Welcome to this special briefing. Just a moment ago, Kesko announced that it will acquire Dahl's operations in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark from the French company Saint-Gobain. Through the transaction, Kesko will significantly strengthen its position in technical trade business in the Nordics. Without further ado, I will hand over to President and CEO Jorma Rauhala. Please, Jorma, the stage is yours.
Thank you, Hanna. Welcome also on my behalf. These are indeed great news. We have had a very busy weekend, and the acquisition was actually signed just a moment ago. I'm very pleased to announce that our long-term strategic target to grow significantly, particularly in technical trade, is now becoming a reality. For years, we have been looking for major acquisition opportunities, especially in technical trade in the Nordic region. Attractive targets are extremely rare. When I have previously been asked what would be a strategic dream target, it would be exactly this. Dahl is strong player in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, with no overlapping operations. Technical trade is based on centralized logistic, strong digital services, and skilled personnel. This is exactly what we are now acquiring.
After the completion, this acquisition will take us to the next level in the growing technical trade business in Nordics, I'm extremely pleased and happy. Now, to our presentation. Kesko strengthens technical trade by acquiring the operations of Dahl in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Like I said, Kesko have been seeking notable large acquisition targets, especially Nordic technical trade, for years. Interesting companies rarely available. Kesko has agreed to acquire the Dahl technical trade companies in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark from Saint-Gobain. The combined net sales of the companies to be acquired total EUR 2.1 billion and EBITA EUR 146 million, making this the largest acquisition in Kesko's history. The companies to be acquired are an excellent fit for Kesko's growth strategy. They would complement Kesko's current building and technical trade business and strengthen our position in Nordic technical trade. Right timing.
Underpinned by megatrends, there is a significant growth potential in technical trade in the stable and affluent Nordic markets. The Dahl acquisition in brief. Primarily a strategic acquisition. Supports Kesko's growth and strengthening of profitability. That is not a main driver. Significant sales and earnings growth potential. Strengthening market and megatrends that support growth benefits derived from higher volumes, strong own brands, continuous digital development. Respecting Dahl's history and valuable brand. Preliminary plan is to lightly integrate the acquired businesses, which would continue as separate business units under their existing brands. Transaction price. The debt-free transaction price is EUR 1.2 billion, excluding lease commitments, or EUR 1.518 billion, including lease commitments. Financing.
Kesko will initially finance the acquisition in full using bridge financing, which will be refinanced with equity and debt once the completion of the transaction is secured, while maintaining the interest bearing net debt to EBITA ratio below 2.5, excluding the IFRS 16 impact. The plan is for the equity component of the financing to be implemented through a share issue estimated at approximately EUR 500 million-EUR 700 million. Authority approvals. The completion of the acquisition is subject to approval by competition authorities, as well as the fulfillment of certain other conditions. Timetable. The acquisition is estimated to be finalized by the beginning of 2027. The acquisition marks the beginning of the next chapter in Kesko's growth story. Kesko sees net sales of some EUR 20 billion in the early 2030s through the acquisition and growth strategy execution. Building and technical trade would become Kesko's biggest division following the acquisition.
Net sales expected to amount to nearly EUR 10 billion in the early 2030s. Long-term profitability target for building and technical trade continues to be 6%-8%. Growth in technical trade supported by megatrends. Renovation building, steady growth in renovation building and renewing technical infrastructure. Urbanization, building new technical infrastructure, dense urban development. Green transition, increase in EU regulation and volatile energy markets, growing demand for energy solutions. Technological development and digitalization, construction becoming more technical, smart building technology solutions. Dahl is an iconic leading operator in technical trade, a company with over 160 years of history. Our current business in technical trade, Onninen, has 113 years of history, and Kesko has 85 years old history. Dahl has 160 years old history and very respected among technical trade B2B customers. A leading operator, especially in HVAC products and infrastructure construction.
