Green Landscaping Group AB (publ)

Good morning and welcome everyone to this conference call regarding Green Landscaping's report for the second quarter of 2026. My name is Thomas Bergström and I am chairing the Green Board of Directors since May of this year. and around the microphone this morning is also Johan Åkström, Marcus Holmström and Klein Johansson Ullenvik. I'd like to start by repeating yesterday's factual information when we announced that the board and Johan have agreed that Johan will step down as CEO effective today. At the same time, we have agreed with Klein, who is the director of the board, to step in as acting CEO, also effective today. while we initiate a recruitment process and search for a new long-term leader of the group. While decisions and discussions like these are not easy, we are confident that we have an excellent interim solution in claim and that the company will be in good hands with him, the rest of the management team, all the strong leaders in the group and also with active support from the board. We will and have in fact already started to work as a team with a high degree of energy and determination. You can never be certain, but I do not believe this transition will slow down the continued development of the group. It is important to say that we see no overall change to the strategy of being a home for entrepreneurs and of becoming a European champion when it comes to urban outdoor landscaping and maintenance in order to create greener, safer, climate ready and nicer cities and villages where people want to live and work. With that said, we obviously have ideas on how we can develop and strengthen the group over time. During the Q&A session, I'm happy to take any questions on the announced leadership change. Before we go into the report, followed by a brief introduction by Clayne and finally the Q&A session, I would also, on behalf of the whole board, like to thank Johan for his efforts and contributions to the group. During 11 years, he has been instrumental in building up the group of today, and he has navigated the company through both good and more challenging times. I am looking forward to another type of relationship with Johan as the third largest shareholder. With that, I hand over to Johan and Marcus to go through the report, followed by an introduction by Klein, and then a Q&A where we will jointly try to answer any questions you may have. Johan, over to you.

