Vestum AB (VESTUM) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Welcome to our presentation of Vestum's Intervene report for Q1 2025. My name is Simon Gothberg, CEO of Vestum and together with me also Olof Andersson, CFO of the company. Now let's have a look at some highlights from the quarter. Our focus on growth and investments in both organic initiatives and acquisitions has proved successful. In the first quarter, Vestum generated an organic growth of 3% while profitability was strengthened. And this is the first time in two years that existing operations have generated positive organic growth. Leverage came down to 2.1 times reported EBDA, mainly driven by divestitures. And cash flow decreased as expected in the quarter. driven by an increase in investments in organic growth, increased working capital tie-up, and some financial one-time costs related to the early redemption of Vestum's last outstanding bond. And the investments mainly relate to geographical expansion in both our UK operations within Flow Technology, where we have market leading positions within water infrastructure and within the niche product segment in the Swedish market. And after end of quarter, we acquired Nordtech, a UK market leader in monitoring and control technology in the structurally growing energy and water distribution sector in the UK. The company generates high margins and high return on capital. The acquisition will be consolidated into Vestum from the second quarter. Now let's have a look at the segments, starting with the flow technology segments. Demand has continued to be stable with sales growth of 13% driven by the PDAS acquisition. And we have faced some tough reference figures from last year, mainly in the UK. But even so, we continue to generate strong numbers. The margin was as expected lower than last year driven by, again, the ac...