Projektengagemang Sweden AB (publ)

Good morning and a warm welcome to the presentation of Bokslutskommuniken for project engagement and the results for the fourth quarter of the year, 2024. My name is Andreas Hattie-Giorgio and I am the CEO of Bokslutskommuniken. I have been in the role for almost six months and I have with me financial director Liselott Haglind. This presentation that we have for you today contains ten pictures divided into three parts. First, three pictures of the market view, three pictures of the business segment, two pictures of our financial position and finally a picture that summarizes our focus now and forward. The building you see in front of you is from the Kulturspråket in Uddevalla. I am very proud that we are part of this project. It is an architectural project concerning the equipment of three existing buildings. The project aims to create a hub for the cultural life, association life, business and society. This fantastic vision that we are working on is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026. As I said, we are starting with a market outlook. Here I note that it is still a watchful market and a doubtful desire to invest. This affects our revenues and our results in the fourth quarter of 2024. We continue to be affected by the fact that commercial properties show a weak development and housing construction continues to be at relatively low levels. This mainly affects us in our business segment, construction and environment, and I will of course return to that in a little while. As previously stated, it will deteriorate before the interest rate drops give effect to the market. These efforts to dampen the low-conjuncture på ett makroplan kommer med en fördröjning. Vi ser dock att efterfrågan inom industri, energi, säkerhetsfastigheter med mera fortsatt vara något bättre i kvartalet. In general, I see very big opportunities for the future. In the long term, we know that the underlying need for our expertise and our services is actually enormous. Not least due to the background of all the big and complex challenges that society is facing. You have certainly seen the latest report that came as late as yesterday from EU's climate service Copernicus, which shows that January 2025 is the warmest January that has ever been measured. And to overcome the climate challenge, it needs to be built smarter and more sustainable, and the Swedish property estate needs to replace it. And here is our combined competence and our experience with our engineers, architects and experts, completely crucial to succeed. Det är inte bara klimatutmaningen som driver den långsiktiga efterfrågan på våra tjänster. Vi ser också regulatoriska krav som skapar stora behov hos våra kunder att investera och ställa om för att utveckla befintliga byggnader och närmiljöer istället för att helt enkelt bara riva och bygga nytt. Vi ser också att industrin ställer om till fossilfria lösningar och energibehoven ökar även där och det krävs snabba satsningar på sol, vind och vattenkraft. Vi ser också alla vad som dessvärre händer i vår omvärld nästan på daglig basis med den rådande geopolitiska osäkerheten. Det här ställer krav på nationell motståndskraft, civilberedskap, resiliens, specialfastigheter av olika slag som det behöver investeras massivt i. There is a growing demand for smart, efficient and sustainable technical solutions for intelligent, energy-efficient buildings. We have an AI revolution right now, and the digitalization that has intensified vigorously in recent years seems to increase even more in power and speed. Finally, regarding the long-term underlying needs that will drive demand in the future, there is also a great need for circular solutions for sustainable buildings and close environments in cities and in society in general and also within the industry. With that, I would like to sum up that we have the experience, we have the competence and we have the ability to make a difference together with our customers. and project engagement is a perfect partner in this work. When we sum up our fourth quarter for 2024, we see that we have an impact on the continuing monitoring market. We delivered 2.8 million kronor in EBITDA results. The EBITDA result was lower in the quarter due to a weak result development in the business segment, building and environment, I will come back to the details later. The revenue was negatively affected by the adjustment of the staff, especially in 2023, when the market was weakened. The revenue was 196 million kronor in the quarter. We succeeded with increase in the team price in the quarter and achieved a better rate of debiting. We also saw that our cost-effectiveness and our improvement programs gave positive effects. Now I want to go further and look closer at the underlying business segments. We have three business segments. Architecture and management, which we will look at in a moment. Construction and environment and installation. The picture here refers to one of our tasks within the business segment, architecture and management. We are now helping Vattenfall with project management and support in the implementation of providing Vattenfall's facilities with charging infrastructure in order to electrify the company's vehicle fleet. A very exciting task that we are very proud to be part of. Regarding this business segment, architecture and management. Det var en fortsatt svag investeringsvilja inom kommersiella fastigheter och bostäder. Men fortsatt orderingång inom samhällsbyggnader, industri, logistik och försvar. Vi förbättrade resultatet genom ökad debiteringsgrad och timprisökningar. Vi levererade 69 miljoner kronor i omsättning under kvartalet till en ebitda marginal om 6,3 %. När det gäller uppdrag så vill jag nämna att vi under kvartalet, förutom förtroende från Vattenfall som jag nämnde nyss, We have also had the opportunity to assist with the construction management and the traffic department, to help the region Stockholm with the construction of the tunnel track, to contribute with landscape architecture to Huddinge municipality, interior design architecture for both Vasakrona and Uppsala municipality. In summary, we still see great needs for advisory and project management within this domain, social construction, resilience in urban development, safe and safe places. And of course, with our expertise and our ability to analyze, identify climate risks and the need for climate adaptation in an already built environment. So, we move on to the business segment, construction and environment. But first, regarding the picture here, we have within this business segment Arbetat med mark och projektering och beställa stöd för nybyggnation av Värmlands största solcellspark och batterilager. Under 2024 installerades en solcellspark och ett batterilager som ett led i Rottneros brukssträvan att öka andelen förnybar el i sin portfölj. Men också för att minska exponeringen mot elmarknaden. The segment as such, the market has been a continuous challenge, the desire to wait for investment. This applies especially to new buildings, I would say, where we are affected by delays, upstarts and a delay in investment decisions. The result was affected by a lower rate of debiting and declines. Särnäcke, as we mentioned in the published report. We delivered CZK 69 million in revenue during the quarter. The EBITDA margin was negative 3.6%. Now, we are focusing, in even greater extent, on taking ground and moving forward the positions even more in the areas of the market where the growth potential exists. och investeringsviljan högre. Till exempel när det kommer till ombyggnation där vi har mycket erfarenhet av väldigt komplexa projekt. Även när det kommer till hållbar nybyggnation och vi har också duktiga rådgivare inom exempelvis förorenade områden. Men vi konstaterar att vi måste bli bättre varje dag på att tillvara de möjligheter som finns. Och nu arbetar vi intensivt med försäljning och förbättra våra our processes, our capabilities, and also improve project management. This will have successive positive effects in the coming quarter. A short summary of several significant tasks that we have received during the quarter. Development of the entire inner city quarter, both in Stockholm when it comes to the Sturekvarteren and Gothenburg when it comes to the Johanna quarter. Something else that I think is worth mentioning is the equipment and development of rental homes from the 1970s in a collaboration project for family homes in Skanska. The mission of PRIM in their pursuit till att bli fossilfria till 2035. Tillsammans med Lantmännen skapar produktion av ärtprotein som utveckling mot mer hållbara livsmedel. Väldigt spännande projekt det också. Och slutligen ett nytt badhus i Nässjö kommun där vi ansvarar för miljö- och energisamordning samt att utföra livscykelanalyser. Det tredje Let's move on to the business segment. This is the last picture I'm going to show regarding the business segment. Before I go into the numbers and the results of the quarter, the picture you see here shows the largest airport hotel in the Nordic countries. And it will be at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. We have a mission to continue the design work with VVS Design, Sprinklr, Elotele. This project includes our mission, hotel room, congress hall, meeting facilities, restaurant with more. When we look at the result, we see, which I mentioned initially, also a positive development trend. Despite a somewhat weaker quarter in the market, where we have been hit by some delays and upstarts, which affects the efficiency, the turnover fell to 66 million kronor, to an EBITDA margin of 6%. We are improving the sales levels, increasing the rate of return, and have an increasing order stock. Under kvartalet har vi exempelvis fått uppdrag inom samhällsbyggnation med skola och sporthalde i Stockholm. Vi har energiåtgärder inom akademiska hus, fastigheter i Malmö och Lund. Ja, vi har nybyggnation av 160 lägenheter i Klocka Lund samt fortsättning på projekteringsarbete med hotell och kongressfastigheten på Arlanda som jag nämnde just här nu och som vi också ser en visionsbild av på bilden. In summary, when it comes to this business segment, we see a continued good demand and an increasing need for energy, control systems, surveillance, and optimization of drift in social facilities. And then I should especially say safety facilities, where we are very well positioned. I have a lot of experience and a lot to show here. We continue to move from a new construction project to a reconstruction project, where we also have a very broad and cutting-edge competence. And within the segment, we continue to focus on supporting customers, also within the energy environment and the green transformation of society. så lämnar vi våra affärssegment och jag lämnar över till finansdirektör Liselott Haglind för att berätta om den finansiella översikten. Varsågod, Liselott.

