Hi, and welcome to Link Mobility's second quarter presentation. My name is Christian Nygård, and I'm the IR & Corporate Strategy Manager here at Link. Joining me today are our CEO, Thomas Berge, and our CFO, Morten Edvardsen. We'll start with a presentation, and afterwards, we'll open up for questions. Please feel free to post your questions online at any time during the session. With that, I'll hand it over to our CEO, Thomas Berge.
Thank you for the introduction, Christian. This year marks a major milestone for Link Mobility as we celebrate our 25th year anniversary. We began in 2000 as a small Norwegian startup and have grown into the European market leader in digital messaging, now trusted by more than 55,000 customers. Our strategy is dedicated to providing digital communication products to the enterprise market for them to interact with their end customers. We approach the enterprise market through a strategy of local touchpoints with our clients. We have numerous sales reps, customer service, and customer success employees on the ground, winning new contracts and supporting existing clients in local language and culture. This setup is creating a larger reach than many of our competitors who have a more regional or centralized approach to the market. Over the years, we have built a pan-European presence.
We are the number one provider in Europe for A2P messaging, with a customer base that relies on our services on a recurring basis. Today, we have more than 700 employees across over 30 offices, a presence in 18 countries, and have completed more than 35 acquisitions since 2014. If you look at the map on the right-hand side, you can see the breadth of our footprint and the acquisitions that have helped us get there. Our growth story has been driven by a combination of strong organic growth and targeted strategic acquisitions. Profitability has always been a key priority. Link is growing the business while generating additional profitability and cash. Since 2014, we have expanded steadily across Europe, completing over 35 transactions to strengthen our position.
Looking at our journey, you can see key moments in our history: Nordic expansion between 2012 and 2015, the European expansion from 2016, the acquisition by Abry Partners in 2018, and our relisting at the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2020. In 2023, we expanded beyond Europe once again with the acquisition of South Africa's SMS Portal. This marks a renewed and deliberate step into international markets, aligned with our long-term growth ambitions. The combination of strong market leadership, long-term customer relationships, and strategic expansions lay foundations for continued growth in the years ahead. Q2 was a strong quarter for Link, delivering both solid growth and important strategic progress. The highlight this quarter was the acquisition of SMS Portal, a market leader in South Africa. This is a transformative step that lifts our pro forma adjusted EBITDA and cash EBITDA NOK 1.1 billion and NOK 0.9 billion, respectively.
The transaction was agreed at an attractive upfront multiple of 4.6x cash EBITDA, with an additional conditional payment of up to $30 million. Regulatory approval is progressing as planned, and we expect closing in early September. Turning to our financials, pro forma gross profit, including SMS Portal, is reported at over NOK 5 00 million in the second quarter, representing 7% year-over-year growth despite challenging comparables. This performance was driven by continued strong demand for our high-margin conversational solutions combined with OTT channels and chatbots. A handful of larger enterprise clients reduced non-critical communication spend during the quarter, which we estimated lowered growth momentum by 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points . Similar patterns have been observed in previous years, typically following periods in which these customers have significantly increased their communication spend with Link Mobility, as has been the case in recent years for the mentioned clients.
The impact is generally temporary, and we expect this headwind to ease by year-end. The underlying market trends remain strong, with continued support for growth in richer messaging channels with higher profitability. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA is reported at NOK 283 million, or a growth of 12% in line with our stated performance targets. Link Mobility's business model is scalable, meaning that most of the gross profit increase is hitting the EBITDA figure. Pro forma margin is also increasing from 11.3% to 13.8%, or a growth of 2.5 percentage points. Improvement in margins is a result of the accelerated growth momentum on high-margin conversational products, traffic mix in Europe, and a profitability increase in SMS Portal.
The quality of our revenue continues to improve, with gross profit growth outpacing revenue growth due to strong demand for advanced solutions with higher margin and strong comparables same period last year for a selected customer with low margin, high volume traffic. Lastly, CPaaS momentum is accelerated in the quarter. We saw record high closed won contracts at NOK 50 million in gross profit terms. For the first time, CPaaS contract wins exceed A2P contracts. RCS contracts were up fourfold, now representing 24% of total wins. The chart at the bottom right illustrates the growth in expected gross profit for one CPaaS contract over the past five quarters, with a clear increase in Q2. Overall, Q2 shows we're executing on both growth and profitability while strengthening our market position and expanding our global footprint.
