Nekkar ASA (NKR) Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. I'm Ole Falk Hansen, the CEO of Nekkar. Welcome to this fourth quarter presentation for Nekkar. Later on, Marianne will present the financials for the fourth quarter before we will round off with some Q&A after the presentation. So let's get started. As a reminder, Nekkar is a long-term industrial company builder focused on ocean-based technology companies. The Nekkar Group consists of 5 operating companies. There has been no changes to the portfolio during the last year, but we are having multiple processes ongoing at the moment to both broaden our portfolio and also deepen our existing investments. In 2025, you will see that the revenue mix is more diversified across our 5 operating companies. The Nekkar operational companies are exposed to mainly 4 main markets, with defense and maritime being the largest. The target market revenue mix is also fairly balanced across these 4, providing a good diversification. Let's look at some of the highlights for fourth quarter. Starting from the left side. During the fourth quarter, FiiZK successfully completed its delivery of 2 Protectus closed containment systems to Mowi. These are now installed at Mowi's Slattenes location, where salmon has been introduced and is performing well. In parallel, we were also very pleased to announce during the fourth quarter that FiiZK was awarded a delivery from an undisclosed Norwegian fish farmer for 4 additional Protectus closed containment systems. We are now able to confirm that the customer for these were also Mowi. And this order highlights the confidence placed in FiiZK by our customers, but also FiiZK's driving role in the market for closed containment system. This morning, we announced the agreement signed by InteliWell, the JV between Intellilift and Transocean for drilling automation solutions on 11 offshore rigs for an unnamed rig operator. Installations are due to commence during the second quarter this year and will be rolled out over a 30-month period. Once installed, the software will be on a 10-year contract with SaaS elements. Furthermore, in the fourth quarter, InteliWell secured contracts for 3 new rigs. This impacts a scaling up of the SaaS revenue as these rigs goes live with InteliWell software through the first half of 2026. Let's look on some of the key financials for the fourth quarter. Revenue for Nekkar came in at close to NOK 200 million which is up from NOK 181 million same quarter last year. And the EBITDA ended at NOK 23 million for the group, which is slightly behind last year's figure, but a solid improvement from previous quarters this year. Net profit was negative of NOK 11 million, impacted by FiiZK finalizing its delivery of market entry projects and also for SkyWalker, where we have recognized a noncash impairment reflecting low commercial potential in the technology. Nekkar continues to enjoy a strong balance sheet with solid cash of NOK 150 million, nearly NOK 100 million in treasury shares and no debt. The order intake was NOK 122 million in the quarter, driven by announced orders in Syncrolift and Intellilift. And cash flow from business was negative of NOK 1 million, driven by working capital drivers. On the fourth quarter, revenue is above recent levels throughout 2025, but still low due to the order backlog situation in Syncrolift while most other companies are experiencing steady growth. The EBITDA is still below our historical track record, but is expected to continue improving as legacy projects in Techano will wrap up. The negative profitability impact continues to be driven by the Techano legacy projects with additional costs. And also the volume contribution from Syncrolift continue to be low as we await further awards in the market space. In general, we continue to see a positive underlying development in our operating companies for the coming quarter and the year to come. However, given Nekkar's business activities, there will be quarterly fluctuations due to phasing of projects, project mix and other factors. The order intake were NOK 122 million in the fourth quarter, which was driven by Syncrolift, where the previously communicated service contract from the Indian Navy, dominated the order intake as well as announced rig contracts in InteliWell in the quarter. The order backlog at the end of Q4 was NOK 678 million, which continues to provide decent visibility for the coming quarters. Majority of the backlog is still related to Syncrolift, but more than NOK 150 million is from other companies. Please note that FiiZK backlog is not consolidated in Nekkar's order intake neither is today's award for the 11 rigs contract for Intellilift. So let's move to a deep dive on our operating companies. And we start with Syncrolift. As mentioned before, the service contract within Indian Navy was signed in the fourth quarter. And this is actually the largest service scope contract period you have seen with NOK 40 million over 2 years. The tender activity for new build projects remains high and continues to be driven by growing demand in the defense market, representing a substantial share of the tendering activity. As earlier communicated, exact timing on these awards are linked to factors outside of Syncrolift's control. However, no larger contracts have been lost in the previous quarter. For the financials, Q4 revenue continues to be at a lower level than historically, primarily driven by lower order intake during the last 12 to 18 months, but it's up from previous quarter during 2025 due to solid service activity. The EBITDA of 28% is similar to last year. As we observed favorable effects from above-mentioned service activity, as well as one-off contingency releases for projects in final stages. For the ongoing projects, we continue to see steady and solid execution from the Syncrolift team. Syncrolift has a flexible operating model with outsourced production, which enables scale up in activity level going forward. The service business is continually growing steady with upgrade work driving favorable developments. And as observed on the right-hand side, we also continue to include our 2 operational KPIs that we introduced last quarter for Syncrolift, both in terms of aftermarket revenues and new build projects lost or won. As mentioned, we continue to see a healthy outlook ahead for Syncrolift where the backlog remains around NOK 0.5 billion. We also see high tendering activity in the new build upgrade segment. The total tender pipeline of around NOK 7.5 billion is slightly up from last quarter and represents a solid outlook. It's been a challenge throughout last year to estimate the award timing, but we have constantly updated for what we see and presented views, which we believe are fair. Although 2025 did not materialize for us on the market side, as we expected going into the year, we still expect a good market outlook for Syncrolift in the coming couple of years with