Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SATS Q2 2025 Presentation. I'm Sondre Gravir, the CEO of SATS, and I'm here today with our CFO, Cecilie Elde. We will run a Q&A session in Teams at 10:00 A.M. today, and you can find the link to this Q&A session in the Q2 Stock Exchange announcement published this morning, both at NewsWeb and at sats.group.com. I'm pleased to share the highlights from a strong quarter where we have continued to see solid momentum across the business. Let's take a closer look. SATS is the leading fitness club operator in the Nordics with a strong presence in our key clusters. We closed the quarter with 273 clubs and 739,000 members. Our high-quality clubs and passionate teams of 10,000 employees ensure a premium training experience reflected in an average of 127,000 workouts performed at our clubs every day.
Our financial performance remained solid and consistent, with a rolling 12-month revenue of almost NOK 5.3 billion and an EBITDA reaching NOK 800 million. These results reflect our continued focus on operational excellence, sustainable growth, and delivering strong returns. With an 8% increase in LTM revenues, resulting in a 37% increase in EBIT, it really demonstrates the strong leverage in our model. If we look at the performance in Q2, it was another strong quarter, both in terms of club activity and financials. We continued to see a positive momentum in club visits, which is one of the clearest signals we have that our product really resonates. It's especially group training that is driving this growth, confirming that the investments we made in this area are yielding results. Revenues are up 10% year- over- year, and we saw a 35% improvement in EBIT before IFRS 16.
We are also delivering on our shareholder commitments. We are distributing a dividend of 50% of H1 net profit, which is NOK 0.63 per share, in addition to the ongoing buybacks. That brings our capital return well above our 50% minimum target for this first half of the year. One of the big milestones this quarter is that we now reached the NOK 800 million EBITDA ambition that we set out on the Capital Markets Day in 2022, and we got there in under three years. That's a testament to focused execution across the company. Our eyes are now fully set on the mid-term ambition of NOK 1.1 billion in EBITDA. We know it will take steady work, but the foundation is there, and we are progressing toward the targets step by step.
As I said, we see strong momentum in club activity, which shows the strength and the attractiveness of our product offering to members. Activity is the best proof of relevance. When members use our clubs more, it means that we are becoming a more important part of their daily lives. Higher activity also drives loyalty, as active members are happy members, and they stay longer. Activity levels continue to grow, driven both by member growth and by higher activity per member, a powerful double effect. There was a slight negative Easter effect compared to Q2 last year, but the overall trend is very strong. Group training is the main engine behind this growth, and class attendance is up 9% while the number of classes is up 7%. Our investment in group training over the past years is paying off: more workouts, stronger participation, and higher member satisfaction.
Group training now represents a growing share of member activity, strengthening engagement across the board. What we have built, our group training concepts, our instructors, and the group training culture in the company is unique and very difficult for competitors to replicate. The activity growth we see in our clubs is driven both by our youngest and oldest members, proving our relevance across all life stages and showing that our product and messaging resonate broadly. It's also a positive signal of rising health awareness, and it strengthens our position as an inclusive brand that appeals to everyone. Younger generations are building strong fitness habits early, and importantly, they keep these habits as they grow older, creating a lasting generation effect as they move up and replace older groups.
Growth in both youth and senior segments also helps improve capacity utilization throughout the day, balancing peak and off-peak hours and ensuring better use of our clubs. We have upgraded 58 clubs so far this year, and this is a part of our ongoing effort to keep the portfolio fresh and relevant. Regular upgrades ensure that members always meet a modern and inspiring environment when they come to train, which is key to both satisfaction and retention. By optimizing layouts and equipment, we make better use of every square meter, increasing capacity and improving the return on the space we already have. Investments cover both the fitness floor and group training studios, ensuring quality and appeal across the full training experience. This is not a one-time or one-off effort. Continuous upgrades are part of our long-term commitment to maintaining market leadership and strengthening competitiveness.
