Elmera Group ASA ($ELMRA)

Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2026 presentation. My name is Rolf Barmen, CEO of the group. Our CFO, Henning Nordgulen, is, as usual, with me and will take you through the financials. Also joining us is Morten Opdal, Head of Investor Relations, who will coordinate questions during the Q&A session. This quarter was really a quarter filled with highlights. We delivered strong operational development across the group with higher adjusted EBIT year-on-year across all segments. In Consumer, we saw strong customer growth in the quarter and deliveries increased by 20,000 over the last 12 months. Volumes were clearly supported by colder weather in January and February as well as continued higher consumption among customers on Norgespris. When it comes to the Business segment, both net revenue and adjusted EBIT reached record high levels in first quarter, demonstrating very strong execution and earnings quality. In Nordic, operating profit improved year-on-year, supported by lower OpEx. The quarter also marked an important strategic step with the acquisition of Telinet Energi, which increases our footprint in the Nordic market and strengthen the scale of our Nordic platform. And finally, in New Growth initiatives, in-sourcing of the power trading function contributed positively in the quarter, while strong sales performance supported net Mobile subscription growth. All in all, a great start on 2026. And with that, I will hand over to Henning, who will take you through the financial review before I return to give you more information on the Telinet acquisition and from that, a revision of our outlook. So the floor is yours, Henning.

Thank you, Rolf, and good morning to you all. So let's start off with the key financials. Net revenue adjusted was NOK 527 million in the quarter compared to NOK 502 million in Q1 of last year. Adjusted EBIT was NOK 201 million, up from NOK 174 million, reflecting the strong financial development across the group. On a last 12-month basis, net revenue adjusted was NOK 1.711 billion, while adjusted EBIT was NOK 514 million. Adjusted OpEx came in at NOK 325 million, slightly below last year, and the last 12 months adjusted OpEx was just below NOK 1.2 billion. Payments to obtain new contracts were NOK 37 million in the quarter compared to NOK 32 million in Q1 of 2025. Net working capital decreased by NOK 238 million quarter-on-quarter. And as we have communicated previously, the year-on-year comparison is affected by changes in the financing structure, while the underlying leverage remains unchanged. Net financial cost amounted to NOK 73 million compared to NOK 49 million last year. The increase was primarily due to higher elspot prices and higher volumes in the quarter. A technical comment on Telinet before I move on. The transaction closed on 31st March 2026. So the quarter end balance sheet reflects the acquisition and the reported deliveries at quarter end includes Telinet 65,000 deliveries. Apart from certain acquisition-related costs, the acquisition had no impact on earnings in Q1, but will be included in the group's P&L from Q2. So turn to the market development, starting on the left-hand side, you can see that weekly elspot prices were significantly higher than in the same period of last year and particularly through the early part of the quarter. This supported revenue development in the business segment, including credit compensation, but also increased financing costs and added pressure on margins in part of the consumer portfolio. On the right-hand side, you can see that supply switching activity in Norway was moderate through the quarter compared to the heightened levels we experienced around implementation of Norgespris last autumn. Let's then go to the Consumer segment. And this was a quarter with strong operational development in Consumer. Successful campaign activity delivered solid customer growth and the segment ended the quarter with 679,000 deliveries, up 6,000 in the quarter and up 20,000 over the last 12 months. Volumes sold increased 16% year-on-year, driven by higher average consumption due to colder weather. The quarter also benefited from continued higher consumption among customers with Norgespris. So overall, we are seeing a very positive commercial traction and growth in the segment. Net revenue declined slightly year-on-year to NOK 238 million, down from NOK 240 million, while adjusted EBIT was NOK 82 million versus NOK 81 million in the first quarter of last year. So while the volume picture was strong, the financials were fairly stable, and this was due to product mix changes, campaign activities and high elspot prices. To summarize, customer development is strong, commercial momentum is robust, and the segment remains very well positioned going forward. Turning to Business. Business delivered another very strong quarter financially. Net revenue adjusted reached NOK 193 million, up from NOK 163 million last year, and adjusted EBIT increased to NOK 105 million from NOK 86 million in the first quarter of 2025. Both net revenue and adjusted EBIT were record highs for the segment. This was achieved even though deliveries declined to 124,000 and volumes sold was down 3% year-on-year. The decrease reflects our reduced exposure in the low-margin tender market. At the same time, underlying average consumption increased due to the colder weather. Higher elspot prices also supported net revenue through increased credit compensation. OpEx was temporarily somewhat high in the quarter due to increased sales and marketing costs. Overall, the segment continues to execute very well, combining disciplined portfolio management with strong financial performance. Then moving to the Nordic segment. Adjusted EBIT improved year-on-year to NOK 9 million from NOK 4 million, supported by lower OpEx. Net revenue adjusted was NOK 53 million, down from NOK 59 million, mainly due to credit and hedging losses. Volumes sold was stable year-on-year, as higher B2C consumption offset the reduction in B2B volumes. At quarter end, the Nordic segment included 176,000 deliveries, of which 65,000 related to Telinet Energi acquired on 31st March 2026. Organically, deliveries were slightly down quarter-on-quarter, reflecting seasonally lower demand for spot-based contracts during the winter. We expect growth to pick up, as demand for spot products is generally stronger during the spring and summer season. OpEx decreased by NOK 12 million year-on-year, driven by decreased amortization of contract assets, as CPO spend has been significantly reduced over time. Then the last segment, New Growth initiatives. The segment delivered a positive quarter. Net revenue increased by NOK 3 million year-on-year to NOK 43 million, also positively impacted by effects from our power trading units. We also saw strong sales performance in Mobile, resulting in net subscription growth of 3,000 in the quarter with the number of mobile subscriptions ending at 114,000. Alliance volume also increased 13% year-on-year, and adjusted EBIT in the segment came in at NOK 5 million, up from NOK 4 million last year. Then finally, some comments on net working capital and net cash. Net working capital on the left-hand side was NOK 1.152 billion at the end of the quarter, corresponding to a quarter-on-quarter decrease of NOK 238 million, also a result of the inclusion of the Telinet balance sheet. As mentioned earlier, the reported year-on-year comparison continues to be affected by the replacement of interest-bearing supply credit with bank facilities. Cash EBIT adjusted in the quarter was NOK 202 million, in line with adjusted EBIT and net debt at the end of March was NOK 1.859 billion compared to NOK 1.893 billion at year-end. The quarter was also affected by the cash outflow related to the acquisition of Telinet Energi, which was primarily financed through an increase in the term loan facility. And that concludes the financial review, and I hand the floor back to you, Rolf.

