Good day and welcome to Lamor's Q1 webinar. My name is Tapio Pesola, and with me today I have, as usual, Johan Grön, our CEO, and Mikko Forsell, our CFO. Next, they will be going through the key takeaways from our Q1, as well as summarize our focus points for the rest of the H1. We will finish with the questions, as usual. Without further ado, go ahead, Johan.
Thank you. Welcome also from my behalf to everyone on this webinar. I would like to give you a couple of snapshots regarding Q1. First of all, I mean, there are three main areas that I would like to lift out here. First of all, new orders significantly increased in Q1, which I am very happy about, that we could increase compared to the comparison period from last year. Here there are several different areas that improved during the first quarter. We got orders from all the market areas. That is part of the work that we have been doing also during last year and also coming into this year that we have focused on the efficiency in respect to the sales organization. In respect to profitability, also improvement. Here, driven then by the recognition from the Kuwait and NCEC projects that impacted this especially.
Of course, the environmental protection revenue growth that also happened, especially in Europe, Asia, and America. Most of the market areas in that respect too. The strategy implementation has continued. We put a special emphasis on the rollout internally across the market areas. The whole global organization, the focuses, and also the shorter-term focuses and also for the whole strategical period. As I mentioned in the beginning, we've restructured the sales organization for scaling and efficiency, which is an important part of making sure that we get the new orders into the pipeline. Centralized delivery chain management globally is part of securing also the profitability of the project as we go ahead. Also strengthening the project management teams.
Really the delivery part of our organization that we can ensure that the, let's say, the equipment deliveries, project deliveries are tended to in a proper way. Then as a next step also in respect to the focus areas here, we would like to lift out that we are focusing on Saudi Arabia, where we earlier said that the installed base has significantly improved during the last year into this year. That is now also requiring that we put a special emphasis on providing service for our equipment and also having the capability to manufacture, assemble equipment locally in Saudi Arabia. We'll come back to that later on. This is an important step in securing our presence in Saudi Arabia and why not also the GCC region. A couple of deep dives in respect to the business itself. Environmental protection.
Revenue remained at the same level as towards the comparison period. Increase in Europe, Asia, and also in the Americas region. Then a slight decrease, especially then in Middle East Africa. Smaller environmental damage cleanups that continued in Peru, Ecuador. And this is something that is very important for our organization. We are a response organization in addition to the preparedness that we are supporting our customers in building up. This is something that is hard to forecast, but we need to have the capability to address it when it happens. That is something that we make sure to maintain and that we have the capabilities to support the customers when things like that happens, when time is of essence.
Equipment orders, I could say mid-size type of equipment orders for environmental protection technology that we also had in Kuwait and also from Eni in Italy, another similar type of deal that was also agreed in Q1. Of course, the service center that I mentioned about earlier. In respect to remediation restoration, there was a decrease in respect to the comparison period. Major revenue in the remediation restoration, of course, is related to the Kuwait project that is still continuing and where the biological remediation part continues very secure and going forward. Also, the soil washing volumes temporarily reduced due to some maintenance work that has been done on the processes. Other soil remediation projects, of course, continue in Ecuador, mainly in Ecuador, and in Oman.
This is something that has been going on in the area, but not to forget that we are also involved with customers in preparing for major remediation projects. One example is the contract that we signed for a pre-study or a feasibility study regarding industrial landfill remediation, one industrial landfill in Latin America. That work started in Q1. Early stage involved with the customer due to the trust that they have in Lamor, positioning us for the next stage. That is a very important part that we wanted to highlight. Material recycling, also revenue decreased compared to the previous period, but still here also that the construction of the MARPOL waste reception and treatment facility in Bangladesh is now expected to be completed by end of Q2 this year. Again, this is a reference.
We are now involved in a major feasibility pre-design phase for another MARPOL project of size in the Middle East. That is something that, again, we want to be very early stage involved with the customer, being able to not dictate, but be helping out in scoping the design and the, let's say, the boundaries for the project going forward. We have the plastic recycling concept. Installation continued, design preparation for the process equipment progressed. Also what is very important here and we would like to underline is that we received an extension of the trial period permit until end of 2026. That is, of course, securing the ramp-up period of the plant. That is now the stage that we are entering into. Also we would like to lift out now the cornerstones again.