Stort tack, Andreas. Vi ska alltså titta på den finansiella utvecklingen och summera januari till december, där vi har ett ackumulerat resultat som har ett bättre EBITDA-resultat än föregående år. EBITDA var 30 miljoner kronor, vilket innebär en marginal på 3,9% mot föregående års 0.5%. The results were affected by the cost of vacancies in offices and a reservation in unsafe customer facilities, which summed up to a total of 2.7 million kronor. The previous year's result was also affected by the cost of efficiency measures related to premises, which means that the underlying results for the year in comparison are on par with each other, but with a better margin this year, i.e. 2024. Omsättningen var 769,5 miljoner kronor, en minskning med 13% mot föregående år. Akkumulerat så har vi ingen kalendereffekt. Alla tre segmenten har färre medelantare anställda än föregående år, men vi fortsätter att rekrytera inom områden där vi ser att marknaden är fortsatt gynnsam. We have recruited just over 100 people this year, and we are still actively looking for expertise that is sought after by our customers. This year, however, it is not enough to recruit to show positive growth figures, much in connection with this adjustment that we made in 2023 in the HR department. We also have a development in Q4 with a better net than before. Two of the three segments have accumulated a result improvement compared to the previous year. Architecture and management improved its result from SEK 3 million to SEK 11.5 million. Installation improved from SEK 6.1 million to SEK 11.5 million. And segment construction and environment, there we have a negative result development. It landed at SEK 7.3 million compared to the previous year's SEK 22.4 million. This improvement is mainly due to a continuous work with cost efficiency related to premises and overall costs. As we have reported earlier, this work has gone well and we now have savings related to premises at 20 million SEK annually from this year, 2025, which is a comparison with the 22-year cost level. We will continue to focus on efficiency and have a large cost focus also in the future, and I think our incorporated working methods here are well managed. The lagging market has affected the behavior rate, which has accumulated is lower than the previous year, 71.4, but something better in the last quarter compared to the previous year, 72.1. Vi ser fortsatt en potential att öka debiteringsgraden. Vår ambition är att komma tillbaka på historiska nivåer. En procentig debiteringsgrad motsvarar ungefär 10 miljoner i resultat på helår. Så huvudfokus framåt ligger på att öka intäkterna. Something that is still developing positively is our team prices, which partly compensates for our debiting rate drop. We see good price increases in all three segments and have, as we have said before, good processes to work with this issue. We adjust our income levels in a running way to be competitive and important to balance with the wage increases we have, so we have good margins there. Summarized, two out of three segments have results improvements accumulated in December and an EBITDA result of SEK 30 million, 3.9% in turnover margin. Let's look at the financial position for the whole year. The period's results per share rose to SEK 0.72 versus SEK 0.47. The cash flow from the running business was SEK 100 million versus SEK 72 million last year. This also affects the return on tax in Q1 2023. As you can see, the cost reduction has positive effects on the cash flow. Net debt is 2.2 times 2.8 in the previous year. We are moving downwards in the rate of interest. Arbetet med att minska kontorsytorna påverkar här åt rätt håll. Här har vi inte nått full likviditetseffekten, mycket beroende på hyreskontraktslängden. Nettoskuld exklusive IFRS 16 vid utgången av kvartalet är 119 miljoner kronor och hela nettoskulden på 192. Till sist, styrelsen föreslår att ingen utdelning ska lämnas. Med det, åter till dig, Andreas.