It's not only about upgrading the facilities, it's also about improving what's inside them. Group training is a core part of our value proposition, and to keep it attractive, we must continuously refresh and develop the offering. We are quick to identify what works globally and adapt it to the Nordic region and our clubs. This approach ensures that members always find something new and exciting while we make smart use of the investments and space we already have. Constant innovation keeps the product relevant, strengthens loyalty, and makes our group training offering and portfolio difficult to replicate. The offering is being continuously strengthened, and some selected examples from the second and third quarter are the launch of, for example, Performance HYROX, tapping into a global functional fitness trend using existing equipment and facilities.
We have the Run to Race concept, building on the surge in running and helping members to prepare for races, and the continuous rollout of yoga and Pilates classes, expanding in line with the strong wellness and mind-body trends. These are just illustrations of a bigger point. By keeping the portfolio dynamic, we meet changing member needs, we attract new audiences, and we reinforce our position as the leading group training provider. Expanding the schedule has proven to drive activity, and past uplifts have given us confidence that this continues to be an effective lever for growth. The autumn schedule is set to expand by 16% more classes compared to last year. By offering more classes, we not only attract new members, we also improve retention by giving existing members more flexibility and more choices.
Growth is especially strong in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, where we see higher percentage increases in classes. Norway is further along the growth curve, which means that expansion is more moderate there. This approach ensures that we capture demand, we meet members' expectations, and we continue to strengthen group training as a growth driver. Another area I want to lift is corporate partnerships. We are now intensifying our focus on this strategically important corporate segment, recognizing that companies play a pivotal role in employee well-being. Corporate partnerships have proven to boost employee engagement and retention, as wellness programs are shown to significantly improve job satisfaction and loyalty. That's why we launched the Workout Hour campaign, encouraging structured one-hour workouts during the workweek, not as a luxury, but as a necessity for well-being and productivity. We are increasingly positioning SATS as the partner of choice for corporate well-being.
On a societal level, there's a growing momentum around health-promoting workplaces, and workplace health and productivity were key topics in many of the debates that we saw in Arendalsuka here in Norway last week. I have now focused on how we are continuously improving our member offering by upgrading our clubs, improving fitness floor quality and capacity, and strengthening our group training and personal trainer offering. We are really seeing the results of our efforts. We are in the middle of what we call an accelerating positive performance cycle, where one driver reinforces the next. Improved product offering results, as we have seen in the numbers, in increased activity, which again transforms into more satisfied members, who in turn stay longer and increase their RPM.
This translates into improved financial performance, giving us the ability to further invest in our product offering, improving them, which again fuels further activity, and so it continues. This cycle is extremely powerful because it compounds over time, creating what we call sustainable growth. Looking at the numbers, the growth is broad-based, not just driven by one country, but now being visible across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. This balanced performance growth strengthens our resilience and positions us for well-continued investments and expansion. To take you deeper into the financial performance, I'll hand it over to Cecilie.
Thank you, Sondre, and good morning, everyone. Let's move into the financial review of the second quarter. The main takeaway is that we, in the second quarter, once again demonstrate the underlying resilience of our business model. We are delivering consistent top-line growth, translating into even stronger earnings and healthy cash flow, while at the same time maintaining strict investment discipline and continuing to strengthen the balance sheet. This provides us with both the flexibility to invest in future growth and the capacity to deliver attractive returns to our shareholders. We closed the quarter with 739,000 members, which represents a 3% increase year- over- year, or 19,000 additional members compared to the same period in 2024.
The quarter shows a net decline of members, but it's important to note that this is normal for a second quarter of the year and reflects lower activity levels and sales during spring and summer. Despite this seasonal dip, the overall trajectory remains positive, with both higher member engagement and a stronger total base than last year. In addition, members per square meter increased by 4%, reflecting our continued portfolio optimization and improved utilization of club space. This development shows that our strategy of optimizing the footprint by closing underperforming clubs, improving layouts, and upgrading existing facilities continues to deliver results, both in terms of efficiency and member experience. Moving on to revenues, total revenues for the quarter reached almost NOK 1.4 billion, up 8% year- over- year on a currency-adjusted basis. Member revenues remain the main contributor and continue to grow solidly.
