Multiconsult ASA

OSE:MULTI

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Grethe Bergly, Chief Executive Officer]

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this presentation of the results for the first quarter 2021 for Multiconsult. My name is Grethe Bergly. I'm the CEO of Multiconsult. And together with me today, I have Hans-Jørgen Wibstad, who is our CFO, and he will take you through some more of the details of the figures for this quarter's results. This shows that we have had a good start for 2021. And the key figures show that we have a revenue of NOK 979 million, which is a slight decrease from the first quarter 2020. But I'd like to remind you that the results contains a 4-day calendar effect for this quarter because of the -- as a result of the Easter holidays in Norway.Our EBIT came in at NOK 98.5 million, which gives a margin of around 10%. Our billing ratio is 71.1%, which is an increase of 1.7 percentage points, and it's showing a journey on an improvement that we are very pleased to see. And also, our operating costs come in at NOK 99.7 million, which is a decrease of NOK 9.3 million (sic) [ 9.3% ] and in line with the nextLEVEL ambitions that we have.So all in all, a good start, good sales, solid order book and a continuous commitment from all our employees during and other periods of quite challenging times due to the COVID-19. And we see also that we've had a solid project execution in the period. So looking at the highlights, it's a good start. We continue this positive journey that we've had from our turnaround. We deliver on the goals that we had for the nextLEVEL program, and this will be the last quarter that we present on this. We leave the quarter with a very good sales and a record high order backlog. And as I said, a tremendous commitment from our very, very competent employees has led -- has made us able to deliver, although a lot of our people are still working from home. And we would also have to mention that there might be still some uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 situation.We continue to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions together with our clients and our partners. And we do see that there's a solid outlook in the majority of the markets that we operate in, although there are some uncertainty in the short term. And in this quarter, we have further strengthened our work and commitment on sustainability. And to give you some more insights on our position on sustainability, we have, as of the 1st of May, appointed a sustainable leader, Heikki Holmås. We have got a very exciting project for the municipality of Oslo, where we are helping them to look at how they can address their work on circularity to see creation of work, value and not least how we can also reduce the environmental impact from some of the work that's going on. We have also got a very excite -- interesting project on Norway's largest ground-mounted solar park. We are -- this is a part of a research project where we have taken part over a number of years. And they are looking at how in the cold climate will this sun park perform, seeing the possibilities, for instance, to see how can we take the benefit also from the reflection of snow that, of course, is part of the climate we have in Norway. We have also been involved with the world's largest all-electric ferry, which is currently being put into service, and we've been part of all the infrastructure work on one of the sites to make this project possible. Looking at the order intake, there's an increase of 5.8% from the first quarter 2020. Of the projects that we would like to mention, we see a frame agreement with the road authorities that covers the whole country. We have a very interesting project for [ Aker BP ] looking at electrification of their fields. And this is an area that we see a lot of growth and interest in the capabilities that we have to provide good solutions. It's a very interesting project in Poland. And also, for LINK Denmark, they've been awarded a frame agreement to look at rehabilitation of all the hospitals in the regions around Copenhagen. So it's a way of showing the strong position we have on hospitals with LINK and Multiconsult. The order intake is up 5.8%, coming in at a level of roughly NOK 1.4 billion, and we do see that there are also a good and strong pipeline. And as you can see from the bottom here, there's a good mix of projects in the various business areas with Transportation and Building being the largest ones. Interesting here is, I would like to maybe point out, is the Northern Lights, which is a carbon capture facility that is currently under construction. Looking at the backlog, there's been a large increase from the first quarter 2020, an increase of 15.5%. And as you can see, we came in at another new record high from the last quarter. So it's a very good position to be in. We also see in the industry that there's an increase of frame agreements. And I would like to remind you all that we do not take the volume of frame agreements into our order backlog until we've actually got a call-off. And there is also, though, a variation in how this backlog is distributed both with regards to time, but also with regards to the different business areas and the units that we have. Looking at the organization and the people. At the end of the quarter, we are 2,926 employees. As you can see from the graph at the bottom, it means we have now leveled out and stabilized on the amount of people that we have. And again, it's a part of our ambitions on the nextLEVEL program, and we are now looking ahead on recruiting again.There has been a tremendous effort made from all our people, and this has made us able to deliver our services also from people working from home because we have a high degree of digitalization. We have also had one project, the Lidl shop in Sweden has been awarded the Building of the Year. And again, it's showing the position we have on being able to provide sustainable buildings, which we do think is a requirement that we will see a lot in the future.And the Deichman Library in Oslo was awarded the Library of the Year. Heikki was appointed Chief Sustainable Officer. And we are also preparing ourselves for how we will be working in the future given the experience we've had during the COVID-19 and finding out how will we actually meet, how will we take all the benefits and the things we learned during the COVID-19 situation. In this period, the authorities have issued what's in Norway is called the National Transportation Plan, giving an indication of the investments and the priority between the investments with regards to infrastructure, roads, rails, ports, airports. It's showing that there will be a steady activity ongoing in this area that we are prepared to and able to deliver on.But we also, last week, issued from the consultant engineers and report called the State of the Nation. This is the third time since 2010 that this report has been issued, and it has made an effort to actually value all the infrastructure that is built and constructed in Norway, roads, buildings, hospitals, everything that has to do with the state of the public. And the value of this is estimated at NOK 7,000 billion, but they have also made an estimate to see to maintain the standard or lift the standard to the required 2030 level, what are the investments that we need on rehabilitation or new build. And we here see a possible market of up to NOK 3,000 billion, and again, areas where we, as a company, with our abilities and competence, can provide good solutions. So this is a basis for why we say that also the outlook is good in the near future. And with this, I'll leave you to Hans-Jørgen who will take you through the more details of the figures.

