Lindab International AB (publ)

Hello and welcome to this presentation of Lindab Group's Q4 report. I'm Ola Ringdahl, President and CEO of Lindab Group and next to me I have our CFO Lars Ynna. We will begin by presenting the results for the quarter and then we will move over to our focus areas for the year and an outlook. Following the presentation there will be a Q&A session. Let's begin with some highlights. Overall, I'm pleased to see a strengthening of the result compared to last year. Adjusted operating profit increased despite negative currency effects. Cash flow was strong and the board proposes a dividend of 5.60 SEC, an increase from 5.40 SEC the previous year. The positive development is driven by continued profitability improvements in our largest business area ventilation systems. Our efficiency measures have delivered according to plan, contributing substantially to the stronger margins. After a longer period of weak market conditions, ventilation systems achieved some small but important organic growth in the quarter. For business area profile systems, the challenges remain. However, an important milestone in the transformation of the business is that the exit from Eastern Europe is under completion. Now let's take a look at our sales development. In ventilation systems, growth in comparable units was positive for the first time since 2022, with 1%. That's a sign of strength in a challenging market. The important Nordic region showed strong sales performance, with Sweden demonstrating the most significant improvement. France, Ireland, and Italy also delivered solid sales numbers. However, Germany continues to decline due to a challenging market situation. When we look at our smaller business area profile systems, we saw a continued decline in sales. Sales decreased on the two most important markets, Denmark and Sweden, due to low construction activity for larger projects and for residential buildings. In the Swedish market, we have prioritized maintaining a stable gross margin, which in the short term has negatively affected sales and capacity utilization. On the positive side, sales improved in Norway as well as the sales through the builders merchants sales channel in Sweden. The active decisions to close down or discontinue businesses in both Eastern Europe and in Sweden have had a notable impact on the sales numbers. Now let's have a look at operating profit. For the group, both results and margins improved in the quarter. Adjusted operating margin increased to 6.5%. Operating profit has been adjusted for one-off items and restructuring costs of 106 million SEK. These costs primarily relate to structural measures aimed at aligning the fixed cost base with current market conditions. by optimizing the branch network in the major ventilation markets. The actions are expected to generate a full year savings effect of 40 million SEK from the beginning of 2027. In ventilation systems specifically, we saw a satisfying improvement in the result despite negative currency effects. Adjusted operating margin increased to 8.5% for the quarter compared to 7% the previous year. Continued efficiency actions and structural measures to reduce our cost base have contributed to the results. Profitability in profile systems decreased due to low sales volumes and low capacity utilization. The profitability development in profile systems is a clear disappointment. I will now hand over to our CFO Lars Ylner, who will take you through our cash flow and financial position.

Thank you, Ola. Lindab Group delivered a strong cash flow in the fourth quarter, generating 521 million SEK in cash flow from operating activities. Net debt decreased to 4 billion 262 million SEK, which is in line with previous levels. Our target for net debt to ABTA is that it should be below three times. In Q4, the ratio improved to 2.6 compared with 2.7 in the previous quarter. The financial net debt to EBITDA ratio remained stable at 2.1 at the end of December. Ola, now back to you and look at our focus areas for the year.

Thank you, Lars. Let's now look at our focus areas for profitable growth. First, some comments about business area ventilation systems. As already mentioned, structural measures and cost reductions carried out during 2025 have had the intended effect, contributing to a more cost-efficient organization and improved profitability as a result. We also see good effects from our insourcing initiatives, where we feed production volumes into our automated central factories, resulting in improved gross margins. In 2026, we will continue to streamline the footprint in Europe, both in terms of production sites and branch network. Let's move to the next slide, where we make some comments about profile systems. In 2024, Lindab took the decision to exit the profile systems business in Eastern Europe due to unsatisfactory developments. The divestment of the profile operations in Hungary was completed during the fourth quarter in 25, And in December, we also entered into an agreement to divest the operations in Romania, which is expected to be finalized by the end of Q1 2026. With this, the exit of profile systems in Eastern Europe is completed. And in that region, we will in the future focus on the ventilation business. Sales and profitability are still at unsatisfactory levels for profile systems in our home markets in Scandinavia. To increase volumes, we will strengthen our sales efforts and we are also planning further efficiency measures in the business area to improve the results that are currently at an unsatisfactory level. Now let's move over to a key focus area for Lindab Group going forward. and that is the acquisitions. Acquisitions will continue to be a cornerstone of our strategy. During 2024 to 2025, we acquired seven well-run and successful ventilation companies that complement us in certain product areas or geographical markets. We did notice in 2025 that the acquisition processes took longer time than before. But we continue to have good dialogues, we have a good pipeline and we expect to increase our acquisition pace again in 2026. Now let's go to our market outlook. Our market outlook is slightly brighter than before, but there are of course uncertainties in this world with geopolitical instability. According to forecasts from Euroconstruct, the European construction market is expected to return to growth in 2026. If we zoom in on the European ventilation market, forecasts indicate that it will grow slightly from low levels, but perhaps with Germany as a question mark. For the market influencing profile systems, a gradual stabilization is expected during the first half of 2026, with some indications of growth for the second half of the year. A delay in the market recovery cannot be ruled out due to these geopolitical factors. And that is why we are focusing so hard on measures within our own control to influence both sales and profitability. In the medium and long term, we have a positive market outlook. Our ventilation systems provide energy savings for buildings and help to create a healthy indoor climate. Thanks to efficiency measures and our implemented investment program, we have a solid platform for profitable growth when market demand increases. That concludes this presentation and Lars and I are now ready to take your questions.

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 Lara Motadi from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.

Hi, Lara here. Just a couple of questions from my end. It's obviously promising to hear that parts of the European markets are recovering. And you mentioned stabilization in many parts of Europe. But Germany is still weak. Are you seeing any signs of stabilization in this market, maybe in the renovation sector? Or should we just expect Germany to be a drag on organic growth throughout 2026.

Thank you, Lara, for this question about Germany. It is difficult to foresee how that market will develop. There are some, in recent months, some positive indicators and confidence indicators for Germany. But there are also quite some worrying signs about the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector in Germany and the consequences of rising energy bills in Germany. So quite difficult for us to evaluate where that will end. We are expecting a flattish sales development in Germany for 2026. We don't dare to hope for an improvement and we are aligning our actions with that scenario. If it should be a better outcome than we expect, then of course we are very pleased with that. Our market shares in Germany are not at the same strong level as in certain other markets, so what we of course have the possibility to do is to fight for higher market share even in a flattish market. We can do a lot through our own efforts.

Okay, thank you very clear and then just sort of a follow-up on this. You reported positive organic growth in ventilation systems and this was primarily driven by the Nordics. Could you maybe just unpack the drivers of the Nordic recovery? Is it maybe a result of improved demand in new project starts or is it just temporary restocking among distributors?

Let's start from the end there. I don't believe it's a restocking effect. Our product assortment is so broad that it is difficult for our customers to really stock up in advance. So it is a consequence of an increased... activity level and we do see that there are some positive signs in terms of requests for quotations, building permits etc. I also think that the comparison period in 2024 the Swedish market was really down and we have seen during the last six months of 2025 that the Swedish market activity has started to pick up month by month. And that is an important market for Lindab, because that is where it all started for us as a group. So Sweden is the main driver, but I would say that also in both Finland, Norway and Denmark, we saw a good sales development in the fourth quarter. Sometimes the Nordic region is the first to start to decline, but also the first to start to improve when the cycle turns up. So hopefully we will continue to see these signs that the Nordics are taking the lead. But honestly, it's probably too early to say. Just one quarter of a small organic growth should not make Two big news out of that but of course for us it's one positive sign and hopefully there will be more.

Great, thank you. On profile systems, you mentioned a stabilization in H1 and maybe some growth in H2. What gives you confidence in a H2 recovery? interest rate cuts stimulating maybe residential starts or is it more market share gains? I mean what I'm trying to ask is how confident are you in the recovery in H2?

I think one part of that is all the activities that we are doing within the group in terms of sales organization, new products and things that we can do through our own efforts. The second thing is after a longer period of very low demand, there is this pent-up demand waiting to happen and I think that in combination with lower interest rates and some stimulus to the parts of the construction sector should lead to at least some improvements of the demand gradually during 2026. Okay, great.

That was all from my end. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Laura.

The next question comes from Sofia Sorling from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you. a couple of questions from my side i start with profile system so um would you say the organic decrease in sales of 15 is that in line with underlying market development development or less or more that is my first question i think that we have declined more than the market has declined and that has probably two or three explanations one is that when we talk about

organic growth, the businesses that we have closed down or discontinued without divesting them. In our numbers that counts as negative organic growth. So we have made a decision to stop activities or to discontinue a business and that is part of these numbers. So that is one reason. Second reason is that the sandwich panel line that we moved in the north of Sweden has not come up to speed at that pace that we expected. So we have failed to come up to full production speed on that line, underestimating the challenges when moving that big operation. So that has also negatively impacted our sales. It would be fair to say that we have done worse than the market. The third reason is we have really tried to have price stability and protect gross margin. And it's a very delicate balance, how to balance volume versus gross margin. And maybe we have gone a little bit too far there and we have to be a little bit more aggressive and proactive in our pricing to

the right volume into the factories they have been under absorbed in the past months thereby negatively impacting also the profitability yeah okay thank you so to follow up questions there so regarding this move of sandwich panel production to CTO when do you expect this to be at full speed again

I think we took good steps in terms of efficiency and output in the past two months. But we also have to remember that we are right now really in low season with the winter and snow and everything. Pretty hard winter in the Nordics. we will probably start to see the effects and the improvements during Q2 and onwards.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, and you also touched upon this capacity utilization that is very low. Could you give any, could you quantify that, how high the capacity utilization is currently.

Let's just say that it is too low. I mean, after three years of declining volumes in profile systems, volumes are clearly below what they optimally should be. I would say for us to be able to run those factories at healthy levels, we would need to see at least a 20% higher volumes than we are able to be really efficient. So what we do right now in the meantime is, of course, to look at how can we adjust those fixed costs to a lower level of demand, both short term and also long term.

Okay. Just a final question and it's related to the ventilation systems. You mentioned different demand in each geographical region. Would you say it depends on a specific market segment or like type of product you're selling or is it mainly due to the different demand in each geographical region?

I think one main theme is that products that typically go into new construction or products that go into construction of new residential buildings, they have been hit the worst. And products that are more, have a say, dual use, both new construction and renovation, there the development is better. So everything having to do with energy renovation, The segment that we have that is also addressing fire safety in ventilation systems has developed really well. I think both legislation and what we read in the news about terrible fires spreading too quickly have increased the focus on the importance of fire protection and smoke protection in buildings. So there we have, we can also mention our sales to data centers is of course growing at a healthy pace. So we have definitely growth segments, both product-wise and geographically. But the level of new construction in Europe is affecting us negatively.

Yeah, okay. Okay, thank you. That was awesome.

Thank you, Sophia.

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Anders Jafs from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead.

Yes, hi, good morning everyone. Just a quick question from my side relating M&A dialogues going forward. You mentioned that they have been a bit slower during 2025. I was just wondering if you could give some more color on that and how you think the M&A market should progress going into 2026 and if you see the same tendencies in the beginning of this year.

Thank you Anders. Well, I think if you are contemplating selling your company or divesting a company, you're of course interested in a fair valuation of that company. And during a period where not only Lindab has been affected by a pretty tough market, also many of the companies we are looking at have experienced tough market and probably a little bit lower sales than they had planned and also a lower profitability than they had planned and they are more in as a wait and see mood right now to come back to higher profit numbers so that they can get a better valuation of their assets and if they should sell now they are interested in evaluation that is maybe too aggressive for our taste. So that means that the discussions around pricing and multiples and valuation, they tend to drag on and sometimes you put them on halt and come back a little bit later. I think it's too early to say if 2026 is going to be any different, but So it can go two ways either profit start to improve or the sellers are realizing that maybe this is the new normal when we don't have zero interest rates etc. So we will have to see but we have good dialogues and I'm quite optimistic.

Yeah of course just to follow up on that Have you noticed any particular deals in any particular regions of late where that maybe stands out or is it the same across the board in Europe currently?

I think with the exception of certain companies that have a high exposure to data centers, we have seen some deals that have been at very, very interesting valuations. Except for that, I think in the past six months at least, there has been a much slower rate of acquisitions in the ventilation space. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you, Anders.

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

Then we would like to thank everybody who listened in. Lars and me, we say thanks for 2025 and full focus on continued improvements in 2026.

Thank you.