SP Group A/S ($SPG)

Hi, and good afternoon. On behalf of Hans Christian Andersen Capital, I'd like to welcome you all to this presentation of the annual report 2025 from SP Group that was published this morning. My name is Rasmus Køjborg, and I have the pleasure of welcoming CEO, Lars Bering; and CFO, Allan Jeppesen. They promised to take us through the numbers and the recent highlights. So a warm welcome to you, too. And before I hand over, I'll also give a warm welcome to all of those of you who signed up for today's presentation. As usual, you can ask questions on your lower right corner. And also the presentation will be recorded and will be published on different platforms afterwards. With that I will leave it to you, Lars and Allan, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Rasmus, and welcome to SP Group's presentation of our annual report of 2025. With me today, I have our new CFO, Allan Jeppesen, who brings in a solid knowledge into the group. Welcome, Allan.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Lars. My first 2.5 months have been focused on finalizing the annual report of the past year. And I'm very happy to be here today and to present the figures of '25 together with you.

Great. And together with Allan, we're together with Søren Ulstrup, we make out the SP Group executive team. And today, Allan and I will share the presentation where we will help each other along the way. SP Group is a global manufacturer of plastic solutions. 73% of our revenue comes from sub-supplier work and 27% of our revenue is based on our own products, niche products in plastic that we sell globally. We have a global footprint with 33 factories and almost 2,800 employees.

When we look at the distribution of the group revenue on product groups, you will see that we have 40% of revenue within Healthcare, 27% within Cleantech, 13% within Foodtech and others is 20%. We will return later to the development in each of these groups.

Yes. SP Group is organized in a number of independent companies that works with their technology, with their products and their own customer relation. They are very independent. And we, as a group, work on materializing synergies across the group. In this overview, we have here, we have on our -- the top left-hand part, the companies working with their own products from SP. From Ergomat with ergonomical solutions; SP Medical with their guide wire products. And on the right side, on the lower part of the figure, we have all the companies working as with subcontracting tasks. The decentralized organization enables us to act very closely together with our customers, making sure that the local management is able to make fast decisions and make sure that we fulfill the customer needs. And we, as a group, as I said before, work hard on establishing synergies across the group.

SP Group's global footprint is one of our strengths. Today, we have production and sales operations in 13 countries and with a total of 33 factories, as Lars mentioned before. With the acquisition of Idé-Pro late December last year, we also added India to the global footprint. Lars will elaborate on that later in this presentation. Our presence across the world, across the globe enables us to service customers locally, both the customers that we know from Scandinavia, from Europe, but also the local customers in, for example, U.S. From a revenue perspective, 74% (sic) [ 47% ] of the revenue is generated in Europe, 27% of this is in Denmark. When we look at the other regions, we see 16% in North and South America, and 10% in Asia.

Then let us look at the highlights. 2025 was a very eventful year. We came out with a record in Q4. The fourth quarter was great. We had a revenue increase of almost 14%. Our EBITDA grew 26%. And all in all, it resulted in a record for 2025. The revenue growth was 0.9% for the whole year, and the EBITDA margin was realized in a level of 20.2% with an EBT margin on 11.7%. So historically good year for SP Group, slightly better than the year before.

When we look at the outlook for '26, we look into growth in the range of 15% to 23%, and EBITDA margin of 19% to 21% and an EBT margin in the level of 11% to 13%.

2025 was also a turbulent year. We had very different quarters along the way. We saw postponement of projects in Q2 and Q3 due to uncertainty regarding tariffs that hit especially our own products, but we also saw a good growth in our sub-supplier projects. We -- if we look at the subcontracting work, it grew almost 6%. It is the largest increase in growth we have seen for a number of years, organic growth for the subcontracting work for many years. And that is especially tasks in Healthcare and in Foodtech that has driven this growth, which is also 2 strategic areas for us. On the other side, our -- the revenue from our own products decreased by 10%. That was especially hitting our -- also our Healthcare part with the postponed projects in Q2 and Q3, but we saw the demand picking up again late Q3, giving us a very good quarter 4. We saw the same picture back in '23, where increasing interest rates also postponed a number of projects for our own products, and that picked up again then in '24. On the images you have on the left-hand side here, there is a couple of examples of our own products. First, on the picture to the left is products from MedicoPack, where we are producing packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical industry as an own brand. And the other picture shows products from Ergomat. Here, are we -- have we installed ergonomical mats for an automotive plant, ensuring that the employees will have a good working environment.

