Ferronordic AB (publ)

Thank you. This is Lars Corneliusson here and welcome to the report on our first quarter of 2025. And if we can press... Oh, sorry. And we call the report Steady Despite Uncertainty and obviously there are There is increased uncertainty in our markets and in our industry. We will obviously come back to that. And despite that uncertainty, our revenue actually increased by 3% to 1.2 billion Swedish kronor. However, we saw a decline in gross profits and that was partly due to revenue and product mix. And selling and administrative costs came down. And that was partly thanks to cost reduction that we have entered upon and lower sales commissions. So we had an operating results which decreased to 13 million, which was mainly a result of the lower gross margin. We also had net debt that decreased to 1.8 billion. If we go to the next slide, clearly there is an uncertainty on the tariffs and the fiscal policy in the US, which obviously is also then in itself spreading over to Germany to an already weak market in Germany. We should, however, say that despite this uncertainty, the mood among our customers in the US remains very good. However, dealers still have high levels of machines in inventory and in their rental fleets. So mainly thanks to a robust service and parts business that we have, our underlying business remained stable. If we look at the market, the US construction equipment market declined 5% in Q1. Our sales of new equipment and sales from the rental fleet decreased by 6% in units. In Germany, the truck market continued to decrease and decreased by 28% actually during the quarter. Whereas our sales of new trucks decreased by 6% and then we obviously took market shares in Germany. One very positive thing in Germany is that we continue to reduce the inventory. The inventory is now 59% lower than in the end of Q1 2024. And many of you remember that we had an issue with too high inventory, which was a result of the supply disturbances that came under, but mainly after COVID, which resulted in a far too high inventory in Germany, which we have worked very, very hard to reduce. And we are now in a situation which is very much better than previously. It's also good to see that our electrical truck business, the rental business we have in Germany, continue to contribute positively during the quarter. Also, our cost run rate in Germany is in line with our cost reduction targets. In Kazakhstan, our sales of new machines increased to 28 units. And also in Kazakhstan, we have in the last year worked very hard reduced inventory that came from similar reasons as in Germany, and we are actually now 68% lower inventory than a year ago. Quickly then on group summary financials, Erik will go into more details, but the US revenue was up 9%, German revenue down 9%, Kazakhstan revenue plus 26%. In terms of operating profit, we had a decrease in the US from a very, very strong first quarter last year from 60 million to 48 million. An increase in Germany from minus 12 to minus 9 and an increase in Kazakhstan from minus 3 to plus 1. Obviously, with the foreign exchange effects that we saw on mainly the US dollars, our net income then decreased very, very much to 150 million. And similarly, as our debt is mainly also in the same currencies as our as our assets, it also decreased mainly due to repayment of loans, but also currency translation affects them. Still 30% equity to total assets and the book equity of 1,372,000,000 Swedish kronor. Some more highlights from the US. The market for larger construction equipment, which is our main segment, declined by 5%, as I said. In our sales area, the decline was 8%, mainly driven by lower sales of wheel excavators. We had then a decrease of 6% in units. We saw a good increase in sales of crawler excavators and wheel loaders. However, there were partly fleet deals with lower gross margins. So we sold 71 new units, 20 used units, and we had 30 units that converted to sales from our rental fleet. Good thing to see that the demand for service and parts is continuing to be good and our parts business and service business was largely stable. And very importantly, in April, we launched a new CRM system, which will form the basis for the implementation of our automatic lead generation system, also in the US in the future, which we hope will bring good use in mainly the aftermarket, but also in the sales where we can be more proactive and understanding customers' needs from telematics of the machines and basically sell more in the aftermarket mainly, which is very, very positive. We continue to make investments and work on branding and marketing. If we move to Germany, we see a market that remains challenging. Obviously, the market was down 28%. However, government spending plans now lead to optimism, actually. In our area, we saw a decrease by 20% and the area then represented 90% of the total German market. And our own sales, as I said, decreased by only 6% and by 15% then to 221 million in revenue. And it's obviously good to see that we're keeping up sales. It's very, very important for the future that we have a population that we can continue to service also in the future, which is obviously the key to reach profitability in Germany. And we saw in the quarter continued good demand for our service and parts. And in fact, as we talked about before, we could have sold more service and parts if we had more qualified mechanics. We saw some good traction actually in recruiting mechanics so that shows positive and should have had a positive impact on our ability to catch that demand going forward here so that's that's looking good And another very positive thing, obviously, is that our inventory is now more or less in line with where we want it to be. And coming from a year ago, it's a very, very big difference in the inventory numbers. So we can compare the numbers then from end of Q1 to 24, we have 519 million sec, and now we're down to close to 200. I think it's a good work done there on the inventory clean-out, basically, we can call it. Yeah. Take the next slide, please. Go to Kazakhstan. The market continues to grow in Kazakhstan. However, we estimate it grew