Welcome to the Ferronordic Q3 2025 report presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the question-and-answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing #5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Henrik Carlborg and CFO Erik Danemar. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Ferronordic. We will now do our presentation of the results for the third quarter of 2025. Moving to slide two, please. Trending upwards, still a way to go. During the quarter, we saw revenue decrease by 9% in SEK to SEK 1,060 million compared to SEK 1,171 million last year. That is - 5% on fixed currency rates. The gross margin increased nicely by 3.7 percentage points year on year and 2.9 percentage points quarter on quarter to 19.1%. We continue to decrease SG&A. That went down 8% to SEK 167 million compared to SEK 181 million the year before. Operating profit increased to SEK 37 million compared to SEK 2 million a year ago, and compared to minus SEK 5 million in Q2.
Net income, excluding currency effects, increased to SEK 10 million compared to minus SEK 39 million the year before. We continued to reduce working capital. Went down by 49%, and net finance cost decreased by 25% to SEK 29 million compared to SEK 39 million the year before. Net debt reduced to SEK 1.6 billion, compared to almost SEK 1.8 billion a year earlier, and net debt to EBITDA decreased to 3.9x. We turn to the next slide. During the quarter, we saw improved performance in all our markets. In the US, we saw stable dollar sales and recovering margins compared to the lower levels we've seen earlier in the year. In Germany, we also saw stable euro sales, higher gross profit, lower expenses, and an operating result close to break-even.
With a lower cost base and a team and a service network ready to handle larger volumes in Germany, we are now in a good position when the market recovers. In Kazakhstan, sales were modest, but margins were good, and we saw improved operating profit in Kazakhstan too. We reduced costs and optimized working capital further across the group. We now tie up less capital and have lowered our finance costs. Net debt in relation to EBITDA at the end of the quarter decreased to 3.9x. This is still higher than our target, but still a clear improvement. Next slide, please. Looking at the group summary financials, as I said earlier, group revenue decreased by 9% or 5% on fixed currency basis. The US revenue was down 5% in SEK to SEK 677 million but was unchanged in US dollars.
In Germany, revenue was down 4% to SEK 358 million and that was a decline of 1% in euro. Fairly stable revenues on the euro level. Kazakhstan revenue dropped by 70% in SEK to SEK 25 million. That is 64% in local currency, mainly driven by lower equipment sales. Operating profit for the group amounted to SEK 37 million, compared to SEK 2 million a year earlier and - 5% in Q2. US operating profit decreased to SEK 53 million from SEK 53 million to SEK 43 million, but was up from SEK 26 million in Q2. German operating profit increased from SEK 40 million from SEK 40 million to SEK - 1 million, sorry, compared to SEK -13 million in Q2.
In Kazakhstan, operating profit increased from SEK 3 million to SEK 7 million. Net income improved to SEK -13 million, compared to SEK - 88 million, thanks to lower finance costs and despite further foreign exchange losses during the quarter. Net debt decreased to SEK 1.6 billion. Equity amounted to 32% of total assets, and our equity amounted to SEK 1,294 million at the end of September 25. Next slide, please. Looking at the US operation, our US team continues to perform well. Despite continued tariff uncertainty, we saw demand holding up. Customer activity remains at a high level, and machine utilization is also high.
Based on statistics, we saw a 15% market increase in the third quarter isolated in our territory. This is mainly driven by competitors filling up their rental fleets, but it still validates that the demand remains stable. Our machine sales decreased by 16% or 12% in dollars, mainly due to lower sales from the rental fleet. Compared to last year, we have more newer machines in the fleet that have not yet reached the optimal resale point. Rental fleet utilization continued to improve. We saw a 25% increase in rental revenue or 32% increase in U.S. dollar. We are in a good position to sell more machines from the rental fleet later on, supported by recent rate cuts and tax breaks that were introduced during the quarter.
Services and parts sales were stable, decreased by 1% in Swedish krona, but were up 5% in U.S. dollar. This was still an increase compared to the second quarter. Operating profit was 62% higher than in Q2. We continue to work on different initiatives to grow the business to its full potential, including to gain market share, especially in the important excavator segment in larger metro areas, and to take a larger share of the potential service and parts sales in our territory. We also continue to work on improving our IT solutions to increase efficiency in sales, including the implementation of our automatic lead generator. Looking at Germany, demand for new trucks remains soft. Customers postpone replacements. Importantly, though, they continue to use their trucks, meaning that at some point, the trucks that they are using will have to be replaced.