We talked about it last time, but just as a reminder, the enhancing efficiency. That's the backbone of what we want to achieve also in this strategy period, making sure that from sales offerings to operations deliveries, that this is something where we have taken the improvement of the profitability as a focus. Making sure that we maintain or even improve the profitability throughout the extension of a project or delivery of equipment, that we don't have extensive quality concerns that need to be tended to in addition to the framework of either the equipment delivery or the project itself. That's the basis. Going into further strengthening, of course, the environmental protection business.
That is why we, for example, in Saudi Arabia want to make sure that we are considered as a local player in that market in respect to equipment sales and also services, training, and so on. That is part of this first area to really secure that we are continued being seen as a trusted partner and a partner that can, let's say, work globally and is delivering as promised to the customers. Now we have in the remediation and material recycling, we have trusted references. We have also secured partnerships with strategic partners to support our deliveries. Again, underlining the global approach that is based on strong partners and our own core knowledge that is then being united and where we are supporting the customers in building up the proper solutions to their challenges.
Of course, chemical recycling of plastics is our new endeavor that we are now continuing, progressing towards the next phase and ramping up of the first concept plant. The first line in the concept plant is the first stage. Also, making sure that we have the long-term plan very cemented and that we can communicate about that going forward. This underlines the importance of this bridgehead in the Saudi market. The framework in many countries is also changing so that it requires you are considered as not maybe a full local player, but you are more localized than just delivering equipment and then traveling away. That is why we have now taken the decision to build up a regional service center in Saudi Arabia, first on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, on the Arabian Gulf shore.
To be able to support the very extensive installed base of OSR equipment that we now have in Saudi Arabia, building up since 1992 until today, this means that we will have the capability to locally manufacture, assemble equipment that will have a Saudi Arabia stamp on them as locally manufactured. We also have the capability to service the equipment that is already in place in the market, service, train, even train the users of the equipment or the customers around how to utilize our equipment in the most efficient way. Here we have already got established as a partner in respect to training of OSR preparedness and response. We have in place, or we've, I mean, provided internationally accredited training programs to over 4,000 oil spill response professionals in Saudi Arabia already at this point.
This is an important step and an important step to make sure that we are seen as a local player in the market. Not only Saudi Arabia, we are talking about the GCC countries overall. As I said earlier, we are continuing as planned in the Kilpilahti project in this first phase, starting up of the first plastic recycling line as a part of the concept plant in that area. That is proceeding as planned. We wanted to lift out a little bit of how we are a proactive player in the global market of environmental protection or recovery business. There are four different areas that we wanted to share some light on. First of all, the response business that we do, the preparedness overall, building up, being prepared to act when the accidents are taking place.
Also being a partner in the planning pre-studies phase, making sure that our thoughts, our vision, our equipment is being taken into consideration when planning, doing feasibility studies. Customers want to make sure that they are even more aligned and accurate in the planning before then doing the final investment. That is an important area. Of course, the operations, credibility around operations that we are acting on at the moment. In respect to response, as we speak, there are two major accidents that we are supporting the governments in Ecuador and Peru at the moment. Major accidents. This is something that we are known for, being able to respond quickly, making sure that we train people that will be at the sites. We will be able to locate equipment.
We will be able to support in also remediating when that time comes after the accident is being cleaned up. Contain, making sure it doesn't spread even further, and then to be a partner when remediating. In preparedness, of course, training, supporting the customers in building up credible preparedness capabilities is one part. Also building up, let's say, stockpiles regionally or even with the customer is another area. Not to forget that I don't think that we've been talking too much about is that Lamor today, we've been providing up to, I think it's more than 85% of equipment inbuilt systems for Arctic conditions. Response vessels that are out there in the Arctic region, icebreakers, I mean, navy ships, coast guards in the Arctic region around the globe.
We have delivered more than 85% of the equipment or inbuilt systems for that fleet of vessels globally. That is quite something that I feel that we can be very proud of if we are talking about protecting the very sensitive Arctic region around the globe. I mentioned earlier about, let's say, a feasibility study regarding landfill remediation in South America. The MARPOL study that we are now supporting the customer in at least one case in the Middle East. Pictures from the operations in Kuwait are on the top. On the bottom, we have Bangladesh that is now going towards the final stage and ramp-up of the production in end of Q2. That in short. Mikko, if you would like to say a couple of words about the financial side.
