Elmera Group ASA (ELMRA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone, to Elmera Group's First Quarter Results Presentation. My name is Morten Opdal, Investor Relations at Elmera, and I will be guiding you through today's presentation. Today's event is a webcast-only. And unfortunately, we have some technical issues with the Q&A functionality, so if you have any questions to the material presentation, please reach out to me after the presentation. Today's presenters will be our CEO, Rolf Barmen; and our CFO, Henning Nordgulen, and we are starting off with Mr. Rolf Barmen.

Thank you, Morten, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with the highlights this quarter. It is a pleasure for me to present what I consider to be strong results with year-on-year growth in both adjusted net revenue and EBIT. Net revenue adjusted was NOK 534 million in the quarter, up 8% year-on-year, while EBIT adjusted was NOK 198 million, an increase of 15% year-on-year. The phase-out strategy for the variable products in the Consumer segment has been well executed in the quarter, and the portfolio now constitutes 8% of the Consumer segment's deliveries at quarter end. The risk margin covered the realized risk in the quarter and also contributed to balance some of the losses from fourth quarter '22 and had a significant positive impact on the quarterly results. The Business segment is performing well with consistent financial results as well as significant organic growth of 8,000 deliveries, so 7% in the quarter. This is the highest organic growth since the second quarter in 2018. Moving on to the Nordic segment, which is on a positive trend from last quarter. Since the shift in the energy prices in fourth quarter '21, the segment's portfolio of fixed price contracts has suffered from increased profile costs. We initiated a sales stop and phase-out strategy for this portfolio shortly after. And at the end of this quarter, most of the contracts and fixed price contracts with volume and profile risk has been phased out, reducing the risk for losses going forward. The cost efficiency program is progressing according to plan. Our CFO, Henning, will go into further details in his part of the presentation. The transaction with Telia regarding our mobile service provider business was completed in April, and finally, a dividend of NOK 1.5 per share has now been distributed to our shareholders following the approval from the Annual General Meeting at the end of April. The chart to the right shows the system price development. The various areas prices that we actually purchased the electricity for differ from this, but this serves as a good proxy for the general price development in the different price areas. As you can read from the chart, the Elspot price has remained at a relatively high level in the first quarter, albeit significantly lower than the previous quarters. Variations in power generation from wind power was one of the main drivers behind the price volatility in the quarter. However, the volatility this quarter was more in line with the historical normal and significantly reduced from the last 2 quarters. Looking ahead, the risk of gas shortage for the upcoming winter is lower due to high European gas storage levels. The market situation in the quarter has contributed to reduced risk in the variable contract portfolio and in the residual fixed price portfolio in the Nordic segment, positively affecting results. Next, I would like to provide you with some further details regarding the Telia transaction. As part of the transaction, Fjordkraft Mobil AS has been demerged from Fjordkraft AS and Telia has acquired a 39% stake in a mobile company. In accordance with the agreement, Telia has paid NOK 115 million at the time of the transaction. An additional payment is conjugant upon the number of successfully migrated customers exceeding 90%. And mobile customers in the demerged company will be operated through Telia's network and Fjordkraft AS will deliver customer service operations and branding. The customer migration is expected to be completed in the second quarter. Number of electricity deliveries in the Consumer segment is stable from last year -- from last quarter, excuse me, amounting to 684,000 deliveries, while volumes sold was 2.75 terawatt hour, an increase of 4% from first quarter '22. The Business segment comprised 128,000 electricity deliveries at quarter end, a strong growth with an increase of 8,000 deliveries from last quarter. The volumes sold in the quarter was 2.4 terawatt hour, an increase of 10% from first quarter '22. The Nordic segment's customer portfolio decreased by 15,000 deliveries in the quarter, driven by phase-out of nonstrategic customers. Volumes sold was 657 gigawatt hour in the quarter, a reduction year-on-year, also driven by the same phase-outs. Before moving on to the financials, I would like to comment on the most important activities in the group's new growth initiatives, where you see many positive developments. Firstly, the mobile business will transition from breakeven to cash positive following the migration to Telia's network. We now have successfully built on assets through organic efforts, and we'll be reaping the benefits of this both through the consideration of part of the shares, but also through positive cash flow from operations. The smartphone app that we provide to our Alliance partners has a high penetration rate and is proving to be a strong selling point when negotiating with prospective partners. And -- but the pipeline in the Soleklart concept, providing customers with solar panels, continues to be strong. Steddi is our brand for offering payment solutions to our customers. A commercial launch of the service that offers customers to pay the same monthly amount for their electricity consumption regardless of usage patterns and price fluctuations is scheduled in the second quarter. And finally, our rating and billing company, AllRate, is piloting a service offering for Norwegian power grid companies, which can represent the new revenue stream and a new market for that part of our business. That's all for me for now. Please welcome our CFO, Henning Nordgulen, who shall take us through the financial performance this quarter.