a NOK 7.5 billion tenders to be awarded in the market. Moving on to Intellilift, our industrial software and automation provider. This morning, InteliWell secured a contract for a total of 11 rigs with a 10-year SaaS commitment. I will get further back to that in a moment. Furthermore, 2 plus 1 rigs were contracted with Transocean as the rig customer during the fourth quarter, bringing the total contracted backlog up to 5 units on contract. We are pleased to see solid market interest internationally for the Intellilift and InteliWell products. Financially, the growth in external orders is driving positive activity development as the fourth quarter revenues were up 62% year-over-year and similar also for the full year of 2025, and with a solid full year margin of 25% EBITDA. During the third quarter, InteliWell went live with 1 new rig with a Transocean Deepwater Conqueror. And this morning, it was very exciting to announce that we have signed a contract for 11 rigs on a 10-year duration contract. And of course, this is a significant milestone for the team in Intellilift and the team in InteliWell. The installations for these are expected to start during the second quarter this year, with the ambition of rolling out 1 or more rigs per quarter over a total duration of 30 months. And for Intellilift, which is contracted the full scope of this contract, the contract comprises a fixed sum for the installation plus a software as a service fee throughout the contract period, which is here 10 years per rig. And in other words, Intellilift should experience a continuous growth in recurring revenues with both these 11 rigs coming into the contract backlog on top of the existing 5 rigs contracted in the fourth quarter. And moving on to the fourth quarter announcements. It was pleasing to see that InteliWell secured new orders with Transocean as the customer. And in total, in the second half of 2025, we were able to get all these 4 new rigs on to contracts with InteliWell. The contract covers automation of tripping and drilling connections, where Intellilift will provide a complete installation and provide the service and aftermarket for these rigs. And as you can see, the slide illustrates the rollout and deployment across these 4 rigs, which will, of course, lead to a ramp-up in the recurring revenues for Intellilift. In Globetech, we continue to absorb higher customer activity and contracted vessels increased with 24 units in the quarter, which will provide basis for increased revenues going forward. Revenues for the quarter were NOK 29 million, similar to the last year. In 2025, revenues for the year grew with 13% to NOK 104 million, delivering a 22% EBITDA margin. As a reminder, you will on the right-hand side, continue to see our new KPIs included from the last quarter to further increase operational transparency. For Globetech specifically, we have included repeat business as a percentage of last 12 months revenues to highlight recurring revenues and also contracted vessels, which gives guidance for future revenue to come. Moving over to Techano Oceanlift, which is our offshore lifting and handling technology provider. The company continues to tender for a handful of solid leads across various segments. Our focus is to deliver repeat products with known cost and non risks. For the EBITDA, Techano delivers yet another disappointing quarter as legacy issues relates to the first 2 new builds negatively impacts also this quarter. The status on these 2 projects are the following. The first crane project is delivered and successfully installed now awaiting final C test. Timing of the C test depends on the yard. The second crane project has now successfully finished FAT this week and installation and testing is expected to commence in the second quarter. Progress on the newly signed projects is now generating larger share of revenues. We continue to expect favorable development through the coming quarter as the two 1st market entry projects mature and the recent awards advances. On the operational side, we have improved cost control and follow-up in all phases with also a new management team, strengthening the organization. Turning to FiiZK, our aquaculture investment. It was a true milestone to announce the order of 4 Protectus closed systems to an undisclosed Norwegian fish farmer, which we now know to be Mowi. And this truly confirms the trust in FiiZK and the Protectus system. The Miljofleksordning went into effect in October, enabling far more localized in red zones to recover and withdraw biomass by converting to closed containment system, and which has been a positive trigger for the industry and especially for FiiZK. Financially, fourth quarter revenues came in at NOK 24 million, up from NOK 11 million a year earlier as the final delivery of the 2 Protectus was completed in the quarter. The FiiZK profitability was still impacted by cost for market entry projects and product development for the new Protectus design now being completed. Operationally, the 2 Protectus systems were installed at location during the quarter, and we have now started up the 4 new projects, which all have higher pricing and are repeat projects with less uncertainty and better margin expectations. As a reminder, the bottom right continues to include the new operational KPIs for FiiZK in terms of installed system. This picture shows the Mowi Slattenes location where FiiZK during the fourth quarter, installed the 2 new Protectus system. These can be seen on the left side. And actually on the right side, you see 2 of FiiZK Ecomerden designs, which is also installed at the location. Following installation, Mowi quickly introduced biomass to the systems and had great performance. For scale, the diameter of the Protectus is around 50 meters, and they are able to hold up to 1 million fish of 1,100 tonnes of biomass. And it's rewarding to see this project delivery to the end without any major incidents underlying FiiZK's ability to adapt in closed systems to offer customer needs and execute. The graph on the left was introduced during our Capital Markets Day. I think it serves as a great reminder on the fact that awards are now coming into the industry for closed containment systems. At the more rapid speed than before, coupled with the significance of FiiZK market position. Surely several solutions will continue to be represented in the growing market, but we believe FiiZK is set to be one of the driver. We are indeed proud of our market position, both in terms of installed base as well as recent order history. In that regard, it's also satisfactory to see that Mowi continue to place trust in FiiZK and FiiZK Solutions has so far contributed 150,000 cubic meters in closed production capacity to Mowi, which will increase to 270,000 cubic meters once the 4 new orders are installed. So this concludes the update on our operating companies. Now our CFO, Marianne will take you through the financials.

Good morning. I'm Marianne Voreland Ottosen, CFO of Nekkar, and I will walk you through the financial performance for the quarter and the full year. We delivered record quarterly revenue of NOK 197 million in Q4, up 9% year-on-year, driven by high activity in Techano Oceanlift and Intellilift. For the full year, revenue ended at NOK 571 million, 8% below 2024, mainly due to lower project activity in Syncrolift as new project awards has been slower than expected. Importantly, Syncrolift service continued to grow, increasing revenue by 21%, helping to offset the lower project activity. Let me add some details behind the profitability development. Q4 EBITDA margin was 11.4%. Strong margins in Syncrolift and Intellilift were offset by NOK 17 million cost overruns in Techano projects. For the full year, EBITDA was NOK 2 million, reflecting weak Techano performance and lower Syncrolift activity. EBIT includes NOK 14 million noncash impairment related to the SkyWalker technology. Following a reassessment of the commercial outlook, we concluded that further development is not economically justified and have taken a prudent write-down. Net financial items were negative mainly due to FiiZK losses and FX effects. Overall, this resulted in a net loss of NOK 11 million in Q4 and NOK 35 million for the year, with EPS of NOK 0.11 and NOK 0.34, respectively. Net capitalized development costs were 0 in Q4 as of trending offset development spend. Full year CapEx was NOK 9 million, down from NOK 23 million in 2024. This slide shows the key financial metrics for the operating companies. As Ole also mentioned, more detailed segment information is available in the quarterly Excel appendix published on our website. Let's look at the balance sheet. Intangible assets decreased due to the mentioned noncash impairment of the SkyWalker technology. Financial assets mainly relate to the FiiZK investment which stood at NOK 56 million at quarter end. Working capital ended at NOK 34 million, up from last quarter, reflecting normal project phasing. Cash was NOK 150 million, impacted by working capital movements and share buybacks, and we maintain a NOK 200 million undrawn credit facility. Nekkar remained debt-free with equity of NOK 368 million and a solid equity ratio of 49%. Let's look at the cash flow for the quarter. Cash flow from business was slightly negative at NOK 1 million, mainly due to working capital movements. During the quarter, we spent NOK 23 million on share buybacks. And overall, this resulted in a net cash outflow of NOK 20 million for Q4. For the full year, cash flow from business was positive at NOK 10 million, supported by working capital improvements and net financial items. During the year, we spent NOK 64 million on share buybacks and paid NOK 6 million in dividends to minority shareholders in Globetech. Overall, this resulted in a net cash outflow of NOK 55 million for 2025. In sum, Nekkar has a strong financial foundation which per end of the fourth quarter stood at NOK 150 million in cash, 9.2 million treasury shares at a book value of NOK 98 million and an untapped credit facility of NOK 200 million.

