Good day to all of our investors and everyone else listening to us today. Welcome to the webinar presenting Infortar Group third quarter 2025 results. My name is Kadri Laanvee. I am responsible for investor relations, and I am joined today by our Managing Director, Martti Talgre. We will begin with an overview of group's operations and key developments in the third quarter of 2025. After the presentation, we will answer questions. If you still would like to submit a question, please use the Q&A button at Teams. Today's webinar is being recorded and will be available on Infortar's investor web page after the event. Let's start with an overview of the third quarter results, and I will hand over to Martti now.
Good afternoon, dear Infortar shareholders and investors. I'm very pleased to share our Q3 results for 2025 with you today and discuss where we have reached with our growth strategy. Before that, quick intro regarding Infortar. We are one of the largest investment companies in the Baltics, established back in 1997, and our core activities focus around maritime transportation, energy, and real estate. Our investment in maritime transportation is Tallink, of course, where we have 68.5% of shareholding. I believe that Tallink needs very little introduction. We believe that the company is very strong and solid and has put the pandemic behind and now pays a stable dividend, which is very positive from the shareholders' point of view, I believe.
In the energy sector, our main interest is Elenger Group, which has grown into the leading energy company, I think the largest privately owned energy company in the region over the past years. Now operating in six different markets in addition to the Baltic countries in Finland, Poland, and also in Germany. The company has grown very international. As of now, approximately 90% of our business is happening outside of Estonia when it comes to energy. We also have quite a substantial real estate portfolio in Tallinn and around Tallinn, so 18 different properties. That gives a very good and solid cash flow for our group. Our goal is to continuously grow our company, so both functionally through adding new business lines, but also geographically via expanding to new markets and new countries. We believe that the growth as such doesn't happen just by itself.
Over the past couple of years, we have invested more than EUR 500,000,000 into the growth and expansion of our businesses. We have created a EUR 2.5 billion platform for further expansion in Europe. We have a very strong balance sheet and very, very strong capitalization. We believe that this gives us a very solid foundation for the next steps and the ability to continue expanding both home and in foreign markets. Now let's go to our Q3 results. When we listed our shares back at the end of 2023, we promised growth, and we believe that that's a promise we have managed to deliver. When you look at our Q3 results, we see that those were really strong. All our business segments contributed significantly more than a year ago. Our sales volumes reached EUR 468,000,000, which is roughly one third more than a year ago.
When it comes to the increasing volumes, we believe that with bigger volumes, you can also find better efficiencies and increased profitability. Actually, one of our focus areas is to grow profitably. When it comes to cash flow generation and profitability, we also had a very strong quarter. Our EBITDA was EUR 105,000,000. Our net profit was EUR 72,000,000. When you compare those numbers with previous years, then it's important to bear in mind that Tallink still wasn't fully consolidated in Q3. At the same time, when it comes to net profit, we had quite significant one-off coming from the acquisition of Tallink and then revaluation. Actually, the underlying business has been delivering significantly stronger results than a year ago. As you know, M&A is always part of our growth plan. In Q3, we completed the acquisition of Estonia Farmid, the agriculture company we invested recently.
Last Friday, we let investors know that we have agreed to increase a stake in one of the biogas plants to 100%. That is waiting for competition authorities' clearance. When it comes to our segments, Tallink Q3 was strong and positive. We saw positive trends back in Q2, but Q3 was a stronger performance than a year ago, which is very positive. I think that when looking at Tallink's number, it's important to bear in mind that we had quite lousy Q1, which was mainly impacted by four vessels which were standing still. As of today, all those four challenges have been successfully solved. Three vessels are sold, and one is chartered out. That actually takes us to the position where the company is delivering very good results. When it comes to energy, we also saw a very solid quarter, significantly better than a year ago.
Revenue, EBITDA, and net profit, they all grew. Although the gas consumption in the Baltic region has been lower this year, we have managed to pretty much keep our volumes, and that has also driven the increase of the market share. Our market share in Q3 was 30%, which is, I think, the record market share we have ever had. Good things coming from there as well. Biomethane is becoming more and more important of our business mix, but I'll come back to biomethane in a later stage. When it comes to real estate, things are going in a stable way. All the projects are continuing as planned. No negative developments there. When it comes to investments, during the first nine months, we have invested into the growth of our business almost EUR 100 million. Quite a lot.
Our focus is definitely to continue with the growth, and then CapEx is part of that.
