AS Tallinna Vesi (TVE1T) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining. I am Kristiina Tamberg, and I welcome you all today's Tallinna Vesi's webinar. This webinar will be hosted by Aleksandr Timofejev, Chief Executive Officer; and Taavi Groon, Chief Financial Officer. Firstly, Aleksandr Timofejev and Taavi Groon will introduce the highlights of the second quarter of 2024. The presenters will also speak about Tallinna Vesi's operational and financial results of the quarter. And Aleksandr will give an overview about some of the investments made in the second quarter 2024. Right after the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. It is also possible to type in your questions during the presentation, but these will be answered in the end part of the webinar. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand over to Aleksandr and Taavi. Here you go.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our webinar in August. So about the highlights of the second quarter, our results were quite nice, financial ones and operational ones were excellent. So if we speak about the sales in the second quarter, our sales have been EUR 15.5 million and net profit EUR 2.19 million. Taavi will cover the details about the finance, and I'll try to focus more on the investments and operational results. So during first six months, we invested in our assets, EUR 18 million, we reconstructed a lot of pipelines in the city of Tallinn and, of course, did some new investments in the constructions in the water and the wastewater treatment plant. Our drinking water was very good, 100% of samples we took from the taps were according to the regulation. And we will speak about the wastewater treatment plant and it operated also in a well manner and effluent quality was better than the regulation since. During the second quarter, we also had some audits that are connected to ISO certification and EMAS also 27,000 audit is related to cybersecurity was successfully completed. And as you pay attention in May, we got the improvement from the Competition Authority to change water prices in Tallinn since 1st July 2024. So if we move on to the next slide, then I will speak a little bit more in details about our investments. So during six months, we reconstructed 17 kilometers of pipes on different streets. So the works pretty much have been completed together with our utility companies such as Utilitas and the City of Tallinn. And also, if we speak about the Suur-Ameerika street, then the cooperation was done with the [ team ] as well. I would like also to mention that by today, over 50% of our pipes have been reconstructed by using the trenchless method. It is the environmental friendly and of course, financially better for the company. This year, we plan to reconstruct over 40 kilometers of pipes in the city of Tallinn. If we speak about the investments that were made in water and wastewater treatment plants, then one of the important investment accelerated to the CHP engine. That is operated at the moment by our team and produces heating and electricity power for the wastewater treatment plant. Where at the end of the reconstruction of the second methane tank in wastewater compounds, which give us an opportunity to produce more biogas and due to that, also more energy and heating power. We also started a big reconstruction of the second sedimentary tanks in the wastewater treatment plants. A couple of months ago, we introduced this project, and during three years, we will invest EUR 9 million in secondary treatment tanks. And due to that, our biological treatment will be more efficient. We are focused also on the energy consumption. And due to that, we plan to focus on the change of the equipment that uses a lot of electricity. So one of these projects this year is related to the air blowers change in wastewater treatment plant and first air blowers will be changed already in the second part of the year. The water quality also is in our focus, and we deal with that daily. So at the moment, some reconstructions of the filters in the water treatment plant of Ülemiste is ongoing. And our plan is to complete them by the end of the year. Now at the moment, we have also the plan to start reconstruction of the ozonation process in the water treatment plant and to reconstruct [ qualifiers ] to the dissolved-air flotation tanks. At the moment, these processes are designed, and we will come back with the investments next year. So if we move on to the next slide, then where we can see some main achievements in the operational results. As I said before, water quality was excellent during the second quarter, we took over 700 samples from the city taps were according to the legislation. Also six months water quality have been 100%. So this shows the investments we do and the maintenance we provide to our network is done in the right way. The wastewater treatment plant operates very well as well. So if we speak about the main pollutants such as phosphorus and nitrogen then we are below the level, then the legislation asks us to treat the water. Phosphorus, the general phosphorous result was 0.35 milligram per liter and the limit is 0.5 and if we speak about nitrogen then the limit is 10 and our result was around 5. Now the customer satisfaction is almost on the same level as last year second quarter there was a small drop down of 1.0 point, 1 point and it is related to the emergencies we had in June. The leakage rate is on the very low level and if we compare with previous years, then we can see that we year-on-year to the step forward to reduce water losses in Tallinn. So due to that, we also can say that the investments we do in the water network is right. And the average duration of water interruption per property have been higher than last year, and this is due to the emergencies on the bigger [ geometric ] pipes during the second quarter. As I mentioned before, 17.5 kilometers of water and sewage network that were reconstructed in Tallinn during six months. Now I will go over to Taavi who will introduce you the financial results in details.

