Scandic Hotels Group AB (publ)

thank you very much and good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for this q1 presentation like just said i'm jens matisse and i'm the ceo of scandic and together with me we have our cfo pierre christiansen let's uh let's go into the highlights of this quarter please page go to page two Looking at the quarter, we are off to a good start to this year with stable growth and solid results. Revenue, they grew by 3%, and adjusting for currency effects, organic growth was close to 5%. We operate with high efficiency and very good cost control, delivering a result and margin in line with last year. Market conditions, they remain positive overall, and we continue to see good demand across our markets, although development varies somewhat. Cashflow improved during the quarter, and our financial position remains strong, giving us a solid foundation going forward. The second quarter has started well. Business and books are at good levels, supported by strong leisure demand, stable business travel, and a solid event calendar. Despite the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, we do not currently see any direct impact on demand. So all in all, we are entering the peak season with good momentum. I would also like briefly to comment on the strike that has been underway in the Norwegian hotel sector since Sunday. Based on our current assessment and experience from the similar situations in the past, we do not expect this to have a material impact on our financial performance. All our hotels are open and we are monitoring development closely and have mitigation plans in place should this situation become more prolonged or extensive. Please turn to page three. We deliver a solid result in the quarter with an adjusted EBITDA of 105 million Swedish kronor corresponding to a margin of 2.2%. The result and profitability were in line with last year, supported by high operational efficiency and good cost control. At the same time, the quarter was impacted negatively by a few factors, including the early Easter and also higher energy costs due to the cold weather in the beginning of the year. Also note that the first quarter last year was supported by a one-off in Denmark of 43 million, which was offset by the contribution from the Dalata Management Agreement in this quarter. So I'm pleased with the performance in most of our markets. Looking at Finland, demand improved towards the end of the quarter with more stable occupancy and pricing. At the same time, we are currently renovating our largest hotel and Congress center in Helsinki, which was a key reason for the lower result year-on-year. All in all, we deliver a solid result while continuing to develop the business at a good pace with high efficiency and disciplined cost control. Of course, Pierre will take you through more of the financials later on in this presentation. Please turn to page four. You have seen this before, so here you see the development in occupancy, average room rates and REVPAR for the Nordic markets, indexed to 2019. Overall, the Nordic hotel market had a positive start to the year, with both occupancy and average room rates increasing, resulting in stable REVPAR growth for the quarter. Again, note that the early timing of Easter had a negative calendar effect in March, particularly in Sweden and Norway. In Sweden, the market developed well with high occupancy and moderate price growth. Norway also continued to perform positively despite tough comparables from last year when the World Ski Championship was held in Trondheim. Denmark remained strong, supported by high levels of international travel and a solid event calendar in Copenhagen, resulting in strong growth in both occupancy and room rates. Finland continued to lag with a more cautious market sentiment, although both occupancy and prices improved compared to last year. So overall, the Nordic hotel market remains healthy with stable underlying demand and positive momentum. Please turn to page five. Turning into Ireland and the UK, overall market conditions remain positive across both Ireland and the UK. with continued good demand and a solid start to the year. In Ireland, performance was good with both Dublin and the regions achieving solid REVPAR growth. The UK was stable across both London and the regions. Looking ahead, expectations for the second quarter are positive across both Ireland and the UK. So overall, these markets show stability and the latter is performing well, broadly in line with or slightly ahead of the market. Please turn to page 6. This slide shows our hotel pipeline at the end of the quarter, including the Latas pipeline. In total, the pipeline comprises 22 hotels and over 5,000 rooms. For the rest of the year, we plan to open eight new hotels, including several Scandico hotels, supporting our expansion in the economy segment. Overall, we are developing the portfolio at a good pace, which creates strong conditions for higher growth going forward. Please turn to page seven. Let's take a look at how we continue to develop the portfolio. As you can see on this slide, we continue to expand the ScandiGo brand at a good pace. During the quarter, we opened our first ScandiGo hotel in Norway, centrally located in Oslo. This is an important milestone as we continue to scale the brand in attractive city locations. We also highlight the agreements for the Scandic Go Hotel that we signed in Tromsø and in Stavanger. These hotels were signed earlier and were also communicated in Q4 presentation. So all in all, this just reflects the strong momentum we're seeing in Scandic Go with high interest and a growing pipeline. In addition, through the latter, we have added the new Meldron Hotel in London with around 370 rooms planned to open in 2029. This will be the seventh hotel in London and further strengthen the position in a very attractive market. Please turn to page eight. During the quarter, We took another important step in our sustainability work with our climate targets now validated by the Science Based Target Initiative. This confirms that our targets are aligned with the 1.5 degree pathway and reflects our ambition to reach net zero emission across the value chain by 2050. It also strengthened our sustainability profile and supports the increasing demand for sustainable solutions from our guests and corporate customers. Please turn to page nine. Let me give you a brief update on the Dallata acquisition. The process is progressing well and remains fully on track with completion expected in the second half of 2026. Once the restructuring is complete and provided we exercise the option to acquire the largest wholesale operations, we expect to operate the largest markets using the same COO-led structure already in place across Scandic. This leverages our established structure to drive scale, efficiency and strong local execution. As part of this, the current COO of the latter will continue to lead the operation in these markets and will be joining Scandic's executive committee once the carve-out process is completed, while the current CEO will remain with the business for a transitional period. At the same time, the business will continue to be led by the experienced local teams, ensuring stability throughout the restructuring process. Overall, we see strong collaboration and a very good progress. With that, I hand it over to Per. Please turn to page 10.

