Nimbus Group (Stockholm:BOAT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Welcome to Nimbus Q3 Report 2026 presentation. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO Johan Inden and CFO Michael Martensson. Please go ahead.

0:21 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Nimbus Group report for the third quarter. This is Johan Inden speaking and together with me in the room I have Mikael Mortensson who just joined me 1st of October as our Group CFO. Maybe you want to introduce yourself quickly, Mikael?

0:39 Yep, I will do so. Thank you, Johan. Really happy to be here. Excited to be in this role in Nimbus Group. For those of you who have seen the press release earlier and for those who haven't, my background is primarily within the automotive and shipping industry in similar roles.

0:59 Happy to be here. Excellent, Mikael. Thank you and welcome to the team. And I would actually just like to take ten seconds to thank Christian Johansson, who has been our interim CFO for the last eight months. Christian is now winding down his engagement and has done an excellent contribution to the Nimbus Group development. With that, let's go to the numbers and the actual performance. through the third quarter. If we start out on the sales side, we had flat sales as compared to the same quarter last year. We came in at 265 million SEC, slightly above 263 for the last quarter. It signals a market that is flattening on a fairly low level. When I come to the trend graphs, I will tell you and show you how this is actually a break of a falling trend over several quarters.

1:53 And that's a positive sign on market stabilizing. Looking at the order book for commercial sales, it amounts to 524 million SEC as compared to 297. for the corresponding quarter. A big part of the delta, the lion's share of it, is the complete order now, which is included from the Swedish Defense Material Administration, FMV, for the MSMB 200 boat. And the value of that order is 260 million SEK. The order book for our retail sales amount to 81 million SEK as compared to 61 last year. And I should also comment, it's not on the numbers here, but through the quarter, we've had a very strong order intake, not only them driven by the FMV order, but also primarily driven by the launch of our Sport Tender 35, which launched in Cannes. And I will come back to that as well.

2:48 Looking at the profit and loss, we see gross profit coming in stronger than last year and that 27 million SEC as compared to eight. It corresponds to gross margin of 10.4% and 2.9% for the comparable period. This is driven by price realization and stronger mix. So we're selling boats with a higher gross profit driven by price, but also, as you will see later in the presentation, more of the Nimbus product as compared to our broader portfolio, and that strengthens our profitability. When it comes to EBITDA, it amounts to minus 17 million SEK as compared to minus 45 last year, and then a margin of minus 6.6 as compared to minus 17.

3:39 And if you remember last year, we were through our restructuring activities in Finland impacting the results. but it's also the results of our cost savings initiative. So we see a lower operating cost through the company. And when it comes to the free cash flow, it amounted to minus 37, a slight improvement as compared to the corresponding quarter, which came in as minus 43. and 8 million SEK of that is related to investments and as you can see we are increasing our investment pace and this is driven by investments in new products for the future. Available cash amounts to 229 million SEK. It was at 2.48 corresponding quarter last year.

4:24 But then we should also explain that the delta is driven by a repayment of a loan of 22 million SEK in the US, which means that on comparable terms, we're at the same level as last year. So if we take this overall picture with flat sales improvement across the P&L and take that to our trend graphs on the next slide, I'll just summarize what it is that we are seeing. We're seeing that sales flattening out and when we As I commented before, we see a market that is on a low level still, if we compare the general market volumes with data from the US, from Europe and from the rest of the world. We see that the market is at the lowest level in over 10 years.

5:10 I've talked about that before. But we are breaking, for Nimbus perspective, breaking a falling trend, which is an important milestone for us. On the profitability, the strong improvement on the gross profit as well as our cost savings program is now breaking the negative trend on our EBITDA. and we see that we are maintaining our cash flow levels we had a very strong cash flow through quarter two and now we are then just slightly ahead but still ahead of the corresponding quarter so happy to see the cash flow coming through happy to see the EBITDA improvements happy to see us breaking the net sales trend however we should recognize as a company that we are still operating in the red and we are determined to keep pushing now according to all the initiatives we have ongoing to improve the business. If we move to the order book, I already talked about the strong order book or order intake through the quarter and Talking about the market, we see a market that is stabilizing on a low level and in this market environment, I'm happy to see the strong order intake for commercial sales and as well the strong order book for retail sales. Our retail operation is end customer facing.

6:29 We operate it in Sweden and the Nordic, as you can see. And as you know, and if you see the relative improvements from previous year, we see that you're continuing to operate with a strong retail sale, even in this market environment. If you look at the overall dealer population out there, we have talked before about dealer stock levels. We have seen a number of years in a row where dealers have had sales from inventory rather than placing a factory order back to the company but we now see that dealer inventory levels both in the US and Europe are on low levels so it corresponds to a low market and when the market starts moving our crystal ball have to tell us when we will see replenishment of stock at the dealer level so healthy dealer levels or dealer stock levels is what we see right now and then as already commented retail sales on a stable level.

