Hi, and welcome to the Q&A. Hello everyone. My name is Stine, Investor Relations. I am joined by CEO Sondre Gravir and CFO Cecilie Elde during the session. Sondre will run through a brief summary of today's presentation, and then we will leave the word to you for questions.
Yes. Thank you, Stine. Good morning, everyone. Great to see so many of you joining us for this Q&A session. Although it is August and summertime for many of you still. We are out of the summer here. We have reported Q2 according to our expectations, I would say. We continue to see that member activity is growing also on group training, which is important for us, even though we are comparing to a very strong quarter also last year. We see that revenues are up 7% currency adjusted, mainly lifted by average revenue per member, which is up 6% currency adjusted, 1% volume growth. The ARPM is up driven both by price increases and improved product mix in the sales of new membership.
We see that EBITA is increasing with 18%, 23% currency adjusted, and a margin expansion of 2 percentage points as growth stayed for cost on 4% currency adjusted. So we deliver a net profit of NOK 196 million for the quarter, which is NOK 1 per share. Free cash flow of NOK 602 million last 12 months. And if you look at the last 12 months' earnings per share, it is at 2.62. And the board has also concluded to propose a dividend of NOK 0.72 per share for the H1 of 2026. And if you are combining that with the total gross share buyback we have done in the period, which is NOK 318 million, the total payout ratio for the H1 of 2026 will be 152%.
Then we also reiterated our guidance from the Capital Markets Day last year in the presentation today about our ambition for expansion going forward. We have a balance sheet which will handle both shareholder distribution and balance the expansion. So we reiterated the planned growth of eight to 12 new clubs per year, even though in this, as you see out of Q2, we see a net decline of three clubs compared to last year, because we have decided to exit a couple of clubs and it takes a little bit of time to ramp up the club expansion. But we have signed now committed 30 new locations, which we are very happy about, with strong locations through 2028, and there will be more to follow.
So we reiterate the guidance on eight to 12 new clubs. And also the fact that we prioritize great locations and quality above quantity. But we see that the pipeline is ramping up. So overall, a quarter which we are happy with the development, and I would say fully aligned and according to expectations and the plan we laid out at the Capital Markets Day last year. So with that, I think we open up for questions. Please go ahead.
[inaudible]
Thank you for taking my question. I just see that you are writing in the report that you are talking about high quality M&A opportunities per se. What do you define as high quality opportunities for you?
As long as there are locations that would extend and strengthen our current clusters. If you looked over the last years, we have done some infill acquisitions that have been very good for us in terms of strengthening the member offering in our current clusters. And these type of infill acquisitions would also be interesting going forward. There is nothing new in our plans and communication here. We have always said that if there are relevant and interesting opportunities on the M&A side, we will pursue them. And then these things sometimes turns out positive and sometimes not. But there are, as you also know, there are not that many big, interesting, and relevant M&A opportunities in the Nordics. But there are a few. But there are some smaller infill opportunities.
Are you finding those opportunities in Norway or is that more towards the Swedish market?
Those opportunities are in all markets, I would say. Historically, we have mostly done infill acquisitions in Norway and Sweden. This could also be relevant in the other markets.
Thank you. I also have a question here on the growing pipeline, which is nice to see. Could you sort of define how that pipeline is growing? Are you seeing opportunities there in existing clusters or are we looking towards new clusters?
So far, the main growth in the pipeline is in existing clusters.
The majority of that pipeline is currently in Norway. How do you see the opportunities in Sweden? Has that developed more in favor?
As I also said in the presentation today, we have several locations where we are in positive, I would say, and close dialogue. This pipeline that we report on is just the signed, committed locations. There will be more locations and also in Sweden.
Okay. Thank you. That was all from me.
Thank you, [Håkon]. Let's go to [Ole Martin Westgaard] .
Hi, and thank you for taking my questions. First, just to follow up on the store pipeline or club pipeline, as you call it. It looks quite light for Sweden for 2027. Given the opportunities that you see out there now, is it realistic that you can open several clubs next year? Should we start to think that the pipeline must improve from 2028?
It will mainly be towards the end of next year when it comes to greenfield locations, and then more in 2028. It takes time with the greenfield locations. Then, of course, internal acquisitions is something else, but for greenfields it will be more towards the end of the year if they are not signed already.
Yeah. 2026 and 2027 should be more or less consider what you see on the screen here, and then for 2028 can improve.
2027 can still improve somewhat with the dialogues that are currently ongoing, which is not part of what we showed today.
Yeah.
It's not the final 2027 number.
Just to continue on with Sweden. What do you see from competition and if you can make some comments on the competitive landscape there. There was a lot of speculation on highest level of club openings among peers. Have you seen anything of it? Can you give some color on that?
