Hello and welcome to today's web call with ViaCon, where CEO Stefan Nordström and CFO Philip Delborn will present a report for the first quarter of 2025. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A, so if you have any questions for ViaCon, you can send them in via the form to the right. With that said, I hand over the word to you guys. Thank you very much, and welcome to our Q1 report for 2025. This is our usual agenda that we will cover, Q1 in brief, and then talk a little bit about the market and the outlook of the market. Later, Philip, our CFO, will go through more of the financials in Q1, and I will come back at the end with our regular case study. This year, it is an eco-engineering solution recently installed in the Alps, and then we come back to the Q&A, as Ludwig just said. If we look at Q1, we saw quite a strong organic growth. Sales for the quarter was EUR 37 million, which meant 12.5% higher than Q1 last year, and that also meant an organic growth of 15.1%. At the end of 2024, we saw the beginning of a market recovery, and we can see that this is reflected in the first quarter now. Although the market activity is higher compared to a year ago, our markets are not fully back to normal levels yet. The EBITDA in Q1 was the strongest ever in the history of ViaCon, driven very much by increased volumes in our business unit for Bridges and Culverts, and the majority of their markets and key geographies developed quite positively. In addition, we have increased our export volumes to other markets and other segments outside of Europe. Also at the end of 2024, we implemented several significant efficiency measures, and they have now contributed to a clearly lower cost throughout the group, and that has in itself, of course, helped the EBITDA in the near term in Q1. We deem these measures to be sustainable, and this means we expect continued good cost control in the coming quarters. During March, we also extended our credit facility to a total of EUR 24 million. It was due to expire about two weeks or three weeks ago, May 8th, and it is now prolonged to September 30th of this year. In parallel with this, when we're driving the business, we have quite an active work ongoing to secure the financing when the bond matures in November of this year. Let's look a little bit at the market and the outlook. The renewed availability of the E.U. funds for the infrastructure investments in Poland has led to several new business opportunities for us, and this is compared to a year ago. However, the Polish market is not yet back to normal levels. Also, across Europe, there have been several announcements of increased investments in infrastructure into the coming years, and we are very well positioned with our footprint and our sales forces to participate in those initiatives. We have, however, to remember that new infrastructure investments often have quite a long time horizon, and this means that we do not expect to see the full effect of these investments in the parts of the European market where we are active already in this year. For sure, it increases the market activity, and that is very positive. Also, I think it is important to mention that the ongoing tariff discussions that are initiated by the U.S. have a very small impact on the ViaCon business directly. However, the other part of the concerns in the market in general is also the geopolitical uncertainty, not the least the war in Ukraine. This may in the short term affect planned infrastructure investments in favor of increased defense investments. Eventually, also these defense investments will entail a need for reinforced infrastructure. This will mean more business opportunities for ViaCon as well going forward. Overall, when we look at our markets, we do still see a short-term uncertainty in the speed of the recovery of the markets back to normal levels. The trend, compared to 2024, is positive, and a bit now into Q2, it remains positive compared to a year ago, and that is very nice to see. Should we look at the financials a little bit, Philip? Let's do that. As usual, we start with the group summary of the first quarter. As Stefan mentioned, the first quarter was the strongest first quarter we have ever had, so a good start of the year. We had strong organic growth in sales of 15.1%, and that is a sign of the market starting to recover. The main driver for the growth was Bridges and Culverts Solutions, including the markets outside Europe. That contributed well to the first quarter. If we look at the underlying EBITDA, it is at EUR 3.0 million compared to EUR 0.9 million a year ago. That increase or that improvement is a combination of the efficiency measures that are kicking in, reducing our cost base, and also the higher sales, of course. If we look at the order intake, it was in organic terms 3.9% in the quarter, and we do see a higher activity in the market compared to a year ago. Let's go into the three business units, and we start with Bridges and Culverts. As mentioned here, we have a really nice growth in the quarter. We have 