Nordic Paper Holding AB (publ)

and warm welcome to this Nordic Paper presentation of our Q2 results. My name is Henrik Essén, and today we have Nordic Paper CEO Anita Sjölander and CFO Niklas Eriksson that will, as usual, present the results. The floor is yours, Anita. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Henrik. Thank you all for listening in to our reporting of the Q2 results of Nordic Paper. It's now been my privilege to be CEO of the company for six years. And during this time, we have experienced both very strong markets. We've had faced also some challenging business environments. We've had pandemic with global supply chain issues. We had the war in Ukraine. We have the war in Ukraine. And through all these times, Nordic Paper, we have proven the resilience of the company and also the stability of our performance. We've chosen to be more focused to stable end uses. We have two-thirds of our net sales into food-related end uses, with some example sacks for grain and flour. Our baking paper finds its way all over the world And many consumer packaging of food is made out of our paper. And the underlying consumption is not sensitive to general business conditions. We need to eat, cook, and bake for our daily living. So less volatile end uses giving us stability over time. And even if the underlying consumption of food might not be impacted, by the general business environment. Short term, we do sometimes face variations, stock variations downstream, which also gives Nordic Paper some variations. We've seen it before, like when the supply chains were congested, and also when there's been some expectations of price reductions. And it is what we also see now when we face the software market. And with that said, let's now look into our financial results for the quarter. A report with the headline, Stable Performance in Softening Markets. In the beginning of the year, we had a more positive general business environment, healthy demand for Nordic Papers products. But now with the numerous announcements on US tariffs that has increased uncertainty and the global economy downturn as a result. So during the second quarter, demand has softened for most of our products and also in most of the geographies, which has been then resulting in a 5% lower sales volume. Net sales is 6% lower compared to a very strong quarter two last year. And when we exclude the currency effect during the quarter, net sales decreased only 1%. We have increased our product price slightly from quarter one to quarter two. Compared to the same period last year, we have increased our product prices by 3% in local currency. Both our two segments, crop paper and natural grease proof, has contributed on equal parts to the EBITDA level of 228 million, and we have a margin this quarter of 19.8%. It's a decrease compared to the very strong Q2 last year, but we are proud that we are keeping our margins on a high level despite the softer markets that we are facing right now. During this quarter, we have also entered a new financing syndicates was financial institutions. And we have now a term loan B on 275 million euros, term loan B loan, and we have also a revolving credit facility of 65 million euros. With this financing in place, our board of directors have proposed 12-6 per share dividend. And that was approved in the EDM yesterday and will be paid out the 23rd of July. It's a total of 803 million Swedish crowns. And with that, I would like to go over and share the development of net sales in the ABTA. The ABTA is close to 20% despite the situation where we are facing right now. Net sales, 1 billion, 148 million Swedish crowns. It is a decrease of 6% compared to the same period last year. The impact on net sales from the lower sales volumes are of equal size as the currency effect we have in this quarter, 5% down. While we have the increases of the prices of 3%, we have a positive product mix contributing with 1%. This is then partly offsetting the effect we have on the sales volumes and the currency. On EVTA level, 228 million Swedish crowns, more than 19.8%, which is compared to last year's lower, where we had 22.9%. So now I mentioned sales volumes a few times. On the next page, we have the development on the sales volumes. down from the strong Q2 last year, and also down from Q1 this year as well. And the decrease from quarter one, that is a normal seasonality effect, as we in the first quarter of the year, we have the push from the sales volumes that we, or the production volumes that we produce during the end of the year, and then we have the Christmas, New Year holidays, So they get transported in the beginning of Q1 instead. So that's the push we have. So it's a normal seasonality pattern to go down from Q1 to Q2. And still, despite the softer market conditions, the sales volumes are above the quarterly average for the last two years. Yet another proof of the strong relationships we have with our customers. The Nordic paper has two segments. It is the craft paper segments where we are selling unleashed craft paper and we have the natural grease proof segment selling grease proof papers. And we report the results of those two segments individually. And now I will start with the craft paper segment. Beginning of the year, we had a healthy demand, especially sack paper improved during quarter one. But during the second quarter now, the general market softness described earlier has also impacted the craft paper business. For Nordic Paper and also for the craft paper segment, the European market is the main market. That's where we in the company have two thirds of our net sales. And the European market has for craft paper been stable in quarter two. In net sales, in absolute number, it has been stable while the other markets have declined. The raw material for this segment, that is pulp wood, for this raw material we have seen increasing prices since 2022. But in quarter two, the prices have been stable and we also now have the signs that this trend is broken and we are expecting then the pulpwood prices to continue to go down going forward. That will give a positive impact on the craft paper business going forward. EBITDA in absolute numbers, 112 million Swedish crown, and an EBITDA margin that improved from quarter one to 19.1%, compared to Yet again, the very strong Q2 last year, EBITDA decreased from 154 million, and at that time we had a margin of 24.7%. So that was the performance of our craft paper segment, and we will continue with the natural grease proof segment. So, adding to the global, economy situation. We have also here then the different announcements on the U.S. tariffs, which has softened demand for both the European and North American market in the second quarter. So Nordic Paper, we are supplying natural grease proof paper from the three of our production units, so we can provide into U.S. from the Canadian operation, from Sweden, and also from Norway. So that gives us a flexibility when it comes to what tariffs that will be implemented. The US market is dependent on import of these high quality natural grease proof papers. There's one producer, but that producer cannot satisfy the demand in US, which gives us a good position in that market. Net sales decreased by 6% to 578 million If we exclude the currency effect, net sales are on an unchanged level. Compared to quarter two last year, we have increased our sales prices by 4% in local currency, and that is compensating for the lower sales volumes in natural grease proof segments. The raw material for natural grease proof segment is pulp. The prices have been on a stable level compared to the last year. So this segment has delivered yet another strong EBITDA, 115 million Swedish crown, and also an EBITDA margin at a very good high level, 19.8%. So pulp and energy are important input costs for this segment. And we've seen increasing pulp prices since quarter two last year. But during quarter two this year, we have also seen the pulp prices declining. For a Nordic paper, there is a lag. It's a little bit less than a quarter between when we see the price changes, the announcements on the PIX index, and the effect we can see in our profit and loss statements. So this will then give a positive impact in our quarter three results. And then I would like to hand over to my colleague, Niklas, and he will guide you through the development year on year. So Niklas, please.

