Hav Group ASA

OSE:HAV

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Good morning, and welcome to the second quarter and half year financial results of 2024 presentation from HAV Group. My name is Gunnar Larsen. I'm the CEO of the group. And with me today, I also have our CFO, Pal Aurvag, which -- who will give you some more details about the financials.

We have our standard agenda today, and we start with the Q2 highlights. Some of the key developments within the quarter is that we had revenue of NOK 193.2 million. We have an EBITDA of zero and a cash balance of NOK 124 million. And this is compared also to NOK 200 million approximately last year, which was affected by a one-off effect of NOK 46.9 million. The EBITDA is around zero today, and that is a significant improvement from the last 3 quarters. In this quarter also, as we did in Q1, we won significant contracts and we had a total order intake of NOK 570 million and a book-to-bill of 2.95.

Of this, we can mention a large equipment package to Havyard Leirvik or Havyard Tersan which they are today and automation of vessel functions for the Lavik-Oppedal ferries, which was also a significant contract. And these recent contract wins and the contract wins that we have had today will give most effect from next year. The order backlog as per the quarter was a record order backlog of NOK 1.387 billion, and that was up 130% from year-end 2023. We also had some very good developments within the hydrogen sector, which I will also speak a little bit later when I go through the segments. We also had a contract after the end of the quarter and one of them was the first delivery of a battery package to a live fish carrier. As you see here also, the order intake and order backlog has had a very strong growth, if you compare to last year. Per quarter, it's close to 1,000% up and development from -- total development from Q2 '23 is 170% up.

We are focusing on enabling optimized vessel performance, safety and operational costs for our customers. So we want to follow our customers through the lifetime of their vessels from their investment decision through the operation and till the vessel is recycled. And we are giving them advice in order to reduce cost and reducing environmental impact. Our vision is a sustainable future at sea. And we deliver technology, marine technology and ship design to many ship types in most areas of the world. And we are experts in guiding the marine and maritime business towards low and zero emissions.

At the quarter, we had 163 employees. And the total group is a maritime solutions provider that can either deliver ship design, energy design and smart control, hydrogen-based energy systems and water treatment systems, specifically from each of the segments or we can combine to a total integrated delivery, giving even more value to the customers, taking more responsibility and making sure that the vessel is more optimized. These are the industry segments that we are focusing on today, offshore wind, oil and gas, ferries and ropax, aquaculture, fishery and short sea cargo.

Then I'm going to speak more in detail about each of our technology segments. The Ship Design segment. They develop and deliver the most efficient vessels possible, covering every aspect of vessel performance and functionality. And they deliver concept development, detail design, equipment selection, procurement, system engineering and integration. In the quarter, they had a solid project execution throughout the quarter and the revenue increase was -- the revenue increased versus previous quarters, and we still experienced a very good sales pipeline and tendering activity and expect orders also -- more orders this year.

Within the energy design and smart control systems, which supply low and zero-emission energy systems and control systems for the global maritime market, we had a very, very high order intake also this quarter. And of the biggest contracts are the contracts for equipment deliveries to Norwegian shipbuilder Havyard Tersan worth in excess of NOK 200 million. And we also got one of the final contracts for the Lavik-Oppedal tender for Fjord1 which was the autonomous technology supply. And in total, the contracts that we have won to this year to that tender is around NOK 600 million. So the order backlog of the energy design and smart control segment was NOK 924 million at the end of Q2. Full effect of that order backlog will be seen mainly in 2025 and onwards.

The revenue growth in the quarter was driven very much by -- with a high trading share of the revenue, and that fluctuates very much within this segment and also some of the other segments. And high trading revenue also means a little bit lower margin. The EBITDA was also affected negatively by a supplier circumstances in an ongoing project. And as I said also, we got a contract for delivering battery package to a live fish carrier, which is a conversion from an offshore vessel for a live fish vessel carrier owner.

For the hydrogen-based energy systems segment, which deliver complete and scalable zero-emission hydrogen-based energy systems, we also had some significant breakthroughs in the quarter. We started by signing a cooperation agreement with the shipowner Maris Fiducia, Norway. And together with them -- together with us, they applied for Enova support for installing hydrogen systems and zero-emission systems on board dry-bulk carrier. We were also awarded this subsidies and NOK 300 million funding. And that means that when Maris Fiducia contracts these 5 dry-bulk carriers to our shipyard we will enter into negotiation with the shipyard for the delivery of our hydrogen-based energy system to those vessels.

For the water treatment systems, which deliver ballast water treatment systems and process water treatment systems for aquaculture industry. We have seen over the time now that the market is going from retrofit of existing vessels to the newbuilding market for the ballast water treatment systems. And we have used a lot of efforts in order to enter more into that market. And the order intake that we see from the quarter also reflects that our efforts have been successful.

