Good afternoon. Let's begin with the webinar introducing Infortar Group financial results of first quarter 2025. I am Kadri Laanvee, Investor Relations Manager at Infortar, and joining me today to provide an overview of Infortar activities and results is the Managing Director, Martti Talgre. We will start with an overview of our activities and key events in the first quarter of 2025, and then after the presentation, we'll answer the questions sent to us. If anyone is watching now and wants to ask a question, please use the Q&A button at Teams. Today's presentation will be recorded and made available later on on the Infortar Investor web page. Let's start with an overview, and first I will hand over to our Managing Director, Martti Talgre.
Thank you, Kadri, and good afternoon, dear Infortar shareholders and investors. Before going to our Q1 results, I will have a short intro about Infortar. Infortar is one of the largest investment companies in the Baltic countries, and our activities are focused on three main sectors where we are operating in. Those are maritime transportation, energy, and real estate. When it comes to maritime transportation, our main investment there is a 68.5% stake in Tallink Group. I think Tallink needs very little introduction, so it's a strong and solid company having a very, very good market position on the Baltic Sea. Our investment in energy is Elenger Group , formerly known as Eesti Gaas. We have been owning the company now for nine years, and we have grown a local gas market player into a regional champion.
Most of the growth has come from the neighboring markets. We are a leading player in energy markets in the Baltic-Finnish market. In addition to that, we have a fairly substantial real estate portfolio in Tallinn and its surrounding areas. That has been growing also quite rapidly over the past years. Recently, the Rimi Logistics Centre was handed over to the tenants, and we have started the construction of the new DEPO Do-It-Y ourself store as well. We believe that the platform we have built with asset base reaching close to EUR 3 billion with solid capital buffers and strong liquidity, we have a very good position to continue the expansion of our business going forward. Now going to our Q1 results.
Firstly, our sales number was 20% higher than last year, but that was predominantly driven by the fact that last year during the same period of time we did not consolidate Tallink results yet. When we look at the different segments, then both energy and shipping had smaller sales numbers than a year ago, but I will come to the details a little bit at a later stage. We ended up the quarter with a net loss, so that mainly came from Tallink first quarter loss of EUR 33 million. It has the biggest impact on our Q1 profitability. Tallink has been suffering quite a bit from the macroeconomic situation and lower consumer confidence, but still we believe that the most challenging period of the year is now behind Tallink, and the outlook is more optimistic. When it comes to energy, the situation is a little bit more mixed.
The infrastructure, which has been growing into the most important part of our energy business, the result was very strong. At the same time, because of the exceptionally mild winter, the natural gas consumption was lower. That created a gas surplus in the market and had pressure on the margins. All in all, ended up with decent result in energy, and we believe that also the next quarters will be stronger. Regarding real estate, I think the fact that the Rimi Logistics Centre was handed over was already noted. With the DEPO construction as well as the Pärnu Bridge and Rail Baltica construction, everything goes according to the plan. We ended up the quarter with net loss of EUR 15 million, where the profit which belongs to the owners of Infortar is actually EUR 4 million.
Our investment number in Q1 was actually three times bigger than last year, so EUR 22 million mainly then from Tallink. We actually announced today a news that we have signed an agreement to invest into another dairy farm, but I will come back to that in a little bit later phase.
Thank you. Let's now look at the numbers as well. On the screen, you can see the results of the first quarter of 2025, the full year of 2024, and also the fourth quarter of 2024. Compared to the same period last year, the group's consolidated revenue increased by 20%, reflecting the expansion of Infortar's business activities. The growth mainly comes from consolidation of Tallink Group figures in the first quarter of 2025, and those numbers were not consolidated in the same time first quarter previous years. Let's move on to EBITDA. In that, we have Tallink with minus EUR 4 million, and also energy segment profitability decreased. There are different impacts and reasons. Martti will talk about them also later on, but overall, the profitability was impacted by intense market competition, resulting in lower gas sales revenue in the first quarter.