Thank you, Thomas. As always, let me put the financial report into a larger context to begin with. So for the last few years, we have actually faced, not significant, but we have faced market headwinds, particularly in Finland, Sweden and Norway. And as we know, our report in the second quarter of this year, we are kind of happy or pleased to see that we have returned to organic growth. And that is, in comparison to last year, I think we were at minus 9%. and this year we're reporting an overall organic growth of 6%. So that is on the positive side. When we are in discussions with the local managing directors of the companies, what they are reporting is that they actually see fewer bidders in the processes when they are bidding for new contracts, and also they are reporting stronger order books. So from that perspective, we can see that there's to say that it's an early sign of recovery, but it's too soon to say that we have reached a turning point. I think that's the main conclusion when we look upon. So the market is looking better and we see early signs of recovery. And of course, the organic growth in the quarter is quite strong. In terms of financial performance, The overall financial performance in Norway and Sweden are not up to our expectations. We have worked a long time improving the situation in Sweden in particular. We see that they are improving, but not really at the pace that we would hope for. Situation in Norway is slightly different. We had the market headwinds and we had basically two companies where we communicated that we have difficulties with. And one of them is actually improving in a quite significant way. So that's on the upside in Norway. And then the other main part of this quarterly report, I would say, that is the development of ADI Europe, that it shows a continued strong performance. And also I would like to highlight that we have the operation in Lithuania with Stävlep and their performance is quite important to the company. They are having a high profit margin and we have communicated that those contracts would be renegotiated during the second quarter of this year. and we're very happy to report that we have re-won the majority of all those contracts and we have re-won them at a profit margin that is higher than we previously have communicated. So that's a very positive development at the state of the company in Lithuania. So let's move into the report. and that is basically that we are a green landscaping group. We are operating in a very large and attractive market with structural growth need that we are taking care of the urban environments in the cities And then of course, we have talked a lot about the strategy, how we work, what does it need to be a decentralized company. That really means that we are operating in six countries with 60 entities, and each one are led by their own local management directors. And that means they are able to change with the market, they are close to the customers, and that has proven to be a very effective strategy Both when times are good or when times are bad, that's an effective one. And also, of course, we are a serial acquirer as we are investing in other entities and have done so quite successfully over the last few years. In terms of the long-term performance, as I mentioned, the last few years we have seen a negative organic growth and we have had a quiet growth. That means that the total growth over the last two years has been kind of flat. even though we are seeing, as was mentioned, early signs of market recovery with high performance in terms of revenue in the second quarter of this year. Profit-wise, as we have held, I would say, kind of firm in terms of revenue, the price pressure, in particular in Norway and to a large extent also in Sweden, have meant that we are filling up the order books, we are having the work, that we are doing that at significantly as being a structural change, as I heard about Norway, as the Norway market would recover. We do expect the companies in Norway to recover to previous or healthier profit margin than we see today. So it's not a structural change in the marketplace, according to my opinion. So that's about that one. And then to sum up the second quarter, as I did mention, And we had an organic growth of a fairly high 6% and we had a total growth of 50%. So that's a really strong number. And then of course, profit wise, we are at 130 million and that compared to a year ago, that's a decrease of 10%. But nonetheless, we see strong performance in other Europe and And then, of course, if you look upon the cash flow, we had a very high focus for the last five, six weeks on the cash flow generating as that has been weak for the last few quarters. And I think we typically, the second quarter is a quarter where we tie up capital because we are starting up all the new projects. There is a high in revenue. And typically that means we have a negative cash flow. And this year we were able to have a fairly good release and that means And then, of course, in terms of the leverage, we are 3.4 times, and that's a fairly high number. We are really not happy with that one, and we are focusing on making sure that that will come down as we move into the following quarter. Next slide. As we have been communicating that we have for a year and a half been focusing heavily on improving the financial performance in Sweden, meaning that we have divested or closed a couple of companies. And that means we have a decrease of 2% of revenue while organic growth was actually 4%. So we see organic growth in the remaining entities while the divested or closed entities And then, of course, we came in at an EBITDA by 26 million. That gives us a margin at 4%. So we are at the tail end, I would say, of what we refer to as a turnaround of Swedish entities. And those are at large progressing according to plan and will be finalized more or less during the third quarter this year. In Norway, as we can see for the second quarter, We are reporting an increase of 9% organically, and that's a very high number for us. So the market again is early signs, we're not saying we're at the turning point, but they did really good work on keeping up their revenue. And then in terms of profitability, they achieved 29 million and a margin of 4.1%. so what we have been reporting is that we have continued challenging market conditions but we actually do see a size of improvement and then other Europe and they will have a very healthy increase of 55% so it's a quickly growing and that's where we have been spending time and effort in terms of the acquiring companies and adding those to the of EBIT-A to 85 million, and that gave us a very healthy margin of close to 17% EBIT-A margin. And on the average, it's a strong performance across all the companies in that region. And I did mention that, I would say not extraordinary, but a very good achievement of Stäbler who rewound the contracts So by that, I think I hand over to Marcus, our CFO.

