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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2021-Q1

from 0
Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the NKT Q1 report for 2021. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today on Wednesday, the 19th of May 2021. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alexander Kara. Please go ahead.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Yes. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking the time and joining this Q1 report from NKT. Today, we have here with me as a presenter in the room, Line, our CFO; and Basil, who is the CEO of NKT Photonics. So if we look at the highlights from the first quarter 2021, I think we can say that we have a satisfactory start in 2021. Overall, we had an organic growth of 21% in Cables, and all 3 business lines contributed to this 21% positive results. The operational EBITDA tripled almost from last year, same quarter last year from EUR 10 million to EUR 30 million. And we had a record-high quarterly performance in Service & Accessories and also good performance in Solutions, very positive. It's also to mention that we have a good start in Photonics. Photonics is back on the growth path, mainly driven by the industrial segment and the medical and life, and we have more from Basil, a little bit later. So it was the highest ever Q1 in revenues in Photonics, which is good to be back here. If you look at the more -- a little bit more in detail the Q1 performance. As I mentioned, all the 3 business lines in Cables improved revenues and earnings have contributed. In Solutions, we have different activities, produced different type of cables in our factories in Karlskrona and Cologne, and good utilization of the factory. In -- after the month -- sorry, quarterly closing, we got awarded the Troll, the best project from Equinor with EUR 95 million on market price, which is a nice order and also particular as it is an AC order. Further in Applications. We continue on our turnaround and improved the performance so from last year from EUR 3.5 million to EUR 5.5 million and also organic growth of 2%. Service & Accessories, as I mentioned earlier, the highest ever quarter, supported by service repair jobs offshore, but also onshore and also several other activities. Overall, an organic growth of 21%. And as you see here on the graph, good growth from EUR 240 million to almost EUR 300 million in revenues, it's on the metal price. And operational EBITDA in round numbers from EUR 10 million to EUR 13 million EBITDA. If we go now to Solutions. In the first quarter, we have executed -- worked on different projects. Dogger Bank A and B, Dogger Bank is the first DC offshore project in U.K. where we had worked on several other projects, Moray East in Ostwind, which are three-core AC project; and on Viking, which is an MI project. A good mix share of execution at different project types. Further, we have finalized Triton Knoll offshore wind farm in U.K. with deliveries of export cables and inter-array cable, we used for installation for various activities to NKT Victoria for installation, but also for service activities, like the repair job for BritNed. So revenues went up to EUR 161 million, 27%, and EUR 19.5 million EBITDA, or from 4.2% to 12.1% comparing quarter -- last year with this quarter. If you look at the high-voltage market this year, we have been awarded new orders on onshore segments, like RP frame agreement, but also various variation orders. And as I mentioned after the quarter closing, we got awarded the table for offshore from Equinor, Troll West in Norway with the EUR 95 million approximately standard market price. Overall, in Q1, there were around EUR 700 million awarded, and we are continuing to be active on tenders around the world, meaning we are active in Asia, in Europe, but also we see more and more activities in the U.S. So last year was a good year for us in NKT with a project on the DC technology. Now we got the first order on AC, which is also good for factory loading and mixed on our portfolio. If you look at our backlog. Our backlog is EUR 2.95 billion, compared with historical fit, very high. It's a little bit reduced, EUR 120 million compared to end of 2020, but still very high. And we are working on all the segment, offshore wind, interconnectors in oil and gas. And now we will add the Troll West as power from shore on top of that and see how the revenue backlog will be executed in the future. Applications. If we come to applications, also a good start in the year. We continue with our turnaround activities in applications. And one further activity with distribution would we take to move the building wires from Asnæs, from Denmark to Poland and to concentrate the building wires in Poland. Also it's worth to mention here that we implemented the ERP system in Eastern Europe in the beginning of the year without issues, I can conclude. Overall, satisfactory quarter for applications, and we continue with our actions to improve here further the profitability in applications. Coming then to Service & Accessories. Service & Accessories, we have a good performance in service with various repair orders offshore and onshore. One is you mentioned, BritNed to the connection from U.K. and Netherlands; but also on the, let's call it, base business, we had a good development also on the service agreement. We did also quite well with accessories in Norderham for Service & Accessories. And here also, we make a footprint adjustment where we concentrate the high-voltage accessories in Alingsas in Sweden and move it from Cologne to Alingsas. Overall, record-high quarter, which is a nice start into the year. With this, I will hand over to Basil, and he gives you the details here of NKT Photonics.

