Cambi ASA (CAMBI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone online for this fully digital event. Great to have you with us. It's now 2 years since we last invited you to a Capital Markets Update, and it's been 2 eventful years. Today, we'll give you a bit of context in the world of sludge management, how Cambi has performed and how we are positioned in an attractive market supported by macro trends. The past 2 years have been exciting to say the least when 2021 started off and Cambi listed on Euronext Growth, we all thought that this was going to be a great year. But then global supply chains were disrupted, causing significant issues. And as the world was expecting an improvement in 2022, things just got worse from a supply chain perspective with the very tragic war in Ukraine, which also affected one of our projects under execution in Lviv. So there's been many things to do and navigate in this environment. But one thing that -- which hasn't changed has been that we are in a good space. We are in an industry with fundamentally good growth drivers, and we have seen a strong order backlog buildup since our last Capital Markets Update, critical infrastructure projects with a total Cambi contract value of more than NOK 2 billion have moved forward. This has started to provide results this year and the scalability of our business has become visible. How we think about the future will hopefully be clear during today's presentations, where we will also hear from some of my colleagues. You will learn that Cambi is a global leader in wastewater sludge treatment solutions with a solid track record, has a proven thermal hydrolysis technology with a unique value proposition, is strongly positioned in an attractive market supported by macro trends, as a scalable platform positioned for future development. And last but not least, our robust financial performance is enabling dividend distribution to our shareholders. But before we start, let's hear from our Founder, Chairman and main shareholder, Mr. Per Lillebø.

Who can say no to a technology that produces more biogas, reduces the need for adjusted volume to 1/3, reduce the fine volume for disposal by 50% kill all pathogens and remove bad odor and in addition, offers lowest carbon footprint and lowest total cost. This process is the most responsible and safe choice for any waste water treatment plant above the size of about 50,000 inhabitants. Our strategy is, therefore, to reach out to every city of the world and be the technology that the other solutions must compare to. One of our lessons learned is to stay focused on what we are good at. If you want to be a world leader within a niche, you need to concentrate to stay ahead of competition, remove everything that distracts you. Having said this, we will still be exploring other areas where our technology may be [ another issues. ] (04:07) Like industrial markets, our main challenge in Cambi is how to reach out to all these cities. This is what is at the top of my head every day. We have mapped at least 3,000 cities in the markets where we are active that would benefit from our technology. We are trying to engage as many as we can to help spread our message, also our shareholders as we are servicing some of the biggest cities of the world. We are dependent on being a trusted and a long-term supplier of critical infrastructure, being a listed, financially strong and transparent company help us achieve that goal.

You just heard from our Chairman that Cambi's process is the most responsible and safe choice for any wastewater treatment plant. But before we dive further and explain this statement, let's take one step back and look at the big picture. Volumes of wastewater have been steadily increasing over time with the growing population, improvements in water supply, enhanced living standards and economic growth. Unfortunately, substantial volumes of wastewater continue to be released untreated into the environment and only 11% of treated wastewater is actually being reused. Each year, 380 billion cubic meter of municipal wastewater are generated globally with roughly half of the world's wastewater entering the environment untreated. The unfortunate reality is that only a very small portion of the total wastewater produced is actually collected and treated let alone exploited for the recovery of resources. Looking ahead to 2050, our planet will be home to nearly 10 billion people, which is expected to result in a 51% increase in wastewater generated. Therefore, while the issue of waste water is already pressing, it will only increase in severity going forward. Untreated wastewater poses a significant threat to both human health and the environment. Wastewater is responsible for releasing potent greenhouse gases, including methane, contributing approximately 1.6% of global emissions according to the UN. To illustrate the scale of this being 1.6% of emissions places wastewater just below the climate harm caused by the entire global aviation industry. Water is not only crucial for all forms of life and environment, but a limiting factor for development. As only 3% of all the water on our planet is freshwater and just 1% is available for drinking purposes, it is paramount to maximize the use of wastewater, particularly in water scarcity prone areas. Wastewater is a renewable resource within the hydrological cycle. Once it is used, it can be reused again. Reusing wastewater is not only economically, but also ecologically necessary. It's also crucial to recognize that if probably treated, wastewater is not merely a problem to be disposed of, but a unique circular economy opportunity that can help address challenges, including water scarcity, irrigation and biogas production. To unlock the potential of wastewater as a valuable resource, we must manage it in a way that captures resources for sustainable reuse. Treated wastewater can offer numerous benefits. It can provide alternative energy sources for up to 0.5 billion people, significantly decreasing CO2 emissions. It can increase saltwater to freshwater conversion capacity to 10x the current capacity sufficient to irrigate around 40 million hectares and area larger than Norway. This addresses fresh water scarcity and the increasing water demand. It can also offset over 10% of global fertilizer use, further decreasing pollution and emissions. These remarkable findings have been highlighted in an analysis published by the UN Environmental Program last month, underscoring the untapped potential of wastewater as a climate and nature solution that deserves clear action. As we've just explored a significant environmental and climate-related challenges posed by untreated wastewater, let's now shift our focus to how Cambi's mission aligns with addressing these issues. Our mission statement updated a few years ago underscores our commitment to making a positive impact on the environment by harnessing the potential of wastewater solids and organic wastes. It's about converting what is often seen as a problem into valuable bioresources. This mission serves as a guiding principle for our work and aligns seamlessly with the urgent need to address the wastewater crisis we've just looked at. Imagine a process that generates renewable energy, which can be recovered to produce electricity, substitute natural gas or even power vehicles. This, while at the same time, making a sustainably sourced high-quality and future proof fertilizer product containing nutrients, water and drought-resistant properties. The substances, biogas and biosolids are byproducts of wastewater treatment. The use of CambiTHP significantly increases the quantity of biogas and the quality of the biosolids while reducing the volume of these biosolids. By doing this, utility companies can get closer to reaching renewable energy targets, reducing their carbon impact and opening up a variety of options for using the biosolids. This reduces their long-term risk, thereby protecting their investment in infrastructure in an uncertain future. Cambi's customers have witnessed reductions in their carbon footprint and increased uptake and interest in their biosolids, which have become attractive materials. From years of development in the field, CambiTHP has become a robust process without failures in operation, leading to numerous repeat clients. Cambi is today a medium-sized company with offices in 10 countries and people from more than 20 countries. We have expanded our reach to 6 continents and have achieved this through relentlessly investing in our global community of employees and partners. We are one of the most knowledgeable organizations in the world on the sustainable management of waste water solids and organic wastes and have a long track record of project delivered on time and within budget. In Cambi, there's always something [ to give ] (12:17), a new solution to a client need, a well-delivered service or a new market. Through ingenuity, patients and the teamwork, we tackle challenges head on, always seeking to get ahead. Cambi has historically punched above its weight and continues to have ambitious plans for the future. THP, the technology we invented almost 3 decades ago is continuously perfected and finally coming of age. More and more cities are becoming sustainable for choosing Cambi to maximize the recycling of energy and nutrients from their sludge. Today, Cambi installed capacity can serve more than 115 million people. Although this is, in my opinion, an impressive number, it is still less than 2% of the world population. This leaves room for immense growth going forward. Building a market and assuming the world leading position we are in takes time. Our customers are municipalities and the time from initial contacts to contract typically takes 3 to 5 years, sometimes even longer. The focused approach that our Chairman spoke about have been instrumental to our success. And as you can see, we have delivered more than NOK 700 million in revenue with an EBITDA margin of 21% in the last 12 months ending Q2 this year. So that is where we came from. Today, we have a global presence and a solid track record of delivered installations. We have references plants in 27 countries across 6 continents and Cambi technology mitigates more than 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 annually. We are a trusted partner for leading water utilities all over the globe, and they are some of our best ambassadors in promoting our solutions. In addition, many of them are repeat customers. With this, let's move over to the next section, where we'll explain in more detail the value proposition of our product. We have a proven technology solution with a unique value proposition. But before we dive into this, let's spend a moment to understand where our technology fits in. [Presentation]

