YIT Oyj (YIT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Hello, everyone. I think we can start. So hi, everyone, and welcome to YIT's analyst call preceding the silent period of our second quarter 2025 results. My name is Essi Nikitin, and I'm heading the Investor Relations at YIT. Together with me here, I have our CFO, Tuomas Makipeska on the line. We will start with the recap to recent developments in the company. And after that, we will have time for questions. As a reminder, this call will be recorded, and the recording will be published on our website after the call. At this point, I hand over to Tuomas. Please go ahead, Tuomas.

Yes. Thank you very much, Essi, and hi all on my behalf as well. I'll cover briefly the market and business update segment by segment first and then continue with a few words about the financial position of the company as well. But let's start with an update on our businesses and markets, starting from the residential CEE business. Our growth story has continued in all operating countries in the residential CEE segment. The rolling 12 months sales increased 25% from the previous year in the first quarter of 2025 with the highest apartment sales since Q4 2021. Supported by the favorable market conditions, we continued to start new projects in total, more than 500 apartments during the first quarter. The new projects are already selling well and will support our coming year's revenue and profit generation. Our land bank is strong in the Central Eastern Europe, supporting new project starts in all operating countries. Demand and supply have remained in balance and the inventory is at the desired level there. As we have communicated in accordance with the previous results release, our completions in the segment this year will be heavily concentrated towards the end of the year. Recognizing profit at completion will thus make the profit generation back-end loaded in the residential CEE segment this year. In May, we had the pleasure to announce that Justina [indiscernible] was appointed as Executive Vice President, Residential CEE segment and member of the YIT leadership team starting the 4th of August this year. Justina's vast experience and proven track record in the real estate sector, particularly in the Central and Eastern European markets, make her an invaluable addition to YIT, and we really look forward to welcoming her as a part of our team after the holidays. All in all, we are moving towards reducing our dependence on the Finnish residential market as we are driving strong growth in Central and Eastern Europe. Our residential CEE operations will play an important strategic role in our business going forward, and the segment will be a strong driver of both volume growth and profitability for the company. Let's then move on to the residential Finland. The recovery of the Finnish residential market has proceeded gradually in line with our expectations. The secondary market is picking up and the mortgage drawdowns show positive development. We have seen good pre-reservation rates for our projects and started new self-developed projects as well. And we will continue the starts as the year progresses. We've had several successful campaigns during the past quarters, the latest of which was published actually last weekend. We are accelerating the sale of last available homes in selected completed housing companies at discounts of up to 20%, aiming to sell all the apartments in the housing companies participating in the campaign. The campaign has been received well and actually stimulated activity among the consumers already. The outlook for the Finnish residential market completions has remained unchanged with some 200 completions left for this year projected for the last quarter of the year. As a result, the completions for 2025 are projected to decrease from the 2024 levels. Regional shortage of supply is already being observed and the market downturn has also impacted the number of players in the market. In conclusion, the Finnish residential market is heading towards a tighter supply scenario with implications to both pricing and availability in the future. As we have stated in our outlook for the year, a low amount of completions during 2025 will limit the residential Finland segment's capability to generate profit. We expect the primary apartment market sales volumes in general to slightly increase during 2025 as the decreased interest rates and the increased consumer purchasing power are expected to have a positive effect on demand. As we have communicated, our stock of unsold completed apartments has continued to decline and is expected to normalize during the year. Outside the capital area, the stock is already at the normal level. And as said, we can even see shortage of supply in some areas. But that covers the residential segments, and let's now move on to the contracting segments, infrastructure and building construction. In the Infra business, steady performance continued in the first quarter, supported by increased volumes, especially in industrial construction. Public sector demand in infrastructure market is expected to remain at a good level with many investments currently in the design phase, including the defense sector investments. The private sector demand is driven by industrial construction and the transition to renewable energy. As a result of the favorable market development, we turned our short-term outlook of infrastructure business in Finland from stable to improving in accordance with our Q1 results. In the beginning of the second quarter, we announced that the city of Espoo has selected YIT as the executor of the renovation and expansion project of Tapiola swimming hall. The value of the project for YIT is approximately EUR 35 million, which will be recorded in the order book for the second quarter of the year. We are pleased to be selected as the main contractor for the project as it has high regional and cultural historical value. All in all, the order book for the Infra segment is strong, including orders from Tramway investments and industrial customers, and the segment is in a good position to see growth and further improve operational efficiencies. Then Building Construction. The segment improved its results in the first quarter of the year. We have obtained control over the project margin deviations, which supports financial performance. Despite the highly competitive market, we also increased our order book during the first quarter by winning both public and private sector projects supported by our core competencies and expertise. We have also announced several new projects for the segment during the second quarter. In April, we announced that YIT and [indiscernible] Insurance had signed a collaboration agreement on the construction of a business property and the related parking facility in Tampere, Finland. In May, we announced that the signing of the implementation phase of the Alexander Schools renovation project also in Tampere worth of approximately EUR 24 million. Last but not least, we announced also in May that the city of Turku had selected YIT as the implementer and the provider of life cycle services of 7 day care centers located in Turku, Finland. YIT is responsible for the design, implementation and 20-year service period of the day care centers and the total value of the agreement for YIT is approximately EUR 72 million. The competition for new projects is intense in Finland as a result of the overall decline in construction volumes. Activity in data centers and industrial projects is, however, expected to increase in the coming years, and that's driven by the green transition. These projects are in our focus and in line with our strategy. Our capability to execute these complex projects successfully brings us competitive advantage in the market. Then finally, a few words about the financial position of the company. In May, we announced the successful issuance of new EUR 100 million green capital securities. And in accordance with the transaction, we also announced tendering of close to EUR 54 million green capital securities issued in 2021 with an initial nominal amount of EUR 100 million. I am pleased with this successful transaction. It was part of our proactive management of financing position and highlights the capital markets' continued confidence in YIT and the outlook for our business. The measures to improve net working capital efficiency have continued to yield results as the 12 months rolling operating cash flow after investments has by the end of March, been positive for the last 5 quarters now. Releasing capital from the balance sheet and improving capital efficiency in business operations are one of the top priorities in our strategy. At the group level, the capital employed has been on a downward trend in recent quarters, and we are determined to continue the execution of capital release actions according to our strategy and consequently improve the return on capital employed of the company. Our return on capital employed has been on a positive trend as well. The successful capital release measures, capital efficiency in business operations as well as improved adjusted operating profit were truly visible in the metrics in the first quarter of the year. So to conclude, we have now started our path towards the targets set for the strategy period. Our stable financial position enables us to focus on improving the financial performance of our businesses. And we remain confident with our capabilities and will continue to drive robust growth in segments where the market conditions are favorable, focusing on achieving our targeted performance.

