Hi, everyone, and welcome to this presentation on the second half of 2025 for Lumi Gruppen. I, Nina Vesterby, the CEO, and Martin Prytz, CFO, will present the key takeaways. We'll also present the financial and commercial highlights, including a closer look at EnkelEksamen and the outlook for the full school year of 2025, 2026. We are in good shape and deliver a record high half year of revenue, with double-digit growth and strong expansion in margins, with both of our main businesses delivering as expected. For ONH, the highlight is a very good intake, leading to strong revenue growth, and we see the business scale on OpEx every year. In Sonans, we are continuously improving operations with higher profitability to follow, and the revenue is also growing for Sonans.
The market trends continue to be favorable, and both businesses are well-positioned for next year's intake, with strategic initiatives to stay on our current path. With this in mind, I am pleased to say that this presentation will show we are on track with our 2025, 2026 guidance and our financial ambition for next school year. Before Christmas, we also acquired EnkelEksamen, a strong edtech company delivering exam-oriented courses for higher education. We will come back to this a bit later in the presentation, but we will start with the financial highlights. Martin?
Thank you, Nina. So I will take you through the financials today, and starting with the revenue. In the second half, as Nina introduced with, we reported all-time higher revenue for the group, with a 14% revenue growth compared with the prior year. We achieved double-digit growth in both operating segments in the period, and the growth has now been sustained over three consecutive reporting periods. ONH continues to be the main growth driver, supported by a strong market demand for flexible online programs, in combination with program expansion and higher recurring revenues from multi-year programs. On the other hand, Sonans's performance still remains independent of a broader market recovery and is driven by student value in combination with higher volumes for the digital classroom offering.
This is kind of a continued transition to online, but on price levels similar to campus, so the financial effect is neutral. Operating expense growth remained well below revenue growth, resulting in margin expansion for both the group and individual segments. In ONH, we're seeing clear scale effects, driving improved operating leverage and stronger margins, supported by disciplined cost management. In Sonans, margin improvement reflects the impact of cost optimization and, like ONH, disciplined cost management. Overall, we see a positive trend in the development for, of the operating expenses for the group and the segments. Scale effects and operating leverage are demonstrated clearly through the relative share of personal expenses versus revenue, which declined to a 49% share of revenue in the second half, down from 54% in the prior year.
Actually down by 8 percentage points compared to the second half of 2023. Other operating expenses were broadly stable, while credit loss expenses increased year-on-year and reflect the non-recurrence of a receivable sale completed in the prior year, as well as adjustment to the ECL model that has impact on the expected loss rates and the provisioning. Reported exceptional items amounted to NOK 9.7 million, where the majority relates to restructuring and cost optimization in Sonans. Adjusted EBIT increased by 64% compared with the prior year, ending at NOK 53 million in the second half, with a margin of 19.6%, and we delivered a margin of 18% for the financial year 2025.
The ONH margin expansion is driven by the combination of the mentioned revenue growth and scale effects, leading to improved operating leverage, with the adjusted EBIT margin ending at 26% for the second half, compared to 23% in the prior year. Like ONH, Sonans's margin or expansion is also driven by the combination of revenue growth as well as cost optimization, with adjusted EBIT margin ending at 17% for the second half, compared to 6% in the prior year. And for both segments, again, disciplined cost management has also contributed to the improvement in adjusted EBIT. Free cash flow after leases amounted to NOK 41 million, up 23% compared with the prior year. This corresponds to a cash conversion of 77% in the second half of 2025.
Working capital movements impacted cash flow in the period, mainly due to timing effects related to the absence of collection portfolio sales. As a reminder, working capital will fluctuate between the reporting periods, depending on the timing of such portfolio sales. Over time, these effects will normalize, and we are currently preparing for sale of collection portfolios in 2026. And lastly, on the balance sheet. During the period, the group repaid a NOK 26 million subordinated loan, plus interest, to its majority shareholder. We are also pleased to have received a two-year extension option from Nordea under its existing financing agreement. The option must be exercised by the group before end of March 2026, and moves the maturity of the loans to 2028. And lastly, the group continues to maintain and adequate liquidity with access to undrawn credit facilities.
I think with that, Nina, that concludes the financial part of the presentation. So over to you.
Okay, thank you. So as promised, we will take a closer look on EnkelEksamen, an acquisition I was very happy to announce right before Christmas. So they are a profitable, high-growth education business with a digital learning platform, combining video content, interactive assessments, and AI-based student support, and they operate mainly for higher education. So the rationale for buying EnkelEksamen is, of course, projected scalability and growth, both in revenue and margins. But we also see EnkelEksamen as a step change for Lumi Gruppen, adding a digital and tech-driven company with high AI skills. They have the possibility to expand both in new product areas and markets, and diversify and strengthen our portfolio. If you look at EnkelEksamen growth, they've delivered impressive growth since 2020, both on revenue and EBIT, proving the business is scalable and attractive.
This comes from them being a high-speed, cloud-driven, and cost-effective business, and also being powered by AI. Just a bit on the transaction details. Equity value for the company is 150 million NOK, and we have NOK 86 million performance-based earn-out over the next two years. EnkelEksamen, they have developed 250 courses and sold 40,000 courses to students with a very high student rating, and thereby, a lot of returning customers. The business has started to expand from higher education and into the VGS and privatist market, private candidate market, and we expect further penetration and scalability in the years to come, also in these markets.