In Q2, we signed the acquisition of SMS Portal, the leading player in the South African messaging market, with a strong international customer base. This acquisition establishes a leading position for Link in South Africa, supported by a robust technology platform, a scalable and profitable business model, and contained competitive pressure with relatively few stronger local and international competitors. South Africa represents an attractive and growing market with a predictable regulatory framework. SMS is still the primary communication channel. The country also benefits from a stable regulatory environment and a growing digital economy, creating strong demand for scalable communication solutions. The transaction also opens substantial opportunities for synergies and accelerated growth. We see the potential to grow the SME customer base, expand into unpenetrated sectors, and introduce our high-margin CPaaS products to address local market demand.
In addition, integrating SMS Portal's technology platform into Link's existing operations will strengthen our capabilities and efficiency. All of this comes at an attractive valuation of 4.6x cash EBITDA on the upfront consideration, or 5.8x including the maximum conditional payment. We are confident SMS Portal will be a powerful growth driver within the Link Mobility family. The transaction is expected to close early September after regulatory approval. In Q2, we delivered profitability improvements with pro forma adjusted EBITDA up 12% in stable currency and continued margin expansion. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA reached NOK 284 million in reported currency, with the margin improving to 14%. SMS Portal's highly scalable and efficient operations, combined with higher growth on the more advanced products with higher profitability in Europe, and the decline on low margin traffic in global messaging are driving the margin increase.
The organic footprint delivered 11% growth, with our scalable business model enabling gross profit growth to flow effectively through to EBITDA. We also saw a slight decline in OpEx compared to the higher levels same period last year. Pro forma gross profit grew 7% in stable currency, including the contribution from SMS Portal. This performance was driven by continued growth in high-margin conversational solutions and favorable traffic mix. Looking at the organic footprint, growth was 5% in stable currency. The mid-single-digit growth rate reflects the impact from elevated comparables against a campaign-driven peak in the same quarter of last year, as well as the temporary effect of reduced spend from the before-mentioned handful of enterprise clients estimated to have lowered growth momentum by 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points. As we have seen in the past, such adjustments typically follow periods of significant increases in communication spend and are temporary.
We expect this headwind to fade out by year-end. On new contract wins, Q2 delivered a record performance, reaching an all-time high estimated gross profit value of NOK 50 million. 52% came from CPaaS solutions, highlighting the shift in our contract mix towards higher value channels. The graph on the left shows the estimated annualized gross profit on new contracts. The numbers are extracted from our CRM system, and the estimations are based on contractual arrangements and specific dialogue with clients. Internally, we have a target of achieving NOK 40 million plus in gross profit from new contracts per quarter, except Q3, which will be lower due to summer break. Looking at the breakdown, gross profit from new CPaaS contracts increased 60% year- over- year to NOK 25 million. This growth resulted in CPaaS representing a larger share of new wins than traditional A2P SMS.
New contracts on A2P declined as customers shifted towards richer and more advanced messaging solutions. Conversational OTT solutions were a key driver of the CPaaS momentum in the quarter. They represent the majority of the CPaaS contracts closed, with OTT contract wins up NOK 7 million. RCS contracts were up 4x , NOK 12 million in gross profits, supported by major wins in banking, insurance, and further momentum coming from supermarkets, retail, and e-commerce. Link Mobility is a growth company, positioned to benefit from two key trends: the ongoing increase in adoption rates for A2P SMS and the shift towards more advanced solutions on OTT channels. If we start with the adoption rates on the left-hand side, A2P SMS usage has been steadily increasing across all European countries where Link operates.
While the Nordic markets are among the world's most mature in the world, we have still seen growth in this region over the past few years, albeit lower than less mature markets. There remains a strong growth potential in Central and Western Europe. You can see from the chart that A2P SMS adoption per inhabitant continued to increase, with an 8%- 10% yearly increase in Central and Western Europe from 2017 to 2024. This ongoing adoption trend provides a solid foundation for Link's future growth momentum. At the same time, traction on the new CPaaS products is adding another growth layer. The expansion from one-way communication on A2P SMS to conversational dialogue on richer channels such as RCS and WhatsApp are opening up a large amount of new use cases.