[Operator instructions] Thank you, Tuomas. We are now ready for questions. The first question we have from Anssi Raussi.

I have a few questions here, and I start with residential Finland. So how would you describe maybe your, let's say, cost management in this segment if we compare to Q1, of course, low activity, but anything to comment on that?

Yes. Thanks, Anssi, for the good question. We definitely, as we said in quarters with the Q1 results, so we see the cost efficiency measures kind of done by the transformation program. clearly kind of in the results of the residential Finland business as well. So the cost management measures have been taken already during the transformation program, and it has continued to kind of be visible in our cost structure. So that we can say. And as we communicated in Q1, the sales mix was favorable as well for the residential Finland business, but definitely also the cost management or actually cost efficiency measures, they were taken already before are visible in the results.

Okay. That's good to hear. Maybe continuing on Residential Finland. You mentioned that you're already seeing some regional supply shortages in some areas, but when you're starting a new project, how would you describe your pricing? Is it more like that you have to -- or you want to start new projects even with lower margins than before? Or is it just that you can now put the old price tag to new project to say?

Well what -- let's put it this way that, of course, our pricing is really based on project by project based on several factors. One is, of course, our production cost, but also kind of the market situation in micro location sense. So there are several factors affecting the pricing and the price tags for the new projects. What we have already communicated is that from the cost of production perspective, we have been able to lower our cost of production overall really by the transformation program by project management capabilities, but mostly even related to the purchasing development there and category-based model, which is also kind of yielding results there. So we are able to construct with a lower cost, but the pricing, of course, is done based on several factors and taking into account, of course, the demand and the micro location.

Okay. And maybe finally, on your financing expenses, of course, you have done some new financing and you're talking about driving down your inventory levels. So how should we think about financing expenses in the latter half of this year, for example?

Related to the financing expenses of the company. So there are also -- as you know, so there are several factors behind that. And of course, there are the instruments and the new -- also the new instrument that we launched in Q2, but also it's related to the inventory levels of our completed stock and several other factors as well. We are not really guiding the financing expenses going forward. But what we can say that there is several factors that are kind of offsetting each other, and we will then, of course, talk about more of this in accordance with the Q2 results.

And next Svante, please go ahead.

First question about residential Finland. And you mentioned that you had up to 20% discount. You have previously said that the price elasticity is a bit tricky, but do you see now that consumers really react to this kind of discounts?

Thanks. That's an excellent question. And as we have tried several campaigns during the last quarters. And this is now kind of a new approach, which is kind of directly related to the pricing. And it's related to the fact that we have some apartments in the completed housing companies and they are priced, of course, one by one, but we are now kind of testing a bit of the market if there's a price elasticity increasing from the previous years. And that's, of course, our target that we would be attracting more customers with the direct discounts. But the campaign itself is limited to the housing companies where we have a couple of apartments left to sell. And the target is, of course, to complete the sales of these housing companies. So let's see about the results when we have run the campaign a bit further. But as I mentioned, so it's clearly -- it has stimulated activity in the market. So that we can say already now.

And then regarding both residential Finland and CEE, are you -- do you still believe that the time for completion is now closer to 12 months in -- you have said that you have been able to take it down quite significantly.

Yes. And well, let's say that, again, here, it is related -- let's say, it's really project specific related to the complexity of the project and is there underground parking and these kind of elements. But in average, we have been able to reduce the lead time of our construction quite significantly already. The lead times in Finland are a bit faster than in the CEE countries. But what we can say now is that we are actually faster kind of time to market from starting to completion. And that, of course, helps us to react to the market changes and of course, increases the capital efficiency and cost efficiency as well. But as we have communicated, so we have already 15% gain in the lead times of construction, but of course, it varies project by project.

And now when the activity is picking up, do you see any bottlenecks on the residential side as, I guess, a lot of subcontractors have exited the market?

Well, we haven't seen any major bottlenecks so far. And we have been, as mentioned, so the whole -- our procurement function and the purchasing kind of a transformation there has been really based on the category-based procurement. And there, one of the key elements is, of course, selecting the subcontractors to work with. there are several criteria that has been taken into account. One is, of course, kind of the financial stability of the subcontractor, but also the quality, the safety topics and kind of a reaction speed for our needs are among the criteria by which we have selected the subcontractors. So I would say that we haven't seen any bottlenecks yet. There probably will be some if the market turns fast. But at least, we are pretty confident that we are much better positioned nowadays than we were before the really heavy market decrease or volume decrease.

Thank you, Tuomas. And then perhaps the last question regarding residential also. But on the investor side, we have seen some -- or the biggest transaction now made in, I guess, more than 3 years on the investor side. But how does it look on investor demand on new construction? Is it so that the XL still doesn't work? Or how do you see the discussions there?

Well, we haven't really seen a drastic change in the market yet in that segment. And I'm assuming that you are referring to the professional investors and the kind of that part of the segment. Of course, the private investors are in the market and has been all the time, and that's the kind of the smaller investors buying individual apartments or bundles of apartments. So those are still active in the market or has been all the time. Professional investors buying the whole block of apartments are not really let's say, the market hasn't picked up yet. I wouldn't say that it's -- and we have been actually saying already before that we don't even anticipate them to come back to the market during this year. The XL doesn't work that well yet. But we are assuming that this segment also will be picking up next year. So let's see, will that happen, but that's our view on that market segment.

And then Emil, please go ahead.