Thank you, Rolf. And starting on the left-hand side, net revenue adjusted increased by 8% year-on-year to NOK 534 million. All segments contributed to the revenue growth with the Nordic segment representing the best improvement in this quarter. On the right-hand side, EBIT adjusted came in at NOK 198 million, where strong margins in the Consumer segment was the main driver behind the increase from the first quarter of 2022. EBIT adjusted over the last 12 months was NOK 485 million, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 28%, a slight increase from the full year of 2022. One-off items in the quarter include severance packages of NOK 5 million and implementation costs relating to the Telia transaction of NOK 7 million. These are presented in Note 2 to the financial statements. Going over to the segments. The net revenue developed in the Consumer segment was positively affected by the phase-out strategy on the variable products. The risk margin in the quarter was sufficient to cover realized risk and also balance some of the losses from the portfolio in Q4 of 2022. The effect of hedging also improved compared to the previous quarter. In addition, price increases on spot contracts contributed to net revenue growth. EBIT adjusted came in at NOK 100 million in the quarter, a NOK 30 million increase from Q1 2022, primarily due to a reduction in operating expenses. The Business segment showed growth in adjusted net revenue from NOK 166 million in the first quarter of '22 to NOK 176 million. Increased margin from power sales was the main growth driver in the quarter. EBIT adjusted ended at NOK 96 million, a decrease from NOK 105 million in '22, driven by an increase in costs, mainly related to development of digital solutions for our business customers. In the Nordic segment, we see positive trends. The net revenue was NOK 50 million in the quarter, which was a significant improvement both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. This was driven by lower profile costs on the legacy fixed price contract portfolio. The majority of volume with associated profile risk is now phased out and the risk going forward is materially reduced compared to what we have experienced over the last 6 quarters. In the New Growth Initiatives segment, the increase in revenue stems from the Alliance business, while growth-related costs within solar panel solutions and AllRate reduced EBIT slightly year-on-year. In our Q4 reporting, we introduced a cost-efficiency program targeting a NOK 100 million reduction in run rate OpEx at year-end 2023 compared to year-end 2022. As Rolf explained initially, the program is progressing as scheduled. We have already initiated several measures. The number of call centers in Norway will be reduced from 5 to 2, and we will centralize the operations in Bergen and Sandefjord through this process and the general reduction in the workforce, we are reducing FTEs by more than 10%. We now continue with our plan to reduce complexity in operations, harmonize IT platforms and streamline processes. In connection with these activities, we will have moderate one-offs also in Q2. Then turning to working capital. The net working capital was NOK 900 million at quarter end, up from NOK 533 million at year-end 2022. There are no changes in the underlying net working capital requirement of business processes driving the change. Fluctuations in the invoicing patterns and our power purchase settlement affect the net working capital. As Elspot prices have remained relatively high and interest rates have increased, we have opted to settle power purchases early in order to reduce related interest expenses. And as the accounts payable related to our supplier [indiscernible] are classified as net working capital, this increased working capital in the quarter, but then again had a positive impact on the group's financing costs, as you can also see in the P&L statements. The group's net working capital decreased seasonally with lower volumes, and we expect net working capital to be significantly lower when we report the second quarter. And on the right-hand side, net interest-bearing debt increased in the quarter, also driven by the change in net working capital. However, the cash flow from operations, excluding the change in net working capital was strong in the quarter. Overall, we are satisfied with the development in the balance sheet and the equity ratio during Q1, and we have the necessary facilities to manage our working capital and liquidity. And with that, I give the word back to you, Rolf.