This means a higher return on investment for clients in mobile marketing campaigns, more value from notifications, and more efficient customer interactions. As we saw previously, growth in CPaaS is already well underway. The market is evolving rapidly with a clear shift towards more advanced CPaaS solutions. To capture this demand, it's critical to be channel agnostic, and this is exactly where Link is strongly positioned. Our MyLink products enable clients to manage all customer engagement in one place, regardless of which channel their end users prefer. This flexibility is becoming increasingly important as the market shifts, ensuring that our customers can always meet their users where they are. In competition, we often see local players who lack the resources to invest in these kinds of solutions. This gives Link a clear competitive advantage, as we can offer more advanced, scalable products that deliver higher value.
Another important trend that we are observing is the strong push towards WhatsApp. In several regions, WhatsApp has priced its services below operator levels. This strengthens Link Mobility's bargaining power in the industry, as we partly can control which channel we terminate messages on. We believe this is an opportunity to further strengthen gross profit growth through lower COGS. This also underlines the importance of being channel agnostic. Link is well positioned not only to capture these changes but also to lead the market transition. RCS has become one of the key CPaaS trends in the market. As customers increasingly demand compatibility with new messaging formats, Link Mobility's model ensures that we can seamlessly support that shift, positioning us to capture the growing demand for RCS and other emerging channels. RCS is more mature in France, Italy, and Germany, with higher adoption versus the Nordic region.
Less mature SMS markets are taking charge of utilizing the more advanced communication channels like RCS. The Nordics are expected to follow, especially when RCS is compatible with iOS in that region. This slide shows Link's first RCS pilot in Northern Europe, conducted in collaboration with Insidia to improve mileage reporting on cars. The pilot was carried out on Android devices. The use case is simple. Insidia wants customers to report mileage more accurately. If you drive more than agreed, your compensation in case of a claim is reduced, and if you drive less, your insurance becomes cheaper. RCS makes this reporting much more interactive and convenient for the customers. The pilot results were a very strong success, underscoring both the reach and effectiveness of RCS.
On the right, you can see the status of the RCS rollout across Europe, where some countries have RCS limited to Android devices, while others already offer RCS on both Android and iOS. We see market demand increase exponentially when enterprises can reach all end users on RCS, not just Android users. In the Nordics, where iOS penetration is high, our best estimate is that iOS will open up for RCS in Q1 2026. While there is still uncertainty around the exact timing, we view this as a significant growth driver in the years ahead. By the time iOS adoption in the Nordics is possible, Link will have refined and scaled RCS solutions in other markets. With our strong market share in the region, we are well positioned to capture the potential once the rollout is implemented.
Link Mobility has demonstrated a strong track record of driving growth through value accretive acquisitions. As illustrated by the acquisitions shown on the right-hand side, our extensive M&A activity has given us significant experience and a clear understanding of key drivers behind successful integrations, as well as the pitfalls to avoid. In this experience, we have developed a structured M&A playbook that defines a set of criteria we consider essential for value creation. These criteria have been refined over time and serve as a guiding framework in our evaluation of M&A opportunities. Companies that meet these requirements have consistently shown the highest likelihood of successful integration and long-term value contribution to Link . We're looking for companies with strong local position and deep industry relationships, proven ability to generate cash, and a resilient customer base.
Technological and commercial alignment is key, along with clear potential to realize synergies after the acquisition. Typically, our target valuations are between 6x- 9x cash EBITDA before synergies, with upside potential from growth. However, as we saw with SMS Portal, individual transactions might deviate from this range, with SMS Portal acquired at 4.6x cash EBITDA or 5.8x , including the maximum conditional payment. Looking ahead to the second half of 2025, our main focus will be to close the acquisition of SMS Portal in South Africa, secure a successful integration, and start extracting synergies and growth potential. We see opportunities to grow the SME customer base, expand into unpenetrated sectors, and introduce high-margin CPaaS products to address local market demand. In addition, integrating SMS Portal's technology platform into Link Mobility's existing operations will strengthen our capabilities and efficiency.
At the same time, we will continue to execute our broader M&A strategy in Europe, where bolt-on acquisition remains an important lever for growth, allowing us to strengthen our market position and realize additional synergies across the group. When it comes to the current M&A pipeline, we have eight prioritized targets, with three in due diligence. The pipeline includes a mix of bolt-on acquisition and larger scale-up opportunity, with targets both inside and outside Europe. In total, the pipeline represents more than €15 million in cash EBITDA. Overall, our track record demonstrates that we have successfully executed our M&A strategy. We remain focused on pursuing accretive opportunities and continue to actively monitor the market, maintaining an opportunistic approach as we evaluate potential targets. Our key objective in the interim is focusing on value creation through a combination of organic growth and accretive M&A.