When looking more closely on the development across the segments, Healthcare, which accounts for 40%, as mentioned before, generated DKK 1.174 billion, a minor decrease of 0.9%. This was primarily driven by what Lars just mentioned, the postponed deliveries, especially within own products, within medical packaging and ergonomic solutions. When looking at Cleantech, as you can see, 27% of the total revenue, they generated DKK 804 million, a decline of 6.5% compared to '24. Here, we have had the same uncertainties in Q2 and Q3, as mentioned. Overall, the group grew 0.9% and the main part of this was driven by Foodtech who had a growth of 5% -- 5.7% to be exact, in 2025. And the group others had an increase in revenue of 13.7%, totaling a revenue just below DKK 600 million. As mentioned, projects were postponed during 2025 within Healthtech and Cleantech. Uncertainty related to tariffs, geopolitics led to -- that selected customers postponed or actually paused some of the projects. This have had an impact on the revenue in '25. But saying that, it is also very important to say that when looking into Q4, we saw that it was a postponement. We saw a big increase in order intake and revenue increase in general. When we look at other highlights during '25, we also have to mention the increase within Healthcare production in the U.S. Our Atlanta factory started production back in January '25. It's an investment of high strategic importance, and it brings us closer to the U.S. customers and actually also reduces the exposure that we might have to travel -- trade barriers. We expect to ramp up during 2026 in both the U.S. and also in Poland.

Exactly. And the final highlight of 2025 was the acquisition of Idé-Pro. And this, I will elaborate on, on the next coming slides. The acquisition of Idé-Pro was made at December 17, 2025, at an enterprise value of DKK 700 million, and we expect Idé-Pro to contribute with revenue in the level of DKK 450 million and an EBITDA of the level DKK 100 million. Idé-Pro is one of the most skilled plastic companies in Denmark. They have a very high degree of digitalization, and they have in-house tool manufacturing, which is really unique in our industry. Most suppliers of plastic components are acquiring tools outside. And today, it's the same for SP Group, and that is mainly purchased in China. Idé-Pro has production in Skive and Glyngøre in Denmark, and in Bangalore in India, where they established a hub 20 years ago, focusing on the technical competencies and administrative tasks. In addition to this, they have built some really high-level skills on making functional prototype and producing low-volume demand for a broad range of customers. All of this gives SP Group a number of new capabilities that we will utilize going forward. If we see on the synergies, we are really pleased with Idé-Pro because we see a really good opportunity to do more cross-selling. There is a very limited overlap of customers between existing SP Group customers and the Idé-Pro customers. We also see possibilities in expanding the tool production in Idé-Pro. As I said before, we buy mainly tools outside SP Group today. and a very big part of that comes from China. And therefore, we would like to expand the platform Idé-Pro has built in India to become even bigger and make more tools. We expect that the synergies that we can realize in this acquisition is in the level of DKK 20 million to DKK 25 million with a full effect in 2027.

Well, let me walk you through some of the key financial highlights of 2025. As mentioned, we had a revenue of DKK 2.948 billion, an increase of 0.9% compared to '24. The increase is based on an organic growth of 1.8% measured in local currencies. When we look at the EBITDA, we had an actual of '25 of DKK 595 million, an increase of 1.1% compared to the year before. EBT, the earnings before tax increased 0.1% to DKK 345 million, corresponding to an EBT margin of 11.7%. Overall, '25 on these figures were the strongest, as Lars mentioned, in the history of SP on both revenue and earnings. When we look at the other key figures we have, cash flow from operating activities amounted to DKK 393 million, a decline of DKK 117 million. The main driver in that -- in the decline is the goods on stock, which has increased during Q4, and that is due to the activity level we saw in Q4. As Lars mentioned, we had a record back in Q4 '24, and we see a high activity level still early in '26. The net interest-bearing debt end 2025 was DKK 1.46 billion. increased significantly compared to '24. The main reason or the main driver in this was the acquisition of Idé-Pro. Last but not least, the equity increased by DKK 112 million to a total end of the year of DKK 1.8 billion. This gives us an equity ratio of 44.7%.

