Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Lamor's Q1 webcast. My name is Johanna Grönroos. I'm the Chief Strategy Officer at Lamor, and together with me, I have our CEO, Johan Grön, and our CFO, Vesa Leino, for the first time in this event. Welcome, everybody. We will follow the so to say normal agenda. Johan will start with the operational highlights. Vesa will give a financial update and tell about the guidance. I will talk a bit about strategy or implementation phases, and then, of course, the important part, which is the Q&A. So happy to take your questions already during the presentation. Welcome, everybody, and then I hand over to Johan.
Thank you, Johanna. Yes, I would like to give you a slight overview of the operational highlights during Q1 and lift up a couple of things that are important from our point of view, and also to give you a little bit of insight of what is happening behind the scenes. Overall, I'm very pleased to say that the performance, operational performance, in the projects are proceeding very well across our portfolio, including the soil remediation project in Kuwaiti.
I was just last week in Kuwaiti, and with my own eyes could see the soil washing plant that is now up running and also the overall large bioremediation operations that are proceeding faster, I mean, faster than planned overall. And then also we have the environmental protection technology and port-based management project in Bangladesh, where the Mongla Port is being our target at the moment, and we were building up the Port Waste Management Center that is then taking care on the on-ship waste, both liquid and also solid waste that is being generated, and also protecting the port in respect to potential oil spill activities.
And this is an, again, a new, you could say, a reference that is very important for us, that we're utilizing also when talking to customers across the world about this type of activities that we can provide. The orders received EUR 60 million in Q1, which is, an again, a sign of also our equipment activities, equipment sales, and smaller service agreements that is now being revitalized and a part of our efficiency improvement program where we are trying to make sure that our, you could say, the bread and butter of our business over the history is being solid and performing according to what we expect. The geopolitical situation, as we all know, is challenging in many of the regions where we are active.
For example, in South America, we know that the political situation in many countries is challenging and also where we are, where we are active. However, for example, then in the Middle East region, unfortunately, it is still a high-risk region with many unfortunate events, but this has also increased the negotiations, also the number of negotiations where we are involved in being able to support the nations in this region and working together with them. I will come back to this a little bit later on.
And then, of course, that the current activities in the Middle East region, for example, in Saudi Arabia, and this is a sign of the previous bullet point also, and where we have been active for several years together with a certain customer, and this again has created trust and also trust in that we can continue to support the customer. And this is a good sign of our mutual cooperation, where we can provide environmental protection services along the coastal area of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. The revenue slightly improved compared to Q1 last year, and the profitability slightly improved.
We are not satisfied with this, and that is why also we have a certain efficiency program that we are embarking on, and where, as I mentioned, where also the part of the sales efficiency is very important in this program. And then, for example, in this picture, this is a very good picture where we are showing one of the same type of oil spill response vessels that is part of the package for the port, Mongla Port, activity that we are building up in Bangladesh, and where we have two similar type of vessels for the oil spill response, and then also a waste management vessel that are collecting the on-ship-generated waste.
That's part of the vessels that are in part in this offer. Then the soil remediation in Kuwaiti, that is progressing very well, ahead of plan, and this is something that we are extremely satisfied with. This has already served as a reference to other customers and generated sales in Oman, where we have a new project coming up in soil remediation. Then, a Mimic on this, not in the same scale, but however, a very important also sign of how important the references are for bringing our business forward.
An interesting insight from the discussions that we had with our customer in Kuwaiti is that really now then, when we have both the bioremediation operations performing ahead of plan, better than anticipated, and also the soil washing operations in both sites in Kuwaiti also up and running at close to the expectations already. However, slightly delayed compared to the plan, and that is also having an impact on the overall financial performance. But now at the planned level, and it's being called by our customer as the beast. A huge operation, and that is performing extremely well. And now the customer is considering us as a local partner with them.