Firstly, when it comes to growth, our ambition is to deliver high single-digit organic gross profit growth. This is driven by the two key market trends we discussed earlier: the ongoing increase in adoption rates for A2P SMS and the shift towards more advanced solutions with higher margins. Naturally, as we have seen this quarter, growth will show some fluctuations from period to period, but the underlying market trends remain strong, with continued support from both rising adoption rates and a shift towards richer messaging channels. Secondly, on profitability, we're targeting adjusted EBITDA growth outpacing gross profit growth. This reflects the scalable nature of our business model, with gross profit expected to grow faster than operating expenses over time. Thirdly, on capital allocation, our top priority remains accretive M&A, while maintaining a leverage policy of a maximum 2.0x- 2.5x times adjusted EBITDA.
This balance allows us to pursue attractive opportunities while preserving financial flexibility. In short, our strategy is about balancing solid organic growth with margin improvements, while using disciplined capital allocation to drive additional value through acquisitions. That's it for me. Now we move over to the financial section. Over to you, Morten.
Thank you, Thomas, and good morning to everyone listening in on the call. Let me start with the SMS Portal transaction and the impact on pro forma financials on the last 12 months' basis. Firstly, a quick recap on the transaction details. The total purchase price amounts to up to $145 million equivalent. This includes NOK 100 million upfront cash payment expected to be fully financed with cash on the balance sheet, NOK 15 million in equity consideration, and up to NOK 30 million in conditional payments over the next two years. The valuation at the time of signing represents 4.6x cash EBITDA on initial cash consideration and 5.8x , including the maximum conditional payment. We see this as an attractive entry point given SMS Portal's strong profitability and growth potential.
Looking at the financials for the group on a combined basis in reported currency, the pro forma revenues for the last 12 months reach NOK 8.5 billion. Adjusted EBITDA reaches NOK 1.1 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13%, with SMS Portal contributing with its higher margin profile. Cash EBITDA is NOK 0.9 billion, which underlines the strong cash generating capacity of the combined group. Following the cash payment of NOK 1 billion for SMS Portal, net interest-bearing debt would stand at NOK 1.9 billion, resulting in a leverage rate of 1.7x adjusted EBITDA. That is comfortably within our financial policy range of 2.0x- 2.5x , leaving headroom for further inorganic growth. Overall, these acquisitions at scale improve profitability and strengthen our cash generation going forward. Now let's turn to the reported financials for the second quarter, starting off with revenue and how the shift in revenue mix is impacting profitability.
Reported revenues for the quarter came in at almost NOK 1.8 billion, down 3% year- on- year. On an organic basis, revenue declined by 11%, where 8 percentage points are explained by global messaging following the termination of low-value clients and destinations since the third quarter last year, and the normal volatility that we observe in the aggregator segment. A further 3 percentage points are related to the enterprise segment, where elevated comparables from campaign peaks impacted year-on-year growth, like we observed also in the first quarter this year. One large retail client alone explains around 3 percentage points of the decline due to abnormal volumes last year. In addition, a handful of large enterprise clients have reduced their messaging spend, which dilutes the revenue growth momentum. We expect this headwind to diminish by the end of the year, while new contracts implemented partly offset the decline.
Foreign exchange effects of NOK 30 million and contribution from closed and consolidated acquisitions in Portugal, Spain, and the U.K. of NOK 107 million bridge the gap between organic 11% decline to the reported 3% total revenue decline in the quarter. Overall, while the top line reflects high comparables and some short-term headwinds, the shift away from low-margin traffic toward higher margin products is supporting improved profitability. Moving on to churn and net retention metrics. Starting with churn, both enterprise and global messaging remain at normal levels. Global messaging churn spikes last year are reflective of Link terminating low-value clients as a means to preserve profitability and reduce bad debt risk exposure. The increased demand for more advanced CPaaS solutions further supports current drivers for low churn, such as sticky integrations and high transition costs. Net retention came in at 84% in the quarter.
A significant explanation to the reduction in net retention is the termination of low-value traffic within the global messaging segment, representing 8 percentage points' impact in the quarter, which will normalize in the second half of this year. In addition, the elevated comparables and the volume impact from a handful of large clients impact net retention development in the quarter. It is important to highlight that while reported net retention has gone down, gross profit growth continues to outpace revenue growth. The phasing out of current headwinds, especially on high volume, low margin traffic, will largely fall out by year-end, which we expect to lead to a normalization of net retention. Our medium-term target for organic gross profit growth in the high single-digit range would, with a relatively stable revenue mix, imply a normalized net retention of around 105%. Next, on development in gross profit and gross margin.