by 37% from a relatively low level, however, in Q1 24. Kazakhstan sees growth in the mining and construction sectors and we see at least planned, we see some actual also, but planned very much spending on infrastructure, notably on the road network in Kazakhstan. And also then, as I said, we continue to reduce our inventory and we're taking it down from with 68% year on year to 80 million in the end of Q1 2025. And we obviously then had a big increase in unit sales from a very low Q1 2025. um slightly lower other parts and service sales however but the total revenue increased by by 26 in Kazakhstan and we look up of the us network you you most of you know this where we are in the us uh We've been there now for a year and a quarter, more or less. And in November 23, we acquired 100% of the shares in Rod Equipment Company, which is one of the largest distributors of all the CEE in North America. They also have very strong other brands, such as Hitachi, Sandvik, Linkville Cranes, and Birmingham. And obviously, US is the world's second largest market for construction equipment with substantive infrastructure investment programs. And clearly, again, there's a lot of talk about the US tariffs, et cetera, et cetera. But we continue to see very positive attitude from our customers. There is still strong demand. for aggregates for the infrastructure investments needs that are there. And as you can see from the numbers, the business is going on quite nicely still. In Germany, we have a network that looks like this. We have 20 outlets in Germany and we are the biggest private dealer for Volvo and Renault trucks in Germany. And in Kazakhstan, we are strategically placed in the main hubs of business activity in our industry in Kazakhstan. So by that, I hand over to Erik for some more numbers on economic development, please.

Thank you very much Lars. I start as I usually do with macroeconomic overview, a market context. So US growing 2% year on year, but we did see a quarter on quarter decline, very much driven it appears by imports ahead of the tariff announcements and uncertainty around trade policy that followed. Looking to full year, we're seeing forecasts between 1.6 and 1.8, a bit wider range than typical, which reflects I think the uncertainty that uh forecasters face um core inflation also uncertainty about uh how trade and fiscal policies will affect but currently at 2.6 the trajectory of that will of course have impact on the next item here which is the fed funds rate which affects us and it affects our our customers when they borrow to do business in the us but it is lower and there is an expectation that we will continue to see rates trending down in the united states looking at germany Year on year again, we see a negative. Germany has struggled. Again, we have two years, two consecutive years of negative growth. But we did have a quarter on quarter positive developments. And we know that the newly formed government has promised investment plans in defense, in infrastructure that So it is believed could stimulate and spur a recovery in the German economy. That said, current consensus forecasts around flat 0% growth, inflation at 2.2, probably some room for inflation to come lower and maybe for the ECB to go lower there as well. Kazakhstan grows strongly, and we see again there is growth in construction, in mining, and the government is spending, as Lars mentioned, on infrastructure and notably on the road network. Inflation is slightly higher, and that has resulted in the central bank raising rates. liquidity availability of funding is an important factor for our customers given the high rates that that you have in kazakhstan it is a limit limiting factor uh in in our sector with wheel and again um to the customers that that we speak to um uh so that's uh on on the top level so to say i move on to our uh income statement in q1 To the left of this table, you will see the comparative period last year for each market and for the group. And to your right, you have the current reporting period. Total revenue quite stable compared to last year. I mean, this is the first quarter when we report full quarter for year on year for the US business. In Q4, mind you, it was only really December when we compared year over year. But in first quarter, we have full quarters for all segments. And again, so relatively stable revenue year on year. The distribution between the segments Almost two thirds being the US, 63%, one third Germany. And then Kazakhstan at 4% in the quarter. Between revenue streams, 57% on equipment and trucks, and then 37% on the important aftermarket. which again is a stabilizing factor in an environment of heightened uncertainty when customers may be more hesitant to renew fleets and make capex decisions, they still need to run and maintain their current fleets. And 6% other, mind you, that's mainly rental income or rental revenue that we have there. Gross profit down 15% and gross margin decreased by 3.4%, mainly driven by the US segment. Partly by a reclassification that I will give you some headlines on so you understand how we reflect things slightly differently in 2025 and what the impact is there. Similarly, SG&A decreased 11%. That's partly due to cost cuts. It's partly due to lower sales commissions, but also reflective of these reclassifications that we had year on year. As a percentage of revenue, SG&E declined to 16.2%. Operating margin stood at 1.1% and the operating profit at 13 million Swedish. And net income, a big hit from our foreign assets there, the parent company holding loans to the respective segments in Germany and in the US. So the Swedish krona between the opening and closing dates strengthening significantly against both the US dollars and the euro had that effect. So out of the 150 million, 129 was due to foreign exchange rate effects. With that, I move over to the balance sheet. And again, here you will have the comparative period last year and also so you can see quarter on quarter comparison and towards year end, you have Q4 in the table to your left there. And also we separate the US something we did last year and continue to do this year to show what the segment