56.6% organic growth in sales, and the majority of the business units, geographical regions are developing positive in the quarter, which is nice. On top of that, the increase in the markets outside Europe is also increasing, contributing to a high sales pace. This also, of course, reflects an increase in the EBITDA. The underlying EBITDA increased to EUR 2.4 million in the first quarter, impacted by nice sales and the cost efficiency measures that we've introduced. The organic growth in the order intake is 3.9%. In absolute numbers, it is a small decline, but that is due to the FX effect. Moving over to the second business unit, Geotechnical Solutions. Here we see a negative organic growth of 15.2%. The markets are not fully back as mentioned before. However, also important to notice that the majority of the decline is related to solutions that are externally produced, not the products and solutions that we produce internally. Despite the lower top line, we see a slight improvement of the EBITDA in the quarter, and that's thanks to the efficiency measures that's helping us on the cost lines. The organic sales or the organic growth in order intake was - 9.1%. Still here in this business unit, we see that the markets are not back to normal levels. Finally, Stormwater Solutions, our third business unit. Here we can see a decline in the sales of 7.2% organically. That, however, is mostly linked to a large project that was carried out in Q1 last year, which disturbed the picture a little bit in that quarter. That is the main reason for the decline in sales in Stormwater Solutions. That also had an impact on the EBITDA, which is slightly lower compared to years ago. However, if you look at the order intake, we see very strong organic growth, 28%. We do see in more or less all of our markets an increased market activity, and that is what is supporting this strong order intake in the first quarter. Finally, a couple of words around the cash flow and the financial position. The cash flow from our operating activities was EUR -8.9 million in the quarter compared to EUR -2.9 million the last quarter. We see a negative effect from the change in working capital. The high activity and the higher sales is impacting our working capital temporarily, of course. We remain on low CapEx levels. They are, I would say, on an okay level, but they are very much under control. Looking at our financial position, net debt of EUR 111 million compared to almost EUR 98 million a year ago. If we exclude our lease liabilities, it is at EUR 102 million compared to just below EUR 86 million a year ago. Our cash and cash equivalent amounted to EUR 14.6 million, compared to EUR 19.6 million. That includes a drawn credit facility of EUR 15 million by the end of Q1 compared to drawn of EUR 10 million a year ago. Finally, just a couple of words on the sale-leaseback process. We announced, earlier this year, that we've signed a letter of intent for a sale-leaseback in France, and that process is ongoing. If that transaction is completed, it will have a positive cash flow effect of approximately EUR 9 million. All right, then I think I hand it back to you, Stefan. Thank you very much, Philip. Let's round the presentation off with a case study as usual. In this case, this is in a ski resort in St. Moritz in the southeastern part of Switzerland. The challenge that the customer faced, and we faced, of course, as a key partner to them, was ensuring a safe and efficient access on two sides of a race piste. They needed the spectators and snow grooming equipment to be able to pass from one side of the piste to the other during major ski events in St. Moritz. This is the downhill course and also the Super- G course. We should not have people on the piste during those events. Also important to be able to move the snowmaking and snow groomers from one side of the area to the other side without interrupting ongoing ski races. The customer also wanted a minimal impact on the ski area during the construction. We designed a solution, which entailed a 130 meter long tunnel beneath the Lerschen Sprung ski slope in St. Moritz. We used our product, ViaPlate, corrugated steel solution with a 9 m span and 4.5 m height. Thanks to our modular and very lightweight designs, we had a very fast and efficient installation of the equipment. The benefit for the customer in the end was a faster and safer access for the snow groomers, and being able to ensure good skiing conditions on both sides of this piste in the central part of the ski area. Also allowing for a good flow of pedestrians and spectators to the other designated spectator zones during events. Also with our products, it's a durable, low maintenance solution, and it doesn't impact the functionality of the slopes and the ski area at all. Also it's an environmentally friendly alternative to if this was done in concrete. With steel, we reduce material usage, carbon footprint, and also the construction impact on this landscape. You don't see the tunnel from the outside unless you ski through it. In the end, the installation