Reported gross profit increased by 11% in the quarter, reaching NOK 422 million. On an organic basis, growth was 5%, with closed and consolidated acquisitions contributing an additional NOK 20 million. Organic growth was, as mentioned, influenced by elevated comparables from campaign-driven peaks in the same quarter last year, as well as the impact from some large enterprise clients reducing non-critical communication spend, especially on SMS. This created a temporary headwind of around 2% to 3%, which we expect will diminish by year-end. At the same time, conversational solutions supported both gross profit growth and margin expansion. Global messaging segment delivered a 27% increase in gross profit, equal to NOK 8 million from growth on higher margin traffic. Looking at gross margin, the group gross margin expanded from 20.9% last year to 24% in the current quarter, reflecting an organic increase of 3.4 percentage points.
Enterprise accounted for 1.6 percentage points of the organic uplift, supported by growth on higher value clients and on advanced CPaaS solutions, including OTT, on behalf of lower value traffic. Global messaging added another 1.8 percentage points positive contribution to the total margin from traffic mix improvements. Moving on to the development in adjusted EBITDA. Reported adjusted EBITDA growth was 18%, reaching NOK 212 million. On an organic basis, growth was 11% in fixed currency, equivalent to NOK 20 million. Of this, NOK 17 million derived from organic gross profit growth, while the remaining NOK 3 million reflects operating expenses being slightly down from a somewhat elevated level last year. In addition, closed and consolidated acquisitions contributed NOK 10 million in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 2.2 percentage points to 12.1% and was in line with the previous quarter.
The improvement is mainly driven by gross margin expansion, as explained, reflecting a more favorable traffic mix and increased contribution from richer OTT channels. We also note that the operating expenses to sales increase as a percentage of revenue, which is a result of the lower top line. Overall, the quarter shows strong organic EBITDA growth and solid margin uplift. Let's now turn to the statement of profit and loss, and I will comment only on material items below adjusted EBITDA, as I already covered the lines above. Non-recurring costs came in at a higher level of NOK 47 million in the quarter. This includes NOK 28 million related to M&A activity, as well as NOK 20 million in option costs, of which NOK 17 million is linked to accruals of Social Security tax, reflecting the strong share price development in the quarter.
This results in an EBITDA for the quarter of NOK 165 million, slightly down year on year due to the higher level of non-recurring costs in the quarter. Depreciation amortization was NOK 97 million, consisting of NOK 27 million from R&D intangibles, NOK 63 million from acquisitions-related PPA amortization, with no replacement CapEx required, and NOK 6 million from leasing and fixed assets. Net financial costs were NOK 68 million in the quarter. Out of this, NOK 29 million related to net currency losses, primarily on U.S., dollars and euros. Net interest expense was NOK 30 million and consisted of mainly bond interest of NOK 39 million and an amortized transaction cost of NOK 11 million, where NOK 6 million related to early recognition due to the termination of Link 01 bond in the quarter.
These effects were partly offset by an interest income of NOK 20 million in the quarter. In addition, we recorded NOK 8 million in other financial costs linked to the call premium paid on the Link 01 bond. Moving over to the balance sheet, which remains solid and provides ample capacity for further inorganic growth. Non-current assets ended at NOK 6.8 billion and down year- on- year. The main driver for the decline was the termination of the company's own investment in Link 01 bonds, amounting to NOK 843 million, which were canceled in Q4 2024. In addition, negative currency effects contribute to the reduction, while partly offset by NOK 405 million add-on from M&A since last year. Receivables were positively impacted by NOK 218 million received related to the divestment of Method Broadcast.
This included the settlement of earnout of NOK 144 million and a partial repayment of the seller's credit of NOK 74 million. An outstanding balance of NOK 35 million remains on the seller's credit, maturing early 2027, with a 5% interest payable together with the principal amount. Cash balance stood at NOK 1.8 billion at the end of the quarter and is expected at NOK 800 million post-closing of the SMS Portal acquisition, expected early September. Year- on- year, cash is lower due to debt repayment, M&A transactions, and the share buyback program. At the same time, gross debt has decreased by NOK 1.5 billion year- over- year following the final refinancing of the Link 01 bond in June 2025.