Thank you very much. All right, so good afternoon also from my side. Let's have a look at the key highlights from financial highlights from this morning's report. Starting from the top-line development as well as kind of commenting briefly on the profitability. The revenue development, which was kind of clearly below the kind of comparison period from the company perspective, it was expected. In the comparison period, still last year in Saudi Arabia, we still had the NCC service project ongoing, which we are kind of missing from this year's first quarter numbers. The second big factor in respect of the lower revenue is the kind of the revenue recognition in terms of the Kuwait project. As we had some maintenance stops in the kind of the soil washing plants, it also impacted then the revenue in Kuwait or revenue recognition in the Kuwait project.
On the other hand, on a positive side, as we announced late last year that we had the kind of the NEOM deliveries then partly split to last year, but they were also impacting positively the first quarter of this year. At the same time, if we briefly comment on the kind of the profitability. As you can see, starting from last year, beginning of last year, first quarter, we have been able to constantly improve the profitability. We are not yet there where we want to be in the long-term perspective. The targeted profitability or adjusted EBIT being 14%, but we've already reached 9% out of the margin itself driven by the, I would say, two main things.
One being that if we on the next slide have a look on the kind of the revenue or kind of the sales split in respect of how much we have the service project and how much we have the equipment sales, that is somewhat different than we had in the last year, which is then supporting the profitability improvement. The other thing, of course, is the NEOM project, the revenue recognition as well as the high margin of the project itself is the other key driver for the good improved profitability for the first quarter. We have been able to keep tight kind of the cost control as well in place.
As mentioned already earlier, if we then look at the revenue in respect of the equipment and service sales, you can see that out of the EUR 90 million, if we compare to last year where kind of 3/4 of the overall business was kind of the service business, now the share of that one is split 1/2 and 1/2 with the service and equipment sales. On the other hand, also as you have mentioned, the material recycling in respect of the overall revenue as the Bangladesh project is currently coming to the end during this first half of the year, also the activities with the project finalization are having a relatively small impact on the revenue for the first quarter.
If we look at the order intake, as already commented, I think we are pleased to say that finally the order backlog has been turning to kind of the growth path. Overall, the kind of trend starting from last year, first quarter, we can start to see that the order intake is kind of developing positively. For the first quarter, we had a bit less than EUR 28 million worth of new orders and in comparison to last year, EUR 16 million. In a way, we could say that the start for the year in respect of the orders has been strong. Of course, another important thing is the kind of working capital development as a comparison to last year, first quarter numbers.
We are currently operating at approximately EUR 20 million lower net working capital level, where clearly the biggest area is the contract assets. They are very much connected to the Kuwait project. As a comparison to the year-end, there was only a marginal increase in overall operating net working capital. At the same time, what we can be positively seeing in the numbers or these graphs is that the contract asset values continue to go downwards, which is, of course, releasing the working capital out of it. Overall, the net cash flow in the operations versus the previous year is still a bit negative for the first quarter. Equity raise, net gearing, those numbers you can see there.
Investments, I could shortly only comment that the Kilpilahti project is the significant investment from the overall perspective. That has been then the majority of the other investments that we have reported here on the Q1. That was in short the kind of the financial key highlights out of it. If I would ask then Johan to join again.
Yeah, a couple of points regarding the outlook and also the key focuses for the full first quarter, first 1/2 of this year. Globally, the global increased risk and awareness of the risk has not gone away. I mean, the demand still for sustainable environmental solutions that we are working with globally, they are remaining. That situation has not changed.
If we talk about the geopolitical risks continued in all the, we could say the older major maritime hotspots around the globe, where of course the Baltic Sea is one of them, but also in the others. That is still a risk factor that needs to be taken into consideration. There is a continued also push for taking care of legacy and also production-induced contamination challenges around the globe. That is something that the governments and also corporations and also due to increased reporting responsibilities that needs to be taken care of. This is something that where we see that there is also an increased demand for our kind of solutions. If you're talking about the, we all have heard about the urgent need to drastically increase recycling of plastics.
There are certain challenges in increasing the current way of utilizing only mechanical recycling of plastics or also to incinerate the plastic that cannot be mechanically recycled. Here, chemical recycling is not only by us, but this is a global demand. It is a demand from the oil refining companies. It is a demand from the plastic users, for example, in the packaging industry and so on. These three different areas have not changed. However, what we see is that currently there is a certain uncertainty and volatility that has increased. We do not have clear indications that it is impacting the market. This is something that can influence the decision-making, the timing of the decision-making can influence that. That is something that we just wanted to highlight.