Within the aquaculture sector, as many of you know, the investment has been postponed for some time. There has been lot of discussions and conditions regarding the Norwegian tax system. But we see now that more and more orders are starting to come again, and we are very -- we have very good expectations to be part of the investments that will be made now hopefully in the near future that can also affect this segment.

So again, here is the order backlog. The total order backlog for the Q2 was a record for half NOK 1,387 million totally, external backlog. And we see that we have had a very good growth, both in the Ship Design segment and especially in Energy Design and Smart Control segment from Q4 or year-end and rather stable within water treatment systems.

So with that, I'll give the word to Pal, the CFO, and he will talk to you a little bit more in detail through the financials.

[Pal Aurvag, executive]

Yes, good day. As Gunnar said, and I will go more into the details of the financials for the quarter. If we look at the revenue for the quarter, it was NOK 192.2 million (sic) [ NOK 193.2 million ] And with an EBITDA of NOK 26,000. So -- as we can see, the turnover is on a higher level if we compare to the previous ones. And also, we see that after 3 negative quarters, we see now a positive EBITDA.

In the second quarter, we also have a trading percentage of 69%. So it's quite a lot of trading, some material share of the revenue, and that is fluctuating according to the deliveries from quarter-to-quarter, but it's quite high in this quarter.

If we look at details, we see that we have a NOK 193.2 million versus NOK 200 million in revenue in the quarter. The EBITDA is, as I said, NOK 26,000 compared to NOK 63.8 million in the same quarter last year. And then we had a special one-off effect of NOK 47 million. So it's not comparable -- directly comparable.

We also have an EBIT of minus NOK 3.9 million in this quarter compared to NOK 59.6 million and a net finance of minus NOK 3 million and a net profit and loss of NOK 7 million in the quarter. So EBITDA margin of zero percentage.

If you look at the different segments, we see that the ship design have revenue of NOK 56.6 million with an EBITDA of NOK 5.1 million and a profit before tax of NOK 4.2 million. And it was in this segment, we had this one-off effect in the second quarter in 2023. So -- and that is also both on the income and EBITDA figures.

If you look at the water treatment systems, our revenue of NOK 29.3 million compared to NOK 53.9 million in the same quarter last year. We have an EBITDA of NOK 4.8 million versus NOK 4.3 million in Q2 '23, and a profit before tax on NOK 2.2 million.

Energy design and smart control systems, we have had operating income of NOK 113.5 million versus NOK 42.8 million (sic) [ NOK 42.6 million ] And we have an EBITDA of minus NOK 5.8 million versus plus NOK 7.8 million in the comparable quarter. And profit before tax of minus NOK 8.4 million versus NOK 6.6 million in Q2 2023. If we look at the hydrogen-based energy systems segment, we see that had an operating income of NOK 0.6 million, an EBITDA of minus NOK 1.2 million and a profit before tax of minus NOK 1.4 million.

If you look at the balance sheet, the main changes are related to the areas related directly to projects. So we can see on the current asset side, we see that the total receivables has increased from NOK 174.6 million start of the year to NOK 315.7 million and that's related to higher activity in projects, and we have invoiced more. So we see that the accounts payable are growing quite a lot. And if we look at the comparable figures on the debt side, we see that the total current liabilities have had an increase of NOK 133 million from NOK 297 million to NOK 431 million, and that's related to the prepayment from our customers. So they are the main let's say, areas where you can see the changes in the balance this year. And of course, you see a reduction in the equity from NOK 91.2 million to NOK 60 million due to the year-to-date results. .

If you look at the cash flow, and this is isolated for the second quarter. We have a cash flow from operations, more or less in balance. We have a cash flow from investments on -- related to minus NOK 2.2 million, and that's related to investments in R&D and a negative cash flow of financing activities that's related to repayment of the noncurrent debt of NOK 3 million in the quarter. So in the end of the quarter, we had a cash balance of NOK 124 million.

So that was the sum of the finance, and then we will go back to Gunnar. .

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Thank you very much, Pal. So we go to the summary and our outlook. And afterwards, as normal, we will have the Q&A, where we have received questions from you, and you have possibility to ask these questions online. .

So for you that has attended our presentations before, there is nothing changed here. We still think we are a very interesting company to invest in. We are very good positioned in the market and with the requirements that is for the shipping industry today. And we see now also that the results of the investments that we have done is coming with a growing order book. .

So we have a solid balance sheet and a growing order backlog positions us for value creation for the future. Still, the global mega trends are playing to our advantage. We have the technology and the knowledge to utilize on the market demands. We expect, as we have said previously also revenue growth in 2024 and further growth in 2025. And we reiterate our target to reach NOK 1.3 billion in revenue in 2026.