7:32 So let's move forward and talk about our change management initiatives. And you know, this slide has been consistent over the last quarters. Nimbus Group is on a journey, is my headline for the change journey we are making with this company. We have five main initiatives ongoing, which includes strengthening the Nimbus brand, to undertrend in North America, including Edgewater, improve our commercial capacity and performance. And that's, of course, our sales to dealers and, of course, also sales through retail. expand our business in work boats and defense where you've now seen the full effect of the MSNB 200 order in the order book and it's for delivery during the next three years and of course improve our efficiency across the company so I'll give you an update on a couple of those initiatives so if we move to next slide on the headline of strengthening the Nynbus brand I talked about us increasing our investment pace in both products but also our commercial performance during the autumn at the kickoff of the autumn we held a gathering in Sweden of our global dealers over 30 dealers from 30 countries.

8:54 They represent roughly 80-90% of our dealer-based sales. So they are the strong and the big ones. They received training on our Sport Tender 35, which then launched a couple of weeks after in Cannes, where most of the dealers also participated to bring their local customers and show the boats. We trained them on the Nimbus brand journey, and I've talked about that before. We are strengthening the Nimbus brand. We're digging into the historical DNA and combining that with an innovative brand and a new design of the boats. and we also had training on key features and equipments on the boat, including then having eight key partners present. And then we're talking engine suppliers, electronic suppliers and equipment suppliers.

9:44 11 different boats available for testing and then sales training and coaching in front of the show season, which included them both Cannes, GNO and Southampton shows. And most importantly, of course, we showcased the new product that we have been now launching through the last quarter, the new Sport Tender 35. The Sport Tender 35 is the first boat out in a family of boats, which are 35 feeders. We call them the Sport Cruiser family. That will also include a Sport Coupé, which I will introduce on the second picture. What we really love about this boat is that it has really strong Nimbus DNA. It has an elegant design and elegant lines, which Nimbus has known for since decades.

10:33 We have generous social spaces. I actually brought this picture just to illustrate that at the forefront of the boat, you have nice seating for seven, eight people who can hang out and have a lunch or go swimming together. You have the folding balconies, which gives good access to the water regardless where you are on the boat. and you get a very nice and open sofa arrangement at the rear of the boats, just to give you a few examples of what does it mean to design a boat with generous social spaces. The boat is also nominated for European Power Boat of the Year and as it runs in the water, I should comment as well, this boat with a with a twin 300 setup 300 mercuries is good for 45 to 48 knots so it runs very nicely in the water as well so social boat with generous spaces and good performance in addition to this we launched the Sport Weekender 42 Open which is a bigger sister to this boat and finally on strengthening the Nimbus brand we are then and have released the renderings of our Sport Coupé 35. It will be shown physically at the Dusseldorf Boat Show in end of January, 2027.

11:54 and it follows the same DNA. We call it that it drives like a sport cruiser, but lives like a coupe just to underline the social spaces and the comforts you get in this type of boat. So that's an update on what we're doing on the Nimbus brand. The other update I would like to give you quickly is our work boats and governmental sales activities. And the milestone that we have passed over the last quarter is our partnership with Nautrik ABF to deliver USV or Unbound Surface Vessel or Autonomous Surface Vessels. And we are then the producer of these USVs for the customer Nautrik AB. We have, as was released already earlier in the quarter, delivered prototype volumes. They have been tested and validated by the customer who is also happy with our performance.

12:48 And we are continuing now to work through this partnership and the future potential is of course still to be confirmed but this is the next milestone then in our efforts to enter the work votes and governmental sales space and it's important to note that we are able to enter this type of collaboration without any specific capex investment. We are reusing the current production infrastructure. We are reusing the current manning and competencies and capabilities that we have in NIMBO. So for us, it's a fairly low threshold entry. And then, of course, the first step in this effort towards workboats and governmental sales is our delivery to the Swedish Defense Material Authorities, the MSMB 200. The full order is now in the order book, 260 million SEC, 60 boats to be delivered now during 2027 to 2029.

13:45 First deliveries out are planned for Q2 2027. So that's it on updating our efforts to drive this company forward and take the journey towards a profitable company. With that, Michael, please take us through some of the details on the numbers. Yep, will do.

14:03 So a few of the key financial items in the third quarter. As already mentioned, the EBITDA ended up on minus 17, but with a great improvement versus last year, which was minus 45. Main contributor is the gross profit, where we moved from 8 million last year to 27 this year. and we can see that the main improvement areas are found within the price and mix effects. We have a favorable product mix in the third quarter, 2026, but we also see some improvements in the production cost on the same models.

