Glaston Oyj Abp (GLA1V) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello all, and welcome to Glaston's Financial Statements Webcast. My name is Agneta Selroos, and I'm in charge of Investor Relations here at Glaston. Today, CEO, Miika Appelqvis, will start with the Q4 and Full Year Highlights and the Market Review. After that, CEO, Magnus Sjoblom will continue with the financials. After the presentations, there is a Q&A session, please use the chat function for questions. If you cannot see the chat, please scroll down. And now over to you, Miika.

Thank you, Agneta. Let's go through together our quarter 4 and full year 2025 development. Now today, we will look at our quarter 4 and full year '25 highlights. We will look at how the market developed, of course, our financial development and then look at the outlook for this year. Let's start then from quarter 4 highlights. We continue to have a soft market environment. But we started to see also positive things happening in certain parts of the world, for example, in Middle East area. And as a result, we are happy about the fact that quarter 4 was been the strongest order intake quarter in 2025, and that resulted in EUR 48.8 million. Now due to the lower order intake of earlier quarters, which drive, of course, our net sales development, our net sales then in quarter 4 was down by 14% and totaled EUR 49 million. And profitability was, of course, affected then by the lower volume, and the comparable EBITDA was EUR 3 million with an EBITDA margin of 6.1%. Then if we look at our 2025, the full year highlights and raises from the year, what happened. Overall, regarding the market, Architectural markets remained soft throughout the year. That started already 2024 and continued to '25. In Mobility market, we could say that the boom of building the EV supply chain stabilized and -- but China remained moderately active still throughout the year of 2025. Order intake full year was down 13%, reflecting the slowdown, especially in the Architectural market. Net sales was full year down compared to 2024, 4% and totaled EUR 208.8 million. Comparable EBITDA full year 2025, EUR 14 million and the comparable earnings per share, EUR 15.1, while earnings per share EUR 2.8. The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that no dividend or repayment of capital shall be paid for the financial year of 2025. Other events worth mentioning about 2025, there was a CEO change in June 2025 and then because of the market environment and the declining orders during the summer in August, then Glaston launched an improved efficiency and cost reduction program. That was the quarter 4 and 2025, I would say, highlights and events. And then if we look a little bit the market environment, in what environment we are operating at the moment, and I tried to give an impression now and a view to the audience about how was the full year as well as what has been the changes for the quarter 4 in our main segments. Now let's start from the Architectural. I mentioned already that Architectural market, we started to see a slowdown already 2024 that is quite well visible also if we look at the building permits close to all around the world, which has plummeted already from -- starting from -- somewhere already starting from '23, but starting from '24. So reflecting to that, now in EMEA, for example, we started to see during the year, especially now during quarter 4 activity picking up a little bit. Last year, we had these colors a bit more red in EMEA. So especially, we can see that in Middle East, the activity level in Architectural segment is high. And we are happy to see that after a very long decline in building permits, in Europe as a whole, and EMEA area, now we can see a pickup, not big yet, but we can see still a trend change. And we can see that reflecting to our customers and how they see their business future. If you look at the Americas, Americas, of course, was a tough year, a lot of turbulence, political uncertainty, tariffs, of course, paint -- played a big picture in how our customers view the overall situation. And reflecting to that the full year was a very tough operating environment. And the customers were under very heavy operating uncertainty, and that's reflected, of course, into then the decision-making. But we saw that during quarter 4, there was also a positive development in how projects went forward. And we were a bit positive -- slightly positive about the direction, but of course, still a high uncertainty remains in that market. In China, Architectural market, overall, remains at very low levels compared to recent history. And that is visible. We are still happy to see that we continue to have success in China in our niche segment in specific Insulating Glass Technologies, which is very well received and that reflects also then to the color that even though the overall market is down, we are happy to have some success also in China, which we're very proud of. Rest of Asia Pacific has remained a tough operating environment for us in Architectural market. Then if we look at the Mobility. Mobility market and Automotive market and the whole value chain for the past year and 2 years, has been mostly dominated by the topic of EV disruption and supply chain emerging in China, and we have been part of that success in China in '24 orders. And now that boom has a little bit slowed down. And overall, we can say that Europe, EMEA and Americas are still suffering a lot on the overall situation of the market and our customers are very hesitant on investments and basically the question in many of our customers in this region is more that how do they keep the operations, utilization rate higher and keep the equipment running. Services is stable and a very important part of our business. And overall, now this year, about 40% of our net sales and EMEA has been a stable market for us in Services and continues to be super important for us when the equipment, the investment business is obviously volatile. So Service gives us excellent position to be close to the customers and also grow. In Americas, this has been especially strong, our value proposition in all our product groups in service has been very strong and development over there is very well received by the market, and we expect that to continue. China and APAC have been challenging service market for us to to operate in, with a growing installed base now in Mobility, we definitely target the growth, but the operating environment, overall, in Service in China is quite different and the overall picture in China is still tough in terms of Service growth. So that giving a bit of view on what is the operating environment at the moment. And now at the end of '25 and end of the year it's always good to reflect also how we have done against our strategic targets, which we have set in terms of EBITDA, profitability, return on capital employed and then -- and growth, of course, of the company. And then we have some nonfinancial targets. So I will go through what is our performance at the moment compared to those targets. Colors indicate that here very well already. So from the financial perspective, we cannot be happy. Our targets are significantly higher where we are today. We have not been able to grow as per our plans. This is our #1 target now to turn the company back to the growth track and now our net sales came down during '25. Profitability went down year-on-year to 6.7%, our target being 10%, so we cannot be happy. We are not in the target. However, with the decreasing net sales, we can say that the cost actions that we did were able to support the profitability. And that's why we are, let's say, relatively stable level still in terms of profitability. And that goes, of course, in line then with the returns on capital employed and that being relatively stable during the strategy period. And there, of course, our aim and target remains higher. Then regarding the nonfinancial targets, which we have in the customer satisfaction, safety, our employee engagement as well as then sustainability-related targets. There, we are very close to our target. We have been earlier significantly even above that. So the performance as such, 37. I don't consider that as a bad performance, but that continues to be a focus area because that's the way how we grow and how we can grow that each customer relations that we have. Regarding safety, these numbers as such, our ambition level is much higher, even though the trend is stable there -- the performance at this moment is not where we want to be and definitely continues to be on our agenda. And then employee engagement is we are very proud of. '25 was tough also in terms of all the cost saving actions that we were -- we needed to do in order to perform and align with the market situation. And despite of that, then our employee engagement remained then at good level actually, above the target level. So that is definitely positive. With our sustainability targets, we are -- according to -- what -- we are on the way, according to where we want to be, both in terms of Scope 1 and Scope 2, so our own emissions as well as then Scope 3, we are very well in line with the target we have set, the long-term target that we have set till 2032. So this is the review on strategical targets, how we have developed this company in recent years. And now I would like to invite Magnus to go through the financial development.