There are several strong drivers for our solution: environmental, financial and social. Which drivers are giving more weight is location and project dependent. But in total, our solution has an attractive value proposition. I will touch briefly on each one of these. Biosolids volume reduction and the improvement in quality is often the most forceful value driver for CambiTHP. The share volume reduction marks the minimum of savings in disposal costs as a Cambi customer will realize. In addition to this, there is a monetizable benefit of generating a high-quality biosolids cake, which has been through sterilization, soil-like in texture and dryness and with very limited odor. Cambi has witnessed repeated times how our customers have gone from having a costly biosolids disposal problem to farmers queuing up to get hold of the material to replace fossil derived fertilizers. One utility company, which has accomplished a lot in turning their biosolids into a product is DC Water. They have actively promoted their biosolids. On the picture on the left, there is the mayor of Washington DC, together with executives of the DC Water utility. They're planting a tree in the Cambi cake biosolids. The picture on the right shows bagged biosolids sold in gardening center as garden soil under the trade name, Bloom soil. The conversion of biomass to biogas involves multiple steps of which hydrolysis is the rate-limiting process in a conventional digestion process. Cambi moves the hydrolysis step out from the digester and speed it up through thermal treatment, enabling the enhanced production illustrated with the blue line on this graph. The combination of hydrolysis and steam explosion produces a sludge in which the biogas potential of the organic matter is realized much quicker than with no pretreatment step. On top of this, since the thermal hydrolysis process changes the properties of the sludge in such a way that the viscosity is reduced, digesters who are fed with THP treated sludge have doubled the drive solids loading rate compared to conventional digesters. To exemplify the biogas generation benefits, 2 of our largest customers, Thames Water Utilities and Beijing Drainage Group have independently reported substantial increases in biogas generation. These clients are now generating between 25% and 50% more biogas with less than half of the original digester volume. In the example on this page, we will show CambiTHP creating a 3x digester efficiency increase in Manchester. Digesters are costly and requires a lot of space, particularly wastewater treatment plants, treatment sludge from large and growing cities face footprint constraints. These are required to process more sludge while keeping their footprint constant. Davyhulme, the sludge treatment center located near Manchester in the U.K. is an example of a project who would face footprint constraints in a conventional process. By installing 2 relatively small THP trains, we freed up significant space while at the same time increasing the capacity. With no THP, they might have been required to build a whole new or maintain several other sludge treatment centers, which would have come at a significant cost. Another example is from the city of Beijing, where we significantly reduced the carbon footprint through installation of CambiTHP technology. In sophisticated markets, master planning and tenders are increasingly giving more weight to environmental, sustainability and resource recovery. For example, in 2014, as the city of Beijing was sending their sludge to landfill, this decided to evaluate alternatives. Comparisons were made between 2 alternatives: incineration would reduce annual CO2 emissions by 1.8 million tonnes CO2, while CambiTHP would reduce the CO2 emissions by 2.2 million tonnes CO2 equivalent reduction. This is equivalent of removing 500,000 petrol cars from the roads each year. Supported by the business case, they made the right environmental choice and Cambi now has 5 installations with a capacity to handle 26 million people equivalents. Lastly, the final route and application of sewage sludge is an actively debated topic in the wastewater industry. However, regardless of biosolids disposal route, the THP technology will always benefit our customers. This is so as THP will improve the energy balance by giving a lower volume and dryer product to be sent to, for example, incineration. One handling route for the biosolids is talked about today, and as you can see on this slide, is agriculture or land application. In Norway, our recycling business, the Grønn Vekst, contracts with wastewater treatment plants to handle the biosolids. To learn more about this business and their other revenue sources, I have the CEO of Grønn Vekst, Bernd Keller with me from Grimstad. Good morning, Bernd.

Good morning, Eirik.

Grønn Vekst has an interesting business model, but can you tell us a bit about what Grønn Vekst does?

Yes, absolutely. Well, first of all, Grønn Vekst is a Norwegian company, and we operate in Norway. And we are a company specialized over 23 years now, recycling organic resources primarily coming from an upstream customer base consisting of cities, industry, and then also stone quarry, where we then basically handle this organic waste fractions or resources as we like to call them and utilize them within a downstream market where we produce mainly soil products. Then the soil products being produced to both large projects entrepreneurs but also now likely to a consumer markets where we have specialized ourselves in producing peat-free products for consumers like you and me, if your products being sold in small bags in garden centers and stores around the company.

You touched on 2 main segments, the upstream markets and the downstream markets. Could you share a bit more details and insight into those 2 markets, our market position and the growth potential?

Yes. In the upstream market, we handle 2, 3 main fractions of organic waste of resources. It's biosolids, typically coming from biogas plants. It's food waste compost and also garden waste, which has proven to be a very important resource for us connected to the development of the downstream peat-free products. If you look at the downstream market, we typically divide it in 2. We have the bulk soil market, where we produce soils for large products on a yearly basis, produce up to 250,000 tonnes of soil. And we have now also entered into this small niche of peat-free products in the [indiscernible] (25:36) consumers. If you look at the market shares and potential in the different segments, the upstream market, it's roughly on 50% of the contracts that are currently available in Norway. This is a gold tender market. If you look at the bulk soil segment, approximately 25% of all soil in Norway in this segment is Grønn Vekst soil. And we see a potential upside in both these markets. The biggest upside we see is however in the bagged soil market where we entered into what is still a very small segment of the total market, but -- with the change of regulations and also a more environmental focus from customers, right customers, you see that there is a big growth potential here in the years to come. So we -- but before talking more about the bagged soil, we have prepared a short video clip from our first factory in Norway. So let's have a look, and then we can discuss more after that. [Presentation]

What an interesting video clip we just saw about -- why is there a big increase in the interest for peat-free soil products?

Well, as I said, it's connected to environment and environmental focuses of the customers. Majority of soil sold in -- today in bags is based on peat and peat comes from peat lands. When peat lands are left undisturbed they store carbon. But when peat land is open here basically free a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. So we know peat lands cover only a small fraction of the land area, they are actually estimated to store up to 30% of the rural soil carbon. So preserving and restoring peat lands is essential for climate change. If it's left undisturbed, you also keep the CO2 where it's supposed to be. And here, you see a typical change of the mindset, especially within the private customers.

But many countries have already started to ban the sale of peat-based soils. Is the peat-free soil, you produce at [ Sterley ] a good alternative to peat-based soils?

Yes, absolutely. But it's been a long journey to get where we are today, where we started off with the first peat-free production back in 2006. And since then, it has gone through a lot of development because we have to remember that peat has a good -- the structure of peat is very good when it comes to growth, things and -- and this is basically what we have tried to copy and then finally managed to copy by using the different resources meeting well.

But what quality challenges did you have to overcome to develop this kind of the new range of peat-free products you introduced to the market this year?

Yes. As you saw in the video with the compost, that was the first challenge, because the own weight of the composite is very heavy. And this is going to be packed in bags and people are -- need to be able to carry this. So 40-liter bags was primarily sold in garden centers. And the challenge with compost is that they own weight is almost 1, so meaning a 40-liter bag would weight 40-kilo. So we had to get hand of resources that made the project lighter. And also when it comes to transport and logistics, it's essential for us to have own weight of the product that is 0.5 actually, as it is today. Then there are several rule of factors like stable quality, nutrients balance, the composition of the different raw materials and also utilizing organic fertilizers which we were eager to bake some coals and we managed to do that. So we don't want to use mineral fertilizers in our products.

It sounds like there's a lot of research and development that's been put into developing this range of product, Bernd, then and you talked about various components in order to make this peat-free soil. Is there any limitations as to how much you're able to produce?

Yes, today, there is, but we are still developing new raw materials in order to bake that fine coal. So compost based on garden waste, which is essentially in our products, gives us a certain limitation when it comes to how much we are able to produce. But we are looking into other industries, other fractions that can prove interesting in order to break that last quote in, yes, to be able to provide way larger quantities than we are able to produce today.

So how -- based on this, can you explain to me how you actually see the market for soil in banks in Norway for peat-free soil? And how do you foresee it developing over the next years?