We are not just a vendor flying in, selling, ramping up, and then disappearing. We are there to stay. And this is part of the legacy of Lamor, and how we want to be seen also in the areas where we are operating. We are building up the operations, staying close to the customer, generating new opportunities together with the customer as we go along. So bioremediation ahead of plan, and soil washing up in now in operation, and will for sure be a very important asset for us, and also to support the customer in going forward, and being a part of helping out other subcontractors in reaching their targets.
Then, another important step milestone that we've achieved during the Q1, is the chemical recycling of plastics, and the site that we are building up. Let's say, the proof of concept site that we are building up in Porvoo, or in Kilpilahti at the moment, where now we reached the step that, for example, you can see in the picture here, where we are installing some of the pre-treatment equipment in the facility. And that is being assembled on site at the moment, and the building overall is ramped up. And, we are looking forward to start up the production of oil during the later part of second half of 2024.
So this will then, when we are at the full stage, of course, first proof of concept, and then when we are at the medium term, leading to a 40,000-ton waste material capacity being fed to this facility, and then longer term, then reaching for the Lamor portfolio up to 100,000 tons. And now, you could say that the value chain for supporting this kind of operations is also in place. We have the feedstock arrangement, or agreement is now signed with Remeo, and that will then make sure that we have the supply of the plastic waste to the facility in place.
And, and then we have now ramping up the facility itself, and then the offtake agreement with Shell, that will then utilize the oil that we are recovering, and for their own production. So a great start of the year, and a good example of how we built up the value chain in respect to chemical recycling of plastics. And the first proof of concept plant with then including both the building and the processing part, and the partners throughout the value chain. Some other highlights throughout the year. The pictures here, the top picture from Ecuador, where we are working with an oil spill, and where we've been in the...
Together with the customers and the organizations that are responsible for the arrangements of this, where we're working on with them. And then the bottom picture, which we are very proud of, that we have now ramped up the, let's say, European Maritime Safety Agency's stockpile or center for supporting the North Sea oil spill prevention type of activities. And this is now our... The second, this kind of facility that we're building up together with EMSA. We have the stockpile in outside Porvoo, that is then the Northern Baltic Sea stockpile, and now the stockpile for the North Sea, then in outside of, or actually in Werkendam, in the Netherlands.
So, a great step forward and a good sign of how closely we are to supporting the actors, making sure that our sea areas are safe and sound, and ready to be utilized going forward. And it's not only a stockpile, we are also supporting the organization with trainings, with drills, and so on. So it's a very active cooperation between our team and the EMSA organization.
As I mentioned earlier also regarding Oman, this is again a very important step also that we are showing that the reference that we built up in Kuwaiti can be utilized to give the trust to the customer that we know what we are doing in respect to soil remediation in large scale and also in smaller scale. And this was a very, very fast track arrangement after the customer visited the site, until they make the decision and went ahead. And it's not the only one. We are involved in remediation tender processes very actively in Latin America, in Africa, and of course, also in Middle East. And three smaller oil spill response operations, as I mentioned, in Ecuador and then also in Peru during Q1.
We are very proud also with how we've now been able to show that strengthening the OSR equipment sales capabilities really can on a relatively short term show that we can secure the base in respect to equipment sales. That is, again, a very important statement towards the customers too, that we are close to them, and we have trustable equipment and also very capable sales personnel that are out in the field and supporting the customers on day-to-day discussions, and also technical personnel that are able to support them in making sure that the equipment is being used in the best possible way.
As I said, also that we are not satisfied with the profitability level, and that's why we now introduced during Q1 an efficiency improvement program that is going from the sales activities throughout the organization, where we are identifying areas that needs to be further improved. And that is ongoing, and we will return to that later on throughout the year. So these are some of the highlights, what has been happening during Q1. As you see, it's been a very lively Q1, and one thing that was not mentioned here is also that the negotiations is ongoing in several large projects.