Yes. SP Group has grown consistently since the financial crisis, both organically and through acquisitions. In the past 15 years, we have been able to grow 8.6% a year, and we have completed more than 20 acquisitions, larger and smaller and have actually participated in the consolidation of our industry. And we are convinced that this approach will also bring value going forward. We have, over the past 10 years, increased our EBITDA margins from 12% in 2015 now to 20.2% in 2025, an increase of 8.2 percentage points. We have done this through a consistent focus on 3 main drivers: we have increased the share of our own products. Our own products have a higher margin than our subcontracting work where we are competing more with others; second, we have had a focus on moving production to low-cost countries, which has increased our competitiveness towards the industry; and third, we have increased wherever possible, increased automation wherever possible. And we are sure that these drivers will also support the margin development going forward. The same has been -- the same picture applies to the EBT margin, which has been lifted from 6% back in 2015 and now to 11.7%. And our ambition is clear. We want to be the best producing plastics. We want to have a very strong competitiveness and also some sound earnings. And this should continue -- we want to continue our focus on a good mix between our own products where we develop new innovative niche plastic products and our work as a subcontractor where we have a constant focus on in making our production processes more efficient.

On this slide, you will see the 5-year key figures and financial ratios. We have addressed several of these previously on the other slides, but I would like to highlight the net interest-bearing debt EBITDA ratio, which is 2.5x end of '25, an increase from 1.4x back in '24. As mentioned before, the increase is mainly driven by the acquisition of Idé-Pro. When you include Idé-Pro and make a pro forma calculation of this key figure, it is instead of 2.5, 2.2x.

Yes. Now it's time to look forward, and we cannot avoid addressing the conflict in the Middle East. There is a potential risk for increasing raw material prices, energy prices. We also see a risk for longer lead times for raw materials. To address this, we have already started a very close dialogue with our customers and with our suppliers, both regarding delivery and prices. However, we also have a robust raw material inventory that can make sure we can deliver what we have orders for. Our expectations for 2026 as a whole is based on the assumption that the conflict in the Middle East will deescalate within a relatively short period of time.

For '26, we expect revenue growth in the level of 15% to 23%, a margin -- EBITDA margin in the level of 19% to 21%, and an EBT margin in level of 11% to 13%. The growth is driven by a combination of new products, new customers and a continued growth within existing customers, but also the addition of Idé-Pro, which will contribute with approximately 15% of the growth in 2026. We are expanding capacity in both Poland and in the use, and we are entering into new customer agreements, particularly within Healthcare. As Lars mentioned, this assumes that the condition in the Middle East will be normalized within a reasonable time.

Yes, and it will not have impact on our ability to supply or the overall demand from our customers. But the core message is clear. SP Group is ready for growth. And when we take that on and look on our strategy towards 2030, it remains unchanged. It relies on 6 pillars. Our companies should be strong subsidiaries that have a very strong mandate towards their customers, and we will realize synergies across the group in the -- across the whole SP network. We have a big focus on growth industries. We focus on Healthcare, on Cleantech and on Foodtech. And we also want to serve both start-up companies and large global companies. Our broad technology portfolio helps us to find the right solution for our customers. Plastic can be made in many different ways. And it is crucial that we find the most cost-efficient solution for our customer so that they can be trusted -- we can be trusted as their partner. We want to continue focusing also on our own products. We supply a number of niche products in plastic globally today. We want to develop that and making sure that this can also contribute to increased margins and growth in SP Group. We also want to continue with more acquisitions, especially like the ones with Idé-Pro, where we find good companies at a fair price that enable us to become both more skilled and gives us new technology. Finally, sustainability is still in our focus. We want to help customers making more sustainable plastic products that makes a difference. We want to use more recycled materials in our own production, and we want to use more renewable energy.

Our overall financial ambitions towards 2030 is a growth in revenue in the level of 6% to 9%, bringing the revenue up to a total of DKK 4.5 billion. EBT margin is expected in the level of 12% to 14%, bringing the earnings before tax up to a level of around DKK 600 million. As Lars just mentioned, M&A is an important part of the strategy. And we continuously evaluate companies within our own business, companies with -- that have a strategic fit then companies that are able to support our ability to achieve our ambitions. If we're able to do this, if we are able to do larger acquisitions or several before 2013, that would naturally accelerate the achievement of these targets and these ambitions.

Exactly. And then let me summarize. SP Group has demonstrated resilience in 2025. We made an all-time high in Q4. We have had a good growth in our subcontracting work where we have been able to get new tasks and put them into production. We made an acquisition of Idé-Pro gives us both growth, but also a lot of new opportunities for the future. The conflict in the Middle East may have an impact on 2026 performance. The situation is still very unclear on what will go on here in the future. However, SP Group is ready for the growth. Thank you. And now we are ready for some questions.