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Thank you, Alex. And how do you follow-up with a great quarter from cable is to try and catch up on our side and Photonics. Q1 was a good quarter for us. We achieved the highest revenue, top line revenue in the history of NKT Photonics, and the quarter started very satisfactory with us in both EBITDA growth and top line growth. Our organic growth was 26%, which is mainly driven by a broad-based comeback in the industrial segment, and all parts of the industrial segment were doing well. We also did well in the Medical & Life Science segment where the growth continued from all the products that we launched in the middle and late 2020. With this higher revenue, our EBITDA has also increased. However, our earnings in Q1 were impacted by restructuring costs of EUR 1.2 million in the quarter. In the quarter as well, we recorded our highest ever order intake, which corresponded, again, to a 36% increase over the same quarter last year. And it's mainly due to the improved market conditions, again, mainly in the industrial side. If we move to the next slide on our business development. We, in Medical & Life Sciences, continued to perform well in the segment. And the main drivers here are our business in ophthalmology, which is increasing. We are getting more OEMs in that sector. And our OEMs in microscopy are also driven quite high with the changes in end of last year and into this quarter. In the industrial segment, we saw a significant recovery in Q1 over 2020. However, the recovery in the research market is still a little bit weak, and we expect that to perform better in the second half of the year. In aerospace and defense, the activity level is still very high, both in Europe and the U.S. And this segment is growing, and we expect new orders and new growth in this sector. With this, it's the end of my segment, and I'll pass it over to Line.

L
Line Andrea Fandrup
Executive VP & CFO

Thank you very much, Basil. So to recap the business performance for the quarter in the income statement here on Slide 16. We improved revenue and operational EBITDA, both by NKT Cables part and Photonics. On the NKT Cables part, the 21% growth for the quarter was constituted of the underlying business performance, as Alex alluded to. On the Solutions business, down 27%. The Applications business, 2% growth in revenues; and the Service & Accessories had a very good start to the year of 82%. And underlying also our business line in NKT Cables improved earnings compared to last year. It is also good that Photonics is back on a growth mill compared to last year and cleaning for the redundancies early this year for Photonics. We are also at a breakeven in terms of original EBITDA. The cables part, closing at the quarter with a EUR 30 million operational EBITDA, almost threefold quarter last year. On the margin levels, I think noting that for the Cables division, a quarter like this actually brings us up to the 10% margin level. So we have had good utilization amongst our factories and also the different cable technologies. On the Photonics, excluding the redundancies here, you also see the breakeven on the margin level. The one-off item is a smaller divestment of the plant in Stenlille came in favorable here, and then closing off with a positive net result for the quarter of '21, slightly positive compared to last year. And a final note on the FTEs. You see also a part on the Cable business that we have ramped up for the increasing activities on the Solutions business and the adjustment made in Photonics. So turning the page to the balance sheet highlights. And here, you can see that we came out of a very unusual low level on working capital in 2020. And this is -- we are now at a different level, corresponding to the same level last year in Q1. When you go then to the ROCE, the return on the capital employed, you also see the good -- improved performance on the earnings levels here panning in to an improvement on our ROCE compared to last year and even the end of '20. On the net interest-bearing debt and the leverage ratio. We closed 2020 with significant cash at hand, and we still have EUR 179 million cash at hand. It closed in Q1, concluding, therefore the NIBD at EUR 31 million, were offset by the mortgage cost and the lease. So right now, the leverage ratio of 0.4x for the full company. Turning to the trend on working capital. As you know, the major fluctuations that we see over the years here is related to the Solutions business, timing of milestones and prepayments. We have had some very low levels of working capital in the Q4 of '19 and even lower Q4 2020. So Q1 2021 came up somewhat due to timing of payments in Solutions business, but also the seasonal buildup of working capital in applications preparing for the high season. Also, what you see here in the working capital, particularly in the Q1 '21, is actually the value adjustment of our hedging instruments. It's a noncash effect, but it's corresponding to EUR 57 million and it's corresponding adjusted on our equity. Turning to the cash flow highlights. So improved earnings were offset still by the change in working capital, but also, as you know, the CapEx level. So we are coming through our investments activities in the Solutions factories in Karlskrona and Cologne, and you are seeing the pickup here in the first quarter of the year, as you saw it also Q4 2020. It will continue this way in '21 and also into '22 once we finalized the full program. So the net cash flow turned negative due to this redundancy for the quarter. Turning to the outlook for the year. NKT Cables maintains the revenue outlook for the year, EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.2 billion. And on the operational EBITDA, the EUR 80 million to EUR 110 million. Important to say here is that we do expect that the first half of the year would be a very solid one for NKT's part of it due to the mix of projects we have in our factories. And the expected revenue generation. So second half is expected to be at a lower level than what you would see in the first half. I'm sure we'll come back to this in the question session. And then for NKT Photonics, coming out of a much better Q1 with a high revenue level, we are now modifying slightly our guidance for the year, saying that we will end in the upper end of the range of 0% to 10% on the organic growth and similar on the EBITDA margin. There are uncertainties around COVID still, and Q1 was also impacted by this. So still to see aggressively how this pans out. So turning to the last slide of the presentation. Recapping that the organic revenue growth of 20% in NKT with all business contributing is a highlight. There is also a highlight, of course, to see that operational EBITDA almost tripled and good contribution from all business lines. And then that the NKT Photonics has the highest ever Q1 revenue, so also in a better shape than in 2020. With that, we will turn over to questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question today comes from the line of Artem Tokarenko of Crédit Suisse.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

