other hand, we have maintained, of course, to be a dividend company where at least 50% of the revenue after tax is to be divided out. These 4 out of 10 we divide out this year is a good bit over 50%. So as long as we can do that with a good stability, we would like to do that. At the same time, we have also clarified our strategy in this press release. This is nothing new, really. But I think there may be a reason to be a little more clear about how we work. We aim to grow both organically and through selective acquisitions. And it is very important for us that our business not only contains deep technical knowledge, but that we also have business knowledge and know our customers' business within the segment where we work. so that we can contribute to making their business better. And this applies to these segments we are taking up here, defense and security. We also have cybersecurity business, of course, which has different angles, both the sockets within our operations, but also specialist services in both IT security and information security. It's all from pen tests to certifications and various regulations in both the defense and banking sectors, for example DORA and so on. Bank & Finance, Industry & Infrastructure, and Retail & Services. And we will keep our geographical focus primarily in Sweden. It is not excluded with Norway or Finland, but primarily in Sweden, major cities, and or cities that are clearly characterized by defense or university. And we absolutely want to continue to be the best Det bästa bolaget för konsulterna med en starkt värdedriven kultur och en decentraliserad organisation. Så det här är vår strategi i fem korta punkter. Apropå den sista punkten där så Tänkte jag faktiskt ta upp det här att vi är med, det är nu i och för sig sista gången vi är med i Great Place to Work här. Vi har ju vunnit tredjeplatsen för stora bolag två år i rad och nu vet de ju att vi ska sluta så vi får väl se hur det går imorgon. Men imorgon kommer alltså beskedet. So it will be very exciting. We now also have pulse measurements with the help of another tool for all our companies and for the entire CIG if we end up on such a so-called employee net promoter score. Som beskriver om man som medarbetare skulle rekommendera någon annan att börja på CAG. Vår score är 55 och det klassas på deras skala som fantastiskt. Så det är ju jätteroligt. Så det ska vi fortsätta jobba hårt med. I will end this short presentation with a little outlook for 2025. We are still seeing good demand in both defense and banking and finance. Then there is of course an open question with the bills and so on. Maybe there will be a question about that. It's still a bit of a tough market, but we think it has taken shape since last year's autumn. And we think it will continue to tick a little upwards. You should just note that even Q2 has one job less. Congratulations to us as employers, but bad for us as employers. While the other half of the year is the same. Jag har däremot inte pratat så mycket om AI. Det betyder inte att vi inte jobbar med det. Det gör vi inom alla våra verksamheter skulle jag vilja säga. Vi har även vårt initiativ CGE AI Consulting som jobbar lite mer med agentisk AI och språkmodeller och så vidare med fokus på AML och juristsidan. Men det är mera normaliserat nu upplever jag. Det här flyter ju in i den normala teknikutvecklingen. We have to get back to that in the near future. We also see that the price development and wage inflation has been a good negotiation between the trade union and the employer with a solid mark. It feels normal. And the last point is that we still see that there is an increased inflow of procurement proposals and a little more activity on the procurement market. So I think that's interesting and good for us at C&G. So with that said, I will end with, and speaking of AI, I could not resist introducing an AI-generated manga image of mig själv enligt min prompt, så som den har tolkat den. Det är lite fånigt kanske, men det är lite kul också. Med det så kan vi kanske öppna för frågor, Martin.
Ja, tack för den presentationen Åsa och kul att du delade den där bilden också.
You're reading a preview of the CAG.ST Q1 2025 earnings call.
Free account.