Thank you, Anita. And I will take you through the view of net sales and EBITDA at the start. If we look at the Q2 net sales, we can see that in Q2, the net sales decreased 6%. mainly because of lower sales volumes and weaker invoicing currencies. The sales prices have been increased compared to the same quarter last year with approximately 3% and the increase is slightly higher in natural grease proof. The effect from the volume decrease on that sales is mainly related to craft paper. And the invoicing currencies, mainly euro, have in total been weaker compared to Swedish krona for this quarter. If we then take a look at the EBITDA for the quarter, we had an EBITDA of 228 million, and that's a decrease of 90% compared to the strong quarter two last year. The implemented price increases mitigate the largest part of the cost increases we see in variable cost and fixed cost, but lower sales volume and negative currency effects hit the results. Price for pulpwood has stabilized during the quarter. but it's on a higher level compared to the same period in 2024. And the market price for pulp is in a decreasing trend, but it's also on a higher level in total compared to Q2 2024. The negative currency effect that we saw on net sales is to a very large part set off by the input material cost that we have in other currencies. We move on to the year to date figures. The net sales for year to date 2025 are enlarged unchanged compared to 2024. Since the implemented price increases mitigate the negative effect from the volume and the negative currency effect. The price increases are 5% in total compared to last year. Moving on to EBITDA, we can see that the EBITDA decreased approximately 10% compared to the very strong first half year of 2024. The price increases that we have implemented in both segments mitigate the increases that we have seen in variable cost and fixed costs, while lower sales volume and negative currency effects are decreasing the EBITDA. Year to date, we can see the same situation as described for Q2. We have higher pulpwood costs in the cross paper and a higher cost for pulp in natural grease proof compared to last year. If we take a look at the working capital and cash flow, the working capital have been reduced compared to Q1 this year. Compared to the same period, 2024, the working capital is higher and the main reasons are paid income taxes and higher inventories of finished goods. The cashflow from operating activities is on the similar level as of Q2, 2024. Now we take a look on the financial situation. We have continued to run the strategic investment in Beckhammar and the net debt has increased compared to the same period last year. The net debt to EBITDA relation was 1.7 at the end of Q2 2025. We have agreed on a long-term financing to the end of the quarter two. The financial agreement includes a term loan of €275 million with a seven-year tenor and an RCF of €65 million with a 6.5-year tenor. And the dividend of 803 million was decided on the EGM yesterday. And that corresponds to the 12 kronos per share. And then I hand over back to you, Anita, for a status update on the CAPEX project.