I have 3, please. My first question is around Solutions margin. Could you maybe talk a little bit about how should we think about sustainability of this high level of margins for the rest of the year? And maybe also, I saw in the report that you've been finalizing some of the projects. If there were any positive provision releases, how much those contributed to the quarter, please? That's my first question.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

In general, as I have stated also in earlier calls, with higher utilization in industry, margins have to up -- to improve on the Solutions side. And we have a good execution, a good mix, means in Q2, we saw some good loading in the factory on the different machineries. And it means good income from machine, and that helped. So in terms of [indiscernible], the means that we have nothing extraordinary [indiscernible] results. And how that will be going forward, Line mentioned that second half will be weaker than the first half, or first half is stronger. That also depends on the mix of products we have in the first half, the MI production from Viking, which will be not the case in the second half. What has the impact on the revenue [indiscernible] too early to conclude here.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. Understood. And my second question is around the project pipeline. You obviously talked about healthy tendering activity. Maybe -- I know you don't like talking about particular projects, but some of your competitors talk very actively about Euro Asia and the TenneT projects potentially being awarded recent next quarter. So what are your thoughts on those 2 projects? And maybe also on the U.K. CMD round, it increasingly looks like the cable awards actually will be next year rather than this year on the CMD. So how much of a risk for you this is that it maybe takes a bit longer than people initially expected? That's my second question.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Starting with the U.S. -- U.K. CMD round, as you said, rightfully, it will most probably slip into next year -- early next year. This is a delay of, let's say a quarter is not a major delay as we have a good backlog. And so -- but that finally becomes in Q1 or maybe -- Q1 or maybe even Q2. But overall, there are several projects as we work on it in Asia. I don't want to mention specific projects interconnectors with a different technology, but also on on-shore wind and oil and gas in U.S. connectivities. So that should be -- should be still more than EUR 3 billion. It depends, it can be even more if some of the other interconnectors will be awarded. So we are busy. Our people are busy in the TenneT team. And I guess, the whole industry is busy working also for projects in the U.S., which is good, which is good for NKT.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. And my last question is around your comments in the report about potentially coming back to the strategic review of Photonics business, I guess you mentioned as COVID situation eases up, but also in other parts of the report, you mentioned that you expect this to happen -- the COVID situation to even H2 this year. So I guess, what's the internal timing you think about for that review process? And maybe a lateral question to this. Obviously, your peers have been announcing capacity expansions in the U.S. But I think previously, you've been saying that there are no immediate investment needs for you. So should Photonics be disposed in the next 24 months, how do you assess sort of the capital allocation on the back of that?