The market itself and the conditions in the market have not changed, but the volatility and uncertainty is something that we would like to highlight as something that we need to take into consideration. However, the guidance for full year 2025 is that it's unchanged in respect to our guidance. We do believe that this is something that we will stick to. Based on that, this is the guidance that we would like to proceed with. Focuses for the first half of the year continue focus on the sales and the efficient delivery. That is quite self-evident. Executing the current deliveries. Also, we would like to highlight that complete and win targeted tenders of various size.
The various size, earlier we talked about the three buckets, let's say the smaller type of equipment sales, the mid-size type of packages, and then we have the larger projects. In these three different areas, you want to complete and win. This is something that we would like to stick with and make sure that we are focusing on. The profitability improvement, this is something that we are continuing with. We have in place operational efficiency programs to be able to make sure that this will also happen. Continued focus on the cash-in side, that is something that we have now put in place a process to make sure that this is on top of our minds and this is something that we will continue with together with our customers and joint venture partners.
In circular oil production preparations, we are continuing and preparing for ramping up the activities during this year.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Johan. We are ready to start our Q&A and we already have a number of questions waiting for us. Our first question comes from Antti Koskivuori, the analyst from Danske Bank, and it's about the potential future revenues from the oil spill in Ecuador and then the remediation project we mentioned in Latin America where we are doing the pre-study. Let's take the spill question first. Do we expect material further revenues from the major oil spill in Ecuador in the coming quarters?
It's a little bit early to take a stand at the moment. We know the current situation. What we can assume is that the current spill projects, they will develop into remediation activities. We do not have a full insight on that and we would like to come back to that when we are talking about this in the next stage. There are activities ongoing, but how to take that into consideration goes into the future a little bit.
We continue to work with the customer and let's see how the project continues. The second question was about the revenue potential in the customers. The second question was about the revenue potential in the remediation project we mentioned in Latin America, the landfills where we are doing the pre-study at the moment. At the moment it is a pre-study, but what about the future potential?
Yeah, I wouldn't like to comment on the exact, let's say, revenue, let's say the value of the full project, but it's quite clear that a pre-study of this size is not done if it's a small project. This is something where it's very important to be diligent about what type of technologies, what will be the, let's say, the costs developing with respect to, I mean, chemicals and the process overall, energy consumption and so on that needs to be taken into consideration to make the whole project viable and also that it's predictable in respect to cost going forward. It takes quite some efforts to get that scoped in, but we wouldn't like to take a stand on the value of the full project at this stage.
We remain in a good position for the future activities and potential tenderings. Okay, then the next question let's take from Thomas Westerholm, the analyst from Inderes, and about NEOM deliveries maybe for Mikko. Could you provide more color around the very strong Q1 gross margins? Were the NEOM shipments more profitable compared to typical equipment sales?
Yeah, it was, let's put it this way, that half of the deliveries for Q1 out of the NEOM project was more or less conducted on Q1. It has, as we have said, a kind of good margin itself as it was kind of the equipment deal. That's kind of really one driver. I would still like to also highlight that we actually had a relatively good also progress in all other areas as well. It wasn't only NEOM itself, which was kind of contributing to revenue and profitability development. Putting it the other way around, I think in the comparison period there were some service projects which were kind of looking backwards. Typically they have a bit lower margin itself. That was also another profit driver for the Q1.
Thank you. Let's take another question from Antti actually regarding the service center in Saudi Arabia, which Johan talked about and cost associated. How much of an additional cost should we expect to arise from the new service center in Saudi Arabia?
One thing that we've done with the service center network is that we have looked at where we have the stockpiles logistically, that they are accessible to the market areas and also where are the focus markets that we need to be present.
There has been, you could say, partisan redistribution from a very well-distributed network to more of a strategically more focused network. That is part of it that for sure has a contribution in respect to what costs are involved. Also, this is a part of building the business. Without having this in place, the training capabilities, we already have been doing training for our customers in Saudi Arabia. We have the infrastructure for that in place. It is more now to package it into one location. Also, to redistribute, for example, manufacturing or assembly of certain products that are essential for the market also into Saudi Arabia.
I would say that based on the impact that this will have on our presence on the market, it's huge compared to the quite slim investments that you need to do to be able to have this in place.
Let's take another question from Antti, maybe from Mikko. This one about depreciation, which has been recently at a low level. The level of depreciation is down clearly both from the previous year and the previous quarter. Is the Q1 level something that we should expect also from the coming quarters?