They have not vanished anywhere, and we are pushing them forward as fast as possible, and we hope to be back with that information as we proceed, and shortly. Since I mentioned Kuwaiti several times, I would like to share with you a short video as a latest update for what is happening in Kuwaiti, in a very artistic way, that is being then worked on together with our project team in Kuwaiti. Let's take a look at it, and enjoy the world record that we achieved in respect to bioremediation at SKETR Zone 1 in Kuwaiti. So let's take a look at the video.
... There was a short summary about how we are doing in Kuwaiti and how does it look like. It's easier to believe it when you see it live, I can tell you. All right, let's move on to the financial update and Vesa will take the stage. A couple of questions to Vesa. If we have a look at this picture, which we have been looking at for a long period of time already, quarterly development of revenue and adjusted EBIT, it is changing from one quarter to another. How would you describe where we are currently, and how to compare it with the previous performance?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thanks, Johanna. So I think the way to, the way to look at this is that... Well, just to repeat, as Johan said, and as you see here, the revenue for Q1 this year was EUR 24 million, and there is positive development from Q1 last year. And that's, of course, also good, good signal and good sign. The EBIT was positive, but reasonably low, so adjusted EBIT margin being 2% is again something that we are not really satisfied. I think the good thing in that EBIT percentage, though, is that we have costs in control, and the EBIT was clearly driven by lower revenue than what was in the previous quarters.
I think that's like, structurally, there is nothing that we are worried about, but this is just a kind of a driver: the revenue level for the first quarter profitability.
Then if we move on to the order intake and order backlog, a slight increase now for orders received in Q1. Something that you would like to highlight?
Yeah, again, I think this is... this is something that good to tell how I think this should be read and how I read this. So, first of all, at the end of Q4, order backlog was EUR 124 million, so we came down from that. That's just as a notice. And the backlog was EUR 118 million in the end of Q1 now. And of course, this is a trend that we are heavily working on to, like, you know, to change, but the size of the order backlog is also slightly dependent on the structure of the business and how long projects you have, et cetera, which we come back to later in the equipment business side.
But the orders received in the first quarter were EUR 16 million, and if you actually look at the last year, not by a huge margin, but this is higher order intake than we had in any single quarter during the last year, and the full year 2023 order intake was EUR 44 million. So in that sense also, I think we are, one could say, going to the right direction.
Good. Highlights about these figures?
Yeah, you can see the numbers. I think, like, two highlights. So just to repeat that the quarter on or year-on-year development, i.e., between comparison, Q1 2023 and now this quarter, all the development was in a sense, positive. So we are going to the right direction if you just compare to the comparable quarter last year. But I still want to repeat that the profitability, we are not happy with, but again, like I said, you know, the costs are in control. We have the efficiency program or operational efficiency improvements on the work, and that will focus on operational efficiency improvements. But because of the nature of those things, we expect that they do have positive impact also to this profitability.
So I think that's, that's in a way, the way I'm, I'm looking at these numbers now.
Then we introduced a new split relating to product lines in Q4 last year, and going forward, now planning to introduce these figures from the revenue point of view.
Mm
... to the market as well. Product line solution split, highlights there?
Yeah, I mean, if you just look at pure numbers, so in the year-end webcast, you talked about the annual total yearly splits, and if you look at the product line split, the environmental protection was 47%, and remediation and restoration, 45%. So reasonably kind of a big change there, of course, space is different or timing is different. The other one is annual, this is quarterly. And then on the solution split side, the equipment revenue was 31% in the full last year. But maybe, Johan, as responsible for our strategy, so how would you read something special about this?
If I start with the equipment, I would actually say that the aim is really to keep the equipment sales and revenue higher going forward as well. It is dependent on how the deliveries are taking place. We know that a huge equipment delivery took place last year for Bangladesh. It's still ongoing, but it impacted heavily. That is treated as a equipment delivery, even though it's a really large project. So that impacting the split, overall, I would say that the equipment sale is something that we put our efforts heavily now on as well to keep the base up and running on top of the big service projects, which are, of course, in our focus going forward.