Yes. Well, I will first, while we estimate the total number of bags being sold in Norway today where mainly is -- mainly volumes are produced in Norway between 15 million and 17 million units. And this is then ranging from 10 to 40 liters. Up until now or if you look at the current status, 98% of the volume is still based on peat. So with the change of customer focus, that is very important, but also if you look at our customers like the Garden centers, they also need to look at what they are selling in order to have a greener stand on their operation. We see also a change there, but they are really interested in basically selling Q3 products. And then you have the interesting thing with new regulations, the [ BOS ] (35:49) proposal in Norway to ban peat products for the consumers in 2025. This has been put on hold a couple of years ago, basically due to the main argument that none are able to produce replacement soil compared to peat-based products. But we think that this, with our product development, with what we see now, the bigger interest, this will come on the agenda again. So if I were to guess, I would say that we have a peat-free ban in Norway at the latest in 2030. And you can also look into reference countries. This debate is ongoing in all European countries today. And I think U.K. has made a great statement. They have already set a firm date for ban of peat-free to consumers. So I think it's only a matter of time before the same will happen in Norway. And then you have the last thing, and that is the rise of quality in peat-free products. Historically, the quality of peat-free product hasn't been good enough. But we have proven out that we are able to make really, really good products. And so I think that with this argument and also lot of customers who have been able this year to test all the products prove that quality isn't an issue anymore.

This has been a very interesting, Bernd. It sounds like you've done a lot in developing a product for the future. You're one of the early movers in the Norwegian market. So there's tremendous growth potential in your business in the years to come. I'm sure. Thank you, Bernd.

Thank you, Eirik.

As you heard earlier, wastewater compose both a challenge and an opportunity, and there are some macro trends that are shaping the future of the wastewater management industry. These trends include organization, tightening regulations to drive for circular economy and a significant wave of investment in wastewater treatment infrastructure. We will now talk through each one of these and how they can affect Cambi. Urbanization, one of the most prominent trends we observe is urbanization. By 2050, it is projected that the world urban population will grow from 4 billion to 6.5 billion people. This rapid urbanization results in concentrated population that produce substantial amounts of waste with the immense strain on local ecosystems. Additionally, as cities grow, wealthier and better educated citizens increasingly expect clean, green, urban environments and hold their political leaders accountable for achieving this. Tightening regulations. Another critical factor is the wastewater management landscape is the tightening of regulations. We witnessed the implementation of stricter regulations regarding the discharge of affluent water into seas and rivers. To meet these new standards, wastewater treatment plants are producing more sludge both in volume and complexity. Furthermore, bans on landfill and sea discharge have eliminated the lower cost outlets for sludge disposal. Waste incineration is becoming an expensive option and biosolids recycling to land faces increasingly stringent criteria. Circular economy. The drive for circular economy is gaining momentum worldwide. Recycling waste into valuable resources is a central theme in the global green transformation. Organic waste recycling, in particular, aligns with trends in organic farming and the imperative to recover nutrients from sludge biosolids. This trend has given rise to a growing market for technologies that ensure the safe utilization of biosolids and crops in forestry or as the landscaping purposes. Responding to cities in demands, and regulatory bodies are actively promoting local sustainable energy sources and enforcing stricter environmental standards. Investment wave. Lastly, we are witnessing an unprecedented wave of investment in wastewater treatment infrastructure. Aging water networks in the Eastern United States and parts of Europe are nearing a crisis point after decades of neglect. In middle-income countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia, wastewater collection and treatment are evolving from a luxury to a necessity in megacities. Many cities in Europe and North America still rely on distribution pipes and sewer lines that were laid over 150 years ago. Developed nations and major cities and emerging markets are faced with the imperative of upgrading infrastructure that was not originally designed for energy efficiency and nutrient recovery. In conclusion, these macro trends present great opportunities for Cambi in the wastewater management industry. The need for investing in new solutions and closing the investment gap within wastewater is projected to reach a staggering $263 billion in 2030. When considering the waste for the treatment plant, the green area of the column to your left, the sludge line is normally about 10% of this. Further, while considering Cambi's core equipment, it accounts for about 20% of the sludge line. This shows that we operate in a large market, which is expected to grow towards 2030. So in this environment, how have we done? If you look at the installed THP capacity, technologies owned by Cambi is dominating globally. Part of the picture, which is a very important, is a trust in Cambi and its robust systems. After all, our customers invest in critical infrastructure and if the equipment fails, it will have a big operational impact. The sludge will simply not stop flowing. Our sectional uptime and testimonials from customers have helped Cambi cement its position as the world-leading THP supplier. We have a strong global presence. And since the IPO about 2 years ago, we have continued to expand geographically and strengthen our presence in key markets. We have entered 4 new markets: Bulgaria, South Africa, Israel and New Zealand. And we've signed a number of new projects with a combined order intake value of more than NOK 2 billion. We have the capacity to execute projects anywhere in the world and continue to pursue projects in both established and new markets. As you can see, we have a higher concentration of reference plants in some regions. Let's use 2 markets where we have a strong presence as examples. In the U.K., which is the only private as market in the world, we have 25 references with the capacity to treat about half of the sludge generated in the U.K. The push towards centralized sludge treatment to have economy of scale strengthened the financial drivers for our solution. Another example is Norway, with a population just north of 5 million. Considering the small population size and the fact that we still have several more projects with strong drivers for our solution, this illustrates reflect the huge global potential for Cambi. Another key market for us is North America. And to best understand the market, I have asked Paul Christy, our Managing Director in North America, to join us on teams. Good morning, Paul. How are you doing?

Good morning, Eirik. I'm doing great. How about you?

I'm good. Thanks. Paul, you started working for Cambi more than 20 years ago. And you've been there since the start in North America. So could you let me know or let the audience know how the sales process was back then leading up to our first project in Washington, D.C.? And how has that evolved over time?