14:50 Finance net ended up negative with 6 million compared to 18, where the main difference versus last year is that we had minus seven millions of result from holdings in 2025. The interest net ended up minus three versus four last year, and the FX effects were a little bit less negative with 3 million in 26 versus seven last year. Moving on to the development in the commercial sales we see that the total net sales is more or less in line with last year 163 versus 165 and the contribution from the different regions are all positive except from Europe where we still see a slow market and a cautious customer behavior. The order book is strong for the month, as mentioned in the quarter.

15:47 We can see the big increase with the FMB orders of 165 million, but also excluding this effect, we see a strong positive development. And the order book increased to 524 in the quarter, which then includes the 260. Looking specifically at the retail sales, we can see and conclude that the Q3 2026 is more or less in line with the previous years. We have a sale of 102 million, which is slightly better than the 98 last year. What's positive and what I would like to emphasize is the order intake of our own brands, which increased from 60 last year up to 87.

16:38 and the total order intake in the quarter ended up 156 million. The order book increased to 81 million in 2026 versus 61 in the corresponding quarter last year. And a few words on cash flow networking capital. We see the free cash flow ending up negatively on minus 37 versus 43 last year. and a networking capital development that is more or less flat against the previous periods ending up at 42% in relation to the last 12 months sales. Our focus remain on reducing working capital and finding the proper level for our inventories.

17:36 Excellent. Thank you very much, Mikael. And just to comment our financial target, they remain unchanged as compared to previous periods. So with that, I believe we are ready to open up for Q&A. 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. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more phone questions at this time.

18:28 So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments. So we have some questions, written questions, and the first one is regarding our FMV boats. Will the pace of production and delivery be fairly stable?

18:50 Yes, that's correct. When we start the deliveries, it's a linear, so to say, delivery schedule where we set up a weekly packed pace, so to say, on the production. And then we issue the boats in twos, so to say, to the customer. So that will be a linear production schedule. Okay, and then the next question is regarding a North American order intake. Are you seeing an improvement also for Edgewater or is it mainly Nimbus?

19:25 But we actually see an improvement on the order intake overall. Now for Edgewater, we should remember that we have reduced the capacity significantly, which means that the available order slots are much less. But we see an improved order coverage as we talk about for Edgewater as well. Okay, and how much of the order intake excluding the FMV was attributable to the Nimbus brand?

19:56 Well, we don't disclose that in the detail, but I can say that it's lion's share of the order intake. And as I commented in my text, it is driven, aside from FMV, it is driven by the Sport Tender 35 launch, which is obviously under the Nimbus brand then. Could you talk a bit more about the potential in the Nautic collaboration?

20:24 As we have communicated in the press release and as I repeated, we know that the general market for USVs is growing quite rapidly. But we are still down to see what is the potential of this exact collaboration. To me, I would like to see how the collaboration translates into orders, etc. So when we are ready to communicate on future potential and progress, we will do that. Okay. And you're right that Edgewater's contribution to gross profit remained weak. Is that to be interpreted as a negative contribution to the Group's profit?

21:06 We write that we have reduced significantly the negative impact from Edgewater. It means that Edgewater is still contributing a net loss, but significantly reduced from the negative contribution we saw last year. And then on the cost side of things, do you have more to do? And what levers do you have yet to pull? Or are you dependent on revenue increases only?

21:36 No. Well, that's back to my basic philosophy. There is always more to do on the cost side and you always have to keep that super tight. And that's, of course, a general statement. But we do have more to do as well. We're looking at efficiency across our reporting processes. For example, we're looking at how AI contributes to make us faster and less resource intense when we run those processes, as many companies are looking at right now. So for sure, there is more to be done and we keep that as one of our top priorities and we intend to continue doing that. My experience is that it always has to be a top priority to drive your efficiencies. More to be done. Good. And have you signed any new dealers as of late?

22:25 Yes, we are working actively with dealer. We actually signed the Panama dealer the other day, which we will meet. I'm flying over to Fort Lauderdale for the big Fort Lauderdale boat show, one of the global shows next week. And we will meet them there. So they are just my top of mind or the latest example, I should say, of signing dealers there. We see a market in general which has been a fairly low level of activity in onboarding or offboarding dealers not only for Nimbus but across the global industry as it's been a few tougher years. I wrote in my text that we do see further consolidation in the market right now, which is a sign of the market starting to adapt for a new situation and hopefully for a future which is stronger than we've seen the last few years. So there starts to be movement on the dealer level as well.

23:23 Great. And then more about the FMV order. The deliveries are expected to start in Q2, 27 and beyond. But will production come at full capacity already from Q1 next year?

23:38 Essentially commenting the same answer. We're starting a linear delivery schedule from Q2 and forward. So it will be roughly the same across the period. Very good. I think that was all that we had on the question side. So we have no more in the queue, I think. I thank you very much Johan and Mikael and thank you all for listening in and just reminding you that our Q4 report is due on the 4th of February. So very welcome back.

24:25 Thank you.

24:26 Thank you everyone for calling in. Thank you.