Yeah. It was around a year ago actually, when we had a lot of these new speculations as you're referring to, where there was suddenly some new guidance on very expensive plants, et cetera. I think it's fair to say that we have not seen any major shifts in the Swedish competitive situation. As you know, we have [inaudible] and you have SBC, and you have Nordic Wellness that are all in the market, especially SBC and Nordic Wellness have been aggressive on expansion historically and continue to be so.
But there's no major shift that has happened the last 12 months compared to what we have seen the last, I would say, 36 months. So it's a rough and hard competitive situation in Sweden as it has been constantly, I would say, since 2019. So with a pause in the pandemic. Yes, the competitors are expanding, but I wouldn't say that there's any major shifts lately.
Okay, thank you. My question on Denmark and the VAT changes and how that impacts financial sales. Should we look at the Q2 ARPM as representative of what to expect going forward? Also Cecilie, if you can make some comment on the cost side, if Q2 is what we should expect on the cost level, given that these VAT changes have some effect there as well.
Yeah. It's hard to compare to last year. But the Q2 is relevant when it comes to ARPM and profits. I think, for the totality, it doesn't sort of move the needle significantly, but of course, it's important for Denmark isolated. If you look at the underlying results for Denmark, it's up 20% on EBITA. So even though we have lower revenues, we also get more deductions on the cost side, which sort of evens out the full effect of VAT. So it's a strong underlying development in Denmark, slightly hit by VAT, but not significantly when you look at the net profit for Denmark. So all in all, the Q2 is relevant to look at when it comes to the revenue profile.
Okay, thank you. The last one from me on the OpEx. Last 12 months, 5% cost inflation currency adjusted. Is that the level you see going forward as well? Or should we expect that to ease? Also if you can make some comments on your investments in group training, I guess you know our meeting comparables where you had already quite a high level of investments in group training.
Yeah. I think the 5% is fully in line with what we have communicated. That also includes direct costs, which is variable. So if you take out variable costs and we have a 4% increase in costs over last year, that's around the wage increase. That's including the additional investments that we do in group training. We have continued to increase group training schedules in the Q2 . So costs related to that is already included in the numbers that we see right now. We will continue to sort of monitor the load factor for group training, and we will continue to increase investment where that makes sense.
So I think this is fully in line with what we have guided historically, and it's also in line with what we see in the coming period. It's cost improving or increasing with inflation. Wages is of course a big part of our cost base. It's a third of our cost base, and that will increase with the general wage increases. Other than that, we feel that we have a very disciplined approach to the cost development in general. I think it's fairly stable.
I can take another question if there is no other hands up there. Just on the membership base, it was down somewhat unseasonally this quarter, and in line with your expectations. Should we expect normal seasonality in the coming quarters? Or if you can make some comments on your campaign activity and how that is relative to last year.
I think in general, I think it's good to look at the longer period than just the quarters. Because as you said, we can have different type of campaign and intensity in our campaigning affecting the member intake. This quarter was according to our expectations and what we flagged last quarter. There's nothing underlying happening with churn other than the campaign effect from last year. When it comes to the H2 of this year, we expect it to be fairly normal, but it's too early to say anything about this quarter in general.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Over to [Petter Nyström].
Yeah. Thanks. One follow-up question from [Ole Martin Westgaard] there on prices and churn. 1% growth in Q2. How do you see the potential to drive further output growth through pricing and upselling without impacting the churn and just to follow up on that there are some differences also across the markets you operate. Some insight to that would also be great. Thank you.
I think we need to mute.
Yeah. Did you catch that question, or should I repeat it?
I think I got the most of it. I think in general, we see that pricing is improving according to, of course, the price adjustments that we do, but just the turn of the member base, meaning that our members are coming in at a higher level than the base in general. That has a positive effect on margin. We also see that members choose group training to a larger extent now than previously. That also expands the pricing.
Going forward, this is something we monitor of course, when we look at our price adjustments, making sure that we have a balanced approach to how this affects churn over time. But we see that we have been able to increase prices without affecting churn, more at least than what we expect when we do this kind of price adjustment. So we believe that there is still room for improvement, both in volume but also in our pricing going forward.
And is it possible to say something about the different markets there you operate in? I assume there are some, call it regional differences between the markets.
Yes, there are regional differences. I think we see that we have expanded or increased the prices more in the Norwegian market. But we see a positive lift also in Denmark, where our pricing is the lowest, and we are focusing significantly on getting the product offering and broadening the product offering to defend the price increases that we do there. Of course, there is, as Sondre mentioned around the Swedish markets, the competition is intense. So we are monitoring this on a market-by-market level and trying to optimize what we think is possible to take out in the different markets.
Thank you.
Thank you, [Petter]. Any other questions? No? Then I think we will round off. Thank you for joining this Q&A. Have a nice day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Have a great day. Bye. Bye-bye.
Thank you