Prevas AB ($PREVB)

Hello, and welcome to today's presentation with Prevas. With us presenting today, we have the CEO, Magnus Welen; and CFO, Helena Burstrom. [Operator Instructions] And with that said, please go ahead with your presentation.

Thank you very much. Hello, everybody. My name is Magnus Welen, and I am the CEO of Prevas, and I welcome you to the presentation of the Q1 results for Prevas. The agenda for this short meeting looks like this. We will start with this introduction, then we will have a review of our financial performance for the first quarter. We will have a market update and finalize this meeting with a Q&A session. And I hope that you will bring in some interesting questions for us after the presentation. So how did we perform in the first quarter of 2026? During the quarter, we saw a stable revenue performance in a continued cautious market environment. We had a negative growth of around minus 1% and organically minus 2.9%. The positive part for this quarter is that we see a continued profitability trend that goes upwards. Adjusted for restructuring costs, we delivered an EBITA margin of 9.3% for this quarter. The reported EBITA margin was SEK 35.7 million, which is in line with last year and EBITA margin of 8.4%, also that in line with last year. Another positive part for this quarter is that we, for the sixth consecutive quarter in a row, saw a positive development in Finland, where we had an EBITA of SEK 2.4 million compared to last year of SEK 0.6 million. So that means that we continue the positive development we have seen in Finland for quite a time right now. Looking into the operative cash flow, we can see that it was SEK 10.8 million for the quarter compared to SEK 32.2 million last year, and this was impacted by working capital effects due to larger engagements. Helena will review this more in detail later on in the presentation. Looking into the EPS, we can see a decrease from SEK 1.75 to SEK 1.57, and that was mainly due to negative currency effects on loans that we have in euros. And of course, the underlying reason is that the euro and the SEK ratio has changed during this quarter. So all in all, I believe that we and Prevas during the first quarter has taken positive steps in the right direction to improve profitability, even though we still are in a present very cautious market. And if we zoom out a little bit, we can see that Prevas is a company focused to grow with profit. You can see that on this graph, where you see the rolling 12 figures that we have a continued growth in the company, although we can see that we have been flattening out in this cautious market we have seen during '25 and also start of '26. Looking into the EBITA and EBITA margins, we can see that we now for 3 quarters in a row has performed increased EBITA or the same level of EBITA as the year before. So now we are in a different trend compared to what we have seen in the -- for 2024. So that, I believe, is a good step forward as well. So with this, I leave to Helena to review a little bit more in detail related to our cash flow and our financial position.

Thank you, Magnus. Cash flow from our operating activities amounted to SEK 11 million in Q1, representing a decrease of SEK 21 million compared with the same period last year. The decline was mainly driven by a change in working capital, reflecting a different project mix compared to last year. The overdraft facility of SEK 100 million remained fully unused end of Q1. Cash at the end of the quarter amounted to SEK 10 million. And net debt in relation to [ EBITDA ] rolling 12 was 0.89, and our financial goal is not to [ exceed ] 2x over time. Equity ratio amounted to 53.1%. We have a strong balance sheet, and we have a solid financial position. And with that, Magnus, I hand over to you again.