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

So we -- the strategic review of Photonics is, as we mentioned, slated to start going back to normal operations. So when the issues that have arisen from COVID and sort of outcome of COVID is over, then we will be able to look at Photonics in a more holistic way and come up with a time line for the [indiscernible]. At the moment, [indiscernible] worldwide. So -- even though we're doing very well, we're not out of the woods as such. And when we are, we will announce the strategic review. Nothing else has been done with regards to any allocations of capital or anything else.

Operator

Your next question today comes from the line of Kristian Johansen of Danske Bank.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

I would like to actually continue where we just left off. Maybe just again, if you can repeat exactly what was the impact of COVID-19 in Q1? Because to me, it doesn't really seem that there is much of an impact.

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Yes. I mean, there is an impact. Some of our businesses are doing exceptionally well, and some are still affected by COVID. Some businesses have had a knock-on effect, where they were weak in the last 2 quarters of -- or last 4 quarters of 2020, and they're recovering in this year. So it also is -- you have to take into account, Q1 is our smallest quarter. In general, it's a quarter that comes after what usually is our largest quarter. So it's hard to basically draw a parallel out of it or a trajectory out of it at this stage. I think once you look at future quarters going into this year, that's when we can be able to make a better assessment of where we are at the moment. It's still somewhat difficult to make this assessment. And COVID has affected some things. It's -- obviously, we don't go down to what parts of it's affected in our shipments, in orders and everything else, but it has affected that.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

Okay. I understand. And is there any deterioration into Q2 from what you know now in terms of the COVID impact?

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Not that we've seen, no.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

Okay. That's clear then. And then jumping to the Cable business. Just want to confirm these smaller onshore and variation orders. So when I do the simple math of the change in backlog and the revenue, I get that you have received roughly EUR 50 million in standard measure prices in orders in Q1. Can you just confirm whether that level is correct? And also, can you comment on these smaller orders, whether that's sort of AC, DC, is it MI, XLPE? Or what have you got in?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Yes, your math is correct. We dropped EUR 120 million on the backlog. And we have the EUR 50 million on new order. This is the AC onshore, mainly. We have also been awarded the RP frame agreement, but this is the call-off, that this was not in Q1. So it's mainly AC onshore and no DC, no MI. EUR 50 million would be a rather small -- very small -- no, you can almost say, not at all for MI. And that is small for NKT Cables. So it's all onshore AC on variation or one of the sea cable, but then some smaller changes.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

Yes. Understood. And can you then comment on your opportunities to still get orders in, which will make a difference on revenue for this year?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Okay. We have this in and out orders and variation orders, which can make a difference. We -- you have seen, we have a high-growth on service, driven by offshore repair. So there's still opportunities on that side for improving the revenues in 2021. We have now also got the Troll, which has some contribution in 2021, which is good, and will continue to contribute in 2022. So there are still some possibilities.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

I was actually thinking more in line of the larger orders, like the Troll orders. Are there any more orders [indiscernible], which could make any impact on this year?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

On large orders, it would be awarded. There's always, let's say, a preparation time on engineering, on type testing and so on. Any large order which would come in Q2 would have no significant impact POC-based, very low number, if at all. So it would be effective in starting 2022.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

Understood. And then my last question, on the Applications business, whether you can give a bit of flavor on low voltage and medium voltage separately. Specifically for medium voltage, you mentioned some challenges for your customers in Sweden in Q4, whether that has sort of continued. And on low voltage, we're hearing building material companies talk about sort of growth acceleration towards the end of Q1 and continuing into April. So to what extent are you seeing a similar picture here?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Well, we have some lower demand in Q4. That's correct. And -- but now we see that the demand is increased. It was a little bit slow start in Sweden in Q1. But overall, we are seeing demand is increasing, and we could also see grow a little bit, 2%, and also despite that we had the ERP implementation in early Q1, which always has -- could have a certain impact. So we see a good demand. Also, U.K.. is coming back on the demand side. France is coming back. So all okay, I would say, yes.