[Hans-Jørgen Wibstad]

Thank you, Grethe, and good morning, and thank you for joining this presentation. My name is Hans-Jørgen Wibstad, and I'm the CFO of Multiconsult. I will go through the financial highlights for the first quarter 2021. Net operating revenues came in at NOK 979 million, which is at a good level, slightly down from the first quarter 2020. And the only reason for that is the calendar effect, which implies 4 working days less in the first quarter 2021 versus 2020. That has an impact both on revenues and on estimated earnings of NOK 56.4 million, which brings me to the EBIT, which came in at a healthy 10.1% margin, equal to NOK 98.5 million. The reduction from the same level in the first quarter 2020 with the same reason as with the revenues, a reduction based on fewer calendar days having an estimated impact of NOK 56.4 million. Now adjusting for this calendar effect, if you're comparing the quarters, undoubtedly, there is an improvement from our performance from last year to this year, and that improvement is driven mainly by 2 factors. One factor is our operating expenses, which are significantly down comparing the same quarter last year by 9.3% to 99.7% (sic) [ NOK 99.7 million ]. We also have this KPI, which has been very important for us, where we're seeing that our OpEx ratio, which is other operating expenses as a percentage of net operating revenues, is down to a record low 14.6%. That level was in the area of 18% to -- almost 18% to 20% 1.5 years ago when we started our turnaround project and program called nextLEVEL.So we're very happy with that development. The other reason for the reduced operating expenses is obviously COVID, which has resulted in lower expenditures internally with travel, et cetera. So that is also an impact, which is also driving operating expenses down with us as with many other companies. The other thing driving our improvement in results is the billing ratio, which is up 1.4 -- 1.7 percentage points to 71.1% from last year, which has a material impact on our bottom line. That has also been an important part of the nextLEVEL improvement program that Grethe will talk about later, that has now come to an end. Grethe also mentioned very good sales, a very strong order intake, almost NOK 1.4 billion for the quarter, a solid level, which resulted in an all-time high order backlog at the end of the quarter at almost NOK 3.6 billion. In the quarter, there are no one-off effects particularly that we mentioned. So our adjusted EBIT is equal to our reported EBIT of NOK 98.5 million. In the 2020, we had restructuring costs related to nextLEVEL of NOK 30 million, where we had an adjusted EBIT which was different than the reported EBIT. So we're very clear and open on that. And going forward, although the nextLEVEL program has come to an end, we -- there may be further restructuring costs because some of the decisions have been taken, but all the effects of the nextLEVEL program has not necessarily been showed yet. So there may be some additional restructuring costs coming through during 2021. Looking at the bridge, it's obviously very clear to see the improvements driven by the billing ratio, NOK 24 million improvement from last year; operating expenses, NOK 10 million; slight, very, very moderate decrease in billing rate; employee benefit expenses, a little bit up because of salary adjustments mainly; calendar effect having a huge impact, NOK 56 million; and other effects, which is a mix of 7 or 8 main factors, mainly in the ordinary course of business, I would say, which completes the bridge from reported EBIT of NOK 118 million last year to this year's NOK 98 million. Now looking at this graph, clearly, a good -- at the upper graph there, you can see that there's a steady, good rolling 12-months increase in revenues shown by the gray line. But even more interesting is to look at the -- our results development over the last 3 years with poor results in 2018, 2019, starting the turnaround program at the end of 2019 and getting the impact and results of that with -- and now have -- we've had 5 good and stable solid quarters behind us, which we're very proud of and very happy with to see that development.We're also seeing a good development in our billing ratio, which is another important KPI for us. And we're also seeing that the number of employees is down by 1.9%, stable since the end of the year, which is in line, which is planned and which is part of our turnaround project. Moving over to the main segments. So Region Oslo has a good quarter, has had several good quarters behind it, with delivering an EBIT margin of 13%, a solid result. EBIT at NOK 40.5 million, slightly down from last year. However, the Oslo region is impacted by the calendar effect. They've been doing well for a long time. So it's quite as expected that they're delivering a slightly lower EBIT. The impact on Region Oslo on the calendar effect in isolation is slightly less than NOK 20 million.So that is a good quarter for the region. And also, on the sales side in particular, it's a very, very strong sale, NOK 463.8 million, giving an order backlog which is up 38.8% comparing with the same period last year to NOK 1.367 billion and also slightly up from the end of last year. So a very, very solid sales, driven, as Grethe mentioned, partially by call-offs from frame agreements announced in 2020. And also billing ratio maintaining at a good level at 73%. And employee -- number of employees is pretty stable, slightly up -- down from a year ago. Region Norway has a very, very solid quarter, very strong improvement. The unit which, relatively speaking, is doing the best looking at the delta, the improvement, going from an EBIT of NOK 42.9 million in the first quarter 2020 to an EBIT of NOK 45.7 million for this quarter, equal to an EBIT margin of 11.7%. Region Norway also naturally [Foreign Language], Norway has naturally also a calendar effect, but their improved operations by way of improved billing ratio as well as lower operating expenses is more than compensating the impact -- the negative impact of the calendar effect. So very, very good quarter and impressive improvement by our team in Region Norway and leaving also a good order backlog at the end of the quarter. Good sales in -- for the region. Energy also has an acceptable quarter. Obviously, they are in a buildup phase. They have very, very interesting and important positions as we move forward, technology, competence and customer base. But they're still struggling a little bit with their margin. However, it's a mixed picture because the Norwegian operations is still doing a good job and also doing -- delivering good margins.But our International business, which is partially, for instance, in Africa, has a larger impact of the COVID situation than the rest of the Energy unit. And that is impacting both the results in Norway, but in particular, in our U.K. operations. So the result overall is, of course, on a longer-term basis, far from acceptable at 0.8%. But it's a growing business, and it's where we have -- where we're investing for the future. And we are very optimistic on how -- what that will bring us over the next few years. Also, you can see there, sales is at a good level, NOK 97.9 million versus net operating revenues of NOK 61.5 million, which means that the order backlog is growing. Then LINK arkitektur, our architecture business in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, has also a good quarter overall. The Norwegian operations is doing very healthy, which is by far the largest unit, is doing -- has a healthy quarter. Total revenues for LINK is increasing by 1.1%. EBIT is slightly down, somewhat also impacted by the calendar effect, but also by still some challenging situations in Denmark with loss -- which is loss-making and also in Sweden. However, Sweden has improved a little bit from last year and has, in isolation, a reasonably good, I think, market improvement in their operations. So that's good. Order intake, NOK 171.8 million, very important to follow sales because that's what we're living off of as we go forward at a good level. Order backlog also at a stable level comparing with the end of last year. Finalizing with International business, which is our business in Iterio in Sweden and in Poland, has a good quarter, a robust quarter. Net operating level -- net revenues for those 2 units combined is NOK 61.5 million, slightly up. EBIT is also at a good level, a little bit down from the first quarter last year, driven by a somewhat slower start to the year. But for the year, as a whole, we are not concerned. We believe that the International business will continue to perform well. And we're seeing that their order intake is a very, very strong NOK 196.8 million. So their order backlog is increasing significantly. And also, we see a good billing ratio. And also, again, the business is growing, and they're also adding employees. So there, our International business in Poland and in Iterio has a very strong improved -- approved stamp for the first quarter. Looking at our business areas, overall, where we have our exposures, we see that Buildings & Properties is by far the largest unit with 48% of revenues, slightly down, but that is -- went by 8% on net revenues. Transportation is up by 1%, 28% of revenues. Water & Environment is up 12%, 11% of revenues. We're seeing a slight increase both in Renewable Energy and Industry. Now we're not concerned about that. That is something for the future. And as Grethe mentioned earlier, our Industry business has been -- has a very, very good order intake in the first quarter and also towards the end of last year. So as we move forward, we believe that our positions within our Industry business area is -- has strengthened. And we see very good opportunities within that area, both in Norway, particularly, but also outside Norway. Finally, on financial position, we have a strong balance sheet going into the quarter. We have a strong solid balance sheet position going out of the quarter. Our cash flow for the quarter is also at a good level. We are -- we have a slightly tie-up of working capital, NOK 56 million in the quarter. Now that is seasonal. It's not something we are worried about. It's normal fluctuations. Comparing with, for instance, with the first quarter in 2020, our working capital buildup in the same period was NOK 122 million, so improvement from the first quarter 2020.As normal, our investment levels is at a moderate level, NOK 12 million. Now we're expecting the -- our investments level to increase moderately as we move through the year. We have a somewhat backlog of investments from 2020 where we basically were very, very careful on our investments. So these are good investment cases, but we are expecting that to increase a little bit as we move through the year. Cash flow from financing is effectively 0. And so we ended up the quarter with a net working -- with cash of NOK 300 million and then a net cash position of NOK 313 million. So we're net debt-free, which we were also in the fourth quarter. Now please keep in mind that we paid our record-high dividend at the end of April, NOK 8 per share; payout ratio, more than 85%. So that has somewhat -- our net cash position has somewhat been a little bit -- has been impacted by that. But still, after the dividend payment, we have a strong and solid balance sheet, which gives us good robustness and good maneuverability and flexibility. And of course, we also like to mention that we, on top of this, we have undrawn facilities of NOK 520 million in bank reserves. So we have a healthy and good balance sheet also following our record high dividend payment at the end of April. Thank you.