Thank you, Martti. Let's continue with the results. On the screen, you can see the results for the third quarter of 2025. Alongside the figures from the same period last year, we also show full last year results and the first nine months of the respective periods. Overall, third quarter was strong for Infortar, and performance across all business segments met expectations. Revenue increased by 34% compared with the same period last year, reaching EUR 408 million. I will note that the third quarter of 2024 included Tallink's revenue for two months, so the numbers now become more and more comparable. EBITDA increased by more than two and a half times, indicating a significant improvement in profitability. The main drivers were effective cost management in maritime transport, and also the energy business performed in line with expectations. While energy volumes sold were similar to last year, quarterly profitability improved remarkably.
Operating profit grew compared to the prior period, reflecting also strong profitability. Regarding net profit, the nine months' results of the prior period included a one-off gain related to obtaining control in Tallink, so the years are not directly comparable, but earning EUR 72 million net profit from day-to-day operations over three months is definitely an achievement, and we are proud about it. Total assets amounted to EUR 2.5 billion at the period end, including EUR 136 million in cash. This underlines a strong balance sheet and supports continued investments while maintaining flexibility to respond to market conditions. The ratio of investment loans to EBITDA stands at 3.3. Although the ratio has risen slightly, it remains well under control. In the context of Infortar scale, it is moderate or even considered low. This reflects our balanced financing strategy and strong capacity to manage our liabilities. Martti, back to you.
Thank you. So. Regarding the recent developments of our share price, there has been a little bit of a downward trend over the past couple of months, so roughly 10% of decrease. The positive thing is that today there has been a little bit of a jump. Before coming to the meeting, I saw that it was approximately 5%, which is positive, of course, that investors also value. The results we have delivered in Q3. All in all, I think that fundamentally, the company is solid, strong cash flow, and continuous growth. Also, the stable dividend policy. It's still good to see that our investors who came on board during the IPO have gained quite a bit. Also, it's good to see that the number of shareholders has been nicely growing. It's approximately 6,500 shareholders that we have as of now.
Okay, next, let's have an overview of the Q3 results for our three main segments. I start with maritime transportation. I think that Tallink as a company does not need too much description. It is a very strong company. As Tallink is the largest and best-known company in our group, that means that the recovery and strength of Tallink is strategically very important for Infortar as a whole. I think all of you remember quite well that Q1 was very challenging for Tallink. When we had Q2 results, then Tallink indicated that they see signs of positive developments. It's good to see that actually Q3 has been positive. As I mentioned before, one of the challenges, the four vessels standing still, are all kind of solved or fixed by today. Definitely that improves the outlook for the company.
Actually, when you look at the slide, as of today, Tallink does not have 12 vessels anymore. The actual number is 11, but at the end of the quarter, the number was 12. What is also important is that Tallink has continuously, very aggressively reduced the amount of debt they carry. During this year, they have reduced debt by EUR 80 million, which is a lot. When you look back two and a half years, end of 2022, then actually the debt was almost double versus today. The way we see that, Tallink still has a very solid and stable balance sheet. When leverage is decreasing, balance sheet is still strong. Actually, it demonstrates that the company is getting stronger. Also, it's good to see that the efficiency of the company is improving.
That means that we believe that the company will be able to generate strong cash flows for many years to come. Moving to the next slide. It's important when you look at Tallink results, it's important to bear in mind that their activities are very seasonal. Summarize the period when most of the money is generated, predominantly in Q3, but also in Q2. In general, Tallink has been facing the most in the general macroeconomic situation and consumer confidence situation. From that angle, it's good to see that the number of the passengers has been growing in Q3. The cargo as such is recovering more slowly. I think all in all, when we looked at improved efficiencies, we believe that looking forward, Tallink should be capable to deliver strong results. We believe that Tallink is moving forward very confidently. Efficiencies are rising, debt is decreasing, and cash flows are strengthening.
We believe that the company's outlook is positive. Moving forward to energy, energy is our fastest growing and most international segment, operating in six markets. When you look at this picture, that actually illustrates one of our ambitions, that is to find synergies between different business areas we have. Here our LNG team is bunkering Bio-LNG to Tallink ferry. Bio-gas and Bio-LNG and biomethane is something what is getting more and more important when it comes to our business and our energy business. I think that we are definitely supported by the fact that we are so closely related with ferry companies as well. I think it gives us an advantage over the competing energy companies. Definitely when it comes to renewable energy sources, that's something what is continuously going to be the trend for the future.
When we move to the next slide, diversifying interest is very typical for Infortar, and that's something what we have done in energy as well. We are operating in six different markets, and we are active in three main business areas. Over the past years, the largest part of our business when it comes to energy has become infrastructure. Those are the gas distribution networks in Latvia, Estonia, and Poland. In Estonia and Latvia, we are the market leaders. In Poland, we are the second largest privately owned gas distribution network. The Polish network was bought back in December 2024. By today, it's very nicely integrated and is delivering very strong results. We are happy with the transaction and with the results our team has achieved over there. When it comes to energy sales, this is also diversified our market.