So that sums up our presentation. Me and Pal, we will now be available for answering your questions. Pal? And we have with us also Marius Koksvik, who is our Chief Business Development Officer that is taking the questions that is coming now from your side. So Marius, what does the investors want to know.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Yes. There's a question here about the backlog. When is it going to turn into revenues for the most part in time line?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

As I said also previously in the presentation, the biggest effect of the backlog that we have received this year will be seen from 2025. Especially in the ship design segment and energy design and smart control segment, the lead times from we get an order until the biggest delivery starts is quite long. So from 2025, then the biggest effect will come.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Okay. How big is your focus on cost control at this point?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Cost control is, of course, always a focus. We have said previously that we have invested in the future with respect to developing technology, developing markets, developing people. And we see now that, that has paid off.

I think for us and also for most of the companies within the maritime market, we -- there's a lack of knowledge. Everybody is fighting for the same people. So we remain the good people that we have had, has been a very good investment. But of course, we will continuously focus also on developing further developing the markets that we have and also executing the project in a most cost-efficient way.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Then there's a question about the hydrogen technology. What is the interest in the market there?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

The interest in the market is still good. And the projects that we have had -- that we have now and the pipeline is quite -- also quite exciting. And still, of course, the commercial market is not completely there. The whole value chain has to be developed and also the volume of both the production and the technology has to become bigger. .

But as for this Maris Fiducia project, there are funding governmentally funding for a special project, and we are quite good positioned for more than one of these projects, and that will be, I think, the main business and interest for the hydrogen technology in the near future. And then, of course, we have expectations that with the scale-up of this market and the technology, then this will also be a bigger and more sound commercial market also in some years.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Are there any technologies that HAV Group is missing?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Yes, we are looking at complementary technology to what we already have. We have made a road map, of course, of what we are looking for. But I would -- I don't want to go in detail in this presentation on what we are explicitly looking for. But it's several technologies that could be added on the side of what we are doing today that will even stronger -- strengthen our complete value chain and our value addition to our customers.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

When do you imagine HAV Group will pay its first dividend?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

We have a dividend policy to let's say that we want to have a sound dividend policy to our customers. And of course, if I say when then I'm guiding, which we have not guided to the market. But when we have a sound profit and compared to the investment plans that we have, we will start paying out dividends to our shareholders.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Are you considering uplisting to the main stock exchange in Oslo?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

That is a question that comes from time to time, and we are also looking at that. At the moment, we don't see that as our main priority. The main priority now is to continue to build our order book and execute what we have in order to start providing higher earnings. And then, of course, we will continue to evaluate this also for the future. For instance, with regards to major expansions or need for finance to grow, for instance, then that can be an option, of course. .

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Norwegian Electric Systems is the subsidiary with the most orders right now, but it has struggled to be profitable in the past. What are your goals on making the backlog profitable?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

We see that the backlog that we have now is very sound with regards to profit also. And the major reason for the low profit up till now is the capacity utilization that has been lower than what we have within that company. So the profit will automatically increase when we utilize more of the capacity. And also, we see that the market has been strong. So the contracts that we have entered into have very sound margins. And of course, full focus on project execution will also secure margins for the future.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

The maritime market in Asia is huge. Why haven't HAV Group taken part in that?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

We have taken part in that in the past, especially with our designs. We are also looking at that market for more of -- several of our segments today also. And we see also that the effect of utilizing a market that is more close by is also -- it can be more effective and easier to utilize the closer markets within some segments and the technology that they're also utilizing in the Asian market is not suitable for all of our technologies. But we are looking at India. We are looking at China and different markets, and we have also leads in the pipeline in those markets.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Are you looking at establishing any new offices internationally?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Yes. We need to have a foothold in some markets in order to both do sales, but also service the customers and the vessels in operations. So we are looking at markets that we need to establish. And I think you will see that also in the future that we will start either by cooperating with companies or establishing our old companies abroad. We already have a cooperation with representatives in different markets. But in some markets, we need a stronger representation also with more feet on the ground.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

Okay. And then the last question here at this time. What are your main priorities for HAV Group going forward?

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Main priority is still sales. It's to utilize the capacity that we have within our segment. We see that for the smart control and energy design segment, the utilization for next year is becoming very, very good. But as I said, the contracts from -- we signed the contracts until they start producing revenue is a rather long lead time. So we will always focus on filling up the order backlog. We are also, of course, focusing very much now to utilize on the already existing backlog with efficient and good control project execution in order to secure the revenue and the earnings with some profitable margins onwards. So I would say that is maybe the key priorities that we have in HAV today.

So then there was no more questions, Marius.

[Marius Koksvik, executive]

No, those are the ones for the time.

[Gunnar Larsen, executive]

Okay. Then I just thank you again for attending our half year and second quarter presentation. I look forward to meeting you again, and I hope you will continue following the developments within HAV Group. Thank you very much.