On the positive side, infrastructure segment did very well, and also Infortar's real estate portfolio showed increased compared to the same period last year. Regarding EBITDA, also Elenger Polska is consolidated in starting from January 1, 2025. Moving on to profitability numbers, the first quarter ended with an operating loss. Tallink's performance had a negative impact, as already communicated in the Tallink's investor seminar. The EUR 33 million loss generated by Tallink during the first three months was reflected in Infortar consolidated results. Additionally, we paid EUR 1.7 million income tax, and our interest expenses were around EUR 12 million, so also this impacted our total earnings. Infortar consolidated net loss was EUR 14.6 million for the first quarter, and Infortar's shareholders held minus EUR 4.5 million out of it.
One more thing, when you look at our total 12 months numbers and look at net profit, there is an increase compared to the results we published in February. The number used to be 175, now it's 194. It's because of Tallink Group ship's revaluation reserve that they are reflecting directly on equity. Infortar had to take it into our profit and loss report due to IFRS 3.19. The auditors said that we need to make changes, and now the profit is more than EUR 19 million higher than it was before. In total, the energy segment was affected by exceptionally warm winter and reduced consumption. However, the segment as a whole remained profitable. The real estate portfolio saw significant annual growth and increase of 28,000 sq m in commercial property compared to the same period last year.
Infortar does not issue any forecast, but we see that the company is still in a very strong position. Total asset base has basically doubled compared to last year, same period. We also hold a cash reserve of EUR 150 million, enabling us to continue investing and also pay dividends. Liabilities have increased proportionally with asset base, including the Tallink consolidated loans. Still, company's leverage remains at a reasonable level, supported to continued implementation of our business strategy. There were no major investment projects in the first quarter, but despite the challenging economic environment, we are actively seeking investment opportunities, and this is also reflected in our morning announcements regarding Estonia Farmid transaction. Moving on, I give the word over to Martti for the more detailed explanations.
Before that, quickly about the performance of our share price since IPO. The stock is up approximately 80%. I think it's quite solid. Another aspect what we are really happy about is that when we had our IPO at the end of 2023, we had approximately 5,000 shareholders. Now the number is 6,200. I think it's great to see that we have almost added a quarter to our shareholder numbers. Good to see that. Actually, the next slide before information regarding the Estonia Farmid is about our dividend proposal. The slide is exactly the same like we had end of February. The proposal is unchanged. The Infortar management is proposing a dividend payment of EUR 3 per share. It's fully in line with our dividend policy. That means that we pay ordinary dividend of EUR 1 per share.
That's kind of the guaranteed amount, but we are going to pay always. Then we have said that we are going to pass through all the dividends what we get from Tallink. Actually, the Tallink dividend payment per share is exactly the same like a year ago, so EUR 0.06 per share. As we have increased our stake in Tallink, EUR 0.06 per Tallink share translates into EUR 1.5 per Infortar share. We have additional dividend of EUR 0.50. Altogether, it is exactly EUR 3 per share. The dividend will be paid out in two halves. The first EUR 1.5 in July this year and the second in December. We believe that we have a solid capital buffer and strong liquidity, so we are capable to pay this dividend. Now going to the news of this morning.
We announced that we signed an agreement to acquire the shares of Estonia Farmid. That is the parent company of three agricultural companies operating in the central part of Estonia. That is one of the largest milk producers in Estonia, playing really a key role. They have very high quality agricultural lands that they are operating, and their production metrics are some of the best in Estonia. The farms have already invested into a biomethane plant, meaning that a significant part of the work when it comes to decarbonisation is already done. After the acquisition of Estonia Farmid, our investment portfolio covers more than 5% of Estonia's total milk production. It definitely makes our position in the industry very much stronger. Just for reminding, we made an investment into another dairy farm in April last year.
We acquired 51% of stake in Halinga near Pärnu, which is approximately 40% smaller farm than Estonia. The investment decided to originally was very much kind of driven by the fact that there are very strong synergies between the biomethane production and milk production. I think that over the time we have gained experience, we have a better understanding how the market works, and it looks like we would like to increase our footprint over there. We keep the transaction price confidential as per agreement of the transaction parties. I think that when we look at the key numbers, the company is producing more than 32,000 tons of milk per year. The total number of cows is approximately 5,200. Actually, when we look together at Halinga and Estonia, then it's approximately 8.5 thousand animals altogether. Estonia is operating on 9,500 hectares of agricultural land.