K
Kristian Tornøe Johansen
Senior Analyst

So just to clarify, you say demand picked up during quarter in Q1. Is that what we're seeing?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Not during the quarter 1. I mean, it varies a little bit from country to country. But overall, there's an increased demand, you can say, if you want to simplify it.

Operator

Your next question today comes from the line of Akash Gupta of JPMorgan.

A
Akash Gupta
Research Analyst

And I just have some follow-ups of existing questions that have been asked. So you said you expect a sequential weaker second half versus first half in projects. Are there any projects out there? And depending on whether you win those projects, could this still change? Or is it just too far or is it just not possible given the lead times you have in projects? That's question number one.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, I mean, it depends. If we have some variation orders in Q2 with a short cycle, that could, of course, help to improve or any other. But if you look currently with the backlog, what we have and what the -- what we have won on orders, so based of today's status situation, we see a stronger first half and less stronger, let's call it, like this second half. And of course, we work on it to improve and -- but you need to have also opportunities to improve for the market. Must be there on short-cycle business.

A
Akash Gupta
Research Analyst

Yes. And when you say second half is weaker, is it fair to say second half would still see some improvement year-on-year? I mean, Q4 last year was pretty weak. So I'm just wondering whether it's fair to expect some year-on-year improvement in EBITDA in second half as well, not just like entire full year guidance?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Akash, now I need to look at the Excel file. Let me see. I mean, compared to -- and I have not now the breakdown. Overall, what we said is still valid, that we intend to grow in average above 10%. That is our intention, and that is valid for this year and the following year. So -- and that can give you some ideas.

L
Line Andrea Fandrup
Executive VP & CFO

No, I just think it's important to stick with the ARPU, somehow, here, right. That is our expectation. So now new Q1 and then a little bit of an assumption where I think, you can go by that to get the quarter's norms. So we shared that first half is better than the second half. I don't think if we should jump to that, it will be better than EUR 82 million to EUR 100 million on EBITDA.

A
Akash Gupta
Research Analyst

Yes. The struggle I have right now is that, I mean, if you look at in Q1, your EBITDA is up EUR 20 million year-on-year, and you're guiding strong Q -- first half, which means we should see good improvement in Q2 as well. And then if you look at the full year guidance then, you are implying increase of EUR 23 million to EUR 53 million improvement. And I think we are already at the lower end of the guidance range in terms of the improvement that we need to get there. So yes, I just wanted to know whether the guidance is conservative. And can we expect that you can do more than EUR 110 million in full year EBITDA? Or is it too early to talk about that?

L
Line Andrea Fandrup
Executive VP & CFO

It's too early, I would say. A modest second half growth, I think that's probably fine.

A
Akash Gupta
Research Analyst

And then moving on to Applications business. I mean, here, you have seen a good margin rebound after a number of quarters when performance was below expectations. And was there anything unusual in Q1? Or shall we expect that this Q1 can run rate of 5% to 6% margin to sustain going forward?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

There was nothing special in Q1, except that we executed on our plans to improve the business. And you can assume that this will continue.

A
Akash Gupta
Research Analyst

And my final one is on depreciation for Cables business. So you had EUR 25 million D&A charge in Q1. Shall we just annualize this number and think of like EUR 100 million D&A for the year? Or any comment on that?

L
Line Andrea Fandrup
Executive VP & CFO

Yes, you can do that.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Yes.

L
Line Andrea Fandrup
Executive VP & CFO

That's more or less right.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question today comes from the line of Claus Almer of Nordea.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

The first question goes to you, Basil. You mentioned that you saw this negative impact from Q1 -- in Q1 from COVID. Just have to say, if that's the case, then the underlying performance must be pretty impressive and promising for rest of the year. So maybe you could give some color to what you see in the order intake? What types of clients are giving you orders?