Thank you, Jens. Good morning, everyone. I will now go through the Q1 financials. Please turn to page 11. Looking at the first quarter, we saw good organic growth of 4.7%. Top line faced some currency headwinds of minor. Good results, better than last year in Sweden, other Europe, including Dalata. Norway was negatively affected by the early Easter and the world championships in cross-country skiing last year. The lower results in Finland compared to last year mainly due to softer prices, cold weather and the renovation of our largest meeting and Congress hotel. In the quarter, we saw increased cost for electricity and heating of around 40 million due to the very cold weather that lasted for quite a long period. We have seen a good start for Dalata. The contribution from the management contract was 56 million on top line and 50 million on EBITDA. Group cost in line with same quarter last year, efficiency improvements, balancing the inflation and salary increases. And just a reminder that last year we had a non-recurring item in Denmark of 43 million related to government support during the pandemic. In total, we saw a result of 105 million and a margin of 2.2% in line with last year's margin. All in all, a stable result in line with last year if we exclude currency effect, the LATA and the one-off. Please turn to next page. We had a strong cash flow of more than 2.2 billion on a rolling 12 basis. Investments in line with plan we deliver on our portfolio strategy. Free cash flow improved clearly in the quarter and totalled to 1.1 billion on a rolling 12 basis. Please turn to next page. We have a strong financial position, net debt of 510 million, meaning a leverage of 0.2 times. compared to last year when the leverage was 0.4 times. We're in a good position to support the portfolio growth agenda and also the acquisition of the Lata Hotel operations. All in all, we deliver a solid quarter. We have a good momentum ahead of the larger important coming quarters. And now I'm back to Jens and turn to page 15, please.

Thank you, Per. Let's move to the next page. Let me briefly sum up and give you a few comments on the outlook. We are off to a good start to the year with stable growth and solid results. Market conditions remain positive and we continue to see good demand across our markets. The larger delivered a strong quarter with performance slightly ahead of last year and the acquisition is progressing according to plan. Collaboration is strong and we are quite impressed by how well managed the business is. There are clear similarities and also, you know, between the two companies, our, let's say, giving the strong platform that we have both in Scandic and Bellata. And it's looking positive that we can build on that going forward. Looking ahead, the second quarter has started well. And the booking situation is good, supported by strong leisure demand, stable business travel and also a solid event calendar. This gives us good visibility into the peak season and we expect both occupancy and room rates to be slightly higher than last year in the second quarter. Scandic is in a strong position with good momentum, a robust financial position, and clear opportunities to drive further growth and profitability. With that, I hand it back to the operator for the Q&A session. Thank you.