The market increased by 10% in the quarter, still from a relatively low level. Hopefully, we are now seeing the beginning of a recovery in the market. Our own sales of new trucks increased by 30% but remains at a low level. Truck sales was unchanged in Swedish krona but grew by 3% in euro. Service and parts sales decreased by 10% to SEK 151 million. We keep hiring technicians, but it takes time to train them and ramp up productivity to the level we look for. Gross margin was 15.6%. That was a big improvement year on year, mainly then because of the write-downs we did in Q3 2024, but this was still better than we had in Q2. Inventories decreased further to SEK 170 million from SEK 280 million at the end of Q2 and SEK 461 million after Q3 2024.
We are rolling out a new service organization in Germany to give more responsibility to local management. We spent a lot of efforts earlier in the year to train our local service managers to raise the general level and make them ready to take on a bigger responsibility. The aim of this is to make the operations more agile and to improve customer satisfaction further and ultimately increase sales. Looking at Kazakhstan, we see signs of a recovering market, particularly in the mining and road construction segments, which are important to us. Equipment sales were low and decreased by SEK 14 million compared to SEK 73 million the year before, but the margins were better than last year. Service and parts sales increased by 22% and made up 46% of the revenue mix, contributing to a higher gross margin during the quarter.
Operating profit in Kazakhstan increased to SEK 7 million positively affected by a reversal of provisions for doubtful debt of SEK 3 million. Inventories reduced further to SEK 63 million from SEK 68 million at the end of Q2 and SEK 130 million after Q3 2024. Our former Group HR Director, Nadezhda Semiletova , was appointed President of Ferronordic Kazakhstan. During the quarter, we have also hired more sales representatives and spent a lot of efforts on training and improving the sales team we have in place. We also work on improving our IT solutions to benefit from the progress we make in the United States. With the new management and the improved sales resources, we are optimistic that we can increase sales and profitability in Kazakhstan going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Henrik. I step in and jump straight into the income statement for the group. On the slide to the left there, you will see in the leftmost column the comparative period of last year per segment and also for the group as a whole. To the right, we will have the current reporting period of the third quarter 2025 per segment and per group. What we can see for the group as a whole is a total revenue that is down 9%. As mentioned, if we look at on a fixed currency basis, meaning using the rate that we had in Q3 2024, applying that also in Q3 2025, then it would be - 5%.
Looking at revenue split to see the weights of the business for the group, we see 64% of revenue in the United States, 34% coming from Germany, and only 2% from Kazakhstan. Looking rather at that same revenue, but over revenue streams, we see 49% coming from sales of construction equipment and trucks, 41% coming from parts and service revenue, and 9% from rental, a fairly high share there of parts and service revenue, which is typically associated with a higher gross profit contribution and therefore margin contribution. Arguably, we would expect maybe a higher potential revenue in Germany and Kazakhstan, so rather that part of the revenue stream being below potential. If we look at gross profit across the group, we're up 12% despite that revenue being down 9%, as I said, so up to SEK 203 million.
Margin increased, reflecting that dynamic between revenue and gross profit to 19.1%. That's up 3.7 percentage points. That reflects slightly lower margin in the U.S., but higher in Germany and Kazakhstan. I remind you, in Germany, we did have a write-off of trucks in the comparative period in last year. That is obviously part of the increase. We also have a healthy increase in margin quarter on quarter, and that is without any extraordinaries or adjustments needed. A positive trend on gross profit overall. Looking at that quarter on quarter, we see also a positive trend in the US with an increase in that gross profit. SG&A down, so cost for the group by 8%, so roughly in line with the revenue to SEK 167 million. As a percentage of revenue, you can see largely flat there as well, 0.2 basis points higher compared to the comparative period.
Operating profit at SEK 37 million. Again, a big increase on last year, and that's much driven by the higher contribution from Germany. Net income at - 13 is also a reflection of lower financing costs year on year, but there is also SEK 22 million of foreign exchange losses there. Without those losses, we would have a positive net income result. Moving over to the balance sheet, you will see in the table here year on year and quarter on quarter comparisons. Now, looking at property, plant, and equipment, so our fixed assets, we see bigger year on year despite the FX effect, the lower dollar mainly, some effect of that on the euro as well, but more accentuated from the dollar.
