Aqualis ASA (ABL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. My name is Hege Marie Norheim. I'm the CEO of Aqualis, and I will be presenting the Q2 results for Aqualis together with the CFO, Stuart Jackson. Let me start by drawing your attention to the disclaimer, which I will leave for you to read at your own leisure and then proceed to establishing some highlights of the second quarter of 2026. As you can see, our revenues are up compared to last quarter, although still lower than a year ago. Our adjusted EBIT has significantly grown compared to both last quarter and last year with a margin of 5.8%. And as Stuart will go through in a moment, this is mainly due to improved profitability in ABL segment and our engineering brand, Longitude. The profits were also positively impacted by a noncash item of USD 0.7 million. As mentioned in last quarter's presentation, ongoing cost reductions and investments in efficiencies was expected to show improved profitability in this quarter as well as going forward. Our guiding towards a 20% return on capital employed in 2027 remains our target. And this quarter results is a step towards this with a ROCE or a return on capital employed for the quarter of 15.6% compared to the ROCE for all of last year on average at 10.2%. The quarter saw an increase in working capital due to a large part of the growth in revenue manifesting towards the end of the quarter and remains to be collected. Cash flow was further impacted by the dividend paid this quarter of USD 6.3 million. And since our presentation in Q1 results, we have also had a successful renaming of the parent company from ABL Group to Aqualis. Let me start with a quick reminder of who we are and where we operate. We are a technical global consultancy in energy and oceans with under 2,000 employees across 79 offices in 44 countries. We have been through rapid growth, as you can see on this slide, partly due to acquisitions, and we are now 10x larger than we were in 2018. We operate in 3 markets: Oil & Gas, Renewables and Maritime, of which the first one is by far the largest. And we do so through 4 brands, ABL, AGR, OWC and Longitude, where ABL is by far the largest segment in terms of EBIT contribution. Worth noting on employees is that last year, in Q2, we were about 9.3% more own employees compared to now. We also like to remind you what the brands actually do and the differences between them. ABL is our leading marine consultancy and a global leader in loss prevention and loss management. AGR, our specialist in drilling, wells and subsurface. OWC is our renewable specialists and environmental consultants. And finally, Longitude, who delivers first-party design and engineering services. And to make it come a bit more alive, we also like to give you an example or showcase some selected projects won or executed during this quarter, second quarter. Let me start by an example from ABL, which we were successfully involved in Mero 1 & 2 in Brazil developments, securing a significant warranty contract with Subsea 7 as a client, reinforcing our strong position in Brazil's deepwater offshore market. AGR example, very proud of being -- supporting Aker BP's record-breaking drilling campaign in the Yggdrasil area with our well and subsurface team on board the rig Deepsea Stavanger. An example from OWC provided independent technical due diligence to support Stadtwerke Munchen's investment in Gennaker offshore wind farm, which will become Germany's largest offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea. And finally, an example from Longitude who in this quarter launched its AI-enabled real-time mooring line monitoring and predictive integrity management for floating offshore assets. This highlights the group's continued investments in digital projects and technology-driven growth opportunities. And before I leave the floor to Stuart to take us through the details of the quarterly results, I want to mention our acquisition of Synergen 1st of July, which was closed 1st of July, completed and will be consolidated in our reporting in Q3. This is a transaction we are very pleased with. And after several years as a subcontractor, Synergen complements our offerings in Longitude very well and will now be scaled into a global footprint in addition to its strong foothold in the Southeast Asia as well as added to our offerings in other brands where we see opportunities as well. So looking forward to working with 45 new colleagues, improving the offerings to our clients on process safety and risk management. Over to you, Stuart.