Thank you very much, Henning. Before we delve deeper into the strategic focus areas and ongoing activities, let me remind you what Elmera Group is. Elmera Group is the parent for a portfolio of companies within distribution of electric power and related services. We were founded as Fjordkraft in 2001 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2018 under the name of Fjordkraft Holding ASA. Our core activity is to sell electric power risk mitigating products and related services. This activity comprises the 4 brands, top right, serving the B2C and B2B end users market in Norway, Sweden and Finland. KraftAlliansen is a wholesale power purchase intermediary for an alliance of around 30 regional distributors with over 200,000 customers. AllRate of our services related to rating and billing and digital services to end-user companies outside the Elmera Group with around 80,000 electricity deliveries and 30,000 broadband customers and is now also piloting similar solutions through power grid companies. Steddi is our enterprise offering payment-related solutions to retail customers. Fjordkraft Mobil is our mobile business, a joint venture, as you know, with Telia now as having the ownership of 39%. And finally, Metzum, a 40% affiliate and a tech company, delivering cloud-based rating and billing software to both retail and equity companies. Our strategic focus areas and following key activities are clear. When it comes to net revenue growth, we are focused on replicating our successful commercial solutions from Norway into Sweden and Finland, and this goes both for the Consumer segment and the Business segment. Our cross-brand and country business sales organization is in place, and we see results both in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Product management always plays a big part when it comes to growing net revenue. We have reduced complexity in our product mix, but even more important is to strengthen our value propositions by introducing new products and services. Our risk mitigating product introduced to the consumer market in 2022, [indiscernible], has been very popular, and we look forward to launching Steddi products for the Norwegian customer market -- consumer customer market before summer, which can level out the electricity bill evenly during the year. Regarding the Business segment, we observed that the bilateral fixed price contracts which we launched just before Christmas in cooperation with Statkraft are picking up speed now as the price level is coming down. When it comes to cost efficiency, we have, as Henning mentioned, introduced a cost efficiency program, which targets NOK 100 million run rate reduction in OpEx at year-end '23 compared to year end '22. Accretive acquisitions also play an important role to our cost efficiency agenda. This is a numbers game. And the size of the customer base served by our IT systems is crucial when investment decision is being made. Finally, new business brings us new revenue streams. Our mobile services will improve both profitability and value proposition due to our joint initiative with Telia. Demand for solar panels in the Norwegian market continues to be strong, and we have partnered with Solcellespesialisten, the largest player in the market space. Together, we will win market shares both in the Consumer and the Business segment by increasing our sales activity significantly and securing procurement and installation capacity accordingly. AllRate is developing the business through pilots in the grid companies segment. And this is a very exciting opportunity for the group as it is a market is currently underserved and therefore, represents a very interesting growth potential to AllRate, but also to Metzum. Steddi Payments will later this year start offering payment solutions also to other retail companies outside of Elmera Group, ,and as mentioned, we certainly believe that the service offered by Steddi will help consumer customers to level out the burden of electricity bills throughout the year. Final remarks for me. First quarter, a strong quarter. Ongoing activity is progressing well. Most important is the phaseout of variable products is successful. Once completed, the phase-out will decrease revenues, but it will also reduce risk. The Telia transaction is completed, securing fees, profitability from our mobile service. Steddi services will be commercially launched in second quarter. The cost program progresses as planned. Business segment continues to deliver strong financial results. And operationally, we will continue to focus on our cross-border expansion and further development of our products and services. And finally, the Nordic segment is in a much better state now than compared to a few quarters ago. Thank you very much for now. Morten, the word is you to conclude.

Thank you, Rolf, and thank you, Henning. And thank you all for your attention. That concludes our presentation today. Again, we apologize for the technical issues. And I repeat, if you have any questions, please reach out to me. We also have some availability today and tomorrow, if you want to set up a meeting. So thank you all, and we wish you all a nice day. Have a nice day.