That is reflecting the increase of the rental fleet in the United States and to a lesser extent of the e-rental, so electric rental fleet in Germany as well. Looking at working capital across our segments in the US, working capital decreased from 14% to 12% as a result of lower inventory and receivables. We have been trimming our receivables. Our U.S. team is doing a great job there of working efficiently on that basis. Remind you here that the rental fleet is not part of this working capital. That is in, again, property, plant, and equipment. In Germany, net working capital also decreased from 9% to 6%, which is a good number. We will continue to work to keep our balance sheet as efficient as possible and our capital turnover as high as possible. That is, again, a good result.
We are lower on inventory and receivables. Receivables are partly reflecting the receipt of outstanding subsidies for electric trucks from the government in Germany. In Kazakhstan, net working capital decreased also in SEK, but increased as a percentage of revenue. That is mainly a reflection of a relatively low revenue in this quarter, as mentioned by Henrik, driven by low equipment sales in the quarter. Net debt decreased further quarter on quarter by SEK 38 million, but the big decrease really is year on year and from the peak that we had in Q4 of 2024. A big decrease from that point and now at 3.9x net debt EBITDA. Equity to assets at 32%.
Moving over to this slide as a reminder to those that follow you and for those also that are new to our company, we have a change in the presentation of the U.S. segment in our accounts. It is a classification mainly of costs from SG&A up to cost of goods sold. Also, a slight adjustment on revenue. Both of these effects lower the gross margin as presented, but it has no impact on EBIT. It is a classification-only issue. That has been corrected or adjusted now like for like. When we compare year on year, we look on the same basis. If you would pick up a report from last year, you would see a different number. That is outlined on page nine in the report. Going back to dynamics in the quarter, looking first year on year, we see a decrease on EBIT level from the U.S.
That is driven from really gross profit level where they are SEK 20 million lower, and then there are also lower costs that reduce that gap. In Germany, the other way around, we had SEK 42 million more on the gross profit level. In the previous year, we had some other income. The difference being the forward between gross profit and EBIT. A 38 positive dynamic year on year in Germany. Kazakhstan, four, and some positive impact of lower costs on a group level as well. Looking quarter on quarter, we labeled our report trending upwards. Indeed, on a quarter on quarter basis, we see improvements in all segments. In the U.S., SEK 16 million driven by SEK 18 million gain in gross profit. In Germany, SEK 6 million on gross profit level and SEK 11 million here, given also cost savings on an SG&A level.
Then SEK 8 million in Kazakhstan year on year and SEK 7 million lower costs on a group level, driving that dynamic to 37 positive in this quarter. In terms of balance sheet, this illustration to remind those of you that follow our company of where the bulk of our assets are, the biggest item being rental fleet, red staple here being the U.S. and gray in Germany. A bit further to your right, you will have our inventories in our three segments. Again, the U.S. being the biggest, then Germany, and the small blue staple there being in Kazakhstan. You would have real estate to our far left there, our workshops in the United States and in Germany. Of course, also we have trade and other receivables. Similar on the balance sheet, driving towards our consolidated equity at SEK 1.3 billion.
With that, we reach our financial objectives. With slightly lower revenue for the group year on year, we're back to about one time. Our target is set, as you know, significantly higher, and we believe that potential is there. Positive dynamics on operating margin, but still a good way to go there for us. Again, we see the potential to move in that direction and improvement in net debt to EBITDA, so below 4, as Henrik said, not where we want to be yet, but positive dynamics there driven by cash flows, but also by currency effects. With that, I would hand back to Henrik for an outlook before we turn over for the audience to ask questions.
Thank you very much, Erik. We remain optimistic about the U.S. and the opportunities there. We expect activity in the infrastructure sector to remain high as the need to maintain and develop roads and other infrastructure is substantial. Infrastructure spending in the United States and in our sales territory remains at a high level. We also anticipate increased activity related to data centers, semiconductor factories, and other infrastructure linked to the U.S. tech industry. We see opportunities to further develop and to expand our operations in the United States. In Germany, the demand for trucks remains weak, but demand for service and parts is relatively high. Customers do continue to use their trucks but postpone fleet replacements, meaning that there is a growing pent-up demand in the market.
