The recording has started. I think we can start. Everyone is here. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Enento's Q2 pre-silent call. I'm Virva Vesanen from Enento's investor relations, and I'm here with CEO Teppo Paavola and CFO Elina Stråhlman. Teppo will start by walking through the recent company development, and Elina will walk through the macro environment and performance for the quarter. After this, we will open for questions. Teppo, please.
All right. Thanks, Virva. Let's start with recent company development. During Q2, the overall strategic direction has remained unchanged, and we have continued to move forward in execution. In April, we announced change negotiation in Finland and Sweden to support strategy execution, simplify the operating model, and improve operational efficiency. The focus has been on aligning resources and competencies with strategic priorities, clarifying responsibilities, and building smarter operations across the group. The negotiations ended in May, and we will communicate the results in more detail in the Q2 results. The SME transformation in Sweden is at full speed, and churn has remained at an expected level. Regarding broker regulations in Sweden, there are no major updates. We see largest brokers applying for the license, and one of them has already received the license. The deadline for the license applications is end of July 2026.
In the end of April, we divested Emaileri from our sales and marketing services portfolio. This transaction supports Enento's strategy by clarifying the group's business structure and focusing resources on core operations. Speaking of core operations, in the beginning of June, we announced the Eivora acquisition, which strengthens our compliance data capabilities in the Swedish market. Though Eivora is small, the company is seen as a strategic asset for our growth area compliance and secures access to unique ownership data. Through this acquisition, we strengthen our position in Swedish ownership data and improve our ability to develop and scale data and AI-enabled services in general. All in all, we continue to develop our go-to-market strategies and product development capabilities to reach growth targets for new sales. Compliance and value-added services which complement our core credit business continue to be special focus areas.
With that, let's turn to the macro environment and how we currently see demand conditions in our markets. Elina, please.
Thank you. The macroeconomic and geopolitical situation remains still challenging, while there are some modest positive signs, especially in the Swedish markets. Consumer confidence is still on low level compared to long-term averages, though there was a slight improvement from April to May in both Finland and Sweden. The real estate market in Finland remains challenging, while in Sweden the picture is slightly more supportive. No major improvements in consumer activity yet in either of our main markets. Inflation has remained moderate in Finland and Sweden, showed some upward movement during May, especially in Sweden. For us, this means demand conditions continue to differ by market and by product area. In Finland, our volumes continue to be impacted by the macro, especially this is seen in consumer credit and real estate businesses. Demand for business information services and SME solutions have remained stable.
In Sweden, consumer credit volumes are improving while still on modest level, clearly some positive signs there. As Teppo mentioned, the SME transformation in Sweden has continued as planned. The churn has remained on expected level, which supports our profitability, while in the short term, SME new sales continue to be under pressure. Norway and Denmark continue to grow as we've seen previously as well. Profitability and cash flow overall continue to be supported by top line growth, changes in sales mix, SME transformation, and organizational changes, as well as the continued disciplined cost control. It is also good to note that there will be items affecting comparability in Q2, both from Emaileri disposal and change negotiations. Our full year guidance remains unchanged with comparable FX rates. We continue to expect net sales to grow by 0%-5% and adjusted EBITDA to increase compared to previous year.
This concludes our summary of the situation, and we are happy to open the line for questions.
Matti, please.
Hi, it's Matti Riikonen at DNB Carnegie. Could you, Elina, go line by line the Finnish and Swedish business areas? I'm mainly thinking about consumer information, business information, real estate, and compliance in these countries. I picked up that you talked that in Finland, the consumer information volumes are still affected by macro, but in Sweden you saw some slight improvement in volumes. After that it was a bit blurry. I didn't get what you were saying, if you were saying anything at all.
Well, I try to repeat it more clearly. Yes. If I start from Finland, consumer credit and real estate areas continue to be impacted by low level of transactions in the markets. Volumes are challenged in these areas, while in business information side in Finland, the demand has remained stable. That includes also the compliance area. That's the overall situation in Finland. In Sweden, the consumer credit volumes have been moderately improving now, which is of course, positive. It's too early to draw any longer-term conclusions, but we have seen positive development in this area. While at the same time, on the business information side, the credit demand has remained in Sweden also stable.