Yeah, I think the biggest share of those kind of, let's say, variable depreciations are mainly coming from the kind of the NCEC project, which ended up then during the last year. That is, as you know, in the IFRS logic, then some of these lease contracts are kind of treated as a depreciation. That is the clear driver. I would say the next bigger item that we foresee potentially is at least the Kilpilahti, then the plant when we start to depreciate that at some point of time later this year.
Okay, thank you. Another from Antti on debt levels. What would you say is the level of net debt that we are comfortable with in the current operating environment? Maybe Mikko again.
Yeah, I think overall, of course, there needs to be some leverage to kind of continue to conduct these our projects. We foresee that the overall level of, let's say, the networking capital slash the debt will continue to decrease as we are able to operate to get the Kuwait project towards the end of it.
That will be then releasing the working capital. At the same time, of course, I would say that the clear target also from the company perspective or from our side is to kind of continue focus on the kind of the really managing then the kind of the working capitals. I believe firmly that we have still room to improve in terms of the inventories as well as in terms of kind of getting then the account receivables and contract assets on to be operating on the lower level.
Kilpilahti was also mentioned, so maybe I'll take the CapEx question next. From Antti again, what is the level of CapEx that we expect to spend in 2025 round?
In respect of, sorry.
Overall CapEx spending for this year.
Yeah, I would say that depending if we say that I think we have a relatively clear understanding in respect of the Kilpilahti now in order to kind of get the kind of the completion of the project, we will continue to invest on the Kilpilahti that we have already said that that will be the primary investment target for us. Otherwise, I think, of course, depends what kind of the project might be coming up from the customer side if they will need some investments, but those are quite dependent on the development of the business in general terms.
Yes, thank you. Maybe a more broad question on profitability and our projects. This is from Antti again, and maybe for both of you. Does the profitability of Lamor's projects vary over the lifespan of the project? Are there typically differences in the beginning, middle, or end of project in terms of EBIT margin? I suppose that differs a lot from regarding what kind of project it is. But any kind of how we can get some flavor on that.
I would say, of course, the easy answer is that it varies. If we take, for example, a Kuwait project, now we need to consider that this was the first project in this scale that we conducted.
Oh, in the world.
Yes. However, I think that now we have a really good understanding on how the cost will develop throughout the project. In that sense, I do not think that the variability should be that large. Of course, there will be changes. It might be some seasonal changes depending on where you are, but not in a large scale.
If you think about, for example, NCEC project, I think, or let's say preparedness project overall, it's also very well, should be very well foreseeable how the costs are developing and how the, let's say, the invoicing is happening throughout the project. I don't see it would be that large of a variation.
Anything Mikko wants to add?
I think it depends so much on the project itself or what is then the kind of the how well it is, how simple or complex the project is that of course we need to kind of do the pre-calculation for the project itself and then depending on the size and the length of the project, it may have some impact if surprises will come positive or negative.
You always have a mobilization phase and then you have the operational phase.
Yeah.
Yes, thank you. A question about market uncertainty, which obviously was a topic we also addressed in our presentation, which could impact tender schedules also. Here's a question from both analysts, Antti and Thomas, have asked about this basically. Thomas asked, have you noticed a change in customer behavior along with the increased geopolitical tensions? Antti asked a similar question, but also added, do we see a potential risk going forward? Two questions in a way. Have we seen a change in customer behavior? Also, looking forward, do we see a potential risk of changes or delays going forward? How would we comment on that?
We can't say exactly, we can't pinpoint what has changed, but there is a concern right now. We know that the situation, how long will this continue, it's very, very, very unpredictable in that sense.
I have to say that we haven't seen a change in the behavior yet, but we noticed that there is an uncertainty and of course the volatility in the market overall. Of course the behavior of wind oil price. The market that we are in, that oil companies, they have to be, if there is not only oil companies, but there are certain players, stakeholders that need to be prepared. The risk, the geopolitical risk is still on a high level. The, let's say, the legacy challenges that are out in respect to environmental pollutions and so on, there is a higher intensity or awareness that they have to be addressed. It is very, very hard to say.
In a way, could we say that the fundaments have not changed, but it is the uncertainty or volatility has now, at least at this point of time, looks to be increased.
Yes. That's why we wanted to, let's say, pinpoint it, but.
Yeah, and we continue to follow the market how it develops now in the coming months and the rest of the year. Okay. At this moment, there are no further questions. I think that we will conclude this Q&A and our webinar. We thank you for joining us today and look forward to talking to you again during summer when we come out with our Q2 results. That's the latest. Thank you.
Thank you. Bye-bye.