Combined net sales of businesses to be acquired in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, some EUR 2.1 billion. Digital accounts for 35% of sales. Combined network of some 190 stores, three automated central warehouses, some 2,700 employees, and over 17,000 customers. Dahl has a strong foothold in HVAC and infrastructure products. Stable business. More than half of sales come from renovation building and one-third from infrastructure construction, and 100% is B2B trade. Particularly strong HVAC and infrastructure product sales. Over 50% of sales come from HVAC products, some 25% from sewage and plumbing network infrastructure products. Strengths, modern technical trade expertise, extensive product portfolio, own brands, good availability and reliable deliveries, efficient logistics, skilled technical sales staff, good digital services. Good strategic fit. No overlap with Kesko's existing operations in Sweden, Norway, or Denmark. Would complement our current product offering considerably.
What would the acquisition mean for Kesko's building and technical trade division? A significantly stronger foothold and sales growth in technical trade in the Nordic countries. Raising technical trade share of the division net sales to 65%. Raising B2B trade shares of the division net sales to 88%. Raising international operation share of the division net sales to 71%. Strengthening the stable infrastructure and renovation building business. Stronger expertise in technical sales and technological expertise. Expanding our offering with Dahl's modern and extensive product portfolio, for example, own brands. Synergies due, for example, higher purchase volumes. Kesko nearly triple its sales volumes in HVAC products from Onninen's current EUR 1 billion. Profit improvement in line with the division's operating margin target of 6%-8%. Kesko gained strong expertise in technical trade and experience in major integration by acquiring Onninen.
Of course, it could be asked how we manage this kind of business, what is the Dahl? I think we have quite nice track record what we have done with Onninen. Onninen has been part of Kesko since 2016. Successful integration in seven countries. Operates under the independent Onninen brand. Strong expertise in technical trade, strong development of digital and logistics capabilities, extensive store network, and skilled sales staff. Business-specific strategies in each country. Onninen's net sales have grown by EUR 820 million or 56%, and operating by 232% as part of Kesko. If you look Kesko today, grocery business is the biggest division, something like EUR 6.4 billion, and building and technical trade a little bit less than EUR 5 billion. After this acquisition, building and technical trade would be our biggest division with almost EUR 7 billion.
If we look how this technical trade business is in each countries, we can see that very stable business set in Finland and in Norway, we would be clear number one, and in Sweden and Denmark, number three operator in technical trade. Key takeaways. Kesko has been seeking notably large acquisition targets, especially in Nordic technical trade for years. Interesting companies rarely available. Dahl is a leading technical trade company in the Nordics with a long history, a strong and well-respected brand, a comprehensive and efficient distribution platform, and a stable business model. The business to be acquired are an excellent fit to Kesko's growth strategy. The acquisition would complement the current building and technical trade business and clearly strengthen our position in technical trade in the Nordics. A strategic acquisition, the largest in Kesko's history, that supports growth and strengthening of profitability.
I think now it's time for questions.
Thank you, Jorma, for your presentation. Yes, it's time for questions. Please ask your questions using the chat function. There's a slight delay if you ask a question before I see it, but now it's a perfect time for that. I will ask one question, which I got before. Can you describe what's the difference between Dahl and Onninen, and what is difference between technical trade and building and home improvement trade? Just like briefly.
Okay.
Special, basic things.
Yes. First of all, Dahl, for example, in Norway, it's only HVAC products. Onninen in Norway only electric products. That's the main difference. Dahl is only HVAC products. Onninen Finland has both HVAC and electric products. That was the first answer.
Yes
the difference between building and home improvement.
Home improvement business.
Of course, first I would say that the customers are totally different. They are different customers. In building and home improvement, we have also consumer as a customers, but the technical trade is only B2B business. Maybe also one difference is that this technical trade is based on automated central warehouses, digital orders. The building and home improvement, it is very much based on store network business. I would say those ones are.
Very good.
main differences.
Very good. Thank you. One of the question here, what does the deal imply for your net debt to EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 target? Is there an impact on your dividend payout? Dividend and the target of net debt to EBITDA.
Yes, net debt to EBITDA, as we told, our target is that we can keep them below 2.5, and of course, temporarily it can be a little bit higher when we take this bridge financing first. Comes to dividend policy, we don't have any reason to change our dividend policy 60% to 100%. Was it so that Anu and Sami should join us?