Thank you, Hege. Turning then to the financials. And as Hege mentioned, a strong quarter for us as we went through Q2. From a revenue perspective, a 10% increase in revenue up to $90.8 million compared to $82.4 million in Q1, all of which is organic growth with -- across the businesses. And then from an EBIT perspective, pleasing to see an increase in EBIT contribution from all 4 of the segments over this quarter. I'll go through each one individually as I go through the remainder of the presentation. But I think what you're seeing here is, firstly, the focus on growth that's been put into the business in the last 3, 4 quarters and also the more cost-conscious measurement of our cost base as we've looked at our technical costs and our support costs relative to the markets that we're operating in. So solid performance. The one red you see there on the cost side is in relation to the corporate costs. You'll recall in Q1 that we had a $1.1 million release of a long-standing provision in that quarter. We had a similar release of $0.7 million in this quarter, so $0.4 million lower. So taking out the one-offs in that respect, it's broadly in line with where we were at Q1. Turning then to the individual segments. ABL first, which is obviously the engine of the group in terms of both profitability and cash generation. So very pleasing to see a significant increase in the revenue levels within this area. So up 9% compared to the last quarter and up 6% compared to the same quarter a year ago. And obviously, pleasing to see also increase in profitability in this business, so up to 19% margin at an EBIT level, generating $7.7 million during the quarter. The real drivers in terms of that performance has come out of Europe, which has had another strong quarter. And also very pleasingly, the Middle East, which despite the conflicts ongoing there, is doing very well in terms of its acquisition of new business and delivery for our customers. In terms of the AGR business, again, a growth in terms of our revenue level, up 12%. A large part of that is driven by the wells activity we have in Australia, where we're capturing more work, but also executing on a profitable basis there. From an EBIT perspective, we're probably in line with where we were this time last quarter at a margin level, slightly up in terms of overall EBIT as a consequence of the increase that we have in our revenue levels. This business, as you recall, is very much a business has a large element of pass-through costs, be those either vessel revenues or resourcing activities. So on a like-for-like basis with ABL, this is probably performing around about 17% compared to the 19% that we have within the ABL business. The important thing to note with AGR is this business really runs on a negative or a neutral net working capital basis. So in terms of return on capital employed, it's a very strong performer. On to OWC, which I guess, as you recall, has been a bit of a problem child over the last few quarters. The market hasn't really changed. So our revenue is broadly flat compared to where we've been in the last few quarters. What you do see is an improvement in terms of the EBIT. So that's reflecting the cost measures which were taken over the last 3 quarters or so. So returning to profitability and a slight increase from where we were in Q1. And then turning lastly to Longitude, which has had a good quarter. Revenue levels up with strong utilization of our people, and that's reflected directly in terms of the improvement in EBIT margins that we have. So jumping back up to 19%. You'll recall from previous presentations we've done that this is a relatively lumpy business. It's very much dependent on where we are on commencement and completion of projects. But very solid performance from the Longitude business going through Q2. And as Hege mentioned, we completed the acquisition of Synergen during the quarter, and that will be consolidated in the results from Q3 going forward. So coming then to the abbreviated financial statements, just to pull out a few highlights here. The increase in EBIT from $1.6 million to $4.4 million. So reflecting, I guess, the benefits we've seen of all segments improving, revenues being up 10% and costs being up 7%. In terms of other items, FX, the weakening U.S. dollar. So we have a net loss in terms of FX impacts, but this is the revaluation of instruments denominated in nonfunctional currencies, including our intercompany positions. In terms of that $4.4 million EBIT, there are some adjustments taking us to $5.3 million. These are primarily the standard adjustments we have in terms of integration costs, M&A and the amortization of intangible assets. So at the end of the quarter, we had $5.3 million of EBIT compared to $3.1 million in the previous quarter, an increase from 3.7% to 5.8%. And you'll recall our guidance through the cycle is about 6.5%. So we're well on the way to getting back to that level. From a cash flow perspective, I guess the main element is the still buildup of working capital we have with increasing revenues. As Hege mentioned, during the second quarter, we had an increase in revenues in the back end of the quarter. So these are working capital balances we expect to start to unwind as we get into Q3, and we bill customers and collect from customers during that period. So no real contribution to cash from operating activities. In terms of our investing and financing activities, not much on the investing side, a few positives and negatives on the financing side. So the payment of the dividend during the quarter for the first half of the year at $6.3 million. On the other side of it, we drew down $5 million under the RCF to fund the working capital position. And obviously, we've had interest payments and lease payments during the quarter. That leaves us with a reduction of cash flow of $3.1 million and after revaluation, taking cash from $12.1 million down to $8.7 million at the end of the quarter. And then finally, from a balance sheet perspective, the $8.7 million is offset by $29.1 million in terms of our short-term borrowings position. So we have net debt at the end of the period of $20.4 million. And you recall that we came from a significant net cash position probably 3 years ago. And over that time, we're progressively using our cash for funding of M&A instead of using shares and for funding the dividends that we pay back to shareholders. So I think we've got a more appropriate capital structure for this type of business at present. In terms of the working capital ratio, so we stay around about the level we were in Q1 with the buildup we had in Q2 of this year, and that's where I expect this to start unwinding as we get into Q3. And then finally, from a debt perspective and capacity, we have $29 million drawn under the RCF of $40 million that's committed to us. So $11 million of remaining commitments. And we have a further $20 million of accordions, which are already documented but uncommitted at this stage. And those all have a maturity of January 2029. And with that, I'll pass back to Hege to take us through the market outlook.