Thank you, Johan. I will cover the main financials as usual. The second quarter showed strong net sales growth of 15%, totaling at 1.8 billion, bringing our rolling 12 months sales to 6.6 billion, a total growth of growing 12 months now at 8%. As said, we are very pleased to see the organic growth in the quarter, 6% positive for the second consecutive quarter, and we have organic growth in all segments. Reported EBITDA amounted to 130 compared to 145 last year, is moving in the right direction and we're seeing that the actions implemented are yielding positively. However, the market headwind is negatively impacting. Segmental Europe continues to positive development and we see a good sign of positive development in all regions. The EBITDA margin in the quarter came in at 7%. For rolling 12 months, the EBITDA margin is at 6.3. And we're not satisfied with the overall outcome and are strongly focused to return to positive EBITDA growth in Sweden and Norway. I will go through more details around cash flow in the next coming slides, but the cash flow from operating activities came in at minus seven, which was an improvement compared to last year, and financial leverage came in at 3.4. We are very pleased from a market perspective to see that the order backlog is increasing in the quarter to 8.0 billion. However, it's important to know that we shouldn't use the water backlog as a short-term indicator, but in the long term, it's very positive to see the growth. And as Johan mentioned, we're particularly pleased with the water intake in Luthiena in the quarter. Earnings per share in Q2 came in at 1.29, which was an increase compared to last year, which was largely driven by the reversal of revaluation of future earn-out liabilities of 27 million reported in the financial net of our P&L. I also want to highlight in regards to that revaluation, the acquisitions continue to perform well in line with our investment case. However, with the short remaining part of the earn-out period, we no longer expect them to reach the maximum level of the earn-out. And looking at cash flow, second quarter is typically a quarter where we build working capital. And as we also deliver strong organic growth, we're extra pleased to see that the cash flow is improving in the quarter. We're having operation cash flow at minus seven compared to minus 77 last year. and improvements reflect the strong focus we have had on working capital management and cash flow generation across the group for many quarters now. And it's a sign that our improvement measures are starting to yield results. We have had continuous efforts focusing on improved timely invoicing, timely collections and improving our commercial conditions in the operational contracts. As a portfolio, we see improvement in large portion of our entities and we're staying close to the ones that not yet achieved the progress as we have expected. And this effort will continue with high focus in the third quarter. Looking at the cash flow bridge in the quarter, cash flow from operating activities, as said, minus 7 million. Then we had total earn-out payments of minus 20 from financing, offering investment activities. We also had CapEx and other lease amortization totaling at minus 83. We did not repurchase initials in the quarter, totaling the total free cash flow at minus 110 million in the quarter. Having the negative total cash flow in the quarter, financial leverage came in at 3.4x, which is above our financial target. Our ambition is to return to target driven by improved operational cash flow and earnings. However, I would like to underline that we maintain headroom to meet our financial components in our funding agreements. And the key priority for us going forward is to improve our cash flow generation. Looking at the loan majority profile, we did a lot of actions in this area during last year. We secured and broadened our financing base with having refinancing our bank debt, which is financed through SEB, D&B and SEK. And we also last year issued our first loan. We have a well-balanced loan portfolio with additional options to extend the bank financing one plus one year in addition to the timeframe we're seeing on the slide. And per quarter end we have cash and cash equivalent amounting to 483 million and unutilized credit facilities amounting to 342 million. On our financial targets, we are closing into our growth target, rolling 12 months at 8% compared to the target of 10. EBITDA margin below at 6.3 and we're putting significant effort and focus to improve the organic margin development in Sweden and Norway. Financial leverage at 3.4 as said, it remains above the target and it's a key focus for us to strengthen our operational cash flow and prioritize to reduce our indebtedness. And finally, we have also a fourth financial target in terms of dividend. And at the Annual General Meeting in May 2026, the shareholders decided that no dividend should be distributed for fiscal year 2025, which is in line with the decisions from previous years. And with that said, I want to hand back to you, Johan.

Okay. Thank you very much. I really don't have much to add to it that before we open up for the Q&A session, hand over to Mr. Klein Johansson.

Hello, everybody. Klein Johansson here. I know some of you in this call, but just briefly, my background is ABB, 12 years, starting as a trainee, ending as the last three years of that period as managing director in the ABB Group. Then moving forward to Alcell for seven years, Monnier, CEO, five years, roofing products, and then 2013, up until a month ago, Swedol slash Aligo had the huge joy to be part of the team building Aligo in a public environment since 2020. I love this type of business. My parents used to say that I sat in an excavator not operating it. They say I operated it. I strongly do not believe them, but I sat in an excavator before I could walk. So I grew up in this type of business and I really, really love it. And I will approach this period with great, carefully and respectfully and to learn to know the team better. So yeah, that's me.

Thank you, Clayen. So then we'll open up for Q&A. Please go ahead.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Johnny Jin from Seb. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, everyone. I hope you can hear me. I want to start with a question on organic growth and in relation to your profitability, because I know that organic growth is positive, which is very good, but it looks like incremental margin is still negative here. So can you elaborate what sort of entities are actually growing and sort of give more elaboration on the growth? Is this sort of a mixed effect or how come the margin is continuing to go down as you go? That's my first question.