I think, I'll do that. So the D.C. Water project is a project that -- it's one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the United States. It's in our nation's capital, and it is well respected within our -- within the country as being one of the premier facilities. So it was quite a challenge to convince them to go with some process that wasn't even installed in North America. But we started -- it took about 12 years to get them to decide to go with Cambi. It was kind of a big shocker to the industry, and it's turned out to be a hugely successful project. And we're very lucky to have our first installation at D.C. Water, because it gave us a tremendous amount of credibility in the North American market. But it did take 12 years to win the contract, another 3 years to get it up and running. And once it's up and running, lots of people go visit the facility and we have succeeded since then, and it's not easier now to sell Cambi system in North America.

So that's incredible. And as you said, it's been seen as a disruptive technology and then penetrating a market can be a challenge. But can you share some in that respect of insight into the markets in North America, where we have been particularly successful?

So I think our -- the biggest market -- the market for us that is most attractive tends to be the larger facilities. Mainly we could show much bigger savings for those plants. And so that helps to be able to drive the project going ahead to reduce the operating cost and we can reduce capital cost to build these facilities, because they're smaller, they're more efficient, intensified to essentially buy the thermal hydrolysis process. So it's much easier now. The sales cycle is much shorter. It takes a couple of years to convince somebody to go this way. And then it takes a couple of years, generally, they get the financing in place and get them ready to go out for bids and construction.

There's some long processes here, Paul. So which strategies have contributed to the success that you've seen after DC Water was operational?

Well, we try to approach those plants where we have the biggest benefits. And so that's any large plant that is not doing anaerobic digestion. That's the easiest win for us because, I guess, that would be -- earlier here, we provide capital savings and operating cost savings. So then the other -- the second target is those facilities that may already have anaerobic digesters and they won't need to increase capacity or create a regional sludge center, that's a very good market for us also, because those existing digester tanks can process 3x the amount of volume, the thermal hydrolysis and conventional digestion.

So in that, there's a number of customers that's got operating plants in North America. But could you share a customer success story that showcases the value our solutions bring to clients?

So DC Water is the perfect example. They went -- after putting in Thermal Hydrolysis, [indiscernible] go back at the very -- at part of the whole process in 2010, there was a report written by consulting firm, recommending Thermal Hydrolysis and projecting savings out over the next 20 to 30 years. Those savings have actually occurred. So we are 8 years into the project. And we have saved them well, they've saved $20 million roughly in the volume of solids that leave the plant. And then they saved another $15 million by reducing chemical costs, producing renewable electric energy that they use and also their cost per tonne, there they save money by -- they are now selling 30% of their biosolids rather than paying somebody to take a demand application.

We had some incredible benefits. Is that typically what you see with all customers, the magnitude of savings that we're seeing for DC Water? Or are there different drivers that you see from different customers, different regions?

So I see this on other facilities. We have a plant in Pontiac, Michigan, there we see equal to or greater savings than DC Water, and it's a much smaller facility. I mean it's less than 1 tonne per size of DC Water. So I do -- we do see that across the board. And the other market for us is creating regional sludge centers. And that's a little bit harder to quantify because you're going to put more through existing infrastructure. So volume reduction, it's a matter of -- you have to look at the whole sum of multiple plants contributing our sales to one facility, and you'll see the same savings.

This is a great journey that we've been through in your market, Paul. But if I'm asking you to try and summarize the key takeaways that you'd like investors and other stakeholders listening in to remember about Cambi's sales process and market position in North America in order to conclude, what will that be?

I think I'll start with it. We almost -- Cambi around the world has the flawless performance record. That bringing is great comfort to customers. But today's market, the fact that we produce renewable gas that can be used to -- for transportation fuel, for displaced -- fossil fuels for transportation. We produce -- you can produce renewable energy, you can produce renewable natural gas. That is where the world is headed today, reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. But that's not the end of the story. I think the more and also important is we are making a end product that people want. That is good for our farmers. It's sequestering carbon. And the fact that it has very low odor is one of the biggest benefits that they get, that's almost an intangible, but it's also reality is having -- and that's something leaving your wastewater treatment plant with a lot of waters that will fill that project or that will get shut down by the neighbors. And that's just simply not ever going to happen with thermal coal, with somebody who are in Thermal Hydrolysis.

Very, very good, Paul. This has been very insightful. I appreciate you joining us for this session. Thank you very much, Paul. Very interesting to learn more about the North American market. This supports what I mentioned previously that we are in a good space and that we are well positioned in an industry with tremendous investment needs in the markets where we are active. We have identified more than 3,000 plants which have the right size, local regulation and economic and environmental drivers in place for a good business case for our CambiTHP. Of these, we are actively pursuing about 10% and increasing this year being the most important bottleneck to ease through sales and marketing efforts in the coming years. Our Chairman, Per Lillebø, talked about the importance of staying focused. And to emphasize this, I want to spend a few minutes commenting on the recent press release where we announced the change in strategic direction related to our DBFO subsegment. Since the IPO, Cambi has had a communicated ambition to enter into plant ownership and operations through DBO projects. While we still believe the global private financing trend will be attractive and that Cambi would be in a strong position to enter into plant ownership and operations, Cambi will going forward reduce its effort to actively seek plant ownership. There are a few reasons for this, but the main one being neutrality. We see greater benefits in staying focused on securing more THP projects by going after the addressable market, I just showed you. We believe this is best achieved by staying neutral in public tenders, offering our solution to all bidders as opposed to teaming up with one partner exclusively. Mats will talk more about our new go-to-market strategy in a moment. The change in strategic priorities have not changed our focus to build on our scalable platform and increasing our recurring revenue. I have mostly talked about our technology segment, and I've touched on Grønn Vekst in my conversation with Bernd. But there's a tremendous growth potential in the services offerings from a growing installed base that I have not talked about. Mats will go through this in more detail. So Mats, please.