Thank you very much, Lars and Allan. Yes, let's jump into some of the questions here. If we start with your guidance slide here. Let me just actuate this one. There's a question in relation to guidance. You cut guidance in July 2025 and still only landed at 0.9% for 2025. That's top line growth. Your 2026 guidance of 15% to 23% growth implies or 0% to 8% organic growth ex-Idé-Pro. What gives you confidence in the much more ambition 2026 range?

We started out 2025 with an ambition to grow from -- with a guidance on 0% to 10% -- sorry, from 3% to 10%. And we saw after the first half year that this was not possible due to all the trouble with the tariffs, and then we reduced it to minus 3% to 3% and ended up a little better than the year before. We have been -- on the same time, we have created a lot of new agreements with customers on new tasks. And one of the very nice things that we also realized last year was that we had a large number of new customers coming into SP Group with new products that we started producing. And actually, the share of the biggest customers was reduced a little bit, but we had a very high number of new customers. And we are sure that these new customers will give us more work during 2026 when we ramp up the production for these projects.

Very good. And also looking at your own products, we saw this decline of around 20%, as we can see in the lower right corner here on this slide, and there was a question here that goes. Own product fell to around 27% of sales from 30% in 2024. When do you expect to reverse that trend? And what does it take?

We expect to see continuously growth over time of our own products. But as we also stated last year, more and more of these own products are sold in big projects. And they can have an impact if they are postponed due to different reasons. We saw the same on -- back in '23, where we should actually have done some of the work in '24 back in '23. The level that we realized in 2025 was the second highest ever, and we believe that we can also do this better again this year.

Good. And also looking at own products, how should we think about your expectations for own products in 2026, given the current geopolitical instability and the historical tendency for customers to temporarily postpone projects in time of high uncertainty. Have you accounted for this in your guidance?

It is difficult to say what is going to happen in 2026, yes, especially based on our knowledge on how turbulent things can be in the past years. We continuously work on selling more and more projects. And we are doing that successfully. So the structural sales in -- of the own products is going well, but it's difficult for us to predict what will happen in the world and how this could happen to impact the -- what day we send an actual invoice on our products.

Good. And if we stay with sort of the current crisis in the Middle East, there was a couple of questions related to this also. Let me just have a look here. Are you seeing increasing in price pressure from your raw material suppliers given the high oil price? And if not, do you expect this to be in the coming months if the oil price remain elevated?

We have seen some few price increases on raw materials. We have seen some increases on transportation costs. Having said that, we are also prepared for this situation much better than last time we saw an increase in oil prices. First step for us is a very strong pushback to the supply side. We want to avoid that we do not get unnecessary increases on raw material and they are fair and based on actual increases on raw material because we do not want to push unnecessary price increases forward to our customers. Having said that, we will, of course, push price increases to our customers. That is a normal part of the way doing business in our subcontracting work. That is also in all our contracts that if price increases, then we can increase price towards our customers.

Good. And in relation to this, there was another question to the elevated energy prices. How long can you absorb it in your current guidance for 2026?

On energy prices?

Yes. How long can you absorb this in your current guidance? I guess it's when do you have to change guidance? How long can this go on with the oil prices, yes.

The main part of our electricity is on PPAs where we purchase directly from solar panels and wind turbines. And actually, we are just on the edge of making sure that our own solar park that we have created together with 2 other companies will go online, and then we will produce most of the power ourselves. When it comes to natural gas, we use a little bit of natural gas in our production. Over the past 5 years, we have been able to reduce it almost by half, taking into account that the group has also grown in the past 5 years. So actually, the share of natural gas that we use in our facilities is very low compared to previous times. Just from '25 -- from '24 to '25, we have decreased the use of natural gas by 10%. And this is also something that we, to a great extent, has covered on the price.

Thank you. And let's do a couple of questions on Idé-Pro here. There was one, how is the integration of Idé-Pro progressing compared to your initial plans? And when do you expect it to be completed?

First of all, the integration of Idé-Pro into SP Group is going very well. We have been welcomed by a very strong and very strong organization with a truly good mindset. On the other side, the excitement of Idé-Pro in the SP Group organization is also very big. Many of our colleagues are seeing opportunities together with this acquisition, making our colleagues very, very busy finding new clever solutions on doing things smarter. So you say, especially for the cross-selling part, we are a little bit overwhelmed on how good things are actually going here. We have also found some cost synergies already that we are in process of implementing. If you look a bit more ahead and what is on our mind for '26 and '27 is the increase of the tool production, which enable us to become more flexible towards our customers. Idé-Pro has some very unique skills here, and we believe that by increasing the capacity in their tool production, then they are able to supply other businesses in SP Group, and we can get the same benefits in more in SP Group that -- in the same way that it has made Idé-Pro unique in the past.