Product line split, agreed, there is a slight difference, and these are differing from quarter to quarter. That's how it is for the product lines as well. There are smaller spills going on, which are in part of the environmental protection, and have been provided already in Q1. Then, of course, the activities in Kuwaiti, which are heavily impacting the remediation restoration part, impacts also this split. So for instance, the soil washing starting with full scale only in the latter part of Q1 impacts this split as well.
Good, thanks. And then if you look at the market area split, in Q1, actually, Americas was, should I say, raising its head. For the full year last year, Americas share of revenue was 15%, and now it's 25%, so there's a sizable change there. And Johan talked about the activity levels and discussions with customers and so on. I think this is visible especially in Americas and tangible here in this number, and this seems to continue, which is very nice, nice trend in that region.
And then on the other hand, Middle East Africa, in Saudi Arabia, we had some vessels off-hire weeks, so weeks when the vessels we are using in those projects were not on hire, which then impacted the revenue, especially in MEAF, to some extent.
Good. Employees.
Yeah, I mean, very shortly, so end of last year, the employee or the headcount was 840, and now it's come down by roughly 100. And there is simply one clear explanation to this, which is that in the end of last year, in Latin America, we had one resource-heavy cleaning project ongoing, and that was now completed during the Q1, and that reduced the headcount, or it actually took headcount of 107 persons, and those are no longer in this headcount.
Good. Then about the working capital, remaining on a high level.
That's true. So the net working capital in the end of last year was EUR 62 million. Now it's EUR 77 million, increase of 15, which is a lot. And, there's basically 2 key drivers there. So one is that, I said here also, the work in Kuwaiti is actually proceeding faster than the related invoicing, which is increasing the contract asset. Also then, now we mentioned, or Johan mentioned, that those 2 soil washing plants are in full operation in Kuwaiti, which is great. We did expect them to be in full operation in early part of the quarter, and now that actually happened towards the latter part of the quarter, and that's another key driver and key impact for this growth still. Net cash flow, negative EUR 30 million.
Actually, this was driven by the increase in the net working capital. So net cash flow, Q4 was EUR 2 million positive, so that's more or less the delta there. And then, what comes to the financial position, comparing to Q1 2023, what happened in between is in August, the EUR 25 million green bond, which kind of changed the level setting of these equity ratios and net gearing, and that's visible in these numbers as well. All in all, I think, you know, one needs to remember that there is a reason many of these elements here are called assets, and of course, the reason is that it's money that we expect to get and receive, and we have high confidence that that will happen.
Naturally, we would prefer to have it on our bank account than and in our cash to then use it in the best possible way for future projects, but that will happen. What did happen during Q1, in the end of the year, we talked about and told about some challenges in Saudi Arabia, especially, in the process related to how the invoices are circulating and this kind of process issues, if you like, related to payments. I think there was very good progress there on that side during Q1, which basically means that now in this kind of business circulations, payment process circulations, and related things, we are more or less back to, should I say, region standard now?
... Then guidance, no changes, so we keep the guidance published, mid-February. Anything you would like to highlight here?
I mean, that's unfortunately it, so there is no reason to change the... If you start from the revenue guidance, that's the right guidance at the moment. There is no reason to think differently. And then unfortunately, the same applies also to the visibility for the project, so projects, and therefore the profitability. So that's the main reason why the guidance is as set for this year.
Good. Then before moving to the Q&A, let's have a quick look on. I guess both Johan and Vesa have been referring to the next leap already during their presentations. What it means, it means that we are doing everything to go back to the growth mode, so to say, increasing revenue, and then doing it with a profitable mode. And we discussed through this really quickly last time, I guess. So what we are doing now, we are setting even more clear goals and targets for each and every one of us, following up how we are dealing and doing with those targets and goals.
So first of all, concentrating on guided and controlled growth, both when it comes to sales activities, efficiency in deliveries, and making sure that the sales is also taking place with high enough margins, so to say. And then, making sure that the processes are working efficiently and as they should work. Then we are ready for the market expansion, starting from the existing markets. Of course, we are already today heavily working with market expansion this year as well. But really, making sure that where we already are in those countries, we expand our operations in those countries as defined in our strategy. And then the market scalability is then the next step, making sure that we have...
