Nyab AB (publ) (NYAB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Nyab's results presentation for the first quarter of 2025. Nyab has today released its Q1 interim report. With us in this call we have the Group CEO, Johan Larsson, and the Group CFO, Klas Rewelj. My name is Erik Petersen, and I'm the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and the Head of Communications and Investor Relations at Nyab. During the presentation, you can write your questions to our management in the chat, and we will go through them at the end. And now to get started, I hand over to Johan, who will go through the results.

Thank you, Erik, and welcome, everyone. I'm happy to report a solid performance. I can't say anything less due to clear improvements in most metrics. We have a revenue in the quarter of EUR 106.7 million. That's an 80% year-over-year growth, and the organic growth is 33%. We have an EBIT improvement of 156%, up from EUR 0.4 million to EUR 1 million. We have an EBIT margin of 0.9% and take into consideration that we have a one-off of EUR 1.4 million, which means that underlying, we have an EBIT margin of approximately 2.3%. Anyhow, the reported margin itself is the best Q1 margin in Nyab's history. So that's how it looks. Our free cash flow for the period is negative. Of course, the Dovre acquisition has an impact. Otherwise, it's timing issues and, of course, a clearly higher revenue in the first quarter that also has some effects, but we're still happy with the cash flow. Our order intake reached, record high, EUR 151.4 million in the quarter. That's an increase of 196% year-over-year. I'm more happy with the volume we are of what sort of contracts the order is -- it consists of prioritized projects, after-sales projects, and projects that are very suitable for us going forward. Rolling 12, we have a 31% year-over-year growth amounting to EUR 393.5 million. We have an EBIT with a 47% increase year-over-year. We have an EBIT margin of 6.6%, which was 5.9% in the comparison period, an improvement of 0.7 pp year-over-year. Our negative cash flow of EUR 12.6 million stems mainly from the Dovre acquisition. And we have an order intake of EUR 482.6 million and a book-to-bill of 1.2, demonstrating our ongoing and underlying growth. When it comes to revenue splits, we can see that Civil Engineering is 73% and Consulting 27%. Market segments. Energy is by far the biggest business segment or market segment in the first quarter. That, of course, has a seasonal effect and is expected. Happy to see some growth in the industry who has been a bit lagging since 2023 uncertainties in macroeconomics. But we saw growth in all market segments. The main growth driver for the Energy segment is power network projects in Sweden. This will even out more during the year. But in the first quarter, the amount of invoicing for the private sector is 71% and public sector, only 29%. Worth mentioning is that we classify clients as public or private solely if they are subject to public procurement or not. Anyhow, we expect this to even out to around 50-50 during the course of the year. Regions and sectors. We see that our 3 main markets are 95% of our total volumes, and our 3 main markets are Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Also worth mentioning is that our reported revenue growth is both in Sweden and Finland. Growth selection on new projects. With the order intake in the quarter that we have had, we, of course, have a lot of projects to mention a few of them. For municipalities, we have, in Trosa, construction of a pressure sewage transfer pipeline facility, including 4 new pump stations. In Lulea, we won a contract for the expansion of Lulea Industrial Park, which is sort of a hotspot where a lot of investments are planned, where we already have a lot of ongoing projects. For the Swedish Transport Administration, we won the North Bothnia Line and a road maintenance contract in Boden, which is very good going forward since it has higher volumes in the low season during Q1 and its perennial. And for [ Umea Hamn ], we have a contract regarding the North Quay project. It's part of an extensive expansion of the port of Umea. After the quarter, we won a contract for the Swedish Transport Administration, widening of the E4 stretch between Gumboda and Grimsmark, and that includes the construction of 5 new bridges. That contract has a value of EUR 38 million and we are happy that we have earned the trust and are given trust by a lot of important clients. Growth drivers. To explain the 18% growth in the quarter, where we are also improving margins, and feel very certain that we don't increase risk in our business model. You can see that the average full-time employee is increasing with 18%. The number of projects are increasing with just 8%, which means that we have control. The average revenue per full-time employee in the quarter is EUR 180,000, which is up by 13% from last quarter. Worth mentioning here is that for the full year 2024, we had exceeding SEK 8 million revenue per full-time employee. Our average project size, which is our main growth driver, increased by just over 8% between Q1'24 and Q1'25. Of course, the acquisition of Dovre, a very suitable business for us for many reasons, but 47% of our 80% growth stems from the acquisition of Dovre. An important slide for Nyab, what I view as our promise to our shareholders, our long-term financial targets. First target, a revenue growth exceeding 10%. Naturally, ongoing a rolling 12, we have a growth of 31% in the quarter. We have a growth of 80%. So I guess we can put a check in that box. We will have a revenue growth clearly exceeding our goal for this year. I dare to say that already after the first quarter. Our profitability exceeding 7.5% EBIT. The outcome for Q1 rolling 12 is 6.6%. Note that in the comparison period, rolling 12, it was 5.9%, which meant that we improved with 0.7%. So we are aiming to reach that target, and we are in a good position going forward. Our capital structure, at the moment, we actually have a net debt. I prefer not having any net debt when it's possible, but we are very far from our target. Of course, the Dovre acquisition is the main reason behind our slim slight net debt of 0.26. The direct shareholder return. Our dividend target is to have a dividend exceeding 35%. Just recently, we had a dividend of 42%. With that, I hand over to Klas.