Tack för det Liselott. Vi har fokus framåt på att stärka vår förmåga och då kan inte nog understrykas att det handlar inte minst om vår förmåga till försäljning och att fortsätta leverera kvalitet i våra uppdrag. Vi ska också flytta fram vår position på marknaden där omställningen driver efterfrågan. So, for the whole year 2024, we are improving our profitability within two of three business segments. Within the business segment where we do not see improvements, that is, the business segment construction and environment, we are now working intensively with increased sales, increased capacity, better control and higher efficiency. We continue to work with cost control and we have a positive result effect from the optimization of the office spaces, which now amounts to 20 million kronor from and with 2025. The market continues to wait. The recovery will continue to take some time. We also see this in various contractual reports that are coming. And the focus now and forward for us is to deliver the highest possible quality to our tasks regardless of the situation. We have good relations with our customers and we will continue to be close to them and also reach out to more new customers to help them with their challenges and capture the opportunities that actually exist. Because I am convinced that the opportunities are more than the challenges. We will intensify sales, increase efficiency for profitable growth and then we need to actively recruit in all areas where we see growth potential. There we want to recruit more skilled and competent employees with high potential. Finally, a little bit on that topic, and this cannot be thoroughly investigated, our biggest access is our employees. I am only five months, almost six months at work and I have to say that I am so incredibly proud and impressed by the competence experience and creativity that our engineers, architects and experts possess. When I visit projects around the country, whether it's infrastructure-related projects, new construction projects or other types of reconstruction projects, or analyses for that part, design, architecture, I am so incredibly proud. That is why I say that I feel a future faith and of course want to thank all the employees for their efforts during the year. I also want to thank our brave customers, partners, shareholders and look forward to continuing together for the new society during 2025 with sustainable and innovative solutions and the expertise we can offer. With that, avslutar jag själva presentationen och ser fram emot och öppnar upp för frågor. Tack!