[Grethe Bergly, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you, Hans-Jørgen. I will now take you through the last report on the nextLEVEL initiative. As we explained, when we started it, we would -- it would run until the end of this first quarter of 2021. Our goal was NOK 150 million improvement. And as we leave this quarter, we see that we have overfilled on this, and we are now seeing NOK 174 million improvement related to the initiatives that has been under the nextLEVEL program. And the graph on the right-hand side just shows you how we have progressed from the start in the fourth quarter 2019. The nextLEVEL program is a combination of cost and operations. And here, you can see some more details on the various initiatives that we have grouped under cost and under operations. And we can see the far -- by far, the biggest one is office and IT, but there's also quite a significant figure, both related to travel and professional services and also this big group called miscellaneous. But as you can see, a lot of miscellaneous can add up to NOK 30 million. So it's worthwhile going for. And I've said, when you work with environmental issues, you say, every ton of CO2 counts, and I think it's the same when you look at cost cuts, every million counts. Looking at operations, we've had 3 areas where we worked. We looked at how the organization has been set up, and we've had some efficiencies there. We have also looked at the billing ratio, how we can make the organization more efficient. And as you've seen, we have managed to increase this figure over a long period of time now. And the last, but not least, we've also looked at reduced impairments, and this is a direct result of how we execute our project, but also on the risk profile of our projects.So all in all, we are very pleased to see that we have managed to reach the goal that we set. It was a very ambitious goal. And it also then reflects on the strength of this organization's ability to actually deliver when we set the goal and work together towards that goal. So looking forward, we have a -- we've had a positive development through the ongoing turnaround process. We leave this quarter with an all-time high order backlog. We have a solid market position. We have a strong competence base in all our employees, and we are seeing that we are trusted with a complex project, as we have seen as being able to deliver both innovative and sustainable solutions going forward.So the overall outlook in the market is good. In most of our business areas, there are some uncertainty still in connection with the ongoing pandemic -- I can't say that, the COVID-19. And we also see that some of the projects ahead of us are at a level that gives us a positive view also on the future. And with that, I finish this presentation now. Here, you can see our financial calendar. We'll see you again on the 14th (sic) [ 18th ] of August, and we then open up for questions.

[Mirza Koristovic, Head of Investor Relations & Finance]

Yes. Thank you, Grethe and Hans-Jørgen. We actually don't have any questions. I'm going to leave it or give it a couple of seconds. But as you can round up, I will let you know if there is anything.

[Grethe Bergly, Chief Executive Officer]

Okay. With that, we say thank you to all of you, and have a nice day.