This growth is fueled by both larger activity in the member base and structured price adjustments. Membership yield has also been strengthened by the ongoing enhancements to our product offering and higher uptake of premium products such as group training. In addition, other revenue streams also contributed positively. Personal training continues to see increased demand, and our retail business and ancillary services are gaining traction. All this, the revenue growth illustrates the effectiveness of our strategy, optimizing yield through gradual price adjustments, which simultaneously, with growing volume and expanding our service offering, capture more value from every member. On the cost side, we continue to exercise strict cost control while investing selectively to drive member value. Total costs increased by 5%, driven in part by higher direct costs linked to the increase in revenues from personal training and retail.
Excluding direct costs and COGS, club operating costs increased by 3% year- over- year on a currency-adjusted basis. This highlights our ability to keep the core base under control while still investing in areas that drive member engagement. As in prior quarters, we have expanded our group training offering, delivering 7% more classes year- over- year to meet the rising demand. This expansion of capacity is delivering tangible benefits, including lower churn and stronger upsell performance. Energy costs remained stable, and we have extended our hedging program throughout 2027. The hedge ratio decreases slightly in the later years, giving us flexibility while maintaining predictability in the near term. Looking at overhead, we see a step up from last year. However, in Q2 2024, we had a positive effect of a one-off. If we adjust for that, overhead costs grew with 6% on a currency-adjusted basis.
This is in line with the underlying growth in wages and business activity and reflects targeted investments in capabilities that support our strategy. Looking forward, our cost base will continue to be influenced by general inflation, local wage settlements, and targeted investments in product quality and member experience. The important point is that we are balancing cost discipline with the necessary investments to sustain long-term growth. Looking at profitability, we delivered another strong quarter. EBITDA before IFRS 16 came in at NOK 269 million, up 23% from the second quarter last year. This corresponds to a margin of 19%, an improvement from 17% last year. EBIT before IFRS 16 increased even more sharply by 35% to NOK 215 million, reflecting the combined effect of revenue growth, operational leverage, and disciplined cost management. The performance once again demonstrates the strength of our model.
Modest top-line growth, driven by both yield and volume, translates into a disproportionately higher growth in earnings. It is the operational gearing that enables us to steadily progress towards our mid-term target of NOK 1.1 billion in EBITDA before IFRS 16. In short, profitability is trending firmly upwards, and we remain on track to gradually deliver against our financial ambitions. Now moving to investments and expansion. Following a period of elevated investments in major club upgrades, we have now returned to the target level of 5% of revenues for maintenance capex. This ensures that we preserve the quality of our portfolio while maintaining strict investment discipline. We prioritize investments based on structured assessments of club quality, local competition, cluster strategy, and ensuring that capital is allocated to projects that deliver the highest returns. Typical investments include upgrading facilities, renewing equipment, and optimizing layouts to maximize space utilization and member flow.
This approach allows us to steadily expand our footprint while simultaneously improving quality and profitability in existing clubs. In the second quarter, we had one club opening and one club closure. Upcoming openings include one club in Helsinki now in August, one in Larvik around year-end, and an additional three openings in the Oslo area over the coming years. We are actively working to expand the pipeline further, scouting locations in our key clusters and other larger cities in the Nordics, and targeting a run rate of 8 to 12 new clubs annually. Following a strong financial quarter, operating cash flow came in at NOK 129 million, equal to a 48% cash conversion, and free cash flow ended at NOK 38 million.