Out of that, more than two thirds is owned by the company itself. Estonia is employing approximately 150 employees. Together with Halinga, that would be close to 220 employees in the segment. The transaction as such is subject to the approval from the competition authorities, both in Estonia and Latvia. Depending on the time schedule from the authorities, we hope that we can close the transaction sometime mid of the year. That is shortly about today morning news. Now going into the segment performances. I start from Tallink. Tallink is a leading shipping company in the Baltic Sea region. We own close to 70% of Tallink as of today. We believe that fundamentally the company is very strong. It is crisis tested.
Although the financial results of the first quarter this year fell significantly short if you compare with last year's figures, I think that there are good explanations for that, mainly the economic environment. Before that, I just continue what we like in Tallink, that the asset base of Tallink remains very strong. What you can see on the slide as well, Tallink has managed to continue reduction of this debt burden. Beginning of 2024, the long-term bank loan standing on EUR 555 million, and they have decreased the loan burden by EUR 100 million within five quarters. I think it's a very, very good base, maybe even a little bit too aggressive. At the same time, the balance sheet stays strong.
We believe that as the underlying business of Tallink is continuously very strong, it actually creates confidence that Tallink can continue paying dividends. As we have promised under our dividend policy, passing through dividends from Tallink is definitely going to be taken positively by our shareholders as well. When we look at the main drivers, why Tallink results in Q1 this year were significantly weaker than last year, of course the geopolitical situation and the environmental situation, economic environment, are definitely challenging. The second important driver, of course, was that there were idle ships, which did not have work during Q1. The good thing is that in Q2, MS Star was already sold, and the management team is actively working with finding the solutions for other ships that are standing still as of now.
We believe that the management team can deliver here. Also, when we compare the results from last year, sorry. In Q1 2024, there was one-off extraordinary income in Tallink. Definitely, the corporation base makes a difference. Also, the fact that the ferries, which are standing still right now, were operating last year. All in all, as I said, we believe that fundamentally Tallink is well positioned. What is also important to bear in mind is that Tallink business is very seasonal. Q1 historically has always been very much a low season. The main performance of the company is made in Q2 and Q3. Moving forward to energy, the fun fact here is that the picture on the right is from Poland. That reflects that we have successfully rebranded our Polish operations to Eläger.
That means that our energy business is now branded as Eläger in all countries. We rebranded former Eesti Gaas Eläger in Estonia at the end of last year. As of today, all five markets we are operating actively in are having our logos as Eläger. That's very nice to see. Talking about the business, it's very typical for Infortar to diversify its portfolio, and that's actually the same what we have done in energy as well. When we go back three years ago, then major part of the sales and major part of the profits generated came actually from the energy sales. By today, that has changed. Our energy is very much more looking like a regulated, well-capitalized, strong cash flow earning infrastructure business. We have three distribution networks.
The monopolistic one in Latvia, the Estonian distribution network, and then since the end of last year, also the Polish distribution network. Altogether, we are serving over 450,000 customers in Estonia, Latvia, and Poland in distribution network areas. We own close to 10,000 km of pipelines. We are one of the largest players in the region as well. Although the winter was exceptionally mild, actually the distribution business generated a solid performance and was close to the previous year as well. What's also important is that also in the numbers now, the performance from Poland is included. When it comes to energy sales, it was a tough quarter in energy sales, mainly because I think it was one of the mildest winters ever.
The gas market as such had less demand, more supply, pressure on the margins, and that actually drove down the profitability from the energy sales. The predominant part of the gas generated in energy segment last year came from last quarter came from the infra part, which in essence is good because that's the part which is regulated and very stable. We have continuously expanded our energy production field as well. We have invested together with Alexela into biomethane plants. We have three operating plants in Estonia. We recently started the construction of Halinga biomethane plant close to the dairy farm we have invested into in Pärnu. We also have an additional development pipeline of different potential assets in power production predominantly. Regarding the numbers, as I mentioned before, the sales this year was less than last year.