When the market begins to recover, demand for both trucks and service should increase, and we must continue to ensure that we have sufficient capacity in our workshops to meet this demand. We now have a lower cost base in Germany, but we still maintain an organization and a service network that can handle larger volumes. Overall, we remain optimistic about the potential of our operations in Germany too. In Kazakhstan, we see signs of recovery, especially in the mining and road construction segments. With the new management in place, we see good opportunities to increase both sales and profitability going forward. That concludes our presentation. We are now happy to take questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Adrian Gilani from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. I'd like to start off with a question on the Germany segment. With the stronger gross margin, was that—I understand that mix and stuff plays a part in that, but are you also seeing some underlying improvements to pricing on trucks in Germany as well?
The market remains highly competitive, and our underlying margins are more or less in line with last year.
Okay, that's clear. Then a bit similar, but on the U.S., as for the gross margin there, we've seen it sort of, even if you adjust for your reclassified costs from SG&A to gross margin, it's been quite volatile. We don't have that much history for the segment either to take sort of a long-term average. I guess, can you talk a bit about what a normal level should look like in the coming couple of years in terms of the gross margin in the U.S.?
I do not think we want to talk about what the normalized margin would be. What we have seen that makes us happy is that the margin has recovered in this quarter compared to the two previous quarters. I mean, in Q2, we had some effect of parts write-downs and some offloading of the inventory, but we have a recovered margin. I think that it is lower than last year is mainly related to product mix that we have lower sales from the rental fleet, as I said, and a higher rental revenue.
Yeah, I think also if you now look at sort of history of producing on a like-for-like basis, I think you'll find that the gross margin is relatively stable, I would say. It will vary, as you're well aware, both with product mix, so within the equipment revenue stream, and with revenue mix, as we call it, so the different equipment sales and service and parts and then rental. Yeah, I think we're relatively stable there. Then you will have these gyrations between the quarter that will, on the margin, differ. I mean, last year, we had conversions from rental fleet that contributed high margins, and it was big machines. I mean, in this quarter, as we write in the report, the rental fleet is a bit younger, sort of say, newer machines.
They're not at the point yet where we see as much conversions or as much margin contribution from those conversions. Yeah, in general, I think you can probably draw a stable from our history that we present.
Okay, that's helpful. Then on the group costs, you've sort of told us before that these will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, but they were quite low this quarter. Now, have there been any sort of cost cuts at the overhead level, or is this just normal quarterly volatility that we're seeing?
I wouldn't say normal quarterly volatility. I think there is one, so to say, one-off effect, and we write about that in the report as well, which is the reversal of bonus accruals for executive management. So they were accrued in the first half of the year, and we reversed part of that in Q3. You would have a negative cost there, basically, effect. We are working hard to trim costs across the board. We have savings on items like travel, IT, to some extent professional services. We are working across the board, but there the effects are smaller, I would say. Beyond that reversal of the bonus accrual, no big one-off effect.
Yeah, I see. Then a final one, more broad question in terms of, I mean, for a while now, you've had your positive view on expanding in the U.S., but also near-term, your focus has been largely on working down the leverage. I guess I understand you have the leverage target of three times. That's an over-the-cycle target, so you can also be above it. At what leverage level do you feel comfortable to start investing in expansion?
I think it really depends on the opportunity we have and how much cash flow we would expect from that and what we would pay for it. I would not be able to give a general answer to that.
Okay.
Yeah, I think so.
At the current level?
We've said, Adrian, that we want to consolidate and strengthen the balance sheet, but as Henrik points out, it depends very much on the nature of the opportunity. What would that do to our leverage and how quickly would that business start to contribute? A business with strong cash flows could be taken on without increasing leverage on a net EBITDA basis. I would say it's a better starting position to have a lower leverage ratio. It gives us maybe more room, but in general, it would depend very much on the nature of the opportunity that we face.
Okay, understood. In that case, that's all for me, so thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Anders Åkerblom from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, good morning. This is Anders from Nordea. Thank you for taking my questions. Firstly, on Germany, could you elaborate a bit on the technician hirings, sort of what the current capacity and demand gap could be for service and parts, and when you expect to see full contribution from these new hires?
Hi, Anders. I mean, the hiring technicians is going on at full speed, and we have been doing quite well since the beginning of the year. As we have said, it takes time to train people and get them up and running at the productivity level that they should be at. I do not know if we can give sort of a tell you exactly when and when we will be ready with this. It will be just a constant work to optimize the resources we have in the workshops. I think that's, and it also fluctuates a bit from one place to another depending on demand. Overall, we are working on it.