We can repeat our business, and we can scale up the global business even more. And how we run this, we call it program. We have defined persons who are running. There are six different work streams. They are heavily interrelated with each other, and all of them are working towards profitable growth going forward. First of all, order intake, which must be, of course, with good margins and increasing our revenue, so heavily sales-related. Making sure we have correct people in the tendering phases, both in the area organization and also in our technical sales, so that we have the best possible team, making sure we have a good tender in place.
Business line capability is something that we are putting even more efforts on, so we must be sure that we have the best technical capabilities, best way of both in the tendering phase and then in the delivery phase, supporting the efficient project execution. And then we move on to the delivery and supply chain management. We've been talking a lot about efficiency and making sure we do everything in a right way. Delivery has, of course, a huge impact there, impacting our profitability, impacting also our possibilities to win the market. Cash flow, Vesa already talked a lot about our current status when it comes to the working capital.
We are working heavily on that to make sure that we use our funds efficiently, and then of course, keeping the capital structure such continuously that we are able to win new projects as well. Everything is about people, so right people in the right places, and competent people are committed to work for Lamor in the longer term. That's something that is really in our core, and not only efficiency and doing the right things, it's also about promoting our culture, our way of working, and making sure that we have... Everybody knows what to do and enjoys what they are doing. And I would say that all of these create our brand.
What we are, we have increased in size heavily, and we are well-known in the strategic markets. But at the same time, we need to work to make sure that everybody knows Lamor as a brand that has a certain kind of portfolio, where we have the greatest references, and heavily working on that part as well, to attract people to work with us, to attract investors, and then of course, to attract the customers to work together with us, on top of partners.
I think that this is. We've already seen some signs that in respect to the more structured way-
Yeah
... of working throughout the organization, it's not just one area. It's throughout this work streams that we have now identified, and very tangible things that are being done. There's no revolutionary things. It's tangible things that needs to be put in place, and really proud of the work that we are doing together-
As-
... throughout the organization
... small things happening continuously.
Exactly.
That, that's maybe the good thing here. All right, then we move on to the Q&A. Vesa, could you please join us as well? And I'll, I'll be the one who will present the questions. I have the easiest part. All right, let's start with the Middle East/Africa performance for Q1. Could you talk us through the drivers for 33% decline in revenues from the Middle East and Africa compared to Q4? And how should we think about the development during the rest of 2024?
... Well, if I start from the numbers, so like I said, there was actually a collision of the vessels in Saudi Arabia, and that's the reason that they were not on hire for a while. So that's. There are those, that kind of a real and tangible operational issues that caused some decline. There was also, like, a quite heavy Q4 in some of the operations, which then impacted Q4 from revenue point of view being slightly lower. And I don't know if you want to, Johan, talk more about the operational level and what you-
performance overall in 2024.
Correct, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that, the performance overall, operational, that we've been very successful throughout the year, but there are certain things that we now have been focusing on in making sure that we, for example, the cash collection and, and other areas that needs to be put in place as we, as we go along. So I think that that is the main, main, reasons. We are very proud also with the, with the guys that they've been now looking, for example, in Africa. We revitalized the agent network in, in Africa, for example, that is now starting also to show signs that, that we are, we are improving, and that's then focusing mostly on the equipment sales.
Otherwise, operationally well, but we still have some work to do in respect to making sure that the cash collection is as efficient as possible.
Yeah, and maybe one more thing, by the way, to mention about the actual numbers. So in Bangladesh, there was a reasonably heavy equipment delivery phase during Q4, which also, also, to some extent, I can't say peaked Q4 numbers, but-
Mm
... had a bit of a-
Yeah
... kind of a higher Q4 as a, as a starting point there.
Mm-hmm.