It was mainly driven from the fact that the volumes were down because of the mild winter, but also the energy prices were down. That altogether drove down the revenues in the energy sector. The infra part was performing well, but the sales part was far away from the exceptional results of Q1 2024. We believe that the other quarters will be better or performing better than last year. As Kadri said, we're not giving any guidances here. We also lost a little bit of the market share. We had approximately 25% before. Now it's about 20%, but we are okay because I mentioned before that there was a very strong question on the margins. We prioritise profitability over the volume. The Polish business is now nicely consolidated, rebranded. Part of the group.
As mentioned before, we continue with the renewable energy production facilities. The biogas plant and the batteries in Latvia are the investment part we are continuing with. Regarding real estate, I think nothing much to report except the Rimi building is handed over and will start generating rental income soon. Otherwise, the portfolio is growing a little bit because we have the ongoing investment projects there. The debt or leverage is staying about at the same level. When it comes to financial metrics, we see a slight positive growing trend as well. It is a good and very stable business, which definitely balances our portfolio in a nice way. I mentioned that before, that we not only own and develop real estate, but we are actually actively building and engineering the facilities as well.
This is the picture of some of the assets. Right now, what we are building are the Rail Baltica, the Pärnu bridge, now also this Halinga biomethane plant. Lots of things happening in the engineering team as well. To wrap this up, that slide has been staying pretty much the same, but I think the essence of Infortar is also the same. We have a strong portfolio. We have a strong platform to continue the growth. Growth is something what you are really looking after. There are lots of projects we are looking in all the time. I think this Estonia Farmid transaction is again a good example of our ambition to grow. We are agile. We look into different opportunities. When things or environment change, we are willing to change as well and use the opportunities what are created.
I think what is also important is that our shareholders, the founders, are quite actively involved. We can make very agile and fast decisions. I think that having those large-scale investments is very much like a business as usual for us. There is always something what's happening there. Eventually, we believe that a strong company is a company which has a strong balance sheet, which has strong liquidity and strong cash flow. We can continue growing the business and we can continue paying regular dividends. I would stop it here.
Thank you, Martti. We have received several questions as well, and let's take them now. We will prioritize the questions sent to us prior to the seminar. I'll begin with those. First question is, do you regret increasing your shareholding in Tallink? No, definitely no.
I think that Tallink as a company is fundamentally a very strong company. I think that the fact that Q1 was challenging does not really mean that there is something fundamentally wrong with the company. I think the way how the management, they managed to sell one of the ships quite quickly, I think that historically they have demonstrated that they can adapt. I think that, and the fact is that the macro situation definitely is challenging right now. Plus, on top of that, Q1 is always a weaker quarter. Definitely the answer is no, we are still happy that we own 68.5% of Tallink.
Okay, but what about the three vessels standing? Are there any interested buyers or what is the plan for the future?
I think that is a question for Mr. Paavo Nõgene.
Most probably, he wouldn't give a very clear answer here before anything has been signed. I think that the fact that they recently managed to charter to sell a vessel, they have managed to charter the vessel. We have a very high-quality fleet. Definitely they can figure out something.
Okay, let's move on. The next question is about the company's market share, but I believe that it's meant about Eläger, so our energy segment company. Market share decreased in Q1 2025 to 20% in the Finnish Baltic gas market. Could you please share your thoughts about who actually gained market share? Was it Gasum or any other, and why? Was it a better offered price or something else?
I think that this is something what can be analysed after the competitors have also published their Q1 results.
I think that the main reason here was that the demand as such was lower, especially from the kind of traditional end consumers' point of view. I think that the power producers were relatively stable, but I think that most of them import their own. Now I'm speculating a little bit, so those are not hard facts. I think the ones who imported for their own needs kind of just had a more stable consumption of the gas. Our sales reduced more than kind of the market in general, but we have a little bit of understanding how the market works. We believe that it's a bit like structural. Another thing is that when it comes to our group, we prioritize the profitability, not the volumes. We want to have a solid position in the market, but we don't want to be the price fighters.
All in all, I think that the fact that there was an oversupply of the gas in Q1 in the market is quite well known. We believe that the situation is going to change going forward and will normalise the situation.
Thank you. Moving on to agriculture, could you please provide the general outlook on energy? Sorry, sorry, once again. Would it be logical to expect Infortar to further expand into agriculture? What would be your end goal, like expanding current 5% market share to 10-15% or something?