Thank you very much, Helena. I would like to spend a few minutes related to the development in Finland. As I said, we have now 6 quarters of improved results in Finland. And for the first quarter, we grew from SEK 0.6 million to SEK 2.4 million in EBITA. And also that comes with 5% of organic growth. But in Finland, we now see that the short-term uncertainty has increased. We see that decisions for investments has been pushed forward, especially late in the first quarter, we see this effect that we believe has a connection to the uncertainties we see globally in the world as well with the recent terrible wars in Iran, for example. And that is influencing Finland more than the rest of Prevas as our Finnish operation is more focused on projects that goes for investments. But with this said, we see also that the general demand remains solid for our niche offerings in Finland and also for projects where we are more niche offerings. So in that -- those parts of Finland, we continue to see a solid demand as well. And what we focus in Finland right now is, of course, very strong sales focus to meet this quite competitive market that we see in Finland, but also this increased short-term uncertainty. And our way to meet that is, of course, to focus on sales. But I'm very pleased to see the long-term development in Finland and the Finnish team are working extremely hard in order to reach the expected margins that we want to see in Finland over time. Then a little bit of market update. Looking at the market, we see a continued cautious market with high variation between industries and also customers in terms of demand. What we also continue to see is a very strong demand from the defense area, but also in cybersecurity, which is positive for Prevas. In Denmark, we see a slow market. We believe that, that is connected to the issues that Novo Nordisk have with the big downsizing activities that they have taken, which influences the general engineering market in Denmark. We see delayed decision-makings. We see projects pushed forward. So in Denmark, it's quite a tough situation right now. On the other hand, we see a trend where we see improved utilization in many of Prevas units, I would say, in Sweden. This drives actually organic growth and increased EBITA versus last year in those units. And in those units where we see demands, we are now recruiting in selected areas towards the demands that we see, although, of course, we are balancing this expansion also with the profitability and the risk. But anyhow, we are in the recruitment mode in many of the units in Prevas. So if we summarize the market, we see -- we continue to see a cautious market, but also we see areas in the market with strong demands like in defense. Then I'm very happy to announce that we have signed a record contract within Enterprise Asset Management. It's in Norway with a huge customer. We have signed a contract of total SEK 80 million with the implementation of HxGN EAM in order to improve this customers' way of working with their assets, with their maintenance. So it's a very exciting project for us at Prevas. It's the largest one we have ever signed, and it's a long-term partnership. In this case, it's 12 years of contract, including a recurring revenue of around 25% because in this kind of business, we also have license sales, we have support and other areas, not only consultancy services as such. So I'm very proud to be able to announce this today. Looking into the defense area, the first quarter 2026, we saw that the sales in defense grew with 22% and rolling 12, we now are at SEK 275 million in turnover towards the defense sector. And that is equal to 70% of the total group sales. And last year, that was 14%. So in the areas where we see potential, we are growing in Prevas. A few words about AI. It's on everybody's map right now, of course, but also in Prevas. We use AI tools daily across Prevas. We work with it internally with our internal processes within finance, within HR. That is one part. But the big part is that we work with AI tools and AI-supported efficiency increases when we deliver to customers. The main area we see right now is within AI-supported coding, where we see clear efficiency increases in several use cases for customers. So this is a positive drive in Prevas right now. Generally speaking, when we talk about AI and the effect of AI upon our business, we see that Prevas strong domain expertise and our long-term customer relationships, we have been working with customers -- some of our customers since 1985. If you combine the domain expertise, the long-term customer relationships and our expertise in delivering very complex solutions, we actually see that when we combine this with these efficient AI tools that we strengthen our competitive positioning in the market. We also see something new lately is that these new technologies actually open up new customer demands and new opportunities because we in Prevas, we are very keen, of course, on adapting new technology. And one area where we see this very clearly is in with AI vision systems that we have been working with in Prevas that we are working with in Prevas. One example is we work with a manufacturer of wooden floors. And we have implemented a solution to have an automized quality control of floor manufacturing. And this is organic matter, and we need to measure it on different layers in order to be able to do this quality assurance in a proper way. This was not possible a year or 2 years ago. But now with a modern technology based on AI, we have the ability to solve new problems. So all in all, from Prevas point of view, we work intensively to adapt to AI and to see this as a huge potential for Prevas moving into the future. Then I would like to spend a few words about our transformation we work with in order to reach our financial targets. We are in a very cautious market right now and have been for a certain period of time. And that means that we need to be extremely agile. During the first quarter, we have taken the decision to restructure our business in the southern parts of Sweden. We are moving from 3 business units to 2 focused business units. This means that we will exit nonprofitable unit in Malmö. In the quarter, we have also made downsizing in Denmark in order to meet the reduced demand we see in Denmark right now. So we are taking the necessary actions in order to improve so we can reach our financial targets even in a cautious market. The restructuring costs for the first quarter was SEK 3.8 million that we have taken in our financial results for the first quarter. The full effect of these actions will be from H2 in 2026. And I would like to emphasize that we will continue always to work with our internal efficiency and to be agile and adapted to the changes in the market. That is very important for Prevas moving into the future. And then a summary of the first quarter of 2026. I believe that we have taken clear steps toward our long-term profitability targets. The underlying EBITA for the first quarter was 9.3% and the reported was 8.4%. So we are moving in the right direction in terms of profitability. We signed a record contract within Enterprise Asset Management with a total contract value of SEK 80 million, which I believe is fantastic. For the sixth consecutive quarter in a row, we had positive trend in Finland in terms of [ EBITA ], also very good. And we continue to take the necessary action to improve performance in units that do not meet our targets. And this, we will, of course, continue with -- it's a never-ending story to work with improvement of performance in Prevas. That is important for us. During the quarter, we saw a strong growth in defense. We had plus 22% in turnover versus the first quarter of 2025. So this means also that the defense customers, they trust us in Prevas and they give us more and more and more business over time. All in all, as Helena was mentioning, we have a solid financial position. We have a good strong market position. So in my book, we are well positioned for the remainder of 2026. And this was the final slide of this presentation. And now I hope that we can have a lot of interesting questions from all of you. So thank you very much for listening.