The underlying cash generation remains solid, and Q2 cash flow reflects the normal season impact we see every year, mainly from negative working capital, reflecting the seasonal settlements of deferred liabilities on holiday pay in Norway. In addition, tax payments increased in line with the improved profitability, fully consistent with our guidance and with the majority of the 2024 tax bill paid this quarter. Moving to the right-hand side, on a last twelve-month basis, operating cash flow reached NOK 293 million, corresponding to a cash conversion of 56%. For comparability, it's important to recall that in Q2 last year, we benefited from a one-time NOK 85 million working capital gain from timing of quarterly rent payments, which was reversed in the third quarter. This year, the opposite effects impact both the year-on-year comparison and the LTM numbers.
In addition, maintenance capex came in somewhat above our long-term target due to the timing of specific projects in recent quarters, but will normalize in the coming quarters. Our liquidity position remains strong, closing the second quarter with NOK 405 million in cash and NOK 911 million available in an undrawn revolving credit facility. During the quarter, we generated NOK 38 million in free cash flow, partly offset by NOK 22 million in net payments related to the employee share investment program from last quarter, and NOK 37 million in share buybacks, in addition to a NOK 36 million negative currency effect. This brought us to a closing liquidity of NOK 1.3 billion at the end of the quarter, virtually unchanged from the start of the period, despite capital returns in the period.
At the end of the quarter, net debt stood at just above NOK 1 billion, resulting in a leverage ratio of 1.3, which is slightly below the communicated target range. We have in the quarter extended the maturity of our revolving credit facility by one year. The new maturity is now July 2028, with an additional one-year extension option available. This provides us with long-term funding certainty and flexibility, ensuring that we are well-positioned to fund selective expansion opportunities. Finally, let's turn to capital allocation and shareholder returns. We remain firmly committed to our policy of keeping leverage in the lower end of our communicated target range of 1.5 to 2x net debt to EBITDA before IFRS 16. At the same time, our goal is to return at least 50% of annual net profit to shareholders through a combination of semi-annual dividends and a periodic share buyback.
As communicated previously, we are distributing 50% of the first half 2025 net profit as a dividend. This equals NOK 0.63 per share, corresponding to a payout of NOK 127 million. This marks a milestone for SATS. It is the first dividend we pay out as a listed company, underlining the transformation in our financial position over the past few years. We have moved from a period with deleveraging and strengthening the balance sheet to now being able to invest in growth while returning meaningful capital to shareholders. On share buybacks, we completed a NOK 100 million program last quarter, partially used for the employee share incentive program, and canceled 1 million shares. In the second quarter, we initiated a new NOK 100 million share buyback program, with all shares expected to be canceled after repurchase.
Year to date, we have repurchased 4.3 million shares, representing a total consideration of NOK 136.7 million. Altogether, our total capital return for the first half year of 2025 will be well above the 50% minimum payout target, while we preserve the financial flexibility to continue investing in product quality, member experience, and long-term growth. With that, I will leave the word back to Sondre for outlook.
Thank you, Cecilie. Going forward, our strategic focus remains clear. Staying true to the core business and continuing the accelerating positive performance cycle I explained earlier that we have now already established. This strategy will be supported by investments in the product offering, both through club optimizations and by innovating our training concepts, ensuring that we remain relevant and attractive for members. We will consistently prioritize operational excellence, driving efficiency while keeping the member experience strong. We have done what we have said. We have delivered on the financial targets we have communicated, and we are dedicated to also deliver going forward. Financially, we are working toward our mid-term EBITDA ambition of NOK 1.1 billion. Improvements will come gradually, reflecting a steady and sustainable path toward this target.
We remain disciplined on capex, maximizing return per square meter through smarter layouts and club capacity improvements, strengthening our overall offering, while also building a pipeline that supports a moderate, controlled club expansion of 8 to 12 new openings per year. Finally, as Cecilie laid out, our commitment to shareholder returns remains firm. Our long-term target is to distribute at least 50% of net profit through dividends and buybacks. In 2025, we expect capital returns to materially exceed this threshold, a strong signal of confidence in our trajectory. With that, I thank you all for your attention, and I really hope to see you in one of our clubs in the time to come. Thank you.