Following the refinancing of Link 01, current debt structure consists of two outstanding bonds: Link 02 of € 125 million and Link 01 of € 100 million, maturing in 2029 and 2030, respectively. In addition, we have secured a senior secured working capital facility of €65 million, which provides additional flexibility for inorganic growth. Equity stood at NOK 5.5 billion, with an equity ratio of 55%, which underlines the strength of the balance sheet. Net interest-bearing debt was reported at NOK 870 million, and the leverage ratio declined quarter on quarter to 1.1x adjusted EBITDA. The received consideration for the divestment of the U.S., business had a positive impact on leverage in the quarter, while M&A activity added 0.1x to leverage. Including the SMS Portal acquisition, the leverage ratio would increase to 1.7x adjusted EBITDA, as mentioned, which remains comfortable within our financial policy range.
Moving over to my last slide on cash flow. Adjusted cash flow from operations was 77% of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, or NOK 164 million. Working capital development in the quarter was impacted by a delay in the payment process with a large global client and receivables of NOK 90 million. On these clients were settled early July, hence more than normalizing the negative working capital impact last 12 months. On the LTM basis, adjusted net cash flow from operations was NOK 757 million, representing a conversion rate of 96% from adjusted EBITDA. CapEx in the quarter was €55 million, including an NOK 11 million out-of-period one-time correction, while underlying increase reflects fast-track development of CPaaS solutions due to strong market demand. For the full year, we expect CAPEX level at approximately NOK 180-NOK 190 million. In the lower graph, we see that beyond organic cash flow, impact from M&A and U.S. receivables has a net positive impact of NOK 88 million in the quarter.
Cash outflow of NOK 130 million related to acquisitions in the U.K. reflects both net cash consideration and share consideration of NOK 28 million, more than offset by the NOK 218 million cash consideration from the U.S. divestment received in the quarter. Cash outflow related to financing of NOK 862 million in the graph mainly reflects NOK 843 million in cash outflow related to the final refinancing of Link 01 in June, NOK 35 million in proceeds from share issuance, including the NOK 28 million related to M&A, and remaining NOK 54 million in interest paid in the quarter. That concludes the financial section and the Q2 presentation. Handing the word over to Christian for Q&A.
We will start the Q&A session. Please feel free to post questions online at any time during the session. We have received a question from Erik Raftal in DNB Carnegie. You note that headwind is expected to diminish by end of the year on gross profit headwinds from a handful of enterprise clients. Based on what you see today, should we expect a gradual recovery through Q3 and Q4 towards 7%- 8% organic growth rate, excluding these effects? Could we see organic gross profit growth bounce back to the high single digits already in Q3?
Yeah, I can take that. Based on what we're seeing right now, we see, as mentioned, a headwind of 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points on these clients. We see them starting to adjust somewhat their spend at the beginning of the year. We expect this effect to also impact the second half of both Q3 and Q4, but sort of fading out. We should see a recovery then as these effects are faded out in the beginning of 2026.
Great. A new question from Erik Raftal. Maybe a bit of a disappointment that RCS still hasn't been launched for iOS in the Nordics. Do you have an updated view on when that is likely to happen?
Yeah, the feedback from the mobile operators is in the beginning of 2026. Both the mobile operators and Link rely on Apple basically implementing this in their operating software. The beginning of 2026 is the latest estimate.
For modeling purposes, could you help us understand what type of report revenue is sorted with the NOK 25 million CPaaS contract wins in Q2?
Yeah, specifically to the contracts sold in Q2, the margin of those were high, and I would say at 57%. Typically, what we see is between 40%- 50%. This is, of course, estimates in the Salesforce system. Typically, we see margin ending up at 40%- 50%. There were some higher margin deals in the mix here. The revenue linked is then mathematically, it's NOK 44 million.
If we take a few steps back, you've turned the ship, performing very well on organic metrics, seeing accelerated momentum on CPaaS, and then a step-up M&A transaction. Is it time for a capital markets day, sometime late this year or in 2026?
Thank you. We are thinking about arranging a capital markets day in 2026, actually. We just signed a big acquisition. We expect the closing in early September. We think that it would be best to have a capital markets day when we have a couple of quarters with the new sizable acquisition in the P&L.
Two more questions from Erik. We'll start with the first one. What is the effect of cannibalization on A2P from the growth of CPaaS? Would you be able to split what part of CPaaS growth is transitioned from A2P and how much is net new gross profit?