Thank you, Johan. We reiterate and take a closer look at our financials, starting with our net sales for the group. As mentioned, the first quarter revenue was EUR 106.7 million, representing a growth of 80% in relation to the previous year. The organic growth component was 33% of that, and we reported growth in both Sweden and Finland operations. We continue to see increased activity in all our 3 market segments, and the largest growth driver was, as mentioned, power headline projects in Sweden. The quarterly year-on-year acquisitive growth effect was 47%, driven in totality by the Dovre business acquisition. The Dovre revenue profile does not show much seasonal variation between the quarters, and the business started in line with expectations revenue-wise. Moving on to profitability and summarizing that. Q1 operating profit was EUR 1 million, representing an increase in both EBIT and EBIT margin. Accumulated transaction costs of the Dovre acquisition were recognized in full during the quarter and had a negative impact of minus EUR 1.4 million on quarterly profits. Thus, for those who like to adjust, you should add back that number to the reported value. The Dovre business contributed to the operating profit increase, but net of mentioned transaction costs and additional IFRS amortization, the effect on the group's operating profit total was negative, minus EUR 0.5 million. Our operations continued to perform, and a higher project margin was the main factor for the profit increase. Our financial position. Free cash flow, as mentioned, for the quarter, negative EUR 21.7 million. The payment for the Dovre acquisition in January had an impact of EUR 28 million negative on the quarterly free cash flow. Having completed this acquisition, we ended the first quarter with a positive net debt of EUR 8.1 million. This equates then to a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.26, still well below the 1.5 target threshold we are operating under. The underlying cash flow was in line with expectations and followed normal seasonal variations. Our 2025 reporting now includes disclosure of our business segment performance for best transparency. Civil Engineering includes our construction project business in Sweden and Finland. For Civil Engineering, 2025 has started in a positive way with high bidding activity with values well above those we had in the same period last year. Total order intake was EUR 129 million, representing a quarterly book-to-bill ratio of 1.7 compared to 0.9 for 2024. Order intake increased by 160%. Total order backlog increased with 15% during the quarter and ended at EUR 372.3 million, a 31% increase year-over-year. Our current market scope is Sweden and Finland. The main growth driver in the quarter was infrastructure projects in Sweden, with several new, larger projects contracted. Also positive is that the Civil Engineering backlog indicates favorable development of project margins ahead. The Civil Engineering quarterly revenue was EUR 77.7 million, representing a growth of 34% year-over-year. We saw revenue growth in both Sweden and Finland for Civil Engineering. Total Civil Engineering operating profit was EUR 1.9 million, representing an operating margin of 2.4% compared to 1.2% for the first quarter last year, a doubling of the operating margin. Total Civil Engineering operating margin for the 12 months was 7.6%, thus above our financial target. In total, a solid and strong start to 2025 for Civil Engineering with a 165% increase in profit. The Consulting business segment is the total of the acquired Dovre business combined with our Sitema business in Finland. For this segment, the year also started positive with increasing activity levels in key focus areas in line with expectations. Total number of consultants engaged in the client project was stable and showed a slight increase during the quarter. Total revenue was EUR 29.2 million and operating profit of EUR 0.8 million, representing an operating margin of 2.8%. This follows a stable quarterly profile for both revenue and profitability. The consulting order intake was EUR 22.5 million, representing a book-to-bill ratio of 0.8. Also, this is in line with expectations for this business that has its larger order intake in the second and fourth quarters. Our consulting operations are now scalable and have a highly flexible cost base with 85% of total employees engaged either through temporary project employment or as sub-consultants. So that ends the financial part presentation. Over to you again, Johan.

Thank you. I'm very happy that you trust me with the summary. Yes. First of all, just for a brief moment to put figures aside, I would like to pay my regards and give a genuine thanks to our staff, not to highlight anyone, but our business unit managers, 2 in Finland and 3 in Sweden, are building winning teams with a very good culture. Of course, we have a great business model, a unique business model, and so on, but still, I'm very grateful for their performance. So to sum it up, we have a strong operational and financial performance. We have a revenue increase of 80%, and 33% of that is organic growth, an EBIT margin of 0.9%, underlying approximately 2.3%. We had a one-off for our platform investment in Dovre, mainly. We have a very high order intake with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.4, very strong performance in Civil Engineering orders, revenue, and profitability. The Consulting segment performed as expected. We are very happy with that. Of course, there is a lot of time and effort in getting Dovre and Nyab together and so on besides what's one-off. So I'm very happy with that performance, great done. We still have a lot of work to do, but it looks very favorable. We have a steady demand and continued high tendering activity in Sweden. As you've seen, there are several strategic project wins in Sweden. The pipeline is actually looking very good. The Finnish market remains slower. We had a great performance there. Anyhow, recent forecast happily indicates that there is a turnaround coming. Our strong performance for the quarter strengthens our view, especially before the second half of the year that traditionally is our strongest concerning both revenue and earnings. So very good prospects for 2025 going forward. That's it from me. I can also mention a bit about the trust we earn from clients. If you see the project that's highlighted here, we won a contract of approximately SEK 140 million, and we have now confirmed extra orders and so on, on that contract of approximately SEK 220 million and That shows a lot about the clients' trust in Nyab and getting things done.