Thank you, Eirik, and good morning, everyone. We have a scalable platform, which is well positioned for growth going forward. And as a part of this, I would like to talk about our new business segments. As you might have seen from a recent press release, Cambi has decided to change its financial reporting structure. The name for the new business segments is Technology & Solutions. The Technology segment includes sales activities, R&D, manufacturing and the delivery of technology to our customers. The segment covers all phases until a plant has been commissioned and start operating for the first time. It consists of all the previously reported equipment subsegment in addition to allocated overhead costs, including general and admin costs that are not project specific. The Solutions segment includes all our value-adding services after the technology has been delivered and starts operating for the first time. This could include spare parts, upgrades, modernizations, end-of-life replacements, large capacity upgrades and various other services. The segment includes the previously reported services and recycling subsegments, plus its share of overhead costs. The new reporting structure will result in better alignment between company strategy, operations and financials. And another key motivation to change the business segments is to better illustrate the revenues and profits being generated from our installed base of customers. Historically, much of Cambi's revenue and profits have come from project deliveries. And although our projects have a duration over several years, they are one-off. So a new project has replaced the previous one to maintain the revenue levels. Over the last 2 decades, our installed base has grown considerably as more and more projects have been delivered around the world. We offer a range of services and solutions to all our customers who have purchased our equipment. Revenues from these after-sale activities are more stable and predictable. They are recurring by nature, which means that they are -- which mean that as a number of projects being delivered continues to grow, activities related to supporting customers is also expected to grow. Now I will spend a few minutes to explain more about the Technology segment. The segment covers all phases leading up to installation of our technology for the first time, meaning when the plant has been handed over to a new customer. All activities and orders following this event will belong to the Solution segment. So the Solution segment will also include scenarios where existing customers or new technology equipment as part of end-of-life replacements or large capacity upgrades. For example, one of our reference plants in Athens, Greece received its first product from us in 2015. And in 2022, we received a second order for the same plant as a part of a large upgrade project. In this example, the second order is a part of the Solution segment. The segment covers a broad range of sludge line investment scopes. Our scope can range from just delivering core technology as a subcontractor to being the main contractor and taking the entire scope of the sludge line project. The segment also covers the development and innovation of our technology through R&D. The segment will continuously investigate the potential for Thermal Hydrolysis in different configurations, applications and industries and make sure we have a strong patent portfolio protecting our competitive advantages and market position. The segment may also expand its product portfolio by acquiring complementary technologies. For example, we acquired complementary technologies from Veolia in 2022. And the financial performance for the segment is expected to be unevenly distributed. So let's take a closer look at the financials for the Technology segment. Here, we see the financial performance for the Technology segment, and it is impacted by a few things. Projects typically have a long duration, covering a few years from award to hand over to the customer and the timing of project delivery milestone being reached may vary. In addition, the timing of new order intake might also affect the financial performance. And the type of contract and scope that we take will affect the gross margins. And as you can see on the graph, long term, there is a positive development in key financials, but there will be various variations from quarter-to-quarter. And I would like to provide some context regarding this. We introduced our product as a disruptive technology decades ago, and we have developed the market in large parts ourselves. Our sales process within the segment is characterized by long sales cycles, typically ranging between 3 to 5 years with some examples being longer. And the decision process has limited transparency and may be impacted by political processes. And since the timing of when new projects are awarded is difficult to predict, we have been using 2-year targets in our communication. Overall, there is a positive and increasing trend for the segment, and we are prepared that the financial performance driven by timing of reaching milestones and being awarded new orders may have variations going forward. After several decades improving and developing our technology, we have standardized and modularized our technology solution, so it can be scaled to fit any customer need. We are able to cover population sizes from 50,000 and upwards, meaning that our products can be sold to every city around the world. Here, we see an overview of our models, ranging from our smallest capacity, the B2, to our largest capacity, the B12. And since the products are module-based, they can be combined in different configurations depending on customer needs. And there are economies of scale, meaning that the benefits are significant for large systems. As you heard earlier, we serve 50% of the U.K. population. And this is largely because they have large sludge treatment centers where our technology has a bigger impact. And we have further continued to standardize our efforts beyond our products sold. After many years of developing best practices, we have created a standardized sludge line concept, which you see on the left-hand side, which enables us to cost design and engineer greenfield projects more efficiently. Also, we have created a complete and standardized free treatment process, which is suitable as a retrofit for existing plants as we see on the right-hand side. We have a flexible delivery model when it comes to sludge line projects, who our customers can vary from project-to-project. There are different rules and disciplines that need to be covered for engineering, procurement and construction. We can act as a subcontractor delivering core scope, such as THP equipment and auxiliary equipment. But we can also take the main contractor scope, which include also mechanical and electrical work. And we usually take main contractor scope in nearby markets such as Norway and Denmark, as you have seen for the [indiscernible] project. But taking the main contractor scope can provide us with an attractive base workload for the organization. And as you have seen from a recent press release, we have announced a change in strategic direction related to the design, build and operate subsegment. We will no longer actively pursue developing a portfolio of DBO projects. However, this does not mean that we will exclude entering into DBO projects in the future. From now on, DBO projects will just be one of several alternative go-to-market strategies. We seek to engage in the sales activities that result in the fastest way possible in our products being sold. So our prioritized way of selling will be a sale of the core scope, the sale of services, the sale of broader sludge line scope and sale through financing options when it is attractive or needed such as lease of equipment or through DBO projects. So again, Cambi will still be open to invest in DBO projects going forward, but we will reduce our efforts in actively developing our portfolio of projects. So let's move over to the newly established solutions segment. The segment consists of value-adding