Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Nordic Paper Q4-24 report conference call. I'm Konstantinos, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Henrik Essén. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good morning and warm welcome to this presentation of the Nordic Paper Year-End Report for 2024. My name is Henrik Essén. I'm Head of Investor Relations at Nordic Paper. As usual, we will hold a presentation where CEO Anita Sjölander and CFO Niclas Eriksson will present the report. I now hand over the word to Anita. Please go ahead. Thank you, Henrik, and thank you all for attending today's presentation. My name is, like Henrik said, Anita Sjölander. I am the CEO of Nordic Paper since 2019, and I am truly passionate about our business and the value that we are creating in societies where our products really make a difference when they are replacing fossil-based materials, but also the support these products have in our everyday life. Nordic Paper has a long track record of growing the business. The last six years, we have increased our net sales by 45%, while we have also kept the margins on the high teen levels. And just to remember, we have also achieved this while we have experienced significant challenges during these years. We've had a pandemic, more challenging geopolitical situation, and a 30-year high inflation level. A strong track record, but I'm equally excited to explore future opportunities to continue to generate growth and value. As the headline of this report reveals, we are today reporting another quarter of growth. Let's get into the numbers. In the fourth quarter, we had a healthy demand, and we also generated double-digit growth for both net sales and EBITDA. However, we experienced a different environment for our two segments, where we saw a very strong sales growth in the natural greaseproof segment, which also generated a new record for net sales, while we had some more challenging environment for our kraft paper business. And I will elaborate a bit more on that later in the presentation. On a combined level, we increased the net sales by 17%. Sales prices were stable from the previous quarter, and compared to quarter four 2023, we increased sales prices by 6%. Our EBITDA increased by 12%, while the margin somewhat decreased to 16.7%. And as you might have seen from the press release yesterday, the dividend policy is removed. The board of directors has not yet made its decision for the proposal of dividend for the AGM. So, double-digit growth. On the next page, I will go through the quarterly development for net sales and EBITDA margin. So, in the quarter, an increase of net sales of 17% to SEK 1.1 billion. The increase was broad, and contributions from volume, mix, prices, all these contributed to the growth. And also encouraging is to see that all markets where we are serving our customers generated growth. In percentage points, the highest increase was in America, and that market is approximately one quarter of the group's net sales. The positive effect from volume and product prices compensated for the negative effect from higher prices on input goods. EBITDA increased by 12% to SEK 189 million, and the margin slightly down to 16.7%, so a positive contribution to net sales from the sales volume, so on the next page, we'll look at the sales volume and how it has developed, so when we look at the sales volume increase in tons, which is on the axis here, kilotons, it is 1%. But when we look at the effect on net sales, it is an increase by 7%. And the reason for that is the different performance that we have in our two segments. In the kraft paper segment, the volumes were down 6%, and that is a result of the impact, the slower ramp-up in our Bäckhammar pulp mill. We had the maintenance stop in quarter three, and from that, we had a bit slower ramp-up, which also affected quarter four. The other segment, natural greaseproof paper, the price per ton has increased, and we saw a 20% increase when it comes to volume compared to the weaker Q4 2023. We've said it before. I think it's worth mentioning again. Combining these two segments that performed differently in the business cycle generates a stable performance of the company, and as usual, we also shared the results of the two segments individually, and I will start with the kraft paper segment. The demand of kraft paper was healthy in the fourth quarter, but somewhat weaker demand from the third quarter. We saw that, and primarily it was noted when it comes to the sack paper part of the business. As I previously mentioned, sales volume were impacted by the slower ramp-up in Bäckhammar pulp mill. So, sales volumes in tons decreased 6% versus the same period previous year, while the prices increased by 4%. And despite the lower sales volume, the increase of net sales was 4% compared to the same quarter previous year. It is on a level of 490 million Swedish crowns, positively impacted by the product mix effects as well. Currency had a slight positive effect on net sales, but only on the level of 1%. Compared to quarter four 2023, net sales in absolute terms increased slightly in Europe, which is our main market, and despite the decreasing sales volume. Net sales in Asia increased when it comes to both volume and value, while the net sales in America increased away from low levels. EBITDA increased from SEK 82 million to SEK 99 million. The margin increased 2.7 percentage points to 20.1%. We had a positive effect from the higher sales prices. We had lower energy prices, while the wood raw material has been more expensive. In combination, the cost of input goods is slightly higher compared to the fourth quarter 2023. That was the kraft paper segment, and then we look into the natural greaseproof segment. Demand for greaseproof paper has remained strong in quarter four, during quarter four, and compared to quarter three. The sales volumes in tons increased by 20% compared to the weaker fourth quarter 2023. That quarter, we also had production adjustments in this segment. We have increased our sales prices by 7%, and this is then resulting in a new net sales record, SEK 658 million. And this 30% increase comes then from, of course, the sales volumes. That's the biggest single main reason, followed by the sales prices, and we also have a positive contribution from production mix. The effect on currency is smaller, slightly positive compared to previous year. Also, when it comes to all our markets, net sales increased with double digits in all of them. In absolute terms, net sales increased most in Europe, while net sales in Asia increased most when it comes to in percentage terms. With a new record level on net sales from volume and price, with lower pulp prices, but in total slightly higher prices on input goods, EBITDA in this fourth quarter increased 25% to SEK 119 million, and the