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Claus, I thought you got back to me on that. Yes. It -- what I said was COVID affected some of our business negatively, not all. So in some sectors, for instance, in the industrial sector, in manufacturing, for instance, in Europe, anything to do with automotive or large-scale manufacturing is still relatively affected by COVID. Also our research and development business, which is still a significant part of our revenue, it's about a 1/3, it's still relatively shut down because most establishments are still working on reduced hours or closed completely. So these are the segments. They tend to be smaller segments in what we do are affected by COVID. And they're also less expected in Q1. Q1 is usually our smallest quarter. So these segments usually have contributed more to the other quarters. So what we're looking -- what we're saying here is that COVID still has an effect. And if it continues, for instance, having an effect on these sectors, it will affect the rest of the year.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

Okay. So -- and then you're changing the wording about guidance to be in the upper end of the guidance range. What is the assumption behind that? Is that in -- COVID will still be a headwind rest of the year or only Q2? Or yes, how should we think about that?

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

So when we did the guidance for the year, we assume that COVID will have effect in the first half of the year and we will gradually return to normal business in the second half of the year. That's what we saw -- basically formed our budgets for the year and the forecasts.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

And now you expect to be in the upper end of the range. So does that mean that the COVID-19 effect will be less than you initially thought? Or is that the same? Or where can this ending in the upper end of the range?

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Again, what we were trying to say is you cannot take Q1 and multiply the effect or the increase times for. It's -- we are in too many businesses, and there's too much pull-and-pull from a lot of these different segments. So I expect -- obviously, we would be -- we anticipate to be at the top end of the range. Should this change, we will change the guidance.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

Okay. Well, fair enough. Then coming back to the Cable division, then this seasonality between first half and the second half, and maybe some was a little bit -- I couldn't really hear what you said. So can you explain again why is it that second half should really be that more soft or weaker than the first half? Because I thought some of these low-margin projects you had in the backlog was more to be delivered in the first half of the year.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, it has not so much to do with the margin. It has more to do with the mix. If you see in the presentation what we have executed in Q1, it's a mix of DC cable, DC extruder, it is three-core AC and it's MI. And in the second half, we have a little bit less favorable mix in the production and the whole composition, in simple terms. And that makes it somewhat weaker.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

Sure. But is that correct, that if you look at the specific projects that you're going to produce or deliver in the first half is some of the projects you took in, where there was a little bit more pressure on the margins?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Yes, you can say so. But if you execute them well, then you can still improve the result.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

Right. Okay. And the whole trend around of the Applications division, is that behind you? Or is there still things to be done and thereby lifting your profitability?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

That's still to continue and still to expect to improve further.

C
Claus Almer Nielsen
Senior Analyst of Capital Goods and IT

Okay. And then just my final question goes to the adding of new capacity. Maybe give an update on is everything on schedule? Is there anything we should be aware of?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, everything is on schedule. We continue in Cologne with the factory expansion and also in Karlskrona. We have just started to build the [indiscernible] with the slip form. So it goes for the next 2 months. So in, let's say, May, June, early July, you will see 150-meter high building in Karlskrona, the third-highest building in Sweden. So this is all going as planned.

Operator

We do have one more question online. This comes from Artem Tokarenko of Crédit Suisse.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

I have had a couple. Firstly, on the H2 versus H1 message, may I just double check, it's Solution-specific? Or does it relate to other divisions? And second part of this question, I think, initially, you've been talking more of a sequential improvement throughout the quarter. So I guess what has changed? Is this just a phasing of Viking Link now being H1-weighted? Or has anything else changed?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, Viking, we used in H1. And sorry, what was your question? I just...

B
Basil Garabet
Chief Executive Officer and President

Around -- sequential changes around the quarters?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, no. It has not changed around the quarters. I mean, we had a strong service quarter with repair, but that is an accidental repair. We've communicated also with BritNed. So you -- this is something which you can plan for. It may happen or may not happen. So that was good contribution in Q1, but also the underlying stainable business in third quarter. And there's nothing which has changed as such. I mean, I would say, in Solutions, good utilization, good execution. Service order is sustainable and is growing well. We will continue with the footprint changes, as mentioned, the accessories and building wires. Application, we are following our plan. So simply based on the mix, H2 is a little bit weaker than H1.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. But just -- apologies, but so that's what I understand. Does this primarily relate to Solutions business? Or is this a comment across all 3 divisions in Cables?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

