Welcome everyone to Elmera Group's third quarter 2022 results presentation. My name is Morten Opdal, Investor Relations at Elmera, and I will be guiding you through today's presentation. Today's presentation will be held by our CEO, Rolf Barmen, and our new CFO, Henning Nordgulen, and we will conduct a Q&A session after the presentation. We encourage you to submit your questions during the presentation as there is some delay on the broadcast. The first speaker is Mr. Rolf Barmen.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Morten. Welcome to our digital third quarter presentation. My name is Rolf Barmen, and I head up the company. Please turn to page two. With me today, I have, as introduced, Morten Opdal, Head of Investor Relations, who will conduct the Q&A towards the end of the session. I have also with me the group's new CFO, Henning Nordgulen, who will present the financials. Henning is a very experienced CFO. Some of you will probably know him from his former position as CFO of Sbanken and Deputy CEO as well. He has also solid experience from heading up the B2B division in Sparebanken Vest and have international experience from working with the shipping sector in London.
He took up the position just a few weeks ago, the first of October, but he has already impressed us with his capacity. First, let me start by repeating some facts about our business units, which you can see on slide number two, and elaborate a little bit on where the business units belong with regard to reporting segments. Our new CEO of Fjordkraft took up his position from mid-August. Magnar Øyhovden, with his new management team, now heads up the largest end user company in Norway within our sector, having business lines both in the consumer segment and in the business segments. TrøndelagKraft and Gudbrandsdal Energi also operates in both segments. TrøndelagKraft is the market leader in Trondheim and a local brand of mid-Norway region.
Gudbrandsdal Energi, however, is a national fighting brand, award-winning for best customer satisfaction 10 years in a row, with its own administration on Vinstra in Gudbrandsdal, headed up by Marius Øxenbjerg. The Nordic segment consists, for the time being, of Nordic Green Energy, and has retail operations in Finland and Sweden. Also has business lines in both the consumer and the business segment. Per Heiberg-Andersen is the CEO of Elmera Nordic, and he is also responsible for further expansion in the Nordics. Roger Finnanger, Head of Business, is responsible for B2B activities across all our brands, as well as in the Nordic Green Energy in the Nordic segment. Betalingsservice offers payment solutions to companies in the group, and in the future also outside the group.
Revenues from this company is consolidated in the consumer segment. Last but not least, the new growth initiative segment consists of business lines from several business units. It is Kraftalliansen, our alliance concept, serving small and middle-sized energy companies with services like power purchasing, applications, and marketing campaigns. It is AllRate, offering billing and rating services to end user companies as well as grid companies. It is Fjordkraft Mobil and Gudbrandsdal Energi Mobil, offering mobile services to their respective electricity customers. It is our solar panel and EV charging offerings. They are also booked in this segment. Finally, Metzum, our software company offering cloud-based billing systems to the energy sector. That's a joint venture between us and Rieber & Søn. We have 40% each ownership.
This is not distributed to any of our reporting segments. Metzum expects to serve more than 1.1 million customers per month by the end of 2023. That's a growth actually of approximately 300,000 customers from today's volume. We have great expectations to that company. That was a brief introduction of our business units. Let's go to this quarter's highlights. Next slide, please. Page three. This quarter was a really strong quarter for the group. Actually, the best third quarter ever. The group's net revenue adjusted was up 15% year-on-year, while EBIT was up 33% year-on-year. Comparabl figures year-on-year account for the reclassification of interest costs related to our power purchase, and Henning will come back to this in his part of the presentation.
In the consumer segment, the positive trend in customer development continues from the last quarter. In third quarter, the growth was 3,500 deliveries. We had a strong momentum at the end of the third quarter and have experienced accelerated growth actually into fourth quarter. This is, of course, we are very happy with this development, of course. In the Nordic segment, the peak of peak differences and area price differences still are significant and continue to impact the profile costs. Positive volume effect have offset the negative impact from these profile costs this quarter. The sales activity was in a top level across all the brands in the business segment. The pipeline for the next quarters is actually all-time high.
Solar panel solutions continue to be in high demand, and sales capacity has continuously been increased to meet the increased demand. The digital adoption rate of our customers is high, in a time where awareness and consumption control are key focus areas for many of our customers. Currently, more than 400,000 customers through our own brands and our alliance partners are utilizing our smartphone applications. Next slide, please. Page four. Some words on the market development. Electricity prices have been, as we all know, at a very high level, and also very volatile. This driven by geopolitical situation, in combination, of course, with both reduced nuclear power generation, but also across Europe, weak hydrology.
As mentioned, the peak of peak price differences and area price differences are still significant. This of course due to grid congestions in the Nordics, and we can see this from the price levels in the northern part of Norway, which have been very low. We see that there is a clear trend now that high electricity prices also stimulate consumers to reduce their consumption. No doubt about that. What we also see is that the high price level combined with the recently increased interest rates are also significantly affect the financial costs related to power purchase and power sales as such. Henning will come back to that a little bit later.
