Magnora ASA (MGN) Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Magnora's Q4 and combined annual results report for 2025. I'm very pleased to say that we have had the highest growth ever in terms of origination. And we also entered the data center market, and we have some exciting news about the recent developments. Highlights and portfolio update. We increased our portfolio of data center, onshore wind and battery projects in attractive markets such as the Nordics, South Africa, Italy and Germany. Our development portfolio reached 10.4 gigawatts as of February 2026. That's 60% year-over-year growth from 2024. We have over 2,500 megawatts of mature stage development opportunities, which are sellable today. We have done a strategic shift towards data centers in the Nordic and secured net 210 megawatts of data center projects across Norway and Finland, and we're excited about developments also in Sweden. Gross 315 megawatts. We established a strategy early 2025, and we executed on the strategy through the year. Today, we own an operational data center in Halden, Norway. It's called Storespeed. It's been running for 20 years. It gives us an excellent position in the market. We have established a partnership model, collaborating with real estate developers, industrial players and other landowners. We've established a team and a development organization in Sweden with a serial entrepreneur. And we secured our first project in Finland, laying the foundation for further portfolio development in Finland. Local and international advisers have been engaged on a handful of transactions in mature stage. We currently in advanced dialogues above the 500 to 800-megawatt guided range from last year. Red Sands triggered a final milestone payment in 2025, and it became the largest BESS project to date when it was awarded in 2023 and financial close was last year, and they started shoveling in the ground in November. We also divested all shares in Hermana Holding, optimizing the group's portfolio and capital allocation towards renewables and data centers. We have a capital-light business model, and we're a profitable developer. We have 0 debt. We have a relatively low burn, solid cash position, a credit line from Nordea in Norway, combined cash of NOK 316 million at year-end, 21% return on equity since 2020, and we returned above NOK 1 billion to our shareholders in terms of cash and shares in Hermana over the years. 26% annual average shareholder return since 2020. Currently listed on the main board of Oslo Stock Exchange with around 6,600 shareholders. Some update on the various markets. We initiated a structured process end of last year in Italy, and we currently have 2 projects in the market of 175 megawatts, and we added 470 megawatts to the portfolio in Q4 last year. The first auction round last year in Italy, which we missed, offered 15-year fixed price agreements for operators who want to own the batteries. This is the market we develop for. Next auction is expected mid-2026. 10 gigawatt was awarded in 2025 and at least the same volume is expected in 2026. South Africa. We have focused on cluster sales and high premium wind in terms of new origination. We engaged an adviser last year for a sales process of a 500-megawatt cluster. The interest for this created interest for more content, and we're now in more advanced discussions regarding this portfolio sale than we were in December. We're assessing opportunities also in South Africa for the data center market. Since year-end, we've added 360 megawatts of new onshore wind projects in South Africa. The onshore wind market there is very exciting because it's rare to find these good opportunities, and it has good, better premiums, much better. At the state of nation in February 2026, this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa further unveiled the target of 50% of South Africa's electricity to come from renewables by 2030. That's a very ambitious target. Magnora has one of the largest independent development portfolios in the market with a high proportion of onshore wind assets. Our portfolio stood last week at 6,760 megawatts. Some local players believe the market will need more than 100,000 megawatts of new renewable energy by 2040. Germany, we added 650 megawatts during the quarter, a 400% increase from 150 megawatts in Q3. There is good discussions with clients and potential partners in Germany. We have engaged a very reputable adviser to help us with a structured sales process for our first BESS projects. The regulatory environment has also been changed from first come to first served to a first ready and first served model. It favors our integrated model with local stakeholders. During 2025, we established our data center strategy with a focus on Norway, Sweden and Finland. We're considering further growth in current and adjacent markets together with partners and potential customers. We have a diversified set of projects, different sizes, locations, operational readiness and timing. Our