margin is slightly down 0.6% to 18.1%. Yes, end of 2024, the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation was adopted. In this regulation, it contains measures to reduce packaging waste, improving the efficiency in Europe for packaging recycling. It also includes a ban on PFAS when it comes to packaging in contact with food, and that will come in effect during 2026. We in Nordic Paper, we do not add any PFAS to achieve the properties of this paper, the greaseproofness. This ban further improves the attractiveness of our natural greaseproof paper offering. As this report is the last one in 2024, I will take the opportunity just to share the highlights for the full year. And this year, 2024, started with an improved market in quarter one, and it remained strong up until Q3, when we saw some weakening in certain segments of the kraft paper business. As I mentioned, it's mainly the sack paper business. We had a new net sales record for the full year as well, SEK 4.7 billion, which is an increase by 4%. And the full year EBITDA is SEK 806 million. Margin is the same as previous year, 17.3%. And we have continued to work on our investment in Bäckhammar during 2024, and it's all proceeding according to plan, which we, of course, are very happy with. Ending with the full year comments here, I will now hand over to my colleague Niclas to guide you through the development of the company. Thank you, Anita. I will take you through the financial development for Q4 and full year 2024. We start with the net sales for the quarter. In Q4, the net sales increased 70% compared to the same period last year and was mainly driven by the very good sales development in natural greaseproof. The sold volumes in natural greaseproof are the second highest we have had in one quarter. In kraft paper, we had a slower startup after the maintenance stop in Bäckhammar, and hence the volume was negatively impacted and slightly lower than last year. Compared to Q4 last year, sales prices are higher, and they are higher in both segments. Invoicing currencies have had only a slight positive effect on the net sales. The EBITDA for the quarter improved by 12% compared to last year. The positive price effect we recognize from the net sales bridge. The positive effect from volume is mainly related to the good sales in natural greaseproof. Variable costs have had negative development compared to last year, related to the fiber raw material. In kraft paper, the pulpwood have continued to increase in price, and the fiber source in natural greaseproof pulp, there the market price has started to fall during the quarter, but it's still higher than in Q4 2023. Fixed cost increased compared to last year, mainly related to positive one-offs last year. Currencies has a slight negative effect compared to Q4 2024, related to negative result on realized derivatives. We start to look at full year figures and the net sales for 2024. In this quarter, we have had higher prices compared to last year, but for the full year 2024, the sales prices are on average lower than 2023. The lower prices was compensated by the large positive effect from higher sales volume and also a positive effect from the product mix. Currencies have in total, on average, been on the same level as last year. And in total, net sales increased by 4% compared to last year, which is the same increase that we see on EBITDA. So, EBITDA, there we report a number of SEK 806 million, which is the second highest EBITDA we have had. The negative price effect, mainly related to Q1, has been mitigated by higher sales volumes and the positive product mix. Variable cost is slightly lower than in 2023. Positive effects are received from prices for energy, freights, and chemicals, while we have had negative effects from the fiber cost, where the market price for pulp is approximately 17% higher than last year on average, and the pulpwood have continued to increase in price. Fixed cost is higher, and currencies give a positive effect compared to last year related to realized derivatives. Working capital increased in the quarter to SEK 571 million. We have seen that inventories of finished goods are higher than normal because of slower deliveries during the holiday season, end of December. This also affected the cash flow negatively for the quarter. Working capital end of 2023 was very low because of the low accounts receivable as the sales were lower in 2023, and the accounts payables were also on a very high level because of invoices related to the investment in Bäckhammar. We take a look at the CapEx. Our investment in new wood room and flue gas filter in Bäckhammar is proceeding according to plan, and now equipment is starting to get in place. One significant equipment was delivered in mid-December when we got the bark drum to be installed. The investment projects are planned to be finalized in the autumn 2025, and as we previously have communicated, we expect that the investments will deliver approximately SEK 100 million of EBITDA with full effect from 2026. And the other investments are on normal level. We have in Q4 continued with the Bäckhammar projects, and hence the net debt increased to close to SEK 1.2 billion at the end of the quarter. And the net debt to EBITDA relation is 1.5. And now back to you, Anita, for some outlook. Yeah, thank you. As we normally do, we share our view for the coming quarter, quarter one, 2025. Our view, our assessment of this quarter is that the demand for our products is largely unchanged compared to the previous quarter, quarter four. We see a healthy demand for the natural greaseproof paper and a somewhat softer demand for the kraft paper segment. We also assess that there will be some downward pressure on sales prices in both segments, while, in combination, the raw material prices on average will be on a stable level, and as this concludes the reporting and the outlook, we will hand back to the operator if there are any questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks. Thank you. Thank you, operator. Yeah, then we would just like to summarize the report. Net sales up by 17% to SEK 1.1 billion. We had a really strong sales development in the natural greaseproof segment supporting this good development. EBITDA is at SEK 189 million, and this is corresponding to a margin in this quarter of 16.7%. For quarter one, 2025, we assess that the demand will largely be unchanged from previous quarter, quarter four, with some downward pressure on the sales prices in both segments. With that, I would like to hand over to Henrik for final. Yeah. Thank you for attending this presentation. And with that, we conclude this call, and we look forward to seeing you again in connection with our Q1 report later on this spring. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.
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