Well, it's Johan here, so good morning. What we see, as I mentioned, is that there are fewer bidders in the marketplace and there are actually more orders to bid on. And we have been able to build up the order books. I think that's a general trend we see in the marketplace. However, the price picture is still under pressure and has been for a while going back. So this is just a consequence of a market that has been shrinking for some time. And then you have to make sure that you are competitive in the marketplace and in particular in Norway and I would say also largest in Sweden. That means that in this situation when you have an increased competition, competitive situation and the market is shrinking, then you have to fight for the orders. So it doesn't mean that you have a bad company performance. It's only that you have to keep the engine running at the company level. And that's the situation we have had. My personal thinking is really that as we are in a situation where the market has returned to positive growth, we see that there are fewer bidders and we see from our companies internally within the group that the order books for the coming six months are healthier than they were a year ago. So my expectation is that we will see and increase profit margins at which you can win the contracts moving into the future. But that's not the point we are, but the point of time we've got right now is that the market seems to be recovering, but the prices have not yet recovered.

Okay, I understand, I understand. I just want to understand this a little bit better if there were any unusual mixed effects or such, because I know that the market is still tough and there is a price pressure and such, I mean, there's also an option to walk away from unprofitable business if it's too fierce price competition.

We're not talking about unprofitable business. We're talking about where you have profit margins. You're still making money. The difference is if you can win a quotation at 10% or 12% or 2%. When you have competition, in particular in Norway, they have done, I would say the entrepreneurs in Norway, have done a very great job on defending the market positions. We have to understand that we have had a record high level of bankruptcies in Norway while we are keeping and standing our ground in a good way. So they have done actually good work, but they can't win at the previous profit levels they have had. But as the market is coming back into shape and becomes bigger, then of course our expectation is that they will start to increase the prices on the bidding process. And by that, the prices in the market at which you can win a new contract will increase as well. But we haven't seen that one happen yet.

Okay, I understand. Speaking of doorway Dan, I know that you said that in your previous calls that you had some internal execution challenges converting sales into profits and such. Can you maybe elaborate a little bit more there and update how this is progressing would you say? Do you feel that you're happy with the internal organization you want now or are you still sort of working it out on the internal execution side?

Yeah, as we said, we have had two things going on in Norway. The one thing is a market situation where you have had a very challenging market situation. And also we have had two companies where basically have communicated where we say that these companies do have operational issues about and beyond what goes on in the market. And we have really good companies in Norway to begin with. So from that perspective, Norway has been a very good market for us. And then we did encounter two challenging situations in two of the companies. And we are kind of pleased to see that one of those companies are actually progressing above our expectation in terms of performance. So that's really good to see. Then it's not saying that they're going to have additional difficulties, but right now they are actually improving above our expectations. So that's really good. And that goes back to the report we made in the third quarter of 2025 when we actually communicated that we had to do some write-off. That company is performing above our expectations at this point in time, and that's really good.

And adding to that, Johan, if I may also that we have now also completed the strengthening of the country platform in Norway in terms of leadership, where we have a new country manager and they enforce the capabilities in terms of supporting our entities out there, which brings our company with a focus on strengthening governance and bringing our companies closer together.

Good point, Marcus. Okay. Yeah, that's good. Then in Sweden, I want to ask about the margin there as well. I know that the market is tough as such, but I mean, focusing on what you can control, like on your internal side, I mean, margin is still down year over year here. And I know that you also shut down some unprofitable business. So can you maybe shed some more comments on why the margin is down or are you happy with these level given circumstances?

No, we are not happy with the performance, but we also have to keep in mind that we did a divestment of Jordelit in the beginning of this year, and the profile of the revenue of Jordelit is basically they are making money in the first half year, and then they actually do some money in the second half year, and that is impacting the numbers as you look upon them. So just for that one, we don't see any major difference compared to a year ago in the performance, and we are on track in terms of We started, I think it was more than two years ago, in making, I would say, a significant effort once and for all to improve the profitability in Sweden, because we haven't been happy with that performance. We have had companies who are making quite healthy margins, and then we have companies in Sweden who actually have been running losses. And then we said, as I mentioned two years ago, that enough is enough. Let's do something about it. And the decision to divest your lid was one part of that plan in order to improve the situation in Sweden and return to, I would say, a normalized or a decent profit margin, because that's the end goal here. And the process or the progress, I would say, on that project is pretty much according to plan. We have closed down one company. We are in the process of shutting down another two companies, and that is progressing more or less according to plan. And also those are the companies who are actually tying up a bit of our working capital as well. And as we drive this project to its closure, we are also expecting a significant cash release as that is being ended, I would say, or when we have reached the goal of improving that situation