value offering should save clients for up to 2% to 3% -- 2 to 3 years of development and reduced risk. We're harvesting on our role as a data center operator. I'll get back to that later in the presentation. We work in collaboration with landowners, real estate players and industrial players. Back to the strategy. We initiated the strategy by launching a Swedish development team in Q3, then making an acquisition of Storespeed early Q4 and a partnership with Blix Solutions, who is a part owner in Storespeed. Then we announced our first large-scale project in Norway at the end of the year. And early in January, we announced a 120-megawatt project in Helsinki, Finland. We've also added another project in Norway recently, and we have a weekly deal flow with new land from all over the Nordics and Nord Pool area, above 1,500 megawatts of leads. Update on other markets. New wind and hydropower struggle with permitting in Norway. No new wind permits basically since 2019. So we're cost consciously maturing our 2 gigawatt portfolio of solar PV projects in Norway. We currently have ongoing commercial discussions with a few clients. The production profile for solar PV fits really well with data center peak demand, which is typically in the summer when the temperature is above 15 degrees. In England, we have 156 megawatts of fully permitted projects, which have been designated protected and passed Gate 2 in the grid reform. According to the local grid company, we should have a grid connection around 2028. We have engaged a financial adviser to manage the interest with multiple parties. In Scotland and ScotWind, we're advancing commercial discussions on the Talisk Wind project. This has come and been ignited by the recent order of the 1.8 gigawatt connection linked to the Western Isles, a very big investment by National Grid. Most recent government auction, AR7 resulted in 20 years contract as opposed to 15-year contracts before at the price around NOK 2.8 per kilowatt hour, quite attractive price. So looking back at 2025, we see 60% portfolio growth over the years. So it's the highest absolute numbers we've added ever in the history of the company, and this has come on the back of reduced cost over 2025. So it shows we have a platform and that we're able to create more stuff for less money. Here, you see our portfolio across data center, solar PV, battery system, wind. And remember, we also have the earn-outs from Helios and Evolar. So why work with Magnora and what do we do in the value chain. This is an example of data centers, but it's quite similar to onshore wind and solar PV. So the most critical items is the building permit, the zoning for the data center and the grid connection reservation date. But for end clients, it's also important to understand that the overall concept design fits with the site and that we also work with sales and clients. So for many local landowners who come from a different background, we have a complete value chain where we can handle all these issues, and we also understand regulatory compliance well. And being a listed Norwegian public company helps when you work with grid companies and municipalities because they want to know who the counterparty is that will own the project in the development stage. And typically, it's also an advantage for the buyer to know that a Norwegian company with a strong track record has developed this project. How do we do it? We work a lot with partnering with municipalities, industrial and real estate players, local landowners or unfunded smaller development teams. And what we can offer is the complete suite of workflow streams that's needed to secure the time line of the project. So the client typically buys the time line they believe in. Our focus is on projects around the capital of around 10 megawatts and above, but typically 50 megawatt plus. If we go too big, it's hard to manage the projects and get the grid connection in due time at least. So to showcase a little bit about our ecosystem and our competence. Peter Nygren is the founder of Arise Windpower. He worked at NCC with cooling systems and district heating systems, key processes to know when you're going to get permit for a project in Sweden and Finland, and it's increasingly important also in Norway to handle waste heat. Bjorn Drangsholt, he is the former Senior Adviser for Google and Statkraft. He worked on the 800-megawatt hyperscale center in Skien in Norway, so also very key. John Amundsen, the founder of Storespeed, is very well recognized in the Norwegian data and telecoms industry, worked for Digiplex, NATO, TETRA, Skagenfiber and has very good reputation in the market. As a co-investor in Storespeed, we have Erik Blickst, a self-made very successful data center operator with 2 data centers in Oslo and a broadband business. So this is part of the ecosystem, working with Magnora and our network of advisers to manage and develop data center sites in the Nordics. Here is a case example of our projects in the Helsinki area in the city