Thank you, Miika. So let's start with the order intake. The market continued to be soft and impacted Q4 order intake as well. Order intake improved from previous quarter being the strongest quarter for the year. However, was still on a low-ish level. The fourth quarter order intake was at EUR 48.8 million, which was 8% down from last year comparison period. Looking at the order intake by product area, we see tempering and laminating technologies that had a stronger quarter with 12.5 million orders received and was up 150% against a low comparison period. Increased market activity in Middle East was noted and gain orders included 5 Jumbo Series tempering lines. Despite the uncertainty-related tariffs order intake included RC and FC series tempering line orders from Americas as well. For IG, the order intake was down by 26% and landing at EUR 11.3 million. Here as well, Middle East was most active. Mobility Technologies at EUR 6.3 million, down by 43%, against a strong comparison period. Mobility heat treatment clients gained traction. And in Q4, '25, those included an order from Japan and India. Service orders decreased by 11% and were at EUR 18.2 million. Then moving on to the net sales. Q4 net sales at EUR 49 million and was down 14%. The net sales was impacted by the lower order intake from the beginning of the year. This leads us to a EUR 208.8 million for the full year, which was 4% down year-on-year. When looking at the net sales by region, Americas were at EUR 18.5 million, a decrease of 1% year-on-year, catering for 38% of the total revenue in the quarter. Strong Service net sales was offset by a decrease in machines. EMEA at EUR 20.5 million, and 42% of the total revenue, a decrease of 15% where biggest decrease was coming from Insulating Glass. APAC was down 28% against the comparison period and total net sales in Q4 '24. China share was 15% of the Glaston total net sales in Q4. Then moving to the profitability. Our comparable EBITDA was down and landing at EUR 3 million. Lower net sales impacted our profitability. The comparable EBITDA margin was down to 6.1% from 7.5% in the comparison period. I will now go into more details on the reporting segments. Let's then first start with the Architectural segment. The order intake in -- for Architectural segment, were up by 4% due to an improved order intake in tempering and laminating machines. Softness in the market affected order intake in Insulating Glass orders, which were down 26%. Services were down by 13% as the comparison period included several bigger upgrade orders from America. Water backlog decreased from EUR 70.3 million in the beginning of the year to EUR 46 million at the end of the year. Net sales were down 14%, tempering and laminating as well as Insulating Glass Technologies net sales were down 17% and 21% each due to the lower order intake from earlier this year. Service net sales were flat year-on-year. The comparable EBITDA margin went down by -- went down to 6.9% from 7.7% due to lower volume for the quarter as well as for the full year. The lower volume and margins affect the profitability development and was partly offset by our fixed cost management program that we have. Then Mobility, the order intake was down 32% against a strong comparison period. This quarter was pretty much in line with the full year decline of 33%. In comparison period, the preprocessing order intake was very strong compared to Q4 '25. MDSC treatment technologies orders, on the contrary, was gained from Japan and India. Net sales down by 10% and landing at EUR 9.7 million and being the lowest quarter of the year. Net sales declined due to lower order intake in the first half of '25. The comparable EBITDA was at EUR 0.2 million, with an increase from comparison period and full year improved and landed at EUR 1.5 million. Full year comparable EBITDA margin was at 3.2%. Profitability actions here as well taken during the year and positive project margin in China, enabled a positive result despite a lower net sales. Then we come to the cash flow. The operating cash flow was EUR 0.5 million positive in Q4 '25. However, full year operating cash flow was negative due to the weak Q2. Operating cash flow was -- has been impacted by a soft market throughout the year, meaning that the amount of advanced payments from the customers have been lower due to the lower order intake. Balance sheet reflect the negative net change in the cash flow. And during the year, hence gearing at 44%, however, 1% decline from previous quarter. That is, I guess, then my part, and I hand over to you, Miika.