services for customers after the delivery of technology. The segment will better illustrate the revenues and profits generated from our increasing installed base of customers. The segment will cover essential services, such as maintenance, repairs and operations support, making sure that the product keeps running smoothly over the life cycle of the product. This could be related to consumables, spare parts, maintenance and annual shutdowns, upgrades and modifications where we support with refurbishments and additional THP capacity deliveries. We have expert support and optimization analytics to improve the sludge line performance. And downstream with the recycling of biosolids, which can be turned into organic resources for agriculture. As for example, Grønn Vekst handles the biosolid product and produces bulk soil, which is sold at Norway. We also have producing -- we are also producing value-added soil brands for the consumer market, as you saw with the talk with Grønn Vekst earlier. Now we expect the segment to be more stable and predictable when it comes to financial performance. So let's take a look at the financial performance for the Solution segment. As can be seen, there's a very stable and upward trending development in key financials such as revenue, EBITDA and gross margin. And as the installed base grows, we have ambitions to continue to grow this segment. We expect this segment to be more predictable when it comes to timing of revenues compared to the Technology segment. However, we still expect seasonality in the revenue generation. This can be driven by receiving and delivering on new equipment orders for existing customers, annual shutdowns of sludge lines are typically being carried out during the summer months. And Grønn Vekst also has a higher sale of soil in the summer and spring months. The segment is diversified with both Grønn Vekst and services being a part of it, and it forms a strong recurring revenue base. So what are we doing to grow the Solution segment? For Grønn Vekst, as you heard earlier, we have plans to continue to expand with our investment in our brand new soil packing facility at [indiscernible] And for services, we have 4 key focus areas. We want to continue to expand essential services within our installed base. This means that we want to continue to develop and offer our services offering to all our customers. We have had a lot of growth here already, but there is still untapped potential in the installed base. For example, we have customers who order the equipment, but do not buy essential services from us. So we need to make sure our services offering is selected by all Cambi customers. We want to develop operations and maintenance offering. And this is where we provide our customers with peace of mind by taking care of daily operations and making sure everything keeps running safely and smoothly. We want to roll out remote monitoring and analytics services. This will enable immediate problem solving and advice based on live data. And analytics will provide quick and easy access to current and historical operations. We want to further professionalize our expert support and optimization service where customers can benefit from our expertise and experience from other plants around the world, and we can help customers with debottlenecking, efficiency assessment, safety improvements, operation optimization and analysis and so on. So let's move over to the next section. We can demonstrate a robust financial performance, which enables shareholder dividends. So let's take a look at the consolidated financial statements for Cambi. We have just looked at the financials for Solutions and Technology. And with both segments combined, we see a very positive development in our key financials. And we need to remember that for 2023, we are only looking at the first half figures. Revenues show a very strong development, trending upwards and the revenue reported so far in '23, is already higher than most of the previous years when it comes to full year revenue. EBITDA has had some years just above 0. But so far this year, it is higher than all previous full years combined. We also had a solid gross margin development. So let's spend a few minutes on some more insights into our financial development. Here, we see 2 charts showing the development over the last 12 months viewed per quarter since 2020. Our rolling 12-month period is useful for adjusting out some of the seasonal factors that I mentioned earlier. Revenues on the left-hand side had a strong development until the middle of '21, where we had 1 year of negative development before returning to a very strong development after that. As of Q2 2023, we have an all-time high last 12-month revenue. EBITDA, as you can see on the right-hand side, follows much of the same development as the revenues. And to understand this development, we have to split it into the business segments. And now we can very clearly see that the Solution segment is stable, predictable and trending upwards. And it is the Technology segment, which causes most of the fluctuation in the historical consolidated figures. And as I mentioned earlier, the Technology segment is more unevenly distributed, which is driven by 2 main things. It is the timing of reaching project delivery milestones for projects under execution, and it is the timing of being awarded new orders. Turning over to our balance sheet. We have a very strong financial position, which I also have mentioned in the last quarterly report presentations. Looking at our cash and cash equivalents development, which also include money market funds, we have been able to grow our business without having to utilize much of our liquidity reserves. In addition to funding operations, we must not forget that since the IPO, we have also used the funds to purchase complementary technology from Veolia, invest in the peat-free soil packing facility for Grønn Vekst and distribute shareholder dividends earlier this year. So we have been able to grow our business without spending cash reserves since growth is possible without significant working capital. Customer milestone payments differ a lot from customer-to-customer and project-to-project. But the milestone payment schedules normally provide sufficient funds to remain cash positive during project delivery. So on the left-hand side, I have included an example from one of our previous project deliveries. And here, we see the milestone payment schedule in percent and the duration of the project in months. And as you can see, almost 40% of the project value is received after only a few months. And the milestone payment triggers also vary a lot between projects. And here are some examples. A trigger can be the commencement date, documentation for execution, equipment pressure testing, delivery of main components, installation and commissioning. So the key message here is that in large, we are able to remain cash positive during project execution, which limits our need for working capital to fund growth. Our ability to grow the business with limited working capital and our change in strategic direction related to DBO projects brings us to another big announcement. The Board has proposed an extraordinary dividend of NOK 0.60 per share, which is equivalent to a total of around NOK 96 million. The dividend is subject to approval of an extraordinary general meeting. And this comes in addition to the ordinary dividend of NOK 24 million that was distributed in May. And this brings the total dividends in 2023 to NOK 0.75 per share. We are very pleased to being able to reward our shareholders and remain committed to continue to deliver strong operational and financial results for Cambi going forward. And when it comes to our previous communications regarding dividends, we reiterate our ambition to paying dividends in the range of 60% to 80% of net profits. This ambition is for the fiscal years 2023 and '24, and the dividend will be determined on the ordinary general meeting on the following year. So this concludes my walk-through of the section, and we are ready to summarize what we have talked about today.