of Hameenlinna. Here you see a very attractive site at Hard Rock, 100 megawatt, 20-megawatt project, less than 1 kilometer from the substation, excellent connectivity with multiple players providing fiber and also district heating system well developed in the city of Hameenlinna. So all these items are important to reduce the development time for a project. We were approved by the Finnish local government in December as a developer of this project. And it was very convenient for them and easy to approve us being a listed Norwegian company with proper ESG and good governance. Strategy is simple rules. We always try to stay with good people. We insist on early sales when we go into new business. We may have the opportunity to sell a project within the data center industry already in 2025. And we don't -- we remain agile and adaptable on the market opportunities that arise. As I mentioned, in adjacent markets and markets we're currently in, we're constantly looking at new good opportunities that fit our risk strategy model. Financial review. You see cost came a little down in 2025. Profit and loss impacted by the Hermana revenue that flowed through Magnora after the divestment. And profit before tax ended at NOK 12.2 million, down from NOK 269 million in 2024. We have accumulated carry loss forward from the previous business, Sevan Marine of NOK 3 billion and paid in capital of NOK 6.9 billion. So remember, Magnora has been profitable since day 1 and very low cost of origination. As I mentioned, we had 60% portfolio growth at stable or a little lower operating costs, and we're very proud of that. If you look at the cash flow, the ending cash balance at NOK 166.4 million. The net financing activities impacted by the Hermana flow-through, and we had net investment activities of NOK 52.6 million. Here's a slide about how we consolidate the portfolio companies. It's IFRS that's used, and we typically convert sales to full revenue over 0- to 24-month period depending on the project, the risk and the ready-to-build status. A little bit about the outlook. Magnora shifts financing and management attention to the segments where we get the highest return. We've done that throughout the history. We see that there are lower prices than expected in the Nordic markets. It's a safe markets where a lot of international companies like to do business. And on the back of this and the competence we have, we have focused on the data center market in the Nordics, Norway, Sweden and Finland in particular. We have a high focus on growth in Germany and Italy on battery storage and onshore wind in South Africa. As I mentioned, we're also in the early days of looking into data center development in South Africa being 300-megawatt market today already and expected to be around 2,000 megawatts by 2030. So previously, we have guided on exact what number for the year. We have been asked to provide a table for early stage, more mature stage and mature stage projects. So consenting stage is where you get all the permits and mature stage is when the consenting is sorted out. And basically, we've come to a number around 2,500 megawatts is currently for sale or under marketing or we have already engaged advisers to sell. So that's a number you can look at 2,500 megawatts out of the 10,400 megawatts. It doesn't necessarily mean that we will close all 2,500 this year, but this is a potential. So the factors that will determine what we will do is the achieved price, the risk on the milestone payments and various factors. Focus ahead. We believe that we can reach 12,000 megawatts, 12 gigawatts by end of year 2026. We're prioritizing data centers in the Nordics, BESS in Southern Europe, Central Europe and onshore wind in South Africa. As we mentioned in the press release in our numbers this morning, we consider strategic alternatives for further data center growth, and this has come on back of interest from market players, investors and advisers. We maintain strict project development and cost discipline in everything we do. And we execute on our mature development portfolio within renewables. Our range achieved sales price in South Africa for combined wind, solar and BESS in the clusters is within the guided range historically from NOK 0.5 million to NOK 1.5 million per megawatt. But introducing data centers, we can see that we can have an even higher price for the -- for our development projects as data centers has much higher CapEx and it's a very good interest for data center projects currently as many people have taken notice of. So we're moving from harvesting our renewable projects, moving our growth towards higher-margin areas, faster-growing areas. With that, I would like to thank you very much for your attention. I'll be at the SB1 Markets conference later today. And if you see me, take the opportunity to chat, I'll also be holding a short presentation there. With that, I would like to thank you very much for your patience and time. We look forward to a very exciting 2026. Thank you.