Thank you, Magnus. Then last topic before the questions section, our outlook, Glaston's outlook for this year 2026. And our outlook is that we estimate that our net sales and comparable EBITDA will decrease in 2026 from the levels that we reported today about the financial year of 2025. And for reference, that we -- the figures we just went through, in 2025, our net sales totaled EUR 208.8 million and comparable EBITA was EUR 14 million. That is the present -- outlook part and the presentation part and now we are happy to receive questions.

Yes. Thank you, Miika. Thank you, Magnus. And as Miika already said, now we are ready for the questions.

And here is the first question for you. Uniglass was launched in late 2025 and with the idea to increase your addressable market. How has the market reacted to this new product?

Yes, not only product but full of brand to reach a larger target and addressable market. So Uniglass is a brand that includes several products that we also aim to expand the offering significantly now and during this year. And to the question, how it has been received, we have had a good amount of interest, both in terms of directly from the customers as well as then from our partners and new partner as well interested in kind of being part of that story. So I -- it's too early to say final words in a way. But I'm happy about how this has started, excellent case in a way the system that we introduced, both in terms of product positioning as well as the sales model is working quite well on how we anticipate it. And I see really good potential here for us to go forward and widen this.

Thank you. Then the next question is about the guidance. For your 2026 guidance, could you remind us what that decrease means to you, roughly in percentage point terms. Also what change would be considered as a significant decrease?

I can maybe at least start to answer. So we are not giving more detailed percentages in that one. But our business and net sales forecasting model is actually pretty simple. So we -- business more or less sell equipment and then related services. And the Service net sales is we estimate that to remain stable, and that continues to be our strong focus area. And while at the same time, then the orders received about half a year ago then can translate then to net sales about half a year after that. So now when we start the year with a bit EUR 60 million plus order book. And then obviously, we will go quarter-by-quarter, then our order development in each of the releases. So from there, it's quite easy to follow the net sales develop -- net sales forecast development at the same time.

Magnus, do you have something to add to this?

No, I think that was good answer.

Okay. And then we have a question about the Service or the Service markets. You say that the service markets are expected to develop positively. Could you please elaborate on that one.

Absolutely. I mean we can be happy already about kind of the development during '25, now it is 40%. I mean Service overall is 40% of our net sales, which I think is a good number. But we don't want to, first of all, stop there. We want the other part to grow as well, the equipment part. But also in Services, we do have significant potential in how we believe we can scale and grow our business in all parts of the Service offering, whether that being maintenance services, maintenance contracts, parts or upgrades where we see significant potential for us to continue the steady growth. We don't expect our Service business to have significant rocket growth, but we estimate that to develop positively, and we have a very good base to build on.

Thank you. And actually, these were all the questions we received. So this then concludes our session for today. So thank you, Miika. Thank you, Magnus, and thank you for the questions. And I want to thank you all for following this webcast and wish you a lovely rest of the day. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.