Thank you, Aleksandr, and good morning to everyone else. This morning, we have published our financial results for the second quarter. You can always find further details in our reporting, but I will in next slide summarize the highlights of second quarter. To start off with the comments on net profit. As already stated, our total revenues were EUR 15.5 million, which is slightly higher compared to same period last year, but only by 1%, we'll be looking at the revenue changes in coming slides. Cost of goods and services sold was lower primarily connected to direct production costs. But at the same time, marketing and general expenses were higher, almost EUR 0.3 million and it reflects increased pricing of products and services, but also increased compensation cost for our own staff. On operating profit level, the company's result was positive compared to last year, our operating profit was around 8% better compared to second quarter of 2023. But beyond operating profit, our net profit was slightly lower. And the main contributor here is financial expenses. Financial expenses primarily reflect the changes in base rate -- interest base rate, which for our loans is the 6-month Euribor. And the 6 month Euribor has increased from second quarter '23 to second quarter '24. And thus the corresponding interest expenses are also higher in the last quarter. And the net profit, as you can see, was EUR 2.2 million, which is slightly lower, EUR 0.1 million lower compared to last year. The next, let's look at our main revenues are coming from water and wastewater services. And we had smaller changes in volumes and revenues in the second quarter, private customer volumes and services revenues were on the same level with last year. Business customer volumes slightly above both in volumes and revenues, revenues being about 1.8% higher. On a 6-month basis, the changes that are similar, but more so on private customer side, where the larger volumes also are reflected in higher revenues, but the changes are small as can be expected in this ramp-up, utility services and water services. We don't expect significant or abrupt changes in our sold volumes. Next, a few comments on the total cost of goods sold. As mentioned, direct production costs have decreased compared to 2023. Most significant impact comes from electricity, electricity price per megawatt hour has decreased in the second quarter compared to last year and also compared to previous quarters. It reflects the overall change on the market at summer months, those being the second and third quarter are lower priced and the winter months higher. So we expect that in coming quarters, the electricity price will slightly increase. On further changes, there are increases, as mentioned, also staff costs and depreciation. Depreciation reflecting our investment activities. Most significantly, we have a decrease in construction services cost. This is related to construction revenues and correlates with the lower construction revenues, this is very much connected to the timing of Watercom construction projects. And -- but as a result, the -- due to total cost of goods sold. Now moving on to our cash position. Our cash position at the end of second quarter has decreased compared to previous quarter by EUR 10 million. Our operating cash flows are slightly above previous quarter. We have continued our investment Cash flows investments, and EUR 7 million of outgoing cash flows reflect our investment activities. The tangible assets on the balance sheet have increased to EUR 271 million. And the cash position at the end of the second quarter is EUR 3.9 million in financing cash flows the most significant component is the dividend payment performed in June last quarter. Next, thinking look at the current status of our ongoing investments. As you can see, our investment activities have increased last year in the recent years. And we are putting very much emphasis on the resilience of our networks and plants and maintaining the quality of our services and also reducing the environmental impact of water consumption. And the investments at the half year or six months period amounted to EUR 18 million. We expect that the total investment this year can exceed EUR 60 million. It depends very much on how the completion of the projects is achieved in the fourth quarter, but much of the construction projects are completed in the third and the fourth quarter. Now as Aleksandr also mentioned from first of July, a new regulated water and wastewater price was applied. This is based on the Competition Authority price approval decision, which is -- was made in May. The most significant change in our new pricing comes from the investments that we have made. The price itself, of course, reflects all aspects of our operations being variable costs, especially energy, purchased products, services, staff costs. But more significantly, it also reflects the investments that we have made in the regulated assets. And the regulated assets make up a regulated asset base from which the regulator calculates our regulated profitability or allowed profitability with rate weight cost -- weighted average cost of capital and the regulated asset base increased to EUR 222 million with the last decision and applied weighted average cost of capital rate at the moment is 6.28%. The main difference between regulated asset base and the tangible assets on the balance sheet is our assets constructed with connection fees. Those assets are not included in a regulated asset base and are not the basis for profitability calculation. As there are various changes in revenues as a result of pricing decision due to different services, different price groups. To summarize the overall impact the additional revenue in the second half of 2024 can amount up to EUR 1.6 million compared to first half of 2024, and the actual outcome will depend on sold order volumes. And it's also must be noted that regularly the revenue, as I mentioned involves water and wastewater prices, it does not include storm water system revenues, pollution charges and, for example, also Watercom operations. With those, I will conclude my summary. Thank you very much. And we'll be expecting your questions.

Yes, exactly. Thank you both for the presentation. And now we will proceed with the questions. You will have a few minutes to submit your question. So please feel free to type in any questions you might have. So it seems that we received one question and Taavi Groon will answer it.

One question about our stock price, how we interpret the decrease in our stock price. And I can only comment that our financial performance in recent quarters has been solid and unstable. So it is -- we cannot relate it to fundamental aspects of our business and more -- we can relate it to market sentiment, but this is very much an individual position to each investor and thus, we can't really comment on that aspect. I think our financial results and positioning has been stable in recent quarters.

Thank you, Taavi, and thank you all for joining our today's webinar. Recording of the presentation will be available on Tallinna Vesi's YouTube channel webinar playlist shortly. And also presentation materials and reports can be found on Tallinna Vesi's webpage. Thank you all for joining. Have a good day.

Thank you. Bye-bye. .

Thank you very much.