Thank you very much, Henning. Before I turn to the outlook slide, I'd like to give you some more details on the Telinet acquisition. It has been more than 5 years since our last major acquisition. M&A has been and has remained an important part of our growth strategy, but we have been disciplined in our approach and the right combination of strategic fit, timing and valuation has not materialized in recent years. Therefore, we are very pleased to have successfully acquired Telinet Energi and the transaction was closed at the end of first quarter. Telinet is a Swedish electricity B2C retailer headquartered in Stockholm with around 65,000 deliveries, annual volume of approximately 700 gigawatt hour and 27 employees and a very competent management team that has been running the company for more than 10 years. The company has an attractive customer base characterized by high consumption, predominantly spot-based contracts and low market and counterparty risk, a key consideration for us when evaluating acquisitions, particularly outside Norway. Strategically, the acquisition is a strong fit with Elmera Group. It strengthens our Nordic operating leverage and allows us to capitalize further on the investment we already have made in our pan-Nordic IT platform. The valuation corresponds to an EV/EBIT multiple of 5.2, including synergies, which we consider very attractive. Looking at the combined Nordic platform after the acquisition, as illustrated in the bar chart to the right, Telinet adds important scale in Swedish B2C, a market we previously operated subscale. Including Telinet, our Nordic segment now comprises approximately 175,000 deliveries across B2C and B2B in Sweden and Finland with annual volume estimated at around 2.2 terawatt hour. This gives us a broader and more balanced Nordic retail footprint, well set up for further growth. Telinet will be reported as part of the Nordic segment, and we look forward to telling you more about how the acquisition performs financially from next quarter. And that brings me to our outlook section. We increased the group's EBIT adjusted target to NOK 575 million, Telinet contribution included. Rest of the target remains unchanged. So to sum up, we have had a really good start to the year. Business performed particularly strong. Consumer delivered excellent customer momentum, so does Fjordkraft Mobil. Nordic is back on track and Telinet strengthens our Nordic platform for further growth. So I welcome Henning to the stage again. And Morten, do you have any incoming questions for us?