Thank you very much, Magnus and Helena, for that presentation. And now let's open up the Q&A. [Operator Instructions] And we'll start with the first question here. Could you please further explain the restructuring costs related to Denmark and Skåne and what operational changes you have done more specifically?

Yes. This -- the cost in the quarter was SEK 3.8 million, and that is due to that we have restructured. We went from 3 units in Skane to 2 units. One unit is focusing on advanced test and measurement systems. And one unit is focusing on -- is a development house, OIM Sweden AB, a part of Prevas working with complete R&D development projects. So we have focused our offering to the customers with this change. So that is one part. And the other part we have done also is downsizing in Denmark as well to reduce the workforce actually in order to meet the lower demand and maintain our cost base versus the market. And as a consequence of this, the number of employees has decreased in the Southern unit, of course, because when we closed this unprofitable unit in Malmö.

And a follow-up question to that. Should we expect additional restructuring costs in Q2?

We will continue to work with restructuring also in Q2. So yes, we will have some costs related to restructuring in Q2 as well.

Thank you. What are the key growth drivers for Prevas in Q1 in 2026?

The key growth drivers. I would say that the key driver for growth in the first quarter has been in the defense industry as we grew with 22% within the defense area, that is absolutely the main growth driver for Prevas in the first quarter. And we -- for the defense industry, we have been working in both our main areas, production development when we help the customer to grow capacity in the defense area, but also working within R&D, product development and other areas where Prevas are a strong company. So I would say the main driver is the defense industry in the first quarter.

Could you give us more information about how past acquisitions performed and how full your pipeline is now?

Yes. We have made a number of acquisitions over the years. And generally speaking, I would say that they have performed well. Then, of course, we have some of our acquisitions that have performed less well and some that are really, really stars. So generally speaking, my view is that we have been very good in acquiring good companies with a good cultural fit into Prevas that add additional value to our customers. So generally speaking, my view is that our acquisitions have performed well, generally speaking, with some, of course, some stars and some less good, but that is the way it works, I would say. So yes, I think that was a summary.

Thank you. And with the Iran war, Greentech is looking a little more promising. What's Prevas' exposure here? And how are you able to grow if it really picks up?

We didn't -- could you repeat the question?

Of course, of course. With Iran war, [ Greentech ] is looking a little more promising. What's Prevas' exposure here? And how are you able to grow if it really picks up?

Yes. Thank you. That was a very good question because as you say, given the Iran war and the situation regarding oil supply in the world, that might actually restart the Greentech revolution. And I would say that Prevas is very well positioned in energy area, but also especially in Greentech. One example is that we're working within the steel industry and supporting the steel industry to increase the efficiency for heat treatment of steel using more environmental-friendly solutions. And that, of course, will sort of be even more interesting moving into the future. So I would say that we have a strong position in green tech in that sense in Prevas. So it's an opportunity for us. And I hope to be honest, that we will move into a more green change in the climate for the future because it's important for all of us.

Thank you, Magnus. And I believe you already answered this, but maybe you could add some more color. How do you view current geopolitical tensions, including the situation in the Middle East? And does it affect your business at all? And what's your risk exposure here?

It is affecting the world because the uncertainty in the world has increased given the geopolitical situation. And as I mentioned, in Finland, we see that the decisions for investments are pushed forward, especially at the end of the first quarter, we saw that effect. So I would say, yes, we have seen some impact on Prevas in the short term, but in the first quarter, very minor. Then, of course, moving into the future, who knows, but we are an agile company, and we are very close to our customers. So of course, we monitor the development very close in order to be agile when and if we see any changes in that sense. But for the first quarter, a very minor effect, and we monitor this very closely together with our customers.

Thank you. We take one final question here. How do you view the opportunities for acquisitions in today's market?

As we mentioned in the presentation, we have a strong balance sheet, and we have made a number of acquisitions historically. And we have a good pipeline of candidates for acquisitions right now as well. So I see a positive view on acquisitions moving into -- continuing into 2026, and we have candidates that we are working with in that sense. But I would like to emphasize as well, we will not make acquisitions that is not truly in line with our strategy, our culture, our targets. So it's more important for us that it's really, really good acquisitions with a perfect fit in [ Prevas ] just for the sake of it. Hope just to create growth in that sense. So we are working very hard in this area as well related to acquisitions. So a long answer to a short question, yes, we have a good pipeline and we continue to work with acquisitions, yes.

Thank you, Magnus. And that concludes today's Q&A here. Thank you very much both for presenting with us here today, and wish you all a great rest of the day. Thank you.

Thank you all for listening and good questions. Thank you. Bye-bye.