Good. A question relating to Ukraine: Would it be possible to use Lamor's existing technology to clean up the soil in Ukraine?
Yes. I mean, the operations that we have in place in Kuwaiti that we're doing, we are looking at the unexploded explosives, for example, that needs to be removed before starting to do the really clean-up operations. And this is something that we are also looking into what could be our opportunity going ahead, but still the situation is what it is, so no further progress as now. But I would say that the capability to work in a similar way, and the situation is similar. There's a lot of land masses that cannot be used, for example, for agricultural use at the moment.
They are heavily affected by different type of substances that are harmful for the soil. So that's our expertise. We've shown what we can do in Kuwaiti and also in other areas throughout the world, for example, in Amazonas and so on. So this is, I would say that the activity as it is, is bread and butter for us, and unfortunately, the situation is very dreadful and, so we are ready to help, and looking into that already also.
Then tender processes. How are the larger tender processes you have talked about earlier, how are they proceeding? And has any of these processes, where Lamor has participated, completed during Q1?
I mean, tender processes are being completed, and if you're talking about then, equipment and also smaller service projects that have shown a positive trend. But unfortunately, the larger service projects, we are still in negotiation phase in many different areas of the world, and that continues. We are very eager to finalize them, and there are signs that things are moving ahead, and that's one of the things that we showed in the presentation, too, also regarding Saudi Arabia. But we have not completed them, but the negotiations are extremely.
Active, I guess.
vital.
All right, then coming to Saudi Arabia, what are the potential next steps in OSR agreement in Saudi Arabia that will end now in September after the extension we talked about today? And what is the level of confidence of renewal of this agreement?
Yeah. I mean, we are an integral part of protecting the shoreline in Saudi Arabia at the moment. We have three different bases along the western coast, or on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. And we know that there are several incidents in that area that have been happening during Q1. We have been responding to those incidents, not official incidents, but anyhow, so there are active operations ongoing there, and we are an integral part of that protection of the coastline. The customer has also drawn upon the potential to extend the current contract that is now ending in mid of the year.
Within the contract, it was stated that a four-month extension of the contract is possible in the current contract, and they've taken that option. And of course, that they are planning for the future. There are very hectic planning going on from the customer point of view, and we are an integral part of their system at the moment, and we are not for sure giving up that role so easily. Confidence level, let's stay at this point that we are close to the customer, we are part of the negotiations, and we have the extension, the shorter extension, and now looking forward to continue to be a part of this work going forward.
Excellent. Then about the spills in Latin America, do you expect further the revenues from the oil spill response operations in Latin America, which we have been participating now in Q1?
It's very hard to forecast this kind of events. We have resources. We have structure in place to be able to fast respond to similar type of events. I mean, that is something that we will continue with. We will. We want to stay close to the customers. We want to be part of this setup for quickly being able to respond to events like the oil spills that now has been unfortunately happened in this region during the later part of last year and then beginning of this year. So this is something the way we want to be present and support.
And when these events, I mean, how do you say, emerge, then we are close by and ready to be part of the operations.
Good. Then last question to Vesa. Why invoicing in Kuwaiti is lagging behind? Anything you can do about this in the future?
Yes, sure, we... I mean, there's, like I said, well, I talked about Saudi Arabia, but that's the same in Kuwaiti as well. And then, how to describe that? There are, of course, some local practicalities that we are also, you could say, limited with. And then, we have found the right ways to support clearing those as efficiently as possible. And there's been some further local support and some changes in the way we process those things and documentation required, et cetera, which is actually really heavy for our standards.
So there's been activities ongoing and taken to improve it, but that's. It is basically clearing those obstacles for things to proceed and then having the right connections to the different steps of the invoice approval process.
And maybe to summarize it, do it in a structured way.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's-
Yeah
... that's something that really has been done.
Mm-hmm.
Excellent. Good. Thank you for the good questions, and thank you for the answers as well. And thank you for all who were listening.
Thank you.
Thank you.