Good. And the question also goes, have you seen any sort of positive, negative surprises? I think you mentioned a few positives. I don't know if they were expected. But has there been sort of any positive, negative surprises after you handed the key?

The positive side I just covered, and I mean, -- and so far on the negative side, no, absolutely not.

Good. And could you sort of said more specific, when will the integration be completed? Can you put on a month, a quarter, a year or -- yes.

I actually don't believe that we can put on a year when it will be completely finalized. We have stated our ambition, what we want to find synergies in the first 2 years. But with the team that we have in Idé-Pro and the way that we work, I believe that we can actually continue to find good ideas among each other also in the years to come. Idé-Pro has some very exciting ways of handling plastic production. We also have the same. I'm sure that the team at Idé-Pro can also learn from the rest of SP Group when they get to know each other much better. We have seen that before with other acquisitions, and I'm sure we can also do that in this case.

Good. And let's take a couple of questions on the Atlanta facility here. Let me just see here. It goes like this. Are you seeing a pull effect where customers want U.S.-based production to avoid tariffs? And what is your own import exposure into the U.S.?

First of all, we see that our customers are wishing for a more regionalized setup in order to reduce risks, no matter if it is supply issues or its tariff issues or other issues. The focus is that we need to produce where products are needed. And we see -- and our belief is that this trend will also continue going forward. What was your -- sorry, what was the other part, Rasmus?

That was also on what is your own import exposure into the U.S.?

That is rather limited. Most of what we do in the U.S. is produced in U.S. And that is actually the same way what we produce in China is also sold in China. And what we produce in Europe are also sold in Europe. We have a very limited transportation between the different regions of the world with our products.

And as you stated in the annual report, you are doing further investments in the Atlanta side. What is the current utilization in Atlanta? And when is this sort of the facility fully operational?

The fact, the facility is fully operational. All the fixed installations and everything has been done. We are running production 24/7. And the future investments in the Atlanta plant will be for further expansion of the capacity. So when we get new tasks with customers, we will need more machines. And that is basically the investment. So you can say it will typically be in more injection molding machines we need in the U.S. when we get more tasks there.

Good. And do you have long-term customer commitments in place?

We have very long-term customer relations in place, and we are focusing on being a partner that our customers would like to continue with, and that is the normal setup in our business. We do not have customers that says that they would like to buy this and this. We are dependent as a subcontractor on how good that they are in their sales work, and then this will reflect on their demand. Luckily, we have a great team that is able to make new agreements with customers, both new customers, but also existing customers on doing more business, getting a bigger share of wallet with our customers, and we believe we can continue that path.

Good. We're running a bit short of time, but let's take a few last questions focused on your balance sheet and cash flow here on this slide. It says here net working capital compared to sales increased to 29% in 2025. Is that solely due to the strong growth in Q4? And should we expect our net working capital release once your Atlanta factory is fully utilized?

Well, the level of working capital end of '25 is impacted, as mentioned, impacted by the activity level in Q4, which was very high and also the fact that we looked into beginning of '26, starting at a high level. So the working capital is high in '25, but we expect by focus, and we actually have a focus on improving our working capital during the coming years. So we expect it to be on another level when looking forward.

Good. And then last question on capital allocation. What are your overall thoughts on capital allocation for '26 and '27, given the acquisition of Idé-Pro and higher resulting leverage as we can also see on this slide. The question goes, do we have the organizational capacity to do further acquisitions if the opportunity arises?

We have a great organization and that helps with the integration of Idé-Pro. And we are sure if the right case will arrive, then we will also have the mental capacity to handle this, yes.

And also the last question here goes, how do you prioritize these things? one, deleveraging; two, M&A; and three, dividends/share buybacks.

We made last year a policy for capital allocation where we have described the priorities that we are working after. For sure, our biggest goal is to create more value for our shareholders through making the group bigger and better.

Very good. We will conclude by that. Thank you very much, Allan and Lars, for your presentation here.

Thank you very much, and thank you to all of you who has been listening in. It was a pleasure.

Thank you.