time was reduced by up to 75% and the CO2 emissions lowered by approximately 50% compared to if this tunnel would have been built in concrete. Quite a normal type of installation with very strong environmental and cost benefits for our customers, and in this case in a ski area. It is the same if we go to railroad or road infrastructure, or if we do water tanks for customers. That ends the formal presentation, and I think we can now open up for Q&A using the technology here. Yes, and thank you so much for the presentation here. I think we'll start with the first question here. You mentioned that ViaCon is well positioned to benefit from increased infrastructure investment across Europe, although the impact will be seen beyond 2025. What concrete steps are you taking now to secure future projects? We are working very closely with authorities for road infrastructure investments and railroad infrastructure investments to make sure we are, with steel, in those discussions and an approved and appreciated technical solution once those new initiatives become more tangible, and you can start to bid on it. It is our regular business model of being working very proactively and closely and early with deciding authorities across Europe. Thank you. Organic growth was strong at 15.1%. Which market or product segments have contributed most to this performance? As you saw from Philip's numbers, this was primarily the business unit for Bridges and Culverts. There are several markets that have contributed very well here, not the least Turkiye, which continues to be very strong for us. Also, exports to other markets and other market segments have contributed quite well. Also a good underlying backlog from 2024 for deliveries in Poland and other nearby European markets as well. Thank you. This was not one or two. It was several markets that contributed quite well. Thank you. Thank you. Cash flow from operating activities declined due to increased working capital. How would you describe the company's financial flexibility if market conditions were to soften? Last year was a big disappointment for us, driven by very, very slow markets in general, coming out of inflationary situations and geopolitical concerns. We do now see that the trends going forward, the trend already now is positive and also going forward, we expect a positive development, and we see that from discussions we have with our customers and the pipeline we work on. A positive development this year compared to last year. We do not expect to decline in performance. Also, with the cost efficiency measures we took at the end of last year, they contribute quite well and give us a very strong profit contribution already at lower volumes than when the markets were more at a normal level some years ago. We are not so concerned about that. We see a very positive trend going forward. Thank you. Maybe you touched upon the answer here for the next question, but you mentioned sustainability efficiency measures implemented at the end of 2024. Could you specify which areas were targeted and what analyzed savings you expect from these actions? In general, we looked over our fixed costs in the company. It was not a specific area. We slimmed the organization, realizing that with a lower market activity, we need to find new ways of working, in a smarter way. We have done that. That is what we have done. That is the details I think we are willing to disclose. Yeah, it was both, in terms of footprint for our production, but also in, all the way to the head office, efficiency, so to say, annualized, EUR 6.5 million in savings. as I think we reported, when we closed the. In the fourth quarter. Quarter. Yeah. Thank you. Moving on to the last question here. You highlight increased export volumes outside of Europe. Are there any particular regions that are interesting and do you have a strategy here for further geographic expansion? We do not have any plans for further expanding our footprint with factories and offices, at least not at this stage. That might become a question later on. ViaCon has always delivered to markets outside of Europe, and now we had some very nice and good deliveries during Q1. More such discussions are ongoing with customers, and they could be markets in Europe where we do not have a footprint, like the Iberian Peninsula, Switzerland, Austria, we do not have our own footprint in. Also, when it comes to the whole African continent, we do not have our own footprint, but we have very, very good and strong relations with customers, global customers that we make business with on the African continent as well. Also there a little bit of a mixed bag of different geographies that have contributed well and we expect going into the future to continue to be a good driver for the future of ViaCon. Thank you so much. That was all the questions we had. Thank you so much, Stefan and Philip, for presenting here today and answering all questions. Thank you all for tuning in. I wish you a pleasant day. Thank you. Thanks.
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