I think that
our current market share is not 5%.
It's actually our market share after the acquisition of Estonia Farmid should be something like 5% or 6%. I just commented on that when it comes to energy. We are not after market share. We are after profitability.
The fact is that each and every farm is like a different production unit. It depends very much on the opportunities. In general, agriculture is a very different business than our other businesses, but at the same time, it is very similar. It is a very kind of basic need in the economy to produce food. All those businesses are capital intensive, like our other businesses. They have very high barriers of entry, especially nowadays when I think it is very tricky to build very large new farms. They generate strong cash flows, and they have physical assets. In essence, the business as such is something that we like. We also like that there are very strong synergies with our energy. Biomethane production and milk farming are very closely related, but we do not have any kind of market share target.
It is more about really different separate potential investments and what are the opportunities and what are the possibilities. We are not looking at the volumes. We are after the profitability.
Also, it takes time to integrate now, Estonia Farmid. We have to still wait for all the approvals and then we start integrating. I think that first real results can be seen next year or something.
All in all, I think that both on Halinga's example, that when we look at the land masses to utilize there, there is potential to grow the production on the same lands as well. I think definitely we will do gaps in the assets we are invested in, and we definitely want to increase efficiencies. What about buying anything on top of that? I think it is quite speculative in this stage.
Clear. Let's now move on to energy.
Could you please provide the general outlook on the energy sales business for this year, given the current market situation, sharp drop in oil and gas prices, arguable oversupply, trade tariffs, and so on?
I think it's a very little bit the question for Markus Kaasik from Eläger. Maybe high-level view is that in general, when the gas prices come down, it's positive for us and for our customers. It potentially drives up the volumes. It makes the business better in infra segment, and I think that it also kind of improves the relative competitive position of natural gas against oil or LPG or those things as well. Also, it will demand less investment from working capital. The actual drop in gas prices is definitely positive for our company and for our customers.
I think when it comes to oversupply, most probably the whole market will learn from this. As of today, I think it looks like this oversupply situation is going away. We have a more positive view or feeling about the energy market outlook for this year, but let's see what we are going to report as results in the following quarters.
Also, Eläger is actually giving out its outlook on their webpage under news. When you look there, the trading department is giving this outlook. I suggest you look there as well. Maybe there is something more detailed.
I think so far the trade tariffs, that's definitely something we've been discussing about, how this could impact. We played with different scenarios as we always do.
Hopefully if something would happen there, we can handle that. We do not believe that the risk is actually too realistic.
Let's move on to the next question. Could you please provide a split on the energy segment's EBITDA of EUR 31.8 million? That is between infrastructure and sales, like is it? Any rough indication would be very helpful.
We have not reported the split between segments. That is something I think this information can be got from the kind of public sources. I think all in all, that is what we have commented. A significant part of the energy segment EBITDA nowadays is coming from infra. Two years ago, I think 80% of the cash flow was generated in energy sales and 20% in infra. I think right now one could say that it is turned around.
That is mainly explained with the fact that I think the years 2022 and 2023 really were extraordinary. I think that we as the company could turn our business around faster than our peers. Now the situation is more normalised. There is a pressure on the margins. I think what we're happy about is that we have managed to allocate the capital into infra business, and that is regulated, that is stable, that is so much more predictable. All in all, I think we have a very good foundation and then business mix in energy as of today.
Now we are not disclosing this split, but definitely looking into the company's annual reports, there is something you can figure out by yourself.
Yeah, potentially. Maybe after Q2, we are going to have a something.
We're having a discussion that after the consolidation of Tallink, it's harder and harder to read really the segment report. Maybe we can figure out something, improve that. Okay, let's move on. How much are you paying for Estonia Farmid? I already answered the question that we have agreed with the seller that we will keep the price confidential. I think it's one of the best farms in Estonia, so it doesn't come cheap.
As this transaction does not have any important impact on Infortar's financial statements, we don't do it. That's the reason. If it would be important, we did. In general, we see it's safe. Thank you very much, Martti, and thank you everyone who watched us today and also who will watch us later.
If you have any questions about Infortar as investment, you can always contact me via email or by phone. This is all for today, so thank you everyone.
Thank you.