In Estonia, the volumes are less, approximately 10% of total volume. The biggest market is Finland. The biggest business here is the sale of natural gas, what is imported by our own company. We are also growing our footprint when it comes to power sales. We've seen positive trend over there as well. Over the past years, we also see that the importance of the renewable energy production is going to increase. We have reported recently that we are building a new biomethane plant in Harlingen close to or next to one of our farms. Last Friday, we let the investors know that we have come to the agreement with our partner in Oisu, which is the biomethane plant next to Estonia, so that we are going to buy 100% of that plant as well. Also, we made or had online the first battery energy storage project.
Moving forward to our Q3 results. We are very happy with the performance of our energy business in Q3. Actually, the market consumption was less than it was last year, but nevertheless, we sold the same volume. I think we've done a good job with creating a good customer portfolio. Our market share has grown. Although the volume is the same, as the market is down, our market share was almost 30%, over 30% in Q3, and gives us an average for the first nine months this year of 24% of market share, which is also, I think, the highest ever we have had. I mentioned that the biomethane is becoming more and more important in our business. There was a picture of our trucks bunkering our ferry with Bio-LNG, but actually the framework behind that is bigger.
What we are doing there is that there is a new Fuel EU Maritime Directive, which creates a kind of statistics trading type of framework. The fact that we have integrated a company, we have the ferry company, we have the gas production company under the one umbrella, it gives us, I think, kind of edge over our competitors to take advantage of that position. Also, we have made our first investment into large-scale battery storage unit in Latvia. That's something we are looking into as well. When it comes to Q3 numbers, I mentioned before that all the numbers have been developing positively. The sales are up from EUR 193 million last year to EUR 208 million. EBITDA is up significantly, so almost four times. The net profit is showing very solid performance. Moving forward to real estate.
It's positive that there are kind of stable developments in real estate because I think the main value what the real estate segment gives us is the stable and solid cash flow. There has been a slight development over the last year, but all in all, moderate loan-to-value ratios, strong interest cover ratios, so stable and solid business. Moving forward, I've been repeating that I think each and every time that actually when it comes to real estate, we are not only in real estate, but we are also in engineering. That's the business what has been growing over the past years. We are quite actively participating in different infrastructure construction projects. The Berne Bridge is something what I think we got quite famous in Estonia. We are part of the Rail Baltica construction team. We build our own biogas plants, substations, transformation, so all those things.
I would wrap this up. We've been saying this all the time that our long-term goal has been to build a crisis-resilient company. We believe that our decisions have laid the foundation for sustainable and long-term success. We have a diversified portfolio. All those investments are capital-intensive. They are cash-generative, stable, and they are protected by high barriers to entry. Our focus is always to grow. We fully understand that growth doesn't happen by itself. We believe that it's based on further international expansion and also the capital-intensive investments to support sustainable development in the future as well. We believe that we have to be flexible. We have to be agile so that we can take advantage of different investment possibilities. Although we have grown one of the largest companies in the region, our decision-making is still very fast and efficient.
I think that our unique experience of managing large-scale investments and acquisitions is something what we can call as a business as usual for us. We believe that our portfolio ensures stable, diversified cash flows. That allows us to pay a strong dividend also going forward and also continue investing into our growth. As you saw during the first three quarters this year, we have invested almost EUR 100 million into the expansion. We believe that Infortar is a reliable and long-term investment. A company which is capable to grow and which is stable at the same time. We are proud that you are with us. Thanks.
Thank you, Martti, for the good overview. Now we have received several questions, and we will begin with those submitted before the start of the webinar. First question, how is Infortar's agriculture segment doing?
The agriculture segment has been part of our portfolio now for one and a half years, approximately. The first investment was done back in April 2024 in Harlingen. So far, we have been very happy with the development. The results have been strong. I think that we see the ways to make this more efficient to grow volumes. I think when it comes to Estonia as well, the fact is that we don't report separately the numbers of those investments. We have them under the other segment, but the agro part has been performing, I would say, significantly better than we expected.
Thank you. Next question, what is the dividend policy going forward? Maybe you can comment on Tallink's dividend as well.