Thank you, Johan, and thank you, Klas, for the presentation and walk-through of the results. So let's now move on to the questions.

And we start with the first one. The revenue growth was very strong in the first quarter. Did you notice any growing pains or scalability challenges associated with the rapid growth? Or are you satisfied with the margins given the revenue level?

Yes. Of course, there are growing pains; there always are, but this didn't like fall down from the sky. It was expected. We knew about it. We were prepared and so on. We are satisfied with the margins if we look at the underlying EBIT margin, if you take into consideration that we had a one-off of EUR 1.4 million and the underlying EBIT margin of approximately 2.3%, and much better than that is hard to accomplish even for us in Q1 due to our seasonality and the patterns of the year.

Okay. Next question. Finland returned to very high growth during Q1. Do you see that the market conditions have improved there? Or do you still experience or notice any slowness? And what is your outlook for the remainder of the year as of now?

Yes. As I said, last quarter, we were at the bottom. We see improvements, but there is still slowness, but it's improving. So our outlook for the rest of the year is that it will continue to improve.

I think one should stress also for Civil Engineering, I think Sweden and Finland as a totality is our market. And that's how we view and focus. We are taking the projects that are attractive to us in total. So I think overall, I think a good development on orders and market growth.

Yes. And just to simplify it, what Klas states is that we have a good cross-border collaboration, Finnish resources, when the market is softer, are contributing value on the Swedish market, and is a key reason why we can sustain high growth for the fifth consecutive quarter with improved margins.

Thank you. Next question. Power network projects continue to be the main revenue driver for the Swedish operations. Do you anticipate this to continue in the upcoming quarters? Or do you see any other areas that could accelerate growth going forward?

Yes. Well, as you see, we have growth in all our segments. If you have a growth of 80% in the quarter, most likely everything grows. But the power headlines are expected to grow. We know about the investment needs from big electricity grid owners such as Vattenfall, Svenska Kraftnät, Ellevio and such, and there are a lot of investments coming up, and we have the competence to support them with both engineering and construction, and so on. We have good collaboration contracts with a few of these as well, and we have frame agreements and such. So I expect it to have a high growth going forward for several years.

No, absolutely. And I think we also see that a good contribution from all our 3 market segments. And actually, the orders in this quarter was primarily -- the main growth driver there was infrastructure as we noted and highlighted some of those. So it's a balance for us.

Thank you. Next question. The Consulting segment saw a flattish revenue growth during Q1 pro forma. Do you still experience some softness on the Norwegian market due to the updated legislation on temporary hires that was introduced in 2023? And how are you navigating this to return to growth while also improving the profitability going forward?

Yes. Our main focus there is improving profitability, first and foremost. And we expect to actually show that going forward. But we don't have to be that narrow on how we view it because I see that they have had their first assignments on the Swedish market from the consulting business, and we expect the consulting business within energy to grow on the Swedish market in the name of Dovre going forward. So we eventually, of course, look at both growth and improving profitability. But in the short term, for this year, focus is on margin improvement.

Yes, correct. But positive was that we saw increased activity. That was how we felt it as a business for Consulting in the quarter. And we also saw a slight increase in the number of engaged consultants to clients in the same. So I think also from a volume point of view, stable focus on profitability, but not declining, but rather the opposite for the volumes.

Yes. I think that worth highlighting is also that we have had a reclassification due to the change in legislation of employees if you're a full-time employee or if you're a business or under consultant. So actually, the manpower there has a slight growth in the numbers. But when accounted for, it looks like a decrease.

Thank you. Next question. Cash flow from operating activities was relatively soft. What's behind the modest working capital release during the quarter?

Yes. There are many reasons. Some of the reasons are just timing effects that you always have, a quarter is a bit too short of a time frame to look at, but also the increased activity. When you have so much revenue and ongoing operation, you have some changes in the pattern of the cash flow and also an extremely early spring, which is beneficial for us long term, of course, but we have more new project starts in Q1 than we normally have. They usually come to a higher extent in Q2, and that eats cash flow.

Yes. And I think we view our cash conversion as stable and positive, as in line with what we outperformed historically, and I think in that context, the Q1 was actually following our forecast and expectations for cash. So we don't view it as soft, even though the number comes a little bit below the comparison period. Yes.

Okay. Thank you, Johan and Klas for the Q&A. We have now gone through all the questions that we have received. And going forward, Nyab will release its interim report for the second quarter on August 13. So for now, we thank you, everyone, for participating, and see you again next time.

Thank you.

Yes. Thanks for listening.