Yeah, I can take that one. That's a good question. The answer to this is we expect a little bit of both. Exactly how much, it's difficult to say. Some use cases on SMS will transition over to OTT channels and cannibalize existing volumes. For us, that is completely fine because we see that the use cases that are being cannibalized are being cannibalized because customers want to use that as an opportunity to engage with their end customers. We will have a dialogue, so there will be much more messages and the profitability is much higher. There are use cases which will not be cannibalized, which are new, which you cannot do on SMS today, which will come as you call net new gross profit. Exactly sort of how much this is, we don't, it's impossible to calculate it basically.
Thank you. Last question from Erik. CapEx was up approximately NOK 10 million quarter- over- quarter. Is NOK 55 million a fair run rate going forward, or is it NOK 40 million-NOK 45 million, as we've seen in Q3 2024 to Q1 2025, more representative ahead?
Yeah, just to note that we had on the NOK 11 million one-time sort of out-of-period effect in the second quarter. Adjusting for that, we're at a CapEx level of NOK 44 million, which is, I would say yes, NOK 40 million- NOK 45 million is what we expect, at least in the second half of the year. I think that's a fair assumption going forward.
Great. Moving on to some questions from Pata Kongslie at SpareBank 1 Markets. Can you explain the decline in NRR performance, excluding terminated traffic?
Yeah, just think for, I think we explained some of these effects. It's related to the high sort of campaign-driven peaks that we saw in the same quarter last year. Also, obviously, some of the clients which have reduced their spend is also impacting the NRR. Just to recap, Q2 last year, we had a retail client in Central Europe sending extreme volumes, which alone is impacting NRR by a 3% drop. It was extraordinary campaign activity for this client.
Great.
Yeah, I can move on to the next one.
Yeah. You say that high single-digit gross profit growth equals 105% net retention rate. This had historically been 110%. What is the change?
When we say 105%, we're basically assuming a fairly stable revenue mix also between enterprise and global messaging. We had periods of 110% and above for some quarters, and that was impacted by very high growth in the global messaging segment, where we now have sort of terminated traffic and closely monitoring both sort of margin levels and also bad debt exposure. Given a normalized revenue mix, 105% supports gross profit growth in the high single-digit range.
Great. A couple of more questions from Pata Kongslie e. There is negative gross profit growth in South Africa in Q2. How does this compare to your expectations during due diligence, and how should we read this compared to guidance of high single digits?
I suspect, Pata, that you're referring to slide six in the presentation, where we have sort of tried to isolate out the non-consolidated pro forma. How you should view this is that in Q2 2025, we had NOK 21 million, which are of M&A effects consolidated into the P&L. You need to add that on top of the NOK 85 million non-consolidated pro formas. That gives you around NOK 106 million, which is comparable then to the NOK 91 million last year. That gives you a growth of around 16%. That's the growth momentum on the M&A part. I would say we're pleased with the SMS Portal performance in Q2. It's growing nicely and according to expectations.
Great. CapEx around NOK 180 million- NOK 190 million this year, which is a significant increase compared to 2024. How should we view this in 2026?
Yeah, as I mentioned, we have a one-time effect, basically related to 2024, impacting the second quarter figures. Going forward, we will, of course, monitor sort of market demand for CPaaS solutions and the need to invest. My best take is that somewhere between 2024 level 150 and the guiding of 108, 190 is what we would see in 2026.
Great. Last question from Pata. What about dividends?
I can answer that one. As I said on the M&A slide, the main priority for us is to do accretive M&A. We have a big pipeline with a lot of interesting targets. The main priority for the company as of now is to create the additional value through accretive M&A. After the acquisition of SMS Portal, of course, the cash generation of the company is getting quite substantial, which could open up for a scenario or an alternative where we can do both. There's no decision on this yet, and we will revert back to you as soon as the board has taken a decision on it.
Great. A question from Jesper Stegumo at Handelsbanken. Could you provide more color on net retention rate being low and enterprise customer reducing messaging spend? What type of use cases?
Yeah, I think we explained the effects on NRR previously on another question. When it comes to sort of the clients adjusting their spend, we're seeing as they're going through their communication with end users and reducing some of the sort of non-critical updates. It could be during a service interaction, for instance, that they might reduce an SMS or so, which is sort of an update which maybe they don't see as giving that much value to the client. It's a small adjustment to the communication strategy and different kinds of settings in how they interact with clients. After they've been growing significantly and entering new budget years, they look at opportunities to take down costs, and they do small changes in the way they communicate with end clients. It ranges across different types of use cases.
