Sweco AB

Good morning and welcome everyone to this presentation of Sweco's Q1 report that we released earlier this morning. With me today I of course have Sweco's President and CEO Åsa Bergman together with our CFO Olof Stolnake. They will present the results of the first quarter and after that we will open up for questions. But with no further delay, please Åsa.

Welcome everyone to Sweco's Q1 presentation. Before we present the first quarter of the year, let me give you a quick overview of Sweco. Sweco is Europe's leading architecture and engineering consultancy with operations in eight geographical business areas across 15 markets in Europe. We are a well-diversified business operating across three different segments with a good balance of private and public clients. The foundation for Sweco's long-term success is our mix of competencies spread across 22,000 experts, our focus on organic and acquired growth, as well as our efficient and decentralized operational model. With a strong financial track record and financial position, we are focused on continuing our growth journey and build on Sweco's success. With this introduction, let me start the presentation of Q1. We began the year with a solid quarter with continued growth and improved margins. Net sales exceeded 8 billion CET and we delivered a stable organic growth rate of 4%. EBITDA increased by 10% and the EBITDA margin increased to 11.2%. We sustained our positive operational trend with higher average fees, improved billing ratio and positive effects from cost control measures. Altogether, this shows a solid start of the year. Let us now dive into more details in the first quarter. In this quarter, six out of eight business areas reported EBITDA improvements and seven out of eight reported positive organic growth. We have managed to successfully navigate a mixed market with a solid organic growth rate in the quarter. Our new project wins are reflected in a stable order backlog and a good order inflow in the quarter. As I mentioned, we sustained our positive operational trend and the EBITDA improvement was supported by higher pricing, higher billing ratio and lower operational expenses. In the quarter, Sweden, Finland and Norway initiated further efficiency measures, and we will remain committed to higher operational efficiency and to adapt to the market development going forward. Let's move over to the market overview. The demand for Sweco services generally remained in line with previous quarters, with some variations between segments and markets. Demand remained good in the infrastructure, water, environment and energy segment, as well as in security and defence. The general weak demand continued in residential and commercial real estate, as well as within traditional industry services. As you know, the general market uncertainty increased in light of political events and threats of political trade conflicts. From Sverko's perspective, this has not materialized in any substantial effects on demand. But we are, of course, monitoring the development closely and are prepared to take actions when and where needed. With that, I will hand over to Olof to walk you through the numbers. Please, Olof.

Thank you, Åsa. And good morning, everyone. This is a quarter very much in line with Q4. Net sales is at 8.1 billion SEC with 4% calendar adjusted organic growth, 1% from M&A and no FX impact. EBITDA is 900 million SEC, excluding the positive calendar effect. We are 81 million or 10% up and the margin is at 11.2%. Leverage is down significantly from last year at 0.5%. Looking at net sales, we see organic growth in seven out of eight BAs. Netherlands has the strongest growth driven by increased average fees, but also FTE growth. Finland continues to show negative growth and the Finnish market remains challenging. All other BAs grow between two and 5% in markets that remain mixed in terms of demand. The growth drivers continue to be average fee increases and higher billing ratio. On the EBITDA side, we see a 10% increase. We are up against a relatively strong Q1 last year and still managed to grow EBITDA more than top line. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands delivered double digit margins. UK delivers 7% in another quarter of significant improvement. Finland and Germany and Central Europe are more or less in line with last year. Looking then at the EBITDA bridge by business area, again, higher average fees continue to be a positive driver, together with higher billing ratio, while higher personnel expenses, including restructuring costs, had a negative impact. Looking at the BAs, six out of eight deliver increased EBITDA. Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark all delivered significant EBITDA improvements. UK also improved significantly, but again, this was versus a relatively weak quarter last year. Sweden, Finland and Norway have a slightly weaker first quarter and are also the markets where we get the least help from market demand and where we are also initiating actions. Sweden has taken 20 million SEK of restructuring costs related to a reduction of 50 employees. Finland also taking action with a 40 FTE reduction and 13 million SEK of restructuring costs that will impact Q2. Norway are also executing layoffs, primarily temporary in Q2. And Germany and Central Europe then finally is, as you can see, in line with last year. The calendar effect from two more working hours corresponded to a positive 27 million SEC in net sales and EBITDA impact. Looking at the financial position, net debt at 1.6 billion is significantly down versus Q1 last year, driven by an improved working capital position and also by lower M&A outflows. Leverage is at 0.5, also significantly down versus last year and well below our target. We remain financially very strong with available liquid assets of 4.8 billion. Finally, as usual, a reminder of the calendar effects for 2025. In Q2, we get the negative impact from Easter moving between quarters. And the biggest impact is, as always, in Norway. And the total for the year, as you know, is back to negative with one working day less. And with that, back to you, Åsa.