contribution is. If we start looking at the property plant and equipment we are higher year on year despite one can say against the foreign exchange effect that we have in in the first quarter and that's much driven by the growth and an increase in in the rental fleet in the us and to a much smaller extent to the e-rental fleet in germany In Kazakhstan, networking capital has come down and that's driven much by the lower inventories that we have, to some extent receivable as well. But Lars mentioned 68% lower on total inventory. Mind you, that includes the parts and oils etc as as well but the main bulk of it is of course the the equipment um that's a year-on-year comparison mind you so to first quarter of last year germany uh also lower um Networking capital. This is put in relation to last 12 months revenue. And here again, inventories lower and receivables also. But the big move is on inventories where we did work hard last year to try to reduce the inventory we had left from previous periods. And indeed, to some extent, all the way back from COVID effects, the pandemic. 59% cut in total inventory in Germany year on year and that's reflected in the lower working capital and the capital tied up in inventory. In the US also a slight decrease quarter on quarter partly driven by forex effects. And net debt declined 152, and that's both due to repayments that we've done, but also again to foreign exchange. And our equity assets was flat quarter on quarter. um and with that i move on to the next slide uh which is slightly technical but uh to make sure that that we explained here that we we did have a reclassification in the first quarter of this year versus the first quarter of uh last year and that is in the us segment there is no impact on uh operating profit but there has been um reclassifications from other income to revenue and also of general and administrative costs to COGS, cost of goods sold. The latter, for example, refers to something like when mechanics are not billing, when they are not working, where the US has treated this as an administrative cost, whereas we in our group results have it as a COGS, cost of goods sold. So that's been reclassified. And this slide, it's also on page eight of the report, serves to show in the 2024 adjusted column, which you have to the right of the pink column here, you can show what 2024 would have looked like on a like for like basis. And here you can see that the change in gross margin is then smaller, it is still a negative development of 3.4%, which then is the underlying effect. And that is much driven by a product mix, not a revenue mix in this case, and product mix in in last year we had a big share of of uh articulated haulers uh whereas in in this quarter more excavators and and wheel loaders and more fleet deals so that's what i'd like to say on that slide and again do find more information also in the report on page eight uh in terms of uh ebit uh movement year on year just to illustrate we see that the US is again lower than last year. First quarter of 2024 was a very strong quarter in our US segment. Germany is up slightly year on year the market if we look at the equipment sale is not there yet we do hope again that the economy will pick up and that that will provide a boost to the market as well However, our aftermarket remains firm, as you can see in our segment report. So largely flat year on year, despite some weakness in the economy. And then again, our cost efforts that we did last year has also lowered the operating leverage. So to see, say for us, providing a more resilient organization in Germany. Kazakhstan. In a way, a reverse story there. We have continued to reduce inventory and put machines into the market. Despite putting extra effort on getting machines out to reduce inventory, we still have had positive results in the equipment sales. The aftermarket was lower than last year in Kazakhstan. However, we do hope for that to pick up. in the subsequent quarters. Slightly higher group cost due to professional services than last year, which lands the business at an EBIT of 13 million compared to the 21 we saw in the same period last year. The group NAV illustrating where our assets are versus our liabilities. You will see cash equivalents and then our receivables inventory and we separate out the rental fleet in the US, particularly here to illustrate where that stands in the balance of the asset side. and then we have our property plant and equipment so here you would have our workshops and also fixtures and fittings mainly but also things like the carpools the vehicles that our mechanics and technicians work when they operate yes I think I will move on to our financial objectives which I think are familiar to many Returning listeners, we stay firm on our long term goals to double our revenue and to reach a higher operating margin above 6% and to work down our net debt EBITDA to below three times over a business cycle. And with that, Lars, I want to pass back to you. for something on the outlook before we go into Q&A with the audience.

Thank you. And despite the current uncertainty, we remain optimistic about our US business and the long-term opportunities there. We see demand supported by a dynamic economy and the significant need to upgrade the country's infrastructure. We currently have no information about major infrastructure projects in our sales area in the US being canceled or postponed. And we see opportunities to further develop and expand our business in the US. The German economy remains weak and as you know we've taken steps to reduce costs and make our organization and balance sheet more resilient and we are confident that the aftermarket demand that we see will remain strong and we're optimistic about the long-term potential of the German market as well as the opportunities in e-mobility and sustainable transport solution. And on top of that, recently announced government spending plans could accelerate a well-needed recovery in Germany. And Kazakhstan represents a minor part of the group's operation, and we continue to see good opportunities in the market. So by that, I'm handing over for questions and answers, please.