I think that it's very hard to comment on something that the right time is second half of February when both Tallink and Infortar will let investors know about the plans regarding dividend payments. When it comes to Infortar dividend strategy, that stays unchanged. There is a minimum EUR 1 dividend. We have also said that we pass through all the dividends received from Tallink. We might also pay extra dividends. Actually, past two years, we have paid EUR 3 both years. Our dividend payments are paid in two pieces or two parts. First part mid-summer and second half beginning of December. It is still possible to earn EUR 1.5 of dividends on Infortar shares. I think the shareholder list will be closed for the second dividend for this year, beginning of December, 3rd of December, or something like that. I cannot comment on Tallink.
I think that Tallink Q1 result was challenging. The other quarters have been more positive. This year, Tallink paid EUR 0.06 of dividends, which translated EUR 1.5 for pass-through for our shareholders. We believe that Tallink is a strong company and has a strong balance sheet. We hope that they can continue with their dividend strategy as well. No clear answer, but kind of giving a little bit of flavor how we see that.
Yes, thank you. Next question. In Q3, natural gas consumption in the Finnish Baltic region dropped by 20%. While Elenger Group gas and electricity sales volumes in the third quarter remained at the same level as a year earlier, totaling 3.8 terawatt hours. Could you please elaborate on what helped you maintain these stable volumes?
I think that clearly demonstrates that we have super strong salespeople, which is, of course, true.
I think that different elements over there, I think that is something we are not describing in our memo as well, but kind of the high level, significant part of the gas consumption in the Baltic market is actually used in power production facilities. That is usually used by Ignitis or Latvenergo, which import their own gas as well. As that is almost 40% of the gas consumption in the Baltic market, if less power is produced from natural gas, then it severely impacts the total gas consumption, but does not impact so much that part of the market where we are operating in. Usually the summer months are the months where the gas consumption is weaker anyway or lower anyway because of the seasonal reasons.
We believe that, or I believe that the whole market is just more impacted by how much power or electricity is produced from natural gas, but as that part of the market is not so well accessible for us anyway, it does not impact so much. I do not know if I give you a good answer, but we are the market leader in the market. I think we have very solid client relationships. We are very competitive when it comes to sourcing. I think that we can keep our customer portfolio quite nicely and defend our position. I think that the main reason for the gas consumption decrease has been actually related with those power producers.
Yes, thank you. Regarding energy segment, EBITDA EUR 24.8 million in third quarter, could you comment on how it is divided between sales and infrastructure?
That's something what as of now we don't separate or split within the year. What I can say is that the fact that our performance is more stable over the quarters, if you go three or four years back, is related with the fact that we are making more money from infra. What is the exact split, I cannot right now just share with you.
We still have the year-end numbers of the separate companies, so you might find some hints there.
Maybe we are going to make this available also in the future, so we'll see.
Okay, let's move on. Could you please provide a bit more flavor on profitability of energy sales in Q3 2025 versus Q3 2024? How the margins have developed given the downward gas price trend?
I think the downward gas price as such doesn't impact our profitability too much.
We are in the margin business mainly. It isn't like price plus 10%, it's more than price, the market price or index price plus a certain number of euros. This is how this works. I think that last year, what we saw was the whole third and fourth quarter and also the first quarter this year when the energy sales marginals were under quite a bit of pressure. When it comes to the infra business, then infra has been very stable this year and last year. I think there hasn't been any significant differences. I think that the main improvement of the marginality and profitability of the energy business has come from energy sales.
Partly because of the good job we have been doing, the efficiencies we're always looking for, but also kind of the fact that I think last year Q3 was quite lousy when it comes to energy sales profitability. Yes, thank you. Next question. Estonia Farmit contributed EUR 5.6 million to the group's revenue and EUR 4.5 million to the profit in Q3. Could you please indicate how much it contributed EBITDA during this period? I think that's something what we haven't shown. What's important is that when it comes to agriculture in general, in Harlingen, our business is mainly about producing milk, which is, I think, not as seasonal as agriculture in general. From that point of view, I think Estonia's business mix is a little bit different. They have more of grain in their business mix.
That's why usually in that business Q1 and Q2 are looking pretty shabby, and then Q3 and Q4 are significantly better, basically, when the result is made. I don't recommend that someone would take Estonia Farmit and then multiply those numbers with four and then say that this is a normal level of profitability in that business. Again, I think that. Let's see. I think that in. In our Q2 materials, we had a slide regarding kind of pro forma profitability and EBITDA generation of our new agri business. That gives you a little bit of an understanding how cash is generated in that business. What's important to point out is that this year, there has been a very good tailwind. The milk price has been very good. I think that the inputs have been reasonable.
From that point of view, it has been a better year in agri than before.
Thank you. Many thanks to everyone watching live and those who will catch up with the replay later. If you have any questions about Infortar as an investment, please feel free to contact me. This is all for today. Thank you and goodbye.