Okay, I just want to have one more in Sweden and Norway. I know that you said that you anticipate the graduate recovery from here the coming quarters and that you're happy with the intake here. So in your sort of orders, do you have any visibility of sort of margin in the order book? Is that shifting in any direction or is it more

I think the point you're making is that you have an order book and you have won the contracts at lower margins than you would be expecting. We don't see the margins being worse than we have had for the last year, I would say. But the point is really that, yes, the market will recover. We see that The order books are at the health estate, and that also means if we should fill up additional orders, then that should be at the higher profit margin. I think that's the discussions we are with the MDs at this point of time. So in terms of seeing, it won't be like you see a rapid improvement in profit margins. It would be, in my opinion, is that it would be a gradual improvement as we see the

Just another question in other Europe here. I know that margin is good, as you said. I want to make clear, is there any boost in the quarter from some sort of finalization of project impacting positively, like timing wise? Or I just want to understand how we should think about the other Europe margin ahead as well.

No, we don't want that bigger project. So we don't have any single one or two or three projects. that would have that impact. We are running hundreds of thousands, I would say, projects in each one of the quarters. So if you just look upon the number of companies we have in that region and then any single companies are running 30, 40 projects simultaneously per month. So no, we do not have that big projects that could have a negative or a positive effect that could impact even the segment. For a single company, yes, but even at segment level, that would be even out.

Okay, yeah, that's perfect. I just want to make here and there.

Then on the retained, maintained contract in Lithuania, when is those new contract structure, when will that hit your numbers?

So they will start now in the third quarter? Yes. So that's the time frame, vast majority of it.

Okay, that's clear.

Just a question. Good. Then quick one on cash flow. I know that it improves year over year and there's some seasonality in this quarter, but given that you are coming from a sort of relatively higher working capital tie-up, going forward? Do you expect sort of a deviation from regular seasonality so that the cash flow can be better than what it usually be going forward? Or how should we think about the working capital release? When can that happen, the big swing?

Good question, Joni. And as I said, we're pleased to see, it's encouraging to see the development here in Q2, but we have still more to achieve. And in the total portfolio, we're seeing the shift that we are moving in the right direction, but we're still staying very satisfactory to deliver the improvements we expect and we are expected from a cyclical perspective we usually have a flat working capital development in Q3 and then positive cash flow in Q4, Q1 and we are from a bigger perspective, expecting that also for this year, but seeing that we can reap benefits from delivering on the actions we have put in place and put in the expectation. So there are potential for us to deliver a bit stronger than usual seasonality here.

Okay, that's clear. Just one final from my side. And that's maybe to you, Thomas, representing the board here maybe. What sort of profile are you looking for in your next permanent CEO? What sort of key metrics or characteristics do you want to see in your next CEO?

Well, thank you, Johnny. I think that is to be discussed with the board, and we haven't exactly put down the specification yet. But on my wish list, there are, of course, a few things. I think one thing is a strategic mind, experience from a similar business model. I think international experience is good. It needs to be a modern communicator, and the person should have a track record of capital allocation and shareholder value focus. Those are a few things, but needs to be defined in more detail.

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Karl Johan Bonnevir from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, gentlemen. A lot of questions and a lot of answers already, so it's good to see that most of my things on my list is gone by now. Just a little more clarification, if possible. Looking at Sweden and Norway, when you say you're targeting a positive EBITDA growth, I guess comparisons with last year are maybe not easy, but at least going into the second half, less demanding than you had in the first half. Is that a good way of looking at it that you are probably turning the tide already going into the second half?

Yes.

Yes, of course, we're driving the actions to deliver organic improvement here. And as you're on it, we're absorbing our organic EBITDA. Bigger breakdowns, which Johan mentioned, also in one of our media companies during last year. So that's for sure not expected in this half of the financial. But on top of that, the actions we're driving should also yield positively when it comes to also the discontinuance business we have in Sweden that was lost making last year and so on. So yes, from that perspective, gradual improvement.