Yeah. We have a question from Vinay from Kanto. Congrats on a strong set of results. Just a couple of questions from you. What were the elevated campaign-driven peaks related to in the prior year period?
Yeah, I mentioned one of these. We had a large retail client in Central Europe last year driving massive amounts of volumes, which we knew were more or less non-recurring. There were also other selected clients. This is more high volume, low margin clients, which were also pushing a lot of traffic. It's also something we saw into the first quarter that we're reducing spend year on year. It's across different types of industries, which were pushing a lot. It varies a little bit, like Thomas said. It's how much they push in one quarter will vary a little bit, and then they often push more in other quarters. It's based on how they best see it fit to communicate and push the message out to their end clients.
Great. He wants to understand the cost base, how that has evolved over the past year. Despite an organic gross profit growth expansion of 5%, your organic operating costs fell despite headcount rising. Where are these cost efficiencies coming from?
I can start before handing it over to Morten. It's important to remember that the first half of 2024 was exceptionally strong. We grew more than what we expected. That also impacted cost levels. Bonus accruals for employees, provisions for partners increased accordingly. That is part of the explanation. Morten, do you have any further details to add here?
I think you sort of covered most of it, Thomas. We had some higher, some a couple of other areas which also were a little bit high last year. We had some bankruptcy clients, which we covered with some bad debt provisions, which were a little bit higher than the normal quarter. It was a little bit elevated in the second quarter last year, I would say. You covered the main areas, which are the main drivers for the elevated CPaaS we saw last quarter or same quarter last year.
We only have a few questions left. Please feel free to post questions online if you have any. Moving on, you reported record NOK 50 million contract wins in this quarter. How long is the typical lag from signing to revenue recognition? What portion of these wins should we expect to see contributing already in Q3 2025?
This is sort of a very good question, but also a very difficult question to answer because it varies quite a lot. Some of these contracts are going to be implemented the next week. Other contracts, we can use two years to scale them. It depends on the use case, the clients. What we see on average is that around 75% of the expected volumes are in the P&L after 12 months. On the more advanced solutions, it can take somewhat longer, but that is sort of on average what we see.
Great. We have a question from Advaayan at Danske Bank. Given the strong year-over-year growth in gross profit margin, could you break down the contribution from volume, client mix, and pricing? Yeah, we can start with that.
Yeah, I think we can say that what we've seen over the last few quarters is a positive contribution of margin on implementing the more advanced contracts, especially on OTT. We see that contributing around half a percentage point to the margin expansion. Other effects are more or less related to volume mix and client mix and also how big share of the business the global messaging part is. We see there's a significant contribution to the margin expansion from the global messaging segment, both being from the share of the mix and also the increased profitability in that segment. 1.6% is coming from the enterprise side, where you have, of course, a higher contribution from the more advanced solutions. I think that's it.
What level should we expect going forward, especially as order intake on CPaaS is increasing for Link in general demand across the industry?
Yeah, we have communicated that we are working towards high single-digit gross profit growth. That is sort of the level that we are committing ourselves to. If we see that market demand for more advanced solutions is increasing and that we feel that it's appropriate to change or lift sort of what we are aiming for, we will communicate that when we sort of see that happening. As of now, we are holding the high single-digit gross profit growth target.
Great. Can you elaborate on how Link is using AI internally? For example, in development operations or maintenance, should we expect AI adoption to make Link more effective, either by reducing costs, accelerating product rollouts, or improving service reliability?
Internally, we're using AI for development, as most companies are doing, checking code and so on. We're also using AI in customer products. Content generation, for example, is something that we are developing AI functionality into. We are also looking into using AI in implementing new contracts, but that is still on the proof of concept phase.
Regarding the sharp increase in fraud attempts via SMS and thus increasing focus among consumers on not clicking on links and S MS messages, how does this affect Links's revenue?
Right now, it doesn't really impact us at all. This has been sort of a stable situation in the last five, six years. Five, six years ago, this had a negative impact on the industry that it closed down certain use cases on SMS because you couldn't provide a landing page where the necessary interaction between the end users and our clients could happen. The OTT channels, on the other hand, bypass this problem because all the interaction is happening in the app. The OTT channels are basically opening up a growth opportunity for us where we're able to bypass these fraud attempts on SMS.
Great. It looks like there are no further questions, so that concludes the Q&A session. Thank you so much, Thomas and Morten, for joining this session, and thank you to all participants for joining the call this morning. Have a good day.