However, our funding situation is reversed, and we have sufficient facilities to handle the power purchase also in a high-price environment. Next slide, please. Page five. As mentioned, the growth in the consumer segment has been pleasant. It was positive in the quarter, and we are of course very satisfied with the trend in deliveries. The average consumption per delivery is down in the segment, driven by high electricity prices and increased customer consumption awareness. The number of deliveries in the business segment is stable from last quarter. Volume per delivery is slightly down, not as much as in the consumer segment. Overall, the volume in the business segment is increasing due to the fact that we have a customer growth year-over-year of around 5,000.
In the Nordics, the number of deliveries fairly stable. Also here we see that the average volume per delivery is down. Next slide, please. Page six. Moving on to our new growth initiatives. The alliance volume also is down. This also due to high spot prices. The customer awareness of energy consumption also is present by the customers of our alliance partners, of course. The number of extended alliance deliveries technically decreased by 5,000 due to what we thought was a loss of one of our alliance partners. This partner will return in the fourth quarter. Our smartphone application was made available to 10 alliance partners in this quarter. Is now available for more than 50,000 customers in the alliance.
This app is set up with each of the alliance partners' visual profile and gives them, of course, a stronger value proposition towards their customers. Our solar panel solution, gaining traction, of course, from the high electricity prices. We have a capital light approach to this business line, and we are cooperating with Solcellespesialisten on installation services. The number of mobile subscribers decreased by 5,000 in the third quarter, but the trend has reversed in the fourth quarter, at the beginning of the fourth quarter now, and the momentum is positive. In general, the activity level in the various new growth initiative is high, and we see a significant growth potential from this segment going forward. Next slide, please. Page seven. Regulatory update.
We used to have this slide to introduce you to our thoughts of the regulatory issues that are present. There have been a couple of regulatory changes implemented with effect from the 1st of November. The changes have been expected and we are well prepared for the changes supported by the certification Trygg Strømhandel. Worth mentioning is that the notification period for variable contracts has been increased from 14 days to 30 days, which improves the value proposition and provides the customers with increased price predictability. Secondly, increased price transparency on the invoice and supplier websites are required. The proposals on mandatory low maximum price on all electricity sale in Norway are not getting political support.
The price mechanism is important in order to align demand and supply in a situation with scarce energy resources, and a maximum price would interfere with this. Lastly, there is an ongoing consultation regarding a new legislation to facilitate standardized fixed price contracts to the B2B market. We work intensively together with both Energi Norge, and in particular with Statkraft as our power purchase partner to design services that give business customers affordable predictability. That being said, the services we already offer to business customers with a timeframe of one to three years horizon, you know, the new fixed price contracts, they are set to last for three, five and seven years.
The products we now sell with a timeframe from one-year to three-year horizon, they will still be the most demanded services from our point of view. Before I give the word to Henning, I'd like to sum up. This quarter, high activity across all business lines, strong financial performance, actually the best third quarter in our history. Not to forget, a very positive customer growth sentiment. Thank you for now. Henning, the floor is yours. Welcome, Henning, and good luck.
Next slide, please. Thank you, Rolf, and thank you for the introduction. I'm very pleased to join the Elmera team here for my first earnings presentation, and I look forward to meeting with the investors. Next page. Next page. Slide nine, please. Before we go into the details, I would like to draw your attention to an update in our reporting. We have decided to change the classification of interest expense related to electricity purchase from Statkraft AS or CEAS, which is the group's main supplier of electrical power. Previously, this has been recorded in a direct cost of sales, but from this quarter, the interest component to the CEAS agreement will be reported in the interest expense line.
The updated classification reflects that with the current high Elspot prices, significant increase in the NIBOR interest rates, finance expenses have become a more significant factor in our P&L. The Group's interest expense in the third quarter of 2022 was NOK 19.4 million, and the comparable restated figure for Q3 2021 was NOK 2.4 million. You will find an overview on slide 18 in the appendix showing the restated figures from the first quarter of 2021. If you look at the Group's adjusted net revenue and EBIT. On the left-hand side, net revenue adjusted increased by 15% year-on-year to NOK 424 million, primarily driven by improvements in the business and the Nordic segments. The margins have been strong also in this quarter.
On the right-hand side, the group's EBIT adjusted increased to 33% year-over-year to NOK 121 million, driven by positive development across all segments. The EBIT adjusted margin over the last twelve months was 33% for Q3, slightly down from the comparable quarter last year. Next page, please. Page ten. Moving to the segments. The consumer segment showed an increase in net revenue from the third quarter of 2021, despite the 30% decrease in volume year-on-year. EBIT adjusted was NOK 62 million in the quarter, which was significantly up from last year as we have succeeded well in managing the variable product with increased profitability in combination with customer growth in the segment. The business segment shows growth in adjusted net revenue from NOK 89 million in the third quarter last year to NOK 107 million this quarter.