We are also increasing the number of trainees we have in the workshops as always , as they are called, so that we have a good pipeline of new technicians being trained and being ready to be deployed in the future.
Okay, yeah, no, makes sense. I appreciate that it's hard to maybe discuss and, yeah, quantify further. On the U.S., I'd like to ask a bit about, I mean, since previously you've sort of said that you don't expect with regards to tariffs to be more effective than competitors. Could you share how your view of this has elaborated, potentially changed, or does it remain the same following this quarter with recent policy developments?
Yeah, thanks. Anders, it's a good question. I don't think our view hasn't really changed during the quarter. There's a lot of things changing all the time. At the end of the day, we still see that the tariffs that are in place, I mean, since they apply very broadly to everything that is, or generally everything that is important to the country, I mean, be it complete machines or components or parts or steel, aluminum, and other raw materials, it affects all manufacturers and all players in the market. We still do not see that the products or brands that we represent would be worse affected than competition.
Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. Thank you. Just a final question, if I may. With regards to sort of what you said about the US market and competitors filling rental fleets, how should one view this in light of sort of underlying demand versus oversupply risks, or if you understand my question?
Yeah, I know there have been talks in the past about sort of oversupply in the market. I don't really see that. I think it's a healthy sign that our competitors are filling up their fleet. It sort of indicates that there is underlying demand for them as well. Maybe that's my interpretation of it. I think it's just important to, I mean, our customers are optimistic. They have good backlogs, and they are busy, and they have an optimistic view for the coming year. We see that infrastructure spending is still at a high level.
Right. Makes sense. Just follow up on that with regards then to sort of rental fleet conversion pipeline going forward. How should one think of increased conversions and sort of the expected timing of this, if you could speak to that?
I don't want to speculate in when and exactly we will sort of be able to increase sales from the rental fleet, but we have an increased utilization, meaning that our depreciation also increases, so that we will meet then the optimal resale point. The better our utilization is, the sooner we will reach the optimal resale point. I mean, we have a good utilization, and now we have the rate cuts, and we have the tax breaks that were introduced through the One Big Beautiful Bill. I mean, all that should support rental conversions going forward.
Right. Okay, makes sense. Really appreciate the answers. Thank you both, and have a nice day.
Thank you, Anders.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound Key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much. I have one question online here asking about if we can say something more about our sustainable transport project in Germany. Henrik, anything you want to?
Yeah. As you all know, part of our rental fleet consists of electric trucks. We received subsidies from the German government that make it possible for us to offer electric trucks to our customers at a competitive price. Having these trucks deployed in the rental fleet gives us a lot of data and information that we can use to learn how electric trucks are being used so that we and our customers can become better at using them. As part of this project, we have now deployed two trucks that are with own drivers that are transporting goods in Germany as a pilot project. We do this to gather even more information and data on how electric trucks are being used. It is still a very small project, but we learn a lot from it.
Maybe at some point, it could develop into its own revenue stream, but it's too early to say. It's an interesting but small project.
Thank you, Henrik. Other questions coming online? I think we touched more of them, so it's more if you want to add something to it. One question on the margin trends again in the U.S. Gross margin year on year slightly lower. I think we've discussed the reasons for that and also pointed to the meaningful improvement that we've seen quarter on quarter and recovering towards the level that we saw last year. Also, some strong sales from the rental fleet last year driving margins higher then. German truck market margin, and here Henrik also pointed out that underlying margins for new trucks is more or less stable year on year. We had an impairment last year, which skews the gross margin overall. If we look at the new sales of truck revenue stream, then it's fairly stable year on year.
In terms of the dynamics in the aftermarket in Germany, again, stressing there the work that we are doing and making some progress on increasing our organization of productive technicians and mechanics, hiring and training. That takes time, but we are working hard to increase the base there. Unless you want to add something to that, Henrik.
No, I think I'm just thinking more about the hiring of technicians. I mean, one thing to keep in mind is that, I mean, we are making sure that we have enough resources for the current demand, but we also expect to have a higher demand in the future when the market recovers. We need to have enough resources to cover that point in time as well.
Okay, I think that was all. I'm going to check my email inbox again for any further questions. There seem to be none at this time. We thank you very much for your interest in our company and for your time this morning. With that, we hand back to Operator.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.