Okay. Let's summarize the quarter. We believe that Nekkar continues to develop its operating companies towards the 2027 ambition. Well equipped with a solid balance sheet to also navigate inorganic opportunities. Key highlights in the quarter is the successful FiiZK installation of the 2 Protectus system and a subsequent award for 4 more units to Mowi, which will provide a favorable outlook supported by market headwinds in the aquaculture business. Furthermore, Intellilift with its rig automating systems have seen a breakthrough in the last months. With 3 new rigs signed up to SaaS contracts and of course, today's announcement of the groundbreaking 11 awards after the quarter end. Syncrolift continues to be well positioned to capitalize on growing defense spending in the coming horizon as we await awards in the market. Thank you all for listening. And let's move on to some Q&A for the quarter.

Okay. We have a few questions on the line. First, can you elaborate a little on the SkyWalker impairment taken during the fourth quarter?

Yes, I think I can provide some comments on the markets. Of course, SkyWalker has been a development project started back in 2018, 2019 in Nekkar and of course, relating to the development of offshore wind. And I believe it's fair to say during the last 12 to 24 months, we have seen a clear sentiment shift in the interest from partners in the wind industry to invest and be partners in developing and commercializing a SkyWalker machine, which is basically a tool to improve and lower cost of the offshore wind parks. And with -- as of today, we don't have any key leads or contacts in order to complete this, and we feel it's prudent to make the write-down. Of course, we still own the technology. We still keep the IP. And if the market will somehow change in the future, we are able to capitalize on it.

Next question is on Globetech. A number of vessels to be up 55% year-on-year. How should we think about a flattish revenue development in that same time spend?

Yes. So I think revenue for '25 grew with about 13%. And as you mentioned, the number of contracted vessels increased by more than that number, of course. I think the contracted vessels is, of course, a leading indicator for future quarters and future years to come, whereby a contracted vessel will be taken over by Globetech. It will be put on the Globetech operational agreement. And of course, it will, on various occasions be installed with new and upgraded hardware. So I think it's -- the contracted vessel is a good indicator for long-term development. However, it may be quarters with fluctuations of quarters without the ramp-up in revenue due to some such kind of seasonality effects.

Moving on to Intellilift. Are there any capacity concerns regarding installation of equipment on offshore rigs? And are you able to take on more contracts in the short term and install more than 1 rig per quarter?

Yes. I think -- of course, we are now used some years in order to both prove the technology, develop and fine-tune the technology and also install it on a few rigs. That is, of course, a key competence and a key benefit when we are now scaling up with less time per rig to be installed. Of course -- it's, of course, a massive task for the Intellilift team in order to take on these new rigs. However, we believe with the experience we have from the previous rigs and with the team, we are able to do this in a very efficient way. I think now for the coming quarters, we, of course, have full focus to deliver on existing commitment. But we are still in the market space in order to discuss and potentially sign new contracts when we feel there is relevant capacity to install. The number of units being won or more in the quarter for the rollout. And of course, this is also relates to the rig managers plan in terms of how to mobilize these rigs when they are contracted.

Staying on Intellilift. Can you say anything around the size of each SaaS contract, alternatively, the financial impact in general that you expect for Nekkar from this contract as a whole?

We won't comment on the specific rates for this contract, but it's fair to say that it will definitely -- that we will see a sharp increase in the SaaS revenue gradually for Intellilift going forward.

And the contracts are on kind of par levels in terms of where we have secured contracts for this type of business in the previous quarters.

And last one on Intellilift. How does the Transocean Valaris merger affect potential new contracts for InteliWell and do you see the need for InteliWell systems on jackups as well or only on deepwater rigs?

Intellilift's software and automation skills are as relevant for a jackup and also other rigs, whether it's land rigs and other opportunities. So it's -- of course, it's definitely a technology used across different rig types. Transocean is our partner in the JV and of course, as you saw in the fourth quarter and during the second half of last year, 4 new rigs were contracted with Transocean. So of course, we are positive when Transocean are growing their installed base. And of course, hoping for new contracts for a larger fleet in the future.

Moving on to Syncrolift. The Syncrolift tender pipeline for 2027 plus seems to be up NOK 500 million. Should we read this as more projects or growth in scope per project?

Yes. It's -- as I mentioned, it's kind of a -- it's a smaller adjustment to the tender pipeline from the last quarter. And of course, bear in mind that there are some yes, pluses and minuses adding into this in terms of the pipeline. In terms of '27, I believe there is added 1 or 2 new projects, which basically adds the NOK 500 million as was the question.

Staying on Syncrolift. A couple of questions here merged together. But given the delays in actual orders versus the tender pipeline presented on a quarterly basis, could you give some color into how you estimate this tender pipeline? And what's required to be included here?

Yes. So the tender pipeline is built up on the tenders, which we are known to are in the market space, and they are included on a 100% estimated contract value basis, meaning not adjusted for our win rate or adjusted for a go probability. Having said that, we take out projects, which we believe do not have secured financing or are speculative as such, which are then not included in that. I think the key uncertainty factor, as we have all experienced during last year is due to the timing of the award and timing of kind of the tender process in some of these projects.

And finally, on Syncrolift, are there any updates on the ASMAR option?

The ASMAR option is still valid, and we are working together with the client in order to make sure that we are ready to execute it when they are placing the orders for the construction of the new facility whereby Syncrolift are the contractor for the shiplift, and they will award a contract to a civil work construction partner, which will do the development of the yard facility.

And then there's been a couple of questions on Techano. What are you doing here to address the Techano performance issues? And how should we think about this going forward?

Yes. As mentioned, of course, we are disappointed by the development and the figures. We have done changes to the team as of last year with a new CEO coming in. And of course, we have during the whole last year, improved control and follow-up as -- in terms of strengthening the whole organization. I think these two 1st contracts needs to be finalized and delivered in order to kind of take out the risk. And of course, delivering new products for the first time has been very challenging in the Techano business. And of course, that's why we look forward to the two 1st contracts being finalized and the two 2nd repeat projects and hopefully, new orders of repeat business will be the primary generator in the Techano business.

And on M&A, on the Capital Markets Day in November, you mentioned M&A activities ongoing. Can you give any more comments to the pipeline and work here going forward?

Yes. As you all know, a key focus on our 2027 ambition and also of the Nekkar strategy is to do M&A to both deepen our existing operating companies and also broaden our investments into ocean-based technologies. And we are continuously, both screening and taking part in M&A processes, whereby we at the moment have several ongoing processes in different stages, which I believe it's not natural to comment upon further.

And final question on your 2027 strategic ambition. Given the 2025 full year results, how do you see Nekkar progressing towards the 2027 addition of organic revenues around NOK 1.5 billion?

Yes. So if you look on the total 2025 figures, including FiiZK, we have about an 8% growth from last year. The key kind of offset to our strategic plan for 2025 is, of course, Syncrolift, which last year had much lower revenue than expected due to our order intake situation. Having said that, for Syncrolift, we believe the 2027 ambition is more than realistic whereby new orders will be booked and we are able to ramp up the production and of course, increase revenue with a very high scaling factor in that time period. So that one we are confident about. For the other operating companies, I believe we see favorable developments in the revenue level in all of these companies, which all are on the way to be able to meet the 2027 ambition. And that's why we remain with our 2027 target.

And the last question that came in on Syncrolift pipeline. NOK 500 million has been put from 2026 to 2027. Can you elaborate on this?

Yes. I think that's kind of the uncertainty factor, which I commented upon, whereby a couple of projects has been moved from '26 to '27 in -- from the last presentation.

Thank you. That concludes the questions on the line.

Okay. Thank you all for listening, and have a nice day.