Product margins across all product categories improved versus last year, and volume sold increased by 3%, despite the 2% decrease in the volume per delivery. EBIT adjusted increased to NOK 9 million from the third quarter last year. Next slide, please. Page 11. When it comes to the Nordic segment, net revenue is up NOK 20 million, while EBIT adjusted is marginally down. We experienced negative peak off-peak price effects also in this quarter, but this was offset by positive volume effects from hedges. In the new growth initiatives, net revenue increased by NOK 9 million from the third quarter last year, with mobile being the main driver for the growth. EBIT adjusted increased by NOK 5 million year-over-year and was marginally positive in this quarter. Next slide, please. Page 12. Let's give some more insight in the Nordic segments.
As you remember, we stopped marketing fixed price contracts in February this year, but have residual exposure in Q4 and Q1 before this finally tapers off in Q2 next year. The current status in the segment is that the residual volume risk in fixed price contracts has been hedged according to our volume estimates. That is, we do not estimate negative effects from volume deviations. However, we still have uncovered risk related to peak and off-peak price differences, which is what we refer to as profile risk. With the current price and volume outlook and the visibility we have so far in Q4, we estimate that a negative EBIT adjusted of NOK 40 million is likely for the Nordic segment in the quarter. Looking forward, the prospects are promising.
Their market in Finland is rapidly moving from fixed to spot-based products, which is more in line with the Norwegian market. This means that the value proposition and the digital solution and the concepts we have in Norway and in our Norwegian brands become more relevant also in the Nordic segments. Next slide, please. Page 13. Given the macroeconomic outlook, including high interest rates, high energy prices, and so forth, many predict an increase in payment defaults and bankruptcies. This risk is also on our agenda, but we have strong confidence in the robustness of our established credit practices. This includes scoring and classifications of customers when granting internal credit lines, close monitoring of development, and cooperating with external parties for credit scoring and debt collection. Here, our historical track record is very strong, and we see limited changes in customer behavior and payment behavior so far.
To summarize, we consider the provision of NOK 75 million at quarter-end sufficient given the risk we see in our receivables. Next slide, please. Page 14. Over to net working capital. The net working capital was NOK 541 million at quarter-end, down from NOK 650 million per 30th of June, and the working capital level at quarter-end is dependent on the power purchase settlement for the previous months, as well as being subject to fluctuations in invoicing and payment patterns. On the right-hand side, you can see the development in net cash. We started the quarter with a net debt of approximately NOK 1.5 billion, ended with a slightly reduced net debt of NOK 1.4 billion. The main drivers are the quarter-over-quarter decrease in net working capital and the cash EBIT adjusted in the quarter, which was at NOK 80 million. Finally, over to the next page 15.
As Rolf explained initially, the situation in the power market remains extraordinary, but for Elmera, we see positive development in many of the elements behind the drivers of our profitability. The EBIT adjusted targets for the year were set in a different interest rate and pricing environment and before we decided to change the cash interest expense classification. However, on a comparable basis, EBIT adjusted for 2022 is expected in line with the original targets. That concludes our presentation. I'll give the floor to Morten, who will facilitate the Q&A session. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Henning Nordgulen. We are moving over to the Q&A session, and we have received some questions already. The first one is the following: What is your view on the regulatory situation? Maybe you can comment a bit on that, Rolf Barmen.
I think that we know or have experienced almost 10 years with quite high predictability when it comes to the regulatory framework. The regulators' focus has been on has been concentrated on leveling the playing field. Multiple measures, which we have acknowledged and supported, have been put in place. The war situation and the impact of the gas situation is obviously a matter that puts pressure on the politicians, but it doesn't actually put pressure on the regulatory framework as such. We do understand the need for the politicians to take actions, and the support scheme put in place from our point of view is a very good measure for mitigating negative effects to the end users.
The instrument both eases the burden for the end users and at the same time, it stimulates energy savings. From our point of view, based on multiple meetings and conversations with stakeholders and politicians.
Our take from that is that the majority of the decision-makers understand that the way the retail market is regulated in Norway is the best way of organizing such a marketplace. This is also supported by experts from universities. According to a keynote speaker at NHH's Energidager a couple of weeks ago, Europe looks to Norway to learn from our way of organizing the market. This is why we believe that the regulator will continue to regulate the market in a balanced way and continue the path they have followed for a long time now, level the playing field, increase transparency, support the Trygg Strømhandel certification, and strengthen focus on importance of the retailer's role in the value chain.