Under frågestund kan deltagarna ställa frågor genom att trycka fyrkant 5 på sin telefon. Om du vill dra tillbaka din fråga, vänligen tryck fyrkant 6. Den nästa frågan kommer från Julia Sundvall från ABG Sundal Collier. Varsågod!

Yes, hello. Thank you for your questions. I would like to start by asking that we are noting a better position in the architecture industry. I would like to know, how do you see this moving forward? Is it a turning point in the near future or do you have a different view?

Thank you for your question, Julia. And it is quite right, as you say, that we see light flashes within this business segment. And it is interesting for several reasons. We know from historical experiences that services within architecture are not often early in a general construction cycle, and a more specific construction cycle is linked to the construction construction. So we hold on to this, and we are hopeful about the signals we see, but it is far too early to talk about a definitive turnaround, I would say. We also see in industry analyses that the architect sector is a little brighter in terms of existence in general, and these are factors that we agree on. But with that said, it is too early to say that it is a definite turnaround. The recovery will take place gradually.

Yes, great. Moving on to construction and the environment, we see that it is tougher. How do you assess the market conditions there?

There will be successive improvements in the market. Konjunkturinstitutet published a report on The situation in the Swedish economy and the outlook for the Swedish economy, and specifically the construction sector. It is said that the recovery will be gradual, but rather later this year than earlier. Vi kan bara konstatera att det är en avvaktande marknad men oavsett marknadsläget så vad vi gör det är ju att vi satsar med full kraft på att stärka vår kapacitet och vår förmåga varje dag. Och här ser jag att det finns mer att hämta. Vi har mycket att vara stolta över och vi har en fantastisk teknikkompetens. Vi har otroligt imponerande referensprojekt som vi kan visa upp. Vi har mycket att bygga vidare på men vi kan också bli bättre när det kommer till effektivitet, förmåga, försäljning, styrning och allt det där som jag har nämnt för att skapa förutsättningar för lönsam tillväxt framåt.

Lite på temat då. Ni har ju pratat om 2025, att ni ska fokusera på sälj och rekrytering. Vad skulle ni säga är er högsta prioritet 2025?

It is to move forward the positions and invest in those segments where we see that there is growth potential. There is good potential in parts of the market. Industry, we are building on the stock when it comes to those segments. Security related projects, special properties, parts of the social construction sector that byggnader och närmiljö kring sånt som faktiskt behövs för att hantera samhällets utmaningar och där tänker vi satsa med full kraft. Sen handlar det också Julia om att vi tänker växla upp när det kommer till rekrytering. Vi har rekryterat mycket under 2024 och vi har en en stabilare personal omsättning nu, men det är så klart att vi ska säkerställa att vi får en ännu lägre personalomsättning och att vi lyckas attrahera och behålla de medarbetare som vill genom vårt bolag vara med och förnya och förbättra samhället.

Toppen. Det var alla frågor för mig. Stort tack.

Tack, Julia.

Det finns inga fler telefonfrågor just nu så jag lämnar över ordet till talarna för skriftliga frågor och avslutande kommentarer.

Tack, då ska vi se. Vi har inga frågor i filen där just nu.

Then I would like to conclude by saying that despite the challenging market situation, it is with great enthusiasm and faith in the future that I see that we have started a new chapter in the company's journey. We continue to build on our strengths. We will focus mainly on buildings and their close environment, as the strategy says. And we work every day, step by step, to improve our ability and move forward our market position. We will also improve our ability to be valuable and do what we do best. Finally, an impression and a reflection. For me, project engagement stands for innovation and leading competence within construction, design and architecture. For us as a society to be able to meet the challenges we are facing together, the combined expertise, competence and experience with our engineers, architects and experts avgörande. Det är genom den kompetensen, den kreativiteten som vi kommer kunna bygga bättre och intensifiera omställningen mot ett både hållbart, resilient och attraktivt samhälle. Så jag är fast övertygad om att vi kommer lyckas göra projektengagemang mer effektivt, lönsamt attraktivt och ta ledartröjan faktiskt som en självklar partner i förnyelsen av samhället. Jag vill tacka er för att ni har varit med oss idag och för ert intresse.