Thank you. I'm happy to give a short update on where we are on the large projects we are running in Beckham. The new wood room and the filters, that is an 850 million capex ongoing. It's a happy report. It's all running according to plan in time on budget. And we have right now spent approximately 70% of the capex related to these projects. And the plan is to start running before end of the year. And as a friendly reminder, we expect a gain of 100 million Swedish crowns from next year from these projects. In April, we also approved an investment up to 450 million Swedish crowns for the water handling, also in the same plant, Beckhammar. This was a condition in our new production permit. It is a prerequisite for increasing the production above the current permit level. The investment for this water handling project will be carried out 2025 to And I would also like to share a positive development when it comes to our climate performance. For Nordic Paper, climate performance is a competitive advantage and we believe that this will be even more important going forward for the future. Our target for the company is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and from the base of 2020. And that goes for all scopes, so it's not just our own emissions, it's also for the input goods and the services we use. And to keep track of the progress, of course we follow the performance on quarterly and annual basis. You can see in the graph here the last two years. And for quarter two now, the emissions in scope one and that is the activities of Nordic Paper. It's inside our own fence, you could say. It's a record low emission level. We reduced it by 1,000 tons compared to quarter two last year, and as you can see in the graph, a very good reduction from quarter one this year, more than 40%. And primarily, this is lower emissions from the fuels used in Beckhammer and the Norwegian Gry Åke plant. So we are on the right track. We'll continue to focus on this going forward. And the climate performance, that is something we believe will provide long-term competitiveness for Nordic paper. And let's now look into what we see for the more near-term outlook and what we assess for the quarter three. We assess that the market and the demand for our products will continue to be a bit softer due to the general economic situation. And as a consequence of that, there will be some price pressure in both segments. For the same reasons with the business environment, we also expect the prices for the main input materials, pulp and pulpwood, that the prices for those raw materials will also decrease compared to Q2 this year. and also a friendly reminder in quarter three that's when we perform all the normal annual maintenance and we do that in all the production plants in the same quarter we guide you for the direct costs that are connected to these maintenance stops this year it will be in the range of 125 to 145 million Swedish crowns there are some more details in the report if you would like to look into that. So with that, given the report and the outlook for quarter three, we would like to give you the opportunity if there's any questions.

Operator, do we have any questions?

Not at the moment. If you wish to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. We still don't have any questions. There are no questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to the company for any closing remarks.

Yep. Thank you.

So before ending this presentation, we would just like to reiterate our message in the report, which was summary of the result and our outlook for quarter three. So we have seen a softer demand in quarter two, and in this business environment, we delivered a net sales, 1,148,000,000 Swedish crowns, a decrease by 6%. And when excluding the effect from the currency development, it is a 1% lower net sales. EBITDA in the quarter was 228 million Swedish crowns. And our outlook to quarter three is that the market will continue to be a bit softer and with some price pressure. we will have the normal seasonality effects from the maintenance stops that we perform in all the plants during quarter three. And then I would like to hand over to Henrik to finalize the meeting.

Yeah. Thank you very much, Anita. And with that concluding remark, we end this presentation. We wish you all a nice summer, and we look forward to talking to you again for our Q3 results