It's related to a Solution and Service. As Solution has a little bit different mix and Service, we have a value from Q1. And we are actually continuing on [indiscernible]. So Service & Accessories most likely depends if there's a repair or not in H2, but we cannot predict, should be also weaker than the first half.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. But just to double-check on Solutions. So it's just a reflection of slightly different mix phasing throughout the quarters? It's not like there are project delays or cost of runs or anything we need to be aware of?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No, no.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. Perfect. And my 2 other questions. On U.S., on your competitors expanding or BritNed recently also announcing plans to potentially build some capacity in the U.S. and high voltage. In this sort of situation, you now see this as a necessity for you to also come out with some U.S. capacity build-out plans in the next sort of 2 to 5 years? Or how do you think about this?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No. I mean, we have just [indiscernible] enrollment in Karlskrona and need to digest that and also the lease on the backlog. So for the time being, this is our plan, but we have nothing further.

A
Artem Tokarenko
Research Analyst

Okay. And my last question is around the scope for you to bid on large projects like Euroasia and TenneT. And I guess partly coming back to my previous question, from your standpoint, I guess, do you have no production, but more like financial and management capabilities to absorb those projects. And what are your, I guess, conversations with customers where they are concerned that you already have one big project. And for that reason, it might be a bit too much of a risk for you to take -- to participate in stuff like Eurasia?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No. I mean, we have taken in the past large project. We have just completed the NordBalt project. We took EUR 1.5 billion on the corridor project. So we can take large orders, absolute. And we have capability and the capacity to do so [indiscernible] no communications. And I mean, there was also some concerns last year whether we would be able to be successful in the corridor projects. And you have seen that we got about EUR 1.5 billion. So -- and there are several large projects which are currently where we are active on tender in next large offshore wind. So yes, and we would not tender them if we would see -- if we have not a chance to be successful.

Operator

We do have one more question on the line. This comes from Prathamesh Saygaonkar of Goldman Sachs.

P
Prathamesh Saygaonkar

I have 2 questions. My first question was around NKT Victoria. Can you please help me understand the utilization of the vessel? And if you use the same vessel for installation as well as repair jobs or are you subcontracting other vessels for some of the other installations? And I'll ask my second question after this.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

So as you can, in general, see with our expansion and also with -- increasing turnkey jobs, what we are taking in due to the utilization of NKT Victoria will go up. And in Q1, we were busy with installation as well as repair job of the NKT Victoria. And particularly, you see at the treatment repair, which was in February in the channel, where you can -- you have harsh weather conditions with 8-meter base, for example, you need the vessel like the Victoria to do a repair job. And in fact, we have 2 vessels there to do this repair job. If it -- it depends really on the type of repair, what you have. If it is a repair of offshore, let's say repair nearshore, then you may be able to do it with a barge or a third-party vessel. You may need not a vessel like the NKT Victoria for smaller repairs. So here, we are flexible to use either our own assets or third-party vessels, what fits best for the job.

P
Prathamesh Saygaonkar

Okay. And my second question was around the margins for different type of repairs. So can you just help me understand how the margins vary? I mean, what are the factors that defying margins on the repair job? Is it the depth or the type of cable where you are doing the repair or how urgent is it? Can you please help me understand the factors on this?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

No. I mean, the margins on the repair jobs varies, of course, depends on what repair job. But you can imagine that large repair is attractive, but still you need to be competitive as our competitors also repair and offer towards repair jobs. So you need to be competitive for TenneT as well. The bigger the job, you can also say, more complex also, the higher the report in terms of margin.

P
Prathamesh Saygaonkar

Okay. Just to clarify that, is there any difference between AC and DC repairs?

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

What? I could not...

P
Prathamesh Saygaonkar

Is there any difference in margins? Sorry, just wanted to check if there is any difference between the margins for AC and DC repair jobs.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

AC and DC. No, no, there is no -- no. So 3 phases, so no.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.

A
Alexander Kara
President & CEO

Yes, then if there is no further question, then thanks a lot for your interest to call in, and thank you for your good questions. And hope you will join also the Q2 session. And then let's see how the results will be then. Thank you very much. Have a good day, and talk to you soon.

Operator

That does conclude our presentation for today. Thank you all for participating.