We have some questions. We can start with a couple of questions regarding net revenue development in the Consumer segment. Why does net revenue decrease in the Consumer segment, despite significant increase in volumes year-over-year?

Well, we highlight 2 main drivers in the presentation, campaign activities, campaign products with a reduced margin in the defined period and product mix changes. Reduced volumes in the variable portfolio in combination with the high elspot prices has resulted in a reduced margin contribution on that product line. However, the underlying customer growth in the segment is very strong. The risk in the portfolio has been reduced significantly over the last years. And from our perspective, we are in an excellent position for further profitable growth in Consumer.

Thank you. The next question is on the net financial costs. Net financing costs increased to NOK 73 million in the quarter. Can you explain the development?

This is primarily driven by the gross revenue. Our gross revenue or turnover increased by over 60% year-on-year. This was driven by the increased elspot prices and the increased volumes. And as we invoice our customers in arrear and finance their power consumption, this drives net working capital costs. There has also been an effect from the changes in our financing structure and the sourcing strategy following the sourcing -- in-sourcing of power trading from May last year, primarily as the margin in the external financing is slightly higher than the interest-bearing supply arrangement, but the majority is driven by the increase in gross revenue.

The next question is as following: Could you elaborate on the reasons for terminating the market access agreement with Statkraft? Additionally, are there any plans to reintroduce or implement a similar market access agreement in the future?

We have commented on this a couple of times. For us, as an electricity retailer, power trading and being a balancing responsible party of ourselves has become a key business process in an increasingly more volatile world, which is why we obviously decided to in-source the function. It enabled us to improve accuracy in our forecasting, significantly positively affecting our balancing costs among other things. We still have an agreement with Statkraft, but in smaller scale than before, and we also do bilateral trading with other partners to optimize our power purchase.

One question on the outlook. You maintain your organic outlook if we exclude the Telinet impact despite the strong first quarter with record high volumes. Why?

We are very satisfied with a strong start to 2026, where volumes have been supported. However, we took into consideration the volumes and the forecast as per mid of February when we announced our guidance. And March has, as we all know, been the warmest to ever be recorded in Norway. So other than that, the key assumptions behind our targets have remained fairly consistent. And thus, we have remained disciplined when it comes to our guidance, while we certainly appreciate the strong start of the year.

Thank you. We have a question on Norgespris. With 6 months of Norgespris, what have you learned? And do you consider it to be positive or negative for Elmera?

We have learned that Norgespris is good for the customers. And we also have learned that we are very competitive in this new area. We win customers, as you have seen from the last quarter. But we have also seen that Norgespris has had an impact on the variable portfolio as we foresaw in our [ first ] quarter presentation. But all in all, very good for the customers. And that is also then good for us, obviously.

Question on costs in the Nordic segment. Can you give some more color on the lower costs in the segment? And how do you expect this to develop going forward?

So the cost reduction year-on-year, as we commented on -- in the review, this was primarily a reduction of amortization of contract assets. So we have -- historically have had quite significant CPO cash spend, which we then capitalized and amortized over the expected duration of the underlying contracts. Levels, particularly in 2021 and '22, were high, that carried on for a number of years. And as we have discussed in our earnings calls and meetings over the last years, eventually, these are amortized. So it's an effect of amortizing and reducing over time, much as we had expected.

Thank you. We have a more detailed question on net working capital regarding the increase in financial costs from NOK 49 million to NOK 73 million year-on-year. Which of these -- which of the drivers should be viewed as temporarily versus structural changes?

Clearly, the volume and the price level is the absolute major driver in the quarter. And as you can also see from the notes in the quarterly reports and comments on our balance sheet that we have made use of our backup facilities, as a result of the increased turnover and the fact that we prefinanced the customers' consumption. So the margin difference is not very significant actually. It's more of a business nature and in that respect, temporarily. So we would expect obviously significantly reduced financing costs in the remaining quarters.

Okay. That concludes the Q&A session. We would like to thank you all for your attention, and have a nice day.

Have a nice day. Bye-bye.