Yes. At this point, if we get the more questions there, I could ask our head of building and technical trade, Sami Kiiski, and CFO Anu Hämäläinen to join us as we are now getting more questions. Lovely. Thank you. My name is Hanna Jaakkola. If you have any questions after the presentation, you can contact me. I'm responsible for investor relations. Very good. Thank you. There's a question about the profitability. Profitability development of the acquired businesses during the past five years. Can you comment on targeting synergies and timeline? Synergies, timeline, and profitability.
Profitability. Yes, we have agreed with the seller that we are not disclosing the historical figures. I could say so that, of course, Dahl's profitability was much higher than for example 2021, 2022, 2023, when we are comparing now 2025 figures. As we know, 2025 has been extremely weak market. Also, we can see that from our figures. I would say that those had go quite hand in hand what comes to Onninen figures and Dahl figures. Very low season or cycle now and we really much believe that the market will improve in coming years.
Very good. With synergies and timeline.
Synergies. Yes. First of all, this is not a synergy case. We have made many acquisitions. I think we know how to implement those ones. We have to bear in mind that Dahl is a great company. It's a great company, very strong in Sweden, quite nice businesses in Denmark and Norway. We shouldn't disturb that business. The market will recover. Our first what we are doing is carve out the business out from Saint-Gobain operations. There are some common operations in Dahl and Saint-Gobain, something like HR, IT, things like that. This is the first what we'll do. That's crucial because we shouldn't disturb the business.
Of course, we are seeking also synergies. I would say that the most important one, of course, is sourcing and private label, also IT and things like that. What comes about those synergies, of course, the timing, of course, the sourcing is the first one.
Of course, we start that immediately after closing that deal. For example, other possible synergies from IT come little bit later. We already know that, for example, our IT systems, our cost level is quite low compared to ours. There are some potential in there.
Very good. There's plenty of synergy questions. This was a good answer for that.
Like I said, it would be so easy to say that we are gaining so and so much synergies.
We know how to do this business. We know which are the synergy case, which are carve-out case, and we know that because those businesses, those companies, they are doing well.
They are doing well, and the market will improve, and those EBIT will improve significantly after that. Of course, we are also searching synergies.
Very good. There's a question about the EBITDA margin. Dahl's EBITDA margin is 7.1%, similar to your own Building and Technical Trade division, 6.8% in 2025. If margins are already comparable, where exactly does the value creation come from, and can you quantify the expected synergy benefits in absolute terms?
I think we already discussed about the synergies, but all in all, the whole deal is a strategic deal.
It is not so easy to acquire this kind of companies. Like I said, that was the best what you can get from the market. This is growth story about building a technical trade and whole Kesko.
We know that the market has been now very weak, and we can see already that the market will improve. I'm very confident that also Kesko's building a technical trade figures, also Dahl figures will improve in coming months and years.
Yes, of course, Dahl is technical trade, and that was the whole building and technical trade to our figures.
That's true.
It's not incomparable in the business-wise.
That's true, yes.
How does Dahl Nordic's business developed in 2026 versus 2025? Wondering if there have been signs of the cycle turning. Any news about spring 2026 compared to last year.
Sami, do you have those figures, and can we disclose those figures? Of course, we can see from our figures that the market has improved.
Exactly, we can describe the market.
We can describe the market and 2026 numbers we don't disclose from Dahl business. Of course, we can see the market that activity levels are step by step coming better, so increasing. Of course, new buildings, still not much happening to say. The start of the new residential building starts. In general, we see that activity is going the right direction. Of course, we need to remember that this business, what is also great in Dahl business is that it's much of that, half of that is renovation, building renovation business, and also infra business, which is stable, and we see a lot of opportunities there.
Very good. Thank you. There's a question about what is the tax rate of Dahl. I don't know, Anu, do we have the figure?
Actually, we do not disclose that. The thing is really that if I were you, I would be using the local tax rates, what we have in the countries.
Very good. This we already discussed, if there's anything you want to add, can you talk about potential earnings accretion? Even at the top end of the equity raise, should we assume low single-digit earnings accretion? How earnings potential and also in the light of equity raise. We discussed already what are the potentials. We don't give any synergies, exact synergies. Any other comments you would like to add at this point?
I think we are pretty much there, what Jorma already said.
We don't have any details about the equity issuance yet.