Where we continue to struggle on the revenue side and are pressured in Sweden is the SME side, where the transformation overall is going well, meaning that the churn is actually on expected level, and that supports our profitability. At the same time, the revenue is being pressured, especially on the new sales side, which hasn't been fully according to expectations. This means our sales partners are basically selling via tele channels, new subscriptions and new one-off reports. We have various actions ongoing to support that, and we have seen improved order intake, but that is not yet fully visible in the revenue. That's the situation, overall, in Sweden. What comes to compliance area, compliance revenues are still small on the Swedish side. We continue to see good pipeline, but the revenue is not yet impacting figures in the big picture in Sweden.
All right. Thanks for that.
Hope this clarified.
Yes, thanks for that. Could you just explain a bit, how do you expect to get the volumes up now in the SME segment in Sweden? I understand that you are in early innings, but still getting the volumes up, not just getting churn in control is one of the challenges. What are you doing actively to basically boost volumes?
We have recruited new people also within our sales team, in-house here in Sweden to strengthen the new sales in SME side. Also now we are in active dialogues with the sales partners. Now they also have the staffing in place. As you may remember, they were having quite large restructurings of their operations also, and there was some turbulence with the staff. Now the staffing is in place, we expect that to then start resulting in better results as well. It is very much sales driven, the SME sales. It is done by telephone calling SMEs. The resourcing needs to be obviously in place, and that is where it is now.
All right. Thanks for that. Finally, the one-time expenses that you are expecting Q2, can you give us a rough ballpark for them?
I think that with the Emaileri disposal, we disclosed that there is this one-off impairment, basically write-off of the goodwill, around EUR 4 million. That doesn't have any cash flow impact but is basically written down from the balance sheet. That's one thing. Regarding the restructurings, there is also the one-off costs, we are not disclosing any detailed figures on that yet. Of course, you can estimate that based on the ballpark FTE figures that we have given.
Actually, it's not possible to estimate that based on the number it used to be, but it's no longer the case. Just to avoid the negative surprise during the reporting day, would you give us kind of rough ballpark where the figures should land, in your opinion?
The FTE restructurings impact a couple of million EUR. The one-off costs.
Okay. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. We have Sanna.
Yes. Hi, thank you. Just a couple of questions first, starting with the Swedish consumer credit volumes. You mentioned that they have been improving slightly, but where are we at the moment compared to the normal or structural normal level? Are we still materially below-
We are definitely-
normal levels? Yes.
Yeah. We are definitely still below what can be expected as normal levels. Consumer activity continues to be low in Sweden. For example, real estate markets, even though we can see slight positive signs, they really haven't picked up in Sweden either. The consumers continue to be on hold, so to say, also here in Sweden. We have seen slight improvement in broker activity. There are slightly increased interest also in bidding of new consumer loans, there are not major increase in the amount of consumers who apply for loans. That continues to still be on modest level. We see positive development, definitely it's not yet in any new normal situation, I hope.
The housing transactions in Sweden have been quite positive in April and May, that's not yet visible in your numbers?
It is not yet impacting as one could have expected, for example, with the regulatory changes. The banks gave these reliefs on the mortgages, we haven't seen major improvement in this area yet.
All right. Thank you. You have mentioned that one of the growth drivers this year will be pricing and sales actions, how would you describe your pricing power in your main markets?
Well, that's a good question. Of course, we do have mission-critical services, but it's always a balance in that when we discussed with our largest customers. Of course, we do also take price increases, and we do have implemented the indexations into the largest contracts successfully. However, of course, we also want to continue to provide all the time better value and services, and increase the share of wallet through those actions. It's always a balance.
All right. Thank you. Moving or continuing with the growth actions. You mentioned earlier that you have several in place for this year. Can you name a few that you have done in Q2?
Do you, Teppo, want to comment on the growth actions?
In addition to what has been said already, I think that there's not really much in Q2 that we can really refer to.
All right. Thanks. I'll wait for H2 then. Regarding your guidance, I understand that it's still intact, but if volumes don't recover materially, and if the Finnish real estate market, for example, continues to weaken, will this pricing and sales action mix alone be enough to secure your guidance of growth?
We feel confident with the guidance overall. It's both based on what we have seen so far and what we can expect to take place in H2. We need to remember that, for example, in Sweden, the volumes were on really low level throughout the last year, and the levels that we see now clearly support our expectations and guidance going forward as well. On top of that, as you mentioned, we have done price increases that also support the top line.
All right. Thanks. I have no further questions at this stage.
Thank you. We have Daniel.
Yeah. Thanks. Daniel Lepistö from Danske Bank. Just couple of housekeeping questions on this acquisition and this divestment. Basically, this EBITDA seems fairly insignificant, but can you give us a little bit of help what you actually paid for this asset? I guess some of these revenues come from you, and there will be eliminations, but is there any sort of a ballpark what you paid?
We are not disclosing that in detail. Of course, you can then draw conclusions from the interim reports later in Q2.
Yes, it's significant
taking into account the size of the company, it's insignificant, and that's why it was only released as an investment.
Yeah. Okay. this Emaileri, we saw you write down the goodwill. I guess you paid, or Asiakastieto paid something around EUR 6.5 million back in 2017. you basically get EUR 1 million or EUR 2 million from this deal, essentially cash flow.
Overall, it was even a bit less, unfortnately.
Okay. both of these, there is very little contribution to-
Yeah
one way or another. Yeah.
Yes.
Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you. We have Jaakko.
Yes, hello from my side as well. A few questions on the profitability side of things, starting with the gross margin, given the indicated modest recovery in the Swedish consumer business. Should we expect further tailwind to be seen on gross margin level?
We continue to see positive development there. Yes, definitely. In Sweden, the situation is that we see positive development in consumer credit, where, of course, gross margin is really good. Yes, we continue to see positive development on gross margin level.
Okay. Then, any indication on your own work capitalization for the quarter? Should we expect that continue to be up versus the previous year when you had some challenges in that sense?
We continue to see a slight improvement compared to prior year, as we saw in Q1 as well. Fairly similar development continues there.
Okay. Then looking at the personal expenses, Teppo, did I get you correctly? You mentioned that the negotiations have been concluded now. Will we see even a small effect in the adjusted numbers what becomes the personal expenses in the quarter?
Yeah. Nothing really to add there that Elina didn't say already. Of course, what matters is the net number, and there's plenty of things that we want to do and that we are hiring for. That will then be seen more throughout the rest of the year.
What comes to the personal expenses, we will see small net positive impact in Q2. It's good to remember that the incentives, especially the long-term incentives, are impacting the staff cost development, not cash flow, obviously, but just as a reminder. That impacts the costs.
Okay. Thanks for that. That's all from my side.
We have Roni.
Yes. Hello. Maybe one question about the banking license regulation in Sweden. I think you mentioned that one major player has already received a license. Do you see any risk that it would be possible that some larger players wouldn't receive a license? Is there any risk to that?
Can I comment on that? We don't really have any new indication that they wouldn't be given the licenses. If you don't apply but continue the business, your business is not going to stop in a day or a week. There's actually a one-year lead time after the application deadline that you can continue in your old business model. There's nothing that we have heard that would change what we've said already before. That seems the main players are applying, and of course, good news that somebody is also getting the license.
Yeah. Maybe one question about the SME transformation and its effective profitability. I think you mentioned that it is improving the profitability. Is that going as expected, and is the impact already meaningful in Q2 and so on?
Yeah, it is going as expected. The profitability impacts are gradually being more and more visible towards the end of the year. Yes, we see, again, improved impacts in Q2 compared to Q1, as we have been expecting as well.
All right. No further questions from me.
Okay. If we don't have more questions, I think we will Oh, we still have one question from Matti.
Yeah. Hi. One additional question. Now that this Eivora acquisition came rather surprisingly, I wasn't aware that there was this kind of arrangement. Do you have other similar companies or similar arrangements in your value chain in any of your markets that you would like to consolidate going forward? Should we expect something similar, that the Eivora acquisition, in the future as well, or was this just an isolated case?
Yeah, maybe I can comment on that. There is no such plan. We are working with multiple companies and the continued intent is to keep growing proprietary data sets. That's important for the business and this was an acquisition in an area where it was key for that capability. If something similar would pop up, and it makes sense, then why not? There is no such pipeline.
All right. Thanks for that.
Okay. Thank you. If there's no further questions, we can end the call. Thank you everyone for participating and wishing you all a good midsummer. Until next time. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.