One question or 2 questions from my part on Central Eastern Europe and residential building there. I've seen you've been increasing quite a bit your capacity there. So you're building a lot of them to me seems like soon it's more of a problem that you don't have completed apartments for sale. I'm just thinking how should we think about this increase in production impacting kind of your tying up capital or releasing capital efforts?

Thanks, Emil. That's an excellent question as well. And that's one of the favorite topics I've been heading as an interim role at that segment now. And looking at the market there, you're right that in general, it varies country by country a bit, but the demand is on a very good level in general across the countries. We have been accelerating quite heavily actually our production there. So we have done a lot of starts during this year already and last year as well. We have an excellent land bank there. And as we have communicated this in last year already, so that's really supporting our growth. That's also supporting our capital efficiency since we have had the plot reserve or land bank there -- and it's really now paying off that we don't have to make large plot acquisitions at this phase, but utilizing the current land bank, and that's really supporting the profitable growth and not really tying too much capital in the acceleration phase. So that's a very good position to be now when the market is very active there, and we are accelerating our own starts there.

Okay. That's clear. And then a follow-up on that. How are you thinking now that you're really accelerating the construction? How are you kind of factoring in that what if demand there drops? How is your kind of planning for the next, let's say, 10 to 12 months, maybe when the apartment starts should be completed?

Yes. So that's, of course, a bit of the risk side of accelerating the production. We have changed quite a lot the model how we make the decisions regarding starts in CEE and also how we sell the apartments during the construction phase. So we are basically -- we have changed the model so that we actually use a bit more aggressively the pre-reservation approach and the early phase sales approach in the CEE countries as well. And that's really supporting this kind of a scenario where the demand would be decreasing. So we would be actually having sold majority of the apartments when the project is completed. So in that way, so we are able to manage the risks related to that one a lot better than before. And that's actually been quite well received by the market as well because that's really a bit changing of the market practice in some of the countries. But really, we have seen a good progress there. So all in all, we can say that the sales rate of the project under construction is an increase, and that limits heavily the risk related to the decreasing demand.

Okay. Do we have further questions. Yes, Anssi, please go ahead.

One more -- maybe a bit more detailed question. So we have certain regulations in Finland, for example, let's say, regarding civil defense shelters, we have to build in houses. But have you seen any changes or do you expect any changes in CEE countries regarding these kind of things, which could maybe increase your costs quite drastically?

Thanks, Hi. Good question. We haven't seen any drastic changes in the CEE market related to this topic. We are certainly, of course, monitoring the situation. No changes so far. If there would be, we would be able to pass that cost to the price of the apartments as well. So we would not definitely be constructing any shelters or anything by our own cost. So that would be, of course, part of the sales price of the apartments then. But no changes yet on that matter.

Pauli, please go ahead.

Open. Just one question on a general level in terms of the new residential market, new construction outlook and pickup. What do you see in terms of activity levels and time of potential improvement? I guess the question relates what have you expected? And as we see some news and the postponed economic recovery or activity consumer remaining uncertain and weak. Has this changed your views? Or are you less optimistic now than you have been earlier? Does the kind of move forward? Or what is your current thinking of the new construction activity?

Thanks, Pauli. This is, of course, kind of the market change and the recovery or increase in demand is something that we have been monitoring pretty closely. And based on what we have -- or let's put it this way, the plan that we have for this year is valid. And that's based on the fact that we haven't been anticipating a drastic increase in demand for this year. So that's also kind of being a bit prudent in the planning of the business already back in end of last year and beginning of this year also when giving the guidance for this year. So in that -- and as we actually state that in our outlook as well. So we don't really project any -- or forecast any drastic increase in demand. We haven't seen that, and we are not basing our business for this year to heavy market pickup now. Of course, we would like to see increase in demand. So that's for sure, probably all of us do, but that's not the basis how we have planned this year. So we are pretty confident that we are -- our plans are valid and no changes on that view at this point.

Any more questions from anyone. No. Okay. It seems that there are no further questions. So thank you all for the great discussions. We will publish the second quarter results on 25th of July. At this point, I wish you all a great rest of the day and lovely summertime. Thank you.

Thank you very much.