Exactly.
We will come back to that. Was Dahl's 2025 earnings more distressed if comparing to Kesko's technical trade business in total? 2025 Dahl, Kesko difference in profitability.
Yes, as you mentioned already, our figures include also whole building and technical trade. I see that all in all, we can see it's the same pattern what has been in Dahl and with Onninen if you're looking at 2021, 2022, 2023, and now since 2024, 2025, 2026, they have these very weak markets. I see that we can see the same trend in their figures, what we have in Onninen figures. Also we can see that the market has now started to improve.
Very good. What is expected closing timeline, and is there any reason to anticipate remedies from competition authorities?
Yes, we think that this will be closed end of this year. If you look at this competition situation country by country, first Sweden, there shouldn't be any problem. Onninen is in electric infra business and not so big one. In Norway, we are strong in electric products, electric business, but we are operating at all in HVAC business. In fact, we have a small HVAC business some years ago, but we divested that one in Norway. Denmark, of course, we don't have at all that kind of business, so there shouldn't be any problems with that one.
Very good. How many locations Dahl have in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark?
It was all in all 190, Sami, do you remember how much in different countries?
Different countries, we can check that, 190 and of course, Sweden being the biggest. I would say 88 stores or pickup stores.
From Sweden, yes. I think that of course, stores are important. We have those stores, I see that even more important are those automated warehouses. They have excellent automated warehouses, especially in Sweden, Norway, and also in Denmark. That's the heart of the business.
Exactly.
Yes.
Very good. I can come back to these questions that if we will put on Q&A afterwards, I'll take these questions and answer these later on as well on our website if anything is unanswered. What risks do you see from the transaction?
I would see so that this acquisition don't have any special risks. There are kind of normal risk, every time you have when you are making those acquisitions. Like say that this is kind of a carve-out case, but there is nothing new, I would say so. They have some cooperation in Dahl with Saint-Gobain, like I mentioned, in HR, IT, finance, something like that. First we can carve out that from the Saint-Gobain businesses, and then we very light integration. One example is that those country directors, for example in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, they will report direct to Sami, our president of the division. They won't be part of our current setup. That's why we don't want to disturb current business, and we don't want to disturb this business.
We also know if you try to put them together, you most probably will have also some problems. We won't have those ones because we can see that the market will recover, and we want to take everything out of that.
Very good. We have lot of experience from acquisitions.
Yes, we have
How to do them.
Yes.
How about Dahl Finland? Will Saint-Gobain continue long term with Dahl Finland? That is not ours to answer.
Yes, we are not disclosing that one. Of course, for us, it was clear that it was not possible to us to acquire Dahl Finland because Onninen is so strong in Finland.
Does Dahl have similar EBIT margins to building and technical trade of Kesko? We don't disclose EBIT margins in this.
I think we already discussed about that one. Can I say that Sweden is very strong, even last year, Dahl Sweden and in Norway and Denmark, there are, I would say, more potential there on those ones.
There's a question about Dahl's earnings in Denmark. They have been close to zero in 2024, 2025. How do you plan to make it profitable?
Of course, the first reason why the EBIT has been maybe that level is the market. Of course, we know that one. If we look to differences between Denmark and Dahl Denmark and Sweden, for example, I think that maybe they haven't, in Denmark, cut enough costs when the market collapsed. Maybe they didn't cut the cost enough. One difference is also the share of private label. In Sweden, it's much higher than in Denmark. I would say those two are but normal business cases.
Very good. Thank you. I have one last one. If you have any further questions, now is the time to ask those. What is the interest rate on the extra debt you need to think of?
The question is really, are we talking about the bridge financing or the final financing? From the bridge financing perspective, I would say that we are pretty much on the margin level, on the same level as what we have in Kesko today already. Of course, the future refinancing is really depending also on the market conditions, but our aim is to keep it on the same level as we would be like having normally without this kind of deal. If we think about our average interest rate, at the moment, we are at 3.3 to 3.5 percentage points on average level on this kind of financing today in Kesko.
Very good. Thank you all. I think that was it. No further questions. If any questions, don't hesitate contacting me. I will put, like I said, the Q&A to the website later on. Thank you so much.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.