Basically, I really trust in the way of the regulatory framework we already have.
Yeah.
That was a long answer to a short question, but it is important that we get our point of view quite clear here.
Absolutely. A question on the consumer segment. What was the hedging impact on the consumer segment in the third quarter?
Yes. Am I in the picture?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, you're in the picture.
Well, as stated in presentation, we did realize strong margins on the variable products. The value proposition for variable is predictability for the customer, in our opinion, also supported by the increase of the notice period from 14 to 30 days. In terms of managing the variable products, in order to get visibility of our obligation towards the customers, we entered into forwards and other derivative products to achieve visibility before we execute on a pricing. It's really the competitive picture, pricing parity, and such circumstances that dictate our margins in the product.
This quarter, we were successful in managing the pricing and our hedging, so that we both had an attractive proposition for the customers and realized attractive margins for Elmera.
Good. We've received a couple of questions regarding dividends, how we look upon dividends versus share buybacks, et cetera. I can give a comment on that. We have our dividend policy, which we stand by. This year we also used our 5% share buyback approval from the annual general meeting. We will of course consider the way of distributing cash to shareholders in the future. Yeah, we will consider that, depending on, of course, how we view the share price and other factors. We have a question on the CEAS interest expense reclassification. Why are we doing this?
No, it's.
Do you want to-
I can take it. It's simply that, as I said in the presentation, with the current price levels, with the very significant increase in the NIBOR rates, this factor now becomes a more significant element in our accounts, in our disclosure. It's, in our opinion, the correct and appropriate disclosure to move the interest expense related to using the credits that we can in the sales agreement to the finance expense line. It's just a matter of moving to the correct disclosure.
We understand that you need to do some work then in reconciling the historical figures and also to our targets, and that's why we provided an extra slide, so you can then analyze the figures going back in history to Q1 of last year.
Exactly. We also have a question on why we are not changing our outlook when we are doing this reclassification. Just to be clear, when we are maintaining our outlook on EBIT adjusted, that is before the reclassification. That includes the lease interest expense component into that calculation. We have provided, as Henning said, the details for the Q3 and then also for the history into the appendix slide on page 18. One question on M&A. What can we say about the M&A potential going forward? Do you want to give some comments on that one?
Yes. We have slowed down our interest, of course, as we have said, many times now in the Finnish market. The Swedish market is interesting due to the fact that there are more players there that are more equal to us when it comes to product management and the product offerings. We have seen now in Norway that there are several retailers that are struggling. This was also expected, and I think we talked a bit about this last time we addressed the investor market. We believe that there will be some possibilities also here in Norway going forward, but we will look for the right prospects for our company. Yes, but Finland is definitely off for now.
Sweden, some interesting prospects there. We expect the Norwegian market to be set for further consolidation, due to the fact that many other retailers now struggle on the financial side. Their business model ain't sustainable actually.
Good. A question on the Nordic segment. You're guiding on losses for the Nordic segment in the Q4. How should we think about this for Q1?
Well, we decided to give an estimate for Q4 as we have visibility now almost halfway into the fourth quarter. Yes, there is a residual profile risk also in Q4 before this really tapers off in Q2 and then lapses. We do not have the visibility on Q1 to give such indication at this stage. We will expect to do that when we release Q4. I would like to repeat that, although there we have to mitigate these challenges in the next quarters, we look positively on the prospects on the Nordic segment as we now have a strong value proposition, which has become even more relevant for the Nordic segment.
Question on the regulatory side. If you can share some comments on the impact on our business segment if the government decides to move on with the standardized fixed price contracts.
We are working now, as I said, very closely with Statkraft to design products that are or that gives the customers, the business customers predictability and affordable predictability, to be fair. Of course, this gives us a possibility to sell offerings or sell price plans with a longer term effect. That will be good for us actually due to churn risks and that kind of things. Still, we think that we know that this will make a major or have a major role on our normal business-to-business activity due to the fact that most of these companies, they want to hedge their purchase in a timeframe of one year to three-year horizon.
Even though we are doing a lot of work now, we don't think that the demand for these kind of product will really fly very high. It will put us in a position that we can have a long-term relationship with these kind of customers, and that's a good thing. I think we look upon this as a possibility for the company actually, and we applaud the initiative. Yeah.
Good. Final question. Can you elaborate on the delivery trend you've seen in the fourth quarter post the Tibber announcement?
As I said, the growth has accelerated. Normally we don't disclose any sales numbers or customer growth in the quarter, but of course this is a very special situation, we can say that in the consumer segment we have a growth in October of about 20,000 customers. That's really significant acceleration. Yeah, it's been an amazing October month for us.
Good. That concludes the Q&A session, and we like to thank you all for your attention and wish you all a nice day.
Thank you very much.