For our existing businesses, we believe EnkelEksamen to deliver add-on value, mostly through their scalable AI support and services, but also to balance out Sonans with a low price offering in the privatist market. So a bit on our other businesses. For ONH, the market is favorable, and we see growth in flexible online programs, with ONH delivering high above market average. We are launching several new programs this spring and expect to continue on our high growth trajectory, with our programs being designed for the students' needs of today. We are also waiting for institutional accreditation, which would benefit us, and expect this to be decided within the next few months. But with our pipeline and new programs, we are ready to grow regardless. For Sonans, I am very happy to get Madelene Stolpe on board.
She has a strong and varied background and will strengthen Sonans both strategically and operationally. Sonans has been further optimized over the last six months, and cost reduction of around NOK 5 million has been implemented now from the first of January 2026. If you look at the severance pay, that's included in the exceptional items. Also on Sonans, after we acquired Realfagshjelpen in 2025, we are now integrating student help as a part of the Sonans model, which enables us to be even more flexible and cost-effective, and still deliver on the high student demands. We also expect Sonans to broaden into the trade subject market, and that's a natural expansion for us, targeting a larger number of students in the private candidate market. So our main focus forward is organic growth, and we've shown through this presentation that we are very well positioned.
However, we do also look at potential bolt-ons in core and adjacent markets, if that makes sense to our business. So I think, Martin, you will finish with the business outlook before we take some questions.
Thank you, Nina. So, let us wrap up with the trading update and the financial ambitions for Lumi. And I think the key message from us today is that we are on track with the trading update we released in September last year. So in terms of revenue, we are tracking around 10%-11% for the group in total, where we see ONH is tracking towards the upper end of the communicated range, while Sonans is tracking a bit more on the lower end of the communicated range. We have also included an estimate for EnkelEksamen as well in this presentation for the school academic year 2025, 2026, where we expect to see around 20%-25% growth.
It's also worth to mention in this case that EnkelEksamen has a sort of tilted seasonality, meaning that there is a higher growth rate in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year. On the EBIT part, we, as we are saying, we are tracking above what we said in the trading update released in September last year. The financial ambitions remains the same as we have presented previously as well. I think as we say in the trading update as well, we are kind of on track in terms of revenue growth, and we are tracking towards the expected margins for all businesses.
We will also then eventually include EnkelEksamen in our update of the financial ambitions expected to be released around or in connection with the first half presentation of 2026. I think, you know, that concludes our presentation today, and we are happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, you are, of course, welcome to send us an email or get in touch with us, and we can arrange direct meetings as well during today or later.
All right, I think we're ready for the Q&A. Thank you for a very great presentation. Firstly, there's one question from the web related to one-off costs. Related to the one-off costs, are these mainly related to H2 2025, or can we expect some of the expenses, some more expenses also in H1 2025, 2026, sorry?
Yeah. The exceptional items that were non-recurring items we reported in the second half is, as we said, a large extent of it is related to the restructuring in Sonans, mostly around 70%, but there are also some expenses related to the acquisition of Edrupt. However, majority of the non-recurring expenses related to Edrupt acquisition or EnkelEksamen was already reported as part of the first half year report. So the main reason for the, the level of non-recurring in the second half is, of course, Sonans. We still expect to see some, non-recurring items also for the first half, but it's, not in the same size as we have seen for the second half, of 2025 now. So, I think that's, yeah, it relates to the second half part.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And, on your OpEx and scaling ability, how should we think about this going forward? Because the scaling here is quite impressive, and I'll assume that if more and more growth comes from the online, you'll see even more benefits from the scaling effects. But do you have any color, more color on this?
I would say for ONH, I think we're kind of already almost full online, so I think the scale effect is visible there already. Sonans is more like 50/50, average online campus. But I think what we're saying here is that we have taken down, like, personnel expenses to a very strong level now, at 49%. But I think it's worth to take into account that there will be variations from period to period. We do investments also in new programs that will also impact the operating leverage. But what we see is that we are trending towards a lower level, and we are now in a better position to get scale from the business and then operating leverage as well. And so I think that it's a positive trend, and we expect to maintain the level where we are today.
Of course, more online is very positive for the business.
Okay.
In addition, of course, continuous improvements. That's what we're working on-
Mm.
every month and every year. So I think that we will also see some of these changes on that.
Okay, perfect. And one more from the web. Can you elaborate on any initiatives you expect or shifts going forward in Sonans's strategy, considering the recent management shift?
So, as I said, Sonans is of course looking to expand both in terms of growing revenue even more. As we said, we're looking at trade subjects, and of course we have restructured the business, and we expect to get some benefits out of that. So, I would say I really look forward to getting Madeleine on board, and I think she has a lot of strategic and operational competence and will take this company even further and grow both the revenue and the margins going forward.
Okay, perfect. And last question, could you provide any more color on the EnkelEksamen acquisition? How do you plan to integrate the AI tools, and how do you view this differentiating your offering to students?
Firstly, I want to say that we believe that, like, the founder spirit and the drive that EnkelEksamen has is something that we need to continue, and they need to continue sort of on their own.
Sure.
But what we see is that we can use some of the AI tools and implement them in our existing businesses to improve support towards our students and to improve the services and, of course, also make the students even more happy.
Yeah.
So I think that's at least one part of it. Yeah.
Yeah, perfect. I think that concludes today's Q&A. Thank you for the presentation.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone.