So I can welcome you to Hiab's pre-silent call ahead of our fourth quarter results. I see some people joining, so I'm letting them in. So we will start with having a presentation by Mikko Puolakka recapping the third quarter results and any notable releases during the fourth quarter. After that one, we will have a Q&A session. You can post the questions in the chat or then use the raise your hand function. I will also take any questions from the telephone lines. Just a note that this call is recorded and will be then later available on Hiab's website. So with that, over to you, Mikko.
Thank you, Aki, and Happy New Year also from my side. A quick recap on our quarter three results, then a couple of words about the releases and the developments that we have seen during quarter four, and then, like Aki said, the questions and answers section. About quarter three, our order intake was EUR 351 million . That was down by 3% year- on- year, and based on the first nine months' performance, our order intake was more or less flat compared to the previous year. This was now the 12th consecutive quarter in a row, and our order intake has been fairly, fairly flat.
Our last 12 months' order intake has been roughly on the level of EUR 1.5 billion, and primarily the order kind of intake headwind we have seen in the Americas region, especially in the U.S. area, while in Europe we have seen some improvement in the overall market and also in a couple of second markets like defense logistics and the wind segment orders that we have announced also earlier in 2025. When we look geographically, the first nine months' EMEA has been up by 30%, Americas down by 14%, very much driven by the tariffs-related uncertainties, especially smaller customers withholding their investment decisions, while some kind of bigger home improvement customers have been still quite nicely placing orders. On a positive side, there has been a positive momentum in defense logistics. We have a very good pipeline in that area.
Of course, the deals typically kind of the revenue we recognize from defense logistics orders typically over multiple years, and then the energy segment, like mentioned already earlier. All in all, there is a robust replacement demand both in EMEA but also in Americas, like I said, in the U.S., especially the larger kind of home improvement customers have been renewing their fleet, but on the kind of minus side, trade tensions in the U.S., those have increased customers' uncertainty, and that's why we have seen, especially in the smaller customers in the U.S., quite cautious ordering activity. Our sales decreased in quarter three due to the lower order book. Sales were basically on the same level that we had the order intake in quarter three.
In currencies, we had in quarter three roughly 2 percentage points negative impact, and if we look at the year to date, nine months' sales that's down by 6%, primarily coming from the U.S. market, lower order intake, especially in the early part of the year. Americas sales was down by 9% during the first nine months. EMEA was down by 4%. APAC sales grew slightly in quarter three, but year to date, September more or less flat on year-on-year basis. We have had good development in the eco portfolio sales, especially in the circular solutions and climate solutions. So year to date, 38% of the total sales. If we look at our comparable operating profit, so especially in quarter three, our comparable operating profit was negatively impacted by the lower U.S. equipment sales. That impact was approximately EUR 20 million in our comparable operating profit.
Gross profit margin decreased by 80 basis points, also very much coming from the U.S. kind of lower utilization. SG&A costs we have been able to reduce year- on- year, but that's not necessarily enough to compensate the quite sizable decline in the U.S. equipment sales. And that's why we have also announced in connection of quarter three the EUR 20 million cost savings program in order to protect the profitability in 2026 if this kind of market activity would continue in the coming quarters. Key takeaways from quarter three. So overall, the market uncertainty has continued. Overall, we have not seen any dramatic changes compared to the previous quarters. So gradual improvement in EMEA, while in Americas, especially in the U.S., the customers' decisions have been impacted by the tariff situation.
Despite the market situation, we have been able to improve our comparable operating profit if we look at the rolling 12 months' performance, and as mentioned, we have started the planning for the EUR 20 million cost savings program, and this would be EUR 20 million lower costs compared to the 2025 level. Nothing has been changed in our strategy, so even despite the current tariff situation in the U.S., we see that the U.S. market is able to offer us good growth opportunities in the future by addressing those white spaces that we have, for example, in the central and western part of the U.S. Also, services and the focus on four key growth segments have still been intact in our strategy, so overall, no changes in our strategy.
Despite the lower top line, our cash flow has been very strong in the first nine months, and our balance sheet is also very strong. For example, in quarter three, if we would look at the quarter three balance sheet, that would offer us roughly EUR 800 million M&A firepower, and with that kind of EUR 800 million additional debt, we would be still below the 50% year-end target. A couple of releases from quarter four, so we announced in the first week of January the acquisition of ING Cranes. ING has been founded in 2010. In 2024, revenues EUR 50 million. We had already before the ING acquisition a business in Brazil, Argos, which we acquired back in 2017. Argos has been mainly focusing on light and medium loader cranes, while ING brings into our portfolio the heavier loader cranes in the Brazilian market.