Today, we have seen that Cambi is strongly positioned for value creation going forward. We are a global leader in wastewater sludge treatment solutions with solid track record. We have a proven thermal hydrolysis technology with a unique value proposition. We are strongly positioned in an attractive market supported by macro trends. We have a scalable platform positioned for future growth, and we have demonstrated a robust financial performance, which enables shareholder dividends. And with this, we are ready to open up for Q&A. So with me today to moderate this session, I have our colleague, Dragos Talvescu. Dragos?

Thank you, Eirik. We have already received several questions. We'll take the first one. Maybe the first to you, Eirik. To what extent do you expect a significant uptick in order intake to continue going forward?

The order intake that we've seen so far this year of about NOK 1 billion. It's not a good basis to assess what to expect in the next 7, 8 months. The order intake is not evenly distributed. And most of the order intake that we have secured so far this year happened after the second quarter close. That said, we have a strong order pipeline. It is growing. And in the longer run, we expect the growth to continue.

The second question maybe again to you, Eirik, is what type of projects, and in which regions do you see the best prospects for future order intake?

In general, I would say OECD countries and also mega cities. As you have seen, we have secured projects in many new countries in the last 2 years. So our focus is both on mega cities of the world and also OECD countries.

Thank you, Eirik. Maybe now we have a question for Mats actually. Can you comment on the increase in gross margin in the first half of 2023? And do you expect this level to continue going forward?

Yes. The increase in gross margin. We have been very happy to report a solid numbers for the beginning of the year. We have seen inflationary pressure and also supply chain reductions impacting this over the last few years. But we have been successful, I would say, in negotiating and including price escalation mechanisms in our contracts. So we are very happy to kind of protect our gross margins. And going forward, I would say we see pressure from market-to-market and also from project-to-project. So we will expect increased pressure on gross margins going forward.

Thank you, Mats. I would like to remind everyone that you can still send in questions by e-mail at [email protected]. I will go on now with the next question also to Mats. Can you comment on how you view the scalability of your cost base?

So I mean we have operational leverage, another contract on our top line, means that we will receive quite a lot on gross margin and EBITDA. However, we will see increased pressure on our project execution team. So our main bottleneck will be the customers. So I feel comfortable that we will be able to scale up the production if we receive more and more orders.

We have now a question that is a bit longer. Referring to Slide 12, where we show can be serving about 110 million people and serving maybe 115 million people in 2028. Then on the next slide, it seems to our viewer that we already serve all 115 million people today. So the question would be whether this was an error or we're only predicting a 5 million people increase until 2028. Maybe, Eirik, would you like to answer this?

Yes. So the 115 million people equivalent in 2028. That is based on the sold capacity as of today and the year that the plant will be commissioned. So as of today, we have several projects under execution that will be commissioned and then start operating. And that is where the 115 million comes from. So there may be a discrepancy on the slides. I don't have them in front of me, but the 115 million are not benefiting from CambiTHP today, but they will, once all plants are commissioned.

Thank you, Eirik, for that clarification. One more question now. This is regarding Grønn Vekst. What will it take for you to gain a higher market share within the upstream, respectively, and downstream markets?

Yes. So in the upstream market, we have a very strong market position with a market share of about 50%. The biggest potential for growth is in the downstream market with the peat-free soil bags and the market forever, the share we have today is very low. So the biggest growth opportunity in Grønn Vekst we see that in 3 years.

Thank you, Eirik. Next question is about the typical lead time from award to execution for our service contracts. Mats, would you like to enlighten us on that?

Sure. So Solutions, it consists of quite a lot of different activities with different lead times. We see that typical services there or consumables, they are very short lead times, just a few months. If you have maintenance and so on, it's longer lead times, if you talk about upgrades, we're talking about 3 months to maybe 18 months on lead time. But of course, there will also be, as the installed base continue to age, we do expect more end of life replacements. And the lead time there, I would say, it's more closely to the typical lead time you see in Technology projects, which are kind of very large upgrades that you can see.

Thank you, Mats. We now have not so many more questions left. You still have a bit of time to send them in at [email protected]. Meanwhile maybe also for you, Mats. Financials wise, is it correct to understand that the main change with the introduction of the 2 segments, Technology and Solutions, is moving services from what used to be Cambi Group to Cambi Invest?

Yes, that's correct. So the Technology segment will now consists of just the equipment subsegment in addition to allocated overhead costs and the Solutions segment will be the old recycling subsegment and the old services subsegment, but we also include the allocated overhead costs into that segment. So that's correct.

Thank you. We don't have any questions left unanswered for now. So I think I'll pass it back to Eirik.

Okay. Then we can round up. Thank you, everyone, for joining our Capital Markets Update. If you have any questions after this, of course, reach out to our investor e-mail or to us directly, we'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Have a great day ahead.