Thank you, Stuart. So on the outlook, let me just reiterate that we will be continuing our efforts to increase efficiency and productivity in the quarters to come, years to come within a number of focus areas. As to markets, the market situation, as I've already mentioned, Oil & Gas is by far our biggest market, 75% of our revenues across a number of our brands comes from this market. And we do expect significant regional differences for both CapEx and OpEx-driven services in Oil & Gas. But as is easy to see, the overall impact on Aqualis will be quite neutral because we are very diversified throughout the globe and throughout a number of service lines into this market. We do expect Oil & Gas investments to remain pretty flat through 2026, although we see a very busy market in Brazil, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia as well. And we have a positive outlook into 2027, recognizing that a number of regions due to the conflict, not the least due to the conflict in the Middle East are more and more focused on energy security as a national security issue and diversification is on everybody's agenda. As for the renewables market, we are particularly working in the offshore wind segment. And this is also relevant for a number of brands. ABL also works in this segment in addition to OWC and Longitude. We see an increased focus on -- the increased focus on energy security and independence does drive also the interest in investments in renewables, especially in Asia. We do, however, also see that the conflict and [ unsecurity ] is delaying ongoing reductions in financing and commodity costs in this sector, putting pressure on project return on investment. We see that large bankable markets and developers are pushing through, while the smaller are still struggling. And the graph shown on this slide, which is the same as last quarter with no update from the source, underlines the continuous volatility and uncertainty in new investments in offshore wind. Our revenue from renewables is still pivoting as well into the -- more of the OpEx phase of offshore wind as well as transaction-related and operational technical advisory in offshore wind. Good. And then the maritime market, robust demand. The maritime market renders around 10% of our revenues. And with the conflict in the Middle East, we have seen an uptick in the need for our help due to increased claims to insurance companies as well as a shift to China and the Far East for vessel repairs, which also increases costs and claims. And this is also a stable market for our engineering brand, Longitude within ship design. So to summarize -- increased revenues and group profitability in this quarter compared to last quarter. ABL segment with strong performance despite continued uncertainty. AGR relatively stable performance, OWC trending up, continuing to adapt cost base to market conditions and Longitude delivering the highest revenue and EBIT since Q1 last year. Our outlook is positive through 2026 and into 2027. Overall, it is volatile and inflation and elevated financing costs are partly delaying client decisions and new investments. But as I've mentioned, the long term -- this long term, we also see increased focus on energy security, diversification and more investments in all markets. And the war risk insurance market and higher repair costs is certainly underpinning the activity level we do see in ABL Maritime business. We remain committed to further growth through M&A activity and consolidating the energy consultancy industry. And as I also mentioned, we remain on the path to improving our performance through 2026 from our various cost and efficiency initiatives and targeting still a ROCE of 20% in 2027, up from 10.2% last year. And on that note, I thank you for your attention.

We have a question online. The question is cash flow has been negative for the first half of 2026. Normally, cash flow is positive in this period. How worried should we be about this? I suppose this is for Stuart.

I'm not worried about it because I guess it's the buildup of working capital on the back of increasing revenue. So I can see that unwinding as we go into Q3 as we start to bill and then collect from those customers. That's the driver really between -- with us taking down the RCF by another $5 million to make sure we've got that funded over that period. And as I mentioned, in terms of the committed facilities, we have a number of facilities committed to us we could draw upon anyway.

And I don't believe we have any questions in the room, and we have no further questions online.

Thank you.