So actually quite nice complementary acquisition for our Brazilian business. Plus then offering also sales channels for the Southern American markets. We also announced the proposals by the nomination board for the board of directors. So the current board members would continue, except for Ilkka Herlin, who has informed that he is not available for re-election in the AGM, which is to be held on 24 March. And the other releases, press releases that we have announced during quarter four, you can find in our website. And as a last topic, our outlook for 2025 is unchanged. So what we have said already earlier this year, we are aiming at reaching higher than 13.5% comparable operating profit. And as we are now at the end of the year, I would like to remind you also about our dividend policy, which is 32.50% of the net income.
Thank you, Mikko. We can jump to this consensus already now and then take the Q&A. So at the change of the year, we also changed the provider of our consensus services. So we now work with Modular Finance. So all of the analysts, sell-side analysts, will be reached out by Modular Finance to collect the numbers. The consensus is now available on Hiab's website, hiabgroup.com. But with that, we jump to Q&A, and Antti Kansanen was first with his hand. Please, Antti, go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. A couple of questions, and I'll start with the earnings side of things. If we think about Q4 versus Q4 last year, I think there was a couple of recurring type of cost elements on the fourth quarter last year. So how much of those that you don't expect to repeat this year, just a reminder, and maybe then also reflecting on the EUR 20 million that you are flagging on the lower U.S. sales impact on Q3, will that impact be different on Q4 in terms of realized savings or higher volumes on the U.S. production on the fourth quarter?
Thank you, Antti. So if I remember correctly, we had last year in quarter four approximately EUR 15 million non-recurring items. We have also announced when we communicated this EUR 20 million cost savings program that for the full transparency, we would report these as items affecting comparability, so below the comparable operating profit. However, as the program is still on the planning phase, we do not anticipate, let's say, significant amounts of one-off items in quarter four, some but not in a significant manner. Once the program implementation starts in the first half of this year, based on the planning, then we should start to see the non-recurring items. What comes to the U.S., our quarter three, like you mentioned, was impacted by the lower volumes.
We got a fairly sizable home improvement customer order in quarter two, and basically that order we have started to deliver now in quarter four. So that will support the U.S. market profitability to some extent at least. So the expectation is that that kind of volume impact would contribute to the equipment and total higher top line in quarter four.
Okay. And then on the order side, don't have it in front of me, don't remember if you disclosed the U.S. orders from Q4 last year. But overall, just if you think about kind of the run rate that we saw in the U.S., especially on the equipment side in the past two quarters versus Q4 last year, what's kind of the delta?
We have not, if I remember correctly, in quarter four, we have not announced any sizable orders in the U.S. So the comparison period as such was quite high.
Yeah, and is there any seasonality that if we just think about that the demand is similar as it has been, let's say Q3, is Q4 typically higher and lower in any type of calendar impacts or anything like that?
Overall, quarter three for us is the lowest typically due to the holiday season, and then quarter four is higher than quarter three. If I think the U.S. market in general, like I mentioned also earlier, that kind of bigger customers are kind of quite okay from the investment side, while the smaller customers are more considerate. However, with the bigger customers, the order timing might sometimes fluctuate so that they don't necessarily place orders in every quarter.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Antti. Next in line, we have Mikael Doepel, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you, and thanks for hosting the call. So a couple of questions. Just firstly, coming back to the cost takeout, so just to be clear here, so what you're saying is that it's still in the planning phase and it's going to be implemented in the first half of this year, but you still expect the full EUR 20 million to flow through on the P&L next year. And related to that, how big will the one-off cost be at the end of the day?
Yes, it's still in the planning phase. Of course, we need to have the works council negotiations before we can start to do the implementation. This EUR 20 million is the 2026 impact. So if you would compare at the end of 2026, our cost base, that would be EUR 20 million, fixed cost base, that would be EUR 20 million lower compared to 2025. And on the one-off costs, we would come to the one-off costs most probably somewhere around the full year results announcement.
Okay.
In February.
Yes, right. And this EUR 20 million, is this purely just layoffs or are you doing something else as well to get those costs down?
It's anticipated that it comes from various sources, personnel costs, plus also other non-personnel related costs.
Okay, good. Then just secondly on this aftermarket or the service business. So despite the fact that the markets have been fairly muted overall, I think you have been able to grow the business in quite a good way in the last couple of quarters. How should we think about this business going forward into Q4, into next year? What are kind of the levers for you to keep that business growing? And are you seeing any headwinds within this aftermarket business currently?
Overall, like you said, despite the equipment volumes decline, we have been able to grow the services business. In our case, in 2025, the services growth has been very much coming from the recurring services, so spare parts, maintenance-related services. And this is actually very much according to our strategy because in our strategy, we have been focusing on the connected fleet, increasing through that basically the spare parts capture rate from the, let's say, current 47% towards 52% by 2028, and then basically whenever we sell new equipment, we try to combine with that also the maintenance contract, and through the maintenance contract, then we can ensure that we or our partners like dealers get then the maintenance work and the spare parts sales when the customer requires the servicing.
So basically we have not, let's say, made any kind of new inventions as such, but we are just prudently executing those strategic initiatives which we have been, let's say, identifying already some years backwards. And these are now starting to bear the fruit, and you can see that in our service development. What comes to the U.S. market, we have seen that equipment utilization in the U.S. has been on a good level despite the kind of new equipment orders declining, so indicating that customers are actively using the equipment, and for that purpose, they need to buy spare parts. In the U.S., we have seen to some extent that customers are perhaps not holding as large spare parts inventories and what they kind of in a pre-tariff situation would hold in the spirit of not tying up capital in the inventories.
Okay, thank you. And then just finally a question on your guidance. So you tend to guide on adjusted EBIT margin for the year. Is this the way forward as well, or are you considering some other measures, perhaps sales growth or something else also for this year? Any changes planned for the guidance, essentially the question?
At the moment, no changes planned. So we have considered that for us, the most important is the profitable growth. And of course, we have to make sure that the profitability is on that kind of trajectory that it brings us to the 16% comparable operating profit margin by 2028.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mikko. Next in line is Tom Skogman, please go ahead.
Yes, hi Mikko, Aki and Oscar. I'd just like to talk a bit about the dynamics of the U.S. market. So I mean, now we have had a time with tariffs on your products and also on trucks. I've heard at least some rumors that in the truck industry that some seem to have difficulties to push through the tariffs and are backing off a bit, you know, not to kill demand too much. Have you heard anything about this and are you 100% confident your kind of price hikes are sticking basically?
Yeah, I can't talk about the others, but in our case, we have stuck with the principle that tariff is an extra cost for us, which we move to the customers. So we are also very transparent with the so-called tariff surcharge in our invoicing, not kind of hiding it in the price lists, but showing as a separate line item in the invoice. Of course, we are doing also active measures to mitigate as much as possible the tariff impacts, localizing the supply chain. We already assembled more than 50% of our U.S. revenues in the U.S. market. So continuously looking ways that how can we reduce the tariff cost, and that is also something what we continuously also reflect in the customer invoicing.
So not kind of just sitting and waiting because most probably these tariffs are here to stay, at least in some extent or in some form and shape. I mean, in our industry, many of the OEMs have a similar type of assembly setup than we have, so global supply chains with local assembly. So there are clearly a big differences between the players.
There seems to be a discipline that all stick to kind of adding tariffs to prices. You don't see warning signs in the market.
Yeah, this is what our competitors have been doing as well, and in the U.S., the most, let's say, most of the competition is coming from European companies.
We have seen lately that the Trump administration is quite active when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and trying to boost private consumption and construction, making it easier for the consumer. But do you see any positive signs in some segment of the market or some geography in the U.S., or is it still just negativity everywhere basically?
At least so far, until today, we have not seen any kind of notable changes in customers' behavior in the U.S. market in none of the kind of end markets where we operate.
Then the opposite in Germany, we have seen good construction data in December. Do you see any recovery continuing, I guess, but do you see that it's accelerating or?
I would say that the recovery what we started to see in the latter part of 2024 has continued in those main markets like Germany here in Europe. I can't say that we would have seen kind of acceleration in the recovery, but solid development in that improvement path. Still, it's good to remember that or note that also our European volumes, if we would look at the unit volumes, those are not necessarily in all markets even yet on 2019 level. So there is a kind of replacement need piling up, but at least so far we have not seen any kind of accelerated replacement activities. Overall, bidding activity has continued like we saw already in quarter three, but still it takes quite a while for the customers to make the kind of final investment decisions also in Europe.
And then I'd like to not discuss the Q4 margin, but if you go to H1, I mean, you had very good margins in H1 in 2025. And help us to or remind us about this cost savings you had last year when you had the biggest incremental help. I mean, how is it when you roll over to Q1 and Q2 in 2026, then apparently these savings for this year, these 20 million EUR will not really help now in H1. It's rather an H2 thing. But you had savings, if I remember right, immediately from the beginning of last year, right?
Yeah, some kind of big wins we had already from the beginning of 2025, but I would say that, let's say, the majority of the previous EUR 20 million cost savings, the kind of run rate, we started to reach somewhere in the middle of 2025. And also in this new program, which we announced now in quarter three, I would say that it will not have, let's say, significant impacts in the, at least not in the first quarter, and possibly also not yet in the very early part of the second quarter.
As a reminder, so in the first half last year, the U.S. business were still much less impacted by the slow decision making as we had volumes stemming from the latter part of 2024 and January 2025.
So do you, I mean, is it wise just to expect that margins go down in the first six months then, given you have lower order books and these savings are not really helping now the new savings in H1 and you had big savings from the beginning of last year? It sounds like that. I mean, it's just good that we don't expect too high margins in H1 if that's the case at the moment. That it's more in the.
Yeah, let's come back to the 2026 margins when we provide the full year outlook, but yeah, overall, like Aki said, the first half of last year, i.e., 2025, was still quite normal for the U.S. market while we were then negatively impacted in quarter three and to a certain extent in quarter four, even though we started to book some of the revenues from those U.S. orders which we received in quarter two, but overall, as the U.S. order intake has been lower this year compared to last year, that will at least impact us to a certain extent in the first half of next year before the cost savings start to fully kick in.
Finally, are you in active acquisition discussions for more companies at the moment given your strong balance sheet and earlier communication?
We have discussions with potential target companies.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Tom. Edvard, you're next in line. Please go ahead.
Hi, sorry about that. Just an understanding on the 20 million savings. Is this a structural saving or if the market turned in the U.S., as one hopes it does, and gets back to a normalized market conditions, how much of that EUR 20 million would you actually see having to go back in? And then just on the other question, do you actually see then a sort of margin mix dilution as the equipment part picks up, going back to your comment about the overall usage and extension of either rental and lease contracts and overusage of equipment as it is, that you actually see the new kit being bought and the service side drops? That's one. And then the other question was just on pricing in the U.S.
If you looked at your pricing for 2026 versus your pricing that you were thinking about for the second half of 2025, is there a major delta difference between that thinking?
Yeah, thanks for the questions. First, on the savings, we aim at doing as much as possible structural savings. So those should be very, very sticky, i.e., not kind of traveling type of savings which might go up when the business picks up. So as much as possible, structural savings. Then what comes to the mix when the business improves? Yes, the equipment business growth might have a slightly negative impact on the mix as services is now a bigger portion of the business due to the equipment sales decline. But it's good to remember that before the U.S. market decline, also our equipment business was doing a very solid double-digit comparable operating profit. So yes, equipment growth can have a slightly negative adverse impact on the mix. But on the other hand, with the equipment volumes, we can get good leverage on our SG&A costs.
And then what comes to the pricing in the U.S., I would say that the kind of underlying pricing in the U.S. has been fairly stable. But then, of course, due to this tariff surcharge, I would say that our pricing kind of invoicing to customers has been, say, 10%+ higher since I would say first of March compared to the beginning of 2025.
Okay, and then just the last question. If you just look at the overall inventory between both from yourselves and from competitors actually in the distribution network, how is that looking running into 2026?
In our case, our kind of inventories have declined in 2025 due to the top line declining. And if we think our dealers, they don't typically hold sizable inventories. They kind of, when they get an order from the customer, then they place an order for our equipment. So they don't, except for some kind of high runner, very standardized products. Otherwise, they don't typically hold sizable inventories.
Okay, gentlemen, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Thanks so much. I don't see any hands up or any questions in the chat, but if we have any questions from the telephone lines, now is your chance. So I don't hear any questions from the telephone lines, but Edvard has a follow-up, so please go ahead.
Hi, sorry, I'll take an opportunity then. You talked earlier about discussions with clients in the U.S. that not much really has changed. But if you take the commentary from the larger clients at least, what is their planning for 2026? I mean, okay, we had the whole tariff friction through 2025, but at some point companies just say, okay, we just have to swallow it. To a certain extent, we've had it so far. There's a degree of known dynamics within it. We've got to get on with the business. So what are they actually talking to you, the larger clients at least, who probably have the financial flexibility to make decisions?
Yeah, the larger clients, they have done, for example, market consolidation. So they have been buying competitors. And what they have been doing in 2025, and most probably they would possibly do also in 2026, is this kind of fleet renewals. They might have thousands of our equipment in use, and basically every year they may have to replace hundreds of those. So basically they have, like you said, they have stronger balance sheets. They have established relationships with leasing companies, and they are looking perhaps at things in a bit longer time horizon than perhaps smaller players who might kind of have a bit more constrained balance sheets.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Thank you. I don't see any further hands up, so it's time to conclude today's call. So we will go into the silent period on 22nd of January, and the results will be published on 12th of February. So stay tuned and have a nice, let's say, winter so far, and let's get back to the topics on 12th of February. So thank you and bye-bye.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.