As Martin said there, we did encounter difficulties in the third quarter and fourth quarter last year. And that means that the comparable numbers are somewhat easier. So yes, our expectations are that we should perform above

Good to hear. And just on Lithuania and other Europe, when you're looking at facing in now the new contract portfolio, do you see that, say, the Finnish-German operation can balance that headwind when you're looking at it and maybe keep a growth coming out of also the profitability in other Europe in this kind of circumstances?

Can you rephrase the question so I clearly understand it?

Yeah, no, looking at the headwind that is obviously now coming from Lithuania heading into a new contract setup. If you take the view of other Europe, do you see that Germany and Finland can balance that kind of headwind? So you still are staying in a positive momentum in from an other Europe perspective, so to say, even though Lithuania is going to be- What headwind are you referring to? Well, profitability and looking at the absolute EBITDA as we talked about in the Nordic operation, yes.

Are you referring to the morgans in our really defended contracts in Lithuania?

I'm trying to grasp the impact on the total other European operation of that kind of conversion that you will have in profitability, because I guess you're still seeing absolute profit growth coming out of the German operation, given the acquisitions that are coming in still having a positive contribution? And if that is then on the similar magnitude as maybe the headwind, we're going to see them from slower profitability coming out of the Lithuanian operation.

Sorry to say we haven't made that analysis. What we have been communicating is that the rewound contracts in Lithuania will have a profit margin significantly or being at a large percentage above what we see in that region at this point of time. So that's what we have been communicating and that will give you some guidance in terms of what type of profit margins are we looking for in Lithuania. So when you refer to the headwind, yes, of course, in absolute terms, that should mean to some extent that the profit margin in Lithuania would come down. But then we come down at a significantly higher level than compared to the company or to the segment of Europe as it is. So those profit margins are quite high.

And the outcome for us here in the second quarter was positively in terms of the magnitude of what level these contracts were really born at. But then on top of that, yes, we still have benefits from the completed acquisitions in Germany that will also drive an absolute EBITDA growth in other Europe.

You're trying to bridge the gap between the different components here to get some sort of total kind of reasoning around it. Yeah.

Very fair, very fair. We just haven't done that analysis in terms of what's the, I understand the question there. That is that it will be a slightly lower contribution from Lithuania in absolute terms, but also you'll probably see a slight growth in revenue in Lithuania as well. Because we have also, yeah, it's, it's,

Sounds fair, sounds fair. And Thomas, maybe turning to you and Klein a little. When you see the situation that we now ended up in, and I know there's a lot of actions going on across the company, how are you setting the agenda for yourself and Klein in this kind of transition process before you find a long-term solution?

Well, as I said in my introduction, I don't see this at all slowing down the development of the group. an excellent interim solution in Klain. There are a lot of efforts and actions ongoing as Johan and Markus have described. We have very strong leaders in the country platforms. So it will be business as usual and Klain will come in and we will have an active board trying to lay a very good foundation for a new long-term leader. I think, you know, as I said, the strategy overall, there's no change to that. I'm sure Clayn, after a few weeks on the job, will have some ideas. I do have some ideas and we'll come back to those. There are many things to develop as always in any company. And it's a continuous evolution. And I think strengthening the size of the group and leveraging the competitiveness of being 60 companies in six countries, that's a key priority going forward.

Sounds very logical. And listening to your reasoning before, It sounds more that you are looking for a new external candidate for the position rather than an internal one.

We'll run an open process, external candidates and also internal if there are candidates. We'll do this thoroughly and in a good structured way. We will take our time and whether it takes three months, nine months or 12 months, we are confident that we have a good solution in place and that we will not lose any pace at all in developing the company.

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

Thank you all for listening in the middle of July to this Q2 report and to the information also that we announced last night. On the final note, I'd like again to extend a thank you to Johan for his 11 years with the company. I wish Klein good luck in his new position and looking forward to and develop Green Landscaping Group going forward. Thank you very much.